First finished project for 2010

Well a new year has begun and my first finished project is...wait for it...another shawl!! I started working on Gudrun Johnston's Wast Side Shawl just before Christmas and finished it last week after having left it alone for a week or so. The construction of this shawl is different from anything else that I've tried in that you start with the border (which becomes a huge long chain of points) that you then pick up so that you can work inwards until you get to the top where you usually start a triangular shawl.

The border seemed to take forever, but the pattern works to a really good rhythm that is very easy to memorise, so it's not too painful. Then you work on the Fern lace, which again is pretty intuitive and easy to remember and on to the stockinette portion which just flies off the needles. Before you know it you've finished - smiles all around. Especially when your almost three year old son says "That's brilliant Mummy!".

As for the yarn I used, well yes, it's Malabrigo Sock again. I love this stuff, the colours are great, the yarn is lovely and soft and the yardage is really good for making shawls. Luckily I have a bit more left over in the stash so I'm off to see what else I can make - yippee!!

Oh yes, and I do believe that I've managed to produce something for the Summer of Lace that I told Bells I would join in on. I was starting to worry for awhile there as everything I tried just wasn't working. I've even got a couple of other things in the works that should hopefully count too. So stay tuned!

Yes, I've been AWOL

My, how the time has flown! Now that I look back I've been missing in action from here for quite awhile. Nothing serious, just not much to talk about I guess, and I was sick for about three weeks with the dreaded cold that has been going around so I wasn't really feeling up to anything much.

As you can see by my pictures, I've got knitting, or lack of it, to talk about! I'm sad to say I seem to be struggling with my knitting a bit at the moment. Lots of frogging has been taking place which is annoying, but also liberating. Back in March I think it was, I began work on a beautiful Kim Hargreaves cardigan, but as you can see by the first photo here it's now gone. I'd managed to complete the back and almost finished the left front piece, and then I'd made a mistake. To me, mistakes seem to be the signal to stop a project (until recently that is but I'll get to that later). Needless to say this project languished in it's bag for many months until last month when I decided to take another look at it. I looked, then looked again and it just didn't seem to be right, so I measured it, then I measured it again, and I was right, the whole thing was completely the wrong shape and size. Not sure what happened but I think that my tension is totally different when I'm just doing straight garter stitch and not stocking stitch. So the yarn has been bagged up again until I can find the perfect project for it. There's a few ideas floating around so I'll see what happens with those when the need arises.


I did, however, manage to finish my Eyelet Cardigan and it came out quite nicely.....BUT.....it just does not suit me. I'm not sure if it's the colour or the shape or a combination of the two but whenever I tried to put it on I felt like a complete frump, it did not look good at all. So, it's been packaged up, and we'll see if Mum likes it at Christmas time. If not, I guess it will be frogged and the yarn used for something else. You see, my fear of frogging has finally gone!

Other attempts at shawls this past couple of weeks have also fallen by the wayside. Firstly I tried Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante (Rav link). It's a really nice, simple shawl pattern that I thought would be good for a friends birthday present. It went along swimmingly until I got to the last row, I made a tiny mistake which I just left thinking nothing of it. Then, I was silly and did an extra row that wasn't necessary, again I left it thinking it would be ok. After that I did the bind off, hmmmm, this didn't look so good. Tried blocking it, still not good. The bind off was obviously way too tight, the shawl just looked misshapen and wanted to fold itself in half when I tried to stretch it out. It sat, forlorn for a couple of weeks until today when I thought I would try to rescue it. Then I thought, why bother, just start again. So it's been......frogged!!


Next, I tried Miriam L. Felton's Seraphim. I thought I would use the beautiful Malabrigo Sock yarn that I have here in the Turner colourway and it was going very well. I spent a week slogging away on the very large, and boring, stockinette section of the shawl and early this week got to the first chart. Something wasn't right, the second half of the pattern isn't matching up with the first half. I counted my stitches, then I counted again. WEIRD!!! I ended up with seven extra stitches on one half of the shawl. Really don't know how that happened, so I paused and thought, and realised that the colour just wasn't working for me in that shawl. Needless to say, it's now gone and another project has been started with the yarn. I'm not going to mention it yet in the fear that I may jinx myself to another failure!!!

