procrastiblogging

I should be doing so many things right now that my head hurts. I could list them but I suspect that wouldn't help.

I thought spending 40 minutes on the elliptical trainer might help. So I got changed and hopped on and loaded a podcast, but then something happened and it didn't work so I had to get back down and turn it off at the wall. And now I'm sitting here in my exercise gear thinking it might have been a blessing after all, because wearing exercise gear makes me feel good and sporty, but exercising makes me sweaty and tired, and if I have any hopes of doing any of the things I have to do before the night is through, then tired is not going to help.

So while I'm here and procrastiblogging I want to talk a little bit about handmade. The giving and the receiving of handmade to be precise.

If you have ever read this blog before you'll know that I'm a bit of an obsessive hand maker. Despite the cost of the materials and the time it takes to make something, I'd rather make it a million times more than I'd like to buy it. And because I make stuff myself, I know how much time, energy, effort, money and love goes into handmade.

And because it does take all that, I love to make and give things to other people. I like to choose the project carefully, gather the materials together and then make the object with the giftee in mind.

Recently I knitted the socks in the top photo for a friend who I haven't seen in years and years. Good quality sock yarn isn't cheap and the socks took me a couple of weeks to knit but I loved every second. And while I made them I thought about my friend and how she's going through such a difficult time, and I felt happy that I could knit a bit of my heart into them and send them off in the post to her.

But then as I was knitting the last few stitches I started wondering about giving a handmade gift to someone who may or may not make things by hand herself. Would she understand what my socks and I were saying? Would she think a gift of socks out of the blue is a pretty weird thing? Would she even know that they are hand knitted?

Would she feel loved every time she put her toes in them and pulled them up over her heels? Would she be happy that although life might be a bit crappy at times, someone somewhere down south cares about her? Would she save them for special occasions, or would she wear them everyday?

And does any of that really matter because I loved making them and I loved making them for her and making them made me feel a tiny bit less helpless?



In other news, today the sock knitter, me, got a pair of socks in the post from another sock knitter, Donna from New Zealand. Up until the time that I opened the parcel I'd been having a pretty overemotional day, mainly due to the crazy list of things I have to do that I mentioned before. But that all changed when I pulled out those socks. Those beautiful socks.

And I noticed how they are made up of so many scraps of wool which means Donna would have had to darn in all the ends. And I saw that they are crazily beautiful and happy. And I felt giddy about all those stitches and all those hours and all those kind hearted feelings. I was, and still am, overwhelmed.

I guess I'm just interested in what you think.
Are you a hand maker and giver?
Does handmade have more, or less, value to you?
Can you personally feel the love in a handmade present?
Do you think I should write a note explaining that I knitted them?
Do you think I should stop this and get on with what I really should be doing?

I know you're right.

Goodbye!

xx

Oh and the socks at the top are raveled here.

Eight on 9/10/11.

Dearest Jazzy,

Very, very early this morning you jumped out of your bed and came into ours for a cuddle. There were no more days left on your calender for you to cross off. Your birthday had arrived.

We spoke about the day you were born, you did a dance for us in your birthday suit, you opened your prezzies, ate some lollies and got dressed in the dress you had been saving since Broome.

You could not believe your day had finally arrived.

We gave you a new bike, a PINK helmet, a dolly I knitted, lollies, a tiara and lots of cards.

Your road trip friends Sammy and Shelby came over and gave you prezzies and we cut up lots of fruit

and feasted on a stack of J pancakes.

A man came over and gave you a red fishing rod. He said he was leaving Exmouth and didn't need it anymore.

And then you ran off to play with your friends at the playground next to our caravan.

Later on we watched the movie of your life that Dad made for you. You cried. You swear you never cry in movies but you had tears streaming down your face while you watched this one.

We rode our bikes into town and came across a little town market. You jumped on the jumping castle, then on a trampoline and came home for a swim in the pool.

As I write this you are at your friend Stephanie's cabin making a stuffed toy.

No wonder you can't stop telling us that this is the best birthday ever!
And its only 4.30pm. You've still got candles to blow out, icecream cake to eat and the outdoor caravan park movie to watch that you and Indi chose.

To think that I worried about celebrating your birthday away from your friends.

