Welcome back to another episode of knitting and crafty chatter! This video looks at the end of December 2021 - I talk about what I got up to, the last few projects I worked on, how I feel about the phrase 'selfish knitting', and more.
Transcript
Greetings. Welcome to my first episode for 2022. You are here with me again on my Platypus Knitting channel. But as you would have seen in the title card, I am giving this particular series a new name for the start of a new year. So the reason for that, there's a few very small reasons for that. There are just a few minor changes to the way that I want to sort of present things. I've added, or I'm planning to add, a new section. And just sort of, I just, I kind of just want to make this a bit more casual.
Yeah, what else, and there is another series that I'm planning to put on my channel. The first episode will hopefully come out in the next couple of weeks. Sort of, it'll just sort of be a test of what that particular series is going to be. But basically, I had the idea of filming the whole process of me knitting a garment. So in that particular series, each episode would be a one particular project. Filmed in a time lapse. So yeah. So they'll all be varying length, depending on how big or how small the project is. I won't be filming every single project that I do for that series. But I do, I do want to film maybe a lot of the bigger ones. Although, like I said, this first episode - which is sort of a test of how that could possibly go - is a smaller garment so that I could get it done quicker and try it out. So hopefully you'll be seeing that in the next couple of weeks. Is there anything else I want to say about that one? Probably not, I'm kind of thinking of it as like, slow TV at high speed. Because I'm not going to be talking or anything, it's just going to be something that people can have running in the background if they, you know, just wanted. It may not work, but we will see.
So that is part of the reason for the name change as well. If I'm going to be having other playlists on my YouTube channel, I didn't particularly want this vlog playlist, this vlog series to have the same name - Platypus Knitting - as the overall channel so that it could sort of stand out and be something of its own.
So anyway, I sort of jumped ahead. My name is Bobbie Olan. And thanks for coming back to join me on this channel where I mainly talk about knitting. But I hope to explore other crafts as, as it goes on. But it will mainly be about knitting because I am knitting obsessed. As usual, I am going to keep Purl with me. I don't know how much she'll be popping up in this sort of new format idea that I've got planned for this year. But I love her. She's not going anywhere. And we are still on the Platypus Knitting channel. So let's see.
This episode is going to be focused on the end of 2021. So I filmed my previous episode, my final episode for 2021, about a month ago. Mid January. Oops. It's mid January now. I filmed it in mid December, I believe. So I I just I had a lot of Christmas knitting to do. So I wanted to focus on getting all of those out. And I didn't want to put the pressure of filming more episodes on myself. Plus, last year I had been doing a monthly schedule for the Platypus Knitting series. Originally I had wanted this to be a fortnightly program. So this year, I'm hoping to actually move to that and stick to that. So even though it has been a month, which was my schedule last year, been a month since I filmed I've been pretty excited and looking forward to getting back to chat with you and showing you the things that I have made. So like I said, a bit odd, I didn't film a sort of end of year episode at the end of last year. So this first episode of 2022, we'll be looking back at the very end of 2021. Plus, there were a couple of things that I meant to show you in that final episode. But it completely slipped my mind. Christmas was just super busy. So I just completely forgot to talk about those things. So I'm gonna look at those in this episode.
So at the end of 2021, like I said, I was really, really focused on Christmas knitting. It's the first time that I had made an effort to knit a bunch of Christmas presents. I don't usually have Christmas knitting. But last year, I had a lot. So I'll be talking about some, yeah, some of those projects. The ones that I, that ones that I finished, and the ones that I did after that last episode. Because all the ones that I had done before that last episode, obviously, I had talked about in the last episode, where- (I'm really good at talking. I'm just like going around in circles.) Anyway. Yeah, so in the lead up to Christmas, I was just frantically knitting away. That was, I felt like that was all that I was doing. I was just very focused and wanting to get it all done. So on, even Christmas Eve, I was working on one project that I'll talk about today. And then I gifted it that night on Christmas Eve.
And then on Christmas Day, I worked on another project that I'll be talking about, it's actually this scarf here. So I cast on for this scarf on Christmas Day, hoping to get it finished before, by, by a certain deadline, which I'll talk about when I'm talking about the scarf. But I didn't finish it in time. So I kind of, when I realised I wasn't going to hit the deadline, I sort of relaxed a bit with it. And I sort of gave myself time to, I wanted to take a break from knitting. So in that brief period between Christmas and New Years, aside from working on this scarf, I was not wanting to knit at all. I was wanting to take a break from knitting. So as, as a, as a crafty person, I couldn't not work on anything. It's my joy. It's my relaxation. I always loved crafting, so I had to find something else to do. So I'll be talking about that later in the episode as well. So that's kind of what I was up to between the last episode and the end of the year.
