shawl

I’m sensing a spirally theme

Posted on August 31, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Somehow my daily happy things journal (which I was using to properly keep track of my 15 in 15 goals) has fallen a little bit by the way side. It was recently found under a pile of knitting that had fallen off the couch!

So I’m taking a wild guess and thinking that these are finished objects 12 & 13 for the year.

The hat is a pattern I made up. It was a cast-on 84 stitches, do a brim, increase row then knit until it needed some decreases. It’s very slouchy. Really I could have started the decreases about an inch earlier but it’s still super cute.

The yarn is from the Fiberista Club. I went on a bit of a club binge earlier this year and signed up for another YarnvsZombies club, the Fiberista club, and also the Fandom of the Month club.

It’s LYDIA Sock in colourway ‘Watermelon Wine Cooler’. I think it matches my hair quite well.

(Yes this is a selfie while I’m outside the pub waiting for a taxi. There are still ends that need weaving in….)

The wibbly wobbly 10th Doctor shawl has been on the needles for aaaagggeessssss. At least a year or more. Mostly due to me not being able to count and running out of yarn. Then I couldn’t remember what the pattern was or where I was up to.

Eventually I figured it out (it was the Canyonlands Shawl which is perfectly wibbly wobbly) and got stuck in again and finished it on the weekend while watching season 4 of Scandal.

Yes you’re all getting to see my dirty laundry AGAIN but there’s no other place to block a shawl with 2 kittens who think that my blocking mats are their scratching post.

I thought that I would have to block it rather aggressively to get it to curve like the picture, but I just wet it and once I pinned out the top edge it smoothed out into those gorgeous wobbly edges.

And because last time I forgot to tell HWF that there was a shawl blocking in the bathroom and he opened the door on itand nearly feell over, this one came with a warning sign.

Now if it would just hurry up and dry I’ll be able to take some dodgy shawl selfies!!!

Where did my mojo go…

Posted on June 15, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Well I know quite a bit of it went to a really heavy and stressful work week which went really well and I got a stack of compliments and work cried for it but it was still a lot of hard work and energy.

Then there was the 100+ hours I put into dragon age inquisition on PS4 (I got it for my birthday!!!! Second best birthday present after the gorgeous scrapbook my mum made me with photos of all the important moments of my life. Seriously an amazing mum!)

Even though I’ve just finished dragon age inquisition (for the second time!) I feel the need to immediately play as a different character. And then I’ve also got The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne to play, as well as finishing Mass Effect and Dragon Age Origins plus the free PS+ games I got last month.

And then!!!! I get a Netflix email saying there’s new Orange is the New Black, Scandal and Greys Anatomy. Everything is conspiring to make me hibernate for the winter.

Nothing I’m knitting can compete.

I just finished Snakeld. Which was fun. It needs blocking but I haven’t got around to it.

I’m working on another one of my lovely ruffly shawl. It’s now up to rev 1.1 because I realised I couldn’t count and had the row counts all wrong.

So far it’s had over 500 unique downloads!!!!!! Which is just amazing.

And I finished a pair of socks. But then realised a picot cast off didn’t work. So I un-finished them and they’re back on the needles.

I literally jumped for joy at a piece of timber that’s going to become a piece for my spinning wheel.

But still no knitting mojo.

Hopefully reading my new purchase will bring a little bit back. It came highly recommended by the lovely enabling Megan!

So I guess I should stop complaining and just find something I want to knit or make.

Or maybe I could just watch some more Orange is the New Black and have a little nap.

You can now knit some of my original designs!!

Posted on May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I have now got a pattern shop!

I designed some patterns for my week as the Cut Out and Keep Superstar and yesterday I loaded them into ravelry on a bit of a whim really.

Well I published them and already this morning I have 5 comments (yes 5 individual people who are not members of my family or my twitter friends*) from people liking my shawl pattern!!!! I’m just a little gobsmacked

Please let me officially present the first (hopefully of many) Rebekah Liddicoat Designs**
Lovely Ruffly Shawl

download now

My Summer Sky Slouch

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A Chevron PomPom Bookmark

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A cabled tea cozy (with cable tutorial)

download now

download now

*A special shoutout to Shay who is not a knitter, but still retweets and comments on all of my knitting posts. I appreciate the support mate 🙂

**Just a note for those curious about my Designer Name. That is not my real name, however Ravelry requires me to have a credible sounding First & Last name so I chose one that I know is unique and does’t appear anywhere else on the internet (except for birth records from the 1800s).

Finished object 8&9 – nurmilintu

Posted on April 27, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Remember that shawl that I posted without taking a good picture of first?

Well I have my photo!

Isn’t it just lovely??? Megs of course but also my shawl!!!

The pattern is nurmilintu and I just finished another, this time for myself and also in my own hand dyed yarn.

Blocking it made such a difference. But blocking with cats? When they’ve taken one of your blocking mats to be their new scratching post? Not fun.

At one point Tina ran off with a pin in her mouth and I had to chase her through the house so she didn’t hurt herself. In the end I locked them in their room (formerly the spare room) pinned it all out and then put it outside and once it got dark then put it into our bedroom and closed the door.

That’s the problem with open plan houses. No place to block your shawl with two nosy kittens.

I’m still not entirely convinced that the lace panels are correct. Either due to me not being able to count or the chart being wrong, but I don’t really care.

It’s colourful and warm and soft and it won’t leave my neck for at least until I finish the picot scarf that’s nearly off my needles.

Finished object 6 – the specialest of shawls

Posted on April 9, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I was gifted the most special of yarns.

Keri (of whendidibecomeaknitter) sent me a skein of her hand spun.

