Category Archives: All things puppy

Is it a Mandala or a Doily?

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I never have quite worked out what to call these … is it a mandala, or is it a doily? Apparently, a mandala is a “square within a circle” and a doily is a “decorative mat”. Well, there’s no square within the circle, but it still seems to be the common term.

I was reading Wink’s gorgeous blog the other day, which inspired me to make something a bit more multi-coloured. Whilst this isn’t an exact pattern from Wink, I did read about the way she finishes off each row and sews in the end, before starting the new row in a different spot. Normally, I’m too lazy for such things, but honestly, I think the effect is worth it ~ much neater.

This Doilandala (yes, we’re going with that) is primarily Rowan Cotton Glace, with a small amount of Koigu.

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Mandala_2smlDoilandala was gifted to a lovely lady as a small birthday something.

Mandala_9smlI rather like the colour combination.

Mandala_19smlMoo is not amused that Doilandala seems to be taking over the back garden!

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Do Blogs have Birthdays?

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If so, today is the first birthday of A Conversation with Moo 😀

I remember 12 months ago today, trying to take pictures of my sewing room with the same limited Melbourne winter’s light that we’re having now.

I remember cursing and thinking just how much I dislike using my tripod, just like I was yesterday.

I remember Moo photo-bombing my Happy House Plushie… not realising that this would become a habit!

I know this is sounding terribly sentimental, but I want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you. Thank you for reading, for commenting, for liking, for laughing, for offering suggestions, and for leading me on wonderful adventures into new worlds.

I was hoping to have a finished project to share on this special day… but that was before I started knitting…

Gloves_19sml…and not just knitting, but knitting with 2.25mm needles and 4ply yarn ~ eek!

The yarn is Morris Empire 4ply Merino, the fingerless gloves pattern also from Morris and Sons.

Gloves_18smlThe first glove is finished ~ just needs to be sewn up. Husband has requested a pair too, so I better get going!

Moo_6smlMoo wasn’t getting excited about this special day … I couldn’t even get a smile for the camera.

Knitty City Capelet

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… my first adventures in knitting!

Last month when I was in New York, I spent way too much time and money in my favourite yarn store of all time, Knitty City. I love the community feel of this store, and it really is hard to not be inspired by at least a dozen projects every time you walk in the door.

When I was attending the How to Knit a Hat in the Round class, people kept dropping by the table to chat, and see what we were up to. One young lady who visited was wearing a gorgeous burgundy capelet. I didn’t know it was called a capelet at the time, but on further enquiry, I found out not only the name, but that it actually belonged to the shop – she was just a little chilly so put it on!

What’s more, since it was made using knit-in-the-round, which I was now an “expert” in (haha!), I just had to give it a go!

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The pattern is out of the Rowan Winter Warmers book. It’s a lovely book, with heaps of fairly easy projects. The yarn is Rowan Lima, a gorgeous blend of baby alpaca and merino wool, and so lovely to work with.

I thought it needed a little flower to finish it off. I couldn’t find any Rowan Lima in Australia, but my local yarn store did have a few colours of Rowan Felted Tweed, that I thought matched rather well.

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The flower pattern is by the wonderful Lucy at Attic24. Such an easy pattern to follow. I just left off the final outer row in contrasting colour, since I didn’t have another contrasting colour.

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Do you like it? I’m really pleased. I think I might be actually enjoying this knitting caper.

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Oh, and Moo says hi. This photo took her by surprise I think, she didn’t get time to assemble her limbs into one of her normal elegant poses.

Angry Piggie?

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Hello!

I hope all that celebrate have had a lovely Easter. I have eaten too much chocolate, and Moo has eaten too many carob coated puppy snacks.

Well, I’ve been doing lots of little crochet projects, but I’ve been a bit lazy in taking photos. The light, now that it’s coming into winter, has just not been that great for pictures.

My latest little adventure into amigurumi is this rather unusual little blue pig. He was made for a chap at work, who put in a request.

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He is the pig out of Angry Birds apparently, except he wanted a blue pig rather than green – I hope I got the colour right!

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The yarn is Cascade Ultra Pima in Aqua, an 8ply cotton that is lovely to crochet with. I bought it from one of my favourite stores, Yarn Glorious Yarn. It’s an online store, that often does free postage.

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The pattern is here on Ravelry.

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In other news, a few weeks ago I went to a half day Learn-to-make-Amigurumi course. I had a lovely time.

I was going to show you the beginning of Amineko the Amigurumi Cat… but Moo had other ideas.

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A birthday, prezzies, and a new project

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Last Friday was my birthday, and husband and Moo bought me the best presents.

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Firstly, there was this gorgeous Swift yarn winder. Isn’t it just lovely? It’s so much fun to play with (sorry, couldn’t get a great picture).

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And to go with it, this yarn ball winder.

I must say, it is taking some practice to work the ball winder. The Swift works beautifully, and twirls around at a squillion miles an hour, but it’s so important to wind it evenly onto the ball.. and that is taking me some practice.

