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Having FunPosted by on Monday 22 June, 2009 02:46 PM I haven't had the opportunity to film my next video yet (babies, husbands and teenagers can be equally noisy) so I made a slideshow of hats that I have knit from the patterns in my "Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book". My next video will be tips for sewing stretch knit fabrics without an overlocker (serger). I just have to finish sewing some baby pants first :) Free Knitting Pattern: Baby MittensPosted by on Wednesday 27 May, 2009 12:53 PM I've been trying to get this pattern online for 3 months, so I thought I'd post it in the blog for now and add it to the knitting section of the website later :)
Baby Mittens Size: To fit approx 3 month old Materials: Small amount of DK weight (Aussie 8 ply) yarn. I used 14gm, approx 30m Needles: A set of 3.75mm and 4mm needles. Gauge: 22sts to 10cm Pattern: Using 3.75mm needles, cast on 26sts and join for knitting in the round. Work 1 inch k1, p1 rib Change to 4mm needles and change colour if desired. Work 2 inches stocking stitch Shape top: K1, ssk, k7, k2tog, k1; repeat (22sts) Knit 1 round K1, ssk, k5, k2tog, k1; repeat (18sts) Knit 1 round K1, ssk, k3, k2tog, k1; repeat (14sts) Knit 1 round Place 7 sts on one needle and 7 sts on another. Graft together to form the top of the mitten. Make a 2nd mitten to match. Darn in ends and embroider a motif of your choice on the back of the mittens if desired. This pattern is copyright Sarah Bradberry, February 2009. All rights reserved. Going AWOLPosted by on Friday 19 December, 2008 10:55 AM I'm not going to be available much to answer questions or help with patterns over the next few months as I'm due to have a baby in the next couple of weeks and don't plan on being online much. I do hope to be back online as normal sometime around the beginning of February. Until then, if anyone needs me please be patient. I'll get to you eventually :) Baby Jumpers, Cardigans and HatsPosted by on Sunday 26 October, 2008 10:17 AM I have to go to the maternity day clinic tomorrow so I thought I'd post the rest of the baby stuff that I made, just in case they make me stay. I have borderline hypertension, nothing serious, they just want to know if it fluctuates wildly in a single day or if it's more of a week by week thing. It's been perfect for the last 6-8 weeks, but was borderline on Friday and when I first saw the doctor 18 weeks ago so they want to know if it could have been high on days that I wasn't at the clinic. I'll be taking some knitting of course (I hope they let me knit while attached to all those gadgets), and I'll be making some ballband washcloths I'll show the projects roughly in the order that I finished them. Because I don't want to spend 10 hours writing a post like I did with the toys, I'll link each project to my ravelry page so that you can see my notes on any changes that I made, which yarns I used etc. Presto Chango, a free online pattern. The original has very pretty lace panels on the front but I left the lace off because I didn't think it would work well with such a colourful yarn.
Knut Hats, a free pattern on Knitting-and.com.
February Baby Cardigan from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac
Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter
Owl Baby Vest, a free Ravelry download. I made a lot of size modifications to this vest so that it would fit baby-in-progress during the cold weather. You can see all my mods by clicking through to my Ravelry project page.
Surplice Jacket. Another pattern by Elizabeth Zimmermann :)
Handspun Natural Wonder from Family Circle: Easy Baby Knits: 50 Whimsical Projects for Babies & Toddlers
A closeup of the handspun yarn:
The next two hats are from my The Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book Skully Jester Hat (click through to find out where to get the skull chart)
and that's it for all the baby knitting so far! If I'm not admitted tomorrow (I doubt that I will be), I'll show you the receiving blankets and bibs that I have sewn and tell you all about the rest of the projects that I want to get done before the baby's born. I am nothing if not ambitious in my crafting ;-) Toys and Other Assorted OdditiesPosted by on Friday 24 October, 2008 10:27 PM Apologies for taking so long to get to the toys post, I had quite a few days of utter exhaustion now that the baby-in-progress is almost 30 weeks and spent many days napping instead of blogging :) I did finish all of my basic sock monkeys however, a doll that I started sewing so long ago that I don't remember when I even started it and I made an elephant! Actually, I've gotten so carried away with making and finishing toys that you're going to need a cuppa while you read this. ... Don't worry, I'll wait ... Back? Comfy? Good. Firstly, sock monkeys! A couple of years ago I decided that I would put a tutorial for sock monkeys on my website. Then I discovered there was already a zillion of them available online and decided to just make some monkeys instead. For some reason I didn't decide to make one, I decided to make seven. Don't ask me why :P For some other unfathomable reason I got scared about sewing the arms and tail and decided that they would truly suck when they were finished and weren't worth bothering with. I shoved them in a bag and forgot all about them until I found them in a box of craft stuff in the garage and decided to finally finish them after all. They're made from various sized socks from baby size to large women's knee socks. The monkeys themselves are all finished but they really need outfits, so here's what they will be when they are finished: Sock monkey in sheep's clothing - this little stripy guy is going to be dressed in a knitted jumpsuit in fur, or loop, stitch with a hood that makes him look like a sheep. It seemed like the right outfit for him :)
Pink sock monkey is going travelling and already has her outfit. A trendy pidge scarf and crocheted hat in wild handspun alpaca with felted wool bobbles. I used this hat pattern and just stopped increasing when it was big enough.
Baby sock monkey is going to have a red sleeveless pullover with a picture of a banana on the front. He's made from a pair of baby socks with monkey faces on them and has embroidered eyes instead of buttons because he's intended for my baby-in-progress when he's old enough for toys.
Sci-Fi fan-girl sock monkey looks all meek and shy now but wait until you see what she wears when she goes to the monthly sci-fi fanclub gatherings! (Why yes, I did used to go to occasional meetings of the local Doctor Who fan club). She's going to wear a Jayne hat, a classic Doctor Who scarf and a jumper with "Don't Panic!" embroidered on the front. I may even give her one of my obscure Dr Who or Torchwood related badges that I bought on Cafepress.
Schoolboy sock monkey is going to wear a school uniform jumper and needs a skateboard, although I haven't figured out how to make him a skateboard yet.
Arrrrr-Gyle the pirate sock monkey is going to have a costume worthy of the very bad pun that became his name and occupation. A white ruffly pirate shirt, a red waistcoat, a big felt pirate hat and a needle felted parrot. I only wish I had known he was going to be a pirate when I sewed him because I'm sure I could have worked a wooden peg leg somehow :)
and you already met Gary who is an evil flying sock monkey based on the ones from The Wizard of Oz. I used the classic sock monkey instructions to make them all, with one slight difference which I think makes all the difference to their level of cuteness. After stitching on the heel of the second sock for the snout, I used 4 strands of sewing thread to gather around the neck, wound the ends of the thread around a couple of more times and then pulled it really tight. I also stitched closed the bottom of the ears and then folded the bottom in half edge-to-edge and stitched again to create the crease in the ears. I haven't tried it yet, but did you know you can also make an elephant? I need more socks! Especially after buying this from amazon: It was the lips that got me. I just love those puffy socky lips :) Sock monkeys, however, were not the only unfinished sewing project that I had lying around. I had started sewing this doll so long ago that I've forgotten when.
For a long time she existed with unstuffed arms and legs and her face drawn crudely with a red biro (I'm much more intelligent in that respect these days and use a disappearing marking pen). I stuffed her appendages, embroidered her face and finished her off with a wild halo of blue English Leicester locks for her hair. To make this type of hair take a lock of wool, separate about ¼ to ½ a cm width of fibre, thread it into a large needle and pull one end through the scalp of the doll. Tie the ends in a couple of tight knots to fasten. Once it has a full head of hair trim any ends that stick out too far and add hair ornaments of your choice! Dolly is going to have a knit or crocheted top (I haven't decided which yet), a matching scarf and a skirt sewn from these materials from my "odd bits" stash. I've been waiting for ages to find a project for this lace trim.
