the pedestrian knitter

2008-02-21T16:42:00.000+13:00

If only I had a network of cunning, nimble fingered midwest knitters to churn out beauties like these.

2008-02-08T22:38:00.000+13:00

I am a fairly obsessive knitter. I knit at great speed for long spurts and then put down my needles and don't knit for months.

Because of this, I don't often reach the holy grail of knitting, the finished object (FO).

Apparently there are different types of knitters:

Those who knit to learn choose a new project just for the techniques they they will learn, and their finished objects often feature a dizzying array of different stitches/cables/techniques.

Those who knit because they covet will choose a new project simply because they want the finished object. They desire the garment that they see in a magazine or another knitters blog and set out to create their own, and they want it NOW. Unfortunately this motivation sometimes wains, especially in the face of a new technique that is difficult to learn.

I am definitely in the second category and the list of garments I have never knitted because I wanted them finished then and there and was discouraged by the difficult technique that I needed to learn is long.

But the infamous Clapotis I mastered, finished and it is probably my most loved item of clothing. Socks and scarves are about my limit (until I get over my fear of new techniques. When they day comes and I master the Italian Tubular Cast On Eunny Jang's knitting patterns are mine!).

(Disclaimer - this whole post is ironic in the extreme, considering that I taught myself to knit from a book about knitting turkish socks, from the tow up, using five needles - the most unconventional start to knitting I can imagine).

2007-11-01T22:04:00.000+13:00

I have been obessessed with sewing and going back to university lately, but that is no excuse since I haven't added a new post for a year and a half.

Hopefully a new camera and a sock knitting challenge will motivate me to post regularly.

2006-05-10T23:12:00.000+12:00

Does anyone else find it strange that John Malkovich designs knitwear?

2006-04-13T21:41:00.000+12:00

a great sartorialist scarf! Love the pockets

2006-04-05T22:23:00.000+12:00

I've found a new website which I love called The Sartorialist. There are lots of good websites out there interested in fashion forcasting via street wear, but this one is particularly cool. I've always loved the word sartorial too.

Here are some of my favourite knitwear shots on the site. The first one I want to try and knit, it looks so simple, and so much nicer than almost everything in Wrap Style by Interweave Press (I found Scarf Style much more inspiring).

This website has given me many inventive ways to wrap scarves as well. Can you tell I'm hanging out for winter?

2006-01-18T21:07:00.000+13:00

If anyone actually read this, you may never find me again. In a fit of identity crisis I changed the name and URL of my knitting blog.

We have to do radical things sometimes.

This new blog title and location is inspired my brother-in-law and I being obsessed with the word 'pedestrian' - an adjective that can be both a statement of mobility and banality. Not only does this word define my life and knitting practically (in that I don't drive and walk or catch trains everywhere - most of my knitting is done on the train) it also defines my life (and knitting, I guess) ironically - in that I don't feel remotely pedestrian in the ordinary and banal sense of the word.

Of course, sometimes we all want a little ordinary... and that is part of what my knitting is about too - a comfort, a sort of domestic bliss-i-tude than I can cacoon in. Hand knitted socks are for exactly that.

In another convergence of the ppedestrian and the... pedestrian. On my mammoth early morning in the rain journey to work yesterday - which combined three forms of transportation (foot, train, bus) my purple leather last footwear scuffs got rather wet and discoloured, DISCOLOURED!, my most recent FO. Why, or why did I wear brand new socks to work on a rainy day! I don't know if they stains will come out, but on our next day of natural light I will show you the damaged. I didn't even take a photo of them pre-worn, so I can't even offer a before/after montage. They will still be good tramping socks, but it is pretty devestating.

Anyway, let the new, more ideologiclaly intact blog begin. This week on the train I have knitted a swatch and half a sleeve from Michael Kors fitted Aran tee in the latest Vogue Knitting. I think this project will last the distance.

2006-01-02T23:43:00.000+13:00

I'm itching to design my own knitwear at the moment, not that I have much (if any) idea how to do this. It's fun to mess about, and this website shirt snob is great inspiration.

