Paisley Womble

Soulful Spike meets Roza's Socks

2012-01-15T12:16:00.001+11:00

Soulful Spike meets Roza's Socks, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I kept things pretty simple for my January socks and the result? I've finished my first pair in 15 days. This gives me a bit of leeway for the more complicated socks that are planned for later in the year.
So far I've kept to my goal of knitting at least a little bit each day. Tonight I will be plugging away at the never-ending orange cardi, but for now, I'm off to a cooking lesson. S's amma is giving us a Sri Lankan cooking class. I'm hoping that hoppers will feature.

1 sock down. 23 to go.

2012-01-10T09:47:00.001+11:00

1 sock down. 23 to go., originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I'm on schedule (or maybe even a little bit ahead, which could give some wriggle room down the track).
I'm going to try and knit every day - even if it's only a couple of rounds - to try and keep the pace up.

12 pairs of socks in 2012. On your marks...

2012-01-01T08:58:00.001+11:00

12 pairs of socks in 2012. On your marks..., originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Happy New Year.
I'm all set to start my 2012 project. The first few days of the year are threatening to be hot as Hades (35C today, 40C tomorrow and 35C again on Tues) so my January socks are being knit in cotton (Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Candy).

Six Books Project 2011 done

2011-12-15T13:35:00.000+11:00

Another Six Books Project is completed. There's no modelling shot of the pink socks as they are a present for a little someone with much smaller feet than I.
Somewhat accidentally, this year's projects mostly ended up being socks. Some of my planned projects didn't go ahead, but I have completed six projects from previously-un-used knitting books in my stash.

Floral Lace Anklets from Lace Style
Good Plain Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules!
Denmark Socks from Knitting on the Road
Cable Top Socks from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles
Brattleboro Hat from New England Knits
Wedge Socks from Knit. Sock. Love.

See the projects on Ravelry.

So what's my challenge for next year? I may regret this, but I'm going to try and make 12 Pairs of Socks in 2012.

matchy matchy quilt and bag

2011-12-10T16:20:00.001+11:00

Made for a friend's little girl who is not well. She's 4 and she loves pink.

Not being a huge pink fan myself, I was amazed to find how much pink I had in my fabric stash.

Shoe Inventory 2011

2011-11-02T14:00:00.001+11:00

Shoe Inventory 2011, a set on Flickr.

More than last year, but not by much.

Last year's count was 42, this year it's 44. I've scored some gorgeous new shoes this year, including two pairs of gorgeous Fluevogs and some blue suede shoes (for channelling my inner Elvis?).

One of my colleagues has pipped me at the post though. She leapt from 39 last year to 53 at the present count.

Vindication!

Stripey sock Saturday

2011-10-22T11:05:00.001+11:00

Stripey sock Saturday, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Six Books Project 2011 project number 5 done and dusted.
Two months and nine days left to do one more project. Should be a doddle?

What tree is this?

2011-10-21T20:04:00.001+11:00

What tree is this?, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Any arborists out there?

I walk past this tree on my way home from the station and I think the foliage is so pretty. It's a deciduous tree. This is the fresh spring leaf growth and it has a smattering of fuzzy white flowers.

Vitamin C in progress

2011-10-20T17:54:00.001+11:00

Vitamin C in progress, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

So this is a reasonable illustration of a snippet of my days at the moment. I'm slowly plugging away on the Vitamin C cardigan (we had a small incident with not reading the instructions super closely enough and consequently having to rip an almost completed sleeve back to the arm pit... ahem...). I got fed up (boom boom) with Lite N Easy meals all the time so I'm trying to cook for myself more, hence the appearance of Nigella's wonderful book "How to Eat" on the coffee table, with pages marked. And I've started watching Lark Rise to Candleford which is a delight.

Waiting for the train

2011-10-18T16:53:00.001+11:00

Waiting for the train, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I have a new toy. My sadly neglected blog may find itself plagued with iPhone snaps of daily mundanity (which probably isn't a word).

of cats, copha, coconut and smurfs

2011-10-02T12:43:00.000+11:00

I'm not a close follower of football, but yesterday was the AFL grand final so I headed off to C&D's place to watch the big game on their big screen. I made some blue and white coconut ice in an attempt to replicate the Geelong colours. (Navy food colouring didn't appear to be stocked in my local Safeway)

I struggled to cut it neatly and ended up with a lot of leftover crumbs. It looks a bit like I got a bit carried away and put a Smurf in the blender.

For the record, Geelong won the match much to the general delight of the room and the kids were successfully told that this blue and white stuff was not "cake" and we thus avoided the joy of toddlers on sugar highs racing around the house.

New cardigans

2011-09-17T15:03:00.000+10:00

Just as winter comes to a close and the warmth of spring is starting to make itself felt, I've churned out a quick but cozy cardigan in some 12 ply wool crepe that I got in the bargain packs at the Morris and Sons sale in July.
I'm loving the designs that Veera Välimäki is coming out with at the moment. This is my black version of her Golden Wheat Cardigan.

And a new cardigan is now on the needles. As voted for by blog readers and personal emails, work has commenced on the Vitamin D cardigan in orange. A Vitamin C, if you will.

bags are my bag baby

2011-08-28T12:31:00.003+10:00

A few years ago I made bag for SeaBreeze.

It has been so well used that it no longer looks like this. The fabric is worn through in various spots and looking rather grubby.

