Back to Blocking

I got a little ahead of myself there in all the excitement of a finished lace project! So now I'll take a step back and document the blocking process!!

After soaking the shawl I squeeeezed out the excess water, did the traditional towel-stomp and carefully threaded my metal rods through the top eyelets. I prefer the metal rods for any straight parts of the shawl - stops that annoying scalloping that is evident no matter how many pins you use!

It's so handy having a spare mattress, my very own 'blocking board' to transform from the above photo, to below!

Tada!!

Always such a 'ta da!' moment blocking, isn't it? It's like magic!! I love the opportunity to get right up close and take juicy macro shots of the stitches, all taut and lacey!

And those 'batman peaks' at the tips are one of my favourite elements of a triangular shawl *grin* So fantastical and pointy!

I realised I didn't include a picture in the FO post to give an idea of scale, so here's one for the road :) It's turned out just the right size. If I hadn't added an extra repeat I think I would have been disappointed with the size - too small. But this is juuuust right!

And I still have some yarn left over! Perhaps a little kerchief or some such? hmmm....

Dandylions

Several weeks ago (as you konw from my somewhat teasing swatch post earlier!) I got my spin on with some Spunky Eclectic Fibre Club I'd kept hoarded away for some months now - the Dandylions colourway- gorgeous!

Inspired by the spinning antics of Faith the Knitting Cook, I decided to get a little more interactive with the fibre rather than just spinning straight from the pre-prepared cooshy ball of loveliness.

I had wanted to make a Baby Surprise Jacket (ha! what was I thinking! It would have had to be TINY forthe amount of fibre I had!) so I separated the fibre into colour sections to be able to control the striping a bit better.

From there I spun up the singles following a gradual but not too scientific colour repeat.

I went over the one bobbin, but that gave me the chance to wind off one skein (on that handy ps3 niddy noddy!) while the other rested. I love how theskein goes all curly wurly when you release it from the niddy noddy - sproing!

But after a soak and a good hang in the bathroom to set the twist the skein was a lot better behaved :) You can see the other bobbin still on the wheel.

A nice little skein of Dandylion singles!

As you can see the singles weren't very even, I was feeling pretty relaxed and unstudied as I spun the danydions up I must admit! All the same I found myself quite determined to record all the details after completeing the spinning!

I recorded the yardage when I was widing the skein, I wound the yarn around a ruler to check the WPI (wraps per inch - a way to determine the 'weight' or thickness of the yarn) and even whipped out the tiny accurate scales to measure final weight!

Of course, now that I'm actually documenting the process I can't find where I wrote the yardage.. and thought I weighed that first skein I haven't gotten around the weighing the second one... I CAN tell youthough, although again, somewhat vaguely.. that it ended up being around a fingering weight - but very changeable as it is SO thick and thin!

I quickly realised that a BSJacket would not be an option so amended my plans and have been knitting up a little something that still using the striping of the yarn to its advantage. In fact.. only a few ends to weave in and little tails to do up and I can tell all about the project too!

Wisteria Basket Shawl

I am delighted to present my second lace shawl, knit for my maternal Gran, a fellow knitter!

Gran has always loved nature, flowers and plants in particular. She worked for a time as a volunteer in Kings Park giving tours and educating people on the native flora abundant in the gardens.

So it was an easy choice of shawl for her - the Flower Basket Shawl of course!

The colour choice was also easy, after a little consultation with my lovely Mama =) Gran and Grandad have had, for as long as I can remember, a fantastically huge wisteria vine growing in abundance over their back patio. Masses of blue and purple flowers would fill the sky, wafting down to the paving to land like snow adrift on the floor. This has always been one of my favourite memories of Gran and Grandad's house, and the colours are Gran's favourite too! Perfect!

I purchased the skein of 'Seabreeze' laceweight (2 ply) merino from Daphne at The Knittery some time ago, and started the shawl this Januray, holding the yarn doubled (from inside and outside of the yarn cake) so as to work as a fingering weight (4 ply). This also helped in the colour pooling stakes - I didn't want the splashes of colour to detract form the lace patterning, so holding the two strands together was perfect as mostlmy one strand was at a different shade than the other giving a nice mottled affect. I chose 5.5mm needles as I wanted very open lace work.

