A room just for knitting

For the past few months, I have been toying with the idea of buying a house. It's just one of those things that "you do" as part of growing up, and I felt that it was about time I bought one.. something along the lines of "growing up, investing for your future ra ra ra".

So anyways, last week I saw a house that I liked, made and offer and got it! I now have to just organise finance and settlement and it's all mine.

While I was looking at houses, there were a few criteria that I really wanted, with those being a 3x2 , nice kitchen, and nice bathroom. My significant other was puzzled though, given that it would just be the two of us in the house (and me only being there 1/3 of the year given I work away), he wasn't sure why I wanted three bedrooms.

I pulled him aside and told him nicely.. 1 for us.. 2 for a guestroom or study.. and 3 for my knitting room. hehe. He was somewhat amused by my need to have a knitting room, but he was very obliging on the basis that it would create less mess for the house (my knitting stuff is everywhere), and that it would be my little retreat. I'm so happy to have an SO that is happy to indulge my knitting wants and needs - no matter how silly they seem!

But anyways, settlement isn't for awhile and I'm planning on doing a bit of work on the house, but i'm definitely looking forward to it!

On knitting notes, I had an urge to start a new project today. Thermal is going well - I have to just do the sleeves and finishing and it will be done, but I was flicking through my old VKs and rediscovered this:

While I won't be wearing it the way the model is, I do love the quirkiness of it! I'll be doing it in this yarn (the colour is a bit off in the photo.. ) and it should be a quick knit:

In happy news, I've also discovered my local newsagent stocks VK, Knit1 and KnitSimple so I no longer have to trek out to Borders or my LYS to specifically buy my knitting mags. I haven't seen IK there , but the new one isn't due to arrive in Australia for a week I believe.. *fingers crossed*

Jumping on the bandwagon

In my efforts to destash my unconsciously growing stash, I've jumped on the (long gone) bandwagon that is known as Thermal. As much as I tried hard not to jump on the bandwagon and follow the other hundreds of people before me that have knitted this sweater, I could not for the life of me resist - it just looks like such a cosy, easy to knit, easy to wear sweater! What more could I want?

So I cast on for it yesterday and my, it has grown quite a bit! I'm taking a 7 hour train journey tomorrow so I should also make good progress on the sweater.


Besides that, I've just been hectic crazy with Chinese New Year and enjoying my R&R week. At the moment, there's a cyclone up where I work so I'm here in Perth until the cyclone danger dissipates - and one of my workmates reckons it won't be till Monday or Tuesday at the earliest!

Anyways, short post this one as I have to pack for my short trip :) Have a good weekend!

FO: Noro Cashmere Island Scarf

Everyone knows the ubiquitous Noro Scarf that has been done by hundreds of people and still counting, so I won't go into too much depth for this post. However, after I finished my last project, I was a bit stuck on what I should knit considering that my only condition was that it had to be knit from stash. After getting some great and useful comments about the seahorse cami, I decided to leave that for another day and rummaged a bit.

Alas! I had two skeins of Noro Cashmere Island in my stash, which had been gifted to me by my secretpal 11, Genevieve. Now I must admit that I've never understood the fascination with Noro Yarns. To me, the colours were garish, the yarn (Iroha that is) a little wanting, and overpriced for what I thought it was.

However, armed with not much confidence, two skeins in hand and not much time to decide on a pattern, I went for that noro scarf. The result was a surprise, and the end FO was a very soft scarf, made from a pattern which utilises Noro's colour schemes very well.

Swatching, Swatching, Swatched!

I'm in a little bit of a bind. I'm flying off to site again tomorrow, and don't have a knitting project to take with me. Well...actually, that's a lie. I still have Lisette, Florence, and those Rippled Weave Socks, but Lisette is getting boring, Florence is overdue, and socks are just that, socks.

I love knitting sweaters because they're the most functional, but given i'm leaving tomorrow, I haven't had any time to get more yarn and consequently, am reduced to knitting from the stash. I did swatch for the beautiful James Coviello Ruffled Jacket using the lush plum colour that I bought specifically for it, but I wasn't liking the fabric created by the larger needles I was using. So, I've put that aside for now.
I then had a look in some of my patterns, and found Kid Acne's Seahorse Cami from Rowan #39 which could either come out CUTE, or DISASTROUS.


The plus side is that it's a quick knit, and I have the cotton needed for the project sitting with me but the bad side is that it's a knitted cami with a seahorse on it!? Will I wear it.. will it be a waste of yarn.. or will I actually like it? (Unfortunately, I don't sail so I'm probably not going to have much occasion to wear a seahorse cami with white pants like the model).

