Help a gal out!

After Pierre ate the original headphones that came with my ipod, I went a hunting for a replacement.

I decided to buy some skullcandy earbuds for 3 reasons:

1 - the were a funky pink colour
2 - they donate funds to increase breast cancer awareness (if you buy the cool pink headphones)
3 - they have this cool warranty - no matter how you destroy you headphones they will replace them for half price.

Anyhoo - I use the headphones mainly when I am spinning, as I like to zone out and listen to audiobooks. The earbuds I got were noise-cancelling, and incredibly comfortable...

Until Pierre got to them...

...and created this carnage...

I am in contact with skullcandy at the moment to organise a replacement, but while cruising round their site, found that they were having a promo - but their banner on your website, have 100 people click on it, and get free headphones. Considering my run so far, I think I could do with all the headphones I could get...

So see this banner (here and in my sidebar) - click it. If possible, leave a comment here if you do so I can try and keep count of how many clicks I get.


And I also need help...

...to find a new stitch'n'bitch in Victoria. I'm keen to have one inGeelong (I'm thinking pubknitting) and haven't had any luck finding a group there yet. I may have to start one!

But - I'd also like to meet some of the Melbourne knitters - or gate-crash other groups in Victoria. So if your a Victorian knitter and you stumble across this, please let me know about any knitting groups. If I've missed a crucial website that has this info on it - please point me that way!

return to the scheduled knitting content..

Well - there will be some random cuteness in this post as well... Whilst in Canberra, Lucy-lou and I went into Lincraft and I came out with 10 ball of Cleckheaton Merino Bambino...

Now I have 3/4 of a ball left.. and Huey has the following additions in his wardrobe...

Ribbed jacket and booties

This is the easiest bootie pattern ever - and the jacket is also an easy (but time consuming!) knit. Knit from sleeve to sleeve with casting on and off making nearly all off the shaping, it is a rather clever design as it is all knit in one piece. I complicated things a bit by using a provisional cast on for the right front and back so I could go back later, pick up stitches and use a 3 needle cast off to avoid seeming, and also used a 3needle cast off on the left front and back. The result - super-neat seams!

THE STATS
NAME: Baby two-tone sideways rib jacket and booties
PATTERN: Cleckheaton Book#951 Design 7
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: Knitpicks Options 3.5 mm
COMPLETED: 07 April 07

Slip-on bootees

When Dilby was born, he was a rather large baby. So large, that Lucy and Hubby Lou were under-prepared for just how small Huey is - and as such, they have only one pair of booties in his size. I was rather passively recruited to help with this problem, and found a rather cute and quick patterns in a book of Lucy-lou's. The above is the finished knit, before seaming.


THE STATS
NAME: Baby Clogs
PATTERN: Slip-on from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit By Zoe Meller
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino (held doubled)
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: knitpicks options 4mm
COMPLETED: 08 April 07
Baby surplice jacket

I have always wanted to try a baby surprise jacket, and found this pattern in the latest Vogue irresistible.

The diagonal crossover suits the clean lines and creates an oriental feel to the jacket. Again - rather than weave the shoulder stitches together I used a 3 needle bind off to create a very neat and interesting seam.


THE STATS

NAME: Baby Kimono
PATTERN: EZ baby surplice jacket in VogueKnitting Summer/Spring 2007
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino (held doubled)
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: knitpicks options 4mm
COMPLETED: 10 April 07

And here is the boy showing off his new jacket and fancy clogs! Lucy-lou found a great vintage button (from her craft stash) for the jacket that completely matches the contrast yarn on the sleeves.

The baby kimono hasn't been modelled yet as it is rather large for the tyke.

And more random cuteness to close!

The Grandma edition, aka "ooh... egg... sthiney!"

This one is for Hubby-lou's Mum and Moma Tuff -

Both of Dilby and Huey's Grannies live way over the other side of the country (in WA) - but I was still surprised to find out that Hubby-lou's Mum is one of my regular readers (as well as being the main purveyour of Dilby's Couture!)