She's made from one of my favourite vintage toy books called "Toys for Your Delight" by Winsome Douglass, published by Mills & Boon in the 1950's. Who knew they didn't just publish trashy romance novels? Here are a couple of pictures from the book that someone has posted on Craftster (I don't have the paper cover, I always wondered what it looked like). The two pictures shown after the cover show the heavily embroidered style of most of the patterns. The instructions aren't the detailed style that we're used to today, but they offer a wonderful opportunity for original style and expression. As a Harry Potter fan I'm thinking that making a griffin might be a good idea :) More pictures on Two Little Banshees blog. But wait, there's more! Lucy Learn to Knit is a similar doll to the blue haired dolly but she's much more modern and made from a kit with a pre-made doll.
This is the third Lucy that I have knit. She''s made from a kit by Hawthorne Cottage Crafts. They haven't updated their website in forever though so I don't know if you can get them any more but they do have a contact phone number you can try. I love these Lucy dolls but after three I think I might make some more that are a little different. Of course I couldn't resist yet another monkey. This one was made famous on the Yarn Harlot's blog a while back. Even though I'm generally not one to made "fad" projects (until 50 years later, lol) I couldn't resist this little guy. He's the small version of the Funky Sock Monkey by Debbie Stone from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The pattern is extremely clear and quick to knit. I plan on knitting the large size when I can figure out who to give it to. This one is made from oddments of handspun wool.
The very first thing I knit for the baby-in-progress was this woolly ball, knit from a 1940's pattern found in a newspaper. Whenever I see a scrapbook in a junk or antique shop I always check to see if it contains craft patterns and that is where I found this pattern.
Next is a knitted Bundle Baby by Noreen Crone-Findlay. You can find out where to get the pattern via my Ravelry project page.
This is another pattern that offers a great deal of individuality in the different ways you can finish the doll. I made mine with Aussie 8 ply yarns. The pattern is very much self-published in that the layout reminds me of very early Elizabeth Zimmermann newsletters but once you get used to the old-fashioned format it's very easy to follow. This one took very little time to make and I'm extremely pleased with the finished doll. I plan on making a lot more over the coming years :) My next project is an elephant made from a 1970's Simplicity pattern. When I was 7 years old (in 1977) I bought a cat stuffie from a fete at the retirement home where my Mum used to work. I loved that cat (I still have it) and since it was obviously hand-sewn I decided to keep a lookout for the pattern. I finally found it in a few years ago in an op shop! Little did I know at the time but I also made the camel in grade 7 sewing class :) This time I made the elephant. His ears need ironing, or should I leave them a little wrinkly? Well, elephants are traditionally wrinkly...
Here's the pattern packet.
And while I was out shopping the other day I found this:
Which I, of course, bought immediately. I make most of my projects with stash fabrics, yarn and embellishments. Mostly thrifted, some bartered for, some gifted and occasionally purchased on sale (and once in a blue moon I may even pay full price for something)! A couple of years ago we moved from a large house in the country (I'm not a country-girl) to a very small house in what is still considered country-ish town but definitely not the bush. I therefore have to be creative in my stash stashing. The chaos that is my craft crap (click through for labels)
That's about it for the toys but I have embarked on some more challenges. I've decided to learn to read Japanese knitting patterns. I srated with a very simple project, the apple tissue pocket from Keito Dama issue 139 (the current issue at the time of writing this).
My daughter also wants a lovely (and complex!) cardigan/jacket from the same magazine so I'll have a real challenge with that one. I am confident though! Confident, naive, one of those... Future sewing projects include undies for the sortahubby. View A :)
I bought some green stretch knit from the op-shop the other day to give them a go. I've never made undies before but they don't look too hard (famous last words). Well that's it for this post. Next post: baby cardigans and jackets. That will just leave hats and then I'll tell you about more sewing, current knitting and wonder how on earth I'm going to get everything done before the baby arrives! Things to Keep Little Feet WarmPosted by on Friday 10 October, 2008 05:49 AM I'm not a sock knitter. I have knit socks. Bed socks, day socks, all sorts of socks but I don't like making them. Except these:
These are the shaped baby knee socks from Homespun Handknit's "Bouncing Baby Set". I love making these socks so baby-in-progress ended up with two pair :) The blue pair are made from a Japanese (possibly Chinese, I don't know because I lost the labels) yarn that I bought at the op shop many years ago, while the purple pair are Opal sock yarn. I've made an awful lot of things from that one skein of Opal sock yarn. Baby socks, a woven scarf and a pair of fingerless mitts plus there's still enough left over for a baby hat or something small. These, however, are not socks!
Converse baby booties! I figured if I couldn't make pretty girly things then I would have to go for cool :) Did I mention baby-in-progress is a boy? Yeah I know, purple stripy knee socks aren't very cool but I had to find some use for the only skein of actual sock yarn in my stash :P These booties are made from Cascade 220. Yes, the handwash only stuff. I have copped a fair bit of flack from people when they find out that I have knit all my baby's gear from handwash only yarns but in all honesty, I don't understand what's so difficult about hand washing them. You throw them in a bucket of room temperature water with a bit of woolwash for half an hour, spin out the water in the washing machine and lay them out to dry somewhere. Baby stuff is so small and light you can hang them up without worrying about them getting all misshapen. Anyway, that's what I did with my first baby and what I plan to do with this one. I would change one thing on this pattern if I made them again. I find that the tongues are too short and if I made them again I'd make the tongues the same length as the outside of the bootie. Anyway, a short post today because I started writing this at 5-something am (boo to insomnia and large baby-bumps that keep you awake) and I'm tired so I'm going back to bed. BTW, I washed that sorry looking blanket from yesterday's post and I think it will have to be patched with many crocheted squares and rectangles instead of hearts because there are just too many holes in it (and not the good granny square kind of hole). I'll save the hearts for the blanket that I didn't show, which only has one hole in it so far :P Tomorrow: Toys! BlankiesPosted by on Thursday 9 October, 2008 10:41 AM When it comes to chilly weather there's almost nothing my family love better than a handmade blanket. Some of them are used so much that they are in desperate need of repair. This is the crochet blanket that lives on my daughter's bed. I'm going to stitch around the holes and patch them with Elizabeth Zimmermann's heart patch. This blanket was made many years ago from 8 ply (dk weight) wool oddments, some Ashford Tekapo and some handspun wool/hemp that I dyed in rainbow colours. The somewhat weakened joins are black synthetic chenille which was very pretty when it was first made but is now wearing a bit thin at the corners.
Of course, all babies get a handmade blanket (or several) of some description. My sister's granddaughter just turned one year old so I made her a crochet blanket too. I love making granny squares. I was taught to crochet them when I was seven years old by a friend of my mother. She also taught me to understand a broad Scottish accent :) This blanket is also crocheted with 8 ply (dk weight) oddments in every bright colour I had in the stash. There's lots of Cleckheaton Country 8 ply, a little Jo Sharp classic wool that was found at the op shop for a song, a lot of pink handspun and some other unidentified wools.
So far I have made one blanket for my son-in-progress but it's a bit of a cheat (and I have a huge oddments stash) so there will be more.
