My Meret

Yay for blocking........ My Meret beret turned out just fine once it had been blocked and I LOVE it, I think that it's actually my favourite knitted item so far!! Apart from a few hair raising moments including all of the stitches just jumping right of the needle on the final row (arghhh), I really enjoyed knitting this and would definitely knit one again. Maybe next time I may knit an extra round to make it even more slouchy and instead of knitting the large I would probably do the medium. In case anyone is actually interested I knitted it using Patons Merino Deluxe which was a yummy yarn to work with. I had 2 x 50 gram balls, but only used one and a half.

I am quite proud of my first lace knit, isn't it a cute pattern.....

Okay so the photo's aren't great, but I took them myself and it's quite awkward trying to get a good shot of the back of your own head!!!.

A big thanks to Gabes for inspiring me to knit this........

Next on my needles is the Featherweight cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I have already cast on and guess what colour it's going to be....YEP green again!!! Definitely no more green after this........ Right am off to sneak in a couple of rows before Lola wakes up. X

The Good Life.....

You may well be wondering what the strange green object is in the photo below, well it's Hubby's new baby..............................

He has decided to take a little break from relish making and has now moved on to brewing his own beer. This huge monstrosity is now sitting in the kitchen taking up loads of space!!! This morning I received a text from hubby asking me to wrap the container (his baby) in a blanket to keep the precious beer at the right temperature. Don't want the beer to catch a cold now do we.....

On the subject of colds, winter is well and truly here, it has not stopped raining for days and it is freezing. I have not been able to walk to school for ages, which means that the 3 (yes 3) pieces of baked raspberry cheesecake made by Julian (how I love this man) that I ate over the weekend is still sitting happily on my hips....................

I have decided to join Julian in our mission to live the good life and I am going to start baking my own bread. The price of a loaf of bread at the moment is ridiculous, has anyone else noticed this??? Anyway I got this book out of the library the other day and it looks great. Freshly baked bread in only 5 minutes a day, sounds perfect, I will let you know how it turns out.


On the knitting front I have finished my Meret Beret and it is blocking as I type. This is the first time that I have ever blocked any of my knitting, but it wasn't as slouchy as I had hoped, my own fault for only do one repeat instead if two, but I didn't think I had enough yarn (which I did..). Oh well I am hoping that blocking may stretch it a bit, I will post a photo once it is dry. Have a great day............. X

Sad, but true.....

Last night I settled down with my knitting and a glass of lovely red wine and watched 4 hours of reality TV..... YES, I am aware of how terribly sad this sounds, but it was the final of both American Idol and Project Runway and I am have been hooked on both of them. I already knew who won Idol as one of the American knitting blogs that I read had mentioned the winner, arghhhhhhhhhh, this of course did not stop me from watching the 3 hour finale. Friday evenings are just not going to be the same now.....It is not all sad though as I am back on track with knitting the Meret and so far so good (she says touching wood...)!

In other crafty news I have just finished this 'boy bag' for Kalem, he has been wanting me to make him one for ages. He wanted it to be able to hold all sorts of bits and bobs, you know pencils, drawing book, games, rugby card, stones, lego pieces, etc. etc... I made this bag without a pattern, I just used the tips and techniques that I have learnt recently with the bags that I have been making. It is a really a basic tote with lot's of pockets and I made the handle quite thick and long so that he could carry it over his body.

The inside pockets before bag was sewn up.

A happy boy ready to fill his bag with treasures. This bag is also going to be used to carry nature journal stuff when we go for walks, which we will go on if it ever stops raining.....

I loved making this bag and have already drawn up another bag pattern, just off to buy some more fabric today. Isn't it amazing how even though I have an enormous bag of (ever growing) fabric I can't seem to find the right thing for my new bag!!!!!! Any excuse to go and wander around the fabric store......... Hope you all have a great weekend! X

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH....

