Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Queensland Garden Expo

When I made the decision to go to the Queensland Garden Expo in Nambour about a month ago I was still enjoying the gentle breezes, warming sun and the humidity of a late balmy Autumn and it seemed like a good idea.

Now, less than two weeks out, the lovely Autumn has gone and been replaced with the coldest, windiest winter temperatures since the last coldest windiest winter temperatures happened.

 You're What?

This, in itself, isn't all that bad except I'll be riding my motorbike and I'm working myself up into a

small panic because I'll need to leave predawn on the Saturday morning and lately that's been around zero to five degrees Celsius.. I'm hoping furiously for a warm front in the weather or else this is going to be one frozen little veggie gardener by the time the sun rises and I get a chance to thaw out.

Knitting

So like a straw hut facing up to the big bad wolf I've decided to knit a scarf because, that'll fix everything, won't it?

Lets Get Together

I was also thinking if any other bloggers are going to the Garden Expo we could have a little meet and greet. Let me know by email or in the comments if you're interested and see what we can organise.

Cheers and stay warm

Stewart

Just a little something!

So what's a cabbie do when the bottom falls out if the economy and everyone, well it seems like everyone, is staying home and saving the bread and honey?

Well, I can't speak for other cabbies cos they always seem to want to speak to me for some reason, but me, I knit.

 Ta dah

I started this as a project to enter into the Toowoomba Royal Show just for a giggle on my part but due to this and that I have run out of time. Next year though, maybe.

There's other shows around so I might still enter it in something yet.

Anyhow, cheers and beers and have a great weekend.

Stewart.

Eggstra Eggstra, read all about it.

And the winner is, after much deliberation from, me, myself and I, drum roll please, Susan who said,

'Why, I'd be simply eggstatic to receive one of those eggceptionally well knitted egg beanies Stewart :)'.
Anyone who can stroke my ego, mention knitting and slip in a few eggy words gets the gong from me.

Susan, you can choose two of whatever you like or one of each. Just let me know.

I also mentioned two consulation egg warmers and they go to, drum roll again please,

Olive who said...Stewart, you've become an eggspert knitter in such a short time. Beaut little bum nut warmers, I would be eggcited to win one. 

and...
seed whisperer said...
I'm only eggcentric.. may I have my ball warmers now? It's winter here and the boyfriend's complaining.
We just can't have a complaining boyfriend now can we..

I'll need postal addresses now so I can send you your egg warmers. Just send it to me via email ssjdmb@hotmail.com

Was there favoritism considered in my vote? Yes, it was an influence but that was the only I could choose the consultation eggy warmers cos they were all so good.

I'd send you all one but I've got other things to knit like a warm sleeveless pullover. And there is still the matter of a veggie garden to maintain, if it ever stops raining.

Cheers and happy warm eggs,

Stewart

An eggcellent little give away

Hi there, I've been having a bit of fun knitting up these egg warmers and would like to share the fun with you.

I'm going to give these away but you'll need to do a little work to get them.

What I'd like you to do is write in the comments your favorite egg word or phrase, ie;- eggcellent or eggtravagant etc, etc (sorry if I just used your favorite word).

The eggy word I like the best will be the winner, so get cracking and send me your eggy words.

Ok, don't all scramble for the comments box at once.

Cheers

Stewart

A big bawdy.

AC/DC would have you believe they have the biggest balls of them all but I think Bendigo Wool has the biggest balls :)



Umm, of wool that is.

 And here is what it, the 12ply scarlet, will be knitted into.

Bill Oddie, Knitting 0_0

How could I go past this? (If I ask a rhetorical question do I still punctuate it with a question mark?) Bill Oddie from The Goodies and Knitting. It was inevitable it would end up here.

On the Better taste, Better food, Better for us front, I have received some further news on the study and will be posting an update in the next few days.



Cheers and beers and here's to a productive weekend of veggie gardening.

Stewart.

Help

Help. I've consulted with my knitting guru and she has assured me that when knitting in the round on circular needles I can't get a change of colour to line up as in the photo below. Just in case she is wrong does anyone know how I can knit in the round on circular needles and get the rows to match up?

I'm a little tea pot.

 Just a super quick chunky tea pot cosy. It finished up pretty rough in the end but as it is my first one I going to be kind and go easy on myself and I had fun all the same.

