One begets another...

I've done a couple of quick projects whilst I've been on holiday - inspired largely by some really cool wool that I've managed to find at yarn shops over here :-D

A baby beanie knitted from rainbow merino wool, a modified version of the Lil' Devil Baby hat I'm planning on making myself one to match it, as I have 2.5 balls of the wool left! :D

Also a Triangular Shawl knitted from handspun / hand-dyed wool, "Manos del Uruguay" that I picked up at Fibers in Grass Valley . Knitted with two strands at once, size 15 needles. (First Addi Turbos, then changed to Denise needles) Completed in two days (rather intense days, however). I would have liked to have made it slightly larger, except that I ran out of wool. As it is, it's large enough to do the job.

And of course, I can't stop there! I've managed to pick up some other wools whilst here... I would like to knit them both up before leaving, but we'll see how that goes! I'm thinking of a poncho with the purple wool, and obviously socks (my first pair!) with the sock wool.

Argh! Terrorists strike again!

I am travelling on an international flight exactly one week from today.

I have just discovered that I'm not allowed to take my knitting in my carry-on baggage. (well, I can take the knitting, just sans needles. Which won't do me any good.)

I'm all for travel security... but knitting needles aren't that sharp. Really. Even my Addi's, which are my sharpest needles, are still blunt.

The funny thing is, the new restrictions on liquids don't really bother me. Once I found out I can take a small tub of butt cream for my daughter, that's all I need. (Actually, being as the butt cream I use on her is mostly beeswax, I may have a problem with that on the customs side. BUT at least they'll let me have it on the plane!) Heck, other than that, I don't normally take liquids in my carry-on baggage anyway, though I understand the lament about not allowing deodorant. (As an aside - it'd be a great marketing / business idea for some deodorant company to come along and sell trial size deo's on the plane or at the gate.... wonder if duty free carries any?)

But no knitting needles?? Not even my super dull, thick, bamboo needles? Think about it though... how much better knitting time could you get? It's relatively quiet, the inflight movies are hit-and-miss, you're stuck sitting down and don't usually want to be super social with people next to you. You don't need much light (for those like me who can't sleep but don't want to wake the person next to them by turning on the reading light) and it fits nicely in a lap, or in baggage. Oh come ON - what the hell else am I supposed to do for 12 hours? Certainly not read!

If the Shoe Fits...

Booties - first attempt
Originally uploaded by KiwiWonder.

Inspired by something else (which didn't materialise) I decided to knit booties. These are mostly from a pattern in Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, though the pattern is single-colour and only my interpretation uses two colours. However, I really like the way they've turned out, and they've inspirired me to try to create my own pattern... different than this but perhaps similar in style.

The seaming on these has major problems - ironically enough, I figured out where I was going wrong on the last couple of stitches, on the last bootie. It figures. But at least I'm fairly confident that for the next time, I'll know how to seam it so it truly is a flat, invisible seam. (whereas right now, the seam is flat on the one side but not the other - so when the cuff rolls, as in the photo, it looks shocking)

The first bootie is clearly distinguishable from the second - I hadn't worked out the colouring "quite" right so down one side the stitches are the wrong way around. (it's easy to see on the bootie, but not visible in the pic - deliberately!) Also the first bootie has a very minor sizing error - that is, at one point I was working with less stitches than I should have been - but it's not greatly noticeable either in eyeballing it, or in size.

Also, strangely enough, it was the second bootie I had tons of problems with. I had to restart the bloody thing about five times, and even then I ended up "tinking" a few stitches. Therefore, while bootie #1 was knitted in under 2 hours - including stopping, reading techniques, and going v..e..r..y slow in order to figure out the pattern, bootie #2 took me at least 3 hours, counting all the false starts, and caused me to stop knitting entirely for a 24 hour period (tho it helped that I had other distractions as well).

And YES - they do fit Z! Technically these are supposed to be 3-6 month size, but considering Z is 2.5 months, it's close enough.

No new projects....

.... so much for that resolve!



