Procrastiknitting

This is meant to be just a quick post, so I will spare you the gory details. But as I have an assignment just about due, I have naturally been knitting instead. I now have half a sleeve as well as the completed back piece completed for my 40’s jumper.

See…

…sleeve.

A progress update

Just a quick update to show I am actually getting somewhere. My vintage jumper knitting project is looking a little bigger now. I am just about ready for armhole shaping, but I think I have a cable cross to come first.

The indoors garden is only going half as well as I had hoped. Only the mustard is sprouting. This is understandable as the seeds were all very old. But I had hoped that maybe two out of four would take. Oh well, at least I know now.

Lazy afternoon

I’m having a relaxed day today, it is lovely. I’ve slept in, flooffed away the last of my morning, popped on my new Erstwilder brooch, then set out to trawl a local op shop. It just seemed a good start to a fairly aimless day. I came away with some interesting vinyl records and a cute pinstripe pencil skirt, so yeah, good.

Now I’m getting in a few rows of knitting while I test out a new local bakery cafe. I have been meaning to get to Lift for some time and I’m not disappointed now that I’m here. The staff are lovely and everything looks tasty and exciting. I’ve just polished off a homemade chicken and leek pie with salad. I’m not usually a side salad fan, but this one I liked, I actually ate it all! The pie was impressive, I don’t ordinarily go in for those either, but it helps when the person recommending it to you is the one who made it (and is proud of their work). It was especially flaky on top and good and chunky inside. What’s not to love?

So now I’m knitting away, sipping on an in-house soda, pine mint, and contemplating finding room for a homemade eclair and a cold drip coffee. Perhaps to take away, that doesn’t sound do bad, right?

Lady’s Trellis Yoked Jumper

I have decided to knit myself a land-girl type short-sleeved jumper from the 40’s.  It is something I have been meaning to do for a while, and I have given a lot of thought to just what I wanted.  I began by exploring all the patterns available online (via Ravelry, of course), there is not an awful lot of them out there, but a fair range I suppose.  I could not quite decide.  I then realised that I had far more patterns sitting in my own personal physical stash than was to be found on-line.  So, I began my search again there.  This time I found plenty that were right, but this one stood out.  It has all the elements I was looking for, deep waist-band ribbing, puffed set-in sleeves, demure neckline and just enough all-over texture to stop me getting bored (ribbing and cables in this case will do just fine). 

This pattern is one I have had marinading in my stash for such a long time that I do not any loner recall if the booklet this is from is one I inherited from my Nana’s stash, or if it is one I picked up at a thrift store.  Not that it matters really.  So, I don’t like carrying about vintage patterns in my WIP bag, this is something that is not very likely to surprise to any of you.  So you won’t be shocked to hear I tried to scan this baby so I could tuck away a PDF of it onto my tablet.  Since completing a lace shawl from a PDF pattern stored on my tablet, it has become my fave way to roll, and it happened very quickly!  Buuuuut… all attempts to scan have so far ended in strange pages, oddly sized and with only some of the pattern visible alongside large blank spaces.  Gah!  I gave up.  Hey, I just wanted to be able to knit, so a photocopy is fine.  Really.  Except that means I have been shy about sharing the pattern.  Understandable really, who’d want a dodgy copy of this anyway?  Well, me apparently, seeing as that is what I am still using a week after I gave up on trying to scan the pattern nicely.

What I am getting at in this over long preamble here, is that I have decided to share my rather unattractive copy of this rather lovely pattern with the world.  Or at least, those who find it and decide they want to knit it too.  One of these days I will get up from my knitting long enough to fix this mess, but for now it is at least serviceable.  Well, I think so.

With luck I will continue in this motivated industry of mine, such as it is, and even manage to blog my progress.  Who knows?  For now, I shall just leave you with a picture from the pattern booklet (at the top of this post) so you can see what it ought to look like when finished.  Currently my WIP does not look like much, as I have only completed the back half of the waist band.  And of course, I will leave you with the pattern link too, at the bottom of this post.  Hey, if you do decide to join me in giving it a go, old-fashioned instructions and all, let me know how you go wont you?

LincolnMillsBook666modelL923

Testing, testing…

Test post sent from WordPress app on my new mobile phone. Let’s see how it goes.

Dodgy impromptu pic of my WIP taken on this mornings bus ride to work. Yay for commute knit-blogging!

Attempts at mindful knitting and self-denial

I promised myself I’d knit more mindfully this year.  I want to really see something for my efforts this winter ya know? Well.  Today’s Yarn Harlot post has me feeling nervous.  Not a good sign.  But perhaps it is better that I work through my doubts now rather than after many more hours knitting.  This is supposed to be a mindfully knitted project after all.  Some of my concerns I’ll hash out below.  I am going to be doing some measuring, by the looks of it.

