FO 16 – a not so lucky cowl

This cowl has been on the needles for three weeks now. And in all those three weeks my football team have won.
But when I wore it for the first time yesterday, we didn’t win.
I’m still more inclined to blame the players, particularly as inaccurate kicking was clearly an issue yesterday so I’ll give my scarf another challenge next week against the team on top of the ladder.

But enough about football, and onto the knitting.

This gorgeous yarn is from ladybug fiber company.
I was researching for my birthday wish list (which no one in my family took any notice of anyway) and I found the perfect teal, grey, and black yarn.
A quick twitter poll told me to buy it and I obeyed.

The perfect pattern had to be found, and when I stumbled upon this cute but simple rib cowl I was on to a winner.

I made it longer than the pattern indicated because I wanted it to wrap around twice. And I’m super happy with it. Even if Port Adelaide don’t win every time I wear it.

Somehow I managed to get another piece of Port Adelaide merchandise in every single shot (except the back of the boat). Purely coincidence. Or proof that I own a lot of merch.

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FO#15 – Frankie’s 10 Stitch Blanket

Ive finished my 10 stitch blanket. I know I was saying a couple of weeks ago it will probably take me a few more years to finish but it’s done.

The secret? Make it smaller.

Now this isn’t just pure laziness. The idea came to me when I was cold at the office. I am always cold. I do have a heater, but I don’t like using it all the time. So I was using a cardigan as a lap blanket and my wheely chair kept running over the sleeves. I started thinking about patterns and what I could quickly whip up when I remembered my 10 stitch blanket was just about big enough.

I worked on that steadily over the weekend and finished it. Just in time too. The circular needle broke with about 15 rows to go.

I also made a video about it. Particularly how I do the corners. It’s a bit different to how the pattern says but I think it’s easier. Special thanks has to go to HeWhoFishes for being a lighting and camera man. I couldn’t have got the close up shots of my hands without him. Also as a non-knitter he said he understood what I was doing, so I think I did an alright job of explaining myself.

Making a tutorial was one of the goals I set myself for 2013, but I never imagined I would film a video.

To finish off the blanket I added a simple crochet edge.
I’m really pleased with it. But I don’t think I’ll be making another one soon. And certainly not one in sock yarn!

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The finishing touches FO#14

My modern garden cardigan is finally properly finished. It has buttons and everything.

And now it has buttons you can clearly see that I messed up the button holes.

I may research ways to insert a button hole, I may also just try to force it. Or I may just leave well enough alone. I haven’t decided yet.

I sewed the buttons on with matching embroidery thread. The buttons are from spotlight and I still have 3 left so I may make a matching hat.
Again I haven’t really decided yet.

Apart from the button hole lapse in concentration I’m super chuffed that I made this.
I do always feel a little bit self conscious wearing things I’ve made. In primary school wearing home made clothes put a target on your back which I haven’t altogether forgotten. I think things have changed though. More people see home made items as a hobby rather than a sign of lack of wealth.
Plus I burst out laughing any time someone insinuates knitting your own clothing is cheaper.

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I knew I kept things for a reason

I’ve had these jeans for ages. After a month of wear they developed a tear in the crotch.
And yet for some reason I kept them.
It’s a family trait. We don’t like wasting things and so reusing scraps or repurposing material was something I was brought up to do.

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Obviously these pants were waiting for me to have a really stiff neck. I was lieing away, trying to sleep when the idea came to me.
The pant leg is the perfect size for a heat bag, long enough to drape around my neck but not fall off.

The finished product isn’t exactly pretty or well finished, but it is practical.

First start by draping the pant leg around your neck to determine the optimal length.
Cut the pants.

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Sew up the leg on one end. Sew about half way along the other opening. You need enough room so you can turn it inside out.
Using a funnel, start filling the tube.

Fill it a bit and then sew it up to create segments. I divided mine into 3 (so I did this bit twice).
Using the sewing machine with rice already in it was tricky, but it did work.

Once it’s all full, sew up the end

I had a great idea to use contrast embroidery thread, before remembering that my hand stitching is pretty terrible.

So it’s not going to win any beauty pageants. But it does the job.
Put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and put on neck.
Heat packs are wonderful things.

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a cure for cast-on-itis (+FO#13)

New crafts!!!

I did spent 6 hours untangling a ball of yarn! Looking back I don’t even know how I managed to be patient for that long. But I had a plan to dye that yarn and didn’t want to waste it.

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Then I did some research and found that acrylic doesn’t really dye too well with food colouring.
So it was back to the drawing board. I did just test that theory anyway. It didn’t turn out all that well. I also had an idea about bleach dyeing coloured acrylic yarn.
That didn’t go so well either.
I was hoping that soaking it in bleach would take the colour out of the yarn, meaning I could dip an end into bleach and create a self striping yarn. Similar to how you can with clothing. But it turns out that yarn (well Moda Vera Marvel) is quite well dyed.

So that my 6 hours wasn’t completely wasted, I unwound and then rewound some balls which were similar to the white one that caused me so much heartache.
A broken chair became a makeshift niddy noddy which I should really put back in the spare room. It would be hard to tell if the place was robbed or not.

