Mother's Day Scarf
12 May 2008
Happy Mother's Day to my great mother
My brain makes a noise right now and it is something like: Blshghrhrhrggghgghuuugh.
I'm at the difficult
end of a difficult project at work, and work/life balance has gone completely out the window. My kitchen has been
feral, my clean underpants nonexistent, and dust bunnies have taken over large swathes of my apartment.
But I did find a coping mechanism, and that was to work on this:
Which soon very quickly turned in to this, which is good, because I had planned it as a gift for my mom:
It is a scarf version of the Clapotis pattern by Kate Gilbert, available for free at Knitty. Here's a close up:
After a couple of false starts it was a really breezy pattern; so much so that I had it memorised about 1/4 of the way through and was knitting away in line for the Neil Gaiman signing at Kinokuniya. Since we had lots of time (we were nearly last in line & there were hundreds of people present) I got most of the second half done in one day, and two Kinokuniya employees came over to have a look & we talked fibre geek speak for a while (hope I do run into them again at a Stitch n Bitch someday!).
I've already shown the photos to Mom, who was very appreciative & is keen to see it in person when I bring it on my next US trip in July. I just blocked it over the weekend and it looks extra nice with clean crisp edges and corners.
Nitto seetaa bukku
23 March 2008
Entering the bewildering world of Japanese knitting books.
Thanks to the insidious influence of Andrew, I have now found another way to make knitting even more challenging for myself than it already is: making knitting patterns in a completely unfamiliar language.
Although thanks to many years of watching subtitled anime, I know the proper usage for the phrases gomen nasai and baka, I am entirely unable to read Japanese. However, when I was at Kinokuniya this weekend, I was compelled by the amazingness of the patterns to pick up these two gems.
The charts look pretty manageable but I think the biggest hurdle will be working out what needles, weight of yarn, and tension I need to complete the patterns. I've also read that patterns are usually only provided in one size, and if I need a different size I will need to create my own chart. Sounds like fun, time to get out the graph paper!
Here is my link roundup of useful info I will need to start tackling these babies.
Paying it Forward
16 March 2008
After having had such fun with the Ravelry Tea Cosy Swap, I attempt another exchange project.
I like listening to the Changeling's Knit and Stitch podcast, and when I heard she was looking for someone to participate in an exchange, I checked it out. When I saw the terms of the exchange, I put my hand up straight away to participate.
You can participate, too! The conditions are as follows:
The Pay It Forward Exchange is based of the concept of the movie Pay it Forward where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on.So here's how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won't be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that's a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. I will now Pay It Forward to you THREE, I wonder who you will be?! Please, be a PIF. You will enjoy it just as much as we do! And, remember— you have 6 months to get your gifts done!
So let me know if you would like to participate, and I will create something just for you within six months from the time of your comment. In turn, you will need to make the offer to three other people. Pretty simple, eh? I look forward to making whatever it is for whoever you are.
Babies Galore
16 March 2008
I only do baby clothes lately, it seems.
So I just finished this.
The buttons are cute little wooden Babar the Elephant buttons that I got from All Buttons Great and Small, seconded strongly by Mr Wiggins. I could probably spend an hour in there.
And then I did these.
As quick as they were, I still had about a hundred false starts with them. However, I was well pleased with them for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I worked out how to do them in the round without any seaming (yay!). Secondly, I managed to spin the yarn fairly close to the gauge required by the pattern (I was a little off, but not bad for a first deliberate attempt!). The buttons I found with much help from Lara (after a few false starts there as well— I liked her first choice of pink rhinestone buttons, but didn't think they'd work well for a little one destined to be called "Gus") at the button shop in the Rocks.
Maybe if I have time I'll also do a handspun Tomten as well.
Here are some baby cotton plants, rapidly growing in the unseasonably warm autumn we are having. I think I will have to upscale their accommodation soon. Larger pots have been procured, so a transplant attempt will probably go through over the upcoming long weekend.
These babies have nothing to do with babies. I'm just enjoying the prettiness and variation of these Winterberry socks that I got from the TOFUtsies Sock Club.
I also recently spoiled myself with a Rowan knitting magazine, so now that the spawn knitting is almost complete, time for some pretty, grown up stuff for me, me, me (I think I've earned a tiny bit of selfishness).
Grow Your Clothes
02 March 2008
Sprouting cotton, natural dyeing photos, and progress on the urgently needed Baby Pea Pod.
So back at the beginning of February when I went to the information session on getting my spinning certificate, one of the people there had brought a big bag of cotton bolls she had grown in her garden. There were two varieties: pima and upland cotton. I took a little of each not so much to have the fibre samples, but to have the seeds!
Last weekend I took a bit of time to set up an ad hoc seed sprouter in the kitchen and I took care to add a little water to it once or twice a day. Look at the result in just one week!
Only four of the seeds were from the pima boll, the rest were the upland cotton.
This weekend I decided that the seeds had outgrown their little sprouting tray so I went to the local Mitre 10 and got a few terra cotta pots and some potting mix (when we moved to this apartment, we left all our plants, pots, etc at our friends' where we were house sitting). Within a short amount of time, a select number of sprouts were safely tucked in to their new earthy homes. I haven't decided what to do with the rest, although I'm attempting to continue to nurse them until they either get adopted or I pick up more pots.
There's a bit of wiltiness post-transplant but I'm not too worried yet. Most of the plants seem to have handled the move and I'll give them a few more nights of adjustment time with plent of water before I give them up for lost.
While I was at it I also planted a house plant we'd been keeping in water for at least six months until we got a place to plant it. I'm sure that poor thing is having a field day in real soil!
While I was taking photos I also took advantage of the sunshine to get a shot of my recent dyeing in some good lighting, so the subtle colour differences would be especially visible.
Clockwise from left:
- Original cream coloured wool from first dyeing session, using alum mordant and gum leaves
- Cream coloured wool, overdyed with exhausted bark dye liquor
- Ugly brown wool from failed dye experiment #2 (I over-boiled the dye liquor)
- Not too bad orange brown wool with no mordant and gum tree bark
As if that wasn't enough, I also in a mad rush of knitting finished off the cardigan part of the Baby Pea Pod set for young little Radley Gage & cast on the hat. I just need to get some buttons and it will be ready to send off to Alaska (hopefully before he's outgrown it— this guy has probaly inherited some very tall genes).
