ask suzy

I get dozens of emails each week asking for help. I enjoy receiving them and I'm MORE than happy to help out where I can. I LOVE offering advice and helping people negotiate all of the yarns that I have on offer. I realise that buying online can be daunting, and nothing beats good old fashioned customer service.

Thinking about this the other day I decided that I am going to start posting the answers to some of these questions. I  am sure that for every email I receive, there are at least 10 other people that would like to ask the same thing.

I would also love to hear from you, my blog readers. Do you have any questions for suzy? Go on, be brave...leave a comment or email me.

Have a great weekend,
suzy xoxo

My creative space...In Threes

Last Friday night I liberated this Tosh DK from the shop and cast on the gorgeous In Threes by Kelly Herdich. It felt soooo good to be starting a new project, and even better to be doing so in the glorious MadTosh. 

My girl loves the colour, and the mama is enjoying the new project...so it's smiles all round!

You can see what other creative types are up to today by clicking here.

suzy xoxo

No regrets

A timely reminder for me on the weekend when I read this article about regrets and parenthood. Reminding myself of why I ditched the corporate world for this life, these children and being part of their world.

No regrets!

suzy xoxo

PS Thanks for the advice on yesterday's post. I think keep a few and selectively hand the rest down.

Handmade hand-me-downs

Help! A question. What to do with handmade goodies once they've been outgrown?

Handmade hand-me-downs...keep, put in the charity bin, or selectively re-assign?

Mr Ball Mason...I'm a fan

As the weather begins to warm up and the gaps in the larder appear, I start to think, plot and plan how to preserve the best of summer. Boozy fruit, jams, compote you name it..I LOVE, seriously *LOVE* putting food in jars. As much as I enjoy the process, nothing beats opening a jar of summer's bounty in the depths of a cold, cold winter.  Nothing.

Last week I opened the last jar of Blackberry jam...mwaah and the surprise favourite of last summer, Blueberries and Bay from the River Cottage Preserves Handbook. Divine over ice-cream - double, triple mwaah!

I'm also a huge, huge fan of Ball Mason jars. I was so lucky to buy these when I started out on my preserving journey. I know that some of you are into buying plain jars, which are I admit are substantially cheaper. But Ball Mason jars are the gift that keep on giving...and they can be absolutely punished. We use ours for jam, immersing in hot water baths when preserving low-acid fruit/veg, as general storage in the fridge and the wide mouth jars I freeze our home-made stock in. Yes you read that right, I freeze glass jars!

All of those crafty boards, and repurposing of these jars on Pinterest can't be wrong!  You can get them in Australia from Red Back Trading - great service and quick delivery. (BTW - they have no idea I'm bragging about them!)

The only negative is that they are seriously hard to part with, and when you give away jam or something as a gift (which I love doing) I feel very mean when I ask for them back. Maybe I should just see it as spreading the Ball Mason love around???

suzy xoxo

Spring Catalogue is here.

For a while now I've wanted to produce a little catalogue that details visually what's new and seasonal at suzy hausfrau. Spring is the season of change, the season of what's new and fresh...so I thought it was the perfect time to launch my first catalogue.

Each season I will bring you a new catalogue, containing what's new and current at suzy hausfrau. I had such fun playing around with the design and my head is already bursting with ideas for what I can include in future editions.

So please read on and enjoy!
suzy xoxo

My crafty formula

Someone, somewhere said "If you want to keep knitting, don't open a yarn store". I'm not complaining, but it can be like that. Well, maybe I'm complaining a little bit, actually no, not complaining just yearning. Yearning to work with the gorgeous yarns that surround me everyday *insert heavy sigh*.

This combined with lack of time, a propensity for procrastination and daydreaming does not make for a very productive crafty output. Quite frankly my current crafty formula stinks!

So when I opened my emails this morning and saw the latest edition of FREE magazine Petite Purls and the cutest wee little fairy girl on the front I gave myself a good talking to. I love sharing in My creative space each week and I've missed it, and I'm gonna fix that. That is all.
suzy xoxo

99 days till Christmas!

