Watching the World Go By

Mr A and Miss M were playing outside at the weekend and next thing we know they had set themselves up like this :-)

And what's wrong with spending a sunny afternoon just watching the world go by?

Little Ballet Girl

Earlier in the year when Mum came over she brought with her my very first tutu for Miss M to use as a dress up and play in.  Mum made this for me when I was 4 and I wore it for at least a couple of years.  Miss M hasn't shown much interest in it until the last week or so when she spied it in the bedroom and said "Dancing dress Mummy".  So of course she had to put it on and dance to 'Mia', because every little ballet girl starts off by dancing round the lounge to Mama Mia right?

Pasta Making

For a while now we have been thinking about getting a pasta machine and during the school holidays when Mr A and Daddy were in town they spied one on special and took the plunge.  This lead to a boring grey saturday being turned into a fun day making our first lot of pasta.  Everyone joined in and we had lots of fun playing with our new toy.

Pretty pleased with the results

Miss M's turn with the dough

Drying

And then of course the best bit of all, the tasting :-)

Seems to have been a huge success all round really and I can see us getting a lot of use out of our new toy.

FO: Kaipara Shawlette

Lately I have been knitting like crazy but not blogging much about it because I have been either making gifts that haven't been gifted yet or doing super secret squirrel test knits.  Now the time has come that I can finally post pics of one of those tests and this time it is actually something for me!
I had spent many hours trawling through patterns on Ravelry looking for another scarfy/shawly thing to knit to keep me warm on the cold walks to school in the mornings.  During the process and after asking for pattern ideas on the ravelry forum I got a message from Gabes of Sweetp Designs to ask if I would be interested in testing her latest shawl pattern.  As soon as I saw this pics I jumped at the opportunity and I love the results. 
The Kaipara Shawlette is a novel construction with raglan shaping across the back and then fast increases along the ends to give a lovely shaped shawlette that sits really nicely around the neck/shoulders.  It is made up of a lovely squishy garter stitch centre and open simple lace edging which can be either ruffled or not. 
The yarn I chose for this test knit is a fabulous subtle variegated colourway from Old Maiden Aunt called Ae Fond Kiss which is very subtle pinks and lilacs.  This was one of the first skeins I ever bought from Old Maiden Aunt and it was part of her "Homecoming collection" some years ago.  

A relatively quick knit this design is simple yet very effective and I love the fact that the pattern is written in such a way that you weigh the yarn at certain points, this means you can use any sized skein of yarn and get the most out of it instead of having to play a guessing game and yardage chicken :-)

Pigtails

Miss M's is very fine and currently at that annoying stage where it is long enough to get in her face but not long enough to do much with.  We have tried clips but she seems to think it's the best game ever to go look in the mirror then pull them out and come rushing over saying "clip in?".  Cute game but it gets old pretty quickly.  So this weekend we decided to attempt pigtails for the very first time.

They are pretty ridiculous and totally adorable all at the same time and amazingly she does seem to leave them in (or only pull one out, not sure what is with that?).  I do love her new hairstyle but at the same time it does make my wee baby look so grown up.

Hiding

There were some mysterious giggling noises coming from the pantry this morning.

HELLO :-)

Cheeky wee monkey.

And This Is Why....

I need a sewing room.  Or at least somewhere to leave my machines set up in a more permenant fashion.

This is my current sewing set-up which is on the dining table.  No wonder I never get any sewing done.  By the time I get the kids to bed and then get this lot set up it's almost bed time.  I did manage to almost finish the sweatshirt for Mr A the other night though so that's something I guess.