My Very First Milo

I have admired this little pattern for a long time on Ravelry, and noted the popularity of it amongst my Ravelry friends. I recently purchased the pattern and made one. It is such a well written pattern which gives you options to add your own creative elements to your garment.

The best thing about this pattern is that there are no seams.  It is made using Panda Magnum Soft 8 Ply on 4mm needles in the 6 month size.

This is also my very first cable which was not as hard I thought it would be. All in all a very satisfying knit – I can see why it’s so popular to make. You can find my details here:-

Franie-Jay's First Milo

The pattern includes several options of cable design for you to choose from.

Milo is designed by Georgie Hallam and published in tiKKi knits on Ravelry. All of her patterns are simple and seamless. You can find them here:-

tiKKi knits Milo

Cheers Fran.

Strawberry Shortcake Cot Quilt Complete

I completed this little quilt and matching pillowcase a while ago but was having non-stop computer problems and so couldn't blog about it. So ...here are the finished items.

It is free-motion quilted and the little pillow is made using leftover fabric. I made up the binding using up little leftover bits.

The backing fabric is a pretty pink gingham which I already had in my stash. It has already been sold and is awaiting collection.

The pillow has a 'Junior' sized pillow insert which I purchased at a large haberdashery chain-store. I'm quite pleased with it.
Cheers Fran.

My latest little knit - "Pebble"

I'm really pleased with how this little "Pebble" vest turned out. It is made with my new favourite yarn - Malabrigo "Arroyo" in colour 'Archangel'. Kettle Dyed Pure Superwash Merino.

Knit on 4mm needles, it knits up quickly.

  Find the details here.

It was made as a customer order for my Etsy shop.

Cheers from Fran.

Cute Little Owl Row Counter

I recently got this cute little owl row counter with an issue of UK’s  “Simply Knitting” magazine.

You simply press the button on the top of his head when you finish a row and the numbers come up in his eyes – he’s been very handy!

It came with a little book of baby knits too. Cheers.

More Malabrigo.

I couldn’t resist the sale at Jellyware’s Online shop’s recently and ended up taking delivery of these little babies!

Two skeins of Malabrigo worsted and 5 skeins of Malabrigo Lace, and some free stitch markers – thanks Jodie! I have already hand wound them into centre-pull balls, and have also done some test swatches.

Here’s my Malabrigo Lace test swatch using 2mm and 3.25mm needles, and also using single and double yarn.

The Malabrigo lace yarn knits up into such a soft and delicate fabric. I prefer it on the 3.25mm needles. Cheers.

Twisted Cowl in Noro

 The twisted cowl in Noro is now complete.

It turned out well and is easy to wear. You can find my free pattern for this on Ravelry here:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/twisted-cowl-in-noro



Stash Building

Malabrigo Worsted x 4 + free buttons = :-)

I purchased some Malabrigo Worsted from Jellywares online shop during the week - love this stuff! She sent me some lovely free buttons with it. (You can find her shop if you click on her name in my blog list on my side bar.)



  I'm thinking of making this. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/eco-vest

Ive just noticed that she has some Malabrigo Lace for sale so have now purchased some of that too!

Cheers from Fran.

A new project.

I've been going crafting crazy lately! I started a new knit project - a twisted cowl in Noro Silk Garden Lite. My own pattern: 7 stitch (stocking stitch) side bands, with 6 repeats of the 'gull stitch' pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman, found in her book,"Knitters Almanac".
I meant to do garter stich on the side bands to stop curling - oh well - moss stitch would be good too. I am slipping the first and last stich of the 'purl' rows to reduce 'curling' of the edge.

I've used stitch markers between the pattern repeats to make it easier.

I've now added a ball of Noro (not Lite, which was already in my stash) and changed from 4.5mm needles to 5mm needles, yarn change is after the green band. Progress so far.

While I've had the knitting bug I've also been making some 'mini' roll edge beanies for a friends crochet soft toys.



Mini Beanies for Darcelle's crochet toys.



A great book I'm reading.

Apologies for so many posts in one day but I haven't been able to get much computer time over school holidays and now my son has started playing games via skype with friends, so I am doing a bit of catch up posting today.

At the moment I am reading this book:- 'Down to Earth. A guide to simple living.' by Rhonda Hetzel.

I like her philosophy of simple living, growing some of your own food, recycling things if you can and making your own things if you can such as soap etc. I highly recommend it, or you can just read her blog - the link is in my sidebar.

Pleasantly Surprised.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the way our giant fig tree has been lopped by the local power authority. They strategically lopped specific limbs in such a way that the overall shape of the tree has been kept pretty well. On lopping day they did tell me that they couldn't get their cherrypicker to where they wanted on the other side of the fence to lop the outer limbs, as ground was too wet after rain. Maybe they'll be back, but for now it's looking good.