Cheers, anyone for a cuppa?

What's your favorite brand/type of tea?

Stewart

Say no more.

Knitted, finished, done ,finito pt. 2. The ugly blanket.

 The ugly blanket and why.

As with most things that I discover I like to do it usually comes accompanied with a exuberant rush of excitement which is then usually followed by another exuberant rush of purchasing all sorts of stuff and or things that I think I need for projects that I think,  'I'll get around too'.
But sometimes,  as so often happens,  my dreams get caught up with my early skill levels and abilities and,  as in this case,  I bought heaps of yarn for projects that were either way beyond my, then,  'current' skill levels or just totally over ambitious considering the time they would take to complete.  This inevitably led to a massive over purchase of yarn and the problem of what to do with it all.

So with these previous thoughts in mine and a burning desire to use my newly purchased 10mm x 80cm circular knitting needles and a resent discovery of double knitting, which appealed to me no end for some unknown reason,  I came up with the brainwave of knitting a blanket all for myself.

And 'Da da', here is the result.

The ugly part!

And now as to why it's called the 'ugly blanket',  which I don't think it is at all but in fairness to everybody's democratic right to have and opinion and to voice it even if it is not asked for, my wife would offer her opinion at every opportune time as I picked up my blanket by announcing (notice I didn't solicit an opinion from anyone here at anytime),  "God that's an ugly blanket'.  (Oh, thanks darling, I love you too).  So,  in keeping with my passive aggressive personality,     rather expressing my deep feelings of disappointment in her opinion  towards my most beautiful creation,  I chose to name it 'the ugly blanket' out of respect for her democratic right to voice her opinion whether solicited for or not.

Knitted on/with 10mm x 80cm circular needles.

 Knitted, finished, done ,finito pt. 1.

Cheers and happy knitting,

Stewart

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up" (1936) US novelist (1896 - 1940)

Knitted, finished, done ,finito pt. 1. Face washer

 Being a newbie knitter I suppose it was only a matter of time before I discovered cotton yarn. 12 months ago I didn't know it existed.

So I needed something I could knit using cotton and as fate would have it a pattern for a face washer turned up and I thought to myself, now that's something I could do and practical as well.

The Knitting Room

I couldn't resist this. Jacqui from her blog Life in the Dome posted this for her latest post so I ripping it off her and posting it too cos I think it's so awesome.

An extraordinary group of elderly Tasmanians have stitched, knitted and crocheted an entire house and garden to produce a life-sized recreation of a 1950s home.


Here is a direct link to the story on the ABC

In creating The Knitting Room, the artists have lovingly transformed their memories into art.

612 knit thing

Tmba-Knitters, a lose knit group (yes I know, a bad pun intended) formed under the guidance of knitting, crocheting and crafting guru Robbie Burton and who meet each Tuesday and Saturday morning at the Garden Town Shopping Center eatery area have joined in the fun with 612's ABC close knit.

We have entered and Robbie has started knitting our A4 sized panel. A very nice multicoloured and cabled design.

More info about A Close Knit:

This September, Brisbane Festival is making the city a little more crafty and colourful with A Close Knit - a project which combines two intriguing phenomena.

Yarn bombing is the newest trend in street art; removable graffiti that uses colourful crocheted or knitted creations to brighten up the urban environment.

Crafts such as knitting and crochet were once commonplace life skills. Then the world became more complicated, people became time poor and the purchasing power of department stores delivered products that were much cheaper to buy than make. Besides some stellar fads like puffy paints, macramé and bedazzling, craft fell by the wayside for at least a generation.

Craft is now back in a big way. Gen X is embracing indie crafts like never before. Social knitting has become the arts and crafts-lover's answer to the book club, with city-dwellers meeting up in the same café every week to have a yarn while practicing their drop and purl techniques.

So keep an eye out for some fabulous street art during Brisbane Festival 2010!

Cheers and Happy knitting

Stewart

Cone head

Since my sister the Photographer found out I'd started knitting she has been requesting I knit some baby things for her baby portraits. So I have gotten around to starting a project for her and here is the results of the hat I've been knitting.

Also I put my name down at Lindcraft a while ago for knitting classes and they rang me saying they are starting. And I have a pattern here for bummers, to go with the hat, I like but can't work out so I going to take it to class and start from there. (:

My long term goal is to knit a super Cardigan for my Daughter but this hat will have to be done as a step along the way.

