The Knitting Ninja

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If knitting isn’t the new craze now you know it’s going to be as soon as Julia Roberts new movie The Friday Night Knitting Club hits theatres.  I’m a huge Julia fan and knitting is obviously a passion of mine so I can’t wait to catch this movie and see what sort of buzz it creates for my favorite pastime.

I remember a few years ago some magazine snapped a picture of her knitting on a movie set and slowly but surely celebs started coming out of the knitting basket.  I don’t know if it can solely be said that she made knitting cool again, but I’d say she definitely helped inspire the move towards knitting being a hip, young hobby.

And talking about inspiration, I’m still trying to find my knitting mojo. Thanks for the ideas so far.  Hopefully I’ll be able to sit down this weekend and cast something on. I don’t care what it is at this point…anything…I just need to kniiiiit.

Ok fellow knitters. I need help! Life has been very busy and after finishing sizzle I find myself absolutely uninspired to knit.  Well, that’s not totally true.  I want to knit, I just can’t decide what to knit.  I have lovely yarn staring at me and I’ve cast on a few new projects lately only to decide after a few rows that I’m really not feeling the project so I put my needles away and mope.

It’s summer here down under so I’d really love to knit a tank top or a shrug that I can wear in the evenings or at the office when they turn the AC on too high. Or socks.  Or anything that brings my knitting mojo back.  There’s a picture on the left of my current stash…3 balls of Bendigo Mills 5 ply in three different colours / 200g each, 2 balls of Bendigo Mills Alpaca / 400g total, 2 sets of sock yarn, a few hundred grams of left over yarn from my Clapotis Cap and the lovely yarn I dyed with Jell-O a few months back.  I’ve cast on a jaywalker using that stuff and even though it looks fabulous I’m just not happy enough with it to keep knitting so I’m going to frog it.

So here’s where I need your help.  Recommend something for me to knit.  Like I said, I’m trying to get my knitting mojo back so smaller projects would be ideal at the moment so I can get a buzz from actually finishing something.  Plus, I don’t have a lot of yarn to work with so things like socks, hats, shrugs are probably my best bet. 

 Please fellow knitters…inspire me!!

Wow. I feel bad for neglecting my poor knitting blog, but my internet connection has been absolute crap the last few weeks. Hopefully it will be sorted soon so I can get back to bringing you my regularly scheduled knitting adventures.

So…Sizzle. It’s finished. Yay!

It’s not perfect in any way shape or form, but it’s my first garment so I’m excited! You can click the pic on the right to embiggin, but be warned…it’s kind of risqué. I definitely need to wear something underneath it if I plan on wearing it out in public. I knitted the smallest size. The dilemma is the fact that if I went up a size the garment in general would be too big for me, but the smaller size is obviously a bit small across the bust. I definitely plan to knit this again so I think I’ll add a few more bust increases as well as a few extra inches for length because it’s a lot shorter then I anticipated.

Also, you can see that my V is a bit wonky. I obviously didn’t connect it at the bottom so I have a weird U shape going on, but hey, it’s original. I thought about ripping the neck finishing and starting over, but I decided to leave it just because. In general, I’m happy with the finished result although I’d make the V deeper on the next one and increase the armhole length. The V was a nice depth before I added the seed stitch but is now a bit higher then I would’ve liked. Plus, the armholes fit perfectly without the seed stitch so I omitted it altogether because I don’t think it would’ve actually fit had I added the finishing.

And speaking of finishing…hooray for taking the time to actually seam this baby up properly. I’m very proud of the fact that I sat down and made friends with mattress stitch. It really does make all the difference in the world and it’s so easy to do! Thanks to all of you for the encouragement along the way.

Oh, and before I go, I just wanted to say a special hello to my SP9 pal. She’s incredibly cool and we’re having a great time emailing back and forth and getting to know each other…I just wish I knew who she was…the curiosity is killing me! I’m going to make some hand dyed yarn for her just because she’s lovely.

And that’s that. The jury is still out on what my next project is going to be. I have some lovely Bendigo Mills yarn staring at me just waiting to be knit into something fabulous. There are a few socks I need to finish and I’d like to make another garment. We shall see. Decisions, decisions!

