Eloise the snake and a crochet giveaway

What do you give the seven year old who has everything for her birthday?

Why an enormous stripy crocheted snake of course!!

The Sunday before the Friday of our Pepper's birthday we found ourselves asking each other this question often. Seriously, what on earth did she possibly want or need? Being our third girl the answer was most certainly not clothes, or toys, or books. And being seven the answer was most certainly nothing too babyish and nothing too grown up either. And not giving her anything just wasn't an option.

So we were stuck.

And then it occurred to me that I could make her a toy. And hopefully the fact that it would be made by me, and the fact that it would be bright and big, would kind of negate the too babyish bit

So I got to work on ravelry, found a pattern, and every night as soon as she went to sleep I got out the hooks and the cottons and started crocheting. Around, and around, and around.

And you know what? She loved it! She loves it!!

She takes it everywhere she goes, she changes its name constantly and she's even given it a much coveted place in her bed so she can snuggle it all night. (Poor old Big Ted hasn't been as happy finding himself in the crack between the wall and the bed every morning though).

Funny how I am petrified of snakes in real life yet this stripy one makes me so happy.

So, do you want to make a stripy snake for someone you love too? You know you do. The pattern is simple and totally make-able for beginners. I just used lots of scraps of cotton I had from other projects and I used these gorgeous Clover crochet hooks.

And guess what??

Gorgeous Renae of Yarn Haus has kindly offered to send one of you a packet of these wonderful hooks too. How cool is that!!

I am seriously in love with the Clover hooks. The padding is in the right place not to leave an indentation in my finger, I love the colours and I don't think I will ever use another hook again.

So if you live in Australia or New Zealand.
If you love to crochet or would love to learn.
And if you think these hooks are just what your hooky kit needs, then please leave a comment telling me something about crochet. Anything you like. And we'll choose a winner early next week, (my birthday week - YAY!)

Oh I just realised my pink hook is missing from the pics. Oops! Never fear, your kit will definitely include the pretty pink hook too.



In the meantime why don't you check our Renae's;

Gorgeous new yarn haus website here.
Go like her pretty yarn haus Facebook page here.
Go follow her fabulous yarn haus instagram account here.
And go and follow her witty yarn yarn haus twitter here.

You gotta be in it to win it!!

Happy hooking friends!!


Love Kate

xx

PS Miss Pepper's snake is ravelled here

falling off the mower

Yesterday I fell off our ride on mower so today I'm starting my day off very slowly.

I didn't actually fall off but rather jumped off when I thought it was going to roll ontop of me. And actually my farmer boy says it wasn't going to roll on me, but it certainly felt like it at the time.

Looking back I know that I was being silly. I was in a rush to finish the mowing before school pick up time and instead of leaving the steep, hilly bit for the whipper-snipper, I thought I'd be smart and get it done there and then. Turns out I was not so smart. I realised I was going up the bank at too sharp an angle, I got too scared to go backwards but tried anyway, slowly, I felt like the mower tipped a bit, I slammed on the brakes, straddled it in a funny way jumping off (not haha funny) and managed to batter and bruise my legs and pride and confidence in the process. Ouchy.

I'm fine. The mower is perfectly fine. It's probably not a bad thing to happen to me at the beginning of mowing season. But this morning I'm feeling a bit achy, and instead of rushing out there to set up fences for a chook move tomorrow morning, I'm crocheting a couple of rows of Miss Pepper's stripy birthday present and writing to you.

How are you?
Are you in a rush or being gentle on yourself?


Take it easy and travel safely my friends, we'll get there in the end.

Love Kate xx

Auction prep.

Armed with my 3.5mm hook, a rainbow of wool generously discounted by Andy at Purl's Palace (who are having a massive closing down sale right now) and the most gorgeous cushion pattern donated by Michelle @ TheRoyalSisters (thanks so much Michelle), I am about to get started on my item to be auctioned for the Queensland Flood Relief.

The auction for my cushion cover will kick off next Monday morning.

My auction will be part of a long list of blogger auctions and raffles that will go up on Toni's blog next Monday.

To all those affected by floods or fires, we are thinking of you and wishing you safety, dryness and relief from it all.