I love basketweave stitch, so when I found a bag of hand knit basketweave rectangles at the op shop for $2 I bought them without thinking twice :) All I had to do with this blanket was stitch the rectangles together, crochet around the edge with some nice yarns and needle felt a few stars on for decoration. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The knitter put a lot of attention into getting the rectangles the same size as they are knit with different thicknesses of yarn and so have different numbers of stitches. If you live near Wollongong and recognise these rectangles as something you gave to the charity shop then rest assured that they became something nice that will be used a lot this coming Winter! I'm also sewing some receiving blankets but at the moment they're just rough 1x1m squares of various fabrics so there's nothing to look at yet. I might embroider a little motif on a corner of each one with some sturdy thread. Since I do have so many odd skeins of yarn left in the stash I plan on making a few more baby blankets. On my list are a couple of Brigit baby Blankets from the Knitting Goddess and maybe a blanket made from the Grandmother's favourite washcloth pattern (links go to the pattern pages on Ravelry). Heck, I might even weave something! Well that's it for baby blankets so far. Tomorrows post: Things to keep baby's feet warm! Crafting for Teens and BabiesPosted by on Wednesday 8 October, 2008 05:33 PM Apologies for my continuing absence. I've been napping a lot in between crafting, visiting the midwives clinic and having all those fun (not) tests that are inflicted upon pregnant women. Speaking of crafting, since that's what you're here for, I thought I'd write a few posts about what I have been making for my 15 year old daughter and son-in-progress. I'll post all out of order and start with the things I have made for my daughter. First of all is the Texture Shawl Collar Jacket from Patons Australia, booklet #1264, Inca Fashion Knits. I actually received the pattern as a freebee from Stitches magazine so I don't have the whole booklet. Here's a pic:
It looks quite baggy in this photo but in reality it fits very well. Slouchy teens, what can you do ;-) I really enjoyed knitting this jacket. The stitch pattern is easy to remember but changes enough to keep it interesting and it works up really fast. I really like the Patons pattern books as Brittany likes many of the designs and many them are written in sizes small enough for her. I knit the small size and made the whole thing 4.5cm shorter because Brit is so tiny (for our family, lol) and used 2.5 balls of yarn less because of the shortening. I would keep this particular yarn for special garments. It's loosely spun so it wouldn't stand up to a lot of wear and tear, but for a special garment I find it really nice and would definitely use it again. The buttons are (I assume lasercut) coconut shell which I bought at Spotlight for $5 each. Actually, the hardest part of this jacket was finding the buttons! Next up is a Hello Kitty Mini-Tote that I crocheted for Brittany's birthday last week.
I used the face pattern from this backpack and made two granny squares for the purse section. It's made from Cleckheaton Country 8 ply (dk weight) wool and lined with some red cotton. The eyes are felt stuck on with washable craft glue. I've been crafting from patterns a lot lately and it was nice to make up a pattern on the fly for a change. Speaking of things that are different, this is Gary the evil sock monkey. Front:
and back (so you can see his wings):
Gary is a basic sock monkey with quilted wings. To make the wings I drew a basic wing shape on a piece of paper. Then I cut 2 out of black homespun cotton and one from a medium weight quilt batting. I stitched the batting and fabric together with the two layers of fabric on the bottom and batting on top, leaving a gap for turning. I then trimmed the batting from the seam allowance, turned it right side out and hand stitched the gap closed. Finally I finished off by stitching the triangles inside the wings to create the detail. It's a lot easier than it sounds, I swear :) Of course all evil flying sock monkeys need a best friend, so when I saw this pattern featured on the Craft: magazine blog, I had to make one!
That's all of my crafting for teens at the moment. Tomorrow: baby blankets! 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. The Home Work book hasn't been worked on in over a year. My small looms page remains unfinished even though people have been begging me for the rest of the instructions and my stack of embroidery patterns isn't scanning itself as far as I can tell. Breeding perhaps, but not scanning. And I need to spin some yarn that the owner has been patiently been waiting for half of forever. OK, the Home Work book couldn't be helped because the paperwork was in storage, but it's out now and thanks to my Sis I have a gazillion skeins of fine yarn to knit the samples with. Maybe I should make it a knitwiki project. If wikis were around when I started it would have been finished years ago... thats definitely something to consider. I didn't work on my hat book because Jamie has been The next set of daisy loom instructions shouldn't take long to do. I could do that today. I don't like knitting the shawl because the yarn is all splitty. I'll rip it out and keep the yarn for weaving. So what have I been doing? I've been bad. I've been knitting baby surprise jackets as stress relief. The orange and blue yarn in the photo has been in my stash for about a year (so it's relatively new, haha) and has been knit into a hat for my hat book (but I ran out of yarn and ripped it out), then I used it to knit something else and ripped that out and finally it became a baby surprise with just enough yarn left over to reknit the collar because I attached it inside out by mistake (duh). I'm currently 2/3 of my way through a 2nd baby surprise so I can show one with longer sleeves. I also tidied up the knitting wiki with a list of projects and hopefully made it easier for editors to find the info they want. Several people made a lot of excellent changes to articles last night (and wrote some new ones), I hope that's an indication that my changes are useful. Now, I think I'll go and rip out that shawl, have some breakfast, get out the daisy looms and my camera and get to work! I'm itching to knit some fingerless gloves from a pattern from 1933 from some purple Opal sock wool and I want to get a whole slew of things finished before I succumb. PS: Yarn purchased in 2007 is still at zero and I'm totally loving knitting from the stash! PPS: I ripped out the shawl while adding the links to this entry. That's one thing to cross off the list! New Free Patterns!!!Posted by on Wednesday 14 March, 2007 09:12 AM Much to my delight I have discovered that adding vintage patterns to a wiki is a whole lot easier than adding them in html (although I do have to go back and put some keywords in for the search engines. Learning curve, don't you know...) So, I added 7 new vintage patterns yesterday! I have added gloves that can be knit on 2 needles (I have a whole lot more of those to add today!), a beret, bed socks, three tea cosies and a quick knit cable pullover. I also added a cool new function that lets you see the latest entries right on the front page: Scroll down and you'll see the new patterns listed under "New Pages". Today I hope to have time to add more vintage patterns, tidy up the main page, current events and community portal pages and start searching for a new, tidier skin. The skin competition was a bust, but then I found out how difficult it actually is to design a skin (from people who know how to do it) so I understand why! If enough donations are made to the wiki I might even hire someone to do it for us. Dulaan JumperPosted by on Thursday 8 March, 2007 11:07 AM Finally, a photo of my almost finished Dulaan jumper!
