Pumpkin Bom

Introducing my first ever handspun yarn, Pumpkin Bom.  She is a little uneven, but she is fabulous, as far as I am concerned. 

I plied it, well, because that seemed like it would be much easier than the spinning so I figured ‘why not?’.  I think I was right.  It did my very overspun singles a world of good.  I ended up with what appears to be a balanced yarn, albeit one with varying thickness.  Interestingly enough, the thicker bits are at either end, so maybe I can knit it up to make that less noticeable.  Now there is only 20 meters of this stuff, almost exactly.  Any suggestions as to what I ought to make with 20m worth of 2 ply lucid orange merino handspun?  It is kind of a heavy aran to bulky weight once you average it out some (that is at least 12 ply to you Nana).  I think I would prefer to knit this into something seasonless, a tiny purse perhaps? 

Dye Fix

I have signed up for the spinning workshop at the local guild.  I went and visited them last Wednesday evening so I could hand in my cheque.  I was lucky enough to be invited in to their store while I was there.  it is just like a big old candy store, he he.  Well I must have stayed in there a bit too long, because I left feeling the need for a dye fix.  It was all I could to to resist the fibre urge whilst I was there (and I did it quite well I might add), but I couldn’t see any reason not to follow up on the dyeing.  Since then I have been quite productive.  I have dyed up 4 nylon sock yarns intended for lace, some of baby yarn, 3 hanks of wool/mohair blend and a bit of reclaimed silk.  I haven’t pics of those yet and some are still drying.  But here is a sneaky peek at the over-dying I did on an otherwise ho-hum ball of self patterning woollen sock yarn.

I am very happy with the result.  I find that a lot of the colours in self-patterning sock yarns really lack intensity.  This is not any problem, but is not to my taste.  The great thing about it though, is that the spots that had taken little dye previously, really sucked up my dye.  So my pink wash really made the blues quite pretty, even though I had figured I was only using enough to tint the white parts.  Where the blue portions had been a bit wishy-washy they are now richer and softly variegated.  Yeah!! 

Oh yeah, nearly forgot the before shot.  Actually, it doesn’t look so bad in this pic.  Still isn’t ‘me’ though.  Yup, that is a ball of Hot Socks I was messing with, and it isn’t the first time either.  Mhwaa haa ha ha!!

WTF?!

Oh man, this is not cool.  Not cool at all.

Looks like a bit of a blank canvas doesn’t it?  Yeah, well it is not.   This pic was taken at 7am, but at 8am the morning before I had just finished tracing the design on to it.  They are supposed to fade over the course of a few days sure, but this was less than one.  All I was left with was a few faint pink splotches, nothing that resembled even so much as a short line. 

 (sorry about the grey spot in the middle there, it seems I need to clean my lens.  Ooops!).

This was a brand new transfer pen, I even splashed out on a flashy Clover one (it has an extra fine point and a very effective handy dandy eraser at the other end and cost me about double what I pay for the blue Sullivans ones).  The fabric was in a bag and did not get wet, so this excessive fading really is a bit inexplicable as far as I am concerned.  Geez, it really irks me to have to start again.  The transfer took me ages.  Arrrgh!!!  RANT, RANT, RANT.

 Okay, okay, I am getting over it, honest.  Seriously though, I really want this pen to work well for me, I can’t expect to be able to use the blue water-erasable ones for everything.  Oh and with that lovely fine tip and cool eraser it would be my new fave transfer pen, that is IF this incident turns out to be an isolated and freakish one.  I sincerely hope so, as there is just no way that I will be able to stitch all future projects such a short time-frame.

 Never fear though, these baby’s did come highly recommended to me, and by more than one person.  So I will be trying again and I have my fingers crossed.

Where did you knit today? II

This is episode 2 of ‘Where did you knit today?’, which is in fact pretty much just me bragging about being a part of the KIP (Knit In Public) crowd.  Over the weekend I decided it would do me some good to walk up a mountain.  So I did, and I took some yarn with me too, of course.

As you can see, Mt Coot-tha will not be winning any world’s largest competition anytime soon.  Well, at least the walking track won’t, it doesn’t start at the bottom.  But hey, that is soooo not the point.  After all, I got outside with the bugs and plants and such, I got some exercise and took some yarn along.  I think I did well. 

