extra special

make your own report card

Posted on August 24, 2013August 24, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Watching Television – A+
Falling asleep watching television and not knowing where I got up to the next day – A
Getting my Bloglovin unread items to zero every day – C
Dyeing my regrowth in a timely manner – D
Brushing my teeth every day – C
Taking my contacts out at night (when I wear them) – F
Thinking before I speak – C+
Being able to find a pen when I need one – F
Being able to find scissors when I need them – C
Checking my phone the second it does something – A
Unsubscribing from email lists I don’t care about – C-
Waking up on time on a work day – C
Waking up ridiculously early on the weekend – B+
Leaving half drunk cups of tea all over the house – A++
Complaining about half drunk cups of tea all over the house – A
Counting to 5 – A
Counting 5 repeats of a pattern – C
Counting in 5s when casting on 100 stitched – C-
Counting to 5 laps of a swimming pool – D-
Painting my nails and not touching them til they’re dry – B-
Complaining my feet are cold – A
Putting socks on to walk around on tiles – D
Snuggling up in a blanket – A++

Procrastination

Posted on August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

My knitting monogomy is making me multicraftural.

Because I’ve been working on the same knitting projects I want to branch out in other crafts.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that when I made all those pretty stitch markers, there were also some earrings in the photo.

I didn’t draw attention to them because I had intended a pair to be a surprise for my best friend who was overseas at the time but is an avid reader of my blog (despite not being a knitter).
But she’s back now and I’m seeing her tonight (we’re seeing Cold War Kids!!) so I’m going to spoil the surprise.

So MidnightMoose I have a pair of earrings waiting for you. As always you’re allowed to hate them and you’re really more of a product tester because I’m really not sure of my jewelry making skills just yet.

But I can’t just give her a pair of earrings. Not when there’s jumper instructions to decipher and understand.

So I grabbed some photo paper, my new scallop edged scissors (typo bargain!), a silver paint pen, some washi tape, and a needle.

Put them all together and you get a wonky earrings set.

Maybe next time I’ll use a ruler too.

So oh moose who plays at midnight, when I see you tonight remind me that I have some earrings to give you???

Jewellery for knitting

Posted on July 22, 2013July 21, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I’ve been putting off knitting Parcel for the silliest of reasons. The stitch markers I had were annoying,
A while ago, inspired by knitnrun4sanity’s; jewellery making adventures, I bought some supplies.
It was a half baked scheme which was concocted whilst in Spotlight. Ideas that happen whilst in the shop are usually half baked which means that I don’t actually know what I need, but I want to buy stuff now and not wait to research it properly.

So I bought a starter kit, a plier kit, and some pretty things that caught my eye. My first attempt was so unsuccessful that I gave up.

Now I’ve joined My Sisters Knitter’s knitalong to finish off all those pesky unfinished objects I figured I needed to do something about my stitch marker situation.

So I had a look in my big craft book which wasn’t much help. Well I didn’t have the right tools. The Internet was more useful with this tutorial on stitch markers.

I modified it slightly but I ended up with some stitch markers.

Now I have no excuses not to knit parcel.

Look at me playing wire and stuff.

I may have got a little carried away. I had only planned to make as many as I needed. Instead I used all the round things I had.
I think these mean that I can put Jewelry making basics on my new crafts to try list.

Pay it Forward presents!!!

Posted on July 19, 2013July 22, 2013 by bekswhoknits

When I posted the Pay It Forward challenge a year or so ago I thought it would be easy.
Make something for the first three people to comment on a post. Bonus because only 2 people commented.

What I underestimated was just how difficult finding the right pattern and yarn was going to be.
The two people who commented Keri and Caitlyn are two of my knitting idols.
They were two of the first knitting blogs I followed and introduced me to ravelry, patterns, yarns, and turned me from someone who had just learnt to knit, into a knitter.

The more I thought about how much I admired these two ladies, the more daunted I was to knit for them.

So I procrastinated. And procrastinated some more.
Until it struck me, in the middle of the night I scrambled to check the rules of the pay it forward post.
I didn’t specify it had to be knitted, just hand made. Hurrah!

After that the idea came quickly. Embroidered cushions.

Then I thought about cushions being expensive and difficult to post.
So I thought about glueing some embroidery to a canvas.
I was onto a winner!
Then it was a matter of finding the right quotes.

Keri is the one who ~~held a gun to my head~~ gently persuaded me to finally watch Buffy. So I felt a Buffy quote would be quite apt.

Caitlyn had the domain 25dancer for a reason – she’s a dancer.
And late one night I was watching Black Books with commentary and found a great quote.

And so the plan was complete.

And some behind the scenes shots.

And just so no one thinks I’m making these quotes up.

