Wayward Knitties

Yarn Addict vs Wool Fetishist

2009-05-15T12:25:00.004+10:00

There's a difference.

A marked difference.

Just so you know.

(Pic slurped from Izismile.com - http://izismile.com/2009/04/24/the_fetishists_14_pics.html)

Quicksticks!

2009-05-12T23:16:00.001+10:00

TheBloke has been stressed at work recently as well as battling the aches and pains of office posture and fighting off a lurgy. I whipped this martinilicious olive up while he was napping this afternoon - a super fun and easy pattern from I Like Lemons which enabled me to use up another skerrick of the leftover Nature Spun from the Dr Who scarf.

He was confused about its purpose when he woke up. Then he demanded a knitted bottle of Tanqueray 10 to go with it. I guess that's a win?!

The Reveal!

2009-05-10T22:39:00.003+10:00

I forgot to take a photo of the colossus Doctor Who scarf before I shipped it off to the tropical climes of Northern Australia. Here's a shot of my Dad with the finished beast in the decidedly less-than-London setting of their front garden.

I still have a crapload of Nature Spun left over from this project - the green, yellow, red and purple balls weren't even finished, so I'm looking for quick ways of using them up to make room for more... MORE YARN!

Present Presence

2009-05-09T10:44:00.000+10:00

Last year I intended to knit my Mum Katy Wight's gorgeous Falling Leaves Shawl from yarn.com for her birthday. Did it happen? No. Why? Well, firstly, I started knitting it too tightly, squishing the pattern and doing little justice to neither the yarn nor the pattern. Secondly, I accidentally left my knitting bag at my Oma's house during a visit, and she lives 260km from me. Thirdly, my Mum spotted the Azul Bolita in my stash and fell in love with the colour. Who was I to deny her a knitted set made from the regal blue luxury? After frogging the green I didn't have time to knit the shawl OR scarf, so I put the project on the backburner and gave her a book instead.

And now, it's once again a month until Mum's birthday. Have I knitted the scarf yet? Nein. Will I have another crack at it? Yes. Will I go one-up and attempt to jazz my place as the family's ultimate gifter with a hat to match? Why of course!

I've chosen Amy Swenson's "Better Bucket Hat" pattern, but instead of getting the hard yards over and done with first, I've knitted Nicky Epstein's American B eauty Rose pattern which I'm going to attach to a brooch fastening to pin to the hat, an idea blatantly nicked from 53Chevy on Ravelry. One part down, two parts to go!

Sometimes, Things Go Wrong (aka How I Ruined Six Months Of Knitting With One Washing Machine Cycle)

2009-03-25T11:38:00.006+11:00

There's an old saying, something about how a day where a lesson's not learned is a day not lived.

Or at least I'm hoping that's an old saying. Because if it's not, the mantra which is currently stopping me from imploding is just some crap that my lower consciousness made up, and if that's the case, goshdarn, why couldn't it have intervened earlier!

As previously mentioned, I have been knitting the season twelve Dr Who scarf for my Dad for about six months now. Originally it was marked out for a Christmas present, but when it didn't end up magically finished into a state of wonderous being on Christmas Eve, I hibernated it, and decided I'd give it to him for his birthday instead. Hey, a present's still a present, isn't it? And he didn't know about it, so it was still going to be a surprise.

Last week I finished yarning it. No, not just the knitting. The whole thing. I weaved in the ends. I stroked it lovingly. I measured and cut an infinite number of strands for the tassles. And then I attached them. Oh happy day. I celebrated by getting merrily English with a bottle of gin. Six months of knitting, carted a total of at least 10 000km on several interstate trips, public transport around town and passenger seat car distraction, as a bulky but mindless project, was finally off my hands! Woo hoo!

But I forgot to wash it.

Not block it. Nature Spun is sturdy wool that, when knitted as billions of rows of garter stitch, just bloody sits there, doesn't it? Even after being roughly schlepped around for the project duration, its drape was dandy and it lay perfectly flat when spread out for admiration. It didn't need blocking, it needed WASHING. Because whilst travelling the clicks above, it had come across city smog, recirculated plane air, beer dregs, cheese and cracker crumbs, cigarette smoke, cat hair and Ganesh knows what else. Such is the life of a thirteen foot scarf.

