FUNDRAISER FOR HOPE - OMA Yarn Auction

Hope Osborne is a little Wellington girl turning 4 in almost a week who was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago. In New Zealand when a child is diagnosed with cancer they begin receiving beads at each hospital visit and for every treatment they undergo. Since diagnosis Hope has gone through countless painful and difficult procedures and earned 900 beads as a badge of her journey with child cancer.  As of Sept last year Hope was in remission and treatment free.

Image used with permission from Rachael Brown Photography

This week though we all learned that Hope's cancer has returned and is spreading - sadly this time the only treatment will be palliative. Hope's family have been given a terribly short time frame to enjoy her. It's devastating news for any family to have to try and come to terms with.

And so this auction is as a fundraiser for Hope and her family, to help them enjoy what special time they have together. 100% of the money raised by this auction will go straight to Hope and her family and I will cover any postage costs worldwide!

So what are you bidding on? One truely fabulous one-off skein of Old Maiden Aunt 100% Superwash Merino yarn in colourway Lustre. This yarn is a 4ply (fingering weight) and contains 100g (approx 430y). For anyone who hasn't had the delight of owning OMA yarns before they are just gorgeous, the depth and subtlety of colour are truely amazing. I will also include some sweet chocolately goodness and an OMA badge in the package.

So all you knitters out there dig deep for this amazing family.  And those of you that don't knit bid anyway, this yarn is fabulous to just look at, pet, cuddle etc etc, or con someone you know into making you something truley special out of it.

**This is going well thanks everyone. If it goes over $50 I'll throw in a skein of Knitsch sock yarn in a colour of your choice, and if it makes it to $70 make that 2 skeins**

*Bidding will start at $15
*The auction closes on Fri 18th Feb at 8pm NZT
*All bids will be in NZD and I will accept payment via direct debit or paypal
*All proceeds will go directly to Hope and her family and I will cover postage costs.
*Please bid by leaving a commetn below and remember to include your contact details so I can arrange payment/delivery with the winning bidder.
*Finally thanks for looking/reading/bidding and please feel free to pass on the link to this to anyone you feel may be interested.


Finally there are loads of other fundraising auctions/raffles going on at the moment for Hope.  Those of you in Wellington please check out this TM auction for a photography session by Rachael Brown Photography.
And Julia over at Just One WIP has an awesome yarny package up for grabs as well
Alternatively anyone who would like to make a donation directly to the family can do so by popping money into Hope's account :-)
Hope Osborne 
38-9009-0002097-00

FO: Bonnet for Miss M

To be honest I did the knitting of this wee bonnet last year but it took me ages to get around to finding ribbon and then sewing it on (or rather getting Mum to sew it on).  The pattern is Lacy Baby Bonnet by Erika Knight and the yarn is Bella Baby Layette which is wool/bamboo blend.

The action shots aren't the best but my baby has discovered the wonders of commando crawling (at less than 5mo *sigh*) and keeping her in one place for more than a millisecond is now impossible.

Ferry, Family Fun, Flight and Fruit Picking

We have recently returned from a fantastic, if somewhat boiling, break with my Mum and Dad. It was a lovely wee break and the kids both had a ball.  Here is our wee holiday in a few pics :-)

On the Ferry

Aviation Heritage Centre

Fun with the family

Fruit picking

Yarny Goodness

This package of yarny delight arrived in my postbox last week.

Three Irish Girls Springvale Merino in "Aiden" colourway.

And I might have picked up a couple of new knitting mags on holiday as well, it was my holiday treat to me :-)

Stash Rehoming

Now I know that I mentioned in an earlier post that one of my main goals for this year was to downsize my stash. About now I'd like to clarify that this statement was in relation to yarn only :-P

We have recently been to visit my parents and anyone who knows my Mum will know exactly where I get my craft hoarding ability from. In passing I asked if she had any fabric squirreled away that would be suitable for a couple of projects I have in mind for gifts (so I cant tell you what they are). This got the excited response of "Oh let's go look in the cupboards"! Yes cupboards plural, four of them, large ones. So while looking I may have got a little sidetracked from the original projects but look what I found......

Wovens

Knits

Wool fabric

Now I just have to find room for it all here and decide what it wants to turn into, all suggestions welcome.

I was also gifted a nice wee bundle of girl patterns by a family friend

So let's face it I've done a good deed by giving these things a loving home, a bit like rehoming a pet from the SPCA.

First Mate Hoodie

Well I did manage to complete my first knit project of the year in January - just!  It is a First Mate Shirt for Mr A and it was a test knit for Elena.  So here it is...

There are lots of things I love about this pattern but I think the main one is the cables!  I have a bit of a thing about cables at the moment, especially for wee boys which is one of the reasons I was keen to have a go at this pattern.  I love that it has two different cable patterns, one down the front and the other down each side :-)

The construction of this jersey was new to me.  It is knit in the round and completely seamless but instead of the usual raglan design it has the set in sleeves which look really nice.  The only thing I'm a little disappointed about here is the fit.  I was hoping that by knitting a size 3T with 4T length Mr A would get this winter and possibly next out of it but in actual fact it is a perfect fit on him now, so he better not grow before winter ;-)

You have to excuse the rubbish modeled pics, it was boiling here and it took quite some amount of persuading (and bribery) just to get the jersey on so arranging any nice shots was out of the question.

So what's next on the needles?  Shhhhh it's a secret, can't tell just yet.

Check this out

Check out Hugs to Hold a fantastic idea aimed at putting a smile on the face of the children who have lost everything in the recent devestating floods in Australia. A soft toy seems like a small thing but could make a huge difference. I hope to get something completed for this soon and hope many of you will join in as well :-)

Also take a look at this awesome giveaway on Heart Felt . She has three beautiful zip purses from Atticus Finch to give away.