Happy Birthday Milo!

YAY!!! hip hip hooray! Milo is one!

That's milo the pattern, by the way. not the original milo boy, Toby. He's 18 months.

But milo the pattern is one, it's been just over one year since I sent him out into knitting world as a paid pattern. My first paid pattern!  What a very daunting moment that was I can tell you. I remember discussing it with Andy and telling him optimistically that I would be absolutely stoked if it sold 50 copies!! 

So how has the big step into selling patterns been for me? I must say, it was a daunting step. It is quite different than offering a free pattern, I think there is a whole new level of expectation, both from myself and the consumer.

The past year has certainly bought me a long way from the sewing side of my business, and to be honest, the knitting side is far more successful and at the moment more enjoyable and more doable.  Sewing kids clothes to sell is really only something that you can maintain for any length of time if you really enjoy and love it. I've been doing it since 2006. It's something I feel you need to come to with a passion for sewing, a love of it. Pretty much like any area of design and handcraft  really. The passion and pure enjoyment of creating is what makes the repetitiveness of handcraft business bearable. Even with passion and love for sewing, the repetitiveness does get to you after awhile. As does the reality that you really don't make much from it, really only enough to buy more supplies. I'd hate to think how many pairs of kids' pants I've made, but you know what, it was one of the first things I tackled as I'm now finding more time for sewing! And I really am enjoying sewing again for just my kiddies. Will I sell my sewn stuff again? Probably, just not this week ;)

But I digress, back to milo's first birthday...

If I were to do it all again though, I wouldn't change a thing.  I would still follow the same route I have. Getting some of my patterns out there as freebies before taking the selling route  I think was hugely beneficial. I really don't know if milo would be quite as popular as it is if it weren't for those patterns that had come before him. I truly believe that  free patterns are a great way for knitters to become familiar with your style and I do so love love love the way it really feels like I'm giving a gift back to the knitting/crafting community as a whole. I think I will always offer free patterns. In fact, I'm working on one at the moment, but it's super secret.

So how did I celebrate milo's birthday?  Well, in true knitter form I knitted a new milo for Toby, my fourteenth!

I knit this in Noro Silk Garden Lite.  While this yarn has a gorgeous texture and lovely colour changes, I am suspicious that the people at noro and kauni have some conspiracy thing going on. I'm sure they're having a big laugh about the fact that they've created such visually beautiful yarns that knitters are so will ing to desperately knit with despite the fact that they aren't actually very soft to knit with. Noro does soften with washing, but sheesh, when you're used to knitting with WOOLganics, it's a bit rude.

Far out, this little dude must surely be the cutest boy in the world!

ooh, and how cool was it that the week milo turned one (ok, I admit this birthday wish is a little belated, this post has been half written in draft form since the 6th) it also hit 1000 projects on Ravelry!!! wooo hooot!!!!! 

my creative space ...

just the usual stuff...

a bit of secret knitting... shhh, don't tell anyone you looked!

some not so secret prototype test-knitting...

and more prototype test knitting in development.

*phew!* nothing like starting a million new things all at once.

more creative spaces to be found over at kootoyoo

winter pants at last!!!

Seriously, how long does it take to make a couple of pairs of denim pants?  

Well, at my current rate; at least one month. No joke...

As I've mentioned before, I don't approach sewing with a "whip it up"attitude, I am fastidious and patient, and it does take time to ensure everything is properly and neatly finished.  I am particularly fastidious when pressing hems and waistbands, measuring and pressing and pinning.  I like things to be as well done as possible. I take pride in my finished garments.  I love it when people comment on how professionally finished my garments are, that they're better than bought ones. So yep, I sew slowly.

And that probably also explains why I'm not selling sewn garments at the moment.  

Even so, a month is a bit ridiculous... these have taken so long that Lily has had a growth spurt since I cut them out and has probably grown an inch!   

But now they're finished!! Hooray!!! 

And passed the test of the playground this morning.  Lily's are a straight leg pair, which is a newish cut for me. The last pair I made her where straight leg. These aren't quite as fitted as the last pair, which is perfect for kindy.

Toby's are my classic wideleg pants, perfectly suited to his cute little cloth butt. He loved them so much he gave them a cuddle this morning. awww.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile you will know how much I love locally printed fabrics from our wonderful indy designers, I've made quite a few pants from their fabrics now. You might remember these and these or even these (which are still favs now as cropped pants).  Such beautiful fabrics and the contrast with the denim really sing for me.  

The fabric for these new pairs comes from the talented girls at Ink and Spindle. 

The denim is some of that scrummy organic stuff I've been rattling on about for quite some time. I've had a few emails about where I get it from. It comes from OrganicFabricOnline , a terrific little local business sourcing some awesome organic fabrics.  Jay is super lovely to deal with, and I doubt I'll buy anything but this stuff now! It has a beautiful handle.  

and if you're reading this Megs, yep, they're finished too and on their way to you ;) elastic finally in!!!

hookin'

yep, that's me.

I  have indeed been indulging in a bit of the fine art of crochet which may come as a bit of a surprise to some.  While I don't fall into the same camp as the self-confessed crochet haters, I do come pretty close. If crochet hooks went rusty mine surely would be. It's not that I hate crochet, or even the look of it. Just like the next crafty chick I'm ga-ga for a good granny square. Speaking of which, check these pjs out . I am super super tempted, but do you think the fabric might be a bit, umm, garish in real life?  Oh, that's right I'm not buying clothes this year.

So my crochet technique, is well, a little unorthodox. I am forever wrapping the yarn the wrong way, probably because I hold the yarn in the same hand as my needle... oops, I mean, hook, pretty much like I do for knitting.