I just have to graft the underarms and knit the ribby bit for the v-neck, give it a wash and put it with the rest of my Dulaan projects. I'm going to send them off when I have a decent amount to put in a package since posting lots of small packages from Australia would cost quite a lot. I have enough of this yarn left over to knit another jumper the same size and I think I'll try the yoked jumper from Knitting in the Old Way for that one. It's ALIVE!!!!Posted by on Tuesday 20 February, 2007 11:06 PM I've been working on it for two months and the KnitWiki community run knitting encyclopedia is finally officially live (phew!) Visit the KnitWiki to find out how you can contribute to world wide knitting knowledge. While you're at it, pick up one of these for your blog: Almost Finished. Still.Posted by on Saturday 17 February, 2007 11:03 PM Do you ever get the feeling that no matter how long you've been working on something, it's only ever "almost" finished? I have the Knitting Wiki "almost" ready to open. I just need to write two help articles and make the main and community pages nice and user friendly looking. I have "almost" finished the hat book. The hats are done, except for a little felting and blocking and a short length or icord. Then I can go on to doing the photography while I sort out the illustrations. The manuscript just needs a tweak and it'll be finished too. OK, I admit. I write my books long hand. I find it easier and faster that way. The "tweaking" is actually copying small changes from my longhand notes into the manuscript. And my little jumper is lying somewhere around here, just needing the neckband knit and the underarms grafted. Sigh. I need to get these things done. In this order. Wiki. Book. Jumper. Possibly. I Almost Forgot!Posted by on Wednesday 24 January, 2007 07:02 PM 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. :-) Ahah!Posted by on Wednesday 24 January, 2007 05:00 PM 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. Wiki-ingPosted by on Monday 22 January, 2007 10:06 PM 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! Knit, Spin, Shop, Squee!Posted by on Monday 15 January, 2007 01:45 PM 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... Look, a Photo!Posted by on Friday 12 January, 2007 12:23 PM 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: 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! Knitting From StashPosted by on Friday 5 January, 2007 09:40 PM 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 :-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! Stash Elimination 2007Posted by on Wednesday 3 January, 2007 01:44 PM 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 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. :-) The Right Tools Can Make All The Difference in the WorldPosted by on Saturday 23 December, 2006 07:46 AM Over the past year or two I had become extremely frustrated with my Majacraft Suzie Pro spinning wheel. Whilst I could spin a lovely 2 ply dk weight, and even a nice fingering weight 2 ply, I just couldn't get enough twist in my singles for what I really love to knit with: laceweight 2 ply and thinner. I finally decided "damn the cost" and asked Jenny from the very fabulous Virginia Farm Woolworks how much a high speed kit for my wheel would cost and she told me about something I'd never heard of before: the high speed whorl! At about 1/6 the cost of the high speed kit, I decided to try it (and some cotton carders and the new Ashford carding book, but that's a review for after Christmas) :-P My lovely new little whorl arrived yesterday morning, so I put it on my wheel, which was incredibly easy to do with just a twist of an alan key (which you get with the whorl). I really like the ease of changing the whorl because I definitely still want to spin the occasional dk and heavier 2 ply, and you can't do that very easily with the high speed whorl. My heart's desire is to spin a 2 ply yarn akin to a commercial 2/22. Yep, that stuff that lace knitters love. Curious to see if it was possible with the high speed whorl I decided to pick up a bit of fluff and have a go. (It isn't possible to spin a usable yarn that fine with the regular whorl no matter how fast you treadle, unless you're using a very long staple fiber). Here's a photo of me plying the yarn:
At the top is my handspun single, the bottom ply is a commercial polyester machine embroidery thread.
The finished yarn, sort of life size (on my monitor anyway). The green yarn is an Aussie 8 ply weight commercial yarn (dk weight to the non-Aussies). My rating of the high speed whorl? Absolutely brilliant! My next spinning project will be the same weight as the above thread, one ply a lavender wool/silk mix and the other ply a bright white mulberry silk. I want to knit something fabulous using my skull and crossbones lace stitch. In knitting news, I finally got around to blocking the "No Longer Badly Written Doily". I changed the colour in the first photo so you could see the pattern better.
and here is it's real colour.
I didn't need to use pins to block it because it's mercerised cotton and this particular brand (Coats Petra 8) seems to block out nicely without pins. The difference in lace knitting after blocking will never cease to entertain me. Before blocking it always looks like something the cat hacked up, after blocking it's always gorgeous. Yesterday's SwatchPosted by on Thursday 30 November, 2006 09:57 AM Yesterday I wrote:
The result? 27 stitches to 10cm. Am I good or what? <VBG> A Tenuous Hold on RealityPosted by on Wednesday 29 November, 2006 05:11 AM Yes, the time on this post is correct. It really is 5am. For some reason, at 4:20 am this morning, I thought it would be a good idea to get out of my nice comfy bed and block the tam I left soaking last night. I rose Then I decided to read email. And since reading email is a knitting activity, I also decided to knit the swatch for my next hat. Aussie 5 ply wool. 3.25mm needles. At least 26 or 28 stitches to 10cm. Still no coffee. I think my hold on reality is slipping... But on a good note, I do only have 6 sample hats left to knit for the expanded second edition of my hat book. On a bad note, one of them is a beret knit on 3.25mm needles because I needed a sample knit with finer yarn for a change. Now I'm going back to bed! Lots. Of. Stuff.Posted by on Friday 24 November, 2006 04:33 PM Cushiony Goodness First of all, I would like to completely brag on my daughter. She designed, machine embroidered and stitched this:
Not only am I impressed that she designed and made such an awesome cushion, but she cut the paper pattern for the patchwork sections herself. I offered to help, she thanked me and promptly did it all by herself. I'm so proud :-) Not only that, but she also recieved full marks for her project. Onya Bink! Lace We've been in our house for almost 2 weeks now. I've met the cat hating obnoxious neighbour, become somewhat used to the disturbing number of dead cockroaches one finds every morning when one lives in this area*, and have met my first lace knitter. Or at least a lace knitter's best friend. The day after we moved here we decided a visit to Dapto markets was in order and I purchased this:
Isn't it gorgeous? I asked the lady who was selling it if she knit it herself and she told me she sells them for a friend of hers. For $6. Yes ladies and gentlemen, all her friend wanted for this lovely (and quite large) piece of lace knitting was $6. That's $4.65 to my US readers, (and about $842 to the Kiwis <VBG>) I couldn't believe anyone would sell such hard work so cheaply so I asked the seller to tell her friend that her knitting was really appreciated because I knit lace too, so I know exactly how much work went into it. I love the simple eyelet centre with the more complex lace around it. It makes me want to design something! :-) Especially because - I Am So Sick of Knitting These
Artfully displayed on a pile of a) it's a silly hat and very inviting to play with I can visualise having to wash and reblock it when she gets home. And I'm really sick of hats today... Clown Yarn Remember the clown yarn I spun a few weeks ago? I used it to make the pork pie hat in the previous photo and the tweed-ish effect turned out exactly the way I wanted.
Pointilism in fibre form. You gotta love it. I've said it before and I hope I'll have occasion to say it again - I love it when a plan comes together! * Footnote: I may get used to the dead cockroaches but I really wish my cat would quit eating cicadas and then purring at me with bug guts all over her lips. Ewww... Knitting Needle Conversion Charts and Pre-Printed PatternsPosted by on Monday 10 July, 2006 06:07 PM I receive a lot of requests for my patterns in pre-printed form so I've decided to make any of the patterns that I sell available on Lulu.com. I've started with the Baby Doll Cradle Purse, and will be making any future patterns that are more than 4 pages in length available in the future. Visit the Knitting-and.com shop for details. I've also designed another pre-printed product: Knitting Needle conversion charts. They are available in two designs from Cafepress:
"I Knit therefore I Am" and
Click the titles above to visit the Cafepress store with your chosen image. You'll also find lots of other new and revamped products available. Lots and Lots of Lace!Posted by on Sunday 25 June, 2006 08:36 PM I recently discovered some excellent OCR software that can handle old crinkly paper (it was already on my computer and I've been looking for something like it for months, duh) and to celebrate I've added 12 free vintage doily/placemat/mat patterns to the website! You can view them by photo at http://www.knitting-and.com/photos/gallery/doilypatterns?page=1 I've also added a new sewing pattern for a little sewing needle case. My antique one was too delicate to use any longer so I put it away for safe keeping and made some new ones. Youc an find the pattern at http://www.knitting-and.com/embroidery/needlecase.htm You'll notice that I'm playing with the menus at the sides of the pages at the moment too. Please forgive any confusion this might cause for the moment. It's all for a greater cause, I assure you. I promise tomorrow I'll let you know what needlework has been going on around here butright now it's time for bed ! Doilies! Both New and Reborn!Posted by on Tuesday 20 June, 2006 08:29 AM The Doily Pattern from the 1940's is FIXED! I have corrected it, updated the decreases used, tested it and test-printed it. You can find the pattern at http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/doilies/doily.htm To celebrate I've also added another doily pattern with enormous gratitude to Sandra Wills for doing all the hard work typing it up, scanning the pictures and sending it to me. You'll find the Coral Design Doily at http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/doilies/semco3.htm I Think It's Working...Posted by on Thursday 1 June, 2006 12:48 PM Having witnesses must be a good thing! At the time of writing my last message, the badly-written-doily-pattern-correction-check type thingy looked a little like this:
However, as of last night, it looked like this!
