Heidi Bears

Happy Valentines...and a Hearty Hexagon Pattern

2012-02-13T18:42:00.005+02:00

♥♥♥♥♥Happy Valentines Day for tomorrow!♥♥♥♥♥

I have spent the weekend working on my Hearty Hexagon Pattern, hoping to have it ready for Valentine's Day, and happily, here it is! I must say, that when you have read a pattern a thousand times, and the words and symbols start blurring into a mass of scattered lines, then you need to have a break and step back...so please folks, if you buy the pattern and find a mistake, or typos or generally any things that aren't clear, please let me know... :)

Here is the link if you would like to buy a pattern:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-hearty-hexagon-crochet-motif

I spent weeks trying to find a design that makes a clean, clear hexagon shape without any distorted features or edges. I have a hundred half crocheted hearty bits lying around...my house looks like someone yarn bombed it :)

I hope you all have a Happy Day tomorrow, and get spoiled and appreciated by your loved ones :)

♥Heidi

Versatile Blogger Award

2012-02-09T14:41:00.011+02:00

So today I opened my gmail and saw an email from Helen over at 26 minutes Past. She has awarded me a Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you Helen! Until now, I had never heard of this, being suspended in space between work and wanna-work stuff (I seriously need to get out more folks...), so it came as a happy surprise :)

There are rules to abide by when accepting a Versatile Blogger Award, and they are as follows:

1. Add the award to your blog
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Mention 7 random things about yourself.
4. List the rules.
5. Give the award to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 bloggers by leaving a comment on their blog .

Okkkkkkaaayyyyyy...so.....

Random thing No 1.

I LOVE almonds! Yes, l♥ve them...I will eat an almond every-time if given the choice between them and other nuts...

Random thing No 2.
Believe it or not ...one of my middle names is St John!

Random thing No 3.
I once had a total stranger ask me if I would be willing to do a photo shoot, of JUST my hair (it was for hair products).... (I said no...)

Random thing No 4.
I used to be quite involved with a form of hand to hand combat and self defence, called Kalah (loosely based on what the Israeli special forces use...). I don't have the time for it nowadays...

Random thing No 5.
I have an incredibly strong sense of smell, and become quite overwhelmed if anywhere near smokers or in a place where there are potent smells...

Random thing No 6.
I am totally, utterly, irrevocably creeped out by Parktown Prawns... they are like the spawn of hell...it's also almost impossible to kill the gross things! They jump at you and poop a black pooey substance...

Random thing No 7.
I am the very definition of easily bored...I have to do ten things at once (mind you...enjoyable things, like knitting, crochet, painting etc, not the daily grind stuff...)

Righteeeoooo! Time to nominate the 15 Versatile Bloggers!

The Adventure Blog
A Sonoma Garden
Natural Suburbia
Do you mind if I knit?
AC Engineered Knits
Little Cotton Rabbits
Colourspun
Petitefee
Haken en Meer
Vignette Design
The Inspired Room
Untangling Knots
Le Monde De Sucrette
Adventure Journal
The Cottage Home

All of these blogs are an inspiration! Go and check them out :)

On another note: the last few weeks have been bad for blogging...I just have too many distractions and happenings at the moment. I hope to have a surprise release for Valentine's Day...see you all soooooonnnnnn..........

Have a great evening folks!
♥Heidi

Heidi's Liquid Handsoap...easy as pie!

2012-01-22T09:41:00.011+02:00

I spent yesterday morning experimenting with making liquid handsoap...yes, I was distracted by the allure of mixing and whipping and pouring and generally making a mess of things, and didn't complete the editing for my Happy Hexagon Crochet tutorial...so I am sorry dear readers, and will get on that asap in the new week...BUT, I think I have unvented (don't you just LOVE that word? Thank you EZ!), a very easy, all natural method of making liquid handsoap, without having to use lye and long cooking times... As you all know, I am totally smitten by the cold processed soap that I had learned to make from Rhonda's lovely blog, and since that, I have only made soap, never bought commercially available soaps again. My kids and husband love it, and Gerry even uses the soap to wash his hair...so all-round a big hit!

I really like liquid soap next to the basin in the kitchen, because it's so easy to just squeeze out some from a pump dispenser when you want to wash hands, and it stays clean and contained...however, the daunting prospect of making liquid soap in the traditional way with cooking in a crockpot, and watching it, and having to use KOH lye etc led me to trying to make the liquid soap using just my cold processed natural soap that had been "curing" for around 3 months.

I have seen many references on the web to using commercially available soap, grating it up and melting it in water and adding some glycerine to thicken...I went through the whole process of trying this method, but using my cold processed soap instead, and it failed completely! I even tried whipping the liquid with a a hand-held blender and it didn't thicken at all...
This made me wonder what they put in commercially sold soaps that makes it thicken with just water and a bit of glycerine? I guess it may be the same basic process as making the liquid laundry soap...if anyone knows, let me know what the "thickening " ingredient is :)

After much experimenting and some messed up batches, I have come up with the following process, and it really made the most beautiful, moisturizing liquid soap I have used :)

Heidi's Liquid Handsoap Recipe

Requirements:

240g of grated cold processed soap (made with olive oil and coconut oil)
2 Liters of water
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of beeswax

Handheld blender
Large stainless steel pot
Glass bowls
Double boiler

Start by grating your cured cold processed soap. I arbitrarily used 240g of soap as my starting amount.
Pour 2L of water into a large stainless steel pot and place on low to medium heat. Add the grated soap flakes and stir until all the flakes have melted.

The mixture will make some foam, so try not to whisk it, just stir gently ...above you can see the clear golden liquid that results.

In a double boiler (or in my case, a Pyrex glass bowl suspended on a steel pot with some boiling water in it), melt the coconut oil and the beeswax pellets. Use low heat...you don't want it to get super-hot...just hot enough to start melting the beeswax.

Above you can see the melted mix...when I see the beeswax pellets beginning to melt, I turn off the heat. The rest will melt in with some gentle stirring.

Let both mixtures (the soapy water and the beeswax/coconut mix) reach around 60 degrees Centigrade (I am not sure if this is critical...I usually make sure that any mixes are at the same temperature...).

Pour your beeswax/coconut mix into your soapy water, slowing adding all of it while blending with a handheld blender (I used the high speed setting on my stick blender). It won't thicken, just mix all of the ingredients very well...

You will now have a milky coloured watery liquid. I poured it into a large glass bowl and put it in the fridge to cool. Over the next couple of hours, I checked in on it and found that the mixture separated out into a clear golden liquid at the bottom, and a white layer on the top.

I gently mixed it back into an all milky colored liquid using a hand whisk. Next time I checked, there was less of a separation, and I again gently swirled the lot with a whisk. I mixed twice in about two hours then left it in the fridge.

When I got up this morning, I found that it had gelled into the most wonderful, thick milky liquid! It is really lovely stuff...it didn't leave my hands dry as I think the coconut oil is probably adding a moisturizing element...

I decanted the liquid soap into a pump dispenser and it works well...no clogging or blocking up...

Please try this out and let me know if it works out well for you?

Next week, the promised Happy Hexagon Tutorial!
Have a lovely Sunday folks :)

♥Heidi

Overheard in a French Restaurant....

2012-01-18T18:21:00.005+02:00

I read something hilarious today...I wanted to share it with you...go take a look :)

♥Heidi

Bearmaking 101...any interest?

2012-01-17T19:11:00.013+02:00

The Danish translation of the African Flower hexagon Tutorial is now up...initially I had lots of trouble editing the original post , with "Error 400" popping up frequently...not sure what that was all about, and I couldn't get much help from the Blogger Forums, so if anyone out there knows what this error is supposed to mean, please let me know ! Suffice to say, the tutorial is up and once again, Thank you, Irene :)

Today's post is about something completely different...
During my varied travels through the world of crafting, I came across a lovely book on how to make miniature Teddy Bears. I love Bears, collect them as well and wondered when I saw this book, if it would be very difficult. I bought it, read it and made my first bear in just a day.
Of course, being miniatures, the bear was completely hand sewn, and if I recall, was about 3cm tall! It was a round bottomed Roly-Poly Bear that was weighted , so when you pushed him, he bounced back and forth...very cute!

This led to eventually designing miniature bears, and at one stage I was selling them to a local Bear Shop (yes, believe it or not...a whole shop dedicated just to bears!). Sadly, the South African bear market for really well crafted, unique OOAK bears is pretty poor. It may be that (as in knitting and other handmade items), people don't realize just how much work went into creating them....
There is certainly a thriving and incredibly talented bear making community in South Africa, but unless you sell your bears internationally, you are being underpaid.

It was inevitable that I should graduate to designing and making larger bears, which from a purely practical point of view, are sewn my machine, but handmade the rest of the way. The biggest challenge was to develop a style of bear, which showed unique features that made the bear instantly identifiable as a certain Artist's. My biggest influences came from the early Steiff Bears, which are of course, now incredibly scarce and unbelievably expensive! Steiff is a German company (still operating today), that produced their first Teddy Bears in the early 1900's. The were a huge success (as you can well imagine...I mean, on consideration, what did kids take to bed for comfort and company when they were little, before the advent of the teddy bear?...sheep?...somehow not quite the same, Watson my dear...), and since those early years, Steiff bears (especially antique bears) have become coveted by collectors all over the world.

The history of Teddy Bears was one of my favourite reading past-times...if you are interested in such thing s, there are some excellent teddy Bear Encyclopaedias available on Amazon.

I used mohair fabric almost exclusively, although expensive, it is certainly the best "fur" imitation you can find. You can also find some wonderful long pile Alpaca fabric (unfortunately even more expensive than mohair), which makes the softest, fluffiest bears imaginable!
Don't be put off by the cost...you can make a small bear for a very reasonable cost, and once you have been bitten by this bug (again, just as with knitting and crocheting...), you will think of buying mohair, as you think of buying Kidsilk haze :)

I have been thinking about expanding the kinds of tutorials I post on my blog, and would like to ask my dear readers if Bear making would be something you would want to learn how to do?
My blog is mostly dedicated to knitting and crocheting, but perhaps it would be good to have some different stuff as well...please leave a comment if you are interested in this :)

Some other news...I am repainting the inside of the house, and will post some photos when it's all done!

Sweet dreams, folks!
♥Heidi

African Flower Hexagon Tutorial Translated into Danish...and a new pattern!

2012-01-15T18:34:00.008+02:00

I want to say a big ♥heart thank you today to Irene Larsen , author of the Danish Blog Min Verden Af ILD http://www.ildverden.blogspot.com/ for the wonderful Danish translation of the African Flower Hexagon Tutorial.

Irene has very kindly translated each step into Danish and I will be updating the original post with the translation during this evening. I am pretty "chuffed" (a very South African colloquial expression indicating happiness and satisfaction :) ) with the idea of having different translations for people across the world...if everyone on earth crocheted we would all be at peace, see...so all of us crochet fanatics are actually spreading world peace :D

Please would all of you who have used and learned (or will use and learn) from this translation, go over to Irene's blog and give her a big "Thank you" crochet Love!

Some news...remember my tutorial on how to do a Magic Ring start for crocheting a round-like motif? Well, I am pleased to present a new pattern for a flower hexagon...I am calling it a "The Happy Hexagon" Pattern and will post a tutorial next week some time...keep a watch out for it folks, if you love hexagons like I do and love flowers (like I do :) )!

It's Sunday night, so tomorrow a new week starts...you all deserve some energy for the coming tasks, so go and have a big slab of chocolate right now...it's good for you ;)

♥Heidi

I love, love, love pretty tableware...

2012-01-14T16:20:00.014+02:00

I have many "must-have" weaknesses, I will admit....but one of the biggest is pretty tableware. My path down this collecting road, started with me inheriting a Royal Albert Old Country Roses dinner and tea service from my grandfather . This particular set is very special to me, as it has been used and appreciated since my dear grandfather bought it in 1962, when Royal Albert released this beautiful pattern for the first time. Over the (many) years since, I have added to this set and when my beautiful eldest daughter has settled into her family life, I will pass it along to her...it appeals to be that something so lovely will become an heirloom over many generations.

The problem with having a love of tableware is that one set is, of course, not enough... and eventually housing all of the stuff becomes a problem... I have now also collected 24 place set dinner services for the Lady Carlyle Pattern (which being a pink colourway, will go to my youngest , who is such a "pink" girl :) ), Lady Hamilton, Celebration and Heirloom, in addition to several smaller sets, mostly Royal Albert. I have decided that I need to call it now, and instead of adding different patterns, I just add odd pieces as they become available....

A lot of the sets are no longer produced, so you have to find pieces on ebay and other sites, which in itself can be fun...currently I am looking for the Old Country Roses ramekins...wow, are they hard to find! When we moved to our town , many years ago, I came across an antique shop that had the lovely antique mahogany apothecary cabinet seen in the photos above and below, and knew that this is what I would love to keep my grandfather's set in. It is such a wonderful cabinet, and has the original makers' stamp on the back, with "London, 1905" underneath...it is one of my favorite pieces :)

Perhaps the only time I really enjoy cooking, is when we are having a dinner party. I always try to set a beautiful table, adding crystal (another weakness...) and silverware, and flowers. We don't often have dinner parties , but when we do, we make it as enjoyable for our guests as possible :) (Yes, Judith :) , perhaps we will have a big birthday party in March ...and yes, of course you will be first on the list of invitees!)

My girls have been around all of this breakable stuff since they were born and have never broken even one item...we use all of the crockery often and somehow, they have a healthy respect and appreciation for everything, being careful not to wreck anything. As I said in a previous post, the only craving I still have to give into, is having a real Christmassy, red, gold and green dinner service....something Victorian and very ornate...any suggestions for a pattern?

I spent the day cleaning up and sorting out all the non dining room stuff that has managed to accumulate on my dining room table...not there yet, but making good progress! I had gone into work really early because I woke up when the power went out at 04h30. Not sure if this is part of the much hated load-shedding by Eskom (our power supplier) or if there was another problem...Eskom is extremely unpopular here is SA at the moment, as we have had enormous increases in the cost of power, and still have outages frequently :( ...anyway, I digress...

My favorite silverware pattern has to be Kings, which you can see above. Oooohhh....yummy stuff, and if you can find an old (but well kept) set, it's just lovely...the silver is often a buttery soft color....Can you tell? I really love old stuff...something with a history that has endured...

What do you love that has been in your family for ages?

♥Heidi

Magic Ring Crochet Tutorial

2012-01-12T19:23:00.043+02:00

We had a heck of a thunderstorm last night, which made it's re-appearance this afternoon.
Everything in the garden is soaked and sludgy. I shudder to think about what is brewing in all this water as of course , it being summer, is is MOZZIE season! The little blighters are everywhere, and with my garden being organic, I can't exactly chuck down a half ton of mozzie chemicals! And if I have to smell one more Citronella candle, I may be forced to take up alcohol as a hobby....
Yesterday was a busy day, filled with admin, kids stuff from school, and the ever present issues with trying to get a builder to come and fix the leaking spot on the patio for the gazillionth time!!!!!!!! I must say, I am sick and tired , sorry...let me re-phrase that...SICK AND TIRED of builders doing a bad job! This area on the patio roof has been fixed by FIVE different builders (each several times) and the darn thing still leaks! I am beginning to feel like the evildoer of the End Times will come from some kind of building background :( What does a girl have to do to get an honest, skilled builder ???? Negotiating Middle East Peace feels like it could be easier :(

Anyway...rant aside...

I was again messing around with a crochet hook and some yarn before going to bed last night, and came up with a pretty little pattern. I have started to photograph it and make the motifs...maybe next week will have a little surprise popping up :)

Happily, I spent a couple of hours at our knitting group yesterday, and it was just divine to be sitting in the sun, crocheting hexagons (remember, I have to finish Nani's blanket, so I am focusing folks!), drinking good capuccino and eating cake. We have decided to come along to my place next week, when we will make some soap (not everyone in our group has made their own soap yet, so we are doing a teaching morning :) ...yes, I believe there will be cake! )

Right , onto the Tutorial...I really like this Magic Ring start to a round motif as you can pull the circle very tightly closed....and it's really easy to do!

Magic Ring Crochet Tutorial

Start by placing the tail yarn across your palm and holding it in place with your thumb. Now wind the working end of the yarn around your palm twice (wind away from you in direction).
Slip the two loops carefully off your palm (see above). The working yarn is on the right hand side...

Carefully pinch the top of the set of loops between your forefinger and thumb (of your right hand), and loop the working yarn around your left little finger (* this is how I hold my yarn and control the tension...if you do it differently, please don't become confused...basically prepare your working yarn/ hand set up as if you were about to start crocheting...)
Be VERY careful not to "undo" the two loops of the circle...

Move the two loops circle across to your left hand, again making sure that you haven't let them slip apart/out of your hand...

Insert your hook under the two loops circle, as shown above, and pull the working yarn through the circle and up in front of the loops...

Your work should look like the photo above...

Next, do a Yarn around Hook....

...and pull through the the stitch on your hook... Keep a tight hold of the loopy circle :)
Cool! you have made a chain stitch :)

Insert your hook into the circle again.

Yarn around hook again...

...pull up to the front of the loopy circle...

Yarn around hook again, and pull through the stitch on your hook...well done! You have made a single crochet stitch :)

Your work should look like the photo above...

Continue in this manner, making the required number of single crochet stitches your pattern indicates. In my photos, I have made 12 sc's for a new Hexagon pattern I am working on :)

Right! Your required number of sc's are made , and now you need to close the ring.

In order to see which of the two loops is the one closest to the Tail Yarn, you need to gently pull on the Tail Yarn, and notice which of the two loops shortens. In the photo above, you can see which of the two has become shorter as the Tail Yarn lengthens...
Remember which one it is :)

OK, now pull the yarn that became shorter , at the other end of where the Tail Yarn emerges, and pull it carefully in the opposite direction (shown by the small red arrow), thus making the Tail Yarn become shorter and shorter...

