Mildly Crafty

Like watching paint dry

2009-07-10T22:09:00.002+10:00

The slab for our house was poured today ... and the concreters are still there, waiting for it to dry more so they can trowel it really smooth ... and there were a few drops of rain as we left! Eeek. If it rains a lot it'll be too wet for them to trowel smooth and the raindrops can leave pits in the surface. We're not going to grind it back so it's really important that the finish is really good. Fingers crossed!!

Amy waiting for the slab to dry

Chiffon gathers

2009-07-05T21:36:00.002+10:00

Hmm, Just found this dress which is by Maggy London the same designer as the pattern I'm using and is very similar to the pattern I'm using, the midriff part is just thinner.

But how did they get the gathers so small!! Mine are kinda chunky :(

My first method, used on the neckline, was to sew two rows of stitching, both inside the 1.5cm seam allowance and then pull the top threads to create the gathers. But on the midriff I sewed the lines of stitching either side of the seam line (and then pulled out the threads after sewing the seams) and this produced a better result but still not as tiny as these gathers ... poo.

Anyone know?

Dressmaking

2009-07-05T20:45:00.003+10:00

I don't know why but I agreed to make a bridesmaid's dress for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. I think it was probably pride :) Don't want to admit that it's beyond me.

So, I took Tina shopping and we chose Butterick pattern 5134. Only to discover that it's been discontinued! Argh! It was the only pattern we even remotely liked so I called around and tracked down a copy at The Cloth Shop.

Then I put together a muslin of just the lining part to see if it was the right size.

It was almost right, just a bit snug around the waist so I added four centimetres and started on a full-scale test version.

It took 4 hours to put the bodice together yesterday! Blimey! The pattern is rated as "easy" but I would think that'd mean a beginner could make it and this definitely isn't beginner. I guess it's not that hard, but cutting out the flimsy fabric and doing the gathers was kinda fiddly.

So I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out so far. The gathers on the bodice aren't great but I did them a little differently on the sides of the midriff bit and they look much neater. I also learnt that it's a bit dumb to use white overlocker thread under black chiffon, it's totally visible - dammit.

Anyway, tomorrow I've got to add the skirt so Tina can try it on again on Wednesday. And then I have to do it all over again in the real fabric. Phew!

FOs

2009-06-30T11:11:00.002+10:00

I finally finished my cloche and blocked it on the weekend. I'm happy with how it turned out except for the fact that it's a bit too big, I made it in the large size instead of medium because the pattern was a bit confusing. I realised what I'd done but didn't want to rip back the work that I'd done. That'll teach me! I've felted it but it only shrank a little. It might be OK, I'll wear it and see how it goes.

Stats:

Pattern: Matilda (ravelry)
Yarn: 2 balls Jo Sharp Aran Tweed in black
Needles: 4mm DPNs and 40cm circular

Cloche

I also whipped up this leaf scarf/necklace last week.

Stats:

Pattern: Leaf Scarf (ravelry)
Yarn: Scraps of Jo Sharp 8ply Pure DK wool
Needles: 6mm

Knitted leaves necklace

Handknitter's Guild Wool and Craft Fair

2009-06-30T09:02:00.004+10:00

On Saturday I went to the Handknitter's Guild's Wool and Craft Fair at the Brunswick town hall. It was really good, like a mini Bendigo Sheep and Wool show (and without the sheep).

There were lots of wool and fiber producers there

Dairing who have a knitwear shop in Richmond and stock Habu yarns. I'd heard about them but never seen them until now, very unusual!
Andyle who had lovely coloured wool grown on their farm in Tarneit Victoria.
Shiloh Wool who have coloured fleeces and combed wool for spinners from Bellaraine Victoria.
Lara Downs who have angora goat and lots of other luxury fibers and are from Balliang Victoria and they've also opened a new retail outlet called Precious Purl at 397 Bruswick St Fitzroy. I can't find a website for them but their card says they're open Wed-Sat 11-4 phone 0423 514 668.
Ixchel angora bunnies! They have other fibers too but I love the bunnies!

And there were more of course but I didn't get their business cards.

