Knitting. Finally.

Well, that was an unintended month long hiatus. I've mostly been working I think, and swimming, and going to Auckland, and singing along with our Christmas show that closed last night after 13 performances. And, most importantly, knitting. The knitting deserves its own post so I'll save a general update/photographic essay of the last month for next time.

The arrival of the baby for whom the Pebble vest was intended gave me a helpful push to get it finished (push, oh the comedy). So...

Voila! It was so easy to knit and I got to sew buttons onto knitting for the first time and once it was washed and blocked it looked all even and beautiful. I still love the colour and Theodore looks so cute wearing it (I haven't seen it on him in real life yet but Alex sent me a heaps cute photo). 

The buttons aren't quite what I'd have chosen if there was more choice, but I was in a hurry to get it finished so that he wouldn't outgrow it before he even got it, and Knit World in town didn't have a very big selection. They're fine though, purpley, kind of shiny and almost Paua shell patterned.

But, what's made me feel like an actual knitter is the booties. I knew when I finished them a few months ago that the bind off was quite tight, and sure enough, when Cam tried to put them on Teddy's feet it didn't seem like it was going to work. So I took them home and decided to try to unpick the bind off and bind them off more loosely. Then, I had the idea to knit a couple of rows in rib, because rib is much stretchier. And it worked! 

You can't really see the rib rows very clearly in this artful foliage photo, but they were tested this afternoon and are a success. It's like I know what I'm doing or something.

Sickeningly hip

I'm quite in love with the Hipstamatic and Instagram apps on my new phone. I know, it's embarrassing. I'm becoming more of a stereotype every day. It's just that they automatically make everything seem more interesting/are more forgiving than normal photos. 

I started my new job this week, hence the first day flowers. I've got a new closest cafe (given I'm now down the other end of town) where I can't help but read the horoscope stuck on the coffee machine each day. I got last day flowers from my old job, which were very nice.

In between seeing the third year solos at Toi and the first STAB show at BATS and the opera tonight (which I quite liked, although it is weird hearing it sung in English, they seem to randomly repeat sentences and words, sometimes multiple times, which you don't notice so much when it's in a foreign language), I went bridesmaid dress shopping with my friend Hayley who I'm being a bridesmaid for next year (I always said I'd sing a particular song at her wedding so I'd better get practising), had Baby Knitters Club and babysat (which is where the second photo is from).

Thanks to BKC and babysitting, I have finally made some more progress on the Pebble vest. I'm really liking knitting it, it's very straightforward so far. I don't want to jinx it but I feel like it just might be ready before the baby is.

This weekend I'm going to Mary Poppins the musical in Auckland. I am very excited.

Pairing Up

I finally finished my first pair of booties! Now if Alex's baby has two feet, there will be a bootie for each one. These particular booties are actually really easy to make, once you figure out the weirdly confusing abbreviation that looks like a yarn forward (aka a yarn over) but actually means 'bring the yarn to the front between the needles'.

Anita finished a hat, which I have taken a really poor photo of. Sorry Anita. It's really cute though and that striping is impressive.

Now Anita has started a jersey (she is so winning and it annoys me), and I think I am going to start a sleeveless vest-type thing. I need to do some research. Slowly but surely we are going to knit this baby a wardrobe. It may contain only one full set of clothes, but babies can't talk so he won't be able to complain.

Birthday eve

I got home to a great surprise tonight - fairy bread, freshly baked biscuits, and balloons scattered around the room. This bodes well for good birthday tomorrow.

I spent last weekend in the Wairarapa. My little brother and I saw The Avengers (a film I had no desire to see, but I can't say no to Hunter, so off we went and it wasn't actually as bad as I thought, it was pretty funny and I especially loved The Incredible Hulk) and on Sunday it was my cousin Maggie's fifth birthday. I helped ice cupcakes, make a treasure hunt, and eat a lot of coconut ice. Maggie wore a Snow White outfit and was very cute. I'm not sure whether she was that impressed by my present of two Milly-Molly-Mandy books, but too bad. I used to like MMM when I was little. And MMM and Maggie basically have matching dark haired bob cuts. What's not to like?

