Monthly Archives: March 2010

There are always several nightmare situations lurking in the shadows for we fiber lovers. Recently, I’ve had a brush with one of the worst.

Somebody, or in this case something, has been eating my stash. Not a lot of it, admittedly, but enough to seriously put the wind up me and make me look closely at my stash storage methods.

Look at this.

I think it’s fairly safe to say that no one in this house took to a ball of laceweight wool with scissors and so I think we all know who or what the culprit might be. I actually discovered this one a while ago – a much loved ball I procured from Donyale over a year ago. I even started knitting with it once before giving up the project half way through (my fault; not the yarn!). The problem was that it wasn’t stored in a zip lock bag; a lot of my stash is. Sometimes I’m slow to buy a new box of bags so some yarns linger for a while, floating free. Sometimes I take them out of a bag to start a project and a bag gets repurposed. I think that’s what happened with this one. It was in a plastic tub with few other free floating balls in amongst the plastic bagged stash. In a panic I checked and there were no more shredded balls or skeins and so I relaxed a little.

Until yesterday.

Nearing the end of a skein for my Featherweight cardigan, I found the third and last skein and started winding it on the swift. About a quarter of the way through, the yarn broke. I thought nothing of it and started winding a fresh ball. That too broke. After the third break, I started to get really worried. I checked the skein and sure enough there were the tell-tale razored edges. Something had eaten it. I ended up with this small selection of balls.

I remained calm through all of this. Had a bit of a discussion online with DrK and decided to bag them up and stick them in the sun to roast the little buggers who thought my stash was tasty. At the end of the day, I brought the steaming bag inside and froze it. I did both methods because I don’t know what’s in there or what the best method is. One of the options had to work.

And now I’ll get on with the rest of my cardigan.

But I did spend some time excavating my stash today – 90% of which lives in big plastic tubs, tightly sealed and inside plastic zip lock bags. I checked the stuff that was loose and found no other skeins that were eaten. Not one. So it’s a bit of a mystery.

In happier news, I can follow up on the Golden Vintage Cardigan in the last post. I did put her through the tumble dryer; I dampened her down a little and gave her 20 minutes in the dryer. Good as gold! Soft and comforting, just like cotton should be. And because I wasn’t able to get to Addicted to Fabric for buttons until Saturday, but wanted to wear her to work the next day, I dug around and found a brooch I was given some time ago by Princess Pea. An idea struck and I think it worked. This little piece was the perfect fastener, I think.

I still went and bought some small simple buttons, but I think the brooch has found the perfect home. Anyone know what the craft is that makes such brooches? A friend saw it yesterday and said her ex mother-in-law made one for her once and she never knew what to do with it. Whatever the craft is, it’s pretty.

Bells

Six months in the making, I finally finished my Golden Vintage Cardigan – a beautiful design by Thea Colman. Six months is ridiculous for such a simple cardigan but what can you do when you start preparing for Christmas knitting and perfectly fine, easy knits go by the wayside.

Anyway, it’s done in time for autumn now and I’m pretty happy with it. No buttons yet. I’m undecided if I will include buttons. The holes are so tiny they don’t even show up so I can probably get away with it. But maybe it needs a couple?

In this photo you can see it falls open slightly awkwardly – or maybe it’s just how I was standing. So maybe some sort of closure is needed.

I’m really very happy with it. I’m just not sure about the yarn. The Bendigo 8ply cotton has dried sort of  hard. It didn’t feel that way when I was knitting with it – perhaps it needs a shot in the dryer to soften it up? It has that ‘stiff as a board’ feeling which I think is not conducive to wearing it. Maybe it’ll soften on wearing, like jeans do? Thoughts anyone?

I’m very happy with the neckline, which I improvised. Just before I began what should have been a simple i-cord neckline, I realised I’d always envisioned it with something a little prettier. I grabbed a crochet hook and half an hour later (so fast!) had a neckline I think suits the design really well. Yay for improvisation!

Also, I was skeptical at first, but the cable rib band is left open at the bottom of the cardigan in the pattern and I thought I’d try it, and if I hated it, I’d sew it up afterwards. I think it works. I think given the cardigan is quite snug, the band might be too fitted without the venting at the sides.

I only modified the cardigan a bit. I changed the shaping of the sleeve caps after I realised I must have messed them up, or the body and had to make them a little less sloping, a little more bell shaped. I lengthened the sleeves just slightly and that was about it. All in all, a great pattern that deserves more people making it. Simple, elegant design – I especially like the band. It’s knitted as you go, with easy mock cabling.

I love Bendigo Cotton – the colour is Gumleaf – now discontinued, and a gift. It just feels crunchy and stiff so perhaps it just needs to dry in moving air, like the in the dryer or outside with air moving around it on a breezy day. Would appreciate any insights on that.

Bells

Sometimes you get the chance to have a day that’s slow, that’s a bit out of the ordinary and to my way of thinking, it’s something to be immensely grateful for.

