I am back to knitting (and family and spinning and all the usual things) so today the blog post is a more 'usual' one, sans exciting things like world travel and knitting conferences and hero workshop .. and today it is just knitting. It is the first day of a week of leave (fantastic!), the sun is shinning unlike last week when we had snow most days, none of it settled it just flurried. I've just waved good-bye to the smallest cub who is off for a few days with her Granddad, which leaves the eldest cub here as a temporary only child. Latter today we plan to opp-shop, just troll thru the myriad of second hand and trader shops in South Dunedin to see what we can see. I have hopes of finding a vintage fountain pen that is pretty enough and cheap enough to add to the small collection I am building ...and I have plans to finish knitting the largest of the two blankets in progress. He has hopes of finding vast tubs of Lego at ridiculously cheap prices.
So knitting, where am I with that? Well today I've got some finished socks to show, these have been done for a while, and worn and washed at least twice .. but Vintage Purls yarn stands up to that so they still look great, plus I've got progress on my Shetland blanket, my weeks knitting to finish it project, there is a 'new-project' with a challenge and a deadline, so lets talk knitting.
First up - Theodora, which was found and finished in Shetland, and worn, and then came home, was washed and has been worn again .. now I've managed to nab them clean and fresh for a final photo. I love this pattern, the lace is easy and bold, and the colour is just amazing. I probably have not done this justice ... but even Bear commented what a nice colour they were - and then followed that up with a further comment that it wasn't a colour for him, but it was a nice colour for me.
The 'replacement' baby blanket, the boring one, with a plain garter center continues, with a plain contrast edge - also in garter. I picked up stitches before heading out to knit night last Thursday, and have been working away at the edging off and on since then. As the blanket grows in size, the rounds have more stitches and the progress seems to be less visible. I'm using two identical yarns to work the garter boarder, a neat trick 'invented' or 'unvented' by Fleegle, so one can garter in the round and never need purl. I think Yo-yo is happy to have me back ... don't you? She has been sleeping in my lap when I knit, and moving further and further up the bed at night much to Bears disgust .. he thinks cats should be banned from the bedroom ...and really prefers her to stay by his feet if she 'has' to be on the bed at all. But he is a sweetie .. so she sleeps on our bed most nights, despite his dislike of the practice.
The 'other' blanket languishes, but will receive some attention this week. As spring brings with it warmer weather it makes sense to have it ready to block outdoors as I did with the last one. I have only a few squares to work .. so it should not take long. and I've moved it from the living room to the room at the back of the house that we don't use so much, with 3 spinning wheels and two knitting baskets ... this extra basket with the jumbo-blanket made the room look even more cluttered.
My newest project is another blanket sort of thing, remember earlier this year I reported on the KSG retreat and how we not only knit but Dartmore-dyed some yarn. The purpose of that was to generate yarn and fleece for a community project. The KSG members who want to have each been given the name of an adult living in care and their preferred colours. The goal is to knit them something to brighten their rooms... Me I have purple and red to knit a wall hanging. I'm attempting to knit this Portuguese style, with little knitting broaches as shown to me by Andrea Wong. So far so good, I remember how to knit and purl with my thumbs ... my yarn tensioning is not as even as when I knit in my more usual way, but that will come with practice. Andrea made it look so easy .... and very very easy to work colourwork, with a pin on each shoulder and just flicking the colour of choice into place. The challenge is to knit this in a new style, Portuguese, and the deadline is to have it done and posted away in time for it to be a Christmas gift.
I guess I should go and feed the one remaining cub .. today is also the second day of daylight saving, so the clocks are all forward and my body is yet to adjust, hence meal times are at odds with our feeling hungry.
Take care
I hope the sun shines where you are as warm and soft as it is shining here today
na Stella
So knitting, where am I with that? Well today I've got some finished socks to show, these have been done for a while, and worn and washed at least twice .. but Vintage Purls yarn stands up to that so they still look great, plus I've got progress on my Shetland blanket, my weeks knitting to finish it project, there is a 'new-project' with a challenge and a deadline, so lets talk knitting.
