Knit for Connor month: Floyd Vest

This is my third and final instalment of Knit for Connor month (which should more correctly be called Knit for Connor Two Months, since I made most of this in September rather than August!).

When I was planning the projects for KfCm, I found something very interesting - well, to me anyway.  And perhaps those also knitting for small children.  The sizes are SO INCONSISTENT!  It shouldn't come as a surprise, really, given that this is also the case for women's clothing (I can't really speak for men!).  But it is annoying, because it makes it very hard to knit in advance.  I knit the 12-18mo size in the Pembroke vest, and it is a good fit with a bit of room for next year (and with any luck, the year after, since people who know tell me small kids tend to grow up more than out for the first couple of years!).  This vest I knit the 3yo size, because I had enough yarn and I thought I might as well.  And what do you know, it fits pretty perfectly now.  With a little bit of room, maybe less than the Pembroke vest.  Although to be fair, I haven't blocked it yet, and being cotton it might grow!  And I even made it a wee bit longer than the pattern specified!!

Details
Pattern:  Floyd vest, by Martin Storey, from Rowan Miniature Classics.  This is a lovely book of baby and toddler patterns.  Sizing issues aside, I will definitely be making more from this book.  I hope!

As with almost all Rowan patterns, it is knit flat and seamed.  It could be converted to knit in the round if you desire, although the shoulder and side seams are fairly short and don't take much seaming really!

Yarn:  Rowan Handknit Cotton, 3 x 50g skeins in red (shade 215 lot 3883038).  I liked knitting with this cotton, although it definitely is harder on the hands than wool.  It knits up really nicely though, I am very happy with the way it looks.

Sticks:  I started this when I was away, and even though I grabbed my set of KnitPicks Harmony Options, I found I didn't have the correct size for the ribbing (3.25mm) so I used 3.5mm instead, and I think it looks fine!  I used 4mm for the main part of the vest, as specified by the pattern.

Time:  27 August 2011 - 28 September 2011 (it took me a little while to sew on the buttons!)

Modifications: I knit the vest as specified, except for the change in stick size noted above for the ribbing.  However, I omitted the pocket, because it really is pointless.  Not big enough to be useful, and for some reason which I cannot fathom, the pocket flap does not have a button hole, even though the pattern shows it with a button on it.  The flap is knit separately and then joined to the front of the vest as you knit it (very clever!).  But the pocket itself is seamed on afterwards.  I figured it would just add bulk and drying time, and as the flap had a tendency to stick up, I thought I'd just sew it down when I added the button.

The button-hole-less pocket flap!

If you want a useable pocket and flap, I'd suggest adding a buttonhole to the flap when you knit it!

I think this is a very cute, easy and practical knit.  I just wish that the size was a little bigger so it would fit for longer!  Next time, I will pay more attention to the schematics and Connor's actual measurements!

StashDownUnder - September 2011

I had a good month this month!  I can't say no yarn came in, because I did receive two lots of red 4ply for my Beekeeper insanity, but nothing that I bought myself!  So that's not too bad! And I somehow managed to have a HUGE knitting month, so go me! Heh!

This month:
In:  2 x 50g balls
Actual balls used:  10.5 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent: 15.5 x 50g balls (LOTS of 4ply knitting this month! plus a couple of balls donated to Guild)
metres used: 1,138m

Year to date:
Actual balls used: -7.75 x 50g balls (I might just come out neutral by the end of this year!)
8ply equivalent: 78 x 50g balls
metres used:  9001m

I thought I might as well do my Beekeeper update today too.  This month was a good month, I managed to do 34 sexypuffs - yes, more than one per day!  Hurrah!

I also tried out the crochet version, which is free on Ravelry.  I had to modify it a bit, to ensure they match my knitted puffs in terms of size, but that is easily done.

And I like the bit of texture that the crochet puffs give to the quilt.  Red and texture!  I might have to try a moss/seed stitch puff sometime soon!

