Startitis

Whoa, what’s this?? Why it’s a new project!

River stole, setup rows

Closeup of setup rows

It’s the River stole from Rowan 38. I’m knitting this using some Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Kid Mohair in Millet from the stash. The JS mohair is heavier than the prescribed Kidsilk Haze, and has smaller yardage compared to KSH. So I’m a bit worried I might run out of yarn. I only have 3 balls, 87m (95yd) each. Well we’ll see…

I’m using 6.5mm plastic circular needles, I think the brand name was ‘Birch’ or something like that. I like how the needles are fused together to the cords, which means the cords can’t snap off the needles. (I had a bad, bad, bad experience with a pair of cheap circular needles in the past — the cords snapped off the needles after using it for only 1 row!) The only bad thing about this circs is that the cords are still rather stiff, since it’s only the first time I’m using them.

I started this yesterday, after seeing how great the finished products look on the knitalong. And I’ve just been in a very big mood to start new projects this past few days! Not that I’ve finished Kiri shawl and the children’s poncho or anything! I’ve also been itching to start on the lace scarf. Oh dear.

But I haven’t completely neglected my other projects. See, I’ve finished the body of the poncho! Just need the hood now.

Starting on hood

13 September 2005

Stash Acquisitions

Oh what a weekend! First on Friday I discovered that the new Fall Knitty is up. Yay!! I really like this issue, there are lots of cardigan patterns! I’ve been looking for a good pattern to knit my first adult cardigan, so this is great!! I also love bubby, I’m definitely going to give that a go.

Then I discovered the YARN magazine, a new Australian knitting/crochet magazine! They have their first issue up on their website, with all the articles and patterns available in PDF. The articles and columns look pretty interesting. It really is great to see another Australian mag about knitting, and it would certainly be nice to see more of the knitting scene in Australia.

Saturday I went to the city to visit Lincraft and the Tapestry Craft. You can be sure there were some stash acquisitions! 🙂 First, there’s this Lang Moana yarn, which I’m thinking of making a lace scarf, perhaps Branching Out from Knitty.

Lang Moana

Lang Moana closeup

It has quite an interesting texture — a ribbony mesh-like yarn, light and airy. Looks like it would drape well. I hope so.

Then, I got this Filatura Di Crosa Zara merino yarn, which is destined to be a cardigan for Annette. It’s so soft!

Zara merino yarn

And then, I went past Dymocks and saw this in the Crafts section!!

At Knit's End

Woohoo!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it! At Knit’s End by the Yarn Harlot!! In a bookshop, in Sydney!! When the book first came out, I looked for it in various bookstores, to no avail. I resigned myself to the fact that knitting is just not that big a thing in Australia, and that for me good knitting books can only be acquired through Amazon. But now, here it is, in my very own living room! Yay!! Been reading it bit by bit since I got it, and I just love it! (See I live among people who still think that knitting is only for grandmas, so reading this book makes me feel like, there are people out there who understand how I feel!)

The other thing that I was looking for in my trip to the city was a longer circular needle for my Kiri shawl, but alas, none of the craft shops have it on stock. Oh well… maybe I’ll just have to order online, or just see how far I can go on the shawl with just a 60cm circs? We’ll see.

This weekend was also the first time I’m selling yarns through eBay. 🙂 Managed to sell all of the five items that I put up for auction, and I’m quite happy with the results. Thank you to all who participated in the auction! Selling for the first time, I must say that it can be quite an obsession 🙂 As the ending time neared, I would be checking my items list to see how many bids they’ve got, every a few minutes! I would ask the husband to check as well, when he’s on the computer. And he would say, “No, no changes in the last 2 seconds.” 😀

Overall, great weekend I’d say. 🙂

12 September 2005

On my needles

I was going to start this knit blog by cataloging the items that I have knitted in the past. But then there would be a lot of them, and many are probably not that interesting anymore now. So I thought I’d better just post pictures of the items on my Flickr account instead, and I’d just write about what’s on my needles now. That would be more exciting! So here goes…

First, we have the Kiri shawl. I’ve seen various Kiris on the knit blogs around, and I just love the way it looks. I started this a few weeks ago, although I’ve only managed to work on it here and there. I’m knitting this with Jo Sharp Classic DK in Lilac, which I got through eBay. Here’s what it looks like after about 4-5 repeats:

Kiri at about 4-5 repeats

I’m using my 60cm 5mm circs, and it is now clear that I will need longer needles. Hmm.. 150cm long maybe?

And here’s a close up of the lace. I love the way the fern leaf pattern looks!

Kiri lace close up

I’m not quite sure about the colour… it’s kind of halfway between purple-pink and brown. I was hoping it would be more like purple/pink, since that’s what I thought lilac is. Some days it looks like purple, some days it looks just like brown. Sigh. But it’s growing on me.

The other thing that I’m working on now is a poncho for Annette. This poncho is inspired by the Children’s Poncho from Knitting Pure and Simple, except that I’m working out the pattern myself, and I’m adding a fair isle hearts pattern around the bottom edge, which is taken from the Cheesylove pattern from Knitty. I like to mix and match! 🙂

Here’s what it looks like at the moment. I’m just halfway through the fair isle.

Fair isle Poncho

I’m also hoping to add a hood to this poncho, but I haven’t quite worked out the pattern yet. Hope it’ll work out.

6 September 2005

Knitting Box

Welcome to my knitting blog. In this blog I’d like to document my knitting adventures — the good, the bad, and the … err, interesting.

I learnt to knit about two years ago, when some friends at church got into knitting scarfs, and then taught me to knit. I didn’t like it at first, it felt like I was juggling two giant logs that they call “needles” to make loops out of a thread. It was such an effort just to knit a row. So I put it down and decided I didn’t like knitting.

But that’s before I discovered knitting blogs. Oh the beautiful knitted creations! The wonder of seeing a project develop! The awe inspiring skills and tricks and tips! The comraderie!

Through a knit blog I discovered Debbie Stoller’s Stitch ‘n Bitch book, and it was just what I needed to start me off in knitting. I love reading about the techniques, the great patterns, the history of knitting, and my favourite, tips on how to fix mistakes. The book also contains web addresses of various knitters’ blogs! Inspiration: check.

Then I had baby Annette. One thing that I loved about getting a girl was that I could have fun dressing her up. Motivation: check.

I’m good to go! 🙂

21 August 2005