The article in question

Is it OK that I have been knitting to my actual measurements rather than with some ease? Maybe not.  After I realised I had done it, I told myself I like ‘em fitted and this will ensure the cables don’t sit all contracted.  Well, I DO like ‘em fitted, that is true.  I just do not know if zero ease is the best thing for this project, I guess I need to do some research on that.  I am not sure I even know how much ease this pattern is written for.  Oh wait, there is a schematic in the pattern, so I will be able to figure it out.  Good, that is a start.

When I tried this on (as best I could though there is only a back piece and I was alone at the time) it seemed to run short.  Yes, I did cut out many inches from the pattern length.  On purpose too.  But I am very very very short-waisted, so much so that you just about cannot imagine.  Still, I was aiming for hip length and don’t seem to be getting there, not quite.  And yes, before you ask, I DID swatch and I did measure myself correctly.  So I think the problem could lie perhaps in my ‘hip length’ idea.  I have thought about it since, and what I really want is a length that will cover the top of my jeans well even when I am seated.  Probably I need my cardi to do more than just reach my hip point.  This, I think, also requires a further investigation.

Cable Close-Up

These seem like very reasonable concerns now I have put them out there.  I believe I was trying to quash them before.  And you know what else, I think this is the real reason I have stalled on cast-ing on for the two front pieces.  Yup, the whole project has lain dormant in my project bag for about 2 weeks.  I have been distracting myself with knitting baby socks, lots of them (I’ll show ’em off at a later date).  I know 2 weeks is not a huge stall, as far as these things go, but it was nagging at me.  Why did I keep putting it off when I had sailed through the first piece? Sure, it was a tad tricky but I did it quickly and enjoyed it.  Hmmmm, I think I know now.  I had a hidden fear of my continuing being a waste of time, but could not know for sure with the unacknowledged issues unaddressed.

Well, I feel a bit better.  But I am no closer to finishing a cardigan that fits, I may even be further.    I’ll have to get back to you on this one.

I did it

Yup. I actually did finish my socks before the deadline. Ha! Almost precisely 24 hours before I’ll have you know 😀

They are a tad tight in the foot, but they are wearable and the yarn is sooo very nice. I am calling this adventure a win for sure. And lookee what I got for my efforts…

My officially bestowed Sock Hockey finisher medal

Oh my, wow. Just wow.

Check out this amusing article I just spotted in today’s MX (the free transit newspaper here in Brisbane).

Who knew knitwear could be used as a get out of jail free card? Not me!

ROFL!!!

Crush The Loosers

OK, so before I get started I think I should explain the title, because it sounds a little unsporting.  It is the name of the project I want to show off, which was named after a song by one of my all time favourite bands, Regurgitator.  Still sounds unsporting?  Yeah well it gets worse before it gets better 🙂  The song was written for the Sydney Olympics, don’t worry it is very tongue-in-cheek.  The project, is my Ravelympics project, where Ravelry users set them selves a knitting challenge to complete during the Olympics (Heard of the knitting Olympics?  This is similar).  See, the titular looser in this case is me.  I am great at starting projects, but few are seen through to completion.  I thought this would be a nice opportunity for me to start a project AND finish it within a short time frame.   So I joined a team (Team Oz) and signed up for an event (sock put LOL).

Did I manage to crush my non-finishing run with this project.  Umm, err, no, not exactly.  Oh I finished it alright.  I just did not cross the finish line on time.  It is not all a loss, of course.  I now have a very kick ass pair of hand-knitted socks that just did not exist three weeks ago.  So here they are, albeit belatedly…

My first Firestarters and my first Ravelympic project, Crush The Loosers.

NOM.  They are so pretty, I really cannot be disappointed.  Next year I may even knit this same pattern for the Ravelympics.  It will be much easier (and therefore faster *ahem*) the second time around, and this is a design I really can see myself making more of. 

Here is the basic project info, for those that like to know such things;

• Pattern:  The Firestarter, by Yarnissima.  Knit toe-up, with a heel flap, short row toe and twisted stitch cable details.  Oh and it was a freebie 😉  This pattern (for me) was packed with something new at every turn.  This made for challenging and enjoyable knitting right the way through.  I would not recommend them for beginner sock knitters.  They are a must-do for anyone already comfy with sock knitting though.  Oh and I am told that of all of Yarnissima’s amazing designs, The Firestarter is the one to start out with (the others are just mind boggling to me, so I tend to agree with this advice).
• Yarn:  Araucania, Ranco Multi.  Purchased from Jenny King Designs.  Kettle dyed and quite yummy.  Though I have heard there may be some issues with wear, I’ll see for myself and share my findings.
• Needles:  Knit Picks Harmony fixed circulars, 3mm and 2.75mm sizes.  Both were 80cm long.  I got those from Tapestry Craft in Sydney (they arrived just in the nick of time too).  This is the first I have used harmonies, but these are now my fave sock needles.  Seriously.
• Mods:  Just one, I added 4 extra stitches to the cuff portion to accommodate my calves.  No biggie.

