applehead

bula.....

...Charlotte's favourite word at the moment, after a week or so on Castaway Island, Fiji.
Lots of swimming, sandcastle building and shell collecting- and the weather was just perfect.
I have never been much of a one for snorkeling but decided (with a little encouraging from Damian) to give it a try. Amazing. I could have floated out there for hours- I only wish that I could have worked out a way to take my drawing stuff along for the swim!
In the middle of the day, when it was just too hot to be out in the sun, we found other things to occupy ourselves. Reading, making shell necklaces or just lazing around doing nothing. Nice.
One day we did a bit of weaving with banana palm fronds to make a 'mat' to put in the fairy house that the girls built.

Of course no holiday would be complete without a holiday craft project. I really wanted to make a start on a small crochet bag for Charlotte for Christmas,so I took along a hook and a few balls of some Nepalese banana silk that Maggie had bought for me last year in New Zealand. I had been looking for some way to use it -the yarn has a lovely dry feel and lustre and a bag seemed like a good choice.
Until I started that is....
I found the banana silk quite difficult to work with due to its very uneven texture. Admittedly I used a fairly small hook ( 3.50mm) as I wanted the fabric to be firm enough to hold its shape - perhaps with a bigger hook the fiber might have been easy to work with. Anyway, I persevered and was quite happy with the result- I just need to line it and sew on the small flower.

The plan was to make another for Rose in green and white but now I'm not so sure...perhaps I will try the same pattern in a cotton yarn instead. (Any hints, tips or suggestions for working with banana silk are most welcome- I still have a skein of lovely bright green to use up......)

New York, New York....

A  bit of Autumn colour - leaf on a pond up at the Japanese Gardens, Terrey Hills.

This little chap is on his way to a child in New York City...hope he has a safe journey to his new owner....

(Details:Jo Sharp DK wool, various colours.Pattern- made it up as I went along as you might be able to tell from his slightly lop sided feet...)

failed no-fail meringues

I was so taken with Miss Marzie's beautiful pink meringues that I decided to whip up a batch myself.....after all the recipe said that they were easy to make...and I love a no fail recipe.
Yes, well.....

Instead of a plate of heavenly pink piles of goodness,I ended up with a plate of cute pink buttons.
I don't think it helped that I was cooking dinner for the girls while talking on the phone and mixing the meringues.
And I don't think that the fact that I forgot to add the 4 tablespoons of boiling water until halfway through whipping them up ,helped either.
Oh, and I was a little impatient with the whipping up bit and decided it look stiff and glossy enough. When I heaped the little mounds on the tray and then watched them flatten into pink puddles , I decided to scrape it all back into the bowl and keep on beating the mixture. Probably didn't help much either.It did in fact get stiffer and glossier but still refused to sit in little mounds.
I baked them anyway and really, they  tasted great!
Next time, I need to concentrate!
At least Miss Marzie can feel safe about her Queen of the Meringues title.

Did anyone pick up the hidden random fact about myself in yesterdays 'tagged" post? I have a pack of postcards for the first person who can work it out. I will give you the answer tomorrow if nobody beats me to it!

well that was quick...2 minutes after this post to be exact!

How about that,Bianca must be a U2 fan as well...a pack of postcards is on its way to you!

Rose's hat

a simple green picot edge and a small flower equals one finished hat!
Rose's sweet head was at school but Charlie kindly offered to model it for me ( it only took a few jellybeans...)

Only now she thinks it's her hat so I might just have to make another....

fit for a fairy.....

Rose has been making fairy beds....

and I have been making a hat for my very own fairy girl...all it need is a crocheted edging and a flower to finish it off!
The wool is the 'rose  garden' colourway in the raindrops wool that I have for sale here. Lucky for me that there are some other fans of the Rainbow wools out there...sales have been very steady and I might just have to put in another order. I just love choosing which colours to buy,although I usually have to go back and narrow it down when I realise I've ordered way to much!
.

A beautiful package of ribbons and treats arrived late last week from Tamara over at Bluebird makes her nest. Ribbons in school colours for Rose and a fabric brooch each for Charlie and I.
Tamara and I  recently worked together to design a logo and packaging for her business 'ella and kate'.
(That's the new packaging in the photo)
Seriously if you have or know a little girl who loves ribbons ( and how many little girls don't) then you really should take a look. Tamara uses the most wonderful colours and print combinations to make hair bows on both elastics and clips. My girls adore  them. The girls I have given them to adore them. I also adore them but feel I might just look a little bit silly dressed all up in bows. Sigh.....

a slight change of schedule

10 down, 20 smallpeople to go.....
No, I haven't given up, just altered my original project plan a little. When I first thought about this project, the intention was to do a collage a day that took me about half an hour.
Quick, spontaneous,fun.
Well, I am definitely having fun creating these collages but there is very little that is quick about the process at all. While I am working on one I am generally thinking about ideas for the next and then the one after.So not really so spontaneous at all! I didn't take into account that I like to spend time over the small details - sifting through my piles of paper for just the right shade of blue takes much more time than I had anticipated! I've always worked this way and it was kind of silly to think that all of a sudden I would change.
So my new game plan - I have made ten smallpeople and now I will take a weeks break and catch up on all of the other tasks that I've been neglecting. At the same time I will keep on scribbling down my ideas , sorting and organising my enormous and ever growing piles of paper and then be back next week with the next 10 collages. Sounds like a good plan to me.....oh and a big thank you to everyone who has left comments for me- the feedback has been incredibly encouraging and motivating. (I am slowly responding to the emails- one of those neglected tasks, I'm afraid...)

So,what else have I been up to besides snipping and tearing and gluing?