The, the other thing I'll mention about Christmas is that, I mean, as, as anyone will know, and I'm sure no one will be surprised to hear, the latest variant of COVID really sort of started ramping up towards Christmas. I didn't attend my family's Christmas party. I actually didn't attend any Christmas party and it's it's really a big deal for me. So I was really sad to not be able to go. But I'm glad. I am glad that I skipped it because I just didn't feel safe. My family's, my family is about 60 people at the Christmas party. And then my partner Ben's family is, is much, much smaller because mine is my whole extended family. And Ben's is just his immediate family. But there had just been a couple of close calls with people around us in the lead up to Christmas. So we didn't want to risk being a carrier and giving it to any of our families for Christmas. That's one reason we didn't go. The other reason, particularly for my family, is just that it was, it's, it's so many people and it just felt like too much of a risk to to go. And we we missed out on a really fun looking night. My family played Squid Games. There were a lot of Nerf guns and a lot of competition and it looked like a lot of fun. I am still glad that I didn't go even though I missed out on all of that fun because, unfortunately, there was a an outbreak that sort of spread through my family from that party. But you know, it's, this is the new normal. Right? Everyone has been saying that phrase for the last couple of years. And I guess, you know, that is what it is. They're all, they're all doing, well, some are still dealing with it. But most have sort of gotten past it and are getting back to normal lives in a sense. So yeah, that, that's really my personal wrap up for 2021. We don't celebrate New Year's Eve. So we just, we just had a quiet one, which we often like to do anyway. So yeah, so I will move on to talking about stuff.
Eye Candy
The two things that I had meant to present to you in that last episode are a magazine and some knitting notions. So I think in episode seven, that episode before that one, the second last, I think that was the one where I talked about all of this shopping that I had been doing. And I mentioned, I showed a whole bunch of stuff. And I mentioned that there were two more things that I had ordered that hadn't arrived. And they came the week after I published that seventh episode. And then by the time it came to the eighth episode, I'd completely forgotten about them.
Yarnologie
So anyway, the first one - I'll very carefully pull it off here - is the Yarnologie magazine. So this, Yarnologie, is a digital magazine focused on yarn and fiber and, and crafters and makers focused on those things in Australia and New Zealand. This is their first print publication, and I actually didn't hear about them previously, so I wasn't aware of them as a digital magazine, even though they've been around for a while. I only heard about them, probably through Instagram. That's where I hear about everything. So I heard about them when they were talking about their first print publication. So I ordered that and, and I received it last December.
It's a really great magazine. It's just really nice to be reading about local makers. Sometimes when I'm, when I'm looking for a new knitting vlog or, or a podcast, I struggle a bit to find crafters in Australia, in my sort of local area of the world, so it was really nice to have this, this magazine to read through. And so each article sort of focuses on a different crafter, producer, whatever you call it. And I think there was only one in here that I had heard of before that which is Tarnd, Tarnd, Tarnd, Tarndwarncoort. Very, I'm pronouncing that very badly, I'm sure so I'll just stick with the the nickname, Tarndie. And that's their website anyway. Tarndie.com. Dot com, dot com dot AU? I can't remember. Anyway, they are a farm in Victoria. They were the first breeders, breeders of the polwarth sheep. I've been, I'm really looking forward to paying them a visit some time and possibly staying in their accommodation. But they are featured in this magazine. There they are. So yeah, so that's, one of the the articles in here is talking about them.
There's a whole bunch of other features in here. Some crochet artists, talking about yarn, small producers, a bit about dyeing. I just want to find the cover image here because it's gorgeous and I should have - here we go. Here's another look at it there. These are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous Aussie botanical flowers that are crocheted. I would love to make that bouquet and have it somewhere in my house because it is just so beautiful. And I love Aussie flowers and botanicals. So I would love to make that. But it's a lot of crocheting. And I'm not, I don't love crocheting as much as knitting. So it's a bit daunting for me to think about embarking on a project that's this big.
The only other thing that I want to show you, there is one photo in here that is my absolute favourite page. And I just want to show you - I thought these were cute. These hens. Anyway, where is this one photo? That is just really cute here. I love this. Look at that guy. So fluffy. Anyway, so that's the Yarnologie magazine. I'm looking forward to getting the next one. See if I could pop it back there without bringing my whole wall... Very precarious. So that's the Yarnologie magazine.
Twill and Print row counters
The next thing that I wanted to share, which I'm really, really excited about, are row counters from Twill and Print. So Twill and Print is a, it says here they're a fibre studio. So they're based in, I believe, Quebec in Canada. I heavily rely on row counters. I've mentioned before, I think, that I really, I, I do do, I do do, I do a lot of swatching. And I always block my swatches. And then I rely on them pretty heavily. When I'm working on a project I like to do all of the calculations, I like to know how many rows and everything I should be passing on to get the proper length of everything. So I sort of try to map the whole project out. So if, if a sweater, for example, is telling you to knit for 20 centimetres, I like to calculate how many rows that is rather than pulling out a measuring tape all the time. And then I work to that. So I'm always using row counters.
And I had, I didn't bring one out but I had, the first ones that I got were those ones, those plastic ones, the digital ones that you wear on your finger. I always wear it here. And then I can just easily press it with my thumb. I didn't really love them because they're, they're plastic, but I loved the functionality of it, they were so easy to use. Then I bought a whole bunch and then when the first one died, and I tried to open it up so that I could replace the batteries. Everything that was in it just sort of spilled out everywhere. And I didn't really feel like I could put it back together well so I kind of gave up on those I only have one left that still has a working battery and I'm kind of just working to use that up.
