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New Free Pattern!Posted by on Friday 28 March, 2008 09:35 PM I have added a new pattern by Mark Thrailkill, designer of the incredibly popular "London Beanie". It's called Mark's Butch, Macho Roll-Brim Seaman's Watch Cap. Mark also sent me some updates to the London Beanie, which I have added to the pattern. New Free Knitting Pattern!Posted by on Wednesday 12 March, 2008 04:07 PM Another new knitting pattern! :) I have added a new pattern to the KnitWiki, courtesy of Caroline Morrow. Mrs Lovett's Mitts, inspired by the movie Sweeney Todd (I love that movie VBG) Yayyyyyyy and also Woo!Posted by on Friday 15 February, 2008 07:20 AM
Hooray! Knitters on Ravelry have started posting lots of projects they have made from my hat book. The whole top row of pictures and bottom right are hats people have knit using the "any yarn, any size" patterns from my book and they all look fabulous :) I'm a very happy camper. The 200 or so hats that I knit to test the patterns were really worth it! :) Bust That Stash!Posted by on Sunday 3 February, 2008 06:37 PM Now that I have access to my computer again I'm on a stash busting binge :) I already mentioned that I gave away 2/3 of my stash for charity knitting and I have promised myself that no new personal yarn purchases will be made until the remaining stash is down to one bin full. I don't want a knitting stash bigger than one tub of yarn so three tubs full still need to go. I'm going to stash leftovers for weaving experiments and the occasional toy and that's it. If I have a small project that needs yarn and I don't have it, I'm going to spin it from stash. If I want to make a large project and don't have the yarn I'll spin that too. Business yarn doesn't count because I have to buy yarn that people can easily purchase for my next couple of patterns, but most of my website knitting will also be done with stash so even business knitting is going to empty some of my four remaining tubs of knitting yarn. Anyway, enough of that. I have also made great strides in stash reduction by making stuff! First I dyed some Bendigo Mills 4 ply baby wool that I bought to make a hairpin lace shawl. It was too lightly spun for hairpin lace so I dyed it like this:
This skein was dyed using Landscapes galah for the pink and a 50/50 mix of rust and tanbark for the brown. I like the tanbark brown as it's quite versatile. Mix it 50/50 with rust and you get a nice warm brown, mix it 50/50 with wattle and you get a lovely cool brown. It's also great used by itself for camouflage yarns. I gave this skein to a friend for charity knitting. (out of the stash)
This is a pink camouflage yarn dyed with galah and tanbark. It's Heirloom 8 ply wool. This is for a swap (out of the stash) But before I get too far off track, here are the other two skeins of Bendigo Baby Wool that I dyed.
This one is dyed with Lansdcapes in opal, sky blue, fern green and an "eyeballed" mix of wattle and fern green. I've used all of this one up in two knitted baby hats for charity and a blanket I'm crocheting for a recent baby in the family. So it's out of the stash too :) This next yarn is my favourite (although I really love the pink camo and might dye some for myself if I can find any more white yarn in the stash).
The blue is Landscapes sky blue and the brown is 50/50 tanbark and wattle. Tanbark is already quite a cool brown but the wattle just makes it more interesting. This one is still in the stash. I haven't just been dyeing yarn though, I've also been knitting things aside from the baby hats mentioned above. I made a pink elephant using some vintage Cleckheaton 12 ply. It's vintage enough that it doesn't even have a name, it's just called "12 ply".
I used the "Elefante" pattern by Susan B Anderson that you can find online for free here. Scroll down the page about halfway and you'll see a list of all of Susan's free patterns in the menu on the left hand side of the page. Clicking on that will open the pdf file of the pattern. It's a bit fiddly to knit, but well written. I think it turned out kinda goofy and cute. Here are my notes from my ravelry entry for this project: "Knit at a slightly larger gauge than the pattern states at 5.5 sts per inch. Straight section in the body was worked quarter of an inch longer to compensate, trunk 1/8 inch longer and head worked a total of 3/8 inch longer before decreasing for the top. Tail 1.5 inches long 5mm crochet hook used for ears and omitted the last round before folding in half" So that's another 2 skeins of yarn out of the stash :) I dyed the rest of the yarn red for use in another project or two. It's a bit scratchy and dry though, I'll have to give it a good soak in some hair conditioner at some stage. I've also been knitting some bags. Firstly there are string bags, made using Judy Gibson's Turkish String Bag pattern and some supersaver 4 ply cotton. (That's fingering weight for the non Aussie/NZ/UK knitters). A bit under one skein makes the whole bag if you don't make adaptations to the pattern. I finished a green one and am currently knitting another. That's one ball of cotton out of the stash and another on it's way :)
The last project I have a photograph of is a knit & felt change purse that I knit using op shop tapestry yarn. It doesn't count as using up the knitting stash but I think it turned out really pretty.
I used the Awning Stripe Change Purse pattern by lionbrand and used about 10 skeins of tapestry yarn and some stash buttons. These are some of my favourite buttons and I'm really glad to have found the perfect project for them. Now that I have access to the files on my computer again I'll be uploading more patterns to the website and fixing up some problems with the Homework patterns that happened during the meltdown. Keep an eye out here for news when new things are added. Yesterday's PostPosted by on Saturday 12 January, 2008 01:16 PM is being posted today due to my spending the whole day cleaning out the garage, doing dishes and then going to the gym in the evening because I didn't have time during the rest of the day and being totally exhausted by the end of it all. In fact I'm still a bit sleepy to tell the truth (I should be hanging out the laundry right now). The garage cleaning is important as I'm hoping to get everything arranged so that I can actually use the floor loom I bought second hand two years ago. Can you believe I still haven't had a chance to use it? We moved interstate soon after I bought it and it's been stored ever since. So far I've managed to destash 2/3 of my yarn to people who are actually going to use it and I've put my spinning and felt making stash into the empty plastic tubs that no longer had any yarn in them. The next step is to clear out any craft crap and kitchen stuff that is no longer wanted and get Miss Brittany's boxes into her bedroom so she can sort out what she doesn't want any more. Then I'll arrange my cupboards and get everything put away. Hopefully after that there will be room to bring out the loom so I can retie the treadles, get a new reed in and start using up what's left of the stash while learning to weave all sorts of cool techniques :). I love weaving but I was only just beginning to learn before the move so I'm still very much a beginner two years later. But you're probably here to read more about all the cool stuff I made while I've been not-blogging... This first scarf is quite
A closeup:
I call this the "Party Scarf", after the yarn that I used to knit it. A few years ago there was a sudden new craze of spinning yarns with "stuff" in them. To be honest, a lot of the yarns I was seeing back then weren't really going to stand up to actually being used. I decided to prove (to myself) that it was possible to create a yarn with lots of deranged stuff in it that could also stand up to the wear and tear of being handled. "Party Yarn" was the result, and it led to my writing this tutorial. If you don't spin you can make a thread with all the bits and pieces in it and just knit it along with your main commercial yarn if you want to. It's totally impractical and a lot of fun :) (BTW, just ignore that bit in the tutorial that says "picture goes here". I need to find an ftp program that will work on my crappy old computer so I can update the website). I also made a skinny scarf out of a couple of balls of Cleckheaton Snowflake. I wanted to destash the yarn but Brittany liked it. It's 2 inches wide, garter stitch all the way until the yarn ran out.
