Saturday, October 20, 2007

Broken

I am either in a major funk, or the enormity of cleaning out my craft room, combined with cataloging my stash on Ravelry has overwhelmed my urge to impulse shop. This past Monday was vendors' night at knitting guild. I think there were 10-12 vendors there, and I did not buy a single thing! I mean, there was all sorts of interesting wool - Applelaine, hand dyed Soy Silk, small vendors with hand-dyed, Koigu but nothing enticed me, not even close.

Today the 'wits got together for breakfast, then Heho, Annie and I headed down to Inspirations Needlecraft Show and *AGAIN* nothing! Quilters, and beaders, and fabric stores, and wool vendors and nothing even whispered to me.

To verify I was indeed broken, Heho twisted my arm to stop in at Yarn Forward our LYS and home of the super yarn pimp Lulu - and probably for the first time in history, I left empty-handed.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Excited again

So it turns out doing bunches and bunches of garter stitch is really boring. I've been working on my friend's project for a couple of days now, and the progress was less than stellar. Part of it I'm sure is that I'm completely free-styling the colour changes, but the progress that I made over the past couple of evenings was duplicated in 2 1.5 hour car rides today. No I'm not insane, I have to do two matching sides and I figured this was the best and laziest way of making sure I will have enough yarn all around.

Anyways, the point of the post is that I have found something to get excited about again. I'm testing a new pattern for longies, and I'm doing it in double knitting. They are currently unpatterned, and I think that learning the increases and decreases for gussets etc will be challenging enough, but since I'm working in two colours anyways, I hope to be able to add some embellishments. Also, it appears that the instructions are written for knitting the front in one round and the back in another, so I'll see if I can modify that or if I'll be totally lost.

Now to find the wool for these little pants...

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

I'm still in my funk, and have done no knitting since I last posted. But here are the items I managed to finish last week:

Another pair of SheepyPants, in Galway Paint, with the Lettuce cuffs:


Another CurlyPurly soaker, in Ella Rae. I was really disappointed with this yarn, balled, it looked like there was bright red throughout, but in reality there were only huge swatches of it mixed with the pink and purple:


And I made up two of Mandy's hats (so adorable). The green one is the same Merino DK I used for the peapod jacket, and the other is Patons Classic Merino:


In the hopes that a change is as good as a rest, I have decided to pick up the Philosopher's Wool Poncho that I'm knitting for Nora. Fall is here and it would be nice if she could wear it. It is interesting in that there is no pattern for the colour changes, you are given 11 skeins of wool and you randomly select to work between one and six rows of any colour in any order. I am keeping track as I'm making a poncho for her, so both sides have to match. Garter stitch means it's easy peasy (I know, I thought I wanted to do something complicated, but I'm hoping big will do instead) so hopefully I'll be back on the baby knitting track next week.

Friday, September 28, 2007

In a rut

While knitting baby items is fun, and provides instant gratification, I really, really need a change. I completed another soaker, a pair of longies and 2 little caps this week (pictures to follow). I know I have more soakers to do, but I need to find something big and/or fun and/or complicated to do. This may also be some sort of denial, where I am absolutely refusing to freak out at the fact that I only have 10 weeks to go in this pregnancy.

I've gone through my naughty corner, and it appears that my house elves are slacking off, nothing has been done! Not only that, but none of the items in the naughty corner are prepared to start behaving, so they are all staying for a bit longer. Which, sadly, means I must start a new project.

I've never been a big fan of shadow knitting, but I think that is because I've never really liked the designs or the garments that I encountered. While I do knit, I don't particularly want to wear hand knit sheep embellished sweaters. Nor do I wish to wear a vest. Some people are vest people, I am not.

Back to the aversion to shadow knitting. I'm not sure why I never looked online for patterns before, but I think I've found my first shadow knitting project. This scarf is appealing to my stash. Loudly.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Here are my latest finished objects, I am having so much fun knitting baby items. And I have the funkiest little drying lines all over my house:

These are the Baby Albert, from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch and a pair of Sheepy Pants longies knit up in Patons Classic Wool, Blueberry:



And this guy is the Peapod Jacket, which is a freebie pattern on the Knitting Daily website. I think you need to register with them to receive the patterns. The pattern originally called for Debbie Bliss DK Cotton, but I used Luxury Collection Fine Merino DK Superwash instead. It is soooo soft!



