So Beautiful

I finally finished my Celestarium! I can't tell you how happy this makes me - partly because it's one of the most beautiful things I have ever made, and partly because it felt like it would never, ever be done *laughs*

I love it, I want to wear it everywhere. To the supermarket, to the petrol station, even sat in my office with no one here to see it ;)

 I had quite a few beads, and plenty of yarn, left when I got to the border, so instead of doing the plain knit on border, I added a few rows of k2tog, yo, which gives a nice lattice, and added a row of beads. This plan also gave me the flexibility to block the garter stitch border into points... Which saved the headache of trying to figure out how to block a perfect circle *laughs*

This is an intermediate in-action shot, hopefully to be replaced with a proper picture of me wearing it once my photographer gets home ;)

The way I shaped the edges means it actually sits really nicely on my shoulders, which is great because I had no idea how I was going to wear it! 

I love the yarn (malabrigo sock - and I even have enough left for a short pair of socks!) and the colour, and the beads, and the pattern.... I just love it all, in case you couldn't tell!

It's my first circular project, and my first ever project with beads, so I'm really happy with how it came out.

On Disappointment

After my post on Friday, about my disappointing socks, I started to muse about disappointing knitting.

I am quite lucky, I have been delighted with most of the projects to come off my needles. I've certainly had projects that I never finished because they weren't turning out right, but very few that I consider truly disappointing FOs.

My Brown jumper is, in hindsight, a little disappointing. The arms are too long, the neckline is bodged, the colour of the yarn is overwhelmingly samey and the body is a little short. But, and this is an important but, it was my first jumper/sweater and therefore those faults aren't so much disappointments as learning experiences. I keep meaning to go back to it and see if I can fix it to be more my liking though *laughs*

The very first garment I made, which was supposed to be a capelet type thing, came out completely wrong. My gauge was pretty far out, and I was a little saddened, until I blocked it to within an inch of its life, and ended up with a cute shrug that I prefer to the cape *smiles*

Now that I look back through my projects, there are some that I love, some that I like, some that I like well enough but don't seem to wear... But nothing that is really disappointing.

Recently I ripped out the back and half a front of a cardigan I had started, because I knew it wouldn't turn out right at all. I am learning more and more to see when a project just isn't going anywhere - which is something I didn't do well at first. I have other projects that I never finished, but I always felt a little guilty about them.

Of course, finishing something only to be disappointed seems like a much worse fate, so I am happy to have learned when to say enough *laughs*

Lists, Glorious Lists*

I was looking through my blog archives for something the other day, and stumbled across a post from December 2011, with a list of knitting techniques/skills to check off. I thought it would be fun to update it, and see what else I have done since then *grins*

Bold are ones I have done, italics I intend to try at some point.

- Afghan
- I-cord
- Garter stitch 
- Knitting with metal wire
- Shawl
- Stockinette Stitch
- Socks: Top-down
- Socks: Toe-up
- Knitting with camel yarn
- Mittens: Cuff-up
- Mittens: Tip down
- Hat
- Knitting with silk
- Moebius band knitting 
- Participating in a KAL 
- Sweater
- Drop stitch patterns (as long as Clapotis counts!)
- Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
- Slip stitch patterns
- Knitting with banana fiber yarn
- Domino knitting - don't even know what it is!
- Twisted stitch patterns
- Knitting with bamboo yarn - I have some in my stash just waiting for its turn
- Two end knitting 
- Charity knitting
- Knitting with soy yarn
- Cardigan
- Toy/doll clothing 
- Knitting with circular needles
- Baby items
- Knitting with your own handspun 
- Slippers - bad bad bad, but that was my own fault
- Graffiti knitting 
- Continental knitting
- Designing knitted garments - well, I designed something for myself, it's only ok, but it counts ;)
- Cable stitch patterns
- Lace patterns
- Publishing a knitting book
- Scarf
- Teaching a child to knit - I attempted this with boyfriend's youngest!
- American/English knitting
- Knitting to make money - doesn't appeal in the slightest
- Buttonholes
- Knitting with alpaca
- Fair Isle
- Norwegian knitting
- Dying with plant colors
- Knitting items for a wedding
- Household items
- Knitting socks on two circulars - no point, I'm happy with DPNs or Magic Loop
- Olympic knitting
- Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
- Knitting with dpns
- Holiday-related knitting
- Teaching a male how to knit
- Bobbles
- Knitting for a living
- Knitting with cotton
- Knitting smocking
- Dyeing yarn
- Steeks
- Knitting art
- Fulling/felting
- Knitting with wool
- Textured knitting
- Kitchener BO
- Purses/bags
- Knitting with beads 
- Swatching
- Long tail CO
- Entrelac 
- Knitting and purling backwards
- Machine Knitting
- Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegated yarn
- Stuffed toys
- Knitting with cashmere
- Darning
- Jewelry
- Knitting with synthetic yarn
- Writing a pattern
- Gloves
- Intarsia
- Knitting with linen
- Knitting for preemies
- Tubular CO
- Freeform knitting
- Short rows
- Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
- Pillows
- Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
- Rug
- Knitting on a loom
- Thrummed knitting
- Knitting a gift
- Knitting for pets - not mine, but I did make toys for a friend's dog
- Shrug/bolero/poncho
- Knitting with dog/cat hair - why?!
- Hair accessories
- Knitting in public
- Double knitting

