new blanket beginnings

Hello there!

It's been a beautiful day here, and I've been making some little granny squares for a new baby blanket.  It's been lots of fun! :)

What do you think of these gorgeous soft colours?

I'm enjoying playing with all the colour combinations, I am going for a bit of a vintage/retro vibe with the colours in this blanket, I think the slightly washed out, faded pastels are very pretty.

Hopefully I will get lots of squares made over the next few lazy week of Summer, this kind of feels like a Summer blanket. :)

I'm using  MoYa Caresse cotton, this is an Aran weight cotton, really great to crochet with, and is working up quite quickly with a 5mm hook, the texture is beautiful!  They are going to need a bit of blocking as I am trying to get a nice solid granny square, so have crammed in the stitches. 

I'm planning on making about 80 squares, so nothing too big, and it should actually get finished!! 

I'll post a few progress updates as this grows, I had forgotten how fun mini squares can be! 

Have a great day/night wherever you are! 

xxxxxxx

Flower making.....

Hello there! 

How have things been going in your world?  

I've been busy doing this and that, lots of yarny things going on, the days don't seem to be long enough! 

It has been a very typical Melbourne winter recently, cold and wet and windy, perfect for staying indoors and doing some comforting crochet.  I am trying to get fitter over the winter months and have started boxing classes 3 times a week, some days it is hard to make myself go , but I am glad once I get there and start moving!  

Hopefully I will not put on my usual winter layer this year, I still have several years worth of cosy winter eating to work off!! :) 

On the crafty front, I have been having fun playing with lots of colour, making flowers !  

This pretty pattern is the Anemone Flower, by Heather from the lovely blog Pink Milk.  

Such a fabulous pattern, you can find it over here.  Heather's flowers are a real looking anemone with a dark centre, I went a bit off script and mixed my colours around. :) 

Actually, I did go a bit crazy with all the colour combination possibilities, I think they are really cute!!   Perfect for using up little bits of cotton left from my washer making. :) 

.....colour explosion! :) .........

I have been making a few other things recently too, but they will have to wait for another post, no photos to show you yet!  And I am getting grumbles from the boys because me being on the internet is causing major lag for their gaming!  Our internet has suddenly become very unreliable, not sure what's going on with that. 

Have a great week, hope you get some crafty time in, and stay warm if you're  local, it's going to get even chillier later in the week.  Gotta love a Melbourne Winter! :) 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

weekend road trip...

beautiful cards at Playing in The Attic

Hello there!  I hope you all had lovely weekends and got to do something fun.  

I had a little weekend away with Gary, well it was really only 24 hours away from home, but sometimes that's all you need to feel like you've had break.  My husband is partial to the road trip and enjoys driving, which is fine by me, I enjoy watching the scenery change and doing a bit of car crochet, so we are a perfect match really! :)  

We went down the South Gippsland coast and stopped in the town of Meeniyan for lunch. I also got to visit Playing in the Attic, the lovely shop owned by Trudy.  I have been following Trudy's blog and Instagram accounts for a while now, so it was lovely to meet her in person and indulge in a bit of retail therapy in her gorgeous shop!  So many beautiful things, stationery, magazines, washi tapes, art supplies and so many other cute things, it is a really lovely space!  I ended up bringing quite a few things home with me!  

Actually, there were several beautiful shops in Meeniyan that I couldn't resist, I added to my cute crockery collection with some very special floral cups from another shop ( I can't remember what it was called now :(  ) 

Here's a  few photos of Trudy's shop. 

.......I got a fair bit of this blanket made as well, so bonus there! 

.......we stayed the night in Inverloch on the South Gippsland coast, this was the view from our room's verandah, it was a chilly day and sea was quite wild, I love how the wind has made the gums grow twisted and spindly, a typically coastal landscape.....

.....I went for a nice dusk walk, it was getting very cold by then, so I didn't venture too far, but the sky was quite beautiful.  It was great to get away from the routines of our normal life and we had a lovely dinner and some good chatting over a few relaxing drinks. Noice.

