Insta-print fun!

Hey there

Apologies for the long absence.  Although there has been some knitting activity in these parts (particularly some adorable baby knits for a few of my friends who are expecting little bundles of joy in the next few months), I thought I'd quickly share a different type of project.  

By way of background, I am lucky enough to have my own office to work in.  It's reasonably large so there's space not only for my L shaped desk where I do most of my work, but also a small round table for meetings / visitors and also plenty of storage space.  The one eyesore in my office however, is a big support pole grey and a little unsightly.  

Ever since my first job, I've always tried to decorate my office to bring a little colour and personality to my space.  I'd already added some cushions for a little pop of colour and some cute little touches here and there, I did feel like the overwhelming feature in my office was a really huge, unsightly grey pole.  So I decided to decorate.

Although I forgot to get any "before" pictures, here's an inspiration picture:

We found that on holiday on Copenhagen !  We were the cheesey couple that did a terrible kissy picture in front of it but I won't post that one here.  

I did love that heart though - and I thought that on a curved surface like the pole, it wouldn't be super obvious as a heart.  It also meant I could add a fun feature without having to try to cover the entire pole or have a square blob in the middle of it.

Step 1 was to find some pictures.  This was easy.  I have an Instagram account and on my recent 5 week holiday in Europe, I posted 1 photo a day.  I really loved this set of pictures and knew I'd want them to be part of this feature in my office.  I also had a range of other pictures I liked on my feed that I could pull from.  There are a couple of different websites you can do this through and I think I used this one. 

Step 2 was to get them printed.  There are loads of places you can get this done online.  Some places specialise in printing Instagram pictures so you don't need to do step 1 but they tend to be more expensive (and I assume better quality).  As the quality wasn't a concern for me, I chose a budget option which was the Big W photo lab which printed 4" square photos for 15c each and posted them to me within a week for about $4 postage (there is an option for store pick up but I thought postage straight to the office would be easier for me).  I think I spent about $15 total.  If you're also in Australia, you can find a link to the Big W photo lab here.  As I knew I'd need to touch them to stick them up and I'd likely brush up against them, I chose to go with the matte prints and I like the way the white boarder adds some consistency to the pictures.  

Step 3 was to use some blu tack and have some fun!  Actually, I originally tried washi tape but I found the patterning on my tape to be a little distracting. Here's the end result:

Can you see the heart shape? Maybe this view is better?

All of my holiday pictures makes up the first (nearly) 4 rows of the heart.  The rest are a selection of my other favourite pictures.  

I had a lot of spare photos too and as I add more Instagram shots, I might get more printed with the hope of maybe covering that entire pole in pictures.

I've been getting a lot of comments about how nice it is to have a pop of colour in my office, and I also get a lot of questions about many of my holiday pictures which is a lot of fun!

If you want to see my Instagram feed, I'm "Beeboppity" over there.

Hoping to come back to you with some knitting soon! 

Cheers

B!

An accessory-finishing parade!

Hi there!

Long time no see!  It's a little embarrassing how neglected this little slice of the Internet.

For a few months there, I had lost all of my crafting time and mojo to work and travel but just as the cold weather settled in, back came my time and mojo - June has been an accessory-finishing parade!

The first thing I finished a couple of weeks ago was a teeny tiny version of the A Most Bespeckled Hat pattern that I am so obsessed with.  I made a baby version for my friend's brand new little girl (pictured on my hand for scale).  I'm told it's a little lose and slouchy on her now but I'm sure she'll grow into it.  For this tiny version, I used size 3 needles with fingering weight Cherry Tree Hill scraps that I bought on destash years ago.

I was on a little hat streak and the next thing I was the Pretty Gallopavo in Dream in Color Starry in the colourway Black Pearl held double on size 8 needles.  I made it for my coworker K's birthday.  She very sweetly asked for a black hat with a pom pom and I was finally able to use up this sparkly yarn I bought from Eat Sleep Knit years ago.  

I was lucky enough to get away to Singapore for the June long weekend and on my flight over there (apparently while we were still ascending according to the picture), I finally finished the beautiful Herrington Cowl out of some beautiful yarn that I bought when I was in Paris in January.  It's the Lil Wiiz yarn from the Lil Weasel (which is DK weight so a little thicker than the fingering weight the pattern calls for) on size 4 needles.  The result is a lovely, squishy little cowl that's perfect with my grey coat!

Then, on the flight back home, I started a sweet little baby set for another little girl born in June.  I had been a little disorganised so I had to buy some yarn over in Singapore (which was a little bit of an adventure).  I chose some Olympus Milky Baby to pair with the leftover pink from my Herrington Cowl.  I started with a Sixteen Hearts Hat and I loved the chart so much, I made up a pattern for mittens so I could use it again!  They seem really tiny so I'm not sure if they'll fit (fingers crossed anyway).  I topped off the little set with some Saartje's Booties.  As the yarn was a little thicker, I made the smaller size and hopefully, they'll fit her at some point.  I got them in the post the other day and I really hope they get to this little lady very soon!

