Knits 'n Stuff

I love my friends!

2011-11-22T17:40:00.005-05:00

It's been forever since I've been here. And I'm the one who set up the rule about blogging a minimum of once per month. I'm gonna try to do better. Really. Truly!

Part of the problem is that I haven't really felt that I had anything to show off. I mean, yeah I've been knitting. But not so much on the finished projects. And it isn't so much fun to blog about projects in process.

Thankfully, my friends have set me straight. I DO have finished projects. And they are well worth showing off. So here goes!

Way back in the summer when the Early Fall Vogue 2011 issue arrived, many of us just loved the cable rib jacket. So I knit it up, thinking that perhaps other folks would jump on my bandwagon. And I knit, and I scratched my head, and I knit some more. This was not a pattern for the faint of heart. But worth it -- absolutely and positively worth it!

Here is the back view of the sweater worn as the directions are written. I must say that I find the arm area to be a bit baggy, but everyone seems to love it.

This is the front view of the sweater, again being worn as the instructions are written.
The beauty of this sweater is that you can then turn it upside down and have an entirely new sweater!
Since this picture was taken, I've learned that you should turn the collar a bit more, so that you have wider lapels, down to the waistband. It looks much nicer that way, and with a shawl pin, or a sweater pin -- oooh, la la! Oh so fashionable!
Worn this side up, the back armhole area doesn't seem to be so baggy. Who knew, eh?

I used 9 skeins of Cascade 220 and 5.5mm needle. The construction of the pieces was very, very strange, but worked. As seems so common with Vogue, the directions said to complete the right front "reversing all shaping." Yeah, right. This works if you know just what you are shaping! So I wrote out the shaping directions for myself, line by line. (I still have them, if anyone needs them!)

In other news ... the kids are fine, the animals (Lizzie and Pepper) are great, Doug is fine. Apparently, I've just been in a funk and not blogging. There are a lot more finished items to talk about ... but I'm gonna save some for another day.

Thanks for checking back in on me!

Hello!

2011-06-07T18:08:00.002-04:00

Hello! (Waving frantically) Is anyone out there? Hello! (Whew! This place needs cleaning! Dust and cobwebs everywhere!)

The silence has been deafening. In fact, if you didn't know me better, you might think that there hadn't been any knitting happening. Well, that is if you didn't know me. There has been knitting, and quite a lot of it. I'm going to show you, and tell you about it, right now. Just not in chronological order ... in fact, I don't understand the logic that Blogger uses to upload photos, so we're just gonna have to wing it. Because I've uploaded these photos four or five times now, and I still can't get them in the order I want. Grrr. Patience is a virtue, of which I have very little!

We ran a class in top-down sweater construction here at the shop in April. We used the Tappan-Zee top, because I had already knit it and folks here were very interested in also knitting it. In fact, many of them decided to modify the pattern and make it into a pull-over -- a fabulous idea. I'm trying not to reknit it, because I have so many projects and so little time. But I did need a top-down project, just because.

I found this little top in the summer issue of Knitty -- the Rondeur top. I quite liked the lace and cable detail along the raglan seams. And, bonus! It was a really quick project to knit!
I used Cascade Pima Tencel, colour # 9504, and consumed 6 balls using a 4.0mm needle. I'm absolutely thrilled with the top, and can't wait to wear it. The hand of this fabric is delightful, by the way. Very, very soft and drape-able.

What else have I knit? Well, we needed a quick Father's Day gift idea for the store. I remembered that I had seen hand-knit ties in previous Knitty issues.
This is one ball of Regia Extra-Twist Merino, colour 9327. The pattern says you need 200g. of sock wool for the adult version, but clearly I did not. Now, I do admit that I didn't have much wool left -- like about a yard -- but no where near 200g. And it was fun!

This year Barb and I are trying to do a pair of fancy socks every other month. I saw these socks and thought they looked cool. I'm a sucker for that gusset detail as it turns out. At the moment, all I have is a Ravelry link -- Socks for His Nibs. These are the March/April socks ... I'd like to claim that I finished them in April; however, I am far too truthful for that. I just finished these.
The pattern is not difficult; wordy, but not difficult. I used Regia yarn that I found in my Stitch & Pitch back a year or two ago and a 2.5mm needle. Great -- another Christmas gift finished!

I signed up for a gift exchange in one of my on-line groups. Supposed to use one ball from stash ... I used two because they were small!
Montego Bay pattern with a mystery yarn. Very nice and lacey.

The biggest project, and biggest disappointment, that I've encountered so far is this little beaut:
Arching Cables from the Fall 2010 Interweave Knits, knit in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Flame. Don't get me wrong -- I love the design. I love the wool. But finding the right button has been a trial.
I ordered some, but they didn't come. So now I've been searching my button stash, my friends' button stashes ... came up with these two. Initially I liked the one on the left. Upon reflection, I think I'm liking the one on the right. What does anyone else think?

My G.A.A.A. is coming along. I have two squares left to knit from the book, and one more to graph out with my initials and year. Then on to assembly and borders! The Yggdrasil afghan is also progressing. And so is the double-knit vest.

Like I said -- so many projects and so little time!

Miscellaneous meanderings

2011-03-24T13:10:00.003-04:00

Yup. That what today is. Miscellaneous meanderings. No common thread. Hopefully completed thoughts.

First off, for those folks who are wondering. The insurance company has decided to total out my car. Which is fine, except that it really leaves us in a bind as far as vehicles go. There are so many requirements for our next vehicle (air conditioning, 4-doors, etc.) as well as dilemmas. Do we get a manual transmission, which both Doug and I enjoy? This would leave Carrie out in the cold, as she doesn't do manual transmissions, and she does still need driving time to complete the requirements and confidence levels to get her full G license before next May. Do we really need a 4-door? After all, how many times do we travel with more than the 2 of us? (Actually, now that I think about it, probably more than I realize!) So many decisions, and the insurance company and I have yet to come to an agreement as to how much my car is worth.

The Patons Lace scarf that I knit has now been washed and dried. Doug threw it in the washing machine in a lingerie bag and regular laundry cycle, using Tide of all things. It washed quite well, and dried even better. And soft. Really soft. (Not as nice as alpaca lace-weight, but I'm learning that I'm a wee bit of a yarn snob!) Nice enough that I can say that this little item is going to be a holiday gift this year.

I'm still plugging away on the afghan for Jason & Coris, as well as the Arching Cables sweater from Interweave Knits. The double-knit vest for myself is still in process, and I'm sorry to say it hasn't really gotten the attention it should of late. In fact, none of these projects has really progressed enough to take another picture.

What has progressed? A little Tunisian Crochet project that I'm needing to get finished and directions written for a class that starts on April 5. Yeah. That's soon. The good news is that I'm ALMOST 3/5 done. Yeah. It's crochet, no matter how you slice it. And while I CAN crochet, I'm not that much a fan. Pictures? Soon, when it's done. That's my motivation to get it finished!

Emily and Carrie were both home last weekend, along with Emily's partner. I've rediscovered the joys of having a university student come home for a visit -- all three of the kids just raved about how good the food was. Nothing special, just my Meatball Soup on Friday, turkey dinner on Saturday, and then on Sunday Emily taught us a new way to cook salmon. Really, nothing special. Just good, nutritious home-cooked food. With nothing coming from an opened box or can. I've been cooking this way for a pretty long time (not perfectly, mind you, but mostly from scratch) and I keep forgetting how good food tastes. Watching the kids enjoy it reminds me of that.

Spring is coming. Lizzie was the proud bearer of a little mouse on Wednesday. While it has snowed since then, I've been convinced to put my ski gear away. Doug is still hopeful, but De Nile isn't just a river in Egypt! Of course, the biking trails are not yet ready for us, so we're going to have to start swimming (at the pool in Bowmanville) for exercise for a bit.

And last but not least -- we have decided that THIS year we will be having a yard sale. Probably the third weekend in May, and we are hopeful that Carrie will be able to come back and assist us. This means that we have 7 weeks to sort thru things and decide which will go, and which will not. All this in an effort to declutter the house as well as make the storage unit in Bowmanville not needed. Good luck to us, eh?

And that's about all the miscellaneous meanderings I can think up. Take care of yourselves!

See that smiling face?

2011-03-14T11:15:00.002-04:00

Why is that smile so big? Because I FINALLY GOT IT!!!

At the store we've been teaching a class on double knitting. Our students are doing small projects -- generally -- like headbands and hot pads. One student is making a sweater, and Barb is working on a car coat. So I felt like I needed to do something extravagant as well. Originally I fell down over a colour combination in lace weight -- a beautiful green paired with a hand-painted alpaca from Misti International. Saner heads prevailed, and I realized that the fabric would be too flimsy and delicate for its intended purpose. Regretfully, I frogged.

But what could I do, for I still felt the need for an extravagant double-knit project. I browsed thru the book again. And then I had it! We have several multi-colour yarns from Loyal at the shop that just aren't moving. They need a very special project, and this was it. I paired a lovely blue with a rose/red/pink multi, and the combination was exquisite.

I cast on. I frogged. I cast on. I frogged. Repeat three more times.

Finally, I got cast on and the proper number of stitches. Thrilled, I proceeded to row 3. I tinked. I knit. I tinked. I ... counted the stitches and realized that I had two stitches too many. I completed row 3 by knitting two stitches together. Twice.

Houston, we have lift off!

The project will grow up to be a double-knit vest from M'Lou Baber's Double Knitting. I am getting ready to start row 11 -- just as soon as I get the pesky bookwork from the store and housework from home done. It'll be fabulous. And finished years sooner than the lace-weight idea. Good move on my part, I'd say. Another plus to this project -- I'm learning to knit continental style since I'm carrying one yarn in my right hand and the second in my left.

I've also been working on the Arching Cables (Interweave Knits--Fall 2010), when the frustrations of double-knitting overcome me.
Aside from picking up the stitches, this has really been a great project. The only real cast on was at the beginning of the belt. All of 12 stitches. Everything else was picked up and knit from the selvage edges. Well, the picking up and the ribbing. But still, it's an awesome design. Just a wee bit of one sleeve and then the skirt and I'll have a delightful cardigan. This one is knit in Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Flamme. An excellent choice, if I say so myself!

The next project on needles getting my attention is an afghan destined to be a Christmas gift for my son and his wife. This is the Yggdrasil from Interweave Knits --

being knit in Patons Shetland Chunky. This, too, is a delightful project, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. The Addi click set is going to be very handy, as each successive panel of the afghan after this braid will be larger and more stitches. I foresee having the two long cables hooked together before I'm done.

And now it's March break, the sun is shining, and I'm hankering for my bicycle again. Gotta get the afghan finished before it gets too warm out!

March? Already?

2011-03-05T13:24:00.002-05:00

Well, another month end has flashed past. I swear it was just yesterday it was February first. I really don't know where the time goes.

This year Barb and I are trying to knit a pair of fancy socks every other month. Should be easier and more manageable ... of course, the key word there is "should." In any event, I did manage to start and finish my socks in time. These are the Cables and Lace from Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toes Up book.
The yarn is some that I dyed myself. Pretty, eh? I don't quite remember what effect I was after, but I'm hoping it was self-striping. If so, I was successful. If not, I don't want to hear about it. Again, these are destined to be gifted to someone at Christmas. I just don't know whom.

Several of my customers have come in and talked about the Patons Lace and wondered if I would be getting any in at the store. I decided to get a ball and test drive it before I made any decisions. So, one ball became this delightful little scarf:

The design comes from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace book, and is called Double Border Scarf. I must admit that the yarn has proven to be very durable. I cast on three different scarves, and this one twice, before I really got going. The yarn held up beautifully. I really am not liking the white stripe -- I find it too stark -- but am pleased at how symmetrical the scarf turned out.

The big test is yet to come. Since the yarn is 80% acrylic, it should be machine washable. Patons claims it is. I've got to see it to believe it. If it washes up nicely, then YAHOO! Another Christmas gift off my list!

What a weekend I had!

2011-02-25T14:33:00.002-05:00

One of the benefits of having a partner at the shop is that now I can take a Saturday off. Every month, in fact. The third Saturday of the month. Even though it is winter and Doug and I would generally have gone skiing, this past Saturday we decided to drive over to Michigan. To meet my new niece, who wasn't born yet when I had my previous Saturday off.

So ... we woke up around 7:30 am, looked out the window, and thought "This doesn't look good. Perhaps we'll wait a bit." So we did. And the weather and roads improved enough that we hopped into the car and drove off to Michigan. We were astounded that as we drove past London we saw absolutely no snow in the air. That never happens. The car handled the snowy/slushy/icy roads just fine, thanks to the newish snow tires.

We had a lovely visit with my family, and the car continued to handle the snowy/slushy/icy roads just fine. Better than many other vehicles, in fact.

What it didn't handle so well is this:
The Battle Creek/Kalamazoo area had an ice storm Sunday evening. We were staying at my son's house in Ka'zoo, and discovered that his tree had a weak spot. And the branch came down. From far up, and it brought along a friend. For comparison purposes, I took a shot showing my foot alongside the branches:
These puppies came crashing down around 11:30 pm. Neither Doug nor I even got out of bed right then -- we didn't really want to know what had happened. Some time later, Doug looked out the window, and heaved a big sigh. I knew it wasn't good. He manfully scoured Jeff's basement until he found a garbage bag to protect what was left of the car ... I snored.

In the morning, this is what I saw:
The front passenger window was shattered and all over the inside of the car, along with various pieces of the branches and lots of ice crystals. As well, the passenger side of the windshield is shattered -- you just can't see it because of the half-inch of ice on the windshield. See the mirror dangling? We had electric mirrors. And there's a wee bit of damage to the framing around the windshield. We're currently waiting to hear from the adjuster and the body shop in terms of repair estimates, etc. At least we had a nice visit.

Right. The whole reason for the visit to Michigan was to meet my new niece. She was born the last week of January, and was named Evelyn. She's a very nice young lady, and does pretty much everything you would expect of a three-week-old infant. I got to hold her and dance with her, and it was great!

Jeff got to hold her too!
Doesn't he look comfortable? Later in the evening, we went back to Andy's house and Amelia (the big sister) insisted that Jeff should hold her baby doll because he needed the practice.

To celebrate the arrival of the baby, I knit a Big Sister Sweater for Amelia. This is Polka Dot from Berrocco ...

I love the whole circle thing in the back. Unfortunately, the sweater needs a button on the front because it wants to slide right off Amelia's shoulders. I used Northern Worsted, and have asked Amelia's mum to keep me posted on how well it washes and wears.

I also finished up Evelyn's sweater, finally. This design is from an older Pinguoin (or however it is spelled!) magazine. I used 4 balls of Sirdar Snuggly, and picked up the buttons right here at the store.
This is a 12-month size, so it'll be a while before Evelyn wears it. I didn't even try for a photo shoot with it and her ... she is SO tiny! I forget how small newborn babies are, even if they are 8 lbs!

Groundhog day? Really?

2011-02-08T12:05:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to be lighthearted about Groundhog Day. Really, I am. But ever since I had Henry make a guest appearance as the groundhog (February 2005), I think of him. And since he is no longer with us, it hurt this year. He sure has left a huge hole in my heart.

I've been working pretty steadily on my projects. Very steadily. Well, actually, on SOME of my projects. The others? Well, I keep saying that I'm a "two projects at a time" kind of girl, and apparently that's so. More than that, and the others just get dropped to the bottom of my knitting bag.

So what's been getting my attention lately? The Double Border Scarf from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace. I'm working this in Patons new lace weight. I find that the colour changes don't bother me. Except for one.
Don't know about anyone else, but I find that the white is just a wee bit jarring. If I didn't think the scarf might be a wee bit short to begin with, I'd cut the white out. However, the books suggests a 3.25mm needle, and I'm using a 4.5mm. (Hey -- scarves don't have to fit, and this was the only Addi lace needle I own!) So I've accepted it will be a bit shorter than I might like, and I'm hoping the lucky recipient will like it.

I've still not decided if this is something that I will bring into the shop. I know I can't stuff the shop with only things that I love. (Really, I can't! Otherwise, it'll just be one big stash room!) And the fact that this yarn is machine washable is truly a bonus. But I keep thinking that for only $2 more, one can knit with lace weight alpaca. Why wouldn't you?

I've continued the sock craze this year, with a slight modification. At the store, we'll be selecting a fancy pair of socks every other month for the 2011 year. Hopefully this will give me time to knit a few "manly" (read plain) pairs for the menfolk in my family. In the meantime, the February socks are here:
These will be the "Lace and Cable" socks from Wendy Johnson's book. As you can see, I've just barely started. I'm at the point where I need to place my markers and start the pattern, and the other lace project kept calling me.

My brother and his wife have been safely delivered of a beautiful baby girl. They named her Evelyn. I've yet to see the little munchkin, but that will be rectified in a mere two weeks. To that end, I need to get the baby sweater finished.
I'm close. Really. All I need is one and three quarters of a hood. At least the sewing together is done.

My store knit-along is progressing. Well, the other ladies are progressing. I seem to be stalled.
Same thing with the afghan.
What can I say? I seem to be able to focus on only one or two projects at a time, and I've made the mistake of having too many on the go. I'm hoping to finish up the lace scarf this week. Maybe that'll help. (Of course, we aren't going to talk about the double-knit sweater that I'm contemplating ... from lace weight yarn ... green/red hand-paint combination, or blue/blue handpaint combination, or purple/lilac handpaint combo.)

What am I doing?

2011-01-26T12:08:00.002-05:00

Well, besides whining about my sprained/twisted ankle and can't ski this morning?

My brother and sister-in-law finished THEIR WIP, a beautiful baby girl, on Monday. So this means that the baby sweater needs to be finished before we visit next month. Carrie and I decided to make a larger size so that Baby would be able to wear it a bit longer, and so that she would have ample time to finish the project. Somehow it ended up in my basket, but that's OK. This is a sweater made from Sirdar Snuggly DK, colour 0260, from an older Pingouin magazine.

The back, sides and one sleeve are complete. Half a sleeve and the hood, and we're good to go.

We visited Jason and Coris down in Virginia for Christmas. They have a lovely new home. They are lacking a beautiful afghan for their living room. The Yggdrasil Afghan from Interweave Knits seems to fit the bill. I'm using Patons Shetland Chunky in Soft Teal, which will accent their colour scheme beautifully.

Jason and Coris -- I know it doesn't look like much just yet, but wait! It'll improve dramatically! This is one ball of yarn to date.

We've had a couple of customers inquire at the shop about Patons new laceweight yarn. It is 80% acrylic, 10% mohair and 10% wool, and dyed using a technique called "space dying." Basically, this means that the colour repeats are very l-o-n-g. Since Barb has an allergy to mohair, I was drafted to try the test piece. Dutifully I picked up a skein and tried to find a project.

I will admit to a fair bit of prejudice about this yarn. It just doesn't feel as nice as lace-weight alpaca. Why would anyone knit with this instead of alpaca? Eh? And this prejudice is perhaps why I've had to start a project with this yarn five times. Yes. Five times. I can report with full and complete honesty that the yarn withstands the rigors of repeated ripping and knitting. Beyond that ... well, I'm still not sold, but I AM knitting with it. This is the Double Bordered Scarf from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace:
I'm 32 rows into it, and finally starting to enjoy the process. I'll let you know how it all works out. In the meantime, this is probably going to be a Christmas gift for one of the youngish ladies in my lives. (You know who you are!)

I have committed myself to finishing the Great American Aran Afghan this calendar year. To that end, I knit up one of the remaining unworked squares -- the Jay Campbell square.
This square is worked from the outside in, circularly. Interesting concept, worked well, and the chart was impeccable. Don't know why I hesitated so long on this one.

Finally, we started a Knit-Along project at the store. The Arching Cables cardigan from the Fall Interweave Knits. I decided to use Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Flamme.
I'd been looking for a project for this wool so that I could showcase it at the store. This is it. A delightful project, not incredibly difficult but beautiful to behold. Here you see the belt, which took slightly more than one skein of wool. I'm just finishing the third ball here, so it will use a fair bit of wool. As Clairol would say, "I'm worth it!"

So ... what are you working on?

This just in ...

2011-01-20T12:37:00.002-05:00

and going quickly! My last shipment lasted less than 24 hours. Any bets on how long this one will last?

For the record, this yarn is now sold out. It lasted less than 2 business days. What a great seller!

What I've done in January ... and there's still time left!

2011-01-13T13:08:00.005-05:00

It's been quite the month for me -- from finishing projects, starting projects, and everything in between!

Firstly, and there is no photo to go along with this, I've been x-c skiing THREE times! The first two times created an amazing variety of bruises. My knees look like they've been painted various colours of green, blue, purple and black. So unattractive! But the third time? Not a single wipe-out, and a grand time was had by all. I'm looking forward to this weekend -- the potential for another three ski outings!

Remember Doug's (non-existent) Christmas socks? This is how they look now!

The boy is ridiculously happy!

We are teaching a fair isle class at the shop. In times past, I have used all kinds of bad words, in many combinations, to express my displeasure with fair isle. I did learn, finally, a technique to wrap the yarns so that they don't tangle around each other. The result:
This lovely hat and fingerless mittens. I used Patons Classic Merino and some neat yarn my step-daughter brought home from her trip to Ireland, on a 4.5mm for the hat, and 4.0mm for the mitts. Doesn't the inside of the work look nice? (Not that I'm fishing for compliments or anything!)
These little ensemble just might become a gift for the young ladies in my life. All four of them live in cold climates and a little extra warmth would be greatly appreciated by them.

In other news -- January 2 was the one-year anniversary of the shop's big relocation. We decided to have a party. But first, we needed to clear the counter of coffee mugs. Doug built and installed this for us, the morning of the party. Cut it a bit close, but after giving him a ball of yarn for his unknit socks, who am I to complain?
Since the party, he has installed a second, smaller panel which holds 18 mugs to the left of the first panel. Interestingly, a number of ladies brought cups in, and we're now looking at a total of 16 empty spaces.

I did mention that we threw a party, right? Parties involve food.
It was all delicious. Entirely too good. At the wool shop, however, there are no calories, so were just fine with it all.

And if you have delicious food and wool, you just know there will be friends!

All told, we had 20 people attend the party, as well as another half dozen who stopped by and shopped. Or dropped off chocolate.

