River knitting anyone? January 24, 2008

I am posting on behalf of Joey today.  She is a tad naughty for not having set herself up to post here yet, but I won’t mention that   She has called an impromptu knitting session on the river this coming Friday evening.  Now when  say on the river, I really mean ON.  This is a CityCat ride folks.  How cool will that be, eh? 

So far the plan is to meet at 5:30pm at the Shingle Inn (Brisbane Square), dawdle half an hour and then jump on the cat.  It is likely that we’ll jump off somewhere for coffee and snacks.  Does anyone know anywhere good for that?  I do not know yet if we will be headed upstream or down, but it obviously doesn’t matter too much.  From memory, the cat does not go further out than zone 2, so a daily ticket covering at least zones 1-2 will allow you to ride on as long as you like.  I already have my usual zone 1-3 weekly on hand, so I am treating this as a free ride.  So remember, if you are catching the train or buss in to town, get a daily not a single.  ‘Cos then you are covered for the ferry too.

I will post up more details as they emerge.  For those on Ravelry, details will also be here… http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/knittee-committee-qld/80847/1-25#9 posted by Jo herself (aka. Anushka).

Lastly, here is a pic of a cute kid in a hat I made.  Not for any good reason, other than that it is cute, I wanted to show off the dye-job on the hat again and I don’t much like posts without pics.  

Pretty handspun yarn = lotsa winding January 21, 2008

I picked up this yarn at the spinners and weavers open day last year- it’s a cotton synthetic blend.

After 2 nights and some sore hands (and feet. Your wind on your own your way, and I’ll wind mine) we have the cake- it’s soooo pretty and fine. I’ve started knitting it into a basketweave scarf. Frankly when something’s this nice you don’t need to get fandangled

And here it’s modelled by the lovely Jane, who patiently held the hank at snb for a good 2 hours while I wound her up (har har)

Australia knits… January 19, 2008

Here’s something from my bookfest stash to get you all worked up about Australia Day- I love this one. I’d wear it, for sure. Nothing I love more than billy tea, a naff scarf and a roaring fire in the dry dry bracken

Lookee who I found hiding over at What Not To Crochet January 15, 2008

http://whatnottocrochet.wordpress.com/2005/12/01/creepy-clown-toys/

Son of scrunchy clown is comin’ to git cha Nitro Jane!  Bwa ha ha ha

Baby boo-boo bear beanie January 6, 2008

I think a few of  you saw this one, but here’s a finished bear beanie knitted in the very pretty Katia I picked up for 89c a ball at Spotties a while back

Pattern made up as I went along, but I’ve finally cracked a good size for a newborn/infant beanie (the model is an extremely small baby):

CO 80 stitches on 3.75 needles
Moss stitch 4 rows
K the length of my index finger (about 8 cm)
K2t every 10th st, k 3 rows, continue reducing at same point until there are 4 sts between each reduction (ie next 4th row reduce every 9th st, etc etc)
Reduce every second row for 2 sets, then just reduce until you have 4 sts
run yarn tail through 4 sts, pull tight and tie off. Voila!

Hope you can actually understand my pattern instructions. The bear ears are sock toes, I think I cast on 20 sts and then short rowed them until they looked like ears. You could of course make any kind of animal ear- kitten, dog, monkey, frog eyes

Bookfestivities January 6, 2008

The lifeline bookfest is on again next weekend, our favourite source for hilarious and/or invaluable old knitting and crochet books and patterns.
On Nitrojane’s suggestion let’s have brunch/lunch/knitting at Toscanni’s South Bank and then mosey over for the pick of the mouldering piles on Saturday the 12th.
Who’s in? at say 12? And are there any better ideas for noshing than Toscanni’s?

This is an invite for interested noobies and regulars. If you haven’t hit bookfest to feed your crafter library before you don’t know what you’re missing out on.
All I can say is the Golden Hands are mine, all mine!!