Happy birthday Miss Jazzy our fairy princess.
May your life be filled with sparkly, sweet, giggly, happy things.

xxxxxxxxx

Miss Jazzy's 6th birthday here.
Miss Jazzy's 7th birthday here.

Made with love.

A few weeks ago I knitted this little Milo for my parents to give their friend's baby granddaughter.

The baby's grandmother is a pretty amazing knitter herself and her great grandmother had been the most amazing tapestry artist.

These might seem like incidental details, but to me they are most important. You see due to the fact that I am still quite a slow knitter and I don't have a huge amount of time in my life to knit, this little vest probably took me a couple of nights to finish.

The fact that this baby has wool in her blood (ha!), means her family will appreciate and understand it. They will know that it was knitted especially for them, with love.

A few months ago I knitted a similar vest for a baby and when I hadn't heard back, I asked the Mother if the baby had worn it. She replied that it'll be a great addition to her wardrobe if they ever bring her to visit us in chilly old Daylesford.

Isn't it cold in Melbourne in winter too?

I knitted her the six month size so if they don't come and visit us in the next few weeks, there's no way it'll still fit when we get home from our trip.

This baby does not come from a crafty family and it made me think that they would have liked a vest bought from a baby shop just as much. I probably could have bought a lovely one for the same amount of money that I spent on the wool.

To me, a handmade gift is the ultimate gift. Because it is my world, I understand the care that is taken in choosing a suitable pattern for the recipient, selecting and purchasing the appropriate supplies and then the time it takes to actually make the present.

I guess we often have the same issue on our market stalls when people ask why our free range, organic eggs cost more than those from the super market.

I've been thinking about this for a while and asking around and it seems that many crafters have unhappy handmade present giving stories of their own. A pair of hand knitted socks that are too good to wear, a quilt that is packed away in case the kids spill something on it, a beanie that was chucked in the wash and felted.

And then there are the happy ending stories, the dolly that was carted around until her arm fell off, this Milo that was worn by that precious little baby on her way home to Norway, the dress that has been worn by every girl in the family.

It's a risk this handmade present giving business. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Do you give handmade?

Do you choose carefully who is lucky enough to receive your handmade goodies?

Have you got a handmade prezzie success story/disaster?

The Norwegian's Milo Ravelled here.

Have a wonderful day. x

Two gifts.

Hello Monday!

Hello fresh new week, clean diary pages, opportunities, plans, hopes.

Indi has gone off to camp, Jazzy has requested pancakes for dinner and Miss Pepper is always hungry. The puppies have been wormed, the farmer-boys are working on a new chick brooder and I am hoping like anything to keep on top of things and have a happy week.

Every week on a Monday afternoon I have this odd hour in between pick ups and drop offs. Most weeks I spend it with my artist friend Petrus, chatting, catching up, talking about inspiration and plans. I love this hour and look forward to it all week.

Last week Petrus made us coffee in the boot of his car. As we sat in my boot drinking the coffee he presented me with a ceramic pear he'd made. It is heavy and cold and real pear sized with a real pear stalk. I was and am still completely overwhelmed by this gift. At the moment its sitting next to our Petrus bowl on the shelf above the fireplace but I think it might have to move around the place so I remember to look at it and love it.

When Indi saw the pear she said it represented purity and passion to her. I kinda like that.

The second gift I recieved an embarrasingly long time ago from the ever so talented MonetPaisley. A pile of hand made, retro inspired bikinis for my girls.

I wish I could show you how cute they look on my girlies but I feel a bit uncomfortable, so you'll have to believe me.

But trust me, THEY ARE SUPER CUTE!!

They are hand made from the most gorgeous fabrics and they fit really well and did I tell you they look too cute! I love how different they look from the mass produced, garishly bright, lycra numbers everyone else at the pool wears.

I think there are so few really new and original ideas out there and we should really support awesome little businesses like MoneyPaisley.

I feel a bit sad that bikini weather is over here but they'll be coming on our caravan adventure that's for sure.

Money Paisley has an Etsy shop here and are also available at a few other selected outlets. Please go and check out Money Paisley the blog for more info.

So have you been lucky enough to receive any great gifts lately? Do tell.

Ok, that's me for now.

Have fun out there.

XX

Thanks Jess!

