Roadtripping: T minus 1

Last Tuesday, I left Melbourne on a roadtrip to Sydney. I was super excited because it is my first holiday of the year and I had reached that point where my mind was starting to go a bit melty. When you can't remember how to operate a cheese grater (hold, move cheese), then it's time to take a break!

As a knitter, one of the most important things to plan for any journey is which project and how many projects to take. I knew I'd be in a car for at least 20 hours so I wanted to take something relatively involved but without any loose needles. I knew the perfect project - a Serenity in the Bendy Cotton I bought a few weeks ago.

I  knew I had to get past the stage with DPNs (too much chance of dropping one while driving and being stuck without knitting until the next rest stop) so I cast on a week before I left to give me enough time to get to the circular needles. All was going smashingly until I started transferring the stitches to the circular and saw this:

A big hole where I'd messed up the increases. Because of the cabling that was in the middle of the lace, it was just too hard for me to fix and I almost cried as I unwound hours of work to get back to a mistake-free row.

So much smaller! But (luckily), still big enough to STREEETTTCCCHHHH around the circular needle and, shortly after this photo was taken, the blanket was packed up with its pattern, spare stitch markers and healthy travel-appropriate snacks and on its way to Sydney. 

Roadtrip!!

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!

More baby hats! (2013 FOs #10 & #11)

Today I returned books to my local library that were two weeks overdue. This might not seem like a big deal but it is totally out of character for me. I am the kind of person who checks online records daily and puts reminders in her phone so she doesn't forget due dates. In part, it's because I'd much rather use the money for wool or wine than late fees but mainly it's because of my inner drill sergeant - you know, the one lives in my psyche and is  always yelling at me, telling me to get up, be on time, leave ten minutes early to allow for traffic and parking delays - you know, that voice.

Lately, however, there has been a softer, more seductive voice whispering in my ear. Don't go swimming, this voice purrs, it's much too cold. You've sneezed twice today - you'd better work from home in your yoga pants while drinking tea and sitting very close to the heater. This voice tempts me with warmth and comfort and doesn't care about deadlines or staying healthy. It wants me to be warm and comfortable all the time and I have been powerless to resist its temptation. Hence, no new knitting projects, no blog posts and the requirement to switch from buttoned to elastic-waisted pants...

But I'm back! I am not going to give in to my inner winter sloth and emerge blinking into the springtime sunlight five kilos heavier and totally unused to human contact. I will resist!!  As much as I can, anyway - if humans were meant to go outside in the cold, we would have been covered in fur like cats.

Seriously.

In other news

I finished these a while ago but never got around to taking photos. Inspired by my Sisyphian spiralling baby hat, I went through my stash and found some other leftover hanks of 4-ply wool that were too small to make anything other than these adorable baby hats.

First up was this one made with less than 20g of Patonyle - 84 stitches on 3.75mm needles. It's really nice and soft and I think will work well as a hat but the fabric, while super-comfortable for baby-wearing, was too loose for the brim to roll properly, which was a bit disappointing. 

But this one was a massive success!

I used a 20g Waratah Fibres hand dyed pure wool 4-ply sample I got from a Ewe Beaut fibre sample box (It looks like they're not active anymore. That's sad - the box was heaps of fun and a great opportunity to find new vendors, new yarns and new dyers.) The label doesn't say what the colourway is but it didn't look very appealing in the skein. However, the finished hat is totally adorable! The pink and yellow and blue work really well together in a way I did not expect, resulting in a completely squee-worthy hat.

I think these woolly hats warm will result in some warm and stylishly attired babies :)