One project that has been successful this past month has been gifted, so I can't even pull it out to remind myself that I have managed to finish something lately! It was Gudrun Johnston's Aestlight Shawl (Rav link). Quite a few of these have been popping up on Ravelry and I can add that it's a fun and interesting knit. The construction is quite different from any other shawls I have made. I'm fairly certain that it is mistake free and it blocked out rather nicely. The fact that my friend put it on straight away and left it on for our entire dinner out made me feel good about the fact that I'd passed it on to her. After all, I can always make another one!!

Silent Sunday

Bye Bye Blogtober

I've noticed that many of us that have taken part in Blogtoberfest are looking back today at the month that has passed. I too have been thinking about what I would say in this post and basically my main thought is...I've really enjoyed it!

At the start of the month I wasn't sure how I would go with the motivation to keep going and thinking of something to post every day, but really it wasn't too hard. Of course there were days where I thought I couldn't be bothered but for the most part I've had fun with the process of thinking what I'm going to write about and finding the pictures to suit the topic. I wasn't always successful, but then that's also part of the learning process.

Some topics of the past month were geared towards giving me motivation towards a goal, unfortunately I still haven't gotten very far with that! My so called attempt at starting to get fit and healthy again have fallen by the wayside and I'm still trying to master the hula hoop. But I'll keep trying and maybe I will let you know how I get on.

Mostly though I have enjoyed reading other blogs taking part in this little festival, as well as some that aren't, and I can honestly say I've learned quite a lot. I look forward to continuing the learning process and in getting to know a few more of you a little better. I also want to give a big thank you for everyone who has been reading and especially to those of you who have left comments, it really does brighten my day to find that someone has taken the time out of their busy lives to write something in response to my ramblings.

Thanks again everyone and Happy End of Blogtoberfest!

Reminiscing.

It's about this time of the year when I start to think more of my family and friends, seeing as they are interstate and I don't get to see as much of them as I would like. We usually book our Christmas trip around now so I start to get all excited about catching up with every one again.

Because of that I thought I'd look at a few old pictures, and also to share a couple with you here.


They certainly bring back lots of good, and happy, memories, as they should. Got to love those special dresses that Nana made!

CastOnItis Strikes Again!

I've gone and done it again, cast on another new project! After yesterdays unhappy attempt at knitting lace I thought I'd try something else with some yarn I'm more comfortable with, a nice lovely 4ply!! When I say lovely 4ply I mean it, Malabrigo Sock yarn is lovely to work with and is fast becoming a favourite along with the Handmaiden Casbah Sock I've used a couple of times.
This time I'm trying Gudrun Johnston's Aestlight Shawl, which has rather a different construction. You start with just one stitch and add to it at the beginning of each row by looping the yarn over the right needle, it produces the open stitches on the edges so that they can be easily picked up for the border to be worked. So far I'm about 60 or so stitches in to a cast on of 154, not too bad for an hour or two's work for me.
This is the easy part, the proof of how successful I'll be in sticking with this project will be when I get to the trickier border and edging sections. But then again there are over 500 projects on Ravelry so it can't be too hard, I hope!

Calling all lace knitters.

Ok, well I couldn't wait to start my Summer of Lace so I cast on the Hidcote Garden Shawl today and I'm not too sure about it. Even though I'm using smaller needles than specified in the pattern it's still looking a little too lacy for me. This is what I have after completing the first chart of twenty eight rows.

So my question is, does this look right to you? I get the feeling it needs to be a bit tighter but I'm also wondering if the yarn will bloom a bit after it's been soaked for blocking. I'm using Knitter's Addiction Lace Weight Cashmere, which I haven't tried before. It seems nice so far, but I'm just not used to using such fine yarn, the Malabrigo laceweight is nice and fuzzy so it doesn't seem so thin for some reason.

Seeing as I'm still very new to this I'm not sure if I should keep going with this needle size or try it again on much smaller needles. I must say that this attempt on 3mm needles does look better than the few rows I tried on the 3.25mm needles. Anyway, all tips and hints will be much appreciated. Thank You!

Teaser Tuesdays - A Favourite Author

On the night of my thirteenth birthday, I made an announcement.
'I am never getting married and I am never having children.' (p.1)

The teaser lines today are the first two from the new novel 'Leaving the World' by one of my favourite authors Douglas Kennedy. When one of my friends asked a couple of weeks ago if I would like a copy as he'd seen it going cheap in the city I said "Yes please!"

