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Writer's pictureBobbie Olan Casiano
Apr 27, 202229 min read

#016 - Birthday Reflection 2021-22

It's my second annual birthday reflection, looking back at the previous year in crafting. I also go through my usual segments of sharing knitting, design and other fibre craft projects.


Transcript



Transcript

Welcome to episode 16 of Bobolog. Today I'm going to do my second annual birthday reflection where I'm going to look back at the last 12 months of crafting. And, as usual, I'm going to be sharing updates on all of my knitting, design, and other crafty projects. So let's jump in.


Greetings! Thank you for spending your time here with me today on another episode of Bobolog on my Platypus Knitting channel. My name is Bobbie Olan. I live here in Victoria on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples with my partner. I would like to pay my respects to the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people and their Elders, past, present, and future. And I'd also like to extend that respect to all Aboriginal people throughout Australia.


This is my vlog where I come to share my knitting adventures, my attempts at design, and any other crafty projects that I may do, usually still focusing on the fibre arts. You can also find me on Instagram @PlatypusKnitting or I am on Ravelry under BobbieOlan. There are links in the YouTube description below for all of the patterns, yarns, and everything else that I mention. You can also find links to my profiles on Instagram and Ravelry there, as well as a link to a website where I put all of the transcripts for these videos.



Handy Dandy

So I am going to start off with Handy Dandy.


Spectrespecs Gloves

So I'm very happy to say that I have finished my Luna Lovegood Spectrespecs Gloves, which are by Stephanie Lotven and they are in the Knitting Magic book, which is all Harry Potter inspired knits. So I finished these last night and I'll put them on for you to show you. So as a reminder, I kind of chose this project to use up some specific yarns that I had naturally dyed at a workshop. So it had the right number of colours, it sort of had the right distribution and placement of the different colours that I wanted to use. So I have finished them and here they are.


So these are- these are the first time that I have done proper gloves with fingers. That was quite a challenge, especially to do it in colourwork. I did find, because I didn't do the fingers in the order that the pattern stated - I did the pinky and the thumb first - and I found that - I mean, I think it would have been easiest if - since I had started with the pinky - if I had just gone across that way and worked in one direction. But the pattern gets you to do from the index to the pinky, so once I had done the pinky, I went back to the pattern. I went from the index across. So the ring fingers in particular I found quite tricky to do because the little- the pinky finger kept sort of getting in my way. So that was another challenge that I gave myself there.


But I'm super happy with how these have turned out. The fingers fit so nice and snug. I do think that I - even though I kept trying them on to see how long I should knit the fingers for - I do think I have made them just a little bit, just the tiniest, tiniest bit short for my fingers. But I do still need to block them. So I'm going to try to stretch that out a bit. You can see I keep trying to just snug them down into where my fingers join. So it's kind of just a little bit above there. But other than that I am so so happy with how these have turned out. They're just soft and warm and beautiful. They've done exactly what I wanted them to do.


I probably am going to - since they are for myself - I'm probably going to be lazy and not weave in all of the ends inside because there are quite a few. But I will at least, you know, tuck- tuck these ones inside the fingers and cut them shorter. And I may weave those ones in, but those ones and these ones will probably be it. I won't bother weaving in all of the the ends where it- where the fingers join up and I think coz I just can't be bothered and it's for me so I'm not as fussed. So I need to give those a block and I'll just sort of pin them out on my blocking mats and try to st- elongate the fingers a little bit. But other than that they're kind of a really good size.


I'd mentioned when I talked about them before that if I did them again, I would- I would just start where the gusset increases for the thumb start because you can- you can kind of see, I think, that it's just a little bit loose in this bit here because I've got really small hands. So the- My wrist is there, but then it will- I was wondering when I finished them last night and I put them on, I was thinking, 'Is that actually on purpose? So that you can still quite comfortably put the gloves- put the cuffs over sleeves if you're wearing something that is- that is properly long sleeve?'