Gosh, let's hope I remember how to crochet.

I'm a little teapot!

After my month of crocheting pot holders last October, the natural progression was to have a go at hooking a tea cozy. The result was the Rosy Cozy Tea cozy. Although I found the pattern a bit tricky, I loved it and thought I had many, many crocheted tea cozies ahead of me.

So I started to collect tea cozy patterns in my bookmarks, and I started to collect plain tea pots in op shops and garage sales.

When I got to five though I stopped, because the truth is I don't drink tea from a tea pot I just collected them so I could play dress ups with them.

But since then my crochet projects have taken a different direction and four of the tea pots have stayed nude on the side board staring at me waiting to be dressed.

So the other day when I was at the garage sale of the woman who had crocheted these herself, I knew they had to come home with me, and not a moment to soon, as the nights are starting to get a bit chilly in these parts and those tea pots did not look happy.

But look how good they look now, all dressed up and ready for winter.

And one day, if the urge comes upon me to crochet another tea cozy, I'll just have to look around for another.

I hope you are having a great weekend.

To check out some other Flea Market Finds, head on over to Sophie's.

I heart crochet!

There is so much I love about crochet!

I love how portable it is. I love how I never feel like I am wasting time at school assembly, in the doctor's waiting room or on long car journeys. I love how my hands are always busy. I love how sometimes it challenges me. I love how mostly it relaxes me. I love how you can make some really ace stuff. I love how there are a gazillion free patterns on the Internet some really old and traditional and some really new and trendy.

I love the wools, the colours, the cottons and the hooks.

I love that there is only ever one loop to find if your project unravels. I love how it is a conversation starter. I love that it is as addictive as samurai sudoku and online scrabble, but at the end you have something to show for your efforts. I love how it can transform a simple item of clothing into a piece.

I could go on and on...

But I think my favourite thing about this crochet this morning, is sitting with the little ball of wool on my lap and watching Pepper giggle as it bounced and danced as it unwound with each of my stitches. LOVE!!

Crochet & me.

There was a while back there where I was unable to crochet. My hands were so full of blackberry thorn scratches and splinters that holding the hook hurt. But I'm pleased to tell you that time has past and I am back hooking away.

The other night I made this jug cover. Gosh I love sorting through all my buttons to find just the right colour and shape combinations.

As a side project when crocheting that bunny got a bit complicated, I made the top pink and white pot holder from this pattern.

I recently saw somewhere on the internet that someone had made the same one swapping colours every two rows instead of every row, and I am dying to get a chance to make another one like that.

This is such a fun pot holder to crochet because it doesn't look like it is going to work until the final row when it all clicks in together.

To make crochet matters even more enjoyable than I thought possible, look what arrived in the mail from the wonderful Leonie at Raglan Guld.

Thank you soooooooooo much Leonie I love it so ridiculously much!!

My end of the swap is being contemplated and will hopefully be in the mail by the end of the week.

And lastly, I am crocheting a doily!

Ha ha, I know you are all laughing, calling me a Nana and making toilet roll cover jokes, but after making this dress the other day with a doily that someone else crocheted, I have been dying to make one of my own to sew into a dress.

I hope you are having a lovely, creative Wednesday.

Seal prints & found wool.

I've been screen printing seals onto t'shirts.

This one was posted off to Miss Muggins for her daughter this morning.

Apologies to all those having a quiet coffee at Breakfast and Beer this morning, who I must have completely freaked out when I spied my beloved wool and hook on top of the fridge and let out an almighty WOOP!

It appears it must have dropped out of the car door when I opened it to pop some take away coffees on the passenger seat earlier in the week.

Thanks so much for all your kind words regarding my loss.

I just read on their site that Craft Hope are about to close temporarily, so I am thinking I might auction the little bunny off when she is finished with all proceeds going to the Haiti relief effort a la' Leonie.

And look what appeared in my mail box this morning to brighten up my Wednesday. The lovely 'I heart handmade & Home' brooch that I won over at Her Library Adventures. Love it!

I hope you come across something you thought you had lost soon. It really is the greatest feeling. XX

Sewing dresses & losing wool.

