My Fetching are all done! (Does that make them Fetched?)

Very very quick knit. One ball of Naturally Me Merino/Cashmere blend. Yummy sqooshy and soft.

Plus, a pretty blue!
They took almost exactly one ball, and I lengthened the finger part to reach my first knuckle, and also increased the thumb sections to match.

The yarn is 8ply weight, so I knit them on 3.75mm needles. Which is smaller than the pattern (both yarn and needles) but I'd heard that the original gloves were large on some people. I have fairly narrow hands/fingers so these fit nicely for me.

I like em, and look forward to them keeping me warm on the walk to the bus stop come Monday morning.

Finished Object: Raspy from Rowan Denim People is completed!

Here it is!A finished Raspy, photographed by my favourite small person.

Here is a close up of the detail on the neckline.
My man's comment? Why did you want a jumper with holes in it? {insert much of his mirth at my expense} This lead to a discussion of our relative appreciation of deconstruction-ism as a fashion statement.

{You can imagine it, right?}

Of course, towards the end it was too big to travel and it had to wait for a trip to the Laundromat for access to hot wash and dry for finishing.. So I started these while I waited.

It's a Fetching. You know the drill. If you don't Google it and drown in the masses of them online.

I am the personification of busyness and nerves

I'm doing stuff, honest. But I cannot tell you where the four days off I just had, well, where they went.

It certainly didn't sufficiently go into finishing Raspy like I wanted to.

I mean, I am making progress, definitely.. I'm into the raglan decreases and everything.



And I've done about 4 repeats of the Print O' the Wave stole, when I wanted something more engaging...




And I have cleaned half the house for the rent inspection on Thursday..


And did the school run on Thursday and Friday...


And did some food shopping on Saturday (no I didn't photograph it Lupinbunny, sorry. Maybe one day I shall both remember the project and buy a normal number of things and my kitchen be clean. Like, all at once..)

And I went to Stitch and Bitch Saturday... and then we went raiding Crossways for Yarn...

And .. I've been playing rather a lot of this.. . Oblivion. It's awesome and huge and a nice break from the tedium that World of Warcraft has become.


Oh. And stressing about the new job I start tomorrow. My darling man says they'll love me. Gawd, I hope so.

Making progress (slowly)

I ripped out that sleeve, all the way back and re-cast on. And am regularly checking the results against the pattern. Rather frequently. You can see the comparison below of my progress of reknitting against where it was. It's not too bad really.

I've also cast on Eunny Jang's Print O' The Wave stole. It's in Knitpicks Shimmer colourway Mountain Mist. A little stripy, but I'm giving it some time before I make a firm decision.

I've done about one and a half repeats of the 34 that make up the main body. It's a long-term gift project. And painfully slow. I think I've ripped back about 4 rows so far.

And I got a spoken-comment aired on Craftlit. Which was great, but.... I realise now just how many times I say um. I also sound kind of incoherent as I try to explain one of my points. All kind of embarassing. Which is, interestingly, at odds with my own quiet giggly pride I felt at being aired. Good thing I never became a radio talk-back host, huh?

Annoyed with self. Cos I am dumb.

Cos I can't count, apparently.

See this ? One of these is wrong. Cos I can't count. One of these is 4 stitches too short. FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.

I don't know wether to throw it at the wall, rip it out or cry.

I really want to finish this, but I don't know if I can face ripping this out right now.

My new lace project may get a starting run while I cool down...

I'm designing a new meme : What do you wish you had been when you grew up?

I've been mulling this over in my mind ever since I wrote my response to the '7 things' meme.

Here is my new meme.

What did you wish you had been when you grew up?

Think of the child's game, playing what they want to be when they grow up. This is the adult's past-tense version.

Now you've grown up (whatever that means) what do you wish you had become?
Rules:

1. You can be any number of things you choose to be
2. Ability, talent, location and other realities are not a requirement.
   
