Another Boy Sweater

Over the last few weeks I whipped up another Boy Sweater, this time for our neighbour's little munchkin's first birthday. I love this pattern, it’s quick and easy and looks wonderful. I think this will be my go to gift for little boys for a long time to come.

Details ravelled here.

xx
R

A New Front Door

Before

Well not really, just the old one given a new life. I have disliked the front door since we got here but recently decided to paint it until (if) we get a new one.

During

I must say I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

After

I still need to finish around the door and change the lock but every little step gets me closer to finished!

xx
R

A Garden Arbour

Last week Mr Homespun and I spent a couple of days putting up an arbour over the veg patch gate. We bought the arbour at an auction a couple of years ago when a property down the road was going up for sale. It originally had 4 individual arches but one was twisted so we decided to just use three, two outside the gate and one inside.

Mr Homespun has a collection of ducting sitting around waiting to be put to use so we are cutting them up to use as beds, some of which will go around the base of the arbour legs so I can grow some kind of climber in them to eventually cover the arches. At the moment the money's on roses, possibly something like a Pierre de Ronsard or Shropshire Lad, but I’m also considering grapes or passion fruit. I have to make up my mind soon as if I decide on roses I must order them very soon as this is the time of the year to get bare root plants.

More soon

xx
R

The Patch

Our vegetable patch was a couple of horse paddocks when we moved in, we had a pony staying there for a while but after six months of living here we experienced our first frost. We had lived only 10 minutes away for over 15 year but had never experienced a single frost. Our original plans for the vegetable garden to be positioned in the bottom paddock had to be changed so the two horse paddocks seemed the perfect spot as they were at the highest point on our 5 acres and therefore were the least impacted by the frosts.

So we replaced the fencing with something that might stand a chance at keeping the rabbits out and turned it into one big patch. It's around 600 square metres, larger than some residential blocks! It's also a lot of work and an ongoing battle against grass. How I hate grass.

In addition to the shade house, late last year Mr Homespun put a water tank, pump and tap in the patch so now I have constant access to water and no longer have to rely on consistent rains to keep the patch productive, something I battled with in the couple of years prior to the installation of the tank.

So this winter I'm continuing with the set up of the patch, it's so big I can't possibly do everything at once all by myself, especially with work commitments. But still, I'm making headway. I'd like to have a large bed along the bottom fence for flowers, both to attract beneficial insects, to keep my bees happy and just because I have a yearning to be a flower farmer after reading Kate's adventures this past season so I may make a start on that this year.

I also plan to write regular posts on what I'm doing in the patch so if that's something you are interested in, stay tuned.

xx

R

SaveSave

Rainbow dishcloths

I know I've written about my love of knitted/crocheted dishcloths here in the past but I thought I would share my latest little collection.

The lovely Jooles of the Sew Sweet Violet podcast is running a rainbow make along with Amy from The Little Tailoress podcast where you can craft anything you like with a rainbow theme. I've recently popped my little Etsy shop into an indefinite vacation mode (more on that another day) so I have a bit of surplus cotton yarn that I had no other plans for so what better use than to update my stash of dishcloths!

In keeping with the rainbow theme I gave each cloth a coloured stripe and I'm so in love with them I can't bear to use them yet! But they are so pretty I'm sure it won't be long until they are gracing my kitchen sink with their loveliness.

Detail ravelled here.