You heard it here first: THE KNIT PICKS ARE HERE! I’m unpacking the box at this very second. We’ve also got megatons of Debbie Bliss, including the Pure Silk (which is absolutely divine) and lots of Cashmerino in multiple thicknesses.
Tag: knitting
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Knitting Article
I just discovered that I’m quoted in this article about knitting entitled “Street art goes soft.” I think I remember giving the interview a while ago. (It gets hard to keep track of all my media appearances, dahlings.) She got one thing wrong though – we never had anyone from Quitline at the Knit & Quit classes. We tried, but apparently they have ZERO budget to support anything other than the phone lines.
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Me on the Chaser
Dude, that was so fun! Well, yeah, I kinda got stuck with a random co-host. I turned up and told the producer that I was the last minute fill-in for the 7 o’clock slot, and she was like, “Oh, so’s this guy. Do you guys each want to do half an hour or…” And I was like, “Whatever.” I realized pretty quickly that on my own, I wasn’t going to be doing much other than answering the phone. So I figured I’d have him to do that. (Unfortunately he apparently didn’t tell me about most of your messages! Sorry about that.) But in spite of it, I actually had a really great time. The producer chick was really nice and we sorta teamed up. (She’s a pretty good knitter, too.) I had been pretty anxious on the way over there – Would I look fat? Would people think I was boring? – but I found that I got comfortable really quickly. What did you guys think? I haven’t seen any of it yet, but it felt pretty good. All of the other people I’d seen kinda just sat there and did nothing, or else they wore wacky costumes and hula-hooped. I just wanted to be different without being too over-the-top. I hope at least it amused you.That said – I booked in for another slot! I’m going to be on Saturday morning from 8am-9am Sydney time. By my reckoning, that will be about 5:00pm on Friday Indiana time, so all the Americans should be able to tune in! The producer loved the idea of having a knit-in, so any knitters that want to come along, let me know.
PS – Did you guys see the Snook? He apparently walked behind as we were winding down. And then, of course, he and I pulled a total “bonehead” by sticking out our tongues as we left…
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Weekend Update
Well, that was fun. We didn’t get much trip preparation done, but thanks to the Snook my birthday weekend was one to remember. It started Saturday morning with a trip to Bills in Surry Hills for breakfast. We met up with Fiona (and her Mystery Visitor) for scrambled eggs and coffee in the sunshine. Afterwards I headed to Glebe for my first appointment with my new stylist, Desiree at Partners Hair Workshop. She was fantastic! I’m used to salon visits taking forever, but Desiree had me out the door in under ninety minutes. (And that’s including foils, cut, and blow dry!) Back at home, the Snook was preparing for my birthday barbecue… right before the heavens burst. So the festivities were all indoor. But no matter; we had Wii! Many, many games of tennis, fishing, cow racing, and boxing ensued. We also had a veritable cadre of bloggers amongst the guests, including Amy, Kenya, Bex, Helen, Andrew, and Major. We had salads, chicken, fish, SO. MUCH. CHEESE., chips, bread and truffle butter, and really just everything lovely. The Snook made a rich low-carb chocolate cake and Andrew countered with some decidedly high-carb (but sooo worth it!) fancy cupcakes. As you might imagine, the Snook and I spent most of Sunday just in recovery mode. We had lunch in Chinatown with his mother and sister, but otherwise I spent the day working on my cardy. The other puffy sleeve is now finished! I’ve moved on to the embroidery, as you can see here. I’ve got til Saturday to put it all together and finish it off. I think I’m actually gonna make it! -
Did somebody say… PUFFY SLEEVE?
It appears that my meticulous calculations have worked! The first puffy sleeve is finished and it’s just about as perfect as I could’ve hoped for. I need to give both pieces a good ironing before I sew it in, but I’m 95% sure this pattern is a keeper. You can see how it looks on my arm here. Now I just need to knit another one and finish the thing off! Easy peasy.
And that? That’s the amazing dinner the Snook cooked me tonight. (Vegetarians LOOK AWAY NOW.) It was a low-carb carnivore’s feast. Starting from the bottom, there’s a bed of mashed cauliflower surrounding a Scotch fillet steak wrapped in bacon, with fried duck’s liver on top. And what’s that funny white golf-ball-thingy? Oh, it’s truffle butter. (Seriously, I could eat a bowl of that stuff.) The sauce is a reduction of sherry and homemade veal stock, and there’s a side of green beans amandine. We washed it down with a few glasses of an excellent Australian red.
You know, so far my 30’s really don’t suck!