Since reading 'The Pursuit of Happiness' back in 2001 I've pretty much read every other novel he has written. Some are gripping, thrilling and are great page turners. The last couple however I've found to be a little strange, they start out really good, with all of Kennedy's trademarks, but then they turn, become a bit too fantastical. There's something about them though that I still enjoy, so when a new novel turns up, I go out and get it and start reading it with a good sense of expectation. Hopefully this new one will be another gripping ride.

As for last week's book 'I heart New York' by Lindsey Kelk, I have to say I enjoyed it. At times it got a little tedious/predictable (like most chick lit books do), but for the most part it was a really fun read with little twists here and there to keep you guessing. It helped too that she evoked the city really well, and also mentioned one of my favourite works of art to boot. If you're looking for something light and fun to read, then this one fits the bill.

Laceweight.

Since I started knitting lace earlier this year with Ishbel and the Adamas Shawl I've been getting closer and closer to trying knitting lace in actual laceweight yarn. It hasn't happened yet, but I am using the laceweight for the Featherweight cardigan at the moment and really, it's not that scary.

Seeing as Bells is talking of doing the Summer of Lace again this year I thought I would join in and have been trying to decide which pattern I'm going to do. I think I've worked it out and am considering using some beautiful cashmere that's waiting in the stash to make Miriam L Felton's Hidcote Garden Shawl (Ravelry link).

Then again, I could end up making something completely different, we'll have to wait and see what I come up with, sometimes I surprise myself!

No words Sunday.

Some knitting.

My knitting project at the moment is a little on the tame side, loads and loads of stocking stitch, but at the same time it's quite soothing, and the yarn is just beautiful. I'm making Featherweight Cargidan by Hannah Fettig and am using the yarn called for, Malabrigo Yarn Lace. This yarn is the softest, lightest and finest yarn I have ever worked with and so far I'm loving it. I just keep laying the piece down on my lap so I can touch it, and have been known to rub it against my cheek from time to time too!

I'm starting to reach that point though where my mind starts to wander off to other project ideas, what else can I do, what yarn can I use........yes, castonitis is trying its influence yet again. So far I've been strong, mostly I think because I can't yet decide which new project I want to cast on, there are so many calling to me. Luckily there isn't just one with the loudest "Pick Me" call yet, so Featherweight is safe with my affections, for now!

Attempts at fitness.

In an attempt to boost my motivation for getting fit and healthy I thought I would try something fun that the Lukester and I can play with together, I bought us each a hula hoop!

We had lots of fun this afternoon trying to use them but they're not as easy as I remember. I couldn't get it to work at all, it kept just dropping to the floor. I'm determined to be able to use it though, so hopefully by the end of the weekend, I'll be hula hooping up a storm. Yippeeeeee.

This is funny!

The other day we found the baby dancing to Beyonce on YouTube which is hilarious, they must have had a heap of people using it though because they've now disabled the embedding function, you can still go and check it out here.

While I was looking for it tonight to show you, I came across this other video which I thought was just as good, stick with it as he has some good moves towards the end. Little ones certainly know how to move!!

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Date night.

Tonight, I met my Handsome Husband in the city for an evening out together, we thought we'd try the Night Noodle Markets which are an annual event in Sydney. It was a lovely night, but very crowded with massive queues waiting for the food, and in the end we didn't even bother with lining up to get drinks, just made do with the bottle of water that we had. The atmosphere was pretty happy and relaxed though, I think because it had been a really nice, warm day today, so everyone was enjoying being outside.
It's so nice to spend some time together just the two of us, it's a pretty rare occurrence these days. I think we'll have to make more of an effort to make "Date night" a bit more of a regular event. What do you think Rob????

Teaser Tuesdays - Some Chick Lit.

Her perfect wedding outfit was carefully folded over the back of a chair and I hesitated for a moment before looking down at what she was wearing instead. It's a bit weird to see your mum wearing an old Blondie T-shirt and a pair of your boyfriend's boxers. (p.12).

I've started a new book today, 'I heart New York' by Lindsey Kelk. I've got a nice pile of books to choose from at the moment, but I can't seem to bring myself to read anything other than fluff, hence the chick lit. At least it's set in my favourite city!! Judging by the first twelve pages I think I should enjoy it, I'll let you know how it goes. What are you reading today?

