2013 FO #17: Marvellous Mountainfoot Mitts

As someone who works from home and likes to be comfortable, I wear a lot of pyjamas. Clean pyjamas - it's important to maintain certain standards - but pyjamas nevertheless. This can lead to some awkwardness when I answer the door during the day, so I'm constantly toying with the idea of wearing proper clothes, but really, who am I dressing for? For me, comfort is consistently more important than any other consideration.

So imagine my delight when I popped in to Myer yesterday to discover a new range of pyjamas that looks like clothes!

The brand is Jethro & Jackson and I want to buy all of their pyjama dresses! What a brilliant idea - crossover daytime/nightime sleepwear. I can't wait to see what their winter wear will be.

I'm sure there was something else I was going to write about...

Oh yeah - I finished some more mitts! These were actually done last September but they lived in my very very cold office at uni, so I never got around to photographing them. They're exactly the same as the ones I made for my sister except that I use different colourways of yarn - copper and I can't remember the other one. I heart them because they're gorgeous and, very important, super warm.

Mitten Epiphany (2013 FO #12)

Happy Monday morning, everyone! While that is a particularly cheery greeting for a Monday morning, I am particularly cheery right now because today marks the point at which there is less winter to come than there has winter been. We are more than halfway through the coldest, wettest, dreariest season of the year and I am incredibly excited!

Yes, I do complain about the cold all the time and yes, what kind of moron complains about the cold in Melbourne year-in-year-out (it's hardly a surprise when it gets cold, really. Not only does it happen every year, there's a whole season that exists to warn you that winter's coming). That said, I believe in providing solutions rather than just complaining about problems because there is literally nothing more boring than listening to someone complain and complain and complain and complain without doing anything about it (except watching golf. That's really fucking boring). After the disaster of the Endpaper mitts I was making for my sister, I was a bit disheartened about knitting in general and mine in particular. It was cold, I was feeling bleurgh and motivation was in really short supply, so weeks passed without me doing anything to get the mitts done. However, last week in a desperate search for some Vicks Vaporub (it's not winter without a chest infection - fortunately, not mine) I stumbled across a drawer I had forgotten about that is filled solely with bits of yarn left over from other projects. There was 30g of Mountain Colors Barefoot left over from my mum's dream socks, I knew a pattern that made supercomfortable mitts from small amounts of yarn - I had a pattern plus yarn epiphany!

The finished project is fantastic! The yarn is warm and soft and the pattern fits (hehe) like a glove! I lengthened the cuff and finger ribbing to use all of the yarn I had and omitted the cables because I hate them.

Thumbs up to fingers being kept warm and a job eventually being done!

Knitting as art (2013 FO #9)

A while ago, I finished my Moderne Log Cabin Baby Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting, one of my favourite knitting books.

The blanket was gorgeous but, lacking any appropriate babies to give it to, I didn't know what to do with it. 

One day, I was looking at the bare walls in my living room (as you do, of course) and inspiration struck. I think my knitting is beautiful. It's modern (or at least moderne) and stylish...the perfect type of art for my house that really represents me. So, why not use a piece of knitting as an artwork?

For this to work, I had to figure out a way to frame the blanket. I decided to mount the blanket on a blank canvas. The first step was to attach the blanket to the frame. To do this, I placed nails along one side...

..at even intervals...

..then used the world's smallest hammer to bash them in to place.

The blanket fit the canvas lengthwise but I had an overhang on either edge of about 7 centimetres, so I folded it over the edge, trying to 'envelope' the excess fabric like you do when wrapping a present.

This is what it looked like from the back. The beauty of hanging the blanket means I don't have to weave in the ends! 

The final step was to hang it...

TaDa!!! 

Very modestly, I think it looks great. 

I now have incontrovertible proof that knitting is art and can be stylish, modern and look really fantastic. I am super chuffed with my knitted piece of art :)

PS: I have been reviewing up a storm over at my book-review blog so pop over and have a look if you're interested in my opinions of bookish things. There have been some very interesting books released recently that I have thoughts on.

Honey Cowl and Amanda Hat (2013 FOs #7 and #8)

Happy weekend, everyone! I hope you had a good one. At my mother's request, we spent Mother's Day at a vodka bar where I got embarrassingly drunk after one cranberry martini - those drinks are strong! Fortunately, as can be expected of any good vodka bar, there was also a selection of excellent Russian food, all of which seemed to be deep-fried, made of potatoes and/or covered in sour cream, so I soon sobered up.

I also finally managed to drag Sam outside to take photos of a project I finished a while ago - my Honey Cowl and Amanda Hat.

