A Competition At Shazzas Knits

My dear friend Mary has been waiting patiently for me to finish these for her, they would keep getting put to the bottom of the 'must do' pile, but finally I cast off and gave them to her on Monday. She loves them because she is a purple and red girl, which is why when I saw this Opal colourway I immediately thought of her. The pattern is my good ol' faithful sock pattern, I still feel a plain pattern for self striping sock wool works best.

Another of my patterns, which happens to be my favourite is Muse Hat, I make and sell these over at my Etsy Shop. This was one of the first hats that I started selling there and I was surprised that they didn't sell as well as the other styles available. I had a rethink and decided to reshoot the photos and this time I positioned the hat slightly different on the *styro head, since doing so the Muse hats have been flying out of Shazzas house and into homes all over the country and world. How exciting!!

*I must give her a name a la Cindy's bare naked lady, so I have decided to hold a blog competition. Below are some pictures of as yet unnamed styro modelling the latest Muse Hat, suggest a name for her and the most original name that I like, will win! Win what you ask? Your very own Muse Hat, knitted by me in your choice of colour. I know that most readers of knitting blogs are in fact knitters and would probably like more wool, needles or even a pattern but I thought that for once wouldn't it be nice to have something handknit especially for you to wear, that was made lovingly by someone else. Even if you don't wear hats you can always put it away as a present for that hard to buy for person, so leave your answer in the comments or if you wish to stay anonymous, email me (email addy in my profile section) and next Saturday I will announce the winner. In the event of more than one person selecting the winning name I shall do a draw to determine the winner.




Leah, you asked me a question in my last posts comments about wool shops in Launceston, well unfortunately they are very light on. We have one specialty shop, Knits, Needles and Wool which is in Tattlers Arcade in the city centre and then of course there is Spotlight in Cimitere Street, which is everywhere anyway so not really special. I'm afraid that is it as far as knitting and/or wool stores here in Launceston, other than Waverly which you already know about, sad but true. I love Knits, Needles and Wool and it is where I do all my shopping except of course for my favourite online store in the world. Fellow Launcestonians if you know of any others please could you mention it in the comments so that Leah can read it there.

Till next time, happy knitting and good luck with the naming of the styro head.

More Baby Pants

Thanks for all the lovely feedback I received for the baby pants. I forgot to mention in the last post which wool I used, it was Bendigo Classic which of course is now available to everyone as they have finally joined cyberspace. I received a few emails asking if I was going to sell the baby pants in my Etsy shop. If you are interested in the rainbow pants I have listed them as a custom made and will take orders for them, as there is a fair bit of knitting involved I thought that this would be easier than making a pair up in each size. I have just added these so that I could have an example of a plain pair.




If you look closely you will notice that the flower is knitted, not crocheted as it appears to be. I have just bought Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments which is already starting to get that well used look.

It seems that I am not the only one who has a little business venture going on at the moment. My good friend Rachel has started Tall Grass Yarns and has some beautiful colours on offer and some very clever names she has chosen too!

Oh well that is about all for now, till next happy knitting.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

These little baby pants or longies make me think of that song, I wonder why? I had to fiddle around with an old baby leggings pattern to get the stripes measuring the same, the waistband to have a drawsting and I changed the narrow leg to a bootleg style. A lovely lady who bought one of my hats asked me to make these for her daughter, complete with the embroidered ladybug beetle on the leg. Janelle was giving me her, always honest, opinion of these while they were being made but even she admitted that they were very cute when finished! I swear that girl is my harshest critic but I do value her opinion as she is very artistic and knows what does and doesn't work.



Another Newsgirl Cap, this one made from
Patons Jet, I love the way the variegated Jet works with my caps and being wool and alpaca, very soft. I will be making some from Bendigo Alpaca soon. I am working on some new patterns too, so stay tuned!

The school holidays are almost over, phew! This second week has been a bit trying as they have all been sick, I suppose it is best to get the bugs over and done with before the second term begins. This is always a long, cold term with plenty of colds and flu's doing the rounds. Oh well till next time, happy knitting.

Introducing Blokey Beanie

I am able to unveil Blokey Beanie, the handsome thing that he is! I wanted a beanie that was masculine but a little different from the black fishermen ribbed that is quite common for mens beanies. Blokey is a skullcap fit in a twisted k1 p1 rib and made from 100% pure wool, but not any old wool, this is some of Katts hand dyed wool, which she is selling in her Etsy shop.




I only have this one in my Etsy shop at the moment but I do hope to make another shortly so that he won't be too lonely, but then again he is surrounded by all those gorgeous women! I still have to finish the baby pants and just when I thought there was light at the end of the knitting tunnel, I received two more orders. A newsgirl cap in green and a Panta headband, haven't made one of those for a while.

On an entirely different note, yesterday I received an email from a lovely lady just south of Newcastle. Now for those outside of Australia you may or may not have heard but there have been terrible storms in NSW which have caused havoc especially in Newcastle. This lady asked for my
shazzas sock pattern and had a couple of questions about sock knitting as she is wanting to give sock knitting a go. She mentioned how their area has been declared a natural disaster area and we can only begin to imagine how that would feel, but in this time of turmoil she was going to knit socks. This got me thinking how even in times of wild storms, which are causing so much devastation, knitting can bring a little peace and serenity to our lives. I will end this post with my thoughts and prayers to everyone in this country suffering from the effects of the storms but especially to a special knitter out there who hopefully is safe and knitting socks.

I'm Dreaming Hats And Socks

Well that is how it seems here at Shazzas Knits at the moment. I have finished the 8ply socks that were an order, they are an old Patons Totem pattern knitted on 3mm needles giving them a nice firm fabric.


Now check out the awesome sock blockers that they are displayed on. Now obviously these are mens socks and the blockers are womens but look, they have 'Shazza' indented into them making them uniquely mine! Now I got them from a lovely lady Helen who is a blogger whose blog can be found here

So that is the sock dreaming part of this post, now for the hat dreaming. I have been busy making hats for my Etsy shop because they have been selling quite well. I am chuffed but at the same time there is always a little bit of 'oh what if they hate them?' each time I pack them up and mail them out. The photo below is of one of my newest ones which I love, it is made from Bendigo Rustic pacifica which is a beautiful opal blue colour.

There are many more but way too many to post here and besides anyone visiting my blog would curse me for all the photos.

So now you can maybe understand why I have hats and socks whirling around in my head at night. I am working on some mens hats made from some yummy camo wool hand dyed by Katt who is about to open her own Etsy store, aren't you Katt?? Head on over to her blog and demand ask her to ;) So hopefully I will have them to show you next time. Till then, happy knitting.