WIPs, UFOs and LLPs.

At first I thought it was just me. That I was weird, unusual, different. After all, my mother, the one who taught me to knit, is a monogamous knitter. She doesn't have a stash of any great size [a few balls of acrylic tucked away for charity knitting and perhaps some baby yarn 'just in case']. Mum buys yarn with a specific project in mind and casts on for that project when the last one is finished - really finished, not just "knitting-finished".

But her wayward daughter? The one who went to Wangaratta and Bendigo in 2008 with her DD and came home with the back seat loaded to the windows with yarn. The one who has just spent some hard earned Aussie dollars on 50+ balls of Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton from two sellers on Ebay because she likes the yarn, there are two family babies on the way and the yarn is discontinued. The one who had to buy 10 archive boxes from that big office supply store to contain part of her stash [apart from the five drawers she already had plus a shelf full of yarn in bags]. Oh, yes, a strange daughter indeed - why couldn't she be more like her mother?

But then I discovered the world of bloggers. And I discovered that other knitters were not monogamous. And some of them have larger stashes than me [not to mention some who have penchants for expensive yarns]. I am not alone! I am not weird! I am not a freak - I am - wait for it, drum roll please - completely normal in the knittiverse!

And I've discovered something else. Knitters who are not monogamous [that's most of us, right?] have three kinds of projects. Yes, that's right - three kinds of projects. Not two like they would like us believe. Three!

First there are the WIPs ["works in progress" if you are a non-knitter and happen to have fallen into this blog by mistake, perhaps looking for something about alien spacecraft]. In my case, as of today that would be five socks [three finished in the last 24 hours and awaiting grafting, one on two circulars, one on dpns], a cotton baby blanket and a beanie which is spending the holidays at work because I forgot to bring my knitting home!

Then there are the UFOs - those projects that have stalled in some way but are still in mind - they will be finished, some day. They're not forgotten; just put aside for the moment. In my little neck of the knitting woods, that would be a Tomten waiting for a zipper, a blanket for Wrap With Love with a gazillion ends to be sewn in and a blanket made of hexagons which I started last summer in my crochet frenzy but have neglected in favour of textured knitted things in the last few months. Then there's a summer cardigan that was once a sleeveless top whose yarn is being recycled. Both of these last two would more correctly be called NWIPs [Neglected Works In Progress].

Or perhaps they are really LLPs and I don't want to admit it! They have, after all, been removed from my knitting corner and relocated to hidey-holes in my study.

So what is an LLP you ask? A fair question, my yarn-loving friend but shush, we have to whisper here. Most yarn crafters don't want to admit to their LLPs. They put them away in the bottom of drawers, in the back of cupboards or under the bed, and try to pretend they don't exist. But sometimes, in the still of the night, we hear them calling to us. They haunt our dreams. They frighten or amuse us when we come upon them unexpectedly. They are our Long Lost Projects. Once, full of enthusiasm, we cast on, joyfully anticipating that FO. Oh, how wonderful it would be when we wore it or gave it to another. But somewhere along the way, the joy disappeared and the WIP became a UFO. We didn't hide it, not yet, it sat in our knitting bag where we could see it or it waited in the naughty corner while we thought about a solution to its badness. It was a UFO and it would be finished one day, but not right now - we had moved on to the next wonderful WIP.

The UFO languished in the knitting bag/naughty corner gathering dust and emitting little squeaks of protest every now and then. But after a while, probably quite a long while, we got fed up with sight of that UFO in our knitting bags/naughty corners and we banished it to the back of the cupboard/bottom of the drawer/under the bed. What had started out with great promise, our wonderful WIP, had morphed from a slightly neglected UFO to an almost totally ignored LLP.

Some bloggers have chosen to come clean with their WIPS and get them finished. Some have chosen to take their UFOs from the bottom of the knitting bag and complete them. And other very brave bloggers have let their skeletons LLPS out of the closet and turned them back into WIPs and even FOs!

Are you brave enough to resurrect your LLPs? I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours!

beanies: the ultimate travelling companions!Part 1

Well, socks are pretty good too. But... I'm not a fan of magic loop - ooh! ah! did I just write that? I knit socks on dpns so there's always the danger of losing one needle when I travel by public transport. Therefore sock knitting is usually confined to the car or the house.

Beanies, on the other hand, are lovely to knit on the train. They're quick, light and short so even with my briefcase/satchel on my lap I can still knit [socks, on the hand, get too long for this limited space]. Beanies also easily stretch around my 60cm Knitpicks Options once the band is knitted. And [I'll try to redeem myself here] I do use the magic loop for the band and to complete the top of the beanie! I have dpns in limited sizes [2.25, 3.25, 3.50 = US sizes 1, 3 and 4] but using Knitpicks Options means I have all the sizes of circular needles I'm ever likely to use.

So, having no doubt lost some readers along the way - those ardent supporters of circulars and magic looping - let me show you some of my beanie output for the three months of winter.

First there was the scrap yarn beanie that I knitted in the car on the way to mum's birthday surprise [after I finished seaming the sweater].


You may recognise these yarns as being left over from this sweater and this Tomten. WM's picture is more creative than mine [why didn't I think of that?] but you can't see the dark blue band.

Then, because I was tired of all that Baby Lustre I had been knitting [that extra shiny thread can make such a harsh difference], I knitted some beanies in oh-so-soft Tencel and acrylic.

And two of these count as textured knits [I didn't actually show any of my knitting in the final round up]! The first is in a pattern I know as Broken Rib. I have heard it called Moss Stitch Rib and Interrupted Rib too.


The second is a simple K1P1 rib. [Did I mention soft and warm?!]


