A morning...a winner...

This morning Farmer Bren wore his new hooded scarf to take the girls to school and to do his farm rounds. He said lots of people asked him about it and loved it. He told me the boys who work here with us said they were jealous and wanted me to make them one each as a staff uniform.

This morning Jazzy pulled out a notebook and a pen and started writing furiously. She wrote down every thought that fluttered through her mind and every word she heard spoken. She wrote and wrote and wrote and forgot to eat or brush her hair or get dressed. So I took the notebook and pen and popped them on a shelf for later on. She could have them back as soon as she was all ready to go to school. But by the time she was ready she had lost her rhythm. She was distraught. I'd ruined everything. She couldn't get back into it. She couldn't remember what to write. I feel terrible.

This morning Miss Pepper, thinking Jazzy was the coolest, got some pieces of paper, made Bren stick them together and me write 'Pepper's writing book' on the cover. She then sat down and started to fill it with her words. Its very important, she says and she has to take it every where she goes.

This morning Miss Indi said she was disappointed that swimming sports had been postponed until next week because it is freeeeeeezing here. She was so excited. She has entered herself in eight events even though you are only meant to compete in five.

Earlier in the week I had offered her to skip school on swimming sports day. I remember dreading that day when I was at school. That day when you have to compete with your classmates, stand around in your bathers and huff and puff up and down the pool. Not my kid. She looked at me like I was insane. She has been looking forward to the big day all year. She loves it.

This morning I asked the Random Number Generator to choose a random number between one and 138 and it chose number 50.

The fiftieth comment was Jo from Bubala!

Congratulations Jo! Send me your postal details and I'll pop your Hooded Scarf kit in the post.

For everyone else, thank you so much for your entries, I wish I had a kit to send to each of you. The lovely Anna of KnitKnit emailed me the with the same thought and would love to offer you a 10% discount off any purchase from her site. Mention my blog, Foxs Lane, in the checkout and she'll refund you the amount.

The details for my Hooded Scarf are Ravelled here.

Its now almost afternoon. I'd better get on with my day. I've got cooking and cleaning and a test pattern to sew up.

I hope your Friday is surprisingly wonderful.

Bye for now. XX

Finishing...

This week's creative space finds me starting and finishing lots of little projects rather than completing my long term project, my grey cardi.

Its the strangest thing, I only have five rows of ribbing to knit on the left sleeve and then I can cast off and wear the grey cardi I've been so excited about for so long, but something is stopping me.

I can only compare it to finishing a book that you have been reading for ages and have loved. A book where you know the characters so well you almost feel like they are your friends. You feel comfortable in the story and can slip in and out of it whenever you please. When you are in the middle of a book like this you look forward to finishing it and seeing how it ends, but when you only have a few pages to go you start to wonder about the next book. Will you enjoy it as much? Will you ever get to know the new characters as well? Will it take you long to get right into it? Will it feel as comfortable and part of your life as the old book did?

Once I cast off my old friend the grey cardi I'll have to choose a new project. I'll have to make sure I have the right coloured yarn and enough of it, I'll have to knit up gauge squares until I get one right and then I'll have to learn a new stitch sequence. It'll take a while before I can pull it out at school pick up time and knit a couple of rows without really thinking about what I am doing.

And so I have been putting off the final five rows and crocheting squares and triangles,

I have been knitting a tiny green beanie for a chef friend about to have a baby(Ravelled here), a bunch of rainbow carrots (Ravelled here) and a hooded scarf.

So do you think I'm a bit cuckoo or can you relate? Do you have a long term project that you would feel a bit lost without? A project that is comforting in its comfortableness? A paper pieced hexagon quilt that you pick up like an old friend, a crocheted granny rug that you know the pattern of so well, or a book that you only have a few pages left to read but must start another to delay the inevitable.

I wonder...

Today, along with the gazillion Thursday things to do, I plan to make a final decision on the buttons for the grey cardi and then knit five rows of ribbing, cast it off, block it, sew on the buttons, darn in the ends and wear it. Its freeeeeeeeeezing and a grey cardi would look great over the dress I'm wearing.

I hope your Thursday is a creative one.

See ya. XX

giveaway!!!!!!!

Hello! How are things?

I am super dooper excited because I have the most wonderful giveaway for you today.

I have a hooded scarf package from the wonderful KnitKnit at Olive and me.

KnitKnit make up knitting project packages that are suitable for first time knitters and really for anybody at all who would love to knit themselves some cool accessories. If you have been wanting to learn to knit, if you know somebody else who has, if you would love to teach somebody to knit or if you've been admiring all the chunky knits in blogland and magazineland then read on because this is for you.

This giveaway Hooded Scarf Kit includes every single tool and every bit of information and even the pattern that you will need to make yourself a hooded scarf of your very own.

This package is so gorgeous and cleverly designed and if you're anything like me you'll be squealing with delight upon opening it and discovering four sausages (?) of 100% chunky wool in the most beautiful kiwi fruit colour, a pair of fat bamboo knitting needles, a funky calico bag to tote your project about in, a darning needle for the ends and the most detailed knitting lessons and patterns you have ever seen. Oh how I could have used a package like this that takes all the guess work out of knitting when I was learning last year.

One of my favourite parts of the instruction booklet is the grid of knit and purls that you cross off as you go so you don't even have to count. The very lovely Anna from KnitKnit has really thought of everything.

