...Especially when you are off to mount your horse.

Sometimes you hit gold. Sometimes you enter that op shop with something else entirely on your agenda, but find yourself with a smile a mile wide.

The motherlode of knitting patterns from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Thank you Betty, whoever and wherever you are.

This is but a small sub-selection of the entire load I nabbed. And wait for it... all for the ridiculous price of $1. That's right. Not $1 each, but $1 total!! There's something like a few hundred patterns here contained in 20 odd pattern books.

I grabbed them all because they are actually full of some great basic and timeless patterns and I do in fact see myself using them to knit up a whole stack of things over the next several decades.

But boy do they have some entertainment value, immersing one in the the most iconic fashions of the time. Let's begin... 70's anyone?

KNIT: "NIMBLE FINGERS" MITTENS

Winter is coming!

Sometime....

In the not altogether distant future...

Really it is...

Even if it was 30 degrees celsius today.

Colour is a bit off - truer in the other shots

I figured I'd best start my knitting early this year in preparation for the frosty months. See the problem with waiting 'til it's cold is that by then it's simply too late. Especially if you're not an altogether quick knitter. My first sweater knit last year was ready for about 2 weeks of cold weather before Spring set in. Ummm..... yep.

So this year I decided to start with a few small projects in these warm summer months. No big mass of adult human-sized sweater resting in the lap on a sweltering day.

Knit: Scalloped Lace Hat

Squidginess, snuggliness, what's not the love?

Pattern: Scallop Lace Hat by Leah Coccari-Swift (PS. this is a Ravelry link and you will need to join Ravelry to access)

Yarn: Cleckheaton Perfect Day 8 Ply in Natural (1000) - 70% wool, 30% alpaca. Used just over 1 ball which is a wee bit annoying as I don't have quite enough left on the second ball to knit another as a gift :(

Needles: Knit Pro Symfonie Wood Interchangeable Circular Needle Tips and Cables. There is no better needle system in my mind. Just, awesome.

Lessons Learned:

• I much prefer to follow a lace chart than try to decipher text driven directions. Does that make me a visual person?
• Head banging against desk and repeat after me "I will count all stitches remaining in lace panels after every repeat to avoid completing a round and having to tink back to fix an error". Seriously Jillian, you have to start reading back over previous lessons learned!

Love that awesome sweater peaking out from the bottom of shot? You can check it out here.

This will be the last of the Winter Knitting projects folks... I think. In fact shortly after knitting this the weather in Sydney turned unseasonably warm, like 26 degrees celsius. Mental, I tell you, mental.

KNIT: SWEATER LOVE, MY BURNISHED CAPE COD

Oh friends, how I looooooove this garment.

Thea Colman's Cape Cod

Oh my gosh, I knit a full-sized garment! Not a hat, not a scarf, but a really truly adult-sized garment. 

And I love you so... you with your squishy yarn and beautiful lace design.

This is my version of Thea Colman's Cape Cod Sweater. I'm a bit of a fan of Thea's designs, and this is my first knit. My first of many I suspect. (You can find Thea's patterns on Ravelry. Just remember, you will need to join Ravelry to log in and access these).

I had knit a few hats just immediately prior to taking this rather large leap of faith with my burgeoning knitting skills, but I am so glad I had the nerve to go for it. 

Gorgeous lace detail - excuse the pilling on the sleeve,I have literally worn this thing to death

I used Amy Butler's Belle Organic DK for Rowan in Ochre: it's a beautiful 50% organic cotton, 50% organic wool. I find this the perfect weight and composition for Sydney winters which are never that cold. The stitch definition is wonderful. Unfortunately this yarn has been discontinued. But, you may get lucky like me and pick up some from Sunspun.

This knit is a top down, in-the-round scenario, which I adore. I hate the idea of having to seam a flat knit garment. You literally finish this one and the only tidying you need to do is weaving in the ends and blocking it. Really you could pretty much finish casting off and pull that baby straight on. What's not to love about that? All up it took about 6 weeks of knitting about 1.5 hours a day, most (but definitely not all, I've got a life!) days a week. I was pretty happy with that.

