Dioxyribonucleic acid

This is a fun little toy! Squishy, cuddley DNA Ü

I made each sugar-phosphate twistie with 10 stitches on two 3mm circulars. One one side you just knit, and on the other side you increase at the one edge and decrease at the other. I wasn't convinced it was twisting for quite a while, but it works...

Then I put them together with my DPN-skewered alleles, which were 6-stitch icords (11 rows) with the ladder crocheted up, and awkwardly tacked them on. Awkward, because it was as hard to hold as a cactus ;)

You can stretch it out, though the twistiness rebels and springs right back...

Sorry for the color-leeching. I'd already said on Rav that the allele colors matched Baby Three's cotton singlets, and baby's gender is still a secret.

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Meanwhile, here are my two actual contributions to the DNA-pool, KO'd yesterday after running around with Grandma. Filthy, but cute Ü. Don't you just love kids a tiny bit more when they're asleep? hehe.

All Tara's fault

And she knows it, crazy Twilight-enabler.

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These are Knucks, perfect for a hot almost-Summer premiere of "New Moon" this Thursday.

It's been cooking for the last 2 weeks, even though it's only November, but I made these to entertain my friend, Chantelle, who is shouting me a ticket on opening day. (I'm her T-enabler. Mwa ha ha!) She plans to entertain us by going into labor half-way through the movie.

Love the finger-down construction. Was fun making 10 teeny finger-stumps. The yarn is 5% cashmere and 95% wool, so it's a bit fluffy and nice and warm. (Just what I need!)

Originally I had the cover of "Eclipse" in mind... a nice simple twisted red ribbon on the cover. Nearly kicked the wall when I got around to actually looking! But my little flower worked out pretty well, I thought.

Did it in white, then painted a mix of food dye and vinegar on with the darning needle. Microwaved it to set the color (hopefully). Wish I could have done the letters more neatly, but, oh well...

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Less than 48 hours until we go see it ;)

Just in time...

Tomorrow my youngest brother turns 26! I thought I would whip this up for him, quick as a flash...
His birthday dinner was today, and I was only up to the decreases. But I had time. Nathan was taking Byron to the steam rally, and it would just be the girl and I at home. Unfortunately, Jasmine seems to believe that if Byron isn't there to play with, I should play with her all day instead! So I got about 3 rows done while the boys were away.
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After the grocery shopping I had about an hour before heading off to the birthday barbecue which, as it happens, is not quite enough time. Instead, I was finishing it off when Matt arrived at our parents' place. Never mind... he didn't pay any attention to my knitting until it was finished and wrapped and I gave it to him (after a quick pic in Mum's bathroom) Ü
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Here's a recent bit of handspun from the purple-ish stuff I got. I'm finding it hard to mix in all the colors because I'd rather just split the batt into thinner strips... which you can't really do when you don't want to separate all the colors. I tried, though. Drawing from the whole batt seems a bit hard for this novice...

Also finished the Mystery Bag KAL (which finished without me many moons ago). I'm so sick of it, and I don't much like the finished project. Even though it's Bendigo rustic (which I'm told felts well) I can't make it felt. So it's big and kind of floppy. I did these handle mods:

after realizing that I hated the cable ones. Only did one side, and I didn't mind the cable idea, but it's too fat (and certainly too pink). Neither can I be bothered doing any pockets. Not sure if I'll use it much! Might be fun to do a teeny one, though... hehe.

Poppy

I actually made it to a knitting group night this month, though as I was leaving, I realized all I had on the needles (that I could be bothered to do) was for the new baby in a give-away-the-secret sort of color. What to knit.....? I grabbed Ysolda's tiny book and some freckley skin-toned Cleckheaton country 8ply and headed off.

The woman at the restaurant asked if I was here for a birthday or... what? I told her I was looking for knitters, and she took me around to a fireplace surrounded by armchairs full of knitters ;) Very cosy and nice, especially after they turned up the lights a bit more.

