Project a Day: #13 I made an Owlknit

Ah, what lovely rainy weather we've been having. It's so good to be back on my blog again! I've missed out on so many of my fellow bloggers' posts, I can't wait to catch up. So, how perfect is this? That my 30 Projects challenge would pick up right where I left off...

So many has happened in the past two months, I'm sure we all could attest that. Our Paster's wife, Tinneke, had her baby shower in June and they're expecting a girl (Kristen). I've had this idea for a while now and finally had the opportunity to test it. A little, plush, knitted owl whom I call: Orea. She is an Owlknit. Orea is a real softy and she loves staying awake at night to watch over her soon to be born friend.

   -and just for the fun of it, I added this cute, pink, rubber ducky and pink ice-cream bubbles. Just to round it off, what would a gift from me be without an OddOneOut postcard-

-Orea was hand knitted with much love and carefully assembled. I do hope that little Kristen will enjoy having her around. Aw, isn't she a cutey?-

PS. Did you see my new knitting needles? Aren't they lovely? Since I've started knitting, I've realised that the size of your needles makes a huge difference, so I'm starting to collect some needles.

xxx   

So, I tried my hand at knitting...

Okay, so I didn't only start knitting now... my first try was when I was 7. We had to knit squares and sew them into a stuffed animal. I made it halfway through the first square(which was riddled with big gaps) and then I handed it over to my mom who basically did the whole project by herself. I tried and failed a few years later and then just left it.

Around 15 years old, I fell in love with crochet with the combined help of my mom, dad and my granny. When I started my Textile Design course at the T.U.T. in Pretoria, one of my projects involved me having to knit. So for the first time in years I had to pick up those dreaded knitting needles. I didn't really know how to cast on stitches and my mom wasn't home at the time so I took a chance and asked my dad. His mom used to give him and his brothers crochet work to do when they were home sick as children. So, I though he might know something about knitting too. Do you know, I was right, he showed me how to cast on and off I went from there. 

Knowing almost nothing about knitting, I thought the way that I knit was the only way. Later I found that I was knitting something called the garter stitch. Daves mom showed me some fancy stitches earlier this year, but only the pearl stitch stuck. Then while visiting my gran the other day I took out my pearl knit test piece and we got to talking about all things knitting and she took out this awesome vintage knitting book. She said that I could borrow it to try out some of the stitches and patterns. Woah! Luckily this book is so amazing that it explains everything! So now here is my first ever try at knitting from a pattern:)

 -man! i was so impressed with myself! love it-

 -how do you like my sample scarf so far? it's coming on pretty good, if i don't say so my self-

xxx

 

Outfit Love: faux fur and printed trousers

Loving these colours at the moment! Creams and ochers, black and gold... you get the idea. So a few years ago, my aunt, Leiro, gave me a bag full of this "fancy-wool". I struggled for months to try to knit something from it. It's a very difficult fiber to work with, all the hairs make it impossible to see what you are doing. So I would get half way and then realize that I had dropped a stitch or two. Needless to say I had to start over a bunch of times. When I eventually finished it, it was a very shapeless infinity scarf. While visiting with Dave's family, his mom took out this beautiful shawl that she had knitted with similar wool, only she bought hers mixed with a few different fibers intertwined into the same ball of wool. I thought to myself, "wow, what an idea!" so when we got home, I dug out that scarf, pulled it apart and knit a plain brown wool together with the furry one. Now I've got a faux fur scarf, it's so warm and furry:)

• Vintage Trench Coat - a gift from Dave's mom from way back
• Faux Fur Scarf - hand knit by me:)
• Knit Pullover- Thrifted
• Printed Trousers - Mr. Price, can't believe I found this in my size and their Viscose
• Lace Brogues - from Edgars

 -I love how soft, airy and comfy these trousers are-

xxx 

Whale Festival Day1: The yarn bombing begins!

Since it's only me working on this project and time is of the essence, I came up with a "time-saving" plan. I recently started taking apart a blanket I had bought at our local charity shop, it looked like it had been chewed up in places. So I thought to fix it because it's quite big and so pretty... I then got this light-bulb-moment! I could use the motives of the blanket that I had already taken apart, crochet on to them and use them to bomb the age old Olive tree in front of the shop:)

mmm...'tis coming on quite well! These were taken Friday morning, I actually got a lot further by the end of the afternoon... will post more pics tomorrow!

Have an awesome weekend and if your in Hermanus for the Whale Festival, do come and have a look at my yarn-bombing and don't forget to say "hi"!   

...more about yarn bombing!

In my previous post I told you about the exiting new project that I'm going to be a part of. Yarn bombing looks like so much fun and I love working with my hands. So I was thinking, as I have never done this before, maybe a practice run is in order. What would you say about yarn bombing a special place in your direct area? I think that's exactly what I'm gonna do! I'll probably need some help and a bit of planning but I'll keep you posted on that (pun intended, hehehe).

So anyways, I found these...

Cape Town has been yarn bombed by graphic designer Isabeau Joubert on a number of occasions. Visit her blog IsaBeauPeep to see what she's been up to.

xx

Yarn Bombing Project

The Ideas Magazine is hosting a yarn bombing project for their "wool house" at the HOMEMAKERS Expo next year. There are prizes to be won and afterwards everything will be donated to Charity. I'm just a sucker for projects like this one... Let the yarn-bombing begin!

So join me if you like... Have an awesome weekend!

xxx

Warm and fuzzy...

Circular Loom Knitting! This is such an awesome gadget I found in Pretoria. It come in a pack of four different sizes (Elle circular looms). It works like the little wooden french knitters most of us had when we were kids, this is only bigger. Do any of you remember those? In Afrikaans we called it "tolletjie brei". Directly translated it would be "spool knitting" because back in the day, yarn spools were made of wood. They hit 4 nails in around the hole and there you had yourself a little french knitter. sorry I can't remember where I got this image.

Any case, I found this amazing wool called Monet and it looks just like a Monet painting. It's beautiful in colour and in texture and this is what I made....

It's such beautiful wool, it reminds me of one of my favourite  Monet paintings, Bathing at La Grenouillere, 1869. I just want to get lost in it. For more information on Claude Monet visit: https://www.artsy.net/artist/claude-monet

xxx

Circular Knitting is Da Bomb!

Well, a few years ago I walked into an Indian-owned wool and haberdashery shop to by wool. I cannot seem to keep my hands to my self when it comes to textures. I'm forever touching, feeling, squishing the wool and finished products in those shops and the particular scarf I was feeling that day was a knit with a difference. The Indian lady immediately told me about this circular needle and how she doesn't use any other needles. So of course I left there with a pair of circular needles that day. Now the only problem I had was that I wasn't much of a knitter and my needles ended up in one of my wool-bags. Upon moving to Hermanus I re-discovered my needles and decided to give it a try. This is my third try on these needles and I just started a new one.

 I wanted to make a simple Infinity scarf, so I cast stitches onto my needles until there was no more space left. I then turned the whole thing around and started knitting plain stitch all around and around until I felt my scarf was broad enough and then I started casting off. Worked in the loose ends and I had a scarf.

 pretty, soft, kid mohair and acrylic mix:)