Princessi Stitch & Bitch

Yarn bombing!

2011-03-09T02:12:00.000-08:00

A few days after we arrived in Oslo we went for a walk up beside the mostly frozen river, and I was SO excited to see some real live yarn bombing!

Yarn bombing!

The kids were so entertained by the idea that someone would give a poor cold tree a warm jumper. There was also some around the railing, but I don't think I got a picture of that - the tree was much more impressive. There were even little embroidered animals on some of the squares, and there were crocheted bits too. There are also some things hanging from the branches, and some of the smaller branches also have coverings.

And one with me in it

so you know I didn't download it from somewhere on the internet :P

And yes, it was cold... why do you ask?!

Princess Elsie's Quilt...

2010-12-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

... is finally finished! Now that it's been given to Eleri, I can put up some photos for those who weren't there last night. I made it into a wall hanging rather than a floor quilt, so it has a rod pocket for a hanging rail.

The front:

The quilting in the border:

The label:

The funky chicken backing fabric:

The Blankie is by the Fire

2010-07-20T19:17:00.001-07:00

The finished Tree-of-Life-Afghan blankie is (finally!) blocked, wrapped in tissue paper and by the fire in Roleystone. It took about a year and two weeks, and we estimate at $10 an hour, it would cost about $2000.

Mum reports, "It is fantastic and so warm and cosy. I am giving it a real workout tonight because it is going to be 1 degree. I can't believe how much work you put into it: as Dad says must have been a lot of bitching!."

Dad calls it "the blankie that precedes the cardigan", and reports "I haven’t been able to touch it until last night – when mum wasn’t here. She loves it and what a work of marvel. i.e. very good, in fact amazing !!!?? excellent "

Hurrah!

A new princessi!

2010-03-29T18:44:00.001-07:00

Congratulations Princess Eleri and Prince Ed on the arrival of little princessi Elsie!

SnB xmas party December 2009

2009-12-30T17:20:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos from our Christmas party from a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the table laden with delicious food that we gobbled up. Kate organised to skype with Rosi the 1st. Rosi got up at 5am in minus 11 degree weather to join in the festivities. What a trooper!

Opening KK presents.

Eleri showing off her baby bump.

Delicious cupcakes made by Viv.

If only you could send food through skype!

Princess Rebecca in her KK gift - a lovely sun hat that reminded many of Holly Hobby.

Kate's new glasses with intricate arm detail.

A profile shot of princessis Viv and Edith along with honourary princessi Sian..

As if we didn't have enough to do what with eating yummy food, talking to Rosie via skype and having an Intimo party, Sian and I decided to sort some green buttons from a pack that Bek had brought along.

Buttons sorted!

Sussans Fun Run Dec 2009

2009-12-30T17:10:00.001-08:00

Most of the princessi got involved in the Sussans Womens Fun Run in December 2009 after Princess Rosie the 1st geared us up to participate in '08. I had organised new SnB T's but unfortunately they didn't arrive in time. Some princessi still had their T-shirts from last year and everyone was wearing their pink crowns though which the talented Princess Rebecca whipped up for us.

Em and I were too fast for the camera. Here is a lovely photo of our backs although Em's is mostly blocked by another Fun Runner.

Music to Fun Run by.

Eleri's friend and honourary princess Leah joined us in the festivities.

Toy Cupcakes!

2009-12-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

Yay, an update! Last night I finished the toy cupcakes for kinder. I've been saying I've been working on making cupcakes for kinder for a while now, and people have been all "ew, stale" - must remember to say TOY cupcakes!

I sewed on beads, sequins and used fabric paints to decorate the tops, as "icing". I tried to sew the beads on as firmly as possible, using a doubled thread, sewing through the bead up to three times, and then knotting the thread on the reverse. Hopefully this means that if one does come off then the others won't follow! The tops are cotton, with appliqued "icing". They are stuffed with scraps from cotton/bamboo quilt batting, and then are superglued into silicon cupcake baking moulds. I went through 5 tubes of superglue to make 12 cupcakes - wow. Many thanks also to Princess Leah who ably assisted me in choosing the beads and deciding on their placement :)

This pink one is Ember's favourite - I wonder why?!

The strawberry ones:

The lemon ones, or perhaps banana:

The vanilla cupcakes:

The chocolate cupcakes:

The yellow one has butterfly-shaped beads sewn on - it's hard to see in the photo.

While I was photographing them, my cat Pi had to come and check them out. They are NOT for noms!!

Wee projects...

2009-07-12T03:48:00.000-07:00

Have finished lots of wee projects, so before I embark on my first biggie (180 st x 332 rows plus a border) here's an update on what's been on the go.

Branching out...

First a coupla teapot cosies. The leafy one I designed for my mother's teapot. They live on a bush block, and the leaf pattern reminded me of the gum trees there.... My first mineallmine pattern, designed just for her pot (of course the leaf pattern itself I borrowed)...

The rose one finished about a year earlier, for my own pot. Given I can knit cosies sans pattern all nice and dome shaped, I reckon it's a surprise that my one attempt at a beanie turned out as a pankcake...

Then some wrist warmers. The vine pattern got a bit lost in the pattern of the yarn, but you've got to love it when a knitter designs for wearing while you knit. They are gorgeously warm, and your hands are free for the knitting...

On request...
Made a Bainbridge scarf for my sister, but it's all black, so not so good on the photo side...

Coming up...
I think the tree of life blankie for mum will keep me occupied - if I do 7 rows (1260 stitches) a week I'll have it done by the time winter really sets in next year... and then there's the border...

There's a hole in my fabric! (dear Liza)

2009-06-19T02:37:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share the awful hole I found as I unfolded my fabric to start cutting the other day:

Luckily I could fit the pieces around the hole:

The supervisor helped me cut out by settling in on the warm soft fuzzy fleece. You could call him a pattern weight, I suppose, but I don't usually use such heavy ones He finally moved when I got too close to his tail with my big scissors!

Knitting projects

2009-05-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished the 12-pointed knitted ball (pattern here) that was sent around a while ago. I followed the pattern to the letter, even though I questioned one step. I don't think my points are as pointy as the picture on the pattern (so if any of you try it, put another four rows of plain in before the final decrease). *sigh* My points are rounder than they should be, and what with my choice of coloured yarn, they look like breasts. Great!

So, behold the Booby-Ball.

The other knitting project I've had on the go was the baby jumper made from lovely soft bamboo/cotton yarn. It's lovely to knit with, however as always I hated sewing it up. Well, my high school friend's baby has arrived - a boy called Henry - and so I've had incentive to finish the damn thing. All done, packed and posted :) Phew.

Last night I started a pair of glittens for me. Yay for warm fingers, but being able to turn pages in rehearsals :)

We won't mention the socks I'm knitting...

Recent stitchings

2009-03-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

It's only been four weeks or so since I took these photos, at stitching on our last Tuesday stitching night in Feb.

We missed Princess Eleri and Princess-Mother Pat who made the Poor Choice of not attending. We also missed Princess Rosie and Princess Jocelyne :( plom plom

Princess Alana is still hard at work on Prince Ed's jumper - it's definitely growing!
Princess Emily is getting close to finished on the sheepies for her quilt:
Princess Bek is making a lovely ladybird quilt for a friend's baby - here she is embroidering a design on one of her apPLIqued ladybirds:
Princess 2Cs started work on a stylish scarf/neck wrap, which we got to see completed the following week - quick work!
Princess Viv supervised...

and let Princess Kate help mend mini-Princess Megan's dress:
The following week at Princess Eleri's castle, Princess Kate was expertly assisted by Princess Eleri and feline consort Izzy in laying out the backing for mini-Princess Ember's quilt.

Royal Fun Run

2009-03-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

Egad! I just noticed that there aren't pictures of the Fun Run we did in December! I'll fix that!
Princess Em, Princess Eleri and Princess Joce warming up before the run. Princess Joce had very little sleep, so bonus points to her!

Here, you see Princess Joce affixing a lovely knitted crown to Princess 2Cs divine head! Princess 2Cs knit the crowns herself and they looked FABULOUS!

Here you can see an action shot of Princess Alana--go, princess, go!

The running Princessi looking gorgeous:

And the beautiful run/walk Princessi, looking equally as gorgeous:
And all of us together on the winners' podium:

And the Princessi made headlines (ok, maybe not quite...) by winning the fancy dress competition! Next year we should add tutus!!

Wedding Dresses!

2009-02-07T16:21:00.001-08:00

We went to the wedding last night, and it was beautiful. The ceremony was low-key and casual where it could be, and was very personalised. Including a moment of irony when the celebrant stated the 'law says marriage is between a man and a woman' part, given he has a male partner.

The bride and bridesmaid looked stunning. Aline's dress swirled out wonderfully in their dance, not just the skirt but the sleeves too - it looked amazing. received many compliments on their dresses. As did I...

They look better on the women themselves:

Wedding handbags

2009-02-01T03:19:00.001-08:00

Here are the two handbags I made out of scraps (OK I bought the zip and the cord) to go with the wedding and bridesmaid's dresses. Both go with either dress, so they can fight over them!

A was really impressed that I'd made the bags, she'd only just thought of handbags in the last few days, and thought it was another job for her to do in this hectic week. She looks amazing in her dress, and is totally thrilled with it. The wedding is next Saturday...

Next question: what am I going to wear??

