Friday, April 25, 2008

And it goes a little somthing like this....

Last weekend we went to the beach. Let me paint the scene for you, paint by numbers style.

There was....
  • 980 men, frolicking on the sand or in the water, in all their hairy backed glory
  • 10 men playing the most serious game of beach soccer you have ever seen
  • 6 women dressed in full Abaya and head scarf not swimming
  • 3 women in bikinis brave enough to endure the stares to make it to the water
  • 1 man swimming in white underpants!
Guess which one I was was.

Needless to say, once I had retreated to the safety of my beach towel with my dress back on, the people watching was quite interesting indeed!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Finally!

Here's some photos of me in my Puff Sleeved Cardigan, finally!

These were taken today, while it was about 35 degrees Celsius outside! It might be a while before I actually get to wear it, at least until the next trip to the movies. The air-con is always arctic in the cinema!

Collar up!


Collar down!


A bit of a closer look.


This cardigan has taught me a few things. I think the high neck makes me look a bit more busty than I like. I think, for me anyway, cardigans with a v-neck or scoop neck are more versatile. Secondly I really should have realised, anything with a raglan sleeve, really isn't going to have much of a puff even if the name of the pattern says so! Lastly, the yarn (Knit Picks Swish DK in Maple) for a Merino yarn, has quite a bit of drape, so much so that the Mandarin collar doesn't really want to stand up by itself. That bit is bugging me about this cardigan. Apart from that, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm especially happy with the fit.

Speaking of people wearing their handknits, check out Sam and Archie sporting my handy work.


Such smiley babies!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Knit-Knack Paddy Whack!

Since we got back from Australia (four weeks ago) I have been a bit of a knitting zombie, blindly plugging away at the familiar and boring. I just haven't been able to make a decision on what to knit next. Well, what to knit next that is interesting anyway. I think part of the problem is that I can't choose something and then just pop down to the shops and buy some yarn for it. Instead I need to choose yarn online and sometimes the results of this can be interesting to say the least. Then I have to wait for it to arrive. The whole process has been sapping my motivation!

Strangely enough, the result of all this has meant that I have been somewhat productive, even if the items are a bit boring.

I've had my eye on the Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan for a while now. I think it's really cute. I had a bit of a space out when I bought the yarn for this and then didn't realise my mistake until after I had finished knitting it. The pattern specifies to hold the yarn double to give a denser fabric which is good for a bag. Instead I just bought yarn which matched the guage and knitted it single (der!). No matter, I just need to find a dark sturdy fabric to line it with that will give the bag some structure and won't show through the knitting.



The yarn is Knit Picks Andean Silk in Chocolate and I have to say, that for a alpaca and silk blend, this yarn is not as luxurious as you would expect, but I guess at $4.29 a ball I shouldn't complain. I have bought a handle for this, but it just arrived this week, so I have not yet sewn it on. I think I will wait until I have sewn in the lining anyway.

So while this project wasn't exactly boring, I've now cast on for another one in my desperation to not stop knitting! Here's the first side completed, knitted in one session!


After I completed knitting the first Brea Bag I was at a complete loss as to what to knit. I searched through my stash and this is what I came up with. The twin baby shrugs!


The pattern is by Debbie Bliss and is from "Simply Baby". It's very similar in construction to the Ribbed Baby Jacket (also by Debbie Bliss) which I recently completed for baby Thomas, so by the time I was on the second one I was knitting with my eyes closed, well almost. The second one took me less than a week of night time knitting to complete. Yay! The yarn is Knit Picks (surprise surprise!) Shine Worsted, in Snapdragon and Wave. It really is a great pattern and I think I would make it again, just not for a while. These are for the girl baby twins in my life, Carlie and Sophie. The flower was knitted from memory from the "Head Huggers" pattern that I made years ago. I have just tied these on so that they can be removed for washing and/or if Mum and Dad decided that such frippery is not suitable for babies!

So as I said, I am now plugging away blindly on the second Brea Bag with plans for a third, but there is light at the end of the tunnel of zombie-ness. Yesterday I finally sat down and bought some project specific yarn. I spent a lot of money and it's not from Knit Picks! Now I just have to wait for it to arrive......

Speaking of stash enhancement, here are some pics of the fixings for the Brea bags which arrived this week from M&J Trimmings. How I love the Internet!


Yes, I know I went a bit overboard with the buttons, but you just don't know for sure if they will look any good in real life. So it's better to get a few different ones, don't you think? Needless to say, my button stash is getting quite large. Heh heh heh!