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Tag: sweaters

Productive Day

It was a very productive Saturday! First up was the Snook’s cotton jumper, which you may recall I finished over a year ago. Yeah, it’s taken me that long to put buttons on the thing. I just forgot! They’re lovely round carved horn from the button shop. Doesn’t it look nice?

Next is the Snook’s offering for dinner tonight: Seafood Gumbo. The recipe came from Herbie’s Spices and we picked up the seafood at the Fish Markets this morning. It has scallops, prawns, and crab meat. It was delicious! Just the thing for a cold winter night.

And lastly, those are some socks I just finished for my Secret Pal. The pattern is “Uptown Boot Socks” from Interweave’s Favorite Socks. Yes, this is the third pattern I’ve knit from this book. It has a subtle cable twist down the leg and the top of the foot that this photo really doesn’t do justice. (You can see it better here.) The yarn is Heirloom Jigsaw colour 37. (One ball was more than enough.) I hope my Secret Pal likes them!

Oh, and what’s that you say? One of those socks appears… blockier than the other? That would be because Snookums has completed the prototype of my very own Sock Blocking Forms. This is basically a flat wooden foot in profile that you use to stretch the sock into the correct shape. I’ve wanted some for ages but I’ve never seen them in Australia, and I can’t be bothered paying to get them shipped from overseas. Instead I traced my own in Illustrator and made a resizable template. The Snook cut this one for me out of plywood. He still has to drill holes in it to allow the sock to dry faster, and then give it a coat of varnish so it doesn’t get moldy. I’ll be sure to show you the finished product though!

June 2, 2007
Long-Sleeved Cotton Polo

At last, a Finished Object to report! I’ve been working on this jumper for the Snook for well over six months. It’s based on a Wendy pattern (#5101) which I converted to be knit in the round. To tell you the truth, it was pretty boring through most of the body and the sleeves and only really got exciting once I finally got everything together on one needle. The raglan shaping and vee neck took a little brainpower; I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the decreases. The collar was supposed to be knitted separately and sewn on. As if. I just picked up around the neck and knitted it on. I have to say, I’m really, really pleased with how this turned out. The yarn (Jo Sharp’s Soho Summer DK Cotton) was an absolute beeyotch to knit with, but the finished garment is so soft and warm that I’m already planning one for myself. All that’s left is to get some appropriate buttons for the placket neck and she’s finished!

May 14, 2006
Knitty Pattern Round-Up

Knitty Pattern Round-Up
Finally I’ve got another Finished Object to share with you, along with two knitted Gifts. First is my take on the ubiquitous Clapotis. I never planned to knit one of these wraps (which have gotten ridiculously popular in the last year), but I just happened to be listening to the KnitCast interview with the designer on the same day that we got this luscious new shade of Noro in… and I was powerless to resist. I worked out that I needed six balls of Kureyon to do the pattern as written, but after I’d casted it off I realized I wanted it longer and frogged it back to include a seventh ball. As it is, I can wear it as either a really big scarf or a smallish wrap. I like it. (I blocked mine out into a rectangle and I prefer it knit-side out, both of which are different from the model photos.) Next is Shimmer, a glamorous little lacy shrug that was knitted by my friend Miss Fee. She made it for herself to wear for a wedding but afterwards decided it was too big to wear again (and too nice to consider unraveling). She persuaded me to try it on and pronounced it a perfect fit, and then she gave it to me! How nice is that? It’s knitted out of Filatura di Crosa’s Zara mixed with Night to give it a bit of glitz. I know I was anti-shrug before, but this one is just so pretty and girly! I need to get some nice tops to wear with it. And last is the long-awaited picture of baby Ruth Cunningham wearing the Norgi jumper I knitted her. I have no idea how Nat and Staci managed to get it over her head, but doesn’t it look adorable anyway? I love it with her little jeans!

October 3, 2005
Looking Glass Jumper

Looking Glass Jumper
At last, the Snook’s new cabled jumper is complete. It’s pattern C from Sirdar’s Denim Book of Aran Knits and it was knitted in the Denim Sport Aran. (The Snook was the third size; I bought the required seven balls but even though I lengthened the body and sleeves, I only used five-and-a-half.) This was my first attempt at converting a pattern written for flat knitting into circular, and I’m about 90% happy with the result. There is a rather glaring error on the front of the jumper – clearly visible at right – but we’ll just call it my Amish mistake. (It was too far to frog down and too complicated a spot to correct with a dropped stitch. I thought about swapping the front for the back, but that felt like I was trying to hide it too much. I like that it has a real human error in it. Can you spot it?) The jumper was so named because every other row of the pattern had to be inverted and read backwards to be knit in the round. It only really got fiddly once I started doing the neck shaping; I was juggling five sets of decreases at once (left front, right front, two sleeves, and the back). I just sorta winged it. Pretty nice huh?