I finished my teneriffe lace doily that I first mentioned here.
It's the first piece of complicated teneriffe lace that I've made and I really think it turned out well. I need more practice making up crocheted edgings though. I'd have liked to have made this one a bit more complex in the crochet part. I crocheted myself another doily too. I do love making doilies :)
I used a single ball of DMC Cebelia Cotton size 30 and a 1.25mm crochet hook to get gauge. Considering I'm not that great at crochet I'm extremely pleased with it. Even though the doilies are very pretty, I think my favourite project was this next one. I made two but I'm waiting on a photo of the other one because I gave it to my brother and forgot to take a pic.
What could be better than an army of cuddly evil Daleks? :) The pattern is Extermiknit from Entropyhouse and I knit them using Aussie 8 ply weight wools (dk weight) and 3.2mm needles. I love this pattern. It's really well written and they look just like the real thing. Only cuddly :) Well that's it for my current crop of finished projects. I'm off to hang up the laundry and get another load going in case it decides to rain again! Click Clack, Stitch Stitch, Sew Sew, Splat CrunchPosted by on Thursday 10 January, 2008 12:15 PM Ok, technically there is neither a splat nor a crunch, bet hey! Artistic license and all that :) Three or so weeks ago I promised I would upload photos of other projects I had made the next day. Then there was Christmas and New Year's and swimming and shopping and destashing and... Let's just face facts, shall we? This is as fast as I get :) I still don't have a photo of one of them, but here are the rest. I finished these wristicuffs for Miss Brittany last night.
They're made from some of my very, very early handspun. It's lumpy and bumpy and dyed with Kool-Aid. It's also incredibly soft and Brittany asked me to make her something out of it while we were sorting out the garage stash. I wanted to destash it but there you go... Techy specs - Yarn: lumpy handspun 2 ply merino, approximately aran weight. Spun by me about 10 or 11 (maybe 12) years ago. Pattern: K1, p1 rib on 4mm needles. 1 inch smaller than wrist circumference (unstretched). The next projects are quite picture heavy so bear with me. Two Una-na dolls made from the Japanese book by Mimiwn. I love making these dolls. I can see myself becoming quite addicted to making them little clothes and accessories. I had to stop myself buying a little toy kitchen dresser at the op shop the other day because it was the right size for them. (If I had my own, much larger, house I would have bought it). The black haired one is called Pansy Dollington (Brittany's) and the brown haired one is mine. Her name is Florence Dollington. Unfortunately Florence has developed a tendency to swear like a sailor when least expected (but definitely *not* when my Dad is around, haha). I suspect she's got a little bit of a dolly "drinky drinky" problem to tell the truth...
I still need to finish sewing Florence's shirt and skirt. I had to take my sewing machine apart halfway through to clean it, and then everything got put away for Christmas and I haven't been back to it yet. This first picture shows her wearing the first unsuccessful wrist warmer as a shoulder warmer type thing. I'm going to put a little felt & button flower on it.
Here she is wearing an early Spring... let's call it a "ponchette". (I love that word. It's so pretentious).
And finally here she is wearing a ponchette from the same pattern, but in thicker yarn.
Technical details: The red and beige yarns are discontinued dk weight commercial yarns, and the bright blue is some of my hand dyed handspun yarn with (I think) mohair, angelina fibre and possibly something else thrown in. The blue is 2 ply and a bit finer than fingering weight. Next is a quickie that I knit at the doctor's the other day.
The mysterious pattern was posted on Cosymakes a few days ago. Since I had just finished all my simple knitting and I had to leave quite soon, I scribbled out the pattern, grabbed needles and yarn and had a go. I just can't resist small vintage patterns that don't have pictures :) I love this little stocking boot so much that I'm thinking of making a bunch of them during the year in whatever scraps I still have lying around after my major destash (I'll get to that BTW). Techy details: I used thinner yarn and smaller needles than the pattern calls for, but only slightly. The pattern calls for 5mm needles and (I guess) a worsted weight yarn. I used 4mm needles and dk weight. The green is some of my handspun, the purpley red is Jo Sharp DK wool. Well I think that's enough for today! I have more projects to share with you but I think I'll leave them and the story of the destash until tomorrow. I've already taken the photos, so you won't have to wait another three weeks, I swear! In Which Sarah Tries to Catch Up on a Whole Month of Blogging in One Post...Posted by on Monday 17 December, 2007 12:56 PM You know the old saying "it never rains but it pours"? Well they forgot about lightning. After being ill for 6 weeks and taking another week to recover from the medication, our power and phone lines were hit by lightning. Luckily most of our electrical gear was unplugged but we still lost a LOT of gear, including 2 computers and our network modem (an xbox, tv set top box, vcr, a couple of power boards and the network card in my computer), which is why I've only just got back to blogging. After all that here I am, healthy, online and with a whole lot of stuff to blog about :) Here goes. I found these at the op shop:
and bought this pattern to use some of it :) I spun these: Fingering/sport weight 22 micron merino. The fibre was from Margaret Peel's Fibre Supplies which is now closed, but I'm very grateful my sister taught me how to hand paint roving before she closed the business :)
I also spun these from some silk/merino batts that I blended. The fibres are 52 percent silk and 48 percent wool. The top one is 2 ply fingering weight, which I have spun for weaving and the bottom one is 2 ply laceweight which I spun for a friend of mine. This one actually has more purple than shows in the photo.
The laceweight is 120gm, balanced 2 ply, 30WPI, unknown yardage because it's too light and fine to measure accurately on my McMorran yarn balance
I made my father in law a watch cap using the pattern from The Any Yarn. Any Size Knit Hat Book.
I liked knitting him the watch cap so much that I knit him a beanie from the book too. The main yarn is a lovely handspun merino in brown with tiny flecks of other colours. I spun it from a bump that I bought from Virginia Farm Woolworks. I love Virginia Farm, their prices are amazing, the quality of their fibre is superb and I'm VERY fussy about both. The beige is the same yarn from the watchcap.
Our car broke down and I took photos of my Dad's dog for a future project :). His name was Gizmo but my Dad changed it to Rusty because he already has a cat called Gizmo and the poor little buggers were getting very confused. He's a pound dog, which is why he already had a name.