I have a fairly new front loader which in my experience, is near impossible to deliberately felt in. Its delicates cycle has managed to keep even the finest of my merino knits in tidy order. I even wash my silk items in there (on cold of course). So I figured that the scarf would be no problem. Sturdy wool, remember? It agitates ever-so-gently, and I chucked it on cold and cut back the spin cycle to 400rpm (just off minimum for my machine).

An hour and eleven minutes later (as that's how long the cycle took), I removed the scarf to the cheerful beeping of the timer, and left my jaw on the tiles next to the laundry basin. I may pick it up later on, but for now, the only thing that's keeping me going is Operation Shock and Aww. Shock, because that's an apt description for my feelings at present; and aww because that's the noise I made before dropping a blue bomb of four letter expletives that would've had a dalek blushing.

The. Tassles. Have. Felted.

I should be grateful that the rest of the scarf is in decent nick. I should be glad that the tassles, that were a PoTA but only took an hour or so to put on, are easily replaced with the masses of Nature Spun that I have left over. I should be pleased that I managed to finish this colossus in the first place. I should be patting myself on my back for laying the scarf out to semi-block on towels in my spare room rather than giving up and leaving it hanging over the garden chairs and clotheshorse that I originally had it languishing on to dry.

But I can't muse on any of those things. Not until I replace the sheep-dag looking fringe with new, glorious streams of colour. It's Dad's birthday on Friday, and he lives 3500km away. The scarf has to be in an Express Post bag by tomorrow morning. Can it be done? Will I have a complete mental breakdown when the protective shock wears off? Will my makeshift barricade of shopping bags, an upturned laundry basket and a packet of new sheets keep my dog away from the non-wrecked portion of it?

I have two new Mason-Dixon Knitting books to pore over. I have a gym membership going to waste. I have a load of washing to fold. I have a brand new shiny thing, delivered this morning courtesy of TheBloke. I have three fiscal policy assignments that I really should be doing background reading and notemaking for (on aforementioned new shiny thing).

But the tassles come first.

*sigh*

OMG A NOTSCARF!

2009-02-06T16:48:00.009+11:00

There comes a time in every knitter's life when they must move past the serpentine climes of scarf knitting, and onto proper projects. These proper projects occasionally require the temporary retirement of ye olde faithful straight needles, and the brandishing of circulars and double pointed needles instead.

The first time I picked up circs, for the Boyfriend hat I've knitted in several colourways for my husband and my friends-who-are-boys, I was terrified. I could not, for the life of me, envisage how I was supposed to use both ends to knit at the same time. I laugh now, because as everyone knows, once you figure the circ thing out, it makes as much sense as breathing - but at the time, I was utterly clueless. It took multiple views of the most marvellous tutorials on www.knittinghelp.com for me to gain even a semblance of faith in my ability to do this thing, and even then, the Roanoke Gold Malabrigo I was using copped a battering as I cast on and frogged about ten times. I hated those circs every round during the first hat I knitted, and don't get me started on the DPNs. As I went on, I grew more tolerant. I managed to make a join without twisting stitches. Then I managed to transfer to DPNs without dropping any stitches. Then I managed to get to the end of the project and thread through / cast off without having to use the long end of the yarn to darn the gaps in the top of the hat. Then I spotted the gorgeousity which are the multicoloured hues of the Knitpicks Options Interchangable sets, and my life was over.

My crappy bulk purchase of Chinese produced bamboo and plastic cord circs in every conceivable size just ain't cutting the mustard anymore. I have a new purpose for existence, and it's THE ACQUISITION OF THOSE GOSHDARN NEEDLES.
LOOK AT THEM! LOOOOKK AT THEM!

You see my problem now, right? Aside from the fact that the bamboo circs threaten to fall apart at any moment, how can their workhorse appearance compete with the grandeur which is the rainbow ice-cream lacquering on the the glory to the left? THEY CAN'T IS HOW.

But alas. Having spent all my cashmonies on yarn and gin, I must make do with the pity which is my mass collection of panda food and petrochemicals. Le sigh.