I also bought one of those rings that, like, you slide the numbers. I had, I had bought the wrong size. I, I thought I'd measured my finger well enough but it turns out I didn't. And it, I can get it on my thumb but it will, like, fall off if I'm not careful because it's too loose. And that one I find a bit awkward turning the numbers. It might work better if it actually fit me properly, but I didn't love it.
So I found Twill, I found these on Twill and Print's Etsy store. They do have their own website where they sell a whole bunch more things. But I don't think I realized that until after I had purchased these. So these had been in my favorites on Etsy for probably at least a year before I decided to finally go ahead and buy them. So the one that I first saw is this one. This 'Stay Cozy' here. So this, I believe it was a limited edition series. So this is their winter one but I loved it because it's Christmassy looking. So that is their winter one and then I also got their autumn, that one there. I love reading, I love me a good cup of tea or mocha. So I really like that one as well. And then this last one that I got is their spring themed one. So my favorite flowers are sunflowers. So I thought this was kind of perfect. Is this spring? Yeah, it's got to be their spring one. Their summer one... I can't remember what was on their summer one, but I remember that I didn't like it as much, which actually worked out because they were sold out of the summer ones when I went to buy these. So I have these three, and I absolutely love them.
So on the back here, you can see that they've got, they've got there, there are two pins on them. I'm going to take one of them off the card to show you. So two pins there. And then these rubber, I don't know what you call them, rubber backings just sort of hold them in place. So the only thing about these is that I wasn't really 100% sure the best way to use them. Because if I'm pinning it on myself, then I'm not, I can't see the numbers.
One thing that I did try out was pinning it on my pants leg so that it's facing me. And then, and then, you know it's fairly easy after I work a row to, to, to turn the, one of the dials to change the numbers. But that was very awkward to have to, like, awkwardly pull up my pants leg so I could reach behind and and pin the thing down. And it just, it just wasn't very practical.
I did also try pinning it to a project bag. But I found when it wasn't directly in front of me or in reach I, I kept forgetting to, to change the number and then I kept losing track of where I was. Plus, I'm not always using a project bag. I have a bowl that I really like that I've, I've really been liking using lately. And obviously you can't pin this on a bowl.
I did also try pinning it onto the knitting itself. But it's, it's got a bit of weight to it. And I didn't like how it was dragging down on the knitted fabric itself.
So my favourite place to pin it, although it's kind of ruining a bit, is actually my watch strap. And I found that that works really, really well. So I have an app on my watch that I use to track and time all of my knitting, because I'm just that kind of person. So when I need it, I've got something on my watch. And then I've got this pinned to my watch. And it's just so easy to use, and it's comfortable. And I don't need to worry about. Well, not worry, worry isn't the right word. But when I was using the ring ones, because it was kind of in the way when I was doing other things, whenever I paused my knitting to go and do something else, I had to take it off and then sometimes I forget to put it back on. But with this that's not in the way at all. It's, it's just so easy. It's such a good spot. I can see it when I'm working. It's so easy to turn either of the dials. So yeah, I really I love these. I really love using these. They are my favourite.
Like I said, I just want to wear away that last battery on that last ring one and then get rid of that. And then I'm just gonna pretty much use these. Maybe sometimes I'll still use the other ring one. But I really like these ones. What else?
Yeah, so I would be really curious to hear if anyone else has these, are using these, or using something like this. If, but how, how, how do you use it? Where do you attach it? I feel like, I feel like project bags might be the most common. But I do a lot of knitting at home, I don't really take my knitting elsewhere. So I, I'm, I don't, I don't use project bags a lot. And I yeah, I just don't. Yeah, I, it's not really sort of in my wheelhouse of, I don't know, it's not really the thing that I use, and I don't really need to, like, transport this around. So I'm more of a bowl person, a bowl or basket person than a bag person. But I'd be really interested to hear how other people use these.
I love the functionality of it. But if I didn't have this watch, or if you know, if this, if it damages this, than I'm not going to want to keep using it that way. Right now it hasn't really damaged it. I can't tell if the wear on the watch is because I keep poking these through or because this is just old. But yeah, I guess... Yeah, I'm curious to see to hear how everyone else uses it. So that is the the Twill and Print row counters that I use.
Handy Dandy
So I'm going to move on to talking about my actual projects. Now. It's going to be a bit of a tricky one because like I said, most of them have been gifted away last year for Christmas. And I only have the one project here that I can show you.
I Just Wanna Go Home socks
So I'll just briefly mention first the I Just Wanna, Just Wanna Go Home socks by Winter's Weather Knits. There's, here's a photo of it here for you to see. It is knitted in Rowan Felted Tweed in the cinnamon colourway. There.
I bought the yarn before I looked it up on Ravelry and read what everyone was saying about it. And a lot of people were saying, well, not a lot, but I saw a few comments saying that they wouldn't use it for socks because they just found that it broke really easily. I didn't find that. But reading those comments almost made me not use it myself for this particular project. But I decided to go for it. And I thought it actually looked really nice. And it turned out really well. The other thing that I'd seen on Ravelry is that people said that it shed a lot and I definitely found that. So when I first was winding, winding it with my yarn winder, it, it shed heaps. So I had like a little, little ball of fluff just from winding it. And then as I was working with it, it shed even more and I had bits of hairs, like, all over my clothes and all around the couch where I was working. So that, I mean, it's not a huge problem. But yeah, it was sort of interesting.