Why did I take photos of my Dad's dog? I'm going to knit him a David Brown tractor for his birthday and I thought it would be cute to make a little needle felted Dad and his dog to sit on it. Dad takes his dog for rides on his tractor in the grand parade when they do open days at the Steam and Machinery Museum that he belongs to. There were happy tears when Rusty's previous owners saw him on the back of the tractor at one open day. They were really pleased to see that he's thoroughly spoilt by his new owner. I had planned to knit the tractor for Dad for Christmas but nausea and trying to design and write a complicated pattern just don't go together so I bought his Chrissy present and put the project on hold. I made two Extermmiknit daleks but I forgot to photograph them before I wrapped them up so I'll have to click some snaps on Christmas day when they're unwrapped. The pattern is utter genius. Everyone who likes Dr Who should make one :). I found that using a couple of magnetic strips and board to keep my place in each row was essential. I tried charting it but the chart was just too big to use effectively. I hate knitting bobbles but I really like this pattern. Besides, the bobbles are done in no time and the result is so worth it. Finally (for this post), I made Chauncey by Dee Brown. I added the hat myself and I'll post the pattern when I can find out where I put the notes. The colourwork bits are a little tricky but you can fix any mess on the back before felting. When you felt it all the mess disappears. Aside from the hat I also added little flower-loom flowers to the eyes with a button in the middle.
I have made some other things but they're not photographed yet. I'll try and get photos this afternoon! Yay! and Booooo and Uhoh...Posted by on Friday 2 November, 2007 07:41 AM Yay, the new issue of Yarn magazine is out! I really like the bag on the cover and can't wait to get my hands on it :) Unfortunately I have a virus of some sort and I won't know if it's contagious until I visit the doctor on Monday or Tuesday (depending on how our car repairs go) so I won't be able to score a copy until at least then. If the internet is to be believed I've had it in my system for several months (the virus, not the magazine), which explains a few previous unexplained fevers. Not to mention the size of my right foot (it's a lot bigger than it used to be). Oh well, at least it's not measles. Hmmm, maybe I should just send Jamie to Borders with $30 and pictures of the covers of Yarn and SpinOff (although he may never come out again with all those pretty books around). I'm off to spend a relaxing day drinking tea, plying laceweight yarn (with my left foot), weaving squares for this week's Square Deal Weave-Along and catching up on my email. I may even get around to photographing last week's squares! Edited to add: Because I've been feeling a bit off colour for a few weeks I haven't finished some website updates I was hoping to have done a week ago. Because of this you might come across a couple of broken links to things like the Edwardian spiritualism scrapbook and hairpin lace pages. Please ignore them. I'm going to finish those updates when I feel better. The All-Yarn PostPosted by on Sunday 21 October, 2007 09:19 AM There's an awful lot of crafting going on around chez knitting-and lately, most of it due to my deciding to knit a lot of Christmas presents, but some of it just for fun. Not that the Christmas knitting isn't fun, because I'm having a riot with that (all the Christmas projects are small!) Having found the proper white balance setting on my camera, I am no longer relying on the really pointless "daylight" and "incandescent" settings so my colours are accurate! I've only had the camera for about 7 years... **ahem** As an aside: If you're looking for a digital camera to take photos for your website and your budget is under AU$50, take a look on ebay for a Cybershot DSC-F505V. They're old technology and only 3.3 megapixels but they're still a great camera, especially for web photos. I paid over AU$2,000 for mine brand new when they first came out, it's paid for itself time and time again and I still use it daily. OK, back to the fibre crafts. Remember that blue wool that refused to be used up? It has been conquered! Not only did a measly 168gms of blue corriedale make one large adult sized watchcap and one toddler sized jester hat but it also made some lovely stripes on this watchcap-in-progress. (Pattern from The Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book)
but that's not all! Yes, even after all that stripy goodness, there was still some left over. Determined to use every last scrap, I used the very last few meters in a weavette square for the Square Deal Weave-Along, week 3. (bottom right hand corner).
I can honestly say that there is not a single scrap of that blue yarn left. Not an inch. Not a centimeter. Not even a millimeter! These four squares are made with the "Fancy Weave" design from week 3. And so are these:
The next 8 squares are made with the "Basketweave" design, also from week 3. They look just like the back of the fancy weave squares. I made 8 of each because I was having so much fun playing with colour.
My original intention was to make a blanket using weavette squares and crochet granny squares but I'm thinking that it might look nicer if I just use the weavette squares and crochet around each one. I'll have to get all the squares I've done so far out and have a play with them. I'm going for a vintage "scrap quilt" look, as you can probably already tell. I can always use the crochet squares in a blanket later on. But wait, there's more!
I'm having great fun knitting a dalek or two. These are being made using the Extermiknit pattern by Penwiper. I tried to resist, but they're so cuddly and evil. Sigh. I gave in :-). What really made me cave was that the designer made the pattern to the specs in the Dr Who technical manual. Now that's dedication! I'm going to see if I can strengthen their appendages with some leftover millinery wire as these are intended for adults. I hate knitting the bobbles but they're over with pretty quickly and the end result is so incredibly worth the trouble! Speaking of cuddly evil, I made a Kate Gilbert bunny too.
What do you mean pink bunnies aren't evil? That's what they want you to think... I think these are nicer made with a novelty or fluffy yarn but mine is for a baby so I made it from two smooth yarns held together because it's safer. I used 2 DK (Aussie 8 ply) weight yarns on 4mm needles so the stuffing wouldn't show through. I also gathered the neck slightly after stuffing to give it a bit more shape. The very last thing that I finished recently is a kitten pot holder made from a book published in 1946.
The book is called "The Complete Book of Crochet" by Elizabeth L. Mathieson (misspelled Matheson on the cover of my printing). It's full of wonderful vintage patterns such as this kitty pot holder, lots of bedspreads, table cloths, doilies and other wonderful things. If you like vintage crochet snap up a copy of this book! It sold so well over the years that you can still find a copy relatively cheaply even 61 years later. My copy cost me US$3 on abebooks.com (about AU$12 including postage from the US) and I'd have happily paid twice that. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my fantastic finds at the local book fair. Stay tuned! Getting Started on the Next BookPosted by on Thursday 18 October, 2007 07:57 AM When I finished writing my hat knitting book, I swore to myself that I wouldn't write another knitting book because I'm really awful with deadlines, whether they be self imposed or otherwise. Of course I never listen to myself either, so this morning I'm starting work on my next book. Lace knitting patterns, the like of which you've never seen before. Well, maybe once, but they'll be different of course. I'm not going to rehash a free stitch pattern into different projects. What the heck, I like a challenge. Now I wonder if I have a blank notebook lying around, and where is my copy of Margaret Stove's lace book? And a pencil, I'll need a nice sharp pencil, a good eraser, I Remembered!Posted by on Tuesday 16 October, 2007 09:48 AM This is the photo of my zig-zag baby hat with the daisy loomed flower that I promised to post.
