Tag Archives: Knitted

Old things…

… this will be the very last of my “old things” posts.  I promise.
I’ve done a mammoth sort-through of the photos and I think this is it!  (heaves a sigh of relief…)

Firstly, since this is the only garment in this post still in our possession (apart from the Grim Reaper come burqa outfit, that is); a cardigan I knitted for Craig.  It is knitted in the fair isle method.  Above is a picture Craig took of me wearing his cardigan on a holiday last year (isn’t he sweet, giving his cold inadequately-dressed wife his nicely pre-warmed cardigan to wear, hmmm?  What a gentleman!)
And some close-ups of the cardigan I took today…
showing the right front, and at right the wrong side of the fair isle knitting… (as is correct, the yarn is carried over at the back with no weaving in, only if the distance is four stitches or less…)

Now, some costumes…
Sam as “Link”.  I thought he was so cute in this.  He loved this little outfit and often wore it just for everyday wear.  (if you would like to see what this cute little jigger looks like now, go here…)

Sam, as… guess who?  Hehe, the famous Harry Potter, natch, compete with broomstick and Hedwig the owl.  
On that note, a black cloak is such a useful thing to have in the dress-up box.  It can be the basis for so many costumes.

Here is the same robe again, worn by Cassie as Hermione, complete with Garfield Crookshanks the cat… I threw together the skirt and tie as well, but they do not bear close inspection…!)

(I’ve shown this picture before… but here it is again just to illustrate the versatility of the plain black robe as a costume), Tim and two of his mates as Grim Reapers.  I made all three of their costumes.

Tim’s same costume again, this time worn by me to an Arabian Nights party.  I didn’t want to hire an outfit and I didn’t want to make some bejewelled thing I would never wear again, and as every single female I have seen in the Arabian region is dressed something like this, so I was like, yeah this’ll do.  I naively assumed other girls would have the same idea…  As it turned out I was literally the only female dressed (I thought) anywhere near authentically!  Also the only one not heavily sequinned and baring plenty of belly-flesh…  I confess the costume was abandoned when we decided to start dancing!  Don’t worry I had a skirt and top on underneath…

So, away from costumes now, and a ball-gown of my own design that I made for balls in years gone by (Sorry for the headless shot but my face and my hair look awful in this picture…!)  It is silk organza, overlaying silk and silk jersey layers, three layers in all.  It had a beaded and embroidered neckpiece, both beaded and embroidered by me, that is…

A dress I made for Cassie for her graduation dance at the end of primary school.  It was a simple turquoise cotton halter neck dress, the fabric had metallic gold lines randomly strewn across.  I also made her jewellery, of turquoise glass fish beads and strands of gold wire.

Some rather lovely (if I say so myself) wide-legged white pants that she wore almost constantly for a summer, and a little white broderie anglaise blouse.  Both my own design.

Going way back, and this shirt is from a Vogue designer pattern that I believe my mother still has my copy…  I know I also made and am wearing here the small-waisted and very flared skirt from the same pattern too…

I made both the skirt and top and also my necklace here.  The top was an experiment, I flipped the shoulders out in a twist to get this cowl-like effect.  It used to get a lot of compliments, believe it or not! (my friends are very kind)  We are sitting on one of our sofas in its first slipcover, made by me too…  (now looks like this)

Some more dresses.  I really regret now I never got any good pictures of these two.  The white and red one was rather nice; it was a dress, but looked like a matching skirt and camisole when I was wearing it, as it had layers in several graduated lengths.  My own design.  The patchwork dress, also my own design, took lots of planning; I bought the fabrics separately and cut and pieced them together, then made the dress.  It has smaller squares at the top, graduating to larger squares around the midriff, and then down to the largest squares at the hemline.  It is all on the bias, with a handkerchief hem, and I loved it!

A drop waisted, handkerchief hemmed dress of white dotted swiss voile, pictured against a famous backdrop.  I still have this Vogue pattern too, actually…

And that should be all folks!
From now on, I will only be showing newly made stuff here….