I made another sheet dress last night.

I just love playing with all the different patterns and coloured sheets.

I added different coloured binding on this one too.

Here we have my stylist adding the final touches while I was photographing the back of the dress.

Of course she had to put her sheet dress on too.

Part of me in considering an Etsy shop at the moment. But the other part doesn't want the stress of working out postage and prices.

In other dress news, no sooner had I read M*'s 'why don't you dunk it in a pot of dye?' comment on my last post, than I had.

Please excuse the line at the bottom, that's the mark from the washing line where its been hanging in the rain since it came out of the dye pot.

I love how the sheet pattern came through the dye. I'll machine wash it today so hopefully it'll end up a bit more even.

I also plan to bind the lower hem as suggested by many of you and to add some pockets. Huge thanks to Vic for going above and beyond and sending me the coolest pocket tutorials to try.

After reading Jodie's post about Craft Hope the other day, I quickly set about to crochet up a bunny. I got this far but somewhere between our farm shop at the bottom of the hill and our house at the top of the hill, I lost a huge 200gram ball of beautiful BWM wool and my favourite, most used crochet hook.

I have searched our whole house, both cars and as much farm land as I can, but to no avail. I can only hope that some animal or bird is sleeping very comfortably out there and maybe using the hook as a poking tool(?).

I hope your Tuesday is fabulous! XX

My place and yours - 5 minutes peace.

This week's theme queen Pilgrim wants to know;

Where do you retreat to for that sanity-regaining break? I am interested in what or where in your home is your sanctuary.

My home has no such place. I have no special chair or corner. I am talked to when I am in my bedroom, on my sewing machine or on the toilet. In fact the toilet is probably the joke telling or question asking place of choice, because whilst sitting there I am a captive audience.

My sanctuary is not a place, it is the contents of my red bag.

With a crochet hook in my hand and some cotton in my lap I can relax and unwind. I can be part of whatever it is that is going on but I can also be off in my own little world. If I am creating and my hands are busy, then I am ok.

For a peek into the sanctuaries of others, go and check out Pip's place.

My creative Space.

In my creative space this Thursday I am putting the finishing touches on my softie for Mirabel. Because the temperature is going to be in the high 30's today, she thinks she needs a hat.

I am thinking of creative things to do with broad beans. We are having felafel for dinner tonight.

I am planning and dreaming about all the wonderful places these shoes are going to take me. I found them in the children's shoe pile at the local op shop for 60 cents yesterday.

And I am trying to be creative with their hair styles.

Indi, Jazzy and sometimes Pepper are making Fimo shapes.

How divine is that purple crochet hook?

And Bren has been creative with this irrigation system. I'll try to explain it on my other blog at some stage if I can ever understand it.

Now you've seen ours, why don't you pop on over to Kootoyoo to see what everyone else is doing.

My Creative Space & How To Crochet.

Yesterday my eight year old asked me to teach her how to crochet. Needless to say I was thrilled. But it got me thinking, crochet is something my hands do that my head can't really explain so well in words. I know that sounds weird but it's true. Sometimes if I think too hard about it I can't do it but if I let my hands go they remember the rhythm.

When I learnt to crochet back in May, I Googled each step, looked at the pictures of each step and practised putting my hands and fingers and yarn in the same positions.

When Indi asked me yesterday I sat with her for a while and showed her, but then I also had to take care of the demands of the other members of the family and leave her. Each time I returned she had reverted to finger knitting.

So I printed out these step by step pictures so she could watch my fingers even when I was making dinner or putting the washing away.

STEP ONE: (above)The basic way to hold the hook and yarn.

Step two: Yarn over hook.

STEP THREE: Using the hook pull the top loop through the bottom loop.

STEP FOUR: Pull the bottom loop off the hook.

STEP FIVE: Start again from step one.

She loves it. She says she's already addicted to it.

I'm so happy!

This afternoon I'll be crocheting this blue Bebop cardi and she might graduate to double crochet.

Yesterday her how to make a softie was featured on whipup as well as One Pretty Thing.

For more Creative Spaces head on over to Kootoyoo.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?