Torso in Tassie

On Sunday I completed the torso section of my Audrey in Unst (or 'Permaculture in Tassie' as I call it).



Since I'm knitting with three balls of Dream in Colour Smooshy (delicious!!) I am alternating row by row so the colours are kept even.

I'm not sure exactly how far three skeins will get me, so rather than knitting the sleeves at this point, I will knit the button band first, the neck band and then progress to the sleeves. My plan is such that all the remaining yarn at that point can be used in the sleeves, enabling me to ration the yarn evenly between the two sleeves and knit knit knit until I run out of yarn. Whatever length of sleeves I can eke out will be just right!



For now I am very happy with how the cardi is coming along, and trying it on at this stage makes me feel I should knit some VESTS! A very handy little piece of warm knitwear, and if I were knitting a vest I would be done by now - what a quick knit vests must be!

Lovely Warm Slightly Fuzzy

This last week past I have been knitting with lovely warm, slightly fuzzy yarn, on a lovely warm slightly fuzzy project for my (you guessed it) lovely warm, slightly fuzzy Papa!

He's the coolest Dad around, and each year heads over East to the snow for a snowboarding adventure. I have knit him a beanie in the past (***) but it was a little short on his forehead, and though he wears it, it is an inside beanie, not a thrashing down the white slopes, keeping Dad's ears warm from the crisp frosty air kind of beanie.

So the race has been ON to finish the beanie before Dad flies out to the snow!

I'm basing the beanie on Jared Flood's excellent Turn A Square pattern, but with a couple of changes.

These shots are from last week and the good news is.. I've finished! FO project photos to come :)

Dip My Head in Rainbow Juice!

Finished Object! Hurrah!!


Well dip my head in rainbow juice and call me a hippy! I am thrilled with this lovely, soft, warm beanie - knit up from a combination of rainbow handspun striped with Katia black.



I simply started at the pointy red elfin knob and worked down to the necessary circumference (isn't it the easiest thing, knitting garments for yourself - you can try them on as you go!). Then I cast off over the front and back leaving live stitches for the ear flaps. The back and forth knitting on the ear flaps was a little more fiddley as I had to carry the yarn along like in fair isle work. But that makes for very snuggley warm ear flaps!



The ear flaps are finished off with some icord and then a little tassle at each tip - I'm becoming quite fond of tassles!

Unfortunately, the weather up here has turned decided warm and muggy the last few days - it seems that our quota of one cold week for winter is up! But when the cool weather returns, my rainbow juice hat and I will be ready!

Thick fluffy stripes

I have been knitting up a lacey blanket (more on that later) but found I wasn't getting enough knitting love mainly as the lace was difficult to knit in the bus on the way in to work since it's completely dark here at 5am and these roads have few street lights to knit by.

Clearly a nice simple, stockinette in the round project was required...

I had brought back the black yarn from R&R to use with the rainbow handspun for the super-fun-pointy-topped-ear-flap-with-tassles-beanie, and it didn't take long to get stuck in!



I'm now up to the stage of binding off the beanie edging and knitting the ear flaps down. The yarn looks like it will make the distance and still have some left for the tassles - hurrah!! :)

These yarns are working so well together - the textured vibrant handspun and the soft fluffy ultra thick Katia yarn I picked up when we were holidaying in Canberra - don't you love knitting with souvenir yarn?!

Nice Thick Manly Woolly Socks

My shweetie is a big fan of socks. Socks may even be his favourite item of clothing - ever! He refuses to put used socks back on even for a moment, and likes a nice, thick, woolly sock. When I first knit socks for him, I knit them out of fingering weight yarn so, while he appreciated the design and knitting skill, they were just too thin for him. So for his birthday this year I had a Plan!



I have a huge stash of heirloom 5ply yarn and decided to use it held together and knit him Nice Thick Manly Woolly Socks - but in secret!

I used a magic cast on for the toe - my favourite - and basically knit the socks on the fly, making the design as I went. I had pinched one of my Shweetie's socks from the dirty clothes basket and used that to match the dimensions of his foot! So a 3x1 rib on instep, was just the ticket to give a nice snug fit, and normal stockinette sole. I increased for the heel with M1 at each end of the heel every second round and knit a short row heel in keeping with the 3x1 rib. I then continued up the leg in stockinette but keeping two of the rib bands going all the way up for a little interest. And finally at the very top of the leg section I added a 3x1 rib :)


(excuse the awful blurry shot!)

I knit these ones right up to the line - when I finished the first sock I only had a day and a half (work days at that) left!! But I did manage to have them finished in time and gifted to my shweetie on his birthday - phew! They were VERY well received , being declared the best I have knit so far!!



