Hedgehog Knits

Introducing Stella

2010-09-12T07:12:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we welcomed wee baby Stella into our family.

She gave me a very rough time on her entry into the world, but she is absolutely worth every bit of pain and suffering. We love her to bits.

Coming home from hospital.

Everyone agrees that her looks all come from her dad's family so far. She is a relatively small baby, so she's swimming in most of her newborn-sized clothes. The cloth diapers, covers, and soakers that I had ready for her are also too big, so I'm about to start knitting wee soakers in even smaller sizes. I haven't picked up the needles since she was born, but we're finally starting to settle into a somewhat predictable routine so I think I can squeeze in a few minutes here are there during naps.

Our families are very excited to have the first little girl of this generation, and the first grandchild for Nick's parents. We've had loads of visitors, and thankfully lots of support at home. Yesterday, we made it out for our first walk to the park, the first of many new adventures. I think that parenthood agrees with me.

And the baby wear continues

2010-05-05T19:34:00.006-04:00

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes. It's certainly an exciting time. It's hard to believe that I'm now at the five month mark, and September is coming faster than I ever imagined possible. I've been feeling great so far, and having a relatively easy time of it.

So far, the baby preparations have been limited to getting a room finished (flooring and a new closet, which quickly mushroomed into some serious structural renovations involving ripping out the kitchen ceiling below - oy!), and some knitting and sewing. That's it so far - I've been holding off on shopping for baby furniture and all the other "stuff" that one needs. It's been hard enough to keep myself clothed lately with very little choice in maternity shopping in my city.

I've updated my Ravelry page with some of the latest knitting, including this Sweetheart Cardigan:

I've also been dabbling in sewing a bit lately, and have been playing with baby patterns as a fun and low-cost way to work on my dress-making skills. This is 1950's reproduction pattern (Simplicity 2392) that I made up out of some discounted quilt cotton:

I haven't done embroidery in so long that I had to hunt a while to find my box of floss. The gathers along the front, combined with sewing the scalloped edges with lace was quite a challenge for me, but for once I took my time and did a fairly tidy job with it. I'm really happy with the result, and will probably eventually get around to making the matching bonnet and some bloomers to go with it. I know it's an extremely impractical outfit, but surely we'll find a special occasion to wear it!

I also started a baby quilt months ago that I need to get around to finishing, and several other knits are in various stages of planning and knitting. Further updates as I have time! I'm off on a business trip next week, and the minor post-renovation touch-up projects at home are still eating up my "free" time.

Becoming a Mom

2010-04-06T16:24:00.007-04:00

I'm delighted to announce that sometime around early September, there will be a new addition to the Hedgehog Knits family.

Nick and I are expecting a baby, a daughter actually. We're very excited first-time parents-to-be, and our families are just over the moon about it. This will be the first little girl on both sides of the family (with several little boy cousins already). Now, the real question is what to knit first?! To be fair, I have already knit and put away a Cardigan for Merry:

But, it's size 18 mo, and I made it before I found out the gender. Now that I know that I can knit girly things, I have a lot more patterns to choose from. By happy coincidence, a new LYS is opening up in my neighbourhood in the coming days (bringing the total in the city to 2), so I will be heading over there this weekend to pick up something fun, and possibly pink!

Still here, still knitting

2009-12-06T12:27:00.002-05:00

Wow, I've become a very bad blogger. It seems that over the past year Ravelry and Facebook have been meeting my needs for documenting my knitting projects and staying in touch with friends, and as a result, I just haven't had lot to say on here. I have been considering shutting down altogether, but I thought that I would keep the blog for sporadic updates when the mood strikes me. Who knows, I may even get around to writing up the patterns that have been languishing in my notebooks one of these days and post them here.

Life has been very busy these past few months. Paid work and volunteer work have been keeping me running around quite a bit, and I've been trying to keep as active as possible, though the snowstorm that we're experiencing today probably marks the end of the outdoor running season and the start of regular gym going instead. This time of year when the days are so short and it's dark so much, I find myself going in to hibernation mode, sleeping as much as possible, and curling up knitting at home in the evenings.

In the meantime, if you're a knitter who would like to keep in touch and you haven't found me on Ravelry yet, please add me as a friend and say hi. I'm "kbh" in the Ravelry world.

