Holidays

Can't believe that I have been at my full time job for 12 months.  It really does seem like yesterday when I started.  I am on annual leave at the moment, all 38 blissful days.....I decided not to go away this year, so 5.5 weeks at home is quite challenging but I have managed to fill in the first 3 weeks quite easily.

Cooking, cleaning, knitting, coffee with friends, dinner with friends, catching up with family both in the country and by the sea, going to see my football team play, exercising, sleeping.....lots and lots of sleeping, shopping.....lots of shopping, pattern writing and just generally enjoying not working.

I've put together a whole bunch of photos I've taken whilst on hols, some on my DSLR, some on my phone, some snatched from my Instagram account, some snatched from others on Facebook.....thank you Lamb Loves Fox and thank you Kris.

And if you are waiting patiently for Purdey pattern to come along.....your wait is going to be a little longer.  Kris who does all my desk top publishing for all of my patterns, had an early arrival.  Welcome to the world Pippa Mae.  Purdey has been put back till Kris is ready, and I think this little bundle of gorgeousness is a valid excuse, don't you?

Victoria x

Sunday......

Mums, dads, sisters, brothers, nana, pa, grandma, grandpa, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, boyfriends, girlfriends = family.

Vicki x

Put Your Right Foot In........

Baby Legwarmers as I call these.....stashing these gorgeous little long boots for some gifts for upcoming mothers.....I'm addicted to making them, although I have taken on a couple of international orders and still in the midst of pattern writing so I've had to stop myself from making a second pair.....and I'm mucking around with the sizing as well, want to make some of these for bigger bubs.  You'll find the pattern here and my pair here with some additional notes and amendments I made to the pattern.  What do you think, cute?


Bye, Vx

And Then There Were Four......

Busy knitting prototypes of Purdey bonnets & earflap hats......Subtle sizing changes mean a whole re-knit just to check.....and check again!  Luckily all these prototypes will go to photographers for modelling and sizing checks.  It looks like both patterns will go past my toddler age bracket and should hopefully fit up to or close to a 10 year old which is great for those who have young children & there will be 4 sizes in both hat patterns.

I've contacted my typist, formatter and desktop publisher and she'll start typing up the basic notes of the first Purdey pattern this weekend whilst I start taking the step by step photos.  I don't think we'll be finished by the end of January as promised but I should have the earflap hat well on the way.....that will be the first Purdey pattern as it's unisex whereas the bonnet is more female orientated......it seemed logical to do the hat  that all can use first.

Anyway just a little update for you all, it's back to the knitting for me and all the pretty colours!

Happy New Year by the way, hope you're all well into the swing of 2015.

Vx

2014 The Year That Sort of Was!!

I looked back to the post I did here.  It had some NY resolutions or sort of resolutions.  Thought I should review those and see how I went.

1. No more Not so many yarn purchases. (sort of did ok, but if I had to be honest....I failed)
2. Pilates twice a week. (started off doing it at home once a week and by the time I started in my new job.....all went out the window....fail)
3. Buy that damn bicycle I've been wanting to buy before Summer finishes. (In my quest to save money I am renovating my current bicycle)
4. Lose that last 10 or so kilos.....I managed to get 6.5 off before Christmas, so I'd like to have the remaining 10 off by December....slow and steady. (didn't lose but didn't gain....so that's a win in my book)
5. Finally learn to run and enjoy it.....Couch to 5K, here I come. (Yep can do that, although an Achilles injury in October has put a stop to any running for the time being so it's back to walking)
6. Finish all the woolly works in progress before I start any more. (Big Fail)
7. Have at least 4 more knitted patterns completed before end of year. (Fail, although I have 2 scheduled for the end of January, so almost there....sort of!)
8. Save more money. (Yep, earning more allows you to save more....and I've managed to set up some saving schemes/extra superannuation for my retirement, thanks to my accountant, so that's a win)
9. Don't waste so much food. (Not sure about this, but I know I haven't been eating as much!!)
10. Comment more on other peoples blogs, facebook pages and the like....I know it makes me so happy when someone leaves me a comment, so I'm going to make sure I do it more to others this year.(I started off well, but once I got into the swing of my new job in May.....Fail)
11. Smile randomly at someone in the street everyday. (This one wasn't hard, I just smiled randomly at passengers on my tram.....you smile at someone they'll smile right back, even if it is a half hearted smile)
12. Be HAPPY! (I think I ended up the year a lot happier than I started out, although some people do question this as I'm not one of those people that is outwardly smiling all of the time, more introvert, than extrovert  I've made some new friends, met some wonderful people at my work who make me laugh  on a daily basis, and yeah I'm really looking forward to 2015).

