Inspired ...

This week I have been inspired by another knitter, something that happens all the time, when I see the knitters around me do clever beautiful things,when I see clever beautiful things on Ravelry and on blogs. This time it was a local knitter who has inspired me to finish and complete. As well I've been playing with my new hand carders, and making rolags, and I have that new project to introduce.

This is the project that inspired me, Kiwimoth from Ravelry gifted the youngest cub her Sanquhar mitts. Knitted in lace weight yarn, stranded, and on 1.25mm needles. The gauge is 13 stitches in 2cm, so 65 stitches in 10 cm or 4 inches, 17 stitches per inch - give or take. I am in awe, awe that Kiwimoth knit one, then two of these, awe that she gave them away! Her gift did inspire me to finish knitting mine, which has a gauge of 43 stitches in 10 cm or 4 inches, or 10 stitches to the inch. 

Here is the difference those seven extra stitches per inch make, on top Kiwimoths child sized mitt, underneath my more adult sized mitt.  One of the reasons I was dragging the chain on finishing mine was indecision. I didn't know if I wanted to make them gloves as the pattern was, I've never had a pair of gloves I felt comfortable in. I already had several pairs of mittens, and and to turn these into mittens seemed odd. When I saw how good Kiwimoths mitts looked, which she had finished with a teeny tiny picot edge ... I was inspired to do the same to mine.

I tried the picot edge, and it didn't really work.The top edge stretched, so I frogged and worked the picot again this time decreasing the facing stitches by a factor of 10%. I grafted the live stitches down .. but still the edge flared and the picot didn't sit on the edge. So I was in awe a third time that Kiwimoth had worked a picot edge at that gauge and had done so successfully. I frogged the top cuff back and worked a round of plain chocolate, then three rounds of single rib, then I worked two rounds of rib-slip to set up for a tubular cast off. I loved the final result, not as pretty as Kiwimoths, but neat and tidy.

I also spent some time playing with my hand carders, making little rolags. I turned a 100g  braid of soft silver grey Perendale from Vintage Purls into light sleek roalgs, and then spun a few.  I've played with long draw before, but not really felt in control of the process. After watching the two dvd's I bought I was convinced that like everything, success was reliant on good preparation. I have (Drafting the long and the short of it & How to card wool, as well as several books with instructions on carding it hand carders.   The thing about preparation seems true, because the silver grey rolags are a dream to spin.


I also visted you tube, and the most useful video I found was one by Hervorandweyland. Most videos and books told me the carding teeth should not touch, that they should skim over each other and not even mesh. I understood that to mean the teeth should just skim past each other, and I couldn't see how the fibre would be carded. This video shows the difference between a light hand with carding, where the teeth just brush past each other and meshing the teeth deep into each other (around the 2min mark), Seeing that made it clear to me that the teeth could touch, just not deeply.

I had so much fun spinning the first few rolads of pale grey that I dug around in the my stash to find something else to hand card into rolags. This is deep green, purple, wine merino, dyed by me 160g. At the base of the bag the fibre is more  black and green, at the top more wine and teal. I have no idea how I will ply it yet, but I plan to spin long draw.

And this little project, a hat, knit in the Knit one below style developed by  Elise Duvekot. The knitters study group project this month was Knit one below, which I have done not once but  twice before. I wanted to knit socks, but two things worried me, having enough yarn, I had 50 of the grey green and 100g of the variegated mauve, and fit. Elise recommends yarn with lycra or elastic fibres as being great for Knit one below socks, and I didn't have any yarn with lycra and didn't want to knit baggy socks. So I switched to knitting a hat, using the garter strip as the 'cast-on' edge. I love the way the stripes transition from the garter to the body of the hat. In an effort to stop the hat colours being to regular I'm switching the variegated and plain columns at the pale section of the colour way repeat.

I'm hoping that when little cub comes back from her grandads she will let me post her current project. She is knitting Elijah, and it is such a clever little project. The increases and decreases are all planned very carefully so the knitter knows exactly where and how to pick up stitches for the body, the legs, the arms, the ears and the trunk curls up a little because it has extra decreases to shape it upwards.

Take care
Knit lots, or spin, try long draw ... even
na Stella

Owls!