I know one thing though - I can't survive two weeks without a single knit stitch... !

FO: Vogue Ribbed Minidress

Eek! It's been awhile since my last FO hasn't it. I'm not really sure what i've been doing with myself. I vaguely remember starting a million and one (okay, exaggeration, more like 5) knits just before christmas, and not actually having finished any of them. *shame* Somewhere between lost knitting and crazy travel schedules, I managed to find an hour a day to finish off the vogue ribbed minidress.


Details:
Pattern: Vogue Ribbed Minidress by Mari Lynn Patrick, from Vogue Knitting Spring Summer 2007. I knit the smallest size.

Yarn: I used Rowanspun 4ply, in colour Squirrel which I bought for a bargain price off Cucumberpatch. The pattern itself calls for a gauge of 24x28 so I doubled the rowanspun and managed to get stitch gauge, but my row gauge was completely off. I ended up knitting at about 24x36 which meant for a heck of a lot of maths and modification.


The yarn itself is okay to knit with , but not so fun to seam with. The rowanspun is fairly "dry" and snapped a few times while I was seaming. The colour itself is a light grey, littered with little bits of dark greys and the occasional blue. Knit up, it produces some uneven stitches, but it does give an overall interesting texture.

Needles: Denise size US 5 needles, and Addi Turbo 3.25mm for the top parts.


Comments and modifications: The pattern itself is very easy to follow, but because my gauge was completely off, I had to do a whole lot of modifications on the way and it ended up being a fairly long knit. It was well written, and I dont remember finding any mistakes in the pattern at all.

I did however feel that because the pattern was in essence, a raglan style dress, my preference would have been to knit the raglan in once piece as opposed to several pieces and then having to seam them together. This was particularly so since my gauge difference forced me to perform a million calculations.

Overall, I "like" the result, but I don't love it. I'm not sure why, but it just hasn't grabbed me. It may be the colour ( I originally wanted to do it in a dark charcoal colour), it may be my knitting itself, or it may just be that knitted dresses just aren't made for a 39 degree celcius day!

On the home stretch

I know a lot of knitters who don't enjoy seaming and who just as much loathe finishing. I'm not a great finisher, nor am I great at seaming, but I do enjoy that little home stretch towards a finished object.

Progress has been going well on the Vogue Ribbed Minidress, and I am now on the little homestretch to a new little FO. At the moment though, i'm left a bit uninspired. Having not sewn up the sides yet, my tres chic minidress is looking more sack that chic.


Additionally, some people tell me I have a lollipop head - meaning that sometimes it's too big for my body (haha i say sometimes because I go through periods where my body freaks out and does weird things). So i'm hoping that tiny little neckline will magically expand or fix itself once i've sewn up the rest of the body so that the lollipop half of me will be able to squish through.


Hopefully there will be an FO within the next day or two ! :)

Some Phildar Love

OOh it has definitely been a long time since I last posted! Between then and now, Christmas and New Years came and went, and Ive just returned from another stint offshore. This time, I actually did do some knitting, and I'm making great progress on my Vogue Ribbed Mini Dress. There is just the right sleeve, and finishing left to do. I'll post progress pics very shortly, but for now, I just wanted to share some more Phildar love with you.

Most of my regular readers will know I'm a huge Phildar fan. The patterns are always tres chic and very wearable, without looking too boring and generic. The latest offerings from Phildar is absolutely no exception, but are not yet available in English translations. Fingers crossed though! In particular, I love the styling of the latest patterns - it reminds me very much of the Rowan Studio collection and could quite easily pass as a fashion mag preview.

PS. Doesnt the model look so happy? I would be too, if I was dressed in such lovely chic knits!

No knitting

If you're like me (and most other knitters I know), I tend to pick up my knitting anywhere and everywhere possible. I like to knit in the car, while watching teevee, just before going to bed, and even when I'm supposed to be paying attention to my significant other (teehee).

So, it was with much dismay when I came back to site just over 10 days ago and realized I had brought my current WIP , but no knitting needles. I panicked, I stressed, and I wondered what I'd do for the next 10 days without my knitting.

I went through the classic signs of addicts - I went through feelings of wanting to substitute my knitting with something else, I went through withdrawal symptoms, and I definitely felt a weird sense of longing. One week later, I had calmed down and can say that I am slowly overcoming my addiction. A good thing? I dare say no. But it's definitely a good thing while I'm holed up on site with nothing to keep my fingers going.

2 days till I get home. Home to family, friends, Christmas.... and my knitting.

