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
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 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?
Friday, September 7, 2012
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
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
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.
Monday, September 3, 2012
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
Friday, August 24, 2012
How I became suzy hausfrau
I've been wanting to write this post for a while now, but just couldn't find the words...then it came to me the other morning, the perfect way to explain how I became suzy hausfrau. So, before I head off for a week's break I give you the story of me, my mum and suzy hausfrau.
I don't remember the exact date, but about this time five years ago I stood in my mother's craft room late one night. I was the only one awake, my brothers and father were asleep - and my mum was sleeping soundly too. I know this because I had just rung the hospital to check on her. Sound asleep, and moved from intensive care to the ward for the second time in a week.
The first time she was moved because she was on the road to full recovery and it was a time of celebration. This last time, it was because there was no hope of recovery and well let's be frank, it's taking up a much needed bed in that little hospital in a country town. I say this very matter of factly, with no bitterness...because you see apart from being suzy hausfrau I am also still a (very part time) practising health professional...a pharmacist, I've seen this stuff before.
So I stood in this room and eyed off her stash, searching for a ball of yarn and crochet hook. Mission accomplished I headed back to my spot on the couch to make something, anything. Now it had been probably twenty years since I had picked up a hook, and it showed. So, back to the room I went and stumbled across the Golden Hands book and with its help, and the memory of my mum's hands I crocheted a flower....then a granny square, and another.
I didn't realise until months later that I was connecting with her, in a way that is still so profound to me. I can see her, imagine her still every time I pull that yarn up from its place in my project bag. I can see her hands, always so beautifully manicured, as I work the yarn. You see, although I had that very long break from craft...some things taught in childhood will stick with you. The way you hold your hook, your yarn and how you sit down to sew on your machine.
The Christmas of that year I was at home with dad. A man still trying to adapt to life without his partner of nearly 60 years. You see, not long after the night when I searched for the yarn, my mother died. My father had moved to the bed in that very same craft room, still unable to sleep in the bed he shared with my mother. Now, five years later he is still sleeping 'out the back'. So that Christmas I asked what he was going to do with all of her craft things. As he pondered I asked him, much to my (and his) surprise if I could have them. So it is this way that the sewing machine, overlocker, hooks, needles, books, magazine cutouts and all of the unfinished and half-frogged projects made their way from Bundaberg to me here in Canberra. It is such a treasure trove, notes from classes that my mother took in tatting, calligraphy...plus those very precious Golden Hands folders.
It was an interesting start to be sure, me getting back on this crafty train. My first rusty attempts at sewing, the knitting was a total stop-start, love-hate affair...but there was always the crochet. I knew how to do it, and I could close my eyes and see my mother doing it - it came easily.
I found crafty mates, I joined Brown Owls, I immersed myself in the world of blogs and I read, and read and read. The passion for making became so strong. I constantly think to myself that my mother would be in total shock, and I hope awe, of how far I've come. That I sell yarn, that I create every day. That I sew, knit, crochet...make jam, bread. I know she would be proud, this yes I do know.
But I also wonder, and I say this with some trepidation, did this journey to creativity have to happen this way? That if my mother was still alive, would I still be suzy hausfrau? What would my life be like?
I'm grateful for this life, for the wonderful people I've met and for what I am learning every day, but I don't always like to dwell about the way it came about. I miss her, sharing this journey with her, and asking for her help. I do like to think that I would still have come to this point even if my mother was still here and we could have shared and learned some more from each other. Yes this, I think would have happened, no actually I know it.
Renae xoxo
(aka suzy)
I don't remember the exact date, but about this time five years ago I stood in my mother's craft room late one night. I was the only one awake, my brothers and father were asleep - and my mum was sleeping soundly too. I know this because I had just rung the hospital to check on her. Sound asleep, and moved from intensive care to the ward for the second time in a week.
The first time she was moved because she was on the road to full recovery and it was a time of celebration. This last time, it was because there was no hope of recovery and well let's be frank, it's taking up a much needed bed in that little hospital in a country town. I say this very matter of factly, with no bitterness...because you see apart from being suzy hausfrau I am also still a (very part time) practising health professional...a pharmacist, I've seen this stuff before.
So I stood in this room and eyed off her stash, searching for a ball of yarn and crochet hook. Mission accomplished I headed back to my spot on the couch to make something, anything. Now it had been probably twenty years since I had picked up a hook, and it showed. So, back to the room I went and stumbled across the Golden Hands book and with its help, and the memory of my mum's hands I crocheted a flower....then a granny square, and another.
I didn't realise until months later that I was connecting with her, in a way that is still so profound to me. I can see her, imagine her still every time I pull that yarn up from its place in my project bag. I can see her hands, always so beautifully manicured, as I work the yarn. You see, although I had that very long break from craft...some things taught in childhood will stick with you. The way you hold your hook, your yarn and how you sit down to sew on your machine.
The Christmas of that year I was at home with dad. A man still trying to adapt to life without his partner of nearly 60 years. You see, not long after the night when I searched for the yarn, my mother died. My father had moved to the bed in that very same craft room, still unable to sleep in the bed he shared with my mother. Now, five years later he is still sleeping 'out the back'. So that Christmas I asked what he was going to do with all of her craft things. As he pondered I asked him, much to my (and his) surprise if I could have them. So it is this way that the sewing machine, overlocker, hooks, needles, books, magazine cutouts and all of the unfinished and half-frogged projects made their way from Bundaberg to me here in Canberra. It is such a treasure trove, notes from classes that my mother took in tatting, calligraphy...plus those very precious Golden Hands folders.
It was an interesting start to be sure, me getting back on this crafty train. My first rusty attempts at sewing, the knitting was a total stop-start, love-hate affair...but there was always the crochet. I knew how to do it, and I could close my eyes and see my mother doing it - it came easily.
I found crafty mates, I joined Brown Owls, I immersed myself in the world of blogs and I read, and read and read. The passion for making became so strong. I constantly think to myself that my mother would be in total shock, and I hope awe, of how far I've come. That I sell yarn, that I create every day. That I sew, knit, crochet...make jam, bread. I know she would be proud, this yes I do know.
But I also wonder, and I say this with some trepidation, did this journey to creativity have to happen this way? That if my mother was still alive, would I still be suzy hausfrau? What would my life be like?
I'm grateful for this life, for the wonderful people I've met and for what I am learning every day, but I don't always like to dwell about the way it came about. I miss her, sharing this journey with her, and asking for her help. I do like to think that I would still have come to this point even if my mother was still here and we could have shared and learned some more from each other. Yes this, I think would have happened, no actually I know it.
Renae xoxo
(aka suzy)
Thursday, August 23, 2012
IT"S HERE: Tosh DK
The ever popular baltic
A small order of Tosh DK arrived yesterday...12 gorgeous colours limited quantities. Just enough to whet our appetites until the next much larger shipment arrives. Soon - let's all hope, soon!
Click here to browse Tosh DK at suzy hausfrau.
Don't forget that we are taking a little break next week so although the shop will be open orders placed between Saturday 25th August and Sunday 2nd September will be posted out on Monday 3rd.
New colour to suzy hausfrau, dahlia - gorgeous!
This colour has me completely mesmerised, chartreuse
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