Crow Jane Crafts

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden #8
Pattern: Basic Cable Beanie - Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yardage: 100M
Needles: 4.5mm & 5mm circular; 5mm dpns

Not much to report with this very quick knit. The reason why I started knitting it is because I found that I had made a rather ugly mistake in my Calista’s McQueen Knock-Off and needed frog back quite a few rows. In an attempt to keep alive my love of the Calista’s McQueen Knock-Off, I decided to take a deep breath and knit something else for a little while. This Basic Cable Beanie took less than a day and it was a painless and relaxing process knit entirely while watching season 2 of the U.S.A. version of The Office.

The colours, oh the colours! The camera distorts all of the colours quite a lot, even with the flash off (as in these photos). Here is the most accurate photo that I could find on the web courtesy of Theresa at spellingtuesday.

Yarn: Patons Zhivago 50% Tencel 50% acrylic
Pattern: Wicked – Zephry Style
Yardage: 85M
Needles: 4.5mm circular needles

I tweaked the pattern slightly to make an inbetween size. It still came out a bit too big but I am very happy with the instructions and my Wicked. I am really glad I made it in two-tone… I think it loooks very effective. I also carried the mock-cable to the hem, rather than the seed stitch the pattern calls for. Horray for top-down raglans!

Soooo, I’ve been away for a while. Not away from my home, just away from the Internet and away from knitting. I discovered that knitting is just too damn yucky in hot weather, especially Brisbane hot weather - sweaty hands + oppressive heat + lack of air-conditioning and insulation = no knitting. Summer is my beer and PlayStation 2 time. Now the weather is cooling, I am back into the swing of knitting.

Speaking of which – I finished Midwest Moonlight from Scarf Style a few weeks ago:

Yarn: Cleackheaton “Country Silk” 85% wool 15% silk
Pattern: Midwest Moonlight – Scarf Style
Yardage: 95M
Needles: 4mm needles

Because I put this project down for a few months, it seemed to take forever to finish. It will soon be on its way across the pacific to Vancouver, just in time for the Northern hemisphere summer. I love this scarf and I am finding it very hard to part with. Again, the yarn is a much richer and deeper blue than these photos will lead you to think. The last photo displays the colour most accurately.

ps: please ignore all the cat hair on the bed in these photos – I do

Before felting

Blocking into shape using Yellow Pages

Size comparison

Finished! 

Yarn: Patons “Jet” 70% wool 30% alpaca – 2 strands held together to get guage
Pattern: Meema’s Felted Marsupial Tote- Stitch n Bitch
Yardage: 73M
Needles: 10mm 60cm circulars

This is my first forray into felting – I loved it. It was a bit risky, a bit daring…will it work or won’t it? Will it felt? Will it be too small or too big? Have I just wasted all my work and $40 worth of yarn? It felted up so well and I am very, very pleased with it. Now I wanna felt everything I have ever made. It ended up being a gift for my mother as it was recently her birthday. I knew it would end up going to one older female relative or another. Now I want to make more in funkier, more me colours. I did not make the marsupial pouch so I really want to give that a go, too. I think I might make lots of these for xmas gifts.

I even enjoyed the smell of the wet yarn – it made me recall washing my first dog, Ben and swimming with my second dog, Penny. I like the smell of clean, wet dog. Happy times.

Yarn: Nundle Collection Sunshine, Tangerine & Red
Pattern: Dryope’s Jayne Cobb Hat Pattern for Mugua (Dummies)
Yardage: 100M
Needles:  8mm 80cm circulars & 8mm dpns 

Pretty cunning, don’t you think?

Yarn: Cleckheaton “Country Silk” 85% wool 15% silk
Pattern: Mom’s Sophisticated Scarf – Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yardage: 95M
Needles: 5mm straights

Or as us Antipodeans say it: Mum’s Sophisticated Scarf.

This was a very quick and easy knit that I finished in about July ’06, so it got a fair bit of wear during this year’s winter, making it’s official debut at Splendour In The Grass. The width of mine is a bit less than what is suggested in the pattern and it looks fantastic with a black t-shirt and jeans. It is my equal favourite scarf along with one my cousin, Christine, made me out of some soft baby alpaca/silk Eki River yarn. I will post pics of that one at a later date. What is the etiquette of posting other people’s knitting that was made for you? Will the Knitting Blog Police come knocking on my door?