Ah yes.. well, I ALWAYS do it like this....

You know when things go a little bit wrong....not quite as well as planned, but you smile on as if everything is as it was meant to be...? Yes, I think I know how the designer of this machine-knitted one-piece "playsuit" feels (...and GOD BLESS that poor model - a true professional!!).

I've had a bit of a week of it. ("IT" meaning serious tail-chasing, multi-tasking-while-I'm-multi-tasking and things going a bit wrong on a fairly consistent basis....) I ploughed on. By hook or by crook, the stock and display for the Sydney Quilt and Craft Fair will be on a pallet at Tullamarine Airport on Wednesday morning, ready to go... New bag samples will be finished and hopefully we'll have worked out why, out of the 4000-odd subscribers to our mailing list, only about 150 actually received the last newsletter..... (After Wednesday, I have nearly a week to pull myself and the shop back into some sort of shape before I go up to the show...smiling...).

Anyway.... somewhere in the middle of all of that, I was supposed to draw the winner of the new Draped T-Dress pattern. I smiled and pretended all was normal while I didn't get around to it.

And the winner is ... MARY! Send us your postal address, Mary, and we'll pop the pattern in the post to you.

I also didn't get around to photographing the new bag samples that I finished this week. I only have the work-in-progress shots of this little adventure....

I had a vision... it involved teaming this lovely grey wool honeycomb-texture knitting sample from one or other of my knitting machine (ahem) learning-experiences. I thought that an inset strip of wool in a mock-crock textured leather would look rather nice (in a handcrafted-meets-slick-urban-design sort of way).I measured things, I interfaced things, I used two layers of the knit to make it nice and spongey. I set up the fancy-schmantzy Bernina with upholstery thread and walking foot and stitched it...... All was looking schmick and slick....

And then I noticed this little opportunity for a design feature.....

So we're leaning slightly more towards the "handcrafted" with this one now. But I like it.
I'd like to get his bag finished before Wednesday, too... along with a whole heap of other organising.

Let's just hope my smile doesn't slip...Years ago, I heard a VERY FUNNY radio comedy song - along the lines of "I always do it like this...", in a toffy English accent, accompanied by piano. The song described people having hugely embarrassing and complicated public accidents, and carrying on with a stiff upper lip. A disasterous downhill run on a bicycle ends with " Oh, I ALWAYS get off like this..." Someone getting all his teeth knocked out explains, "Well, I was GOING to get them out..."

Has anyone else heard this and know from whence it came? If it's on You Tube or any audio file anywhere....? CD?