Snowflakes in the Sun

I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday.
I spent a lot of time motoring around the Western Australian countryside visiting family and eating scrumptious food. I received some truly beautiful hand crafted presents (which I'll save for another post) and gave some crochet snowflakes that I made myself:



The top snowflake is made out of 4 ply metallic thread and the following two are crocheted out of 4 ply cotton:






I sprinkled lots of glitter over them too:



Of course, in a hot, summery Australian Christmas, real snow is no where to be seen but we love our northern traditions and my snowflakes were a bit of a hit. I had lots of requests from family who wanted one of their own. Luckily, the pattern for the first snowflake is really quick and easy so I managed to crochet four after lunch on Boxing Day, in between drinking white wine, eating chocolate fondue and catching up with my cousins!
(See, easy.)
For those of you who might be interested for next Christmas, I bought the patterns, called the Miniature Snowflake Set, from Crochet Memories.

I also crocheted a snowflake dishcloth as part of a Ravelry swap:

This was also a quick, easy pattern.
The recipient, my partner mooska, said lots of lovely things about the package I sent her. Thank you!

As part of the swap, I received a gorgeous collection of goodies from the talented Joeyn. She sent me a festive, knitted Santa dishcloth, some fragrant, hand~made soap (which smells like it’s been scented with cloves…mmmmmmm…), a super~cute pudding tree ornament, some delicious home~made Christmas cake and stitch markers which she made herself (with her daughter’s assistance) out of beautiful glass beads.

Here’s a close~up of the pudding and the stitch~markers. Aren’t they pretty?

I love participating in swaps! I've received some delightful work in them, felt that my handiwork has been truly appreciated and I've made some great, creative friends.

Since Christmas, and its flurry of activity, I've given myself permission to go easy.

I've been reading, reading, reading... I'm currently enjoying Alain de Botton's excellent Status Anxiety, Pema Chodron's The Places That Scare You and Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest. Drusilla Modjeska's The Orchard, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees are waiting, stacked invitingly, on my bedside table.

I've been spending early mornings in my garden. The gardenias and honeysuckle are in blossom right now. I have little nosegays of them, along with daisies and the last of the nasturtiums, throughout my home. I adore their scent.

After months of neglect, I've picked up my Easy Daisy blanket again:

and I've been napping a lot with the cat:

who's loved the company.

I hope you all have a wonderful, restful New Year
or,
as my mother would say,
a guid new year to ane an' a'
an' mony may ye see!

Blessings.
x

Spring Break

I'm on holidays again, which is lovely. I've been doing a little spring cleaning, but not too much. (I read this article in The New York Times and I like the idea of saying yes to my mess.)
I have made a point of going very slowly
... sleeping, catching up with friends, reading on the couch...
and I've spent time in my garden; such a restorative thing to do.
It's spring time, so lots of the plants are flowering.
My coral gum is in bloom right now:

(It's also hosting a bunch of sawfly larvae, which are all clustered together, tapping their tails. I haven't seen any since I was a child ~ we used to call them spitfires ~ so I'm thrilled that they've come to stay in my backyard.)

I've also made a memory wire bracelet to go with the pink necklace I showed in my last post:

...and I've received a wonderful surprise package from Cindy2paw as part of a swap I've participated in over at Ravelry:

Cindy's spoiled me rotten. As you can see, she's sent me a gorgeous leafy green washcloth, the sweetest floral project bag that she's sewn herself, pretty lavender soap, Tasmanian fudge, a purple notebook, postcards from the Apple Isle and a lovely card with a photo of her adorable dogs. Everything was beautifully wrapped in bright green paper and purple, silk ribbon...there were lots of squeals of delight as I opened it all up!

...and don't you think the project bag goes beautifully with the Spring Ripple Scarf that I’m working on right now?:

Thanks so much, Cindy.

May your week be wonderful.

No Knit Saturday and Green Thumb Sunday

Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day. (It says at the top of this entry that it's still Saturday but actually, here in The Land Down Under, it's late Sunday afternoon.) I hope all the knitters who visit here had a fun day. I couldn't make any meetups 'cause of work (but I told my mother about it and she took her knitting with her when she went out to coffee in the morning. Onya Mum.) I spent most of yesterday and today doing paperwork. I have a week to go before I have to submit reports and then I get some me~time back. I can't wait.

Someone around here got to relax over the weekend, though:

Sometimes I wish I could swap places with her.

Despite all the hard work, there have been some nice things happening here at Chez Inkberry. I received this gorgeous package from my Ravelry swap pal, tasknits:



Isn't the washcloth pretty?
And doesn't the variegated cotton work well with the pattern? (It's Anchor Magicline.)
I love it!

This is one of the washcloths I sent to my swap partner, another Victorian Lace facecloth from Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks:

I made a Simple Dishcloth too.

