and the wraps continue

Blaise was delighted by my needle wrap. so much so that he wanted one for his wrenches. hey why not?

bigger, made of tougher material, but hey off we go. even left him some room to grow and a spare spot for the missing size he hasn't purchased yet.

I got my sewing machine fixed

I finally got the sewing machine fixed. The good news is the man who fixed it said i was better than most people who brought him dismantled machines or people who didn't use a transformer.

So what to do...the 2nd dress seemed to big a project to restart with.

I was knitting and my little double pointed needles were everywhere. i had found a lovely lady on Trademe who sold a whole set of DPs, 5 of each from size from teeny tiny UK 14 up to UK 000 for $25 for the lot. then i remembered that the knitting book i had borrowed from Rachel had a pattern for a needle holder. Well it was very successful! the slowest thing was the pockets themselves.

Squid Hat!

brace yourself, its not baby-sized. it's me sized. and no this is not my squid hat, its the original squid hat link.

i broke a rib. yes it hurts very much and while i don't do a lot at the moment i do enjoy knitting, i like the soothing feeling i get doing it. so i opened the folder of hat patterns. so many choices...which one should i go with. it ended up coming down to me missing scuba diving. A lot. all that weight and bulk, not going to work with a busted rib.

well if i couldn't scuba dive i needed something to make me feel ocean-y. lucky for me the creator of squid hat had resized it on request and posted adult sized instructions. stay tuned.

all done!

Tomato hat is done. After finally working my way through the SSK I have to admit its got an organic natural look to it. No tomato leaf I've seen was flat, they all have texture and attitude.

Its for a 6-12 month old baby so i'll have to wander over to Adele and see if it fits baby L.


With a close up of the SSK decrease

SSK - sucks, sucks, kill me

I officially dislike this stitch. It seemed so easy in all the books, slip one stitch to the working needles, then another, then put the left needle through the front of both and knit them together.

BAH!!

finally in frustration i did what any good geek grrrl of my generation would do, i hit the internet for a video. Watched it 7 times. I understood what they were doing; i even could explain in my own words what was going on but replicating it in my work while holding DP needles...well those 7 rounds took almost 2 hours. Blaise (smart man) removed himself from the couch (aka Ground Zero) after the first couple of rounds with the the comment "You really don't like that stitch."

What can i say about SSK: i know what it is, i know how to do, i have practiced it for 2 hours, i still passionately despise it.

darn you tomato hat

Trying another hat, this time its a little tomato hat

The first part was easy, just knit in the round for 29 rows adding green as you get near the top. That was the easy bit, then its into SSK which i know means slip 2 then put the left needle through the front and knit.

I did that, was supposed to end up with 63 stitches and ended up with 64 ... nuts... ok so i moved an extra one over...then it just got worse....ok try again. i worked it out on paper and it worked there. i've obviously screwed up so i'll go back to row 29 and start again.

i'll make this hat!!

How the hat should be worn

While my cat makes an excellent model (though she may disagree) she doesn't do my work justice.


However, young baby W., he wears it like a pro.