Monday, March 24, 2008

A little less conversation...

... a little more action". Aaahhh, the wisdom of Elvis. These words will be my motto this week.


I know that when you hear the words 'action' you might not automatically think 'knitting'. BUT....I feel a bit blogged out after doing the week of children's vintage illustrations. It was great fun, and I loved looking at everyone's books, but now I have the urge to get away from the computer for a bit. Posting every day is way more time consuming than I would have imagined, even when it is just little short posts. So I'm going to have a blogging rest for a week (well, until next Sunday anyway) and concentrate on actually MAKING stuff, which after all is mostly what this blog is about.


And I have finally done it! After ages of whining about wishing I knew how to knit, I finally bit the bullet and decided to learn. I convinced my sister to learn with me, so we both got our Aunty to show us. This in turn inspired my Aunty to start knitting again, and then my Mum (whom I have NEVER seen knit) decided to get in on the action too! So inspired were we, that we decided to start creating some clothing for the kids' favourite soft toy - Jemima. Who herself was knitted by my incredibly talented Mother-In-Law.


Isn't she gorgeous? A whole family creation. Doll by Matt's Mum, dress by my Mum, hat by my Aunty, and that piddly little scarf was by....me! Bit embarrassing really, but hey, it was a start! And I am now onto a proper adult-sized scarf (the green thing above), and a scarflette (the black thing further above), which was inspired by the gorgeously tactile scarflette created by Vanessa from Knit too! I also need to say a huge thank-you to Corrie from Retro Mummy, who has been so encouraging of my foray into the world of knitting, and even managed to trouble-shoot my purling problem via email. Thanks so much!!!! Matt thinks it's hilarious watching myself, my sister, my mum and my aunty, sitting around our lounge room knitting, drinking tea and chatting like a bunch of old dears, but hey, that's what I find so appealing about knitting. You can't sit comfortably and chat while at a sewing machine. Not that I will be swapping my sewing addiction for knitting any time soon, but it's a very fun addition to my crafty repertoire.

Anyway, moving back onto more solid ground for me, I decided to experiment with some bib making for my sister. Well, not for my sister exactly, but for her baby which should be arriving sometime in the next few weeks. I decided to go with the Playschool Window theme, and do four different shapes. They were really fun to make!


I also organised a little 'sort of' baby shower for her. Just a lunch at our favourite restaurant really, with a small select group of friends and family, although I did do some little goodie boxes for the guests (with signature packaging of course :P)


And then a lovely little parcel arrived in the mail for the kids, just before Easter.


My lovely mother-in-law (the same one who knitted Jemima) made these gorgeous little easter bags for Lee and Kate to collect their eggs in. How cute are they???


The kids loved filling them up with eggs when we did the egg hunt on Sunday morning. Is there any better magic than searching the bushes for colourful treasure that tastes every bit as good as it looks?


I think not!!!! We did it at my parents' place, and everyone came over for a BBQ breakfast of bacon and eggs, and fresh orange juice (followed by mountains and mountains of chocolate).

It just doesn't get better than that. See you in a week!!!!!

13 comments:

Bird Bath said...

Nice Knitting:)I've made lots of scarves - hope to try something new this winter.I agree about knitting being a cosy past time. Enjoy your bloggy break.

Jenny said...

Great start on your knitting adventure. Sounds like you are surrounded by lots of clever crafty people who can help you. Love those little egg collecting bags:)

Jodie said...

Have a great week off. I love your packaging as I have said before and the bibs are fantastic !
See you next week.

Sherrin said...

I LOVE the bibs! especially the shape of the one on the top right.

vanessa said...

glad to see the whole family's caught the knitting bug!! that's one of the best things about knitting... it can be social at times, and solitary at others. you're off to a great start! and lucky jemima gets to models those looks so well!

bettyninja said...

oooo, you were busy. Your knitting looks great. I don't know how either, but I am afraid to pick up another hobby! The little bibs are great and I do love the strings around the boxes. How fun to make wrapping just as pretty and nice as the present inside.

Corrie said...

yeah well done with your knitting! how cute is that doll! I love knitting and love that I can talk about it with my nana and aunty who are huge knitters and share my love of yarn with my mum who crochets big time.

I think you should also search out some cheap knitting lessons up there! I know they do drop in lessons around here where you should only pay $5 or so and see if there is a knitting guild who also offer cheap lessons to get you moving and advancing into the world of knitting and fixing problems!!!

well done...hugely addictive though
Corrie:)

Rebekah said...

yay! congrats on learning to knit. you're going to love it.

that doll is so adorable! you have a talented mil!

Anonymous said...

Welcom to the world of knitting. It is one of my favorite things to do. I found your sweet little blog through flickr and love it.

SadieandLance said...

Congrats new knitter, your progress looks great. I love that you roped all those others into knitting without even trying.

I love that Jemima doll too!

Sharon said...

Hi Bec, thanks for commenting on my blog. That's so funny what you said about standing in a queue, It happened to me only yesterday! Loving the first scarf by the way!

Kara said...

So very busy!!!

Levin said...

i've managed to knit up a cardigan but it's kinda weird. i still wear it though as it's made by me. i like to knit scarves and beanies - i'm afraid i like to finish projects quickly. perhaps i have a short attention span?
it's a lovely thing to do when winter takes hold. red wine, warm fire and knitting.
l
x