The first of two such days happened for me on Sunday. DrK came to town for a stay so we could go and see a very popular exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. The Musee d’Orsay has loaned 112 great paintings to the gallery for a few months for the Masterpieces of Paris show and to say that this exhibition has been popular is an understatement. There are several Van Gogh pieces and others by Cezanne, Gaugin and many others.

We’d heard there were long queues to get in; we’d heard the show had been extended for a few weeks to account for these queues. We thought perhaps getting there 30-40 minutes before the gallery opened at 10am would be wise. It seems everyone else had the idea. We walked past hundreds of people, many of whom had bought deck chairs, picnic blankets, flasks of tea and coffee, newspapers and books.  We joined the masses in the line for approximately two and a half hours! Yes, that’s right. Nearly three hours!

We’d had the sense to bring our knitting with us, but not hats and the day got hot. Thankfully staff from the gallery handed out flyers that actually had instructions on them for making hats! Here’s me in mine.

Don’t let the empty space around us fool you. We were not alone on Sunday. We just took photos facing away from the enormous line snaking behind us.

The big question, obviously, is did we think the hours of waiting were worth it? Well first of all, waiting with a friend is never a bad thing, no matter how hot you get, how sore your feet are. We had knitting. There were coffee vendors. There were, for the most part, nice people around us (let’s not discuss the woman who yelled inanely at her children for the duration. Why bring small children to a huge line and then yell at them when they get restless?). Anyway, it was fun. And the exhibition was stunning. It’s perhaps a cliche to say it but seeing some Van Gogh paintings up close was really quite a hallowed experience. I had imagined that perhaps I’d be underwhelmed by the experience but I wasn’t. We approached Starry Night Above the Rhone with great reverence. It’s beautiful. No matter what anyone says, a picture reproduced in a book can never equal seeing it up close; seeing the strokes of the brush, the greater depth of the colours, the mark of the artist. It just can’t be beaten. To have seen it with Kylie after such a long wait is a memory to treasure.

And today was also a slow day. My Tuesday. It started at 5:30am when I was woken by a nightmare. To settle my mind, I got up to have a pot of tea, knit and watch Jane Eyre. The day continued in this manner, more or less without interruption as I lost myself in finishing my Golden Vintage cardigan. It’s drying now, after hours and finishing and seaming, but here’s an advance screening of my unique addition to it – a crocheted neckband, not done in the pattern. More on this later. It’s not this green but the light of the day was fading. Better photos to come.

I love slow days. Time stands still in a way and in the suburbs, it’s quiet and you can feel almost disconnected from the world. Almost. It’s satisfying in the extreme.

Bells

This week, I’ve engaged in what I think is a well deserved bout of selfish and entirely monogamous knitting.

After handing over the gifts to my nephew and sister, I stopped and thought about how it’s March and already, the bulk of my knitting time this year has been devoted to gifts.

I’ve loved it, really. Showing the people I love most how much I love to make things for them is really one of the things I enjoy most about being A Knitter. But given the short time frames I gave myself in some instances, it’s been a little trying at times as I raced the clock. But it’s not a bad output.

1. Willem’s birthday socks, 2. Rosy Posy Cosy, 3. Alice in the Helena Cardigan, 4. elijah – window, 5. cranford mitts, 6. Springtime Bandit Shawl

But enough’s enough. Time for me to get on with some delayed cardigan knitting. Autumn in upon us and I’m so far sans new cardigans. While my Golden Vintage waits to be sewn up, I’m knitting wholly and entirely on my Featherweight Cardigan in Knit Picks Shadow (colour Basalt Heather).

As far as cardigans go, you can’t beat this for its go-everywhere-ness. Literally feathery in its weight, all in one piece and ultimately very plain with its ongoing stocking stitch design, I’ve worked on it every morning in the car, on the way home on the bus, over coffee and drinks and lunch and dinner. Everywhere. And I imagine that’ll continue when I get to the sleeves and the band because it stuffs into a small project bag with ease and can be picked up and put down again and again.

And I’m not stopping the monogamy til it’s done. Probably. Never say never.

Bells

Twice in the last few months I’ve had the chance to go to a concert at the Sydney Opera House. First, for Tori Amos last November, where I wore my Myrtle Leaf shawl. Next was two weeks ago on the weekend trip to Sydney where we saw Amanda Palmer, another singer-songwriter on piano. I have a bit of a weakness for piano playing women, I confess.

This time I wore my Icarus shawl and Sean took these photos which I thought I’d share. I just think Icarus looks so striking against black clothing, and the way she’s blowing in the wind makes her come so alive!

The steps of the Opera House were filling up, not just with the Goth girls in their incredible outfits inspired by Amanda Palmer, but also with people who’d come out to see the Queen Mary II in the harbour. You can see that in the background above.

I really don’t have much in the way of good dress up clothing. I tend to wear the same tops and skirts and pants over and over. But I’m getting a lovely collection of shawls and find they are just the right accessory to dress up old standard clothes.

Any excuse to knit a new one, I say.

Bells