Shut-Ins

After a splendid run of beautiful weather the inevitable happened and we turned into Shut-Ins today.

More Tomtens to lead us through Autumn into Winter. I may even share my sultana and cinnamon porridge with them.

Mr Hedgehog rustles around in leaves we collected on a fine day recently. (His eyes should be beadier.)

Mend and Make Do

"Mend and Make Do" is definitely a state of being to wear in the coming age. This now hangs in my craft room (aka bedroom). I took this attitude on board yesterday when looking at my hideous had-it dining chair cushions. I'd been given these fabrics by a couple of friends and I repadded them with repurposed couch cushion inners. Free makeover - suits my budget! (Long autumn afternoon shadows in my house - sigh.)



I spotted this perfectly good picnic basket at the Sallies for $5 . It had a manky fabric inner that I replaced with apple fabric and fold over elastic from my stash, loosely based around the basket lining tutorial found in the Living Crafts mag craft room.


Yet again, I'm so grateful for another free online tutorial - this one is for a Gratitude Wrap from Soulemama that was a wee giftie for H12 last week.


I wouldn't let I6.5 buy a waldorf fairy at Craft 2.0 in the weekend as I was overcome by a moment of "I can SO make that" - so I did and she seems mightily pleased with her angel - complete with leaf wings.

They're everywhere

We can't escape these little guys! The girls and I went to Craft 2.0 yesterday. (Thankfully it wasn't as manic as last time I went alone.) Of course this little guy had to come home with us for little brother.

My girls shot across the room like greased lightning as soon as they spotted the lady with all her gorgeous needle-felting. A wee addition to our autumn table with Mr Green Gnome.

Our resident teeny needle-felted gnome (or Jawa as I like to call him) bought himself some new tools for his gardening and underground work (thanks Nova).

Hubby harvested the final round of beets from our garden before every got pulled out. He blanched and froze it for our curries. Winter garden planning now underway.

All Gnome All the Time

First there were the library books...

Then there was a knitted baby gnome...

Then a crocheted house for the baby gnome...

Then a Mother and Baby Gnome arrived on the scene...


Then a knitted Jultomtar/Birthday Gnome for a young man...

He, of course, needed a Teeny Tomte buddy...


...who fished on the birthday cake yesterday...

More needle-felting appears...


A friend heard of the current fad and dropped this off for Master Four...

And I keep finding things like this around the house...


And my very own, real-live four year old Tomten...


A Month of Gnome at Our Place!

Knitting and Sewing

While we work on re-establishing some of our daily rhythms around here I've been plugging away at a few little projects. The big project continues to be "The Kids";-)

This little Wave Jumper is destined for the Auckland branch of SANDS once I've knitted up a few other weeny bits and pieces. I used Stella Bamboo and it was not my friend - too splitty for my liking but I'm pleased with the end product nonetheless.

More bamboo. Some Coquette Socks for I6. Again, I found the bamboo sock yarn a bit splitty but it is nice and soft.

More socks. I had leftovers from my Caterpillar yarn so did a weeny pair of socks for Miss Kaia who has been most unwell this week. Get better quickly Missy!!

I whipped up the Monk's Bag from The Purl Bee out of bits of leftover denim and some $1/metre fabric I scored last year. I'm using it all the time as I love bags that I can sling across my body when out and about with the kids. I hope to make another one in fabrics that appeal more to me.


In keeping with my current Bamboo theme I had some 100% bamboo fabric I'd purchased to make nappies with back in my nappy days. I hated it as it was too thin. But it's turned out to be perfect for t-shirts for me. I used a simple t-shirt pattern from Sew U Home Stretch. It's a lazy rush job as I just overlocked the edges (I couldn't figure out how to do a rolled hem despite taking my machine back into the shop for a demo...sigh). Looking forward to trying more patterns from this awesome book! I hand-dyed this but was hoping for an even blotchier look than what I achieved. Ah well...all good for yoga;-)

I'm indulging in a bit of voodoo styles needle-felting. This is a cover for a notebook for A3 and has his name needle-felted on the top too.

I still daydream about making a nice lap quilt for reading on the couch this winter, and continue to plan grown-up knitting for Hubby and I.

Pointless Crafting?

I'm not sure if this falls into the realm of pointless crafting or not? Is there such a thing? My fancy was greatly tickled when I came upon a pattern for knitted olives ages ago. As I delved into my wool roving last night, deciding what to do while watching The Kite Runner, I discovered I had just the right colours to be able to needle-felt some of these babies. Husband gave me that look, you know, the "uuuuuuummmmmm, okaaaaaaay, interesting project dear" look. But he's happy to have his jar of olives sitting on his desk. And they make me happy too - not so pointless after all;-)

I made real preserves yesterday too. Pickled Gherkins from the one plant in our garden.

Dangerous Hobby

I'm sure needle-felting must be as dangerous as base jumping or crocodile wrestling. Have you seen the needle you use? It's barbed! Anyhoo...I thought the big girls and I would try needle-felting for our Wednesday craft afternoon.

Here's my first effort - my Wise Old Woman.


Miss H11 did a super job on her girl. We both agree there is quite a Scandinavian vibe to her.


M8's woman is still in progress so we'll attack her in a voodoo doll-like fashion for a wee bit longer.

I'm now awaiting the new felting book in our library to get through processing so I can nab it for ideas. Check out Nova's Mama & Baby...so beautiful.