Hooked - a blog hop

This is pretty cute!!

It's a new book celebrating the crochet motif in the most gorgeous way. Hooked! by Michelle, Cecile and Sylvie Delprat is filled to the brim with all kinds of sweet motifs, there are hearts and flowers and cupcakes and mushrooms and apples and birds and skulls and so many more. Seriously, I want to make them all. And my girls want me to make them all for them too. They've already started designing brooches, decorations for their school books and patches to sew on their jeans.

I think it's a really great book; the styling, the patterns, the photos and the ideas are all beautiful.

But where to start??

Miss Indi has been begging me to make her some love heart bunting for her bedroom for ages, so I pulled out the cottons and started hooking.

And then just because they were too cute not to, I made an apple, a mushroom and a strawberry. I really want to make the cupcake next too.

If you are into cute and quirky and crochet, then this book is for you.

If you want to follow along on the blog hop - then this link is for you.

If you'd like to win a copy of Hooked!, six balls of yarn, and a crochet hook - then this link is for you.

And if you feel like it, just for fun, tell me which motif you like the best, or what you'd like to do with them, and I'll choose one or two from the comments and make them up and send them to you.

See ya later crochet potata!

xx

A motif a day - meditation in May

I've got this idea. It's still not fully formed or finished yet, but I've been thinking about it a lot and I thought it might help to get it out here. Writing it might help me work out the details and perhaps after you've read it, you might have some suggestions as to how it might work too.

I guess the whole thing originates with the kindness thing, which has been completely life changing and I really should blog about more. Part of being kind to myself has been giving myself the gift of time out of the family and farm chaos. Time that is mine. Time to tune out and tune right in. And I've come to the realisation that I need regular meditation in my life.

Many of my friends, and my two smallest daughters, sit regularly alone or in groups and close their minds off to the chatter and focus on something or nothing at all. For some reason I just cannot do that. I've never been able to. The second I try, it's like an invitation for a flood of ideas and lists and conversations and memories to gush through my mind. I try to focus on my breath, to come back to center, but there's never any stopping that rush of stuff.

For a while now I've been toying with the idea that walking is my meditation. One step in front of the other, breathing in and out. I lovelovelove walking. But when I look at it truthfully I can see that mostly I walk with someone else: Bren, Indi, my parents, Jo-Jo and more recently Annabel and Lola. And while we step out the miles, we talk and tell stories and laugh and plan. Walking really promotes the best types of conversations. And when I occasionally do walk alone, I usually listen to podcasts or music. So while walking is all the best for almost everything, it's rarely a time to tune out or in.

Which brings me to crochet. Yay!

Yesterday I was sitting with the girls in the middle of the kitchen garden around the fire. They were playing the most beautiful game in a make believe restaurant. They'd drawn up a menu on a blackboard and were taking make believe orders and setting about making the food from sand and leaves and flowers. I watched them for a while as I cast off the sleeve of Miss Pepper's cardigan and then I sat there empty handed. It felt strange and slightly unsettling to have finished something and not yet started anything else.

Soon after, I went inside to gather some snacks and drinks and walked past my basket of cottons and had a powerful urge to crochet something colourful and quick and just for fun. So I grabbed my size three hook, some yarn and a book and headed back out.

And for the next ten or twenty minutes I sat in the sun, in my own little world, following the pattern and letting my hands do their thing and thought about how much I love crochet. How crochet gives me that meditation. How crochet allows my fingers to be busy and my mind to completely tune out, or in. And I realised that crochet is my meditation.

And then I started thinking about testing out this crochet as meditation theory. Taking some time out of the everyday-every single day.

While my plan was slowly unraveling in my mind I considered something productive like a square a day or a stripe of a blanket a day, but then that kind of defeats the purpose. My world is so dictated by the useful and the practical that this needs to be more 'just because'.

I considered some of the glorious mandalas that I've been seeing around the place, but realistically this has to be something quick to be achievable. Time is an issue. A circle of six or seven rounds seems like it'll be doable.

And then as I finished the last round of my circle it occurred to me that the whole time I had been hooking it, I had been feeling grateful for crochet. Loving the stitching and the choosing and the making. Feeling all happy inside as it came together and became something. A meditation about something I love or am grateful for feels like a wonderful thing to do.

