Booko — Aussies, this site finds the best deals on buying books in Australia. You can do a search on a book that you're after, and it will do a price comparison across most online booksellers (including Amazon US, Amazon UK, Book Depository, FishPond, Dymocks, and lots of other local booksellers as well), shipping costs included. For the overseas booksellers, the site even does the currency conversion for you and take that into account in the price comparison. Book Depository almost always come out the cheapest. But it's still great to have an online tool that does the researching for me :)

Library Elf — This site had practically saved me hundreds of dollars in library fines. It's a personal library reminder service by email! It's available internationally, as long as your library is on their list. It links up to your library account, and sends you a reminder email a few days before your books are due, which is great for me as I never remember the due dates! I used to turn up to the library worrying whether I have some late fees waiting for me, but no more!

I'm also excited about Randwick library's downloadables — As someone who knits a lot, I love listening to something while I knit. Usually I listen to podcasts, or just music, but recently I found out that my local library now offers downloadable audio books (as well as e-books). Well they've always had audio books (in the form of CDs and even those ancient cassettes), but now I don't even have to make the trek to the local branch to get them. You do have to be a member to use this service, so I guess this one is just for those in the local area, but perhaps other libraries have something similar?

Speaking of books, and since this post needs a picture :) these are some of the books that I found at a book fair last weekend. These are books that I used to enjoy as a child, except that back then what I was reading were the Indonesian translations of these books. I loved Enid Blyton's books the best, especially the girls boarding school ones of St. Clare's (which has a girl called Claudine!) and Malory Towers — which eventually inspired me to go away as an international student, all the way here in Australia. How funny is that! So now I'm on the hunt for these old books whenever I go to op shops or book fairs (I know they have new reprints of these books, but no, I don't like the new 'revamped, modernised and politically-corrected' reprints, I thought the new bookcovers just look dreadful), so I can re-read them and pass them on to Annette to enjoy.

What books did you love as a child? Or, if you have any Enid Blyton books that you don't want, let me know, I might want them :)

I love these, I think the patterns are so charming. Donna sent me two booklets, these are the fronts:

And backs:

These booklets are so old, just holding them in my hands feels like holding a piece of history. They don't have any publication dates printed on them, but the geeky part of me wanted to know just how old these are. They were printed in Australia, by Patons & Baldwin Wools, so they're not one of the British Patons ones. The prices are given in the old currency, which means these were printed prior to 1966 (Australia adopted decimal currency in February 1966). Patons Australia started printing their booklets in colours in the 1950s, so these black and white booklets are older than that. My best guess would be sometime in the 1940s.

(My sources for these are this discussion on Ravelry and this informative post by Taphophile. If you know more, do let me know!))

Inside, the knitting instructions are pretty much the same as the way they are written nowadays. Except for this line that was printed at intervals throughout the booklets.

It says, "STOP.—Have you checked your tension?" (tension aka gauge). Very wise indeed.

These will be one of my treasured possessions I'm sure!

I just love the look of these old cloth-bound books.

Particularly the kittens on the cover.

And inside the Mother Goose book there's these lovely illustrations that I just couldn't pass up.

We're having a long weekend here (yay!), I hope you all have a good one!

Lavender from a shrub next to the front door of my building. The scent is heavenly whenever a breeze passes by!

And the other day I got hold of this book from my local library. It's a quirky and perhaps kitschy kind of book, full of patterns for knitted cottages and gardens like these…

And my favourite, a "garden bed", hehehe…

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my last post. They mean a lot to me. Don't worry, I'm okay, and I'm ready to look forward to what this new year will bring. Here are just some things that I'd like to do this year.

— Knit more. Last year was rather slow, knitting-wise, for me. The only things I made for myself were socks. Not that there's anything wrong with knitting socks (I'm totally an addict now)! I just didn't have time for anything bigger. But several talented knitters with their fabulous sweaters are enticing me to knit jumpers or cardigans for myself, so I want to make time to knit at least one or two this year.

— Having said that, I will still sew. Last year I got a chance to develop my sewing skills, and I want to keep going. I've been wanting to make a quilt for Annette, and after forever admiring other crafters' gorgeous quilts, I think it's about time I jump in and do it.

— Yarn diet. Yep. I had never imposed a yarn diet on myself before, mainly because I thought my stash was not that big. Oh, pardon me, the noise you just heard was the sound of my husband roaring with laughter. Hello! Time to face reality! I kept putting this off, saying to myself, after this purchase I'll go on a yarn diet. But now it's for real. I won't be buying any more new yarn until I've made a reasonable dent in my stash.

— And finally, I'd like to have more hours in a day so I can do all the above. Heh! But wait. Annette is starting preschool two days a week this year, so more time for me me me! Yay!! Excellent.

… but not just an ordinary elephant, it's Elmer (the patchwork elephant)* !

