This and that ...

Because life is never simple, and why have computer issues only at the store when we can have them at home too, here is one of my more strange posts.

Doug and I were on our way to a friends' home when we drove past an antique shop up on Highway 12 at Blackwater.  "Spinning wheel!" I exclaimed.  But we didn't stop.  I drove back up the next day and looked at it, and came home.  Thought about it.  And then acquired it.  If you tip your head to the right ...

It's a tidy little wheel.  About 3 feet tall, and all wood.  I found a gentleman who works wonders with
spinning wheels, and left it with him.  He had to tighten

up the centre of the wheel, add the whorl at the top, and add one bead to the lazy kate.  (I'm trying to learn the proper names of the parts -- it makes me feel so sophisticated!) 

When I went to retrieve the wheel, the gentleman's wife demonstrated how well it could spin.  I'm taking lessons from her, come September.  She is a master spinner, and has a reputation for being able to spin moonbeams into wool.  Nice!

The gentleman doing the repairs was quite pleased to see that the flyer was not only present and accounted for, but also in one piece!  The whorl

is at the left, with the drive band.  (That might not be the correct name -- but it does turn the wheel, so it may be correct after all!)  There is also a Scotch tension that can be used, but I hear that it is a bit trickier to learn.

All this to say that I'm gonna learn to spin!  I am so excited!  The spinning product will be for my personal use ... hand spinning is just a bit too time-consuming to try for production quantities.  

 I've also been working on some more items for Baby Panda Boi, as my daughter-in-law and son call the impending arrival.  The outfit at left is made from Queensland Sugar Rush and Sugar Rush Jacquard.  I used three balls of each, and have minimal left-overs.  The pattern is from Naturally (New Zealand), and knit up quite beautifully.  Although the pattern called for a different type of yarn, the substitution worked beautifully.  All in all, I'm thrilled with the outcome.  I can't wait to see the new baby wearing this!

 Other major events in my life -- my beautiful daughter graduated from the University of Toronto with an honours bachelor's degree in Religion and Equity Studies.  Again, tip your head a wee bit to the left ... (Hey -- I'm an equal opportunity head tipper - once to the right, and once to the left!)

She has an internship (with pay, hooray!) at the University for the next six months, so she is feeling quite chuffed with herself.

 In what was a total surprise to me, both her brothers decided to come for the event.  Shown here are Jason (eldest), Carrie (youngest) and Jeffrey (middle).  I look at these youngsters and am so impressed and proud.  They have all three done well for themselves.  Jason is gainfully employed with a U.S. governmental agency, and Jeffrey just completed his master's degree in guidance counseling.  He's looking for work in his field, and has several interviews scheduled.  Yay!

 After the graduation ceremony, we all went out to dinner.  I had the joy of sitting next to Jason and chatting all evening.  Doug snapped a photo of the two of us enjoying a nice laugh.  I don't get to spend as much time with Jason as I'd like, and his lovely wife was back home tending their kitties and growing Baby Panda Boi.  The due date is in August, so it was better that she not travel right now.  We definitely missed her.  I'm extremely excited to be able to visit with them come September, and hold the new baby!

At the store we are always looking for new yarns.  Barb and I ordered in a bag of Cascade Cherub to try out.  Interestingly enough, Barb worked up a baby sweater with her half bag and quite enjoyed it.  I tried out this Cabin Fever pattern ... using the 4.0mm needle the yarn suggested, I found the fabric to be limp.  Extremely limp.  Undaunted, I ripped out and tried again with a 3.75mm needle.  Gauge is more like a 4-ply yarn (think Sirdar Snuggly 4-ply), but the fabric is still limp. In short, I think the Sirdar product is superior.


In other mental meanderings ... while I understand the allure of not wearing pantyhose (yeah, they do make the wearer more warm), I recently attended an event where the ladies were pretty much all required to be dressed up.  Apparently, the concept of underslips has also gone out the window along with pantyhose.  Have you ever seen a room full of women reaching around to pull their skirts away from their rear ends?  I have ... and I'm not kidding when I tell you that the alleged comfort is not worth the lessening of appearance.  Women -- for heavens sake -- pantyhose and slips!  Really!  It is worth it!

Downloading update ...

Remember when I said that it seemed Barb and I had managed to switch brains?  And showed my overflowing knitting bag as proof positive?   I still swear that we have switched brains ... but my regular tendencies are attempting to manifest themselves.  THIS is my knitting bag this week:

 So let's see what projects we have stashed in there for my attention:

 That's the Noro sideways knit vest.  No progress, but it did escape being frogged.  It was close, I have to say.  I thought about working a Baby Surprise Jacket out of the Noro Silk Garden Lite.  Upon a closer look, however, I decided that I like it.  Enough to keep it around.

