Monthly Archives: March 2011

a tale of two cardigans

29 Tuesday Mar 2011

Posted by in cardigan, knitting, WIP

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despite appearances to the contrary (ie, it not being cold), i hear that winter approacheth. i realised the other day that my snails pace on the leaving cardigan would mean No New Cardigan come the the cooler weather. dont get me wrong, i love Leaving. look at it, whats not to love?

gorgeous madeline tosh pashmina in the now discontinued ‘vintage frame’ colourway (mwahahah, i have seven skeins!), and a wonderfully detailed and elegant pattern. its going to be a very classy piece, if it ever gets finished. the issue is two fold. firstly, that wonderfully detailed and elegant pattern requires looking at the chart for every row. there are no rest rows. there are 32 rows in that pattern repeat, and they are all different. i can follow along to a point, but i still need to look. secondly, im alternating three balls at once (due to colour variations).

this does not make for transportable knitting. its stay at home knitting. its also not mindless knitting. so, its slow. i have been trying to be something like project monogamous, that is, knitting one thing for at least a few days at a time in order to make some kind of dent in each thing (thats monogamous, isnt it?!), and i had wanted to finish this cardigan before i moved onto the next one, which i knew would be in the berroco ultra alpaca light i grabbed at that fantastic looped yarn works store in DC. but it occured to me that i actually needed a black cardigan more than any other knitted object right now, and i was going to need it soon.

so i consulted the brains trust, and then ignored everyones suggestions, and cast on this:

its the greenfield cardigan from new england knits. i wanted a top down raglan but ive done lily twice and thats enough. and i wanted one with good sizing and shaping, and something that was a little bit pretty. greenfield seemed to fit the bill. i was a bit worried about garter stitch, i normally use stocking stitch for garments to keep the bulk down, but the alpaca light is only a sport weight, and is going to have lots of stretch in it which will make it block pretty flat anyway, so the garter stitch seemed safe. i also modified the neck line to reduce the fall-off-the-shoulder risk.

it feels great to be knitting a black top down raglan again. i think im just going to have to make a new one every year! on that note, could it just hurry up and be winter already?

kxx

duck, er, sock season

23 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in knitting, socks

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todays photo shoot scene was the duck pond outside my faculty.

i could have just sat here all day really, the sun is shining and there is a cool south westerly coming off the mountains. its supposed to be warm today, but there is a slight autumn edge to the colour of the air and the temperature of the breeze. the ground is still mushy from all the rain but the water in the pond is nice and clear. perfect sock knitting conditions really.

as promised, i was very self-willed and decided to just cast on the socks in the yarn that i most wanted to work with, the spud and chloe wool/silk.

i always intended these to be long socks, and i have gone with the nancy bush ‘evening stockings for a young lady‘ from knitting vintage socks (favourite sock book ever). i dont have enough yardage to make VERY long socks, so im going for somewhere up near the top of my calf. its not like i have long legs or anything.

this is such a well designed pattern, that even with changing the stick size and stitch count to ensure they were roomy enough, i can follow along in principle. it calls for many infrequent decreases along the back of the calf, but given the shape of my legs, ive done a few quicker decreases (every 5 rounds) and will now just decrease every 10 rounds until i get to the ankle.

it looks good doesnt it, so very clever! knitting these socks has made me dissatisifed with the boy socks i am knitting for T.

he might not get a new jumper this year but he should at least get a couple of pairs of socks. these are good for car or social knitting, but they are just too boring for other times. also, ive realised i prefer top down on DPNs. magic loop toe up has advantages but im just more comfortable the other way, and i feel like the socks move faster. do you have a preference?

i also decided T was finally worthy of some serious sock  yarn. he has a few in that regia, and some patonyle and heirloom, its time to take things up a notch. plus, i want to knit the wollmeise! so im thinking the gentlemans fancy socks in this gorgeous blue.