Ok.  Before I get to secret pal questions I have to give a quick sizzle update!

Sizzle is finished.  Mattress stitch and I are best buddies and it fits…kind of.  The tears over having to riiiiip the first seam and redo it properly were totally worth it.  Pictures and the final chapter of my sizzle adventure will follow shortly! 

Now on to Secret Pal.  I received an email - much to my delight – the other day.  Sock-ret Pal is the first swap I’ve participated in and it started a few weeks ago.  I’m yet to hear from that pal so it’s fair to say that my faith in swaps was slowly fading.  That was until the other day when my totally fantastic SP9 pal sent me the loveliest email.  My faith has been restored! And now, my answers to the SP9 questions…which are actually very similar to the sock-ret pal questions so forgive the redundancy.  Hey, I don’t write ‘em, I just answer ‘em.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I just finished knitting sizzle with Harmony by Bendigo Mills and I love it. It’s my favorite yarn of the moment.  I also have a ball of angora, also from Bendigo, that I’m looking forward to knitting with.  My favorite fibers to knit with are natural fibers like wool and alpaca.  I’m not a fan of mohair or scratchy acrylic.  My skin is sensitive and both of those make me itch like crazy!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I use Denise circulars for the majority of my projects and they come in a lovely carry case made especially for them.  My bamboo dpn’s are stored in a very cute makeup-come-knitting pouch that’s just the perfect size to accommodate the entire set.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?  Like so many knitters I learned when I was a little girl, but never took the hobby seriously until a few years ago.  At the moment I’d consider myself and intermediate knitter.  The saga of my knitting history can be found here…or you can just read this blog

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?  I sure do.  It’s right here.  Thanks for asking.

5. What’s your favorite scent? (For candles, bath products, etc.)  I love lavender and I’m also a big fan of citrus.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?  I’m more of a savory person.  However, I absolutely *love* Lemonheads and those cute little marshmallow bunnies that you get at Easter. Unfortunately, I can’t get either of those here in Australia. So sad.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I don’t spin but I love dying my own yarn.  Unfortunately, we don’t have kool-aid here so my latest experiment has been with Jell-O which is a lot of fun.  I’m also going to invest in real, grown-up dyes one of these days.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)  I’m a music fanatic and love pretty much everything except country.  My computer definitely plays MP3’s and CD’s so a mix CD would be fabulous!

9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?  Red is my favorite colour.  I also love pink.  Having said that, I wear natural colours more often then not.  Bright colours are great, but I reserve them mainly for socks and stuff.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?  I live in the big city with my roommate.  No pets. I wish!

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?  All of the above! 

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?  My favorite projects are hats.  They’re small, quick to knit and they’re perfect for a bad hair day!

13. What are you knitting right now?  I *just* finished sizzle…like an hour ago and will probably start my sock-ret pal socks this weekend and perhaps another tank top for summer.  I haven’t decided yet.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?  I *love* handmade gifts even more then store bought ones. There’s nothing like receiving a gift someone put their hard work and effort into and knowing that it was created especially for you.  I think that’s the most thoughtful thing a person can do.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? My Denise circulars and bamboo DPN’s

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?  I have a winder, but I’d give anything to have a swift.  It’s at the top of my Christmas wish list.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?  Oh dear.  That would be the very first sweater I started about…ohhh….two years ago. It’s still sitting in pieces in my knitting chest because I ran out of yarn before I finished the final arm.  And hey, let’s be honest. Even if all the pieces were finished it would probably still be sitting there unfinished because I wouldn’t want to seam it up.  And come to think of it, I don’t like the yarn anymore anyway so I’ll probably end up frogging it in the end.  Oh well.

18. What is your favorite holiday?  Thanksgiving

19. Is there anything that you collect?  Yarn, yarn and more yarn…

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?  All the books I really want are on my wishlist.  I’m not subscribed to any knitting mags because I can’t decide which one I should subscribe to.