I'm so excited that Doug procured the Addi Click needles for me. The fair isle set above was knit with them. For the hat I used the 16" cable, and it was quite nice to not have to finagle magic loop. (Did I say that out loud?!?) And you all know how dedicated I am to knitting everything possible on circular needles. So, guess what I did Tuesday?
Started a new project on my new Addi Clicks!

Finally!

2011-01-07T15:28:00.002-05:00

This past year has been the Year of the Sock. This pile of socks represents my year. Almost one full pair of socks per month ...
Did I learn anything from this endeavour? I certainly did. Knitting a pair of fancy socks every month, along with the myriad other projects that I knit was not nearly as easy as I had thought it would be. In fact, it was downright difficult. I'm not certain, but I think that the number of months that I actually finished on time was far fewer than the months I didn't. I did, ultimately, knit a pair of socks for every month -- but only if you count the plain striped socks for December. While not originally planned, these are the pair that saved my claim of "a pair for every month!"

Well, that and the fact that I finished the November socks on Christmas morning. Yes, my youngest son did, in fact, receive a pair of socks still on the needles. Everyone else? Well, the claim is that a picture says a thousand words.
Beginning with the 1:00 position and moving clockwise, you see my daughter-in-law with some lovely Arequipa socks, my step-daughter with hand-dyed Briggs & Little, my daughter with the fair-isle Naturally Loyal socks, myself with the Dream in Colour sparkly yarn, youngest son with the Colinette Jitterbug November socks, eldest son with the Misti International Alpaca sock yarn, and ... well, there's poor Doug with a ball of yarn.

Yes, even with knitting a pair of socks every month in 2011, I ended up short one pair of socks for the gift-giving. Now, I do have a bunch of socks for the ladies in the family for 2012 ... it just turned out that I was short on socks for the men in my life. I have since made great strides toward rectifying this oversight as I'm on the toe shaping for sock #2 of his pair.

And Doug definitely deserves a pair of socks after he got me the fabulous Addi Click needles for Christmas.

I did, however, give him a very awesome gift too:
A KitchenAid professional model stand mixer. Doug has been wanting a new stand mixer for ages, especially since last Christmas his then-current mixer lost a part. Still worked, but was no longer a "start and walk away" model. He'd been wanting and wishing for a new mixer all year, and I decided that he deserved a new mixer. Does he look happy?

In fact, he was so thrilled with the mixer that he immediately hauled it out to the daughter-in-law's kitchen and the two of them mixed up a batch of cinnamon rolls.

Hope everyone else had a delightful Christmas and New Year.

You should see what my honey got me for Christmas!

2011-01-04T19:38:00.002-05:00

I had the best Christmas ever. You should SEE what my honey got me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyTatiIhPDg

Good news, bad news.

2010-11-15T14:13:00.002-05:00

What should I expect? After all, it IS Monday. The good news is that I finished Sylvi. And oh, what a beautiful sweater she is.

The bad news? Well, let's just put it this way. De Nile ain't just a river in Egypt. It seems that I've gained a wee bit of weight since I moved to Canada. My doctor and I had a discussion about that same weight, and agreed that I should lose a bit. So I'm trying. Unfortunately for me, not quickly enough. And probably won't be in the right places.

In any event, I did model her, just so I could show her off.

I got stitch gauge just fine, using my 6.0mm needles. Row gauge seems to be a bit off, though. The sweater is much shorter than pictured.
Also, the hood wasn't quite as tall as I would have liked; well, needed is a better word.

Look at the flower detail:
That's just gorgeous. The petals are added after everything else is knitted. Just pick up two stitches at the base, and away you go. Then you sew the petal down once you have completed knitting it.

I used 8 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky, colour number 105 which appears to be discontinued. I had calculated that I would need 10 balls, so apparently being off on row gauge made a huge difference.

If I were to make this design again, I would modify the pattern by working an edge stitch that is always slipped at the beginning of a row and knit at the end, and then a stitch that is always knit on the right side and purled on the wrong side. This would give me edges and a seam similar to that on Inggun, which I quite adored.

I'd also measure myself before I started, to be certain that I made the correct size.

I'm not going to frog this sweater. It's too beautiful. So here's the question -- do I give it to my daughter, my step-daughter or my daughter-in-law? They're all approximately the right size. Did I mention that I'm open to bribes?

Good bye, old friend

2010-11-13T21:14:00.002-05:00

Good bye, Henry. You've been a wonderful friend --

everything a kitty should be. From sunning yourself in the sun,
to claiming every box you saw. Everyone loved you.
And you loved everyone. Your favourite pastimes were sleeping in the sun, wherever you found it.
Or simply being near us, wherever we were.
When the weather turned chilly, you'd warm us up. Or perhaps we warmed you. We could never tell, except that the purr motor was constant.
For such a small critter, you've left a gaping hole in our hearts.
Sleep well, Henry. We loved you well.

November? Already?

2010-11-09T12:23:00.002-05:00

I can't believe how quickly the year has flown past. I mean -- seriously? November? Where did October go? We aren't even going to talk about September!

The good news is that I did manage to complete the October socks very close to the end of October. Actually, I was only one day late. Notice how these look like plain, old vanilla socks?

Until you look at the top of the foot!
These are Kei-Mei from Cookie A.'s book, Sock Innovations. I knit mine in Arequipa, from Estelle.

Finally, I just had to ~~brag~~ ~~show off~~ report on my progress on Sylvi.
I still have all the flower petals to complete, but everything else is stitched together. I'm 12 rows into the hood! I'll be wearing this baby soon!

More catching up ...

2010-10-30T11:59:00.002-04:00

So last April (yes, I know that was 7 whole months ago!) we started a knit-along at the shop. The project was "Inggun" from Elsebeth Lavold's book #18. I had been eyeing that vest for months -- 6 of them to be exact -- and I was so happy when the designated month arrived.

I cast on the first week. Three weeks later, this is what I had:

The back view is equally gorgeous:

And the seam detail -- oh, how I love the seam details:

I used Patons Classic Merino, the camel colour, which has sadly been discontinued. Four balls, on a 5.0mm needle. Delightful. Elsebeth Lavold is my favourite designer, for a reason.

Finally, in keeping with the whole sock-a-month idea, I bring you my September socks:

These are the Ricks socks from Cookie A's book, Sock Innovation. I used Ranco from Auracania, on a 3.0m needle. I purposely used a larger needle and made the sock a wee bit longer because I know the wool will shrink.

In other news ... my brother David just celebrated his birthday. This time last year was quite bleak as he'd just been diagnosed with cancer. This year, he's doing far better. His latest blood work came back with an all clear. Yahoo!

Trying to be current

2010-10-09T10:25:00.002-04:00

I'm trying to keep the blog current, keep up with my projects ... you know the drill. There's still so much to report, and time at the shop keeps getting interrupted. But I still try. So this is the second post this week -- how's that?

The Year of Knitting Socks is proceeding apace. I've finished the August socks -- Brainless. Working on the September socks -- Rick from Cookie A -- using Araucania Ranco. Now, I know this yarn will shrink every time you wash it. (Doug had a pair of lovely green socks that are now mine, you see.) As I was working on these, I thought I was getting close to the toe shaping. To make certain, I tried it on.

Remember how I knew this yarn would shrink? Well, the sock barely made it on past the ankle and heel area.
Which meant that the prudent course of action was to frog it. Completely. (Insert heavy sigh here!) Of course, this just means that I get to enjoy that yarn all over again! (Insert happy face here!)

In other knitting news, I learned how to double knit this past week. The result:

This nice reversible headband. I plan to use it this winter when cross-country skiing! Made from one ball each of Naturally Yarns Loyal Superwash Merino, colours #912 and 915 (dark and light green respectively) and 3.5mm circular needle.

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving everyone!

With apologies to Dr. Suess ...

2010-10-07T17:25:00.004-04:00

I present my version of his classic counting story (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)

One sock:

These are the April socks, done with a pattern called "Twisted Rib." I believe this one was from KnitPicks, but I can't check because their site seems to be down. Both my socks (blue ones on the right) and Barb's (brown ones on the left) were worked in Misti International Alpaca sock yarn. Yummy!

Two sock:

These are the socks for May, from Cookie A's book titled "Sock Innovation." The design is called "Angee." My socks, on the left, were worked from Cascade Heritage sock yarn -- truly a delightful yarn. I don't remember what yarn Barb used, but she got hers finished too.

Red sock:
These are the socks we chose for June -- the Ribbed Ribbons Socks from Wendy Johnson's book Socks from the Toe Up. My socks, again on the left, were worked with Dream in Colour sock yarn that Carrie gave me for Mother's Day. The pictures doesn't really show the sparkles in the yarn, but sparkle it does.

Blue sock:
This pair of socks was worked in Berroco Metallic Sock yarn, and was started while Doug and I were camping in Algonquin Park in July. My theory is that we encountered so many thunderstorms because of the sparkles in the yarn. The sky just wanted to mimic the sock. Hey -- I said it was a theory, not a good theory!

And since I'm not done showing off socks, here are the July socks:
This design is called "Froot Loops"from Knitty. Barb and I both chose to use hand-painted yarns that we had created some time ago. Looking at our feet, Barb claims that I have the "before milk" socks and she has the "after milk socks." I can see that!

But wait -- there's more!
These are socks knit from KnitPicks Simply Stripes, a discontinued sock yarn. Probably will be gifted at Christmas, but we don't know for sure. After all, there ARE eight pairs of socks to be done for the big holiday.

We got some new sock yarn at the store, and I got to make a sample pair of socks.
This is Zauberball, and as other folks have noted, these are definitely fraternal twin socks. If you are a knitter/sock wearer who requires matching socks -- don't go near the Zauberball. On the other hand ...

And finally, I have completed the August socks:
These are called Brainless, from Yarnissima. I'm not so sure what is brainless about these socks. You definitely need a brain to knit them. I really love how the cables split apart to bracket the heel gusset, and then reform to travel up the leg. Really sweet design. The yarn is, if memory serves, from Socks That Rock, but I can't find the label to know for certain.

Wow. That's 8 pair of socks. At least you know I've been doing something during this very long blogging absence!

A day in the life of ...

2010-08-19T13:56:00.004-04:00

Now that it is August (shhh -- I know the month is one/third over. DeNial ain't just a river in Eqypt, ya know?), I thought it was time to show you the March socks that Barb and I knit up. This is the Butterfly sock from Knitpicks. I was loyal to my stash and used up some old Eaton's yarn; Barb, on the other hand, used On Your Toes Bamboo sock yarn. Couldn't tell you what size needles or anything else about them, except that we did them. And on time!

And then there's this little gem:

Abandoned like yesterday's McDonald's french fries. For this:
This is the Sagrantino Shawl, being knit from Misti International HandPaint Sock yarn. I saw this on Ravelry, looked at the handpaint yarn, and fell. Hard. Hard enough that I'm even using double pointed needles.

But even the shawl paled when confronted by this:
Which very quickly became this:

What you see there is the fall shipment of James C. Brett Marble Chunky. Including the new colours for fall. Man, did I have fun at the wool shop! With much rearranging and squeezing, I managed to fit all the colours into the display, and store the overflow. See?

Now, it's back to the shawl ... or the sock ... or Sylvi ... or the July socks ... or the August socks ... decisions, decisions, decisions.

Algonquin Vacation

2010-07-23T20:07:00.003-04:00

Our family has gone canoe camping in Algonquin Park several times. The daughters love it, as do Doug and I. This year, however, the daughters were both busy working and not able to get away. Rather than miss out on a lovely trip, Doug and I decided to go by ourselves. It was, to quote a famous author, "the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Sunday morning we loaded up and headed out onto Canoe Lake. This is the first time that we have gone north out of our launch point. The view, once afloat, is spectacular.

The day started out just fine -- sunny and warm. We knew that rains were predicted, but the last weather report we'd seen had said only Sunday evening and Monday morning would be wet. So off we went.

Sure enough, the rain arrived just about the time we settled into a nice campsite on Burnt Island Lake for the evening. Undeterred by the weather, and to prove to my friends (who couldn't believe that I would really take knitting with me), I sat and knit while waiting for dinner.
Dinner was macaroni and cheese -- a staple of our camping trips. The rain continued over night, altho not real heavy. Monday morning dawned as an overcast day, but we figured it would blow over and we'd be just fine. Besides, cloudy skies mean less sun burn. After the usual first morning photo opportunity, we departed.
Monday we paddled up the rest of Burnt Island Lake, made a small portage into Joe Lake and continued on up to Otterslide Lake. There is a way by which you can float your canoe through the lakes and bypass all the portages. We did, and it was delightful to wind our way through a creek-type passage, and then wade where necessary. The water was quite clear and fast-flowing, which was delightful.

We slept Monday night on Otterslide Lake. Tuesday morning dawned clear and sunny. In fact, it was so nice and sunny that the bull frogs that serenaded us all night showed up to catch some rays!
The winds were absent, and the lake gave us the most amazing reflections. truly awesome.
We also saw some very interesting fungi on this site. I have no idea what kind it was, or anything about it. I just liked the composition of this picture. Took it myself, and I'm very proud of it.
Once again, there was knitting. Note the sun burn. It was overcast and I didn't need any sunscreen. Yeah, right. I bet I could buy some nice ocean-front property in Nevada too.
Tuesday we paddled back down thru the Joe lakes and onto Burnt Island Lake. We stopped at an awesome sight for lunch and a swim. Then decided that we needed to be closer to the far end of the lake for our paddle out on Wednesday. So we pushed on.

So did the rain.

Fortunately for me, it didn't rain lots that evening and the tree roots provided a wonderful seat.
We got up Wednesday morning and started breaking camp. I've been fairly good about not making squeally-girly noises while camping. This morning, however, I blew it. As I bent over the backpack to tuck something away, a toad hopped out from under the pack. I screamed. I really don't know who was more surprised -- the toad or myself! In any event, the toad hung around for a bit, probably hoping that our presence would attract some juicy flies. He even checked out my water sandal!
We'd had rain in the early morning hours, and the skies didn't look promising. We packed up and started for home.

Along the way, we saw a moose! It didn't appear to be the least bit upset about us watching him. There were several canoes full of folks gawking, in fact.

Again, the skies didn't look very promising. So we pushed on.

Along the way, the clouds opened up and we ended up waiting out some rain at a portage with a nice group of young men from Northlands Camp. We told them about the delightful bypass of the portages ahead of them, and then we pushed on.

Later on, we stopped for a stretch our legs break on Joe Lake. Who should we see but these young men. This time I was brave enough to explain about the whole taking pictures of your sock in progress with different folks. They were really good about it! Thanks, Aaron & Josh and the gang!

Now, Doug and I are fairly proficient in the canoe -- by which I mean that we don't tip easily, work well together, and are able to turn quickly on demand. These skills became necessary in short order.

We stopped at the portage between East Arm and Canoe Lakes. The sun was shining and the winds were calm. We made the portage between the two lakes. Again, the sun was shining and the winds were calm.

We put our canoe into the water of Canoe Lake. The skies darkened. The winds began to howl. We pushed on, because we were supposed to be going home this afternoon. This could have been a disaster, because:

The storm was absolutely amazing. We ended up huddled on a dock for about an hour and a half, waiting. We dumped water from the canoe twice ... thought the storm had moved on. We jumped back in the canoe and started paddling furiously towards the Portage Store. The skies opened yet again. How in the world there could've been more rain up in those clouds is beyond me, but there was. Once again, we stopped on a dock and huddled under the tarp.

Then the rain ceased and we dared to venture forth again. Looking ahead, we saw some crazy folks in a motor boat out on the water. Silly folks, don't they know that the weather isn't good for boating? Turns out it was a couple of guys from the Portage Store out looking for straggling canoes.

There is a nasty rumour around that we may have accepted a ride back to the dock. There is no photographic proof of such a thing, so we can maintain plausible deniability. All I can say is that they were very polite and helpful!

We sloshed our way up to the car, pulled dry clothes from the packs (thank heavens for garbage bags!) and sloshed our way back to the showers. We took hot showers and changed into our dry clothes. Opened the door ... and stepped out ...

into sunshine.

There is no justice.

Saying good bye ...

2010-06-28T17:46:00.004-04:00

Summer of 2010 is going to be a really tough season. We will be saying good-bye to two of our three kitties. Henry has developed renal failure; Mimi has some sort of respiratory thing going. We don't know what the respiratory thing is, but we do know that we can't treat her. Mimi is her own worst enemy.

This is a snap of Henry and Mimi. Henry is the guy on the left, and Mimi on the right. They've pretty much been inseparable in the time that I've known them.

We had to say good-bye to Mimi today. Over the weekend, her breathing became so laboured it was painful to watch and to hear. There was really nothing we could do for her; so in the end, we did what we could. And that was to ease her off into the next world.

Doug had a colonoscopy scheduled this morning, but I called the vet's office when they opened. They said 3:15, and we were there. The staff and vets at Port Perry Animal Hospital are great. The whole episode was handled with the utmost of caring and concern for all involved.

Mimi is buried in a sun beam, overlooking the lake. We'll be getting a statue to mark her spot.

So now Henry will get our attention and love. Summer is the best time to be a kitty; there's plenty of sunshine and chipmunks to hunt. I hope that Mimi is off somewhere running free and breathing easily; and that she knows we loved her.

Should I, or shouldn't I?

2010-06-26T20:08:00.002-04:00

I've started knitting Sylvi using Araucania Nature Wool
and I'm generally happy with how it's turning out. Sure, the sleeves are boring to knit; sure the fronts are also boring. But the back! How I'm going to love the back. I suspect the designer was greatly influenced by Elsebeth Lavold. There are just too many similarities between Sylvi and Elsebeth's designs. Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. After all, just LOOK at this seam:

This is a detail from Inggun. If you look at the pictures of Sylvi, THAT is the look the designer is aiming for. She tells you to always slip the first stitch of the row, and then mattress stitch the seams so that the selvage lies to the front, giving you a similar appearance. Go ahead and take another look; I'll wait.

So I knit up the sleeves, and the left front. Then I seamed them together because it seemed like a sensible thing to do. Uses less stitch holders that way, as well as getting some of that pesky seaming out of the way.
Not exactly the look I was aiming for. Either I've done it wrong, or I've gotten way too proficient at mattress stitch. In any event, it isn't giving me quite the look that the designer wants. And I must admit that I LIKE the effect she was aiming for.

Because "De Nile" ain't just a river in Egypt, I continued on my merry way. Knit the right sleeve (actually I knit both sleeves first, and then the left front), and started the right front. All the while, I'm pondering the seam detail, and the lack of it on my Sylvi. And then I thought to myself -- I could just modify the design and create that edge myself -- just follow Elsebeth's side edge directions. Piece of cake.

Except ... I've knit a fair piece already. I'm halfway thru my third ball of wool in fact. But the seam design -- it's really a design feature. Will Sylvi be as nice without it? Here's what I've got so far:

What does anyone think? Am I being too picky by even thinking of starting over?

Surprise!

2010-06-24T15:42:00.002-04:00

I'm still breathing!

It's been busy, and I will explain this a bit more over the next couple of posts. Without going 7 weeks in between. I promise!

Other folks have been busy knitting at my shop. We recently held a class on the construction of the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. We suggested to our students that they might want to start with a baby jacket in order to understand the construction. Barb, however, has that little streak of masochist in her that says she must do things the hard way -- every time! So she decided to knit the adult version.

She used 7 skeins of Nashua Hand Knits Creative Focus Linen to make this beauty. It's a medium, with additional length in the sleeves. She thought that perhaps it was a bit large, until we persuaded her to try it on. She was quite pleased with how this turned out.
So was Sebrena! (Ahem -- ladies, the mud wrestling room is out back. Winner gets to keep the sweater!)

And I finished a pair of socks. Everyone loved 'em!

What's this?!?

2010-05-06T15:54:00.002-04:00

In reviewing my previous posts, it has come to my attention that there are a whole lot of projects that have been finished without being showcased. I don't know how that happened ... except that I seem to have taken several months off. In an effort to get caught up, I will herewith show you:

The Top-down Sweater in its finished state!
This sweater was started in January as part of our top-down sweater class, using the Patons Upside-Downers booklet(booklet #719). I used Patons Classic Merino and worked the textured pullover. Oddly enough, this sweater is just my size! I finished it sometime in late March, and have even worn it twice. I'm hoping I can wash it up and pack it away for the summer ... with this crazy Ontario weather, one never knows. (Discontinued colours, all, and I used 4 balls green yarn, 1 camel & 1 light green used and 5.0mm needles.)

Remember that whole "knit a pair of cool socks every month" challenge that I oh-so-nonchalantly tossed out in December? Having finally finished January, it seemed appropriate to me to check to see where I was on the whole reporting of said sock challenge. Not very far, it appears.

The February socks were finished ... in March. Not long into March, but March nonetheless. Oh well.

From Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up, I bring you the Hearts and Flowers Socks.
These were knit in a Briggs & Little sock yarn which I dyed myself ages ago, apparently in a striping pattern, and using 2.0mm needles. Unfortunately, one doesn't really see the lace pattern, but it IS there. And quite cute as well. The yarn was dyed using somewhat old RIT dyes and the colours were not nearly as intense as I had hoped when I made them up. Oh well. I'm sure I won't mind.

And how is Barb doing with her socks? Finished.

On time.

Drive-by blogging

2010-04-26T15:31:00.004-04:00

I do most sincerely apologize for the dearth of blog entries of late. I'm the "ring-master" and I don't even follow my own rules. How can I expect the other ring members to follow them?

Having admitted to my own laziness, I herewith bring you the following post:

Do any of you know what this means?

An empty knitting bag and sets of empty needles. A totally empty knitting bag and it has been turned inside out, the better to get the crumblies from the bottom.

Why, oh why does a knitter go to such extremes with her knitting bag?

Because she has finished a project. A project which has been in progress for weeks and weeks. In fact, enough weeks that the bottom of the knitting bag contained the crumbs from the lunches she carried to and from the shop. Crumbs from the snacks carried to and from the ski trips in January and February. Crumbs from the car trips hither and yon in the weeks since January 1.