And that may be the case but I do also just think it would look nicer if that was, like, a bit of a snugger fit around there. So if I do them again, and I may then- yeah, then that'll be one of the changes that I make to it.


So this is all of the yarn that I have left. So I used literally just over half of each of these colours. I used about 14 g of each and I've got about 13 g of each left and there is less than 1 g left of the variegated colour that was my main background colour. So I am kind of thinking it might be enough to do, like, another fingerless set. And if I do that, then I would only use this variegated colour in the contrast cuffs and just go for however long I have that. Probably- probably not long. Probably less than half, much less than half, of the length that they are now. And then each glove would just be these two colours but, again, swapped- swapped around for each hand.


I'm hoping I'll have enough to do a fingerless glove set but that may be too ambitious. But I kind of like the idea of having one that was sort of displaying the colours in this way, which I've explained my reasons for a couple of times, so I won't bother doing that again. But then to have another pair that has a- has a better contrast and just sort of overall looks cleaner. So yeah, that's- that's those ones and I'm- and I'm really happy with how they turned out.


So I'll be blocking those today after I finish filming. Okay, they can come off now.



Baby Lamb

The next thing is another finished object. But unfortunately I don't have it here to show you because I have already gifted it. So that is the Baby Lamb by Lorraine Pistorio. And that one is a gift that I made for my besties' baby. It's actually her first- her first baby, that she had earlier this year. So I- she lives in Sydney, and she has come down to Melbourne for a visit and I caught up with her last week. And I don't have it here. Obviously, I gave it to her.


And she was really, really, really blown away by that. She was very impressed by it which I was so happy about. Very appreciative which is always really, really nice to see. It's a lovely reaction to get to your handmade items. And she showed it off to everyone and- in her family and they were all really impressed by it as well, which was just really nice to hear about.


So I can't remember where I was up to when I last showed it to you. But I- it- it was- it was a really well written pattern. I just thought it was a really clever construction, particularly the hooves, and the- the bottom, and the ears. I particularly like how the ears were done as well and it's just really cute. It turned out really cute.


I have said before that I'm not sure that I would make one for myself but I kind of would like to have one for myself. So I still haven't made any decisions one way or another about that. But that was, yeah, that was really- that- that was really great to have that one finished and to be able to give that one away in time (because I am often late with with gifting presents).


I should say, I forgot to mention that the gloves are made out of yarn that I got when I did a natural dyeing workshop at Tarndwarncoort, so that is Polwarth yarn there. And the Baby Lamb was made out of Scheepjes yarn. So that was the- that was the Sweetheart Soft, I think, and the Soft Fun. Something like that. There'll be in the description down below.


The- the Sweetheart Soft, it was really incredibly soft to work with but it was also - because it's- it's sort of fluffy - it was really hard to see stitches and there was no tinking back when I realised I had made a mistake and my counts were off. I kind of just fudged it and just did increases or decreases when I- whenever I realised I had the wrong count and, yeah, to make- to make sure that I had right count. That- That was really mainly only an issue when I was doing the shadow wrap short rows because it was just really hard to see the strands of yarn so I'm- I'm sure that I did some shadow wraps wrong.


But it turned out beautifully and, yeah, another successful finished object there.



Greenwich

The last Handy Dandy that I'll mention just really briefly is that I finally tinked back the front of the Greenwich sweater, which I've talked about that I have to do in a couple of episodes. It's a sweater by Martin Storey that I made for my sister, who's living in the UK, for her birthday last year.


And when she was down here in Australia, she tried it on. And it's one of those sweaters that's longer in the back and cropped in the front and it was a really big difference between the two length- lengths. And she said that she actually would have liked the front to be a bit longer.


