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Tag: knitting

  • Easter Show Knitting

    The other big thing that happened last week was that I finally finished my Easter Show knitting. I had two entries this year: “St. Brigid” in the aran category and “Albert the Magic Pudding” in the knitted toys. I think they turned out pretty well!

    St. Brigid     Albert the Magic Pudding

    St. Brigid is from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting, a book which is sadly out-of-print. (Used copies go for $300! No joke!) Luckily I know someone with a copy who was generous enough to share. This is my second Starmore after last year’s Na Craga. The wool is Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in colour 127 Posie. It’s a very pretty pinky red with little flecks through it. Starmore’s patterns are famously huge with lots of ease, so I had to play to get the right size. I actually used 4mm needles to get gauge and lengthened the body by an extra repeat. I also lengthened the arms quite a bit. The original version had fringe around the bottom (ew) and a mock turtleneck (ew ew), so I left both of those off. This is a very warm jumper, and I’ll probably only get to wear it a few times a year. But it’s beautiful and I made it and I love it. (More pictures on Flickr and more details on Ravelry.)

    And then there’s the Magic Pudding. (No, Mom, he’s not an octopus!) He’s from a famous Australian children’s book by Norman Lindsay. The Snook read me this book, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a shame that kids in America don’t know it! I based my original design off a postcard with a watercolour of the Pudding by Lindsay himself. I was really tickled when the RAS volunteer who was taking my entries recognised him immediately. Maybe next year I’ll have to do Bunyip Bluegum? (More details on Ravelry.)

  • St. Brigid is blocking

    The Show is rapidly approaching! Time to get this sucker finished. I started by dunking the front and the back in cold water and making sure they were totally saturated. Then I gently squeezed out a bit of the water before rolling each piece in a towel. Carefully I stepped all over it til the towel was soaked, removing a lot of the water. The pieces were then pinned out to the pattern’s measurements. I freaked out a little bit at first because the squares look so big! But when I compared them to Na Craga, they’re only slightly bigger. (Which is good, as I have boobs and the Snook doesn’t.) So I think that will be okay. It was hard to get a decent shot with the crapping lighting in my office, but I don’t think I’ve lost any stitch definition. As soon as these are dry, I’ll do the sleeves. (I ran out of pins!) Then it’s time to start sewing up!

    St. Brigid - blocking

    Incidentally, I am LOVING that I had the forethought to use spit-splicing on this thing. I have like five ends to weave in there. That’s brilliant.

  • Cat and Girl

    “No wonder everyone switched to knitting.” Indeed.

  • Kinokuniya Craft Fair

    Kinokuniya (the best book store in Sydney) will having a Craft Fair on Saturday, February 27th. The Inner City Guild group will be there giving free knitting help to anybody who drops by. The shop will also be giving 20% off all craft books! WIN-WIN if you ask me.

  • Knitters’ Christmas Tea Party

    Christmas Tea Party

    I went to a tea party! The regular Thursday night crowd from the Morris & Sons SnB all met up on Saturday afternoon at Harrogate Teas. We nibbled on sandwiches, sipped a variety of teas, and guzzled our weights in champagne. (I’m serious.) It was so much fun! We also had a “Kris Kringle” swap of decorations, where I got a lovely sparkly dove ornament. And of course, we all frocked up. I’m wearing a vintage “Jonathan Summers” dress that Ma Snook gave me last year. (Everyone joked that I looked like a Stepford Wife.) Lyn has some great photos here too.

    Miss Fee

    Fiona in a fabulous floral headpiece…

    Alison and Sue

    Alison and Sue prove that there is no occasion too formal for the winding of wool…

    Lee

    Lee was a fabulous organiser and looked so smart in his green scarf!

    Jody, Donna, and Ailsa

    Jody knits along with our distant visitors Donna and Ailsa…

    Ness, Jody, and Lyn

    Recent graduate Ness chats with Jody and Lyn…

    Group shot

    A room full of happy and talkative knitters!

