Field photography in the city

Today was a wonderful day spent in the city on one of my friend Leanne's photography field trips. This was a chance to get better acquainted with my new camera, enjoy a day with a friend and hopefully get some worthwhile photographs.

If 236 photos, sore feet and this blog entry is anything to go by, it was indeed a success!

We started with a quick look down a lane and lots of stairs, before a coffee, a read of my manual and some further familiarisation with my camera and we were on our way!

Hosier Lane is renowned for it's amazing display of the work of graffitti artists. The energy, the cleverness and downright naughtiness made for some fabulous photos.

There was St. Pauls'

Lots of laneways and arcades, Myers, the Post Office and Melbourne Central.

We finished the day with another icon:

I've just picked out a random collection of photos, not necessarily the best. Please forgive me, it takes awhile to process 236 photos!

A testement to the day is that it's prompted a redesign of the blog and this entry. I feel alot happier with my new camera. There's alot more to learn.......but there are more field trips!

Managed one pair of socks

This was for last week, however, computer glitches and trips to the beach and warm weather and more good things have meant that I'm a bit behind!

I did manage to finish the first pair of socks....well almost...with afterthought heels, well this one, you have to graft the last stitches and it's not my favourite job. My friend, Dr Bones knows how to knit grafting, but I can't get it into my head....one day! This is surprising, as I've had quite a revelation with these toe up socks and suddenly feel quite confident about amending them entirely and making a whole new sock design. And, yes, I know, with purl stitches on a multi-coloured yarn you get all sorts of crazy colouring and don't really do the yarn justice. But that was deliberate and I quite like the effect.

 My next pair are also multi-coloured, and, luxurious. I was keen to try my new found confidence with these and started with my modified toe-up design. Starting with the toe, I've made it a k1, sl1 pattern, alternating with a knit row. This is often used on heels, which it will be for this, but I always wear out at the toe, so I'm adding this to see if it works for reinforcing the toe.

The pattern I chose was to suit the yarn, and is a slip stitch pattern. These are good as you get a longer piece of colour and it's move around. This is a twisted slip stitch from a Harmony stitch guide. It's subtle, but started out really well.

You can't quite see the pattern yet, but wait!

How many socks can I knit in a week?

It's a strange week, that week between Christmas and the New Year. Almost like an extra week. You've got over the rush of Christmas, there's not really much to do for the New Year, unless YOUR hosting the party! I'm sure it's just another week, if the weather is cold and wintry, but here we're in the SUMMER holidays.

For my family, we all head off to the cricket. India vs Australia. It starts Boxing Day and takes a meandering 5 days, well, that's what it's looking like. I was keen to go and see Sachin Tendulkar attempt to make his 100th 100, but didn't quite make it today. Great to see a legend though and possibly his last tour here.

Where do the socks come in? Well I don't HAVE to do anything this week, it's not January, December work is over, so I've decided to knit some of this sock yarn sitting there, not quite in my stash, because I'm supposed to knit them.

The first one is the 'mojo sock' by Donyale Grant out of Yarn Magazine, Vol 11, Issue 23. She blogs at moggyandme.com and if this design is anything to go by, is a lovely designer. I'll have a look another time.

I've done one and 1/2 socks and should finish this first one tonight or tomorrow morning depending on the cricket....oh and the washing!

I like this design, it's asymmetrical and has endless possibilities, plus it's toe up (never done before) and an afterthought heel (never done before) with a magic cast on (successful attempt this time).

A finished project

Finally finished the jumper for my oldest son. I'm quite happy with it, though the sleeves are longer than I would like....HE likes them. The colours for the fairisle pattern have worked out really well and he does look very handsome when he's wearing it. Yes, despite the warm weather, he has worn it out at night.

The pattern is from the Yarn Forward (now called Knit, for some strange reason, they renamed the magazine, so I can't pick it out from all the other '...knit....' magazines. An original name would have been nice, I'm sure they used a focus group to decide that!) and I did wait a along time before he decided that he wanted me to knit a jumper for him, but it was worth the wait.

It's a zauber ball

With the view of spending our winnings, we ventured on a road trip to the delightful Sassafras in the Dandenong Ranges. YES winnings, Jen, Sarah and I won the Sheep to Shawl competition held at the Melbourne Royal Show this year, and as a prize we received a voucher to spend at the wonderful Sassafras Wool Store.