2005-12-03T00:16:00.000+13:00

Glenn Murcutt is speaking to Kim Hill on Radio National tomorrow. My parents just got back from the Catlins. Mum sent me macro photos of cats eyes on the beach and asparagus ferns. Why am I not in New Zealand right now?

Because I cannot buy Anny Blatt Fine Kid in New Zealand. It just goes on forever and ever. One ball is like some constant gossamer minatour thread. Mine is in coral and is going to be a scarf based on the lace pattern used in the Folk Shawls Kimono Shawl. It feels very art nouveau (again). It is long enough now that when I held it up on the train to admire... somewhere between Auburn and Parramatta, I couldn't without it touching the ground. It is going to be my skinny wet summer weather scarf.

And haven't we had a lot of that!

2005-09-19T21:26:00.000+12:00

Have knit a pair of Cascading Leaves socks that are too large for me but very comfortable. I will knit another pair with 2.50 mm needles. Have knit the front and back of Jo Sharp's Nina, but am having issues with the pattern. Do not trust the "knit six rows less than front' instruction. The pattern leaves me with not enough room under the arms. Will knit sleeves and see how much wool I have left over for tinkering.

I am in love with the new knitty. My sister has knit the teddy bear already. Bought 10 balls of teal acrylic/wool blend tape yarn from Lincraft for a few pennies. Have never knitted with anything like it before, and am looking forward to trying it, even though things like that aren't normally my style.

I am obsessed with reading Booker Prize winners at the moment and then knitting literature-inspired garments. Bought a cotton top on the weekend that reminds me of Hana from Michael Ondatje's English Patient, and now need a suitably draping kidsilk haze cardigan to go with it.

2005-04-23T09:38:00.000+12:00

I stewed about knitting a Delphine inspired item for a while, and became obsessed with travelling cables, but have now decided to put that little gem aside, to come back to when I know a little more about sweater design. It's a bit too much of a daunting project at the moment.

Still, my new love of cables had me knitting a Shedir. I almost made it to the decreases and ran out of yarn, but my love for this cable pattern, and my new obsession with cotton had me knitting a whole jersey in the Shedir cable before I knew it.

It is quite unlike anything I have ever knitted before. I am using denim cotton, and am unsure how the cable pattern will wear. Will the colour leach away from the raised cable stitches first or will the whole thing wear evenly? I am hoping for a nice deconstructed celtic look. The cables look absolutely beautiful in early morning or late afternoon sunshine, but tend to receed at some other times, so I am still unsure of the impact that the finished jersey will have, but I think the columns of cables will stand out pretty well.

I am knitting it on a circular and am up to the armpits. I have put it aside while I think about the sleeves and decreases. I am thinking raglan, with a scoop neck, but need to decide if I want to incorporate a new cable pattern or just continue with my very-straight,-getting-kind-of-boring-columns.

In the meantime I am knitting this.

Interlocking Balloons from the Interweave Scarf book, which fell through my hands at work. One of the great things about working in a library is you get to put your hands on all the nice shiny new books before anyone else does.

The scarf is being knit in two balls of Felted Tweed in Herb that my sister brought over with her from New Zealand. The photo does not capture the eautiful tweedy blue black and white flecks nearly well enough, or the beautiful drape of the knitted fabric. To me it is not 'interlocking ballons', it is all post-William Morris reeds and chinese lanterns.

The scarf is supposed to be 10 pattern repeats, but these two balls will only yield me 8. I need to acquire myself one more ball.

Still stewing about the Delphine thing a little, she has a new autumn/winter 2005-2006 collection out, which has seriously turned my head. I know I can't stay away from this idea for long.

2005-02-23T22:50:00.000+13:00

I can't stand it. I HAVE to attempt to knit this jersey.

I have never been so obsessed with a garment in my life. The fact that I have only ever knit anything with cables twice before in my life, and have never made a raglan before, let alone anything this 'deconstructed' is not going to stop me.

I have a schematic worked out, and am playing around with wool at the moment.

I am in love.

2005-02-21T19:40:00.000+13:00

Things I have knit since my last post two months ago.