On Tuesday night we had the second Baby Knitters Club at which, once again, I knitted and everyone else played boardgames. Until I was required to stop knitting to make an even number for Cranium. But at least bootie number two is started. I feel like I'm making the same mistake I made last time when I had to rip it out and start again, but I can't remember what that mistake was. Also Kate laid out a spread to rival all knitting spreads - bread, lamingtons, chippies, all these different teas. If anyone wants to go play shops with her, I think she'd be up for it.

Last night it was the V48 Hours Wellington finals. Our film made it into the finals and it was fun watching the other 11 films and seeing ours again after a few weeks. The Wellington winner definitely deserved to win. It was a horror about a zombie family during a human attack. It managed to be about zombies and be funny, clever, and touching all at the same time. The make-up was pretty impressive too.

I would also just like to note that in the past two years I have learned to use chopsticks pretty proficiently, learned to parallel park excellently, flown to the other side of the world and back all by myself, changed who I work for twice, moved house three times, brought another play into the world with two of the best comedy collaborators around, been to many, many excellent shows and gigs (and quite a few not as great ones), been to two music festivals and had the greatest time, finished knitting a pair of pretty great socks that I'm now too proud of to wear, and lots of other stuff I can't think of right now.

In some ways, two years has felt like a long time. But probably not as long as learning to read feels like. I will end with the words of Maggie, after her first school visit:

'Mum, when will I wake up and know how to read?'

The Baby Knitters Club is BACK (and other less interesting stuff)

My number one comedy partner and psychic twin is currently incubating a foetus. Which sounds disgusting but is actually really exciting. This bootie was begun way back in July last year and abandoned due to PARIS. That seems like a very long time ago now. By the time I got back from my month-long holiday, the baby I was knitting it for seemed like old news and I lost interest in finishing it, let alone knitting its mate.

But now, I am going to knit so many baby things and force Alex to dress her baby in them. It's going to be great.

I had trouble with this first bootie, I ripped the first version out, so hopefully I can remember how I got it right so I can knit a matching one.

Last weekend was Queen's birthday weekend. Alex and I had a marathon classic movie Sunday -

Pulp Fiction: FINALLY. Pulp Fiction was one of the reasons classic movie Sunday started, but Ed watched the copy I bought him for his birthday without me so it fell by the wayside. Alex has seen Pulp Fiction numerous times, the first time she was aged nine, which I cannot comprehend. I couldn't cope with parts of it and I am almost 25. I really enjoyed it though, I can see why it's such a modern classic - the sequencing of the storytelling, the humorous, everyday dialogue combined with some very heavy action and events. I particularly loved John Travolta and I learned a lot about hard drugs.

The Big Lebowski: This was not a planned classic movie, we just couldn't be bothered leaving the house to go across the road to Aro Video. It is strange and funny.

Raising Arizona: I meant to go home, but this got put on and I ended up watching the whole thing (I really extended my knowledge of the Coen brothers back catalogue on this particular Sunday). Holly Hunter is so watchable. Fact: this movie was released the year I was born.

Then, on Monday, I went to the City Gallery to catch Obstinate Object before it finished. It was very cool, a pretty eclectic mix of sculptures that, it could be argued, show that anything is art.

I loved Philip Beesley's Hylozoic Series: Vesica. You went into a small-ish black room and hanging from the ceiling were all these vine, leaf, and flower-like things. It was like being in a surreal forest. And when you touched a wire hanging down from some of the flower-like things, they would light up and move, with a little engine-type thing whirring and sending a vibration down the wire. It was so fun.

Then, Kelly and I went to a Devonshire tea screening of The Queen at the Roxy. I wore my pearls and my royal blue cardigan (although, I essentially just looked like a National voter). I hadn't seen The Queen before, I found it pretty interesting - once you got past the weird casting of Prince Charles and the Queen Mum. I got a bit emotional watching all the real footage from the time of Diana's death - people crying in the streets, all the flowers. You can never really know how accurate something like The Queen is in terms of conversations members of the royal family have and how they relate to each other behind closed doors, but it would be a strange way to live. It made me think about the less endearing side of Diana and just how much the Queen has lived through.