Secret Pal Revealed

I arrived back in Perth last night at about 1.30am, after a rather horrific flight experience fueled partially from motion sickness, an inability to digest the food, and a bit of alcohol which resulted in constant throwing up and being sick. Nonetheless, it was great to finally come home after 1 week in Phuket, and 2 weeks out on site, even if it was just for a day.

We had a great trip in Phuket, and celebrated our birthdays in fine style scootering around the town and lapping it up on the beach.

On coming back, I woke up to a lovely surprise from my secretpal who has once again spoilt me with yummy goodies and fabulous knitties. Just wanted to say thankyou to Genevieve for having been a fantastic spoiler, and introducing me to the world of international knitting! Thank you so much ;)

There was some Colinette Point 5.... a bit of big and small yarn in a mauve/blue/white colour combination. The yarn is very soft to touch.

and some pre-wool... which is the most interesting "yarn" (I will have to clarify this) i've ever seen. It's almost mohairish / roving mixed in one so I'm just going to ask Gen whether I need to treat this beforehand!

And some Clover Stitch Markers, Lantern Moon needles, some lipbalm and some yummy choccies. My sis and I smothered ourselves with the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and I can't wait to try the Hersheys Truffles!!

Thanks so much Genevieve. You've been a delightful secret pal11!

Apologies!

Hi all! It has certainly been awhile, but I've only just returned from site about 2 hours ago and I am flying out again tonight at 1am to Phuket for a short holiday. The holiday is a lovely birthday pressie from my boyfriend, who also shares the same birthday as me (8th of December). So, I've got very little time to catch my breath, let alone get my Perth life back into order before flying out tonight, and the day after I get back from Phuket, I'm back onto site again for 2 weeks.

I haven't actually done very much knitting the last two weeks. I've made a little progress on my sister's christmas pressie, but it's currently confined to only about 1 hour of knitting each day. Let's hope that it's all done by the time Christmas swings around! Here's a boring snap of the loads and loads of stockinette (and it's crinkled from being in my luggage for 4 hours):


There is also 247 bloglines to read in my 6 hours back in Perth, so I'm trying very hard to get through them all.

And a little shoutout to my Secret Pal 11 Spoilee , Margit! Go and say hello :)

Arrived! New Yarn from Bendigo

Hoorah! I am thinking the fact that my schedules got mixed up and my flights postponed for a week was actually a blessing to give me extra time to wait for my yarn to arrive (Unfortunately, my book order from Amazon still hasn't arrived, despite being "shipped" 2 weeks ago. I think i'll email them).

Anyways, I took advantage of the Bendigo yarn sale and ordered up a few balls of yarn. Being a non-stasher, these of course have designated projects, and while it is only part of my order, I'm sure the rest will come shortly.

The first is Classic 12 ply, in Plum for the James Coviello Ruffled Jacket. I think the colour is divine, and reminds me a lot of the Currant coloured yarn I used for my Cherry Cardigan, and is just a smidge darker than the picture below. Unfortunately due to my recent spate of startitis, this project will have to wait till at least two of my other projects are completed.

The second is the 8ply Cotton, in colourway Maritime, for my sister's christmas present which I have to get cracking on soon. I think i'll bring this project, and my little sock project to site with me when I fly out Wednesday.

Oh yeah, I asked my HR person today "I sometimes have problems bringing knitting with me, and just wanted to check it was okay for the charter flight to site?" and her reply? "umm.. i can't say many miners have asked me that question before" hehehe :) They must think I'm an anomaly :)

Starting on the Vogue Mini dress

You know that anxious wait by the postbox or the door when you know that you're supposed to be getting parcels any day now? Well, after my last post about my mail woes, I decided to head out early this morning to go look for a dress for my friend's wedding tomorrow as that's around the time my postman usually comes by. I figured I'd drive myself insane if I sat and waited around all morning, so decided to give my little emotions a break from it all.

Sure enough, when I got home from my unsuccessful bout of shopping, there was a lovely parcel waiting on my kitchen bench for me postmarked from the UK. Ripping it open, out popped my 20 skeins of Rowanspun 4 ply, in Squirrel which I bought to make the Vogue Ribbed Minidress.

As I've mentioned before, I love Rowanspun and wish it wasn't discontinued. Unfortunately, the stock that is still floating around is limited in colour selection so I haven't been able to stock up on it.

After winding up 4 little balls, I cast on for the minidress. A little progress:

Amongst all this startitis however, I know that I'm going to have to put them aside when my other parcels arrive as those are the ones with Christmas present making yarn in them. Unfortunately, every day that the postie is delayed means one less day to make presents for people! I can already see the bleak short term future that is often known as the 'leadup to christmas' and how I dread it :p

Oh mister postie - where are thee??

