I have a hole in my sock. My nice warm knitted sock. The pair I had only just finished when winter started.
I have a little left over yarn and know how to fix it but how far should I go? The fabric is wearing thin in other places too.
I never really appreciated knitted socks before coming to Canada. I always found them too hot to wear. Not so in this land of cold! This pair of socks have been worn almost constantly since they were finished, which is probably why they have a hole already (and having all wooden floors at home).
The funny thing about these socks is that they were a classic case of Second Sock Syndrome or SSS. I made the first one the beginning of 2010 and started a different sock instead of making a second! That next sock was finished and also never had it's mate started. So you could say I had a pair of socks, just not a matching pair! (Since then I have actually finished three pairs of socks - two were gifts and the other was for a KAL so they all had deadlines.)
Mixed in with my yarn stash that came over from NZ were my two single socks. It didn't take me long to realize that warm woollen socks were a good idea in this country, so I dug through my part balls, printed out the pattern and got knitting on the first second sock!
Then other, more urgent knitting projects got in the way of starting the next second sock. Until I got a hole.
Now I'm racing through the next one and already planning another pair! Hopefully I don't get SSS this time, but it seems necessity is a great motivator for me to finish!
Any one else had issues with SSS? What's the longest it's taken you to finish a pair of socks?
~ Amber ~
So blogging has taken a bit of a back seat for me the last few months. I'm sure you can forgive me as there's just been so many new things to experience as a family in this new country we're calling home!
Shovelling snow off the pond to try ice-skating!
Our latest adventure is all about the snow. Where we lived in New Zealand it basically doesn't get snow so it's all new for us! It's the first time I've really been able to see the point in accessory knitting - the girls hardly ever wore hats, gloves or scarves before, but now it's a necessity. I've been knitting constantly since it started getting cold and I still have a list a mile long of things I need to knit for this winter. And I don't have any photos of anything I've knit becasue as soon as it's off the needles, it's being used!
The girls in their snow gear off to school
But I have even more exciting news to share!
When looking for yarn to buy online, it didn't take me long to notice that I had no chance of buying from my favourite NZ dyers. Usually their stockings, which sell out in minutes, are up for sale at 8pm NZ time which is 2am here (i.e. the middle of the night!) and I wasn't going to stay up that late.
This also made me realise that most people in North America probably have never had the opportunity to knit with any of this great NZ wool either. Having done a little yarn dyeing before and a space I could set up solely for the purpose, I contacted a NZ wool mill about getting un-dyed yarn sent over here. As it turned out, I could get wool from NZ at a price reasonable enough to dye and sell here.
And that was the start of Little Fantail Yarns!
Click on the picture to see what I have for sale on Etsy
So far it's just in the infant stages, selling a few different bases on Etsy, but I hope to add luxury NZ yarns in the future (think possum/merino!) I also plan on re-branding my patterns as Little Fantail over the coming months.
In the meantime, browse the yarns I have for sale on my Etsy page and make sure you stop by my brand new FaceBook page, like it and share with anyone over this side of the world you think might be interested - every milestone in people that like me is a good excuse for a giveaway!
Earlier in the year I vaguely mentioned some major changes that were going to happen in our lives this year. The first one was a big change of job for both J and me with the sale of his parent's business (we both worked for/with them for the past 9+ years).
But now, the real major change is upon us - we're moving to Canada!
This photo was taken by J earlier this year at the local Aerodrome when they had a WWI Air Show/display on. He thought it was very fitting, considering our plans for this year.
This is a big deal for us as it's not just 'across the ditch' (to Australia - the common thing NZers do), it's a complete change of hemispheres and we will be leaving all our extended family behind. We're going on a one-way ticket with a very flexible idea of when we will be coming back home!
We leave New Zealand in just under three weeks at the begining of August which should give us a bit of time to settle in etc before the girls start the new school year there in September.
School's on holiday at the moment and as we leave the week after Term 3 starts, there wasn't much point them going back to school here. This also means I have three very excited and nervous girls to try and keep busy while I trying to pack up our life and sell all our furniture. Things are very busy for us right now!
Hopefully the next post on this blog will be made from the hot and humid Summer going on in Ontario when we're finally settled!
PS: Do you think it's terrible that I'm looking forward to having a 'real' winter where my knits might actually get worn? (The girls love wearing my knits, they just never seem to get really cold enough to get good use out of them. Today, for example, they're outside in shorts and singlets and it's the middle of July!)
Ok, so I'm a little late to the party but better late than never right??