Double the fun

2009-10-22T12:16:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post today to show a couple of baby sweaters recently finished. There are for a friend who is expecting twins. I had a lot of fun mixing and matching different colours of Bernat Cotton Tots. The very cute pattern, which I altered a little bit to change up the colour schemes and to add three button holes on the band, is available for free at f.pea's blog. A top-down raglan, this is a really easy and fast baby gift. These are my second and third sweaters from the same pattern, and there will probably be some more in future.

Now I just need to find some ultra-cute buttons.

Have a few minutes?

2009-10-09T21:06:00.003-04:00

There's a neat thing going on over at the Girl Guides of Canada website. It's an online film festival of short films centred on the experiences of girls in today's world.

Worth checking out.

.

Grey and Soggy

2009-10-05T16:30:00.006-04:00

We've just lived through an extremely rainy and cold week in eastern Newfoundland. "Well, there can't possibly be much more rain up there to come down, can there?", I thought to myself this morning as I trudged to the office in the mist and the fog.

No such luck.

(Depressing image, courtesy of Environment Canada)

Fall was a beautiful time of year when we lived in Ontario, and I always wondered why I hated the fall so much when I was growing up. Now I remember. Well then, I guess it's time that I gave up on outdoor running and went back to the gym. Hrmph.

We did get a bit of a break from the rain (but not from the freezing cold) on Sunday for the Run for the Cure. I organized a team at my workplace this year, and 20 of us, including some family and friends, participated. Nick and I both ran the 5 km. It was his first organized run, and I beat my previous best time by a couple of minutes, so we're both pretty proud of ourselves.

Since the weather has turned so chilly, it is a good time of year to have a newly completed woolly vest. My Ivy League turned out just lovely, a perfect fit.

Ivy League Vest from Interweave Knits Winter 2007, knit in KnitPicks Pallette in colourways twig, cream, tidepool heather, blue note heather, brindle heather, and mist.

I knit it exactly as written with no modifications, which worked well for me because I'm short. The vest is a very nice addition to my fall work wardrobe. I definitely like this Fair-Isle business, and there will certainly be more of it in my future. Steeks aren't so scary - you just have to show them who's boss.

Steekage

2009-09-21T18:49:00.006-04:00

First there were no holes....

And then there were holes.

I did it!

Projects finished, projects started

2009-09-01T15:42:00.007-04:00

After almost two years in our house, Nick and I are getting around to some of the small home improvement projects that have been nagging us. Behold: the front entrance.

It looks so plain and unassuming, but I assure you, hours of work and weeks of procrastinating went into this scene. First there's the handrail. There never was one there before. That was purchased, sawed off, stained, and then sat in the kitchen for a month before we got around to actually attaching it to the wall. The wooden stairs were scratched and notched and in desperate need of repainting (the previous owners were kind enough to leave a lot of half-empty paint cans in the basement, so this didn't even necessitate a trip to the hardware store), but I quickly discovered that alkyd paint, once dry, is extremely slippery. That led to a trip to the hardware store to buy the stick-on tread tape that along with the handrail, should decrease the chance of having visitors severely injure themselves before they've even made it inside. Then I painted the moldings. Lassy helped.

And you should hear the new doorbell. Now we'll even be aware of when visitors are on the doorstep. A novel concept, admittedly.

On the knitting scene, I've managed to finish a cute little baby cardigan for an upcoming shower. One of my co-workers is expecting a baby boy early next year.

I improvised the pattern using a simple cardigan pattern from a Sirdar booklet. I basically went through my stash looking for anything that was machine washable and suitable for a baby sweater, and came up with two small balls of the dark colour, and half a ball of the lighter denim yarn leftover from a pair of Blu baby jeans I made last year. They're different yarns, but both DK cotton, so I just threw them together and this is what came out. I had just enough yarn (it was a close finish), and decided to accent it with some cute contrasting buttons. I think the mom-to-be will be pleased with it.

In other baby news, my dear friend Deanne had a girl recently. I sent her the second JoJo cardigan that I made some time ago. Finally, a little girl to claim it! Happily, that gives me an excuse to knit another baby girl sweater now - I always like to have one in reserve, as there are more babies on the way in my circle of friends.

My newest distraction is a new lace project.

This scarf bears the daunting title of "Scarf with Edging 21 and Insertion 25 from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, Thompson Bros., Kilmarnock, Scotland 1850". For anyone familiar with the book, it's easy to guess that this is from Victorian Lace Today. This is for my mom. She picked out the yarn, Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace, when we were in Halifax in June and I dragged her to Loop Yarns not just once, but twice in one weekend. I've been wondering whether I should have used a smaller needle size (the pattern is actually written for fingering weight yarn), but I'm going to trust in the magic of lace blocking and hope that it will turn out as beautifully as previous lace projects that I had my doubts about.