3. A comment about each thing you choose is encouraged, but not required
4. Time/place realities can be assumed to have happened (e.g. assume the love of your life would still have met you, even if you never had become a school teacher/violinist/whatever you are now) and should not prevent the game.
5. You can add to your list whenever you like.
   
6. Please send me a comment with your blog post so I can read responses!

That's all.

Spider_knit: What did you wish you had been when you grew up?

• An architect. I love buildings and design and how spaces are created with walls.
• A sculptor/potter. I like the forms of ceramics very much. Second choice would be oil painter.
• Italian. I love the food, the art, the clothes and how they seem to have this whole thing going on. My family also mirrors the Italian thing.
• Better dressed. Now don't get me wrong, I like how I dress, on the whole. But have never really been satisifed with my ability to find clothes I like, or how I portray myself to the world.
• A furniture/household stuff designer. (looks at piles of design mags/blogs)
• A (successful) actress. i.e. I'd like the job, but only if I earn enough to pay my bills etc. I don't like the 'poor/doing other jobs' bit.
  

That's all for now. I may add to it later :)

YOU ARE NOW TAGGED!

Cool things I have found - house & Design

Firstly, today I found out that one of my favorite TV programs - Grand Designs - has it's own magazine! (which of course was immediately bought to be persued at lunch)


And, this fabulous site - which has all of its back issues articles availible, free online!

So far my browsing has shown I want to make:

• these jars;
• these etched glasses;
• the scrabble pin board;
• maybe more. :)

Geek joy!

Heeheeheeheehee!

Just in case any of you were fooled into thinking the heading was just a joke..

Look! My Cthulhus arrived!
And the 'my little victims' have REALISTIC DISMEMBERMENT ACTION!! And the limited edition "Angry" 'thulu :-)

LOL LOL LOL..

Well, I made progress on Raspy!

Here you can see the finished back (the front's already done) of Raspy.

Unfortunately, I then decided it was a bit too Raspy, and I've ripped some out to reduce the length of those neck-edge drop stitches.

And I'm even eyeing off the ones on the front, thinking maybe I should stop them being dropped 2 rows before the edge, rather than all the way to it, to stop the neckline curling so much as I have seen online..

Still, I am reminded by the Elizabeth Zimmerman saying - "You are the boss of your knitting!" and am remaining most-unlike-me calm in the face of this ripping/reknitting.

Finished Object : Red Light Special Hat

Subtitle: Go Western Force!

So, the beanie is done and in use. It does seem to fit okay (on him) rather than the really way to big (on me) that got a bundle of laughs at Mt Lawley SnB on Moday last.

The hat is not the exact version of the pattern of Brooklyn Tweed fame - mostly because of the need for a much larger size. I scaled the number of stitches up, worked out the nearest multiple of 10 that would work (the pattern is a 10 stitch repeat) and didn't do the fancy false seams down each panel.

Still, I am happy with the end result. And he seems happy (I'm sure he'd be singing my praises were he not to have a flu right now). ;-)

Onto .... Heroes and Raspy!

Duplo. It's not just for building anymore. (New! Improved!! Knitting application!!!)

So. What to do when you need to block a fair isle beanie?

Use what comes to hand!

Here is my man's beanie blocking away happily.


What on?

Here is the peek under the covers - a large Chinese bowl on a tower of duplo. Nice, solid, and adjustable!


And to show you that, 'yes Virginia, blocking does make a difference', here's a pre-blocking, 'lumpy' photo.
I'm back to knitting on Raspy (!!)

Okay, clearly this post should have been subtitled 'where I make use of inappropriate numbers of exclamation marks' ..

So, tomorrow night I do believe I shall geek out, watch episodes of Heroes and knit away happily.

(And, very quietly on the uber geek front... I dinged 70! Yay me! All the knitters, just nod knowingly and look at me like the people on the bus look at you. You know the one. :)

Yep. That's the look.

Can you tell what this is?

Hint : Okay, it's knitting progress.

Decreasing! Whee! I'm closing in on the end of the beanie project! (Which means I might actually finish Raspy for me, you know, THIS winter!)