First up - Theodora, which was found and finished in Shetland, and worn, and then came home, was washed and has been worn again .. now I've managed to nab them clean and fresh for a final photo. I love this pattern, the lace is easy and bold, and the colour is just amazing. I probably have not done this justice ... but even Bear commented what a nice colour they were - and then followed that up with a further comment that it wasn't a colour for him, but it was a nice colour for me.
The 'replacement' baby blanket, the boring one, with a plain garter center continues, with a plain contrast edge - also in garter. I picked up stitches before heading out to knit night last Thursday, and have been working away at the edging off and on since then. As the blanket grows in size, the rounds have more stitches and the progress seems to be less visible. I'm using two identical yarns to work the garter boarder, a neat trick 'invented' or 'unvented' by Fleegle, so one can garter in the round and never need purl. I think Yo-yo is happy to have me back ... don't you? She has been sleeping in my lap when I knit, and moving further and further up the bed at night much to Bears disgust .. he thinks cats should be banned from the bedroom ...and really prefers her to stay by his feet if she 'has' to be on the bed at all. But he is a sweetie .. so she sleeps on our bed most nights, despite his dislike of the practice.
The 'other' blanket languishes, but will receive some attention this week. As spring brings with it warmer weather it makes sense to have it ready to block outdoors as I did with the last one. I have only a few squares to work .. so it should not take long. and I've moved it from the living room to the room at the back of the house that we don't use so much, with 3 spinning wheels and two knitting baskets ... this extra basket with the jumbo-blanket made the room look even more cluttered.
My newest project is another blanket sort of thing, remember earlier this year I reported on the KSG retreat and how we not only knit but Dartmore-dyed some yarn. The purpose of that was to generate yarn and fleece for a community project. The KSG members who want to have each been given the name of an adult living in care and their preferred colours. The goal is to knit them something to brighten their rooms... Me I have purple and red to knit a wall hanging. I'm attempting to knit this Portuguese style, with little knitting broaches as shown to me by Andrea Wong. So far so good, I remember how to knit and purl with my thumbs ... my yarn tensioning is not as even as when I knit in my more usual way, but that will come with practice. Andrea made it look so easy .... and very very easy to work colourwork, with a pin on each shoulder and just flicking the colour of choice into place. The challenge is to knit this in a new style, Portuguese, and the deadline is to have it done and posted away in time for it to be a Christmas gift.
I guess I should go and feed the one remaining cub .. today is also the second day of daylight saving, so the clocks are all forward and my body is yet to adjust, hence meal times are at odds with our feeling hungry.
Take care
I hope the sun shines where you are as warm and soft as it is shining here today
na Stella
3 comments:
Hmmm, well, our sun isn't listening to you, alas -- it's over 100 out there, I think. Summer has finally come (which is pretty funny, given which hemisphere I live in).
Your weekend sounds wonderful; I hope you and the older cub found your share of bargains! I'll be interested to hear the results of your fountain pen search, I have a vintage pen that I love - I think the original owner must also have been a lefty, as the nib feels right to me.
No-purl-garter-in-the-round! Ingenious! Thank you for pointing out Fleegle's solution to that. I've recently been hunting, yet again, for a suitable pattern for D's jersey and I think I threw one idea out because of the amount of garter. Maybe I should revisit it...
Theodora do, indeed, look lovely! I'm so pleased for you that Bear found the missing one. Great to see what you are doing with the Dartmoor-dyed wool. I was just wondering about that the other day! Good on you for combining it with learning a new technique.
I'm sure you mentioned on a previous post baby boottees that stay on. I'll be a new Nan come December and wondered if you could direct me to this pattern. My mail is ddudfield at gmail dot com.
Very much enjoy reading your adventures, thanks.
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