In the spirit of this time of year I have decided to have a wee giveaway. I currently have it running on my Ravelry groupHere. But thought I would spread the love a little more too.

I have a skein of a lovely silk merino lace weight yarn sitting in my stash, which is not getting the love it rightly deserves. I would love to send it as a special New Years gift to someone who will give it a good home.

So if you or someone you know would like to have this lovely then post either in the comments or on my Ravelry group and I will add you to the draw.

Entries close 8 pm NZDST on 31 December and is open to entrants worldwide 🙂

I will also be drawing a couple of extra winners to receive a copy of one of my knitting patterns

Good luck and have a lovely holiday period 🙂

I usually like to give hand crafted gifts to at least some of loved ones at Christmas each year, and I think this year I might have been a bit ambitious. Although time will tell as we get closer to the big day.

I am currently working hard on 2 Christmas knitting projects, with one finished and another two still to go. I am not going to share details of these just yet as there is not much to show, but I will be able to share pictures in a few weeks time of some of these.

We also have plans here for some other little gifts the boys are going to help me with hopefully this weekend.

Then just because I am crazy and I don’t have a million things to do in the coming weeks (especially as DH and my littlest monkey have birthdays in the next 10 days). I decided to undertake the task of creating a waldorf inspired doll for little Mr S for Christmas. Thankfully his birthday present has been stashed safely away for a good long while and just needs wrapping, so that is one less stress.

I have been using the Little Amigo doll pattern from the book Growing up Sew Liberated, and has been coming along quite nicely (even if the pedantic side of me was having issues getting the eyes right)

This is how he currently looks.

He still needs his hair and body completed, finishing touches and some clothes but I am quite happy with how he is progressing so far.

Stay tuned for a completed project in the not too distant future 🙂

Nothing says autumn like a big pile of leaves and of course a few kids to play in them 😉

We had to rake the lawn so it could be mowed the other day and our huge oak tree had left a very decent amount of leaves to jump around in. They were amused for almost an hour.
The boys have been out to play in them several times since too. Best toy ever 😉

Things are ticking along here and Have been a bit crazy lately, especially since we seem to have got a cold snap and need to make sure we have enough warm clothing for winter. I have just found that Seth doesn’t seem to have many warm jumpers so I think they might have to jump to the top of list very fast. Who knows i might even get some design time over winter if I can get on top of things 🙂

I am finally getting a chance to post about my most recent pattern release (even if I am almost 2 months late)

Zhu Que is the third installment in my Chinatown collection and I’m really happy with my first girls design.

It features the same mandarin style collar as in my previous two releases, but also has a keyhole neckline and a lovely lace hem option for the bottom of the tunic and sleeves.

I actually works really well in both solid/semi-solid colours and lightly variegated yarns.

This pattern includes instructions for both a tunic top and jumper length in sizes newborn – 10 years in 3 yarn weights (DK, Light Worsted and Heavy Worsted) It can be purchased individually or as part of the Chinatown collection ebook.

Here are a couple of pictures from some of my lovely testers.

Now I just have to get through some of the winter knitting, since the cold seems to be setting in quickly and then I can work on some of the new designs banging around in my head. 🙂

This year seems to bit of a year in our family for some milestone birthdays, apparently I am meant to be celebrating one later in the year and my Grandfather has just had his 80th birthday and is still very much fighting fit (much fitter than me that is for sure if 9 hour tramping expeditions are anything to go by 😉

Anyway 5 years ago our big boy decided he would like to share his birthday with his great grandfather. So we have been in a fit of a birthday furry over the last week. On the actual day we had a special birthday lunch with the two birthday boys and then followed that the next day with a party for Caleb and some friends.

Since it was a special birthday we decided to go with a bit of a theme for the festivities. After sifting through a few decisions we finally agreed on Lego Star Wars (one of his favourite Wii games)

We had Pin the lightsaber on the Jedi, stormtrooper hunting (which proved a huge hit and was played several more times during the party) and had an R2D2 Pinata.

Of course no Star Wars event can be complete without Yoda, who partook in our event in the guise of the cake. I had sifted through several ideas on how i wanted the cake to look or what would be easiest, but kept coming back to the idea of a cake cut into the shape of lego yoda. in the end i was extremely happy with how it came together and the kids had a fantastic time which is really the most important thing.

next step is school for my big guy on Monday and he is so excited that he has been counting down the days all week.

So it seems like February and March had a bit of a testing theme with me.

The girly tunic top for my Chinatown collection has been going through the testing process to get ready for release (I am working through the final edits at the moment).

 In amongst all the craziness of testing, I have also been working on some test knits for others, including 2 adult knits.

First up has been shrug pattern by one of my favourite designers Kelly Brooker, called Lady Cornwall. This is the adult version of the girls version (Cornwall Park Shrug) released in her Summer pattern club. I love this and have already got so much use out of it. I can see it becoming more of a staple during summer (probably in more colours 😉 )

There have also been a couple of knits to keep Seth warm through winter, starting with a vest designed by Sarah. The Zipped up vest included sewing in a zip which was not anywhere as hard as I had originally thought especially with the helpful tutorial. I am looking forward to this getting more use as the temperature continues to drop.