Anyway, I shouldn't complain too much. For twenty bucks including postage, I bought a set that can do most things, even if it does them with a good degree of kinking and threats of spontaneous destruction. Like this NOTSCARF, for example. It's actually the first thing I've knitted and kept for myself since I got back into knitting, and although once it came off the needles it resembled more of a nineties-hippy-revival skullcap, it's currently sitting over a cereal bowl blocking, which should, fingers crossed, tip it over into the beret-esque territory of origin - or Not Too Too Beret, as the very clever Knit and Tonic named it.

My husband was impressed at the speed at which it came together (after three or four aborted attempts where I failed to read the pattern correctly), and is also impressed that I managed to whittle one of the skeins in my stash down to this:

It's Araucaunia Limari, if you were wondering - a 70/20/10 blend of merino, alpaca and silk, respectively. A skein is only 56 metres, which is hardly unusual for a super-bulky yarn, but it had me a little concerned as the pattern in question called for a full skein of Rowan Spray (which has 80 metres to the skein). There were a couple of Ravellers who had used the Limari for the project and hadn't noted a shortage though, so I was crossing my fingers that it was going to be OK - which, shapewise, it hopefully will be after it's dry. Otherwise I'm going to be kicking myself for not doing a second round of increases in the increase row and having a crack at adjusting the pattern to shape it down at the end. I have another skein in cream which I might use to whip up another if this one turns out well - nothing like a project that gives back so quickly, even if it does require the white magic of blocking to sort it out afterwards!

Well, yeah - not exactly a beret - more of a 1960s air hostess hat - but pretty nonetheless. I wish the yarn had stayed the dusty, dark blue hue that it promised on skein, but such is the joy of the non-industrial yarn world. I'm going to do another in cream, eventually.

Unfinished Business

2009-01-30T10:39:00.006+11:00

Oh man, I really ought to learn to complete projects.

I currently have three projects, all scarves, all mind-numbing patterns, on the needles.

Two have been mentioned before. My husband's Alpine Pearl scrunchable is still in need of another foot of material, despite the fact that I lugged it around Europe with me on a set of 60cm bamboo circulars, risking confiscation on five international flights. My promise of a warm neck in the deepest darkest depths of Poland was broken. I think I knitted about ten rows over Siberia, six rows in a hotel room in Munich, another half dozen on a train flying over the Czech border, and that was about it. Whoops. Fingers crossed it magics itself into a finished state before the cold weather hits this year.

My friend Paul's Raiders' scarf is about halfway done, but is currently languishing on the top of my orange tub o' yarn. Once I've finished it, a matching Boyfriend hat is on the agenda - but I can't start it until I finish the scarf, because I don't know how much yarn I'm going to have left over (and hence how many rows I can knit of each colour before I have to change).

The third is a Doctor Who scarf that I was knitting for my Dad for Christmas, but is now marked as a birthday present for his 55th in late March. Anyone who's tackled the infamous garter-stitch beast knows that the most exciting part of this project is changing colours - but brutality upon brutality, every colour change requires an end to be woven in. Ick. I'm about three quarters of the way through the pattern, but the thought of weaving in each and every one of those scrappy bits of yarn upon completion blows my small mind.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a lot (a LOT) of Brown Sheep Nature Spun left over after the scarf, and although the last thing my stash needs is more 9wpi yarn, I think I might hold onto it for kids toys (my latest obssession, mostly because they involve more than knitting the same goshdarn row over and over and over again like the scarves) or knitting a mini (thinner, shorter) version of the Season 12 pattern for my husband to wear as a tie alternative in the cooler months.

Of course, my yarn whoring has resulted in two more projects being cast on despite the lack of attention I've shown to these three. Updates to come.

Waiting, Waiting....

2008-09-24T10:17:00.006+10:00

As threatened, I put in an order for more Mmmmalabrigo on Monday, from the wonderful Yarn and Kisses.