Moma Tuff also helped out an exhausted Lucy-lou over the past couple of weeks by helping to keep an exuberant Dilby entertained - it was a shame she had to miss out his first Easter egg hunt.

By the end of the hunt "ooh... egg... sthiney" was replaced with "oooh... egg.... toclate (chocolate)... openit?"

Sorry for the delay - did mean to go back and update on Easter Sunday, but blogger wasn't up to it.

Arrived back in Sydney very late last night - I didn't want to leave these two adorable boys so stayed as long as I could.

By the way - that blue crocheted rug in the picture of Dilby and Huey in the last post was made by Moma Tuff's friend Sue. Apparently she got quite a kick out of seeing it online...

gatecrashing in Canberra

As you have probably guessed, I am down in Canberra hanging out with Lucy-lou and her newly grown family. Hubby-lou was kind enough to hook my laptop up to his network in order to let me blog and surf the net and all other manner of fun computery stuff...


Well, first things first, I know you are all dying to see pictures of the adorable baby Huey - shown here napping on his sheepskin with his big brother Dilby.


Huey is a teeny-tiny ball of adorableness (he is still a tad bit small for a 0000!)- he has spidery arms and legs (very long and oh-so-skinney) and hasn't quite grown into his skin yet so at times it looks like gorgeous pink elephanty-type wrinkles around his elbows and knees.

And here is Dilby, who turned two last weekend (although he is usually a ball of hyperactive dancing and laughter, it appears he is beginning to show signs of the dreaded 'terribles'.... especially when it is time for his nap) This is the boy at his adorable best - helping me out by modelling my newly finished Shadow Tweed Cable Raglan (stats are a bit further down!) As you can probably tell - Dilby is a bit of a joker most of the time.


Being in Canberra, I took the opportunity last night to gate-crash the S'n'B in Civic. There were LOTS of knitters there (I found out that there were a couple of extra ring-ins like myself) and ended up staying quite late. The picture on the right is of Bells, who celebrated her 1 year blogiversary yesterday and me, showing off my new project - which uses up some of my ebay bargain Cashmerino SuperChunky . This picture was kindly taken by Jejune and emailed to me last night.



And speaking of Jejune - here she is with her problem child, Lulu, who appears to be attempting to reclaim wool that appeared to already been processed. Perhaps Jejune should show Lulu the picture of Huey and Dilby on the sheepskin so she gets the idea of can happen if the sheep don't have their fleece sheared off... And Bells has magically jumped into this picture too...



Of course, I did meet lots of other great knitters too - including Dotter (mentioned quite frequently on Jejune's blog) who I am suspecting if concocting a plan to kidnap Pierre...



...and Taph - who I ended up staying out past my curfew because we were having such a great chat (considering this was only our second face-to-face meeting, it was a fantastic chat and allowed me to talk through a couple of issues I am sorting through at the moment. Just one of the reason I love the knitting-blogosphere so much!)



...and the self proclaimed Caffeine Faery, who shares my passion of literature, pop-culture and vampire slayers, and well as being a knitter...



...and Brenda, who I don't think is a knitter but was happily cross-stitchin'n'bitchin'



...and many others who's names have escaped me since last night (I got lost getting out of the carpark, and then finding a fuel station, before being pulled over by the cops for a breath-test and having a rego-check done... with all that happening I am surprised I remembered the names I did!)



And without any further ado...




THE STATS
NAME: Shadow Tweed Cable Raglan
PATTERN: My Own
YARN: Paton's Shadow Tweed
YARN SOURCE: The wool inn at Penrith
NEEDLES: 6.5mm clover bamboo 80cm circulars, Knitpicks Options 7mm
COMPLETED: 05 April 07

And here it is on me - this is a great comfy sweater for around the house, although it is fairly casual, and I know there are a few errors in it, I think the yarn is such great colours it hides mistakes and is very forgiving. I have worn it (almost) non-stop since I finished it yesterday morning. And for those of you playing at home, Dilby is wearing the super-funkified-reversible-double-knit-weasley-sweater I gave him for Christmas. Still a bit big, but it was the first day cold enough to pull it out of the wardrobe... so Hubby-lou decided to give me a thrill and pop it on him.