Knit for Connor month: Lillen Pantses

Even though this is the second project I've posted in my Knit for Connor month, it was actually the first completed.  It just took me a while to put in the elastic (as usual, it's the final touch that makes the garment useful and wearable that takes me forever!).

I recently bought the MillaMia book The Close Knit Gang.  It's a fab little pattern book for toddlers, with really cute and stylish garments mostly sized up to about 5 yo.  I chose the Lillen Pant(ses) pattern first, as I thought it would be a really good way to use this yarn - from stash - woo hoo!

Details:
Pattern:  Lillen Bottoms 12-18 mo size, from The Close Knit Gang.  These are really cute little pantses, knit flat in two identical pieces.

Yarn:  The MillaMia yarn (which is lovely, by the way) is really a sport/5ply yarn.  But since I am trying to knit from the stash, and my stock of sport weight yarn is fairly limited, I thought I'd use this skein of Wollmeise 100%, in one of the club colours, Saami.  It's a colour that really screams out to be used for kids, I think, given the primary colours!  I even swatched, to check whether I'd need to knit a size (or more) up to make up for gauge differences.  I was surprised to find I got gauge with the suggested needles, even though the WM is really a fingering/4ply weight.  I used about 115g of the 150+g skein.

What was really interesting was that even though the two pieces are knitted the same, one piece pooled and flashed substantially more than the other! (it is actually much more obvious in the photo than in real life, although once you have seen the photo, you can't unsee it in real life!)

I am also glad the WM is machine washable!

Sticks:  3mm and 3.25mm KnitPicks Options.
Time:  25 July 2011 - 12 August 2011. 

Modifications:  The pattern has a ribbed waistband. I didn't really think it would stay up very well, especially with a crawling baby (Connor hadn't yet started walking when I started these!).  So I did a stocking stitch turned band (with provisional cast on) to act as a casing, so I could put elastic in.

I also did garter stitch on the "hem" of the pantses, rather than moss stitch - only because the moss stitch fights too much with the varigation of the yarn.  If I was making these in a plain yarn, I would probably do the moss stitch.  I would also make them a bit longer!  I made these to the pattern length, but I think they could be a little bit longer.  Just a wee bit, mind!

I'm quite happy with these!  Gotta love a child who is too small to reject the handknits! (hopefully he will never reject the handknits, heh!)

August was Knit For Connor Month: Pembroke vest

As winter was drawing to a close, I started to feel a little guilty about the amount of knitting (or, more accurately, the lack of knitting) for Connor. So I thought I'd better rectify that and set aside August as Knit for Connor Month!

I have managed to get 3 things done (well, the third is almost done, heh!) and each will be transitional pieces into spring and will also, I hope, fit him next year as well.

Details
Pattern:  Pembroke vest by Kirsten Kapur.  A lovely, classic and free pattern which goes from 6mo to 8yo (I made the size 2).  I do love a good cable, and this vest has cables aplenty!  I wish there was a better way of managing cables and decreases, as it can look a bit funny to just stop cabling, but I'm not sure whether there are better alternatives (please enlighten me, if you know!)

Yarn: I had 3 x50g balls of the blue yarn, Karabella Aurora 8 (col 1555) and 20g of the white in the same yarn.  And I used it all, except for about 10g of the blue. I wasn't sure if I would have enough blue for the vest, so I decided to do the ribbing in the white.  And I knit the front first, as I figured if the cables ate up lots of yarn, I could do the back plain. But as it turns out, it was the white I ran short of, so the neckband ribbing is blue and white stripes. Which I think is quite effective, if I do say so myself!

Oh, and can I just say, I love this yarn!  So soft and lovely to knit with, and shows up a cable so beautifully.  And makes such a beautiful sproingy fabric.  Yum yum yum.  One of the balls did have a couple of knots in it, quite close together, which I discovered when I was knitting the neckband.  Grrr, more ends to sew in!  I'd still use this yarn again though, just lovely.

