52 Weeks, 50 Items

I started my last blog post with this paragraph:

I've spent the year studying my brains out, and Facebooking rather than blogging. But I have realised, now that hectic year is over, that I have been doing things I have been proud of all year, that could be recorded more systematically. Hence the fresh start - 52 Weeks, 50 Things. I'm going to post things that I accomplish that I am proud of. It may include items made, mended, repurposed, altered to fit, or even written. This is actually the start of Week Three of my plan, but that's the next post.

It's now Week 5. I probably won't actually finish anything this week, as although I have knitted most of one sock, I'm in Adelaide for a few days now to attend a friend's wedding, and it's unlikely that I will complete the pair!

But:

Week 1, Item 1

I so rarely get my act together to actually mend something that for the purposes of this next year, mending is going to count. These were brand new jeans, torn when George rescued my disintegrating suitcase a couple of months ago as it fell apart on the way home from - actually, Adelaide. That was a mid-semester break. Now I'm here for a wedding. I love Adelaide but I must admit that I don't normally visit quite so frequently! So I had a good go at 'darning' these jeans. I must say I am moderately proud of the result. I never darn, for a start. And it is actually damn near invisible - I lightening the photo so that you can see the stitching, but in real life both cloth and thread are a very deep, dark black.

Item 2, Week 2

A nightshirt for George. Embarrassingly, despite having measured him carefully, I then went and carelessly cut out the largest size, which is at least one size too big. I had also carefully measured the extra needed to add to the pattern to turn it from a Tshirt to a nightshirt - and then carelessly made it much too long. It is however comfortable. It also was the first time I'd made a whole thing on my sewing machine in about nine months. It also reminded me that I hate, hate sewing jersey. Yes, I used a ballpoint needle. And an appropriate stitch. And I still hated doing it. And yes, the photo is blurry. Everything hates me, too :)

Week 3, Item 3

Socks for George. Patonyle, the usual generic toeup pattern that I generally use. He loves them. They were pleasant to knit.

Week 4, Item 4

Tubular socks knitted in Woolmeise sock wool. Boring, boring boring. For someone who is very sensitive about how things feel on his feet, therefore made tubular to avoid arguments about size - because no size is ever 'right' for him.

I suspect by the end of Week 6 I may have finished the socks I am currently working on. But then production of things needs to speed up as I have some small Christmas things to knit.

And I intend to make myself some summer dresses. All of the above have been for other people, which is fun, but I have so much fabric and a renewed desire to sew.

For the next few days, however, I intend to enjoy Adelaide and the wedding of my friend. And eat and drink till I burst.

One Word To Rule Them All

I've read a few blogs around the place about choosing one word to inspire them throughout the year. Apparently many bloggers have done this before. I did idly trace through some links to a website where this idea may have originated, even downloaded the 'worksheet' that was meant to help you define your special word. I then read the four page worksheet and realised that I would be wasting an hour or so to whittle down choices of a word that I would then completely fail to live up to, just like I do with all but the vaguest resolutions.

Damn it all, I thought in disgust, what I need to do is stop dithering around and FOCUS.

Oh, look, there's a word that might be quite useful in organising myself this year. Oops, it seems like I accidentally picked out an appropriate word while railing against the idiocy of trying to pick a word.

So, completely against the grain, I am declaring that my word for the year will be FOCUS.

Focus, to me, includes concentrating on what I actually WANT to do. Obviously there will be things that I NEED to do. But where possible I only want to embark on projects that fulfil a desire including both making and the result.

Despite the post in December about sewing, I realised that I had been dithering about all over the place NOT sewing. I cut out those two patterns, spent some time tissue fitting and writing down alteration stuff, washing and ironing appropriate fabric. Then every time I considered cutting out the fabric and making those alterations, my mind turned into a butterful and my attention was caught by something shiny. Once I started focussing on what it was that was preventing me from sewing these dresses, in fabric that I like and that I actually want to wear, I realised that I did not actually want to sew them. I would have bought those dresses but the process was putting me off.

Consequently I have packed those patterns away and picked some others from the stash, and will have another go at sewing. I feel quite OK about that - I wasted about six weeks of not sewing, but actually applying FOCUS helped me to work out why I had wasted that time. Now I suppose I may have to provide future proof that sewing has happened, so here's hoping!

