Winter = knitting and making soup!

Winter is well and truly here, and I have become a bit obsessed with making soup! It was so cold yesterday, while I was playing around with fabrics & patterns & cutting out some new tops to make, I kept thinking " I really should have a pot of soup on!"
Needless to recipes were consulted, and a few extra ingredients added to the shopping list. We have been trying some new soup recipes lately Last week we made Red Lentil and vegetable ( couldn't find the recipe I had wanted to make, so ended up on taste.com & another recipe website. Easily adapted to be FODMAP friendly too - and oh so delicious! Just right to warm the family up after coming back from a morning fishing trip!


Yesterday I looked through "River Cottage Veg everyday" and made this soup- "Ribollita"


And knitting? I finished the chunky yarn scarf super quick!



Then I made this one with double yarn, nice and quick too, knitted up in about a week-


I also made a skirt, first time in ages, but have already worn it 3 times! 2 more cut out ready to sew next time. It was a $4.50 offcut from Rathdowne Remnants, only about half a metre, just big enough to make a skirt with pockets ( had to join pieces to line the pockets, but no one can see that!)


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Sewing patterns - new and old

New Look patterns were on special at Anne's fabric recently -


2 new jacket patterns to try. I have been making heaps of t shirts lately, so thought I needed a new challenge. I have a muslin of the pattern on the right cut out, the sleeveless brown version on the pattern. Hoping to make up in some lovely brown wool fabric.

On another day recently, I had to pick up something for work from the wonderful "Mind Alive" toy store in Essendon. So while planning a detour there on my way home, I made sure to allow a little extra time to nip into the church op shop near by. There was an entire MILK CRATE full of sewing patterns for 20c each!



Check out the McCalls pattern on the left - modelled by Brooke Shields! I like the pattern, maybe without the 80's hair style though! The centre pattern i bought for the t shirt, and the one on the right I will give to a friend with a tween-aged daughter.



I like the square necked knitwit top on the right, looks interesting. Not sure about the colours though! But that is the tricky bit with older sewing patterns, looking past the 80's colours, hairstyles and styling to see the cut and shape of the pattern!



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Chunky knitting

I spotted this Panda Mega magnum yarn at the brilliant craft/ party supplies/ $2 shop in Bendigo on the weekend. The actual name of the shop is the rather boring "Variety Superstore" which comes no where close to describing the amazing range of yarn & sewing/ craft supplies they have in stock.
I had a legitimate excuse to go there and on behalf of a friend, because she was in need of a second ball of Cleckheaton California "circus", and I knew the shop would have some. But then I spotted this-


I just loved the tie-die effect neon colours, shown better here perhaps-


It is meant to be knitted with size 10 needles, but I my biggest were a set of 9's or 12's ( or one other set which are super duper large!). But since I always need to go up a size or two, I figured the 12's would suffice. You can see how big the needles are - and how chunky the yarn is, compared to the pencil, which I assure you is a regular school HB. LOVE the colours and the speed of this knit! I am making it for my niece - I bought the yarn, showed her, asked if she would like a scarf - luckily she said yes! Although now I am thinking I might kind of have to make another one just for me....


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An amusing trip to Spotlight...

I was very cross with Spotlight for closing down the Brunswick store last year. The staff were always friendly and helpful, and I knew where to find everything - the store was in 2 halves, divided by a laneway, so I could ignore the first store, and pretty much only went to the " back" shop, which sold only fabric, sewing habby, curtain supplies, craft supplies and yarn.
Plus it was next to La Manna fruit & veg, with Woolies around the corner, so I could duck in to Spotlight, do the weekly shopping, & be back home in under an hour, or much less!
Anyway, I really can't be bothered trekking to another Spotlight in the middle of nowhere as they tend to be now, plus I just can't find my way around in the mega stores. But I had an end of the day work visit last week, which meant I had to drive past the newish Roxburgh Park Spotlight store on my way home...so I decided to have a look.
When I did eventually find the fabric section - luggage labels anyone? Candles? Scented hand cream? I was starting to think I was in the wrong place, did they still actually sell fabric anymore? The store is laid out like Ikea, you basically have to follow the one path all the way through the store and go through every department to find the one you want! The fabric section is ridiculously small, but I did I did find some cute printed flannelette to make some funky heat bags out of, other bits & pieces, and a gorgeous neon fabric which I managed to wash, sew into a scarf and wear the very next day!


But the really funny part - when I was getting the fabric cut (and I really loathe the separate "cut" and "pay" counters system, ever since standing in the wrong queue for 10 minutes at Lincraft many years ago trying to buy 1m of ribbon, only to be told that I could not possibly have the ribbon measured and cut at the register, and would have to find the other counter and queue again over there. I didn't - I just left sans ribbon).

So this time the girl cutting my fabric is quite chatty, commenting on the funky flannel, & asking what I am going to make with it. I said some heat bags, a scarf with the neon, some T shirts with the printed jersey, and skirts from the corduroy. And her response - "Wow you can sew! That is so clever, I wish I could do that!"... I got pretty much the same reaction from the next girl at the " pay" counter when she commented on my knitted necklace, and I said I made it myself, along with my top & my bag. " you MADE it yourself?".

I laughed all the way home - i mean really, you work at SPOTLIGHT, but you are totally surprised that the customers buying FABRIC there know how to SEW! Sorry but - WTF?!?!

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