well hatted.

over the winter months, i knitted a lot. A LOT!
as well as working slowly on socks, and a few commission pieces, i also knit up a whole load of baby hats...



this baby hat to be specific...
i knit 12 of them!



three of them were in newborn size, for three new babes that came into the world over those wintery months, and the remaining nine, were knit in the kid size... for nine (not so little) newly-minted one year olds!



even having knitted up so many of these hats, i still love the pattern! it's so easy and looks so cute on little heads.

i'm even contemplating knitting myself one!

probably my favourite part of having knitting so many though, is the small, but sizeable dent it's made in my dk and aran scraps. huzzah!



i got a wee bit creative with the wrapping of them too.
since having a baby, i've come to realise just how much goes into the packaging of gifts! so much stuff!! that will all most likely just end up in the bin!
hence my low-packaging gift wrapping. the leaves can be composted, and the string or ribbon was all repurposed from my stash of collected bits and bobs. hopefully they might be reused by the recipients, but if not, at least i know they've had a couple of uses before being binned!

show and tell.

the finished piece i'm sharing today was a quick knit. and i mean super quick. an hour or so tops!
AND knitted between serving customers at work to boot!



a flouncy scarf to highlight a yarn we have on sale in sunspun at the moment.
knit on a 5mm needle and using just one edge of the net style yarn, the scarf grew before my eyes.



anyone who has knitted with rowan kidsilk haze, would understand just how soft and ethereal this version would be.
it almost feels like a cloud! and the hazy mohair finish, traps a nice bit of warmth too.



with the yarn on sale for only $8.55 a hank, it would make the perfect start to the gift stash for the holiday season, don't you think?
i would imagine the scarf would come together even quicker if it was crocheted too!

what are you making at the moment? have you ever knitted or crocheted with a net yarn before?

ps. shoot the store an email, if you'd like to get your hands on some of this yarn before the sale ends on saturday!

a baby finish.

as i mentioned last week, the baby blankie i'd been working on is all DONE!
i've just been a bit slack in getting around to sharing it!



i gifted it over the weekend, at the mum-to-be's baby shower.
thankfully, it was well received, and hopefully the new little babe likes it too! can't wait to meet the little poppet in the next couple of weeks!



i followed a super simple pattern for this blankie... well not really a pattern at all. i altered the dishcloth pattern i have knit previously, but without the yarn overs and subsequent gappy edge...



the yarn i used was a bamboo from the magical backroom at bendigo woollen mills and it was an absolute dream to knit with. i LOVE the texture of the knitted fabric!

i'm also really happy as this was another 198g from the stash. well actually a little more as i was NOT putting the leftovers back into my stash, and knit up TWO dishcloths with the scraps. one for myself, and one for the mum-to-be, gifted with some lovely hand-made soap picked up from the market i visited on the weekend. 250g in total! the stash is slowly dwindling. very. slowly.



oh, also, i got to test out the labels i was making last week too.
i really like the way they have turned out!

have you finished up anything lately? do you have a favorite gift for new babes?

that christmas knitting...

for christmas last year, i had grand plans to hand-make some or most of the gifts that i was to give...
i started out strong, with this gift, and this. there was this one too.
but there were a couple that didn't quite make it for christmas...



the above beanie did actually get finished before christmas, however it barely fits my little pin head! it's intended recipient has a much larger head than mine!
raveled.



because the first beanie i knitted was too small, i'd pretty much given up on the hand-made gifting idea and i felt i could take my time with this second one...
it is still quite small despite casting on an extra 12 stitches!
oh and this one was finished on the train on the way home from our nye celebrations... at 4:30 in the morning!
raveled.

there is some more good news with the planned christmas knitting though...



these mitts were knit up for my brother's friend.
she's over from canada for a few months so i wanted to make sure she had something lovely under the tree on christmas morning, and i think these fit the bill!
raveled.

i also managed to finish the socks i had planned for my brother! finished up at 2am christmas morning and they were definitely the WORST wrapped present under the tree! oh well!

did you get some gift knitting done for christmas last year? did you leave it too late like me?

happy father's day!

today is father's day! but instead of making my dad breakfast in bed, i'm at home packing. i'm off to sydney today!!

luckily, i had the day off yesterday and bb and i could go for a drive and visit our dads to celebrate!

as i shared on thursday, i was getting making for my dad...

first up, a belated birthday present...



a phone sock!

and for father's day... something to match!



a keep cup cosy :D

i also got him a pretty awesome card



courtesy of geek amour!
dad and i used to watch macgyver together when i was a kid... when i showed bb, he had no idea who macgyver even was!!! poor sheltered boy!

happy father's day to all the papa's out there! and the single mummas that have to be mum AND dad!!


ps. any clues as to good food spots in sydney? i have NO clue!