Round Robin borders

2009-02-01T03:06:00.000-08:00

These are photo's from the blog of the lady in the Round Robin after me: here's what she's done...

My centre

And my first border

I really like the diamonds in the second one, but the poetry? Not my thing.

Stitching at Princess Bek's

2009-01-28T18:21:00.001-08:00

Stitching was at the Palace of me, Princess Bek, aka Princess Rebekka-with-two-ks this week. Unfortunately, I'm very slack (and also, not 100% sure where my camera is) so no photos.

I can say that no-one did any stitching. We had icy-poles, watched the tennis (with the sound off) and the closest anyone got to being creative was Princess Kate designing part of a quilt (on paper) and Princess Eleri painting her fingernails.

Prince Casper (the pug)'s new trim waistline was admired by all.

It was very hot.

The end.

Booster seat

2009-01-10T01:31:00.000-08:00

The nature strip gods and goddesses are smiling on Princess Bek yet again: as she was walking to Princess Eleri's castle for stitching on Tuesday, she passed an old brown vinyl car seat on the nature strip - just the exact sort I'd been looking out for. A bit grotty and worse for wear, but nothing a good scrub wouldn't... help...

So, a night's efforts, and check out the seat now:

Embie chose the fabric, and is one happy car seat girl now! Thanks Bek, and may the nature strip gods and goddesses continue to smile upon you :)

Cheese and cashew nuts = good. Cheese made from cashew nuts = ???

2008-12-19T04:06:00.000-08:00

As we have a couple of people who are lactose intolerant, I spotted this and thought "why, we really ought to try it".
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/11/raw_cashew_cheese.php

Anyone game to give it a shot?
Princess Eleri

THE Sweater

2008-12-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

I have about a zillion other things I should be doing and there have been lots of fun things going on in our various kingdoms, so I think it is time for a post about The Sweater I knit for Brian. Please note, this garment isn't a regular sweater, it is a Sweater. In fact, it is THE Sweater. V important!

Well, I promised Prince Brian a sweater for our first anniversary (the pattern was on paper, so that counts) and bought yarn for it only a few days after we'd arrived in Melbourne! Ah yes, it seemed as if my fingers were itching to knit the sweater, but then I started working on the cabled lower band. That was very complicated!

Anyway, the yarn went into my stash until just before our second anniversary, when I realized how rotten I'd been! I pulled out the cabled band and tried to settle my differences with it. Turns out I'd been misreading the pattern! Oops! I figured that out just before Prince Brian and I went on an anniversary ski trip to Lake Mountain. When we weren't skiing, I was huddled under the covers for warmth and knitting frantically:

I know it looks like I'm sick in bed, but actually it was just really cold in our little cabin!

With the cabled band done, I could start with the "real" knitting, which was just lots (and I mean LOTS) of boring back and forth knitting. Luckily, the Olympics had just started, and I could knit while watching volleyball and swimming and what not, so it didn't seem so bad.

As with every sweater, The Sweater only got super annoying when I was doing the sleeves. Who knew I married a man with abnormally long arms? And THEN when I was done with one, I had to do a whole new one! Luckily, by this point, I was watching lots of Buffy to make the hours (and hours, and hours) of knitting fly by.

The really challenging part for me came when I had to attach the sleeves to the body. I had to spend about a week just thinking about how I'd do it, and then I had to consult Princess Kate. As usual, Princess Kate was able to decipher everything and make it much more understandable!

At long last, I had finished the bulk of the knitting and moved on to weaving in the ends. It is a pretty big sweater, so it had a lot of loose ends to weave in. Boring! I actually neglected The Sweater for a few weeks while I avoided the ends, but eventually sat down, wove them in, and even blocked it!

Finally, The Sweater traveled with me to Princess Kate's castle where I carefully pinned it (again and again...and then again. Thank goodness for Princess Kate, or the zipper would have been upside down!)See how happy I look in this picture? That's because this was only the first time I was pinning it. I then screwed up ANOTHER time! Third time's the charm!

Following the pinning fiasco, I had to face one of my biggest fears: a sewing machine! Eek! It is so fast, and efficient, and full of needles! I took a page from my aunt's book in dealing with the sewing machine. My aunt believes that if you scream really loudly while you jump into a pool (or, more often, a lake) for a swim, it makes cold water easier to deal with. Ergo, I figured if I just said "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" the whole time I used the sewing machine, it would make things easier. I'm sure every princess loved that! ;)

See how I'm not actually using the sewing machine in this picture? That is because I am in the other room breathing into a paper bag to prepare myself.

However, much screaming later, The Sweater was finished! Prince Brian even came in to P. Kate's castle to wait for its completion and to model the final product!

Here I am making some quick finishing touches. I'm also sternly lecturing Prince Brian about how I will have my guards throw him in the dungeon, or tie him to the rack, or torture him in other ways if he ever puts The Sweater in the drier. Off with his head!:)

And here we are--Prince Brian obviously happy his Sweater is finally finished (just in time for Australian summer!) and I am clearly thrilled that I don't have to work on it anymore. Yay! I'm actually really proud of The Sweater, because it came out really well. We'll be going back to the states in less than a week and I'm looking forward to Brian acting as kind of a billboard for my knitting prowess. Considering as the first knitted thing I made was a relatively (ok, REALLY) ugly scarf for his sister's Christmas present, I'm glad that I have something a little more presentable to show off this year. Here endeth The Sweater's epic tale. Who knows what adventures are in store for it in the future?

Stitch and Bitching at Emily's Palace

2008-12-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

For once I'm being well behaved and actually blogging.

We had a grand total of nine princesses at my place on December 2nd, including two honourary princessi. Unfortunately we were missing Princess Bek and Princess Joce. We had the usual meal of lentil burgers with the lot (depending on the eating requirements of everyone).

Princess Eleri was industrially working on her starry quilt present, while Princess 2C's was working on tiaras.

Princess Viv was happily felting away, while Princess Alana continued on the epic jumper and Princess-elect Catherine enjoyed stabbing mushrooms.

Princess Kate was working away on kid's clothes and Princess elect Michelle (I hope I got that right - having a mental blank) was reading a book about Princess Kate.

Princess Rosie was very busy making arm warmers for someone...

Recent activities in Gondwanaland

2008-11-28T02:26:00.000-08:00

I hosted another small group last week, with just Princessi Rosie, Eleri, Viv and myself in attendance. I think we ate just about enough for the entire group, what with all the yummy pasta salad (mmm, avocadoes and cherry tomatoes) and apple crumble we consumed.

After rolling into the lounge room to stitch, Princess Viv "show-and-tell"ed her recent creations:
The Christmas tree with corny advent jokes.

Christmas stockings for Princess Viv's mini prince and princesses, with hand felted designs on them

And a lovely shimmery set of wings, modelled here by the Eleri-fairy (couldn't help it!! Sorry).

Then Princess Viv studiously worked on her Christmas wall hanging, cutting out the backing and laying out the applique stars for ironing on.

Princess Eleri unfortunately had to come straight from work, so was without stitching for the evening. Luckily Princess Rosie had a job for her and set her to work starting to knit stripy triangles to make into a scarf for her brother.

Meanwhile brave Princess Rosie overcame her fears and sewed in the zipper on Prince Brian's sweater. I've sent her some photos for a blog entry all of its own.

I'd hurt my back that morning so I wasn't really up for much stitching, so I just sat around and helped Princess Rosie use my ancient sewing machine. I did show off the dresses I'd made for my girls to wear to their grandfather's 70th birthday party.

Round Robin Border 1

2008-11-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

I seem to be the only one posting here... oh well :(

I thought I'd post a picture of the Round Robin block I've been working on. I brought it along a couple of weeks ago to get some inspiration for what to do with it - I was really struggling with its lack of contrast and excessive pink-ness. Anyway, here's what I did:

I aimed to frame and feature the pink centre without dominating it with my darker fabrics (I also wanted to use something from my stash rather than go out and purchase yet more fabric!).

Little dresses for little girls

2008-10-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished the last of the dresses for my former neighbour's kids, and this afternoon I took them to kinder to give them to her. The Mum was completely blown away, and when Middle saw her dress she hugged it and wouldn't give it back! The Mum also loved the colour of blue I used for Big's dress - matches her eyes wonderfully well.

Size 7 dress for Big:

Size 5 dress for Middle:

Size 1 dress for Little:

Here is also the dress I made for Princess-in-Training Zoe's birthday. Unfortunately it's a little too short on her, so I'll add an extra ruffle at the bottom like on Middle's dress. That hasn't stopped the dress being rather popular - I think it's been slept in twice!

All this dress sewing, and my own girls have decided they deserve new dresses to wear to their Grandfather's 70th birthday party in December. Back to work!

Quilting Round Robin

2008-10-15T03:27:00.001-07:00

I'm currently involved in a quilting round robin, and so I thought I should blog about it, and show off my centre block.

Tada!

The round robin works like this: there is a group of five of us, and each of us creates a centre block. Then it's posted to the next person in the group, who adds a border. And so on, until each centre has four borders added to it, and it's returned to the original quilter for finishing off. It's a very exciting adventure! I'm looking forward to seeing all the work the others do.

