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how to read a knitting pattern

March 8, 2012 By corrie 9 Comments

A lovely reader asked yesterday on my blog post how to start to read knitting patterns. How do you make the transition from a scarf to an actual garment. For me that came when I restarted knitting in my 20’s. I found a great little book, Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners (find it here on fishpond). I started with a pattern for a little jumper (find it here on ravelry) that had 2 rectangles which were the front and back and simple sleeves and the whole garment was stitched together when you were done. I also fell in love with the simple baby hat that I have made time and time again.

It started my love affair with Debbie Bliss because of her straight forward instructions, clear diagrams in her books and lots of pictures of how to do things. It’s how I learnt to do seed/moss stitch, cast off, increase and seam garments together. Look for books that have lots of pictures/diagrams and explain the stitches in a section of the book so that you can refer back to them.

image source here

And when all else fails find your nearest knitting store or knitter and pop in for some trouble shooting. Take your project with you. What are you getting stuck on. Often knitting shops have bring your own classes where you can bring what you’re working on (or stuck on). I did this when I was getting confused with increasing and it made a big difference having someone show me how to do it the right way.

I also think youtube is an amazing tool and really helped me with my crochet when I started before the twins were born. I quite like this series (by howcast) which I found this morning as it’s fun and step by step. And this is cute too for a beginner knitter – a baby hoodie! I want to make this myself.

I’d love to hear any other tips, great books or advice for the beginner knitters out there because winter is approaching down under and that means knitting time!

Filed Under: debbie bliss, knitting, ravelry

knitting for the baby

March 7, 2012 By corrie 10 Comments

It’s not all about moving house here. There has been a bit of craft going on to take my mind off moving house. And nothing relaxes like some knitting. This is the ‘easy baby cardigan’ from More Last Minute Knitting Gifts. A must have knitting book in my opinion. I have both Last Minute Knitting Gifts and think they are lovely books with a really wide range of patterns. This is definitely one of my favourites out of the two books.

I’m knitting it in Bendigo (well that’s no surprise) Woollen Mills Rustic 12 ply. The colour you ask? Elm. A lovely green that I think is going to look sooooooo cute with navy. I’m knitting the smallest size and have done this much in a few nights so it really is a fast knit.

Here is a pic from the book and you can find ravelry details on the pattern here. And here is the one I made for chubby cheeks Elodie. And there are people who wonder why I keep having babies. Hello! Cute babies!

And that is what I have been up to!

Filed Under: bendigo woollen mills, knitting, ravelry

a final kitchen post is coming

March 5, 2012 By corrie 11 Comments

Well I wasn’t sure if I’d get a blog post squeezed in today. I’ve been sending emails and getting things done. Pest and building inspections. Done today and reports all good. Bank valuer. Done and good. Removalist quotes coming in and all we are waiting for is final approval from the bank, the deposit bond to come in after that and we are ready to exchange on Friday. Keep those fingers crossed for me. OK?

And with just under 4 weeks to go until the big move, it occurred to me that I better do a final kitchen post. Before we go. A post where I tell you everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G that went into the kitchen, where I got it and how much it cost. Every little thing.

image source otter imaging

Ahhhh the cost. I kept a very accurate spreadsheet of everything for retro daddy and can’t believe I’m going to have to start a totally new spreadsheet for the new house. But I’m so excited to get in there and start planning………………..in the meantime I’m going to enjoy looking back on the kitchen pictures to see how far we’ve come in this house.

Filed Under: homes, kitchen, renovation, renovations

they love their jammies

March 2, 2012 By corrie 17 Comments

A lovely reader on facebook asked for a picture of all the little ones in their pj’s………….here they are. They all love them and so does daddy.

They look so good that I feel a few more pairs coming this weekend if I get the chance. The girls are just wearing little plain t-shirts from Target that were in a big tub I’ve stockpiled for appliques.

And I also must do a pair for this little couch potato. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of her as she’s never sat in it like this but looks so cute! And couch potato-y.

Now for Elodie’s pants I think I’ll use my favourite baby pants pattern for her which is the quick change trouser from Anna Maria Horner’s baby book, Handmade Beginnings. I made a pair here.

Filed Under: sewing

rainy day pyjama pants

March 2, 2012 By corrie 24 Comments

Today was such a miserable day. Apparently most of our state is under water or under threat of flooding but it’s just wet here so I’m grateful for that. But rainy days do make for perfect sewing weather. And we always have a shortage of pj pants here so making some up was long overdue.

I just use any elasticised pant pattern when it comes to making pj pants. These pants were all made from the pattern in this book (Making Children’s Clothes) but there are so many patterns out there you probably have something in your patterns or books at home. Go and have a look. Each pair used about 0.75cm of fabric each and I just made them all size 4-5 and adjusted the waist and hem per little person. And retro daddy, since a metre of fabric cost me $12.95 these pants are great for the family budget!

