Yarnivorous

G'day all! I think this will be my last hurrah for March. I bought some merino:bamboo blend from Tactile Fiber Arts at Stitches West. Only two ounces of it. In a spinning frenzy, I spun it up - half on 28th I think and the rest on the 1st of March. Then I worked out a pattern I wanted to knit. A shawlette. I only had roughly 400m of yarn. I used the Rose Trellis pattern from Barbara Walker's first Treasury of Knitting Patterns along with a ladder/faggoting stitch. I even made a chart up! (But I have to finish editing the chart and show what I did with the last few rows). Even more amazement - I crocheted the edge to make something like the side edges and it sorta even worked! (That was the nine hours of edging for 200-something stitches - glad my handspun was up for the workout!.) The final result? I am quite pleased with it :-) It could be bigger - it only measures roughly 70cm (28") long by 1.2m (say 48") across. But it was fun to knit with the colour c...

G'day all! Today I decided that since I was nearly out of yarn, I should set up the Tactile shawl for its bindoff. I decided that I wanted some sort of crocheted cast off cos I wanted to have little gaps between the stitches like the sides have for the YO increases. OMG. I thought it might be done by lunchtime at the rate I was going. I was using a 3.25mm hook and doing a single crochet on each stitch with three chains between the stitches. Then I realised I needed another 5m of yarn. Umm, this is handspun and I have no more top to spin. So I ripped it out and started over, a bit tighter this time. Then I ripped it out and started the cast off again. This time with two chains only. Then I ripped again. With one chain. And again. Finally I grabbed the 1.5mm hook (!!!!) and tried SC and two chains. OH GODS! I only had about 40 stitches to cast off but I only had 40cm of yarn. Not enough for the job. So I put all the stitches back on the needles for the UMPTEENTH time, single ...

G'day all! Whilst knitting the shop sample and the eyesores, I've been beavering away, in the nicest possible sense!, at the shawl that nearly got eaten by a Canada goose. Purdy eh? I quickly pinned it out to see how it is going. It is wider than a sweater rack now. I have added another two or three rows to it this evening. I realised that maybe it was time to stop when I yawned massively twice in about 15 seconds and I kept forgetting what row I was on. But I have to sit up because Nathan is working on thesis corrections! YAY! It passed but he has roughly 8 problem things to fix and some typo stuff or incorrect use of grammar - one of the examiners turned out to be a grammar and spelling pedant (or pedanticist as we like to tell our pedant friends, the ones who are even more pedantic than we are, or should that be pedanticistic?). I think I should pull out the sock I am working on. No counting on it! Knit, purl or *k2tog, yo* for whole rows. I hope I don't stuff t...