A leg up

I was looking at some of the truely divine free patterns on Ravelry the other day and I came across the cutest pattern for a knitted doll. So my random womble through the patterns turned into a dedicated knitted toy (Ravelry link) search and I was inspired!

Consequently, this week I'm trying my hand at designing my very own knitted doll. So far I've worked out the shaping for the foot and am almost finished one leg. Does this mean my doll is a 'toe up' pattern? Pics...

The Evil run around ... with pics

I've had an eventful week this week.

I finished my socks and I love them! They look great and they're amazingly warm.

I started a pair of oversize novelty clown socks for my bozo on account of him having oversize novelty clown feet.

Ive been working pretty steadily on a somewhat experimental project inspired by THIS (Ravelry link) amazing lady. It's pretty much irish crochet but with a slightly modern twist. Pics of my attempts...

I sewed together the squares for my WIP tote and bought satin to line it. Its now nearly finished and just waiting for some handles. Pics...

I was rushed to hospital again on Thursday night with more excrutiating pains in my kidneys. The doctor's assumed it was renal cholic this time but they werent sure because my blood tests showed no signs of infection. So I had to go back on Friday for a CT scan, which was kinda cool because Ive never had one before. I havent received any results yet but the pain is more or less under control so I'm hopeful.

I have to say, once again, the staff at the Calvary Mater Hospital in Newcastle were AMAZING. So another big thanks to them. Hopefully I wont be going back again anytime soon though, because I'd hate for them all to know me on sight.

I had to go to the dentist on Friday morning. Ive been woken up at 3am-ish for a few nights during the week in horrible tooth pain. The dentist has made me an appointment for two weeks time with the intention of ripping the damn thing out of my head because he thinks the pulp is dead...or dying. Seriously, if this keeps up I'll have no teeth left soon. Damnnit.

Today is Saturday. I'm looking forward to a quiet, stress free day that I can spend doing mundane painless things like, catching up on my laundry, doing some work on my WIP's and maybe even sitting on my arse doing stuff all because I have several appointments next week AND the following week that are going to continue to give me the run around. Can't wait.

Facebook goes too far!

I have to say I have had worries about facebooks privacy policies since they bought in their new principles but this just chafes my ass...AND reinforces EVERYTHING I said about what facebook would do regardless of their promises to keep peoples information private according to their settings.

Now I have no problem with facebook not accepting responsibility for stalkers and hackers and the like in their privacy policy. Fair enough. What I DO have a problem with is their apparent interpretation of 'use' of my 'content'. This is their 'user content' policy contained in their terms of use.

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account (except to the extent your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it).

I dont like this. I dont want them using my photos or any personally identifying information about me without my go ahead, ESPECIALLY since identity fraud is on the rise in Australia and worldwide. I even started a group on facebook trying to get people to NOT agree to this clause because I foresaw EXACTLY what has just happened.

Over the last few days I have noticed images of my friends being advertised at the bottom of quizzes and the like on facebook. With questions about their last name...this worries me. Now I dont care if only people on their friends list are seeing these things, what I want to know is; where do facebook get off using copyrighted images for their own fiscal gain WITHOUT express permission from the owner? I came across an article discussing it today and it made me mad.

Go ahead, read the article, I'll wait.

Now tell me, why wasn't I informed of this BEFORE they started plastering my photo everywhere to make money? Why do I have to opt out of this feature in order to preserve some privacy on the net? Isn't it illegal for facebook to go ahead and do this kind of thing without at least warning you first? Or asking you if you want to participate? I'm SERIOUSLY angry at facebook and am planning on deleting my profile all together. GRRRRRR at facebook and their so called privacy policies.

Funky Sockerella

I have just completed my first sock! Yep, I know, pathetic. But I've never knit socks before this year. I tried one about a week or two ago but I used a yarn that just wasnt right for socks so it turned out to be just a trial of the tutorial that I used, which you can find here.

The yarn (Ravelry link) that I used this time is much better and has knitted up beautifully. I liked it so much I went out and bought more colours. Here is a pic of my finished sock. One down, one to go!


Rav members; to see more pics check out my first socks project on Ravelry.

Rushed bag update

I finally finished all my squares for my wip tote project. Crochet is good and quick but sometimes tedious. I have them all organised and have already started sewing them together.


Couldn't find the fabric I was going to use to line it but that just gives me a great excuse to go buy some yummy black satin to line it with instead. Which I'm going to do today. Unfortunately I dont have a sewing machine so all my overlocking and seaming must be done by hand...good thing I have loads of practise from when I used to make hand made teddy bears. Heres a pic of one I made a few years ago. I made her from scratch (including the pattern) and of all the bears I made she is the last one I have left.


I also have a heap of other stuff to do today so I'm not going to get time to cut out my lining or finish sewing my squares together till later in the week. But thats ok. This afternoon I want to get some work done on this poncho...I need to get it finished because its a knitting order.

Anyhoo off to Spotlight to spend cash I go...weeeeee!

Crochet along...if you want to.

For weeks now I have been bemoaning the fact that I dont have a bag to take my projects to stitch 'n' bitch sessions with my friends. The other day a friend of mine showed up with a gorgeous felted bag that she'd made herself for that very purpose. It inspired me to make my very own stitch 'n' bitch project tote.

