Oh Bother

Due to my Landlord not maintaining the property terribly well water got into my ADSL line and I lost Internet connection for a week or so.

This gave me plenty of time to get acquainted with the spinning wheel I borrowed from Vivian.

I discovered that while the bobbins for my wheel (Which needs a part made for it so it will work!) fit on Vivian's, they're a shade too small and make an absolutely appalling noise that drive the cat from the house and darn near drove me up the wall!

 It takes a surprisingly short time to fill a bobbin when you're watching Pirate movies! A good swordfight always gets the blood - and your foot - pumping.

In order to get more than a total of one single made, I was forced to stop every time the bobbin was full and wind the single off into a centre-pull ball before I could continue. Centre-pull balls are a great way to store your singles if you intent to ply them at a later date. Just make sure you keep tabs on where the end in the middle went, I didn't and made a right mess of it before giving up and using the one from the outside.

Yay, knots.

Not.

Note that it is probably wise to shut the cat out of the room where you're spinning if you think there is even the slightest chance you'll be chasing balls of yarn across the floor.

Cats+Yarn=Tangles. Lots and lots of tangles.

Happy spinning!

~Topaz

Such a Winter's Day!

Brrr, the cold has set in with a vengeance!

I'm freezing my fingers and toes off, and recent snow falls actually settled on the Peninsula.

Sounds like the perfect time to learn lacework, right?

(Hey, I never claimed to be logical!)

The wonderful Vivian at Knitting Squad taught a mini-workshop on Wednesday where we made little lacy Christmas angels, to teach the basics of knitted lacework to those who wanted to learn.

Ta-dah!

Recognise the yarn? XD I'm so ridiculously proud of this little pink-punk angel, Dralion loves her too. Or maybe it's the bell she's holding? With cats it's anybody's guess!

Next week we will be doing the bigger pattern, and I can't wait. I want to be able to follow a lace chart on my own so I can turn this wonderful yarn I found in Oamaru into a lovely lacy wrap for going to my partner's formal-type functions. (He seems to have a lot of things like that)

This is the yarn, a laceweight Kid Mohair&Merino made by Touch Yarns:

It looks and feels AMAZING! I'm so incredibly excited about this project that the provisional cast-on it requires (a technique which intimidates the stuffing out of me) seems like nothing more than a speed-bump.

Also: The skein was approximately 900m and I wound it by hand instead of resorting to my ball-winder. I definitely appreciate those time-saving gizmos a lot more now!

Happy crafting!

~Topaz

Punk Camo?

It seems that earflap hats -complete with pompom- are the accessory du jour for completing your Birthday BBQ look in chilly Dunedin flats.

At least, that's what Bean implied when I asked her what gift she wanted to celebrate her natal day.

My photo-taking wasn't up to much by that point, so I humbly apologise to Bean for not capturing her properly in all her moustachioed glory ^.^;

The yarn is a nice, bright acrylic DK yarn I acquired somewhere that will dry very quickly in our short, frigid winter days while still keeping her head warm. (It also happened to contain most of her favourite colours at the time)

The earflaps were knit first and held on spare needles before constructing the main body of the hat to avoid fiddly sewing-up and big seam marks along the top of the earflaps. While this does mean a lot more ends to weave in, I do like the seamless bucket-look of the finished hat.

I added a crocheted an edging around the hat before adding on the earflap ties. The first attempt was done in the same yarn as the rest of the hat, but I didn't like it so RRRRRIP! out it went. What you see in the photo is a lighter pink 4ply that almost matched the lighter parts of the colourway of the acrylic.

Many students at Otago University joke about opening the fridge door during winter and using it to heat the room. Hopefully this birthday gift should keep her a little warmer than her flatmates ;)

We certainly won't be losing her in a crowd any time soon!

Happy crafting!
~Topaz

Socked Out

Let me show you what I've managed to achieve over the last few weeks.

I MADE SOCKS! (Well, one-and-a-half socks ^.^;)

:D

Aren't they pretty? I'm positively exploding with glee over these stripes. That's how Opal's "Florist" yarn, knits up for me. I'm already slobbering over their new Graffiti-inspired line of colourways. 

I'm controlling myself, barely.

Speaking of self-control, I cast on the second one as soon as I finished bashing at the Kitchener Stitch on the first! I feel like such a good girl for doing so, but we all know that it's only a matter of time before Second Sock Syndrome strikes me down. Not this pair, maybe not the next, but one day it will. Self control acts like a finite resource, after all.

Since they're my very first ever pair of socks, I'm feeling extremely proud of myself even though they're not exactly the fanciest footwarming devices on earth. They are destined to be gym socks, so I hope Opal lives up to it's reputation at the NEV Knitting Squad for "wearing like iron"

Time will tell, right? Right now it's time for me to have at that second heel!