Sticks:  3.75 and 4.5mm KnitPicks Harmony Options.

Time: 14 - 26 August 2011.  I am amazed at how quick I knit this.  Especially as I discovered when I'd finished the front that I had done the armhole decreases on the neck, and the neck decreases on the armholes.  GAH!  What an idiot!  So I lost a day and a bit in unpulling and re-knitting these (yes, you heard right, I actually frogged and re-knit!)

Bottom one re-done ... much better!

Modifications: I used short rows on the shoulder shaping so I could do a 3 needle bind off but otherwise knit the pattern as written.  If I was to knit it again, I would change the ribbing so that the pattern flows neatly out of the ribbing.

I wasn't sure I liked the middle cable (some people on ravelry have actually changed it for a different cable) but the more I look at it now, the more I like it.  In particular, I like how it is designed to open out at the neckline, the designer has placed it really well on the front.

I'm very happy with this pattern, the yarn works so beautifully with the cables.  In fact, I liked it so much I might just pull out my hibernating Must Have cardigan, which also uses this yarn, and get back into the cabley aurora 8-y goodness!

Um, yeah, I think I really must BEEE crazy!

So the other day I was surfing Ravelry and decided to have a look at some of the other Beekeeper Quilt projects.  One of them very helpfully linked to an online calculator to work out how many hexagons you need for a hexagon quilt (sewn).  You plug in the size you want to make it - in my case, queen size bed size - and how big the side of your hexagon is, and it tells you how many you need.

So.

Yeah.

I need to make 1829 sexypuffs!  1829!!!!  (just in case you thought I'd typed it wrong the first time!).  I put the numbers in the calculator 3 times just to check I hadn't done it wrong the first two times!

I was thinking I needed to make about 800.  And figured it would probably take me two years to do that.  So I had to do a little rethink.  Now I'm aiming to make a sexypuff a day.  And even then it will take me more than 5 years to finish this thing.  Heh heh.  Let's see how we go!

I'm going to keep a running tally in my sidebar, as to how I'm going each month.  In August, I managed 28 of the little fellas.  Not bad, considering I started on the 8th of August.  I've been thinking about how I'm going to put them together (design wise).  The original quilt is randomly put together (as far as I can tell) but what do you think of this? 

They sort of look like flowers, right?  I've got lots of the plain red (about 1kg) so I thought I'd surround a variegated flower (with a plain red centre) with plain red flowers, which have a variegated centre.  Any other suggestions?

You can never have too many

You can never have too many pairs of red socks, right?

I needed a nice easy portable project a while back (um, in February...) and what better choice is there than stocking stitch socks with a pretty yarn?  (let's not mention that I actually wound this yarn in May last year to take to hospital with me.  Yeah, it never left the project bag!)

I finally finished them, and seem to have taken almost as long to get around to posting them as I did knitting them!

Details
Pattern:  Just my basic cuff down plain vanilla socks!  Although I did add some calf shaping into these.  I think I started with 72 stitches and steadily decreased down to 64, as I moved down the leg.  I did a tubular cast-on and twisted rib, and my favourite eye of partridge heel flap, and wedge toe. 

Oh, I did do something different, I did a dutch heel, from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.  Thought I'd try it out, as others have commented on how they like it.  I don't mind knitting it, but I don't think it fits my foot as well as a regular heel.  Good to know!

Yarn:  A new yarn for me, Cascade Heritage Handpaints, a lovely blog prize from GeekKnitter.  I like this yarn, it feels nice but still sturdy, and I like how the colours behaved, with a subtle blue and purple stripe effect.  I would use this yarn again for sure.

Sticks:  2.5mm KnitPicks fixed circular, for magic looping - my favourite method for plain socks.

Time:  2 February 2011 - 1 August 2011.

And a nice little bit of leftovers which go straight to the Beekeeper Quilt yarn fund, heh!

StashDownUnder - August 2011

Yet another month goes by ... with a little yarn in, and a little bit more yarn out.