I bought some 14 ply wool from Shiloh and wound it into a ball using my brand new ball winder and swift from Morris & Sons. It was so fun to wind it, my husband, sister and dad all watched the process with interest too :) I'm going to try dying it myself, eep! (yeah probably should've left it in the skein but I couldn't resist trying out the ball winder)

Shiloh Wool

House building blog

2009-06-26T18:40:00.003+10:00

I've started a new blog, The Laburnum Project to record the ins and outs of our house building. Take a look, it's gonna be pretty damn exciting!

Our old house was demolished today!

2009-06-12T21:55:00.001+10:00

I shed a little tear for it.

heart

2009-05-22T09:14:00.001+10:00

I only just noticed (because his collar was off) that Samson's white chest is actually heart-shaped, awww.

Samson

Rental

2009-05-05T18:10:00.001+10:00

Kitchen, originally uploaded by mildlycrafty.

I took some photos today of the house we'll be renting while we build. The house was owned by a little old lady (well I assume it was). It's so cute! Check out the other photos here.

brrrr

2009-05-01T11:09:00.002+10:00

Jeez it's cold! I'll be so happy when we have our new house because it'll be WARM inside instead of FREEZING!

I've had the heater (an old gas one) on all morning and it's just reached 17 degrees in here.

So, for your amusement, I thought I'd describe my outfit today.

Matt's sheepskin slippers (which are a bit too big)
knee high socks
navy blue trackies (pilled
singlet, long sleeve t-shirt and jumper that is a bit too small (also pilled)
Matt's beanie
Matt's fingerless mitts
my new shawl/scarf

I look pretty flash I can tell you.

Success!

2009-04-29T22:41:00.002+10:00

Success!

We signed the contract with the builder today to start work on our new house! Eeep, scary!!

Winter of hats

2009-04-27T22:33:00.002+10:00

I have twelve hats in my ravelry favourites! So I'm thinking of making this the winter of hats :)

First off the rank is two (!) Thorpes. I quite enjoyed this, it was really quick, quite easy and looks pretty good too. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I started a second one within 5 minutes of finishing the first :)

Thorpe

Hat #2

Next up is Matilda which was in a Frankie issue last year. The crown is constructed in a very similar way to Thorpe so the start has been easy. No progress shots yet.

And after that, I'm not sure, perhaps Felicity? But I might have to take a break from my hats to make a capelet (poncho?) like this one, which I LOVE! The girl who made it figured it out from a picture from somewhere. See it on Ravelry here.

Music and and actual FO

2009-04-14T17:21:00.002+10:00

I hope you all had a great Easter break. We went to Mansfield again and lazed about in the lovely weather.

So last post I said I was going to see Tony Joe White that night, which I did. His support act was Abbie Cardwell who I hadn't heard before, she was great, there's a couple of her songs on youtube if you're interested. And Tony was fabulous, such an awesome voice :)

Abbie Cardwell at the Toff in Town

Tony Joe White at the Toff in Town

Like a few other people I had a go at making hot cross buns over the break. They looked great but didn't have enough spice and sultanas in them for my taste, I'll try again next year :)

Hot Cross Buns

But the big news is that I finally finished my cable shawl, it was a lot of knitting (for me anyway). I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Stats:
Size: 156cm x 37cm
Yarn: 6.5 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed in shade #147
Needles: 4mm
Mods: Substituted a finer yarn which meant I had to do 24 pattern repeats instead of the 18 called for. I also made the ribbing on the side only 8.5cm instead of 10cm.

The scarf is constructed by knitting the centre panel lengthways then (on each side) picking up stitches along the length (on a really long circular needle) and knitting ribbing. There were 481 stitches to pick up! That wasn't fun.

Cable Shawl

Tony Joe White

2009-04-08T12:24:00.001+10:00

Going to see Tony Joe White tonight at the Toff in Town. Can't wait!

How to print double-sided

2009-04-06T18:39:00.002+10:00

I don't know if you already do this but I thought I'd share how I print out my PDFs double-sided on my bubble-jet printer. It's worth figuring out how to do this as it saves a lot of paper (and you know there's a million reasons to do that) and it also means you have less pages to file/carry around/post/whatever you're going to do with them.