I have done some baking for the first time in ages - Peasant Bread - which was quite delicious and very easy. It's a no-knead bread that was quite literally easy to mix by hand (in this lovely rustic mixing bowl) even with my weak wrists. You bake it in a Pyrex bowl, which I did, though I might try it in a bread tin next time to see if it gets crustier.

I also started knitting a new little shawl once I finished the Nuvem last year, It is another iteration of  this shawl but this time in a semi solid Woolmeise sock yarn, of which I have 150g so it will be a bit bigger. It's my first time knitting with Woolmeise and it is a bit odd.lovely colour but although being the usual sock mixture of wool and synthetic it feels and knits rather like a cotton yarn. Which does not matter at all as there is no need for gauge in a shawl but I did start off trying to knit socks with it and my gauge was all over the place. It is not really pink like this picture, but a lovely red, I just couldn't get the light right at the time.

2014 and Stuff

Looking back over the last year I realise that I haven't done a lot of things that resulted in Finished Objects. Slow and happy crafting beat rapid gratification.

Oddly this seems to be the only pair of socks I have knitted this year. Could that be true? It's the only photo I can find, anyway. I think it was with a New Zealand sock wool. I call them Clown socks but I can't remember if that was the actual name of the colourway or not. I didn't even get round to putting them on Ravelry. For George, who wears them regularly.

Now this is on Ravelry. It took a VERY LONG TIME. Hence the reference to slow knitting! It finally got finished on holiday in the middle of the year. It is so fine that it fits through my wedding ring - which wasn't intentional but is a good party trick.

This is also on Rav. I haven't worn it yet, as I finished it just before Christmas and it hasn't been cold enough since then, but I look forward to getting the chance. It is greener/bluer than in the photo, which accentuates the purple which is in there but is less dominant in real life - it was very hard to photograph.

As well as slow knitting, I have been embracing slow cooking. Some of the slow cooking is actually quite fast cooking, but I'm using the term to mean more emphasis on fresh ingredients and home cooking and a lot less on processed food and lazy shortcuts. (Using a barbeque is the sort of the shortcut that I consider to be smart not lazy!) Most nights dinner is barbequed protein with salad and nuts. No, we have not gone paleo, and bread or potatoes feature with some of these meals. Risottos, simple Asian dishes with rice, the occasional couscous salad all get a look in from time to time too. The winter saw many hearty casseroles/pot roasts.

There were also holidays.

To Adelaide, where we saw in the New Year at the Hilton, and visited the Hans Heysen museum among other places, where I photographed this plant.

To the Gold Coast over Easter.

During the winter, a trip to Central and South Australia taking in Coober Pedy, Alice Springs and ending up back in Adelaide again.

And then a week in Merimbula to wind down in December.

Most of the year was spent studying for my first year of a Bachelor of Letters at Monash University. I studied Medieval and Renaissance History, and two literature subjects. This year I am doing all literature, a total of six subjects, and I cannot wait! And this year I will try to blog a bit about my studies instead of leaving the blog lonely for months at a time.

I Finished Something

I finally finished my Nuvem that I started as soon as I finished the Citron shawl in July. A very long knit but an easy one when you've got it established, good for TV or car knitting. The technical bits are here. It's knitted in a lovely blend of wool and silk that was a pleasure to handle and will be gorgeous to wear. It's slightly longer than I am high and weighs very little.

It was very hard to get the colours right in a photo. This one is more or less right. I think it looks like a lovely wooly silky seaweedy thing.

Citron Blue

This shawl pattern is actually called Citron Grand, but to me 'citron' sounds as though it should be yellow or orange or green, and obviously it's blue!

I knitted this on and off for months. It's an easy pattern but slow work, especially in very fine yarn. I enjoyed knitting it, and would make it again in a thicker yarn, perhaps sock weight. I knitted this one in Morris & Sons Laceweight, which is actually more of a cobweb weight, which is REALLY REALLY fine.

Despite the size (the picture of it on a bed is after blocking, on a queen sized bed) it only took 62 grams to knit!  Which is about a squillion metres.

