My mosaic for 2011 includes the crafting I completed (a good mix of accessories, garments, and blankets), along with representations of other activities that stole my time: printmaking, reading, and food.

In 2012, added to these diversions and worthy distractions, will be a much larger demand on my time: study. I have enrolled in off-campus tertiary education, and will be doing a single unit at a time while continuing in full-time employment. So far I’ve only enrolled in my first unit, because I want to make sure I can juggle work and study without burning out, but my plan is to gradually work towards the completion of a Bachelor of Behavioural Studies (Psychology) with Swinburne University, facilitated by Open Universities Australia.

Wish me luck!

Australian summers aren’t known for being very conducive to working with bulky or overly warm yarn, so it tends to be a good time to pick up yarn for cheap. I recently managed to score several skeins of a cute little cotton/ acrylic yarn appropriately named ‘Beetle‘ for a mere dollar per 50g ball. Needless to say, I bought everything they had in two sweet shades of green. The open weave of this mesh pattern and the large hook meant I only used a little under 5 skeins for this quick fix of a dress. Score!

Start to Finish: A week and a half.
Yarn: Moda Vera Beetle, 50% cotton/ 50% acrylic
Hook: 7mm
Pattern: Prep School by Doris Chan.
I love Doris Chan’s approach to pattern-writing, and I’ve found that in the crochet world a seamless, intuitive (for me) kind of pattern is kind of hard to come by. I’ve ordered her book Everyday Crochet, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Notes: I didn’t have the right sized hook, so my gauge was much larger than that in the pattern. I worked through the pattern as-is (it’s worked top-down) until joining for the neckline, and discovered that it was going to be way too loose without some tweaking. So I ripped it back to the shoulder (leaving the top back panel intact) and made up my own little scoop neckline. Once it fit around the bust, I just keep working joined rounds in double crochet until I was happy with the length! It’s not flash, but it was quick and easy and a reasonably successful experiment. Oh, and I fudged a weird little ruffle trim which is cuter in real life than in the pics.

Ravelled here.

Start to Finish: The pair took two evenings in November.
Yarn: stash acrylic
Hook: 4mm/ G
Pattern: Crochet openwork handwarmers by creativeyarn.
Notes: These cute little beauties are super fast to crochet as they work on the granny-square principle of crocheting into the spaces. Plus they are worked in the round, which just suits the way my brain works. I made these for a workplace Secret Santa gift, and had plenty of time to spare!

Ravelled here.

Last night’s dinner: tempeh lasagne with a tofu-less version of the cashew ricotta from Veganomicon, using Vietnamese rice paper wrappers instead of standard lasagne noodles (inspired by this genius recipe over at Vegan Gluten Free Karaoke), with a sprinkling of Spanish olives on top instead of a cheese replacement (a la the lasagne recipe in An Appetite for Reduction).

Due to my fiddling with the cashew filling (I upped the cashews to 1 cup and added 1 cup of soy milk, but skipped the tofu) my ratio of cashew to tomato sauce was way off, so next time I’ll double (or maybe triple) the cashew mixture.

My improvised red sauce could do with some work–the bitterness of the tempeh (which I love) was a little distracting and stood out rather than melding with the other flavours the way you want in a lasagne.

The rice paper noodles worked a treat: I gradually worked out that using two wrappers together works best so that it’s less fiddly when layering, and there was no noticeable difference in the finished product compared to wheat-based noodles apart from the colour.

All in all, a great starting point for more lasagne experimentation.
What have you enjoyed cooking/ eating lately?

I have decided that, in the spirit of goodwill and the distribution of wealth, I will now offer all of my knitting and crochet patterns for free.

To those who have purchased patterns in the past, please be reminded that all proceeds were donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia, but if my decision makes you unhappy for whatever reason please contact me via email (herbivoreknitsatgmaildotcom) and we can work something out.

Patterns can be downloaded via the links on their individual pattern pages on ravelry (no account required).

Start to Finish: August – October 2011
Yarn: Berroco Comfort
Needles: 4mm/ US size 6
Method: Seamless saddle shoulder (from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Without Tears).

