Brad Smith

This is where I go on my evening off each week; my dear hubby comes home from work and I run off to the shopping centre. I try not to do a lot of actual shopping ($$) but lucky for me, Stockland thought it would be nice to put some random lounge rooms all around the place. And look; what's that little thing in the pot plant....?
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It's Mr. Smith Ü
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This is the table at the food court where I actually sat tonight, working on the last bit of Mr. Smith while having turkey and cheese sandwiches and iced coffee.
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Here he is, headless and inside out. The rows of spikes are just knitted together with a row of body here and there...
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Inverted...

Peeking out of my little knitting bag. What a cute face! I forgot to take some stuffing, but I found a little bag of it in Kmart. Then I worked on my Twilight Twilight mitt for a while...
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It's looking tight for the Ravelympic challenge; tight, as in "I think I need to stop playing on the computer because I don't have time!!!" lol.
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Of course, there's always time for a little distraction. This distraction is Karin's fault for posting this sock picture ;) . It's 120g of sock wool, basically just chucked into a pot of green food dye and vinegarred water and poked down a bit and cooked. I'm going to try knitting DK socks with two strands together... some time in the future...
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Green Green Green ÜÜÜ

Downhill Dyeing is an Event, as it happens, so I entered my distraction in it and got my blog-'medal':

hehe

Day 4

It's Day 4 of the Winter Olympics, and the easiest of my three events has been successfully completed. I'm pretty sure it will fit, but I'm wondering if another inch would have made it a better length. I also thought the whole thing might have been too tight, but after giving the cast on a bit of a steam, it relaxed itself into oblivion, almost. Now I'm wondering if it's a bit loose... we'll soon see. My niece's birthday is in another week.
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I've made a good start on Mr. Smith. I looked up You Tube (as a fellow Ravthlete advised) to see how a disappearing circular cast on was done. That was very helpful! I disappearing-circular-cast-on-ed my little echidna's butt, and started increasing. Ysolda has you stopping periodically to make these little spikes...
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...and then knit them on to the body...

So far I've done 5, which is half. The yarn is a bit too splitty for my knitpicks needles, but it's so nice that I can't even complain about it in my head. It's polworth and silk, soft and shiny.

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I also made a start on the Twilight mitts, mainly because I was losing my place in the spikes so often (as happens regularly when you own three kids under three Ü). I just needed something a bit more mindless, and black ribbing seemed like just the thing. Haven't taken a photo. It's a pathetically small amount.

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Meanwhile, to compensate for the lack of knitting pictures (in spite of all the knitting) here's an old jumper I made before Byron was born, which is now fitting Jasmine.

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If you think wool jumpers and bare feet are an odd mix, it's to match the odd Summer weather, which has my heater on in the morning and the air conditioner in the afternoon ;)

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Summer Winter Knitting Olympics

The Ravelympics must seem pretty bizarre to your average non-knitter. I know my hubby looked a bit amused by the whole idea. But tomorrow I'm looking forward to representing my country in three Olympic knitting events, even though the opening ceremony is on the other side of the world, and it's the Winter Olympics, although it's Summer here.
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Tomorrow actually means "after two sleeps" (it's 1am on Friday morning, but the torch gets lit 1pm Saturday avo in our time). I just gave Zachary yet another bottle... he's going to catchup to his brother in a few months at this rate ;) ...that's why I'm not asleep.
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Here are my Ravelympics 2010 events, ready to go!


