Cocktails I Made Up #2

The Katiezade

60ml vodka
30ml melon liqueur
dash lemon juice
300ml Lucozade

Stir.
Serve over ice.
Makes 2 (they probably all will).

Hello, long-lost friends.

Hello, all.

Last week, I had an urge to do something with my hands, and I did a bit of work on my stitch sampler bedspread:

I really like the 'spiral' pattern in the dark blue on the right. Some of the others are pretty crap, though! But that's what this project is all about - testing out different patterns and finding ones I really like to use on other projects. Imaginary projects, probably!...

I also started another doiley:

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started it, but I think it's going to turn out okay. The pink blur are some beads I might somehow incorporate near the edge a la Doiley no. 1. Stay tuned for details.

In unrelated news, I've started a new section of my website [link defunct], with photos I've taken with my little digital camera. It's so "Under Construction" at the moment, it's not funny. Look if you dare.

Random Quote of the Day:
I think my friend E. would appreciate this:

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre."
-- Gail Godwin

Doiley land

There was a strange development last night. After weeks of not doing anything at all, I got bored last night and made a doiley. Here it is:

I've made doilies before, but not for a while, and never a knitted one before (only crocheted).

I used a pattern which involved 'short rows' that I got from a book on knitting techniques. It was much easier than it looks. I added 2 rows of crochet, incorporating the beads, around the edge, and I got quite a sense of satisfaction from doing it.
I'm completely disillusioned with the coathangers. I can't even be bothered finishing the last one, let alone posting pictures of them. I think I really prefer doilies for a short, easy project. There's no messy sewing and annoying stuffing afterwards, you can do them in knitting or crochet, you can just start with no idea what you're going to do and end up with something pretty cool ... and you can never have enough doilies, right? *wry smirk*

I think I've decided to give the doiley to my friend Pippa, who's birthday it is on Saturday. I've contributed to a huge gift - a silver bracelet from Tiffany's, but I wanted to give her a little something extra, just from me. About halfway through making the doiley I decided to give it to her. (I probably would have made it out of nicer wool if I'd had that intention from the beginning.) The irony of the contrast is not lost on me - a beautiful, expensive bracelet from the world's most renowned jewellers, and a crappy-arse doiley that it cost me nothing to make! *another wry smirk*

Oh well, the good thing about making things as gifts for people is that they have to like them.

Right?

Sick and Not Bloggy

I was starting to wonder if anyone else was out there! Myself, I've been laid low with the "I Got Food Poisoning From A Low-Fat
Subway Wrap" Blues. Available from all good music stores. I don't think I'll be putting that one in the player again for a while!


Even having two days off and not being able to leave the house, I've still done hardly any knitting (gasp!). In the warmer months I tend to be more interested in sewing than knitting, so if anyone's still interested, I think make this my "Whatever I'm Doing Right Now" blog, hopefully with some kind of crafty content (hee). I can't guarantee a boredom-free atmosphere, let alone regular posting, though. You'll just have to wait and see.

*knocks on the glass* is anyone out there? Just checking.

O Coathanger!

Guess what?

I've discovered coathangers. Coathanger covers, more precisely. Yes, I know it's dangerous territory, but I think I can rise to the challenge. For example, not ones like this:

Hopefully tasteful, practical ones that will satisfy my need for novelty while making my wardrobe look quite nice. And I think they'd make good gifts, too. (Ignore that last comment, friends.)

Here's a photo of my progress.

As you can see, I've nearly finished the first one. I have lots more ideas, and lots of spare wool floating around. Although, anyone who's had even a cursory glance at my journal knows how much I hate sewing things up, so they may never be completed. We shall see.

P.S. The instructions for that ugly coathanger pictured above have the words "decorate to taste" involved. *shivers*

Knitting gone wrong...horribly wrong.

Yesterday I saw what I consider to be the prime example of knitting being used for evil instead of good. It was being worn by a customer that I was expected to serve without reaction or comment. Below is a very crude artists' impression of what I saw:

(Imagine it being worn over a red, long-sleeved shirt, by someone who I swear was channelling Saffron from AbFab.)

I remember every detail, because I couldn't keep my eyes off it! I was astounded. I could barely function. I thought, this jumper has to be handmade, you just can't buy anything like this! But why would anyone make something like this, and then go and wear it out in public??

And you know what the most amazing thing was?

It was made in exactly the same wool, in exactly the same shade, as my very own Jumper from Hell that I recently exorcised from my past!! I'd recognise it anywhere. It was like a middle-finger-up from the goddess of knitting, frightening me into submission, reminding me not to get too cocky. Hmm!