So what long-lasting project was finished? Which of the many projects have finally achieved "finished" status? Well, you have waited patiently for long enough. I bring you:

January socks, finished at long last. These are the "Winter Wren" stockings from the Holiday issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern specified these to be knee socks; however, I don't wear knee socks as a rule so I opted to make these shorter. I used one ball each of six colours of Naturally Loyal Superwash DK (colours 923, 922, 929, 925, 901 and 919 in no particular order.)

They are going to be fabulous next winter when I need something extra warm on my feet. The fair isle means that the sock is, in effect, double knit. And make no mistake -- these are true fair isle. None of that woosy self-patterning stuff for these babies. (I probably won't make the same mistake twice ... altho ... there were some really nice fair isle socks in the traveling sock trunk show ...)

My biggest complaint with these socks was the direction that you must end with one of two specific rows for the foot length. If your foot length didn't quite work out that way, well, too bad. If I had known, I'd have made the toe portion a bit longer and then I wouldn't have that complaint. As it is, I will save these socks for a time when my shoe/boot isn't a real close fit. (Unfortunately, this rules out the ice skates, when these socks would be awesome!)

All in all, however, I am pleased with the result. A lot of work, yes, and more than a few bad words were muttered in the knitting.

Round 'em up, Head 'em out!

2010-02-27T11:39:00.007-05:00

Another month has passed, and it seems I'm back to my old habit of posting only once a month. I keep trying to do better, but there are so many excuses. Store is busy, can't find where my photos download on the home computer, store is busy, Olympics are on, store is busy ... I'm sure you get the idea. Today, the weather is crummy, the roads are wet and slippery, and the Olympics are on. This all means that at the moment, I'm by myself in the store. Hasn't happened since we moved on the 2nd of January, and I do expect it to change in a bit. After all, it's Saturday and my afternoon knitters and crocheters will be along very soon.

I decided to do a catch-up/listing of all the projects I'm working on. I used to do it regularly, and it kept me focused. Since my WIP list has gotten long (and out of control, actually) I decided a bit of focus was in order.

First, I show you the January socks -- Winter Wren from Interweave Knits Holiday 2009 issue:

Barb finished hers, but … well, mine is still in progress. I’m pleased to report that this picture is a week old, and I’ve actually turned the heel!

I’ve also worked on the GAAA and finished three squares.

The Vicki Sever (pg. 12) square was a dream. The charts were accurate and the designs were easy. Since I have experienced more than just breast cancer in my immediate family, I opted to repeat the faith, hope and love motifs throughout the square. The beauty of the charts is that this substitution was a piece of cake to work out.

The Carol Adams (pg. 22) square was likewise an easy knit. What I hadn’t realized until I was actually knitting the square is that the square is completely reversible. Fancy that. No wrong side. Truly cool. Again, the charts were accurate and easy to work. Nice touch, that.

Finally, the Patt Tanton Hewitt (pg. 42) is also finished and crossed off my list. This was an extremely difficult square to work, and in my opinion should’ve been listed as one of the more difficult. I still don’t understand why the Janet Martin (pg. 36) was listed as difficult, but then that may just be me and my understanding of the process.

Anyway, I now am down to the knit-from-the-centre squares, and designing the corner square (Design! Snort! Chart out the year of completion and my initials.), followed by the border and I’ll be done like dinner! Yahoo!

Next on my needles is the top-down pullover for the January store class. Again, this photo is a few days old and I’m actually further down the body than it appears. Boring knitting, and perhaps ideal for the Olympics. Except I don’t have a TV at the store. Excuses, excuses, excuses.

I am also working on a Freedom Spirit model for the store – a vest with little lace designs up the front. The back is plain, and boring. Again, perfect for TV knitting, except that I don’t have a TV at the store. The boringness of it might explain why this project hasn’t seen the light of day in at least a week.

The socks for February were selected from the Wendy Johnson Socks from the Toe Up book and are called “Hearts and Flowers.” I’m currently in the process of turning the heel on the second sock! Will I be done by the 28^th? No. I’ll be close though!

And this brings to a conclusion my current WIP listing. What I’m not telling you, though, is about the projects that I want to start. Especially those made from the new yarns at the store. Before Barb starts making something with them and I don’t get the opportunity to make the store sample! (There isn’t a competitive bone in my body. Honestly!)

Finally, a quick update on my brother. He has had his stem cell infusion and they are growing into bone marrow. Currently, David is at home recuperating and is about half-way thru his month of 24/7 care. He has good days and bad days; however, it sounds like his bad days aren’t nearly as bad as they used to be. This is good news! Keep those healing thoughts heading his way, and he’ll be back on his feet in no time.

Hmm. I resemble that thought.

2010-01-28T12:56:00.003-05:00

I was browsing around the internet, checking out the blogs that I read as well as checking up on the blogs in my web ring. (As an aside -- does anyone else dislike the current Ringsurf set-up, where you have to double click each blog you want to read, instead of the "next" option taking you directly there?) There are a great many blogs that have been somewhat inactive of late ... and I was thinking, "Sheesh. I wish these folks would update their blogs once in a while!" And then it struck me --

"Woman, you resemble that remark!"

So, after almost two months of radio silence, here is an update.

We had ALL the kids home for Christmas -- my three along with a spouse, and Doug's daughter. Five extra people in our tiny little house! It was an absolute blast. We cooked, we ate, we laughed, we talked. Boy, did we eat! My duaghter-in-law is a marvelous cook! This was one of the best holidays I've experienced in years.

One of the best things about Christmas this year was the stocking experience. I usually try to put plenty of silly stuff into the stockings every year; if I keep putting silly things into the stockings I can pretend that none of us are grown up, right? This year I did manage to knit up nice socks for each and every stocking! Proof positive:

Each and every pair of these socks has been featured on the blog at some point in the last year.

Possibly the funniest statement of the holiday came from my step-daughter, Emily. Now, Emily and I haven't always had the best of relationships. This has changed over the past couple of years, and now we look forward to our visits. Emily looked at all the socks and realized that HER socks were the only pair of Carol-dyed socks. She looked at Carrie and said, dead-pan, "See? Your mom loves me better!" We all laughed ourselves silly at that.

What else has been happening in my neck of the woods? On January 2, my little wool shop grew up a bit. We moved four doors up the plaza, into a space that was twice the size of the original shop. Here are a few photos of moving day.

We did quite well -- 17 folks helping move and stuff shelves means that there wasn't a lot of work for any one person, and it made the day quite enjoyable. We started around 9:30 in the morning, and ended around 4:30. There was (and is) still some settling and adjusting to be done, but the majority of the work was done. We opened up for business on Tuesday -- pretty remarkable turnaround I'm told.

Here's another funny -- Saturday afternoon, while everyone is running around moving shelves, boxing and unboxing wool, trying to find room for things, a very nice lady stepped into the new store. She looked around, rather bewildered. "Are you open?" she asks. "I just wanted a ball of sock wool." I very politely explained that we weren't open ... meanwhile I'm hearing muffled snorts and giggles from the back. We didn't even KNOW where the sock yarn was at that point ... altho I believe it was in transit from the original store. No electricity to the cash register, no phone hook-up for the debit machine. Doug says it was an historical event -- Carol actually refused to sell a ball of yarn. Hopefully, this will be the only day this happens!

On Thursday evening we had our very first knit night at the new shop. 21 attendees, altho one was very tiny.

There's no way we could've fit 21 folks into the old store! In fact, I'm amazed at the quantity of merchandise we DID fit into the old store. Absolutely gob-smacked, in fact. One nice lady came in this past week, looked around, and sighed "I'm so glad you finally got baby wool in." Barb and I just looked at each other in amazement. We've ALWAYS had baby yarn.

Finally, here's an update on my Year of Socks. I've started ... I've turned the heel!

This whole sock adventure was my idea, and I'm the least far along in the process. Barb has completed one sock, and is around the heel on her second. Irene is casting off her first sock. Cathy is getting ready to switch to the larger needles for the calf of her sock. And I've just turned the heel. Interestingly, I've struggled with this pattern. It feels like every three rows forward results in two rows back, which does make it difficult to achieve noticeable forward progress. I do note, however, that last night I did almost ten entire rows without having to tink back, so perhaps I, too, have turned a corner in this project.

I'm working on another square for the Great American Aran Afghan. And thinking, planning, or plotting -- whichever you prefer -- to try Sylvi. I've got 11 balls of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky, colour 105, which is a navy blue. The pattern says I need 12. I'm thinking that I could shorten the sweater by 10 rows around the bottom ... surely that will be enough? What does anyone think?

THAT was a quick month!

2009-12-04T14:08:00.002-05:00

Foolish me, I thought (although perhaps hoped is more accurate) that life would slow down a wee bit with the daughter off at university. After all, SHE was the one who had get-togethers with friends, shopping trips, work, and parties to attend, all of which required my car. Seemed like she or we were constantly running the roads, trying to keep pace with everything.

She's been off to the University of Toronto since the beginning of September. Three entire months. Has life slowed down? Nope. Not a bit. So who can I blame now? Methinks the answer is myself. The jury is still out on that one.

I note that it has been an entire month since last I posted anything. Works in progress or finished objects. Unless someone can assist me, I believe I have here the sum entirety of my completed items:

This hat is made with Naturally Loyal (colour 916) and the brim is Sirdar Frenzy (discontinued). Lots of fun making this up, and the Frenzy was surprisingly fun to knit with. (I dislike working with doubled strands of fun fur--it's hard to see your stitches. The Frenzy was thick enough that I could use it just by itself with larger needles.) This hat is destined for my elder brother, to be his January hat. I hope it makes him smile. And any of my brothers and sisters who see this? Shh. Don't say a word.

Last weekend was the American Thanksgiving weekend. Doug and I took the opportunity to run over to Michigan for a wee visit. Also, we ate some turkey and dressing. (Barb ran the store -- thanks a million!) Of course, driving to Michigan entails some 6.5 hours in the car on the way there, and the same back. Lots of hours of knitting, if one plans well.

I had heard lots about the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket (scroll down, please). When a friend loaned me the pattern, I grabbed a ball of yarn and ran with it.

Until the very end when I put in the buttonholes, I really didn't understand how this was going to become a baby jacket. Seriously. I'd work on it a bit, look at it, scratch my head. Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally the light dawned ... and I was finished. Just that quickly. Amazing.

The yarn used was James Brett Baby Marble (Lime Sherbet). One ball. I'm pondering bringing this yarn into the shop, if I can find a place on the shelves. 100% acrylic, which many people like for babies.

Back to the Thanksgiving weekend -- we were able to visit with all of the Michigan siblings (three brothers, a sister, and assorted spouses) as well as my dad and step-mother. A very nice time was had by all. Brother David was having stem cells harvested this week, with the goal of infusion during January. We're hoping and praying that the time lines continues as set. If so, David should be in pretty good form for the (brief) Michigan summer and his motorcycle.

Last gasp of summer

2009-10-29T17:11:00.003-04:00

I know that I've mentioned that Doug and I go mountain bike riding. Fairly regularly during the summer, in fact. When the cool, crisp air of fall arrives I generally park my bike. My ears get too darned cold, and they hurt. I have a pattern for some ear-warmers that fasten right to the straps of my bicycle helmet, but I just haven't gotten around to it. When the warm weather hit last weekend, Doug and I jumped at the chance for one last ride. We now have photographic proof that I hit the trails late in October!
Fall riding is quite a bit different than summer riding. The fallen leaves really obscure the trail, and they are slippery as well. Fall riding is slower, which helps to keep the ears a bit warmer. I shouldn't complain, I know. But I do like the summer "bat out of hell" mentality where you can go lickety-split, fast-as-you-can down the hills. Someday that attitude is gonna get me, and it will be painful. Til then ... I'll just be kind of careful.

In other (knitting) news, I've finished yet another pair of socks. These were worked in Super Soxx, purchased at the Knitter's Frolic several years ago. Nice to see that I'm getting thru the sock yarn stash, eh?
Another "finished" object of which I am quite proud is this:
This is the Patt Tanton Hewitt square from the Great American Aran Afghan square, knit in Patons Canadiana Oatmeal. This square was really difficult -- more so than the Selesnick square from several months ago. If ever I knit this afghan again, I suspect this will be one square that does not get repeated.

Currently on needles and being actively knit is this delightful project from S.R. Kertzer:
This raglan lace tee is knit in On Your Toes Bamboo. Who knew that knitting garments with sock yarn would be so delightful? I admit that the 3.25mm needles makes progress a bit slow. With yarn as scrumptious as the bamboo, though, does it matter?!

I am also knitting a sweater for Doug. This is Sublime Organic Merino, colour no. 114, and the "Garter Rib V-Neck" from the September 2009 Creative Knitting.
The sleeves are finished, and I am within 2.5" of the shoulder shaping on the back. Admittedly the pattern calls for a knitting worsted weight and the Sublime is a DK ... Barb (my knitting buddy) and I have felt that the Sublime was actually a knitting worsted, and this sweater helps to prove it.

Of course, I can say that now. Once the sweater is done we shall see if it fits Doug. If yes, then we are correct and the yarn can be used as a worsted; if not ... well, the ball band is right after all. I *think* I have the gauge correct.

Finally, check out the updated web page for the shop: Never Enough Wool. Doug has done lots of work on it, and I am quite pleased. The one thing we are still missing is a gallery of customer finished items.

I am so boring!

2009-10-17T11:49:00.003-04:00

Time has a habit of marching on, and on, and on. I knit, and I knit, and I knit, and then I forget to post photos of the finished items. In an effort to rectify this, I bring you yet another pair of socks:

These are destined to appear in someone's stocking on Christmas morning, but I'm not going to say whose. Notice that the toes do not appear pointed, nor are they finished with a 3-needle bind-off. Yes, folks, I have FINALLY learned the kitchener stitch! Yippee! And I finished these socks off a bit differently than normal. Instead of decreasing down to 8 stitches in total and then grafting, I started the decreases later in the foot area and decreased down to 28 stitches. Makes for a less pointed toe, and I believe a nicer look.

The yarn was purchased several years ago at the Knitter's Frolic, and is from Lana Grossa. As this was deeply discounted, I suspect it has been discontinued.

The gift exchange in which I participated has concluded and my exchange partner has received her gift. Consequently, I am able to show yet another pair of socks:

Altho not quite as boring as my plain-jane holiday socks, these are socks. Notice that the toes are more pointed than the first photo. These socks required a short-row toe and heel, and confirmed to me that I really don't enjoy doing this type of toe or heel. Give me a good heel flap any day. These socks were knit with Knit Picks wool ... discontinued.

I'm really beginning to sense a theme here. Why is it that as soon as I start knitting with a yarn/colour combination, it gets discontinued? From the last post, two of the projects are in a discontinued yarn, and two (so far) today. A girl could get paranoid ...

This past summer, I found some Debbie Bliss Cotton/Angora yarn in my stash, and a pattern called the Rusted Root from Zephyr. With a few tweaks, the yarn worked with the pattern, and I made this:
The pattern calls for a double-knitting weight yarn, and the Debbie Bliss yarn was really a worsted weight. I used the appropriate size needles for the yarn and made the small size. The result is a very, very nice sweater for me. I'm not accustomed to wearing such tight-fitting clothes, but everyone tells me that it fits beautifully. (I would, of course, expect Doug to like the close fit, so the fact that so many other folks also like it comforts me!) Again, the Debbie Bliss yarn has been discontinued.

While perusing the fall knitting magazines, I noticed that Elsebeth Lavold had a new book out. I immediately browsed my supplier's website and look what I found:
Not one, but two -- count 'em -- TWO new books! Elsebeth Lavold is one of my favorite designers. I love cables, and she has figured out how to incorporate cables into her designs without making the cables overpower the wearer. I especially enjoy The ThirdViking Knits Collection. My general rule of thumb is that if I find enough patterns in a book to bring the per pattern cost down to around $7 per pattern, I can buy it. At $27, this book needed only four designs to pique my interest.

That wasn't hard to do. In fact, I've sold three copies of this book in the store already ... and have folks still drooling -- er -- looking at it.

In fact, I liked one of the designs in this book enough that I am planning a knit-along for January:
(Better picture here) This design is called "Inggun" is made from a worsted weight yarn; if we can finish it off for March, would be a reasonable transition piece for winter to spring. Select your yarn now and get your needles cleared! I can't wait! (Hmm. Would it be cheating to start early so that I can "teach" this project? Should I trouble-shoot this design? Wanders off to fondle some wool ...)

Takin' care of business!

2009-09-25T14:41:00.003-04:00

Doug brought me some new batteries for my camera so that I could start taking pictures again. It's been a while, and I can tell this by looking at the blog and seeing the number of projects that I've finished and with no posted pictures.

First up, I bring you the Botanical Cardigan from Vogue Summer 2009. (The new batteries make for an extra-strong flash, as evidenced by my closed eyes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

The way the front fits makes anyone seem curvy. It's really flattering.

The back fits nicely too. I had toyed with the idea of not making the little bobble thingy in the centre of the back. However, that makes the back kind of saggy, which is NOT the intent. Turns out the bobble is generally higher than the back of a chair anyway, so the "bump" is not a factor.

I used 4 skeins of Misti Alpaca Cotton & Silk (worsted weight), in colour no. 3814. Actually, I used 3 and a half balls ... Truthfully, I could've/should've done a few more repeats of the border motif. A little extra length there would have been nice, but I was just SO DONE with the pattern. Helpful hints to anyone else who is making this -- don't be skimpy on the border! Also, there is errata on the Vogue Knitting website, so be certain to check that out as well.

At the Knitters & Weavers Fair in Waterloo (on September 12th) I saw the same cardigan with added sleeves. The knitter had used the same three-strand braid around the bottom of the sleeves as well. Nice touch that, but I'm really happy with my sleeveless version. Would I do it again? Oh yeah. The centre part is a blast. The outer ring probably would've been perfect car knitting, had I had a road trip planned at the time.

Another quick little project I've finished recently is this hat, destined for my brother David.

I used two balls of fun fur and one ball of Patons SWS, colour no. 70605(apparently discontinued). Two strands of fun fur for the ribbing (2"), then 2" more of ribbing in the Patons, switch to stockinette and away you go. This bright hat certainly cheered me up when it was in the store, and I am hoping it will cheer up my brother as well.

Over at Delphi Knit & Chat, we have just finished up a gift exchange. My secret pal was in Michigan (hi Kendra!), and she sent me some yummy candy and this lovely scarf. Cables and a wee bit of lace in between, and four sparkly buttons! The buttons instantly made me think of my mother, who had used similar buttons on a sweater for me years and years ago. Smiles!

The Milk Duds are gone, and the Good & Fruity are on the endangered list! Thanks, Kendra, for the package, Sandi for hostessing the exchange, and Carol Ann for hosting the forum!

Finally, a project which had been on my list for ages and ages, and which I am happy to report is finished. Well, almost finished. I worked 20 rows of garter stitch at the beginning of the blanket, so I must add 10 more rows of garter stitch to the end. All in good time. In the meanwhile, I get to claim it is "finished!"

This is a mock-cable pattern, worked in knits and purls only, and which gives the appearance of being cabled. A nice easy pattern, generously sized for a baby blanket, and made in Patons Canadiana, colour no. 138 (also discontinued).

Apparently, my making a store sample out of a colour guarantees it being discontinued.

More finished projects, more photos, more news, all in the upcoming weeks. I can only post five pictures at a time!

Also, David has had his first chemo treatment. It really knocked him for a loop and he is still feeling rather punky, but that is to be expected. For those of you who are keeping him in your thoughts and prayers, thank you.

Random Thursday

2009-09-17T14:05:00.002-04:00

Wow. That was a long radio silence. These last few weeks have been ... interesting ... in the Chinese proverb sense would be the easiest way to describe them.

The first biggest piece of news, and not good news, is that my elder brother has been diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma. This is a non-Hodgkins type and treatment is a real *itch. The last month has been spent waiting for e-mails with more news, worrying and praying for him. He has started treatment, as of yesterday afternoon, so we are all hoping that the newer treatments will result in a remission ... a very long remission. He has 6 rounds of chemo (parts A and B, thank you very much), followed by a bone marrow transplant. The doctors are hoping that he'll be able to transplant his own bone marrow (I know, that sounds so wrong, but it's the way these things are done) and achieve remission. Failing that, or sometime way down the road, they will be looking at his siblings, our father, and his daughter for a second transplant option. I now have a very impressive envelope with the necessary information. Living in Canada, however, I'm not real sure how the requisition will work with my local labs. Doug and I are contemplating a quick trip to Michigan (possibly staying overnight with Phyllis!) to have the blood drawn. Apparently there are places where you can register as a bone marrow donor; I encourage everyone to think about registering. The life you save might be -- yours, or my brother's!

I have finished the Botanical Medallion Cardigan from the summer Vogue. Unfortunately, I don't have photos yet. Something about dead/dying batteries in my camera, wrong clothing to model it, and a general failure to be my customary smiling self. Promise, though, that I'll get to it. Quickly.

I've also finished a hat which I'll be sending to my brother. Again, same problem with pictures, but I'll get one before I send it off. It is guaranteed to bring a smile to his face, which is the goal. There will be many more "chemo" hats sent to him. I really don't expect that he'll wear many of them, if any. What I'm hoping to do is to make him smile, or even laugh outloud. Laughter is the best medicine, and since I'm not local to him bringing a smile or a laugh from afar is the best I can do right now.

I've also finished an exchange gift for a secret buddy from Knit & Chat. Once again, problems with getting a photo, and even getting it mailed out. I still need to get a sweet treat to tuck in the envelope. Unfortunately, the really nice candy store in town here keeps the same hours I do. Makes it tough to get over there, ya know?

Carrie is off at University and enjoying herself immensely. The work is hard, and the schedule is far more intense than in high school. The good news, however, is that she feels really comfortable and "at home," which means that she'll do fine. She will be coming home next weekend to wrap up the details resulting from the fender bender in July; I'm looking forward to having her around, even for such a short time.

Speaking of the fender bender, the car is now repaired! Yippee! Now to start working that darn deductible back down -- I didn't know it, but my insurance company gave me a $50 reduction in collision deductibles for every policy period (annual) that there was no claim. We were down to $200 deductible when Carrie had her little accident. Hmm. Increase in rates AND a higher deductible. No one ever said having teens was going to be easy.