Boxing day here, the day after Christmas day. I was always told that boxing day was the day that wealthy Victorians went about passing on the food and other left overs to those less fortunate than themselves. I've also heard tell of Boxing day sales, particularly in the UK, where shoppers almost lost all reason in their haste to purchase heavily discounted items, particularly clothing and accessories. Here Boxing day is usually quiet, often is is an invite somewhere, and there are left overs, and of course the cubs (and adult bears) want to play with their new toys. In short mostly Boxing day is a mop up from Christmas day, eating the left overs, and finishing up Christmas things. Today - the washing machine threw us a curve ball .... yesterday after Christmas dinner I popped the table cloth which Bears Mum had embroidered into the washing machine  .... thinking it best to clean it before any food had a chance to settle and stain. Last night I pulled the damp table cloth out of the machine and hung it over the side of the machine ready to hang up this morning. This morning Bear went out to hang the table cloth on the washing line while I made breakfast coffee. Bear returned reporting that the table cloth was covered in brown 'mud' and that the washing machine had more 'mud' all over the inside. Long story - short, appears this washing machine has a filter, deep inside the agitator that we were unaware of .. and the filter was completely filled with years of wet lint. Filled the the point it was washing out of the filter and back into the wash, and it was mud coloured and  ... ewwwh! So our boxing day went in a mess of cleaning up the mess, including dropping a cloth between the agitator and the wall of the machine and fears of needing a repair visit to retrieve it. Luckily Bear is the sort of person who just works away quietly at things and he hauled the washing machine out and cleaned in behind and under and in the process the cloth fell out the bottom ...... What was boxing day like for you? Was it better than mine?

1950's style petticoat

The last two days of the 'before' Christmas week littlest cub and I sewed another dress and a petticoat. With each of the dresses she has asked if the skirt could 'pouff out', and inspired by rumors of a 1950's petticoat for sale at a local second hand shop (we went but it was sold), I searched out instructions and made one. I bought the bridal tulle and the bias binding, and already had the material for the top and the elastic. So far little cub has worn it every day and with every skirt and dress she has. I suspect that she will ask for another one, as I let slip that I'd read that girls in the 1950's sometimes wore more than one to make their skirts extra full. The dress is just like the pink one, but in blue plaid ....

Unravelled by Carrik, of Central Otago, NZ

Did you know that there is wine made for knitters? This is one that Bear brought home for us, Unravelled by Carrick, one of the Central Otago wineries. I've not tried it but Bear is good at reading and remembering wine reviews .. so it should be tasty. Carrick say  'The name is a play on our Carrick Bend Knot and represents a marketing decision to produce a very reasonably priced uncomplicated, upfront ("unravelled!"), enjoyable wine, with recognizable black cherry fruit and ready to drink now'... I like to think that its fibre rlated and  I'm happy to connect the two together in my own mind.

Owls, tatted and silver

Christmas brought other fibre things, these amazingly cute tatted owl earrings, from Suzanne, who is making the most amazing snowflakes right now. the larger sterling, Garnet and marcasite Owl was from Bear and is delightful, officially a broach I've temporarily hung it on a chain so I can wear it in warm weather.  With temperatures in the tee-shirt, light dress and sandal range I'm just not wearing things which will support a heavy broach right now - and I'm not prepared to wait until winter.

Rosebuddie starts

The little cubs with a bit of guidance from Bear gifted me chocolate and some patterns, Rosebuddie by Anne Hanson, Deciduous and Icelandic Poppy by Evelyn Clark. I finished the KAL socks Christmas eve so was all set to start something new  ... and Rosebuddie is now on the needles. I'm using fingering weight hand spun Perendale, and I love how the colour changes in handspun are so different to the colour changes in mill or hand dyed yarns.


and this is Yoyo doing her new 'thing', Cat-in-a-bowl'. Most days we come across her either curled up in the bowl or sitting and surveying her domain. She curls up in the larger bowl, and sits in the smaller of the two .. we have no idea why.  Bear suggest that maybe she has no idea why either. This behavior is new as far as we know, traditionally Yoyo relaxed on the front stairs or under the foliage around the garden .. the use of terracotta bowls is new. I suspect that these warm up in the sun and she has discovered they are soft, slightly elevated so dry and warm as toast. This has the whole family calling out 'Cat-in-a-bowl' whenever we spot her ... and stopping to look.

