And some pants

Made from the Lightning Bugs & Other Mysteries range by Heather Ross. These are a great pair of summer pants for Alastair - a funky, comfy wide leg design in lightweight quilting cotton. I love co-ordinating quilting ranges like this.

I should have been studying, but I had a headache all day and it was easier to sew. (I know I should have ironed the crease out of the fabric, but I'm lazy like that.)

Emma's "Monica" knitted tank top is coming along nicely - the main body is finished and I am halfway through knitting the ruffle. Once that's done I just attach the two and work up some straps. I adapted the pattern to knit in the round, which is great except that for the ruffle I have 260 stitches on the needles, which gets a little tedious (though good mindless TV-watching knitting).

That OTHER domestic pursuit

I can knit, and sew. I can even cook (nothing spectacular but I can follow a recipe and construct basic ideas on my own). However, I have a black thumb - in general, anything I try to grow, dies.

Amazingly, we have some trees here that have survived my neglect. An orange and a plum tree out the front that fruit quite well (the plum tree only fruits every two years, so I did think it was dead for a while because it didn't flower that spring), and a custard apple tree out the back. The custard apple tree is quite fantastic really, because APPARENTLY custard apples aren't supposed to grow very well here - they're a tropical fruit and we're not in a tropical climate (I forget what we are - Mediterranean maybe). They sell for about $5 each in the fruit markets, and we grow ones that are three times that size.

I honestly didn't water any of those trees for about three years after we moved here. The two out the front kind of self-mulched, I think (lots of fallen leaves and whatnot). The custard apple tree didn't fruit well until it started getting more water, but it survived.

Anyway, last spring my dad planted six more fruit trees for me, and re-did the reticulation round the back so I could actually water them. I kept them alive for a whole year!! Two of them have fruit this spring. We just re-mulched them this week, so here are some photos to prove I CAN garden ... with a little help. (Just don't mention the rest of the garden!!)


THe left tree is a peacharine (peach/nectarine hybrid), which I thought I had killed, but seems to be only partly dead. It didn't flower until a few weeks ago. The new growth is shooting out the sides, though, so I might have to train it.
The right tree is lemonade (a hybrid variety of lemon that's apparently quite sweet). I don't know about this one, it hasn't grown much, but it's not dead!
The custard apple tree is just to the right of the lemon tree, it's quite big (was already mature when we bought this place 5 years ago).



The left tree, right in the shadow (the tree it's in the shadow of is just some random mid-sized tree, doesn't seem to flower or fruit at all), is grapefruit, no fruit yet. The middle one is the nectarine - lots of fruit, but something is eating the fruit and it has some leaf-curl thing going on. The right is mandarin, again no fruit yet.



This one is a plum tree (not the established one), and it has three plums on it - hurray! I think this is the healthiest, nothing seems to be eating it.

Here are some nectarines:

Stupid macro function, it was supposed to focus on the front ones. Oh well.

Op shop haul!

I was at the op shop finding some spring shorts for Alastair (he's between sizes at the moment so it makes a lot of sense to buy second-hand! We found a few good pairs too - Wikidz, Old Navy & Pumpkin Patch), and came across these funky vintage sewing patterns - 1974 originals!

The fabric is just a piece I picked up for a couple of dollars, but I don't know if it's big enough to make anything. I really need to ban myself from buying kiddie fabrics now and buy things in larger quantities that I can actually make grown-up clothes with.

Bah, kids

I sewed a cape for Alastair last night, and he refuses to wear it :P

We're going to the Fairyland Festival at Kings Park today, so Emma is, of course, wearing a fairy dress, but I thought Alastair would like a wizard's cape. Luckily it was easy to make.



Here's the pattern I use - I did have a commercial adults' cape pattern but it was unnecessarily complicated. Excuse my crappy MS Paint skills. Dimensions don't matter hugely, but the circumference of the curves at the top needs to sit nicely round your shoulders. I used fold-over elastic for the top this time, because it was late and the velour was fighting me.

Yeh, not much time for domestic pursuits lately. The full-time study load with a high-needs toddler is kicking my butt.

I have almost finished the main bodice for Emma's 'Monica' tank, though (then I knit the frill, and attach the two).

That really is about all I've done in the last couple of weeks :( I did find some really good-looking heavy duty webbing and buckles at the army surplus store (saved me a 2 hour trip to Spotlight and it's better quality IMO), so an SSC Mk II is on the horizon. I have some Amy Butler Nigella twill coming in the mail though, so I think I'll wait and use that.

Should be some funky PUL prints coming too (and then I SWEAR I am off co-op buying, honestly), which I think I'll make into some show-off AIOs for summer.

I have established a compost heap and done a whole lot of weeding, and will be re-mulching my fruit trees next week; I suppose those are domestic pursuits too.

Longies in action (I need to cuff them properly).





Dora outfit I made Alastair today because he's obsessed with Dora and you can't buy boys' Dora clothes:

I've been slacking!

Whoops, it's a month since I've updated.

The carrier is FANTASTIC. I used it all over the Gold Coast and it's my go-to carrier for quick back carries now. I'm itching to make another one and adjust a few things, but I need to get to Spotlight and get more webbing ... and I really can't make that trip until uni semester ends unless I get Garry to drive me (can't throw away an entire day).

I need to update my WIP sidebar thingy. Gave up on winter pants & PJs for Alastair, heh, but I'm going to make him a Dora outfit for spring since he looooves Dora and all the clothes in the shops are for girls (a pair of denim long shorts with Dora pockets, and an appliqued T-shirt). I also finished him a pair of longies last night:



Tried to get some action shots today but he didn't really co-operate.

Details:
Picky Pants pattern, XL/Toddler size, adapted to 8ply/DK (first time I've done this - I did a gauge swatch and the maths and adjusted the pattern)
Addi Turbo circular needles, 4mm 40cm and 4mm 30cm.
Cheap 100% wool from K-mart, I love this colourway though.

I highly recommend the Picky Pants pattern, especially for beginners. I've used two free patterns before purchasing this, and though I do really like Shannon's pattern, being a freebie it didn't completely explain doing an enclosed elastic waist or how to eliminate the holes around the crotch. The PP pattern did and now I can tackle any longies pattern because I have the basics down!

The fit is just what I wanted - a little big at present. Folding the waist down gives a perfect fit up there, and the legs are about an inch too long, which I will cuff. This way they should fit next winter (although hopefully he'll only need nappies for night-time by then).

I've just cast on for Knitty's Monica in a bright pink and yellow for Emma (Debbie Bliss cotton DK). This is my first time working with cotton and it is definitely different from wool!

Unfortunately I don't get as much time for knitting and sewing now that I'm studying full-time from home. Boo hoo.