Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Rippling down the river...

So, I've started my first proper, in depth crochet project - Lucy's Ripple Blanket



I'm using Cascade 220 with a 5.00mm hook. It's  so lovely to do when watching tv. It did take a while to do the very first row, as I went into the back of the chain instead of going under the top two chains - therefore the two chains are at the bottom of the blanket, which will match the top of the blanket when I finish. Anyhoo... it makes for a very fiddly first row - as in, it took almost all of the movie UP! to do.



I didn't really think through how big it was going to be - I thought "yeah, 15 repeats sounds good... which is chaining 210 + 3 to turn." Meanwhile, 15 repeats is 135cm. Which means I'm going to have to purchase another 9 skeins to get somewhat of a rectangle - each colour stripe is around 2.5cm tall, meaning each repeat of colours is 22.5cm long... each colour takes 25g (or just under) which means I'll get 4 repeats out of one skein... 4 x 22.5cm is 90cm which isn't long enough for something that is 135 wide. So I'll double it, to use up as much as possible, making it 180cm long




Each colour is made up of two rows - one row takes about 30-40 minutes to complete. Great for watching Chuck... Dollhouse (omg, until certain things happen and you have to stop crocheting because it's O_O worthy...), Gilmore Girls... I started this on Saturday night, and was weaving the ends for finishing the first repeat of colours this morning (I am NOT leaving it until the end to weave all the ends in. That's just crazy)



It looks quite homey in this basket, which used to belong to Grans. It would have... it is? her birthday on Friday. She'd be 75. *sigh* The family is going out for lunch, to somewhere Pop hasn't been before, which will be good. We bought him a digital camera for Christmas, which will go great with the computer Mum & Dad got for him for his birthday. He loves to email us, and it does put a smile on my dial.

Miss you, Grans. <3

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Finished for another year...

I ended up with 30 finished projects for 2009 - lots of hats and a few gloves, a few swap projects, three adult garments! A few things frogged, a few things sitting still on the needles... but a very exciting year! 




Hoping to break that this year, or at least come out with some more quality pieces! :)

Rusted Root - take 2!

Kelly has been running Knit-A-Longs over at the tangled YARNS blog and the Ravelry group for October and November. This time, it's a summer Knit-A-Long, seeing the time of year is a wee bit hectic to fit a project into one month. A bit of a twist, it's a choice two projects from Zephyr Style!

I had said that I'd like to do another Rusted Root for my sister back when I finished mine.  This took a little bit longer... I don't know why, I just didn't have the same "omgosh, need to finish it!"like I did with mine. It still could have been a few more pattern repeats longer, although I don't think there would be that problem if she wore a singlet underneath it.

Anyhoo, finished just after Christmas - she wore it to the Outback Spectacular on Wednesday night (I was casting off as we were driving down to the Gold Coast...)



as well as to our engagement part on Saturday night.



Rusted Root by Zephyr Style (Ravelry link)
Materials: Cotton Fleece in Dusty Eggplant, 4.00mm Addi circulars for body, 3.50mm for ribbing
Used: 2.1 skeins - I had to break into the third skein for the last two rows of ribbing and the bind off.
Size: XS
Mods:
I did twisted rib for all the ribbing. I forgot to go down a needle size for the bottom ribbing... but I think I forgot to do that for mine as well ;) No other mods. Ended up with 12 pattern repeats.

Started: 26th November, 2009
Finished: 30th December, 2009
Made For: Caitlin


Hello there, my friend



Finally, after many months of waiting, I have a sewing machine! No more borrowing off others. No more "oooh if only I had that sewing machine, I could make this!". And most importantly, I have other things to start stashing! muwahhah! ;)

My aunt upgraded her sewing machine, so this one was hers... it's been around a while ;) At least 10, if now 12 years? It's a Janome MyExcel 18W. White. I don't know if it has an instruction manual. Hrm. Should check in box.

Went into Spotlight and picked up two patterns: this cute little puffed sleeved top by McCalls, and this sleeveless number by Butterick. It was interesting picking out patterns, and trying to imagine it in different fabrics. Decided to make the Butterick pattern first, and went and found some fabric. Came home, washed... and then it sat there until the last night Mum was here.

