swapsies!

So, a while ago when the new Norah Gaughan for Berocco booklet came out, I lamented on Ravelry that good ol' Berocco won't ship internationally. Seaanemone came to my rescue, and offered a swap. So here's me thinking it'll be my pattern book plus a few little odds and sods in my parcel... Um, no. I am rather overwhelmed.

First up are stitch markers, with purple pearls and no sharp bits to catch on knitting, all housed in a little acrylic box (I'm really facinated by the box. It's so little, and so perfect... ). This is rather lovely, as while I have a pair of Bib'n'Bub's stitch markers, to date I have not had a set.


Then there was Moda Dea Tweedle Dee yarn. Enough for a wee neckwarmer, I think. Actually, given the colourway I'd really like to make something for Badly Coloured Boy (it'd suit), but I don't think he'd go for 'neckwarmer'. Maybe if I called it an ascot, or a cravat he might fall for it.
Oh, the colourway is called Surf & Turf. For some reason I find that hilarious. I mean, I know it's because the yarn is brown and blue, but I keep looking at it and thinking 'but steak and prawns is brown and pink'.


Ulp. Then we come to the sock-yarn-I-barely-deserve (given I'm on my first pair of socks ever right now). It's Claudia's handpainted, and dear Lord I can't work out how Claudia handpaints this. I'm counting five shades of yellow/ tan. Three of purple. Three greens, two reds, a grey, some black and navy.... just astonishing. It's really, really beautiful. And it comes with little yarn-themed pins too.* And I just noticed it's apparently machine washable. Excellent. Now I just need a pattern to show it off...


No, not done yet (did I mention I was overly spoilt?) I got a needle case in fabbo Moda fabric, and some hairpins (which I will try wearing with my new bookwench shoes - the subject of a forthcoming post). I'm not sure if it's intended for dpns or hooks, but my crazy Australian dpns are a little long to fit. It's perfect for hooks, so my crochet hooks now have a happy home, instead of being flung all about. Nice, huh? And the colours match my regular needle-roll too.


Oh, I suppose we can finally get to the point of the swap - my Norah Gaughan book. 'S pretty awesome. I think I'm going to make Anais, out of O-Wool Balance. Though I'm going to make it much longer (22" is the ideal torso length for me, none of this 20.5" caper).


And to the left is a sheep-shaped, mint-scented sachet of bath/ shower gel. Mint is a really peculiar scent for a sheep, but an excellent scent for me. And I ran out of shower gel this morning. Perfect timing. Tomorrow I will minty fresh all over, not just mouth-wise (y'know, because toothpaste is mint-flavoured, yeah?) Oh! And I just found a little screenprinted fabric square of a geisha tucked inside the cover of the book too! (can you tell I photographed before I even properly explored?)

Conclusion? I rather recommend Ms Seaanemone for swapping with, should you be able to swing it (unlikely, she's very busy right now, so sucks to you all for missing out). I'm rather in awe, and suffering mild swap-anxiety, as I actually can't quite remember all that I sent her. I know there was fabric from Aunty Cookie, and Jo Sharp yarn, and NZ Naturally yarn, and some chocolate... perhaps that was all? *cue swap angst*

* which I am not allowed to pin on a knitting bag. I had one on a bag and recently when I was on the train it flicked off and landed in the door tracks and a casual acquaintance I was chatting to spent some time on his hands and knees digging about in the grimy/ greasy door track to fish it out. He was concerned it would jam the train doors (I personally doubted it...). All very embarassing.

twinkletoes ballet slippers

i apologise for yet another set of creatively modelled 'object laid flat on fugly carpet' pictures. i would have modeled these cute little twinkletoes, but, uh, they were for a swap and i think Meshell would've preferred that I didn't stuff my own feet inside her shoelettes (they're not quite a shoe, not quite a sock). oh, and thel heel is neatly folded down in these photos, which is why the shoelettes look a little short.


these were nice to knit up. i substituted the cotton/ acrylic recommended for pure merino, because it was the colour that was asked for. I think the merino will hold shape better anyway. I also did the ribbing round the foothole with 3.5mm needles. the pattern doesn't call for any change of needle, but i found that resulted in unsightly gaping (imagine i said that in a disapproving, plummy dishwashing detergent ad voice).

i also felt the finished slipper was a little bland looking. i tried threading a ribbon round the ribbing, but it just looked blah. so i settled on little crocheted flowers, with centres made of buttons covered with red tartan. i'm quite proud of the flowers. i can't really crochet and i certainly can't read a crochet pattern to save my life*, so i found an illustrated pattern online, and sort of winged it based on that.

and i was kindly gifted some dark reddish leather to do the soles. i traced the toe and heel part from a pair of ballet slipper-style shoes i own, and then made it look a little smoother.

the left heel in the picture is not terribly discoloured. it's actually wet all through. i started to block the slippers, then realised i wasn't sure that soaking leather was the best idea, so i stopped. but that heel had got wet. as it was, it turns out you can block leather! that heel went nice and smooth and tight, compared to the others. it just takes a few days to dry.

