January 2007 – Knitting Box

New Obsessions

Look what I got!

Victorian Lace Today, of course, needs no introduction. You can see the rave review here with lots of snapshots of the projects. It really is a lovely book with lovely patterns, and I also love the fact that this book has lots of patterns for rectangular shawls and scarves. I’m more of a scarf person than a shawl person myself, although I like shawls for special occasions, and unfortunately triangular shawls don’t look very good on me (although this book has one of the most beautiful triangular shawls I have ever seen). For me, I have my eyes on the Melon shawl which is on the front cover. And I’m thinking of making one of the scarves for my mum.

The other book is Iro Iro Nuigurumi (ISBN 4579109783), which has the cutest nuigurumi (rag dolls) patterns. Here are some of my favourites.

While doing a bit of research on the Internet, I came across Aranzi Aronzo, the company and designers that produced this book, and found that they also have a shop with their own line of fabrics, appliques, stationery, etc. So. Much. Cuteness!

30 January 2007

Endpaper Mitts

I love how these turned out!

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Grignasco Bambi in turquoise (#193) and pale green (#189)
Needles: Bamboo DPNs 2.00mm for the ribbing, and 2.75mm for the rest
Modifications: None
Other notes: I did the increases using the yarn over method that Eunny described here, which was new to me, and I think it does make it look neater.

And here’s the state of pomatomus, one sock down, one sock to go. The yarn is Celia’s Basket handpainted sock yarn. It’s more variegated than what I originally intended for these socks, but I quite like it. So far there are no crazy pooling, and I think the colours are blending quite nicely.

Oh, and thank you very much for all the sewing book suggestions! I checked at my local library and found that they have the Reader’s Digest sewing book (one of the older editions), which I’ve borrowed and flipped through. It looks good indeed, and I think I’ll need to get myself a copy. I’d love to do more sewing this year, although I won’t neglect knitting that’s for sure! 🙂

14 January 2007

Holiday crafting

I’m back! Well, I didn’t actually go anywhere, I’m still here, just relaxing and enjoying time with the family. Hubby is taking some time off work, and it’s been good having him around. We’re not traveling anywhere though, most of the time is spent at home, although we’re also trying to do the be a tourist in your own city thing. So far we’ve taken Annette to see the Sydney Opera House and the Coathanger (a.k.a. the Sydney Harbour Bridge). Very touristy.

And there have been some crafting too. First, I finished these hats for my nephews before Christmas.

On the left, is a Cupcake Hat for my 8 month old nephew.
Pattern: Cupcake Hat
Yarn: A mix of woolen yarns

On the right, is for my almost 3 year old nephew.
Pattern: My own fair isle pattern, and following the basic hat recipe from Knitting Rules!
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Silk in white and green

And here’s a summer dress I made for Annette.

The material is from a ladies skirt that I found at the local op shop. The pattern is my adaptation of Burda 3026. It’s an ‘adaptation’ because the original pattern has a hem ruffle (click the link to see what I mean), but I decided to raise the ruffle to make a high waist instead. This is the first sewn garment that I’ve ever made, and I’m very pleased with it! 🙂

After making this dress, it became clear to me that I need to get a proper sewing book. One that’s a good how-to book, and tells me what things are — so that I don’t have to keep referring to “that gathered bit” or “that thingy over there” etc. At the moment I’m thinking Sew U would be a good candidate for clothes making, judging by Amy at Angry Chicken‘s review. (Gosh, as I was writing this, I discovered that Amy had just announced her new book! It looks great and probably just what I need…) But that aside, does anyone have any good sewing how-to books to recommend? Ones that you’ve found useful?

In other news, I have also joined Project Spectrum 2.0, finished the Endpaper Mitts (sneak peek on the Opera House pic above 🙂 ), and started the Pomatomus socks. Pictures soon!

9 January 2007