wicked games

I have been wicked in more ways than one lately! First of all, I bought enough dusty blue Jet today at Kmart to make myself another Wicked. While there are many other patterns out there I want to try, I am also very cold and in need of something to wear to work, so Wicked it is! I wore my black one to work the other day and was complimented on how I make knitting cool. My word, that was a nice compliment! Little do they know how many other people there are out there making knitting much more cool than I ever could! So, wicked for buying yarn and wicked for not challenging myself with a different pattern.

Another way in which I have been wicked this week is by kind of stealing yarn. Only kind of though. Last term I asked other staff if they had any yarn they didn’t need because we were having a finger knitting challenge on the last day (I know! Lucky teenagers they are! They loved it!). Some yarn was donated and I didn’t bother looking through it because it was needed and looked like just oddments and we used it all up. Then on Tuesday, someone left some yarn on my chair in my office - and there were seven 25g balls of some elderly Cleckheaton 8 ply yarn (85% wool, 25% viscose - about 45 m per ball) which I thought would be perfect to make a little vest for a certain tiny guy I know who is about to turn one. So I snaffled it! Should I confess??

I finished a pair of socks for the tiny guy, and a hat too! Purl helped me knit some of the hat. The tiny guy’s mother appreciates hand made gifts. No wonder she is one of my best friends!

Made using sock calculator from Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Sock Book

Family Rolled Brim Hat - 40cm size

Because his mum is such a lovely person and admired my Booga Bag immensely when we visited recently, I made her one! It is waiting to be felted. Also, I have just about finished my messenger bag - just a little bit to do on that and it will be ready for sharing and for the pattern to be available to anyone who would care to spend hours knitting something the size of a small pony, trying an i-cord bind off, knitting further i-cord forever and then shrinking it all in the washing machine! Here is the Booga - lovely Vintage Hues!

I have also cast on for a Woodland Shawl. This is wicked because I already have a bit going on with the knitting at the moment. I am using Trekking yarn that has had one brief incarnation as a pair of Hedera socks. I haven’t yet finished a repeat, so won’t bother with a photo. So far I have only had to restart it three times. I don’t know how I can manage to have one and five-eighths degrees and be unable to count for lace patterns!

Last Saturday I was wicked in a “Cool, wicked!” way, when Mother and I went to WWKIP Day at Inveresk, outside the QVMAG. It was a beautiful brisk Tasmanian day (read bloody freezing when we got there, and pretty cold the whole time, but the sun was out!). Lots of people went past, a very small number spoke to us, but about a dozen or so knitters came and went over the four hours we were there. There are some photos over at 2paws. Those are my denim clad knees in the top left, and Mother’s next to me! When I read about a Sydney get together with about 55 knitters, I realised that 12 knitters was quite a large group for a small city! There was also a gathering in Hobart. Well done Tassie Knitters (Ravelry link)!

Speaking of Mother, she was wicked and bought me some yarn at Spotlight. I can’t remember what it is called, but it’s very soft and completely synthetic. I made a scarf with it using the pattern that was printed on the back. It was the most confusing pattern for what is basically a 8 stitch 8 row cable with a garter stitch border! Anyway, it’s warm and doesn’t irritate my skin which is a bonus!

Now I had better go and redeem my wicked self by cooking a yummy risotto for tea to warm up the family. It is shockingly freezing here today (9.4 degrees)! I am typing with a scarf around my neck, my calorimetry shoved on my head and knitted socks on my feet. We have electric heating here and it is quite inadequate on dull days. Brrrrrr.

Oh, and just to support Katt here is a list of what I am knitting at the moment:

1. Pinwheel Blanket
2. Socks for myself
3. Woodland Shawl
4. Wicked II
5. Messenger bag

ze vicked

she iz finished!

Pattern - Wicked
Size - Small
Yarn - Cascade 220 (less than 3 skeins!)
Needles - 4.5mm
Modifications - No pocket, no twisted stitches on the neck and sleeves. Made much longer than stated in the pattern - I would suggest this as it is not looong on me, and I am quite short!
Verdict - LOVE IT!

This is such an easy and quick pattern to knit. I made it in about four days and I wasn’t really knitting the whole time. It would have been done quicker, but I put a pocket on and then didn’t like it, so carefully tried to remove the pocket and SNIP I cut a stitch. Which in the end was okay because I ripped back and ended up adding some increases for my hips. I will make this again - maybe as a short sleeved cardigan?

I am half way through designing a messenger bag. It’s all in my head, and half way knitted, so I will share that with you before the end of the week! As well, I have made a baby sock. I am going to make another one of course - I might save this for WWKIP Day on Saturday! Yay!

Did you know about these two newish online knitting magazines? Metapostmodernknitting, and The Inside Loop. I heard about them on the Stash and Burn podcast. Not bad! More socks! I like these!

we interrupt our regular knitting schedule

I have read this on a few blogs lately (thanks Briony!), and thought I would respond! If nothing else it will be interesting for me to look back on in the future.  Whoah, my head just hurt - time travel baffles me!

