In January 2014 my needles and I started on a journey of discovery. In March 2015 after thousands of stitches, miles of seaming, many adventures and delicious knitting experiences along the way, we called a halt. The great scarf / strip afghan experiment is finished and officially in use. Anyone got cable! is a finished object and a much loved family member. There are arguments about who gets to snuggle under in on the couch on in the recliner. It's actually rarely me (and I did knit it for myself...)
The lovely ladies in the Unofficial Women's Weekly Group on Ravelry are owed a giant hug for providing the motivation to create this beauty. We were encouraging each other to complete the various knitted afghans we were making. Many of us were doing variations on the classic, knit a square - make an afghan. However the sheer horror of the concept of all that sewing was a giant hurdle many were baulking at. So I thought, why not make strips instead of squares. Essentially I knit all my favourite cable and cable and lace
scarves that caught my eye recently and sewed them up into a lap
blanket for me. The genesis of the idea, the inspiration and the early stages of construction are described in more detail in this blog post (Anyone got cable! - A scarf-ghan).
This was a great strategy. There was a constant variety of patterns and yarn in little do-able chunks at a time. I didn't get bored in the middle of the process. Each scarf got a chance to tell its own story along the way. See also a series of scarves = afghan for the details of each scarf strip - e.g. patterns used. As a bonus most of them are free patterns.
On Good Friday we convinced the afghan to come and play in the Sunflowers and have its final beauty shots taken. The town I live in has two giant public art installations designed to brighten up some depressed and unused industrial areas of town. These photos were taken in a field that is a giant spiral maze of sunflowers. (You can read more about the project here - #getsunflowered).
I admit, I did wimp out of this without strictly finishing it completely. I haven't added a separate knitted edging. I toyed with both a sideways knitted garter stitch and an i-cord border (and had a go at both) but felt it didn't really need it enough to make me feel justified knitting it.
Here's the boy demonstrated how you can wrap yourself head to toe in the awesome snugness. He make the blanket look like a butterfly chrysalis.
I'd like to thank my children for frolicking in the sunflowers with me. I'm off to plan the next afghan adventure now. I don't think I quite have it out of my system. I might just snuggle here under my blanket while I knit the next one.
Every so often you get the gift a day to stop and smell the metaphorical roses. I spent a pleasant Wednesday morning idly wandering the streets of Melbourne camera in hand with no plan and no agenda except to appreciate our beautiful city (and take some photos of the latest finished objects).
The city square was a riotous bloom of colours - all the trees were wearing sweaters. (Clearly the trees had figured out the only way to deal with Melbourne's non existent 2015 summer was to rug up). It was a grey and overcast day.
This is a bare sprinkling of the trees. All the ones along the footpath have also been done - must be about 20 to 25 trees in all.
This one is my favourite. All the texture and pattern.
This is the work of Yarn Corner who advertise themselves as one of the largest yarn-bombing groups in the world. They left their little business cards tied to the trees. It's not an unsanctioned installation but fully endorsed by the Melbourne City Council. I love that I live in a place where people allow you to cheer the world up like this. I went and hunted up Yarn Corner on the internet and may have just joined up to play in their next epic yarn-bomb madness. I also discovered that a couple of the people I know in real life contributed to this massive effort. For those of you wondering how you dress a very large tree in a sweater, there are cherry pickers involved apparently.
I just may have also hugged a tree or two....
I did take my camera and the most recent finished shawl and scarf to specifically take some finished object photos.I may have done my own little subversive bit to brighten people's days by temporarily yarn-bombing statues. After all Chinese Lions wear shawls and cute little punk dogs need a scarf to ward off the summer chill.
This was my favourite. This is on one of the busiest corners in the city. There are a trio of statues here - depicting typical commuters in the everyday rush. I wrapped this guy in a shawl, took my photos and patted him on the head and went on my way - all to the smiles of the passing city crowd.
Melbourne has amazing street art everywhere you turn. This is outside the State Library - a giant chunk that just looks like its randomly fallen off the building. I hope it liked its transient scarf embellishment.