First, the ins.  I had some yarn leftover from my Lanesplitter Skirt.  So I did the honourable thing, and returned it to the shop.  I exchanged it, of course!!  Heh heh.  And I decided I'd get enough yarn for a cute little stripey cardi for Connor, which meant I had to buy a couple of extra balls as well, to ensure I'd have enough.

Sorry about crappy flash photo!  Red, charcoal grey and silvery grey

And while I was there I might have picked up a nice ball of red heathered yarn for my Beekeeper Quilt (yes, I must bee crazy, buying yarn for it when I have so much already!).  And some of my lovely knitting buddies also donated some leftover red yarn to me already, so I've counted that too.

This month:
In:  5 x 50g balls
Actual balls used: 8.5 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent:  12 x 50g balls (lots of 4ply knitting this month!)
Total metres used:  1070m

Year to date:
Actual balls used:  -16.25 x 50g balls (gah, still behind!!)
8ply equivalent:  72.5 x 50g balls
metres used:  7863m

I left you last month with a flash of two yarns I was planning on using in a new project.  Well, here it is!

(again with small hand for scale!  This is partly why I am posting less!  so much harder to do photo shoots now!)

I think I shall be able to wear this as a fluro safety shawl, heh!

Bumpity bump bump bump

I have a bit of a backlog of projects to post about.  I don't quite know how this happened, but I'd best get some up here on the blog for posterity!

First up is a new vesty cardigany type thing...

Details
Pattern:  A heavily modified version of Bump by Gina Bonomo. 
Yarn:  4.25 x 100g balls of Rowan Big Wool in Cassis (col 24).  A funny (sort of) story about this yarn.  I bought it a few years ago, maybe 5 years, on sale at a yarn shop in Mittagong (which no longer stocks Rowan yarns).  I had always thought I had 6 balls of it, and so while I was planning what to knit from it, I based my planning on the fact that I had a certain amount of yardage.  And that it's really too hot in Sydney, even in winter, for a long sleeved garment using a super bulky yarn such as this.  So I always figured it would be some sort of vest.

Anyway, I bought this pattern on a bit of a whim, and when I got the yarn out of the depths of the stash cupboard (ok, one of the stash cupboards), I found I had 8 balls of it.  GAAAHHHHH!  It really could have changed my planning entirely.  But by that stage, I was over planning, had bought the pattern, and just wanted to cast on.  So I did.

50g ball of worsted/10ply yarn on left for scale!

And I ended up only using just over half the yarn anyway!!  Now I am trying to decide whether to destash the remainder or keep it for some other project at some time in the future...heh!

Sticks:  12mm and 10mm KnitPicks Options.  It's funny, people think it's really quick to knit garments with superbulky yarn and huge crowbar needles.  But really, it's not that fast!  I mean, the knitting grows quickly, of course, but I find I knit so much slower with such huge sticks.  Nevertheless, I did get a completed vest in a pretty short time!

Hello small hand!

Time:  20 June 2011 - 30 June 2011 (ok, a vest in 10 days, when I was working on other things as well, is pretty quick, isn't it!)

Modifications:  The pattern only gives two sizing options.  I did some extra raglan increases for the armholes (it is knit top down, seamlessly - good for superbulky yarn, to avoid even more super super bulky seams!).  And I did the raglan increases as yarnovers, to give it a bit of a lacey look and also allow some air in (as I was still a bit unsure about whether a vest in this yarn would be too hot for Sydney!). 

I did not do the reverse stocking stitch section on the pattern, which starts just under the bust.  It just didn't really appeal to me.  Instead, I kept increasing on the front edges, and then added a stepped garter edging down the fronts, and around the bottom.  I thought a smoother line would be more flattering in a vest which already adds enough bulk through the yarn.

And I have worn it a few times and have been pleasantly surprised at how cosy but not hot it is to wear.  Yay!  I'm not sure it is the most flattering of garments, but it's red and it's cosy and I like it anyway!