I haven't darned in the ends or blocked it, but the corrections have been checked and corrected <VBG>, and over the next week or so I'll be typing them up and adding charts to the pattern as well. There were MAJOR erors in the pattern, including a row that was missing entirely, but I think I've done a pretty decent job. My self esteem started to wane (in regards to this project) a year ago when I saw yet another person had successfully knit it at the Aussie Sheep and Wool Show (that made about ten). At the time I still hadn't been able to figure out the last 14 rounds, so I decided I had to bite the bullet and knit it again (I only got up to round 172 last time). And now it's DONE DONE DONE! Woo :-) I've also finished the rewrite and proposal for the new version of the Any Yarn, Any Size Knit Hat Book and that will be going off to the first publisher as soon as my paycheck clears on the 10th. Cross your fingers for me! And since those were done, I made this:
I'm making another one in blues and browns and then I'm going to put the pattern up. It's almost finished and as soon as I find some more people to make them for I will! They're a lot of fun to make and are quite addictive. I call them Fibonacci Glamour Scarves. Yes I had to get some maths geeking in there somewhere. Tomorrrow I'll let you know what three generations have done with this (apparently it's fully sick!)
Ta Da!Posted by on Monday 13 March, 2006 04:10 PM
Skull and crossbones lace. Thus proving it can be done, although I wasn't sure for a while there :-) I'll make the pattern available as soon as I can figure out how to do it without my computer. This was so much fun to design that I think I'll make it the beginning of a series. Skully ProgressPosted by on Wednesday 8 March, 2006 11:56 AM I thought I'd better pop in and give you all an update on the skull and crossbones lace! I'm using a laptop that I loathe on my Dad's kitchen table so please excuse the short post and lack of pictures (I'll see if I can figure out how to use the card reader on this infernal thing tomorrow so I can show my progress in swatches. There are a lot of them <VBG>). So far I've figured out the skull part to my liking. It's an 18 stitch repeat, which is exactly the size I was after. I've had a few goes at the crossbones which didn't work very well but I'm currently charting out a version that I think will work nicely. Famous last words :-P If the crossbones part works it will the same height as the skull part so that will give me the opportunity to make 2 versions, a stripy one with a row of bones and a row of skulls and a grid repeat that has both in each row. I also figured out it would make a neat vertical insertion that works well as a scarf! This is the very first lace I've designed totally frm scratch so I'm learning a lot. I'm glad I remember most of what I read in Margaret Stove's book on designing original lace or I'd be screwed because I packed it... As for the move, we made it to New South Wales. We don't have a permanent home yet but I do have my very first sunburn from the beach. I got it drivng there, when at the beach I actually manage to remember sunscreen! Things to Make With Sock Yarn When You Don't Like SocksPosted by on Tuesday 1 November, 2005 10:50 AM I have a confession. I hate knitting socks. I hate wearing socks. I LOVE sock yarns. I like how fine they are, I like the added nylon, and I LOVE the self patterning ones when I feel like making something effortless. So, what do I do with sock yarns? Here's what I've made so far:
Lots of fingerless mitts! I don't care if my feet are cold, but I hate having cold hands. Click on the photo for the free pattern. :-) I also wove these (forgive the beginner weaving. I am a beginner, after all):
I made the orange scarf to match my mitts, and the purple one is for my daughter's fabulous art teacher, who needs a scarf to wear when she rides her Harley. (You have to love non stereotypical positive female role models. We live in a small country town where all the women seem to be sports mums or are having lots of babies. It's nice for my art-mad daughter to have a glamorous, artistic, Harley riding woman in town to show her that the women in her family aren't the only ones to break the female stereotypes that the boys seem to insist are real!) Anyway, I digress. I also crocheted a belt for my daughter but the photo sucks and she won't let me block it until it gets dirty so you don't get to see that one :-P I wonder what a hat would look like in yellow sock yarn? :-) !!!Posted by on Wednesday 12 October, 2005 09:44 AM My knitting patterns are now available for sale on the Knitting Vault website. Now, when you buy one of my patterns, you won't have to wait for me to email it to you! To view the patterns I have available (there are 5 so far), go to The Knitting Vault website, click on "Search for Patterns" in the menu on the left hand side of the page, choose "Knitting-and.com" as the designer in the search form (leave everything else set to "all") and click "Submit Search". Biggest Post EverPosted by on Tuesday 27 September, 2005 10:21 AM Mission accomplished! I recently finished a crocheted scarf, which I made from some of my handspun wools, and decided to challenge myself with the leftovers. I decided that it would be fun to see if I could use up every last bit of yarn and not even have an inch left over. First I made a scarf, which I have already posted about here. Then I decided to go back to crochet and I designed this hat:
I ran out of the handpaint most of the way through the last round so I undid it and added a contrast edge in brown. I made this hat 3 times before I was happy with it. First I tried it with trebles (US double crochet), but I didn't like the length of the stitches with this yarn. Then I started again with half trebles (US half double crochet) but I joined the rounds and started each new one with a couple of chains for the first stitch. That made a horrible colour jog that I couldn't live with so I ripped it out again and crocheted the whole thing as a whackingly big spiral. I liked it so much that I made another with small amounts of leftover green.
This time I'd only done a couple of colours before I realised I *should* be joining the end of every round and using a chain to start. My gauge was a tiny bit off so I shrank it for a few minutes in the washing machine. It doesn't look felted but it's the right size now. Then I decided a bit of knitting was in order because I still had a huge ball of brown left.
So I made this rolled brim hat with a check stripe. It reminds me of a policeman's hat. Which is a shame... At this point I was left with a medium sized ball of brown (still!) and a lot of teeny tiny scraps of various greens. Things began to get desperate. With the fibonacci sequence in mind, I started another knitted hat.
I knew I had more than enough left to make a basic beanie, so I decided to decrease away about a half of the stitches as I normally would, then I worked 4 rounds between decreases instead of decreasing every round. I'd seen a ski hat in a 1950's pattern book that used a similar technique and I really like the shape so I thought "What the heck". After all, I was only using tiny scraps that I'd normally have thrown away at this point.
But even then I still had teeny amounts of some green and brown left! I enlisted the help of a scrap of rainbow handpaint (even though it's not handspun), and made these, to sew on future hats.
