Legwarmers!

I offered to make my friend Erin some legwarmers as she was telling me how cold she gets up in Canada. Living in Australia as I do, I honestly don’t know what the cold feels like in lands such as Canada. I think our winter would be similar to a Canadian autumn! Anyway, I was happy to oblige, and finally got them finished and sent off. She sent me a photo of her wearing them and I’m so pleased she likes them!

Oh, and the pattern I used was this one from Going Everywhere.

 

Another finished item and inkle stuffs!

Another finished project. Yay!

The armwarmers were done using this pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shelly-fingerless-mitts–loom and with Lion Brand Wool-Ease Sportweight, colourway 115 Blue Mist.

I made these for my good friend, Rian, and I’ll be making her a matching scarf as well, but after I do something else that needs to be done. Phew!

In other news, my dear friend Claire, to whom I gave the mini-inkle loom, did her first piece on it, and it came out really well. Take a look at the photo below–not too shabby eh? Pretty awesome!

 

It’s Finished!

Hurrah! I’ve finally finished the shawlette for Laura. Admittedly, I had to pause for a bit in order to try and start and finish arm warmers for Rian, but it just wasn’t possible to do that. I did about 60% of the arm warmers before Rian arrived for her weekend visit. I’ll have to post them out to her, probably with her Christmas present now.

Anyway, the shawlette. I realised while I was making it that I hadn’t gone the whole way around the loom. I was pretty annoyed at myself, because that had been the plan, and when I realised my error, I was about 45% into it and didn’t want to frog it and start again. So considering that, in the end, the finished project looked heaps better than I dared to hope. Mum was my shoulder model again, and I have to say, the shawlette worked out really nicely.

I used a mohair yarn for this one, the Kuka Yarns Magic Mohair in red/brown/tan (Rav link: http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/kuka-yarns-magic-mohair) and the pattern I used was the awesome large shawl pattern for the knifty knitter by H. S. Schulte, here: http://kniftyknitterweekly.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/large-shawl.html

So now, the photos!

 

It’s an update! Stop the presses!

It’s been a wee while since my last post. It’s not been a particularly good few months, after my father died, a lot of other things happened and subsequently, I haven’t really had the energy or the desire to do much of anything except sleep.

So this is just a quick update. My good friend Laura recently sent me a Mirrix loom, which is currently sitting by the entertainment unit. I’m not sure what I’ll make on it yet, but I will use it, oh yes. I also got a second inkle, which I think I posted about and told Claire, a good friend who is a spinner and weaver, that she could have my little one, and she was thrilled about that. I bought some more yarn, because I am weak and yarn is pretty. Still haven’t started the clapotis, though the loom and yarn are sitting here, judging me.

I did get some great photos from my friends with their finished products, though. You may recall that over the last summer, I was weaving a wrap for my friend Vayshti who currently lives in the UK. I expect she and her partner will be there for some time, though they’re coming back to Australia to visit friends and family in October, and I’m looking forward to catching up. Anyway, she sent me a photo of herself wearing the wrap I did for her, and here it is:

The next photo is from my dear friend Erin, and is of her new son with the hexagonal baby blanket that I wove for him. She’d shown the photo around to mutual friends and they all commented on the blanket, which did give me the warm fuzzies and show that yes, I’m making some nice stuff, so that’s much appreciated. Anyhoo, here’s the photo:

And that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll have something more to post soon.

 

New Toy!

At the Handspinners and Weavers Guild meeting on Saturday, I got myself a new toy–a new inkle loom. It needs a bit of TLC, but oh, it’s going to be awesome.

I also got some new yarn, because I am weak-willed when it comes to lovely yarn!

 

One Baby Blanket–Finished!

Yay! Finished and ready to send to my buddy for her soon-to-be-born baby. 

 

 

New Project.

I’ve started the baby blanket for Erin, take three. The first two go rounds I frogged for various reasons, and I’m not sad I did that now. The first one, the pattern was too hard for novice-me to follow, the second, the yarn was too thin, and now this one, the third, the yarn is just right! The pattern is Charity Windham’s hexagon baby blanket and Kristen at GoodKnitKisses has put up a VERY helpful loom-along vid on YouTube which has made this process SO much easier. Honestly, those vids are life savers. So I’m about a quarter into it, and I’m quite enjoying it. Here’s a photo of it in progress. The cat had *just* turned his head as I clicked, a nanosecond beforehand, he’d been sniffing at the loom, hahaha. 

 

I’m using Lion Brand Jiffy Thick and Quick yarn in Salem, and a cheap $2 blue I got from a shop down the road. The blue is 8 ply, so I’ve been using two strands at once to compliment the 12 ply chunky of the Lion yarn.

 

Finished Wrap.