21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?  I’d really like to learn steeking and I’d like to figure out what all the fuss is about with short row knitting.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I’ve knit socks.  However, I’ve never knit a full pair. I always knit one and then get bored before I finish the second one so I don’t know if I’m allowed to class myself as a sock knitter yet. But I WANT to be!!  And hell, I better learn to be since I joined the sock-ret pal swap.  Oh, and for the record I wear a woman’s size 8US.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd) July 23.  I’m a Leo. Rawwwrrrr…

I finished knitting sizzle last night around 10.30pm.  In my excitement I decided that I neeeeeeded to wear it rightthatsecond so instead of putting my lovely knitted pieces aside and going to sleep I attempted to sew it up.  Now, if you know anything about my knitting habits you’ll know the one thing I despise more then anything is finishing a knitted object. I knit everything in the round because the idea of seaming pieces together makes me cringe. Many a fabulous sweater ideas have fallen by the wayside simply based on the fact that I would have to sew it altogether.

But Sizzle was different.  Sizzle was going to be a turning point for me.  Sizzle was going to be the first garment I seamed up properly - it was the piece that was going to make me call a truce with matress stitch so we could be life long friends.

Or so I hoped.

I lay my two pieces on the ground, lumpy and bumpy pre-block.  I know I should’ve blocked first, but who has time for that when you want to wear it now??! So, I grafted the shoulders together using a three needle bind off. No drama there. I love that bind off and things were looking fabulous.  Not for long though…

I carefully lined the edges up and taked everything in place. I had my instructions for mattress stich close at hand and had glorious visions of a beautiful finished Sizzle.  And so I began.  First attempt…not so good.  Second attempt…even worse.  Third attempt…WTF??!  And that was it.  I decided then and there that mattress stitch and I would never be friends. 

But noooo….rather then putting it all away, calling it a night and working on it when I wasn’t so frustrated I continued on, obsessed with seaming it together.  So, in a wtfwasIthinking moment I spent the next hour using the same dodgy technique I used to seam hats and stuff before I learned how to knit in the round.  Don’t ask what that technique is - it’s hideous and I should have my knitting needles taken away for even contemplating using it on a garment.  None the less, an hour or so later, one side of Sizzle was seamed and for a split second I thought all would be happy.  Sure, it was a little lumpy, but nothing a bit of blocking wouldn’t fix.

Boy was I wrong.

I put Sizzle on only to be confronted with the most obvious, disgusting looking seam you could imagine.  They say bad finishing can ruin hours worth of fabulous knitting and they weren’t kidding!  Defeated, I took it off and crawled into bed knowing that I needed to do something drastic.  I needed to face my fear of mattress stitch and seam this baby up properly!

Thankfully, I woke up this morning with a cold.  In most cases that would be terrible, but it means I have the day off so I’ll be sitting in my living room unpicking the hideous seam, blocking the pieces and then sitting down and learning mattress stitch if it kills me.   Wish me luck…

Sorry these are a bit late…moving consumed all of my time the last few weeks.  Let the fun begin  

The measurements:
While your pal may ask for some additional info to ensure a great fit, please provide your shoe size, or any other fitting related info you think is pertinent.  I wear a size 8US.  No special instructions as I have a pretty regular size ladies foot.

(fiber related) Favorites:
What colors do you love?  Red is my favorite colour.  I also love pink.  Having said that, I wear natural colours more often then not. But hey, these are socks so make them as colourful as you like!
Do you prefer solids or variegated?  Variegated 
What fibers do you most love to knit with?  I love natural fibers like wool and alpaca.
Who do you consider your favorite yarn vendors?  Bendigo Mills!
What projects (other than socks, of course*S*) do you most enjoy knitting? My favorite projects are hats.  They’re small, quick to knit and they’re perfect for a bad hair day!

(fiber related) Dislikes:
What fibers can you not stand to knit with? To wear? I’m not a fan of mohair.  It makes me itch.  And I’m not a fibre snob, but I really don’t like scratchy acrylic either.
What colors would you never wear?   Usually I would never wear bright, loud colours, but these are socks we’re talking about so I’m not that picky.

