The lows and highs of crochet

I've decided to make my first crochet project a cushion cover and not a big blanket so I can get on to trying out other things. My initial plan was to crochet the squares together using this tutorial, but I really didn't like the look of it when I was finished. The squares looked all wonky and the white toned the whole thing down and the lovely (some might say rather insane) brightness was totally gone. Crochet Fail.



I'm pretty sure the wonkiness was something I'd done wrong (I think there's an extra treble in the intersections now that I look at it) and if I'd liked the effect of the white I would have gone back and tried to fix it - but I didn't so all the white was pulled out this morning and I've gone another way - more on that later!

Crochet came to the rescue yesterday though, when Hazel was given a birthday party invitation that had gone astray and the party was this afternoon after school! In the end she couldn't go because of prior commitments, but I thought a little present was in order anyways. I'd seen something a few days ago about crochet headbands with flowers and since I had several flowers hanging around after my experiments with putting them in squares I thought it would be an idea solution. Talk about a fast present! I googled for a pattern, came up with this great video, and half an hour later I had a headband. I stupidly didn't keep watching after I'd finished the band because she had this really neat way of attaching the flower, but mine was fine just stitched on. Hazel modelled it for me late in the afternoon. She was a bit put out about having to do it because she's not keen on headbands, but got into the spirit fairly quickly! And no, I don't know why she was in her pyjamas before dinner!

Summer

We had such craptastic weather over Christmas that the arrival of summer at long last doesn't seem quite real!

We (and half of Auckland) took advantage of the holiday today for Auckland Anniversary to head out to Muriwai Beach. First the beach at Maori Bay (next to Muriwai)







Then up onto the headland to see the Gannet colony there...



 
...and finished with an icecream - not photographed as I kept my iPhone well away from melty icecream!

Today Mat found a page out of a diary that Hazel must have started, abandoned and then discarded that says (translation to follow): Rily rily tierd!!! Today. In desprit ned of pony tile. Wishing it was yastoday. [Really really tired today! In desperate need of pony tail*. Wishing it was yesterday.] Where did she learn to sound like Bridget Jones?


*chewy little gummy My Little Pony snack. She is allowed to have one a day.

The menu...

Front teeth, originally uploaded by Hazelnutgirl.

...does not include corn on the cob for foreseeable future.

A bedtime story

Hazel, originally uploaded by Hazelnutgirl.

Hazel told this story to us tonight.

"Once upon a time there was a little girl named...Hazel! And one day she went for a walk in the forest without telling her mummy and daddy and she got lost. And there was a bear and a tiger and a wolf coming to eat her. And they ate one arm and then the other arm..."

[muffled laughter from me]

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!!!"

[loud laughing from both parents while she waited very patiently]

"...and then they ate one leg and then her other leg, and then they ate her whole head! And her eyeballs, and then her mouth [said with great relish]. But luckily for her it all grew back. The end."

Fairy tales are just so moralistic these days aren't they?

Totoro felt bag

I'm still in the process of trying to figure out which projects in the Martha Stewart book to show you, but one that I will are some cute little felt bags. Nothing stunningly innovative, but they're really quite adorable and of course the second Hazel sighted them it was the standard "can you make that for me mummy?" I love little projects like that because they're so quick and creatively satisfying so I said yes. Then Totoro came into her life and I had the clever idea I could just whip up a Totoro bag for her - you know, slap on a few bits of felt and voila! there would be a Totoro. Two days later...

Hazel told me tonight that she really likes my sewing, which was a huge compliment and I have to say I'm more than a little pleased with how it turned out! You know when you do something that you just like looking at because every time you do it gives you a wee rush of pleasure? I don't get it with everything but I do with this.

