soapy idea for a swap

First of all, thanks to everyone for your lovely comments in response to my last post. Of course, I already think that my little one is an absolute cherub, but it was a joy to hear you guys echoing my thoughts! We love having her in our world, and feel truly blessed.

But let's move on to my craft for today:

Now, I don't know about you... but I always get a bit stuck with swap gift ideas.

The easy part of a swap for me is choosing what to make, and actually making it - the hard part is what kind of surprise gift to include.

Mostly because I don't BELIEVE in including an additional gift at all. I just think that the whole idea of a swap is that I send a hand crafted item to someone else, and then receive one in return... and that the idea of adding EXTRA goodies is just not necessary. The swap item IS your gift. Enough time and effort and thought and skill has already gone into creating it, and no additional gifts are needed.

Now I know that there are two schools of thought on this one, and that all sorts of of arguments have erupted within various groups regarding what is expected. So more and more these days, there are rules for the swaps which specify EXACTLY what is expected in terms of additional gifts, and amounts to be spent on them... which takes all of the fun out of it (in my opinion)

Anyway, this post wasn't really supposed to be about swap ethics and expectations...

(but feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section - 'cause it's always interesting to hear what other people think about these things)

I just wanted to show you what I made for a recent 'bath goodies' swap.

I needed to include a small bath gift, in addition to the washer and scrubbie which I had already made... oh, and the recipient doesn't have a bath... so it needed to be something she could use in the shower.

to further complicate things, I do like to make things unique - and personal to the recipient, if I can...

so here's what I did:

I decoupaged the ravatar (ravelry avatar) of the giftee onto some soap...

personal AND unique (and practical, since we all use soap)

It was super-duper easy. First I applied 2 coats of mod podge to one side of the soap. Then I copied the ravatar into a word document, and printed it out... cut it out and attached it to the soap, again using mod podge. Then there were another 5 or so coats of podge to seal it fully, and voila! All done.

Just reading over those instructions now, it SEEMS like I put a lot of effort in with all those coats being painted on - but really, each coat took about 15 seconds! You just need to allow drying time in between.

And it's easy for kids to do, too! My daughter (7 years old) made some Justin Bieber soaps for one of her school friends!

Anyway, the giftee loved the soaps (hello Pauline) and the only problem now is that she doesn't want to use them! Because they're just too noice...

my distraction...

here she is...

the gorgeous little blossom who has been distracting me from my blogging -

little miss charlotte, now 11 weeks old

isn't she precious???

the hat and jacket were made by a couple of very crafty girls from my local crochet group...

and a bunch of them worked together on this blanket for her also:

we're so spoiled!

another alien

If you've been following my blog for a while now, then you'll know that we've started a bit of a tradition in my home. The kids love to draw pictures for me to base my toy designs on. That softie then becomes their Birthday or Christmas gift.

In the lead up to my son's ninth birthday, he presented me with the following picture:



Holy Monkeys! How on earth was I going to be able to crochet that???

After stressing out for a little while, I reminded myself (and HIM) that the drawing was merely the BASIS for my design, and that the end result might not look like an exact replica!

Phew... that gave me some leeway...

I decided to work the body in loop stitch to give a wavy impression



I love working in loop stitch. It's a bit fiddly and time consuming, but the texture of the end result is fabulous.



Then came some good news. The Birthday Boy decided that he didn't really want me to include the radars on top of the head, so that took some more pressure off...



And the finished softie?

Well... here he is!



Apparently I was supposed to have added arms, but I conveniently misinterpreted that step... and Master Nine didn't even notice that I forgot to include a tongue...

In fact, his favourite part was the mouth and teeth!

ziggy lace scarf

Something which I worked on a few months back, was a scarf for a swap within my local crochet group (Crochet Lovers Victoria)

I wanted to try something a little bit lacy, but not complicated. I also wanted to use one yarn throughout, rather than have multiple colour changes like I usually do!



The scarf worked up quite quickly. It's based on a fairly simple 2 row pattern repeat, which is easy to commit to memory.



This photograph, with the scarf held up to the light, probably gives the best view of what the pattern comes out like. The pattern is Ziggy Lace Scarf by Paula Fisher and it is available for free here.

festive fish surprise...

Well, it turns out that I am not the only one who has been making beautiful things for my baby girl...

Isn't this the most gorgeous blanket?

I have to say a super big thank you to my dear friend Tess for this wonderful creation. She has put so much work into this piece... and every one of those little fishies has been individually blocked before joining. Now that's dedication to the cause!!!

I love the colours...



I love the textures too... look closely at the eyes and the fins... what wonderful depth the project has!

And the joining method is exquisite...

The pattern is Festive Fish by Paula Levy. You can also check out the project page by Tess over at Ravelry for more details.

round ripple baby afghan

For a while there, I was expecting to spend the last six weeks of my pregnancy in hospital. I had been told to make all necessary arrangements, and have myself packed and ready to go...

And do you know what the hardest part was?

Packing clothes and toiletries were easy...

Selecting reading material was easy...

Organising care for the three other children was easy...

The hardest part was choosing which craft projects to take with me!!!

The thing was... I was quite healthy - so I knew that I would be bored out of my brain if I didn't take my craft along with me...

But how much should I take???

I mean, I was going to have all day... every day... for six weeks... to craft to my heart's content. No washing. No cleaning. No cooking. No children!

I was so worried that I might run out if I didn't take enough along with me!

Anyway, I bundled up a number of projects and squeezed them into a bag. Then, feeling rather sorry for myself, I decided that I needed some more!

So I went shopping...

Real shopping...

For NEW yarn! (shock, horror)

I've been wanting to make this round ripple blanket for a while now. In fact, it has been in my Ravelry queue since 2008! At that point I was thinking I would make it for a gift, but now I had a need for one myself! I also had a number of gift vouchers to use up, so I took myself along to Lincraft to check out the baby yarn there...

I found the gorgeous range of Shepherd yarns, and chose the 4ply Baby Wool Merino in a number of bright colours. It felt so decadent to buy brand new yarn after so many years of recycling, but to be honest, I loved every minute of it!



So the pattern is Lyn's Round Ripple Baby Afghan. I used the 4ply yarn with a 3.0mm hook, and it came up beautifully. As you can see, I started with a solid red centre, and then just randomly worked each round in a different colour. To finish off I worked several rounds in the red again, with a final round of hdc as suggested in the pattern.

The only down side to all those colour changes, is the end which need woven in. And I have a confession to make...

I still have some ends left!

look what I made!

Okay... so I didn't do it entirely on my own, but look at what I made

A gorgeous little girl baby!



Little Miss Charlotte is three weeks old now. I'd forgotten just how much of my day would be absorbed by her - the feeding and burping and changing for starters, and then the cuddling... I could quite happily spend the entire day just cuddling her (and sometimes I do)

Thanks to everyone for all your well wishes throughout the pregnancy. I'm afraid I zoned out through most of it. It was almost as though the process of growing a baby was consuming all of my energy, and there was none left at the end of the day for thinking, let alone blogging!

Back soon to tell you all about that gorgeous bright blanket which is keeping my little girl warm...