I'd never, I was gonna say I'd never worked with a yarn that shed that much. But I think that's not actually true. I think there was an acrylic mohair that I used once that I really didn't like.It was something that I found in an op shop and I thought I'd rescue it but, um, yes, so it was very sheddy. It had a lot of kemp, I think it's called, it had a lot of kemp. So that's sort of what the wiry hairs and that was what was shedding but there was still a fair bit of it in the yarn itself.
I did also find that there were, there were times when the yarn seemed really thin. So it's a DK yarn. And there were times when it seemed like it was like a fingering weight. It was just it was really thin and I was afraid at those times that it was going to break, but it never did. So I'm sure it's fine. It knitted up really beautifully. I love, I love how it turned out. It wasn't my favourite yarn to actually work with because because of all the kemp. It was a bit rough and rustic on the, like, yeah, it was a bit rough on the hands. But I love how it looked. And you know after washing and stuff, like, it, it looks really good and I gifted it to my cousin and they, and it fit her perfectly. And she was really happy with them. So overall, I'm really happy. But those are just my little notes about the yarn. I'm not sure that I would work with it again.
My yarn snobbery
But also, part of that is also, I do want to, I want to - there's, there's so many different yarns out there that I'm more interested in exploring different yarns and not always going back and using the same yarns that I've already used. I want to broaden my range of experience when it comes to yarn. So yeah, so, so that's that one.
The next few projects I'm going to talk about all use the same yarn. So after I've just talked about not wanting to always go back and use the same yarn, I'm going to be talking about three projects where I use the same yarn. This is because the, I bought this yarn back in the days before I became a yarn snob. I am a yarn snob. I don't like buying yarns from big box stores. So one of those here in Australia is Spotlight. It's a big crafty department store. It sells a lot of homewares types of things as well but lots of yarn, lots and lots of fabric, sewing machines, decor, bedding, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, so I bought this yarn from Spotlight because it was on the cheaper end. Not the best quality. I knit a sweater with it that ended up pilling quite a bit I believe. So. Yeah, so this, this particular yarn, I bought in a few different colors for various projects, and I had all these leftovers. So I've sort of been trying to use them as I found projects for them.
Ionic Fingerless Mitts
So this first project that I'm going to talk about is called the Ionic Fingerless Mitts by by Carlie Perrins, Perrins. It's a free pattern. I find all my patterns on Ravelry. I should mention as well all of the links to the patterns and the yarns and anything else I might mention will be down in the YouTube description below.
So the Ionic Fingerless Mitts. This one, I've been eyeing this pattern for a while. It's a really simple cable. I think it's simple but effective and, and versatile. It's not particularly feminine or masculine. I think anyone could wear it. And there was a period where I was really interested in mittens but I think that I only made one and then I sort of moved on to other items. The one I made was a different pattern. Anyway, I digress.
So the Ionic Fingerless Mitts. It's a really simple cable. It was really easy to memorize or read where you were so you'd know what you had to do next. So that was really great about it. The project itself. It's a bit of a tricky one for me, it was a sort of sentimental project. So in 2019 I had the idea to knit a matching set of items for one of my extended families, one of my cousin's families, but then I didn't do it. I just, I was doing other things and then it came to Christmas and I didn't have time so I just, I didn't do it for 2019. And then in 2020 My uncle in that family left us. He passed away.
So yes, I, as we approached Christmas, I decided that I would knit items for the rest of his family members. I decided not to go with a matching set anymore. I wanted to find projects that I thought each of them would like so I showed these in episodes last year. For my one of my cousin's I knitted a beanie. For my aunt I knitted a cowl. And then for the other cousin, I knit the I Just Wanna Go Home socks that I just shared with you. And I still sort of, I've been thinking in the lead up to Christmas, I've been thinking about whether I still wanted to knit something for my uncle, even though he's not with us anymore. Just sort of, just sort of in honor of him. An acknowledgement that, you know, he's always, he'll always be in our hearts. He's, he's, you know, he's, he's, he's part of the family. So because I finished all of the other projects in time, I decided to go ahead and knit the, this project for him. And I gifted it to - my cousin who I knit the socks for just claimed them straight away. Even though I made an effort to make them for a man's size even though obviously he couldn't wear them. But then I thought maybe they would share them round, but she just claimed them, which I found very amusing. But yeah, so anyway, those are the Ionic Fingerless Mitts.
Bootees, Mittens and Hat
The next thing I knit in that yarn is - so the pattern. It's another free pattern. It's called Bootees, Mittens and Hat, and it's by Lazy Days and Sundays. So this one was my, my sister, and she's been living in the UK for the last few years, she came down at the very end of November and she was here for I think, five weeks. So we, you know, we spent a fair, we spent a bit of time together.