Next up was the Zach Jacket, which I am very thankful for as the mornings are getting rather chilly and this is a nice cozy Bulky knit (pattern also written for worsted weight) which was written by Rachel Evans.

I had a bit of a nightmare as the wool I had ordered to use for one of these jackets, decided to take the long way to my house so I had to improvise. I am actually really in love with how the colours I found in a stash dive came out. And I finally got to use some more of my fantastic Bird and Fish buttons. I am planning to do another one of these soon now the wool has finally arrived.

Lastly is another one for me, once again written by Kelly Brooker and is currently still in the testing stages. This one is the Adult version of her Baby and Kiddy Vertebrae patterns, and it is going to get so much use. It is going to be very well used. Thanks for another great pattern Kelly, I look forward to its release in the coming weeks 🙂

I have been trying to make sure I have allocated some time/projects to selfish knits this year and I am really excited about some of the lovely new knitted items that will be added to my wardrobe in the coming months.

Things have been pretty chaotic here since Seth arrived. Adjusting to being a mother of three has definitely been a challenge, but I think we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

To add to the craziness I have been putting the third pattern in my Chinatown collection through the testing process and have been having some great results, I am extremely hopeful for release by the end of the month.

We have also been getting ready for Caleb turning five and heading off to school. He has his first school visit in a couple weeks which he is really excited about, along with planning a birthday party since his birthday is right in the middle of the school holidays. This week has been an extra challenge as he has been home from kindy with chicken pox o.O

I realise this is not an overly exciting post but want to try and get back to posting more regularly this year so we will see how we go 😉

On the 23rd of November the newest member of our family came into the world in a big rush 😉

The last month seems to have been a bit of a blur adjusting to life with 3 kids and trying to get ready for Christmas too. It has been a wee bit crazy. The boys love their brother like crazy and there are many fights over getting to cuddle him.

So I will just make this post about photos of our small squishy little man who is already up 1.2 kg from his birthweight.

Things have been very quiet on here since I arrived home from our working trip to the states. The first month was a bit of survival mode as DH was over there for another month after us and so I had do try and settle back into a normal routine with the boys on my own.

Otherwise we have been trying to get ready for the new arrival that we are hoping will make an appearance in our family within the next month.
There has been a lot of trying to get everything washed (with weather that hasn’t always been co-operating) and a bunch of knitting too, both for our baby and for friends who have recently had babies.

Some of the following knitting was completed while we were away and the rest I have been slowly working through since getting home.

I even managed to finish something for me

I was also lucky enough to receive some gorgeous knitted gifts 🙂

And lastly managed to whip up a homecoming outfit for the baby

We got the chance to head north over the Border into Ontario, Canada over the weekend. The main purpose was to visit Niagara Falls but thought we would drive a wee bit further and visit Ikea, then drive on to see some of Toronto. Unfortunately the side trip to Toronto did not turn out as planned due to major issues with parking and traffic so we decided to head back to Niagara and let the boys go for a swim in the Hotel pool instead (which was a big hit)

Here are a few shots of Toronto

Niagara was very impressive and definitely worth crossing the border for, the NY side isn’t anywhere near as impressive. We managed to get a view of the Bridal Veil falls as we were driving down to the Hotel which was great. The Clifton Hill section of town was much like a big fair ground with lots of little attractions (many haunted houses/arcade type games etc) and by the time we headed up there for dinner it was all lit up. After a wander around and some food it was time to head down to the waterfront so we could see the falls lit up and the fireworks display. I am really glad we had decided to spend the night so we were able to see these as they were really impressive and the boys loved them although were completely wiped by the time we got them to bed at 11pm.

The following morning we had a slightly slower start due to tiredness but headed down to go on the ‘Maid of the Mist‘ which is a boat that goes along the river right up close to both sets of falls. We had a wee bit of a wait to get onto the boat and it was rather warm so Jim had decided he didn’t need his jacket (aka sauna suit) and got rather drenched when we got around to the Canadian/Horseshoe Falls but managed to dry pretty quickly once back on dry land.

This boat ride is one thing I am so glad we did, you get a great view of the falls and can really appreciate the power the falls have. Once we got close to the Canadian Falls the spray was so strong you could barely see anything except the spray and you could feel the strength of them. The boys were a little freaked out by how strong the spray was, but at least it was nice and refreshing in the heat 😉

We ran into another parking issue trying to take some pictures down near the Canadian Falls so I ended up jumping out and grabbing photos while Jim drove around with the sleepy boys in the car before we headed back across the border into Niagara, NY.

We made a quick stop to get some lunch then decided to visit the Aquarium of Niagara (especially since it was free with our Zoo pass) Boys loved seeing all the different fish and little sharks, and it kept them happy before we drove the last 90 mins home.

Was another rather tiring weekend overall, but a good time. Next trip to Canada will be when the boys and I are heading home which is not too far off now 🙂