Happy Birthday to me!

I had a lovely day. First I got to sleep in. Then WM and DD took me to the city. We had lunch at Sydney Tower Restaurant - a revolving restaurant with buffet-style "all you can eat" meals! The view from the restaurant is stunning, even on a grey day like today - we need the rain so desperately that there's no way I'd complain. This photo looks north-east over our beautiful harbour - yes, I think it's still beautiful even in these grey conditions.

After lunch we walked to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Tezuka exhibition of Manga prints. He is most famous in Australia for Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion - both TV shows of my childhood.

When we arrived home, I opened my cards and presents. Three knitting books - yay! Well, in reality, two are yet to come - I was bit slow in ordering them so I will have to be patient and wait! (DD wasn't at our knitters' group so I had to do it myself). The two on order are from WM and DD - The Twisted Sisters' Sock Workbook (Lynne Vogel) and Victorian Lace Today (Jane Sowerby).










The book that I did receive arrived in yesterdays' post: Vogue Knitting: the Ultimate Knitting Book. I have had the 1988 edition of this book out of the library and used it frequently. Now I have my very own copy: thanks mum, dad, sis and family!

DD also gave me a 'gift voucher' for a family tour to Shark Island in Sydney Harbour. We will save that one for the warmer months - perhaps October or November.

Because this year is my 50th, WM's 50th, our 30th wedding anniversary and DD's 21st, we are taking a trip to the Northern Territory in August, part of which will be as Gold Kangaroo passengers on The Ghan - that's a shared present for all four events!

PS Please don't be a lurker. Is it possible to get 50 comments for my 50th? :-)

ANZAC Day - 25th April

Today was a special holiday for all Australians: it was ANZAC Day - a day we commemorate all who have served to protect this country and her allies, especially those who have fallen.

Thank you to all those who served or are currently serving and thank you to all their families - I'm sure it is a great sacrifice to you.

Lest we forget.

image from http://www.warmemorialsnsw.asn.au/traditions/rosemary.cfm

My shopping "spree"

In March I signed onto Stashalong Option #1, which means I get one day a month to buy yarn. Today was my shopping "spree"!

First I visited Anita at The Wool Inn and bought one skein - I can't say any more than that because it is to be a gift for someone who regularly reads my blog. By the way, thanks for all your help, Anita, I really appreciated it. The skein will be used for the Blue Mountains Knitters' Group one-skein challenge before the gift is given to someone very special. (See Kate, no noun used as a verb! Just what one would expect from an English teacher!! LOL)

After a lovely time in The Wool Inn (I tried not to look around too much!), I went to the local Spotlight (a large fabric, craft, haberdashery outlet) and bought five skeins of acrylic - for my mother! She lives in a country town called Bingara (600km from Sydney), and is knitting jumpers for the AIDS orphans in Malawi. I also bought one pair of 25mm long (10in) 4.5mm (US 7) needles because that is a popular size in our household of two knitters and the one pair we have is often in use. Strangely enough, the 30mm (12in) long 4.5mm needles hardly ever get used!

As I happened to be in Big W for other purchases, I had a quick look in the knitting section. Big W carries a wide range of acrylic and some wool but nothing was on special and I didn't need anything, so I didn't buy anything!

So, not much to report - and no additions to my stash because I will cast on the secret item this afternoon. I have so much in my stash that I cannot justify buying anymore yarn! :-(

WIPs increasing daily! or too many things to try, no time to finish!

Several things have conspired to increase my number of WIPs, despite my good intentions on January 1 to finish one before starting another!

Firstly, I was seaming the 112 squares of the Diagonal Diamond Wrap. I had only 2m (80 inches) of seam left (of 23.15m/28yds approx). In other words, I had two panels to attach and the wrap would have been complete. It was then I realised that I had sewn two of those 5x5 in squares in the wrong place. Now my whole design was off! Worse still, I had sewn in all the ends and the yarn I was using was the worst kind, a sticky kind of mohair that just will not unravel! I was so disheartened I folded the wrap (or its component parts) and put them neatly on the (rarely used) piano stool. My new friends at Knit4Charities made soothing comments like: "a man on a galloping horse won't notice". But I'm not on a galloping horse, I'm sitting here, trying to ignore the cries of those two misplaced squares as they are separated from their family! (Blues should be with blue, purples with purple - you know what I mean). I know the purpose of the wrap is to keep "cold humanity warm" but I want my designs to be right. Each wrap is designed to test a new colour pattern I'm thinking through. And there is so much work in this one! 112 squares, all that seaming, at least 672 ends sewn in! Trying to unravel the seams will be at least another couple of hours work, I may end up destroying the squares and I don't have enough yarn to reknit them! (I was knitting to use up odds and ends). If only someone would come and take the wrap away so that I don't have control over it anymore! :-(

