Yarnivorous

G'day all! This is something I've been thinking about for a while. This pic from Crazy Aunt Purl reminded me of it. I live in a car-centric place. Mebbe only Los Angeles is more car-centric than the San Francisco Bay area. Even with the Caltrain and the BART and the MUNI and all the various systems that run around the place, including the light rail that we catch quite a lot (particularly DH since it is a five minute walk to his work from the station). We don't have a car. We only hire a car when we want to go travelling to look around this place or when we need to go pick something up that is much too big for the bike (eg when we brought home the six foot tall shelving). You might be surprised by how much stuff I have brought home on my bike, both with and without the bike trailer. Recently I brought home the new vacuum cleaner in the bike trailer: (That is a picture of the Great White Hunter with her prey. The GWH must remember not to stick her chest out so much lest ...

G'day all! Thanks for all your entries into my different socks contest! I am working my way around your blogs, if you have one... So what are the differences between the socks? Let's start at the toes, since I knitted them toe up. The tip of one sock is stocking stitch (stockinette) and then becomes garter stitch (someone is lazy! :-D). The other toe is reverse stocking stitch (someone forgot to read the pattern and didn't want to cast on again). Lots of people noticed this one. Because garter stitch pulls in more than stocking stitch, one toe looks shorter than the other. Paper Tiger noted this (no link to a website for Paper Tiger though). I didn't read the pattern again so one sock has six repeats of the twisted stitch/cable (correct!) and the other has five repeats (wrong!). Some of you with good eyes noticed this! The little gusset I like to put into all my short row heels has five increase rounds on one sock and only three on the other (oops!). The heel of o...

G'day all! Thanks for the entries so far in my contest. I am seeing certain themes. Remember you can click on the pics for bigger ones! On and off I've been spinning up a storm. I haven't spun anything this week due to my New Obsession. My bad! Worse, my New Obsession doesn't have pics cos horrors of horrors, it is actually RAINING in San Jose! (That pic is from the Lick Observatory, not quite in SJ but close enough!) But don't I live in California now? It doesn't rain in Ca, or so I am told. People apologise if the day is cloudy. People here are very odd. What are a few clouds between friends? (Apparently it can rain all the way through the year if these records are correct, though the ones for this year are certainly incorrect cos I am sure we had about 3" of rain in both Jan and Feb and a little this month...) So I've been spinning. I've spun up about 350m of this yummy CVM fleece to make into a special thing for someone I know. I...

G'day all! One year ago, DH and I flew to the US. We landed in LA before we left home - ah the wonders of the date line (of course on the way back we lose a whole day!). (maybe I should've posted this yesterday to match up with the time we left Melbourne, not the time in the USA.... argh, time travel is such a pita!) We flew across to Denver and were collected by Nathan's possible new boss and driven to Fort Collins. Three days later, utterly charmed (particularly cos it snowed on us - our home doesn't get snow), we flew back home and prepared to move from our home to the USA. It was another three months before we moved but that is another story! In celebration of the last whacky year, with all the trials and tribulations and kindnesses and sadnesses and above all change, I declare a contest! And some new socks! Some socks that have some differences between them! Here are my Solstice Slip socks in Firebird from last year's STR club. They are an unpair. I f...

G'day all! My confession is I have a new obsession! It is EVIL! It ATE my whole day! You will see pictures soon - I want it to be finished enough that it is recognisably something. In other news, I finished a sock. A pretty sock. A sock that I don't have pics of. I am going to write up the pattern and see if I can knit the second sock to the same pattern! Me! A sock that is the same? If it works out, I'll post it and people can beta-test it as they choose. Only problem is that you will have to buy Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters cos I am not going to reproduce all details of the gusset increases and heel. Or you can use your favourite heel (including a short row heel - mebbe I'll put a short row version into the pattern). Here's some socks I finished ages ago. Last time we saw these socks they looked like this . I even wove in the ends before taking photos. Not that you can tell. (Another confession - I have a number of socks that have ...

G'day all! In my last FO post, the keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed a purple top underneath the asymmetric jacket. Ta-dum! (Doncha love the glow in the sun skin?) Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha, colourway ?13?. It is very purple. It also lived up to the Noro standards, with bits of random plastic, straw and unidentifiable spiky things in it. Pattern: Waist-cincher top from "Knitting Lingerie Style" by Joan McGowan-Michael. Mods: I made the front a LOT higher and it is still a little low for my comfort. If I had left the front shaping as it was in the pattern, it would've been scraping my nipples (even if I wasn't wearing a bra!). More pics. The back is scrunched up cos I didn't realise I hadn't pulled it down and my, ahem, "stylist" didn't know that tops should be neat and pulled down to the right place. Hmm, and that bra looks pretty icko too. (no bigger pic to click on) I now have to wash it a couple of times to see if the yarn softens...

G'day all! Updated 22 March 2013. Last year I was asked to show my LYS in Fort Collins how I cast on socks. They thought it was fab. Heh. Made me feel good! So I wrote up a tute on how to do it and showed some folks. I thought it would be good to share with you too! Let me know if there are any probs with it. Scuse the odd fuzzy photo! Toe up socks - the cast on This cast on is great for anything knitted from the toe up, top of head down or fingertip down. You just vary the number of stitches you start off with. You won't have twisted stitches (if you are a western knitter - continental and combined types might have to play around a little! And lefties, ah lefties - I am a lefty but I knit right handed - see if the mirror image works for you!). You will need loooong circular needles - at least 47"/120cm. Metre long circs are a little harder to wrangle especially if you end up with two socks on them and 1.5m circs can be very loopy indeed. I knit soc...

G'day all! Hooray for me! I have made Stuff! I have used Stash! First up, let's show off the Blanket, aka the Jedi Jacket. This was a very simple knit - all garter stitch with increases or decreases done at one or two edges. It is asymmetric. I used a pattern from Patons Oz - details somewhere down the page, feeling lazy no link. The book is discontinued. (*puts on cowboy boots, a western drawl and swagger*) This blanket ain't big enough fer the two erv us! The yarn is a recycled wool/cashmere jumper bought at a thrift shop in Fort Collins. The jumper was a *very* odd shape - the arms were longer than mine and the body narrower, like it was made for someone who had been on the rack. All the ribbed bits were darker wool - now they are stripes. So you get some random views: It even acts as a head shawl: I have plans to overdye the jacket eventually. If it works, it will be Very Cool Indeed. It is a very versatile piece - I can wear it upside down! And if it is cold an...

G'day all! Am I the only one who is knits along a lace pattern that you know off by heart cos you've done it enough to remember it, and then you look and realise that suddenly you decided to make up a new pattern? Here's an example. The pattern says k2, sl1-k2tog-psso, k2, yo, ssk, yo, k1, yo, k2tog. So why do I find myself doing this: k2, sl1, k2tog, yo, k2, yo.... It does rather ruin the pattern, and it is not as if I've done it once. Nope, about every three or four rows I find I am putting in a rogue yo and not doing a double decrease. Then on the next row I just look at it and wonder why oh why am I being a doofus? When it works out, it looks pretty good: Plus I've been holding out on you! Not only have I been rather busy trying to catch up on blogs and doing stuff at home and trying to keep DH going, but I've finished two largeish items in the last two weeks and I have not shared them! Then there's the one that I won't share until I've done...