Button obsession?...nooo, not here.

op shopping...

There's a new Lifeline here that opened recently that is in a huge big warehouse. I assumed this meant they had a lot of stuff, but it is just spread out more :P
We went there this afternoon in search of some interesting things like buttons, or knitting needles, or a lampshade, or some men's shirts to use for this idea. I have had the link in my favourites for ages, and never gotten around to looking for some shirts.

I did find some today, so I might give that a go tonight... bring on bed time!
I think the green one will be for practicing lol.

Part 3... Seaworld

I finally got a chance to go through the photos and have a few more to put up here... mostly from our trip to Seaworld. Tired is an understatement after that day...
But we all had fun. And we managed to not buy a thing at all except for an icecream each as we were leaving. No junk food for lunch, no crappy made in China souvenirs, no rip off merchandise! Gotta love that.


Lachie spent a lot of time in the ergo, and was being a bit of a cling-on. I think he was a bit put out by all the people, I'm pretty sure he's never seen that many people at once before, lol. But of course Caitlyn was in her element, and raced around doing as much as she possibly could. We spent the day with Jill (friend of Judy's, my Mum's sister, who we were staying with) and her granddaughters, Ella and Miranda. Caitlyn played with them last time we stayed at Judy's, when I was pregnant with Lachie, and they had a lot of fun.


The kids wanted to spend all day on the rides, and couldn't understand why we'd want to drag them away to look at other stuff... until they saw it of course :P
Lachie was absolutely enthralled by the Sesame Street show. I think he was the only one of the kids that watched the whole thing LOL.

And yes, that is a big bruise on his cheek, courtesy of a chair. He was chasing Caitlyn around a corner... she saw the chair, he didn't. For about 4 days he had a bruise from the corner of his eye all the way down his cheek. ouch.

The dolphin show was amazing. Lachie went to sleep on me though, so I don't think he was much impressed...


Then we went to see a 4D movie, and had to wear these glasses... horrible photo of Caitlyn LOL, but it's the only one I have. Jill brought a stroller along for the bags to sit in, and for the girls to have an occasional sit and rest in. So I put Lachie in there when he fell asleep, and he slept through the movie, complete with blasting air and sprays of water, and extremely loud sound effects.

Then continued to sleep as we made our way to the water park. The girls had been begging all day to go swimming, Caitlyn in particular... and it was about 4pm by then, so they jumped in, and Caitlyn was blue within about 10 minutes, but that didn't stop her lol.

The Accidental Girly Mitts

Accidental Girly Mitts

I designed these fingerless mitts during a small burst of knitting inspiration.... and decided to run with it.
I called them the Accidental Girly Mitts because I really didn’t intend on them being so much so. Fluffy yarn + lace + pink/purple = about as girly as you can get!

I've had a few requests for the pattern, so I'll throw a quick one up here. It may be a 'use at your own risk' pattern though, as of course, it hasn't been tested. The basic scallop pattern came from the Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches, circa 1983. Great year, that was ;-)

Size: Women's medium (these are quite snug, if you have larger hands/wrists, I recommend using a very stretchy yarn or upping your needle size)
Yarn: DK/8ply yarn of your choice.
I used Patons Caressa 45% wool/45% acrylic/10% mohair. Yardage will vary, but I used approx 75g, a lot less than 2 50g balls anyway.
Needles: 4mm/US size 6 or larger if you want bigger mitts.

Abbreviations used:
sl1 - slip 1 stitch knitwise
psso - pass slipped stitch over
k2tog - knit two stitches together
rep - repeat
m1 - make one (increase)
yo - yarn over (increase)


When I was thinking about the stitches I wanted to use, I decided on something that could be knit in the round, or flat, as I wanted to be able to knit them in the round, but I was a little fed up with DPNs and magic loop so decided to knit them flat, at the time...lol.
You could easily knit them in the round by knitting all the purl (even) rows, and then purling row 6 (the knit row), as the lace pattern only appears on the right side.

Cast on 54 stitches
rows 1 - 8: 1x1 rib
continue in scallop lace pattern.

Scallop lace pattern:

section 1:
row 1: k1, *sl1, k1, psso, k9, k2tog* rep to the last st, k1
row 2: purl
row 3: k1, *sl1, k1, psso, k7, k2tog* rep to the last st, k1
row 4: purl
row 5: k1, *sl1, k1, psso, yo (k1, yo) 5 times, k2tog* rep to last st, k1
row 6: knit

section 2:
row 7: as row 1
row 8: as row 2
row 9: as row 3
row 10: as row 4
row 11: k1, *sl1, k1, psso, m1 (k1, m1) 5 times, k2tog* rep to last st, k1
row 12: as row 6

You can repeat these 2 sections in any way that you like to create a pattern.
Mine are set up like this:
ribbing - 1 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 1 - ribbing

Before you finish with ribbing, complete only rows 1-3 of section 1 (or rows 7-9 if you are finishing with section 2), and then continue on with 1x1 ribbing. Then bind of loosely in rib.

I then seamed up the side, leaving about a 2cm gap for the thumb, just below the top ribbing section. Because of the way the pattern is formed, the seam just looks like another set of decreases running down the side, and isn't noticeable at all!

Part 2...

