Thursday, September 22, 2011

September Knitting


September has always been a month when I get this internal burst of energy to be creative and start to knuckle down. I have no idea why it has become this way, maybe I am just conditioned from my years in education but I am more than happy to take advantage of it. 

With this new found energy in tow, I sat down and actually started using my Ravelry queue for its intended purpose. The projects are slowly ticking to the top and I actually come away with the feeling of being productive. As I am not working at the moment, I get to fully enjoy all there is about having a hobby, a craft of my own. I get to be productive while job hunting. I get to watch something beautiful grow and evolve before my eyes depending on my mood of the day and most of all the objects of my creativity brings other people happiness too, for example my recently completed baby knits pictured here.








 I now have my very first large stash of yarn, most of which have projects in mind but there are one or two that are still floaters. These are the ones that interest me most as they are yet to be pinned down. These are the ones from which my inspiration stems every time I go near my stash box. I have noticed, that even if I don't want to or feel like it, I find myself smiling just at the potential projects, gifts or even ugh's. 


With this new energy and stash combined, I plan my queue with people  that I care about in mind.Very few projects are for myself, so those that are will be cast on at the same time as gifts, for when that green eyed monster comes around. Or in the case of this week, my wrist gives in and I need to swap from heavy projects to lightweight. Doing this and having this craft does give me a sense of fulfillment that I have never had from anything else, even when the projects are ughs! Which I find to be amazing, in a time when people are unemployed, cutting back on spending etc.

One thing I have to say before I go, is that I would not have met the people I have nor have these feelings of fulfillment, joy or productiveness without having been raised the way I have by two very strong willed women. So to both my mum and my nana, a massive THANK YOU from the once uninterested child, the one who would never sit quiet enough to finish that teddy bear or hot water bottle cover. Thank you for passing on your knowledge, for having the patience to teach me. I only hope that one day, I can give something similar to a little girl of my own, though if she is anything like me, I will be long gone grey before I can get her to sit quiet enough. :)

Friday, September 2, 2011

~ Back To Knitting (Sort of) ~


I don't really know where to start here, I have not posted anything in a long while mostly due to my mum becoming terminally ill and then passing away earlier this year. After that I had no interest in knitting, blogging or anything other then work and home. So first of all apologies for the lack of anything exciting happening around here. Most of my projects are still as they were in February but some progress has been made recently, mostly because of a really amazing knitter whirl123.  So instead of a very long summary of the last few months, I decided to start with a short post on the crafts of this week. 

This week has taught me a lot of new craft related things, the picture above of some beautiful stitch-markers was by far the most rewarding. The picture does not do them justice, the blue stitch-markers are especially beautiful. Mostly this came about because I kept getting angry at my stitch markers stopping at 8mm needles. I knit quite a lot on 8mm+ needles so I just decided to learn how to make my own. I am very please at these results. 
 
Next on my needles at the moment is Snug by Hinke. This pattern is great and I can see from the construction techniques why it is so popular. There are a few things with this though the size is an issue as it is only written in one size but the many good people of Ravelry have many fantastic notes on adaptations for bigger sizes. This one below on my needles is my first Snug in the original size soon to be adapted for a 6 - 9 months size. All I have left to do is finish the hood and sew on the buttons. I will later post the technique I have in my notes on the detachable cables for provisional cast on. This saved me so much work when it came to the hood. 


Finally this week on my needles is the garter stitch baby kimono by Joji Locatelli. This pattern I adapted heavily for a gauge of 6 sts/inch on 3.25mm needles with DK yarn. Also I am putting a hood on the kimono and edging it in black. This pattern is great and easy to follow and  is quite fast for the size of the needles but it is tedious which is why Snug was cast on. This is turning out to be more of a coat then its original intention but I will decide if I like it when its finished.

That is pretty much my week apart from some craft related trial baking for handMaid craft day tomorrow. There will be some mini sponge buns on the baking stall from myself and please those of you who can come along, even if your not a knitter there is cake and coffee and oodles of fun to be had.