Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Surprise Packages

Is it just me? Are there other people in bloggy land that write posts - but because they haven't added pictures yet forget to post them till WAY later??? This is what happened here! I wrote this post almost 2 weeks ago...


Last week (while total chaos was taking over the house) a surprise package arrived at my place. Jenn of Jennysunshineonline sent me a great little package of goodies - just because she's sweet and she could.

In the package were an array of pretty crochet hooks for my new found hobby


Some Kool Aid (which as far as I know, we can't get in Australia) so that I can buy my own yarn and dye it


And some U.S. Animal Flashcards for Jellyfish.


He pounced on the cards as soon as the box was open and wanted to go through them right away. Out of all the animals in the pack - his favourite was the chipmunk. (No real surprises there - we used to watch LOTS of real life chipmunk clips on YouTube!)


I am spoilt! Thanks so much Jenn. Now I just need to go and buy some white woolen yarn to dye. Anyone have any good suggestions for where to source the good stuff?

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Christmas Stitching



I promised you (on Thursday) that I would give you a look (on Friday) at some of the yummy fabric I have bought recently.  I was a bit lazy and got distracted with other things, so the weekend took over, and here we are, and it is Thursday! Sorry.



I have taken a couple of trips to Spotlight now to source some other fabrics. I have been getting most of my stuff (as you know) from the Craft Depot, but I decided it was time to look for other styles. I am going to mix the ones pictured with some vintage ones from my stash. I will give you a glimpse when I have done some more - but not too much, or it will be a giveaway! These are for Christmas, and are my first proper sewing since I was 14 (don't ask how many years ago that was!!!), so the knees are bound to knock a little.

Wish me luck!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

My Creative Space - Birthday Menu


Well, there have been little bits and pieces happening here this week. The one I am trying to get finished today is the plans and odds and ends for my brother-in-law's birthday breakky which is next week.


I created a menu for his birthday using my Everyday Gourmet breakfasts recipe book (which I couldn't find on line - and it's a 2010 edition!) that a friend gave me a couple of months ago, sourced the food and covered the costs, and enlisted the help of my gorgeous nieces to prepare and serve it for him since they live in Tassie and we can't be there to celebrate it with him. Now I just have to get the official menu into the post tomorrow!


SHOPPING LIST

2   Pears   
4  Oranges   
Crystallised ginger   (4 cubes)
12  Portobello Mushrooms  
1   Fennel bulb  
100g  Sun-dried Tomatoes
2   Garlic cloves  
125g  Cheese - strong (Or skip this and add a sharp Parmesan since you are getting that anyway)
50g  Fresh Grated Parmesan
Fresh Basil 3 tsp
Fresh SHAVED Parmesan
25g  Cocoa Powder
80g   Caster sugar
Thickened cream
500g  Frozen berries
1   Lemon (juiced)


(And a BIG thank you to Mr. Kelp for helping me out with the HTML above so you could see the delish food on the shopping list!)

Will show you some scrumptious fabric tomorrow when I have time to get the camera out in some decent light!

Pop over to Kirsty's for more creative spaces.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

My First Crochet and Knitted Lace

Remember these?


Well here is the final product.


A crochet cotton bikini top (pattern found here)


and a knitted dish cloth. (pattern found here)

Not by any means perfect - but I am pleased with them non-the-less.They were made to send to my friend in the US for her bridal shower (and should arrive any day, so I can finally post about it!) The hand-made tag that goes with them says "Something to wear while you do the dishes". I hope she likes them - she is a great gal with a fab sense of humour, and was also the one that got me into knitting something other than scarves and kept encouraging me to learn to crochet! Here is her old blog where you will find some of her creations, and a link to her new site.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Knitted Sock for an Iphone Tutorial

Thank you so much for all your kind comments yesterday! Being that I have only been a member of bloggy land for a few months now, I have to say, I get so excited reading your comments and encouraging words - especially when they are from people that I don't know that have taken the time to have a look at seaweedandraine AND leave a comment! (There have been a few times I have gone tearing around the house fizzing with excitement - crazy I know, but it is true). So you see, even though I haven't had the chance to meet you all, your thoughts mean a lot.

There were quite a few people commented yesterday on the phone sock, so I thought I would whip up a quick tutorial for you...

Phone sock for an iPhone


I used 8 ply yarn and 4mm needles.

1. Cast on 32 stitches (34 if they have a phone cover or if you are knitting in a 4 stitch pattern like the one below).I used long-tail cast on because I love the finish that it gives, but you could use whatever style you like. Edit: The Raspberry stitch made the phone sock a bit tight - I think if I were doing it again I would make it 38 stitches!).

2. Start knitting!
Knit what ever style you are aiming for. In the first sock I did, I just used stockinette stitch. For this one I raspberry stitch, which I found here and goes basically like this:Row 1: purl
  Row 2: K1, (K1,P1,K1 all in the same stitch), P3 tog, K last stitch
Row 3: purl
Row 4: K1 P3 tog, (K1,P1,K1 all in the same stitch), K last stitch  Some of you mentioned that it looked like blackberry stitch... I'm not entirely sure. I did have a quick look on YouTube, and this stitch is listed a few times mostly under Raspberry stitch, but they are both there. There were also a couple of different patterns listed as Black berry stitch. Call it what you like :)

3. Knit until your work measures 13cm in length.

4. Cast off.

5. Fold in half and sew together using mattress stitch (I did - but incorrectly. I have since found a good tutorial here)

6. I finished the second sock by weaving beading elastic through the top stitches to pull it in tighter and stop the phone from sliding out too easily (my SIL didn't have a phone cover, but I was working a 4 stitch pattern, so I didn't want her phone to slide out in her bag).

The first phone sock I made I stitched in some thin twill tape to make a loop as my other SIL wanted to attach a short lanyard so she can have it secured to her wrist when taking loads of files from the lab to her office. This is totally optional.

So there you have it. Piece of cake! Have fun :)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

My Creative Space - Raspberry Phone Sock

I have been away from blog land for the past few days... we had a house inspection yesterday, and my creative space was spread all over the house (need I say more???), but I'll share with you some of the latest.

I finished the raspberry stitch on the weekend

 
...which was just as well, seeing as I was giving to my sister in law for her (early) birthday before she heads to Canada and the States for a month. We had a great family-day-get-together.

I have to say I actually like the pattern made on the back of the fabric


... but I would never make anything just for that - it's just too fiddly! What do you think?

Also here is the finished photo of the Slubby neckie from the list. Sorry it's upside down. I gifted it to her for her birthday also.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

First Day of Spring!

Yay! I have been waiting for Spring to arrive since (it seems) forever, and now it has finally arrived. And with it some explosions of wonderful.


Some strawberries that the Jellyfish, Little Clam and Mr. Kelp helped me eat for lunch. These were a first for Little Clam, and he seemed to have an exquisite time revelling in the squishy sweet juiciness of it all!

Some sweet Daisy thing that decided to put itself in my veggie patch


Some Clivias just coming out in my garden. Sadly these are a little sunburned.



Freesias.


Spraxus.


A miniature Azalea.


AND...

A GIVEAWAY! :) Aneela of Comfortstitching is having a giveaway of some of her gorgeous quilting scraps. Pop into her site to have a look and enter.


Lots of lovely designs to play with (if you win!).