The colour in that pic is a bit off - it's actually more like this:



I've currently got some yummy Ella Rae Palermo in colourway #3 working their way to be the next Curly Purly Soakers.

I was going to take a break after the soakers to do some sewing - diapers, washcloths, and receiving blankets, but I have a huge bag of Mission Falls 1824 wool calling to me to be made into a simple garter stitch patchwork binky, and I have this Galway Paint (colour 525):



Begging me to knit it into a pair of very girly ruffle-edged pants.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Better than FOs

Even better than boring pics of my furniture wearing my knitting, my sister just forwarded me this pic of her Lucas wearing the sweater I knit for him this spring. (Smiley guy will be 6 months next week):

Finally! Finished Objects

I'm approximately a week behind in my goal of knitting a garment a week for this pregnancy. I hope to make that up with some pretty simple soakers, since I need 2 or 3 of each size and maybe some longies.

My first project isn't actually finished, but it is off the needles. It now sits and stares at me, awaiting seaming. It is a baby jacket from Paton's Book #767, I used Beehive Baby in Apricot.
Here it is in it's unseamed glory. Look at all those ends. Of course I didn't slip the first stitches, so matching lace is added to the fun:


Next up, I created a soaker from an ancient pattern book I have. I also got to use some stash for this, and I selected Koigu KPPPM:


Then, for a super quick project I completed my first pair of longies. I used the SheepyPants longies. I used Patons Classic Wool Merino in the Good Earth colourway:


And finally, Curly Purly's Soakers. I used leftover PCW in the same colourway for this:


I now have a Baby Albert on the needles, using more Patons Merino, in Blueberry. It's almost tempted me to chuck the baby knitting and start my own coat!

Monday, August 13, 2007

Time to knit for baby!

I had my 22w appointment just over a week ago, and I realized at that time I am more than half way through my pregnancy and I have not yet started knitting for the baby! Clearly an oversight which must be corrected immediately.

Getting started on the baby knitting also means that I should make a huge dent in the 'for baby' stash which has been growing unchecked for years and years. This too is a good thing, as the stash is currently occupying the room where we are planning to put the baby!

So, I've joined a longies knit along, and although I haven't done a single woolen stitch to cover a baby's bottom, I have started a cute little Paton's lace jacket in Apricot Beehive. A FO picture should be arriving in the next day or two, and I think I'll work on a blankie next.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Every spring Mabel Corlett, of the Wool Room in Kingston, holds a one-day 'Spring Tonic' at Brown's Bay in on Wolfe Island. Years ago we noted that 1 day was not nearly long enough to get away, and have been working to expand it ever since. We are currently at a 5-day weekend, and I have heard rumblings about taking the whole week off.

Our contingent this year was slightly reduced, as Snorie was home with her new little boys and Lulu is 2 weeks away from delivering. She didn't see a problem with joining us, but we didn't really feel like polishing up on our midwifing skills. We were joined by Lulu's friend Kim, aka Domiknitrix, who is apparently crazy enough to like spending time with us.

The inn we stay at is a gorgeous little family owned endeavour called Brown's Bay Inn. We generally are there just as they open for the season, if not before. This means we get to spend a lot of time with the staff, and we can also go to breakfast in our jammies. The are a tolerant lot, but when they have other guests, they do frown on that. They were even kind enough to play the final game of round 2 on the dining room stereo for us so we didn't have to rush our meal to get the game in.

I went in to this weekend fully intending on finishing several pairs of socks I have on the go. Two of the pair are Nancy Bush's patterns, and one pair was a plain pair that I started on because I realized I was running low. One of the Nancy Bush socks has to be ripped out and started over, because heaven forbid I do a test swatch! Since I knew that would be no fun, and that there are times when socks just can't be worked on in a crowd (think turning the heel) I also packed some wonderful alpaca for a stole, from Headwater Wool, as well as some Handmaiden Rumple silk for a Bias shawl. The final two items I packed were a Philosopher's Wool kit that I wanted to get started on and a scarf that I am making out of the first yarn I ever purchased. I have managed to turn into a fibre snob, so this pound'o'acrylic will be keeping someone else warm this winter.

On to the pictures - finished objects and all!

