Long time, no see…

March 17, 2014October 5, 20212 Comments

Hey y’all!

So sorry for the long absence. I’ve been feeling a bit lacking in the mojo area for my hand sewn wardrobe and so I haven’t actually sewn myself anything for a long time. I’ve found that by trying to turn a passion into a business, I’ve made sewing a chore rather than something I’m excited to do. I haven’t had much success unfortunately with my hand sewn bags and I’m seriously thinking of perhaps giving the whole thing away once I get through the fabric stash. I have a very substantial fabric stash however so it won’t be tomorrow. 😉 I have done one market and only sold 4 items, the total of which didn’t even add up to my stall fee. 😦 I have another market this weekend so we’ll see how that goes. I’m focusing mostly on my crochet toys for the market on Sunday as it’s going to be very child oriented. That being said, I’m suffering quite badly from RSI (and potential carpal tunnel) in my wrist so crocheting is a bit hard. I also need to finish a crochet blanket that needs to be gifted on Saturday too so not much rest for my obviously wicked wrist. 😦

However, just because I haven’t been sewing, doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting! My enthusiasm for this craft has yet to wane. Looking through my Ravelry project page there are a lot of items I haven’t blogged. My oldest FO’s were some baby accessories but as they haven’t been gifted yet, I won’t blog about them. Next oldest is a hat, and I have some other hats I’ve completed so maybe I’ll make this post about hats. Yes, that sounds like a plan. I have six in total so grab a bevvy, we might be here a while. 😉

#1 – My Star Crossed Slouchy Beret – Ravelry notes here.

The pattern is called ‘Star Crossed Slouchy Beret‘ by Natalie Larson and I’ve knit it twice before for my colleagues at my last job. I liked the pattern and decided that I would finally make one for myself. I used a beautiful hand-dyed yarn by Augustbird on her Hearty Aran base. Augustbird yarn is dyed in the Adelaide Hills so it’s a lovely local product. My favourite colour is purple and the various shades in the Ripe colourway were just beautiful. I love this hat! Unfortunately when I finished it at the end of October last year, it was already getting too warm for hats so it got put away for this year.

#2 – Oak Trail Cloche – Ravelry notes here.

This pattern is called ‘Oak Trail‘ by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting fame. The pattern is from Alana’s beautiful pattern book ‘Botanical Knits’. I knit it up in a Bendigo Woollen Mills yarn called Harvest in the Laurel colourway; the leftovers of my Antrorse sweater. This hat has a really unique construction; you knit the band that goes around the head first, then pick up stitches along it’s edge to work up the body of the hat. It was a good challenge and was the first time I had ever picked up stitches. That being said, I did have to frog it and reknit a few times and by the end I was really frustrated with it and just wanted it finished. I think as it had a few new techniques in it it tripped me up a few times. Once I was on track though I burned through it. I like to think I’ll knit this one again but it won’t be anytime soon! 😉 It is really warm and again, I finished this at the end of December so it’s packed away ready for winter.

#3 – Cotton Lace Beret – Ravelry notes here.

This pattern is called ‘Soft Linen Lace Beret‘ by Meg Myers. I knit mine in cotton hence my different project name. The cotton was an 8 ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills. It knit up with a lovely definition but unfortunately has stretched out of shape after just one wearing. I chose the cotton so it would be a lighter hat I could wear over the warmer months but it keeps slipping off my head now. 😦 Really disappointing as it’s a beautiful hat. Maybe I’ll do it in a wool some time but again, this one was frogged three or four times so not anytime soon! 🙂

#4 – Silky Swift – Ravelry notes here.

This pattern is called ‘Swift‘ by Shannon Cook and it’s from the pattern book ‘JOURNEY’ by Shannon and her friend Jane Richmond. You’ll likely remember I was gifted this book after test knitting the Onward shawl. I knit this up in a Moda Vera yarn called Silken Soft which is 90% cotton and 10% silk. I knit this on smaller needles than suggested as I didn’t want to get caught out with a hat that stretched out again like the previous cotton hat but now I think it’s a bit too small. 😦 I haven’t given it a full day’s wear yet so I’ll have to wait and see. It fits on my head regardless so it’s all good! The pattern is really simple but soooo effective and it knits up really fast. I knit it as part of the JOURNEY KAL Shannon was hosting in her Ravelry group and it was fun to follow along and see everyone’s projects as they finished. 🙂

#5 – Dad’s Barley – Ravelry notes here.

This pattern is called ‘Barley‘ by tincanknits. This hat was a special one as it has a bit of a story behind it. My dad has suffered from alopecia (hair loss) for most of his life and barely has a hair on his body. For years he’s worn a wig just to fit in and make himself more comfortable around people. Recently, he’s retired and decided that he’d had enough of wearing the wig and unceremoniously binned it. My whole family supported him wholeheartedly in this choice and I’m really just so proud of him. 🙂 So, since he now has nothing to keep his head warm, he subtly hinted that he’d like a beanie. So, a beanie he must have! This was knit up in Cascade 220 Superwash in the Bitter Chocolate colourway. I knit this in just a day after trying out two different patterns (and nearly a week of knitting!) before going back to a favourite of mine. It seemed to turn out quite big though (I knit the Adult L size) and I said he should give it back and I can frog and reknit it smaller if he needed but I haven’t seen it back yet. 🙂 Success? I guess so! He seemed happy with it so we’ll see if I spot him wearing it! 🙂

#6 – Ferns – Ravelry notes here.