I'll try not to be so quiet in the future, and to get some batteries for my camera. Til then!

Carrie does coffee

2009-08-06T13:13:00.002-04:00

Remember a couple of posts back when I fell over in shock that Carrie was All Grown Up? Go ahead and look -- there are some stunning pictures of here there in her prom dress. June 29th was the prom -- a whole month and a bit ago.

Turns out that there is something else that means she's grown up. She does coffee now.

Well, sort of. You see, Carrie and coffee looks something like this:

Carrie sits at breakfast table with half bowl of Fruit Loops, almost snoring. When told that there is coffee, she sits up and her eyes open. She'll have to fix her coffee herself though, since only she knows how to make it correctly. That's OK -- she can do this.

Step one: Place three heaping teaspoons of hot chocolate mix in bottom of large travel mug.
Step two: Pour coffee, leaving 3/4" headspace in mug.
Step three: Stir vigorously, being careful not to spill.
Step four: Taste.
Step five: Add two more heaping teaspoons of hot chocolate mix, and stir.
Step six: Discover the last teaspoon of chocolate mix is stuck to spoon.
Step seven: Shoot patented "glare of death" look at mom, who is laughing.
Step eight: Shoot "death star laser beam of death" look at mom, who is now rolling on floor.
Step nine: Add milk and stir gently.
Step ten: Taste. Pronounce perfection.
Step eleven: Discover that lid of travel mug will not fit onto mug with this much beverage.
Step twelve: Shoot patented "glare of death" look at mom, who is once again on her feet but still laughing .
Step thirteen: Drink enough coffee from mug so that lid fits; place lid on mug; leave unattended to fetch knitting and purse.
Step fourteen: Moan loudly that mom has tasted coffee/chocolate.
Step fifteen: Subside into back seat of car, holding coffee with both hands to protect it from any more unwarranted "mom taxes."

There are no pictures of this event, mainly due to my laughing too hard to actually find and point a camera. But ... you know what? If you promise not to tell anyone that you read it here ... if you like coffee AND hot chocolate, this is a mighty fine combination. I'm so glad I -- er -- she discovered it!

In other news, I do note that I haven't done a recent count of current projects on needles. So here ya go:

1. Bulky cardigan -- being knit as a special order for a customer -- lacks three rows of the button band and it will be done, Done, DONE!

2. Great American Aran Afghan -- still no selection from my on-line group as to a square for August, so currently waiting that decision.

3 and 4. Double-knit Mittens -- have both skeins of yarn (retrieved from storage) so that I can proceed. These will be the class project for September, so I hope to finish them soon.

5. Mock cable baby blanket -- Half finished! Still need to write pattern.

6. Wavy-baby from Casbah -- finally unraveled and ready to start knitting again. If nothing else, it'll get worked on this weekend when we drive Carrie over to see her dad in Michigan.

7. Surprise present for my swap partner at Knit & Chat .

I have the Rusted Root to block, the Botanical Medallion to block, and the suri alpaca & silk shawl to block.

Apparently I am a little slow to the finish line these days.

Sometimes ...

2009-07-29T11:40:00.003-04:00

Many, many years ago my grandfather was a farmer out in Winnipeg. He brought a richness to my life from those experiences. A richness that I do often miss. I remember spending hours and hours with him in the flower gardens, drawing charts so that we would remember where things were, and him letting me choose flowers to plant. He had an earthy wisdom that meant a lot to me. I learned some very valuable lessons; lessons that I strive to pass on to my family and friends.

One saying that he did NOT impart, however, is this: Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. This little gem came from one of the newer animated movies, and I'm not certain which one. I *think* it was the Bee Movie, but having never seen it I can't be sure. I just know that I heard this line, and it resonated.

What does it mean? Well, sometimes you're the windshield (and life is good):

This is the Spring Flowers Cardigan from the May 2009 Creative Knitting. I used 8 balls of Filati Carezza, colour number 9, and the suggested needles (US 4 & 6). I expect the gauge is a wee bit off -- on the larger size -- but otherwise I'd say the cardigan is a success. One thing I have yet to accomplish is to sew the buttonholes a bit closed as the buttons I selected weren't quite as large as those envisioned by the designer. All in all, this was a fun and delightful romp.

Here we are, once again, the windshield:
This is a basic little hat made with two strands of fun fur and two skeins of Noro Kureyon. The fun fur was Schachenmayr Brazilia Lungo, no. 210, and On-Line Smash, number 0007, held together. The Noro was colour number 211. You might eek by with only one ball of Noro, but the balls seem to be running short of late and the second ball was a necessity. Of course, since I was breaking into a second ball, I lengthened the hat enough to completely cover my ears. Again, a truly delightful outcome.

And sometimes you're the bug (and get splatted all over the windshield):

This is Wavy Baby from the Spring Knitters. The design is flawless; the technique is likewise flawless. Does anyone see the problem? Yeah, I thought so too. The colours are different. Not different colourways, but different in intensity. One ball of yarn has obviously come from the beginning of the dyepot and the second from the end.

So having splatted unceremoniously against the windshield of the Knitting Gods, I will frog this one. My lovely husband feels that this could be salvaged if only I weren't so fussy; that no one will see the front AND back simultaneously, and thus frogging is not warranted. I, however, will KNOW that there is a mismatch on the colours. So a frogging I will go.

The project will be repeated -- I'll be using two rows of the intense colour followed by two rows of the faded colour. The yarn is way too nice to put away, and I like the design and colours. (The yarn, after all, IS Handmaiden Casbah.)

And so ... remember this little gem: Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug!

Man, this is an interesting summer.

2009-07-14T16:16:00.002-04:00

I don't know how things go at your house, but here at Under Construction the last six weeks have been extremely busy. Is there some phrasing to denote something worse than extremely? Because if there is, that's the word I want. Things have just been crazy.

Carrie has finished Grade 12. Watching her apply for university, be accepted for university, audition for the theatre program. These things should have made me feel old. But they didn't. These were just things that she, my baby, needed to do in order to progress to the next phase of her life. They just were things that she did.

The prom, on the other hand, is what brought home to me that she is pretty much grown up. She had her hair done, she donned the great party dress, the red shoes, the gloves. And grew up right in front of my eyes.

She also borrowed my camera to take to the prom with her. There are better shots on the camera at home, but they do make her look very grown up. Extremely grown up. (Sob) She was just a little, wee girl yesterday. I swear it!

In any event, with the camera off at the prom and a slight delay in getting it back, I wasn't really able to get photos of the knitting done in the meantime. But there has been knitting. Most of it is at home, awaiting or being blocked. But there is one piece here at the store:

This is the Betty Salpekar block from the Great American Aran Afghan.

When I started this afghan, I knew there would be difficult squares. In fact, I had heard that some knitters even took a whole month to finish some of the squares. I figured that since I do a lot of knitting at the store, that I'd have plenty of time to finish the squares. Two a month ought to be possible. And it HAS been possible ... right up until this square.

This square is knit in three main pieces: the centre portion, the cabled border, and then stitches picked up for the garter stitch edging. The centre part is a real humdinger. It is complex and challenging ... And when you finally figure out what the heck you are doing, you feel SO accomplished and professional.

The cabled border is a delight to knit. I love watching the corner turns develop. I just couldn't "ooh" and "aah" over it enough. Simply fascinating. This is how the border around the entire afghan will work. And it will be fabulous.

Having finished this square, I now feel confident that i will be able to finish this afghan. Possibly even this year, even though I do have nine more squares to knit. Eight squares will be from the pattern book; the ninth square will be a simple square with garter-stitch borders, and the year and my initials worked in reverse stockinette. At one per month, plus the border ... yeah, it can be done by the end of the year. The question is: Will it?

July Dishcloth of the Month

2009-07-01T22:44:00.001-04:00

SAILORS' RIB DISHCLOTH

Materials: One ball Bernat Handicrafter cotton; 4.5mm needles

Cast on 42 stitches. Work 6 rows of garter stitch (knit every row). Begin pattern:

Row 1 (right side): Knit 3 stitches, place marker (this is for the garter stitch border); Knit 1 through back loop; *purl 1, knit 2, purl 1, knit 1 through back loop; repeat from * to last three stitches; place marker (for garter stitch border), and knit last three stitches.

Row 2 (wrong side): Knit three stitches, slip marker; Purl 1; *knit 1, purl 2, knit 1, purl 1; repeat from * to last three stitches, slip marker, knit 3.

Row 3: Knit 3 stitches, slip marker; knit 1 through back loop; *purl 4, knit 1 through back loop; repeat from * to last three stitches; slip marker, knit 3.

Row 4: Knit 3 stitches, slip marker; purl 1; *knit 4, purl 1; repeat from * to last three stitches; slip marker, knit 3.

Repeat these four rows until work measures approximately 7 1/2 inches. Work 6 rows of garter stitch. Bind off. Run ends under.

So much to do--so little time

2009-06-12T13:32:00.003-04:00

Do you remember that breathless, don't-want-to-ever-be-parted, heart-pounding excitement of new love? Well, that's where I'm at with some of my knitting projects. The ones that I'm not passionately in love with ... well, they're just gonna have to deal. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my active projects.

First, there is the Botanica Medallion Cardigan from Vogue. We started this one Sunday afternoon at 2:00. I've knit the centre medallion, and am one-sixth of the way finished with the outer ring.

Misti International Misti Cotton ... doesn't get much better than this, I tell ya. Soft, supple, rich colour, fascinating pattern. Who wouldn't love it?

Next is the little lace cardigan from Creative Knitting. Back, both fronts, and half a sleeve. What's not to love here? A simple lace pattern that is easy to memorize and difficult to screw up. Nice colour, easy knitting. Again, what's not to love?
And then there's this little beauty. Rusted Root from Zephyr ... being knit in Debbie Bliss Cotton/Angora blend. I'm past the armholes, in case you can't see clearly.
A relatively simple 10-row lace pattern, yarn that absolutely glides over the needles, the absolute lush softness of angora, and a top-down sweater that will require little to no seaming. Life doesn't get any better, does it?

Or does it?
Handmaiden Casbah ... getting ready to be a little pull-over for summer wearing. Handmaiden is the knitter's crack, I swear. If it ain't the colours, it's the textures. They all feel like silk, or butter, or melted chocolate ... Compelling just isn't a strong enough word.

You know what really hurts about today? I have to go wind off yarns to drop into my gift bags for the Knit in Public picnic tomorrow. But I want to knit!!!!

The sooner I go wind off, the sooner I can come back to my knitting, right?

So many requests for pix

2009-06-08T18:03:00.002-04:00

So many, many folks have requested pix of the Botanical Medallion in progress, I just had to oblige.

Of course, first you have to see the purely gratuitous cat shot -- Lizzie flaked out on our bed:

Hard to believe the little one is 11 years old this summer.

Also, the Rusted Root WIP, with my hand added for gauge:
Finally, the Botanical Medallion, in its blurry glory:
This is through round 41 ... only a FEW rounds ago. A better shot tomorrow, I promise!

Another month, another list

2009-06-05T12:34:00.002-04:00

I have gotten in the habit of doing a count of my projects the first week of every month, and then posting them publicly. Here. The stated goal is to get back down to ... oh, I don't know ... 4 projects sounds reasonable. Two at the store, two at home. That sounds oh-so-reasonable. Doesn't it? Please tell me yes.

I don't even make a list of the projects for which I already have the yarn. That just sounds way too overwhelming for me. And discouraging. The old avoidance technique -- the list is too long, so I'll just avoid it. I do that with housework and stuff, so I think I'd probably do it with my projects as well.

But this, the first-of-the-month list ... It's motivational, in that I keep trying to whittle down the numbers. In that I can see clearly what's on my needles. In that I can see what it is I'm avoiding.

This month, I now number 10. Yes, 10. This is NOT a decrease. In fact ... well, we just won't go there.

There is the bulky cardigan for a customer. I have the back and two fronts completed. Sleeves are next, followed by the button bands. With a good movie, I could probably knock out one sleeve. Should be finished by the end of June.

The Noro hat. Well, I need to get this one finished so that I can display it for Christmas in July. Nothing difficult, just a knit hat with a little fun fur.

Great American Aran Afghan. Yes, well, I knew this would be a long-term project. The square for this month is the Salpekar square on page 24. I've heard lots about this square, ranging from "should be banned" techniques to amazingly difficult. I might just have to take this square home to knit.

There are still two pairs of double-knit mittens in alpaca. Again, I want to have them finished for display in July, so I've gotta get moving on at least one pair of these.

The mock cable baby afghan. The instructions are knit, it's just the knitting that's slowing me down.

The Rusted Root from Zephyr ... ah, yes. Knit in Debbie Bliss cotton and angora blend. Sigh.
I cast on for this one on Wednesday in the car, while Carrie was driving me home. Knit one round, then joined. 5 Rows later, at knit night at the store, I realized that I had been felled by the notorious "join, being careful not to twist." Rip. I started right back up, being careful not to twist, and am now on row 5. The yarn I'm using is thicker than the yarn for which the sweater was designed. I'm going to use the proper needle for the yarn and make the smallest size. The finished result will be a ladies medium, which is exactly what I need. Other than being navy blue (and consequently a little hard to see the stitches), this should be a fairly easy knit.

By the way, it's a top-down raglan, which means little to no finishing! Yippee!

There is a little drop-stitch top made from sock yarn in the spring Knitters. Casbah is SO tempting me ... The yarn is released from its stash hideaway and in the knitting bag, so I count this one as on the needles. Even though it's not.

On Sunday, we're going to start the Botanical Medallion cardigan from the summer Vogue Knitting. It's a knit-along project for the store, and I'm the leader. I probably should start this one ahead of time so that I can answer any and all questions.

Finally, there is a luscious alpaca and silk shawl that only needs the ends run under and blocking. Then it's finished. It seems I'm more of a project knitter than I want to admit, in that I just want to do the knitting and not the finishing. Wonder if there is a market in providing finishing services ... of course, I'd have to find someone to actually DO the finishing.

And finally, the one project that I managed to cross off my list in the last month:

Noro socks for Doug. These are intended as a "thank you" for him watching the store while I attended the Knitter's Frolic in Toronto. The colours of the Noro are delightful. Doug loves the wearing of the socks. I despise the knitting with Noro sock yarn. Twisty, tangled messes which require putting down the knitting and untangling. Grr. The pattern I used was a seed-stitch rib (4 knit stitches and 2 seed stitches), which I stopped two rows above the heels.

So ... there you have it. A more or less complete list of what's on my needles.

The siren call of of wool

2009-05-29T12:54:00.001-04:00

Having caught up with the on-line group of knitters doing the Great American Aran Afghan, I decided to take a break from knitting afghan squares and try my hand at something a bit different.

The truth of the matter is that Barb, who is also working on the afghan, said that if I didn't slow down she was gonna (sob) confiscate my pattern book! I wisely decided to take a wee break; after all, she IS younger than me. However, I advised her that I was only taking a break until June 1, which she thought was reasonable. Here's the fun part -- old age and treachery will overcome youth and innocence every time! June 1 is MONDAY! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

In the absence of a square to knit, I decided that the store definitely needed a new sample of Filatti Carezza. The May 2009 Creative Knitting had some lovely designs, and I had plenty of a really nice blue-green. Away I went.

This design is called Spring Flowers Cardigan, found on page 26. Considering I started this late last week, the fact that I've got the back AND most of the left front completed means that this is a really nice project. In fact, forget all the blustering about not liking Carezza. I'm really liking it these days.

My home knitting has been a wee bit frustrating lately. I've been trying to complete a super-bulky cardigan for a customer. I wasn't happy with the cable; I knit too few rows of ribbing; I knit too many rows of ribbing; I crossed the cables wrong ... Just plain frustrating. I don't love, love, love this project and it knows.

And just to make matters worse, my stash has been calling. Oh, has it been calling. More like screaming, actually. The problem is this: I have some really, really nice wool and yarn in my stash. Some of it has matured and is ready to come out and be knitted. Now, normally it matures one project at a time. This is good -- it lets me believe that I can get back to the one-project-at-a-time process. Not a LOT of variety in that you only have one project going, but man do you get a lot of finished objects!

The reality is that I'm never going to get back there. How do I know? Well, there are still 8 projects on needles, two waiting to be blocked; and then there is ...

Debbie Bliss cotton angora (sorry, it's discontinued) and the Rusted Root pattern from Zephyr Style. Technically speaking, the yarn is thicker than specified for the design; however, if I knit a smaller size it should end up fitting. I'll do the math first, but it looks like I can make the smallest size and have it fit me just fine. This little gem is knit from the top down, so there is minimal seaming. Nice, eh?

And THEN there's this little beauty:
Casbah from Handmaiden and a pattern from Knitter's Spring 2009 issue, requiring sock yarn. Mmmm. I knew there was a reason why the daughter got me the same colourway that I picked out last fall, and this is it.

The biggest question is which project will I start tonight. We're driving to Mississauga to see Tanglefoot in concert ... and there's a two-hour ride.

Just how big are those anyway?

2009-05-26T13:34:00.004-04:00

Not long ago, a very good friend of mine celebrated a milestone birthday. I'm not going to say WHICH milestone birthday ... except to say that it ends with a 0 and ... is larger than the size of the needles her wonderful husband made her for the big day.

Just how big are those needles anyway?

As you can see, it requires a lot of concentration to work these puppies!

Happy birthday, Barb! Thanks for being my friend and a great sport!

Woman on fire!

2009-05-22T11:44:00.003-04:00

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Woman on fire!

Well, not EXACTLY on fire, but certainly getting caught up in a hurry!

Below are the Suzanne Atkinson and Ginger Smith squares, bringing me totally up to date with my knit-along group on Knit 'n Chat.

The Atkinson Square (page 28) was a lot of fun to knit and watch the church and tree take shape. I must admit that once the decreases for the church roof started, at no time did I have the proper number of stitches between the tree and the church. Everything worked out all right in the end -- as in the church and the tree did not collide, and no one will be the wiser except me. And everyone who reads the blog. It really was a well-charted square, and I enjoyed it.

The Ginger Smith square (page 40) was another square which I wasn't that keen to make. I had quickly read through the directions and was totally put off by the idea of knitting the thing in sections. Why would you do that, when the cables and such all ran the same direction? Since I don't have a love-thing with seaming, it just seemed to be a bit much. In fact, I had decided that I WOULD knit it in one piece when the time came.

The time came, and I read the directions more carefully. As in actually READING and not skimming at a preposterously high rate of speed. You see, there is a reason for knitting the square in sections. There is a little raised knit stitch between each of the cable patterns -- a raised stitch made by slipping a stitch every other row and then knitting the slipped stitch along with a picked-up stitch.

The light came on, the room grew bright and I understood. And knit the square in sections.

The added bonus of knitting this square in sections like this is that you only have to read one chart at a time. This sure makes finding where you are easy, and enjoyable.

I now have 16 squares knit, of the 25 I need for my afghan. The pattern only provides 24 squares, so I was trying to decide which square to duplicate. Then a friend had a brilliant idea. Why not make a square with my initials and a date? Like I said ... brilliant.

What's really interesting to me is that ... even as much as I dislike seaming my projects together ... I'm actually looking forward to sewing this baby together! Who would've suspected, eh?

Long weekend in May

2009-05-15T14:08:00.002-04:00

I am finding that my days go by entirely too quickly. After all, it is the long weekend in May, which is the traditional kick-off to summer. Summer. Wasn't it just yesterday that we celebrated Easter?

In any event, I have been working diligently on the Great American Aran Afghan for my knit-along. In the past 10 days or so, I've finished another two squares -- the Judy Sumner square and the Susan Rainey square.

The Rainsey square was the square that made me lust to make this project. A miniature aran sweater on an afghan square! How cool!
Now, I'm not saying that I am disappointed in the entire project. I am just gonna say that I found this square to be a let-down. The square is knitted first ... 10.5 inches of mostly stockinette stitch. What a yawner! Then comes the tiny sweater. Following the directions, I used 3.75mm needles and knit the sweater front and one sleeve. Sewed the sleeve to the front. Lovingly placed the sweater onto the square.

I admit that I had been thinking all along as I knit the sweater "This is kind of big;" and "this doesn't look like it's going to fit;" and "Yowza! This is looking pretty large!" Seeing in real life that the sweater wasn't going to fit -- no how, no way -- well, there just aren't enough polite words that can express my emotions.

I ripped the sweater back and started up again on 3.25mm needles. As you can see, the sweater fits as the designer intended. But doing the trinity stitch on 3.25mm needles with knitting worsted? Not a chance. I switched to a double moss stitch and decreased the centre panel by 2 stitches to accommodate the design change. Unless you look carefully, you won't see the alteration. This had the added benefit of making the sweater fit the square ... otherwise I'd have been ripping yet again.

The Judy Sumner square didn't really catch my eye, nor my imagination. In fact, it was a square that I had thought of not doing. Spider? On my afghan? I squash every spider I come across inside my house. So to put a spider on my afghan just seemed sort of sacreligious.

When the knit-along group decided to make this square I was less than enthused. In keeping with the spirit of the knit-along, I grabbed my needles and wool and started.

To my surprise, I found that I quite enjoyed it. Seeing the spider emerge was fun. Putting the wings on the bugs in the spider web was way too much fun. That part happened during a weekly knitting group meeting here at the store, and everyone was entranced. Myself included.

I guess it just goes to show that you can't be certain about the things you will like, or won't like, to knit. Keeping an open mind will lead to plenty of surprises ... in knitting as well as life.

Amelia's Dress

2009-05-12T11:21:00.002-04:00

A while back I was at The Yarn Garden and saw this little dress pattern. Since I had a young niece at the time (3 months old, actually!), I picked up the pattern and yarn. I especially loved the hat.

Turns out that my niece isn't so much a hat fan. And I kind of ... got busy (yeah, that's it, busy, not forgetful!) ... and didn't get around to knitting it up. In the meantime, my niece was growing quickly. After all, the difference between 3 months and 2 years is pretty drastic.

With that in mind, I figured that this summer was the last chance I'd have to knit this puppy and have it worn by the intended recipient. A quick perusal of the pattern seemed to indicate that if I knit the dress with no hat I'd have enough. Since Amelia doesn't much like hats, it seemed like a great plan.*

I was correct -- I had just enough yarn to make the dress. With about 12 meters of the white to spare, in fact. I started this project the last week of April, and here it is, the second week of May, and it's done. Simple, straightforward ... and fun.