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Winding cable scarf; grey and brown

This is a scarf I finished last year, but never blogged about for some reason, which is peculiar since I have worn it once or twice… just never got around to photographing it, I guess.  I discovered it anew in my recent winter woolies sort-out.
I knitted it using a pattern that was just on two photocopied, typed sheets stapled together, from Calico and Ivy from where I bought the wool; so I expect it was probably designed by one of the talented ladies at that store.  The design is a cable but instead of twisting over and over the same way to finish up with that classic barley twist cable design; in this design the cable was twisted first one way then the other, so you end up with a meandering cable, that loops in and out of the scarf in a lazy snake-through-the-grass kind of a way.  It is cleverly reversible, so both sides look pretty much identical; thus satisfying a slight pet peeve of mine about right-side-and-wrong-side scarves…  The ends are tapered to a lovely curved arrowhead point, quite an unusual feature.  I should wear it more because I always get compliments for it, but I have this feeling that being of an eclectic mix of neutrals that it doesn’t end up going with any colour much except for other neutrals!  Yup, I am very strict about how I mix my neutrals and my colours; I have quite firm views on which colours go together and which colours don’t, and the shade is so vital and just has to be taken into consideration also… I know, pretty neurotic huh?
 Anyhoo, the long and short; this scarf looks great with other earthy neutrals, but I don’t tend to ever wear it with any actual colours.  So perhaps not as versatile as I first envisioned when I selected this wool!
The wool is a Noro yarn, hand-dyed in Japan, and I’m afraid the tags with the type of yard and the colour  has long been tossed out…. so I cannot provide you with this info.  Sorry!

Details:
Scarf; hand knitted by me, using Noro yarns, to a design by Calico and Ivy
Brown top; Metalicus
Black top; Sexy Woman, found secondhand
Skirt; my own design; charcoal jersey knit
Tights; Spencer Lacy
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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Blue and pink hand-knitted cardigan

This is another thing unearthed in my winter woolies sort-out, that hasn’t been photographed or written about here…
I do feel a bit silly for having forgotten about all these things… but here we go.
I started knitting this cardigan while I was expecting Sam, and then managed to finish it shortly after he was born, thus making it now exactly seventeen years old.  It’s been worn a tonne, as you can imagine, like any casual garment is… I think I’ve even taken it camping.  Which now I think of all the work I put into making it immaculately and perfectly finished seems kind of sacrilegious… woops  Since this sort of big patterned knitted cardigan became very unfashionable some years ago I kinda stopped wearing it so much.  Although I think as I am wearing it today with a mini-dress and textured tights moderns it up a touch, brings it acceptably into this decade, yes?
It is knitted in the intarsia method, so each of those strips and little triangles of colour is knitted with its own separate little ball of wool.  I can remember knitting it; with masses of little balls of wool on their individual cardboard winders dangling off the back, occasionally getting caught and twisted up with each other, and painstakingly sorting them out, looping the old ball over each new one as each new colour block came up.  I was such a DIY-er (er, still am, I suppose!) I even made my own winders, cutting them out of old cereal boxes, refusing to buy the little plastic ones you see in knitting shops… they had little slits cut in them for the wool to sit through so the balls stayed neatly wound up and wouldn’t unravel while I was knitting…
In the best hand-knitter’s tradition the cardigan has no knots in it.  All the loose ends are either spliced or woven in, or stitched in an interwoven method in the closest joining seam.  I learnt these finishing methods from my friend J, also a keen knitter, who had taken on work knitting for some big Australian hand-knit range… not sure which now, it might have been Jenny Kee, maybe not.  She had been sent instructions on how to properly finish off a hand-knit garment, and obviously knots were one of the biggest no-no’s.  I’m ashamed to say we had both been knotting up until then… but we learnt from these fantastic instructions.  Since then I’ve always scrupulously stayed away from knots in any hand-knitted garment.