Those little skeins at the snake's noses are for sewing them on. And I don't have a single scrap of yarn left! Woo Who!Posted by on Friday 23 September, 2005 08:15 AM Now that's what I call being dedicated! :-) And to assure you that I really am impressed and not just taking the Mickey:
Doctor Who Logos in knitting chart format Hmmm, I can't believe I haven't got a photo of the Dr Who jumper I made for Jamie with a cyberman on the back or the one I made for Brittany when she was a baby. I'll have to fix that! And no, I'm not admitting that I have a rough copy of a Dr Who knitting book that I wrote in the late 90's on my bookshelf with over 100 patterns in it because weird people might want me to actually make everything and try and get it published (Hmmm, that Jon Pertwee era logo jumper might be a good next project...) Gotta Love Those Quick Knits...Posted by on Thursday 22 September, 2005 01:33 PM From my previous post, you've possibly realised I'm in "big needle quick knit" mode once again. Here's my latest:
My finished K3, P3 check scarf that I mentioned I was knitting a couple of posts ago. Made with 3 strands of sport-dk weight handspun 2 ply merino on 10mm needles. This is such a perfect project for newer knitters that I think I'll put the pattern up once I've worked out the yardage. :-) After making 2 scarves I still have enough yarn left over to make a hat from each colour! This time I'm adapting my hat knitting formulae with crochet. It's going well so far but I have no idea how I'd write it down so other people could understand it ... YMMVPosted by on Wednesday 21 September, 2005 06:28 PM A while ago I bought some 10mm circular Crystal Palace bamboo needles. Upon using them for the first time, one of them self destructed.
The other one is still perfect. What really sucks (aside from the fact that they cost about $15 with shipping), is that they're really nice to use. Until they fell apart anyway... Has anyone out there used Crystal Palace bamboo needles? What do you think of them? FO RoundupPosted by on Monday 19 September, 2005 09:06 PM
Crochet rolled brim hat (pattern by Arlene Williams)
Crochet scarf (pattern by me). This is made from my handspun yarns. They're sportweight 2 ply merino (a bit finer than Aussie 8 ply) and a 3.5mm hook. It was supposed to be 6ft long but it's about 7 ft long since I suck at measuring gauge in crochet! It doesn't matter though, because I'm 6ft tall so I can get away with wearing a scarf that long. :-)
Eyelet hat from one of the chemo hat websites (I've forgotten which one, sorry). I really don't like this hat. I think the rolled brim is stingy and the shaping on the top is clumsy. I think I'll stick to my own shaping for the tops of hats from now on.
Baby sized jester hat (pattern by me)
Yet another knut hat made from my beginner's handspun.
Another k3, p3 scarf. This one is one strand of novelty yarn (a discontinued yarn by Panda called "Angel"), and one strand of ordinary 8 ply (That's DK weight to the non Aussie yarn speakers). I love this scarf.
I also figured out the kerchief pattern from the mid 1800's. I got some yarn out of the lockup today in case I decide to actually make one and write up the modernised pattern. Don't wait for it, I haven't decided if I'm going to make one yet... And my current WIP:
A k3, p3 check scarf knit on 10mm needles. This scarf uses 3 of the same handspun yarns from my crocheted scarf. Animals, Arachnids and a Bit of KnittingPosted by on Saturday 10 September, 2005 09:39 AM First of all, I'd like to show you two cuties:
Mr Apricot, blending in with the blankets. What a sweety. He was mewing at me the whole time to quit taking his photo and give him a pat. He likes to think he's big and mean and tough, but he's not. And
A huge hairy spider we've dubbed "Spideyman". Obvious, I know. He's currently hiding behind a box of Pepsi Max in the kitchen. I hope he doesn't scurry across the floor when people are viewing the house before the auction today. What do you mean s/he's not cute? Lastly, the knitting! I finished this hat
from Vogue Knitting's Caps and Hats. Here's the hat shown from the top. In the book it has a tassel, but I left that off. It's such a confection already that I thought adding a tassel was just going too far.
I really love the Vogue Knitting on the Go books. I'm after Caps and Hats Two, and the Chunky Hats and Scarves books next. Finally, here's what I'm working on now!
This is a test-knit of a Shetland Kerchief pattern from Beeton's Book of Needlework from the mid to late 1800's, which you can download from project Gutenberg here. It's an amazing book, I'm planning on working up a collection of the knitting patterns once I finish the Home Work collection. I will be changing this pattern slightly though. So far I've corrected the edging pattern as it had many errors. If you look at the red lines in the first repeat of the pattern you can see that the zig-zag effect went the wrong way because half that line of instructions was missing and I didn't get it right first go :-) I fixed that, but I think the whole thing would be much nicer if the even numbered rows were knit, not purled, to make it a garter stitch lace. I also don't like the "slip 1, yo" sat the beginning of some rows on the shaped edge. I'm thinking of knitting the 1st sts and putting the yarn over right on the edge, but I'll have to test how that looks since some increases are worked into the yo's on some rows. Well, our house goes up for auction in 2 hours and 21 minutes so I'm off to knit and panic! New Free Pattern!Posted by on Thursday 8 September, 2005 09:04 PM
Gladys is Dry!Posted by on Tuesday 6 September, 2005 04:55 PM And here she is, kindly modelled by Marylin.
I'm planning on sending Gladys to the Give A Little relief project as an auction item or prize (I'll leave it up to the organisers to decide). Gladys won't be alone on her long journey though, I'll also be sending several hats, including this one.
Finishing a few WIPsPosted by on Sunday 4 September, 2005 05:52 PM My very first piece of weaving :-)
I love it because of it's enormous number of inconsistencies <VBG>. It was supposed to be fabric for a cushion but I've decided it's a table runner instead. Commercial warp with handspun weft. And the Gladys scarf/stole is finally blocked!
When it's dry I think I'll sell it on ebay to raise money for charity. Is It Spring Yet?Posted by on Sunday 4 September, 2005 12:00 PM
The youngsters* would like to know. From left to right: Winkey aged almost 4, Frankenstein aged 6½ (who has the same father as Winkey but not the same Mum), and Apricot aged almost 4 (who has the same Mum as his littermate Winkey but not the same Dad). Ah, blended families. They get so complicated sometimes.
AND... I hated my miser's purse, so I fixed it.
Now I like it. I found the silver rings (which were literally right in front of me the whole time), and reattached the tassels so they weren't hanging down all loose and pathetic looking. My next project is going to be a scarf. Hey, what can I say, I'm on a roll! I'm going to be using some Aussie 2 ply handpainted wool from Wendy Dennis (I think it's merino but I lost the label years ago), in blues and purples and I'm going to knit a long rectangular scarf using this stitch:
and I think I'll add a knitted on plain garter stitch border in order to keep the elasticity needed to block the birdseye pattern properly. It'll either look really cool, or like a ratty old table runner. :-P Time will tell. *We have 2 other cats who are collectively known as "the crumblies". Tapestry, aged 15 and her daughter Guinevere, aged 14½ A Pinch and a PunchPosted by on Thursday 1 September, 2005 04:03 PM For the first day of the month, no returns! I finished my triangle cushion this afternoon. It's huge. Really huge. I haven't measured it, but I think it's about 2ft across the bottom. Very comfy! Here's a shot I just took of it drying on a towel (I wet block almost everything).
See, I told you it was a triangle. I haven't sewn on the buttons yet, but it still counts as finished because sewing on buttons only takes 5 minutes and I never leave a project buttonless for long. I still haven't blocked the Gladys scarf/stole because, since I finished knitting it, we've had an open house inspection, a birthday party and then another open house this weekend so I haven't been able to leave it on the table to dry. Unlike the cushion cover, it's too big to move so it will have to wait until Sunday. Maybe even until the day after the auction. Please send good house selling vibes for Saturday Setember 10th, 12pm AEST (that's Australian Eastern standard time). :-) Mmmmmm Lacy...Posted by on Saturday 27 August, 2005 10:48 AM As you may have guessed from my recent pattern purchases and the size of the lace pattern collection on my site, I like knitting lace. So it will come as no surprise to you that I amassed a new wishlist of patterns while idly browsing the web this morning. They are: (Click on the pictures to find out where to buy the patterns)
TrianglesPosted by on Thursday 25 August, 2005 10:04 AM What do you mean they're not triangles?
