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Tag: knitting

  • Moblog: Last ones…

    Three more pics from the ABC Knit In this morning. (I still can’t believe Fiona and Amy convinced me to get out of bed at 6:30 a.m. on my day off.) The first is a completed blanket sewn together by one of the ladies sitting in our group. Second is me modelling Marlene’s fabulous purple hat. (She thought it would look great with my red hair.) And last is the immense pile of squares and completed rugs in the atrium of the ABC. According to what’s-his-name who was broadcasting live on the radio the whole time, we had over 600 knitters show up and over 42,000 squares were donated (from country areas too). At the end they introduced the little lady who started the whole Wraps with Love program and she started crying as she thanked everybody for their generosity and support. It was a nice way to start the morning.

    Finished blanket

    Me and the purple hat

    Donated squares and wraps

  • Making new friends

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    Me and my new friend Marlene, knitting away. I’m the first blogger she’s ever met! She’s making her internet debut here.

  • ABC Knit-In

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    I’m at the ABC Knit-In this morning. Hundreds of people are putting together blankets for the needy. And the Bananas in Pajamas just arrived!

  • Craft Show 2005

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    Check it out – a yarn with my name!

    Just got back from my annual visit to the Craft Fair, and I have to say it seemed a lot better this year. It was still 75% quilting booths but the quality of the knitting wools on offer was much higher. I still saw some $1.50 Feathers knockoffs, but overall there seemed to be a trend towards hand-dyed natural fibers. I went along with Miss Jane (from the TC Stitch and Bitch), who inspired me to go on a bit more of a spending spree than I’d planned. I started off small, by indulging my now yearly habit of picking up a couple balls of sock wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills. Then I stopped in to talk to Don from Prestige Fibres, just to say hi… and somehow I ended up with eight balls of Superbaby Alpaca. (He’s selling them for an incredible price, so if you want any, get your bum down there.) That will become the basis of the argyle cardy that’s gestating inside my brain. I also got a big ball of self-patterning “Online Super Socks” from Yarns Galore. Lastly I stopped by Stick to Your Knitting, where I was promptly recognized by the owner Janette. She honestly came up to me and went, “I know you! I read your blog!” (As if I didn’t have a big enough head anyway.) Turns out Mary-Helen gave her my link. I got a couple pairs of Addi Turbos there – At last! I will be the fastest knitter in the world! Mwa ha ha ha! – and a tiny belated birthday gift for Amy. Janette also set me up with an STYK bag so I can make my boss Albert’s head explode. Jane and I also stopped by the Knitter’s Guild Booth, where I ran into Pam North again (she does the Guild newsletter) and got to meet a few other ladies from the suburban groups. Lastly, I somehow decided to give sewing another try with a kit to make the COOLEST handbag ever. The fabric has pin-up girls on it! I hope I don’t bugger it up…

  • Finished Objects

    Finished Baby Objects!
    Nat’s baby package is nearly ready to go out. On the left is the completed Baby Norgi sweater, which I finished up today. I pretty much followed the pattern exactly for once. The wool is Bambi by Grignasco, which is an extrafine 4-ply 100% Italian merino. (And it’s nicer than anything I’ve ever knit for myself!) My only reservation with this project is the fear that the baby’s head won’t fit through. Babies have big heads. I tried to make the neckline as loose as possible, but who knows. Nat and Staci might have to save this one for their next kid and hope for a smaller noggin. 🙂

    The second item is a secret one that I finished a couple of weeks ago: the Sirdar Sleeping Bag. Isn’t it the cutest thing ever? It even has little teddy bear ears! The cuteness of it almost makes up for the fact that Snowflake Chunky is the worst, most godawful thing in the world to knit. It’s as if someone took a nice terrycloth towel and cut it into a long, very fine strip. You can’t see any of your stitches amidst all that fleeciness, which kinda defeats the purpose of hand-knitting something in the first place. I mean, if you saw that in a shop, would you think it was hand-knitted? (Slight wonkiness aside?) Nope. So while it’s definitely a cute project, I don’t think it’s quite heirloom quality. At least I know that one will fit though.

    Baby Norgi   Sleeping Bag

    Now all I’ve got to do is give them a final wash to get all the cat hair off…

  • Colourways Wrap II

    Colourways Wrap IIColourways Wrap II
    Man, I feel like it’s been ages since I had a Finished Object to report! This is a sample I designed and knit for the shop. We had an original “Colourways Wrap” from a few years ago, but this one uses slightly different yarns (and an extra ball) so the pattern needed to be rewritten. They’re all Anny Blatt yarns, which means this is one of the most expensive items I’ve ever knitted. All seven yarns are carried the full length of the wrap, which means I had to resort to putting the balls in sandwich bags to avoid creating the World’s Biggest Knot. But at last, it’s done! We’ve got the range of yarns in several different colors and we plan on selling them as a kit. So anyway, yeah, from tomorrow my first official pattern will go on sale in the shop! Pretty neat, huh?

