Do you love to knit? To me, something that has been knitted by hand has soul. The crafter has spent hours (and hours and hours....) creating and with each deft move of the kneedles, a little piece of love is knitted in as well. Having said that, I enjoy knitting but only in small doses. I like to feel that I'm getting somewhere and fast. I call it a short attention span. Is that you too?

Here's the perfect pattern for those who want to knit a project over the weekend and walk away saying to themselves "I did that"! Simple and stylish knitted coasters in cotton inspired by vintage French linens with their faded red or blue stripes and beige backgrounds

We've also made a video on how to knit the simple Chinese Wave stitch. Make sure you check it out and we would appreciate your feedback! We're venturing into producing more videos because it's another fun creative outlet for us

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I remember having a love-hate relationship with the colour yellow. My once two year old decided to create artwork in the hallway with a brilliant yellow crayon. It was oil based and near impossible to scrub off. It still reared its head when painted over albeit a little less obvious and was something that we eventually grew to love

Yellow is such a happy colour (when not in the hands of an infant). I know that's stating the obvious but perhaps we need more bright and cheery colours in our lives? If you're not into the colour en masse perhaps just simple pops of happiness will do the trick in artwork or a rug or place-mats for the table! 

In this tutorial I show you have to make these fun place-mats with their own pocket to house cutlery and simply dip dye for a burst of colour

PS Don't these lemon iced Madeleine's look delicious? I'll include the recipe in a blog post soon

Here's how:

Step one Cut two pieces of heavy cotton or linen fabric 48cm x 35cm (18" x 13") and cut one 17cm x 14cm (6" x 5") for the pocket

Step two  On the pocket piece, on the wrong side roll over top edge and stitch for a clean seam. Finish the left edge with a zig zag stitch and press seam

Step three Pin pocket to front of place-mat in the bottom right corner and stitch left edge of pocket ot place-mat keeping all other sides free

Step four Pin and sew right sides of place-mat together and sew around edge leaving a 8cm (4") gap on one side

Step five Trim seam and cut corners on a diagonal. Turn inside out

Step six Press seams and over-stitch. Dip dye in your colour of choice (ps...go for yellow)

Here's some inspirational yellow accent interiors to get the juices flowing. Bam! Love it!

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Spending time in a Doctor's waiting room is a drag. You can't help but eye off other patients in the room and mentally note who's next or who's late or convincing yourself out of another pap smear. What to do? Cross your legs and pick up a magazine to take your mind away from the surrounding ailments. The magazine that caught my eye was a Vogue Living. Believe it or not, it was a relatively recent publication although it was sitting on a New Idea with Lady Diana and Charles on the front cover! True, it was that old. I wonder if divorce is on the cards? Anyway, I digress...

Within the dog-eared publication, I came across an inspirational article about knitting. Not just any knitting, but BIG BIG knitting with gigantic needles and rope like wool. Awesome. I love it. I want to have a go!

So I went to my local knitting shop in Sydney and bought the biggest, fattest knitting needles they had (25mm) and cut some old stretch knit fabric into 25 mm wide strips and started to knit (see work in progress above). The knit is so chunky and fast too. I like fast especially when it comes to knitting as it usually bores me to tears. Have you knitted anything on a big scale? I would love to know

Here's the article from Vogue Living and the inspirational lady is Sydney based Jacqueline Fink of Little Dandelion (see her blog here) and below that is some of her work (from a professional, not an amateur like me). She specialises in throws blankets and shrugs in linen and wools

I'll show you pictures when I've completed knitting whatever I'm making

Summer is fading here in Australia but the weather is still so beautiful with many days spent swimming at the Sydney harbourside pool. You lucky folks in the northern hemisphere have Summer around the corner and soon it will be time to forage for your bathers and bare the body to the sun. Scary thought, I know!

Prepare for the season by creating a colourful ombre sun hat. You can add a stylish fabric flower too, diy here





Ombre dying is so addictive and unpredictable, although that's half the fun. I purchased several $5 straw hats on Ebay last year and played around with dip dying to change the intensity of colour. I'm in love with the results and it's super easy to do

How to Dip Dye an Ombre Sun Hat
You will need
A sun hat
Dye (I used Rit Liquid Dye)
2 large eyelets (optional)
String and 4 safety pins
A pot slightly larger and deeper than the crown of the hat but not too large for the brim
A cook top

Step 1 (optional): I wanted to thread a scarf through the hat so it can be secured under the chin or behind the hair when a breeze whips up. Use large eyelets (for yacht sails) purchased from the hardware store

Step 2: My solution for controlling the level of exposure to the dye was to use 4 safety pins positioned around the base of the brim with 4 lengths of string attached to the pins. Luckily I have a cupboard above my stove so I could hang the string from the cupboard knob. It's important to keep the hat level 

Step 3: Nearly fill the saucepan to the top with water and have the cook top on the lowest heat setting. Heat the water but not a full rapid boil. Add 100mL of dye and fully immerse the hat crown into the pot stopping at the brim. I only had the hat immersed for 8 minutes as the dye worked very well with the fibres

Step 4: To get the ombre look, lift the hat up an inch by the strings so only half the crown is now immersed. The colour should deepen with time in the colour

Step 5: Carefully remove the hat and rinse in cold water. Hang to dry

Step 6: Thread a scarf through the eyelets

I hope you get to make this fun hat! What colour would you use? I made a pink and teal hat in under an hour and a half. You could also colour a swim suit to match or an overshirt to take to the beach. I would love to know what you do

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You might like these diy projects too

Ombre DIY

Flower Headband

Rolled Fabric Flower

Lavender Sachets

Fresh eggs (those seductive ovals of yumminess) are delicious when served in an egg cup with soldiers and kept toasty warm under a woollen beanie. Of course you can draw faces on the shell with an indelible marker but I don't believe it's that appetising after a lobotomy. It took me about 30 minutes to knit a beanie which included a trip to the kitchen to put on the dishwasher. See after the break for knitting instructions

The faces were inspired by a children's book '365 Animal Stories' published in 1968 (see below) featuring illustrators Porter G, Hilda Offen, Pradera, Esme Eve, Alan Jesset and Richard Hooke. It's one of my favourite books and the illustration styles are still current today