And the third has a simple garter band and stocking stitch cap.


While I was showing DD the beanies, my SIL asked me what Tencel was made from and I wasn't sure I had the right answer. Upon researching, I was surprised to learn that Tencel is not a petro-chemical synthetic fibre: it's made from wood-pulp. Tencel is actually a registered trade name used by Lenzing Fibres for a yarn which is more accurately called lyocell [just as Nylon is Dupont's registered trade name for polyamide]. I bought this yarn for 99c a ball at a clearance sale at Spotlight many moons ago and can get nearly two beanies from one ball - you gotta admit, that's good value! I think I've already said that the yarn is amazingly soft and warm and the perfect antidote to lustrous acrylics.

Beanies are also good for using up odds and ends of yarn - this one has six different yarns in it!


And this one used up the last of the chocolate tencel/acrylic blend.


These last two plus the two "blue" versions below are July's output. All of them use up odds and ends.



Part 2 coming to this blog real soon!

Winter of Textured Knits KAL final round up Act 3and thank you

And now, the end is near...

First up today: Rose Red. The pattern is called, appropriately, Rose Red. Have I given too much away? Look here for the complete photo and several others of the same beautiful object. Again I wish I had the courage to wear one!


This is unusual; I think it suits Rose Red beautifully.


This is an adaptation of an old favourite that is currently doing the rounds on the Interknits. Oops, have I given it away?


Scroll down to see this most unusual take on an everyday item.


There are so many textures here I didn't know what to show you. Make sure you follow the link and see all Rose Red's photos.


Leaving my home city [Sydney] where Rose Red also lives [but way over on the other side of town] and travelling south, we come to the national capital, home of RR's good friend, Bells. On 2nd July, Bells showed us these:


Read here about Bells day out at The National Gallery and see her wearing this in public for the first time:


These pretties look warm:


This was finished in the Tour de France KAL with time to spare! Well done Bells - the yellow jersey is yours.


Bells said these were a boring knit but her hubby likes them a lot.


And for the special girl in Bells life lookie here:


And so we say farewell to Bells and travel further south to the state of Victoria to visit our final knitter - Susan [otherwise known as Catsmum]. This is appropriate as Susan was the last one to join the KAL but this in no way diminishes her wonderful work. Susan has recently had major surgery so we wish her all the best for a speedy recovery and better health than she has endured in the past.

This is a pattern she has knitted once or twice before.


Some team colours for the grandson:


A pretty item in lace for the DIL:


A similar item in gorgeous alpaca:


Then this gorgeous piece of "lace" that's been a long time coming:


And another baby item:



Thank you to everyone who participated in the KAL and those who followed along by reading what we were up to! It's been great fun even if the round-ups were time consuming. Will we do it again next year? Let's wait and see, shall we? I'll be a grandmum and a new aunty by winter next year!

Winter of Textured Knits KAL final round up Act 2

Hello from a dust-coated computer from the very bad seven-hour dust storm we had on Wednesday [I'm allergic to dust so it's better if I just let it lie]

Presenting for your viewing pleasure some more beautiful textures.

First up Paisley Womble. The colour here is gorgeous, the texture is a bonus!

A popular garment on the knitternet in another beautiful colour here.

And something for Paisley's mum here.

I've knitted several of these; this one is stunning!


Over in the USA, Deniasha has been travelling, buying, selling and podcasting but still had time for this. While you're checking the texture out, scroll down on the same post for the gorgeous lace Deniasha has done! Beautiful.

And on the left of the screen we can see something that Deniasha has designed which many of us love. The finished product is here.



Tinkingbell has been on holidays but the knitting has not been neglected. Scroll right to the bottom of this post [if you can resist stopping to look at all the beautiful holiday snaps], and you'll find these:


And finally, for today, the lovely Jan who helps me out by putting all her textured knitting in one post and sending me an email with the link! Thanks heaps, Jan, I really appreciated it. Here is the link I was sent in mid-July. First there are these little pretties [full picture here]


This is cute. Some little girl in Afghanistan will love it. And there is a companion on the same page.
There is also another photo but I wasn't able to crop it successfully so please go and check them all out here.

Then in August Jan made my life easy again by sending me this link. Let me tempt you: First a present for an orange-loving grandson. Unfortunately, my cropping has completely missed the orange stripe!


Two more textured knits:






I wish I was confident enough to wear one of these [below] - I love everything about this one, the colour and the texture!


See you soon for the final post!

Winter of Textured Knits KAL final round up Act 1

Dear readers of this blog and members of WoTK in particular

Thanks for your patience. We have upgraded our plan and hopefully will never run out of plan before we run out of month! It didn't help that I also ran out of blogging steam somewhere back in late June!

Thank you for your emails of love and support; I really appreciated them more than I can ever express in mere words!

So, here, for your viewing pleasure, are the final entries of the Winter of Textured Knits KAL.

Up in sunny Queensland, Rell [who also lost her blogging drive for a while] has knitted this. A gorgeous colour and lovely cables. Well done Rell. The finished product is shown on her 9 September post [which I can't link to; sorry Rell].


This is not knitted, it is woven, but I couldn't resist showing you. It's made from plastic shopping bags and the final result is in this post.
Apart from weaving and quilting and renovating, Delighted Hands has had some time to knit and produced these in August. Check here for the full picture.
This was started during the KAL. Here's the finished item - how could I not show it?



Knitter Sue has knitted this. It's a Christmas present - how well organised is that? There were so many interesting textures, it was hard to crop the photo. Go here to see the finished object.

Then there was this. Aren't those buttons cute? To see the lovely Isabel wearing this, go here.




These items seem to have become very popular and Sue has two to show you here, another here and one more here.