Friday Frock: Knit Wits: the Pièce de résistance

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Yes, yes you are.

Here he is, in full sized glory.  Banana man. But wait, it gets better.

Yep. 

Knit Wits: Day Three

Way to play up to the stereotype.

The bow tie seems superfluous, no?

This is the one I’m going to knit for Emily and Rich, in reverse colours.

Do the polo set wear novelty jerseys?

Wit Knits: Day two.

They just keep getting better.

Yes, because a grown man with a teddybear in his chest is not at all a cry for help

Insert your own cat joke here.

Oh Joanna, so lovely, so fabulous, such frosted lipstick

“Tonight, Mathew, I’m going to be…growling, apparently.”

The best $2 I ever spent.

Last month when we were in Taupo, we went to a market, which had a book stall, replete with such stellar titles as “Mental Retardation in New Zealand”.

For the princely sum of $2, I scored the delightful Wit Knits, by George Hoster and Gyles Brandreth.

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to feature some of the pictures.  I am taking orders, if there’s anything you’d like to have under your christmas tree.  After all, some of these are pretty hard to resist.

Because the family that sails together, stays together.

I wonder if Barbara knitted this?

Ah, the 80s off the shoulder look.  I am embarrassed to admit that I cultivated this look.

And my mother cultivated this one for me.

Knitting!

It’s been a while since I did a knitting post.  Which is a bit slack since it’s half the reason for the blog. It’s not that I haven’t been knitting, more that I haven’t been taking photos of it. I finished Carla’s gloves, Caroline and Jo’s tea cosy, some swatches, and I am sure some other things I have forgotten.

But, remember this? It is finally done.  It’s been almost finished for weeks, and I couldn’t decide what kind of button type thing to use, and then it has been blocking for the past week.  I am really glad I blocked it – it was curling a lot at the bottom, and blocking seemed to get rid of most of that.

Blocking in progress

I really love the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino – it’s so soft and luxurious, and is easy as hell to knit with.

Finished

In the end, I made a little i-cord button, which is sewed (not very well) onto a snap fastener.  That was a long, and arduous process, about which I DO NOT want to talk.

Anyway, it is finished in time for me to take to Christchurch, ready for the impending birth of the baby. And cute!

Cute!

In other knitting news, I learned something this week.  Don’t knit drunk.

Tangle

Because what will happen, is that the 150 stitches you so lovingly cast on while waiting in the freezing cold for the bus, risking frostbite, will end up a tangled, snarled mess. Somehow, you will join the stitches that you were meant to be working flat, into a circle, meaning you will have to pull it apart and start again.  And when you wake up, on the couch, at 4am, shivering, with a throbbing knee from being bent at a stupid angle, you will be more than a little annoyed.

What I was starting to knit, before that little incident, which coincided with this, was a blanket, which will be for the same baby as the jacket.

still tangled

I cast on about 20 too many stitches, so it is a bit wide, and therefore slow going, but it is a cool colour, and will make a good blanket.  And hey, the blanket weave is a good, easy, mind-numbing thing to do in front of the Olympics!

And yes, I am off to Christchurch for the rest of the week, meaning blogging will be sporadic, but I promise to return with tales of drunken tomfoolery, and more finished knitting.

How to win friends….

Knit them tremendously cute hats for their sister’s baby. And let them take the credit for it. I haven’t done much knitting lately, for some reason – possibly because I haven’t been home a lot, but this hat is pretty fast, once it gets going. Of course, my Mum knitted a hat in a night last week, so possibly I should shut up.

Get a little carried away with the baking, necessitating bringing 2 bags of biscuits (happy Caroline??) to work. Excellent chocolate chip biscuit recipe. Which I forgot makes heaps, and stupidly decided to double.

These photos were taken on my phone, because there is something wrong with my camera. Grrr.

Also, if you were someone who was due to head to England, and were visiting one of your friends, you might want to take a look at this list:

• watties baked beans.
• Rashuns
• Pineapple lumps
• caramel tim tams

I’m just saying.

[Update: Apparently, when you knit people things, they bring you presents! Despite the fact that you do it because you like them, and don't want payment at all! (Except sometimes, when you knit for wine.) Nadi brought me more tempt cupcakes. Yay! Thanks! ]

Crafty goodness

I am failing to summon the energy to get enraged about anything this week (even though there’s lots of things), mainly due to the massive weekend just had, and the one on its way.

So instead, I’ll share some knitting goodness, and maybe a teaser about crafternoon.

Firstly, I finished Caroline’s hat, which ended up being kind of fiddly at the ends, and used a heck of a lot of quite expensive wool. But she says it is soft and fits and looks cute, so I suppose that is good.

I next cast on the ribbed jacket for my cousin’s baby, which could have waited a while, as she’s not due for another couple of months, and it is knitting up really fast. I’ve been knitting on it for about 2 nights, and I am more than a third done.

I am knitting with the loveliest wool, and my new knitpicks needles, which are lovely. So easy to knit with, and they make the clicking sound my mum’s needles used to make, that feels, in part, like the soundtrack to my childhood. It actually makes me feel old, now that I think about it.

The nice thing about this jacket, other than how fast it is to knit, is that you can see it taking shape as you go, because it’s basically all in one piece. Cute! I can hold it up, and actually see it becoming a jacket. Which is nice.

