01.28.09
Roses
We had these lovely roses in our garden which I enjoy taking photos of. These were taken as RAW files and processed in Iphoto. All taken with my Sony a200 with a marumi close up filter.
True Love Rose
True Love Rose with Rain
TP holding Rose
01.25.09
Kusha Kusha Scarf
Last weekend I took a visit to South Seas knitting to purchase the yarn for my Kusha Kusha Scarf. I was really excited about this project, the whole idea of stainless steel yarn and the sculptural nature of it really appealed to me. Upon returning home and checking the Kusha Kusha group out on Ravelry I found that I had not brought enough of the silk stainless steel, I had seen most had only used 1 cone of it so that is what I had priced the scarf on and worked out that I could justify a NZ$29 scarf. If I had have noticed that those that used just 1 cone had purchased the kit from Habu Textiles which comes with a cone of the silk stainless which is 1 oz rather than the .5 oz that I had purchased I would never even entertained the idea of this scarf for me, NZ$48.50 is nowhere near my budget.
Left 1/20 silk stainless steel colour 4, Right 2/48 merino wool colour 54
I guess I started off with a sour taste in my mouth, all my fault of course, about this project. I figured that as the scarf is designed 62″ long and at just over 5′ I don’t really need a scarf that long so I went about working out how long I could do with only half the amount of silk stainless. It all got too much and I thought stuff this I’m just going to knit. Knitting hasn’t really been as hard as I had read it could have been, my knit pick needles allow the yarn to slip really smoothly and apart from the initial cast on I haven’t had any challenge knitting with the fine yarns.
3" knitted on US#8 needles
One strand of each yarn held togeather
So I haven’t really been able to settle to this project, I would like to wear it next weekend to a party but I don’t know if next week will bring a new desire to finish this. I hope it does but at the moment I just keep looking at other projects I could start.
01.18.09
Cropped Cardigan Finished
I said 2 weeks and I was one day over, but that was because I didn’t pick up my knitting at all this past week until last night. The cardigan has been finished with the K2 P2 rib around the neckline to make it a little narrower then it was and I had to move the buttons over as it is a bit too big. I guess I shouldn’t have cast on so many stitches for the fronts, but it still works. I will try to get a photo of it on the recipient some time soon.
01.13.09
Bento
This past weekend while out and about in town we called in for a bite to eat at Umi Sushi in the Atrium. It had a great range of japanese food which got Lossy and myself thinking about bento and what we could make for lunches. After a bit of research on the internet that night I found a couple of really good links along with a Raverly group. So I got all organised on Sunday afternoon and made our first bentos for Monday.
First up on the left we have Lossy’s with two shaped eggs, one was a heart the other a teddy. Then a Onigiri with pumpkin seeds on top, mandarin, strawberries, capsicum, plum & nectarine. Mine on the right has a star shaped egg, Mandarin, blueberries, nectarine, Onigiri with avocado, and a beetroot and carrot salad, which leaked all over me.
01.11.09
Cardigan update
I have started the sleeves on the cropped cardigan for Besty, I am doing them in the round so I look forward to sitting down after dinner and swapping over to magic loop it on the new needles. Below is a detail of the picot hem, I’m really happy with how neat the finishing is looking, I just hope I have made it the correct length.
01.08.09
Christmas Refresh
Today before heading off to work I received a courier package from Vintage Purls, and it was just like hitting refresh on the browser for Christmas. This is what I had been waiting for since placing my order on the 29th but well worth the wait. I only had to wait because Vintage Purl was on a well earned break over Christmas / New year and come back on the 5th, so really the wait was just 2 days. I was so excited with them I couldn’t wait to get home tonight and give them a try. I so want to try the crochet hook end, I think it will be great for picking up stitches around neck lines etc, I’ll let you know how that goes.
01.04.09
New Year
Another year has started and I am shocked to find that 1 year ago today I started this blog. I normally have trouble sticking to things so am pretty proud of myself for sticking this out for a year.
The new year has been rather productive for me, I placed my hooded scarf on the back burner for a little while to make a birthday pressent for Besty. Her birthday has been and gone, but I had no idea what to give her so I gave her some time. She lacks time so I thought she would appreciate it and she did. I made up two little vouchers for knitting labour, one for a garment and one for an accessory. I gave them to her over a latte at our local café, straight away she was thinking of what she wanted and only hours later she had been out to buy the yarn and was dropping it back to me with the pattern choice.
So my latest project is The Cropped Cardigan with Leaf Ties by Stefanie Japel in Moda Vera Linen Mode. It is a top down raglan so there are 264 or so stitches on my needles currently but I’m making pretty good time. I’m going to go our on a limb here and say that I think it should take me around 2 weeks all going well as it is a rather easy pattern.