K the P's and P the K's

My next major project on my way to my major, major project of a cardigan here at My Veggie Garden (The cardigan was named after James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan,).

As I am teaching my self all this fancy knitting, the scarf is for practicing the Cables Stitch which I'll need for my major, major project.

My major, major project as I have mentioned is for a cardigan which I hope to have completed for Christmas so I can give it to my Daughter, Elysha, the self proclaimed Cardie Queen of Toowoomba.

I don't have a pattern for the cardigan as of yet so if anyone has one they would like to share I'd be interested.

So K1, P1 and K the P's and P the K's.

Cheers and wish me luck

Stewart

On their way now.

Well here is the sum total of my knittingness.

A while back I posted about Knit One Save one and here is all the squares I've finished.

14 in total, which doesn't sound a lot when you say it like that, but there is a fair bit of my blood sweat and tears (slight exaggeration there) here.













Postage seemed steep. It cost $11.00 to mail this little sucker to Melbourne.

Predicted showers

I shoulda' know better, yesterday the Bureau of Meteorology predicted showers tending to rain and it was fine. Today they predicted fine weather and it is showery tending to rain at times.

How much are we paying these wallies and how much money do we spend on resources for them? I think they could save you/me/us a whole lot of money if they just stuck their head out the window and had a good look around every once and a while.

It is my only day off today, so to speak, and I had planed a fair bit of veggie gardening for today, but all I can do now is enjoy the rain, watch the weeds grow and start knitting the beanie I promised myself.

Cheers for now

Stewart.

I made it.

Remember my post back on the 11 of January (Knit one save one) where I wrote about an ad in a newspaper that was finally worth printing. Where I was reading the Queensland Courier Mail and I saw an ad with the heading 'knit one save one' to help save children in need around the world?

Well here is my progress. It has taken me ten squares to knit one without any mistakes but I'm getting through them pretty quickly now.





This lot here will be sent off tomorrow and in the meantime I'll be starting on my next batch.













And just for a giggle I thought I'd kit myself a hat and here is the result. Again full of mistakes but I'm learning a lot along the way.

When I started I thought all I'd need would be a couple of needles and some wool. Well that has grown to five sets of needles, one set of 40cm circular needles, a craft needle and a tape measure. Oh and some of those double pointed needles most of which I didn't even know existed until now.

Anyone else taken up the challenge yet? I'd love to post about your progress.

Cheers and happy knitting

Stewart.

Biddy Bags

I was surfing around looking for some knitting info and stumbled across this and decided to pass it on.

I found the story on Grandma's Knitting place blog.

And there is a link here for Biddy Bags web site as well.

The following link is a video from landline telling about Biddy Bags.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200910/r446486_2164534.asx

Knit a Brick or 'knit one save one'

An ad in a newspaper that is finally worth printing. I was reading the Queensland Courier Mail here last week when I saw an ad with the heading 'knit one save one' to help save children in need around the world.

I went to their web site and found the following info on 'knit one save one'.
It's run by the Save the Children organization and you can go to their web site or read about 'knit one save one' below.

As I have way to much spare time sitting in my taxi waiting for my next fare I have decided to pick up the needles and have a go while I'm doing all this waiting and as I haven't knitted a thing since I was about ten years old its been a slow process plus I needed to teach my self how to knit again.

Here (photo above) is my progress so far and yes it's full of dropped stitches and mistakes but you go to start somewhere and I'm sure I'll improve over time.

If anyone reading this decides to take up the knitting of squares I love to see (and hear)how you go and maybe I could keep track of your progress with regular posts on my blog.


Knit One Save One

Just by knitting a 20cm square you can help to save a life. Get your friends and loved ones in on it too and help us piece together warm blankets for children in countries that need a helping hand. A 20cm knitted square is all we ask. Actually, we need 80,000 squares – enough to make 5,000 blankets to go to countries like Australia, Cambodia and India.

Follow the progress of our Knit One Save One project on our blog. You can leave us a message, ask us a question, share your knitting tips and sign up to recieve updates as our tally progresses. Click here to see how the Knitters of Australia are making a difference.

Cheers and happy knitting

Stewart.