But the Budding Designers Downunder Group on Ravelry had chosen two scarf patterns for this months  Knit/Crochet-A-Long. The scarf pattern was my Paula's Scarfette, so I decided to have a crack at the other one, the crochet one.

And the result:

Pattern: the glorious Urban Shells  by Katherine Crombie
Yarn: the yarn cafe's spiced, misty morning colourway, 100g.
Hook: knit pro harmony 4.5mm

I started on this last Sunday when I was just starting to feel a little bit crapola with a cold.  It was an afternoon of chuckles and laughter as I tried to figure out what the heck I was doing. At one stage I actually had 25 stitches lined up on my hook!! But I battled on, improved quickly and just quietly while the anti-crochet brigade are looking the other way, it was a little wee bit addictive.  shhh!

a new Oriental Lily

Can you believe it's almost two years ago since I first finished the original Oriental Lily ?  Wow!  That also means that Lily is now two years older, and yep, you guessed it, that dress is no longer tunic length. It's actually even getting a bit short for jumper length, and let's not mention the sleeve lengths.  It still fits her in the chest though!

We've been talking about making a new one, we even had the yarn all purchased. So last weekish I started knitting it up.  It was interesting knitting a design that I wrote the pattern for nearly two years ago, at times I had to resist the urge to rewrite the pattern. That's the tricky part about visiting old patterns, you've developed since then and always seem to find ways to improve it. But you know, I'm not going to. There's over 500 versions of this on Rav and it has a pretty good rating so it must be alright... and I really really like that it's a free pattern still. That's sort of important to me, as a reminder of how far I've come in such a short time with this pattern writing stuff.

Anyway, when it came down to it there wasn't that much I changed with the pattern to be honest, just some minor twiddling to modify it.   Lily still measures the same in the chest as she did two years ago, so I knit the same size as the original with a couple of little mods to cater for her longer body.

Despite all that knitting knitting knitting for all that length, this took me about 10 days to complete. I'm very very happy with how it turned out. Even better is the fact that Lily LOVES it. She had to put it on straight away, which is massive as usually I get a "Later Mummy!"  And she kept it on all day, begging to wear it to kindy. Yep, I let her.

I totally adore this colour combination, the blue is just perfection on Lily's colouring.

The variegated yarn is a yarn cafe yarn, you've probably heard me banging on about Elissa's yarns enough to know that I adore her yarns.  This one is Four Bags Full merino 8ply, colourway 'Maia Jade'.  300g of this colourway went into this dress.  As testament to Elissa's skills is the fact that the two skeins matched perfectly. Generally when you're knitting with hand-dyed yarns, two skeins of the same colourway may not always match perfectly. Dyeing is an inexact science, and dyers will often recommend you alternate skeins. Most knitters, particularly lazy ones like me, don't.  In this instance I started knitting the bodice with the 100g skein hoping it would do the bodice and sleeves and I could start the skirt with the 200g skein using the obi to break up the dress in case the two skeins weren't closely matching. 100g wasn't enough but it didn't matter as the two skeins were perfectly matched!!! YAy!!

Funnily enough, Mum has just finished knitting Tully a rainbow dress in this colourway.  It's kind of cool that the girls have kind of matching dresses. I know they will love it.

If you want some more details on the mods I used to make this dress or you want to see some more pics of this gorgeous girl in this dress, you can find them on my Rav project page here .  You don't have to be a member to have a peak at this one.

creative space...

very little happening in my space today, a little sewing of some new pants, and when I say little, I seriously mean little.  One child on the lap while sewing I'm now quite adverse at, but today it was the two of them pressing buttons and twiddling nobs. One child was infinitely more helpful than the other and was pressing the correct buttons at the correct time. The other one, meh.

So we got a little done; some buttonholes and a few seams. Oh yeah, and their names on the inside of the waistband. That's not because I'm super organised or anything like that! That's because Lily, a typical five year old, likes to write her and Toby's name on everything, and she has discovered the sewing machine can do writing.  mmm.

I'm sure I'll  have these pants finished by the end of winter. At least the fabrics are a pleasure to work with,  gorgeous gorgeous organic denim and some lovely Ink and Spindle stuff from last year's trip to Stitches and Craft.

more creative spaces to be found over at kootoyoo

and yep, deliberately no knitting today ;)

it's the small things

I've been doing a bit of small item knitting of late. I love those instant gratificatin type knits that you can whip up in a few days, or even better a night. It's a good way to break the monotony of a bigger project.  I've been taking a little bit of a break from designing new patterns this month. and it has been lovely and refreshing, although truth be told I have had to fight the urge to cast on at least four different designs I'm busting to get out there! But no, May is for me and some fun little knits.

The first fun little knit was a tea cosy for my cute little Denby pot.  Mainly because as it gets cooler my chai is getting cold in the pot and well, you know, I've NEVER knit a tea cosy! I think a tea cosy is one of those things that every knitter must knit at some stage.  It's a bit like knitting baby booties, it has to be done.

Of course, I shopped the stash and chose a glorious red for my tea cosy. I love red. I used the tea mitten pattern (Rav link) and although it came out a bit big for my little baby I still love it and it is serving its purpose.

The perfect button came from my button stash. I'm glad it's being put to use, because seriously, where else would you use buttons like these?  I can't seem me adding them to a shirt or any clothing garment to be honest. but for a teapot, they're perfect!

my other small knit was a cute little hat from ysolda teague's ripley pattern  I knit it in some glorious emerald malabrigo. I had a little row tension issue so despite getting stitch tension and  knitting the slouchy version it came out more cloche style.  still uber cute though.

I gifted it to my sister Megsie for her birthday, and forgot to take a photo..... so I'm waiting patiently for a photo of it on her ;) (hint hint)

Maybe she doesn't like it :P