No sex please, I'm knitting...

Here's why wool is easier to love than men: 10am I fantasise about Mr Darcy and my latest wool purchase, wondering when they'll turn up on my doorstep...

By 1:45pm, my new wool purchases have arrived:


And Mr Darcy...? Tick, tick, tick...

Still, at least I have time to knit this pattern while I wait... ;)

Happy New Year!

Oh, brother...which art thou?

Speaking of scarves: Having knitted my sister and my dad a scarf for Christmas, my brother-in-law, who was there for the unwrapping, decided he felt left out (even after seeing the end products!). He asked, with about 70% sincerity, that I knit him one too. But I realise I actually don't own any knitting patterns for scarves for men! The only two I could find were these from (ehem) downloaded Knit.1 Vogue mags:



I made my dad's one using a base-pattern from a jumper I'd knitted earlier in the year:

Of course he wore it - he's my dad! Dad's have to do that sort of thing - he still has a lot of very ugly pottery from mine and my sister's school days on display in his china cabinet! Although it wasn't a bad scarf, if I do say so myself... Apart from the holes...

So now I'm a bit bereft of inspiration. You'd think in this modern, metrosexual world of theirs, that men would come up with some more interesting scarf ideas... More interesting than a footballer's poncy snood, anyway...

Will go watch the original cinema versions of Star Wars, finish this jumper, and see what muse strays in...

Lost in knitting...

I am just a little concerned this 'hobby' may be becoming an 'obsession' now... I haven't brushed my hair in over 24 hours because I've had 'better things to do', i.e. k2, p2... It's a worry, but I just don't seem to stop, and when I do stop it's usually to surf eBay for the right colour yarn for the next project... Yesterday I watched Lost in Austen and, much as I wanted to snog Darcy (at least, for once, I was appreciating a man who is actually closer to my age!) and fantasise about a man who has manners, breeding and decorum, all I could think about was why they were embroidering hymn book covers in the drawing room - why not knit or crochet? Oh, lord...

During Lost in Austen and over breakfast this morning:

This jumper is finally taking shape, albeit half the shape it should take because I was skimping on the wool. I may wait and see how much I have left at the end and possibly add on to the hemline ribbing...

I wonder if I could afford to hire Elliot Cowan as Mr Darcy and make him knit...? If ever a man was in need of a nice warm scarf, it's this one:

[sigh]... I wonder when my new wool purchases will arrive...?

2011 Inspirations...

I would love to think I could be this colourful, daring and adventurous, but at least they might inspire me to do something a little less than usual...

Clare Tough



Holly Fulton


Louise Gray


Mark Fast

Dress : continueued...

Breakfast in bed and this:


Am currently making a 2011 projects list. In the meantime, alongside poor quality Christmas TV, here's the next bit of the dress:

Scarfish

One of the patterns in the Haiku Knits book is a sort of scarf/wrap thing, called 'Fisherman's Net'. It's a beautiful, pearlesque thing, unlike any fisherman's net you're ever likely to see (except maybe in Japan) and I'd love to knit it exactly as is, but I don't have the right wool mixes.

However, the pattern suggests you can knit a scarf on 15mm needles using only 86 stitches - that's 86 stitches long, 18 rows wide... Not possible, thunk I! So I decided to give it a test run using some of my scrap pieces of wool...
The needles are not the easiest to knit with at all times, but they're certainly speedy, and this pattern was finished in under an hour!

I personally think my yucky and completely improvised colour scheme looks considerably more like an actual fisherman's net, what with the filthy green and the red bloody specks...



I'm quite pleased I now know how to knit this sort of scarf though - it was considerably quicker than the last one I knitted!!

Post-Christmas Post

In between the Original-Star Trek and -Star Wars DVDs, games for the Wii, the Led Zep CDs, smellies and choccies, socks, slippers, cardies, and all the other pressies received (that's my 'almost a Roger McGough poem' out of the way), I did get a few knitting presents for Christmas:

So I now have all the standard size needles and a new case (mum), some 'current knitting project carry-bags' (sister), and a new pattern book (dad) called Haiku Knits, one of the random choices I put on my Christmas list, but it turns out to have some absolutely gorgeous items in it (including one for my 15mm needles) that I'm desperate to start! Unfortunately, I don't have the right kinds of wool for any yet - and that's despite using my 'sales' money on as many balls as I could fit in the basket at Wilkinsons:

Note the faux-Noro! ;) I was tempted to buy them out of all the wool they had - only £1.27 a ball, after all, and they barely had £60 worth in the entire shop! But their carrier bags were too small...

I wasn't able to continue with the dress whilst away doing the family thing - too much to carry, and I didn't have my knitting carry-bags at the time! But I wasn't completely idle, as I decided to get on with the Phildar jumper pattern from my Recycle-balls post:

I came close to running out of freshly unpicked supplies right before having to come home, so the timing was good.

I think it's going to be a busy and productive New Year... \:D/

The blind chimp continues to sew...

During Star Trek: The Captains' Summit:


Then during It's A Wonderful Life (colour version):


Merry Christmas!

60s patterns I'd like to try next year (time and wool permitting...)...

60s patterns I don't expect to knit... ever...

Great early Ray Doyle hair though... ;)

Dress : continued...

So begins the dress work...

Well, it's not as easy as I'd expected. I began with this:

Then (by the sun set) I sat around knitting three front panels and a waist band to create this:

Took quite a long time, especially to sew on to the dress. Not least because the grey wool is very thin and curls up on itself AND won't iron flat...

