It's Deja Vu All Over Again & 2011 FO# 11

There is one more thing I should have mentioned in this post that I do every year without fail.  No matter how many times I repeatedly tell myself that this year I won't do it, this year will be different, this year will be all about me, on the 1st of October I start making Christmas presents for my nearest and dearest.

I think it's an illness...

This year I am Keeping It Real or, at least as realistic as I can be once the wool fumes go to my head. From top to bottom clockwise in the picture above, there's a pair of socks for my friend Seona, a Daybreak for my sister, a Baby Surprise Jacket for my friend Jess and another pair of socks for Sam's brother.  That is eminently doable, especially when you consider I just borrowed four Hitchcock movies and Season 1 of Dowton Abbey from the library.  Completely doable. See, I've almost convinced myself!

It's pretty sad that I had almost all of the yarn for all of those presents already neatly bagged up in various bins in my house.  I may not have shared this, because I am a really crap blogger, but this year one of my  major goals was to use up my stash.  I don't want a lot of stash - I want to be the kind of person who buys wool only for immediate use.  My (too extensive for me) stash guilts me every time I think of it.  I don't want to die with unused wool or unrealised yarn dreams!  I have bought yarn this year, but all of it was cast on immediately and not added to the stash. The wool I bought today was the black Patonyle in the back, and it's one of those ironic instances where buying more yarn decreases the overall stash.  The grey Patonyle I've had for about three/four years - it's just a nothing colour that I never got excited about.  However, when paired with the black it has the potential to become a modern, classy, classic scarf.  It was hard to be in a yarn store and only buy one thing, but I knew I was doing the right thing.

The Christmas Knitathon 2011 is also contributing to my Growth As A Knitter (a very useful phrase I saw on a blog a few days ago.  I wish I could remember who's blog it was...).  I love the striping of the Opal and I didn't want the heel to screw it up, so I'm doing an afterthought heel for the first time.  Wish me luck!  Although, if it doesn't look very good, these can be Sam's Christmas socks.

How's for impressive though - one pair of socks are already done!  They're Opal Magic colourway 1043, and they're my friend Lisa's Christmas present.  It's my standard 64-stitch top-down heel-flap-and-gusset sock recipe, and the colours are those of her football team.  It's my first completed Christmas present of the year, and I am so excited to be one present down with just under two months to go! Yay me! (too many exclamation points? I suspect so.)

This is what they'll look like wrapped up in their pretty paper.   I hope she likes them!

 Wish me luck with Christmas Knitathon 2012.  I think I'll need it...

Crappy photos and finished socks (2011 FOs #9 & #10)

I mainly read knitting and cooking blogs.  I don't know what it says about me that I'd rather read about what Internet people create and how they do it than what bloggers feel and do...I suspect it just confirms how antisocial and introverted I am! Anyway, with these subject-specific blogs that I read, the good ones improve over time - the photos look better, the writing is more interesting and often the knitting/cooking improves.  This makes sense, because clearly if you do something often you're going to get better at it.

Well, unless you're me.  I've been sharing random thoughts and knitting projects on the Internet for over five years, and look at the best I can do:

I can't even figure out how to make them sit next to each other!  I am the worst blogger ever.

These are two pairs of socks  knitted for my big-footed boyfriend.  The first ones are knitted in Opal Rainforest in Raupe (Caterpillar).  Opal, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways - you're a wonderful hardwearing sock yarn that knits up nicely, tells stories with your colourways and also looks pretty.  You're the bomb. Incidentally, these were his birthday socks that I started knitting while in hospital.  His birthday is in May, I finished them last week...near enough is good enough, right?

The second pair are my annual footy finals pair.  Interestingly, two years ago I struggled to get a pair of short socks finished for Sam in the three weeks between the qualifying and the grand final.  These ones were longer with a deeper heel and I knocked them off in 10 days.  I'm definitely knitting faster, which is good to know.  These socks are knitted with Moda Vera Noir in Laguna that I got from Spotties on sale for $4. Cheapest sock yarn evah!  Not bad but definitely an inferior yarn to the Opal.  It'll be interesting to see how these hold up over time.

