Kilroy Woz 'Ere

Beanie 2007.76

Luckily the Double Chunk beanie only takes 1.5 hours or so, and they are made all the better for the 10mm dpns Olivia loaned me.

Photographing oneself wearing a newly minted beanie is helped by the medication, self-administered, found in 4 litre containers thoughtfully provided by Morris of Rutherglen. I am harbouring a small bug in the respiratory system. Nothing I can't drown.

Thanks for your words of encouragement concerning the serious leave miscalculation. I'm way beyond lists - the spreadsheets of to-dos are multi-level and multi-page. After about 15 seconds of arm flapping many items were immediately wiped off the lists; like promoting SnB, Knit 1 Blog 1 and Canberra Knitters through the many beginner knitting courses on offer in Canberra in term 3, and product development with The Shopping Sherpa. I still have to prepare a (non-knitting) workshop for Saturday week, recruit and train staff, and about a million other things.

I've narrowed down the take-away project to one of 3 and will probably do a cabled cardigan, either in a gorgeous green Cleckheaton Country, or a thrifty purchase of probable Bendigo aran weight in a natural creamy colour; only it will be longer and a-lined to accommodate the (many)womanly hip measurement. There may be time for tension square making this weekend - or not.

Another thing not being done by tomorrow (the intended deadline) is the Matinee Jacket pattern. Sorry all - it's in such a draft state that it would be irresponsible to publish just yet.

And to update you all on Mum's knitting progress. As of yesterday she's made 61 pairs of wristwarmers in the 4 weeks they've been away and is completely out of yarn (including a small care package I sent up). She's bought a few magazines from a South West Rocks op-shop (it's genetic!) and is having a little knitting rest in anticipation of my arrival with reinforcements.

I'm working on the matinee jacket pattern. I need to resize it for newborn and 6-12 month sizes, then I'll stick it up on the blog. Promise. It'll be a week or two because I've got a slip stitch pattern requests to work out as well.

The WIP basket is shrinking, which is a Good Thing TM. The aim is to have as many of the WIPs done or reclaimed by the time I go away at the end of July. Wish me luck.

On Tuesday Mum informed me she thought she might not have taken quite enough wool away with her. Apparently the plan to take "her" entire stash was foiled by Dad at the last minute and he'd only pack two large shopping bags full. She's made 10 pairs of wristwarmers in the first 5 days. Good news, though. On Wednesday she found a $2 shop that sells yarn. She's found an acrylic she reckons is better than most and will do until I arrive in a 6 weeks' time with reinforcements. I don't care if it's acrylic if she's buying it herself!

Cook from the Cupboard continues but reading my daily food intake must be about as interesting as I find food preparation to be. I did play freezer roulette again yesterday and found a curried split pea soup with mint (by the taste of it), which wasn't at all bad - pity I have no memory of cooking it or where I got the recipe from. Tomorrow should see the last of the curry made on Saturday.

Matinee Idol

Much chain dragging has happened on these little jackets. Don't know why, really.

The Happy Spider dyed the yarn and 100g is just enough for a simple little jacket size 3-6mos.


The first was the green one with a picot neck and hem and garter stitch sleeve bands and turned under hems on the fronts. I really don't like sewing up, the whole point of knitting these in one piece from the top down is minimal sewing up. The picot edges and front bands make it rather a chore. Also, I'm not so fussed on the ribbon tie for babies. I've sewn this ribbon down so it can't come loose and choke the little bugger. I love the yarn, though, and the reverse stocking stitch is even better than the stocking stitch. There's a small lace detail down either side of the fronts on this one.

The next was this bright yellow and orange number. I changed the pattern to a single rib neckline, garter stitch front and sleeve bands and hem line with 5 little buttons down the front. It's a sunny little number.

Lastly, my favourite pattern variation with moss stitch bands. The yarn is silky soft and more purple than the photo shows. I used vintage buttons that are sweetly irregular.

Baby Chrissie likes the pink one the best.

Be alert, not alarmed and the bliss of emergency knitting

We were evacuated from work today for just on two hours. It was a bomb hoax.

While all around me were losing theirs, I knitted. I stood in a walkway near the library stopping idiots from trying to cross the "do not cross" tape at the library door, took stuff for returns from people, had a quick cup of coffee and helped with a cryptic crossword, and I knitted.

My colleagues were looking at the knitting with some longing and more than one suggested I pass it around for everyone to have a go. My response was that it was knitting, not a joint. Smug is so becoming!

Nearly done with a red matinee jacket. Would finish it tonight but I have to clean and tidy this tip of a house before I am smothered in clutter or contract a really bad disease associated with dust accumulation.