The Tools:
Plastic or Metal? Bamboo or wood? I use bamboo and resin needles.
Circs or Straights?  I knit everything on circs although I have an entire lovely set of bamboo straights that I can’t bring myself to part with even though I never use them.
DPNs or Magic Loop?  DPN’s all the way.
Are there any knitting accessories you don’t have in your collection but would like?  I would love a skein holder because winding a centre pull ball without one just isn’t as much fun.

The Extras:
Do you have a wish list? If so, please share the link!  Yes, I do. It can be found here.
Do you like sweet, sour or salty? I’m a savoury girl.
Do you have any allergies your pal should know about? I don’t have allergies per se, but I really dislike cigarette smoke.
Favorite scents?  My favourite sent is Lavendar.
Do you collect anything (other than yarn and knitting toys of course)?  Not really. Knitting is my main obsession
When is your birthday? July 23
Do you spin? Dye your own yarn?  I don’t spin, but I love dying my own  yarn.

Wow. It’s been so long since I’ve had time to sit down and talk about my knitting adventures here. I’ve spent the last few weeks settling into Sydney.  Things got off to a fairly bumpy start, but in the end it’s worked out perfectly and coming here on my own was the best thing I’ve ever done. Hello fresh start and new beginnings!

Saying I was afraid of moving to a huge city completely on my own where I didn’t know a soul would be a huge understatement, but I’ve made friends and connections in the last few weeks that already make this place feel like home. I’m so glad to be here! 

I have a nice apartment with a great roommate (who actually happens to be from San Francisco too…hello small world!) and the most amazing view you’ve ever seen.  Don’t believe me?  Well, see that picture on the right…I took it the other night from my balcony.  It’s also the same view from my living room and my bedroom and if you go up to our roof there’s 360 degree views of the entire city…including the bridge and the opera house.  Guess who’s going to have the best seat in the city for New Years Eve fireworks?? Oh yes, that’d be me! All pictures of my view can be found here.

So now, onto knitting news, because amongst moving and getting settled I’ve managed to finish the back of sizzle!  My roommate is totally in awe that I knit and "make real things".  When I first moved in I thought I should clue her in early that I have a knitting addiction.  She thought it was cool, but didn’t really think twice about it until a few days later when I lugged my knitting gear from my car with a few finished projects in tow. Her reply when she saw my waffle sock, cabled newsboy cap and hand warmers was "Holy shit.  You knit real stuff.  I thought you were talking about just making squares and stuff."  Heh. No. I knit real stuff.  She was amazed the other night when I was sitting one the couch knitting the last few rows for the back of sizzle.  She kept picking it up and looking at it and touching it.  I told her I’d make a knitter out of her yet

As for Sizzle…I love this project!  It’s an incredibly quick knit and it’s fun too despite the fact that it’s pretty much all stk. stitch.  I think the decreases keep it interesting.  I originally cast on using Patons Zhivago, but I found some beautiful Harmony in the bargain bin at Bendigo Mills and couldn’t resist buying it.  The yarn cost me a whopping $19 and I’m only going to use about a third of it for this project so all in all my fabulous garment is going to set me back a tiny $6 or so!! 

I cast on the front last night and I’m hoping to finish it this long weekend although chances are that isn’t going to happen.  We shall see.

Oh, and before I go, I’d quickly like to say hello to my Sock-ret Pal. So sorry I haven’t posted answers to the questions yet.  I’ll do it tonight as soon as I get home so check back tomorrow. Happy knitting everyone!

Browsing my knit-list as I often do at night, I noticed a fabulous new knit along called Knit A Square for Grandma Purl.  The reason behind the knit along is explained in the first post on the blog and being that I no longer have any beautiful grandmothers I thought this was a wonderful way to show some love. 

I have a very cool stitch book that I found while I was moving and various balls of left over project yarn so I’m going to knit at least one, if not more, squares for the blanket. It’s a great way to stash bust, practice a new stitch technique and show a lot of love for someone’s grandma all at the same time.  Personally, I really like the idea of making small lap blankets for everyone in the nursing home because the idea of spreading the knit love around to as many people as possible makes me very happy.   No doubt regardless that the squares and resulting blanket(s?) will be appreciated.

