Finished!

The Boy Beanie, AKA Man Hat, is finished! Hot off the press. I had a lot of problems with it though!

Let me detail for you:

I knitted it up to the decreases at the top, and then I started on them, and when I was half way through, I thought, I can do better than this! If I distribute the decreases more evenly, I'm sure it will look better. So I undid it back to the start of the green section (about 20 rows) and re-did it, and sewed it up, feeling pretty proud of myself. I ended up with this:

That pink arrow points towards the centre top of the beanie. See the huge bulgy bit behind it? Oh, woe! It happened because one of the sections stayed the same width and didn't decrease. There was no way to fix it. I heaved a huge sigh, ripped out the sewing, and pulled it apart back to the start of the green section again. Lesson No. 1: don't let your ego get the best of you, follow the pattern!

I started over again, following the pattern exactly. Now, the pattern is actually a hand-written copy that I copied out of a work colleague's knitting book a couple of years ago. (Footy Knits or something similear, if memory serves me correctly.) I knitted, I decreased, I sewed, just as the pattern instructed. I ended up with this: (again, the pink arrow points to the centre top of the beanie.)

Lesson No. 2: the pattern may not necessarily be right. Now, sure, the bulge isn't as big as last time, but it's STILL THERE! Bugger! I'm not pulling the f%$king damned thing apart again!! Especially considering the mean daytime temperature at the moment of 14oC and my poor boyfriend's poor cold ears! But I was so upset and discouraged that I wanted to do something really simple. So I started this coathanger cover with a wool that I'd been thinking about for a long time:

I couldn't decide whether stocking stitch or reverse stocking stitch would highlight the variegated wool better, so I decided to do a bit of both. It ended up coming out in this really cool springy effect. I think I might buy some foam padding and line the hanger with it this time. Some of my old hangers are very not-comfy. Rather harsh. More minimalist than down-home-country.

Ok, you are all probably wondering what happened to the beanie.

A week later when I finally got around to it, I decided to do a quick repair job on it and hope for the best. Here is a pic of the work in progress:

The arrows point to the line where I re-sewed it, folded it over, and am now sewing down the extra flap on the inside. I am using my knee to fill out the inside. I thought about just putting it on Anth's head, but I didn't know how he'd react to me saying, 'here, put this on your head' and then coming at him with a huge needle. I was quite proud of my fix job, and the upshot is:

Beanie finished!! And it fits!!!!!!!!! (isn't he cute? ;) )

And for the grand finale - there is a secret little message hidden inside the brim of the beanie:

I think it actually turned out quite well. Lucky for the boy!

Very very busy.

I've just been too busy to post lately. I started the Boy Beanie (AKA Man Hat) the other day. It's my foray into knitting for loved ones. I know that Stitch n Bitch counsels against this, but I love him so much, I just want to make him something!

I only feel justified in doing this because the Babe Sweater is going so well. I have almost finished the first piece already!! And it's not even June yet! I guess I just got so excited about getting to the interesting bit (i.e. the chequerboard pattern) that I just kept on ploughing away at it until, Voila!, the back is nearly finished!:

I even worked a little on Branwell the Brachiosaurus. Aren't I a good girl?

Unfortunately, I have so many ideas whizzing around in my head at the moment, I don't know what to do first! I saw a felted bag in "Simple Knits" that I fell in love with, and as I am putting up with my current bag is falling apart - literally - I feel that I deserve it! Especially if I make it myself! And I even have some wool in my stash that I could make it out of! I started on some samples today. Hopefully I'll get time to felt them tomorrow. It'll be the first time I make a felted project, so I'm a bit excited and a bit scared at the same time.

I also would like to make some pot holders, etc as a wedding gift for my friends who are getting married in July (in addition to something good! :P ) but I don't know if this will happen. I don't know if I can make them good enough, basically. The limited time frame is also something of a problem. We'll see.

P.S.

I also re-arranged my Works In Progress [link defunct] page into 4 categories: Current, Long Term, On Hold and Abandoned.