The baby top has been neglected ever since, until I finished this little project:

Decided to knit on some knickers ;) You start at the top of the head and knit down to the toes, no seams, kind of like the kimono top I'm doing for the bub. I liked the freckles.

The instructions for hair didn't work out for me, mainly because it was so easy to pull strands out. So I put them in individually, folding them in half, threading the loop through a stitch and pulling the ends through the loop, as you do with fringes on a scarf. The hair's a cheap version of Zhivago, and it was pretty messy until I waved her over the kettle steam and it magically straightened! If only it was that easy in real life...

The dress was Cleckheaton tapestry, I think.

It's Jasmine's doll, but Byron has adopted her for now. He he he.

Back of the dress... I'm sure I'll make some more clothes, since they're so easy and fun.

And that's about all I've been doing, you know, in all my spare time. Ü

Spinnerings

My second attempt at the spinning wheel when I FINALLY got the thing to work. The first attempt was binned ;)

Two plies of it became this. It's 95g of very wobbly yarn that is probably too dodgy to have a useful purpose... perhaps it's just as well, as it would probably knit up to look like carpet anyway!

Then I abandoned everything in a sudden urge to make more Tiny Shoes. These ones are in Jitterbug castagna, and are for my friend's new girl, Adelaide. So hard to get good buttons here at Spotlight. They have hundreds of boring ones, though! But I liked these sparkley ones...

They're softer than the last shoes I made, and don't stand up on their own so well. So they're not too easy to photograph, and my camera doesn't like close-ups or true colors ;) ....never mind.

Here's my old (drop spindled) sky blue stuff, finished a bit before I found out if this baby's a boy or girl. I haven't started knitting anything from my blue or pink yet, but I am knitting a few secret things. Not sure what to make with thick handspun yet... especially for a Summer baby.

Well, time to oil up the wheel and try some more spinnerings...

40 in 1

A while ago some people in Ravelry got together and split 40 balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 4ply (one of each color). Here is my little collection.

I decided I had to do a project that included them all, so it became a sideways garter stitch scarf. (This decision was based on my strong desire not to have to weave in eighty ends Ü)

I just did a row of each color, holding the yarn doubled and using 4mm needles. So there's a row of purly bumps on each side in each color.

It's 120g. I had lots of left-overs in all the colors except what I used to cast on and off (probably because I was using a bigger needle). I think there were about 240 stitches per row, and it's 125cm long (175cm with the fringe). It's only 10cm wide, though. Garter stitch is so compacted. But it's nice and thick, soft and warm.

A finished object! About time... Ü

BTW, Happy 10th Anniversary to me! (and my dear hubby, Nathan, of course Ü)

No spinning tonight.

I got a note in the mailbox today, saying there was a package at the post office for me. (The postie drives a little car and so can't be bothered delivering most packages himself...) So we all drove over to the post office and I picked up my spinning wheel accessories, plus this little wee bit of fibre to spin...

Only 500g... Ü ... plus a little bit of sock wool...

Now the drive band turned out to be exactly like the cheap string you can buy at the supermarket, and the brake band looks like fishing line. One part we were missing (a pin to hold one end of the brake band) is not part of the kit, apparently, so Nathan is going to whip one up in the shed if I don't find one in town tomorrow. So no spinning tonight. Sigh.

Without the brake band I can't even get it to pull string through onto the bobbin, so I can't even play with it, and I'm feeling very... um... mechanically challenged. My brain doesn't appear to work that way. I fiddled with it for a bit before Nathan noticed and took pity on me. He knows exactly what's what (from doing a tiny bit of internet research some time ago) and how to alter it, if I like, to do this and that... He knows the answers, where I can't understand the questions. lol.

I think I will spin the white stuff first. There's 200g to practise on, and I can dye it later. The purple one... not my color usually, but everything suits cute little kids. I'm not sure why I bought orange, yellow and brown fibre, except to see what happens. hehe.