How incredibly cool would it be to receive a hand made blanket from knitters around the world? I think that would be the ultimate gift!  Now go sign up and get knitting

Wow. What a week it’s been!

My boyfriend and I broke up the night before we were due to move to a new state together - in the hotel room that we were sharing for "our last night together" since we’d be apart for a few weeks before we saw each other again.  

What’s the best way to get over the man you wasted too much precious time on? The answer is on your right…leave the boy behind, road trip half way across the country with your best friend to the new state and then veg out in your hotel room with said best friend, required reading, a bottle of wine, chocolate, knitting and a phone to ring your mom and tell her what a jerk he ended up being.

I can report that the sweater curse is not to blame for the demise of my relationship.  There was however a rasta inspired cable newsboy cap on the to-do list that I can thankfully say was never cast on.  I did knit him a very cool stripped beanie with ear warmers from Last Minute Knitted Gifts which he wore everyday during winter so I guess it wasn’t a wasted effort, but still.  If the ex was good for anything it was inspiring a website idea which I hope to launch soon. 

The Great Knitting Road Trip of ‘06 began first thing Thursday morning.  You know you’re addicted to knitting when a few days before you hit the road you’re trying to decide what necessities to pack in your car since the rest of your belongings are going in long term storage and come to the conclusion that clothes and shoes can stay behind because you need space in the car for your yarn.  So yes, I packed as much of my 2 bedroom apartment (yarn included) in my tiny car that I could fit and then drove to Emma’s house.  Her items for the trip included a bag of clothes and another bag of knitting materials and break-up books.  It’s all about priorities, right?

You can read about and get the visual low-down on our trip over at Em’s journal.  We had an amazing time.  Four days travelling across the country sharing heart to heart conversations, listening to great music and podcasts, knitting and taking in the beautiful scenery.  Our trip was planned around a stop to Bendigo Mills which just so happened to be insanely out of the way, but that didn’t phase us in the least.  If that place isn’t a knitters paradise I don’t know what is!  The little old ladies in the shop thought we were crazy snapping pictures and bouncing around with excitement.  We both scored fantastic bargains and came away with some beautiful new yarn bought with specific projects in mind…well, except for the huge ball of Angora for $10 that neither of us would dare pass up.  I also bought some lovely 5-ply for socks and new saucy red yarn for Sizzle which I cast on in the car.  I’m about half way through the back and loving this project. I can’t wait to finish it!

We arrived in Sydney 3 days later, tired, but having enjoyed our adventure.  Emma introduced me to the fabulous group of local knitters here in Sydney known as SSK so I’m looking forward to knitting on a regular basis with them.

And that’s that.  New city, new job, new life minus the old boyfriend and lots of beautiful yarn from Bendigo to keep me inspired for awhile.

I finally finished my first sock!  No, it’s not the petite half of the chewbaca sock (I got bored with the sea of stockinette on that baby so it now lives in my UFO pile like a sad alien.  Get it…ufo…alien…haha. Perhaps only I find that funny .  The sock I finished is the toe-up blueberry waffle sock I mentioned a few days ago.

Now, if you’re looking at my sock shaking your head and thinking "Hmmm…that doesn’t look like the waffle pattern??.." you’d be correct.   For  who knows what reason I ended up with  what looks like 2x2 rib despite the fact that I followed the pattern to a T. It’s not a pattern issue, it’s more of a "Morgan knits too tight" issue. 

On top of that, I don’t know if I like the colour.  This is the yarn I dyed a few weeks ago and absolutely loved, but yeah, now that it’s been knit up I’m not so sure.  Again, my too dark yarn obscured the pattern.  None the less, these socks (or uhmm…this sock until I find the motivation to knit the other one) is exceptionally warm and cosy and will make a perfect gift for my mom to keep her feet warm during the California winter. 

Oh, and in case you’re like me and prefer knitting socks toe-up, Emma is putting the finishing touches and the toe-up version and will be releasing the pattern shortly so stay tuned! 