So I was asked for a new bag "just like it". The original bag was improvised both in fabric choice and size and I didn't feel that I could re-produce the bag satisfactorily, so when Noodlehead published her new "Go Anywhere Bag" pattern last week, I thought it might produce a pleasing alternative.

Just like the original? No, but I hope its more sophisticated stylings will suit the new owner.

decision

2011-08-15T13:36:00.002+10:00

Right. Counting up the votes on the blog and the votes canvassed via private email, it was a fairly close result.

Vitamin D - 6 votes

Celery - 4 votes

So Vitamin D in orange it is.

I still plan to make the Celery cardigan at some stage. Perhaps I should find some green wool for that.

The last word goes to my step-dad who emailed me this little gem.

"Replace the orange wool with another colour or find a pattern called "Carrot".

WSF

Knitting Fuehrer"

decisions decisions

2011-08-09T17:53:00.002+10:00

The global financial crisis part two may be crashing down around our heads whilst chaos and madness reign, but I need your assistance with my first world problem.

I have some bright orange wool with which I plan to make a cardigan. I've narrowed it down to 2 "healthy-sounding" designs, but I can't decide which one.

So I'm canvassing opinions and/or votes.

Celery:

Vitamin D

Much better

2011-08-08T08:31:00.001+10:00

Photo 58, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

The extra length sits much better I think.

Striped

2011-07-26T12:50:00.001+10:00

IMG_1542, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Cataloguing is a big part of my day job so I was really tickled by Felix's concept for adding meta-data to finished objects. I ordered a couple of her meta-badges and they arrived yesterday.
This is my latest finished cardigan. It has now been tagged with a "Striped" meta-badge.

all set

2011-07-16T16:19:00.001+10:00

IMG_1526, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Gryffindor socks - tick
New blue suede shoes - tick
Re-listen to Stephen Fry read HP and the Deathly Hallows - tick
Re-watch Deathly Hallows pt 1 on dvd - in progress
I'm just about ready to head out to see the grand Potter finale.

Thursday morning cardi

2011-07-14T15:25:00.002+10:00

DSC03638, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Well, we're half-way through winter and I've finished this year's winter cardi. It's toasty warm, snug-fitting and I'm loving it with my newish "skinny" black jeans.

Note to self: How about moving the clothes horse out of the background next time you attempt self-portraiture?

What you can't see in the picture is my Eiffel Tower earrings in honour of it being Bastille Day (le quattorze juillet).

Sock Washing Day

2011-06-24T12:35:00.001+10:00

IMG_1519, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

The hand-wash-only socks tend to accumulate until I get around to doing a big batch.

Wagga-ish

2011-06-19T10:37:00.001+10:00

IMG_1492, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

A long-standing UFO is U no more. If memory serves me correct, I pieced this quilt about 8 years ago. And I may well have pieced the back and sandwiched it then as well. Then it kept on being bundled up as the quilting was put off, and put off. Then a few weeks ago I got a bee in my bonnet and pulled it out of the cupboard. The quilting is really quick and rough - just a running stitch done with two strands of embroidery thread.
The fabrics are mostly reclaimed clothes. The brown fabric on the bottom border was from a second hand pair of trousers that I got at the market when I was at uni. They were made from the softest corduroy I have ever come across in my life, and I had to have them even though they were way too small. I opened up the side seams and put inserts in to make them wearable and for several years we were inseparable. Eventually they were beyond patching and I was no longer a scruffy student, but the cord lives on in this wagga quilt.

Blood red?

2011-06-16T09:58:00.001+10:00

IMG_1488, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I got up just after 5 this morning to look at a rusty-red total lunar eclipse. It was cold, but clear and still in the pre-dawn.
The photo is a little blurry as I don't have a tripod and hands are generally not steady enough for these longer exposure shots.
The news reports here are all gushing over the moon turning "blood red". I suppose this description stems from the phrase "blood red sky", but the colour was really more a rusty red. I guess that doesn't really sound quite so romantic.

Saturday in pictures

2011-05-15T12:23:00.002+10:00

Golf

Feet up in new socks by the fire

Rainbow on the drive home

Easter sock-photo-shoot

2011-04-28T11:06:00.001+10:00

sock-photo-shoot, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Mum snapped this shot of me snapping away at some photos for the WSF's new socks.

2 down, 4 to go

2011-04-21T11:52:00.001+10:00

Cable Top socks, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Project #2 of my Six Books Project 2011.
Cable Top Socks from Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. (shhh, don't tell anyone, but I did these on one great long circular - magic loop style)
Ravelled here:

Getting my kit together

2011-04-12T13:18:00.001+10:00

IMG_1469, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I've signed up to do a 5 week pattern making course at the CAE in May. The course notes detailed the "you will need to bring" stuff and so I had a good excuse to make a little purse in which to put my kit.
This is another pattern - Gathered Clutch - by Anna at Noodlehead.
Fabric from the cotton stash (that damn stash is never-ending!)
Zipper from some old jeans.

New bag from old denim

2011-04-10T11:53:00.001+10:00

IMG_1425, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Denim from old jeans: I can't send worn out jeans to the op shop. That's wrong. I can't just throw them out. That's wasteful. I see more bags in my future.
Black pinstripe (pockets and shoulder strap) from worn-out linen trousers:
Grey linen (side panels) is new, but left over from a jacket I made this Summer just gone. (Must photograph that jacket some time, not right now, it needs ironing)
The bag is made using Noodlehead's wonderful 241 Tote pattern. The instructions are clear and the bag comes together beautifully with no awkward fiddly-ness.

