princessdeia

September 20th 2010
Filed under General

Over the last few weeks, Hubby and I have been watching The Wire (yes I know we are extremely late to the game in watching this show). We were lucky enough to be loaned the box sets of all five seasons by a dear friend and I wanted to make her a little something to thank her. So whilst watching the DVD’s I thought I would knit her a shawl as a thank you present.

I had some Malabrigo Lace, left over from my Swallowtail Shawl, and I knew my friend loved green, so I just had to find the right pattern. A quick search on Ravelry and I discovered the Annis Shawl, perfect as it uses up less than two-thirds of a skien. As I mentioned mainly worked on the shawl whilst watch T.V. and working on the short row stocking stitch rows was prefect T.V. knitting. What wasn’t so perfect was the casting on – it took me over one episode to cast on the 363 stitches!

October 15th 2009
Filed under Socks

At least once a year I try and do Yarnharlot’s Knitters without Borders pledge, for one week, I forgo my cappuccinos, lunches out or that extra pint in the pub, just because giving up these little luxuries for week makes no differences to me can make an amazing difference for some one else. I still get amazed when I realise how much has been raised by this concept. (At the time of writing this is is over $600, 000).

I while ago I read about the idea of of paying for patterns by pennies per hour of pleasure (or p/hop), which is an extension of this concept. The idea is simple you knit one of the patterns from the site and then donate based on how much pleasure you got from making the project.

Over the last few month, in-between making my club socks I have been working on Joy‘s Hopsox pattern, I have been keeping a record of how many hours I have been working on this project, so far I think I am about 14 hours into the pattern. I have never really “timed” myself whilst knitting so it has been quiet enlightening for me.

July 31st 2009
Filed under General

I forgot to post my progress on last week’s clue for the SMSKAL – I managed to complete the clue in one evening, only to notice an error on the first repeat so I ripped the shawl back and started again the next night!

Luckily, I had no mistakes on the third clue, however it did take a lot longer to knit (there are over 300 sts on the needle towards the end). The shawl still needs blocking but you can see the orange blossoms blooming all over this shawl.

As I needed a little side project to kill time in-between waiting for the clues to be published I opted for these Flower Cloths from Weekend Knitting. I brought this Peaches and Creme cotton over a year ago, I always intended on making this cloths, but never got around to it.

July 22nd 2009
Filed under General

I have noticed that my knitting friend seemed to have embraced the Web 2.0 more than their muggle counterparts. Whilst most of my non-knitting friends might be on Facebook, the web to them is a tool for contacting people and buying cheap goods. Whereas, my knitting friends all have have a black belt in google-fu, I think this is due to spending hours hunting for yarn alternatives or patterns. Obviously, they all have blogs, personal pages on Ravelry and more recently twitter accounts. To prove my point the only people I follow on Twitter that I know in the real world are all knitters!

When Alice announced earlier this month that she was hosting a knit-along on Twitter, it was more fuel for my case! Each Monday she posts a clue on her twitter feed and all the participants can tweet about their updates and post photos.

This is my swatch from last weeks clue using Malabrigo sock yarn, 3.75 and 4.5mm needles – I am going with the 4.5mm to open up the flowers.

March 2nd 2009
Filed under Finished Projects 2009, Socks

On Ravelry this month has been dubbed “Malabrigo March,” a chance to explore all the wonderful yarn produced by Malabrigo. Since Alice started stocking their sock yarn last autumn, I have collected a nice little stash.

On the Socktopus Board, we are having a mini malabrigo sock yarn, we selected a few patterns, then after a vote we decided on the Vinnland pattern. There is now a rebellion group that is knitting the Hourglass. I have opted to stick to the original plan and knit the Vinnland in Indiecita and hopefully if I have enough time I can cast on the Hourglass in Violeta Africana.