Just one more pic, ‘cos we like those.  Just look at that cabley goodness!  I love how it separates to make way for the heel gusset.  Mmmmmm…

Twisted stitch cable and gusset detail

I finally did it!

I got a tetanus shot, whoo!  Yeah, the same one I have been putting off since mid September last year.  I am a huge wuss, it goes without saying.  I knew I’d be fine, but I am unreasonably fearful of needles.  Unfortunately knowing just how unreasonable it is, hasn’t made it go away yet.  Not good considering that it is my goal to donate blood someday, it would seem that it will take me a long time to work my way up to that.  Oh dear.

 So anyway.  This now means I am allowed to process raw fleece, about time too.  I have some stinky corriedale, English Leicester and alpaca.  I have carders (thanks again Dad for getting those, you rock) too.  Now I can make me some rolags of spin-able fibre, yippee!  Actually, maybe I’ll begin with one of my bags of bright mystery wool from the fibre stash (Yes, I already have one of those.  Yes, I know that is sad.) 

Yeah, maybe this one?  Well, as you can see the investment was not a large one and it is certainly colourful enough.

I have a finished object to show you all.  For once *ahem*  Last Friday, the boyfriend casually mentioned we had a 1st birthday party to attend on Sunday.  Aw crap, seems he still doesn’t realise that events like this require knitting.  Though I don’t think he had a whole lot more notice himself, so it isn’t a huge deal.  So what can I whip up in just over a days knitting time?  Well, technically most little kiddie items can be whipped up in a day and a half if you don’t have anythingelse to do and you are not attached to working in fine gauges.  But see I decided to go with something small, considering that I am not to be trusted when it comes to crafting within a set time-frame.   So here it is…

The pic doesn’t really show it, but I made this thing a tad big.  It is my hope that it will be a perfect fit by winter.  I was able to get it over my noggin without trouble, so it should be right.  Poor little fella was not impressed at having to wear this thing in the lunch-time heat.  I don’t blame him and was quite happy for him whip it off in a second.  His grandma kept putting it back on though, I couldn’t tell you why really.  Like I said, poor little fella.

Here is one that shows off the yarn.  I am quite proud of the dye-job, which I did as soon as I got home Friday night after work.

Everything I had in stash was too girlie.  Some would have been OK had he been a newborn still.  But this little man is into running about and I didn’t see him crawl once.  So he isn’t a baby anymore, he needed a more blokey hat.  I nearly went with a camo look, but I am so glad I went with blue over khaki.  It suits him.

The green and blue are both Easter egg dyes, though the green has been brightened up with a little fluro food colour.  A recent acquisition from the US that.  The black is food colouring.  What’s new here is that I didn’t use Wilton’s for once.  No,  I used Queen, an old Aussie staple.  I am quite surprised that it worked wonderfully.  I loved the way the black behaved and I was able to get it to do exactly what I wanted without fuss.  I will be buying more of this for my stash for sure.  It is hard to get in the black mind you, I have only ever seen it once (Coles, Myer Centre in Brisbane just for reference).  I started buying Wilton’s because I like to used a fair bit of marzipan when I do flash cake decoration.  Queen is no good for it, being liquid.  The powder colours I have found around here suck, so I ended up with Wilton’s gel.  I have been using it ever since, so never considered liquid for yarn dyeing either.  Well, after this weeks success, I will be testing out more colours.  Stay tuned.

Now, just what on earth do I do with the other 2 and a half balls?  Heh 🙂

I have been making progress on the monumental nursing shawl I am knitting for Lady Llanalla.  I have reached the halfway point, yarn-wise.  However, I have not reached the halfway point, length-wise.  This means I need more yarn, of course.  A significant hurdle indeed.  Not only did I choose tho use a yarn that is not available in Australia, it was ordered about 7 months ago.  I have Buckley’s chance of getting more of the same dye lot.  Pooh!  So I have been searching Ravelry for Knit Picks shine sport in peoples trade/sell pages.  I figure that with 2 balls of cream and another two of an entirely different colour will do the trick.  Oh yeah!  I was waaaaay off the mark.  I have found a number of prospects and have been sending out messages, I just hope I get a bite.  I found a fair few stashes of other tempting things while I was searching.  Like alpaca/silk blended Andean Silk and Shimmer, which is a pretty lace weight.  Heh, just another reason to love Ravelry.