Thinking of Japan...

2011-03-14T16:41:00.001+11:00

Tsunami Evacuation sign, Matsushima, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I took this photo a little over a year ago in Matsushima - not far from Sendai on the east coast of Japan. The bay there is covered in rocky islands that make up one of the three most beautiful views in Japan.
Sometimes the best preparation is just not enough.

Across the river

2011-03-07T13:08:00.003+11:00

I don't often venture into the city on the weekend. I'm there every week day so it's nice to give it a miss for a couple of days. So yesterday was a little unusual with a wee trip to the arts precinct to kill two birds with one stone.

First stop: the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Gustave Moreau exhibition.

Next up: some sock photography.

If you look carefully at the toe of my left foot, you can see where I ran out of Twilight Saga yarn and had to finish the second sock off with a tiny bit of the-Colorway-that-must-not-be-named. Perhaps I should call these my Edward Diggory socks. Both are sold-out colours from Sunshine Yarns. The pattern is the Wedge socks by Cookie A from her new book Knit. Sock. Love. Project 1 of the 2011 Six Books Project is complete.

Then it was on to main event.

My first venture into the Spiegeltent to see the Kransky Sisters.

A perfect Melbourne day.

Happy New Year with a resolution - of sorts

2011-01-01T10:07:00.001+11:00

IMG_1311, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I'm going to do another Six Books Project in 2011. It was going to be a Six Magazines project, but that would have necessitated the purchase of more yarn and I want to try and do this project completely from what is already in the stash. I may tack on 3 magazine projects in addition. We'll see how we go.

Project One: The Wedge Sock from Cookie A's totally gorgeous new book Knit. Sock. Love.

Depth of field

2010-11-28T13:02:00.001+11:00

IMG_1273, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Lunch just called at the cricket, I've just finished half a pair of socks made from leftovers and I'm making an effort to start finishing off some log cabin patchwork that has sat patiently in a box for 9 years.

New stripey socks

2010-11-10T10:59:00.001+11:00

IMG_1248, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I do love a nice self-striping sock yarn.

I'm on a bit of a casting-off jag at the moment. I've managed to get my Ravelry queue down to 1 page, but of course the number of WIPs has gone up. Must get the camera out and take more photos.

How many pairs of shoes do you have?

2010-10-30T12:30:00.004+11:00

Lately there has been much discussion of shoes amongst the women I work with. Imelda Marcos I'm not, but it would seem that I have a much larger shoe collection than any of my female colleagues.

So this weekend I set to the task of taking an inventory of my footwear - slippers included.

Shoe inventory

I'm not really sure how this has happened. I don't think I buy a lot of shoes. I like to have enough that I can rotate through the week. [I read somewhere once that it was better for your feet to leave at least 24 hours between wears in order to let your shoes dry out properly.]

Perhaps I just don't throw them out much.

Perhaps my less-than-42-pairs colleagues are the weird shoe-deficient ones?

The best room in the house...

2010-10-16T18:16:00.001+11:00

IMG_1199, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...is now my bathroom.

Before and after photos here.

This was a surprisingly painless enterprise. The workmen all turned up when they said they would, they didn't break anything, it was quick and I love the end result.

No such thing as a free fleece

2010-10-08T16:44:00.001+11:00

DSC03607, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I know... two posts in one day... what's the world coming to?

I finally got around to sewing the buttons on this cardigan last night. It's the Garter Yoke Cardi pattern by Melissa LaBarre which was very popular a couple of years ago. It's taken me a while to get around to making it. Of course now everyone on Ravelry has been making her more recent pattern Tea Leaves (which I will get around to... eventually....).

The wool is my own handspun and the fleece came straight off the sheep's back, shorn by C's dad. I love that I know the entire life-cycle/manufacturing-cycle of this cardi (well.... except for the buttons... they came from the Buttonmania sale and I've no idea where they were manufactured) and that I did everything except shear the sheep myself (I'll happily leave that bit to the expert).

Bathroom preview

2010-10-08T08:25:00.001+11:00

IMG_1193, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

It's nearly done. Just the painting and the shower screen left to go. I love my mosaic tiles.

Raving over roving

2010-10-02T10:22:00.003+10:00

So over the last week, I went on a bit of an roving-on-Etsy spree. I seem to have a thing for green.

Roving from: Skein (top left) and The Thylacine (right and bottom).

Then I went into Clegs and they had this yummy sock yarn called... funnily enough.... Yummy. I spent ages tossing up between two colours, before I caved in and bought both.

Bathroom renovations are in-progress. There is nothing left of the old bathroom. New cabinetry has been installed. The plasterer and tiler are next.

Insouciance

2010-09-09T12:38:00.001+10:00

DSC03592, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

There's plenty of knitting happening at the House of Paisley. These socks used up the leftovers from three other pairs of socks. Sock recipe is the Discovery Sock from Cat Bordhi's "Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters" which I'm enjoying a great deal more than I anticipated.
Also on the go is a handspun cardigan (just the sleeves to go), self-striping train-knitting socks, and some secret December-birthday knitting.
I'm getting quite excited as my bathroom is to be renovated (ie: completely gutted and replaced) at the end of September. I've lived with my tired, beyond-redemption-as-retro 1960s pink tiles for long enough. Hopefully all goes well without too many catastrophes and I will be able to post before and after pics in my October blog post (since I seem to be averaging just the one post a month at the moment).

twick or tweet?