(And because I know there are those of you who are wondering. (Because I know my mother did). I didn't leave the scarf and shawl behind. It was temporary adornment for the purposes of photo taking only. There are too many knitting hours in these to just abandon them to fate. The scarf in particular in the last bit of of my giant scarf-ghan. It's sort of needed).
The highlight of my random Wednesday was the last bit. I was in the city with my youngest sister. She had to work for the morning but the afternoon we spent at the John Paul Gaultier exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. I was truthfully blown away. I had a little idea of what to expect - fantastic outfits on dummies of course. Maybe a cone bra or two - corsetry and costumes made for stage. But the sheer scope and scale of the imagination of Gaultier as a designer was eye opening and humbling.
The crafter in me marveled at the hours of handwork involved in bringing the genius vision to life (1600 hours for a life like hand beaded leopard skin anyone?) Photography was encouraged with signs everywhere urging patrons to snap and share on social media. I left the snapping to my sister except for a few garments to sang to my knitter's heart. (Try searching the hashtag #jpgngv on instagram for a taste of the 160+ garments in the exhibition)
My relevation of the day was that Jean Paul Gauliter is really a freeformer.
And he can take a classic fisherman's rib and aran and twist it so it dances across a catwalk.
We'll finish this with a little peak into one of Melbourne's ubiquitous laneways. This is Amplett lane named in honour of Chrissy Amplett from the Divinyls. The official street sign may still be in chalk but the artwork is striking.
It's 2015! (Or #20swifteen as my cheer-leading future doctor daughter has taken to calling it). New Years Day is about taking stock of the old year and making resolutions for the new year. (Let's leave the resolutions for later, shall we? If you don't make them, you can't break them, right?...)
So here is my stock take of the 2014 knitting. My needles were exceptionally productive this year with 27 separate finished projects in 2014.The year started with cowls and scarves. In the heat of an Australian summer I turned to crochet and made Tweed ruffles. In February, I KALed along with some lovely ladies andI can Cowl if I want to!fairly flew off the needles.
I knitted my life into a cowl - Knitographical. I wrote it's story and exhibited it and the Flat Fox picture in a art exhibition. (And people actually treated it as real art!)
In February in solidarity with knitters all over the world, I plied my needles for the Ravellenics as I watched the Winter Olympics from Sochi in Russia. Two pairs of mittens had their birth as competitors in both Mitten Moguls and Lace Luge. (That's Steampunk on Toast on the left and Oyster Shellon the right)
I made toys... Lots of toys. I spent my lazy January holiday assembling long neglected toys. (See The Great Sew-up-a-thon). I KALed along throughout the year and bent the rules of COM (Cast On Month) to cast on a new toy piece a day. (Clockwise from top left, Nativity camel, Intrepid Fox, A headless bear - clearly he's not headless anymore, Fit to scare children,Christmas sheep, Jean Greenhowe Teddy, Mike the Monkey, Tropical bird and Rabbitty in the middle).
Unlike 2013, I made only two hats. These were little whimseys diverting me from the main game for a weekend here and there.(Divergent and Mum, I need this!).
I discovered shawls. I planned to make my first lace shawl but along the way made two more. I think this is the start of a new addiction. The last new project on the needles for 2014 was a shawl too.
And there was freeform. I got enticed to play along with the lovely ladies in the International Free Form Forum on Ravelry. With their enthusiastic encouragement I made my first freeform shawl and then went on to design my first patterns and have people successfully make mould from them (Mould is Fun). In honour of the future mycologist daughter, I made little knitted mushrooms too (Fungus among us).
The long term project of the year was a scarf- afghan (Anyone got cable!). This is a construction idea I'll be exploring further in future.Everyone in the family wants one.
And then there was the inevitable Christmas knitting. (Clockwise from top left: Angel in a box, Sunburnt reindeer and Pallina di Natale).
What will 2015 bring? The needles are primed for anything again.
