Getting some (chocolate fueled) sewing practice in over the Easter break ^_^

Last night I cast off my twin leaf Julissa. This sweater project took around seven months, but I think this was partly due to it becoming a little too heavy to take on the train each day.

Knitting in progress.

I used the Julissa pattern as a base to help me learn how to construct top-down sweaters, then heavily customised it into a cardigan and replaced the front cable with a twin leaf lace pattern. This was perhaps a bit of a silly way to go about learning top down sweater construction (there being many other great patterns out there), but I'd heard such good things about this pattern that it tempted me to give it a go. I will likely make a true Julissa one day following the pattern properly.

While I'm blocking and photographing my Julissa I'm already looking for a new sweater project. I keep being drawn to tops worn over dresses (like Jetshin's beautiful sweaters), so here are some of the patterns I'm considering:

Over the holiday season we received some lovely Dutch sweets and treats from Tim's colleagues in the Netherlands. To celebrate the release of Oni Labs' Conductance, we decided to post something fun back in response - plushie versions of the company logo - Onis!

I invented a little prototype, then crocheted four Onis, one for each of the team.


At the last minute I created a little camp fire to represent their community logo. I was happy to hear that all the Onis made it safely across the skies ^_^

and adorable plump wrens


This time I actually made some progress while away on holiday, knitting a few inches on my Julissa sleeve sitting under the stars. I haven't checked yet whether I dropped any stitches.

I'm retrieving the zombie librarian for this post because after attending the VALA conference and this year's Library Camp (#libcamp14), I felt a little zombified.

VALA provided the spacious conference experience of attending large lectures and wandering around looking at product displays - while Library Camp (an un-conference) felt very intimate. 

Clearly a lot of pre-work and thought had gone into enabling Library Camp to unfold so organically on the day itself. My interest was mainly focused on meeting/re-connecting with others (rather than the content of the day), and the un-conference atmosphere exceeded my expectations in this respect. I encountered some new crafty librarians, while we appreciated everyone's home-baked treats during the breaks. Thank you to the un-organisers for an opportunity to reconnect with friends, and a great day!