Pop Smear

I've been working on this cardigan for a couple of months now (after buying the pattern as soon as it was released in October! It's not quite done - I need to find some buttons, but it's close enough to call!

It was a bit of a mission to get through the stocking stitch, and on to the interesting smocking section. And that seemed to take me forever! All the details can be found in my Ravelry project.

After a relatively long break from crafting, I'm back into it. Well, kind of. I've been spinning again, plodding away on a few knitted and crocheted works-in-progress, and have gotten back into the swing of attending my spinning and knitting groups. It feels good. I'm not necessary being productive, but I"m taking the time.

Another craft-related activity filling my time has been reading. In amongst crime novels (J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont series at the moment), and smart romance (Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Rachel Gibson), I've been checking out the library system's stash of knitting books. And requesting that they purchase more!

Anyway, two of the newest books I've checked out are Shibori Knits and Alterknits Felt. There are some really interesting projects in these books, and I'm sure that I'll be inspired to try my hand at felting some more. I'm definitely impressed with the AlterKnits Felt book; much more inspiring than the original AlterKnits book, I think. I spotted the book on Ravelry, after coming across the Pleated Cloche pattern it contains. I definitely want to try that one out!

That Maddy chose to make my table, strewn with barely started or otherwise abandoned craft projects, may give you an idea of how many craft projects I've finished recently. The lack of updates here and on Ravelry should be another clue!

I haven't been doing a lot of knitting (or spinning) lately, but I have found myself wanting a project to work on in quiet moments. Crochet is ideal, as it is, in most cases, very simple to pick up and put down, improvise with, and it grows fast!

In addition to a scarf I'm slowly working up with a shell stiltch pattern (using my handpainted and spun polwarth yarn), I've also completed a hippo (for a sister's birthday), a toilet roll holder (yes, as tacky as it sounds), and some cute little coin purses! 

Right now I'm working on a bright red purse/bag in a cotton bamboo yarn. 

I have made sushi a couple of times in the last few weeks - and having largely eliminated white rice from my diet lately, I went searching for an alternative for sushi. While looking for brown rice recipes, I came across this one for brown rice and quinoa rolls. The perfect thing to use up that quinoa sitting unused in the cupboard.

And, I'm pleased to report, it was fantastic! I cooked the quinoa and medium grain brown rice together (1 cup of rice, half a cup of quinoa and and about two and a half cups of water), using the absorption method. 

This yielded two cups of rice and quinoa (which makes a bunch of sushi - each roll used between half and three quarters of a cup). With the addition of a packaged sushi powder and a little exrtra rice wine vinegar, this was a suitably sticky and tasty mix to roll.

My sushi is laden with capsicum, cucumber, an omlette, avocado and alternately smoked salmon and shredded chicken. Delicous! Full of colour, and the extra fibre and protein from the non-white rice! 

I had this feeling it had been months since I'd updated my knitting projects here, but looking back I see it has been just over a month since the last substantive update. Why did I think it had been so long? Quite frankly, because I've finished so many things!

That's two pairs of bed socks (pattern from Mel Clark's blog Slip Slip Knit), two Leisl cardigans and a boucle Urchin (patterns by Ysolda), one handspun (mine and my Mum's) draught stopper (requested by a sister), a pink cardigan (made for me, but gifted to Mum as a better fit), one cotton baby hat from LMKG) and a tiny cotton bunny (for my latest great-niece), a handspun potholder (an exercise in stash reduction), and most recently a grey cap-sleeved cardi (from Drops Design), and a cabled hood (adapted from a "harf" pattern in Intertwined).

There's plenty more detail on all of these projects in my Ravelry Notebook, if you're curious! And if you're not a member of Ravelry (and you care at all about kntitting, crochet, etc.), why the heck not?!

Right now I'm waiting for some paint to dry, and it's actually a little exciting. I've painted some giant iceblock sticks - from the craft shop - to serve as hangers for a mobile I'm making. With little knitted cotton hearts in two shades of pink, this is another gift for my newest family member, Emily Jasmine. Just some sewing, stuffing and asssembly, and it'll be ready to send off to Perth.