Details:
Cardigan; handknit by me, from various shades of Patons 8 ply pure merino wool.  The pattern was from a Patons pamphlet, no. 1105
Dress; Burda 8511 with modifications, purple raw silk, details here
Tights; Metalicus
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

below: the “wrong” side showing the intarsia knitting method with each block of colour a distinct and separate block with no loops of yarn across the back.  All the ends are interwoven into the joining seams, and there are absolutely NO knots!
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Bluestone socks, and a new pet

Normally if one of my children brought home yet another new pet I would gently but firmly manoeuvre said pet back to where it came from.  Our house already passes for a menagerie.  However our new house guest is quite welcome, as he is economical on food, undemanding as far as expensive veterinary visits and vaccinations go, and will not add wear and tear to the garden and furniture.
I don’t know what this little guy’s name is, or whether he even has been given one yet.  He just turned up on our sideboard one day.  Unknown origins or parentage notwithstanding, he is already creeping into my affections with his gentle quizzical little face and sweet nature, not to mention the cheerful colour of his low maintenance coat.
Above, he is asking quietly and politely if we can go walkies now.
Below I am complying with his request.  Isn’t he sweet?
In other new things, I have knitted some new socks… but I concede that that is small bickies compared to a new pet.

Socks; adapted from the pattern for Ladies Sockettes, from Patons Knitting Book C11, a 1960’s publication, using Morris Empire Superwash Merino 4 ply in Bluestone (col 408) and with Beluga (col 430) heels and toes.

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Mineral Green socks

How much do my feet hate me right now?  So much, and why? oh let’s not get onto the weather again
Which brings me to this, I apologise for all the whinging yesterday.  I always promised myself I wouldn’t whinge about stuff on this blog, and what did I do yesterday?  Whinge.  About the weather, no less!  Sooo trivial… sorry.  A girl is entitled to an off day every once in a while, hm?

So, on to my new sockies.  These are the socks I started knitting in Japan, and have finally finished.  Sam bought this wool for me when he was in Melbourne on his volleyball tour, after I had given him precise directions to the wool shop.  It is just about exactly the colour of all my children’s school uniforms, so has traditionally been rather an un-liked colour about this house.  I was a bit surprised that he chose it!
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always felt knitting my own socks to be quite “worthy” and I feel strangely virtuous that I do this.  I put some more thought into “why” and came up with the following… my family lived through WW2 in London (before my time, obviously), and knitting socks for the troops was in that time and place a very worthy thing to do for the war effort.  All women did it, it was the right and patriotic thing to do and all were proud to be doing it.  It was a highly lauded activity.  After thinking back on it I’ve realised that this pride in knitting something as basic and necessary as socks is an attitude amongst the females in my family that has subliminally been passed on down to me too.
Details:
Socks; made from Morris Empire Superwash Merino 4 ply in Mineral Green (col 415) with Beluga toes and heels, adapted (as always) from the Ladies Sockette’s in Patons Knitting book C11, a circa 1960’s publication.
Pussycat; hand-carved by my grandfather
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Rainstorm socks

There has to be an upside to spending hours and hours in cramped transportation going halfway around the globe, right?  (Well, apart from the obvious one of ending up in some glorious exotic destination, such as Japan, natch!)
Now the airlines have seen common sense and allowed knitting needles back into the plane (only some types, mind you) one can be supremely productive whilst travelling.  During our recent travel time I completed one whole pair of socks, and one and a bit socks of a second pair also.  Yowza!!
I’m sure some of my fellow travellers looked on in amusement at the whacky lady knitting with thin thin yarn on weird skinny little needles… but hey, at least I wasn’t wasting my time watching inane movies, or heaven forbid sleeping, or some other such unproductive activity, yeah…  I got something done!
Every time I put up my latest pair of socks here I’m sure to get comments expressing thinly veiled incredulity that I can be bothered knitting socks, which are so cheap and readily available commercially, and so (relatively) expensive and time-consuming to produce oneself…  Well I can’t explain my passion either.  I just love knitting socks, it is really my preferred knitting project above all others…  
If you had met me five years ago, and told me I would be knitting socks, five-year-ago me would have firmly denied I would ever get mired in such silliness… well fast-track forward said five years and here I am.  When I first saw my mother knitting socks (truly thank you, Mum, for passing on that particular virus) I was a little incredulous and disbelieving myself.  Feeling a bit of an idiot, I decided to give it a go and visited the yarn shop.  The lady in the shop told me I would get addicted, and I half didn’t believe her…  But now I too am thoroughly hooked…  All I can say is that you have to try it to get it.  It is such a very satisfying pastime.  A very easy project, mindless even… which is the kind of knitting I actually like to do.  I can very easily carry on conversations and watch (not very complex) movies at the same time as producing a pair of yummy handknit merino socks of a quality you never see in the shops.  Socks are loads quicker than a jumper or cardigan, and feel a more worthwhile project than a scarf…  And since I have big feet, I can make the socks to fit me… not a couple of inches too short, which is usually the case with store-bought.
So, in my book, it is well worth it.
Re knitting on planes: I checked with the airlines first, as I didn’t want my needles confiscated.  The short skinny double-ended ones used in sock-knitting are OK on the airlines we used.  To further ensure they would be OK, I went out and bought some new bamboo ones, just in case some overly sensitive official got funny about my metal ones… and no one was concerned.  The guidlelines I was given were; nothing bigger or thicker than a ballpoint pen.  One of my new bamboo needles snapped (my bad!) but luckily the packet I bought had included an extra, so I didn’t have to cease knitting!
I took this photo above in our apartment in Hirafu, Hokkaido.  Now, in looking at this photo I’m sure you’re all wondering what is the view out of the window casting that light from stage right, right?  Yes, I’m sure!  I’ll satisfy your curiosity; here it is below, Mt Yotei: (sigh, missing that view already…)