So many movies. I don't know why I feel the need to document them all. 

Gonna shout it from the mountain top, a star is born!

Unrelated title today. Because I can. And it's what popped into my head.

Last night's Monday night Knitting Circle was big! Again! The last two weeks have seen about 15 people in attendance and because Anita and I tend to run on the late side (usually my fault; okay, always my fault), we have had to sit apart from the group. That will teach us (well, me). Although it did mean we got to sit on a couch, so there are two sides to the coin.

I don't have a photo of my sock. Because really, it still looks the same. Just longer. And only slightly. I have to get it to 7 inches in length before I start the heel flap and honestly, I feel like I didn't make any progress last night. Even though I sat there and knitted many rows, when I got my tape measure out I was expecting to be almost there and still had nearly 2 inches to go. Sigh.

Anita is knitting a baby 'cap' for a baby that was born while she was in England. Not just any baby of course as I'm sure lots of babies were born while she was in England and she can't knit caps for them all; this is a baby whose parents she knows. She's using a pattern from Vintage Knits for Modern Babies, one of my birthday books. The baby is a boy so she's using yarn with pale blue, yellow, and green flecks. Apologies for the terrible photo, the lighting wasn't great and my camera isn't either. Christmas list here we come!



You can just see in the bottom right corner the finished product (which obviously isn't seamless but I guess it could be if you knit it on circulars). It's so cute with the little swirled effect and the moss stitch band. Apparently moss stitch is actually very easy which I am pleased to hear because it looks cool. I think the edging on the little shrug Nikki posted about today is in moss stitch - speaking of which, that little shrug is so cute! I love the colour.

Now Anita just has to knit the cap quickly because the baby is already a month old...

Seems easy, seams hard

On Sunday evening I sat down to start another leaf and was gripped by the sudden urge to start sewing the seams up on the Baby Shrug. As I have been avoiding it for so long now I thought I'd better make the most of the urge and get to it. I followed the instructions for seaming using the mattress stitch in The Bible and it was like magic!


It took ages because I am slow and am a perfectionist so I only got one side seam done but I was really happy with it! I decided to carry on at Monday night Knitting Circle, which is when it turned to custard. The seams for the arms have to be done a different way because the seams aren't vertical, they are horizontal. According to The Bible that means I need to seam them as illustrated here (on the piece of green knitting). But I kept getting a big fat lumpy mess.


I pulled it apart and tried again a million times (well, it felt like a million) and after much craft rage, I pulled it back to where it looked okay and left it there. I can't remember how I was doing it to begin with but I'm sure I suffered mini-amnesia and changed what I was doing and that's why it started getting lumpy and ugly. Whyyyyyyyyyyy? It has totally put me off. But at the same time I want to finish the damn thing. Ahhh craft rage, so frustrating.

Last night was Anita's last Monday night Knitting Circle for six whole weeks. She's off to England and I have challenged her to visit one of these yarn shops and send me photos:

I Knit London

Loop

All the Fun of the Fair

I just searched 'yarn shops London' and chose the ones that looked the coolest. I hope she rises to the challenge but if she doesn't, I expect a really good birthday present to make up for it.

Anita has finished her first arm warmer - kind of. I think she should knit the thumb as per the pattern to finish them properly. But it involves using 5 dpns and she is not keen.


It looks awesome anyway and I know she is going to find the will to knit the second. Aren't you Anita? Yes you are. She started it last night so hopefully with continued pressure the one completed arm warmer will become part of a pair.

The show starts again tonight after the usual Sunday/Monday break and we got a great review in The Dominion Post yesterday which is nice and will hopefully boost bookings. But with such crappy weather today it's a wonder anyone would want to leave their house. Here's hoping though!