So the plan became a little bit more formed. I will aim to crochet a small circle motif every day for the month of May. I will take 10 or 15 minutes out of the rush-rush to sit quietly and make. And while I crochet I will try my hardest to mediate/think/consider about something that I am grateful for in the world. Big things, local things, global things, homey things, all kinds of grateful things. And I think I'll blog it along the way. A photo everyday, or almost everyday and a little grateful dedication.

And now for the bit that I'm getting stuck on. I'd love to involve you guys, if you are interested and willing of course. I love the idea of crochet lovers all over the world virtually sitting together, taking time, making time, being kind and grateful to ourselves and each other and our worlds. I'd love to make this a bit of a community thing, but I can't work out how.

Do you know how?
Do you know what I mean?
Does this interest you?
Do you meditate already?
Do you crochet meditate already?

Help!

xx

PS The last time I did a motif a day in May - I LOVED it!!
PS This project does frighten me, the announcement and the commitment and the time factor, but I think that's a good thing and I'm not going to hide from it.

A lot of littles.

Right now, this very second, Miss Jazzy is in the bath, Miss Pepper is making some cardboard bracelets and Miss Indi is being met at school by my folks and then taken out for an ice cream. I love missing the school pick up. It's the best. Right now farmer Bren is giving a talk about organic farming to a bus load of people and right now I am writing this. But before I took and loaded these pics, I tidied up some of my yarn stash thinking and planning for a test knit I am about to cast on and then I got distracted and hooked up two grannies.

I am loving the thought of making something small every day in May. A lot of littles will surely end up in something pretty big. A lot of crocheted motifs will end up in a rug or a display or a pile of motifs. And I'm planning on using up lots of scraps of yarn which is another win.

And I am loving the way other people are taking this project and running with it in their own way...a quilt block a day...a photo a day...learning to crochet by the end of May...a bit of a cardi each day...squats...pelvic floor exercises...three chapters of a book...ten spelling words...a day in May.

How about you?
What are you and your crew up to right now, this very second?
And are you doing something everyday this May?
Let us know if you blog about it and we'll come and visit.

Our friend Chandor just delivered 80kg of certified organic potatoes, so I'm off to turn some of them into dinner. Yum! Any favourite potato recipes will be gratefully received.

See ya later-hot potata!!

Oh and remember to be nice.
If you've got nothing nice to say...

Every day in May.

Indi got me thinking this morning when she turned the page of the calender over and gave me a bit of talk about how a new month is a fresh start. A clean slate. She's excited she told me. New beginnings.

And then I started to think about what May might mean to me. What I wanted from my May.

And then I remembered that May rhymes with day and I decided then and there to do something every day in May. One thing every single day this month. One thing for the next 31 days. A commitment but totally doable.

Over the next few hours I mulled over lots of ideas;
Go for a walk everyday?
Tell a mother what a great job she is doing?
Write a hand written letter?
Donate 10 things to the op shop?
Write in a journal?
Try a new recipe?
Spend an hour alone with one of my children?
Do one bottom of the list household chore
Do my pilates exercises????

I could realistically do most of the above.
I probably should do most of the above.

But then, driving home from bush kinder, I remembered that May is my learning to crochet anniversary. Three years this month. And I remembered that two years ago I crocheted a motif a day in May. To celebrate and to learn some new patterns. I remember that most of the time I was able to crochet a motif a day, but a few days I made two to make up for the day before. I remember really enjoying the searching for patterns, the choosing of the yarn and colour combos, the hooking them up and the little pile of motifs that grew. From memory some ended up stuck to the wall, some sewn on clothes, some I still have in a drawer and some I gave away.

So I'm going to do it again.

A motif a day in May.

I crocheted the first two just now to celebrate. Hopefully I'll get a bit more technical than the humble granny from here on. But if I end up with 31 grannies, that's a lap blanket and I'm happy too.

Yay! I'm excited.

Do you want to play too?
You could crochet a motif a day too, or you could do something else every day in May.

So are you in?
What are you going to to everyday in May?

I'll be back soon to motif show and tell.

Happy May marvelous peeps. xx

Everything but the thread.

This is the first photo of the first piece in my new range called everything but the thread.

Everything but the thread will be a small range of clothing that will be hung and hopefully sold in a new shop opening in Piper Street Kyneton in the next week or so.

