Lynne Johnson workshop

Yesterday I attended a full day workshop with the very talented and inspiring Lynne Johnson
called "Feral and Odd Ball Knitting". Lynne is writing a book so it's not fair to publish pictures of her finished work but here is an appetiser! There are three articles shown in this photo: a vest in autumn tonings in the background, a red and black shawl in the foreground and a small part of an article in super garter stitch in the middle right.

Lynne taught us super garter stitch: here is a small sample of her work.

Here I am concentrating on my multicoloured knitting It was so nice to knit with wool again, it has a very different feel to acrylic. However, I'm not too impressed with my sample so I probably won't continue with it. Anyway, at the moment I am determined not to cast on for any new projects until I have completed the list in my sidebar!

You can find more pictures on our knitters' group blog.

Update: This last link has been amended - thanks Stacy for pointing out my error lapse of concentration! :-)

A new selvage treatment

Instead of doing a swatch for the jumper mentioned in a previous blog or finishing my cardigan (which I need to complete by February 28), I've been working on my second Diamond Wrap. You know how it is - the finish line is in sight so you knit and knit and knit! :-)

This wrap needs two side panels to make it the correct width. Each panel is four and a half inches wide and 70 inches long. I was going to make them complicated, following my diamond theme, perhaps with shadow knitted diamonds but I was tired and decided to go for a simple treatment - four row stripes in two colours. I have now knitted 264 rows of the 606 required for the first panel - and I wish I'd taken the more complicated path! The striping is so monotonous to knit, although it looks just as I had planned. The only saving grace is I learnt a new selvage from Vogue Knitting (1989, p.194). It's called 'chain stitch selvage' and is used on garter stitch as follows:

With the yarn in front, slip the first stitch purlwise, with the yarn in back, knit to the end. Repeat this row.

My tension is a little uneven, but this gives a lovely finished edge, very different from the bumps one usually gets at the end of each knit row. I think it's perfect since this will be the raw edge of the wrap.

Here are the photos - right side and wrong side: isn't it a neat finish?

Edited 28 Feb to include photos.

I've got an idea!

While visiting Scarlet Purls blog, I read that she had knit a shawl for her friend because her friend found it cold sitting in front of the computer.

It's summer here so cold is far from my mind, but I was reminded that in winter, no matter what I'm wearing, my knees get cold when I'm in front of the computer.

Remember the sad saga of the frogged-knitted-frogged-knitted-frogged 80s cotton sweater? A knee rug (lapghan) is a good solution for that yarn. I can mix it with the Panda Regal Cotton I bought (before Stashalong), knit it on larger needles (perhaps in a lace pattern) and the 20+ year old yarn will have a new lease of life!

I'm really keen to try lace, especially when I look at the work of people like Anna and Monica at our knitters' group.

Watch this space!

I'M FINISHED!!

I was too polite to shout on Stashalong or February is for Finishing, but this is my blog and I'll shout if I want to! (apologies to Wally Gold, John Gluck, and Herb Weiner)

I finished the Patches Wrap (afghan) by sewing in over 2200 ends. I counted to 2200 but the end was in sight and I wasn't wasting any more time counting! 2200 was close enough!

Presenting ... Patches Wrap (ta-dah!)

The photo doesn't do it justice, the purple patches stand out but the subtle gradings of colour (that's how we spell it in Oz) don't show, so here is a close up.
It's a loose diagonal knit (or I'm a loose knitter) done on 3.25 needles (US 3) using 4ply (sports) baby yarn, mostly nylon but some acrylic and some wool. The idea was to use up oddballs left over from other projects - the tan patch in the centre (top photo) was from a jumper (sweater) my mother made my daughter about 18 years ago (the jumper is long gone). The variegated yellow/white (above photo, bottom right) was left over from the first baby article I ever knitted, it was for my nephew who is now "twenty something" and a father himself. But these are new yarns compared to one of the blues which I inherited from my grandmother; I assume she used it to knit for my brother and he is now in his mid-forties! There is so much history in this wrap that I wonder if I can really give it away.

Anyway, as I was saying, the idea was to use up odd-balls, but, as is often the case, the project needed more yarn than I had so I bought more; now I have nearly as many oddballs left as when I started! No wonder the Good Book tells us to count the cost before beginning.

And, finally, here is a photo to give it scale: teddy is 13 inches tall, so you can see how many patches there are.
Teddy is my second finished project this past weekend - and my fourth for 2007! Woo-hoo, I'm on a roll!

