Crochet Blogs – Aussie Style

02/07/201507/07/20153 Comments

So I’ve been looking through some Aussie Crochet blogs for a bit more local influence. Makes sense really; seasonally, terminology and shopping wise, not to mention supporting my local crafty blogging community. And I thought I would share.

Suburban Jubilee – I feel like I just been on a journey with Jubilee, there is more than crochet and I loved the balance. Lots of yarn and project as well as glimpses of the Grandkids. Yarn and pretty stuff!
Crochet kitten – A good blog – for blogspot – great pictures and original free patterns.
thedovenest – Lots of craft on this page, great pictures and her approach to crochet really suits my style, intuitive with many project on the go at once…
littlewoollie – A feast for a crocheters eyes, great pictures and colours. Once again, a lot of things on the go and the large number of pics really appeals to me. Great colour crochet!!
The royal sisters – I love the Aussie content and the support of the Aussie wool industry.
Katies kitchen blog – I wouldn’t call this a crochet blog, but she is very good at Granny squares and the crochet and quilting are nice eye candy
howtocrochetaheart.blogspot.com.au/ – A very good learn to site. Original patterns and great pictures. Call out for pattern testing
Crafts Mum Ship – Lots of great crafts and pictures. Mummy stuff too.
Future girl – Free patterns for crochet and knitting
gege crochet – Original patterns for crochet and felting

So that would be my first ever “10 best … ” list. it’s as much a reference for myself as you. I’m going to keep building on it, feel free to add more into the comments and I will most likely do a part 2.

meanwhile, here is a sneak peak at my current project…

I love this yarn!

Enjoy!

Guest Blog

28/06/201507/07/2015Leave a comment

Mine that is, my first guest blog, which was quite a lot more pressure then I was expecting!!

My first guest blog on Green tea and cotton

Update: Made these today!

02/06/201507/07/20153 Comments

Update: Made these today!

Elf baby booties are now available for custom order on my ETSY page!!

Wool baby booties

Continue reading →

Crochet and Footy..?!

05/05/201507/07/20154 Comments

A friend has been knitting neurons…

OK Vicki, you’re not making sense!!

Last year a group called “Neural Knitworks” made a whole stack of neurons with yarn, 1665 in fact, they then hung them up in an exhibition, which looked amazing!! But why..?

“Neural Knitworks is based on the principle that yarn craft with its mental challenges, social connection, and mindfulness, helps keep our brains healthy and active.

Neural Knitworks events are based on the principle that yarn craft with its mental challenges, social connection, and mindfulness, helps keep our brains and minds sharp, engaged and healthy.
Have fun as you
• design your own woolly neurons, or get inspired by our scientifically-informed knitting, crotchet or knot patterns
• natter with neuroscientists and teach them a few of your crafty tricks
• contribute to a travelling textile brain exhibition
• increase your attention span and test your memory.
Calm your mind and craft your own brain health as you
• forge friendships
• solve creative and mental challenges
• practice mindfulness and relaxation
• teach and learn
• develop eye-hand coordination and fine motor dexterity.”

Sounds pretty good!

So this year, to raise awareness of brain injury in sport, in particular rugby league, my friend is knitting footy neurons!

Today she asked me to join in, and I thought, why not, it’s just a little neuron… turns out they are a bit bigger then the pictures looked, about the size of my hand. But I hunted around and just happen to have the right colours, so here is my #FootyNeuron

Manly Footy Neuron

Other’s heard the call as well!

Footy Neurons

The First two pictures are wrapped/woven, which is perfect if you don’t knit or crochet or if you just want to try something different.

EDIT:

Manly VS Penrith

Floating Yarn Neurons

So if you would like to have a look and find out more, please visit the facebook page – Neural Knitworks or the science week site where you can download the free pattern book. Don’t forget to hastag #FootyNeurons to help spread the word.

What to do with Overripe Bananas??

13/04/201513/04/201510 Comments

I have no idea why I haven’t done this before, it’s so easy and fast!!

Just put 4 ingredients into a blender

banana muffin ingredients

Take some over ripe bananas – I used 3
4 small eggs or 3 large ones
about 3/4 tsp baking soda or bi-carb soda
a jar of ABC spread

grease a muffin tin or two with coconut oil and pour in the runny batter to about 2/3 of each hole.

bake until you can smell them and they are colouring on top, less then 10 mins on 200C

Banana Muffins

Tip: Take them out of the muffin tin while they are still warm, it’s much easier.

Happily they are gluten, dairy and sugar free. They are also soft, moist and completely yummy!!

Enjoy!

Made these today

12/04/201513/04/20154 Comments

Last year a friend sent me this:

Knit Grape booties

and asked if I could make them. And I said No… I don’t knit, but I could make these:

Crochet Chilli Elf Booties

And she said yes! So I did.

First a practice run:

practise booties in purple

Then the real thing:

My Crochet Elf Booties

I think I prefer the purple colour, but not the yarn, and I used this pattern, mostly. The red yarn is 5ply wool crepe, which my Mum had told was really lovely to work with, and as Mum’s tend to be, she was right!