Notes: I ran out of yarn at the neckline (I had wanted to do 2″ of ribbing to finish off) so I bound off and used the remaining yarn to graft the underarms and crochet around the neckline (in half double crochet). Then I used some Panda Magnum Soft 8ply in an almost-matching shade of green to put in the zip/per. I used the excellent Knitting Daily tutorial to make loops along the zip/per edge, then joined them to the front edge stitches using the 3-needle bindoff (although technically I only used two circular needles, picking up a stitch from each edge stitch and knitting it together with a zip/per stitch as I went). This is such a great technique and I loved the finished result–I’ll be using this in all of my cardigans from now on. The Staghorn cable is really effective and easy to memorise, and the saddle shoulder method is heaps of fun. Apart from running out of yarn and the end result being a little too close-fitting for my liking, I really love everything about this sweater.

Now, this is a blanket that has been a long time in the making. According to my notes on ravelry, I started the chevron section of this baby in September 2010. So, start to finish that’s around 13 months. Obviously I wasn’t working on this project for 13 months straight, but it feels really good to have it finished and put into use. It’s seriously cosy, and the wild colour combinations make me happy.

Pattern – chevron: Afghan Stitch, from The Essential Guide to Colour Knitting Techniques by Margaret Radcliffe.
Pattern – squares: Mitered Crosses by Kay Gardiner.
Yarn: Stash acrylic.
Needles: 5mm/ US Size 8
Notes: I joined the mitred squares together using 3-needle bind-off, and crocheted them together with the chevron strip using slip-stitch.

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease (50% cotton/ 50% acrylic; worsted weight).
Pattern: A hodgepodge of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Seamless Set-in Sleeve Sweater and her Seamless Saddle Shoulder Sweater. Sleeves were worked in the round to the underarms, body in one piece to the underarms, then joined together. I worked simultaneous set-in sleeves to begin with, then at the shoulders decided to work a saddle. I love the way it turned out, even though me changing my mind at the last minute meant the yoke was definitely too long (see the crazy-long sleeves?). The method for making the saddle shoulder is such a piece of cake, so simple and elegant that it’s my new method of choice. I’ve started another–in green–and it will be a saddle shoulder, although not as interesting without a fancy stitch pattern on the sleeves to carry across.
Verdict: This is the most wearable garment I’ve made for myself to date. The torso length is perfect, I love the neckline, I learnt to put in a zip (which I will be doing again), the cable texture pleases me no end, and apart from the too-long yoke and sleeves (as mentioned above, entirely my fault) the fit suits me perfectly. It’s really comfy and I couldn’t be happier!

I have decided to pack up the Herbivore Knits shop. While I decide what to do about the existing patterns and this blog, I will still be making and sharing things I find interesting.
I hope you can join me.

Step One: Prepare the image for carving.

There are several ways to do this (see the third post in this thread for some ideas) but for this print I traced over a photocopy of the original sketch, with carbon paper underneath to transfer the image to the linoleum. The image printed is a mirror image of my original sketch–which doesn’t bother me for this particular print, but is something to think about if you’d like to include text.

Step Two: Carve your first colour.

As you carve you are removing areas that will remain unprinted, i.e. the same colour/ design as your paper (usually white, but you could really print onto any colour paper), and leaving areas that will be imprinted with a layer of ink. Typically you would print the second-lightest colour of your design first, and build successively-darker layers on top, so at this point just focus on carving out areas you would like to remain white.

Step Two: Print the first colour.

Before you print, make sure you have some kind of register so that you can position each print exactly and avoid headaches trying to line up successive layers of ink. I tape down a piece of cartridge paper larger than the paper I’m printing onto, trace around both the lino block and where I’d like my paper to sit, and stick down some double-sided mounting tape to each bottom corner so that the block and paper fit snugly inside them. And print!

Step Three: Carve and print your next colour.

As you carve you are removing areas that will remain the same colour/ design as what you’ve already printed. Leave areas that will be imprinted with another (darker) layer of ink.
Print as before, and repeat for any additional colours.

Check out some amazing reduction prints here and here.