I read a book (or two!)

I have been slowly and steadily reading these past few months. Every train trip (which are rare) allows me the opportunity for audiobook listening, and after my marathon Tour de France knitting, I felt the need to knit a bit less each day and spend some time reading an actual book!

And I managed to finish two books in quick succession, one on audio and the other on paper. It helped that the latter was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - anyone who's read a Harry Potter book knows they are a fairly quick read! I have read it before, but with the last movie coming out, and all the advertising for it, I felt the need to revisit it. And enjoyed it just as much as the first time, perhaps more, because I wasn't reading it in such a hurry to find out what happened!

The audiobook was most enjoyable! Nella Last's War, a wonderful collection of the wartime diaries of Nella Last, an "ordinary" British woman who participated in the UK's Mass Observation Project (where the diaries are held). It was recently adapted for TV, called "Housewife, 49", which is how she headed up her first entry. The book gives an amazing insight into the experiences of women in the UK during WWII, the impact of rationing, and of course the impact of deaths and injuries to so many, not just those in the field of war, but also at home. Nella also displays amazing insights into the impact of war on women (not always approvingly) and has a real eye for detail and a way with words. The audiobook was read wonderfully by Carole Boyd. I found this book a real delight, and enjoyed it very much. I highly recommend it!

I must be(e) crazy!

I first saw the Beekeeper's Quilt early last week on Ravelry.  As some designs tend to do, it kept popping up in my friend's activity tab, being favourited and/or queued by lots of people.  And I thought it was cute, but that was it.

But then something happened, and I'm not even entirely sure how.  But I couldn't stop thinking about it.  And how nice it would be all done in shades of red (how unusual for me!  Heh heh!).  But I didn't buy the pattern straight away.  I figured if I still couldn't stop thinking about it after a week, then maybe I should buy it.

And yesterday, I did!  And I went stash diving and gathered up my red sock yarn leftovers (reds and red-purples and red-oranges and a few red-pinks).  I also just might have bought a ball of heathered red yarn last weekend at Morris & Sons, and I have quite a bit of solid red 4ply/fingering yarn which MissFee picked up for me at the Wang mill last year.  But funnily enough, I don't actually have that much variegated and semi-solid red yarn leftovers.

And I made my first hexapuff.  And my second, and third, and fourth, and fifth (and I'm knitting my sixth right now!).  Each one uses somewhere between 11-15m (according to others on Rav who have knitted and then frogged one - I can't bring myself to do that, heh!).  So I'm going to have to accumulate some more red leftovers (or use whole skeins of sock yarn, which is perhaps a good idea - I mean how many pairs of red socks do I really need, heh!!)

I figure if I can make 5 each week then it will only take me, oh, nearly 2 years, to make one to cover a queen size bed.  See, I told you I must be(e) crazy!  Is anyone else going to join me?

Dashing through the snow!

Even though the weather is saying it is spring (or even summer - we've had temps in the mid 20s - that's I think mid 70s for our US friends- for the last few days) it is still strictly speaking winter.  And so I should be able to still get some wear from a recently completed project.  And I know that another small project, a gift for a friend, will get some wear later this year when it accompanies the new owner on a trip to Europe!

This second project actually came first, a warm black hat for a European winter visit, by request for a birthday gift.  I bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, and found myself with a ball and a bit leftover, so decided to make myself some mitts with it!

Details
Pattern:  Autumn in Garrison by Kate Gagnon Osborn. A nice quick free pattern!  It didn't turn out quite as slouchy as I had expected, but it's got a bit of slouch and I know the Cashmerino Aran is reputed to stretch, so I erred on the side of less slouch rather than more!

It's so hard to photograph black knitting!

Yarn:  Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, 1.5 balls in black (col 300300)

Sticks:  4mm for ribbing, 4.5mm for main part of hat.