* in my head i've named the stitches. there's 'the ordinary one', and 'the stabby-stabby one', and 'the one that fixes the stabby-stabby one'.

well, turned out badly coloured boy's mum came to up to perth last night so we went out to dinner (at that little mexican place (no, that's the name of the restaurant)) and so my bag got a glamourous outing after all. between courses i sat it on my lap and petted it gently.

but the purpose of this post is more public service announcement. i got sent a link to this site. now, we all know how much i love fancy trims, ribbons included. and everything is half price right now and postage is only a few dollars, even to australia. so i bought eight metres of knit-print ribbon... um... what on earth am i going to do with eight metres? about a metre will go on my needle roll.... that leaves seven metres. enough to trim a butterick 4790 dress, in fact. i wish i'd been a little more restrained with the knit-print and bought some woven chairs instead.

squee! doesn't even begin to describe it

So enough with the ethical ponderings already. when i got home today there was a parcel for me on the doorstep! (aside, at our new place we have an itty bitty letterbox. anything that doesn't fit gets left on our doorstep. i'm not sure how i feel about this. our doorstep is out of sight of the road, but there is no gate or anything. sure it's more convenient than our old place, where a note was left and you had to go to the post office to collect things, but it makes us so much more prone to mail theft. opinions?)
anyway, point: i had a parcel from Meshell - the beautiful sewing kit bag she agreed to make me. talk about swap inferiority - this thing surpasses my wildest dreams in fabulous clashing craziness! i can hoenstly assure you that my terrible half-lit-taken-on-fugly-carpet photos do not do sufficient justice. i wanted a 'jaunty me playing with my bag' pic, but badly coloured boy wasn't home to oblige.


isn't it lovely? i asked for red, pink and blue and lots of patterns, and this is what i got! i looooove the log cabin (?) pattern. and all the fabrics. yep. all of them. i can't pick favourites look, pattern on both sides:


and the inside:

the blue and white vintage sewing ads 'thing' is a pin cushion running down the centre (i cant work out what it's been stuffed with - it's so firm!). On the right is a little roll-up pocket. Underneath that little roll, and on the left are more pockets - two layers on the left, two on the right.

and the pocket unrolled (you can't see too well, but the pink print has wee triangles with red and blue detail). i'm so excited about this i haven't even tested it out yet but, hang on - yup! my double pointed needles fit in the medium-ish-narrow pockets in the roll. and i have another pocket earmarked for an unpicker (mine's going to be a bastard knit-and-sewing kit bag).

the attention to detail is just amazing. all the pockets are fully lined, and all the sewing tapes have been individually cut out of that sewing tape fabric. and centred on the pin cushion is an ad for pincushions :)
oh, and neat things Meshell didn't even know: i was going to try a (far simpler) knitting needle roll out of the fabric i got for christmas, and it was going to include the letter-print fabric (but in green) and the sewing tape fabric! so i'll have matchy-matchies, when i get round to trying my hand at
thankyou sooooooooooooo much Meshell, I am just ecstatic about this bag! before sewing things go into it i'm taking it out tonight (to do my grocery shopping. because that's the hip kind of stuff i do). i think i'm going to start carrying sewing supplies everywhere just to show off my beautiful bag. Meshell, if you have better pictures, please post them (so i can link to them/ thieve them and put them on my own blog ;) )

shhh! it's a secret!

no photos, and no real description of what i've been up to, because the What I've Been Up To is getting ready a swap with Miss Meshell (for one of her too cool for school sewing kit bags), and i don't want to ruin what little surprise is left. i don't even want to talk about colours, or textures, or materials but i DO want to because it's such fun, and being a little-ish project, progressing quite quickly (though utterly wrecking my only hand sewing needle!)

hope y'all had a nice valentines day. i and badly coloured boy both worked all day, then i went to an evening seminar at uni. i did hide a card for him in the house, which he found. i unromantically demanded flowers from him when i got home that night, but nothin' doin'. he pointed out he'd taken me out for dinner on the 13th.