All I did was find an image from the rainy bus-stop scene (You Tube clip in the post here) and print it off, cut the various bits out and use them as patterns. I cut the brown felt out first, then cut out the tummy, eyes and nose pieces from the picture. I cut the various shapes very carefully and used the empty spaces left behind to position the felt elements on the brown background, and then stitched them down. After I had the tummy, nose and eyes done I cut the arm shape out and attached that. If I were to do this again I'd make the tummy round and put the arm over the top instead of the fiddly way I did this one with the shaped edge. I had planned on doing the little chevrons and claws out of felt but that proved insanely fiddly and essentially impossible so they're embroidered instead. The umbrella gave me no end of grief and there were many versions trying to replicate the inner and outer you can see in the picture. In the end I just made the outside and skipped the angled look to it. I'd love to try and make her a larger backpack with fuzzier fabrics though, that would be freaking amazing!

Other Totoro crafts I've found and bookmarked:

Blue crocheted Totoro from Heaven's Hellcat
Tiny Totoro doll's hat from Netherwood Creations
Knitted Totoro Hat by Hello Yarn
Totoro Norwegian-style mittens by Andrea (free Ravelry download)
Paper Totoro by Cubeecraft
Totoro bag pattern on DeviantArt

And here is Hazel "My destiny. It is out there. I face it with my Totoro bag."

And look at those lemons! They'll be ripe in a couple of weeks and then it'll be lemons, lemons and more lemons. I'll have to make some lemon curd and some tarts and... They're not lemony lemons if you know what I mean, I think it must be some sort of Meyer cross, so they're fat, sweet and juicy but not very acidic. And they come all at once! So if you visit me in the near future I will probably offer you lemons to take home, which is never very successful in Auckland because most people are having similar problems!

Linen and red

What's that I hear you say? Another close-up shot of linen with red embroidery? I do seem to have a bit of a mania for it at the moment, but I assure it will end and I'll be off in some other direction shortly. I'm a bit like that with breakfast cereals too...  When another blogger gets on a bit of a theme and post after post is variations on X, Y or Z and I often wonder if it will ever end. I kind of understand them now!  Forgive me bloggers who I have silently maligned!




This the back of my latest WIP, hopefully it'll be ready for proper viewing soon, though I've had a bit of a hiccup in the colour-selection line. If I'd just stuck with the red it would have been fine but noooo, had to get all fancy and now I have to go back and rip it out and redo it. In pink. Because Hazel insists it must be pink. And considering how she's been behaving in the last couple months I'm damned if I'm going to fight her on it, it's too emotionally draining!

Everyone says the Terrible Twos are so awful, they even have their own name for goodness' sake. Then I was told that three is worse and I should just start drinking while she was two. Pfft! A walk in the park.  I'm here to tell you that 4 may be delightful but 4.5 is frightful and I've never been angrier with her or more frustrated.  Or more in love.  But hoooboy, I'm glad I've got the 4.5 years practice under my belt because it's taking every ounce of self-control I have to negotiate conversations like this on a daily basis:

Me (very casually and following our usual routine): Ok, let's just brush you hair and braid it and then we'll go swimming with daddy.
Hazel: No. I don't want to.
Me: Well you have to have your hair braided otherwise it gets tangled in your googles. C'mon, just a quick brush and we'll go.
Hazel: No. I don't want to.
Me: Well we can't go until we've done your hair.
Hazel: But I want to go!
Me: Well let's do your hair then.
Hazel: No. No. No!
Me (in my laying-down-the-law-even-though-she-wishes-she-hadn't-started-it voice) Well we're not going to go swimming until your hair is done. What do you want to do?
Hazel: I don't know
Me: Well that's not an answer, yes or no?
Hazel: I don't know
Me: Ok then, we're not going
Hazel: BUT I WANT TO GO!!
Me: Well let's brush your hair.
Hazel. No, I don't want to!!!
...........................repeat ad nauseum for about 10 minutes until Hazel is placed in her room crying hysterically and I repair to the living room wishing the sun was over the yard arm. And we don't go swimming.  I'm assuming it's a "stage" and that it's about exerting control over her life but geez, does she have to choose such illogical things to control?  She knows they are too I think, which adds to her stubborness.  Today we had an episode after which she actually came out of her room after 10 minutes and said she was willing to get dressed and go out now. Oh please please please let it be the light at the end of the tunnel!