Well, there was a schedule mixup and instead of flying out this morning as originally scheduled, I will now be flying out to site next week. Which means I've got a few more days here in Perth to play around and relax before having to start my roster. Also, my schedule has changed from 2 weeks on / 1 week off, to 12 days on / 9 days off, which means more sleep and relax time for me and that's always a bonus :) Nonetheless, at the moment, I'm being paid to sit around waiting to fly out!

Anyways, I've been waiting for my postman to deliver three parcels which should've arrived by now in most instances but with the silly season coming up, I think they've been delayed.

• According to Amazon, my book order shipped 1st November and 14 days later it hasn't arrived.
• I also placed an order with Bendigo on the 7th November, and still nothing.
• I'm also expecting some yarn from the UK which was shipped last Friday so that one might not come till next week. Is anyone else having issues?

But i'm itching to knit something interesting. Lisette is coming along with the left front now finished, but it is a boring knit so I've also started two projects I normally would've knit but because I wanted to use up stash yarn and so, i've begrudgingly started a sock and a baby item.


Florence is from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Collection and is being knit for an ex-workmate's bub:


And Ripple Weaved Socks from Vogue Knitting ... I'm just knitting when bored of Lisette. This one might go to my sister.

The end of knitting as I know it?

For the last month, I have been happily knitting away and spending hours upon hours knitting into the late night, watching tv and knitting, checking out ravelry and craftster and knitblogs, all without a single care in the world.

But, all good things come to an end. I've really enjoyed taking that month off between jobs to take time out and do the things that I love, and now that it's time to start my new job, I'm wishing that I had decided to take the three month break like I originally planned. But it's too late for wishful thinking ;)

Anyways, I had my first day of induction today and will have another two the next two days. After that, I will be flying out to site where I will be stationed out there for two weeks, before coming back home for a one week break. Tis the life of a girl who has two constants in her travel luggage - her safety boots, and her knitting.

So, with that, I shall leave you with a little picture of the site that I'm going to. It's remote, but it's beautiful nonetheless. It's apparently a great fishing spot, and after a day's work, I can go to the beach, and have a peek around - of course, this will only happen if i'm not exhausted after my day, and if the cyclones aren't ravaging the place ;)

I've discovered that I will have internet access in the "internet common room" but I'm not certain how fast or how reliable that will be, so I will just put a little note that it may be two weeks between posts, and then suddenly, a flurry of posting may occur!

Hopefully there will still be knitting :D

Progress on Lisette

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments about the Phildar Leaf Sweater. They always make me smile and jump a little somersault :)

Since then, there hasn't been too much knitting happening over the last two or so days. I've finished the back of my Lisette Cardigan, and I'm absolutely in love with the fabric that is being knitted up from my Rowanspun 4 ply, in Sludge.


I previously mentioned that it reminds me a lot of nut chocolate , and true to my word, I gobbled a whole packet of yummy Hershey's chocolate while knitting this. What can I say? The real life chocolate option was probably better than eating up my knitting!

The rowanspun in general is working up quite nicely. It is a very thin, brittle yarn, so you have to be fairly careful with it being caught on something but the end result is a very lightweight, tweedy fabric. I do love the colourway , Sludge, and am thinking I should stock up on it since it is a discontinued yarn ...

The pattern itself is fairly easy, with only a few counting errors being made, but nonetheless easy to fix. Kim Hargreaves writes her patterns well, but this one is a little boring. The pattern is knitted by knitting the top half of the back and front pieces, the sleeves, and then you knit the lacey part at the bottom separate and attach it on afterwards. I guess the main part is what is boring me - I'm looking forward to doing the bottom lace attachment the most! Here's another piccie of the choc-nut cardi so far... just cause I think it looks yummy.

I have also placed an order to get some yarn for the James Coviello Jacket I posted about recently, as well as a remake of the Vogue Embroidered Cardigan, which my sister has nicely requested as a Christmas present. When I made the original, I think it was the first thing I ever knitted. This time I'll at least know how to pick up stitches properly!!

I am also about to place orders for yarn for the Vogue Mini Dress, and a replacement yarn for the Bianca Cardigan but I'm a little fussed over which colour to choose!!

FO: Phildar Sweater #1 : Ms 2 Week Leafy

Wow, I just realized that this has to be about the quickest knit that I've ever made (not including mini projects)! Ms 2 Week Leafy Sweater (aka Phildar Sweater #1) is now complete. And now for some FO details, accompanied with the same old photo poses as per usual (I swear I did try and take photos of myself out in the garden but the sun shone too brightly and the leaf detail became lost).
Details
Pattern: Sweater #1, from Phildar Tendances 460, Hiver 06/07. I knit this in French size 34/36 (the smallest).Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Aran in Seamist. At first I wasn't so sure about my colour choice, but with a bit of encouragement from the lovely Andrea, I persisted with it and am actually quite pleased with how it ended up turning out.