And finally, this weekend, I've spent some time working on my sweater project which is so tantalisingly close to being complete.  I'll post about it when I can show it all in it's finished glory, mistakes, little regrets and all.

Until next time!

XOXO
B

A end and a beginning of some Pretty Little Cities

I've been working on Pretty Little Sydney since last August (just after I finished Pretty Little Paris) and this weekend, I finally finished it!

I absolutely love Satsuma Street designs.  They are modern, bright and something a little bit different.  It's also a great way to express two of my great loves - travelling and crafting!



It's certainly been a long time coming but I've already started stitching my newest project - Pretty Little New York! 

I'll hopefully be able to get Sydney framed up very soon, and finish Pretty Little New York in less than 8 months after starting it!

Oh and I guess a little explanation for the delays in blog posts.  I've had an incredibly busy couple of months!  I was offered a new job, then went on holiday for 5 weeks all around Europe (I hope to write a little more on that later), then I started my new role (which has been fantastic but very busy) and before I knew it, it's March!

I hope to settle into a regular posting schedule soon because I have some really fun crafting projects in the pipeline!

XOXO
B

Teeny, tiny loveable booties!

Oh how my heart swells when I see these:

Whenever a friend of mine announces that she's pregnant with a little girl, my mind automatically jumps to "I need to make her some Saartje's booties".  I'm sure I'm not the only one judging by the 14189 projects on Ravelry.

I know that realistically, these babies probably won't wear these booties for more than, oh, I don't know 5 minutes noting how rapidly they grow and how fiddly little booties are to get onto tiny wriggly feet.  Not to mention that the little girl that I've made these for is due in February... which is summer in Australia!  In my crazy knitter mind, one of that matters, I just love how adorable these little booties are, and how quickly they are to knit up.  I made these in one evening as I caught up on the Big Bang Theory. 

The green yarn was leftovers of the delicious Skein Merino Cashmere fingering in the Sprout colourway.  The grey yarn was a tiny scrap of Storied Yarns Superwash Sock yarn in the Oncoming Storm colourway that I had collected to make a hexipuff out of but thought it was perfect for this little number (it has tiny subtle flecks of blues and greens in the grey). The tiny heart buttons were purchased at the annual Old Bus Depot Markets Celebration of Wool day in Canberra, maybe in 2012.  I bought a whole card of tiny buttons on all different colours but hadn't find a use for them but they're actually the perfect size for these booties.

I'm thrilled with how these worked up - they're tiny, squishy and "aww" inducing.  My friend was equally thrilled with them and made a point of how they are just the right amount of "girly" without having to be pink and frilly (something my friend is strongly against). 

Oh I'm so excited to meet the little girl that these were made for!

XOXO
Bee

Adorable, bespecked addictions

Why hello there! 

For a while there, I had forgotten that I even had a blog, or really, that I was even a crafter.  My day job became my day, night and weekend job for a while meaning the "leftover" time was spent sleeping or zombie-like on my couch... not fun.

Just as the latest crazy period was coming to an end in gainful employment land, I stumbled upon a pattern that made my heart zing!  The beautiful "A most bespeckled hat" pattern by Alex Tinsley which is on Ravelry here... and has a fun pattern page here. 

Within a day of finding and purchasing the pattern, I had sent a link of it to one of my best friends.  She has a birthday in November and I usually try to make her something and there was something about the speckles and the pom pom that screamed her name to me... or maybe it was that she shares a name with the designer.  Within seconds of sending her the pattern, I had an excited email telling me all of the colour combinations that she'd love and what coats she'd wear it with!  I'm a knitter that loves that level of excitement from a knitwear recipient so I got started straight away and within a day, I had this gorgeous number.  Oh just look at that pom pom!

Within moments of finishing the first hat, I dove straight into my stash and found some lovely grey mystery yarn.  I think I'd purchased it from a fellow knitter who was doing a little bit of a yarn purge and I paid about $2 for about 90g of this stuff... It looked a little bulkier and I remember the knitter saying something about it being 12ply (so more like Aran weight than the Worsted called for) so I went down a needle size and paired it with some yummy red Zara yarn that I had languishing in my stash and less than 24 hours later, I had another yummy hat (and only a couple of metres of yarn left!) Phew!

Now, it was as I was knitting the second hat that I realised that I'd actually misread the instructions a little (totally my own fault for being so keen on knit knit knitting) and had left off a repeat on the first hat.  And because I had a very limited amount of yarn for the second one, I chose to keep that modification (especially because the first one fit great).  I'm glad I did because the second one also fit great.  Although I sometimes wish that I had made it using the size 7 needles that it called for because the fabric did come out a little denser than I'd normally go for in a hat.

