This time a year ago...

...we were boarding a flight from Singapore to Sydney. The final leg of our big adventure. Lily was almost 1, only just walking and thankfully still willing to sit still for long periods of time. We were beyond happy that we'd upgraded to Business Class. Our family was eagerly anticipating our return, setting alarms for ridiculous hours of the morning that would prove unnecessary when we were delayed via Melbourne for 7 hours.

I can't believe it's been a year already. It certainly doesn't feel that long. But then you look at how far Lily has come. Or the fact that we're nearing the final stages of building a house. The new friends we've made. The fact that we now call Camden home. Has it only been a year?

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Playing catch up

Do you ever feel like you're constantly trying to catch up?

Graeme has been off work the last two days. He's sick, but not so sick that he had to stay in bed all day. So, I've taken advantage of the fact that he's around to help watch Lily and been quite productive. But my to-do list is still a mile long. It probably doesn't help that my computer had to be reformatted yesterday, so there are now tasks on the list that had already been partially completed, like sorting through my photos. Or that going through some of my massive list of unread blog posts just led me to more blogs and more things to make and do. Oh well, I'll just focus on the positives - the things I have achieved - and try not to let that list get me down.

Also positive - the roof went on our house before all this rain hit, so the build is still progressing. I feel bad for our neighbours, whose house looks like the roof was the next step - it might be awhile.

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When I have my house...

• I won't keep starting every other sentence with 'When I/we have my/our house ...'
• I'll be able to invite people over for meals, playdates, crafty get-togethers or just to show off my awesome new house.
• there will be separate rooms for sleeping, playing, crafting, tv watching and computering, instead of them all being lumped together. This will make it easier to get things done, because I won't have to turn the sewing machine off because someone is watching tv, or have zero productive time on my computer because Lily immediately stops whatever was keeping her occupied and demands to play 'Night Garden'.
• there will be a backyard that Lily can play in. We'll move in during Winter sometime, but she won't care and neither will I.
• I might actually find the time and energy to blog regularly. Until then, I'm not going to feel any more guilt about not updating. For now, I'll just leave you with this (embarrassingly out of focus) photo of Lily in front of our house, wearing her clothkits dress that I made last week and remind you that I'm on twitter for regular mini-blogging.

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I Made a Cardigan

 

Totally from scratch. My own design, my own maths to make the design work, inspired by the vague memory of a beautiful thing I saw in Galway in Ireland and wished I could have afforded to buy. Made Lily-sized to test out some of my ideas about construction.

 

 

The plan is to make something similar in my size with the gorgeous red British wool I bought just before we left London. Mine will have sleeves though, although I haven't decided how long, maybe three-quarters.

Ravelry page here (although it's pretty identical to this one :D)

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Crochet Placemats

A couple of months ago, I bought a bunch of Anchor Magicline cotton yarn on clearance. The pack came with 10 balls and a crochet pattern sheet for $9.95. I really liked the look of the placemat on the cover and so bought enough to make a set of placemats. Unfortunately, I have very little experience with crochet and kinda suck at it, so my attempt at following the pattern came out like this:


I guess, in the grand scheme of things, it's not horrendous. But I had envisioned a beautiful set of colourful placemats that will really fit in with the look of our new house (still not going up yet - trust me, you'll know when it is) and this just doesn't cut it. The main thing I disliked, other than the dodginess of my skills, was the way the colours didn't so much stripe as clump.

That one placemat sat incomplete for about 6 weeks, while I finished Christmas gifts and then worked on some other projects. I finally decided I needed to look at it again when I wanted a portable/brainless project that wasn't knitting (too hot to knit and my attempt at socks, the one thing that may be bearable to knit in the heat, is also a big fail). I tried a circle. It didn't lay flat. I tried another one. I thought my idea of making circular placemats was genius, afterall, plates are round. I don't have enough experience of crochet to make a flat circle, apparently, especially given I am anal about things like increases and they have to be uniform or my brain can't handle it. I needed a different approach. Here are my failed circles:


Meanwhile, I've been finding more Aussie crafty blogs to read (any suggestions much appreciated, especially if they're Sydney-based) and Pip over at Meet me at Mikes has been running a granny square intro course. I didn't want to make standard looking granny squares, but I did figure I could do something similar, starting in the centre and working my way out, increasing at the corners. The only problem was, the point where I was jumping up to the next row created a funny line thing. See:


There's probably a way to do this better, but I couldn't work it out. Then, another brainwave* occurs - I could do a spiral but make it like a granny square, increasing at the corners by stitching into the corner, making 2 chains and then stitching into the corner again. I didn't quite end up with a perfect square - one side has one more stitch than the other three - and I'm not confident I'll be able to recreate however I got it started, but I like it enough that I am now happy to pull out all the mistakes and attempt to make a matching set. I just have to decide what size to stop it at...



*probably not a new idea at all, but in case you hadn't worked it out, I'm very much winging this whole crochet thing. I don't even know if I am doing single or double crochet, to be honest. Apologies to any serious crocheters out there for any offence.

