Check out my balls!

When I first started learning to spin, I kept all my 'left over' singles to practice my Navajo plying.  I'd just add whatever I was currently spinning to an ever growing bobbin of left over singles and then when the bobbin was full I'd go on an N-plying jaunt.  I ended up with skein of yarn that was, well, unattractive to say the least.  But it WAS good practice for my N-plying, which I'm now not too crap at. I took all these skeins of leftovers plus some other leftover yarn bits and wound them all into magic yarn balls.

A magic yarn ball, as many will already know, is a ball of yarn made up of scraps and left overs all joined together.  I use the 'Russian join' technique so that I wont have to sew any ends in when I'm knitting.  Yes.  I'm lazy. ;o)

So now I have a little collection of magic balls and a number of smallish leftover balls of hand-spun from various projects.  All of this yarn is pretty equal to a commercial 4ply, which as we all know, is perfect for socks.  But I'm not overly keen on hand knitted socks.  Sure, I've made them  (just to see if I could) but they're just not really my thing. 

So I've been sitting on these balls for a while thinking about what I should do with them.  Today I decided that they're going to become a blanket made up of mitred squares.  It should be big.  I should be very colourful.  And it should be massively ugly. I cant wait. :oD I'm starting it as soon as I finish this post, but in the mean time...here's some pics of my balls. :oP

Anyhoo...onto other things.  I recently finished making an Irish crochet bag that I mentioned in a previous post.  It was for a lady in Tasmania.  It took me three months to get it done and I was waiting to finish it so I could start a lace shrug for another lady in Victoria.  But more about that later.  Here's a pic of the finished bag.

I made it as part of a swap.  The lady I've made it for is sending me a bag also but she is not quite finished making it yet so I'm holding this (at her request) till she is done.

New brakes = broke for Xmas

About a month ago I bought myself another car.  It's a 1990 Ford Fairmont Ghia.  It was only $2000 and looks pretty good for an older car.  It has climate control, electric windows...all the mod cons.  And so far its been a nice drive.  The electric windows don't actually work but the car dealer I bought it from is supposed to be doing something about that, in fact, it was a condition of the sale.  I haven't  heard from him in a while but that's okay, I'm going to ring him and be annoying today.  Not just about the windows though. There are a couple of things I need to 'discuss' with him.

On Wed the 15th I drove down to Sydney to visit with my Mother and Sister for the day.  It was my first long-ish (about 200km from my place to my sisters) drive in my new car and I was looking forward to it as I really enjoy long distance driving.  I left at 5am thinking I'd avoid the crazy Sydney morning rush hour traffic.  Unfortunately so did everyone else.  I obviously miss-timed it so I drove all the way to Sydney in fairly heavy traffic.  I got off the free way at 6.45am to find myself right smack in the middle of peak hour.  So I settled in and prepared myself for a long annoying drive through North Sydney so I could make my way over the harbour and over to Rockdale which is where my sister lives.

All in all the drive went reasonably well.  Until I got to the harbour tunnel which is when my brakes made a funny click and went all spongy.  That was a bit worrying but the brakes were still working well enough to slow the car down if needed.  But each time I depressed the brake pedal they got more spongy and it sunk closer and closer to the floor.  By the time I reached General Holmes Drive and was heading past the airport I was feeling decidedly panicky.  And then some moron cut me off, which is fairly common in Sydney.  So, as you do...I stomped the brakes.  They failed.  I even got a high pitched alarm and a nice little red 'brakes fail' warning light on my dash.  I aged thirty years on the spot.  

Luckily I didn't hit anyone and I made it to my sisters place alive but it was VERY scary during those last 15 minutes and needless to say when I finally pulled into her driveway I was a total mess.  I called my partner and told him the brakes had failed and we agreed I'd need to do something about it...just as soon as the panic receded a bit.

Obviously I couldn't drive home that night (as intended) with no brakes so I took the car down to a brakes specialist that my sisters partner recommended.  They were pretty nice.  They agreed to look at the car straight away and get back to me.  They looked over my brakes (while I sat at my sisters freaking out) and then called to calmly inform me that it was going to cost $790 (including GST) to fix them because of how much actually needed doing.  Apparently the master cylinder was gone ($300), the brake pads were all down to metal ($218) and the rear handbrake caliper ($200) had been seized up for quite some time but had had a nice metal tube inserted into it somehow to disguise this fact.  

So I rang my ever patient partner and he came up with some money and we got the brakes fixed.  This, however, meant I had to spend the night at my sisters.  With her and my mother.  I love my mother and sister but together they make a very...shall we say 'uncomfortable' experience.  It was hell.  And it only cost us $900 (including the $100 fuel I'd put in the car to get there).  Worst. Night. In.Years.

So...I'm clearly not happy about the whole thing.  The car yard sold me a car with dangerously bad brakes that had been deliberately dodgied up to hide the fact that they were dangerously bad.  They even gave me a pink slip (so I could change ownership with the RTA) for the damn thing...knowing the car wasn't actually road worthy.  They could lose their dealers license for that.  And today, when I call them to let them know just how unhappy I am that my brakes failed on the way to Sydney, and that they STILL haven't fixed the electric windows and the friggin thing now apparently has an oil leak, I'm going to point out that they probably shouldn't have given it an illegal pink slip and if they don't make me suddenly VERY VERY happy I might just decide to make their Christmas as difficult as mine is going to be after having to spend all that money. 

A cowl goes to sea

I know I promised ages ago that I would start putting some patterns up here for people to knit but I have been busy with other things.  But I have finally pulled my thumb out of my butt and written up a pattern that I'm going to give to you.  Absolutely free!  Cue excited squeeing here. 