I also brought along beautiful yarn hand-dyed by my friend (Em) in Adelaide, so I thought I should post the details of her Etsy store (though I see she currently has nothing listed) and her blog. She's actually having a sale at the moment - on her blog - to get rid of a whole lot of yarns, so they're both beautiful and incredibly cheap! Also, you can see all the colourways she's dyed, and perhaps order a custom dyed job. She's injured at the moment (going to have surgery in a few weeks), so her turn-around may be a little slow, however you'd be helping her support herself when she's struggling to work... not begging for her, just trying to help a friend who's having a pretty rough time at the moment...

Bitchin' Stitchin' on the Trams!

2008-10-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Although I was crowned in March, other affairs of state have distracted me from the important duty of blogging about royal stitching and bitching. A fabulous art project undertaken by the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Yarra trams has roused me from my silence. It combines culture, class, environmentally friendly transport, and fabulous stitching! GOOD CHOICE!

Over the past few months, I've collected a number of photos but haven't posted them. I'll work on correcting this oversight, starting with the most recent:
Princess Viv looks like she's making a hat out of some fabulous fuzzy yarn! She demonstrates flawless form with circular knitting on circular needles.
Newly ascended Princess Jocelyn shows off her newest skill--knitting on double pointed needles! Kudos to her for her bravery, as she narrowly missed having an eye poked out by a DPN a few weeks earlier. Sorry Princess Joce!
Princess Kate fastidiously knits some truly gorgeous socks. They're done now and have turned out to be both fetching and warm!
Princessi Eleri and Bek show off their projects. Princess Eleri had been struggling with several mostly-but-not-entirely finished knitting projects, but didn't let that stop her from knitting a really clever wrap. Meanwhile, Princess Bek mends a duvet cover an combines her love of scrap fabric with her love of not throwing out a perfectly good duvey cover in which someone (ahem, Prince Hugo, we're looking at you) chewed a hole.
Princess Em stretches her legs after some vigorous stitching. Stretching is very important, or the unwary princess could pull a muscle!

Will attempt to post more pictures soon!

The Librarian and the Quilter

2008-10-02T03:31:00.000-07:00

I finished the quilt top last night, so here is the photo of the finished top:

I also called the quilter yesterday morning: she's going away for three weeks as of Friday (tomorrow), and then is fully booked until Christmas! Crap! But then, because I'm a valued customer and it's only a small quilt, she decided she could fit me in. Thank goodness! So there was no rush to get it done after all, but it is nice to almost have it completed by my goal of end-of-September (yesterday was 1 Oct).

On to other projects tonight!

Finished!

2008-09-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

This is it, all folded up so you can see the cute edging!

The front!

A close up of some of the front!

And the back, with lovely yellow fabric donated by Princess Kate (who also has the world's best iron!)

\As everyone knows, it's a bit of a miracle when I finish a project. My modus operandi is normally to get somewhere less than half-way through then put in cupboard and ignore for 10+ years.

This time, however, I have no only started and finished a project in exactly two weeks (with many thanks for excellent assistance/advice from Princessi Eleri and Kate) but I have finished it *before* the birth of the baby it's meant for. First time ever.

Luckily, the baby won't be able to tell (at least not initially) that I can't sew a straight line to save my life (at least not with bloody enormous thick wadding in the middle) that I swore my head off and threw things because (a) I broke FOUR needles, (b) the red cotton ran out with two seams left to sew, (c) the spool ran out with one seam left to sew, (d) my stupid sewing machine keeps unthreading itself mid-seam and (e) other random badness.

I stitched the back of the edging by hand yesterday while watching eleventy-three episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

And next time, I am (a) using much, much thinner wadding and/or (b) getting someone to quilt it professionally, like Princess Kate so sensibly does.

On another note, I'd really like to do this to my couch!

Stitching at the House on the Hill

2008-09-28T00:08:00.000-07:00

Right, no extra-fancy formatting this time! (stoopid formatting - gah!)

Stitchery was held at my place last week, and we were a full contingent bar Princess Eleri, who was sadly missed :( Hopefully she will be in attendance next week.

For the regal supper we consumed quiche, pasta salad, and pasta-salad-minus-the-pasta for the non-wheaten-types. Princess Rosie provided a bottle of wine at Prince Brian's insistence (we don't mind, thanks Prince Brian!), and at Princess Viv's request, Princess Kate had baked a Lumberjack cake for dessert. It was served with fresh ripe yummy strawberries.

Prince Bron arrived home unexpectedly early from choir rehearsal, and the well trained lad proceeded to make hot drinks for us all. Much hilarity ensued when he asked Princess Rebecca "And how do you like your chai?"...

We're all going well on our projects:

Honorary Feline Princess Lillian finished pinning her quilt sandwich together and decided that it was time to curl up and relax for the rest of the evening.

I think it passed the comfort test :)

Princess Bek started reading the Quilting Bible to decide how to proceed with the ~~cat~~ cot quilt she's making for her colleague's soon-to-arrive baby. It's made donated from scraps, including cat hair generously donated by HFP Lill.

Princessi 2Cs and Rosie worked hard on their knitting projects: Princess Rosie has very nearly finished the ~~simian~~ jumper with the extra-long sleeves and a (metric) bazillion stitches per row. It is so heavy and warm!

Princess 2Cs was knitting a wrap from snuggly soft warm wool. It starts at a point at the back and then separates into two parts to go over the shoulders.

Princess Emily continued working on her sheepie quilt - I don't think this square is a zombie though! Princess Jocelyn supervised ;)

Princess Alana industriously worked away at her jumper for Prince Ed. The back is complete and she is now about half-way through the front. Yay! It should be ready for next winter at this rate!

Poor Princess Viv the injured sat enthroned in the arm chair and continued knitting her jumper. It's for herself! A lovely soft and thick wool, great for getting through faster. She's also finished the back and is a good way through the front - ready to wear next winter as well.

Princess Kate decided that using her sewing machine was way too noisy for the number of people in her cosy lounge room, so kept working on her knitting instead. Her yarn was coming close to running out, so she started on the ribbing - but then did as much ribbing as was needed and still had plenty of yarn left. So after the Princessi had departed that night, she pulled out all the ribbing she'd knitted that evening and continued knitting the sock in the pattern.

This afternoon I finished the socks!! I completed the ribbing with what yarn I had left (with about 6cm of yarn left after casting off - perfect!), and when I compared it to the first sock, I saw that the second sock is only about three rows shorter.

Everyone, make sure you're seated...

I'm leaving it like that, with one sock three rows longer than the other. Shocking, I know :P

Glittens!

2008-09-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

It's about time I posted photos of my finished glittens here.

This first pair is the first pair I was knitting, where I tried to match the wool and failed. The glitten on the right is the one I started with - note its gentle mottled colours? The second one on the left is the wool that I had to buy - it's got a much more stripy effect (not as nice), so the gloves really don't match. My sister-in-law's partner, Nick, loved them however, so he scored himself a nice new pair of glittens. Glad they went to a home that appreciates them!

The front, with flaps off,

and the back with the flaps over the fingers and thumb.

Here are the other two pairs I made this winter: the blue pair for my brother for his birthday, while the green pair was for Dad for Fathers' Day.

Front and back, flaps on and off. I liked these wooden buttons better than the ones I used for Nick's - darker colour, and the holes are larger so were much easier to sew on.

I hope the button loops don't get in the way!

CWA, anyone?

2008-09-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

There's an article in today's Age about young people and crafty groups: A Stitch through Time.

I'm going to catch up on a few posts that I'm behind on, promise :) Hope you're all having a lovely weekend in the beautiful weather.

All amigurumi great and small

2008-09-26T14:47:00.001-07:00

I made a couple of more amigurumis last weekend for Ed's cousin's new little bub Thomas so I thought it would be a good time to display a collection of my amigurumis to date. Here is the duck that I made for Thomas. The pattern was for an egg cosy but I just continued the pattern to close it up at the base and stuffed him to fill him out.

Here is the bunny along with the ducky I made for Thomas.

Here is the monkey that I made ages ago. I added a tail to the pattern as what monkey is complete without a tail? I got the tail to sit up using a pipecleaner. Unfortunately this cannot be seen in the pic I chose.

And here is the owl I made from Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli. All her patterns a way cute!

And here are all the amigurumis living in harmony on my couch.

Knittiquette

2008-09-22T02:38:00.000-07:00

A wee link, to the knitting etiquette page that says you can join random knitters-in-public provided you don't interrupt them counting...

http://knitting.about.com/od/knittingskills/qt/etiquette.htm
PR2Cs

Quilty goodness

2008-09-21T01:25:00.000-07:00

I've been making a little baby quilt for a friend who's having a baby, which I thought I'd post here, since I'm pretty sure she reads my blog but doesn't read this one!

It has monkeys and spots and stripes and cuteness. I just need some backing fabric (78cm x 78cm in blue, brown, pale yellow or similar... ) - if one of my fellow princessi has something suitable in a single piece that will be fabulous, otherwise the Pete just told me he threw out four shirts, so he's going to rescue them for me and I will make four big blue squares of shirt for the back. Then I will bind in red... more pictures once done (baby due in like, two weeks, so must hurry up!)

Political lobbying with a crafty bent

2008-09-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

I just came across this website, which has produced a standard letter to the Aviation Security Screening Review aksing that knitting needles and crochet hooks be allowed on Australian flights again.

