What I'm Reading February 2014

I've always been quite an avid reader, except for about 5 years during and after University where I was so sick to death of academic reading, I needed a bit of a break. 

I thought you may be interested to know what is on my bedside table! That in of itself is a bit of a joke because last Christmas (2012) I was lucky enough to be given a Kindle e-reader. It's definitely up there in one of the best gifts I've ever been given. I know some people would be put off by reading off a screen, but I actually have no trouble and sometimes I even think it's easier. 

My main reading time is before I go to sleep at night in bed. I like to read for half an hour or so (realistically this is usually more like 45mins to an hour as I always get caught up in the story!) and I generally lie down. I used to find it quite hard when reading a large novel  (either large in size or number of pages) to hold the book while I'm reading, my hands would get a bit sore and tired turning pages. So for me, the beauty of the Kindle is that I'm reading from a small novel and only tapping the screen every now and then to "turn" the page. 

(If you're not sure what a Kindle is or you're wondering which model I have, click here). Also a quick mention of the pictures, because I only own electronic copies of these books, I have used images I took from my Kindle. So this isn't a particularly visually stimulating post sorry! (not sorry- it's about the books!)

So without further adieu, this is what I'm reading...

How to: Simple Beaded Earrings Part 2

This tutorial will show you how to make another pair of beaded earrings using slightly different materials. Hopefully you had a look at this post on basic technique and materials. If you haven't, click here to review. 

For these earrings I recycled some beads from a green necklace. I didn't like the necklace, it was too short and not really my colour, but the green glass beads individually are really beautiful!

How to: Simple Beaded Earrings

Here's a tutorial on how to make some gorgeous but deceptively simple earrings! The key is having all the materials and tools you need to create them. The other important factor is having some beautiful beads to work with! This will hide any imperfections in the finished result. You don't need to be an expert to create these, and they make really good gifts!
All the supplies can be found at The Warehouse, Spotlight or your local craft store. There are also numerous specialist bead shops around, however I have not found them to be the most cost effective way of getting beads. 

How to: Make a T-Shirt Yarn Necklace

In my last post, I showed you a picture of a giant ball of stripy yarn. Just to refresh your memory, look below:

Would you believe I have TWO of these?? Each skein is approximately 200 metres! It's a stretchy type of fabric known as t-shirt yarn or "tarn". (You can google how to make t-shirt yarn and there are lots of intructionals about how to make it from old t-shirts. I'm more of a ready-made kind of girl!) 

I've been wanting to make SOMETHING with it for ages, but the only patterns and projects I've seen have been for crochet. So I decided to bite the bullet and teach myself to crochet, I didn't think it would be too hard, given I more or less taught myself to knit. I found this pattern for a fabulous chunky knit basket which I thought would be perfect for this type of yarn. Also, it is fairly large so I figured a I would use up most of the yarn. 

Knitting Madness: Hats, Boots and Headbands

This past week I've been inspired to get back into a bit of knitting. I haven't done any the past couple of months mainly because it's been too hot for wearing wool, and we've had nice weather so I'd rather be outdoors!

It started because I wanted a gift to give a friend who is pregnant & was feeding our cat for a few days while we were away. I've got a pattern booklet from the Australian Women's Weekly (Great Winter Knits circa 2012- I bought at our local hospice shop) and a lot of the colour ways are grey with a bright contrasting colour. As I have a whole bunch of grey wool scraps, I thought I could do "something" and just get a couple new colours of wool. At Spotlight they didn't have a light, buttery yellow that I was imagining, so I settled for bright Orange and Turquoise blue. 

The pattern I always use for my hats is from Ravelry and available for free here. I just adapt it to whatever colour or size I want. Most of my wool is DK 8ply so I use 4.0mm or 4.5mm straight needles.