Of all yesterday’s #knitting songs, Knitting (on the sock of the bay) has been the one that’s been playing in my head.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra have done a really good cover version.
But it’s hard to go past a bit of Otis.
knitting is awesome
Knitting is trending today due to photos of the Australian Prime Minister being published in Women’s Weekly.
Rather than pick fights with random people on twitter (never a wise idea) I’m channeling my annoyance into reasons why knitting is awesome.
Image links to shorpy
And then I got distracted by pretty yarn and all my anger faded.
Which is the number one reason knitting it awesome. Pretty yarn.
etsy link here
Plus
-it’s relaxing
-it’s good for my mental health
-it makes marathoning tv shows somewhat productive
-it makes watching all 5 days of test match cricket somewhat productive
-you can make things while you wait at places
-you can’t fidget and knit at the same time
-ravelry!
-you can pretend to save money by making things you see in shops (when really by the time you add up time and yarn$ you haven’t saved anything)
-learning new things
-all the geeky patterns
-the heightened sense of awareness of other people’s knitwear
-other knitters, even if you have nothing else in common there’s knitting
-that smugness whenever you see someone knitting in tv or books
-and for someone who spends her work day on a computer I really like being able to say “I made that”
And the #knittingsongs hash tag.
I love being a knitter
🙂
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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It’s Friday!
Firstly some housekeeping.
I have recently changed my ravelry name. Instead of rainruinedclothes I am now known as bekswhoknits.
It makes my rav name the same as my twitter name plus means I don’t have to explain about rainruinedclothes (Editors lyrics from the song The Big Exit).
I’ve also recently updated my about page. I hadn’t updated my old one since I started this blog and it was out of date, and a little old.
I’ve also been mushy and sappy and given my partner in crime a new code name – HeWhoFishes.
He is such a big part of my real life and a tiny little part of my blog and I want to fix that. Giving him his own persona will hopefully help.
Secondly I have to share a recipe with you. Ian Hewittson is an Australian TV chef who is a bit of a Ron Swanson type.
Hewhofishes and I watched this just before going to bed last night and we were in hysterics.
With the focus of many TV chefs these days being healthy but tasty food, Huey has stayed true to the food he’s been cooking on TV for 20 years.
So for some unknown reason we can’t help but find it amusing when Huey adds a bit more butter, or sprays a mixture of butter, cheese, and breadcrumbs with olive oil spray for good measure.
So this breakfast just spoke to us. The final straw was when he served it with iceberg lettuce and mustard dressing, the mustard dressing including a cup of vegetable oil. And then he called it a ‘light breakfast’
And he is probably the only TV show I know that if you post a stamped self address envelope to their address, they will post you back the recipes. Its a delightful pre-internet concept.
Huey’s Light Breakfast
Brown onion and bacon. Add chopped sausages.
Top with cheese and breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.
Make a indent and break eggs on top.
Add more cheese and breadcrumbs.
Spray with olive oil
Bake in a hot oven for 20minutes or until golden.
Sounds delicious.
On the knitting front, I have had a bad case of cast-on-itis. Where nothing I already have on my needles seems right so in casting on something new. This one in particular I love the yarn, love the pattern, but not the combination. But I don’t know whether to frog or continue.
While I think about that decision I started a crochet cowl.
I don’t know what I’ve done, I think I’ve unintentionally increased on the first row, to create a curve. And I’m not sure if I like it or not.
While I think about that decision I cast on a hat. This I do like.
Although it’s a pain to knit as I’m holding two strands together and haven’t compensated enough with the needle size. So I’m pushing pretty hard on the needles. Hopefully it’s quick enough to finish so it won’t annoy me.
Has anyone got a cure for cast-on-itis? How do you decide if something’s worth frogging and starting again.
How cute is this frogging poster!!! For those curious, when I talk about frogging I’m talking about ripping back my knitting and starting again. Rip it, Rip it – like a frog.
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odds and ends
I’ve picked up my ten stitch blanket. I’m thinking that when I get to the next corner I might make a video to demonstrate how to turn the corner. I’ve shown it to some one in real life, and have had a few questions.
I’m now half regretting making it in sock weight yarn. Its now over a year old, and looks like its 3 more years away from being a decent size.
I also did some work on my gentle waves afghan. I showed you this in my video blog for Knit & Crochet blog week, but I’ve actually taken some photos now. It took me a few trys to start. I’m not that good at reading crochet instructions yet. But now that it’s established, its pretty mindless. Which was good because I’m still dieing loudly and building blanket forts.
I have managed to watch 6 seasons of 30 rock in 3 weeks from my blanket fort. I now need to find a new sitcom to fill that void. With Arrested Development being a netflix only production, and netflix being unavailable in australia, I was very happy to find a workaround .
Since then I’ve been discovering all that netflix has to offer. (And will quite happily take recommendations!)
I’ve been trying to not spend money on etsy. There are so many lovely things that I want. I think I have about 8 items in my cart that I’m pondering. Metal stamped cuff with yarn trinket? Yes Please!
There was no decent football to watch this weekend, as my team had a bye week. That always feels a bit weird.
So everything is a bit all over the place. But at some point it will all sort itself out again.
But finally I was cleaning out my spam comments and found this gem.
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And last but not least – Knitnrun4sanity, you are the lucky winner of my favourite tea! I’ve emailed you this morning. Please let me know if you didn’t receive the email. Congrats hun!!
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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.
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.
polka-dots & sparkles 