The MacBoo got dyed!

Oh neglected blog, I have been so busy raising the 4 kiddies that are growing up so quickly that I never get the opportunity to post.

I have been dying up some nappies, and other things amoungst raising 4 kids, being a wife and working a bit.

These are bamboo Mandy Macs (or Mac Boos) that are modern cloth nappies. they are great as they are one size that fits most kids, and they also dont have lots of differnt parts to sort through in the wash. They also have elastic around the legs that old style cloth nappies dont. Super easy to wash, just rince off the solids in the loo, then throw them into the bucket. when a full bucket throw them into the wash for a pre-rince and a wash. Its more effort to buy nappies from the supermarket!!

Oh and in amoungst there is 3 hemp macs that someone has coming to them as a suprise!

Twirly skirt tute

Some people love these skirts and are not sure how to make them. They are rather easy so I will give instructions on how to make one.

Measure around the hips of the child. Ellises hips are 50cm.

50 X 1.5 = 75cm (length of first piece of fabric)

75 X 1.5 = 112.50cm (length of 2nd liece of fabric)

112.50 X 1.5 = 168.75 (length of last piece of fabric)

the width of each piece depends on the height of your child. Ellise is only short so hers needs only to be 25cm. So the first piece needs to be the waist, so the widest.

(25/3) + 2 + 3 = 13.3333 (the 2 is the seam allowance and the 3 is the elastic casing)

I round this up to 15

The next 2 strips I round as well. 25/3 = 8.3333 + seam allowance of 2cm.

You sew down 3cm at the top of the top piece of fabric to make an elastic casing. Leaving open a 3cm hole to thread the elastic through.

Then on the second and third piece you sew 2 rows of stritching at the largest that your machine goes to, about 2cm from the top then another 1cm down.

Pull these 2 threads to gather up the fabric so that it fits the one above. Try and make the gathering as even as possible.

Make sure you hem the last piece too.

Then sew the pieces all together, using about a 1cm seam. And sew up the back seam and thread the elastic through.

And there you have it, your own skirt!

have been busy again/ Peasant top tutorial link

I really dont have time at the moment to up date you on our lives :( I really want to as its been busy here, and often people ask me how I cope, and I would love to give you some insite into my day and life of 'coping'. One thing can be quickly said, that being that I cope due to a wonderful husband who I love dearly and who helps me out, folding washing, getting kids to bed, when he comes home from work there is no 'me time' its straight into being a husband and a father! The other things that helps me cope is endulging in time for myself with my crafts. As a consequence often things are not as tidy as I would like them but hey, it will all get done in good time.

So here is the Mini Wonder Soaker that I knitted as a gift. I posted it today, and I hope that the new owner likes it. There are some knits where there are meant to be purls, and there are other errors that I wont point out. The kitchener stitch is a pain to do, so it too is not perfect. I cast on the top in larger needles so that it would stretch over a big bulky nappy. Its my first attempt at this pattern and I will be knitting it again really really soon :)

And then there is the sewing. I have been trying out a pattern that I found on a blog, and its rather simple and I must share it with you:

PEASANT TOP

And this is what it created:

Ive been knitting!!

I have been getting my knitting inspiration back. Im not sure that im ready to start knitting massive projects again, but just thought that I would give it a go. I knitted a cardi for Ellise out of Treliske merino in natural brown, and am very happy with it. I just now need to find some buttons to match. Its Boheme that I found on Raverly. I used 8ply instead of yarn that it called for, and increased the needles to 5mm, and added more length. The lace I read from this adult pattern, and then added 4 stocking stitches at the end to define it more. I would make the adult one only now that I am knitting more of the quick projects I am wanting to do more.

I then went on to knit something for myself. Its called the Calorimetry. Its to be used instead of a beanie next winter,.I am very happy with how easy it was and how it turned out. The short rows need more direction of how to do them, and next time I will try a wrap method and see if it works better. I also made it 10 rows shorter. I used 8ply from Jolly Jumbuck.

So now onto the next project. I really need to get sewing, but at least with knitting when I get interupted I can pick it back up later, providing the kids dont get to it.

