Beanies for Bushfires

One of the members of Knit4Charities has a contact who is officially allowed into the area where the members of one Victorian community are living in makeshift housing. She requested beanies and other warm items because it's becoming quite cool in the evenings for those living in tents.

I usually knit beanies between other projects or when I don't want to be distracted [like during the short free-to-air televised tennis season [most of January and again for Wimbledon in June]. I knit beanies because they are fast, practical, knit-in-the-round and I can practise different stitch patterns on them. I design all my own beanies and no two are ever alike. Because I knit for charity, it doesn't matter what size the beanie turns out, it will fit someone. I knitted the first beanie of 2009 in January during a Roger Federa game but didn't knit anymore until I decided I wanted to spend this winter knitting textures.

Anyway, the upshot of all this was that I had beanies in storage but hadn't counted them! I had put off mailing them to Victoria thinking "one more beanie" [you know how it is]. Yesterday afternoon I looked in the box where I store finished projects that I had intended for another charity [more about that next month] - I had a total of thirteen beanies ready to go and completed another last night! I think it's time to get them in the post!!

Just passing through!

It has been two weeks since I posted but I'm still here! If you've signed up with The Winter of Textured Knitting don't panic, I'm still alive!

Last Saturday night WM and I went to the Opera House to hear the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing The Best of the West End. The soloists, Simon Bowman [Phantom of the Opera, London] and Jacqui Scott [Cats, London], were fabulous, the orchestra was, as usual, superb and my only complaint was that the show was too short!

We spent the night at the Radisson Plaza Hotel - great customer service - and had breakfast in the Bistro Fax - delicious. DD, SIL and his parents joined us; they had spent the night in a serviced apartment after attending a 21st in the inner city suburb of Newtown. SIL's parents are from the North Coast and were flying out on Sunday afternoon so it was good to catch up with them while they were in Sydney.

WM and I spent the rest of the day at Manly - a walk on the beach, a stroll through the markets, a soft drink at the pub then a very late lunch at City Extra at Circular Quay - real food, great service! It must have been: we had dinner [before the show] and dessert [after the show] there the night before!

Anyway, the upshot of all that is that I have spent all of this week living day-to-day. Normally I prepare classes for the whole week on Saturday and only have to tweak them but this week I have had to spend time almost every afternoon [I don't teach on Thursdays] preparing for the following day. This has been very tiring; all the more so because WM and I had to go out on Tuesday and Wednesday nights! Busy, busy, busy!

But life is back on track; all my lessons for this week are prepared [except Friday but I have Thursday off] so I can now spend some time catching up with blogs [I have 92 posts to read] and writing this month's summary of The Winter of Textured Knitting members' work.

BTW, It's not too late to join in the fun - knit anything you want, from any yarn you want, in a textured stitch pattern - no pressure! Just write a comment if you want to be added to the list in the sidebar. Sorry, Tinkingbell, for taking so long to add you - I haven't been near my blog for a week! Welcome to our little band!

I'll be back soon! I'm off to sit in the glorious autumn sunshine and knit!

"meat and potatoes" knitting

I have 'borrowed' the title of this post from a recent post on Bells' blog where she writes:

I've discovered something important. Lace, to me, feels like luxury knitting. It's not the meat and potatoes knitting that I need to do in order to feel productive.

In many ways, I agree with her. Especially with reference to fine yarns. Knitting lace-weight into a large object takes a lot of knitting hours. The finished object is beautiful and useful but somehow frothy [as lace should be]. Despite all the trials I had with the Myrtle Leaf Shawl, I still like knitting lace; I especially love the magic that comes with blocking.

Lace knitted with thicker yarn like the two baby blankets I've completed in the past few months is relatively quick and, in the case of these two, simple. The items are useful - at least I hope the two new mums are intending to use the items not just put them away for 'good'. Perhaps the thicker yarn and the simple pattern make it 'meat and potatoes' knitting?

I'm all for sweet treats; we crave them as much as we need the basics of meat and potatoes! Lace knitting is somehow special; to be successful we need to slow down and concentrate. It requires time in a "microwave and instant coffee" world! And how often do parents threaten their children with no dessert if they don't eat dinner? This proves that we want the sweet goodies [and not just as children]!

We knitters are so blessed that we can have both - the basic staples and the sweet treats! Having giving up the monogamy of my early knitting life, I [like many other knitters I know] have different kinds of knitting on the needles. One look at the progress bars in the side-bar will show you what I mean! Not to mention the items in my Queue and the UFOs in the "Waiting Room"! And the dozens of ideas in my mind for 'vegetables': the beanies, scarves and mittens that will make up most of my knitting this winter!