2010-08-19T16:31:00.002+10:00

I'm twying out twitter. Not sure if I like it. It's all a bit random and all over the place.

Finished!

2010-07-29T12:22:00.001+10:00

IMG_1032, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Ravelled here.

staying healthy this winter....

2010-07-09T12:13:00.001+10:00

a gift from OHS, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

The OHS team just breezed through the office, handing these out to everyone on the floor.
Everyone gets an orange with a little flag on it. In case you can't read the flag (crappy phone-camera pic), it says "health, safety & wellbeing" on one side and "Beat the cold this winter! Winter health tips are online now".
I guess they really do have our welfare at heart. :-)

Kindling

2010-07-06T11:38:00.002+10:00

In the end, resistance was futile. I've got a new toy. Here it is, nice and snug in a little cover that I made for it.

Peeking out the top....

A different screen-saver for each time-out

Now I'm having fun finding all the free Kindle stuff on Amazon. Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice were the first downloads.

As I was racing out the door this morning....

2010-06-28T11:29:00.002+10:00

.... I grabbed my mittens and was horrified to discover they had holes in them. I'm afraid it might be moths....

I must investigate this evening. That drawer has all my hand-knit socks in it.....

Monogamous knitting

2010-06-27T14:33:00.001+10:00

IMG_1012, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

This is the only knitting that I've worked on for the past couple of weeks. I think it's going to be really nice when it's finished. But I'm not even half-way yet....
This is proving quite a challenge to my short-attention span.

Well I guess that question is answered...

2010-06-20T10:50:00.001+10:00

IMG_0989, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

.... I cannot blog every day for a month.

Yesterday I did a crash course in the basics of how to use the manual settings on my DSLR. It's all about getting the balance between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. We learnt about the nature of each of these variables and how tweaking them up or down will affect the exposure of the shot.
At lunch after the session I got my knitting out and applied my new found knowledge to shoot an in-progress shot of the green cardigan of doom. This is indoors without a flash and even has a little bit of depth of field. This makes me very happy. I now have the tools to experiment more and start really seeing what my expensive camera can do.

It doesn't break. I hope....

2010-06-11T17:25:00.006+10:00

Despite what the IT Crowd says..... this is what happens.

The one in which Paisley hides her lack of content behind an annotated list of links...

2010-06-10T14:27:00.003+10:00

Right now my crafting mojo seems to be completely dominated by knitting, but I still have intentions of sewing stuff.

I love the black and red grandmothers flower garden blocks here.

And for something a little bit different, how about these skulls?

Or maybe some weaving?

Then there's these fabulous new fabrics in the shop I dare not set foot in...

Much better to take inspiration from this stash-busting example.

Accountability Wednesday

2010-06-09T17:07:00.001+10:00

Ooops, missed a day. Bygones.

The scales and I have never have had a super-happy relationship, but at the moment I feel like they are teasing me mercilessly. They will not go under 100kg. They'll hover just above it, creep up to 101, creep back to 100-point-something, but they will not go under.

Grrrrr.

Still, I guess it's better than where they were sitting in January this year.

And look how well the nail polish has lasted from the pedicure I got in Washington four weeks ago.

For me....

2010-06-07T12:50:00.001+10:00

IMG_0913, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Now that the black cardigan knitting is done, dusted and wet-blocking (cold damp Melbourne weather means that it dries very slowly...), I can get on with a new winter cardigan for myself. Here is my sorry excuse for a swatch. I'm getting gauge, so let's just start knitting and see how we go. Hopefully I'll get this done before the cool weather is through.

Pinned

2010-06-06T12:16:00.001+10:00

IMG_0914, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I finally finished the knitting on Seabreeze's cardigan last night. I swatched before starting this project. I even washed the swatch, which is unusual for me. So while I was knitting away, I kept looking at it, thinking, "this looks too small, it looks way too small..... but I got gauge after washing my swatch, so all should be ok.... I hope....."
The Yarn Harlot recently posted about wet-blocking before sewing up so I took inspiration and this morning I gave the pieces a little bath, then spent some time pinning them out so that they matched the measurements on the schematic. You know what? I think it's going to be ok.

Saturday afternoon

2010-06-05T14:31:00.001+10:00

IMG_0909, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

The coming of the cold weather brings the obligatory increase in the desire for soup. I had a surfeit of a-bit-too-old carrots in the fridge, so I tried out this recipe. Easy peasy, tasty and I had everything handy.
The cryptic crossword is from yesterday's paper. Mum will ring later today and we will compare notes and try and finish it off together.

The things I do...

2010-06-04T16:36:00.001+10:00

IMG_0902, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I endure seemingly never-ending stocking stitch in black wool, counting the irregularly spaced increases on every right side row so that my friend SeaBreeze can have her very own Sunrise Circle Jacket.

Stash enhancement...

2010-06-03T16:14:00.003+10:00

I am weak. Tempt me with hand-dyed self-striping sock yarn and I cannot resist.

oops.

This sock is growing very slowly...

2010-06-02T13:14:00.001+10:00

IMG_0900, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...because I love this sock yarn so much that I keep stopping to admire how it knits up every round or so.

