Surprised...

in a really good way, by the kindness of others. Little Miss Flossy of Another Day in Paradise surprised me with a wonderful package! Look what she sent, I'd entered her giveaway for the book "49 sensational skirts". I didn't win, but a few days later Miss Flossy left me a comment on my blog asking for my address, that she had something nice to send to me. Well, lookie, lookie!!!


All the wonderful goodies! The pillowcase in the top right hand corner is the exact same pattern that my parents had when I was small - what a neat coincidence. :)

And SURPRISE, look at what she included!:


Thanks so much Little Miss Flossy! You certainly added some sparkle to my day!!!

new peg bag | refashioned

So, I've been needing something to hold my pegs for a while. Having a family of 5, means that there is LOTS of washing and therefore lots of pegs! So what to do...

As soon as I spyed this jersey at Mr Bo. Jumbles I knew it was perfect. It was already a little felted, and I just threw it into a hot wash and dried it in the drier once to make just that little bit more felted!

All I needed to do was;

1. Cut off the arms. You don't need them for this project, but you could use them for something else (a softie, perhaps?)


2. Sew up arm holes.


3. Sew up the bottom.


4. Insert a coathanger, and TAH DAH!

2 dishcloths sold! :D

Remember these cloths from yesterday... Well, I just sold them for $4 each. YAHOO! Having a little dance here!

Some things going on for me:

I'm a little annoyed that someone has completely stolen one of my blog posts and dishcloth patterns and has posted it on her blog as if it's her own. :( I don't think that's right! If anyone wants to link back to my blog, that's cool. But COPYING the entire post and labeling the photograph that I took as her own. NOT COOL!

I'm really enjoying listening to Lenka's song "the show". Thanks for recommending it CurlyPops. I remember first hearing it in the movie Juno. Great movie!

I had heaps of fun last night at craft group. We had a "newbie" (Hi Carol-Ann!) attend last night and started work on Lianne's Eye Spy quilt. It's looking great. I was on a little bit of a downer, and so spent the evening knitting and chatting, but not really feeling my normal self. I can't wait to begin my very own Prairie Paisley Quilt. Soon...

D.

striped diagonal cloth

Sometimes I get a little bored knitting the typical "granny's diagonal dishcloth" and I also have a lot of half balls of cotton yarn to use. I decided to see what a striped diagonal cloth would look like.

This is an ordinary pattern using self striping yarn

I knitted a cloth up with magicline self striping yarn. It looks good. :)

Granny cloth with 2 different yarns...

I then knitted a diagonal cloth with 2 different yarns. One magicline self striping yarn and one plain DK cotton yarn. To keep the square shape and the uniformity of the pattern I used the below pattern:

Row 1: Knit both colours together
Row 2: Knit with just magicline
Row 3: Knit with just magicline
Row 4: Knit both colours together
Row 5: Knit with just plain cotton yarn
Row 6: Knit with just plain cotton yarn

Use these 6 rows and repeat until the cloth is finished.

I used this pattern which is widely available on the internet:

Granny Dishcloth
CO 3 sts
Increase Row: K1, yo (in the opposite direction – this prevents a hole when knit), Knit to the end of the row.
Repeat the Increase row until reaching a total of 43 sts. Knit 1 row even.
Decrease Row: K1, K2tog, Knit to the end of the row.
Repeat the Decrease row until reaching a total of 3 sts. BO all sts.

You can find a printable version of this pattern here: Free Dishcloth Patterns from sew-funky.blogspot.com.

straw flowers

After a wee bit of searching, I found my little flower loom hiding in an obvious place, with all my knitting looms. I was obviously in an organised mood when I last used it! not normal for me!

Yesterday's post had two people asking about my plans for using the speed straw that I picked up during one of my opshop expeditions. See below:

CurlyPops said...

Fantastic finds...I'm intrigued by the speed straw and I would love to see the flowers you can make with it.

November 2, 2008 10:52 AM

A Spoonful Of Sugar said...

What a productive op shop visit!! I love all of jodie picoults books. I have some straw that belonged to my grandmother but have been unsure what to do with it. WOuld love to see what you make with yours.

November 2, 2008 12:08 PM

I couldn't let them down now, could I?

So here it is, the first finished straw flower...


These are fun to make, and if you ever see one of these little looms in your opshop travels, I suggest you buy it! :) I picked mine up for $1 in February. I last made flowers out of cotton yarn, but the looms are made for speed straw. I'm thinking they'd make great brooches, something just that little bit different!

D.

latest op shop finds...

Here are some of my latest finds...

2 metres of blue fabric, some thread

cool pillowcase (made with trichem fabric paint?) needs an iron

10 pillowcases (50c each!)
Speed Straw (for making retro flowers with my flower loom)
Tatting books and shuttles (another thing I want to learn!)

Embroidery book

Some reading material...

I was really pleased to find the pillowcases yesterday. I went to the only opshop open on Saturday afternoon's (Papakura Anglican Oppy) on a case search. I wanted to make more of those neat pillowcase bags. I couldn't find any in the linen area and was about to give up all hope, when I spied a full container of them by the counter! What luck! There was heaps to choose from and all at 50c a case!! I now feel less jealous of Curlypops pillowcase finds. :)

The books were a little present to myself, I need a little relaxation (think time-out), and these books should provide a little respite. I am really enjoying Jodi Picoult's book, Perfect Match, but then I always enjoy reading her books!

It's really hard to believe it's November already! Christmas is just around the corner and I've only just begun to think about what to get for everybody. So the next couple of days I intend to start planning and organising it all. I plan on making as much as possible from my sewing room stash. :)

I hope you are all having a great weekend, I am, the girls are in their bedrooms doing the great big tidy, and I'm getting to have some Mum time on the computer - what fun! :)