Heirloom Tomato

What a wonderful surprise I got yesterday from Jenni - a packet of heirloom tomatoes. They're kinda hard to find.. but she brought them round to cheer me up. and they worked.

I made a little salad - the best thing about these kinds of tomatoes is that you really need no dressing at all on them as they are just so tasty by themselves. I sliced them up, put on a generous pinch of salt, and let them stew a little but to release their tastiness. Once you've left them for 10 mins or so, i sprinkled over some fresh mint and some cracked pepper. I served them up with some grilled haloumi. it was a delightful lunch indeed!

When does a yarn obsession become a yarn problem?

Last Saturday afternoon, calmly sitting at home, chatting, relaxing and then suddenly the phone rings.

It's Mhairi - "Han, Champion Wools on King St is having a closing down sale!"

"oh my god. hang on Mhairi - I'll be there in a minute, literally"

I race out the door, power up king st (thank god I live so close!) running past a few people I know not taking the time to stop and say hello, my empty shopping bag in hand. "A Yarn Sale. A Yarn Sale!!" I'm singing in my head.

I run into Champion Yarns, and start touching (and yes "D", I thought about licking) skeins of tasty wool. I started pulling Jo Sharpe balls off the shelf to work on that blanket I'm trying to finish. Next thing I knew my bag was full and I wasn't going to be eating for a whole week. A small sacrifice considering how much wool I got and how great my blanket is going to be one day.



Mhairi and Kirsty were there. I think they might of been a little scared about my hyperactive behavior. They're new to this whole yarn thing, and are safe for a bit longer before the OBSESSION starts. But they got into it pretty quickly and realised the whole conundrum of buying wool: "if I buy something that's nice, but have no idea what to make with it, is that a problem?" As previously mentioned, they are both novices at yarn shopping and came to the conclusion that it was bad to buy without planning before hand. FOOLS, what fools - BUY NOW THINK LATER. especially when there is a sale on!



I'm not going to use this post of moan about the lack of wool stores in Sydney - seriously, there's a massive hole in the market. I'll save that complaint for its own post. I think that is one of the main things I'm missing about London. For a country that produces some of the best merino wool in the world - where are all the yarn shops? where is all the wool?

First Brown St Crochet Meet up

I've finally got my Sydney crochet gals together. We had our first Crochet meet up last week. and it was fun. I made Mexican, and then we all started to crochet. We've mainly all been working on stuff for the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef here in Sydney, being arranged by In Stitches for the exhibition thats opening at the powerhouse in a few weeks... we had loads to finish. and every one's work is coming along nicely.

The girls hard at work - Mhairi, Kirsty and Erin on the crochet and Cathy catching up on some mending.

Kirsty's Coral

Mhairi's Coral - is as big as her head!

It was Erin's first attempt at crochet (another successful teaching story for me - one of these days I'm going to start charging) and I think she's a natural! With very little instruction she formed this perfect nose warmer! It took me ages to work out how to increase without going all Hyperbolic, and I was trying to teach her to do hyperbolic and she went in perfect rounds! She looks cute as a button!

Entertainment was provided by Ben, and with all the crochet and clothes mending (Cathy refused to learn how to crochet, so she mended things) combined with the soft tinkle of the piano we felt like we'd been taken back to Ye Olden Days.

crochet in the pub

yesterday went to Golden Barley with M & K & B to do some crochet.I forgot my camera. but it was a fun time, beer and hyperbolic reef making

Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef - Sydney

I'm pretty excited to come home and discover that a friend of mine is organising the Australian splinter Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. In Stitches is the group of gals that are arranging it for an exhibition to be held in August at the Powerhouse Museum.

I saw the exhibit in london and now I get to do some for this one.

Yesterday was the first workshop I went to at the Powerhouse Museum and it was really fun. Loads of people, and lots of crocheting. I think I even made some new crochet buddies to play with.

I made a ravelry group today to try and get more people involved.. and so far its going really well! Loads of members and people already making stuff. fantastics

This is my silly first attempt - its not a great photo (bad bad lighting in the powerhouse) but you get the picture.


Here's some other photos of stuff thats already been made for it.

Sydney Food List - Ramens

One of the first things I wanted to do when arriving back in Sydney was heading for some RAMEN - oh my how I've missed ramen.

A lovely bowl of Tofu Miso Ramen.

Yesterday I went with J & M to Ishi-Ban Boshi in Galleries Victoria and I was very happy about it. Another great reason to go get ramen from here, is that it's right next to Kinokuniya where you can get fantastic craft books.

J likes it as well.

M is pretty happy - its her first time here.


All Gone... well worth the wait of one and a half years!

Back in Business

I've been away for a while - life has been a bit hectic - thats for sure.
I've spent most of the year traveling around the place and doing strange things.

Now i'm back in Sydney and very happy about it. No more London for me. Ever again. Thats a promise..

So, i'm going to get all crafty with it again.. just watch this space.

Photo Shoot part 2

In the next installment of M & F's photo shoot of their xmas pressies from me, here's M in her bed socks - she makes them look sexy, don't you think?

Photo Shoot part 1

I asked M & F if they could take some photos of the things I made them for Xmas. M got some bed slippers, and F got a hat (very similar to mine actually).

They went all out and took some lovely lovely photos, so I had to put them all up here, as they make me laugh, and they'll make you laugh as well. 