These two long promised scarves....I finally managed to find some more of my favourite hand dyed wool. Even better than that I have managed to convince the lovely lady who makes it to let me sell it! Sometime sooner than later I will have some up for offer in the shop. I'm still considering making some scarves or hats for sale -no firm decisions there yet.

I sewed the body of this felt bird a few months back and he's been sitting on my shelf waiting to be finished ever since. Actually, sitting is a bit of an exaggeration as he tends to topple over on one side (due to his lack of legs!) and look a lot like a rather dead bird! I was fulling a piece of felt over the weekend and decided to throw him in as well just to see what happened. After a good long soak in hot soapy water and a bit of squeezing, he came out looking quite a bit smaller and very smooth and almost seamless. Quite lovely indeed.
Now all he needs is a few embroidered features and some legs to keep him balanced and then he will be finished. Finally! Tick one felt bird off the list!

a frog went walking....

These two froggies are just glorified beanbags made from the legs of old jeans and scraps of odd fabric...great for balancing on heads , throwing and catching. The girls love to take turns aiming for the washing basket or a bucket or sometimes each other ! These ones went off to Melissa over at tiny happy for her little ones - they smell kind of healthy as they are filled with brown rice- next time I might add some lavender in as well to make them smell a bit prettier. I probably should have sent them unfilled as they were quite heavy but somehow they didn't look quite as appealing flat!...here you go kiddos, a bit of floppy fabric, knock yourselves out! Definitely stuffed is the way to go!

Here they are flat so you can see the shape if you want to make a few - I sewed twice around them just in case....never hurts when they are filled with small bits of stuff!
Mine measured about 24cm in length - a good size for balancing on little one's heads. I'm quite keen to make a batch of little ones (about 12cm finished) for the girls to throw about ....add that to the "to do" list, I think .

As cute as they are I thought I'd best send something else for Melissa....she is the queen of the barkcloth bag so it took me a while to work out what I wanted to send.

This is the scarf that I sent , although I think it will be a little while yet before Melissa gets to try it out!

I went to my workshop at Primrose Park Art centre and spent the day making a Coptic stitched book and memento box. Great fun and very satisfying. It was a gloomy and dull old day here so no photo today but perhaps tomorrow. I am planning to go back to do the workshop on dowel spine books.....see you there?

the washcloth.....

made from this organic cotton ( that you can find here)....

my new favourite flower....

see the pretty blanket

look at the beautiful parcel

...watch me rush to the counter to buy the book all because of this one small flower.....

ISBN4-579-11113-3

( PLEASE NOTE: All of the patterns including the bag pattern above come from a Japanese crochet book with the bag on the cover and the ISBN4-579-11113-3. I actually don't have the book anymore - I think it disappeared in the move overseas. You can try Amazon Japan here....

There were another two pages showing this little beauty in all its glory but I was too busy crocheting flowers to scan any more.....

First up, in a hand dyed fuzzy yellow handspun mix of merino and angora ( no, I didn't spin this!).
These are quite big...about 16cm across due to the choice of wool -I just loved the vibrant colour!

I then made a version using some organic cotton...this time I altered the pattern slightly to make it bigger and added a border of double crochets...I think it will make a quite a lovely face washer. It was much too late when I finished it to take a photo, so that will have to wait until tomorrow....

Next up I am going to make some much smaller ones using this linen thread which you can buy here with tons of other goodies ( you have been warned!)...just have to remember where I put it.....

I should be able to make this flower in my sleep soon....

Oh, in case you were wondering, there were actually a lot of other noteworthy patterns in this book.....just let me work through my obsession with this flower first....

mary, mary, quite contrary...

how does your garden grow?.....
no silver bells here but a pattern for a lovely ruffled flower instead!

I had to scan the flower as my camera is doing odd things at present ( more about THAT another post) so it looks a little flattened.  A very easy three rows (after the foundation ring) and there are numerous ways of adapting it. I am going to use it on a crocheted strip to make a simple wristlet for a few little girls that I know... I have also used it to make a plain parcel look a bit prettier.....(  8 ply wool and 3.50mm or size 9 hook were used to make this flower)

Double ruffled flower

To begin:making a chain of four and join with a sl st to form ring.

Rnd 1:Ch 2 ( counts as 1 dc) and then work 11 dc into the ring. ( Alternately you can use the base adjustable ring method).

Rnd 2: Working into the front loop only of each dc, work 1dc, 4ch , 1dc

The photo on the left shows the front of the flower with the first layer complete. The photo on the right shows the back of the flower after the first layer. You can see a "ring"of  loops in the centre- this is the back loops of the dc's,that you will work your second layer into.

To make it easier to see I have used a different colour for the second layer.

Note: If you want a single ruffle flower stop right here!

Rnd 3: Working into the back loop only of each dc of the first round,work 1dc, 6 chain, 1 dc.

Front view on the left, back view on the right!

End yarn off leaving approx 15cm tail to pull through last loop.

You can leave the flower as is or add a crochet centre(  instructions below). You could also embroider the centre on ( a good way if you want to add a centre and attach it to something at the same time), make a fabric centre or perhaps get creative with a button or beads!

Crochet centre: Ch 3, *yo , insert hook into third ch from hook,yo, pull through 2 loops( 2 loops left on hook).Repeat from * 3-4 more times (depending on how big a bobble you want for a centre), yo and pull through all 5/6 loops on hook. End yarn leaving a 10 -15cm tail. Draw the tails through the centre of the flower and either tie off with the flower tails, or use the centre tails to sew the whole flower onto whatever you are using them to decorate.

I hope this last bit makes sense- it was impossible to photograph or scan. It is easier that it sounds - if it is just too confusing use one of the alternate centres suggested above.

If I can get my camera to cooperate and find a willing model I will take a picture of the finished flower wristlet tomorrow.

By the way, as soon as I can remember which book this pattern came from, I will post the information.