(Just quietly, I was actually disappointed the Knitpicks order arrived promptly, as the required Telemark yarn meant more beanie, rather than more Raspy!)

And to show it really has grown...
It needs a serious blocking, but generally I think it is okay. I noticed the square-type patterns seem to have more problems with floats/tension than the less regular ones. Still, its a 'note to self' for next time. I hold knit-faith that this IS a "blocking will fix it" thing. *crosses fingers*

I was going to sew some cushions this weekend, but instead got caught playing computer games with my man and decided that spare time should be spent knitting - as I want the knit things now, but the sewing things not really for a few months.

(more) Photos of hat when done!

Found the cushion design I want for our lounge

petrie sofa in action, originally uploaded by guessica.

See that cushion second on the left?

I like that one.

I like the mix of solid with patterned fabric capability. And its still modern-contemporary a la our new house.

Now I just need to see if I can deconstruct it without buying the Denyse Schmidt book...

Not much knitting happening..

Well, as it says. No knitting to speak of.

I did have to frog a chunk of Raspy, after I realised that the reason my number of stitches didn't match the pattern was because I forgot to cast off for the underarm seam. {sigh}

I also went to the craft fair (not bad, I think slightly better than last year)..

Where I bought these:
to make cushions for our new house. (There is also another fat quarter of matching brown spots coming in the mail during the week). I think the fourth from the right probably won't be included now I've got them home, as the others all match better. The owl fabric I've been coveting online a very long time, so was really nice to see it in person. My biggest problem was picking just one of either the owl pattern or the plant one (which I also loved).

One particularly good stall (for my non-country-style tastes) was from Patchwork on Central Park. Lupinbunny, they have Australian designers - this is where I got my Kirsten Doran owl fabric from.

I also cleaned up and did a huge chunk of filing & sorting.

Which uncovered these:
Which is the pile of interior design stuff (just those here, there's more at Mum's would you believe..) which I need to sort through, and throw out all the brochures for things we've already decided on (e.g. taps, bath, and so on.) Then I need to file the remainder in the blue concertina file at the back.

And at some point, I should probably put some of that clean washing that's taking over our bedroom, well... away.

"But Mummy, Betsy's feet are cold!"

Subtitled: Why I am a sucker when it comes to my daughter..

This is how I don't get my Raspy (for me) done. I get sidelined by the people I love.

First it was Action, then my man's beanie (which awaits more yarn) and now... dolly socks.

Because she's cold, apparently. (I suspect she just needed to match her little-girl-mum).

I cheated though - DK weight yarn and 3.75mm needles. :) but they were done in the same afternoon...
And, importantly, I have an additional tagger for the 7 Random things!
The magnificient Heather Ordover of the podcast CraftLit. Read on!

I'm making progress... but no finishing...and I'm tagged!

Well, I finished my bag..
And I've stalled on knitting the beanie, while I wait for more yarn.

And so I am back to knitting on Raspy. Which means sometime soon I need to think about how I am going to adjust the raglan sleeve caps to adjust for the different height front & back that I am altering to allow a crew neckline.

In other news, the rather nice Pen&Purl tagged me with a meme.

It's this: Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their blogs seven facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.

Which means I need to find seven bloggers who I can tagged, who haven't been tagged already! And since I am but a newbie nobody knit-geek-blogger, this is going to be tough.

Factoid one: I was born in Perth, and have never lived anywhere else. I am somewhat embarrassed by this fact.

Factoid two: I am deeply enamoured of the 1920s period. Fashion, fiction based there, just about anything. English 1920s in particular.

Factoid three: I used to run a role playing game (that's the people sitting around table playing pretend) based in the 1920s. But with horror monsters. Based on HP Lovecraft writing, and called Call of Cthulhu.

Factoid four: I love red wine. But can't drink it in any significant quantity anymore without getting a bad stomach. I hate getting old.

Factoid five: Part of me wishes I'd done worse at school, so that I'd pursued art as a career, rather than getting caught up in hard-core maths and sciences. I suspect I'd have been more happy with my final career.

