Busy as a little bee in beautiful spring weather

No words this time, just some images of things finsished, things in progress and our daily life...

 



 

 

Anna
XO

Wyreena Goodies

Once again I have been very lucky to be able to display (and fingers crossed possibly sell) some of the things that I have made at Wyreena Community Arts Center in their gallery.  This time I have tried to mix it up a little and make some new things. A little bit of crochet, knitting, sewing and with my new love of power tools, some crochet hooks.

Here's a sneak peak at my window display.

If you are in the area please come on down and have a look (they also make the best coffee there too).


Anna
XO


Some of you might have noticed there has been a little bit of action on my side bar lately.  I have finally set up and Esme Rudy Facebook page.  Here I am, http://www.facebook.com/EsmeRudy  So if you prefer to follow things via Facebook this is now an option.  At the moment I know it looks a little messy on the side bar but hopefully soon I will get to tidying it up a little (my slightly OCD side of me is horrified at how it looks, all code like and not one bit pretty or neat, deep breaths and small steps at a time).

A month in review...May

Just a little visual something to share with you all in this post.  I felt like I didn't achieved much in May but looking back on it now through my pictures I was a little busy.

This beanie won a prize for "Best Autumn" themed beanie over at Little Red's Craft Cupboard (which is a fantastic local craft shop run by Kate.  Kate also has a blog by the same name).

A cushion for my nephew's bed (not happy with how the iron on interfacing buckled when I ironed it on).  I told my sister in law I would re-do it and she laughed at me. In her words "he's not going to noticed, he's 5 yrs old, he's just ecstatic that he has a cushion with his name on it to show to all his friends".  Boy to be that young and made happy by the smallest things.

A special little present for a little girl moving into a big bed

(out growing the cot).

A hot water bottle cover for my Mum (a felted jumper found at an op shop).

Mum has a thing for the colour green and it suits her just perfect.

And finally a special bit of knitting for a very special little boy.  Dear Master M, may this keep your little head warm while you stay in hospital.

For the life of me I just can't get this picture to go the right way.  Every time I upload it, it wants to turn on it's side.

I love this pattern for this beanie, a great Ravelry find.  It is such an easy one to knit up, even with all the distractions a 2.5 yr old can throw in the mix.

So this was my month of May and June is looking to be a busy one too.  As busy as I get I must admit I do love every part of the creating and making, and the best part is the giving it away to someone special.

Do you have a busy creative May?

Anna

XO

A little promise

Hi everyone,

As mentioned in my last post (yes it has been a little while since I last wrote) I mentioned that I had another Star Wars inspired project in the making. Well now that it's finished and it has been passed on to it's new owner I can share it with you all...
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I made a Yoda beanie!  My little nephew B was ecstatic when he received it.  I have even heard that he wears it constantly to kinder and is held in high praise by his friends because of it. Go B! May the force be with you!

The pattern for the beanie part is not my design, it comes from Knitted Critters for kids to wear.  I really love this as it's such a quick design to knit and it fits so well.  The pattern for the ears I was able to design myself and as a little gift to everyone I am going to share it with you.  My nephew can not be the only Star Wars fan out there and I am sure there are many people who would appreciate a Yoda beanie :)

Now this is the first time that I have ever written a pattern to share.  I have many at home (usually scribbled down on pieces of paper that only I seem able to decipher on a good day), so I hope that it reads right for you. 

Yoda Knitted Ears

Glossary:             M1 - make 1 stitch knit wise (knit into front & back of stitch)

                           K2 tog – knit 2 stitches together (put needle through back loop of both stitches),    
                              yarn over, pull though, then push both stitches off needle.

 Using a pair of 4mm needles & 8 ply wool, cast on 20 sts (leaving 30cm tail to sew onto beanie with).

