Moving house

I've decided to move as there are some features in the new house that I like better:

New address

I hope to see you there.

Wen

Push my buttons

I've just found out an easy way to add polls to the blog. So if you click on the heading or comments of any new posts (I haven't added any to the old posts) you can let me know with the click of the mouse what you think by clicking a button. Of course comments are always welcome.

Polls on the main page will vary every so often and are there for fun! Well my fun anyway.

I've also changed the comments method so those that were having problems with blogger should be ok now.

A day in the life....

I've just been reading a few of these on other blogs. The idea is for the 14th of the month a rundown of your day. So here goes. Sorry no photos this time.

6:55am out of bed and get the boys up. Quick shower and breakfast for everybody and off to cricket for Rusty. He attends Wesley College so every saturday morning it is interschool sport. Yesterday they played Carey Baptist Grammar and he managed to score 2 runs.

After dropping him off Monster and I went and bought "Snotgobble and the Bogey Bully" by Michael Broad for Monster to read while I had my eyes tested. (Yes the story line is as Gross and you are thinking but he's a 7yo boy)

The eye test found that my distance glasses were fine, no change there but I now need reading glasses so I had to choose new frames with the help of a 7yo boy - fun. No I don't like bling on my glasses and no , the ones that look funny are not the best choice.

About 10:15 we left those shops and went to another centre about 15 minutes away. We walked in the door just as a very light shower started. 2 minutes later I got a call from the ex saying that Rusty's game had been washed out and could I pick him up.

We went back to the car in heavy rain and drove through flooded roads back to the school watching the outside temp drop from 25 to 18. Rusty was the last to be picked up, the coach had bundled all the boys into his car to wait for their parents as the buildings were too far to run in the rain.

Back to the shops for a new mouse and computer bag, a birthday present for a boy turning 8 and some lunch then home for an afternoon relaxing, doing some knitting while the boys played computer games. Thaw some food from the freezer for dinner and a Skype chat with Eno and Monkey who are in Hobart before bed.

Well that was my day, nothing out of the ordinary, well except for flash flooding, soaked kids and new glasses.

WIP update

I have been working on the following this week:

Wave wrap - half done now. I like the way it is turning out, seems to be wider than the pattern suggested so may need blocking to get a narrower longer wrap. I keep making mistakes with the feather and fan but luckily they are easily fixed.

Shoulder shawl in Syrian pattern - still plodding along. After completing the first ball it looks like it will be too big if I use all 5 so I'm further along than I thought!

Garter stitch wrap - still on target after finishing the 3rd ball. Measurements still show a finished size of approx 51" square.

The mohair bolero is finished I am now working seriously on the Silk cap sleeved top. Almost up to the armholes. I need some new work clothes and this is one that will be good for work.

Now that it is getting colder it is time to put the summer things into hibernation and get cracking on things to keep me warm. This includes the mohair capelet, wide collared jacket and aubergine jumper. Unfortunately the aubergine jumper is in Melbourne so that one will move slowly for the next month or two.

Thanks to Kate who posted that the new Knitty was up I now have 4 more things in my queue. Aeolian shawl, Decimal , Pioneer and Shipwreck.

What a surprise

I got home last night and found that Eno had bought me a skein of undyed mohair. 260g of soft fluffy mohair to play with.

Now to work out what to make with it.

Instant gratification

or enlarging the lace to reduce the repeats...

I like instant gratification. Using large needles may be like writing with a crayon but the speed you can turn out a shawl or scarf certainly makes up for it.

The cathedral windows shawl was designed to be knitted in lace weight and looks fabulous if you can be bothered doing it. Me? I made it with 8ply on 7mm needles.

Birch has 300+ stitches to be cast on in Kid silk haze. I reversed the pattern so I didn't have to cast on and knitted it in mohair twice as thick on 7mm needles.

I'm currently knitting feather and fan on 10mm - I started it on Monday and the stole is now 75cm long.

My purple parallelogram was a delicate little stitch I liked the look of so I knitted it up on 15mm needles.
I love the look of delicate lace but the time commitment is just not there so lace with elephantitis it is!

A cowl for Monkey

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Originally uploaded by wen1965

What do you do when your 2 year old keeps stealing your cowls to wear? You make him his own. This little cowl was done in 1 night in front of the TV.

Yarn: Naturally magic garden Buttons. less than 1 ball.
Dimensions: 40cm circumference, 18cm height
needles: Options 5.5mm

Cast on 72 stitches, knit to required height, cast off loosely.

Wearing what you make...

The question seems to come up often: How many of your handknits can you wear at one time.

Well it depends on what you make but it is perfectly acceptable to wear multiple handknits at one time without thinking you look like Molly Weasley.