So I had tried knitting the bottom part of it again and then grafting it on, but it's fisherman's rib and I- that was not a successful graft. So what I have done is, I have just - that's catching - I've ripped out the- the neckband, removed the seams that was connecting it to the back and to the arms, and I have unraveled it. The only bit that I didn't unravel at the front was that new bit that I had knit, the extension at the front bottom. So I can just keep knitting up from there using this yarn.


So after I- after I tinked all of this, I wound it up onto my swift. I put these ties on it, 1 2 3. And you can't actually see the other one really well because it's just using the ends of the yarn. But I tied it up so that it wouldn't get tangled and I just gave it a soak for maybe 10-15 minutes in some warm water. I- warm water just because it's been really cold lately and I didn't want to put my hands into cold water.


So just soaked it in some warm water, gently squeezed out as much of the water as I could. I don't think I wrapped it up in towelling. I think I just gave it a squeeze and then I hung it up like this, on this hanger as you see it now, over the bath tub and every now and then I would just come and give the bottom of it an extra squeeze because, you know, of course that's where all the water was gathering. So I just would give it an extra squeeze. But I was also happy for that weight of the water to be sitting there most of the time and just lending a little extra weight just to help it stretch out.


And you can see it still has some kinkiness but it was super curly. When I first unraveled it my- my partner was saying that it was his noodles for lunch. Because it was so curly like, you know, those dried two minute noodle type things. So, yes, so that is ready to- to re knit when I finish all of the other projects that I have going on. So that is all of my knitting items.



Multicrafty

Next up is Multicrafty.


Spinning

And the first thing that I will mention is my spinning. So in the previous episode I had finished my second yarn. I believe I had chained plied- yes, I had finished chain plying it, but I hadn't washed it yet. So I gave it a soak. I actually gave it a soak in the same- in the same tub that I had this yarn in and then I did the same thing. I just hung it, like, on the- on the- on the same hanger somewhere just so that they weren't touching and this is- this is it here.


So after I- after I hung- So after I soaked that one, I did give it a snap. Last episode, I didn't know what to call it and I just kept, like, doing this with my hands to show you what I had intended to do. And I have since learned that that is called snapping. So what you do is you have it in your hank there and you just put it in between your hands while it is wet. So I pulled it out of the water. I gently squeezed out as much as I could. And I just went like this. I snapped it between my hands. I moved around the circle, snapped it again, moved around, snapped it again. And I kind of just did that a few times going around and then I hung it up.


So that just is supposed to help the twist distribute itself more evenly around the skein. Because obviously, you know, it's done by hand. It's not going to be perfectly even all the way around. So that's just supposed to help with that. So- So I did that before I hung it up.


And then when it was done I- I did put it around a ruler, and it turned out to be 9 wraps per inch which is about a worsted weight. My first yarn was 8 wraps per inch which is an aran weight yarn. So this one is a worsted.


It is- There is quite a bit of variation in the thickness of it. So let me try to show you a couple of the more extreme- Oh actually, here's one where you can kind of see it. This is not gonna work. Okay, so let me just pull some bits to the side here so that you can see the difference. So there are two of the strands there for you. You can see that one - this one is quite a bit bigger than this one. So that 9 wraps per inch is an average, really, of what the yarn is because it's quite different all the way through. But yeah, I'm still quite pleased with how that has turned out. It.


I think it's also- so the first yarn that I spun, I spun about 15 g. This is about 20 g. And it's actually - because I did get it a bit finer - it- it turned out a lot longer than that first yarn turned out to be. So that one is just under 10 m by my guesstimate. I can't actually remember what this one is, but I feel like it was around... I can count actually because I tried to- I tried to set my swift so that it was 1 m around. So if I can count... Somewhere around 27 meters which is a bit- it's quite a difference.


I'm sure those measurements aren't quite right because putting it around the swift isn't really accurate. I'd like to get myself a niddy noddy that's a metre. So that is on my shopping list for when I go to the Sheep and Wool Show later this year, is to get- find myself and niddy noddy.