I logged onto Facebook this morning to find a friend had reminded us all that it is 99 days until Christmas from today....eeep! So no time like the present to launch my Arne & Carlos Christmas Packs.  Long time readers of this blog will remember my delight at finding this book last Christmas. I've started on some baubles for our tree and am loving these quick little projects. The scarlet and snow colours of the MillaMia yarn are perfect and you can easily finish one in a night or two.

 Just as the title suggests, the book contains 55 Christmas balls to knit...and to see who Arne & Carlos are check out this video of the boys.  It is fantastic!

I know that you will need time to knit up a frenzy of these gorgeous baubles for your tree or to give as gifts, so I'm launching this pack early and starting a KAL on Ravelry, more details of that to come later.

So, to the details. There are two packs available, one including Brittany birch double pointed needles, and one without. 

Arne & Carlos Christmas Pack #1      $54.95

1 x Arne & Carlos Julekuler book

1 x MillaMia Scarlet

1 x MillaMia Snow

1 x Brittany 4.00mm double pointed needles (5x5")

VALUE $64.80 

Arne & Carlos Christmas Pack #2     $44.95

1 x Arne & Carlos Julekuler book
1 x MillaMia Scarlet
1 x MillaMia Snow
VALUE $51.85

For more details click here.

MillaMia on SALE

MillaMia yarn

$9.95

(normally $11.95)

PLUS Free shipping in Australia

and

10% off orders $60 or more...

Offer available from now until midnight Sunday 16th September 2012

In the name of science

My boy loves conducting experiments, and I'll admit it, I love them too. It's the journey of discovery - testing, re-testing and tweaking.  Designing the experiment is pretty fun too, and there are so many great books available to inspire you.

Recently, we did this little experiment where we designed three boats with different shaped hulls to see which one would be the fastest.  There was a clear winner, and it matched our hypothesis. Do you think you can guess which one?

Baby alpaca is BACK baby!

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. BC Garn Baby alpaca is my favourite yarn in the store. I absolutely adore it, and so glad to have it back.

It is super soft and luxurious. This yarn works up beautifully, projects made with it are fluid and even drape well. I've topped up on the ever popular grey and charcoals, plus included some new colours including this stunning lime green.

 

Each skein weighs 100g with a generous 500m yardage - so it goes a long way. I have made two very long Alpine Frost Scarves with this yarn and it took one skein apiece. You can check them out on Ravelry here and here.

So to the details:
Weight: Light fingering/3-ply
Unit: 100g
Yardage: 500m/547 yards
Needle size: 2-3 mm
Tension: 31 stitches to 10cm/4"
Fibre: 100% baby alpaca
Texture: Plied
PRICE: $24.95

My newsletter should hit inboxes later today with a special BC Garn offer inside. Click here to join the mailing list.

Happy days,
suzy xoxo

My poncho (circa 1974)

A few weeks ago as I was searching through my old ballet costumes looking for a pair of electric blue lycra tights (as you do), I came across my old poncho. Circa 1974.

I have to tell you I was totally obsessed with this back in its day. My mother use to tell me that they had to operate on me to remove it. I wore it as a poncho, skirt, going out, staying in, over my pjs - you name it! So you can imagine my squeal of delight when I found it.  I still love it - and the colour, that fabulous burnt orange. Oh so 1974 and still so great!

It's also making me kind of rethink my aversion to acrylics. I NEVER knit with them, NEVER. But if my mother had that same aversion this treasure from my childhood would be just a bunch of holes. This may still not be enough to convince me, but oh boy am I grateful for acrylics and that my Miss Sophie has the chance to enjoy some of grandma's handiwork.  If I come across the crochet pattern in the stash I'll be sure to post it, it's too cute not to spread around some more.

Back into it

Firstly, thank you all for the lovely comments on my last post. I really appreciated what each and every one of you said....truly.

Well I'm back from our break, and straight back into it. A large order of Baby Alpaca, and Silkbloom fino was here waiting for me...and I'm expecting a very special delivery of new to suzy hausfrau (& Australia) yarn today.  So it's a quick cup of tea for me and then straight back into it.

Cheers,
suzy xoxo