I bought, I made, I picnicked …..

 The Queens Birthday long weekend always means a trip to Rutherglen to hang out with my father-in-law, Frank, on the farm.  The barrel rolling, the street market and the wineries were great fun.  We caught up with some friends and looked after Frank as he's recently had surgery.

Main Street, Rutherglen was a throng of people.  The air was crisp but the sky was blue and by mid morning people filled every available space.

Handcrafts and food are always good at this market.  There is also the obligatory racks of clothing and socks that people also really like.  Soaps, jams, jewellery, vintage clothing, quilts, wool the list is endless.  This market has always been somewhere I go on my own and where my family meets me later after I've had a good look around.  I like markets on my own.  I am a mono-marketeer.

I made this floor cushion.  It is really ace, I think.  It took ages and cost very little in materials and I think it looks really effective.  It has also become something of a centre for play for the boys and their toys. As you can see James is loving this for his Club Penguin Puffles….

I also made this Hot Water Bottle cover for the Hottie Challenge - gee it was fun to make.  And the charity it is supporting is the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust.  www.mprattfoundation.com.au So many beautiful Hotties are being made for this super cause.

I was so inspired by this Hottie that today I made myself a picnic rug,  It is made out of 12 Dimmeys retro-esque teatowels and a lacy crocheted table cloth.  I also made a cushion and a bag for the picnic rug.

And here are a few things I've bought recently.  My eclectic stash from the Camberwell Market, a stack of lovely crafting fabric from a couple of op shops and an amazing coffee table from Ebay.  I had been watching the coffee table and bid $1 over the reserve price.  I was the only bidder so I won it. so lucky.  I picked it up from the seller and popped it in the loungeroom where it looks great along with its twin baby tables, I think.  The kids have very strict instructions to use the COASTERS! and my husband thinks I did a great job as it really is beautiful!   

That's been my week.  Hope yours has been fun, too.

Happy Everything
Miss G

Future Fashion Now - pics!

me and Tamara - looking lovely, Tam!

some knitting examples

my kit

more kit

This is what my workshop looked like!

thanks to the lovely Miss Tallulah Porkchop for this photo!  x

Knitting Workshop Wrap Up

I loved teaching knitting yesterday!  I was asked by my friend Belinda Evans to help on the Future Fashion Now event (see previous post!).  She asked if I would like to teach some people how to knit.  3 twenty five minute sessions for 5 people at a time over a couple of hours.

Over the last month or so I gathered all my bits and pieces together,  wrote a little knitting manual, cleaned all the bits of sticky tape off my lovely vintage knitting needles, found lots of balls of wool in my stash and at the oppies and grabbed a stack of knitting books to display.  I packed all this into a very vintage suitcase and off I went to the St Kilda Town Hall.

On arrival, I found my very cute little table behind a white picket fence.  I laid out my thrifted embroidered tablecloth over the other lovely tablecloths that were already there and set up my materials.  Knitting needles in an old metal milkshake container and my balls of wool piled generously in a wicker basket.  Looked lovely.  Lots of people looked at the loveliness and then wandered on.  I settled myself at the table and started knitting.  Maybe it was the act of knitting that attracted people because very soon I had a full table of knitters for my first session.  It was really fun and also very interesting. There are so many different ways of knitting - I saw about 12 different ways of casting on alone!  I had a couple of ladies come to the table who knew how to knit which was great because they helped the novices with tricky things.  Also, I had a few young girls from the local high school who were gorgeous!  the quote of the day came from one of them: "knitting is slow and it hurts my arms."  So funny and true!!

By the 3rd session I had dragged over about 6 more chairs - there were 12 of us at the table - some knitting happily and showing others how to do things, others taking their time and redoing their work, some becoming frustrated but laughing about it.  I know there are photos floating around which hopefully I will be able to post on this blog.

Everyone who attended was given the knitting needles and wool they had been working with and also the How To Knit instructions in a little bag.  I hope they took what they had done home and kept going.  Teaching knitting was the most satisfying thing I have done in a long time.  Loved it.

xo
Click Clack
Miss G