Finished Objects - #9

A lovely quick knit finished for a request for my mum, the Rosy Cosy.














This was a pretty quick easy knit, a basic rib piece, with an amazing pattern from The Cabled Guy. The specs were "a little tea cosy for a one-cup teapot, and Auntie Wendy's kitchen is pink and grey". Luckily one of my balls of Sean Sheep Armytage fitted the specs (ball No.7, to be exact) and I had some leftover Zara in pink for the rose on top.













The rose was hard. Really hard. It was worth it, because even my mum thought it was great.
















No idea if Auntie Wendy liked it. I'll find out later. But at least I'm happy :)

(A massive thank you to my sister Bronwyn for taking the pics for me - you rock!)

Stupidmutantknuckles...*sulks*

My right hand has frozen up again. This requires three days with no knitting, and knitting every second day for a week after that.

I have my mum's birthday socks to make by May 2nd, a baby blanket by the 12th (due around then), a baby rabbit twice for more newborns...

This is so unfair.

Let me introduce Felix...

Gentle readers, this is Felix (and a vile hussy named Lily).

















For those who have never met him he's about 6'1", strawberry blonde hair (now a lot shorter) with a Celtic red goatee/moustache combination, very green eyes with an eyebrow piercing to draw the eye, lanky body and a set of black Cons with green and orange laces. He's also been my husband now for one year and one day.

Why Felix? Let's see...

1. He doesn't mind that I've been knitting him his fourth pair of socks since last September, and haven't touched them since.

2. He doesn't think I have enough yarn.

3. He once handed over his credit card to me knowing there was a bin of $1 wool in front of me.

4. He'll sit there, like this,














for an episode of "Family Guy" and one of "American Dad" because he knows how much I wanted to wind off the skein of lace-weight.

5. He doesn't mind me knitting during movies, either at home or out in public. Actually, he encourages it - I suspect he wants all the popcorn to himself.

6. He married me one month after I shaved my hair for charity, and didn't tell me that the only reason my veil stayed on was due to my crew cut sticking up through the holes in the tulle for a whole three weeks.

Then he casually dropped it into conversation while we were surrounded by other people as a protection unit. Clever...

Love you, babe. *mwah*

It just struck me as funny, is all...

Here's my Prime Minister with the newly appointed Govenor-General, Quentin Bryce.















Here's Tintin, intrepid reporter and an awesome read.



















I love ya, K-Rudd, but dude...it's the hair.

Finished Objects - #8

Sometimes I take my knitting for granted, because I've been knitting for a fairly long time (this March saw in my 29th year as a knitter). I assume that everyone knows how easy it can be, how fun, that anyone complaining about "difficult" or "challenging" just wasn't trying hard enough.

Then I made the Kitri Socks.



















They were "challenging". They opened my eyes to new possibilities in knitting and I love them for it. I'd never turned a entirely short-row heel until I made the Kitri Socks. I'd never added on lace sideways until I made the Kitri Socks.

















I love how they opened my eyes to the challenge that knitting can be. They're beautiful, difficult and I have come this close to framing them.















Chantal demanded to see them yesterday and when she was holding them she turned to Felix and asked "How can you not bow down and worship her when she does something like this?!" and the reply was perfect: "Because I know what she went through making them."

Thanks babe.

---

You can make these socks. They are a challenge that you will want to accept, and Lisa Grossman's instructions are brilliant - concise, witty, simplified (for the simple in all of us) and above all clear.






















Thanks for a great pattern Lisa - you rock. Now for the shawl! Oh, you vile temptress!

Little box of happiness

I lost my Amazon virginity today. I placed my order on March 30th and my order arrived today, a good three weeks earlier than they estimated.

I was hysterically giggling with joy and I grabbed the box and headed off to work for an afternoon of drooling.

So....what'd I buy?















"Hand Knit Holidays". It costs $58.95 in Borders and I've wanted it for a very long time.















