Repurposed dress

Repurposed dress, a photo by cascade_lily on Flickr.

I wore a jersey dress the other day and decided it didn't really do anything for me. I was about to pull it off and pop it into the charity bin bag but when I got it up to my hips I looked in the mirror and realised it would be much better as a top!

So I headed downstairs into the playroom (which also doubles as my craft room) and grabbed the scissors - a few snips later and I'd cut off the belt loops and sliced the dress in half at the hip line.

I hemmed the 'top' for me and repurposed the skirt with a new casing and elastic for my daughter Romily - she loves her 'new' skirt and I now have a nice new top.

Sew It Together is coming to Canberra!

How very exciting. Sew It Together is coming to Canberra from 8-10 June 2012. I was all lined up to go to Sydney last year but had to pull out at the last minute due to work travel commitments. This year is shaping up to be as stupidly busy as last year, but how could I not go since the lovely ladies, including organiser Sheridan Powell, are coming to Canberra? I have been blogging/commenting/facebooking/twittering with some of them for around four years - I am not going to pass up the opportunity to meet them and do some crafting with them.

The lovely Cass is once again organising a sample swap - the cause of great excitement at each year's event I understand! I have signed up for the swap and am already planning what to make.

Are you coming to SIT Canberra? If so, I hope you bring your winter woollies - it's going to be freezing, but what better motivation than to knit yourself a new scarf and some gloves? Or a make a lap quilt? You could handquilt it while we're chatting over a cup of tea!

I'm not sure what craft I'll bring with me - it will either be some handquilting or some knitting. It's so nice to be crafting again :)

Here's what I look like so you'll know me if you see me! (There's the skirt I made in 2010! Brooch was purchased from Lupin on Etsy)

And a scarf for Tristan

Wow, I'm on fire!

Here's Tristan's scarf - knit in 2x2 rib from Naturally Loyal yarn I bought on Thursday from the Woolshed in Manuka. The main blue is an almost exact match to the colour of his eyes. Just gorgeous, don't you think?

You can read more about the project on Ravelry.

 The craftapalooza is coming to an end, very sadly. For the next two-four weeks I'll be slogging away solidly on my much-neglected research project, which I'm allegedly doing as part of the requirements of a Master of Philosophy in Business. I've been dragging the chain on this project - work has been utterly exhausting over the past 20 months and I've had no spare brain capacity for anything. With my current enforced break (due to surgery on my feet, which requires 6 weeks off work), I'm determined to get it back on track. I have to impose a craft ban, otherwise I would spend all my time in a state of 'productive procrastination'!

There will, however, continue to be some handquilting happening at nighttime in front of the telly. My Christmas Baubles quilt is coming along very nicely. I'll post some more pictures soon.

Happy Easter! We've been having a good one. Lots of chocolate eggs for the kids - only two each for the grown-ups - we're dieting!

A scarf for Romily

So there's an upside to being confined to bed for two weeks! Craftapalooza! I decided to teach myself how to knit properly - with a world of resources at my fingertips via the world wide web, I've been able to work out how to cast on properly (long tail cast on) and how to weave in ends properly (duplicate stitch method), neither of which I knew how to do before.

I bought this yarn about two years ago for Romily, intending to knit a scarf for her for winter - alas that coincided with my return to work and nothing happened! I finally got around to starting it  on Sunday and I finished it today. While it's by no means perfect (a couple of twisted stitches and a small hole where I forgot to bring the yarn to the front, Romily's happy with it and that's really all that matters. If you want to know more about the yarns, etc. I've put the project up on Ravelry, where I'm 'CascadeLily'.

Next up is a similar scarf for Tristan, made from a lovely cornflower blue with pale blue stripes.

PS. please excuse the colours/flash photography - I am still stuck in bed after foot surgery! The scarf is actually royal purple with pastel green stripes.