Above you see the pulling in progress...

Above, we are nearly there...you will pull until the Tail Yarn is pulled out of the Loopy Twosome completely!

You will be left with just one loop yarn, and a Tail.

Now pull the Tail Yarn until you see the circle loop begin to become smaller...and smaller, until is is almost closed and a ring of sc's has formed :)

Above you see how things should look...your crocheted ring is almost closed, and the first chain stitch you made is lying next to the last sc you made...all that is left to do is join the circle in the round.

Insert your hook into the chain stitch you made right at the beginning of the whole process...
Yarn around Hook, and make a slip stitch (by pulling through both stitches on your hook).

Whoo!Hoo! Ring closed! There is still a biggish hole in the middle of the crocheted circle. If you would like it to close completely, just pull hard on the Tail Yarn until it closes completely :)
You can start to crochet Round 2 now...

This is such a great start to a motif in which you want a closed round crocheted centre, it looks especially good on flowers! Please let me know if there are any errors...I am little tired and the 'ol noggin is nodding...

Happy crocheting folks!
♥Heidi

Children and their doings...

2012-01-10T17:53:00.009+02:00

First off today , I want to thank everyone for the kind comments and thoughts (and messages left for the bad blogger!) after yesterday's post. I am happy to report that the tutorial was taken down and I am hopeful that the same person will perhaps re-consider before posting another tutorial. I am grateful to all of you who sent comments and emails, and who visit here and want to say a big, huggy, heart-burtsing, eye-popping *Thank You*...I appreciate you all very much! ♥♥♥♥♥

Today was the last holiday day before school starts. I sewed on school badges, scrolls, covered a trillion textbooks and exercise books, nagged about getting uniforms set out and pencil cases packed. I demanded an earlier bath time and (Ha, Ha...) set the law about getting to bed early!
(We leave for school at 06H45, so the little critters need to get some sleep after pulling all-nighters during the holidays...) The girls were quite obliging and with any luck, tomorrow at a quarter to seven will not hear a plaintiff, "Mom...can you quickly just bake 24 muffins...just quickly...I forgot about it and I must have them today..." (Ok, just for the record...this has actually happened and real children were very nearly harmed during the making of this production....)
So, a new year starts and I am expectant that it will be a good year full of new things and experiences!

Nani has a penchant for grilled eggs, and she just ups and makes herself one when she feels like a snack. When I wanted to come and blog, I realized that I didn't have my phone with me. So, off I went searching... this is what I found...produced courtesy of an 11 year old... :D
It's pretty dark, but (IMHO) pretty funny :)
Children will do the darndest things...Aliki once cracked and "hid" a dozen eggs under her bed, because she wanted (I presume) to find one with a chicken inside. Of course, I had to wrack my brain to work out where the unbelievably bad smell was coming from a few days later...
we had to remove the carpet completely from the room and quarantine it before disposal...

The very same child, at the age of 3 years, spent a Sunday afternoon, smearing her bedroom with a kilogram of peanut butter. I was pregnant with the second one, and suffering from 9 months worth of hellacious, ride-with-a-bucket-in-the-car-at-all-times morning sickness, which had left me with little by way of a sense of humour. I had gone to lie down for an afternoon nap and awoke, violently nauseous with the swirling odours of peanut butter around me.
The child had literally covered every possible spot (including herself) with smooth peanut butter...I blame the DH for those genetic traits emerging : l ......

My favourite image comes from M•I•L•K .... I really love their stuff and have collected all the pictures I like over the years. The one above is like a personal mantra...if you have kids, you will know exactly what this means!

Go now, and check what your kids are doing...you never know ;)
♥Heidi

African Flower tutorial theft....and Weekend Recap

2012-01-09T05:36:00.028+02:00

Well...I guess it had to happen. I have been seeing a lot of this going on in the Blogosphere, and was wondering when I would have to be the one to write rude comments and emails ...

I received a lovely, kind email from Sam (thank you very much Sam, for letting me know :) ), asking if I had two blogs or if someone had copied my African Flower Hexagon Tutorial onto their blog. I went to take a look...Hey Presto! There is was...VERBATIM!

Now I know that there are some people out there who have dodgy ideas about what constitutes nice manners, but I have to say that I am pretty bleak about it. I know that this has happened to people's handmade items as well...someone blatantly copying their work and representing it as their own, and sadly they haven't had much by way of recourse. The only thing that I have seen happen to keep the Blog world accountable, is to bombard the offenders with messages and comments until they remove the stolen work. Have any of you had something similar happen? How did you manage to resolve the problem , if at all? What do you think I should do?
I have left a comment (very strongly worded I might add), as there doesn't seem to be an email or contact on the site, and I will try to email Blogger as well...

Folks, any helpful suggestions would be very much appreciated :)

The Tutorial is posted in it's entirety on the "makehandmade.blogspot.com" site and here is the link...

We had a lovely weekend. Gerry's stand-in doctor covered the ICU on Sunday, so we had the whole day to ourselves :) After work on Saturday, I spent (more!) time sorting out the vegetable garden. It really defies belief that the whole world as I know it can deteriorate into a uncontrollable mess in just 12 days!!!! It's kind of like "Lord of the Flies" thing! After a week of hard work, I finally feel like the worst is over and I have started planting some seedlings...

Where we live in South Africa, we have heavy summer rains, which is a bit of a challenge, as eventually everything gets attacked by Powdery Mildew. I use an excellent organic fungicide (Margaret Roberts'), and after just one application, the difference is visible.

Now is the time to plant / sow for your Autumn/Winter crops. I am planting more potatoes, beans, cauliflower, carrots, peas, red onions, baby marrows and some other odds and ends. I am going to experiment with constructing small greenhouse-like covers for my boxes to protect them from the frost (which is severe in winter), so let's see how that goes :)

Yesterday I worked on the footpaths between the bed boxes. At present, there is grass growing between the boxes, and in some places , just soil, which with the constant rain, is just a messy, muddy swamp. I found some pre-made concrete cobbles at a local nursery, which are just perfect for a walkway. I pulled out all the grass, laid down some weed control cloth and put the cobbles on top. I convinced Aliki and Gerry to go and buy some pretty white garden pebbles for me, and scattered some in the spaces that weren't well covered by the cobbles. What is really nice about these cobbles...they are all held together with wire, so you can cut a row free when you need just an extra bit. I am pretty chuffed by this...however, I have only just managed to work on a small section as yet...hopefully the rest will be done by the weekend :)

I finally have a small head of cauliflower. Really, this is a winter crop and I shouldn't have expected much by way of a harvest, but there it is!

There is a also one meagre little purple cauliflower head, more decorative than anything, but I am quite happy to be able to see the colour...it's the first purple cauliflower I have seen :)

Flashy had a bath on Sunday. Initially bath times were a nightmare with him fighting and thrashing, but he has come to really enjoy them now. Of course, the spoiled dog gets a massage and back scratching, so now he stands quite still. I wash him with a lovely organic Tea Tree Shampoo, which also makes him smell nice :)

Have a happy Monday folks!
♥Heidi

Watercolor Painting...how I stretch my paper

2012-01-06T14:08:00.016+02:00

In the past I have tried to teach my girls how to paint, but perhaps they were too small and their attention span too short, so it came pretty much to nothing. With my decision made to try and spend time painting again, they have suddenly decided that they want me to teach them (with no prompting by me, so this must be for real ;) ). So I decided to stretch some small pieces of watercolor paper to let them use for practice.
Watercolor paper always has to be stretched if you are going to paint watercolor with lots and lots of detail, and if you are painting on Hot Pressed paper. The only paper I use is the Arches brand 300g/m2 Hot Pressed Paper, which is smooth and has a lovely size applied which helps to keep the fibres stable even with 20-30 overlay washes. This is the best stuff folks...if you haven't used it, you are in for a treat...go out and buy some!

Over the years I have tried many brands of paints, but the best by far is the Schmincke watercolor. These are superb, and even when dried on a palette, will disperse immediately with a touch of water, with no plasticky bits in between. I use mostly the transparent colors, including Indian Yellow ( a warm yellow) , Aureolin Yellow (a cool yellow), Translucent Orange, Sap Green (a yellow green), Phthalo Green (a blue green), Phthalo Blue (a green blue), Ultramarine Blue Finest (a reddish blue), Alizaron Crimson (a blue red), Scarlett Red (a true red) and several other odds and ends...

I use mostly the Windsor and Newton Kolinsky Sable brushes, in various sizes...Kolinsky Sable is the best brush you can use for watercolor but costs a fortune per brush, so I buy all my brushes during the Herbert Evans Art Sales in August when they have a 40% discount :)
If you are starting out in watercolor, I would definitely not recommend buying such expensive items...rather get used to the medium before you commit big time.

I will show you how I stretch my paper...this is NOT the only way to do this...just the way I do it :)
I start with a plastic bucket, which I scrub super-clean and rinse thoroughly. I fill it with cold tap water.

Cut the paper to the size you want, making a tiny pencil mark on the correct side (yes, Arches Hot Pressed paper has a correct and an incorrect side : ) ), and carefully immerse completely in the water. I tend to soak the paper for about 20 minutes.

While it is soaking, prepare your wooden board. I cover the board with a good 'ol fashioned rubbish bin bag (the one the council collects rubbish in :) ), to prevent the water soaking into the wood. Make sure it is smooth and wrinkle-free...

I tape the paper down with water activated watercolor tape. Make sure that you pre-cut your strips, because if you get water on the roll, the whole thing is ruined!
Run each strip once through a jar of water, and place over the edge of the soaked paper (which is placed on the rubbish bag covered board)...make sure that the tape covers at least 3/4 of an inch of the watercolor paper. Do this on all sides...

While the paper is still wet, staple down the brown paper onto the board, all around...this secures the paper in place so it doesn't re-shrink when drying...

Leave in a cool place out of the sun to dry...Voila! Stretched paper! Ready to paint :)

I need to catch up a lot of admin tonight , but hopefully we'll start painting tomorrow...

What do you like to do as a hobby other than knitting and crochet? Do any of you paint?

Have a good afternoon,
♥Heidi

Flash the wannabe feline... and Sherlock you rock!

2012-01-05T06:21:00.016+02:00

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the vegetable garden...depsite me feeling like I have shifted literal tons of weeds, bolted produce, dead leaves etc....it has actually gone quite well, and the first vestiges of organization are becoming evident. I have staked a gazillion tomato plants, tripoded (is that even a word?) all the Crystal lemon cucumbers, tripoded (there it is again!) the baby marrows and squashes, sprayed the mildew with organic spray, planted a few (really, just a few :) ) lettuce seedlings, planted some rhubarb and seed potatoes and generally had a cleanup here and there...
When things are pretty and picturesque again, I'll show you all what things look like...
During my labours, a short rainstorm passed by and left with the most beautiful double rainbow...

Inspired by AC's post of her lovely dog, I thought I would show some of our lunatic animal...
Flash is a Pitbull, but let me tell you, he is more like a cat in character than anything you're likely to meet of the feline variety! The silly beast has quirks and traits that are so un-Pitbully, it's just not funny! I cannot stand the fact that he wants to be in the house all the time, but of course, the three enablers that live with me, are always persuaded by his big eyed, Puss-in-Boots-Kitty look and let him in whenever he begs...it drives me batty!
He starts whining to be let in as soon as the sun starts showing it's earliest rays, and has to be (repeatedly I might add) booted out by me at night...

The girls spoil this dog to the point of being a celebrity...they are best friends and he is super-protective of them. When the girls and Gerry play around and wrestle and generally mess about, he gets worried that they are being hurt and will nip Gerry and shove his way between them to protect the girls...this is a good thing (especially in South Africa), but the silly beast has also done some apocalyptic things...

A couple of years ago, Gerry bought me a new car (very nice, luxury sedan with a lovely leather interior and all the extras). Flash and his two sisters got into the car one evening(after Nani had accidentally left the door open) and SHREDDED the interior! Yes, everything...EVERYTHING had to be replaced! When I took the car to the dealership for an insurance assessment, he never said a word....he walked around the car several times, and just kept whistling through his teeth...he never bothered to write down anything on his clipboard...
The insurance had to put it down to "vermin activity"... :)

Flash as a young dog could actually climb trees....outside our bedroom we have a huge tree with large and spreading branches. One night I heard a commotion with scratching and whining ...
imagine my face when I saw three pitbulls up in the tree, 5 meters up on the biggest branches that could still support their weight...like I said...more feline than canine!

Flash has little dreaming episodes (at least I think that's what they are...), where he yips and twitches and makes little running motions with his feet. Then he makes a little bark and growl and then yelps...all very funny to watch :)

He has a wool allergy, and so lying on the Persian rugs is a no-no....but of course, where in the world is his favourite place to lie? Yes! Winner-winner-chicken-dinner! ...on the Persian Rugs!!!!!!!
Pitbulls are really amazing dogs...we have always had them and can honestly say that they are smart, gentle, protective and loyal! (even when they eat your doors, cars, shoes, garden tools, Angora Rabbit yarn(!!!), roasted chickens, table legs.....)

This week the girls and I went to see the second Sherlock Holmes offering. All of us are huge Robert Downey Jr groupies (and Jude Law is himself not too shabby ;) ), so we were beside ourselves with anticipation. The first movie was absolutely awesome, and let me tell you....A Game of Shadows was even better!

We get to meet the evil Professor Moriarty, who hatches a new criminal plan of diabolical proportions. The stage of the crime is far larger in this movie, with a global catastrophe in the making. Of course, the sheer awesomeness of RDJ is without doubt...he is as always brilliant!

There is a lot of violence and bombs, guns etc, so it is not a movie for kids who frighten easily. The action scenes are spectacular and the music great (I intend to buy the soundtrack!).

The ending was a real twist-in-your-seat and wring-your-hands kind of ending with a last scene Wow! surprise...all in all, the most enjoyable movie we have seen in ages!

Have a great day folks!
♥Heidi

Crocheted Bobble Edging Tutorial

2012-01-04T13:56:00.015+02:00

Today I am posting a tutorial on how to make a very simple crocheted bobble edging. I mentioned before that I wanted to play around with ideas for edging off Nani's Hexagon blanket and I wanted something that reflects her happy, quirky personality. The hexagon blanket is being made (and here I assure you...I have stuck to the goal of doing two hex's every day until it is finished...yes, yes, I know the year is only 4 days old :) .....) in hectic, bright colours, because that just what Nani is like! So, without further ado...here is the tutorial...

I have crocheted a simple sc base on which to work. Above you can see that I have just turned the work and chained one.

Slip stitch into the FIRST space of the row. (Remember...a Slip Stitch is hook into space, yarn around hook, pull through space AND loop on hook in one movement).

Chain 2.

Now you will start a series of incomplete Double Crochet stitches....what you do is this: Yarn around Hook, insert hook into same space (as you made the slip st), yarn around hook, pull through...you have three loops on your hook...yarn around hook, pull through TWO LOOPS... you will be left with two loops on your hook...

Repeat the same again...yarn around hook, insert hook into same space again, yarn around hook, pull through, you have 4 loops on your hook, yarn around hook, pull through TWO LOOPS only...you now have THREE loops on your hook...

Repeat again...just as before...you should have FOUR LOOPS on your hook now...

Yarn around hook and pull through ALL FOUR LOOPS on your hook...

Chain 1.

Slip Stitch into same space as you have been working...watch the pretty bobble form...
:)
Slip stitch into the next two stitches of your base work...this gives you a little space between the bobbles, making things nice and even :)

Repeat the steps to make a bobble...easy as pie!

If your little bobble isn't nice and fat, use your little finger to "pop" out the stitches forming the bobble (from the back of your work), creating a little hollowed space at the back of the bobble...

Hope you enjoy making this...

Have a lovely afternoon folks!
♥Heidi

Origami Happiness...tomatoes...and crocheted bobbles

2012-01-03T15:06:00.000+02:00

It may not come as a surprise to you if you have seen my Pinterest Boards, but I am fascinated by Origami. I have been constantly amazed at the degree of complexity that origami artists can achieve with just a bit of paper and a pair of hands. I am no expert, but decided to delve into the technical aspects of Origami...to that effect , I found a fantastic book by Robert J. Lang called Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Robert Lang is just simply an Origami Legend!
I also found some lovely Origami papers online at Loot, which made me a very happy puppy :)

The papers have various themes...one set are all animal prints...croc skin, tiger print etc...another has traditional kimono designs and traditional Japanese prints...very, very nice!
If you are interested in Origami, I can highly recommend two sites:
www.oriland.com
and
www.happyfolding.com

The Origami artists of Oriland are Yuri and Katrin Shumakov. Their site is filled with amazing designs, many of which you can buy with step by step instructions. I have recently bought two of their offerings...
The Oriland Magic Star
Dinosaur Skeletons

Below you can see their Origami Stegosaurus...I just love this! There is even a Neanderthal Man for you to fold :) I am hoping to fold a small Steggi sometime this year...
The eBooks themselves are exceptionally well written, with countless illustrations to guide you...honestly, I really think even a beginner could follow along!

Sara Adams is the star of Happy Folding. Her instructional videos are really superb (and there are loads of them!). Even if Origami isn't your thing, check out these sites...you will be amazed at the designs and the artist' cleverness!

It has been a boilingly hot day here in SA today, and I suspect we are going to have a heck of a thunderstorm later...I have managed to get the worst of the offenders out of my vegetable garden and have even harvested some more stuff, including some Purple Dragon Carrots and really red, lovely and fat tomatoes. I am going to make a pasta sauce to use in my Bolognaise sauce...any good recipes you know of...please let me know :)

The Purple Dragon Carrots are such a novelty...lovely and burgundy on the outside, but bright orange inside...they taste the same to me as regular carrots, just not as sweet at the Little Finger Variety I mentioned before....they look fabulous in a salad!