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Kitty Kat Cardy Update
I’ve been dealing with some contrasting impulses this week. On one hand, the cardy bodice could look really cute as a vest. But do I wear vests? Not really. On the other hand, knitting long sleeves in the next ten days is going to kill me. Then last night I had a brainstorm: I could put short sleeves on it! And not just any short sleeves – PUFFY SLEEVES. Yes, that’s going to push the whole thing so far over the cliff into the Land of Twee that the world might implode. But I don’t care! It’s already going to have EMBROIDERED KITTY FACES on it! I think we may even be venturing into Alannah Hill territory here! Maybe I can sell the design to her for next year’s collection! The very concept of puffy sleeves is making me CRAZY!
But yeah, they’re tricky to knit. Bex gave me some helpful advice and I’ve filled several pages with scribbled calculations tonight. But it just might work…
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Kitty Kat Cardigan Bodice
That there is the body of my Argyle Kitty Kat Cardy FINISHED. Well, not technically finished. I have to weave in a million ends and embroider on the white diagonal lines and the cat faces, but the actual knitting is done. (I used a three-needle cast off for the shoulders.) Folks, that is a total of eight days from start to finish for that sucker. And did I mention it’s in BLACK 4-PLY? I’m a little amazed myself. I was helped by the fact that halfway through the week I checked my row gauge and realized that doing five diamonds up the front was going to make it too long. I fretted about the non-symmetry of only doing four, but the girls at the guild meeting today convinced me it’d be fine. So that saved me 20% of the expected time.
As of this moment, I have exactly thirteen days left before the exhibits have to be turned in. And of course, I still have to knit the sleeves. Anyone want to take bets on whether I make it?
And in health news, I think I’m feeling better. My temperature seems to have stabilized and my throat isn’t getting any sorer. Of course, this damn bug might just be incubating til my holiday starts…
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The cardi is growing…
My Kitty Kat Cardi continues to grow.
The two fronts will each have five diamonds, so I’m 30% of the way there…
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Youth was wasted on me.
So how did I spend the next-to-last weekend of my 20’s? I’m ashamed to say: sitting on my butt and knitting. Saturday morning was the Annual General Meeting of the Knitter’s Guild, and it totally just SAPPED MY WILL TO LIVE. I was surrounded by busybodies who actually spent half an hour heatedly debating the issue of whether we should print annual copies of the Membership Directory. Seriously. (For the record, I think the whole issue would be avoided by putting it on the website, but as A) that would mean work for me and B) I don’t actually care one way or the other, I kept my mouth shut.) My Knitting Nemesis was also in fine form, dominating the debate, waving her camera around, and generally just annoying everyone who was counting down the minutes til Tea Time. Basically, that was ninety minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. (Notable exception: Fiona received her Level 1 Certificate, and a hearty congratulations to her!)Afterwards I suffered a major allergy attack and a subsequent headache, so I decided to pike on SSK and the Mardi Gras parade (to which the fabulous Bex had invited me). I then spent most of the next 36 hours working on my argyle kitty-kat cardigan, a teaser of which you see before you. I’m supposed to enter it in the Easter Show, but it’ll never be done in time. If it turns out well though, I might write it up for Yarn. I also watched Freaky Friday and Cat People (both of which were EXCELLENT), four episodes of House, three episodes of My Name is Earl, and the Biggest Loser weigh-in. Yeah, I suck.
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Cabled Jacket of Doom – FINISHED
It’s done. It’s really and truly done. After an aborted attempt at sewing in the zipper last weekend, I hit upon the idea of sewing down some ribbon along the inside of each front to hide the cut edges and provide a more stable foundation for the zipper. So I got four meters of ribbon from the shop (which turned out to be the perfect amount) and got to work. Unfortunately the Cursed Nature of this project meant that first I had to do things completely wrong. I sewed down one ribbon with the sewing machine (without pinning), then sewed down the other (after pinning). I’m sure some of you can see the problem already. I tried it on and groaned. The side I hadn’t pinned had stretched at least an inch or so in the process of sewing, so it was all ripply and crap-looking. Why the hell didn’t I think to measure and make sure the two pieces of ribbon were the same size? Because of the Curse, obviously. So I ripped out the ripply side and then wet it down for the night, hoping it would spring back into shape. (It did.) The next day I measured out the ribbon, pinned it down, and sewed it into place. It looked good! I then used the rest of the ribbon to face all the seams inside the garment: around the arms, the shoulders, and the hood/neck steeks. Lastly, I sewed in the goddamn zipper. It’s done! This sucker took me exactly SEVEN MONTHS to finish. I learned so much along the way! I learned how Debbie Bliss patterns can SUCK; I learned how photos that don’t show vital parts of the garment – like the collar – are a big ol’ WARNING SIGN; I learned that steeking saves you knitting time but doesn’t necessarily cut down on finishing. And you know what? After all that, the bastards will probably reject it for the Show. That’d be just my luck.
Didn’t Snookums do a good job of taking Interweave-esque photos?
