| Projects for September/October |
[October 21, 2007 @ 8:04pm] |
1) Socks for my Mum's birthday, which I finished on the 1st of October, just in time. My first attempt at socks, so I was pleased with the outcome. Knitted in 100% wool from the stash (they are supposed to be thick - my Mum likes warm bedsocks for the winter)
( 1 picture )
2) Blanket for christmas for a friend. I'm knitting it in 5 strips of 5 blocks to make a patchwork blanket. I finished the first strip yesterday. Knitted in acrylic, since she wants something easy to clean.
3) Snowman. Yes, it's early, but I wanted something fun and fast to knit between other projects. There'll be no pictures until I find some orange yarn for the nose.
4) Dad's sweater. I've finally finished the front and cast on the back. Hopefully it will be done by his birthday in March. It will not be finished for christmas, because Nano just takes up too much time.
5) I dyed some yarn too. My first time dying myself, because I hated the colour. It used to be Rowan Magpie in natural that I found in a charity shop. The skien was all tangled, so I unravelled it, reskiened and then dyed. My skien wrapping isn't great either but it worked well enough. Now a lovely green colour...
( 1 picture )
In reading, I have now read 41 books this year, which will be 42 when I finish The Scarlet Letter. Slightly OT, in honour of starting my English course, my halloween pumpkin this year is Shakespeare:
( 1 picture )
What is everyone else doing? I feel like the only poster... it's lonely.
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| Rec request and knitalong |
[September 11, 2007 @ 11:16am] |
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First of all, I want to ask if anyone can reccomend me a general knitting info book. I've heard good things about Stitch&Bitch and Vogue Knitting, but I'd like people to tell me what they use and if they are useful.
Second, I was thinking that since we're into September and term has started for those of you in high/secondry school or is about to start for those in university/college it might be nice to have a related knitalong. We could maybe have a back-to-school related one (bags, laptop covers, school-stripe scarves etc.) or start early on a christmas/winter knitalong (for christmas presents and the old favourites: scarves, hats and mitts). If anyone would like to do this comment here and I'll try to sort something out :)
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| August FOs and WIPs |
[September 08, 2007 @ 6:41pm] |
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I've had a productive summer. In addition to the baby items I posted about before (occasus got the package yesterday and loved it all) and Tempting, I have knitted up the following.
WARNING: This post is not at all dial-up friendly.
1) DPN case. I wanted a case for my DPNs and notions, since my main needle case isn't very portable. I found some fabric (£5 for a metre) at my local shop and sewed this up. Never again - I hate sewing machines. It is held closed with press studs and has a larger pocket at one end which contains my needle gauge, tape measure, circular needles etc.
( Four pictures )
2) Stitch markers. Last time I used wire but I just tried thread this time and they came out much better. It doesn't show as much and the markers don't catch on my wool any more. The beads come all the way from Italy and Prague - I bought them on holiday this year.
( One picture )
3) Calorimetry. Yes, it's a little early but I don't want to be caught out with a cold head this year. It's my first try with self-striping yarn, short rows and this pattern so I'm pleased with how it came out. Knitted in Wendy Fusion. The button is gold coloured shell with tiny leaves and flowers engraved on it.
( Three pictures )
4) Askew. I haven't finished the back yet and I haven't done any seaming, but I laid the two front pieces out together to show you my progress. Knitted in unidentified yarn from my stash that was in the 'cotton' section, so this is either 100% or close to 100% cotton.
( One picture )
5) Afghan. This is to be my friend's christmas present. She always wanted a patchwork blanket and is going off to uni this year (like me) so I thought this would be the perfect winter gift. I'm knitting it in 5 strips of 5 squares which I'll sew together later. This is the first half of the first strip.
( Two pictures )
In reading, I've come reasonably far in my reading list. I'm about a third of the way through Dracula by Bram Stoker for my first semester and I read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman this morning. I am now 33 books into the ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) 50bookchallenge target so I'm a bit behind schedule but I don't mind. I think I'll catch up.
Apart from those two, I have also read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Brightly Burning by Mercedes Lackey, Exile's Honour by Mercedes Lackey, and Exile's Valour by Mercedes Lackey in the last month. All were excellent books and I would reccomend them to everyone and anyone (and have done :D). The Yarn Harlot's book was the funniest, and cheered me up immensely while I was waiting for exam results. Brightly Burning is darker, I think, than most of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books and I would suggest starting with the Exile books or Arrows of the Queen first, so you can get a feel for the land and read something that includes war, as all the books do, but are slightly more removed at first.
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| Knitting woes unrelated to the actual act or outcome |
[August 22, 2007 @ 5:58pm] |
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I feel the need to vent at the moment over my yarn woes. Basically, I was looking for something to knit a cabled jumper in. I found KnitPicks Swish DK and discovered the yarn of my dreams. 100% superwash wool in a colour I adore. Then I discover they don't ship to the UK. *sigh* So I cried a bit and then carried on searching.
I hate the UK's attitude to knitting. There is not a single proper yarn shop (just the little corner of Boyes that sells many variations on acrylic) within miles of where I live. In fact, I have never seen an English yarn shop. On top of that, I was watching the telly this morning and there was a lady talking about how knitting was a step back from feminism and should be discouraged (as should, apparently, cooking - we're all going to starve or live off take out from Pizza Express). Dad is trying to discreetly sneak into my room to throw out my stash and my 5mm needles have vanished. I have no idea where.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD?
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| FO: Bird and Cat with Fish |
[August 17, 2007 @ 8:37pm] |
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Patterns: Bird = Alan Dart, Cat = geobabe.livejournal.com, Fish = World of Knitted Toys
Yarn: Unlabelled acrylic and eyelash yarn from stash
Eyes: Googly eyes from a craft shop and felt cut out with a hole punch
Recipient: Occasus, the same as the baby jacket from my previous post.
( Picture under the cut )
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| Yay! A community about two things I love! |
[August 15, 2007 @ 2:50pm] |
Wow, the journal layout here looks really funky in Safari, but that shouldn't matter. I'll probably be reading from the FP anyway.
Yay! I am a knitter and a reader. I've been knitting for about three years now, mostly making hats and scarves and baby blankets, and discloths and coasters and shawls and things. Mostly things I can knit and talk to somebody at the same time, because I'm in a group that meets fridays in a hotel bar, knits and dissects the world. That group is nightknitters over at LJ, if anybody cares.
Reading! I have lots and lots and lots of books. In fact, I just ordered more. But mostly, just got done reading the final Company book by Kage Baker, The Sons of Heaven, awaited for a long time. It's quite a fun SF series, which not enough people know about, it seems. So I trumpet it. The first one is called In the Garden of Iden.
Also, I read Rude Mechanicals, a stand alone novel in the same universe, which was a ton of fun.
I finished off recently All Together Dead, the latest in the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse books,
and I'm re-reading Variable Star, the posthumous collaboration between R.A.Heinlein and Spider Robinson.
In so far as books about knitting goes, my latest one is Mason Dixon knitting, which seized many of my knitting group at the same time, so we're all extolling the virtues of cotton, and working on log cabin projects.
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| Recent Knitting Projects |
[August 13, 2007 @ 6:52pm] |
- 1 top
- 1 baby cardigan for Occasus
( Pictures under the cut )
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