It's really rather ridiculous that knitting needles are currently banned - at least plastic ones, which snap if you look at them the wrong way, and so could not possibly be used to hurt someone! I can't imagine that you could hijack a plane by threatening to knit, say, some really tasteless fluro 80s legwarmers, although it is a bit dreadful to contemplate...

I modified their standard letter before sending it off, as I thought (a) it's a bit wordy and (b) they're more likely to take notice if the letters are not all identical!

But if you're a crafty type (or even if you just want to help us crafty types out), get lobbying, send an e-mail and tell those silly Aviation Security people that you can't commit a terrorist act with a knitting needle. Sheesh.

(cross-posted from Bek's blog)

2008-08-23T10:05:00.001-07:00

Not quite sure why I'm doing this at 3am, but I've just blogged this weekend's achievement on my blog. Which is here. I finished the top on Embie's quilt, which, y'know, I'll probably bring to show-and-tell next week anyway....

Goodnight. Sleep now... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hot Water Bottle Cover Pattern

2008-08-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

OK, I think I've got the pattern sorted out. Please read through it and see if there are any obvious errors. I've not yet tried it out, so it's completely out of my head! However I will try it out soon.

Here we go!

Kate’s re-write of the
Hot Water Bottle Cosy Pattern

This pattern is made to cover a hot water bottle that measures approx 12” long and 7.5” wide.

Materials: Red Heart Acrylic Yarn
Needles: 7US / 4.5 mm
Gauge: 4 stitches and 6 rows = 1 inch

I’m going to write this pattern in two ways – first just re-writing the pattern as it stands, knitted on straight needles. Then I’ll re-do it in the round, for working on either dpns or a circular needle. I’m also adding a band of ribbing on each side of the closure so that it doesn’t curl up, and button holes so it can be done up nicely.

K = knit
P = purl
M = make (increase either by lifting the bar between the stitches, or by knitting first into the front and then the back of the stitch)
K2tog = knit 2 stitches together

Version One, knit flat in two pieces, on single pointed needles
The first piece starts at the opening and goes up the body of the bottle, shapes for the shoulders and finishes at the neck. The second piece starts at the opening and works down to the base, completing the first side, before folding over and knitting up the other side to finish at the neck.

First Piece
Cast on 30 sts in 2x2 rib (P2, then K2 P2 to end).

Rib band
Row 1: Knit in rib, starting with P2, then K2P2 to end.
Row 2: Knit in rib, starting with K2, then P2K2 to end.
Row 3: As row 1
Row 4: *Rib 6 sts, cast off 2 sts*, repeat from * to * 3 times, rib 6 sts.
Row 5: **Rib 6 sts, cast on 2 sts**, repeat from ** to ** 3 times, rib 6 sts. You now have 3 buttonholes.
Rows 6-8: Rib.

Body
Continue in Stocking Stitch for another 36 rows, finishing on a purl row.

Shoulders
Row 45: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K20, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (26 sts)
Row 46 and all even rows: Purl
Row 47: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K16, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (22 sts)
Row 49: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K12, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (18 sts)
Row 51: K1, K2tog, K12 , K2tog, K1 (16 sts)
Row 53: K1, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K1 (14 sts)

Neck
Continue in Stocking Stitch for 15 rows. Cast Off.

Second piece
Cast on 30 sts in 2x2 rib (P2, then K2 P2 to end).

Rib band
Row 1: Knit in rib, starting with P2, then K2P2 to end.
Row 2: Knit in rib, starting with K2, then P2K2 to end.
Row 3-8: Continue knitting in 2x2 rib as in first piece, omitting buttonholes.

Body
Continue in Stocking Stitch for 6 rows.

Base of first side
Row 15: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K20, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (26 sts)
Row 16 and all even rows: Purl
Row 17: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K16, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (22 sts)
Row 19: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K12, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (18 sts)
Row 21: K1, K2tog, K12 , K2tog, K1 (16 sts)
Row 23: K1, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K1 (14 sts)

Row 25: K5, Cast Off 4, K5.
Row 26: P5, Cast On 4, P5.

Base of second side
Row 27: K1, M1, K10, M1, K1 (16 sts)
Row 28 and all even rows: Purl
Row 29: K1, M1, K12, M1, K1 (18 sts)
Row 31: K1, M1, K1, M1, K12, M1, K1, M1, K1 (22 sts)
Row 33: K1, M1, K1, M1, K16, M1, K1, M1, K1 (26 sts)
Row 35: K1, M1, K1, M1, K20, M1, K1, M1, K1 (30 sts)
Row 36: Purl

Body
Continue in Stocking Stitch for 50 rows, ending on a purl row.

Shoulders
Row 87: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K20, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (26 sts)
Row 88 and all even rows: Purl
Row 89: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K16, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (22 sts)
Row 91: K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K12, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (18 sts)
Row 93: K1, K2tog, K12 , K2tog, K1 (16 sts)
Row 95: K1, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K1 (14 sts)

Neck
Continue in Stocking Stitch for 15 rows. Cast Off.

Finishing
Lay out the two pieces, right sides together, with rib bands overlapped. Pin together, and sew up sides. Sew on buttons under buttonholes.

Version Two, knit in the round in one piece, on dpns or a circular needle
This time we start at the base and work up the body to the neck, all in one piece. Working in the round means that every row is knit, and it omits the need for so much sewing up!

Rib band
On single pointed needles, Cast On 30 sts in 2x2 rib (P2, then K2 P2 to end). Leave a long tail so that you can sew up with it.

Row 1: Knit in rib, starting with P2, then K2P2 to end.
Row 2: Knit in rib, starting with K2, then P2K2 to end.
Row 3: As row 1
Row 4: *Rib 6 sts, cast off 2 sts*, repeat from * to * 3 times, rib 6 sts.
Row 5: **Rib 6 sts, cast on 2 sts**, repeat from ** to ** 3 times, rib 6 sts. You now have 3 buttonholes.
Rows 6-8: Rib.

Keep this band on the single pointed needles for now and put it aside – we will pick it up later on.

Base
Cast on 28 sts, leaving a long tail to use for sewing up later. Join into a round. The tail also indicates where the start of the round is, for later reference.

Round 1: K1, M1, K10, M1, K2, M1, K10, M1, K1 (32 sts)
Round 2 and all even rounds: Knit all stitches
Round 3: K1, M1, K12, M1, K2, M1, K12, M1, K1 (36 sts)
Round 5: K1, M1, K1, M1, K12, M1, K1, M1, K2, M1, K1, M1, K12, M1, K1, M1, K1 (44 sts)
Round 7: K1, M1, K1, M1, K16, M1, K1, M1, K2, M1, K1, M1, K16, M1, K1, M1, K1 (52 sts)
Round 9: K1, M1, K1, M1, K20, M1, K1, M1, K2, M1, K1, M1, K20, M1, K1, M1, K1 (60 sts)

Body
Round 11-16: knit 6 rounds

Rib band
Round 17: K30, P2, then K2P2 to end of round.
Rounds 18-23: repeat as for round 17.
Round 24: K30, then Cast Off the stitches as you P2, then K2P2 to end of round. Pull the loop of the last cast off stitch to be quite large, and pass your ball of yarn through the loop. Pull to tighten.

Body
Round 25: K30, then knit from your buttonholed rib band on the single pointed needles.
Continue in knit for another 36 rounds.

Shoulders
Round 61: K1, K2tog, K2tog, K20, K2tog, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2tog, K20, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (52 sts)
Round 63: K1, K2tog, K2tog, K16, K2tog, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2tog, K16, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (44 sts)
Round 65: K1, K2tog, K2tog, K12, K2tog, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2tog, K12, K2tog, K2tog, K1 (36 sts)
Round 67: K1, K2tog, K12 , K2tog, K2, K2tog, K12 , K2tog, K1 (32 sts)
Round 69: K1, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K1 (28 sts)

Neck
Continue in knit for 15 rounds. Cast Off.

Finishing
Turn cover inside out and pin base together. Sew up the end, leaving a hole (about 4 sts long) for the hot water bottle’s hanging tag to stick out. If your hot water bottle doesn’t have a hanging tag, sew up the end completely. Turn cover out the right way, and lay it out with the buttonhole rib band on top. Pin and discreetly sew the edge flaps down. Sew on buttons under buttonholes.

The original pattern can be found here.

Wow another post!

2008-08-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

How about that - two posts in four days!

I'm rather chuffed that you all liked my first attempt at making baked apples so much. Here's the "recipe"

I cooked eleven granny smith apples, because, y'know, left-overs are good. Though I expect that quantity may be a little large for most of you at home.

So, wash the apples and remove any stickers. Remove the core (and save them for Bek's bunnies), and with a knife lightly score a line through the skin around the apple. This is so that they don't explode all over your oven when they're cooking (ie, a good idea!).

First stuff a dried apricot down the hole - it jams in the bottom and keeps all the rest of the filling in when you serve it. Fill the rest of the hole with assorted dried fruit. Last night I used sultanas, pineapple and date (chopped into quarters, half a date per apple), along with the apricot.

In a saucepan I put about 3 tbsp of honey, a dash (1/4 tsp?) of allspice, a larger dash (1/3 tsp?) of ground cloves, and an even larger dash of cinnamon (1/2 tsp?), and then poured in some water (maybe 2 tbsp?), and stirred over a medium heat until it started boiling.

