Project 365: Week 3

Australia is a land of harsh contrasts and unforgiving nature. To quote part of Dorothea Mackellar's poem My Country,

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me! 

This January, nature is throwing massive heatwaves at most of Australia and there are catastrophic bushfires in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria. Australia is having a go at the terror thing at the moment. This week fire is hitting close to home with a bushfire which began at Aberfeldy in the mountains behind our town  spreading overnight to threaten towns nearly fifty kilometres away. The middle daughter is a firefighter as part of her job and was hard at work as first response at Aberfeldy. She then spent the weekend on standby. Fingers crossed it doesn't flare up again. The last thing many residents in Gippsland need is reminders of Black Saturday. Those fires permanently scarred a lot of psyches in this area.

Day 15: Clean desk at work for the start of a new year. Of course in my case, a clean desk usually means little real work is going on!

Day 16: Our watch cat just hanging about in the side garden monitoring for any intruders attempting to enter our gate

Day 17: Smoke plume from the Aberfeldy fire about 6 pm. Looking out across the paddocks down the road and thinking of the middle daughter Mel who is off up there fighting it.

Day 18: Tired, weary and dirty firefighter after an 20 hour overnight shift.

Day 19: The Head Chef hard at work. The boys went for a drive to the local meat packers this morning. Here are a batch of homemade hamburgers and a stack of things to be chopped up for the freezer. Apologies to any vegetarians reading my blog. I have dedicated carnivores.

Day 20: This is what happens when your future doctor person gets too bored when they are on holidays. They choose to pierce their own ear. Mind it was done with a sterile needle and full aseptic technique.

And once again I neglected to take a photo on Day 21. (There seems to be a pattern happening here. Day 21 was a Monday as was the day I missed last week. Enough said). Lots did happen yesterday so it wasn't that. Yesterday:

• I  had my new smart meter installed first thing in the morning. Nice to see prompt, efficient and respectful tradies.
• The local council sent workers out to trim the street trees.
• It was rubbish collection day.
• And all three of these things happened almost simultaneously whilst both girls were also trying to leave for work. Busy street.
• I went to work and the boy went off to a friend's house to play computer games and then kept sending me a series of texts pushing back his estimated time of return. He eventually decided the only viable option was staying the night instead.

Project 365: Week 2

Here is the the second week of January in photos. We have had a least three seasons in this one week with the weather hitting a maximum of 39 degrees one day but also a few days requiring jumpers, heaters and other winter goodies. There was even some rain and wind strong enough to blow the chickens' feathers inside out.

Day 8: This is what my kids call Santa Vomit. Cleaning and packing up the Christmas Decorations. The 12 days of Christmas are officially over.

Day 9: What happened to summer? Couch snuggling requires blankies and slippers. There is a boy somewhere under that blanket

Day 10: Feeding my sister's cat. This is her driveway. Majestic.

Day 11: Hay bales in the paddock around the corner. Every time I drive past this I have a giggle at the coke bottle caught in the wrapping

Day 12: Cleaning up some of the shoes. There are 3 pairs of the Head of the Household's shoes; 2 pairs of the boy's shoes and one pair of thongs; 6 pairs of my shoes and 10 pairs of Mel's shoes and 2 pairs of thongs. Guess it's true that girls have an inbuilt shoe gene. (This does not include the two pair of shoes I then tripped over in the lounge room or the new pair of hiking boots Mel bought today).

Day 13: Taking photos for my blog. Ballet bag as made by me. Read its blog post: Ballerinas on a bag.

And on Day 14 I forgot to take a photo (See I knew it wouldn't take long for me to stuff it up). It was such a blah sort of day. I did think about cheating and taking one early this morning and passing it off as yesterday's but that is just plain wrong. Suffice to say my subconscious did not find anything worth recording about yesterday <grin>. Now I'm gonna remember to pack my camera when I go to work today.

Ballerinas on a bag

#a month of moments
14. Pretty

I have a confession to make. I used to be a ballet mum. In fact, I'm really only a recently retired ballet mum with the boy still taking jazz classes till the middle of 2012 when he could no longer fit it in with school, a part-time job and serious martial arts training. Ballet is one of those activities which lend itself to pretty creative accessories. I've blogged before about my ballet related knitting (See: The Ballet Years). But I can sew and embroider too when I put my mind to it. So here is a pretty appliqued ballet bag I made for my eldest daughter.