Coming to my door soon is another ball of Alpine Pearl, and these two beauties:

On the left, the aptly named "Natural" - an undyed skein of pure Mmmalabrigo goodness. On the right, the cheerful "Sauterne", presumably named after the Bordeaux dessert wine. I'm combining these with my stashes of Verde Adriana and Azul Bolita to knit a scrunchable scarf and aforementioned Boyfriend hat (yes, another one) for my friend Paul, whose birthday is coming up next weekend. The colour combo matches his beloved Canberra Raiders and the finished objects will no doubt come in handy for cheering the disgraceful bastards on during mid-season games.

Scrunchable, Part One

2008-09-14T17:26:00.005+10:00

As a continuation of my Malabrigo musings, I thought it apt to share some of the finished objects which I've constructed out of my new lifeblood (or co-lifeblood; sorry gin, how could I desert you like that? Fickle, fickle!).

As previously mentioned, my first Malabrigo project was a beanie for my friend Greg, in Roanoke Gold - a complimentary colour for his ginger locks. I used Stephanie's rad Boyfriend Hat pattern - it's fantastically easy to follow (the first thing I'd ever knitted on in the round), and is simple but stylish - a prerequisite for my manfriends, who, by and large, shy away from bells and whistles when choosing clothing for themselves. I've yet to snap a shot of it on his head (check back in a fortnight, eh?) but here's a quick pic of it in its non-animated form.

Of course, when my husband realised that I'd graduated from scarves and was actually making a dent in my stash, he saw an opportunity for snagging a head warmer of his own. He was surprised to discover that the Malabrigo was of all-sheep origin - like many of us, his childhood experiences of wool were somewhat less luxurious fibre and more itchy insulation. I showed him the colour charts on the Malabrigo website and he chose Alpine Pearl for what was originally going to be a beanie and scarf set, but now, with our autumnal trip to Europe pending, has expanded out into a set of gloves as well.

Yeah, there's the hat. Knitted an inch and a half longer than the pattern stipulated, to accommodate my bloke's SQL muscle and his ears. And here's the scarf!
Yeah. Not quite long enough, yet. This is the rest of the ball left over from the hat, plus another ball (the guts of which can be seen on the end of the circ in the bottom right of the picture). I'm going to have to pick another couple up to finish it off and complete the toasty gloves promised to my long suffering ("gosh! Look at this Curacao Malabrigo! In the absence of manchildren I shall knit a coat for The Dog using it!") bloke. Now that the Australian dollar has fallen dismally, I think I'm going to have to take up my "buy local" grocery mantra and purchase said skeins from Yarn and Kisses, that my ladyfriend Miss P has been spruiking to me for months. Europe trip dictates this will occur second to train ticket purchases on Thursday... but it will happen. Not overnight, but it will. Promise.

Mmmmmalabrigo!

2008-09-01T18:24:00.003+10:00

Like many knitters, I have an addiction. I could add an overused quip about not sharing needles here, but instead I'm going to come straight out with it and say - I AM ADDICTED TO MALABRIGO.

I do feel a little late to the party, what with my previous incarnations as a knitter utilising the most hated of yarns, DK acrylic, on an alarmingly regular basis. This time thankfully coincided with a commitment to only buy natural fibre in clothing, and hence even 10% nylon is enough to shirk a yarn off my list of potential materials. Unfortunately, my most local of yarn stores is Lincraft, and their selection of non-plastic yarns is highly limited (see previous post on the great glut of Cosy Wool in my sewing room), so before I discovered the acquisatory power of US online stores, I spent far too many cashmonies on balls of that Chernobyl-esque fibre.

But I shall Chernobyl no more. Thanks to the enabling supplies of Quality Fibres and Webs, my Malabrigo stash started with two skeins of Roanoke Gold, set aside to knit my friend Greg a beanie and scarf for his birthday. I also grabbed two skeins of American Beauty, to knit myself a shrug. This progressed onto three skeins of Verde Adriana (originally deemed fit for a shawl for my Mum's birthday but frogged and now awaiting needling into a Canberra Raiders beanie and scarf for my friend Paul). The frogging of the Verde Adriana necessitated the purchase of more yarn for the shawl, so I quickly snapped up four skeins of Azul Bolita (the exact shade of blue that my Mum adores). Whilst there I remembered that my husband had been patiently awaiting a headwarmer the same as the Friendly Boy hat I knitted for Greg, so I let him choose his colour scheme and added two skeins of Alpine Pearl to my cart. All well intentioned purchases, you must agree - the fact that they were all made over a twelve week period is surely irrelevant when one is discussing such majestically twisted and coloured fleeces!