This Saturday afternoon I am sitting here feeling overwhelmingly grateful for the generosity of bloggers.

A few months ago when I started knitting, I wrote a post on my blog about the pros and cons of knitting. One of the problems with being a brand new knitter I wrote, was all the stuff I needed to buy.

A few days later I got this mysterious black wrap in the mail from the gorgeous Jess.

What do you think was inside?

The most wonderful gift of all for a brand new knitter!

Knitting needles of every shape and size, all organised and neat and tidy.

How cool is that!

A few moments ago while I was knit, knit, knitting away at the top in the first photo, all of a sudden the pattern asked for the sleeves to be knit onto another pair of size 3 needles.

Another pair!!!???

First I panicked.

Then I thought about removing the stitches onto some waste yarn and knitting them later.

And then I remembered the wrap.

And sure enough, there was a pair of size 3 needles waiting for me.

Thanks Jess! I feel so very lucky that you chose me for this wonderful gift.

Thanks also to everyone else who has sent me or another blogger a brilliant gift. What a brilliant bunch bloggers are.

The sun is shining, my washing is drying, we are going to eat dinner outside tonight.

More grateful here.

See ya!

Boy babies.

My gorgeous cousin Romy asked me to make her some baby presents for her friends' soon to be born boy babies.

I made some bibs,

in very traditional boy blue, green and reds.

And I made a pair of pants out of an old pillow case.

I'm not very good at boy stuff.

I have three sisters, three daughters, three nieces and lots of girl kids around me too.

What do you make for boy babies?

Flowers finished!

The last few flower brooches have been crocheted and gifted.

I didn't wrap the flowers but let each recipient choose their own.

I've been enjoying watching them pop up on t'shirts around town over the past few days.

Now that I've finished the prezzies, let's hope the girls' new obsession with origami holds their interest long enough for me to have a bit of a go at some of the projects I've been putting off.

I've got a lot of crochet to play with.

And some screen printing.

And some playing with the contents of this wonderful giveaway I won over at Bec's lovely blog. Piles of knitting and crochet needles, some vintage patterns and some of Bec's wonderful handmade soap.

I hope things are happy with you and yours. XX

Brooches then trims.

What I should be doing is turning this bundle of wool into brooches for more end of year 'thank you' prezzies.

Even though its crochet work and I love to crochet, I never really want to make what I should be making.

The other day my wonderful friend Beck gave me this pile of old sheets and linens.

My head is full of ideas of what I can turn them into.

I'm not sure I can ever cut into this Holly Hobbie sheet though. Something about that girl makes me so happy.

For some reason this sheet, now dress, reminded me of the reason I wanted to learn to crochet in the first place.

Way back at the start of this year I had this idea to make crochet trims for the clothes I was sewing. So I learnt to crochet and then forgot all about the trims.

Until now.

But I am going to be good and put this future frill aside until I finish all the prezzies.

I really am!

No more school & a bit of baking.

The teachers' thank-you presents were finally finished late last night and then gifted this morning. One each for Indi and Jazzy's teachers and one for the music, art and Italian teachers.

I've got a few more to make but I work better under pressure, so I'll be making them at the last possible minute.

I love how these little stacks look.

I hope they understand the whole hand made wash cloth thing. Recently I was knitting one at a market and more than one person looked at me strangely when I told them what it was.

I had so many sewing plans for the last day before school holidays, but unfortunately Miss Pepper woke up from her nap just after I'd put the washing away, so not a lot got done.

Instead we made cup cakes.

And apricot and peach pies in these gorgeous little dishes we found at the op shop yesterday.

I hope you are having a lovely Thursday.

My creative Space.

With one week to go until the end of the school year, I am crocheting washcloths and flower brooches for teachers' thank you presents. I am adding a bar of gorgeous Cleopatra soap to make each package smell delicious too

.
This Tulip Stitch washcloth pattern is from here.

I am putting the finishing touches on my softies. I am hoping to sew them a zippered pouch when Pepper has her sleep today and get them in an express post pack this afternoon.

I have taken delivery of two boxes of stale organic Himalaya Bakery bread.

I am slicing, toasting, crumbling and then toasting again to make bread crumbs.

I hope this Thursday finds you full of inspiration.

To see what lots of other crafty kids are up to click on over to Kirsty's.