Hats in The Muse

Well work & life definitely got in the way of the Certificate IV Millinery course especially towards the end of the year and -Big Sigh - I've basically flunked out. Am trying to look at it as a Lesson that - You Can Make Too Many Compromises!

However, I do have 2 hats in the end-of-year exhibition - and they are hats that I'm proud of. The wire-work covered in red chunky knitting I've blogged about before and here it is with my be-Petalled Silk & Straw hat.

The Exhibition is at The Muse at Ultimo TAFE college - lots of lovely hats and some hand-made shoes too.

Purple-icious

I do like The Colour Purple - in all her many shades and variations. There are so many gorgeous purples in nature - from the soft tints of lavender, there's wonderful wisteria (and that mauve contrasts so beautifully with the fresh green of the new leaves), the amazing glow of jacaranda trees in bloom, through to the darker purples of irises and the regal purple of aubergines.

And here are most of those purples - all together on some hand-painted yarn

I handpainted / dyed 2x 200g of Bendigo Woolen Mills "Luxury" 4ply, originally "Cream". I had such a lovely time with all those purples, but I'm not sure how it'll look knitted up (planning a twin-set for my granddaughter) as sometimes a hand-painted yarn with short lengths of colour can look really messy when knitted. But, if I don't like it I can always pop it back in some more dye :-)

Brought to You by the Letter S

Well I do love to Bite off (almost) More than I can Chew ... launching into massive projects, I usually manage to finish them.

I'm planning to make an Alphabet for our Grandchildren - A set of A4 sized 'flags' (in felt I think) one for each letter with the letter appliqued on ... each 'flag' will have a pocket and inside the pockets will live small soft toys appropriate to the letter. I want to make it as Australian as possible and to knit most of the toys (I love knitted toys).

S is for Seahorses

and for Seal



Great patterns from Cheezombie on Etsy

nit knit nut

Have been clicking away and have managed to achieve some FOs (Finished Objects !)

For Granddaughter a bolero and matching beanie:
The Pattern is from Cleckheatons's Cocoon Baby No: 951 but the yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills new "Luxury" 4ply only I
dyed the yarn with those Blossom Spots myself :-)


For my Etsy shop (IF I can part with it!) a shawl that is just like a cloud - very soft and cuddly, lots of lovely Colinette yarns
in soft sun-rise colours.


My own design - a combination of triangle shawl and rectangle pashmina style shawl with the best features of both. Triangles keep your back warm but are often too short in the front corners - rectangles have length at the front but leave half your back to freeze ... this has back coverage AND fronts that you can wrap, throw over the shoulder, cuddle into ... It also has tassels :-)

Not finished yet but I'm making rapid progress, is a "Maxwell" a Martin Storey for Jaeger. It is a warm zip-up jacket with 2x2 ribbing, polo neck and massive (30sts !!) cables.

Still here and still making things!

What a month or 2 or 3 and Christmas is looming ...

But instead of running about in sheer panic I'll tell you about some of the things I've been making ...

An Etsy customer asked for a custom order of one of my 1930s style evening wraps in a dark colour and then ended up buying a bright coloured one that was already in my store. A good thing really because these wraps are my most popular item and now I have quite a lovely range of them - from soft pink devore velvet and a very bridal champagne silk, to dark forest green crushed velour ...

This is my favourite of these 1930s style kimono wraps at the moment - the fabric is really soft and smoochy and the colour is a lovely mysterious grey / mauve :-)