I also discovered that inkberryblue had been linked by a blogger called the crafty gardener which was flattering (thank you)
and which led me to some fabulous gardening sites, that are listed on the crafty gardener's blog.
I'm in the process of joining a community of bloggers who post about the happenings in their gardens in Green Thumb Sunday
...and I was inspired to go out and take some quick photographs in my little piece of the Earth.
I humbly present to you a few shots of the cyclamen that is sitting at my front door, flourishing in the cold nights we're currently experiencing:

I love its beautiful deep pink colour and its petals.
They remind me of butterfly wings:



I'm going to finish off with my own selection of links to gorgeous gardening posts. I hope you enjoy looking at:

• primrose designs ~ who also has a fabulous online store that sells, amongst other things, vintage buttons,


• Gayla Trail's post about a beautiful kitchen garden at You Grow Girl,


• and one of the latest blog entries by the ever inspiring Alicia Paulson.
  
  
  Happy week, everybody.
  
  
  
  

Daffodil Stitch Vintage Tea Cosy

At the beginning of the year I posted about the Aussie Knitters Tea Cosy Swap I was involved in over at Ravelry. I posted pictures of the tea cosy I crocheted but didn't share any photos of the beautiful knitted tea cosy I received from my swap partner, Kate of Knights Don't Knit. Kate used a vintage pattern, from 1937, called the Daffodil Stitch Vintage Tea Cosy and she created the loveliest of details which included a clever undercosy, delicate flowers and delightful edgings.


Here's Kate's tea cosy, in all its gorgeousness:

Kate sent over lots of other goodies too, which you can see here
(on my freshly grouted mosaic table, Felicity!)

I was also given a tea infuser weighted with a sweet little red tea cup, organic english breakfast tea, a china tea flower (which I can’t wait to try), a card and bookmark decorated with lovely native Tasmanian flora, a pretty and ever~so practical small projects bag and matching crochet hook holder, two vividly coloured handmade candles, three balls of wool (hidden in the photo, I’m sorry) that match the tea cosy (I’m thinking that I’m going to make some egg cosies with these) and a wonderful Canadian pattern book for kitchen cloths. I just love the way Kate caught my colours, my love of things vintage and of things floral, even my preoccupation with dish cloths!

I am so spoilt!

Ring A Rosy Tea Cosy

After lots of crocheting over the holidays, I posted off my Ravelry Aussie Tea Cosy Swap package about a week ago. Here's a picture of the tea cosy that I made and two dishcloths/drip catchers that I also crocheted:

The pattern for the tea cosy body came from crochetroo's gorgeous etsy shop. I used a pattern from the July/August 2007 edition of Crochet Today! to make the roses, embellishing the flowers with a few crystal beads, that you can just see in the following shot:

The tea cosy ended up being really flabby at the sides, where the openings for the handle and spout were, so I edged the openings by single crocheting (US terms) tightly through two rows with a 3.5 mm hook. You can see the edging here:

...and here are some more detailed shots of the one of the cloths I crocheted, a lacy dishcloth:

I really enjoyed participating in the swap. The organisation was great, the secrecy made it fun, my partner (alimachenmachen) was very appreciative and it's been wonderful watching as everybody's posted pictures of the tea cosies they've received. There are some beauties amongst them too which, if you belong to Ravelry, can be seen in this this thread. Enjoy!

A Pretty Pair

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm participating in a secret teacosy swap over at Ravelry. Yesterday, I received this comment on my blog:

Anonymous said...
So, if you're in a tea cosy swap, how will your partner know what size to make? Could there perhaps be a picture or dimensions??
signed
A Well-Wisher

Thankyou, my thoughtful (yet strangely shy) anonymous visitor. That is a very good idea. I'm sure, ahem, I could even say confident, that my secret swap partner will be very grateful that you suggested it.

Actually, I have two pots and I don't mind which one my swap partner makes a cosy for.
Here's a photo of one:


It's 15cm tall and 14cm across at its widest point. (Incidentally, I bought it when I was op~shopping at St. Vincent de Paul's. Isn't it cute?)

...and here's a photo of another:

This one's a little bigger. It's 15cm tall again but 16cm across at its widest point. The ball of wool, by the way, weighs 50 grams.

...um,
and if my aforementioned anonymous visitor can think of anything else that might help my secret swap partner, do let me know.

Pay It Forward Swap

Thanks to Kat at Snapdragons, I am participating in a Pay It Forward swap and you, dear reader, are invited to join in too! The first three people who leave comments on this post, saying they would like to participate, will be sent some sort of crafty goodness from me sometime in the next 12 months. These three people are then obligated to post this swap on their own blogs. I'm more than happy to send parcels overseas, by the way. Come on, don't be shy!