A few little tips – always use a non roll elastic for your waistbands; cut all the pant pieces out first then hit your machine; put a pin in each of your back pieces so you don’t forget which is front and back; and check to make sure you sew them together right and don’t sew the legs together closed (we’ve all made mistakes before!). I also like to sew a little tape/ribbon to the back of each pair once they are made up so the kids know which is the back when they put them on.

Filed Under: sewing, spotlight, twins

not that I needed more fabric….

March 1, 2012 By corrie 21 Comments

But I couldn’t resist a little stock up at Spotlight yesterday. Sometimes I go along and nothing takes my fancy but at the moment they have a lot of great fabrics. Well done Spotlight. Firstly I had to pick up a few more Daisy Mae prints for my growing Denyse Schmidt stash (have you ordered your Flea Market Fancy yet? I have!). Then I saw the cute little elephants which are a japanese print and thought they’d be perfect for little pj pants and then I thought well I better get something for the new baby and picked up a little Peter Rabbit

Just don’t tell retro daddy! He is not happy with my fabric stash at the moment. I don’t know what he’s talking about. Apparently I need to clear more out and stop bringing it into the house. Whatever.

Filed Under: fabric, sewing

baby’s 1st cardigan

March 1, 2012 By corrie 13 Comments

Well I have literally just finished seaming this little cardigan together and it still needs to be blocked. But I think it looks more like a little coat than a cardigan. I like this little knit but I didn’t really like the pattern. The fact that the entire yoke was incorrect in the book and had to be replaced didn’t thrill me. And I think the neckband sits a little higher up than it should.

But it was a quick and fairly easy knit. My ravelry details on the pattern are here and the pattern is from this book – 60 Quick Baby Knits. It’s actually a great little book if you like to knit for babies and toddlers in 10 ply. I used Bendigo Luxury in 8 ply in cream and finished it off with a big green Beutron button from Spotlight. I think it really makes the little cardigan.

p.s if you’re looking for a perfect baby raglan cardigan you really can’t go past this Debbie Bliss one – ravelry details here and here. It’s a much easier to read pattern and easier to knit although it does have lots of seaming it’s worth it.

p.p.s our offer on the house was rejected so we’ve gone in at our maximum and have to hope they accept it. It turns out that it’s a deceased estate so there are more parties involved than we were initially told. We are ready to walk away at any point right now!

Filed Under: kniting, ravelry

waiting for the phone to ring

February 28, 2012 By corrie 18 Comments

I am not a patient person. If you’re on facebook then you’ll know that I have been waiting to hear back on the brady bunch house. And we’ve been waiting since Saturday afternoon. And it’s dragging on. The agent rang yesterday at the close of business to tell me still no word and is going to chase them today. Well I hope they do because I NEED to know. I need to make plans, I need to book a removal and if it doesn’t work out I need to be looking for our next house……………

in the meantime I’m just knitting and trying to finish off this cardigan for the new baby. I figured if I wrote this blog post it might just make the phone ring and give us the answer we’ve been waiting for.

p.s the pattern I’m knitting is the raglan cardigan from 60 Quick Baby Knits. It’s an easy pattern but be warned that the entire yoke section is wrong in the book and you need to read the errata! Ravelry details are here.

Filed Under: homes, knitting

super easy chicken pie

February 27, 2012 By corrie 27 Comments

A lovely school mum broke her wrist recently and is out of action. So another lovely mum suggested we make some dinners over 2 weeks to take over and help her out. I decided to make vegetarian lasagne, I made it and then discovered the dad didn’t eat cheese. Uh oh. That information would have been helpful before I made it. But there are plenty of mouths to feed here so we just ate it here. I then tried to think of something that could be reheated easily, didn’t require too much effort (at my end) and would be eaten by the whole family. I pulled out my CWA Classics book and found chicken pie. That was it. I had to make it.

I decided to test it out on my own family first before I made one to take out. It looked good in the book, looked quick, had simple ingredients and I thought would be a winner. Now if time was on my side I would have made the ultimate chicken pie. Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Pot Pie. But that takes time. The ‘boil a whole chicken and make your own pastry’ time.

So if you don’t have lots of time then give this one a go. It was an absolute hit here. No leftovers but just a word of warning. After you and the kids have eaten the pie and if you need to leave some pie for your other half, do yourself a favour ladies. Put the pie out of sight. Back in the oven. Hide it in the microwave. Out of sight. Because I went back a couple of times because it was just so good. It kept calling out to me for just a little more. And then retro daddy came home and I felt a little guilty that we hadn’t left him as much as we initially had.

