we've fallen in love hard with a color/crochet project - babette:
thing is, it's the concept of the process which has us hooked (oh, the pun...). purl soho has the most beautiful blog - purlbee, which covers their makings of babette, and an interview and mini tutorial with babette designer kathy merrick.
we had fun checking out purl soho's kpm yarn and playing with colour combinations:
however the concept of buying and shipping canadian yarn via new york seems kinda weird when we're suckered by the concept of the knittery yarns:
there's other combos that we wouldn't mind playing with - for example, the all white babette is interesting in how different it looks compared to the others. what if there were super subtle differences in the yarn shades? (just realised - the creator is suggesting that they wished they had...)
here's the deal. every day for the next week, a minimum of ten posts a day, due to an overload of info that we're sitting on. we're going to cheat (or take it easy) and call this post one for today.
on the way over to a lovely summer evening get together - a bunch of girls, thai food, and crafty things - we were working on the pink dress. fifteen women out to party jump on the tram, and the champagne was talking. sometimes drunk people point out the most obvious things. "isn't that a little big for you?" one asks, after we hold up what we'd been working on.
she was right. after trying it on, measuring the thing (an extra 5 inches in width?) it was one of those forehead slapping what-were-we-thinking moments. we're guessing the mistake could be due to the yarn (it's a substitute) and rechecking our gauge so that a shell equals the single crochets and the double crochets, not just what we thought - the double crochet cluster "shell".
the good news is interweave have kindly made available a free rewritten pattern of the 2004 lily chin crochet dress, which should help.
There's also some online help in the form of
the alteration for women with boobs, plus the finished product, with incentive - she did hers in a month. maybe we should aim to be able to wear by xmas day.
inspiration:
final product churned out using handspun from the handspinners and weavers guild:
other people's things we've been coveting include:
a kidsilk haze version of lily chin's reversible rib shawl from vogue knitting american collection (look inside the book) - thanks grumpygirl.
annie modesitt's silk corset, with versions such as marnie's.
we spent the whole weekend obsessing over the thing, calling catherine the great for her knitting advice and expertise, and experimented:
there was the mutidirectional pattern:
the interweave knits flowerbasket shawl:
fooled around with domino knitting (particularly keen on something like the diamonds in the vogue knitting top) and got nowhere in a hurry...what we were really looking for is something mindless to knit that won't need a pattern to carry around, just the yarn and needles.
so the winner is a simple rib pattern - methinks it's called a mistake rib, 'cause you kinda cheat by k1, p1 on one side, then knit the other side, which gives an almost moss stitch on one side, rib on the other. photos when it's decent - still a little tiny and nekkid on the needles at the moment. the yarn is amazing stuff to knit with though - it's so luscious to the touch.
over the weekend after a mini knitogether and coffee with a bunch of knitbloggers and their friends (we feel obligated here: allison, clementine, jacqueline, nichola and suzette), we scored the most luscious hand dyed kid mohair from martas' yarns. we're trying to find something that's worthy. it's not often that we think scarf, but we're mighty tempted by three in particular:
the entrelac scarf (a mini take on the scarf style lady eleanor), the domino knitted scarf, and the super easy and probably the best way out with only 170 grams of fine yarn: the multidirectional scarf. hmm.
spotted at an impromptu colinette get together at the handknitters guild last week c/o sarah durrant - the toast and marmalade crocheted throw. (it's the big pic at the top). we can't really justify buying colinette yarns for a throw. they're expensive luscious things, so creating something out of it that animals will probably sit on, that's going to be a total beast to clean ain't our idea of fun.
as a substitute option, good ol' bendigo woollen mills sent their shade card, and we're looking forward to paying them a visit next weekend. we're planning on buying for "nordic memories" (about halfway down...) but we're not so sure about the design now - if it's chopping a tall thin model into chunks...then we're a tad hesitant. the plan is to have a knockabout jumper for winter (time to get to work!) so any other bright ideas, do send 'em our way.
maybe we're just suckered in by the styling, as it's a very lush book to page through... last minute knitted gifts is a very likely to be a gusset purchase. check 'em out.... gnit's angora booties - awwww.
we're having a hellish time with some kidsilk haze. yes, it's expensive. yes, it comes in the best colours including the oh my golly that's so bright "candy girl". yes, that mohair/silk combo feels amazing. most importantly, yes, it's a total beast to rip back.
others have told us it's not so bad to rip back - just lay the thing back and go for it. put it in the freezer for a while. you'll be fine.
yeah, right. so we froze. end result - addi turbos very, very cold. no help. as for laying it flat and ripping, methinks the problem here is that what we're trying to rip back here is a cast off - we ran out of yarn.
we thought back to margaret stove's lace knitting tutorial, where she reminded us that when she was doing restoration work on vintage lace she'd often just do the tiniest bit - just a few stitches - then walk away, and come back - a few minutes, a few days later - and go again. sounds like we're going to have to take a similar tack.
over the xmas holidays with the olds, we managed to convince 'em to take us to nundle to see the woollen mills. we only picked up some angora - it's not usually available by mailorder and seemed so cheap and soft. it also sheds really well - a black pair of pants soon went awfully fuzzy. update - the scarf is one that we've got in mind for a guy who was awfully kind to us a few years back - letting us stay at his (and his brother's) london pad. if you want to make something similar, we adjusted the chump change cable (thursday entry) to become "do the double chump" (sounds like some kind of funky dance move instead of a reversible knitting stitch) by doing the cable on the right side, then the wrong side of the fabric on the next row, making both sides look similar and reversible.
