Photo gallery (part 1)

Guess what - I remembered to bring my camera to work today! So, I present the long-awaited photo gallery of what i've been working on lately - in two parts, to save you a bit of uploading time. Sorry for all the mosaics - i've been playing around with Picasa, and I love that it fits all the photos together in one rather than uploading heaps! Have a look at my Flick photostream to see them in more detail, or click to see them bigger.

Knitting projects
Do you remember that shawl I was making? Well, its all finished. I sat down one afternoon and sewed on the fringe, then finally got up the guts to take it off the blocking wires. Unfortunately my cast off was far too loose (I started doing it tightly and then thought against it because I didn't want it to pucker at the top, but I should have left it!) so it curls a fair bit at the top when worn, and it could have been much longer, but its done, and i'm pleased overall. This will go up for sale on my website one that's up and running.

I like to try and fit in some small charity items between big projects, just because its fun and goes to a good cause. My 'tween project this time was another puppy jumper - this time for a little boy puppy, and in a lovely green colour - closer to the first picture than the others, it didn't photograph so well in the daylight. Its now down at the SPCA being put to good use in this cold weather!

This pattern [Rav link] for little converse booties is definately now my favourite pattern. I made a purple pair for our finance manager who had a baby girl, and another secret pair that can now be revealed! They were for Noah, as a gift from our church for his thanksgiving service.

Boy, did this project cause me some headaches! The first one I made was super huge (will be stuffed as a Christmas decoration I think!) so I modified the pattern a little and changed needles to make it more the right size. That was the first blue one. I then went on to make the purple ones, as they were needed quickly, with a different weight yarn and slightly bigger needles. Unfortunately, I didn't note down what needles I used for which, so when I made the second blue one with the bigger needles, and didn't realise until I went to sew them up on Friday night that one was bigger than the other! Did you know - you can make a whole new bootie, in the right size and including seaming, in the same time it takes for the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice to run? [ETA: here's my review of the book!] Felt stars were sewn on on Saturday, and mum helped me make the laces (I'm still getting my head around how she did it, but i'm hoping she can teach me!) so that by Saturday afternoon they were stuffed and ready to gift for Sunday morning. And they were well recieved :) [ETA - the yarn I used for the blue one was Moda Vera Cup Cake - a lovely soft worsted weight yarn - if you haven't tried it I highly recommend it! It feels far too soft to be nylon/acrylic...]

That's it for now - stay tuned for part two, what else i've been up to, and what i've got coming up!

~Happy knitting!~

Book worm

I'm sorry i've been quiet on the blog front recently... i've been doing little knitting, but much reading! As of last week, I have officially completed the Twilight Saga :) I started reading book one at Easter, and have found all four of them hard to put down! What to do now though, that i've finished? Start again! Well, i'm going to have a break, I have other books to read for other people, but I definately plan to get back to them soon. In the meantime, i'll keep watching the movie and wait for movie two to come out at the end of the year.

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Knitting update

Amongst the reading I have managed to sneak in some knitting - mostly when i'm at my parents house where I can't read while watching tv!

First project was to make a square for UNICEF - they were aiming to collect 1,400 squares to make into a large blanket to present to parliament, to represent children in need - turns out they got over 3,000! This was my little contribution, a good way to practise my weak crochet skills: (Rav link)

Next on the list was a cowl, using the Cleckheaton Vintage Hues yarn I brought at easter. (Sorry, no photo yet, hopefully tonight!) My plan was to knit a scarf on huge needles to make it stretch and look lacy, and just keep knitting until I ran out of yarn. Sadly I ran out much sooner than I thought, so it turned into a squishy cowl instead!

On top of all that, I knitted up a mothers day present from this pattern. (My photo to come) Nice easy knit, although I changed the chart to say mUm rather than mOm. Finished just in time, 11pm on Saturday night to be precise, so it was still wet from blocking when I gave it to her, but I don't think she minded. I'm looking forward to knitting some more of KrisKnit's dishcloths in the future, she has some fantastic patterns!

Progress on Buttony continues - the sleeves are seperated, and I added some waist shaping today. I'm worried that the sleeves may be a little big, but i'm assured that's a good thing since i'll be able to wear layers underneath as well. Time will tell... Anyway, here's the latest progress picture - just after i'd seperated the sleeves:

In sewing news, I got a new book today - 'A is for Apron'! Its got a whole lot of awesome vintage-looking patterns that I can't wait to try! And guess what - it's available here on Amazon.com if you're interested! (Just realised - lots of exclamation marks - can you tell i'm excited??)

~Happy Knitting!~

Charity Knitting

The Ravelympics are officially over! I crossed the finish line with three projects for two different teams in two different events. My Sassy you've seen, so the last of the games was spent working on projects for Team Charity.

