Project Update!

Its been a while since I last updated you about my recent projects

It was when I had just finished my first Milo vest for Milo May

 

I made a second one for my niece, Miss 7

Its identical to her sisters one but this pic shows the back

 

 

Now I've slowly been working my way through the Woolly World Knits patterns

 

They sucked me in with their pretty colours

 

Since discovering Katja's patterns, I've developed a obsession with hats and mittens

 

Another Testing opportunity came up but this time for a Hat/Mitten set so I started with the Validus Mittens

Everyone else did their hats first and you know me, I like to do things differently!

 

 

Then I made the Validus Hat

 

 

I was hoping for a cold day to bundle up with my hat and mittens for an awesome photo shoot, but the sun came out and ruined my plans!

(plus I finished the day before my Samoa trip and I needed to get my test results in)

 

Then I finished a Webby

 

 

Ok I know the photo looks like an egg yolk but thats what you get with white bench-tops

I wanted to show how the top of the hat and the 'web' looks

That and the picture of me wearing this hat in my boat with a raincoat, sunglasses and life-jacket on is not inspiring...



 

Then, I realised a certain little lady's birthday was coming up and I had promised her a hat

Remember my Hat Marathon conversation with Kate?

 

So she got this Arya hat

 

 

I'm proud to say I didn't make a single mistake with this hat

Not that I always make mistakes, I don't, but this pattern was so beautifully written and so easy to follow I'll try to make one for myself

That and I kept the old written version because Me + Charts = FAIL so I need written versions

 

Now I'm planning her brother's hats

I'm not saying they'll get their's for their birthdays (Samuel, Isaac.... if you're reading this)

It might be random, it might be Christmas

 

Who am I kidding, it'll probably be their birthdays

 

I've been looking up Men's hats and found ONE I like

 

ONE!!!!

 

Where are all the men's hat designers?

Designers who use DK/8 ply yarn?

 

Non-exsistant thats where! If you're out there and reading this..... I want hats for boys/men

Not hats that can be made with pink yarn and changed into girls hats

Oh and I need it by January at the latest :-)

 

Anway..... moving on....

 

Last night I finished these beauties

They're called Avena

 

 

One is a little bit tighter than the other because I made it while watching a zombie tv show and let me tell you zombie's scare me more than anything else in the world

But I keep watching it because I NEED to know that they don't take over the world!

 

So as you can see I'm a walking advertisement for Woolly World Knits!

 

And I'm proud of it because the patterns are amazing

 

Why don't you pop over and have a look at all the pretty patterns?

 

Now remember I told you I'd give hand-dying yarn a try?

 

Well I did it!

 

I got my large stock-pot, mixed my die, added the yarn and stired it all around

 

I tried Blue

 

 

I tried Yellow

  

 

I also tried Red but the photos of it in the pot aren't very good

 

I ended up with some beautiful colours!

 

 

I started winding up the blue last night and its oh so squishy and pretty!!

 

 

I also learnt a few things:

1. Don't tie the skein up too loosly or the ties move together and everything else ends up knotted

2. Use acrylic for ties because those don't soak up the colour. I used opposite colours so the ties were easier to find

3. The Spin Cycle on my washing machine is awesome. I laid it out so it wouldn't tangle and since all the water was spun out it took very little time to dry

4. Don't tie the ties too tight. My red had white streaks because the die couldn't get through to the yarn on the inside!

 

 

I'll be using these skeins for myself!

 

(Insert evil genius laugh here)

 

And I'm planning on casting on one of these amazing colours in the next few days!

 

 

Samoa in Pictures

Right I finally have a bit of time to catch up on things!

Well I don't really, but I'm going to squeeze it in

 

As you know, my husband and I went on holiday to Samoa

 

It was amazing, the sand, beach, fish, diving, snorkling, swimming

 

No so much the food....

 

So here's my holdiday in pictures

 

We stayed in Beach Fales (Fales = House in Samoan)

 

 

 

The water was RIGHT THERE!

 

 

And soooo warm

 

With friendly sand fish

 

 

 

The first thing we did was go snorkling at a marine reserve

I got badly sunburned

 

 

JJ taught me how to free dive

 

 

 

We saw so many different types of fish, it was hard to get a picture of all of them because they run away when you motor after them shoving a camera in their face

 

Except for the black/brown fish in the first picture (to the left of the black/white one)

He attacked!

I think he was guarding his nest. JJ's watch was bitten a few times (being black) and on the elbow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw some amazing coral

 

 

The sights in the main city were interesting

 

These buses painted in every colour you can imagine were everywhere

 

 

We went to the Apia markets

 

 

This is just one of the many many many churches in the country

 

 

This one wasnt anything special to look at but it had a moat!

 

 

 While we were driving around, we saw a LOT of coconut trees

 

 

So it only makes sense that we would see piles of coconuts

 

 

And people sitting in the back of trucks

 

 

The police didn't seem to notice....

