Vintage Knitting

The picture on the top is the beginnings of my latest beanie. I'm knitting in the round, 120 stitches of 8-ply wool on 3.75mm 40cm circular needles (I seem to be a loose knitter and always have to go down a needle size).

Now this might look like a perfectly normal and dare I say it boring bit of knitting. But look at the picture of what yarn I am using. Yes VINTAGE wool from my late mother's stash. Original 1970s Patons Totem wool, a tweedy cream and brown twist. And because I am sure there will not be enough for a whole beanie (I think there was well under 100 grams in total), I've also pulled out the verigated orange and brown that I am certain is from the same era so I can create some totally hideous stripes that someone might find hip and fashionable in this retro-age.

Or if it is a complete disaster I can always unravel it again.

Subversive Cross Stitch (TM)

I probably would never have started knitting if it wasn't for my crappy eyesight. I used to do cross stitch but I was finding it harder and harder, especially to distinguish the subtle colour changes. However after stumbling upon this website http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/ I am seriously tempted to take it up again.

All the time was doing pretty floral bookmarks when I should have been working on my "LIFE SUCKS AND THEN YOU DIE" sampler.

Hats, hats, hats

The problem with knitting adult jumpers is that they take too long. The VERY BIG GREY JUMPER was knitted over at least two years.

In between I knitted at least half-a-dozen jumpers for babies and toddlers. But I am selfish. I want something for myself. That I can finish quickly. That is not a scarf.

That is why my house is now covered in hats.

I initiallyused a pattern out of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting. It is very simple and satisfying and great if you want to make a 12-ply yarn tea cosy.

It was relatively simple to adapt the pattern for a stocking stitch hat, but my hat knitting has really taken off now that I've learned to knit in the round. After the first few rows it is great to mindlessly knit the same stitch over and over again.

I then discovered the self-patterning 6-ply Opal sock yarn which means I can mindlessly knit a hat that LOOKS as though it is really complicated but isn't. The hat on the left was knitted using the roll-brim family hat pattern in the Spring edition of Southern Cross Knitting. I made the beanie followng the same pattern but knitting 30 rows of knit 2 purl 2 initially. As the yarn is thinner and knitted on smaller needles, I simply chose a larger size to get a finished product that fitted me.

The accidental designer

When I first started knitting I must have made at least a dozen scarves in feathers and mohair and wool and every other yarn imaginable. I learned to cheat and take short-cuts from the very beginning.

I struggled with the then-new feather yarn initially until I realised how much easier it would be if I alternated a few rows of feather yarn with regular wool and other novelty yarns in toning colours.

"Wow! What a fantastic idea, to make a textured stripe scarf!" commented one person.

Oh yes, OF COURSE, that's what I was trying to do...

Still struggling with feathers, I found it was easier if I knitted it with a strand of 8-ply yarn in a toning colour. The added bonus was that I could knit on much larger needles and finish the scarf faster.

I then combined 8-ply wool with 12-ply mohair (as I only had a couple of balls of mohair and needed to stretch it), knitted on extra-large needles for speed (and created a fashionable lacy look). The I discovered the drop-stitch.

A shop assistant at Spotlight mentioned that I didn't need to bother alternating knit and purl rows when using loopy mohair or other fancy yarns because the stitches were invisible under all the texture. Wow! What a good idea.

The praise kept coming as people misinterpreted my every act of laziness and cheapskateness for creativity.

Then I got bored.

A photo!

This is me wearing the CPSU hat (pattern available via the side links) and the very big grey jumper.

My husband is not a conehead

I am trying to work out how my husband who is at least 8 inches taller than me with a huge barrel chest can possibly has such a tiny head.

It doesn’t look tiny. But it seems a beanie knitted in a standard women’s size is still too big for him. And his head is kind of short and round, meaning that any hat knitted to a standard pattern is too long for him.

“I am not a conehead,” he complained, putting on my latest effort. I was so upset and frustrated; not only was it knitted in a beautiful pure black wool with perfect tension; for the first time I had not fudged a single stitch as I made the item.

Jeff realized that I had finally gone over the edge.

“See, it’s perfect now!” he said rolling the brim up several times.

Maybe it is the buzz-cut hair.