I did a bit of shopping with her when she was, you know, looking for baby items to find, bring back over there. And she was looking for, I think it was, I think she was looking for beanies and she wasn't finding anything that she liked. So of course, me being a knitter, I said, I said that I would I just make something for her. So I can't remember if it was a beanie or if it was mittens that she was looking for. I think that she'd mentioned both but it was really a beanie that she was looking for it. She just mentioned that she wanted those other things.
So when I went searching on Ravelry I, I wanted to find a set. I didn't want to, like, pick a mitten pattern and hat pattern. And I don't think I had intended to knit socks or booties but because this set had them I did. So I, I started with the beanie. I knit the beanie, all in one colour and I finished it. I actually knit maybe half of it on one day when I went on a big walk. Which is only the second time I have done knitting and walking at the same time. And it's something that I'd like to try more and get better at. But I, at least while I'm sort of getting used to it, I only want to be doing very simple and small projects, which I don't do a lot of because I like interesting stitch patterns. I like interesting designs. So I'm not often just knitting stockinette stitch or garter stitch or, or ribbing that, that I can just take with me out on a walk because I need to be reading patterns and looking at charts and making sure that I'm in the right place. So anyways, so this was only the second time that I have done knitting and walking. It worked pretty well. But of course my, both my knitting and walking were a lot slower than they usually are. So yeah, so I did the beanie all in the one colour.
And then I do, I believe I did the mittens next. But then I realised pretty quickly that I was going to run out of the green. And I really did want to knit the whole set. So I, I worked the mittens up to a point and then I did the top of them in a contrast colour and the block colour. And then I, I think it was then that I ripped out most of the beanie and added in the stripes.
And then I did the booties. So, so the beanie was in stripes. The mittens was like colour block. And then so they weren't exactly matching. It was just the colours matched. So when I did the booties I sort of tried to bring those two together. So the top of the boot is, like, solid green and then the toes white, kind of like the mittens, to kind of like match the mittens. And then when I started working in a round going down the sides and the sole of the booties, I did that in stripes, as a nod to the beanie. In the hopes, you know, when you look at them all together, they sort of make sense as a set. So that's that.
I blocked those and I took the photos and when I was looking at the extra yarn that I had left - actually it was my partner who suggested that I make a pom pom or said that a pom pom would be cute or something like that. So I, so I used up all the rest of the green yarn. I held it together with the white and I just went, you know, round round round a bit of card until I ran out of the green and made up with those. So I didn't actually take a photo of it with the pom pom though, so unfortunately I don't have that to show you. It was pretty cute. I attached the pom pom with, with a, with a button which is my favourite way to do it. I think I did it with the button. Yeah. Anyway, so I attached a beanie to that one and I gifted it and my sister really loved it. And then because I had like, I think that was on Christmas Eve eve, so the 23rd of December that I finished those.
Daniel's Hat
And then because I had time I thought, 'Oh, I'm gonna knit another beanie because the beanie was what she had been looking for'. And I found, I think I had, I think I had wanted to do it in brioche so I went on Ravelry looking for a baby brioche pattern and I found the Daniel's Hat by Ysolda Teague. So this is another free pattern. The pattern itself is presented in just one color, but I wanted to do it in two so I did it in, it's the same yarn, which I did.
I can't remember if I actually said what the yarn is but it's 4 Season Superwash Merino in 8 ply which is actually now discontinued, I believe. So I, I was using, it's the same cream colour that I had used in the set. And then another yellow colour so yellow as the main colour.
So there's a bit of normal ribbing and then it goes into the brioche and I thought the pattern was really great. Like I said, it's a free pattern but they have a photo tutorial to go with it which I found really helpful. So I was using their photo tutorial and I also watched a video on two color brioche in the round by Arne and Carlos. So yeah, so it's the first, it's the first time I had done brioche in two colors. And it's the first time I had done brioche in a project. So years ago I had swatched brioche and I don't think I really enjoyed it. This time I really liked it. I don't know if that's because I just found it a lot more enjoyable and fun and easy to understand when I was working in two colors. It could also be that I'm just more experienced now.
So yeah, anyway, I really liked it and I also found in particular the photo instructions that they had for working brioche decreases were really good so I highly recommend this pattern. Yeah, so unfortunately I don't have a photo of this one. Like I said, I finished, this is the one that I finished on Christmas Eve and then I gifted it that evening. Because all I ended up doing for Christmas was meeting my immediate family, so my parents and my sister and her partner, in a park and none of us went to the big family party. So we just sat in a park and handed our presents around to each other. So I didn't even have time to block this one. But you know, it's totally fine and she really loved it as well.
This one, I made the hole at the top just a little bit bigger. So with the other beanie that I attached with, however I attached it, the beanie's fixed. It's not removable because I hadn't intended on attaching a pom pom. So you can't actually fit a button through the hole. This one I made sure that the button, that the hole at the top was big enough for a button to go through it. So again I made a pom pom using the yellow and the white held together and because brioche is reversible, they, they'll be able to remove the pom pom and attach it whichever way they want to use the beanie. So yeah, so that was that. Was fun when I gifted it to them. My sister's partner opened up the present. The pom pom wasn't attached, because I wanted it to be clear that they could attach it themselves however they want and he ripped open the paper and they both spilled out separately and he thought he'd broken it already because of how he ripped open the package. But then I explained and obviously they got it and that was, yeah, that is the Daniels Hat by Ysolda Teague. Hopefully, they'll be able to send a photo of it sometime and I can show it but it's just, it's just a little baby brioche beanie.
