Startitis

At Knit Camp earlier in the year, our table won the trivia competition. (No fault of mine - I was busy drinking.) As a prize, we won yarn. Yay! I love Knit Camp!

I won a bag of Cleckheaton Country Silk in blue. I quite like Country Silk but Australian Country Spinners, true to record, have discontinued it. They have an excellent track record of discontinuing the yarns I like, leaving only the bland or awful. Anyway, that's a rant for another day. One where I get accused of having it in for ACS. (Not true, I just don't particularly like any of their yarns!)

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm a fan of the Country Silk, even though I can't get 8ply (DK) tension with it unless I go down to a ridiculously small needle, then I don't like the resulting fabric. So this time, I went with what I liked, and on a 3.75mm needle, I got 20sts/10cm. So I went pattern hunting.

And I found Sage Blouse by yellowcosmo, a free Ravelry download.

I was a little worried that the silk slubs would obscure the Moorish Lattice pattern, but I'm quite pleased with the way it's coming out.

That's three days work, and I'm enjoying it, as I'm sure you can see! I'm going to be laid up for a few days this week, and this will see lots of action, I'm sure.

And just because it's been a while, a Twinkie pic. The quality isn't great, because I took it late at night, but this is how she likes to wait for bedtime.

By giving us really big hints that she'd like to be in bed (with her dinner, please!)

Maybe I lied. A little.

So I said that I didn't buy any pink yarn in Bendigo, and when I opened my sock project bag the other day, I realised that I had lied. I did buy some pink yarn.

Six tiny little mini skeins of yarn, four of them predominantly pink. Aren't they cute? They were all only $2 or $3 each from Waratah Fibres. They're going to go into my Sock Yarn Blanket, which gets very little air time, either here or in real life. But it is growing!

I pick it up every now and then to do a square, and at this rate, it should be done in a year or two. Maybe!

Eve

A few of you asked if I got the gloves done in time.

I'm pleased to say that I did, even if they were finished at 11.30pm the night before we left. And the fingers on the second glove might be just a smidgen shorter than the fingers on the first one!

Specs:
Pattern: Eve by Julia Mueller from Laris Designs, purchased on Ravelry (My project Rav link)
Size: Small
Yarn: The never-ending ball of Bendigo Luxury 4 ply in Black, about 65g
Needles: 2.25mm Square Kollage DPNS
Extras: 8/0 silver lined seed beads, purchased on eBay
Mods: The only modification I made was to the tips of the fingers - I tapered the decreases a little more, that's all.

Verdict: The pattern is a winner! They look great, and they aren't too difficult - as long as you pay attention to the charts! I went off on my merry way a time or two, and had to rip back to make adjustments.
The one thing I learned in Bendigo was that you can't operate an iPhone whilst wearing gloves. So maybe next time I knit a pair, I might leave off just the fingertip of the right index finger so that I can use the phone without taking off my gloves!!

The yarn I'm not so happy with. They were worn pretty constantly for three days, and they've pilled up pretty badly in the hands, which is a shame. The yarn is pure wool, but I think the friction of using your hands all the time is just a bit much for it to take. It's a pity, because the yarn is nice yarn, and the gloves are lovely to wear, but they don't look quite so pretty any more!

That said, this really is the never ending ball of yarn. After making Em's Veyla mitts and Ishbel beret, and this pair of gloves, I still have about 50g leftover.
The funny thing was that Ailsa also made herself new gloves for Bendigo, and ended up with a pair by the same designer, entirely by coincidence.
And I may make another pair by Julia Mueller, because all of her glove designs are gorgeous!

Back from Bendi

Ah Bendi! Where there was too much of some things, and not enough of others.

Too much good food. Great dinner in great company at Barzurk. Fantastic hot chocolate and truffles at the Chocolate Mill in Daylesford. Awesome lunch in a wonderful bakery in Daylesford. A perfect breakfast at The Dispensary. (Cannot recommend this place highly enough)
Way more alcohol than is good for any one person in the form of champagne (pretty good and moderately bad), red wine, an extremely odd Kahlua and Milk, Passionfruit Martinis and Lychee Martinis. (I think I'm allergic to lychees. Can't think why else I'd wake up with such a headache the next morning!) We went to The Dispensary after dinner on Thursday night for dessert and coffee. That's apparently a euphemism for Martini's. Who knew? Their fudge is to die for, btw.

Not enough knitting. The whole time I was gone, I managed to knit a gusset and heel flap of a toe up sock.

(Knitabulous Supertwist Merino in the colourway "Emily's Birthday")

And a few repeats of a Clapotis.

