WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along... Lavender Flowers...

 

I love Lavender, it's one of my favourite flowers and has so many uses. There are many different varieties growing all over our garden. I add the essential oils to our homemade cleaners and also add a few drops to the vinegar that I add to soften our clothing in the washing machine. A few drops on a Lavender pillow will help you to fall asleep and can also soothe headaches...

The new Lavender we planted has been growing so well in our pot on our veranda, even a few tomatoes have started to sprout all on their own. I was inspired to knit up this Lavender flower yesterday and I have added the pattern to my flower ebook. I am so excited to share it with you. I have almost finished and will be sending the document off the the publishers next week. Then it should be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the Apple store etc.. after just a few days.

Happy Yarn Along to you :)

Joining with Ginny's Yarn Along

Spinning and How Much Drama can Just One Day Hold?

I have finished my wool and tussah silk hand spun, I am very happy with it and it's going to be a Winter scarf. I really love wearing scarves in Autumn and Winter and the fact that they are hand knitted makes me feel so happy to wear them.

It has been rather an interesting day so far, hence the title of this blog post. It actually started last night when we had no hot water to bath with. That was still fine and then this morning the geyser started to leak. It was later confirmed that it had burst in 3 places and would have to be replaced. Thank goodness we are still under warranty with the geyser company! They are going to install another one with no cost to us tomorrow. We do have another small solar geyser, so as long as we stagger the bath times we should all have hot water. Caiden has gastric flu, but seems to be feeling a little better now.

Later in the day I was taking the girls to their art lesson and our car overheated, I made it to a service station and when we tried to start the car again, the battery was flat??? The owner of the service station was so helpful and managed to charge the battery enough for me to make it back home and now we are off to buy a new battery.

Phew, it has been a day all right, but I am so grateful for all the wonderful and helpful people that have appeared throughout the day. At one point, I remember smiling to myself and thinking, maby it's time to slow down, forget the panic and see all the goodness that surrounds me...

Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my blog post yesterday about simplifying our life, I have really enjoyed reading all your messages and I am still busy responding to each one:) You have all given me plenty to think about.

How has your day been so far?

WIP Wednesday

I have been working on a few flower patterns, this one is for a Poppy, the pattern will be ready soon.

An E-book for these flower patterns and more is going to be happening soon:) I have signed up with bookbaby and I'm VERY excited, what a lovely publishing company!

My Circumnavigate cowl is coming along nicely. Can't wait to wear it!!

My little Hippo is almost complete, I have been typing out all my patterns on my I-Pad, have I mentioned how much I love this little piece on technology? It has made pattern writing so much easier for me:)

What have you been working on this week?

PS There is a REALLY HUGE giveaway on my blog from the Natural Kids Team, just go here to see it!

WIP Wednesday

I chose a new roving to spin up today from my stash, this is a Merino and Tussah Silk roving from the lovely Juno Fibre Arts. Her colours are so intense and rich and the added silk makes the spinning oh, so luxurious!
This will probably also be a cowl. Our autumn has been extremely mild so far, quite strange actually because usually by this time of year it's freezing here. I am still walking around in my jeans and T-shirts, only adding a thin extra layer later in the evenings. So, I'm not complaining:)

The hippo pattern for my book is well underway and should be finished by tomorrow, it's all so close now, very exciting!
(PS The stitch markers are from Jenna and Erin's little Etsy shop called Magpies Aerie.)

Caiden and Kye discovered some beautiful visitors in our garden...

Hope your week is filled with fibre and fun!
Linda

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

I am so excited about this Tea Leaves cardigan, I am past the armholes now, tried it on and it fits perfectly! Happy dance!! All that doubt I had, dreading knitting this far, thinking it would be too big and well, it isn't :) What joy!

I am also thrilled the colours are showing through in this photo above...

PS 'A Faithful Journey' asked which wool I was knitting with. The wool is an aran weight which I hand painted myself with earth friendly dyes. I was going for a vintage, antique effect.

Our Koek-koek and Buff Orpington chickens have grown so big already...

Meet Marty, she lives in the garden with her other rabbit friend Jack.

Joining in with Ginny today.

Have a lovely day and thanks for visiting...

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

I have been knitting on my Tea Leaves Cardi and I am not sure but I think it might be a little on the big side, oh, I hope not, but I am going to knit further to the dividing of the stitches for the armhole and see how it fits then, hopefully it will be ok. What I am trying to understand and I have knitted this project according to the pattern, but my yolk pattern section definitely does not come down the top of my arm as far as it does in the pattern photos. I am using the stipulated yarn and needle size. Has anyone ever encountered this?

I am enjoying this knit though and the colours are so subtle and I love that. I have attempted to photograph the shades on the wool above for you to see...

Hope you are having a wonderful week...

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

I have cast on and being knitting my Tea Leaves Cardigan, such a lovely knit. I can't wait to wear it. I am enjoying the colour, muted and pleasant with an Autumn feel. I used Vioset dye for the wool, combining a red brown and a few scatterings of grey. I hand painted the wool, which makes it easier to add more colour or less where you want.

Yesterday I finished my Rhino pattern, there is a giveaway for his pattern in the previous post.

Our mornings and evenings have become really cold, we lit our first fire today, but then as the sun rose, the day became glorious and warm.

Joining with Ginny's Yarn Along today

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

I have been busy with a little spinning, this is a super wash roving I bought some time ago, I am enjoying the rich colours, I have been spinning it up as an aran weight and it will possibly stay a single ply. I think this is going to turn into a hat for Kye, just need to find a pattern.