News from the knitting front

Well, if you needed any more proof that Monday night Knitting Circle is cool - apart from the fact that you get to sit around knitting and talking to people - then perhaps some complimentary bar food would close the case for you.

Last night a slightly smaller collection of knitters (and some crocheters) than usual were stitching and chatting away (there's not really much bitching that goes on as far as I know) when one of the Southern Cross staff came over with a bowl of fries, a bowl of wedges, and some garlic bread and told us these were complimentary to say thanks for being regulars. Score! What would have been an inexpensive gesture on their part made for some happy knitters last night.

In amongst burning my fingers on super hot garlic bread, learning about tree planting in Canada and how it's a bit of a rite of passage for many Canadian young people, and discussing how the houses of pioneers in the harsh winters of the Canadian wilderness were probably warmer than most New Zealand houses in winter today (Anita and I were sitting by a Canadian and a French Canadian), I finished edging the Baby Shrug.


It is cuuute, if I do say so myself, and I am so proud. Look at that edging go! Of course it isn't perfect but it's pretty damn good for a first timer! I still have to sew it up, which I'm told isn't the easiest of tasks, but I'm prepared to do it over a few times if I have to because after all this time and effort I don't want some shoddy stitching to ruin what's taken me so long to finish.

In other knitting news (I'm a bit hesitant to say this in case it all turns to custard tomorrow when I meet with the manager, but oh well) I think I might have finally found a cafe willing to host a Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event in June! Hurrah. After first beginning to look into it in January and working away quietly on it ever since, it seems at least one cafe manager can bother responding to me (it took a visit, an email, and then another follow-up email) and meeting with me to discuss the finer details. Fingers and needles crossed!

Te Papa was really keen to host it but it is smack bang in the middle of their Matariki celebrations and an exhibition opening so they are too busy. But seeing as their events manager is keen on a 'stitch and wine' evening I have suggested maybe organising one for July and combining it with a visit to the exhibition, Paperskin.

Possibilities, possibilities. Hopefully they become realities, realities.

Tales from Monday night Knitting Circle

Last night I broke the knitting drought of over a week and my Monday night Knitting Circle drought of two weeks and it was good. Although, it's now dark when Anita and I walk to the Southern Cross at about 7pm. It used to still be light when we walked home at around 9pm. Winter is really on its way.

In my hour and half I did the ribbed edging on one of the Baby Shrug sleeves. The bit that takes me the longest is picking up the stitches, and even then it's when I have to turn, say, 40 stitches into 30 stitches. It isn't easy for my maths intolerant brain.



It's getting so close to the end now though. Only the edging on the other arm to go and then I'm ready to attempt my first ever sewing up of a garment!

Anita bravely continued with the very difficult arm warmer pattern she's started knitting. She's using awesome coloured yarn from Knitsch.


She rolled that ball from a skein all by herself! I have a skein of Knitsch yarn myself that I bought because the skein looked so much prettier and more grown up than the pre-rolled balls. I was worried about how I was going to make it into a ball when the time came but as long as Anita is around I need not fear because her ball looks so well done.

Penny was knitting some baby booties from the same pattern Anita used in a great green. What with her golden scarf and now this, Penny is proving she is brave and bold when it comes to colours and I like it!

She is also so organised that she colour coordinated her top with her knitting

Penny is knitting these booties for a very special new arrival - her niece Phoebe was born on Saturday. Phoebe's Mum came to Monday night Knitting Circle a couple of times with Penny - before sitting in the same position for long periods of time got too uncomfortable. She was furiously knitting all sorts of cute baby outfits so with her Mum's and her aunty Penny's knitting efforts combined, little Phoebe is going to be the best dressed baby in town!

In unrelated news, I went to a flat warming on Saturday night where everyone sat outside (so really it should have been a garden warming) and kept warm around this:


An old washing machine inner turned into a brazier. I hadn't seen one of these before, it's such a good idea and a very effective outdoor heater!

So. The Baby Shrug.