The Katoomba LYS

A few weeks ago, David invited us to visit his LYS - Katoomba Wool & Needlecraft...

We weren't really sure where we were heading, but Katoomba isn't all that big, and we knew we were in the right place when we saw this cute sign in the middle of the footpath...hee hee hee - a knitting sheep (I wonder if he is knitting in cotton???)

Just in case we had doubts, we found the trail of yarnbaskets to lead us right to the door...

And inside - all sorts of treasures and delights. If I had to describe this store in one word it would be "essentials" -

The store has all the yarn lines, in all the colours from Australian Country Spinners (Patons, Panda and Cleckheaton) as well as Naturally. There was also quite a collection of British yarns such as Twilleys of Stamford and Sirdar.

Although not the main focus of the store there was also some luxury yarns, such as quite a bit of Jo Sharp in stock, but not quite the entire collection. And there were also a few novelty yarn s (however, the store was not overrun with them.)

As far as the fruity new vegan yarns (such as bamboo, soy, maize or corn, and hemp) - they haven't seem to made it to this store - yet!

My guess is that a lot of the custom for this store comes from 'traditional' knitters who may not adventure away from machine washable 8ply wool crepe...

The flavor of the day for us was the Twilley's of Stamford new yarn, Freedom Spirit. I think 3 of us walked away with enough for a garment out of this fantastic yarn (I have already completed my bolero!)

Of course, one LYS is much like another if you don't get any personality from the staff. Jan - the owner - was on hand to help us with all our queries. If you listen to Sticks&Strings, you have probably already met Jan, as David interviewed her for one of his earlier shows. She is every bit as loverly in person, and, I discovered, has great taste in dogs...

Yes - that calendar in the middle there is a whole year of Papillons! And she owns two Papillons herself, quite possibly distant cousins to Pierre...

If you are driving up the Blue Mountains I would recommend popping in and saying hello to Jan. She is incredibly chatty, and didn't mind us bringing our take-away coffees into the shop while we browsed. (For some of us it was the first caffeine hit of the day, and we really needed it!)

Shadow Tweed Sweater

This is what I have accomplished so far with my shadow tweed - front, back and sleeves knitted separately and then joined in the round and shoulder shaping completed via raglan decreases and a v-neckline put in.

I made the pieces of the jumper slightly smaller than I would usually and am completing a sleeve/side seam gusset to make up the extra width - yes, it was intentional. I wanted long colour repeats, and wanted to experiment a bit with the construction. I have grafted in one of the side gussets, and only have to complete the other to have a finished garment. I am thinking this will be a great hot chocolate, on the couch, in front of the telly, pouring rain outside kinda jumper....

New blog - welcome Sally

Sally - the unofficial leader of the Rubi and Lana group, has finally given into her blog-envy and created her own at pompoms.wordpress.com. Please pop on over and say "hi!"

Sally is also playing with Shadow Tweed at the moment, making a jacket from the Patons booklet. She made the comment that this is the first time in 20 years she has used a pattern, so hopefully she will have lots of wonderful, one-off designs to share with us when she gets into the swing of things (hehehe - put you in it now, haven't I Sally!)

Canberra knitters

I checked out the Canberra knitters blog, and looks like I'll be able to make it to the S'n'B this thursday evening (the 5th) at Starbucks Civic. Look forward to catching up with you all again!

I am actually heading down to Canberra tomorrow, and I'm not sure what interweb access I will have while I am away, so if you don't hear from me for a week - don't worry. I'm living life!

boobrocks in the wild

boobrocks in their intended habitat can be found on Kylie's blog - she won them as a door prize for Canberra's Harlot Happening!

There are still some tan ones available at my etsy shop - and due to a request I will be doing another run of pink boobies - but that may not be until after I relocate...

It's my party and I'll brag if I want too...

I had so much fun last night at Mandy and my joint birthday party that I forgot to take pictures, but luckily, Lara had the camera out and there are some photos up on her blog..

Unexpectedly, presents were given, and I just have to show them off...

