milo may 2012

It's May!
Which means it's Milo May again!!!

Time to crack out your needles and dive into your 8ply stash to whip up some cute adorable milos for all and sundry. Well, okay not all and sundry. I won't be knitting my husband a milo. Nor possibly, my elderly neighbour. Or even her cat. And probably not even that small boy at Lily's school who is terribly tiny and terribly cute. But hey, just about everyone else will possibly, maybe, with some good intentions, get one knitted for them.

So what's Milo May all about?

Milo was released in May three years ago. To celebrate, my Rav group decided to have a mass Knit-A-Long for the month of May. It was so much fun, and everyone went to town creating some very individual and stunning milos.  There were 126 milos knit in May 2011.  So much fun was had, we decided to make it an annual event.

Want to join in?
You do need to be a member of Ravelry. (well, sort of, if you want to see what others are knitting. You could just knit a long and be oblivious to all the other milos being knit. That would be ok too.)
Pop on over to my Rav group and join in the thread, post photos of your finished milo and tag it with MILOMAY2012 and you're in the running for a prize.

It could be a spot prize along the way.  Or it could be the final prize, winner randomly selected by my milo boy, of 200g of hand dyed 8ply wool.

So get those sticks clicking away!

I'm planning three this year; one for the milo boy, one for a yet to be born nephew and one for the sweetest little girl who is the most appreciative recipient of knits I know!

So who's in?

lazy sunday

I love a lazy Sunday afternoon.
An afternoon of quiet sunshine interspersed with some rolling thunder and autumn rains.
The kids settled into an afternoon of imaginative play, with sticks and capes and lots of co-operation.
A hot cup of chai.
Some yarn to play with and the last of the easter chocolate.





This afternoon I'm sharing my love between crochet and knitting.
Last night I started crocheting a cushion cover out of some glorious noro. Gosh, I do love noro.

This afternoon I wound some more skeins of WOOLganics Head, Heart and Hand into balls to keep working on Lily's log cabin blanket.







This afternoon my new favorite possession is this beautiful green wooden chair.
Scrounged from a neighbouring town's hard rubbish collection. shhh!

How are you spending your Sunday?
What are you working on?
Do you scrounge the hard rubbish collections too? What's your best find?

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new patterns

After a bit of a break from designing at the start of the year, I've finally gotten back into the swing of things with the release of two new patterns. woot! Two patterns that are both for grown up people, rather than wee little kiddies, which is a bit of a change.

The first of these was lavender which was released in March.

Lavender is a quick and fun little knit that is written up for two head sizes (20" and 22"). What I really like about this design is that it is all knit inside out. What the? Look closely at the hat and you'll see that reverse stocking stitch features heavily. If this was knit rightside out, that would be a heck of a lot of purling going on. But inside out means you just knit. Cool hey. 

It's a bit of a trust the pattern, because of the way you're knitting the cable inside out. The cable are very simple and intuitive though, and is easily worked without a cable needle. Little mock cables, got to love them! 

The idea for this hat was first conceived as a chemo cap for a loved family member. My aim was to create one that fitted all the requirements of a sensitive scalp; the softest organic yarn possible, a gentle rolled edge on the band, slouchiness to minimise contact but yet provide warmth, and in reverse stocking stitch, so the softest side of the knit fabric is on the inner. 

After knitting it I decided it was really perfect for anyone!

The mock cable stitch pattern I used reminds me of lavender drying upside down; hence the name of the hat. The first one I knit was actually in a lavender yarn.  Lavender for me, means calmness and serenity... which is just what every knitter wants!

It's been fabulous seeing some gorgeous lavenders popping up on Ravelry, I'm looking forward to seeing many more.

And just so you know, if you've ever purchased a pattern from me before, until the end of April 2012 you can get a copy of this pattern for free by simply using the code freebie at the check-out. Otherwise, it will set you back three measly dollars.

Get your copy here.

the full circle

Sometimes strange time parallels occur in my life, and I'm sure in others too. Strange little acts of synchronicity. Little acts that if you really wanted to you could possibly try and read some deeper meaning in to.  This may be one of those cases, you be the judge. Me, I find it an interesting parallel.

Four years ago in January 2008 I finished my first ever Rainbow Dress, a dress that had taken me three months and a heck of a lot of frogging to finish.  I could get all reminiscent and ponder all that has happened in those four years, and the way that one dress changed the direction of my career...but let's not today.  

Let's just look at the Rainbow Dress I finished earlier this year, my thirteenth. I love it that just like the first one, it's knit in a rainbow yarn. 

I love a rainbow yarn.

Despite the fact that this pattern was designed firstly for rainbow yarns, I've only ever knit three in rainbow yarns. They are, I think, perfection.

This one is destined for my gorgeous wee niece, Sage. A sweet little poppet who I know will love this dress as much as I do.

I just hope Toby realises it is actually hers!

Pattern: Rainbow Dress
Needles: Addi Lace Clicks 3.5mm and 4mm
Yarns: Wendy Dennis Polwarth 8ply
Space Frog 8ply/DK Pure Wool

Notes: size knit 19". knit until I ran out of yarn.
The dress is intended for a three year old who has a 19" chest. It is shown here on a three year old with a 20.5" chest.
Bodice knit on 3.5mm needles instead of 3.75mm.