Then it was time to try some embroidery... which, it turns out, I'm not all that good at...

Take, for example, my first leaf, which went in the wrong direction entirely... Anyway, I might try and crochet some leaves instead and see if that works better... It's all fun though...

I thought it would never happen, but...

SCARF DONE!!!


Just like the last one, I rather like it now and am mildly reluctant to part with it. I also considered that I maybe shouldn't gift it, after a slight mishap involving a pair of scissors and a few loose threads... which lead to more loose threads in places I didn't want them... But I've sewn up any obvious holes as best I can now, and it's looking alright. I was going to double it over and sew the seams to make it thicker, but as it would then become a far shorter scarf, I've decide to leave it as is, so it can either be worn 'Doctor Who' long-stylie, or tied around the neck in a 'classic loop' (you know, fold in half and thread the ends through - apparently, that's called 'classic loop'! On some websites...).

In future I think I should stop making scarves for other people. I am the only one, after all, who appreciates scarves so much she wears them all year round. Even as I type, I'm wearing the Man U/Newton Heath scarf to keep out the snow draft bearing in through the window...

Next up, aside from two jumpers that need finishing (and the cushion covers I started on Sunday), I have some ideas regarding my grey dress and the embroidery of. I've also 'acquired' some old Vogue knitting magazines and some Jean Greenhowe booklets, which look like fun... And then there's the Little Emo, Kokeshi dolls... And don't tell anyone, but I bought myself a Christmas present - knit-it sheep; I brought this for my sister a few years back, but I don't think she ever used it, so I bought myself one now, and if I get given another, I can start a sheep farm... :D

I can safely say that knitting has officially now become my hobby, therapy and creative outlet. I'll probably be bored of it by next week...

All purple...

Finally, one scarf down:


One still slowly to go, but it's nearly there... I'm actually a little reluctant to let this purple one go, but hopefully, if the recipient doesn't like it, I'll get it back again... ;)

Also saw this today - Little Emo Depressed Doll - and I think it may have to be added to the projects list! :)

Recycle-balls

Lots of craft projects planned for the Christmas holidays; shouldn't expect I'll actually get any of them done though! I still have two Christmas scarves to complete, hopefully by this Christmas. I'm also keen to get working on some cushion covers - probably material patchwork jobs, rather than knitting. Plus I have the embroidered dress to finish - I haven't forgotten.

I've now started on something new - a recycling project. I'm unpicking some old jumpers I know longer wear or fit into, so that I can start remaking them into jumpers I will wear, starting with this brown sweater:

I brought it more than a decade ago from La Redoute in the days when I had a nice flat tummy and a hooked-up front jumper could potentially still look sexy. In truth, I think I wore it no more than twice. And since I am now none too slim in the abs, the chances of ever wearing it again are... well, slim to none... So I am currently, and very slowly, unpicking it and re-balling it. I've already started it on its next lease of life too:

It's from the Phildar Winter no9 collection. Simple(ish) enough, expect for one slight problem... This particular pattern book was accidentally sent to me in French, and despite my basic conversational skills and my very poor A level grade, I confess le langue de knitting is a little bit beyond me; the French-English-French dictionary has had it's first proper outing in about 15 years! And even that's not entirely helping... But I am learning some new words and discovering the art of trial and error (or knit, review, unpick...).

It's an interesting one this - two different sets of needles, constantly being swapped, so that it looks like a sideways rib stitch. At least the 'back' is easy enough to work out the instructions to; the 'front' may be a little more of a linguistic challenge...

Let's get critical, critical...

I wanna get Criticaaal. Let's get 80s critical... :) Thanks O-NJ.

Anyway, it's nearly Christmas, which is the time of the dodgy knit. This time last year I was trying to work out if my Nan's old knitting machine could be the start of a cottage industry in dodgy jumpers so that, by this Christmas, I'd be a millionaire... Hasn't quite worked out like that, but it has led to a year-long hobby that I'm still enjoying. Today, my mum dropped over some old patterns for me that she wanted to get rid of - early 80s collections from Creative Knitting. I started off flicking through this with medium interest and mild disappointment - it is an impressive compendium of stitch and knitting techniques, great for designing your own pieces, but... it's from the 80s! The decade that taste forgot!! Don't believe me...?

Welcome to Top of the Knots (nots...)

That's right stitch pickers, it's time to take a look at the top ten worse knits of the decade:

At number 10:



It's 'snow' joke with this plain jumper with looped cable patches (why...??!)







At number 9:
A Christmas classic: soft jersey with silver stars










At number 8:
Chunky jacket with a geometric design










At number 7:

Fluffy jersey with a floral theme










At number 6:
Oh dear... it's two colour ribbed cable jersey











At number 5:
Stripped cardigan with embroidered lines (and an hideous dress sense!!)









At number 4:
Oh lord, not more flowers with rose jersey










At number 3:
Now I know why blue and green should never be seen - cardigan with cable squares










At number 2:
What is it with flower motifs? Here's Alpine flowers










And finally, at number 1:

Flowers eat your heart out! It's time for the entire garden with this picture jersey!!










However... Not all the patterns are that ugly, and it's surprising just how many of them are similar to ones I've been admiring in Phildar, Drops and other slightly more modern and stylish selections.






So maybe they're not all hideously useless after all...