Photo Catch Up & Lots of Knits!

I know I don’t post a lot of photos, and I’m hoping that I’ll be changing that very soon, as I do enjoy taking photos, but haven’t had a lot of time recently to do so.

These are just a few things I’ve been up to recently.

First off is a “new to me” discovery.  New to me, only because it had taken me so long to actually take a serious look at these as a GREAT solution to the problem of having lace slip off the needles.  These are Knit Pro Spectra needles. I bought these from Morris & Sons, and will definitely be getting more!  Not only do they grip lace/slippery yarn with the PERFECT amount of grab for when you’re knitting in public, or have to frequently put your project down for whatever reasons (mine is an almost 4yo boy).  I started knitting my 100 Grammi on the Nickel Plated tips (I think they’re called “Nova” now), and I felt like I was knitting with glass.  The alpaca yarn I’m using just slid everywhere and I couldn’t put it down mid-row for fear of having the project fly off the needles if I looked at it the wrong way.  So the Thursday night before the Sydney Knit ‘n’ Lunch (aka Not Bendi Day), I picked up the new tips and I fell in love!  Plus, my inner geek loves the almost light saber-y look to them when the light catches them just right.  So if you love knitting lace, but get frustrated with slippy yarns, then try these!!

My Citron shawl is slowly progressing, now up to Section 6.  This section doesn’t actually exist in the pattern, but other people have knit beyond the pattern and have done the maths.  I figured I still have yarn left, so I will keep knitting.  I do hope that it will block a fair bit, otherwise it will be a very cosy neck warmer and not much of a shoulder wrap.  I really do love how this yarn has knit up.  And the silk in the lower part of the shawl just shines enough to be shiny and not ‘blingy’.

Back before Christmas ’09, I started a suprise knit for my husband, a fulled (knit and then purposefully shrinking is technically called Fulling and not Felting) lunchbag.  Fulled wool is a great insulator, both for temperature, and for surfaces.  So his food is kept cool/warm a little better, and the gear in his bag won’t get beat up by a hard lunchbox. The pattern is “Brown Bag” from Knitty, and the yarn is some Jet I picked up for $2 a ball at one of the craft shows (I think it was a Newcastle one).  I made it a little wider on the bottom, and added a knit on Icord finishing around the top edge for style’s sake (haha).  I love how Jet fulls!  The fabric is nice and thick, it stands up by itself beautifully.  All it needs now is some lining on the inside, and a magnetic clip to keep it shut.  Pending husband’s reviews, I may make another for my son, and possibly one for myself.

And lastly in this post, I have a spin that I finished after the Canberra Jaunt, before the TdF (which I’m not doing so great on), which is a 3ply (my first), Blue Faced Leicester from Waratah Fibres that I bought while down there.  It’s between a DK and worsted (8-10ply for the Aussies), very smooshy and will probably become a hat and mitts for The Boy for next winter, there’s about 200m, so we’ll see if there’s enough.  The fibre itself was amazing to spin, and I’ll definitely be buying more from Waratah Fibres.