Category Archives: Knitting

A reluctant model…

Image

27

After 18 years living in Melbourne, I’ve finally convinced husband that there is such a thing as a Manly Scarf.  Of course, it couldn’t be multi-coloured, or have stripes, or too much pattern, or heaven-forbid tassels ~ eek!

Dwayne Scarf_2sml

Not being a knitter, this took me a good few weeks. I think it’s moss stitch, although it could be seed stitch, or something else – I do get confused.

The yarn is Morris and Sons Empire 10ply 100% Australian Superfine Merino. It’s delicious to work with, and will hopefully be just as enjoyable to wear.

Love Terri and Moo (and a wave from reluctant-husband) xxx

 

An Unexpected Parcel

Image

22

Normally when a parcel arrives for me at work it’s something boring like stationery, or food for Moo**, or a present I’ve bought for somebody else. Last week though, something special arrived, something special and just for me and completely unexpected!

Socks_8sml

Can you guess what it is?

Socks_7sml

Or does this picture help? No?

Socks_22sml

Yes, that’s right, not one but two pairs of gorgeous hand-knitted socks from my mother-in-law, Verna.

Socks_26sml

Socks_20sml

I already have three lovely pairs knitted by Verna. I love them so much that I’ve started “saving” them. We’re going to New York in December, and I know I’ll need them there. So unbeknown to me, husband mentioned to his mother that another pair or two would be gratefully accepted, and appreciated.

And here they are….

Socks_23sml

I can’t decide which colour I like best. The obvious choice is the pink… but then, the green and pink are particularly handsome too, don’t you think?

I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend, and that the weather is warmer than it is in Melbourne. I really do think it’s time for spring, regardless of what the calendar says.

Love Terri and Moo xxx

** Moo wanted me to mention that she doesn’t think having dog food delivered is boring.

Socks_31sml

A crochet~free long weekend

Image

13

Yes, It felt extremely weird writing that! I had great plans for crochet, I really did. I figured if I used my time wisely, I’d be able to devote at least 20 hours or so to crochet, over 3 days.

But then this happened…. Licorice_13sml

Yes. Knitting. Weird.

Licorice_5sml

It’s going to be a Licorice All-sorts scarf.

Licorice_11sml

No. I’m not a very fast knitter. This took all weekend!

Licorice_7sml

5pm Monday night.

I’ve run out of green, purple, yellow and light blue. Luckily Wool Baa will be open again tomorrow!

Licorice_1sml

Love Terri and Moo xxx

PS In other news, on Saturday afternoon Moo managed to sprain her tail whilst hooning out the dog door at a zillion miles an hour, in pursuit of a suspected possum. After much crying and whimpering, it was a trip to the vet on Sunday morning for an anti-inflammatory injection. I am pleased to report that tail activity is back to normal now, and all is right in puppy-world.

 

Yarn Bomb ~ City Square

Image

40

City Square is right in the centre of Melbourne.

For the third summer in a row Yarn Corner, in conjunction with the City of Melbourne, have yarn bombed all the trees in City Square ~ this year in all the gorgeous colours of the rainbow. It’s by far the biggest yarn bomb I’ve seen, with the installation in itself being an amazing feat, with elevated work platforms needed to sew the “bombs” up to 6 metres high.

The trees are either knit or crochet, or a combination of both. I tried to calculate the hours of work that this would have taken in total. It would easily be over a 1,000 ~ probably more like 2,000 hours! For anyone in Melbourne who wants to take a look, I believe they will be there for the next month, as long as nobody decides to steal anything and make a blanket for themselves!

Yes, one of these trees is mine (I’ve kept that rather quiet, haven’t I)? I’ve posted it as the first picture, as there are a lot of pictures ~ I didn’t want to miss anyone. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be crocheting anything in orange for a good long while. 🙂

City Square_15sml City Square_14smlCity Square_13sml City Square_11sml City Square 9smlCity Square_22sml City Square_21sml City Square_20sml City Square_18sml City Square_16smlCity Square_23sml City Square_27sml City Square_28sml City Square_31sml City Square_33sml City Square_30smlTerri and Moo xxx

Strawberries and Cream

Image

21

My mother-in-law made this Strawberries and Cream Tea Cozy for me for Christmas. Isn’t it gorgeous? Do you love receiving hand-made gifts as much as I do?

Strawberries and Cream_1smlStrawberries and Cream_3smlStrawberries and Cream_4smlThe pattern is by Patti di Cagli. It’s knitted using cotton yarn ~ aren’t the “bobbles” gorgeous? I would have no idea how to knit them.

Love Terri and Moo xxx

2013 ~ A crafting year in review

Image

18

With one day to go this year, it’s time for our first ever yearly review. I was thinking today that I haven’t read a book in a while ~ the amount of crochet done this year might explain why! I know I’ve said this before, but it seems the more I crochet the more I crochet. With every new 3am idea completed, there are another five swirling around waiting to be started.

So, here is just a summary of 2013. Apologies in advance for the length of the post!

*** click on the pictures to see more details ***

January … was a very busy crafting month. I seem to recall Moo and I spent the first few weeks of 2013 finding the coolest place in the house to crochet (me) and snooze (Moo).

