The Weasley Sweater, and other completed works

WonderBoy's Weasley Sweater (say that ten times fast!) has been complete for a couple of weeks now, but I have had so little time online except to check my Facebook, I just haven't got round to blogging properly! I don't like blogging if I can't put a little time into each post.

We've been really busy at KnitNight these last few weeks, preparing for World Wide Knit in Public Day, which is the day after tomorrow. We decided to set ourselves up in a cafe, outdoors in a local plaza for as much 'publicity' as possible. It's going to be cold, but we figure it'll mean we can wear as many of our lovely warm handknits as possible! As part of our knitting in public, we're going to use the opportunity to collect some money for a very worthwhile charity, Father Chris Riley's Youth Off The Streets. We have knit dozens of wee coffee-cup-cozies to give out in exchange for each donation we receive, so we've been knitting away madly on these as well.

But I digress. Here we go - photos!
He really does like it, despite the face! He's very much a three year old, and loves hamming it up for photos...He wore it to Preschool the day this was taken, and when he strolled in to greet his teachers, he pulled the hem right out in front of himself, announcing, "Look! I've got X for Xander! Mummy knitted it for me!"

Bless his little heart.

And here's Miss Lola-Frog, sporting her very own 'Not So Original Hat', just like Mummy's. Bless her giant head, she grew out of that beret-slash-bakers' hat in about a week (if I'm honest to myself, I do know that it never really did fit her!).

I used the Yarn Harlot's 'Not So Original Hat' pattern, altering the cables very slightly (I think I decreased it by about eight stitches and four rows) to make it small enough to fit her. It's knit in Patons Inca, on two 7mm circular needles - very handy for hats for little ones, as you can try the hat on more effectively as you're knitting it...
Doesn't she just look thrilled with it!?

New hat - now what?

Firstly, a big Happy Birthday to my darling husband. A prince among men, and a lunatic among sane people. Hope you've had a lovely day, honey; despite getting over illness and helping to deal with sick kidlets these last few days. Big kisses!
Pictured next to Pete, on the left, is our good friend and one big bag o'crazy, Stevie G. Happy Birthday also to him, for May 1st.

And secondly, to quote Professor Farnsworth of Futurama fame, "Good news, everyone!"
I've finished my version of Yarn Harlot's "Not Original Hat"!I'm assisted in the modelling by young WonderBoy, who announced to his auntie on the phone, "Mummy's wearing a crazy hat!"

It's a good, quick knit with a well-written pattern that's easy to read and follow. I did get a bit unco handling 8mm dpns, though - plus a cable needle. I have to say, I'm more dexterous when handling smaller dpns. But, this won't stop me knitting this again. I'm going to try knitting it in a (slightly) finer gauge yarn with smaller needles, and see if I can come up with a version that'll fit Lola-Frog. She's a hearty lass; as of today, she's thirteen weeks and six days old, and I put her to bed tonight in a size zero WonderSuit! So I figure that a hat only a little smaller than mine should fit her before long. I'd much prefer something a bit too big than too little.

And now, back to WonderBoy's Weasley Sweater. I'd like to complete the front side before I crack on with the May squares for the 2009 Blanket.

A quickie

I'm not at KnitNight tonight, sadly. Pete's been crook as a dog this week (we're talking 'I need a young priest and an old priest' sick here), and so I've stayed home tonight so he hasn't been left at home to deal with both kids whilst sick.

I am, however, knitting a hat. Why, when I've got both a scarf and a sweater on the needles, I don't know - I'd just been looking at the Yarn Harlot's pattern for her 'Unoriginal Hat' for quite some time and wondered if the chunky yarn I had stashed would work. So, on pulling the yarn out last weekend and swatching, I decided I might as well start it and hopefully finish it within a week.

I'm pretty sure my gauge is okay. I kept thinking I was well off and knitting a tiny hat, but I 'think' (read: hope) that it'll fit me:
Whew, time to get the ol' eyebrows done, eh?I'm not so great at taking photos of myself. I'm pretty happy with the the cables, too! Actually, after finding reasonable success with the cables I've attempted on squares of Lola-Frog's blanket, I've been quite keen on continuing to practice cables. That's probably why I'd been watching this hat pattern, almost willing myself to have a crack at it... I should be finished in a day or two, hopefully, and if it's successful, I'm going to try swatching the same pattern with a smaller gauge yarn and needles in an attempt to make the same hat but smaller, for Lola-Frog. She doesn't have a knitted hat of her own yet.