One and a half duck bootees from '50 baby bootees to knit'.

One grass green and navy glove with a Dalsborg pattern around the hand. This was hard fair isle to do because there are such long carries, even carrying it behind my stitches, I ended up with very loose stitches at the edges of the colour patttern. I am quite pleased with it, because it was my first time knitting a glove, and it came out looking pretty good and fitting nicely. I fudged the thumb, but can re-do it easy enough.

80% of the Zimmerman sweater in Lana Grossa I was talking about in November, just above the armpits I ran out of wool. Actually, I stopped, because I had less than a ball left and wanted to save that for the neck if I decided to salvage the sweater by doing a different coloured yoke.

This sweater is now sitting sadly in the spare room (quickly becoming my fiber room - don't they always?) until I decide what I want to do with the wool, if I decide not to try and rescue the project. Ideas include voodoo wrist warmers, a shrug, a scoop neck vest like the black one Julia Roberts wears in Closer, or something like the torso of this Delphine Wilson jersey, which I simply adore.

One and a half deep red cable socks.

Knitting and talking is something that distracts me mightily. Talking while knitting the second, I managed to start doing cable rounds every three instead of four rounds. Probably no one else can notice that the cables are a little tighter and smaller, but it does make it harder to measure the length of the second sock against the first (I was going to count the number of cables to the heel flap and reproduce, but now will have to go on length. I am one of those knitters who hates measuring thngs with a tape measure. I know, I know, this way lies tears.

Still, I think they will be beautiful socks when finished. I want to wear the first one while I knit the second one. this is only my second attempt at knitting cables, and my first attempt at knitting them as part of a garment, rather than just 'swatching it up'. I now understand why you often do a four stitch cable, two purl stitches, four plain stiches, two purl and repeat. So that you get those nice lines of plain rib alternating with cable. The way I have knitted them (all cable columns), they look a bit bare when the sock is on the foot and the knitting is more stretched out.

Still, I learned a lot.

2004-12-11T01:56:00.000+13:00

I knit this pair of socks with one needle that was two thirds the length of the others, with one broken end. It was the needle I snapped before a job interview on the last pair of socks I knitted.

Today, finishing off the heel of the first sock (in truth, a stitch holder still holds the stitches for the second heel, it will have to wait for reinforcements, ie a trip to my lys tomorrow) the same needle snapped again, one third of the way along. I think it was all the decreasing that did it. Doing the heels on Turkish socks always makes me kind of tense).

Anyway, that is my way of saying that even though I am not entirely happy with these socks, I am proud of the endurance, innovation, can do attitude, pioneering spirit, no. 8 wire? bricolage? I demonstrated knitting these socks.

I'm not too happy with the colour scheme, the colours are too similar and there is very little contrast, but they were the only colours of sock yarn I had available to me. I love the blue heather colour, so I hope that it wasn't a waste.

They will probably grown on me.

2004-12-08T01:21:00.000+13:00

new knitty!

Now I can't EVER go to bed.

2004-12-04T20:52:00.001+13:00

I am sick of these socks, and I still have one and a heel to go. I save my heels till last, because otherwise I am risk of doing them differently. My knitting memory isn't longer than about 5 days. I'm lucky I did the toe increases the same way on the second sock.

I am disturbed to notice that my stitch holder is OPEN, and may have been swimming around in my satchel like that for quite some time. Horror!

Another annoying thing is that I have developed a blister on the index finger of my left hand. These bamboo needles are just too pointy. Bet you didn't know there could be such a thing.

The Lana Grossa sweater is 20cm along, which means that I am almost up to dividing my work for the front and back. I will try and find time to document my first attempt at raglan decreases.

In non knitting news, I got a haircut. Now I can wear knitted hats as they were meant to be worn, without the lump of a pony tail messing with all that symmetry.

From this :

To this :

uber chic.

2004-11-28T23:41:00.000+13:00

I am still having trouble with gauges and zimmerman sweaters. No matter how many times I knit a swatch and then count the stitches, divide by four, then multiply by my bust, the number of stitches always comes out way too much. What is up with this?