After my tragic attempt at dying yarn with Emma over the weekend I decided I needed to redeem myself by dying something pretty.  I’ve had three beautiful pink balls of Heirloom in my stash for eternity and never felt inspired by them so I figured they were the perfect yarn for my next dying attempt. I’m notorious for dying colours too-dark and not being able to enjoy the pattern after it’s been knit up so I was determined to dye light, spring-time colours this time around.

I planned on using food colouring, but my local grocery store was completely out so I decided to go with Jelly (or Jell-O for those of you in the states). I’ve heard fairly negative things about jelly dying including the fact that it makes a sticky mess, but I was pleasantly surprised.

After creating the most enormous skein of my life (which entailed running around two chairs back and forth down my hall way and getting very dizzy in the process!) I soaked the yarn in a cool water salt mix (I forgot to buy vinegar), brought the jelly to a boil and then left my yarn to sit in the coloured water until it was nearly clear.  Once the dying process was over I rinsed the yarn in cool water until it ran clear, wrapped it in plastic then set it in the microwave for two rounds of four minutes before letting it dry overnight.

I woke up this morning like a little kid at Christmas at the thought of what will hopefully be beautiful, springtime inspired, self-stripping yarn.  I found the colours are not as vibrant as regular dyes.  Instead they’re a soft pastel which is still very pretty.  If I want hard, vibrant colours I would probably stick with real dye, but I loved using Jelly because there’s such a huge range of colours to choose from (since we don’t have Kool-Aid readily available here in Australia) and it smells great!  I avoided a sticky mess by using tongs instead of my hands so that was a total non-issue. 

I think I’m going to knit a pair of toe-up JayWalkers which I can’t wait to cast on.

In other sock-knitting news I joined the Sock-Ret Pal swap.  It sounds like a very fun swap so definitely check it out if you’re a keen sock knitter.   It’s my first ever swap so I’m excited!

I finished my Clapotis Cap. While I’m still in love with the gorgeous yarn, I’m sad to report that it’s too dark to do the pattern justice.  The awesome pinwheel on top of the cap is lost in the dark colour scheme. However, I adore the hat so I wear it whatever chance I get.  I’ll probably knit another one in a lighter colour scheme.  Or not.  I haven’t quite decided yet.   In the meantime I still have plenty of this beautiful yarn left. Like most knitters I love the clapotis pattern and originally wanted to knit my mom one for Christmas, but I may settle for a pair of socks after realizing clapotis and dark colours don’t mix particularly fwell.  We shall see.  Perhaps a pair of toe-up Jaywalker socks instead?  Speaking of toe-up socks, I decided over the weekend that I wanted to use the yarn I dyed the other day to knit a fabulous pair of socks.  Emma suggested the Blue Berry Waffle Sock pattern, but I was hesitant to knit a top down sock for fear of running out of yarn before I finished the actual sock.  Em came to my rescue by offering to convert the BWS pattern to toe-up after my attempt at googling the pattern failed.   I’m nearly done with the first sock and again, because my yarn is quite dark, the pattern doesn’t show up very well.  That, and I somehow managed to knit what looks like 2x2 rib even though I did in fact follow the waffle pattern.  I’m a tight knitter so I think my knit row is unfortunately swallowed up by my pearl row. Very weird.  But the pattern is excellent and there are only a few amendments that I made from her original version.  We’ll post the final version online shortly so everyone in knit land can make their very own toe up Blue Berry Waffle socks.  Yay!  In other fantastic knitting news, our local knitting group had a yarn swap the other night.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t very much swapping going on, but I managed to score a fabulous ball winder from Barb for $8.  Can’t beat that!!  And now, in not so happy knitting news I must report the tragedy that was my yarn dying attempt today.  I was pleased with my last effort at dying yarn so I was very keen to dye the last lot of 200g. I had visions of a lovely pink and red colour scheme to make stripy socks so I was quite sad when I added what was supposed to be a small amount of blue colour to my red in order to darken it the slightest bit. I ended up with dark purple to my dismay.  A quick rinse of Napisan lightened it a bit…but still…there’s no other way to describe the outcome other then ugly.  Pink, dark purple and a few weird shades of blue.  Em was very sweet in her effort to convince me it wasn’t that hideous, but really, it was.  She on the other hand managed to dye some fabulous green / pink / white sock yarn.  I can’t wait to see how it knits up!