First up, here's Feeb in her hat:

Am loving the nativity scene. 

back in action

so, we're home from our holidays. france was lovely. I was planning on doing loads of crocheting while chilling in our mountain cabin but for some reason I didn't get around to doing much. i'll get back into it all now i'm home, and looking for work.

new winter hat

I finally got around to making something for myself... yay.
a new hat

I've actually made one like this for Feeb for her bday / Christmas pressie. but i added a little crochet flower on this one. Luke thinks its a bit dorky. i kinda like it. the photo is kinda bad... sorry

it's from a Garnstudio Drop pattern.. I'll write more about it later, as I'm rushing to get packed and head off to France for our xmas adventure.

so I'll see you in the new year. 2009. i can't believe it.
see you later

Christmas Present Success

Here's M in her xmas pressie from me. I think she's pretty happy with it, and say she keeps getting comments about it, which is nice. And how cute does she look?

Crochet present success, I'd say.

I've asked everyone who I've made something for to take sexy pics and send them to me so I can put them up here. There's a few more to come in, I hope they come in asap before L and I head off on our French Christmas Adventure tomorrow (which I'm very excited about by the way)

wasted rainy day? I don't think so!

I feel like I've just spend ages today looking at different blogs. Blogs blogs blogs. You really can spend hours and hours going from one to the next. Today's activity was much more appealing than the other home activity that was going on - L is obsessed with "end of the world" movies, and at the moment he's watching Zardoz (again). Despite the lovely 70's knitwear and crochet that it features, I'm leaving him to it.

I'm on the hunt for UK based stuff as I feel like so many of the blog I look at are from the US of A. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them, I like them a lot. I just want MORE.. MORE MORE MORE stuff to look at. And I also want to find some kind of UK network thing going on.. not all of them are UK based, but they're lovely all the same.

I really like this blog, Needled. It has a really lovely inspiring feel to it.. its on my daily read list now.

Sofia Barao's work is lovely.. it has such a dreamy feel.

Wee Birdy (a fellow aussie in London) seems to keep her finger on the pulse of things in London. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Resurrection Fern has some lovely things on Etsy. And some nice post on Lyon, where I'm heading to next week. Handy to discover those pointers this weekend!

I'm loving roman sock's work. I'm totally going to make the frog, and owls (they are so cute)

Some foodie things at Orangette and Pictures & Pancakes (they have such lovely photos on here!)

I could go on.. but I won't - there are already loads of links in my blog roll.. Inspiration is good.

Shhhhh.. another secret

Here's another xmas pressie I've been working on. I think its really pretty..mmm

Xmas party food

Here's some pics of my cookies.. they all went down rather well it seems. Even my German Taste Tester was impressed. I was a bit nervous that they wouldn't work very well.. but I needn't of been.


I also made some mini pies (no, they're not traditional xmas mince pies - which I don't particularly like), Savoury pies - one with mushroom, spinach and feta. The other with a mince-meat kinda thing. People seemed to like those as well!

Christmas Cookies

In prep for a little Christmas/birthday party we're having I've been making Christmas cookies all week.

Hope they come out alright. I guess the Europeans will let me know if they pass or not.



Have made four different types: Vanilla Crescents, Pepperkakor (Swedish style cookies that are good by themselves, or with blue cheese...mmm), Zimtsterne (very hard to make) and Basler Brunsli.

More Craft - Rosette Making

The other day while I was at the Hidden Art UK Design Fair at the Truman Brewery, I pick up this rosette making kit from Barley, who runs Fabrications on Broadway market. She's promoting these as part of her Christmas present wrapping workshop thingies. Basically - wrapping your pressies out of recycled things - scarfs, ribbons, buttons. All sorts.


I thought these little kits were cute, so I picked up one, here's my first attempt, I think i need a bit of practice. But not bad for a first try ( it actually looks better in real life than in these pics - I gave it to Feeb for her birthday yesterday, well as part of her pressie.)

I think I want...

I think I want to subscribe to Interweave Crochet magazine. Some of the designs look really great and surprisingly modern. I like the look of the Ridge Swing cardi, looks exactly like the kind of thing I want to make, now that I've set goals to make more "serious" things. This jumper looks cute as well. There are loads of other projects as well. mmmm, I might consider this purchase - sounds like a useful thing.

Alex's finished scarf

He sure did finish that quickly - and here it is. Alex's scarf. Looks amazing actually. I think I might commission him to make one for a certain someone I know who needs a scarf.  It looks good. Props to my knit group peeps!

I wonder what he'll make next - will it be the jumper with the baby dear/bambi on it? Or a hoodie with lightening? 

Getting my head around the Granny Squares and discovering a new yarn

I've been practising my granny squares. Here are a few I've made recently. I think I'm getting better.

They still look a little rough around the edges - have much more practise to do.

Ages ago when I was down at I Knit London I picked up some Rowan Milk Cotton yarn. I think this is my new favourite to work with. I love how it feels so earthy and natural, and it is made from 30% milk protein - which is pretty odd when you think about it. It comes together really well. I only wish it came in a thicker weight - as then it wouldn't take so long to crochet things up. Here's what I've been doing so far.


The colourful one is actually the Koigu fingering yarn I picked up at the Knitting & Stitching Show. It looks pretty like this I think.

This one is actually a little xmas star decoration. It looks pretty hung up.