What I made, by Sharon

To Paris. It was my birthday on Tuesday, and I picked up the final Miss Babs package from the post office. As always, it was exquisitely presented, and a whole lot of fun. This instalment contained two matching sets of yarn, one set for a colourwork cowl, and one for the matching mittens. The yarn is stunning ,and the pattern is great, but I'm maybe a little less excited than I otherwise would be, because mittens aren't really a big thing around here! The package also contained an Eiffel tower shaped biscuit cutter and some lavender. And some chocolate, of course. This club really has been extremely fun, although I can't guarantee I'm every going to actually knit this shipment. Summer is finally here in Melbourne, and winter is never that dramatic.

  I finished the Miss Babs armchair Traveller project last week, and I am absolutely crazy about it. I had such fun doing the beading, and it is one of those patterns that is easy to knit and still interesting. I knit it as per the wonderful Franklin Habit pattern, with one change, he warns the knitter not to skip the tassels, that they are absolutely necessary. I decided not to put them on, as I plan on wearing this scarf to work and tassels seem a little over the top. I love that this scarf can be worn as I imagine Franklin intended, basically as a yarn necklace, and I intend to wear it during summer like this. But I also adore the fact that it can also be worn wrapped repeatedly around the neck, making for a cosy scarf.

As you may recall pretty much exactly a month ago I found my number . While I was a bit shocked at how high it was, I knew that I could just stop buying yarn, keep knitting away and the number would go down. Right? That's how it works. Except it doesn't. I've been a surprisingly efficient spinner, and then, Miss Babs armchair travellers all got a surprise. There were five different colours, and I got one that I love, but that I would never think of buying, so its perfect. It is paired with Miss Winkle, a Martina Behm (of Hitchhiker fame) shawl, which is perfect for such a wonderful, variegated yarn. So they you have it. Despite not buying yarn and knitting steadily away, my number continues to rise!

I've been knitting the latest Travelling with Miss Babs project, a long thin scarf that I can imagine wearing with summer dresses, and to work with sleeveless shift dresses. The pattern calls for 3.25 mm needles, and as there are only 21 stitches involved I got out my little straight signature needles, the ones I bought for the sock yarn blanket that I so rarely work on. I love knitting this. The yarn (Miss Babs Tarte) is lovely - a little splitty, but the Signatures are so sharp it doesn't matter. I haven't beaded for nearly a year and I'm enjoying the effect, as well as the process. I do keep on having to remind myself that it will look so much better after blocking, becasue it is a little bunchy and looks, well like unblocked lace. For me the only downside of this project is that it SO addictive, and I'm still (officially, at any rate) meant to me somewhat limiting my knitting time. But this is far too much fun to be sensible about. 

  to Chicago, in the 1920s! The pattern is a scarf, designed by Franklin Habit, the yarn is an amazing green with bits of shiny in it and beads! I'm excited to be knitting with beads, something I've only done a couple of times before.   One of the funnest things about this club is the attention to details. They don't just send a pattern and some yarn, it really feels like a trip. So this time, as well as the pattern and the yarn, we received the beads, floss to help thread the beads, info about Chicago in the '20s, some "candy" and a flapper necklace to get us in the mood. Love this club so much!   I really like this pattern too, I can imagine wearing it with a summer dress, and it looks like I get to it before summer. I am knitting again, but only in moderation, and projects take a lot longer when I only pick them up every second day for 45 minutes. Still, it should only take me a couple of weeks to finish Leon's scarf and a pai...

I knitted the second pattern from the Galapagos Travelling with Miss Babs packet exactly as written. (Well I may have added one row in at the beginning of the pattern section I think this entire shawl was knit while drinking)   It’s a clever little shawl, with the little turtle footprints, the pretty turtle shaped cable and the lovely yarn. The yarn is Miss Babs Cosmic and I love it. It’s one of the nicest sock yarns I have used and I want to order some more to make socks out of. It was a simple  knit and it looks pretty enough, before I blocked it I thought it was all right, but I wasn't in love with it.. After I picked it up from blocking it I fell in love. I wrapped it around my neck and haven't wanted to take it off since. it's warm enough to wear as an outside scarf, but small enough to wear around the office as a little scarf / shawl. Clever and pretty, what more could I want?

