Holiday Knitting

With the silly season almost ending (new years eve is tonight!), I am ashamed to say that I have done very very little knitting in the last two weeks. I spent my Christmas week out at Kalgoorlie where my bf is currently living and working and wasn't able to do much knitting as I only brought over one ball of wool and went through that way too quickly :(

Since I've come back, I've been busy with a friend's wedding, as well as welcoming back my dad and sister from their holidays!! So knitting has sort of taken a backseat during this holiday season - even though I was hoping the 10 day break away from work would mean lots of finished objects... how clearly I was wrong.

I have however been eyeing a few new projects, but with my growing list of "lust items", I really need to sit down and decide which ones I want to do and finish them first... (gee, isn't that every knitter's mantra???)

Some recent loves:

The cover cabled cropped cardi (right) in the new VK

The two knits on the left from the new Knit.1

And on a final note, have a great New Years!

Phildar Swing Jacket

Ever since I received my Phildar catalogues, I have been lusting over about 10 of the knits in the catalogues (*must wait till i finish other projects first!*). But one of the things that I just *cannot* stop lusting over is the Phildar Swing Jacket for which I have also joined their KAL.


My initial intention was to do the swing jacket in a lovely cream with either a pale yellow or pale purple bias trim.... when I got my bendigo wool in "aran" colour, my initial reaction was *EEK - that won't work*.. but after swatching, i've come to love it. It doesnt have the same effect as if I had used a wool with bits of rustic other colours in it, but I love the clean creamy colour and so, have decided to keep going.






I have cast on and knitted a little bit, but I know this is definitely one project that is going to take a long time to do.. lucky for me, Winter isn't for another 6-8 months !! Yayyy.




On other project news, Jess is dry but I dont have any buttons for her yet so am going to hold off on the "finished object" post until I've done the buttons. :D

Plodding along

I'm still here - though my knitting has slowed down tremendously due to the silly season. My nights, mornings, days are spent at corporate end of year functions, doing the good thing by my company and schmoozing and schnoozing where I can..

So for knitting progress? It's plodding... I have almost finished Jess , and she is at the moment seamed and being blocked... and I just need to find some buttons and crochet covers for them (eek.. i've never crocheted before!). Unfortunately, my blocking setup looks a lot like a christmas ad, so the photo turned out a little harsh to look at :

For my birthday which was last week, my sister also ordered for me some yarns from Bendigo Woollen Mills.. It was my first order from there and I was pleasantly surprised by the huge 200gm balls... ! hehe it's almost the size of my head :)

I wanted the aran colour (white) for my Phildar Swing Jacket, but I dont think it will work :S The rustic elm (greenish) one is for my Phildar big button bolero which I will also start swatching shortly...

New Projects

As mentioned before, I am in love with Amelia Raitte's Jess Pattern and have just cast on and did a little bit of the back.

I am knitting with Heirloom Merino Magic which my dear bf bought for me . The gauge knitted up perfectly, but I am still unsure whether it was the right yarn to use (unsure if the definition of the basketweave is really there).

I will try to have progress pics up shortly :)

I have also cast on for the embroidered cardi from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 06 which I did originally try with babywool but failed miserably as the finished object just didnt have the same drape as cotton.

This time I am actually going to use cotton - and am using Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton in a beautiful darker fuschia type colour. For the contrast, I am using heirloom cotton in white which is not the most nicest cotton to knit with, but as I was only requiring a little bit of white cotton, I picked out a cheaper one than the Jo Sharp (which yes, my dear bf bought for me again - and before you think i'm the type of girlfriend that sponges off my bf, it's actually my birthday so that's why i got so many goodies!)

Cherry Cardigan

I think I may have actually finished a project bigger than a scarf/mittens/beanie that I'm actually going to wear.

I present to thee.... Amelia Raitte/Anna Bell's beautiful Cherry Cardigan which can be found at her site .

Project Details:

Pattern: Cherry Cardigan by Amelia Raitte

Yarn: Jo Sharp Summer Soho Cotton DK

Needles: 3.25mm and 3.75mm straight needles and cable needle. I knitted a little smaller to gauge as my things are often slightly too big for me.

Comments: I loved this one :) The pattern was relatively easy to follow, but was kept interesting with the cabling pattern, and took just over a few weeks to complete. Amelia Raitte writes her patterns really well - for dummies like me, I don't enjoy the whole "do as left side reversing all shaping". I like to be told what to do, and Amelia Raitte does exactly that.