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And from Moo for my birthday, two skeins of scrumptious Koigu Premium Merino. Of course, I had to wind this straight away.

So I spent half of last weekend winding and winding the lots of few skeins I had buried around my craft room. This is some Cascade Ultra Pima that arrived a while ago from Yarn Glorious Yarn. I love this little online store. Such great service, and often free postage too! At Christmas time, they even had free Express post for last minute orders.

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Now that it’s all wound very fairly neatly, I’m starting a new project. Like the KOGO Blanket, this is the Bear’s Rainbow Blanket, from Purl Bee.

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A friend of Moo’s mother is having a real (non-puppy) baby in April, and as she loves colours, I thought this would be perfect.

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Moo thought we should be playing fetch though, not photography.

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Oh, and Moo just informed me that the Swift winder and yarn ball winder can also be purchased at Yarn Glorious Yarn… not that she wanted to give away birthday prezzie sources or anything.

Three Little Bowls

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These three little bowls are destined for my dressing table. I thought they’d be nice to store my jewelry in.

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They were meant to be identical, but in different sizes – not as easy as I thought!

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I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (10ply), and a 3.5mm hook. I wanted them to be quite firm, to hold themselves together. It sort of worked 😀

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I’ve taken notes for a basic pattern. I can write it out if anyone is interested.

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Moo just wanted you to know she’s enjoying her new cushions. She also wanted to show off her new Duck Wuck. I suggested she should remove the tag.

So she ate it.

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KOGO Blanket ~ Finished!

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I started this blanket just after Christmas, during my lovely summer holiday, a distant memory, sigh.

I made it to use up all my leftover pink stash. Turns out, I had quite a bit of red too, plus I couldn’t help buying a few extra shades, just to finish it off, oops!

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I’m very pleased with it. I’ve never joined squares using this method before, basically joining right sides, using DC stitches – first horizontal, then vertical. It helped keep the blanket “squarer” than any other method I’ve used.

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I think the red “top stitching” kind of tied all the colours in too.

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As I’ve mentioned before, this blanket is for KOGO (Knit One Give One), a Melbourne group of crafters who knit and crochet for charity.

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The pattern is on the gorgeous Purl Bee blog. It’s called Bear’s Rainbow Blanket.

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Obviously, I’m going to have to pick out the black Moo-furs before I post it off! 😀

A Prickly Present!

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My goodness it was hot today! It reached 40.8 C in Melbourne this afternoon, and at nearly 8pm it’s still 39 Celsius.

Since this latest project is actually a belated Christmas present for a friend and still needs to be posted to the other side of the country, I thought I better get it photographed and wrapped – regardless of the heat and fading light.

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I’ve been wanting to try out this pin cushion pattern for a while now. I’ve seen pictures on Pinterest and Flickr of similar, but haven’t actually seen a pattern.

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So, this was a made-up-by-me effort, and I’m quite pleased with it. Actually, I wrote down the pattern so if anyone wants it, I could certainly try to transcribe it into something half coherent!

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This was made using Rowan 4ply Cotton. I love this yarn. It could be made quicker using an 8ply, but I like the finer look of the 4ply.

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Moo really had no interest, it was so much nicer on the sofa in front of the aircon.

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Well, I better get it wrapped up and posted!

Just in time for Christmas

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Well, I know it’s now two days after Christmas, but these were finished in time ~ honestly! Four crochet stool covers for the four littlest children to sit on, at Christmas lunch.

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I love the colours in the latest two. Kind of Christmassy but not too Christmassy. And I’m pleased to report, they were a resounding success on the day!

This one is from the gorgeous pattern by Petra, which I found on this blog by Crochet Missy. It’s really quite easy to follow and comes together very quickly.

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This one is from the lovely Alice at Crochet and Healing with Raymond. I’ve used this Mandala pattern many times for doilies and such, and it will always be a favourite I think. I really love the colours in this one too.

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….. and here they are all together.

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….. and Moo was hoping they’d get her just close enough to childrens’ plates to steal the ham!

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Moo and I hope you all had a splendid, relaxing Christmas. Thankyou for being part of my six-months-so-far blog journey.

Love Terri and Moo xxx

I have no idea how it happened ~ Part 2

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Actually, this time I do know how it happened!

I was (innocently) sitting down to a really quick weekday-morning breakfast and thought I’d have a little peak at this lovely blog. Big mistake! First, there was this post about Lucy’s gorgeous Festive Wreath, which of course then lead to these exquisite Teeny Tiny Stars.

Obviously, they weren’t going to wait till after work. I mean, they just had to be made now! I’m sure you understand.

I only made three, in a lovely peacock colour, or is it emerald, or even teal? Actually, I made six, starched them and sewed them together… just to make them a little more robust. You can just see them in these photos, they’re rather hiding in our tree.

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I’m not sure now though, maybe I like Lucy’s ones better.

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Moo is pretty happy with our tree this year. Did I tell you it’s her birthday on Saturday? She will be turning three. I’m thinking maybe a birthday-girl-pom pom?

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