we very innocently went over to the rosenbloom hacienda to pick up a saucepan. honest.
thing is, we came back with said saucepan, a hank of white wool and a huge cone of ultra fine dusty pink wool which we thought was the around the same as the angora that we picked up from nundle. sure enough, it is. we immediately thought of debbie new's scribble lace and the jacket pattern - although another project now is getting a tad silly. less talk, more action....
already we're thinkin' about something for the scarf festival and are kinda keen on a little dries van noten swish wrap that we tried on in a swanky collins st boutique.
the trick is, underneath the frills and layers is another layer with an armhole, so the wrap will sit properly if you choose to wear it the way the model is, or you can simply wear it as a cape. the fun bit is trying to work out how to convert something like that to a knitted garment.
loobylu's february theme for month of softies has us thinking of doing a swish version with roses and detachable wired teacups...but it'd take longer than a month to make, and what would we do with such a thing?
we're keen on the rose trellis bag, so we tried knitting the pattern to create the swatch a couple of times. those are whopping 15mm or so needles that we picked up from the handspinners and weavers guild - methinks a lady and her husband got busy in a hardware store with chair feet rubbers and broomstick handles (we mean making knitting needles, you kinky lot!).
with any luck, nicky has got it sorted in the pattern design to accomodate the pattern, because the swatch was a tad trying to knit.
swatch complete and knitted to gauge, we were about to felt that too - and decided just to try a little tidge of the yarn with some hot water and detergent. reddish yarn = an old patons totem, which felts like the clappers, which makes us think that bendigo woollen mills colonial really is the way to go. the other cream yarn is of unknown origin - perhaps from mum - and it seems to be a machine washable. lucky we checked.
update: we've gone ahead and ordered the yarn from bendigo woollen mills - AUS$85 for the yarn + free postage is pretty good going. we've chosen to double the 12 ply cones of colonial (black, lightgreen for the trellis, cherry for the flowers, tartan for the leaves) from their new shadecard:
there's a lot of good things about the debbie bliss top. it's relatively simple. it's a fine, (hopefully) flattering yarn (even if we're substituting with cheap AUS$2 a ball yarn from dimmeys) and while we've been warned about the bad effects of a double layer of knitting over the stomach, we'll brave it. after knitting a bag on 15mm needles, a project on 3mm or so won't hurt...right?
there's been some trying moments in the gusset camp. the ramie top came out great - fitted well - but it was so itchy and scratchy and downright uncomfortable. recommendation from the s'n'b ladies who had been there and done that confirmed what we thought - time to treat it rough. we figured that throwing a mainly plant fibre into a cold washing machine with a few other things wouldn't be a big deal - it normally takes pure wool a few cycles in boiling hot water. boy, were we wrong.
the main spot that the felting happened was the open loose bits and seams - where the fibres are able to rub together more. one day when we're feeling patient, we'll have a shot at sort of unfelting by using hot water and stretching and whatnot to get the top back to where it should be.
it's lookin' pretty set to be a new project of ours - the flower basket knitalong.
it happened by accident - we were just going for a walk this morning, honest. that just happened to be by emporio armani - a shop on sydney rd which offers designer fabrics - which just happened to be closing down. so, we bought some chocolate brown stretch jersey, and popped across the road to spotlight's pattern sale to pick up a DKNY dress pattern - vogue 2091. a little holiday sewing at the old's haus when there's not much else to do. here's hoping it turns out.
in other dress news, the lily chin dress (knitted from cherry trees hill's "glimmer" purchased from chezcas direct and on ebay) is complete. we weren't too happy with the armholes/sideseam of the top, but a little crochet seaming down the sides went a long way to fixing the problem.
here's the back in action (choose a full size image):
getting there:
and the final:
to further add to the dress madness, we've finally found the yarn that'll work in the debbie new dress - it's a weird sort of boucle from bendigo woollen mills which we originally had issues of it being like steel wool. while in geelong during the fibre forum week, we got the chance to purchase a small ball and try it out. while not exactly soft as a kitten, it's fine. failing the dress, the boucle would make an awesome 60's style chanel suit. we felt a little silly calling bendy and asking for a few kilometres of the yarn...
big balls (click to enlarge):
methinks a start of the bendy dress may be in order when it starts coolin' down in melbs (march - in time for june/july wearing, perhaps...).
but that's not all...there's also the lily chin crochet dress from interweave. we crocheted a sample:
we're in a bit of a mess. obviously we love the colour above. it's one of those subtle as a sledgehammer pinks. thing is - do we really want a whole crocheted pink dress? the other option is black - there are currently 3 black dresses in our wardrobe. we'll take a trip to the yarn barn early next year and sort it out. as for the hooks, a little spree was in order. never shall we be at a loss for a hook again, thanks to the crochetmaster and susan bates's crystalites.
the plan for the handknitters guild is to knit an afghan to raise money for their operation (remember the fiasco with the waratah this year? well, the guild are super organised, and asking knitters to start making squares now for next year...). this time 'round the afghan is going to be more of a swanky afghan - done in tones of cream, cafe au lait, mocha, caramel, and any other posh word you can think of for light tones of brown, donna hay style. (we already have plans of entering the raffle, and if we win, a very large vat of suitably hued dye will be at the ready...)