(Waratah Fibres one-off yarn, purchased at the Bendigo Show 2 years ago!)

Not enough yarn purchases.

That's the sum total of what I bought. Two 200g balls of Bendigo Cotton 4ply in New Ochre (It's not pink, even though it looks it), Three 200g balls of Bendigo Rustic in 12ply, both bought from the Bendigo Woollen Mill.
From the show itself I got 2 125g balls of 4ply baby Alpaca from Tailored Strands, and two balls of Lang Magic Sock Yarn.
That's it. I'm almost ashamed of myself.

Also, not enough catching up with people I would've liked to have spent more time with! It's all a bit overwhelming for me - so many people, so much to see, so little time, so many yarn fumes. It all went by too quickly.

And, as I'm sure some of you have noticed - not enough pink yarn! How did that happen?

Nearly there

So tomorrow, at wtf o'clock, I get up and head to Bendigo with my evil knitting other half, Knitabulous. There we'll meet up with a bunch of my favourite knitters in the world (and many others!), and there will be knitting and shopping, drinking, eating and socialising aplenty.

Alas, it will be cold. And I'm scared of the cold. Not even remotely joking. 13C (55F) is torture for me. In a Sydney winter, which isn't cold for many of you, I sleep under two quilts, in winter pj's with wool socks and a hot water bottle. So I got the brilliant idea to knit myself some gloves for the trip.

It could still happen. Especially if I stop stuffing up the chart!!

Veyla and Ishbel Mk II

So this week I've not managed to knit much of anything. Just one of those weeks where I've been running on the spot, never stopping, but never really getting anywhere either.

Last week I finished the Veyla and Ishbel Mk II though!

(She hates the camera, obviously!)

Specs on Ishbel:

Pattern: Ishbel Beret by Ysolda Teague
Size: Medium
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills 4ply Luxury (50g or 180m, roughly)
Needles: 2.75mm and 3.75mm Knit Pro Symfonie/Knit Picks Harmony
Mods: None!

I made the Medium size, because Em likes her hats slouchy. I think I could probably have used the Small size band and increased or something from there, but she's happy with it! It's a nice quick knit, took all of about 3 days, and I wasn't knitting no stop on it.

(I'm actually not sure whether she likes the knits all that much, or if she just likes playing up for the camera!)

Veyla Specs:

Pattern: Veyla by Ysolda Teague
Size: Small
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills 4ply Luxury (35g or 125m, roughly)
Needles: 2.75mm Knit Pro Symfonie/Knit Picks Harmony DPNS
Mods: None!

Quick, again. I got each glove done in one day. The buttons are just plain black ones that I picked up at the Canberra Wool Day. A bag of about 20 small black buttons for 20c. Bargain!!

I really like these, but after two pairs, I'm kind of over knitting them, no matter how quick they are. Yes, I'm easily distracted.

But I had a lot of yarn left over. Those Bendigo balls are big. How big? These are my leftovers.

That pic doesn't really show much, does it? How about next to a 100g ball of sock yarn?

Yup. Lots of leftovers. More than half a ball. So what am I to do? I think I need gloves for Bendigo.

Eve gloves for me! However, I've been trying to knit them for a week, and have managed only about a quarter of one glove. Not that they're difficult, I just have had no time. I don't think they'll be done!

Tempest

So, quite some time ago (about a month!) I finished Tempest. Then it sat for a while, and on KIP day, Ailsa took some pictures of it for me.

Done! I'm really happy with it, too.

Specs:
Pattern:Tempest by Ann Weaver from Knitty, Spring 2008
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash in Fuchsia and Posion Nr 5, one skein of each
Needles: 3.75mm and 4.0mm Knitpro Symfonie/Knit Picks Harmony Circulars
Size: 35" (C)
Mods: I made the sleeves long, instead of 3/4. I have a bit of an issue with 3/4 sleeves, if I'm cold enough for a cardigan, usually I want my whole arm covered! I spaced out the increases a little more so that the wrists weren't too big.

I picked up the buttons at All Buttons Great and Small in Newtown, and I really like them. It took a while to decide, I found some gorgeous little roses I liked, but they were $5 each, and I needed 14. I'm plenty happy with these ones!

I really like the Wollmeise yarn. I know it's hard to get, but it's worth it. The colours are gorgeous, and the yarn is unusual - it sort of feels cottony, but still soft. And the 150g skeins are awesome - I only used one skein of each colour, and I had leftovers!

Overall, I'm happy with it, and may even do another one in the future.

In fact, the only issue I have with the whole project is that I just can't get the colours to show up correctly!