As I was sitting in bed last night, listening to a lecture, I played around with some yarn and a crochet hook, and came up with a pretty crocheted Bobble Edging...very easy to crochet and potentially quite versatile. I have been thinking about an edging to use for Nani's Hexagon Blanket (...on that topic, I have been a very good little crocheter, and crocheted several hexagons since New Year ;) ), and think that this bobble edge will be a cute final round...
If time permits, I will do a photo tutorial later this week :)

I have spent the last couple of days slaving in the garden, and I swear, must have staked a thousand tomato plants!!!!!!!!!!! Remember when I said earlier, "Plant less Lettuce"?...well, add to the list if things I learned about vegetable gardening..." Plant LESS TOMATOES!!"...you don't need a hundred different types of tomatoes...no, really!
I made my sister swear that she would forcibly stop me next season, when I say something idiotic like "Oh, just one more seed...after all, maybe it won't germinate"...she has been instructed that violence may freely be used as a last resort!

Speaking of Sisters...it's my one and only dear sister's birthday today...so 'Det...

*-...-•"*-...-•"*-...-•"*-...-•" Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!! *-...-•"*-...-•"*-...-•"*-...-•"
May your Rhubarb grow like Khakibos, your strawberries grow the size of lemons, your husband buy you yarn for no reason, and may the pests in your garden all emigrate next door!
Have a happy, spoiled day!
*PS...your pressies await....

Have a fruitful Tuesday folks...
♥Heidi

Rowan Yarns...and the easy peasy Pie Recipe

2012-01-02T11:05:00.022+02:00

Yesterday I made a berry crumble for dessert after Sunday Lunch. I will be the first to tell you that I hate cooking...at least the variety of cooking that has to magically materialize at 6pm when I would rather get a poke in the eye with a stick than waste time (that could be far better served knitting/ crocheting) in front of the stove...yes, such are my culinary leanings...however, when it comes to baking, I am a far happier camper. That being said, my philosophy about cooking and food generally can be summed up as follows: "If it takes more than 10 minutes of my time/hands to make, then it's not worth eating...".
So, over the years of enforced servitude in front of the stove, I have developed super-fast recipes and food shortcuts that allow me to whip something up that is great tasting but brain donor easy!

This fruit pie/crumble is one of those things :)
Pie pastry is essentially a mixture of butter (fat) and flour, a little sugar, salt and a binder like an egg. Now, if you are so inclined you could add all kinds of stuff, like choc chips etc, but for me, the fastest is bestest! Generally you need to use about double the weight of flour to fat (note: weight, not volume!), and I happened to use Self Raising flour, but really, if you have ordinary cake flour, that's fine...just add some baking powder.

I have a round pie dish that is about 30cm in diameter, and needed the following rough quantities to make the pie pastry:

+/- 2 1/2 cups of flour
+/- 200g butter
1/2 - 1/3 of a cup of sugar ( I used brown sugar because it was closest to hand, but you can use castor or white sugar)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 large egg
Fruit Mix for the filling (I used a frozen berry mix that I bought from a berry supply wholesaler nearby, but really, you could use pretty much any fruit, fresh or canned as well...)

It's easier to work with the butter if it was refrigerated...

I mix the pastry in my Kenwood mixer using the whisking attachment.

1. Place flour, sugar and salt in mixer bowl.
2. Start mixer on medium speed, slowly adding little cut up blocks of cold butter.
3. Add your beating egg slowly...a crumbly pastry dough should start forming...
4. Allow the mixture to form a crumbly fine dough (you can get an idea of the texture above...I literally just took the loose pastry dough out of the mixer and sprinkled it on top of the berry mix...). The dough should be loose and crumbly, but if you squeeze it together, it should hold its shape without being sticky).
5. If you find that the dough is too loose and doesn't have some sticking power, you can add a teaspoon of cold water...just add a tiny bit at a time or you'll get a sloppy dough.
6. When it all looks good, spray your pie dish with some non-stick spray, and scoop some dough mixture into it and flatten with your fingers until the dish is lined with pastry.
7. Pour in your fruit mix.
8. Crumble some more of the dough over the top of the fruit filling...this is not meant to look pretty...just make sure it is sort of evenly spread.
9. Bake in oven at 180 degrees Celsius until the top is brown and golden.
10. Serve with custard or cream...

...easy peasy pie! It sounds far more complicated than it is...the whole thing took about 6 minutes to make...the rest of the time is just baking in the oven :)

I know that there are a gazillion people who will insist that the dough has to be refrigerated for 20 minutes in clingwrap etc etc ...honestly it's too much time and schlepp and it works FINE if you don't! Life is far too short to wait for stuff to get cold!

Try it...let me know how your pie making went :)

My dear and precious husband was in England for a conference at the beginning of December and sweet cherub that he is, went to a yarn shop and bought me some yarn! Now, until recently, the said cherub, still referred to my knitting as "sewing" ...proudly telling people that I am "...really good at sewing..."...so you'll understand that he has no concept about what yarns are and which brands / blends are desirable, never mind color and quantity ...

He has, in the past, heard the word " Rowan" bandied about, so I suspect that when he saw the name on a couple of balls of yarn, he was desperately pleased to have found something recognizable! He brought home a variety of Rowan Yarns that I haven't used before at all. I am the first to tell you that I LOVE Rowan's Milk Cotton, Handknit Cotton and Kidsilk Haze, so I was very curious to see if I liked the following lots...

First Up... Amy Butler's Organic Aran.

I was especially excited as I love all things Amy Butler and the fact that this is an organic yarn, so much the better. I had looked at the wonderful colours on-line, and liked the fact that it is an aran weight, so it would be perfect for big projects like a blanket. It's 50% cotton, 50% wool blend, and you get around 90m in a 50g ball.

Verdict:
Very nice to work with...not as smooth a yarn as the handknit cotton, but not as splitty as the Milk Cotton. I have been using sock weight yarn for such a long time, that I had forgotten how thick aran weight is! It works up very nicely and quickly, and I would buy it again if the opportunity arose...

Kaffe Fasset Kidsilk Haze

This is yarn Nirvana! I mean, Kidsilk Haze people! Is there really anything more you need to say? Add in the fabulous colours in this ball (Note the singular: hubby brought back countless balls of muddy purple All Season's Cotton and *#@!!& only ONE BALL of this yummy stuff!) It is just the most beautiful stuff to knit with and although , like dynamite, it comes in very small balls, there is actually enough to knit a good size project with... DEFINITELY a Keeper!!!!

Rowan All Season's Cotton

Ok...over-sharing time... " Hi, my name is Heidi, and I am a Yarn Snob...it has been 10 years since my last acrylic purchase..."...
Jokes aside...I cannot abide the stuff! I hate that grandma's knitted scratchy jerseys from the stuff in a variety of scary plastic colors , that you were forced to wear to keep the family peace...
Acrylic and me do not play nice! But, I suppose (in defence of the poor grandma's), we have only fairly recently had access to the wonderful new yarns, with the internet and all...so it was with a fair amount of nose-in-the-air that I tried this yarn. It is a blend of 60% cotton and 40% acrylic...again, an aran weight with 90m per 50g.

Ok, I will admit (begrudgingly...)that it is not scratchy. It does however have a supertwisty kind of texture to it, that I am in mortal fear, will pill something crazy when washed over time... I don't think that I will knit anything with this, so I wouldn't know about the pilling...have you used it? Does it pill? The two colours that I have are a burgundyish color and a muddy purple (Arrrggghhhhhh...why would you release a color like that???)...

NOT FOR ME...

Lastly...Colourscape Chunky by Kaffe Fassett. I was quite surprised by this yarn, because anything Kaffe does is generally awesome!
This yarn is beautifully coloured, but like the dreaded Noro Kureyon, seems to be a spun single-ply yarn, with a fuzzy feel. It is 100% lambswool....so I suspect it will felt (there is a huge set of multi-language instructions on the ball band, telling you to hand wash, do not tumble dry etc). It may be ok for felting, but I didn't get palpitations with excitement and anticipation when I thought about what to knit with it...

Verdict: Lovely colours...Nice for felting (I guess I should try make a felted item with it...), but I wouldn't buy it if I could...

Well...that's the story of the yarn, as they say! I need to go and evict more bolted lettuce from my garden (remember what I said...plant less lettuce!)...

Have a good day folks!
♥Heidi

In 2012 I will try to spend more time...

2012-01-01T19:40:00.017+02:00

...Blogging!

...putting my patterns and ideas on paper and uploading to my Ravelry Shop.

...dyeing yarn.

...learning to succession plant and keep my vegetable garden clean and organized.

...finish UFO's.

...at Cintsa.

...finishing Nani's hexagon blanket.

...watercolour painting.

...being kind and patient.
...being thankful.
...being organized.
...being positive and optimistic!

Have you made of list of what you would like to spend more time doing?

.-*"*-..•"HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS!"•..-*"*-...

♥Heidi

Welcome to the Jungle...

2011-12-31T18:41:00.024+02:00

What a busy day the last of 2011 has been! I woke up this morning to a garden gone absofrikinlutely wild. When we arrived home last night it was raining and dark and I didn't even look at the garden. I got up at 5am to get ready for work, and as I walked to the car, there was enough light to see the armageddon of the flora...it must have rained virtually non stop since we went on holiday because truly, you cannot imagine how out of control the lot was! The grass is long, the vegetables have all bolted and were standing in slimy bases...a heckofamess :(

After doing the first round of the day, I came home to watch the kids, Gerry then going off to see patients. The child minder then didn't arrive, so I couldn't get back to the hospital because there was no one to watch the little cherubs ;) , so essentially the day suddenly turned into an opportunity to start sorting out the mess...
I started yanking out bolted lettuce, basil, cauliflower, rotten peas, mildewed marrows etc... I worked for two hours straight and managed to get through about two and half boxes. As I went, I harvested loads of stuff. Surprisingly, there were remarkably few pests...I encountered one snail, 3-4 tiny slugs, a couple of chafer beeltes hiding in the soil and saw the evidence of a caterpillar's visit in the shredded leaves of the cauliflowers...BUT, a lot of the plants were covered with powdery mildew. This doesn't worry me as much...I'll spray with Margaret Roberts' Organic Fungicide...that will sort it out :) When it started to rain, I took my pots of bounty in and started cleaning...I was most ridiculously pleased with myself because I tried to see what was happening on the potato front...since this is my first season of vegetable growing, I thought it would be a mess, but NO! I have grown grogeous, white, perfect potatoes!!!!! Whoo Hoo!!!!!!

I will tell you this for free...seeing something a silly as a green bean growing, has made me feel like I am the gardener of the year! So easy, yet so self pleasing :) I grew some yellow lemon cucumbers. They are the round yellow balls of prettiness near the carrots (yellow, white, orange and purple). They are really sweet and taste a bit lemony, and grew far better than the regular long green cucumbers. I have been amazed how lonnnggg it takes for a carrot to grow, it's like growing a baby, I swear!

The marrows are ginormous...not yet sure in what and how I am going to put them to use...the yellow marrows are lovely and bright yellow, the squashes little zebra perfect balls and the strawberries fat and red...Tomorrow, I will see what else awaits. The boxes are so overgrown (can you believe? in just 12 days!), that I can't get to the back ones easily, so I haven't gone to see what's happening there yet :)

My poor fence has also seen the worst of the continuous rain...it has rusted badly...another thing my gardener will have to tackle when he comes back from leave..."gardener" , in this case is a very enthusiastic word...James is a great guy, a whizz at painting, carrying, helping... but really...green fingered he is not! He has been with us for long enough that I have worked out that it either grows by itself or it perishes.
I once found him carefully picking my newly sprouted seedlings , one at a time between two pinched fingers, proudly telling me he is ridding the garden of "weeds"...
In South Africa, you would now say "Eish!"....

So what have a learned from my first season growing my own vegetables?
1. Plant less lettuce.
2. Plant less cauliflower.
3. Plant less broccoli.
4. Plant less lettuce.
5. Plant less lettuce....getting the drift here?
6. Companion plant!
7. "Little Finger" carrots taste the best.
8. Squashes have nasty , prickly thorns on every part of their anatomy...wear gloves!
9. Organic does work.
9. Always plant Borage with your strawberries...it WORKS!
10. You do NOT need eighteen different tomato varieties...just because they are pretty and different colours, doesn't mean you cannot live without them...
11. Tomato plants get ginormous! Eighteen different varieties get even ginormouser!
12. SUCCESSION PLANT! The Holy Grail of vegetable gardening... (I haven't even come close to getting this right...)
13. Potatoes and Horseradish are friends...good friends!
14. You cannot tell how big a carrot is from looking at the size of the foliage :(
15. Pick beans often or the plants stops making them .
16. Peas don't like wet feet.
17. Everything grows much bigger than you think...planting hundreds of seeds in a square meter of earth (just in case), does not help...
18. Crushed egg shells prevent snails from eating your strawberries.
19. Plant rhubarb earlier next time, plant brocolli and cauliflower later...
20. When the recommended spacing for squashes and marrows is a metre, there may be a good reason for that...(my marrows are filling half the garden, and laugh at the pathetic box I tried to contain them in)
21. If I can grow stuff, then anyone can!

I must have done something right, because as I was yanking out bolted plants, earthworms the size of small snakes came out of the ground...this is a good thing isn't it? They were as fat as my little finger! I suspect it will take at least a week of hard gardening to get the equilibrium re-established. Oh, that's another thing I learned...your back will so not hold after two hours of bending over...get raised boxes! Hallelujah for raised vegetable beds!

Tomorrow, I am hoping to take the girls to see Sherlock Holmes 2...have any of you see it yet? Is it as awesome as I suspect it's going to be? I am a huge RDJ fan, so I can't wait!

I am now going to have a nice warm bath to ease my poor gardening back, and read some more of a new Kindle book I downloaded...it's called "Killer Instinct: Charlie Fox Book 1" by Zoe Sharp...so far it's excellent! It's a kind of girl Jack Reacher type novel...Charlie Fox is actually a woman, and of course, she is just as cool as 'ol Jack (I am a card-carrying, certified Jack Reacher groupie...). It's getting interesting ...

Have a wonderful (and safe) New Year everyone!
♥Heidi

Farewell dear ocean shores! The pain....

2011-12-30T20:28:00.008+02:00

So today we bid farewell to our beloved Cintsa. It is always a bittersweet time, the longing to stay war-ring with the desire to see our other home and our Flashy... Cintsa has become such a special place for us, a refuge and a place of restoration...
We went to the beach in the morning , then packed up and sorted out the house...and wound our way to the airport.
The flight was turbulent to say the least and I came off as nauseous as I was during my pregnancies! I am a terrible flyer...in fact, I hate flying...the problem of course being that I don't relish the thought of sitting in a car for 12 hours driving through the heat of day just to drop dead from boredom and exhaustion at the end of it all...so flying becomes a lesser evil to endure :)
Gerry on the other hand LOVES flying ( :P ), and has no trouble at all with flying nausea. When we flew to Verbier a couple of years ago, I vomited non stop for nearly 24 hours...towards the end I gave up all pretense of wanting to continue my existence on earth, and pleaded silently for the end to now just come, dammit! Such are the vagaries of modern travel....

Yesterday, while I was standing on our bedroom balcony, I saw dolphins in the water, and thought I would snap a few pics...what a sweet surprise to have unexpectedly captured a leaping dolphy, right at the very edge of my shot! They really are very playful creatures! Debbie's son was swimming along with them for a long time one day, and he said that they are naturally very curious, coming up to him constantly to see what this was in the water with them... :)

When we landed at the airport, I took a very poor, blurry photo of Emmanuelle under the lighted reindeer...makes me a little nostalgic for Christmas again...ah well, 2012 is soon underway and before you know it...Christmas will be here again!

Tomorrow, it's back to work bright and early...wish me strength folks...first day back is always tough!

♥Heidi

Knitting on the Beach... The Needle(s) has landed...

2011-12-27T12:52:00.008+02:00

Despite my love of for this area and my deep appreciation for the sea and the beach, I must admit to having less than stellar feelings about cold water, sea or not. Although we are on the East Coast of Africa , hence a much warmer current (Indian) than the West Coast (the freezing Atlantic), the water here is wayyyyyy too cold for my liking. So it happens that every year, I need to psych myself up to brave the frigid waves and do my annual "swim". The verb "swimming" is used here with a great deal of artistic licence, my foray into the great blue being more of an attempt to stay upright against crashing waves as I slowly advance ....one numbing foot after the other. Gerry and Aliki use wetsuits to keep out the cold, but Emmanuelle has no cold temperature sensors in her skin, and will dive headlong in, rain, shine, hurricane, icebergs.... regardless. As I mentioned before, the sea is very treacherous here, and a rip can take you out towards Australia within a heartbeat. Yesterday, despite the presence of several lifeguards, it took my friend Pete and his daughter being towed out rapidly , to realize that there was a powerful current and that people were getting stuck way out, unable to make their way back in to shore. Pete and Emma were fine...he grew up on the beach, so these things are taken in his stride, but the lifeguards had to go in an rescue several people.
I have made a rule about our kids swimming...we always have a lifesaver bouy or two and a pair of long flippers when we go to the beach.
So, back to my swalk (:) *swim/walk)... I went in as far as my neck , patted myself proudly on the back for a job well done! and went and sat wrapped up on a deck chair on the beach.
Now for the good bit...my knitting :)

Remember when I wrote about the Knit Companion App?...I have modified and set up a charted pattern for Poppy Socks, and all I needed on the beach, was my iPad and knitting....happy as a pig in mud! The Poppy socks started with me seeing a colour scheme that I really liked...a sky blue/turquoise/greeny variegated blend with scarlet next to it...so I dyed up some sock yarn and fiddled with the pattern for a bit. I started with a plain toe, but changed it so that the poppies start straight away. Hopefully this test knit will be fine, and as soon as I am done, I will put the charted pattern up on Ravelry. I have been using the Red Lace Chiaogoo's...these are fabulous circs! Go out and buy yourself a pair as a New Year's gift...you're worth it ;)

Yesterday I went for a long walk along the beach. It was still fairly early and there was a light breeze and some cloud cover....lovely stuff! I was just thinking about the New Year...it's responsibilities, planning, debating...I feel like it's always a time to start something new, set yourself a challenge, try something different...Not really a New Year's resolution necessarily, just a new outlook on things...
I have been thinking that perhaps I should do a Project 365...perhaps a photo a day? Do you have any plans/ideas/challenges?