Machine knit scarf
Yes. So the next, the last project. The last knitting project that I made is this scarf that you can see here. So my sister had asked for a scarf because the one that she uses the most back home in the UK had, had worn through so she was asking for another scarf. So I hadn't given her a birthday present I think in 2019 and I hadn't given her partner a birthday present last year, 2020. Because we just didn't do a lot of those presents because it's just been really hard with COVID and with all of us living away. So I, I'm living in Melbourne and I have two sisters. One of them is in Perth and one of them is in London. So sometimes we just find presents a bit difficult so we didn't do them.
So I said alright, I'll knit you a scarf and I'll make that your very belated present. And I'll knit that one to Matt, her partner, as his belated present. And I thought because I was going to do it on the knitting machine that it was just, it would just go, it would just go so fast. And, and I'd have it in time. I'd have it done in time for them to take back to the UK with them. So they were flying back on the 28th and because I had been knitting right up to Christmas Eve for all of my Christmas presents, I couldn't start this project until Christmas day.
So I cast this on the knitting machine on Christmas Day. You can see how long it is. And, of course knitting on the knitting machine - sure it's faster. Definitely much faster than knitting by hand but because, you know, you've got to like move - it's not it's not automatic. You've got to, you know, lay the yarn and move the carriage and all of that. It still takes a long time. So I did not have it done by the time that they, by the time that they left.
So it's just, My knitting machine is a, is a brand, is Matador and I can never find anything else for Matador knitting machines. I have a feeling it was, they were only around in Australia, and maybe not for long, because you just can't find anything. I can't find any more parts for it or anything like that. But I'm quite fond of it. It's old, but it also has a ribbing attachment. Which is really handy.
So this is actually done in ribbing so that, you know, if I did it in just stockinette, it would have curled and I didn't want that. So this is, what is that? I think it's 91 stitches. How much it stretches. It's just fun. Yeah, so that took days. Days of using machine so I didn't have it finished in time. This is done in Prestige Yarns Bambini 4, so it's a 4 ply yarn. It's Aussie merino. It's spun in Italy. It's lovely and soft. And the ribbing of course just makes it squishy and I love the sort of heathery colorway. It's not completely a solid gray.
The, the only thing about it is, so I think when it were to go on the knitting machine it was probably about that wide when I was working it and as you can see ribbing pulls in quite a lot. So when I was working on it, that part on the needles was stretched out like that and then the rest of it was pulling in and because of that stretching and pulling in it made the edges, it made the edges of the scarf. You can, you can kind of see they're, they're like, it's got this wave because, because the edges were sort of traveling further because they were getting pulled in and the center was just going straight down. The edges were sort of more stretched than them middle and you can see how you can kind of see that here, how it's longer on the edges than it is in the center. So I haven't blocked this yet. I will and hopefully that'll sort of help with that because it's not quite straight and flat, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
When I took it off the machine I thought it was really really long, but maybe it's fine. This is how I wear my scarves. I have no idea how he's going to wear it and I don't think he'll be wearing it like this, but that's actually a decent length. So what have I done? There we go. So yes, so I, my sister had asked for, she wanted a thin scarf because her scarf was thin. But for some reason I got 4 ply, I got fingering yarn for him. And I got 8 ply, DK yarn for her. So once I finished this, and I, I mean it's not big, but because ribbing, because of how ribbing pulls in, it's almost like it is a double thickness than if it was just stockinette stitch. And I saw that, like, the DK weight scarf is going to be too thick for what she wants. So that one, I had it with, the yarn that I had picked for her was baby alpaca but I think I'm gonna have to keep that for myself now which I'm not too disappointed with. And I have ordered her another yarn, which hopefully I'll be able to show you in the next episode. So I ordered her another yarn in, I think it's, I think it's alpaca, cashmere and silk. Anyway, I'll show you that once I've got it. But that was the machine scarf that I made. I think that was all that I have to say about that one. So I will block it.
Multicrafty
While I'm talking about all of the things that I have made, I'm going to keep going, but I'm done with the knitting projects. So I want to introduce this new section that I'm calling Multicrafty. Because like I said earlier, I've always enjoyed crafting, I love working with my hands. I love making things with my hands. There was a period of a few years where I worked as a traditional bookbinder. Yeah, and I thought that that was going to be my career for a while. But then you know, I sort of moved away from that. And I mean everyone keeps saying like print is dying or print is dead. So I, we definitely felt it in that industry. But it's still something that I love to do. Well, I mean, I can't really say I do it because I haven't done it. But that is one of the crafts that I enjoy, and I do hope to go back to it just in a sort of a hobby sense. So yeah.
