For August Project Spectrum we had a choice between black, while or neutrals. I chose chocolate brown:

This is my favourite chocolate cake recipe. This means I’ve woven, knitted, crocheted, taken a photo graph, make jewellery and cooked for my Project Spectrum projects. It’s been fun thinking up new ways to express colour.

Looks yummy, doesn’t it? Here’s the recipe:

Mississippi Mud Cake

175 g dark chocolate, chopped
250 g butter, chopped
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 cup hot water
½ cup whisky
1 ½ cups plain flour
¼ cup SR flour
¼ cup cocoa
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Grease a 23cm slap pan, line bottom with paper, grease paper
2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, water, whisky and coffee in double saucepan and melt. Cool to lukewarm. Transfer to large bowl.
3. Gradually sift and stir in flours and cocoa. Add eggs.
4. Pour into pan. Bake in moderately slow oven (350F/180C) for 1 ¼ hours. Stand for 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar.

Can anyone help me identify this plant? I’ve tried a quick search on the internet and in my books, but no luck so far.

It looks a bit like it might be a lily maybe. It has an amazing mottled stem/trunk:

And these fascinating fern-like leaves:

I’m hoping it’s not a weedy plant, and that perhaps I could put it in a pot.

Try saying that three times really fast!

Yesterday I went into a Pomatomus frenzy. It helped that I was doing some really monotonous work, which I made more bearable by stopping to knit for an hour twice in the day. By the evening I was up to the gusset. I knit gusset and foot and almost reached the toe while watching tv last night, then finished today during another break in the same monotonous work.

They’re done! And they fit nicely. I like this pattern. I like it much better than Jaywalker. It makes a very elastic sock so no fitting problems for my wierdly shaped feet. And while it might demand concentration, but it’s also strangely intellectually satisfying.

And it’s my first bit of charted lace pattern. I am no longer a lace chart coward. In fact, when I saw that the Zhivago Top pattern didn’t have a lace chart I was a bit peeved.

I can imagine myself knitting this again. Maybe next time I’ll do one top down and the second toe up so that the scales go in opposite directions.

But for now I’ve got some manly socks to knit – the beau’s socks and I want to try knitting re-footable socks for my Dad. There’s a pattern in Socks. Socks. Socks. that I’m about to check out.

I’ve been saving this one for when I had nothing to post about:

Recently I decided to tackle some of the projects I had lying about, waiting for some adjustment or sewing to be done. This is an off-the-shoulder top I made out of a skein of Colinette ribbon and some Katia cotton ribbon. I bought the Colinette a couple of years ago at a fair or show, and the guy who sold it to me swore there was enough to make a small top. So I tried knitting a fitted tube to which I planned to attach straps. The yarn ran out after only fifteen cm or so. I don’t look great in boob tubes, so I frogged it and decided I’d have to combine it with another tape yarn.

Off-the-shoulder tops were all the rage, so I knit the Colinette into a simple band to go around the shoulders, and dug up a singlet top pattern for the body. Then I crocheted little donuts, inside which I placed little mirrors, so it has a kind of eastern flavour.

Obviously off-the-shoulder tops can’t be worn with a bra. Unfortunately the knitted fabric is a bit heavy to wear without a bra. The front gapes pornographically if you lean forward. I decided I’d just have to add straps so I could wear a bra. It’s taken me over a year to get around to it, but at last it is finished. Right when the weather is much too cold for wearing off-the-shoulder tops. Oh well.

I also finished off the Thneed (was I blogging at the time I was knitting that?). And I found someone who it suited perfectly to give it to. She’s been chanting ‘I have a need for a Thneed’ ever since, so I think she likes it 🙂

The one project in the finishing pile that didn’t get done was the sari silk pillows. All I have to do is sew in the zippers. But that involves sewing.

Current wips? Well, I have just reached the heel of the second Pomatomus sock (going down). The beau’s socks are midway through the foot (going up). I haven’t touched the Zhivago top since I posted about it last week. But I did darn the holes in my my Dad’s handknit socks. I think I need to knit him several more pairs, so he stops being so precious about wearing out the old ones.

