I made a mistake early on, and even the smallest mistake with Henry, unless caught very early, means a whole lot of ripping back. My enthusiasm drained pretty quickly at that point. On top of that, it appears I misunderstood the rules for taking knitting needles on international flights. Soon after takeoff, I was told knitting on the plane was not allowed as the change to the prohibited item list only applied to domestic flights. This didn’t seem right to me, as I’d heard of others knitting on international flights departing from Australia without issue, but thought it best not to argue.

So yes, my Ravelympics effort was a bit of a washout. That’s perfectly all right though, Henry will now be my project for the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show. Given that’s still months away, it’s a much more relaxed goal and should (!!) be easily achievable.

Despite my previous claim about not having much time for knitting over the past couple of weeks, a little bit of knitting did occur; enough to finish off this fellow:

Elijah by Ysolda Teague
Approximately 100 grams of Lincraft Balmoral Tweed
Black embroidery thread
3.25mm double pointed needles
Started: February 2010
Finished: February 2010
Ravelryed: here

He was made as a thank you gift to our wonderful hosts in Tokyo. He was mostly done before we left, but his eyes and ears were finished while away. The only differences between this Elijah and previous Elijahs were slightly larger needles, accommodating for the slightly heavier yarn used (a 10 ply was used this time rather than the 8 ply used previously). I also used a little bit less stuffing, which makes him a bit easier to pose.

As this is the third time I’ve made Elijah, it’s hard to say whether this is now the end of my Elijah career. It would be good to try different patterns for toys as gifts, but at the same time it’s hard to go past him as he’s a fun and interesting pattern to knit, with such cute results.

We’re a little bit nervous, but also a little bit excited. I will try to post while I’m over there, but there’s also every chance this little blog will again go into hibernation for two weeks.

Oh, and a Ravelympics update: I still haven’t finished casting on! Pace should pick up tomorrow while on planes and in departure lounges.

My knitting challenge is relatively meagre — another Henry, but in Malabrigo Worsted rather than Grignasco Tango, the yarn I used last time. I’m not 100% confident that I can finish it in time, but using a heavier weight yarn (therefore knitting up quicker) and a long day of travel in a couple of days will definitely help my cause.

I tested out the travelbility of the project yesterday when knitting the swatch on a flight home from a conference. You will all be pleased to know that it passed the travel test with flying colours (excuse the pun). The swatch was knitted up on 5mm needles, which I am concerned creates a fabric that is too rigid, but a former swatch knitted up on 6mm needles didn’t have great stitch definition, so the actual scarf will be knitted up on 5.5mm needles. The subtle colour variations in Paris Night come out quite nicely in the pattern too. The variation is not particularly noticeable except in the sunlight, but it’s a nice feature.

Going back quickly to the travelability — this week was my first time knitting on a plane since restrictions were relaxed. It was hard to shake the feeling of being a naughty kid trying to smuggle contraband into the plane cabin, but it was great being able to keep my fidgetty hands busy from gate to gate. I’m keen to see how much Henry can be completed on a longer haul flight.

My Duck Hunt flying ducks have sat finished for a bit over a year now, but didn’t post them because I thought people might think them a bit naff. I’m obviously over that now (it’s my blog dang it, I’ll post what I want to!).

Once the images were scaled, they weren’t difficult to put together. In fact, the trickiest part of the process was making sure all the beads had melted together. I don’t have the best iron which probably didn’t help matters.

Unfortunately my ducks’ current location is flat on a mantlepiece as finding a good way to get them up on the walls has been surprisingly difficult. The ducks are pretty delicate so falling off the walls would not be good at all. Another challenge was finding a spot to take these photos, as it seems the walls here are riddled with picture hooks.

The biggest motivation for posting this project is because its one of those projects that I should have done ages ago, a recurring theme on this blog. This year I’d like to try a few more of those types of projects, ones that don’t necessarily take up that much time, but always get set aside for one reason or another.