Finally, in a desperate attempt to making something lovely with some Lana Grossa I have, I just took 30 stitches off the 188 I was supposed to have and cast on. This is now the beginning of what I think will be a beautiful (raglan?) sweater.

I have never loved k2 p2 rib so much in my life. I want more of this wall, I bought it for $1.50/ball at Lincraft. I hope they have more.

Here is a close up of the wool, it's Lana Grossa Mylord in a beautiful grey with green slub and beautiful flecks of every other bright colour imaginable. It's going to make my finished object look like a homespun sweater that collided with a kindergarden painting.

2004-11-24T15:22:00.000+13:00

Turkish ladies on the train and in Auburn keep exclaiming over my socks, because I'm knitting them the Turkish way, toe-up on four needles, knitting with the fifth. They then question me over my ethnic heritage and find that in fact I am very boring and simply taught myself from a book.

They also comment on my colours and advise me to use more contrasting colours for the pattern next time, but say my knitting is very nice!

I know the colours aren't perfect. The pair I'm making at the moment are the same colours as the pair in the entry below, but I'm using a bead motif instead of chimney grate, and the background is blue and the motif grey. It doesn't stand out very well, but you could also say that it is subtle. I don't know, I'm undecided.

Needless to say, I need to buy sock wool. Knitting these, I keep longing for some red. I keep wanting to just knit a central motif in red, to help bring out the rest of the pattern. Maybe I can stich over the top with a embroidery needle when I'm finished.

2004-11-21T01:47:00.000+13:00

I taught myself to cable this week!

I don't do things by halves, my learning project was Jenna's Durrow Cable. I'm quite pleased with the result. Here it is.

It's pretty neat for a first attempt, but I'm sure further attempts will be even better. Needless to say, I am dreaming of celtic cabled jerseys. And Georgie, by Sarah Dallas of course. An easy cable ;)

Here, also, is a photo of the socks that I finished knitting long enough ago that they are already in New Zealand on the feet of their recipient, while she lounges around and watches the cricket. I would have taken a photo with them on an actual foot (Turkish socks look so strange until you actually see them three-dimensionally), but my friend Amy has much larger feet than me, and they would have just looked silly.

They were knit on Tulip 2.25mm bamboo dps with St Ives sock wool that my Mother brought back with her from Sussex.
The motif is called 'chimney grate' and was from a fantastic book I found in my library on traditional Anatolian sock knitting.

Now I don't know what to knit next. I want to knit Blaze, and several designs from Vintage Style, but have no money, which means I just have to eat my way through my stash, which means more socks, mittens and hats.

2004-11-14T20:24:00.000+13:00

I am having a knitting slump which I think can only be improved by luxurious wool. Felted Tweed or Kidsilk Haze or something with alpaca or cashmere in it.

I tried Thandi again, with smaller needles and smoother mohair, and it looked really nice, was much easier on my hands etc... but I can never finish up the pattern repeat where I should at the end of the row. Knitting lace is hard. You can't really look back and see where you made a mistake.

2004-11-13T01:08:00.000+13:00

I tried knitting Thandi from Jo Sharp's Gathering book tonight. I know you can't knit a scarf in one night, I worded it that way because I tried and failed.

I mastered the YO (yarn over) and the lace was coming out all nice and tree-ish, but the mohair I was using, teamed with the slipperyness of my bamboo needles, has left my fingers wirsts and forearms sore, in my left arm especially. So I frogged and put the mohair away to make ethereal mittens out of another day.

I think I am destined to knit for the rest of my life with circulars and dpns. Everytime I try and knit something with normal straight needles, my hands go all gnarled.

Still, the good news is that I taught myself how to knit cables on the way home on the train tonight. I have adapted a sock pattern from A Passion For Knitting so that I can knit it with heirloom sock yarn, and have just finished making a pair of socks in a navy heather for my Grandmama, I love them, I want to keep them for myself because they fit so perfectly and sleekly if you know what I mean.

My extended 60 stitch version used exactly one and a half balls of the argyle wool, which means I have exactly one and a half left to make a pair for myself. Yay. I really do want to try making a pair of cable socks though.