Time:  6 June 2011 - 12 June 2011

Can't beat that!  A hat in a week! That's pretty good for me!  Especially as I was working on another couple of things during that period!

Mitts
Pattern:  Dashing by Cheryl Niamath, another freebie, from Knitty Spring 2007.  This is the "male" version of the very popular Fetching mitts by the same designer, but fortunately comes in a small size as well as man-sized.  I chose this pattern because I really like the extra length on the arms - I wear a lot of 3/4 sleeve garments in winter, so the longer line mitts are really good for covering that bit of wrist and arm that otherwise would be exposed!

See, I told you it was hard to photograph black!

I really like the way the thumb is added.  I'm sure this is very common, but it's kinda fun to undo those stitches and pick them up to knit the thumb!

Yarn:  Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran as above, 1.5 balls!

Sticks:  4mm dpns

Time:  13 June 2011 - 20 June 2011 - again, another quick project!  Love that these can be knitted so quickly, and I am very happy with these, the fit is really good and the black is so versatile! 

StashDownUnder - July 2011

Quick post - because this month, I bought no yarn!  I think my blowout last month really did have an impact on my stash acquisition methods, heh!  I went to a lovely yarn store (Sew and Tell, at Berry) on Sunday and I Did Not Buy Any Yarn!  I didn't even buy any knitting books, which is my usual fix in a yarn store if I don't buy yarn. 

And I had a really good knitting month.  Yay for the Tour de France KAL!  I learnt this month just how much knitting you can get done when you actually knit in all your spare time, and not faff about on the internet!  Amazing!

This month:
Actual balls used:  10 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent:  11 x 50g balls
Total metres used:  1,106m

Year to date:
Actual balls used:  -19.75 balls
8ply equivalent:  60.5 balls
metres used:  6793m

And since a blog post with no photos is too boring, I'll leave you with a flash of the two yarns I'm very excited to be using in a project which will be started shortly. 

Can you guess what pattern this yarn will become?

What a race! What a victory!

I've been having withdrawal symptoms the last few days.  No more Tour de France!  I've had to console myself with watching recaps and stages I have taped, just for a little while each day, so I don't have to go completely cold turkey, heh!  You'll have to indulge me a little with this post, I promise there is some knitting content at the end!

You would just about have to be living under a rock, in Australia at least, if you didn't know that Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the yellow jersey overall.  He looked in great form the whole race, and had fantastic team support (something he has mostly lacked, especially in the years when he came second overall), although I have to admit I wasn't 100% sure he could do it, until he did it!  Not that I doubted him but moreso I worried about things outside his control - an accident - since there were so many this Tour, it was almost amazing he wasn't involved in one.  It was a relief every morning when I got up and checked the TdF app to see the placings from the overnight stage, and to always see his name up there.

It wasn't just a grand Tour because of Cadel's achievement.  There were so many other inspiring and amazing rides.  Johnny Hoogerland cartwheeled into a barbed wire fence as a result of a media car deciding it was preferable to hit a cyclist than hit a tree.  Despite deep cuts all over his body (including completely torn from hem to waist bike shorts!!) he got back on his bike, finished the stage, took the King of the Mountains jersey (crying on the podium), kept it and tried his best to defend it.  And finished the race with 33 stitches.  That's determination. 

And Thomas Voeckler, the Frenchman who took the yellow jersey on that same stage and kept it for 9 stages, even though he was expected to loose it through the mountain stages.  He clung on and rode his legs off, and kept that jersey despite his own almost daily predictions that he'd lose it.  Even when his legs finally gave out chasing Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, he still gave it his all when he crossed the line.  To quote our favourite commenters Phil and Paul, the man has a huge suitcase of courage.

Andy Schleck, who didn't look to be in his best form, really showed everyone in the Alps, with two great days.  He lost it in the time trial, but if he can improve there, then I've no doubt he will wear yellow in Paris in the future.  He's lucky, he's young, he's got 8 years on Cadel Evans!