I'm super happy with how they turned out, plus there's the extra warm fuzzy of knitting for true love - and nothing says 'True Love' like Nice Thick Manly Woolly hand knit birthday socks!

Cotton Drops

I cast on for another 86-10 Drops Headband straight after I finished the woolen handspun version. I loved the handspun but working up north in Australia it is TOO HOT for wool so a cotton version was required!

Using 4.5mm needles, I used some Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton yarn I purchased years ago from the lovely ladies at Knitting Inspirations. The headband took just over one ball and I found the yarn lovely to work with and entertained thoughts of maybe even a summer top from it someday?

It was a very quick knit - I followed the guidelines of the pattern but made the length a little custom by adjusting the number of rows knit before increasing. I'm finding the headband SO super comfy, and it doubles as an excellent eye-mask to keep the light out when I'm trying to sleep in on our one day off!



p.s. I have a bit of a back log of projects to post about - such as this one. I'll catch up soon hopefully!!

Hat for Harri

A ha!!


I have knit a hat for a far-off friend Harriet from some handspun and... it's in time for her birthday! What a rare accomplishment! :)



This has been knit out of the yarn I spun a few months ago from the Treetops Colour Harmony merino in Madras colourway - truly delicious in texture and vibrancy! I almost gave the yarn away to a fellow knitter as a gift, but have knit what feels like so little from my own handspun that I couldn't go through with it! And now I am giving away the finished knit! Ah well, I'm slowly getting closer to keeping some of my handspun and handknits, step by step! And this one is heading out to a very fabulous recipient.



Harriet is a friend I haven't seen for a very long time - years in fact! - so for her birthday a little bit of crazy fun happy happy love joy needs to be sent her way :) The colour scheme of Australian-Sunset-On-Acid is an added bonus ;D

I had envisaged something a bit larger, perhaps a Capucine, but realised I wouldn't have enough yarn. A quick change of plans and knitting from the top down allowed me to eke out juuuust enough yarn to add the ear warming flaps and bind off - phew!



We've had some fabulous fun and silly times together and she's such a treasured friend, I hope this keeps her nogging nice and toasty in the London winters!

Bolts Need Cosies Too!

Following in the tradition of the red and black bolt cosy I knit up for my Shweetie's birthday - I felt the other bolts would need cosies too or they'd start to feel left out!



This particular bolt cosy is for the bolt of our largest bore rifle - the Steyr .243 (Shweetie's favourite!).

I used a ball of Spotlight Basics Entwine in a nicely mottled natural sort of shade - a very thick yarn so it creates excellent padding for the bolt.



I whipped up a little lining from the black velveteen mah Shveetie chose, but I cut the piece a little too small and had to do a very thin seam allowance and.... it's come apart!! So I need to re-sew the lining, but apart from that, this little bolt is feeling very warm and fuzzy with it's new bolt cosy!

p.s. Inspired by Ann, I too am making some blog renovations - so please bear with me until I iron out all the creases!

Commissioned Colour-work

Some months ago - perhaps nearer to a year in fact - a work friend of mine from my previous job asked if I would help her on a knitting mission. Her great-grandmother and grandmother had knitted lovely christmas stockings for all members of her family, and they have always enjoyed the tradition of putting up the stockings at Christmas time and remembering the two granmotherly knitters who have now passed away. With two new people marrying into the family Mary Jo was keen for the two lads to also have a stocking each to join in the tradition.

Mary Jo is herself a knitter, but rather a novice, so when she asked me if I could be commissioned to knit the two stockings for her in the style of the originals I refused but told her I would help her to achieve the goal herself. MJ had just taken on a new and more stressful role in the company however, and when we discussed it, she was certain she would not be able to accomplish the task before christmas - so I agreed to knit them up for her.

This was my first stranded colour work project, and my first commissioned work - I loved the colourwork and will definitely be repeating that experience, the commissioned work however... not so much. Happily they're both completed now and have been hand delivered to MJ who was very appreciative.

MJ had loaned me one of the original stockings so I could style the new ones around a similar design. I simply followed my standard sock recipe but with DK (8ply) weight wool, used graph paper to sketch out the stranded design I wanted and voila! It was super fun :)

The original stockings had sequins and beads sewn on afterwards, and a little tassle at the top with a bell - I left these adornments off since that would give MJ a way to contribute to the project and tie her creative love and touch into the items.

So now they are done and delivered I feel very satisfied to have had a fair crack at colourwork, finished the items on time and had them well received... and I'm left with a bit of a festive feeling I must admit! :)