Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Gee Whiz
Holy Smokes! I just discovered that there are a bunch of Canberra knitting bloggers. I'm exhilarated and terrified. Dare I enter the world of Other People? Anonymity is so warm and cozy...
Catching Up
Okay, my latest projects, in rough chronological order. I did once have a rule that I am only allowed to do one knitting project at a time, but I decided that was boring. Why have one mess lying around when you can have dozens?
#1 Hmm, started this some time early 2007 I think. My version of a fisherman's guernsey. Here it is up to the armpits, in the round Zimmerman style:
And a close-up of that decorated panel:
This jumper/sweater/whatever is designed to fit around my rather large bust without being a sack. The moss stitch and cables panel begins below my boobs and up to the shoulders, and below the boob region it's just plain knit. Unlike traditional guernseys, the pattern doesn't go around the back. The idea is that because the moss stitch is stretchy it will stretch over the lumpy region while the plain parts stay where they are. You'll get what I mean when I finish it....one day. I've started the first sleeve, but I put it down a long time ago and haven't picked it up again. I have to remember all the numbers and wotnot and just haven't got my arse into gear yet. The wool is from a lambswool op-shop jumper I ripped.
#2 Started October 2007. Norwegian patterned socks.
These were supposed to be hubby's birthday present last year. He has two gorgeous Norwegian cardigans, one hand-knitted by his great-aunt for his father. I've been promising for quite a while that I would knit him a jumper version (steeks and all) of the handknit cardie so he could wear it around without fear of damaging the heirloom. Well it's an expensive exercise for us struggling artist/academics, so I started a pair of socks to whet our appetites using the patterns on the cardie, but I guess I just got sick of knitting more bloody socks, so I put them down, one day to be finished, maybe. I don't really like them all that much. I actually hate this shade of grey. It looks so artificial. When I eventually get around to the jumper, I'll use Rainbow Wools. Their colours are just lovely, and last time I checked they had a nice realistic grey!
#3 November 2008: Ugly Knee Rug
I knitted quite a nice scarf in this pattern a while back. A few weeks ago I decided to knit something, anything. We had just moved and I was organising my (surprisingly small) stash, and I decided to use up all of the tail ends of the 8-ply wools. I just started this because I knew it would be brainless. I'm not sure that I like it much either, but I'll keep plugging on.
#4 November 2008: My own version of Amanda Williams' Versatility in the recent issue of Knitty.
Long story. I fell in love with this pattern, mostly for the concept. So clever. My only problem is getting wool which is 114g/113m. That is huge. I found some very close, but in hideous colours and variegations. I'm not too keen on buying yarn unseen over the internet unless it is very cheap, so instead I bought a colour I could live with (Patons Inca, can't remember the colour) in a fairly heavy weight and designed my own more lacy version, a hybrid of Versatility and Susan Pierce Lawrence's Branching Out. However I keep making booboos with numbers, so I have to rip out the latest attempt, re-chart and start again. In the meantime we have...
#5 November 2008: Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail Shawl.
#1 Hmm, started this some time early 2007 I think. My version of a fisherman's guernsey. Here it is up to the armpits, in the round Zimmerman style:
And a close-up of that decorated panel:This jumper/sweater/whatever is designed to fit around my rather large bust without being a sack. The moss stitch and cables panel begins below my boobs and up to the shoulders, and below the boob region it's just plain knit. Unlike traditional guernseys, the pattern doesn't go around the back. The idea is that because the moss stitch is stretchy it will stretch over the lumpy region while the plain parts stay where they are. You'll get what I mean when I finish it....one day. I've started the first sleeve, but I put it down a long time ago and haven't picked it up again. I have to remember all the numbers and wotnot and just haven't got my arse into gear yet. The wool is from a lambswool op-shop jumper I ripped.#2 Started October 2007. Norwegian patterned socks.
These were supposed to be hubby's birthday present last year. He has two gorgeous Norwegian cardigans, one hand-knitted by his great-aunt for his father. I've been promising for quite a while that I would knit him a jumper version (steeks and all) of the handknit cardie so he could wear it around without fear of damaging the heirloom. Well it's an expensive exercise for us struggling artist/academics, so I started a pair of socks to whet our appetites using the patterns on the cardie, but I guess I just got sick of knitting more bloody socks, so I put them down, one day to be finished, maybe. I don't really like them all that much. I actually hate this shade of grey. It looks so artificial. When I eventually get around to the jumper, I'll use Rainbow Wools. Their colours are just lovely, and last time I checked they had a nice realistic grey!#3 November 2008: Ugly Knee Rug
I knitted quite a nice scarf in this pattern a while back. A few weeks ago I decided to knit something, anything. We had just moved and I was organising my (surprisingly small) stash, and I decided to use up all of the tail ends of the 8-ply wools. I just started this because I knew it would be brainless. I'm not sure that I like it much either, but I'll keep plugging on.#4 November 2008: My own version of Amanda Williams' Versatility in the recent issue of Knitty.
Long story. I fell in love with this pattern, mostly for the concept. So clever. My only problem is getting wool which is 114g/113m. That is huge. I found some very close, but in hideous colours and variegations. I'm not too keen on buying yarn unseen over the internet unless it is very cheap, so instead I bought a colour I could live with (Patons Inca, can't remember the colour) in a fairly heavy weight and designed my own more lacy version, a hybrid of Versatility and Susan Pierce Lawrence's Branching Out. However I keep making booboos with numbers, so I have to rip out the latest attempt, re-chart and start again. In the meantime we have...#5 November 2008: Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail Shawl.