(Note: All the links in this post go to the blogpost about that project. All photo-collages made using picmonkey).
An afghan has quietly been creating itself along in the background all year this year. (Well, not exactly on its own, it has been relying on me to be quietly knitting along on the component scarves amongst all the other knitting this year).
We first met the afghan in all its glory in April - Anyone got cable! scarf-ghan though sneak peaks had made it into the blog before that.But I haven't really posted about it since then and lots of progress has been made. In fact its an almost functional couch blanket now.
It's time for round two. I have made 4 more scarves since.
Scarf number 5: Twisted ribbons
The fifth scarf is a hybrid cable and lace pattern which I started in early April. I started this using the two balls of cream coloured Panda Machinewash crepe I'd bought in an end of winter sell out. (Can't you see that this was a potentially disastrous move?) But the pattern just ate through the yardage and I inevitably ran out of yarn late April and
ordered some more. Whilst I was waiting I cast on scarf number six. (Can't have idle knitting needles, can you?)
Then of course the new yarn
didn’t match colourwise. I knitted about half a pattern repeat but it
offended my sensibilities. The colour change was that dramatic! So
frogged the lot on 1st June 2014. I bought two more balls and began again in
the new cream machinewash. This was now going to be the June strip!
That was
probably a little ambitious. Actually I cast this back on on the 22rd of
August! I was finishing up all the the other WIPs (Two jumpers for
various children being the biggest of them). And it was finally completed on 15th
September. The irony was that after blocking this ended up about 2
pattern repeats too long so in early October I frogged a bit of it and
redid the garter stitch edge so it fitted with the rest of the strips. This scarf should just be very happy that I am persistent in the face of adversity.
Scarf number 6: Bernadette cable scarf
I had a cold and everything else I was working on is
too complicated for my brain to cope with. Cables again - waving cables interlocking gently. This was me being productive whilst coping with the saga of scarf number five (see above). This was smooth sailing in comparison. And the yarn is a dream to knit. (Pity I think it's discontinued).
Pattern: Bernadette Cable Scarf by SmarieK Knits Needles: 4mm Yarn: Panda Woolblend Crepe 8 ply, Gray, 3 and a little bit 50g balls.
Scarf number 7: Eagle feathers
This one is based on Eagle Feathers - a free scarf pattern with a series of different patterned bands beginning with simple chevrons and morphing through to full feathers. I started with a provisional cast on
as it is worked out from each end. This was true stash busting. The yarn I used had a somewhat checkered past. I was reusing the yarn from Arundel
which I had frogged during the Ravellenics. I had some some fun (not!) unpicking the
provisional cast on and getting the correct amount of stitches to work
the other way. This was a really fun pattern to knit and I especially
love the feathers section on each of the edges. Unfortunately it ended up too long
after blocking. It’s always hard to judge just how much a lace pattern
will open up. So I took off one pattern repeat on each end and redid the moss
stitch borders.
Pattern:The Eagle Feathers Scarf by Margaret Kiprenko Needles: 4mm Yarn: Patons Australia Katie, Tan / mustard, 4 50 g balls
Scarf number 8: Beaumonde
Earlier this year I discovered the delights of dropping stitches on purpose (See Curly Wurly). I was eager to try this again. This was slated to be a cable scarf again. This pattern is a combination of cable and dropped stitches - the very definition of
fun. It’s awesome to drop stitches on purpose. The yarn is some cream 12% angora, 48% viscose and 40% acrylic in a
buttery cream colour I bought for $2 a ball in an end of season sale. So this something I actually bought purposely this year with this rug in mind.
Pattern: Beaumonde by SmarieK Knits. (She has an awesome collection of free cable scarf patterns available. This is the second one I have used as part of this scarf-ghan). Needles: 4mm Yarn: Moda Vera Messina, cream, 3.2 50g balls
I decided to bite the bullet at the beginning of December and sew what I had completed up in order to decide how many more scarves I needed to make to ge the width I want. This process took most of a week using my ususual evening knitting time to painstaking stitch the scarves together.