They will be a triangle eventually. These are the 1st two squares of Hawthorne Cottage's Triangle cushion cover from Australian Yarn Art. True to form for this particular book, the photography is awful and the pattern is full of errors. Luckily the part of the pattern with the worst errors is the bit shown in the photo. Although I haven't started the next square yet so there may be more that you can't see. I've made a lot of projects from Yarn Art (7 at last count) and almost without exception there have been typing errors, missing charts (in the case of the teddy bear, no sewing pattern), or the photos have been "artistically" cropped in such a way that you can't see what the item is supposed to look like. The only reason I knew I wanted to make several of the projects (the Hawthorne Cottage cushions included), is because I saw them in person when I bought the book at the Aussie Sheep and Wool show. It's a real shame because there are some great patterns in the book if you can decipher the errors or find the designers to ask for corrections. But even then, not many people are going to know they want to make some of the projects because you just can't see them. Well the Knitting is Finished...Posted by on Sunday 21 August, 2005 11:12 AM on the Gladys scarf/stole, but I have no idea how I'm going to block it.
I may have to resort to pinning it to a thin dooner and laying it out on my work table until it's dry, but first I'll have to get out the sewing machine and finish the weaving project that has half my pins in it. :-) One of these days I'll get myself to the local Metaland shop and get some welding wires for blocking stuff. Zooooom...Posted by on Thursday 18 August, 2005 06:14 PM
The Gladys stole, 9 out of 11 centre repeats done. I hope to have the last 2 centre repeats finished by the end of Stargate Atlantis tonight :-) Gladys ProgressPosted by on Wednesday 17 August, 2005 01:11 PM Yarn Art isn't a very popular book for several reasons (mainly the lousy photography and lack of charts), so I thought I'd post a pic of the Gladys scarf from the book.
See, the book has lousy photography. But it's a really pretty scarf when you can actually see it. Here's my 2nd go so far:
I'm 2 and a bit repeats into the centre section. You wil notice that my scarf isn't white. Or laceweight... I changed my mind :-) I'm using Karabella Aurora 8 which is a worsted weight merino made from 16 plies (!!!). Lovely stuff, I hope it blocks well. I suspect it won't because it's very bouncy but I don't care. I'll also be changing the edging to spomething very simple because I think the original one is a bit fussy for me and I won;t have enough yarn anyway. And I guess from now on I should call it the Gladys "stole". I think one of the fewbenefits of feeling crook is that you can rationalise doing nothing but knitting all day. Especially since we've already tidied up and put all our stuff in storage for the first open-house inspection on the weekend. And the real estate agent said we can run away and hide, which is fine with me (right after I hide anything that will fit in a pocket)... Next!Posted by on Tuesday 16 August, 2005 10:42 AM I've finally managed to decide on my next project without starting another brainless TV knitting project in the meantime! OK, I DID start another brainless TV knitting project (pale pink fisherman's rib angora scarf), but I frogged it when I realised I wouldn't have enough yarn. So that doesn't count. No it doesn't. I'm going to knit the Gladys scarf from the book "Australian Yarn Art". Again. I started it once before but the variegated yarn I was using totally destroyed the look of the lace so I ripped it out. This time I'm using plain old white because then you'll be able to see the pattern of the lace when it's being worn. It's a fun knit and quite addictive. I'd post a pic but the photo in the book is useless and you won't be able to see what it looks like anyway. Wish me luck. I have a weird laryngitis-type thingy going on at the moment. If it were possible I would say my ears are dizzy. Although knowing the state of my ears it probably is possible... Three for ThreePosted by on Monday 15 August, 2005 11:40 AM My last 3 projects, knit over the past 3 days:
A plain old garter stitch scarf knit in Colinette something-or-other that I bought aeons ago at the Aussie Sheep and Wool Show (100% cotton chenille). I call it the "Jungle Muppet" scarf. This is one project I'm actually keeping because I love the colours and I adore the Muppets. Plus it's cotton chenille. Ya gotta love cotton chenille. :-)
2 Knut hats knit from scraps. The dark-blue/white yarn is some of my beginner's handspun that I spun about 7 years ago. I have one more ball of it in purple/white for another Knut hat and I'll have used up all my beginner-spinner yarn. Woohoo, posterity, and all that crap. The lighter blue yarn is a commercial yarn that I've been saving because it's from the 70's. It's VERY retro looking in the skein and I wasn't sure what I could possibly make with it that anyone would use. I kept it because I love the colour and the construction. It's pretty bulky (Aussie 12 ply) and is made of 3 plies. One pale blue, one light blue and one a soft mid blue. It knits up into a lovely speckled fabric, as you can see. Not at all the retro monstrosity I was expecting! I'll definitely be using the same technique in some of my handspun yarns. I'm thinking a soft rose scheme would look nice and possibly a burnt orange. And green. Definitely green. Leafy, not lime. I shall have to stick a length of yarn into my notebook so I remember it . (Hey Nanna J, I think I'll make the leftovers into a swatch for the swatch box! <VBG>) On to something else: There's been a huge kerfuffle on the Knitlist lately about the dumming down of knitting in publications (and in general) over the past 5 or 6 years. I just wanted to make a short reply here as I'm not on the knitlist, even though I do read it on occasion. I'll be short and to the point since someone is coming to look at the house in 3 hours and I still have to do the dishes and get changed... 1: Knit whatever pleases you. 2: Knit for whatever reason you like. 3: Feel free to change your mind on points 1 and 2 whenever you like. 4: If magazines and books with "easy" in the title aren't your thing, quit whining and go and find the knitting related publications that are. Go and buy some of the many gorgeous and complex patterns that are available from places like Fiddlesticks Knitting, Sharon Miller, Needle Beetle, Woolly Thoughts, Lucy Neatby or White Lies Designs (to name but a few) or buy some books on designing and create your own patterns (Knitting in the Old Way, for example). 5: If you're teaching others to knit, teach them the basics that they need to know to go onto other projects. Cast on, knit, purl, a simple increase and decrease, casting off. Make a practice swatch with these different techniques (cos it doesn't matter if you bugger it up) and then have everyone make a hat and you'll have included knitting in the round and using dpns as well, AND you'll have created a knowledgable beginner knitter with confidence to go onto other projects. And don't forget to tell them how to measure gauge while you're at it. Now, I'm off to drink some coffee, wash the dishes and wind some teeny tiny yarn into balls so I can knit me some lace. The Little Grey Aliens are Gonna Have to WalkPosted by on Friday 12 August, 2005 05:21 PM Cos there ain't no UFO's around here :-) I finished them all!
Firstly, a pair of mitts for Miss Brittany.
A hat made from my handspun yarn. I navajo plied this yarn to preserve the colour repeats. Finally...
The never ending miser's purse. It has bone rings on it at the moment but I'm going to put silver ones on as soon as I unpack the damn things. Now I just have to decide what to knit because I don't have any more projects started! (What happened to the baby cardigan, you may ask? I ripped it out so I can use the yarn for something else). My Name is SarahPosted by on Saturday 30 July, 2005 09:53 PM and I'm a hat knitting addict...
Dr Who + half an episode of the Bill + 3 strands of 8 ply wool on 9mm needles = this rolled brim hat. OOK IIPosted by on Saturday 30 July, 2005 07:17 PM
I made another OOK hat last night while watching the telly. This time I used 1 strand of maroon wool/silk, 1 strand of purple wool/possum and one strand of reddish thing with rainbow pompoms. I particularly like the extra long tassels on this one. :-) I also made an orange flower for my "mostly pink" knit and felt hat.
And I would just like to leave you with greetings from this lovely little fellow (sheila?), who was saved from the evil lawn mower blades and given a lovely new home down by the Loddon river.