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I did however make it to spotlight over the weekend and bought some pure wool yarn. So I’m hoping to have a go at dyeing that sometime in the near future. (As well as getting it straight in my head how to consistently spell dyeing correctly.)
Whilst at spotlight I concocted a plan to make some pretty stitch markers. So I bought some jewellery making supplies. As usual I spent money before researching which added to my pre-existing crankiness when I tried to do what I thought would just be easy but actually unsurprisingly isn’t.
So I’m going to wait until my crankiness has lessened before trying that again.

I’ve also been researching drop spindles. I had always had the idea that I would learn to spin when I was living in a house, rather than an overcluttered apartment. I have since grown impatient, particularly as our house plans are now a little further out of reach. So I’ve been researching and after showing pictures to hewhofishes , he said “I can make that!”. So we’ll see what happens there.

But I do have a finished object to show you!
I present the Weeble Wobble Cowl.
Remember the poll I did a couple of weeks ago? Even though it wasn’t the winner, the recipient got the final choice.

Importantly, it’s a good luck scarf because the brown and gold team won on Friday.
This weeble wobble is pictured in its new habitat – the inglewood hotel.
Thanks Midnitemoose for being such a good model.

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Shh. Its a secret.

So I’m not going to share the 3 things I finished this week.

They’re all gifts so the recipients should be the first ones to see them. Then I’ll share them with the interwebs.

So instead I’m going to show you a present I made for my best friend’s birthday last year, and didn’t blog about it.
Instead it’s been sitting in drafts for ages.

It would be an understatement to say that midnite moose is my favourite girl in the world.
We woo together, watch sport together, and one night we drank vodka premix straight out of the bag together and dubbed ourself ‘classy bitches’.

There could only be one present to make to sum up our relationship.
A double sided cushion with “Woo” on one side and “we be classy bitches” on the other.

On polkadot fabric naturally.

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A cardigan in a weekend

Well I started it on Friday night and finished it on Monday night. That’s a pretty quick turnaround!

It helps that this is knit with super bulky yarn (I used modavera shiver) on size 10 needles.

I found out about this pattern from the electric sheep podcast and had to knit it immediately.

It was not without it’s difficulties though.
First one was when the cable became unglued from the needle.
Not a big problem. We had superglue in the house so I just glued it back together and left it to sit for a while.

It was only when it was dry and I started to use it again that I realised I had glued the needle in the wrong way.
Instead of a nice smooth needle I had a groove where a cable should fit.

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I persevered. It slowed progress a bit, but was still manageable.
Then came the sleeves.
I realised I didn’t have size 10 double pointed needles. I probably could have gone out and bought some and made my life easier, but I had a size 10 hat sized circular. It wasn’t ideal but I managed to do magic loop on it. Eventually the sleeve stretched enough to be knit from the circular no magic loop required so that turned out to be an acceptable problem.

When it came time to attach the sleeves it took me two attempts to figure out the pattern. I was meant to have put 4 stitches on holders not 3 but maths saved the day and I picked up extra stitches under the armholes and changed the yoke decreases.

So I finished a cardigan! The sleeve length is a bit awkward on me, so if I make it again I would change that, but overall I’m very pleased.
I also want to make this into a jumper pattern. By increasing the number of stitches between the pattern repeats I think it could quite easily be done.

I really need to learn how to take better photos though.

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Everything is almost right with the world

I have now completely my first ever provisional cast on.

I’m not sure it should have taken me 45 minutes and involved scissors, swearing, and cider.

So I have the toe of the sock completed and I’ve learnt something.
If you’re going to try a new technique don’t start with fingering weight.

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So I’ve now starting on the foot part of the sock and immediately I feel calmer.
Like there was a something missing before.
This sock was chosen as my Team Bee mascot project. I am loving the pattern. It has one tricky row, and the rest is straight forward, I’ve finished one repeat and have got it down pat.

I am loving this yarn. It’s from yarn vs zombies and it is a dream to work with. It’s flying quickly through my fingers and I have to stop myself from pressing it against my face.

I’m no sure I’m loving the two together though.
I think the pattern is getting lost in the colours.
So I’m not sure what to do.
Do I start again with another yarn?
Do I give the provisional cast on another try?
Do I keep going and wait and see if I fall in love with the complete sock?

So everything is right with the world because I have socks on my needle, but I can’t shake this feeling that it’s not quite the right socks.

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FO #12 – I found myself a hitchhiker

What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy says that the answer to the Question, is 42.

The number 42 has since become its own popculture reference with 42 towels, this 42 shirt that my little bit geeky boyfriend wears, an entire episode of Doctor Who, and the hitchhiker shawl which has 42 little notches.

This is the only true hitchhiker I’ve made. The other two I stopped before I got to 42. Mostly because of time constraints, but also because I’m pretty selfish and wanted mine to be the only true 42 hitchhikers.
Plus neither of the recipients of the other hitchikers would care about the reference.

So here it is. You have photos of work-Bek today because I finished it only minutes before I was due at my friends place to watch Eurovision.
Time restraints = terrible selfies.

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Surrounded by UFOs

All around me is unfinished objects.
Currently on the needles I have
– hitchhiker shawl #3 for me
– 10 stitch blanket
– mini mania scarf
– parcel jumper
– ripple crocheted afghan
– blue cabled hat (in no mans land)

So what did I do this week? Cast on 3 more projects.

I’d like to introduce my team bee socks

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A zigzag hat

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And a cabled scarf

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I think I need to buckle down and maybe finish what I start.
Or I could search ravelry for more pretty patterns!!!!

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