Florentines

Went for a drive yesterday to The Spud Shed in Trafalgar to pick up some pickling onions and some of these yummy florentines.

Tug Boat Doorstop Refit

  

  



After a workplace incident, there was damage to the stern of the little tug boat.  So I brought it home, repaired the stern, gave the whole boat a clean, added signage, straightened the aerial and secured the buffers.  Now she's back working hard at her door holding duties.

Meet Dotty

  

  

Our resident female blackbird.  She has a white mark on her back so it has been really easy to identify her, and hence the name.  She has been in our garden a number of years now, had lots of babies, and made lots of mess as blackbirds do.  We have become very fond of Dotty.

Peach Faced Parrot

  

  

These are sweet little, noisy birds.  Not happy with the beak, need to work out a better parrot beak.

More Playing

Little knitted and crocheted squares.  But no, not following that idea either.  Next.

Not To Plan

Thinking about things not working lately I keep thinking about this little guy that didn't go to plan, but still worked.  I was making reindeer at the time for the Christmas window at Can Do Books.  Inspired by the little gnome buttons I found at Spotlight, I thought I would make a reindeer dressed as a gnome.  But it turned out looking like a gnome dressed as a reindeer.  He still worked and went into the window with the others.  And someone loved him, bought him and took him home.

Squirrel

  

  

This is Twig, designed by Simone Gooding in her book 'Little Traveller".The little quilt from yesterday was the start of making this one for the little squirrel.   I did a crocheted basket with a handle instead of a knitted one in the book.  And I have a little bag of acorn caps that I have collected over the years and can't bear to throw out because they come in handy for little projects like this, so I crocheted the acorn and glued a real cap.

Change of Plan

Things haven't been going well craft wise this week.  Tried knitting the hat I started before, a couple of times, but no it wasn't working, so off the needles.  Tried coming up with a new design related to Christmas, no not working either  That one was attacked from several different directions, all failed.  So in order to re-group and think about what to do next, I am making someone else's design.  Keeps the crafting going and the brain thinking.

In The Garden

I probably post about this lily every year, but it is always a surprise when it pops up in the front garden.

Ugly Buttons

  

I bought a black cotton shirt the other day, it wasn't expensive, and it had brown swirl buttons on it.  Why?  They weren't pretty, they did contrast the fabric, but not in a good way.  There are eight buttons on the front, so they weren't being skimpy.  A quick visit to my button stash and I changed them all to little black buttons.

Pincushion Swap

  



This is the sweet pincushion I received from Melinda of @adventures_in_textiles in the pincushion swap organised by Ellie of @petalplum.  A patchwork hexagon shaped pincushion with an emboldened bird.  Must be the early bird because it has the worm.  Thank you Melinda, I love it.

White Naped Honeyeater

  

  



A new bird was in our little backyard at the weekend.  Looking through the book, I think it was a White Naped Honeyeater, quite a small bird.  Hope it comes back, and brings some friends.

Puppy Pincushion

  

  



This is the pincushion I made for the Pincushion Swap organised by Ellie of @petalplum.  I was matched with Melinda of @adventures_in_textiles and when I went to have a little snoop on her Instagram account and saw she had a sweet little King Charles Cavalier puppy, I had to try and make him.  So this is Harvey.  The main body of the pincushion is linen I dyed in plane tree bark, the embroidered flowers are in thread I dyed in mandarin, red cabbage, walnut and a Vietnamese plant.  Harvey's brown fur is a yarn hand dyed by Fibresmith.  I like pincushions with sand in them, it cleans and sharpens the needles and pins when you push them into the cushion.  It also give the whole thing a bit of weight.  The sand is encased in a box of wool felt, held by a cardboard box for the base.

The Before Bird

I find changing colours in a row while doing circular knitting when making the birds is quite difficult.  They are also too small to be sewing in ends. The colour change is for the head or tail is easy.  So if the back is a different colour to the tummy I pick the more dominant colour for the bird and knit it all in the one colour then embroider the different colours afterwards.  So this next bird is about half white.

Hankies

  



We went for a drive to Torquay yesterday and visited Amiitie Fabrics.  A lovely shop and cafe.  Pies picked some fabrics to make handkerchiefs.  Which I did when we got home.  I tried using the rolled hem foot on my sewing machine, which works really well on the straight bits, not so well at the corners.  I had trimmed the corner beforehand, but it made no difference.  I ended up just sewing with the normal foot and the edge folded and ironed.

Red Browed Finch

  

  

We saw these sweet little birds at Australia Gardens when we were there earlier this year.  This is where the size of the knitted bird is about the size of the real bird.

More Yarn

A parcel of lovely hand dyed greens arrived this week from Heathermaid.  I have a plan for these but it will need some working out first.

Pyjama Bottoms

I made myself a pair of pyjama bottoms yesterday.  Got to use a foot on the sewing machine I have never used, and stitches I hadn't tried.  It's a knit fabric and looks a lot thicker in the photo than it is.  The back of the fabric is soft and fluffy like flannelette, but a knit, so I don't know what it is called.  Should be nice and warm for the cooler nights coming.

Yarn Wrangling

Yesterday I sorted through the yarn tubs and separated the colours, then worked through and re-wound the unruly balls and wound the skeins into nice centre-pull balls.

Top Knot Pigeon

  

  

We have had the occasional Top Knot in our garden, but not for awhile.  They are mostly in the park across the road, and one was on the footpath when I walked to the shop yesterday.  So I thought I should make one, but not sure I have done this beautiful bird justice.  There is a lot going on with a Top Knot.