Northing ventured, nothing gained...

...especially when it comes to hats, apparently!




Pattern: Druidess Beret, by Anna Bright. Knitted out of half a ball of Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 8ply (Midnight Tweed), on 4.5mm circular/dpns.

Colour commentary: Hurrah, I knitted a beret that doesn't look look stupid on me! As previously mentioned, I had reservations about starting this one. It was obviously a gorgeous pattern, but I don't have a history of looking good in berets. Really, this looks to me more like a tam than a beret, and perhaps this is why it doesn't suffer from beret-on-Anna's-head syndrome. Either way, I'm happy with it! And I finished it just in time for the cold snap that has suddenly hit Melbourne.




This is a really well written pattern, and given how beautiful the end result is, I'm amazed that more people on Ravelry haven't made it. That said, it was rather time consuming for a hat, though it would probably go more quickly if the cabling was worked without a cable needle (I have, ahem, not mastered that technique yet - or rather I am yet to find a way that I am comfortable with). At first I wasn't entirely convinced that the finished product was worth the time that it took me, but I think I'm convinced now.

The only changes I made was to omit the bobble from the top of the centre (for no real reason other than laziness, to be honest), and to work the bobbles in the pattern a little differently than prescribed - the method I used made them bigger, and a little more defined.

I also loved the yarn - BWM yarn is awesome, and every time I use it I can't help but feel that I should use it more often. It's so great for the price (and yes, observant readers, you are correct - this is the same yarn I used for my sleevesless pullover last post).

In other news, thanks to everyone who said nice things about the pattern in the last post - I've been thrilled with all of the positive feedback! In other project news, my Kypria raglan shrug is coming along well, if a little idiosyncratically. And now that this hat is off the needles, I can finally start putting some more work into The Boy's (now much needed - see previous comment about the cold snap) scarf. He gets a scarf. I have something new to knit on the train. Everyone wins.

And now I need to go and feed the cats. Five more days of house-sitting to go - I'm not sure if I'll miss them or just be relieved that they're no longer wrecking havoc on my possessions. These guys are constantly treading the line between cute and infuritating, and sometimes I really can't tell what side they're walking on.



(looks cute, but is pure mischief and evil, I swear. Then again, he is a cat....)

A Peaceful Interlude

Well, as you all might have guessed from the lack of new blog posts, the last week and a bit has been absolutely insane in my neck of the woods. I worked quite a lot, had the first major assignment due in my editing subject, and last but not least, one of my dearest friends got married. I am proud to say that during the ceremony, I got through my reading with only a few small, virtually imperceptible mistakes, and that's really no mean feat, considering the fact that I was reading from Dr Zeuss! Erm, bride's choice, not mine!

Anyway, the wedding went off wonderfully, the bride and groom had a lovely time, and now that they've departed on their honeymoon, I am house-sitting for them and tending to their two lovely cats.




The above kitty is Loki, and there's also a sweet ginger and white boy called Puck roaming around, trying to eat my yarn whenever I attempt knitting. Thankfully I worked yesterday and used the mighty power of my staff discount to purchase a dangly toy to distract them.




With cats distracted, I've been free to keep working on this hat! It's a Druidess Beret, and I'm a bit over halfway through it. I was a little hesitant to start work on a beret, because they tend to look absolutely terrible on me, but then I decided to throw caution to the wind. If it looks awful, I'll just give it away, but I'm hoping it won't come to that - this pattern looks like it can be worn as a beanie too if you just pull it down a little, and I have a better track record wearing beanies. At first I didn't think that the yarn had enough stitch definition to really make the cables pop properly, but it's looking a bit more promising as it grows. The problem was particularly pronounced in the bobbles, so I ditched the method specified in the pattern and adapted a tried and true technique instead, and they're looking much better now.




I also did a bit of yarn dyeing over the last week (I fitted it in somehow, though it did involve frantically rinsing the yellow hank out when I should have been prettying myself up for the wedding ceremony... oh well). As usual, I just used supermarket gathered food dyes, and my lazy take on these instructions for cold-pour technique dyeing. The blue had a few irksome white patches after its first encounter with the dye, so I tossed it back into my trusty dyeing saucepan and heated it in a weak dye solution for a while.

I'm really, really happy with how they came out. Every time I dye my own semi-solid yarn, I always wonder why I don't do it more often. And why everyone doesn't do it - it's so easy!

The above yarn is destined for a pair of warm, stripey socks to get me through winter. I deliberately dyed it as brightly as possible, as I think that come June I'll need the extra colour. Until June 14th that is, because that's the day I will be getting on a plane... On that note, I'm off to drink more tea, eat another English muffin, and do some travel plotting!

A Cardigan, Graduation, and Plans...

Wow, did March go quickly! Guess that happens when you're busy. Study is still munching away steadily at my daylight hours (and the evening hours too), but thankfully work eased off a little bit over the last week. As a result, I finally had time to finish my stash-bust cardigan!




This is: Self designed top-down raglan cardigan, knitted from Cleckheaton Tempo (wool, acrylic and mohair blend) on 7mm bamboo circular needle.

What Anna has to say: Okay, for a start, I promise that the bottoms are not as lop-sided as they look in the picture. They are actually perfectly symmetrical - I just can't take photos, is all. When I get around to buying some, I'll be closing the front with a couple of buttons instead of just pinning it as I did above - this should remedy the problem.

As mentioned above, I designed this one myself. Lately I've been keen on cardigans with really low fronts, so I went in that direction again. I did some waist shaping in an attempt to dodge the almost inevitable unflattering tendencies that come with yarn this huge. The edgings and cuffs are garter stitch. So it didn't end up being too generic, I worked the fronts and back separately from the hips down, working to cute little points on the fronts. I worked the sleeves in the round, using magic loop.

I don't actually have all that much to say about this one. I suppose I'm happy with how it came out, mainly just because I never had any great ambitions for it. It was always intended to be a basic, unfancy, around-the-house piece - in fact it was basically conceived as a way of getting the Tempo out of my stash, because I wasn't too keen on it, and being super-bulky yarn and all, it was taking up a lot of space. Unfortunately I still have quite a bit of the stuff - but this made a good sized hole at least.

Also, now that the cardigan is done, I have officially declared it time for the winter knitting to commence. Just so that I can be prepared when the weather starts to get colder. I really need to make myself some more warm socks - most of my existing handknit socks are getting quite threadbare. I am also in desperate need of a basic black jacket. And I always need scarves. Always. A new hat wouldn't go astray either. Ahhh, plans. I love planning. The best part is that from mid next-week onwards I will be house/cat-sitting for some honeymooning friends, so I'll have plenty of peace and quite in which to curl up with tea, a DVD and some knitting. Okay fine, and homework too...

In other news... I graduated!




There I am, on the steps of the Old Law quad, looking every inch the proper student. Why yes, that is two degrees, thank you for asking! That said, the university managed to screw up my testamur - they left the "with Honours" off of my Arts certificate, which was a bit irritating. And they managed to stumble over my surname during the ceremony (jeez guys, it's only the seventh most common surname in the country). It was still a fun day though, after I escaped the boredom of the ceremony and got to the part where my family and I made silly mischief during refreshments afterwards...



Knitting related goals aren't the only plans in the works either... But more on that later!