Needles: I did the ribbing on US 5 / 3.75mm needles and the rest of the knit on US 7/4.5mm needles. I did most of it on circulars, but did the sleeves on flats.

Comments and Modifications: Lots! I had seen a few on ravelry and while they were nice, I was concerned about 1. the length 2. the neckline and 3. the tendency for reverse stockinette to show up "lines" of uneven tensioning. To address this, I did the following:

1. The length - I knit 5cm of ribbing instead of the 1.5cm that was required in the pattern. I probably should've done just a fraction more as I like my sweaters a bit longer, but as is, it is currently sitting on my hips.

I also changed shortened the sleeve length just a tad. I started shaping at 25cm, rather than 28cm as called for in the pattern. Also, in regards to the armcyth issue, it blocked out fine in the end :)

2. The neckline - Most of the other necklines I saw were very wide and somewhat floppy, as if there was too many stitches picked up around the neckline. I didn't want an incredibly large scoop neck, so I altered my neckline. Instead of the decreases called for, I cast off 10 stitches in centre of neckline, then on neckline edge, cast off 3 sts once, 2 sts four times, and 1st four times.

I also wanted a small dip in my back neckline edge, rather than the completely flat one in the pattern, so I altered my neckline by casting off 12 st at centre, then from each edge of back neckline, I cast off a further 8 sts once and then 6 sts once.

3. Lines of uneven tension - Simple solution! Knit in round instead of flat!

The only other thing I want to comment on is having to seam reverse stockinette and setting the sleeves in on this. It was a pain to say the least. I usually don't mind seaming, but having to seam it on reverse stockinette made it really tough for me as it kept going wonky and uneven. Even now I'm not entirely happy with the set in sleeves, but I'll leave it and see if it continues to bother me or not and if it does, then I'll revist.

Verdict? Overall, an easy knit with a fairly easy chart to follow.

Almost there..

This morning in a rush of productivity, I finished up Leafy, and put her in the wash and she is now outside getting some lovely sunshine as she waits to dry off after her little swim..



I did try Leafy on before she went for her swim, and I'm a little worried. My arms are by no means big, but I found the armcyth a little tight. Not so much that my arm would turn blue, but enough for me to wonder about the effect Leafy may have on my future health. Hopefully after the swim and with a bit of final blocking, she'll fit nicely.


On other news, I've finally cast on for Lisette, whom I shall now dub the Choc-Nut Cardigan (because the yarn looks just like dark chocolate with almonds), and it's been some slow going. It's not the most exciting pattern, and it's on fingering weight again. Apologies for the most shocking photo here - the lighting was just not right today.




So, in need for some more instant gratification, I'm looking for a new pattern to start.


Up on offer ladies (and gentlemen if there are any reading!), we have got the Vogue Ribbed Mini Dress, the incredibly stunning Ruffle Jacket just completed by Treschicveronique, the ubiquitous Drops Jacket, Debbie Bliss' Juliet Cardigan or her Catriona vest/top... What shall it be ? I'm leaning towards the mini dress or the ruffle jacket.. but I'm still unsure and don't really want to have too many projects at once (i'm a faithful semi monogamist!).


Okies, off to lunch. Hope you all have a fab day!

Learning to be better

I'm mainly a self taught knitter, having learnt from various books, the internet and making it up as I go along. Somewhere along that line, I decided it was more intuitive to use my left hand (being a right hander) to hold my yarn while my right hand worked the needle, and so became an accidental continental knitter.

But I was looking at my ribbing the other day. It's not entirely bad, but it could definitely be improved:

It's a bit strange though because my stockinette looks pretty decent (or so I think hehe), but my ribbing is just a bit fugly :S. So i've decided to teach myself how to do combined knitting. So far, the results haven't been pretty ...

As with all knitting techniques however, practice makes perfect so i'll just practice a lil bit more and see if I like it.

On other news, Leaf Sweater is almost done. I have finished the knitting part, and need to pick up the neckline but I did a big boo boo. I seamed on my sleeves stockinette side out rather than reverse stockinette out. Silly billy. A bit of unpicking and it should be okay.

By the way, the ball was awesome and only in a town like Kalgoorlie would I have ever imagined a room full of boys taking off their pants (apparently it's a tradition there, when a certain song comes on). My bf has the photos so I'll wait patiently for him to get them over to me.