Napier I: Family and fauna

Mum and Dad and I spent the weekend in Napier, visiting my brother Jeff and his crew. The last time I visited Napier I was two years old, so it was an interesting trip! There are lots of cool old Art Deco buildings to admire, some great cafés and restaurants, interesting shops, and an excellent museum & gallery. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

On the way there, we found a waterfall. It was ridiculously windy!


After settling in at our motel, our first stop was Jeff & Co's place just out of town. I got to meet their three cute goats, who were surprisingly soft to stroke, and peer at the beehives they're hosting for a local bee-keeper.

Me and my bro (and Mandy the goat)




I met Jeff's partner's parents for the first time, and we all went out for dinner at a cool place called the Emporium. On Jeff's recommendation, I had pulled-pork tacos which were delicious (and rather drippy).

The next day, we went to the museum/gallery, and then to the Mission vineyard to have a look around. It used to be a Catholic seminary, where my uncles studied, so it was interesting looking around the building and all its old photos. A certain family wedding will be taking place there next year, so Dad was scoping out all the good spots for photos.

To be continued...

New pattern: Beeswax mitts

The final pattern in my Beeswax set is now available - a pair of fingerless gloves covered in honeycomb, called the Beeswax mitts. :)

 

Features:
  • a double-layered honeycomb texture made up of mini-cables
  • thumb-shaping which blends into the surrounding honeycomb
  • instructions for knitting mini-cables without a cable needle
    (see also: the links in my post on the Beeswax hat)
  • stretchy stitch patterns which help ensure a snug fit
  • knit at a tighter gauge for durability
  • one size, can be re-sized by altering gauge
  • both charted and written instructions 
  • requires less than one 100g skein of DK-weight yarn 

The Beeswax mitts pattern is available as a pdf download from Ravelry.
The set of hat, cowl, and mitts is also available as an ebook: The Beeswax Set.

I had fun drawing some more little bees to include in my photos - these ones are in charcoal and yellow pastel:




The lovely golden yarn is Vintage Purls Max once again - I used some of the second skein of 'Toffee Deluxe' leftover from my cowl.

I was pleased (and relieved) to discover that Max holds up well when subjected to repeated 'frogging'/unravelling. It took a few tries to come up with a really good way of doing the thumb increases! I wanted them to really blend into the pattern seamlessly, and happily, I found a solution after a bit of trial-and-error:

The 'gusset' at the base of the thumb looks like one more honeycomb. :)

Hat, cowl, and mitts!

New pattern: Beeswax cowl

And here it is, as promised! The Beeswax cowl is a slouchy, comfy neckwarmer with the same mini-cabled honeycomb texture as my Beeswax hat.



It requires 280 yards of Vintage Purls Max (a little more than one skein), or another plump, bouncy DK or worsted-weight yarn.

I used a different shade of VP Max for the cowl (this one's called 'Toffee Deluxe'), because I like the way the colours complement each other without matching precisely. If you do fancy a matching set, two skeins of Max will be enough to knit both the hat and cowl.

I love this close-up of the texture!

Features:
  • a double-layered honeycomb texture, which flows into and out of the ribbing
  • instructions for knitting mini-cables without a cable needle 
  • one size, with simple instructions for re-sizing both height and circumference
  • both charted and written instructions 

For tips on knitting mini-cables/twisted stitches without a cable needle, check out the links in my post on the Beeswax hat.

New pattern: Beeswax hat

I have a new hat design out, and I'm extra-super-proud of this one!
The Beeswax hat is a knitted expression of my honeybee obsession...



I wanted to create a knitted honeycomb texture that showed the back-to-back double layer of natural honeycomb, and I made a few sketches to help me understand its structure. I found inspiration in photos taken by beekeepers, including this gallery by an Australian couple. I also sketched some simple bees, based on my own bee photos (you can find a few on my blog here).



The yarn I chose is from Vintage Purls, one of my very favourite indie yarn-dyers. Vintage Purls 'Max' is a DK-weight merino/nylon sock yarn - it's very soft and bouncy, and comes in wonderful rich colours. I used two-thirds of a skein for this hat, in the colourway 'Easy Rider'.


The Beeswax hat features:
  • a double-layered honeycomb texture, which emerges naturally from the ribbing
  • instructions for knitting mini-cables without a cable needle 
  • crown decreases integrated into the honeycomb pattern
  • one (very stretchy) size, with tips for re-sizing
  • both charted and written instructions 
  • requires less than one skein of smooshy DK-weight yarn

While swatching and test-knitting this hat, I learned a new method for doing cables without a cable needle. I greatly prefer it to my old method of holding onto the stitch with my thumb and forefinger, which was pretty awkward with my yarn-in-right hand knitting style.

My new favourite method is called the 'slip and switch' method in the Knitty.com article, 4 ways to mini-cable. I found Lee Meredith's twisted stitches tutorial really helpful too (it has step-by-step photos and a video).
It's a great method because if you've memorised which way the basic k2tog and ssk decreases lean, it's easy to know which cable-twist moves to do.
I found I didn't even need to follow the chart after a while. :)

The pattern download for the Beeswax hat is available on Ravelry.

I have a matching cowl pattern in the works too! Here it is peeking out from under the hat... ;)

 

Baubles

Yup, the Christmas variety. I made some pretty red-and-white decorations to hang on the wall - I think they're very cute and traditional-looking!



The birds are knitted, using a pattern called Bluebird of Happiness, and the hearts are crocheted Danish Hearts. The birds are seamless, and fairly fast and easy if you're comfortable with short rows. The hearts took more time, but I love them! I used to make paper ones as a kid - there's a very simple tutorial here (found via tiny happy).

I think the Christmas fumes must have gone to my head, because I've ordered two big balls of red and off-white cotton yarn to make more decorations!
I'm trying to decide between these cute crochet patterns (all free):

In garden news, our sweet-peas are flowering and smelling amazing, and my baby alpine strawberry plants are getting bigger. And our cherry tomatoes have just started producing ripe ones! I planted a mixed 6-plant punnet of cherry tomatoes, so I'm not sure what varieties we have. The ones with colour on them are all yellow so far.

The first harvest:


The dwarf sunflowers are adding colour too. Yay for yellow. :)

Spot the bee buzzing off!