I'm still cracking on with WonderBoy's Weasley Sweater, up to the intarsia now. I decided not to put the 'H' on the front, I've charted an 'X' instead. I gave WonderBoy the choice between 'A' for his proper first name, Alexander, or 'X' for his shortened name, Xander. I like getting his input for his garments - he even chose the blue yarn on the Bendigo Woollen Mills website!

Well, back into it. Maybe I'll get the rest of the second set of repeats done on this hat tonight!

Happy New Year

I had intended on just one more December post before this, but with Christmas being such a busy time... I don't know how Stephanie Pearl-McPhee does it! She manages to add photos and text to her blog, regardless of how long her Christmas knitting list is getting, no matter what family crisis may be occurring (the most recent is the sad demise and removal of the Honourable Sir Washie on New Years' Day). My hat goes off to her, as always.

We're on the countdown now. According to my dates, there are merely ten days between me and the birth of our second child, but as always with babies, Little One could join us any day in the next three weeks. I'm terribly excited, and can't wait to meet our new arrival...

... and have been knitting my way over Christmas and New Year's, preparing another two little jackets.

This is the Debbie Bliss Duffel Coat, from her book 'Essential Baby'. One of the most economical garments I've knit, the yarn is Cleckheaton Country 8 ply Heathers that I liberated from my Mum's stash and the pattern book was borrowed from Mum, as well. It's a lovely little coat that knit up quite quickly, and I hope that Little One gets lots of wear out of it this year.

This work in progress is a little Garter Stitch Wrap Top by Erika Knight, from her book 'Simple Knits For Cherished Babies'. I had been searching for a baby knit to use up the rest of the delicious mediumweight sock yarn from Blue Moon Fibre Arts that I used for 'Baby Mine', and on Christmas Day at Mum and Dad's, I cast on, hoping I had enough yarn left. These photos were taken as I was praying I had enough yarn to complete the jacket, which is why I haven't added it to my projects list in Ravelry yet - I'm only a few rows off finished and now I'm wishing for there to be enough yarn!

Next up? My hospital knitting project/s... the first square of my Oddball Sampler Afghan (I received several balls of WOOLganic Organic Merino 8 ply for Christmas), and a Clapotis for me. In the distance is a new jumper for WonderBoy. New Year's Knitting Resolutions? Probably... watch this space for news of Little One's arrival...

Socks and stumpy fingers

More on my current sock. Here we are at our current position (as of last night - I took it to Sydney today for an appointment and knit the rest of the pink stripe in the waiting room), presented in all it's sockular glory by my stumpy, stumpy phalanges...
The yarn is Heirloom Jigsaw 4-ply, which I bought from the lovely people at Ozeyarn for $AUS18.50.

And, Melinda - thanks for your kind compliments on the Baby Sleeping Bag. It was well received at the baby shower, too. Lots of questions on that nature of knitting in general these days, asking how long I'd been knitting for, and observations on how difficult it must be.

I used the usual responses I developed from comments made be the wise and knowing Yarn Harlot, saying, "Nah; if you can read, you can knit" and "Well, it was just garter stitch, so it wasn't very difficult". The second is not one that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee advocates making; in actual fact she believes that we knitters are too quick to tone down praise for our hard work. Maybe I should make a habit of saying "Gee, thanks for the kind words. What you hold in our hands is nine hundred and seventy eight hours of my life".

Still, either way it's lovely to receive compliments for my knitting. Or incredulous disbelief, which is what I got today whilst waiting for my appointment.

The receptionist came over to me, saying "Oh, you're knitting?" and then, after a slight pause, "With FIVE needles?!". I explained briefly about the nature of sock knitting, and she was pretty well just amazed with the idea of knitting a tube without a break in it. She said, "Not many people knit these days, do they?" I responded by saying somewhat jokingly that knitters had gone underground, highly informed and organised over the internet.

