Friday, March 17, 2006

Hot off the Knitting Needles! And other miscellaneous goings on too.



Hello again. I'm not doing very well at actually blogging very often. That is however because I seem to have rather a full life at the mo. Details coming up in another blogg.

Anyway back to the subject at hand.

KNITTING!

My current new pastime/obsession, call it what you will.

I have just completed two garments, that aren't just scarves in stocking stitch.

Number one, a gift of yarn for Christmas and a garment that was to be knitted by my mum, but she soon gave up. Reasons why giving up, a really crappy written pattern, plain English society for knitting needs to be set up I think. And this is not just the opninon of my mum, but me, and all those that spent some hours trying to decipher the damn thing. Shame on you 'Wendy' knitting manufacturers. This was enfact a very easy pattern for a beginner like myself to try. But with your horrendous wording it was a hell of a challenge for even seasoned knitters.
Anyway rant over!
Second reason for mum giving up was, eyelash yarn, and not being able to see dropped stitches. Mum is a speed knitter and doesn't look at her knitting when working. Where as me, I look at it and I'm a bit slower, so I guess easier for me to not drop stitches. Well mum gave it a go and I am thankfull for her doing so. And in a way glad she gave up, because knitting this garment is what got me hooked on knitting more! The pleasure at being able to knit what ever I like in what ever colour or type of yarn, rather than buying nasty acrylic knits from New Look, or having to save hard to be able to purchase lovely natural knits from, Monsoon, is just fantastic.

The yarn by the way is a lovely metallic yarn called 'Wendy chic' in Raphael colour way. And i loved knitting with it, it knits fast and slides over the needles with great ease. There are quite a few other colours available too. It apprently is very popular for knitting little wedding jackets and shawls etc for brides and bridesmaids.

I am now living in this garment and loving it! It's as warm as a fur coat and squishes down to pack in a bag if needed, without it looking all crumpled too. I have had a few complitments on it too and it sure is getting me noticed. Well more than before, people tend to see bright red hair and turn, now they see bright red hair and bright red fluffy jacket too.
It was quite intersting going to a recent rock gig at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge where generally there was a sea of black. And there was lil ole me in red! I did have some slightly merry 6ft 4, 20 something, very long blond haired goth (i know blond hair and a goth, quite unusual, i have to say though he did have really beautiful hair, the most beautiful i think i have seem on a man, it flowed all the way down his back to his bum) cone up to me and tell me how beautiful i looked. Which was cute.

And so the second project ensued. A knitting winter Olympics project. To be a challenging and interesting piece to be completed whilst the winter olympics was on.
Said pattern came form
Mary, a fellow knitter, who recommended a web site with free knitting patterns called Mag knits.




And so I started knitting my little hat called
Odessa. And as you can see it came out rather well. I decided I would rather stitch sequins on, you all know my love of the little shiny things with holes, than knit with beads. Leaning the new stitches and knitting in the round was quit challenge enough without adding to the complications.
And it went so well that I knitted another one in nice grey marl for new boyfriend Simon. Which also got lined with fleece so that he can wear it when he goes snowboarding. He seems to be quite taken with it, as he keeps wearing it and has told me that he has taken to wearing it to sleep in too. His place gets a bit chilly at night it seems. So not sure if I have broken the knitting curse yet or not. Technically does it have to be a sweater for that to happen, or does any knitted garment count? Opinions on this would be great! As knitting a men's jumper would be quite nice, simple and quick, to do I think. And i am trying to build up projects in advance so that i don't run out of stuff to knit as i did last week. I nearly went crazy not knowing what to do with my hands!



1 Comments:

Blogger Alison said...

There is no boyfriend knitting curse! Just cursed boyfriends. ;) Your Odessa looks superb; the top shot is especially good.

4:42 pm  

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