Summery stuff

Spent a lovely lovely morning out at Muriwai with Hazel's friend Suzie and her family (also Canadians). I'm beginning to appreciate that beaches are best enjoyed with friends, especially other kids. It adds an extra sparkle to everything - the water is more fun, the rock pools are more fun, the sand is more fun. Spot the surfer out there in the waves, they were like seals, bobbing about in the surf, dozens and dozens of them.

I took the chance to snap off a (slightly late) addition to my growing portfolio of 52 Fridays self-portraits. Sure I look slightly feral squinting into the sun (where were my sunglasses?) but you can't beat that backdrop. Tamer beaches might be a bit better for the kiddies, but the wildness of the West Coast black sand beaches are glorious.

I finally got around to photographing my first foray into serious knit sewing. It's a dress from McCall's 5423. It's not perfect but it's definitely wearable and I'm really enjoying it. Sorry for the appalling first photograph, I didn't realise how dark and grainy it was until I came to run it through Photoshop.

It's a very light knit, a bolt end from Marc Jacobs according to the tag, and it's quite lovely. I don't think it was stretchy enough for the pattern though, which is why the gathering rides up a bit in the middle there - it's less obvious when I don't wear the sash. Can anyone tell me what 'cross-wise stretch' is for knits? I swear, I've googled the term and no-one explains it in a way that makes sense to me! I think this is where I went wrong estimating whether the fabric was stretchy enough. The pattern itself was very easy to follow and came together nicely which was such a relief! I love the sleeves, they're really effective and very simple - just a band sewn on but they look like set-in sleeves.

Can you see my Amy Butler 'French Wallpaper' dressing gown on the bed behind me? It's so garish and full-on but I love it! I feel all louche as I trail around the house in it martini in hand. I made a nightie from this orange fabric awhile ago that is fairly marginal in wearability (needs to be reworked asap!) but the orange looks fabulous with the dressing gown.

I decided that the next project would be from Twinkle Sews so I got the CD out and had a look (after removing the small slip of paper that Hazel had posted into the slot that was resulting in awful noises when I put in CDs. Thank goodness it wasn't broken! Anyways, I discovered that if you're in a country that uses A4 standard size paper rather than the US letter size you need to be able to open them in Illustrator and change the paper size. Big minus for it right there, because if you don't have that option then you are stuck with trying to print a pattern sized for Letter on paper that is about a cm narrower - screw up your pattern sizing much? On top of that it'll take 64 - yes 64 - pages to print it out. At this point I'm somewhat undecided whether to fell a small forest to even get a pattern to look at...

A photographic odyssey

I finally got around to doing up the gorgeous Clothkits dress kit I got for Hazel many months ago. It looks so amazing! I lured Hazel out for a photoshoot this afternoon, although she insisted on bringing a small plastic dinosaur with her.

The first few shots she was a very fierce dinosaur

But that didn't show the design on the dress so I said "hold your arms out to the side please". Note the small plastic dinosaur in her right hand.

Then I realised that hot pink and bright orangey yellow were just not going to photograph well in that light so I gave up. She paused on the deck out of the bright light so I tried again

Then I asked her to turn around so I could take a photo of the birdy on her bum. Instantly it was all about the bum, the bum was wiggled, it posed, Hazel giggled and said "bum" a lot. It's a hot topic amongst the four year olds I've noticed! Here it is in a rare still moment

Then she asked if she could take a photo of Lucy with the SLR. With misgivings, I put the strap around her neck and my hands on her shoulders and got her down the stairs to take it. It was so heavy she could barely hold it up but she managed to take this lovely photo none-the-less. I like how Lucy's head is in focus but the rest is slightly blurry. Don't you just love tabby markings? The more I look at Lucy the more I think her markings are just incredibly exotic - there's spots and stripes and swirls and colour graditons and almost an Art Nouveau aesthetic to it all. But because tabbies are a dime-a-dozen we lose sight of the amazingness. Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like to see a cat for the first time, especially a tabby, and I know it'd be a "wow!" moment. I need to do a good closeup of her face so I can point out the little row of tiny brown spots that go from one row of whiskers, under her nose across to the whiskers on the other side. And remind me to tell you my party anecdote about the blotchy tabby mutation and its spread sometime ;) Scientists, we're the life of the party! And yes Dad, I AM a scientist, no "soft science" cracks allowed on this blog. :P

