Maybe I have a Slight Problem?

One of my dear friends, who is also very crafty, came to visit last week and asked to borrow one of my patterns.  I dragged the big box (note not the only box) up from the garage and we found what we were after.
Now my amazing DP is writing me a database for all my patterns and I'm slowly adding them all into it so I can search for patterns without having to go through boxes and boxes of them.  I have put all the patterns in this box into the database so while it was upstairs I decided to put them all in numerical order so once located in the database they are now easy to find.

Hmm maybe I really don't need all of these after all, but you never know they might come in handy one day :-)

Girls Night In At The Movies

I am very lucky to have some fantastic local friends who are just as crafty and nutty as I am.  We get together as a group to debrief on life's events, put the world to rights and occasionally do some knitting as often as possible, well officially once a week but I'm more likely to make it along once a month or so.  I've decided this year to make much more of an effort to make it to these wee get togethers this year after I became a bit of a phantom member of the group last year as life got in the way.
A couple of weeks ago we had a girly night in at the movies.  We decided to watch The Breakfast Club and we all contributed something to goody bags for everyone.  It was a fabulous night of fun and gossip and laughter, some movie watching and a little crafting.  Here is what ended up in our goody bags, we were all so spoilt.  Everything was themed around the movie and people did so well with their 80's/breakfast themed ideas.
The whole lot.

 The yarn (which is so scrummy)

 Rubbish photo of some gorgeous teapot stitch markers.

FO: Our Reptile

This last week I had Mr A home from school sick with tonsillitis.  By Tuesday he was getting bored of begin off school and not seeing his friends so I needed to think of something fun to do, and quickly.
Back at christmas time the kids gave me an awesome book of fabric and knitted toys to make.  Of course they both went through and picked out their favourites (which totalled over half the book).  I have been a totally bad Mum and not made anything but thought a day home with a sick child was the perfect time to start.
So we dragged out the book and decided on a pattern.  Step one was to draft the pattern and pick the fabric colours.  Mr A picked a wee lizardy thing called 'Zoltan' and we delved into my fleece fabric box and off we went.

The pattern called for detail on one side only, but who ever heard of a one sided lizards thing?  So we doubled up on the eyes etc and got to cutting out.  I did all the sewing while Mr A chilled out watching a movie and then it was time for him to start helping.  He spent ages stuffing his 'monster' and did a fab job of it in the end.

Then I sewed up his tummy (the monster's not Mr A's) and added his mouth.  Hey presto one lizards thing that Mr A has named 'Our Reptile' (because we made it together).

Sunflowers

I'm not too sure what has happened to summer here, we took these photos today in the relentless drizzle.
In early January Mr A planted a sunflower in a pot he had painted at his school holiday programme.  He has (almost single handedly) looked after it since and yesterday it finally came out in bloom.

It's not exactly huge, I'm not sure if that's the rather rubbish growing conditions we have had or the type of sunflower, but it is touchy.
Here's a shot to give some height (or lack thereof) perspective.

KCW (kind of) Part 6: Multi Pocket Shorts

Ok so it's not KCW anymore but I did get these started during kids clothes week.  I then got them almost finished on Waitangi day and finally sewed the hems today.
I have wanted to sew these shorts since I got the issue of Otto way back in 2008 (yes this is another Ottobre pattern), they are from the summer issue (03) and they come in pretty much all sizes from 98 up, plus there is a longer jeans version as well.
What I LOVE about the Ottobre patterns for boys is that they have all the finishing details that make the clothes look 'store bought' and not 'home made'.  I love the challenge of this and it also helps with my "argh my boy is wearing homemade clothes to school he'll get bullied" complex.  For the record Mr A goes to a fabulous school where I have no worries about bullying at all, but you know I'm a paranoid mother when it comes to these things.
So anyway what am I waffling about?  These:

What's not to love right?  They went together like a dream and have details to burn (I actually left off the belt loops and the extra fancy top stitching on the backs and they still have plenty of 'extras'.  I love all the pockets, because boys need pockets!  There are SIX pockets in these, all huge and I love every one of them.  The big front patch pockets are incorporated into the fly which is cool, the contrast of the front hip pockets makes them 'pop' and the pleat details on the back pockets add a little something extra as well.

These were meant to have a full zip fly but Mr A didn't want one so I just adapted and botched a half mock fly (who knows maybe I even did it right but I made it up as I went along) and he requested a snap instead of a button (no arguments here on that one).

Even with all those pattern pieces (12 of them, yes 12), these went together like a dream and the fit is great.  I usually cut a 104 with 116 length for DS but he didn't want them as long as the were in the book so I cut a 104 with 116 rise and 104 leg length (slightly confusing at time of tracing but it worked well).  I actually still chopped a couple of inches off the length to give shorts rather than 3/4 pants to please the boy.  Oh and the fabric?  Once again I'm pretty sure this was courtesy of my Mum's stash from some time ago and the blue is left overs from his jeans I made recently.

Excuse the terrible photos, it's been raining here today so the front door was the only dry space we could find and I was getting rained on.  Mr A is pleased though so I can't ask for much more than that.  Once again Otto Rocks!

Waitangi Day

Today was Waitangi Day here in NZ which meant a day off work/school and a chance to chill out.  It always seems a little weird when the kids have a day off during their first week back at school but I actually think it works well to ease them back into it.
We didn't try to do anything too patriotic today, although Miss M had a day of celebrations at daycare yesterday.  Instead we made the most of the extra day off doing these kinds of things.....
Mr A did a lot of this:

 Miss M did a bit of this (Sammy's Science House and Thinking Things):

 Miss M made these with Daddy then everyone had to try them on:

 I managed to sneak away and do quite a lot of this during the afternoon:

Also not caught on camera was some gardening and a trip to the supermarket (so you didn't miss anything there).

I hope everyone else in our part of the world had a lovely relaxing day too :-)

KCW Part 3: Guitar Tee

See I told you I would get back to part 3, you just need to be a little patient.  So what was all the hype about?  Well in all honesty it was about a pretty plain t-shirt.
Last year I was lucky enough to be offered a massive destash bag of knit fabrics for just the cost of postage.  Now there is massive, then there is MASSIVE and then there is what landed on my doorstep!  To give some sense of scale each of those outer plastic bags is about the size of a bin liner.

 Anywho amongst all the scrumminess that was inside was a smallish off cut of knit interlock with guitars on it.  Mr A saw it and immediately asked if I could make him a t-shirt, which may have been possible if he has been about 6 months old still.  It has been packed away in a box since so this was a perfect opportunity to finally get it out.

The pattern I used here is Ottobre 3/2013 #23 as it filled the request of a rib neckline and not being too slim fit.  I colour blocked the front by hacking up the front pattern piece and adding seam allowances, and I'm pleased with the result.  The pattern went together really quickly and I even dragged out the coverseamer to hem the sleeves and bottom and it worked first time - woohoo.  You may notice that it is hemmed in white, I can assure you that this is a design feature to tie in with the colour blocking and had nothing to do with the fact I was too scared to change the thread on the coverseamer.

And finally a few pics on the boy today (cleaned of chocolate from his after school care programme the other day and moments away from having paint on the sleeve).

I'm pleased with the fit and it still has room to grow.  It got the thumbs up from the boy so I can't ask for more than that.

Adding a link to the Gracious Threads Colour Block Link Party :-)  Go check it out!  Gracious Threads: Embellish is for BOYS! week 3 with Amy