Strange fruit

These strange growths are the result of a winter's stress knitting. All from stash yarn, some recycled from other objects. The one on the far left of screen used to be a different scarf (not knitted by me, can't remember where it came from), very wide and very solid - I like it better now it's more open (plus it used to weigh a ton, and I have lots of this yarn left). The purple, green and red ones use lots of random yarns, just a couple of rows of each, from plain to eyelash to mohair. The orange-ish pair are made of yarn reclaimed from a Savers jumper that I deconstructed; the yarn is a multicoloured ribbon with a hairy acrylic. I have plenty of that one left, too! The dark blue (poorly photographed) scarf is also knitted from lots of random yarns, with many in this one coming from a big bag of assorted yarn I bought a year or two ago at the Trash and Treasure market for a mere $5.

Sometimes I like a knitting challenge, and sometimes it's all about the process. Mindless knitting Good.

Bamboo socks

I'm working on a large shawl for a friend, with lovely yarn, but it's a long project and occasionally I feel the need for a change in my knitting diet. Usually I knit from stash yarn, in the interests of saving my money for essentials and also with a notion to using what I have rather than buying new stuff (I have enough stuff to keep me going for years).

I ducked into the yarn shop on a whim, "just for a look". Um, yeah. I managed to resist buying on the day, but the pretty colours and luscious textures of the sock yarns niggled away at the back of my brain. Never having knitted with bamboo yarn, I succumbed to the call of the new, made a return visit the next time I was in the vicinity and came home with 100 grams of "Happy", 75% bamboo, 25% nylon. It looked more variegated on the ball and I wasn't expecting it to knit up into stripes, but I like the resulting socks. They feel rather cool to the touch, rather than warm like wool. The yarn itself tends to be a bit "splitty" and slippery, but I got the hang of it as I went along (the second sock is better than the first), and I have enough left to make a second pair, I think.

But not just yet. Back to the shawl for a bit.

I've also discovered that the viscose process used to make bamboo into yarn is not environmentally friendly, so while this was an interesting diversion, I don't think I'd buy bamboo again. I must stop thinking about the (non-bamboo) Kaffe Fassett sock yarn...

Recycled yarn

Before: imagine this op shop jumper is twins - I bought two of them for $1 each. Abercrombie & Fitch, womens size large (perhaps that's why they were in the op shop - this looks like a small to me!) with bonus gorilla arms, 40% lambswool/30% nylon/27% acrylic/3% polyester.

After: this is one of the jumpers deconstructed into its constituent yarn, and partly reconstructed into a pair of Bloke socks (yep, more socks! I'm still in need of sedatives, evidently). There are little navy blue squiggles of yarn throughout the house, turning up in the cat's food bowl, and even one or two magically transported into the backyard, byproducts of the unravelling process. Undoing a jumper is strangely satisfying, both in a destructive and constructive way: watching the progress of frogging versus the steady growth of the new balls of yarn. By the time I undo the second jumper I will have a surfeit of navy blue.

Let's take a little gaze into my crystal ball...ah, the mist is clearing...I see...navy blue knitting...socks for me, handwarmers, maybe a beanie...lots and lots of navy blue knitting!

Sedatives, mmmm...

What does one do when life seems beyond one's control and one is stressed out? This one knits.
Socks. You can never have too many handknit socks, right? I needed a project that was fast, relatively easy and very fun. And, bonus, not only did it suck up a good portion of the little scrap balls festering, er, breeding in the yarn crate but it calmed me right down. Hands busy, brain quiet = happy. These were done in three days of evening tv watching.

And then I knitted another pair :)

I am a sock knitting fiend

Drawing 253

Stripey green socks: a pair but not matching (in that the stripes are a random arrangement of greens and blues, with the cuff, heel and toes all in the same green). I am a little in love with the repeating yellow stripes in between each blue/green length.

Another multi-coloured stripey pair of socks commissioned by one of my classmates after seeing the first multi pair I knitted for myself. I am surprised by the amount of yarn I seem to have amassed in the stash since learning to knit three or four years ago (The Bloke taught me in about fifteen minutes, after my mother told me - on her 4th or 5th attempt to impart knitting skills -
that I was unteachable :) Three pairs of scrappy socks have diminished the stash somewhat, of sockish yarn at least.

Now I should return to the black shrug I abandoned at exactly the halfway point of the back, after running out of steam for knitting an apparently endless round of black, black and oooh, black. Perhaps I can convince myself that since I'm halfway, it's all downhill from here. Or else cast on another pair of socks!

Oh, and I've discovered a way to get me over second sock syndrome, a malady to which I am all too prone. I cast on the first cuff, knit to the heel flap, put that aside and knit the second cuff, knit to the heel flap, go back to the first sock and knit the heel, pick up the second sock and knit the heel, knit the first foot and toe, then - ta da! - all I have left is the second foot (I just typed 'food' instead of 'foot' three times - must be hungry) and toe and I have a complete pair of socks, painlessly. And no poor abandoned first socks languishing for want of their mate.

