adventures in knitting

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.

15 in 2015

Posted on January 6, 2015 by bekswhoknits

This has become a bit of a tradition now. I did 14 in 2014 and 13 in 2013

Something a bit like resolutions but I prefer to call them goals.

Last year got a bit waylaid with the whole ‘spinal nerve damage’ thing, so I’ve made this year a little bit more achievable.

knit 15 finished items
read 15 books I already own & 15 books that are new
dye 15 skeins of yarn
stamp 15 new cuffs
send 15 postcards/unexpected snail mail for unsuspecting friends**

I think this should be simple and achieveable.

What are your plans for 2015???

**If you would like to be an unsuspecting friend send me an email bekswhoknits [at] gmail [dot] com

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!!!!

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.

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.

Also I made a video thing where I also gush about MsGusset and YarnvsZombies and The Golden Skein

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!

Yarn Collection – Blood Red Shoes

Posted on September 5, 2014September 5, 2014 by bekswhoknits

My blanket just keeps on growing!

It’s gobbling up yarn so quickly I was forced (at gunpoint) to go and buy some more. Fortunately it’s on special (yay!) and $2 a ball. So I grabbed all the white they had. Then I went on a dyeing spree.

This time I experimented with dyeing 3 skeins at once. It was a vague attempt at dyeing a cohesive collection.

I’ve named them after Blood Red Shoes song titles.

It's getting boring by the sea — It’s getting boring by the sea

Everything All At Once — The Perfect Mess

Night Light was inspired by this picture I took from the balcony one night.
We do get some gorgeous sunsets.

I also experimented once more with separating colours using jars. There’s probably more technical ways to do this, but I’m having fun figuring it out for myself.

Some of the yarns from my previous dyeing adventures have been knitted up and look awesome, if I do say so myself.

My only regret is that I used two variegated acrylics that I just had in my stash and thought I could use them up.
They haven’t got the same drape as the pure wool. It’s probably something that only I will notice, but I will have to accept it. There’s no way I’m ripping back all of that work!

I’m totally counting these as ticking off my ‘Dye a yarn collection’ goal for this year.