 I've started and made great progress on Baby Panda Boi's little outfit.  The back is done completely, and I'm almost at the armholes for the front.  I am enchanted with the yarn -- Sugar Rush from Queensland.  It feels so soft and silky that I'm envious of the little grandbaby for whom it is being knitted.

And then there's the Mother's Day wool from my daughter and hubby -- it has decided it wants to grow up and become this vest:

 Note that the pattern and the wool are in the same knitting bag.  The needles are, alas, currently in use in Baby Panda's project.  Must finish.  Quickly!

And instead of WIP (works in progress), I seem to have PIW (projects in waiting)!  Turns out that the Kertzer Bamboo is actually a full skein, albeit a slightly disheveled one.  I've got a full skein of coral at home and the combination will be absolutely beautiful.  All in good time.  All in good time. 

 And then there's the Cascade Cherub.  Still hasn't told me what it wants to be when it grows up ... still waiting for inspiration.  I figure the Mother's Day wool is outshouting it right now.  

And that's my knitting bag this week.

What's that you say?  I'm missing a project from last week's round-up.  Really?  I am? 

That's because I'm wearing it!  This is Painted Desert, colour no. 09.  I used three full balls and about 20g of the fourth ball.  (What a shame.  I'll have to knit up a set of fingerless mitts with the left-overs!)  The pattern is called "Renae" from Ella Rae's booklet #104 and it is a beauty.  I followed the pattern pretty much as written, which is why it is short.  Apparently all the girls wear them this short, with the top showing underneath. I'm not totally certain that the sweater is the right size for me -- it may be on the small side.  but I have to say that the wool was delightful to work with.  Absolutely.  It's such a shame that I have left-overs!

So there's my bag for the week.  What's in yours?

Brain transfer complete.

When we were off in Michigan to see my son be awarded his Master's Degree, we received a frantic phone call telling us that Lizzie-kitty was ill.  She was, too.  She was so ill that I considered having her put to sleep.  Doug persuaded me that she deserved to have blood work, and so we tried.  The vet wasn't able to get enough to do a complete blood work (she IS a fierce wild beast after all), but she was able to check the important things.  We also gave her an appetite stimulant.  And then she started eating.  And feeling better.  I'd say that she's fully recovered, in fact. 

 Enough recovered that she was totally miffed at the bad weather we had for Mother's Day.  She'd venture out, and then dash back in shaking her paws in disgust.

In other news, the joke around here is that Barb and I share a brain.  Enough sharing that we are able to finish each other's sentences ... and even start them in unison.  Lately Barb has decided that she is going to carry only one project in her bag, and be monogamous until that project is finished.  It's working for her, actually.

I think the non-monogamous part of her brain transferred to me.  Because THIS is my knitting bag:

Whatever happened to the one-project-at-a-time thing?  Or even the one-project-for-the-store-and-one-project-for-me thing?  Because clearly I have misplaced that thought.

Firstly, we have a store project made from our new yarn called Painted Desert.  It's a heavier lace-weight yarn and it's beautiful.  I'm working on a little cardigan from Ella Rae; unfortunately I've not been able to find the book to link to. 

I've got the back and two fronts, and most of one sleeve.  Really, I'm so close I can taste the end coming.  But I've been distracted.   By this: 

 

 This is a sideways knitted vest that I'm working in Noro Silk Garden Lite and Rowan Calmer (discontinued, unfortunately).  I'm working a Fibonbacci sequence in addition to the garter stitch rib pattern.  Eeeek!   And then there are these socks -- 

These are Slipstream from Knitty.com, and I'm knitting them in one of our signature sock yarns.  Barb THOUGHT these were for Carrie for Christmas; the joke's on her!  Happy birthday, Barb!

Also in my knitting bag is the absolutely terrific Mother's Day gift from my daughter and hubby --

This yarn is merino, cashmere and silk, and is a one-of-a-kind hand-dye run.  Two skeins!  800 meters!   It's going to grow up to be the vest that's on the cover of Knitwear Spring/Summer 2013.   I can't cast on until I finish the Painted Desert project, because that's where the necessary needles are.