I even managed to get the white balance on my camera right this time :P (The pattern for this hat is in The Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book and can be knit with any yarn in any of 17 sizes). Yarn from the Twilight Zone...Posted by on Monday 15 October, 2007 11:59 AM Have you ever started knitting a project, sure that you were going to run out of yarn? Have you ever been **this** wrong? I started with 168 grams of handspun 2 ply blue corriedale.
Not an excessively large skein of yarn (or so I thought), so I decided to make this watch cap, thinking that if it looked like I was going to run out of yarn I could just make the turn-up shorter. I didn't have to make the turn-up shorter.
Not only did I have yarn left over, but I had enough to make this toddler sized jester hat.
And yes, even though I started with only 168 grams of wool, I still have a handful left over. Literally.
So I've put it into this kit to make another watch cap.
Who wants to bet that I have a whole bunch of the light brown left over? If I do, maybe I'll use it to make some of these (after I stop whimpering). (BTW, both of the hat patterns are from The Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book)
I made three more squares for my weavette/crochet blanket using the diagonal weave method for the weavette loom. I'll definitely be trying more of these! I also made one in plain weave, to get used to the method of weaving across two rounds of yarn. Next I think I'll try herringbone! Yarns for Sale!Posted by on Friday 12 October, 2007 08:25 AM I'm selling off a large amount of laceweight yarn at bargain prices! This is a one time only sale as I'm not running a shop, just helping someone else destash. It's a 2/22 or 80/2 tex, 22 micron merino (that's fine merino) at 3,125m per 500gm cone. Excellent for knitting, crochet, weaving and felting (it is not machine wash treated to ensure maximum softness).
Some of the cones are under or over 500gm and are priced accordingly. Here's what I have, followed by a colour chart so you can see the colours. Please note that due to the differences in the way various monitors see colours, the colour chart is meant as a guide only. Prices are in Australian dollars. Colours Silver 1 x 500g @ $15.50 each
If you would like to purchase any of this yarn email me via my contact page with your country, postcode, email address and the colour and weight of the yarn you would like to buy. All purchases must be paid for via Paypal. The All-Knitting Post!Posted by on Wednesday 10 October, 2007 12:29 PM Come on, seriously, you knew there'd be a great big all knit-related post on here if you waited long enough, didn't you? And not only do I have one cool knitting thing to tell you about, I have three! Possibly four... 1: Hats! There's a new baby in our extended family (ie: not actually blood related to but still family nonetheless type family) and of course this means there's been a bunch of baby knitting going on. And of course, this being my blog, the knitting is hats for next Winter (and a bunny rabbit but I haven't started that yet). First was a zigzag jester hat in dk weight wool on 4mm needles. The caramel yarn is Cleckheaton Country 8 ply and the pink is Paton's Fireside. I just remembered that I have a little yarn flower to sew on that one, almost forgot! I'll have to post another pic later today after I've sewn it on... (darn)
That was so much fun to knit that I immediately started a little beanie with the leftover caramel and some Jo Sharp Dk wool in Amethyst.
and finally, because I love this yarn sooooo much, I made another little jester hat with a scrap of Scheepjes "Flame Colori" (at least I think that's what it's called).
This particular yarn (although not this colour) has great sentimental meaning to me. When I was young I went with my Mum to the yarn shop and she totally fell in love with a cardigan made from it in a blue/green/pink colourway. She decided immediately that it wasn't made well enough so she bought extra yarn and the pattern booklet and reknit the button band to her liking (she was a flawless button band knitter) and more yarn to make a matching pullover. That was the day that I learnt that knitting isn't precious and if it isn't right, rip it out and fix it! The yarn is also from an era when yarn companies knew how to make a good quality novelty yarn (the 1980's). Unlike the thick and thin yarns that you get these days, that pill and fall apart in two minutes, this stuff will take quite a bit of wear and tear because the manufacturer made a good choice of breed and characteristics. Too bad the lot that just sold on ebay was too expensive to post or I would have replaced my rapidly dwindling collection of this particular yarn (that I scored at the op shop for $5!) All of these patterns come from my "Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book", including the colour charts for knitting the cats and zigzags. Speaking of which... 2: I'm on the Sticks & String podcast! Twice even :) Well, the book is anyway. Check out episode 38 for a review of The Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book, in which David Reidy very kindly compares it to Elizabeth Ziimmermann's style of patterns and episode 39 for an interview with me. I haven't listened to it yet. Hopefully I don't sound like I'm three years old (I have had telemarketers ask me if my Mummy or Daddy were home in the past and I sternly refuse to phone up to place takeaway orders). Or an idiot. That would also be bad :P I have absolutely no way to cleverly segue to the next thing I have to say, so: 3: LibriVox knitters rock! A group of knitters at LibriVox are working on updating and recording a public domain book called "Exercises in Knitting" by Cornelia Mee, originally published in 1846 and are very graciously putting the text versions of the patterns in the knitwiki under a public domain license. There are still some patterns needing knitters and readers so check it out and lend a hand if you can. Ms Mee was an excellent pattern writer for the time period and the couple of patterns that I have knit have been quite easy to follow. Finally, number 4: I'm selling off a large amount of laceweight merino (2/22, 500gm cones) on behalf of someone else. If you have a ravelry account you can see it in my stash for trade or sale area. If not, email me and I'll send you the list of what's left. I'm asking AUD$15.50 plus postage for 500gm for colours and $13.50 plus postage for white. Cone sizes vary slightly and are priced accordingly. If you're not on ravelry, drop me a note via my contact page if you're interested. Ooh, there's a number 5. I'm now listed on librarything as an author! I'll have to get a paid account before I can list the rest of my books, but I've added most of my knitting books already. I do have to correct some of the editions but it's very handy to be able to put all my books in there and then import them into ravelry once a fortnight to see if any of the new books come up. Swatching in Foreign LanguagesPosted by on Tuesday 2 October, 2007 12:28 PM I was banned from spinning my merino/silk yesterday by my daughter because she didn't want me throwing the waste bits on the floor when her friends were sleeping over for her birthday, so I decided to bite the bullet and have a go at knitting a couple of the patterns from my non-english stitch dictionaries. Now this would not have been a problem had I even the slightest inkling of how to read German or Estonian but I don't. My only contact with the German language, aside from my other German knitting books and occasional purchases from Martina's Bastel und Hobbykiste, is from listening to Rammstein. And Rammstein don't sing about knitting. (Some people would say they don't sing at all but that's also got nothing to do with knitting...) So, where was I? Oh yeah, knitting. I ended up making two swatches, one from the now out of print "Oma's Strickgeheimnisse" (it seems I was lucky enough to purchase the last copy still in circulation), and Pitsilised Koekirjad. This is the swatch from Oma's Strickgeheimnisse, a German stitch dictionary:
It's the stitch pattern from page 51. I found working with this book to be really easy once I got used to the different set of knitting symbols (for instance / means yarn over, and I caught myself about to knit two together a couple of times at first). There are two things that I really like about it. One is that it has some amazing leafy and lacy patterns that I have seen nowhere else and two, it charts each pattern for knitting flat and knitting in the round. For flat knitting it also uses the charting system that I really like, in that each wrong side row is written as you would knit it, so O means to knit the stitch, regardless of which side of the knitting you're looking at. This might drive US knitters crazy but it would be really easy to redraw any of the charts so it doesn't really matter. I found it very easy just to knit straight from the chart. Now that I've had the courage to tackle knitting from this book I'd rate it as high as any of the Barabara Walker stitch dictionaries and will never hesitate to knit from it again! On the other hand I would consider Pitsilised Koekirjad (an Estonian stitch dictionary) to be suitable for somewhat experienced knitters. At the very least someone who can read their knitting and make corrections. It's also for people who aren't precious about the binding in their books. I do love it because of the number of times it caused me to exclaim "I didn't even know you could do that with knitting!" whilst looking through it. However there are a couple of caveats. Some of the charts are printed so small and close to the binding that even the most experienced lace knitter with an excellent magnifying glass would have trouble with them. I ended up taking digital photos of the charts at a really large size, then printing them in photoshop so I could read them. Even though I was careful I still cracked the binding so I'm going to have to pull the pages out and put them in a folder at some stage (before they start falling out). It may make book collectors cry but I would suggest cracking the binding as soon as you get it and putting it in a folder straight away so you won't be scared to use it! I wouldn't suggest getting the spine cut off to release the pages because some of the charts are so close to the binding you'd really be risking losing part of the chart if you did that. I knit pattern 221.