initially we were in love with the concept of a hardcore cable design from one of the barbara walker "treasury of knitting patterns" books - once upon a time, we had an idea of making throws based on people - marilyn monroe's would be a cream, white, and novelty yarns number which would look fabulous over a chair such as the one on the cover of 1000 chairs. nigella lawsons would be chocolate brown, made from jo sharp's silkroad ultra (in truffle, right?) and then there was trent reznor's. it's got to be black. and bloody expensive (noro cash iroha?) and have a ton of detail, and nine inch tails (leather tassles?). so trent's throw was going to be based on this weird sort of 37 stitch cable, the likes of which we'd never seen before.
given the cable won't fit into the sizing of the square needed for the throw (all the squares need to be knit in 8 ply), we've found the chump change cable (thursday entry) which should do the trick for the afghan. as for trent, marilyn and nigella....another day.
we'd love to make the dress from the interweave crochet issue. we even shelled out the $25 to order the issue from elann.com when interweave kindly informed us that no, sorry, not getting a copy even though you've ordered, because it's sold out.
however, the thought of wading through 4 (four!) pages of instructions is scaring us just a little. we need psyching up to just do the tension swatch. then there's a little search to find some interesting errata, combined with the "gee, haven't we got enough to do already?" (another story in itself, coming to a screen near you...) jonesing, and we're not so sure.
once upon a time, we had this brilliant idea of coming up with stuff to submit to creative knitting. so we checked with the editor, and she was pretty broad in determining how to accept submissions - if it's something that'll appeal to our audience, you're in, type of thing. so we contacted a yarn company, got them to donate, and set forth. the first idea didn't work out - a scarf that was "woven" while it was being knit, giving an extra dense fabric. problem was, the thing rolled...a little too much for our taste.
so after lots of experimentation, we came up with a sort of scribble lace gone weird:
the strange thing about knitting for someone else (magazines, designers, for gifts etc) is that is when the shitty committee decide that they're going to set up camp in the house. we felt truly horrid about submitting it, because it felt like a rip of debbie new's scribble lace, perhaps there was something else that would've been more appropriate etc etc etc.
then we opened up vogue knitting scarves #2 and saw something kinda similar. brown. cream. alpaca. stripes. theirs was garter stitch - "the dot com scarf" which we guess made it more manly and tech oriented. we didn't feel so bad after that.
it looks great on the model - white shirt, pale makeup, but we still hanker for the hallowig, in the latest edition of knitty for obvious reasons.
wow! we just love it when knitters similar to our shape are kind enough to design and give their patterns away for free on the web. case in point - the new issue of magknits has donna, which is one of the best designs for girls with stuff out front (a veranda, a decent bust, big headlights....you know the deal...) that we've seen. vneck and shaping (and a pinky red flower to boot...) - how can you go wrong?
miss jane our sister in law sent us a blast from the past with a pic of niece caroline:
the cardie knit in navy cleckheaton country colours from was one of the first big projects that we attempted getting back into knitting. the debbie bliss books that we found at the local library were a total godsend when it came to jog-the-mind instructions on knitting and basic patterns that were also a bit modern compared to mum's stash.
something we've been meaning to do for sometime - the ladies wrap top from celtic knits. we've found a wool/cashmere mix yarn on sale in dimmeys richmond:
(crud scan warning...)
while it has a bit of a slub to it, we figure that will help give the garment a bit of interest - it's just plain stocking stitch with a garter stitch collar, after all. a good chunk of (hopefully) mindless knitting.
we're doin' alright on kite - despite our recent rant and having to rip a few inches short of the cast on, we're getting there. however, we reckon there's got to be an easier way to do the armholes - the whole knit a row, then increase/decrease the next two rows (depending on which side of the armhole you were on...), then repeat 11 times...it's driven us a tad barmy, given that tagliatelle isn't the easiest yarn to count rows on.
we've been slowly working away on swirl knitting from debbie new's book with a resulting knitted handspun yarn swirl. we're thinking of knitting a batch of them with a long tail - the tail part being the body of the skirt, with the swirl being at the bottom, thus making a frill. in theory, at least. could be great, could be crud. them's the breaks.
a touch of yarn from touch:
it's one of the most luscious pure wool yarns that we've had our hands on. mmmmm (danke catherine...). we're not quite sure what to do with 100 grams of lush red 4 ply, but we're planning on consulting a gathering of lace to see if there might be something appropriate hiding within its pages.
the weekend was spent dyeing yarn - we thought we'd try something naughty and throw a few balls of yarn straight into the dyepot instead of skeining them.
we loved the result with the baby wool (kraftkolour's landscape dye in grevillea is our favourite raspberry pink/red dye colour of all time):
also over the weekend we did a little hat making/colour combining workshop with frances at the handknitters guild and came up with this sample:
we would have loved to have a digital camera there - frances has a neat method of combining colours in yarns by threading the balls beside each other on a circular needle. a table full of these needled balls in amazing colour combos was total yarn porn. frances had a book which we haven't seen before, that is truly beautiful and chock full of good stuff - "the art of fair isle knitting" related - sasha kagan also holding colour workshops - there's a new book ready, set, knit (or knitting for beginners? too.
