I've just been checking out this Vogue Knitting Fall preview and getting inspired about knitting another jumper once I've finished Hourglass.
I've fallen for a couple of the garments in the Gray's Anatomy feature. I do love an intriguing cable. And I also love the black and white striped socks- amazing the way the stripes envelope the foot. Gorgeous. The centre panel reminds me of a monotone version of Julia's Argyles.
I'm going to have to keep an eye out at Borders...
27 July 2006
24 July 2006
piling up
A couple of my favorite bloggers seem to have a thing for piles, and I can't help wanting to make some of my own (and I know I'm not alone in this!).
I made a couple of piles on the weekend- much more monochromatic than Al and Fiona's, but I've always been one to keep things really simple at home (I like to think this might balance out the chaos of my working life).
Pile 1: The knitting pile.
Neatly folded progress on my hourglass sweater, sitting on the patch of the sofa where I've done most of the knitting. There's nothing like a few days marooned on the sofa for a bit of knitting progress- normally this much progress would take me at least a month. I'm knitting it with the green Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed that Scott gave me for my birthday. I was a bit worried at first that it's eating up the yarn pretty quickly, but now that I'm a fair way through it seems to be going OK (touch wood). 5 balls down, 7 left, and I've made it all the way to the underarm and started the first sleeve.
Pile 2: The cooking pile.
Neatly stacked containers filled with deliciously thick home made pea and ham soup. When I was a kid, we used to have home made soup every Saturday for lunch during winter. My brother and I used to rate the quality of the soup on the basis of whether our spoon would stand upright in the bowl. Mum used to make her soup with a variety of dried beans and peas, some fresh veggies and some meaty bones. My version is made with split green peas, ham hock, plus finely chopped onion, carrot and celery, a few bay leaves, fresh pepper and thyme. So simple to make and deliciously warming for winter lunch times.
I made a couple of piles on the weekend- much more monochromatic than Al and Fiona's, but I've always been one to keep things really simple at home (I like to think this might balance out the chaos of my working life).
Pile 1: The knitting pile.
Neatly folded progress on my hourglass sweater, sitting on the patch of the sofa where I've done most of the knitting. There's nothing like a few days marooned on the sofa for a bit of knitting progress- normally this much progress would take me at least a month. I'm knitting it with the green Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed that Scott gave me for my birthday. I was a bit worried at first that it's eating up the yarn pretty quickly, but now that I'm a fair way through it seems to be going OK (touch wood). 5 balls down, 7 left, and I've made it all the way to the underarm and started the first sleeve.
Pile 2: The cooking pile.
Neatly stacked containers filled with deliciously thick home made pea and ham soup. When I was a kid, we used to have home made soup every Saturday for lunch during winter. My brother and I used to rate the quality of the soup on the basis of whether our spoon would stand upright in the bowl. Mum used to make her soup with a variety of dried beans and peas, some fresh veggies and some meaty bones. My version is made with split green peas, ham hock, plus finely chopped onion, carrot and celery, a few bay leaves, fresh pepper and thyme. So simple to make and deliciously warming for winter lunch times.
20 July 2006
the swap gods have been nice lately
I've been hoarding these goodies for a while now- a photo expozay is long overdue.
Firstly from Cotton Strudel's mag swap: I swapped with (blogless) Lena in Germany. She sent me a cool architecture, interior and landscape design mag Atrium, along with a little felt and button pin and some cute gift tags she made. I love the mag, even though I can't read German myself- cool images and some great website links for various design goodies.
See other mag swap goodies at Flickr here.
Fiona and I arranged a swap a little while ago: I made her a bag and she sent me one of her wonderful kitties- Greta. I seem to have developed a liking of cats in recent years (having always been a dog lover before I met Walter), and I fell in love with Greta when I first saw her. So nice to have her living here now. Thanks Fiona!! (and an extra thanks for the delicious bag of Haigs creamy smooth chocolate that Greta brought with her- yum!)
And Shobhana and I agreed to challenge eachother for our swap: I suggested she knit me some long fingerless gloves, and she suggested I make her a tote bag- a chance to try something different from the bags I've made before. I'm still dragging my heels a little on my end of the bargain, and now I've really got to pull a finger out after this wonderful package arrived a few weeks ago:
Some delicious Dagoba dark chocolate, lovely soy silk and wool blend yarn, and a pair of amazing long fingerless gloves, knitted with Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn in Vera. Hopefully she'll have a chance to share the pattern on her blog soon (in the meantime she has a couple of great patterns you may like to try out). They're so lovely to wear on the cold winter mornings we're having here...
Firstly from Cotton Strudel's mag swap: I swapped with (blogless) Lena in Germany. She sent me a cool architecture, interior and landscape design mag Atrium, along with a little felt and button pin and some cute gift tags she made. I love the mag, even though I can't read German myself- cool images and some great website links for various design goodies.
See other mag swap goodies at Flickr here.
Fiona and I arranged a swap a little while ago: I made her a bag and she sent me one of her wonderful kitties- Greta. I seem to have developed a liking of cats in recent years (having always been a dog lover before I met Walter), and I fell in love with Greta when I first saw her. So nice to have her living here now. Thanks Fiona!! (and an extra thanks for the delicious bag of Haigs creamy smooth chocolate that Greta brought with her- yum!)
