Granny Square

I did it! Thanks to my fantastic mama who visited this weekend, I've learnt to crochet. Here's my very first granny square:



Move over slow and tedious knitting, I'm in love with my brand new green crochet hook. Thanks mum!

Now I'm inspired to join up to Granny-Along.

Knit one, purl two

I came up with this new necklace design the other day as I thought it might be quite nice as a mother's day gift for a knitting goddess.

I haven't added it to my website yet, but did mention it in the WAHM advertising area on a forum I frequent called The Nappy Network (yes in New Zealand we call a diaper a nappy), because there are a lot of happy knitters over at TNN.

I've been suprised by how popular it has been. Both with the K1, P2 circles and with custom initials too. I've had to order in more supplies. The fresh water pearls are giving me a headache though. The holes in them are so irregular, that I am thinking about swapping over to using Swarvoski pearls (cultured).

As far as sewing projects are coming along, I haven't sewn up the hemp trousers yet. They are cut, I just need to transfer the pattern markings and then feed them to my sewing machine. Life has just been a bit hectic this weekend.

New pants

Yesterday I made some new pants from left over fabric for two year old Xavier. I hand painted them with screen printing inks with the ChookMook birdie (excuse the grubby kid marks already on them).

And here they are in action:

I am finally feeling the love for my sewing machine, and have already cut out another pair to sew from some left over hemp jersey fabric - thanks to a huge stash I have from my cloth diaper WAHM days. I am hoping to progress to buying some fabric soon, as I'd like to make some cord winter pants with contrast fabric like the ones I've seen on Tiny Happy, which you can probably see in her Etsy store.

I used a pyjama pattern from Burda (can't remember pattern number of top of my head) as my googling around the craft blog scene showed the love for a good basic pj pant pattern. They are comfy, fit good around the butt and generally are well suited for a nice fit over modern cloth diapers.

Here is a photo tutorial on FlickR for recycling an adult shirt into pants and using the exisiting hem and side seams - super duper quick and easy, especially if there's a cool screenprint on the shirt.

And another tutorial here with lots of photos showing how quick and easy it can be including
dressing them up with fancy cuffs and pockets too.

Fly Free

This is one of the items I’ve been working on at my metalsmith workshops:

It’s a copper swallow (tattoo style bird), flying against a bronze cloud backdrop. Bronze has copper alloys in it, hence why there are some orange/copper tones showing up in the cloud. Originally I was planning on making a necklace, but now I’m not too sure whether or not it would be better suited as a pin (brooch) or even a belt buckle.

More bracelets ...

I've been on a roll. I added a dangle charm to my wee girl's bracelet that I made yesterday. The infamous cinderella's pumpkin carriage with a white swarvoski crystal. Here it is being worn:



And then I made my two nieces a bracelet each for Christmas, and my wee man an amber bracelet. All three of them will be turing two years old in the next few months ... hence why their bracelets are so teeny tiny looking. My wee man loves his. I had been using his wrist to measure his cousins bracelets, so when I made one for him, he wasn't going to take it off, not even for his afternoon nap. I think he was relieved it wasn't pink and sparkly. I managed to get it off him tonight at bath time though.



The bracelets are all made with hand fabricated sterling silver chains.

Another pink bracelet

I made my little girl another pink crystal bracelet that is simple and classic. Swarvoski crystals on a hand fabricated sterling silver chain. She loves it, and has been wearing it all afternoon. "Ohh mum, it's so sparkly". At the tender age of four she's in love with Swarvoski crystals already, and can't wait to wear it to pre-school tomorrow (I love having a girly girl). I am tempted to add a charm ... perhaps another cinderella carriage.

Here's the bracelet:


Here's it being worn ... gotta love those cute little hands covered in paint from pre-school:

Handmade wool textile

Hubby had to work this weekend, so once the kids went to bed for the night, I thought I'd have a play with some wool fibre techniques. More specifically, felting. Something I've wanted to try for years ... I finally purchased some wool sliver (already dyed) which arrived yesterday.

So I turned this:

Into this:

My very first piece of wool felt ... all handmade. It's certainly not quick, but it is a lot of fun. Definitely a project that I'll be doing again. There's something pretty cool about being able to make your own textiles.

Photos are shocking, it's red with cream circles.