Finished Object

Finish it or frog it!

Posted on January 18, 2015January 14, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I have some decisions to make.

There are 15 unfinished projects on my needles and hooks (that I’ve found so far – I’m not ruling out finding more lieing around.)

Of those just one has a legitimate reason for being unfinished. I ran out of yarn and am waiting for some more to arrive. That’s my wibbly wobbly shawl.

All the rest? Either I’ve gotten bored, haven’t felt like it, didn’t really like the way it was knitting up, or simply forgot about them when something newer and shinier came around.
Which is why I’m making some decisions. Frog or finish.
By the end of the year there will only be 5 unfinished objects on my needles. And hopefully not ones that are currently unfinished which will have the added bonus of making my area of the couch a little more tiny!

Oh and I’ve just spotted a blanket which still needs ends weaving in :S

There’s 3 hats, only one of which where I think the pattern suits the yarn.

3 pairs of socks. One I love, one I don’t remember what the pattern is, and one I stole the needles for another pattern and don’t remember what size they were.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I cast on a lace scarf in cotton. It hurts my hands, I can’t seem to memorise the pattern, and don’t have the inclination to look at a pattern every row for however long this scarf should be.

Drunk Bek got her hands on the slipped stitch shawl and didn’t do a good job! I also don’t think any pattern will be good enough for this yarn. It’s so pretty and vibrant maybe I’ll just keep it on the shelf and pet it occasionally.

I do love Olivia.
I just haven’t knit any rows on it for a while and I don’t know why. The yarn is lovely and the pattern is well written. It’s just been forgotten and left to languish.

Then there are the blankets. I’m waiting for winter to come around again. A blanket on your legs is quite uncomfortable in 40degree heat.
Not pictured is the granny square blanket. I really dislike the way the squares are joined so it’s in the naughty basket until I can make a decision about it.

Also not pictured is my 5th doctor shawl which is in my bag all the way over there. I have no problems with finishing that one. It gets pulled out at the cricket, and the doctors, and whenever I’m waiting for the train.

So that’s going to be my focus.
No casting on anything new until I’m down to 5 UFOs.
Let’s see how I go!

Finished object 1 – a shawl of sorts

Posted on January 14, 2015 by bekswhoknits

So the first finished object of 2015 is off the needles, with just a small amount to spare.

It was touch and go for a while but I got there!

The yarn is ton of wool – cormo which is crowdfunded wool from Tasmania, which was then dyed by yours truly.
It’s a gorgeous yarn to dye with and it knitted up beautifully.

The pattern is mostly made up. I wanted a garter stitch circular shawl and couldn’t find a pattern I liked. So I cast on a random amount of stitches, increased at each end and then every so often did a whole row of KF&B.
And then finished with a row of KF&B and then bound off.

I quite like the result. Unfortunately for you it was well past my bed time when I finished it and photographed it, but I was so worried I’d run out of yarn I knew I wouldn’t sleep well unless it was finished.
I was rather tired for work the next day. I believe this is what living life in the fast line is like.

So this is tired but pleased Bek, trying on a woolen shawl when it’s really very hot outside.

So many capital letters!!! ALL THE THINGS!!!

Posted on November 10, 2014November 10, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I honestly don’t know what I’m more excited about**

That my shawl is finished, blocked, and looks more amazing than I thought it would.

That my tenth doctor yarn arrived on Friday!

AND I’m now the proud owner of a hand crafted spinning wheel!!!!

Oh and I made a tea cozy.

**Pretty sure it’s the spinning wheel. It’s going to take all and I mean ALL of my energy to not look at ALL THE SPINNING FIBRE while I’m at work!!!!
And all the spinning tutorials.
Seriously when my Grandma (in-law) casually suggested that she had a spinning wheel and would I like to use it as it was currently in storage as a decoration I don’t think she expected the excited shriek that followed. The tea cozy was made for her on Saturday in gratitude.

Getting tweedy with it

Posted on October 27, 2014October 27, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I finished two shawls on the weekend in between writhing on the couch in pain watching gilmore girls, WA winning the Domestic One Day Final(!!!!), and having a very adult-y dinner party with some good friends, good lamber, and Emu Export.

The first one is a Ffrench pattern – Seven and Zero.
I swoon over all of her patterns. I just do.

This one was started so long ago I don’t know exactly when. I’m not exactly sure why considering it’s a pretty easy knit, excluding the counting part. If you look closely there’s a few times where the yarn over rows are a bit closer than the rest. It’s not a mistake it’s a design feature.

But it’s finally off the needles and blocking as we speak.
I literally used every single scrap of the Yarn Vs Zombies Tweed as I ran out while casting off.
So I wove in the ends I had and then used those scraps to finish the cast off. I was stressing for a while but I had just enough. I blocked it with points instead of straight. Just because I could.
Check my instagram for shawl selfies as soon as it’s finished. I can almost guarantee I won’t be able to resist.

This second shawl is a Stephen West pattern – Pogona.
I’m pretty sure Keri raved about Stephen West patterns all the time. So when I was trying to find something for Yarn vs Zombies Tweed dyed in 11th Doctor colourway this really spoke to me.

This literally flew off the needles. I was blind to all of my other projects. I had to finish this before I finished Seven & Zero or blocked the Spiral Blanket of Awesome which was also recently finished.
I probably had enough yarn left for another few repeats but I wanted to play it safe.