Anyway let's try to twist that up a bit nicer. Not very good at skeining, as you can tell. There we go. That's better. So that's my second yarn.


I think also when I was talking about this in the previous episode, I was saying that I feel like it wants to be a woollen yarn and my previous spins - and this spin actually - were worsted. I've since done a few online classes - or watched a few online classes - and I'm starting to doubt whether I actually did a proper worsted spin for the others just because I didn't really know what I was doing. Some of these may be semi worsted, who knows. I guess I don't think I was paying enough attention.


But this one I am. This third one that I've started, I am trying to go for a more oollen prep. So this one I am spinning from the fold, and still doing a short forward draft but instead of smoothing the yarn as I draft, I'm sort of letting it go so that more air gets trapped in it. Or something like that. And spinning it from the fold helps that as well. And I hopefully I have that correct. I'm pretty sure that's right from the videos I've watched.


So that is just one 7 g turtle and I'm going to spin a- another 7 g turtle from the fold in exactly the same way. And then the third lot of 7 g - because I like to do three plies - I'm going to do a different colour. So- And then I'm going to spin those three together. So two of these greys, one of the different colour which is going to be pink and brown. Just because I'm trying to use the little sample colours, that's the small amounts that I have, as ways to distinguish between all of the different yarns that I'm spinning in all of this practice spinning that I'm doing so. So that's the third one on the way there.


When I finish all of these practice ones that I'm doing, I have decided that instead of knitting them, I am going to weave them. So that leads me to my next Multicrafty and I've just realised that I left an item up on the shelf so I'm just gonna go grab it. Okay, I'm back.



Weaving

My next Multicrafty project is a new-to-me craft, which is weaving. So I bought myself - sorry for any rattling - I bought myself this Spear's Weaving Loom off eBay. So I chose this because I had looked some stuff up online about- I discovered it in the first place because someone was selling one on Facebook Marketplace and I thought it was pretty decent. And from what I had seen from other people's comments online - I think it is a toy loom.


Spear's made toys for kids and they had this in a few different sizes. So this is the size 4. The size 1 is the most basic and it's the smallest, and then each size gets a bit bigger and it's just slightly different. So I went for the size 4 because it was the widest and I felt like it just had- I just felt like it was the setup that I was looking for. So it's a rigid heddle loom and it is, I think it's- I think I have to measure again but when I was first measuring, it's a 9 dent reed, which means that you can have nine warp yarns in an inch. So yes, I bought- I bought that off eBay.


I should also say, I chose- I wanted to get this one instead of a new loom because it's cheaper for one thing. And I'm trying not to dive too heavily into this craft because there's already so much else that I want to do with everything else, that I'm trying not to get too caught up in it and buy all of the fancy equipment. So this is cheaper and it's still a decent size. I think I should still be able to get some some useful cloth out of this.


So it says that it can weave up to 16" wide. And when I measured it across, it's actually- the width of the heddle is 18", and that's the width of all of the slots, not the whole width including the ends bits. So I don't know if that's accounting for shrinkage once it comes off the loom. But I think that's a pretty decent size.


My dream would be to be able to weave cloth that I can then sew with. But for starters, I'm just sort of still having fun playing around with it. So I'm going to be doing, like, a tapestry type weave with my spinning on this but the first thing that I did with it was just for practice. I don't know where to put this now. So big.


So I wove this on it. So this is the- th warp that I used as just cotton twine because I didn't really want to use up any of my precious yarns for this first practice one. And I thought, 'Oh, cotton twine might be a good yarn.' It's not really yarn, but you know, thread to use for the warp. And then most of the yarns throughout it, all the striping yarn - so the pink and the blue are actually self striping yarns. And they're acrylic yarns that I got from Spotlight. They're- I think that they actually might be discontinued but I'm not 100% sure of that. They're the 4 Seasons Magic Stripe, I believe.