Here are some of the pretties I snapped on the way up (1 above and 1 below).

It wasn’t awfully steep, but I have been steadily getting out of shape since I took up knitting.   Boy was I glad to see this sign…

  Heh, heh.

I finally got to the top, just to prove it I took a pic of the view.  If you squint some you shuld be able to see Brisbane City CBD off in the distance.

Well, that was all well and good.  I figured I deserved a coffee, so I ordered one and somehow managed to resist cake and such.  Then I managed to finally sit down and get out my yarn, notions and a stitch pattern book.  That was when I discovered that the yarn I had plucked from the stash that morning was a skein, doh!  I would not be shy about rolling it into a ball in public, but there just wasn’t enough chairs to accomplish this.  :-(  It seems I had picked a time to be there that is very popular with tourists, there may have been a tour group there, I’m not sure.  So anyhow, I don’t have any in progress stitchy type pictures to show off.  You’ll have to make do with the view from the cafe and another of some flora I snapped, this time on the way back down.

 

Yeah I’m in! Ravelry, here I come.

Whooo hooo!  I got my Ravelry invite this morning.  I signed up straight away, looked for familiar faces and then ran back over here to WordPress so I could tell everyone.  Oh dear, how much of a yarn dork am I?  Wait!  Don’t answer that.  Believe me, if I knew how to make an eye rollin’ emoticon appear here, I would.  *sigh*

There is so much to explore, it is going to take me a while to get my bearings in Ravelry-land.  Sooo much to set up, but it is all fun so far.  I have managed to locate 2 of my fellow Brisbane S’n'B-ers, filled in my bio page (most of it I pinched from here on Stitches Anomalous) and signed up for the Aussie knitters group.  I figure that is the most important stuff taken care of.  Next I figure I’ll catalouge my WIPs, FOs and stash.

This will rock.  I am certain of that.  I seriously cannot wait to have a stash record, I tend to forget what on earth is in there.  So far there is just one thing I don’t like.  I will have to have a Flickr account, best I can tell.  Flickr is great, but I already have a Photobucket account that I opened for Craftster purposes (mostly).  I love my Photobucket, and I am not getting rid of it.  Sadly, I just can’t see how it won’t be a pain in the butt managing my picks in two places.  We’ll see.

Gotta run.  There is far too much Ravelry I have not yet eyeballed

Pym’s debut and a little more catch up

First off, I just wanna say, I have a new action figure and that makes me very happy.  Introducing Ant Man - Henry Pym.

Is he not the most adorable Avenger you have ever seen?

Anyway, with that out of the way I can get onto cool swap stuff.  I still can’t tell much about the Australian Tea Towel Tour Embroidery Ring (Craftster.org of course) that I am participating in.  Much about it is to remian top secret untill it is all over, and you know I do not ruin surprises.  What I can tell you about is my last one.

Way back on the 20th I promised pics of the swap loot from the Knit / Crochet Goodie Bag swap, and even back then they would have been very overdue.  What could possibly keep me from sharing?  Work!  It has sucked so bad this last month and a half that it has really messed me around, I feel a dummy spit building (and that is not something I have EVER done in my professional career).  How bad?  Well, anyone who has ever participated in a swap knows how much you wanna tell the whole world your loot is.  Just imagine how bad it would have to be to keep you from doing that

Anyhow, who cares right?  I’ll get over it, so lets get on with the show.  Now, I already told you that TheWench really spoilled me.  Everything was either something I have been wanting but never imagined I’d actually get, something I need or something awesome I had never heard of.  All three of those categoies are great ones for swap items to fall under I say.  Take a look for yourself.

A big strong tote bag, that spruiks the benifits of being a handknitter.  Yes, stashing is on there twice, no it is not a mistake :-)  It is obvious why this is a cool project bag, but on top of it all I must say I really needed another bag, I just didn’t realise it.

What was in there?

Knitting cotton.  I needed this.  The coolest part was, this is only half of the yarn.  I got a  bunch in black and white too.

