I almost forgot to post a photo of my favourite feature of the felted hat from the previous post.

The swirly top. Because I spun a variegated yarn with really long colour repeats it made a cool swirly pattern on top. And what's even better is that it ended right at the end of a colour repeat, so it all matches up.

:-)

I knew the promise of shiny things would finally get Miss Brittany to let me take her photo with my handspun hat. This is a knit and felt hat that will be featured in my hat book. It turned out just the way I wanted.

Don't you just love that "I'm going to get you for this" expression?

:-)

BTW, her hair is wet because I grabbed her as soon as she got out of the bath.

Finally hat-wise a closeup of the lovely not-fuzzy, slightly loopy texture that I love when you full a well twisted 3 ply wool (It works with commercial wool too!)

But wait, there's more!

Speaking of shiny things, look what I found at the local op shop.

A hand operated Singer sewing machine from 1925 in perfect working order. For $95. Not only could I not believe the price, I also couldn't believe that no-one else bought it!

I left this machine in the shop for four months, thinking I shouldn't buy it. We are literally surrounded by antique shops here in Wollongong and in those four months not a single dealer snapped it up! This made me think it must be destined for me so I went back to buy it a week later and found this right next to it on the shelf:

An electric Singer machine from 1949-1951. I bought this for $49. Yes, people sell them on ebay for $400 and this one was sitting on the shelf, with $49 on the price tag. The shop even guaranteed the electrics for 21 days. I asked my electrically inclined brother and father on the weekend if the wiring was safe to use and they told me it's perfect. I'm not sure if I could get used to a knee operated machine though, as I'm 6ft tall and my knees aren't in the same position as the average height woman of 1951.

Both machines also have their cases, and the electric machine has a little extension bed that fits on the end, plus the lever that you operate with your knee and the cord and everything. Plus a little lamp at the back that you can switch on separately. I found a manual at the Kiama antiques fair last weekend too, so I know where to oil it if I decide to use it. I need to find a manual for the 1925 machine as well.

Now everybody repeat after me: Sarah is not going to start collecting vintage sewing machines. Sarah only collects patterns and very small vintage needlework tools. And new tools. And yarn. And books. And fibre.

Hmmm, I know where I can get a really gorgeous WW2 vintage machine with total art deco styling for $65 (or was that $365? I can't remember)

Uhoh.

OK, they're woolly things but they're just as pretty as shiny things.

Three crochet hats made from oddments.

The orange hat is made from a commercial yarn spun by my sister, and the other two are made from my own handspun leftovers. I do hope to show you a hat that will be featured in my book shortly. I just have to catch the teenager so I can take a photo.

Just a quick update on the knitting wiki:

I've been writing the help files over the last few days, (and working on my hat book!) and I have discovered something that is both reassuring and extremely helpful.

Even though the large technical wikis have ENORMOUS, extremely long (and long winded) "help" pages about editing pages that are enough to make your brain go numb (all the way to your feet), it's actually incredibly easy to add a new article to a wiki. All those empty pages? Not scary at all!

So I'm rewriting all the help files so that everyone else will hopefully feel the same way.

Fingers crossed that next week I can start the rigmarole of moving the site over to a new server so I can start adding a few test articles.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of recent knitting and crocheting and tell you all about the really cool things that followed me home from the op shop!

*skeins of yarn and thread purchased this year so far: None!

In the latest series of Cast-On Brenda Dayne had a fabulous idea about creating a community run knitting encyclopedia using the mediawiki engine (a version of the software used to run wikipedia). Brenda wisely decided she didn't have the time to let fly with the idea and invited us to take up the challenge.

Not being as wise as Brenda, I decided I'd go for it. I installed the software and it worked! I can even get my head around how to set up the pages that are frighteningly blank. I think.

However.

I really really really can't figure out how to create a skin so the KnitWiki has a unique look.

I tried. I really did. It wasn't pretty. The dodgy code, the strangely coloured links that I couldn't change no matter what I did, the somewhat extremely unattractive results. It's very sad, I assure you. So I need your help. I even have a prize of a lovely skein of handspun yarn in your choice of colours and thickness. I'll dye it and spin it just for you!

To enter the competion:

Design a skin for use with the Media Wiki software. Email it to me.

The skin needs to have the following characteristics:

It should suit various textile related wikis (I have plans of setting up a SpinWiki and WeaveWiki if I can get the software going).

It should relate to the main design on knitting-and.com in some way. Eg: The slightly celtic theme, the groovy cat, the colours, or any other way a theme might relate to the main website.

It needs to have my google adsense code included (I can email it to you upon request). I might not be as smart as Brenda but I do realise that, properly run, a KnitWiki is a full time occupation so I need to put the ads in.

Simplicity is best.

It's probably a good idea essential that you understand php and css in order to be able to do this. You *don't* have to be a knitter (I can finish the prize yarn for weaving, send fibre if a handspinner wins or make a handspun hat for you if you're not into fibre arts at all!)