This weekend has been chalk full of knitting goodness.  However, it doesn’t go without saying that it got off to a fairly shaky start when I returned home on Friday night after one too many cocktails to find the beautiful yarn Emma gifted me with the other day staring at me from the coffee table. 

Rather then patiently waiting for her to wind it for me on her awesome ball winder (that she scored for a total bargain on Ebay!) I decided that I neeeeeeeded to knit with it right then and there so I sat down, draped the skein around my knees and began winding a centre pull ball around my thumb.  One Norah Jones cd later and I had a fabulous ball all ready to cast-on the Clapotis Cap. 

Needless to say, the alcohol was still affecting my brain because 9 attempts later and much cursing under my breath I was still unable to make any progress on my cap.  Somewhere around 1am, after the boyfriend was sound asleep and my eyes were starting to voluntarily shut on their own, I decided it was time to call it a night and make friends with the Clapotis Cap in the morning.

I woke up with knitting on the brain so Emma and I decided to spend the glorious spring day gallivanting around town doing all things knit related.  We started off by going to the Handspinners & Weavers Guild where we admired beautiful hand knit items and bought yarn dye.  We’ve tried our hands at dying yarn in the past, but we used food colour so we were all too excited yesterday at the prospect of using real, grown up dye. 

However, before the dying began we decided to continue our trek in the great weather so we headed over to the Walking Wheel Studio.  I was interested in purchasing a real ball winder after deciding that my thumb just isn’t up for the job anymore and Em was looking for a skein holder for her ebay bargain.  Unfortunately, ball winders and skein holders are pretty damn expensive at $65 a piece so we both decided against the purchase and headed back to her place where we put plastic down on the kitchen table and spent the next few hours making yarn dyed goodness.

 Em dyed some 4ply sock wool (above on the left) as well as a bit of cotton and I dyed some random 8ply that I’ve had in my stash for awhile (which is over on the right).  Everything turned out fabulous!  I think I’m going to make a felted bag with my creation.

 Oh, and for the record, the Clapotis Cap and I are friends now.  I spent the evening knitting away.  The yarn knits up beautifully and I’m now obsessed with dropping stiches on purpose…

I’ve decided that the hardest thing about keeping a knitting blog is photographing my creations.  How the hell do you photograph yourself wearing a shrug…from the back??  My attempt is over to the left there - a grainy, terribly lit picture because I couldn’t use the flash while standing in front of a mirror.  Then again, I probably could’ve just waited for the boyfriend to get home and take it for me, but that would be too easy!  Either way, I’m wearing the Everyone’s Doing It Shrug . 

After finishing my ladder stitch scarf the other night (just over there to the right - 5 balls of Patons Inca; fabulous pattern!) I was looking for a quick easy project to use up my left over yarn.  I’ve wanted to knit a shrug for awhile now so I was happy when I was linked to this pattern over at Cratfster.  They say it’s a one skein project, but I have to disagree.  I ended up using two balls down to the very last inch of yarn and I wish I had a bit more because I would’ve liked to do a few more repeats.  None the less, it’s a cozy shrug perfect for summer nights when you want something to keep your shoulders warm over a tiny top or tank, but wouldn’t dare wear a full sweater in the humid Aussie summer.  In fact, I think I may make a few more of these in various colours.  If anything, it’s a great stash buster!

