New in the shop....

Hello! 

How is your week going? 

I hope it has been a good one so far! 

I have had lots of lovely new yarn arrive at Little Woollie Makes headquarters over the last week, so I have had a lovely time photographing and uploading it into the shop and making it look pretty here in the studio.  This handprinted chunky alpaca from Misti Alpaca is such a beautiful yarn, so so soft!  And the colours!! 

I am now trying to find the perfect pattern to show off all those gorgeous colours, perhaps a cowl or skinny scarf .........

( I have to admit I have gone and ordered a few more colour ways in this special yarn, I couldn't resist such a beautiful play of colours, this is a special treat yarn for sure! ) :) 

I have also received a new shipment of Loyal Chunky 14ply, a nice thick 100% wool that will work up nice and quickly on a bigger needle or hook.  Some lovely colours available too! :) 

Here they are on my new shelving that my fabulous dad made me, I'm a lucky girl! :) 

There are also new colours in the Colorworks, Baby Merino, and Cascade Ultra Pima and 13 more shades in the Cascade 220!  (Still got to photograph those - tomorrows job!) 

I am swimming with new ideas and inspiration at the moment, I am crazily hooking away on a blanket commission, and then have a few other little blankets I want to have a go at, plus start making things for a winter market I am planning to attend. 

So lots of happy hooking ahead for the next few weeks!

Have you got much on your crafty plate at the moment? 

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Colour and some other things.....

Hello there!

How was your weekend?

We had a long weekend here, so it kind of feels like a Monday to me today.  We had a fairly relaxed couple of days, I got quite a lot of crochet time which is always nice.  Our middle son had a bit of a party on Sunday night, just because he could, so we had a dozen or so 16 year olds at our place, needless to say it was a late night!

I have been making washers for my market in a couple weeks, you are probably sick of seeing pictures of these heart washers, but they are what I am making at the moment. :)   I decided that little heart flags made into bunting might be quite cute, so have been using up left over bits of cotton to make these little rectangle heart pieces.  I hope it looks cute once I have crocheted them onto a string and done an edge, in my head it does!

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I saw something on Instagram that has really inspired me to want to get my knitting out again.  One of my favourite blogs is 'Do you mind if i knit' by the amazingly talented Vanessa Cabban, I was so sad to hear that she died tragically late last year, and there have been a few projects I have noticed pop up in her honour and remembering her.

One of these is the totally gorgeous Remembering Vanessa Cowl KAL by Christina Wall.  I am so inspired to give this a go!  Vanessa's beautiful fairisle knitting always caught my eye and I think this is a lovely way to pay respect to such a creative multi talented woman.   

Definitely putting this on my to do list.

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Another beautiful colourful  project that I 'd like to try is this very cute baby cardigan by Vicarno, so rainbowy and sweet!  This is crocheted too, so should be a fairly quick make.  

Also on the to do list. :)

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I am also thinking I should make a bunny for the Mirabel Easter toy appeal, I only have a few days left so have better get cracking!  Pip has lots of info  over at Meet me at Mikes if you have time to whip up some cute bunnyness for some deserving little person. 

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Sorry for the bitsy post today, I kind of feel that is how my brain is working at the moment, hopping from one thing to another, I am a bit all over the place! :) 

Anyway, have a great day, talk soon! 

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weekly stills....

1. A new tapestry crochet washer I have started with the Cascade Ultra Pima, I am planning quite a few of these for Christmas pressies.

2+3+4. It is a very flowery time of year around here and I love it! My hyacinths are doing really well, and I am able to pick some to bring inside and still have lots out in the garden.  All these colourful beauties came from my garden.  Such a simple pleasure to pick a bunch of flowers for yourself, but one I look forward to all year!

5+6. These are a couple of shots of my stall at the NannaCool market on Saturday, I forgot to put my camera in, so these were taken on my phone, so they are a bit blurry, but I think you can get the idea.   We had a lovely day, it was great to chat to some crafty peeps and I was greatly encouraged by all the positive feedback for my stall set up and crochet stuff, everyone was so nice!  It was also lovely to meet some of the people who read this blog!  Hello everyone :)! Thanks for stopping by and having a chat, I still find it a bit strange to meet people in real life that read this, often it feels like I am just writing a little crafty diary to myself and I forget that real people in my community actually read it! Blogging is  kind of weird like that, it is produced in isolation but actually reaches across the world!  How fantastic!

7+8. Last week a lot of little crochet took place, I spent a fair amount of time on the couch surrounded by balls of wool and crochet flowers, I did manage to nearly fill my tin with flowers so I was happy with that! Also managed to sell a few at the market so it was all for a good cause.

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How was your week? 

What have you got planned for this one?  

I hope it is full of good stuff for you all! 

I have got some new yummy yarn in my shop to show you tomorrow, just got to take pictures and upload it.  And I think it is time for a giveaway this week, I have fallen behind in my monthly giveaways so time to catch up!

Talk soon! 

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weekly stills....

1. Yarn left overs from the Autumn blanket, looking nice and colourful....

2. I call this 'Still life with rotting pears and summer fruit' , it strikes me that the colours in this picture are reflected in my yarny scraps. Cool.