So they were just leftovers that I had in my stash from a really long time ago. And then this bit of brown here is the only bit of wool just because it was- it's all that I had left from other projects, and I don't know what I'd ever use it for again and so I just thought I'd try it out here.


And it- you know, you can see as well that I've made mistakes there. And I have learned how to fix those, but for this first project I wanted to leave them in so that I can sort of see- I can use it as a comparison when I have done more and have hopefully gotten better with it. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with that as well. I'm happy with that- how that has turned out.


So what I'm going to do is I'm going to seam the sides almost all the way up. And then I'm going to trim the fringes because I really don't want them to be long. I want them to be quite short, and they will just fold over in a flap and they will just be my weaving pouch. So I'll put in here all my little tools and bits and pieces that I'm going to keep with my loom. So that is my weaving.


The other thing about weaving though is while you can use knitting yarns in weaving, I- I'm not really interested in using any of my current knitting yarns for it. Because to me, they're my precious knitting yarns that I bought for knitting projects, even though, you know, a lot of them haven't even been assigned to anything yet. But I want to save those for knitting and I feel like I need to have a whole separate stash for weaving. But you know, we'll see. We'll see how- if- if that changes as I go along.


I have bought a couple of yarns, just cheap ones from Spotlight, that were on sale to do some more weaving. So there'll be more of that down the line, but that- that's as far as I've gotten so far. It's- it's pretty fun and it's- it's-



Variety = ergonomics

The thing that I'm liking about doing all of these other crafts is that they exercise different muscles. And I have mentioned quite a few times that I experience pains in my arms and my shoulders and my wrists when I'm knitting and that's the reason why I try to mix it up a bit with my knitting style. So I mainly do continental but when I feel like something is simple enough then I try to do lever knitting. Because it's- it's just sort of positioning your arms in a different way. So it's using your muscles differently.


And then, you know, spinning uses a whole different set of muscles. Plus, I can do that - well, I can do both knitting and spinning sitting or standing actually and I have gone walking with small knitting projects as well. I haven't gone walking with spinning, but I do that one standing up sometimes. And then the weaving, I actually started off doing that standing but the having to, like, lean over the table, I was finding that that was not feeling great for my lower back. And I actually found that once I- once I had set up I found it easier to do that sitting down.


I am already envisioning getting myself a proper loom that I can get a stand for. Which- Which- It looks great because you can also have it tilted. So that will just work better because, I mean, I kind of wish I could tilt this one somehow but I just haven't found a way because you have to clamp it to the table. But yeah, it'll just- I feel like that will just be more ergonomic. Like, it'll be more natural positioning and movement of my arms. And also I'll be able to see it a lot better because it's facing me more than if it were flat.


Yeah, so really excited about having taken up this this new craft. I'm having a lot of fun with it.



Stat Chat

So we're now going to move into the whole birthday reflection type discussion. So first up in that is a Stat Chat. So in the last 12 months, just looking at what I have finished - so some of these were started well before my birthday last year, I just finished them after my birthday last year.


So in the last 12 months I have finished 28 items which includes the bag that I crocheted. So that comprises of 23 accessories, 10 of which are socks; 4 garments, 2 of which were for babies; and 1 toy, which is of course the Baby Lamb toy. So overall, 3 of those were for me, including this one that I'm wearing here; 7 were for my partner, and they were all socks; and 18 were for other people. So just over a third for my own household and just under two thirds went out into the world.


And I've said before that I kind of want to tip that ratio more in my favour as I- as I go on. Because I like making things for myself and as you can see I'm on- on my way there, making more items for myself and planning more items for myself. So that's Stat Chat.



Craft for Thought

So on to Craft For Thought. I'll tell you first what I got up to on my birthday because I had a really lovely day. We went to Geelong. So it's kind of on the other side of the bay from where we're currently living. So we had to drive up through the city and then down to Geelong, which is another major city in Victoria.