Like the name says, everything it takes to make this new range is repurposed, op shopped, gifted, or from my stash. I will buy nothing new to make the clothes except for the cotton to sew them together and some of the cotton for the crocheted motifs and trims.

This dress was made using a tea towel for the front, some thrifted denim and a part of an old sheet for the back, some op shopped binding and lace and zipper, some crocheted ric rac and a motif. The red love heart was bought in Thailand years and years ago to embellish costumes we were making and wearing to dance parties at the time.

Originally I had many more trims and motifs pinned onto this dress but I started to think about pricing and took them off. I want the dresses to be almost like treasure hunts with bits and pieces all over the place.

But the price thing does concern me.

So all you Mama's, Grandmother's, Aunties, friends, shoppers, makers and sellers, do you have any thought about pricing a dress like this? What would you pay? Think is reasonable? Think is too much? Any help would be gratefully accepted.

Before I go I'd like to say a HUGE thank you for all your emails and comments on my last post. Things have calmed down here and we've had a great few days but its still wonderful to know that I am not alone. That we all struggle at times and change the rules as we go along.

I'm really happy to be into my second year of blogging now, blogging without guilt and just for fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful and fun weekend out there. XX

...oops the lovely farm boy has just pointed out that I have written nothing but the thread. Looks like its back to the sewing room for me.

My creative space.

In my creative space this week I've been starting to think about what I'm going to do with all the motifs I've been crocheting.

My guess is that most of them will probably end up stitched onto little skirts and dresses like this one.

But first we have to have the fit test.

Feels good,

looks good,

I think its time to sew in the zipper and finish the hems.

The motifs shown are numbers 25, 29 and 30 from Beyond The Square Crochet Motifs.

We're having a bit of a crazy week here this week. We are harvesting a lot of our vegies before the rain comes and the paddocks get too wet, we are holding and attending workshops and seminars being held as part of Harvest Week and today I am starting to bake for the farmers' market this weekend. Like I said the other day, sometimes sewing just one seam on my sewing machine goes a long way to keeping me sane.

Check out other creative spaces over at Kirsty's.

I feel

so ridiculously grateful for all the comments you guys left on my third dress post. I am such a beginner in this whole dressmaking thing and your wonderful words of wisdom allow me to move forward and improve.

like I should email you and thank you individually for your advice but Bren is already threatening to send me to blogging rehab.

tired.

so proud and inspired by Daylesford Organics and all that we are achieving but also ready for the slowness of winter and the time to make some big decisions about our business.

like you wouldn't read my blog anymore if I showed you my real creative space.

so lucky and blessed to be part of my gorgeous, crazy family.

like I can't be held to blame if I didn't realise it was Oscar the teddy's birthday today and didn't have time to celebrate in the crazy before school rush this morning.

like I've misplaced the 'how to parent' book all parents should get a copy of when they become parents. Do you have one? Can I borrow it?

so lucky that some of my blog friends are becoming my real life friends. It is just the coolest.

like making a silver beet and potato pie should not be the excuse for a wild tantrum that culminated in engraving the antique kitchen table with a nail.

that housework doesn't make sense. Everything you do you have to do again anyway.

tired.

lucky.

like I'm whinging.

cold outside and hot and stuffy inside.

like the end of May really wasn't the best week to choose for Harvest Week.

like I am so lucky that someone left four and a half meters of denim at the op shop the other day so now I don't have to drive to Ballarat.

like lentil soup and crusty bread.

like I'd love to do something fancy to my blog but I don't know how.

a bit sorry for the boys picking carrots and beetroots in the short creek paddock in the rain today.

like I am loving crocheting motifs but that I should work on something a bit more useful.

tired.

like I don't think I should publish this.

that snatching moments to stitch even one seam at my sewing machine is keeping me sane.

happy that I have completed all the round motifs from Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs and am about to start the hexagons. The motifs above are motifs 19 - 28.

what are you feeling today?

Random facts & motifs.

A Motif Most Days In May is still moving along steadily.

These are motifs 11 through 18 from the book Beyond The Square Crochet Motifs.

Have you been reading the Week O'Mama's interviews over at Mama Mogantosh blog?

Today's interview is with me. Why don't you pop on over there to have a read of them all?

Thanks for including me Rachael, its an honor to have been included amongst those awesome mamas and a joy to read their stories.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

The giveaway-a-thon has completely overwhelmed me. I had no idea what I was in for when I signed up yesterday.