And a close-up:
It has actually progressed a fair bit since this photo was taken. I've finished the budding lace repeats and am up to the beginning of the end. I saw this on Franklin's* blog and decided I would just jump to it. I'm using some handspun I bought at a garage sale. I couldn't believe it when I found this stuff, about a kilo of handspun, 18 wpi, for $5! I'm sure the woman selling it couldn't have been the spinner. The other stuff she had was all odds and ends of acrylic.
I'm not sure exactly what the fibre is. My aunt thinks perhaps mohair or something goaty, because it has lots of longer black hairs, and it is quite fluffy, although not too much so. It's not terribly silky, a bit rough in fact. Anyway, this should be finished within the next couple of days.
Well now we're all up to speed, the blogging process can begin. Next time we will look at what is on my to-do list.
I have been very naughty, because I've been working on this entry for over an hour, and I really should have been writing my Annual Report. Sigh. By the way, I apologise for the terrible quality of the images. I shall endeavour to do something about it. I'm also having trouble with the consistency of blogger's layout. I'll see what I can do, because I loathe bad formatting!
*Isn't it funny how if you read someone's blog for long enough, you feel entitled to refer to him by the first name, even when the person in question doesn't know you from a stalker? I'm not a stalker by the way.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Holy Mackeral and a History
I simply can not believe that this blog is still here! I'm going to start 'er up again. I also can't believe that I made this blog pink! Must fix that. I've been knitting lately, and have been feeling the urge to share it. Maybe one day someone will actually read this.
It's been a long time, and so much has happened since I last updated. I'm going to just get it all out right now, and maybe it won't come up again, or maybe it will.
Well....
Soon after my last entry, I knitted a guernsey for my beloved brother Alex, who a few days after I had started this blog was diagnosed with a brain tumour. I had taken time out of my studies to help my mother care for him, getting him to his treatments etc. His tumour shrank and we got back to life as usual. I knitted that guernsey in 4 or 5 weeks in order to get it to him for his 30th birthday. I learned to knit while walking (ball under the arm) and knitted my brains out. I got it done and got it to him, and he loved it and wore it happily. Four months later, a new tumour had grown, and within a few weeks, Alex died, on the 20th of September 2007 at 4.10am. There is absolutely no point at all in me trying to express anything about the whole issue. There is nothing that humans can say which means anything in the face of death. All I will say is that it has been hard, life is completely different, and I will never ever get over it. A few weeks later my cat Pussal died at 15 years old of a snake bite.
On the 3rd of March 2008 I started a PhD on metal vessel manufacturing technology of the Bronze Age Aegean (don't ask, please!). On the 26th of April I got married to Bubbadoo (not his real name). About a month ago my 90 year old grandmother had a stroke. Last weekend my new cat Kujo died three weeks after I acquired him! Soooo.... the universe has twisted my life into something entirely unrecogniseable. However, I have recently started knitting again because I have spent long hours sitting with my grandmother in hospital. She can't talk, is half paralysed and sleeps most of the time, but it's comforting to be with her, and I hope she gets something out of it too! The doctors say her higher functions are gone, but that's bollocks. I have a few projects on the go, and I need to share them, so there will be piccies to follow.
Another thing. I am an extremely shy person, terribly introverted and embarassed over the most ridiculously minuscule issues. I love writing, but am always horrified by anything I write as soon as I write it, especially once it is in the public sphere. This blog will hopefully force me to just write and let it be, and maybe that will bring me out of my shell. I will not edit anything after I've written it, and hopefully one day I will use my real name. You may think I'm being ridiculous. Part of me knows that I am, another part wants to scrunch into the foetal position rocking back and forth just at the thought of thinking about writing for other people! Please be kind!
It's been a long time, and so much has happened since I last updated. I'm going to just get it all out right now, and maybe it won't come up again, or maybe it will.
Well....
Soon after my last entry, I knitted a guernsey for my beloved brother Alex, who a few days after I had started this blog was diagnosed with a brain tumour. I had taken time out of my studies to help my mother care for him, getting him to his treatments etc. His tumour shrank and we got back to life as usual. I knitted that guernsey in 4 or 5 weeks in order to get it to him for his 30th birthday. I learned to knit while walking (ball under the arm) and knitted my brains out. I got it done and got it to him, and he loved it and wore it happily. Four months later, a new tumour had grown, and within a few weeks, Alex died, on the 20th of September 2007 at 4.10am. There is absolutely no point at all in me trying to express anything about the whole issue. There is nothing that humans can say which means anything in the face of death. All I will say is that it has been hard, life is completely different, and I will never ever get over it. A few weeks later my cat Pussal died at 15 years old of a snake bite.
On the 3rd of March 2008 I started a PhD on metal vessel manufacturing technology of the Bronze Age Aegean (don't ask, please!). On the 26th of April I got married to Bubbadoo (not his real name). About a month ago my 90 year old grandmother had a stroke. Last weekend my new cat Kujo died three weeks after I acquired him! Soooo.... the universe has twisted my life into something entirely unrecogniseable. However, I have recently started knitting again because I have spent long hours sitting with my grandmother in hospital. She can't talk, is half paralysed and sleeps most of the time, but it's comforting to be with her, and I hope she gets something out of it too! The doctors say her higher functions are gone, but that's bollocks. I have a few projects on the go, and I need to share them, so there will be piccies to follow.
Another thing. I am an extremely shy person, terribly introverted and embarassed over the most ridiculously minuscule issues. I love writing, but am always horrified by anything I write as soon as I write it, especially once it is in the public sphere. This blog will hopefully force me to just write and let it be, and maybe that will bring me out of my shell. I will not edit anything after I've written it, and hopefully one day I will use my real name. You may think I'm being ridiculous. Part of me knows that I am, another part wants to scrunch into the foetal position rocking back and forth just at the thought of thinking about writing for other people! Please be kind!
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