A party with plaid pyjamas



I've joined Karen's pyjama party with some plaid pyjamas that presented some interesting challenges (apart from the fact that they give me the appearance of some real thunder thighs - so not flattering - luckily they are comfy).

 I started with my oft-sewn jammie pattern, for which I usually use nice soft vintage sheets.  This time I found some lovely brushed cotton in the stash.  Perfect.

A breeze, I thought.  I've done this before.  And some winter duds would be just the thing for these cooler nights.  Yes, I'm an accomplished sewist.  This will be a cinch.  I'll even get a little bit fancy.  I'll use flat felled seams, to start with.  So.... I proceeded to sew up both the outside leg seams as well as the inner leg seam, and trim one seam allowance on every seam. Can you just have a think about how hard it would be to do flat felled seams in this scenario?  No, I didn't think about it either, until they were all stitched up and trimmed.  Sheesh.  Looks like I'll just go over the straight stitching with an overlocking stitch then.

 And matching those plaids was interesting.  I thought about matching the horizontal striping, and cut out accordingly.  But you sort of have to get the vertical striping to be a bit matchy as well.  This photo shows that I sort of did OK.

 I used a little ribbon tag for the back, as suggested by Karen (I save my Tessuti ribbon for this very purpose).

Not as quick and easy peasy as I had originally thought, but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.  Thanks, Karen!

And what am I reading in my new cosy pyjamas?  Well, this time last year, Rhonda and I were listening to the delightful David Mitchell at the Sydney Writers Festival.  I loved everything he had to say, but had never read his words.  So I went to the Festival bookstore and bought, amongst many other books, all five of his.  Ghostwritten is his first.  It has been languishing on my bedside table for all that time.  And I'm loving it.  Why didn't I start sooner? 

Maybe I just needed the right jammies.

A little bit of knitting

There was a bit of knitting done at Chez Nettie over the summer (what summer?).  One was a special request from ma minette for 'stripey socks all the way up to my knees please'.  In fact, they go over her knees, so should fit for a year or two.

Back in December, I received a xmas swap parcel that included some xmassy yarn - hand dyed Bendi Luxury in candy stripes.  It just had to become a cardi for the same four year old.  The pattern is Langston, which is a shrug, however I just kept on knitting so it's a longer cardi.  I think it will go well over a white skivvy and jeans - she's a bit of a jeans girl usually - she just happened to be in her dancing clothes in this photo shoot.

And on this cold and windy Anzac Day, I dug out the sewing machine from the mess that is my sewing room. I'm joining a pyjama party and a certain sister will be pleased to hear the Meringue has been muslined.  But the sewing tales are for another day.

Coast

A quick decision saw us heading to the coast, pre-dawn.

We stopped briefly for a take-away coffee for me from the Braidwood bakery, then off down the mountain to Moruya for breakfast - we were their first customers for the day.

We have a longstanding family connection to Broulee.  It has been a few years since I've been there, but many more for my favourite sister.

Paddling in the ocean.  What could be better?

Crafty preparations

There are a couple of Big Shindigs happening at chez nettie this weekend.  We will celebrate my Dad's 80th birthday and almost all the family is coming - yikes!

Luckily for me, my favourite sister is here to help with the preparations (actually, she came to relax and chill out, but I have put her to work).  We have spent some time getting the outdoors ready for the Shindigs.  Finding tables and seating for so many people was a bit of challenge, but we pulled out some old and cruddy tables from the, cleaned them up and covered one with oilcloth (Kaffe Fassett, no less. Sorry Kaffe)....

...and the other with this gorgeous vintage shower curtain plastic - picked up brand new and unused at... I forget where.  I love the retro stripes.

 We trekked around camping stores and outdoor furniture stores seeking a replacement canvas for my deck chair.  Too hard.  None to be found.  But I think Anna Maria Horner would be proud of the way we used her Volumes design to make our own deck chair seat.  Sister cut, ironed and pinned.  I sewed.  We love it.

