Miniature painting

Happy Saturday everyone!

I hope you’ve had a great week, here I’ve had lots of work helping my husband with his experiments. There was a lot to do but we make a pretty good team so we only have a little bit to finish on Monday. We’ve been enjoying our rainy Saturday at the hobby shop and I have finished painting two units of my miniatures. I’m pretty excited as it means that I’m progressing nicely on my 18 for 2018 goals!

The two units I’ve finished are orks, which in the lore of the game are meant to be growing like fungus over the galaxy. They love fighting and will only follow the strongest ork, even it that means fighting between themselves before they can actually fight with anyone else! I’ve painted a unit of nobz, which are big experienced warriors, and a warboss, which is even bigger and their leader.

I’ve had a lot of fun painting those and I’ve also recently been working on a third ork unit, which I will share hopefully next week. It’s been a nice break from my RBTL shawl knitting, as I’ve hit a bit of a slow patch with it. I really want to get it off my needles though, so I’ll work hard to finish it asap!

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Knitting afternoons and updating patterns

Hello lovely people!

I hope you’ve had a great weekend. I sure did! I actually went to a crafter noon at a local yarn store on Saturday (Little Woollie) and it was so much fun and really cool. I got to meet so many lovely ladies and the owner, Julie, spoilt us with chocolate eggs, raspberries and grapes as well as an endless supply of tea! How great? A lot of the ladies were making Julies newest amigurumi, a sweet little rabbit that she designed for a workshop and I met a left handed crocheter for the first time. It was just a really fun time!

On other news, I have been re-writting my pattern for Naiad the nudibranch and so I made a new one to take some more pictures (as the original was gifted to a friend when I first made it a couple of years ago).

Here it is, in brand new colours! I have seen a few issues with the pattern too so I will update it, add new pictures and upload the new free PDF on my Ravelry store as soon as I’m done 😀

Have you written a pattern before and then realise that there was a better way of laying it out? I’d love to hear your experience with that 🙂

FO – Campfire cardigan

Happy Wednesday!

I have to say I have been super slow at knitting my Read Between the Lines shawl so I haven’t got any pictures to share but I have finished my Campfire cardigan yesterday, just in time for tomorrow’s deadline to enter the #grannyCAL18 hosted by Rosina of Zeens and Roger. I’m totally in love with it and as usual when I finish something I’ve been wearing it around the house a lot (read I haven’t taken it off) since yesterday.  You will notice they are quite a few differences with the original pattern, I decided not to make a hood and to keep the sleeves at 3/4 length.

I had lots of fun today doing a little photoshoot in my kitchen. I find photos are always a bit challenging to find the right pose (I ended up taking waaaay more pictures that those 2) but well worth it 🙂

In other news, I’ve been participating in March Meet the Maker over on Instagram, you can have a look at the pictures I posted on the right panel of my blog even if you’re not on IG, I’ve been talking a bit more about my design process and what I normally do of my days if you’re interested 🙂

Hand Quilt Along – 11/03/18

Hello lovely readers ❤

I hope you have all had a great week and weekend, here it had been good and I even have another day off tomorrow for Labour Day in Victoria. Yay!

I’ve made some more progress on my English paper piecing, and after some consideration and debate with the hubby, I’ve decided to add a couple more motifs to the width.

Last time

Last time

I don’t know if you can see very well, but I’ve also added little triangles for the whole border so I won’t have to do it later, and I’m quite relieved it’s done!

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Here are the others participating in this HQAL, please go check their posts!

Kathy, Bella, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Deborah,  Susan , Jessisca, Sherry, Nanette, Sassy, Sharon and Edith

WIP Wednesday – Campfire cardigan

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Better late than never, I’ve finally made a start on my project for the granny along hosted by Rosina over at Zeens and Roger. This crochet along has been going since the beginning of Feb but with my stay overstate I just didn’t have time to start earlier. I was also pretty unsure about what project I wanted to make so I’ve left it to last minute (the CAL finished next Thursday on the 15th of March).

So finally today I chose a pattern, I’m making a cardigan for the coming winter. I have a couple of knitted jumpers already but I wanted something that I could just slip on, with sleeves to keep the chill away (unlike the kimono I currently have, which is great but has short sleeves). The pattern I chose is the Campfire Cardigan, which you can find for free on Make&DoCrew. I had never done a hexagon granny before and I’m loving it, the granny stitch is just so fast!

Just from today, I’ve managed to make one of the sides and I’m well on my way with the second side. Next I will have to lengthen the bottom of the cardigan and the sleeves and I will have a perfectly snuggly new cardigan to wear! I don’t know if you can tell but I’m excited! This will have to be finished before Thursday next week, I should be okay but still, wish me luck!

What have you guys been working on?

Monday design – Cooper the Copepod

Happy Monday beautiful people!

I am very pleased today to show you my newest design idea, Cooper the Copepod! I got the idea for this little guy from one of my friends when I was back in Brisbane. We were in undergrad together and she suggested I made a copepod (we are all pretty nerdy and really enjoy plankton, weird I know!).

Anyway, this is what I came up with 🙂 You will notice that it is pretty similar to the design I drew last week as well.

I’m very happy with how he turned out, and I think I will ask for pattern testers when I get back from my second trip to Brisbane in April. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

18 for 2018 – February update

Happy Friday readers!

