beanie

All my life I’ve had one dream to achieve my many goals (part 2)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Just in time for the harsh Australian summer I received a hand knit woolen beanie in the mail.

I was so excited that it finally arrived via my property manager because it was sent to the wrong address! (Note to self: buy Megan one of those old timey address books with my correct postal address in it for Christmas).
My property manager is on the bus home from work so it was extra incentive to get outside and walking to public transport and after picking it up I had to open it then and there.
So it got opened right there on the street.

Twitter was treated to a live opening and then plenty of bus stop selfies of me in a beanie when it was about 30degrees (86 in Fahrenheit – it’s only spring).

I am super impressed because not only did a Green Bay Packers fan knit a Vikings coloured item (GO SPORTS!!!) but she was going to start ANOTHER one after the first one hadn’t shown up.

THANK YOU MEGAN!!!! YOU ROCK!!

I’m sensing a spirally theme

Posted on August 31, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Somehow my daily happy things journal (which I was using to properly keep track of my 15 in 15 goals) has fallen a little bit by the way side. It was recently found under a pile of knitting that had fallen off the couch!

So I’m taking a wild guess and thinking that these are finished objects 12 & 13 for the year.

The hat is a pattern I made up. It was a cast-on 84 stitches, do a brim, increase row then knit until it needed some decreases. It’s very slouchy. Really I could have started the decreases about an inch earlier but it’s still super cute.

The yarn is from the Fiberista Club. I went on a bit of a club binge earlier this year and signed up for another YarnvsZombies club, the Fiberista club, and also the Fandom of the Month club.

It’s LYDIA Sock in colourway ‘Watermelon Wine Cooler’. I think it matches my hair quite well.

(Yes this is a selfie while I’m outside the pub waiting for a taxi. There are still ends that need weaving in….)

The wibbly wobbly 10th Doctor shawl has been on the needles for aaaagggeessssss. At least a year or more. Mostly due to me not being able to count and running out of yarn. Then I couldn’t remember what the pattern was or where I was up to.

Eventually I figured it out (it was the Canyonlands Shawl which is perfectly wibbly wobbly) and got stuck in again and finished it on the weekend while watching season 4 of Scandal.

Yes you’re all getting to see my dirty laundry AGAIN but there’s no other place to block a shawl with 2 kittens who think that my blocking mats are their scratching post.

I thought that I would have to block it rather aggressively to get it to curve like the picture, but I just wet it and once I pinned out the top edge it smoothed out into those gorgeous wobbly edges.

And because last time I forgot to tell HWF that there was a shawl blocking in the bathroom and he opened the door on itand nearly feell over, this one came with a warning sign.

Now if it would just hurry up and dry I’ll be able to take some dodgy shawl selfies!!!

Because I always need another hat (FO11)

Posted on July 21, 2015 by bekswhoknits

The yarn is from yarnvszombies.

The pattern is Tramontane from yarnvszombies

And it’s really really cute!

I love the short row brim and will definitely have fun experimenting with different ways to wear it. I’m also considering blocking it (or just wear it outside – it’s pretty rainy at the moment) to stretch out the lace.

The lace was really quite simple. It was over 6 rows and I had to keep the pattern in front of me but I don’t think I made any massive mistakes. This is HUGE for me and lace patterns.

It will go quite nicely with the snakeld scarf in the same colourway.

**Once again I have to reiterate that I received no sponsorship from yarnvszombies, I’m merely doing my part to put Kiki’s cats through college.

#6KCBWDAY3 – experimental photography or knitting photos with song lyrics

Posted on May 16, 2015May 16, 2015 by bekswhoknits

we'll find our own way home somehow — Editors – Papillon

if i could paint the sky all the stars would shine upon in red — Phantogram – Black Out Days

there is a strength in enduring — CHVRCHES – Dead Air

i wont be no runaway cos i wont run — The National – Runaway

twist and turning like a catherine wheel — Blood Red Shoes – In Time To Voices

our secrets sleep in winter clothes — Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

*this is a post for the 6th annual knitting & crochet blog week hosted by ekimimi makes. To see other posts on this topic search #6KCBWDAY3

FO2 – my summer sky slouch

Posted on February 5, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Who can go past a bit of alliteration when naming a pattern.
Yeh that’s right I’ve ‘written’ a pattern!

The inverted commas are because I’m not sure how much credit one can take for taking an existing cable pattern and translating it into a hat.

The yarn is my own hand dye and the base is a fingering weight superwash merino. It’s so soft and squishy.

I designed it so that it’s really a few hats all in one depending on how it’s angled. There’s a cable section, a rib section, a garter section and two stockinette sections.

I have plans to write it up properly rather than scribbles in a notebook and then put it up on ravelry. But at the moment they’re still just plans. I’m still not really happy with the decrease section, so I think I’ll have to knit at least one more before I actually publish it.

Work it Eeyore!!!!

FO11 – topographie hat

Posted on July 14, 2014July 14, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I don’t know which yarn fairy* I’ve pleased but Ravelry is now available for me to peruse from my work PC.
Previously it was in the same list as facebook, twitter, and pintrest and whenever I tried to access it, instead I got a red screen telling me that Ravelry was not an acceptable website to view at work.

Of course I absolutely agreed with that decision! The last thing I need is for my already short attention span to be distracted by another SQUIRREL!!! I mean time wasting website, when I’m desperately trying to focus on work.

But I do get a lunch break, which I usually spend untangling my brain and catching up on blogs, news, and now I can catch up on all thing Ravelry.

Which has made me realise just how neglected my account has been this year. And also how many more objects I’ve finished that I had forgotten about. (My Sisters Knitter recently blogged about why we remember what’s unfinished more than what we’ve finished. It’s worth a read as well as the Psychology Today article which inspired it.)

