Tuesday, October 17, 2006

shock horror...some knitting content [ and quilt show photos]

The other night I really NEEDED to knit something... and not just anything. It'd been too long since my last hit and I needed a fix of something new. Now it just so happens that The Yarn Harlot chose Saturday to post a pattern for a new scarf. A scarf with only one pattern row to memorise and that row has only four stitches AND it's truly reversible.
Probably half the knitters in the world were reaching for their yarn with visions of harlotty goodness in their heads. Who was I to buck a trend?
So after some preparatory yarn fondling, and as I didn't have any handspun I cast on with Moda Vera Susan [ mohair blend boucle] but I couldn't see the pattern so I frogged it and tried again with Wendy Double Knit in a glorious cobalt/navy/purple combo. Can't really see the purple in the photo and the colour is much more intense than this. Yeah, ok it's acylic but it's a NICE soft, squooshy, not cheap acylic ...The original YH pattern is in worsted [ 12 ply] so this is a very narrow scarf and I'm obviously having to knit more rows but dayum this is a fast knit. But I do have a gizzle to report, a grump... a whinge even: I deliberately started with a ball containing 300 metres. More than enough to do it without joining. I'm not fond of darning in ends. Anyway that was the master plan.
If you look at the photo with the blue knitting you might notice something significant up near the needle.
Yup
10 1/2" in, there was a knot.
I HATE it when this happens. If I buy a reputable and not-cheap brand, it shouldn't have nasty, sneaky, bloody little knots in the middle of the ball.
The one consolation I guess was that I wasn't knitting something on circulars.
Currently I'm up to about 53" and I think I'll probably go to about 60". Given that today's forecast was for 30 degrees, probably NOT peak knitting weather ... pfft... I scoff at such things. Nadie may not wear this for another 7 or 8 months but it will look pretty .

Now the rest of the post's about quilts so you can surf on if you're only after the knitting.

The raffle quilt with Sylvia on the left and yours truly. As you can tell neither of us were expecting to have our picture taken.
Next we have an amish quilt by Kay Smith and a quirky little belly dancer by Janine Clark which was her entry in the Golden Dreams Challenge.

This drunkards Path variation with the curves appliqued in place rather than pieced.
the blue quilt is by Jan Lynch and made from a scrumptious collection of japanese prints. Jan is spoilt rotten... she has family in Japan that send her care packages. Shame I didn't take a close up of some of the kasuri fabrics.
and the hexagon quilt is Brenda Bidgood's first quilt- made entirely by hand. I don't know that she actually owns a machine come to think of it.
Don't know why, but a large number of the girls up here are committed hand piecers.
I certainly used to be but I haven't seen such a concentration for a LOOOOOONG time. I might be Corliss' at Threadbare's influence maybe?
I certainly still hand quilt some but rarely piece that way these days.

Finally, and after talking about it constantly for the last 2 weeks... drumroll please.... this is the finished Challenge quilt. Click on the photo to get a bigger view.


Anyway, I've had a frantically busy day so I'm off to put the feet up and have a chai.

13 comments:

Becka said...

Gorgeous quilts!
I hate when that happens, finding a knot! It seems to happen to me with the more expensive yarns...what's up with that?!

Sheepish Annie said...

OOOOOH! I feel that "quilt bug" getting ready to bite me again! Someone was just asking me why I failed to finish my humble nine patch from this past summer vacation.

And I also really need to knit that scarf. Aside from the knot issue, it looks like it might offer some instant knitting gratification...

Unknown said...

You're just one among many, many, many who started the Harlot scarf this weekend! I love the pattern. I started it with some of my leftover handspun - won't really have enough for a scarf, but I think of it as a swatch for a future scarf!

Laura said...

I have the hand piece/quilt discussion with a friend of mine all the time. I grew up watching my aunt hand piece and my mom hand quilt. So that's just how I do it. And I own three sewing machines!

Actually I've been getting into vintage pieced tops that I can handquilt. I love thinking about what the person was doing or thinking 50 years ago while they pieced it. (Probably, "Jesus Christ, I can't wait until sewing machine are available to the everyday quilter!")

catsmum said...

yeah I wasn't putting any weight on that statement ... like this is better than that ... just a comment that it's quite unusual, even here in the bush. At other groups I belong to or visit there's a lot doing hand applique with fusibles and blanket stitch or needleturned and another whole camp doing stitcheries . I mean quilters always need something 'portable' to drag along... but the number up here who specifically hand PIECE is what I find interesting

Anonymous said...

Love how the Tiger quilt turned out. Definitely not the usual Susan colours. I'm doing one at the moment in citrus colours. Bit out of my comfort zone too.

catsmum said...

Nola G doing a citrus coloured quilt ?... shock !... horror!
photographic evidence please my sweet :]

Anonymous said...

Try knitting with Noro - 2 knots (on average) per skein!

That last quilt is a masterpiece.

And yes, it really IS only 6:30am (am studying - and checking out knitting blogs)! x

catsmum said...

another good reason to talk myself out of buying Noro.
I'm sorry but I think with what we pay for good yarns, we should get 'em knot free.
If you buy something at a factory outlet and marked as seconds, then and only then should you expect knots

Rose Red said...

I too, am going to knit that scarf! Bought yarn yesterday but managed to hold off casting on as I have about 15 projects with a Christmas or early January deadline. We'll see how successful I am at that...

Anonymous said...

Got myself a google account now so I don't have to be anonymous anymore. No photos of the citrus quilt until I at least have the top finished. 1.20am......falling asleep......bye

Craftybernie said...

The quilts are all stunning. And you must be very proud of the Tiger quilt - it's a work of art!

Knots in yarn are an inconvenience, but when you find them in quality/expensive yarns it's frustrating. I recently worked with 4 skeins of Noro Kureyon, and each skein had at least 1 knot. Having said that, I'm not sure if that's because the wool is quite slubby in places thus more fragile. It's still a pain in the derrier!

mehitabel said...

Gorgeous quilts! Since I'm a quilter as well as a knitter, I love it when there are great pictures of both on a blog! In fact, I think I will go post some quilty pictures now...