Details: Gussied-up Toddler Dress & Hat from Vermont Organic Fiber Co.; two skeins each of blue & red and one skein of O-Wool Balance and a size 4mm needle. I did modify the pattern a wee bit around the neckline. I was supposed to do a row of crab stitch; I don't like crab stitch at all, so I opted to do a mini-shell row instead. (Three SC in one stitch, skip one stitch, repeat.)

Now to drop this baby into a box and ship it to my niece ...

*Turns out that my Amelia's parents have been working on the whole hat thing. She is a pale blonde child and needs the sun protection ... Oh well ... Wonder if The Yarn Garden has any more of that yarn left.

Catching up

2009-05-01T15:51:00.002-04:00

Over at Knit 'n Chat (Delphi forums), one of the ladies organized a knit-along of the Great American Aran Afghan. Since I was starting a knit-along at the store, I signed up. Was going great guns, in fact. Then somewhere last fall I bogged down. I'm not sure why ... that's not correct. I know why. On-line, the ladies selected two squares that I had already done. Since I didn't need to hurry and push myself, I kind of ... slacked off. That was August. Since then, the group has knit up 7 more squares ... of which I already had two. You do the math -- I don't want to admit how far behind I am.

In any event, I decided it was time to buckle down and get busy. For your viewing pleasure, I present:

On the left is the Berztiss square, directions on page 48. It was a fun knit, presenting no real problems. The four-stitch decreases were interesting; if you followed the directions one step at a time, the instructions were spot on.

On the right is the Martin square, directions on page 36. There are three charts to this square: chart A provides the cabled rope; chart B is the fishing net; and chartC is the fish. I don't mind having multiple charts; in fact, having multiple charts can make knitting the squares easier. The problem is when the designer (or editor of the book) tries to cheap out on the charts. For instance, in this square the directions state "knit 19 stitches in pattern established ..." OK, fine. That means the 3-stitch garter border, the 6 stitches for chart A and the 14 stitches from Chart B, followed by chart C, B and A, and the border. Uh, no. What that really means is the border, chart A and part of chart B ... all of chart C ... part of chart B, chart A and then the border. Deciding where to end in Chart B was no problem; after all, 10 stitches is 10 stitches. Unfortunately, it took several tries to figure out where to restart the pattern in chart B at the conclusion of chart C. I may be slow to figure these things out ... but I may also have a point that the designer/editor could've and should've included those first and last 10 stitches with chart C and made everyone's lives a little easier.

You know the worst part of it? Several customers have come in and looked at the square and commented how cool it is that there's a pineapple square for the afghan.

In other knitting, I have finished yet another pair of socks destined for someone's holiday stocking. This particular pair has a seed-stitch rib for the leg portion, which made the project more interesting than a plain stockinette stitch leg. You know what is really, really cool though? These are identical socks. Without any attempt on my part to make them so. They just turned out identical.

Go ahead. Admire the awesomeness that is my first (and only) pair of identical, self-patterning socks. I still am, and they've been off the needles for a couple of days now.

The yarn is Super Soxx, colour no. 630.0057. I purchased it at the 2008 Knitter's Frolic for half price, possibly because it was being discontinued? Does anyone know if this yarn is still available? It is really nice sock yarn. The colours are gorgeous, and right now I have several potential giftees making a pitch for ownership.

Speaking of the Knitter's Frolic ... the 2009 Frolic occurred this past weekend. Four carloads of knitters from my shop made it the Frolic. A good time was had by all, some goodies purchased (I only bought one skein of Noro sock yarn #S217 and a skein of Misti Alpaca Suri Silk, to match a left-over skein of #SP08 in my stash), and lots of fondling was performed. Shown here is one chance encounter of two of the carloads:

Dorothy, Cathy, Dot, Barb, Sharon and Linda. I, of course, am taking the photo ... and Irene was too busy at the Indigo Moon booth for the photo. Also seen at the Frolic but not photographed were Sue, Pat and Christine. (Hi ladies!)

Last Weekend

2009-04-29T11:08:00.004-04:00

That was some storm Saturday evening, eh? Doug and I watched it blow across the lake, obliterating our view of Seven Mile Island. The winds were amazing, kicking up whitecaps on the waves. The wind very kindly cleared off the winter debris from the roof over the dining room, too, saving Doug a trip up.

Carrie drove home after her shift at the grocery store. She walked in and calmly announced that a "car was squashed by a tree." Not our car, thankfully. She was duly impressed with the strength of the winds. We were too ... and then we ventured out into the big wide world.

It is said that everyone gets 15 second of fame. The gentleman that owns this particular vehicle just found his:

Note that all four tires on this Caravan are still inflated. Yes, the frame is touching the ground in the middle. Thank heavens that no one was sitting in the van as the tree fell.

Doug and I tried a bicycle ride at Long Sault Conservation Area on Monday. No photos, because we didn't take the camera. But there were at least 12 trees across the trails ... several of them really, really big trees. One section of the trail was blocked about every 75 feet by a felled tree. Again, really impressive.

What else did we do last weekend? We visited with some friends, whose daughter has learned to knit. (At Never Enough Wool, coincidentally! ;-) ) Her latest project is this cute tea cozy.

I've gotta knit a tea cozy. There are just too many cute ones out there.

Another one bites the dust!

2009-04-24T15:21:00.002-04:00

Another listing of what's on the needles, that is.

So I started the month with 8 items on the list. ... Added another pair of mittens to the list ... I added a cute little dress for my niece (I have enough yarn to make a size 2, and she's rapidly approaching that size so I better get to it, eh?) ...

I DID, however, finish one item. Ta da!

This is "Benedict" from Jane Ellison's Queensland Collection. I dutifully knit a gauge swatch; achieved gauge; and started knitting a large. Um ... no. That would have fit an elephant. Since the gentleman in question was not nearly that size, I thought it prudent to listen to the knitting and take a second look. Still knitting to gauge, mind you, but the pattern was coming out way, way too large.

Frogged it and started again, but making the medium instead of large. Still knitting to gauge. Interesting notes to self regarding this pattern, to-wit:

The design was designed and test knit for the small size. (No problem--it's what I would've done myself.) How do I know? Because the picture in the book clearly shows that the cable panel running along the front v-neck is a full cable panel. Also, and this is the part that really got me steaming, the designer states that she "asked my knitter on this one to work all neck decreases 15 sts in from the neck edge ..." Um, well, great. But why didn't you write the pattern that way?
And besides, following the directions caused me to split the centre cable panel and doing all decreases in 15 sts from the edge would have had me making decreases in the middle of the cable panel, not the way she pictured it. In addition, I ended up having a cable panel go all the way to the edge of the design ... the designer envisioned having one purl edge stitch, hence the 15 stitches instruction.

After ripping out the front right section several times, I finally got a look I was happy with. Finished the knitting, and blocked the sweater before attempting assembly. (To make sure that the vest would fit the gentleman for whom it was intended in reality, but I claim that it was to make the assembly work better!)

Again, following the directions provided, I picked up the requisite number of stitches for the v-neck ribbing. Row 1 was fine. How hard can knit 2, purl 2 ribbing be? Apparently more difficult than I thought as I had to tink back to correct the sequencing. The second row, however ... the designer asked you to knit down one side of the v, decrease in the purl stitches before the centre front, then decrease again in the next purl section, AND decrease again in the next purl stitches. Three decreases, not centred? Uh ... no. Fortunately I caught that little discrepancy before I had actually done it.

The yarn I used was Twilley's Freedom Spirit, in colour no. 517, and a total of 8 balls. I used 4.00mm needles for the entire project, and as stated earlier, achieved gauge of 28 sts - 10cm over the pattern stitch.

Currently, I'm knitting a square for the Great American Aran Afghan -- the Dagmara Berztiss square, and am approximately 25% done.

Tomorrow ... the Knitter's Frolic in Toronto. Should be fun getting there as the Don Valley Parkway is closed. I just love road construction season!

Life lessons ...

2009-04-22T11:18:00.001-04:00

Life lessons can be painful. Life lessons can be expensive. Life lessons can be traumatic. Unfortunately for me, the latest lessons have been painful, expensive and traumatic. Fortunately, not many of these lessons are all three at the same time. The latest, however ...

The biggest lesson I have learned relates to my shop, Never Enough Wool. Previously I had stated with great excitement and enthusiasm that we would be moving. Now in the cold, harsh light of reality and lawyer bills I have to say that no, we will not be moving. I'm hopeful that my lawyer can recover the deposit, the loss of which has greatly hindered my cash flow. Failing that, I'm hopeful that my lawyer can prevent the (*in my humble opinion) snake-like landlord from cashing the second cheque given in deposit. You see, what I thought was an earnest money deposit the aforementioned SLL (*) has interpreted to mean that the APPLICATION TO LEASE was in fact a lease agreement and he gets to keep all the cash. I'm still waiting to hear back from my lawyer ... and in fact I have issued a stop-payment on the second cheque. Now it is a waiting game, and those of you who know me well understand how difficult waiting patiently is for me.

I keep telling myself that there are folks in a lot worse straights than I. Deep in my heart, I know that too, and understand it. It just hurts so damn much to think that I was gullible enough to sign an application to lease without understanding all the implications; that I was gullible enough to hand over the equivalent of three months' rent to someone who appears to be less than honorable; that I was stupid enough to just flush that kind of money down the drain. After all, think of all the yarn I could buy with that kind of cash!

Waiting is so hard.

To assist me in whiling away the hours of waiting I decided to finish up one of the projects on my list. To be specific, the black alpaca mittens that were started way long ago. Initially they were planned for Doug for skiing. Unfortunately, the mitten when finished was too small. (It actually fit me, what a shame, eh?) So I stopped knitting with black alpaca and moved onward to some green alpaca. Doug got his mittens and aside from the green dye running onto his hands when his hands get sweaty, he loves them. I thought that a quick mitten and I'd be able to cross the project off the list.

This brings me to my second recent life lesson.

When putting a project aside, be absolutely positively certain to make notes to yourself so that you know what size needle you are supposed to be using when you come back. Now, instead of crossing off a project I actually have to make two mittens. And added another project to my list.

You tell me -- is this a painful or a traumatic lesson?

MORE finished items!

2009-04-02T12:29:00.002-04:00

Did I mention that I was teaching a "learn to knit socks" class at the Uxbridge Library? I think I did ... since most of the students there were learning to knit socks on double-pointed needles, I decided to knit a pair of socks on them as well. I should do this periodically since it reminds me just why I love magic loop so much.

In any event, I knit up a pair of socks beginning the second week in February, and finishing up just this past week. The yarn is Briggs & Little*, self-dyed into a striping pattern. The pattern was the standard vanilla sock, knit on 2.5mm needles. Sized to fit ... ?? After all, I DID miss giving out socks for Christmas this past year.
The dye we used for this particular workshop was RIT powdered dye, and apparently rather old. There is supposed to be some orange in there, but it came out terribly faded. The yellow is rather washed out as well. Since then, my cohorts in dying and I have switched over to newer dyes and it does seem to be working well.

Another project that was finished up is this mosiac tee top from the from the Summer 2008 issue of Interweave Knits.
I used 5 balls of Butterfly Super 10 Cotton (two of the cream, two green {3766} and one of the light green {3777}) and the suggested needles (3.75 and 4.5mm). I didn't quite achieve qauge, but that turned out to be quite fine since I had cast on for a larger size than I really needed.

Even though this looks like fair isle work, it was not difficult. The mosaic technique means that you are working with only one colour per row and slipping the stitches that need to be a different colour. Very easy.

Everyone who has seen this top modeled and not have all loved it. Now for some warmer weather so I can wear it ...

Still no firm moving date for the shop. The probable new landlord and I are now in negotiations. Yahoo!

*The lady who ran the dying workshop wherein I dyed the yarn couldn't remember if she had ordered the sock-weight yarn with or without nylon reinforcement. I guess I'll figure it out by how well (or not) the socks wear.

Carol's Correctional Corner for Knits

2009-03-26T16:18:00.002-04:00

After unraveling and knitting, and unraveling and knitting, and unraveling and knitting the Knit One Below vest, I did finally finish it. And I have to admit that the problems I had with this project were entirely of my own making. (Dang, I hate to admit that in public!)

The design itself was published in Knitter's Winter 2008 issue. Instead of the chunky/worsted combination of wool suggested, I used a worsted/DK combination and was able to get gauge immediately using a 4.5mm needle. According to my knitting bag, I used two skeins of Twilley's Freedom Spirit and one of Cascade 220 Heather (colour no. 513 & 2434 respectively). Of course, I don't have the vest here right now, so I can't weigh it to see if that is correct. I know that the vest didn't require a lot of mileage, but I'm finding it a bit strange that I used so little wool. My guesstimate would be three balls of Twilley's and two of Cascade, but what do I know?

In any event, it was quite a nice knit once I learned to pay attention to where I put my needles. Apparently there is a knit-one-below book just published that has some to-die-for patterns. My intrepid friend Barb has the book and will share with me ... but not until next week. Grumble.

In other news, and this is momentuous news, there will be some changes happening here at Never Enough Wool in picturesque Port Perry. The shop will be moving! Just down the street, so there isn't a lot of distance involved. Actually, it's only something like 300 feet or thereabouts (three football fields). The bonus? My shop space will be doubled, I will have all my yarn storage on-site, I'll have plenty of room for knitters for my classes and knitting nights (and crochet nights!), and the parking lot gets thoroughly plowed regularly in the winter.

Moving day will be sometime during the last week of April. Fortunately there isn't a lot that needs to be done to the unit -- a bit of blue paint on the walls, the floor needs to be stripped and waxed ... that's about it. Of course, there will be at least one trip to Ikea for more shelving units, and then the fun of moving boxes and boxes of yarn along with the existing inventory. My Wednesday afternoon group have all volunteered to help with the move ... Somehow I don't think that too few hands is gonna be a problem.

Doncha just hate it when ...

2009-03-12T10:29:00.001-04:00

good knits go bad?

March 7, 2009

2009-03-07T17:36:00.004-05:00

It has been an interesting and busy week at our house. First, the daughter had two, count-em, TWO, auditions for university. The first was for Ryerson, which went well but she isn't crazy about attending there. The second was at York University, and it didn't go as well as she would have liked ... only to discover that perhaps, maybe, she might have liked to attend there. Ah well. Where she REALLY wants to attend, the University of Toronto, has already accepted her via early admissions to their Fine Arts program. She now is in the throes of the audition woes for the drama program.

In addition to the audition trauma, there was the Improv competition to contend with. This year, the team was in the Robo-Ghost Zone of the Canadian Improv Games (CIG) organization. They came in first place, which was a tremendous position for the team. The photo below is the tableau scene from the Zone competition ...
The Regional competition occurred just this past week. Unfortunately, the team was eliminated entirely from progressing further. They missed the wild card round by two whole points. Bummer, eh? At least they had fun, and we parents were treated to three nights of improv comedy.

In further news, I finished the Infernal Hat. This is the hat I was knitting for Doug in the double-knit technique. I believe the wool really wanted to be socks, or perhaps mtitens. Instead, I forced it to become a hat. It had its revenge -- I had to restart three times; then after seaming it up, I had to unstitch the seam and add length. Twice. I have now decreed that the thing is DONE. If it doesn't fit Doug, I'll FIND someone it'll fit.

I also finished the baby gift for my neighbour. Tada! This is the ribbed, hooded sweater from McCalls Super Baby Book (circa 1979). I started this sweater on the 7th of February. It has actually been finished for about a week, but I've just now gotten around to photographing and talking about it. A three week sweater -- not bad.

The yarn is Maypole from Coats & Clark, found in my stash. The needles were 5.5mm, so the stitches moved right along. I used 2 skeins and a bit ... hard to say exactly how much since I started with a partial skein and ended with another partial skein.

So how many projects does this leave on my needles? Um ... 9. I really need to start finishing things before starting new ones!

There WERE 9 projects going.

2009-02-13T17:58:00.002-05:00

Last time we chatted, there were 9 projects on the go. Yes, 9 projects. Me of the one-at-a-time mentality. It does stretch one's mind, trying to figure out which project to work on next. At the store, there's no problem. I just switch every day and so the Mosiac Tee and the Reversible Vest progress nicely. The alpaca mitten will just have to wait until I finish these two, and THEN it'll get to come out to play. Same for the Great American Aran Afghan.

At home? Well, that's an entirely different story. Carrie's afghan is so large it can only be knitted on at home. Doug's hat? Well ... there's just not a whole lotta love there right at the moment, so it is kind of shoved down to the bottom of the bag. Besides, we weren't home much last weekend. Driving to and from Orangeville, and then Doug and I took a day trip.

So what DID I knit on in the car? Just this:

My neighbours are expecting a bouncing baby girl in early March. Since he sometimes plows out the end of the driveway, it seems only fitting that I make a little something for the new arrival. This will be a hooded sweater from a very old McCalls baby magazine. 8 hours of driving time equals 5 inches of fabric. In my defense, this is a knit-one-below pattern. If it had been straight ribbing, it would've been 10 inches long. Or more. (That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.) Another half an inch and I get to work the armhole shapings!

Aside from the 4 hours for the Orangeville trip, where did Doug and I go? We headed off on Sunday morning (OK. It was 11:30 so technically it WAS still morning!) to Dorset. The goal was to have a ski at the Leslie Frost Centre. Perhaps the conditions would be ski-able, perhaps not. If not, we'd have had a nice scenic drive. Fortunately for us, the conditions were passable. (This means that although the trails were somewhat icy, they weren't completely glazed. And there was a skim of fresh snow.) The most exciting news of all is that I actually skied the BEAR TRAIL! 8.1 kilometres of trail altogether! And a warm-up hut to which I'd never been! And new hills to challenge! The even MORE EXCITING NEWS--I successfully skied down two hills that I'd never conquered before! YIPPEE! YAHOO!

A note to folks who hate winter -- Doug and I are doing our snow dance every night now so that I can go ski again at the Frost Centre! Just don't you be doing your sun dance until I get one more ski! Please!

Monday is generally a day off for me and the store is closed. This week, however, Carrie had to be at school at the unholy hour of 8:00 am for an Improv rehearsal. After dropping her off, I went back to the shop and cleaned. 3 hours worth. The behind the counter area looks amazing and well organized. Of course, the challenge will be to keep it that way.

Monday evening saw me off to the Uxbridge Library to teach a class on knitting socks. Of course, if you are teaching how to knit socks, one must have a pair of socks on needles for demonstration purposes. Really! It is a necessity!

Which means that I was forced to start another pair of socks. Forced, I say. No choice in the matter whatsoever. Well, a choice of whether to use Magic Loop or double-pointed needles. Since the majority of my students were using DPNs, I decided to use them too.

The yarn is Briggs & Little sock yarn which I hand-dyed many moons ago. Now that I've started, I'm way curious to see how the pattern works out!

Stay tuned -- Let's see if I can manage to stop adding new projects! (Hmmm ... the new Crofter yarn from Sirdar is pretty insistent ...)

HOW many projects do I have going?!

2009-02-07T10:29:00.002-05:00

Way back last November, I made a list of the projects I had on the go, and was astounded to discover that I was up to 14 projects. Yes, 14. And then I finished two of them so was down to 12. That felt pretty good, I must say. So since then, I have been dutifully crossing off finished projects. My list was looking pretty darned good. I thought. And then I finished a couple of projects ...

I'm going to blame my forgetfulness on the vagaries of pre-menopausal hormones. (There's GOT to be SOME advantages to aging, right?) ~~Several~~ Many projects apparently had not been added to the list as they were started. Admittedly they were store projects, and I seem to always have socks on the needles. Do socks count? As stash, sock yarn doesn't count so it does stand to reason that sock projects shouldn't count. Right? (she asks hopefully!)

In any event, my list of on-going projects currently is at 9. The black alpaca mittens from last November, the Great American Aran Afghan also from last November, a mosaic tee-top from the Summer '08 Interweave Knits newly added, the Knit 1 Below reversible vest from the Winter '08 Knitters also newly added, the Misti Alpaca/Silk shawl which only needs blocking (Carol, get BUSY!), Carrie's afghan which still needs another pattern repeat to make her happy, a baby gift for my neighbour's new arrival (the husband sometimes plows out the end of our driveway), creation of a pattern for a baby afghan for the store--this was on the list back in November, and newly resurrected on the list--Doug's accursed wool hat. That's 9.

But I DID finish these:

These are the Celtic Braid Socks (pattern #157) from Cabin Fever. I have wanted to knit these puppies for several years. In fact, one of my friends saw the pattern and acquired it and has knit three or four pairs (that I know of) since I first fell in love. Now, I HAVE knit them! I used approximately 75g of wool, which was half the requirement stated on the pattern. And yet the socks are plenty big, so I just don't know how accurate either the ball bands were, or the pattern. The wool is identified as Bouqet sock & Sweater, presumably purchased from Eatons many eons ago. I got it at a yard sale so I really have no idea as to the provenance.

I must admit that the cable panel gave me fits. I guess I've gotten so accustomed to knitting brainless socks that actually having to count rows was a fair shock to my poor hormone-befuddled brain. (That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!) In any event, I did get the socks finished, reasonably accurately, and I'm quite pleased with them.

Will I reknit the pattern? Yeah, I think I will. While it did cause me some angst, the outcome was well worth it. (As evidenced by Doug looking longingly at the socks and hoping that he will find them in HIS Christmas stocking next December!)

Another project recently finished is the Eyelets Squared Vest from June '07 Knit 'n Style. I used Filati Fantasia Carezza from Diamond Yarns -- 5 skeins to be exact -- and achieved gauge on the 5.5mm needles specified in the directions.

This was a fun project to knit and the instructions were reasonably clear. The most difficult part of the whole shebang was in getting the second tier of blocks lined up over the first after the horizontal eyelet row. I finally used stitch markers and viola! Everything worked beautifully. I'm kind of wondering about making another vest in a different colour ... this would be a marvelous summer top. Of course, the vest must live in the store as a sample for a few months (isn't it amazing how store samples seem to magically fit someone in my family?!), but by then it'll be summer and just in time for wearing!