The deadline for the competition will be March 1st, anyone who emails me a finished MediaWiki skin before then will be entered into the competition.

Some useful links:

The Media Wiki Website
The Media Wiki Skins Page

If you want to join in, send me a message via my contacts page and I'll send you the code for my adsense ads and you can request any other graphics used on the site if you need them.

What are you waiting for? Get designing!

Edited 3 hours later to add:

I forgot to mention that I have a mediawiki installation running so all people entering the contest will be able to test their skins while the competition is on. Full details will be sent to anyone who joins in the fun.

:-)

3 ply variegated wool for a knit and felt hat.

First I drum carded the individual colours, then made them into batts with one big stripe of each colour. I made a total of four batts.

Then I broke each batt in half widthways and predrafted it from the sides to keep each colour distinct. Finally, I spun the singles (they fit onto one bobbin) and then navajo plied.

I haven't weighed the skein, but it's enough for the hat :-)

A few different updates today (most of the photos tomorrow)!

Knit

I have been working on the raglan jumper whenever some "grab it and go" mindless knitting is required and I'm up to the armholes already! I'll probably start a sleeve tonight and post a new progress pic when I have something a bit more interesting to show than just a tube. You have to love kid's jumpers for a quick knitting fix :-)

Spin

I have fnished the yarn for one of the hats for my book and have spun all of one of the plies for the other one. At first I was spinning yarn for two hats, then three, and now I'm back to two because I found the perfect yarn to use for the other one in my stash and will be using that instead. I can't wait to get the book finished and into the market. It's been such a long project but I know that incorporating what *was* going to be volume two into the second edition of volume one and making it a single volume was the right thing to do.

Shop

Much unpacking has been done and we came to the realisation yesterday that we desperately need more book cases. We have destashed several thousand books*, but since one book case was destroyed in the move from Victoria, we still don't have enough shelf space to keep all the books off the floor.

Squee!

So we took our limited budget and went op shopping, where we found four good bookcases (goddess I hope they're enough), and most of these:

I say "most" because I ordered Oma's Strickgeheimnisse from "Caryll Designs", where you get excellent service, even in the middle of Christmas!

:-)

I'll be putting the public domain stuff on the website one day (I have hundreds of booklets to put online, so "one day" is as definite a date as I'm willing to make), but the Burda insert is obviously not in the public domain and I doubt Kunststrick Muster #29 is either. I'll be researching the latter as much as I can, to make sure.

Well, that's it for today's exciting news! I'm off to find something to ply one of my hat singles with, and have some lunch.

* A conservative estimate...

And it's knitting!!!

I needed something to knit while I spin the yarn for the last three hats for my hat book rewrite so I started a little jumper in some 8 ply wool that I bought from the op shop (translation for anyone who didn't understand that: I'm knitting a sweater in dk weight wool I bought from the charity thrift store)

I'm about three inches shy of starting the armholes and two rows after that, the v-neck.

It's knit in the round up to the armhole shaping, then you join in the sleeves that you've knit from the bottom up to where they join the body, then 2 rounds without shaping, split for the v-neck and knit back and forth whilst doing a double decrease on the raglan seams every right side round.

It's a lot simpler than it sounds, believe me.

Details:
Yarn: Colour Fusion 8 ply in colour "rustic fawns" by Shepherd of New Zealand - pure new wool
Pattern: My own, formula courtesy of Priscilla Gibson-Robert's "Knitting in the Old Way" new edition. I'm using the raglan jumper template.

The yarn is a little scratchy but it feels like it's the type of scratchy that a bit of hair conditioner will help. It's rather dry from having been in storage. I'm totally in love with the colour and texture though. It's a 2 ply yarn with subtle changes in colour and very slight thick-and-thin changes throughout. It's obviously supposed to mimic a handspun yarn made from natural light brown fleece and I think it's really lovely. I have no idea if it's possible to buy any more (I haven't googled it) but if you're a hand spinner it would be super easy to duplicate.

One thing about Knitting in the Old Way: I worked out my v-neck shaping several times and was very confused to find that it always started at about the same time as the armhole shaping. I thought that looked too low, and not being the kind of person to have read all of the front of the book (as the author suggests, ahem), I had missed a very important sentence that goes a little like this:

"The average v-neck starts about the same time as the armhole shaping".

D'oh.

So I was right all along but since I've almost always relied on software to make my original patterns before, I just didn't know it. I have knit other jumpers using PGR's book, but they were all crew necks.

So now I'll be knitting away on this little jumper whenever I need a carry around project, at least until I've finished spinning the wool for the first hat! It's incredibly enjoyable, not having to worry about a pattern. This is the fourth raglan jumper that I've made from the book and I can't wait to try out some of the other styles!

I know I'm being really boring by not posting lots of lovely photos of the many interesting things I've been up to but I realised last night that I have a virus, right after I complained the weather was really hot and Jamie mentioned that no, it wasn't, but I was, and not in a good way.