  • Socks!

    Biohazard SocksFirst up are the Biohazard Socks I designed and knitted for Eileen. They were a gift for getting her Biology PhD, so I thought the biozard symbol was fitting. I took the symbol and turned it into a chart, scaling it to fit nicely around the leg of the sock. I also centered it so the motifs would continue nicely down the top of the foot. Other than that, it’s your basic cuff-down sock with a slipstitch heel. The yarn is Pagewood Farms St. Elias that I bought last year at Compatto Yarn Salon in Santa Monica. It’s hand dyed Bluefaced Leicester and it’s GORGEOUS. I loved knitting with it. I knitted the socks one at a time on two circular 2.75mm needles. (Ravelry details.)

    Sheri's Posie SocksThe second pair are Sheri’s Posie Socks from Socks from the Toe Up. (Thanks to Fiona for lending me the pattern.) I started them at Guild Camp last month but only finished them last night. I knitted them at the same time on two 2.75mm needles. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the “Sherbet” colourway, kindly gifted to me by Mary-Helen and Sandra. I was worried that the colours might compete with the lace, but instead I think it all worked together really well. The yarn is lovely to knit with and it really showed off the stitch pattern. There was very little pooling, and I ended up with heaps of it left over. I had some trouble with my initial cast-off being too tight, so I tried out Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, which worked perfectly. (Ravelry details.)

    Now, on to the next project…

  • Matt’s Random Striped Scarf

    Matt's ScarfRemember back in June when I launched my site redesign? Well, in exchange for making my awesome header, I agreed to knit Matt a custom scarf. He liked the look of Kelley Deal’s recycled scarves, so that’s where the inspiration came from. I used sixteen different colours of 8 and 10ply wool on a 4.5mm circular needle (knitted as a tube). Each colour was assigned a number and put on a bit of paper in an envelope. In another envelope I had a selection of bits of paper with 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 written on them (Fibonacci stripes). I’d pick a slip from each envelope and then knit the specified colour in the specified number of stripes. After all the slips were gone, I put them back in and mixed them up again. This assured that the stripes were random, but not too random. (I wanted a relatively even distribution of the colours.) I think it turned out really well! It’s about six inches wide when flattened, and about five feet long. (Another view.) Matt didn’t want fringe, so I sewed the ends shut. It’s now blocked and on its way to him. Thanks again, Matt! There are a couple other pics on Ravelry…

    And isn’t the Snook a natural male model?

  • Food for the Future Fair

    Just a reminder that the 2009 Chippendale Food for the Future Fair will be held this Saturday, October 24th, from 10am-4pm. The Inner City group of the Knitters Guild (of which I am Convenor) will be giving free knitting lessons there all day long. It’s going to be a great day! If you’re in Inner Sydney and you’re interested in art, food, gardening, sustainability, and culture, you should come along. (Me, I just want to pat a chook.)

  • M&S Sale

    Morris and Sons are having their occasional-but-increasingly-annual October Sale right now. This is kind of a weird one for me. It’s their first sale in five years that I haven’t been involved with in some capacity. All I did was send through instructions for updating the website. On one hand I guess it’s good that the system I set up works well and the training I’ve given them over the years has paid off. They can run it all themselves. On the other hand… they don’t need me anymore! It’s a little sad. But the sale looks good, so you should totally go.

  • The Wonder of Wool

    “The wonder of wool… or how knitting is once again helping us through the hard times.” Interesting that the UK is reporting increased sales. I have to wonder if it’s really wool though. In my experience, newbies tend to go for the cheap acrylic (especially if they’re looking for a price-conscious hobby). And whatever Ginger Spice is knitting there is mostly definitely NOT wool. I do have to laugh at the idea that Kimberley Stewart would rather stay in and knit than go out and party. Sure, riiiiiiiiiight. (Link courtesy of Alysha‘s twitter feed.)