Back to work

My parents called the other night and asked if they could keep the children for another week.  At that stage they'd only been there 2 days.  We agreed they could stay, even though I will be missing having them here on my birthday.

They are having awesome fun with their cousins and grandparents on the farm.  My wee girl finally has a girl cousin to keep her company, there are only 4 girls out of 11 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild, one is nearly 17 so not great fun for a 10 year old, more an object of worship than a playmate.  The one girl cousin she has lives in Australia with my brother and his family.  This is the first time my great niece has gone to stay and she's just 10 months younger than the wg.  It's a match made in heaven.  Good news on the horizon is my brother is marrying his girlfriend this year and she brings two more little girls to the family to even up the male/female balance.

The hubs and I have been kicking around the house when we aren't working.  On our last day off together we went in to town to explore the Wynyard Quarter.  It's a new part of downtown Auckland, along the water front.  There's cafe's galore, a play ground and sea steps down to the harbor, very family friendly.  Just across the viaduct bridge you have the pre existing party central, night clubs, pricy restaurants etc. It was the place to be during the Rugby World Cup.

I haven't had much opportunity to crochet this week.  I am still working on the top and am just about to finish the second ball of bamboo cotton.  It's wonderfully soft and cool.  I'm about halfway up the back.  I shall post some more photos soon.  With the children away it's a wonderful opportunity for me to move things around and do some uninterrupted deep cleaning.

Meanwhile I have a very quiet home and I am looking forward to whatever surprise the hubs has in store for me on my birthday, he's taken the day off and I am on my rostered days off.

Making the leap

So far, the closest I have got to crocheting apparel is scarf making.  I've yet to make anything that requires more shaping than an increase here and there.  Well I am taking the plunge.

I've been collecting a weekly magazine called the "Art of Crochet" it's my weekly luxury and I have 35 issues now which gives me quite a few different patterns, some easy and some not so easy.  This is one of them.

Shaping is minimal and the stitches are just alternate rows of trebles and doubles.

Looks simple and appropriate for a first apparel project right?

Soooo

My parents offered to take the kids for a week.  My parents live many hundreds of kilometers away in the far, far north.  When the not so little ones go to stay there sans us, we usually arrange to meet half way.  Halfway is a 2.5 hour drive to Whangarei.

Yesterday the four of us drove north.  On the way we stopped at Warkworth and picked up my 9 year old "great niece" (yes I am a great aunt twice over now) and drove three kids to Whangarei, had a picnic of bacon and egg pies, cheerios (small sausages not the American cereal) and sauce, lemonade and cake at a park by the Whangarei Visitor Centre on the outskirts of Whangarei, swapped the kids and then I dragged the Hubs to go shopping!

I found some Bamboo cotton on sale for $2 a 50g ball.  I purchased 10 balls, more than enough to start this project.  Excited? You betcha!!!

The hubs also found me this, it came with all the hooks pictured.  I now have a collection of steel hooks for crochet cotton to make lace etc.  A couple of them are so fine I can barely see the hook!

By now I was in the midst of toe curling ecstasy! New materials, new tools!  The 2.5 hr drive to get home was slow and I was impatient.  We got stuck in traffic North of Warkworth due to the 3 sets of traffic lights spanning the stretch of highway just outside the town.  Not fun!

I spent the time planning and admiring my cotton and new hooks, singing to the music from my iPod and bugging the hubs.

As soon as we got home and got the dogs settled (they'd been stuck inside for a good 5 hours for the first time in weeks) from the excitement of our return and resentment at being left behind, I pulled out the pattern, made a nice cup of coffee and started.

I'm a little nervous about this, but I am underway.

A little nautical flavor

My latest bag.  The pattern is based on Lucy's bag,  in that the base is trebles and circular using her increase by 1 between the two trebles into one stitch method.  Then I went and modified.

I wanted it slightly smaller than my yarn bag, so I can carry my diary etc around and a little sturdier.  So I single crocheted from the base upward.

Single crochet with 8 ply bamboo viscose makes for a pliable yet sturdy bag.

To make the woven decoration I did a single row of treble every second stitch.  I crocheted a ribbon of trebles in light blue and threaded it through and tied it off with a reef knot.

I decorated it with a silver starfish charm.  I think it looks rather pretty.  It easily fits my A5 notebook and diary, pens, the wallet I made.

The colors are navy blue, light blue and a light mint green.