Line all the apples up in an oven-proof dish and pour the honey sauce over them. Make sure you cover the skin on top (so it glazes in the oven) and pour a little down inside each apple too. Bake at 200C for an hour. Top with icecream and enjoy!

We had a big group last night, only missing Rosie, who was celebrating her second anniversary (priorities, girl :P), and Alana, who was feeling sniffly and tired.

Rebecca brought a show-and-tell. She has knitted a wonderful tea cosy with a rose and leaves on the top. So amazing, especially from someone who, when she joined us, had not knitted before. Definitely a natural.

Eleri went slightly crazy with the camera, so I shall post some of the shots of what we were all working on. I was knitting a pair of socks while stuffing up the lace pattern - after most of you left I had to take the needles out and pull out about 10 rows. Very sad.

I was also helping Viv start knitting her first pair of socks, and showing her the very funky crochet cast on method for starting socks at the toe.

Jocelyn was knitting with a lovely multi-coloured baby wool, while Bek began appliqueing a second red flower to her doona cover.

Emily worked on her cute sheepies (no photos! Sorry :( )and Rebecca took apart her hot water bottle cover to add ribbing to the closure. We talked about fixing the pattern for the hot water bottle cover, so I shall hopefully do that later today and post it here (OMG, a third post!!).

(To explain about the hearts, Viv 'hearted' us all... Lillian the cat also got one - it's still stuck to the cat flap!)

Eleri did important work by reading a magazine and wishing she'd bought a french mansion :) Though she had contributed greatly by providing us all with yummy grapefruit marmalade - thank you!

How could she have come so far...

2008-08-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

So, here is my first ever blog post. That's First. Ever. And welcome to my first ever non-scarf knitting project, photo to follow. Not my first poached pears, tho'.

Ginger spiced pears... with raspberry sauce
Left over sauce is fab with really good vanilla bean icecream, on muesli, and pancakes!

Peal 6 firm pears - like buerre bosc. Some recipes say core them, but I don't bother. Halve them, or don't.

Sauce for poaching
Put these things into a pot that will fit the pears in a single layer, but only just:

1 cup sugar
3 cups water
1 cup wine (I use ginger wine, but white will work as well.
Juice of 1 lemon
2 2-inch pieces of lemon zest
1 4-inch cinnamon stick
1 2-inch piece gingerroot, sliced
2 star anise

Bring to the boil, stirring every now and then to dissolve the sugar. Cook about 5 mins to blend flavours.

Poaching
Carefully place pears in boiling liquid.
Make sure the liquid covers the pears. Add water if you need to.
Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer them gently until they are just tender.
Takes about 10 - 20 minutes, depending on the ripeness of the pears.

Take the pears out (use a slotted spoon).

Saucing
Boil the liquid until it's down to about 2 cups. Strain the solids out.

You can serve, or put them in the fridge with the sauce covering them.
They keep 2-3 days.

Slacker stitching

2008-05-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

We've all been pretty slack about blogging recently - I last hosted on 22/4, which is now three weeks ago...

The previous week (15/4) we were at Princess Viv's castle, and I promised to blog her soup recipe as it was so completely yummy and able to be eaten by everyone! Better late than never, I often say.

Golden Austrian Cauliflower Cream Soup

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 cup celery, coarsely chopped
2 leeks, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp VegiZest or other no salt seasoning
2 cups carrot juice
4 cups water
3 tsp Spike seasoning (I have no idea what this is!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup raw cashews
5 cups kale or organic baby spinach

Cover and simmer all ingredients except cashews and kale or spinach for 15 mins or until just tender. If kale is being used steam until tender. Blend 2/3 of soup vegetables and liquid with raw cashews until smooth and creamy. Add back to the remaining chunky vegetables and stir in kale or spinach. Spinach will wilt in hot soup.

The following week at my place, we had (I think) only Viv, Emily and Rosie in attendance, so it was a small cosy gathering. We ate vegan shepherd's pie and vegetarian invented quiche (both Viv-able) with a salad, and then followed by apple crumble. So much food!

We did eventually roll ourselves into the loungeroom to do some stitching... I'm not certain what everyone was working on after this long: I do remember that Rosie was working on knitting her lovely lacy scarf.

Anyway, what I planned to do here was post a photograph of the skirt I ended up making with the hideously expensive silk, and which I wore to a wedding in early April.

Not an excellent photo - Bron has been chastised for his photo taking, for taking all the photos from too high up (damn tall boys). The perspective on about twenty photos all make me look like a dwarf and my legs about 20cm long! The skirt really only goes to a little below my knees (not nearly my ankles as some photos make it seem). You can see the detail of the feature panels in the skirt... and the slightly crinkled satin...

I got chatting to a lady at the wedding who recognised the silk - she had a little jacket made from the white version for her wedding eight or nine years ago. We were thrilled at the coincidence and swapped stories - and ended up being placed on the same table.

I'm looking forward to getting back to stitching next week! I've been sewing and knitting to keep up - I've done one Della mitten, and have to start the second... right now. Bye!

The week before the week before last

2008-04-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm so totally slack, I hosted three weeks ago, and still haven't posted about it!

For dinner we had slightly disasterous Vietnamese 'crepes', which turned out not to be crepe-like at all. Everyone could eat them as they're made with rice flour and coconut milk, and they were relatively tasty and coconutty, but had a weird texture and we couldn't get them to stick together. The non-veggies ate them with chicken and assorted veg, and the veggies with cashew nuts and assorted veg. For dessert we had a LOT of strawberries - as I was leaving the market they were practically throwing them out - $2 for a kilo, so I bought 2 kilos and we ate lots of them. With cream, for those of us not allergic to dairy!

Photos of people doing projects are at home, but I *will* post them later, promise!

Keen posting!

2008-03-18T04:37:00.000-07:00

My computer was right there, the camera was next to it, and I could actually find the uplink cable. So before I forgot to, I've decided to blog it tonight!

We were looking forward to welcoming new stitcher Rosie, but she didn't end up coming - perhaps my "see you tomorrow night" - written late on Monday night - confused the matter. Oh dear. So it was a small gathering tonight, with just Princesses Eleri, Alana and Kate in attendance.

Princess Eleri brought along a fabulous show-and-tell with the completed top (minus border) of her wedding ring quilt. Only has to be finished in a week or so - thank goodness there's a long weekend coming up!

And here's a close-up of one of the rings. The fabrics and sewing are just fantastic - all those curved seams. Wow!

Once the top had been ironed, photographed, draped and adored, it was time to contemplate the border and how to apPLIque it to the rings. Quite difficult, really.

Poor Princess Alana is sick with a head cold again after staying up late baking for the bake-off, but she still managed to work industriously on Prince Ed's jumper. Nearly one ball of wool finished (sssssh, only 16 remaining). Estimated completion date by winter 2009 :)

Princess Kate had intended to work on her interim emergency project (another gypsy skirt made from charm squares) while her fabrics wing their way from the US (brilliant website: http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/ for all your quilting needs. Hide your credit card first!), however conversations of fabrics and stashes distracted her, and so she spent some time searching through and sorting old boxes of fabric. After looking in the box labelled 'Evening Fabrics' (and finding some amazing and forgotten pieces), she resorted to opening the box labelled 'Mending and Incomplete' to find the 80cm of $120/metre embroidered silk that she'd never dared cut into. It was originally purchased for a corset, along with all the boning, piping and ribbon, however the prototype didn't fit and was too much of a pain to resize. So ideas were discussed about what to do with this incredibly expensive and stunning fabric - feature panels in a skirt, I think we decided.

Interim emergency project:

Very expensive embroidered silk:
(reflection from the silk is a bit strange - it is actually black).

Last week I was so inspired by the apPLIque jumper I was sewing for Della, that I stayed up late once I got home and kept working on it until the wee hours. Silly me. Here it is:

(oops, I see I should have flattened it better before photographing it - the arms don't actually have those big wobbles in them.)

I've been thinking of setting up at Etsy store for clothing like this and the skirts - what do people think?

Finished projects

2008-03-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

It has been rather a while since I've done an update on this blog... Sorry princessi :(

Among other things, I promised I would post some photos of the firefighter quilt:

The finished quilt! I photographed it on our bed, so you can't actually see the borders or special corner squares...

A close-up of the border fabric and one of the corner squares. The corner squares came about when I realised that the pattern was ginormous and completely too insanely big, so I reduced the number of blocks (was 7x8, reduced to 6x6). Of course this was after I'd cut out all the pieces and made all the red squares. *sigh*

The label, and a view of the blue-flamed backing fabric (which was so completely JJ and was the inspiration for the rest of the quilt). The wording on the label had been all nicely spaced out, until a party a week ago when a number of people came up to me to ask if it was still OK to go in for the present. Teach me to be organised and to finish it well ahead of time! So I had to squish a whole lot more names on - including up the side too. Ah well.

Oh, to explain the 40th/10th birthday thing: her birthday is the 29th of February, so while she was turning 40 years old, it was only her 10th birthday.

JJ was totally amazed by her gift and absolutely loves it. Her father has said that the family now has a new heirloom :)

I had also promised to post the recipe for the apple crumble I made a few hostings ago. Hmmm. I tend to make this one up every time I make it, so I'll have to experiment to work out approximately what I did. It would have contained something along the lines of:

1 cup wholemeal flour (unless I used wheat-free flour?)
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup raw sugar
sesame seeds
sunflower seeds
walnuts/pecans
enough melted butter/margarine to make it the right consistency.