My swatch doesn't look anything like the photo (which actually shows stitch 222) but even though there are errors in the pattern, and an error that I made because of lack of information in the translation, I can easily make the corrections and use the stitch in a project. The stitches are charted for flat knitting with wrong side rows uncharted unless necessary. If a wrong side row is all knit or all purl then you are expected to be able to see that from the photo. The symbol set used in this book is also much closer to the Barbara Walker style of chart than Oma's Strick-thingy and so is a lot easier to get used to. First of all I'll point out the problems that were my fault so you won't go blaming the book! This particular stitch pattern should have been knit with needles a couple of sizes larger that I would normally use for this yarn. I knew that before I started but I still didn't do it. In this section:
You work a really cool technique that I had never come across before. I've seen patterns such as the Shetland lace stitch "Crown of Glory" where you work a bunch of stitches into a big yarn over, but this is done differently. This particular pattern has you knit three together through the back of the loop, transfer the stitch back onto the left hand needle and then work 9 stitches into it. Looking at the picture, I was pretty sure they had worked K1, yo, k1, yo, k1,yo, k1, yo, k1, but I wasn't totally sure so didn't do it that way. I worked K1 into the back of the stitch, knit into the front, knit into the back etc until I had 9 stitches. This made a really pretty little braid type thing above the hole, but it made the hole REALLY big. I don't count this as a mistake. I think it's a cool discovery that lets me create two slightly different looks with the same pattern. However, since the translation sheet offered online doesn't spell out which technique to use it's handy if you can see which technique was used by looking at the photos in the book. This, however, was not my doing:
I don't know if this is common throughout the book but there was an error in the chart that I used (and since it's a variation of pattern 222, the same error is in that chart). On row 11 it says to work "slip 1, k2tog, psso, k3, slip 1, k2tog, psso" when it should say "slip 1, k2tog, psso, k3, k3tog", with a similar error on row 3. However this is easily seen by any experienced lace knitter so there really isn't any great problem. So, my experience with Pitsilised Koekirjad is that it's an amazing book full of beautiful and unique stitches but you will need a little patience to work with it. Plus a digital camera, a photocopier, or a book of graph paper and a nice cup of tea. If you'd like to buy a copy you can purchase it from Martina's Bastel und Hobbykiste. Both Martina and her website speak English, but make sure to send her an email to say you'd like your purchase sent airmail as airmail was listed in the shopping cart when I purchased my copy but Martina sent it surface mail to save me a few Euros. PS: I hate bright yellow :P What a HootPosted by on Wednesday 26 September, 2007 09:48 AM Much website coding has been going on at chez knittingand when I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to blog a little project that I made the other day!
I made this little owl from leftover handspun yarn, following the pattern from "Have You Any Wool?" by Jan Messent. He's 9cm or 3.5 inches tall and those little flower buttons I used for the eyes make me really happy :) I love Jan Messent's books. They're totally the kind of knitting books I wish I had as a kid, with all the wild ideas for knitting sheep and people, covering boxes, making pictures. All that creative discovery that wasn't present in patterns for knitting jumpers back then. Of course, we now have Horst Schulz, Debbie New and Australia has finally discovered Elizabeth Zimmermann so now those types of cool creative discoveries **are** to be found in knitting patterns for jumpers. I've also started spinning one of the the merino/silks that I blended. I'm spinning a 2 ply laceweight yarn that will be a present for a friend.
This is two out of the eight balls of fibre (about 30gm out of 120gm) and it's taking ages but silk/merino is so lovely to spin laceweight that I don't care. The yardage is probably going to be enough to knit something quite substantial because of the amount of silk that's in it too. Now I'm off to plan some video on making hairpin lace and then if I have any time left, I'll be scanning some vintage tatting patterns! New Free Knitting PatternPosted by on Friday 21 September, 2007 08:59 AM I've added a new free pattern to the knitting wiki, the Dulaan Baby Jumper.
A versatile little jumper, well suited to charity knitting in that you can change the size just by using thicker yarn and bigger needles. You'll find the pattern in the wiki here. Sometimes I Feel Like I Have ADD or Something...Posted by on Thursday 13 September, 2007 11:21 AM Seriously though, I don't have ADD, I'm just totally out of practice with editing my website (and concentrating on anything) after spending three and a half months spending every waking moment sewing the suffolk puff quilt. So, having said that, here's what's flitting around my brain at the moment! First of all I had an urge to blend some of the fibres from my stash.
I started by drum carding 400gms of fine merino/baby alpaca that my sister gave me. It was already carded and mixed in the packet but the two fibres weren't blended together much so I put it through the drum carder once to mix it up a bit. I'm not going to spin it yet because I haven't decided what to make with it. Next I decided to card together some "little bits and pieces" in order to turn them into a usable amount of yarn. I took some absolutely divine natural coloured combed merino tops that Jenny from Virginia Farm Woolworks sent me as a sample when I bought my cotton hand cards and lace whorl from her last year. This stuff is so divinely soft, it's amazing. It had been sitting in my stash awaiting a project that would do justice to it, but I couldn't figure out what to use it for because there was such a tiny amount. It suddenly occurred to me last night that I should combine it with some silk that my sister gave me, because the silk had been sitting around for exactly the same reason.