But anyway, the first craft that I ever remember doing is cross stitch. So I did cross stitch as a child, and every few years I go back to it, and do, do like little projects or just every few years I'd go back to cross stitch. So when I realised that I wasn't going to finish this guy in time to gift it on the 28th when my sister and her partner were flying back to London - I've been knitting so much. I've been knitting, like, so frantically in the lead up to Christmas, that I wanted to give myself a break from it. I didn't completely count this because it was on the machine and it wasn't being done by hand. But I wanted to not knit for the rest of the year. I put myself on a knitting hiatus, but I couldn't not craft. I had to do something.
So I picked up this cross stitch that I have been working on since maybe 2008. I keep, I keep getting sick of it and putting it away and coming back to it. I really hope to finish it this year because I do want to make more of an effort this year to do other crafts and not just knit, which is why I'm introducing this segment into the vlog as a way to sort of encourage myself to do other things. So that if I have, if I have to talk about other crafts and share them with you, then this is sort of that sort of a motivating factor that will sort of push me to actually do the other crafts. So anyway, when I told myself I couldn't knit at the end of last year I picked this up.
I have been sort of trying to keep it a surprise. I'm only going to show you the back of it. You can probably tell what it is but yeah. It's, it was a photograph that I made sepia coloured and then I put into a program called PC Stitch, if you're on a PC, or Mac, Mac Stitch if you're on Mac. I only got a free version of it, but it lets you upload an image and then convert that into a cross stitch pattern. So I've got a few pages of it in this bag that I've got here. So the highlighted bits are the bits that I have done.
I did it in sepia tones because I think I had a lot of brown already so I thought that means I would have to buy fewer extra floss threads, whatever, whatever you call them. I use DMC, that's just what I've always used. So I've just stuck with it. And I found this in an op shop. And I use this a lot as well but I don't, I don't use it all the time when I'm doing cross stitch. It's just, but yeah anyway. So I did it in sepia because I have a lot of browns. I thought it meant that I wouldn't have to buy as much and I thought that it would just be easier and sort of look better.
Yeah, so I sort of work like this. I have it there and then I'm holding the cross stitch and working with it like that. Otherwise, I'm so bad. Sometimes I'd be like working with it this close to my face which is not good for your eyes. So sometimes I tried to use this when I'm trying to be really conscious of that. But I mean it's not heavy but because it is a constant weight on my neck, it does get uncomfortable after a while so I don't use it all the time. That, anyway I've been working on that for over a decade and hopefully I will be finishing that.
So that is my little cross stitch that I have been working on. I haven't worked on it since the end of last year because I found that I was really itching, after only a couple of days I was really itching to get back to knitting. I just, I just really love knitting. But I wouldn't let myself. I wanted to like give my body a break. I would just wanted to take a break from it. I didn't want to, you know burn out from it. So I've forced myself to cross stitch but as soon as 2022 to hit, it was back to knitting. But, you know, I do have plans to pick it up again. So that is my multicrafty project for this episode.
Craft for Thought
What else do I have to talk about? So? Yeah, I guess that sort of leads into sort of the next topic that I wanted to touch on, which is, which sort of started with burnout. So I, I decided that I want to take, take the knitting hiatus, partly because I had been getting a bit sore from all of the knitting that I was doing in the lead up to Christmas, but I also did just actually feel a bit burnt out from all of that knitting. So I wanted to take a break from it. And I have been wanting to, to go back and do other crafts as well. So it was kind of forcing me to do that too.
But I was burnt out from knitting, and I didn't, I don't ever want to lose my love of knitting by forcing myself to do it. Then I forced myself not to do it. But I mean, like I said, I found pretty quickly that I was wanting to get back to it. But what I was craving was knitting bigger projects and knitting something for myself, because I had been doing so much knitting of smaller projects for other people as gifts. So I think I was just burnt out from that particular type of knitting, so yeah. I, I really just wanted to make something for myself.
And I've heard a few people call that selfish knitting which is, I don't really agree with, you know. We put so much time and effort and thought and love into this craft. So why, like, why is it selfish to make something for yourself? Like, that just doesn't make sense to me. Why should we not benefit from all, from, from all of this labour and love that we put into something that we enjoy? Why should we not benefit from that? Why should we see that as a selfish? Why is it not our right to enjoy our own crafts? So that's kind of how I feel just about that term selfish. knitting. I know that, you know, people don't necessarily mean it that way when they call it selfish knitting, but it just sort of has that connotation for me. That, that negative connotation, like it's bad to be knitting for yourself. So I don't, I don't like to call it selfish knitting. I said, I will call it self knitting. Sort of like, you know, you engage in self care. So it's self knit. So that's just how I feel about that.
So I want to do more of that. I want to do more knitting for myself. I want to do more self knits. But it's, it's hard because I do also understand, wanting to share this with other people and wanting to express your love and care for other people by making things for them. And so, you know, although I have been really craving knitting something for myself that I get to keep, I still have projects for other people that I want to make and that I need to make first. So I haven't done anything for myself yet. But this episode is meant to be looking at 2021 so I'm trying not to talk about things that I've done this year.
But basically yeah, I don't think it's selfish to be knitting for yourself. So please knit for yourself. Please make things for yourself and feel fabulous about it. Because you should, you should enjoy the things that you make, you should benefit from your own crafts. If, you know, especially, I mean, not especially but if you get pains like I do, why not go through all of that suffering and get something for yourself? So yeah, that, that's kind of my musings about the end of the year.