Cat in a bowl?

So - boxing day continues, the washing machine is back and washing, its Spin night tonight, and we are off to the Waimate Rodeo tomorrow so an early start.

take care
Stella

Project monogomy

I'm open to distractions, in fact some times I am amazed that I have been able to maintain a blog on knitting for nearly 6 years. Then of course I realize that knitting isn't a single thing, its a wide range of activities, from actually performing the stitches to imagining something and working through how it could be achieved, not to mention seeing all the amazing things that people do with knitting. Given how open to distractions I am when I practice project-monogamy it surprises me how fast progress can be. Take this week, my knitting has been on my Bubbles sock and progress has been rapid, so rapid in fact that I cast on the toe of number two at the Creative Fibre South Canterbuy 40th Birthday Open Day Celebrations. The Open day was fantastic, my talk was on how I teach Design, particularly Fashion design at our school of design, and seemed to go well with questions that indicated interest. The trades hall at the open day was fabulous - with lots to select from.

My plans for the leg of Bubbles worked out, I had charted the leg but not really made any decision about the cuff. As the bubbles dissipated up the leg the sock background of reverse stocking stitch became more dominant and I wasn't sure what sort of cuff would work best. I decided to try a garter stitch cuff - and it worked brilliantly, an almost invisible transition from reverse-stocking stitch to garter. Sock number two has started and is going fast, I'm nearly done on the heel flap and need to decide if the foot is long enough. The second sock feels shorter than the first - and I suspect the handspun is finer for this sock, so I might just frog back and add a wee bit more length after the gusset. I'll try both socks on before I commence knitting any more and make a decision.

The open day was fabulous, Fiona and Kathy and their team had sorted everything, including a lovely parcel of fibre and fruit as a thank you, the fiber is the large pale grey bundle at the back of this image. I couldn't help but exclaim 'Fibre! My favorite!' This is just over 200gms (7 oz) of light grey natural half-breed combed top. The fruit is in the fruit bowl and has mostly gone as my standard answer to cubs that ask for biscuits is 'no but you can have a banana (or whatever it in the bowl). That generally sorts the real hunger from the boredom peckish. In front of the fibre is a copy of Are you ready to dye by Sandra Dain, my copy was loaned to certificate student two years ago has never been returend so I replace it. Sandra's book has one of the most comprehensive coverage of dye methods I've ever seen, everything from dyepot and microwave to using syringes and dying yarn in the ball with different colours, in bags, in pots, in the oven, in sunlight, fleece, fibre, yarn, projects - a huge range of options all clearly explained with photos and clear instructions.

To the front of the book are two wee parcels of Alpaca, during my talk I explained how our students are expected to identify the designers (fashion or not) whose work they like and why, and whose work or process is the most like theirs and why. Doing so it intended to help our students work out where they fit into the world of design and design ideas and processes. As part of that I highlighted three designers whose work inspires me and explained what I understood about their process that I liked. My first two were Claire McCardell and Isobel Toledo's early work, and my last example was Schiaparelli. I included images of her shoe hat, her classic
Trompe-l'œil sweater(on my do knit list), and her skeleton dress. Afterwards I was alerted to alpaca for sale from an Alpaca named Schiaparelli from Otago Bridge Alapacs - so of course some of that had to go home. One in Pink (Schiaparelli Pink) and one in grey blue. I've already started to spindle spin the pink.

The table that distracted me the most at the trade hall was the one with vintage buttons. I was enthralled, and took home these few. Ten small glass black buttons, Victorian, circa 1880, about 13mm across. One larger flower button, also black glass, one purple turtle button in Moonglow glass, and one glass dragonfly (3cm across). The 10 small black glass buttons are destined to dress up a black or charcoal cardigan, the others are just to have until i find a use for them.

These new acquisitions go well with the vintage buttons I bought in Napier a few weeks back ... seems that I might have a new thing to stash. As I said easily distracted, but I never said that was a bad thing.

take care
na Stella

Oooooo - finished

Another project off the needles, which leaves ... maybe two on the needles. Off the needles is Fling One (Heart of Glass), currently blocking. On the needles is a seemingly abandoned Tammy, and the third and final Double knit mitt. I also have knit wisdom to share, and yes I am still spinning on the Tour de Fleece (no photos today). I am also reading, I am nearly done on a book that is making me both nod in agreement and think, and I have a new-old book to start.