the colour is labelled as a ‘not perfect’ but i think its ‘midnight’. im not sure about the pattern, im looking for good solid mens socks that arent just rib, with a bit of texture, but not too hard. suggestions welcome.

the ducks had nothing of any value to offer in that regard, and were slightly miffed i didnt feed them.

im slightly miffed that im back inside my office and not sitting out there still.

k xx

of flus, virii and phobias

17 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in knitting, shawls, socks

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no im not sick. there are no creepy crawlys all over todays post. im actually talking about virtual knitting germs. we’ve all heard of the dreaded shawl flu, that state of high fever and agitation we feel when we’re not knitting a shawl of some kind and need to finish one and start another. quickly. i suspect ive been in denial about my current bout of shawl flu. it was only when i finished celaeno and immediately cast on this

that i realised i maybe had a little problem. the shawl itself is not the problem.

madeline tosh sock in tart and cloak, with a fabulous assymetrical design that uses short row shaping? nothing wrong with that. it appears to have gone a little viral in knitting circles, as these things do from time to time. i have heard some people moan endlessly about how much they HATE viral knitting, how bad it is, how boring, how we’re all just sheep following the flock and theyre too clever and individual to do that. yeah whatever. bite off your nose to spite your face, i dont care. usually if somethings viral its because its a great design. usually, i say, not always, and i dont mean what the majority of ‘ravelers’ consider ‘hot’ today either. im talking about that kind of pattern that starts slowly and spreads like wildfire, people you know and respect are all knitting it, everyone thinks its clever, or pretty, or whatever. its the kind of pattern that transcends usual knitting boundaries. im pretty sure the stripe study shawl is one of those. im feeling a little evangelical about it. go knit one, you know you want to.

i am feeling a little less evangelical about sock patterns. apparently, it turns out, im not a big fan of KALs. my friends pointed this out to me yesterday when i was having a fit of angst about yet another SS62011 sock i have reservations about. i like the nutkin, i really do, its a lovely design and i think i had the perfect yarn for it, this scrummy koigu,

but i am hearing so much about it being too tight and unforgiving.  i do have options of course. i could knit the nutkin pattern along the front of the leg and foot and a nice stretchy rib along the back of the leg. that idea comes courtesy of knitabulous. its a good idea. but do i really like the pattern enough to do that to it? another idea is to add more purls in at the sides of each pattern. this is a good idea too but im still worried about stretch and i hate the look of stretched purls. my other idea may seem strange but it makes sense to me. that is, dont knit them at all. knit a design i know i love with a pattern i dont have to modify, that will result in a product i know i will wear. im headed towards the no-purl monkey. yes ive made them before. twice even. but ive given them both away. once in cherry tree hill to bells, and once in lornas laces to a flyball friend. maybe its time i had my own pair.

then theres a third option entirely. put the koigu away for a while and knit this gorgeous spudd and chloe (aka bluesky alpaca) into something long and lacey and nancy-bushish.

i was originally thinking unst, but i actually do want to make long socks, and in something maybe a little more girly. my options are wide open there. oh decisions decisions. do feel free to share your opinion in the comments, knowing full well that im likely to do whatever i want anyway.

this resistance to the S62011 socks is not really about hating KALs, though its true i dont join them often. mostly because i  have too much going on to commit to deadlines, but also because sometimes i just dont like whats being knit. this is what has happened with S6, as ive moaned about before, so theres no point in moaning about it again. lifes short, there are no knitting police, step on the grass, knit what you want. there really isnt anything else behind my ‘doesnt play well with others’ thing apart from being old and grinchy and time poor and selfish. so, you know, quite a lot really. i never have played well with others, if truth be known. mrs greene wrote it on my year two report. perhaps she was onto something.

i am learning though. joining my new choir has helped with that. the group is at all different levels of talent, ability and learning, and some peoples song choice is frustrating, as is the way they want it to sound like such and such sang it back in 1972. thats ok, its just a choir, and our teacher is very good at prising the original sheet music out of peoples hands and teaching them to just let themselves feel it. i had to sing a bit of a solo this week:

i had the piano at least, so it was ok, but really, it was awful to just hear my own voice like that. im working on something solo for a little performance with a ukelele in early may, im not sure im going to be able to do it. group performing doesnt worry me at all, we have a performance scheduled for a local ‘festival of voices’ on june 5 as part of a workshop/gig with these guys and i cant wait, but by myself? eeep.

singing apparently, is something i am happy to follow along with!

kxx

ps todays scenery courtesy of my picturesque work place.