It's Schoppel Wolle Zauberball Crazy. I get it from Simply Socks Yarn Company.

Do you suppose that it's possible...

2010-06-01T11:22:00.001+10:00

IMG_0905, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

..that I could blog every day for a month?

Let's see how far I can get. Today I present the mitred ball-band hanging towel. Also known as, using up left-over bits of dishcloth cotton.

How many fingers am I holding up?

2010-05-30T13:02:00.001+10:00

IMG_0901, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

A friend asked for toddler-sized gloves as she couldn't find any in the stores. I told her that they don't make them very often because it's such a pain to get toddlers little fingers into them, but that I would make one for her to try out. If she can get this on her little girl's hand, then I'll make the pair to go with it.
It's funny thing this glove. When I finished it I held it up and kept thinking there's finger missing. I counted the fingers and the thumb on the glove, and then counted the fingers on my hand, as if I had forgotten how many fingers can be found on a normal human hand.
The numbers match, but somehow it doesn't look quite right.

The answer

2010-05-18T15:41:00.002+10:00

Broadly speaking: The USA.

Specifically: Scottsdale, AZ; Grand Canyon, AZ; and Washington DC (that last pic that looks like an Athenian monument is actually the Lincoln Memorial).

My holiday in 3 pictures

2010-05-14T13:57:00.002+10:00

Guess where I've been.

Saturday afternoon...

2010-04-19T11:54:00.001+10:00

DSC03389, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

... I got a bee in my bonnet about using up some of my sock yarn leftovers and having another pair of good plain socks to take on my next holiday, fished out my recently acquired copy of Cat Bordhi's Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters and knit nearly this entire sock. I had to stop after The Bill finished as my fingers were starting to cramp, so I finished off the cuff on Sunday morning.
Second sock is well underway, but going not-so-fast.

The girl in the spotted pyjamas...

2010-04-16T11:45:00.001+10:00

DSC03385, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...made a sock.
The colourway is called "Monet" and it really does have that whole waterlilies feel going on.

That's my hand in the sock...

2010-04-12T12:37:00.001+10:00

IMG_0897, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

....not some freaky flattish set of toes.

My blogging mojo, which wasn't very vigourous to begin with, has dropped off a bit lately. I'm still knitting, still taking photos, still loving reading other people's blogs and hanging out way too much on Ravelry....

But the urge to write is not terribly strong right now. I hope to return, in some form, soon.

Half a pair of pairs

2010-03-07T10:17:00.004+11:00

Noro Mojo / Leaf Litter Arch Shaped Socks

Both second socks are now on the needles....

Y popped in for an early morning coffee today. She's going through her own sock yarn at a rate of knots at the moment, so I de-stashed some of my lingering half-balls and leftovers onto her since they're ideal amounts for making kid-sized socks.

We discussed the unexpectedly violent hail storm that we had here in Melbourne yesterday afternoon. I got off pretty lightly in comparison to some. I was home and not out on the road which would have been terrifying. Most of the hail coming down was about pea-sized, although I did see a few golf-ball sized stones smashing down - and they were SMASHING down. I got quite worried about my front window which seemed to be getting a lot of hits. But luck was on my side and no broken glass. Thankfully my car was also undercover, so no damage to it.

My neigbours across the road have one of their cars parked on their front lawn and the hail kept setting off the alarm.

Y had been visiting friends whose laserlite covered porch is now covered in holes. They had been sitting out there and had to bid a hasty retreat. Luckily none of them were hurt. They saw lemon-sized hail stones in their part of town.

Blocking

2010-02-27T15:46:00.001+11:00

IMG_0807, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I'm not sure whether the wires will ever be the same again.

Back home in warmer climes

2010-02-19T21:34:00.001+11:00

snow shoeing near Hirosaki, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Catching up on sleep.
Watching Torah Bright win gold in Vancouver
Didn't get much knitting done in Japan - about half a sock.
Despite being able to take my knitting on the plane, I was too catatonic to do any in-flight. But it was nice to know that I could have.
Only landed on my bum three times on the icy streets.
Snow shoeing is really hard work, but the views were so worth it.
I think I left a t-shirt and pair of undies in Nikko.
The Japanese drive on the same side of the road as us, but on roundabouts, they give way to the left, so you can enter a roundabout, but then have to give way to other traffic on the left entering the roundabout.
Lots of photos here.

Snow... lots of snow

2010-02-07T22:38:00.001+11:00

DSC03287, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

In Sapporo it snows a lot. I'm not taking many photos although I am getting better at wrangling my little camera with gloves still on. The big camera is not coming out much.

mission accomplished

2010-01-31T11:38:00.001+11:00

IMG_0477, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

It's amazing what you can get done when you're monogamous to one project.
It's really a bit too hot to be modelling woollen socks today. Two sleeps until I fly off into the cold Japanese winter.

It's Australia Day...

2010-01-26T17:20:00.001+11:00

IMG_0472, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...and I'm flicking between the tennis and the cricket on the box and knitting like a fiend. Do you suppose if I cast on the partner to this lovely sock this evening, that I might be able to finish it before I fly out next Tuesday?
Let's see.

Travelling light(er)

2010-01-23T18:33:00.001+11:00

IMG_0466, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

A new little box bag to carry my travel-sized toiletries. This is much more compact than my usual big sponge bag.