Today, I finally plucked up the courage to dye the wool for my Tea Leaves cardi! I soaked all my wool, mixed the dyes and started.

This isn't the greatest photo of the colour, but I wanted something that reflected the colours of Autumn, so the skeins have red brown with a touch of charcoal in them. I dyed 20 50 gram skeins in total.

They are all out in the sun stove now in the hot sun, I can't wait to see how they turn out!

What are you working on today?
Joining in with Ginny.
xo

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

This week has been a week for finishing projects.
I finally finished off my Shalom Cardigan!!! I am so thrilled with it, I made it slightly bigger than the pattern, I added an extra row on the yoke and then I thought it was going to be huge, so I left it sitting in a basket for months... finally I picked it up again, finished the sleeves and blocked it. When I tried it on, it had such a comfy fit and I am ecstatic about it!! Really!

I also finished Kye's Boy Hat, I really love this quick and easy pattern and Kye is so excited about his mama knitted hat.

And you won't believe it... but I finished The Harris Shrug, a lovely chevron pattern.

My two girls have been knitting scarves and hats over the past two weeks, oh my!
This neck warmer is so cute, Jen knitted it as a fun project, it's called Incognito and has a moustache embroidered on to the knitting.

Have I told you how happy I am that they love to knit?
Yesterday, Erin, "Mom?",
me, "Yes?"
Erin, "I love to knit mom!"
me, happy dance!!!

Erin and Jen both knitted this Capucine hat, I think I am going to knit myself one too!

Erin finished this Ear Flap Hat yesterday in chunky cotton and a thinner Merino double knitting.

I am about to dye wool for my Tea Leaves Cardigan, anyone fancy a Tea Leaves KAL? Let me know:)

I am still reading Farm Anatomy and enjoying it.

Joining in today with Ginny's Yarn Along.

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

So much knitting has been going on here this week, scarves and hats and more scarves, I will share all of them with you soon, we are just sewing in ends etc... I have been wanting to knit a rabbit for Easter and seeing as we have real live rabbits of our own as pets, they were the perfect models for my design.

Meet Molly Rabbit, she is such a sweet little rabbit. When knitted up, she measures 6 inches from her paws to the tip of her ears and 7.5 inches from her snout to her tail. Her body is knitted in one piece, flat, in stocking stitch, her ears are knitted in garter stitch and her tail is knitted in the round with circular needles or double pointed needles.  Her eyes and nose are needle felted on with fleece and a felting needle.

You can find her pattern in my Mamma4earth Etsy shop .

This is a very special project I am knitting for someone, so I can't reveal what it is just yet, but soon, I promise. I bought this roving quite a while ago, it is called Pharaoh, I bought it from  Manda Craft and oh, how I love the colours! I spun up the roving and the most gorgeous colours were emerging one after another! I can't wait to be finished knitting, it should be finished by tomorrow:)

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along

xo xo

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

Yesterday a friend and I went off to Colourspun Yarns to buy some yarn, oh my, the colours were so beautiful, it was hard to choose. I chose all Aran weight yarns for hat knitting for my children because it's cooling down here quite considerably these days.

I have started knitting a hat for Caiden, he is so excited that I'm knitting his hat first, the pattern is called The Boy Hat Pattern, a free pattern on Ravelry. I also bought quite a few skeins of undyed yarn to dye up and knit The Tea Leaves Cardigan, such a beautiful cardi.

Almost finished the Harris shrug, just the rib to go.

I am reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Farm Anatomy, I am enjoying both of these books tremendously!

I am so very grateful for this day, yesterday, while returning from our wool excursion, our car was almost hit by a speeding truck, he was travelling extremely fast and almost hit us, he missed us by seconds, it was awful, horrid and left me with a migraine for the rest of the day and night. Today I feel better, this experience has helped me to remember and realise just how precious life and each day is...

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along.
xo

WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

Oh happy day! I managed to finish my Journey Slouch Hat! I remembered when I was spinning this roving that there was a small ball that had been spun up previously. I went searching for this yarn, scratching through the wool cupboard and I found it! So the hat is finished, Jen was so kind to wear it for the photos. I love the softness of this yarn, a flax, silk and Merino blend. I wasn't too sure about the colour, but I fell in love with it when I first saw it as a roving, (you know what I mean, you see some yarn, have no idea what you're going to do with it, it makes your heart so happy to just look at it and you simply must have it).

I am also busy designing another creature, when I saw this variegated blue I just knew it was the right colour for the project:)
Hope you are having an inspired day.

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along
Linda

Hat Knitting

 

I am still busy with my, stranded knitting hat from Solsilke, I have made quite a lot of progress and I'm enjoying this tremendously. Each round has been two stranded knitting and then last night I began on a three stranded row. I thought all was going well and then at the end of this particular row, I was a stitch short:( When I checked back, I had knitted four instead of three stitches right at the beginning of the row which put the entire pattern out just slightly. Now I am in the process of unpicking this row and, well, the stitches are really tiny, so wish me luck:)

I love the colours so much and I am thrilled I gave, stranded knitting a try.

This hat design is called, The Blue Light Hat and Scarf Pattern. A few people asked me last week to link to the pattern, it is on the Solsilke Bohus page on the link above. You can write to them under 'contact' and they will send you a price list:)

This morning my hubby and I went out for a quick breakfast date, how lovely it was to spend some time with Richard...

Reading: A kindle book by Kristen D Randle called The Gardener and really enjoying it, she is a wonderful writer.

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