In the good old days when I didn't work full time, I spent 6 months as a member of of church based craft group which met on Thursday mornings. My Mum's neighbor invited me along. You could just do your own thing and socialize over coffee and craft or they would organize a couple of different group projects. Whilst I was there we made patchwork and applique bags. This is basically a cylindrical duffle bag with a drawstring closure. It has five pockets around the outside, each with an appliqued picture and patchwork trim. It is fully lined with cream homespun and has a padded base. The material for the body of the bag is spotty tie dyed quilting cotton. My friend lent me the basic pattern and I think she made one with golliwogs and rag dolls on it.

I had the patterns for the appliques having bought a kit for them them previously at a craft show. I just had a hunt in my sewing box to see who they are by and the pattern says copyright 1995 by Checks Design Originals PO Box 486 Millicent 5280. I can't find a web address for them though so they may no longer be in business.

Close up of the casing

Here are more detailed shots of the the five appliqued designs on the pockets. A ballerina in full tutu mode.

Here's where my eldest daughter's influence comes in. This is supposed to be her in class mode. She was the only junior ballerina who wouldn't wear a pink leotard except when she had to for exams. I had the only black clad baby ballerina.

A pink spotty tutu and ballet shoes on a coat hanger.

The red shoes. (Both an iconic ballet and a classic movie).

An extremely curly haired ballerina with a fairy wand complete with heart charm. All of these are hand appliqued with really fine buttonhole stitch edging done with two strands of embroidery thread. I did use fusible webbing on these though. I'm really proud of how this turned out.

Here it is hanging on the coat rack or rather, bag tree in the girl's room.

Kaffe Fassett: Pattern in Colour

#a month of moments

9. Pattern

When I first looked at the prompts this month, this was one of the first I knew I was going to be able to build a blog post around easily. After all knitting is all about following patterns. And I have had the germ of an idea about a blog post about these particular knitted garments since I first started my blog about 18 months ago.

So here is a glorious fusion of pattern and colour. Deceptively complex but sneakily simple. There are only two colours being used in any one row. (Except for the row with the flower centres).

Many years ago, my aunt gave me the best present. I used to finish half-knitted garments for her. As an enormous thank you she gave me a copy of Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Knitting when it was first published in about 1986.

Slightly battered and the cover is faded. Clearly well loved. There are random kid scribbles on some of the pages in blue pen.

This was my first introduction to the idea that a craft book could also be a coffee table book. As well as patterns, this is also snippets of Kaffe's life story and a sumptuous photographic tour of his design inspiration. It's one of those books I can still get lost in for hours and that I find new inspiration in every time I look at it.

The colour combination here just sings to me. These are so 'me' colours.

This is my favorite design in the book: Zigzag. I have knitted 4 versions of this pattern now. A jumper in creams and jewel tones in my teenage years which I outgrew (it had really narrow sleeves and I developed biceps after having children) and reluctantly donated to an op shop. I miss it. I hindsight, I should have re-purposed it into a cushion or something. I made a child's version for my little sister when she was about 10 in blues and purples which she wore till she wrecked it. (Wheelchairs are not exactly compatible with long term clothing survival).

When my girls were about 6 and 8, ponchos came back into vogue again. This is my first go at designing a pattern. I laid the girls down on the floor, and drew a poncho shape around them making sure the shoulder line fitted correctly. I then did some calculations based on my gauge for this pattern using 8ply (DK weight) wool on 4 mm needles and worked out how many stitches I needed to cast on for the lower edge. I compared the size of the knitting to the paper pattern as I went taking notes for the the second poncho.

 

This is the eldest daughter's poncho. At this stage of her life she was rebelling against the whole "pink is for girls" thing. So she chose blacks and greys for her poncho. This is all 8ply and wool or wool blends. There's even some fuzzy boucle style yarn as you can see in the following picture. The yarn was divided into two groups, light greys and dark greys / blacks.

Zigzag was also the pattern I used to make a cardigan for myself. This is made in a mixture of 5ply (sportweight) cotton and cotton / acrylic blend yarns. This is unfortunately a little too big for me now as it is heavy and it has stretched somewhat but I wear it belted with the sleeves rolled up.

 

 This piece of knitting is actually the background of my blog title.

Pretty star shaped shell buttons

And finally here is Mel's poncho. The design used for this one is called Persian Poppy. Mel choose the colours. She was a much more girly girl. Hence the knitted lace edging.

