Voila!

One sock,

New sock,

Green sock,

Blue sock,

I finished

The first of two socks.

(sorry, now you will all have Fox in Socks stuck in your heads)

My Creative Space

... brought to you this week by the needles. Lots of needles! I decided last week I needed to knit some socks with some of my stash of sock wool before winter is over. Then I will get a chance to wear them at least this year. This is the start of one. I am currently turning the heel which is why it is all over the place. These use 5 needles as it is but I have 6 going for the heel as I didn't put the other half onto one. I actually like this pattern. It is the Regia line of sock yarn from Kaffe Fassett & the pattern that goes with it. I got it as a freebie with the wool when I bought it locally last winter! I like this pattern to work the heel much better than the pattern on the sock yarn label from Spotlight. I have a couple of balls of that yarn still & I have done that pattern a couple of times. I don't find the socks take long to do either. The band at the top was slow but as soon as you get to the knitting around it is quite mindless & simple. I love watching the rows appear. This yarn is Landscape Shade 4251 Storm by the way. I love socks. It's quite fun to make your own!

Check out what Kirsty is knitting & all the other creative spaces over there.

Kids and Books

A while ago I posted about this book. It's one of our favourites. BJ loves it - ALOT! Ok, it doesn't have words at all, but it has the best pictures that follow the people in the town through a series of scenes in the four seasons. It is great. There is such a lot to see. We look at this one such a lot. But we also read a lot of others. BJ loves books!

Anyway what I really wanted to post is a link to this article by Pip at Meet Me At Mike's. If you have kids, then click on the link & go & read it. It's well written, simple & true. Every child needs books around. Lots of books! Go on then, I'm done here, go read that. It's much more interesting that what I have written today!

Crochet cloths

I have been meaning to post this pic for a few days now but the weekend has been busy! Plus we kind of had a long weekend as Stu had an RDO today. It makes it feel like an extra Saturday. We have got quite a bit of gardening done, getting the beds ready for new vegies for summer. I can't wait. I was sad to pull out the spinach the other day but the cows liked the plants.

These are 4 cloths I did over the previous week. I can don one now in about 1.5-2 hours. It's great. I was pleased to sit & do something simple & mindless after the blanket project was done. I had been wanting to do these for a while just to use this cotton I had. The 2 on the left are with Anchor Magicline, my last precious supply of that. It is discontinued so it is hard to find. I love it. It is nice to crochet with & feels nice in a cloth plus the colours are really pretty. The top one is Grit stitch & the bottom one is Sedge stitch, my favourite. I like it to do & I like the feel of the cloth that it makes. The white & blue ones are using Sirdar cotton. I have had this cotton sitting there for a while & wanted to try it. It's really nice to use. I have 3 colours of it & may have to lash out on a couple of other colours sometime. Plus they are larger balls so I will get more out of them. Always a bonus. The top one is Sedge stitch again & the bottom one is a Backloop cloth - half treble stitched in the backloops only. This is really easy & makes a larger cloth. Sedge & Grit stitch use lots more cotton & make smaller cloths.

I have dug out some knitting now. I haven't done any all winter so thought it was time before the winter is over!

My Creative Space

I'm looking decidedly saggy baggy today! Wish I was soaking in the tub though like Saggy Baggy is!

Today I am working on a couple of sets of Saggy Baggy Elephant blocks. Must get them finished. One should land in my madeit shop soon. Link for my shop on the right!

For more creative looks check out Kirsty's page.

Fat Quarter Swap

Oh cool! Yesterday I received my parcel of Vintage Sheet fat quarters. How cool are they then! I am rapt with my collection. Australia is full of really cool sheets obviously! There just aren't that many around here, so it is great we had this great swap to boost our collections! How fun was that!

A Bit of Variety Today

The weather has been rather dismal here lately. It is to be expected being winter & all. I suggested to Stu yesterday morning that he help me make cinnamon scrolls. Well he did. Actually he ended up doing all of it except rolling out a half lot at the end. He left that for me so I could say I did help! hahahaha... Anyway, they are good. Very sweet but good. Lucky I cut the sugar in half on my batch. We had 4 dishes like this full. One dish has gone to some people who need it. I am going to put one dish in the freezer. If anyone reads this & wants a cuppa today with a scroll come on by! Good weather to sit with a cuppa.

Yesterday here at Fell Farm we also had a pretty black swan in the paddock. We watched it from the lounge window for a bit, then went out in the rain for pics. As you do. The cows spotted it & went for a look. Swannie had a close encounter with a couple of cows. They were very curious & not bothered by it at all. In fact I think they wanted to play. Swannie disappeared over the hill so Stu went to check it was safe & sound. Yep back in the dam where he was free of bothersome cows. At least we didn't have to do swan rustling today like the other week when there was pig in a paddock & pig rustling was in order. I love living the country life, pigs & all!

Blanket Battle is Over

Woohoo! Yay! & all that!

Wow, after the battles at the start, I have got my version of the Dottie Angel Blanket finished! I did it mostly like the original, but couldn't do that whole joining thing like the original. I tried, really, really hard to get that joining thing right. But nope, wasn't going to happen for me. So I just went on my merry way hooking up my rows & rows. I did 5. I like 5x5. Plus that way I could fit a couple of extra colours on. More the merrier I say!

Anyway I got the rows done the other night. I then experimented with a couple of different ways to join them. Took a few attempts to see what was going to look nice, or rather, what I wanted it to look like. In the end I did a running stitch basically. I didn't like the whip stitch look on this because of the different colours. A couple of other attempts left me with an obvious front & back on the blanket & I didn't want that. The running stitch does but only a little. With a bit of time & use the seam lines will pull out a little more & there won't be such an obvious seam. So I was happy enough. Not 100% happy, but about a 97% happy! It's done. I did it. The edging is a treble crochet row & then a single crochet row with sort of picots in it. Looks pretty cute. It needed something on the edge. I'm happy with that bit for sure!