Changes to the pattern:

I made no real departures from the pattern except the following minor ones:

• added just a little bit more raglan depth before separating the sleeves, but probably didn't really need to.
• added just a touch to the body length (about 1 inch) as I am quite long waisted and really didn't fancy a cropped sweater. 
• added just a little extra length (perhaps 1/2 inch) to the sleeves. I really don't think of myself as having gorilla-like proportions, but neither do I like sleeves that ride up and have me constantly yanking them down.

Lessons learned:

• How to TINK. Folks, for those who don't know, that's "knit" in reverse and that's exactly what it entails. Just pray you don't have to tink back over 300 stitches to find and fix a bitch of an error (more than once, people, more than once!). That tinking included SSK, K2tog, SL1 K2tog PSSO and increases. I am a serious expert at tinking now. Grrrr. Lesson? Count the remaining stitches in each and every lace section before moving on, instead of finding extra or missing stitches on the next round.
• Pilling is a bitch. You can see it in that second shot. Major pillage. Gotta take a time out and give that sucker a shave. From what I've read pilling can tend to stop after a few washes so we'll see.

So that's it folks, my new garment crush. 

Now, I'm looking for my next project. What's your favourite yarn or knitting pattern and why?

KNIT: Oops, I did it again!

Thought this knitting lark was a passing fancy? Nah, I'm hooked. Get it, get it? "Hooked"! Ummm, actually that would be crocheting, and crocheting and I are not friends.

But me and knitting? We be buds, best buds, BFFs and everything.

So I was forced to do it again. A lovely Swirl Hat for my darling M's 3rd birthday. This was my first attempt at "lace" and it's surprisingly easy.

That there above is a pic of the blocking process. But it turns out that balloon was a bit too big and stretched out the pattern a little more than intended. It's lost some of its bounce, its zest for life, its all a bit flat really. So I'm gonna have to re-block. If I can get it off M's head...

Nawwww, how cute is that face?

She's really quite taken with it!

Another success. Boo-yeah! And with that success firmly in hand, here goes.

Turn away now if you are a hard and fast sewist, only I'd hate to bore you.

Project number 3, an adult sized garment. A real actual piece of outerwear! The Cape Cod Sweater by Thea Colman. Well, I had my heart set on that and the yarn is in the post.... but I really don't wear pullovers very often. Sydney winters are just not cold enough and I tend to swelter. But now a cardigan, that's a different matter. I live in those babies, so what about the Miette by Andi Satterlund or Caramel by Isabell Kraemer? I do love me a good wrap cardi. Hmmmm, what do you think? 

You know there is a definite potential developing for me to become a winter knitter and summer sewist.

Oh, and all those links to the patterns are via Ravelry: an awesome site for connecting with other knitters and crocheters and a ridiculously amazing resource for all things knitting. I am not sponsored by the site, just personally recommending it.

Apparently... I knit!

Hi y'all. Feeling lots better here and gotta credit knitting with a little bit of my current zen state. Seriously, have you ever knit? It's hypnotising, meditative, quite the chill out really. And here 'tis the fruit of my labour.

I decided to knit this beret after seeing Amanda's from the wonderfully hilarious Bimble and Pimble blog. Seriously that chick cracks me up everytime! You gotta go take a look.

The hat is the Mathilde Hat pattern by Andi Satterlund of Untangling Knots. It was a pretty easy project for someone who has basic knitting know how and has access to Google at any given time. I had never knitted from a pattern before, had knitted a basic scarf, and had really no trouble. Sure, I had no idea what M1 and SSP and SSK were, but my friend Google came to the rescue. In particular, I have to recommend knittinghelp.com which is awesomely awesome in terms of how-to videos. And as this pattern is available on Ravelry (a free site for knitters and crocheters) I took advantage of their forums to answer a few other queries. Those knitters get back to you within minutes of posting a question! BAM! Everytime I log on to that site there are at least a couple of thousand members on line, and they are hugely happy to help. Check out the site, it's well worth it.

Also a big shout out to Amanda who helped answer all my questions and was pretty much my very own personal cheersquad throughout the project. We had a bit of a knit-along whilst Amanda got started on her second Mathilde.

You know it is kind of amazing that you start with this...

And end up with this...












As my husband says "That's a whole lotta knots"...

I apologise for the appalling photography here. Red is not a good background for blue, red is not a good background for blue. Oh and some colour balancing between the shots could have helped. Ah well...