And Shobhana and I agreed to challenge eachother for our swap: I suggested she knit me some long fingerless gloves, and she suggested I make her a tote bag- a chance to try something different from the bags I've made before. I'm still dragging my heels a little on my end of the bargain, and now I've really got to pull a finger out after this wonderful package arrived a few weeks ago:
Some delicious Dagoba dark chocolate, lovely soy silk and wool blend yarn, and a pair of amazing long fingerless gloves, knitted with Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock yarn in Vera. Hopefully she'll have a chance to share the pattern on her blog soon (in the meantime she has a couple of great patterns you may like to try out). They're so lovely to wear on the cold winter mornings we're having here...
15 July 2006
Spot the difference
WIP 14th July 2006
You can see I haven't really made much progress since my last post. Just when I felt I was almost over the virus and infections that I mentioned, my entire life has been on hold for a week while I've been in bed with The Flu. Not the little head cold and headache for a couple of days kind of flu, rather the full blown throbbing body aches, hacking cough, and three days of fever kind of flu.
Scott even stayed home to look after me one day when I was at my worst, and now he's sadly suffering the effects too, poor thing. I'm much improved now (although I wasn't quite up to the knit gathering last night at Nichola's Nectar Lounge), but planning on taking it very easy this weekend, staying indoors, warm and cosy.
The progress that I have made since my last post relates mainly to knitting. The perfect accompaniment to dvd laden days off work, curled up on the sofa. I finished the Here and There Cables Scarf, and finally got started on the Hourglass sweater. I even managed to squeeze out a beanie for Scott in between (believe me, I've watched alot of dvds this week).
The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Here and There Cables Scarf by Norah Gaughan from Scarf Style
Yarn: 6 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran
Needles: 5mm Bamboo straights and a metal cable needle
Finished Size: 168cm long, 12cm wide (unblocked)
Pattern modifications: I knitted it only 56 sts wide, rather than the 74 sts the pattern called for (three stitch repeats instead of four) to try and maximise the length.
I love the texture and feel of the yarn, and it's really wonderful knitted up in this pattern. I've already mentioned how amazing I think the stitch pattern is, although I must admit that even that had lost it's interest towards the end. That's the problem with knitting scarves- they become so boring. You really need to be knitting with a yarn you love and pattern you love.
I'm really pleased with the end product though. It has a really thick and chunky feel, quite substantial and cosy. Quite different from some of the soft, lightweight scarves I have in my drawer. I'm looking forward to getting some wear out of it next week when I head back to work, and start catching up on life.
You can see I haven't really made much progress since my last post. Just when I felt I was almost over the virus and infections that I mentioned, my entire life has been on hold for a week while I've been in bed with The Flu. Not the little head cold and headache for a couple of days kind of flu, rather the full blown throbbing body aches, hacking cough, and three days of fever kind of flu.
Scott even stayed home to look after me one day when I was at my worst, and now he's sadly suffering the effects too, poor thing. I'm much improved now (although I wasn't quite up to the knit gathering last night at Nichola's Nectar Lounge), but planning on taking it very easy this weekend, staying indoors, warm and cosy.
The progress that I have made since my last post relates mainly to knitting. The perfect accompaniment to dvd laden days off work, curled up on the sofa. I finished the Here and There Cables Scarf, and finally got started on the Hourglass sweater. I even managed to squeeze out a beanie for Scott in between (believe me, I've watched alot of dvds this week).
The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Here and There Cables Scarf by Norah Gaughan from Scarf Style
Yarn: 6 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran
Needles: 5mm Bamboo straights and a metal cable needle
Finished Size: 168cm long, 12cm wide (unblocked)
Pattern modifications: I knitted it only 56 sts wide, rather than the 74 sts the pattern called for (three stitch repeats instead of four) to try and maximise the length.
I love the texture and feel of the yarn, and it's really wonderful knitted up in this pattern. I've already mentioned how amazing I think the stitch pattern is, although I must admit that even that had lost it's interest towards the end. That's the problem with knitting scarves- they become so boring. You really need to be knitting with a yarn you love and pattern you love.
I'm really pleased with the end product though. It has a really thick and chunky feel, quite substantial and cosy. Quite different from some of the soft, lightweight scarves I have in my drawer. I'm looking forward to getting some wear out of it next week when I head back to work, and start catching up on life.
5 July 2006
progress is slow
Here is some (belated) work in progress from last Friday (Flickr group here). Projects that seem to have been hanging around for a while now. Some bags for the shop, a bag for a swap, my white here and there cables scarf, which I've been working on here and there.
Actually most of this is still sitting there right now. My attention has been elsewhere.
Firstly on this bag:
Filled with stuff:
BUTTONS!
Pilfered from Button Mania in their once a year sale (thanks to Nicole and Carolyn for the pointers). Wonderful: a room rimmed by boxes to rifle through, laid out in a rainbow of graduated colour, pay by the kilo. I didn't buy a kilo, but I came away with a quickly selected assortment of colours, textures and shapes that caught my eye. Destined for decorating some bags or joining the button stash.
Sadly I've also been spending some time playing with this collection of pills.
A nice little stash to combat a nasty virus and the throat and ear infections that have accompanied it. I haven't been able to hear properly on one side for a week now, and I have to say I think it's getting to me. Despite this I was feeling much more human today- my brain was actually able to string one thought along for more than a few minutes. My recovery has been aided, I am sure, by the arrival of a couple of packages in the mail. Pictures on the weekend I promise, when I have a chance to get the camera out during daylight hours.
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