What else? Did I mention previously that someone offered me a spinning wheel?

If you look down at the bottom left you’ll see the squished garden edging. One thing I’ve learned about having major work done on a house is that the mess spreads furthur than you expect, and while big bits of construction happen, little bits of destruction happen too. I’ve had to rescue the roses from being buried under rubbish a couple of times now.

And the landscaper’s job is getting bigger every day.

There we go. Working again.

First I bring you one Pomatomus sock:

Ta da!

Next, I bring you the Catch Me An Alpaca scarf:

So called because the stitch forms a kind of net. We can go a-huntin’ alpacas. Or maybe not.

Finally, wot I cast on last night. Yarn snobs look away now:

Yep, I’m knitting something out of a tencel/acrylic blend (Zhivago). Even worse, I’m knitting something out of Crapative Knitting magazine. Known more for patterns such as the ‘Classic’ cardigan made of fun fur, and a whole lot of really awful assymetrical things, or just downright frumpy stuff, every now and then they do publish something wearable and, even more rarely, something attractive.

The yarn is actually quite nice to touch, and I was astonished to find I got gauge. Which probably means most people wouldn’t.

Believe it or not, after all the stress of the leaky roof day, I couldn’t face Pomatomus or even the toe of the beau’s second sock. The endless, brainless ribbing of the… (what was it called? I’ll call it the)… the Zhivago Top appealed to me.

Nope – Blogger still won’t upload images.

So I can’t show you the luscious, drapey, alpaca scarf, which I finished yesterday. You’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s lovely.

And I can’t show you proof that I’ve been working on the second Pomatomus sock. Not that I got a lot done since last week. I’ve nearly finished the first of the Heirloom socks for the beau, too.

Nor can I show you pics of the extension, which is now covered in bright blue insulation sheeting. It looks like a huge present. It just needs a big bow.

Codral with extra cough suppressant seems to have done the trick. Not only did it suppress the cough, but it helped with the headache and back pain from the pulled muscles in my shoulders and even helped a bit with the usual allergic reaction I have each winter to the smoke from my neighbours’ fireplaces.

(I have a friend who works for the EPA. He says a household woodburning fireplace puts out about as much carbon monoxide each night as a car does in a year. Hmmm.)

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the dissatisfaction I’ve been feeling about how I use my time lately. Mainly this is because I’m supposed to be taking six months off, but four of it have passed already and I’ve spent most of it on work-related side projects or catching up on work-related chores.

I need a break from my break.

It seems I can’t upload images. Every time I try to it times out. I’ve been searching for a page that tells me the limit I have on images and whether I’ve reached it, but I can’t find one.

Last weekend was very busy for me and, with the relentless post-flu cough still refusing to go away, I’m exhausted. The weekend sort of started on Friday and took me into the city every day. There wasn’t much knitterly about it. I did drop into the city store of Martas for the closing down sale and bought some bamboo dpns and Knitting With Wire by Nancie M. Wiseman. I also dropped into Cleggs and Lindcraft looking for buttons for the Squares Jacket, but the only buttons I liked were $2.40 each and I need nine buttons!

I also spent a few hours at the Melbourne Art Fair, where I saw giant letters covered in green knitted fragments spelling out the word “LOVE”, and a full size knitted policeman.

But little actual knitting got done, as the convention I attended was too dark and dingy.

I can report that I gave in and started knitting a scarf out of the handspun alpaca. I say ‘gave in’ because I really don’t need another scarf, but I can’t think what else I could make out of a small ball of fragile but beautiful thin alpaca wool. I tried a lace pattern called ‘rabbit tracks’ first, though it’s not reversable and I don’t like scarves that have a right and wrong side. After knitting 9cm I took it to the post office and weighed it and the ball, and calculated it would end up 90 cm long. A bit short.