So firstly you need to print out all the odd pages. To do this select "Odd pages only" on the print dialog as shown below.

Then you take out the pages you just printed and put them back into the paper tray. For my printer I have to put them printed side up with the top of the page in first. Note that you might need to do it differently to me if your printer works differently.

Then you need to print all the even pages, in reverse order. To do this select "Even pages only" from the print dialog and check the "Reverse pages" checkbox, as shown below.

That's it, pretty easy no?

And because I seem to forget how to do this if I haven't done it for a while, I wrote down the instructions and stuck them to my printer :)

(If you can't read that it says, Print odd pages, Put back in w top end in first + printed side up, Print even pages reversed)

In case you're wondering, I'm printing out the pattern for Thorpe, inspired by Pea Soup.

Weekend review

2009-03-30T11:42:00.002+11:00

Going for a walk with my cat and dog at the edge of lake Eildon (which is and has been dry for about eight years) near Mansfield, Victoria. Spent most of the weekend sitting on the verandah and crocheting, listening to the birds and to the cat stalking them. Ahh the serenity!

Walk with the animals

There are three op-shops near each other in Mt Waverley, here's my haul from them on Friday.

- two high-waisted skirts, one straight black velvet the other a fuller tweed (with in-seam pockets)
- vintage patent leather handbag
- crocheted cushion cover
- chinese checkers
- not sure what you'd call this, I guess it's kind of a hook rack, I'm going to use it in my craft room

Op shop haul from Mr Waverley

I love this handbag. The label inside says it's by Master Made Handbags, Sydney. Was $12, reduced to $6 because one of the handles is cracked.

Vintage patent leather handbag

BTW, I used Flogger to compose this post, it really is quite handy.

Flogger

2009-03-27T17:35:00.003+11:00

I think it might be time to introduce you to a little web site that I set up recently. It's called Flogger and it's here http://flogger.mildlycrafty.com/.

The short description is that Flogger is a tool to help you with photo blogging.

I was prompted to create it because I liked the way you could blog a photo easily from Flickr and it would format your photo nicely with a border and a link to the Flickr page for the photo and include the photo title. eg

Samson

But if you want to blog more than one photo then Flickr can't help you and it's actually a bit of a pain, you have to create the HTML yourself and it's quite time consuming. I searched around for a tool to help with this issue and couldn't find a satisfactory solution. So being the (small-time) computer geek that I am, I wrote my own program.

If you're interested please take a look and let me know if you find it's useful. I have set up a blog for it here http://flogger.mildlycrafty.com/blog/.

Hot Chocolate

2009-03-27T17:18:00.001+11:00

Hot Chocolate

I had this Italian (!) hot chocolate on Thursday from Sugardough in Lygon St, Brunswick East. It was goooood! A bit like drinking warmed up chocolate cake batter :)

I had some time to kill so I sat in the sun in their courtyard and drank my hot choc and knitted, ahh, so relaxing.

This weekend

2009-03-22T20:33:00.002+11:00

Hi, it's been quiet around here hasn't it. The problem is that I'm just not that into writing. I find it reaaally hard to say what I mean. Every time I think I have something I want to post it turns into an agonising internal debate about how to say it, how much to say, whether it's interesting anyway, etc etc. And often I end up deleting what I just spent half an hour writing. That sucks.

So anyway, I'm not deleting this. Here's what I did this weekend. Went to an antiques and collectibles fair in Burwood East, just because I read about it in the paper over breakfast and I thought it'd be fun. And it was! I saw a couple of really lovely silver mesh purses, like this one, I've always admired them but never thought of a good reason why I should have one, until now! It's my birthday in a couple of weeks so I told Matt he could buy it for my for my birthday if he wanted too :) Score!

Today we went for a bike ride along Gardiner's creek. We rode about 22.3 km and had lunch in Ashwood which was our halfway point. At lunch we read the newspapers and I was excited to see Pip the front page of the A2! Read the article here (minus picture of Pip looking very relaxed and crafty).

