My sister Tina

Today we lost an angel, a mother, a protector of children, an artist and author. She was many things but most of all, for me she was my sister, my mentor and someone I looked up to all of my life.

We found out not quite 2 months ago that Tina had a category 4 aggressive brain tumour and nothing could really be done for it. She has 4 beautiful children who are now hearth broken and missing their mother.

It's times like these when such a longing and loved person is taken from those they love that life can seem so cruel. Tina was only 42 years old and really should have been allowed a longer and more peaceful life than what she was given.

She will forever hold a place in my heart, she's my angel and I hope she's has more peace now than she was in in life xoxoxo

Zpagetti doilie rug

Well I put that lovely Zpagetti yarn to good use and made this wonderful rug. I'm loving it and the colours blend in perfectly with my lounge room furniture. I think I'd like to make another one one day in a square pattern.

Pretty new Zpagetti yarn

So I've been looking all over the internet for this 'jersey yarn' I had seen in a picture and couldn't figure out what it's proper name was or what brand it was. I had wanted to crochet myself one of those cool big rugs that looked like an overgrown doiley but couldn't figure out where to buy the jersey yarn. I eventually gave up and bought a whole heap of bulky panda yarn to do the same job. I made myself 2 of these amazing doiley rugs and was happy with my efforts. And that's when I saw the Zpagetti website.

Not only did I find what I'd originally wanted but I found it was made from the prettiest fabrics. The Zpagetti yarn is made out of strips of fabric and comes in a range of colours and designs. I bought 2 balls of the grey with purple and pink checks and am in love with it. I'm pretty sure I ordered more than I'll need but there is no re-ordering after purchasing, what is on the website is all that they'll get in that colour or print so I wanted more than I needed rather than not enough.

Its been added to the queue of my future projects and bumped up to next project. I am currently working on a cross stitching babushkas onto an Aida tea towel. I've included a picture of the 2 purple doiley rugs I now have in my lounge room.

Blankets + Baking

I'm really not that good at keep this blog updated but I have been really busy making a crocheted blanket for my friend Kristy's birthday and since her birthday is this month I really need to hurry and get it finished. It took me a long time to finally decide on the pattern and once I'd done that, longer to decide on the colours. She had said that she's like a pink blanket but for the Wavy Blanket pattern you really need a lot of colours to make it look pretty and I just couldn't find enough different variants of pink to make me happy so I decided on a rainbow instead. I am extremely happy with how it's turning out and almost wish I could keep it for myself.

I've also just begun getting into baking. I've never really been big on cooking but baking is something different, isn't it? It's all yummy cupcakes and decadent chocolate cakes and savory breads. I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately trying out healthy options for my son's school lunches because I've been finding it hard to find biscuits or nibblies that he can have at lunch times that wont set him off so he's hyperactive for the rest of the school day. He really likes ham and cheese scrolls and vanilla cupcakes to go with his sandwiches. I can't wait until the price of bananas come down again so I can make him banana muffins, he loves those as well.

Since I hadn't done much baking I pretty much had to buy everything all at once. I really couldn't justify the price of the purple KitchenAid mixer I really wanted so instead I decided on the Cuisinart bench mixer and their stick mixer with all the cool attachments. I don't know how I lived without the stick mixer before this, I use it almost everyday now. I also wish I had more recipe books to display but I've been collecting most of my recipes on My Recipe Book, an iPad app. It allows you to search for recipes online and then you can import the recipe straight to the app for later, or you can add them manually. It supports most of the major recipe sites so it's easy enough to find whatever you need.

I've also been refurnishing my lounge room so I've been doing a lot of shopping and decorating and thinking about all the pretties I want to finish the room off. You can see my pretty new purple lounge in the wavy blanket photo. I've always wanted a purple lounge chair and am super happy now that I finally have one.

Granny Stripe Blankets and Little Boy's Glasses

I've finished another crocheted blanket, this one is a granny stripe pattern. I saw the pattern on the Ravelry website and I knew I had to make one. Most of the pictures of other peoples granny stripe blankets were in beautiful pastel colours like the one from the original pattern but I wanted to make mine a bit darker so it would suit either my young man or myself. This double size crocheted blanket was originally made for my 6-year old son's bed but since he told me "I hate wool stuff" its become the new lounge chair blanket. I didn't want him having it anyway :-P

The next blanket I crochet will be for the fabulous Kristy. She's mad about pink so the colour scheme we've both agreed on will be pinks and greens and greys and blues. I'm still not too sure on the pattern I'll use yet but I have a few picked out. I'm going to order the wool from the Bendigo Woolen Mills because their wool looks so nice and their colours are fabulous and I've been wanting a good excuse to buy some of their stuff :-)

In other news, a couple of weeks back I found out that my young man needs glasses and needs to wear them all the time. It hasn't taken very long but I'm already so used to seeing him in his new glasses that now when he's not wearing them it looks a bit odd. It might be because I'm his mum but I think he might be the cutest little boy in glasses :-)

Finished at Last

Last year after asking my sister to make me a knitted infinity wrap I discovered so very many beautiful patterns for knitted and crocheted items. I soon realised that if I asked my sister to make all those pretty things she'd never have time to knit or crochet anything for herself and would probably get cranky with me. So it was then that I decided that I had to learn how to knit. At first I was only interested in learning to knit, crochet didn't interest me much and looked really complicated. I even tried crochet after first learning to knit and it confused the hell out of me so I just concentrated on the knitting and made myself lots of scarves.

The only bad thing about knitting is that it takes forever to make anything big, or it did for me and I really wanted a wool blanket and didn't look forward to knitting one. I also wanted to make myself a chevron blanket like my mother make me when I was a teenager and that meant that I would have to try and learn how to crochet again. Maybe it was because more time had passed after learning to knit or maybe it was just the right time but on the second attempt to learn I was successful and I was surprised that it wasn't that hard after all, just heaps different from knitting.

I made myself a few scarves, a beanie, some fingerless mittens, a chevron bolster pillow cover and a single size chevron blanket. After finishing the blanket I knew I was ready to sit down and commit myself to making a queen sized cover for my bed. I love the colour purple and love the zig-zaggy chevron pattern. I am so proud of myself for committing myself to the 6 weeks it took me to complete the blanket and am so happy that it's now on my bed.