This was also my first time knitting with Jo Sharp's summer soho cotton, and it was also the yarn dictated in the pattern. As an Australian, Jo Sharp's yarns are good value for the quality. The cotton is smooth to work with, gliding over the needles and through your fingers. It's not as harsh as many other cottons I've worked with and in terms of cottons, it's definitely one that I do enjoy. My only angst with the cotton is that it split alot whilst I was knitting. The loosely spun threads kept splitting, and even more so when I had to frog backwards. However, as an averall cotton yarn, I much prefer this yarn to many that I have worked with.

And fit of the cardi? The fit is lovely. The eyelet detail at the waist means you can draw in the cardi as much as you please. I finished the cardi with a ribbon instead of the cord that Amelia Raitte used because the little glimmer adds a little sparkle to the cardi.

It's definitely in a style that I love - cardis with ribbons, and little detailing. Very Alannah Hill-esque minus the beads and sequins. The cardi fit very nicely, but as all cottons go, it is a little heavy to wear. That aside, I am definitely going to make a few more of these cardis in several other colours, and team them for both work and play :)

oooh's and ummmm's

This week has been a rather knitty week for me :) Besides the yummy yarns that have been purchased, and the hours spent turning that yarn into something lovely, I have also received two lovely knitting pattern books/magazines.

The first is Jo Sharp's Knit.2 pattern book which my lovely boyfriend got me - which I also think is her best knitting book to date. The knits don't look terribly exciting to knit (ie. lots of stockinette, minimal shaping) but they're certainly things that I would wear...

And the other is the new Interweave Knits magazine from my lovely dad :

There are oodles of patterns I want to knit out of the two books/magazines but they will surely have to wait as I have all these ooh's and ummmm's already lined up... but on my to-do list for the somewhere future are:

From Interweave:

1.A cardigan for Arwen 2.Equestrian Blazer 3.Waistcoat

From Jo Sharp:


Sweaters and Boleros...



... Accessories and shrugs!!

Sometimes I wish I was a professional knitter, or at least a professsional housewife with the luxury of spending my days knitting and baking ;) Oooh how I'd love that!!

I also picked up an instructional book after all my days of googling "what is the equivalent of psso" and now have a handy reference at all times. I originally wanted the interweave one, but I thought I'd pick up this one instead because of the photographic instructional technique that it employs. I am definitely a visual person - and I often rely on photos as opposed to those little "drawings" of knitting.

Mittens Finished

As part of her graduation gift, my sister is off to Malaysia, Hong Kong and China next week. As you may know, China is almost freezing at the moment and my lil sister asked me if I could knit her some mittens.

So, we trekked off to the woolstore and she picked out a little skein of Panda Woolbale. She did initially fall in love with the beautiful Zara stuff, but she figured that the Panda was much cheaper and would do the same job- afterall, she will be in the snow and likely to get dirty, so she didnt want the hassle of "keeping the wool clean".

After a few false starts and trouble with getting gauge, my sister's mittens are complete:

Project Details:

Pattern: Lionbrand Mittens
Yarn: Panda Woolbale 100% Wool 8 ply
Needles: 4.0mm and 5.0mm
Comments: The pattern was easy enough to follow, but my sister's hands are in between sizes so I had to rework it so the mittens were snug. The wool itself wasn't the nicest to work with - it was rough but I suppose you get what you pay right ? :)

Fruitful day today!

Hurrah! Cherry is almost complete - she is just out blocking and will be seamed up shortly. I also need to get some buttons for her, but I think she looks lovely :) It may actually be my first wearable sweater/cardi !!!

I have also finished mittens for my sister who is off to China for a few weeks.. so I'll post piccies up too :)

But in exciting news, it's my birthday in two weeks and my dad is getting me a couple of knitting books . Am not too sure which ones I want, but on my list are Sarah Dallas' Vintage Knits book, Nicky Epstein's two edge books, and maybe the Vogue knitting compendium... My sister is also taking me too the woolstore and I can select what I want to a certain level *OOOH*.. And my dear boyfriend and I are going away for the weekend, but as part of it, he's promised to take me knitting shopping so i'm gleefully exciting at the prospects of new wool and new books!!

Bad decisions

So I have been knitting Amelia Raitte's "Cherry" Cardigan. For some reason, I decided that it would be too long, but rather than frog back a few rows, i decided i would just shorten the arm holes instead to "even" it out.

Bad decision. The arm holes are now too small for my arms. Granted, my arms can fit , but there is virtually no circulation.