Row 1: K 20

Row2:  P4, K12, P4 (20 sts)
Row 3: M1, K18, M1 (22 sts)
Row 4: P5, K12, P5 (22 sts)
Row 5: M1, K20, M1,  (24 sts)
Row 6: P4, K16, P4 (24 sts)
Row 7: K24
Row 8: M1, P3, K16, P3, M1 (26 sts)
Row 9: K26
Row 10: P4, K18, P4 (26 sts)
Row 11-20: Alternate between row 9 & 10, starting on row 9, ending on row 10
Row 21: K2tog, K22, K2tog (24 sts)
Row 22: P4, K16, P4 (24 sts)
Row 23: K2tog, K20, K2tog (22 sts)
Row 24: P4, K14, P4 (22 sts)
Row 25: K2tog, K18, K2tog (20 sts)
Row 26: P4, K12, P4 (20 sts)
Row 27: K2tog, K16, K2tog (18 sts)
Row 28: P4, K10, P4 (18 sts)
Row 29: K2tog, K14, K2tog (16 sts)
Row 30: P4, K8, P4 (16 sts)
Row 31: K2tog, K12, K2tog (14 sts)
Row 32: P4, K6, P4 (14 sts)
Row 33: K2tog, K10, K2tog (12 sts)
Row 34: P4, K4, P4 (12 sts)
Row 35: K2tog, K8, K2tog (10 sts)
Row 36: P10 (10 sts)
Row 37: K2tog, K6, K2tog (8 sts)
Row 38: P8 (8 sts)
Row 39: K2tog, K4, K2tog (6 sts)
Row 40: P6 (6 sts)
Row 41: K2tog, K2, K2tog (4 sts)
Row 42: P4 (4 sts)
Row 43: K2tog twice (2 sts)
Row 44: P2 (2 sts)
Row 45: K2tog

Fasten off and weave in end.  Once the ear is finished weave cast on edge thread along edge and bring out in the middle of the ear.  Fold ear in half (right sides facing) and slip stitch along edge for about 4-5 rows to form a crease. Take thread back to centre of ear, and with remaining thread sew ear onto beanie.

Repeat pattern for other ear.

A close up of the ear.

I hope that I have written this so that it is easy to follow but if you have any questions please let me know.

Enjoy!

Anna
XO

Children's Beanies

A little while back I was asked by my friend J to make some beanies as props for her photography and you know me I am never one to say no to doing something creative.  I am lucky that J already had in mind some ideas of beanies that she wanted, as when she first asked me I got all excited and overwhelmed with all the different ideas and designs that kept running through my head.  In the end there were a couple of main designs that she wanted.

And here are the finished products:

I love how it fits so perfectly.

This beanie pattern I found on Ravelry but you can see it here.  I wasn’t too sure about this one as I have never attempted knitting cables before, I was a little nervous to say the least. But once I got into the rhythm of things I really enjoyed watching it come together.  I decided to do slip stitch crochet around the edges just to tidy them up a bit and I also did a plain single stitch crochet (or dc) ties on the ear flaps.  I liked the way this stitch curls upon itself.  I was hesitant about adding a pom pom on top or not, I’m still in two minds about this.

A basketful of cuteness.

This beanie is one of my own creations.  A bit of trial and error with the pattern but in the end it looks OK.  I really like the colour choices (I am a sucker for anything blue).  J wanted a beanie that was a bit more suited for a boy.

And lastly J also asked me to make a little cocoon for the babies to lie in.  This was a little struggle as I needed to find wool that was really soft but also had some stretch to it.  This also was a pattern that I just made up as I went along.

As I have never done anything like this before I am really excited at how they turned out especially in the photos.  And who wouldn't be pleased with such beautiful little models.

Anna
XO

Here's what's been happening in my little world

As a child did you ever do show and tell at school?  For those of you who don’t know what it is, it is when you all take it in turns (a different child every day) to bring something special to school and each morning you stand up in front of the class and talk about your something special.   I am not sure if it’s still done in schools today (Little O is not up to that stage), but I used to love it.  I loved hearing about and seeing what other children had as their special thing.  (I must admit the best days were when the other children bought in their pets.  Coming from a house that had no pets this was very exciting).

So today I am going to do a little show and tell.  I have been away for a little while so I thought it would be nice to have a bit of a catch up.  As you know I have been working on a few little projects, craft and non craft, and I have finally finished them.  I have also completed a few others along the way too.

Do you remember these...

A friend of mine J takes baby portraits and asked if I could make a few headbands for her.  So here they are finished;

Unfortunately I didn’t have anyone little enough to model them on but when J takes some photos I will be sure to share them with you. The bottom one is a little crown. As I wasn’t sure of the size that J may need I made it in rows and added a piece of elastic at the back to stretch. 

 

I also made some little flower brooches to in different colours.  I decided not to sew them directly onto the headbands so that way J could change the colours to suit the baby or even not include them at all (and I have since seen them in some of her other photos not on headbands but as hair clips, clever girl!).  To be honest I can’t remember where I got the pattern for the roses but just type in ‘crochet flowers/roses’ in Google and hundreds of patterns will come up.