But I think that the universe was secretly telling me that I needed to have enough left so I can make a bow tie out of the rest. Because bow ties are cool.

Imagine the stash you could keep in a TARDIS

Posted on October 7, 2014October 7, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I had so many Doctor Who and yarny related goodies in the mailbox recently I don’t know where to start.

Ok there was two. But they were both awesome that it seems like more.

First up, I managed to nab a Tangerine 8 project bag! I have been trying to get one of these for ages, but they sell out almost immediately.
One night I was lieing awake at 2am, surfing Twitter and saw a shop update. I set my alarm and then later that morning scored myself the project bag of my dreams. How could I possible not have longed for a knitting bag with yarn rolling out of the Tardis. *swoon*

I’ve now located all of my Midnight Scribbles Doctor Who stitch markers and this did seem like the perfect place for them.

I now have 6 of these stitch markers, one for each month of the Doctor Yarn Club by Yarn vs Zombies.
Another 2 yarns arrived in the post this week!
Australia Post hasn’t been kind to Kiki and there have been missing packages all over the place so I got two at once which was a very nice surprise.

So in the mail arrived the 12th Doctor and the 2nd Doctor.

Which was good timing because I just last night finished off the 9th Doctor (plus nanogenes) which I made into 22 Little Clouds.

And have started knitting the Of The Moon using the 3rd Doctor.

I cannot wait to see how this one turns out. I love all of Caitlin Ffrench’s patterns. (Who by the way has just released her first book! Which you can buy in PDF onlyor in hard copy book format. It also includes natural dye recipes to recreate the yarns perfectly.)

*disclaimer- as much as I gush about these products, they were paid for with my own hard earned dollars. Although if anyone ever wants to send me free yarn please feel free, but my honest opinion can not be bought!

Spot the hand-dye!

Posted on September 30, 2014October 2, 2014 by bekswhoknits

My sanity blanket is completed.

I am so please with it.
Not only is it squishy and warm, but I am damn proud of the way my own hand-dyed yarn holds up against the store bought yarn.

I really think that you can’t tell which stripes are professional yarns and which ones I did. But I may be a little biased.

See if you can tell!

FO10 – SPARKLE SHAWL!!!!

Posted on July 10, 2014July 10, 2014 by bekswhoknits

Remember that gorgeous yarn from my lame attempt at video blogging?
Well I’ve made it into a shawl. and it is epically awesome.

The yarn is yarnvszombies Vampire (75/20/5 Merino/Nylon/Sparkle) Sock Yarn in a colourway inspired by the Fourth Doctor.
The pattern is 22.5 degrees by Martina Behm.

The construction is so simple it was my football knitting for many weeks. Something to keep my fingers moving and not stress drinking or eating, but simple enough that I could still concentrate on what I was watching and not take my eyes off the screen.

The row of scallops made me really nervous. They just didn’t look right on the needle.
Even though I had never made knitted scallops there was something about them. Fortunately I ignored that instinct because once I began to cast off it all fell into place and looked like it should.

I can’t wait to make another one and experiment with different yarn types and different gauges.
It would also be a great base for trying other decorative edgings.

Stop! Pajama time

Posted on June 17, 2014 by bekswhoknits

It’s bloody cold here at the moment.
And that’s not just me saying that, a radio announcer said that exact quote last week.

So I figured that the first project from Tilly and the Buttons – Love at First Stitch would be the Margot Pajamas.

I wanted them to be warm so I stopped by the local grocery store and picked up some flannelette sheets (which were on special – $10 reduced from $25!)

Tracing the pattern onto baking paper was the hardest part. I tried 3 different types of tape and about 5 different pens before I found a combination that vaguely worked. Even then they look a bit mangled.

Cutting out using Tillys instructions was almost easy!
Considering that’s the part which has tripped my up in my sewing adventures before that’s a win!

Then I diligently set about to sewing the pieces together. Even using the zigzag stitch to finish the edges which I’d never done before.

Once I’d sewn the legs together I looked at the instructions for the crotch and realised I’d sewn the two fronts together and the two backs together.
I had to unpick and start again.

But I won’t be making that mistake again!!!!

After that they went off without a hitch.
Ta-da!!! Pajamas!!!!

Too lazy to write. – FO9 Seafoam Shawlette

Posted on June 6, 2014June 5, 2014 by bekswhoknits

Shawlette Pattern

Tilly & The Buttons Book

yarn vs zombies

My shop

The tablecloth incident

FO #8 Sunshine & Lollipops

Posted on May 28, 2014 by bekswhoknits

I still don’t know what quite possessed me to make a bright yellow cardigan.

I guess it’s like when you see a paint sample and it looks really pretty, but then you put it on the wall and are overwhelmed by the overall effect.

When I was surrounded by the 40% off all yarn sale, with all those yarn fumes and balls of squishy goodness, the yellow Moda Vera Ayanna looked beautiful.

Teeny-tiny needles are not my friends at the moment so I’ve been looking for bulky yarns and chunky patterns.

Fezziwig absolutely flew off the needles relatively speaking. It still took me about a month to finish but as someone who is trying NOT to knit it still felt like it was going quickly. The construction was really easy, sure picking up 200+ stitches was a bit of a pain, but not having to attach sleeves more than made up for that. I’m terrified of patterns that have attached sleeves. It just sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The best thing about it is that it’s so warm. It’s like wearing a wooly blanket made from sunshine and lollipops with pockets!!!