On the left is some Sean Sheep (a nice acrylic/tencel mix like Zhivago) and some semi-solid pink alpaca from Wired For Fibre. It's going to become a hat for my niece, Sarah, who's birthday is coming up soon, and I'm planning to do another "Robin's Egg Blue Hat". They're cute. This is for the Hat Halfpipe, and I think I can manage it in a few days.
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At the bottom is some Polworth Silk I picked up at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Festival last year. It's going to become "Mr and Mrs Smith", a pair of Ysolda's "Smith" Hedgehogs (only mine will be echidnas) for an upcoming wedding. They like echidnas. I changed my mind a lot about the colors, but in the end I decided I just want to use this soft silky stuff for something! Toys are knitted in the "Skelegurami" event.
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At the top is a skein of Wired For Fibre sock yarn (with wool, nylon and bamboo) in a color called Twilight. It (and the contrast black) are for a pair of Winter Twilight mitts. I have no idea if I'll have any time left after the Skelegurami, but these will take the longest, I bet, and I'm hoping to have a good week to dedicate to the "Mittens Moguls" event... I'll need it. I have a lot of nice fingering weight yarn (certainly not as much as some, though) and had a hard time choosing. Eventually the name (Twilight mitts in twilight) decided it. The pinks and greens and blues are pretty subtle, and it looks grey from a distance, but that will probably just make the mittens more wearable.
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I almost chose this yellow, which wouldn't have matched anything I own. lol. I bought a batch of BWM yarn this week: 600g of Luxury 8ply in brownish shades (thinking of the Smiths) and a 200g ball of cream Luxury 4ply for the sole pleasure of doing this with it:
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Good old vinegar and food dye. One day I'll get some proper dye, when I get sick of my attempts at brown turning into a color that reminds me of half-ripe tomatoes :P ... and my attempts at black/grey/white yarn turning blue as it exhausts, but for now I'm happy. Actually quite like the tomato one, and the black/blue/white will make interesting little striped socks, I think. Also made some semisolid pink and yellow. Didn't mean to make canary yellow, but apparently that's what the yarn wanted to be Ü
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While waiting for the Ravelympics to start, I have actually been knitting on my old Vivian, which I started at the end of 2008! One sleeve is finished and the other is started. There are about 15 more rows of body to do, too, and then they'll all join and carry on up. Since starting this I have had another baby, and will need to get back into a much better shape before wearing it. lol. My tentative plan is to wear it to Bendigo this year.
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And here is Zach, testing out his jumper. It's too big (note rolled sleeves) but should be great by the time it's actually cold here. Love the color (another Wired For Fibre). Must save some cash to get more for my birthday Ü... I'm using it all up!
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Blogger tells me this is my 100th post on Knitterings! Triple Digits! How have I managed to write so much about knitting so little? :-D

Baby things

I'm now a little bit surprised how little baby stuff I actually made in these last 9 months. Shouldn't I be able to churn out 3 things every week? Turns out that I don't have a lot of enthusiasm for making things that will only be vomited on for a few months, and never appreciated, cute as they are. Plus, I spent all my energy making this...



(Put your hand up if you thought I meant the cotton blanket. hehe)


So the labor was really easy. I laid around all day, supposedly having irregular contractions. The waters had broken at 1:30am but nothing further had happened, and they convinced me to have the drip (which made my first experience of labor so much fun :P ) by promising me an epidural FIRST. After snoozing all day (it was surprisingly exhausting for something I couldn't feel) they discovered that the naughty monkey had no intention of coming at all. Off I went to theatre for a caesarean, where they pulled out a protesting little 4.1 kilo boy (That's 9lb 1, for you pre-metrics Ü).

Knitted DNA

The labor was easy, but I think I prefer the recovery of a natural birth! My stomach hurt for a week. But I had a 5-day holiday (in hospital), and my dear hubby has been taking care of me since. Stomach feels fine, now, and I'm getting a bit of sleep. Zachary is great; he's a good sleeper so far, and drinks lots.