Deb, the other blogger/photographer of the group:

She is wearing the Taiga, made from Briggs and Little wool, designed by Mabel for the book Knits from the North Country

The gang:

From left, Paddylou, Snorie (who drove up for the day, leaving her precious boys in the capable hands of her hubby and MIL, Heho and Annie. You may have noticed that Paddylou appears to be wearing Debdeb's Taiga. In fact, Deb never does anything half way, and this sweater was a test swatch, where she learned her tension was a bit to the small side *g*.

Mabel teaching Dom and Deb attached I-cord. You can tell what a good student I am by how closely I'm paying attention while taking these pictures:



Now to some of my knitting.

I started the Headwater Lace Alpaca Stole, here it is as a big lump of lace:


And here it is as a stretched lump of lace, only 5 more feet to go:


I also started my Handmaiden Bias Stole, made with Rumple silk:

(I have since finished this one)

And I managed to get 2 things off the needles! Not quite as impressive as Deb who knit a FairIsle sock in one day, but I'm still happy. My plain socks and the charity scarf. I'm not sure if I'll be able to block the hell out of the acrylic, but I'm sure going to try. Either way it's off to keep someone else warm:

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Now we're talking! FO post #1

This one has nothing to do with the knitting weekend, the entry for which I am still working on. This is the sweater I made for my brand new nephew L. I finished it about a month ago, but never posted. The wool is Big Mexico and the pattern is a kids' basic sweater from one of Paton's books. It originally had a froufrou appliqué heart in the middle of the chest, but I like the self-striping wool so much better. I have bright colours and I'm not afraid to put them on your child!



I had to hustle on this one, little dude is growing like a weed. He's just over 2 months now and is at 13lbs2oz; close to double his birth weight. I don't think he's going to make it to wear this in the fall, good thing we're having a cool spring.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I'll get the hang of this yet.

It isn't like I haven't read a million knitting blogs. I do know the drill. Knit like a mad woman, grumble while sewing in ends, (block), take picture, gift recipient with knitted item. So what do I do? I finish Tracey's birthday scarf (wonderful heavy thing made out of Paton's Bella), sew in the ends and give it to her. She was very happy to have it. So much so, that when I asked her later to take a picture, I could hear her flounce away, throwing the end of her scarf over one shoulder, giving me the virtual 'you snooze, you lose'. I will have to stalk her for a gift in action pic.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

My stash ate my knitting!

That is the only reasonable explanation for not being able to locate 'bun's' sweater in my craft room. Really, it has nothing to do with it being nicknamed my crap room by my husband. It only looks disorganized. Luckily, even though Stella is in labour as we speak, bun won't be big enough to wear it for a couple of months.

Luckily I was at my favorite LYS Friday afternoon and happened to pick up some Patons Classic Wool to complete the hat and mittens from their new 'Cables' booklet. March's lion-ness is lasting far too long IMHO. The pattern calls for Canadiana, but really, if I'm going to knit, I don't want to be killing those acrylic sheep. So yes I substituted. What's that? Did I swatch? Why yes, in a manner of speaking:



That was the second attempt. The first followed the pattern and was 112 stitches. It only lasted 3 rows. This one was 97 stitches and lasted one pattern repeat. The final is 97 stitches and is just right. I still believe this is less taxing than the math involved with that 4-by-4 square.

I am usually a big fan of minimizing seams. This however is being knit flat because when I first looked at the pattern I noticed a bunch of Sl1Pwyif's and they scared me. I now realize that my fears were unfounded, but I won't be ripping this out again. The trick now is to adjust for the increase in length of the swatch, being a beanie there really is no room for error.

I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Concentrate!

While I didn't do anything crazy like swear off buying new wool or yarn, I've used that loophole before I do acknowledge that I need to work on not only getting my stash down, but getting some of my work off the needles, and finished. Aside from the small list to the left, which has a sample of the work I have left on the needles, I have quite a few projects that are now off the needles but waiting for ends to be sewn in. The spit-splice is my friend, as there are no jobs I detest more than sewing in ends. Intarsia is not for me, I'm more of a self-striping sort of gal. I have also decreed that manufacturers need to invent spit-splice friendly acrylic. No, I don't make it a habit of working with acrylic, but parents generally appreciate the baby blanket they can just toss in the wash, so Astra is my friend. And on that note, I'm off to knit for the evening.