I think I subscribe to the "fly by the seat of my pants" type of sewing. I started doing everything okay, asking Mum questions. But when you measure yourself to see what size you should be making... and then realise you need to make cut out one size in the front, and another size in the back - something your instructor hasn't done before... then it becomes interesting.

We ended up firstly cutting out the 24 in the front, and the 18 in the back... because you can always take it in! I'm 19.5 inches across my back but at the fullest part of my bust, I'm 25 inches, which made the arm holes a bit weird - I still don't think they're right. And I bought the 16-24 pattern, so I had to take the back in to what I think worked out was the 12?

But anyway, I ended up with a wearable garment, which is the important thing! I still need to perfect the attaching of the straps to each other a bit more.



Halfway through sewing this garment, I realised I needed a pin cushion (I also realised I need more pins... the 100 pack I bought really didn't go far enough. Or maybe it was only a 50 pack?). I had a pin cushion pattern saved from almost twelve months ago - On Pins and Needles by Heather Bailey. I didn't actually print this out and follow it... again, flying by the seat of my pants sewing (FBTSOMPS).



I used some fabric I bought ages ago (I have an obsession with buying fat quarters... ), the left over green from my top, some ribbon that I got in the Green Swap from jaffajane88 on the Australian Swappers Ravelry group. The button is very special; it came from my grandmother's button stash. It's such a perfect button, about an inch wide, and so smooth. I couldn't imagine it on a garment, and I think this pin cushion will be sticking around a bit longer than any garment would :)

So, I have another top to sew, and then the Amy Butler Tunic! But first, I need more fabric. And I think this means a trip to Ikea... ;)

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Happy holidays!




Our first Christmas in our own home (and our first Christmas as an engaged couple!!)... how exciting is that!?




This is our little piece of the world... a perfect size for us now and I think it will continue to be fantastic as the years go by.

Mum, Dad and Caitlin have come down to spend our first Christmas in our home with us; they drove down and got here on Thursday with a trailer load of thing that never moved out with me when I left home. Boxes of books, toys, the step ladder I made in grade 10... a few extra things too (a beautiful chair made by a family friend for Tam and I - the Jack and Jill chair he calls it... it's still in pieces to assemble though... a warming tray for our upcoming engagement party... a little freezer for some extra storage...). It's so nice to have them here at the moment (extra awesome because I get to play with their Canon 50D. Waaaaant. [would like some extra lenses too please...]), even though we only saw them a few days ago. They are staying in our room, and Tam and I have relocated to the guest room.

Christmas was a great day - not hurrying through presents to get somewhere else... not hurrying through presents because people were coming over... a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes... ham sandwiches for lunch... lamb roast for dinner!







A lovely day, received a few knitting related things, and a little portable green house (hopefully this will help me not kill my herbs :( ). I might do a round up post of recently acquired knitting things sometime soon.

But we're going to enjoy the rest of today - heading out to visit Caitlin's old school principal, who now lives out at Wellington Point. Dinner there, and then the rest of the week will be planning for our second engagement party! There is too many people to have just the one, so we thought we'd split it up into two - friends and family.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

It already feels strange if it is not here...

We've had a bit of exciting news since my last post.

On the 14th November, 2009, my darling boyfriend became my darling fiance. *1, 2, 3... awww*

This is us just after the proposal:



Pretty awesome, huh? There's a cute little story about how it happened to.

A lazy afternoon a few months back, I asked Tam to tell me something. Something I didn't know about this impending engagement that was "eventually" going to happen. He was almost asleep, and he said "It'll happen before the end of the year". I'd heard this before, so I confirmed, "before the end of this year? Before the end of 2009?" A lazy smile, and he said, "yes, it will happen before the end of this year".

We had a family reunion coming up in December, so I thought, "Well, of course it will happen before that. But when? How?!" The jewellery shop was in the city, and seeing we live about half an hour outside the CBD now, it was becoming a bit difficult for him to get in there on the sly.