I have 3 projects in the On Hold category at the moment, and I want to either do something with them, or get rid of them. Lacy Scarf I want to finish off by threading some ribbons through (though do I really need more scarves?!). Cardigan I want to restart, I don't know how yet. Top Medallion - rip off and re-make into a square. (That would make sense if I had a picture. I'll try and get one organised.)

Night!

Wool, more wool, and stuff

Today's purchases:

Bad, bad girl!
But they were on sale! ...

Dear diary, today I...

Some interesting developments occurred today. Firstly, I finished the Lacy Scarf v.2.0:

Well, technically, I have finished the knitting of it. I still have to weave in the ends. So it's not really finished, technically. Though in another way, it is....
All right, I'm not putting it on my Finished Page [link defunct] til the ends are weaved in, okay? Sheesh, get off my back people!

I went wool-shopping:

Here is:
* 1 pair of 3.25mm needles. I like the Pony brand, they are cool colours. Mmmmm, pearly.
* 1 ball of Carnival variegated acrylic. I thought it might be fun for coathanger covers. (Later I re-considered this, as I shoved and pushed to get it into the acrylic section of my stash.)
* 2 balls of Panda Glitter. Cause it's so pretty *drools* I couldn't stop touching it. And I'm all into the glitter at the moment! I'm thinking a scarf... *raises hands to temples in mystical fashion* yes... I see... some kind of... scarf...
* 4 balls of white baby wool, and 1 ball of Panda Baby Lustre. I am going to use these to make:

the Babe Sweater!!

Yup, little baby Sparky is going to be a Sweater Baby!

The pattern is from an old pattern book from the 1950s which I bought at an antique shop at Easter. (How can I tell? It's a twin-set, dahling!) I'm getting quite a collection of them now. It's pretty straight-forward, actually. There's a front, a back, and sleeves. The short sleeves mean it should take slightly less time/effort, and the little puffed sleeves are so cute! There is a pattern on the yoke which you can barely see in the picture - it seems to be a chequerboard pattern. It doesn't seem that hard.
At the top you can see the swatch I made. It was quite handy actually, as the Baby Lustre I'm using for the hems is thicker than the baby wool, so I had to work out for myself what size needles to use. The body of the sweater will be plain white. I'll probably be damned sick of white in a few weeks!

(By the way, as I was measuring my needles in the needle gauge - this dooverlackey:

- I realised that one of my pair of bamboo needles was one size bigger than the other! Everybody goes on about how great wooden needles are, but they neglect to mention that they swell! Dodgy! Look out for that, people. But I digress...)


With all the knitters around me, I really feel that I can have a good go at making this. Heck, there was even talk of making socks at work yesterday! Yeah, I can do it. Heck, I have til November!

[P.S.]
I realised today that Big W is not necessarily cheaper than the wool shops. Most of their fancy yarns, including the Glitter above, were the same price (i.e. $3 for 50g) as Lincraft brand.

*sings* Lace, exciting and new

How much knitting can you get done in a full-day shift in a call centre on a Saturday when it's quiet?
Here's your answer:

It's half-done already!

Well, I've used up one ball of the Sky Cloud, so that's the forced half-way point, and it's still disturbingly short. Hmmm. Oh well, no-one said luxury had to be lengthy, right?

Hmph.

P.S. Oh, this is really cool: you have to really be dedicated to handicrafts when you will happily use dried lice to dye your wool with.
Yup, it's 1am. No more envy-blog-reading!

So much can happen in a week...

Hey everyone, I've haven't posted for a while because I've been too busy knitting. For once! I've been working and working to get the coathanger covers ready for Mother's Day, and here they are! Ta daaaaa:

and a back view showing the crochet on the blue one:

I'm quite proud of that one, the crochet on it looks pretty good. And the mother in question seemed very happy when I gave them to her!

Speaking of visits to Anthony's Mum and Dad's house, I've now found myself making a cardigan for a 6-year-old boy! An actual garment, to be finished, eventually! Eek! They even have me believing that I can actually do it! It's from an old pattern, on 3mm needles, in yellow acrylic yarn. I've 3/4 finished the left front half already! It may actually be possible. I'll take my camera next time so I can get proof that I actually made it myself.

P.S. I also did quite a bit on my Lacy Scarf v2.0 today before I ran out of yarn.