Fun FOs

Just playing a little catch-up here with some FOs that you haven't seen before, and some you have, but this is a different view... read on, you'll see!

Ok first, I need to introduce you to Fireman Sam. He's been finished for a while, but since he was snaffled away so quickly, I forgot about him meeting you before he left!

(Click to see it big) Playing 'oops'; Time for dinner; Movies and chocolate

I believe he enjoyed his recent trip to Australia, and is soon off to the States!

Another recent FO is my awesome cowl:

I brought one ball of yarn at Easter and knit this up in a few hours - sadly it wasn't long enough to make the scarf I wanted, but i've worn it nearly every day since! Its nice on its own in the office, and super snuggly under my winter coat.

And now, my favourite part. You'll remember a while ago I made a garter yoke cardi with little matching beanie for a friend's baby. Well - I present to you Noah wearing my gift!

Isn't he gorgeous!

~Happy knitting!~

2009: FO #7 and #8

I thought I better stick with my system and officially note these...

Easter Chicks (free pattern)

SUCH an easy pattern! I used some cheapy 4ply yarn I brought off TradeMe about a year ago (which I used doubled) and just picked up the nearest needles I could find - I think they were 3.5mm. They took around three hours of solid knitting, and I guess another hour or so for the finishing - it's more fiddly than it looks! The only mod I made was to not add the wings, purely because I couldn't be bothered, and I changed the 'hair' - instead of adding loops I trimmed the cast on/off edges to look like little spikes. Cute!

Black beanie

Pattern: Hot Head by Alex Zorn (Ravelry link)
from Stitch 'n Bitch book by Debbie Stoller

Again, another easy pattern - I started in the car on the way up to the beach on Friday afternoon and was finished by that night. I knew it was going to be cold and I wanted something warm and snuggly! I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in black with 6.5mm needles. I didn't make any alterations to the pattern, other than just doing plain black without the stripes. It only used about half the skein.

~Happy Knitting!~

Easter Holidays

Back from holidays, and already i'm looking forward to the weekend!

It was nice to have some time away though, it was reasonably cold up at the beach, but we still enjoyed it. I won't go into great detail about what we did, but here are a few of my favourite photos from the trip. The whole lot are here if you're interested.

Click to view in more detail...

Before Easter I was telling you about the easter chick presents I was making for the family - now they can finally be revealed! Free pattern here.

Click to view in more detail...

I mentioned that I would be taking Buttony with me to work some more on that... well, I did take it, but it didn't even get to breath in the salty air, it stayed in its bag the whole time! I wasn't sitting around doing nothing though, i'm making a Fireman Sam toy:

Click to view in more detail...

He's adorable!!! And SO fast to knit - I started his first foot last Wednesday night, and by last night (Tuesday) i've done all but sew on his hat, embroider his face, and make some hair! I got the pattern from my Aunty, who pulled it from a magazine, so unfortunately I can't tell you any more details about the pattern. On the drive up to the beach I made the black beanie i'm wearing in the photos above (Hot Head - Rav link here) so it felt like I was very productive!

Our easter family tradition is to drive up north 15 minutes to the big easter fair - they have everything you can think of from bands to white elephant stalls to garden signs - and of course I was lucky enough to find a stall with second hand wool ~big cheesy grin~!!! I was also allowed out the day before to have a look around the shops, since I had to find Sam's stuffing, and happened across a yarn store with a bargain bin that started calling my name.... so I suffered from a small dose of yarn enhancement over the weekend too:

Click to view in more detail...

1. Patons Inca - maybe for a shrug?

2. Cleckheaton Vintage Hues - for a new scarf

3. 150g of dark green 2ply - for a lace shawl, one day!

I also happened across some cheap second-hand fabric at the fair, and I couldn't resist that either! I've found a neat pattern for some fabric boxes that I might use it for. What do you think?

Click to view in more detail...

I think that's enough from me now! I'll be back in a couple of days when i've finished Sam to give you a proper introduction.

~Happy Knitting!~

Back in the swing of things

The roadtrip was long but good, the course I did was fantastic, and Parachute was awesome! AND I had my birthday in the middle of it all :) Here's the short-winded version...

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My puppy was sad that we were packing everything up except for him :(

The trip was long, well it felt alot longer than the 7 hours I predicted. I can't remember what time we arrived, but it was in time to grab a quick bite to eat, and then fall into bed. I managed to do nearly everything I mentioned I would do on the trip, so I was happy!

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The music course that we did was so worth the trip. It was called InTune, run by Vision College, and it focussed on worship leading from a musical p.o.v.

Music to practise at the end of Day One - two of the eight songs we had to learn...

We started with a guest speaker each morning, then a theory session, followed by instrument tuition (I took my bass guitar) and then gathering into an 'ensemble' to work on our songs, with a final 'performance' to the group on Friday morning. It was great to get loads of practical skills to bring back :)

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My new toy!

After school one day I couldn't resist dragging mum to the nearest Spotlight so I could make the most of a short VIP members sale - and I bought myself an early birthday present! I'm so excited to start using it! I'm sure for the most part it will be used for hemming pants and that kind of thing, but I have dabbled in a little patchwork before, so i'm hoping to get back into that.

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Special birthday cupcakes that my sister made for me before we left - complete with stunning cupcake holder!

Then it was my birthday! I was treated to embarrassment a suprise when my dad stood up and got the whole class to sing me happy birthday... ok I admit, it was lovely! I even had a gorgeous rose delivered to me while I was in my bass tuition class!

And I was taken to dine-in Pizza Hutt for dinner - there are none left in Wellington now, so that was an awesome treat!

My AWESOME birthday present!

As for my birthday present, I was lucky enough to get a Knit Picks interchangable needle set, which i've wanted since I first heard about them! Thanks to Morag from Vintage Purls for sending them up to my mum so quickly :)

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This already full-on week was then followed by a long weekend at Parachute 09 - a Christian music festival with loads of bands and speakers.

Rapture Ruckus!!! And Dr Bob :)

These were two of my favourite acts over the weekend - Brad from Rapture Ruckus is from Wellington (the only hip hop artist i'm a fan of!) and Dr Bob plays 12 bar blues, which stood out from the rest of the pop/rock line up.

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So, that's the story of my week! As you can imagine now, i'm absolutely shattered, but still managing to get through work. I'm off again for another long weekend on Friday afternoon, so i'm loving the quiet nights until then! I'll leave you with this - my stash enhancement from the week away - just cheap acrylic, but i'm going to start making toys!

Acrylic joy :)