Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Baktus is done and dustus


a whole scarf in 7 days? doable apparently, LOVE THAT. Turns out the Norwegians know what they're on about when it comes to knitting (all those centuries of knitting history apparently wasn't a tipoff to me).

it's light, bright and spring-ish. an absolute dream to wear and has been quite popular around the office!

i've said it once and i'll say it again, i really am very sad that they are discontinuing the Silk Garden Lite because it's probably my favourite Noro (having not knit with Kochoran (sp?) yet, so that may change). i'm thinking about buying up all the Lite that i can find, but my bank account would SO not thank me for that i'm sure!

 
a photo of me wearing it for a change, i seriously have to stop photographing knitwear at my desk at work, it's THE WORST possible lighting in the world fluros everywhere and downlights and no windows woe is me, first world problems!

if you want to make one of your own, it's on Rav, and i am too lazy to link sure you'll find it there!

now back to working on my second hand of Bella's Mittens, the fingerless version that i'm winging my way through, note to self, if doing cabling without a cable needle, quit flinging your knitting around or you'll drop stitches (but it's ok, i can fix things now yay).

once the mitt is finished (maybe tonight?) I'll finish the rest of the 2nd September Swap Square that I started last night in the Blue Denim Luxury 10ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills that I just recieved for Dad's Avast jacket/cardigan. it knits up beautifully! (and i'm totally counting that as a swatch, it counts right?)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Mara Mara quite contrary, how does your ruffle grow...

she's finished! after much frogging and umming and ahhing over what to do, the last bit of ribbon was pulled through on the train to work this morning and i'm in love.

squishy, soft, fluffy without being sheddy, drapey yet solid shaped, mmmmm so yummy.
my ode to pear tree, i've waited so long to knit with my much loved skeins (still have one left yippee!) and it was well worth it, i think i'll love this forever!

this is Mara, and she's mine! [Rav'd: here]


this grew quite a lot, which really surprised me since it's just stockinette and no lace or anything, I wish i'd measured it before i got it wet, but i'd say it grew at least 4" across the top even after it bounced back once it was dry. people told me the pear tree 4ply would felt badly, but i barely noticed any felting (except in one spot where i must have rubbed the joining thread spot too much, but eh) so if that's worried anyone enough to make them not knit with it, don't even think about it.

in other news, i finished my first square for the Over The Fence September Square Swap, 1 down, 1 to go. it's quite pretty and i even blocked it (will wonders never cease?!) turns  out if it's for someone else, then i care enough to block properly [Rav'd: here]

i used some pale/baby blue alpaca from my stash, and for the other square i'll use some of the Blue Denim Bendy Woollen Mills yarn that has arrived in the post for Dad's Avast sweater, so no purchasing yarn, yay!

just realised i've forgotten to take my Buttony cardigan out of the washing machine, so let's hope that my housemate of win takes pity on me and agrees to lay it out for me! why do i have to work? i could do far more fun yanry things if money just magically appeared in my account for nothing and i could knit all day. sounds good to me!

yesterday was lovely, the Botanical Gardens SnB was on and Jen and I met up (slightly late) with a whole bunch of knitters (which is where I finished the Mara!) and had yummy lunch and good catchups. i love that SnB because it's such a hodgepodge of women from around all the other SnB's, but I usually forget that it's even on because well, Sundays are for SLEEPING IN people, and even knitting can't put up much of a fight against the power of a lazy morning in bed.

Friday, September 17, 2010

and the baktus goes on...

the baktus is back in my good books again after a successful reknit at the kensington SnB last night, yay! 
the noro is the colourway 2048 if anyone is interested, although i'm sad to know that the silk garden lite is a discontinued yarn, i'm loving using it, so pick so up now if it's your cup of tea too!

to fix what i wasn't loving about the project, i ripped it all back and then wound a fairly hefty amount of the purple section out first so there's not eleventy-hundred rows of purple in the first corner now and i'm knitting at a much tighter gauge magically this time (not sure what that's about?) so it's a denser fabric yay, didn't even have to change needles to fix what i didn't like about it

this is how it looks at the moment, i'm itching to get to the aqua bit!


i have two skeins, so i'll go until i run out and then i'll start decreasing, and try and remember not to keep increasing (no, i've never done that ever before *face palm*)

by the way, have i mentioned yet how very much i'm in love with my knit picks needles? they are sooooo pretty and lovely and the cables don't make me HATE them like my previous needles of choice the Birch circulars (metals) did. i love the pointy point on these interchangables, i love that i can change on the fly for casting off and i super love that they are multicoloured and plastic or acrylic and a little bendy so my hands don't hurt like they used to. get thee to your LYS and see if you can justify the cost of metals/wood/acrylic, TOTALLY worth it!


for some unknown reason my blog isn't showing up on my rav page so i doubt i'll have any visitors here, but it's still fun to write about knitting just for me !




Thursday, September 16, 2010

a day in the life


so it's probably not an auspicious start to the first post of my shiny new knitting specific blog if i've just totally frogged the baktus [Rav link: Baktus ] that i had started in noro silk garden lite, right? but off we go anyway, a new blogging adventure, and a blog that actually seems relevant to being linked to on ravelry.com, unlike my other blog that's full of fangirl woes and tv drama (not that i'll ever learn not to swoon over vampires and broody boys, or that cheerleaders having bitch fights will ever not entertain me).

so tonight at knitting, (at tonik in kensington) i'll attempt to cast on again, but really, it's noro, it's not cheap and i want to actually like what i'm knitting with it, and not just do it "because i said i would", who knows, maybe it's destined to be entrelac? 

also the mara [rav link: mara the second ] that i'm doing up in pear tree yarn in the turkey colourway is in it's second try at the ruffle, i had toooo many increases after doing two kfb rows, one before and after the 1x1 rib and the ruffle became ridiculous and was too short and i finished it and it was blah! so ripped that back to the rib and started it up again, so hopefully, it's nearly there now that i'm about 7 rows in again


oh, two things you might like to know
i'm an admin manager by day, so my pinkies just don't care about the Shift key enough to make capitalisation of letters for nouns and pronouns a part of our lives by night, sorry! however, CAPS ARE MY SHOUTY FRIENDS and can display happiness, extreme excitedness and dismay!

and number two, i frequently forget to post the pictures with my blog posts, i will try and get better with that!