Clothilde

Yay, another shawl is done, that makes seven finished since June! There's also a looooong list of more to do yet, at the moment I'm trying to decide which one to try, there are so many beautiful patterns to choose from.

This pattern, Clothilde, took me a week to do (again I was very good with my monogamous knitting) and I thoroughly enjoyed it, there's enough happening in the pattern to keep your interest going without it being too taxing. I think this is a first for me in not having any mistakes in it either, none that I know of any way!
I think I mentioned before that the yarn is Fifty Fifty by Knitabulous and it was really lovely to work with, beautifully soft with great stitch definition and drape. The only pity is that the colours don't show up well in the photography. I know I had my reservations about it when I first started, and although it's not usually a colour I would go for, I found myself seeing something different in it every time I picked it up.

In hindsight I think I could have made it a little larger, again I have ended up with at least 15 grams of yarn left over, and my bind off mustn't have been stretchy enough as I didn't get the points with the spearhead lace, I didn't try it too hard but it did seem a bit resistant.
All in all I'm happy with the outcome (it helps that the designer Kristen Hanley Cardozo and Ailsa Daily from Knitabulous have both faved my project on Ravelry!!) and I would definitely recommend it as a lovely shawl to make. Go on, you know you want to!

Well...

Tonight I was going to do a 'No Words Sunday' post, but Blogger has other ideas and won't post any of the pictures I've tried uploading for the past hour.......so I'm not happy! I have some lovely pictures I took down by Lake Illawarra this afternoon when we went down for some fresh air and sunshine. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post something a little more interesting again.

Thanks to the Handsome Husband too for his guest post last night, it was a nice surprise to see what you came up with.

Is that a Y chromosone in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

So the missus walks up to me and says, "Wanna do a guest blog?" How can I refuse?

The regular readers will know me as the Handsome Husband (that's her opinion, I reckon I've got a head like a dropped pie) who crops up in the annals of Aspiring Blogger from time to time. I love AC/DC, playing with the Lukester, football, Tintin, Sudoku, the beach, my family and the mistress. I hate fascists, Gloria Jean's and Starbucks coffee, Tangara trains and reality TV. But enough about me.

I thought I would share with you one of my favourite photos of my beautiful wife. Some background on the picture. It was taken at Moana - Google Maps - with the coolest car I have ever driven. The car belonged to Big Bad Brian, my father-in-law, and was reluctantly sold the next year after this was taken.

Hope you enjoyed my guest stint on Aspiring Blogger. I'm off to be a knitting widow for the rest of the evening.

Like a woman possessed.

This time last week I was telling you that I had cast on Clothilde, and by the end of tonight I should hopefully have it finished! I'm not sure if it's just a quick knit or the fact that I've been obsessively working on it all week, but I've almost finished the large size. I've thoroughly enjoyed making this one and I've really warmed up to the colour but unfortunately my photos are not doing it any justice at the moment. Maybe if I get my act together, and the weather isn't too bad over the weekend, I can do a nice little photo shoot to try and improve that.

The Stash!

Most knitters know that an important aspect of the craft is building "The Stash". Some people don't store much yarn in theirs, but I must say that I am rather guilty of accumulating more than a few skeins, although I am not as bad as some. Yet again Ravelry has helped me to see that there is always going to be more people out there that have way more than me so I don't feel so bad, there are even threads in the forums where people show off photos of their stash and how they store it, believe me it's worth checking out!


Another aspect of "The Stash" that Ravelry has developed for me is the photography of yarn. I would never have imagined that I would put time and thought into taking photos of balls of yarn, but I have, and I think I'm improving! There's another group on the site which is devoted to photographing their knitting projects and yarn which I have been stalking and considering joining, some of the photography is amazing and has really inspired me to try a few different things.


When I think about "The Stash" I know that in my case the majority of it has been bought with a purpose, with a particular project in mind. It doesn't always end up as what was originally intended but there is some thought put into it, much research on my knitting bible (Ravelry of course) and then it comes down to what I feel like casting on at the time. There's a lot more I could probably say here to try and explain myself a little better but I think I'll leave it for now. Maybe I'll get another post out of it if I'm struggling again for something to talk about here! It all goes to show though how much knitting has become a big part of my life, as something that I enjoy and benefit from. Got to love that!