The discussion we had about the cost of knitting was the one that amused me the most, though - she commented that it must be very expensive to knit as a hobby. I acknowledged that although some beautiful handpainted yarns spun from superfine merinos, cashmere and silks can cost a fair bit, but you don't always knit with that sort of stuff. I pointed out that you could spend $300 on exquisite yarns to knit a garment that might cost $500 in a shop when it's produced commercially. Her response? "Well, I suppose I'm more practical".

Hehe... It's always a fun ride talking to non-knitters.

Seeing stars...

You would think, wouldn't you, that after having read nearly three years' worth of Yarn Harlot, including three Christmases worth of witnessing a star knitter succumb to the stress and pressure of "planning too many knitted gifts", that I might have learned a lesson and been able to avoid this particular knitting pitfall myself.

You would think that, wouldn't you?

I thought I had it nailed. I would knit three of the lace Christmas stars that I'd already tried first, as gifts for my coworkers: the one I had already tried had a little stuff up, agreed, but I was certain that I could work that out easily and then knock over one a night for three nights, no problem. I must have spent an entire evening just trying to figure out what I was doing wrong - and even when I had worked it out (adding a 'yarn over' at the end of the round), I couldn't for the life of me work out how the hell to do it. Ugh.

So I bailed on the lace Christmas stars and searched Ravelry for free snowflake or star ornament patterns, of which there are not many. I did eventually find this one, bought appropriate cotton, and started work on the first of three stars to be embellished with little gold beads...

<= Christmas in Australia - we love our mangoes!

I have to say, I'm pleased with the way they've turned out, but... oh - my - goodness, my hands are aching after a solid week and a half of 2mm needles! I have these strange indentations on my fourth fingers, just under the top joint, where these needles have been resting for the last ten days or so. The Preschool Christmas party is tomorrow night, so I have just enough time to starch and iron them before I sling 'em over some little piccolo bottles of sparkling wine, ready for gifting.





...And now, back to the 'fuzzy feet' (on 7mm dpns, thank goodness!) that need to be finished, felted, blocked and dry by next Saturday. The fun never stops around here!!!

Jennifer is... continually impressed by the Yarn Harlot

For those of us on Facebook, don't you just love (LOVE!) the status line? I can just glance down the list of my friends and see right away where things are different for people. Right now, my friend Richard is "... cranky with Dymocks". My gorgeous friend Alison is "... one day away from getting on a big big plane to take me back to sunshine", my sister is "... going to climb an active volcano", and my darling husband is "... going to join Team Awesome". One can only hope they will all be wearing their pants on their heads, too.

At this point in time, my status line reads: Jennifer is "...continually impressed by the Yarn Harlot". And I am. For the last couple of years, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has got behind the organisation 'Medecins Sans Frontieres' (or Doctors Without Borders) by forming 'Tricoteuses Sans Frontieres' (or Knitters Without Borders), and with the help of the beautiful community of knitters out there, has managed to raise over $400,000 for this wonderful humanitarian organisation. (If you're reading the MSF and TSF sites and are inspired, do go ahead and donate. There's plenty of good karma to go around, especially at Christmas!)

I wrote and posted a cheque yesterday to Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia, and emailed Stephanie to let her know so it could be added to the total for
Tricoteuses Sans Frontieres. I have to say, it was a daunting task. How do you just casually email someone you admire so much and not say something ridiculously sycophantic, or creepy-stalky, or just plain weird? I felt so 'not worthy' to email the great Yarn Harlot at least until I was able to say that I had donated some money to MSF. This is what I eventually managed to type:

Dear Stephanie,


I have wanted to email, or write comments on your blog for such a long time, but haven't quite felt 'worthy' (imagine Wayne and Garth here). Having read your blog, and two of your books ("Knitting Rules", and "Yarn Harlot" - I haven't been able to get the others yet, I'm hoping for Christmas!), I have admired you for the way you write; I can just sense the joy you feel and express so beautifully and with so much humour about your life: your family, your dedication to making the world a better place for us all, and of course your absolute passion for fibre and knitting. To humbly quote your good self - I want be you when I grow up!