Soon, I'm off to work on my latest contribution to 'vegetables': the Twisted Moss Stitch beanie. But first a special welcome to Deniasha and Rell who've joined in the fun of a Winter of Textured Knitting. We're up to seven! Woo-hoo!! Can you tell I'm excited?

the cables keep coming

I have finished a third cabled beanie; this time I had help in designing: I checked The Harmony Guide to Knitting Patterns to see if my memory of double cable was correct [it was]. It is knitted in a discontinued, reduced price yarn called "Starshine" [by Panda] which I picked up in Spotlight in Tamworth last year for 99c per 100g. It is an 70% acrylic/20% wool/10% polyester blend. The yarn itself is very soft but the sparkly thread can be a bit harsh. I had intended to knit a child's sweater from it but thought it would be irritating on bare skin so decided to use it for beanies as hair will keep the scratching thread from the skin. It will join the previous beanies going to Australian Inland Ministries for distribution to indigenous Australians.


This beanie is too small for me so it is a bit stretched in this photo. It wouldn't even fit DD's relatively small head, but I'm sure some young person will love it. What looks like white flecks in the photo is actually a silver polyester thread, thus the name Starshine.

I have also completed a pair of small adult fingerless mitts - they used about 35g of a thin 8ply acrylic. No cables here because the variegated yarn is interesting in itself. They fit DD and she wanted to keep them but I told her I would knit her a pair of Fetchings - she's more than happy to wait [it's still too warm here for mitts].


The Winter of Textured Knitting continues apace; five people have now joined me which is a real buzz! Even if no-one had shown any interest I would have knitted cables this winter so it's really exciting to have some blogpals to share the fun! So, welcome to the latest three: Lilypily, Pass the Slipped Stitch Over and Pins and Needles. It was actually Lilypily's owls that inspired me to start knitting cables again; I had been carefully avoiding them because of all that fiddling around with a cable needle. RoseRed told me it's possible to do cables without one - I tried it and lost my stitches! But now, I'm feeling the cable love again!

And not only cables, many kinds of textures are in for a work out over the next few months. Care to knit along? See the sidebar for more information.

"Now is the winter of our textured knits"

...to misquote the Bard!

It was difficult to find a title for this laid-back KAL. I was considering Cable-Along but I want to keep it open to all kinds of textured knits: cables, ribs, bobbles, Aran style patterns, brambles, moss or seed stitches; anything that creates a 'lump' in knitting. My scrapbooking sisters might call it "lumpy-bumpy" but I choose not to use that term - applied to knitting it sounds like a mistake!

So, for the moment [unless anyone can think of something better], I choose to go with "Winter of Textured Knitting" [WinTexKnit?] which may be rather prosaic and boring but says what I mean!

And I have two blogpals who've joined me already - welcome Bells and Delighted Hands. Feel free to start whenever you like, knit whatever you want in any yarn you desire - as long as it's textured! Post photos on your blog to show your progress and/or FOs - it's totally up to you! I'll try to do a wrap-up of contributors at the end of each month from March till August.

Let the texture begin; anyone want to join us?

Who'll come a-cabling with me?

After a Long Lacy Summer, I've decided it's time for some textured knitting: cables, ribbing, bobbles [well probably not bobbles] - dense, cozy knitting for the winter months. I'm not going to make an official KAL - heck, I barely have enough time to blog let alone manage a KAL - but I'd be delighted if anyone wants to join me. Just email me if you want to participate [so I can be sure to check your blog], knit something in a textured stitch and blog about it. You can even put a link to this blog [if you wish]. No competitions, no prizes; just good, clean, wholesome, warm, knitting fun!

And to kick it off - here are two I prepared earlier; beanies [on circulars] are great travel knitting: no losing needles, no long needles irritating fellow travellers, and knitting in the round means no need for 'just let me finish this row before I reach my destination'!
Cabled Beanie I - olive; completed 5 March 2009.

Cabled Beanie II - blue; completed 7 March 2009.

Both of these beanies will find their way to Australian Inland Ministries to keep the heads warm of two of our indigenous citizens. The blue one will have to go to someone with a head slightly smaller than mine!

can you help me?

I cast on the second Waving Lace sock on Saturday and last night completed the second repeat. The yarn is pooling [see photo to the right] as it did on the instep of the first sock. The red is forming a spiral around my leg and I don't like the effect. I want the colours to be random as they were on the first sock [below].
I can't tell if I am knitting with the colour repeats in the same order because I've already sewn the ends in and grafted the toe of the first sock. I wouldn't think it would make that much difference - the repeats are short, six to eight stitches, of each of the four colours. And remember, the two photos here are of the same sock - one before the heel, the other after the heel.

