Blog entries - September 2007

It's Winter

Shelley — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:20:58 +0100

We have passed from Fall into Winter.

Thursday was a lovely Autumn day. I spent my lunch hour walking around enjoying the crisp air and sunshine. The trees were glowing with yellowed leaves and the lake was a ripply mirror reflecting their splendour.

When we woke up on Friday it was windy and the forecast was calling for snow. I spent my day watching th...

Candy

Shelley — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:25:31 +0100

... for my yarn stash that is. My order from The Sweet Sheep arrived today. Inside were three skeins of beautiful red yarn made up of 70% merino wool and 30% possum fibre. Possum!

It’s Possum Worsted by Cherry Tree Hill. Each skein is 50 grams and 109 yards and knits up at 4.5 stitches to the inch on size 8 (5.00 mm) needles. It is so lovely and squ...

Blocking

Shelley — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:28:02 +0100

The first two pieces of Rob’s sweater, the front and back, are blocking on the table as I write. Once they are dry - probably tomorrow - I will sew together one of the shoulder seams and pick up stitches around the neckline to knit the collar. I’ll block the sleeves at the same time so they should be dry, and ready for seaming, by the time I&rsquo...

Linen Blouse

Shelley — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:30:27 +0100

This is the result of my drafting out that Japanese pattern last week. I asked Rob to sound out the name of it for me and it turned out to be “linen blouse” - just replace all the L’s with R’s and put a little emphasis on the E at the end of blouse - that’s pretty close to how it sounds. Mine is actually made from some cotton batiste left over from t...

Scrumbles

Shelley — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:38:21 +0100

No this isn’t a foreign landscape, though it does make me think of fields and hedges, these are my scrumbles from a workshop I took through the Guild last week. It was about freeform knitting. I really had no idea what it was going to be when I signed up but I’m very glad I did.

Freeform knitting and crochet is a way of creating totally uniqu...

Learning

Shelley — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:35:29 +0100

After learning to make scrumbles last week I had a renewed interest in crochet. I’ve learned a little bit here and there in the past but I find I get a little bored and forgetful after a few rows and generally prefer knitted fabric. Recently, however, I’ve been seeing more crochet project that appeal to me, they tend to be things worked in the round: there i...

Drafting

Shelley — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:40:42 +0100

I was very excited about an entry on the Purl Bee last week. They had just received an order of nani IRO fabric from Kokka in Japan in the store and wanted to let everyone know. The fabrics certainly are beautiful - lightweight cottons in delicate, water colour prints - but the best part of the post from my point of view was the link they provided ... the free patterns ...

A New Green Skirt

Shelley — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:43:11 +0100

I worked on the green wool skirt this weekend. I suppose I should have taken a before picture but I didn’t really feel you guys needed to see my skirt on the floor around my ankles.

I started by picking apart the top seam between the skirt and the lining. This is when I discovered that the fabric was actually a knit and that was why it was so stretchy. The...

Halfway there...

Shelley — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 19:47:53 +0100

Rob’s sweater now has a front, a back and the cuff of one sleeve. I am still enjoying the fat yarn and large needles. My hands start to get a bit tired after about ten rows but those rows work out to seven or eight centimetres of sweater so it’s still going pretty quickly. Especially on the weekends when I have more crafting time. ...

Pretty and Pink

Shelley — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 19:45:50 +0100

Here is another half complete project - my Hemp Lace Tank from LanaKnits. I’ve gotten used to working with the hemp (which feels remarkably like twine when you first touch it) and this project is now moving along at a nice pace. I’m four sets of increases past the waist - two to go. My tank top is about 6.5 inches long so I’ve got about 7.5 more to go before I...

One Down, One to Go

Shelley — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:49:28 +0100

Here is the first of the Endpaper Mitts. It has actually been finished but for the thumb ribbing for over a month; I’ve been distracted by other projects. On Tuesday I realized that it was still not done and just sat down and knit the remaining seven or eight rounds. I had to look up the bind off instructions because it had been so long since I’d bound off t...