Jack's kimono sweater, which was so simple and easy to make. I used some very pretty merino from Kate's shop and covered up a few holes with a bit of embroidery that you can barely see here. Of course, it's Summer in Australia, now, so he hasn't tried it on yet. It looks about the right size for wearing in a few months Ü

These are the singlets that match the DNA. They aren't finished; I just tonight taught myself to do single crochets (which are only edging the green one's arm holes so far). You run an icord through the double-crochet on the neck, for a drawstring, and it will then fit from age 0 to 18 months. I don't think they'd fit Jasmine, but... we'll see. I'll force her into one for a photo, if I can ;)

And here are the little boots made from cashmere-merino scraps (from my Ishbel). They fit him really well, but he can kick them off no problem. Must find a pattern as good as "tiny shoes", but for boys. Knitted blundstones or something ;)

Well, hopefully I've made sense here... I think I'll head off to bed for, I don't know... an hour or so? Sweet dreams!

Washy washy

So I found this little tutorial for doing a "bit" of fleece, and went out to raid the bags. I filled a 9L bucket full of reasonably clean wool (I think from the sheep's back), which came to 196g. I filled up one bucket with hot water (60°C) and a bit of dishwashing liquid, and put the wool into it, chunk by chunk, while pulling out a few bits of grass and a beetle or two!
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Submerged it by squishing it down with the second bucket, then topped up bucket one and filled bucket two with hot water. After 20 minutes or so, I squished out the water and tipped the wool into the "rinse" bucket for a few minutes. Did this whole soapy-rinse-procedure three times, until the water was coming out pretty clean. Then I squeezed it in a towel and laid it out to dry, which certainly didn't take long in this heat!
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196g of raw stuff.

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Soaking in a bit of dishwashing liquid...

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First rinse Ü

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After squishing out the rinse water the first time

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After it dried: 144g of slightly grassy (but unfelted!) fleece, ready for... well... the next step is carding, if I can find the time and patience!

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Well, Jasmine had her 18 month checkup today (She's 13kg and 87cm already) and then a chickenpox injection. The needle nurses were running really late, so I've just put them in bed 45 minutes ago, and soon I'll have to wake them to go to my midwifery appointment. I can't remember if I'm 37 or 38 weeks now... I didn't get much sleep last night! lol. It was only 27°C inside, which is comparatively nice, but I do have an internal oven going, too, and I laid there sweating until 4am... Finally got some sleep on the couch with the air con back on. Got a tiny bit more semi-sleep during Sesame Street. SO glad I didn't catch the gastro everyone else in this house has had!
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Now to research rolags...

Just the beginning

Unbelievable, but true; we've been trying to get the four sheep shorn since September. Finally, a shearer came over today and entertained the kids by giving them all a good clipping!

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Even more unbelievably, the "black" sheep, who were as brown as mud, TURNED BLACK! The disgusting-grimy-grey sheep turned white, and the brown ones turned black. The inside of the wool is SO clean... I wonder if I can just cut the dirty bits off ... Ü

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So we have bags and bags of it in the shed, plus a bag full of "stuff you won't want". The shearer was very nice (though expensive, but we've gotten beyond caring at this point) and came just in the nick of time, really. It was already 39 degrees celcius when he left in the morning, and got up to 45 later, according to our thermometer. The other shearers who we've tried to employ kept saying "yes, yes" and then never turning up, which was such a pain, especially when it was hot back in November.

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Next; playing with fleece! I must go do some internet research...

What it became

So those are 35cm long, 20mm needles I got for $1.50, and about two and a half balls of cheap Patons Jet. I made a rectangle with a hole in the middle, 50 stitches wide and about 40-50 rows long. (The cast off and cast on were 100st, though). I folded it in half, sewed up the sides, leaving armholes, and strung it up with ribbon into a dress shape.

Jasmine doesn't like to wear it ;) but I will get a picture one day...

It was a quick knit, but not as quick as I thought. Those fat needles are awkward, and the proper diameter is way back from the point. I just had to knit loosely.

Well, back to work, where the house is really messy and Byron has caught whatever gastro bug Jasmine had all last week. Nathan, who's birthday is today, came home feeling sick yesterday, but refuses to take a sicky because it's too much hassle. Byron has had two vomits (including all over his bed) and 3 rotten nappies (it's 9am), and Grandma C is coming over for the party I have to cook for later.

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