I got this little hat done:

...to go with these little booties that i'd made before:

...which meant that I got this new medal:

I also finished off one of the booties to go with the little moss stitch beanie i'd made before, but i've labelled that an UGH because it came out all wrong!!! As you can see, the length of the foot is huge, but the ankle is the right size...

After this I gave up and started on Coachella in a lovely suede-ish yarn - its like knitting with chocolate! Because the yarn is thicker than called for in the pattern, i'm knitting the xs size on smaller needles to hopefully get somewhere around the small size... if it doesn't work i'll frog it and try another approach, maybe with some new yarn.

Speaking of new yarn - I went stash shopping on Saturday, much to Mum's disgust!

Yeah, they are kinda the same colours, but they feel so different! Now to just find a project to use them for...

Happy knitting!

Crossed the finish line

The Ravelympics are fast coming to a close (three days to go!), and I really feel like i'm letting Team Charity down - I spent far too much time finishing my Sassy for Team NZ, that i'm only just starting on a little beanie now for the hospital.

But the good news is, that Sassy is now finished!

And for finally getting that finished, as it was entered in the Ravelympics WIP Wrestling competition, I got a new ravatar AND a medal!

Yay me! And GO Team New Zealand!

They said it was better to enter too many projects than not enough, so I went crazy and entered lots of preemie stuff, as well as bringing the Baby Kimono out of hibernation, so there's no way i'm going to get them ALL finished in three days! I'll do my best :)

Also, I found some info for putting up progress bars that link to my projects on Ravelry, so you can keep an eye on what i'm working on - the bars are over to the right ----->

It's all go!

The Ravelympics have begun! I'm a bit slow off the mark, for a whole lot of reasons, but I have four inches to go on the body of my Sassy, then the sleeves, then its done! I might even have some yarn left over! Then i can get started on some charity knitting, and if I still have time, I'll carry on work with my Baby Kimono which has been hibernating for a while.

I finished my pre-games Shrug project on Friday night, and wore it to church with lots of positive comments and requests for the pattern :) I decided to 'basically' stick to the pattern; my only mods were to lengthen it a bit and add an extra couple of rows of ribbing to the bottom, but its more cropped than the mini-cardi I made before from the same pattern.

The rest of my weekend was spent unpacking, although my big weekend project was to sort out my stash! I got some canvas boxes from the Plastic Box and printed off the specs from the Yarn Standards website to use as labels on the boxes, then in consultation with Ravelry, I sorted them by weight/ply into the boxes. Some boxes got two labels, because I didn't have much of each weight. Hopefully now it will be quick and easy to find the right yarn for a project!

Progress report

Ok, since I haven't written for a while I thought it was about time to share some pictures with you of what i've been working on recently.

But first - an update, as promised, on the flat situation - i've found somewhere new, and I move in this weekend! I suppose that's the main reason that I haven't posted for a while, i've been too busy packing! My new place is sharing with three other people, which is a new experience for me, so i'm both really nervous and really excited at the same time! The flat is still in the middle of J'ville, so still nice and close to everything, and my new room is about the same size as the lounge in my cottage, so i'll definately be able to fit everything in ok. AND it has a heatpump! AND Sky TV! AND a dishwasher! AND plenty of storage for my wool! What more could a girl ask for :) Must take some pics for Bec before I start moving stuff in, so i'll put those up when I can.

Anyway, back to knitting progress. Here is my Sassy so far. I haven't actually picked it up since these photos were taken, since i've been packing most of the time i've been at home, but I don't think it will take me too long to finish it, now that the arms are seperated.

(This first photo was taken before the arms were seperated...)

Sorry about the terrible last photo, but I had to lighten it a bit so you could actually see it! The actual colour is very hard to tell in these photos too, although I guess that first photo is the closest, but the label says 'dry sage'. I would have thought it was more 'natural' than that... hopefully I can get some daylight photos of it which should show it better. Its just getting really boring knitting stocking stitch the whole time!!

In need of some instant gratification, I started on some charity knitting on Saturday morning. I called up the radio station after they played an ad asking for volunteers to knit for preemies for the Wellington Hospital, so I registered my name, and they sent me out some little balls of wool and a return-paid envelope and said 'get to it'! Isn't it ADORABLE! I can't believe how tiny it is! I've started on some matching booties now too, so i'll show you those when they're done. I might do a little matching singlet too, if I have enough of this wool left.

If you'd like to join in with this charity knitting, go to http://www.whhf.org.nz/create for the contact details.

Also, just another quick update - I wrote a wee while ago that I was going to do some more work on my cowl-neck shawl.... well, I actually decided to frog that one. I did pick it up to do some more, but I thought, i'd never find the motiviation to actually finish it, with such small needles and thin yarn! I definately started it before I realised what a stupid idea it was! I still really like the pattern, so I will find some other scarf-type lacy pattern to use in the same way, and save all that yummy teal wool for something else - watch this space!