The arrival of my parents for DD's 21st birthday and party meant I had to find simple projects to knit because mum, DD and I knit and talked quite a bit and it's hard to concentrate on a complicated pattern while talking. That accounts for the red scarf and the purple rolled brim hat referred to in a previous post. When they went home, my parents found an article in their local newspaper about a lady knitting jumpers for Aids babies in Africa. I started one last night and will hopefully finish it at the Blue Mountains knitting group today.

Having recently joined Knit4Charities, I am inspired by all the other interesting things that are being knitted. All these little projects can be completed in a very short period of time (compared to 6-8 weeks for a wrap) and have the potential to use up odd balls of yarn.

Then there are new techniques to try - yesterday I knit a coathanger cover with lace edging. The day before that WM, DD and I unravelled a ball of Knitwise Pricewise #001 into it's two strands: the lashes and the baubles. I made two child-size coathanger covers - one from each type of yarn. There will be another post about those when they are completed. I'm thinking about knitting i-cord (a new technique for me) to go over the hook of the coathangers instead of using plastic tubing. Earlier in the week I knit a ball in six segments, now I want to try to knit a ball in one piece!

And what about my 'dormant' WIPs? I completed the right front of the summer cardigan but had not done enough rows for the sleeves before casting off (I'm knitting from the top down) so now I have to frog most of it! The baby shrug is still waiting for a button (when I figure out where to put it - I think I'll take it with me today and get some help). I need to buy adult size coathangers for the two lace covers I've already made - I mistakenly bought child size! The socks are still waiting for Kitchener stitch toes and the Large Flying Geese wrap is just waiting because I'm bored feeling jaded with knitting squares and sewing them together! As yet I haven't felt inclined to pick up those socks I started in the seventies!

I made it into Google's Top 50!

I bought some child size hangers from Big W by mistake and had already undone the shrink wrap before I realised. Today I was looking for free patterns for coathanger covers - so I typed this into Google: knit coathanger cover pattern

I was so surprised when scrolling through the first 100 (of 21,300) answers to find this at #45 (scroll down about halfway):

Too hot to knit? Never!
The pattern was for knitting in the round; I didn't have the appropriate ... 15 teddies; 7 wraps; 6 lace coathanger covers; 2 scarves; 1 water bottle bag ...
2hot2knit.blogspot.com/ - 17 Apr 2007 - Similar pages - Note this

There was no one home to share my elation, so my virtual friends - be excited with me! LOL

edited: 19 April
Wanted to show off to my family - no way; even though I haven't changed my blog, it is no longer relevant! Ah, well, 'they' say we only get 15 minutes of fame - that must have been it! :-(

novelty yarn scarf

Edited on 31 May 2011: If you are looking at this page today or sometime after this date, could you please leave a comment and tell me why? I am curious as to the reason why people visit this page so often. Please, please, please tell me why you're here!

I bought this yarn in an end-of-season sale at the local supermarket for the bargain price of 50c. Because I knit for charity, I'm always on the lookout for bargain yarns. Or I was, until I signed up for Stashalong.

Saleutions, the supplier of this yarn, describes it as:

Composition:100% Polyester
Gramage:50g
Meterage:51m
Tension (10cm x10cm): 22sts, 26rows, Needle Size:4.5mm
Number of colours available:10

It is similar in construction to Feathers (Patons) or Lashes (Panda), from the Australian Country Spinners range, but the 'lashes' are much longer. It is soft to the touch and knits up softly, but, like Feathers and Lashes, it is difficult to work with in the sense that dropped stitches are almost impossible to find.

Because I had only one ball, I mixed it with Panda Carnival acrylic, knitting six rows Carnival, two rows Knitwise in a garter stitch pattern over 19 stitches. The resulting scarf is a little over 2 metres long but quite narrow (about 15cm). Due to the larger-than-usual needle size for 8ply acrylic and my loose tension, the acrylic knitted up more softly than it otherwise would.

All in all, I am happy with the finished scarf and am sure the recipient will be too!

A busy week!

