Yay! Remember the cardigan I knit for my friends’ daughter Marianne? Well, Staci has posted pictures of her modelling it! This is the best part of knitting something for someone else, seeing them wearing it and liking it.
Category: Crafts
Craft projects of mine
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Breaking Wool News!
Because I love my w-g readers more than our normal customers, you guys are the first to know. Our big winter shipment of Noro and Debbie Bliss just arrived! We’re now stocked with Kureyon, Silk Garden, Iro, Kochoran, Blossom, and a new one called “Aurora.” We’ve also got Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky (along with the Baby Cashmerino), Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon, more Eki Riva Superbaby Alpaca, Natal, and Casual, and a few other surprises as well. Crap, I should get to work putting these up on the site…
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Helen in Creative Knitting
Congrats to Helen for the capelet pattern she had published in the most recent Creative Knitting! I picked up a copy last Friday. I was most amused to read the article about “creative vandalism,” which cited the influence of the American group “Knitta” and interviewed an anonymous artist from a Sydney group. The Sydney artist sounded verrrry familiar as s/he described putting toys in random spots around town. Hmm, I wonder who that could be? *COUGH, COUGH*
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Behold the Abominable Baby!
Behold the Abominable Baby! Step back lest it bite off your face!
People knit some crazy shit for their babies, yo. I was just looking at patterns to make for the Impending Carbo (my sister’s sprog-to-be) when that image jumped out at me. Now you can have nightmares too!
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Rogue Quandary
I was just finishing off the back shoulders of Rogue tonight when I came to the short-rows. Now I’ve done short-rows before on socks, so I started “wrapping and turning” without hesitation. Then I came to a row instructing me to knit across all stitches, “picking up and hiding wraps.” Huh? That’s puzzling. I’ve never seen the expression “hiding wraps” before. I’ve had patterns tell me to pick them up and knit them together with the wrapped stitch, but I wasn’t sure if that’s what the designer was indicating here. So I went searching. Thank goodness that Google indexes PDFs! This page from Interweave’s Knitting Glossary explains it well. In fact, I also learned that my “wrapping and turning” was completely wrong! I’ve been taking the wool to the opposite side, slipping, putting the wool back, and then slipping the stitch back – but I should’ve been slipping, taking the wool to the opposite side, slipping, and then wrapping. I wonder what sort of a difference this is going to make to my short-row heeled socks in the future. Anyway, the back is officially done. I still think this thing looks small. I’ve stretched it around myself and it’s going to be a snug fit! As if I needed more weightloss inspiration.
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Felted Fortune Cookies
Random Knitting Pattern: Felted Fortune Cookies! I’m really just bookmarking this so I can remember it for the next Tapestry Craft newsletter.
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Rogue Nervousness
I’ve been knitting like a fiend all week and I’ve finished the body up to the arm holes. I’m a little nervous. It looks so small! I know my measurements were good and that it’s just that the cables are pulling in a lot, but it’s weird to knit something for myself that isn’t the size of a blanket. Also, the foldover stocking stitch hem I did seems to be curling up. Do you guys think it will block down flat? Claudia‘s looks so flat in the picture. Lastly, my row gauge was still coming out tighter – seven rows instead of six – so I worked out that I needed to add in another 14 rows to make the body the right length. Unfortunately the cable repeat is six rows… so I erred on the side of making it longer and went with three extra repeats. Now that I’ve finished it though… it looks like somehow I’ve managed to come out an inch-and-a-half too long! I’m going to leave it though. I’ve got plenty of yarn and I’m tall, so I’m going to trust that it’ll work out in the end. I’ll post a picture tomorrow.
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Sunrise
At long last, I have the footage you’ve all been waiting to see: me and the ladies from the Knitter’s Guild rockin’ it on Sunrise. Yeah, we’re like postage-stamp-size and the sound isn’t perfectly synced, but you get the idea. You can see all four clips from when they cut to us, including the final one where I get to sit next to Kochie. A massive thank you to Snookums for the editing and encoding! -
Non-Busy Business
I have had a really busy non-busy weekend. (Busy in the sense that I felt like I was on the go constantly; non-busy in the sense that I feel like I got absolutely nothing accomplished.) Friday was St. Paddy’s Day so we headed over to the Papists’ for some beer and truly excellent Irish stew. (Seriously, Major, I want the recipe.) Saturday morning I was off to Newtown for my quarterly Depo injection, at which time I realized that my new Pommy doctor is actually Sir Bob Geldof. Sir Bob wants me to have a bone density scan to make sure I’m not losing calcium from the hormones. Whatever, Bob. I also met up with Miss Jane, who lent me Miss Fee’s knitting swift and ball winder. The Snook and I then had a lot of fun figuring it out so I could turn my five skeins of Harmony (color 801 Natural) into five beautiful center-pull balls. In the afternoon I was back to Newtown for SSK where I completed my gauge swatch for Rogue. Later that night I also experimented with different knitted hems. I like the twisted stitch hem the pattern recommends, but I quickly realized it wasn’t going to work with cardiganizing the pattern (since the hem lies on the bias rather than flat). So I tried a few widths of stocking stitch and then knitting my cast-on edge up into a tube, which seems to work well. I went with eight rows and I think it’s going to look nice. I also tried out one of the side cable panels just to make sure I was understanding the symbols right. Then I actually washed my swatches and laid them out to dry. (I know! Who does that?) Checking in the morning, I’m still a tiny bit tighter than the pattern suggests – I get more like 4.75 than 4.5 stitches per inch – but I’m not knitting it any looser. It’ll block to the right size. I did manage to go on a run Sunday, thank God, because Sunday night ended up being an orgy of consumption. One of Rodd’s cousins (well, kinda) got married and we attended the reception in Pyrmont. It was the biggest, funnest, most ostentatiously Italian gathering I’ve ever been to. We drank ridiculous amounts of wine and danced to “That’s Amore!” I ate everything – in a good way. I mean that I tried absolutely everything they put in front of me. Anchovies, olives, mussels, oysters (natural and kilpatrick), nonnata (which, since I now know what it is: *shudder*!), prawns, ocean trout, EVERYTHING. As I said to Ma Snook at one point, “Did you ever think that the girl who cried because you tricked her into eating yabbie paté would be eating this stuff?” (She maintains that there was no deception involved.)
So diet-wise, yeah… It’s not going to be a good week. But I just need to write it off and get back to work, right?
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Rogue
Well, I bought the Rogue pattern. Jeez, it looks hard! The fact that it’s going to be such a challenge makes me feel less like I’m jumping on a bandwagon. Now I just have to figure out what size to make. I just measured my bust and got 39″. The pattern suggests an ease of 2-4″. My options are the finished bust size of 39″ or 43.5″. I’m almost thinking I should go the 39″. The 43.5″ would be a little baggy on me right now as it is, and I figure my bust is only going to shrink as I lose these last couple of kilos. I could easily lose another inch or two off that measurement. Besides, every sweater I’ve knit for myself has come out enormous. It’s time that I actually knit something fitted. Thoughts?