New website!

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I last wrote directly on this blog, a lot of things have been happening in the background. I have still been crafting a lot but I have decided to take my crochet patterns to the next level by starting a business! I’m super excited and a little scared about this new venture (but mostly excited!).

A few of my designs 🥰

I will try to keep on posting here, especially about my sewing (I have some exciting updates with my hand quilt and Clark’s quiet book) but if you’d like to read more about my crochet updates, I now have a brand new website where I’ll be sharing new patterns, free patterns from other designers as well as exciting events/contests/giveaways happening around the web (mostly on Instagram and Ravelry).

I hope to see you over, and I’m looking forward to sharing about sewing here again!

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Big crochet update!

Hello everyone!

It feels so strange to be sitting at my computer and to finally open a new blog post that isn’t a hand quilt along update (!!). In the last year, with the birth of baby Clark, my life kind of has been turned upside down and I have suddenly found myself with no energy or will to blog. I also stopped crocheting for a while, which is very strange because crochet has been my favourite fibre art media for years now (in fact, since I learnt how to in 2011). I haven’t blogged anything about my crochet since March (where did time go?) but in the last couple of months I’ve actually been back at it full force and I am very excited to share with you what I have been up to!

1. I have started designing again and I have made quite a few new little critters!
   

   

   

   

   

   

   From left to right, top row: Lara the love bug, Nate the narwhal, Daisy the duckling
   From left to right, bottom row: Little fish, scientist set, Unnamed caterpillar

2. The patterns for Lara and Nate have been released! You can find Lara on my Ravelry store and Nate for free (which leads me to point number 3!)
3. I have a new website where I am posting only my free patterns and links to my Ravelry patterns. I really wanted a space where I could have all my patterns in one place and I’m so happy with how it turned out!
4. I have participated in a very cute crochet along organised by LexInStitches (Alexa Templeton). The pattern is super cool and it is available here! Here is my finished puppy.
   

   

   

   
5. If you have been following me for a while, you will know about my lord of the rings blanket (the blanket of shame I have been ‘working’ on for 4 years!). Well I have started the last square, and I have started joining it! Hooray!

That’s it for now, I think I will be back next week with some knitting update! I hope you have all been great and I will aim to catch up on some blog reading this week 🤞🏼

A bit of a life and craft update

Hello everyone, I know it’s been ages (almost 3 weeks in fact, as our next HQAL post is scheduled for tomorrow).

I just wanted to update you on a couple of other things I’ve been working on lately and on life in general, as it seems I have had no time to blog at all lately.

We have had a really really hot summer here in Melbourne, Australia, in fact it is currently over 40 celsius which means that my knitting and crochet have been quite slow working as I don’t feel like sitting under yarn. I have made a couple of amigurumi though when my little overlord lets me enjoy some free time.

I have finished sewing together Nate the Narwhal and I have designed a cute little love bug named Lara. I think I will publish a free pattern for my narwhal and a paid pattern for the bug. I have also decided that this year I will create a new website to display all my patterns together. They will be more accessible and I will also link all of them to my Ravelry store (where I put all the PDFs for sale). That way, I will keep this blog for more personal interactions and to show you all my crafty projects rather than to promote patterns.

On other crochet notes, I still didn’t finish my huge Lord of the Rings blanket last year but I have started the last square and I have started to join the blanket together.

With knitting, I have a no stress project on the go, it’s a very simple seed stitch blanket with 2 colours. I’m hoping to finish that before this winter to keep Clark warm in bed without fear of him suffocating. I’ve noticed he loved to pull blankets over his face and I get super worried, so at least with a knitted blanket there are holes for him to still breathe through.

I’ve also signed up with our local library and I have been reading and listening to audiobooks so much since, it’s been really great to have access to so many books for free and because the loans are for 3 weeks I actually read the books rather than procrastinating with them on my bedside table! This is probable the most I’ve read since I was a teen, I’ve already finished 12 books this year and we’re only just in March!

And finally I’m starting back work next week (in 2 days in fact, I start on Monday)! I can’t believe how fast time has gone, Clark is already 5.5 months and I got a job teaching at uni. I’m really looking forward to that and I hope that with Clark in daycare I will have more time to catch up on reading your lovely blogs and posting here too.

Here is the culprit for my lack of posting, you can probably tell it’s hard for me to even be mad at him for it when he is so cute!

Hope you all had a great start to your year ❤

A bit of an update

Happy Thursday lovely readers!

I am so sorry I’ve gone missing again for a few weeks, I even missed the hand quilt along post last Sunday ☹️ The truth is I didn’t have much to show for (just some covered hexies) and I ended up also being super busy with Clark. Here there are though if you were interested!

I should have some progress for the next update though so I’m definitely not giving up!

