Trifecta

It's cute, it's geeky, and it's knitting.  It's today's 365 pic.



I stopped in at my friend Jen's house and stole her baby, and then felt guilty while she ran around and made dinner.  I was assured that I was an immense help just by being a baby holder.  Not much more done on the scarf in the picture, which is unfortunate, as it's 'due' for a birthday on Friday.  Well, that's not gonna happen. 

My First Sweater. Yikes.

This Christmas was my knitting-est Christmas yet. I knitted up no less than nine gifts, which for me is definitely a record.

 

I'll start with the biggest, though not the best. Back in the summer, I asked my mum if she'd like something knitted for Christmas, or if she was getting tired of socks and scarves and hats. (Particularly hats - when she was going through chemo, I probably made her about 20 or so hats.) She hummed and hawed for a bit, and finally asked, "Like what kind of knitted things?"

 

I started to list my typical projects: socks, hats, scarves, dishcloths, blankets... Nothing seemed to appeal. I kept going, now moving on to theoretical knits: sweaters, cardigans - "Oooh! Cardigan? I'd like a cardigan!"

 

Shoot. I'd never done a sweater. I've had one started and sitting on a precious Denise needle for over a year now. I know I've messed up some of the "at the same time" instructions, so it's been hidden in a little basket until I can get up the gumption to rip it all out and start over. Again. I'd hoped that my first sweater would be inflicted only on myself. But now I'd opened my mouth and committed to punishing my poor mother with what would no doubt be a comically oversized and misproportioned garment.

 

I at least had the sense to include her in the choosing of the pattern and the yarn. I sat down and showed her the wonders of Ravelry's projects pages. We agreed on the basic cardigan pattern from Stitch and Bitch, without the fuzzy mohair edging. I happened to have with me some Knitpicks Comfy yarn from another project, which Mum liked the feel of. She picked the colour "Crème Brulée" and I ordered it right then and there.

 

Several months passed, and we ended up with this. Which isn't too bad, after all.

 

 

Mum insisted on a 'neck down' shot. (Which reminds me of a funny story I need to share another time about prom pictures and my mother's photography skills.)

 

As mentioned, I passed on the crocheted mohair border, instead picking up stitches around the neck and adding a few rows of garter stitch.

 

 

Also, because I wasn't adding the edging, I thought the plain stockinette would curl way too much on the fronts and sleeves, so I added ten rows of seed stitch to each.

 

 

You need to ignore the strange, radioactive purple of my mum's hand there - not sure what happened. She is not an alien.

 

Good:

1. The yarn is lovely and soft, and warmer than I would have thought a cotton blend would be, which my mum loves.
2. It fits better than I thought it would. For now. More on that below.
3. My mum likes it and wears it.

 

Not so good:

1. I should have added the seed stitch border to the bottom of the back, too, but didn't think of it until it was too late to reknit.
2. I have a feeling that the yarn will be pill-y. Don't know why, but I suspect.
3. Mum says that the sweater is growing already, and is looking baggy. Damn you, cotton and your heavy dragginess!
4. The sleeves are too long. For which I don't have an excuse, because I know my mum has short arms, and I even measured. But once I finished the increases as instructed, I was already too long and wasn't sure how to fix, and time was short.
5. My seaming is awful in the neck/shoulder/sleeve area. I didn't know exactly how they fit together, and tried a few different ways before figuring it out. Which just made everything messy and loose or messy and tight.

 

So overall, not a disaster. And next time, there will be more on the 'Good' list, I think.

First Christmas FO 2008

Christmas knitting has well and truly begun. I can even claim one completed finished project.

This is the Inner Truth (cashmere) Scarf, an old pattern from the now-defunct MagKnits. I say (cashmere) because I used plain old Knitpicks Gloss, in cranberry.



It’s lovely and soft and squishy, and will feel lovely and warm against my father’s neck while he wanders the frozen Little River Wetlands with his dog this winter.



I knit up the Reversible Cable Scarf for my dad last year. It was in a nice, neutral beige, and, as requested, was short enough so that it didn’t ‘get in the way’ all the time.