Down with tree stumps! Long live dpns!

2004-10-23T01:58:00.000+13:00

I had a job interview on Thursday, and I must have been a little tense because I snapped one of my brand new tulip 2.25 mm bamboo needles. I couldn't believe it when I felt the snap, I was in denial. They had become a little bendy and warped, but I never thought I would actually snap one. I must have been exerting just a little too much pre-interview pressure.

Still, I got the job!

Start Monday. Also, my trip into the city afforded me the chance to go to Tapestry Craft again, only to find that they have 30% off all WOOL! I was completely unprepared. Now I know why people carry stash wishlists around in their purses. Oh, if only I'd known how many balls of cashmiro I wanted and in what colour. The sale is on for the next three weeks, so I will have a chance to go back and add to the Argyle sock wool I bought for about $4.50 a ball.

I'm still trying to knit with the needle I broke (it only snapped about a quarter into the needle), that's truly obsessed knitting for you. Not quite as bad as Elizabeth Zimmerman sharpening the blunt ends of her needles against rocks on an island once when she wanted dpn's, but still! If only I knit normal socks that you only need four needles for, but not, I have to be fancy and use five. For the symmetry. Still, I'm one and a half birthday socks down... and should finish the second one this weekend. Than I can put those beautiful needles away and practice de-stressing.

I will post photos too, they are beautiful. A turkish motif called 'chimney grate' from an old Anatolian knitting book, but the grey and blue St Ives I am using makes the socks look positively Elizabethan,

2004-10-19T01:20:00.000+13:00

I have always been a toe-up sock girl. But in the lat two days I have knit my first top-down sock. It's far from perfect, but I am fascinated by the process and excited at the possibilities.

Things I learned while making this sock :

I don't really like Heirloom wool, not the normal stuff anyway. It's too stiff and wiry and splits really easily and looks incredibly messy when I do split the stitches. I'll have to wait and see what I think of the argyle sock wool they make.

I have been doing ssk wrong for a whole year! I was slipping stitches as if I was just moving them around on the needles, instead of slipping them as if I was going to make a stitch, and then using the virgin needle (if you know what I mean, the one that didn't have newly knit stitches from that round on it) through the back of those two stitches to make a stitch. Idiocy! Now when I do a ssk it looks beautiful and neat, just like its opposite slanting counterpart, the knit 2 together. They just looked messy before, this didn't really matter when I was making Turkish socks, but it really showed on the decreases on the toe of this sock and I started to question mysef, and problem solved until I fixed the problem and came to true enlightenment.

I get stiff fingers and a painful little finger when I do too much ribbing.

Things I don't like about this sock that I would like to improve upon :

I would like the heel flap to be longer. 2 1/4 inches was just shy of what I needed to make 16 stitches up the sides, plus it would just look nicer!

I would like the foot to be just a little longer, as it is the heel keeps sliding down my foot just a little.

I would like to knit a few rounds of stocking stich before starting the heel flap, the ribbing just seems to go down too low.

Alternatively, I would like to cable rib instead, and then continue those cables all the way down the front of the sock to the toe.

Anyway, it was a good learning process, and I think I could become quite used to knitting plain old top down socks. I am enjoying just working in one colour for a change, and they knit up very quickly.

Also, I am very excited to report that my Husband (who has spurned my offers to knit for him, apart from a luxurious black, chunky man-ly-ribbed soft-as-soft scarf and a disasterous attempt at a skullcap, which I have not offered to improve upon) has said he would wear socks like these if I knitted them for him. Hooray. There's nothing like knitting for people you love, and I knew he's never wear Turkish socks if I made him some. But these in black? Definitely.

2004-10-07T01:38:00.000+13:00

Hooray for new knitty! I am particularly taken with Blaze, a clingy aran style off the shoulder top knit in the round. Yum.

When my parents were visiting the other week I went into Tapestry Craft in the city and found the needles I never wish to be parted from. Bamboo 2.25mm dpns, courtesy of Tulip. Japanese, flexible, smooth between my fingers. Did I mention the flex? I love them. Needless to say I have been knitting more socks, and now have smaller needles with which to do my ribbing.

