Cycling gloves, zips and perculated coffee

Yesterday I perculated my morning coffee on the stove for the first time and just wanted to share that it tastes way better than when it's plungered :-)

Here are the prototype cycling gloves...

It was harder to sew the leather on the palms than I thought, a sore finger and my lack of patience with sewing showed in the end result... not quite as tidy as I'd have wanted...

The holiday starts tomorrow..... we'll see how they go!

Yesterday I spent time on the interent looking at crafty stuff. I've more more than enough ideas ping ponging around in my head I really shouldn't do that :-)

I had picked up a couple of cool looking zips at FASH the other day one which got transforned into a brooch....

The other brooch I though was quite fun and I've added it to my felt shop.

I really need to used up some more of my buttons, perhaps inspiration will come whilst cycling :-)

F*A*S*H

It’s blog carnival time again with the etsy bloggers team. The topic:

Cabin Fever - What do you do or what are you looking forward to doing to escape the doldrums?

We are heading into Autumn, the air has started to chill a bit, and next weekend daylight savings ends, the clocks go back and the evenings become shorter

At the moment I’m actually really looking forward to the autumn and winter, cold rainy days mean I can stay home and create constantly. For some weird reason I always have a sense of guilt staying inside when the weather is lovely.

I’ve been keeping a note of all of the crafty ideas floating around in my head, and I’ve been collecting bits and pieces to add to an ever growing collection of ‘things to use creatively’.

For the past couple of years we have been to FASH which is held at our local town centre. It’s like a destash, mainly for sewers. And luckily enough it was on today!

These are some of the fab bargains I’ve picked up to add to my colection...

A mental step backwards

I love yarns, the colours, the textures and the inspiration of what might be.

This months featured etsy blogger is Vicki of DizzyDragonflies.

And looking at Vickis' shop

http://DizzyDragonflies.etsy.com and blog http://knittingdragonflies.blogspot.com has made me take a mental step backwards.

Vicki knits and she spins and dyes her own yarn........

Her blog has some amazing pictures that show how she progresses with the dying

And her shop has the results........

This one is called Tropical Waters and reminds me of the harbour around Tauranga :-)

Flax Flowers

It was my mams birthday last weekend, so this weekend my sister and I are going to her house to cook dinner. We're having a curry night, with dahl, onion bahji and other curried yummies :-)

Yesterday I learnt how to weave flax into flowers as the Maori do. So this evening I've made a small flax flower bouquet for my mam (since I'm potentially going to be unemployed in a few weeks and we are being thrifty hahaha).

I am only a beginner, though I am quite happy with my first wee bouquet , I added some beads to the centres and as the flax dries it will have more shades of green.

Scarfies

The students in Dunedin are nicknamed Scarfies.

I must be channelling a Scarfie at the moment - all I can think of making are scarves!

I have made the cycling gloves, I just need to do the padding bit (I bought some leather elbow patches to chop up and sew on) and of course the fabulous flowers.... with only 2 weeks to go I really need to get these finished and give them a trial run (which would also encourage me to hop back on the bike for a practice too!)

We had fabulous green cup cakes today for St Patricks Day - very talented people that I work with (wish I'd taken a photo!)

Scarves from the Seventh State

In a pub somewhere in the north of England approximately 25 years ago…..
“I hear that you’re emigrating to New Zealand. You must be flying to Sydney then, it’s just over the Sydney Harbour Bridge isn’t it?”

Geographically challenged or a soothsayer?
Today on the news there is talk about New Zealand becoming the 7th state of Australia.

It’d be an interesting process that’s for sure….
For example: When Australia claim New Zealanders as one of their own (Phar Lap/Crowded House/Pacifier/Russell Crowe to name a couple) there is such an uproar.
Imagine having to sit back agree that they are Aussies?

The comments on this article should make for an entertaining read.

Freeform crochet scarves from the potential 7th State might look a bit like this :-)

Drum Roll Please.....

The Mittens:

What d'ya reckon?

Too girly?

Too sickly sweet?

Cute?

Fabulous?

OMG you truly are loosing your mind?

Either way I'm going to put them in the Felt shop

mmmwwwwhahahahahahaha

An Interview

So, Gill, you've had three weeks away from home, living in a motel room with a suitcase half full of yarn. What have you made??
Well..
I’ve made some really cutesy green cotton lacey fingerless mittens which I trimmed with some pretty vintage lace and some frayed pretty green cotton
Then I made a couple of pairs of granny square mittens which I also trimmed with some lovely vintage lace

Where have you got this lovely vintage lace from?
We love it when friends have clean outs and get rid of all their old bits and bobs..... Scroungers? I don't know what you're talking about, is that a shop?

What’s the next crochet project?
My idea for the next couple of nights is to crochet some cycling gloves with lots of big flowers on them for the cycling trip.
I made a start last night and the night before and the night before that too, and then undid them because I couldn’t see how they might look in my head. The picture is too woolly (ha ha ha!) so today I’m looking over pictures to try and solidify it.

Where do you look to see these pictures?
As well as google images I also have a couple of fav places on the internet to look at:

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory.php
www.etsy.com
www.ravelry.com

So Gill, there's one more week to go.... do you think you might go insane?
Hmmmm, I've heard it's not far away, however I've had a few trips out and about, (some places twice) so I think I might just hang out in my motel room now with all this lovely yarn and crochet a lariat

Is lariat another name for a noose?
Lalalalalalalalala