why we hadn't thought about hitting ebay sooner in search of yarn for the dress is beyond us. the original yarn called for - cherry hills "glimmer" in the following lush colourway (a little knit happens, yes?) is on it's way from the usa:
one of these days, we're going to go somewhere that's just over the top yarn porn. there isn't really anywhere in australia that matches up to the over the topness of huge places such as the new store of threadbear. somewhere where once you walk in, your breath is taken away, and you're wondering if they'll let you bring your sleeping bag.
welcome to our new obsession:
it's handspun from the handspinners and weavers guild, who encourage their members to spin and dye skeins for sale there. as a result, it's often possible to come away with some amazing one off stuff for a song. albeit, there is no knitting suggestions, no patterns, no yardage, no layby, and when it's gone, it's truly gone...but the yarn....
it's a great colour, because it's different to the usual sledgehammer pink that we go for.
not quite sure what to do with it (suggestions welcome), but we've kinda ruled out the standard cardigan/sweater dealie because there isn't enough yarn, and the thought of having multicolour nubbly stripes going around our upper half is shudder inducing. we're thinking skirt. more about that another time.
a leetle present from claire:
that's real size. the thing we love are the labels - it's patons totem!
(we thought we'd posted this before our little trip, but no...so....) due to an unfortunate run in with a flatmate (we had a deal - his digital camera for our internet connection. all was well until we found out just how much he loves blondes. ewwww.) the site will be bereft of digital pics for a while. we're also going on a mini break to the olds (which isn't too far from nundle woollen mills, so we might get lucky...), so it'll be real quiet around here for a while - feel free to amuse yourself with the links, archives, and hell - don't you have knitting to do???
felty stuff - melbs is currently cold. downright freezing. so melbs s'n'b is having a felted knitalong for warm sturdy things (even if the bags are just keeping their contents warm...(!) ). yes, the fff (felted fuzzy feet) are complete, and should be on their way to their owner....(pic soon that we did manage to get...)
it was all planned out - yep, go to marta's buy the rayon, and stash it for summer to make the dress. it's a 30% sale until the end of financial year. mad not to take advantage. we spent ages taking down the cones of rayon, comparing the colours, holding them up in a mirror, thinking colinette colour cominations... marta kindly let us know that the mighty magic ball method is a no go - rayon is the slipperiest devil to knit, and joining yarns? forget it. it's one of those things that we're just going to have to let go, and buy a dress like it.
whether an empire line dress in some freaky metallic fabric would suit us in the first place is the major question. we didn't love the idea. love is important. so we walked out of marta's with a pair of 4mm addi turbos.
at least it sounds like claire and suzette had fun though...erin scored with a summery cotton/rayon for a friend, and we both sort of lost it over the silk. it's under the counter (appropriate spot!) in a glass case. it's the softest, gleamiest stuff. it's also around $1000 a kilo. what you'd make with it, we're not quite sure, but it's the stuff of dreams.
latest haul is from the bead symposium over the weekend:
four(!!) packets of ruby glass beads. 1.5 (!!!)mm steel needles. lady from handknitters guild wrote pattern for beaded bag on brown bag from memory(!!!!). the stash is for making anlaby's "elizabeth" design.
the kite jacket in colinette is coming along:
something that took us a few rows to realise - even knitting in ribbing, it's important to knit with two balls of yarn, alternating rows, as we could see the start of colour staining - sometimes the multicolours in the rows of yarn match up, giving an unsightly blob of colour. kite is still small enough to take on public transport, much to the joy of an elderly greek lady who thought it was way too expensive, until we told her that the garment was for our mother..."your mother? she's worth a million dollars!". we're not going to argue with that.
we've got a major jonesing for bags. why? maybe it's something to do with picking up "handbags - a lexicon of style" from the library. it's one of the most lush, detailed funky books we've seen about bags, which focusses on the modern designer stuff, shows a wide range of styles, and goes into the psychology of those lil' things that women feel obliged to carry around and pay exhorbitant amounts of money for. there's a couple that we're keen on adapting into knitted bags - chloe's leather tote:
and the exquisite gloria bag from french design duo jamin puech.
thanks to the sewing pattern sale on at the moment, we snapped up a vogue pattern which looks all designy too - hopefully that'll also translate into knit felty goodness. something a little more difficult to translate - so maybe we'll go into studying sculpture next year and try it out then - handbags from hardware store goodies.
while we went to the handknitters guild expo with a shopping list of one 4mm addi turbo (no go - marta's is open sundays, so we'll pay a visit soon...) we caved into colinette from sarah durrant and bought the pattern for kite to knit for mum's birthday in september. she's in need of a wardrobe overhaul, so hopefully she'll be into the tones of venezia which are a lot more understated in the real life dyelot purchased compared to the web sample.
it's not like we need a batch of new projects at the moment, but every so often, we get wistful when we see these patterns:
teva durham's tunic from a 2002 interweave knits:
and grace, which we found in a rowan book.
the results of the crafternoon (a bunch of souls getting together to do crafty things) on fulling:
1 - before, after.
