Introducing Rhonda

This is not Rhonda. But this is where the name came from. A very magnificent rhododendron growing at the end of our street. It seemed intuitive at the time.

THIS is Rhonda:

Or rather her cute little sleeve of which I happen to be immensly proud.

This is the picot edging around her neckline:

Which I do like, but will like much more when she is blocked.

This is her, in all her glory:

 

Well the top half anyway. And aren’t I good, I’ve been darning in ends as I go 🙂

The reason you havent been introduced before now is that things got off to an uncertain start, primarily because I am making-her-up-as-we-go-along and seeing-how-it-goes. So far, so good!

In other news a small ladybird winged her way to a new home with my friend Lucy

(no sure if winged is a word)

But I like the back of this brooch the best (and the alliteration is pretty rad too.)

And I went to the library today! In amongst the books from the 80’s on hats and mosaic knitting I found three great books:

I LOVE Erika Knights books, and have been wondering what to do with all my little odds and ends of yarn lately- the flowers book will be wonderful. The felting book just appealed and has some great ideas. Its the lily on the front that caught my attention.

And now I’m off to pick up the stitches around the waist of Rhonda and finish her off. Though not all in one sitting of couse!

Clapotis

This is the second lot of silk dying I did, about a week ago now. I’ve been too busy knitting it up into a scarf for my cousin Sophie’s 21st birthday to post anything, and I haven’t even got any snaps in progress!

This yarn is so delicious I could eat it.

Silk singles:

Plied with merino singles (white dyed with green food colouring):

Beautiful thick/thin slubby yarn ranging from green to green-blue. I am slightly concerned that most of the blue and some of the green washed out when I blocked this, but it came from the silk- I think I was too impatient with it in the electric frypan.

The much loved and easily recognisable Clapotis, modified with only one repeat of the increase rows.

On the blocking mattress:

And when dry:

Please Mister Postman, Look and see, If there’s a Letter, A Letter for me.

Thud on the doorstep while I was knitting this morning……

All the way from America! And full of goodies too….

They must make the chocolate sweeter over there, cos it made my teeth hurt! A good thing as it means I’ll have to take it easy on it! Peeking out the top is a cute card with a centipede on it- I’m glad I didn’t have to knit that many pairs of socks for Sock Wars! It all came in a cute gift bag, with a very appropriate picture of a skull on the front, which, alas, all my (2) photos of came out blurry.

And of course the Socks of my demise….. I LOVE them, I put them on straight away and wore them all day! Perfect colours and the Lorna’s Laces is gorgeous, I’ve only seen people use it on their blogs, not actually fondled it!

(Please excuse the massive pile of washing I just noticed in the background. As you can tell I was too excited to think about anything else!)

Thanks Brianne for all the work that you put into the socks, and the thoughtfulness you put into the package you sent. I totally love them and will wear them all the time as soon as the weather gets a little cooler!

The Best Kind of Study Procrastination!

While browsing at my local craft store Hands the other day the other day I found some Silk Hankies, and remembering the Knitty tutorial I read a while back (no doubt on my last lot of study leave), thought ‘I can do that!’ (instead of studying for impending exams!)

Thourougly wetted hankies, using a small squirt of dishwashing liquid:

1ml colouring, 15ml water a small slosh of vinegar (that’s a metric unit!)

Eye dropped the colour over the hankies and filled up the dish slowly around the edges till the hankies were submerged in water:

Dukenukem in the microwave in 2 min bursts till most/all colour absorbed- about 3 times:

Rinse and Dry:

And because I’m super impatient I seperated them before they were dry. This sped the drying up too. Bonus!

Draf and wind into little balls for spinning:

 

The one hankie nett me 40 metres- not enough to do anything with! But a good, fun experience, and inspiration for a gift for my cousin’s 21st birthday. (Stay tuned).

Anything I’ve left out and if you’d like to know what/how I did something, please ask! (Not claiming to be an expert though!)

Knitting, Knitting, Everywhere!

Here are some of the places I knit my Sock Wars socks. 

In the library: 

In my lab class:

On the bus:

They wouldn’t let me take the needles on the plane!

I knit in lots of other places too…in lectures, at home on the couch, at a crafty group day. The second sock and I even went on a picnic, though little kntting was accomplished. The socks went most places with me, and any stitches I knit were less I had to knit later on.

Sandra, I had heaps of fun with Sock Wars and knitting these socks for you. I hope you like them! 

Signed, Sealed Delivered!

I sent off my socks this morning to Sandra in the US. They’ll take a few days to get there, so she has time to frantically knit and send off her socks, as I did when I found out mine were coming. (Only a Sock Wars participant will be able to decipher that sentence!)

Here is the long ago promised photo of the wonk:

Although why only one sock wonked I do not know. One of life’s unanswered questions. (Right up there with ‘what is the meaning of life’ -right?) The Front wonks fit together quite nicely:

Although the Rib of Doom has not been kind to my yarn, distorting it and causing it to lose colour definition. I much prefer the bottoms of the socks. This is not demonstrated well in the photo, I assure you they are much uglier in person!

And a last photo, of the two socks in all their whole sock glory:

Aren’t they beautiful in the morning sun?

I found out this morning that my assasin hasnt sent hers yet! All that frantic knitting and my life is not endangered! Alas!Im in the running slightly longer, but I feel it will make no significant difference in the end as socks must travel all the way to NZ before being sent back to the States again. They will spen more time in transit than the time that has been spent knitting them!