My other big project this week? I'm dehydrating a bunch of food for an upcoming backpacking trip with my Guides. My whole house sticks of onions. You can even smell in outside on the sidewalk. I can't wait to be finished!

Descent into dishrags

2009-08-31T16:02:00.003-04:00

I would appear that I have been neglecting the blog again. Summer is flying by all too quickly, and I'm busy trying to soak up every last minute of it.

I haven't updated on any of my knitting projects in a long time. My Ivy League vest is still not steeked. It seems that I made it almost to the top, keeping track of increasing and decreasing for the the waist, while at the same time adding steeks and related decreases for the necka nd armholes, and feeling all proud of myself thinking I was almost done, and then realized that I forgot about the steek at the back of the neck, and I had no idea what row I was on any more, and I decided that I needed a break from Fair Isle. Perhaps I'll pick it up again soon as the weather cools off. It won't be long now before I'll be wanting to wear a wool vest.

After than, I descended into a bit of a rut. I joined Facebook (finally!), so that ate up a week while I went through the big high school/undergrad/grad school reunion experience that is the typical first week of Facebook membership (when did everyone I went to school with start having kids anyway?!) I've had a lot of things going on, and my brain wasn't able to process anything more complicated than a dishrag. So I knit up a dozen or so.

This week, I'm taking a bit of a "staycation", with a week off work and very little planned. As a result, I've finished up a baby cardigan, started a new lace project, and put in some serious work on my "Box of Chocolates" quilt: 29 out of 42 squares completed, and looking awesome.

So evidently, I'm back on track, and ready for some new challenges.

Summer Bliss

2009-08-02T14:18:00.007-04:00

We are having quite the summer here in Newfoundland. I understand that much of the rest of the Canada has been colder and wetter than normal over the last few months (except perhaps British Columbia, where the heat and drought have been causing a lot of forest fires), but this the weather in Newfoundland is better than any year in living memory.

I've been taking full advantage, spending as much time outdoors as I can manage. I've been running regularly, and even started a running group at work. We're going to take part in the Run for the Cure in October.

Summer in Newfoundland also means that it's folk festival season. My dad and both of my brothers play in a Celtic/Newfoundland folk group, and I make "special guest appearances" with them on occasion.

Here they are last weekend in Ferryland, at the Shamrock Festival. Left to right, that's Tony (younger brother), Chris (older brother), Dad, and their good friend Derm. The show was very good this year, and we had a great time. Next weekend is the big one, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, which happens in Bannerman Park, just a couple of blocks fom home. Being so conveniently located near the venue, I'll be making a big pot of chili next weekend, and expecting a lot of drop-in visitors. This will be the first time the guys will be playing at this festival, which is by invitation only, and they're very excited.

The other thing I've been up to lately is puttering in the kitchen. I raided Nick's grandmother's rhubarb patch last week (rhubarb grows like a weed in many people's gardens) and made a batch of rhubarb-apricot chutney and a rhubarb upside-down cake. Both were highly successful.

Today it was time to clean out the freezer a bit, in light of the fact that the wild raspberries and blueberries are almost ripe, and it will soon be time to start picking and putting away more for the coming winter.

I made a batch of blueberry-patridgeberry jam and a patridgeberry coffee cake. I understand that outside of Newfoundland, partridgberries are known as lingonberries. They grow wild in boggy areas all over Newfoundland.

I like my jam not too sweet, so this is kind of tart, and works well in sauces with red meat.

Nick and I have also spend some time trout fishing.

We haven't caught much, but it's peaceful just to stand at the side of the pond and take it all in. I never get tired of the landscape of glacially-scoured barrens.

I hope that wherever you are, that you are also enjoying the summer, and taking some time to relax and soak it all in.

Quick Update

2009-07-13T20:00:00.007-04:00

Thank you for the kind comments on the sweater from my last post. Chris was indeed very happy to receive it, and well, I'm awfully happy to have it off the needles. It even fit really well.

Tonight, you get a disjointed update on four different projects.

First off, another Trellis baby cardigan. The first one that I made for an expectant mom was a huge hit, so I thought I'd make another to stash away for, well, whoever has the next boy. Alas, my adorable pink and purple JoJo cardigan is still awaiting a new owner, as everyone in my circle of family, friends, and even colleagues seems determined to populate the world with baby boys lately. Nothing against boys - I love my nephews to pieces - it would just be nice to knit something frilly once in a while, ya know?

