No Time to Blog!

We're in the SNOW and there's too much of this...



..going on!!

Toasty Moasty

I finally took some half decent shots of my Toasts!
It's remarkably difficult to take photos of one's own hands and forearms, however, even with a timer release...



I love LOVE these and wear them almost every day.
Perfect to keep my arms warm as if I'm wearing a jumper when really I'm not.
They're becoming more and more pilled from constant use and adoration, but are no less snuggly, warm or soft because of that - and with a quick de-pilling they'll be as good as new ;)

Crofters Crown

The beginnings of my Crofters Cowl in luscious malabrigo worsted-ness glory



I LUFF that it begins as a wee crown :)

Cowlibrigo

My goodness what a neglectful blogger I have been...
My only excuse is that it's so very hard to get decent internet access up here - in the morning we're scrambling to get ready for work, at work it's flat out and at knock off time when everyone descends upon the camp en masse the internet gets so choked up it's unusable!

So since I now have an opportunity to at last give an update - I'll waste no more time in excuses and simply get on to the GOOD sutff- the KNITTING stuff ;)

No posts certainly hasn't meant no action - I've been tarrying away on a few knits including the fabulous malabrigo cowls ready for snowboarding in... 2 weeks! :D

I wound up the luscious buttery softness of the malabrigo - the Pearl Ten really is a unique mixture of brown, grey and even the slightest tinge of purple - like the opalescent glimmer of purple in a duck or raven's feathers.



This next shot is an appalling representation of colour - ignore the shade completely! I took this photo at sunset and the no-flash camera and sunset combined give a truly inaccurate shade!



It does give an idea of how the cowl has come together though. Fully completed and very well received, the checkers work really well and show quite distinctly. The checkers were in repeats of 12 stitches, and I think I cast on 96 . To get the most snuggly height of cowl combined with that width I used almost an ENTIRE SKEIN! Mental, I know o.O

On to my own lovely Mmmmalabrigo cowl now and I'm loving it so far - just look at that ORANGE!


I'm still a huge fan of the these cowl colours together:



Maybe I'll have enough left over to combine to two in a matching hat or beret...?

Knit the City

Three great 'Huzzah's of congratulations and exultations to the Knit the City crew for this fabulous "yarnstorming"

(Follow this link!)

Most magnificent :D

Would You Like To Try?

An avid listener of Stash & Burn, I was cruising through the podcast's Ravelry boards a little while ago and ended up looking at the 'Would You Like to Try' posts. My GOODNESS what a fantastic idea!!

The lovely Kathy (Curlyknits) agreed to post the samples I was interested in, despite my being overseas, and without delay they arrived!



The Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn was swiftly utlised for a Dream Swatch Headband which I have since finished but have yet to take a good FO photo of.

I very much enjoyed using the yarn with it's tight twist, lovely hand and amazing colours. No wonder it's so addictive to people who see it in person!

Similarly addictive and perhaps even more etched onto my desires for stash enhancement, is Manos del Uruguay...

Oh so heavenly delicious.. I managed to knit up a rectangular swatch that might just do as another stubby holder beer cosy - I would so very much like if it does as I'd then be able to have the gorgeous tones of this Manos around me every evening as I unwind from work!

I can feel a few purchases creeping up on me after this wonderful tasting experience...

If you've always wanted to try a particular yarn I highly recommend the Would You Like To Try board - I'll definitely be ferreting through my stash for oddbods to put up there on offer too!

Skoot and I have booked an extremely exciting trip... we're going to the snow!
We'll be heading over East to the snow ad are both SO excited! Those of you from snowy northern hemispehere climes might not fathom it, but Skoot has never been in snow. My snow experience comes from a winter spent in Switzerland, but I was 12 so my skiing and such was limited and, well.. rather clusy to be honest, but I don't think that changes with age!! So we can hardly contain ourselves - imagining all the adventures we'll have, the snowboarding, the snowman building, the crunching around through drifts of snow...

So in anticipation of the snowy weather I decided to knit up a cowl each for Shweetie and I. Quick smart I ordered some delicious Malabrgo from wonderful Yarn and Kisses and VOILA! Magic delivery of two fabulously soft and sumptuous skins in no time!!


Complete with a little note and goodie! Feel very spoilt :)

So we chose Pearl Ten for the Shweetie - a nice grey/brown kind of colour


and I could NOT go past the vibrant amazing Glazed Carrot - YUM!


I love LOVE this colour, I'm on such an orange binge at the moment!

In contrast to the weather they're intended for - the colours tone in very wil with this Pibara sunset I captured the other day, don't you think?

Thermis Wenchis!