I'm also carrying around some yarn that we brought in to sample -- Cherub by Cascade Yarns.  It's a delightful yarn and knits beautifully, according to Barb.  However, we'd have to stop carrying the Sirdar Snuggly DK, and the colour range from Sirdar is wider than from Cascade.  In the meantime, I have these 6 balls to use up.

 Remember when I announced the impending arrival of a grandbaby?  This gives me the perfect excuse to knit up a sample in the Sugar Rush from Queensland.   The pattern is actually for a different bamboo yarn, but the gauge and feel is identical so I'm going for it.  Since the grandbaby will live in Virginia, I'm thinking that I'll make a six-month size.  This will be a beautiful late fall outfit for Baby Panda.

I also agreed to knit up a touque for an advertising salesman.  Just a basic ribbed hat in some really nice wool.  Even though the season for wool hats is past,  he still wants the hat.  Nice!

Barb finished her bamboo top and discovered that she needed just a wee, tiny bit of yarn from skein #4.  Rather than add to her ever-growing project list, I told her she could gift the skein to me and I'd mix it with some coral bamboo that I've got (same yarn, different colour) and make a pair of striped socks.  Saves her another spot on her queue.  

Whew.  As much fun as this is, I am being told that I need to finish Barb's birthday socks.  See you later!

Ahem. A little of this, a little of that ...

Ahem.  I'm really not certain just where all those days have gone.  It really feels like yesterday that we celebrated the new year.  And here it is, May 3.  Almost May 4th, in fact.

There have been a lot of things happening around my house.  First of all, I knit this:

This is a baby blanket.  The pattern is called "Traditional Shetland Shawl" and is an old photocopied pattern that I had found here at the house.  I always liked the design, and was waiting for a reason to knit a baby blanket.  (For the record, I used 6.5 balls of Baby Lanett and a 3.5mm needle to knit this up.)  "A red baby blanket?" you ask.  Well, yes.  You see, my daughter-in-law is from Hong Kong, and where she comes from this is the colour of baby blanket you knit.  Red for good luck. 

Yes, this means that my son and daughter-in-law are making me a grandma this summer!  I'm so excited!  They are calling the little one "Baby Boi Panda" right now, so when Doug and I went to Costco recently, guess what I found! 

Border crossings being what they are these days, we didn't actually purchase this giant panda.  But we did think about it! 

In other news, I was forced to miss this year's Knitter's Frolic.  It seems Western Michigan University had other plans for me that day.  What plans might those be?  Well ...

My middle child completed his Master's Degree in guidance counseling!  Since he figures this is the only Master's Degree he will be getting, I couldn't miss the occasion.  I figure it was worth skipping the Frolic for!  I even managed to squeeze in a visit with my three brothers and their families while I was in Michigan!

And then we hurried back home because

Carrie had an awards ceremony Monday night.  She was awarded a 2013 Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award!  Yes, my daughter is finishing up her Bachelor's Degree (double major no less) this year.  Her future plans include a six-month (paid) internship at the University of Toronto in the Student Leadership & Development office.  Right now, she is thrilled to be done with school -- no more readings, papers to write, or exams!  Hip-hip-hooray!

In other news, my friend Barb has been teased endlessly about the size of her project queue.  I thought I'd help her out -- show everyone my stash.  Because I thought I had lots and lots.

Seriously -- that is a LOT of stash.  5 large bins, plus overflow into boxes and such.  Even Barb's son was impressed! 

Turns out that I don't have nearly as much as I thought.  Barb had me sorted and stowed in two hours.  I was embarrassed when I saw the stack.  After sorting it out, however, I'm feeling pretty comfortable.  What I have is a lot of single balls, leftovers from completed projects.  We managed to toss together enough yarns for a Log Cabin afghan, a cardigan, a couple of shawls ... All in all, not nearly as impressive or large as I thought.  Whew.  Didn't make Barb feel much better.  So I thought about it ... and decided

When I grow up, I want to have a stash like Barb's!

A little of this, a little of that.

Time seems to be slipping away from me far too quickly these days.  It feels like it was just yesterday that we celebrated the new year, and here it is halfway through March.  In those two and a half missing months, my eldest son celebrated his 33rd birthday.  Yes, 33.  Holy smokes -- how in the world did THAT happen?  Even tho I didn't make a celebratory posting about here, I am very proud of him.  He has grown to be a fine young man, with a career he enjoys, hobbies that bring him joy, and a family of his own.  (If by family you mean a wife and two cats, that is!)  I don't get to see him and his wife nearly as much as I'd like, and we talk on the telephone even less.  He's a busy guy, and I don't want to be one of those overbearing mothers who smother their children.  I hope he knows that I'm immensely proud of him and love him to the ends of the world and back.