In other news ... Tanglefoot has announced that 2009 will be their last year. This means that our previous 2-hour rule* has been expanded to a 3-hour rule. Tonight after closing the shop at 5:00 pm, we'll be driving to Orangeville to see the guys (and gal) perform. Gotta see them every opportunity we can, doncha know. Not doing anything tonight at 8:00? Come on down to Orangeville! The show will be fantastic!

The last bit of extremely exciting news (for me and my household anyway) is that Google Maps actually can pinpoint the location of Never Enough Wool -- and has a little flag to mark the spot! Carrie was bouncing off the ceilings as she told about this miraculous discover. Considering that my bedroom has multiple slopes in it, this was ... um ... rather exciting at 11:00 pm. (Picture a pinball game and she's the little bouncing ball ...)

Hope to see lots of folks at the Tanglefoot concert tonight. In the meantime, I'm off to see if I can finish another project or two off my list -- before starting a new one!

*2-Hour Rule: If Tanglefoot is playing in a venue to which we can drive in 2 hours or less from home, we attend.

Ooops!

2009-01-22T18:48:00.000-05:00

Ooops!I tried so hard not to do that, and I did it anyway.

The things you find in your knitting basket ...

2009-01-09T17:14:00.002-05:00

I finished a project at the store. This prompted my digging through the basket to clean up the clutter and detritus of a finished project. You know, the ball wrappers, dropped stitch markers, cable needles and such. Apparently, I haven't cleaned out the knitting basket for a while.

How do I know this? Because I found these --

Two, count 'em, TWO squares for the Great American Aran Afghan that I haven't labeled and talked about. And I know for a fact that I finished these two squares sometime back in early November. Possibly even late October.

On the left is the Barbara McIntire square, found on page 44 of the book. My notes indicate that I found it delightfully easy to knit. Also, there are no notations as to corrections so apparently it was accurately written. Nice.

The square on the right is Ann McCauley square, found on page 38. Again, I find no notations as to problems with directions, so it must have been fairly straightforward and accurately written. I do recall that I dislike working bobbles and this particular square has a ton of them. Two different kinds, actually, just to keep you on your toes.

The knit-along group for this afghan over at Delphi Knit 'n Chat is two squares ahead of me ... perhaps three by now. I think one of the squares I am behind is one that I've already knit so that'll help me get caught up. I am hopeful that by the end of January I can claim to be back with the group. After all, hope does spring eternal and all that blarney.

The project which I finished and which spurred the dive to the depths of the knitting basket is this little set:
One of my customers is knitting for the wee ones whose parents are clients at The Refuge in Oshawa, Ontario. I told her that I'd help and started knitting. All of the pieces come from directions found in Newlands Baby Book volume 12, circa 1955 or thereabouts. The cardigan is pattern no. 81 -- the cable is actually one I'd never worked before. There are nine stitches; the first three stitches are placed on a cable needle and held in back while the next three stitches are knit, then moved to the front while the NEXT three stitches are knit; and finally, the three stitches from the cable needle are worked. Pretty much a braid, in reality. Way cool. The hat comes from pattern no. 82, and the mittens from pattern 57. All are worked in Sirdar Snuggly 4-ply in colour 317. I am really happy with how well this project turned out. I am hoping that the wee one at The Refuge enjoys the wearing of it.

And with great fanfare and delight, I bring you this:
This is a double-knit hat, without a pattern, for Doug. I tried three times before I finally got the right number of stitches and length. The wool is Isle of Harris DK Scottish wool, which my step-daughter and her mother brought back from Scotland. It is an interesting wool with which to work. It feels really coarse, and I did in fact knit too long with it a couple of times and ended up with bleeding friction burns on my fingers. This despite the lanolin still contained in the wool. It did withstand the trips to the frog pondwithout even a whimper, so I am very pleased about that. Doug tried on the hat and pronounced it wonderful--surprisingly not scratchy.

I think the wool would have preferred to be a pair of heavy boot socks. I had even told Doug that if the hat didn't work out this time that was it--I was going to frog it and make socks. Perhaps this is why the hat fits "perfectly"?

In any event, I used approximately 100 grams of the 193 gram ball. I am wondering if I dare make a smaller hat with the remainder.

In my next entry -- exciting details about the new summery, cotton vest I started!

Whew!

2009-01-02T16:12:00.003-05:00

The holidays certainly are a frantic time of year. Shopping, baking, cards, wrapping, traveling, visiting ... It's so difficult to catch one's breath over the holidays, let alone remember to blog.

I do wish for you and yours a safe, healthy and happy 2009, filled with good times, good memories and plenty of wool.

This holiday season found Doug, Carrie and I traveling to Michigan to visit. My eldest was in town from Virginia, my middle child was in town, and the daughter was amenable to splitting Christmas Day between her father and myself. So we ventured out through the snow and howling winds to Montague, Michigan, where we rented the extended stay suite at the Weathervane Inn. This turns out to have been a stroke of genius on our part; basically we had a small apartment at our disposal, complete with a private bedroom and full kitchen. I put together a casserole on Christmas eve and we baked it the following morning. All three kids and a spouse (hi, Coris!) came for breakfast and gifts. We had a wonderful time catching up and visiting. Turns out that it has been about 8 years since the three kids had been together for Christmas. Gifts were exchanged and the kids returned to their dad's home.

Doug and I continued on down to the Battle Creek area to visit my family. Typical hotel -- bed, bathroom and that's all there was. We were able to spend some time on Christmas Day at my brother's home. Boxing Day saw us at my youngest brother's house to celebrate with all the sisters and brothers who live nearby, along with my father and step-mother. Two of my three kids came down from Muskegon as well, which was a bonus. Again, gifts were exchanged, food eaten, memories created, and a good time was had by all.

Saturday we drove home. Once again, in pretty crummy weather. Doug wonders why our travels to the western side of Michigan always result in bad weather. I have to keep reminding him that we invariably travel to Muskegon for either American Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November) or Christmas. Both of these holidays fall during the dark days of winter weather; hence, I can pretty well guarantee that we will be driving through crud. Ah well. Perhaps he'll forget enough that I can convince him to repeat our performance next year ...

In any event, all that driving resulted in some pretty intensive knitting time for me. Doug is a far better driver than passenger, so I let him drive while I knit and keep him company. My first accomplishment of the trip was the completion of these socks:

Perhaps these will become a stocking stuffer for some unwitting child next year ... or perhaps not. Only time will tell! The wool was purchased at the Knitters Frolic last year. The wool is Lana Grossa, colour 5121. It was quite nice, no knots or difficulties that way. I used my standard 2.75mm needles and the magic loop technique.

The second accomplishment was the completion of these lovely alpaca mittens for Doug.
The wool is Luxury Alpaca Paint, in a sadly discontinued colour. I used the double-knit mitten pattern that we have found so delightful at the shop and a 4.00mm needle. I did, however, require three 50-gram balls of yarn instead of the suggested two balls. Glad I could find one more ball at the shop since I had only squirreled away two balls! I am planning to sew some bits of leather along the join between the thumb and palm -- exactly where the ski poles will be rubbing. After all, these mitts were enough work that I'm hoping they will last for two whole ski seasons!

Finally, I was able to finish up a baby blanket. This is a design of my own creation and devising! It is a completely reversible entrelac baby blanket!
The blanket is lovingly modeled by my baby doll from my childhood. (If you are wondering, these babies were in use in the late '50s to early '60s.) The pattern required 450 grams of Patons Canadiana--I used a colour named Light Pastels. The pattern has been written up and is in the process of being proofread, after which it will be available for sale in the shop.

All these finished objects mean that my list of projects on needles -- is down to seven! Seven projects on needles! Yahoo! Yippee!

For my three loyal readers ...

2008-12-18T11:02:00.002-05:00

For my three loyal raeders (hi Lisa, Irene & Kathy!), I apologize for the quiet times around here.

In an attempt to distract you, I bring you tales from Tanglefoot, our favorite Canadian folk music group. They performed recently (it was TOO recently!) in Peterborough, Ontario. We drove over, taking Doug's daughter and her boy and my daughter and her boy (as in boyfriends). Since both of us have 5-passenger vehicles, this necessitated two cars. Bummer. No knitting for me on the drive over!

The concert was, as usual, wonderful. They sing songs about Canadian life, both in the past and current. Their historical songs are often based on facts, albeit somewhat loosely at times.

In any event, it is wonderful music and we love them. Over the years, we've gotten to know the guys in the band. Gotten to know them well enough that they are surprised if they don't see knitting in my hands during a concert. This time, I even got them to hold the knitting!

This is Al, the bass player. His voice has been described as being "halfway between melted chocolate and sex." (Not by me, mind.) I do love bass voices, and his ranks right up there at the top of my favorite bass voices.
This is Terry, Rob and Steve being good sports as well. Rob's wife is also a knitter, so he does understand the allure of yarn. He claims that we was scoping out the project, trying to decide if he should score some yarn for his wife.

And the fact that there are two socks in each photo? Carrie took her knitting with her. Emily, Doug's daughter, also had a mitten project with her, but she didn't want to join in the fun. Silly girl, eh?

A non-knitting post.

2008-11-23T13:14:00.002-05:00

The Toronto Star featured a book review last summer on a book that ... well, it interested me. Because I have two sons who are so dang close to military age (28 and 24 years old at the moment), the military activities of the U.S. were always pretty close to the top of my radar screen. The book?

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Scugog library had it on their shelves.

I've read it. This book is an absolutely scathing review of the GWB presidency. When I say scathing, I do mean scathing. I keep expecting smoke to leak from between the covers. The book is actually a compelling case for the indictment and trial of GWB for the murders of the members of the armed forces who have died in the fighting in Iraq. Complete with footnotes, legal precedents and citations to the source materials for the charges I might add. The drawback to this book, and ultimately the reason why no one will act upon it and the reasoning it contains is this: Mr. Bugliosi is an ardent and fervent Democrat; his language when referring to GWB is demeaning, derogatory and inflammatory, and possibly libelous. In fact, not even half-way through the book, I was more than tired of hearing GWB referred to in such a manner.

Heh. Now that I think about it, perhaps I understand why Bugliosi did what he did. The ONLY defense to libel and slander is the truth. Perhaps we has hoping to incite GWB into suing for libel and slander, at which point Bugliosi could trot out his vision of the truth and hope that the judge and jury would agree with him. An interesting move, to say the least.

In any event, I would recommend this as a good read.

In other news ... Lake Scugog has frozen over this week. Twice, in fact. This second time, however, it looks like it's gonna stick. Brrrr. The freezing over part isn't really news; after all, freeze-up happens every year. This year we have the good fortune of having actually removed all dock sections from the water ahead of time. (Yippee!) What WAS momentuous, however, was this:

That is a lone, single, solitary Canada Goose out there. They don't usually hang out by themselves, you know. I was getting ready to head into the shop when I glanced out the window and saw this guy. Just sitting there on the ice. After brushing my teeth and getting dressed, he was still there. Just sitting there all by his lonesome. I was afraid that he was actually stuck to the ice--destined for a long, slow death by exposure or a traumatic death by raccoon or neighbourhood dog. Neither was something I particularly wanted to see happen on my lakefront.

I got the binoculars and went for a closer look. He was still there, just kind of looking around forlornly. Now I was worried. What to do, how to help him. (I am a sucker for this type of thing. I vividly recall feeding the ducks down by the Bear Lake Tavern with my ex-husband and being concerned that one duck with a "broken wing" wasn't getting enough to eat. I charged the ex-husband with luring the entire flock down the shoreline so that I could toss some bread to the injured duck. After dinner, the injured duck thanked me by standing up and shaking out his feathers so that his wing looked ... perfect!)

I went and got Doug and showed him the poor goose. Doug figured that he was too far out for a simple (but freezing) wade out to free him. Perhaps a canoe could be used to break the ice and set him free? Doug was pondering the ways in which aid could be secured while I went out to start my car warming up. After all, Never Enough Wool really needed to be opened on time. I do have early morning customers.

I came back from starting the car, tromping across the crusty snow on the deck and making lots of noise. I noticed the goose's head pop up to get a better look at the excitement on the shore.

Then I saw --

There he went, shaking his tail feathers at me as he strolled off.

Good thing I discovered my folly before Doug got his canoe down to the lake, eh?

The problem is ...

2008-11-20T14:35:00.011-05:00

I've posted a list of all the projects currently on needles. Twelve of 'em, to be exact. That's a whole lotta knitting. For some folks, this many projects is no big deal. They just roll a dice, or a pair of dice in this case, and depending on the number that comes up work on a particular project for the day. Intrepid Knitter Friend Barb does this, and generally she seems to be pretty happy with the technique.

My problem with this many projects isn't necessarily the overwhelming choice of projects to which I can devote myself for the day. No, that would be entirely too easy. My problem is that I want to see progress -- preferably instantaneous -- on every project. The whole "devote yourself to one project for the day" is actually kind of like how I prefer to function. It's easier to see progress. It's just that there are 11 other projects demanding my attention. If I do a couple of rows here, and a couple of rows there, and another couple of rows THERE ... well, you do get the idea.

Nothing, but nothing gets accomplished. In fact, in the 9 days since my previous post, I haven't been able to cross one single, solitary project off the list. Not one. How depressing is that?!

My saving grace, however, is that one project is nearing completion. The little babyset for my son's friends is looking quite respectable now. It lacks buttons, and that's not for lack of trying. At the shop, I have some cute blue teddy bear buttons--but only two and I need five. So then I found some cute dark blue elephant buttons.
I understand that many folks wouldn't understand the problem with elephant buttons. They ARE blue and this is being knit for a boy ... (Remember why I am knitting this set? Because my son "borrowed" the Obama/Biden sign from his friends' front lawn in order that his sister might possess a piece of political history. The friends didn't volutarily surrender the sign, nor were they happy when they discovered it missing. Hence the guilt gift.)

In the U.S., the political parties are denoted by animals. The Democrats are represented by the lowly donkey. The Obama/Biden ticket represented the Democrats in this last election. The Republicans are represented by (here it is!) ... um ... an elephant. It's off to Fabricland for buttons this weekend.

The pattern is from Paton's Book No. 117 (circa 1950s) and is called "Eyelet Wardrobe for 6 Months" and the yarn is King Cole Big Value Baby 4-Ply. I'm doing the jacket and toque since these friends live in Virginia. They don't get a whole lot of winter, so I think the jacket and toque will be perfect.

In other news ... I'm not supposed to talk about this a lot and we really aren't ready for a whole lot of traffic yet ...

but ...

I HAVE A WEB SITE!!!

Yes, you read that here first. Check this out: Never Enough Wool

This is still a work in progress, but definitely a step in the right direction. I'm so thrilled!

Finally, I have a mystery. I had a lovely customer come into the shop and purchase some wool to make a baby dress. She happily made her purchase and went on her way. Sometime after starting the project, however, she misplaced the pattern. A thorough search of her home, car and cottage have failed to produce the pattern. All we know is that it was an older booklet, probably from Beehive. Does anyone recognize this?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Cross that one off!

2008-11-11T14:52:00.002-05:00

I really don't know why I did it. After all, ignorance is bliss. And we all know that I'm a one-project-at-a-time kind of a girl. So ... imagine my surprise when I discovered the following list of projects underway:

Black alpaca double knit mittens -- one mitt complete, one more needed. The yarn is Araucania Atacama, which has unfortunately been discontinued. Now that I've found a glorious project for it.
Green alpaca double knit mittens -- one mitt done to the thumb, one complete mitt needed. The yarn is Luxury Alpaca Paint, another discontinued yarn. Dang, I hate when I finally find a fabulous project and the yarn is discontinued!
Great American Aran Afghan -- 12 squares completed, two more to catch up to the knitalong group. I'm using Patons Canadiana, oatmeal colour. This will be a wonderful afghan when it's done.
Girl's size 4 cardigan, hat & mittens -- to be donated to The Refuge, preferably before the holidays. I'm planning to use Sirdar Snuggly DK and an old, old pattern. Stay tuned!
Holiday scarf -- knit from On-Line Starlight/Linie 218. I'm doing a very simple design of K2 tog, YO across; knit one row; YO, K2 tog; knit one row. Very simple, yet elegant.
Misti Suri Alpaca & Silk shawl -- the Lotus Blossom shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. Currently working on the first set of charts for the blossoms -- maybe 60% finished.
Baby boy sweater & hat -- to be a gift for friends of my eldest son. These would be the folks whose Obama/Biden campaign sign mysteriously disappeared off their front lawn on the evening of October 12 ...
Socks -- the ever-present pair of socks that I'm always carrying around with me. No pattern, boring as all get out. Turning the first heel on this pair.
Double-knit hat -- because a customer wants to make one and I couldn't find a plain pattern for her, I am designing and knitting one. Using wool that my step-daughter and her mother brought home for me from their England/Scotland trip this fall.
Baby blankets -- my friend Barb and I are committed to designing six baby blankets and compiling them into a booklet to sell at the shop. My contribution will be an entrelac design and a mock cable design.
Carrie's afghan -- she decided that her afghan could be a wee bit longer, and I do agree. Rather than add fringe (shudder), I have decided to take back the top border and add another pattern repeat. This counts as "on the needles" because if I don't, I may never get back to it!
Toddler Double-knit mittens -- using the same pattern but smaller yarn and needles (way smaller needles), one can knit up toddler mittens instead of adult mittens. But wait -- these are done like dinner! These little wee mittens were knit using one ball of Regia 4-ply sock wool and 2.5mm needles. Tedium knitting since the process is basically knit 1, purl 1 ribbing, but ... little fingers will be warm and toasty.

Afghan to be donated to the church-- My church is having a fundraiser on the 29th of November. Pausing for thought, it seems to me that I've been blessed with talents working with wool. I thought it would be nice for me to use those talents and make an afghan to donate. Four weeks later, here it is:
This afghan comes from Seasonal Knit Afghans by Rena V. Stevens, published as book no. 4446 from LeisureArts. The pattern itself is called Sumer Willows. Here is a close-up:
I used 11 balls of Patons Canadiana in Aran and the suggested 10mm needle. An easy knit once you get accustomed to the large needles. This afghan seriously only took about 4 weeks from start to finish. I admit that I worked pretty seriously on it -- tried to get 5 rows completed every night. Tried, mind you, not that I was always successful. In any event, I'd say this was a successful project.

So that's twelve active projects--down from 14. What is this world coming to?!?

YES!!!!

2008-10-28T15:49:00.003-04:00

Please note that the title of this post has absolutely no relationship to the content. Why is the title "Yes!!"? Because I've been trying for the last three hours to upload the photos in the proper sequence. And wait on customers. And keep a smile on my face. "YES!!!" signifies that I've finally, YES, FINALLY, gotten the photos to load in the sequence I want. How? Load them backwards. First time I've ever had to do it this way, but ... well, it worked. Who am I to look a blog-horse in the mouth?

In the weeks since I posted Barb's adventure in steeking, I've been knitting. Rather steadily, in fact, but with little finished product to show. This perhaps is due to the afghan that I'm making for my church, and the shawl that I've ripped back twice. Since I'm still enjoying the knitting, however, I'm not gonna complain.

What I AM going to do is show you this lovely cardigan that I completed for myself. The cardigan comes from Classic Style Book 16 from RYC. The design itself is called "Charm" and is pictured on page 20 of the book. Originally designed for RYC Silk Wool DK, I used a yarn from Luxury containing silk and alpaca. Currently, the closest comparable is a Debbie Bliss yarn. The colour in the second photo is most accurate ... I used 10 balls of the wool as there apparently is significantly more yardage in the Luxury ball than the RYC.

I made no changes to the pattern--simply knit it as directed. Here is a detail of the leaves on the back of the sweater.
This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite sweaters. It is cozy, cuddly, stylish, and warm. Not to mention how most folks really like it! A delightful knit--if anyone is considering this project, I'd say "Go for it! NOW!"

In other news ... earlier in the summer, I cast on and finished a pair of socks for Doug. I thoroughly enjoyed knitting up the Ranco; the feel of the wool is great, the colourway was enticing. Doug thoroughly enjoyed wearing them. Then they were washed.

Now I admit that our version of "hand wash" involves the front loading washing machine. But it also includes a lingerie bag and cold water. Cold water. The socks shrank. But he could still wear them, and he did. A second washing--and Doug put the socks onto the handy, dandy sock stretchers to dry.

What happened next? It was a sad and terrible day at our house. Doug told me that the socks shrank yet again, despite the sock stretcher. And they would no longer fit him. In fact, they now were mine. (I tried desperately to keep a straight face. His telling me this, coming upon the heels {a pun--did you get it?} of my admitting to him that the alpaca double knit mitts at the store wouldn't fit him either, but fit me perfectly. Well, who wouldn't have exclaimed "YES!" complete with a fist pump?)

So they became mine and I wore them.
Turns out the socks are laughing at Doug, lying there oh so innocently where he can see that they are being worn and loved. I say, laughing at him. Loudly and long.

But who has the last laugh?
These are socks knit from Noro Kureyon sock wool, and he loves them. Just as much as he loved the Ranco socks.

Adventures in Steeking--Part 2

2008-10-02T15:09:00.003-04:00

As promised, here is the continuation of Barb's steeking adventure. You will recall that she had steeked the armholes, completed the 3-needle bind off for the shoulders and picked up stitches for the collar in our last visit.

She came back to the shop on Saturday and presented us with the finished collar. It looks beautiful, although a little wonky what with the neckline shaping not cut out.
So she obligingly removed the offending piece.

Having finished off the neckline, the almost final step is to steek the front and make the sweater into a cardigan.
Once the sweater has become a cardigan, it is easy to sneak a peek into the interior of the sweater. Philosopher's Wool kits use a delightful technique whereby you carry the main colour in one hand, the second colour in the second hand, and wrap the stitches very stitch. This makes a very firm and solid fabric where there is no danger that one will snag an unwary finger in the floats on the reverse side.
Indeed, the back side of the knit is almost as beautiful as the front side. Barb used a mattress stitch to attach the sleeves, and she pronounces the seam "perfect."

Of course, the million dollar question is this: Will the sweater fit the intended recipient?

The answer?
Yup. Barb reports that her mother is not normally a domonstrative person. So when she sat with the sweater in her lap all afternoon, petting it and admiring the colours, Barb interprets that to be akin to jumping with joy.

