This one (YOU CAN READ IT HERE) is an edited version of my words. It's in the City/Yarra Melbourne Times. 
Bayside and Eastern suburbs will get this one (YOU CAN READ IT HERE), which is what the lovely journalist, Luna Soo, wrote after we chatted on the phone for a while.
It's in a simple tuck-stitch, with 2 yarns of slightly different brown tones knitted together. The colour is a rich shade of cappucino... None of my photos captured the subtlety or complexity of the colour, which is a shame. It's lovely. I love the waffly, spongey texture of this tuck-stitch pattern. I haven't washed, blocked or felted it because I love SQUEEZING it and stretching it in different directions. It's very tactile stuff.
The bloke - dubbed "Mr Wintergarden" because of his current obsession with tending the sleeping winter bastja* - obediently wears the scarf. (*Macedonian for veggie patch). 
Yep - here I am, all Photoshopped and pretending to be over 5 foot 2. (You won't tell anyone, will you...?)
I'm wearing my newest offering on the pattern front, my A-Line Skirt. I originally made it as a basic skirt pattern for myself (that I could make in a zillion different ways and nobody need know that I only had one pattern). But Lara saw it, and then Tania... and before you know it, everyone was wanting one. It's now graded from size 8 to size 18 (US sizes 6-14).
I wear the size 10, because I like skirts that hang loosely off my hips. If you prefer to wear your skirts fitted around the waist, you can make the size that fits your waist (see that glamorous fashion model, wearing a size 8, below).
The instructions include how to insert the best ever invisible zip and also how to add a feature panel on both summer and winter-weight fabrics (two different methods). It really does make a zillion skirts - long, short, winter, summer, formal, casual..... The finish is tailored but the method is super-easy.
The skirt pattern will be on the website just as soon as I can organise it. EDITED TO ADD: YOU CAN ORDER IT HERE NOW!
In the meantime, I'll share a bit of the reality behind the gloss of this high-fashion photo shoot.
Yep.. a very small 40-something crafty chick, poncing about in front of a camera while a friend reads out an amusing Facebook conversation. Cracking up.... and being strangely foreshortened....
Another day in Northcote.
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BTW - Nice to be back in the land of the cyber-living. My laptop had a little holiday at the repair shop, but seems much better now, thank you.
Around these parts, things rarely happen in a linear, organised fashion. It's all multi-tasking, juggling too many ideas and not enough time, dodging unforseens, managing minor crises and drawing wildcards... and no lists. Most people who see this in action wonder how anything gets done at all.
But they do. All it sometimes takes is a few hours in the studio on my own, with no interruptions. Weeks of half-started projects are completed, photographed and hung in the showroom. Gosh, sometimes they're even Photoshopped and blogged. 
And HOW LOVELY to see a completed nest of A-line skirt samples - sizes 8-18 (US size 6-16?). My only disappointment was that I made this panel feature on the size 18 instead of in my size.
This pattern is currently being tested by lots of lovely gals, and will hopefully be ready in time for the Quilt and Craft Fair in Melbourne. 
My patchwork experiments have been put to use in a few bags and purses. I tried to blend the craftsy look with a bit of street-smart topstitched denim and a few sharp lines. My Day Bag pattern was a good 'blank canvas' to play on...
And I made the Day Bag as a satchel, in soft and fuzzy woolly Rathdowne Remnants bargain fabric with more patchwork and a few (..ahem... strategically placed) bits of leather.
This 150mm Frame Purse (below) makes the pretence that what is revealed by the cut-away area is indeed worth featuring (??) but it was a little idea I've had in my head for a while, so it was good to get it out.
And sometimes, to finish off a good finishing session, I just have to start something else...
I made this Chunky Purse with some machine-knitted "learning experience" pieces. There was an awful lot of chopping and stitching bits on, until it resembled a rose-ish sort of thing.
Just making this one up as I go along, from wool/alpaca/acrylic yarn I bought at Spotlight's end-of-Winter-2010 yarn sale ($1 a ball.. what do I have to lose?). 
On Sunday, we had a family trip to Ballarat. While the man and child of the family braved the BRUTAL cold and FREEZING rain at Sovereign Hill, I sat in a cosy room with Annie's gorgeous Mum. She taught me lots of new tricks on the knitting machine - increases, decreases, a spot of fair isle...
...and SHORT ROWS!!!!! 
This, of course, opens up a whole world of garment-making possibilities and I'm positively BUZZING with ideas....
It was great to see this little purse finished today. My second-thoughts about having done squiggly free-motion stitchery were put to rest. I like. And I like it when I like.
I bought this tie-dye/marbled, felted wool in GJ's clearance room (upstairs, where the patchwork fabrics used to be) during the week. $15 per metre and lovely stuff...... so I took a metre in each of 3 colourways.
There were lots of purses at work today, in fact. A Purse Frame Class.
It was a hoot! Not only did I teach six fabulous women to make purses, but I learned a lot about what goes on behind-the-scenes in the Melbourne Zoo Gorilla enclosure..... (Conversation was interesting and varied!!!). Thanks for a fun day, girls!
This class had to be rescheduled from yesterday, when I was bad-mummy-who-was-too-busy. We used a Christmas present book as the basis of the lesson (because Mummy couldn't possibly know what she's talking about).
And a star is born....
For those of you who have missed the background info on this challenge, it was a crafty challenge to make a hot water bottle cover (not necessarily functional) to raise funds for the Margaret Pratt Foundation. The hotties are for sale for $50 each, and there is a vote-by-coin for your favourite hottie. 
Along with the AMAZING display of hotties, I was enchanted by the fabulousness in Open Drawer. It's a little slice of heaven for textile geeks like me....
...So enchanted, in fact, that I snapped away and didn't notice my "battery" light flashing on the camera. 
So I didn't get any more photos of the hotties.
Just lots of felty, woven and stitched textures and colors....If you're able to pop in to see the exhibition, it's well worth the trip. Inspiring, entertaining, and heart warming.... and the range of materials, skills and techniques used is astounding. Also, make sure you spend some time in the shop downstairs, too. It's gorgeous.
The thing that I love about knitting is the multi-faceted nature of the journey. I love the textures and colours of yarn and the explosion of ideas they inspire. I love seeing the yarn turn into something wearable, while I notice small improvements in my knitting skills. 
I love that I'm gaining a better understanding of yarn and gauge, but I'm still surprised at how things turn out. I love the fact that I can make fabric (I often just stop and look at the texture of it).
And I love that my fall-back finishing technique (FELT IT!) was a huge success in this instance.