Enjoy the day folks!
♥Heidi

Christmas Day Wild Coast...

2011-12-25T18:24:00.009+02:00

So...you may ask yourself....?Wild Coast....what is the Wild Coast? And what does that have to do with a sunny beach scene?
We are on holiday in an area on the East Coast of South Africa called the Wild Coast. This region is famous not only for it's breathtaking natural beauty, but for its unpredictable and treacherous ocean. There are several natural landmarks that you may have heard of (eg Hole-in-the-Wall), but one of the aspects to the Wild Coast that I found fascinating, are the number of shipwrecks off its coast, including some famous ones.

A few years ago, I read a book called "The Caliban Shore" by Stephen Taylor, which deeply affected me (truth be told, I was an emotional wreck for weeks afterwards). On the 4th of August 1782, a wooden hulled ship called the Grosvenor, struck rocks and sank off the Wild Coast in an area called Lwambazi. The initial toll was not as great as could be expected....only 14 of the 150 passengers drowned, with the rest reaching the shore. The book follows the subsequent events as told by two of the survivors (written accounts of course ;) ) and after truck load of historical research by the author. One of the survivors was an 8 month pregnant woman. It was her story that had me in tears over many days. If you are easily upset, perhaps this book is not for you...but, certainly it is a worthy read, full of historical data and gives a very real account of why this area is called the "Wild" coast. The characters are really brought to life and the social norms and human behaviour in the 1700's , make for thought provoking reading. I highly recommend it!
The mystery and legend surrounding the Grosvenor and her cargo , continued on for a long, long time, with rumours of gold and treasure sparking several treasure hunt expeditions! You can read about all of it in the same book, as well as find snippets here.
There are a couple of other famous shipwreck events, including that of the "disappeared-into-thin-air" SS Waratah...all fascinating reading.

So, in light of this, on Christmas morning, we woke to find the ocean covered with mist and a fine dizzle falling....two hours later we were on the beach in perfect weather with sun and sand bright with summer. In the first photos you can see the heavy bank of cloud on the horizon...when we see something like that we know...watch out, something is coming! By the afternoon, we had what you see in the bottom photo...black clouds, a heavy oppressive atmosphere and a heck of a thunderstorm....the lightning struck an area in the village, and our lights went out and we had no power! It took 6 hours to sort out whatever it was that was fried by the lightning, so we spent the evening at Pete's house (some of the houses in the area still had power, others not...go figure?). Earlier this year, a massive amount of damage was done to the East Coast when incredibly strong winds and rain, virtually washed away roads and flooded malls and homes....it really was dreadful.
In spite of these unpredictable events, it is the very uncontrollable nature of the area that I love...man still has to tread lightly and beware...nature is till the boss here!

I hope you all had a wonderful day today...thank you for visiting :)

♥Heidi

Christmas Eve...

2011-12-24T18:27:00.003+02:00

Blessed Christmas Eve to all of you who visit here! May your Christmas be happy, peaceful and filled with love from myself , Gerry, Aliki and Emmanuelle!

We are spending tonight with dearest friends and precious family...this is such a special time for our family...we'll open presents and eat a wonderful meal together, but will always hold dear and remember the real meaning of Christmas...the birthday of Jesus...the greatest present of all :)

Thank you...

Love to all of you!
♥Heidi

Soup and more of the Undisturbed....

2011-12-23T14:34:00.011+02:00

Today the sea is grey and misty and there is a light rain falling. Although not cold, this is not a beach day, so I decided to make a vegetable soup and veg :)
I love a random vegetable soup, made of any mix of vegetables you may have on hand. I used red onions, beans, sweetcorn, baby marrows, potatoes, celery, mushrooms, carrots, soya mince, red and yellow quinoa and some vegetable stock...easy peasy and took only 30minutes to cook up. I like to add the non GM soya (which you can get at health stores) and the quinoa, because as a vegetarian, it's an easy way to add some protein.

I made a huge pot and took some to Debbie, since we are sharing the same misty weather....hope you enjoy Debs :)

I did some laundry earlier today, and walked outside to hang up on the clothesline...(we have a sheltered area, so we can hang laundry even if it rains)...I narrowly avoided walking into a huge spider's web...hanging onto it I found this critter, which although very alien looking, I have discovered may be an Spiny Orb Weaver spider...supposedly not dangerous for humans! Actually there are two of these undisturbed residents, and as much as I admire how strange and pretty they are, if they do not move of their own accord by tomorrow, I am conscripting the DH to relocate them to the bush...sorry but I only play nice with bipeds and quadrupeds :l (ok...also some hexapeds...)

I am going to have an afternoon nap now, in the perfect weather for it...warm and cozy in my duvet!

I have to say that I am so taken by this Sherman heel! I will definitely do a tutorial on it in the future

Happy Friday to all :)
♥Heidi

Christmas pretty...

2011-12-22T20:54:00.018+02:00

Christmas is my favourite time of the year! I love, love, love this time! We don't always manage to spend it at our holiday home, but this year we are here! I love the whole spirit of Christmas, the family time, the friends we see, the wonder of celebrating Jesus' birth....it helps to place the year in perspective and gain strength for the year to come. I adore decorating the house and have collected a lot of very special decorations over the years.

I especially love Christmas decorations that have a homely feel, and if they light up, play music or move, so much the better! Every time we travel overseas, I try to bring back some Christmas decoration from wherever we have been...it serves to remind us of a special holiday each time we take it out and hang it on a tree, or place it on a table....

My all time favourite decoration is a resin figure of Santa kneeling at Baby Jesus' crib in adoration. I have one on my bedside table and one in the lounge....one day when my precious girls are decorating their homes for Christmas they will each have one of this special decoration :)

I have collected several Christmas themed crockery sets as well...however I am still looking for the "perfect" set, something with traditional gold, red and green trimmings, something Victorian and elaborate!

Our Christmas Tree is a large affair, and I have restrained myself from totally covering the tree with huge amounts of shiny things...I can't be sure that it will remain restrained...I may yet give in and overdo things next year! :)

I was pretty happy with my knitting today! I have knitted what I think is certainly the *perfect* short row sock heel...no wraps, no holes, easy peasy....it's called the Sherman Heel, and I may yet do a tutorial when I get back from holiday...have any readers used this heel for sock knitting? Are you as amazed at how perfect it is , as I was? :)

I spent a lovely afternoon with Debbie, chatting, sharing, discussing things ...she is a wonderful person and friend and I am very blessed to have her live so near...

My dear friend Dana and I were chatting yesterday about how much we enjoy learning new techniques in knitting. As knitters, we enjoy the actual knitting , but the intrigue and ongoing fascination with knitting , comes from exploring the seemingly endless variations of doing things with sticks and string! I sometimes knit just to be able to test a technique or try a pattern swatch...so Dana and I chatted about an interesting workshop Dana discovered on Ravelry.

It's called "Swing Knitting", and seems to be a technique using short rows to achieve wonderful wave like variations in your fabric. The workshop comprises 4 parts and the first few parts have both English and German translations. I reckon this will be my "new to learn" goal for the New Year!

Above you can see my bestest Christmas decoration...I am so attached to this figure :)

This holiday has also been a great time to listen to audiobooks! If you have yet to discover Audible, you have just found the perfect Christmas present for yourself! I love audiobooks because I can knit and listen anywhere! Yes, in the car, on the beach, in front of the computer, lying in bed at night, in the bath ...anywhere! And, there are tens of thousands of titles you can buy, including latest releases...check it out here. A subscription to Audible is also the easiest and most appreciated gift for someone that doesn't knit (*Ahhmmmm...*cough*...the DH)...

I made a divine Cape salmon bake for supper with some lovely buttered olive bread and salad. Trifle for desert and a crisp white wine...bliss! Holidays are so right!

Enjoy the evening folks!
♥Heidi

Summer Days on the Beach....

2011-12-21T13:25:00.017+02:00

Today is a glorious summer's day ! It started out for me with a series of comedic events though... I slept like a log, dreaming wonderful dreams, happy and content, when, intruding rudely into my blissful state, were screeching sounds and slamming drawer noises, which didn't fit into the context of what was passing through my mind....suffice to say that my husband dearest had a moment of inspiration at the crack of dawn, and urgently seeking both paper and pen, started searching frantically all over the bedroom. Once he had found the aforesaid items, he incorrectly tried to open the shutters that we have , leading to the deck of our room, resulting in screeching sounds as the aluminium bits grated against each other... as you can imagine, the face he was presented with when I dragged myself from paradise, was not one of love and compassion. I did not make him coffee.
When Gerry and the girls went to the beach I cleaned up the house for a while. The area where we live is surrounded by a wonderful lush coastal vegetation , where deer walk freely and nature is undisturbed. One of the undisturbed flew into the house and tried to land on my hair. I was busy folding washing, when a loud buzzing , grating noise came straight at me and settled on my head. Well....all I can say is that the neighbours must have though I was being attacked by rabid aliens...I went completely a*e s**t, yanking at my hair and swatting wildly with my washing. I have very long hair and the thought of a huge insect getting stuck in it was just a bit too much to bear! I was so shaken, that by the time I managed to dislodge the offender (a massive clawed beetle of God only knows what genus) and violently turf it back into the bush, I seriously considered a 9am martini....No, don't lie...you would have too! The day surely had to get better....

So....with my psyche seriously unbalanced and without really planning, I found myself walking to the beach, having grabbed a beach chair and umbrella on the way out of the door. Arriving at the spot where the kids and friends were, I realized that the umbrella top and the bottom pole were from different sets, and that my umbrella was not going to be plantable unless I managed to Houdini myself into a flat pretzel. Spending so much time in the hospital away from natural sunshine, has made my pale skin as susceptible to burning as a vampire's, so this situation was not a good one....five minutes in the sun, and I get blisters! Gerry eventually rigged a workable solution using a towel and some ingenuity, and finally I had a moment to recover from my ordeals... The sun was shining, the sky was clear, the breeze gentle and cooling, and the ocean beautiful! It goes a long way to restoring the soul, I tell you!

My Nani and Gerry were playing with a funny ring-like frisbee and I managed to snap some pics of them. Of course, ever the joker, Nani acted as if she were an angel, placing the frisbee thing on her head like a halo each time she caught it :)

I have yet to venture into the ocean...I intensely dislike cold water and today the sea was especially cold...so who knows, maybe I'll swim later in the holidays :)....

I am still looking for pattern ideas for my Kauni Rainbow Yarn, but def don't want to make a shawl (I've seen loads of shawls made from it)...any ideas / suggestions?

Have a summery day folks!
♥Heidi

Dolphins, Martin and Knit Companion

2011-12-20T11:07:00.010+02:00

We had supper with friends (15 of us!) at our house last night. I haven't seen my dear friend Debbie (who lives down the road from us) for a few months, so I was looking forward to catching up. Gerry, the kids and myself went into town for some basic supplies, and arrived home around 4 o'clock, which was when my Woolies groceries order was supposed to be delivered. As it turned out, the delivery arrived at 7 o'clock, with me trying to juggle kids, cooking and a slew of phone calls from the hospital...it was like being in the Twilight Zone, I swear! Thankfully Debbie chatted to some of our other guests and by the time we all sat down for supper, things were more under control. As it was such a late night, we slept late, and woke to a warm but misty ocean, calm and glassy. This is generally the weather the dolphins like, and sure enough, huge schools swam lazily by...
The dolphins are a regular feature along our bay...you can ususally see them early morning and around 4 in the afternoon. They swim quite close to the breakers, and if you are brave enough, you can either swim amongst them or paddle on your paddleski between them.

Our bay has a lot of sea life. Whales are frequently spotted, albeit further out obviously, and occasionally Killer whales are spotted as they travel up the coast.
Within an hour the mists had disappeared, giving way to a glorious calm, sunny day. Gerry went out to swim early on, and I suspect that the girls will head down as soon as the little potatoes are awake from their late night!

I received a lovely email from Tania (who lives in Russia), sharing her beautiful African Flower Bear (who she has named Martin) with me. I asked if I could post her photos to show you all how adorable the little bear turned out. I really love the colours and the sweet expression! You are so talented Tania, thank you for sharing :)

If you have made Lollo bear and would like to show some photos of your creation, post the photos on the Projects page of the Ravelry pattern. This way everyone who accesses the pattern page on Ravelry can see them :) I would love to see all of the bears you have crocheted!

I have recently discovered Knit Companion for iPad. This is an App available through iTunes, that allows you to set up and organize any PDF based knitting pattern on your iPad. It is a fantastic tool, as you don't need a paper copy at all. You can add row counters, repeats, different sections at a time of your pattern, as well as pictures, charts , lifelines and stitch markers...all on the iPad! Awesome stuff folks! So you only need your needles and yarn and your iPad and you are set to go. They have a very useful video tutorial guide on how to set up everything, so it's easy and user friendly. I cannot recommend this App highly enough :)....and No, I am not paid by them to say these things ;)
The App costs $15.99, but before you balk at the price, let me asure you that I think it is worth every cent! You can download all your Ravelry Patterns and convert them into easy to follow Knit Companion patterns....it's the best knitting App I have ever bought....

The App comes with several awesome patterns form well known designers, so you can start playing (and knitting ;) ) straight away...

Have any of you bought Knit Companion? Let me know what you think!

♥Heidi

Paradise...

2011-12-18T14:48:00.008+02:00

We arrived at lunchtime, to a warm but very windy summer's day. Although the sea conditions are rough with white horses all the way to the horizon, Gerry and the girls were on the beach within 10 minutes of us arriving. I opened up all the windows to air out the house a bit, set up shop and decided to blog :) My internet connection is appalling so far out from wherever it is that the things that makes the internet work are, but I managed to get two photos up...

I am thankful to say that since our last visit, no disasters have befallen the house and it is just wonderful to be here :)

Happy Sunday !
♥Heidi

A bit of this , and a bit of that....

2011-12-17T15:02:00.029+02:00

The holiday is finally upon us...the last two weeks have been very tiring on Gerry , with his ICU full of the very sickest of patients...the silly season seems to be in full swing, as we have seen a remarkable increase in patients who were involved in car accidents. So he has been at the hospital virtually all the time, and having hardly any sleep. We have had four ECMO patients as well in this period, necessitating almost round the clock checks. And then, he woke up this morning sick as anything...he had cut his foot and hadn't really paid all that much attention to it as he was too preoccupied with the patients. And thus, as is Murphy's Law, it became cellulitic and he was feeling awful. I dosed him properly with antibiotics and panado, and by this afternoon he was feeling a little better. This really highlighted the need for a break with some sleep and relaxation, so tomorrow his partner will take over running the ICU and we will go on holiday! Whoo Hoo!

We will spend Christmas at the coast with our close friend Peter and our little godson Joshua. Aunty Heidi has already bought the little potato a truckload of presents as well as some delicious Christmas biscuits in different Christmas shapes. He loves these and I know will want to eat all of them in one go (I have my sincere doubts that his mom will allow this tho' :) ). Our precious girls can't wait to play with him and all in all, I think he will be in for a big spoil of attention time!
My good friend Dana has recently designed and knitted a beautiful elephant blanket for another knitter friend of ours who is having a baby in January. You can see it in the photo at the top of this post. I so loved this simple , beautiful design in Dana'a handdyed cotton, that I asked her to make up a kit for me, which she did (Thank you my friend!), and I hope to spend some time this holiday knitting it up. If you are interested in a kit , contact her...she may still have one or two left :)

I recently ordered a skein of Kauni self striping rainbow yarn. I have looked a lots of beautiful projects on Ravelry, using this yarn, so I wanted to try some. It really has lovely, vibrant colours, but is a little rough in feel. I will try to soak it in some fabric softener and see if that makes a difference. Nit sure yet what I will make from it...perhaps some socks? Any suggestions?

I am working on a sock pattern (every chance I manage to get...), and needed some stitch markers. I like the little bells that have been lurking in my beads cupboard, so I made some up into simple stitch markers. I really prefer the lobster claw attachments, as I can easily move them around without slipping stitches from needle to needle. They were quick and easy to make and cost almost nothing...

Above you can see some of Joshi's biscuits...

As you may all have figured out by now, I only knit on circulars and at that , only really knit Magic Loop wise... Because of this, I am always looking for new releases of circular needles. My favourites have always been the Addi's and the KnitPro's...until now! These new Red Lace Chiaogoo's are simply AWESOME!!!!!!!!! Although I love the Addi's and the KnitPro's, I have found that their cables are difficult to keep controlled (especially when you knit on 150cm needles), the immersion in hot water nothwithstanding....
The Chiaogoo's red cable seems to be made from a nylon encased metal / steel ?, and has NO memory whatsoever...so no coiling around itself and getting tangled... I JUST LOVE THEM! The points are sharp (Red lace needles) and the cable/needles joins are flawless. Really, I suspect that these will be my new BFF's... they come in a variety of sizes and can be found in loads of online yarn shops. I bought mine from Purlescence.