This is the start of the Wavy Scarf. Originally I wasn't going to start this until the Moss Stitch baby throw is finished. But I have alterior motives (which I'm keeping to myself for now) for trying to get this scarf started (and finished) so it's jumped the queue in my project list. I'm hoping it'll be a relatively quick and fascinating knit. (We'll see.)


I have, however, made progress from the last time I posted the blanket - I've added a whole 'nother skein of white yarn. I'm about to add the 5th of 6 skeins. It's progress even if it doesn't feel like it. Currently it's about 18 inches long - the pattern calls for it to be around 28 inches.

What Kind of Knitting Needle Are You?

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are bamboo.Warm, cozy, and thoughtful, you take your time and enjoy how things feel, smell, and taste. You love the craft and beauty of traditional things, and you value the comfort and experience of knitting as much as the results. But while you are reveling in your warm cozies, don't get stuck. Warm is wonderful, but so is the whole wide world!
Take this quiz!








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Projects

I have more ideas (and at the moment, more wool) than I have time for - and accumulating more by the minute, it seems!

Currently on the needles, I have only one thing going - my moss stitch baby blanket from the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits book.

I've been working on it, off and on, for nearly two months. During which time I gave birth to my baby (whom its for). And while it's an enjoyable knit - particularly because I'm a Norweigan purler, so I don't need to move my yarn constantly for the moss stitch - it's long. And unchanging. Intarsia is also new to me but I'm managing all right - except for the time I wrapped the yarn around the work instead of around the other yarn, and had to unravel two full rows, at 133 stitches each. Ouch.

But while working on that, I've started to work on other projects. I've completed two beanies - a baby one for my daughter, and an adult sized one for my sister in law. And I'm finding more and more projects, and the wool to complete them with, all the time.

Currently, I have lined up:

• Moss Stitch Baby Blanket for my daughter (in progress, above)
• Moss Stitch Baby Blanket for a friend of mine
• Flirty Skirty diaper cover for my daughter
  
• Flirty Skirty diaper cover a Secret Santa gift to my Santee on The Nappy Network
• Longies for my daughter
• Wavy scarf for my midwife
• Punk-knitters soaker (diaper cover) for my daughter
• Afghan for my mother (making it up as I go along)

And that's just the stuff I already have the yarn for.

Today my last (I promise!) addition to my stash arrived - Utiku Varigated yarn from The Wool Company. It's gorgeous. I love it. 100% pure NZ merino wool. The scarf for my midwife will be in the Chocolate Swirl colour - on the left. And I'm really really itching to start it. And may just give in..... !

Other colours are Mixed Berry (for diaper covers) and Gems (for longies and diaper covers and possibly a pullover sweater for my daughter, if I have enough.)

Now, if only I had more time!

Casting on

Everything in this world has a beginning, a middle, and end. In knitting we call the beginning "casting on", and thus this is the cast on for my knitting blog.

I'd been toying with the idea of a knitting blog for a few months now. Why? I've been regularly reading other, excellent, entertaining and inspirational knitting blogs and had delusions of granduer. And I think too much about knitting so might as well spread the obsession. And at the same time go public about how much of a knit-wit I am. :-)

In fact, I reckon this blog would have been started far earlier if it wasn't for the lack of a title. I wanted something cute, descriptive, suiting my personality, and yet not too formal. I didn't want anything that smacked of committment, or anything that might group me with true knitting nanas. I had a lot of great title ideas. I thought of being a Knit Wit, but it was taken. As was the title of Yarn Harlot. Alterknitively in a knitting boutique in my area and I didn't want to step on their toes, but didn't have many other Purls of Wisdom.

So I gave up on the idea of using a cute, punny name, as apparently they're all taken. Or at least coming up with an available one required far too much brainpower than I have. So, maybe partially as a tribute to my efforts, I came up with Knit Spastic.

No, it's not a cute catch phrase, but maybe it will be when my funky knitting and sparkling wit rocket me to knitting fame. But it does quite succinctly capture the essence of my knitting. I knit in fits and bursts. I hop (albeit guiltily) from one project to another. I compulsively buy yarn faster than I used to compusively buy books. I'm both a social knitter and a closet knitter and I can bore anyone with hours on end of knitter natter.

So, without further ado....