This pattern is called ‘Ferns‘ by Alana Dakos. It is from Alana’s newly released sequel to ‘Botanical Knits’, ‘Botanical Knits 2’. The hat is knit up in Patons Jet yarn in a nice dark gunmetal grey. I had it left over from who-knows-what and turns out I had enough for this hat! I was chuffed. The yarn is a 70% wool/30% alpaca blend and it’s lovely and soft and warm. This took me 3 days to knit but the cable rows were quite time consuming and taxing on my sore wrist. I only finished this one off today and I’m so happy with it. It’s a great pattern (all Alana’s are!) and I’ll definitely be knitting this one again.

So there you go, all caught up on hats! I’ll hopefully be back soon to fill you in on my other FO’s and hopefully a WIP Wednesday in a couple of days. I’m looking for work again so soon I won’t have as much time to knit, sew or blog but I definitely want to make the blogging more regular as I’m always making something. 🙂 If you’ve read this far, well done! Thank you for sticking with me, I really appreciate you choosing to spend your time reading my blog. 🙂

FO: The Laurel Antrorse

January 3, 20146 Comments

And for my second FO today, the Antrorse sweater by Shannon Cook.

This pattern is from the brand new book JOURNEY by Shannon Cook and Jane Richmond. I was lucky enough to be able to test knit the Onward shawl also by Shannon. And as a very generous thank you gift, Shannon gifted me the JOURNEY ebook and along with a lot of others, Antrorse caught my eye and was added to my queue almost immediately. The pattern is available in a print & ebook set C$26.95 (~AU$29.17 + postage), ebook only C$21.95 (~AU$23.75) or individual Ravelry download C$6.95 (~AU$7.52).

This is my second completed knitted sweater, but the first with sleeves. And as scary as knitted in sleeves sounded, they really weren’t that hard. The Antrorse is suggested to be knit in a worsted weight yarn. I used Bendigo Woollen Mills Harvest 10 ply yarn in the colourway Laurel. The Harvest yarn is a blend of 82% wool/10% alpaca/4% bamboo/4% viscose. I has a gorgeous flecked appearance that lends an individuality to the garment. I think this yarn is actually more of an aran weight but I got gauge first time so either it is more worsted or my gauge is really tight (probably more likely). Whichever it was it worked up really quickly. I completed this sweater in 14 days!

This sweater is supposed to be worn with I think it was 2-3″ of positive ease so I made the size to fit a 44″ inch bust which gave a finished bust measurement of about 47″. Probably the only thing I would change about this sweater is to add waist shaping. I’m not really at a level where I can do that with my knitting though so it’s just knit straight with no decreases coming down from the bust. The only issue I had with this pattern was with the stitch count on my size and with further investigation I noticed that all the larger sizes seemed to have incorrect stitch counts in the pattern. They didn’t add up. If you’re really interested, you can see my full explanation on my Ravelry notes here. I just soldiered on and my finished item and all appears correct so I guess I’m good! I made the arms longer than suggested as I like my sweater sleeves to cover my wrist and the top of my hand. The pattern said 16.5″ length but I went up to 17 3/8″ length.

The sweater has a funnel neckline that fastens with buttons. As you can see I haven’t quite got up to the buttons part. I had a quick look when I was in Spotlight last and none of the buttons seemed right. I may need to go and have a hunt on Etsy for some more unique, stand out buttons. Anyone have any suggestions for great buttons?

I just love the chevron pattern that works it’s way down the front of the sweater. Antrorse means “directed forward and upward” so the motif fits well. 🙂

Very, very pleased with this sweater. It is very warm however so unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be wearing this much until it is very cold out. Although, it’s cool and breezy today so I might give it a crack when I go out to post an Etsy sale. See how I go! 😉

FO: The Onward Shawl by Shannon Cook

November 6, 20133 Comments

I’ve had this one for soooooo long but couldn’t blog or Ravelry about it as it was a top secret test knit! I’m so glad I can now share this one as the book was released to pre-order and ebooks became available yesterday. 🙂 This is the Onward shawl by Shannon Cook aka luvinthemommyhood:

This shawl is a part of the new book JOURNEY by Shannon and Jane Richmond. I LOVE this book! I can see myself making everything in this! I already have the Antrorse sweater in my queue! Pity it’s coming into summer here…

This pattern was just AMAZING to knit! So simple and great TV knitting. There’s nothing hard in it, just knits, purls and yarn overs. The pattern is really easy to memorise and you can just fly through it. Towards the end there were a lot of stitches and it was getting a bit heavy and awkward on my lap but I loved every minute! 🙂 My finished shawl measured 176cm wingspan by 90cm depth. It’s taller than me! 🙂

The pattern calls for a 10 ply (worsted weight) 100% wool yarn as it needs to be wet blocked but I used an 85% wool and 15% angora mix from Bendigo Woollen Mills. The yarn was a limited offering called Cameo and I used the Mist colourway. When I ordered the yarn I thought it was 100% wool but I was wrong! 😦 I was so scared I’d get into trouble as it was a test knit but the different blend didn’t affect the outcome in any way. The stitch definition was wonderful and the angora content made the yarn so soft. When I’ve worn the shawl everyone wants to touch it because it is just so soft! 🙂 Sooooo sooooofffffftttt… 😉

I just love the modern styling of Shannon’s designs. I have a thing for geometrics and the arrows really do it for me in this pattern. Arrow designs feature on the Antrorse sweater too so you can see why I have that in my queue! Very generously, Shannon gifted me a copy of the ebook on Ravelry as a thank you for participating in the test knit. Thank you so much Shannon if you’re reading! I really appreciate it! My Ravelry page for my Onward Shawl can be found here.

So there’s my first FO for this week. I have finished my Alpinia cardigan too, I just need to take some pictures to go along with the post. 🙂 Hopefully will have it up shortly.