Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Knitting continued

Cara over at January One has added me to the Jaywalker kal. The Jaywalker socks are growing, just very slowly. Something to do with assignments being due. I am up to the gusset decreases and I'm not sure if I like the pooling that seems to have appeared. I am hoping it will look better once I get further into the foot.

I have finished the blue/brown self striping socks and Miss B is now loudly saying she wants me to actually knit something for her. She wants socks and she wants them now!!! What she doesn't know is that I already planned on making some for her but am trying to hide them from her. I want it to be a surprise.

Bliss over at
I Hide Yarn is having a birthday so go over and say Hiya. And Bliss, Miss B and I have a little something here for you. E mail me with a snail mail addy.

After me telling Miss B about Yarnharlot's entry with her daughter using dpn's, Miss B decided she wanted to try them.
Not a complete success but not as totally unco-ordinated as I was with them at first either.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Procastinating

Your Aura is Purple

Your Personality: You're a dreamer and visionary. You believe you were put on this earth to do something great.

You in Love: You're very passionate but often too busy for love. You need a man who sees your vision and adopts it as his own.

Your Career: You need a job that helps you make a difference. You have a bright future as a guru, politician, teacher, or musician.
What Color Is Your Aura? Take This Quiz :-)
Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.



Ummm yep this is what I do when I should be typing up an assignment. Pleasant quiz diversion tactics. That and knit. And keep reading over my information , but somehow not seem to take any of it in. Blah

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Jaywalkers ressurected

The Jaywalkers have been restarted, this time using patonyle in colour 4305. This is giving the zig zag effect a much better result. It's still rather short colour repeats but definately long enough to show the pattern.

Jo has convinced me to join the Jaywalker kal . She has just started some socks herself and will be knitting the Jaywalkers later.



Saturday, November 26, 2005

A frogging expedition.

Yep those Jaywalker socks I spent an incredibly ridiculous amount of time casting on for, knitted the ribbing, knitted about 5 repeats and it just wasn't right. The yarn wasn't right for the pattern. The yarn is definitely variegated, but a little too much so. No lovely zigzag stripping happening here, just mottled splodges of colour that looked a lot nicer in the ribbing than in the pattern.
So it all got frogged. C looked on horrified at first, he hasn't ever seen me deliberately undo knitting before. Then he wanted to undo it. Watching him pull the sock undone was like watching a little kid, he liked frogging. I finished winding up the yarn and C turns around and says "Can you knit something else I can undo? Can I undo that other sock you have half done in the loungeroom?"

What the????

Shall we just say man bits were seriously threatened and half done socks are safe.

Friday, November 25, 2005

40 minutes

Is how long it took me to cast on and knit ONE row!
I was casting on for a pair of Jaywalker socks on the addi and it just really didn't want to happen. I seem to be casting on extremely tight and therefore totally struggle with the first row.
Having now knit the first twelve rows of rib it seems that it would be totally possible to knit a pair of ribbed socks on the addi after all. Unfortunately ribbing and my hands don't like each other. My hands are already so sore I don't think much more knitting will get done today.
I did manage to knit the first pattern repeat and totally stuff it up, seems I cant count at 6am for some reason.

Donna suggested I join the sock it to me summer kal so yep I have and the Jaywalker socks will be the first ones to be a part of this if I can remember how to count.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

The benefits of feeling crappy

Are that you get to spend some time reading. Yes feeling too crappy to knit, argh. Not really getting much reading done either, mainly just flicking through pages and not really understanding much. Might have something to do with the fact that the book is about creating webpages with HTML.

After taking months to figure out how to add stuff here because I was too stuborn to ask anyone and wanted to figure it out myself, but not thinking to get a book. I decided I wanted to be able to understand what the little code thingy's I was typing in were actually for.
This alternated with Monste Stanley's handknitters handbook and a book on Roman Mythology. No wonder I'm not understanding anything!

Another bonus are the kitty cuddles. And if I push it Miss B might even get me a cup of tea.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Fuzzy Feet Felted

The Fuzzy Feet are all finished and felted, and they fit !!! All my worrying was for nothing. I just have an impatient Miss B wondering when I am going to be making some for her.