For awhile I tried to tell myself "you don't need circulation".. but sense finally came to me. I am now going to have to fix this.

Bugger!

Craft swaps

As a craftster, I participated in my first ever craft swap - theme: Japanese Round 2 :) And boy did I get spoilt!! Look at the amazing goodies that my swap partner crafted/got me!

The whole package

The very very cute crafted felt cakes and desserts - MMMM

Stickers and stationery - yes, im still a kid at heart and love this stuff!

My most favouritest gummies in the world!

Crafted kanzashi (Dont know if i spelt that right) flower pins...!

Woot did I get spoilt!!

Amelia Raitte's Jess

More and more i fall in love with "Jess" and less and less do I want to do anything else...

Note to self: Finish projects before starting new ones!

And it continues

I'm not the most diligent knitter. Actually, i haven't really been diligent with much in my life. I have learnt many instruments, and lost interest after a short while. I have lots of hobbies, but the projects themselves lose my interest. At the moment, I am staring in my little stash, and noticed a total of 6 unfinished projects. *sigh*.

But anyways, I came across a new pattern I want to knit. It's Amelia Raitte's Cherry Cardigan which I have paid and downloaded the pattern for and can be accessed on the link above :

[ Amelia Raitte's Cherry Cardigan which I'm knitting!]

I've also got my yummy yarn picked out - Jo Sharp Summer Soho Cotton Dk in Currant - a delicious eggplant type colour, and am ready to start swatching.

[My yummy yarn]

It's actually the first time I've ever bought yarn that is the exact yarn called for. Hopefully this will make a difference in me actually finishing and wearing it ;)

We'll see how it goes!

Too many projects

I was saying to a friend of mine the other day that I always thought that as a child, I should have been diagnosed with ADHD. Now, I'm not just kidding around or anything - I know a lot about ADHD, given that it was the subject of my final year psychology project - but as a kid (and now), still have an incredibly difficult time focusing my attention on one thing, and an even more harder time trying to kerb my impulsions. However, I don't think that it was at such a level that it was very detectable .. more symptomatic of the disorder, but rather borderline.

The reason for my saying this is that as a knitter, I have discovered that my impulsion to start projects and to focus my attention on another is almost ludicrous. In the space of three weeks, I have started my VK Knit, my charity cardigan, a phone cozy for my friend, two scarves, and about to start on something for a friend.

I dont know whether it's the fact that knitting hardly ever delivers instant gratification, or whether I'm just impatient, but seeing my multiple projects on their needles almost gives me a little stressache figuring out how to complete them.

So my goal now?

Stop starting projects. Finish the ones I'm doing and then start new ones.

In the meantime, my phone cozy was finished and my friend really appreciated it (picture later).

My boyfriend has asked me to make this peaked cap and even handpicked the wool he wants used (and how can you resist a boy who shows a feint interest in your knitting!!) .. so .. let's start knitting!

Premiere Post

So... I've finally become the true epitomization of all things geeky :D I am a closet craftster... I like to spend a lot of my spare time doing old crafts such as knitting and sewing, and I have enjoyed reading about other people's frustrations with their latest projects, and of course, seeing the finished product.

So here it is - a blog about crafting :D

Vogue Knitting
I love Vogue Knitting magazine, but unfortunately, living in Perth means that my access to it is rather restricted. After 2 weeks of numerous phonecalls and websearches, I finally found a little store that stocked the magazine .. (there were places that sold it online, but I wanted to see it before purchasing it).. The ladies at Calico & Ivy were so nice to hold it for me for 4 days until i managed to get there on the weekend, and so, I made the 30 minute journey down to Mosman Park and picked up the beautiful magazine :D

This weekend, my dear bf is also back up in Perth and he has been extremely patient in entertaining my crafting habits. The lovely guy that he is - when I was at work and unable to get to the store, he went and picked out three straight needles, and two circulars for me.. what a darl ;) And yesterday, he was extremely patient as I wandered around the stores ooohing and aahing at wool.. oh the dear that he is ;)

Projects

At the moment, I'm knitting a cardigan for charity, and a cute little opera style cardigan from VogueKnitting Spring Summer 2006 for me! Unfortunately, I was shocked by the lack of wool that Spotlight was carrying, so I ended up buying babywool in this pale blue colour, and because I couldn't get the tension gauge correct, I had to use double strand in order to make it work...

But oh, babywool is so lovely to touch and work with ...