Yarnivorous

G'day all! My local knitlist has been discussing increases for a few days. For some unknown reason, I decided to post about how I increase, and when. I am no knitting guru, and you'll need to work out which increase method works for you. (part of this post went onto the knit list) My mum taught me two ways to increase. One is knit into the front and back of the stitch (M1) but this is darned hard to do when you are purling. This method leaves a little bar in your work but should not leave a hole unless your tension is pretty loose or your yarn thick and thin. I use this increase when I am knitting a toe of a sock (obviously toe up socks ;-). The other is lifting up the yarn between the stitches on the previous row and knitting into the back of it if you want to not have a hole, or into the front of it if you like having a little hole (like an eyelet) in it. This increase I rarely use cos I often end up with a pucker. It is hard to do on socks cos the material is usually ...

G'day all! well the excitement of finished the socks for the knitting olympics is dying down. I did consider grafting my head onto Alisa Camplin's (from 2002) and putting my my socks on her legs but there are no photos online that I can find that show her on the podium with flowers, medal and LEGS! I would not be fussed if she only had legs from the knee up but like grafting my head and my socks onto her legless body would look more than odd. But almost worthwhile... So what do you think I would like to knit next? Tubey? Finish off the long neglected picovoli? A nice little short sleeved top I can wear at work? A nice little bolero in blue to wear at work on the days when the air con goes nuts? A little lacey top as a cover up at work? Or this.... Yep, another sock. This is in yarn from A Piece of Vermont . Very nice and cushy to knit with. Yummy! The toe is a Turkish cast on, as described by FluffyKnitterDeb , which I found on Clementine's Shoes . This is a totally b...

G'day all! Well it is all GOLD GOLD GOLD here! yes, I have not quite done a Bradbury, cos I've seen a few who are much more under the pump than me (say Hi to Steph, everyone!), but here is the gold medal winning outcome: Yes, two socks! A toe a fuzzy shot of the heel (very hard taking pics of your own heel unless you have abs of steel) and a BIG thank you to my support crew! Project: pomatomus by Cookie A from the Winter 06 Knitty. Yarn - Cherry Tree Hill pot luck blues/purples. (No, I have not yet washed them. Yes I did get lots of colour on my hands and my bamboo needles are now green. Very pretty.) I finished them last night when I was supposed to be at a friend's birthday party. Ooops. *phew* it is done! Now I can get back to normal things, like knitting socks. LOL and spinning! I've prepped some more fleece tonight - I dyed it a while ago. here's some of the locks before puffing (note that they have badly damaged tips - this was a lamb fleece and ...

G'day all! It is a very dull morning here - the light is at best that weak light you get before dawn, even though the sun's been up for over an hour. There is plenty of stuff falling from the sky (more on that later on on the house blog, a Modest Manor). OK, because I can't get photos as it is too dull, you will have to deal with a ramble from me about yesterday. I drove to a place about 20 minutes away to check out a garage sale of weaving yarns and fleece. When I got there half an hour after the sale started, I found a small gaggle of older ladies wih bags stuffed to the brim with goodies. There were two bags of rug making wool tops and a lot of polyester weaving yarns and some wook ones. So on I drove cos I am not into weaving (although anyone who can tell me where to get a "knitter's loom," whether it is by making one or buying on - please do so! I want to get rid of some stash and I am too lazy to try ebay...). I drove past Sunspun - they have a 10...

G'day all! I have held out on you for too long! Looky what was added to my stash this week: "OOooh!" says DH, who loves pumpkin colours. "Ahhhh!!!" says Lynne, who loves pinky colours and sock yarn. (Both of those are from Dreamcatcher - isn't she lovely? She picked out yarn for each of us!) EEEEE! THis is the thing DH does not know about, though he does and doesn't mind, much. After all he has bought himself about $2000 of stuff recently. Check out the amount of fleece, the type and the price! (no bigger image) Ooooohhhhhhh..... It is lovely and soft - the nicest fleece I've bought so far, excepting maybe the suri alpaca (bought a year ago and still waiting to be spun up!). I thought that comeback is a crossbred merino and it is - one of its grandparents was not a merino, its mum was crossbred back to a merino ram and this is the resulting fleece! Now I admit that I don't know when I'll get a chance to process it and spin it but life c...