Or in this case, a pincushion Elmer :)

Elmer is one of Annette's favourite picture books. I love Elmer too, because he's patchwork, and I love patchwork. I've always had this idea buzzing in my head to make an Elmer softie. I thought it'd be a cute pincushion too. Or, can just take out the pins and use it as a softie :) I'm planning on making another one for Annette to play with. This one had been given away at a blogmeet yesterday, I'm sure this Elmer will be very happy in his new home.

* For those who haven't come across the Elmer books, Elmer is a patchwork elephant who one day gets tired of being different from the other elephants, and so he tries to make himself the same as all the other elephants. It's a funny story.

Softies and tote bags for Kirribilli Markets tomorrow.

And look what Corrie brought back from Japan for me!

Some japanese craft books…

On the left is Lotta Jansdotter's new book, Handmade Project. In the middle is a very cute embroidery book ISBN 4834724212. And on the right is Design collection for kids ISBN 4529042049, another cute embroidery and felt book. I looooove these books!! Will post more detailed photos later when I get a chance.

And some cute japanese fabrics…

Thank you so much, Corrie!! You can also get these fabrics from Corrie's new shop, www.retromummy.com, which is bringing lovely japanese fabrics, linens, tapes, craft books, etc, to Australian shores! Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff!

Anyway, hope the weather's good for the market tomorrow. Wish us luck!

ISBN 452904114x

I loooooove this book!! I actually have been on the lookout for this book since I saw snippets of it in Flickr. And now I have my very own copy. Thank you, Jade!

Here are just some of my favourites from this book:

Cute pillows.

Amigurumi. These guys make me want to learn crochet.

So. Cute.

And here are a couple more books that I recently got myself.

On the left is Girly Style Wardrobe, isbn 457911132X. You can see some snippets here, and check out the cute top that SouleMama made from this book here.

And on the right is isbn 4579108655. This book doesn't have photos in it, just 39 patterns for bags, purses, and pouches (see here and here).

Oh my. So many things I want to make, so little time!

Victorian Lace Today, of course, needs no introduction. You can see the rave review here with lots of snapshots of the projects. It really is a lovely book with lovely patterns, and I also love the fact that this book has lots of patterns for rectangular shawls and scarves. I'm more of a scarf person than a shawl person myself, although I like shawls for special occasions, and unfortunately triangular shawls don't look very good on me (although this book has one of the most beautiful triangular shawls I have ever seen). For me, I have my eyes on the Melon shawl which is on the front cover. And I'm thinking of making one of the scarves for my mum.

The other book is Iro Iro Nuigurumi (ISBN 4579109783), which has the cutest nuigurumi (rag dolls) patterns. Here are some of my favourites.

While doing a bit of research on the Internet, I came across Aranzi Aronzo, the company and designers that produced this book, and found that they also have a shop with their own line of fabrics, appliques, stationery, etc. So. Much. Cuteness!

A fabrics basket, which would be really handy for carrying WIPs. Pattern by Sarah at The Small Object.

Library tote by Fiona at hop skip jump.

Elephant purse by Myra at my little mochi.

Market bag by Anna at twelve22. I really need one of these.

It was hard to pick my "favourites" because all the projects are lovely. There are 17 of them in this book, from 17 very talented crafters. It seems that I'm in a making bags mood at the moment. But really, there are more variety of patterns in the book — there's a summer top, apron, quilted throw, book cover, patchwork purse, etc, to name just a few.

But this book is not "just" a pattern book. The centerpiece of the book is actually about the crafters. Each of them wrote about how they got started into crafting, what motivates them, how and where they work, and their sources of inspiration. I think this book itself is a great source of inspiration. I like looking at pretty things (and thinking of how I can make them), and there is certainly no shortage of that in the book. If you've been reading some of the crafters' blogs (all of the ones featured in the book has one, if not a shop as well), you will be familiar with their work (the patterns in the book are new though). Even so, this book gives further insight into their work process and what it is about crafting that they love. For example, the following are some of my favourite quotes from the book:

"The worst times of my life, looking back on it now, have come from when I wasn't able to — physically or emotionally — be creative. That's why I don't know how to answer the question, 'where do you find the time to do so much?' which I hear a lot. It's like asking me how I have time to sleep or eat food. I just do."
(p16. Amy at angrychicken)

"For most of us, time is a very precious commodity; it is so nice to receive something that someone has poured some of hers into. Knowing that she's probably spent that time thinking of you and what you might like to receive makes it extra special. When an e-mail is the norm, there is such charm in receiving a hand made gift or card."
(p38. Fiona at hop skip jump)

"The laundry, the meals, the grocery shopping, etc. are just a never-ending cycle and it's hard to feel any sense of accomplishment when it never seems to be done. When I craft I end up with something tangible. I have something that says, 'Look what I did!'"
(p30. Cassi at belladia)

How true indeed.

And look, a WIP! I love this book so much I have started making something from it already.

Fabrics already cut, ready to be turned into a library tote.