Baking

Bara Brith via Taste
Mods: omitted the mixed peel, increased the sultanas to a heaped cup, used cinnamon, cardamon and nutmeg rather than mixed spice, used Nuttelex rather than butter (didn’t have butter on hand and was impatient to make the bread), and halved the amount of honey glaze.

The bread looks great (even if I do say so myself) and tastes just as good. Next time I’ll use even less honey on top of the loaf as it’s quite sticky.

In making this bread, it became clear that that bread making and knitting are complementary activities. The long proving and baking times allowed me to get quite a bit of knitting done. Admittedly, I could have been washing dishes as I went, but knitting beats doing the dishes every time.

Sewing

Pincushion (PDF) by Fiona Lech

My goal of properly learning how to sew this year began in earnest today, finishing a project started at Brown Owls last year. It turned out a bit wonky, both in terms of sewing the two circles of fabric together and spacing the red threads to form the pin cushion segments.

Despite its homely appearance, it’s still completely usable and the buttons used on either side match nicely. This project sits firmly in the ’should have gotten round to this ages ago’ camp, so I’m really happy it’s finished. Now, to find some suitably pretty pins to go with it!

Knitting

Somerset by Melissa Werhle

Not so much knitting, but blocking. This project was started in December and is now nearly finished, but hasn’t been mentioned on here until now. It’s not a project that is meant to be kept secret, nor am I unhappy with it (far from it actually), I just haven’t gotten round to posting anything about it until now.

The yarn I’m using is Cleckheaton Angora Supreme, a yarn discontinued around five years ago. While it’s a lovely warm, soft yarn, it likes to spread the angora love around a bit. Even while pinning it out, quite a few whisps of angora stuck to the mat. Black clothes should be avoided when wearing this, I think.

So there is my scatty, yet productive, Sunday. It felt like I was hopping from project to project with rapid pace throughout the day, but the products of my stop-start labour are quite pleasing. If only all weekends could be so fruitful!

Herringbone Mittens with Poms (PDF) by Elli Stubenrauch
Scraps of Malabrigo Worsted, American Beauty and Lincraft Balmoral Tweed, fawny colour
3.75 mm and 4.00mm needles
Started: December 2009
Finished: January 2010
Modifcations: lengthened hand and thumb sections, left off the pompom
Ravelryed here

To anyone who saw the photos being taken today, they must have wondered what on earth that girl was doing, wearing mittens and toting tomatoes when it’s hot outside. These photos make up for any slippage in our standing around the neighbourhood, right?

Given the weather, it might be surprising to know these mittens were borne out of necessity. It seems I don’t have that much in the way of proper winter clothes, an issue that will become most apparent when we’re in Japan next month (!!!). The mittens, while not solving all the winter wardrobe deficiencies, will hopefully keep the winter chill off my fingers somewhat.

It pleases me greatly that the mittens were made from yarn left over from other projects. I was concerned about whether I’d have enough yarn for the mittens, and whether the yarns would go together, but both concerns were completely ill-founded. There is still some Malabrigo left, and the yarns worked up together really well. Using the Malabrigo at the edge of the cuff might not have been the wisest choice, as I suspect it’ll pill or even felt a bit.

There’s been a noticeable slow down in knitting on account of the warmer weather. So much so that it took a concerted effort to get the thumbs finished and ends woven in and I’ve been contemplating doing some sewing instead of knitting. The horror!

Your Victory Jumper by Home Notes (via the Victoria and Albert Museum)
2.5 balls grey Gignasco Bambi, 1.5 balls royal blue and 0.5 balls cream
2.75 mm and 3.25mm needles
Started: June 2009
Finished: December 2009
Modifcations: lengthened and added another repeat, stitch wise, to the body
Ravelryed here

If you heard strains of The Halleujah Chorus floating on the breeze sometime last Sunday, it was likely coming from me as Victory was unpinned from the blocking board. It was not so much the relief of finishing, but the excitement that she could finally be worn. I already love it to bits.

The lace pattern came out really nice and crisply with the yarn, and although I opted for a non-patriotic colour combination (the pattern was published in England just after VE Day, and recommended the use of blue, red and white yarn), I’m quite pleased with how well the grey, blue and cream worked together.