3. These two are great little mates now, they often have a nap together in the afternoon.

4. Tomatoes are finally ripening, yay!

5. I found these gorgeous feathers in the garden the other day, it's hard to capture the iridescent nature of the blues, but I've tried.

6. In case you think it's all sunshine and lollipops at little woollie headquarters, here's a little dose of my reality today -  on top of the pool table, piles of unclaimed washing, stuff without a home, and just plain mess!  I like to keep it real around here every now and then!

Joining in with the other weekly stillers over at The Beetle Shack.

What's been happening at your place?

From my bookshelf....

Hi there!

How are things around your place?  We are currently breathing a big sigh of relief as a cool change has finally hit and we are getting some lovely cool wind through our house after a stifling night of tossing and turning. ( No air con in our place).  I have opened all the windows and doors very wide and am hoping to flush all the super hot air out and replace it with fairly warmish air instead!   

Much more liveable! 

Meanwhile, I am sharing another of my recent booky acquisitions 

with you, Made By Hand by Lena Corwin.  Have you seen this around the book shops, it's been out for a while I think? 

This is a beautiful, stylish book, it has a lovely calm, clean feel, that makes me want to go and declutter my work space right away!

Oh, and the projects are gorgeous too!  There are great clear instructions with plenty of photos showing you tricky bits, so things seem very doable to me.  I like that there are many different crafty contributors to this book, lots of different crafts are covered and they are all very beautiful.

It looks good doesn't it?

I am going to have a go at these coiled bowls, I have a big box of yarn scraps that I think would make lovely bowls, so this is on my crafty agenda for the coming year.

There are also lots of sewing, printing and dyeing projects in here, something for every crafty taste me thinks!  

Loads of inspiration, I have picked quite a few other projects I'd like to have a crack at.

So, have you come across any inspiring books recently?

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Well, I am off to go and do a bit of crochet myself, it's still too hot to do much, and too windy for the beach, so inside relaxing is the call of the day.  The housework will have to wait, I can hear a long cool drink calling my name! 

Thank you for all the lovely comments you left on my last post about the harlequin blanket, you are all very kind!  The crafty community is such a supportive community, I love being a tiny part of it! Talk soon xxxxxxxxxxx

PS. This is not a sponsored post in any way, I bought this book from a bookshop because I liked it, and am sharing it here because I thought you might too!

from my bookshelf....

Hello!

Well I hope everyone in South Eastern Australia is staying cool and coping with the heat wave ok!

Looks like we have 2 more days of over 40 degrees ahead and then cooler temperatures will move in.

Our house has been very warm, but it is a good excuse to have lots of cold drinks and icy poles and laze around watching the tennis for good chunks of the day, the other chunks have been spent finding relief at the beach.  I actually love the Summer holidays, no routines and lots of relaxing mooching around, I'll be quite sad when the boys go back to school and life becomes serious again.

Today I thought I might start a little weekly post and share some of my crafty books with you all.

I have quite a large collection of crafty/ inspiring books, which I added too quite substantially on our recent holiday. We visited many bookshops and I like to support the smaller book retailers so found myself with many new titles when we got home!

So anyhoo, have you heard of Print and Pattern by Bowie Style?  I love these books, there are now 3 books in this series and I think there is a geometric pattern one coming out at some stage.

These books are a feast for the eyes, full of graphic designers, illustrators, surface designers and other creative types that don't quite fit one description.  Each designer has a couple of pages showing examples of their work, so many gorgeous patterns and designs!  I love looking at all the fabulous work that people do, I find it totally inspiring!

There are well known names and ones that were new to me, so many talented creative types!

And quite a few Australians too!

Would you like to have a little peek at a few pages inside the Print and Pattern Kids?  Yes?

As you can see these books are full of colour and pattern, two of my favourite things! :)

There is just something about books full of beautiful patterns and illustrations that I really love, there is always something new to discover in them.

Print And Pattern is also a great blog by Marie Perkins aka Bowie Style,where she shares lot of great surface pattern designers work, I love popping over there and seeing what's new.

So that is the first lot of books from my bookshelf that I thought you might enjoy, I'll show you another one of my new books next week.

Have great day, hope you get a few creative moments out of it! :) 

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Flowers for you.....

Spring bounty from my garden...

Hello!

Today I had a little hunt around the garden to see what I could find for a couple of vases of flowers. I was very happy with my pickings and had to share their beautiful colours with you all.

So here is a bit of a floral feast to add a bit of happy to your Friday.  I'd like to give you all a big bunch of flowers, but that's not really practical, so here's the next best thing, you can pretend all these beauties are sitting on your own shelf, brightening up your day like they brighten up mine! xxxx

tulips from my garden, I can't believe I grew these myself!  I adore the stripes!

this one is such a curious cat, he had to photo bomb my little flower shoot!

 Wishing you a lovely weekend, are you doing anything special?

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 PS. Thanks for all your comments on my last post, I'm sure I'm not alone with my creative procrastination!  You all make me feel much better about my making!