Knitting valium

Drawing 228

I've been knitting a LOT lately. Stephen King refers to book valium, which works well, too, but my current sedative of choice is knitting. These are currently making my feet very happy:

Knitted totally from stash yarn (scraps and odds 'n' ends - for a woman who only learned to knit four years ago I seem to have accumulated quite a bit of yarn), a pair but not matching. It's all 8ply so they're thick but very comfy for house socks. Better than slippers for keeping my tootsies warm, and I can wear them in bed - can't do that with my slippers.


These came first, though:

I couldn't resist the lime green, though it's crappy yarn, and the black stripes really make the colour pop. Also very thick and good for house socks. I'm onto a third pair out of various greens and blues (but not the lime - it overwhelms everything else) with two rows of yellow separating each stripe. I like!

Dr Who scarf

Drawing 190

Drawing 191

Drawing 192

Above is the scarf I finished from the UFO pile, now an FO. It is satisfying to see the pile of mending and projects diminishing, at least slightly. It's still a frightening size but progress has
been made. Next on the list: mending a shirt cuff where the button placket (if that's the correct term) tore, and resewing the back seam on a dress with a centre-back split that's threatening to come adrift and show rather more of me than I'm comfortable with, even in summer.

Knitting

Progress on the UFO (unfinished object) pile, which has melded into Mending Mountain. The blue and red scarves I started last winter, and left languishing at the cast off stage. For some strange reason, casting off is my least favourite part of knitting (even weaving in ends is preferable). The third peachy scarf I made from scratch, just because I was enjoying the process. These are really fast to make, knitted on big needles from a single ball of yarn. Mostly I just like the process, knitting soothes me. All three came from stash yarn, acquired from the op shop or the trash and treasure market - I had a great find at the trash and treasure a couple of years ago: a gigantic plastic bag of all sorts of lovely yarn for $5! I'm still working through it.

I've put all three scarves into my Etsy shop - click on "My Etsy Shop" at the top right hand of the blog if you'd like a peek.

I've also finished a stripey scarf from odds and ends of yarn, mostly from little bits left over from other projects (photo next post). It reminds me of Dr Who's stripey scarf, just on a smaller scale. My shrug is nearing the half way point and I think I'm about knitted out for a few days :)

Darn, darn, darn!

Progress on Mending Mountain! Three pairs of handknitted socks darned. I put the darning off till there's several pairs, then have a blitz - there are still two pairs of bloke socks to tackle. And I reknitted the toes of a stripey pair a few weeks ago, as the holes were enormous and the yarn not the best; it was easier, in the long run, to re-do the toes with better quality yarn in the hope that they'll wear better.

The burgundy pair on the right of screen are the first socks I ever knitted, and my favourites. I was a really tight knitter to begin with (picture my face screwed up, tongue poking out the corner of my mouth, and shoulders hunched as I struggled with two unruly sticks and a snarl of yarn), and the fabric in these is very even and thick. And, even better, they're made from yarn I bought in the op shop (Salvos in Oakleigh) for $2 an enormous ball; some industrious worker had been busy unravelling jumpers. I've never been able to repeat the perfect fit and fabric, later socks I like but these I love. It makes me happy just to put them on :)
My toes are warm and snuggly again - don't need slippers when I'm wearing my Favourites!

Day off

Drawing number 103

Drawing number 104

Drawing number 105

Drawing number 106

Got to painting class this morning to find the day's classes cancelled - the teacher was sick. So, bonus day to myself. I managed to read the newspaper in one hit instead of a few minutes here, a few minutes there, accompanied by an early second cup of coffee. It was a cold and wet morning, a pleasant day for sitting at the dining room table with a hot drink, reading matter and two cold cats, glancing out at the raindrops.

I made two skirts to list on Ebay, made my drawing-a-day (the last one above, which I think, with adaptation, will be just the image I need to finish a print I'm working on, and would also be good printed multiple times on fabric), worked on the current drawing in my artist's book, finished reknitting the toes of the Bloke's socks (inferior yarn on one of the stripes which literally disintegrated with wear - I ripped it back to a good stripe and just reknitted as it wasn't worth darning. I hate darning, anyway, I'd rather reknit than mend!), and had a nap :)

In tomorrow's painting class we present our current project, Mechanical Reproduction. I'll need a computer to present mine: I made an animated .gif of one of my drawings. I'm so chuffed that I managed to navigate the program (with the Bloke's invaluable aid) and actually make the thing, I could burst...though it wasn't half as complicated as I feared. Now I know how, I may make more!