Trellis, from knitty.com, size 6 months. Knit in Lion Brand CottonEase, on size 3.75 and 4.5 mm circulars.

Anyhow, given that my friends and colleagues are reproducing in record numbers, it seems prudent to have some suitable baby gifts stashed. And Trellis is such a fun pattern to knit! Using only two balls of CottonEase for the smallest size, it's a really reasonable investment in yarn and time. This time around I adapted the pattern to eliminate the side seams, knitting the back and fronts in one piece up to the armholes. This was surprisingly simple to do, and didn't even require me to think about math much.

Also on the needles at the moment is another pair of plain worsted weight men's socks. None of the men in my family can get enough socks, so I just keep knitting them. At least on 4 mm needles, they go quickly, and they make for good senseless knitting in the car.

And then there's my Ivy League vest. Still chugging along - I'm just starting the neck steek. My first steek!

And the latest quilt project? It's a double nine-patch, from an old quilting magazine. The pattern is called "Box of Chocolates", and if you squint, you can see why.

Those are the first 11 of 42 squares, so you can bet it will be a while before you see this one on a finished state! My quilting projects normally run on a scale of years, although I think that my latest productive streak may have a lot to do with the fact that I now have a dedicated studio space, and I don't need to clean everything up and put the sewing machine away between sessions. The colours aren't showing up very well in this photo, but it's all pinks, browns, and beiges. Pink is not normally a colour I go for, but I really like the combination with the brown. The sample in the magazine is absolutely gorgeous.

That's all that my tired brain can manage tonight. It's already a very busy week, and it's only Monday yet. Time for bed.

Proof Positive...

2009-07-08T18:54:00.006-04:00

...that I haven't forgotten how to knit.

"Country Casual" from the ca. 1980's Patons booklet Knitting in the Round. Knit in Patons Decor, on 3.75 and 4.5 mm circular needles. Size 40" men's.

I finished this sweater for my brother, Chris, this evening. It's a bottom-up seamless pattern. This project has a bit of a story.

Back around last Christmas, my mom found a pair of matching sweaters she had stored away that my grandmother had knit many years ago. One was an adult size for my dad, and the matching child-sized one had been made for my older brother.

We tried the small one on his son (my oldest nephew, now four and a half), and though he still has a bit of room to grow, it will soon fit him. Sadly, the adult sweater was too small for both Chris and Dad, but we got kind of reminiscent, and Chris really liked the idea of a yoked pullover. A bit retro, nice and warm, a memory of childhood.

Luckily, one of my aunts, who lived with my grandmother and has never been known to throw out a pattern, managed to dig out the original pattern booklet. It's an old Patons booklet, complete with awful 1980's hairstyles. I remember that these yoked sweaters were extremely popular when I was a kid. Just about everybody at school wore one that their grandmother had made.

Happy to be able to make something that my brother wanted, I lucked into a half-price sale at Michaels after Christmas. He definitely wanted something hard wearing and washable, so Decor fit the bill quite well, while still keeping me happy with some wool content. Chris chose different colours (the original sweater was light grey with burgudy and black patterning), and a different geometric pattern than one that it was meant to replicate, but I think that this makes it even more modern and highly wearable.

Since Chris probably won't pose for a picture, Nick tried it on for me. (Obviously his arms are shorter!)

I get to present the finished project tomorrow evening and I can't wait to see him wear it. Chris likes to tease me when I'm knitting by calling me "Stella", my late grandmother's name, since she was also an incessant knitter. My response is always the same: "Tease away - you're comparing me to a good woman!"

Again with the Quilts

2009-07-06T16:26:00.005-04:00

You may remember that some time ago (January in fact) I started a small lap quilt for my living room.

It's has been all but finished for several weeks, waiting for a trip to the fabric store to purchase binding. I finished off stitching the binding on over the weekend, and the quilt went directly into service.

The block pattern is a traditional one, known as "churn dash", and for the first time, I tried to do a detailed, drawn quilting pattern by machine with my free-motion foot. Still rather wobbly, but you can see the attempt here in the "taffy pull" quilting on the inner border.

I'm not quite happy with my machine quilting skills yet (hand quilting, though incomparably slower, was far easier to control), but I'm working on it.

