A Tale of Two Cardies (with apologies to Mr Dickens)

As mentioned before, I've become obsessed with cardigans. One of the questions that has seemed to be occupying my mind has been 'how many grey cardigans do I need?'. The answer appears to be 'at least two'.

One is Coraline. This has been a truly lovely knitting experience. The pattern is well written and the instructions were clear enough to get me through several new techniques (such as i cord edging and smocking) without any ripping back. I used Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette in Pebble, which was a dream to knit.

I made the medium and the only mods I made were to add an inch to the body and arms. If I were to make this again, I'd add an extra inch again to the arms (so 2 extra inches in total) but that's because I quite like my wrists to be warm. As it is, the ends of the sleeves sit just above my wrists, which is fine. At the moment its impossible to tell if the body length is ok and where the hem sits in relation to my waist, as my waist has long since disappeared. I guess finding out how it really looks will be a winter surprise.

Despite wearing it several times, and receiving lots of compliments, I still havent quite finished it. Yup, its the buttons that are yet to be attached. So until I triumph against button inertia, I havent got a proper photo to post. This one will have to do in the mean time.



After cruising through Coraline, Rosamund has proved a bit more willful. Gauge issues and my inability to read simple cable instructions lead to a couple of false starts, but now we are nicely in the groove. I have made a bit of a mistake with the cabling around the first button hole, but I am choosing to think of that as a 'feature' rather than a 'mistake'. Heres an in progress shot.



Its been very hot here in Sydney, so celebrate weather where only the lightest clothes are desirable, I've been laying in stocks of worsted weight yarn. Maybe I'm subliminally inspired by the exceptionally cold weather in the northern hemisphere. I've certainly been inspired by Madelinetosh and her colourways, and in a very short period of time I've managed to get three sweater quantities of yarn in Venetian, Tart worsted weight and Tart in a fingering weight. It seems the grey cycle has broken!



Lovely Tarty goodness! What will you be?



Beautiful Venetian, what gorgeous thing are you going to be?

Long time coming

Well, this blog post has been a long time coming. All sorts of reasons, but chief amongst them has been wips having repeated dunkings in the frog pond, having a sudden desire to make big (for me anyway) projects and most surprisingly of all, managing morning sickness.

Yes, Mr Wriggly will be joined by a sibling sometime in early March. Its been such an enormous surprise. It was a mighty victory for medical technology when Mr Wriggly arrived. So when I felt seedy, bloated and tired I just assumed that middle age was setting in. When the blood test for pregnancy came back positive, I secretly thought I was having some kind of powerful bout of wishful thinking. However ultrasounds and the passage of time have revealed to me that B2 really is floating around soaking up all the extra icecream I've needed to eat.

My Wriggly seems blissfully unaware. Phew. Here is a snap of the bathing beauty, personal styling courtesy of the Knit Widower.


On the knitting front, I seem to have been struck my a longing for cardigans. I forged ahead on Little Birds, but its been resting since I realised its going to be a looooong time before I can fit it around my waist. Still, its looking pretty and is at an interesting stage. Especially now that bloody never ending beaded ribbing is done!



I've also cast on a Coraline, which will be useful for next winter. Its great swathe of stocking stitch is also proving soothing television knitting. I'm quite looking forward to the construction of this cardigan. I'm loving the built in the icord edging and the knitted hem, but am hoping that that roll and pucker will block out.



I've never done a knitted yoke before. Anyone got any tips?

The reason why things have been quiet

Theres a reason why things have been quiet on the Joy front. I have a stack of ufos that only need a short burst of energy to finish - but can I summon it up? Not even with a stack of chocolate and some time to myself! Here they are:


Cancan gloves in Madtosh Crow - looking rather promising at this stage, so I'll probably concentrate my efforts here.


My Jumping on the Bandwagon Ishbel in Colinette Jitterbug Velvet Plum. Only needs another two lace repeats - which I think is the grand total of eight rows.


Entomology, which is coming along rather nicely. Its in Wired for Fiber Hero.

There is an FO in the midst of this embarrassment of UFOs. Here is a Naughtie for Hugo Moller.



But the real reason for the inactivity has been because Mr Wriggly has been doing some knitting all of his own. Can you see where?



NB: I didnt make his jumper, a friend of my Mum's did. Its a lovely one isnt it?

It was a one eyed one horned flying purple people eater

It was my Mum's birthday recently, so I made her some Tadpole socks in Colinette Jittterbug Purple Passion. They were such a victorious, unrepentant shade of purple they reminded me irresistibly of the old song about the purple people eater. Here they are in action with Mr Wriggly, who was pretty keen on them too.

Speed knitting

I do like my hairdresser, but recently she sheared me. When I went to get a trim last week, the word 'short' must have been mentioned at some stage (eg "my, what a short skirt", or "yes please, a short black would be great"). Regardless of the context though, I came away with very, very short hair. The shaver was even used!

I walked in the front door, thanked the Knit Widower for his supportive gasp because clearly it could only be a gasp of admiration, not, for example, shock, and immediately cast on a Thermis.


Once the Thermis was off the needles, it was clear it needed some mates, so I whipped up yet another pair of Evangelines with the left over yarn (Sundara, Royal Footguards worsted weight).


Now I am much toastier, but still quite shorn.

The amada fights back!

Not only is the UFO amada fighting back, with me casting on the lovely Marlene despite two looming birthday deadlines, but its ally, the stash, is also growing! Eeeeee!


Yes, I had some stash enhancement at the Craft Fair at Darling Harbour this week. It was pretty amazing, I hadnt been before and I hadnt realised just how huuuuge paper crafting is. Luckily I was able to find what I wanted pretty quickly and leave before the crowds starting heaving. More on the stash reinforcements later.

Treats! And and FO (take that amada!)

When I was little, I loved lucky dips with an unbridled devotion. At any school fete, local show or gymkhana I could locate the lucky dip and blow all my money in one hard core session. Its probably just as well I never figured out to work the pokies*.

This seems to have translated into a passion yarn clubs. After all, there is a large element of luck dip about a yarn club. Sometimes the yarns are sensational, sometimes they end up on a Ravelry destash thread quicker than you can say "Jeezus!" when you get your credit card bill (which is always a strong possibility with our exchange rate).

This week brought two lucky dips into my home. The first (which actually arrived more than a week ago, and been carried from room to room to look at in different lights) is from Knitting Inspirations's Lace Club. Its a beautiful skein of Cashlana in Ocean. I guess it doesnt strictly fit the lucky dip analogy, you get to choose your colourway in this club, but as I'd never seen the yarn before, it felt like a lucky dip winner to me! The yarn package also included some gorgeous stitch markers and a tape measure with which Mr Wriggly has fallen in love.


Today's arrival was from the Needle Food Sock Club. Out of New Zealand comes this beautiful, hand dyed sock yarn and treats! Stitch markers, Freddos, an exotic woolwash and some bamboo dpns hiding up the back of the photo. Cant wait for next month's shipment!



And finally an FO, from the aforeblogged UFO amada. The Hot Flush Rock and Weave socks. Made for Liza, modeled by Liza. I suspect she is wearing them this very moment, while snacking on ruburb crumble and watching Friday night crime.




*slot machines