Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Block Party

over the last weekend, i was struck with a sudden and strong case of finishitis, I pulled out a bunch of never quite finished projects and finished them off.
mainly this came down to a bit of weaving in of ends (a bit, um over 100 strands sigh), some button sewing on and lots and lots and lots of blocking! yay for blocking!

first up was the eyelet cowl
a thing that I have not exactly been in love with, knit from Noro silk garden chunky
uh, it turns out i just needed to block the darn thing! now it's drapey and open and it doesn't crush my wind pipe when I double wrap it. SUCCESS!

hanging out in the lemon tree
next up is the Peacock Waltz, gigantamo shawl I've been wearing this one since i finished part 1 of the finishing (attaching the lace) but hadn't actually sewn in over half the ends or blocked out the lace edging. it was definitely time.
before blocking out the edging
during blocking, ignore the terrible pinning at the top, that bit wasn't wet so it didn't matter!


also, the Summer Flies shawl had a reblock as I might have spilt tomato sauce and pie all down it while watching footy and it needed a bit wash. that would only happen BECAUSE i was wearing a white ruffled shawl *sigh*
blocking, can you see the butterflies?
all done!


and lasty with the older projects, the Baktus i did in silk garden lite (in November!) finally had a block, it did not straighten out the edges as I had hoped, but it did seriously increase the length!

 
does anyone know what the red berries/fruit are?

I also finished and blocked my first Ishbel shawl, and made a hat and am almost finished another hat. but that's for another post.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

gifted

so I made what was requested, I knit with horrible yarn (and some quite nice yarn), I striped, I snipped, I cabled and this is what I got

Bastardised Bella's Scarf
I wove in eleventy million ends (I carried nothing! FOOL!) and I washed, blocked (actually a lot straighter than the photo would have you believe), trimmed ends and folded this up for gifting.
What did I get? "Thanks, that should probably match my hat I have at home" *tries quickly on around neck and then shoves scarf in bag*
I just about died. I know it's not about that, I know I hated both this yarn and the project, but THAT IS NOT THE POINT! I just felt a bit like, if you didn't care about getting it, why have you bugged me for over a year to knit you the damn thing? At least pretend to greatful, gush about my neat stitches for longer than 2.5 seconds. I need the praise dammit! I am a needy knitter.

Meanwhile I knitted up this gorgeous hat in Jo Sharp SilkRoad DK, and Essie loved it so I sent it straight to her, it washed the bad gifting away and was lovely! People like her can have whatever they want!
Grace Lace Beret
and I have knitted it again, for me! That's how nice a pattern it was!

I think maybe that's the trick, I have no problem giving knitted things away, it seems I really only get my knickers in a twist when it's been requested and then not appreciated. So yeh, steal from me, just don't ask for it? Totally sensible.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

2011 is the year of the stripe

...or so it would seem by viewing my Rav notebook
so may stripey things have appeared without me even noticing, maybe it's got something to do with the 11 part of 2011 looking like stripes already? no? hmmmm

planning for Knit Camp 2011 is rolling along, it's all VERY exciting now with less than a month to go! Schedules are being decided and timing worked out, transport coordinated and food confirmed, I missed the last meeting but with so many great minds at work I hardly think i was missed :D i can't wait for some of the classes and the visits we'll be doing. knitting for 3 days straight in a beautiful house with lovely people sounds like the best way to shake off the mid year blues to me!

the scarf that will not end is growing, slooowwwwwly, I had hopes that it would be done tonight so I could gift it tomorrow on Nic's actual birthday but she will have to wait until Monday, somehow i think the Chandon and cute little compact mirror with vintage baby animals on it will tide her over until then

my plan is start and finish two more shawls before Knit Camp, i've bumped Narnia and Citron to the top of the list and can't wait to get started. i think Citron might be perfect for train knitting too, so bonus! wish me luck!

hope you're all enjoying this AMAZING cold weather we're having, snuggly into your handknits and enjoy the smells of woodsmoke and coffee floating on the freezing wind. I LOVE WINTER (and all of you)

Monday, May 2, 2011

kicked to the curb!

so last night i well and truly cracked the shits with [parts of] my stash

i have been so good of late, trading a lovely project with an acrylic project, forcing myself to knit through the trash in my stash from back in my "but i thought only Spotlight and Lincraft sell wool" phase at the start of my knitting life reboot, and it's been a bit depressing. so last night after staring down the barrel of at least 4 more weeks knitting a blanket from Magnum 8ply acrylic in a particularly insipid purple colour, i cracked.

i pulled out all the yarn bins and systematically went through and ditched every bit of yarn that is either horridious (thank you Wild Child for reminding me I love that made up word) or 100% acrylic or just fugly.
i then unravelled the 1/4 knitted blanket and balled that "yarn" back up and added it to the pile. there might have been a tiny bit of triumphant yelling as the yarns were chucked into bags.

so now those two garbage bags are off to the co-op bins down the road and i feel SO MUCH BETTER!

now I only have yarn that i at least LIKE enough to want to knit, and that i think is fair. also, makes it much easier to 'shop the stash' when it's not filled with trashy crappy much hated yarn.

so maybe it's not the most frugal decision, but so what, i don't need to be sensible all the time right? right! and i really can't be arsed selling it all on ebay so it's done. it also inspired a mad clearout of other things that aren't useful, like books i won't read and pantry stuff that's out of date. my house is now only full of useful things!

now on my needles is my official last project knitted from 100% acrylic yarn, and it's because the recipient picked the yarn, so it can't be helped. i think wanting it off my needles will help with a speedy knit!