After all, we are!

PS. Barb's dad wants a sweater too. After having said "never again," this time Barb said "Next year!"

Adventures in Steeking--part 1

2008-09-30T09:55:00.003-04:00

Barb, my intrepid knitter friend, accompanied me to the Knitter's Fair last year. Where she fell in love with a Philosopher's Wool sweater kit. Silly me--I thought she knew that Philosopher's Wool always steeked their sweaters. Unfortunately, she was not aware of this. Bravely, she soldiered on.

The sweater was a gift for her mom's birthday. She started knitting in January, hoping that she'd be done in time. Gauge was spot on so the sleeves went off without a hitch. The body of the sweater, being a trifle larger than the sleeves, took longer. Being fair isle, it was also heavier than a "normal" sweater, which Barb found to be a pain in her arms and elbows. The birthday came and went, but Barb persevered.

This past week, she achieved completion of the knitting. NOW, it was time to steek. Being the brave person she is, Barb brought the sweater in for an afternoon knitting group to demonstrate. Here you see her explaining the process.
At this point, the machine stitching for the bands, neckline and sleeves has been done and the button and buttonhole bands are attached and knitted. Barb measured twice, took a deep breath and started.

At this point in the process, her hands are rock steady. Her voice hasn't really cracked once. She gives the appearance of being totally cool, calm and collected. Unlike the audience.
Once the sleeve holes are steeked, the shoulder seams can be inserted. Barb has chosen to use a 3-needle-bind-off technique to give the shoulders extra stability. Then she picks up the stitches for the collar and knits away merrily.
Doesn't she look pleased? And relieved? Stay tuned--we'll have photos of the finishing touches--cutting out the neckline area, separating the two fronts and the sleeves fully inserted. And the finished sweater on the model! Yippee!

Barb's only comment at the end of Wednesday? "I'm so not doing this again!"

One thing I've learned in life is "Never say never." We'll see if Barb holds to this statement.

Good news -- they're finished!

2008-09-18T15:01:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy week for me and mine. Carrie is back in school, Improv is practicing, and Sobey's is booking plenty of hours for the daughter. With the price of gasoline these days, instead of heading home after work, I just hang out at the store and ... knit. (You expected something else? Silly people!) The extra couple of hours each week means that I am finishing up some projects that have been ... languishing ... while I tried to work up some enthusiasm for them again.

I brought in all the colours of Twilley's Freedom Spirit this year. Last year there were a select few colours, and they were extremely well received. So this year I decided to splurge. And once they were here, I needed a sample. Really, I did. (Not convinced? You are a tough crowd!)

This is the Hooded Jacket (leaflet #9058) from Tilley's, knit in colour no. 507 (Essence). It required 10 balls to make the 32" bust, which is exactly what the pattern specified. I have just enough left to sew the buttons on, as soon as I get them. Button shopping will hopefully take place in the upcoming weekend.

In August we taught a class here in the shop making cardigans from Patons Upside-Downers (#718). For my class project, I decided to make a small cardigan using Araucania Nature Wool (2 skeins). Not too far into the project I decided that I should make this as a gift for my little nephew, Sammy. Planning ahead for the holidays and all, doncha know?

The buttons are Incomparable Buttons. I've just gotten them into the shop this fall, and I'm so excited to be able to offer them. The buttons are Fair Trade, and 100% hand-crafted in South Africa. Want a closer look? Here you go:

I hope that Sammy and my sister both love them as much as I do, and the sweater as well. The upside down raglan is a nice touch -- the only seaming on the entire sweater is when you attach the button band to the body of the sweater. Nice touch, that.

And, finally, I bring you a photo of my little kitty Lizzie. She much prefers to work with alpaca, but in a pinch, Canadiana will do.

Currently in the project bag -- Great American Aran Afghan (9 of 24 squares completed) using Patons Canadiana; Charm from Classic Style/RYC (ready to knit on the button bands and collar); basic sock using Kureyon sock yarn; and a generic Feather & Fan pattern stole using Misti International hand paind Baby SuriSilk in colour 08 Manhattan Rose. (Ooo-la-la. This stuff is fabulous!)

Retail Therapy

2008-09-04T15:28:00.002-04:00

Remember way back when Carrie and I went to the Stitch 'n Pitch game? And I promised you some retail therapy results? Well, today I am finally going to show you what we did way back in August.

One excuse for attending the Stitch 'n Pitch is to see what the sponsors are offering. This year if you brought in your ticket stub before the end of August, you would receive a 15% discount at the participating shops.

Carrie and I had doctor's appointments in Toronto for the day after the game, so we drove in and spent the morning chatting with the doc. In order that the drive to Toronto would not be wasteful in that only one errand was accomplished, we decided to visit some of the sponsors on our way home. We chose our shops based upon the location -- they had to be easy to find since my Toronto maps are currently living in my son's car -- in Michigan!

We started with the Knitter's Attic in Richmond Hill. They are on Yonge Street, the longest street in North America. Even I -- directionless Carol -- should be able to find Yonge Street. Especially if I can have two tries at it. (Who knew there would be a Yonge Avenue in Toronto? What's this with re-using names anyway?!) This is a delightful shop, filled to the brim with delectable yarns and goodies. They carry many of the same lines that I do -- but wait, there's more! Lot's more. Carrie and I had a wonderful time browsing and browsing.

Of course, one can't browse forever. I found some Noro Silk Garden Lite to come home with me, along with this pattern book. I am hoping that the 3 balls of Noro will be enough to make something -- anything. There is no specific project in mind for it. Any suggestions?

Turns out that I am a sucker for patterns for babies, especially those published by Mandarin. They knit up beautifully in Sirdar Snuggly .

We continued up Yonge Street until we found Needles & Knits in Aurora. Another very nice shop, rooms filled with wool. They also have a shop cat -- of course I forget the name, but a gorgeous kitty. Probably part Maine Coone, and extremely friendly. He likes to hang out in the back room where the sale yarn is stored. Guess what Carrie found in the sale room?

This is a Phildar yarn called Giboulees. (Sorry, I can't find an on-line link to any info. on this yarn.) Carrie saw it and immediately thought of her friend in Michigan. I did too, actually, so the yarn had to come home with us. Carrie is hoping this will be a Christmas gift ...

Finally, we ventured up to New Market to Serenity Knits. I'd been warned about this shop. They carry alot of Fleece Artist and Handmaiden wools. And we all know that I'm a sucker for Handmaiden. (Carrie had strict instructions at this point--if she saw me approaching the check-out with an armfull of wool, she was to immediately throw a body block and drag me kicking and screaming from the store. Fortunately, this was not necessary.)

We browsed and browsed. And browsed some more. Finally, I decided to bring this little baby home with me:
Handmaiden Casbah. After all, it isSOCK yarn for goodness sake. We all know that I have this ... this THING for sock yarn. And Handmaiden. Combined. How could I resist? (sob--there were more skeins there waiting to be adopted!) I have fondled the yarn extensively. It's not quite ready to grow up and be knit though. Soon.

My intrepid knitter friend Barb? Save your lunch money and we'll take a road trip. It's DEFINITELY worth it.

How do you know it's fall?

2008-08-26T17:36:00.002-04:00

We've been discussing this topic at our house quite a bit. I maintain that fall arrives when the sky turns that lovely vibrant blue against the snowy white clouds. And when it gets cool enough at night that one needs a blanket to stay warm.

Doug maintains that fall has arrived when the first leaf is found on the ground.

Carrie claims that fall arrives when you go back to school, or the fall equinox, or whatever that thing is called. She was especially glad when I told her that it happens in September, not August.
I have, however, learned a new way to determine fall's arrival.

It would be the arrival of the big fall order of yarns from the warehouse.

This year I was prepared. I spent the morning boxing up and taking away the summer yarns. So long Carezza! Bye-bye Just Bamboo! Hasta la vista Hempathy! Then I dragged all the other yarn out of the closet so that I could restock and reorganize myself.

After a bite to eat, I drove up to the warehouse to retrieve the order. 10 very full garbage bags of wool later, this is what the shop looked like:

I would add that there were still four bags of yarn in the trunk. I seem to have forgotten that they were there. Impressive, yes? What was I thinking?!

After hours and hours of labour, moving yarn, scratching my head, and sorting, I was done.

A very nice recovery, if I do say so myself. The closet is now full. As in be careful when you open the door or it'll explode out like a jack-in-the-box full. There is a box of yarn under the cradle holding inventory. AND there are three bags of wool in the trunk of my car.

In addition to the storage unit.

Have I mentioned that my next shop is gonna be a bit bigger?

Stitch 'n Pitch

2008-08-21T09:44:00.002-04:00

My daughter and I attended the Stitch 'n Pitch event sponsored by the TNNA and major league baseball, along with two friends. Did I remember to bring my camera? Nope. Did my daughter remember to bring hers? Nope. There are various blogs with photos of the big event here
Alas, none of us are in the photos. "Next year," says we, "we'll remember our cameras.

In any event, we went to the game. Ordered the tickets via telephone too late to be mailed, so we were retrieving them at the event. Per the telephone instructions, we presented ourselves at Gate 1, photo ID in hand. No tickets there. I persevered, insisting on speaking to all four employees at the window. Carrie was becoming increasingly nervous that I would explode --do the whole Mama Bear routine and everything. But I didn't. Why? Because I am woman!

In any event, Gate 1 advised that we needed to go to Gate 9. Carrie and I hauled off to Gate 9, halfway around the stadium. Whereupon we were advised to return to Gate 1 for our tickets.

Carrie cowered there in the rain, shielding herself from the inevitable falling debris.

What did I do? Very calmly said, "No. No we don't pick up our tickets at Gate 1. I spoke to each and every employee at Gate 1, and the tickets are not there. We pick them up at Gate 9."

At this point, Carrie thinks that perhaps the Second Coming is imminent. After all, I remained calm in the face of this adversity.

The hapless employee just looked at me blankly, discerned accurately that I was not moving, and started talking to people there at the "will call" gate. Are we surprised that the tickets were indeed to be retrieved from Gate 9? Not a bit. Are we surprised that I was as calm and collected as I was? Not me. As I explained to Carrie on the way back to Gate 1, the point of talking to everyone at Gate 1 was to be able to assure the folks at Gate 9 that I was indeed at the right place to pick up my tickets, saving myself having to do the table-tennis routine of bouncing from Gate 1 to Gate 9 to Gate 1 to Gate 9 ad nauseum. Speaking sternly to the folks at Gate 1 insured that I would be able to talk to each and every one of them. (I noted her filing this battle tactic away carefully. I hope and pray that it won't come back to haunt me.)

With tickets in hand, we waltzed past the ticket-takers and proceeded to the goody table. After all, the goody bag was the whole reason for being there, right? Baseball? Did someone say something about baseball?

Apparently there had been some hype about the large dollar value of the bag contents. I wasn't aware of that, so I couldn't be disappointed about the contents of the bag. My bag:Three nice pattern books, a handful of tear-off patterns (available from any Michael's, Wal-Mart or Zellers), a Soak sample, a free admission to the Creative Festival in October, and a ball of yarn. Where's the yarn?

Here!
Carrie had much the same bag as mine, although her magazines were different. I received the purple-ish 100 gr. ball of Sirdar, which Carrie promptly started knitting into a scarf for a certain cousin's Christmas gift. Purple and glitter. What more could a young lady want? She scored the two balls of Sirdar Legends DK ... very nice looking yarn and she has proudly added it to her stash. (Hmm. Note to self--I should get a photo of her stash. It's so cute -- and tiny!) She also got a ticket to the Creative Festival and we are planning a girls' day out in October, providing she doesn't get scheduled to work that day.

So the game started and the Jays promptly fell behind. About the beginning of the 7th inning, friend Irene leaned over and said to me, "We could make the 9:13 train if we left now." I thought about it for a minute or less and decided that I was just fine--the night was young and hope still springs eternal.

In the bottom of the 9th inning, the Jays tied the game. It had become quite apparent that Irene and Kathy were far more devoted baseball fans than Carrie and I. I had a feeling I was in trouble, but I had to ask. I leaned over to Irene and said, "So what's your position on extra innings?" To which she calmly and quickly replied, "The last train doesn't leave until midnight."

Fortunately the Jays came through with a nice base hit and brought two runners in to win the game. Whew!

All in all, it was a great evening and one that certainly bears repeating. Next year I'll promote it a bit heavier at the store and see if we can get a larger gang down there.

And an update vis-a-vis the bully employer. It is most fortunate that Doug and I are friends with lawyers. If the paycheque does not arrive in the mail by tomorrow (if it was in fact mailed on Monday as the owner claimed it would be, Friday should be plenty of time), the lawyer will send a written demand for payment along with an outline of the next steps which will be taken. The lawyer actually liked the idea of a picket line, but Carrie isn't quite that brazen.

Yet.

After all, she IS my daughter.

Bullies

2008-08-16T10:30:00.002-04:00

I know this is supposed to be a knitting blog. Well, primarily a knitting blog.

But today's post isn't about knitting. Not even related.

It's about bullies. You know who they are -- the little kids in the sandbox who won't let you play with their shovel. The kid who takes every yellow dump truck so that no one else can play with them.

When they grow older, they are the ones who push the little kids off the swings so they can swing. Push themselves to the front of the line so that they get to go down the slide without waiting.

In high school, they are the ones who decide who is "cool" and who is not. They decide who gets pushed into the lockers, locked into the lockers, laughed at, jeered at, and/or ignored.

Sad to say, bullies don't magically outgrow their need to bully when graduation happens. No, folks, they continue on into the adult world.

Sometimes, if you are lucky, they end up in positions with so little power that they end up in the corner by themselves, sulking. If you aren't lucky, they end up in an office where they manipulate, lie, and twist themselves into a sort of power.

If you are really unlucky, they end up owning businesses. Making life for some hapless employee hell.

Being who I am, I've had my fair share of bully experiences. I don't see myself as someone who doesn't take crap from anyone. Others may have a different view of me--but I can only speak of my personal view. And I don't stand up for myself very well. Or for those I love.

I've tried to teach my children to treat others kindly, be respectful of others, of authority. Mayhaps I did too fine a job with my daughter.

You see, she's been working for a couple of years for someone who in my opinion is a bully. For most of the time, his boorishness has been directed at others. She thought things were pretty good in the workplace, that they understood each other and things were cool.

Unfortunately, she was incorrect in this belief. She ended up looking for and acquiring a new job. His parting shot? Because he could (because he employs teens who have little recourse and even less respect from the powers that be), he has withheld her last paycheque. In violation of the Labour Standards Act, and every shred of moral decency.

You may be wondering the point of this post. I am too, quite frankly.

I wish that I had encouraged her to quit months ago when I became aware of the lengths to which this guy would go to make himself feel better by bullying his employees, both past and present.

I wish that I knew how to be a more effective advocate for the disenfranchised ... both in relation to this employer and to the world as a whole.

I wish I knew how to make certain that my babies (all four of them) never had to stand by impotently when some arrogant jerk laughs at them and refuses to release their paycheques.

That just isn't right.

I've been remiss

2008-08-09T10:36:00.003-04:00

I just can't get over how quickly time flies. I know that I say that all the time. Enough times that it sounds trite and meaningless. But I do mean it, truly I do.

For instance, Doug and I went to Michigan to retrieve my lovely daughter from her visit with her father. When was that? Would you believe that was the weekend of July 20? Me neither, but that's what the calendar claims.

The designated weekend began with a trip to Fort Custer Rec. Center near Augusta, Mich. Why? Because it has one of the sweetest mountain bike trails that I ever hope to see. Doug and I like to ride, and we ride hard. We do not do the extreme variety of biking which requires one to maneuver across bridges just wide enough for your tires, elevated trails, or really BIG jumps. We like two-track trails between the trees with switchbacks, bouncing over roots and rocks, some challenging up-hill climbs followed by thrilling down-hill rides. More than the average ride you'll get on a paved bike trail around here, in other words. Fort Custer is maintained by the Southwest Michigan Mountain Biking Association, and they do a tremendous job creating and maintaining. In fact, they do their job well enough that we always purchase a one-year pass to the Michigan State Parks, even though we don't even live in Michigan. How's that for a great recommendation?

The second thing we did that weekend was visit with family -- lots of family. I have five brothers and sisters, and four of them live near Battle Creek. Along with their spouses and children. There's a lot of us. Did I take photos? Nope. Just snapshots with my heart. Dang, I do miss seeing them more often.

The third thing that we did that weekend, and one that I try to always do when in the area, is visit my favorite yarn shop in the Battle Creek area. Yes, I do have a favorite yarn shop in most areas that I visit. For this area, it's the Yarn Garden in Charlotte, Michigan. The owner, Lindsay, has done a marvelous job collecting an assortment of delectable yarns, patterns, buttons, shawl pins, and especially the atmosphere of that place. It's a good thing for me that I don't live any closer than I do, because I always find at least one item to purchase there.

Did I say purchase? Why, yes. Yes, I did.
Doesn't that look interesting? After two weeks, it is still all contained in the original bag. I take things out, spread them around and look at them, fondle the yarn, dream about the finished item ... But they are not quite yet ready to grow up, move into stash or become finished. So they stay in the bag, near the knitting light so that I can just casually reach over and ... So what did I find too irresistible for words?

This is O-Wool Balance, destined to be a dress for my little niece. She will be one year old on the 28th of August, and I think this little dress and the hat -- oh my goodness, the cuteness of the hat -- will be perfect for her. She isn't quite walking yet, and her birthday is rapidly approaching, so I think I'll make the largest size for her for next spring/summer. Besides, she only wears a hat for the 30 seconds it takes for her to find it on her head and rip it off. Maybe by next year she'll be more fashionable?

I have wondered about getting something glittery and sparkly for my own shop. This wool, called Yin and Yang, from Southwest Trading Company was just lying there, calling sweetly in my ear. Coincidentally, there was a pattern right there as well. Talk about good planning, eh? (Doug--it's all in the name of market research, really.)

And THIS--
The photos in the pattern do not do it justice. This is truly an amazing wrap. Very many different stitch combinations, and done up in Noro? Breathtaking. My fingers are all itchy, my breathing is rapid, my heart is palpitating ... All over again. Must.Finish.One.Project.First.

Truly in the name of market research, I also purchased these single balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cable Cotton and Cotton Patine. I've wondered about bringing in these two lines for next summer, and I figure this is the best way to decide. Actually knit with 'em.

Since this post only covers through July 20 weekend and Blogger seems to limit the number of photos to 5 per post, you'll just have to wait to see what else I've been up to. But I'll give you a hint -- Stitch 'n Pitch and retail therapy.

It's about time!

2008-07-26T11:10:00.003-04:00

In my previous post, I promised a good photo of my haul from The Knitting Den in South Lyon. At long last, here it is--
Two hanks of Auracania Ranco Multi -- colour nos. 308 (browns) and 305 (greens). These are destined to become socks for Doug, in appreciation for all the driving he does on my behalf.

I had initially ordered these yarns in for the store way back in late October or November of last year, to be delivered in January. When the end of March rolled around and the sales rep. was making his pitch for spring/summer yarns, the Ranco had still not arrived. Hmm. So I canceled the order, with regrets because I had really wanted that yarn.

In other knitting news, I had a customer who came in with a Mary Maxim sweater that needed to be finished. The back was "almost done." I should learn to be more skeptical. The back was done up to the beginning of the fair isle panel. So I finished it, and the rest of the sweater.
All in all, I have to say that it did turn out nicely. I really like that mock cable pattern in the lower section. Wouldn't it make a great baby blanket? I'm working that up next so that I have an additional easy blanket pattern for my customers.

We are celebrating Christmas in July at the store. Helping people remember that the holiday is only 5 months away ... and they do go by oh-so-quickly.
Carrie assisted me with the window displays. The sheep wearing the Santa hat is her special contribution. Cute, eh? That's why I keep her!

What is coming in my next post? Well, there was a second trip to Michigan and a visit to my other favorite not-so-LYS ...

Mini vacations

2008-07-17T12:30:00.002-04:00

Now that I have the wool shop, my hubby and I don't get too many vacations. So we seize those opportunities that present themselves by way of long weekends and trips to Michigan to have a little fun. Interestingly enough, our idea of "fun" and the daughter's idea of "fun" just don't seem to mesh up. So we delivered her safely to her father and brother, and took off.

We had previously biked at Island Lake Rec. area with some friends several years ago. With that in mind (and a potential detour to Windsor), we hauled the bicycles with us on the trek to the border. Doug's memory was excellent and he drove us directly to the park, where we were pleased to learn that our collective memory of how nice the park is was also correct.

There was a very nice gentleman filling up his water bottle with whom we chatted. He suggested that we might like the Blue Loop--there wasn't very much sand in the trail. And when I say "sand," I do mean sand--inches deep and very difficult to ride through. So we ventured out onto the Blue Trail. This picture shows how happy Doug is with our decision. The trail was developed by the Southwest Michigan Mountain Biking Association. Their signature style was evident--the trail was mostly single track, winding through the trees with frequent turns and overhanging brush. The trail itself was mostly flat -- about 7 miles of flat -- interspersed with some very challenging up-hills and some truly exhilarating downhill stretches. All in all, a 9.25 mile ride, and worth every bit of the energy and time expended.

Originally we had planned to swing through Windsor to visit some friends there (Hi Louise!). Unfortunately, they were not available by telephone for several days prior to the trip and the day of, so we made a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants decision and called my good friend Phyllis. She and her husband live not far from Island Lakes and were the persons who introduced us to the park. They were home and suggested we should come right over. Then they insisted that we should spend the night and not go to some impersonal hotel. Wonderful friends, these two. So we did.

In the morning, Phyllis and her husband had to go off to work at a very early hour. We stayed in bed and out of their way while they did their morning routines. After their departure we did an abbreviated morning routine and departed as well. Looking for breakfast, we ventured into South Lyon (MI) and found this delightful coffee shop, the Gallery Cafe.

We had two different breakfast sandwiches (bagel with egg & sausage or bacon) and a fine cuppa tea and coffee. (I'm still not drinking coffee much and not missing it a bit!)
This coffee shop does an awful lot of things right in my humble opinion. They have a selection of board games, children's activity toys, plenty of room for tables, a piano, good food and a very nice atmosphere. If ever you are in South Lyon, I suggest a stop here.