The Finishing Post

Much to report for a week of non-blogging. Well I tried to blog but blogger buggered it up.

I may have fallen off the Use What You Have Month (UWYHM) wagon, but I've still completed several projects from what I had.

We have, for your viewing pleasure:

The Knitting Cape

The pattern is A capella from Knitty.com. My version is not elegant but it's serviceable.

No, knittydoll, unfortunately the Knitting Cape does not confer on the wearer knitting super-powers, like the ability to knit lace in an instant with no tedious unraveling when a YO has been missed! It does, however, keep this knitter toasty warm without all the bulk around the arms that too many layers of clothes adds.

This was knitted from two strands together of the homespun donated by my SIL's godmother in February. It used about 400 g. I will admit to buying the buttons ($1.80 from Big W) because I had no suitable ones at home. You can't see them in the pic because I hadn't sewn them on at that point, but they are now firmly secured and are a lovely mother-of-pearl finish, very thin and about the size of a 10c piece. There are four of them. I added the ruffle on the bottom, knitted in garter stitch with increases in every 4th stitch for 4 rows because cr****t and fringes are forbidden in this house.

I will admit to not really liking this wool when it was donated, but knitted up it's just lovely. The pearly grey colour gives way to mauves through to indigo with some pale pink and crimson.

Java Jarmies, Versions I and II

We rise early in the Taphophile household. We like to greet the day slowly and with generous doses of caffeine. Now that the weather has turned in Canberra, my early morning plunger of coffee is usually tepid after the first cup and stone cold by the third.

As I was finishing the ruffle on the Knitting Cape, I pondered the problem and immediately solved it. What was needed was a cosy for the Bodum. A few calculations later and we have Java Jarmies Version I.

It's double rib with the homespun knitted on two needles with a button hole flap to accommodate the handle and a v-shape in the centre front to accommodate the pouring lip. The bottom 3cm is stitched together.

Version I didn't have quite enough length in the button hole flap (only 6 stitches). Version II has 12 stitches which is too long. Version III will have 8.

Now there's one for work and one for home and have to create them for the other sizes and styles of coffee presses in the house. It works really well and the coffee stays at a drinkable temperature for about an hour, even in the arctic reaches of the kitchen.

Cap for Claire

A member of my work team loved the donated yarn so much she demanded I knit her a cap. She also demanded a jumper but that was never going to happen even had there been enough wool.

I used the Mark Thrailkill's Watch Cap pattern again and it worked a treat. The model here is Baby Chrissie. There's about 150g of the donated handspun left. Not sure what it will be yet.

Matinee Idols

The handbag usually contains a matinee jacket or other small and portable item of knitting. These two are the latest versions.

The aqua is sweet and the yellow is really very buttery. There will be more of these in the months to come as they are knitted in one piece from the top down on a circular needle and after the sleeves it's all plain sailing. Also, stash contains an awful lot of 3ply.

Beau's Beanie

Beau is the boy-manager of the Starbucks which is the SnB and BookCrossing venue. He is a lovely man who is very supportive of both groups so I thought he needed a little knitterly gift. This was knitted from the leftover Wedding Hat yarn to Needle Beetle's Sea Cap pattern.

He whipped it out of the bag this afternoon and stuck it straight on. He appeared delighted with it and it fitted quite well. Don't know about you, but I get very nervous giving knitted gifts, so his response was quite a relief.

Several things have been started, unravelled, restarted, unravelled and chucked in a box and some progress. More later.

Baby Bitch

Tonight's baby SnB was great fun. Yes, they always are, but it was lovely having an intimate gathering after our megabitches of the last couple of months. Just the 7 of us and one newbie *waves at Knittydoll*, and all bar one, knit-bloggers.

We had no FO celebrations tonight, but Irene came close with the sideways scarf.

I did have an FO today though. The red baby jacket is done and on its way to baby Penelope in Brisbane. Here's the whole thing and a close up because I love the little triangular buttons.

Vital Statistics:

Knitted in 3 ply Bendigo baby nylon, about 100g. Size to 12mos.
Knitted on bamboo 3mm circular needle, top down. The only sewing up was the sleeves and sewing on the buttons. No sweat.

If you think taking a full fortnight to knit this is a slow process, please be aware that I knitted from the sleeves down at traffic lights and while walking around shopping, standing in queues etc, and through one staff meeting. I had to restrain myself from sitting at home and finish it in an evening so that I would have no-brain knitting for walking around shopping, standing in queues for sushi and staff meetings. I'm doing another in a pale aqua and will probably do another red one as well. The push is on to deplete the baby stash.

I'm about to add photos to some previous blogs. So for shots of the Butch Hats click here and here, the little brown teacosy here and the twins' kaleidoscope bracelets here.