As I have mentioned numerous times, Sam has massive feet.  I recently realised that not only are his feet massive, the volume of his heel is huge also.  I don't know how to explain it well - he's got a high instep and his socks always strained around the heel area.  Following the advice of the great Elizabeth Zimmermann, I designed a heel that would accommodate that greater volume.  I knit the heel flap 1.5 times as long as the normal heel flap, which means I pick up more stitches from the side which leads to longer gussets and a better-fitting sock.  However, it uses a crapload more yarn - about 10-15% (maths is not my strong suit). But it's worth the extra sock-knitting for a sock that fits like a dream.

Because even though I suck at photography it doesn't mean I don't care, I broke out the iPhoto special effects:

I try!

It's That Time of Year Again

September in Melbourne signals the same things every year.  The weather gets warmer and, enticed by the clear blue sky and bright crystal sun, people start to turn off the ducted heating and step outside into the daylight.  Football fever takes over the city and perfectly normal people start doing crazy things like wearing football paraphernalia outside of the accepted football arenas and in their everyday life and spending $600 on grand final tickets for two games that their team doesn't even win (well, I don't know how widespread that final instance is, but it was me last year.   Clearly I'm still holding some resentment.) And I cast on Football Finals socks and plant a whole bunch of seeds which I water enthusiastically for about three weeks and then completely neglect until they die.  I'm a sock-knitting plant murderer!

Firstly, the socks.  For the last two years, I cast on for a pair of socks during St Kilda's Qualifying Final and then knit frantically on the pair throughout September, convinced if I didn't finish the socks before the grand final then St Kilda would lose.  Well, in neither year did I finish the socks and in neither year did St Kilda win a grand final.  Draw what conclusions from that information that you will. This year, I broke with tradition and cast on during the Geelong-Hawthorn Qualifying rather than the St Kilda one (I needed to start a new project), and the Saints lost the Qualifying, which is their worst finals results in many years.  Next year, I'm knitting a blanket instead.  Just in case.

Hopefully we'll have lemons...

..coriander and chillies..

..and mint and chillies very soon!

 Melbourne in spring, I heart you!

Resurrected & 2011 FO# 8: Hospital Socks

I started these socks in hospital.  I was bored, woozy and desperately in need of bright and cheerful things.

 The pattern is basically your normal sock with a simple lace panel on either side.  However, and this gives you an indication of how totally whacked out on pain killers I was - I could not even cope with a simple four-row lace pattern.  It was completely incomprehensible to me.  So, the pattern, the yarn and the needles got shoved into a bag and promptly forgotten about (the painkillers made it very easy to forget all sorts of things...).

Fast forward two months later, and I'm at home - bored, cranky and with horrible cold toes.  While unpacking all my bags from the hospital I spy a glaring yellow barely started sock (honestly, it's hard to miss - it's pretty freaking bright) and my prayers for occupation and toe-warming are answered.  One week later I have warm toes, have passed my time pleasantly watching old movies and knitting socks, and am generally all-around feeling much better.

I used my usual 64 stitches on this sock, but the combination of 2.5mm needles (I usually use 2.25mm) and the slightly-thicker-than-normal Jitterbug yarn led to these socks being just a tiny bit too big to wear with shoes.  It suits me though - I'm wearing them as bed/house slippers and I know that when I see their brightness, it's bound to make me feel a little bit happier than I was before.

Pattern: Pillars by Lisa Stichweh (Rav link)
Yarn: One of my favourites - Colinette Jitterbug in Vincent's Apron
Notes/Modifications: Used my own stitch count for the sock, a short-row heel and my own standard toe.

But, as they say in the classics - wait, there's more!  One of the benefits of moving (and there aren't many that I can see) is the chance to go through all your long-forgotten belongings that have been shoved into bags, drawers and boxes, and then forgotten about.   A long time ago (in October 2007, according to Ravelry), I started a mitered square blanket (honestly, I am an awful blogger.  This a major project which involves a huge investment of capital and time, and did I mention starting it? Did I discuss the process? Nope, I just made random mention of squares I was knitting.  Bad me!).  Anyhoo, when moving I found the 38 squares that I had finished for the blanket and realised that I only had 10 squares to go before I could start the seaming.  Admittedly, this did not make me pick up the blanket again, but did make it seem more possible that one day it would eventually be finished.  I stored it in the bottom drawer of the dresser.