All I had to do was come up with a pattern I could use. Now I dont have any proper wool, I currently only have acrylic yarns...except for my super expensive stuff which Im SOOOOO not wasting on a bag, so felting was out. Then, yesterday, while organising my yarn stash I noticed that my remnants bag is full to over-flowing. It struck me, why not make a remnants granny square style bag. So I looked around Ravelry and found THIS! The perfect project for my tote.

I started the first square by following the pattern as shown on tthe PDF and instantly realised it was going to be too small for my needs. I need to fit heaps in my snb project tote; a) 2 x wips, b) phone, c) purse, d) keys, e) any other junk I decide that I need for that day...so I needed to upscale the squares quite a bit to make a bag large enough for all my crap by adjusting her pattern somewhat. Heres my version for anyone who wants a really big bag too;

Evil Stitch n Bitch WIP Tote Square

To start; with main colour (MC) ch 4 join with ss.
Round 1; ch 3, 2 tr, ch3, 3 tr, ch 3, 3 tr, ch 3, 3 tr, ch 3 join with ss.
Round 2; ch 3, 1 tr in each tr from prev row, 2 tr in corner space, ch3, rep to first tr, join with ss.
Continue in this fashion for total of 5 rounds.
Change to secondary colour (SC).
Round 6; ch2, 1dc in each tr from prev row, 2 dc in corner space, ch3, rep to first dc, join with ss and finish square.

I'm using whatever acrylic is in my remnants bag for my MC, but my SC is black. Im using black because I want to line my bag with some black fabric that I have here and it will make joining my squares easier if I can do it all in one colour. Also I'm planning on my bag being machine washable (in a pillow case of course) so the fabric lining will give it a sturdier finish.

So here is my first square.

Feel free to post pics and comments if you're going to crochet along with me, I'd love to see what other people are doing with this pattern. Alternatively, if you're a member, you can check it out on Ravelry to see what colour combinations other ravelers are coming up with.

No time for knitting

It's been a very busy week for me, so busy in fact that I've almost had no time to knit.

I've signed up to Ravelry, which I have to say I'm loving. I've met a lovely lady from my local area on there who is willing to knit with me...in public...omg. She has already been a font of useful information. For example, she put me onto a great yarn supplier at the Broadmeadow Farmers Market from whom I bought some gorgeous baby alpaca yarn on the weekend, and fully intend to go back for more as soon as possible.



After I purchased this deliciously soft yarn, I promptly took myself off to Spotlight to buy a 3mm circular needle for knitting lace and then realised when I got home that this yarn is a bit too fine for that. So Im off to Spotlight again later in the week to buy a 2mm circular needle.

Last week I ordered some gorgeous mongolian cashmere yarn from Knitters Addiction in QLD and it arrived on Monday. I have to tell you, this is THE softest, finest yarn I've ever seen in my life and since it was quite expensive I think I'm going to keep it for knitting something gorgeous for myself. Honestly though, if you are a lover of fine quality yarn and you want to splurge on something divine (if moderately expensive), go to their website and order yourself some 100% mongolian cashmere. You wont regret it...I'm definately going back for more.



I also ordered some new pattern booklets by Evelyn Clark which arrived on Monday as well...it was almost like it was my birthday. They're fantastic and I've added them to my library of patterns that I'm going to knit...eventually. Lol.

I have also mastered the new knitting technique I spoke about in my last post and I like it so much that I dont think I'll ever go back to the old way. It has cut my knitting time in half and I no longer have sore shoulders from knitting for extended periods of time. I strongly recommend continental knitting to anyone who is game enough to give it a try.

On top of all of this (as if that wasnt enough) I have persuaded a good friend of mine to teach me to spin, which I'm REALLY looking forward to. I found an online supplier of the most beautiful fibre right here in Australia called Ewe Give Me the Knits and I just cant wait to buy some of their stunning merino.

Thats about it for this week. Don't forget to check out my current works in progress on my Ravelry page. Leave me feedback or comments if you wish. And if you find a really great Aussie supplier of yarns, fibres or knitting accessories that I would love to hear about, send me a link.

Happy knitting (I know I am) :oD

Time saving and time wasting go hand in hand

I've been a bit frustrated with my larger knitting projects. They take SOOO long to get through sometimes. I'm traditionally a thrower and I'm not the fastest knitter, so 'get through' is really the way I tend to look at them. Finishing them is such a relief.

But thank goodness there is light at the end of the tunnel. While wombling around the net yesterday I discovered there IS a way to increase my knitting speed. Continental knitting. Now I know this is probably old news to a lot of you folk, but its new to me and I'm fairly excited about it. I found a great youtube demo here.

I have committed to learning and perfecting this technique. Thankfully I learn really fast and since last night I'm already proficient at the knit stitch, I'm struggling a teensy bit with purl but my YO's and K2tog etc are fine. Not sure how I'll go using this technique to knit lace, but hopefully I'll be competent at it by the time I get back to my lace project.

Other news; I just joined Ravelry. Check out my profile and see pics of ongoing projects there. Keep in mind that links to projects, patterns and people on Ravelry will only work if you are a member.