At the time, out of 100 I had already done/attempted 43. The total is now 55. Interestingly, the ones I have done since I first posted the list are split between ones I had intended to try, and ones that I initially had no intention of doing. 

I would have expected to get through more of the list in the time since I first saw it, but there are still things on there that I don't plan to try because they don't appeal. Regardless, I'm happy with what I've achieved so far - I've only been knitting a few years after all *laughs*

*Ok, so I really like lists!

3KCBWDAY6 - Improving your Skillset

As I don't tend to post at the weekends, I'm a couple of days behind on the last 2 Knit and Crochet Blog Week topics, so I'll post them both today instead ;)

6. Improving Your Skillset
How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how's your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

During last year’s Knit and Crochet Blog Week, I think I’d been knitting for approximately 6 months… Which means I’m now at about 18 months.

Earlier this year I set out what I considered to be my crafting goals, skills that I wanted to acquire and/or improve. I’m really happy with what I’ve already achieved as a knitter, I tried cables, garments and socks all in a fairly short space of time. I found that if I assume something won’t be hard, it turns out that I’m usually right *laughs*

In fact, just to throw in a little self-promotion here, I wrote a series of posts on how some of the skills that some of us fear will be too hard, just aren’t: Socks are Hard and Colourwork. I strongly believe that if we tell ourselves it is easy, there’s no reason for it not to be. Having said that, I still haven’t braved steeking *laughs*

So, back to my goals. I wanted to try colourwork for the first time…

That went really well, I enjoyed the rhythm of it, and I love the finished article.

I wanted to learn to cable without a cable needle. I picked that up pretty quickly, thanks to the fact that the socks I am (still) making for cunning boyfriend are covered in 2 stitch cables. There’s no way I wanted to wrestle with a tiny cable needle on top of 4 DPNs! Now that I’ve learned, I haven’t picked up a cable needle since.

My other goals weren’t skill based as such (unless you consider using stashed yarn instead of buying new to be a skill – it’s certainly a challenge!) so I think it’s time for me to consider what I want to achieve next… The 2 main things are:

Better finishing. I’m not great at seaming, I rush it because I want to finish the item. But I know that taking the extra time to do it well will pay dividends in the long run, by giving me a better garment. So I need to be more patient and work harder at finishing (although I tend to avoid patterns with seaming in general!)

Deciding whether or not I want to knit lace. I aspire to knit wonderful lace pieces and envy those who can do so (I’m a little impatient, if you hadn’t already noticed that, and lace needs a level of concentration I’m just not sure I can provide *rolls eyes at self*)… But, I don’t actually know if I would wear lace items, I think they’re beautiful, but maybe the fact that I’m not a lace knitter is not a slight on my skills, it’s just me knitting what I know I want to wear…

Crafting Goals Update

I thought it was about time I reviewed my crafting goals, and checked up on how I am doing...

Knitting goals

• Colourwork. Check - colourwork hat made, pattern and yarn available for another *grins*

• Socks with an actual pattern. In progress - boyfriend's second pair of socks have a small cable pattern. Not much, but it's a start!

• Cabling without a cable needle. See above, cable pattern on boyfriend's socks is being completed without a cable needle
• Using stash. I'm posting on this one separately ;) 
• Finish up my WIPs. This was particularly directed at my fuzzy ballet sweater, which is finished. I think as a goal this now needs rewording to "don't let WIPs get out of control" *laughs*

• Make more garments. I've nearly finished my Shalom, I've cast on for a vest and I have plans, yarn and patterns for a few more garments that I am keen to get started on. This is definitely something I'm keeping in mind when planning my next projects. 

Non-knitting goals

• Continue with the Cook from Cookbook (or magazines) challenge. I posted about this yesterday, and I really need to pick it back up as I have been slacking a bit on this point lately. 
• Make some projects from my World of Geekcraft book, which will involve new skills and new crafts. Haven't done anything with this yet, but still planning to ;)
• Get better at crochet. Hmmmm, yeah, I'm trying but it really hasn't clicked the way knitting did *laughs*

Keep Your Lips Away*

Recently I noticed a post on GirlanachronismE's blog about buying a "learn to spin" kit. She cunningly included the link to the etsy listing, and a few clicks later I appeared to have ordered one for myself *laughs*

I'd been meaning to give it a go for a while, and the day I saw that post my blog reader had quite a few posts about spinning popping up all over the place. So I took the plunge.