What you’ll need
2 chicken breasts (about 500g)
2 handfuls sliced mushrooms
1 onion, diced
2 Tbsps oil or 50g butter
2 Tbsp plain flour
2 cups stock
good splosh of white wine (optional)
fresh herbs (parsley, basil, whatever you have going)
2 sheets puff pastry
1 egg and dash of milk
salt, pepper

Cut chicken breasts into large chunks, place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes until chicken is cooked right through. Cut into smaller cubes. Meanwhile saute onions and mushrooms in oil or butter. The recipe called for oil but as I started sauteeing I thought butter would be better!

Add in flour then whisk in the stock and wine (optional). Allow sauce to thicken, add herbs and season well. Then add in the chicken and combine well.

Butter up a pie dish/tart tin and place a sheet of your puff pastry in. Pour filling in and then top with the other sheet of puff pastry. Trim corners off and join the edges of the pastry together the whole way around. Brush with an egg wash of a beaten egg and a bit of milk. Bake in a preheated 190 degree oven for about 25 minutes, remove from the oven and enjoy.

Filed Under: baking, chicken, dinners, recipe

everyone blows out my candles

February 25, 2012 By corrie 25 Comments

Is this how it goes in your family? Everyone needs a turn to blow out the candles. Boy, the fighting that went on because keira blew out the candles before everyone else. So everyone got a turn. After we did the family tradition (from retro daddy’s side) where we have to turn the lights off, hold hands, swing them and sing happy birthday. Then we have keira’s tradition of the other happy birthday where you smell like a monkey and live in the zoo. That one never gets old here.

But everyone declared it the best birthday ever…………that will be until the next birthday in the family! And now I’m off to put my feet up, do some knitting and try to stay awake for at least a few rows.

Filed Under: birthdays

working on my birthday

February 25, 2012 By corrie 25 Comments

Well today I turn 36! I like the sound of 36! And I had to work on my birthday…..but totally my choice. I’m so glad I did. I had a lovely day. Met my regular customers and lots of new ones. Got to chat to lots of lovely ladies, share my love of fabric and empty some baskets! We definitely came back with less fabric.

Thank you to everyone who came along. I don’t have the fanciest market stall but I always do so well thanks to the lovely people who stop by! And a special thank you to Amy for helping me out, Natalie for the lovely little present (I love it!) and Wendy for the sweet birthday card! How lovely are people to me!

I’ve had a great birthday with an iphone case from the little people, some lovely new clothes from Trenery and Country Road from retro daddy and we made an offer on the Brady bunch since we’ve exchanged contracts on our house. Fingers are crossed we get it as I KNOW it will be the best house for us. I still have birthday cake, thai dinner and yum cha tomorrow to look forward to. A great birthday weekend surrounded by the people I love!

Filed Under: birthdays, market, markets

baby’s 2nd photo!

February 24, 2012 By corrie 16 Comments

I loooooove ultrasound pictures of babies, especially when they are this cute! This is actually baby’s 2nd photo but you can see so much more this time around!

I honestly think he has the cute little nose that my other little ones have……….now I just have to wait another 19 weeks till I meet him!

Filed Under: baby, pregnancy

your blogging questions answered

February 22, 2012 By corrie 24 Comments

Wow thank you for your emails after the Today show segment! I just love receiving emails from new readers and oh the questions! I decided to answer them all in one spot so we can all get the answers. Oh and by the way the today show segment is here.

1. How to start a blog

Well I love blogger (http://www.blogger.com)/ because it’s so easy and well um it’s all I know how to use. Almost 6 years ago with hardly any idea of how to blog I set up my first blog on blogger and the rest is history. First up think of a great name, make it unusual but punchy. No one wants to have to type in a 30 letter blog name! And think about about buying the .com for your blog name. It will cost you a couple of dollars (check out GoDaddy) but is worth it if your blog takes off and you decide to host your own blog on your own domain. Tune out now if I’ve lost you. It will make sense later on.

2. What to blog about?

What is your passion? How would people describe you? Is there something you are learning and obsessed with? What do you dream of? What is the funnniest thing about you or your family? It could be that you live in the most beautiful part of australia or you eat/sleep/breathe craft or you are trying to make a new career for yourself. We’re mostly mummies but there must be something that sets us apart from the next mummy (or lady/man/fill in the blank). That way people will find you and remember you and you will fall into your own niche.

3. How to get people to read my blog

Well you’ve got to put yourself out there. You’ve got to read blogs, comment on blogs, follow blogs, maybe join a community of bloggers like digital parents (great resource for mummy bloggers) or another online community where you can share your blog. Look for blog link ups and so on too. And remember it takes time. I started out with a handful of readers for a few months there and then gradually over time they increased. Nothing will happen overnight and you have to be prepared to put the time and effort in.