They are super cute, soft and stretchy and if anyone wants a pair please message me or see my Etsy page.

How to get a Toddler to eat – the messy way

31/03/201503/07/20154 Comments

We’ve all heard that getting kids involved with the cooking will help with the eating. I also thought it might help with whinging and very short attention span that was today…

Lexi loves making bread, and I was uninspired at the butcher so I decided to make pizzas, from scratch, with a toddler…

Tip: Don’t tell the toddler what you’re doing until you are all set up… That is, google/Pinterest your recipe, get out all you ingredients and tools, change out of your work clothes!

Our recipe

We used an amalgamation of a couple of recipes, as is my (our?) way

3 cups of flours (mostly wholemeal)

7g sachet of yeast

320mls warm water

1 big spoon honey

1 tbl oil

Mix the water, yeast and honey together, let sit for a couple of minutes, it will go frothy – this can be seen best in a glass jug. Add oil. Answer non-stop string of questions.

Mix the flour and salt, make a hole in the centre and tip the liquid in. mix with a spatula. eventually it will be quite hard to mix and the toddler will need to use their hands. mix until toddlers attention span runs out. The adult might then want to mix a bit more, it should be sticky, not like bread dough.

Make a ball out of the dough and put a bit of oil on the outside. sit in a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let rest until it has doubled in size – took ours about 30 mins.

rising dough

Take a small amount off the main ball and let the toddler roll it out on some flour. Give toddler cookie cutters. Place results on pizza tray and “paint” with tomato base, “decorate” with toppings.

They’re Butterflies

Adult to place in oven, 200C, and monitor. Answer some more questions. Take out once cooked through, cool and…

Meanwhile, once the adults are ready to eat – we just cannot eat at 6pm… – push out remainder of dough onto pizza tray, top and cook. I’m sure you can figure this out. Ours had stuff we found in the fridge on it.

Stuff on Pizza

Pears ripen on the window sill not the tree!

26/03/201505/05/20152 Comments

Did you know this?

I didn’t, until I saw it on “River cottage” and I feel it’s my duty to share this. I’ve complained myself about pears always being too hard in the shops and taking days to ripen in the fruit bowl, only to suddenly be too ripe. Well this is apparently what happens on the tree, only the pears ripen all course and stringy.

Whereas, I found the ones left on the window sill ripened steadily and were beautifully sweet and juicy. Little miss has been demanding pears lately and this is the best way to keep up with such a healthy demand.

I didn’t take a photo of the first batch I sun ripened, a lovely trio of small yellow pears. So here’s a picture of a couple of packham pears I just received from Aussie Farmer Direct.

Packham Pears on a sill

SUMMER COVER UP PART TWO

25/03/201513/04/2015Leave a comment

I was just going to add the pictures of my second cover-up at the end of the previous post but felt it deserved its own post…

I bought this scarf new, it was in the same shop I buy my crochet cotton and I could choose the cotton with the scarf in hand, so win win really. The butterflies really were just too gorgeous to leave behind anyway!

I’ve gone with the mulitcolour cotton,

which I love but does not

always look great in stand alone crocheting.

I am really happy with it here as it blended

in with the pattern and gave a softer look.

I made a couple of crochet butterflies, which I had been meaning to do for Lexi so it was good practise.

I’ve hand sewn it as the material is just a but

too thin for my poor sewing skills.
The bottom picture in the montage on the right is the side seam, I’ve crocheted a row of questionable looking butterflies.

I did try to have Lexi take the photos but all the photos are of my legs or the roof, the camera

was just a bit too heavy for her.

Well I was going to make a couple more but I’m thinking I’ve fixed my desire to make a cover up for the time being and I should really finish some of my other projects…

I want to share one of my inspirations for the cover-ups so if anyone wants to buy one for themselves they can buy one from Fairtale. This is my friend Fiona’s shop and she also frequents to Bondi Markets if you want to try them on.

Fairtale Handmade & Vintage Fashion

SUMMER IS COMING!!

25/03/201513/04/2015Leave a comment

I’ve wanted to do a beach cover-up for a while, so here goes..!

I bought the scarf at an Op shop as I always see them and feel they need to be loved again and given a second lease on life! Next time I would find one that was a bit heavier, or courser, but it was very pretty and it did work, it was just a bit harder to work with then necessary. I would recommend spending a bit more on this important piece of your cover up whether it be some fair trade, eco friendly material or a quality vintage scarf, you will be glad you did.

I thought some crochet edging would go really well with it and so I made some… just between you and me, it might’v e been the main reason for this project.

Its a very basic shell pattern as I wanted to be able to whip it up without worrying about learning a new pattern and making mistakes.

It’s also the thickest cotton you can buy as I’ve never used the super thin cotton.

Pretty happy with the result, I think it could’ve been lighter and more delicate to match the material but really it still worked. Don’t stress the small stuff.

So the next day I went about putting it together, I cut a T in the centre of the scarf, and with the help of my 2 year old, hemmed the edges. I then sewed some edging around the shoulders and front with a chain tie on each side… um like this.. I used a small zigzag stitch. It seemed right.