Knitting by Zen

Hi everybody! If anyone is in need of some plastic, let me know - I am now a Tupperware demonstrator and want some hip and happenin’ Adelaideians to share it with!

I’m new to it and excited and realised that I’ve not seen TW for *years* - my mum has lots of it in lovely harvest colours of the 70s and 80s, and some from the 90s, but (and I’m hoping I’m not going to upset anyone posting this here as I realise I sound like an idiot posting a "please buy stuff from me" post and don’t *actually* know if I can… but I am because I’m the extroverted and outgoing type and you can always use that scroll button to skip this!) if you want to see what’s going on in the noughties, please comment!

This is the cutest thing which is funny given that they are (and to me as a child were!) scary as all get up!

Have a look here for more information.  

I’ve been knitting Tubey, and it’s a great knit - why did I forget that I had hundreds of metres of stocking stitch to knit? It is perfect for classes, meetings and training!

I’m knitting it in Bendigo Mills’ yarn,  because I love them. I am using Mystique for the main colour (Seaspray) and Classic 8 ply in Pumpkin for the stripes. It’s going quickly and I’m a few inches shy of how long the arms need to be.

I’ve also been dyeing:

showing just how hard blue is to photograph! And:

which was a custom order, and looks AMAZING even if I do say so myself!

The one on the left is alpaca with lovely pinks and purples, and the one on the right is a mohair/silk blend, ball dyed in a lovely teal colour. 

It’s been a long month, so here’s some top headlines:

1. YARN FOR SALE!! I have 11 8 skeins of yarn for sale at the moment, and in fact at least one of them is a double up, so if you bid on it you may end up getting a skein anyway.

2. I am getting the dye pot out tomorrow hopefully. It’s exciting to have orders to dye for, and plans for colours. I have a heap of REALLY exotic yarns (cashmere, mohair, silk etc) to dye up and sell and I’m excited to see how they go.

3. I knat a scarf for someone! She says she loves it too:

The scarf is knit for 45cm in cables, and then the remaining 100cm in a very simple "lace" stitch… To do the scarf, cast on 54 st (I used 8ply wool on 6mm needles) and knit 3 rows, then k3, (k1p1) 8 times, C16F, (k1p1) 8 times, k3. Knit another 7 rows. Then k3, C16F, (k1p1) 8 times, C16F, k3. Repeat until you are sick to death of cabling and wishing it wasn’t 30C when you were trying to knit it.

At this point you, like me, may decide to do something a tad more sensible than continue with the cables as it is about to get a lot warmer here. So the idea is that there is enough cabling to go around the neck, and then the lofty lacy part to get the length up, but without making your neck melt! To do this, I did a double decrease (slip 1, k2tog, psso), with a single decrease in the middle stitches of the row because there are 54 stitches in the row, which is not divisible by three! I then switched to 12mm needles (hah! You thought it was something exciting!!!) and I continued on my merry way.

The white splotch is a fantastic "From the knitting needles of Em" lable from a previous swap pal by the way.

4. I am now a Tupperware demonstrator. I think that makes me insane.

5. Some of my yarn has sold at One Planet Yarns! I am so excited about this for two reasons - firstly, I have $$ coming to me (which makes a big change for my student-inspired budget) and because it means people love my yarns!

6. I forget sometimes that knitters are people too. I know knitters from lots of walks of life, knitters who are older than me and even a few that are younger than me. I am surprised though when I come across knitters who are bigoted, racist, sexist or just plain obnoxious. I sometimes forget that being a knitter doesn’t *always* make you a nice person.

7. I’ve been dyeing yarn for my friend Mel as well:

For a change, these photos are crap. They were taken on an ugly table under false lights and don’t do the yarn justice in the slightest! The top yarn for example is emerald green, not a shade of blah. *sigh* 

8. I’m knitting another scarf:

It’s the Dayflower Scarf pattern and it’s lovely!

Last of all - Zaria says "I has a flava"