Ravelled here.

intentions

This year, I have loads of things I intend to do. Sort of like a Resolution List, but not quite that organised or boding. Nothing quite so confronting, just some little ideas that play around in my head.

I intend to blog more.
I intend to garden more and bring some love and life back into our native garden.
I intend to sew more, particularly now I have a sewing space again.
I intend to cherish my little cherubs, and enjoy them as much as possible.
I intend to not to overcommit myself.
I intend to become a domestic goddess.
I intend to yarn bomb.
I intend to espouse the value of creativity as and essential part of learning, as important as the acquisition of any literacy or numeracy skills.
I intend to cycle more.
I intend to walk every day.
I intend to not allow the knitting thing to get too overwhelming.
I intend to knit for myself.
I intend to embrace the frivolous side of crafting.

Most of all, I intend to have fun!

So far I'm doing ok!

sisterly love

This little post is about sisters. And love. And also a bit of knitting. All sort of interrelated and tied together.

I have this yarny sort of theory, that sport weight yarn is the new black. I really think that in the yarn world it's pretty much the cool kid at the moment.  Yep, everyone wants to be friends with the good old sport weight yarn. I don't think it was any coincidence that I kept seeing new sport weight yarns popping up all over the place. In places like my Loyal Yarn Store. And in colours that were irresistible. Pure and Simple.  Colours like this.

oh, and the most glorious glorious perfect yellow you have ever seen. 

When I saw this yarn, I had to have some of it. It is so buttery soft. Some of that sport weight delight was going home with me no matter what. Who cares that I had no plan for it. Who cares that it was just going to sit in the stash with absolutely no purpose, it had to be mine. And it did sit.

Somehow I'm not quite sure but after designing Jane, another related design popped into my head. My sketch had lace and cables and some lovely drape happening. And while I do so love dk weight yarn more than any other, I just knew to do such lovely lace justice, to get the drape I really wanted for the design, this time dk just wasn't going to cut it. It had to be something lighter. Something like a sportweight yarn.

That little sketched transformed into this:

Elizabeth.

I so love it when a garment you're designing actually turns out better than you envisage. When internally you just want to do a little jump or cheer.  

There's something about the mix of stocking stitch and lace that I really like. And I have to say, after knitting this I'm quite loving the idea of using cables running into lace. 

The construction of this was so much fun. And believe it or not it's much easier to knit than it looks. The lace is really quite easy to follow and remember, and the cables are super-dooper simple. Picking up stitches is probably the most challenging aspect of this garment, and the pattern sets these out fairly precisely to make it easier to perform.

I so loved knitting with this 5ply yarn so much. It's the MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino, and is buttery soft.  

This has been one very loved cardie. Over the Spring and the Summer Lily has worn this more than any other item in her woolly wardrobe. It's her definite favourite, and I think it might be one of mine too. I'm going to knit myself one too, for sure. I've already selected some lovely madtosh sportweight for mine.

The sisterly part? Well, when I named the Jane pattern, it got that name because it was quite simple and plain to look at despite its unusual construction. A plain Jane so to speak. It's also my second name. So when I decided to knit a sister garment for Jane, I looked to my sisters' second names. Luckily, I had four to choose from. Elizabeth seemed  to suit this pattern best.

I do have plans for some more sister patterns, I'm thinking about the Autumn one right now but you know, it's probably not going to get released until after Autumn now as while I'm thinking, not much knitting is happening. 

You can find more photos and the details for purchasing the pattern, as well as all my other patterns, in my Ravelry store. 

getting cosy

I'm quite fond of a bit of a cosy. Mug cosies. I'm all over them. Hot water bottle cosy. Ditto. Tea cosy. You guessed it.

But just quietly, I think the rest of my life needs a bit of cosy-i-fying. Looking around there are just too many objects in my life that could do with a cosy. I am seriously coveting a tv cosy to cover the ugly black thing in the corner (it's not really even a box anymore, is it?).

And I'm very tempted to craft up a cosy for my bicycle helmet. That would be quite sweet, I think.

And how about a cosy for the swing seat? Or the iPad? Or even a vase cosy or two?

Yes, I think along with the dishcloth domination, 2012 could be the year of the cosy. I've started small. Our peach glut and the impossibility of peaches in the school lunchbox, resulted in a peach cosy.






I'm not sure why I've never made one before! Totally fabulous. Keeps Lily's peach all perfect until fruit time. This will be equally fabulous through winter as an apple cosy too. I suspect I'll need to whip up a pear cosy though, as that's another favourite fruit that is doesn't lunchbox well.




I think it won't be long and every cool kid at her school will be wanting their mum to whip them up a fruit cosy. I mean, how could they not covet this cuteness?

I offered to knit her a sandwich cover cosy next, but I think she's worried about the jealousy this would cause her peers and said no. I can't say I wasn't a wee bit disappointed though...oh well, Toby starts kinder next year. I'm sure he'd love a set of lunchbox cosies.




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