I'd like to be, under the sea...

So of course once I'd knitted the squid, my next thought was...could I knit an octopus too?
Here is the answer-


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Knitted Calamari, anyone?

A lovely friend who well knows my weakness for books, and all things crafty and quirky gave me the book "Knit the city" for Christmas last year. The book is a photo story about yarn bombing in London, and features a couple of knitting patterns featured in the book. I just had to try the "finger fighting stitched squid" pattern.


I followed the pattern for the first one ( on the left) and even made the tentacles a few stitches longer than suggested, but compared to the photo in the book, they do look a bit short. So I just had to make another one with longer tentacles ( squid on the right). Result- a much more satisfying squid look. The 10 year old was so impressed, he has decided he wants one for himself BUT then said "Don't make one for me Mum, you have to show me how to knit, I want to make it MYSELF". Ok! He has not shown any interest before when I have offered to teach him or his brother how to knit, but then I had not known the magic powers of The SQUID!
So it looks like we need to find time for a knitting lesson this weekend!


And I started another project ( oops, that makes 3 knitting projects on the go at once!) when I finished the 2nd squid and thought hmmm- could I modify the pattern to make an octopus....?

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Pascoe Vale Spinners and Weavers show, 2014

Photos from the show on Saturday. Those spinners and weavers are an amazingly talented lot. Love this funky pompom covered chair?
How I didn't notice it when I first walked in the door is beyond me, but then again, maybe it was because I was admiring all the other wonderful woolly creations on display-










I do like the style of the brown slouchy beanie shown below, as did my friend Janine who bought a pink/ purple/ blue version from the show.
I particularly love the colours of this granny square throw rug, and seriously thought about going back to the show again today to see if it was still for sale! ( I really must learn to crochet!)









And how gorgeous are the colours of these granny cushions! I particularly like the summery colours of the front one.
As always, a beautiful and inspiring show. I resisted the urge to buy some hand spun, hand dyed wool; and just managed to resist buying a granny rug. In fact the one item I did buy (an upcoming birthday gift, not shown here), while handmade, it neither knitted nor made of wool!

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Craft show next month! Are you going?

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Weird and wonderful garden finds

Luckily we spotted this weird creature outside the back door before it was stepped on!





Do you know what it is? It is a case moth caterpillar - carrying its case around! It wandered across the yard - quite slowly, and fascinating to watch, looked like hard work really, dragging its "case" of sticks around. Makes a snail carrying its shell look rather light weight and speedy in fact! It ended up crawling up the front of the cubby house and spent the night there, but in the morning was nowhere to be found. We have to watch our step now, in case it turns up, heading off on another walk again!

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Craft events coming up in & around Coburg

*The Glenroy Art Group have a show on this weekend at the swimming pool hall, Prospect St Pascoe Vale.

*Saturday May 10 is the date for the next "Made 'n' Thornbury" market, 10-2pm.



*The Pascoe Vale Spinners and Weavers annual exhibition and sale is on at the same venue a the end of the month, Saturday 31 and Sunday 1st June 10 til 4. Love this show, have been every year for the last few - beautiful and spun wool for sale, as well as an amazing range of hand knitted items.

*There is a "wool expo" at the Coburg Town Hall, Saturday 17th May, 10-3pm, display by the Hand Knitters Guild.

* Sunday May 25, 10-5pm is the date for the "Markit" at Fed Square.

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Making t shirts

I have been giving the overlocker a bit of a workout lately. I have been downloading and printing out a few free patterns, sorting through the stash of stretch fabrics, and reading up on sewing blogs for tips and pattern reviews. I started with the scoop top from "Skirt as top" -


The first was a dud,as I couldn't get the neck binding right. This one worked fine! Fabric from Rathdowne remnants - bought recently for this project, 1m $12 I think.
Thanks to some timely posts by Thornberry, I am getting better, using her stretch t shirt procedure.



Then I tried the Jersey top free pattern found on the Peppermint Magazine website. Fabric mostly from the stash-a $10 bag of mixed stretch pieces from Rathdowne remnants last year. I have now made 3 of these, with a couple more cut out. I have even changed thread colour on the overlocker from black, to navy, and now red! Thank goodness for all those wonderful sewing bloggers out there for lots of sewing hints, and also for the Statewide Sewing Centre in Coburg, because they stock overlocking thread, so I can grab a new set of colours when I am doing the fruit & veg and grocery shopping!

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