I found the sleeve’s shoulder cap construction a bit strange, in that there was no cast off at the armpit, just a gentle decrease from there to the top of the shoulder. This did make it a little difficult when seaming but the sleeve and body stripes match up, so I’m happy.

If you are interested in WWII era knitting patterns, it’s worth looking at the collection hosted on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website. I tend to think Victory is the pick of the bunch, but there are some other nice patterns on there that I’d consider making down the track, once my pattern queue and stash has diminished significantly.

If this post was to be one word long, ‘duffer’ is probably the most appropriate way to sum up this year in knitting. It’s been a bit of a ‘wheel spinning in the mud, not getting anywhere fast’ type of year, with all the reknitting I did. That’s perfectly OK though; it’s helped me realise that patience isn’t as overrated as I always thought it was.

I’m really happy with how all this year’s projects turned out, but strangely I don’t have much to say about them. My favourite colours, green and brown, were well represented and I became a bit more adventurous with pattern modifications.

This year my partner Matt released a couple of knitting apps for the iPhone. While not my achievement, I’m still immensely proud of Matt and the effort he put in for a couple of tools to make my knitting life a little easier. I can’t even begin to describe how pleased it makes me to hear that the apps are also useful to other knitters and crocheters – the support and suggestions from the knitting and crocheting community has been nothing short of amazing.

Outside of knitting, I finally tried my hand at some other crafts, and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Unfortunately these other crafty activities took a back seat when I left Brown Owls to move interstate, but non-knitterly crafty activities haven’t been far from my mind. Going from thoughts to reality is sometimes the hardest part of the process, I think.

Finally, I also tried my hand at selling some of my knitterly wares. By far, this was the most daunting thing I did this year. Going to market was a lot of fun, and nerve-wracking all at the same time. I will try again next year, with a little bit more wisdom and a lot more organisation.

Perhaps the word for 2009 should be ‘wonderment’, I think my pleasant surprise has been mentioned in just about every paragraph!

On that note, I think this dufferly wonderment of a year from the Pransellknit perspective has been covered. Thank you everyone for reading my funny little blog. I hope I’ll see you again in 2010!

I’m not sure how this one will be received because of two things; it contains a slightly strange ingredient and it’s really not a healthy recipe at all. But it all gets eaten so quickly that it can’t be too bad, right?

Nuts and Bolts

300g Nutrigrain

375g packet Salted peanuts (we use unsalted mixed nuts)

1 packet Cream of Chicken soup (we use cream of vegetable)

1 packet French Onion Soup

1 teaspoon curry powder

0.5 teaspoon mustard powder

0.5 cup of oil (usually vegetable oil)

Pour warm oil over dry ingredients, stir until oil is mixed through, store in an air tight container.

The recipe has been slightly vegetarianised (by using cream of vegetable rather than cream of chicken soup powder) for my and Matt’s benefit. It also tastes a lot better the next day as the oil has time to soak into everything.

My Mum also notes to keep the Nuts and Bolts away from my Dad. So if you have made it and my Dad comes round, make sure you hide it. He will eat it all.

I hope everyone had (or is continuing to have) a relaxing Christmas break, and I guarantee the next post will be about knitting.

Hot

Christmas. The lead up is always manic, but it’s a relaxing couple of days and I get to spend time with my family.

Knitting on planes. Finally!

The veggie garden. My tomatoes and chillies have gone berzerk. Stay tuned for tomatoes and chillies forming part of the ‘not’ list in the future as we run out of ways to use them all up.

Not

My ankles. I hurt them while going for a run about a week ago. As a result, the amount of exercise I can do has diminished greatly. This has made me a bit of a cranky pants.

Sugar. I’ve consumed too much lately and I know it’s only the beginning. Must engage willpower.

(more at Loobylu)

As it is Christmas Eve, it’s more than likely that this is the last post before Christmas Day. On that note, I’d like to wish everyone a very merry and relaxing Christmas break, however long or short it may be!