Yesterday my Creative Space didn't turn out anything like I had planned. I had only about 20 minutes working on my blocks all day! Not good. Instead I watched Cats & Dogs about 5 times, Monsters Inc. about 8 times, read numerous books with the wee one, (yes while he also watches monsters!). But I also got to sit with wee one, cuddled under the blanket while I did get a chance to hook the edging on it. We had some lovely snuggle cuddle time, of course while keeping an eye on monsters, & some more book time. The words are just tumbling out of him now so all the books are obviously helping. Oh & he also came out with his first tune. We had been reading the Wheels on the Bus book, but singing it of course. Later on he came out with a tune & I realised it was that song. Cool! So I am going to hate that song by the end of the day but oh well, we will keep on with it. I wonder if now the blanket if finished he will claim it. No doubt he will pick it up & lay on it today while he watched more of Monsters Inc. though I will try my hardest to get him into something different.

My Creative Space

Once again it is all about the blocks. I am still working on quite a number of sets. To see more of them check out my madeit link on the right. This lot are all the same & from the book Nurse Nancy!

While I am doing these I think youtube is going to be going all day as well. BJ has a real thing with Owls at the moment so youtube is running hot with the book Owl Babies.

While you visit, check out the Silly Poll of the Week & vote on the right.

& then check out the rest of the Creative Spaces this week.

I Am In Love

...with the Thermomix! I went to a demo of this yesterday. I am super-duper impressed. I can see why a friend is swearing by her thermie so much! I am jealous that she can make so much in so little time. I was totally blown away by what it can do - chop, blend, mix, whisk, steam, process, cook! Yes it it like a food processor but it cooks too! It is really remarkable. If you had one you could do away with all your other gadgets in your cupboard. Yes, you could. So could I! If I had one. I will be saving up for quite some time. I need to take Stuart along to a demo so he can see how cool it is. He does half the cooking in our house so it is only fair! :-) But seriously, they aren't a cheap gadget, but like all good products, you get what you pay for. This is German quality so it lasts a very long time. Yes I want one. Would love one. But I will have to save really hard, or sell an awful lot of my blocks! Hmmm... & does anyone want to buy a mixer, bread maker, slow cooker, etc etc.... lol

If you want to see what it can do visit my friend Chelsea over at Full Little Tummies. Tell me you aren't impressed by what she does cos you would be lying!

Now go click on my madeit link on the sidebar & go & buy a couple of my block sets to get me started! hahahahaha

Jingle Bells

Finally got this one done. I have been working on this Bead & Button kit from Mill Hill for the last 3 weeks. I have found out for sure now that I can't spend the time on cross stitch that I used to unless I want to live with a headache for a few days. Not fun. Either way this Jingle Bells picture is pretty cute & was fun to do all the same. It's actually a shop sample so I will get to see it at work. Cool!

Shortbread Buttons

Yes, you read right. These are my shortbread buttons. I found this recipe a while ago & finally made them the other day. I don't think the recipe is anything different & I would probably do a different recipe next time, but the buttons sure are different & cute! I thought they would be fun to take to playgroup. You see, I have a four year old fan of my cookies there. Apparently he cheers when he hears that I am setting up. Setting up means bringing morning tea! I think these passed Master T's taste test & scrutiny & given a thumbs up.

Today was a good day for slow cooking soup so I had this Lamb Shank & Pearl Barley Scotch Broth in all day. Oh boy was it good. Easy to put together too. The recipe isn't for the slow cooker really but I just put it all in there anyway & it was just perfect. Next time I need to make a whole stack more though. You can't have too much soup in this weather right now!

My version of the blanket so far...

Well here is the Dottie Angel Blanket so far. Only it isn't quite. I haven't joined the strips together yet. I couldn't do it as I went. I tried so many times, but nope it wasn't going to happen for me. So I took the pressure off myself & just kept on with it this way. I will deal with joining when I have done my strips. I am doing 5 rows though & am halfway through the 4th. It's good fun. It's using up some more of the stuff I had, though I have had to stock up on more white. I see I have put some of them the wrong way here so the colour scheme isn't quite as I will have it. Oh & then the fun of deciding what kind of edge to put on it. I haven't looked that far at the original dottie blanket yet. & if you didn't notice, I had a little help from my wee one! lol

My Creative Space

It's all about the blocks again this week. I spend most of Thursdays & Fridays working at these lately as I aim to fill orders. It's a bit exciting to have such interest in them & to know they are appearing in shops! Wow! My blocks in a real shop!

To see some other cool stuff in blogland, see these creative people.

My Creative Space

Well after last week's creative space I really don't have much to show on my Dottie blanket! I had that box of wool I was going to use. I started it with that but the plys are a bit too different between the dark & light browns. Then I was also fighting with the joining up part which I was trying as well. It's hard! Does anyone have any tips for that please? It doesn't look like it is hard but it is! For me anyway!

I had started again the other day but just got so bothered by it that I stopped. Stopped looking at the joining technique as well & left it alone for a few days. So, now I have started again again! lol This is it so far. I am just using some acrylics that I had left over from other stuff. So this will be a checked blanket eventually of different squares with white between. BUT... this is the first row & then I have to start with the joining bit! I am trying not to think about that bit yet. I am hoping it won't be so tricky when I go back to it again.

Happy Thursday as for one thing it isn't so icy! For other peeks into more creative spaces see here.