National Wool Museum

And we went there because I wanted to go to the National Wool Museum. So we- we went to the Wool Museum and it was- it was small. It's a really small museum, but it was- it was lovely. It was just so nice to see something that was dedicated to sheep and wool and the history of sheep in Australia.


And the most amazing thing was they- they had on display this huge loom. I think it said it had something like 1,000 bobbins of yarn attached to it. And it- it weaves carpets, which- some of which they had on display on the wall and they- they were- they were beautiful. Unfortunately, the loom wasn't working when we went but I think usually they do do demonstrations of it and have it going but it was out of operation. So that was a shame but the rest of it was quite lovely.


They had one- they had one little display that was like a round table and above it, it was, like, showing all of the steps of how you get from the sheep to the- to a finished yarn, I think. And then the table itself just had fleece on it. And that was so soft to touch. It was- It was just so - I can't think of any other words but soft. It was just really incredibly soft. Your hands just, like, sunk into it. It was really lovely. I don't think I've ever actually touched fleece before so that was- that was really neat.


And yeah, I think I would recommend that. If you're, you know, into sheep and wool I recommend going to that museum if you can.


The only thing that both my partner and I were a bit disappointed by were- was that the shop attached to it, it was clearly aimed at tourists. It had some garments and accessories and things that were, I think - I didn't actually look at them. I assume they were all knit. Some could have been woven, some could've been crocheted. I really didn't look at them.


But most of the rest of the shop was just touristy Australiana stuff, and we both would have appreciated it a lot more if it had items that were more related to what was in the museum. It would have been nice to see some more yarns. And obviously I'm biased because I'm a knitter but even my partner was saying that's what he would like to see in the shop. And that's what we would have considered getting because that's what we went to a museum for.


So yeah, if it had- if it had yarns, if it had - I mean, it did have the tiniest selection of yarns but, like, just a couple of really small shelves really. There- There wasn't much there. And yeah, it was just- it was just a bit disappointing. So would have been good if it had yarns or, you know, bits of fleece or something like that. Or my partner was saying he would have loved it if they had little, like, if they had carpets that were made on the loom inside that would have been an amazing thing to have in the store and that would have been something that we might have considered buying.


But we walked away with nothing because we just felt like it- it wasn't- there wasn't really anything that appealed to us in the shop. But that's, you know - we- we live here and I'm a fibre artist so we're looking for different things.


And obviously they do get a lot of tourists in. As we were leaving they had a big party of tourists that was just about to come through so I'm- you know, I understand them having all of those items in there. I just wish that they had a bit more that was more related to- to- to the main exhibition itself.



Reflection

Anyway, reflecting back on the last year. Anyone who has been watching my vlogs from the start would be aware that I have had quite extreme ups and downs in my personal life over the last 12 months. But looking at my crafty life over the last 12 months, that has been full of positives.


So I have- So I've taken up or I have tried three brand new crafts. So they are spinning and weaving and the other one was quilting. I had a go at quilting. And I did actually enjoy that more than I had expected that I would and I do have plans to make a small quilted blanket for myself eventually. But like I have said before, it's hard to pull myself away from knitting and when I do it's hard to pull myself away from fibre focused arts. So one day I will get around to that again.


I have also revisited two old crafts. So one of them is crochet which I have said I- this time around I have enjoyed it a lot more than when I have done it previously. So I'm glad to have that back in my wheelhouse of crafts to go to. And the other one is cross stitch, which I showed, I think, maybe in the first episode for this year. But honestly I haven't gone back to it since then. But I enjoyed it when I was doing it. And I want to keep doing it. I really want to finish the item that I've been working on for years. But like I said it's hard to pull myself away from knitting and fibre-y crafts.


My favourite makes this past year have been the Opposite Pole cardigan, which is this one that I am wearing here. So this is a design by a Joji Locatelli and you can see my progress of it in a few episodes last year. So this is the first time that I have done reversible cables which was really fun. I also was trying to use up yarn that I had in my stash. So because I didn't have enough of this blue yarn that is why this panel here is in a separate colour but I actually really like how that has turned out.