This is the result. I ended up combining pale grey and dark grey tops from Virginia Farm, a scrap of 22 micron merino (about 10-15 grams I had left from a 1.5 kilo bag!) also from Virginia Farm, 10 grams each of blue, dark brown, medium brown, burgundy and gold silk, and 5-10 grams each of several other shades of brown silk. I ended up with 120gm of gorgeous light as air wool/silk, about 50/50 in volume. I'm going to spin this laceweight. It's so incredibly light that I should be able to get some amazing yardage out of it. Have a closeup.
I envision that it will change colour slowly as I spin, but I better not think about it too much right now or I'll find myself having started another project :P And it is soooo tempting to start more projects around here because look what has arrived in the post over the last 3 or 4 weeks! I was browsing ebay a couple of weeks ago when I saw an amazing crochet book from 1946. I felt it was far too expensive considering I couldn't look at it (over $30 including postage) so I had a look at abebooks.com just in case there was a copy for sale. It was a long shot considering the book is so old, but I found a copy for $3! Including postage from the US, it ended up costing me roughly AUD$12 and now that I've seen it, I would have to say it was worth the $30 I saw it for on ebay. :-) It's called "The Complete Book of Crochet" by Elizabeth Laird Matheson and was published by Greystone Press in 1946 (mine is a 1947 reprint) It's full of amazing doilies and tablecloths like these
and also has some really incredible deco style pot holders. At the time of writing this there are 5 copies available on abebooks, if you love vintage crochet go and snap one up! If that weren't distracting enough, I also found this tatting book from the 1950's on abebooks with about a zillion edgings and several doilies that I want to make:
and this booklet that I want to add to the knitting wiki:
That one came from an auction site (not ebay). This book did come from ebay though :) Una-na dolls. It's in Japanese but, having had a thorough look at it, that won't be a problem as it has great instructional illustrations.. I fell totally in love with these dolls when I saw the book on ebay and I can't wait to make one! But I will wait because I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the projects I have on the go, and by how far behind I am on updating the website. Speaking of which, I found something new to add :P We went to visit my Dad on the weekend to deliver his father's day present (it arrived a week late but he loves it so that's cool). He gave me this scrapbook that he bought at an antique shop. He'd purchased it for an article that it had about a steam engine, however the rest of the scrapbook is about spiritualism and since he has no interest in it he gave the rest of the book to me.
The entries date from 1907-1930 and it contains letters, the owner's thoughts on the upcoming war (WWI), photographs, prayer cards and many articles about spiritualism, ghosts, clairvoyants and possession. It's incredibly fascinating so I'll be adding that to the site as well. In an attempt to get back into the swing of things, I'm off to do the housework. Then I'm going to start work on adding the new categories to the website. I intend to put the framework for the new sections up with a single article each, upload those and then add an article at least once a fortnight to each section. To recap what I have said in earlier posts the new sections will be: Hairpin lace I need staff :P Back to WorkPosted by on Thursday 6 September, 2007 12:49 PM I've picked up Miss Brittany's skull jumper again. I finished knitting the back and sewed it to the front along the side seams. Then I unzipped the provisional cast on to knit the ribbing.
I have just over a round to knit before I cast off the ribbing, then I can start the sleeves the same way. I'm working the ribbing for all pieces top down and in the round so that if Brit grows a lot before it's cold enough to wear it again I can just undo the cast off edge and knit more ribbing down. At this rate it will be finished just in time for Summer! Finally!Posted by on Monday 3 September, 2007 02:35 PM I'm braving the possibility of aggravating the scabs on my hands by finishing some projects because I have a very exciting new book on the way!* First in the queue was some handspun that I owe a friend. That's spun up but needs dyeing so I won't post a photo yet. I don't want to risk permanently tattooing my wounds onto my hands so I'm trying to find my box of rubber gloves before I attempt the dyeing. Plus I have to search through the garage-full-of-stuff-that's-still-packed-from-the-move so I can find my dyes and jugs. Luckily I know where my dye pans are. Next in the finish line was the "why does the neck look so small?" dulaan jumper. I frogged most of the ribbing around the neckline and cast off, but even with just a couple of rows it still looked too small, what with the decreases made at the base of the "V". Sudden inspiration hit and I picked up the stitches all the way round, decreased away the stitch at the base of the V and knit back and forth in garter stitch for 22 rows. Tada! A neckline that a 4 year old head can fit through. Plus I think it looks kinda nice (or I'd have ripped the whole thing out and given up :P)
Next: Miss Binky's Skull Jumper *More about that later! Free Knitting Pattern Search EnginePosted by on Tuesday 21 August, 2007 02:08 PM I've been playing with making widgets for people's google home pages at http://.igoogle.com and have made a search engine for finding free knitting patterns If your page contains free knitting patterns you can add your site to the list of preferred sites to search. Anyone can also add the search engine to your Igoogle page, blog or website! You can customise it to any size and choose from a range of border styles and colours: This is the size I have in my menu bar over on the right (scroll down a bit and you'll see it) but you can also make it look like this: this: and others Spread the word and we can make it an excellent resource for finding free patterns! I Get to Play With the Cool Kids!Posted by on Thursday 16 August, 2007 02:13 PM I received my invitation to Ravelry this morning and have been having a great time adding projects and books to my notebook. There were already 24 projects from knitting-and.com listed in the database, how cool is that? If you want to add me to your friends list, my username is Knittingand (naturally). Now I'm off to play with it some more. You'll just have to wait for the hairpin lace info until I've finished geeking <VBG> New (and Favourite) Cafepress ProductsPosted by on Sunday 29 July, 2007 10:20 AM
Visitors to my cafepress shops: I Knit Therefore I Am and The Knitting-and Logo Shop may be familiar with my knitting needle size chart postcards. Well I've now made both available as magnets as well! If you buy a 10 pack of magnets you'll get a super discount on the cost of buying them separately and they make great stocking stuffers for knitting friends. I knit from a lot of vintage UK knitting patterns and I was forever hunting around for a needle size comparison chart (I usually ended up having to check my own website :-P) Not only do I now have a postcard chart in every knitting bag and the concertina file I keep my circular needles in, I also have a magnetic one permanently stuck on the board that I use when reading charts! Curiosity Killed the KnitterPosted by on Sunday 22 July, 2007 05:34 PM Each day I'm getting more and more hits on my website from ravelry.com but I can't view the pages that people are visiting from because I can't sign up yet! Would anyone be so kind as to send me screen grabs of any of the following pages so I can assuage my curiosity just a little? http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/custom-fit-fingerless-mitts If anyone would be so kind, pics can be sent to knittingand at gmail dot com replacing the "at" with @, "dot" with . and removing all the spaces. Harry Potter, More Circles and a Hat Book UpdatePosted by on Sunday 15 July, 2007 11:15 AM OK, let's get it out of the way: !!!!!! Only 6 days until the last Harry Potter book is released !!!!!! :-) I promise to keep Knitting-and.com a spoiler free zone. In fact, as soon as the book is released I won't be online until I've finished reading it so no-one can spoil it for me. And now to change the subject, "Look! More suffolk puff/yo-yo squares for my coverlet"
That makes 64 squares done, 36 to go and if I get another 4 finished today that'll put me another day ahead of schedule. I have two more light purple gingham squares to go and then on to the orange! I've promised myself that I'll do the mostly white puffs after that so that I have the dark pink and dark brown puffs to look forward to. Grey and yellow have been added to the multicolour oddment squares so that I have enough multicolour squares to scatter throughout the coverlet. I really didn't want the multicolour squares to look like an afterthought. Oh, and I fixed the problem with the hole in my finger. Since it hurts like the bejeeses when I poke the end of a sewing needle in it I'm using it as a way to end my bad habit of pushing needles through my fabric with the tip of my finger. I do the same thing when I knit and it makes knitting lace with teeny tiny needles rather painful. Finally an update on my hat book. The manuscript is finished. The photography and cover art are finished. The layout is finished! Now for the difficult part... I'll be purchasing my ISBNs soon and applying for a US tax id and registering to pay tax in the US. Yes ladies and gentlemen, four years ago I didn't earn enough to pay any tax, now I'll be paying it in two different countries. At least the tax I pay in the US will be taken into account when I pay my Aussie taxes. Which reminds me, I was going to do my taxes today and get them out of the way... Anyway, the upshot of this is that after I get my ISBNs and register the publications I will be ordering copies of my books from lulu.com to check and if they're good they'll be up for sale! I'm hoping all this won't take more than two months and I have my fingers crossed that it will be a whole lot sooner than that. 40 Squares And Hat Book UpdatePosted by on Tuesday 10 July, 2007 08:36 AM No doubt those of you who come here for the knitting are getting a bit bored by now so I'll make it quick.
