Wordless Wednesday

Walking the Dog

Hello friends!
I hope the weather is as glorious at your place at the moment as it is here :-) It may be Autumn, but it's a tiny but warmer than usual which just makes it even more delightful :-) I think the unseasonably warm weather has tricked the trees and none of them have started to change colour yet...and it's almost April!!

Because the weather was so wonderful today we decided to take the dog for a walk at Maroondah Dam, in Healesville, Victoria, Australia :-) Pictured above is the path across the top of the dam wall.

It's one of my most favourite places to visit :-) I love wandering around there for hours :-) It's a beautiful combination of European style gardens, native Australian Mountain Ash forest, little creeks, ponds, a waterfall and of course the huge beautiful dam :-) Pictured above is one of the old pump houses.

 We saw lots of interesting and unusual birds, such as Fairy Wrens (my favourite), Fantails, various parrots and even several pairs of courting Bower Birds!!

 I hope I can get back there again very soon, and I think the dog enjoyed herself as well :-)
xo Shara

Wordless Wednesday

Redwood Forest Visit

Hello friends :-)

I hope you're enjoying your long weekend if you're in Victoria, Australia :-) If not you're not in Victoria, then I hope Monday is being kind to you :-)

I recently took a trip to the mind blowingly beautiful Redwood Forest in Warburton, Victoria, Australia :-) Wow! If you haven't been there before and you're nearby, do yourself a favour and take a trip out there! So amazing and serene :-)

 The trees are very dense and not a lot of light gets through to the forest floor... but in this one tiny patch of sunlight a new plant had started to grow! You have to seize every opportunity while you can!! :-)

 And then in Warburton town I stumbled across this very sweet piece of crocheted yarn bombing :-)

Have you been anywhere amazing lately? Share in the comments! :-)

xo Shara

Sorry if you're arachnophobic!

Hello friends!
Eeeeeek!
I must apologise now if you came across this post accidentally and you are arachnophobic!
This giant spider is a Hunstman. If you live in Australia you're probably pretty familiar with them already. They have a habit of coming inside when there is going to be a storm or lots of rain. Even though I'm not actually arachnophobic I always get a bit of a fright when I unexpectedly come across one of these :-)
This one was a particularly LARGE one, probably the largest one I have ever seen actually and I was HOLDING IT and I didn't even know!! Yeah, I squealed a little bit when I saw it.
I was getting ready to go on a camping trip with my nephew, I brought in some washing from the clothesline in the morning and when I went to fold the clothes this bad boy crawled out of the pocket!!! Arrrgh!
The leg span was approximately 14-15cm (I couldn't bring myself to get close enough to get an accurate measurement :-) And it's body was almost the size of a mouse!
Although they are venomous, thankfully it's unusual for them to bite humans, and their venom doesn't seem to be deadly to healthy humans :-) My dad has been bitten by one, in fact it bit him several times. he didn't get sick, he said it was just a bit painful.
Don't worry, we didn't squash this one. We got in on the broom and took it outside... then it ran back inside!! I helped by squealing, hehe. But eventually it went outside and stayed outside :-)
For most of this year we have been having a ridiculous heat wave and NO rain... so I hadn't seen to many of these in the house, but a few days ago the heatwave broke and so did the dry spell, we got lots of drenching rain and some pretty spectacular storms, which meant we had quite a few of these guys visiting us too. We've had one in particular that has been in the house for a bout a week... each day it seems to be in a different room... just hanging around... but when I got up today I couldn't find it anywhere... It's hiding...

xo Shara
As long as they're not touching me, they're actually quite beautiful, don't you think?

Mystery Moth

Hello friends!

Look at this amazing and beautiful moth I found on my driveway :-)

I have no idea what sort of moth it is... 

 Do you know what sort it? I tried to search for it on the internet, but there are approximately 57 bazillion different types of moths out there...

 It sort of looks like leaves... doesn't it? :-)

Maroondah Dam

Hello friends!
Today I visited Maroondah Dam in Healesville, Victoria, Australia. The weather was perfect and all the beautiful Spring flowers were in bloom :-)

 Overcast.... my favourite weather :-)

 From the top of the waterfall :-)

 Looking out over the dam wall :-)

 These Lilac flowers smelled absolutely divine!

A beautiful bee enjoying the scented azaleas :-)

Blogtoberfest 2012

Hello friends!
I'm happy to say that I am taking part in Blogtoberfest! This is the first year I am participating, and what it means is that I will be posting on my blog every day in October.
I'm excited about it and I'm enjoying it so far :-) I had been trying to find something to inspire me to post more often on my blog... and this is the perfect inspiration! :-)
The photograph above is of an echidna that I came across waddling on the side of the road in Swan Reach, Victoria, last week. He's pretty sweet, don't you think? :-)
Thanks to Wikipedia, here is a little bit of information about echidnas:
"Echidnas and the platypus are the only egg-laying mammals, known as monotremes. The female lays a single soft-shelled, leathery egg 22 days after mating, and deposits it directly into her pouch. Hatching takes place after ten days; the young echidna, called a puggle, then sucks milk from the pores of the two milk patches (monotremes have no nipples) and remains in the pouch for 45 to 55 days,^[7]at which time it starts to develop spines. The mother digs a nursery burrow and deposits the puggle, returning every five days to suckle it until it is weaned at seven months. The average wild echidna live as long as 16 years."
What animals have you seen around lately? Do you get to see much wild life where you live? Share in the comments! :-)

Little Lost Egg

Hello friends :-)
This little egg was found in a pot plant in my garden. It's been abandoned. I don't know what sort of bird it belonged to, but it's very beautiful.
I have no idea how the egg got in to the pot it was in, as there is no nest in the plant in the pot and there are no over hanging trees... Maybe another animal carried it there?
We are lucky enough to have a very wide variety of birds in your garden: King Parrots, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Black Cockatoos, Crimson Rosellas, Eastern Rosellas (my favourite :-), kookaburras, Wattle Birds, Owls, Rainbow Lorikeets, Magpies, Bower Birds & Kurrawongs, as well as non-indigenous birds like black birds, starlings, sparrows & mynas :-)
Do you have any birds nests in your garden? What sort of birds do you have at your place? Share in the comments :-)

Mid Year Sale!

Hello friends!
It's time for our Mid Year Sale!
Pop over to the online store HERE
Use the special discount code WINTER2012 to receive 20% off the price of your purchase!
Treat yourself or stock up now for Birthday and Christmas gifts :-)
Have fun!

Beads & a Native Rat

Hello friends!

Today I have been experimenting with polymer clay. I haven't played around with polymer clay for quite some time and I had forgotten how much fun it could be. I made some beads of varying shapes and sizes, none of them quite match the others, but I like the "organic" feel of them :-)

I used a 4.5mm double pointed knitting needle to make the hole in each bead, and also to suspend them over a muffin tray while baking them, so that they didn't get any flat, shiny patches (which will happen if you bake them sitting directly on a tray :-) I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them yet, so for now I have just threaded them on a length of silver tone ball chain :-) I've also been doing a few experiments with adding texture to the beads (but they'll have to wait for the next round of photo's :-)

While I was in the back yard photographing the beads so I could show them to you I could hear a rustling noise by the back fence... I went to investigate and discovered that it was a little native rat gathering some old corn husks, discarded from the veggie patch, to make a nest?? I watched it for quite a while, it was very cute. It had a little friend too, so I'm hoping we might be lucky enough to have a whole brood of little native rats soon :-)

I know that photograph isn't very good, but I was trying not to scare them, so I couldn't get very close :-)

P.S. By native rat, I mean native to Australia. They're much cuter and sweeter than a regular rat. They're smaller, have rounded ears & a tail that is as short or shorter than its body length :-)

Knitting Weather

Hello friends!

It's Easter Monday and the weather has suddenly turned very Wintery! An icy wind is blowing down through the hills, the rain is making a marvellous racket on the tin roof. It's perfect weather for snuggling up indoors with some knitting.

At the moment I'm working on the Manayunk Cardigan by Kate Gagnon Osborn. The pattern is beautifully written.

I'm using a Merino/Angora/Silk blend yarn in storm cloud grey & ivory, and it feels amazing. I wish it was already finished so I could be wearing it today!! :-)

Max the dog is keeping me company while I'm knitting :-)

Autumn Möbius Cowl

Hello friends!

This is my February pattern in the "Pattern a Month" challenge I have set myself. I know, I know, I'm cutting it fine this month, the only reason I made it in time this month is because it's a leap year and I got an extra day :-)

This pattern for a simple cowl is great for beginners (and more experienced crocheters :-), it works up quickly, with a small amount of yarn, so it's a good stash buster :-) It also makes a great last minute gift.

I've included instructions at the end of the pattern on how you can easily modify the size of the cowl to make it as long or as short as you like.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry HERE

Have fun!

Autumn Möbius Cowl

This pattern is written using British/Australian crochet terms, with U.S. terms in parenthesis.

Abbreviations:

ch : chain

sl st: slip stitch

tr: treble (U.S. dc: double crochet)

Materials:

4.5mm crochet hook.

Approx. 105m (115yds) DK or 8 ply yarn

Scissors

Yarn needle for weaving in ends.

Tension/Gauge:

14 sts & 10 rows in tr = 10cm x 10cm

Although tension is not essential in this project if you have less stitches across 10cm, your cowl will be larger and require more yarn and if you have less stitches across 10cm, your cowl will be smaller and may require less yarn :-)

Finished size: 66cm around, and 13.5cm high.

Pattern:

Ch 92, join with a sl st in first ch to form a ring, taking care not to twist your chain.

Round 1: 3ch [to count as 1tr (1dc), here and through out pattern], 1tr in each ch to end, DO NOT join with a sl st as you normally would when working in the round. Now you will flip the beginning of your work forwards and down, as shown in the picture below:

Now you will be working into the other side of the foundation chain, as shown in the picture below. Work 1 tr into each st to the end, join with a sl st in 3rd ch at beginning of round.

Round 2: 3ch, 1tr into each st to end, join with sl st in 3rd ch at beginning of round.

You will notice here that each Round is essentially 2 whole Rounds (this might not make much sense unless you're looking at your work :-)

Rounds 3-5: As Round 2.

Fasten off, weave in ends. Finished!

You can easily make this cowl larger or small by using more or less chain at the beginning, and by completing more or less rounds. You could make a smaller one for a child, a cowl like this is great for kids as it doesn't have any long bits hanging down, like a scarf, getting your way while you're playing :-) Or you could make yourself a longer one, more like an infinity scarf rather than a cowl. Below are instructions on how to adjust the length of your cowl, and how to work out how many stitches you'll need to make a cowl if you want to use a different weight yarn & different size hook :-)

To work out how many chain stitches you will need to start with to get a particular length cowl/scarf you can use the following method:

Make a tension/gauge square with yarn and hook you are using, count how many stitches fit into 10cm. Then divide the desired finished length of the cowl/scarf by 10, then multiply that number by the number of stitches that fit into 10cm, according to the tension/gauge you have. This will give you the number of chain stitches you need to start with. Sound confusing? Here's an example:

The finished length of the cowl in the pictures is 66cm, the tension/gauge using this yarn and hook is 14 sts in 10cm. 66 divided by 10 = 6.6. Then, 6.6 multiplied by 14 = 92.4, so I started with 92 stitches. I hope that helps!!

If you have any questions, queries, need assistance to complete your cowl or find an error, please don't hesitate to leave a comment and I'll gladly help where I can :-)

Copyright is held by the author (SharaLambethDesigns). Copyright remains that of the author at all times. The pattern is for personal use only. Reproduction of this pattern in anyway (electronic, email, photocopying, transcribing etc) is strictly prohibited, except with the explicit permission of the author. Please do not sell the pattern or the finished product that is made using this pattern without permission of the author, as this is a direct infringement of the copyright laws protecting this pattern. Also please be aware that copyright laws vary from country to country (sometimes even from state to state), I am Australian, in Australia, therefore my patterns are protected by Australian copyright laws. This copyright protection still stands no matter what country the item is made in or who makes it. Thank you!!

If you do want to sell the cowls you make using this pattern at a market, craft fair or in your online store please do ask, as in most cases I will give permission :-)

And please feel free to make as many cowls as you can, to donate to your local charities.

Folk Squirrel Brooches

Hello friends!

I have been adding some new pieces to my store :-) I'm pleased to introduce the Folk Squirrel series :-)

You can find these Folk Squirrels in my online store HERE :-)

The white Squirrels are laser cut from recycled pine MDF wood, with a white melamine veneer. The natural wood Squirrel is laser cut from sustainable Rimu wood :-)

Hello 2012

Hello friends :-)

I hope your festive season was relaxing and full of pleasant surprises :-)

I'm about to head off for a camping trip with my 8 year old nephew at Wilsons Promontory for a week or so, which I'm really looking forward to. I hope the weather is kind to us!!

I hope to be doing some well earned relaxing while I'm there. Wandering around in the forest, floating around in the ocean, and not a lot else :-)

When I return from my little holiday I'll be adding some new knitting and crochet patterns!! Yes, that's right!

I've been working on a few new designs over the last couple of months, for various fingerless glove designs, gloves with fingers, kids tops, kids shorts, jewellery, toys, scarves, shawls/wraps, cowls, hats & even a ladies cardigan!

I had this crazy idea that I would try and write at least one new pattern every month this year. I'm not sure how I'll go, but I'm going to try my best and hopefully there will be a lot of fun things to make here on my blog :-)

Take care and I'll be back with a bunch of fun, new things in a few weeks :-)

I would love to see this succeed! :-)

Georgette Collar

Here is another pattern for you all to enjoy!

I really love the look a detachable "Peter Pan" style collar can add to an outfit so I decided to make one for myself :-)

The pattern is easy and quick. You could easily have one completely finished in under an hour. You can use any 8 ply or DK weight yarn you like. A nice woolly one for winter, or a cotton one for summer, perhaps :-) They're also GREAT for using up all those little bits of lovely yarn sitting at the bottom of your knitting basket. But because they use such a small amount of yarn you could always splash out and buy yourself a ball of something luxurious to make yourself a special treat :-) And of course, they make lovely gifts too!

And you can find readymade Georgette Collars in my Etsy store HERE :-)

Georgette Collar

What you need:

4mm crochet hook

Approx 35-40m ( 38-44 yds or approximately 20g) 8 ply or DK weight yarn.

Wool needle to weave in ends.

Scissors

Tension/Gauge:

15 tr (dc) x 8 rows = 10cm (4").

Tension or gauge are not essentially important to this pattern, however if you know that you normally crochet tightly, you might like you go up a hook size and if you know you normally crochet loosely, you might like to go down a hook size.

Abbreviations:

This pattern is written using Australian/British crochet terms, however if you like to use U.S. crochet terms you see them "converted" in this abbreviation explanation :-)

Ch: chain

Dc: Double crochet, or U.S. sc: single crochet.

Tr: Treble, or U.S. dc: double crochet.

Dtr: Double treble, or U.S. tr: treble.

Sl st: slip stitch

st/s: stitch or stitches

Pattern:

Ch 71

Row 1: dc in 2nd ch from hook, dc to end. Turn. (70sts)

Row 2: 3ch (to count as 1 tr, here and throughout pattern), 1tr in each of next 8 sts, (2tr in next st, 1tr in each of next 9sts) 6 times, 1tr in last st. Turn. (76sts)

Row 3: 3ch, 1tr in each of next 9sts, (2tr in next st, 1tr in each of next 10sts) 6 times. Turn. (82sts)

Row 4: 3 ch, 1tr in each of next 9sts, (2tr in next st, 1tr in each of next 11sts) 6 times. Turn. (88sts)

Row 5: Skip first 3 sts, (4tr, 1dtr) in next st, 1dtr in each of next 7sts, (2tr in next stitch, 1tr in each of next 12sts) 5 times, 2tr in next st, 1dtr in each of next 7sts, (1dtr, 4tr) in next st, sl st into last st of row.

Fasten off.

Make ties:

There are a few different tie variations to choose from.

The picture above shows where to attach the ties to your collar :-)

Disc Ties (above):

4 ch. 11tr into 4th ch from hook, join with sl st in ch #4 at the beginning of your disc. Ch 60, join with sl st to top corner of your collar. (See pic above)

Make another tie the same, joining it to the other top corner of your collar using a sl st.

Weave in ends & you're finished!

Flower Ties (above):

2 ch.

- Sl st into 2nd ch from hook, then *2ch, 2tr, 2ch, sl st* into same space, repeat from * to * 4 more times, creating 5 "petals" in total. Ch 60, join with sl st to top corner of your collar. (See pic above)

Make another tie the same, joining it to the other top corner of your collar using a sl st.

Weave in ends & you're finished!

Leaf Ties (above):

10 ch. 1dc in 2nd ch from hook, 2htr, 1tr, 1dtr, 1tr, 2htr, 3dc in last ch, turn to work along the other side of your foundation ch, 2htr, 1tr, 1dtr, 1tr, 2htr, 1dc, sl st into 1st st at beginning of leaf. Ch 60, join with sl st to top corner of your collar. (See pic above)

Make another tie the same, joining it to the other top corner of your collar using a sl st.

Weave in ends & you're finished!

**For a few more exceptionally cute Tie option take a look over at the Sister Outlaws Blog for a Love Heart and a Sugar Skull!!

The collar above is made using a love Saffron coloured wool blend yarn, with flower ties.
The collar above is made using some very beautiful yarn that is a wool/silk/alpaca blend, with disc ties. To make this collar I used the dark colour to make the foundation chain & Row 1, then I changed to the lighter colour yarn for Rows 2-5, I then did a row of dc around the outer edge of the collar (adding a few extra stitches are the corners so it would sit flat & wouldn't curl up. I them made the disc ties as per the instructions above, then added a round of dc in the darker colour (with 2 dc in each tr), then continued with the dark colour to make the chain part of the tie, then attached it as usual to the collar :-)
The collar above is made using some lovely pure wool yarn, I used the same method as written above, using two shades of green. I then added a some scallops to the outer edge and attached the disc ties.
I used the same method as written above to make the two colour version of the collar pictured above, I then added Leaf Ties :-)

Have fun with this pattern. Make one for a friend to make them smile :-)

Coming soon is the Toddler/Child version of this pattern! :-)

Also, if you're not a crocheter you can find ready made version of the Georgette Collar in my Etsy store HERE & I do take custom requests if you have a yarn fibre or colours in mind :-)

© Copyright Shara Lambeth Designs 2013. These images & this pattern/tutorial are protected by copyright laws. Copying, duplicating, or distributing this pattern in any form electronically or otherwise is a direct breach of copyright. Feel free to link back to this post from your blog/site etc. And yes, you can sell the finished items made using this pattern/tutorial in your online store such as Etsy, but please be kind and credit the pattern to it's original source, here! :-)