If I rip it out and start again, is there any way to ensure that the pooling doesn't happen again? I obviously don't want to start over and have the same thing happen; I may as well keep going with what I have! I'm using the same needles, the same yarn, the same number of stitches and I assume the same gauge: the first sock has been stretched from being tried on several times - it's cotton so it's not as resilient as wool. What can I do?

The last paragraph has been edited to explain why I can't be sure if the gauge is the same!

it's been a long, lacy summer

Last October, I joined Bells' informal KAL: Long Lacy Summer.

Although I didn't produce many articles, I did spend most of my summer knitting lace in some form or other.

First there was the Myrtle Leaf Shawl from "Victorian Lace Today". I cast on in October and for the sixth and final time on 3rd January. I finished knitting on 17th January and blocked it on the 20th January. It was then I discovered the Big Bad Hole. I won't bore you, dear readers, with the details, you've already been through it once; but for new readers you can read about the beginning attempts here and here, the story of the dental floss here, the final cast on here, and my tribute poem/song to almost being finished here. The shawl was finished in enough time for DD's wedding; however the weather was so hot that even at midnight she was not cold enough to wear it outside! [And just in case you're new here and missed all the excitement: Yes, The Wedding went well, thanks].

After all the fun and games with Myrtle, I met my next Knitting Knemesis in the form of socks. Well, sock yarn to be more precise. This particular yarn has a habit of pooling in strange ways despite the short colour repeats. But finally, I found a solution: Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks.

I knitted the first of the socks while away on R&R after The Wedding. When WM and I returned from our week away, I intended to knit the second sock [no SSS here!] but I received an invitation to our niece/god-daughter's baby shower so I had a new project to knit.

I bought bamboo/wool [80/20] yarn and cast on without doing a swatch. I frogged the first attempt. I was using a pattern called Tumbling Blocks from Knitting Pattern Central's directory of baby blankets. The pattern was designed for thicker yarn on bigger needles. I had to guess [based on the gauge stated in the pattern and on the yarn label] how many stitches I needed. The pattern was for a smaller blanket than I wanted so I had to add 'a little extra' to compensate. My first 'guestimate' [intelligent guess] was 209 stitches. I knitted just 5cm/2inches before I finished the first ball; since I had only ten balls that obviously wasn't going to work. More thinking needed. If I had taken time to do a swatch and block it I would have known exactly what I was dealing with but enthusiasm and a deadline had me pushing ahead!

I did some more calculations based on the smallest size I thought reasonable for a baby blanket and this time cast-on 145 stitches. This seemed to give a blanket about 75cm/30inches wide before blocking so I forged ahead. Bamboo, being a cellulose fibre like cotton, would surely stretch when blocked and give me a slightly bigger size. Once I had knitted enough to gave me the chance to measure it on my needles, it looked like the blanket would be 90cm/36inches before blocking - perfect!

And so it was, dear readers, that I cast off the blanket on Friday night and blocked it before I went to bed; the baby shower was on Saturday afternoon. It blocked to 100cm/40 inches wide and 124cm/50inches long which is a little longer than I would have liked but a good size for a baby's blanket. Plenty to tuck in all around the crib! However, it wasn't dry by Saturday afternoon and I forgot to allow time to sew the ends in [I was in a hurry to block it and decided to leave the ends till after it was blocked] - I went to the Baby Shower with an IOU! :-(

So I present, for you're viewing pleasure, the modified Tumbling Block Baby Blanket. The photos were taken today, two days after the Baby Shower, so perhaps it's just as well I was disorganised! Unfortunately, the gorgeous sheen of the bamboo doesn't show up well in the photographs. The original pattern had a border of blocks and a stocking stitch centre panel but WM thought an allover lace pattern preferable and I have to say I agree with him. Thanks to Ranee Mueller for making the Tilting Blocks pattern available through Knitting Pattern Central [check it out if you haven't been there - literally hundreds of free patterns for adults and children].

And there's still lace on my needles, the second Waving Lace Sock was cast on last night and I'm off to knit it now!

Southern Summer of Socks [08-09]

I seemed to spend more of my summer knitting lace than socks; in total I managed three socks!

The first was the second of a pair of self-striping grey socks which will go to charity. Strangely enough, since I have a few balls of the same yarn, the third sock was also a grey self-striping sock and the end of the first ball.




The second sock was Waving Lace from "Favorite Socks". It was both a lace project and a sock project.

So, not much sock knitting from me but I actually produced three more socks than I completed last summer when I was banned from knitting on two separate occasions because of frozen shoulders. It has been fun watching others knit socks and especially to be introduced to the concept of the Personal Sock Club.

Thanks Rose Red and Bells for hosting Southern Summer of Socks again this year. My goal for next summer will be to improve by at least one sock! LOL

And now I'm off to cast on for the second Waving Lace.