Knitting tests

I am here to reveal two beautiful test knits that I have completed recently. First is Katniss, by Julia Stanfield. This is a fabulous pattern that both looks fantastic and is also incredibly practical. Tess loves it and refuses to take the hood off - even indoors! The pockets are really cute, but also very handy for treasures that need to go everywhere ;).  I knit this in 100Purewool yarn that I dyed myself, but the colour didn't quite come out how I wanted. I will be attempting to re-dye it this weekend - and hope that I don't felt it in the process!

And the next one is another awesome pattern from Georgie Hallam, Suzanne, which will be released soon. I loved the construction of this cardigan and the very cute little daisy stitch detail around the cuffs, mid section and hemline, which add to the cuteness factor. I dyed this yarn myself about 2 years ago at a craft retreat weekend I went to with a bunch of friends. I've been waiting for the right project for this yarn, and this project was definitely perfect for it, as I only had 5gms left over!

 

Op shop treasures

Well, I had a fun and productive day today :).  Fridays are my day off and I try to make the most of every minute that I have with Tess at kindy for 4 hours and the big kids at school. Today Tess wanted to walk to kindy and it was a perfect day to do that, so I drove most of the way down the 'mountain' so that I wouldn't have to walk all the way back up again (yes, lazy I know!).

On my meander back to the car I managed to acquire a beautiful coffee from my favourite local cafe, Zuleika, then stopped in at our local St Vincent de Paul shop and picked up an Olga Berg handbag, a really cute Duraware set in a gorgeous red and three cute little Crown Lynn espresso cups. Feeling very happy with my purchases, I got back to the car and realised it was facing away from my house, which I took to be a sign that I needed to visit the 'tip shop' only a short 5 minute drive away!

I was pretty delighted to discover they had a very cute little Pfaff 1027 sewing machine that looked to be in good condition. I also found a set of Crown Lynn, with three each of saucers, bowls, bread and butter plates, lunch plates and dinner plates, two large-ish lamp shades in cream that I intend to pimp with some funky fabric, and two large pieces of fabric.

For all of these things across the two stores, I paid a grand total of $32!!

Now, back to my cute little Pfaff, it had none of it's accessories (spare sewing feet, bobbin case or foot pedal) with it, but I have an older Pfaff at home (my trusty and much loved Pfaff 1222E) so I figured I could probably use bits from my other Pfaff. Sadly, the foot pedals are incompatible, but I could use the bobbin case, so I threaded it all up and took it down to my local sewing shop to try it with one of their foot pedals. Unfortunately, some idiot had taken it apart at some stage and put one of the plug prongs in the wrong way! I took it home and my clever husband took it apart and fixed the prong, so tomorrow I will take it back to the sewing store and hope like crazy it works when plugged in! I have bonded with this cute little machine already!!