Winter knitting

It is definitely winter in Adelaide now...we have had lots of rain, gusty wind, storms, even hail and snow in places! It has also been very cold. Perfect weather for knitting warm things like scarves and gloves! I made some fingerless gloves to match my wildflowers infinity scarf, using a simple pattern from Tiny Happy's blog, with a bit of improvisation to make seed stitch cuffs on one edge. I still have about half of one 50g ball of this lovely merino/silk yarn, even after making the scarf and the gloves. Not sure what I will use that for yet.

The next project was made with a couple of 50g balls of very chunky warm wool (100% merino superwash; Katia Fabula, Colour 98, dye 26213A) that my friend Hannah gave me :-) I had intended to make another infinity scarf but there wasnt quite enough wool to do that so I make a kind of neck-warmer, like a mini infinity scarf instead. I cast on 14 stitches, then mainly knitted in garter stitch (on 8mm needles), with a few sections of seed stitch thrown in for fun. The wool seems to be self-striping, at least with 14 stitches per row and the tension I was using, which was quite tight. It feels nice and warm to wear, perfect size to wear poking out the top of a winter jacket.

Wildflowers infinity scarf

At last - I have completed one of my knitting projects! I love it....and I'm calling it my 'Wildflowers' infinity scarf after the name of the Manos Del Uruguay silk-merino blend yarn I used to make it. It is so soft and snuggly to wear and such lovely colours. This scarf is made with yarn I bought in New York last year from a cool shop called "Purl Soho", so now whenever I wear this scarf it will remind me of my first visit to NYC.

I knitted this infinity scarf in garter stitch using 2 skeins of Manos Del Uruguay silk-merino blend yarn, on 4.5mm straight needles. I joined the ends with a twist to create a kind of 'mobius' cowl even though I didn't knit it on circular needles like the traditional mobius patterns. The finished scarf measured 115cm without stretching before I joined the ends, and about 17cm wide (37 stitches).

Birthday celebrations

Well, I am still working on my WIPs...but this week it was my birthday, which meant I spent time over the weekend catching up with lovely friends, eating good food and drinking great wine, and also made some time to experiment a bit more with my camera at the zoo, and do a little knitting. It was wonderful. I have a Zoo Friend membership, which means I can go to the major zoos in Australia as many times as I want for 12 months. This is great, as one of my passions is photography, and I am really trying to increase my photography skills, and a zoo is a wonderful place to practice! Incidently, the Adelaide Zoo shares it's birthday with me (although the zoo is celebrating it's 130th Bday and I am obviously not nearly that ancient)! Here are a few photos from my birthday weekend.

Drowning in WIPs...

Again another month has passed and I don't have any completed projects to show for it! Beginning to feel like I'm drowning in projects that are stuck as "work in progress" at the moment. I think it's partly because most of the projects I have on the go at the moment are quite big projects, so the little amount of time I have spare for craft at the moment seems to make little visible progress as I jump back and forth between knitting my Purl Bee inspired blanket, quilting my queen-sized quilt, knitting my first socks, crocheting a bed-blanket etc! I decided this afternoon I need to at least focus on one project and get it finished so I don't feel so overwhelmed with lack of progress. So I am focusing on my wildflowers infinity scarf as that is probably the project that will be easiest to finish and I should be able to work on it a little bit each night after work until it is done.
So if anyone is following this blog, hopefully I will soon have some finished craft projects to post about soon :-)

Easter long weekend

How great to have a 4-day weekend!! If only every week was followed by 4-day weekends...
I've spent most mornings over Easter catching up with friends, and then afternoons or evenings crafting - it's been lovely.

 

I didn't manage to complete any projects, but I did make some progress on a few different things I'm working on, and even started another knitting project (an infinity scarf)! I know I should really concentrate on finishing my (multiple) works-in-progress before moving on to yet another project but I just couldn't help myself. Here's some pictures of the three projects I have been working on at various stages throughout the long weekend:

1) My queen-sized Pandora's box quilt: Feels like it's starting to come together at last, now I have begun stitching the squares together (28 so far).

2) Slow progress on knitting my first pair of socks:...it's going quite well, but the yarn and needles are so fine it is taking a long while and requires a lot of concentration.

 

3) My new project: an infinity scarf made using my favourite yarn of all time (Manos del Uruguay - silk blend). This was yarn I bought from Purl Soho when I went to New York about this time last year. This particular colour is called 'wildflowers', and is a lovely mix of pinks, greens, cream and light blue. As the yarn is so colourful I really just wanted to make a simple scarf without any complex stitches or ribbing, so I have chosen to knit in garter stitch on 4.5mm needles. This is much easier to knit than the socks, and can be done while watching a DVD. I dug out my David Attenborough "Life" DVD series this weekend and have been watching a few episodes while knitting. David Attenborough docos are the best!

Socks!