I finished this cowl a little while ago back in May but had some reservations about it - basically it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. It's still workable and lovely and I'm still posting it off to my lovely friend for whom it's intended - but it's that sort of uneasy mild disappointment you feel when you imagine how something will be and it doesn't turn out that way. There might not be anything wrong with what DOES result, but since it's different than you imagined, it's hard to accept it entirely.



Knit with yarn I bought a long while ago when I was a very new knitter - handspun from the Yarn Wench - I accidentally cast on with a twist when I had intended it to be Thermis (non ralvelry link), I stuck with the moebius style as it would add a different design interest. Unfortunately it turned out a little too large to work as a cowl exactly, more like a neckwarmer.

Luckily the good friend I'm sending it to is a dab hand at the sewing machine, so she might add some buttons or change it up somehow to better suit what she would like for it to be.



I'm posting this off with TumTum the hippo - I always seem to spoil the little ones more than their mums and dads - well, now there's finally something more than a dishcloth knit for Zo!

p.s. sorry for the terrible photos! So hard to get photos in good light at the moment with long hours and early sunsets!

It's Showering Baby Knits!

Well! Do I have a parade of baby knits for YOU! I certainly do, let me warn you..

This R&R past I as able to catch up with a gorgeous close friend of mine and her edible little man Tom (aka Tomatoe).

I had knit the presto Chango cardigan for him a while back, but hadn't until that day been able to find buttons for it - so it is now all trim and button-able and even has a wonderful little person inside!

I'm very happy with the buttons despite feeling very uninspired at the giant craft store - pacing up and down the button section desperately picking up buttons and holding them against the lace panel, putting them back, plucking another sheet of buttons, putting them back..

These are little plastic buttons - not the wonderful wood or (humanely made) antler I had envisioned, but I think they're fantastic :) They shimmer ever-so-slightly, like mother of pearl and have turned out to be just the right colour to match the Malabrigo Cotton.

What a sweet heart!

The little booties, well ok not-so-little booties (!!) I knit up a short while ago - Blue Steps - with some left over Bernat cotton (which I found lovely to work with) were also gifted to Lizza and her little man. They're MUCH too big for him now and we giggled over the size, but they'll fit him perhaps between 1-2 years and be nice little slippers - good to prepare for the future, eh? ;P


Finally, the showering of knitted goods finished with two wee beanies - one I knit up on the fly, an Elfin Sprout beanie which reminds me of growing beanstalks

And the square tea-cosy crown style baby hat I knit up from some random pure wool yarn I had about - this one spent much more time hibernating than on the needles!!


So all in all I'm very happy with all those little knits and how they have turned out. Sir Tomatoe and his mama were equally delighted which made we even more thrilled! Mama Lizza has since told me that Tomatoe has worn his cardi and beanies almost continuously since they were bestowed - Hurrah!! Music to a knitter's ears!!

Stranded Bolt Cosy!

Whooops! I knit this little number up months ago and forgot to post about it!

So without further delay - I present to you Stranded Bolt Cosy!

Skoot and I both have gun licences and rifles (a controversial issue guns, isn't it?!) which we adore, and part and parcel of owning firearms are the rigourous safety and security controls.

A gun safe, a lock box, a separate ammunition case and so on and so on.. It's not compulsory, but we store the bolts separately to the rifles themselves. If you're not familiar with how a rifle works - without the bolt the worst you can do with a rifle is whack someone over the head with it. Removing the bolt turns a fire stick into just.. a stick.

But it's important to keep the bolts nice and cosy, safe and unscratched - enter the bolt cosy!

I knit this one up as a strip of stranded knitting in Shweetie's favourite colours (this one is for his .22) with a funny elbow in it to create the flap. Then with trusty Edward Sir Sewing Machine I attached some polar fleece lining and sewed it up!

I must admit my sewing leaves a little to be desired.. but it was quite diffiuclt sewing such a thick wad of fabric with the regular foot (I must get more familiar with my sewing machine so I can swap between feet and use all the fabulous features).

The bolt cosy is a huge success and I definitely see some more in mu future :)

Glimpse of Rainbow

We flew in for R&R and have been enjoying stormy weather, sheets of rain and grey-white skies which has been DELICIOUS! Every now and then there has been a glimpse of rainbow here and there amongst the clouds, or tidied away in the corner of the sky somewhere.

The Lace Ribbon scarf just wasn't working for this yarn - it looked fantastic but was too fiddly a knit to do socially, but not complex enough to engage my attention on its own, so that pattern is put on the backburner for a thicker yarn at another time.

I'm so in love with the new incarnation of this yarn - into a lovely triangular scarf/shawlette - a style and amazingly wearable knit that I've come to adore. It's knitting up fabulously so far, and I'll be able to truly enjoy the wonderful handspun every moment it's snuggled up against my neck, draped over a shoulder and casting little glimpses of rainbow where ever I go.

Jane Austen... now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem!

Ohmigoodness... I am SO excited!