Reclaimed tweed

2010-01-20T13:38:00.004+11:00

A few years ago I knit Teva Durham's asymmetric mock cable vest from her book Loop-d-Loop. It wasn't a great choice for me, especially given that the largest size written (38" bust) was always going to be way too small. But I thought that the mock cable pattern looked really cool, so I gave it a go using some Patons Shadow Tweed that I'd got on sale at Clegs. With a bit of tweaking and some negative ease, it fit, even if it didn't sit very nicely (the edges curling like the clappers was meant to be a design feature apparently).
I wore it once - to an Anzac day BBQ if I remember correctly - and a friend snapped a photo of me in it. I looked at the photo, decided that it made me look even more like a lumpy grey apple than usual and shoved it away in the cupboard, never to be worn again.
Then I started seeing versions of the Shalom Cardigan popping up on Ravelry and I thought "oh, I should frog that vest and re-knit it into this some time".
And finally, early one Sunday morning a few weeks ago, I got a bee in my bonnet and spent it frogging, winding, washing and hanging out great big skeins of bulky weight yarn. I cast on that evening.

I'm so glad I did. This is much better. Full project details are ravelled here.

Flashing some of the stash

2010-01-16T19:24:00.001+11:00

Flashing some of the stash, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Today I took some photographs of some of the yarn stash. A couple of pretty recent acquisitions, but mostly stuff that has been sitting at the bottom of various receptacles for too long. I have plans for most of it, but I only have two hands.
Good thing that this stuff has a long shelf life.

socks, plots and plans

2010-01-09T08:51:00.003+11:00

Kitchenered last night: (cuff-down) Train-Knitting (Simply Ginny) Socks

Cast-off last night: (toe-up) Riverbed in Vinnland Socks

Plotting and Planning:

next train knitting sock selection
travelling-in-Japan-in-February sock selection
flights to the US in April/May (golf, Grand Canyon and perhaps a "popover" to DC)
and in the meantime, trying to stay cool in Melbourne's January heat.

Handmade Christmas presents

2010-01-03T13:27:00.005+11:00

In the lead up to Christmas, a few female newspaper columnists, most notable among them Germaine Greer, published articles which seemed to suggest that all homemade Christmas presents are badly made, naff, tasteless, generally undesirable, (horror of horrors!) cheap and, perhaps by implication, nasty. I'm not going to argue the point as plenty of other bloggers have already done so I'll stop here and just tell this little anecdote from my own experience.

A few weeks ago I made a couple of patchwork shopping/tote bags to give as Christmas presents which I didn't photograph [sorry - bad blogger :-( ]. One of them was given to my aunt, who rang me a few days after Christmas to say how much she enjoyed carrying her new shopping bag, declining plastic bags, as she did the rounds of the Boxing day sales and how the short handles were the perfect length for someone of her stature - so much better than any of her purchased non-plastic shopping bags. I was chuffed.

Green Summer Cardi #2

2009-12-19T16:32:00.001+11:00

IMG_0381, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

The summer of green top-down cardigans continues. This one is a simple garter-stitch-fest, making use of the two skeins of discontinued Noro Lily Multi that I got in Kyoto a couple of years ago and some soft Cascade Cotton-Tencel that I picked up in a sale. Ravelled here.

Did I mention...

2009-12-09T17:34:00.001+11:00

DSC03212, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...that I made another hat? This one only took a day of not particularly onerous knitting. It's BrooklynTweed's "Quincy" pattern, with cheapish tweedy wool from Lincraft.

The question now is which hat to take on my upcoming wintery, trying-not-to-fall-on-my-arse-in-the-snow holiday.

This tweedy reddish one;
The blue BS Johnson; or
The green Relm.

In costume

2009-12-06T13:24:00.001+11:00

DSC03217, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

This year's theme for the work Christmas party is "New York". I will be the Big Apple.

I love that I can work knitting into my costume.

new socks...

2009-11-28T22:21:00.001+11:00

IMG_0350, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

S and I went and saw New Moon this arvo. Lots of giggly teenage girls around us. Edward's sparkly marble skin looked a little grubby. I think perhaps C had a point when she said "now werewolves running around the forest with searing hot skin - that's interesting".*
As can be seen from my latest sock pics, I don't sparkle in the sun, but I did feel a bit like I was walking in slow motion as I left the cinema to walk back to my car.

*paraphrased - I can't remember her exact words....

Colonnade - a team effort.

2009-11-26T12:07:00.001+11:00

IMG_0340, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Mandie dyed the fibre.
I spun the fibre.
Stephen wrote the pattern.
I knit the shawl.
With no left-overs. Nada. Zip. I even ended up using the Yarn Harlot's I've-run-out-of-yarn-crochet-cast-off. Not ideal since it's not a stretchy finish, but blocking made it pretty serviceable.

Six Books Project 2009

2009-11-17T14:57:00.004+11:00

Mission accomplished in good time.

The goalposts were changed a couple of times through the year, (including, a'hem, the addition of a new book to the stash...) but the object of knitting at least one project from six previously un-used knitting books in my collection was achieved.

This idea was designed, not be an onerous weight on my shoulders for the year, but to be a little incentive to "work from my stash". Because a stash doesn't just include yarn or fabric. It's also the accumulation of magazines, pattern books, e-books and print-outs from t'internet.