It was sent with a knitted dalek and a Canada Mug (which I use most mornings and I now know most of the words to Oh Canada) and a very precious skein of her own hand spun yarn! From the date on the original photo it has been in my stash since 2013 just waiting for the right pattern to come along.

Well in the end I devised the right pattern.

After casting on 5 stitches I repeated the following two rows.

Row 1: Knit 1, Knit front & back, knit til last 3, knit 2 together, knit 1

Row 2: Knit til last 2 stitches. Knit front & back, knit 1.

Then every now and again I would do a row of yarn over knit 2 together (while following the increase at one end, decrease at the other pattern).

It still needs blocking to even out the 4 rows of yarn over-knit 2 together to end the shawl. But the kittens have stolen my craft room and so now I don’t know where to block anything.

It’s also awkward given my blocking matts have become their scratching pads.

I really don’t want to put such a pretty shawl onto a cat scratching pad!!!

Firstly it was awesome to be gifted some hand spun yarn! It must have taken so long to spin and ply and wind. Seriously just the effort alone is awesome and a wonderful gift.

Secondly as a novice spinner it was really interesting to see the imperfections, the quirks, and idiosyncrasies of yarn that has been hand spun. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t fantastic quality, because it was and is! But seeing hand spun up close is going to help my own spinning (once a part is fixed on my wheel).

So not only did I get a lovely gift which resulted in a fantastic finished object, but I got a lesson in working with hand spun yarn.

Reason #7482929 knitters are brilliant people.

THANK YOU KERI!!! You’re the best!!!!

finished object 5 with 100% more ratbags

Posted on March 11, 2015March 21, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Well it’s actually finished object 6 but as finished object 5 is currently winging its way overseas and I stupidly don’t have any proper photos of it, I’m calling this finished object 5.

It will need a good blocking but my blocking mats are currently play toys for the two (yes two) kitten shaped ratbags that have decided they now own our house.

Say hello to Snow.

He and Tina are sort of playing nicely with each other. Currently they’re both resting at my feet while I’m writing this in between trying to defeat a boss in Dragon Age 2. (Which hell yes I just beat!! Last quest and I’ve been battling this Blood Mage, a Pride Demon and a fuckton of Shades for what seems like hours but yeh I finally beat them!!!)

Tina just blends in with everything in our house. But trust me she is there.

So there are plenty of kitty hugs to go round at the moment.

I wound my cling wrap dyed yarn into a ball and it looks just as gorgeous as it did in the skein.

However both kitten shaped ratbags were utterly captivated by the swift and ball winder. Plus Snow photo bombed my yarn shot.

I think I can expect more of that in the future!!! As a friend said, I’ve just invited two cats into a yarn palace!!! What have I done.

FO # 4 – crickety cricket shawl + talk about doctors.

Posted on March 2, 2015March 21, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I feel like there is so much happening at the moment that’s a secret.

I have secret tutorials happening, secret patterns that I’m writing and editing, secret projects for friends who read this so I’m totally not telling!!!!

There has been a lot happening, but not much I can blog about.

Fortunately my health is going really well! For those who missed my Twitter meltdown I had a really shitty appointment with my pain management specialist where I ended up dumping him. So I went to my GP who is lovely and actually takes time to listen to me and prescribe me new medications that won’t conflict with current medications (unlike said specialist).

So the new medication I’m on is helping me feel like a person who can actually sit on the couch without rubbing her neck in pain. Albeit a drowsy person, but I can deal with that. Knitting needles aren’t classed as heavy machinery.

Anyways I have finished an object that I can show you.

The yarn is the 5th doctor in YarnvsZombies Doctor Who yarn club. As the 5th doctor being known for his cricket vest I wanted a cable pattern that I could call my crickety cricket shawl (the designer called it storm warning.)

My name comes from the Children in Need special Time Crash where the 5th Doctor and the 10th Doctor meet.

“The hat the coat, the crickety cricket look, the stick of celery….. Brave choice celery, not many people can pull off a decorative vegetable.”

Kiki (the mastermind behind YarnvsZombies) cleverly included the decorative celery in the yarn.

It makes for a really gorgeous shawl. It was a breeze to knit up, the yarn is supersquishy and lovely. Once I got a hang of the pattern, including putting in an extra stitch marker to help me count, it went really quickly.

I love this shawl and cannot wait for it to get cold enough to wear it.

I got a grand total of one shot of me, in the aircon, before it got too hot to wear. And unfortunately eeyore doesn’t have the figure to model a shawl!!!

So much yarn so little time

Posted on February 19, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I feel like I’m trying to knit everything all at once!!!

I have my Sunshine Shawl making good progress after watching Australia beat England and India beat Pakistan over the weekend.

Then I am so close to finishing my crickety cricket scarf it’s just beckoning for me to finish it, even if that means staying up all night (which I am vehemently resisting but a girl is only so strong!)
I’m definitely on the home stretch.

Then there are my spirally socks. I’ve just turned the heel which means that these are also nearly finished. I’ve already planned the next project for my sock needles.

Then this shawl has gone missing and I’m systematically turning the house upside down looking for it.

And then there’s also this yarn that I dyed and just can’t stop petting.

More about that later…. When I have time!!!!

There’s still Dragon Age 2 that I’m trying to finish, and Mass Effect 3 which I’m really starting to get hooked on, plus the desire to play Dragon Age Inquisition which I have played until the final quest but there is still so much I need to do!
And so many feelings!!!!

Plus you know a full time job, plotting for birthday presents & surprise mail, and some big ideas for my blog.

I need a nap just thinking about it.

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.

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.