Knit, knit, knitting.

Well hello there!

How are you?

I hope you are having a fabulous weekend.

We went to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show yesterday but I'm afraid I have nothing to show you from there. You see I was so overwhelmed by the colours and plies and blends and itchiness and fluffiness and treatments and animals and washabilities of all the wool that I just couldn't make a decision. Instead I decided to stick with something I knew and head to Bendigo Woollen Mills afterwards. Only by the time we got there it was 3.10pm and on Saturdays they close at 3pm. Bum! Looks like its mail order for me this time.

So as you can see I've been knit, knit, knitting away at my second knitted garment, a cardi for Miss Pepper.

I think its finally getting somewhere but let me tell you, I think I am way out of my depth. This day last year I was practicing my newly found crochet skills by hooking washers and flowers. Small, manageable, learner projects.

Who knows why I skipped that stage with knitting and went straight for a project that included eyelet lace, five different sections that had to be knitted separately and then joined, decreasing, increasing, YO's, a seed stitch band and all on circular needles.

I have knitted and undone each section more times than I care to remember and I am sure there are lots of mistakes to the trained eye but for some reason I've stuck with it and now that I'm knitting the yoke, I'm kind of glad I did.

Even though Bren says it looks a bit like a skinned rabbit.

Hopefully I'll have something finished to show you by the end of the week.

And lastly, an enormous thank you to the gorgeous Candace who sent me this wonderful selection of fabric. After a few months of mail going missing, its a relief to have it all sorted out and this gorgeousness in my hot little hands. Hooray!

We're off to collect the eggs before the rain.

Have fun out there.

2 unrelated tales.

Tale one:

I have just finished the back bottom (ha!) of my next knitting project. I am knitting in cotton this time and it feels lovely. I am working on circular needles for the first time and knitting seed stitch which is another first.

The stitch holder belonged to Bren's Nana. She was an amazing knitter/crocheter/dress maker. I tried to learn off her a few times but I couldn't quite get it. The time wasn't right for me. I still am a bit sad thought that I could never take advantage of her expertise.

I have been knitting like mad now for a week and a day and I have a horrible pain in my left shoulder blade. A similar thing happened to me last year when I learnt how to crochet.

I took my knitting to my pilates class yesterday and she taught me how to knit ergonomically.

• Sit on a straight backed chair with both your feet flat on the floor.
• Use a chair with arm rests and make sure your left (for right handers) elbow is supported on the left arm rest.
• Make sure your shoulders are down at all times.
• Try to make your hand and arm movements as big as possible.
• Make sure you get up every now and then to walk around.

I'm trying.

Tale two:

Every morning after the big girls are at school, Miss Pepper and I bake the bread for the day. Once we have measured out the ingredients and formed the dough, she pulls off her own bread bit and kneads it. We oil the tins, we leave our breads to prove, we punch them down and form the loaves, let them rise again and then we bake them.

Then each afternoon, when she wakes up from her nap, she eats her bread for lunch. Sometimes, like today, when she extra hungry and 'growing up quickly', she'll have a slice of mine too.

I hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday. X

ps. Thanks so much Annette for the wonderful package of sewing and knitting treasures. XX

Knitted wrap.

I did it!

I completed my first knitted garment!

I started it last Monday and finished it today. That's just under a week.

This morning as I was knitting the last six rows and working out how to stitch it all together, I started writing a blog post in my head about how hard the home stretch is.

At that stage I still had no idea if it would fit anyone in this house, I didn't know how to sew it all together and then Miss Pepper informed me that she didn't want or need a new jumper. She already has a jumper in her cupboard and if that one gets dirty then she is still ok because she is a tiger and tigers have fur and don't need jumpers. Hmmm.

Then I started looking through the knitting patterns I have bookmarked for my next project and going through my yarn to see if I have enough. Who wants to finish something when they can start something new and exciting?

Sometimes the home stretch is the longest part of the journey.

But then I decided to stop thnking about it and just do it. So I knitted those last six rows, pinned it all together and had a glimpse of the finished product and got a bit excited.

I decided to learn how to knit in the first place so I could knit fitted, shapely, practical garments for my family and I almost had.

And then I stitched it together, darned in the ends and that was that.

Looking at it on her I am thinking I probably should have blocked it before sewing it together so I could lay it out flat. Is that right? Can I still block it now or do I have to unstitch it?

The pattern is the Baby Kimono pattern from here.

Mr google helped me with casting on and off and increasing with YO.

Ok what's next?

Busy's skipping dress.

This is dress number three in my Everything But The Thread range.

This dress is heading up to Northern New South Wales to live with a gorgeous princess and for lots and lots of skipping and dancing and spinning.

Its made from op shopped pink and blue denim, four vintage sheets, op shopped binding and zipper and a heart doily crocheted by me.