I'm very glad I added an extra repeat of the flower baskets - it would have been tiny without that! I also added in a garter stitch row (i.e knit the purl row) before binding off, in an attempt to stop any curling- I can't remember where I read this hot tip, but 'thank-you!' to whichever blogger it was! :)

I'm VERY happy with how it's turned out and can hardly wait to gift it to my Gran =) As far as I konw she's unaware I've been knitting it for her, so it should be an awesome surprise! It was Gran who first taught me toknit back when I was about 8 or so, having a weekend sleep over with one of my cousins at Gran and Grandad's. Gran had a little kit for us both of needles and a few colours of wool, we burned through the wool provided so then Gran plucked out some colours from her stash for us to continue with. We had to ask Gran to change colours for us when we wanted to get a new colour going, but we knit on and on and on with our little scarves that weekend! I still have mine somewhere, a little bit holey and with some intersting bumps on the side where I got a little creative with increasing and decreasing! I didn't keep on with the knitting as that stage, but have very fond memories of my first initiation into the knittiverse and Gran's part in that :)

Whhheeeeeeeee!!!

The Flower Basket Shawl is officially off the needles!!!

Whheeeeee!!!

It is now having a nice relaxing soak before blocking - how exciting! =D

Dad's Hiking Socks!

HURRAH!!

I have finished Dad's socks! *beams*

Chilli helped Dad model the socks - see how enthusiastic she is?

These had been languishing on the needles for some time, but after giving them some serious dedication they were finished in no time! Yay! =)

I found the Lana Grossa Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch nice to work with, although a little easy to split at times (general knitting was fine but for doing increases etc..) due to the multiple colour ply and springiness of the twist! But of course the coloured plies are what gives this yarn such a gorgeous colour transition, and the springiness gives the finished fabric sucha nice bounce factor! Perfect for lots of walking!

Dad was delighted with his socks, as he's been aware of their creation since Christmas time and has seen the first sock come off the needles and as such has watched their journey from yarn to object! He was very excited when I brandished them for him and tried them on immediately (even though lunch was on the table going cold!) with such glee! He then said he needed to test them, and did a little sashay around the room, flicking his feet out as he walked! Heheee!! John Cleese would be proudof such a silly walk! =D

Two warm sets of tootsies!

The results from the sashay came in a resounding success! Great fit, perfect height and excellent coloura - hurrah!! I actualy think one of the socks ended up a little longer in the foot than the other - how that happened I don't know, since I check and rechekced measurements so often! But nevermind, Dad said it'll be perfect to tell the left sock from the right sock - as one of his feet (like mine!) is ever-so-slightly larger than the other! Yaaay!!

So all in all a very positive (if somewhat tardy!) sock knitting expedition! Plus, now that I've found out that the Mega Boots yarn is machine washable Dad's even taking them away on holiday with him! They shall be very well travelled socks indeed =)

Sunshiney days

How lovely to sit out in the sunshine with the shweetie and knit lace.

Blissful weekend behaviour!

Dr Who Woes

Oh dear!!

My lovely friend Binkett sent me this link to some recent Dr Who fan knitting drama!

Bink's not a knitter but always keeps a finger on the pulse for me for all things fibre! Thanks Bon! *huggings*

Spoils from across the globe

Within two days of each other I have received two special and touching parcels from friends overseas - friends who I have in fact never met!

As some of you, fair readers, may be aware I take part in voice acting and general mischief on Sage Tyrtle's podcast QN (formerly Quirky Nomads). Through this involvement Sagish and I have become very good friends, bosom buddies if you will *grin* we share the same sense of humour and find the same pictures/comments/issues hilarious/unusual/apalling.

Since around Christmas time we had both been dropping hints (albeit less than subtle!) that we were crafting something for each other. Sadly my craft endeavours fell to the side with the onslaught of Christmas, but that has turned outto be for the best as now I am creating an ever MORE fantabulous craft surprise *wicked grin and cackle*

Sage told me her parcel had been sent from far off Toronto and we both waited.. and waited.. like small children jumping on the spot and bursting out of our skin with excitement. At last the parcel arrived!

Sage is a mistress of crochet and can bend most any corchet task to her impressive will. She has created for me a stunning bag that I am so blown away by.

The woman and the tree


The swing and the roots


The stunning base, free hand crochet!