My dear friend Miss P has recently introduced me to Yarn and Kisses, which is an Australian shop stocking nothing but the purest Malabrigo - I'll be giving them a go the next time I'm in sole need of a fix (and have borrowed their photos of said fixes to show you what my order is likely to consist of below). Aside from the reasonable prices, I believe that shopping here will actually save me money in the end (MONEY TO SPEND ON MORE MALABRIGO!) as I won't impulsively drop other, lesser yarns, that are on sale at the other sources, into my cart to "make the shipping worthwhile" or whichever feeble excuse for my lack of shopping restraint crosses my mind at the time of purchase.

Until then, I shall leave you with some of the variegated yarns that are on my doWANT list at the moment. I don't wear multicoloured stuff myself, but I am seeing the potential for these to please all and sundry (and give me the pleasure of having the delicious strands pass through my fingers in the name of construction). I'm like a yarn-driven Salad Fingers, let me tell you. Mmm... treat for the tips.

Curacao
This colour combo is so darn cheerful. If only the tropics leant themselves to worsted-weight knitwear, I'd make a bikini out of it. As it is I think it would make gorgeous kids wear - perhaps a cardigan or a vest and pants-set? The sort of stuff you could only get away with wearing in a full body version if you were two years old.

Melilla
This is another tropical combo, kinda reminding me of frangipanis, red ginger flowers and foliage. I think my Mother-In-Law would wear something made out of this, perhaps a baker-boy style cap and scarf; and fingerless gloves to wear when she's playing her bass guitar? Yes, my MIL is a rocker from way back.

Velvet Grapes
I need more goth friends. This reminds me of the Punta del Este handpainted Mericash blend that I used to knit a scarflet for my friend Mel's birthday.

Azalea
Anyone got a daughter I can borrow to knit this into a pinafore dress for? My dog would wreck it in about ten seconds flat.

Autumn Forest
Ditto this and a son and overalls. Of course, the child would then have to sit inside on its own hands for fear of RUINSING it, but hey, it would be totally worth it.

Post of WANT

2008-08-08T08:07:00.003+10:00

With my evergrowing stash threatening to take over my sewing room, the last thing I should be looking at is more yarn. But I have this idea, right, and for this idea, I want, nay, NEED some more yarn to make it work.

My fear of turning into a crazy old lady with furnishings entirely comprised of knitted objects has been put on the backburner after coming across some awesome cushions on Ravelry. My husband and I have bed linen which is neutral colours - beige, cream, mocha and a small amount of light blue on one of our doona covers. These are a far cry from the bedding we slept on when we first got together (he had burgandy sheets with a black brocade doona cover... and I had fuschia and royal purple sheets with a retina searing Moroccan printed quilt in the same colours) - and while they are appreciated for their subtleties, I can't help but think that a few throw pillows would, how do you say, jeuzz it up a bit.

I've fallen head over heels for elliebelly's gorgeous hand-dyed silk blends.
First my heart broke over her Cleo colourway on the aptly-named "Basilisk"- a worsted weight, silk-merino combination. And then I dug through her beautiful website and came across Sailor, a stunning blue/cream/brown colourway on a silk-cashmere blend. Unfortunately for my purse, this beauty comes at a price - an incredibly reasonable one for the hard work that has obviously gone into creating such amazing yarns, but a price nonetheless.

I am torn. Do I have the knitting skills to do this yarn justice? I would be using it as an accent - I'm thinking of getting some cream or chocolate brown merino for the main part of the cushion and using the OMGWANT yarn to colourwork a circle (can I stuff that up? probably...) in the middle. I'm yet to concoct a pattern of my own for anything other than a garter stitch scarf (ha! skills!) so I've been trawling through FOs tagged with "circle" to see how I could go about whipping up this ultra-simple-but-still-blowing-my-mind idea.