And here is another of my finished projects...

For the life of me I can't seem to get this picture to rotate the correct way, so you'll just have to visualise it the correct way round :)

A little friend of ours, Master R has just turned 5 and his obsession for the last few years is dinosaurs.  When I saw this picture on Pinterest I couldn’t not make it for him. It was perfect.  As this pattern link is only for the spikes I decided that I had been set a challenge and it was one I was going to finish.  I made up my own beanie pattern.  Several attempts later and many scribbled on pieces of paper this was the finished product, one which I am very proud of. 

As I had been using Little O as a model he sort of got the impression that the beanie was for him.  I did have to break his little heart and tell him it wasn’t and it was for Master R instead.  This didn’t make him too happy.  So I then went and made another one for Little O. 

This time instead of crocheting the beanie I decided to knit it.  Little O didn't like the flaps covering his ears. The pattern comes from Knitted Critters for Kids to wear.  I borrowed this copy from our local library. I just used the basic knit in the round beanie, and then added the spikes to it.  Little O loves wearing it.  We do have to take it off him quite a bit at the moment as we have been having some really hot weather and it is making his little head sweat something shocking.

So this is where I am up to at the moment.  Thank you for staying with me and sharing in my show and tell for the day.  I hope you have enjoyed it.

Anna

XO

P.S One thing I forgot to mention is after many weeks of testing my patience we finally have some little snow peas growing.  Little O loves picking them but is still not sure about the taste of them but he’s slowly coming around.

Can you see it hiding in there?

Coming back...

Should one ever feel guilty about the time that they spend away from their blog and those blogs that they follow?  I do.  Is that normal or is that because I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that I do everything or that I think that I can do everything?  Is this a female thing or is it a mother thing?  Wow this is now becoming way too deep. Really wasn’t planning on that. 

Unfortunately I have had to have an unscheduled, shall we call it ‘holiday’ from blog land as my real life got a little bit busy.  Bouts of sickness, an unplanned trip the emergency department for little O and several doctors appointments later, I am finally hoping that things will now start settling back into their normal routines.

During this time I was able to fit in a bit of not only hooky goodness but also some knitting and sewing.  On the weekend just gone I held my third ‘Esme Rudy’ stall at a local primary school spring fete.  Besides the weather being quite horrible in the morning (we’re talking heavy rain, wind and even hail), by lunch time it fined up and the rest of the day was quite pleasant. 

I met some wonderful women who had the surrounding stalls and they were very generous in the advice that they gave me about having a stall and working at markets. To Kylie, Annie and Olivia thank you for all the advice that you gave me.  It was very beneficial and will help me to plan on what direction I really want to take my work in, and for also making the time fly.  It really is a good day when you met lovely people and have great conversations.

So what did I make I hear you ask.  Well I went from our kitchen table looking like this...

Yes they are freaky little eyes looking out at you.

 ...to having a fantastic stall like this...

To everyone that bought some of my stuff I hope that it brings you as much happiness as it did as I was making it.

I hope that you are all well out there in blog land.

Anna
XO

Pretty in pink or purple

As I have mentioned before I love making things for people especially the little ones, and recently I was able to par-take in my favorite past time as my little niece Miss C is about to turn one.  I found this pattern book a little while back and have been waiting for the perfect time to make something from it.  Miss C's birthday is the perfect opportunity. 

When it came to deciding on exactly what it was I was going to make for her I knew that I wanted a doll but what colour choices.  Miss C's room is a mixture of both pinks and purples and really how can you decide on just one colour.  And then I found the solution, why not do both... a little pink doll AND a little purple doll!  So I present to you Miss Rose and Miss Lavender (apologies for the photos, it was a very overcast day when I took these).

They are Topsy turvey dolls. When you want to play with one doll you just pull down the skirt section over the other dolls head and arms.  Apparently Master B (Miss C's older brother who is 4 yrs old) was playing with the doll all night going "Now she's pink, now she's purple, now she's pink, now she's purple".

And of course I had to make something else so here is another little present that we gave to Miss C as well...

The beanie pattern can be found here (a fantastic design by Jennie Harrell).  The crochet flower brooch is my own design.  I decided not to sew the flower so that this way the beanie can be worn without it, or the brooch can be worn on something else like a cardigan or little jacket.

And because a girl can never have too many accessories I also made a pink crochet flower brooch too.

Happy Birthday Miss C, we hope you have a fantastic day!

Anna
XO