It is a bit small on my Jazzy so hopefully it fits the little princess perfectly.

The problem now is getting it off my Jazzy and into the post. She loves it. She says its the most perfect twirly, spinney dress she's ever worn.

While we were away at the beach we celebrated a belated Mothers' Day. The girls had packed me an outfit to wear for the festivities that included my green dance party tutu. Let me tell you I had lots of fun twirling and spinning and dancing that morning. I totally get the little girl fascination with the skipping dress.

Have fun and maybe a bit of dancing and twirling out there. X

Time away.

We've spent the last few days at the beach.

The five of us.

Not a proper holiday, just a couple of days to mark the end of the busy season and the start of the quieter season on the farm.

We've eaten yummy food, drunk lots of coffee, scootered, knitted, op shopped, read, played schools, celebrated Mothers' Day, watched a few episodes of this and played at the beach.

We haven't collected eggs, done the farm chores, carried wood and kept a fire going, or done any deliveries. Its been lovely.

We have lots of decisions to make before the new season starts, but for now its been great just to take some time out and relax and enjoy one another.

We're going home in the morning. I think I'll leave a little sand in my boots just to remind me.

On knitting.

Two nights ago I was searching the internet for crochet garment patterns when I decided it was time to learn how to knit.

Don't get me wrong, I adore crochet but I have this urge to make some everyday jumpers and cardigans for my girls and I and the crochet patterns available just seem bulky and dated.

So yesterday morning we went to the op shop for some knitting needles. There was a whole jar full of them but most of them didn't have pairs, a whole lot of them were those double ended needles and then the rest were too fine for a beginner like me. I bought the thickest needle that had a pair and the quilt above that has been named 'the quilt Mum lies and knits on while the girls are on their scooters at the skate park quilt.'

I started by knitting a beanie but got impatient with the fact that it was taking so long to get anywhere and that I can already crochet beanies. Then I found a pattern for a cross over top and started on the largest size. Because of the size of the needles I'm still not sure if it will fit Miss Pepper or an eight week old baby friend of ours.

I like the rhythm of knitting.

I like the variety of patterns available.

I like saying '...at the end of this row.'

I like how neat and uniform knitting stitches look.

I like learning a new craft.

I like that knitting is making me think.

I like the range of gorgeous knitting patterns there are out there.

I don't like how much stuff you need for knitting; end stopper thingies, row counters, circular needles, stitch holders, cable needles, needles with pairs...

I don't like how last night I found a hole in my knitting and it took me hours to undo it, put all the stitches back on the needles and then knit it all up again.

I don't like how many stitches there are to deal with at once. With crochet it is really only one stitch at a time, if you drop it, its easy to find it again.

I don't like how mysterious it all seems to a beginner. A bit overwhelming really.

I don't like how slow I am at it.

In the time that its taken to knit half a garment, I've trawled many knitting sites bookmarking patterns as I go. I feel a bit excited about the possibilities.

I hope you are enjoying whatever it is you are making at the moment.

I don't know.

So selling my dresses from a gorgeous gallery/shop space in the gorgeous Piper Street Kyneton sounded like a great idea at the time.

I think I have crafters inferiority complex dating back to my fine arts days at uni when the art vs craft debate waged strongly and you had only really made it when you had your work hanging in a gallery. Part of me desperately wants to have my work hung and admired in a gallery.

But I think the views of the world have changed in this regard since I went to uni. I think craft has been noticed and is appreciated. People like practical, useful things that are designed well. I think people are embracing home made, hand made and local and there is a new found respect for some very old crafts.

I think its time for me to move on with the times and let that inferiority go.

As soon as I started working on a range designed and made especially for that shop, I started doubting it. For some reason I started thinking more carefully about fabric and design choices rather than my usual process of letting the designs lead me.

The price thing bothered me. Once I took into consideration the wholesale/consignment price, they became quite pricey items.

As did the fact that I wouldn't be there to sell my dresses, to interact and explain the concept or to hear the feedback.

And once I had said I would sew up a range then I didn't really want to anymore. I wanted to crochet beanies instead. One each for my parents, one for my farm boy (pattern from here but hdc's instead of sc's), one each for my girls and some for their friends. It doesn't get much more crafty than that.

And then in the last few days I have started receiving email commissions from some of my favourite bloggers and I have realised that sewing for my family and friends will keep me busy enough and much happier.

So the range for the shop will have to wait.

And then maybe I'll work towards a summer market stall. Maybe.

Bren is going to tell me he told me so. He said I should keep it fun and not make it into a business in the first place. We already have a family business and three children and this is my hobby. He is right.

The Weekly Times article is out in this issue. You can read it here.

And the one about our farm is here.

Happy Thursday and keep warm out there. XX