The sock pattern that came with the trip to the Galapagos was slightly lacy. Designed to be knit in the club yarn, in which they look like a peaceful, warm blue sea. I knit them in stash yarn (dyed by the inimitable Ursula , and given to me for my birthday), and I turned to yarn overs into make ones, because Leon isn't the biggest fan of lacy socks. Looking at them now, they still reflect the sea, but it's more like the cold grey of a winter ocean, with choppy waves, than the soothing sunshine kissed equatorial seas these would have reflected, had they been knit in the club yarn. They were a pleasure to knit - I love the cleverness of a  design where the ribbing flows naturally into the pattern, and a designer who thinks to mirror the socks.

The latest Miss Babs package came yesterday and it was a wonderful as the first one. Beautifully presented, our destination this time is the Galapagos Islands, which is good really because I can do with a nice holiday in the warm, sunny,summer. The yarn is a stunning blue, inspired by the blue of the sea around the Islands. And as usual there were some really cute extras. As a bonus this time there were two patterns, a shawl with a turtle shaped cable (!) that I am going to make out of the club yarn for myself, and one for  some really nice socks, which I will make for Leon. But all the time I am knitting either of these, I am going to pretend to be on the deck of a catamaran, floating around in beautiful warm sunshine.

I happy snapped some photos of my finished shawl at the tram stop on the way to meet with Kate, but I know that she has a decent camera and proper photography skills, so I asked if she would take some pictures of it, and she was kind enough to do so. Other than, hopefully, showing how wonderful this shawl is, it reminded me of how little I know about photography, and how much prettier my photos could be if I a) Had better technical skills and B) Knew more.  I hear myself saying things like "I want to be a knitter, not a photographer", but I also want pretty, pretty photos for this Blog and for Ravelry. I was rather hoping Leon would get interested in photography, but that really, really hasn't happened. So, I'm going to take a Craftsy course to try to improve my skills, and I'm going to ask my friends who enjoy taking photos to help out more often. In the meantime, thanks to Kate for photos that show how lovely this shawl actually is.   ...

After I wrote the previous post I was knitting at lunchtime at work, thinking about what to do with this shawl when it was done. Someone at work suggested that the colour was one worn often by Vicki, a colleauge of ours who is off on long term leave, caring for her sister who has stage four brain cancer. I cannot imagine a better recipient for this shawl, and hopefully its a way of telling her that I'm thinking of her during this difficult time. So, I'm going to send it to her I can only hope that it gives her a tiny bit of comfort during this difficult time.  Stay tuned, because next week I am going to post some  nice photos of the shawl, which aren't taken at a tram stop...

Until this lace shawl everything I've knit this year has been really quick. In the first three months of year I knat 19 things, including  five pairs of socks, two jumpers for me, three baby jumpers, four pairs of mitts, three hats and two scarves. Every project was designed for someone specific, the yarn and pattern carefully  chosen. I knew when I previewed Miss Babs' club that there was a fair chance that Kitman Figoueroa would design a triangle shawl. I don't really wear triangle shawls. The day after I got the yarn I skeined it up and started knitting. I am loving knitting in laceweight again. I'm loving the colour, the texture, the feel of the yarn. And for once I'm embracing the concept of knitting for its own sake. Once it's finished I'll find a suitable recipient for it, but that's not really the point. This time it's about the making of it, the process itself.

... to Japan. Here's my first package: ( I have to point out the box was fine when it arrived, but Leon had to get it in his bike pannier, so he squashed it down) I opened it  and it is delightful. Some lovely bits and pieces, a whole travel guide to our "destination" and the yarn.  Oh the yarn. Alpaca / silk lace weight in a pale, pale pink. And of course, the trip bags, because everything needs its own bag: The design is, as expected a Kitman Figoa shawl. A traditional triangle lace shawl, called Cherry Me , perfectly matched with the yarn. I'm so looking forward to getting this on my needles.

This year I'm not doing any big trips. This is not to say that I won't get holidays. Leon and I are going to the Adelaide Fringe for a week in March, and we're doing a long weekend on the Great Ocean Road in May, and hopefully Brisbane later in the year. But, due largely to leave constraints, we are not heading overseas or anywhere particularly exotic. So, when I saw that Miss Babbs was running her armchair traveller Knitting Tour again this year, I had to join. I've very exited, particlarly as the designers on this club :  Kitman Figueora ,  Franklin Habit ,  SpillyJane , and  Stephanie of Verybusymonkey , are all people I have heard of but never knit from. And I adore miss Babbs yarn, she is a very talented dyer and I have non in my stash right now. Also, I think I might be addicted to getting packages in the mail, and now I have them arriving all year long.