I made great progress on the ribbed edging on the back of the Baby Shrug on Easter Sunday when I was in Christchurch. Then I ripped it all out when I returned to Wellington and started again. Ripping it out wasn't such a big deal, it was only the row of picked up stitches and then about two or three rows of ribbing. It was still a bit heartbreaking though because picking up those stitches took me a good while. But I hadn't picked up the stitches right to the very edges (I started about a stitch or two in on either end because it was hard to get the stitches from the very the edges) and while I thought it wouldn't be a problem, I realised after I had done it that when I came to sew it together it wouldn't match up nicely and I just wasn't happy with it.

Because rehearsals for Tea for Toot are in full swing

An awesome flyer designed by the amazing Ed

I haven't had much time for knitting, but I did get the edging on the back of the Baby Shrug done on Friday night while hanging in the hotel room with Mum in Auckland. After dinner we went to the cinema on Queen Street to see if there was anything on we wanted to watch but there wasn't so we had some gelato and went back to the hotel to read and knit.


It's okay but I'm not entirely happy with it. I'm still not sure why when beginning the Baby Shrug you cast on only 8 stitches, pearl a row, then cast on 10 stitches at the beginning of the next 4 rows after that. It doesn't seem to have served any purpose other than making the bottom edge of the back look crooked or lopsided or something.


Oh well. It's staying as it is.

I haven't been to Monday night Knitting Circle for two Mondays in a row now so I'm feeling a bit knitting-deprived. The Easter Monday I got back from Christchurch Guy was really keen to go to the movie Boy so Anita, my flatmate Lauren, Guy and I all went. It took a bit of convincing for me to ditch knitting for the movies but I really wanted to see Boy so it won out in the end. I enjoyed Boy but it was a lot sadder than I expected (having seen the trailer). Then last night we had a Tea for Toot rehearsal to make up for Sunday's rehearsal that couldn't happen because I was gadding about in Auckland. So I'll have to wait until NEXT Monday for my Knitting Circle fix.

Tomorrow night Guy and I are babysitting for some friends of his so I might get a chance to do the edging on one of the Baby Shrug sleeves. I hope so because now I reeeally want to get it over and done with so I can start something else!

Eeeeeeee!

That's the sound of excitement...

Front edging done! And I am so proud of it. I tried my darndest to cast off a lot more loosely than usual and I think I succeeded. I'm now filled with vigour for starting the edging on the bottom of the back and it's a rainy, chilly evening here in North Canterbury so it's the perfect weather for picking up stitches.

It's also the perfect weather for quinces cooked in red wine, honey, cinnamon, and cloves for five hours in the slow cooker. I'd never had a quince before today but a friend's mother who lives down here gave me one to try that she'd cooked in her special recipe. It was quite delicious so she gave me about 10 quinces off her tree, told me her 'recipe' (a bit of this, a splash of that etc), and I decided to give it a go myself. I think I put a bit much red wine in, but then, some might argue you can never put too much red wine in. It's surely nothing a good dollop of ice cream can't fix anyway.

Progress

It's not perfect, but it's happening.

After many a Craft Anger filled hour I finally picked up all the stitches I needed to around the front edges of the Baby Shrug and started knitting the ribbed edging.

Part of the reason it took so long is I am not very good at maths and so picking up 27 stitches from 38 proved taxing on the maths part of my brain. If I picked up every stitch it was (obviously) too many; if I picked up every second stitch it was too little; so I tried to make it up as I went along and ended up having to re-do bits of it twice because I had picked up too many stitches too soon. But I got there! So now once I've finished the edging on the front I only have to pick up the stitches on the bottom back and the cuffs.

Ahhh only...

Ashford adventure

Yesterday I arrived in Christchurch at 9.10am after a smooth flight. Mum and I got some brunch and then visited the Hands Ashford craft shop in Christchurch which has all kinds of crafty goodness. I bought some proper eye buttons for my rag doll and Mum bought my little cousin a kit set doll's house that was on sale for her 3rd birthday coming up in June. I'm going to buy her a little Sylvanian family to go with it and maybe some furniture. Sylvanian stuff is SO cute (again with the tiny things, I just love them).