Factoid six: I have wanted to go to Italy and Egypt since I was 15 and secretly sulk that my mother randomly decided to go to Italy last year.. and went in that same year!

Factoid seven: I never trust men who are too model-good-looking. I have a deep predilection for 'intellectual' types.

Tagging:

• Nadine (who may have forgotten me)
  
• Meshell (who I have been admiring as a troll)
• Craftyaction (who I know is a group, but all those without their own blogs can all take a turn each!)
  

I'm making a clutch bag!

This pattern here by Amy Butler, "Clutch Purse with Antique Pin Closure".

Shown here in stages, very very nearly finished...

Step one: all bits of fabric cut out. Retro large print outside, black inside.

Step two: Attach the interface to the reinforcing canvas (or as I used, herringbone heavy-weight calico)

Step 3: Sew the reinforcements to the outside pieces...

Step 4: Reinforce the handle/tab.

Step 5: Sew on the Velcro..Step 6: Sew the outside bits together (see my uber-leet sewing jargon?)

Step 7: Sew the lining together..Step 8: Put the outside in the inside, and seam around the top.

Step 9: Do bag origami and put the outside to the, well, outside..Step 10: Iron and neaten it up ..
And then realise its late, and your family probably expect dinner, you know, tonight...

Next time I top stitch the hole shut, and do pleats on the edges and add the pin.

(Oh and I got some belated birthday money for fabric, and have progressed the beanie, which is looking very much like it needs another ball of yarn for the beanie. So another Knitpicks order....

so what else do I want to order? heeeheeeheeeheeee..

Not-so-Red Light Special

Well, I am trying again.

Despite how beautiful the fair isle swatch I did was... (my first ever fair isle)

it didn't fit (as discussed earlier).

So, after using the swatch as a size gauge, I did the math and re sized the pattern, to the looseness requested of my man. I decided to use the original fair isle pattern, but without the false seam BrooklynTweed used.

The odd blue fine fair isle is the leftover Patonyle I used as the soft lining. And you can see the real deal being worked up above it. I have to say, I am really enjoying knitting it, but it's murder on my fingers after a session.

And I may run out of the main colour. For which I may beg a trade from Bibnbub - who I has some more. [psst: I'll trade you one ball of the navy for all my remaining part balls for your felting plans? Let me know :-) ]

FO: Doll's patchwork quilt

You may remember I was completing a patchwork quilt to see if I enjoyed the process.

I quilted the top and edged and finished it this afternoon. You can see it got put to use by my darling girl as soon as I got home!

I learned a lot (including the vital importance of good tension when quilting) and was proud to have a finished object - even with all its flaws!

I'm glad I did it, and have picked out some retro fabric to make a bag.

When I can get some grownup-time that is. Sewing is harder than knitting - i can multitasking with parenting while I knit, but sewing takes more of my concentration ;-)

Aww man! Red Light Special hat

I ordered the yarn (from the US no less!) and got all the stuff and started knitting the lining.

And then...

Actually, um... measured my man's head.

It won't fit. See, he's like got really curly hair. And lots of it. Which means he needs a larger than average beanie.

And cos its all charted and stuff and I got gauge bang on when swatching and everything... I can't just re size it. I'm so disappointed. It'll fit me.. but I am not the rugby fan.

So.. back to square one. Only with yarn and needles in a size I don't really need. (sigh)

I was so excited to try it out.

A bad photo with Action

Not a great photo. I tried to edit the colour which looks better than the washed out thing it was originally, but still not the true beautiful indigo it really is.

Will try to get a modelled photo in daylight. :)

Actioned item

I'm so there with the bad puns for this.

Action jumper (sweater) is DONE!!!

The relief is palpable. Photos later.

:)

Be still my beating heart!

Bendigo Woolen Mills is online.


(some might make a narky comment here about 'finally' or 'took bloody long enough', but not this cookie, no-no!)

I have the new shade card if anyone wants a look.