Hs anyone knit with Heirloom Argyle? I think it miht become my sock wool of choice.

I am busy busy at the moment working in a Special Library of the TESOL persuasion, so most of my knitting has been on the train and I have had little time for online yarn yearning.

2004-09-11T19:36:00.000+12:00

So I'm back to socks. I knew I couldn't stay away for long. I started these the other day with the homespun I was whining about, and green and grey Sunbeam St Ives sock yarn. I love the St Ives yarn and want heaps more of it. Unfortunately I bought it back in New Zealand, so will have to hunt down a local source.

I have an ingenious plan. I knit in green at home and in grey on the train to and from work. This kind of colour variation works really well on these komi patterns, but the thing I really really love about the komi patterns is how little you have to think. Almost every second row is three of each colour, and the colour blocks are always in odd numbers of stitches, 1, 3, or 5. It makes it so easy to just knit, without stressing over the pattern. Plus, even though it's russian, it actually ends up looking quite celtic, especially in this pretty green.

2004-09-07T01:14:00.000+12:00

Hmm, I followed Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage instructions to the letter by counting even quarter stitches when calculating my gauge, but after I had knit about twenty rows, I discovered that my sweater was going to be about 20 stitches too big. So I frogged it and put away the homespun, to dream about another day.

I wonder if it's just because I'm still getting used to circular needles and once I got into the rhythym I loosed up and was actually knitting larger than my gauge. Or maybe I was not careful enough measuring my favourite jersey for fit.

Still, I like the idea of hemming a seamless jersey by picking up the stitches from the bottom (10% less) and knitting a little hem and basting it to the inside. I like the fact that you can knit letters into the hem, hidden but still there. There are a million lines from The Lady's Not For Burning I want to hem in, just thinking about it.

2004-09-06T13:39:00.000+12:00

I have some nice homespun wool, it knits up to about 26 sts/10 cm on 3mm needles. I can't decide whether to try knitting the short-sleeved fairisle sweater from Sarah Dallas's vintage knits, or if I should try knitting an Elizabeth Zimmerman yoke sweater. I may be about to make the fatal mistake of starting a project I don't have enough wool for. I would have enough wool for the vintage sweater, but would need to buy the other colors for the fairisle motif. I probably won't have enough for an Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater, but would have enough for a vest. It's such nice wool, I want to make something really nice with it, but I on't want to waste it.

Also, I am getting sick of knitting socks.

2004-09-05T20:07:00.000+12:00

I am having issues with my socks. Every pair of turkish socks that I have knitted, the top is never quite right.

If I rib, the ribbing folds/droops down in the middle because of the natural curl of the knitted fabric.
If I corrugated iron rib (alternating colours) there is not enough stretch and the socks are too hard to get over the heel when you are putting them on.
If I use the traditional braid stich, they are too tight, not enough stretch.
If I cheat and just do the final step in the traditional braid stitch (binding off in alternating colours) it curls over.

What can I do to fix this. Blocking doesn't seem to do any good, what about elastic.
Does anyone else have this problem?

Also, I have discovered ebay. Do any australians out there buy knitting supplies off ebay? I could become addicted.

2004-09-03T20:02:00.000+12:00

The last two months, all of my knitting needles apart from my beloved dpn's, my wool and my books and patterns have been floating in a container in the Tasman Straight. They arrived on Monday, so now I have lots and lots of knitting inspiration.

In the meantime, I have been knitting more socks. A green and grey turkish pair for myself, and various other pairs for others.

Here are the ones I made for myself.

I love the curlicules in this motif from Anna Ziilborg's Fancy Feet book. I had to cut off the edges in order to make them the right size, but they still look good. The thing I love about these turkish-style socks is the ingenious way the little heel is made, and the way in which it fits so well. There is something very satisfying finishing knitting a sock with a heel.