2 - before, after.
the scarf - before, after.
results - lincraft cosy wool does indeed felt like the clappers. a highly recommended fulling wool for all your knitting needs. whatever you do, keep a wide berth from fireside, which was what the scarf with holes (we prefer the term "deconstructed") was knitted in.
the machine knit fair isle is very cool - given it was done in 15 mins, we're really loving the stuff, so much that we're thinkin' studying textiles in machine knitting (we can feel our fellow machine knitters i-told-you-so smirks from here...).
the start of the ramie top.
if we went out and bought all the circular needles that we'd need for this project (size 15, 12, 10, 9 and 5.5 mm) it'd probably end up costing more than the yarn itself...insane. that's the trick for sleeves and main piece - start on big, and graduate to small, which gives the lacy effect, and also stops the base from curling, which is a nice design feature.
we're so happy to see this waratah gone:
the handknitters guild are piecing the whole thing together - squares of australian images - and raffling it off both at the mini wool expo and the craft expo at jeff's shed - more info about both those as it comes to hand.
the following pink dress is the beast from simple knits for cherished babies. simple? sure. time consuming and hellish on tiny needles? you betcha. it was knit with a really lovely mercerised cotton - thought it was heirloom, but we haven't seen anything like it since. seeing as we don't know of any incredibly young girls (or willing boys), it seems like a good donation to the handknitters guild for expo sale.
we're not quite sure what to do with the scarf:
it's the previous attempt with roving, only this time handknit. literally. if you haven't tried handknitting - that is "knitting" without needles, knitting with thick stuff (roving, rope, etc) is certainly helpful. we're tempted to full it a little, just to get the fibres a little stronger, but we're not sure about the look and weight of the whole thing. only one way to find out...
surely, she's just forgotten or something. we were selling small crochet hooks on ebay, and our buyer hadn't sent payment. so we check up on her. we get a very polite apologetic email with a newslink to verify the info she gives us - her house has burnt down, she's lost two of her children, and she's currently using a friends computer to send the email.
no matter how we react to situations like this, it always seems wrong. we felt stupid sending an email back going terribly sorry...we'll send you the hooks anyway if you just give us an address. we've sent the hooks off along with a batch of vintage rayon that sharon gave back to us - it's a beast to knit with, but apparently great for fine crochet work. just hope that it's useful and of some comfort to the lady we sent it to.
we must've started the fuzzy feet last may, as a present for a friend. we're going to finish them before next weekend. it's a little amazing that we managed to get a photo taken as research for a portrait:
and even do the (new win. about 100k) painting itself , but no fff. this week is the week.
we're in love with the concept of the little jacket that's knit in one piece, designed by elizabeth zimmerman (her knitting workshop book is our current bedtime reading) - the baby surprise. we don't have any babies to knit for, but they seem to have a habit of popping up out of nowhere, so there's no harm in being prepared...we're too busy with other projects to knit at the moment, but we've subscribed to the knit baby surprise group and noticed that they have a 10 day knitalong...this sounds great. hopefully, we'll be able to do the next one.
a genius idea - do debbie new's scribble lace on the adult surprise jacket - thought up by lisa at blogdogblog.
erika knight must have been reading our mind or something. knitting with wire, knitting with plastic bags, knitting with ruvly pink guff...and knitting with ribbon, as shown on the cover of her new book. we love the photography, and the homely, designy feel of the thing (very donna hay meets knitting), but it all feels a tad useless - when are you honestly going to wear (and wash) ribbon slippers?
another one on the ribbon front which could be put to slightly more practical applications (bottom of a summer top, perhaps?) a ribbon laced vintage lattice pattern.
the melbourne knitters guild is putting together a wildflowers afghan rug, with each square knitted by its members. here's ours:
we tried doing the picture knitting thing of having multiple colours on the go, and got tangled and confused pretty quickly. in the name of getting the thing done sanity relatively intact by the first sunday in may, we've elected to knit the whole back, then embroider the knitting stitches in different colours over the top (just like that charmingly dodgy header above). almost there.
about halfway there - the mighty felted fuzzy feet:
the yarn is bendigo woollen mills wool/mohair mix - we choose this for the felted result. it's quite positively the most luscious felty goodness we've had the pleasure of working with. it's meant to be a present, however the receiver's birthday (rosie, who lent, then donated her old washing machine to us) was quite some time ago - by the time they're done, it'll be her birthday this year. shame, shame, shame.
after a lace knitting workshop, we went gung ho into a pi shawl, but kinda lost interest. in the name of using all that white wool that we purchased at last years mini wool festival, we reckon we'd better at least have the shawl done before this years fest on the 1st june. a little lost at the moment with where we're up to:
it's probably a case of rip it back a few rows, find our bearings, and get cracking.
another one to play with:
it was an experiment with the roving (clean fleece ready for spinning) that we'd bought from bendigo sheep and wool show last year. those needles are huge 20mm or so babies that we thrifted, with the end result being one enormously thick chunk of knitting. it feels and looks lush, but it's a little over the top. time to frog that one back and have another lighter shot at it.
the lincraft ramie stash:
it's not that we need this stuff right now, but it was so cheap, and it'll keep until the warmer months.
the colinette shadecards and test yarn for debbie new's dress turned up from the incredibly helpful sarah durrant:
it's a tough call choosing shades from the cards, because each yarn takes the colour differently, and without seeing and playing with a ball, it's hard to tell what the finished project will be like. if it was simply a matter of choosing a colinette pattern where you see how the yarn knits up, and taking a punt on the colourway, maybe it wouldn't be so tough. something we noticed - sarah has a special orders service where it's possible to order a small amount, so we might just do that, and try out the castania colourway in athene. then again, those tape yarns like giotto and tagliatelli are so callin' our name...
