Hello everyone! I can’t believe I haven’t posted since September! How slack am I? Since then I have been very busy with various things. Most of all, I have been bitten by the spinning bug. I bought a gorgeous spindle and a friend of mine gave me a few lessons and that was it. I’m totally hooked. So here’s some pictures of what I have been up to:

The last two are navajo ply on the fly, using this technique. It’s genius!

Named so because that’s what this colour makes me think of! I found 200g of Bendigo woollen Mills cotton in my stash and knew it had to be a shawl. Cotton is not usually used for shawls because it doesn’t block like wool does. But I wanted something that was wearable in summer without being hot or scratchy. And this worked out really well. I do have to admit, am I pretty proud of this one. Not as tricky as the Swallowtail, but I really love it to pieces. The pattern is the Forest Canopy Shawl.

A very dear friend of mine has just tied the knot! And unfortunately, I couldn’t travel to attend the wedding. So instead I picked up my needles and started on the biggest knitting adventure I have ever been on! I have made her a shoulder shawl, complete with beads. I am amazed at how it turned out, and the whole construction of the pattern really. It began with 5 stitches, it ended with 323. The pattern was Swallowtail Shawl, By Evelyn A Clark. At the first read of the pattern, it was very daunting. And the charts made me want to hide in the corner. But the pattern is supplied with both written instructions and charts to accompany them, and very quickly I was finding it much easier to go by chart than the traditional wording. Towards the end of the pattern, I decided to use beads instead of knitting the nupps, and I have to say, they really do it for me!

Hot of the needles, unblocked.

The blocking process underway.

Finished size

Beading detail.

The yarn was Araucania Ranco Solid sock yarn, in colour #102 – Lime.

Posted in knitting Tagged: FO, knit, knitting, lace, ranco, shawl, swallowtail ]]> http://craftyrahrah.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/something-special-for-someone-special/feed/ 1 craftyrahrah unblocked detail blocking finished1 detail http://craftyrahrah.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/teeny-weeny-pants/ http://craftyrahrah.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/teeny-weeny-pants/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:08:50 +0000 Tara http://craftyrahrah.wordpress.com/?p=73 ]]>

Well it has taken me a while to get my knit mojo resurrected after the mammoth haul that was the lace wrap! But today I finally have a new FO to share.

A good friend of mine is baking a new bub, so I have made her some newborn size longies. My goodness they are tiny! It was doubly exciting for me, as I got the Knit Picks Harmony interchangeable set for mother’s day, and decided to put them to good use and magic loop the whole thing, from cast on to cuffs, working both legs at the same time. Someone tell me why I had never tried this before? It was great!

The yarn is Panda Concorde, which I adore for its handspun look. And the pattern is Wonderpants.

With mother’s day approaching I decided this year I wanted to do something really special for my mother, who has helped me tremendously over the last 12 months. I recently discovered a new found obsession with knitted lace. Oh so pretty, but looks so difficult. I’m not possibly good enough to do that…. Or am I crazy enough? I think I am crazy enough. So whilst pattern surfing on ravelry I came across the Falling Leaves Wrap by Dory Brown and fell in love. I just needed the perfect yarn…. I soon found it at my LYS, araucania ranco solid in teal. Perfecto!

Now that week I had injured my back badly and was in a lot of pain. So loaded with pain killers and feeling sorry for myself I rushed home to cast on, throwing caution to the wind and diving in head first.  After the first few repeats, the pattern became very easy to work, and it began to grow at a nice pace. WOW! I was knitting PROPER LACE!

So after a few weeks i was finally ready for casting off and blocking. And without further ado, the photos:

Pre- Blocking

the blocking process in action

Finally Dry

quickly being modelled

Blocking is amazing. while it was a huge pain in the bum, the whole piece changes when it’s done. I couldn’t beleive it. Magic!!

♦

I was invlolved in a magic yarn ball swap with a bunch of friends. I was so luck to receive the most amazing handspun yarn from The Bird and the Fish. So deciding I needed to do something special to do the yarn justice, I pulled out my stitch dictionary and tried a lace diamonds pattern. And I’m really happy with the result!

Well, I decided to make myself another pair of socks, but instead of using the double-pointed-needles-of-death this time I tried magic loop. Oh WOW, much easier! Never ever going back to DPNoDs now!

Anyway, took me awhile to get the second one finished but here’s the pics:

The pattern was from DROPS.

Well it was my birthday this weekend gone (woohoo) and during the clean up my eldest found a champagne cork and asked me if I could do something with it for him, because he liked it. Then I remembered this very cute pattern I had stumbled across on Ravelry late one night and so after a bit of searching printed it out and got to it. I actually managed to magic loop this one which is a new achievement for me (no more blasted double-pointed-needles-of-death). I think he is very cute, and my son requested I leave the face blank (he is a very particular child LOL)

Well 2008 is finally over and 2009 is here. I haven’t posted in a whil but I can show some things I made as Christmas gifts.

Another coffee cozy:

And a calorimetry:

I really love small projects. It’s like knitting prozac. Had a stressful week so last night I sat down with a pile of small projects and got through two. This is the first one. It took a bit over an hor and I am really happy with how it looks. I double stranded some Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton on 4.5mm needles. The pattern is Patty by Jen Raymond. I think I will be making more of these for Christmas gifts!