As my dad gets a wee bit older, it seems he’s valuing warmth and comfort over convenience, so this scarf is almost Doctor Who-like in its proportions, probably over seven feet long. It should wrap snugly around the neck at least a couple of times, and, in a pinch, can be used as an emergency dog leash.

More details on Ravelry, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

Rainy Saturday - In Detail

The other day, some friends and I decided to share our day in pictures. This is something we’ve done a couple of times now, and always with interesting results. This time around, our “day” fell on the same day as the Kitchener-Waterloo knitter’s fair. I wasn’t sure I would go, but felt like I had to do something picture-worthy. And if I’m going to take all kinds of pictures and tell stories, then I might as well blog it. Here is my apology in advance for a VERY long post. Feel free to skim.

After lounging about all that morning, I decided to get in the car and drive to Kitchener-Waterloo for the fair. It was a chilly, rainy day, but the roads weren’t bad.

I started to take the most direct route to the fair, but saw signs that directed me differently, and I ended up taking the route I knew best, past my old stomping grounds in Guelph. I loved being back on roads I knew and have driven dozens of times.

I arrived at Bingeman’s without incident, and my first thought as I drove into the parking lot was, “I’ve been here before”. I can’t remember why – I think maybe there must have been an Engineering career fair or something way back when.

As I’d had such a long, lazy morning, I didn’t arrive at the fair until almost three. So I didn’t get to check out any of the workshops the website had mentioned, but there was still plenty to see.

I guess in previous years, the vendors had all been in one big room, and the place was jam-packed. This was the first year they expanded to two rooms, and everything was well-spaced, with wide aisles. There were lots of deals to be had, but I was fairly restrained. But not saintly.

I wandered both rooms, visiting every stall with varying degrees of interest. I had just wandered into my last stall, and was thinking it was weird that I hadn’t found the Linda’s Craftique booth, when I heard Linda call out my name. I turned around to find that I was, in fact, in her booth. It was nice to see a few familiar faces (and familiar F.O.s).

It continued to pour all day, which didn’t really bother the knitters, as they scurried from hall to car laden with fibre and tools.

I stayed right up to the end, at 4:30 (partly in hopes that some vendors might suddenly decide to lighten their loads home and offer ridiculous deals) then headed back to my car in the suddenly empty parking lot.

I was a bit confuddled to find a satellite dish in the middle of some bushes by my car. Next to… nothing at all. Okay.

Then it was back on the road for me. Despite the rain, it was a lovely drive along familiar roads.

I love driving back roads at this time of year. Even better is a couple of weeks from now, when the leaves have started to change, and the world is awash with sunset colours.

But this time of year is lovely, too, with the rich browns and yellows of the fields, all on a backdrop of lush greenness.

And every now and then, in the distance, or – more startlingly – suddenly in a field flashing by, you can see bright sheets of brilliant yellow canola.

Yes, I know I probably took too many pictures, but I don’t get out this way nearly often enough these days.

I didn’t even notice the big windmill behind this house until I was going through the photo files later at home.

I took the long, slow way back to Guelph, and then through the city, driving along roads that took me back in time about nine years.

It’s been bothering me that I couldn’t remember the name of the street I lived on in second year, so I swung by that way to remind myself that it was “Keats Crescent”.

I drove south on highway 6, past the lawn furniture/camping equipment place that has life size dinosaur statues. (no idea)

And when I got home, I drooled over my purchases. I got some lovely green roving, a spool, and this beautiful niddy noddy.

I think I became interested in spinning mainly for the beautiful tools and their fun names.

After playing with my new toys, I got dinner together. The last of my homemade tomato sauce over shell pasta with plenty of parmesan.

Then I flaked out on the couch. I was not alone.

Surprise

The second project that I finished up this weekend was this little bluey greeny item.

 

If it looks vaguely familiar, that's because yes, I did just make another one of these.  But it also means that you saw it on Ravelry, because I have been a bad, bad blogger.  

Okay, here's my first:

 

These are both Baby Surprise Jackets, knit from Knitpicks Felici sock yarn.  It's wonderfully soft and perfect for baby projects.  The socks are cable rib socks, from the "Better than Booties" collection from Interweave knits. 