Persian poppy inspiration complete with scribble

I had the pleasure of getting to listen to a public lecture by Kaffe when he was in Australia about five years ago at a Craft Show. He spoke of seeing pattern and color inspiration in everything, in the simplest arrangement of objects, in architecture, in nature and streetscapes. He was an inspiring and magnetic speaker. He's on my wishlist of interviewees for this Year of the Designer.

Project 365: Week 1

Like millions of other bloggers before me, I'm gonna have a go at this photo a day thing. It will be interesting to see how long I last once I am back at work and in the full swing of lecturing given that my preferred camera is a digital SLR and so fairly bulky, heavy and definitely obtrusive. I've already outed myself at work as a secret knitter. I think this year, I'll be outing myself as a random photographer too. Expect to see lots of photos of knitted objects (and possibly food as well as headless people - easiest way to deal with that tricky privacy issue. Can I take your photo and use it on my blog? What do you mean, NO?!).

So here is the first week of January 2013 as seen through my camera lens.  I reserve the right to manipulate them to within an inch of their life if the only photo I managed to take on any given day was basically dodgy (see 'Ranger Stacey' photo below as an example).

Day 1: New Year's Knitting

Day 2: I bought a laminator. Going slightly crazy laminating things.

Day 3: 'Ranger Stacey' packing for a day in the field. In heat camera effect as she was off to check the remote control infra red cameras.

Day 4: Hot, Hot, Hot (42 degrees Celsius). But at least the washing dries in 5 minutes flat. One thing I love about summer is fresh washing dried on the line.

Day 5: On the fifth day evening came and with it peace

Day 6: Sunday roast. Rotisserie chook cooking on the BBQ. We also do our Christmas turkey on the BBQ.

Day 7: Getting back into work mode. Re-thinking how to present first year stats online. I like to write my thoughts down on paper. Bright yellow makes me feel like it is still holiday-ish even if I have to seriously engage my brain.

I got published! Cool!

#a month of moments
4. Cool
One day in late October I was checking my pigeonhole at work last thing in the day on my way out the door to do the school bus pick up and there was a post-pack in it. Now parcels are a relatively rare occurrence but they usually turn out to be desk copies of rivetingly exciting new stats books. So I stopped and opened the parcel and tipped it upside down and out fell a knitting pattern book, a piece of paper and a cardboard tube. The piece of paper was a letter and it read:

"Congratulations!

 Your letter was printed in a recent issue of Simply Knitting. Thank you very much for sharing your knitting with us. Here is your prize, a pair of Millward knitting needles and a Patons pattern book.

We'd love to see what you made with your prize!

The Simply Knitting team"

Sure enough when I opened the cardboard tube there were a set of beautiful 4mm bamboo knitting needles inside. Needless to say, this totally made my day! Though I did have to explain why someone was sending me knitting needles at work to the school secretary!
I then had to wait until I got my hands on the next issue, November to find myself in print.

Here's my letter (and photo) on the letter page of the November 2012 issue 99 of Simply Knitting.

The letter says:
" Marvellous Mitts
Your lovely magazine reaches me each month in Australia thanks to my local newsagent who gets it air express delivered.
I find there are always three of four things each month I just want to knit. So I want to say a big thanks for the Owl Mitts pattern by Amanda Jones in issue 94. My girls are great fans of knitted accessories. And I love owls, especially of the wearable kind! These were such fun to knit. They didn't take much time or much yarn and in fact I made two pairs in one long weekend out of up-cycled wool from my stash and the local op shop. 
The buttons are from my grandmother's button collection, which I inherited. The creamy ones are for my daughter, and the brown owl mitts will be mine.
Jo-ann Larkins, Australia"
And the reply says:
We love the colours you've chosen, Jo-ann, and think they're superbly modelled too!
(Cool, someone likes my photography skills!). Actually the hands doing the modelling here are Mel's and the boy's. The boy is slightly miffed that the magazine has misrepresented his hands as mine. For more about the Owl mitts and a slightly out of control photoshoot that resulted in this photo go and read the post Owlishly Warm. It was also really cool that they printed what I sent them unedited.

And here's my prize. A set of Millward 4mm Bamboo needles and a Pattern Book for Patons Fusion. I absolutely love the needles but don't think I'll use the pattern book as we don't have that particular Patons yarn in Australia yet. Also I'm a thinnish yarn sort of girl. 8ply (DK or worsted weight) is about as thick as I like to go.

(And my coolest Christmas Present was a subscription to Simply Knitting from my Mum and sisters!)