Then I remembered to take a photo of this neat moss (?) that's growing in a pot that used to house a blueberry that got toddlered during one of my mum's group get-togethers. I've been meaning to try out a tilt-shift on it because it looks for all the world like a small oasis of palm trees, but in the end it looked better just cropped.

I need to go out and try photographing it again, but it started to rain and thunder about then - a lovely end-of-a-hot-day-thunderstorm, although all too brief and then even more humid after the sun came out again! Being from Alberta, a province that doesn't do humidity, I don't handle it very well, although I must say it's very nice for skin!

The 2+2 blouse

Can you believe that she's actually voluntarily wearing this?! In the end I gave it to her for Christmas openly (along with her Little Pup toy) and didn't resort to putting it in her stocking. I'm glad I did! She really seems to like it and I'm feeling pretty happy about it in general. It's a cute pattern and I'm sure I'll make it again a few times, both short-sleeved and the long-sleeve option.



I think part of the reason she likes it is that the fabric (My Folklore by Lecien) has squirrels on it and she loves squirrels. We often sing this song, from one of our favourite cartoons, Phineas and Ferb

Little Pups

As part of the gifty meme from earlier this year I made a wee stuffed dog from the More Softies book for my friend Jennifer in England. The pattern is called 'Little Pup' by My Little Mochi. He turned out so well that I made another for Hazel for Christmas.



When I first got the body sewed up it looked pretty dodgy, not at all like the one in the book! But as I stuffed it it looked better and better and by the time I got to sewing on the arms I was in luurve. The nose is a triumph of cute.

What I'm up to at the moment

2+2 blouse, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Amongst the many projects I have on the go at the moment is this Oliver + S blouse from the 2+2 pattern. I bought the Lecien 'My Foklore' fabric a fair while ago for this exact purpose and I can honestly say I think it's one of my favourite fabrics ever. The photos don't do it justice, but the little pops of red are just sublime in their perfect redness.

Mat said "that's too nice to give to Hazel!" and of course what he meant was that she may very well refuse to wear it and I think that would break my heart (again). But what else was I supposed to do with it? It needs to be worn by a little girl in some shape or form, and if I didn't make the size 4 now I wouldn't have had enough fabric to make the next size up. It was close as it was! I had initially thought that I'd put it in her stocking as I'm confident that she would wear it if she thought it was from Santa. But I'm not sure if I can bear her not knowing that I made it. It's totally an ego thing I know! I'm still really undecided about this - any advice would be welcome.

All the potential angst aside, just look at that fabric, the gathering, the sweet little ties at the neck. I might have some quibbles with the technical aspects of Oliver + S pattern construction at times, but you can't deny they make the cutest kids clothing patterns around!

What you're into when you're four

Hazel has started making up little paper envelopes (or pouches as she calls them) at créche and filling them with images she's cut out of magazines. I think they're a gorgeous way of tracking her interests and I'm going to start recording each batch!

I have to agree with her on those Perrier Jouet bottles, they're utterly gorgeous and OTT in these days of minimalism and cutting-edge design.

Sleight of hand

I'm going to try and distract you from any crafty expectations right now by saying "what's that over there? Quick, it's a really cute baby in a jolly jumper!" (for hardened baby-lovers only as it's fairly long)



I uploaded this almost-four year old video for my friend Jess, who recently shared one of her little cutie in a jolly jumper, but I thought it might be good for general viewing. After watching it I should probably admit that I think Hazel's the best thing I've ever made, and definitely an on-going project. Look at those chubby little legs! They were just so gorgeous and scrummy, and now they're long and lean, covered in 4 year old bruises and they run like the wind. I loved how she did the Irish dancing thing with her feet, it was so darn cute. Or maybe it's more like tap...