My yarn stash is housed in our spare room, and is chock full of stuff related to my knitting / crochet addiction. I managed to get some of the mess cleared up (yarn in bags, books organised, needles gathered etc...), and although there is still work to do, I am much relieved that I can at least walk around unimpeded! I have all my quilting and sewing stuff there as well.

Above are my sock knitting books and embroidery cottons...

On the centre island (repurposed kitchen block), I keep my sewing machines and odds and ends...

More books and yarn....

A friend...

Quilting cottons...

Friends and cottons...

...yet more quilting cottons... a lot of these were purchased for a set of quilts that I started making for the girls. I have a fair amount of the blocks made...perhaps I will take up the task of appliqueing the remainder next year. The pattern is Piece o' Cake Designs' "Welcome to the North Pole"...a fantastic book with adorable applique designs. The quilt is made up of blocks that each depict a North Pole House, eg Elves bunkhouse, Ice cream shop etc, and the variety of fabric printed textures you need, resulted in the cotton stash seen here...

I just love Puggies (and Pittbulls...better say that or mine will be jealous!)...

So, a post about all kinds of bits... tonight I need to pack Christmas pressies in my suitcase and gather my knitting goods...for tomorrow bright and early we'll be off :)

Have a great weekend folks!
♥Heidi

Sunday dyeing happiness...

2011-12-11T15:33:00.004+02:00

I spent a wonderful Sunday dyeing sock yarn. After an initial dyeing disaster (in which I had forgotten to add some ingredients to my dye bath :( ...) I managed to get exactly the right rich red colour I had wanted. I am working on a pattern for a pair of socks and have the first draft ready for test knitting...whoo hoo! I plan to knit until late...hope I can blog about them next week.
We are a week away from going on holiday! I am hoping that I will have the time to post more frequently...I have been a bad blogger , not getting to post at all in the last few weeks... here's hoping for some blogger time :)
Enjoy your Sunday folks :)
♥Heidi

Catching up...and some new activities

2011-11-20T18:52:00.012+02:00

Today is a very quick post just to say "Hi", and let you know what I've been up to...I have been a busy little bee in the last few weeks :) Still running a lot at work, but I have managed to squeeze in loads of catch up fun stuff between everything. The staff and I want to decorate the ICU for Christmas, and after much thought, I decided to use paper as our tool for decor. It's relatively inexpensive (as I have wayyyyy too much Scrapbooking paper), and everyone can make something. We wanted the ICU to look bright and colourful, so hot pinks, bright oranges , neon greens, egg yellows and other saturated colours are the main elements.

We are making 3D paper stars, 3D snowflakes, and other paper cutouts to hang on the walls. I found the most amazing range of colourful glitters to add a happy sparkle to the finished items. Hopefully this week will see me making the Santa's Village (in paper of course :) ) for the Nurses station. I hope to make some big and small reindeer as well, and our small Christmas Tree...yes, also from paper.

Above is my Cricut Expression Cutter. I am using a bunch of cartridges with Christmas and Snowflake patterns, to cut out shapes and decorations like these you see below :) Loads of fun and actually quite quick!

I managed to make all the Christmas gifts for the staff as well as little Origami gift boxes to house the gifts, and most of my friends' and family's gifts too...so things are on the way to getting finished :)

I pinned LOADS of pins on my Pinterest Boards for you all to see...so if you need some inspiration for gifts, go and take a look :)

I found the most amazing papercraft and Origami stuff while searching the web for ideas for our ICU...I pinned the best ones for you to see ...

Two weekends ago, I made up a huge batch of Bath Melts (probably around 300 or so), which were Lavender scented...these will be gifted to all my lady/ girl friends and family members.

How is your gift making going? Have you found anything that has inspired you? I'd love to know :)

Have a good evening folks!
♥Heidi

Two-at-a-Time Socks on a Magic Loop: The Heel Part 2

2011-10-30T14:29:00.049+02:00

Hi everyone! This week has been really hectic at work...I had great hopes of getting through the have-to-do-stuff, so that I could go to our weekly knitting meet and blog a few times, but it wasn't to be... I guess perhaps things will settle a little towards the end of the year, and I'll be able to post merrily while at the coast, so here's hoping! I did however, work very hard to finish up the second part of my heel tutorial...I'm sure that there are eager sock knitters waiting with sticks suspended, to see how the heel grows :) That being said, I really hope that whoever of you who are actually knitting socks from these tutorials, will post some photos on the Ravelry page...I am super-keen to see your wonderful socks being born!

Ok, ready to finish up your heel?
In the last post , we ended up at the half way point... if you look at the photo below, you'll see the last stitch that was worked...remember that you are knitting/purling back and forth, just as if you had two knitting needles and not a Magic Loop.

Let's look at these heel stitches...
When we made the first half of the heel, we divided up the stitches roughly into three, so the short-rowed stitches on either side (10sts each side) and the un-short-rowed (for want of a better word) , in the middle of the heel (12sts). When you make the second half of the heel, you'll stick to this same division set-up, but now you are making "long-rows" (purely for descriptive purposes ;) ). So previously, you worked an ever shorter section of stitches, now you will work progressively more stitches on each row.

When you have worked all the necessary "long-rows", you will again have made a total of 20 Double stitches, BUT, whereas before, you made them all at once, you are now going to do ONE at a time on each row.

Looking at the photo above, you see that we still have 32 sts on the heel. You will be knitting across 22sts, until you have reached the 10th stitch for the left hand side of your knitting. This stitch represents the first stitch of the 10-stitch side section (at the side of the sock) that will be worked in "long-rows".

Knit 22 stitches.

Knit the stitch shown above. This is the first stitch of the 10st section that will become a Double Stitch. Turn your work around, slip this just knitted stitch purlwise, make a Double Stitch.

Above you can see that I have made the Double Stitch, and purled the next along stitch.

Purl across your work until you have 10sts left on your LHN. As before, you are getting to the 10stitch section at the side of the sock.

Purl this stitch, turn your work around, slip this just purled stitch purlwise, and make a Double Stitch.

Now knit across the stitches until you get to the Double Stitch. Knit the Double Stitch, making sure that you have knitted both legs, then knit the next stitch along.

Above, you can see that I have just knitted the Double stitch...knit the next stitch.....

Once you have turned your work, made the DS...purl across the heel to the Double Stitch on the other side. Purl the Double Sticth, purl the next along stitch, turn your work around, slip the just purled stitch purlwise, and make a Double Stitch. Knit across to the Double stitch etc etc

Continue along the heel, in the same manner, until you have the purl side of your work facing you, and you have reached the DS which is the second to last stitch on your LHN.

Purl the DS as well as the last stitch on your LHN.

Your work should look like the photo above.

Turn your work around. Make a Double Stitch. This Double Stitch will remain just where it is...you won't be working it again until the next round (after you have created the Left Sock's Heel and knitted all around to the Right Sock Heel stitches again). Just remember to knit this Double Stitch as a Double Stitch ie two legs together and not as two separate stitches!

Knit across all of the Heel stitches, right to the end. The last stitch you knit is a Double Stitch.

Well Done!!!! You have finished the Right Sock Heel! You are a sock knitter extraordinaire!

Sometimes (depending on how tightly you knit...), you may end up with a small hole at the interface between the instep stitches and the heel stitches. To prevent that, you can pick up a stitch in the fabric between the heel stitches and the instep stitches. Use your RHN to do this. When you have picked up this stitch, let it slip onto your RHN to lie with the Heel stitches. Just remember to knit two together when you reach these stitches again on a subsequent round.

Your work should look like the photo below...the Right Sock Heel is completed, and you are going to repeat all of the previous steps to make the Left Sock Heel....exactly the same process!

Below you can see the Left Sock Heel in progress...I have knitted the first half of the heel...

Below is the Left sock Heel completed. Again, you can pick up a stitch in the fabric section between the instep stitches and the heel stitches, to prevent a small hole from forming.

Once you have picked up this stitch, let it lie with the heel stitches, and again, remember to knit two together when you reach these stitches on the subsequent round...that will ensure that you have the correct number of stitches for your sock.

Turn your work around.

Knit across the instep stitches of the Left Sock. Pick up a stitch in the fabric space between the instep stitches and the heel stitches of the Left Sock...just as before. This time let it lie with the Instep stitches...remember to knit two together when you get to these stitches on the subsequent round, to ensure that you have the correct number of stitches for your sock.

Next, knit across the instep stitches of the Right Sock. Pick up a stitch in the fabric between the instep stitches and the heel stitches of the Right Sock. Remember to knit two together etc etc ....

Turn your work around. From hereon out, you will knit rounds on the Magic Loop until your socks have reached the length you want.

I hope that you have found this post easy to follow...if you are unsure of any of the steps, please email me and I will try to clarify things!

The next sock post will be on the bind off for the cuff...whoooohoooo! Socks Rock!

Have a good Sunday folks!
♥Heidi

Two-at-time-socks on a Magic Loop: The Heel, Part 1

2011-10-23T09:27:00.069+02:00

I have had great intentions to blog in the past week, but work and other committments have prevented this :( On a positive note, things are going extremely well at work, :) , and I have managed to get the second part of the Two-at-a-time Sock Tutorial out. Because there are simply too many photos, I am dividing the Heel Instructions into two posts...this post will deal with the first half of short rows, and the next post, the second half of the heel.

A note about Heels...

There are as many different approaches to knitting heels as there are knitting stitches...and if you Google "sock heels", you'll find a myriad of names, like, short-row, gusset, afterthought, peasant etc etc... don't be put off by terminology...just find the heel that works best for you, and from there you can experiment without worrying about the outcome!...after all you know that you can always go back to the heel that works :)

I prefer a short-row type heel...I like that is resembles a commercial sock heel in neatness and elegance. There are , again, many different ways to knit a short-row style heel, and the biggest problem you'll find discussed when socks are mentioned, is how to prevent holes forming at the junction between the two triangle halves of the heel. This is the Holy Grail of sock knitting and over the aeons, clever knitters have devised lots of ways to minimize/eliminate these little holes. The heel I am doing the tutorial on, is known by many names, but for brevity's sake, I am going to use the name Double Stitches Heel.

Let's take a quick look at the basic sock heel...above you can see a simple schematic on what the heel is made up of...two triangles on top of each other. Although not illustrated in the diagram, the sides of the triangles are joined, forming a pita-like little triangular "pocket" that your heel fits into.Above you see that the triangles of the two halves of the heel are made up of ever decreasing rows of knitting for the first half and then ever increasing rows of knitting in the second half of the heel. Strictly speaking, the first series of rows are the "short rows", ie you are not knitting every stitch of every row, but are leaving an extra stitch unknitted on each row, forming the triangular shape. In the second half of the heel triangle, you start knitting/purling an extra stitch of knitting on each row (I guess they should more accurately be called " long rows" ;) ), until you have knitted the full complement of stitches that you started the heel with (in the tutorial sock's case = 32 sts for each sock).

Right, how do you know how many stitches to "leave unknitted" on each side of the heel triangle? Generally, you divide your number of heel stitches into thirds, so, in the case of a 64sts sock, you will have 32 sts for the heel , divided into thirds, so 10sts/12sts/10sts, or perhaps 12sts/10sts/12sts. It may not make sense now, but just follow along, read through all of this post and the next to follow and it will become clear :)

A couple of points to remember:

1. When you knit Two-at-a-Time socks on a Magic Loop, and you are ready to start the heels, you will work ONLY on the right sock heel , until it is completely finished (knitting, turning your work, purling, turning your work etc basically knitting back and forth as if you were knitting on straights), then you move along to the left sock, complete the heel , then you start knitting in the Magic Loop fashion again, going around and around as you continue to knit the leg section of the socks, up to the cuffs.

2. The Heel is the only section of these socks that you are knitting AND purling . These socks are simple stocking stitch socks, so the heel is the only bit that has purling (because you are knitting back and forth), but obviously, if you make patterned socks , your pattern will dictate if there are purl stitches in other sections of the socks.

3. While you work the heel on one sock, you completely ignore the other sock, just make sure that you don't inadvertently "undo" the Magic Loop :)

Right! ....ready to go?

Your work should look like the photo above...I have knitted round after round on the Magic Loop, until my sock measured about an inch shorter than my foot length. We will start on the Right Sock, ignoring the Left Sock until the Right Sock heel is completed.

The Sole side of the Right Sock is facing you.

Above is a close-up of the Right Sock Sole...notice that the working yarn is coming off of the back needle. Pull out the back needle...you will knit with this...it becomes the Right Hand Needle (RHN).

Knit right across all the Sole stitches.

Turn your work around.

Because you are working back and forth as if you were knitting on straight needles, there is no pulling out of the other needle... you are simply turning your work around and purling back to the other side...OK...let's look at what a Double Stitch (DS) is... Take note of the first stitch on your needle in the photo above. When the working yarn is held pulled down, you see an ordinary "Purl" stitch.

However...if you pull the working yarn upwards, you see that the "purl" stitch suddenly has two legs. These two legs represent a Double Stitch (DS)...don't be thrown by the terminology...IT IS STILL ONE STITCH... and you will count this as ONE stitch...just remember the two legs are like twins...never separated! The pulling up of the working yarn simply tightens the stitch, making it less likely to leave a "hole" in the side of your sock, when you knit the DS later on.
Ok, pull the working yarn down to it's usual position, and let's make a Double Stitch...

Slip this first stitch "purlwise", onto your RHN.

Now pull your working yarn up and over the RHN, seeing the two legs appear...

...bring your working yarn between the needle tips and tug gently downward, so that the working yarn is now in the correct position to start purling the rest of the stitches.

Above you can see that the working yarn is placed correctly for regular purling, and on the RHN, you now have a two legged Double Stitch!

Purl all the way across the rest of the stitches.

Because you have purled across the heel stitches, you have the instep stitches facing you, and the heel stitches hiding behind...turn your work around...note that the Double Stitch on the far right looks just like two regular stitches, but if you look closely, you'll see that the DS is different on the other side, like two sets of arms, with the little hands clasped together.

Right! Next you are going to make a Double Stitch on the knit side of the Heel stitches. Again, even though the "knit side of the heel is facing you, you are still going to slip the first stitch "purlwise"...make sure that the working yarn lies in front of (ie closer to you), the RHN, before slipping the stitch.

Now pull your working yarn up and slightly to the left of the RHN, and you'll see the Double Stitch formed as you pull the yarn...don't be worried,...this Double Stitch does look a bit different to the previous one, as these two legs are twisted around each other :) That's how is should be!

The act of pulling the working yarn to the position behind the RHN, will automatically place it in the correct position to knit the next stitch...just a normal knit stitch.

Now knit all the way across the heel stitches, until you have knitted the last stitch JUST BEFORE the previously made DS. Your work should look like the photo above.

Turn your work around. Take note that the Instep stitches are facing you again...and the Previously made DS is on your RHN.

You will make a Double Stitch out of the next along stitch, in exactly the same way as before....

Slip the stitch purlwise...

Pull the working yarn over the RHN...see the two legs of the DS appear...

...bring the working yarn between the needles, to the front of the work...purl all the way across the heel stitches until you have purled the last stitch before the previously made DS...

Above, you can see the previously made DS, and that the last stitch before it has been purled...now turn your work around again.

In the same way as you did before, you will make a Double Stitch out of the next along stitch...

Slip the stitch purlwise...

Pull the working yarn up and over the RHN, making the DS...you will now have TWO Double Stitches on your RHN.

Knit all the way across the heel stitches until you have knitted the last stitch before the DS...

Note that you already have two DS on your LHN...turn your work, and continue making DS at the end of each row of knitting/purling, until you have TEN Double Stitches on each side, and you have the Heel stitches facing you. You should have 12 plain (non Double Stitches), in the middle of your work.

Ok! Well done, you are nearly half way with the Heel :) Continue to knit across the Heel stitches. This means that you are actually knitting the previously made Double Stitches (yes, all 10 of them!), right to the end of the row...make sure that you have knitted through BOTH legs of each DS...see the photo below ...

Above you can see that all of the DS are knitted and you've reached the end of the row...note that you still have DS's on the right hand side of your work!

...now turn your work around, slip the first stitch purlwise (BUT this time DON'T make a Double Stitch), and purl all the way across...again, making sure that you catch both legs of each DS as you purl...

Make sure that you catch both legs of the DS as you purl across...

Your work should now look like the photo above...the first part of the Heel is already making a little outpouching... :)

Turn your work around and flatten the little Heel outpouching towards the toe...you are ready to start the second half of the heel... :)

I have been really busy at work, so I am sorry that this is only now getting posted...I hope to have some time, and have the second half of the heel posted by the weekend :)

*Update: Here is the link to Part 2 of the Heel Tutorial*

Happy Knitting!
♥Heidi

The DH's Office Reveal...do you like it?

2011-10-13T15:02:00.023+02:00

The new ICU is open and Gerry's office just about finished! Between running around in the ICU and High Care, I managed to finish bringing up all the furniture etc, and adding plants, pictures, a music centre and other nick nacks . All in all, I am quite pleased with the outcome, although it should be said that the staff were pretty frightened of the colour when it was first painted :) I think it looks completely different when filled with furniture...

Although a smallish space, I managed to get all the necessary items in, including desk, cupboard, chairs and sleeping chair. I would have liked a nice big leather couch, but even if the office was big enough, it would never have gotten through the doorway and passage!

In planning the space, I really wanted to combine the old and the new. The strong orange and chocolate colours are ultramodern when combined with the stark white perspex and other accents, but I really wanted the feeling of some "history-filled" pieces to balance the modern feel. The battered, multicoloured cupboard comes from India, as does the bicycle wheel clock. Gerry's chair (although a reproduction), adds an "old" element, and is really very comfortable to sit in.

Because the space is small, I needed a "light" feel table, and found the perfect combination of glass and stainless steel, in just the right size.

