Workspace Makeover

I use a corner of our lounge to do most of my crafty stuff. Up until recently it was a real mess and not at all functional.

I had limited space and a limited budget but my primary need was a big desk. I managed to pick one up for $60 on TradeMe! What an awesome buy. The desk is huge and made out of solid wood.

I also bought two three tier bookcases from The Warehouse ($25 for both) and screwed them together on top of each other to make a space saving storage unit.

The great thing is now I can push my sewing machine to the back of my desk and still have enough room to iron, draft and cut patterns, block knitted and crocheted pieces and even write letters (I should really start doing that)!

Before - MESS!

After - Beautiful!

Shere’s new sweater

I’m still here! I’ve just been so busy I haven’t had time to blog about it!!

Last week I finished Shere’s sweater… and this one fits! Shere is 17 years old and although he’s healthy he’s very thin. As Winter is approaching I get worried about him getting cold – so I thought a sweater might solve the problem.

I learnt a lot from it:

• Using DPNs
• Mirror decreases K2tog and SSK
• Stripes
• Cats, no matter how good natured and compliant really don’t appreciate sweaters!

Although Shere let me put the sweater on him, and even fell asleep with it on, his behavior became very odd while wearing it. At first he had great difficulty moving his front legs without walking cross-legged, stumbling and looking completely drunk. Then he spent a good 10 minutes trying to wash it which seemed to confuse him immensely!

Then he proceeded to jump on things – lots of things. Chairs, tables, knees, desks. And he started playing with a pen on the floor!!! – being 17 years old it’s been about 5 years since I’ve seen him do that!

This odd behaviour seemed to cease as soon as the sweater was removed. And not surprisingly he hasn’t shown a great interest in putting it back on since.

Oh well. What can you expcet when you knit your cat a sweater!!

Pattern – Cats love sweaters by Christine Landry, Yarn – Crucci Rainbow 8ply pure wool, Needles – 3.75mm DPNs

Isn’t he so CUTE!!!

Crochet Diary: Top down yoke cardi

I haven’t forgotten about it – it’s just coming very slowly, with my preoccupation to knitting and the fact that I keep on buying yarn that isn’t for this… it has gotten slightly longer since last time though…

The trouble with hanks…

The hardest part about the bainbridge scarf was undoubtedly winding the hank into a ball. And not because I lay it out on the ground and started winding (trust me, I’ve done it and it ain’t pretty!)…

No it’s because a certain someone insists on helping me!!!

Knitting Diary: Bainbridge Scarf

Yah! My Bainbridge Scarf is done and I love it!!!

Project specs:

• Yarn: Hand-dyed hand-spun 80% alpaca/20% silk (YUM) bought direct from spinner via TradeMe – Sport/DK weight. 50g used.
• Needles: 3.75mm 60cm circular (plus a 3mm crochet hook to save many a stitch!)
• Pattern: Bainbridge Scarf (free via Ravelry) with alterations kindly provided by Flintknits.

This was a great first knitting project for me (well my first if you don’t count the odd garter stitch scarf I knitted when I was a child) and I learned a lot from it…

• Using circular needles and actually knitting in the round (thanks to Kate, Susan and Libby for that!)
• Broken rib stitch/rib stitch
• Button holes – Yahoo! Finally, a hole that is supposed to be there!!
• Picking up stitches to knit the tag
• Saving dropped stitches – lifesaver!
• Going backwards (undoing stitches) to the point I stuffed up to save things!!

Interestingly and comfortingly enough it was my trusty crochet hook that kept this project on track! Dropped stitches were saved by the crochet hook, picking up stitches was made possible by the crochet hook!! Who would have thought that this knitters biggest ally would have been her beloved crochet hooks!

I should mention that at one point, on the first row of the project I did completely screw up the rib pattern, which resulted in the third row being half pretty rib, and the other half being a moss stitch mess! At this point I frogged and started again and I’m so glad I did. It was quicker than trying to change 100 stitches from purl to knit or knit to purl and if I had kept on going it would have bugged the hell out of me everytime I wore it – even if no one else could tell. So in the end it was a good investment of my time.

I also screwed up the tag a wee bit and had to redo part of that and had to move the button because I sewed it in the wrong place the first time round (it was 1am, I was tired, these things happen!).

But overall I am very happy with the finished scarf – and I still can’t believe I KNITTED it!!!

Awesome free sewing patterns!

Today I was supposed to be knitting – but then I found this fantastic site and now I’m totally engrossed in all of the beautiful FREE sewing patterns available!

If you sew you have to sign up to this site – I guess it’s kind of the sewing version of Ravelry – where you can post your creations, upload your patterns, and hang out with other like-minded (obsessed) people.

Check out this gorgeous Coffee Date Dress by the very talented elainemay. The pattern is free! Isn’t she a talented girl!

I can’t wait to make it!

So many needles!

One of the reasons I’ve resisted knitting up until this point is the shear amount of needles!

A crochet project will almost never require more than one hook. However a knitting project can require straight needles, circular needles and up to five double pointed needles!

With all these needles I was thinking I may need a convenient way to carry them all – preferably without poking holes through myself or my handbags. So I made this wee organiser for knitting on the go…. to be honest at first I thought it would house all my needles but I don’t think that will be the case for long!

I did a wee patchwork design on the exterior. I saw The Sometimes Crafter do this and I thought it was such an intereting idea that I would try it for myself!!

In other news I went to a wee knitting meet up with some fellow Raveler’s from Nelson today. It was so great!! I can’t believe how much I learned! Those girls are amazing – and if it wasn’t for them… well let’s just say my circular knitting wouldn’t be so, ahem, circular!