This was the sad state of my knitting last night at 10.30pm!!!!! I am currently knitting (making a mess of) the Meret Beret, you can search for this pattern on Ravelry it's free. I was totally inspired to knit this after checking out this amazing example knitted by the very clever Gabes. The mess that you see below is the 4Th time that I had to frog my work. The first time I totally messed up the cast on and actually have no idea what I did, the 2ND time I did not pull the yarn tightly enough between the first and last stitch leaving a ridiculous length of yarn, 3rd time I somehow messed up the 1x1 ribbing . This last time the stitches just popped off the needle and as there were many M1's, slipped stitches and yo's there was NO WAY I was able to figure out which stitches went where. YES there were one or two tears of anger and frustration. My fellow knitters out there will be proud of me though, as I stayed up late and determinedly cast on AGAIN for the 5Th and hopefully final time! Please wish me luck...........


On a much brighter note, Talia has recently been spending lot's of time reading to her little sister. Of course Talia can't actually read yet as such, but her stories are pretty spot on, she just looks at the pictures and makes the rest up. This child has such a wonderful imagination, her stories make us all laugh and Lola loves this close time with her big sis.

Thought I'd finish off today's post with my all time favourite quote by a rather clever chap who went by the name of Albert Einstein.

'Imagination is more important then knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there will ever be to know and understand'.

Knitting Bag...

I have just made this bag for my larger knitting projects. I got the pattern from my favourite magazine of the moment SEW HIP! This is an English mag, but our very cool local newsagent stocks it and it's great. I think the bag was from issue no.3. I made it from and old and very retro looking tablecloth found at a local op shop. I loved the fabric and this seemed the perfect bag to make with it.

It turned out really well and even has a pocket on the front for holding your needles, but it is a bit on the large side really. Mind you it's just perfect for my Autumn jumper that I have been knitting since last Spring and probably won't be finished till next Spring!! Great size for all the balls of yarn, needles, pattern book, finished pieces, tape measure, pen, secret chocolate stash...hmmm only just thought of that one!

Maybe this bag and the soon to be added secret chocolate stash will help motivate me to get the jumper finished......... here's hoping!! X

MY MUM....

Today it is Mother's day here in New Zealand and so I wanted to write this post for my mum who unfortunately lives on the other side of the world........

There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss my mum and wish that she lived closer. Every day there is something that I want to tell her, or ask her, or laugh about with her. I know that she is only on the other end of the phone, but it's not the same. I want to be able to pop round for a cup of tea and a proper chat!

Now believe me, my mum and I have had our moments, probably like most mothers and daughters in the world, but this has not diminished the love between us. A psychic once told us that he could see a rainbow of light that joined us together and that the bond between us was very strong. I love to think that we are connected this way.

I don't think that we can truly appreciate the love that our parents have for us until we become parents ourselves. Only then can we really know the power of that love, a love that comes with so much worry and anxiety, a love that is so selfless and beautiful.

I have this image of my mum in my mind from when we lived in South Africa, so I must have been about 13 years old. I remember coming into the lounge one day to see her on the chair reading her book and drinking one of her endless cups of tea (she is British after all). She is wearing a red top and her hair is about shoulder length, very dark and very curly. I remember looking at her and thinking that she was so beautiful. I still think that she is beautiful, and kind and generous and loving and caring and very, very much missed......

So today mum when my little cherubs were jumping up and down on my bed smothering me with kisses, I sent up a silent prayer for you to thank you for teaching me the art of motherhood so well. I know that I have been truly blessed and even though you are so far away, it's okay I know that I will be fine, because we will always be connected by our bright shining rainbow of light.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO MY WONDERFUL MUM, I LOVE YOU! X

It's not fair.....

It has been raining a fair bit recently so we have been driving to school quite a lot. On the way to school we like to turn the radio up loud and sing along at the top of our voices, yes it sounds quite as lovely as you are imagining!!!! Today we were singing along to the new song by Lily Allen called 'It's not fair', you know the one "It's not fair and I think you're really mean, I think you're really mean"...her songs are so darn catchy you can't really help but sing along. Anyway, today it seems is the first time I really listened to the lyrics and the song is actually about how bad her boyfriend is in bed.

Talia it seems was also listening to the lyrics for the first time and turned to me and asked "what is she actually singing about mum?"

Well it's not like I could tell her the truth, so I said "I think that she is singing about an argument that she has had with her boyfriend."

"Oh no, I don't think it's that" said Talia

('Blimey' I think! Could she possible have figured out what it is really about!!)