Saturday morning came along - we'd been invited to a BBQ at Melissa's place, but Tam wanted to go into the city to pick up his comics. I said, "oh, can I come into the city with you?". "No." he said very bluntly. I raised my eyebrows, and went "okay then. Fine. We'll go to the BBQ first and then I'll drop you off at the train station". But by the time we got to the BBQ, Tam wouldn't have had time to get to the city via the train - the comic book store closed at 4pm, and it takes about an hour to get to the city via the train. He gave in, and I said, "Don't worry, I won't follow you around. You can do whatever you need, I'll just sit and knit in the food court!". As we left Melissa's, I gave her a very strange look as Tam said something about buying comics, which tried to convey "I think he's going to pick up the engagement ring today!!!!!!". Unfortunately the message didn't get across ;)

We made it into the city about 2:30pm, craving some lunch. The closest Commonwealth ATM I knew of was at Broadway on the Mall, which also housed Gillett's Jewellers. Tam mentioned needing to buy a external hard drive for his aunt at Harvey Norman's, which is just about the jeweller's. He asked, "do you want to come with me upstairs?". I said, "No, it's okay. I'll go and have lunch." Tam stared at me with a funny look on his face, saying "are you sure?" "No, you can go by yourself".

20 minutes later, I had almost finished lunch, when Tam comes back from Harvey Norman's, an external hard drive in tow. I felt... a little sad, and I assumed he had paid some money off the ring, or he really didn't need to go in there, he was just buying a hard drive. We had lunch, went to Comics Etc, and headed back to the car, which was parked down near the Belgium Beer Garden.

While strolling back to the car, hand in hand, I looked down at one stage and saw something in his cargo pocket. Puzzled, I snuck another look a few minutes later - that looks like a box! A box that it little enough to put a ring in! Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh... that sneaky boy! I began to giggle. "What's wrong?" he asked. "What are you giggling about?" "Nooooooooothing!!!" I replied. This continued for about two blocks... giggling... trying to get closer to his pocket. He finally worked out what I was trying to do, and he swapped sides, putting me as far away from the pocket as possible. "What!!" I cried. "So I'm allowed to be over here, touching this pocket" - I pat the empty one - "but not the pocket over here?" - I tried to pat the other pocket, but he ran away, laughing as well.

We got back to the car, and he unlocked it, put the bag from Harvey Norman's in the back seat, closed the door and said, "Do you want to go for a walk?" More very inappropriate giggling: "maybe!!" We toddled down to the Botanical Gardens, where we walked around for a little bit, until we found an empty park bench. Then we sat down, and watched the house boats for a little while, giggling at the people rowing from their house boat to the shore.

We sat there for a little while, until Tam said, "I'm not very good at speeches". I smiled, and replied, "It's okay, I still love you". I don't remember what else was said now. I'm a bit sad about it. But there was smiling... and feeling safe...

He fumbled in his pocket, and took out a little purple box. And then there was a box within a box. Heh. And then he got down on one knee, and asked, "will you?"

"Will I what?" I asked with a grin.

"Will you be my wife?"

"I'll have to think about it ;)"

"Oh."

"Of course I will be your wife!"



This ring has actually been picked out for over three years now. The details written down on a card, chilling out in his wallet for that long. Actually, I think we've had them written down two or three times. Every time we'd go into Gilletts, we'd look through the rings... none of them looked as nice as this one.





After, Tam called my dad, asking permission. Originally, he said no. And then he said I suppose so. And then asked something about our new house. That seemed to be a common theme in telling our male relatives about our upcoming nuptials.

Our families are very excited about this - as of we, of course! We had a little engagement party on the weekend for my family in Mackay - just a few friends were invited as well.

We are thinking of an April 2011 wedding. We don't have a theme or a plan or anything as of yet, but hopefully after our other engagement party in January, we will start jotting down some ideas.

So very exciting! :DDD

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Just quickly...

Good thing I'm not participating in Blogtoberfest! otherwise I would be doing very poorly. I have enjoyed reading people's updates though!

Drove into work today for a change (haven't done that since we moved to Bray Park!) and stopped in at Funky Fabrix - something that I had been meaning to do since I was chatting with Kelly a few weeks ago about the lack of dresses that fit me in the bosom. I didn't purchase any fabric, but did come away with Amy Butler's Mini Dress/Tunic pattern. Looking forward to eventually having a sewing machine (how many days is it until Christmas!?) and being able to sink my teeth into sewing from a pattern, and having awesome handmade clothes! Not that I don't already have awesome handmade clothes... ;)

I have a new project that I'm working on too - the Honeybee Cardigan! I've been working on this for almost two weeks now, and it's looking great - although the yarn that I've chosen (Malabrigo Sock in Archangel) certainly has a bit of an identity crisis - magenta one minute, dark purple the next!



