Too hot to quilt

Look what the lovely Jejune sent me in the mail - all because Vogue Knitting has featured her art work in the latest issue - congratulations Jejune, but really, I had nothing to do with it! Hee hee! Thank you very much - I love them all so much. I am going to send a couple of the cards to my Mom in the states as she likes them too.

And, I have come to one of my senses - there are still several more to go - and put the quilting away again. Even though it is not over 30degrees C at the moment, it is still to hot for me to quilt. All that fabric in my lap was too much. And several times an hour I take my own little private trip to the tropics so that doesn't help.

So, back to socks, which I think I am permanently and hopelessly addicted to. I will let the angora stew till I get a few personal issues sorted out and just knit on other projects. This is old wool that I have had for a long time and don't even know where it came from. Old fashion green but nice on my Knitpicks dpns.

The pattern is easy without being boring - Evelyn Clark's Go With the Flow Socks (so appropriate for my life at the mo) from Favorite Socks. For me, knitting is like reading. When all is well in my world I love a really complicated book. When things get a little hairy I like to read something lovely and simple. At the moment that is Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox (one of my favorite writers) and Evelyn's socks. Lovely and simple!

Can't knit (sob) Can quilt!

Today I got so depressed and discouraged - all out of proportion, I admit - about my angora vest that I couldn't bring myself to knit. Sigh! I felt really sorry for myself and couldn't even look at my beautiful yarn or pick up one of my WIPs. Tearily I walked into my craft room and out again several times until I spied my son's quilt that I started 3 years ago. It's not very well sewn together. I didn't take enough time getting all the points to match. But I love the Japanesy feel of it and I started quilting it again. Really, it is very satisfying for me tonight - soothing. I've decided how I will quilt the rest of it and now I am excited about it.

Only one problem. I used the material that I was going to use for the edge binding to sew up my Patchwork Purl SoHo tablecloth (I forgot about the quilt at the time). So I have a little problem but I won't get to binding for a while so I don't have to think about that now - fiddle-dee-dee!

Ripping is learning!

Tonight I was going to finish the front, sew up the seams and have a new angora vest! I did finish the front and sew up the seems. Tried it on - fit like shit! I'm a big girl so I put some extra in the sides. Looks like crap! Changed the neck front from the pattern. Looks bad!

So tomorrow I will rip out about 10 cm of the front and back and sew it up again and try it on. This is all my learning process from my new year resolution to try more difficult things. Ripping is learning - right? I'm going to get Nettie to help me decide what to do with the neck! I need some help and moral support.

But my rockin' socks are a great success. I love them. You know, I wouldn't spend $20 on a new pair of socks but I think nothing of buying sock wool for that price. I guess I am more a process knitter as opposed to a product knitter.

New Year's Plans

I have been knitting for a couple of years now. I have been a lucky girl to have knit with all kinds of yarn. I've knit with softest merino wool and scratchy cheap wool. I've knit with cotton, bamboo, corn, tofu, shellfish, plastic and silk. I'm knitting with cashmere. I'm knittting with angora.

I don't pretend for one minute to be an expert on fibre by any means. But at least now, when I read about a blogger's project I can imagine what the yarn is like. And that increases my enjoyment of reading blogs so much. I can imagine what that soft sock yarn feels like when someone is knitting a lace sock. I can imagine what those cashmere wrist warmers feel like as someone slips on the finished pair. I can imagine how that silk slips over the bamboo needles, and how that linen hurts the knitters fingers while they knit.

The more I knit the more I can appreciate other's knitting.

This year I am going to take on more difficult projects. I'm no Yarn Harlot or Eunny Jang - not even in the same universe. But since learning more about fiber this past year has increased my enjoyment of other's knitting so much, as well as my own, learning about pattern should do the same.

Here I go - first projects are a lace shawl and a vest from Vogue Knitting Never Never Land.

Cashmere merino mix.....
Angora.....

Wish me luck.

Scared of catching SSS

When I first started knitting socks, I read so much in so many blogs about Second Sock Syndrome that now I am scared to catch it. As soon as I graft the toe of the first sock I cast on the second sock. I just continue to be in love with the colourway or lace pattern or whatever attracted me to start the socks in the first place.

I have come very close to suffering SSS when I came back from the states in the middle of last year. I started a pair of socks for a GF in Seattle while I was there, fully expecting to finish them before I came home. Right! The first one was done, the second started. I packed them in my suitcase full of new wool and forgot about them when I got home. I had made up a little pattern and I couldn't remember it when I finally found the lone sock. So scared of SSS am I that instead of sitting down and figuring out the pattern again - I ripped. I dampened the wool (corn actually - it is Maisy) and it sits in my stash again. I am pretty sure that it was the coward's way out but I don't care.

So earlier in the week when I felt the need for socks (when it hits it is worse than my craving for Sammy's Calamari or dark chocolate M&M's!) and I got into my state's stash for sock yarn and found Socks the Rock (oh,no, I've lost the ball band - it's around here somewhere).

It is so beautiful! I cast on immediately and knit through the second season of Entourage (it's a little young and boyish with lots of girls in bikinis which isn't my type of show at all but some of it was entertaining)


I grafted and cast on this morning.

I knit a little flower in the back of the sock. I'm not really a wearing flowers type of girl but I thought this colourway was strong enough. Now that it's finished I can't really see the flower but I like the look of it on the back of my leg anyway. Like a little secret.

New Year, Old Knits

Happy New Year! This year will be full of fun, adventure, joy and warmth. I can already feel it!

And full of knitting, quilting and sewing. I have so many projects knocking on the door of my craft room. It's a bit scary, actually, to go in there. All the colour, wool, fabric and dyes are jumping out at me - pick me! pick me!

Christmas came and went with lots of handmade gifts that I did not take pictures of!! Do you think it will be too weird to ask Shirl to pull up her pants next time she comes over?

I did get a little snap of one friend's new hot water bottle cover...

She's always wanted a hot water bottle - I can't believe anyone lives in Canberra for winter and doesn't have one. This one was so much fun that I am making lots more - I'll show you when they are finished. By the way - I dyed the orange and red wool - with Kool-Aid!! It was fun and easy and smelled like my childhood.

And for me - my new tofuties socks. Love them - they are so soft and yummy. I have enough left over for a little beanie, I think.