40 blocks sewn, 60 to go, 5 weeks until the wedding. I did todays blocks yesterday because today I will be very busy. The millinery wire I needed for the very last hat for my hat book arrived yesterday and I will be spending today finishing the book. Yes, that's right. Not nearly finishing, not almost finishing, but actual 100% completely finishing! I've finished the whole manuscript, the layout, everything but the last photo of the very last hat and the cover. Hopefully I can find my artwork for the cover that I used for the first edition so I can just tweak it, but if I flattened the layers I'll have to redo it with something totally new. That won't take long though because it will be done while my editor fixes all of my grammatical errors and overuse of the word "that". After Cartridge World bring back the toner I had refilled that didn't work because the chip was dead and my computer couldn't see it so I can print it out (you'd be amazed at how many errors you can miss looking at text on screen, and how blatantly obvious they are when you seen them in hard copy). Anyway, I'm off to decide whether I want to sew my wire on with a contrasting wool, or the same wool I used to knit the hat. I bought the wire from a millinery supplier so it's much nicer than the stuff I bought last time from a craft shop, or the fencing wire I tried on a hat I made for my Dad (although that did work out great). OK, time for my morning cup of tea and back to work! Some Things That Make Me HappyPosted by on Saturday 7 July, 2007 10:00 AM In order to avoid posting endless posts that just say "I finished another 4 squares", I thought I'd blog about some things that make me happy. In no particular order.
Hat Book & Suffolk Puff Updates.Posted by on Monday 2 July, 2007 08:37 AM The rewrite of my hat book has been a long time coming, but I'm working really hard on it and it's almost done! I've only got a tiny bit of editing to do to two patterns (one I have to reword a paragraph and the other needs a paragraph added) and add a bit about hat resources online and the text will be complete. Knitting-wise I just have to put the wire on one hat and all the knitting is finished.
Here's a photo of the two hats I reknit because the prototypes weren't right and I adjusted the patterns, plus a little knit & felt beret. The ones I reknit were the monmouth cap (in khaki/brown at the back) and the pillbox. The prototype monmouth cap was too long after felting so I adjusted the lengths and test-knit it again and now I think it's perfect. I reknit the pillbox because I felt it needed a turned up brim. The prototype just didn't look right without it and I think the turnup gives a nice area for embroidery or needle felting. I will even-out the turnup before I photograph it for the book. It's folded a bit wonky in this photo. :-) You'll see that the beret in this photo is very petite. I'll be including instructions in the pattern on how to make the diameter of the top any size you want. As for my suffolk puff yo-yo coverlet, I'm a few days behind schedule because I wanted to get as much of my hat book finished as possible so I'm only up to 1,537 suffolk-puffs instead of 1,600 puffs and 4 squares of 16 suffolk puffs sewn together, which is what I had planned. But never mind because my plan did have a few extra days in case of an emergency so if I can get all 1,600 sewn by tomorrow night I'll just call it "on schedule" and get on sewing the puffs together into squares. I really hope it turns out well. I've never made anything out of suffolk puffs before, not even a greeting card, so I've got my fingers crossed I've been doing it all properly! ArrrrrrrrrrrPosted by on Friday 29 June, 2007 04:13 PM I've gone back to working on my book at the moment (I have to reknit two hats because I wasn't happy with the prototypes), so Miss Brittany's jumper is languishing a bit. Here's a photo of what I've done so far:
This is the front, from the top of the ribbing to the underarms. The skull designs is knit using the amazing chart made by DomiKNITrix and you can find out about it here. I have one and a bit hats, some wiring and 20" of i-cord to go and I'll be back working on the jumper and mittens and my suffolk puff coverlet. All of which need to be finished now so I'll be knitting fast! :-) This, That and the Other ThingPosted by on Wednesday 20 June, 2007 10:17 AM Techy Website Stuff The move to the new server is going well, despite my broadband being speed limited at the moment because we used up our monthly bandwidth limit 2 weeks ago. Good news is that it should reset and speed up tomorrow. I do have to install image magick and netpbm myself using shell access. I've never done this sort of thing before but (fingers crossed) I can get it up and going. At the moment I'm uploading the website files to the new server. It takes a while to upload a gig on a speed limited connection (a couple of days). Suffolk Puffing 1,404 suffolk puff yo-yos made. 196 puffs and a whole lot of sewing together to go (by August 19th). I'm cautiously confident about getting it finished in time. I'm also saving some fabric to make myself a couple of cushion covers, although I won't be using them until we buy our own house. KnitWiki The spam protection methods I installed seem to be working well. We haven't had any spam users sign up since I installed recaptcha. Once the server move is finished I'm going to install it in my blog as well so that commenters won't have to wait for me to approve comments. Hopefully this will encourage readers to have some sort of discussion in the comments. Bink's Skully Jumper Haven't gotten any further since the last post because suffolk puffs and website moves are taking up all my time. Must work on it some more so she can wear it before Spring :-P Hat Book Rewrite The rewrite of my hat book remains unfinished due to many reasons. As soon as the website and the yo-yo quilt are done I'm going to work on nothing else until it's finished and sent to the illustrator that I have in mind so they can see if they want to work on it. I do apologise to everyone who's been emailing me after a copy. After deciding to rewrite the book we have had a death in the family, sold our home, moved 900km, been homeless for 8 months (our family of three lived in a single room at my Dad's house and were really grateful to have somewhere to stay at all), had our possessions in storage for about a year, lost two dear pets to cancer and are only just getting sorted out and back on track. I am terrible at multi-tasking so I have to make it the next priority. If I don't have it released in time for Christmas you all have permission to send me hate mail. Actually, I'm going to go and work on it now while my ftp program uploads files. Suffolk