The impetus for the intial order. US$5.50 - or AUS$48.95 at Dymocks. Hrm, let me think about it...
















Can't find it anywhere (except for Judith's house) so I bought it.

All up? US$52.32. In Oz money it came to $56.88 (at payment time).

So I saved about $90.

*runs away, clutching her new books ands giggling hysterically*

Finished Objects - #7

I love Victoriana. Gimme a great corset, a Psyche knot and ether for childbirth and I'd be set. In keeping with these ideas, I present my stockings.




















They're just lovely (please note an extreme bias here). Being modeled by Martine, my latest acquisition, they really do look great.




















The eyelet effect up the back of the calf is an effective feature, and as it's a four row pattern repeat, very easy to create.














I changed the heel from a flap to short row shaping, as I'd been working one on the Kitri socks and found it soooooo much neater. Recently, I've discovered I'm not as bad at heel flaps as I thought, so there may be more of them in the future.











The lace pattern at the top wasn't my style so I used a different one. I like it better.

The best part? They stay up all on their own. Although, maybe I could weave some velvet ribbon through the eyelets? Hrm....

Back with another one of those sock-blockin' beats!

So this is what I get up to when I knit.














I knit and knit and knit and knit and knit and then ignore it all until I have to block it. It's a disease of sorts.

So here's the end result.


















My Nana's (belated) 90th birthday socks.













My Jo Sharp knee high stockings.









The ever elusive Kitri socks - the missing sock may have been sat on and then missed. It may or it may not. We prefer to not comment in this house.

Give them a day to dry and then they can be posted as finished...finally.

NB: (Best blog title ever)

Crisis!

Okay everyone, brace yourselves. I have some horrendous news...

I've lost a sock.

...

Why is there not widespread panicking going on? Ah, I see. I didn't clarify my statement.

I've lost a Kitri sock. A fully completed Kitri sock.

...

Still nothing.

You do realise that if I can't find it, I can't block it, take photos of it and therefore allow you to feel the love as I do, right?

...

Fine. If you need me, I'll be looking.

But when I find it, it's all mine now.

Easter Bunny...eaters.

Oh, hai!
















We have Andrea.














She is ours! She shall not be returned to her knitting unless we receive 200kg of smoked salmon, a tanker of milk and 50 humans as permanent back scratchers. Oh, and the head of every dog in Melbourne.

In the meantime, look at the sleepy kitty....














Awwwwwwwwww!

And no, Mr Bond.














We expect you to feed us.

Well FINALLY!

I finished my Kitri socks today.

Now for the blocking and photo taking. I think I'm going to buy a leg.

Finished Objects 2008 - #6

About eight months ago I spotted the perfect pattern for my friend Sam - the Scholar Collar. He is an actual scholar - he's studying his doctorate in philosophy at Melbourne Uni, he teaches, he's pretty all round clever (albeit with an unnatural love of Keith David and crystallised ginger).

For Sam's birthday a fortnight ago I made him a very nice SC. Sam is suitably appreciative, and models his present for you here.












Note the book - he wishes he was.

Challenge accepted

As you might remember, I signed up for the Organized Knitting Club 30-Day Challenge which gave me until the weekend to do a bit of a tidy up. I now think signing up in a month when I have waaaaaaayyyyyyy too much knitting to do was a bit silly, but no matter. Here's the before and after shots.

Lounge Corner










Here we have the window corner of the lounge in it's original state.










As you can now see, there's a window ledge with a nice stash basket in front of it. Just so you know, there's exactly two projects in it - I threw three others away.

Stash Wardrobe


























The original mess, both inside and out.












The new improved version! Wiped down, tidied up.













See that list on the inside of the door? That states what's in which box and what I plan to use it for. I also threw out a project from the bottom of the cabinet I'd been keeping aside for five years. What on earth was I thinking?!



















