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Off to France for 2 weeks
January 22, 2007
Well it looks like I didn't get a chance to update properly after all!
I'm off to France with work this morning for 2 weeks, and won't have any internet access at all (I expect anyway, it was like that last year), so not blog and no reading blogs or emails!
I closed all the comments to avoid the inevitable flood of spam, but if you want to email me I'll get back to you when I return. Bye for now!
Posted by jen at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)
Onto the Sublimely interesting
January 16, 2007
Luckily this time I have more to show than a sleeve on the floor! Adam is around and allowed me to interrupt his studying to get him to take a photo. So I pinned the sleeve back together and put it on:
I really like it, it's long and flared and it may well have been monumentally boring to knit (and there's still another one to go!) but I am pleased with the shape etc.
I have now begun the back/front (not sure which yet, and they may well end up identical anyway, I love making patterns up on the fly!). After a few more rows of boring st st, I finally got onto the fun part - the twisted st pattern, hooray!
The colour isn't right in that photo, because I fiddled with brightness and contrast in order to make the texture appear best. One day Adam and I will move out of our basement flat into a massive house where I will have a light and airy craft room, and I will take smashingly good photos of my knitting in it. But for now, you get tweaked photos which show colour OR texture (or sometimes neither if I'm honest), but certainly not both. But anyway!
Here are my scribbles on my lap:
The main point of this photo is that the pig on the pen asked to be on my website and I didn't like to say no, he is such a good pig. Also you can see I really am making it all up as I go along!
I don't think I'll get much knitting done over the next few days, I'm going to the theatre tomorrow, out with a friend on Thursday, the cinema on Friday and a meal with Adam on Saturday, and after that I'm going to France with work for 2 weeks (poo face away jobs). I'll update before I go though!
Posted by jen at 08:00 PM | Comments (11)
A sublime sleeve, and lots of cooking
January 14, 2007
Although I've been knitting almost all day, and have finished a sleeve on the Sublime sweater, it all looks very unimpressive. Which is a shame, because it's very nice in person! The sleeves are supposed to be quite large, and are also just in st st, so were immensely boring to knit. I keep meaning to design more interesting stuff, but I think I just really do prefer simpler designs. I like them to have features of course, and this one will have a "fancy" stitch pattern on the bodice, but I just think it would be too busy if I made the sleeves patterned too. And so they ended up being st st, and therefore boring!
Here is the sleeve anyway - I pinned it so I could try it on, but it was impossible to photograph it with myself wearing it, so it's on the floor:
I really love the mohair! The merino dk is nice too, but I feel like it's knitted up a little too firmly - it's not as soft as on the ball and feels a bit dense. But it's the tension recommended on the ball, and there's no way in hell I'm reknitting that sleeve, so it stays!
I also seriously hope I have enough yarn. I'll knit the front next and then I'll know if I'm screwed or not! Cross your fingers for me.
Now some food, which certainly is more fun to look at than an unmodelled sleeve. 3 things today! Firstly yesterday's dinner (or in fact the leftovers from it, it was a feast):
It was supposed to be burritos, but we just rolled them up instead of folding them so we could fit more food in! They have mexican rice, and homemade refried beans, guacamole and salsa, and cheese in. They were very scrummy, I love mexican food!
Also yesterday we finally made mince pies - I know, I know, it's January! But with my exams on December the 13th we had no chance to do much christmas stuff before the day itself! These are from Nigella's Domestic Goddess and have frangipane instead of pastry on top, it's an amazing recipe, all cakey and almondy.
And then to use up spare egg whites I made some macaroons:
As soon as they were out of the oven, dizzy with greed from the coconut smell, I grabbed one to stuff in my mouth, unfortunately it immediately fell apart as it was too warm! They were lovely but very rich. I left the others to cool properly before putting them on a plate:
Sorry about all the food in this post! But the sleeve just didn't seem exciting enough to bother blogging about on its own. Hopefully I'll be onto the more exciting front piece next time!
Posted by jen at 05:55 PM | Comments (8)
Sublime!
January 10, 2007
I was trying to wait until I'd done a bit more knitting before I blogged about my newest project, but I've been feeling so blah I've barely done anything. I had a cold and now I feel constantly tired and am a cross patch. So I've not done much knitting, even when I do it's even slower than usual! Bring on the weekend so I can sleep for 12 hours and be back to my usual self!