Slowly but surely.

The cardigan is begun! I started on the back, and I've done 20 rows.

I have a very short attention span, and I'm obsessed with the Olympics at the moment, so Im usually only doing 2 or 3 rows per session. It's going soooooooo slowly! I'm also starting to think I'm going to run out of wool before the end. The first ball was gone in only 12 rows. By my count that means I'll be 1 to 2 balls short. I was planning to make a border in a separate colour anyway, so hopefully I can make that longer without it looking too stupid. The suspense is killing me.

Also, I'm having second thoughts about all ponchos being evil. This one is all right:

You just have to remember to wear something that matches.
(It's actually crocheted, not knitted, so perhaps that's the difference?)

This is it! Cardigan Time

Okay! I'm doing it! I'm going to make a garment!

I'd begun to despair, because I'd found the perfect wool on the internet, Panda Airwool, but
I couldn't find the colour I wanted anywhere. On Saturday I went to Spotlight (I could rant
for some time about how much I hate that place) to get some other things, and found
something even better!:

It's Panda Funky Chunky. It must be discontinued, because it's not mentioned on their website, and it was only $1.29 a ball (Which is the right price for me!). And it's a wonderful, light green colour. Not quite the 'mint green' I'd envisaged, but fantastic nonetheless.

Now I'm going to bore you with the details of design. Being a more voluptuous build, I have to adapt any pattern I come across, so I may as well do it in a way that makes sense and is efficient, and I tend to mix and match patterns. What I normally do is start out by choosing the wool, and deciding what sort of pattern I'm going to use, then deciding what size needles I'm going to use to get the desired effect. Then I measure myself, and work out how many stitches/rows I'll need to get it the right size.

Most traditional knitting patterns do it the other way round, i.e. they tell you what size it's going to be, what wool to use and how many stitches/rows to knit. All you have to do is work out what size needles to use to conform to it. This is fine if you fit the narrow idea of what a 'Size 10' or 'Size 12' "should" be. Or a 'large' or 'small' hand, for that matter.

I find the whole idea of knitting this way constricting and superficial. I know a lot of people can't/don't want to go into design, which is fair enough. Honestly, I'm not really doing much more than cutting and pasting. Plagiarising, you could even say. But the whole point of handmade garments is that they should fit perfectly, so why not make them that way?

For this cardigan, I want to take the one-piece pattern from the Specialty Knitting Book, the booklet from the 1930s I saw at the State Library, and then chop the arms off. :) This is for practical reasons, because I'd have to use circular needles for the longer parts with the arms, to accommodate the large number of stitches on the needles. I bought some and tried using them, and I hated them! So I'm chopping the arms off, and just doing the front and back in one piece. Then I'm going to pick up stitches on the shoulders and knit the arms from the top down. That way I'll have just as little sewing to do at the end, plus I'll have more control over how long the arms are to be.

I think I'll underestimate the measurements, especially the length. The number of times I've read on other blogs that other people's finished pieces are longer than they're supposed to be, in addition to my own experience with the erstwhile Jumper From Hell, makes me think that pieces often come out larger than expected. Which makes sense when you think about it - the greatest property of knitted fabric is that it stretches. Even it if ends up a little too small, I can always stretch it. How can it go wrong?

Wish me luck!

No news is good news.

All things knitting have been going along very slowly these last few weeks: basically, the spirit is willing, but the fingers can't be arsed.

However, last night I got my fluffy dice up to the stage where they can be stuffed. I can't wait to buy the stuffing and finish them off! I guess that's why I mostly do small projects - you get more things finished more quickly.

Plus, I discovered something I'd made years ago that I'd forgotten about - a pair of legwarmers! I've added them to my Finished Projects page.

More news when there is some...

Decisions, decisions...

*sighs*

All the authors of the American blogs I read (even the Swedish one!) seem to be away on holiday at the moment. I'm so jealous! Anyway, I've decided that the Knitting Goddess is right: ponchos are ugly. According to The Mighty Boosh, "It's impossible to be unhappy in a poncho", but I don't think they've ever tried knitting one! (I love that show!)

So I'm going to rip mine. Not the finished one that I never wear, but the half-made one that I haven't touched since last winter. The one I've never mentioned because I've become so disillusioned with it. It seems I don't learn from my mistakes. Just because you design something and you are really proud of the design and you think it would look great on somebody, doesn't mean you have to go ahead and spend six months of your life making it. Besides, it was getting way out of hand. I had to put half of it on holders because there were just too many stitches to fit on the needles, even when I squished them up cruelly. After doing a few rows that way and realising how much longer it would take, that was the point where I decided to give it a rest for a while and see how I felt about it in a few weeks. A few months later I looked at it again and didn't even complete one stitch. Six months later (!) I've been spurred into action. Well, not actual action, but deciding to do something, which for those of you who know me, is a momentous event. I'm almost even excited about it, because I'll have more than enough wool to make a natty vest. Won't that be great?