The Projects: (links are to Amazon for the sake of convenience)

Faroese Shawl
by Marilyn van Keppel
from A Gathering of Lace
Undulating Rib Socks
by Ann Budd
from Favorite Socks
Modular Tomten Jacket
by Elizabeth Zimmermann
from Knitting Without Tears
Eunice
by Cookie A.
from Sock Innovation
(also made Lindsay from this book)
Simulated Basket Weave / T Pattern
by Charlene Schurch
from More Sensational Knitted Socks
Coronet Design
by Marianne Kinzel
from First Book of Modern Lace Knitting

Full details of projects are on Ravelry.

Now to think of a new challenge for 2010. Ideas and inspiration welcome.

Faroese Shawl finished

2009-11-17T14:04:00.001+11:00

IMG_0326, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

A slowish project, I started this in July and took the blocking wires out last night. But it wasn't a difficult project. Garter stitch based lace, with every second row, k all stitches. The patterned rows had an easy rhythm to them so that even though I had to knit this with the chart spread across my lap all the time, it never felt tricky or full of traps to trip me up.
And the secret to casting on 400+ stitches at the start? Put in a stitch marker after every 50 stitches and it won't seem nearly so hard or so long.

Six Books Project wrap-up to follow.

Leaves...

2009-11-17T13:17:00.001+11:00

IMG_0331, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

... for a fun little project.

'nuvver new hat...

2009-11-16T12:07:00.001+11:00

DSC03200, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I reckon between this one and the green relm beret from a few weeks ago, I'm pretty much happy for hats... for now.

the heatwave continues...

2009-11-12T09:13:00.001+11:00

DSC03192, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...and another dishcloth is made.

the heat is on...

2009-11-10T20:03:00.001+11:00

DSC03191, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...and I start dreaming of job opportunities in Hobart.

We're in the midst of an early season heat wave and I'm trying to be good and not use my air conditioning too much. So wool is taking a back seat whilst I knock out a few cotton dishcloths. I love this new pattern - "cotton leaf rag".

Cup day

2009-11-04T13:31:00.001+11:00

The first Tuesday in November is the Melbourne Cup - "the race that stops the nation" - and we have a public holiday. In an annual fit of kitchen-domestic-goddessity, I baked my Christmas cake (Nigella Lawson's recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess) and attempted to document my progress in photos.

Photo One: Make sure you use lots of paper when lining the tin.

Photo Two: Blurry. Fruit soaked overnight in brandy. Extra glace cherries because I love them.

Photo Three: Big mixing bowl just like Mum's. A heavy duty wooden spoon is your friend when preparing cake mixture.

Photo Four: Three hours later, a baked cake. Somehow managed to get the baking paper in focus rather than the cake.

And whilst it was baking, I made a box bag, because the fabric stash will not shrink by itself.

Another Liesl

2009-11-03T18:11:00.001+11:00

IMG_0311, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

So that black bit of knitting that I was working on at the beach in my last post? Another Liesl cardigan. After all our exertions on Saturday, Sunday I just flopped and got into a knitting frenzy (can you flop and frenzy at the same time?) trying to finish this thing. I kept thinking, "it's nearly done, I'll just knit a bit more".
I hit a snag with the cast off - I didn't leave myself enough yarn, so I had to thread a lifeline through and rip back a couple of rows - not too difficult on this project - which slowed me down.
I finally sewed the buttons on while watching the final episode of Wuthering Heights, wondering why Heathcliff didn't put us all out of our misery straight away after Cathy died. It was never my favourite book. Love the Kate Bush song though.

2009-11-02T16:43:00.002+11:00

On Saturday, we headed down towards Cape Schanck. It was a pretty warm day in the city, but we hoped it would be a bit cooler on the coast as we planned on a bit of bushwalking down to Bushrangers Bay. We were in luck.

Fog on the track.

We ate our lunch on the beach. It looks cold but it wasn't at all. Just foggy.

I did some knitting on the beach whilst J demolished a vegemite sandwich.

On the way back we saw an echidna....

...and walked through some funky looking jungly trees.

Hat quest: Relm

2009-10-26T20:05:00.001+11:00

DSC03164, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Of my hat quest, this is the best so far. Soft drapey merino-silk handspun , teamed with some simple cables makes a really nice beret. The only thing that worries me is that it may be prone to damage as it is so soft and delicate.
The pattern is Relm by Jared Flood (of BrooklynTweed fame) from Knit.1 magazine.
Project ravelled here.

hoot, hoot

2009-10-10T15:23:00.001+11:00

Hoot clip, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Just for fun. I love owls, so I couldn't resist Ysolda's quick little project. (And I mean quick - this took less than an hour, including sewing on buttons and sewing it onto the clip).

Ravelled here.

The quest ....

2009-10-07T21:29:00.001+11:00

Photo 27, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...continues.

In this exciting instalment of Paisley's search for the perfect hat, she tries out Calorimetry (from Knitty.com). With 9000+ projects in Ravelry, the pattern must have something going for it.

Of course, I over-compensated for my big head, and managed to make it a bit too big. This was partly because I decided it would be a good project to use up my first handspun efforts which are a bit thicker than the pattern calls for. But the fit is not too bad. At least it doesn't feel as if it will pop off.

But it's not perfect. The quest continues.