Details:
Socks; made using Morris Superwash Merino 4 ply in Rainstorm (col 420) and Beluga (col 430), using a pattern adapted from the Ladies Sockettes from Patons Knitting book C11, a circa 1960’s publication

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Australia Day

It’s been pretty difficult to post, what with available computer time being taken up with the superior demands of teenage Facebook time, not to mention some essential out-of-office business maintenance.  My blog has taken very much a back seat.
However today is special, being Australia Day and all.  I was mean and muscled everyone out to get on here…!
No doubt Aussies at home will be wearing a much more summery ensemble today, so I wish you a wonderful day as you sit around the pool with your refreshing cocktail, and/or frolic in the surf at the beach.  Enjoy!  We will be celebrating later with a much more wintery concoction of mulled plum wine.
Looking very Aussie here on the streets of Hirafu, on Mount Niseko-Annupuri in Hokkaido, Japan.

Details:
Jeans; Burda 7863, greige corduroy
Shirt; Burda 7767, check flannelette
Beanie; my own design, charcoal wool
Gloves; ??
Snow boots; from Big KMart, in the US.  I’ve had these for about 10 years.  Big KMart is similar to our KMart in Australia, except about three times as big.  No, I’m not exaggerating…!

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Olive Twist socks

I have been knitting still, but with less consistency given we’re thick into the silly season…
Here is my latest finished project; socks, of course.  Knitted using the Morris Empire Superwash Merino 4 ply, in Olive Twist.  You’ve probably noticed a commonality cropping up in all the new socks I’ve knitted using this Morris yarn from Melbourne… they all sport the Beluga heels and toes.  This is because over the first two pairs of these I worked out the perfect length of sock that uses up but exactly half a ball of the yarn… meaning ZERO LEFTOVERS, satisfying my thrifty desire for absolute minimal waste in any project…   
Do you like my son’s ugg boots?  Yes, his feet are pretty big; they make even mine look little…!  
They just happened to be lying around in our bathroom where I took this photo, so I decided to put them alongside for fun in the photo, and because the colouring went well with my new socks.  You might be able to just read the label, “Made in Australia”.  These are of course REAL Australian ugg boots, made by REAL Australian manufacturers, and no American company naming itself the Australian Ugg Boot Company can EVER take this away from us.  The legal action attempted by US companies to prevent Aussies using the ugg name caused huge controversy here in Australia.  I mean, how would they like it if Aussies started up a company calling itself Genuine US Cowboy Boots, trademarked the term, and subsequently threatened to sue any US manufacturer who was using the term “cowboy boot” as a selling point?  
Exactly.  
Not nice…
Hehe, OK sorry about that, ranting now over…

Socks; based upon the Ladies Sockettes, from Patons Knitting Book C11 (a circa 1960’s publication), using Morris Empire Superwash Merino 4ply in Olive Twist (col 439) and with heels and toes in Beluga (col 430)

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