This year will be full of changes and new adventures for our family, starting with some major job changes happening in the next month, all going to plan. I'm hoping this means I get more time to spend focussing on my knitting and pattern designing.
Little Miss being the baby also
School will be starting again next week for the girls and I'm really looking forward to the routine again. Though it will be interesting to see how the Little Man handles it all - he's been far too spoilt with company over the last 7-8weeks of holidays!
Big Miss reading to the Little Man
I have plenty of pattern news I need to write about on here - in particular about a pattern that was printed in a magazine that came out this month! But hopefully, cute baby photos will be ok for now...
Just over four months and he's already up on his knees!
I had some little people come visit today with their mum.
After they'd gone home I noticed that my balls of yarn had been knocked off the coffee table where I'd left them and one was missing.
I wasn't too worried as I figured it would turn up.
It did. It was sitting in the ashes of the open fire.
This is my second ball of the Mocha for BigMiss' tunic I'm making. And I was planning on using it tonight.
I think I'll have to toddler-proof my knitting stuff a bit better next time!
Any suggestions for how to clean it??
So I've been spending a bit of money on yarn lately (my PayPal balance is rather empty).
But it's all gorgeous and mostly from new NZ dyers that I haven't tried.
First up:
This yarn I actually purchased a while ago (when I was buying yarn for the MYB swap) but I never posted about it on here. Then, Rachel, the dyer, moved house and put the business on hold until things were all settled down. She's just started up again with her first yarn stocking last Sunday and theres lots of great extras going up for sale in the shop lately, including WIP bags, stitch markers and cute handmade buttons.
I'm still deciding what I'm going to use it for, possibly something for the baby, though it is quite a boyish colour and we don't know what bubs is!
This gorgeous yarn I actually 'won'! Every so often, Emma, the dyer, runs a different kind of yarn stocking method via her FaceBook page called a Ballot Sale. This is where for a certain period of time everyone that's interested in purchasing can comment 'sold' on the yarn photo and then, using Random.org, Emma draws the 'winner' of each colourway/yarn. Normally it's a matter of first in, first served (and I never manage to be online at the right time!) so it was nice to be able to browse the yarn and not feel so pressured to make a split-second decision on the colourway I wanted the most. And I figured, that because I won the only yarn I asked for, that it was meant to be!
This I was thinking would be either for the baby or MiddleMiss (this sort of blue suits her really well). I figure a soft blue like this is fine for a baby girl (if that's what bubs is) when mixed with pink in the outfit (BigMiss wore blue and pink together as a baby).
This yarn I had to have because of it's name. And because it hadn't sold immediately (I thought about it for a full day saying 'if it's still there tomorrow I'll get it!'), I decided it was another meant-to-be! Jo, the dyer, dyed up a collection of yarns to match her 'Memories of being a Kiwi Kid' moodboard and Snifters certainly hold memories for me too!
This I plan to use for bubs as there just isn't enough of it for anything decent for my girls and it really is a perfect neutral baby colour (not to mention I have several different chocolate browns in stash to choose from that will go nicely as trim yarn).
Knitsch Yarns 100% Merino Sock in colourways (clockwise from top): Odelay; Looking Glass; Pencarrow; Georgina and the Jellyfish
Last Saturday, J wasn't home and I'd just noticed the night before that
Craft 2.0 was happening in Wellington. So, as the house was tidy already and there was nothing else much pressing to do, I told the girls to get in the car and we would go for a ride. An hour and a half later we were in central Wellington on a freezing cold windy day (when isn't it in Wellington?) looking around for Chaffers Marina. We did manange to find it rather easily and the girls had fun looking around at all the stalls and deciding what to buy (they'd raided their piggy banks and had $20 each to spend). A little while later we all came out with a parcel or two.
My purchases were all made at Knitsch Yarns' stall where I (foolishly, maybe? I think you buy more yarn in person than online!) let the girls each pick a yarn for me to make them something out of. BigMiss chose the Odelay for a hat, MiddleMiss chose the Georgina & the Jellyfish for some gloves/mitts (to match
her cowl - the colour is similar, though it doesn't really look it from the photo), LittleMiss chose a teal-coloured DK called 'Peacock' for a cowl (my new pattern) and the Looking Glass & Pencarrow (as matching trim) are to be made into something for the baby.
The girls' purchases were pretty good too - they each came home with some type of hair accessory, a super yummy
Gourmet Caramel Apple (you have no idea how delicious these are!) and a packet of fizzing sherbert. And because I didn't feel like coming home so soon after driving all the way over, we went to
Te Papa (NZ's national museum) for lunch and a look around (I love that it has free entry!) and were back in time to make dinner!
