Switch plates

It's not the done thing to funk up rooms over here. When I came to do the playroom, I wanted to do a mural on the wall, like I'd done with my eldest's room in the UK and the back of the downstairs bathroom door (I WISH I'd got a picture of that :-( ). Instead, always thinking about selling the house on, I bought some plain wooden light switch plates and funked them up instead.

One of these days, I might do this for a bit of cash!

Getting Knitty - Eighth

Eighth piece:





Now, these hats were FUN! I have made five of them now and they are so very easy to make. I knit them in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino aran which is lush! These were the first thing that I've knit on the round, on a set of needles that are joined to one another. Again, this is a pattern that I have got off of the internet and it's worked out pretty well. It did have an odd cast on, I think it's called the chain link cast on, which makes the bottom of the hat more stretchy. It also has a wide rib cuff at the bottom, which again contributes to the stretchy bottom. I think I should have also made them a little longer, as they fit my kids pretty well, but the rest of us have bloody great heads and mine keeps popping off. I made one for my brother for Christmas. I did make it longer and it fit me better than mine did. He probably doesn't use it, but we get quite a lot of wear out of ours!

Getting Knitty - Sixth

Sixth piece:

A Zoe Mellor piece. Again, I don't have a picture of this one! It was beautiful though! I will have to look and see if I can find it to photograph it for you!

Getting Knitty - Seventh

Seventh piece:

I've knit three pairs of these for friends and I still have a half finished pair I had intended to give to Gabe. Why is it that I can't seem to finish things for my own children?

Again these are from Zoë Mellor's book. Such fun to knit in seed stitch and they come together to beautifully. These are also knit in Rowan Cotton Glace on US size 2 needles, which are tiny! They also have the distinction of being the first things I knit on bamboo needles. Having used them, I would not go back to metal ones AT ALL. Wonderful things to knit on and so much easier to keep the tension on.

Getting Knitty - Fourth

Fourth piece:



Another Zoë Mellor piece. This one took me the best part of a month to make because it was the first time that I had knit a figure into anything. It was also the first time I used quality yarn! The yarn was Rowan Cotton Glace, as the pattern in the book exactly called for, and the total cost of making this sweater, without my time added in, was about $60. But I thought my nephew was worth it!

However, my sister-in-law didn't. She 'passed on' the the sweater immediately. She hadn't realised I'd knitted it myself and thought I'd just bought it. It didn't go over my nephew's head, so she gave it to a jumble sale.

Getting Knitty - Fifth

Fifth piece:

This is really my five-point-one piece! I made Imogen a shrug for dancing as I'd been unable to find her one, even in the dance stores, which I found both annoying and slightly odd. I found a good on-line pattern, it took me about four days to knit it up and she was pleased with it. Then I had my sister's birthday coming up and thought that she might like something similar as shrugs were in that year as a fashion item! I got the wool, this is Lion brand acrylic again but it's their suede feel yarn, stockingette stitch on US size 6 needles and made in about a week.

I fit it to me but made it slightly bigger as she's taller than me by about 6 inches and was wider then too. I loved it! What a great colour. Learning from my previous mistake with my nephew's sweater, I sewed a label into it, so that she could see it was hand knit and which way up it should go. Even so, she still asked me where I got it from! So my knitting can't be all that bad.

Getting Knitty - Third

Third piece:



This took me about two weeks to complete. I loved it! I bought an excellent book by Zoë Mellor with all sorts of toddler knits in it. This had a complicated daisy pattern knit into it which I didn't feel up to doing, so I chose a variegated acrylic and knit the cardigan straight, without following the intricate daisy. The stitches are stockingette for the body, seed stitch (or moss stitch) along the button front, collar and the pocket top, and a flaring seed stitch which is used to make the ruffles along the bottom and cuffs. The variegations came out really nicely as a kind of striping which eveyone who saw it thought I had knitted in, but I hadn't, which was cool. It washed nicely too and she wore it for a while.

Getting Knitty - Second

Second piece:

I don't have a photo of my second piece. To be fair, it took me three weeks to make and it was a very simple striped sweater for Imogen, knit in stockingette stitch with simple k2 p2 ribbing on cuffs and sleeves. Again I knit it in very cheap Lion brand acrylic yarn in greens and purples on US size 8 needles. It was OK. Nothing special, but I was practising!

Getting Knitty - First

I've accomplished a few bits and pieces, though I have lots I would like to do. I haven't done as many things as I would like, simply because I don't sit and do nothing with my hands most of the time. When I used to watch TV a lot, I used to get far more knitting done than I do these days :)

First piece:





I made the hat and scarf a long while back, as I was just getting back into knitting. I learned to knit when I was 12 when my dad taught me. I made a scarf (ish) and half a sweater but I wasn't very good at holding my tension and I really didn't understand patterns. So this set was the first thing I'd made since taking up the needles again, four years ago.

I made it with very cheap Lion Brand bobbly multi coloured acrylic on US size 8 needles in basic stockingette stitch. I even made the bobble! She still wears the hat occasionally!

The Reason Being

My mother is a bit annoying sometimes. I'm not being silly or anything but today she just put me down for no real reason. All I said was that I could knit and then she decided to say that she's seen some of my knitting and it's not bad, not good, but not bad.

I mean, what possesses a parent to do that to a child, even if that child is 37 and should know better?!

Anyway, I've set up this blog for the sole purpose of showing the world that I am not bad, when I put my mind to it!