Warm feet

I have made several pairs of these felted clogs over the years. A pair for myself, gifts and house slippers for guests (we try to keep a shoe free house). I have had to darn my slippers quite a few times now and finally decided it was time for a new pair. So this week, over a couple of evenings, I whipped up this pair. And as we have a reasonable amount of water at the moment I thought I could justify a bit of felting.



They are knitted in Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 12ply in the colourways Pacifica (soles and cuffs) and Cayenne for the uppers.

And now I have warm feet again and hopefully will be able to shake off my chilblains.

Eyjafjallajökull Shawl

You know how sometimes you see a pattern and you just have to knit it to the exclusion of all else? Well this pattern from Anna Dalvi spoke to me that way. The Eyjafjallajökull Shawl. Does the name trip lightly off your tongue? Well, if you are having some difficulty then this might help you.

I wanted to knit this in a fiery red but the yarn I had was just too thin to give me the definition I wanted. And as I had to knit it now I had to find something in my stash. All that fitted the bill was this green yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills. Its a 3ply. Not sure if it's Luxury or not because I bought it from the wonderful Back Room. Needle size 4.00mm. And the shawl measures 132 cm in diameter.

I thoroughly enjoyed knitting this shawl. The pattern is easy to memorize and simply flies off the needles. Oh and this is also my ninth shawl for the 10 shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry.

Taking stock

I've reached the half way mark of my Personal Sock Yarn Club.

 

From left to right I have knitted the following: Luminare, Angee, Gail, Traveling Woman, Master Upstream and Dahlia.

I have only recently finished my June project. I followed Cat Bordhi's Upstream Master Pattern. The yarn is Heirloom Jigsaw. Its been ages since I have knitted with a self striping yarn. And take note Mary, I only managed fraternal socks despite my best efforts!

Annis

I started knitting Annis while on Kangaroo Island. I loved the feel of the Malabrigo lace because it is so buttery soft and I knew it would feel great against my skin. But as the shawl progressed I realised that a variegated yarn often doesn't go well with lace.


I persevered knowing in my heart of hearts that I should stop and frog. But as you can see I carried on to the end.


The yarn is much too busy and consequently the detail of the pattern is lost.


I thought that with the large chunk of stocking stitch that I would get away with it but unfortunately I don't think so.


I console myself that the shawl feels good. You live and learn.

And now for some knitting

While on Kangaroo Island I managed to complete two projects and start a third. First off the rank was a Saroyan shawl.

Ever since I saw a picture of this shawl I have been itching to knit it. And I found the perfect yarn for it, Bendigo Woollen Mills Persian in Silky Berry (another backroom find). I modified the pattern only slightly by knitting seven instead of six leaves on the increase and decrease sections. I'm so pleased I did because I managed to use up the entire skein.

The blocked shawl measures 203 cm x 40cm. I know the colour of this photo is all wrong. I think the sun decided to disappear at this stage.


The second project was a pair of CookieA socks, the Cubist socks. I do like her patterns and really should knit more of them. This pair was knitted with Ripples Crafts Hand Dyed sock yarn in Jess.

I was rather taken by the heels in these socks.


And finally I started my Summer Swatch Sampler. BadCatDesigns has come up with a great KAL because not only do you get the patterns for the sampler but you also get patterns for socks, mitts and hats that utilise the sampler patterns. It's a great idea - go and have a look.

I'm using some 3ply yarn I picked up at the Australian Country Spinners Millshop in Wangaratta. So far I have completed the Peacock and the Lotus patterns.

This stole calls for a provisional cast-on and I decided to try Judy's Magic Cast-on using two KnitPicks cables. This means that I can leave the stitches on a cable ready to be picked up when needed. I've done this once before and it worked a treat.