From Candy - who not only knits, but also bakes (she supplied the yummy fudgilious gluten free cupcakes last night - oh, and also the live entertainment in the form of her 6yo son!) and quilts, I got this gorgeous handmade needle roll - in my colours, and also to suit DPNs and circulars, as Candy has noticed that I don't often use straights.

This folds in half and rolls up to about the size of a paperback. I'll have to hunt through the stash and notions to find the DPNs and fill 'er up!

Lara (and, I guess, Mark as well) gifted me this gorgeous swishy yarny goodness from her recent trip from New Zealand (hence the guys with the face paint and the tongues out on the card!)

There was also a bamboo crochet hook and a "sock knitter travel bag" - both from a 100-yen shop (aka- $2shop) Lara found in kiwi-land.

The soon-to-be-joining the ranks of bloggers, Sally (who was there with hubby David) gave me a little tools and notions bag with a couple of extra goodies inside - a metal needle sizer with a gauge square, and a touch of luxury - a skein of caramelly coloured cracksilk haze. I think I can understand why this might be addictive!

Kate gave me this cute little silky bag with some rowan botany and some yummy eucalypti dyed yarns, which I think she said was done by some clever member of the Blue Mountains Knitting Guild.

The card is by one of her favourite artists, and I love the way it co-ordinates with the rest of the gift.

Mandy was so excited to have a party, she made some cute little goodie bags to take home - these were plastic noodle boxes with easter eggs, bubble blowers, balloons - and toothpaste sample :)

We all got so excited about the goodie bags that we wish we had gone with a few more good memories from kiddie parties such as preparing some ubiquitous fairy bread!

Ness was also in attendance last night - and I'll use this opportunity to show off the book I received while at dinner the evening previous.

Knowing my love of books, Ness spent quite a bit of time at Borders, and decided that it was near impossible to get me a knitting book I didn't already have and grabbed this one instead.

All is good because I fancy myself a bit of a bossy boots!

Now - I have mentioned by fancy-smance knit-picks, but not that they were also a gift (albeit one I got early!)

Originally, these were to be my gift to myself, but Tuffers needed inspiration so he ended up paying for them over the phone for me to pick up. When I got to the shop he also had organised a $50 voucher for Tapestry Craft. I have decided to spend this on extra bits and peices to expand my knit-picks set - which hopefully will come in rather soon...

I did spend a bit of time looking at the yarns at Tapestry craft and fell in love with Jo Sharps Alpaca Kid Lustre - but because there is a slightly higher mark-up due to the store location etc etc... it was rather expensive and in order to make a garment I would have to add a substantial about of my own moollah to the voucher. I did a bit of searching on the net and found out the knittery.com is having a sale on all their Jo Sharp range, so bought all they had - each ball being just shy of half the price of the same yarn in Tapestry Craft. This was my present to myself and I am using the yarn to play around with colour - my holey argyle is coming along nicely, but working from nine (yes, 9) balls of yarn at once makes it a stay at home project. I have taped a whole bunch of zip-lock baggies together to try and stop some of the inevitable tangling...

all in all - not a bad haul for this chickadee!

hippo birdbath... and some q&a

No post yesterday - I was out and about having an extremely good day due to the fact that it was my birthday! Da-dum!

Because it was a wonderfully sunny, warm day, Pierre and I walked up the road and met Mandy for lunch, who insisted on shouting because it was my day (never mind that it is her birthday today!)

We followed lunch by doing a bit op-shopping at 'Vinnie's' and 'After-a-fashion' where it obviously was my day because I found the book on the right for a whopping 2 bucks! It was a perfect find because I have wanted the Kaffe Fassett pattern library for ages but don't want to fork over $90 on it, and I just happen to be trying a little colourwork in my next planned project. Intarsia here we come! (it won't be quite as adventurous as Kaffe Fassett but we all have to start somewhere) Also in the picture are some vintage plastic (i think) patons DPNs, wrapped together with original label that I couldn't resist. I doubt I will use them - but nice to add to my collection of useless stuff.