  • Cheesylove is Finished!

    CheesyloveAt long last, Cheesylove is finished! This is the Knitty pattern I started well over a year ago. At one point, I completely frogged it back to the beginning and started over (which meant re-casting on A THOUSAND stitches for the ruffle. Do you know how long it takes to do ANYTHING a thousand times? I do.). I was toying with the idea of putting short sleeves on it but in the end I decided I liked it better as a vest. Pattern notes follow.For the body of the vest, I used Heirloom EasyCare 8-ply. I can’t even remember why; it was that long ago. But it gave me the right gauge and it’s not too scratchy. The hearts are done in Heirloom Aristocrat 12-ply mohair/wool, which makes them stand out nicely. As usual, the Knitty pattern had several problems wrong with it. The biggest was that it told you to mark the side seams and then do your shaping on either side of it, without any indication which increases/decreases to use nor where to place them to ensure the ribbing didn’t get buggered. (This is part of the reason I frogged it back. My initial seamlines looked crap and it bothered me.) In the end, instead of merely marking the seam, I actually used two markers to isolate the actual side rib. Then I made paired increases/decreases in the ribs on either side of it so that they grew or shrank organically while the center rib remained whole. (Yeah, yeah, I know. It was a lot of thinking and planning for what basically amounts to the armpit of a garment. But I’m really happy with how I did it, and quite frankly I get a little thrill out of knowing that I did it the best way possible.) For the armbands, I simply picked up around the holes with the smaller sized needle and knitted 5 rows of K1P1 rib before casting off. (That way it matches the neckband.) It’s not the most stylish garment in the world, but I think I executed the design better than any other pattern I’ve tried before.

  • Yarn Ho.

    I just discovered the Knitty Shop. Man, I think I really, really need a “Yarn Ho” sweatshirt.

  • Oh. My. God.

    I just got back from giving a knitting lesson to an Academy Award winner! NO SHIT. I am so absolutely flabbergasted right now. Here’s what happened. A few weeks ago Albert mentioned that he’d had a request for a private knitting class, except that the woman wanted to do them in her office (not the shop as usual). He thought that her interests sounded like my type of stuff, so I got the job. He drove me over tonight after work. I didn’t even know the client’s name; I only got the name of her personal assistant. As we pulled up to the address, Albert blurted out, “Holy crap. It’s a friggin’ mansion!” My curiosity was totally piqued. I was ushered in and asked to wait in a lobby. Here’s my inner monologue…

    Hmm. There’s a giant 1920’s Moulin Rouge poster on the wall behind me. And wow, those Indian saris and elephants over there are pretty cool… And hmm, the assistant just mentioned that ‘Catherine’ would be ready for me shortly… Oh my god, could this be Catherine Martin?! There’s no way. There’s no way I’m going to be giving knitting lessons to someone who’s won both Academy and Tony Awards for her costume design. I’m insane. It’s not her.

    So then I met her and we had our lesson and she was really lovely, but the whole time I was still a little unsure. I asked her at one point, “This is a great place. What do you guys do here?” And she’s like, “We’re a film production company, and we live upstairs.” I was like, “Mmm-hmmm(!)” And finally the confirmation: one of the many people buzzing around stuck their head in to discuss something with her, and I finally heard the magic word “Baz.” Afterwards I said, “Okay, that gave it away! I thought I recognized you!” And she was really, really nice about it. How cool is that? I was like, “Wow, I really admire your costume work. I had no idea you were into knitting!” And she’s actually really good at it; we’ve got some interesting and challenging projects to work on. I’m excited!

    Oh, and as I was leaving, the assistant was like, “I know it’s weird, but we need you to sign this confidentiality agreement,” which I was totally expecting. It was all about not mentioning any specific projects or work that I might see while I’m there. And I’m like, “That’s cool; no problem. But one question: Can I tell my friends I’m giving her lessons? Because they’re gonna go nuts!” And she laughed and said it was okay. So that’s all I’m going to say about it, because CM (that’s what her mates call her) is really awesome and I totally respect her privacy and I’m so excited to get to work with her!

    And now I’m going to go eat some dinner and spaz out. Thank you.

  • It’s all about me and the make-up guy.

    Better Homes & Gardens ScreengrabAs you might’ve seen in the comments of the previous post, the “pub knitting” filming I went to last month has finally been televised. I’m not in it very much, but there’s a nice shot of me helping the make-up guy fix his fake-knitting and you can definitely see the “I Heart Knitting” shirt. But yeah, whatever. It’s pretty lame. I can’t believe they used the “First Rule of Knit Club” joke for the commercial bumper. We also filmed a LOT more than they ended up using (which is weird considering they clearly use at least one shot twice). They don’t mention any details about the knitting group and never even name the pub. It was a meaningless bit of filler to promote some stupid novelty blanket pattern in their latest issue. Bah, humbug.