I finished it off on the trip to Alice Springs and Adelaide in July. It possibly the only time I have ever used an iron in a hotel room - to block it!

And although I did not intend to produce a wedding ring shawl, when I wore it at Fibre Forum last month someone commented that it was so fine that it probably counted as one, So I gave it a go. And it does go through my wedding ring! This picture of it (photographic proof) was taken at Gloria Jeans in Box Hill at a knitting group meeting - they call it my party trick :)

It's as light as a feather and squashes into a tiny ball that can be carried about in a bag if required. Love it!!  But I am never knitting with cobweb again. I;m knitting something else in real* laceweight now, which is still very fine, but preferable. Goodness knows when that project will be finished but I willl photograph it when it is.

Baby Bear wanted a warm beanie to take to Europe with her for January and February.  I had a big bag of yummy skeins of handspun in a variety of colours donated by Yarnivorous when she left Melbourne a few years ago.  She expressed a desire for the beanie to be made from a selection of appropriate thick warm yarns, and this is the result.

It's just a very plain beanie with a double fold-up brim for extra warmth and a pom-pom.  I used The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd which gives sensible basic patterns for things like beanies, gloves, jumpers, etc based on the weight of the yarn.  Yes, I had to do a tension square!  And then another one because the first time I cast on I obviously had too many stitches!

Baby Bear says it is nice and warm, she loves the colours, and the 11 year old boy she is staying with (obviously, a whole family, not just a boy!) likes to steal it!

I don't finish things very often these days, but this was a quick knit for a specific purpose and therefore I actually managed to get it done.

Enough With the Beaded Knitting Already!

I think I might now be a bit sick of working through Betsy Beads, fun as it has been.  I'm not too pleased with my latest effort - my fault, not the instructions or anything - and I want to move on to something else.  But I heartily recommend the book as it is chock full of fun things to try and good instructions.

This time I made a gathered beaded bracelet.  I think I twisted it accidentally at the end and I'm not wild about the way it looks, and unpicking the relevant bits don't really interest me.  It may be usable in another craft piece at some point in the future - nothing need be wasted.

This is lace weight cotton and size 8 beads.

I do actually have a major piece of beaded knitting still lined up, but not like this.  I want to do a shawl which will have some beads added to it using the crochet hook method.  But I don't want to start that for a couple of weeks as it's a biggish project and I don't want the distraction of Christmas and a possible holiday afterwards to get in the way.

And now for something completely different.

Just to prove that even big kids like construction toys:

'I was tidying up upstairs and I got distracted.'

And we have pigeons nesting in the passionfruit vine directly the side of our patio.  It is rather cute watching the little baby pigeons get bigger.  I took this photo a week ago and they are bigger already.  The mum is very devoted.

Owing to complicated family issues, Christmas is still slightly up in the air, though I am still intending that we will spend it with George's sisters-in-law and the children that are currently in Australia.  It will the first Christmas without their mum and that will not be too easy.

George and I are hoping to go to Adelaide for a week after Christmas, but again family circumstances make it a bit hard to gauge whether we can actually go or not.  Nothing is booked yet (except for a dinner date in Glenelg on December 28th!).

Knitted Beaded Beads

More experiments inspired by Betsy Beads - I'm getting my money's worth from this book!

I made knitted beaded beads for this necklace, using instructions from the book.  Although there are several different types of beaded beads in the book, I essentially ended up using only three - rolled, beaded-end soft bead; rolled, knit-side-out soft bead; and rolled, purl-side-out soft bead. There is a cloisonne bead in between each knitted bead, alternating white and black.  I experimented with some others - there is one slightly larger rolled bead but I decided they used too many beads, considering that I had a limited selection of size 6 seed beads of appropriate colour ways to make this necklace look coherent. (Like the last necklace, this is made using 4ply cotton and size 6 seed beads).  I had a go at knitting bead covers for large round beads but couldn't make them look neat enough - I will have another go at that at some stage but there are other techniques in the book that I want to play with, so I don't know when I will go back to them.



This is an example of a rolled, purl-side-out soft beads.

On the left is a rolled, knit-side-out soft bead, and on the right is a rolled, beaded-end soft bead. And you can see one of the cloisonne beads.

