High Rotation Monday #5

Colour -- I need colour... The temperature is starting to rise a little but there is a cloud hanging over our house most days. I have been drawing and stitching and knitting and surrounding myself with lots and lots of colour. It seems to be working. 

Reading.
Amelia and I have been reading A Wrinkle in Time. Lily and I have been reading The Wishing Chair (the "children off on adventures through space and time" theme continues). I have been reading Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness for book club, and The Family Dinner (our Taco Tuesday experiment begins tomorrow) which is making me feel like I might be getting one tiny, happy thing right when it comes to our chaotic family life. 

Knitting.
I'm back into it again. I have found a friend here who is a knitting whizz and can help me navigate complicated patterns and brainstorm fabulous ideas. She has even encouraged me to buy some yarn from Purl Soho -- so you see, she a very good kind of friend. A knitting gang has spontaneously generated. I like my knitting crew - even though I tend to travel to distant parts of the island for knitting evenings and then realise I have no gas left in my car... thus ensuing madcap, terrifying late-night drives home, filling up my tank from friends' lawnmower gas supplies at various stops all the way back up the island. 

And so Ravelry.com (find me here) is back in high rotation.

I have my eye on this pattern. What do you think? Too tricky? I've never done cables before.

One day I may even knit a sweater for a horse.

Hourly Comics Day
Hourly Comics Day was last Friday-- the idea is to draw one comic every hour about something that happened in the hour before. I took part last year and it was pretty fun. I decided to try again this year and did two comics (one at 6am and one at 7am) before realising that it wasn't going to be compatible with my busy day. It's so much work and completely exhausting. I admire anyone who manages to squeeze it in to their days. Here are some from a few folks who not only managed to complete a comic every hour but who also managed to be bright, sensitive, moving, entertaining and talented all in a bundle:

Eleanor Davis
Anthony Clark
Emily Carol

And now, some cheerful music - close your eyes and pretend it's Sunny: 

via Songs for the Day.

My kids have just started karate classes so we have been talking about martial arts a little bit. Capoeira is incredible. 

Tiny hat knitting pattern for tiny things

Here's something I posted in 2009 - but I'm about to make some more of these so I thought I would publish this again.

Tiny Pointed Hats

"The little wooden blank dolls are from Winterwood but you can get loads on etsy from sellers such as Goose Greese Undone or Gemmielou. The head diameter of the ones I use is about 2cm.

I use 4 ply sock wool and I like using the variegated stuff (is that what a yarn buff would call it? the Patons stuff is called “Patonyle”) so that I get spontaneous stripes and patterns. My needles are size 2 3/4 (that’s  12 English size and 2 US size apparently!).

So; make a cup of tea, crack out the gingerbread, wield your long skinny needles and…

Cast on 20 stitches

Row 1: Knit 2, purl 2 and repeat until the end of the row

Repeat for two more rows to make the ribbing.

Next row: Knit row

Next row: Purl row

Next row: You will now begin to decrease to make the pointed hat. Knit 2 together and then knit to the end of the row.

Next row: Purl 2 together and then purl to the end of the row.

Repeat until you have one stitch left on your needle. Cast off.

Turn right sides together and sew sides together using row ends, leaving the bottom of the hat open. Turn inside out, using a chop stick or a knitting needle head to push the tip through. Embelish with sequins and beads or with simple embroidered details. Glue it to your little doll’s head.

(please use it for personal use and gifts only! Thanks folks)."

Toast at Sunrise

Every morning we wake to spectacular skies full of dramatic streaks of colour. I am knitting these wrist warmers in preparation for the cold and to remember these beautiful autumn mornings.

(raveled here, free toast pattern here)

Tiny hat errata

Grr... I can't believe it. Well, actually I can. There's a mistake in my knitting pattern for the small hats. The third line reads "repeat for three more rows to make the ribbing" and I was knitting it one yesterday and realised it's only two more rows! It probably doesn't matter too much... regardless, apologies! Here is the correct pattern:

Tiny Pointed Hats

Cast on 20 stitches

Row 1: Knit 2, purl 2 and repeat until the end of the row

Repeat for two more rows to make the ribbing.