The white perspex chairs are Italian, and the carpet is a Nguni Cow hide.

My favourite piece in the room is the old mirror. It has a lovely worn look and feel, and with the inserts, becomes a design piece in itself, not just a light disperser...

The painting is an original by an artist friend, and reminded me of the lagoon at Cintsa, where we go on holidays...

I found a very nice music centre, which also has a docking station for Gerry's phone and iPod (he listens to Critical Care Podcasts from iTunes on his iPod), so it's a useful addition.

At the entrance to the office, I hung a wonderful antique white French inspired mirror. Again, it reflects the light beautifully into the room.

The red hexagon table/cabinet was a jewelry display case, but is now going to be used for coffee cups, tea, coffee, etc

Gerry loves it, and I think I have managed to change a few minds about the vibrant colours...everyone from the porters to the other doctors have come to take a look...what do you think?...do you like it? :)

♥Heidi

Two Socks -at-a-Time on one Circular Needle:Part 1

2011-10-09T15:04:00.182+02:00

Howdy folks! Hope you all have had a great weekend! The morning started early for us...my oldest was running a 5km road race with her friends, and the venue was a hour's drive from home, so we were up really early :) It has been a wonderful sunny day here in SA, and the kids really enjoyed the race. The little one and I sat under a lovely big tree and ate pancakes and I knitted, while we waited for them to finish...a lazy Sunday :)

Thank you so much to everyone who left comments and suggestions re making soap with milk...I am going to try make some in the coming week!

Today's post is seriously photo-heavy, be warned! I have finally scraped together the courage to tackle the Two-Socks-at-a-time on one circular needle (Magic Looping) tutorial, thinking that you may want to knit a funky pair of socks for someone you love (yes, I imagine that you will need to have a fair amount of ♥♥♥ tucked away for someone you decide to knit socks for...socks are a labour of Love!). Also, I haven't blogged about knitting in ages, so if you've had withdrawl symptoms...enjoy! Here is the first installment...the Toe. I am assuming that you know how to do Judy's Magic Cast On...if you want to refresh your memory, check here. You should also have a good idea how to Magic Loop...here is a tutorial, and an update.

I am basing the stitch count on a sock that will generally fit a medium sized woman's foot, which tends to be around the 64 sts per sock, if knitted in sock yarn and a size 2.5mm circular needle. Please, please make sure that you have a decent set of circs...if your needle/cable joins are not smooth, you are so going to suffer knitting socks! I use either Addi's or KnitPro's...their joins are fabulous! I would recommend at least a 40in circular needle. If your sock has a different stitch number requirement, don't fret, the techniques are exactly the same, just follow the directions for your number of stitches.

Right! Some basics first...
In the photo above, you can see both sock toes, with the last of the Toe rounds completed. Remember that your sock's total number of stitches are divided over two needles, ie half on one needle, and half on the other, so 32sts on one needle, and 32 sts on the other (total =64sts per sock). I have arbitrarily decided that I am going to use the first-to-be-knitted 32sts as the SOLE STITCHES (of the Right Sock). The same applies to both socks, which are made in the same way. That means that when I start knitting a round, I am always going to be knitting the sole stitches first, and always starting with the right sock. So, if you look at the photo above, you'll see that you are knitting 32 sole stitches of the Right Sock (1), then 32 sole stitches of the Left Sock (2), {turn your work}, then 32 Instep Stitches of the Left Sock (3), then 32 Instep Stitches of the Right Sock (4). I have used two different coloured yarns so that you can easily see which sock you are knitting on. The dark colour is the Right Sock, and the light colour is the Left Sock.
The toe directions I am going to use, are based on my personal favourite toe shape. It is a semi rounded toe and very comfortable. Again, when you have the technique down pat, you can substitute whichever toe you prefer.

What if you have a fancy Fair Isle socks set you are wanting to knit? I like to have the pattern represented on a graph, with the two socks split open (so to speak), as seen above. NOTE: The numbers under each section of the socks! Although you will knit in the following order:1,2,3,4, when referring to the actual knitting photo, in the graph you have to skip the Right Sock Instep graph directions, ie STICK TO THE 1,2,3,4 order! I have loaded the above photo as a bigger size than I usually do, so that you can print it out and take a closer look at where the increases are situated. I use a Kfb to make an increase, and have shown which stitch should have a Kfb, by the green squares on the graph.

Let's take a closer look at the Right Sock. You've cast on 16sts (8 sts on each needle), and are ready to start Round 1. The first 8 sts on your needle are the SOLE stitches. Notice in the graph, that the 1st stitch is green coloured. This means you will do a Kfb (Knit Front and Back of stitch) IN THE FIRST STITCH ON YOUR NEEDLE. You then knit 5 stitches as usual. Next another green coloured stitch appears, so you'll do another Kfb into that stitch. Note that this is the second last stitch of the 8 stitches set on that needle. This pattern (Kfb,K to second last stitch, Kfb into second last stitch,Knit last stitch), repeats for every side of your socks (Right Sole, Left Sole, Left Instep, Right Sole), FOR THE FIRST 5 ROUNDS. Thereafter, the increases occur every alternate round, until you have a total of 64 sts for each sock (32sts on each side for each sock).
When you have 64 sts in total for each sock, you will knit each subsequent round, until your sock is 1 inch shorter than your foot length.

Right...let's get started!

You'll cast on for the LEFT SOCK first. Using Judy's Magic Cast On, cast on 16 sts (8sts on each needle). Then cast on 16sts for the Right Sock, again, there will be 8sts on each needle.

Your work should look like the photo above. Notice that I have pulled the Tail Yarns in one direction and the Working Yarns in the other. It is very important that you are familiar with where your Tail Yarn should be relative to your working yarn. The first Round "locks" your Tail yarn into place, but only if you have placed it correctly. Look here to check if you are unsure. Swivel your work 180 degrees to the right, which will have your working yarns at the top of your needles now.

Above you can see that the needles are now pointing to the right hand side. Take a closer look at the actual stitches. When you do a Magic Cast On, you will actually have "knitted" the cast on stitches, with one side showing Purl Bumps and the other a Knit stitch configuration.

If you roll your needles over, you can easily see the Purl "bumps", as shown above.

Roll your work back, so that the "knit" side is facing you again. Above, I have indicated the first stitch you will knit into, doing a KFB (remember the graph? :) )

At this point your needles are still aligned and together. Carefully pull out the bottom needle towards your right. This is the needle that you are going to start knitting with. Be careful not to pull it out too far, or your Magic Loop will be undone!

Above you can see that I have made the first Kfb, and now have two stitches on my RHN. There are still seven stitches left of the Right Sock Sole on my LHN.

Knit 5 stitches...you will have reached the second to last stitch on your LHN (of the Right Sock).

You need to Kfb into the second to last stitch.

Now you have one stitch left of the sole of the Right Sock...knit it.

Ok, so you have made two increases (2 x Kfb), so you'll now have 10sts on your Right Sock Sole.

Drop the working yarn of the Right Sock, and pick up the working yarn of the Left Sock. You are going to do exactly the same sequence as for the Right Sock Sole stitches.

Kfb of the first stitch on your LHN of the Left Sock. This gives you two stitches on your RHN (of the Left Sock Sole).

Again, knit until the second to last stitch, then Kfb into it.

One stitch left on the LHN...Knit it. Right, you should have 10sts on your RHN (Left Sock Sole).

Swivel your work through 180 degrees to the right as shown above.

Above, the work has been rotated through 180 degrees, with the 10 sts sections at the bottom.

Push back the cable as shown, towards the left , so that your needle points are next to each other.

Your work should look like the photo above.

Now pull the bottom needle out towards the right. This is the needle that the working yarns are coming off of. Remember that the "knit" side of your work is still facing you as you work.

The needle that you just pulled out towards the right, becomes the RHN that you will knit with.

You are starting to knit the Left Sock Instep stitches. Kfb into the first stitch on your LHN.

Kfb completed...you have two stitches on your RHN.

Now Knit 5 stitches. You will have reached the second to last stitch (just as before :) ).

Kfb into the second to last stitch.

You have one stitch left of the Left Sock Instep stitches.

Knit this last Left Sock stitch.

You should have 10sts on each side of the Left Sock now...well done! You have finished Round 1 of the Left Sock :)
Repeat exactly the same process for the Right Sock Instep stitches...Kfb into first stitch, K5, Kfb into second to last stitch, K the last stitch.

Good! You have finished Round 1 of both socks!. If you look at the photo above, you can see that it is very much the same as the photo after you finished the Sole Stitches of both socks...back then you swiveled your work 180 degrees to the right. NOW you are going to flip your work instead, so that the "purl" side is facing you. Tip: You will know that you have finished a Round when the Tail Yarns and the Working Yarns are on the same side of your sock.
Above, you can see that the work has been flipped to the right, and you can clearly see the "purl" side facing you. Take note of where your working yarns are. They are coming off the TOP NEEDLE now. An easy tip to remember: From Round 2 onwards, the needle that you pull out to the right hand side in preparation to start knitting again, ALWAYS has the working yarns coming off it!

Lets go through this again...push the cable backwards towards your knitting, so that both needles lie next to each other.

Now pull the other needle out towards the right hand side (if you have reached the end of a side of knitting, the needle you pull out will always have the working yarns coming off of it!!!)

It is very important that your working yarn lies above the other needle tip when you start knitting ...make sure it isn't tucked under!

Ready to start Round 2? If you squish your LHN and and the cable lying next to it together, you'll see the purl bumps "pop" in and the "knit" side will be showing. (If this doesn't happen, then use your finger to push the purl bumps down between needle and cable). Above I have shown the first stitch of Round 2 that will be knitted, using a green arrow. Remember your graph? You still need to start with a Kfb into this stitch.

Above, the Kfb is done, you have two stitches on your RHN.

Now continue exactly as you did in Round 1...Again, you are starting to knit the Right Sock Sole stitches. Kfb into 1st stitch, Knit until you get to the second to last stitch, Kfb into the second to last stitch, Knit the last stitch. Repeat for the Left Sock Sole stitches.

When you have completed the sock sole stitches, your work should look like the photo above. You should have 12 sts for each sock sole. Flip your work again to the right.

Just as before, thread your cable backwards so that your needle points lie next to each other. Then pull the other needle out towards the right hand side (again...this is the needle that has the working yarns coming off of it).

You are ready to start knitting the Instep Stitches of the Left Sock.
Edit: Continue to knit these and the stitches of the Right Sock that follow, just as you did before...follow your graph and make sure you keep track of your rounds :) The process is exactly the same for each round...

Above I am starting Round 3...again, starting the Right Sock Sole Stitches. See that the working yarns and the Tail Yarns are on the same side of the socks? That is a reminder that you are starting the beginning of a new round :) Kfb of the first stitch, just as before.

You essentially continue in exactly the same manner, until you have completed 5 Rounds of knitting. Take a look at your graph...after the fifth Round, you only do increases every alternate round. As you complete rounds, you'll see the little sock toes starting to take the shape of a little pocket :)

Once you have reached 64 sts for each sock, you are just going to knit each round without any further increases. Keep going until your work (when fitted over your foot), is one inch shorter than your foot length.

I like to tie a loop of different coloured yarn to the toes at the side where the tail yarns originate. When your sock forms a pocket, you can tuck your Tail Yarns into the pocket, and still always know where you are in your knitting. When you have the different coloured yarn ties on the RIGHT, your Round is done.

Ok, that was a long post! I hope that things are clear and that you'll all be inspired to start knitting Two-at-a-Time :) Please let me know if there are any bits that are unclear or if I have made any errors...feedback is always appreciated!

♥Heidi

Cold Processed Soap...lessons learned and a Tornado comes to town

2011-10-05T18:08:00.044+02:00

Summer is now here in full force, with flowers blooming and bees a-working! The garden is super-green after several days of rain, and a serious thunderstorm that sparked two tornados...yes, you heard right folks!...tornados! Now, many people will be blase' about this, living perhaps in areas that see tornados a-plenty, but I tell you...tornados do NOT happen here where I live in SA! Little dust devils and small whirlwinds maybe...but a full scale tornado...no. So, when the wind started blowing so hard that I thought our roof would bid us farewell, I wondered what the heck was going on. Next morning, I hear about the tornado that devastated a region about 20km from our home, and couldn't imagine what kind of wind speeds they must have experienced! I really feel bad for the poor people who have had their homes destroyed. There was a second tornado in a nearby Province (equivalent to a State in the US), that sadly killed a young child.

The garden has been annexed by large flocks of birds, probably due to the magnetic power of the fruit and vegetables, and despite the presence of a large and ferocious (not) canine, they are unperturbed. I have been forced to put bird netting around the strawberries and fruit trees...have no idea what I am supposed to do when the trees are big... for now the produce is safe :)

The roses are blooming, irises rising up like soldiers and the lavender is truly spectacular at the moment...Spring is just wonderful!

My sister came over several times over the last few days, and we made loads and loads of cold processed soap. We are totally smitten with new art! Making cold processed soap is really, really easy, as long as you take a heck of a lot of care with safety and the caustic soda handling. I have spent ages on the net, researching all that I could lay my hands on regarding the difference between what I call "real" soap, and the stuff that you can buy in the supermarket. I must say that I am horrified at what goes into most "soaps" that you get on the shelf...really there isn't much by way of actual soap in many of them. And the additives are generally not things that you want on your skin.... so from here on, we will only be using the real deal soap!

I played around with some recipes, using different oils and have come up with some interesting variations on the olive/coconut theme. Take NOTE folks...if you vary your oil content, YOU MUST run everything through a lye calculator! MUST! It's not optional! The one I used is SoapCalc, very user friendly. You can combine any number of oils, and have the recipe printed and saved.
In my journey of soapy exploration, I have picked up some tricks and learned some things that I didn't have a clue about in the beginning. Perhaps these seem like silly inconsequential things, but I am going to post them anyway...maybe someone will be inspired to make some homegrown soaps :)

1. Not all candy thermometers are created equal. It may seem like nit-picking, but I picked up a difference of between 5 and 7 degrees between readings on thermometers in the same liquid. So I checked which were the closest in temperature, and paired those for the soap making. You need two thermometers...one for the oil pot, and one for the lye glass container. Ok... so you say, "Will such a small difference have any impact on your soap?"...dunno people, but I am too type A to see this and just ignore it...

2. Soap Dust/ Soap Chalk/ Soap Ash/ Funny white residuey stuff stuck on one side of my beautiful soap....what the heck?

Hmmmmm.....so here I made my first batch of soap and was as proud as a new parent, when Lo! and Behold!...I see that as it dries, a film of white, chalky stuff starts to appear on top of the soap. At this point, the soaps were still in their silicone moulds. When I gingerly touched it, it was hard and dry, but friable and easily scraped off with a spoon. What is this? After reading what felt like thousands of web pages, here is what I have come to conclude...

This is called Soap Dust (amongst many other terms), and happens when a saponifying soap is exposed to the cold air. It doesn't seem to happen on the sides of the soap that was still in the mold, only on the bit that you could see . There appear to be two schools of thought: first, this stuff is dangerous and caustic, and you musn't tolerate it on your soap, or secondly, this is exactly the same thing as soap, just a different form, and is safe to touch and use, if a little unsightly. Goodness know! I reckon I am in the second camp: I used the soap for bathing for two days now, and I am still alive and well (and it must be said, feeling pretty smug at how good my skin feels ;) ). So then I though...ok...if it's caused by the air contact, I can stop that by putting some cling wrap over the soap after I poured it into the moulds. And it worked!!! The subsequent batches of soap were duly cling-wrapped and NO soap dust appeared anywhere....so me feeling very smug indeed! Below you can see the pretty, adorable little dust free soapling, after the cling wrap has been removed.

When you see the two soaps next to each other, you can clearly see the difference...

The soap dust is really easy to remove, if you don't want it on your soaps...just rub it off or cut /scrape off with a knife :)

3. Handheld stick blenders rock! Just don't gas the Nitro! My first batch of soap was made using a steel whisk , a strong arm, and the patience of Mother Teresa! I am (ashamedly!), no Mother Teresa, so this became tedious very quickly! Enter the Blender! This thing is superfast :) But be careful...if you use the turbo speed, you will go from water consistency to brick in 10 seconds! Just blitz the blender for 5 seconds or so, then stir, then blitz, then stir, and so on... You really can get to trace in about a minute. If you over blend, you end up with stuff that you have to push into your mould, using a steel instrument! Gently does it...

4. Adding an essential oil at trace, can cause your mixture to seize (or turn into a messy, rock hard, lumpy catastrophe!) So what you should add and in what quantities, seems to be a matter of trial and error. It appears that any alcohol containing additives, will cause your mixture to get to trace faster and /or cause it to seize. I made a batch of soap today, and let it get slowly to trace, and then hand stirred the Chamomile essential oil in...it was all ok, but because I had made a 2kg batch, by the time I was filling the last mould, it was quite thick again (I think this may have been because the temperature dropped), and I had to use a spoon to flatten the mixture a bit.

5. Gelling
This was quite a worry for me, and I spent some time trying to track down what this was and why you should /or shouldn't do this. When soap has just been placed in your moulds, it is still hot and the process of saponification (Lye/Caustic Soda turning the oils into Soap and Glycerin), generates even more heat. Some people like to insulate the soap by covering the moulds with blankets etc, to keep it warm for longer. From what I read, this seems to speed up the process of Saponification. If you take a peek, you'll see the soap become transparent from the middle to the outer edges as the heat and reaction continue. I made one batch gelling it, and another without. The only conclusion I came to was that the gelled soap was darker in colour. Several online sources, stated that your soap has undergone 99% of it's saponification at about 48hrs give or take. Over the subsequent weeks, as it cures, the last little bit happens, and supposedly the soap become "milder"... I was way too impatient and used my first soap batch after about 60 hours. It was absolutely fine and my kids and family have been using it too, with only good things to say about it!