Happy crafting!

~Topaz, tangled in sock yarn.

Me Brudder!

One of my brothers got jealous of Mum's hat, and asked for one for Christmas.

After seeing the second and thrid incarnations of her hat, he asked for the typical Kiwi Conservative Black Beanie.

The things we do for our family ;)

A black beanie. Are you kidding me? Talk about a snoozefest! Where is the colourway, the earflaps, the pompoms and tassels, the interest to keep me going after the initial excitement of starting a project wears off and I'm tempted by the siren song of something new and exciting?

It was probably the thought of him growing his dreadlocks back to keep his head warm!

I got my hands on some lovely black Possum/Merino from the Milton Wool Mill Factory Shop, found a "Manly" ribbed beanie pattern on Ravelry and cast on. Unfortunately I didn't bookmark the pattern, so I can't link you to it D:

Anyway, when I finished his hat looked like this:



There are one or two "design elements" or "special features" due to being distracted while making it. But my brother is awesome and didn't mind, since it came out pretty much how he wanted.

Read: A black, warm and manly hat for a young bloke who paves the roads.

When embarking on this project I wasn't prepared for just how soft possum/merino blends can be. On reflection this probably wasn't a terribly good yarn choice for this brother of mine. Like me, he tends to thoroughly abuse his clothing. If it isn't made to last it will disintegrate pretty quickly. The had was made in time for New Years and had holes by the end of January.

So, about a month of hat-life? Yikes!

Next time I'll have to use a sturdier yarn for the hat body and line with with the good stuff, or find someone willing to make a yarn reinforced with titanium.

A quest for a brother-proof hat?

~Topaz

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty.

Winter is fast approaching down here, and like a good girl I've started this winter's hat and scarf projects already.

Well, not precisely "good", I'm ignoring my tottering pile of Works In Progress/Unfinished Objects to cast on yet MORE projects ^.^;

Moving right along!

As anyone with a cat knows, knitting when the cat is around can be somewhat perilous to both you and your ball of yarn. There are several ingenious inventions and little tricks that can help you keep your furbaby from wrecking your yarn, but frankly I'm too lazy/poor for most of them.

These include, but are not limited to:
1) Pulling the working end of your yarn from the centre of the ball. (Too lazy!)
2) Using a Yarn Bowl. (Too poor!)
3) Using a knitting bag. (Too lazy!)
4) Shutting the cat out of the room where you're knitting. (Too lazy!)

What I decided to do was make Dralion (My Beloved Feline Overlord) her VERY OWN woolly toy. That way she can play with hers and leave mine alone! A few meters of DK acrylic and one tennis ball later, her SHINY NEW TOY! was ready to go.

I think it worked, after a few weeks of non-stop yarn-ball-rumpus she suddenly got sick of it and went back to stealing any and all bits of paper she finds lying around.

At least my yarn is safe!





Happy crafting!

~Topaz

You Spin Me Right Round

Every year in the month of December, the local Wood Turning Guild takes over the Community Gallery with a massive Expo and Sale on behalf of it's members.

I absolutely love going there to see all the wonderful things, smell the woods they used and very occasionally, if I'm feeling rich, pick up a pretty for myself.

Last year I went in with a mission: Upgrade from a Spud Stick to an actual, honest-to-goodness spindle.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a pretty piece of wood!

I wasn't terribly hopeful to begin with, and my fears were confirmed after my initial browse. Lots of lovely bowls and candlesticks, the inevitable salad spoons, chopping boards and children's toys, but no spindles.

As a child I was painfully shy. I have attempted to grow out of it, but initiating social contact is still more than a little difficult for me. Screwing up my courage, taking my metaphorical balls in both hands so to speak, I approached the people chatting behind the register and asked if they might know someone who would possibly be interested in making a drop-spindle for me.

Blank looks.

Nobody knew what I was talking about.

However one old bloke was nice enough to give me a pen and a piece of paper. I drew a vague picture of what I wanted, affixed ma name and cellphone number and wandered off to work.

Two weeks later, on New Year's Eve, I got the best voicemail EVER!

A wonderful man had made me my spindle, and wanted to know if I could please come and collect it?

This is what the wonderful guy made. He has been turning wood since the 1940s, well longer than I have been alive and kicking, but had never made a spindle before! The Internet had not turned up any helpful references for him, so to the trusty local library he went for reference material to create this wonderful top-whorl drop spindle for me:



He made it from beautiful native Kauri wood and it smells AH-MAY-ZING! I can't wait to see how the colour changes when the wood absorbs lanolin from the wool fibers.

Happy crafting!

~Topaz