Secret squirrel and other things ....

Yesterday was such a beautiful day in Devonport it was very, very hard to pick up my needles and knit !!!

However I had to as I'm still knitting away on my secret squirrel pressie which may take another couple of weeks so more to come on this soon ... And in the meantime I'm finishing off a couple of little presents for a friend whose first baby is due in five weeks.



Had to do a close up of the buttons as they're so cute.



I'll knit a matching beanie for these little pumpkin bootees - and I've also finished a little fair isle newborn beanie and bootees ...



Check out this neat riibon I found at Ike's in Devonport - they also have a pink version and yes, my friend is having a boy!!!



And here's Isabella - taking time out from her mohair blankie quality control job to check the height of the magazine piles.

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Dotty daze .....

I'm at the start of a suprise knitting project for a dear friend and, as I'm fairly sure she reads this, there will be no photo's or progress reports until it's finished and delivered!

In the meantime, it wasn't until a few weeks ago when someone crafty had a photo on their blog of a polka dot mug like the ones we have, that I realised how many dotty things I'm surrounded by - and no, by that I don't mean my beloved human and feline housemates ....

The said mug:


Cutlery:


Boxes, boxes
and more boxes:




A rug:


2 pairs of my
favourite summer shoes:


Teatowels:


My cake stand:


They even make an appearance in my favourite shirt!



And this weekend Isabella managed to drag herself away from the mohair blankies and made a guest appearance on the deck.

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Sunday, rainy Sunday ...

The rain yesterday morning didn't seem to affect the number of people through the Devonport Craft Market. We were lucky though as the serious stuff didn't happen until we'd finished! Another great market day (thank you Sarah's) and I met some lovely new craft people.

Last week I finished a couple of beanies which have since found their way to colder climates - both to the South Island.




I'm also knitting a "big" one for a lovely customer who's ordered one which she'd like to be similar to her favourite - so we measured that one and then draw around it on a paper bag of all things ! - no sure why when we met at work where I'm surrounded by normal pieces of paper. The creased and well loved paper bag looks like someone's old lunch bag!



She picked some lovely colours - it's hard to tell from this photo but the burgundy/red/pinky colour is just gorgeous.



Isabella spent a little bit of time in her second favourite possy - on a chair arm where she can peruse her domain ....

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A messy knitting week ....

This last week has been very messy. When I finish the actual knitting part of my latest project, I almost always do whatever finishing is needed at the time but for some reason over the last couple of weeks, I've left unsewn up bootees, beanies with ends to be sewn in (and that's a major when it's a multi coloured one), buttons to be added etc., etc.

So last week and some of the weekend was taken up with that - very, very tedious and something I'll try never to have happen again! Somewhere in the middle of it all I managed to start a new multi coloured beanie, as between last month's craft market and selling a couple online, I had none of these pretty ones left. And this time I am sewing the ends in as I go ..............



As you can see no room left on the couch for the husband !!!!

Aren't the camellia's just lovely at the moment? Last year I popped a white one in a blue glass bowl and put it next to the hand basin in the bathroom. Somehow the feline member of the family found it and decided that even though she had to nudge the flower out of the way with her nose, it was the most perfect bowl in the whole wide world to drink water out of. If the bowl was removed, she would sit up on the vanity waiting for one of her human slaves to replace it. So now, winter or summer, the blue glass bowl sits on the vanity ....



And speaking of the feline family member, here's her mohair blanket quality checking from yesterday - yes, somewhere in there is a rather chubby tortie cat.

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Presentation Happiness

I'm excited ...... I haven't been that happy with my table layout at the craft market for a couple of months. I kept asking people to critique it for me because I thought it was too busy and a couple of comments were that it lacked height. So imagine my delight when I found this .....



which then turned into this .....



and then this ....




Don't they look delectable? I had a bit of trouble fitting the top tier on and it turned out the slots hadn't been made wide enough but my trusty knitting (could you please just hold this needle/ball of wool/pair of scissors for a minute)and set up assistant (you stay inside in the dry darling while I bring all your containers, mannequin heads etc. in from the car)managed to cut them bigger without ruining the way it sits on the middle thingy.

So bliss all around, including Issie who has been maintaining her mohair blanket quality control mission.

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The joy of a new knitting book .....

I bought a new knitting book online a couple of weeks ago and last Thursday it arrived - happiness! I couldn't wait to get it home and read it from cover to cover!! Then quess what? I left it at work !@#$$%

Still I've made up for that over the weekend. Firstly I made the sweet pink and green beret ...







And then, using some of the new Sirdar Snuggly Baby wool which knits like a fair isle pattern, I made this divine little newborn hat ....






So happiness all round - even the weather couldn't dampen my spirits - fantastic knitting weather as you can't possibly feel guilty that you're sitting inside doing nothing but knitting!

Isabella got the huff somewhere along the line and spent what appeared to be an inordinate amount of time with her back to us sleeping/and or just looking at the bare wall...

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Miserable weather equals more knitting time!

What utterly miserable weather we've been having. My heart sank when I heard the forecast on Sat night as of course it was the Devonport Craft Market on Sunday and it dawned wet and horrid.

I didn't think to throw a towel into the car to wipe down my bins once we'd got them into the hall so I had to use my jacket instead! I say "we" got the bins in from the car but I actually stayed inside while my darling went backwards and forwards getting wetter and wetter!

But for such a miserable day we had heaps more people through than I'd thought we would and I sold more than I expected which was a lovely bonus. The market has such a wonderful atmosphere, even with the foul weather and some of the girls arriving looking like drowned rats...

I bought some lovely merino wool from Fran at Wild and Woolly a couple of weeks ago and there's a particular plum colour that I fell in love with so started knitting a beanie based on that with some greys and pinks. Finished it on Sat night in time to pop on my stall on Sunday but I can't show you the end result as it sold before I could take a photo of it! But here's the work in progress ...



I've made a scarf to match the black and gold glittery beanie I finished last week.








And finally here's proof that Isabella, the amazing mohair blanket sleeper, does actually venture outside sometimes - although she could have chosen the chair that didn't have bird poop on it.



Happy knitting!

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