Saturday, September 30, 2006

Central Park Hoodie

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy 40th birthday, I really appreciated your kind words and yes I am still very young. In my mind I am still a very young girl, I just don't linger too long over mirrors these days because they tell me different he he!!


Cental Park Hoodie is finished and I loved every minute of knitting it, a great pattern and yarn. I did have one drama with the finishing which was due to my wanting toggles instead of buttons or as the pattern was left open. I made toggle closures but was not at all happy with the finished result, I still wanted the rustic look of the toggles so opted for them to be decorational only.

When you have a birthday obviously a lot of friends and family don't know what to give as a present so they opt for money, cool I say because as every knitter knows that means money to spend on YARN!! So I bought some Noro Kureyon so that I could start the Lizard Ridge Afghan. and be a part of the Leapin' Lizards KAL

Here are my first two squares for the afghan, I love this pattern even if at first I stuffed up big time and was reading the pattern all wrong and was wondering why I wasn't getting the lovely wavy colour patterns that everybody else was getting. A strong cup of coffee and a trip to the frog pond and I was back on track. I have been knitting what seems like all my life and yet I still can get so enthused about a pattern sometimes that I dive in and cast on without really reading the pattern properly and I cock up big time. When will I ever learn? Probably never but hey I have fun just the same. I chose colours that had the shades of pink, green or green/blue in them which with Kureyon can include many colours in the one ball, even my favourite of all favourites, purple. Oh I do love this colour blah!!

Today was the AFL Grand Final and the West Coast Eagles won a thriller against the Sydney Swans by just one point, boy am I glad that I don't follow these teams or else my nerves would have been a goner. A fun day was had in front of the tv just the same with red wine and cheer a plenty, thankfully this day only happens once a year. Next year I hope my team do a little better than this year.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Life Begins At 40



The knitted pieces for Central Park Hoodie are finished and all that needs to be done now is my favourite chore, the sewing up of the seams. Instead of picking up the stitches seperately for the left and right fronts, I picked them up in one go so that there wouldn't be a join in the ribbing. So all going well it should be finished over the weekend.


Look away now Mrs Doctor Who because I know how much you love knitted dishcloths and I know you will desperately be wanting one. Here is the third and final dishcloth for the Dishcloth Swap. So they will be making their way to their new home on the other side of the world in the next few days.

I have also joined another knitalong, this time the Leapin' Lizards KAL working on the Lizard Ridge Afghan. I have ordered some Noro Kureyon and it should be arriving early next week so I can make a start.

Oh and on Sunday I will no longer be 30 something but I will be turning 40, don't quite know how I feel about it because the scary thing is it only seems like yesterday I was turning 30 and I still only feel as though I am 18, oh well.

Till next time, happy knitting.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

What A Great Find

Now many of you know that I collect tortoiseshell knitting needles, but I also collect something else knit related, vintage knitting patterns. I find these wonderful old patterns in op shops and of course buy the occasional one from ebay. The great thing about these lovely old patterns is that you never quite know what gems lie beneath the front cover.


As was the case with this beauty, that I bought off ebay for 99 cents, the postage was more than the book itself. When you buy from op shops you have the advantage of being able to see what the book or leaflet contains but when you purchase from ebay quite often the only clue to the contents is the title and what is pictured on the front cover.


This one, titled Socks and Mittens Fashions in Wool styled by Hilde, promised some socks and mittens and the seller had mentioned that it was published in 1953 in the US.


So imagine my surprise when this 23 page booklet turned up and it contained 24 patterns for some of the most amazing vintage socks, mittens and a couple of other surprises as well.


These lovely old bed socks and knee caps amongst them, these pages contain knitting history from a time when women would not only knit these items out of love for their family but as a necessity in a post war decade.


I have only included a few of the pictures here, to save this entire post being full of photos but it was so difficult to pick just a few as they are all worthy to be displayed. The socks are just magnificent examples of vintage sock knitting and have the same rich textures and great designs that you can find in Nancy Bush's Vintage Sock Knitting book, so yes I was very happy with my $3.00 purchase this week.