On our way to Phyllis' house on Sunday evening, Doug wondered outloud "Isn't there a wool shop somewhere close by?" I looked up from the directions and immediately saw this:
The Knitting Den in South Lyon. I swear that man has wool radar, and he doesn't even knit! Or crochet! Or weave! Or spin! He just has a knack for finding wool. Gotta love that in a non-knitter. This little house hosts the wool shop on the main floor and it is filled with more wool than one can imagine. Well, perhaps not. In any event, we browsed for quite some time, and I even purchased some wool. No photo of it, darn! You'll just have to wait until next time!

Ta-ta for now!

Is it summer already?

2008-07-03T16:20:00.002-04:00

So the school year has whizzed by with a speed equaled only by the rate at which my daughter matures. I truly don't know where the days go, and I do wish they wouldn't speed by so quickly. Or that I could have a "do over." No such luck though.

My daughter has been lusting after some Noro wools ever since I opened the shop. She walks over to the display, pets the wool, heaves a deep sigh, pets it some more, and reluctantly walks away. She didn't really know what she wanted to do with it, but she adored the colours. Then this wonderful little book titled "Mini Knits" from Noro entered the shop. (And just as quickly exited I might add--if you see it, grab it 'cuz it's filled with wonderful patterns.) I managed to hold onto one book long enough to finish a design. Here, in its finished glory, you see:
This was knit with four skeins of Noro Iro, colour no. 19. The pattern specified Kochoron, but I switched out the yarn since Carrie loved the Iro better. Other than that, I followed the pattern religiously. It took less than a week to knit.

Home knitting has also been produced. Several years ago, I purchased some gorgeous cotton yarn from Knit Around in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The yarn matured in my stash, until I decided that (a) the yarn was ready to be knit and (b) the perfect project had been chosen.

So I cast on for the Cream Tea from Knit Net and featured in the 2007 Pattern-a-Day calendar. No go, the yarn was not right. Switched needles and tried again. Still not working.

Undaunted, I frogged the project one more time and put on my thinking cap. There had to be a reason why I had purchased the amount of yarn that I did. After all, in those days I hadn't graduated to random yarn purchases. Yes--in those days I only purchased yarn for which I had a pattern in mind. Ah, the good old days.

In an amazing feat of logic and memory, I recalled the time frame during which I purchased the yarn (not the difficult part since the yarn carried the name of the store on the price label). So then I just had to figure out what I might have been knitting or reading at that specific time to find the pattern.

Viola!! (If your name is Coris and you are married to my son Jason, please stop reading immediately!)

This is the Too-Cool! Halter Top from the 2005 Pattern-a-Day calendar, modeled by the delightful Carrie. This, too, was a super easy and quick knit project. I used one and a half skeins of ___________________, in a kelly green. Followed the pattern precisely as written, and this is what you get:

I don't know if the daughter-in-law will wear undergarments with the top ... in any event, it is a delightful summer fashion. Coris saw my version of this same top (knit in a white cotton blend) and loved it ... and when next I was near a yarn shop I acquired the yarn. Too bad it took 4 years to get around to it.

Carrie has completed her in-class portion of driver's training and is preparing for the G-2 test in August. Her driving skills are improving rapidly, which is a good thing. I fear my days of having sole control of my automobile are rapidly drawing to a close.

I do hope to have more finished objects to show you ... as soon as the camera batteries recharge!

It's been a quiet week ...

2008-06-13T16:16:00.002-04:00

It has been so long since I posted here. There's just so many things to do, and so little battery life in the camera. Still, I should do better.

In fact, there are things which need to be photographed and displayed before they are handed off to the recipients. Things which I WILL get photographed. Just not today.

For today, I can show you the two newest afghan squares completed in my Great American Aran Afghan. This is the Marion Tabler block. It was as much fun to knit as it is to look upon. Which is to say that it required much counting and attention.

This was followed by the Meredith Morioka square. This square was fun to knit in that it did NOT require a lot of brainpower and attention. Which is a good thing because I wasted so much of my brainpower on the previous square. Interestingly enough, the directions stated that I should knit 100 rows of the pattern, but doing so would have made the square entirely too long to match the other squares.
So this raises the question that Barb and I have been debating all week. How do you affect your ROW gauge while knitting? For STITCH gauge, you simply change needles. Need more stitches per inch? Move to a smaller needle. Need less stitches? Move to a bigger needle. Works great for stitches.

So how DO you affect a change in your row gauge?

In other news, I am hosting a Knit in Public party at the Joe Fowler park in Port Perry on Saturday evening, beginning at 5:00 pm. Bring a dish to pass and your knitting, and we'll have a grand time!

Finished Objects -- and it feels good!

2008-05-22T14:18:00.003-04:00

Since I've started feeling better, I decided it was time to get my knitting baskets cleaned up. After all, at last count I had something like 6 (it MAY have been 7) projects on needles.

So I finished up the Patons top-down sweater. I put the finishing touches on the summer entrelac top. Life was good.

But there were still a lot of projects in the baskets, especially at the shop. So I took a deep breath, and dived in.

Look! It's the ubiquitous Clapotis!
This was knit in Atacama from Araucania Yarns, colourway no. 503. (I see that the manufacturer has reworked their colourway numbers. Dang, I hate when they do that! I think it is PT4 that I used.) I love the purples. This shawl was originally intended to be a gift for a friend who loves purple, but the daughter changed her mind about gifting it. And abandoned the project! I couldn't stand the thought of this being left lonely, cold and lost in the bottom of a closet somewhere, so I finished it. Besides, in my drug-induced haze in March and April, this was a good project on which to knit. Not a whole lot of thinking involved, which was a good thing.

I have a very nice customer at the shop who fell in love with the Austermann Step, colourway number 18. She purchased the ball and attempted a lacey scarf. Unfortunately, the wool was too fine for her fingers to work with.

She refused to bring the wool back for credit, although she was willing to bring it back for me to play with. So I knit up a scarf for her to enjoy, and filled it with good wishes.

Good thing, too, since she had recently tumbled down a flight of stairs and torn loose the ligaments and tendons in one foot.

The stitch pattern is a simple Fishtail Lace, with two garter stitches on each side. I've linked to a scarf pattern, but only to illustrate the stitch details. I just knit this one without a pattern at all. I used a 4.5mm needle and 42 stitches and knit until I was mostly out of wool.

So you may be asking yourself, what remains in the knitting basket? I am still working on Arabesque in lace-weight merino, on the Great American Aran Afghan in Patons Canadiana, as well as a new project -- KnitNet's Cream Tee in a lovely green cotton. No photos of this one, though, since I am still not certain I have enough to finish. Trips to the frog pond are better left undocumented ... (The pattern was published in the 2006 Pattern-A-Day calendar on June 5.)

Carrie has returned from her art trip to New York and is now fully immersed in the race to the end of the school year. She had fun, saw lots of museums, saw Hairspray, did some shopping, and some sightseeing. The trip included a visit to Ground Zero, which she reports is a construction site now, and she is pleased to report that there will be a memorial garden to commemorate the folks who died on that sunny September day.

And even more exciting? Progress in the bathroom. I am waiting just a wee, tiny bit longer to show you all the photos, though, because I am still savoring them. Tee hee!

Bye!

What's this?!

2008-05-15T15:23:00.002-04:00

If you had happened to stop by my shop today, you would have seen this largish pile of yarn ends. Just laying there, looking mussed and tousled.

"What's this?" You might have asked. After all, it's been a while since you would have seen me working on anything in these colours. Well, until this last week, that is.

The answer? It is the ends that were snipped off of this--a sweater knit from the Patons Upside
Downers booklet. What makes this sweater truly unique and interesting is the fact that I knit it using donated bulky wool and appropriate sized needles, using the directions for the child size 2 sweater.

Yes, you did read that correctly.

This is a child's size 2 pattern, knit with bulky wool and 6.5mm needles. Gauge worked out to 3.5 stitches per inch, giving me an adult's medium sweater as the finished product.

The truly great news is that I managed to consume a fair amount of stash yarn in this sweater. Of course, I did run out of the white main colour with the bottom ribbing and sleeves left. A double strand of Patons Classic Merino was the perfect substitution both in colour and weight, though, so no harm done.

The sweater will be donated to the Mitten Tree project at my local church. This is a collection of warm clothing that is sent to a reservation in upper northern Ontario, where there is much need for this type of item. I hope that it is enjoyed in the wearing as much as it was in the knitting.

The daughter has gone to New York with the Visual Arts department at the high school. She will be visiting various art museums, doing some shopping (of course!) and seeing Hair Spray, returning home on Monday evening. This means that Doug and I will be child-free and foot-loose for this long Victoria Day weekend! We are contemplating wild and crazy plans, such as seeing the newest Chronicles of Narnia movie.

Such wild and crazy plans, eh?

And what else is new and exciting? How about a self-designed entrelac top knit in Butterfly
Super 10? The pattern is in the process of being written and test knit, and quite possibly submitted for publication, so keep your eyes on this site for updates!

Fun at the Knitter's Frolic

2008-05-01T12:27:00.002-04:00

Saturday, April 26, was the Big Day. My friend, Barb, and I ventured down to Toronto to partake of the delights of the Knitter's Frolic at the Japanese Cultural Centre. As always, it was a delightful day.

Barb and I agreed that we would go around the entire show before we bought anything. Yeah, right. We've all heard that one before. I CAN say, however, that Barb had the first falling down. She claims it is my fault--that I shouldn't have left her alone with the wool fumes. All I can say is this: at our ages, one would think that one of us could visit the facilities by herself and leave the other one to behave herself.

Turns out that I have a major weakness for sock yarns. As if I didn't already know that ... in any event, when sock yarns are available at better-than-wholesale-prices, one should indulge. Especially if the offspring enjoyed receiving hand-knit socks for Christmas last year. I scored one ball of Regia--that's the yellowish one in the upper left corner. (Sorry about the German site.) Then there are three balls of Super Soxx from Lang & Co. Followed by three balls of wool from Lana Grossa. I can feel a little bit of difference in the wools just by handling them, but I suspect they will all knit up in a very satisfactory manner. (Sorry about the lack of links for Super Soxx and Lana Grossa. Just not having a good internet day.)

Having satisfied the sock cravings of the offspring and spouse, I continued to browse. Until I found --
Socks That Rock in the colourway called Calico from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I've heard about this yarn, but never knit with it. So I decided that I should rectify that oversight.

The coup de grace was the Arequipa from Estelle. This is 65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca and 15% nylon. All I can say is this: It feels heavenly. I'm going to make toe-up socks for myself out of this ... toes-up so that I can use every last little bit available. After I spend more time fondling -- I mean -- petting the wool.

(Doug is jealous as he thinks this wool should become HIS socks. I am sticking with my original intention to make socks for ME from this. He can learn to knit his own socks and get his own special wool!)

So much for being the mature one, eh?

Interesting Times

2008-04-17T10:42:00.003-04:00

There is an old Chinese curse -- May you live in interesting times -- that has become quite applicable to my current life. For many reasons, one of which I will share with you today.

The month of April, 2008, has become ice-out on the lake. Normally, this is a fairly benign process, at least for us. You see, we live on the southern shore of the lake and our property sits quite high on the bank above the lake. So when the ice goes out, we are normally untouched. We watch others along the shoreline have their boat lifts crushed by the ice, or their docks get swept away. Or their shorelines get gouged out. You get the idea I'm sure.

This year, the lake dumped all the ice on our shoreline. And normally this really isn't a problem since we have this big concrete wall protecting our lake access. When I say "big," I do mean big. It's about 10 feet high by 12 or 13 feet wide. Doug stores the dock parts up on top during the winter, which saves him hauling them another 12 feet up to the yard. Generally this is a good plan.

Remember when I said that the lake dumped all the ice on our shoreline? This is what we found last week: Those red planks up there? Those are 4 dock sections that require two strong men each to move.
The ice shoved up the wall, and then another two feet. Those dock sections started the winter with the short side facing the lake. Now? You can only see the long sides. The ice picked them all up and moved the front end by about 12 feet.

Just for perspective, here's a shot of me standing in front of the ice pile.
Impressive, eh? Never again will I scoff at the power of the lake.

In knitting news, I finished the Ada Fenick (page 46) square of the Great American Afghan.
It is delightfully well-written and fun to knit. One of the reasons I loved this square so much is that there was only one chart to follow. None of this switching from chart a to chart b to chart a stuff. Just one big chart. I loved it! Everyone that sees the square loves it.

I moved on to the Ada Hunt (page 20) square and finished it as well. Again, well-written and reasonably accurate. The down side of this square is that there were 5 charts, two of which were repeated. The pattern was, however, accurately written, so I can't complain. Well, I can and do. But I shouldn't.
So that's now 4 squares completed of my afghan. 21 left ... assembly and then the border. Did I mention that I'm looking forward to it?

Sort of an Update

2008-03-19T20:03:00.004-04:00

Since there was so little knitting content in my previous post, it seemed only proper that I get a second post up this week--WITH knitting content!

Here you see the progress on my Great American Aran Afghan. The square on the left is Barbara Selesnick, found on page 16. On the right is Hanna Burns, found on page 32. This square (Hanna Burns) claims to be "easy." They lie. Big time. It was not easy. The third square is Ada Fenick, found on page 46. So far (and I do knock on wood as I say this) it has been easy. Who knows what joys lurk in the later rows.

We are teaching a class from the Patons Upside Downers book at the shop this month. Here is my progress so far. I'm using the number of stitches for a size 2; but the yarn is an older bulky wool and I'm using the proper size needles. I THINK this is going to turn out to be an adult large now. Sure hope I have sufficient wool to complete the sweater. The wool has been laughing at me since stitch one but I've persevered and forced the wool to do my will. I'm not sure I could stand the humiliation of having the wool stand victorious over my poor, defeated body as I struggle through the frog pond.

All other knitting has been studiously ignored while my brain attempts to find its way through the ever-present fog. Only three more days of antiobiotics, and hopefully I'll be in the home stretch.

A girl CAN dream, right?

Oy vey!

2008-03-16T20:51:00.004-04:00

The past couple of weeks have been beyond interesting at my house, and hence the absence of blogging. I do apologise.

To bring you up to date ... My doctor has been quite obsessed with my alleged high blood pressure. She prescribed some meds three years ago, which have done nothing to bring down the numbers she sees. She asked me to purchase a home monitor two years ago, which I did.

The first prescribed med. was hydrochlorothiazide--a water pill. We started at a low dose and when that had no effect, climbed higher. Still no effect. Well, other than the fatigue that has been sucking my patience and body dry. After all, just who sleeps 16 or 17 hours a day anyway? Well, other than me, not many folks that I know.

When confronted with the actual numbers of hours of sleep I required instead of the vague "fatigue" word, she conceded that perhaps my need for sleep was excessive. So she prescribed an ASE-inhibitor by the name of Lisinopril. Again, at a low dose, but ...

I am amazed, totally amazed at the speed with which life changed. The lisinopril kicked in and my blood pressure dropped. Dramatically. As recorded on the home monitor. Unfortunately, so did the side effects. Major and uncomfortable. Nausea, dizziness, light-headedness. What I thought were unrelated physical manifestations were chills, insomnia, huge coughing fits for absolutely no reason and with no productive outcome, and emotional melt-downs. Turns out that everything but the chills were related to the lisinopril. Chills? Well, wouldn't YOU be cold if your blood pressure was somewhere around 100/65?

At the last check-up on March 5, the doctor and I discussed the situation. Turns out that the home monitor readings don't count. Are, in fact, worthless, because she didn't take them. (Why I got to spend $100 buying the blasted monitor I still don't understand, especially if she is just gonna ignore the numbers.) I had already decided to stop taking the lisinopril, a decision with which she agreed. Fortunately! Now I just had to wait for the meds to work their way through and out the body.

Thursday evening (the 13th), I ended up going to the local emergency room. I had a pain in my right side that basically had me hunched over and not breathing. The diagnosis? Well ... it MIGHT be a fractured/dislocated rib caused by coughing so hard; it MIGHT be pneumonia because there was shading in the lung on the x-ray; it MIGHT be a kidney infection since there was blood in the urine. Sweet. Got some lovely antibiotics and some of the good (pain) drugs and sent home. Things are improving, albeit slowly. Monday morning I get to go for an ultrasound and then we'll see how things go from there.

Because of the lack of sleep and brain fog I have been experiencing, there really hasn't been much knitting done around here. By me, anyway. It was March Break for the daughter, and her brother was willing to come visit. This is the fabulous sight I saw on some evenings here at my house: Jeffrey may look a wee bit perturbed at his knitting, but the reality is that he was concentrating very hard. Such determination!

He was here at Christmas time and started and completed his first project: a hat!
Inspired by his success, he went searching for a special hat for a young lady friend of his. She performs dances wearing a black dress ... and needed a flapper-style hat to complete the outfit. He found a pattern, his step-mother provided the yarn, and he went to work.
The flapper hat as modeled by his younger sister. Turned out quite well, in fact.

He wasn't done knitting, however, so he browsed around the shop and decided to make himself a sweater. He selected a pattern, I suggested yarn, and he has begun the adventure of a lifetime. He is becoming a Knitter. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I made contact with a friend of the Yarn Harlot's who lives in his neighbourhood, and inquired about male-friendly shops and knitting groups. He now has a knitting buddy nearby. How cool is that?!

Time to take another of those good drugs and hit the hay. Tomorrow is another day, and since I'm starting to feel better, I'm actually looking forward to it!

New boots, how do I love thee?

2008-03-03T22:23:00.003-05:00

I love thee from the tips of your wonderfully roomy toes to the top of your padded ankles ...

I love thee for the wonderfully secure three-pin bindings upon your soles ...
I love thee for the cool and flashy laces in your eyelets ...
I love thee for your wonderfully sturdy arch supports ...
I love thee for the way you keep me standing upon my skiis and gliding (somewhat) gracefully down the hills ...
I love thee for the way you keep me from getting bruises (unlike your predecessors!) ...
(That was one nasty tumble, by the way. Doug feared that I would be giving up skiing again, despite the fact that I snarled through clenched teeth that I really WAS having fun.)

I love thee for the hours that I spend knitting on my way to and from the Leslie Frost Centre ...
This is Bamboo On Your Toes from S.R. Kertzer--a delightful experience in knitting once you get past the casting on. The yarn tends to unply as I cast on, something to do with the fact that I cast on left left-handed and pull from the centre of the ball, no doubt.

PS--Note to Elizabeth Barret Browning: Thanks for letting me borrow your lines!

And I was having so much fun!

2008-02-27T20:17:00.002-05:00

When my daughter and I moved to Canada , I had never really experienced the joys of cross-country skiing. Doug, on the other hand, enjoys the activity immensely. Enough so that when we landed, he almost immediately took me to buy the necessary equipment so that I, too, could enjoy skiing.

For eight years, I have generally enjoyed cross-country skiing. There was the one outing that went pretty sour, and I didn't ski again that season. Went out a couple of times the next year, and now I'm back to enjoying it.

Until this past weekend. As we were kitting up at the Leslie Frost Centre, I noticed something a bit strange with my boots. Upon closer examination, I discovered this: The binding part of the boot is pulling away from the boot part. Dang! And I was enjoying skiing so much! After a fair bit of discussion and examination, we decided to give it a try. Worse case scenario--I'd get to carry my skis and walk out.

The ski was ... well ... interesting is a nice word. I was vertically challenged (in other words, I fell. A lot.), but I'm blaming it on the failing ski boots, not on myself. Just because I hadn't been out for three weeks meant nothing. I tell you, if the boots had been 100% I'm certain that I would've handled the trail perfectly. (If you believe that, did I mention that I have some ocean-front real estate in Nevada for sale? Didn't fall for that one either, did you? Dang!)

So I now have a massive bruise on my leg. But at least I didn't break anything. We are planning to replace the boots at the earliest opportunity so that I can continue having fun this winter.

What I DID accomplish on the two hour ride there and two hours back is this:

These are the Annetrelac Socks from the Holiday 2007 Interweave Knits. I knit them in Regia Strato Colour and a pair of 2.75mm needles. I modified the pattern a bit. The instructions asked for a cast-on of 72 stitches, decreasing down to 48 stitches for the leg portion. This was HUGE! I cast on 60 stitches and then decreased to 48 stitches for the leg. They fit beautifully, so the modification worked.

In other news regarding the Saffron Cables ... my daughter really felt that the afghan was short. Upon further reflection, I decided she was right. Since I had three balls of yarn left over, I have decided that I am going to take back the border and add another pattern repeat. More photos of this later.

A FO, a close-up, and progress

2008-02-20T21:39:00.003-05:00

Sibling rivalry is an interesting thing. As a parent, you try to treat your children equally, show no preference for one child over another. In fact, you generally try diligently to treat each child absolutely equally.

So when my sons were both in the 3 to 4 years of age range, they both got an afghan made for them. Their choice, as I recall, although I did give them a limited selection from which to choose. Jason chose a crocheted afghan with a barn and a tractor. Jeff, with some coaching I do admit, selected an afghan with kitties playing with balls of yarn. And Carrie? Well ... I just never got around to making her afghan. Something about having moved to Tennessee, mired in a major depression, getting divorced, you know ... life.

So the boys used to tease Carrie -- "mom likes me better because she made ME an afghan" sort of thing.

Well, that is one claim that I am finally able to lay to rest. Carrie has an afghan of her very own now.

Doesn't she look very happy? She absolutely loves the afghan and proclaims me the best mother in the world. She might be a wee bit prejudiced, but I'm not gonna complain.

The afghan is the Saffron Cables from Interweave Knits Fall 2006. I used Butter (#03612) in Patons Shetland Chunky--19 balls in all--and a size 5.5mm needle. Carrie is going to add a fringe with the 1.5 balls remaining from the wool purchase. I found no errors in the pattern, which is a wonderful experience.
If you tip your head sideways, you can also see the progress on the Arabesque from Fiddlesticks Knitting. I'm loving this project--the tiny wool, the Addi lace needles, the painstaking counting of decreases and yarn-overs, the placement of life lines. Yes, it is truly a project to enjoy. I'm currently working repeat number 9 of 14 centre repeats, so I'm officially on the downhill side.
I wonder what lace I'll do next?