Sea Foam Mobius (sort of) Cowl

By Evil McWeevil Handicrafts

The yarn..ooOOo

This mobius came about because I was trying to find the perfect pattern for some yarn that I had spun up with lovely ocean colours.  The yarn was a delicious blend of Merino, Angora (rabbit) and tencel that I received from Charly at Ixchelbunny called ‘twinkle bunny’.  Of all her blends, twinkle bunny is easily my favourite and rightly so as it spins and knits up so smooshily soft and luxurious. 

Finished size:  this is pretty flexible as it depends on how big you knit it. I stopped when mine was big enough for a cowl, but you might want to make yours longer.

Yarn:  my yarn is about equal to a commercial 4ply but you could easily use something else

Needle(s): I used a 5mm circ.

Notions: 2 stitch markers (M)

Gauge: I tried to make this fairly loose and lacy but that’s entirely up to you

Notes: The stitch is based on Seafoam pattern by Barbara Walker.

slip 1st stitch of every row purlways with yarn in front.

knit last stitch of every row tbl.

Using provisional cast on method, CO 46sts (or multiple of 10 + 6 for seafoam) + 8 for edging.

Setup row, K4, PM, knit to last 4sts, PM, K4

Before folding

1st row, Sl1, K1, K2tog, YO, SM, begin pattern with K6, *YO, K1, YO twice, K1, YO 3 times,

 K1, YO twice, K1, YO, K6*, repeat between ** to last marker (ending with k6), SM, YO, K2tog, K1, K1tbl.

2nd row, Knit to end, drop all yarnovers as you go except for first and last ones outside the stitch markers, which you should knit.

3rd row, Sl1, K1, K2tog, YO, SM, K to next marker, SM, YO, K2tog, K1, K1tbl.

4th row, knit to end slipping markers where appropriate.

5th row, Sl1, K1, K2tog, YO, SM, K1, *YO, K1, YO twice, K1, YO 3 times,  K1, YO twice, K1, YO, K6*, repeat between ** to next marker (ending with a K1), SM, YO, K2tog, K1, K1tbl.

The finished cowl

6th row, Knit to end, drop all yarn-overs as you go except for first and last ones, which you knit.

7th row, Sl1, K1, K2tog, YO, SM, K to next marker, SM, YO, K2tog, K1, K1tbl.

8th row, knit to end slipping markers where appropriate.

Continue with this pattern till piece is desired length and then, ending with a 7th row, take the bottom corner of your cast on end of the piece and fold it so that the bottom corner is now at the top and graft the two ends together.

Hey presto, you have yourself a mobius like thingo with a cute little eyelet edging. YAY!

© 2010 by Siobhan Colley of Soul Crafting by Shevi.. This pattern is for personal use only: no commercial uses are permitted.

Please do not sell this pattern or any items made as a result of using this pattern. Thank you.

Finally

Back when I first started learning how to knit lace I purchased some GORGEOUS mongolian cashmere yarn from Knitters Addiction.  I bought two 100g balls of laceweight in persian blue.  I bought the yarn knowing I would make lace from it.  And then when I purchased Victorian Lace Today (you can see a great review and some pics from the book here) by Jane Sowerby I found what I thought was the perfect pattern for it.  The Cap Shawl.

I did start the shawl way back when I first bought the book back in August last year, but unfortunately my first attempt ended in disaster.  The second time I started the shawl, it just didnt feel right from the moment I cast on.  The cast on was too loose, the stitches were waaaaaay too big and I decided I'd used a needle that was just too big for my tension so I frogged it again and didnt even lodge it as an event in my mind.  I was, however determined to make this shawl, so, in May this year (a year and a half since I purchased the yarn)  I cast on a third time.  And I actually finished it.  Finally. About a week ago.  YAY!

I attempted blocking it on Saturday but my blocking matts (an area of 192 x 128m) was just no where near big enough to stretch it out fully.  I took a pic anyway, because I knew everyone would want to see it, and because it looked purdy laying there and then just let it dry as it was without pinning it out.  I'll obviously have to purchase some more blocking matts (lots more apparently) so that I can block it properly and get a really good pic of it.  But in the mean time...here she is.

Cap Shawl

Beautiful silks my ass.

175g pure silk singles

A little while ago I purchased some lovely red silk thread (made by a company called 'beautiful silks' apparently) from a destash. The thread was purchased specifically so I could knit it up into my sisters Christmas present. Clearly the silk gods are against me as I have had nothing but trouble with this stuff since I got it.

When it arrived, it was in a large 175g skein of single ply. It was a HUGE amount of thread and, understandably, I was pretty stoked.

Wound onto bobbins
in preparation for knitting

But when I put it on my swift in order to get it ready for spinning, I found that winding it up was going to be impossible. The little bit that I managed to get onto my yarn winder became tangled within seconds. So I decided to wind it onto a couple of bobbins with my spinning wheel. No problem, except that as it was winding onto the bobbins it was slipping around a lot and looking problematic in general. It didnt FEEL like silk, it has a sticky plastic-y quality and it wasnt behaving anything like any silk I've ever used before, but I ended up getting it all onto two fairly full bobbins and there it stayed while I looked for or designed a suitable pattern to knit with it.

After trying to knit it

So not long ago the knitting began, and as the yarn wound off the bobbin, it quickly became so insanely tangled that I had to give up.  I tried for more than an hour just get it moving enough to wind off even a metre, but nooooooo. It was stuck. And it obviously had every intention of staying that way. So in pure frustration, just to get it off the bobbin  (so I could use it to spin something worthwhile) I got out my trusty scissors. Yes thats right...I had to cut the crap off the bobbin.

And now I have this.  

A whole bobbin cut into short lengths.  Into the bin it goes.

I thought I'd be clever and Navjo ply the second half of it so that I could at least salvage something from this adventure, but unfortunately the same thing happened again.  So the whole damn lot has gone in the bin.