FO: celaeno shawl

13 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in FO, knitting, shawls

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in the quest for the perfect set of red accessories this coming winter, (hedera socks item one, a pigeon hat in bluesky alapaca/silk to come), late friday night i finished the celaeno shawl. i took it to guild yesterday unblocked

and blocked it when i came home

and took it off the pins this morning

i didnt block it too fiercely, because i do want it to be smallish, and its meant to be rounded along the top so it sits on the shoulders nicely. which it really does, and then wraps around the neck just so. youll have to wait for winter of photos of me wearing it! but even on a hot day like today i can appreciate how lovely this is going to be to wear, in its all divine parisian alpacky goodness, with the gorgeous contrast between the garter stitch body and the stocking stitch border:


and the stunning detail of these little flowers:

it was an easy shawl to knit for the most part, the flowers were a little tricky with fuzzy alpacka because they required a make 7 from 3 stitches on one side and then a knit 5 together later. i made a mistake at one point and spent a night tinking back a row that required a sl3tog, k2tog, psso. tricky.

other than that, and skipping the addition of beads, i made no mods and the  details are as follows. the pattern is romi hills from 7 small shawls (no shawlettes here either thanks), knit in la droguerie alpaca purchased in paris as a gift from ailsa, on 3.75mm knit picks options cable. a confession, however. i ran out of yarn, right at the end. i thought i had enough when i started but then the border ate it up a lot quicker. i didnt frog it though because i had a plan that i thought might work and it did. i ran out about 20 stitches short of the third last row, so theres was one row and then the cast off to go. a certain lovely missfee had given me a lovely ball of red packy lace weight for my birthday, i checked, and it pretty well matched.

i held it double and had no problems finishing with it. i dont think you’d ever pick it, but this is one of the little traps that comes with knitting yarn that comes from a long way away in another language! i’m perfectly happy with it though, and wouldnt change a thing.

and im thinking i might have a touch of shawl flu again. i started another one yesterday. more about that later.

k xx

every tralalalala every whoa-woh-oh

09 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in personal

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you probably dont know this but i can sing. not like a diva soloist opera type singing or anything, but i can pick a note and go with it, up and down scales, i can follow along with what others are doing, sometimes i can lead, i can sing the harmony or the melody, mostly alto, sometimes mezzo-soprano. i have been in choirs since i was a kid, i was in the big state choir that performed at the opera house every year. i sang back ups for a friend making DJ mix tapes at uni straight out of school, and then with a friend and his guitar and a 4 track in a shared house. a few years ago some phd friends and i joined a small group called the sapphire lounge singers, so named because of our rehearsal/performance space in the Sapphire Lounge at the Heritage Hotel in Bulli. we disbanded a while ago and ive been missing it. i heard about a little group from some people at work but turns its more of a wine drinking singing circle. i wanted to do more than that, and i wanted to actually learn, to improve my technique, and my confidence.

so i joined the wollongong conservatorium of music.

i stayed at work till 6 last night (cos you know, i dont have much to do there at the moment!) then caught the bus around the botanical gardens (which stupidly shut at 5, which is a bummer because i wanted to walk through them, being careful not to get my bustle caught in a hedgerow!). my class was in the Orchestra Room, at the end of this little red brick building

tucked in amongst the trees. this is such a wonderful space, and it was so lovely to have the windows open and the warm air coming in and the cicadas and smell of flowers.