In other news, Clark has been growing so so much! I can’t believe he is already past 2 moths old, time has just gone by so fast. We’ve already taken a couple of Christmas pictures with him too and he was just too cute in his first Christmas outfit.

And finally I have some exciting news! This year, despite being so busy with bub, I’ve decided to participate once again in Amigurumipatterns.net contest. This year the theme was Prehistoric Times and my entry was Archie the Archaeopteryx. I’m so proud that I actually finished him in time to enter and I’m looking forward to see how many votes I get compared to last year. Probably less, but I’m just so happy I entered at all.

Here is Archie! If you would like to see the other entries and maybe vote for Archie, clicking on the image below will bring you to the entries (bonus: you enter the draw to win some yarn!). There really are some amazing designs this year and I’m very excited to see who will end up winning!

I hope you have all been well!

Cooper the Copepod pattern release

Happy Monday everyone!

Yes I’m still here, and baby is still in but I have exciting news! The pattern for Cooper the Copepod is finally live in my Ravelry store! I’ve had the pattern tested in August and my testers did a great job. If you read this Hannah, Lex and Heidi thanks again!

I’m already working on my next pattern but it might get interrupted for a few months. Here is a sneak peak though, it will be a double pattern that you’ll be able to convert between a blue whale and a narwhal. I’m super excited about it!

I hope you will all have a great week and if I suddenly disappear off you know where I’ll be 😉

FO Friday – Eevee amigurumi

Happy Friday!

I hope you’ve had a great week, mine was quite productive and I’m looking forward to the weekend as we have family visiting for an engagement party. It should be heaps of fun!

Another cool thing happening this weekend is the Pokemon Go event for shiny Eevee. If you’ve been following me for a while you will know I love Pokemon, probably best reflected by the awesome Pokemon alphabet I crossed stitched a few years ago. In honour of the event, I’ve decided to make my very own Eevee and shiny Eevee, in amigurumi form of course! I found a really awesome free pattern from 53 stitches (I really like this minimalist style) and I got hooking. Those were just so fast to make that they were started and finished in a couple of days!

I didn’t add felt for the ears because I didn’t think it was necessary, they are super cute even without it! I’ve been really liking making those, so maybe I’ll challenge myself to make small amigurumi of all the event Pokemon until the end of the year, this should be fun and I would have quite the collection by December, who knows?

Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. if anyone is interested, my PokemonGo friend code is 6477 9936 2570, I’d love to play with you!

FO – Orbit the dragons

Hello lovely readers!

I made it, I finally managed to sew together my second Orbit the Dragon (pattern is from Projectarian) and take pictures. For some reason at the moment, I’m quite good at finishing things but not so good at taking pictures straight away, which means I end up with finished objects that I can’t really blog about (because I know that you’re probably like me and love pretty pictures!).

Anyway I digress! Here are my two finished dragons, I’m so happy with how they have turned out and I’m looking forward to my next amigurumi (I think I’m back into wanting to crochet more rather than knit).

Aren’t they cuties? The one we are keeping for baby is the one on the left (with the darker green and lighter belly) and the other will be gifted to one of my childhood friends also expecting a baby boy around the same time as us (it will be sent to France with my dad when he leaves after his visit).

I hope you’re all having a great weekend and I’ll be back tomorrow with progress on my EPP!

WIP – Orbit the Dragon

Happy Monday readers!

I’m sorry I didn’t post progress shot earlier but I have been madly crocheting on my two dragons, hoping to finish them before the end of the month. Which means that I got my missing yarn last week, hurray!

I finished part two for both dragons on Friday and there were already a lot of parts! I do love how colourful they all look though.

And today, I finished part 3, which means that I only have the assembly left! I’m very excited to get both of those finished but I’m dreading all those small parts to sew on, especially as I intend to have those as baby toys, so everything needs to be extra secure.

I’ve been really enjoying making those, they are going to be so cute!

On other unrelated news, I just got informed that yesterday was my blog’s anniversary! I can’t believe that 3 years have passed already, and I really wanted to thank you, all my blogging friends, for still being here and being so amazing ❤️

I wish you all a great week

WIP Wednesday – Orbit the dragon update

Happy Wednesday!

I promised you an update on Orbit the dragon and I have to say that this project has suffered major setbacks. The worst thing that can happen to any crocheter/knitter has happened, I ran out of yarn! and even worst, I have been searching for the same yarn for over 3 weeks now and I still haven’t been successful, as the shop I originally got it from stopped stocking it. I must have been to at least 4 different stores, both here in Melbourne and in Brisbane while I was away and still couldn’t find it so today I had to go to my LYS, which stocks the yarn but of course did not have the colour I was after. Thankfully the owners are great and they said they would order some for me, which should arrive next week, yay!