Stefani Japel’s Fitted Knits.  Waaay too generous, I was stunned.  This was my most wisted knit book and so a great choice, but you know, way too generous.

Sitichmarkers that are poly clay chocolate.  I love food, I love poly clay, I love stitch markers.  I adore these chocky ones.  The only reason they have not yet graced my earlobes (during knitting down-time), is because I don’t currently own sleepers.  But it will happen.

I’ll show you just one last part of the package, but there was more.

This is a velvet transfer.  I have never heard of them before, but I have been plotting something nice for this, perhaps with a little embroidery around it.  Trouble is I don’t know where I want to put it yet, so I am stashing it and the idea until the right thing comes along.

 See!  I told you it was a great swap package.  Thanks again TheWench, you rock!

Next post, I will endevor to get around to showing you what I sent in return and my first ever piece of continental knitting (seeing as I promised that back on the 20th of August too).  It doesn’t look anywhere near as bad as it could have

Happy Father’s Day :-)

Here is what I made for my Dad this year.  Don’t worry, he definately won’t read this between now and Sunday.

He knows I have been crocheting him a scarf in the colours of his softball team (The Redbacks BTW).  But he has no idea that I’ve felted his name onto it.  Before I had done with the crochet, he commented that if he left this by the field it was likely to ‘walk’.  Hence the needle felted name, this baby isn’t going anywhere:-)  Now, I know it is not the neatest, but two things ought to be considered about that.  Firstly, this is my very first needle felted embellishement (EVER).  Secondly, my handwriting sucks in the first place (ALWAYS).  So therefore, this scarf is actually pretty darn cool 

Playing catch-up

Check out Nsharp’s post from yesterday, too funny http://nsharporg.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/two-superheros-with-x-ray-vision-and-a-hot-girl-guess-what-happens/ 

OK, been out of commission waaay to long.  So I’ll try not to be too wordy here and make with a few pics each most to show what I have been up to this last month.  Basically, it was a bad month work-wise and it got in the way of everything.  I was still crafting though, I had to or I’d have gone nuts.  Um, well, more nuts that is, in a bad way not a good way.

Righto, first up.  Hats.

This one crocheted from Tiegh’s pattern I found on Craftster with Sean Sheep Classic from my stash.  Kinda cute.  See the original design here… http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=88721.0

Next.

It is actually a bit rediculous, but I like it anyway.  I wanted as much slouch an pouf as I could get, to see what it would look like.  Now I know

This one above is the most colour accurate pic I could get.  Yup, that is Panda Vintage Hues you see there.

This last one best shows off the colour changes in the yarn (and the silly hole in the top I ended up with because there was so much bulk I couldn’t close the hole when I gathered it all).  :-)  I knit this darned thing three times before it looked right.  In the end I knit it sideways because the colours looked downright awful the otherway.   No pattern for this monstrosity, I just made it up as I went along (and ought to know better by now).

Next post, way cooler stuff than this to be quite frank with you.  Namely the awesome stuff Thewench sent me in Craftster’s Knit/Crochet Goodie Bag Swap.  She was such a great swap partner and the cool stuff I received begs to be bragged about one more time.  Also, more FOs, Miss Vicki knits continental and some stuff about my current swapping adventure.   This time it is all Aussie and it is all about the needle and thread!

Apron for SIL, finished

Yeah, I know you didn’t get to see any WIP pics of this little baby.  But it is reasonably basic, so it really wasn’t necessary anyhow.  Sewn for my Sister In Law - in part to thank her for taking the trouble and time to organise my Mum’s upcoming luau themed 50th Birthday party - partly because she is so easy to craft for, she really does seem to like my stuff - and ‘cos she is such a rockin’ gal.  Here ’tis

As you can see it is a half apron, in Red Hat Betty Boop print cotton.  The pattern I used was Simplicity 5961, view D.  I liked that it is gathered at the sides but not in the centre front, it is a flattering look I think.  My mods:  I left off the pockets, because the print is busy and the pockets were sooo huge.  The pattern also calls for bias binding on all edges af the main skirt part (as well as the pockets I left off in the end), but I finished with a narrow turned over hem.  All edges are still fully encased, it is important to me that it be machine washable to ensure it actually gets used.  I just wanted to keep it all looking simple, like I said, the fabric is the highlight here.  Well, there is a little ric rac on there.  It was a last minute decission, it was there, it was just the right length and colour.  I couldn’t help myself, it is my first official use of this trim.

