Another week, another bazillion things....

 

Time seems to be whizzing past much faster than usual...just gulping up the weeks. 

In the last week, there have been good things, great conversations, random acts of kindness, joy, optimism, new opportunities ....and exactly the opposite of each of these things.   Life's a funny old thing, isn't it?  It's drought and flood... and sometimes it's just like Melbourne weather.

 

 

 

 On the weekend, I went to Canberra to teach at Addicted to Fabric (and took a rather cool pic from the boarding gate) .... and then I only thought to take photos towards the end of the class on Sunday, just before I was due to fly home again.

 

Below, we have another beautifully-made hat by another newbie sewing gal.  Nobody would have guessed that she's only sewn a few square things before... look at those beautifully-sewn curves!

 

I loved seeing hats being worn while equipment was packed up at the end of the day. 

 

This "I'm just going to make a hat for gardening" hat (above) looked way too stylish not to be worn for something more social.

 

This hat (below) was made with fun socialising in mind.  Sewn, finished and trimmed within class-time, it was worn out of the store with sartorial flair!

 

(If you're a little bit inspired by the recent spate of hatty blog posts here, and available to do a class on a week day, you should come along to the Perfect Summer Hats class that I'll be teaching at GJ's.  Learn to make hats in time to whip up a few for summer!)

 

As always - there has been fondling and fiddling with yarn.  In the last week I've finished something that I started in May and nearly finished something I started last week.

 

Having begun this Cardigan Rose about four times before I got it past the armholes - and all the while playing yarn-chicken and being distracted by the girleen's swimming lessons (or whatever fleeting, shiny thing) - I  pretty-much gave up on following the pattern and just made things up after that point.  After a few months, I tired of the project (and too many people commenting on the fact that the yarn matched my hair) and just wanted to finish it...so just kept knitting... ignoring all the mistakes and distracted-while-knitting roughness. 

 

My knitting is so rough in this particular garment, it's almost a waste of this gorgeous yarn.... but it's very soft and snuggly and is full of handmade love.  It's for a gorgeous 1-year old, who won't be criticising my stitch tension.

 

In need of instant gratification and a bit of a cellulosic yarn fix, I pulled out the crochet hook and some Prudence Mapstone tencel loveliness.  I'm making another Summer Lace Tank Top.  I love how quickly this comes together.

 

In other news, I finally have an answer to the question of have I found somewhere to move to when the lease runs out here, which every person and their dog has been asking me for the last month or two.  Last week, I did, and we'll be moving in a few weeks time.  The lease runs out here in mid-November.

 

When I was walking back to the car from the estate agent's office, I saw this in a window of an op-shop.  Just the thing I need for this next stage of balanced, family life....

 

 

Our new home won't have a showroom or classroom, but it has an enormous garden.  The girleen and I have been planning which vegetables we'll be growing this summer.  We're excited.

 

In the last week, I've also been trying to work out which of the showroom bag, hat and garment samples I'll keep and which will have to be sold.  We don't have space for them all and I'll be having a sale as soon as I sort them out.  A brief experiment with eBay didn't inspire me to go down that path again - and turned me off any admin time spent on any other online option - so I'm afraid it'll be in-store only.  Stay tuned for details.

 

And this week is a whole new one.... I wonder what it holds?