The jacket at last!

I bribed Hazel to come out and do a photo shoot with the jacket - I promised that if she did I'd give her some food. Or should I say a snack. That sounds better ;)

Of course, getting a four year old to smile nicely for the camera is a job and a half. We started out well - this was the first photo, but she was partly out of the shot. It went downhill from there:





At least you can see the nice collar in this one!


Overall the Sunday Brunch Jacket is really lovely. There were a couple of things that I didn't like about the pattern, particularly the way the sleeve fit (there is an odd notch on the corner that makes it hard to fit and that isn't dealt with in the instructions)** and the fact that when you turn the cuffs back up they don't fit properly over the sleeve and cause it to wrinkle. Like the pyjamas I did this past winter, they're not things that really affect the fit, and the next time I'll be able to deal with them by altering the pattern. So for those issues I'd give it a four and a half out of five. The rating is totally saved by the sheer cuteness of the jacket and general ease of construction - I just love how it puffs out at the bottom like a wee skirt. Possibly for this fabric I should have cut it slightly longer but I'm still really pleased. One of the nice touches is having the inner facing finished with bias-binding, and I did the hem with it as well to reduce bulk. I've seen a few online where people have bound every edge and it looks really nice.



And of course Lucy had to come out and be in on the action, she loves it when we're out in the front yard, I think it makes her feel all brave and part of the pack.



**I asked about this in the Oliver+S forum and it appears that it's simply to reduce bulk at the seam and I guess I wasn't exactly perfect on my seam allowances so the clipped corner on the sleeve didn't match up quite right?

The smell of desperation

I finished the spotty Sunday Brunch Jacket the other day but haven't been able to take a photo of it on Hazel because she refuses to wear it. She also refuses to wear the ladybeetle skirt I made her last month. Mat says that it's because she can "sense the desperation" in my voice when I ask her if she wants to wear them. I try to be casual about it, but I guess she's like a cat who somehow knows it's off to the vet 3 hours before you actually have to take it. Psychic or something. I may have to wrestle her into it this afternoon though, even if only for posterity because it's not going to fit her for long I think, which is a pain. Keep an eye out for a photo with a disgruntled model in the near future, and a picture of me in a hat if I can take a photo where I don't look my age (which I feel this morning).

I did get my own back on Mat this morning though, as he bemoaned the fact that she refuses to read the new Pettson and Findus book she got for her birthday, or his favourite 'The Lamb Who Came for Dinner' (which is truly excellent) and I was able to say "It's because she senses the desperation in your voice". Ha! Take that!

Does this look like something that can sense desperation? Well it can. I love this photo - it's blurry but it just looks so much like her, if that makes sense!


Hazel at 4, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Bag for Hazel

In order to get Hazel to come willingly with me to a couple of fabric shops last month, I bribed her with the promise of a fat quarter of any fabric she wanted. Bad mummy! But hey, I sort of see it as starting off the fabric fetish young ;) She ended up with predictably little girl fabrics - one in purple and one in a peachy pink. What to do with them? Make a bag of course! I had the "Kid Flick" bag over at The Object Project bookmarked for awhile and it looked like an easy one. We even had The Little Mermaid DVD to use as the template! Hazel sat on my lap and with many dire warnings about fingers being sewn we sewed it up together. The only thing I did differently than the tutorial was zigzag all the raw edges before we started. It turned out beautifully! I especially liked that I could use up a couple of old bracelets that were hanging around the house. As a teenager in the 80s I had an armful and Hazel's inherited them, so there's plenty more to make future bags! But even if you are younger than me and missed out on that particularly fabulous fashion trend, suitable bracelets would be very cheap at a $2 store or similar. I think the bag would also look great with boxed corners and it would be easy to make a little larger too as it doesn't take up a whole fat quarter by any means.