In my last post, I remember alluding to a plethora of projects that had been cast on since I finished my Aran Afghan.  One of them was a sweater for our "upside down"  class at the store.  Once again, I used the little booklet from Patons called Upside Downers and created the textured pull-over shown on the cover.

 This time I used five skeins of Patons Classic Wool in a discontinued blue.  I just don't understand why they would discontinue this colour -- it's so pretty.  I have lots of customers who also love it, and use it regularly.  Fortunately, I can get a very similar colour from Cascade in their 220 line, so it's not a total loss.  I also used one ball of Galway Highland Heather and another colour of Patons Classic for the lighter of the two contrasting colours.  THIS time I got the sleeves to a proper length for myself ... altho there were other issues.

Heh.  Turns out that I didn't have all the same dyelot for the light blue.  In fact, I had three different dyelots.  I tried to blend the colours in ...

Sometimes with more success than others.  The first colour change occurs right after the arm take-off.  I did one row of alternating colours, and there is a faint line.  The second dyelot change occurs about two inches above the bottom ribbing.  That time I worked three rows of alternating colours, and the switch is virtually invisible.  Note to self:  More is better.  Remember that!

There are three more sweaters to show off ... but time on the blocking board is at a premium; additionally, I much prefer to show the sweaters while being worn.  Hence, you'll have to wait a bit to see them.

So in lieu of knitting content, let's talk about other things.  For instance, my lovely daughter is now living in Toronto and attending University.  She has figured out that she quite possibly won't be coming home to live permanently again.  Sure, there are the occasional visits.  And there may be a bit between university and a "real" job, but she hopes not.  And she does know that I've been longing for a "wool room" ever since we moved up here to Canada.  So she very sweetly offered that I should go ahead and start using her room for this purpose.  "Great!"  I thought.

After somber reflection, however ... You see, I have always laughingly told her that when I die, I want to be buried with my needles and my stash.  I've gotta have something to keep my fingers busy, you know?  And she'd always told me that she'd take care of that.  Then she started knitting.  And the tone of her reassurances changed.  She tells me that she's on it, but I have a feeling I'm gonna get stuck with the plastic needles and acrylic yarn.  The girl IS a yarn snob, after all.  So ... Now I'm not going to make any accusations, but my mother didn't raise any dummies.  I figure it's all a ploy -- I'll move my stash into her room and then she'll come home for the weekend.  Possession is 9/10 of the law, right?

I'm knitting as fast as I can!

January -- what I've been doing.

It's been pretty busy around this household.  The holidays were great -- even managed to get all the socks finished in time.  Of course, it was only because we didn't see some of the recipients until later in the month.  But then after I finished the Great American Aran Afghan, I --

WAIT!  I didn't brag tell you about having finished the afghan.  What was I thinking?!

Yes, after 4 years and 10 months, I have finally finished the Great American Aran Afghan.  All 25 squares AND the border.  

 

I cast on the first square back in February of 2008.  This was a "knit along" for myself and store customers.  Barb started, as did several others.  It seems we are all greatly distractable ...and there has been lots of knitting in the interim.

Now that I'm finished, I know some people (Carrie, I'm looking at you!) will wonder which squarea is my favourite.  In the interest of fairness (and also because I'm not a linear thinker), I'm just going to say that they were all favourites at one time or another.  Possibly because I was working on them, or because I had just finished it.  It doesn't seem fair to the designers to rate them.

One square that turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought was this little beauty:

I really wasn't excited by the thought of having a spider crawling around on my afghan.  After all, I'm really not that fond of the little guys.  However, putting wings on the critters in the spider web made all the difference in the world.  Now I wish I'd included more bugs!  This, by the way, is the Judy Sumner square.

I made notes, more or less, about each square as I knit it.  Sometimes I noted things I'd do differently if I made the afghan again.  Sometimes I noted errors in the patterns.  Sometimes I even noted changes that I made in the designs:

This is the Vicki Sever square, which she designed as a memorial to her sister who died from breast cancer.  Her square included a pink ribbon.  There's just so many cancers in my family (we lost my mother to lymphoma and leukemia; my elder sister is a survivor of breast and lung cancer; my elder brother is a survivor of lymphoma; and I am counting down the months until I can say I survived thyroid cancer) that I didn't want to put only one colour on the ribbon.  Besides, what colour is thyroid cancer anyway?  I chose instead to repeat the faith, hope and love motifs.  These are the tenets that I live by, and so it seemed fitting to change the square in this way.