 

We went to as many non-water related attrations as we could too

 

I call this the bridge of doom

 

 

It was HIGH

I didn't want to do it. I got up six steps before I cried, threw a tantrum and put on my sad face which unfortunatly JJ managed to get pics of!

In the end, husband put himself on the step below me and I couldn't get back down past him so the only way down was up and across

 

We went to a museum, looked in the door and decided pictures of ourselves outside were more interesting

 

 

But most of the things to do involved the water. Including this Ocean Trench

Which is pretty much a hole in the ground with water from the ocean swirling in and out

 

 

We went to the south side of Upolu where the tsunami hit years ago

 

The coral is still damaged, and the reef fish are nervous

 

See them in the photo? No? Exactly

 

 

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the super warm 29 degrees celcius water meaning that I could go scuba diving without getting cold

 

Yeah!!!

 

 

We found Nemo

 



 

 

And ninja Turltes!

(sorry the photo didn't turn out very good)

 

 

Would I recommend Samoa?

 

YES!!!

 

 

There are tons more photos but I've already added 30+ photos and thats almost enough

 

If you ever get the chance - go to Samoa!

 

 



YARN!!!

This weekend, my wonderful husband is off on a snow boarding weekend

 

He leaves on Friday and comes back on Monday

 

What will I do without him? Dye yarn of course!

 

I've got my acid dyes

 

I've got my 8ply and 10ply yarn (thats DK, Worsted/Aran to some of you)

 

I know 8ply yarn doesn't acutally have 8 individual plys but thats what's printed on the yarn tags!

 

It's very hard to find a yarn like super bulky when nothing you search through at your LYS has that written on the tag!

 

So if you're ever in a Ravelry chat room thingie and someone says "can I use 8ply" don't reply with "the ply has nothing to do with it" - because to us, it does! It really really does!

 

To make things easier for me when I'm in the yarn store, I am going to start carrying around a universal pocket card and go off the needle sizes too

 

Anyway, my point is:

I have my dyes

I have my yarn

 

I'm ready to go!

(provided I can find a large pot tomorrow/Friday)

 

Wanna see my yarn?

 

Oooh squishy!

 

 

 

Now to start unravelling it all.....

 

 

June in New Zealand

June for New Zealand is the first month of winter, its when the cold really starts to set in and everyone gets out their heaters, crank up the fireplaces and start giving us Northlanders grief about being the 'winterless north' because we don't get snow

 

I disagree, zero degrees = frost = freking cold!!!

 

If you lived in the tropics and it got down to 15 degrees, you'd be freezing cold

 

My point is, you acclimatise to where you live

 

Anyway....

 

June is also my birthday so obviously the best month of the year

 

This year was pretty uneventful in the way of gifts. I'm a gift giving/receiving person and refuse to give anyone random crap they don't need/want

I also don't like to receive things that I didn't need/want because then I have to pretend I like them

 

I'm not going to give you an example, because those many gifts may have been from someone who reads my blog - eek!

 

Some of my great presents:

 

This bee suit (you may recall an earlier post where I said I had bees)

I'm very excited ot be leaning about getting the honey out of the hive!

 

 

My Mum's going over to Bali in July so she's said I have to wait for her pressie. I know she's looking for yarn stores so I'm expecting something great from her. (hint hint Mum if you're reading this)

 

My brother however, rocks

Full stop

He always gets me something awesome

(mostly because I provide the list but thats another story right?)

 

Over the last few years, he's started asking me for birthday presents and since his birthday is a few months before mine, its easy to remind him that he is required in return to buy me a present. After all, thats only fair right?

 

So after giving him many options, THIS is on its way to me right now!

It's a pack of three colours: Red, Blue and Yellow.

 

 

I'm sick and tired of looking at beatiful yarn on the other side of the world where 100grams of yarn is $24 NZD and postage is $24 NZD (I'm giving the cheapest figures I've found) and then to make it worth-while it's more like you have to buy six skeins.... and so on and so on

 

Yarn from here I've found out is even more expensive (what?!?!?)

 

So I've found a cheaper solution. Buy yarn from here and dye it myself

 

Tomorrow's mission - rumage through the second hand shops and find a large stockpot because these are acid dyes and I can't put them in my food stockpot

 

The best present (which wasn't an item that I could store away in a cupboard) was from my Husband and so far the best present ever - A trip to Samoa!

 

I'm going to put up some pics on facebook and shall put some on here once I'm able to sort a few of the under water pics

 

Lastly, my bestie who is awsome and always gets me the most beautiful presents, sent this cake to me at work the week after my birthday

 

I work for a media company so was very grateful to the photographer downstairs who offered to take  a proper photo

(thanks John)

 

Can you tell? It's a yarn ball with knitting needles in it! Everything on the plate is edible

 

Here's a close up

 

And the cake insides - mmmm

 

This was so massive, there's still some left in the fridge!

 

Love tank = Full