To supplement my turkish and komi knitting skills... I have picked up a very old book of anatolian sock motifs from the library where I work, which is in a community with a large Turkish population. It is called Anatolian Knitting Designs, by Betsy Harrall, and is published by a Turkish press called Redhouse. While Fancy Feet has beautiful photos and colour inspiration, plus practical written instructions, this book has many little motifs, with their Enlgish and Turkish names, and suggestions for the ways in which they can be used together, horizontally and vertically, which lets you use the motifs in socks of many different sizes, without having to change your guage. It's much more varied than Fancy Feet, and I suspect may be a book Anna Ziilborg owns.

My struggle when it comes to knitting these socks is choosing colours. I tend to like a neutral background with a coloured pattern, but that can be boring. I feel like I need to mix it up a bit. Does anyone have any good colour combos that they use?

2004-07-29T22:34:00.000+12:00

I am addicted to demin wool.. I have some Elle denim with the same gauge as this, I wonder if they changed its name.

I love the white pullover.

Q6234 True Blue - High Welt Pullover and TunicElle True BlueBoth tunic and pullover have deep thick rib at the cuff and welt, as well as shaped sleeves and armholes. The tunic has a pretty eyelet stitch detail at the top of the ribbing and at on the round neck. The neckline itself is finished off with crochet. The pullover has a v-neck with garter stitch stripes over its shoulders.

2004-06-20T21:21:00.000+12:00
I am obsessed at the moment with the idea of knitting a side button sweater. You know, a raglan sweater with buttons up one side seam. I can even imagine it being in a girly pastel colour. Why did freshbakedgoods not put a pattern for that sweater in Stitch n Bitch. I don't really want a cardigan. I want sexy up the shoulder buttons.

My mother says she will buy me wool for my birthday. This puts me under a lot of pressure to find the perfect project with the perfect wool. I am about to hit the online wool stores. This can only end in complete fibre obsession.

2004-06-17T20:57:00.000+12:00
I borrowed the marvelous Stitch n' Bitch from the library a couple of weeks back, and am now addicted to making devil and kitty hats. I'm using New Zealand Aran Merino, and it knits up just beautifully. It is the first time I have actually chosen a wool and needles with the gauge I am supposed to use, and I am beginning to understand what a difference it makes. It is so nice not having to worry about size, you can just focus on the knitting and be confident that it will fit at the end.

Here is my first Stitch n. Bitch finished object, completed for a friend over the first weekend in June.

I am still making Turkish socks. Here is the pair I made for my mother for Mothers Day.

And the pair I am making for myself... my easy watching tv or waiting around project, because I only tend to knit ten rows at a time.

2004-04-19T14:32:00.000+12:00
Well, I spent the weekend knitting up 2 ply Checkheaton wool crepe into some Komi inspired socks for my Mother for Mother's Day. They are such beautiful psuedo-slippers that I just want to keep them for myself and wear them around the house.

I'm really pleased with the Checkheaton wool, which I bought at Spotlight. It knits to perfect foot size with about 35-8 stitches across the foot. The pattern was for mittens but turned out so large with this wool and my smaller dpns that I just decided to make socks instead. The beauty of knitting from the toe/fingers up.

I think I have also just comprehended knitting small circular circumferences with two circular needles. It needed to percolate for several months in my head before I could even comprehend. But I think I have it now.

2004-04-16T11:04:00.000+12:00
I am currently making gloves, from the fingertip down, ala the thumbs on Anna Zilboorgs mittens. I don't know exactly how I am going to graft the fingers together, except that I think I will do a double bind-off of the two centre inside stiches on each side, and pop the rest onto four needles going round and round, like you would knitting a mitten after you had grafted on the thumb.

We'll see if it works. I have a book on knitting fair isle gloves at home, I should probably read that, but what good is it being an anarchistic knitter if you slavishly follow a pattern?

The reason I moved from mittens to gloves is because I have some left over jacquard style wool in a nice colourway, but I hate it when the colour changes mid-row. I decided that each colour in the rainbow is long enough to knit around one row of a mitten thumb, and then thought, what about rainbow fingers. So I'm knitting 10 fingers, each 12-stitches around.