First, there was the new peg board, then my yearly sewing attempt, my first pin cushion pattern, and a finished blanket for KOGO.

Happy New Year 8sml

Pin Cushion_9smlKogo_16smlFebruary … Moo relaxed on the sofa with her new cushions and Christmas present ducky. I made little bowls and did a spot of office yarn bombing with a crochet tissue holder and phone cozy.

Bowl_3smlBowl_35smlTissue_21smlMarch … this is my favourite crochet pin cushion so far…. and then there were MacBook covers, one for Mum and one for me.

Cushion_1smlMac_23smlLaptop_18smlApril … was all about baby blankets ~ first a simple granny square in Stylecraft, then Bear’s Rainbow Blanket.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABlanket_6smlJune … looking back at June, I think I lost my crochet mojo a little ~ my favourite project by far was this knitted Capelet. Yes, knitting!

Capelet_22smlJuly … being winter in Australia, July was about hot water bottle covers, plus my favourite doily so far.

Hottie_5smlMandala_5sml

September … a busy month, with the end of the cold weather in sight. First there were crochet baby hats for Bella’s babies, then my first ever crochet bag, a mandala floor rug, and a granny square scarf.

Hat_12smlBag_15sml

Rug_33smlScarf_2smlMoo_47smlOctober …. this is the quickest and easiest crochet bag I’ve ever made… instant gratification!

Big Bag_28smlNovember …and Christmas preparations begin, with a trio of crochet decorations… plus an early birthday present for Moo.

Xmas Trio_32smlXmas_3smlSqueaky_25smlDecember … was all about Christmas, with crochet pudding decorations, a Christmas stocking, a crochet star garland and our very first giveaway.

3Puddings_5smlStocking_9smlChristmas Garland_1smlGiveaway_28smlWell, if you’re still reading this far, a big thankyou! I didn’t quite realise just how long this post was going to be. Thankyou for sharing 2013 with Moo and I. We have big crafting plans for 2014, so we’ll be back really soon! 😀

Love Terri and Moo xxx

Knitting Envy

Image

18

Hello Everyone

Today I would like to talk about envy, specifically knitting envy. Do you ever spend hours devouring other blogs, and wish your makes were as good? There are plenty of examples out there of just what I mean, but here are just a few…

1. Posie Gets Cozy ~ especially here and here
2. Foxs Lane ~ especially here, here and isn’t this the best picture ever?
3. Crochet with Raymond ~ unfortunately Alice doesn’t post here anymore – it was such a sad day when she wrote her last post. Thankfully she left the site up for us though, her crochet is gorgeous, but so is her knitting. Check out her monsters here and here, and her socks, here and here.

In this case, it’s not actually blog envy, more mother-in-law envy. These gorgeous little Christmas Decorative Wonders were a gift from my MIL Verna *waves to Verna if she’s reading*. When I went back to my hometown of Perth last weekend, Verna gave me these to bring back. We’re all spending Christmas together at our house this year, and these will have pride of place on our tree.

What impresses me most is the level of detail. Look at the hats, and scarves, and stick arms and even the little noses! I’m just not convinced I’d have the patience, but I will treasure these. It’s really nice to be getting a collection of handmade decorations to bring out each year. 🙂

VernaXmas_40smlVernaXmas_46sml

VernaXmas_39sml

PS. No Christmas Snowmen were injured during the shooting of this blog post.

Do Blogs have Birthdays?

Image

11

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

Posted on by
17

… 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!

Capelet_25sml

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.

Capelet_31sml

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.

Capelet_22sml

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

Moo_32_sml

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.

Holiday Crafting

Image

3

Guess where I am?

I’m spending 12 nights in gorgeous New York, with my mother and auntie. I don’t think there is a yarn store on Manhattan that I haven’t visited – but we still have three more days, so I feel certain further yarn suppliers are yet to be unearthed.

I really wanted to go to a crochet class here, but there just didn’t seem to be anything available so instead, I enrolled in How to Knit a Hat or Cowl in the Round at Knitty City. This is the most gorgeous store. Everyone is so friendly and the shelves are so packed with yarn, that it feels like every time I touch something, I’m in danger of being buried under a yarn avalanche … not necessarily a bad thing, I know.

Well, as you know, I’m not much of a knitter. But this was really quite easy.We used super-chunky yarn, and a size 11 (US) 16 inch circular needle, so it practically made itself.

What do you think? The pattern says “Big Wool Hat ~ Make a Hat in Just a Few Hours!”, and they were right!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

(I know I’m going to regret posting this odd looking selfie but it’s the best I could do for today).

Do you see the pretty crochet cowl too? This is another pattern from Knitty City, that you can have for free with yarn purchased in the store. It’s called the Sunset Crochet Cowl, by Dana Freed. I’ve wrapped it around twice, so you can also wear it longer.

The yarn is a custom dyed yarn by Prism. It’s 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, and the other 10% is written under the price tag and I can’t get to it! But I can say it’s gorgeous to crochet with.

Home soon, missing Moo.