Last Wednesday my parents arrived from Bingara for DD's 21st birthday which was on Thursday. They had travelled the whole distance by coach because the XPT broke down, so they were tired and hungry. Apparently the coach stopped in Muswellbrook at the 'golden arches' but my parents won't eat their food!

Thursday I had to work but in the evening we were joined by WM's parents and the boyfriend at a local restaurant. The food wasn't great but it's a smorgasbord so everyone was able to eat what they liked and as much as they liked, and we all enjoyed the company.

Saturday was party day. We had fifty guests for a sit-down dinner of chicken, baked vegetables, salad and pasta. Dessert consisted of cheesecake, pavlova, fruit salad and, of course, birthday (mud)cake. "Who did the catering?", I hear you ask. We (WM, DD, mum and I) made the cheesecakes, salads, fruit salad and decorated the pav; the hot food was supplied by the local pizza shop at a very reasonable price. I also made a non-alcoholic punch which went down a treat. I only wish I had bought enough ingredients to make more than six litres! The jukebox/karaoke machine from Good Time Jukebox Hire was a great hit and Kelly, the woman who runs the business, was so helpful. Good Time Jukebox Hire even came back at 12.30am to collect the jukebox so it wasn't our responsibility.

Everyone who attended the party seemed to have a really good time and WM's extended family was fabulous In helping with the cleaning up of the hall we had hired.

So, did I have time to knit? Well, over the few days they were here, mum was knitting so I joined her. I needed simple things to knit so I could talk at the same time. On Friday and Saturday I knitted a scarf from acrylic and another novelty yarn from the Knitwise Pricewise range (picked up last year at the end-of-season sale at the local supermarket for the bargain price of 50c). I'll write a comment about this yarn in a separate post.


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On Sunday I knitted a rolled brim hat - adapted from headhuggers. The pattern was for knitting in the round; I didn't have the appropriate dpn's so I knitted it 'flat' - it turned out well. I love the colours in the hat and the acrylic knitted up surprisingly softly. The finished hat is a little big but it's going to charity so no doubt it will find the right owner.

Novelty yarn scarf

I finished the socks on Thursday afternoon except I have to graft the toes with Kitchener stitch. That's a new technique so it requires concentration, not to be done in the evening by artificial light.

Having a headache, I had no desire to sew up the 112 squares of the afghan I finished knitting last week. So I cast on for a scarf using a novelty yarn I had bought at the local supermarket for 50c. As I am listed in the local Community College brochure for autumn term (May-June) to teach knitting, I try to knit in various yarns to have samples to show my students. Mind you, last year the class didn't go ahead because of lack of interest. I'm guessing it's the cost rather than a general lack of interest in learning to knit.

Anyway, the yarn is called Knitwise Pricewise #001, by a company called Saleutions, which is the same company that produces the Sean Sheep range. It's 55% polyamide and 45% polyester and is very soft. The 40g ball has about 24m (25 yards) of yarn in it. It is composed of two strands, in this case a strand of long royal blue lashes (and I mean long: think false eyelashes of the 60s not the lashes in Patons Feathers) and a strand of little bobbles in pink, yellow, mauve and green. The recommended needle size is 6mm (US 10). The colour is actually darker than this photo shows.
By the way, their website, should you be curious, is very user friendly.

Being only 24 metres, I knew it wouldn't make a scarf of any length so I used a royal blue 8 ply acrylic for the main part of the scarf. I cast on 18 stitches, knitted 16 rows of acrylic then two rows of #001. I then continued the scarf with 12 rows of acrylic and 2 rows of #001 until I was nearly out of the novelty yarn. Because I had carried the novelty yarn up the side of the scarf, twisting it around the first stitch of every other row, I wanted to save enough yarn to 'sew' into the other edge so that they looked the same. The whole thing was knit in garter stitch with chain stitch selvage.

Finally I added a 15cm (6 inch) fringe and, for a novelty scarf, it looks pretty good. I wouldn't wear it myself but someone would, and if my class doesn't happen I will donate it to charity. I bought three balls of this yarn in different colourways so I guess there are more scarves in the offing.

Here is a photo of DD with the scarf - she obviously didn't want her face to be shown! :-)

And... I have sewn together 66 of the 112 square to complete my Diagonal Diamond Wrap. There are still 450 inches/1125cm (12.5yards/11.25m)of seaming to go, and numerous ends to be sewn in but I hope to have it finished before I go to bed tonight.