I've found a few yarns in similar colourways, including Wool of the Andes bulky hand dyed in "Robin" (third from the top in the Knitpicks photo) - but of course, it doesn't have the lustre or WANT-factor of elliebelly's yarns. It would probably stand up to brutality a bit better than the silk blend, but hey, we don't have Mini-Mes running around our house yet, so we should probably take advantage of the chance to have beautiful accent pieces before our spawn come along and borrow them for fort-furnishings down in the back paddock.

DoWANT! DoWANT! DoWANT!

Cosy Wool Madness

2008-06-20T17:31:00.006+10:00

Getting back into knitting has had its drawbacks. Most of them involve my the evergrowing divide between my stash and my bank account, and more specifically, the stash which my newfound Malabrigo and other merino addictions have rendered redundant.

Take Lincraft's Cosy Wool, for example. In my stash, from memory, I currently have two balls of navy blue, one ball of storm blue, three balls of variegated blue/brown/green, three balls of black, one ball of sage, and three quarters of a ball turquoise. All were purchased with the best intentions - the sage green and turquoise were going to bulk out the infernal baby blanket; the variegated blue and storm blue were going to make a beanie and A Scarf Askew for my husband; the black was going to make some arm warmers for my ladyfriend; and the navy was going to make me a fetching capelet. Oh, I had the greatest of expectations for those cheap and cheerful balls of yarn!

Is serious yarn. Has serious caption.

But after starting the armwarmers and scarf, I realised something. Cosy Wool IS NOT COSY. Anything but, in fact. Cosy Wool is stiff. Cosy Wool is sturdy. Cosy Wool is wonderfully feltable. But cosy? No. Cosy Wool IS NOT COSY.

Cosy Wool is therefore not a good choice for delicate skin contact. My husband has pissweak Anglo skin and suffers from occasional eczema. My ladyfriend's ladyskin is also sensitive. And me, I just hate being itchy. Even my superfine Country Road jumpers irritate me from time to time. It's not enough to make me give up wool, but it is enough to make me think twice about using a fibre that is tangiably tough when balled.

Cosy Wool is, however, a good choice for slippers! It holds up to cold water laundering well, and if you felt first, they become virtually indestructable. I had a click through the Ravelry pattern library, then remember something I saw in last month's Lincraft magazine - a little square of editorial entitled "Slippers With Soul". Basically, it's a call for slippers or balls of 8ply to be donated to Sydney Care, which is a not-for-profit community service organisation. The knitted items will be distributed to the elderly, disabled, and long-term hospital patients who may not be able to afford conventional slippers.

The pattern was designed by Renee Glass, and the sizing fits most adult feet. It was distributed free of charge in Lincraft's Autumn How To magazine and I reproduce it here with full acknowledgement of the original rights in the hope that anyone else in my situation looking for a happy feeling fix to their stash woes will get on board and either knit a pair or two, or donate balls of 8ply (11wpi) yarn and send them to

Lorna Magen - Sydney Care
54 Rosebery Avenue
ROSEBERY NSW 2018

Materials
Any 8ply (11wpi) yarn
4.5mm knitting needles
Yarn for sewing up

Method
Cast on 5 sts
Knit 6 rows, inc in the 2nd st of each row until you have 22 sts on the needle
Next row: Inc in each st across row (44 sts).
K2, P2 across every row for 15cm
Next row: K2tog across the row (22sts)
Decrease in 2nd st at the beginning of every row until there are 5 sts left on the needle
Knit 6 rows
Cast off, fold in half and sew the rib sides together as well as the 5 sts on top together to form a strap.

Is it Casper? No, it's my husband's lilywhite epidermis.

Proof that some good can come from compulsive yarn hoarding! I look forward to busting more stash with another ten pairs or so - although I might add some extra stitches to future cast ons, as the "one size" only just fitted over my husband's regular man sized feet.

O hai

2008-06-18T14:26:00.001+10:00

So I've started yet another blog to add to the destruction I've trailed behind me on this here internets. This one is going to be moreish-ly general, slighly less foody, and will have more references to Dethklok than Australia's Next Top Model. Promise.

Blog Background

2007-08-08T09:32:00.001+10:00