The Sheep to Shawl is organised by the spinning crazy that is Marion Wheatland. She is crazy, the ONLY person I know to take a spinning wheel to Antarctica in the world! We had four teams, though three were beginners, we won, of course, but failed to beat our time of last year. It was a wonderful day talking to each other, and talking to the public. Great fun and we will be there next year!

So, having finally found a mutually suitable time, well almost, I did have to leave after just finishing cake at the delightful cafe right next to the Wool Store. But we were there at the same time, long enough to buy our wool and have lunch and entertain L :) as she scooped yogurt all over her face!

The Sassafras Wool Store is amazing with plenty of incredible yarns and lots of other things to browse, but I had come to buy a zauber ball.

and I couldn't resist the colour and feel of:

These will turn into a pair of socks, of course. However, I still have to decide what to do with the zauber ball.

The Dandenongs were beautiful, the company wonderful and I have some new yarn. What more could you want?

Sometimes inspiration is simple!

Sometimes the best inspiration is the desire to give something to someone you love.

In the building of our extension, oldest son (Michael) had his room re-arranged and updated. Much nicer with lovely windows over his desk, good blinds (?) and a wardrobe. Unfortunately, he is the only one with:

bare floorboards. Great for the rest of the house. The rest of us have cosy carpet to keep our toes warm on a cold Melbourne morning. So a rug is called for. Colours?

This is the lightshade in his room. If you look behind you can see the tasteful paint colours (my choice) don't necessarily go with the shade (father's choice and M's approval), but when outnumbered go with the flow.

The warp has actually been on my big loom for awhile, but I've finally got around to the weaving. Having worked out that I do have enough yarn to make the size we want (more luck than good management), I've been steadily working on:

It's a Krokbragd pattern which is a very simple 3 shaft technique, the main aim is to play with the colour patterns. I started with plain black and now have incorporated all three colours and will continue the current striping till the black runs out, then add extra cream till the orange runs out and then the middle will have the remaining cream and then reverse the lot!

I love weaving at the big loom, it's such a physical process. It's wide enough that you have to move from side to side as you throw the, quite heavy, shuttles. It is a rug, so they are quite heavy with thick yarn. Your feet are moving as you change pedals to change the shafts that are required. I love it!

The only downside to Krokbragd is that it is quite slow as you need three passes for one 'row'. I have extra warp on and hope to weave a couple small rugs. I'll probably do at least one more in Krokbragd, but in a thicker yarn and then see how long it takes.

Right now I'm just enjoying weaving for Michael!

It's what inspires you that counts!

Inspiration can come from all sorts of sources, yet for many of us it is 'the yarn'. The 'must have' that gorgeous texture, feel, colour or just it's plain craziness!

I am having that reaction with the wonderful silk and stainless steel yarn from Dairing. I managed to get to their Richmond shop in Lennox St. to find a beautiful store. Yarns and more colours and their wonderful designs. I was there to buy yarns, which I did....

but I also checked out an amazing range of yarns, from the stainless steel to linen to linen paper. So now I have something to play with...

Linen paper! I saw a jacket knitted with this and, I think, it was the silk and stainless steel and it was gorgeous. It keeps suggesting to me, for some unknown reason, crochet, so I might team it with some mercerised cotton and a crochet hook and see what I come up with.

What I'd like to have a look at is their amazing designs, clothing and jewellery. Again, beautiful design and maybe a gorgeous something to wear for Christmas!

I was so excited by my purchases, that I've done three scarves for the market. They're done on the knitting machine and I manipulate the fabric to try and create folds that force the fabric to behave interestingly. I think it works!

I do feel a bit of a fraud when I say that ALL the previous scarves have sold.....I bought the first cone at the Handknitters guild and despite it being the only one it went, so next, at the Sheep and Wool show I bought two and a play cone. The play cone is still being played with but the TWO have gone. I did make a mistake and only bought four, when I'd written in my diary, buy SIX....next time. It is surprising, as usually people need a choice of colour, but there seems to always be someone who just loves them.

So here are the next three:

Now I have to go and put tags on all  the finished pieces, in time for Rose St. Market tomorrow.