I have decided to try my hand at knitting something new - socks! I keep seeing photos and patterns of very funky and stylish socks and would love to be able to make some for myself. They also seem to be small enough projects that I could actually challenge myself to learning different techniques and patterns (like cables or lace work) without being too overwhelmed....and if they work, I can actually wear them, unlike all the little baby outfits I enjoy making. Last year I bought this book "Socks from the toe up" by Wendy D. Johnson, after reading a post on the Comfort Stitching blog. Then last night I was online looking to see if there were any places in Adelaide that might sell any cool hand dyed sock yarn and discovered "Stranded In Oz" - a South Australian online store and blog for beautiful yarns and knitting projects. Even better I discovered that the Stranded In Oz online store has a physical stall at the Port Adelaide Fisherman's Wharf Markets on Sundays. So guess where I went this morning? :-) The owner of the stall was apparently away in America attending some knitting workshops, but a very helpful friend of the owner (Eric) was manning the stall - and he gave me lots of advice about choosing the right yarn and knitting clubs to contact if I needed help with following patterns. He also recommended another book for knitting socks to keep an eye open for called "Socks a la carte" by Jonelle Raffino.

Although there were lots of beautiful skeins of hand dyed yarns, in the end I took Eric's advice and chose a plain solid colour for my first attempt at following a sock pattern, and will try some more fancy yarn once I've mastered my first pair of socks :-) The yarn I bought for the socks is a bright crimson colour, by TOFUtsies. One of the great things about knitting socks is that you often only need to buy a single skein of 'fingering' yarn per pair of socks. So for instance, the TOFUtsies yarn is 100g, 425m, which is very fine and long, and enough for an average pair of socks. I have never knitted with such fine yarn before.

Projects in progress...

I haven't had  a lot of time for craft lately (again), but have done a little bit this long weekend as it has just been too hot to do all the things I had planned to do outside (we are having another Adelaide heatwave in the high 30s...hopefully the last of the season). So I have made some progress on knitting the Purl Bee inspired blanket...also stitched together ~120 strips of fabric into pairs, then cut the resulting ~60 strips into four pieces of 2.5 inches each as the next stage of my queen-sized quilt. It's going to be a massive project...but feels good to have made this progress already :-) It's much easier sewing without worrying about the cats chewing on loose threads of cotton etc...but somehow not quite as fun without my little sewing helpers...

Lots of cutting...and a little bit of knitting.

I have decided that my new queen-sized bed quilt will be based on the Pandora's Box pattern. I spent several hours over the last couple of nights measuring and cutting up the jelly roll fabric strips into the right sized pieces while watching some of the "Merlin" TV series on DVD. I still have about one third to cut. Hopefully will finish this preparation step tomorrow night. I can't wait to start sewing the pieces together!

In the last week I have also found time in the evenings to pick up my knitting needles again and have made some progress on the Purl Bee inspired blanket that I started knitting last July using this tutorial: http://www.purlbee.com/hudson-bay-crib-blank/

Planning a Queen-sized Quilt!

Over the Christmas break I ordered some jelly roll fabric to start planning to make my first Queen-sized bed quilt. The three jelly rolls are all from the "Bunny Hill - Lily & Will" collection, I chose one in the brown & blue colour scheme, one in brown & green and one in brown & pink. The colours are all light pastel shades and I hope they will go well mixed up with the common brown fabric to pull it all together. It was actually quite hard to source all three of these jelly rolls, they appear to be discontinued. I looked in local quilt and sewing shops but no luck. Then I found two from a craft shop in America, and another from a craft shop in Tasmania! What would we do without internet shopping haha?

I'm unsure at this stage if I will need all 3 jelly rolls (perhaps only 2) to make a Queen-sized quilt, it depends on what pattern I end up following. At the moment I am considering either a quilt based on the traditional '9 patch block', or maybe another Pandora's box - same pattern as I used for Puss n Boots' quilt, but scaled up in size. Even if I use the Pandora's box pattern, I'm sure the end result will be quite different using pastel shades and browns rather than the bright colours used in Puss n Boots' quilt. Right now I'm having fun surfing the many inspiring craft blogs out in cyberspace looking for ideas - but I hope to make a decision and start cutting the pieces up for this quilt in the next week.

2013 - Year of New Directions

There's been quite a shift in the direction of my life in the last month or so, hence no blog posts or time for craft. My partner and I separated, although we remain great friends, and I moved to a new place to live. My partner is keeping our beautiful Puss n Boots, he will continue to love and care for them, and I will be able to visit and play with them from time to time. Although I miss them terribly, I know they are happy and being looked after by someone who loves them as much as I do, and that is far better than splitting them up or moving them to a strange new place...
As I settle into my new home and new lifestyle, I hope to be getting back into doing some crafting soon, and will post more regularly on my blog again. Below are a few photos from my new neighbourhood - I am lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world! :-)