Next, I have got to try making some kind of soap with milk in it...any tips?

♥Heidi

Home Made Cold Processed Soap

2011-10-01T15:27:00.044+02:00

Today I made my first home made cold processed olive oil and coconut soap. I was initially a bit nervous, having read about the inherent dangers of Caustic Soda, so I took paranoid precautions. The kids and dog were expelled from the kitchen, I cleared an area and covered everything with newspaper. I used Rhonda's excellent tutorial for this soap, please go and take a look at her blog, it really is fantastic! I used this version for the ingredients, wanting to incorporate some coconut oil (I love the stuff!). I buy all my ingredients from a local organic supplier, but really, you could find olive oil and coconut oil at the supermarket just as easily :) The Caustic Soda I also bought from a local supermarket.

First, I donned latex gloves and apron. Then got all my containers ready. These must be glass or plastic. YOU CANNOT USE ANY ALUMINIUM STUFF! The caustic soda will destroy it!!

You will also need two candy thermometers...one for the Caustic Soda bowl and one for the oil bowl. The two sets of ingredients must be at the same temperature when you mix them.
For my Olive Oil , I used Olive Oil Pomace (which is a lot less expensive than Virgin or Extra Virgin Olive Oil ), which is absolutely fine to use for soap.

Prepare the moulds that you are going to use. I used some silicone moulds that are rose shaped...pretty! I sprayed them very lightly with some Spray and Cook. Put them on a tray covered with newspaper. Right, moving onto the ingredients....

So I measured out the required amounts of the oils and water (you can use rain water , but since it hasn't rained here, I used distilled water).

I took a cast iron pot, placed it on low heat on the stove, and melted the coconut oil and the olive oil pomace together. Then poured it into a glass bowl. Placed the candy thermometer on the side of the bowl.

Measure out the Caustic Soda powder in WEIGHT (not mls!), and carefully pour into the glass container with your water. I also put a candy thermometer into this glass bowl. VERY carefully and gently mix the caustic soda granules until fully dissolved. The mix is initially very cloudy, but as the soda dissolves, it becomes clear. You'll see that the mixture produces fumes and quite a lot of heat. (I made sure before I started the process that all the windows in the kitchen were open, and there was a nice breeze.) It wasn't hot enough to make my hand feel hot, ie you can still continue to mix comfortably, but you can see the temp on the candy thermometer rising quite a lot!

Above you can see the mixed caustic soda, and the heat it produced.

I waited until the temperature on both mixtures was the same, ie 50 degrees Centigrade, then very carefully poured the caustic soda into the oil mixture.

When you start mixing the ingredients, the stuff look pretty awful! Like some kind of glue! I decided to use a stainless steel whisk to mix, and as the minutes passed, the mixture became creamier in colour and thicker. It took about twenty minutes to get to the point where I could see thickening, so I decided to see what would happen if I used a handheld mixer. I didn't use the normal egg beater attachments, because you do NOT want this stuff to splatter everywhere (at this stage the stuff is still caustic!). I attached the dough hooks , and within 5 minutes of mixing , the mixture became thick enough that you could see ripples in the liquid which held their shape.

Above you can see the ripples in the mix. I have never made soap before, so I really didn't know if this was the right consistency, but having mixed for so long, decided that it must be...
I added in a blend of essential oils (I have read on the Web that the essential oil/fragrance oil etc component shouldn't be more that 1-2% of the total , but here again, I haven't tested this myself), including Lavender, Patchouli and Orange , mixing it in well with the whisk.

I then carefully transferred the mix to the moulds, being careful not to drip any on my counter top or hand :)

Above you can see the uneven surface, showing how thick it has become. When you have a mixture that has this consistency, it is referred to as having achieved "Trace" .

I placed an oven wire rack on two upside down bowls over the moulds and covered with a thick towel. Apparently you now leave it be for about a day before you can take the soaps out of the mould and leave on a wire rack to cure for 6 weeks or so.

I must say that this process was a lot easier than I imagined it would be! I really enjoyed making this soap, and will try out some more recipes. I found some great ideas here, and here.

These soaps make really nice gifts. I am going to make up a whole load to give as stocking fillers :) ...and the best part of all? If you are on a budget, these really save you loads of money. Here is my cost breakdown:

Olive Oil Pomace: 800mls = R7.28
Coconut Oil 200mls = R2.00
Caustic Soda 130g = R6.50

Total Cost = R15.78 for 12 soaps....one soap cost R1.30 to make!

For all my international readers, the "R" is for South African Rand. At today's exchange rate, the cost per soap in US Dollars is US$0.16!!! Wow! I haven't costed in the essential oils, as they are not strictly necessary and you may want to add your own blends. Suffice to say that the essential oils don't add a huge amount of extra cost :)

How have your Heartmade lists come along? Have you looked at some of the links I posted before? I am adding a Linky List for any ideas you folks may want to share for ideas for Homemade gifts...just add them below...I would love to see what ideas you've seen and liked :)

♥Heidi

Home Made Laundry Detergent...and a wip

2011-09-27T18:10:00.007+02:00

I have been working on and off as time allows on my new pattern using the African Flower Hexagon. Above you can see a sneak peek at the wip...I have really enjoyed working with the red yarn, and of course, had to add some pink in... :)

Some feedback on the Home Made Laundry Detergent. IT ROCKS!!!!! Well, I was a bit hesitant, thinking (stupidly!) that if it cost so little to make, it couldn't do the same job as the regular stuff. It works like a charm! I have given some to my sister and mom, and so far my sister has given it a thumbs up... Mom, I still have to chat to about how she found it works :)

I did a costing exercise for you all to see...

Borax R9.99 for half a cup
Washing Soda R6.25 for half a cup
Sunlight bar of soap R5.00

So...total cost of making a very concentrated 10L bucket = R21.24

At the very least, I will do around 80 loads of washing with 10L....so the cost = R0.26 per load!!!!!

I have used half a cup of the concentrate for a load of washing. As it is really thick, I have watered it down with about 500mls of water. It really works very well. I am decidedly not buying the regular stuff anymore...after all, why spend money on that which goes down the drain?

I am going to try my hand at making soap this weekend...again, using Rhonda's recipe. This blog is awesome...go and take a look around :)

Any good ideas for cost saving that you've tried? I'd love to know :)

♥Heidi

In the car Lifesaver for Moms (and Dads!)

2011-09-25T15:58:00.042+02:00

So...imagine the scene....

I have collected my 3 year old from playschool, and am driving home in fairly busy traffic. She is strapped into her child safety seat, at the back of the car and to the left of me. I have given her something to eat while I drive home...I forget exactly what...possibly a biscuit or something else...
She says to me,"Mommy, take this!", and, without looking away from the road, I reach my left hand between the car seats (our cars in SA are right hand drives) and hold it out to her, palm up. I innocently expect her juice bottle, toy, shoe ....
I feel a soggy, slimy, something in my hand, very runny and already oozing between my fingers...
...................aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

So, this tutorial will show you a quick helper for when your toddler gifts you her chewed up lunch...

Quick Toilet Roll Tin

Take a medium sized tin...it has to be at least the height of your common-ol'-garden toilet roll, and must have a plastic lid. Clean it out well and dry thoroughly.

Use a permanent marker to draw a circle on the plastic lid,

Cut out using kitchen shears.

I guess that the next step is optional...I wanted my tin to look pretty, so I use some of my scrapbooking tape (this one happens to be from 7Gypsies), to tape to the opening all the way around.
Measure around the hole in the plastic lid, and cut a piece of the tape to size. Using sharp pointed scissors, clip all the way around, and and stick all the way around the hole, leaving the tape half in, half out of the hole.

Press the clipped edges down well, and turn the lid over.

Repeat the clipping on the other side and tape down well.

Measure and cut a piece of pretty paper and glue or sellotape to your tin.
Now take a standard toilet paper roll, carefully pull out the cardboard inner, and find the loose end. Pull out a short section of toilet paper.

Push the toilet roll into the tin and thread the loose section through the hole. Push the lid into place.....Voila! ...you're done. It's a lot easier to have one of these tins in the car than a box of tissues, or loose roll of toilet paper...

On another note....I made some homemade laundry detergent today. I have wanted to try and see if it works as well as the regular stuff, albeit at a fraction of the price. There are loads (no pun intended :) ) of sites that you can find info on this, but I used Rhonda's recipe. Go and check it out...her blog "Down to Earth" is fabulous and a gem for self-reliance related stuff. It was really,really, really easy to make...took me all of 10 minutes, and if the users are to be believed, works as well as the store bought stuff. VERY economical as well!
I am going to try it out on a load of laundry now...I'll let you all know how things go!

Nectarines a-growing...

Cherries beginning to form...

Garden helper and chaser of birds...

Strawberries flourishing...

I did a bit of gardening today and am pleased to say that everything is growing well. I have had very little trouble with pests, and only had to spray with organic insecticide (Margaret Roberts) for some aphids I found on a fruit tree... Summer is truly here in SA!

Lemon Tree with a gazillion flowers...

I am really very excited about the garden...my next endeavour is to learn to make jam...

♥Heidi

The DH's Office...what colour do you think it will be?

2011-09-22T16:49:00.017+02:00

So, in a week and a half, the new ICU is opening! This is a big deal for us, because it is a "closed" ICU and we are all very excited about it!!! In preparation, I am busy decorating Gerry's new office. Of course, everything is currently beige and white (is that supposed to be calming for patients or for putting doctors to sleep?), and really folks, I cannot abide it! SO....here are the before pictures...not quite done, but enough of an idea for you to take in the scene...

It's not a huge room, space being quite an issue because we are after all, on the fourth floor, so the room is about 13m2 in size and in addition has an attached loo. What is wonderful, is that on the one side there is an entire bank of windows, so it get LOADS of light coming in. I have been running around all week (at least every moment I managed to squeeze in), getting together all the ideas and bits of furniture. I really want this to be a space he enjoys being in...

Ok...so the question, Dear Readers is this....What colour/s do you think I am going to paint this room in? (*Hint: No, it's not pink...)...

For fun, I am going to give a copy of my Lollo African Flower Bear Pattern to the person, who guesses correctly (or the nearest in any case... :) ) Enter by leaving a comment , with the colour you think the office will be :) PLEASE NOTE: if you decide to enter by leaving a comment, you must have a Ravelry account! The files are huge, so the pattern can only be delivered via Ravelry!

Next week, when the office is done, I will post pictures and the colours will be revealed!

Hope you are all working on your Heartmade lists :) I have pinned a lot of ideas and stuff on Pinterest, so take a look for some inspiration!

♥Heidi

Bath Melts Tutorial

2011-09-21T20:49:00.034+02:00

Thanks very much to everyone who commented and followed my Pinterest boards! And thank you to everyone who visits my blog...I don't always have time to react to comments, but want you all to know that I appreciate you all :)

Today was a really intense day in the ICU. Gerry arrived back from the States last night (jet-lagged, the poor thing!), and was back at work full throttle this morning. We were very busy, and my time has run out today... So I am doing a short tutorial on how to make a really easy Heartmade gift, which when you have tried them, will have you making them in bulk like I do... :) really, I promise.

I gave a jar of these Bath Melts to my friends in our Knitting group, and they all loved them. Even my girls (and Gerry...) use them every night in their baths. They are super easy to make, and you use easy-to-find ingredients....they are awesome for soft skin!

I make my melts in bulk, because they are so popular and they don't last all that long once you've discovered how divine they are. If you want to make smaller quantities, just use the same ratios as below:
1 measure Creme of Tartar: 1 measure Cornflour: 2 measures Bicarbonate of Soda: approximately 2- 2.5 measures of Coconut Oil. Add the coconut oil slowly, mixing your mixture very well in between additions of oil. It is easier to add more, than to take away (which obviously means you need to add more dry ingredients ). If you prefer, you can use less Coconut Oil and add some Jojoba, or other oils which you like.

If you want to add some essential oils, add them to the melted coconut oil, before you add it to the dry mix. I like to use Rose and Lavender essential oils, with dried rose petals and dried lavender respectively. PLEASE : make sure that you know what essential oils are safe to use, depending on who you are giving the melts to! If you are in any doubt, leave the oils out! The melts will still be divine for bathing :)

Bath Melts Tutorial

Ingredients:

2.5kg Creme of Tartar
2.5kg Cornflour
5 kg Bicarbonate of Soda
2.5 Litres Coconut Oil
Essential Oils of your choice
Dried Rose Petals or Lavender or other dried flowers of your choice
Large tub
Sieve
Wire whisk

Sieve all the dry ingredients together. Make sure that there are no big lumps in your mix.
Use your wire whisk to mix very well.

Add 4 cups of dried flowers. I have used rose petals, but Lavender also works well. Mix thoroughly into the dry mix.

Above you can see the huge tub of Coconut Oil , before I have melted it. Coconut Oil is solid at room temperature, so scoop some out and place in a Pyrex measuring jug. Melt on low heat , 30-40 seconds at a time, in your microwave, until all the oil is melted. BE CAREFUL not to overheat and burn yourself!!!!

My measuring jug holds a litre, so it makes it easier to keep track of how much oil I have added.

If the bulk of your coconut oil has melted, but there are a few white solid lumps left in the jug, use your wire whisk to gently stir...the lumps will melt into the rest of the oil.

Carefully pour the oil into the dry mixture. Use your bare hands to work the oil through as much of the dry mix as possible. You will need to add more oil, so don't be surprised if the mix is still very dry...it is better to add the oil slowly, and end up with the right consistency, than add too much...you can't un-add!

Melt some more coconut oil, and add half a litre at a time. After adding the oil, mix very well, crumbling the dry mix/oil together to ensure that the oil is well spread. You may need all the coconut oil as described, or less...add slowly , small volumes at a time...check your consistency often.

As you work through the mix, you know that you have added enough Coconut Oil, when your fingers leave a clear impression in the mix, that holds it's shape.

Roll balls of the mix into a golf ball sized melt. Place on a baking sheet on a baking tray, and leave in the fridge overnight.

When you run your bath, just pop one of these into the warm water...they will slowly fizzle and melt. Be warned, they are addictive.

Because these melts have no preservatives, you will need to keep them in the fridge...
Once they are hard, put them in a pretty jar and add a nice ribbon, and Voila! you have a lovely gift to give :) Just remember that you will be asked for more... :)

Tomorrow I will post a pretty label sheet for you to use for a gift tag on your Bath Melt jars ....

♥Heidi

Some yarn dyeing happiness...and Pinterest!

2011-09-19T19:34:00.009+02:00

During the weekend I had a sudden need to dye up some yarn. It may have had something to do with the fact that there are several metric tonnes of un-dyed yarn sitting in my yarn room...looking lost and forlorn (never mind like someone had yarn-bombed the place), so in the interests of making the yarn happy again, I threw open the cupboards and started dyeing!

Dyeing yarn is a very self satisfying activity, I'll have you know...once smitten, all is lost. I actually owe my friend Dana a great big, fat chocolate cake for teaching me to dye both animal and plant based fibres. If you haven't tried it, and would like to learn the easy way, check out Dana's tutorial here.

*(if you're wondering why the skeins above are so huge...they're 200g skeins :) )

On a different note...folks, you have to check out Pinterest! It's site that allows you to "pin" photos/things of interest that you have seen on the net, onto your virtual pinboard. It's really easy to use, fantastic for sharing and you can do this all for free :D Just like Twitter, you can follow people whose pins you find interesting/inspiring etc, as well as create awareness for your blog/website. You can add the Pinterest Follow Button to your site (as I have done...*cough*, er...um...hint..*cough*...) and also add the " Pin It" button to blog posts, photos etc. Go here to open your account, and let's share... :D. Here is a very helpful overview of how Pinterest works...

I am adding stuff as I find it...I'll also add ideas for Heartmade Gifts :)

How's your list going? Have you started? Are you inspired?

♥Heidi

Super Easy Pillow Case with Crocheted Edging

2011-09-18T11:47:00.067+02:00

I have been working up a storm since Gerry has been away. Not having to go to work certainly has it's merits ;) I have made my first inroads into my Heartmade List! I am going to make 7 pretty pillowcases with crocheted trims for my older daughter. It's a nice gift for a teenage girl as I like the idea of her having a new, clean pillowcase for every night of the week. I learned of this from a friend, when I was still studying, who was prone to breakouts and said that changing her pillow case every day (obviously in addition to other interventions ;) ), made a big difference to her skin. Whether or not this is a case of the placebo effect rearing it's pretty head, I am going to make them for my girl (who thankfully has lovely skin, but, you know...still the thought that counts...) anyway...

This has got to be the easiest and quickest pillowcase imaginable. It is made from one piece of fabric and only has 4 straight sewn seams and two overlocked edges. Took all of 15 minutes for me to make...

In SA, the standard size pillowcase is 70cm X 45cm. You may need to adjust your measurements according to the size of your pillows...

Cut a piece of fabric (100% cotton), 176cm x 47cm.

Now iron a 1cm fold on both short edges. Make sure you iron the fabric with the wrong side of the fabric facing you. This will ensure that the fold you iron, as shown above, has the right side facing you. Now fold the same 1cm fold over again, by 1cm, and iron flat again. Do this on both short sides.

Sew a straight seam along the edge of this folded hem.

Sew both folded seams. Iron again.

Place your piece of fabric on your table, with the right side facing you. Bring the left edge over, so that the overlapping fabric area is 70cm wide, as shown above. Make sure that your edges are straight and aligned.

Bring the right hem edge over, all the way across, so that the hem underneath is at the extreme right end of the work.

