adventures in knitting

I have no voice to speak of

Posted on April 23, 2012April 23, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Well the weekend got off to a bang when I made another hairpin skirt.
Then a yarn sale! Spotlight had all their yarn reduced so I picked up some more sock yarn (you can never have enough sock yarn!) and some Moda Vera Shiver in green.
Then it was back home to watch the football (port had a pretty dismal loss – with a very sickening injury in the last 30 seconds), and then go out to watch the football. The hawks – eagles game was very strange. And hawks lost which really sucked.
But at least it stopped raining after the girl next to me bought a $5 poncho. She was not impressed.

Then Sunday was spent In The Pines.
RTRfm is Perths community radio station, and they do a lot to promote local music. And in particular bands that wouldn’t otherwise have a voice.
And it was a tops way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Lieing on a picnic blanket with a couple (ok three) bottles of wine, some good music and great company.
In particular I think it might have been a first for a couple of the heavy metal bands to have someone knitting in their audience.

Dancing like a mad person to San Cisco, swooning at the sexy violin playing of The Kill Devil Hills, and rocking out to Sugar Army were the highlights of a wonderful day. Very impressed with the way it was organised and looking forward to going along next year.

I may be insane

Posted on April 20, 2012April 17, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I may be insane.
I am knitting a blanket out of sock yarn.

I’ve made a slight modification in that I’m joining the working 10 to the completed section using a knit 2 together (rather than ssk). I’m also changing yarns really frequently.

It’s all these sock ends that I don’t know what to do with, so I’m making them into a blanket. It may take me a while on 3mm needles.
So far it’s 6 different colour blends of Moda Vera Noro

Knitting goodies

Posted on April 19, 2012April 19, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I love getting presents in the mail!
Particularly knitting goodies.

The lovely piper and rory designed a custom bracelet for me. I already have a Port Adelaide, a Buffy, a Doctor Who, and a Harry Potter cuff. Knitting was feeling left out.
So I got the phrase ‘i knit, therefore i am’.
With the only guidance being ‘something scripty’ I am so pleased at the way it turned out.
It’s like she read my mind.

And it arrived the same day as some sock yarn from whorled domination.
All of the pretty colours!
I really wanted to buy some yarn from a local supplier, buy local. So this is what I found.
Unfortunately it appears that the seller is unwell – so I hope that he (assuming from the name) recovers quickly and nothing is too serious.

I’m still fondling the yarn and will sleep sweetly tonight dreaming of all the sock yarn possibilities.

A knitted bag bag

Posted on April 13, 2012April 7, 2012 by bekswhoknits

One of the downsides about online shopping is that you can’t take your own bags. Everything comes in plastic bags. You can give them back to the driver (when you remember), but there’s already an abundance clogging up my already clogged cupboards.

So I surfed Ravelry, took a couple of ideas and made a bag bag.
It took me about 3 tries to get the increases right but I got there.
The yarn is Moda Vera Cardellino in burnt orange. It’s been in my stash for a while. I bought it because the colour is so rich, but it’s not a colour I usually wear. Then I looked around and realised it was surrounding me in the apartment. So it’s going towards house projects.

So the bag bag.

It’s knitted in the round, with an I-cord hanging hook.

I used 7mm circular needles (because I like magic loop – but it could be adapted to any yarn, any size)

the pattern
Cast on 20 stitches.
Knit in 1×1 rib for ~10cms
Knit front and back (kfb) so you have 40 stitches
Knit in 2×2 rib for 5cms
Knit in basket stitch* until desired length.
Bind off leaving 3 stitches remaining.
Use those three stitches to make an i-cord.
Bind off i-cord and sew into bag.

Done!!

*rows 1-4 [k4 p4] repeat to end of round
rows 5-8 [p4 k4] repeat to end

Is there enough interest for me to post this pattern on Ravelry??
Or would anyone buy one on etsy??
Any thoughts??

I make mistakes (sometimes) (quite often) (a lot really)

Posted on April 10, 2012April 10, 2012 by bekswhoknits

And so a long weekend passes with plenty of football, season 6 of Buffy, and a bit of knitting.

I finished my ‘sexy vesty’ which is rediculously too short. Almost a midrif vest. But really who else can I blame but myself.
I finished a pair of socks (which I knitted two together) but failed at the last minute by opting for a regular bind off instead of super stretchy. They’re super difficult to get on now. Lesson learnt.
I also started two scarves but frogged them both because I didn’t like what they were doing.
It sounds like a bad knitting weekend but it wasn’t. Ok it was, but it didn’t seem like it at the time.

I also discovered knit princess and am now in live with this comic.