I have been a knitter since I was about eight; my mum and her mum showed me, but it never got much further than garter stitch blanket squares until my wonderful mother bought me a pattern for a cowl-neck jumper, a big bag of yarn and said to me, "There. Now go and knit something useful". From there, and from reading your blog, I have tried to learn a little something new in each project I've undertaken, be it a new way of making or decreasing stitches, a lace pattern, or a little intarsia - I can't wait till the next Knitting Olympics! And so now I find myself an obsessed knitter, with a knitting blog and a new fibre obsession to be getting on with - I bought my first spinning wheel on eBay earlier this year and have recently started lessons, and I love it!


My point (when I get to it, eventually) is that I wanted to thank you, Stephanie, for your inspiration and humour that uplift me and make me want to do my best as a knitter, as a teacher, as a wife and mother, and as a human being. And I wanted to leave emailing you or commenting until I was 'worthy' enough to do so. I wanted to let you know that I posted a cheque for $50AUS ($44.25CAN, roughly) to Medecins Sans Frontieres today as my family's Christmas gift to an organisation who could really use it. It's not much, but I know it can help.


With admiration and gratitude,


etc, etc.

That's not too weird, is it?

Crap. Now Jennifer "... is feeling nervous".

Fibre Mentoring

I'm still reading through previous post archives on Yarn Harlot, and I love it. I love the way Stephanie writes, I can just sense the joy she feels and expresses so beautifully in her life: her family, her dedication to making the world a better place for us all, and of course her absolute passion for fibre and knitting. I want to grow up to be just like her in so many ways. Link, read... you will understand. In a post from July 2005, she talked about the idea of 'Fibre Mentoring' - I love this concept...

" Cassie wrote about the new spinners urge to save good stuff for later, when you are a better spinner, and how she didn't really get behind that theory a whole lot. I couldn't agree more.

While (clearly) I have no issues with hoarding lovely fibres (and clearly, neither does Cassie) until their day comes, I also think that there is a great deal to be said for learning to spin with the best materials you can afford.
Nobody needs to be hindered by things that are barely usable, and nobody needs to feel that they are a crappy spinner (or just more crappy than they actually are, since we all suck in the beginning and it is only the length of time that we are sucking for that is really variable among learners). Good fibre makes good yarn.

Good things inspire you. Good things get you to try harder. Good fibre actually helps you spin. Beautiful fibre gives you something to live up to.

Crap fibre depresses you, frustrates you and encourages you to give up and (in the less determined) could cause a fledgling spinner to wander off entirely, thinking that they obviously aren't meant for this...given that they keep turning out crap yarn. Even the best spinner is going to end up with crap yarn if you start with crap fibre, except at least they are going to know why they apparently suck so hard.

Luckily, there is a practice among spinners, an unspoken code of fibre giving. When a previously normal person gets sucked into the inevitable hole takes up spinning, it is common practice for every other spinner within earshot of the event to take a moment, scour the fibre stash and send a little bit of something wonderful off to inspire the intrepid newbie. Guilds do it, pressing delicious samples on the learner, clubs do it, and the internet does it with gusto, often inundating the newly pledged with bits and pieces of wonderful things, merino, silk, flax and cotton all show up on your doorstep, hand-dyed, plain, roving, sliver, bumps....it is all pressed into your grateful hands with only the lovely phrase "here, try this" to accompany it. The new spinner tries all these things, gets experience, and learns what they like and may invest in.

It's a wonderful expression of mentorship, and all that you are expected to do in return is to pass on something good..knowledge or fibre...when you have the chance. Brilliant.

Has anyone mentored you with a gift of fibre? "

I can't say that anyone ever has, although I don't actually know anyone else who spins. Actually, scratch that, my mother-in-law spins and she gave me her handspun for the green and cream blanket I knit. I'm sure she'd teach me to spin the way she does if I asked, but I think there's more I'd need to know. Things like spinning different fibres together, working on different weights, and learning how to ply in different ways (I'm fascinated by the idea of Navajo plying).

However, in other news, I got in touch with the Hand Weavers and Spinner's Guild of New South Wales this week, and they have forwarded the names and numbers of several spinners I could get in touch with near me for lessons. I'm moving slowly, but I'm moving. Progress!