FREE HAND people!

Then a mere day later I checked the PO box and found an exciting striped note from the postal folks saying 'URGENT! See inside for pick up!' Pick up.. I thought... hmmmm, I wonder if za shveetie has ordered something from e-bay that's been delivered... little did I know it was the generous and magnificent gift from Bekk of Bowerbird Knits, waiting for me inside!!

I knew the parcel would arrive at some point but had one of those delicious moments where I had forgotten it was on its way, so picking it up was such a delight! Bekk and I have become friends in fact through Sage. I first encountered her loveliness when I was judging the Australian accents on a Quirky Quiz Sage did, and Bekk was a contestant! Since then it has been laughter, shared knitting (and spinning) tips, advice and general friendly hilarity at 'Tea-Time' (which I sorely miss since lately I've not been able to get to Skype in time to join in!)

I'm constantly in awe and wonder at the yarns Bekk spins up. They are so even, so beautiful and spun with such impressive techniques - how does she do it!

Care of Rebekkah's flickr set

Such an inspiration to this poor unpracticed spinner!! So imagine my delight when Bekk asked if I would give a good home to a skein of her handspun!

Happy Rainbow Handpsun Merino

Oh. My. GOODNESS!!

Look at those COLOURS!

I feel so grateful and so touched by the generosity of friends, and friends so far afield who I've never been able to hug, or grin at, spend the day with or whisper with conspirationally. Thank you SO much Bekk and Sagish Rabbit :) I hope I can return the favour and be a like friend to you both *snuggly hug*

Some things pretty

For the next two weeks I'm NannySash! The gaurdian, sitter, cuddler and life-teacher to Jolene's gorgeous little 7 month old bubbler. Well, it feels like that's my job description!

We spend the day together encountering the world and all its delights and surprises - the switch above the couch that she can just reach that turns the light on above her, the lawn in the back yard, all the things we see on our walk around the neighbourhood and above all... my YARN!

Beautiful (yet considered "weeds") flowers we found on our walk - they carpetted the park

We were sitting out the back on some blankets I'd put out over the lawn and I would knit intermittently while she played about sitting up, standing, tumbling, crawling, playing with the blanket edging etc.. when she discovered the bright green strand of yarn coming from what I was holding her face lit up and she made a bee line for it!

(Stunning colours and markings - like butterfly flowers)

She pulled the strand til it was quite long and then tangled herself up in it quite nice - I would disentangle her and take a bit more yarn for me to use, leaving the looseball-end with her to play.. then she discovered the BALL of yarn! Well! She gazed at it in amazement and held it aloft! Then of course it was the "I'm going to eat you" game and I had to rescue the yarn! I think we can safely say she wil be a yarn addict just like her mama!!

The yarn she so adored is the handpsun I promised to speak of - but still haven't, ack! I promise photos and details soon! In anycase, I managed to eke out half a swatch while we were sitting outside together and it's looking good!

(swatch beginnings)

I love how the stitches are made irregular in size and 'poofiness' by the handspun's changes in width!

I've recently started working one day a week in the metal trades industry, to get a feel for that environment for when the Shveetie and I get work away. I decided on my second week there that everyone could use some homebaked loveliness, this time in the form of vanillabutter cream cupcakes!

They were a big hit with the lads (I'm the only woman and, unsurprisingly given the context, only knitter too!) who got stuck in, but notably avoided the purple ones - Ha!!

To be honest I picked the colours because last week when Jolene and I were crusing around spotlight I saw some yarn in colours that spoke to me - bright orange, purple, green... stunning. But alas, I cannot go spending willy-nilly at the moment, and even more annoyingly I had pegged the yarn for a french market bag (the colours would be fantastic in stripes together) but alas! The yarn is superwash!! But neverind, I will simply have to adjust my plans for those colours into some other item where superwash is a good thing, and then wait til I have the fund to indulge!

Okay, I'm off to prepare for another baby day!! I must do my stretches and warm up - don't want to pull a muscle with all that cuddling!

Mistwist!

This is what happens when I talk too much and too excitedly at knitting group!

Oh noes!
The cable on the left should be leaning to the LEFT at the top there, not to the right like the cable with the stitch marker!

