Friday, August 27, 2010

Come on do the Blue Beat!


Cast on my DOWN BEAT using Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in a colour called Steel Blue.

He he - you're going to hate me for this.



Finished my Triple Slip vest too.  This one's from Knitscene Winter 08/Spring 09.

Annoyed that the arm ribbing has come out all floppy, need to unpick all that grippy, sticky handspun and re do them with less stitches and a smaller needle.  But I just want to move on and do de blue beat in the sun.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Winter Knitting

I got it in my head to do the Ravelry IntSewMoDo again.  That's International Sweater a Month Do-something, i.e., 2 sweaters in a year.  Last year I got to 11.  This year I've done 5, working on 6 and 7 now.  I might get there, if I do a few quick and easy numbers, and stop playing around with designs for the kids (sweaters for 9 year olds should count - they take pretty much as long as sweaters for grown ups!).

What I'm going to do with potentially 23 sweaters I don't know - but that not the point is it?

Here are my winter efforts:

Goodale by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.  Viral knit du jour on Ravelry, but there's usually a reason these things go viral - they are so NICE!

003

Mine is done in some handspun from my stash of greasy old sheep's wool.  I think this is Corriedale - whatever it is it is lovely.

001

My dress is by De Vol Clothing who make the most glorious 50s inspired clothes.  I bought it at Frutti in Cuba Street here in Wellington - one of my favourite shops, I always find something to love in there...

Moorland Folded Cowl Pullover from Classic Elite Yarns.  I'm in love with CEY at the moment, love the styling, love the back page ads on my knitting magazines ;-)  Unusually for me I've used the recommended yarn, even in the sample colour - shock, horror!  Love this, even though I practically knit it twice due to being a moron (gauge issues).

Here I am modelling it, unblocked and before I re-did the cowl, in my pjs.  Just for Nikki!

004

Better get onto my spring knits, huh?  Keep getting distracted by Angry Birds on the iPad - darn those evil pigs.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Spring?


This silly tree always blossoms in August.  Then it loses all its early growth to the inevitable late winter storms, and spends the summer with all it's upper branches bare.  But it's still cheering to see a little blossom, even if it will be short lived.

Somehow I missed this from my last post:


What were they thinking at Shepherd?  Widgie jailbird raglan - excellent!  She even has a leopard print blanket.  I must find this leaflet no. 831!

What's a Widgie?  A Widgie is a female Bodgie of course. 

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Teenagers and some more social history through knitting

I've been doing the Time Warp again.  This morning I scored 12 lovely leaflets from my dear friends at Fontana, Kaiapoi, Shepherd, Aotea, et al, for the princely sum of $2.

I even found another Fontana Teenage Knitteds booklet.  I have a few of these now; 1950s and 1960s, boys and girls.


The concept of teenager seems to have changed over the era - the 1950s teenagers are very young, the models look about 14, and the patterns are sized accordingly with 28" to 34" busts for the girls.  These teenagers are rather more adult, with sizing to a distinctly grown up 38 inches.  I do wish they had dated these booklets, it's doing my head in trying to date them. The LP on the cover is from 1960 (Charlie Digs Dixie - gotta love Google), and bulky knits in long, boxy styles over capri pants screams early '60s to me, so giving things a year or two to reach our far shores I'm guessing '61 or '62. 

This is my favourite - Down Beat:

Check out her beaten copper bangle! Dig those bongos!  I'm so knitting this, but not the 60's way.  That yoke is knitted separately and sewn on.  No way!

All a lot more down beat than this get up:


I can date this one pretty confidently because attractive SUIT is conveniently modelled by Miss New Zealand, Elaine Miscall, who went on to be 1st runner-up Miss World 1963.  She's pretty cute, but she lost to the even cuter Miss Jamaica.  Check out the va-va-voom swimsuit figures in this newsreel.  There must be some serious support in those togs!


A NEW MISS WORLD

Monday, August 9, 2010

Stormy Monday, the Camel, and a Colossal Squid


Big seas, and even bigger wind today.


Nothing for it but a trim latte at Maranui.


A sad story with a happy ending that turned out to be sad after all.


When my children heard that Maranui Cafe had been gutted by a fire, the first thing they asked about was the camel.  The camel is so important my children actually call Maranui "the Camel Cafe".  When the cafe re-opened a couple of weeks ago the first thing they asked about was the camel.  I'm sure you can imagine their delight to find the camel, restored to his former handsome glory, standing proud in his old spot by the window.  The first thing they did was race to be first on the camel. 

My 9 year old came sadly back to the table.  In the year and a bit of waiting for Maranui to re-open, she has grown too big to sit on the camel.

And here's the Colossal Squid

Amazing what's found in the sea around here!