Not a particularly clear recipe - but Good Luck!

I thought I might also post a picture Della's skirt that I quickly ran up one night a few weeks ago. It didn't make it to a SnB night, as it was quicker to make than I expected.

I bought a pack of 25 pre-cut 15cm charm squares at Lincraft - and I had to add two of my own to make the proportions work right. The longest part of making this was working out the layout of which squares was going to go next to which. The pack contained fabrics that were the same pattern but in different colours - I managed to keep them from being next to each other in the rows, but failed dismally in separating them vertically! No matter. My overlocker made this project very simple, though the gathering was a bit of work too. I've bought another couple of packs of these squares, as I think they'll make nice (and cheap - the pack of squares cost $9.95, and the elastic would come to only about 40cents or so - so all up under $11) preschool presents - I'm sure Della will be invited to a few parties at some stages of this year!

Tofu at Princess Bek's

2008-02-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

I believe it was the week before last that stitching was at my house. I forgot utterly to take any photographs, but Princess Kate very kindly brought along her rotary cutter and the mat you cut out on, and the ruler thingy, and showed me how to cut out 3 inch squares to do patchwork with (next week I am hoping she will show me how to pin and sew them!). Princess Eleri was also working on patchwork.

My PU#1 came and hemmed a curtain for us. I can't for the life of me remember what anyone else was doing (possibly because I was busy running in and out of the kitchen, organising an enormous pile of roast veg and baked tofu as well as baked lamb chops for the non-vegans).

The baked tofu worked so well that Hugo actually ate the rest of it. Here's the recipe:

1 pack firm tofu
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbs maple syrup
squirt tomato sauce
1 tbs white vinegar
dash tabasco
1 tbs sesame seeds (actually I must admit I didn't measure, I just chucked some in)
clove garlic, squished
few good grinds of the pepper grinder

Slice tofu into cubes, mix all the marinade together, marinate in the fridge for a half hour or so. Then put it in a single layer and bake in the oven at 190 C for 15 mins, turn over and bake for 15 mins on the other side. Voila, as the fr sa.

This was good, because it took about the same time as my baked lamb chops (drizzle with olive oil, cracked black pepper and fresh rosemary, bake with whole cloves of garlic).

Not related to stitch and bitch, but I'm just at the moment boiling oranges to make this cake to take with us when we go to a friend's for dinner tomorrow, and it smells SO good! Plus, no dairy or gluten, so it's not going to make me all allergic. I might make some orange slices in syrup to go on top of it...

Some old pictures!

2008-02-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, and here are some old pictures you might remember from I think the last S&B at my old place (oh, I miss our little tudor-style cottage :-( Still, our new 70's pad is pretty cool!) in perhaps October last year.

Enjoy.

First we have a rather nice photo of the Eleri-buffet-picnic, with a special focus on the lettuce, which I seem to remember Ed placed in the bowl in a flower-like effort (thank you Ed, very good creativity).

Our next picture shows a few of us having a bit of a giggle (Us? Giggle? Surely not!) It also shows the lovely Kate diligently working at unpicking a couple of rows of misjudged knitting Eleri had stuffed up earlier in the night. Subsequently there was a bit of knitting school so now eleri knows what purl and knit looks like and how to interpret what to do next - thanks Kate, you're the best!

Next we have the lovely Viv showing off a pretty pink cardigan for Megan.

And Viv's sis, Emily, working on a camel-coloured jumper...

And the Bek holding up her second rag-rug, which is made of scraps of denim and pink fabric.

And finally, a beanie I made for my Ickle Sis!

Sadness

2008-02-10T18:13:00.000-08:00

There have been no posts for aeons! I'm sure we have been stitching. And also bitching. So why no posts?! For shame.
Anyway, I thought I would blog today to tell everyone that I have been an exceedingly good stitcher and have, in fact, been stitching on one of my SPs (Secret Projects) this weekend, and it is looking quite lovely, and I am very pleased with it, and I will happily show it to some of the Stitchers this week. Which reminds me, I have no idea where stitching is this week, and will have to send a message round. byeee, Princess Eleri xxx

Festivities Continued...

2007-12-20T22:59:00.000-08:00

Finally got onto the computer at home.

I don't really have much to add, but I do have some piccies of us all enjoying the food and Princess Bek's Tiaras.

Woohoo, the camera timer worked. All of us, patiently waiting for Princess Viv to arrive.

One end of the happy Christmas table.

The other end of the happy Christmas table, with Princess Alana making weird faces...

We actually had alcymahol. Preservative free wine procured by Princess Alana, to make sure we could all drink it. It made me too lazy to do any stitching apart from boring mending.

Festivities

2007-12-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

Hello hello, here is the first post I have posted in ages. Thank you to Princess Lermily for hosting and cooking delicious chickenandsaladandroastedveggies and flourlessorangecake, and to Princess Alana for making delicious salmonanddillandcreamcheese entrees as well as cranberryandturkyandpumpernickel entrees and also passionfruitmeringues (quite delectable), and to Princess Kate for bringing yummymuffins and to Princess Bek for bringing excellent Princess tiaras (some said "Princess" and some had flashing lights!), and to Princess Viv for bringing silverbeet to be rehomed. In honour of the festive cheer, here is a very fetching image of some of the Princessi looking exceeding regal in their tiaras.

And here are some more lovely photos of some stitching that was happening for Princess Beks' birthday (rather belated gifting by Princess Eleri here, but it would all have been finished before if not for the recalcitrant sewing machine, which decided it was time for an early Christmas break). Half-finished:

And completely finished:

Anyway, festiveness to all :-) Princess Eleri

Long time past

2007-10-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post this for quite some weeks, as I last hosted back in September. Sorry 'bout that. In fact it's been so long that I can't remember the date...

In attendance were Princessi Eleri, Alana and Emily, and the Princessi Viv and Bek were off being fed by relatives for Jewish New Year. The home-made pizzas weren't quite ready when everyone arrived, so we started with a slice of cake... and then finished the meal with another slice. We were piggies! *oink*

The Lumberjack Cake was the only thing I remembered to get a photo of:

Here's the recipe, from The Essential Baking Cookbook, published by Murdoch Books:

Lumberjack Cake

200g fresh dates, pitted and chopped (or dried dates from the supermarket)
1 tsp bicarb soda
125g unsalted butter, softened (or vegan margarine)
1 cup (250g) caster sugar (or raw sugar)
1 egg (or egg replacer)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, grated (or any sort of apple)
1 cup (125g) plain flour (or wholemeal flour)
1/2 cup (60g) self-raising flour (or plain/wholemeal flour with 1 tsp baking powder)
icing sugar, optional, to dust

Topping

75g unsalted butter (or vegan margarine)
1/2 cup (95g) soft brown sugar
1/3 cup (80mL) milk (or soy milk)
1 cup (60g) shredded coconut

(As you can see, I don't tend to use exact recipes, I use them more as a guide and make lots of substitutions, which are in brackets)

1. Grease a 20cm round springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to moderate 180C.
2. Put the dates in a small saucepan with 1 cup (250mL) water and bring to the boil. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda, then remove from the heat. Set aside until just warm.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in a small bowl with electric beaters until light and fluffy (I do this by hand). Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Stir in the date mixture and the apple, then fold in the sifted flours until just combined and almost smooth. Spoon into the tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 40 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine all the topping ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until the bitter is melted and the ingredients well combined. Remove the cake from the oven and carefully spread the topping over the cake. Return to the cake to the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the cake is cooked through.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and leave the cake in the tin to cool completely (actually, loosen it before it's cooled completely, as the caramelled coconut topping will stick awfully to the tin), then turn out and place on a serving plate. The cake can be dusted with icing sugar just before serving.

Alas, it's been so long that I've also forgotten which projects we were all working on: I think Eleri did a star, Alana worked on the crochetted bumblebee, and Emily was knitting the neck of her not-mustard jumper. I was working on a quilt. But I forgot to take any photos, sorry!

Here are a few links I've been meaning to post - I don't know how to add them to the bottom of the page, so I'll let the clevererer Princessi fix that if they can...

Magic cast-on for toe up socks. It is easy (after a couple of practices) and it really is completely magic! http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring06/FEATmagiccaston.html

My bread photo diary is on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10875443@N06/sets/72157602094096047/

Power-house stitchery

2007-10-05T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody - it's me, Princess Viv, bravely tackling my reluctance to blog - yay me.

On the 26th of September, Princessi Eleri, Alana, Kate attended Princess Viv's castle for stitchery, with Princess Emily coming later in the evening. Princess Bek was off somewhere being political.

Golden Austrian Cauliflower Soup was served with home made bread and raw butter, followed by steamed veggies, rice, and bourbon chicken for the non-vegan members.

Princess Alana started on another cool amigurumi animal - this time a pink elephant! We also got to see her bee, bunny, and monkey in person.
Zoe and Megan - junior Princessess got out of bed and were VERY impressed - as Zoe declared, "my have monkey now!".
Alana also got pestered by me to show me how to crotchet. After many attempts, and different colours of wool, I managed to crotchet a boob! Here are the instructions in case anyone is interested:
(from http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177559.0)
Boobie keychain pattern:
Starting with nipple (pink yarn)
Row 1: Ch 2. 6 sc in second ch from hk. Sl st into first sc.
Row 2: Ch 1. Sc in each sc around (6 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 3: Ch 1. Sc in each sc around (6 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 4: Ch 1. 2 sc in each sc around (12 stitches). Sl st to join.