So I bought the Everlasting Wonder Soaker pattern. Im not telling my husband how much I paid for it, as I dont usually pay that much for patterns. But I am assurred that I wont regret the purchase.

This is for a very special baby that is yet to be born. Providing that i do a good job of it of course.

New Clothes

I went to Cotton On Kids today, and they had clothing on special, and had my mum with me. Well both of us fell in love with this dress, and so with the discount and a little help from mum I bought it. The video really doesn't do it justice, and neither does the gro suit underneath it (she was going to bed) but its really cute watching Ellise dance around in it.
Please excuse the tag hanging out of it, She also asked me "mum what are you doing", and at the ned she is picking up the Jolly Jumper and saying Lily, as her little sister was in it today.

Kids are so much fun!! No 2!

Well today was a shocker of a day as far as parenting goes. The boys changed clothes 3 times, emptied out their drawers with this, Ellise is running around in a nappy as she does not want to be dressed either (its only 16C here although nice and sunny) and Lily decided that sleep was not an option! All on top of me planning on working tonight! My sister is coming over for dinner soon, and if I have to ask my kids to stay out of the kitchen one more time I will loose it! (in the time that I have taken to write this Tyler- the 3yo has gone into the kitchen and spilt sugar on the floor- he is now sweeping it up!)
But then they do some wonderful things as well, so I thought I would share to my blogging audience what they have done today that has made me truly proud.

They have been really creative, they decided to make a Christmas tree, but instead of decorations they used things that they found in the garage.

And they also used daisy's from around the garden to decorate the tree, and stuck them into the flowers on the "Christmas tree". You can also see in these pictures what else they used to decorate the tree. Cricket bats, balls, an old car seat.

I cannot describe how I'm feeling inside looking at these pictures. They did this all on their own, I didn't suggest for them to do it, they just did it themselves.

They also made this track for their cars too, out of things from the garage. Mitchell called it his car jumps. They also took the photo opportunity to practice poking faces.

dyeing wool

This is one of the things that I love to do. I use professional wool dyes, so that is resists fading. This wool was for a swap, and we (meaning my sister and I) are very proud of it. We used Knittery wool and also Bendigo wool. The more vibrant colours are the knittery, its also a lot more $$

And this is what it looks like wound up. The last one is only a small ball as my 3yo son got to it with a pair of sissors, and cut up a $20 ball of wool! I was not impressed! I actually didnt realise till I went to wind it as it didnt look like it had been touched. My faviourite is the top one with 5 bright colours. My sisters faviourite is what she called 'goldfish', thats the red, blue orange and white.

My little girl is growing up. SOLIDS

For those who have found me on facebook, these photos wont be new to you, but I love them so much that I want to share.

Another one of my creations

Sorry to keep you all in waiting. I loaded these pics with the mind to come back and post a blog, and that is as far as I got. This dress was meant to be for a 5yo little princess, but I altered a pattern thinking that I made it big enough for this little girl. Well I then tried it on my 3yo son, which I did not take pictures of, who is also a lot smaller than this little girl, and it just fit him. So now Ellise has this gorgeous dress for when she grows into it. Now the fight is on between Ellise and Tyler over who is going to wear the princess dress. Ellise sure did enjoy twirling around in it!

Embelishing Longies

The lovely Tracy from Desert Rose Designs made us some beautiful crochet dresses for Lily just before she was born, and also suprised me with a pair of green and gold longies (as well as a few extra crochet dresses). Its only now that they have fit her as she is still a wee little bub. As i have lost my knitting inspiration, i tried to regain some of my love for yarn and began to embellish them. They are only my first attempt, and the flowers I did with no pattern. The butterflies I did with some help of my creative little sister.

Monkey Mail

Aren't these just the cutest. They are from the Super Sock Monkey Shop and I think we need some more. I had to get 4 of the same so that the kids didn't argue over colours. I got them with different coloured eyes so that they can tell who's is who's.

Dyed again

Here are some more of my efforts to tie dye. I am hoping that these will sell on a friends web site. I hope that he photography is better than mine. Yet again its not easy getting a good photo at 11.30 at night!