Two weeks ago, Sam threw a bit of a tanty because, out of the six drawers in our massive chest of drawers, three and a half are occupied by my clothes and one is full of wool.  To appease him (and because even I can see that situation is not exactly fair) I pulled out the Mitered Square Blanket.  Since the wool and all the squares were out already, I thought it wouldn't do any harm to knit a few more squares.  Wham bam thank you ma'am, eight of the ten squares are finished and I should be ready to start the seaming tomorrow.  There is a chance that this blanket may be finished by October, meaning that it would have only taken a mere four years to finish the blanket.  A perfectly reasonable timeframe! My old knits, resurrected :)

Hospital Blues: 2011 FO #7 Blue Jay Boneyard

On the night I broke my leg, I slipped and immediately know something was very wrong.  We immediately called the ambulance and while we were waiting Sam packed a bag for me.  Bless his lovely soul, in addition to my wallet and mobile phone he packed three knitting projects.  One of them was this:



I knitted this entire shawl in the five days after my operation before I was transferred to rehab.  I can remember precisely nothing of the process at all - zilch.  I must have enjoyed it because I did finish it quickly (for me), but I have no memory of it.





The finished shawl then got lost in the move from hospital from hospital and then apartment to apartment, only to be rediscovered a few weeks ago.  I blocked it, and I now have a brand-new scarf in some of my favourite colours that feels likes a present from me to me!

This yarn was originally going to be socks, but when I was knitting them up I got hardcore pooling of the black part of the yarn which obliterated all the other subtle variations of the yarn. The Boneyard pattern really showcases this particular yarn - it’s a perfect marriage between wool and pattern.

Pattern: Boneyard, by Stephen West
Yarn: My favourite - Colinette Jitterbug, colourway Jay
Notes/Modifications: Because I am short, I modified the pattern so there were six increases every two rows instead of four, meaning I ended up with a shorter, wider shawl. I did this by changing the increases at each side of the shawl to YOs and increasing at the start and end of each row, just like Ishbel.

2011 FO #6: Not another Irish Hiking Scarf

Last October,  my mother-in-law requested a grey cabled scarf.  I bought the yarn immediately, full intending to make it for her for Christmas, but well, life got in the way and I only blocked it last week.


This scarf is nothing exciting - it's a simpled cabled scarf made in a soft yarn in a fairly neutral colour.  It's utilitarian, but it's perfect for its purpose and hopefully will be much-loved by its recipient.

Pattern: Palindrome
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Alpaca in (I think) grey, one full ball.
Notes/Modifications: Added one extra pattern repeat for a wider scarf.

2011 FO #5: Alpaca Abyssal

One of the pleasant side-effects of recuperating from a major illness is massive amounts of time sitting around on my arse.  I'm not fit enough to go back to work yet*, so after I finish the two hours of exercise I have to complete every day my time is my own.  This means lots of time for watching movies, cooking shows and knitting up a storm.

Here's a little something I whipped up last week:

I wanted a scarf that was squooshy and soft and made out of stash yarn (another benefit of not being able to go out when I want is that I can't go to the wool shop whenever I feel like it...this is definitely a good thing!).  I had some gorgeously soft baby alpaca left over from my much-loved and often worn endpaper mitts, and when I saw this shawl last week, I knew what I had to do.




I used the grey as a contrast colour on the feather and fan section to use up as much stash yarn as I could.  I also changed the body of the scarf from stockinette to garter stitch to maximise the squooshiness.

 It was a quick, easy knit that sits perfectly, looks fantastic and makes me feel good about reducing my stash and spending too much time sitting on my arse.

Pattern: Abyssal Shawl
Yarn: Baby alpaca bought in 2007 (!!!)
Notes/modifications: Listed above.

I really love this shawl!

* I would like to go back to work.  I worry that my brain is shrinking a bit from underuse!  But I am taking a glass-half-full approach to my rehab and looking at the sunny side.