I also received two different yarn club installments in the last couple of weeks which I might do a post about another time as there are still some international parcels to arrive.
Did you know it's my birthday today?
So far I've been nicely spoiled and thought I'd quickly show everyone some of the gifts I got before I head off to work.
The first one came last week:
Can you see the Magic Yarn Ball ready to go off to my swappee? I don't think she's guessed it's from me yet, so I won't post a proper picture of it!
A set of seagrass chairs to go in front of the fire.
You can tell the fire has been going because the cat is there!
Even though I had a hand in the purchasing decision, we're calling them my present as I was greatly in need of somewhere comfortable to sit. My current getting-rounder condition means that the second-hand-when-we-got-it-ten-years-ago, very low couch is terrible to sit in and hard to get out of! And they pass the knitting test (i.e. I can comfortably knit in them!)
From J and the girls I got some more useful presents, the best ones being the mortar and pestle and this really cool clock:
Apparently LittleMiss chose it - she has good taste!
Still in it's box at the moment, but it will go somewhere in the kitchen area, of course!
Then a courier knocked on the door and dropped off a huge box, though this was addressed to both J and I but did include a birthday card for me. In it was this:
A very cool new quilt for our bed! Made specially for us by my Nana to replace the one she made me for my 21st:
It's been well loved in the ten years we've had it and was greatly in need of replacement.
See?
We happened to mention this to Nana when we visited over summer and she offered to make a new one for us. Though the old one will still get used I'm sure! Especially on the cold frosty nights when we need that extra layer - like last night was!
And you can even get your own quilt made by my Nana as she has a
little website where she sells them, as well as other crafty stuff she makes - check it out, there's some cool stuff there! I'm sure she'll even post overseas if you ask her nicely!
Sharing with the lovely folk over
here.
(Though not technically My Creative Space, you can click through to check out my Nana's!)
In case you haven't noticed, it's that festive time of year again.
Which means that the girls are on holiday and I have a-million-and-one things to do and organise before J's three week holiday period off work.
During any school holidays, most of my time is spent juggling between entertaining the girls and finding babysitters for them so I can still work and internet time is always the first to suffer as it's really not that important (then the housework - it's about as unimportant isn't it?)
So please forgive me if I seem a bit absent from this space for the next month or so. Though I do have several things I've made lately that I plan on posting about when I can, as well as a new design I released earlier this month.
I hope you all have a great family time this Christmas and, if you don't hear from me sooner, I'll see you all again in the new year!
Look what J gave me this weekend.
I won't say where he stole got it from.
The wine bottle makes a good vase. It's all I had besides a drinking glass.
You might have noticed I missed posting the last 10 or so days in Blogtober.
I really did mean to and even had posts planned in my head, but computer time didn't happen as there were more important things going on.
Like...
A long weekend where J got an extra day off work so we painted doors.
Then the 'real' day off work where we spent a family afternoon at the beach (after putting another coat of paint on the doors).
Even the dog came - she's part of the family too!
It was too cold to swim so we didn't take togs, but they still got very wet anyway (went home in the car in their knickers!)
And don't forget the sand castle building!
And then school holidays were over and it was back to work during the day and homework every afternoon and tidying the house in the evening and planning the MiddleMiss' birthday and a new nephew to knit for and, and...you know how it goes.
So I didn't complete Blogtober, but it's not the end of the world!
Though I did get up to lots of stuff over the last week which I fully intend to catch up on in the next few days.
I wore shorts for the first time today.
And it hasn't even been sunny!
Looking forward to the Summer holidays up North already.
Taken on our last Summer holiday to Northland, that's J in the water with LittleMiss.
...even the flowers are smiling!
No, I didn't use photoshop.
I was mowing the lawns so had to pick it to show J.
This time last year we had just started our (major) renovations. It seems that after Blogtober I slacked off in talking about it all.
Maybe it was because it was so busy, maybe I didn't think anyone was interested, who knows?
But now, a year later, you might be wondering what it's all like (and if it's finished!)
We went from this:
to this:
It appears we're rather useless at taking before and after pictures and this was the only one I could find that showed the same end of the house.
And are we finished?
Almost.
The only things missing are curtains. And there is all the outside/landscaping we want to do, but that's another story!
Yeah, I know, the pictures don't show you much. We did a lot of internal rearrangements also, but the full extent of it all is a bit hard to show in photos. If you really want to see, let me know in the comments and I can show the before and after plans to give a better idea.
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