Nevermind, this was at knitting group a few weeks ago so I've since dropped those stitches down and fixed the mistwist in the cable! I'm enjoying having the confidence now to drop those stitches down that need fixing, rather than having to tink back however many rows to get to the problem area.

(excuse the dodgy blurry photo - it was evening and hard to take a nice one without flash)

Our new toy!

After much ogling and saving we've at last added a new toy to our playtime! A ps3!

Initially we were less than impressed by what we'd seen and heard of the ps3 and the sneaky marketting sony used, but I can say that having one in our home now we've discovered all the benefits and shiny goodness to be had!

I think Sony have missed out on one element of their marketting though... nowhere on the packaging does sony extol the virtues of the ps3 box as a niddy noddy!!

And yet look how useful it is for skeining handspun yarn!!

THe new toy has, admittedly, taken up more hours of our time than it should, but we're putting that down to initial excitement and a 'getting-to-know-you' phase ;) I'm sure we will soon return to going outside, eating real food and talking to other humans. In fact in a few hours we're doing all of those things by heading out to a fabulous Mothers' Day picnic! Hurrah!

p.s. more on that handspun next post!

Here it goes again...

After only just settling in and finally unpacking and sorting out the last of our gear (I know it's been 12 months but the shveetie was away for half of that so we didn't get a chance to organise everything completely).. we have to move again!!

The property we currently rent is being subdivided, so we're on the hunt for another place again! I'm so looking forward to a few years' time when we can invest in our own place and not have to move for MANY years!! But for now.. the positive side is that we might get a place that has a lounge room set up commensurate with setting up our surround sound, an opportunity to hopefully land a non-cranky real estate agent, and of course, the move is encouraging us to minimise our hoarded goodies!

For example, last week I parted company with this lovely shiny treasure...

my drum kit!

I haven't used it for over a year, and it takes up SO much room, even when it's packed up in all the cases. Plus moving money is MUCH easier than moving stuff, so it was time to say goodbye to my kit, which I'm fine with :)

I'm gradually learning to relinquish my death-like grip on material objects. A lot of the things I hoard have sentimental value, so they're of course harder to part with. But I'm getting there slowly, learning that I can keep the memory even if I move on from the object itself.

So wish us luck in finding a FABULOUS place and having a smooth and easy move ahead of us!

A Mosey Mishap

Remember when I knit the charming Verity beret, and I got on to the band section and completely misread the pattern? I thought one of the lines of text was telling me to DO something, instead of just generally explaining, so I DID something, then when I got to the rest of the pattern nothing made sense and I totally confused myself?

Well. The case of the misinterpreted pattern has happened AGAIN!

This time it was the poor sweet Moseys that were struck down by my ineptitude to clearly interpret a pattern. So I'm cruising along with the 2x2 rib then I read the line :

"Eyelet Round: Work 24 sts in pattern, k2tog, yo, p2, yo, k2tog, continue in pattern to end."

So what MY mind thought that meant was to do the 2x2 rib for 24 stitches then work "k2tog, yo, p2, yo, k2tog" as a pattern for the rest of the round. But of course repeating that exact segment doesn't make sense so I adjusted a little so it would fit, thinking I had read it wrong or couldn'tunderstand so must adapt, and off I went.

After finishing the eyelet round *sigh* I went on to continue the 2x2 rib and am now at the 7-inches-out-of-9 point.

So long and ribby!

I was SO excited, Mosey was FLYING off the needles! I had even sewn in the ends and ball joins as I went along. But then.. then I looked at it and wondered how the eyelets would be covered. They're at the 3 inch mark, that won't be hidden underneath the fold over rib cuff... if the eyelets were at the 6 inch mark they would but.. hmmm..

The woven in end, waiting to be trimmed...

So I pitted my clearly tired or wandering brain power at it, looked over ravelry for anyone else exclaiming "oh no! There's an error in the pattern!" and sure enough - no one. So... then I figured it out.

Why oh WHY did I choose to take "pattern" in the first half of the sentence to mean 2x2 rib but then conveniently FORGET about that when I reached the word "pattern" at the end of the sentence! Gah!!

Nevermind, at least I have it worked out now :) And the fabulous Susan Power was NOT mistaken in her writing of this magnificient little pattern! So now I must frog out the 5 inches or so of ribbing to get back down and mend that eyelet row!

Wish me luck and better comprehension in the future!