Not so surprising I know since that seems to be my standard state, but still this is VERY fun!

I caught up with my lovely friend Bink yesterday and was gifted a most marvellous book...

Now I admit the cover is a little confronting... both Bink and I have to turn the book over when it sits on the ngiht stand.. but it is a MOST hilarious and fabulous read!

Based heavily on the original works of Pride & Prejudice, the new co-author has amended parts of the book, while staying perfectly in sync with Jane Austen's writing style, to incorporate a society beset by plagues of the undead!! hehee!

Tumtum

I have at last put the finishing touches to little TumTum, the hippo knit from yarn dyed by Jolly Jumbuck and one of Ana Hrachovec's fabulous patterns.

In the end it was only attaching the little limbs that held me back, and the embroidery of nostrils and eyes. I've attached the little legs and arms as best as I could - here's hoping they're secure enoguh to withstand the tugs and playfulness of the little boy TumTum is destined for!

TumTum's first true love, however, will always be Bread...
After the final black and white of his peepers was complete I put him down and went to brush my teeth before bed. When I came back look what I found;



Inter-plushie snuggling!!

I wish them all the happiness in the world, and hope their long distance relationship (once Tumtum begins his travels over to my friend's little boy) has the strength to endure - I think it will, just look at the adoring way Bread looks up at Tumtum... awwww!

HOT!

I don't think I've ever finished something that has felt so fast, so soft and so fun to knit!

We had a Pajama Party this Friday night (One day off every fortnight so we tend to go a bit mental!) and since my 'jamies aren't very pajamaic I decided I should whip up a long stocking style knitted beanie.

I had two skeins of malabrigo worsted, skeins I had brought with me with the intention of having them available for new knitters to knit with. Well that went out the window as soon as they started ordering from the 'net and I decided they could fend for themselves in the big world of yarn purchases, and was SO excited about the colour combo of neon lime with vivid blue/purple - declared by all to be 'HOT', and so the beanie was conceived.



I checked out a few on Ravelry to see if there was a pattern I'd like to follow, and though I found a few, I ended up just casting on and winging it, decreasing where I felt necessary and trucking along very nicely.

I debated in depth before casting on to decide what type of stripes...

Rev 0 : Too Cat In The Hat
Rev 1 : Random stripes, some thick some thin, possibley use kissmyshadow.com random stripe generator
Rev 2 : Little regular thin stripes - give a more sleepy look?

In the end I started with the random striping but decided that a single row pinstripe between two bands of 3 row contrast colour looked amazing, so I kept on with that pattern. A good 6 inches or so of plain blue/purple 2x2 rib at the start so I can fold the band back for a nice snug fit.



I am in LUFF with the finished outcome! I attached the pompom (yay! another pompom!) last night (yes..I did miss the party..) and only took it off when it got a little too toasty under that soft squishy merino warmth!



Excuse the terrible photo - late at night but I didn't want to use flash, so it's all a little blurry and shaky I'm afraid - but I couldn't resist sharing it!

It may not be the most practical of hats, but I'm smitten, and planning to take it with us snowboarding this season too! Hurrah! :D

Sharing the Joy!

Knitting, craft and general creativity would have to be up there amongst the things in life that bring most joy to my life. Friends, family, love, music, colour.... knitting

So I'm thrilled so many people up here show interest too - some even interested enough to learn! I told you earlier of Michelle who has taken up the sticks and is now leaving a burning wake of red-hot knitting in her wake - truly this girl is a prodigy! So good natured, a great student and such a good friend - happily Shell is now on Ravelry too! Look her up as 'MissMichelle' if you'd like to see her creations. Knitting for less than two weeks and she's already finished a fabulous scarf (Scrunchable Scarf), headband (Dream Swatch) and is now casting on for a beanie and shrug!

Another two of my colleagues wanted to learn so we held a little Knit Knite at my rooms and soon Emma and Steph were clicking away!



Advice given, orders were palced and the girls have had yarn arriving at camp to cast on tehir own first projects. It is SUCH fun to have a little posse of knitters up here now!!

We planned to have a bit of a get together and Represent for World Wide Knit in Public day yesterday... but I was a little disenchated to start with. This is how it looked for the first hour...



But soon a couple of the girls arrived and all was well - a few couldn't make it, and I didn't end up putting all the signs and such out that I had planned to - but that's ok :)



We were in a very open public spot, where all most camp-dwellers walk past, and every person who cruised past had a good squiz at what we were doing - many stopping to chat or ask questions... mission accomplished!

I didn't get much knitting done at all, since most of my time was spent guiding and helping out and detangling Em's diabolical Noro Cash Iroha mess! Gah!