Treelopper in the canopy.

Here is the after pic. The red brackets showing one of the lopped limbs.

Rainbow Blanket.

This little blanket has turned out to be bit smaller than I would have liked but could still be used as a colourful pram or bassinette blanket.

Rainbow blanket.

The blanket measures 28" or 72cm in diameter so I was tossing up whether to crochet another ball onto the outside, which could be interesting. I'll put it for sale in my etsy shop anyway and see what happens.

'Magoo', for scale.

Here is a picture of it with 'Magoo' on it for scale. Actually I think Magoo looks quite comfortable on it so maybe a little person would be too! Lol!

Rainbow Blanket Complete.

I've completed the rainbow blanket in Kauni, here it is unblocked.

Here is a pic of the three needle cast off of the band.

I decided to wash it in organic hair conditioner to soften the Kauni.

 I have a 'hand wash' cycle on my machine and used warm water.

Blocking out the blanket with pins on a foam mat.

 Rainbow blanket blocked and left to dry for a day.

Strawberry Shortcake Cot Quilt

I'm putting together a little quilt using up a fat quarter pack which I already had which I think was called "Strawberry Shortcake". I just decided on a simple patchwork pattern to show off these pretty fabrics, with a larger centre panel with teapots and shortcake.


I love the little teapots.

 I've decided to freemotion quilt it. It has thin polyester batting inside,and I chose a pink check for the back.

Free-motion quilting.

It should be finished soon and will go into my etsy shop.

Baby quilt & Ruffled pillow

Baby quilt & Ruffled pillow, a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

I picked up these fabrics for a song from Spotlight a while ago and have finally made a quick little quilt. This little quilt measures 96cm x 108cm or 3'2"x3'7" and is made from 100% cotton. It contains 100% bamboo batting which is luxuriously soft and is machine washable. Wash with mild detergent on a gentle cycle.

This quilt is for sale in my etsy shop.

Rainbow Receiving Blanket
I have decided to put this little shawl up for sale in my etsy shop as a receiving blanket when complete.

Invisible cast on in scrap yarn.

The yarn left on my ball of Kauni was diminishing, so I decided to cast off with an 8 stitch garter border, I cast on the 8 stitches with a piece of scrap yarn (invisible cast on) and just continued knitting on to that. Once I have gone all the way around, I will join it up with kitchener stitch.

The start of the edge band, using an extra needle.

I continued with the yarn from the main part of the shawl, it just happened to turn purple straight after the blue.

Progress with the band so far.

The band takes quite a while to add. All of these instructions can be found in Elizabeth Zimmermann's book, "Knitter's Almanac".

'Flower Power' blouse complete.

'Flower Power' blouse complete., a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

Finally hemmed and put the buttons on. Pattern is Burda 7670. Fits really well, will make another one in a plain fabric.

Last days...

Last days..., a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

...for the giant Moreton Bay Fig which grows in our back yard. We have had notice from the local power authority that it will be trimmed as it is getting close to power lines over the fence. This is the 'before' pic, sometime in the next 2 weeks it will be lopped when I will post an 'after' pic.

Sewing with Miss Ming...

Sewing with Miss Ming..., a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

I call this my 'flower power' blouse. I know that's a lot of pins...just putting the collar on.

PI Shawl in Kauni...a pattern from "Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter'sAlmanac"

PI Shawl in Kauni...a pattern from "Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac", a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

Truely this is my last post for today...LOL! I'm knitting a Pi shawl in Kauni and this is my progress so far. I like watching the different colours unravel.

X's & O's Quilt

X's & O's Quilt, a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

This is a quilt which I pieced over Christmas and have just finished off. I was inspired by a Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial video. I used high loft polyester batting which gives a good soft and squishy result but was more difficult to quilt - note to self - stick to low-loft batting. :-)

Tyler's Jumper and Beanie...

Tyler's Jumper and Beanie..., a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

Here are Tyler's little jumper and beanie. I hope I figure out how to upload more than one pic at a time!

Tyler's quilt...

Tyler's quilt..., a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

This pic shows the back of the quilt and Tyler's name appliqued with some lettering fabric from Spotlight. The squares were 'quilt-as-you-go' quilted, then joined. My next post will show my handknits for Tyler.

Quilt for Tyler...

Quilt for Tyler..., a photo by franiej82 :-) on Flickr.

This is my first post on my new blog and I decided to blog about my first baby quilt gift of the year. It's a strings quilt in cotton with cotton wadding and baby's name - Tyler on the back. It was a 'quilt as you go' quilt joined with joining strips. I am going to have to post each photo as a separate post, for some reason blogger won't upload my pics today.