And, in other fabulous knitting news, my dear friend Emma surprised me last night at our knitting group with a beautiful skein of Boysenberry wool from The Wool Company in New Zealand.  I was lusting over it when she showed me the brochure last weekend so I squeeed with delight when she gave it to me last night.  What a lovely friend.  I can’t wait to get started on my very own Clapotis Cap which she finished over the weekend using the Gem colourway from the same company.  Both the hat and yarn are gorgeous!  Not like I need another project on the needles, but I neeeed to knit my very own Clapotis Cap out of this yarn; it’s like the yarn and the pattern are meant for each other…such a fabulous combination!  So much for finishing that sock anytime soon…

Socks.  As far as I’m aware, every knitter I know has knit at least one pair.  Can you be a true knitting aficionado without having cast-on and cast-off your very own pair? 

 This is a question I’ve been debating with myself since I cast on my first pair at the start of winter.  I had high hopes for knitting a comfy, warm pair of socks crafted out of yarn that I dyed myself.  I even set aside my dislike of double pointed needles (or, as the boyfriend refers to them…"what the hell are those??!") to jump on the wagon and find out what all the sock-fuss was about.

As I worked the figure eight cast-on for my very first toe up sock I started thinking of all the glorious pairs of warm goodness I would soon be making.  Visions of gifting family and friends with annual Christmas socks started running through my mind…I’d start a knitting tradition!!

Sadly, my enthusiasm waned the closer I got to the heel.  Everything was looking perfect up until that point and then suddenly, it all went down hill from there…very, very quickly.  I attempted the heel not once, not twice…but at least 5 times only to frog in frustration each time.  No matter how closely I read the pattern or how many times I re-read sock knitting tutorials, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to knit a damn sock.  Give me cables, give me intarsia, give me anything but the heel of a sock and I’m a happy knitter.

 Don’t get me wrong. I want to knit socks. I want to be a sock knitting machine!!!  Every time I see a person merrily knitting a sock I secretly wish I had their skills.  But me and socks, well, we’re just not friends…at least not at the moment.  However, that’s going to change.

Sitting on my couch tonight I glanced over at my knitting basket and saw my sad, lonely, half completed first sock-attempt sitting there.  No knitting project should be left un-touched for an entire winter and despite the fact that the season has passed and summer is nearly upon us I’ve decided that I’m going to learn to turn a heel if it kills me.  Sock weather may be over for now, but there’s always next winter which gives me and sock-knitting plenty of time to make friends and get to know each other.

Who’d have thought all those years ago as a little girl sitting on the couch watching my grandma knit that I’d be sitting here now, all grown up, with a massive stash of yarn, my collection of needles and an unhealthy obsession with buying all things knit related off of ebay?? 

Good ol’ grandma (bless her knitting heart!) taught me how to knit over 20 years ago, but it wasn’t until three Christmases ago, while sitting in my mother’s living room in California that I started to dread the boredom that would be a fifteen hour plane flight back home to Australia.  There’s only so much hand held poker and in flight movies a girl can handle before she starts to go insane.  So, I decided to take matters into my own hands by going to the local craft store and buying a "how to knit" kit. 

I distinctly remember the tragic plastic needles and scratchy acrylic yarn, but I was determined to reignite the skills grandma taught me all those years ago.  I stayed up all night working on my first ever baby bootie to the bewilderment of my parents who saw the finished product sitting on the counter the next morning and looked at me with raised eyebrows.  I had to reassure them that there were no grandchildren on the way…I was simply gearing up for my trans-pacific flight.

 Of course, it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t actually be allowed to knit on the airplane.  If I can’t carry on a pair of tweezers what the hell made me think I could carry on two sharp pointy sticks?  Indeed my plan to knit the boredom away was foiled, but my desire to knit all things colourful and fluffy continued and now, three years later, here I am writing about it on the internet.

 I consider myself an intermediate knitter simply because I’ve not yet had the patience to complete a sweater mainly due to the fact that I can’t bring myself to sit down and put all the pieces together.  I don’t think I’m allowed to class myself as advanced until I’ve fully constructed a garment that I can actually wear  Sadly, this means I may be an intermediate knitter for the rest of my life because I don’t think I’ll ever make friends with sewing seams, but who knows.

 Oh, and in case you’re wondering where the name comes from, I have to thank my friend Simon who was drunk one night and blurted it out when I asked for suggestions.  I thought it was fitting considering my knitting obsession and affinity for ninja advice…