This is where I was up to yesterday - eight inches down, only seven more to go ! I bought some small circular needles tonight so I can start doing the sleeves - thank goodness Addis come in 30cm circulars! You knit the sleeves from the elbow up, and then attach them into the body (which is what I'm working on at the moment). I'm glad that I saw a student who was taking Technical Support classes with work doing a top similar in construction, otherwise I think I would have been a bit lost when it got to that section - I'm not sure if I'm glazing over that part of the pattern, but I still haven't found the part where it says to transfer them. Go figure! :D

Was also looking through Made It tonight, and found some super cute skirts at Lilli Pilli Lane. This only strengthens my urge/need/want/lust to sew! Although then I will be starting a fabric stash... this cannot be good.

although by the sounds of it, I may be getting downstairs as my playroom...

Righto. VERY much past my bedtime now. Up early for work in the morning, and I still haven't had a shower. :D

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Hitting Gold!

From skein to shirt in 10 days! :D

Rusted Root by Zephyr Style.



Materials: Cotton Fleece in Gold Dust, 4.00mm Addi circulars for body, 3.50mm for ribbing
Used: 2.98 skeins - 298g! :D
Size: Large
Mods:
Main mod obviously was dropping the neckline! To do this, I cast on
for knitting flat:
1 (front), pm, 13 (sleeve) pm 20 (back) pdm when knitting in the round 20 (back pm 13 (sleeve) pm 1 (front). Then I did raglan increases Kf&B until front measures 4” from cast on. Then I cast on the required stitches for the front, minus two for the two I cast on at the start. It really wasn't too difficult! :D And I only did seven rounds of ribbing at the bottom, otherwise I would have run out of yarn.
Started: 22nd September, 2009
Finished: 2nd October 2009
Made For: Me




I think I will make another one for Caitlin for Christmas. I really need to start looking at Christmas presents and what I need to make and what I need to buy.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Rooting along...

So, my Rusted Root is coming along fantastically.

I snapped a pic of it this morning while Tam and I had breakfast at C Word at Nundah Village.



I've done four repeats of the lace - had to fudge it a few times, but then again, who doesn't fudge lace (don't answer that). I cracked into ball two a few rows outside of dividing the sleeves - I did that last night. Tried it on after I did that, and I am hoping it will fit. It won't be too small, I know that.

This is the first garment I have done side shaping in, so I'm a bit unsure on how you know if you'll need to do more shaping than is advised in the pattern. I have read of people adding some increases after the decreases along the rib cage, so I might do some more reading up about waist shaping. And don't get me started on bust shaping! I think I need to invest in some books about it. There used to be a great article on bust shaping, but it's been taking down, as it has been published in UK's The Knitter. *sigh* Oh well.

Back to bagels. C Word have the best bagels I have ever had. Then again, I haven't really eaten bagels anywhere else other than there. Can you buy them easily in Brisbane?



I even eat them with egg (not the biggest egg fan in the world). Bacon, an egglette (a little omlette), cheese and BBQ sauce - the Crispy Beggel.

Tam had the Canadia - Bacon and maple syrup.



And onto other project news, I have started increasing for the sleeves on my Pucker! Yay, pucker! :D Here is me trying to measure it.



As you can see, I had some difficulties. Zorro likes to help.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Air Conditioning Defence

So, Ms Featherweight.




Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Materials: Malabrigo Lace in Verde Adriana, 4.00mm Addi circulars
Used: 1.5 skeins - 75g? I haven't weighed it yet.
Size: Medium
Mods: Sleeves were only knit to just above the elbow - 4 rows of k2p2 ribbing. 17" in body length. I haven't picked up the stitches around the front and neck... mostly because I'm lazy, but I didn't really see it add anything to it? I have 25g approximately left over, so if I think differently later on, I can change it.
Started: 21st August, 2009
Finished: 19th September 2009
Made For: Me

I enjoyed knitting this, although it did get a bit boring at the end, and I just wanted it finished! I liked using the Addi needles, and I think I might invest in a few of my most commonly used needles - 4.00mm and 4.50mm! I like how it flutters down the bottom of the cardi.

Next time... or maybe next cardi? I don't know! I want something without purling.