G'day all! Just had to post a link to Skein Street , one of the sweetest stories I've read. ErLeCa is one of the loveliest, nicest girls I know, and I really hope this works out for her. :-) Turned the heel, no pics, in a hurry cos it is craft night and I have to do a little shopping and a lot of cleaning oh and have dinner before 6:30 - umm, yeah, right since it is 20 past 6 now.... anon!

G'day all! I took my knitting down to the Yarra today and sat on one of the bollards right on the edge of the water. 20 minutes of knitting and I didn't drop my needles into the water, even though the water was almost under me! I certainly would not be jumping into find the needle if I dropped one in. For starters, that bit of the river is navigable by smallish craft so it can't be any less than two feet deep, and second starters I know what Yarra sludge is like. Remember how little boys smell when they play in the mud on the school oval? Multiply that smell by a factor of 10. That'll give you an idea.... I love the Yarra but you really don't want to play in its sludge. Nope the reflections on it will do me just fine. Tomorrow I will start the heel flap. Yes, you read aright - the heel flap. This sock is rocketing along I guess (touch wood, don't listen to what I am saying O knitting goddess, please don't whack me!) that I've grokked the patter...

G'day all! Stop that press! I have news! Good news! See? It is done! Almost - I can't find any wool needles. This is an ongoing thing for me - I buy wool needles to finish off a project and next project I finish? No needles. I even put them in the one place, now, and they are gone by the time I next want to use them. I think there must be a wool needle imp out there who likes to eat all of my wool needles. It is the only rational explanation (!!!). Once I have a way to do the grafting, number one sock will be done! Hooray! Of course any good story has its little dramas. The last drama on this sock was running out of wool just 3 metres short! ARGH! I had to splice some, rather crappily I may add but it will hang together and be a nice sock so that is all that matters. Noone will ever know, except anyone reading this blog - make that a few people will know! Number two sock can be seen next to number one sock in the top picture. Number two sock is now almost ready f...

G'day all! Some days I am such a doofus. Yesterday Nathan and I drove across to the good place to get mulch. Nathan drove and I knitted away madly on my heel flap (I am talking knitting a sock here...). I was counting rows carefully, but then realised that the heel flap seemed a bit long.... Yep, I had been counting every two rows but had not doubled the number. I thought it seemed weird that I had only done 13 rows yet the heel flap was very long... only 8 rows over what was needed! Then the turning of the heel, some 5 hours later. For some UNKNOWN REASON I suddenly decided that after I had put the heel flap back on the needles after ripping back a few rows that I did not need to do any of the shaping for the turning of the heel and merrily picked up the gusset stitches. Now I am sure that I could pick up the gusset stitches and then go back and turn the heel but at the time I just unripped all of the picked up stitches and undid the row of lace pattern and started doing the ...

G'day all! A year ago, we trotted off down the AAPS and looked at cats. So in this post, you get LOTS of pictures of the pusses. Apologies to anyone on dialup. Our days would be a lot more boring without the cats and their weird little ways and their hopeful eyes at dinner time.... The pics are in chronological order from last Feb. (Nutmeg has put on a "little" weight since then- she was definately a stray. Her coat is magnificent now - was quite rough and dry when we got her) Oh, and the sock is onto the heel flap already. Yay! I sorta cheated though - I am not doing three repeats cos the top repeat will not fit around my shapely leg. Yes, that is shapely, not fat. I wlak a bit an dmy legs reflect that. You oughta see my legs when I cycle a bit - those speedskater women would envy my thighs then! (Watched the speedskating and the women have THE most magnficent thighs! The men just cannot match those women's thighs and butts) Progress pics of the knitting ...

G'day all! Well today started off nicely - sunrise was interesting. It sorta got a little crappier after that. A couple of days ago, one of my colleagues was having "one of *those* days" (and he's male so it wasn't a hormonal day). Well, he gave the "one of *those* days" bug to me. He say it only lasts for 24 hours. Here's hoping! First of all I found a problem in the sock, so I frogged it back a bit. Started knitting it again as I sat on the train. Pulled it off the needles again. Realised I couldn't get it back on the needles before reaching the city. Left it in the bag all day. Got to work. We have a long in the mooting and now reality conference coming up. I had been allocated a room with a MAN. Not my husband - family is not invited to this work conference. Not someone I said I wanted to share with. Nope, a bloke who I know from work. A real man who eats lots of garlic and I bet farts a whole lot of it too. (No offence but lik...