I have been using my new addi whenever I have had a chance over the weekend which has made the blue/brown sock grow rather rapidly. Now that it is longer it is much easier to move about so perhaps a ribbed sock would be managable on the addi.

I forgot to mention how wonderful the store I got my addi's from was. I had sent extra money to cover postage which it turned out wasn't needed. They were lovely and returned the extra money with my order. Yay for honesty. I will definately be ordering more addi's from them.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

On abandoning all current ufo's

Sorry but a state of startitis seems to be happening here. It's all the addi's fault. The new 30cm circular and the sock yarn I bought from the craft fair got together and as a result all other projects are sitting and glaring at me in disgust. I may end up feeling guilty and knit a bit of something else later tonight but not promising anything for now.

I'm still not sure if knitting socks on the circ is that much easier than dpn's as the ribbing makes it all tight and doesn't leave much room to move with, but once I got to the plain part of the sock things moved much more freely. I still have to shuffle the sock around more often than I'd really like but I'm getting used to it slowly. I probably wouldn't want to do any ribbed socks this way, but for plain socks using self striping yarns it's great. Definately more travel friendly too without the million needle ends sticking out you get with dpn's.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

What the boss does on his day off




Yep he sends me more pictures of my knitting. :)

Firstly we have a completed fuzzy foot along with a normal sized sock to show just how huge the fuzzy foot really is.

Then we have C's beanie which he sometimes sleeps in.... it isn't cold here, guess he likes it.

Next is the pair of huge gigantic fuzzy feet that were so big they really didn't want to fit in the picture.

Now for the scarey part....... felting.
Will they felt enough and become smalll enough to actually wear? Or will they become oversized, weird cat toys?

I spent some time showing Col how to use power point, he has now learnt how to apply music throughout his slideshow and set the timings on each slide............. no more clicking each slide for him!
If only he was as quick a learner when needles and yarn are involved.

Once I got home there was a nice lil envelope waiting for me. My Addi needles had arrived, my 30 cm Addi's that every yarn store I called in Adelaide said " 30 cm circulars? Nope they don't exist." Guess who will be taking her Addi's to yarn stores to prove them wrong.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Nice Boss Person


Thanks to a nice boss person who sent them to me, hiya Col, I actually have pictures of the white cozy wool socks and the retro ribby socks.Yay for nice bosses.
Col, you seriously need to hurry up and take up those knitting lessons. Because only then will you understand when I call and say " I can't come in today I need to knit."
And hiya Ann who was lovely and took the pictures for me. Pssssssst I need pics of those purple socks and purple fuzzy feet too. Oh and one of Col really trying to knit. :P

Monday, November 14, 2005

Giant Feet

That's what it looks like I have if you were to look at the one completed fuzzy foot. It's Huge!!! I am really tempted to just felt this one on it's own and see how small it felts down to. But if I do that the other one will never felt to the same point and I'll have odd fuzzy feet.
I have made fuzzy feet before and I don't remember them being this big. I guess I'll just knit the other one and see.

Other crazy stuff..... all the stuff in my sidebar seems to have disappeared on me. I'm not sure what happened there.

And no I didn't catch any fish with my knitting, but Miss B did manage to catch a little one that had to be thrown back. She was still happy as no one else caught any at all.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Finished Objects All Over The Place

Yep finally, the retro ribby socks are done. So are the white cozy wool socks and C's beanie.
I have even started the fuzzy feet. C, Miss B and I went fishing.Actually Miss B and C went fishing and I went knitting. I have knitted the first three inches, the heel flap, picked up the stitches and then decreased for the gusset and just have the foot and toe to go. And then the other one. I am using a raspberry coloured yarn called cozywool by lincraft, and 7mm dpn's. Will just have to wait and see how they turn out.
I haven't even finished them yet and Miss B has put an order in for herself.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Whoot!

I found another woman at Tafe that knits. It has only taken me a year. Perhaps together we can convert the others, hand out needles and yarn at the start of classes. Surely it would be more benificial than keyboard skills and essays??

Monday, November 07, 2005

Do Australians Knit?