The girl has taste though, first yarn she buys is cashmere and silk! Would have been helpful if I'd remembered to tell her to wait for the swift and winder before casting on.... ah well, all untangled now and ready to roll :)

I've a few FOs to share, but will save them for next time - I've got to get my needles clicking to keep up with these whipper-snapper new recruits!

Parcel goodies!

I have had two fun and exciting parcels arrive over the last couple of days - both knitting related!

First of all was Volume 1 of Berocco's Norah Gaughan series. I already have volumes 2 & 3 but Vol 1 was the issue I was hankering after most, so I'm delighted to add it to my collection!

The other goodies that arrived were squishy, firm and delicious... three cannon balls of black Luxury from Bendigo Woollen Mills - hurrah!

I ordered these to knit up the Eyelet Front Vest . I've been ogling this pattern for a while and finally decided to take the plunge. It will be a great little number for our up'n'coming snow trip, something I can wear inside after a day's snowboarding when it's toasty in the cabin but still chilly enough to layer. The stylish lacey fronts and back of neck will make it a nice classy number to wear, and also super fun to knit! I love the look of the construction - the fronts are knit back and forth from hem to neck rather than side to side.

I know I seem to have broken my restraint by ordering these lovely squooshy cannon balls, but I'd ordered them before that post, and think it was a frugal and well thoguh tout decision, not an emotionally -fuelld impulse purchase! Plus, the fabulously good value yarn will allow me to knit up an actual garment! Hurrah!

Restraint?

It has been a BATTLE the last couple of days!
Since sending my lovely friends - the new knit recruits! - over to Morris & Sons and seeing the awesome yarns on sale.... I was so tempted....
SO so tempted...

See, I've made the resolution to knit more garments - items I can actually wear, rather than neck-fodder and accessories which, while lovely, I have so many. But my stash is almost completely made up of individual balls and skeins - nothing I can put together for a whole garment!



So I'm stuck between wanting to knit more satisfying projects but not wanting to increase my stash (sitting on the stash suitcase to shut it was a bit of an eye opener)
But this sale.. this fabulous sale and this awesome yarn.. It presents an opportunity I keep thinking...

I looked yesterday..
And I look again today..
I even calculated what I'd need to knit up a little bolero out of the Noro Cash Iroha - around $40 worth of yarn, totally delish, cashmere, silk, wool etc...
Plus today is an allowance day so I have money right there in my account! (We allow ourselves a certain amount of "free" spending money in our budget each week)

Then I looked at my queue of knitting projects...
And there will always be yarn! ALWAYS!
So I don't need to snaffle it all up now, sale or not.
I have my new black yarn from Bendigo just arrived to knit the Eyelet Front Vest
And I have my fabulous silk alpaca to knit a fantastic giant Laminaria shawl
And my baby alpaca to knit up a Whisper Cardi
So. No more projects required.
NO MORE YARN REQUIRED!!

This is hard.
But it's good to practise restraint now and then.
I think..

My first pompom in a decade!

Stage 1...

All wrapped and plump like a fibrey donut!

Stage 2...

Snippity Snip...

Stage 3 - complete!


For a work mate to put on her beanie - it's getting super frosty up here at the moment so the folks in the field are cracking out the winter woollies! Glad I could remember how to make a pompom, such fun to snip it into creation after the monotonous winding :)

The Good Word

I want to share a little something with you - as if we're in a little village or community where word spreads fast - both good words and bad words - where stories are shared, advice given and opinions sought. This is the good news, hot tip kind of word spreading - so I hope you'll excuse it as it does seem a little ad-like...

I am in ~luff~ with Tinderbox.

As you can see I've tried a little range of their goodies so far.

I'm always on the look out for good quality, environmentally- and body-friendly products from independant producers. Putting chemical-filled creams and things on to my skin and in to my body has always seemed wrong to me, and I'm a stalwart label reader at the shops! I'm so delighted to have found a range of products that make me feel good, both morally for buying local, and physically for the encouraging results I see in my skin, face and wellbeing.

Oooh the delights of finally finding a range of products that work for your body and are reasy to get a hold of!!

I highly recommend trying them out if you're not happy with any of your personal products - be they women's, men's or general goodies check out their website : www.cheekyherbs.com I mean even their URL is good for the soul - always makes me smile!!

Therapeutic knit

Work is a little stressful at the moment...



So a nice relaxing knit is in order.
Toasty mitts fit the bill nicely, knit from the left off Malabrigo from my Bro's scarf.



Basicaly a tube of stockinette - I have taken the idea of toasts, but with my own gauge, cast on stitches, decreases and increases rather than one straight tube etc.. Made a few little changes

I'm enoying it so far - very therapeutic and soothing to work on amidst the hustle, bustle and overwhelming piles of work

Malabrigo Sock yarn equation...

Delicious yarn...


+

time spent winding aforementioned delicious yarn...


... BLISS!