(Now, if only my sister would stay, we could do this sort of thing all the time.)

An occasional walk - Goorooyarroo

Being on hols gives one the chance to make spur of the moment decisions on what to do for the morning.  My favourite sister and I had been up since 5-ish. We'd walked the dog, had breakfast, done the shopping for Friday's curry night and so, at 9.30 am, we decided to take a quick outing. 

Perusing my trusty Canberra Nature Parks map, we decided on Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, out Gungahlin way.  No dogs allowed, so Ms Lily stayed at home to guard the curry ingredients.

Along with the adjacent Mulligans Flat Woodland Reserve, this is one of the largest Yellow Box - Red Gum Grassy Woodland stands in the region.  There are beautiful stands of the Yellow Box and Red Gum as well as fallen timber in parts, then gorgeous open grasslands.  The swathes of kangaroo grass are magnificent (if you like that sort of thing - and I do).

There are hills to climb (or, in our case, sort of partly climb) and pristine dams buzzing with dragonflies.

It turned into a warm morning once those storm clouds dissipated, and my sister and I returned to the car hot, thirsty and happy in each other's company.  (PS  I wish she would stay.)

Currently 17

I'm on a short break from work, and I really, really want it to be the summer of skirts.  It feels like hols, doesn't it, when you can wear skirts and sandals.  Even though the weather man this morning told me it was currently 17 degrees, I resolutely stayed with the skirt, but put a jumper on.  Sheesh.  It's 3 days before xmas and summer hasn't come to town yet.

Apart from the aforementioned work on my new fabbo Toyota, I have the usual staycation plans for this time of year:

• See a movie a day - yesterday it was The Ides of March - not bad - all about integrity, my favourite ethical value.  I went to the premium cinema.  Nice.
• Read - I've just finished A Christmas Carol by Dickens (no, I hadn't actually read it before, have you?) and Bereft by Chris Womersley.  I can highly recommend both.  Bereft depicts a hot NSW summer (I wish), young man returned from the war, strange young girl in the bush, not quite knowing what is real.  Currently reading We need to talk about Kevin and Daphne du Maurier short horror stories.
• Sew - I'm going to get the FBA on Sorbetto sorted once and for all.
• Knit and watch Miranda series 1 on DVD

And there will be lots of time with loved ones and friends.  I do so like this time of year.  If only summer would come.

Nothing to see here

Do you ever plan a great piece to write and put off writing until you have the results you want so that you actually have a story to tell?  No?  Maybe it's just me, then.

The great piece I wanted to write went along the lines of ... generosity of other crafters...fiddled and faddled until I got things sorted...lo and behold, here is a great piece of knitting...done by me...on a machine.

The only story I actually have excludes most of those storyboard pieces.  But... I do want to acknowledge the generosity of other crafters and say thank you, I'll get there yet. 

Some time ago, I blogged briefly about putting a call out on Freecycle and being handed a knitting machine. Yay!  Carrie and I spent an afternoon fiddling before we decided I needed a part.  Thanks to ebay, that part was no trouble to source.  A bit more fiddling.  Alas, no knitting yet.

Then a friend from SnB offered me this beauty that she rescued from her neighbour's nature strip.  Unfortunately, the only good thing about this machine is the gorgeous case with retro-style branding.  No go.

At around the same time, an extraordinarily generous and thoughtful friend sent me a message saying that an old family friend had a knitting machine and would I be interested in it.  Oh yes please.  She and her brother kindly brought around a fabulous, fully functional, double bed Toyota with loads and loads of accessories and punch cards and manuals and folders of course notes and knitting samples and bits and bobs the purpose of which I have no idea yet.  I was thrilled!

So, you see, I was hoping that I could set up things in a flash and have lovely woolly things to blog about by now.  Still no knitting, but guess what I'll be doing these hols!