So now there are empty sock needles, really and truly empty, that means that I should probably knit a new sock, or at least begin thinking about what the next sock could be. I have hand spun sock yarn to use, and the new Vintage Purls Max Sock yarn ... and a whole drawer of yummy choices besides. What I do know is this my next book, Stella's Cup, written in 1890, by May Elsdale, N found and thought of me, especially when she saw chapter VI was titled Tiresome Toby. Tiresome - that is exactly the word that describes parenting that boy some days! I'm glad there are more days that are not tiresome than are. It should be a 'golly good read', and an insight into what people were providing in terms of children's literature 120 years ago.

So here are the finished socks, cast off and blocking. Details

• Started: April 28 2011 Completed : July 13 2011
• Yarn: Vintage Purls Sock
• Pastel Mist,
• Pattern Vintage Purls Heart of Glass
• Needles, 2.25mm.
• Modifications : I added eye of partridge stitch to the heel - just because I like how it fits and hugs the heel, and the way it looks in a soft semi-solid yarn.

This came my way this week from K, a money box with multiple knit themed sayings. Subversive knit sayings, like this scarily authentic Government warning.


I'm also reading To Die - Is Fashion Wearing out the world For by Lucy Siegle. I read Claire Regnault's review in last weeks Listener and decided this was a book I had to buy and read. I'm not sure how to best describe this book, its not fun, and if I was the kind of person who did a lot more shopping then this would be a slightly uncomfortable read. I love fashion, I love design, but I've never spent most of my money on it, I've always tried to buy 'quality', things that were made and cut to last, so often I reject the very thin cheap clothes on offer at discount places. I'm also not to naive about the impact of production, and processing for fashion, or really any product or service, even so this book is honest to the point of being brutally at times, it contains information that is hard to read. What does Lucy say? Well I've not finished the book yet (page 266 of 337), but so far she presents a very coherent and well defined argument that in the last 60 or so years our attitudes to clothing have shifted away from more sustainable attitudes that were traditionally in place when the production was more linked to the consumption. Where does this leave me? Well buying quality, considering the way and place and materials involved in the making of anything, and what will become of my 'stuff' when I no longer want it. As I said uncomfortable - but in a good way.

Take care, I'm off to The Cutting circle workshops tomorrow, should be fun as I get to be the student not the teacher! I'm back Saturday just in time for the Knitters study group mid winter dinner. My plane gets in after 7pm, so I'll probably arrive late ..... hope they save me some of the yummiest stuff, it is a pot-luck, or as we say in New Zealand 'bring-a-plate' and some of those knitters can cook as well as knit.

Stella

Oh my - I am one lucky birthday gal

I sure am, yesterday was my birthday and there was cake, and a lovely family dinner and lovely things to open and enjoy. I headed out to the KSG (Knitters Study Group) where I provided an old fashioned pound cake, with orange zest, vanilla innards (what is the name for the bit that you scrape out when you use pods?), and cloves. The best thing about having hobbies is that when people want to give you things they tend towards things that fit the hobbies you have. When friends are also into the same hobbies and activities .. well the gifts tend to be of the most amazing kind, the kind that really fit into what you want to do and use. Right at the end of the post is a new video, which I hope is of little or no use to most knitters, and of great use to a few in temporarily or permanently in special circumstances.


So ... first, is a pen - yes I know it is a knit-blog, but the pens have been creeping in of late and there appears to be naught I can do about that. The pens, and inks, are part of my life now, and we both have to adapt to that. Remember back in 2009 when I was knitting Owls in collaboration with Suzanne, well this pen called to S and reminded her of that collaboration. I knew there was a pen in the parcel - customs forms make a point of listing what is inside, in this case 'pen and ink'. I thought there might be a Tswbi pen, as was a firm favorite in her collection. I never expected a Sailor 1911 Maki-E Owl by Pen by Kosen Oshita.

Oh wow, you probably know all about yarn-porn, delicious photos of yummy yarn and fibre, here is some some pen-porn. The pen is predictably a fountain pen, a rather special one.