In the meantime though, I thought I would buy a skein of another green and that I would make another dragon, as I was planning on making two from the beginning (one for baby and one for another friend who is also expecting a little boy). Here is what I got so far with the second dragon, and I also put my first colour as a reference to show you that they are quite different (the lighter one is with the new yarn).

My dark green yarn should arrive next week and I will hopefully be able to show you both of the dragons part 2 finished (there are 4 parts to this CAL in total). I really just can’t wait to get my hands on this yarn now, waiting is really not my forte and I’m getting frustrated with the whole thing.

What is the longest time you have been looking for yarn to finish a project? Are there some yarns that are more difficult to find where you live? I’d love to hear about it.

Anyway, I hope you are all having a good week and I’ll be back over the weekend for the Fantastic Bake-Along!

18 for 2018 – June update

Happy Monday and welcome to July!

I feel like I repeat this every month but where did the time go? I feel like the time is just going way too fast, and half the year is already gone. I have tackled a few big goals this month though and I am very pleased about that!

18 letters sent to friends – 2/18
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.

I feel like I’m failing miserably at this goal! But I have been keeping in touch with people more by text and Facebook so not all is lost. 

17 new recipes tried – 15/17
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 more recipes this month, I’ve been busy in the kitchen! I’ve made plain scones for the first time and then the Bake along made me try another recipe for sweet scones this time (and yes I am counting both as new recipes!). My best friend also sent me a recipe for oats biscuits and they were great!

16 painted units of miniatures – 4/16
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.

No new unit this month but I did take a picture for last month’s finish! I think my two next units will be from the same army, so using similar colours. 

15 books read – 5/15
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 have re-read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this month, it’s my least favourite of the series so it probably took me more time than it should have. I’m planning on finishing the series before the end of the year. I’ve also started re-reading the last book of the trilogy I talked about last time, and I think I’ll finish it this month. 

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.

Haven’t added any square, I think I’ll tackle all the squares at the same time at one point. 

13 batches of baked goods made and eaten – 7/13
Again, with the bake-along this should be quite easy to accomplish!

Three more, which were also my new recipes for this month. 

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.

None completed this month, but I have started a new pair (almost already finished actually) and I’m planning on making two more this 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.

Still nothing here, I’ve been more interested in my yarn than in shrinking plastic!

10 new movies seen – Completed in May
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.

I have still seen 2 new movies this month, The Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World 2. I think both were enjoyable, I really liked the look of the new dino in Jurassic World and I thought the Incredibles 2 was just as good as the first one (which is pretty rare for an animated movie sequel).

9 amigurumi made – 2/9
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.

I am still working on mini-me and I’ve started Orbit the Dragon, which hopefully will both be finished this month. 

8 months cross-stitched on the snowblower diaries calendar – 2/8
This did not get worked on at all last year, so I’d like to finish it this year.

No motivation to cross stitch, all my stitching effort has been focused on my EPP this month. 

7 games of 40k played with hubby – 2/7
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 games this month, we definitely need to get back to it!

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 still didn’t get around writing up my copepod pattern. I am thinking about new designs though, I was thinking of maybe releasing a sea creature collection next year that would include some freebies and some paid patterns. It’s still very early stages though so no promises!

5 k steps walked every day 15/30
I changed this goal. I am still trying to keep moving during my pregnancy to not transform into a couch potato! Hopefully this will help me keep healthy despite the weight gain.

I’ve been doing quite bad this month for this goal. Only half of the days I’ve managed to fit in my 5k steps. I do have to say I have been feeling very tired with the extra weight and I’ve shortened my walks with the puppy as a result. Last week I did go to the pool though, and I think that will become my main exercise as it is less straining to move in the water. 

4 LOTR squares finished – 2/4
Yes I know I’ve been making this for ages but 2018 is the year I get it finished!

I have finished Aragorn this month, yay! next is Arwen’s pendant. 

3 jumpers knitted – 1/3
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 have finished my Arwen jumper, my beautifully soft and warm jumper. Very pleased with it and I have chosen my next pattern, which I will start when I come back home in a couple of weeks.

2 getaway trips – 1/2
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

Bendigo is in 3 weeks!!! I’m so excited and I am now meeting up some of the lovely ladies from my spinning class there. It will be a blast!

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

OH MY GOODNESS!!! I’ve started the submission process on Friday last week, so it’s officially done! Next step will be to wait for comments, fix the comments and then I will be a Doctor of Philosophy in veterinary immunology! How exciting!!! (yes I’m so excited to be finished, sorry about all the exclamation marks) 

Wow, what a productive month! And what a productive half year. I hope you guys have had a good one too, and if not, that’s okay too, as long as you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished!