Mandy in Oz

J picked this beauty up today - so exciting! I'm hoping that I'll be able to get out and about on the bike lots now, with Lily in tow :)

Yay! Now that all swaps are in their respective homes, I can reveal that The Little Parcel that Could was for the lovely Tikki ! So, that's it - all done. For now...... And because I do love to post pics, here is a pic of the shorties that I decided to go a little 'freehand' on. To do this, you grab your shorties, your needle and wool.....and go nuts! These are pear tree merino and are looking for a new home. The short rows are hideous, but I think that my embellishing did a pretty good job of hiding them :P What do you think?

I have been neglecting you, I know. I do have an excuse though - I've been very busy, preparing and sending off packages :P Tracy, yours is on it's way, absolutely bursting at the seams lol, Donna - yours is coming too. There is another parcel on it's way - it will probably be a bit of a surprise for the recipient, as she isn't aware that it's coming - I've come to think of it as The Little Parcel That Could. It was only a small parcel, but it wanted to be a Great Big Parcel. So it grew, and grew, and GREW! I've had some other bits and pieces happening, also. Operation 'No sheep for you' is well underway - I've been attempting to get rid of all sheepiness from my home. This has been moderately successful so far - although to assist in the timely removal of knitted woolies from my vicinity, I've been embellishing them (while wearing thick gloves!) to hopefully make them more appealing (and hide my hideous short rows). In super excitin...

I received an absolutely fabulous parcel today - the lovely Tracy sent me this pile of yarny/smocky goodness as her part of a couple of swaps - once she's back from holidays, I'll be sending her a pile of wooly fun - the second part of my end of the swap! And here is Lily's dress - complete! It's fuschia linen, made from a 60's 'jumper' pattern and I decided to design a stencil and do a little painting. I'm very happy with the way the stencilling worked out. Expect to see more fabric painting here soonish ;)