Maki-E is a traditional Japanese technique of decorating using layers of lacquer and precious materials, in this case gold and shell. This pen has the signature of the craftsman artist, and is absolutely beautiful.
Even the nib is amazing, 14ct gold with some of the prettiest engraving I have ever seen. This is a Japanese Medium nib, equal to a European fine. The pen if filled with Noodlers Summer Tanager Ink, a lovely burnt pumpkin shade. I am not at all disappointed that is was not a Twsbi as this is a pen in an entirely different league.

I was also gifted the spinning fibre, Morag shared some of her limited edition hand dyed cashmere-merino-silk. She said the colour choice was a no brainer, cool blue with a hint of grey .... and the wee notepad with button detail just reminded her of me.

Then Zoomer provided samples of her new button range, sweaters and Jandles (only Aussies call them thongs). I am going to have to knit lovely cotton summery things just to make use of these .....

I have been knitting, and rediscovering that if I pick a project and work on it for a few nights that considerable progress is made. I finished the first Heart of Glass sock, and cast on the toe of the second one on Thursday at knit-night. By Saturday night I had made it almost thru turning the heel!

And I am still spinning, so far 80grams spun, and 80 grams to go. Bobbin one is now done, and about to be put aside. I hope that when I ply this on the majacraft those bobbins will be large enough to make an unbroken skein.

The second half of the fibre is soft, and pink and predrafted al ready to spin. Monday night is spin night at my house .. so I will be able to spin more then. I am trying to spin at least 30 minutes most days, but that cuts into my knit and pen time.

And I am planning the next project,sewing. I am on leave this week. Supposedly the whole week Monday to Friday but effectively Monday to Wednesday because of the Cutting Circle workshops which came up after I planned my leave. Usually if I have a few days leave I plan to sew something, and this week is no exception. Global fabrics have just opened a store in Dunedin so I thought I should 'test-their wares'. Here is a lovely pure silk which all going well should become a nice simple dress. The plain purple brown fabric will be the lining and the paler brown knit is for a long sleeved tee for smallest cub. Global has so much to choose from that I very nearly went mad and selected more than this. I wisely thought that I could sew this Monday and then return to see what else I could sew Tuesday and Wednesday?

As it is still the Tour de fleece, I'm off to spin some, and then play with a special new pen and ink and pet some fibre ... and even knit some.
Take care - enjoy the rest of your weekend - where ever you are.
Stella

Post Script
.. a few weeks ago Bear and I made an new instructional video. How to knit with one hand, the left ... for a special wee boy who wanted to learn. I was sure there was a way and yes there is, based on lever knitting. Over time I hope to add in a few more showing how to increase, decrease and yarn over ... or cables (those I can't quite get my head around how to do those yet).

A big weekend all round

When you have younger people in your life, birthdays are significant events. I can understand that, when you have only ever had 11 birthdays, and I'm pretty sure the first few are kind of fuzzy and the memory is probably only the photos in the family album and stories you have been told, the number 12 is significant. Tomorrow my eldest, Toby, aka 'the toad', or 'tobe' turns 12. We try to be responsible parents, no first-person-shooter games, no playing with matches, and making a point of not letting go of what is on offer unless the please and thank-yous are said. That said kids develop interests that plain confound me, The littlest cub is into ballet, so I find myself doing ballet-hair, a bun, twice a week. The eldest cub finds WWII planes fascinating - who knew? That is all part of this weekend, then there is the start of the Tour, not the tour de France, but the tour de Fleece, with all the preparation and false starts that go with that. This weekend and there are knitted objects that relate to the tour, and knitting objects that might even be closer to being finished than they were a few days ago!

This is my 'birthday boy', with his new toys. I am thankful that Bear has insight into the tings that this 12 year old boy likes - as I never would have guessed that teeny tiny miniature planes that are used with a board game replicating the movements of World War II airplane engagements would the perfect present. Me, I supplied blank comic book drawing pads, A3 drawing paper and blocks of A4 210gsm cartridge paper because he is always wanting to use my supplies. I also provided a FC Tk9400 2mm clutch pencil, nice soft black lead refills and a Fabre Castel lead pointer. His sister supplied a vintage style slinky, and an environ science kit. If that boy even hints he is bored in the next few days .... I can't even imagine my surprised reaction. Equally how he will fit all that new stuff into his already full and tiny bedroom is a mystery that only he can solve.

This year I am again on tour, the Tour de Fleece, spinning along with the Tour de France, resting on rest days and trying to challenge myself. This is pink combed perendale that I dyed last year. This year I am spinning on my vintage Pippy wheel, I've not used this much since the two new wheels arrived and every time I visit the back room I admire it and think I shouldn't be ignoring it. So Friday I rearranged the family room, gave the wheel a dust and an oil (silicon spray really), and pre-drafted the fibre.
In any event of the size of the Tour (france and fleece), there are bound to be false starts. My participation started disappointingly. The Pippy and I had to get reacquainted, for I thought I had her all adjusted and drawing in nicely ... but in truth I forgot that treadling with one treadle is very different to treadling with two. Of course any coach will stress how important it is to train with your competition equipment so you are familiar with it, and I didn't. My first 11 grams were thicker than I wanted .. but I have 160g to use. So I thought about it overnight, and decided to sacrifice the 11 grams, and start again. The second start was much smoother, the wheel and I are not quite one, but my hands and feet are more in tune with my spinning and the wheel.

In prepareation for the Tour I spun up the lovely cross breed that KathyR gifted me. I was aiming at lace ... and I'm closer than I have ever been to lace weight yarn. And I do think this my spinning is becoming more even. Once I was compelled to spin three ply yarn - only because I knew the averaging out of three plies would even up my yarn, now I happily spin two ply knowing that my control is improved the point that there is not as much difference between the thicks and thins. Details, fine fingering, 2 ply, shifting from pale to darker over its length, 115g, and 550m. I am still thinking of a a shawl or blanket that uses the transitioning shades to add drama, with the dark as the final outside lace edge. Thank you again Kathy!


With the tour looming I felt the need to knit up some of my previous tour spinning. 2010 I spun 3 skeins of texel fleece into a sweater weight of yarn. This year I plan to turn that into a simple sweater for Toby. He has outgrown the gansey I knit him way back in early 2009. Time for a new one, and as he is a boy with boy traits peer fashion dictates it be plain and simple and serviceable. Bang goes my idea of embellishing the front and back with Barbara Walkers spider or some such crazy motif. The things we knitters do to hold back for the ones we love, like knitting a plain sweater when a patterned one would be so much more fun to make. So I have swatched a gansey edge, a few rounds of garter, then a 2x2 rib, followed by another garter band and three sections knit on needles increasing in size from 3.75 to 4.5mm. I think I like the 4mm best now the swatch is washed. I tried to hide a slip stitch chain pattern along the top ... but I'm not sure it will stay in the final design although in the photo it looks tidier than the garter bands.

And lastly I have finally finished the tip of the second mitten, only of course as I won't be using the first mitten this is technically the first mitten. This will be the third time I have finished this tip ....... only a thumb and a whole n'other mitten to go and I will have a matched pair. I assume that there are other projects like this out there, in terms of the frogging and the redoing and all? The thumb is looking a little puckered as I have a knitters safety pin holding the stitches. I do like the evil owls more than the running dogs ... and the double knitting chart reading has become much much more fluent.

So I'm off to complete other computery things, upload photos and tidy up things that need tidying up. I submitted my second article to Entangled this last week, but I still need to prepare and send thru the images. then there is some long overdue correspondence to catch up on, a pen or two to prepare to send away for repair, two favorites. There was a good frost this morning, which means a sunny clear crisp day - a good day to work thru things inside - before returning to the wheel for more spinning.

take care, if you are touring, may your wheel fly, and your fibre flow, if not please cheer on spinners and cyclists in your circle of crafters.

Turning corners

This post is all about turning corners, S had a bonny bouncy baby boy (bbbb!), which is a new direction in her life so the secret project the local knitters had tag-teamed on was handed over, Bear had an angiogram and an angioplasty .. so has turned another corner, while that was happening I sat in the hospital and waited for him to return from theater, to wake up and be healthy and pink again and turned the lace corner on my Shetland yarn blanket. Lastly Dave's Mechanical Pencil blog turned 5 .. which is a grand age for any one let alone a blog, and seems I am the lucky recipient of a birthday give away.



So there is the revealing of a completed project, the baby blanket, Sleepy Monkey blanket by Mary Ann Stephens. Morag dyed yarn for this based on Sharons yarn buying history ... and knit the Monkey side, I knit the donuts and steeked both sides, Ana knit the Border (twice as it is two thickness for much of it before joining into a garter stitch band), Jenni knit a monkey to match and Ngaire knit it some lederhosen with a Monkey motif. Karen made the most wonderful card .... and S .. well she made baby Thomas.




Then there is the lace boarder, which had to go around a corner. This isn't something I'd done before. Oh I'd mitred many a corner but never with lace. Sharon Miller in Heirloom knitting suggested just increasing the number of repeats upto and just after the corner .. which was what she said traditional lace knitters often did. Sounded good, so I worked the sideways lace edging with a w&t instead of a ssk every other row that ended at the blanket. ... It worked!
this is the corner I worked while Bear turned his own corner in the cardiac ward. Its now 5:40 pm and I'm off to pick him up at 6pm ... 10 years ago when he had his first stent this was overnight surgery .. now it is a day procedure. I feel like one of those 'old people' who say things about how amazing modern medicine is .. but it just is amazing what can be done now - the stent is medicated!


And lastly yesterday when I got home there was a package waiting for me, Sheaffer 'P' erasers, which are a perfect replacement for the eraser in a Parker 51 pencil. So I changed erasers, removing the 50 year old hard dry pink one .. except I removed the white eraser from the Sheaffer ring and inserted it into the original Parker 51 eraser ring. About then I checked my email and found I'd won a rather generous spending spree at Cult Pens .... Dave suggested I leave a comment on his blog along the lines of 'Who hoo', I wasn't sure I was a Whoo Hoo kinda blogger .. I thought I was more of a 'thank you nicely' kind of blogger, but the more I think about the potential of geeky pencil spending .. the more I understand the concept of Who Hoo.....

take care - we will be resting up here taking it easy ... and I'm off to get Bear, which is a good sign.
na Stella

Getting things done,

There is a particularly nice feeling that comes when something one has promised to do, or something one is obligated to do is finally done. Those obligation-tasks never seem as exciting, never as inspiring as other self selected projects. This week I finished two of the tasks that hung over my head, with deadlines, the first was the Wall hanging gift/charity project which needed to be away by the 12th of October, and the second was a seemingly never ending pile of essays by first year students.

Both are done, done, done, done, and ready to go, leaving me with more interesting things to work on.

The wall hanging is now done, all I need to do is hand it over. This was finished on Friday night, and blocked on Saturday, in the small portion of the day where we had sun and warmth. Like all colour work it wasn't completely flat when it was first off the needles .. but unlike most of my colour work this did pull in a bit in the middle. As I knit this using a different manner of knitting (Andrea Wongs two colour method) I really didn't mind the pucker, in fact I was surprised at how little there was.

Most of the distortion was at the edges, giving my wall hanging a waist, not ideal. I also noticed that I might have to practice how to twist in a colour at the edge of a colour work section - my intarsia skills do seem to need polishing to get the tension and lay of the yarn just right.

But any lace knitter and colour work knitter will tell you that blocking is a wonderous transformative method for improving knits. So I blocked, I ran blocking wires along the loops on each edge and pinned the knitting out square. I noticed that the inner band of the garter stitch boarder needed a little help to stay straight so I ran blocking wires up those stitches as well.

Now it is dry and flat and neat and tidy. I think this is the way up it should go, with bubbles drifting up - but there has been discussion here and it looks equally nice the other way up - with bubbles floating down ... or even sideways, with bubbles floating off to the side. I will leave the final decision up to those that hang them.

The other finished obligation is the pile of essays - all marked with a page of comments to go with each. I decided this time to mark using a fountain pen, and to select a nice ink, this time saddle brown by Diamine, but I have my eye on new inks. I've recently become aware of Lexington Gray by Noodlers, which is a close approximation of graphite, yes that is right, it is a fountain pen ink that looks like it was written with pencil ! That is seriously cool for a geeky knitter like me. I've also fallen in love with Diamine Pumpkin ....... which I am going to have to order(scroll down here to find it, but there is a much better image here of it in use and being tested, but I'm not sure if non-fpn members can view it). There are I'm afraid at the present time one mechanical pencil and two fountain pens on their way to me somewhere in the global mail system, and while I wait for them to arrive here in my far flung corner of the globe ... I find my time looking for inks that will suit those pens, and there so much choice, 80 colours of Diamine and the stories behind the Noodles are enough to make me want most of them. I wonder if they can be used to dye yarn?

8 Finished Merino Tops!

ok - so yes, the tops are merino, and yes they are knit, but I cheated and sewed these from fabric, not knit them myself. This week was a week of parcels, first Bobbins from Auckland, and then a surprise from California, and fabric from Global Fabrics. I have been knitting since the last post, two baby blanket squares (not photographed - I forgot, so next time), and the Alpaca Tangled yoke on teeny tiny needles.



Because I've been knitting, my tangled yoke cardigan grows. Whenever I knit it in public, at the pool, knit night, the guild meeting I attract questions about the needles size. OK the needles are 2.5mm, and yes it is an adult cardigan, and yes it will take time - but I like fine knitting. I've begun the stocking stitch torso - so expect lots of small increments in growth on it from now on. I do.



Finally - my extra 6 bobbins arrived for my Pipy spinning wheel, all nice and gleaming. Aren't these beautiful? When my Pipy came with only 3 bobbins, as they did when new I ordered an additional 6 to be made by Mr Poore. He made the Pipy and as he was still making bobbins at aged 90. I took the opportunity to lay in a seriously indulgent additional set of six. Six - should keep me happy for a long time, added to the original 3 that gives me 9. Nothing quite like being short a bobbin or two. I did have to wait, until Mr Poore sourced some more brass but the wait was worth it.

And the next parcel this week was 2 boxes of a scifi dvd series, and a skein of sock yarn from Suzanne (Magpie of Ravelry). That lady knows my favorite things, socks and sci-fi, what could be better? Suzanne suggested the pink for Poppy socks, and I think yes, perhaps Froot Loops from the latest knitty. Poppy has noticed and commented that I get far fancier socks than she does, but in my defense, the last 2 pairs have been for other people not me, and the next ones will be for her.





Today I spent much of the time stitching, 3 machines set out on the dining table and a lunch of soup in a cup so I could keep working without having to clear the table. Winter is approaching and so an extra layer is required, now I detest Polypro thermals, they pill, they go smelly and they require very careful laundering to remain nice and soft and new looking. But ... I can't afford to dress the cubs in commercial merino thermal underwear, so I decided to make them home made (or made with love) merino thermals. I bought 1.5m of blue and 1.5m of tangarine merino from Global fabrics, for a total of $NZ65. That is tangarine not Peach - really it didn't photograph well at all. And 3 machines you ask, well a straight sewer, a 4 thread over-locker, and a cover-seamer - I used to take my sewing seriously and still have all the equipment in the hall cupboards.




I copied a singlet of Poppy's and a fitted sleeved top onto heavy card, grade the pattern up to fit Toby, and cut out 2 long sleeved top and 2 sleeveless tops for each cub then spent the day sewing. It has been ages since I had a sewing day - and I enjoyed the fast productive results. All up using thread I already had, and making my own patterns, and not charging for my time, the tops cost $NZ8.12 each. Following costing maths to an even more illogical conclusion (after all I wouldn't buy 8 tops all at once), Polypro tops sell for $24.95 each, so I in theory I saved $134.60. Now do you think I can justify spending that that on yarn. :-) The blue is for the boy, and the tangarine for the girl - and the blue tops do not look girly in real life. Yes there are 7 tops in the photo, and Toby is wearing the 8th.

I even added a thumb hole to add a slight 'cool factor to Toby's long sleeved tops, in an attempt to negate any 'my mother made these' thoughts that might occur. He did think that was pretty cool - so I might have succeeded.

I'm near the end of my sock spinning and plan to do that most of this week, just to get it out of the way and free up the wheel for something new - I will photograph the baby blanket squares I've been knitting(from my homespun!) for the next post, I might even cast on for mitten number 2!
take care - Stella