Wait a minute -- you say there are only 24 squares in the book?  How did I do 25?  Well, it seemed only fitting to have a signature square.  I drafted it up, and started knitting;

In hindsight, I wish I had taken the time to make my name and the year stand out better.  I decided in August that I would finish the afghan in 2012, come hell or high water.  When December rolled around, I still had the border and some of the sewing to complete.  I stuck to only knitting the afghan while at the store, and managed completion with two days to spare.  Whew!

The border makes all the difference in the world.  I mean, the afghan is nice all sewn together.  I've seen pictures of the afghan worked with a garter stitch border.   That was a nice afghan, but the cabled border really sets it all off.  The best part is that the cable isn't hard to do, even around the corners. 

I have talked to women in the store who have made this afghan several times, usually given as wedding gifts to their children.  I've entertained the thought of making it again -- after all, there are four children between Doug and I.   I used Patons Canadiana, and I don't regret that.  The afghan is going on my bed and I know it'll get washed on a regular basis.  If I were making it again, I'd be sure to get enough yarn/wool all in the same dye lot for the complete afghan (I ended up selling some of my yarn to customers who needed "one more ball" in that dyelot, so there are some colour mismatches.)  I'd also not hang any of the squares in the window where they would/could become sun-damaged.  Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

But I do have to say that all in all, this is an afghan of which I am mightily proud. 

Yarn Bombing

Finally, we got everything together and had a yarn bombing.  What is a yarn bombing?  Well, it looks a lot like this:

When we first started tdhis little endeavour, we expected to display everything locally before delivery.  Unfortunately, fates and the weather did not cooperate with us. 

We selected a local woman's shelter for our charity of choice.  Because of the nature of its clientele, we are not divulging the location or name, but it is a great choice. 

Many thanks to the Anonymous Knitters from Never Enough Wool.  We couldn't have done it without your help.

It's a cowl-iday!

What's this?   Early last month, Carrie came home for the weekend.  We celebrated the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, but not with traditional foods.  We had a lovely pork loin, with parsnips, and rutabaga, and squash.  Doug and I have been experimenting with different vegetables and we decided to include Carrie in the festivities.  She actually quite liked the rutabaga and squash.  We still need to find a nicer way to prepare parsnips.  If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears. 

Since the weather was so nice, we decided to go for a walk in the woods, which is one of Carrie's favourite things to do when home for the weekend.  The weather may have been nice, but I still needed these:

 Double-knit mittens!  Of course, some of you may recognize the yarn from March of 2011; that particular project has been frogged.  I still love the design, still love the double knit vest idea.  The multi-colour yarn just wasn't working.  I had hoped it would give a nice fair-isle look, but it was too busy.  I have a selection of single skeins of super-wash wool, so ultimately the vest will be knit.  Just not right now. 

So if I've given up on the vest, what HAVE I been knitting?

We had a class on mobius cowls at the store for November.  Complete with the Lucy Neatby mobious cast-on.  Let me tell you, THAT cast on is a brain-twister.  My first mobius ended up being twisted twice, which just didn't work.  So I had to frog that.  Undeterred, I started again. 

 Success!  The cowl is actually long enough that it can wrap around my neck twice, which means that I'll have a lovely warm neck when the winter winds blow.  The yarn is our own -- Never Enough Wool sock yarn, dyed by Barb, Sue and myself.  I called the colour "Chocolate-covered Orange."   The design is from Knitscene Accessories, and is called "Roam Cowl."  I quite like both the design and the wool. 

Since I had managed to mess up my first mobious attempt, I HAD to try again.  This is a Lucy Neatby design that I found on Ravelry.  I used two skeins of Patons Shetland Chunky and a 6.0mm needle.  Of course, I looked at the instructions and thought that the cowl would be too small and added 10 extra stitches.  Once finished, I find that the smaller number of stitches would have been better.  The cowl isn't long enough to wrap twice, and too long to wrap once.

 Also, the peculiar construction of a mobious means that the right side is also the wrong side, and this specific design has a definite right and wrong side.  And again, due to the peculiarity of the mobious, both sides can and do show.  I won't be doing this one again, that's for certain.

And then, much to my horror and disgrace, I discovered that I had assisted one of our students to create a double twist in HER mobious.  In penance, I decided that I should knot yet another mobious just to be sure that I could visually assure the cast on and first row were done correctly.