The pink/blue/green (Coney Island colourway) jacket and bootees went to my cousin's new little one, Tristan, out in Edmonton.  The blue/green/brown (Schooner colourway) is destined for an as-yet unknown baby, due in about three weeks.

These are really cute, fast projects, and I can see myself doing plenty more in the future.  I do have to say that I did not have much luck following Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern.  The style of writing there just didn't click for me.  It was the Baby Surprise Notes by Dawn Adcock that made it possible for me to knit - and enjoy knitting - these jackets.  The notes don't give you the pattern - that, you still need to buy or borrow.  But they give you the pattern instructions line by line, more like a modern pattern. 

Which, yes, may be a bit of spoon feeding, but apparently, that's what I need, so I'm glad it's available.

I know!  Two posts in two days!   Crazy!

Wee Things

There's really only one thing a picture like this can mean to a knitter.  Things have been finished!

I spent most of the weekend seaming, weaving in ends, sewing on buttons, and blocking.  I rarely left the couch, which was pretty much the plan going into the weekend, after a somewhat hellacious Friday spent hopping from one waiting room to the next, as I tried to deal with a messed up cornea.  Which, by the way, was made much worse by doctor number two (of three) scraping at it because he thought there was something on my eye.  Turns out, he was seeing a scratch and misinterpreting it as some kind of foreign material.  Thanks, doc!  Oh, well.  He did send me off to an ophthamologist, who gave me very good eyedrops.

Anyway - knitting!  The first project I finished up was my pair of Embossed Leaves socks.



These were knit out of some lovely hand dyed yarn from Sunnyside Ellen's etsy shop.  The yarn was dyed to give a gradual descent into darker shades.  I started with the lighter end, as the socks were knit top-down.  I was a bit disappointed that I never made it to the darkest green shades.

If I did this again, I'd likely choose a toe-up and go the other way, since I'd rather see more of the darker green.  But that's really the only disappointment, and it's a minor one.

The pattern was easy to memorize, and gives really lovely results.  It also gave me the chance to try a star toe for the first time, as shown in the awkward photograph above.

The only really unusual thing about these socks was the way I finished them up.  I used a nine inch circular needle.

 

Apparently, this is a new offering from Hiya Hiya, and Linda my LYSO of Linda's Craftique was kind enough to let me try this out.  I admit that it's a bit awkward at first, as the needles themselves (as opposed to the cable) are very short.  I think that a lot of people just wouldn't enjoy using these, but it works for me just because I happen to hold my needles just right for them. 

They're ideal for a purse knitting project, and I like them well enough that I've used them to cast on for my next sock project.  Which are the Uptown Boot Socks from Favorite Socks (that's really hard to type without the "u", by the way), in safety orange.

Up next - more finished stuff!

For me!

I won a contest!

A couple of weeks ago, I added a comment to 1600 others to congratulate Sheri at The Loopy Ewe on her second anniversary.  And I was chosen as one of sixteen winners, much to my shock and amazement.

The package arrived today, and was just a fabulous way to celebrate a beautiful, cool summer day.



I knew the yarn would be yummy, so I left it as the last thing to be unwrapped.  What a fun little package.  There's a Loopy Ewe mini tote bag with a little tag that reads "Sock yarns don't count as stash!" and a cute little pin.  The pattern is for Making Tracks socks, by Wendy.  This is one I'll definitely be trying out.  Sorry it's not really in the picture, but here's the Ravelry link.



And then there was the yarn.  Oh, the yarn.


There is a skein of Wollmeise in a vibrant, yummy fall colourway called Campari Orange.



It feels lovely and soft, and seems to be a thinner yarn than most of the sock yarns I've used.  I may actually need to swatch to make sure I use this to the best of its abilities.  And since this is "the" yarn right now, I want to make sure I get the most out of it.


But as lovely as the Wollmeise is, I have to admit that I've fallen for the Yarn Love Juliet.



I doubt I would ever have picked out this colourway on my own.  But as soon as I held it in my hands, I knew it was the colourway I never knew I always wanted.


It's all my favourite colours and combinations rolled into one.  It has the warm, toasty fall colours, the rich brown, and the bright, sunny-skies-blue. 



And if you happen to know what I do for a living, you'll know why the name of the colourway is particularly appropriate and cracks me up.


