handknit « CrumpArt

September 5, 2009

Knitting Mojo

Filed under: craft,knitting — Tags: handknit, me me me, mine, yarn — Crumpet @ 8:38 am

I have discovered that I am an absolutely selfish knitter. Making promises and knitting things that others are expecting just does my head in and makes me not want to do it, no matter how fun or interesting the project is.

In June 2008, I promised a new pair of gloves to Mr Crumpet’s mum. I was going to make them for her birthday in July. I got some yarn and knit nearly a whole glove, with adjustments for size and gauge, before getting distracted by schoolwork and putting them down. By the time I went to start them again, the birthday was gone, winter was gone and I’d lost track of all my adjustments. I’d also dyed some yarn and decided it would be much better than what I was using.

So I frogged the glove.

A few months later, I picked up the yarn and knitted the cuff again. But I made a mistake so ripped it out.

A while down the track I started up, did the cuff, started the thumb gusset, then realised there was a problem with my old version of the pattern. I downloaded the correct copy and ripped out the glove. I finally finished the gloves this year. At Mr Crumpet’s mum’s birthday party. Oh, how I both love and hate them…

The pattern is called Knotty and the Ravelry details of my project are here.

Despite have a baby blanket to finish that’s now overdue by six months, I’ve taken the freedom awarded by completing the gloves and have been knitting some things for myself. Behold, the most awesome hat on the planet.

This little piece of genius comes courtesy of Jared Flood at Brooklyn Tweed and is called Quincy. Click here for my Ravelry project details. It’s one of those patterns that I read and thought, why the hell didn’t I ever think of that. It’s ingenious.

I went shopping in the stash for this one, and used a lone skein of Noro Iro that I purchased from Web Goddess when we were on holiday in Sydney four years ago. It’s been knitted and ripped and taken out and fondled several times over the years, and this ended up being the perfect project. I finished with 40cm of yarn remaining.

Someone at work told me I looked like a homie, and my local grocer said, unprompted, that he liked my hat and it looked like Robin Hood. FTW!

Comments (3)

December 9, 2008

Whatever happens, I’ll still have an awesome new outfit.

Filed under: Melbourne,craft,knitting — Tags: handknit, handmade, interview, job, knitting, time for a long overdue career shift, waiting — Crumpet @ 8:47 am

Back at the start of the year, I started knitting the Puff Sleeve Cardigan from Stefanie Japel’s wonderful book, Fitted Knits. I got most of it finished before going back to school, until I knitted the button bands on the wrong size needles and had to frog them. It sat there until October, unfinished, with just the button bands and bottom halves of the sleeves to go.

Turned out to be maybe a weeks work knitting on the tram while procrastinating during assessment.

And then it sat there again, until now, unblocked. I think there’s something wrong with me. Blocking… ten minutes of work washing and pinning it out, and then it just sits there and dries and it’s finished.

I have to thank Damo here from Australian Country Spinners. The beautiful yarn that I used for this project is Paton’s Merino Deluxe, and it was a gift from ACS for attending one of their marketing nights. And it’s exactly the colour I would have chosen were I to buy it from a store. Rav details here.

I had a good excuse to block it this week though (not that I should have needed an excuse!) I had an interview yesterday with a particular knitting and needlecraft shop that is opening up soon in Melbourne. And obviously I needed to have some knitted things to take with me. Of course, it was too hot to actually wear the cardigan until the trip home (my interview was in the evening), but I planned my outfit entirely around the cardigan anyway.

I think the interview went okay. The thing that I’m most concerned about is that I couldn’t be specific as to what my future holds. I still haven’t found out whether I’ve been accepted into Honours yet (two people have heard and the rest of us who applied haven’t received any indication either way) so I don’t know if I’ll be back at school yet, which means that I don’t know if I’ll be available for full time or part time work. It’s very frustrating. It also means that I still have Pixar plans, but I don’t know if or when they’ll come to fruition, and the people interviewing me obviously don’t want to employ someone who isn’t in it for the long haul. I hope I was able to communicate how much needlecraft means to me. It’s not simply a hobby, it’s one of the major focusses in my art and therefore my life. I know that I can do this job and do it very well.

So we’ll see. All I can do now is wait.