I started with this lovely fluff:

A short time later, I had this:

Followed by a ball of spun singles:

It almost looks like yarn already *smiles* But then I made another one of these and plied them together, to make this:

This is the pre-soaked yarn, which was washed, dried and skeined to become this:

Real live yarn *grins, a lot*

It's thick and thin and overspun and underspun, but I made it myself and it looks like actual yarn *happy dance* I'm pretty impressed, as you can no doubt tell ;)

Boyfriend was wonderfully patient when he came home to me thrusting it into his hands and repeatedly telling him "look, I made yarn" *laughs* And he didn't even groan when I mentioned that if I get into it then the stash might expand to accommodate a fibre stash too ;)

I'm now working on spinning some of the purple blended roving from the kit. I'm pretty slow, and not very good at it just yet, but I'm really enjoying it. Looks like you might see more handspun on here from time to time!


* "My advice is keep your lips away from the spinning things." - Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame)

A Conversation Piece*

So, as you may have gathered from yesterday's post, I finished my fair isle hat *grins* And it was fair easier than I expected.

I utilised boyfriend's wooden head to show it off, so much easier than trying to take pictures of my own head *laughs*

Although the pattern is for a tam shaped hat, as you can see, I have left it as a beanie shape. This is partly because it came out quite small and I thought it might look silly trying to be a tam, but mostly because I am not entirely convinced that the tam is a good shape for me ;)

This does mean that the crown isn't quite as striking as it might be, but I think it still looks really cool:

I'm really happy with my first try at colourwork, it went much smoother than I expected, no tangles or tantrums or anything *laughs* Here's a larger version of the close-up from yesterday, and I'm really impressed with how even it looks (I was expecting it to come out all lumpy and bumpy!)

So, details:

Pattern: Tam #3 from Three Tams
Yarn: cream - Lamb's Pride Worsted, coloured - Knit One Crochet Two Paintbox (the coloured yarn was slightly disappointing, the colour changes are a little muddy and it felt like it might disintegrate in my hands a few times) But as a finished project it did use up a ball and a half from stash ;)
Modifications: just the shape, and a small error in following the chart at one point

Other: you might be able to see from the pictures that I did manage to get the ribbing completely wrong. I followed the first line of the pattern, to set up the colour pattern (alternate knit stitches of each colour) but managed to skip the next instruction which was the knit the main colour and purl the contrast. So, my ribbing is not so much ribbing. Ooops ;) Luckily it looks cute slightly rolled up anyway *laughs*

Of course, using a wooden head for the pictures is effective, but gives you no indication of how it actually looks on my head... So I managed a slightly awkward and badly lit shot just for you guys *smiles*

See, it fits!


It's Friday, you know what to do by now... Visit Tami's, Natural Suburbia and Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Have a great weekend



*"I can wear a hat or take it off, but either way it's a conversation piece" - Hedda Hopper

Huh... So that wasn't as hard as expected either!

I mentioned yesterday that I had finished my fair isle hat *grins* Proper showing off will come tomorrow, for finished object Friday, of course.  But after posting last week about how socks aren't as hard as people expect , I thought I would continue the theme ;)

I've always been a bit intimidated by fair isle. It looks so complicated, and was something else that I thought only really accomplished knitters could do. But I had some yarn for a fair isle hat that I won in a giveaway and decided to add "colourwork" to my crafting goals for this year.

So, I cast on just to test the water. And it wasn't as hard as I expected. I got this far pretty quickly:

I was amazed at what I was achieving *grins* It looks like it should and everything. 

So I carried on, and tried a few tips I'd received through some comments on my first post about it. My tension was pretty tight, but for my first attempt I was amazed that I was doing it at all. And when I blocked it, everything seemed to even up nicely:

I started with my usual style of knitting (English), and dropped the colour I wasn't using as I went. After a while I got a bit sick of picking up and dropping the yarn so I tried holding the contrast colour in my left hand. Incredibly, I got the hang of it and could knit with yarn in each hand. I felt like a bit of a superhero when I managed that *laughs*

As you can probably tell, I am pretty proud of myself at this point. But the fact is, it really isn't as hard as I expected. I picked up a load of new skills (fair isle, picking instead of throwing, reading a chart) which felt fantastic, but I felt like I was cheating - it really is simpler than it looks ;)

This discovery of course meant that I started looking at loads of colourwork patterns. I have yarn to make another hat first, for practice and to improve my tension, but then I want to move on to exciting new things. I can try things with more than 2 colours, for example. 

And then I remembered putting a pattern on my "one day, when I'm good enough" list. Little Birds, by Ysolda Teague:

I love the shape and the simplicity of this pattern. Now I feel like I can actually make it *grins*