February is up, and it was not a very productive month for me craft wise, but on the bright side I actually got heaps of stuff done for work. So not much progress this month but hopefully I’ll be back on track in March 🙂

18 letters sent to friends – 0/18
With the interstate move I would like to keep in contact with friends so I want to make the effort to send them handwritten letter throughout the year.

Still none this month, but I did receive a very nice card from some of my family in France that I will answer. 

17 new recipes tried – 8/17
If you’ve been following me for a while you will know that I love cooking and baking so this should be pretty easy. Plus, the monthly bake-along will definitely help me with this one!

Three new recipes tried this month, some shiitake noodles (for which I completely forgot to take a picture), chocolate mousse choux and strawberry jam.

16 painted units of miniatures – 0/16
My husband and I play a miniature game and one of the fun parts is to build and paint our own miniatures. I haven’t done much last year so I hope to catch up this year by painting more models.

Still none, as I didn’t take those up to Brisbane with me. But on the bright side I’m going to the hobby shop tomorrow with hubby to get some painting done! 

15 books read – 1/15
I’ve decided to tune down this goal from last year, as I don’t have a lot of time to read. But I feel like 15 would be a good number to reach this year.

I’ve read “Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine” by Gail Honeyman. I’ve really loved it, the story is told from the point of view of Eleonor and she is just the most interesting character. I am also currently reading “All the lights we cannot see” by Anthony Doerr and I’m really liking it so far. It’s taking place between France and Germany during WWII and I really enjoy how the book is written with switches between places and times. 

14 mitered squares added to my memory blanket – 1/14
I have started a knitted memory blanket using my scraps of yarn from previous projects (mostly socks) and I’d like to see it grow this year.

I’ve done one new square so far, yay! That brings the total of squares on this to 7 in total, so I definitely need a lot more if I want to finish it, but it’s a slow project that will probably take me years so that’s okay!

13 batches of biscuits made and eaten – 3/13
Again, with the bake-along this should be quite easy to accomplish!

Adding the choux here brings my total to 3 for the year. I’m sure I’ll make some more this month for hubby as he loves his biscuits! 

12 pairs of socks – 2/12
We have real winters in Melbourne, so hubby and I will definitely need new socks, I thought one per month was a manageable goal.

With hubby’s socks finished, I’m keeping to my goal of 1 pair a month! 

11 new stitch markers made – 0/11
I have been playing with shrinking plastic lately and I’d like to make new stitch markers using some cute drawings.

None this month but I have been drawing some plankton which I might use for this.

10 new movies seen – 4/10
We go to the movies almost every week, so I think this goal will be easy to reach, but it will give me a change to blog about movies I see a bit more.

Only one more movie seen this month (I had to wait for hubby to watch movies when I was away) and that was Black Panther. I quite enjoyed it, I thought that the story was simple but well done and the special effects were spectacular! 

9 amigurumi made – 1/9
I obviously love amigurumi enough to design some! I want to precise that those 9 amigurumi will be from other designers, I might even participate in another ami-along.

No new one made this month but I did start to make a mini me from Kerry Lord’s “Edward’s crochet doll emporium”. I’m loving it! 

8 months cross-stitched on the snowblower diaries calendar – 1/8
This did not get worked on at all last year, so I’d like to finish it this year.

None this month, I didn’t bring any cross stitch on my trip up to Brisbane.

7 games of 40k played with hubby – 1/7
The good thing with painting miniatures is that I will definitely want to play more (I’m hoping anyway) and this will definitely be a fun activity to do with my husband.

No game this month either, maybe we will have one this weekend though.

6 new designs published – 2/6
As you know I already have two new designs that I need to write up and publish. I have also started on a knitted shawl design using the beautiful yarn I got in NZ. Very excited about this one!

I’ve been working on my shawl design as well as a new amigurumi design, which you may have seen if you’ve been over on Instagram. 

5 km ran without stopping – in progress
This doesn’t seem like much but currently I can’t run more than a few minutes without having to slow down to a walk, so I’d like to be able to actually run without dying for 5 km!

I didn’t run much in Brisbane as it was so so hot but I’ve been back at it towards the end of the month and I think I’m going good still with this goal. 

4 LOTR squares finished – 1/4
Yes I know I’ve been making this for ages but 2018 is the year I get it finished!

No new square this month but I need to start the next one so that I don’t lose momentum.

3 jumpers knitted – 0/3
Similarly to the need for socks, I will need more jumpers this year! I already have the yarn and a pattern for my first jumper so I’m hoping this goes smoothly.

I bought yarn for a second jumper, does that count? (trying to find excuses to add to my stash here!) 

2 getaway trips – 0/2
We are trying to save money for a house deposit this year, but I’d still like to get a couple weekends away with hubby. We already have one planned, we will be going to the Bendigo sheep and wool show in July

First trip planned at the end of March, I’m excited for some holidays with hubby, it will be nice.

1 thesis submitted – 0/1
I’m so keen to finish my PhD, so this is definitely my n°1 goal this year!

Not submitted yet, but I have now done my thesis review so I am ready to submit as soon as I have finished writing my thesis! Super excited about that, now I ‘just have’ to finish writing 🙂 

That’s it for me, I hope you have been doing better than me this month, and if not I think we all deserve a break 🙂