bags, bags, bags

Today I´ve tried out 2 different pattern for sling bags. One is the Lickety Split Bag pattern and the other one is just made up. First I´ve sewed the yellow bag after the Lickety Split pattern, but it turned out too small and the handles are too short for me. So I´ve cut out (without pattern) an other bag and sewed along. The size of the brown bag is better I think, but the other one looks better with the boxed corners. So I think I´ll have to sew a 3rd one and hopefully this one will have the best of both.

I wish you a nice and relaxed weekend :)

A bit of sewing

Now the easter holidays are over and the kids back to school. Slowly my crafting mojo is coming back :)

I´ve tried out a new bag design. Once I´ve bought this handles on ebay but until now I´ve never tried to use them on a project. I think it worked out okay, although this is not going to be my new favourite design. Its nice as a knitting/crochet project bag, but the handles are nothing I would like to carry around for longer. Maybe round ones would have been better.

And again a little pillow cover for Felix. Easy, fast and always cute with nice fabric.

he loves that animal fabric as he knows all the names of the animals now

Again a surprise

Last week my dearest daughter surprised me with a sepecial visitor. In secret she invited my friend Nicola to come and visit us. This doesn´t sound so spectacular at first. BUT I "met" Nicola only online on ravelry before. We´ve talked over telephone and written on Ravelry but never met her in person as she lives near Vienna and I´m in the opposite part of Austria. So I think now you can imagine how big my surprise was when she stood on our terrace on Thursday morning.

We had a wonderful chatty, sunny and funny day and I´m grateful for this nice friend and my great daughter!

Clothilde

It seems that lately I have a thing for shawls again. The Clothilde Shawl is a very nice, easy and interesting knit. The pattern has written instructions and charts and is much easier than one might think after the first sight. Mine is knitted with Rowan Cashcotton DK (in goose...a nice grey). I had this yarn in my stash for some time. It was nice to knit and is very soft but terrible shedding on my black clothes. I really hope this is getting better with time and wear.

I´ve used exctly 4 skeins and used 5.5mm circular needles (my new Latern moon harmony needles...I love them). the shawl turned out extra large and (I think) due to the cotton content in the yarn it didn´t really block well. But I love it anyway.

Pattern: Clothilde by Kristen Hanley Cardozo
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashcotton dk in goose, 4 skeins
Needle: 5.5mm circular needle

A wonderful surprise

Today I received a wonderful surprise from the amazong Mary-Catharine form Warm in the North.

She is a great woman who makes beautiful knitted and sewed things. And she made some beautiful and perfect little pouches for me.

The smaller one has the perfect size for my new telephone!

Thank you very much Mary-Catherine!

Time for a haircut

Lucky our Tibetien Terrier had really time to go to the hairdresser!

after the haircut

Now he looks fresh and like a puppy again :)  Maybe it doesn´t look like he has a lot of fun an this pic, but it seems he really enjoys the loss of hair.

A new milestone for me

and my sewing adventure. I´ve made the first wearable garment! As I wrote before, I´ve discovered Pip Lincolnes books. After becoming a fan of her blog, I´m now loving her books too. The books are cute and  she has a way to chat about how to make the stuff that doesn´t make me nervous. As an absolut beginner (and NOT native english speaker) I understand her sewing pattern and what to do next. And as an Australien she uses metric measurements. So absolut perfect as I don´t have to convert the measurements first.



So tatataaaa....."Cute kids pants" from the book Sew la tea do (I love that title :)

They fit perfect and have pockets! The little one is not in the mood for modeling but I´ve managed to make at least these modeled shots.

A dangerous little boy...

...he is. 2 and a half years old and always looking for a fight :) We love him with every piece of our hearts.

The gardening season started

 Last week they finished making the fence and we started to clean the place where the raised bed should once be.

And look how far we came this weekend! The raised bed is finished, the place cleaned, and already planted! And the fence is closed so neither Felix nor the dog run away while we our outside in the garden. It´s the first time I´ve planted vegtables in a larger style than some tomato plants in pots on the balcony. So verything is still very exiting. I hope and pray that it will work and that we have fresh salat and vegetable from our own garden soon.



some of the last tulips



rhubarb and rasberry plants are looking healty and nice too

We all are happy and looking forward to our newest family project :) ....ok the newest Mama project, but at least some of the kids are interested in helping and watching the growing.

Have a nice Sunday!

Terra

Another shawl is off the needles and already in use.

From the Rowan Tweed DK I had 3 skeins in red in stash and wanted to knit a shawl for myself since I´ve found these in a yarn shop in Denmark last year. Finally I found the time and the pattern for it!

I´m knitting very loose and so this shawl turned out very large and the fabirc is quite open, but has a great drape. I run out of yarn many rows before the pattern ends and had to bind off with a different yarn, as I´m really too lazy to rip back some rows. So after 3 lace repeats of Lace A all 3 balls of yarn were nearly used up. I´ve added 3 rows of garter and BO in "surprisingly-stetchy-Bind-off" with 2 Ply Jumper Weight from Jamieson & Smith.

Pattern: Terra by Jared Flood

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed DK in rage (3 skeins)

Needle: 5.5mm circular needle

Another birthday

today our daughter had her 15th birthday! Happy Birthday my wonderful girl!

And as she is one of the rare kids that appreciates handmade gifts (oh I´m a lucky mum) she certenly received some.

Opal by Kim Hargreaves knitted on 8mm cable needles and 2 strands of Drops Vivaldi

A reversable tote bag out of  MODA fabric

a totally improvised Owl pillow (she has a thing with owls)

and finally an "unable-to-take-a-nice-pic" pillowcase (also MODA fabric)

We had a nice, warm and sunny afternoon full of cake, coffee and family members from near and far (2 pairs of grand parents, 2 aunts, one uncle, one cousin and one grand-aunt). Thats a lovely "party" for a lovely girl. We all love her.

xxx

The last week...

...was a busy one. There were some birthdays, hospital visits, worries and hopes and always a bit of knitting, sewing and crochet inbetween.

I´ve knitted my 2nd Ishbel and I really like how it turned out. The pattern yarn combination is a good one and the blocked shawl drapes beautifully.

Pattern: Ishbel by Ysolda
Needles: 4mm circular needles
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Baby Alpaca Silk (in colour 1760)...yarn from stash

The Ripple Blanket grew a little....It is really getting heavy now.

And I did some sewing but had no time to take pictures. This weekend we are going to start the fence making but I´m sure there will be some time inbetween to knit a bit ;)

A wonderful weekend to you :)