Teddy's off to join his family and I'm off to my next WIP
- a cable jumper in 8 ply (worsted; DK) wool which I started a few years ago.
I didn't have enough yarn to finish the project (this has never happened to me before); while I waited for more yarn to arrive by mail order from Bendigo Woollen Mill I started something else and lost interest in the jumper. Now, I have to swatch again to determine what size needles I was using. Ah well, at least the stitch count is easy!

Still knitting - still finishing!

After a southerly change last weekend, the weather has cooled slightly but the temperature is slowly increasing again. The humidity - yuk! We had some much needed rain on Monday; so much that my class was cancelled because the women wouldn't be able to move between the classroom and the creche! It was the most torrential rain I have seen in many months. Come to think of it, it is one of the rare occasions of any rain I have seen in months!

The cancelled class gave me some "free" time which I used on my Patches Wrap for February is for Finishing. So far I have sewn in over 1600 ends - 100 for every day of February plus some extras because of my 'free' time! This picture shows just a small part of the wrap/afghan, multiply by 100 and you get the idea! To give you some idea of scale, the picture shows a section about 6 inches x 4.5 inches.

On the knitting front, I have been working on Diamond Wrap #2 and Small Diamond Wrap. Diamond Wrap #2 is about 70% finished and so is becoming very heavy and too hot to sit under in the hottest month of the year. Small Diamond Wrap is made up of 5 inch squares knit on the diagonal - much easier to manage in the heat and humidity. So far I have succeeded in sewing groups of four squares together as I finish them rather than have 112 squares to sew together at the end! Happily, I can report that I have now have 20 squares sewn together.

I have also been listening to podcasts. I particularly enjoy Australian knitter David Reidy of Sticks and Strings; in the past few weeks I have listened to all his podcasts. David attends meetings of the knitting group to which I belong - the Blue Mountains Group of the Knitters Guild NSW. I am slowly working my way through the archives of American knitter living in Wales, Brenda Dayne of Cast-On. In Episode #44 she mentioned the KAL I joined at the beginning of the year - Stashalong.

Speaking of Stashalong, so far I have managed to buy only yarn that I need to complete current projects. I went to my local department store on Monday, and found that 100g acrylic had gone up from $2.98 a skein to $3.12; it seemed like a big increase but it's less than 5% so I guess we can't really complain! Still, I'm glad I've decided to stop knitting with acrylic. My hands feel so dry and rough. It's funny, the variegated yarns always seem softer than the plain colours - I wonder why?

I need to get all my current WIPs (see sidebar) finished before 17 March because my lys is attending the Blue Mountains Knitters' Group meeting that day and will be bringing yarn for a "one skein challenge". I won't be able to participate if I can't buy yarn and I can't buy yarn if all my projects are not finished (self imposed rules).

So I guess I'd better stop blogging and knit/finish! :-)

PS Does anyone know if any hospitals in Sydney are taking donations for Chemo Caps?

My yarn is not stash - it's a collection!

On the Stashalong blog, I found a link to a great article on Knitty about yarn as a collection. That's me! While we were watching Collectors some months ago, my daughter turned to me and said, "I know what you collect, mum - yarn".

She's absolutely right. Some I've bought with a specific project in mind, some I've bought because it was a bargain and some I've just bought because I love the yarn. I don't need to know what I'm going to use it for - as all you knitters know, one day it will tell me what it wants to be! And the bargain yarn can always be knitted into something useful to be given away to a worthwhile charity.

Anyway, I'm an artist - I don't ask why I need the colour before I buy a pastel (or six), I just know I need more darks, or reds, or whatever. So it is with my yarn collection!

So why am I participating in Stashalong? Because my projects are often big, like my wraps (afghans) for Wrap with Love. While I'm knitting them, I think of a new project and I get so excited I just have to cast on. Soon I find I have so many projects on the needles that I'm getting nowhere fast! So I've committed to not casting on any more projects till I've finished at least five on my list (see sidebar).

Worse than that, I am was a notorious non-finisher, the knitting may complete but then there's seams to do and all those horrible little ends to sew in. I'm a colour knitter and I do weave in the ends as I go but I often make then too short and they wind their way out again so I have to go back and sew them in anyway!Hence my membership of February is for Finishing.

Being a member of both of these KALs is both a blessing and a curse. :-) It's a blessing to be connected with like-minded people; it's a curse because I have never been interested in knitting either socks or lace, but seeing what other people knit has made me want to try both! Of course, having never knitted either, I have no lace yarn or sock yarn, so I will have to buy some! But, first I have to finish the projects on that list.