Stat Chat
So I, yeah, so now that 2021 is done I can count up all the things that I have made. Which I, I use, I use Ravelry to log all of my crafty projects, so all of my yarny projects. It is mainly knitting but I did do, I did finish one crochet item last year and because I'm sort of tallying this up through Ravelry, that is counted in these stats that I'm about to present.
So in 2021 I made two household items. One was a baby blanket. And I don't really know that, I didn't really know how to categorize that. So I'm sort of just lumping it in as household items. So one baby blanket and one crocheted laundry basket. Not really, not really a laundry basket. It was just, I had one of those plastic, those cheap plastic ones that you can get and the handles had broken off and I didn't want to, I didn't want to just go throw it out and buy another one that was just gonna break as well. So I sort of made a loose, crocheted basket to go around it with handles so that I can still use it. So those are the two household items.
I made 16 accessories. So some things, that includes sets so the bootees, mittens and hat set that I made, that's counted as one. So 16 accessories.
And then 4 garments. So they were one cardigan for myself. One baby sweater. One poncho. What was the fourth one? Oh, yeah. And another sweater that I made early in 2021 as the Christmas present for my sister in the UK. I didn't know that she was going to be, she hadn't planned to come down here. But her birthday's New Years Eve. So I knitted it early in the year so that I wouldn't forget or run out of time in order to mail it to her because I thought I was going to have to mail it to her. So those are the four garments that I made, which is a grand total of 22 finished objects for 2021. Five of those were started before 2021.
I think the longest standing project was probably the poncho that I made for my dad. That one was one that had a lot of ripping out just to get the size and the shape right. Even though I was following a pattern I was sort of just tweaking the shape and the numbers to suit what I wanted to make. And because it was a whole load of stockinette stitch, and a lot of stitches. A lot of stitches. I, whenever I worked on that I got bored of it pretty quickly. So that took a while but I finished it last year and I was able to gift it to him for his 60th. 60th? 50? 60? How old is my dad? Sixty. Yeah, I think his 60th birthday, yeah, last year.
So yeah, so 22 FO's, five of which were started prior to last year and two and a half were for me. And I'm saying half because the laundry basket's like a house hold item. So it's not really for me, for me. Just kind of for me. Yeah. So two and a half out of 22 for me. I really do want to do more self knits. I want to enjoy what I made. I want to be able to wear things that I have made and share them and show them off and be proud of them. Yes.
Heart Full of Craft
So the very last segment of this vlog will still be Heart Full of Craft where I like to share something that I'm grateful for or possibly a highlight since the previous episode.
So looking at 2021 I have to say the thing that I'm really grateful for was my sister and her partner coming down. So she's, she's pregnant with her first baby which is really exciting. So it was so nice to see her during that time. She is due at the end of February so she was pretty well on her way there and it was so nice to see her and get to spend some time with, with her.
I didn't get to see them a whole lot just because it's been a while, obviously, since they have been down so they had really full schedules just trying to catch up with so many people. But I saw them a few times and it was really nice. We spent, there was one day where, you know, we went to the beach. She's a real summer, she's a real summer girl. She, she loves hot weather. And I'm the complete opposite. I like cold weather. She loves going to the beach and I want to be cold. I handle cold weather better. Plus, you know, it allows me to wear knits. Yeah, but obviously, we were in summer when she was here. So there was one day we went to the beach we had fish and chips. Yeah, it was really, it was really nice having them here.
And, you know, her, them coming here led to three projects that I hadn't planned which is obviously the two baby sets and this scarf plus her, her scarf. So that'll be a fourth project that I've yet to knit. I can't help but think of most things in terms of how they relate to crafting but yeah, I'm really grateful that they came down and we got to spend time with them. We got to sort of have Christmas with them and it was just really nice. I don't think she watches this, but Caz, thanks.
Thank you!
Thanks for coming down and spending time with us and hopefully we'll be able to fly out and visit you next. So thank you, everyone, for watching. That brings us to the end of this first episode of 2022. So yeah, the first Bobolog episode.
Like I said at the start, I am aiming to actually stick to a fortnightly schedule. So depending on how well my old laptop runs, I'm hoping to put this out on Wednesdays at 6pm Australian time, which at the moment in our daylight savings, that'll be 3pm in Western Australia, 7am in London, and 11pm on Tuesdays in San Francisco. I have just picked those particular places because that's where the people who I know are. So 6pm Melbourne time, Wednesdays, fortnightly. So hopefully I'll be able to stick to that.
If you go down into the YouTube description below, that's where I've got all of the links to patterns and yarns I've talked about and other things that I have mentioned. You can also find me on Instagram @PlatypusKnitting and I am on Ravelry under my own name, BobbieOlan. So I hope to see you in one of those places. And that is it for this episode. I'll see you in a couple of weeks.
Fare thee well.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Resources
Mentions
Patterns (on Ravelry)
I Just Wanna Go Home by Winter's Weather Knits
Ionic Fingerless Mitts by Carlie Perrins
Bootees, Mittens & Hat by Lazy Days & Sundays
Daniel's Hat by Ysolda Teague
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