adventures in yarn stores

A wippy shawl

Posted on July 2, 2015 by bekswhoknits

To celebrate the arrival of KnitPicks in Australia I bought some yarn (gun to my head, hand over your bank details!).
I ordered some bare yarn for dyeing, and picked up my promotional free ball of Chroma fingering in the Carnival colourway.

I love the gradual colour changes and I wanted a shawl pattern that would show them off, but I could pick up and put down.

So I set to work and started designing.

After a few false starts this is where I’m up to at the moment. It will definitely require blocking! It was a monster to photograph and I had to enlist some human blocking pins to best show off the pattern.

You may be wondering why I’m choosing to share an unfinished pattern. Well in my inbox this morning I got an email to say for the month of July there is 30% off Chroma!!! So I’m making the pattern available now if you’re umming and ahhing about buying some chroma, you can ssee some of its potential!

So here is the pattern for my wippy shawl (working title!)

CO – 4 Stitches
Row 1: K3 (Place marker) YO K1
Row 2: KF&B Purl to marker K3
Row 3: K3 Knit to last stitch YO K1

Then you repeat row 2 & 3.
When it looks like you’re running out of yarn, make that difficult decision about when to start playing yarn chicken and bind off.
Note that I haven’t got to this point yet, but that is how I’m planning it!
There *may* be some weighing and maths involved, but the smart money is on me playing yarn chicken.

I may block the edging so its stretched into points. I also think perhaps the yarn overs at the end would be nice with beads.

Endless possibilities and ideas.

Now where did I leave off?

Posted on January 5, 2015January 5, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I’ve been on holidays for a bit. Both from this blog’o’mine and in real life.

We rang in the new year in Melbourne making new friends, and celebrating after our first live Boxing Day test (which was a draw – boo – but still a pretty awesome experience).

Overall the trip was a bit of a mixed bag.
On the way over I read Amy Poehler’s book ‘Yes Please!’ which I thoroughly enjoyed, but the oxygen tank needed to be called for the nervous flyer who looked like he was going to faint.
His new phone took brilliant photos of us and the view of the MCG from our hotel room, but only survived 5 days into the trip before the screen cracked and it became unusable.
The cricket was awesome, but there was a rain delay and it ended up in a draw (and Shaun Marsh dramatically run out on 99! We’re big Marsh supporters and want both the second-cousins to do well).
There was also a Max Walker sighting (the Max after which our Marron-Max was named) which excited the boyfriend no end!!!

The yarn store I had planned to visit was closed for the new years break.
BUT I stumbled on another one! which was was above one of the biggest book stores I’ve seen! Unfortunately we didn’t have time for me to explore both 😦
So I’m now a

So there was yarn, fireworks, cricket, cider, new friends, trams, shopping, and generally good times.

But it’s now back to work and ‘real life’.

Now bear with me while I bombard you with pictures of the wonderful time we had!!!!

Stained glass – more adventures in dyeing

Posted on October 17, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I can’t actually believe that I made this.

This is a mystery skein from the lovely and fabulous MsGusset (who quite rightly is a finalist in the Australian Etsy Design Awards – go vote for her here)

It’s dyed using food colouring and set with vinegar and heat still using the same technique as my first attempts at dyeing. I got a little bit experimental with a coat hanger to dye different parts different colours, particularly as black is a bit tricky to work with.

The ‘What a kool way to dye’ group on ravelry’s October Dye-along challenge was stained glass.
I think my submission meets that criteria. But I’ll let pictures do the talking.