Incidentally, it’s really hard to take a decent photograph of cables. I took both the ones below before I figured out that I had to do it without the flash. But isn’t the Snook with his Puss-Puss sooooo cuuuuuute?

August 15, 2005
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.

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

June 4, 2005
Sexy Geography Teacher

Since Eileen asked, here’s the picture of Sexy Geography Teacher in all his glory. (Click for a bigger version.) Now you can see where I got the inspiration. Wouldn’t you have liked to’ve had this guy teaching you about Mercator projections?

Further construction notes: This is an actual pieced garment, not something knit in the round (as I usually do). The graph consisted of the back, the two front sections, and one sleeve. The other sleeve is blank. The design is only on the “outer” section of the garment, meaning if you lift up your arm there’s not another version of India beneath it. I can scan the graph if anybody wants to have a look at it.

February 12, 2005
Geography Cardigan

On Thursday I gave my latest knitting project its first public airing… I present the Geography Cardigan! I got the idea from an old 80’s knitting book Mrs Morris (the shop owner) lent me as a joke. The tackiness of the patterns really needs to be seen to be believed. (The back cover, for instance, features a guy in suspenders and a bow-tie standing next to a woman wearing a sweater… with knitted suspender and bow-tie motifs. Get it? It’s an OPTICAL ILLUSION. Very clever.) Anyway, I was flipping through it and suddenly there he was: Sexy Geography Teacher. He had a Ewan McGregor ‘tache to go with his acid-wash jeans and the grooviest, daggiest cardigan I’d ever seen. I had to make one. After a period of trial and error I settled on Sirdar Nova as the yarn of choice. It’s not 100% wool, but it’s soft and it was the only thing thick enough to get gauge that had a range of bright colors. In terms of technical difficulty, it was my first ever attempt at intarsia and I bungled it a bit. It looks fine from the outside, but I made the mistake of occasionally carrying the wool across the back instead of cutting and starting a new strand (because it was only a gap of a few stitches, and I’m lazy). I’ve since found out that you NEVER MIX INTARSIA AND FAIRISLE, which is what I was doing. Consider yourself warned. Anyhoo, I also had to invent a way to knit the collar on to the garment since the one knitted to the pattern specifications was way, way too small. But it worked out. I’m actually pretty proud of it! I still need to head to Newtown for some appropriate buttons, but it’s definitely one of my more successful projects. And check out the back! (And as the Aussies keep asking, Australia’s on my left elbow. No, I wasn’t clever enough to do the thing where you reorient the whole world to put Australia on top. Sorry.)

February 12, 2005
Solstice is finished!

A solstice a long time coming…
I am so happy to report that my Jo Sharp “Solstice” sweater is finally finished, nearly two years after I started the damn thing! I ran into difficulty in September (2003) when I started sewing it up and realized that I’d made a complete cock-up of the drop sleeves. I’d cast them off too tightly, which meant that the armhole was rather tight and not nicely drapey like it should be. Unfortunately I only realized that after I’d sewn the sleeves on and woven about 50,000 ends into the seam. Frustrated and annoyed, I packed it in a bag and set it aside to work on happier projects. It languished for over a year. Periodically I’d take it out and pick at the seam, then sigh and put it away. I just couldn’t deal with it, you know? Then last month I had a flash of inspiration: Why not pay somebody to fix it for me? So I took it in to work and gave it to Ann, the lady who runs our knitting clinic. She worked on it all through our holiday and had it ready for me when I got back today. She not only fixed the sleeves (and added a bit more needed length), but she also seamed the sides, knitted the collar, and wove in the remaining 100,000 ends! Of course, as part of the deal I had to put up with a fair bit of griping and criticism from her about my crappy finishing techniques, but hey, I was a beginning knitter, all right? And she did compliment me on my even knitting, which was nice. (Apparently my final measurement was only two centimeters off the 130 specificed in the pattern.) At any rate, it’s finally finished and I can wear it… in about six months when this damn summer heat wave ends. *sigh* But aren’t the colors great? I wanted something big and crazy bold to wear with jeans in winter, and I think this will fit the bill nicely.

December 8, 2004
My Prisoner of Azkaban costume

Well, that was AMAZING. I absolutely loved the film. But more on that in a minute. First, I need to confirm that yes, I did dress in costume. And yes, I was the only one. Not only that, but the theater was probably only 20% full anyway. So I was a big dork. But Snookums thinks I’m cool and I got a few great looks from some kids, so I feel it was a success.

