Found this video on Youtube. All I can say is, “Holy hell!”
Another one from the same artist: Crochet Afghan
When the Needle Cable Breaks, the Knitting Will Fall (but not to worry!)
11th February 2012 By 1 Comment
A minor disaster that I now interpret as a hiccup in the Seaspray Shawl has occurred.
But do not despair, my humble readers!
My needle cables broke a few days ago (the plastic part slid out of the metal connecter of one end of it), and I’m waiting for a free replacement from the amazing Shiela Dixon at http://www.p2tog.com which should be here in a few days so I can resume work on the shawl. Gah – annoying! About 20 stitches slid off*, but I was able (with jaws clenched in concentration) to put them back on without much difficulty. Until I get the new cable and can transfer the shawl, I”ve wrapped a wide swathe of masking tape around each end of the cable, so nothing can fall off.
Here’s what the cables look like: http://www.p2tog.com/knitpro-interchangeable-circular-knitting-needle-accessories.html They’re so awesome that I don’t think I’ll ever want to use regular needles again (that is, buy any more, because I still use the straight needles I have.) The cable opens up a whole new world of knitting possibilities, because you can have things as long or wide as you want – the only limitation being the largest cable size (120cm) – which is what I’ve got. Up until now, I’ve been restricted to making thinner panels for my afghans because there was a limit to what a straight needle – even thick ones – could hold.
I’m also thinking of getting a yarn bowl, for when I knit things with handspun yarn. It tends to tangle easily, and a yarn bowl helps minimize that by having the bit you are pulling on secured in a specially-designed opening in the side of the bowl. There are so many to choose from that I’m having trouble deciding which one I like best.
Isn’t this one adorable (even though the yarn comes out his nose)? http://www.etsy.com/listing/91960720/sheep-planter-or-yarn-bowl Sheila Dixon also has yarn bowls.
When I saw that Shiela’s site carries knitting needle sets (think baseball cards, but pointier), DH said, “Down, girl!” Shiela’s website is more dangerous than a candy store, because she also sells handspun yarn!
*Cue heart attack
Lion Brand Fast Finish Throws
1st December 2011 By Leave a Comment
Lavender is the main colour, with accents of dark blue, and a slight tinge of beige. Fringed at both ends.
This “Homespun” throw is one I’ve done many times (I’ve made 4-5 different versions that I’ll post pictures of when I get around to it), and I’m just looking at other variations of it that use different yarn.
http://yarnimagination.lionbrand.com/patterns/60045A.html
Someday when I’ve used up all my yarn stash I’d like to try this variation:
This one uses Jiffy yarn, the same yarn I’m knitting the Shivanaut scarves with:
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60681B.html
Here’s a Cherry Blossom Throw I made, with dark and medium green as the main colours, and a very light pink as an accent.
I knitted this without fringes, so it's much longer than my other afghans.
Be prepared!
12th November 2011 By Leave a Comment
The amazing Georganne of Banyan Tree Yarns is going to help me calculate gauge for my Seaspray shawl. (I really tried hard myself a few times yesterday, but my artsy-fartsy brain eventually held a gun to itself - Are you feeling lucky, punk? – and threatened to pull the trigger unless I handed the job over to a professional.)
So I can’t work on that today until she gets back to me, and I’m still waiting for the skein of black Jiffy yarn I bought from her to arrive so I can finish my Shivanaut scarf.
Bet you thought I’d be sitting around the house, twiddling my thumbs, going into knitting angsty, yarn withdrawal, climbing the walls and pulling out my hair.
As our eighteen-month-old niece, Emily, would say, wagging her little finger, “No, no, no, no!”
I have pulled an older, sadly neglected project out of the closet:
It’s a pink scarf, knitted with a gigantic 400g ball of Sensatione yarn that my DH spotted on sale in an Iceland shop. The yarn is multicoloured, so as you knit, it naturally assumes an interesting variation of different shades of pink that go all over the place. That’s called a jacquard pattern.
Measurements
4mm needles, garter stitch (knit every row)
40 stitches per row
I’ll just keep going until I feel like stopping…
And I have decided, once it’s finished, that a portion of the profits of the sale on Etsy will go to either Macmillan or Cancer Research UK – because it’s a pink scarf and people are suckers for pink, cancer-related things.
Why I Photograph My Etsy Projects with Spock the Cat
29th October 2011 By Leave a Comment
Many people ask me about why I photograph so many of my Etsy projects with one of my cats, Spock. His white bib provides a great contrast against my subject, and he loves posing for the camera.
