I'm Still Making!

I get told to sit & Make! Quite nice really. BJ thinks that if he tells me to sit & make then I am least hanging around where he is. He likes to have you around sometimes. Other times you get "Go away Mummy" instead. But I like when I get to Make! Last post I said I had a washcloth coming up. It is pretty obvious in the picture who it is. It is called the Furry Red Monster as the designer is smartly keeping away from licensed names I expect. So I did get my Furry Red Monster cloth for BJ done last Saturday. It's cute.

We had a little fundraiser stall at playgroup the other day & I put my dishcloths that I had been working on in it for sale. A couple went so that was good. All funds went to support our little group so it was good.

I am still working away on my Granny Stripe blanket too. It's a nice one. I really like doing this one. I haven't had the time like usual to do much of any of it though. I think I went almost 3 days without doing any hooking or stitching or anything. Yesterday I was having major withdrawals though & had to do something. I am getting through this yarn though which was the whole point. I can just about get the lid on the bin now. The best thing is that the scrap ends are going to make granny stripe washcloths. So nothing will be wasted. It turned out the one granny stripe cloth I had at the stall the other day went first. People like the colourful stuff I guess. We've been doing crazy things like playing mini golf. It's cooled off very quickly here in the last week so it was good to keep busy in the Autumn freshness, playing a silly game like silly golf! As you can see from this hole, it is quite a challenging course. We had a large group there for our Dad's 70th birthday. My group consisted of L-R, sister Roslyn, Stuart, & sister Judy. It was a whole weekend of birthday party.

Finally I got a chance to sit & do nothing. So of course I had a play on Ravelry again & found yet another scarf pattern & then after digging through more of my wool I started using this one. It's a varigated pink, purple, cream & brown. I really need some new scarves already if it is going to start being scarf weather this early. So what better way to use up stash.

Of course I am trying madly to use up some stash so I can buy more at work. There is such a lot of beautiful wool available but I have to be careful & not buy it all up without a purpose. So you know you have to keep searching Ravelry for more potential patterns. lol There is such a lot there it is amazing. If you aren't inspired to pick up needles or hook yet, then go browse around there & you will find hundreds of things you need to make.

Ok, must dash, yet another busy week. Actually I think April is going to be even busier than March so ekkk.... till next post...

Autumn Diamonds

I am a bit slow putting these on. I did the one on the left on the weekend & the second one on Monday night. These are with the Anchor Magicline cotton that was in the little suitcase in the other post. I love it. It is such a shame the cotton is discontinued. It really feels nice. This colour range is also lovely. I started each with a different ball & the colour order actually varies in them. Interesting that they would do that. I have one ball left & some ends of balls. So I will probably do one more of the diamonds as I love this pattern. Maybe I will use some of the Sugar'n'Cream instead.

A lovely day at home for us today but not so lovely housework in there too.

Sadie the cleaning lady

With trusty scrubbing brush & pail of water

John Farnham

(ekkk.... I can't believe I am using John Farnham on here!)

Cheap Diamonds!

Oh I really like this one. It was easy but looks like it wasn't! That's a good thing, isn't it! I even figured out the border but had to keep the little mantra going all the way around - skip, slip, chain, double, skip, slip, chain, double. I used the cotton I got at Spotlight yesterday, the one with the blue thread through the white. That would be 03, if you read yesterdays post. Anyway I really like this pattern for the Diamond Dishcloth & will try it again with one of my firmer cottons, the My Friends yarn from Kmart. This one is really soft & would be a nice cloth for a new baby.

When you have everything

You have everything to lose

She made herself a bed of nails

& she's plannin' on putting it to use.

Cos she had diamonds on the inside,

She had diamonds on the inside

She had diamonds on the inside

Diamonds

Diamonds on the Inside - Ben Harper

A little bit of shopping!

I had to take my aunt shopping today. Terrible I know. The worst thing was we had to go to Spotlight! hahahaha... What a chore. Well Aunt is here from England & needed to get out & have a look at what sort of things are available here in the craft world. She didn't expect so much in Spotlight so we took quite some time wandering around, looking at all the different sections.

I came across this cotton in the baby wool section. It is 100% cotton & they had plain stuff as well as these with the flecks through them. They don't have names. Very boring. They are just numbers. So left to right we have 01, 03, 05 & 07. I used 05 this afternoon to make the star cloth there in front. It seems a bit thinner than what I have been using so I tried it on a 4mm hook. I will try a 4.5mm hook for it next.