Speaking of ripping, remember the Jumper From Hell? Well, here is the finished result:

Before Dying*: Yes, that is the amount of wool used to make a (crazily large) jumper. So much work, and so little to show for it. O, the humanity!

After Dying*: Much prettier. Not all of the skeins would fit in the pot, so two of them are still pink. You never know when I might need them. Dyeing the wool had a really interesting effect on it. It's thinner, and the texture is now much more harsh and cottony. I've used it to make a test piece for designing some Hand Covers. (More on those at a later date.)

* By the way, I know how to spell 'dyeing.' I'm just easily amused. :)

Scaring other people...

I know it's been a while since I posted on anything, let alone knitting. My obsessive need to knit has slowed down a bit over the last few weeks, but not enough to resist pressing my hands together and begging a poor girl at work to "pleeeeze, let me have a go!" She gave me a funny look, clasped her knitting reflexively to her bosom, and said very politely that it was her baby and she was a bit reluctant to let anyone else work on it. Fair enough. The manic gleam in my eye probably put her off, and the idea of letting someone else "have a go" at your knitting is probably a bit weird.

I'm very excited because I finished the first piece of my Brontosaurus Toy! Yay! I only have to knit another piece just as long and excruciating as the first, and then I'll be about 1/8 of the way through it! Bronto is posing here with a few of his little friends.

I've also nearly finished my Fluffy Dice. I will have to buy some stuffing soon! It'll be a bugger to store, but it'll come in handy for when I finish the dinosaur.

See their guts, spilled out all over my window sill! Grisly.


Some random stuff follows.
This is a really good article, the link to which I stole shamelessly from another blog: Fashion on a Shoestring.

I love this quote. It could apply to anything, not just knitting.

"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."
-- Quentin Crisp.

Update

I have started a pair of knitted "fluffy" dice (they are actually just "slightly fuzzy"!). It's my first try at stranded or picture knitting, and it will be my first try at I-cord when it gets to the stage where I make a cord to join them together. At first, the stranded knitting was driving me stark, raving bonkers! but I'm starting to get the hang of it now and it's not taking as long to do each square. The only bit I'm still having trouble with is, when changing colour, winding the two strands around each other so as not to leave any holes. I seem to end up winding them around twice - and still having a hole!

Oh, and according to Stich 'n' Bitch, "you should know that the edges of your colour blocks are probably going to look crappy." Great!!

I will probably have to block the pieces at the end because they're turning out rectangular, not square, but that's not too hard. I think they might turn out pretty cool. If I do say so myself!

I've also done about 30 more rows on my Brontosaurus Toy. I did it while I was watching The Magnificent Seven :) So I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first piece now. I'll never get the bloody thing finished!!

Finished!!

Today I finished my Hippie Hat! It's a little tight, but I can stretch it easily to fit. Here it is:

Later, I'm going to dye the wool from the Jumper from Hell and see what happens.

Daydreaming of Wool

I just saw one of those ads for Campbell's soup, where, as the person is eating, a scarf or a hat or a jumper automatically builds itself up on their body in the space of 30 seconds. It's obviously calculated to appeal to all the people who've recently become interested in knitting, but my mouth can't help watering - and not at the soup! It was at that luscious, thick red wool, and the way it flitted and flickered to create a beautiful garment in a matter of seconds. The soup-eater ends up happy and warm and well-dressed. It's the stuff that dreams are made of.

*sighs*

Hat problems?

I'm a bit worried about my Hippie Hat. Despite adding 4 stitches to the circumference, it still seems to be too small. I'm not ripping the damn thing again! Then again, it's a bit difficult to stretch when it's on double-pointed needles, so perhaps when it's off the needles it'll be all right.

I started another patch for my stitch sampler bedspread the other day as well, and it's nearly big enough to add to the finished pile.

No more work on the Brontosaurus toy, or anything else at the moment.

Designs for the knitted dice have begun, but not to the stage where I can add them to my Works In Progress page. There are a couple of new projects boiling away in the dark, humid, murky depths of my brain, but I won't reveal them quite yet.

Ripping time

*takes a deep breath*

I am revealing my atrocious knitting shame! My first and only jumper, which I made two years ago. Why on earth did I think I'd ever wear a square-necked, short-sleeved jumper?? Especially in that awful shade of pink?!?

