The needle was in backwards!  How can something so seemingly little make SO MUCH DIFFERENCE?

Back on the job .  This sewing thing is so much harder than knitting!

There is one Niece and Pete’s side, a Brother-In-Law on Pete’s side and a female friend.  I am already swaying towards yet another ETTA for Pete’s Niece in the same Plum that I used last time, a beanie in Black Alpaca for the BIL but am not sure what I will do for the friend and I may omit that one all together – I know she wouldn’t expect a gift but they are good friends and I think it may be a special birthday this year….

Before I begin any of them I am going to try and find some different patterns that appeal to me….any suggestions for quick easy knits?

Can you see the colour change?  It is much more pronounced in real life.  Talk about different dye lots – but it’s all natural so I am just going with it in the hope that it will even out as I keep on knitting…..  Part of the charm?  This poor project is a never-ending story but I think I am making head way and if I can put it before a few gift knits then it should be done in a week or so…..

I have also decided that one of this years gifts will not be knitted.  The youngest member of our families is going to get a smock for his birthday on the weekend…..maybe!  Just got to squeeze work in there somewhere.

This is a Martha Stewart pattern that my SIL sent me.  I had forgotten about it but it was in my Ravelry queue which is ridiculously long.  My Ravelry queue is not so much a queue of what I am going to knit but what I like and might knit….

Anyway, I used some handspun merino/silk blend that I bought from the Spinner’s & Weaver’s Guild in Carlton.  I originally used the handspun for the Bainbridge Scarf and really had quite a bit left over.  The Martha Stewart pattern uses hardly any yarn and was a fun, quick knit.  The scarf itself sits really nicely on, has an element of interest in its construction and is a convenient size (i.e. no flopping around, blowing in the wind kind of thing) I will be knitting it again.

It’s a Mystery what this will be.  Well, I know it will be a shawl but what will it look like?  I have no idea because I have joined in the Susanna IC January KAL.   I cast on yesterday but that’s about as far as I got – 313 stitches is enough for one sitting!

Anyway, the next one is off the needles:

I have now knitted up four gifts for the year.  Poor Kinder Teachers will be waiting a bit longer for their scarves – I have not been doing any work on them or any spinning…

- 30 beetroot seeds

- carrots x 4 rows (the weather is cool so they may stand a chance) – I will cover them with a board until the germinate and then try to cover them on hot days.

- 4 or 5 punnets of onion seeds – I think we’d use about 400 a year.

- swedes – about 12 for soups – so will put in about 20 seeds.

- turnips – about 12 for soups – so will put in about 20 seeds.

I am hoping to get these in today but there is a lot on and I have no idea what seeds I have so who knows if it will actually get done before Monday!

To put a hole in the budget the Greenharvest and Diggers catalogues arrived yesterday too!

My BIL is going to Japan during 2012 for a skiing trip and has flattered me by asking for a new beanie – he was given one a few years ago and surprised me by wearing it almost constantly during the colder months over the past few years.  I was going to use the caramel alpaca but, after his comments about ETTA and the black alpaca I decided to use it up in a beanie for him. I knitted the pattern Beanie No.212 which you can find here. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo and the gift has been sent so I am hoping he will send me one or two for the blog record.

For this fourth gift I searched Ravelry for another slouchy type beanie as my SIL made lots of noise about ETTA over Christmas.  I couldn’t really find anything else that I really liked so I am knitting another ETTA in handspun, hand dyed yarn.  Again this yarn is about 10 WPI so in between a DK and Worsted.  Here’s hoping it comes out well, if it does I might knit up another one in this yarn for Pete’s niece but if anyone has any other slouchy hat suggestions I’d be keen to look at them!

This is Finn/Corriedale cross that I spun up quite a while ago and had sitting in the stash.  The fibre came from Fairfield Finns and I will be sure to buy some more when I get my own stash down!  I have dyed it with Landscape Dyes – Apollo Bay & Sturt Desert Pea at a 1:2 ratio – I initially wanted a deep red but had nothing of the sort in the dyes so purple/plum it is.

Knitting birthday gifts is taking up most of my craft time but I promised a library bag and art smock for Sophie and the girl down the road (who I knitted the Rainbow Dress for) who both start school next month.  I had initially decided that I would sew an art smock from scratch and found a tutorial on Sew Mama Sew which showed how to make a pattern and then smock.  I bought some fabric before Christmas on sale at Spotlight for about $3 per metre – Sophie and Sam chose it – and typical of my style it has sat on the window sill in the study.  In my defense here I was busy with Christmas, spending time with the kids and family – I didn’t even spin (but I did knit quite a bit ).

I showed the fabric around a bit and on the last day Pete’s sister, who is a teacher, sat down with me and gently suggested that smock made from old shirts are best and that while the fabric I had chosen was lovely, it was too lovely to use for such a project.  The school had suggested old shirts were best but I like to make things complicated don’t I.  So, I am heeding the advice and going back to shirts but I am going to applique the girls names on the back in the lovely fabric I bought.  But that it for another day (in the next 3 weeks).

Yesterday, I pulled out the fabric and the Pellon instructions on set to making the applique letters for the smocks.  Then, because it was all out, I set to making up the library bags also with appliqued names.  I remember my library bag as a kid – it was red – or was it green and my chair bag was red – with hobby text that Mum had done, a simple rectangular bag with a draw string.  That is what I wanted to create – sans the Hobby text that I have no idea about – but lined and with the appliqued names.  I have never attempted applique but there are so many tutorials online and friendly advice on the end of the phone and when it all boils down I am making a library bag for prep kids so it doesn’t need to be perfect.

I Googled “how to make a lined library bag” and, while the tutorials were great for totes, they did not show the simple thing I wanted so I had to use my wit and just go with it – we are not striving for perfect here, just get it done and enjoy the process.

So, the first step in my process was to iron the Pellon onto the first piece of fabric, download the letters from here, play with the scissors and cut out the letters, trace them backwards onto the Pellon and then cut them out.  Feels like I am doing prep art a bit!  However, the results were awesome:

Next step.  My SIL told me to make the bags at least A3 sized to fit in the larger books from the library so I cut 4 pieces in each fabric about that size plus seam allowance.  I then stitched on the letters for Sophie’s bag and sewed the pieces together – put a ribbon in for a drawstring and it’s done!  Simple as that…..it took me all day to do one though!  I need to do the second bag ASAP but I need to be in the right head space and after two days at work I am a bit tired today….  I don’t know who people work full-time and run a house with kids!