It's not quite as wide as I want it to be. I estimate I need two more scarves and one is already on the needles - a leafy lacy tendril on reverse stocking stitch. It's not too early to declare this project a massive sucess. Even at it's present size, it's a snuggly, cuddly useable couch rug. It stretches from my toes to my chest. Various family members have spent a fair bit of time trying to claim this for their own but it's mine, mine, you hear ..... (Cue evil laugh track here). However, I foresee me making variations on this theme for the next few years.... (My mum wants one, so does the hubby....)
Every so often something just pushes its way to the head of the queue and forces me to knit it NOW! I had no intention of knitting a shawl. I have two on the needles currently (Brown As - a traditional triangle lace shawl and Lacewing a free form knitted and crocheted shawl inspired by the colours of a blue wren's wing). I really didn't plan to make another. But Melba (one of the moderators of Ravelry's International Free Form group) dangled this pattern under my nose and even though I didn't find the original very inspiring knitted as it was in a single colour, there was enough mystery in trying to figure out how it was constructed to make me drag some yarn out of the stash and just knit up a little sample to see how it worked. (Note to self for future reference: this was in hindsight perhaps a bad idea. Resist the intriguing knitting puzzle a little harder next time).
This pattern with its use of short row sections and dropped
stitches was a fascinating and addictive knitting exercise.You know of the 'just one more bit' and then I'll put it down go do the housework / complete tedious marking / insert any essential but boring chore here. I'd never done dropped stitches on purpose before (though there have been lots by accident over a long knitting career). I'd find myself insanely giggling inside each time I deliberately dropped and unraveled a stitch. I'm sure the knitting police were secretly watching me flaunting the laws of good knitting and waiting in the wings to slap me with a ticket for illegal knitting.
More by accident than design I'd knitted my little sample piece (it ended up becoming part of the aforementioned Lacewing) in a gorgeous varigated cream, grey and tan yarn. I discovered this pattern just shows off a short repeat variegated yarn to absolute
perfection. And in my stash I had just the perfect thing to use: two balls of a acrylic print called Instinctive designed to knit up into a sort of a fake dead animal print.
Mel is responsible for the inspiration behind the name. I was knitting
this and she said it reminded her of a chocolate coated something. The
wave like patterning and the fact the colour is a mix of chocolate,
white chocolate and caramel together with it’s wavy pattern reminds us
of a Cadbury Curly Wurly chocolate bar. So Curly Wurly it is. (Though it was very nearly Chocolate Covered Pretzel)
Pattern:Summit Shawl by Mandie Harrington from Knitty Spring+Summer 2010 - a free pattern Needles: 4mm straights Yarn: Moda Vera Instinctive, colour 51, black, white and caramel, 100% Acrylic, used 2 by 100 g balls. Bought on sale for $1 each. (So yes, total cost only $2!) Total elapsed knitting time: 11 days....
It wasn't a totally smooth knit though. There was some extreme frogging involved. I initially started knitting this to the width suggested in the pattern (15 columns) and completed
almost two full repeats. However, I only had two balls on this yarn and
wouldn’t get the length I needed. So I frogged it and cast on again with only 8 columns - more of a scarf / stole width.
It garnered some interesting comments on Ravelry on the way. I got told that the colour made it look likes hundreds of baby snakes together. Hundreds of snakes. That would be scary to wear around your shoulders….
The original knit in progress shot that inspired the hundreds of snakes comment
I wet blocked the shawl when I finished it but it didn’t hold its shape when dry and the pins were
removed due to the acrylic yarn. I wore it once but wasn't happy with it because it didn't drape nicely and kept slipping. So I decided to
aggressively steam block it to 'kill' the acrylic. Much happier with the finished stole / shawl
now!
The photo-shoot took place on a glorious spring afternoon. Mel is an inspired photographer sometimes and she deserves a giant pat of the back today for making both the shawl and me look good.