Really no one thinks 'oh how many designer items of clothing can I wear without looking silly' so why do we treat hand knitted items differently.

So in summer you may be wearing a skirt, top and light scarf or a dress and shrug. All of these things can be knitted, however I wouldn't wear a knitted dress and I wouldn't wear a knitted skirt no matter who made it or the designer labels in it.

So in summer I would wear a knitted top and dress up any outfit with a light scarf or shawl.

Winter? On a cold day I would normally wear jeans, socks, shirt, jumper, mitts, coat/wrap cowl/scarf. Out of these items the jeans would always come from a shop, in my case so would the socks (that's another story) all of the other items could be hand knits.

The key is not wearing all machine made and one key item, it is co-ordination. Do the colours go together? What about the textures? Does the whole look like an outfit or that you have raided your wardrobe for every warm thing you own.

Treat your handknits like all your other clothes. It is a matter of does this go with that, not how the item was made.

Shawl fetish?

I was told recently I had a shawl fetish. I had never thought of it that way. I love knitting quick knits and the more pieces the longer it will take to finish so shawls really fit the bill.

Currently OTN I have 3; the Syrian shoulder shawl, a summer weight lace project, Garter stitch Wrap, a thick winter wrap and the Wave wrap, a light bright quick knit on 10mm needles.

I also enjoy wearing shawls, I heard one person describe it as 'wearing a hug', I prefer the thought of wearing a big woolly blanket. Easy to throw on, keeps me warm and I have one for all seasons.

There are so many ways to wear one too, just clipped at the shoulder and worn like a poncho, wrapped tightly around the neck like a scarf, tied at the front to give a deep v neck look...


They go with jeans suits and dresses. What is there not to like about shawls?

I am planning on knitting a lace weight fine lace shawl, I have some casmere merino lace weight ready for the right pattern when I find it.

Shawls above:
Gumleaf shawl (Yarn Magazine), Holly shawl (Jo Sharp), Clapotis (Knitty), modified Birch (Rowan).
My design in Ramie, Cathedral Windows (Yarn Magazine), modified Striped Wrap (Jo Sharp), garter stitch on 15mm needles.

Playing with texture

As I mentioned earlier I went to Sunspun recently. They had a wrap made up in the shop and I bought the kit for it. I started it yesterday. I love the way it is coming together. 3 Colinette yarns all completely different textures but in the same colourway.

I'm knitting stripes of feather and fan, the mohair appears to be almost soft focus between the clear stripes of Giotto and Tagliatelli.

A+ for procrastination

I did it! I did it! I did it! As my 2 year old would say.

I finally finished my Mohair bolero.

The pattern is the bolero version 2 (long sleeved) from Jo Sharp Knit 2. It was designed to be knitted with 8ply cotton but I thought it would look good in mohair. I got some 4ply mohair silk blend from Marta's yarns ( now the Threadroom). When I told the person serving that I would be knitting it on 4mm needles he thought that the needle size was too small for the yarn. It turned out beautifully, just what I wanted to wear over dresses. Certainly not too tight a knit for the beautiful, soft, light yarn.

I started this in October 2007, I had the body and bands finished by March 2008. A year to do the sleeves! I hate sleeves. I don't know why but I just hate knitting sleeves; hence the procrastination. I knitted a lot of things while this sat waiting to be finished. I misplaced the pattern a couple of times, ended up with the knitting in one city and the pattern in another. Everything that could prevent me finishing it seemed to happen. Maybe it has something to do with this being the last thing that Mum saw me knitting and she doesn't like black so she hated it. I promise I will wear it with colours.

Anyway it is done now with photos to prove it!

Yarn: Marta's yarns Brushed 4ply mohair silk

Needles: Harmony 4mm

Modifications: band is only 4cm wide.

Checking photos of FO's

I've just spent half an hour going through the pictures of Boatneck Bluebell in Ravelry. (If you're not a member you can do this in Flickr or other photo sites)

I learnt the following that is not in the pattern:

• Don't start the bands for the top of the waist shaping until you have tried it on and it comes below your bra band. The people with long bodies who followed the pattern ended up starting the waist shaping way to high and it looks wrong like a corset that sits to high.
• Don't start the waist ribbing at your waist; the waist is supposed to be at the centre of the ribbing.
• Finish the ribbed section around your hips but make sure your waist is in the middle of it.
• The bands on the arm should be just above the elbow, again try it on and the bottom band on the ribbed section just below your elbow.
• The flare at the bottom looks good longer rather than shorter. Don't finish without trying it on to check the proportions.

Overall try it on whenever you are changing patterns. That way you will know whether you are at the right spot.

Now to try and put all this knowledge into practice.