Now for the breast (cream yarn)
Row 5: Ch 1. 2 sc in next st. 1 sc in next stitch. Repeat this all the way around (18 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 6: Ch 1. Sc in each stitch around (18 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 7: Ch 1. 2 sc in next st. 1 sc in each of next 2 st. Repeat this around ( 24 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 8: Ch 1. Sc in each stitch around (24 stitches). Sl st to join.
Row 9-10: Repeat row 8. Sl st to join.
Row 11-12: 2sctog for next st (back loops only for first row). Repeat this around (12 stitches). Sl st to join.

Adding O ring (keychain part)

Ch. 1. Holding the key ring next to your yarn, bring your hook under the ring and yarn over coming back under the ring to bring up a loop. Make one sc. Put hook through next stitch and going under the fing again, yo and make another sc. Do this 5 times. this will secure the ring to the boob. Ch. 1. Sl st through all 5 sc you just made. Fasten off. Weave in ends.

Eleri worked on the last star, Kate kept on with her pretty blue sock, Emmy "may" have been knitting - sorry Em, school holiday brain!

My camera was out of batteries, so I'm afraid there will be no photos. I'll master the photos for my next post.

Recipes:
Vegan cream of cauliflower soup:

1 cauliflower, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2 leeks, chopped
2 teaspoons powdered veggie stock, or to taste
2 cups carrot juice
4 cups water
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup raw cashews
4-5 good handfuls of spinach

Cover and simmer all ingredients, except cashews and spinach, for 15 minutes or until just tender. Blend soup, put some in blender & whizz up the cashews. Add back to the soup & stir in the spinach.

Chicken
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/3 cup brown sugar - actually I used only a couple of spoonsful
1/2 c chicken stock
1/4 c apple juice
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 minced garlic clove
1.2 tsp minced ginger
500g or so boneless chicken in bite sized pieces

Fry chicken in oil until brown, set aside. In the same pan add everything else, stir till sugar dissolved. Add chicken back & cook gently until sauce is thick enough.

Stitching at Em's Palace

2007-09-28T04:05:00.001-07:00

Stitching was at Princess Em's, with Princessi Alana, Em, Viv and Eleri in attendance from the start and Princess Kate arriving after watching Whathisface Almighty (mental blank).

We ate yummy hamburgers and raspberry friands for dessert (with white chocolate). also, Eleri snuck in some great caramel cupcakes. The recipe for the friands for anyone who wants them is:

1 C plain flour
1.5 C icing sugar
1 C ground almonds
5 egg whites
120g butter/marg
1 punnet fresh raspberries (I used lots of frozen)

Sift flour, icing sugar into bowl, stir in almonds.
Whisk egg whites until light and fluffy and fold into dry ingredients with melted butter. Fold through raspberries (and white chocolate...yum...). Put mixture in muffin cups.

Oven at 200Deg C, cooked for 20 minutes

On to the stitching...

Eleri was on the penultimate star. Yay!!!

Viv had a great pile of quilt squares.

I started my not so mustard coloured jumper sleeves.

Alana was working very industrially on Ed's jumper

and Kate was working on some very colourful socks.

Yay!!! It finally let me post piccies.

The art of Amigurumi!

2007-09-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

I just finished my second piece of amigurumi and I love the way they turned out. I first made a rabbit who I am yet to name. I think his ears turned out real cute with all the different purples mixed in.

and here is a photo of bunny's behind to show off his cottontail:

I was so happy with the way he turned out and how quick and relatively easy he was to make that I started on my second amigurumi animal straight away. I bought some patterns off Etsy by one designer I really liked and I especially liked her bumblebee pattern so I made it.

I modified her a little by adding arms, legs and a stinger (what bumblebee is complete without a stinger?). She is closer to the true amigurumi style of having a larger head and facial features and smaller body and limbs. I'm not sure what I'll tackle next. I really should get back to Ed's jumper but crocheting is so much more fun and quicker! Here is a photo of my progress on Ed's jumper. As you can see there is still quite a bit to go.

Perhaps I'll make an amigurumi elephant instead!

Stitch and bitch chez Princess Bek

2007-09-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

Much exciting stitching happened on Wednesday (I will post photos over the weekend as camera is at home!)

Let's see.

Princess Eleri-fairy finished ANOTHER star, there are now only five to go and I am getting extremely excited about having a lovely quilt, as I have always wanted one, and this particular one is more ace than I ever dreamed of having.

Princess Kate is also working on a quilt. There will be photos of a finished square thingy and also photos of cuttings out.

Princess Alana is making a v. cute animal with purple ears.

Princess Viv started knitting something that may be blue, or may be green, depending on who you think is right about the colour (I say aqua, personally).

Princess Em was sadly absent as she's bushwalking and apparently has insane blisters.

Princess Me was busy cooking about eleventeen different courses, but I did get some more rag rug braided.

We ate cauliflower and carrot soup to start, followed by roasted vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, onion, tomato and garlic) for the vegan Princess Kate, and roasted vegetables with lamb skewers (baa) for the non-vegan Princessi. If Princess Em had been coming I would have done the eggplant separately.

I didn't do dessert, which, lucky, as we may have all exploded if I did.

Photos coming soon.

Stich n Bitch at Chez Auden 29/08/07

2007-08-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

It was a small group of SnBers that turned up this week. Poor Princess Bek was off 'Florence Nightingaling' her sick Hugo and Princess Em was too busy with Gem club (which is obviously more important than us! Hrumph!) So Princess Viv, Kate, Eleri and Alana settled in to our various stitchings and Princess Eleri finished a beautiful shrug which she modelled very professionally for us.

However we quickly grew tired off our various stitchings especially when we discovered that Princess Kate had never experienced Rapidoh before. So after a delicious dinner of cheesy (or not so cheesy in Princess Kate's case) pasta bake and fulfilling our bitching quotient we settled in for a quiet game. For those of you who have not experienced Rapidoh before (you poor, pooor souls) it is basically Pictionary except instead of drawing a picture you have to sculpt it out of play-doh instead. So much more fun. After spending about five minutes trying to decide on teams (P. Eleri and P. Viv must be kept separate by all means as they appear to have some weird psychic Rapidoh mental connection) and managing to avoid 'paper, scissors, rock' even though we all secretly wanted to do it, we teamed up with the person opposite which was rather sensible as it meant no one had to move. So it was P. Viv and P. Alana against P. Eleri and P. Kate. Team Red (V and A) didn't do so well although Viv's donkey was a piece of beautiful sculpting even if everyone else thought it was a demented rabbit, but I knew what it was (clearly the tail would be a lot shorter if it was actually a rabbit).

However it was no match for Team Blue's Princess Kate's apple core which was very life like except for the colour of course.

Special mention needs to go to Princess Eleri and Princess Kate for attempting to sculpt 'coach' which proved far harder than initally thought. They began by sculpting a carriage but when that failed to deliver the correct response Princess Eleri moved on to sculpt a bus which can be also called a coach but somehow I just couldn't get past the bus so then P. Eleri sculpted two tennis players complete with rackets and then a third figure without a tennis racket that in hindsight was obviously a coach but at the time I though he was trying to shoot the tennis players which did not help matters. Rapidoh provided a good belly laugh for us all, so much so there was crying involved (it was emotional) and I think the term 'Power Drill' will never be thought of in the same light again, hey Princess Viv!

Recipe for Chocolate Apple Cake:

185g butter, softened
1 1/4 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
2 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1/3 cup water
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix until well combined. Pour into 20cm lined round cake tin and bake in moderate oven (180 degrees celcius) for 1 and 1/4 hours. Cool and top with chocolate icing. Delicious!

Skink or Lizard? Mansion d'Eleri 22nd August 2007

2007-08-23T00:25:00.001-07:00

OK, so this post is a little out of order, as it was actually Princess Eleri's turn to host S&B three weeks ago on 22nd August. In spite of lovely intentions to arrange a prompt posting (naturally including some rather fabulous photos), all this was put on hold due to the calamitous loss of the cable to connect camera to computer to download photos! In fact, I'm still unable to find it, although Princess Bek has helpfully suggested I scour Ed's wardrobe*

Anyway, photos coming soon, as there was some very good stitching done by all. Bek has done masses of her new rag rug (which, by the way, is yet another excellent exercise in recycling and reusing), and I did a bit of knitting before somehow messing it up and then having to beg for the knitting pro Kate to rescue me and undo a couple of rows (which she seemed to do in a couple of minutes! She is, surely, a genius.)

BTW, we were all missing Princess Alana terribly – she has been absent for weeks and weeks and weeks! Because of this, I have found her an amigurumi pattern site, which has some excellent crochet animal patterns—check them out here: http://amigurumipatterns.blogspot.com/

In other learning, for some reason we ended up talking about the Australian creature which has a tail that looks pretty much exactly like a head. I looked it up and (re-)discovered the name; a) a stumpy-tailed lizard, or b) a shingleback lizard. For picture see here:

Anyway, they’re very cool as the tail-that-looks-like-a-head fools evil predators, so the predators get confused about which “head” to go for and slam into the ground with their sharp pointy beaks, and then stagger around feeling dazed.
I wasn’t sure whether the tail came off (as lizard tails tend to), though, as it is quite, well, stumpy, and then if the stump came off, they would clearly be a no-tail lizard.
So then Bek suggested that it might actually be called a stump-tailed skink, and might not be a lizard at all.

