Category: Gocco

Made my day

It was my birthday on the 6th. I had a lovely day, despite Annette having a flu at the time and us not being able to go anywhere. I did have a cake. No photos of that I’m afraid, we pretty much tucked into it as soon as it came out of the box. We didn’t even bother with candles. Teehee.

And yesterday the loveliest package turned up. When I saw this on Belinda‘s blog last week, little greedy me was secretly hoping it would be for me…. And still I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got it. Just look at it! The wrapping paper and notecard were totally inspired gocco work.

Birthday presents

And inside, a handmade soap with the most divine scent, handknitted washcloth made of organic cotton (sooo soft!), and a stack of personalised notecards (gocco’ed) with my name on them!

Birthday presents

Such a thoughtful gift, I can’t tell you how much I love these. Thank you so much Belinda! You made my day!

makemyday_thumbnail.jpg

Speaking of making my day, I must thank Sue, Terri, and Donyale for giving me a “You made my day” award. I’m still chuffed! And right back at you three for making my day too! And not just because you gave me an award 🙂

I’m supposed to list blogs that inspired me now, so here goes…

Mochimochi land with her stackable cats and multitude of other cute toys to knit.
Rose Red with her SHOESdays and this brilliant post on International Women’s Day.
Bells knits and her breathtaking steeked jacket.
Random Knits and all that gorgeous lace. Plus she’s like Australia’s Yarn Harlot in my opinion 🙂 (Hope she takes that as a compliment 🙂 )
– Speaking of which, Yarn Harlot, who makes me laugh, in books and blog.
Ysolda with her gorgeous designs, like this and this.
what’s new, pussycat and The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl — not craft-related, but good reads and she cracks me up.

… just to name a few. If you’ve ever commented on my blog here, you’ve made my day too!

I’ve got quite a lot of knitting done too. Sadly still no FOs, but quite a few new projects. Will have to do a WIP parade or something next post.

BTW as an aside, just before I hit ‘Publish’ on this post, I did a preview first, you know, just to see how the whole thing would look like on the actual blog. And when I opened the preview page, I had to do a double take, thinking, “Whose blog is this??” Ha! That’s how long I had been away from my poor neglected blog, I didn’t even recognise it anymore. LOL!

gocco

gocco labels

No, I hadn’t bought myself a print gocco (though now I wish I had!). But Belinda was kind enough to lend me hers 🙂 I’ve always wanted some sort of label to attach to the things that I make (knits, bags, clothes? maybe not socks though 🙂 ) so I finally gave it a go with the print gocco, to make some labels out of twill tapes. It was a bit intimidating at first, with me letting the box sit there for a few weeks while I fret about how I want the label to look and how to go about doing it. But thanks to some fabulous tutorials on the internet, I finally felt brave enough to try it. If anyone’s interested, here are the links that I’ve found useful:

Once I actually got going and did it, it was actually quite simple (well the tutorials helped!) and not as complicated as I thought it would be. Print gocco is like a mix between screen-printing and stamping. First you get a design that you want to print (can be hand-drawn, printed from computer, photocopied, etc), then you ‘set’ the screen, next you apply some paint, and finally you stamp/press (to paper, card, or fabric, etc), and voila! Setting the screen was straightforward. Transferring to the twill tape took a bit getting used to, though. Had some hiccups in the beginning.

First try… gave a nice long press.

too dark!

Oops, too dark! Better press it lightly next go…

too light!

Oops, too light!

Repeat, until finally…

gocco label

Ahhh, that’s better.