Quilt for RHI

2009-10-03T10:42:00.001+10:00

IMG_0252, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

A 40th birthday approaches (I don't think he reads the blog... otherwise the surprise is spoilt...) and R has never had a quilt from me, so I've whipped up something simple and hopefully blokey enough for a professional feng shui consultant.

Birthday socks

2009-10-02T12:12:00.001+10:00

IMG_0245, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Pattern: Lindsay from Sock Innovation by Cookie A.
Needles: 2.5mm addis - magic looped.
Yarn: Genevieve sent me some squishy soft Knit Picks merino/alpaca blend sock yarn for my birthday back in May. The colourway is called "Evil Stepmother" which my boss thinks is hilarious.
This is the first time I've tried a garter stitch short-row heel and toe. Easy peasy and extra squishy, I love it.
These were mostly a train-knitting project, but I cast on the first sock back in August on a weekend, while watching The Last King of Scotland on DVD and I can't quite get the image of James McAvoy strung up on butchers hooks out of my head. The mind can be a mysterious thing in the associations that it makes.

Six Books Project #5 done

2009-09-19T10:13:00.001+10:00

IMG_0229, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Happy socks.

Gorgeous tweedy, texturey, stretchy ribbing with an undulating hint of interest to break up the monotony. Pretty yarn which brings out the gold-fish reaction in me on each round. "oh look, pretty variations, oh look, pretty variations, oh look, I wonder what colour comes next?".

I am easily amused.

Project ravelled here.

Spinning equation

2009-09-14T16:31:00.002+10:00

These..... plus spinning wheel....

become these...

which, in turn, become this.

And the half bobbin of plain blue singles leftover, plus a curiosity to try out navajo plying, become this.

Soft merino top was probably not the best choice of fibre for my first attempt at this technique, but I kind of got the hang of it and the resulting yarn is definitely knit-able. More practice required on a sturdier-spun single.

The Blue: Atlantic Merino Top 100g from Ewe give me the knits!

The Multi: Myers BFL/Bamboo 50/50 100g from Ewe give me the knits!

Liesl fin

2009-09-05T13:28:00.001+10:00

Liesl fin, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

How quick was that!
I haven't blocked it. Don't think I will. I shudder to think how much it might grow when it gets washed. Perhaps if I dry it scrunched up...
Buttons from the Buttonmania-stash-enhancement spree a while back.

Thoughts for next time. Perhaps go down a needle size (ie. 6.5mm). Anecdotal evidence suggested that the pattern tends to run a bit small, but this is really a little bit big in the width department. Perhaps my tension is looser than Ysolda's.

Summer green cardigan #1 nearly there

2009-09-03T16:15:00.001+10:00

Liesl in progress, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Because this knits up so quickly, it's quite addictive, which means I keep on knitting this to the exclusion of other projects, which means that the project goes even quicker! Self-perpetuating speed?

The sleeves are finished. It's just a matter of deciding how much longer to make the body. It sits higher at the back than at the front currently. That may prove to be the only incentive to actually block this since it's sitting pretty nicely everywhere else.

summer green cardigan #1 begins

2009-08-26T16:10:00.001+10:00

IMG_0188, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I hereby proclaim that this coming spring and summer will see me attired in a variety of light-weight green cotton cardies.

First up on the needles: Liesl by Ysolda Teague in Cascade Pima Silk. I haven't swatched. I hope it fits.

no head for hats

2009-08-23T17:53:00.001+10:00

DSC03150, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

My quest for the perfect woolly hat continues. Lovely as it is, this is not it. It feels like it could slip off at any moment.

But the knitting of it did scratch an itch to do something quick and spur of the moment.

Ravelled here.

Just like magic...

2009-08-09T12:10:00.001+10:00

IMG_0173, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

If memory (of my rusty German vocabulary) serves me correctly, Zauber translates as "magic". This sock yarn is called Zauberball and yesterday I caved in and succumbed to a touch of startitis.

Undulating Rib Socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks book. This will be project six of the six-books-project, so I guess this means I'm ahead of schedule.

The yarn really is quite magical. The barber-pole striping which is so obvious in the ball, turns into a rich tweed when it's knitted up - much richer than the ball would seem to promise. I keep wanting to continue just to see how the colours are going to blend next.

More knitwear modelling

2009-08-03T13:01:00.001+10:00

IMG_0133, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

I finally got around to sewing the buttons on Mum's cardigan.

It fits and Mum likes it so the experiment was successful. I'm not 100% sold on the i-cord around the hem and cuffs, but I thought it needed something to visually tie the front panels to the rest of the cardigan. Mum was intrigued by it - she hadn't seen applied i-cord before so I did a little demonstration on my swatch to show her how it was done.

The Tour de France is over for another year. I didn't "knit-along" this year, but I was keeping tabs on the race, dreaming of one-day hiring a Winnebago and joining the spectating throngs. "Our Cadel" didn't have a great race this year.

As for Australia's performance in the Ashes so far......

....and the weather at Edgbaston has been so splendid.

Time to get the spinning wheel out and work my way through some more of my free fleece.

Knitwear modelling

2009-07-24T13:07:00.001+10:00

IMG_0112, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

The Tomten jacket was a success - even though J seems more interested in a discarded library book card. His mum loves that he can't pull the hood off so it stays on, unlike most of his hats.

C is sadly blog-and-Ravelry-less, so may I also draw attention to her own handiwork - the gorgeous blue cable vest that she is sporting.

Verra nice.