Which confused me, as—due to my British background—I had assumed that “skink” was simply the Australian word for “lizard”.

But no—how wrong I was!
In fact, lizards and skinks are completely different, and apparently there are no true lizards in Australia at all. Skinks are the Scincidae family, while lizards are the Lacertidae (or wall lizards) family. Both are part of the order “squamata”, or “scaled reptiles”.
Skinks look roughly like lizards, but most species have no pronounced neck and relatively small legs. Several genera (e.g., Typhiosaurus) have no limbs at all, others, such as Neoseps, have only reduced limbs. Often, their way of moving resembles that of snakes more that that of other lizards. Skinks usually have long, tapering tails that can be regenerated, while lizards can not only regenerate tails, but can regenerate limbs! Oh, also, skinks have live young, while lizards lay eggses.
How cool is that?!
Now, you be the judge – pick the skink.

Oh, and, on food, I copied Princess Emily’s dessert of raspberry jelly with fresh raspberries as it was utterly delicious (although I did have to do an emergency freezing to get it to solidify before we all ate it and everyone went home), and I actually can’t think of what we had for mains at all…

*As her recent calamitous loss of her cable for connecting camera to computer was brought to a joyous conclusion when she found said cable in Hugo's wardrobe. Impeccable logic, m’lud.

2007-08-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

I nearly called off Stitch & Bitch on Wednesday night as I had a pretty bad cold, but I'm so glad I didn't. It was a great night and it's so therapeutic to get into the stitching. I also think that if I hadn't had the push of having you guys over I might not have got around to creating Della's costume before Friday.

Here are the photos of some of the projects - unfortunately I didn't get one of Princess Eleri's stars, which are coming along beautifully. Only seven more to go, I think.

Princess Bek left her red scraps at home, so she started a new pink and denim rag rug.

Princess Emily started a knitting project - it's going to be a really cool jumper, in not-quite-mustard-yellow-and-this-is much-nicer coloured yarn.

I have finished Della's jumper, in record time for any knitting project for me. It took less than two months from the first cast on to ending off the final seam. And yes, it does look much better with the V neck being in the centre and the shoulders at the same height!

And here is Happy Unicorn Della at school on Book Day. I couldn't get the horn to stay upright too well so she was a bit of a floppy unicorn. By the end of the day Della had decided that unicorn horns were uncomfortable and that she didn't want to be one any more - I suspect that the number of bobby pins on her head contributed to that :(

Due to popular demand, here is the old family recipe for Gingerbread:

120g butter
1 cup sugar
¼ cup golden syrup
1 cup milk
1 heaped tsp bicarb soda
2 cups flour
1 dstsp allspice
2 dstsp ground ginger

Cream butter and sugar, add golden syrup. Dissolve soda in milk, add to mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bake 60 – 75 minutes at 180ºC.

Apple Trees

2007-07-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well, stitching was lovely last night, and I'm pleased everyone thought the buffet salad avec chicken was delish - such a cop-out, as it was super-easy!
Anyway, for those of you I told about the apple-tree pattern that Cathy likes, it's a Rowan pattern, and this is what it looks like - isn't it pretty?

Stitching 18/07/2007

2007-07-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

So we had a record number of stitchers/princessi last night for stitch 'n bitch. There was Princess Bek, Princess Eleri, Princess Viv, Princess Lemily, Princess Kathrine, Princess Kate and the hostess for the evening, moi, Princess Alana. It was very cosy in my living room as this pic attests:

Princess Katherine (apologises if your name is misspelt, I know there is like a million ways of spelling Katherine) was honoured by Princess consort cat Matilda who very rarely honours her own Princessi with a lap sit and Princess Emily (right) was joined by consort cat Moonshe, who is a lap slut

Here are some pics of Princessi in stitching (and sometimes bitching) action

And all the hard work was rewarded with a dessert that my mum used to make for me called:

Chocolate Crunch

Ingredients:
1 cup self raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 cup coconut
1 cup cornflakes
1/2 cup sugar
150g butter
6 drops vanilla

Icing:
2 cups icing mixture
2 tablespoons cocoa
enough water to make a fairly runny icing

Method:
1. Sift flour and cocoa and mix all other dry ingredients into a bowl.
2. Gently melt butter then mix with other ingredients, add vanilla at this step.
3. Press mixture into baking tray and flatten until approximately 1 & 1/2 cm thick.
4. Bake in oven 180 degrees celcius for 25-30 minutes.
5. Pour chocolate icing over slice whilst still warm.
6. When icing and slice has cooled, cut into bite sized slices (or bigger as I like to do!)

Mmmmmmmmm. Delicious!

As promised, the Giraffe Wheatbag

2007-07-18T17:22:00.001-07:00

This is the lovely wheatbag I made for my sis - check it out!

Princess Eleri

And more photos!

2007-07-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

Princess Em is hard at work on her embroidered leopard!

Princess Viv is doing patchwork.

As you see!

At last, I remember my camera!

2007-07-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings and salutations, Princessi everywhere!

To your left you see Mousey, who is now an lolcat.

Here is Princess Kathryn, doing some v complex left-handed knitting.

Here is Doggy Freyda. She is not doing craft.

Princess Alana says "Let us eat cake".

And Viv's dolly is all finished.

Last Wednesday

2007-07-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hi Princessi,

I keep forgetting my camera, so I haven't got photos to upload, d'oh!

I did find a website that has videos of how to knit left-handed for Princess Kathryn though - here it is. Turns out, it's quite a lot more complex than just having the yarn in the other hand - you need to reverse patterns and stuff. Anyway, the website explains and etc.

I believe this week we are meeting at Princess Alana's for a vegan feast/chicken and chips (I shall name my chicken Arthur). I really must find something crafty to do this week that doesn't involve plaiting the hairs of My Little Ponies.

Ahem.

I will try to remember to upload photos tomorrow. Meanwhile, Princess Eleri, where are your finished project photos?

Princess Bek

Missing S&B :-(

2007-07-12T16:53:00.001-07:00

I was very sad this week to miss S&B, but I was on ferrying-ickle-sister-Siany-to-the-airport duty. Which, in itself, was also very sad. In fact, much sadness all around.
Ickle-Sister-Siany is home safe and sound and well, though, which is good.
And, in order to make up for the no S&B this week, I was crafty at home instead! In fact, I actually did a complete project! I will leave you on that tantalising note until I get the photos.
More soon :-D
Princess Eleri
PS. What news with you Princessi?

27 June 2007 - Princess Bek's house

2007-06-27T15:53:00.001-07:00

Last night the Princessi (apart from those beeatches who are in Queensland, Sydney or studying) assembled at my place.

We ate soup (lentil).

We also ate the legs of several chickens (just so as not to be too hippie, what with the lentils).

Princess Eleri stitched stars. Well, one star!

Princess Em stitched a tiger

Also, she has shoes shaped like kitties. And my kitty liked Princess Em and sat on her lap while she ate dinner.

Princess Viv is making a really cool doll. It has a single dreadlock like Lister from Red Dwarf (whom I always found Strangely Alluring - is that really wrong?)

Princess Viv is also making patchwork. I, alas, was far too slack to do anything last night, having had a day full of administering first aid and working like a drone, so I packed half a box instead. Oh, and made lentil soup and tasty legs of chickens.

Princess Alana, Princess Kathryn, Princess Lynne, and Princess Sian were sadly unable to be with us.

Oh, and we also did a considerable amount of bitching, as is required by our Manifesto.

I need more time!

2007-06-26T01:38:00.000-07:00

My friend Deryn has sent me this rather fabulous link:http://www.lisag.com.au/ Although the lady is on maternity leave, check out her gorgeous hand-made knitting needles and fabulous hand-dyed wools.
Also see http://www.reprodepot.com/
How is there time for all this creativity?! I need more time!

Oh dear, where did the day go?

2007-06-21T00:41:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these first thing!

Here is the beautiful bunny-shaped wheat bag Princess Viv is making, complete with her awesome embroidery

And here is Princess Viv, with the head of a vampire/mermaid (vermaid? merpire?) she is making

Here's the latest ruggie I'm knitting - a sampler of different knitting stitches.

Here are gorgeous cakey things made by Princess Eleri (left) and Princess Viv (right)

Here is Princess Eleri with her scarf (she made tassles last night)

Here is the fabric and pattern Princess Em is using to make PJs for one of the smaller Princessi

And here is the delicious roast Princess Em cooked!

Princess Eleri has more photos - I'm sure she'll post them soon!

20 June 2007

2007-06-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hello my fellow Princessi!

I hope we are all geared up for stitching and bitching at Princess Em's place tonight (including special guest all the way from England, Princess Sian!)

We will be able to post photos of projects and dinners and cats tomorrow

xx
Princess Bek

Testing!

2007-06-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Hello my fellow Princessi, Eleri and I were just chatting and decided that we should have a Princessi blog so we can post pictures of our S&B projects (and dinners) and write about our general fabulousness.

As an introductory picture, here is Princess Lynne with her fabulous scarf!

Send me any fabulous crafty links you have so we can add them to the links we like section, and I will see you all next week.

Princess Bek x