So why so much concern about the print?  Well, this is for my Sister In Law and she is the biggest Betty Boop fan I know.  Admittedly I didn’t know about Red Hat Ladies back when I bought the fabric (and I still don’t know a lot), but it really doesn’t matter.  It is such a cute print, I am certain it will be very well received.  Besides, we haven’t any red hat ladies in the family, so there will be no confusion.  If I am lucky, this peice will become a permenant fixture in my SIL’s kitchen, rather than in her spare bedroom turned Boop shrine.  I have my fingers crossed, we shall see. 

If anyone is interested, there is a sewalong on Craftster for this.  It has not seen a whole lot of action as yet.  But I am hoping my pics will give it a little boost, once I post ‘em up.

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=118987.0  We shall see.

and one more, makes three

I finally got around to making chunky grey wrist warmers to match my stashbusting beret and scarf from a few weeks back.

I don’t usually go for wristwarmers, I am more of a glove gal.  I prefer the elegant to, well, the chunky.  But this is a chunky set, so chunky wrist warmers seemed like the thing to do.  Well, that and I have been giving thought to constructing things from simple rectangles lately.  I wanted to try something I knew would work (I have seen these done before), before trying to design a beret that way.  I have been trying to design different berets of late, all without success.  Meh!

So there ya go.  I completed that set, busted six balls worth of stash and now I am warm.  Yeah for me.

I made a start on the first of two baby hats that will be knitted from my hand dyed yarn.  The spring and autumn colourways from a few posts back.  I still haven’t decided what to do with the Incredible Hulk yarn and it may well slip into oblivion (stash).  Now because baby hats knit up so quickly you’ll only get one lot of progress shots out of me.  Well, one for each hat that is, if that.  Here is what I have been calling the royal pixie hat, in my spring greens.

Modeled - as you can well see - by my good pal Starlight Foundation Balloon.  As I had no babes at hand.  You will have to excuse all the loose ends still hanging out.  Well I did tell you they were progress shots!

I like this one, it shows off the mitred top and you can just make out the little knob I added in the centre.  This is also the best view of the pointed brim at this stage.  I just love the way this colourway knits up.

There will be much weaving of ends and some serious blocking before this looks anywhere near as handsome as the image in my head is.  Not bad though, and this was my first time at using a provisional cast-on.  I can see why folks like the technique and we will be firm friends from here on out. 

The finer details, just for reference.  I used less than ball of Spotlight Basics Dashing (it was cream, before I got at it with Kool-Aid and Easter egg dyes), it is about a double knit or perhaps light worsted weight.  It is my hope that I have enough left for socks, but there is probably only enough for toes and heels.  I knit it up on 5mm circular needles, sadly they were metal, I hope I find my bamboos soon as this yarn is pretty smooth.  The pattern is from The Domestic Sphere http://home.pacbell.net/kapleo/blog/domesticspherepatterns.html they have heaps of funky patterns on there, especially for little ones.  It is written to be knitted flat, but is super easy to convert for knitting in the round, it is practically done for you.  I think I’ll experiment with other ways of working the pointed cuff on the next hat though.  I figure there has to be a way to do it without all that breaking and re-joining of yarn.  Maybe short rows, or some kind of entrelac technique.  I think I’ll shape the top of the head differently too.  I love the shape as is, but I love variety just a little more.

 Last FO for this update is this…

This hat is for baby McDonnald (I won’t mention her by name in case her folks don’t approve), I hope they all like it.  This is the last of the yarn in this colourway, never to be repeated.  In fact, there are only two other hats in the whole world that share these colours.  :-)  What sets this one appart?  The crown…

The others had umbillical tops, but this one has a neat swirl.  Props again to Mr Starlight Foundation Balloon.  He is a little big for Ms McDonnald’s new hat, but didn’t grumble once.  :-)  I am one row of Kitchener stitch away from completing her a pair of socks too, so keep your eyes peeled for those.