I was really keen to make one of the teacup flowers from the same site to go on it, but the peach fabric defied a match with anything in my stash (really not a colour I would normally go for) so today I made a quick felt flower for it from this tutorial here. It was supposed to look a bit like a white camellia but...well it looks flower-like anyways! :D Hazel was quite thrilled with it.



Oddly enough it turns out the bag matches the skirt Hazel chose to wear this morning, not that I realised it until I looked at the photos!

At the beach

This morning I asked Hazel what she wanted to do on such a glorious sunny morning and she said "go to the beach!" At first I was a bit reluctant because it's about a 3/4 hour drive, but then I thought stuff it! and off we went. We headed to Muriwai Beach on the West Coast which is where we mostly seem to go. First we stopped at Maori Bay because usually it's fun to potter around the big rocks there but the tide was higher than I'd expected so we just stayed up on top and watched the surfers and gannets for a bit


(all photos and video from my phone camera unfortunately!)

and then we walked around to the viewing platform to see what the gannets were up to at their nesting site. They're at the nest-building stage it would seem.



Then we walked down the other side of the promontory to Muriwai proper and braved the big waves washing across the bottom of these stairs much to Hazel's horror once we were actually doing it. It was actually quite safe!



That effectively killed her desire to be at the beach when there was a tide - any kind of tide, low, high, inbetween, clearly a tide was not to be trusted because it makes the sea move! Aieee! , I think she was convinced we were all about to be washed away if it got any higher. Little landlubber! So we went inland for icecreams.







It truly was a beautiful morning. :)

A little seamstress joins the ranks

I feel like I should be holding some sort of arcane initiation ceremony to celebrate this event - the crafting community just grew by one today!



I've started teaching Hazel how to sew using hessian and old tapestry wool. She's really excited about it and her first project is to sew a tree for her daddy.



There are so many skills involved in this, and so many things she needs to remember as she pulls the wool through that I'm in awe that any of us manage to get good at it! Even threading the needle is a big and daunting prospect but she really works at it and does get it eventually. She doesn't always show such persistence so I'm hoping this is a good sign for her career as a seamstress!

Busted!

A mail-order company here is selling those heatable wheatie-warmers shaped like bunnies and horses. Hazel wants one. This was our bedtime conversation just now

Hazel: Are you going to buy me a bunny one?
Me: Well...I might make you one instead.

Pause

Hazel: Buying one would be faster...

I'm not fooling anyone am I, not even almost-four-year-olds.

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On a more positive note, 'Sewing Green' arrived this afternoon which totally took me by surprise! All the other crafting books I've ordered from Fishpond have taken a couple of weeks to come from overseas first, this one must have been sitting in their warehouse. It's lovely! I'll post more about it in a day or so but I'm really in love with some of the projects although I'm not overly confident about my ability to source all these woolen sweaters from op-shops that they seem to require. Like 3 or 4 per project... I might have a look around tomorrow and see what the supply is like. Probably not good considering the cold snap that's hit us the last couple weeks! Some of the projects are a bit 'meh' though - I'm sorry but I really don't need yet another apron pattern, particularly the utterly useless half aprons that don't cover the part of the body most likely to get coated in flour! But that's probably my particular pet peeve - they're in every single recent craft book I have I think, it's a pandemic! :) Otherwise there are many projects that I'm absolutely dying to try out, especially the log-shaped draft-stopper, complete with leaves and bracket fungi! Eeeeee!

An Auckland winter

Hazel at the window, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

When the southerly came through on Sunday the temperature dropped, the rain lashed the living room windows, and with the heater on in the living room the condensation appeared almost instantly.

Hazel covered the panes with her name, or in this case, Santa Claus. Oh little girl, you have a long wait ahead of you! Poor thing, with a Canadian for a mother she's so full of ideas of snow at winter that she can't quite get her head around the idea that it never snows here and that it's summer when Santa comes. I'm determined to get her down to the snow this winter though, it's her birthright! It's crazy how much I miss snow. Snow and mountains. Of course I'd probably get my fill of snow in a couple weeks, but I can never get enough of mountains.