No she cannot really see me cause she sees her own reflection

I've been having a great time these past few weeks searching for good 'pear colours'. It has made for some slightly weird conversations with purveyors of fine hand-painted wool and also people I bump into in places where wool is sold. I think I just start muttering something about 'good pear colours...sort of organic?' and this doesn't necessarily get across the criteria that make sense in my head.

From left to right: Lincraft Prism, Sean Sheep Armytage (marmalade) - oh Big W, why don't you sell this any more?, Paton's Jet, and Cleckheaton Vintage Twist.

I also recently made a little pod carrying on the theme of Mum's pitcher. I liked that name, Donna Lee!

Upside down it makes me think of a tomato.

You never stop dancing, you don't make much sense

My scarf! Mine mine mine. The pattern is the Bryher cable scarf again. The yarn is Cleckheaton Country Naturals 8ply in a lovely dark blue. The photo below is probably the most colour-accurate.

The yarn seemed drapey and soft, but I worried that I was forcing it to be chunky and stiff by knitting it double stranded on 6.5mm needles. I thought about going up a size but decided to trust the blocking. And it worked, once washed and dried the scarf became softer and drapier just like I had hoped. I completely used 2 balls and it is only just the right length.

The buttons are a pair of very special wooden beads which have been waiting for just the right project. My sister sent them to me a few years ago and I have always loved them.

Bon anniversaire, Maman!

Spent all our days holding hands together

First there was Kuka, with her masterful Squirrely Mittens.

Then last winter I replaced my skiing gloves with mittens and was thrilled to find I had warmer, drier (less sweaty) hands all day.

The last couple of months I've been walking to the bus stop with cold hands in old, cold suede gloves, hunching my fingers into fists in the hand part of the glove to try to warm them up. Dreaming of woolly mittens.

When I came across the pronouncement that 'adults should never wear mittens' - one of a series of fashion 'don'ts' in a newspaper style section - that was just the red rag to a contrary adult that I needed.

I've been building up a little stash of 4 and 5 ply wools with stranded mittens in mind. But winter was marching on and I wanted my mittens now!

In the works-in-progress basket was the beginnings of a hat I started on last year's ski trip, in purple Cleckheaton 8ply crepe and mystery green tweedy stuff (maybe Lang something). It was going to be a fancier variation of this hat (which is done in dark green merino totem and the same mystery light green) but I had completely lost interest. So I used the two-colour ribbed band of the hat to guesstimate the number stitches I would need for my wrist and impulsively cast on. After a few rows I tried it on, and decided I had to start again with less stitches.

Each mitten only took a couple of days or so. This is largely thanks to my willingness to leave in many mistakes and miscalculations as I went along. I just wanted warm hands.

I muddled through using these instructions and charts from Mostly Mittens by Charlene Schurch. I didn't use her instructions or even use her charts properly (they definitely would look nicer with a stitch border between the thumb and the hand sections). They aren't as roomy as mittens usually tend to be. But they are pretty warm and soft.

Speaking of muddling through, see the zig-zag section on the right hand mitt?

Not supposed to be there. That's the rest of messing up only one line of the chart. Amazing how those patterns shift isn't it? That was the first mitten, and after I saw that mistake I put it aside for a couple of days, thinking I would have to redo it. Then I decided I was fine with it. I never said I was a perfectionist.

Seems that I was busy doing something close 2 nothing

The raspberry scarflet was a quickie present for my sister, just because it was easy and I thought she would like it. It's the reversible cable scarf again, this time in the sadly discontinued Cleckheaton Merino Spun. And she does seem to really like it. However, this mildly double-chinned model is me.


Last month, no, wait (aieee!) the month before now, I was at their house and showed them the blue cable scarf. My brother-in-law really seemed to dig the concept of the efficient short scarf. I have monstrous guilt about an IOU I gave him in JANUARY for a pair of socks for his birthday - the first pair were a success, and he's hard to buy for - they are in progress and not nearly finished yet. And I was in the scarf zone (ya think?). So I whipped one up in Cleckheaton Merino Supreme (also sadly discontinued). I actually made it a bit longer than I meant to but it seems to work quite well. I've seen him wearing it, around the house even, when he didn't know I was coming over. Anyone who has ever given a handmade gift would know that that's a good feeling.

I know the photo isn't great, but I wasn't about to demand that this tired pair move around to pose in better light.

All praise the sheep

After I moved out of home - away from central heating - these ugg boots were the first thing on my wish list for my birthday. Back then they were not a fashion item, at least, not unless you were part of the booner subculture. And now that I think about it, they were in on the skinny jeans trend early too.

In the thirteen years since my beloved uggs have given daily service at home for at least five months of every year. They had gotten very ventilated. I sewed them up Frankenstein-style long ago but more holes appeared since then and it had been a few years since I could wear them without socks. I also had to tie the back of the right one up with a rubber band.

Even so, it was only a couple of near misses tripping over the flapping soles and the fear of a serious injury - seriously embarassing maybe - that finally convinced me to replace them.

And I'm infatuated. Every day I look forward to coming home so I can put them on. Hey it's been a tough few weeks, and small pleasures are welcome.