there's a few things coming up that we'd like to do scarves for - a scarf issue of creative knitting (check loobylu's entry), the scarf festival, and the mini wool fest (more details in a month or so...). erin showed off her new creation of a cabled scarf recently, her first cabled project. couple of months, and she'll be contemplating the coat from norsk strikkedesign...(!).
whatever the pink-red thing (surprise, surprise) on the cover of simple knits with a twist is (a "patchwork" rug? check the image), we love the look of it.
wouldn't mind seeing what's in the anny blatt book - patterns that we've seen advertised in vogue knitting have been beautiful looking.
lincraft has a sale on filatura di crosa ramie at the moment - $1.50 a ball. we're guessing that the reason why it's died on the oz market is that people don't know what the hell it is or what to do with it. that was our problem, anyway. given that ramie is a plant derived fibre intended for summer (hello pals linen and hemp) we think we've found the solution with lanaknits patterns. we love the skirt idea, but figure we could probably just make something up similar, with an elastic waistband. another one we thought of was cindy taylors "swell sweater" featured in the latest issue of interweave knits. thanks to google, a little backdoor into IK gives their spring 2004 projects including the yarn breakdown and meterage for any pattern including the swell sweater - love that.
here's how the freeform skirt is going so far:
it's been necessary to add the band at the top, just to give a better idea of what shape we're aiming for, and make it easier to close in the gaps (not to mention try it on, once we get the waist right - we just made it fit around our neck halved, but we forgot we had to somehow get this waistband over our bigger bits -smart, eh?). something tells us this skirt is going to be a lot more knitting than what we initially thought.
we took the pink yarn off the skirt, and tried swatching for a design out of the knit stitch, a great beginners book with great projects of beginners, luscious mindless knitting for those a little more advanced.
it's for a simple summer top with an unusual construction - there's buttons on the front and back of the garment, so one knits from the middle front, past the armhole, to the middle back twice to create a sleeveless summer top. we really like the vertical slip stitch - initially we swatched a loose knit sample, with the idea of having the plain knitting vertical. there are issues with how stable the vertical plain knitted fabric is going to be and designing a garment ourselves versus having a far more talented and knowledable designer, a photo of a finished garment, and instructions for how to knit it...melville wins! it's a summer top, so we'll just shove it on the backburner for the meanwhile, after we get gauge.
we'd like to coin a new term here - stash fear. no prizes for guessing that it's that completely irrational need not to use stashed yarn, for the fear that some other far more suitable project will come along. we thrifted a pack of yarn that looks like it's from the sixties - it's pink, it's got a weird band, it's just got that sort of flavour to it. we couldn't use it for a while - it'll be great for felting. for this. for that. we were going to hold out until monday night and get some white yarn (also thrifted) skeined and dyed to use for the freeform skirt, until we tried it out and sure enough, it felts. so...time to use that pink yarn for the skirt, skein the white stuff, and use it for a felty project of some sort. we'll post a pic soon - bad habit of thinking "gee a photo would be handy" after dark...
we remember shuddering at the thought of knitted pants, however, a sweatpant knitalong has shown that they look pretty fine - a yoga/baking/playing with the cat/weekender sort of look. admittedly at the moment (dress? socks? skirt? pi shawl? summer top? jumper? etc...) the temptation is there to just hit the closest place that stocks bonds tracky dax and hand the money over after trying them on. sometimes one needs to be kind.
we're having a bit of a tough time with the dress from debbie new. originally thinking that normal 8 ply wool would be fine (what's an extra sweaty 20% polymide between friends?), we bought that from dea, and attempted to dye it, only to realise that what we thought was 100% wool is more like about 20% wool, 80% some sort of synthetic.
lesson learnt - even if you think you know what something is (and it did smell like a sheep shed) it's worth during a burn test and checking.
so now it's substitution time - the original jaeger persia yarn is discontinued, so debbie's recommendation is for something that similarly lightweight and bulky - j. from stitch'n'bitch kindly bought along a ball of persia so we could check it out, and there's a yarn at lincraft that is almost identical - gedifra boheme. problem is, it's currently retailing at aroung $13.00 per 50g ball, and the colours are poo brown and cream. other options could be something boucle from rareyarns - although we're a bit worried about how warm a whole dress in alpaca would be. there's also a yarn from bendigo woollen mills/heirloom - raindrops, although we've felt this stuff unwashed, and without testing a sample first, there is a chance that we could be knitting a very fetching scouring pad. the winner so far is colinette's isis - reputable brand, lightweight, what looks like a good plum colour...so with a little more info, it could be the winner. the colinette site also has a few other options, which could be handy if isis doesn't work out.
here's how the freeform is going so far:
the pale pink cotton (top petal shape) was interesting - we originally bought a swag of the stuff to make a vogue knitting quick knit pattern - and soon discovered that about the only quick knit that would ever suit us is an accessory - thick fabric over thick bodies ain't a good look. doing the quick knit, we used 3 strands together to get gauge (in the end 2 still got gauge and was a whole lot less heavier - one of the big things to watch out with when substituting by doubling or more finer yarn), in stocking stitch. knit loosely in garter, the yarn is a different beast entirely, and we like it a lot. so much that we're tempted to rip out what we've used to make some sort of summer top.