4. How do I monitor my traffic

I like sitemeter for my traffic, it comes in on a monday and I look at it and that’s it for the week. I know people obsess over their traffic but that’s time I spend on my blog, facebook etc and of course with my little ones. Don’t get so obsessed that you forget the reason why you are at home – to look after little people.

5. Do I need to be on facebook, twitter, pinterest etc?

Well I just love facebook! It’s where I can answer questions, chat, let off some steam and trivial stuff and just hang out. I like twitter too but it moves fast so I tend to pop in each day for a little bit and then I’m off. You could spend all day on there. I also love ravelry for my knitting (http://www.ravelry.com/), flickr for my photos (http://www.flickr.com/) and pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/) oh pinterest you time waster you. I don’t think you need to be on everything. Pick what you love, set up your page/name and keep it all the same as your blog name so that people can find you. Be sure to share those links on your blog too so people who like what they see can find you on those other sites.

6. How do I make money from my blog

Ok well I should point out that I didn’t start really making money from my blog until I joined nuffnang (http://www.nuffnang.com.au/) and started to do sponsored posts. I also do advertising on my sidebar, each ad campaign runs for a week and you receive earnings based on how many clicks of the ad they are. And no you can’t just click on the link yourself! Now I do get asked ‘So I joined nuffnang and haven’t heard anything’. Obviously you need to get noticed by nuffnang and have traffic that they think is suitable for a campaign/sponsored posts. Also they now do product reviews where you don’t get paid but they can be great experience and get yourself out there and get your blog a mention.

You can also make money by selling your own space on your blog, some bloggers charge say $30 for a little button on their sidebar. Again you’ll want to have traffic coming to your blog that will make it attractive for people to advertise on your blog.You might need to contact small businesses or websites seeking their $$$’s which can be daunting but it’s all part of putting yourself out there. Also make up a little ‘advertise here’ button to gain interest as you never know who may be reading your blog.

If you make and sell a product then a blog can help you promote that product or service and you can link to your store/shopfront/webpage or just make your blog your webpage. By building a community of readers you can be building a customer base.

A lot of bloggers also receive products to try out and give away. When you’re starting out this can be fun and exciting and you’ll need to get noticed by the PR companies or approach themself. Ask other bloggers who do product reviews if they have any contacts to share. There are events and all sorts of things to attend. Unfortunately for me I just don’t have the time as I’m home 24/7 with my little ones but I like the way I work now so I’m happy with the way I do things.

And I almost forgot to mention that I love affiliate programs like fishpond. See all those cute books over on the right sidebar. There are also programs for other online stores too like amazon etc. You just join up, build links for products you love and you think your readers will love and you will earn commission with each click. I think the fishpond books make my blog look pretty. You don’t need any minimum traffic to join with them so it’s great if you’re starting out.

7. OK retro mummy, well I’m doing all of that but still no one is reading my blog

This is hard! We all set up a blog and think people will love us and our blog as much as we do! You’re going to have to put yourself out there even more and make friends with bloggers. Look for blog meet ups nearby, conferences (yes these can be daunting but there are always lots of newbies there), online communitities (I know I’ve already said that), jump in on twitter conversations and follow bloggers you like, get on facebook and just get out there. Put links to your blog posts on facebook and twitter too. Get your blog name out there, comment like crazy, be a lovely blogger and people will find you. I promise. And find out the bloggers who are like you with similar blogs – the food bloggers etc and make sure you’re moving in similar circles.

Now that is no exhaustive list and has just all come off the top of my head but I hope it helps you out! If you have a question then let me know and I’ll answer it here!

Filed Under: blogging, mummy blogger

we’re having a ……………..

February 22, 2012 By corrie 62 Comments

healthy baby! I thought it would be funny to share the little ones reactions! Perhaps not as excited as I would have liked. But my favourite moment would have to be at 41 seconds!

We are thrilled to know that we have a healthy baby on board.

Filed Under: baby, pregnancy

boy or girl? quick poll

February 21, 2012 By corrie 51 Comments

Well tomorrow is my 19 week scan when I find out if I’m having a boy or girl. I’m so excited but also so nervous. Now I understand those of you who don’t like to find out what you’re having. There aren’t many surprises you get in this world and so on. I get that. But I’m just one of those people that has to know. I want to start knitting, planning a quilt, getting the name just right and dreaming of my little boy or girl on the way.

Grandma Betty is not impressed and has asked not to be told. But what do you think? Boy or girl? Of course I just want a healthy baby to show up on the screen tomorrow…………..but I think it’s a boy! But then I have moments when I think well I have 3 girls so it must be another girl. What do the little ones want? A boy to play with Finn. Yes, even keira wants a boy to play with Finn!

the cute little knits are the 5 hour baby sweater pattern. I made a few of these before the twins were born and are seriously the easiest baby cardigan to knit in the whole world!

Filed Under: baby, pregnancy