And even Alberto Contador, the man everyone seemed to love to hate this year.  Like Andy, he didn't seem to be in his best form, and was caught up in an early crash.  But he tried his heart out too, and never gave up, just like you'd expect from a winner of six grand tours.  Even if you don't like him, you've got to respect that (although I really really hope he isn't a drug cheat).

Speaking of which, only one rider this year withdrew due to a positive test.  Hopefully it will stay that way.  Another great outcome for a sport which is really trying hard to hold a clean race.

If you can't tell already, I really loved this year's race.  So much so that I've already pre-ordered the DVD, heh!  (And I am not usually one to watch and rewatch classic sporting events - until now!!).  I think Connor's early vocabulary will surely include the words "tourdefrance" and "gocadel"!

As for me, and my yellow jersey aspirations, well, I made it!  I'll do a proper FO post when I have some modelled shots of me in the skirt, so until then, I'll leave you with a sneak peek:

Only 11 months to go until the next Tour de France!

It's all downhill from here (hopefully...)

Thought I should give you a quick update on my Tour de France project, since le Tour finishes this Sunday night (or really, early Monday morning our time!). 

Just to prove that I have been knitting on it in every spare moment (mostly Connor's nap times!):

It's been enjoyable - I have been having a dream run, much like Cadel Evans (fingers crossed his continues to the end and the yellow jersey!), although I must admit that I am hankering to start something new right now.  But I shall not, as I'm so close to the end - I think - this is one of those knits that does not seem to grow at all for days, no matter how much you knit on it, then all of a sudden it is half way done, then three quarters done etc.

So I'm hoping that on Sunday I will wake up and find it has magically kitchener grafted itself together overnight!!  I am not looking forward to 136 stitches of grafting!

Zippedy do dah!

Some time ago (almost a year!) I went on a journey to the Land of Cardigan.  I might have told you that my journey was ended, but really, I had yet to scale the highest peak of Mt Putting-in-a-Zipper.  It was a daunting daunting journey, hence my need to have a good long think about it over the summer.  Who needs a thick cardi in summer anyway, right?

Well, summer came and went.  And so did autumn.  And when winter hit, husby's plaintive question "have you put the zipper in my cardi yet?" got to me and I decided it was time to put on my protective gear, get out the ropes and crampons (all that is scaling mountain talk, right?) and tackle that peak.

I had husby take Connor out for the day, because I knew it was going to be an all day task.  At the very least.  And I needed some space to spread things out, and some time to percolate the various tutorials I'd read about putting zippers into garments.  And make sure I could find the cardi, and the zip and the thread (both the zip and thread I'd purchased some time ago.  Maybe during that summer of thinking...)

I started by pinning the zip into the opening.  I put the pins in wrong, I know.  I realised that about half way through.  But my back was already sore from the kneeling and bending, so I figured it'd be ok.

And then I started sewing - by hand!  I was maybe 1/3 of the way done on the first side when I realised I was doing my backstitch wrong.  There was no way I was going to unpull what I'd already done (sewing in zippers is slow going!!) so I just did it the right way after that.  And you know what, you can't tell anyway!  (But I did feel better doing it correctly, I must say!!)

It took AGES!  AGES I tell you.  At least 4 hours I think.  Possibly more, I think I have blocked it out of my head.  I was a bit worried it would bubble when the zipper was done up on the body.  But I was most pleased when husby put it on and (a) the zipper worked and (b) it didn't bubble! 

If I were to do it again, I'd put the edge of the garment over the zipper closure (it is knit with an edging for this purpose).  I was worried I'd get the edging caught in the zipper and wouldn't do it evenly, so I just lined it up with the outside edge of the zip. 

But apart from that, I'm quite pleased with how it went.  And let's face it, there is unlikely to be an again.  If I'm faced with another visit to Mt Putting-in-a-Zipper, I'm pretty sure I'm going to pay someone else to do it!