I will finish this post off with the sleeves to the Central Park Hoodie, which I am knitting together on a circular needle, as I have this problem of cabled sleeves never quite being exactly the same. I have found however if I knit them at the same time, with the exact same shaping they have to match. Well that is the plan anyway ;)

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Central Park Hoodie

Central Park Hoodie now has a back and two fronts and the sleeves are started, I am going to be knitting them both at the same time so that they will be identical.


This pattern is such a great knit and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has so far been put off attempting cables as the pattern is easily remembered and simple to do yet still look so affective.

The knew Knitty is up and I have a huge desire to make Lizard Ridge


I just love the colours which of course is created by using the gorgeous yarn, Noro Kureyon. The unfortunate part is the cost but I think if I spoil myself with a couple of balls at a time it wont seem such an extravagance, right?

I am having trouble with my wrist again, just when we all thought here in Launceston that spring had arrived and winter was behind us, the mornings have been icy cold and frosty again. I have had to bring out the magnetic wrist support again so that I can continue knitting without pain.

It is also school holidays here in Tasmania for the next two weeks which I have to admit means a bit of an easier time for me. Yeah sure the kids are home all day but there are no lunches to be made, parent help and other school activities to go to, or sport that the kids need taking to or picked up from. So all in all I get a lot more knitting done as well and I can stay up a bit later at night knowing that the circus of getting children off to school in the mornings wont be there for a couple of weeks, ahhhh!

Till next time, happy knitting.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Why the good, the bad and the ugly? I have always thought it to be right up there as one of the all time great movie titles and of course it was a pretty good movie in its day but today it refers to my knitting misadventures.


Firstly this is definately in the good category, I love everything about this knit, the pattern, the yarn, everything. It is The Central Park Hoodie which I am knitting in Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran. I love the colour except for the purple fleck, which I don't like at all. You see as a colour, purple would rate as my least favourite, even in miniscule amounts such as in this yarn but everything else more than makes up for it.


The bad part are these dishcloths, not that there is anything wrong with them but look on the cream one, that edging is crochet. Crochet!! Me crochet, I can't crochet but after reading through Debbie Stollers Happy Hooker I managed this trim and next I am going to make a monkey ipod cover, stay tuned. Bad?? well if you are experienced at crochet you might think that it is bad, but as for me I reckon not bad, even if I do say so myself. No honestly I am just stoked to finally be able to produce something that resembles crochet even if it is just an edge.

These dish cloths are two of three I am knitting for a very special woman in the US (that is all I will say for now) as part of the dishcloth exchange I am taking part in. I am still pondering on which pattern to use for #3.


Then there is the ugly, these fingerless gloves have been given this demeaning title not for their looks but that they don't fit!! The reason I am knitting the silly things in the first place is because a friend of mine mentioned that her son wanted a pair of black fingerless gloves. You know how it goes and before I gave any thought to all the knitting and crafting projects on the to do list the following words came gushing out of my mouth "oh I will make him some"!!

Now normally this would not have been a problem as I have made dozens of these things over the years and they are a quick knit but in the past I have always made them out of 8ply on 4mm needles using the same old faithful pattern. But this time I thought that as they were for a 15 year old boy that 5ply on 3.75 would be a bit more masculine, so I found a pattern in the stash and off I went.

After a couple of days the knitting was finished and I sewed one up, thought that I would try it on and see what the finished mitt looked like. *insert scream* it is too small! Now I am not known for having slender, feminine fingers so after hyper ventilating I calmed down and asked Janelle my 14 year old to try them on *insert even louder scream* they were too small even for her. They actually fit my, small for his age, 9 year old perfectly. Oh well go find the good old faithful 8ply pattern and start again and I hope the friends son isn't in too much hurry for them, it is now spring after all.

So there you have it the good, the bad and the ugly. Knitting does not always go according to plan just as our lives don't always go the way we think they will and with that sentiment I will end this post with thoughts of someone who I am sure thought that they had many more crocodiles to wrestle, RIP Steve Irwin.