I’ve never been an avid reader of web comics. My dedication has only really been to queen of wands and it’s sequel punch n pie.
And scenes from a multiverse for entirely different reasons.

But knit princess speaks to me as a knitter.
I particularly enjoyed her camping series (even if I don’t agree with it). Some of the comments are very insightful too.

So I went to sleep last night peacefully dreaming of knit stiches, pretty yarn (I bought some from etsy a whole back and am not so patiently awaiting its arrival) and knitting comics.

Does anyone know how to get rid of that hole when rejoining the heel to the rest of the sock? Or is it a curse of toe-up.
I had forgotten about that knitting mistake.

The polka-dots remind me of sunshine.

Posted on April 5, 2012April 5, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I made another hairpin skirt.
This time with a sewing machine and with more material.

I adore it!

I used more material than last time to make it really gathered. I also made it even longer as I’m sick and tired of skirts that I can’t bend over in. This skirt design is so super easy it took me less than an hour. Three seams, some elastic and you’re done.
And top tip, the polka dots mean that it’s really easy to see where you’re cutting. I measured everything in polka-dots!

I want to twirl around and sing songs to woodland creatures.
(Maybe it’s because of my new The Little Mermaid iphone case that I’m thinking disney. I’m so supercool.)

I may even attempt to take some decent outfit photos for this one (instead of hiding out in the work bathrooms). Now that’s me stepping outside of my comfort zone.

A star-crossed slouchy beret

Posted on March 16, 2012March 14, 2012 by bekswhoknits

So this hat caused a little drama.
Not because of the pattern. The pattern is gorgeous, well written, easy to follow and easy to knit.

It was because I ran out of yarn, with only 3 decreases to go.
And I wouldn’t have run out of yarn if I hadn’t have cast on so tight I couldn’t get it on the other side of the circular needle and had to cut it off.

So it was back to spotlight to buy more yarn. And it has been discontinued. Arg!!
Fortunately for me I had a call the next day saying they had called around and there was a ball left at another store and they’d order it in for me.
Yay!! Thanks Spotlight Midland – much appreciated. Great service.

So I was able to finish my hat, remove my letter box key, and now I have almost a whole ball of Moda Vera Ella to make a matching scarf, or maybe gloves.
It’s such a pretty colour and a really easy yarn to work with. It’s a shame its discontinued really.

But where does the letter box key come in?
This was the knit I took on the train to mandurah for the football game.
And as soon as I hopped on the train I lost my stitch marker. There was no hope of finding it (it wasn’t special in any way) so I searched my bag for a suitable replacement. And that was my letter box key.
Which would have been fine if I hadn’t have run out of yarn!
So for the week, out went the knitting to the mailbox. After my trip to spotlight I replaced the key with a proper stitch marker.

But it is a super cute hat and I will appreciate it even more for all the drama.

It’s a cowl – kind of. (FO)

Posted on March 9, 2012March 1, 2012 by bekswhoknits

What defines a cowl?

This gorgeous darling is knitted in the round, around and around, and then sewn up to make a tube.

It’s almost a cross between a collar and a cowl.

It was knitted on a 7mm 80cm round loop, which is kinda small. It’s only long enough to loop it around once. I cast on as many stitches as would fit on the loop, and then continued in stockinette until I was almost out of yarn. Then I sewed the cast on edge to bind off edge.
So when I sewed it up I gathered it a little. And now it’s a little tight to get around the head. But it looks a little like a collar. A cozy knitted collar.

It’s the Moda Vera Harmony which I used on my mittens. It’s like knitting with fairy floss. It looks sweet but can be a pain as it separates all the time.

It is a sweet colour though.
And will be really cozy come winter.

See that and my curly hair! I had a hair cut (which was actually really enjoyable. Massage chairs plus a scalp and neck massage = win!) and she styles it in curls. I can never curl my own hair well.
I love it.

Crazy cat lady

Posted on March 2, 2012March 1, 2012 by bekswhoknits

So crazy cat lady is one of my beau’s nicknames for me. And I call him my crazy cat.

And then on my twitter timeline I found it! My crazy cat pattern.

So now I’ve started knitting cats.

Crazy cat lady here I come.

The black one is Snowball and the grey one is Lucille.
Snowball because of the Simpsons and because I mucked up the pattern and it looks a bit like a snowball. It’s my Buffy cat because I was watching a lot of Buffy whilst knitting it and there’s a black cat in the credits.

Lucille because of Arrested Development and because it’s fun to say ‘loose seal!’

A sock addiction

Posted on February 24, 2012February 22, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I’m still working my way through the Scylla socks. I’ve completed one and am not quite at the heel of the second.
The first one doesn’t really fit on my foot though.

So I’m adapting the second one to make it a little bit bigger.

Maths to the rescue!