Action sweater, Rowan Denim People.. progress update

All pieces knitted? Check.

Extra swatch knitted up for seaming yarn? Check.

All pieces washed and dried in hot water/air? Check.

All ends sewn in? Check.

Amazingly painful extra-neat seaming started and stopped after about 2 hours resulted in about 25cm seaming done in total? CHECK!!

God it's slow. I'm doing backstitch seaming for the seam that runs down the front & back of the sweater. It takes forever. It looks perfect for the type of 'deliberately showing' seam, but dear god its slow. I've given up for tonight.

At this rate, seaming it will take longer than a sleeve did :(

{Pats self on back}

I have finished the second sleeve in record time - 5 days. :)

I need to seam a shoulder, knit a collar, some heated washing/drying and do a bunch of seaming.

But it's happening.

Oh geez, did I miss a memo?

Somehow, now I'm worried...

You are The Tower

Ambition, fighting, war, courage. Destruction, danger, fall, ruin.

The Tower represents war, destruction, but also spiritual renewal. Plans are disrupted. Your views and ideas will change as a result.

The Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. The Tower stands for "false concepts and institutions that we take for real." You have been shaken up; blinded by a shocking revelation. It sometimes takes that to see a truth that one refuses to see. Or to bring down beliefs that are so well constructed. What's most important to remember is that the tearing down of this structure, however painful, makes room for something new to be built.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Two weeks since I posted?!! Bad blog-geek, no biscuit!!

Okay, so I've been gone a long while. Not much interesting to report on the knitting front. I continued doggedly knitting on the Action jumper.

I've now finished all the pieces that make up the front and back, and have started on the first sleeve. It doesn't make for interesting photos, but here's the proof -

Also, on other vaguely knitting related items, one of the lovely Bibnbub at knitting gave out these pretty Easter gifts - Aren't they nice? Every one's was different. :) We all felt very spoilt.

Today I wandered around in my lunch hour avoiding eating food that was bad for me and I ran into the Contemporary Art and Craft gallery (not sure if that's its exact name) on Murray Street. I bought this lovely card which I intend to frame for my room in the new house as part of my attempt as designer-beautiful-things-at-a-price-I-can-afford. It's so pretty, isn't it. (a Kelly Hyatt design according to back of the card).
Also on that last point (not the pretty bit, the house bit) I have succumbed to the sewing/quilting thing and ordered two books via Amazon (damn, isn't the Aussie v. US dollar good at the moment!)

• A copy of Amy Butler's In Stitches via the Marketplace (long wait through Amazon proper at the moment).

• And a copy of Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects
  

From Amazon itself, via the lovely Fitzwilliam and his book addiction-related ordering. hurrah!


Both books have a number of items I am interested in making, as due significantly to Lupinbunny's influence, and general web surfing of blogs, I have decided that I don't hate quilting. I hate country-style quilting. (No offence to lovers of the form, just really not my thing.) And now while I doubt I shall ever be a 'quilter/sewer' as a major hobby designator, I can happily see myself getting into it in so far as a way of getting the designer style pillows, throws, maybe even napkins etc that I can't really afford to buy.

I'm even considering trying my hand at a little sashiko in order to see if I am interested in hand-stitching a doona cover for our master bedroom of the types I admire. Now there's an(other) area I never thought I get into. But I like the Japanese indigo and white sashiko thing very much.

I have time to consider these things as my books won't be here for 3-6 weeks, and so I'm hoping to finish the Action jumper by then and be able to start the sewing etc with a clear conscience ;-)

With hope, I might even get back to.. Raspy!! The weather perfect for it now..

Whole lotta knitting goin' on

Sadly, though, not very interesting to blog about!

I have finished two more pieces of the Action jumper this weekend. That's rather a lot of knitting for me. You could say I am keen to get this rather overdue present completed!

So one more piece to finish the front and then two sleeves.

And a bunch of washing, and seaming and collar knitting and more washing ...

and then done. Gifted to the deserving recipient.

Who I shall beg to let me photograph in it so I can blog!