as for the freeform - there's a lot to go if its to turn into a skirt. it's wierd working in the freeform way, but the consolation we got last night at stitch'n'bitch is that no matter what we do, it'll always make a cushion cover. homewares have saved many a crafter's butt, we're sure.
the completed scribble lace, done with the handspun leftovers from a felted bag:
we're going great guns with unexpected knitting - just completed our first scribble lace stole/scarf thing (given the big stitches, it's very stretchy, and there's a myriad of things to do with it - a sort of skirt/sarong option for summer would be fun too).
we started on something freeform for fun, and it bought up an interesting thing that we hadn't really thought about before...on the trams and at school yesterday, people wanted to know what we were making. just one issue there - we really don't know. we'd love to have a skirt, but if it isn't a skirt, well, life goes on.
the great thing about freeform knitting that we didn't know until we started - this stuff is knitting valium. there are no rows to count, no patterns to follow, no mistakes, just discoveries. the fun bit will be just getting some sort of shape that's kinda, sorta what we're looking for.
there's a skein of try out yarn in our newly purchased craft only big pot from big w ($20.00 for 19 litre stainless steel, thankyouverymuch). we've learnt from experience - soak the yarn first, so we're patienty waiting an hour or so, then testing out some red landscape dye from kraftkolour before going the whole hog and doing the full 800 grams for the dress. good thing the yarn is cheap wool - if it all doesn't work it, it's ok. it'll make a great bag.
this autumn period is a primer for the colder months - in less than a week, three informal knitting get togethers through stitch'n'bitch melbs.
we're werking on a bunch of scarves at the moment. we haven't knitted one for our own use yet, but they make handy presents to people going to colder climes and they're nice beginner projects. it's one of those things - approximately 80% of people who walk into a yarn store do so to make a scarf (and in oz, 80% of them make it in f**thers, but that's another story...). we've been plundering ms walker's a second treasury of knitting patterns, which works hard to earn its rave reviews.
there's quite a few patterns and yarns that are doing the rounds of mailing lists and websites that we'd love to be part of - so much knitting and yarn, so little time and money...
patterns of the past are doing angelina, a pattern that we've been eyeing off for quite some time - we're big (ha!) fans of whiteliesdesigns.
there's an everyday cardie knitalong - we love the colours from peacefleece, and their concept of bringing nations together (not to mention what looks like a very cute boy knitting in his labourer's time off - can we take him home too?).
alice starmore's henry 8 jumper is a very beautiful, complex thing - we borrowed tudor roses and checked out the pattern - needless to say, perhaps if/when we marry some tall dark guy suited to such a jumper, we'll knit it. currently knitting the steeky multicoloured goodness of hank - alisonknits and another knitting blog.
just planting seeds here...it would be amazing if there could be an australian project not unlike what's happening with manos del uruguay who produce some of the most luscious looking yarn in we'd-use-it colourways. another project along slightly different lines south african craft.
after all, there's meant to be a resurgence in knitting, there's plenty of people who would probably embrace the idea of working as a craftsperson if their other options are no work, or a mcjob. australia is the world's leading producer of wool so we can't see a reason for not creating an amazing artisan product to benefit farmers, craftspeople and the end consumer. the joy of dreaming.
a chunk of things that we've finished.
firstly, the (almost complete) ruana, one of the biggest things we've ever knit:
and in the almost done stage, before the claytons steek (the green line in the middle is usually cut - we chickened out and simply undid it row by row, putting each side onto scrap yarn). a stitch'n'bitcher pointed us in the direction of another fine ruana.
the finished kidsilk haze and 4ply tweed wool from rowan, the most expensive thing we've ever knit (jacket pattern from the urban knitter):
a top in kidsilk haze - we're not so sure how smart a sleeveless top in uber warm and light mohair is, but it feels great. definitely adding more length to it though...and when we're wearing it, as my niece would proclaim when we held her on our hip "kylie, you've got boobies!". yeah. thanks.
now, the chances of us actually knitting the thing are quite low, but when erin kidnapped us to go thifting and found this beauty, we had a hard time turning it down for around a dollar:
there's no date on the pattern, but the type and colours of the book are lookin' pretty seventies. it would've been a nice design feature to have the cables of the coat meld into the ribbing at the base. we're kinda tempted to use the scarf pattern as a template for a larger wrap with the cables a different colour to the edging and background. not that we've ever knitted cables, but we've seen it done, and how hard can it be?
another score - pink wool. make our day. some thoughtful very experienced knitter (we're sadly guessing someone passed away whilst knitting a young girl's cardie) had part done the back of a garment and really well too - some sort of rib cast on that's impossible to undo, twisted rib, and really even knitting. so we frogged the whole thing and washed the skein. while it still smells kinda old school, we figure a project such as the felted bag could be the way to go.
felted bags are an ace project, because they're strong, cute, and it's possible to use old skanky thrift store wool (or other 100% animal fibre), dye it the colour that you want, and remove any old school scent thanks to the washing machine felting process. a while back we were thinking of designing a laptop bag, because we hadn't seen one - until now ("mercury"). janet scanlon is one talented lady.