So this week (or at least tomorrow) I shall do absolutely nothing of substance while I very slowly sort out all of the incredible vintage knitting patterns I found out that I still own even though I gave away all the ones that didn't "wow" me. Apparently a lot of them wowed me. And they still do. And they need sorting into some semblence of order so I can spend the next 30 years scanning them and putting them on the website.

No kidding. It probably would take me that long. I think I'll have to make sure I do one per week or something.

Now, to medicate myself into a much cooler personal climate and off to bed...

No photos today (I've been up since 3am and only got home an hour ago), BUT, good news from the knitting front!

I've used two 50gm balls of stash yarn already!!!

Yeah, I knew you'd be just as excited as I am about it.

~~cough~~

I made a secret hat for my hat book (of course) in pale pink Aussie Cleckheaton 12 ply wool I bought from the Op Shop just before Christmas. I have another 8 balls and I'm going to make a baby cardi with it, I think.

I need to redo all the templates on Knitting-and.com to point to the brand spanking new repaired photo albums and I'm thinking of putting a little "skeins used" counter in the sidebar on the blog while I'm at it so y'all can enthuse with me (look, I'm going all American in my excitement)

:-P

I also started a little kid's jumper (pullover sweater type thing) for the Dulaan project, with even more stash yarn, so the count will go higher very soon. I'll definiitely post a pic of that once I get past the ribbing and have had more than 4 hour's sleep in the last 38 hours...

I know I should have been knitting hats but I have to spin the yarn for two of them, and I needed daylight to pick out the yarn for the other one so I just grabbed Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' "Knitting in the Old Way", suitable needles and the knitting kit* and off I went.

And now, to relax with some stocking stitch (round and round and round) and some junk TV.

*Knitting kit = note book, calculator, oddments of wool from recently finished projects for stitch markers, a little bag of stitch holders, a pair of embroidery scissors and a pen, all held together in a shopping bag with Grover from Sesame Street on it. I would have chosen Kermit, but he wasn't available. Yes, I am an adult and I have the Sesame Street All Time Platinum Hits CD on my iPod AND I listen to it. I mean, sheep in flamenco shirts dancing the Lamb-baba, what's not to love?

OK, they're tap dancing in this photo. So sue me.

PS: I tried the twisted (long tail) cast on in Knitting in the Old Way and it looks rather nice. It has a lovely rhythm to it, is nice and stretchy and works well with the K1, P1 rib. I'll definitely use it again.

Photos and links tomorrow!

I know I've waxed lyrical about how much I hate having stash a large stash of yarn and fibre so this year I'm doing something about it!

Step 1: I will celebrate that my sister can't possibly give me any more fibre or yarn by invoking step 2

Step 2: I will join in with Wendy's celebration/challenge type thing. This will not send any fibre or yarn shops broke because most of my stash was inherited, purchased from op shops or given to me by my sister. Except for the little bit of stuff fleece and several kilos of white 22 micron merino that I bought from Virginia Farm Woolworks cos they're fab, but I'm sure I can keep my purchases up by buying additional bits for my spinning wheel from them instead of the gorgeous silky smooth fine naturally coloured top that was sent as a sample with the high speed whorl that I bought just before Christmas.

I'm on to you Jenny! (That stuff is soooo gorgeous BTW. Everybody go buy some so there's none left for me and I won't be tempted). She cleverly sent me enough to spin a fingering weight 2 ply and knit a fairisle baby cap so you may be seeing it soon. In fact you will, because it's sitting in my stash and calling my name and I'm going to use it after spinning the stuff for my hat book hats. It's so prettttty...

Now, what was I saying? Oh yes, using the stash for '07. I will be adjusting the rules of course.

A: I will be knitting, weaving, crocheting, embroidering, macrame-ing, felt making, spinning, dyeing and anything else fibre or needlework related from stash materials only (although fabric to embroider on doesn't count as I only have 2m of linen-look cotton and I'm thinking of making a table cloth so that would all be used in one project). Although I do have flax in the stash and a loom, so technically I could weave my own linen to embroider on.

B: Sock yarn counts. I don't knit socks, I like to weave with sock yarn. Therefore it counts as weaving stash.

C: Anything purchased for business related activities (other than Knitting-and.com and the hat book) doesn't count. More about that after I get the hat book done and published.

D: I will only spin for intended projects. Otherwise the yarn sits around waiting for me to find something to use it in, or someone to send it to.

I think that's about it! Now, back to teasing the stash wool that I'm going to card for my book hats.

:-)

I only have three hats left to knit for the updated verion of my hat book, Yay!!!

Well, sort of yay. I have to spin the wool for two of them because they're knit & felt hats and I don't seeem to have any feltable yarn left in the stash except for yarns that I've used to death in other samples. Or cashmere/angora. And I draw the line at using cashmere/angora to road test a felted pattern that might need a correction to the maths used. Even if it is yellow and I hate yellow and need to overdye it.

Now, to take the Christmas tablecloth of the dining room table so I can get my drum carder out. Yes, we did clear the table after Christmas, we just never got around to removing the plastic Santa cloth. It's so festive! So cute! So plastic and easy to clean!