What I made, by Sharon

  The second item in Romi Hill's Acts of Kindness Oddments Knitdown subscription is a hat knit with two strands of mohair and an 8ply background. Perfect, I love using up bits and pieces of left over yarn. The pattern uses a simple and not tight tubular cast on. One I appear to have failed with before, but it worked here. Can't explain it. The hat took two nights to knit, one at knit night, and I'm always too busy talking to make much progress at knit night! It's lovely pattern, and a really great way to use up leftovers. I was going to make two, but I think I left the yarn at the pub! Not important, since I'm going back next week, so if they have it they will give it back, and if they don't, I guess that's one way to destash! 

 A couple of weeks ago I wrote about welcoming whimsy, and I'm really enjoying the journey. I knit a  gnome , and I'm working on my embroidery sampler (almost) every day. I've been knitting the Stephen West MKAL for the fun of the process, rather than the prospect of the finished shawl.  So, when Romi Hill launched her second Oddments Knitdown with a very whimsical project , I was in. Small bags with woollen embroidery? Yes please.  I actually really struggled with embellishing the first bag.  For some reason I have never understood duplicate stitch, and even with her photo tutorial, this was definitly a learning experience.  The improvement for the second bag is remarkable, and I might even give this to my Mother-in-Law.  This was such a fun, interesting project, and it really consolidate the embroidery techniques I've been learning. 

I finished the Romi Hill jumper more than a week ago, but it’s been hot. Now, I love it hot weather, but I did feel like I was the only person in Melbourne wearing a jumper when we took these photos yesterday. It was a very straightforward knit…until I got to the collar. I wanted to make sure the collar sat on my shoulders and didn’t flop around, so I went down a needle size, introduced a purl turning row and didn’t do the increases at the beginning of the collar.   Was it successful? Partly. It is still a bit gappy around the neck. I am kicking myself, because I had thought of doing some decreases, but then I chickened out. I’m thinking about reknitting it, but the joining of the collar was kind of complicated, and undoing it might be messy. Also, lazy. I think it might benefit from a reblocking.   All that said, I put it on yesterday over a collared work shirt, and found I quite like the way it looks:   I don’t really know when I am going to wear...

We went to Wagga Wagga for the weekend. I had just cast on the Manzatani te e, and didn't bother throwing in anything but the project - I didn't pack DPNs for the sleeves, or smaller needles for the bottom hem. After all, I hadn't even finished the lace yoke, and we were only away for two nights. I actually rushed the packing in general, and didn't even manage to throw in dental floss, and I like flossing every night before bed. Near the end of the second night I realised I was going to get the body finished - so I figured I would buy some floss, and put the bottom hem on it. I bought 25 meters for $3. So, 250 meters would cost $30. And this stuff is nylon! Anyway, it did the job, both on my teeth and to hold the bottom of the jumper. 

I finished the Village Sweater Wrap late last week, and took photos today. i had all sorts of plans to go down to the park, or take photos in my buildings courtyard, but then it was raining very enthusiastically, so we did them on my marvelous balcony.  It's a rather odd garment: I think I like it, but I'm not sure how I'm going to wear it. Probably in summer, over a plain dress. It is meant to be reversible, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted to wear it with the burgundy side up, and the blue at the bottom: not like this: The only change i made the the pattern was knitting the sleeves flat. No way was I doing that garter stitch in the round, particularity after my first attempt . It took me two and a half months of mainly monogamous knitting to finish this, although I was surprised when I reviewed things that I had also knit a pair of slippers , a pair of sneakerliner s, a cowl and a pair of mitt s. So I guess not nearly as mo...

I’ve been knitting on the sleeves of the Village Sweater Wrap for two days and this is what I’ve got: 8 garter ridges. I’m using a garter stitch in the round technique that uses two strands of yarn, and my yarn keeps sticking to itself and it has broken three times in these 8 rows. Also, the join is quite, quite obvious: Last night I changed from circular needles to DPNs. At the end of the evening I decided my gauge was out for the entire sleeve and discovered that I’ve been using 3.5mm DPNs, and I knit the body on 3.25mm needles. I have NEVER disliked a project like I’m hating this. I put it aside last night and had almost decided to abandon it. And then, while sitting down to write this I realised that I knit the first part of the sleeve on the same needle I knit the body – so the needle size must be the same. And if I think it will look better knit flat: knit it flat. So I’m going to rip out the last couple of rows – to the most recent yarn break,   and kni...