I do have to make one adjustment. Not- Would you call it an adjustment? I really need to make this sleeve longer. So this here is garter stitch. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to ravel- unravel it and I'm just going to make it reverse stockinette so that it just extends a bit further out. Hopefully that'll be enough just to get it to a bracelet length for me because this is really quite an awkward length.


And I do not have any more of either of these yarns at all. I- And I'm not going to buy any more just to try to extend that sleeve any further because this is Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury yarn and they have huge - wonderfully huge - 200 g balls. But I'm not buying 200 g just to use maybe 1 g to extend the sleeve. So I think my best bet is to do this in reverse stockinette. And maybe also I might decrease it a bit so it's a little bit narrower so that it just fits around my wrist area a bit nicer, and then also increase the length. So I- I'll get to that at some point.


Other favourites have been the August Sock KAL by Roxanne Richardson. So I really enjoyed that whole journey just because it has really helped me to understand sock fit. It's allowed me to try out a bunch of different methods and really get familiar with sock construction. And I feel like- I feel like I can just do a much better job now so I'm- I'm- that was a really fun journey to go on.


And the other favourite is the Baby Lamb item just because it's so adorable. It's so different to anything I have ever knit before and it turned out really, really well.


My favourite experience of the last 12 months was the natural dyeing workshop at Tarndwarncoort. So it was a nice drive two hours out of the city to- to go visit their farm. They have lovely grounds. And it was just such a wonderful experience itself. And it's something that I'd like to explore more of on my own.


So those are the highlights for me over the last 12 months. Oh, and the other thing is I finally took up design, which is something that I have been meaning to do for quite a while now and I have finally given that ago this last year.


Out of My Mind

That brings us to the next section, which is Out of My Mind. So I have made quite a bit of progress on this design that I am working on. So here it is here. Here's where I'm up to with it now. So I have split for the sleeves and made the steeking stitches. Sorry, split for the armhole and made the steeking stitches for the armhole. And I think I'm just about at the point where I - Oh no, I think- I have started actually... Have I? Sorry, I'm looking at it. So I've also cast on the steeking stitches for the V neck there. I's just a tiny little section which is I couldn't find that before. So that's going really, really well.


The only thing is - actually there are a couple of things about it.


One is I did this little box pleat in the mid back, because I just wanted to have really subtle sort of shaping. So rather than decreasing regurar- regularly up the body, I thought I would try doing a box pleat there. The thing is, after I made it I sort of started second guessing if that actually works because it's just so small. It's a really, really small pleat. And I started sort of doubting whether it was the right thing to do.


So luckily for me, as I had said in previous episodes, I had started knitting one version of it and then I realised that I had the ease all wrong. So I started a new version, but I kept the previous version that I had done just in case I needed to go back to it. And luckily I had because it allowed me to try out some other options. So I tried with this one - and I don't know if you'll be able to see it because it's kind of hard to make out - but with this one I tried doing a gather instead of a box pleat to reduce the number of stitches there. And you really can't- it's really hard to make it out there because, again, it's still just a small section where I've done a few centre double decrease type decreases.


But you can kind of, like - if you compare this section here, that's just a normal bit. And then this section here you- you can kind of see how it pulls in a bit but it's not ruffling. And it may ruffle better once it is blocked. But it's not- it's not really- it's not ruffling at all, really. So I'm not sure. Like, it looks cleaner. But now that I've done this, I look at the box pleat again and I'm- I like it again.


So what I am actually considering is having both options in the pattern and you can choose what you want to do. And I'm sure that I will need to make a second version myself once it has been tech edited. So I'll be doing testing along with my test knitters. And in that second version, since this one has the box pleat, I'll probably try the ruffle on that other version. So we'll see how that goes.