Actually in the picture the star cloth doesn't look so bad! lol One side I think seemed to flatten out a bit so I know I stuffed up on stitches in there somewhere. It is probably a really easy pattern to work but I found it hard - right from the beginning! Ekkk... not a good sign. But I was determined to end up with something starry looking. I am not used to having to follow a pattern so closely & also the change in stitched from double crochet, to single to half doubles & to what ever etc... I must admit I did nearly frog it. It looks ok. It isn't big though so I would be interested to try it on the bigger hook to see how much difference it makes. I will give it a try with probably 01.

There was a stack of sale stuff in bins & we found these little cases. It had the cotton inside plus a pattern for a crocheted lion to make with it. Well they were marked down to $15. I thought the yarn might well be worth that itself so went to buy it but Aunt said she would get it for me. At the counter we found it had another sticker on it for $5. Wow! So of course I had to check the others but none of the others had the $5 on it so we didn't get more. Bargain of the day. The cotton as you can see is Anchor Magicline so I will have to see if I can find more of that. It looks lovely. This was a bonus though as I now have a little case too! lol

I also got my yarns from American Yarns yesterday. The Lily Sugar'n'Cream looks lovely - well the ones I got that they had in stock. If you go there to buy some, it might say it is in stock but it might not be as I found out. Saved me some money I guess. It isn't like I have enough to use up! I really must try & make March a stash free month! Yeah, as if! lol Well I can try. I was going to try to see how long I lasted at the start of the year, but I'm ashamed to say it wasn't very long.

It won't be long, yeah yeah yeah
It won't be long, yeah yeah yeah
It won't be long
Till I belong to you
It won't be long - The Beatles

Something smells a bit fishy!

Yesterday I managed these two fish cloths. I am quite pleased with them. The blue one on the bottom is a fighting fish. Grrr.... He took ages. I kept stuffing up the decreasing. Plus cooking tea & watching the Wiggles endlessly probably didn't help it's cause. But the orange fish I have called Hammond, I did last night in an hour all up. Not bad. I was watching the Top Gear special. Quite funny. Richard Hammond cracks me up. Anyway the fish are pretty good to make. Like the acorns they are single crochet so that suits me! BJ might enjoy these in the bath.

Well if the fish isn't on your line,

Bait your hook & keep on trying

Don't let him get you down

There's other boys around

There's too many fish in the sea

Too Many Fish in the sea - The Commitments

Another cloth

sorry the picture is so bad. Hard to get a decent shot at 7am. I did finish this last night. It's not very good. Well the middle bit was ok, but as soon as I had to put the edge around it wasn't quite so even like the pattern tell you to do. Oh well, it is ok for me. I will keep this to test out the yarn. It is beautiful & soft. I don't know how it will go. It is Sirdar Juicy DK & is 80% Bamboo sourced viscose & 20% cotton. I had to try it anyway. I don't know anything about the bamboo bit but I liked the feel of it. Now it makes all my other stuff feel so hard! Oh & it is a citrus colour, like a pastel lemon.

This pattern is the Snapdragon washcloth from littlehouseinthesuburbs.com. The pattern was really quite simple & I didn't actually use it after row 2 when it just worked out obvious where what went. But this is the first one I have had to do an edge on & although it looks ok, it isn't perfect so that's something I can work on.

Ok, I will go & hunt down some more patterns that sound easy! lol But I can't start any until this afternoon as I am going to work! Wow! Me work! & not at the lawnmower shop for a change!

It's got to be perfect

It's got to be worth it

yeah

Too many people take second best

But I won't take anything less

It's got to be, yeah, perfect

Perfect - Fairground Attraction

Finally a cloth!

I've joined in on Mel's "Cloth-a-long" for lack of anything better to do! hahahahah... as if! But you no how it goes. You plan to do stuff but other stuff jumps up in the way! Well actually I have been making blocks. I have a couple of block orders to fill & I have been trying to do that. I have managed to get most of those done in the evening after the little Mister has gone to bed. At the moment bedtime is rather late as it is just too hot, for him & myself!