G'day all! I have made progress on the sock. I have turned the heel and am heading off down the foot! Yay me! Photos? It was craft night. No times for photos. Plus I got some Vesper sock yarn! Kellie got it for me :-) It was so nice to get something pretty, and I am one of only two people who are known to have Vesper yarn in Australia! It is nice being special. Photos? Well it is dark and no photos. Photos later. My days are being total and utter drags at present. I am not happy at work. I feel that it has been decided that I am a Crap Trainer and whilst they need a trainer and need someone with my research skills, they are not willing to invest any effort in upskilling me. Money? You have to be joking! We can spend $1500 on someone else, but you want to do a $200 course? (Guess who is considered to be a good trainer? Not the person who did the expensive course, no never, not at all!) Sigh. I am not that bad a trainer. I am not the best in the world but I am by...

there is a down! (This post is now late cos blogger would not post anything last night) Yesterday was a very interesting day. My appraisal at work went not as well as I had hoped, cos I forgot that it was about the past and not the future. So no rise and really I have been underperforming cos I have not ensured I have the right end of the stick and I've just not been seeing the right things to do. Of course I have not been receiving feedback along the way, just at every six month period. Oh well. I now know some of the things I need to do to start making things better. So I worked on the sock for a while this evening and also got some more gardening done. I am almost ready to turn the heel on the sock and pick up the instep stitches. Things were levelling out after work excitement. We bought a new electric kettle cos the "old" one (all of hmm three years old?) suddenly died - the water level metre thing on the side fell out, which meant there was a hole in my bucke...

G'day all! Gosh it's been really busy here at the Modest Manor! I've only just started eating dinner and it is 10pm! Today was Valentine's Day. This is the first year I thikn that Nathan has wrapped my present. I wrapped his presents cos he asked me to. Did I get the prisma socks done? You'd betta believe it! I cast off the last stitch just as the train pulled in to the station three from mine. Doesn't he look delighted and surprised that he got socks for Valentine's Day (NOT!)! Since I cast off three stations before mine, I had just enough time to do another round or two on the Olympic socks. Pretty pathetic effort so far, eh? I've not even caught up to where I frogged it from yet. But the pattern looks right this time and it is working well. The boy socks just got in the way. The boy also got a new toy - this cordless hammer drill comes without a battery pack. Instead you buy the packs and the charger separately. You can also buy a whole ran...

A frogging we will go, a frogging we will go, hi ho the dairy-o a frogging we will go. G'day all! I looked at what I had knitted this afternoon and though it looks NQR. So I kept knitting anyway. Blind faith and all that. Then I looked this evening and realised that for some reason I had not put the yarn overs in a) where they were needed, or b) at all in various spots. Ooops. By the time I had frogged back to where I could pick the stitches up again, I was back in the first repeat! But it does look right now, so very thing is good. After all, this is the Olympics and unlike those poor people who only get one shot to Get It Right, I can frog again and again until I get it right! Thank goodness I am not making a shawl, else I'd be crying into my water (should be a strong drink but that will make me crook) by now! Next we have progression, rather than regression, I shall take pics. The husband sock is on the home straight - I am on the cuff and started the 4X1 ribbing. Only ...

G'day all! It is now the dawn of day three of the Olympics for us Aussies. What do I have to show for it? Do you get the feeling that my weekends involve something other than knitting? Maybe a bit of stuff around the house, maybe a bit of going out and doing some shopping? I was quite pleased with my progress until I saw that. Then I thought about people making shawls and got a bit concerned about how pathetic my project is. A lace sock or two compared to a whole shawl? So far the pattern has been easy to handle. Once you've gotten the pattern set up, it is reasonably obvious where everything goes until halfway throught he pattern where the YO and K2tog tbl have to swap over. Then it becomes obvious again. I admit to not using the pattern for every row. I am sure something will whack me around the ears sooner or later. (I did rip about 8 rows yesterday cos I had stuffed up but it knitted up quickly cos I knew what I was *meant* to do not what I *had* done.) I am sur...

G'day all! I have the yarn. (handwound ball but I am getting a ball winder for Valentine's Day! OK, I have to go buy it and maybe even wrap it myself but still it is what I want) I have the needles. I have the pattern . I even have my own cheersquad of cats. Gentlepersons, we have the technology. We can knit those socks! Let the games begin!