Pin along the edges, as well as in the middle of your pillowcase (to prevent the fabric layers from shifting while you sew the seams :) )

Sew a 1cm seam along both long edges, reinforcing the small area where the previously sewn hems overlap.

Overlock the same seam edges (or of you don't have an overlocker, just sew a small zigzag along the raw edges). Turn your pillowcase inside out, making sure that the corner points are pointy :)
Iron well.

Now you will add a simple scalloped crocheted edge. In the photo above, you can see the pillowcase opening. The edge that you are going to crochet onto is the bit with the stitching running along it. The other end is a folded edge that surrounds your pillow.

Thread a tapestry needle with the yarn that you are going to use for the crocheted edge. Start at the right hand side of the seamed open edge of the pillowcase. Insert the needle at the very start of the edge, and pull about 2m of thread through. DO NOT CUT the yarn going to the ball of yarn. Just leave it be for now...

Above, you can see the loads of yarn pulled through and piled up.

Insert your needle just to the right of where it previously exited, and work along the inside of the hem, exiting about 1cm to the left. Pull all the yarn though.

Insert the needle in the same place as you previously did, and this time exit 2cm along, as seen above. You are effectively back stitching all along the pillowcase edge.

Pull all extra yarn through. Make sure that you don't pull too hard as the fabric will bunch. The stitch should lie flat along the fabric edge.

Re-insert the needle at the edge of the last back stitch, and work along the hem and exit 2cm to the left again. Pull all the extra yarn through.

You have made two back stitches.

Repeat this all along the edge of your pillowcase.

Make a small double stitch to anchor the yarn, and cut.

Go back to the beginning, where you have a working yarn still attached to the ball.
I have used a 2.0mm crochet hook for this edge, but obviously you can adapt to whatever edging you want to crochet.

Make 4 sc into each 1cm thread space...do this all along the edge. Above you can see that I have reached the end of the edge.

Turn your work, chain 1, and make sc into each of the previous rows' stitches...again there will be 4sc in each thread "space".

Above you can see that I have finished the second row of sc, and have turned my work around, ready to start the scalloped edging.

Make 1 dc into the space between sc 2 and sc 3 of the previous row...this lies in the middle of each 4sc repeat.

Make a second dc into the same space.

Now make 1 treble crochet stitch into the same space.

Crochet two more dc into the same space...one scallop complete.

Next make one sc into the space between 4sc repeats of the FIRST ROW.

Make 2dc, trc, 2dc in the next along 4sc repeat (always crocheting into the space between sc 2 and sc 3). Make a sc into the first row, as described before. Continue in this manner all along the edge.

WIP....

At the last scallop, cut yarn, pull through last stitch and tie off. Iron flat.

Ta Da! Your pillowcase is done! Easy peasy...

The pleasure in making this pillowcase is choosing beautiful fabrics...this particular fabric is a Yuwa pure cotton and soft and smooth ...cotton is by far the best fabric for a pillow case...

Enjoy your Sunday folks...
♥Heidi

Handmade Heartmade 2011

2011-09-16T19:58:00.015+02:00

Last year I decided to hand-make all my Christmas gifts. It was the first year that I planned to do this, and of course it was a learning curve! By far the biggest lesson, was to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Handmade doesn't mean quick necessarily and so this year I am determined to start early and pace myself...

I love the idea of handmade gifts...I love that I need to think about what would be appreciated by my gift recipients, and that a little bit of my ability and love is wound into the gift. Of course, in these tough economic times, it certainly helps that one can make gifts for a fraction of what bought gifts could cost, and really the only "big" cost comes in with the amount of time you spend of making :) I also absolutely detest doing Christmas shopping in shopping malls, so all in all, this Handmade is the way to go for me!

If you would like to hand-make your gifts this year, please join me on this journey :) You can add the Handmade Heartmade 2011 button to your blog or website, and link back to me...I am hoping to do a post once a week on ideas for gifts and an update on my plans and completed projects.

Getting started...

The first thing to do of course, is make a list of all the people you want to make gifts for... Be clear about the people on your list...these are people close to you and are a part of your life. For instance, I certainly wouldn't hand make corporate gifts for everybody that has something to do with my business...that's just mental....so be judicious in your choices!

Next write down a few things about each person...hobbies, likes, dislikes, needs, spoils etc... think about things they might have said, colours they like, smells, textures...my youngest for instance, loves bright colours, soft cuddly things and swoons over baking type smells...vanilla, chocolate etc...

Spend this coming week thinking about and finalizing your list. While you mull over each person, if an idea comes to you for a specific type of gift, write it down next to that person's name! Your list will be your lifeline folks (just make sure that you don't leave it lying on the coffee table...kinda spoils the surprise... ;) )

I have made a pretty list that you can use for your handmade journey...print it out on plain paper :)

Inspiration

Sew, Mama, Sew! is a wonderful place to find an amazing list of ideas for handmade gifts...they have pretty much done all the graft for you! I love that ideas are organized according to themes, so you can choose where to start from. Be sure to check out all the previous years' handmade lists as well, you never know where you'll find the perfect idea :)

Here are some more links for ideas...

Handmade Homeschool

Martha Stewart

Crafty Nest

HGTV

Check out these links and make a list of things that you like...next week...we start making!

Have a creative, fruitful, happy evening!

♥Heidi

Noro...to love or not to love...price is the question...

2011-09-15T20:40:00.027+02:00

Yesterday was a wonderful day! I spent the morning with my group of knit buddies, sitting in the spring sunshine, eating cake and drinking cappuccinos and just chatting about life, the Universe and everything...
Since Gerry is in the US, I do not need to go into work, so I have just veg'd and wasted time doing fun * (see footnote) things...
I have had a new idea for a project using the African Flower Hexagon (have you noticed? I love this pattern...), and messed around with different colours and combinations, as a trial run for the pattern (Yes, it's still a secret...)

A couple of moons ago, I decided that I needed to find out if all the hype about the Noro range of yarns was justified. If you take a look on Ravelry, Noro seems to be side by side in the Hall of Yarn Fame, with the likes of angel wing handspun and unicorn mane roving...
Of course, in South Africa, it was impossible to find the stuff, so I ended up importing it from the States....and no, I admit to ordering NOT just one ball....

After I had to virtually trade an organ to pay the &%##?!! customs person the price of the exorbitant duty levied on the yarn when it arrived, I muttered unpleasantries all the way home, because surely I thought, no yarn can be worth that amount of money.

Strike 1....

When I opened the parcel, It was wrapped in a plastic bag and looking at the colours, I re-thought my earlier uncharitable behaviour! The colours are absolutely divine! Really saturated, intense colours in gorgeous combinations and gradations. Then I opened the plastic bag...

Strike 2....

The stuff is as hard as three day old oatmeal stuck on a spoon! Aaaaarrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

D**m I thought! Ok...Stay Calm and Fabric Soften On... I told myself....

It was not to be. After soaking a skein in super-concentrated fabric softener, all I ended up with was Noro that needed rinsing.

NOT good.

Oh well, if life chucks lemons, chuck lemonade! See? I must be getting old...in the face of an obvious reality, I choose to ignore the 900 pound gorilla in the room...
Noro Kureyon is seemingly made from a roving spinning type action, because it has no ply, and is very uneven in places, with yarn thickness varying from 4 ply to chunky! Ugh! I even had the tragedy of the yarn committing a self destruct in places...no folks, it's not the greatest to knit or crochet with...

Strike 3...

So....despite the beautiful colours and the fanatic following, I have come to the conclusion that Noro is ok (only because of the colours), but not at that kind of cost!

I guess in fairness, it does cost less in the US and Europe, so perhaps putting up with the scratchiness, and uneveness is less of a burden, than here in SA.

But for now, I will just use up what I bought and then seek other sources of colour nirvana...

Do you love Noro Yarn? Let me know... :)

♥Heidi
*totally frivolous and absolutely necessary

Spring....

2011-09-09T17:38:00.025+02:00

Spring is finally here! We have had a really cold winter, and at the very best of times, I do not like cold dark mornings, so I am well and truly thankful that it is finally over. This year I have decided to turn a part of our garden into an organic vegetable plot and to plant fruit trees throughout the garden. I am no green fingered garden elf, and when I got this idea , my first thought was that I can hardly keep a pot plant alive, never mind throw myself into a fully fledged organic, companion planted cornucopia of nutrition....but I armed myself with loads of books and online reading, and the so the die was cast...

I decided to plant the vegetables in raised wooden boxes, because I wanted to use organic soil/compost products, and be sure that there aren't nightmares of weeding ahead of me. Our garden soil is very rich and wonderful, so grass manages to grow everywhere (even where it is distinctly not wanted!), but over the years I couldn't be sure that there weren't yucky chemicals in the soil...we have had a lot of renovating and construction done over the year, so between chemicals, and the ever growing grass, the boxes seemed the best way to go.

The boxes have slowly but surely started to see the light of growing, and I have managed to sow most of my seeds. I used a wonderful garden planner called " Growveg", which is a very easy to use online vegetable plot planning software programme. If you are into growing your own produce, you really have to check it out...www.growveg.com it is fantastic!

I used quite a few pots to prevent certain prolific growers from taking over the garden completely....the raspberries, loganberries, passionfruits, grapes, gooseberries and blackberries are all in big pots, as well as the naartjie trees and the Meyer lemon trees. Meyer lemon trees actually like to grow in a pot, so they are a good choice for smaller gardens. The citrus trees are putting out hundreds of blossoms and I expect to have a bumper crop soon :) Good companion plants for all citrus trees are Lavender and Comfrey.

My almond trees, although small have already produced these tiny green, furry almond babies, :)

My youngest daughter has planted her own box, with carrots (4 different colors including yellow, orange, purple and white ) as well as strawberry popcorn, which is a small variety corn that has reddish pink seeds. She put her little pig "Pea" to keep watch over her precious plantings...

When I started this gardening idea, I of course went completely mad and bought waaaayyyyy too much seed...I reckon I never need to buy a vegetable again!

I was very fortunate to find some wonderful sweet cherry trees, which are self pollinating. I got two varieties, " Santina", and "Skeena", and although they are only about 1-1.5m tall, they are all in bloom. Cherry trees are usually not self pollinating , and when you buy a tree, you need to make sure if it requires a pollinator, or you won't get any fruit! There are now more varieties that are self pollinating, so if you can find those, your problems are solved :) By the way, many pear trees also need to have pollinators as do almond trees, so check before you buy!

I have sown only open pollinated/heirloom seeds, which in South Africa are available from a variety of online stores. These seed varieties are usually well known, old varieties, which over generations have been passed from family to family. They are not genetically modified.

The strawberries are doing very well! I have planted them near Borage, which is a wonderful herb that is probably the best companion plant for strawberries you can find! Apparently, it increases both yield and flavour, so I'll have to see how it goes when they start to bear fruit :)

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who has bought a Lollo Bear Pattern, and who have left kind comments and emailed me! I am currently working a new African Flower Pattern...it's a surprise...here's a clue...it's an African animal...

Have a great evening folks,
♥Heidi

African Flower Pentagon Tutorial

2011-09-06T19:49:00.035+02:00

Hi everyone,
Well, I have been very pleased and thankful for all the wonderful kind comments I have received since I posted about Lollo Bear Pattern last night! Thank you to every person who commented and visited, and of course appreciation and thanks to all who bought a copy of the pattern!

One omission on my part, was to leave out a tutorial on how to crochet an African Flower Pentagon. I assumed (and we all know what that does...), that if you were familiar with the hexagon, you would be able to crochet the pentagon... I am really sorry folks! I should have done a tutorial, and so here it is.

Essentially the pentagon and hexagon are crocheted in the same way, except that you make 5 petals instead of 6. You just crochet one repeat per round less, and the stitches remain the same. That being said, I have put together a quick pictorial on crocheting the pentagon, in the hopes that it will help those crocheters who are making Lollo :) I have made one or two small modifications for ease of crocheting.

African Flower Pentagon Tutorial

Chain 5, and join to the first chain via a slip stitch (represented by the round dot). This forms your ring.

Chain 3. Dc into the center of the ring.
Chain 1.
* 2dc into the ring, chain 1, repeat from * 3 more times.

Slip stitch into the third chain to close your round. Round 1 completed.

Now Slip Stitch into the next along chain space as seen above. If you are making Lollo, now is the time to change yarn colour.

Chain 3. Dc into the same chain space. Chain 1. 2dc into same space. Moving along to the next chain space of Round 1, crochet 2dc, chain 1, 2dc. Move to the next along chain space of Round 1, and repeat the 2dc, chain1, 2dc as before. Continue crocheting around the motif, until you have reached the end of the round. Slip Stitch to the third chain to close the round. Round 2 completed.

Now slip stitch to the next along chain space. This sets your hook up for the 7dc repeats of Round 3.
Chain 3. 6dc into the same space. Move along to the next chain space along of Round 2, and crochet 7dc into that chain space. Move to the next along chain space of Round 2 and crochet 7dc as before. Continue in this way around your motif until you have reached the end of the round. Slip stitch to the third chain to close your round.
Round 3 completed.

Join a new colour yarn. Just as you would for the African Flower Hexagon, crochet 7sc (one into each consecutive stitch of Round 3), and 1LONG dc into Round 2 below. Repeat all along the motif, until you have reached the end of the round. Slip stitch into the first sc and change yarn colour. Round 4 completed.

You need to make one round more, Round 5 (which in Lollo Bear Pattern is the cream colored yarn round). Remember that when you are joining motifs for Lollo, you need to crochet Round 5 as-you-join! I have illustrated one 9dc repeat as seen above, to show you that you still end up with the correct amount of stitches for joining, even though the motif is a pentagon :)

I hope that this helps, and please send me an email if you are having difficulty with Lollo's pattern :)

Have a good evening folks!
♥Heidi

Lollo African Flower Bear Pattern is available!

2011-09-05T21:37:00.006+02:00

Hi everyone!

I have finally finished the pattern...so here is a quick post to announce that my Lollo African Flower Bear Pattern is available in my Ravelry Store for purchase...it's been a long time overdue! I have never uploaded a pattern for sale on Ravelry, so if you do buy a copy, and there are any glitches, please let me know...it's a learning curve for me as well... :)

Here is the link:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lollo-the-african-flower-bear

The cost of the pattern is $10US, and there are 6 separate PDF files to download.

I hope that you will find the pattern easy to follow and a pleasure to crochet!

Chat soon,
♥Heidi

An African Flower Surprise Pattern

2011-09-04T16:51:00.015+02:00

Hello everyone! It's been a looooooong time since I last had the time to blog, but I have managed to write up my pattern for our newest family member...Lollo African Flower Bear!
She is named after my youngest daughter, whose nickname is Lollo. Lollo has been long in the making, with more frogging than I care to remember, and more design changes than I would like to admit.

Between work and all the rest of family life, I have worked on and off on this pattern. Before I started , I managed to speak to the original designer of the African Flower Hexagon Pattern, who graciously sent me an email with permission to use the pattern and to make up Lollo Bear and sell the pattern. Thank you very much! Lots of Lollo Love coming your way :)

I have purposely over-explained every single step of how to make Lollo. The eBook comprises almost 200 pages and has over 300 explanatory photographs, with clear legends. That being said, the eBook has been broken down into several parts, as the whole book is quite a big file.
This week, I am going to try get to grips with uploading the eBook to Ravelry! I have never submitted a multi part eBook, so wish me success with this... :) ...so keep checking back if you are interested in making a Lollo for yourself!

On other matters...it has been a very busy time in the last 6 months! We had a fabulous holiday in France, skiing in April this year :) We have also been extremely busy in the ICU, with loads of new developments. Gerry has been busy with all his ECMO work as well, and is presenting at the International ELSO Conference in September this year...I am very proud of him!

I have also turned part of my garden into an organic vegetable garden and orchard. It is Spring in South Africa and the fruit trees are blooming! I have sweet cherries, pears, peaches, mulberries, grapefruit, apples, nectarines, loads of lemons, Calamondin oranges, limes, Kumquats, pomegranates, figs, gooseberries, plums, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, Loganberries, Blackberries and am going to try and grow litchis and avocados as well (however, they will have to live in the greenhouse, as it gets way too cold here!) I will post some gardening photos and info in another post...I have learned so much about organic gardening and companion planting in the last few months :)

I have so many things I want to post about, but have run out of time, so I'll say Ciao! everyone,
have a good evening :)

♥Heidi

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 7! 2KCBWDAY7

2011-04-03T19:11:00.011+02:00

Your knitting and crochet time.

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

The best way to start today's post is to freely admit that the biggest fear I have is to be bored...
Bearing this in mind (and the fact that I am a "do 5 things at once kinda gal"), you can see why I tend to knit/crochet everywheeeerrrreee...

Yes, I am the person that knits in church, waiting in the queue at the grocery store, crochets on the plane, Gautrain, at the kids school concerts, in my car when stuck in a traffic jam...everywhere that doesn't involve a life threatening situation.

However, because time is precious , I don't just knit or crochet...I have to listen to an audiobook (folks, Audible.com....go there! Your life will change...) while knitting. This means that when at home, I tend to spend most of my knitting time in the kitchen table area (you know, we have a perfectly good dining room, but we never eat there...yup, we eat in the kitchen). This is where my computer is s et up (Gerry also has all his techo gadgets set up here...), so it makes for perfect together time as well...we alternate between listening to an audiobook and listening to a conference (medical) talk etc.

That's why I have a little shelf with all my odds and ends ... everything I need close at hand...

I also always carry a ready to go bag in my car, so that no matter what happens, I can do something with my hands...I've often been stuck at a place where I didn't expect to be stuck at, and want to go ballistic if I can't do some knitting and crocheting... time wasting is the biggest crime :(

So...in a nutshell, the crazy lady with the knitting bag, yes, the one with the kitchen sink in her car, yes, that's me! Say Hi! when you next run into me :)

♥