You probably noticed my new holder - it was one of my many bookcases, and I happily admit I outright ripped the idea off from Melinda at Dropped Stitches, because I think it's the best way to see your stash and what you want to do with it. Out of sight, out of mind! To anyone worrying about dust, that's why I wet block.

I never got around to the craft bookcase, or the sewing area, but I still feel pretty good. After all, all of this is gone:













I can see that the move overseas is going to be a lot easier now!

My da's birthday

The Drunken Argyle is too big and requires a lot of scaling down.

On the depressing side (as if the jumper wasn't enough) I found out today that my da is about 7 kgs lighter than me. And the exact same height.

Quickly Robin! To the booze!

Finished Objects 2008 - #5

Behold! The B.S.Johnson!










As you can see, there's two inches of rib instead of one, so I compensated for my stupidity by shortening the crown. Felix thinks it's über-comfy, and I made it for him, so all's well that ends well.

Anyway, it is a Johnson, so there's no real mistakes, after all is there?

Finished Objects 2008 - #4

Yes, I'm avoiding the Drunken Argyle. But if you know how to pick up stitches on black knitting with black wool at night without eye strain, tell me. Tell me now.

So, here's Felix's beanie. With Felix in it.














I used Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in "Quartz" (doubled) and "Opal" (singled. Basic beanie pattern - knit rib for a while , knit plain til you need to make it smaller. And wait til you're three rows from finishing and then run out of "Opal".














Give up and use "Empire". Still works.

Finished Objects 2008 - #3

In the midst of my yarn tidying, I found an unfinished headband knitted in natural chocolate alpaca 8ply. Now, I started this headband in January 2007 because summer almost always means I'll be trying to pull my hair very far back from my forehead, and preferably completely out of the way. I have a fringe now, so I'm not really doing that anymore.

As we're heading of to far cooler climes soon, I've been eying off a few beanie patterns on Ravelry, and one of the most popular has been Coronet. There are 641 versions on Ravelry, which makes it a pretty popular pattern. Now we can add my version: "Diadem".












I used Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in "Meadow" for the top, and just made up the beanie pattern as I went. The length is perfect for me, and the chocolate brown edging matches my eyes (although Felix says the green makes my eyes look greener. Odd.) and most of my wardrobe.











It's a really easy knit, once you get over how long the cabling takes, and yes, mine was a much more complicated cable that I just made up (two 3x3 cables divided and ended by a 3-stitch moss stitch) and ran with. The band was on 4.5mm and the crown on 5mm circulars.

I'd recommend giving this a try because it was quite simple, and you can make up your own cables. Oh, and it's very comfortable!

Got it!

No time to ask questions, Robin - to the overlocker!!!

The praising is very much over

As you can read in the last post, I was full of joy and happiness and love for the world for I had finished the Drunken Argyle! So I spent 1.5 hours sewing in all the ends, then I blocked the back and front and settled down to watch "Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason" on tv with Felix.

Sitting back, occasionally glancing down with pride at my months of hard work (and large periods of inactivity, true) I felt a niggling little worry in the back of my mind. Is...is it? Is the back of this thing just really big, or am I mad? I decided to lay the front over the back to check.














Nope. Not mad. My next words: "I'm just going off to the kitchen to kill myself..."

This is a disaster. I know that's a big call, what with numerous civil wars, famines, pestilences and plagues upon so many houses, but you know what? In my tiny little world, this is a disaster. I worked so hard on this, and to get to the point where it should be finished only to see something this awful happen is actually heartbreaking. Really, truly heartbreaking. I'm still so stunned I can't even cry yet.














Sorry Da. I'll try and fix it before Thursday. It's only a two inch gap, after all.

(See? Even in the midst of a disaster, I still have my insanity.)

Hello, saints? I be praising here!

I have finished the intarsia front of the Drunken Argyle.

If anyone needs me in the next 12 hours I shall be getting tipsy to celebrate and then sewing in about 50 ends.

...actually, I might sew the ends in first.