Thanks to Sheri and the Loopy Ewe!

Noro in Zigzag

I am heading off today to our second annual week at the cottage! I am excited to bits, and just hoping we get at least some decent weather. But am packing lots of decks of cards, books, board games, dvds, and - of course - knitting projects just in case we are housebound. I don't think we'll be all that heartbroken to have to sit inside to do nothing some of the time.

Just in time to get it posted before leaving, I finished my first pair for the Summer of Socks.



These are destined to be a birthday gift for a friend. She already knows about them, so no stealth required.



As a matter of fact, she's even tried one on. This lead to the discovery that I was knitting them too short in the foot. So I added an extra pattern repeat to the second sock, by then in progress, and finally ripped out and reknit the first sock's toe. Hence the different toe colours. Up to that point, I was so matchy-matchy it made me giddy.



I love all the colours, but it's the little punch of copper at the heel that really pleases me the most.



Pattern: Zigzag Socks, by Christine Walter, from the Vogue Ultimate Sock Book.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock, colourway S40
Mods: None.

I like this pattern. I also like this yarn. It's a bit rough while knitting up, but I didn't have too much vegetable matter - maybe four little bits in total, and nothing that jabbed me. It is a bit thick/thin in places, which took some getting used to. But none of that is noticeable in the finished socks, so it's all good.

It's also quite a generous skein. after completing the two socks, I still have just about another full colour repeat, meaning I could (should I choose to) get a third sock out of this skein. I'm thinking baby bootees, maybe.

Have a fabulous week! I'll be hitting the road soon, and if all goes well, might be back once or twice to tease with some fabulous pictures.

Thrills! Chills! Secrets and Cables!

I am not a perfectionist. "Good enough", or "that'll do" are things I often say. This extends to my knitting, too, in most cases. Have an extra stitch at the end of a row? Well, looky here - if I knit this one and this other one together, problem solved! Good enough! No one will ever know. And I'll stop looking at that spot eventually, I'm sure.

But sometimes, "good enough" just doesn't work out. Sometimes it's an unforgivable, unmistakable, uh - mistake. For me, that usually means ripping out the entire thing and starting from scratch. I do that a lot. It tends to make any knitters nearby blanch and clutch their chests, but I've got enough "Process Knitter" in me that I don't mind it much. (Mind you, one time someone actually grabbed the project away from me before I could completely frog it and picked up all my stitches. It was interesting. And great.)

But sometimes the project has just gone too far for that. And then things like this happen:

That's six dpns and my Denise circular tenuously holding together a secret project. Kind of makes you hold your breath just looking at it, doesn't it? Like the climax of a scary book or movie, where you're pretty sure everyone will come out alive, but you don't know absolutely for sure.

This story does have a happy ending, though. Behold.

All better!

Back to "good enough" for me.

Up, Up and Away

I celebrated WWKIP day by completely forgetting about it, due to other things going on. Like getting my father in a helicopter for the first time in his life.

It was my mum's idea initially, and I totally and shamelessly took it over. I researched it, booked it, and even ended up driving us all to the - what - heliport? That sounds like a real word, right? And things turned out in such a way that the whole thing ended up a complete surprise revealed only at the moment we pulled into the parking lot in Niagara Falls.



When we got there, we were informed that the weather was a bit cloudy, so we'd be delayed. It was barely enough time for a quick ice cream break, then my dad was getting in the helicopter.




Then he was in the air, looking down on the falls and the whirlpool and the river.






The flight was only nine minutes, but my father loved it and can't wait to go again. During those nine minutes, I KIP'd, unwittingly keeping the spirit of the day. Then the helicopter was back, and my dad couldn't stop smiling.



This was followed by some time in Niagara on the Lake, where I knit in a pub, then on a bench. Then a visit to Fort George, where I knit on a picnic table. And then, because no family visit is complete without some sort of medical emergency, a visit to the urgent care centre, where I knit in an examination area, and then the imaging waiting room. We discovered that my father had cracked a bone in his toe when he bumped it on my air conditioner the previous evening. (He's doing okay - there's nothing to be done but wait for healing.)

Happy belated WWKIP and Father's days!