Then we headed to Ashburton to the Ashford craft village.

I think my expectations were a bit too high because I wasn't hugely impressed by it - the yarn in the Ashford craft shop was all pretty much the same as you could get anywhere else but their own brand, Ashford Tekapo, had some cool colours.

The other two shops that were open in the little 'shopping village' weren't very exciting and the cafe's milkshakes were pretty much flavoured milk with froth at the top. A disappointing milkshake can really bring you down. I'm glad we went though because what I loved was the big old house which is home to the craft shop, museum, and cafe. Built in 1914 as the Mill House it is huge as you can see here:

It was full of beautiful wood and I'm a fan of old houses anyway so I was very impressed.

There were a wealth of spinning wheels and some cool examples of weaving:

The biggest surprise of the day was that Mum decided she might like to knit something again - for the first time in at least 22 years because I have never, ever seen her knit. She tells me she knitted my Dad a jersey when they were first married and it took her forever and then he came home one day and had lost it. Mum said, 'If he didn't like it he could have just told me, he didn't have to pretend to lose it'. She said she didn't knit anything again after that because she didn't want anyone else to lose something she'd put so much time and effort into. Probably lucky because I was a very fussy child, for a couple of years when I was at primary school I suddenly refused to wear undies because they were 'too tight'. A strange and fussy child.

This is Mum's pattern and wool choice, a simple one-button cardigan and a really nice teal:


I bought one ball of wool, but I can't reveal its intended purpose just yet because it's closely related to something I bought for Anita. Here's the colour though, just a nice blue.


I found a book I would have really liked to get, Vintage Knits for Modern Babies, especially as when Mum was looking through it she said, 'I had a pixie cap just like this one!' and it was very very cute. The book has really clear patterns labelled beginner/intermediate/advanced and so many cute things to knit. I think it will have to go on the birthday list as it's about $50.00.

Overall a nice day out. It's really hot here in North Canterbury, tonight I'm looking forward to Project Runway and I might try to enthuse myself about picking up some more stitches on the Baby Shrug.

'Craft Anger' and a rare species

The Baby Knitters Club has been hit by a new epidemic sweeping these parts...Craft Rage. Anita witnessed it when she was at my house on Sunday and I was sewing the doll and then we both fell prey to it last night at Monday night Knitting Circle.

Some people find craft/sewing/knitting etc relaxing. We are not those people. How could anyone be when after about an hour and half, the sum total of your progress is this:

Yup, that's 26 stitches right there. 22 of them picked up. I spent a long time figuring out how to do it and then figuring out if I was doing it right. Then I spent even longer doing it.


I still have this much to go:

Yup, that's all around the front, the bottom of the back, and the cuffs. Hello Easter, I know what I'll be doing for the majority of my long weekend.

My long weekend is actually extra long because I'm taking tomorrow and Thursday off work and going down to stay with my Mum until Monday. She lives on a dairy farm in Hurunui, an hour out of Christchurch. There's not a lot to do on a dairy farm when you refuse to work on it (I can occasionally be coaxed into getting the cows in in the afternoon but that's as far as I'll go. I spent the summer after 7th form milking cows and working on a farm full-time and I am never, ever, doing it again, especially not in a rotary cow shed which is what the farm they now own has. In retrospect, I can't even believe I did it. Give me the clean, leisurely life of an office job any day!) so it will give me plenty of time for picking up stitches.

Before heading out to the farm, however, Mum and I going on a very exciting field trip to the Ashford Craft Village in Ashburton. Home of the Ashford Spinning Wheel, there's a museum, a cafe, and shops (including a craft shop with wool - a purchase will surely have to be made) set in apparently lovely surrounds. I am really looking forward to it. First, I just have to get through the flight...

Finally, I am very privileged to be allowed to present the only known photo of the rare and shy species known as the 'Big Foot Baby Bootie' (mentioned last week):

Seen here next to a regular sized baby bootie, its true scale and magnificence is breathtaking.