And I hope to wear it tomorrow with a plain black Tshirt and the upcycled skirt from the last post.

Beaded Knitting Necklace, Dog Bed and Refashioning

I have actually accomplished a couple of things in the last week or so.

I am trying various things from the book Betsy Beads by Betsy Hershberg, as mentioned in a previous post about knitting necklaces.  This is the only thing I have completed so far, as now I am knitting a pile of beads to string together, and they are time-consuming.  This is knitted with 4 ply pink cotton and size 6 seed beads, in a purl I-cord (as opposed to the more 'normal' knit I-cord).  According to the book, doing I-cord in purl forces it to spiral.  My tension obviously isn't tight enough, even though I am using tiny needles (something like 1.5mm, can't remember exactly) with the cotton.  It did spiral a bit, but I still have to twist it a few times to produce the desired spirally look when I wear the necklace.  I didn't do a great job of attaching the magnetic clasp, sadly, though that doesn't show so much when you are wearing it, but it looks nice on and I am quite pleased with it.  Pictures of the knitted beads to come, eventually.

I've been meaning to make Sirius a new dog bed for ages, having bought this cheerful polar fleece some months ago.  She eats her beds, and I don't resent it when it's polar fleece, which is cheap, so I make her one every couple of years.  This is bigger than the previous ones, and it's a bit like a nest.

I think she likes it!  She likes to have a bed under my sewing table in the family room, even though she can't use it when I am actually sewing.

I also did a ridiculously easy refashioning project.  I was culling my wardrobe recently and picked a few summer dresses to donate to op shops.  This one was in that pile, but I realised that I really liked the fabric, and I was only ditching the dress because the top fitted badly (it either rode up, making me look heavily pregnant, or pulled down, which exposed half my bra).   So...

 Quick chop of skirt from bodice, and removal of a couple of inches of it to tidy it up and make it above ankle length rather than scraping the ground.  Pictured with trusty scissors and the roll of black elastic that will provide a waistband.

A quick pin, a careful zig-zag, and a skirt, voila!!

Knitted Armour?

When I was at the Fibre Forum in Geelong I was fascinated by some knitted necklaces that a couple of people were wearing, in a variety of colours and textures and lengths.  It turned out that they weren't I-cord (French knitting) as I thought they were, but simple narrow strips of stocking stitch which curled over on itself.  They had got the pattern from Dairing, a specialist yarn supplier in Melbourne - though 'recipe' would be a better word.  As it happened, Dairing were one of the suppliers selling stuff at the Forum and, although I had been told how to do it and variations that could be done and could have done it myself, I bought a kit from them containing several patterns, a cone of bronze metallic yarn, a cone of silver metallic yarn and a cone of  'yarn' that was a narrow ribbon of reflective tape (like the sort of thing you find on backpacks and cycling gear).

Basically you cast on 8 stitches and knit in stocking stitch until it is long enough for your purposes.  You can knit with one strand of yarn or as many as you wish - change needle sizes to make it tigh or loose, from necklace to necklace or within the same piece - use beads if you wish - and I'm sure there are LOTS more variations that I haven't explored yet. I've so far only used to yarns that came with the kit but I want to experiment with others now.

 This is actually a photo of the necklace below, but I used the flash and it really shows the reflective yarn!

This is the reflective and the silver yarn, heavily beaded with chunky bronze and silver coloured beads - they were actually a mixed bag of spacers.

This is both metallic yarns, knitted on two different sizes of needles to give textural differences between sections.

This is bronze with bronze bicorn beads.

This is all three yarns with the same spacer beads as a couple of pictures above.

And this is all three yarns together on big needles.

It proves to be VERY hard to photograph metallic yarns :(  Sorry that these don't show up very well.

They were fun to make.  I have a book to read called Betsy Beads : Confessions of a Left-Brained Knitter by Betsy Hershberg, which I bought before seeing the pieces at Geelong, which is about very similar things.  I even bought some knitting/crochet cotton and beads to go with them when I bought the book, and I am going to explore that now.

Oh yes, the post is called Knitted Armour because the other piece I have done, which isn't in this post, looks a bit like knitted chainmail.  It needs a chain applied to it which I haven't done yet, so I will photograph and post that one when it's done.