it was a motley crew, just a sing for fun group, but with some great strong voices, and our teacher, karen, is AMAZING. i learnt more from her last night than ive learnt in years. we did breathing, stretching and standing exercises, moved our jaws and mouths in funny ways, walked around the room making funny noises, like horses whinnying up and down scales, then singing number intervals, and then parts of songs in groups then together, than whole songs.

karen and one of the other members can play the piano, so we had accompaniment, and we sang ‘lean on me’ with an almost gospel arrangement, and then a stephen foster collins american classic ‘hard times come again no more’.  i sang the melody, or alto part, in both. next week we are learning one of my all time favourites, ‘down to the river to pray’ by allison krauss, and a new arrangement of the beatle’s ‘blackbird’. we are going to perform at the conservatorium’s ‘end of term’ concert, and then at a big vocal festival later in the year. im so excited, i cant tell you how good it feels to be letting my voice run free again! i have been walking around at work all day singing in my head, and its making the craziness that is life there at the moment a little easier to tolerate.

on that note (pun intended) the minions are settling in and that should start to take the pressure off over the next week or so, so i hope i will be able to return to blog reading, commenting, facebook and twitter, as one is meant to do at work. in between practising my singing parts of course.

k xx

downtime…gone

07 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by in personal, shawls

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oh my god. it just gets worse. i have been so busy today i had to close gmail and The Twitter so as not to distract myself. balance, qui est? i did have a lovely quiet weekend, clothes shopping, groceries, washing, sorting, watching buffy, getting in supplies

for turning my bad garden

back into a good one.

well i did say i wasnt good at tending. its not all my fault. i planted the first lot of herbs when ricco was still a silly puppy. lets hope he leaves these ones alone a bit longer. i also put together a worm farm, complete with worms

its about time we started composting as well as recycling. also hard with dogs, but this looks like a sturdy structure, despite jem’s interest.

i really wanted to finish the celeano shawl but i didnt quite get there, i brought it into work today to try and get it done at lunch time

but seeing as how i was asked to write a government tender response for another Very Important Project that i would also be managing, my lunchtime went out the window too. it is such a lovely shawl, but im pretty sure im going to run out of yarn (la droguerie alpaga).

i have some other red alpaca i can use to cast off with if i need to though. there are only 5 rows to go. fingers crossed. and im writing this from work. i think i should go home now.

k xx

work life balance?

04 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in personal

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i really struggle with that concept, balance for a start, but the whole work/life thing. either i dont want to go to work AT ALL or i get totally into it and think about it all the time and spend so much time here other things get neglected. trust me, the latter version happens rarely, but its been a bit like that this week. i had all sorts of plans that have been thwarted by the relentless momentum that is my new project, budgets, workplans, timelines, hiring people, buying equipment, redrafting budgets and timelines and workplans. i have not had much knitting time, and i have mostly been working on the celaeno shawl which should be finished this weekend if i dont run out of yarn first. i havent cast on the sock club nutkins yet because i realised that trent doesnt have a new pair of socks for the upcoming winter. i have been working on these

plain toe ups in regia kaffe fasset self striping, and i will try and get at least one done before i start another pair for myself. interesting that i can be somewhat disciplined in my knitting at the moment but not much anywhere else!

in all the rush that has been this year so far (oh my god its already march), i had managed to let my hair get very long, like, the longest curl down to my waist type long, which is just stupid in our weather. by the way, you know what i discovered was the best product for my hair? being in america. no humidity there folks (at least not in winter), i had lovely soft shiny bouncy curls the whole time i was there. then i come home and its insta-frizz. great. thanks for that. anyway, i finally got it cut last night, and coloured. i cant really get a good photo but this one shows the stripey bits a little,

its still pretty long at the back but lots of layers around the face

and what a grumpy face it is! must be because im at work. but at least its friday. i have two days of not very much at all planned, and i intend to take full advantage.

you?

k xx

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