Next row: Knit row

Next row: Purl row

Next row: You will now begin to decrease to make the pointed hat. Knit 2 together and then knit to the end of the row.

Next row: Purl 2 together and then purl to the end of the row.

Repeat until you have one stitch left on your needle. Cast off.

Turn right sides together and sew sides together using row ends, leaving the bottom of the hat open. Turn inside out, using a chop stick or a knitting needle head to push the tip through. Embelish with sequins and beads or with simple embroidered details. Glue it to your little doll’s head.

Again - this is for personal use only! Thank you.

Give Away and small knitted hat tutorial

I have been making little ornaments for gifts and thought I would share my super simple knitted hat pattern with you. (please use it for personal use and gifts only! Thanks folks).

The little wooden blank dolls are from Winterwood but you can get loads on etsy from sellers such as Goose Greese Undone or Gemmielou. The head diameter of the ones I use is about 2cm.

I use 4 ply sock wool and I like using the variegated stuff (is that what a yarn buff would call it? the Patons stuff is called "Patonyle") so that I get spontaneous stripes and patterns. My needles are size 2 3/4 (that's  12 English size and 2 US size apparently!).

So; make a cup of tea, crack out the gingerbread, wield your long skinny needles and...

Cast on 20 stitches

Row 1: Knit 2, purl 2 and repeat until the end of the row

Repeat for two more rows to make the ribbing.

Next row: Knit row

Next row: Purl row

Next row: You will now begin to decrease to make the pointed hat. Knit 2 together and then knit to the end of the row.

Next row: Purl 2 together and then purl to the end of the row.

Repeat until you have one stitch left on your needle. Cast off.

Turn right sides together and sew sides together using row ends, leaving the bottom of the hat open. Turn inside out, using a chop stick or a knitting needle head to push the tip through. Embelish with sequins and beads or with simple embroidered details. Glue it to your little doll's head.

And now the give away part - I will be making three of these little christmas ornaments to hang on the tree and will give them away to three lucky commenters. All you need to do is leave a (one only) comment  (of the creative and eloquent kind - natch!) on this post and I will draw three random numbers out of the hat next week. Comments will be closed on Monday 14th December 2009 7am Australian EST. Thanks! xx

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Edit to say: Comments now closed! Thank you. I will draw three winners later today.

Socking the Laird, and other knitting tales

I have been doing some vague research into my family history for a little art project I am working on and I found this fabulous photo In the Shetland Museum Archives of some folks in the Shetland Islands who may or may not be relatives of mine. They are Robertsons to be sure and while they look like a little... hmmm... how can I put it... characterful?... it is possible that I can even see some vague family resemblences... prominant ears, the worried brow on the gentleman second from the right and so on. But you know, I didn't realise I came from such tough looking stock. I do know that my relatives had to leave Shetland (and hence eventually travel to Australia) because, as my dad puts it, one of them "socked the Laird, and if you sock the laird, you don't hang around." Socking the Laird involves putting rocks in a sock and knocking the lord of the land over the head. Tough folk. I think my mob left the Shetland Islands at least a decade before this photo was taken so perhaps they are more like distant cousins.

The other thing I am interested in about my Shetland Island heritage is knitting. Doing a quick search for knitting in the archives brings up 148 items. One of my favourites is this group knitting shot:

An early Stitch 'n' Bitch. I am particularly keen on the outfit of the woman middle right - cute! But what is that large rocky structure in the background? A roof? A cairn?

And knitting was something you obviously did in all sorts of places at all sorts of times.

And another example:

while on the way to tend to the potatoes, you stop for a bit of a natter with a friend who is burning kelp and, as you lean on your shovel, right there is the opportunity to keep knitting that sock (woman at back on right). Look at that beautiful sock blowing in the wind.

And now is obviously the time to get Amelia and Lily involved in some of their cultural heritage:

(And that seems to be the second jumper she knitted!)

I could keep going... such great photos.

Wordpress 2.5's new photo uploading feature clearly makes it far too easy to add a lot of photos.

Internet love

These were the things I liked today:

String curtain via Meet Me at Mikes

Kim Hargreaves Robin beret (new winter hats are needed) via Yarnstorm

The Pearce Sisters (via natascha)

and the production notebook images

And toilet roll seedling pots - brilliant! (via Modish)