Growing...

So it started off growing, then shrinking.... now im pleased to say its mostly just growing!

Slowly turning into my coat!

I was able to get the rest of my wool in another sale, yay! It should hopefully arrive before i get through the last of this lot.

Im so into this knitting, its safe to say im obsessed at the moment. Today was my day off, and i was knitting on the couch till noon because i was 'too buisy' to even get dressed!

I love finding 'new' things to be passionate and excited about. Not that knitting is exactly new to me, i have many memories of learning and re learning to knit.

My first memory is watching my Ma knitting at her house in mt gambier, and then her teaching me how to knit a little blanket for my teddy. (i think it ended up being a bracelet because i was super impatient to have a finished project lol:). Another year her and Pop were at our house in Kadina and i remember getting up early and waiting by her bedroom door until she woke up because id messed up my knitting and needed help casting on again! (yep i was always a keen little crafter)

Oma also taught me and a few of my cousins to knit, we all started making a skarf. Im not sure if any of them ever got finished (im fairly certain mine didnt!) Honestly, the memory of learning together is worth more than any scarf. Ive always loved watching tv in the evenings at oma and opas with oma knitting away.

My mum has also taught me to knit, and ive learnt to knit from books at my old library in kadina (if i didnt look nerdy enough hanging out in a library, ripping out my knitting sure did the trick) Its kind of fun that knittings only a cool weather thing, every year its new, yet farmiliar. Every year i learn just a little more. Oh, and this year ive learnt a whole lot more

a bit of coat progress and a bit of getting distracted!

ive finished the yoke of my coat (pictured) that drapes over my shoulders and across my back.

here are a few notes for my future reference and in case anyone is interested

i cast on 32 stitches,

(p1, 16-st cable, p2, 12-st cable, p1) did wraps and turns between p2 stitches

it feels luxuriously soft! its made of Jo Sharp silkroad ultra (wool, silk, cashmere blend) in colour nero. i was very lucky to get 10 balls for $5each(less than half price!) at this wonderful sale, which was very lucky as i couldnt afford it all regular price. it means that i have to get the remainder of balls from a different dye lot but im hoping that i wont be noticable being that its black (apparently if it is it can knit from my new and old wool, swapping balls each row to make it less noticable) ive realy got no idea so i just have my fingers incredibly crossed!

ive also started knitting the body but havent taken a pic yet

whats got me so distracted you ask? well from the same shop, also just $5 a ball, i found the exact wool in the exact colour called for in the gloves pattern i got the cable for my coat from. after reading that Audrey MacDonald had based them on a charachter in lord of the rings, i knew my lord or the rings fan mum HAD to have a pair. And they are just so pretty and the wool just such a bargain that i of coarse NEED a pair too (you know, to go with my coat if i ever get back to finishing it!!)

top of half finished glove and debbie bliss cashmerino dk colour-18008

bottom of glove

and any excuse to try it on will do...

my hopefully coat to be

so now that ive finished knitting the hat from last post i decided to have a go at something a little bigger...



I searched ravelry and fell in love with some thing quite a lot bigger. and certanly a whole lot more complicated! (because there was no pattern, just a vague tutorial (part1, part2, part3 ) of a cardigan that this coat was based on, and some notes of the changes she made)

i know its just a little crazy with my lack of experience, but i went with my heart rather then my head and ive started making this coat.



because i just had to have it! isnt it beautiful?


Ive done loads of net research to get familliar with stitches and tecniques i need to know.


here is my swatch of seed stitch (moss stitch) for the arms and back

here is the cable im using for the front from these beautiful gloves
(i realise that i mised a cable on the left, i was having a few wines with bennys mum and didnt realise for a few rows so i decided that seems it was just a practice piece i could live with it!)


and this is a start of the yoke (cables at the top of the coat) in which im doing horse shoe cables and rounding it by doing short rows.


its all quite a challenge, but in a fun way. its certanly a lot easier so far than i thought it would be, and i have a fair bit of faith in myself that ill be able to manage and get it done. if not i can always unpull it all and try a different pattern.

wish me luck!!!

last weekend anneke came to visit. we had lots of fun hanging out, watching ''phych'' series dvds, sewing and cooking together

i helped anneke take up the shorts she is wearing in the photos because we opp shoped them last time she was over but they were originally longer than she wanted them. she sewed up some vw beetle cussions that had been sitting in my fabric stash pile for a long time doing nothing. the kids i look after absolutely love them, both for cuddling and ''broom broom brooming across the floor

we made apple crumble for desert

yum!

the next day we went to the beach to get bennys new budgies some cuddle fish to munch on (to sharpen their beaks i think?) benny stayed behind and we came home to a delicious lamb roast he cooked us for lunch

this is our gorgeous new nephew Dylan (bennys sisters baby), born last tuesday

my two fav boys

ive been getting back to knitting now that the weather is cooling down. this is a hurricane hat ive been workin on from my new favourite site to browse, ravelry.