1) What was I doing ten years ago?

I was in my third year of an education degree and planning our wedding while juggling a five year old child in Kindergarten and a part time job. Even so, I am sure life was simpler then! I had a completely different set of friends, apart from one person. My parents were still married, and lots of people who I loved very much were still alive. I was knitting I think, but nothing like I do now.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

• Catch up on reading some blogs and listening to some podcasts
• Finish at least the body of Wicked
• Cook curry for tea (yum!)
• Call Mum
• Watch The Kingdom

3) Snacks I enjoy:

• Nuts of all shapes and sizes except walnuts (they are revolting!)
• Milk Arrowroot biscuits dipped in coffee
• Corn chips with salsa dip
• Maltesers even though I shouldn’t eat them.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Buy my parents something enormous
• Buy a new house in the country and hire someone to clear out all my old stuff and decorate a la an Oprah makeover!
• Give money to a proven charity
• Quit work and start a yarn store/cafe/bookshop

5) Places I have lived:

• About a billion farms in the Northern Midlands like this one (please be aware that we did not live in ‘the big house’. My dad was a farm hand and mum cleaned for the landed gentry!!)
• Cressy
• Perth (Tasmania)
• Suburban Launceston with the parentals
• About a billion rental properties in Launceston
• My lovely little house!

6) Jobs I have had:

• McDonalds - original crew member when it came to Launceston. Now poor little Purl works in the same ‘restaurant’ with some of the same people I worked with! Can you believe that!!
• Milk Bar - hated this job with a passion, but beggars can not be choosers!
• Lovely shop that no longer exists with candles and smelly things and lovely trinkets - where I spent a whole lot of my pay on the candles and smelly things and lovely trinkets!
• Putting magnets on the back of calendars - two days of absolute hell
• Ansett call centre - there are suspicions that it could have been me that brought them down. I managed an Honours degree in Education and have just about finished my Masters, but took 6 months to pass a three month probation at the call centre. I still shudder at the thought of working there. I fair dinkum absolutely hated it. I am not of the right temperament and should not have cheated on the personality test.
• Teacher Aide with an autistic boy
• Relief teacher
• Teacher - and various roles within this role. For example, at the moment I manage 200 odd students as Grade Advisor as well as teaching English and Society and History. Yes, 200 odd 14 year olds. Sigh.

7) Peeps I want to know more about:

Everyone! I always find myself feeling quite self conscious writing about me, but love to read others’ responses!!

i have never felt better

Well, actually I have never felted better. Okay, quite honestly I have never felted before this! But look! A Booga Bag! Isn’t it cute?

Booga Bag, knitted with exactly three balls of Vintage Hues, colourway 1269. Bought from Spotlight by the Spunk who took pity on me when I missed the Northern Tassie Knitters Ravelry group because I had the makings of a migraine. He was sent with instructions to buy the purple-green colour, and he did well because there is no such thing, but he got what I was thinking of! Bag knitted with 6mm needles, handles with 4mm dpns because they were the biggest I had. Handles made much longer than specified in the pattern. This went through a hot and heavy wash twice.

I am so pleased with it. It is quite small and I am astounded by how much it squished down in the wash! I am going to be working on my own design for a bag I think. Mother bought me four more balls of the Vintage Hues in a different colourway, so I will do something with that soon. The bag was very quick and easy and so much fun.

I am not one of those knitters who is bored by the round and round of stocking stitch on a circular needle. In fact, I quite enjoy it! Which is just as well, because the yarn for Wicked arrived yesterday. So far, I have cast on and ripped it three times. The first time because I looked on Ravelry and thought I had probably over-estimated my size and should trust my instincts for once. The second time because I cast on in what I thought was a smaller size only to find when I was dividing for the front back arms etc that I had four extra stitches and had in fact cast on EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT AS BEFORE. Honestly! Desperate Housewives has a bit to answer for in that one! Then, I didn’t leave enough yarn for the long tail cast on! Never mind. I have cast on again, left the crossed over stitches because I didn’t want them to be wonky and an 8 stitch pattern does not go into 124 and have begun the raglan increases this afternoon. Going well!

Purl decided that she didn’t want the pinwheel blanket hat, so it is again a pinwheel blanket. It is a purple and leftover 8 ply striped affair and another example of pretty mindless knitting. Pretty, no?

I love holidays! I must make sure that I don’t just blah them away! Today the kids and the Spunk went to the park to kick a football and then this afternoon a friend came over to watch The Sound of Music and eat popcorn. I will also set up a computer for Purl that I got for FREE from school! It has no disc drive so I am problem solving how to install drivers for a wireless adaptor - there could be much swearing today depending on how this little project goes! Also, Purl just bought Travolta which is a three disc set with Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive! Surely that much cheese could kill someone!! And most exciting of all, tonight I find out who has made the miraculous transformation from Ladette to Lady. I LOVE THIS SHOW!