Seeing as I don’t know what gender the baby is, I thought I’d go with cream, and then when it comes, I can embellish it (the button to hold it together – not with all kinds of ribbon and shit) in appropriate colours.

Also, don’t I have a pretty duvet cover!

And, so Crafternoon. I will save the good photos and the whole story for when I have pictures of the finished mosaics, but safe to say – we had a smashing time!

Knitting is (not) the new black; Or: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

In the window of Kate Sylvester, there is a knitted dress. It is a really pretty pale green colour (I can’t find a picture online), but even so. It is a knitted dress. When I first saw it, I texted Caroline to say “There’s a knitted dress in the window of Kate Sylvester, does that mean I can make one?” She replied “No, because you aren’t Kate Sylvester, nor do you want to be her. Although it would be very funny, so maybe you should”.

Part of me loves this dress, and thinks it is pretty. The other part of me thinks it is absolutely ridiculous. What worries me is that I am sitting, typing, wearing a pair of fingerless gloves I knitted for myself, that even 6 months ago, I would have thought were ridiculous.

So maybe I should knit the dress, cos it would be funny. Except? Just No.

Dammit, this is a problem. I keep clinking on things over on the Hand Mirror (you guys are doing a great job, by the way) and seeing things I want to write about.

I am a political animal. I love politics. I am not an activist, I don’t march, or join, or petition. I listen, and watch, and think.

While I have politics, and opinions, there’s a couple of reasons I won’t be writing about them here. Firstly, my job requires that for the most part, I shut the hell up about my opinions. And I like that – it makes it easier to do my job. Secondly, I think there are already enough voices clamouring for attention in the blogoshphere. There are political blogs I read every day, that I read the comments on, but that I don’t comment myself on. Some of the comments over on Kiwiblog and some other political blogs scare me. And for the most part, the people over at Public Address say what I think better than I can, so there’s not a lot of point me adding to the noise for the sake of it.

Also, my views change, and ebb, and become more or less impassioned, and I would hate for someone to go back and look at what I think now in ten years, and hold it up as proof of something.

So, no politics (I will right about girl things – or wimmin’s issues, if you like – because I don’t think wanting women to have equality compromises my job). But I like Helen’s point about “trying to live your politics”. I do point out sexism, racism, bigotry where I see them. But sometimes the fight is just not worth having. The other day, when I pointed out a very real issue of sexism in New Zealand (the lack of coverage of women’s sport – for which I am directly responsible, because I don’t watch women’s sport) i was told to “get off my high horse”. To which I politely responded that my high horse has suited me quite well for thirty years, and I’d be quite happy to stay up here thanks. And thought “because i can look down on you better from here”.

And as for craft, I don’t knit for political reasons. I don’t knit because I value things made in New Zealand, or fair trade, or because I think it values women’s work. I knit for me. I do it because it is nice to have a hobby, it keeps my hands busy while I am sitting still, and because I like to give things away. I could go out to Farmers and buy a $10 hat for the new babies that have been born, but I’d rather not. I think giving you something that I’ve made, that I’ve put thought into, that I slaved over and swore over, and spent time on is much more meaningful.

Giving you something that I knitted means I care. It means I thought about you for hours while I made it, thought about what colours you like, and what might work for you. Much more than if I’d just gone and bought something.

I want my (new) blog to be how I want my house to be. Welcoming, warm, restive, entertaining, colourful, interesting, occasionally booze-soaked. My parents taught me never to talk about politics and religion, and if I don’t stick to that in life, it would be nice to stick to that here.

Bits and bobs.

Just to prove I made two: Ava and Lyla’s hats….two are cuter than one.

The pattern you can see underneath, is fetching, which I am going to make myself some of, in lieu of superfluous not-gloves.  I will use the left over wool from the baby jacket – so as to avoid visiting the wool shop and wasting money on wool I don’t need, but fall in love with.

I need to actually make a list of all the things I have promised to knit, so I don’t get carried away.  I am not the world’s fastest knitter – although that could be due to the fact I only knit at home, and I am never home.  For example, this week, I was home on Monday.  And that will be it for the week.  Last week, I was at home Monday and Saturday, and Sunday.  Which did not bode well for knitting.  Anyway.  Post fetching and jacket, there’s a hat for Caroline, arm warmers for my 7yr old cousin Katy, a hat for elma, and probably other things.

I do find it amusing that all the people who mocked me for knitting now want me to knit things for them.  Though I suppose that’s what happens to everyone.

Last night was book club, so, in keeping with the book, I made sweet sausage.  Anyone who knows me, knows I made that, because it afforded me opportunities to make sausage jokes.  Because I am 12.  But, it was really good.  I mean, it is basically fudge, so I can’t see how it is particularly Russian, but tastes good, and was pretty easy.  And really does look like sausage.  Especially if you slice it really thin and arrange it on a plate like you would salami. Or hide it.  (see? 12)

And that photo?  I had to take it, and then run the bowl under the cold tap, otherwise nothing in the world could have stopped me licking the bowl, and I had already dipped about 5 wine biscuits in fudge mixture, and felt sick.  Such is the peril of being such a good cook, I guess.  And making fudge before eating dinner, too, I suppose.