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Hi there

It may be the remaining effects of the cold I've had. Or the fact that I got a touch too much sun at the beach on Friday and again while out celebrating Australia Day today. Or the lack of energy to do anything productive that means I've actually spent time at the computer (see the first sentence).
Whatever caused it, the fact is this: I have been commenting, following and favouriting all over the place recently. I've been commenting on blogs that I know I never have before. I went through people's twitter lists and added a whole bunch who are on a forum I used to hang out on, but haven't in ages (although, with this new-found confidence, I might head over there later, though it'll have to be tomorrow now - in between writing this post and doing other things, it got late).

The fact that I mentioned a lack of confidence is probably funny to those of you who know me in real life, because face-to-face, I am plenty confident. I just get all anxious when I can't see how someone is reacting to what I am saying. That's also why I hate the phone. I need to see your face, read your body, adjust what I'm saying if I'm not getting my point across properly.

Anyway, the point of this post was to introduce myself to all the new people who may (or may not - I think I'm talking to dead space most the time anyway) be heading over here to work out who I am. If I'm now following you on twitter, I probably know you from g* (if you need to know what that means, you will) although, as I said above, I haven't been there for ages. I might've been reading your blog for ages, or I might've just discovered it. Either way, I think it's great and totally worth slotting into my limited reading time.

So, this is me:
I'm Kate.
I turn 30 this year.
I've been married almost 7 years and have a 19 month old daughter with whom I stay at home every day (well, we often go out, but you should know what I mean).
I love to create and can't wait until Lily is old enough to get into more full-on arts and crafts projects.
I've been a very sporadic blogger, but am determined to be better.
I grew up in various places around NSW, Australia.
I recently returned from 3.3 years living in London, UK.
I now live in south-western Sydney with my parents, while we wait for our house to get built (a pain-inducing process that is taking way too long and makes me very disgruntled, so don't ask how it's going).
I like parentheses because they help me explain my full thought process.
I don't know why I feel the need to explain the full process, probably relates to that issue I mentioned about needing to make sure I get my point across the way I intended and the fact that I have both studied and taught design.
If those last couple sentences haven't convinced you I'm crazy, or if you just like crazy, stick around and/or follow me on twitter (there's a link on my [currently-under-construction-slash-redesign] sidebar) and let me know if you have a blog I should be reading too.
Anything else you wanna know? Ask away.

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Christmas 2009: Part 1

The following was written on New Years Day. And now that I look back on it, I can't work out why I didn't post it then... So, I'm posting it now and will add more parts as I get more photos:


There's a reason I didn't post for the rest of December - every spare minute was spent making Christmas presents, which even if I had the time, I couldn't really have talked about here. We went totally handmade this (well, technically, last) year, other than a few things we'd already picked up for Lily before we actually made the decision to do so. We bought handmade for my brother-in-laws' girlfriends and my Mum, but everyone else got something crafted by our little family.
Mum (and Dad, since it was above our budget for one person, but then we added something else for Dad) got this kit printed by Prints Charming. My original plan was to embroider some of them and make them up for Dad and then give Mum the rest to stitch/decorate herself, but since we're living with them, it was tricky to find time and/or space to work on it, so only one got stitched...

Of course, by the time I finally finished everything on the 23rd, I was so relieved and exhausted, that I stupidly wrapped it all up without taking photos and then forgot to take photos as things were opened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So, I still need to get access to some of it again and take photos, but I can show you one thing, because I made it today. See, my sister actually just got some fabric in her gift, because I thought it was perfect for her, but couldn't decide what to make with it. So I waited until she'd seen it, talked to her about what she'd like made from it and today, I turned it into this skirt:

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The Blogging Conundrum

I really want to have a blog.
A good blog.
One that people want to read. And I'm not just talking about the people who read it because they are already my friend or are related to me.
A place where I can show off the things I've made.
Somewhere I could try out some of my designs to see if people would be interested in buying/making them.

I don't need a million followers or to make money by selling ads or anything like that.

But I feel like, in order to have the sort of blog I want, you need to participate in the 'blogosphere' and I just don't have the time.

Actually, this isn't just a blog issue, it's a whole internet issue.
I want to participate.
I want to get back involved in some of the communities that used to be a part of my daily life.
I want to discover like-minded people, and especially now that we're back in Sydney, some local ones.

But if I barely have time to check and reply to email; if the only reason I update my Facebook status is because it is taken direct from my Twitter feed; if I only manage to check either of those things because they're on my phone and I can do it in 5 spare minutes here or there; if my computer sits untouched for days at a time... How am I supposed to find the time to read, comment, participate?

And, of course, there's the fact that there's no point blogging if I haven't been doing anything to write about.

I need to make the effort in the evenings after Lily goes to bed and on the weekends when she can hang with Daddy. I need to make naptimes more efficient. I need to use moments like right now, when Lily is happily playing on the play equipment and I have access to free wifi. Or right now, when she is happily watching Monsters Inc (she loves Boo). I need to do things when I can, even if I have to come back and finish them some other time, or the time after that (this is my fourth attempt to get this post finished and up). I need to remember that my phone can do most anything I need to do. I need to stop blathering on about what I want to do and actually do it... right after I make some lunch for a hungry toddler.

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