Anyway, this is the dishcloth I have worked on in between things. I have just about got another couple to show too. This is the one I like from LionBrand, one of their free patterns. It's the sedge stitch one. I can do this one without thinking too much now & it looks pretty good. It feels quite thick so would be a nice washcloth as opposed to a dishcloth. I have a couple of these I made the other week which I am going to use myself. I had better be a tester on my own things before I give them away. & this yarn is about a 55% cotton & 45% acrylic or something. It is more of my Kmart bargain yarn. (I went there again last week & got the last 6 balls - 75c each, bargain!)

The "cloth-a-long" is good though just to stock up on a few of these things for gifts maybe. So hey, if you get a present from me, then you might end up with one of these later on! Hmmm... if you don't & you would really like one you can ask! If you might get one & you don't want one, ummm... probably bad luck! I am attempting a handmade sort of gift year this year where I can. I wonder if I can.

Have you ever heard of Eremikophobia?

Well it seems that is what BJ has. It is the fear of sand. It has been so stinking hot the last couple of days we have gone to the pool & the beach. Pool ok. Beach bad! Beach so bad! I took his shoes off. Shouldn't have done that. The sand must feel so strange all wet & squishy. Then I sat in a pool of warmed water with him on the beach. I was splashing about & then pulled a handful of sand out & he freaked. Ok, so he doesn't like getting his own hands dirty so I didn't expect him to do it, but I sure didn't expect a reaction like that to my holding the sand. Oh well, it looks like the pool will be the order of the day today if it is as bad & it feels like it will be. They have a nice kids pool at the local one. It's waste deep on me if I sit in it & there are squirty things around it that are quite fun. BJ still doesn't really like water but he didn't freak at the pool the other day like I thought he might. He was watching the other kids playing. I wonder how long it will take for him to play a little if he watches everyone else playing. I will try to go a little bit more with him while it is so warm.

It was so hot yesterday but he still wanted to do the gardening! lol I just let him outside in just his nappy. He was happy. We were watching him with his Thomas the Tank Engine gardening tools, so I snuck out & took a couple of pics. He was just digging. As you do. Dry sand/dirt must be quite different than beach sand!

Have a good day & stay cool!

Me mind on fire, Me soul on fire, Feeling hot hot hot,

Party people all around me, feeling hot hot hot,

Hot Hot Hot - Buster Poindexter

Some more washcloths

I have more or less got the hang of these things. I have done a couple over the last couple of days in different stitches.

The green one is Grit Stitch. I couldn't quite get the hang of it & the shape isn't square. In fact it nearly ended up being pyramid shaped. Ekkk... I had trouble with the edges obviously. The rest I more or less got but didn't find the pattern showing up quite so well.


The cream one & brown one are Sedge Stitch. They look good if I do say so myself! I did the brown one first & it took a little while to do but this afternoon I did the cream one in no time. I really like the pattern in that one. I will give the Grit stitch one another go though & see if I can get it right.

I have been using my other cloths from the other day in the kitchen. They do actually make quite good kitchen sponges. I don't use it as a dish cloth exactly but just around the kitchen as I would a sponge. I go through a lot of sponges as I hate how stinky they get. I will try with the original clothes I made in the kitchen for a few weeks, changing them around & washing them as you do & see if that works well for me. Maybe I will use some of these for washers for us next. Does anyone have suggestions for a pattern for a washcloth?

Splish splash, I was taking a bath
Long about a Saturday night.
A rub-a-dub dub just relaxing in the tub,
Thinkin' everything was alright.
Splish Splash - Bobby Darin

My Posh Cloth!

Hahahaha... Ok, maybe not really posh but it feels posh. I don't know if I will use it as a dishcloth or a potholder. Either way, I have made this today using the tutorial here at Design Sponge. Pretty easy to follow for a beginner like me so I am quite pleased with myself. My crochet internet buddy, Sally gave me the link for this one. Thanks Sally! It worked! (go check out her blog! It's great!) It isn't a granny square but it is a square! I will try to fit in a granny tonight! Between all the cooking & baking I have done today for our picnic tomorrow I am quite stuffed but managed to chill out with a little tennis & crochet! Yay! I will do more though. They are quite nice to do really. Ok, better go & see if the Egg & Bacon pie is ready (recipe in January Woolies Good Taste mag.)

Food, glorious food!

Hot sausage and mustard!

While we're in the mood --

Cold jelly and custard!

Pease pudding and saveloy!

What next is the question?

Rich gentlemen have it, boys --

In-di-gestion!

Oliver the Musical