It's been sitting at the back of my knitting shelf, hidden away behind other half-finished projects for all that time, testimony to my inadequate knitting skills!

I've made a decision. I'm going to rip up the jumper.

I'm going to come out into the light, no longer ashamed of my failed projects. I'm going to wind the yarn from the jumper and the 5 spare balls that I never needed into hanks and dye them purple. I'm going to wipe the slate clean and start again. I'm going to get over my two-year-long fear of making a garment, once and for all!

And I'm going to have beautiful clothes, just like everyone else.

Knitting Idea

I was sitting on the train yesterday, thinking about fashion (yah, I know, I'm sad). I was thinking in particular about how dice have come back into fashion as accessories and how funny it is that people hang fluffy dice in their cars. I was also thinking about knitting at the time (as it's my current obsession, I'm always thinking about it) and I had the idea of knitting a pair of dice.

I've seen knitted cube-shaped toys, and it doesn't look that hard. All I'd have to do is figure out how to add the dots. I've never done picture knitting before, because I don't believe that galahs and wattle branches belong on jumpers (Jenny Kee has a lot to answer for!) but this could be a good way to experiment with it a little.

*sighs* I really should finish one of my other projects [link defunct] first though.
What is a reasonable number of projects to be working on at once? Excluding abandoned ones, I'd say I'm on 3 or 4 (including one in long-term rehabilitation). That's not really many, is it? A new one wouldn't hurt....

Knitting but mostly Pets

This weekend, I went to stay with my Mum and my brother in Ballarat. I took my Dinosaur project with me, but I only got a few rows done. Instead, I'll bombard you with pictures of their cute pets.

P.S. I love Ballarat. Where in the city would you see a supermarket with a whole aisle dedicated to flannelette shirts?

Shelby

Ruben

Holly

Genie

The Top 100 Classic Books Bandwagon - the List of Shame

This should be interesting. I just discovered from another Blog Random House's list of Top 100 Classic Books (fic and non-fic versions). First of all, I'm always highly dubious of these lists - they're the opinion of one person or a committee of so-called experts, who are usually out of touch with reality and what the majority of people appreciate.

I, too, am finding it irresistible to tick off the ones I've read, but not as a 'smarter-than-thou' exercise in high-cultural superiority. I want to see how few I've read! I'm not ashamed to be seen of as stupid! I read many books, just not the ones on the list. I'm too cool for that! ;)

BOOKS I'VE READ:
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
13. 1984 by George Orwell
31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

BOOKS I'VE ALWAYS MEANT TO READ:
1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

BOOKS I'VE READ ABOUT:
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence

I'VE SEEN THE MOVIE/MINI-SERIES:
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

BOOKS I'VE DECIDED I'D LIKE TO READ SINCE LOOKING AT THE LIST:
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster

BOOKS I'VE HEARD OF, BUT NOT INTERESTED:
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway

HEARD OF THE AUTHOR, BUT NOT THE BOOK:
18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad

BOOKS I'VE NEVER HEARD OF:
The other 19 books in the Top 50.

Nos. 51-100 are more of the same.

There are plenty of other lists out there; I just chose the first one to come out. If I'd chosen one of the others I'd seen, the results would be quite different. What's wrong with the Brontes? So it's all arbitrary and stupid anyway.

Retro patterns

Yesterday I went to the State Library to check out some old knitting books and pamphlets. The ones from the 1970s were fantastic! Hoo! I laughed! (On the inside of course - it was a library after all!) The ones from around 1900 were quite amusing as well.

Apparently, at that time, it was okay to show photos of underwear, as long as they were upside down (as if hanging on the line, but pasted onto a plain black background), and/or folded up so you can't see what they are. Then, it's all good.

The best one I found was called Specialty Knitting Book: Ladies' Dressing Jackets and Underwear. It was from the 1940s, with lots of ladies lounging elegantly with cigarettes and doing their darndest to look like Marlene Deitrich. Many of the jackets were way too lacy and ribbon-bedecked to be of any practical interest, but the first one was really cool. It was a very simple cardigan, knitted in one piece from the back, over the top and down the front, like this:

The arms extend down into fingerless gloves, "for reading in bed, and invalids." It looks too nice just to wear in bed though. I was quite surprised. It struck me as really modern. The method of making it seems so simple. I read/copied out the whole pattern (it was only half a page) and I understand the whole process. This could be the way to go for me, making my first garment. I'm a bit excited, and a bit scared at the same time!

The only problem is, it uses 'Beehive Silversheen'. What on earth kind of wool is that?!
There are a few websites around with advice on making retro garments, so I'm sure I can work it out.