StashDownUnder - June 2011

 A bit late this month.  You'd think, if you didn't know me better, that maybe there's a reason for my lateness, like, say for example, not wanting to admit to my acquisitions for June...ha!  As if I'd be embarrassed about stash acquisitions!!

(although, to be perfectly honest, when I did add it all up this month, I did go "gulp" at the final totals.  Those darn big Wollmeise skeins, they really do add up when you break them down into 50g lots!)

So I did some damage at the Craft and Quilt Fair.  After not going for a year (or possibly 2, I can't recall!) I bought a bag of Colinette Iona, in Velvet Plum.  In my defence, it's lovely yarn, discontinued, and was almost half price!

And then Ingrid, darn her, had to go and offer me matched skeins of Wollmeise 100%  in a red I don't already have (Zimtapfel).  And there were 4 of those, and it seemed a shame not to...  AND she happened to have a skein of Schwartz lace, which I was only daydreaming about that morning (not her skein, black WM laceweight in general!).  It was really meant to be.

Like the next purchse, a destash via Ravelry.  Rosenrot laceweight.  It's RoseRed!  Wollmeise!  Lace!  A colour and weight I don't have!  Also a foregone conclusion.  Yep, I am a sucker for a yarn with my name!  heh heh.

I also bought some yarn for a gift (already knitted and gifted, just have to post about it!) and picked up some yarn in the Morris and Sons sale, using a Christmas gift voucher - so this yarn doesn't count, heh!  Love making my own rules for stash honesty!!

So the totals (drumroll please!):
This month:
Actual balls used:  13.5 x 50g (thanks to a bulky knit, also yet to be blogged!)
8ply equivalent:  8 x 50g
In this month: 47 x 50g (ulp!)
metres used:  840m

Year to Date
Actual balls used: 3.75 + 13.5 - 47 = -29.75
8ply equivalent:  49.5 x 50g balls
metres used:  5687m

Ok, so I've added almost 30 x 50g balls of yarn to the stash over and above what I've used.  I think that really means I have to declare a total and utter ban on further yarn purchases for the rest of 2011.  Can I do it??

Who's up for a bike ride?

It's that time of year again - the Tour de France starts tonight, and with it, my participation in the Tour de France KAL on Ravelry.  This is my fourth TdF KAL (I think - or maybe my fifth?  I think fourth!).  I love this time of year - so much good sport on the tv.  French Open, Wimbledon, TdF and then the US Open.  Weeeeeee!

This year, I have decided to go for the yellow jersey and indulge my desire for a knitted skirt!  I am very excited!  I'm going to attempt a Lanesplitter, using the construction method of the Swirl Skirt (provisional cast on and smaller sticks/tighter gauge), to avoid the bulky seam and hopefully avoid the dreaded bum sag that plague many a knitted skirt!

I used a Christmas voucher for Morris & Sons to buy my yarn - Noro Kureyon in col 188 and Morris & Sons Pure in "Sooty".  Just looked at the yarn requirements for the swirl skirt and am worried I won't have enough...but I should be able to get more if I need to!

I spent the last two days swatching - firstly on 3.75mm sticks, as per the Swirl Skirt pattern (the olive green stripes above).  This creates a nice firm fabric but is very hard on my hands with the worsted/10ply yarn.  I don't know that I can knit constantly for 3 weeks at this gauge without killing my hands.  So then I tried 4.5mm sticks (purple stripes, below) (noting that the Lanesplitter pattern suggests 6mm sticks!!).  This is a nice fabric, but possibly a bit too open (even though I am likely to wear a slip under the skirt anyway). 

I think I will end up using 4mm sticks.  That should still give me a firm gauge but will be just that bit easier on my hands.  I can't wait to cast on!!  Just hope I can knit the whole thing in the alloted time period!  Wish me luck! 

Oh, and if you want to join the fun of the KAL, it's not too late!  What could be better than watching well built men in lycra cycling across the beautiful French countryside, while knitting.  It's a feast for the eyes, I tell you!