Ok, so this isn't technically part of the week away, but who can resist a post dedicated to yarn purchases?

You can imagine my shock walking into a small craft shop in Murwillumbah, and seeing a mountain of Koigu yarn. Despite the seemingly enormous price tag, 2 walked away with me. So soft and such beautiful colours.

They also had some clover bamboo needles, so I grabbed some of those too!

Not at all related to the week away, but a package also came from the Yarn Cafe.... mmm.


AND I found the most amazing buttons... here are the pink/red ones.... I will share better photos of the other colours when I have better light.

Trip posts to be continued...

Our week away...part 1

We're back and we had fun!

Last weekend we went to Brisbane, and spent Sunday at Southbank. Caitlyn was begging to go swimming, but it was just too hot in the sun, and we were there right in the middle of the day.
To get a break from the sun we went to the Sciencentre. It was a bit of a shame that Lachie wasn't really old enough to enjoy most of it, and Caitlyn was really tired and not really into it all that much, but they both loved the touchy-feely exhibits.



Unfortunately my camera batteries died :P, so I didn't get any of Lachie with his face pressed up against this ... which was pretty funny lol.

Sew long...

...since I did any sewing!

I am pretty pleased with how these turned out, since I haven't touched the sewing machine since, umm.... Christmas last year I think?
I remember Mum making us car bags for trips that we went on as kids, and I had a bit of a search around and couldn't find anything at all in the way of patterns or ideas on the net, so I made it up.
We're going away for a week or so tomorrow, so if anyone misses me, then that's where we are. :P

FO: Calorimetry

I made this because I wanted to use up the rest of the yarn that I used to make the last pair of wristwarmers. In hindsight I should have used smaller needles, because even though I had heard that they come out pretty big, it is huge!
I really hate photos of me, so I've made it smaller than normal LOL.

Pattern: Calorimetry from Knitty, Winter '06
Yarn: Panda Concorde
Mods: none.

FO: return of the wrist warmers

Here is V3.

Made for Heather, by request, after she saw LeeLee's pair.
The only mods I used for these ones was the extra ribbing.

I had to rush to get these done as they are going OS in a few days, so I only have a few quick photos taken on Mum's camera late at night lol.

Pattern: Irish Hiking Wrist Warmers
Non-Rav Link

Yarn: Panda Concorde - 70% Wool/ 30% Acrylic

Got milk?

I do! and it's mmmmmmighty soft!
Ecoyarns had a sale and *as usual* couldn't resist this one.

I do have a project in mind though! something I'm working on in my head... I hope it turns out.

Yarn: SWTC Vickie Howell Collection- CRAFT
65% Organic Cotton 35% Milk Fibre
125m/50g

FO: Ballband Dishcloth

I made this dishcloth for Dad for father's day. I managed to finish it in time! lol

It won't get to him before father's day, but at least I finished it.

It's such a fun, quick pattern, I can see why so many people have made it. It looks so complicated but it's super easy, a few slipped stitches and you've got a really cool design.

Link here

mmm, yarn!

It's been so long since I received a yarn package.

This is what came today from Kel @ Dyelicious.


Some tight twist sock yarn, and some laceweight alpaca.
More details will be on my Ravelry stash page when I get around to putting them up. haha.

Happy Birthday Caitlyn

We had such a busy day on Monday that I didn't get a chance to do it.

Happy 4th Birthday Beautiful Girl!

FO: Malabrigo Mitts

I made these for leelee to thank her for helping us move into the new house, and for the child entertaining, lol.
I can't believe I have waited so long to knit with Malabrigo yarn!
It really is so lovely, I love the subtle changes in stitch definition, and the strength and length of the fibres, almost like you're knitting straight off the sheep lol. And the softness! The few people that I have showed them to didn't believe me at first that they were wool.

Must remind her not to put them in the washing machine... eek.

Pattern: Irish Hiking Wristwarmers
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted, about 75g. Pink Frost
Mods: I added a stitch either side of each cable to make them slightly larger than the last ones that I made, plus one at the start and the end, I think...lol (so 8 extra stitches), and I also made them longer than the pattern suggests.
Ravelry Link: here

Despite my dodgy seaming, I really do love this pattern, it's so quick and gratifying, and pretty and girly.

Feb Lady Sweater update

I am back from the land of no internet access. I can't believe I wasn't online for over 2 weeks!

I have been making good progress with my FLS, and I am happy with how it is turning out, though I'm still not very impressed with the different shades of the yarn I'm using.

Of course its raining and dark and miserable today so I couldn't get any decent photos.


I'm also trying to decide which buttons I should use. I picked up 2 sets on the weekend, and while I like them both a lot, I'm not sure if they are really the right ones for this sweater.
That first set are a green shell style button, and almost match perfectly to the green in the yarn. So I like those because of the simplicity that they offer. They don't compete with the business of the lace. But are they too boring?

This set are really pretty metal buttons, and I love the design, but maybe they compete too much with the pattern in the sweater? They are so different and interesting that I had to buy them.

There's also the fact that the button holes ended up being a bit bigger than I wanted them to be, so I may need to buy bigger buttons... it should be alright though.

I am really enjoying knitting this. It has just enough in it to keep me interested without becoming frustratingly slow.... it will probably be summer by the time I've finished it though lol.