 This cowl was also found on Ravelry.  It's very simple, actually.  A section of knit-side facing, an eyelet row, more knit-side facing.  Then some purl-side facing, an eyelet row, more purl side facing.  And a cast off.  The picture doesn't really show how wide this cowl is.  One could wear this as a shawl, or shoulder-warmer if desired, or even wrap around the neck one more time.  Plenty of room.

Interestingly, I cast on 160 stitches for my first mobious, and 170 for this green one.   If you tip your head, you can see that there is a huge difference in length between the two scarves.  Far more than 20 stitches.  Why is that, I wondered. 

And then I remembered.  The orange cowl has a regular cast off, done as loosely as I could.  I didn't have enough yarn to actually finish the seventh row of the pattern, so had to go back to row 6 and then cast off.  Didn't have enough to work the stretchy cast-off.  The green cowl had plenty of yarn.  So I was able to work the requisite stretch cast-off -- knit two stitches, then knit through the front of them, leaving one stitch on the right-hand needle; lather, rinse, repeat.   Big difference between the regular and the stretchy cast-off.  Lesson learned!

It's still October, so I'm OK.

Despite my best intentions of doing a blog post every Friday, I seem to have failed miserably.  Except for one thing -- it's STILL October.  So I'm not as far behind as I might have been.  Whew.

I still have plenty of older knits to show off, but today you will be seeing some newer items.  First off, my friend Michelle shaved her head in a fund raising effort for cancer research.  She was beautiful with her hair; without, she's absolutely stunning.  But she often rides her bicycle to work, and I didn't want her to be cold.  So I whipped up this little hat:

 I used one skein of Berroco Vintage Chunky in a dark grey, which was her stated preference.  Starting at the top with 5.0mm needles, I cast on 8 stitches and knit one row.  Second row was a knit one, yarn over all the way around, and then a round of knit all.  I continued increasing until I had the dimension I was after, then continued the yarn overs and compensated by working a knit two together before the yarn over.  Result:  a nice swirl, and a really comfortable hat.  Easy, easy, easy.  And quick!

Next up in this parade of photos is a little baby gift I made for the daughter and son-in-law of some dear friends.  These friends had two daughters, and now one daughter is expecting a boy!  Yippee!  My friends are thrilled to have the opportunity to feature largely in the upbringing of a little boy. 

 The yarn is King Cole Baby yarn, purchased when Lewiscraft closed down their stores.  It really isn't a DK weight, which made it perfect for the pattern.  The pattern is from Naturally, and of course it is at home so I don't have the pattern number.  Suffice to say, it doesn't look much like the picture on the pattern because I omitted the texture on the top of the sweater and just did the cable braid at the bottom.  I used less than one ball of yarn (the King Cole balls are quite large as you recall).  No time to make socks or booties ...

Doug was traveling to Picton to complete a construction job at the friends' house and I had to get things finished and packed.  Wisely, I decided to send the gift wrapped in tissue paper and in a gift bag.  Doug said that the first thing that happened beyond the "hi" greeting was the gift being opened and being properly appreciated.  Thanks, Carol!

Generally I'm not a ruffle girl.  I tend to prefer basic blue jeans and classic sweaters and tops.  But when the early Fall Vogue magazine arrived, I leafed through it and fell in love.  With THIS, if you can believe it!

I used four skeins of Cascade Lana Grande in a purple colour and one skein of Diamond Magic Nights.  (Yes.  Purple.  Do not adjust your colour settings.  I really fell off a cliff with this one!)  The design can be found on page 61 of the magazine.  I found one little mistake in the pattern.  They would have you work the ruffle on the inside of the sweater, and not the outside.  Other than that, it was a great pattern.  Now to find an occasion to wear this oh-so-girly sweater.

In other news and activities for the month of October -- Sue, Barb and I got together for a little fun with wool and dyes.  This month we used wool from a new company and we are thrilled with the results.  The yarn absorbed the dye beautifully and the colours set well. 

 Every time we get together, we try something new.  This month we tried our hands at immersion dying. 

Waiting patiently ... 

 When I saw the experiment working, I have to admit that I jumped up and down and squealed like a pre-teen seeing Justin Bieber on her front lawn.  It was embarrassing!

But look how well the yarn took the dye!  The finished skein is currently sitting on the footstool in front of my knitting chair at home, so I can look at it constantly.  I have yet to wind it into a ball and decide what it wants to be.  Mostly, it wants to be admired.  Must be female wool, eh?