By the way, Happy Easter to all who celebrate this special season.

Clip art from Crossmap.com

Socks!

After finishing the shrug on Saturday, except for sewing on the button (which I'm not sure where to put), I had to find another project for Lint for Lent.

On Saturday afternoon I had used my free day from Stashalong to purchase some new acrylic yarn. Big W now carries a range called "Carnival Effects" - this range includes stripes, camouflage and fair isle, and I was curious so I bought four balls of 'fair isle' to try out. There is no indication (on the ball band or the website) of the optimal number of stitches to use to get a fair isle effect, but I guessed a fairly small number of stitches would be most likely to give the greatest effect. I also figured stocking stitch would be the best stitch to use. I didn't want to knit a scarf (they're not much good in stocking stitch anyway). Finally I decided to be brave enough to try socks!

I knitted a basic pattern from The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook: top down, K1 P1 rib, stocking stitch, hourglass heel and wedge toe. I finished the first sock in two days and am now working the instep of the second sock. Because I only had a set of four dpn I found it a bit tiresome to knit on three and have one free, so today I exchanged an unused set of 4.00mm for another set of 3.25mm dpns - knitting with five is so much easier.

The yarn is not really giving a fair isle effect, although it is an interesting self-striping pattern; and, without any effort on my part, the stripes on the first sock match fairly well with the stripes on the second sock, which I wasn't really expecting!

When I'm finished the second sock, I'm going to frog the first sock back to the heel because my decreases and joins have holes where there should be none! Now that I've knitted the heel of the second sock I can see how bad the first sock looks. Just as well I hadn't grafted the toe!

Being 8ply acrylic knitted on 3.25mm (US 3) needles, the finished fabric is not soft but it is certainly warm - and there are always people who prefer acrylic, perhaps because they are allergic to wool.

So, my first pair of socks knitted-in-the-round is almost done; notice I don't say my first ever pair of socks - I started a pair of socks in the 1970s but they were never finished. I remember being at my grandmother's house and seeing the pattern in the Sunday paper - she gave me wool and the appropriate needles and off I went. I don't know why I never finished them. I'm certain that I would never have worn them even though they were probably quite fashionable back then! I don't think I've ever worn knee high socks!

So, here are some photos of the 70s socks.

They are knitted on two needles; the foot is seamed at the side and the leg at the back. I guess I must have gotten bored because I only knitted one and started the ribbing on the other! One day I may even finish the second sock.

Do you think this is the world's longest unfinished project - 30+ years?

Edited 8 April to include photos

Tsunami Warning!

There's been a tsunami warning for coastal areas of NSW this morning after an earthquake in the Solomon Islands. This news report was filed just ten minute ago.

WM rang to say that all Sydney Ferry services have been suspended and passengers are using trains and/or buses.

I can't explain what a weird feeling this gives as I sit at my computer in the western suburbs of Sydney, a mere 50km from the coast. The sky is blue, there's not a cloud in sight, the breeze is soft and a little cool (it is autumn after all) and yet it's strangely quiet outside. I can't hear any birds and that's very unusual. All the sounds I can hear are man-made in one form or another.

Yet, within an hour from my home, nature could be about to reap havoc!

I think of my friend, Kate, who works at the Sydney Opera House and has probably been evacuated. I think of my colleague, Jane, whom I have yet to meet. She is flying in to Sydney from Melbourne today - we are working together this afternoon. The airport is on Port Botany; how has that been affected? I can't find anything on the 'Net so I assume it's business as usual.

Reading various reports seems to suggest that the threat is minimal, but after the Boxing Day disaster, authorities will be taking no chances.

Hmm, therE's always a curve ball, isn't there?

Finished, but not happy!

I've finished the shrug, sewed in all the ends and seamed the sleeves. Do babies really wear these things? It looks incredibly uncomfortable.

If you look in my sidebar you'll see that I've marked this project at 99%. That's because the pattern says to turn down one edge to make a collar and sew a button beside the collar.

Having a right side and a wrong side (stripes) really messes with folding down a collar, but I can live with it - after all the baby can't see behind his head! But do they really need that button? My other pattern (27 years old) has ribbons for ties but I gather that's a no-no these days.

What to do? I knitted it for charity so I guess, being this close, I'll finish it and give it away - but I'm not happy.

PS I'll post a photo when I can find a doll or bear that it fits - lying flat it doesn't look like anything! Maybe that's why I'm not happy.