Other than photos that have Spock in them, I keep my finished projects in sealed plastic containers, to keep cat fur away from them as much as possible. After I take photos, everything goes right back into the boxes.
If you have allergies, I’ll be happy to run your purchase through a laundry and dry cycle before sending it to you.
I keep these containers in The Bat Cave.
Plastic containers where I keep my yarn and knitting supplies.
I have five of these (and counting!)
Here is another of my cats: Elsa.
Elsa, my black DSH (domestic shorthair) "helping" me knit in January 2008. In 2011, she's 13 years old, alive and well, living with my mom in Winnipeg, Canada. Her idea of "helping" me knit was to chew on my needles. if they were plastic, she'd chew the ends off and leave them all raggedly. But you can see the love in her eyes as she snuggled up next to me on the sofa.
New afghans!
19th October 2011 By Leave a Comment
Photos of my hand-knitted afghans are up!
Cherry Blossoms Storm Lavender
Drop me a note or DM me on Twitter (@stephbriggsuk) if you’re interested.
News About My Seaspray Shawl – Regularly Updated!
16th October 2011 By 5 Comments
16 October 2011: My next Etsy project for “A” will be made from Cotton Ease Seaspray yarn, and will be a shawl 5 feet square. Garter stitch (knit every row), using 6mm needles and 60 inch cable. The needle tips are interchangeable; they can be screwed onto and off of longer plastic cable, which allows for larger projects. I got the yarn from Georganne (my Yarn Lady!) at http://www.banyantreeyarns.com, and the supplies from http://www.p2tog.com, which sells not only yarn, but accessories as well.
This is a LOT of yarn...
This is the first time I’ll be using interchangeable needle tips, so I had to start a conversation with the owner, Shiela Dixon, on Etsy, for pointers. She’s fabulous! Stay tuned for my interview with her in an upcoming post!
Hopefully, “A” will love the shawl!
17 November 2011: I managed to untangle the thing and it’s coming along nicely. I had to restart it three times.
4 December 2011: Here are some new pictures, with stitch markers made by Shiela Dixon.
27 December 2011: The shawl is slowly growing. Because I’m really sick now with what we suspect is shunt overdrainage (low intracranial pressure), there are very few days when I feel like knitting, so it’s coming along more slowly than I would like. I’ll get there. I’m scheduled to have ICP monitoring done in January, and I’m going to take this to the hospital with me to work on it. I’ve been picking the brains (ha-ha…) of people I know on Facebook who have had this procedure done because I’ve never had it, and they say it is not painful (the monitor is placed under a general anesthetic), but when it is in for 48 hours, it gets very boring, especially in the cases where the patient isn’t allowed to move around much. So, for sure I’m taking knitting to the hospital, and my Kindle as well. If the ward allows it, I’ll take my laptop so I can watch movies on it. With luck, they may even let me have internet. When my friend Alexa (aleha ha-shalom) was in hospital and had ICP monitoring as part of her treatment, she had internet and updated it constantly. Whether or not Internet is allowed on the ward depends on the hospital, the ward, and what’s going on in the ward; if wireless would interfere with any equipment (such as telemetry for epilepsy), then it’s probably not allowed. It would be particularly helpful to have Internet because Google Calendar is how I keep track of how much medication I take. However, my backup plan is to get a nice journal from Paperchase.
My pre-operative appointment is this Thursday, December 29, at the ungodly hour of 0815h. Can I persuade my husband to take us to McDonalds for ten cups of coffee or tea breakfast? If we don’t get a date for the surgery within 2 weeks after that, when we’re to phone my neurosurgeon’s nurse, arrive at their homes with torches and pitchforks and a lynch mob, and start bugging her.
18 January 2012: We have heard nothing from the neurosurgeon. Today while knitting the shawl, I’m reviewing simple algebraic equations and watching a video about them on Khan Academy.
10 February 2012: Posts tend to cross over, so here’s the latest: I have a date for my surgery (17 February), and I took a picture of the Seaspray Shawl on 7 February.
It's getting longer!
Would anyone be interested in buying a copy of this shawl from my Etsy shop? I’ll gladly make another once this one (a custom order) is finished. Lion Brand Cotton Ease yarn is so pleasant to work with and comes in 22 colours!
15 February 2012: The replacement cables have arrived!