In the evening Ness invited me over for dinner, and cooked a great roast with a Dijon, tomato and cream sauce, and some of my favourite roast veggies (sweet potato, spuds, carrot and garlic!) before completely spoiling me with caramel and baileys gelati (she didn't tell me the gelato was there, so I filled up a bit too much on the savory without leaving room for desert) We got a bit of knitting and chatting time in as well - she is well into her second sock ever, and I cast on with my latest favourite yarn, Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre. So far, loving this yarn and can't wait to wear it and feel it against my skin!

I got lots of phone calls from friends and family in Geelong (to think - I may be seeing them on a daily basis in a months time!) - and was told that my family have all pitched in to get me a fantastic kniterature collection that my sister ordered online for me. I mentioned that I wouldn't mind the Yarn harlots new book, or to increase my Elizabeth Zimmerman collection (current books - 1) and discovered that they have ordered all the other Zimmermann books, and the yarn harlot book, and another book on sweater design. I think I read on Jussi's blog that her friends pitched in to buy her amazon wishlist for her, and I now know how she feels!

Tonight is a bit of a party with the Rubi&Lana gang + partners. Mandy is having the do at her place and we are all pitching in with the catering (I'm taking over my baby espresso machine and some coffee) and I expect it will be a great evening. I will miss my knitting buddies quite a bit when I move!

A BIT OF Q&A

I have received a few questions in my comments I feel I should address -

• In a post where I mentioned the Rubi&Lana knitting group I got the following question -

Taueret said...
oh! you knit at the Rubi + Lana group? Is your group open to new members?

The Rubi&Lana group is always open to more members. We meet every second Saturday from 11-2 - I am not sure when the next meet-up is, because it falls on the 7th Apr - Easter Saturday and the shop may not be open. Send an email to ginger_nut(at)bigpond(dot)com and I will pass on the details as I get them.

• And another post where I showed off my hand-dyed yarn spawned theses Q's

abe-hap said...
have you been spinning these skeins with the merino you got a while ago? because they look great if they are.

Unfortunately, the hand-dyed yarns are not the product of my own spinning - I am not yet competent enough to spin uniform fingering weight yarn. These are undyed skeins I ordered directly from a spinning mill. If you are interested, a couple of places sell undyed yarn - Bendigo Woollen Mills, Nundle Woollen Mills and The Knittery.com to name a few. I would recommend buying direct from the mill, and you will avoid a higher retail markup.

Jejune said...
Love the Shadow wool - what sort of black dye do you use / spill ?

So far I have been using food-dye and kool-aid for my dying experiments - I like the idea of using non-toxic dyes as 1- I use containers also used for food preparation when I dye, and 2 - I know any extra dye that goes down the drain won't have a huge negative impact on the environment. I use Queen Bee liquid food dyes in 6 colours - pillar box red, blue, green, yellow, rose pink and black. I find you can get some fantastic blending and mixing happening with these dyes. You do have to use vinegar with your dye as a fixing agent - just like colouring Easter eggs!

• In another post about kool-aid dying

Did you sprinkle on the koolaid or did you premix it with water? Keli

I sprinkled the kool-aid on because I was trying to get a 'semi-solid' colour with some slight variation. If you dissolve it first you get a much more uniform colour.

In future I will try and answer questions as I get them!

AND FOR THE CANBERRA KNITTERS..

Who won the boobrock stitchmarkers??

Also, I'll be in town from about the 3rd to the 10th (I think, I don't have the diary in front of me) do you have any of your regular S'n'Bs during that period? I'd love to go hang at Starbucks with you :)

ebay is a 4-letter word...

First and foremost - I have to say a big congrats to Lucy-lou and Hubby Lou for their new arrival yesterday. I have recieved word that Dilby now has a little brother, that, for purposes of this blog, I shall dub "Huey". Huey, welcome to the world!

And on that note, I will be venturing to Canberra for a week over Easter to meet Huey and provide some Nanny services for Dilby, and am hoping to gate-crash a Canberra s'n'b while I am there!

And now, why ebay is a 4-letter word...