Speaking of tech editing, I had approached Kat of Oliphant Kat to do the tech editing for me, and she's more than happy to. She's so lovely. But she has now told me that she may not be able to do it because she doesn't have experience with steeking and I'm putting steeking into my project. So she says she's in a- she- she knows other tech editors. So if I can give her a bit of a brief of what's involved in the project, she can put it out and see if she can find someone more suitable to recommend to me.


But I kind of still just want to send it to her and see if she can do it, as long as she's comfortable with that. Just because I- I trust her to do it and I would like to give it to her. I prefer to give it to someone I know than someone that I don't know. And I'm sure, you know, the other tech editors that she knows will do a fantastic job. It's just, yeah, I'd rather give it to someone that I know so we'll see how that goes.


I still want to finish making this sample and writing it up. And then, you know, formatting it properly and writing it up properly and everything. And then I'll- I'll put together that brief thing that she asked for and I'll send it to her and I'll give- I'll send her the pattern. And I'll see what she says and we'll just take it from there. And that's all I had to say on that one.



Heart Full of Eyes and Ears

Last on the list is Heart Full of Craft, which I'm also sort of mashing up with Eyes and Ears for this episode, because I am grateful for Craftsy.


So I mentioned when I talked about my spinning that I've watched a few online classes which have sort of helped me gain a better understanding of what I'm doing. So I watched a bunch of their spinning classes and I've also watched quite a few of their weaving classes, which has gotten me so excited for weaving and is the reason I'm already considering getting, like, a proper loom because I could just do so much more with it. But I really want to try to do as much as I can with this loom here and not get too sucked in or go too overboard.


But anyway, I had been a member of Craftsy years ago and then I didn't renew my membership because I didn't feel like I would keep going back to use it. But then they had a promotion where I was able to sign up - I was able to, like, reinstate my membership for just 2 US$ dollars which is insanely cheap. I think it's usually 90 US a year. So I renewed for $2. And- and I was mainly interested in doing that because I was getting- I was interested in the weaving and I felt like I wasn't finding all of the information that I wanted to find about spinning online. So I signed up for those two things. And I watched a whole bunch of those classes and it has been really, really- it's been really great.


So yeah, they've been really, really good to do so I'm super grateful for Craftsy. They - I have to say, I think they were much better when I was a member previously. So that was before they became Bluprint and then became Craftsy again. And the main thing there is just the the way that the videos are organised. So they used to have, like, a 30 second rewind thing. And they used to have - like how YouTube videos have chapters, they used to have that kind of thing in their videos as well. And now they don't which is - I had gotten so used to that before and I found it so helpful. And now just having to, like, click around to find what I want, I just find really tedious.


But those classes are still excellent. And I still think it's such a good platform for learning. So- So that's been really nice to get back into. Yeah, that's been really good. And that's all that I have to say today.



Thanks!

Thanks again for joining me. I hope everyone has had a good long weekend, or long weekends if you are in Australia. So we had the long one that's for Easter, but then we also have Anzac Day. So we- we've kind of got two long weekends in a row. So I hope everyone has had a good time, has managed to find time to relax and do something fun or go somewhere or, I don't know, anything. I hope you've enjoyed it.


I also hope that you've enjoyed watching me ramble on today. If you have, I'd love it if you could give this video a like, maybe comment down below as well. And I'd also really appreciate it if you consider subscribing to my channel - Platypus Knitting. And yeah, thank you. Thank you for joining me today. I'll see you again in a couple of weeks.


Fare thee well.


Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

Resources


Mentions

Knitting Magic by Tanis Gray


Patterns (on Ravelry)

Baby Lamb by Lorraine Pistorio

Greenwich by Martin Storey

Opposite Pole by Joji Locatelli

August Sock KAL by Roxanne Richardson


Yarns (from my LYS, or on Ravelry)

Tarndwarncoort yarns from polwarth sheep

Scheepjes Soft Fun

Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic

Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic

Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury


Comments

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