The Village Sweater Wrap continues. I'd like to say continues apace, but that pace is slow. I've just about finished the bottom knitted on edging: And realised that I've accidentally participated in this months " A year of techniques" technique. A year of techniques is a 12 month project from Jen  Arnall-Culliford, where participants learn a new technique each month. June was knitted on edging, and I've done nothing but knit on edges all month. Although it has surprised me how long this has taken to knit, I'm loving this yarn - it's camel, bunny and silk, so what's not to love? This part of the pattern was easy to memorise, and the project is just steadily flowing through my fingers. 

I finished the top edging of the Village Sweater Wrap last night. While it feels like this project has taken forever, time is moving very strangely for me right now. The edging alone took three and a half weeks, but I also knit a pair of baffies   and most of a sneaker liner .   The good thing is I love it. Unfinished and unblocked, but I think it's going to be amazing. How much do you think I'm going to miss those patterned floor tiles? Before I unpick the provisional cast on and start the bottom edging I need to do two things. Choose which of these three to use for the bottom border:   And I’m putting the project into a brief time out to finish my sneaker liners. They have been sitting around for far too long, and the bottom border of the wrap, while on the same number of stitches, is a simpler lace pattern. I’ve pretty much got it memorised, without knitting a single repeat. So I don’t need a backup public knitting pattern, and having these ha...

I haven’t posted about my actual knitting for a while. This might be because not much has changed since the last time I talked about my knitting. This is the edging of my Village Sweater Wrap:  The picture fails to capture how much further there is to go. I'm just past the first arm hole, so just over a third of the way through. It’s 47 stitches of relatively simple lace. I’ve been knitting it since Monday two weeks ago. It’s quite pleasant, and slowly growing but I can’t quite work out why it’s growing so slowly. One reason I know is that the first week I was knitting it during Good Beer Week, so I didn’t take it out and about with me. I knit other things, and when I’m knitting two things it makes everything feel like it takes forever. But the main reason, I think, is that this is just a slow knit for me. I love the needles I’m knitting on ( Karbonz of course) I love the yarn, I love the way the lace looks. So really, what’s the rush? I’m not going to be cold...

So our trip to Thailand was fun. I've never had a resort holiday before, but we left the resort every day to do something. We did the normal kind of touristy things one does on Phuket. A boat trip to the islands; sitting by the pool; hanging out on the beach; Babysitting my friend's 4 month old while she did a cooking class; And all the while knitting, knitting, knitting. The Village Sweater wrap was perfect knitting - light enough to work on even in the beautiful humid heat, and I got the entire garter stitch section finished, which was good, because that could have become boring in other circumstances. Thailand doesn't have a knitting tradition, and, although I did see some crocheted toys at the market, there was no yarn shops, so I managed not to increase the stash on this holiday There was a sheep themed hotel, but it was called "Sleep with me" so who knows what's going on there. My other main observation is that most of th...

And now I'm in that bit where I hang about, waiting to leave and worrying. In this case about packing. I piled up everything I wanted to take with me, and discovered that it all fit in my old Country Road kit bag. Which is funny, because I didn't pack light. As well as enough clothes for nine days, and two pairs of bathers, I have a set of power rings , a skipping rope, 200 grams of laceweight yarn and the three quarter finished socks for Elise. I've had this bag since I was 19, and it's been on countless road trips with the girls (women now, I guess) that I am going to Thailand with. The Village Sweater wrap starts with a 299 stitch provisional cast on, so I've done that, and I'll start the actual knitting in the taxi to the airport. For my friends, carrying suitcases is t heir sign they are grown ups. For me, it's saying "stuff this bus timetable, I'm catching a cab"! I'll try to do some blogging while I'm away, even if it...

My friend Tara has been (nicley) asked me to knit her a scarf for a while. She is, I think, knitworthy and has certainly spent enough time sitting around with me while I knit to deserve a project. I really wanted to knit her Stephen West’s Unicorn Parallelogram but she thought that was a bit much. Me too, that’s why I wanted to knit it for someone else! So, I sent her some options and she elected Romi Hill’s Thaleia . Two problems with this: it’s only a metre long and it’s quite wide. It’s the same construction as the scarf I recently knit for Elise , but wider. Just like for Elise’s it needs to be longer, and so is more than a one skein  project.  I didn’t have any more Wollmeise in the stash, and at the recent yarn sale I couldn’t find anything I wanted in the prescribed fingering weight yarn. So I bought laceweight and I’m going down a few needle sizes. I figure this will make it a bit narrower. So that’s all good.  The only issue is I think Tara is imagining a ...