Puff Yo-Yos, Miss Binky's Jumper and the KnitWikiPosted by on Monday 11 June, 2007 12:06 PM Just a quick update on a few things: Suffolk puff/yo-yo count to date: 1,155 I'm getting a bit behind so I'll be madly sewing little circles tonight to try and make it up to at least 1,200 Miss Binky's Jumper: I've knit the front with the big skull on it up to the armholes but minus the ribbing. I started above the ribbing with a provisional cast on and used DomiKNITrix's fabulous large skull chart, which fit nicely with an inch or so plain black below and above the motif. Next I'm going to knit the back the same way (but without the skull) and sew the side seams. Then I'll knit the ribbing in the round down from the provisional cast on (so I can lengthen it easily if she grows suddenly) and finish the rest as a basic raglan jumper, knit in the round. With a v-neck. I did finally tame my gauge with that damn yarn. I ended up ripping it out **again** and starting a third time with 3.75mm needles and 8 fewer stitches to make it the right size. That's when I realised how thick-and-thin the yarn is. In spots it ranges from 10 ply to 6 ply thickness (that's aran to sportweight for the non-Aussies), and the only way I could figure out a consistent gauge was to just knit a huge chunk of the front of the jumper and keep restarting until I got it right. But now it's right. So yay. I loved knitting DomiKNITrix's large skull chart so much that I'm going to add it to the KnitWiki as a favourite pattern once I've finished Bink's jumper for the sample photo. If you're not familiar with it, the favourite patterns category has notes, tips and sources for popular knitting patterns. Speaking of the KnitWiki, I've been slowly moving the patterns from the homework section of knitting-and.com over to the wiki, and have been updating the charts as I go. I've done a big chunk, which you'll find here, but there's still a lot more to go. The whole website will also be moving over to a virtual private server soon, so watch out for updates regarding that. If I break anything during the move I apologise in advance! Hmmm, I guess that wasn't such a quick update after all... One of those days.Posted by on Saturday 2 June, 2007 09:03 PM I knit a swatch. I did my sums. I double checked the numbers. I tripled checked just to make sure. I cast on the right number of stitches. I used the right size needles. I knit 2 inches. It looked a bit too big. I measured it. My knitting is six inches wider than it should be. &!*#!!+* OopsPosted by on Friday 1 June, 2007 08:44 AM I guess my vow that I would only craft from stash this year is well and truly screwed. Miss Brittany asked for a new jumper (sweater) and I ordered yarn. It's all her fault, I swear! I tend to use red, black and white yarns the most and they were exactly the colours she wanted. I didn't even have a full 50gm ball of anything suitable so I caved and bought this from Bendigo Mills
200gms of red and white Colonial hand wash only wool and 800gms of black. I have no idea why I bought so much black, but if there's enough to knit an adult surprise jacket for her as well, then all the better because she asked for one of those as well, plus I can combine it with any oddments of other suitable black and red yarns that I have to make up the difference in the amount of yarn I'll need. It's a crepe yarn (I think known as a cabled yarn in the US), fairly soft, and I'm hoping it will resist pilling and shrinking. I've used Rustic from Bendigo Mills before and I'm not a fan of that yarn at all unless I want to shrink my knitting on purpose. Remember how I said, a couple of posts back, that we have no day to day use for mittens in Australia? She wants mittens to wear at break time at school as well. With skulls on. I'll be using my "Custom Fit Fingerless Mitts" pattern to make a "Custom Fit Mittens" pattern, which I'll put in the knitting wiki. For her jumper I'm going to use Priscilla Gibson Robert's book "Knitting in the Old Way" and my standard favourite pattern for a raglan v-neck jumper. Ribbing will be bold red and black stripes with a black body. I'm going to have to knit the body pieces flat though because The Knitting Skills MemePosted by on Sunday 27 May, 2007 10:19 PM I don't usually participate in these meme thingies but I thought this one was interesting. Bold is for things you have done Afghan And a question: What have you learned to do that has marked a definite change in your knitting life? Learning to knit a jumper (sweater) by measuring the recipient & without a commercial pattern or software is the best thing I have learnt. It finally "clicked" for me when I read "Knitting in the Old Way" by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Yo-Yos and Reindeers and Skulls, Oh My!Posted by on Tuesday 22 May, 2007 01:32 PM A very quick project update, because I need to rush off and have a shower and tidy up the house. And make more yo-yo/suffolk puff thingies. :-P 100 more yo-yos for my coverlet. That makes a grand total of 700 done and 900 more to go.
And I knit Miss Brittany's teddy reindeer a jumper. He sorely needed a little teenage credibility now that he's 12 1/2 years old (the reindeer that is).
I'm particularly proud of the excellent fit of Rudolph's jumper. In the past my teddy bear jumpers have been a bit "hit and miss" when it comes to fitting, but my mathematic skills didn't fail me. Punked Up Reindeers & New Free StuffPosted by on Saturday 19 May, 2007 01:45 PM Well, one reindeer anyway. Miss Brittany has requested a new outfit for her teddy-reindeer and since she's 13 ½ and loves punk music we both had the same idea about what should be on his jumper. I knit a sample:
:-) It's just the right size for the backs of mittens, or to put round a hat or jumper so I put the chart in the knitting wiki. I have, however, been told that under no circumstances am I allowed to put a chain of safety pins going from his nose to his ear. Spoil sport. :-P
Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl GroupPosted by on Tuesday 8 May, 2007 12:25 PM The free knitting pattern for the feather and fan comfort shawl has been extremely popular over the last few years so I made it it's own flickr group :-)
Feel free to add your own photos. You don't need a paid flickr account to join in the fun! The ListPosted by on Wednesday 21 March, 2007 10:40 AM I have I do finish every project that I start. Eventually. The Dulaan jumper is still sitting in it's little plastic bag with it's underarms ungrafted and v-neck unribbed. The lace shawl I started knitting in the middle of last year is hidden under my desk and gets kicked every now and again when I stretch out my legs. My hat book hasn't been touched since Jamie lost his job at the beginning of February. |
