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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! 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! 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 The Most Humiliating Cat Antic EverPosted by on Wednesday 3 August, 2005 01:03 PM But first, I have a question: I'm packing up most of my stuff so the house can be auctioned on September 10th. I (and the real estate agent) figured that we'd probably get a better price if people could see the rooms through the boxes of yarn and spinning wheels and stuff (and that was just the studio), so I've been doing this.
That's most of my studio packed away. If you don't count the other 4 boxes of fibre in the hall and a big box of half empty folders with knitting patterns in them. But! We're probably going to be here for another 3 months yet and I'm worried I haven't left myself enough stuff to do. I've got these books:
I'll be keeping the basics here including all 4 Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries, Wild Knitting and Knitting embellishments for hat adornment inspiration, my hat book because I'm obsessed with knitting hats, various books on designing and knitting lace, a few books I just bought that I haven't finished drooling over yet and lots of hat patterns and things with charts (for knitting into hats, of course). Oh and the Sweater Workshop and Knitting in the Old Way because, even though I don't plan on knitting and jumpers in the next 3 months, I couldn't imagine packing away such fabulously useful and information packed volumes. I'm also keeping this yarn:
The big bag of oddments on the left are for a blanky I'm going to knit on the Bond ISM (as can be seen by the ball of ack-rylic on top to be used for the waste yarn). Most of the rest is quite bulky oddments for hats, but there's also the 200gm of white laceweight wool that I bought at the sheep and wool show in July (That's going to be the Gladys Shawl from Australian Yarn Art), and some Artisan laceweight that hasn't arrived here yet that goes with the Inky Dinky Spider stole pattern from Fiddlesticks Knitting. And in the next photo you can see 500gm of dk weight wool that's going to be a simple lace shawl. Haven't decided which one yet. There's also a Lucy Learn to Knit kit from Hawthorne Cottage. And finally, I'll be keeping some gadgets (including the Bond ISM, a spinning wheel and 1.2 kilos of finn wool that aren't in the photo).
That box is basically a bunch of spinning bits (lazy kate, skein winder etc, but also my knitting nancies so I can make some little people to put on hats. Sure you can make them just by knitting icord, but these are fun! :-) Am I going to run out of things to do before we move? Will homicidal boredom ensue? Stay Tuned... Come to think of it, I see a problem alreeady. I've packed Foamy and her sister (my foam wig stands) and I won't have anyone to wear any hats for photo shoots for the next 3 months! Nuts. See this perfectly normal looking moggie?
See that face, all sweetness and innocence and adorableness?
Looks quite normal, doesn't he? If you think that, you'd be very, very wrong. This is Frankenstein Blackenwight Overton, the only cat in town to have ever attended a funeral. I kid you not. My cat actually sauntered into church this weekend during a funeral, then sat in the open doorway (it was sunny outside) and listened to the the entire service. I'm thinking of hiding until the townspeople stop talking about it. At least he's not a heathen cat. He has been to church before... I really, really hope the person who's funeral it was was an animal lover... OCP (Obligatory Cat Picture)Posted by on Friday 17 June, 2005 04:07 PM Does this remind you of the game on Sesame St where you have to pick one of the things that's not like the others?
Apricot reaffirms his mohair fetish on my current spinning project. Luckily he just likes to be **near** mohair and doesn't actually do anything to it. And I promise photos of the finished yarns as soon as they're done :-) Quite Possibly the Coolest Sheep EverPosted by on Tuesday 17 May, 2005 03:01 PM And quite possibly the fruitiest cat ever!
Well, he can't be blamed with a name like Apricot, I suppose... |
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