Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all the Consumption Challengers!
1 hour to go (well, in EST anyway).
I can't wait to hear about all the things that you have all learnt this year and what your plans are for next year. I'm looking forward to writing my own synopsis of the year.
Enjoy the dawning of a new chapter!

Admitting defeat (and some fun, creative pics)

First up, I need to update this blog to explain that my Consumption Challenge has ended one month early.

DH lost his job in early November and two weeks later started work 140kms away. He has only been able to come home on weekends (and now for unpaid Christmas leave).

It has been a real strain on us all - physically, emotionally, and financially. You would think that the Challenge would be a help at this time, but I simply don't have the thought processes left to make alternatives happen.

My house is a disaster, packing boxes everywhere. My mind has been a disaster with stress over how Elliot is coping without his 'Da' around on weeknights, and about when we will be able to move (we are waiting for the tenant to move out of my PIL's old house so we can move in). And I would dearly love to know which house I will be birthing this baby in so that I can consider some local independent midwives. That's another thing to stress about. Things like going to the op shop have been impossible. I just can't manage DS in a shop of any kind right now, especially not an op shop. I get exhausted just thinking about it. I usually do that stuff with DH.

Life has taken over and my priorities have been redirected into survival mode.

I'm not going out and just shopping to my heart's content, but I can't honestly say that I have been sticking to my Challenge since the start of December. It's just been too hard to think outside the crowded little square my mind is in.

Reality bites.

I feel really pleased with what I have achieved. I am looking forward to some blogging about all the things I have learnt this year, but that will have to wait until I am settled into a new house without all this tension.

Thank you to everyone who has been such a support to me during this Challenge. It has been awesome and I can't wait to celebrate all that has happened over the past 11 months, but that will wait until next year.


My latest creations:
In other news, I made a summer outfit for Elliot from scratch. DH seems to really understand how hard the past 6 weeks of solo-parenting have been on me, and has given me tons of space and time to be creative while he spends some much-needed one-on-one time with Elliot.



The t-shirt was made using fabric kindly given to me by a fellow Raveller, the pants are made of fabric which has been wasting space in my fabric stash. The mushroom print was a little treat I bought the other day in a rare outing by myself.



This outfit cost me under $1 (probably about 25c) to make.



I think the next t-shirt (yes, it was so easy and fun I'll be making more) will have ribbing for the arms and waist too, to create a real retro 1970s vibe.

I learnt heaps while making this, such as the importance of using stabiliser when appliquing onto knit fabric, and the joy of basting (har har) for the t-shirt hems.

One of the comments I received yesterday on this was "Very Nintendo!". Ha ha ha!

To market, to market...

I saved these links for fabric shopping bags some time ago. Now seemed the right time to have a shot at making them.

First up I made some bags from some fabric you may remember from earlier projects.

For these I used this tutorial, and they are made with just one layer of fabric. They were made using the overlocker almost exclusively (except for the final seam on the french seamed bottom).

Then I made these two bags as Christmas presents. The darker one is for my mother, the lighter one for my KK for Andrew's family Christmas.

These are made using two layer of fabric, and the birdie applique (inspired by this) is made from the same fabric as the lining fabric. I used this tutorial for these.




I would really like to have a go at this bag soon.

The wrong season for knitting?

I am told it is the wrong time of year to be knitting. Pah!

Here are some recent FOs. I seem to go in cycles from knitting to sewing and back again. Seeing that the house is a disaster zone (packing boxes everywhere) it seemed logical to turn to knitting.


This beautiful ball of Susanne's House of Wool 10ply yarn arrived from Shannon. A totally unexpected gift from my Queensland friend. She saw that back in October I had blogged about my wish list for knitting projects, amongst them her Shannon's Longies pattern. What could I do, but try to do justice to her generous gift?


I love the way the colours pool. I am working on an embellishment for these. I can't wait to see the Bellyfruit wearing them. Mmmmm, yum!


This dishcloth was knit from bamboo/cotton in the Grandmother's Favourite pattern.


I knit these Picky Pants longies quite a while ago from Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply, but the Curly Purly waistband wasn't holding, so I cut and frogged the waistband and redid it with this ribbed drawstring waistband. Now that Elliot can wear them again I have discovered that the pants are one or two inches too short now. D'oh! The rise is still fine so I'll be extending the legs next. Shouldn't take long.


I bought 200g of this Yarn Cafe Australian Polworth Merino 8ply wool in the Earth Mother colourway from the Destash on Rav. These Fetching fingerless gloves only used about 1/4 of the wool, so I'm probably going to make longies and other lovely bits and bobs from this scrumptiously soft yarn. These gloves are heading o/s this week to a soon-to-be snow-covered city.


This Mini Wonder Soaker was made from some Monster Knits 8ply BFL, in Flame, also bought on Destash.


This 12ply Paton's Overlander yarn was sent to me from a very generous blogger, the owner of Possum Pouches. With it I made a Spare Ribs Shoaker for Elliot. I just love this pattern. It fits Elliot so well without any short rows - it just snugs right over any nappy. Hurrah!

To see all this and more come and join me over on Ravelry!