I will take photos this weekend and post them. I will also post photos of the beautiful voodoo wristwarmers from knitty that I made in the mutlicoloured wool. They are beautiful in their ribbed multi-colour confetti goodness.

2004-04-06T19:37:00.000+12:00
Now I really want to knit Rosa. According to the knitting garden I only need 4 balls of 4 ply cotton in flirty to make the xs size. I can afford that!

And 4,000 beads!

I really want to just use another colour yarn instead of the beads.

2004-04-06T17:36:00.000+12:00
I love the little kimono Karen made here. Perfect for a new baby my friends have just had. I think the pattern is from Quick baby knits : over 25 designs for 0-3 year olds / Debbie Bliss, which I would have to interloan from another library in New Zealand. But still, it's worth it.

2004-03-31T11:16:00.000+12:00
I've started knitting at work! Only before work and on lunch and breaks though. It's actually great, because I can knit up a thumb in a morning tea break. Thumbs are the perfect size. And it's so nice being able to sit in the sun and knit. We have the sunniest tea-room in the entire world. Knitting is also so restful. I think I will keep some wool and a set of dpn's here so I can have a work pair of mittens and a home pair. I'll save the fancy ones for work though, because there is better light.

I am also completely converted to knitting the thumbs before I start on the mitten proper. It's so nice to just have them out of the way, plus it's a really good way to test your gauge before you really get started.

2004-03-29T12:23:00.000+12:00
Okay. Here's another one I really like. Posy, from Rowan 35. Knitted in 4 ply cotton.

.

But then there's Rosa, from the same magazine, which I think is my ultimate favourite. Also in 4 ply cotton.

3 mm kneedles, and 28 stiches per 10cm. Maybe in 130 Ardour?

2004-03-29T12:12:00.000+12:00
Now that I've knitted a couple of pairs of mittens, I'm hungering for a larger project. I like this cardigan from Rowan 32 called Georgie. Especially the tie at the neck. I'm really into things that I could wear with my beautiful cordoroy skirt at the moment.

I think I would try and buy Rowan soft to knit it. I like this colour... expresso. (389) I need to buy some 3.25 mm kneedles and practice knitting 28 stiches per 10cm.

I'm a big fan of Sarah Dallas's designs. I really want her vintage knit book.

2004-03-29T12:03:00.000+12:00
I knitted another pair of mittens this weekend. I used 8 ply New Zealand Merino in cream, and this beautiful mohair that I like to call peacock, because it goes from purple to green and back again. They came up very fluffy. I tried corrugated ribbing for the wrists, and my sister (who I knitted the mittens for) likes it, but I feel a bit funny about it, because the fingertips of the mittens are so white, that I feel it should be reflected in the wrist. Also, when I bound it off, it became very tight, with no elasticity. I guess because you are using two colours it doesn't have as much stretch. SO I am going to propose that if I ever use corrugated ribbing again, I will bind it off in one colour, not two. Or jst do it looser. We'll see.

I didn't like knitting the merino up much, it kept twisting, and my stiches didn't seem to stay that regular. I hate to say it, but I much prefer using machine-washable treated wool for knitting mittens. Which I guess is practical in a way.

I went and bought some neutral balls at Spotlight yesterday afternoon, so that I have a good stach of background colours for mittens. I bought two in five ply, which I think is the optimum ply for making mittens that are 25 stickes across after decreasing the band. But the colour I really liked was grey, and they only had it in eight ply. I tried knitting a thumb in it last night, and it was far too large, but I think if I use my smaller dpn's and the navy mohair I've been saving, they will come out perfectly. I have been craving mittens for myself, after having made pairs for friends and siblings. And the weather is getting very cold. I also like the idea of knitting socks, because if I knit socks, I can wear them while I knit other things.

2004-03-26T12:12:00.000+12:00
I actually finished, as in completed my first knitting project in a long while last night. Beautiful magenta and grey mittens in an estonian goats eye motif. The pattern was from Anna Zilborg's mitten book, but I used the beginner's mitten increasing, because I like the more rounded finish on the fingers. I was so happy I put them on and danced around doing a little mime dance. Now I need to begin another pair. I am buying wool after work.