......I tend to go a bit of a magazine binge when we do road trips, don't really know why!  Here are a few of the mags I bought over the weekend! ( Also found a newish copy of Simply Crochet in a newsagency, we don't get that locally so I had to buy it! :) )  Lots of good reading here, and I guess the colouring book isn't really a magazine, so that doesn't count. :) 

Now it's time to get on with this new week, I have quite a busy one planned, although my car is playing up so I might be more house bound than I intended.  I have a newsletter to get out, a yarn club to plan (exciting!!), a blanket to finish, crochet classes to run, and new stock to source and order!  

Lots of fun work to be done. :) 

What's on your plate this week? 

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Handmade Christmas Making......

Hello, how are you going today? 

I am having a good day, nothing special, just food shopping and general housey things, but I like days like this.

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for the lovely comments on my last post and your ideas for reinvigorating   bloggy energy.  I think I will just continue to blog when I can and not worry too much if it's not everyday, I think I am too casual for anything like a formal schedule, so this blog is just going to go with the flow, the same approach I take to most aspects of my life.  Thank you all for your continued interest in Little Woollie, I have a few new ideas to try out over the next few months so I'll see how that goes. :)

Well, suddenly Christmas doesn't seem that far away, (eek, nearly November!) and once again I am finding myself tossing up how much of a handmade Christmas I'll be able to achieve.  I'd love to make some of the gifts for my family this year, I don't think I'll worry to much about all the boys I have to buy for, they are not really into handmade stuff, but I could do some baking for them, they do love a homemade bikkie or 2.

I am thinking that cute crochet washers and a nice piece of soap would be a nice little gift for my friends, I like making the washers so they should be fun to make.

I am doing a couple of markets between now and Christmas, so I am also trying to make some things that would be good presents for people to buy, maybe for teachers or other people we get little gifts for at this time of year.

So I have been making these little milk jar covers in multicoloured stripes, I think they look so cute in a group!  These jars make good small vases and you could pick a posy of flowers and give a cute jar of flowers to your favourite teacher, or you could stick a nice candle in one for a candleholder, or you could fill it with some bright coloured fine liners for a cute pen holder.......or you could fill a shadow box with different patterned one for a very cute wall display!  

These small milk bottles can be picked up cheaply from 2 dollar shops, or you could keep your eyes open for interesting shaped bottle and recycle bottles that are finished in the kitchen, I think a little collection of different shaped and sized bottles with there cute colourful cover would be a lovely present! Cute and thrifty, gotta love that!

.....I just had to pick a few ranunculus from the garden and colour match them to their vase....

.....and a couple more gratuitous flower shots, just because I can't get enough of their gorgeous colours.........

So, are you making any presents this year?  

I am going to make a few decorations too.

Have you been following the Handmade Christmas posts over at One Crafty Mumma?  Mel is one organised girl!  She has lots of ideas and links for handmade things this year, I am getting on board a little late, but there is still lots of time to get making!

During the week I will have a look around the internet and see what Christmas decorations I can find and share with you all next week.

Have you got any handmade ideas for Christmas this year, any secret crafty plans?

Have a great day!

Good things about Spring.....

 Hello.

I thought I would share a few good things about Spring with you today, I love the change of seasons and the way they break up the year into manageable portions.  Each new season has me making plans for things to do in the next few months, and Spring is no exception.  The year is marching on!  I have Big Plans for Spring, I have to admit a lot of them are Big Plans for Winter that didn't quite make it.  I have garden plans,  crafty plans, getting into shape plans (this one tends to carry over many seasons, I'm struggling a bit with self discipline), getting-the-house-looking-good plans, menu plans, wool shop plans, and the list goes on. You get the picture, plenty of plans!

....One of my plans is to make a few Christmas presents this year, so Spring is the time to start if I am going to have things finished by December ( I like to have plenty of time!)  These little squares are actually destined for presents, I am going to call them face washers and make a bit of a bath kit with them and some soap or something like that.  I have made them from cotton and kept these 2 pretty bright, I think they will add a bit of fun to bath time for my nieces.  

You can see how to do tapestry crochet here.

...think I might make a few more of these in other colour combos, they are a bit addictive.....