I actually finished Elise's winter scarf the better part of a month ago, but it never seemed to be the right time to give it to her. Either I was seeing her when we were out (in which case I was worried she wouldn't be comfortable with me taking photos) or we were hanging out in our trackies and ugg boots at home (in which case she wouldn't want me to take photos). So tonight, the last day of autumn, I decided to just do it. While we were out to dinner with 6 other people.Because that's a way to make someone feel comfortable with photos. I'm quite happy with how it came out, particularly with the length I added. I knit it to (I'm guessing) two meters and did 15 repeats, rather than the 10 called for in the chart. I think it really benefits from the extra length. I did actually take a boring, on the floor photo, to show how it looks, before I gifted it, although I think I prefer the paparazzi shots I took! 

I mentioned briefly i n my last post that I am knitting Elise her annual scarf. I'm making one of the Romi Hill small shawls for the most recent pattern subscription. When I looked at the pattern, I thought it looked a bit short. Still, the pattern said it was easily lengthened, so off I went. I'm knitting it in bottom of the pile Woolmeise, I think I bought it before I started blogging in 2010. Anyway, this means I have 150 grams of yarn to play with, while the pattern was written for a 100gram skein of sock yarn. It calls for ten repeats of the middle part of the pattern. I've done 15, and I'm still not sure it's going to be long enough.  I've got 50 grams of yarn left, so I can certainly keep knitting the main pattern for a few more repeats, but now I'm worried it will grow on blocking and end up ginormous. Or it won't grow, and end up tiny. And I made the rookie error of not weighing the yarn before starting the first end, so if I keep knitti...

So, Elise had a birthday. By coincidence, she  asked me a couple of weeks ago to make her some mitts, so I made Romi Hill's Gingerbread mitts.Like the rest of the Great Oddments patterns these were quick, easy, look amazing and were fun to knit. And Elise loves them, so its a win all round.

I've knit a few hats for myself recently, some more successful and some less. From left to right, there was the Hawthorne Hat , which is more like a cap because I forgot to change needles after knitting the brim, there is the Norie hat, otherwise known as "Jabba the hat mark II" and most recently Romi Hill's Great Oddments Fairy Snowcap . Of these, the Snowcap is my favourite, but the pom=pom sort of bounces when I walk, which is annoying, and Leon mocks me mercilessly, because that's what he thinks pom-poms are all about. So, while I was waiting for my vest to dry, i though I would have another go at making the perfect hat. Romi's Elven Cloche is different from the only other two kinds of knitted hat that I've outlined here: the beanie and the slouch beanie. I figured since it's knit with chunky it would be quite quick:   Which it was. I didn't have any chunky yarn, so I held four strands of sock yarn together, specifically spark...

I finished Leon's mitts and have nothing but happy things to say about both the yarn and the pattern , which is was the next Great Oddments Knitdown  pattern, by Romi Hill.. I did make a couple of tiny little changes to this wonderful Romi Hill pattern: I knit them cuff up, I added a thumb gusset, I cast on one less repeat and I used a different cast on and cast off from the one specified in the pattern. So, some functional changes, but they look like the design, they match the hat, and I'm so, so happy with them.

As usual on a Wednesday, except it's Thursday already - I'm doing Yarnalong with Ginny.        This week I'm still enjoying what I'm knitting, reading and listening to. I'm still listening to The Woman in White ,   I'm about two thirds of the way through and it is very dramatic.   I'm reading Final Empire , which is the first of the Mistborne Trilogy by Brendan Sanderson.   It's an epic fantasy trilogy and I'm really enjoying it. It's been a long while since I read a really great, fantasy novel. I've only just started this, but I'm already finding it hard to put down.   I'm knitting Romi Hill's Great Oddments knitdown Gnarled Entling mitts , out of handspun , to match the hat I made Leon. . Loving this, although I have made some changes to the pattern.   And that's it for this week. Pop over to Ginny's blog and check out what she, and everyone else is knitting and reading this week.  

Remember Romi Hill's Great Oddments Knitdown Gnarled Entling Headband? I decided to turn the headband into a hat for Leon's winter set. So, I knit up the headband, picked up stitches around the edge and the knit the top of the hat, using Elizabeth Zimmermann's decreases for the crown.     And I LOVE IT. I'm so happy with how this handspun is knitting up, it feels really structurally sound, but its still soft. The possum gives it an amazing halo, which I think goes really well with the soft waves of the pattern.   Right, now off to the pub to cast on the matching mitts.