If this giveaway mania is not your thing, I'll be holding another giveaway at the end of next month to celebrate my one year blogiversary.

It has been the most gorgeous, sunny and crisp Autumn day in Daylesford today but I'd swap it for the warmth of a mid Summer's day in a heart beat.

I hope your Tuesday is full of sunshine.

4 things.

ONE - These are the next four motifs I have made for A Motif A Day Most Days In May.

They are motifs 5, 6, 7 and 8 from Beyond The Square Crochet Motifs.

So far I am loving working from this book. It has a photo as well as written and diagram instructions for each motif, so it is really easy to follow. My only issue with it is that I would have liked it better if they had named each motif rather than numbering them, but that's just me.

TWO - A week ago my phone died. Just like that. Dead!

I've had a mobile phone since 1998 and its been a love hate relationship but I had no idea how dependant I am on it.

I didn't always answer my phone and often I'd resent always being on call but now that I'm not, I feel a bit isolated.

I have no idea when my next period is due (period tracker), I have no idea when I'm meant to be doing what (calender), I struggle to add up the til at night (calculator), I'm sorry if you've texted me and I haven't replied. Ooooh, I wonder if I have been missing out on any new babies or other current events. I miss the music (ipod) and the way me and Bren call each other many times a day for the littlest things.

Oh phone, I thought I could live without you. I thought I could rebel and defy the trend and not have a phone anymore but I was wrong.

I have the package next to me to send you back and I hope to get a replacement SOON.

THREE - HUGE thanks to Angie for the amazing sheet, to Miss Jane for the wonderful package that included the crocheted cup cake pin cushion and the fantastic herb spoons your clever husband makes, and to Handmade Kids for the copy of Mixtape.

Yay for fun packages in the post!

FOUR - I am heading to The Stitches and Craft Show tomorrow.

I will be taking two trains there and two back and I am so excited about all that time to crochet.

I am so excited about going to the show too.

Are you going tomorrow?

If so, why don't you meet me and Vic and Jess for lunch at 1pm at Jodie's stall (hope that's ok Jodie. At least you'll be certain of a loo break!) in the incubator.

I hope you are having a great week so far. XX

I made my dress.

Are you like me, always searching through the old paper patterns in op shops and garage sales just in case there is one you actually might make?

Most often I don't buy these patterns because I don't have a great history of pattern following, but yesterday I did.

I bought this pattern and fabric at a garage sale on the way home from Ballarat yesterday.

I sewed it up today.

I followed the pattern all the way through, including the properly inserted zip at the back and the darts pointing to my nipples. I also did the facing the way it told me to, but for some reason when I sewed it in, it made creases in the neckline.

I added the ruffle at the bottom because it needed something more than the pattern gave me.

To be honest the outside looks pretty good but the inside is a bit of a mess. If you see me down the street, don't go lifting up my skirt or anything.

I'm pretty happy with it though. And I'm extra pleased I saved the most special bit of garage sale fabric for my second try of the pattern because there are a few things I'll do differently next time.

This is today's motif.

I crocheted it up on the spot without a pattern to cover up the creases in the neckline. I'll sew it on properly later.

The pattern, McCall's 8818, is from 1997 so its not quite vintage yet.

I hope you have a great week this week.

A motif a day in May!

So here we are on the first day in May!

How on earth did that happen?

Is it just me, or is this year speeding ahead?

So being May as it is means that it is the one year anniversary of my learning and starting to crochet.

I have been crocheting for a whole year!

Wow!

I was intending to do a bit of a photo mosaic of some of the things I have crocheted over the last year but Jazzy is tugging at me, desperate to get to the ballet shop in Ballarat, so instead I'll tell you of my plan.

In celebration of my one year crochetaversary, I plan to crochet A Motif a Day in May.

I will mainly be working through Beyond The Square, Crochet Motifs book, but if I see one I like somewhere else, I'll make that instead.

The six motifs I have made so far are numbers one through six from the book.

May just happens to be the craziest month here on the farm, so I wont be posting photos every single day, it'll probably be a bunch here and there. There is also a good chance that it might end up being called A Motif a Day Most Days in May.

I'm looking forward to sewing them on lots of clothes too.

I hope you have the most wonderful weekend. XX