This is the brown paper package that it all comes in. Cute non?

Anna also very generously sent a kit for me to try out too and let me tell you I'm loving it. Chunky wool and fat needles mean quick results and that can only be a good thing, right? The package arrived yesterday morning and I cast on immediately and I couldn't stop knitting. By bedtime I had cast off the hood part and am looking for a spare moment today to cast on the scarf.

My Farmer Boy has been laughing at me though, he says after the thin wool and fine needles I've been using for months, looking at me knitting with these chunky ones makes me look like a cartoon character knitting. Everything is big!

So there you have it folks.

Leave me a comment on this post and I'll choose a winner later in the week.

While you are waiting why don't you check out the KnitKnit website and all the other project kits available and if you are from Melbourne you could visit the KnitKnit stand at the Autumn/Winter Finders Keepers market on the 26th and 27th of March.

Have fun out there. XX

magic loop.

Today I've been thinking about new skills you learn as you need them. Stuff you find out about because you want to. New skills that keep it interesting.

The other day Bren and I were trying to teach Indi to do long subtraction for her homework. She had to learn it but didn't necessarily want to. It didn't seem at all relevant to her life and I didn't blame her.

But I'm not talking about school skills. Skills that you have no idea when or if or how you'll ever make use of them in real life. I mean skills you learn because you choose to. Because you want to. Because it makes life easier, or more exciting or interesting.

This afternoon I cast on 72 stitches for a new born baby beanie but then realised that I didn't have small enough circular needles to join them in the round. My choices were to use double pointed needles which I don't feel particularly comfortable with or to learn the magic loop.

This lady showed me how to do it. She was so patient, such a great teacher and repeated herself over and over until I was confident I knew what I was doing. I can now magic loop.

I love the magic loop!

But if I had to learn it at school I might not have.

This week Farmer Bren has learnt all about earthships, Indi has learnt how to knit, Jazzy has learnt how to do a ballet leap and Miss Pepper has learnt how to tell a joke. I'm sure we've all learnt about a gazillion other things too but these are the things we've been the most excited about and hungry for.

BUT I do have to add that there is such thing as negative learning too. During the week when I was at my sickest I made the mistake of googling my symptoms only to discover that I had about three weeks to live. My doctor thought it was hilarious. I wont be doing that again in a hurry.

So have you learnt anything cool lately? Do tell...

See ya. XX

Thanks a bunch!

I made my Farmer Boy a bunch of rainbow carrots.

The truth is I've had a crappy old week. I've been sick, Miss Pepper has been sick and the rest of the family have sort of lived off the bare minimum. But he's been there, holding it all together the whole time. He's been feeding, driving, cleaning, shopping, dressing and even plaiting hair. He is so ace.

But of course he should have been out doing farmer things. I know I'm worried about how far behind I am, I can only imagine how far behind on his to-do list he is.

So I made him a bunch of carrots to say thank you! I got the knitting pattern from this book.

Rainbow carrots have sort of been our signature crop for the last few years and I thought he deserved a bunch.

He'll most probably tie them to the mirror of his tractor or his ute but now I'm thinking I might need a bunch of my own for my wool basket.

Thank you all so much for your wishes of health this week. I hope your weekend is all kinds of wonderful.

See ya. XX

Knit in bed.

Here it is, my creative space. I am sitting up in my bed with its mismatched linen and I am knitting the other sleeve of my grey cardi.

I'm not sure I could ever knit socks because sometimes I find doing the same thing twice a bit tedious. The first sleeve of this cardi was fun, but the second is a race to the finish line.

Miss Pepper is snoring softly beside me. Miss Pepper is sick, sick, sick. Poor little thing. Every now and then she wakes up to tell me she's still sick. Yuk!

I'm a bit sick too. And sick of being sick. And a bit sorry for myself.

In the photo I can see that I still hold the needles and yarn wrong. Funny, I've tried to imitate the YouTube ladies countless times but it just doesn't feel comfortable. I often wonder if I'd be quicker if I did it right.

I'm starting to think about my next knitting projects: a green beanie for Matt's baby, Noro wrist warmers for Indi, a vest for Pepper, a ballet wrap for Jazzy...I've even been thinking about knitting a jumper for my Farmer Boy but I am a bit concerned about The Sweater Curse.

And I'm wearing my green cardi. Did you recognise it? I wear it almost every day. Maybe I should knit another in red. Yep, I think I just might.

So what are you up to today? What are you making? I hope the sun is shining where ever you are.

Bye.

Inspiring you?

Yesterday I made up for the loss of the day before. Yesterday I spent the morning in the kitchen baking and jamming and cooking and scrubbing and the afternoon in the little girls' room. I filled five boxes up for the op shop and two boxes up for the tip.

I sorted and folded and chucked. There were baby clothes in Miss Pepper's shelves and too many clothes in Miss Jazzy's. I was ruthless and it felt great. My three year old played DJ and helped me with the folding and showed me her dance moves.

Yesterday I didn't stop until the girls were in bed. Then I had a long bath, listened to a This American Life podcast and went to bed. Wrecked.

Today I have paid for it. Today I am so sick again and I have barely achieved a thing. Today I feel flat and sorry for myself. Miserable.

So lovely people I was wondering if you could help me out. I need inspiring. Please.

So what is inspiring you today? A blog you love, a new craft, your clever kid, an exciting project, your garden??? Anything. Please.

And thank you. You guys are the greatest.

XX