FINALLY! LOL! I finished the wrap I started last October for a friend for Christmas. It took me so long due to moving and then we had the heatwave from hell and there’s really no joy to be had in doing anything when your days are 40oC/114oF *every day* and the nights aren’t much cooler. There were also a lot of awful bush fires, which had the whole country worried, but finally there was a cool change which brought *lots* of rain. We went from one extreme to the other in 24 hours–hot and awful then pouring with rain and flooding. Talk about four seasons in one day! 

 

Anyway, I finished the wrap. To recap. I used the stitch work of the pattern Oz Twisted Beanie and that was the base for the stitch work for the wrap. I used the long straight Knifty Knitter loom and the yarn I worked with was a James C. Brett DK Marble in colourway #9. I’m very pleased with how it worked out. I used an entire ball for the fringe, so if you’re going to do a similar piece, keep that in mind. I used two strands of yarn, folded in half for each fringe. I can’t tell you how long they were, as I used my inkle loom as a way to measure out the yarn strands for the fringe, so just go with what you feel is right. 

 

And now, pictures! One finished wrap!

 

 

Here’s the blocking process, pinned to a towel on the breakfast bar. It worked!

 

Close up of the stitch work during the blocking stage. 

 

The finished piece, fringe and all Yay!

 

 

Detail of the finished piece.

 

So there we go. All finished, chalked up as done. Basically?

 

It’s a wrap. (I couldn’t resist!)

 

Heatwave.

We’ve just come out of a week long heatwave here in South Australia. It has been, frankly, hell. One of our neighbors loaned us a portable aircon and I am SO glad she did, otherwise I don’t think we’d have coped at all. I think one or both of us would have ended up in hospital with heat stroke. As it was, Rhonda came over to take back the aircon unit on Saturday as she wants to use it in her bedroom, but man, SO GLAD we had it for the week of hell heat. Subsequently, we’re getting a split system aircon put in this week. 

Anyway, here’s some articles about the heatwave. There were bushfires, too, because there was a storm front that moved in and there was a lot of dry lightning, so there were something like 300 odd bushfires going at once at one point. Most of them are out now, but the state has been left black and burnt. The CFS (Country Fire Service) twitter has said that there’s a couple of fires still burning, but for now, the worst is over. Not so for Victoria and New South Wales to the east of us–those two states are sweltering and burning and gah. These summers are getting worse and worse. You don’t need to convince me about climate change, weather, just sayin’. I was convinced already. And the ones you need to convince are in Canberra.

Adelaide sweats through 45.1C as south-east towns set local temperature records, from five days ago.
CFS current fire incidents in my state.
Adelaide is the hottest city on Earth today – and CFS warns of extreme bushfire danger on Friday, from three days ago.

Finally, a couple from Rockleigh, in the country of SA, tell of how they lost their home. Imagine a week of heat with temps over 110oF, for those of you who measure temps in farenheit. 

Is summer over yet?

Oh, and. Power went out last night. Thankfully, it was after the two films I’d watched were finished! But man, it made an almighty BANG when it went out, and it was down in my suburb and four others for a good three hours. So it was an uncomfortable night.

 

Moving, Wollmeise Red Hot Chili, Recycled Yarn, and Yarrrn.

It’s been a hectic month and a bit here. I’ve moved to the other side of town, unpacked and helped my mum, dealt with random dramas that have popped up, and so I’ve let things slide online. Mind you, I’ve had VERY limited access (and that was hell,) so I didn’t really have much choice. Needless to say that I cannot cope well without the internet at my fingertips.

So I’ve bought some things, one of which was a Christmas gift from my mother, five balls of Mid-Century Modern Yarn Vibrant Teal, Pink, Royal Blue, Purple & Green Combo from etsy seller RecycleandRepurpose. Aren’t they lovely? Not sure what I’m going to do with this yet, but the colour combo is just gorgeous and I love it. So five balls of that and I have many ideas, but not a plan. That will come.

I’m so behind on the wrap with tassels I’m weaving for a friend for her present, again, see moving. This was due to the fact that I wasn’t actually sure where I’d packed it, so finding it while unpacking took a while. Still, it’ll be finished, and hopefully before it’s Christmas of 2014!

My friend Lucy posted a photo of herself wearing a truly awesome t-shirt and I knew I had to have it. It’s so cool. So I bought one as a present to myself and it’s en route as we speak. I understand that there are no more being made so what’s left in shop is pretty much it. If you’re interested in this awesome thing, go here.

Finally, I continue my search for the Holy Grail of yarn: Wollmeise Red Hot Chili. Preferably in a thicker weight than lace or fingering, but at this point, I could be tempted. I just love how rich and vibrant the colours are, and I’ve seen things worked up in this yarn and they are stunning–the colours work together to make the finished product look like flames. I love it. 

 

And that’s pretty much it for now. Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a happy new year!