I swear, I can't even recognise myself in these photos. In my head I do not look like that...is my forehead usually so pointy?

But anyway, the Honey Cowl is one of those patterns that has been knitted one million times. It is easy (just a simple four-row repeat) and is great mindless knitting. It can be worn as above, hanging unlooped...

..or looped once, for extra warmth.

My favourite way to wear it is double-looped (because I do love to be warm) but I love the cowl's versatility. It's an excellent pattern and deserves its popularity.

Now the hat, on the other hand...

Not so much. I am really lazy with hats - I never swatch or measure, just start knitting. With this hat, I did that and it was coming out huge - like, could have been worn as a jumper huge.

So I frogged it, went down three needles sizes to get stitch gauge, and started again. Only then I couldn't get row gauge, so I had to add extra rows and the hat just doesn't fit me. It sits like a pillbox on my head - tres sexy, no?

Ah, no. I am certain the hat didn't work out due to user error rather than any problem with the pattern but still - not a great finished object.

A one for two success rate is okay but, since I love the scarf so much, I'm designating the whole thing a massive success. Plus I am so very warm right now! A total win :)

My Sisyphusian spiralling scrapbusting baby hat (2013 FO# 6)

Yesterday I told you that even after finishing my very cute Blue Baby Surprise Jacket, I still had a pile of crepe yarn left. It was only 35 grams, but I was not going to put that back in the stash again! But what pattern uses odd bits of yarn that only weigh 5 - 8 grams?  I knew I had to put my thinking hat on ... Then inspiration struck! A hat was the perfect project and I knew exactly what I had to do to make it work.

I took three colours and cast on 24 stitches in each colour. 

Let's call them A, B and C, going from the left.

I then divided the stitches up for magic loop 

(all of A plus 12 of B on needle 1, 12 of B and all of C on needle 2)

Then started to knit as follows.

Round 1: Knit the A stitches with C. Knit the B stitches with A. Knit the C stitches with B.

The stitches are now are divided as follows:

all of C plus 12 of A on needle 1, 12 of A and all of B on needle 2.

Round 2: Knit the A stitches with B. Knit the C stitches with B. Knit the B stitches with A.

Every time one of the colours ran out, I closed my eyes and grabbed another ball at random out of the bag.

I continued with the spiralling pattern until the hat was as long as I thought it should be, then I cast off by decreasing every second row - I decreased every eighth stitch then every seventh then every sixth etc until I had nine stitches left, then I knitted an icord for a few centimetres.

I wish I was a better photographer because this shot does not reflect the total squee-ness of this hat! It's tiny and the rolled brim is so cute. It's pretty teeny so it should fit the same baby as the BSJ.

I suck so bad at photography! You'll have to trust me - it's very cute. It also took me about two hours to knit and used up annoying odds and ends out of my stash - I will definitely be making this hat again! The question is, can an adult get away with a fetching icord finish? Maybe not...

Oh, the cuteness!

Not WIP Wednesday: Blue Baby Surprise Jacket (2013 FO# 5)

Is it Wednesday again already? This week has just flown by in a blur of reading, writing and procrastinating. I honestly feel if all I have done in the last week is chip away rather ineffectively at the endless pile of work I need to do. Such is the nature of research but still! I understand now why postgraduate study is considered so difficult - it's not the work that's hard but rather finding the mental strength to remain motivated and focused at a really long-term goal with few short-term payoffs that people struggle with.

So, in that vein, instead of sharing with you another bunch of unfinished projects, I thought I'd vary my routine and show something that's actually finished.

The Yarn Harlot once said the unseamed Baby Surprise Jacket looked like a knitted manta ray, and it really does! It's crazy to think that with a few short shoulder seams...

..it becomes an actual piece of usable clothing!

I know it's a bit twee but I love using novelty buttons on baby knits. It's not like they're going to complain and it makes me smile.

Of course I remembered to sew a spare button on the inside. 

There's not much that I can say about this jacket that hasn't been said before. One thing I did do (by chance) that looked absolutely fabulous was to use the same colour to cast on and do the first three rows and then the last few rows of the sleeve and the cast-off. When I seamed using that colour, it created a very professional-looking finish to the whole garment.

I'm pretty pleased at using up all of that crepe stash (some of it is over eight years old!). However, once I finished I still had all of this left over:

Argh! Will it never be done? Maybe this crepe is my yarny Sisyphusian task - every time I finish a garment, the wool regenerates and I need to start all over again.

Or maybe not and I've been spending just a bit too much time in the library. Till next time :)