All up I've had a good year.....I love my job.  I was out for dinner with one of my new found friends last week just before Christmas, and I said to him that I never thought I would find a job that I love, and I do like driving trams......who knew!!  It's so nice to go to work every day knowing that you like what you do.....I had a week off before Christmas, and by the end of the 8 days off, I was looking forward to going back to work....so that says something.

I guess the only thing that has disappointed me a little is the neglect of dover & madden so to speak.  My time is now spent focusing on my full time job, it does take a lot of my time....I'm at work for at least 9 hours every day, or 5/6 days a week, and I'm pretty much exhausted still, both physically and mentally when I get home, so d&m stuff now gets left or ignored a lot....although I am pattern writing and it does look as if my next pattern(s) will be out by the end of January.

Anyway I'm off to work now, I guess for the first time in a few years I'll be out on NYE albeit working.  I'll leave you with some of my favourite images from this year.

Happy New Year to you all, may 2015 be everything you wish it to be.

Be happy, be healthy and most of all be kind.


Vicki x

Time keeps on Slippin'

I never intended to stay away for so long......and now it's marching on towards Christmas.  I've been in my job now for 6 months, where has the time gone?

Once again this blog post sees me with no news, or progression on pattern writing.  Full time work is really just that.....full time, with what always seems as no let up.  Trying to always catch up on sleep before catching up with anything, anyone or anybody!

I have made one decision that has turned out to be a good one.....a cleaner.  This has freed up a little bit of time for me and for the first time in what seems like months, I have started to finish some long overdue knitting as well as just knitting items, because I can.  Also a large stash of white Fuzzy Wuzzy came my way via Canada, so I spent a few nights knitting up little Kitty Kat hats....some of which are still available in my Etsy store.....there will be some more to come as I have a lot of this yarn to knit down.

I also spent a considerable amount of what little time I had throwing, donating, gifting and selling off furniture, clothes, books and crockery, as well as throwing years of long held sentimental items.....I just felt it was time to let all of these things go.  I've refreshed some of these items.....new sofa,  bed, chairs, storage for my stuff as well as wool and some new bed linen(s), with a few more things to come, but it is true what they say, you do feel lighter when you're not smothered in stuff and clutter......well I do anyway, and it was a good decision in the end.  Even though it sort of didn't feel totally right at the time.

The only other thing I've done is to put up the Christmas tree......a new 3ft white tree, that sits of the side table filled with beautiful vintage ornaments that I've been buying and stashing over the last few years.....these ornaments weren't cheap but they are so lovely so I figured I needed to get a few extra weeks out of the tree.

Well that's all my news, I promise I won't stay away for too long next time.....fingers crossed the next post will be all about 2 new hat patterns....Purdey bonnet and Purdey earflap......which leads me to say as well how overwhelmed I've been with current pattern purchases.....Clover seems still to be the pattern of the moment, and I just marvel at the beauty of them all when I look at Instagram.....there is literally 100's of them using the tag #cloverearflaphat......so thank you to all who have purchased a pattern or two and I hope you'll all get just as much joy out of Purdey when it's out just before Christmas.

Thanks again


Vicki x