Wrap me up

Ok, it has been too long. I have been up to lots in the last 3 (is it really that long) months, and have meant to post about it here but just not quite got there. I thought that since I am avoiding going to bed, I could post some updated photos of my Clapotis now.


I really love this wrap, but it did need to be washed a couple of times to soften it up. I was able to wear it a couple of times while I was away at the Scquilters Retreat in Adelaide in April, and it received some vary favourable comments. The colours in it are just delicious, I think I am now addicted to Noro yarns. For the colours, not the softness of the yarns. Or the knots.

My next post will include photos and details of other projects I have been working on, two of which I started while on my holiday. I can't believe it is a month since I flew back from Adelaide (or it will be tomorrow). I will also have to put some photos up of the Retreat. I have booked my leave for next years retreat in Bathurst, whether or not I will be able to afford it will be another matter. I am starting my savings this week.

I need to go to bed now, but I am sure I will have nightmares because I have enjoyed my cheese and biscuits a little bit too much since getting home from work. I had to do something - Grey's Anatomy had started already, and I can't watch Private Practice till I have watched the GA episode. It will be so exciting this week!

Shawl obsessed

Two of my WIPs at the moment are shawls. One is the Fallen Leaves wrap by Dory Brown. I am really enjoying this pattern, as can be seen here:

I was working on this every spare moment, until I needed an easier project to work on at the Canberra Quilters first night meeting of the year. I didn't really like the idea of ripping back because I wasn't concentrating on the pattern. The project I decided to work on was the world famous (in knitting circles at least) Clapotis. I had bought the yarn in 2006 at the craft show. I am using Noro Silk Garden, and it is very pretty. I love seeing the colours change as I knit. I can't wait to drop all the stitches, I have already started dropping some of them more than the few rows that the pattern says to do. I have waited till I've been a couple of rows beyond the one where you drop the stitch to be on the safe side. I don't think it matters if you drop all the way to the bottom before finishing, but I am still trying to resist just in case.


Some of you may notice the ring stitch markers, thanks again to WithaQ for that tip. At the moment I have about 8 electric toothbrush heads floating around in the drawer needing to be used, all without the little colour rings you are supposed to use with them. They make great stitch markers. I am trying to convert all my family into using electric toothbrushes and giving me the rings (hint hint, Mum I am talking to you)! The other stitch markers are the pretty pink beaded ones I got from Donyale last year when I bought the lovely baby alpaca. That is going to be for my special Clapotis, the Silk Garden version is my practice run.

I didn't end up doing any stitching at the CQ meeting, I think it was about 200 degrees inside the church hall, so hot that I thought I was either going to be sick or pass out. I really started this on the 6th of February. I have hardly put it down, except to go to work or waste time on the computer. I am on the 12th repeat of the straight section, so not long to go now. The photo was taken early on, it is much longer now.

The first weekend of my Clapotis Adventure, it was really hot here in Canberra. It got to 40 and 39 degrees on the Sat and Sun, way too hot to spend at my house, so I went and sat at Mum's in the aircon. It was good timing that Dad's cousin was in town, so I was able to spend some time with her. She was visiting from Mildura, so it was a bit cooler for her here than back in Victoria.

On the Sunday I spent a lot of time in front of the TV, watching the terrible news of the bushfires. I had the last two Mondays off work, so knitting this shawl while watching the news has been therapy for me in a way, I guess. It has had quite a few tears fall on it, especially today while watching the service today for the day of mourning.

As well as the two shawls that I am doing, I am also working on some hats to give to bushfire victims. I figure it gets cold in winter where the fires were, so they will be well used. I love knitting in circles, so these will be quick and useful projects to give away. I have to find out who is collecting knitwear for the bushfire victims. The mother of one of my neighbours wants to knit some things as well to give away.

On the car front, I decided on the Suzuki Swift. I now have a really cute little car, though it is amazing how dirty they can get in 3 weeks. I will take a photo of the car tomorrow, and also of the Clapotis in progress. I should also do some weeding and pruning tomorrow, and go to the gym. Hopefully I can get up early to do that, before going to have a massage and hang out with the nieces. I love having a 3 day weekend, this will be my third one in a row. Pity that the last first one only came about from a nasty gastro bug brought interstate.

Next weekend is the Canberra Show, so I will be there watching the nieces behaving like perfect little angels (I hope) and checking out the craft exhibition. I can't wait to see what everyone has made. I know that QM has a gorgeous cardigan that she has put in the show, if only it was my size, it would have gone home with me. I have printed out the pattern, and will decide what yarn to use to make one for me.

Things of blue

On Monday I picked up my quilt from the Caroline Conlan of History in the Making. Unfortunately she doesn't have a website, but if you want her to do any work for you I can give you her number.

The quilt looks beautiful, as you can see. Caroline custom quilted it, and it look spectacular. The actual star part of the quilting was a bit of a challenge, the design we had chosen for the quilt had bits that we thought would work for all parts of the quilt, but the star bits are parallelograms, not the diamonds that were needed for the pattern to work. I think that the design Caroline came up with for this portion worked really well.

Here is a close up of the centre of the quilt. My Mum is in love with feathers, so she kept showing me pictures of similar quilts she found that had feathers on them. Two quilting designs I don't like are feathers and stipples, so I don't think I will ever use them. I am sure feathers would look fine for this quilt, but I reckon this looks better, it is more original.

Don't you just love the design in the lighter part of the quilt? It helps the fabric to stand out. I knew nothing about luminosity when I chose the fabrics for this quilt, but I managed to create a good effect anyway.


It was hard to get a pic showing the quilting on the background fabric, but it is basically three quarters of the section in the light fabric. The border quilting looks a bit like swirls and hearts.


At the moment the quilt is still sitting on my sofa, waiting for me to cut out the binding, as well as remove the excess wadding and backing fabric from the quilt itself. The only problem with having to do that, is that I won't be able to admire it on the sofa while I am working on it.
Thanks again to Mum who offered to pay for a quilt of mine to be quilted when I bought my house, I am pleased I chose this one - if I had to pay for it to be custom quilted it would probably be sitting in a box for another 5 years.

The other scrumptious blue thing that has come into my home in the last couple of weeks is this gorgeous baby alpaca dyed by Donyale. I was inspired by QMs Clapotis that her Mum made for her, and wanted to make a similar but larger version.

The photos don't do justice to the colour, but it is a really nice bluey-grey. I also bought some stitch markers, because they just looked so pretty on the website, but they look even better in real life. The lighting in the bathroom shows off the colour much better than the lounge, but these are the only pics I have.

Speaking of bathrooms, better go do some cleaning before I go out for coffee.