I love wearing them sans socks. I wore them to the supermarket. If you look closely you might see I've already spilled something on them.

Thanks for saying lovely things about the short scarves. Here's a sneak peek of another one in the parade of scarves (not keeping this one either).

And I would walk five hundred more

Earlier this year, plans developed with three dear friends who I don't see very often. We were going to get together for a girly/ladies weekend away. The emails were flying four ways and suddenly there was mention of how it was going to be such a cold winter weekend, full of bracing winter walks, rugged up in beanies and scarves. This image was just too tempting (even though we ended up at the coast and the weather was mild) and I knew I had to make something. Three somethings, actually.

There wasn't time for full scarves. At this point I was just getting started preparing for the first market day and I knew time was going to be short.

I settled on the idea of making short scarves to be fastened with buttons. It's a pity I don't have modelled shots. They are worn a bit like Quiltingmick's neckwarmers but maybe with a little bit more 'dangle'. The idea is for it to be just enough scarf to fill the gap in a v-neck jumper or the neckline of a jacket. After struggling with my lovely, warm, enormous, long Clapotis - it's hard to avoid draping it on the floor when I suddenly become too hot on a packed bus and have to strip off - the idea of an efficient neckwarmer is very appealing. So I have one planned for me. Modelled photo to come.

Although the actual knitting didn't take too long, it took a bit of time, thinking, pattern searching, and fear to get this project done! I found picking yarn and colours for three different friends quite tricky.

I was sure I wanted them all to be different, but, would one turn out to be nicer than the others? Would I get them done in time? Could I find the right feature buttons? (And I owe thanks to DJZ and Mum for the help with that, down to the last minute.)

This is Knit Cafe's reversible cable scarf in Naturally Merino et Soie 8ply held double, modified to work for 28 stitches as described (in Ravelry) by KelK.

I didn't want to knit exactly the same pattern twice, but I liked the effect of the reversible cable scarf so much that I went looking for a similar pattern. The Bryher cable scarf fit the bill. I used Lincraft's Lima Alpaca held double with 6.5mm needles.

Once again I modified this one from 20 to 28 stitches cast on. In fact I messed up the modification and ended up with the cables not being centred. But a further mistake made it all ok. I miscounted rows and accidentally started the second set of cables at the wrong edge. This balanced things out - a pair of cables to one side, a pair to the other side, and back again to finish it off. I'm pretty sure it's Taph who suggests making a mistake into a feature by repeating it, and I've taken it to heart!

Edited to add: Obviously I was in a hurry when I picked out and knit this pattern - now that I reread it, I see that the cable is meant to be off-centre. Actually I think my mod to make the whole thing wider caused it to be more subtly off-centre. None of this really matters and I am very happy with how it turned out. I just didn't want to be misrepresenting Katie's cool pattern.



Finally, Wavy from Knitty, in Cleckheaton Country Silk, with 4mm needles. Really nice wool, especially after a bath in some hair conditioner (smelled pretty too!)

Each short scarf took less than two balls of 8ply wool, and could be easily finished in two or three evenings.

My dreams, they aren't as empty

So this is part 1 in the Great Scarves and Scarflets Project of Winter 2008. Plans to knit this scarf for a dear friend were prompted by K, so I engaged him for design assistance too. I really only wanted three stripes at each end but I was worried I wouldn't have enough grey for the length (four balls). Inevitably I ended up with some left over.

The yarn and construction method are both the same as for Dad's Collingwood scarf. Filatura di Crosa Zarina (grey) with Haven Merino 4ply for the blue stripes, knit in the round for a cosy, soft tube scarf. No fringe this time, I just sewed the ends closed after pressing it flat, and we were good to go.

And eventually I think I want one of these for me! It is a nice scarf to wear, sits really nicely. It is indeed a lot of stitches, but the Zarina in particular knits up so fast and even that it didn't take too long at all. This is one of the very few projects where I have actually been able to knit a few stitches at a time without looking down at what I'm doing.

and Other Tales

The main reason for the visit to Melbourne was to be at the opening of my sister's solo exhibition, and Other Tales, at IMP above Greville. (If you click on that link you'll see the invitation/postcard she made using a detail of one of the pieces.)


The opening went really well, lots of people gathered in the pleasant, light-filled room upstairs overlooking Greville Street, Prahran.


With Demelza's permission, here are my photos of each piece. Clicking on the pictures will take you to Flickr where you can see them in a bigger size.


1. Tea for two

The photos don't do them justice at all. They are all done on vintage linen (and the first two pieces came from our great-aunt) and are portraits of family and friends taken from candid photos. She doesn't sketch on the linen first: she simply draws with thread; that is, she hand-stitches the images. A couple of them have fabric embellishments too - see the shirt collars in 'Susie, the pink balloon and other tales'. This collection represents many hours of detailed work. When I saw it all set up in the gallery I couldn't have been more proud and delighted.

2. Edie and I


3. Susie, the Pink Balloon and Other Tales


4. Saturday


5. Sunday


6. Nate


7. Horse and zebra

Edited to add: The last day of the exhibition is this Sunday 27 July.

I'm just feeling like I'm getting caught up on my normal life after a few weeks of change and activity and a bit of travel. Oy, Melbourne was the weekend before last!