First off, here I am in my Hogwarts school uniform. Details: The jumper is the Weasley sweater I made a few months back. The skirt is from portmans, and the socks were from a random stall in Paddy’s Markets.

Here I am demonstrating the proper way to “Swish and flick!” to Snookums. Yes, my wand is actually a 10mm wooden knitting needle.

I decided that schoolgirl braids were appropriate, complete with Gryffindor-colored bows. (You can really see some of the red streaks in my hair in that picture.) I wasn’t sure whether I should wear my glasses or not. They’re definitely more Potter-ish, but I didn’t want any loss of peripheral vision should we have to sit very close in the theater. I went with the glasses, and luckily it didn’t matter.

If you make fun of my chubby tummy, I’ll put the Cruciatus curse on you!

You know what this costume really needs?

Wizarding robes and a Gryffindor scarf! That’s my new scarf based on the Azkaban design. The robes are actually the Snook’s student robes. (He had to wear them every Monday dinner in college.)

Here’s a close-up of my Gryffindor badge. (You’ll recall that I made the badges last week.) I printed the badges on transfer paper and then ironed them on to some plain calico. Then I trimmed them really well and sewed them down on some black felt for stiffness. Then I trimmed the felt and basted it down on the robes.

Here’s my Dumbledore’s Army badge (from Order of the Phoenix). I accidentally placed the badges too high, I think. I didn’t realize that these robes are made to be worn hanging way back, so they could stand to move a few inches lower, possibly.

Woohoo! Bring on the movie! Bring on the cheering crowds!

Crap. The theater was nearly empty. No one! Where are the crowds? Where the throngs of Potter-fans? Am I the only person dedicated enough to take the day off and make my own costume to celebrate this cinematic event? It appears so.

I didn’t even get to hand out any of the way cool business cards I designed!

At least Dr. Amy Jones still loves me.

So I think I might have to go back to one of the weekend showings in order to give this outfit a proper airing. Any of you Sydney people interested in accompanying me? You don’t have to dress up! 🙂

June 10, 2004
Weekend Update
Weekend Update
Three-day weekends are just glorious, aren’t they? It’s the perfect amount of weekend time. We had one day for socializing, one day for housework, and one day for hobbies. It was brilliant.
- Friday night: Stayed up late to watch The Mummy on TV and work on my sweater.
- Saturday morning: Took Amy to the vet for her last kitten vaccination. She whined and struggled the whole way there. Not fun.
- Saturday afternoon: Workout time! Legs and biceps.
- Later Saturday afternoon: Drinkies with friends. We got to see Mr. and Mrs. Healy for the first time since their honeymoon. I also partook of a hookah for the first time in my life. Apple tobacco tastes like candy!
- Saturday night: Dinner at JuJu’s in King’s Cross with Andrew and Kathleen. It’s supposed to be one of the best and most authentic Japanese places in the city. You have to take your shoes off when you go in! At one point I got up to go to the bathroom and Andrew warned me about “weird bathroom etiquette.” My mind immediately flashed: “Ass towels!” But it wasn’t. Instead you just had to slip on these weird sports sandals to go in. The food was fabulous though. I ate fish egg udon! I just pretended that the little orange dots were spices instead of little fishy ova.
- Sunday: House cleaning. Majorly. I even went through my clothes and picked out all the crap I never wear to take to the op shop. I also rearranged everything to put my summer stuff away. *sniff*
- Sunday evening: I dug out my Handspring PDA and put fresh batteries in it. Then I installed this KnitAble software to keep track of my knitting. I catalogued my whole stash!
- Monday morning: Knit, knit, knit. The Snook brewed beer.
- Monday afternoon: Gym time again! Shoulders, triceps, and abs. And I ran 2.5 km. And the Snook brewed beer.
- Monday night: Watched Queer Eye – How great was the Mullet Man? I loved him! – and finished my sweater! And the Snook brewed beer. Well, actually he stopped for a bit to play photographer. We ended up doing a little sweater fashion show. I’m really happy with how it turned out. (In case anybody is Googling, this is the Janetta Dexter Sampler Sweater from Jacqueline Fee’s The Sweater Workshop. I had to add a few extra designs to get the length I wanted.) I didn’t know drop shoulders looked so good on me! I am now the queen of two-handed fairisle knitting. The only problem is the thing is so damn warm I’ll only be able to wear it for one month a year. *sigh*
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April 26, 2004