My topographie hat somehow made a mention in Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, but then I forgot about uploading any photos or updating my projects page.

Which is unusually odd as I actually wear this hat all the time! I love it’s slouchiness, and I think the pattern really makes the colours pop.

The yarn used is a custom dye from Ladybug Fibre Company in the colourway I call ‘Port Adelaide Agression’.
It’s Teal, Black, and Grey self striping in fingering weight, which I’ve held double. The pattern then asks you to watch what the colours do and so whenever the two strands matched I purled instead of knitted. I think it creates a bit of interest in what would otherwise be a pretty basic hat.

*the yarn fairy may just be my work-friend in IT whose daughter is learning to knit and so I keep sending him ravelry links of things which might help her out.
He’s probably annoyed that he can’t open them at work so he waved his magic IT wand.
It’s nice having friends in IT.

FO5 – a Liz Lemon hat

Posted on March 27, 2014March 27, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I’ve been watching a lot of 30 Rock lately and I’ve been very distracted by the knitwear of Liz Lemon.

The lady rocks the knits.

(this one is even on ravelry

And so I knew I needed a kickarse slouchy hat with a big pompom. So I found a suitable hat pattern, borrowed some moda vera marvel soft from my blanket stash, and even made a very poor pompom.

Bitches get stuff done.

FO 4 – all about hats

Posted on March 20, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I was fortunate enough to be given a copy of She Makes Hats to review.

I always enjoy hearing other people’s stories and am particularly curious about how other people got the knitting bug.

About 10 pages in I had already decided that Robyn and I were going to be friends.
She Makes Hats tells the story of Robyn and how she fell into knitting and decided that she would make 1000 hats and give them away.

Motivated by a need for knitting and noticing all the cold heads that needed warming she set to work and is now knitting 10,000 hats!!!! I won’t go into too much of her story because she tells it better than I ever could.

If that completely hooks you in, (as it did me) I’ve got a digital copy
to giveaway.
I wouldn’t be giving it away if I didn’t like it and think you would like it too. The only criticism that I have is that it didn’t have enough pictures. Fortunately Robyn’s bloghas all the pretty pictures of hats that you could ask for.

To enter this giveaway, leave me a comment about your favourite hat or hat pattern and I’ll randomly pick a winner next Friday 28th March.

In other hat news, I finished a Gwen Slouch hat.

This will be given to my Mum who recently had a shonky haircut. You know those haircuts when you want one thing and the hairdresser completely ignores you? She had a hairdresser who had little consideration for her hair. And so she is in need of my hat collection.

Dad will be required to collect a hat or two, but absolutely cannot be trusted to choose a suitable hat for mum, so I made her a video so she could choose herself.
Dear ol’ Dad has many lovely qualities, but his taste in hats is somewhat questionable. The hamburg hat at the end of the video is proof enough!!!!

FO26 – lettuce of lothlorien

Posted on December 11, 2013December 11, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Whilst moving house there was 5 days when I didn’t pick up my needles at all.
Every time I thought about knitting there was something slightly more pressing that needed unpacking or organising.

By the sixth day I was getting slightly stir crazy and so I cast on two pairs of socks, untangled some yarn that I needed to finish a shawl, and started a hat.

It is going to be crazy hot here over the next week. So even though a hat isn’t the most practical item of clothing for an Australian summer, it is a practical item to knit.
Urgh, just thinking about having a jumper or a blanket on my lap is making me uncomfortable.

We still don’t have wireless internet at home, so I’ve been making do with using my phone as a hotspot to get the internet through my ipad (definitely #firstworldproblems).
I started the hat working from my ipad, until I had the pattern firmly in my head. I finished the required 4 rounds and then started the decreases.
I did the right thing and checked the decrease chart to make sure I was following the pattern.

Silly Bek picked up her phone, checked the last pattern that was open and followed that not realising that it was not the same pattern.

So I now have a half lettuce / half hues of lothlorien. A lettuce of lothlorien.
I am still pretty happy with it though.
The wide cables are gorgeous (without actually doing any cabling) and even if the decreases could be steeper it blocked out nicely.

If I was to make this again (which I probably will because I do really like both patterns) I would probably make it into a cowl.
And maybe play around with the drape. The needle size & yarn combination only just worked on a hat.

If you look closely you’ll see that there are two side plates inside the hat which I used to block it with.

You’ll also have to bear with me while I figure out the best times to take photos.
Clearly 11pm after I’ve just finished weaving in the ends doesn’t get the best light.

Because I love my little brother

Posted on August 30, 2013August 30, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I made him a cushion.

Because my family don’t understand presents without a reason it’s a “housewarming” present.

Even though he moved into his new place about a year ago.

I love my little brother.
Every so often I will get a text message just with a quote from a TV show we both like.

His text tone is from futurama. “The alien mother ship is in orbit here. If we can hit that bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Check mate.”

Even that just makes me laugh.
He calls me little sis because I’m only 5’10” and he’s over 6″.
I call him my little brother because he’s 5 years younger.

So I figured the best way to celebrate this relationship is with quotes on a cushion.
One side is from black books “feng shui is nine tenths of the law”.
The other is from doctor who (in case the tardis didn’t give it away).

My middle brother may not be the TV geek that my little brother and I am, but his two little ones had birthdays last week and I couldn’t let that pass without sending off some knitted gifts.

You can’t really go wrong with a hat and a scarf.

Now I just need to figure out what to do for Father’s Day!
I’m trying to track down some handkerchiefs to embroider with little success. If all else fails chocolate coated sultanas always go down a treat.

This is another cushion for my 13 in 2013 project.