Last year I spent 2 months travelling around the UK, and while I didn’t have to buy an extra suitcase, I did buy a fair bit of yarn. After I returned home I didn’t buy any for nearly four months. Not one ball. Strangely, this yarn diet wasn’t intentional. I tried to buy yarn a couple of times, but something always prevented me. I was outbid on E-bay, a trip to Bendigo was cancelled, that sort of thing.

Then in January I bought some rather uninspiring machine cones from the op shop and the diet ended. The dam didn’t exactly break, however. I ordered the wool for the Liquorish Allsorts jumper, and some teal Zhivago that was on super special at Spotlight. Then there was the Zara on Wednesday. And today I dropped into Wondoflex…

Sock wool. Like I need more sock wool. But this is beautiful (heard that before, haven’t we?). It’s a lush black with red flecks – hard to see in this pic. And I decided to do the next pair with the two circular method, so I bought a pair of 2mm circs.

I didn’t visit Wondo for sock wool, however. I wanted to have a look at the Ashford Knitter’s Loom (see link in previous post). I’d emailed Ashford to ask if anyone sold them in Melbourne, and was directed to Wondo. However, it turns out that Wondo will order them in for you, but they don’t have any in the shop.

Of course, I’m not going to spend $240 on something I haven’t even had a look at, so I didn’t order one. The nice lady who served me suggested I contact the Handweavers and Spinners Guild to see if any members have one I can look at.

And the trip definitely wasn’t wasted, as Seniors Art is next door to Wondo, and my main reason for the shopping trip was that I was searching for a french-style easel. They had a highly recommended brand of easel on sale at $100 off, so I got myself a bargain!

Recently finished: the Summer Stripe top… A few years ago I bought a huge ball of white cotton on E-bay. It came with a pattern, and I knitted the sleeveless version. I had quite a bit left over. I also had picked up similar cotton at op shops, in cream. So I dragged out my old Procion cotton dyes and dyed the op shop balls blue and green. I had in mind a stripey, strappy top.

Despite having knitted a swatch, I ripped it twice before I got the sizing right. I’d knitting a few centimetres, thread the stitches onto a length of wool, then try it on. Each time it relaxed and gained several centimeters. I went from 190 stitches around to 150, and had to change the pattern from white-green-blue to white-green-white-blue because the white seemed less inclined to spread and so ‘stablilised’ the dyed wool. I also changed from a ribbed band to a ‘hemmed edge’ as it was less stretchy.

A few decreases and increases on the sides, then some simple shaping at the front, finishing with another hemmed edge around the top, and finally a couple of straps knitted in garter st, sideways. I gave it a wash and laid it on a towel to dry.

The next day I was dismayed to find the dyes had bled.

I considered what to do. Knitting a small swatch, I washed it in the same way I’d washed the top. It, too, bled. In the meantime, I’d noticed a recommendation in the washing machine manual that new cotton garments be washed at 60° to remove excess dye. It seemed a bit drastic, washing a knitted garment that way. But after washing it by hand again, so much dye was coming out that I decided to give it a try.

It worked. (At least, it appears to have. The bleeding happened over several hours last time.)

My current WIP is a birthday present for my Dad. He likes bright colours. He also likes liquorish allsorts. So this my sketch for the Liquorish Allsorts jumper:

There were going to be one row thick coloured stripes around the bottom and wrists, but last night I came up with the idea of dashes, so they look like little allsorts.

I have a long way to go. Fortunately, Dad’s birthday is in July.

Yesterday I dropped into a wool shop I’d never visited before: The Wool Village in Brandon Park Shopping Centre. The staff were the best kind: offering me assistance when I first arrived, leaving me alone when I said I was just browsing, then were happy to answer questions when I approached them. I bought this:

For a scarf. Not for me, but a thankyou present for a friend. I cast on and ripped several times last night, just trying to decide how to knit it up. I have to admit, I keep thinking it would be a great first project if I succumb to the tempation of a knitting loom.

http://www.ashford.co.nz/home/home-frameset.htm >

I didn’t take to spinning, but I have always wanted to weave…

I’ve been wanting to keep a knitting-only blog for over a year and a half now. Initially I couldn’t start one because I had such an unreliable dial-up connection, I couldn’t upload anything larger than a few kb. So instead I kept a private knitting diary. Then last October I finally had access to broadband connection and could upload images. Even so, I decided to simply post occasional public knitting entries in my friends-only LJ for a while to see if I took to the blogging thing. I did, and I’m sure I’m driving my LJ friends mad with the knitting posts, so I think it’s time for a dedicated knitting blog.