A couple of mondays ago, I came home and found two boxes on my doorstep.

One was my rockin' sock club initiation parcel containing folder, sticker, badge, skein and the cutest ever mini-skein of emergency sock yarn :) (I haven't started the pattern yet - I need to get some smaller sock needles and want some knitpicks DPNs so am waiting for them to come in stock)

The other parcel, a big box which was a moment of insanity on ebay. If you ever see the words "I am reducing my stash, see my other items" DON'T click the link...

You may also end up with all of this on your living room floor....
disregarding the STR - I have there a bunch of blue Rowan cotton tape and "Rowan Cotton tape collection by Kim Hargreaves", Jo Sharp DK Heather in Viola and a copy of "Knitting Bohemia", Rowan linen drape, Debbie Bliss cashmerino super-chunky and a "The Cashmere collection" and two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport. Oh, and Pierre with a toy, competing with the yarn for attention...

The yarn and books all came from the one ebay seller, whose stash I have now inherited.

And I don't really feel all that guilty.... I have really only seen the Cashmerino superchunky at one LYS and it retails for nearly $22 a ball - and this same place has "The Cashmere Collection" for just over $40... I got all of my goodies for less that the 10 skeins of superchunky would cost locally, and that's including shipping from the States. So really, four garments and a pair of socks - all of luxery yarns, is probably a fairly good buy.

However... I think I shall have to convince my internet security that ebay is an evail, dirty site and it should never, ever load it ever again on my computer to stop any more moments of insanity like this!

I'm off to pat my cashmerino!

finding spirit..

As much as I wish I could control every little detail affecting my life, I can't, and as I briefly touched upon yesterday, the last week or so required some very difficult decisions in response to decisions made for me by other people. In order to get through this period, I shut myself off from the world, picked up a project I could work directly from a pattern (so my mind could wander) and decided what I wanted.


And I want to go home. In a month or so, Pierre and I will be making the move interstate, back to small city Geelong, to rejoin the community I left just over two years ago for work. This decision feels right - and as such I spent the last week sorting out the details in my head (while sitting on the couch knitting).


If you listen to sticks&string, you would know that just over a week ago a few of us Rubi&Lana gals went on another road trip to catch up with the Blue Mountains faction of the NSW knitting guild. David invited us to visit his LYS in Katoomba (review coming) beforehand, and I bought this pattern:
... and 9 balls of Freedom spirit in colour #507 "essence". I cast on last Sunday, and late last night I wove in my final end to finish with this...
THE STATS
NAME: Spirit Bolero
PATTERN:Twilleys of Stamford, freedom Spirit leaflet#9039
YARN: Twilleys of stamford freedom spirit colour #507 'essence'
YARN SOURCE: Katoomba wool and craft store
NEEDLES: 4.5mm tulip bamboo 80cm circulars, Birch 5mm 80cm circulars and Knitpicks Options 4.5mm and 5mm (yes - knitpicks, in oz! and a needle review will be up shortly too!)
COMPLETED: 25 March 07


A quick knit in a great yarn - I had trouble with getting the required tension.I went up a needle size, and was still out, but like the feel of the fabric so I made a size larger than I required. Of course, I forgot that this also meant I was out on the row gauge, so had to recalculate the sleeve caps to fit, and pick up heaps of extra stitches for the collar.

Even with adding in extra rows for the sleeves, and extra stitches in the collar, I still have a bunch of yarn left over.


90 gms - just shy of two whole balls, but it is actually five partial balls. Due to the fact that I was getting two different effects in the yarn (even though it was all the same dye lot) I started each piece of the pattern with a new ball. You will notice that the left and right front have a different pattern on them - the right has bold stripes while the left has more subtle narrow stripes. It is not quite as obvious as in the photo, but rather than stress I decided to just follow the pattern and go with the spirit!

I just finished sewing a green button on, so the bolero is now completely done!

And just a funny picture of Pierre - just so you know that I am not neglecting him with my marathon knitting.
Oh - and apologies to all tropfest DVD winners... due to the hair-pin turn in life they haven't yet made it to the post office.