So I frogged it and looked for another stitch pattern, finding a simple yo k2tog mesh to try. And ‘it’ happened: that moment when, as the result of the stitch pattern begins to become apparent, you know it’s Right. I really have to face it: I’m not a lace girl. This simple drapey mesh is more ‘me’.

What else… oh! That’s right. I tried to post on Friday but my internet connection kept dropping out, so I couldn’t announce the most exciting event of the week…

I finished the first Pomatomus sock! I love this pattern. It may demand concentration, but the result is a wonderfully stretchy, pretty sock. I still think a less contrasty varigated would show off the ‘scales’ much better. Like maybe the Lisa Souza Wild Things colourway in my stash. Hmm.

I have a photo to post, but it’s on the main computer. I’ve got the laptop set up in the lounge room today, because with the work going on at the back of the house it’s freezing in my office. I suppose I can add it to this post later.

Otherwise… I really, really, really, REALLY wish this cough would go away. I’ve been day-dreaming about flying north to some place where the air is warm and I can just lie on a beach until I can’t even remember what coughing feels like any more. I’ve even been dreaming about joining a gym just so I can have a sauna – and I hate saunas! I love cold crisp winters. I hate that this cough is spoiling this lovely cold crisp winter.

There, that’s my winge for the day.

The beanie idea I have been sitting on for a year came together pretty quickly yesterday and this time I’m going to post the pattern straight away. But first I’d like to acknowledge the pattern that inspired this idea.

There’s a beanie pattern in last year’s Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar by Judy Gibson called the Braid-edged Cap that I’ve made a couple of times. (One for me then one for Mum because she liked mine so much she had to have one for herself.) The cap’s rows go from crown to brim rather than around the head, using short rows for shaping – though a non-wrap version of the method – and have a cable around the brim. I rather liked this sideways knitting method of making a hat, and was curious to see how well stocking stitch would work instead of garter stitch. I figured I’d need proper wrapped short rows if I was using stocking stitch.

I also kept thinking about knitting a skirt last winter. I prefer a-line or gored skirts but most patterns I’d seen were straight. It occurred to me that this short row shaping of knitting sideways might be a way to make a skirt in the shape I liked. The short rows would curve it over the hips and add a little flare, and I could add a purl ridge to give a gored effect.

A skirt is a big garment to try out a new method on, so why not try it a beanie first? I ordered the yarn and that, as I said in a previous post, was as far as I got.

Until now:

————————————–

Wedgie beanie

Bendigo 12 ply Rustic in Midnight Tweed
US 8 needles (5mm)
Gauge: 16 st per 10cm

Cast on 36 st
Wedge:
Row 1: knit
Row 2: knit
Row 3: knit
Row 4: slip 1 as if to purl, p26, wrap next st, turn
*Row 5: knit
Row 6: slip 1 as if to purl, p to wrapped st, p wrap with st, p1, wrap next st, turn*
Rep from * to * until last stitch wrapped
Next Row: knit
Last Row: slip 1 as if to purl, p to wrapped st, p wrap with st

Knit 6 more wedges (perhaps 7 for a man’s size?), cast off.
Sew cast on and cast off edges together. Thread yarn through ends of stitches at crown like a drawstring, pull closed and secure. Fold up brim.

———————————————-

I used Elizabeth Zimmermans invisible cast on method and then grafted the edges together rather than seaming them. It seemed unnecessarily cruel to specify that on the pattern. I know many knitters hate grafting.

I have to confess I nearly frogged the whole thing when I was close to finished because when I wrapped it around my head as a test I discovered that not only was it a bit long, but the brim curled underneath. As I said to the beau, I was a bit worried I’d made a hat that looked like a tea cosy or gumnut.

But when I folded up the brim all was right with the world again. I no longer looked like a gumnut baby, just a woman with a blue hat on.

This rolling edge is going to be a problem if I do go on to knit a skirt. I may have to knit a garter stitch edge.

As for the title, that also came from me desribing the method to the beau as ‘a hat made of several wedges – it’s a wedge-ey hat… Oh dear. I can’t believe I just said that.”.