But here's my new project anyway. I have wanted to make a sweater just like this since I saw a girl wearing something similar in a Paris metro station about 5 years ago! But her's was black and mine is smoky blue which is my current favourite colour. Smoky colours bring out the colour of my hair! Here's one of my sketches, it is a bit Billy Bollocks:
I hope you can see it properly on your monitor, but if you can't don't worry because you're not missing out too much. The bottom section of the sleeves, that I've kind of shaded in is going to be knitted in the Sublime kid mohair I got the other day:
I started it because I wanted film knitting, and it requires no thought whatsoever. It's lovely yarn! Then the bust bit is going to be in a twisted stitch pattern, which you can see the beginning of here:
I'm quite pleased with how the swatch looks, and it seems to be the same tension as st st (I wondered if the twisted stitches would pull in like cables, but either they don't or there isn't enough of them to make a difference), which is handy in working out the stitch counts for the pattern.
Maybe a quick knit? Certainly not in my current frame of mind, but I'm sure I'll speed up again soon. Oh by the way, to everyone who asks about the Tapestry/Victoria cardigan pattern, I have started writing it up so expect it soon!
Posted by jen at 07:24 PM | Comments (13)
Snuggly Headband and a very tasty pizza
January 07, 2007
A week before Christmas, I suddenly got a bee in my bonnet about knitting a headband - I'm not sure why since my ears are not usually cold anyway! But I just really fancied making one, so I bought a couple of balls of Debbie Bliss merino dk to have a play with, and finally got the chance 2 days ago. First I fiddled around with pencils and graph paper:
I liked the flowers with long petals best, but because it could only be a small motif they ended up more like stars, which I was fine with. I particularly like the colours of Debbie Bliss yarn, I think the inky and bird egg blues look pretty together.
Then it just took a couple of hours to knit up the band:
Some of the stitches at the edges came out a bit wonky, which doesn't bother me in itself, I'd just like to know how to stop it from happening again!
I took about 30 photos trying to show how it looked on, and I am so useless at it! Half of them were of the bad side of my face (the side with 2 moles and a chickenpox scar), as I keep forgetting one side looks better than the other! Then I just couldn't line it up properly so in several more I was ducking around stupidly trying to fit my head in the photo, and my expressions were very dorky. This one was the best:
Also this one was ok if only because you can't see my face! I hope you get a good idea of the headband anyway, that was the point.
There's lots of yarn left, I quite fancy some fingerless mitts, but I'm not sure if I have enough. They could be quite mini and stripey I guess? But we'll see! I could also make another, different hairband...oh the options!
Now for the (increasingly regular) food item! Adam and I often make pizza (we have a pizza dough program on our breadmaker, and it's SO much nicer than bought pizza) and yesterday we decided to try a totally different to usual one. We rolled the dough in polenta (inspired by Delia), then instead of tomato put homemade refried beans on the base, then blue cheese, mushrooms, red pepper and sweetcorn - it was damn fine. We'll definitely do that one again!
Bye for now!
Posted by jen at 01:58 PM | Comments (8)
2006, and resolutions for 2007!
January 02, 2007
I've liked reading other people's reviews of the year, so I decided to do my own. So I clicked through the archives for 2006 and was very surprised at how little I'd done! It was a bit disappointing. I kept thinking about particular projects and realising I in fact did them in 2005!
These are my favourite knits of the year, and why (click on the little photos to see more):
1. Gemma
Because I finished it well over a year after I started, which gives me much hope for the other neglected projects!
2. Frosty
Because it was my first (and so far only) project published in a book!
3. Tapestry/Victoria
Because I've worn it loads since making it and it gets lots of compliments, plus I designed it myself!
4. Artfibers blanket (no more photos as I've still not finished it!)
Because I tried some lovely new yarns and they felt gorgeous!
5. Caterpillar
You knew this one was coming! I love it dearly!
Also, in the year I went to lots of cool places:
1. Edinburgh:
2. Morocco:
3. California (click here to see).
Last year I made several crafty resolutions (see here) and I'm pleased to see I kept some! I did Gemma and the bag from 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6! Wow! Unfortunately the ones I didn't do where the big ones! So here's this year's resolutions:
1. Use the entire stash and finish all the neglected projects (ambitious!).
2. Try and use more new yarns, not just Rowan like always. I already made a start by buying the Sublime yarns the other day.
3. Try to create some more challenging designs.
4. Try new techniques! I want to try steeks, fairisle, and sweaters with yokes.
5. Sew up my entire fabric stash.
So there you go! Hopefully I'll make a good stab at it! Happy new year to you all!
Posted by jen at 07:17 PM | Comments (6)