Next on the agenda are a cardigan for Dad, a couple of cardigans for me, and a bag for a swap. I hope to make some progress on those before August 8! Not because that's my birthday (it is), but because with the kick off for the Olympics, I'm beginning an event in the Ravelympics, a KAL (that's a knit-a-long for the uninitiated) wherein I shall attempt to complete a challenging project in 17 days. I'm pretty sure the longline sweater dress I've chosen to knit in mohair will be a challenge, and so will require a lot of focus...

For now though, I'm off to swatch for my Dad's cardigan. It's a horrible day (there are weather warnings and alerts all over the place) and so inside knitting is the place to be. And should the power go out, I can always knit by candlelight.

Maddy and I are so over this dreary, rainy, windy and generally horrible weather. But knitting, and knitted things, do help!

Since I fnished Mum's jersey in early May, I've completed quite a few projects. And not new projects, either (though there certainly some of those), but some that had been sitting around, neglected, for quite a while!

To the left here you'll see my mitred-square blanket, finished just one week shy of the one year anniversary of its cast-on! After much prevarication (and sitting half-completed for many months), this blanket (that I first mentioned here) is done. It is cosy and warm, and a big hit with Maddy. It (rather like the cat) graces the bed at night, and the sofa during the day. I'm really very pleased with it - and pleased to have the stash of yarn set aside for it gone!

Two pairs of socks were also completed, putting an end to the second-sock syndrome. One pair of brown socks in Naturally Sensation (a merino/angora blend), which I'm loving as bed socks. The other pair, in Naturally Vero Tweed, were sent off to my Mum! I did manage to get both of these completed before a year was up, but for the second pair (which I wrote about when finishing the first sock) it was a pretty close call!

Finishing these items, and unravelling a couple of things I absolutely knew I would never finish (because I no longer wanted them), meant that for probably the first time since I was a teenager, I did not have somthing half-finished somehwere! I've always had lots of things on the go, so it was not something I expected to revel in, but it gave me a great sense of control!

So, those new projects that I've finished recently and not blogged about, well, if you're on Ravelry, you can check out my Handspun Garter Mitts, Aspire Garter Mitts, Handpun Scarf, Vero Tweed Calorimetry, Hottie Cover, Mum's Felted Bag, the Brown & Turquoise Bag for my bag swap recipient, two simple beanies for KidsCan, and the Handspun Mittens I mentioned in the last post, and twelve pairs of preemie baby booties for charity.

 

 

Is it any wonder I haven't had much time to spin (or blog)?! Right now I'm working on some preemie mittens, and a jersey for myself (I got a bunch of this done on WWKIP day - check out Catherynne's nice recap of our day knitting in public on Waiheke)!. I have bought some new yarn, too, so another jumper or cardigan for myself should be coming along fairly soon, along with long queued socks and a beret! I wonder, however, how long this finishing thing will last...

When I was at the Autumn Home Show last month I was tempted into buying some dyed and carded polwarth fibre from Sharon of Jumbuck Carding. There was only 85 grams left of the heathered sliver (top-left), so I nabbed that, and a quantity of a solid purple.

I didn't have a plan for them when I purchased (no surprise, I'm sure), but got spinning pretty quickly, at first on my old Traveller (now gifted to Mum), and then on my new Joy.. Soon I had 170 grams of about a sport weight yarn (plying together a single of each sliver), ready to knit. But what to knit?!

Not a scarf, or a hat, or a fraction of a jersey. So, mittens or gloves it was. I did eventually settle on a fingerless glove pattern, but given that I had no real plan before, I saw no need to stick to it. As you've probably gathered from the title of this entry, I made mittens!

Call me a heretic, but I didn't work them in the round, preferring to use straight needles, and then seam. I do dislike rangling dpns for fingers and thumbs.

Anyway, the mittens are nice and soft, and a pretty heathere colour! I'm very pleased with both my spinning, and my knittings. And that my fingers are warm!