I am a complete failure as the loving knitting wife. I tried to knit him a jumper but was so paranoid about it being too small that I ended up making a jumper at least 3-sizes too large. It is still very warm and cozy and I wear it myself most of the time.

The great unpick

Well today's knitting activities could best be described as "reverse workflow".

After staring blankly at the cardigan with its far too short bands, I had no inspiration. So I just unpicked the bands and have shoved the whole lot in a bag to contemplate at a later date.

We're getting on to spring and Gabi won't need the cardigan until next March at the earliest. I have time.

I then painfully unknitted two rounds of my beanie to remove the start of the CPSU logo. I've decided to just knit this up as a basic black beanie. Maybe Jeff (my husband) will accept this one. He's not the easiest person to knit for. All my hats to date have been too loose or had too short or too long ribbing or too thick seams for him.

I'm knitting yet another roll-brim hat in the Opal sock-yarn - it's my lunchtime/morning tea break brain-dead project. I have a vague plan to knit up a box full for next winter and try my luck at the craft markets.

I realise that I should be posting pictures of my knitting but I just can't find where they have hidden themselves on my computer. Hopefully they haven't been deleted permanently.

The downside of knitting in the round

I have discovered a downside to knitting in the round. It is crap for intarsia, picture knitting. You knit your new colour accross and it is on the wrong side of the picture when you get to the next round.

If you want to put a picture on your hat, knit on two needles.

Feel free to use my pattern for a simple two needle 8-ply beanie on the CPSU Beanie link.

And don't bother with the Patons Winter Warmers Pattern unless you want the brim to fall into your eyes.

New Supplies :)

Just received a package in the mail from the Netherlands. Three balls of Opal 6-ply self-patterning sock wool for about half the price they sell for in Australia (yes, even taking into account postage). Such is the cost of imported yarn in Australia. Even if we are one of the major wool producers in the world.

Of course after I placed my order I found another international site selling the yarn even cheaper. But there is a certain confidence, possibly ill-founded, in buying via EBay and PayPal from a seller with a good feedback score. And I am not yet quite confident enough to order from a site which is nearly entirely in German, even if it does seem to be very reputable and has a good rap from another Australian blogger.

I haven't yet succeeded in knitting a pair of socks and find 4-ply just a bit too thin to cope with at this stage. But the 6-ply yarn is a good compromise and very good for hats and beanies, which I am extremely addicted to making at the moment. If you want a pattern for an easy hat knitted in the round, I have to recommend the new Southern Cross Knitting site http://www.scknitting.com/spring2005/rolled-brim.html

It took me quite a few goes (and a few broken plastic double-pointed needles) to master "knitting in the round" but the time save knitting virtually exclusively in knit stitch plus not having to sew up seams is invaluable. It also produces a far more professional result.

If you want to try knitting in the round don't be like me and try to start with 4-ply socks. Start with the roll-brim hat and buy a 40-cm 4mm circular needle to get things started with. As you reduce stitches you'll have to move onto the double-pointed needles but it is much easier to maneuver them once you have a bit of knitting base to start with.

But back to the Opal wool. I am a child at heart and love the way the pattern almost magically appears as you knit. It really gives you the incentive to keep on knitting "just one more round" or "until the next colour change".

I am blogging at the moment as I have come to a bit of a standstill with (one of) my current projects - a knitted lace cardigan for a friend's daughter. The knitting was far easier than I expected (so if you are apprehensive about trying lace, find a simple pattern in 8-ply yarn). But I'm hitting a brick wall with the "making up", sewing the front bands and knitting the neckband. My front bands appear to be about 25 percent short and the explanation of how to knit from them and create a neckband in the Patons pattern is not helping. I generally do not find Patons patterns the most user-friendly but I dropped my guard over this one because it explained the lace knitting so well.

I guess I'll have to find a granny somewhere to help me out. My mum was a great knitter but she passed away in 2003 - and I didn't really start knitting properly until after her death.

And thus it begins...

My name is Maggie B and I am a Knitaholic.

I have more wool, mohair, cotton and other yarn in my house than anyone could knit in a year.

When I am not knitting, I am checking out yarn on EBay, The Knittery, Sunspun and other sites.

And I love reading Knitting Blogs.

And now I have joined the Dark Side of the Cyberforce.