"Errrr okay, what do you think she is singing about darling?" I ask somewhat nervously, vowing to take much more care in the future about what I let my children listen to on the radio!!!!

" Well, it's pretty obvious that she thinks her brother is really mean and it's just not fair because he has eaten all the cakes and biscuits!" replied my adorable child.

Ah the sweet innocence of youth, long may it remain............ X

PLEATED BEAUTY BAG...

Well my obsession with bag making is continuing along nicely. I snatched a few hours over the weekend and hid in the sleep-out (my craft room) to make this bag from Amy Karol's book Bend the Rules Sewing. It is the 'Pleated Beauty Bag' and I LOVE it. It is definitely my favourite bag so far even though there were one or two moments of frustration whilst making it. The frustration however did not come from Amy's instructions, but rather from my rushing to get it finished. I lost count of how many times my seam ripper (grim reaper) was used, but it was all worth it in the end! I learnt a few new tricks along the way and I even mastered pleats.... yes, look it has pleats!!! Hmm perhaps 'mastered' is actually too strong a word for something that was really very easy....
The bag is made using some curtain fabric from Spotlight that was ultra cheap in the sale and one of my old dresses. I loved the fabric of the dress, but it was a really bad shape on me, so I am happy that it has now been recycled into something new. I used the dress fabric for the pleats, the inside pocket, the inside handles and I also made the little patch on the front of the bag. The lining I made from an old purple sheet, so all in all a very cost effective bag. I think that I will definitely be making more of these as the possibilities for them are endless......

Is anybody else out there obsessed with making bags??? If so I would love to come and have a peek at yours.......... Peace 'n Love X

The sharing of homemade goodness...

Everybody here in Christchurch seems to have gone relish MAD!!!! You can't visit someone without leaving with a jar of homemade 'something', it's GREAT! Aren't we so lucky to live surrounded by all of these wonderful generous people. I am quite sure that we will never again have to buy a jar of relish from the money sucking supermarket! The 3 jars pictured below are our stash from the weekend, Lemon relish, Quince jelly and Green Tomato chutney. They now go into the pantry to join the Date and Rhubarb chutney, Tomato relish, Zucchini relish, Plum jam, homemade Tomato sauce, Garlic sauce and I am sure there are a few that I have forgotten. We DEFINITELY need to have a cheese and wine party in the very near future........


From homemade food to handmade felt brooches. My felt obsession does not seem to be diminishing and I have been trying my hand at making brooches. I have got so many petals and leaves cut out of felt to make up, but here are 3 that are finished. I felted 'more' 100% wool jumpers to get the lovely thick felt and they are embellished with needle felting.


I also made some children's brooches (so far all have been nabbed by Talia). The little toadstool is my favourite and looks so cool on Talia's jacket, it measures about 3cm The little fairy is Talia's favourite and she measures about 5cm from the top of her purple hair to her little glass bead shoes.

I am hoping that I will be able to get a stall at the 2nd Craft 2.0 here in Christchurch in October. If you have not been to this then you have to go it is filled with amazingly talented people selling a wide range of fantastic Indie crafts. The first craft 2.0 for this year is on June 6th (can hardly wait), but there is no way that I will be organised for that. I am also still playing around with lot's of different ideas and really knowing me I won't be organised in October either, but it's good to dream a little!

PS. Just in case you were wondering I have no hand whatsoever in the making of relishes or chutneys, this job belongs to my very clever hubby!

Talia and Digger.....

Yesterday Talia had her second ever pony ride/lesson and she looked so darn cute on that horse that I took a million photo's. Don't worry I am not going to show them all just the one's I like best......

A little pony called Digger was chosen for Talia, don't they look cute together!!!!!
She was mainly led around the paddock by the instructor, but did have a few moments of holding the rein by herself.

After the ride it was time to brush Digger down, I think that Talia enjoyed this bit the most. Now I am not very horsey myself, but I think that she looked quite a natural up there on Diggers back.

Daddy and Lola were there to watch, Lola got a bit bored after a while so went off to crawl in some horse poo instead!!! Check out that lovely blue sky, I love Autumn in Christchurch. We get a lot of frosty mornings, but when they are followed by lovely sunny days like this who can complain.

Hope that everyone had a lovely weekend.......