Ribbit.
OOKPosted by on Friday 29 July, 2005 12:58 PM I need some 8mm dpns so I can make more of these:
One of the OOK (One-Of-a-Kind) hats by Joan Vass from the 1980's knitting book "Exclusively Yours". (I think it's 1980's. You can still get it in many 2nd hand bookshops, ebay or op shops). These hats are knit with 2 strands of 12 ply yarn (or 3 strands of 8 ply) on 8mm needles and take about 2 hours from start to finish. They're also great fun, they eat up stash like no-one's business and there are 2 other styles in the book that are thoroughly wearable. For my hat I used 1 strand of glitter pom pom yarn, one strand of black and white thick and thin acrylic, and one strand of black cotton with white eyelash thread and rainbow coloured slubs. Never let it be said that I'm subtle. BTW: I don't have any 8mm dpns so I knit the decrease section at the top of the hat on 2 straights and a circular. I don't recommend it but it gets the job done if all you have in your required needle size is one 40cm circ and a pair of straights. :-P Fair Isle HatPosted by on Thursday 28 July, 2005 02:35 PM
Adult sized fairisle hat in Jo Sharp DK Classic Wool. More of my hand painted yarn in the background :-) Entrelac ScarfPosted by on Thursday 28 July, 2005 02:31 PM
Entrelac scarf in Jo Sharp DK Classic Wool. I hand painted the rainbow colour. Do I need to say I wrote the pattern? I thought not. A Little SillinessPosted by on Thursday 28 July, 2005 02:26 PM
A snake scarf. My own pattern of course. :-P I dyed the background colour yarn using Ashford's dyes in brown, rust and yellow. Not a colour combination I would have thought of myself (they were the colours in a kit), but I reallly love the way they look when they start to blend together. Baby Hats!Posted by on Thursday 28 July, 2005 02:22 PM The next FO, 5 baby hats.
Knit from hand painted, hand spun yarns. 2 ply, 12 ply thickness. My own pattern. These little hats are VERY addictive. I want to use up the rest of my 12 ply weight yarns to make more! Felty HatsPosted by on Thursday 28 July, 2005 02:10 PM I knit two "knit and felt" hats using yarn spun from some felting batts that were sitting unused in the felting stash for far too long :-)
This is the first one, but my favourite is the one below because of the flower. I have some yarn left so I think I'll have to put a flower on the mostly pink one as well. Probably orange, maybe blue.
The yarn is a dk weight (aussie 8 ply) single 100% merino, woollen spun. More FO'sPosted by on Thursday 28 July, 2005 01:58 PM I know the blog has turned into just a showing of my latest projects but I promise I'll have more time and interesting things to say after we move. Let's face it, in a town of less than 300 people not much happens... My first FO is another hat. Yeah, I know, very boring. But it is pretty
See? Adult size rolled brim hat in Brownsheeps Cotton Fleece or some such American type yarn. My own pattern. Nice yarn, splits a lot if you're not paying attention though. More FO's in the following posts so I can link to them separately. Last, But Definitely Not LeastPosted by on Sunday 3 July, 2005 11:31 AM Fingerless mitts! These are a teaser from the next issue of Southern Cross Knitting (due online August 1st) and are the photos to accompany my "Custom Fit Fingerless Mitts" pattern, a "plug and play" pattern that can be knit in any size with any yarn.
The first pair are knit from a couple of chunky oddballs from the stash that Miss Brittany dyed with matching colours. (You can learn how to dye using this method in the next issue of SCK as well!)
This pair are knit with the same self striping handspun as the hats in the previous post. I have knit a couple of other things for the mag, but those you really will have to wait for ! :-) Hats Hats HatsPosted by on Sunday 3 July, 2005 11:20 AM You knew there'd be major hattage, of course... These are 4 hats that I knit with some rainbow coloured self striping handspun. The patterns are from my hat book (available from my sister). I'm thinking of putting instructions for the beaded tassels in Southern Cross Knitting if I have time.
Not Very EloquentPosted by on Sunday 22 May, 2005 10:30 AM but proclaimed with great feeling: Ooooh, pretty :-)
I haven't knit it, I'm just lusting after the pattern... By the way, I am a bad, bad girl. After saying I'd be good and not buy Kate Gilbert's felted bunny pattern because I'd just ordered a loom, I found I had an extra $5 so I bought it anyway. Coveting...Posted by on Monday 16 May, 2005 04:31 PM Uhoh, I have a headache, which usually causes a bad case of the "gimmes" to cheer mself up. However! I'm purchasing an 80cm rigid heddle loom next week so I'm going to be good and just tell you all about my cute finds so that you can exclaim how fabulous my taste is and go buy them for yourself instead. Kate Gilbert's Bunnies are too cute. I like bunnies because I was born near Easter.
Ack, there was more but I'm going to go and lie down and get rid of this headache instead... Knit & Felt Tips #1Posted by on Monday 16 May, 2005 04:01 PM Never get over confident about how little a knit & felt project will shrink in a single wash cycle. This hat was meant to be 22 inches around, but ended up being something like 18 inches because I didn't think it would shrink that much in a single wash cycle!
I stretched it back to size over a souffle dish, but unfortunately it's not as deep as I'd like. You can reblock the circumference of an over fulled hat, but not the depth. The yarn is a self striping single spun from oddments from the junk box. These aren't colours I would normally have thought about putting together but I think they work really well. Sampler ScarfPosted by on Monday 9 May, 2005 11:50 AM At the beginning of last August the more devoted of my readers might remember that I used Deb Menz's multicolour combing techniques to make some red-based rovings from some odds and ends. At the time I was disappointed by the way the grey looked in the finished yarns so I put them away. Well, I finally knit them up and whilst I prefer the rovings without grey, the grey does give a really attractive and interesting effect. But it was REALLY ugly as yarn. Go figure. Here's the finished "sampler" scarf that I knit. It's a simple K3, P3 rib and the yarns are an 8 ply weight (DK) single throughout.
And here are the 8 individual rovings as they knit up. I've stretched the rib out so you can see the full width of the knitting.
I Just Had to Tell You About ThisPosted by on Tuesday 5 April, 2005 11:06 PM I know, 3 posts in one day, very sad. But I have to tell you about the Bunny A Long because it gave me a giggle. Especially the bunny bums chorus line. And the uber cute lanky legged bunnies, especially the one with button eyes. I'm a sucker for toys with button eyes. What can I say? I like bunnies. Must be something to do with being born near Easter and getting a toy bunny for every birthday until I was 10. :-) (Only 10 days til my birthday! Woohoo!) MeeeeeowPosted by on Tuesday 5 April, 2005 10:28 PM Not a very good photo, but here's
PGR officially rocks, but you already knew that. PS: Brittany made me promise to cut off her head. I swear. Aw Nuts.Posted by on Monday 4 April, 2005 12:23 AM Here beginneth the lesson. Woohoo, almost finished Miss Brittany's jumper!
But hang on, I seem to have forgotten something. Let me give you a hint.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, I forgot to include the shoulder decreases when I calculated when to start the neck shaping. If you're supposed to end up with 92sts, you have to start the neck shaping **before** you have decreased to 92 stitches. Duh. Exclamations of "Oh crap", followed by...
But
And now to Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Here endeth the lesson. Norweigian SocksPosted by on Wednesday 24 October, 2001 02:21 PM I love the idea of using decorative sock tops to make little bags. With fine yarn they could become quite complex.
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. I left out the lace to make it a more all-purpose jacket for very cold days
, also by Elizabeth Zimmermann (you may start to notice a trend here)
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