My mojo for this hat didn't stop there, within a few days, I had finished another (although for this one, as it was 8ply or DK weight yarn, I did the full number of repeats called for in the pattern and I love the result)... I also love how they all look together!

And I may or may not have another on the needles.  This time, I'm trying something a little different.  I'm doing the pattern in sock weight yarn and size 3 needles.  I only did about half the amount of ribbing and I'm just going to see how it goes... I'm hoping for an adorable little baby shower hat.

(I roll of washi tape in the picture for scale)

Now, credit where credit is due, I actually found the pattern on the project page of the wonderful Dani of the Little Bobbins Knits podcast (which can be found here).  Little Bobbins Knits is fast becoming one of my favourite knitting podcasts! Dani has great taste in patterns and makes just beautiful stuff!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to admit something shameful.  When I found the pattern, I thought (only for a moment) that, as there was only one size and the design is relatively simple, the $5.50 USD price was a little steep.  I can, hand on heart, say that I was absolutely wrong.  Maybe I could have tried to mimic the look without a pattern but I would not have been anywhere near as successful as I was with the pattern.  I've also now knit more than 3 hats with it, bringing the price to about $2 AUD for each hat - totally worth it!  I also fully intend to make more (in fact, I may have pulled yarn for at least 4 more hats).

Anyways, sorry for the rather long and somewhat rambly post.  I hope you'll check out the hat pattern (which I love so so much) and maybe pop over to watch Dani's podcast!

Take care

Bee
XOXO

p.s. sorry for the very inconsistent, phone camera pictures.  I promise that I will start busting out the proper, DSLR photos soon but in the interests of getting some posts out there, I've decided to just go with the crummy pictures for now. 

Perfectly Fitting Sweaters and Pretty Little Cities

I'm a procrastinator or procraftinator... either way, I have this habit of leaving things right up until the very very last minute and that's exactly what I did with D's sweater.  I had it about 90% there for approximately 5 WEEKS.  All I needed to do was to pick up and knit the shawl collar, and sew on the toggles... I will admit, I'm a little bit scared of picking up stitches so I procrastinated.  Well, I don't really know what I was waiting for!  As soon as I had the fire lit under my bottom (at around 10PM the night before our anniversary), I absolutely flew through it...

But the thing about leaving things till the last minute is, you can't anticipate the little things that can derail your plan.  For me this time, it was my sweet, loving mister uncharacteristically requesting that we go to bed early! EEEP! And for good reason because I woke up (very early) to this:

 

Whoops.  It would've been a really sweet touch to be able to present him with his sweater at breakfast too... but it wasn't to be.

So at lunchtime, I sat outside and bound off the last few stitches, weaved in ends and sewed on the toggles... I packaged it up (along with a super secret surprise present I also got him)... and I waited (not so patiently) until dinner.  Dinner was delightful.

And after dinner, I finally gave him the sweater and to my intense relief, IT FIT and HE LOVES IT!

He's hard to keep still long enough for a picture but SQUEE!

Now, after a big project like that, I just lost all sweater mojo so I started (and due to a week of sick leave) finished this adorable little number:

 Designed by Satsuma Street on Etsy!  Paris is close to my heart, not only is it one of my absolute favourite cities that I was lucky enough to visit in the winter of 2010/2011, my best friend now lives there!

And I enjoyed it so much that I started another Satsuma Street design: 

This one's a little closer to home... I'll give you a hint:

XOXO

Bee

Lunchtime goal setting

I usually spend lunchtimes one of two ways - either I:

1. work straight through and grab a bite to eat at my desk or 

2. venture out of the office to run errands / catch up with friends.  

But lately, I've added a third...

3. using the break in my day for some reflection, organisation and today, a little goal setting. 

When lunchtime rolled around on an overcast Wednesday,  I found a quiet corner table in the lunch room and set myself up with a steaming bowl of soup and got started...

Lots of appointments and catch ups went from the Blackberry to the diary and a few "to do" lists went into the elephant notebook but on the crafty front, I planned out my goals for Stash Dash (admittedly very late).

Stash Dash is a knit-a-long of sorts hosted by the fabulous Laura and Leslie of the Knitgirllls video podcast.  Basically, the aim is to finish knit 5kms worth if knitting between May 23rd and August 7th.  That total can be made up of existing WiPs as well as new projects... and noting that I have 3 sweaters on the needles at the moment, I decided to take the plunge and join in.  Unfortunately 5kms of yarn is a LOT of knitting and my personal list is incredibly ambitions for me...

But I'm going to give it a shot!  Wish me luck!

xoxo
B