it's finally finished. knitted in 2 200g balls of bendigo 4 ply baby wool, we learnt a few things creating the sweater including how to do a double cast on (which is as simple as it sounds - want a firmer edge? double your yarn when casting on), short rows, loop increases, and the fine art of dyeing with food colouring as shown:
we're sort of sad to see it go...but it's been fun to wear, and there's a similar, though much faster, simpler and cozier version in the stitch'n'bitch book for annie's angora sweater.
once upon a time, our heart was set on knitting a mohair jumper from an issue of vogue knitting:
we learnt a few things the hard way - how to substitute yarn (not only do you need to get the gauge right, but it's important to calculate the differences in yarn length - we were short by a good 5 balls or so, lucky wondoflex had extra...), and more importantly the kind of jumper that would suit us. needless to say, if you're over a size 12, any vogue quick knit can reasonably safely be given a wide berth - almost all of them rely on the technique of knitting 2 strands of at least an 8 ply together. the effect of this thick fabric around our thickish torso plus the 3 boob pillow effect of a highish neck - michelin man had nothing on us.
there was the issue then of what to do with this stuff - a stash of wool/mohair mix in a 16 ply. we botched together a bag pattern from a few different issues of knitters - base from here, handles from there, and came up with a beaut felted bag, which we gave to wonderful friend who has a very photogenic cat:
so if you're looking for a yarn for a felted project, the 50/50 wool/mohair mix from bendigo woollen mills is ace.
we were hoping to have more of the website stuff done today, but it's taking a little longer to sort things out. in the meantime, we've been werking on the pinup pullover (a little deadline - we wanted it done in time for stitch'n'bitch), and it's almost done - there's a few threads that need finishing, and we're not too sure about our first big dyejob. what was white is now a very bright pink, but the colour is a tad patchy. we're happy to chalk it up to experience, but after all that knitting...(we should have dyed the skeins first, but we wanted to knit straight away, and the thought of skeining, dyeing and balling all that wool...the perils of being impatient).
ruana is going fine - it's getting heavy, so we've resorted to using 2 circulars - knitting off one onto the other, which is much less strain.
ok, so the deal is, we had quite the stash of pink and red yarn:
we were thinking of doing a graceful - we'd tried on someone else's and they feel pretty amazing on. catherine from our melbourne stitch'n'bitch group (meeting next wednesday btw...) suggested cheryl oberle's ruana from "folk shawls":
it's one hell of a stashbuster - approx 25 50g balls of yarn (over 2 kilometres...) is needed for this project. we started a couple of weeks ago, to be told by a non knitting flatmate that we'd take forever. we're halfway through:
needless to say, it's pretty bright and cosy and fuzzy and luscious.
we made promises - this would be our great opportunity to knit continental, but no. something is going horribly wrong there, so we just keep on going back to what we know.
we went to a little get together last night, and was asked about swatching..do we do them? for everything? the answer being, heck yes. do we still stuff u..erm... make discoveries? indeed. here's one of our longer "discoveries".
it's the back piece for the pinup pullover (the bottom one has the front attached). the only difference between the two pieces is the way that we knitted - continental top, the "normal" way below. while we swatched the continental knitting, obviously we must have relaxed more and "thought big" as we got going. moral to the story - must be more careful, and measure more often. also need to get a grip on continental knitting.
both the pinup pullover and the ruana are going great guns - hopefully we'll have photos soon. the great thing about knitting these projects is that both of them are currently pretty mindless - it's straight up sleeve ribbing for a few inches on the pullover, and the biggest decision to make on the ruana is which shade of pink or red to knit next. it's a relief to at least have something going on where it's possible to see progress.
for a while, there's been a pattern we've been keen on from the urban knitter for a knitted dress. there's just a little problem in finding the right yarn - the recommended one is cherry hill's glimmer, but the thought of shelling out $200+ on yarn from an overseas distributor scares us a little, and there isn't a colourway that we're totally in love with.
so, the other options have been a rayon from marta's yarns that comes in a multitude of plain colours, and there's a new yarn in lincraft - katia's "venecia" in an amazing shade we'll dub strawberry metal. we've done the swatches, and it looks like marta's rayon is winning - it's a lot softer, with better drape. also adding to the appeal is that when we went to purchase a sample, and mentioned what it was for, we were told that it would be one very sexy dress indeed. hmmm.
there's one other place to take a look at who might have something appropriate - the yarn barn at coburg, who have a new lot of imported yarns just in.
however, perhaps we already have enough yarn and projects, but the thrill of something new...we're just in the throes of working through the pinup pullover, as designed by joan mcgowan-michael from whiteliesdesigns. knitting 4 ply baby wool in rib is proving to take a while - how knitwear designers manage to get designs planned out and knitted to deadline is a little beyond us.
to answer a frequently asked question about The Bag...it's knitted (3 strands of bendigo woollen mill's rustic 8 ply together), then thrown into the washing machine for a good 5 cycles or so on the hottest temperature. if you'd care to make your own, the pattern is in the fabulous book "knitter's stash" or from knitkit.com.
rosie kindly let us use her washing machine, digital camera, and attention lovin' dog monkey to achieve the results below - we're just werking on fuzzy feet for her, hopefully while it's cold enough for her to still need them!
before:
after:
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