It's a lovely grey drizzly day here today - I do hope it rains, we so desperately need it - and I thought I'd add some sunshine to this post, in the form of one of the cacti that co-inhabit my sunroom. This is Torston (I don't name all my plants, potted or otherwise; this one was named in honour of my best mate's twenty-first birthday... It's a long story!)

Handspinning self esteem issues.

I have them.

Lately, I have found myself not content to wait for the Yarn Harlot's next exciting installment, so I have gone right back to the very beginning of her blog archives and decided to read them one at a time. All of them.

Anyone who knows me even just a little, knows of my reading 'thing'. My mother would say on a regular basis when I was a kid, "Oh, Jenny would read the back of a bus ticket if she couldn't find anything else". And it's true. When I go back to Mum and Dad's, the first thing I do is sift through the mass of magazines and pattern books that Mum collects and leaves on the coffee table. I'm useless if there's something even remotely interesting to read, and a damn near write-off as a human being if there's a Harry Potter within my reach.

And so, I am entertaining myself while Wonderboy is napping with 'Get This' podcasts, and catching up on all there is to know of the Harlot that I didn't already know. It's fascinating - I now know the origins of The Gansey that has plagued the Harlot's life for so very long. Very interesting.

Which leads me to spinning, and my lament that despite having spent money on Ebay for my lovely Ashford wheel, having collected big bags of fleece to spin on said wheel and having pinched my mother in law's handcarders to card said fleece, I don't think I'm ever going to learn to spin. That sounds a little fatalistic, I know. But hear me and my defeatism out. Here are my thoughts behind this decision:

1. I'm not even currently knitting right now. I should be knitting right now, but I'm not, I'm dicking about on the computer (although let's face it, the main reason for me to not be knitting is that as much as I love knitting baby clothes for my friends and their bubs, and I love how soft the yarn is, this is the fourth white stocking-stitch baby hat I've knit this year. I am sick to death of it, and I'm also sick of tiny, tiny needles. The only thing that keeps me at it is the glorious promise of The Next Project) and if I can't even get my arse in gear to continue my beloved knitting, what hope do I have of making time to learn spinning?!?

2. Even though we are ensconced in our lovely new house, which has considerably more room for us and our crap, I have very quickly found that as Wonderboy has become older and more mobile, any space 'for me' is quietly and quickly shrinking. Even my bedside table is no longer my own - I have to keep anything of mine up and out of the way of my little marauder. And so the lovely Ashford spinning wheel has been carefully placed in the room in our house affectionately known as 'the study'.

3. 'The study' is full of any crap we haven't put away yet after the move, plus two desks and Pete's computer, which just breeds crap. I stay away from this room for fear that one day I might go in and never come out again. It has become Pete's territory, and so my poor little wheel is buried right at the back. All the fleece I procured has been shoved under my bed (I was frightened it might get chucked out when I wasn't looking - it's in a kind of Alpaca fleece protection program for its own safety), and so I'm not sure I could get all the stuff I need out to spend any decent length of time spinning.

4. I am a total wussbag. I don't want to try till I've taken some lessons in spinning from someone who knows what they're doing. I bought some books, researched on the Internet (cause I like reading, remember?) but I just don't feel... confident. I know, this is spinning wool, not driving a road train, but... ugh. And do you think I can find any lessons anywhere near my local area?

*sob* I'm waiting for the violins to start playing... hehehe.

While I continue 'not knitting' and wait for the Pity Police to come and take me away, here are some photos of someone who's really doing it tough.

This is Wonderboy, who has of late taken a real shine to any and all new technology in the house. His favourites were phones (mobile and landline cordless, he's not picky), but the proviso was no imitations or substitutions. This kid ain't stupid. He knows that Pete's phone is the most up-to-date of any in the house and if he wants to 'talk' to Nana, he wants to be doing it on that phone. Lately, his techno-lust has extended to my camera, and the following four shots document one little boy's descent into rage as his awful, awful mother refuses to hand over her camera:




















1. Making pre-emptive cranky sounds




















2. Letting the local district know how unhappy he is (imagine birds flocking out of nearby trees)




















3. Hands clenched, shaking with rage




















4. That's it woman - you've had it!

Till next time... I'm going to start looking for a spinning guru to whom I can attach myself... cleave to, if you will.