I'll leave you today with a photo of the heart I made Matt for valentine's day. I thought he'd think it was a bit lame but he actually thought it was quite cool. Made it all worthwhile :)

Valentine's 2009

Bushfires

2009-02-28T12:02:00.002+11:00

These are photos my parents took from their property in Musk last week. Luckily this is as close as the fire got to them. There were no houses lost in this fire, there were a few sheds and stock (alpacas I think) lost though. I was on the phone to my parents every couple of hours on Monday evening, Tuesday and Wednesday to check what was happening and it was a bit of a roller-coaster. One minute it would be everything seems under control and the next mum would say shit the fire is coming closer. I was pretty sure they'd be OK because the had sprinklers going all over their property and they have a big dam they could get in if they had to but still ... it was scary.

fire1

fire2

fire5

fire3

fire4

Kitty

2009-02-17T12:17:00.001+11:00

Samson

He's getting bigger.

Shawl, chair, suitcases and hand (ie random stuff)

2009-02-06T14:03:00.003+11:00

Phase 1 of Cable Shawl from Jo Sharp Knit Issue 6 completed. Ravelry link. The next phase is to pick up a bazillion stitches along the side and knit about 10cm of ribbing on each side. It's gonna take a while.

And I got two of these chairs from someone's hard-rubbish out in the street. They're in perfect condition!

Cable shawl and folding chair

Found these in someone's hard-rubbish, woot!

Suitcases

I think my new cat is causing contact dermatitis :( I used to really suffer from it when I was in high school. It would cover all of my fingers and I'd have to bandaid them all so that I didn't bleed on things. I never knew what was causing it but it cleared up when I moved out of home and just showed up again since I got the cat so I'm betting that's what's causing it. I can't get rid of my beautiful kitty so I guess I'll justs have to live with it. Really hope it doesn't get as bad as it used to though.

My hand

Vintage silk dress

2009-01-28T18:43:00.001+11:00

See my latest post at I Op Therefore I Am.

Vintage dress

Knickers

2009-01-19T10:49:00.000+11:00

My second pair of knickers made using Gemma's fabulous pattern (available here). The stretch ruffle gingham around the legs came from Clegs. I'm so pleased with these, they look really cute and the ruffles make them feel a bit more special :)

Knickers #2

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the gym this morning

2009-01-09T13:00:00.005+11:00

A very weird thing happened this morning. I was going to the ATM and I heard a crash behind me and saw two cars had hit each other and they both sped off around the corner! They were going quite fast I thought it must be road rage incident and they were chasing each other! Then I saw some people near the corner looked like they'd been hit or something, they were on the ground, so I ran over to see if I could help. Turned out that one lady had knocked the other over when she jumped out of the cars way, she had cut her mouth but was OK. One of the cars had stopped around the corner, she'd lost control and hit the light post next to the pedestrian crossing, just missed the ladies who were standing there! So it wasn't road rage, she'd just been unable to stop. The other car had taken off!

That's not the weird thing though. After it was all over and the police and ambulance had been, I went back to the ATM, but I couldn't find my ATM card in my purse. I tried to remember whether I'd had it out when the accident happened, if I'd reached the ATM yet, whether I'd dropped it or put in my bag in the rush. I couldn't remember! I went in to the bank to ask if anyone had picked it up. I told the cashier what had happened and she asked if I'd been at the ATM and I said I couldn't remember. Then I thought about it some more and realised I HAD been at the ATM, in fact I remember pressing the button to withdraw $300! It must have been at that point that I heard the crash and then I just ran off and left my card (and possibly money) in the ATM Isn't that weird! I can't believe I did that. I know that people forget things when something stressful/shocking happens but I've never had it happen to me. It felt totally weird to not remember what I'd done. And then to realise I'd run off without my money and it not to even occur to me what I was doing. Freaked me out a bit.

(ETA: my card was in the ATM, the cashier got it out for me. They money hadn't come out because I didn't have enough in my account, luck huh!)

Anyhoo, hope you had a good Christmas and new year and all the best for 2009!