Brought to you by Fail Dogs . com

Another one that will brighten anyone's day...

The little pup's expression is absolutely priceless!
( faildogs.com, the offshoot of failblog.wordpress.com )

sqwirrrrrrrl !

Oh. My. GOODNESS!

Cute Overload has completely made my day *beams*

harrumph...

Things are feeling a little stressful today - it's times like these I try to focus on the loveliness around me, like my knitting - soft and soothing, and the creakingly bendingly well laden chilli plants in the garden

Mosey on down!

Don't you looove when you find a pattern and it leaps upon you with much fervour and love and you simply cannot be apart from it for any amount of time!??!

I have found one of those knits!
Mosey!

The other day as I was cruising about Ravelry, I saw someone's fabulous FO of Mosey by Susan Power! And now I want Moseys tooo! I NEEEEEEED Moseys!!

So I've cast on! Hurrah for spontaneous knits! I've been knitting away very diligently lately on gift knits and such, and think this will be SUCH a nice treat to knit up a little something (or two, hopefully!!) for myself :) I'm anticipating a quick knit, as I'm kntting with 12ply so that will be very nice!

I'll post pictures as soon as I've got some substantial progress going on *beams* hurrah! Now I'm back to the couch to keep knitting!

The Monkey Pup Mohawk

The first fibrey delight I must update my forlorn and neglected blog with is a super fun beanie I knit up for the Monkey Pup while he was here!

Monkey Pup Mohawk

I wanted to knit him something for a while now and since he was super keen to get his hair cut into a 'hawk when we saw him a while ago, I thought the Mohawk Hat beanie would be very appropriate! I began by following the instructions for the Mohawk Hat from Domiknitrix as I liked the design of the close fitting skull cap base with the curve to the nape of the neck. As I went along, however, I found the instructions just didn't work with my understanding of patterns! I found it very difficult to follow and in the end, with the Widow's Peak band and part of the first gusset done I abandoned the pattern.

I decided instead to simply knit a black beanie custom fit to the Monkey Pup's noggin, then attach the mohawk flair afterwards! Brilliant! I soared through the beanie and had it finished while we were off camping on the weekend - nothing like sitting by the campfire surrounded by gorgeous bush, a canopy of stars above, marshmallows toasting and knitting away!

When I first was knitting away at the Domiknitrix pattern Monkey Pup asked me what I was knitting "A little something for you!" I replied. "Really?!" he said, "What is it!?!" with much excitement. I told him that it's a surprise and I couldn't give it away, that would be telling! He paused for a second and said "A beanie!" Clever little monkey got it right first time! And it wasn't even LOOKING like a beanie yet, it was the top strip for the crown of the head! hehee So I told him delightedly that he was spot on, but there was a twist at the end that would make it a very special sort of beanie.

I had initially bought a skein of Amaroso Malabrigo Worsted from Yarn and Kisses to use as the mohawk hair, as when we last saw the Scamp his favourite colour was red! Not so anymore! When we were doing something or other when he first arrived, he saw something green and exclaimed, "My favourite colour!!" And I thought "oh deeear!" I know I could have gone ahead with the red mohawk and he would have been thrilled with it all the same, but I also had those 6 skeins of Apple Green (ACID apple green!) malabrigo sitting in my stash earmarked for Ester... maybe I could just use one of those skeins and restock the missing skein later... After discussions with stylist Skoot we decided to go with the green!

As others have said before, the hooking in of all the mohawk hair took longer than knitting up the beanie itself! Gah!! But it became quite addictive and it was done sooner than I thought, particularly since I made the 'hawk band so wide.

Monkey Pup's new 'hawk

Monkey Pup LUFFS his new Mohawk and went a bit crazy dancing in front of the mirror when he first put it on and saw himself in it! So awesome!! *beams* I asked him to pull a 'tough punk' face when I took the shots - I think he's got the part!

My only after thought is that I would have preferred to use machine-washable yarns, and will take care to do so for future kid-knits, for practicality and durability. All the same, the black will hide most grot (and I can tell you, Monkey Pup certainly attracts the grot!) and if the green 'hawk gets a bit matted and dreaded it'll just look all the more hardcore *grin*

I'm looking forward to many more Monkey Pup creations in the future! I just hope I can keep up with his growth rate!