  

......in other news, I have repotted all my dead and dying pots with some lovely Spring Colour.  (Not really earth shattering news I know, but anyhow.)  My garden is big and it is easy to get overwhelmed with all the things that need some work, all the weedy unkempt areas, so I decided to concentrate on the area near the back door  and make it a pretty place to sit and have a break.

Now I can look at my pots and see something actually achieved and feel a little bit proud.  I am thinking that I will tackle little chunks of the garden over the next few weeks and try and get it in good shape.  One step at a time....

...I love how this is such a nice blossomy time of year, plus it is pretty windy around here, so it often looks like it is snowing petals, very charming!.....

....my special daffys have opened and they are so pretty don't you think?....

....and our chooks are back on the lay, hooray!  lots of fresh eggy goodness every day around here, 

(I was a bit worried that I had duds as they were taking their time coming on the lay, but all is forgiven now and I love my little flock of different breeds, such nice colourful eggs).....

Anyway, that's all for now, what's happening in your patch?

Got any plans for the new season? 

xxxxxxx

Summer Crochet....Name Bunting

Hello there!

It has been a very hot day here, so the boys and I went to visit some family on Phillip Island, about an hour away from here.  We spent a very pleasant morning on the beach, the water was really nice and refreshing and we had fun catching waves and generally frolicking around.  Then we had a sun bake, some lazy reading and chatting on the beach, catching up with my cousins who I don't see very often, a lovely day indeed.  I was going to take some photos of our day, but when I went to use my camera I found the card thingy was missing. Doh!

So instead I am showing you pictures of some name bunting that I made for my nieces, supposedly for Christmas, but actually  finished a few days late.

The pattern was based loosely on the one in Granny Chic by dottie angel, although I had to make it a fair bit bigger and I added the scalloped edging for a bit more colour. 

(You can never have too much colour!)  :)

The colours look quite different inside.

I am pretty pleased with these little banners, I think they will look really cute and vintagey on the girls' doors.  

 I am also doing quite well with my big blanket progress, so hope to have an update for you later in the week.  I am very sorry for the slow progress of updates for my CAL, hopefully you ladies who have stuck it out are not too upset with me and have other projects to go to in the mean time, or better still are making it up as you go along, kind of like what I do!  Anyway, I am trying to get a fair bit done over the next few nights, we are in for a couple of scorcher days and nights, so I think I will try and get some crochet done when it's too hot to sleep.

Till next time, 

Bye Bye!

Fun flower make

Hello

So after my big few weeks of blanket hooking I have been having a nice change with some much smaller makes.  Instant gratification. You can't beat it.

I wanted to make a double layered flower that was kind of a graphic representation of a flower, with a fairly sculptured, 3D effect.  I like edging the flower petals with sc, I just like the play of colours that this allows I guess.

I couldn't be bothered looking for a pattern in googleland, so had a bit of a play around and made something up myself, I am sure it is not that original, there are heaps of flower patterns out there already!

The red one at the back is my first version, I improved it slightly for the red and white one, and made a couple of other changes for the blue and green one.

I have to say it was FUN making these!  I want to make a lot more!  It is so great to be able to potter around with colours and different yarns and buttons. It was so good to stretch the creative muscles (even if it was only for this little bit of whimsy!), and I am really happy with my sunny flowers!  Having a design idea in the head and then seeing it come together as a finished thing is very satisfying.

I am making these flowers into little colourful broaches ( I suppose they are quite chunky really).

I was inspired by the fact that Mother's Day is next Sunday here, and I wanted to make something for my Mum.  My poor Mum, still getting handmade presents from me, nothing's changed since primary school!! Hah.

Anyway, I've got to go and get a few broach backs for these ( this one is just balancing on my cardi for the photo, could not find one safety pin in the house!) 

So I am off to enjoy the gorgeous sunny day we are having with a big walk, a nice bowl of soup for lunch and some cooking for the boys this afternoon.  I do have a very lucky life!!

Hope you are all having fun creative days wherever you are!

Joining in with the peeps over at Our Creative Space, go see what everyone has been up!