Apparently not according to how many stalls were allocated to knitting at the craft fair.
5 stalls. That's it. 5
Actually one of those was for crotchet.
One was for machine knitting.
One was a display by the handknitters guild.
One was a display by the spinners guild.
And there was only one measly little stall where you could actually buy yarn.
All the other gazillion stalls had either fabric or sewing machines or both.

Admittedly it was a Quilting and craft fair but sheeeeeeesh. That's just pathetic.
One lonely little yarn stall that offered very little in real yarn. Lots of novelty crap. If I am going to buy novelty crap I will go to Go Lo and buy it for 50 cents a ball, not $15.
But the one redeeming feature of this lonely stall was the needles. They sold Addi's. Yep Addi's. Whoot! I have finally seen an Addi in real life and not just in peoples blog pictures. Guess what....... That sneaky little Addi followed me home along with a ball of sock yarn.

Even better, the lonely little stall has a store in Australia where I can order more needles and pay by money order. Yep I am one of those strange people who as much as I love my internet I am not going to be putting any account details out there. So off to the post office to get me a money order I go.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Progress of sorts


The Retro Ribby Sock, see it's growing. It would actually grow quicker if I picked it up and knit it instead of just looking at it from accross the room. It is further along than the picture shows as I have done the gusset and part of the foot.

The other thing I seem to keep just looking at and not working on are fuzzy feet. I have the yarn, the pattern and the needles. But that is as far as I have gotten this week.
Hopefully some knitting will get done over the weekend although there are some fun distractions happening. http://www.craftfair.com.au/craft/adelaide/adelaide.html



Thursday, November 03, 2005

For a Boss who supposedly doesn't want to knit...



These are some pics Col sent me aswell as an e mail asking for a little help.......





I am trying to knit some undies for my wife but need a few lessons, can you help me, I was able to knit the string part of the g string and then got stuck.....
Regards the phantom closet knitter..



So does anyone have a knitted g string pattern???

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

About My Mum

My Mum has always knitted for as long as I remember , it was her who taught me to knit.
My Mum knits beautifully and so damn quickly.
I remember the cabled jumpers my dad wore and the reindeer jumpers she made for my brother and I. The school jumpers she made for us. For some reason I don't remember hats or scarves though.
I remember the pattern she couldn't read as it wasn't in English. It was a jumper made from wrist to wrist in two pieces, just a front and a back with no separate sleeves. It had a parrot ( or some bird) that went right across the jumper and around. She couldn't understand the pattern at all and still made the jumper just from the pictures. That jumper is amazing.


When I first tried making a sock my Mum said " Why on earth would you want to make a sock? " I told her I just wanted to see if I could. I wanted to see if I could understand the pattern. My first pair of socks is still unfinished as I finished one and then did most of the leg of the second and ran out of yarn. But I was happy, I could make a sock.
So when Mum saw the Retro Ribby Sock that I am working on I wasn't expecting much of a reaction...It's a sock.......
But Mum loved it. She loved the pattern, she loved the yarn I was using,
she was actually excited about something I was making. (At this point I started pinching myself cause I must have been dreaming)
Mum and I discussed what other yarn she would be able to use to make some.
It turns out she has some BlueBell yarn that should be ok for her to substitute. White Blue Bell yarn that has been sitting in the cupboard from the last baby cardigan she made.23 Years ago. She has yarn that has been sitting there for 23 years.
After 23 years, surely it must fall apart when you pick it up. I asked her if it's still any good after all that time, she says it's fine.

Anyway she sat down to start making herself some Retro Ribby Socks....... got out her yarn, her dpn's. Then she read the label on her yarn and found that as it is so ancient it will need to be handwashed. ( her words).
So she decided she isn't going to be bothered to handwash her socks and didn't make them after all.

WHAT THE?????
Is it really that hard to handwash one pair of socks????
Isn't the specialness of wearing handknit socks worth the handwashing?
She could just buy some other yarn that is machine washable.......
Blah I do not understand my Mum.



So this brings up a question.......... What is the oldest yarn in your stash and how long have you had it for?

Ok two questions......... Are handknit socks worth handwashing for?