**** it was only finding evidence of both quote I’ve realised I’ve misquoted both of them!!!! Whoops!!!! And I’ve waited until the recipients have received it to put up this post so it’s well and truly past the point of correction.
Eep!
Consider my hand well and truly slapped!
Note to self – always double check before stitching

I spun yarn!

Posted on July 12, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Last night I put on my big girl britches, went out, was sociable, and learnt something.
I spun yarn (sung to the tune of I Got Burned by the Bamboos if anyone’s curious.)

I met twitter friend and blogger Molly, who was teaching a spinning class at the Artifactory. I hadn’t even heard of the Artifactory before, but it’s an awesome space where creative people can hang out and make things.
While we were learning to spin, there was a band practicing, and there were people working on projects.

Molly showed us the most amazing yarn that she had spun herself! I was absolute in awe and even more determined to be able to do this.

Being the uncoordinated lady I am (so many unexplained bruises) it was an awkward beginning. But eventually it began to make sense. Words like ‘travelling twist’ started to look like something and not just random words.

And I was spinning!
I don’t think my yarn is going to win any awards, but it’s my yarn!

Stay tuned for more spinning adventures of Bek.

knitting is awesome

Posted on June 25, 2013June 25, 2013 by bekswhoknits

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
🙂

FO#15 – Frankie’s 10 Stitch Blanket

Posted on June 24, 2013June 24, 2013 by bekswhoknits

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!

500 Posts!!! – Giveaway now closed

Posted on June 3, 2013June 10, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I don’t quite know how I got here, but obviously I’ve talked for 500 posts worth.

So I’m celebrating with a tea giveaway.

I have a wonderful tea shop which tempts me on my walk to the train station every day.
And I’m giving some away to a lucky reader.
I’ll ship anywhere so please enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To enter click on either of the above links and *hopefully* it will all work perfectly.

This is my first time using rafflecopter – hopefully no one will have any problems, but it took quite a bit of work to use it with wordpress.
If any one has any problems, leave me a comment and I’ll try and help. I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible.

So congratulations to me.

And congratulations to knitnrun4sanity – the winner of this giveaway.

Cheers!

(Excuse the bed side table. I have a cough and the sniffles so obviously I’m dieing. But it’s nothing that a day in bed, a 30 rock marathon, and lots and lots of tea won’t cure)
(Seriously I figured out how to get Netflix even though I’m in Australia. I am now on season 3 of 30 rock and have watched all of the new Arrested Development. This streaming thing is pretty awesome.)

A change is as good as a holiday?

Posted on May 27, 2013May 27, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I am no longer the girl with blue hair who knits.

If you’re looking for me in a crowd you need to start looking for pink hair. And do I mean pink!

I try not to bleach my hair too often. I avoid it for as long as possible, but it was at that point where I couldn’t avoid it any longer.

I do my own hair. Its cheaper that way and I only have myself to blame if it goes wrong.
My bathroom gets turned into a hair salon about once a month.

Once I’m satisfied that I haven’t missed a spot, it’s the waiting game to see whether or not all the colour comes out.
I did my fringe bright red last year and that took 4 bleachings to get it to a workable state.
The teal came out quite easily and left me with a blank canvas. As well as the scheduled reminder that I look terrible as a blonde.

I hadn’t expected it to be so white. I though about it and ended up opting for a change.

I am now a pink haired girl.
I got so used to the teal that it looked normal to me. The pink is so bright it’s a bit of a shock. But I love it.
I’ve had pink hair before (it’s in my drivers license photo) but never with a fringe.

For the 10 year old Bek who never wanted a pink bedroom because it was too girly- I’ve failed you. But 28 year old Bek knows that you can still be a tomboy with pink hair.

A tale of 4 cowls

Posted on May 21, 2013May 21, 2013 by bekswhoknits

My best friend has the misfortune of supporting a football team with terrible colours.

Its also difficult to find nice options in the predominantly male clothing options (or icky t-shirts) available.
So I was thinking about this and made a drunken yarn purchase.
I found this yarn on etsy and just had to!

So now I’m trying to find the perfect pattern.

I’ve narrowed it down to the following. Clicking the photo will take you to it’s ravelry page.

Weeble-wobble cowl.
This has interesting construction and I’m interested to see how it’s made.

Stratosphere Cowl
This one has an interesting zig zag part but would show off the different colours really well.

Chevron Sunshine
I’ve not done chevrons before and think that this pattern would also show off the brown & gold nicely.

Woodstack
I really like the lace on this. It would be a bit of a challenge but I still think its elegant without being too much.

Ultimately the decision will be made by the recipient, but tell me what your favourite is.
Is there a pattern you’d recommend? Is the perfect pattern not in my shortlist?