That makes for three small finished quilts this year. At this rate, my quilt FOs will outnumber the knitted ones! And I have two bed-size quilts in progress too! Nevertheless, I am still giving a chunk of time to Fair Isle and other colourwork knitting lately. I'll give you an update on that next time.

The Latest Project

2009-06-22T09:07:00.004-04:00

I've had the pattern earmarked for two years, and the yarn in my closet for nearly a year, so this week at long last, I started the Ivy League vest from IK Winter 2007.

I'm using Knit Picks Palette, in the same colours that Glenna used in her Ivy League last year. I liked the way her colour choices turned out, and Palette is such a wonderfully affordable yarn substitution.

This will be my first project with steeks, and my first full-blown Fair Isle project, though I've done lots of stranded colourwork before. I'm struggling with tension a little bit, but hoping that blocking will flatten everything out, and also take care of the rolling on the edge of the corrugated rib. Wishful thinking? I hope not!

The colours are pretty close to reality it that last photo. So far so good. Onward.

And Another Scrappy Quilt

2009-06-19T12:56:00.007-04:00

Another day, another quilt. Well, I wish I could throw them together that quickly! In truth, this is a fairly small project, a baby quilt, so it was not a huge time investment.

(click to embiggen)

My friend Deanne is visiting from Ottawa, and she is expecting a baby later this summer. I found out that she was going to be a mom around the same time that I was organizing my fabric stash and wishing that I could do something fun with all of the little scraps that I've saved and/or inherited over the years. I started to play with different combinations of nine-patch squares, and this is the result.

Some of the fabrics are older than me, and some a very recent leftovers. It's a wild mix of florals, geometrics, and even some kid-friendly novelty fabrics with puppies and kittens.

I bought the grey fabric that I used in the sashings specially for this project to tie it all together. It has an animal print with elephants, zebras, rhinos, etc. which is particularly appropriate since Deanne grew up in South Africa. Of course there are also kangaroos on the print which don't really fit the theme, but I'll take what I can get!

I finished it up last night, and I think the end result is very cheerful. I hope that she likes it, and that the little one on the way gets a lot of use out of it.

At the risk of turning this completely into a quilting blog, I am hoping to have one more small quilt finished up soon to show you. Don't worry, I haven't abandoned my knitting. I'm just at a rather unphotogenic stage with everything right now.

A Little Out of Season...

2009-06-18T17:03:00.004-04:00

...but here it is nonetheless. My Christmas quilt:

This quilt was started more than two years ago, when I lived in Ottawa. It was meant to be a "scrap" quilt, and in fact other than the backing fabric, I made it entirely from leftover fabric in my quilting stash.

The pattern, "Scrappy Pines" is from Quilting for Dummies, the first quilt book I ever bought, and still a very handy reference.

There are many firsts for me in this project. It is my first quilt completed entirely by machine (I had previously machine pieced a few projects, but never quilted using the machine. I had to buy a couple of extra do-dads for the machine to expand its capabilities - a walking foot and a free-motion foot). It's also the first time I have done applique by machine, which proved to be a little tricky, but I think it's something that I'll get better at with time.

It is certainly not free from errors - oh there are a lot of them! - but the end result still looks pretty good to the untrained eye, and it will be nice to snuggle with on the couch come next December.

I have been on a bit of a roll with the quilting lately, trying to tackle some of my many half-finished projects. I should have at least one more, maybe two FOs within the next week or so. Stay tuned.

An impromptu getaway

2009-06-12T15:28:00.016-04:00

Wow, is it really the middle of June already? You would never guess it looking at the weather here this past week. It's been damp and chilly - typical Newfoundland spring.

However, May was unseasonably warm around these parts, and I had a great opportunity on very short notice to take a few days off work for a little holiday. Nick and I pulled out our road map and the tourism guide, and started looking at possible destinations within a day's drive. We realized that neither of us had ever really explored the Cape Shore, at least not since we were old enough to remember it.

This coastal drive takes you along the southwestern part of the Avalon Peninsula. The roads are twisty and extremely hilly. Each little settlement along the coast, some no more than three or four houses, is tucked into a cove with a barachois beach, and the surrounding cliffs are so steep in some cases that it's like driving down into a fjord. I recommend checking your brakes before you go.

Our first stop was Castle Hill National Historic Site. This was the site of a fort, built for defence of Placentia harbour by the French in the 18th century. It was later occupied by British forces in the 19th century (the back-and-forth battles between English and French fighting over fishing rights on the Newfoundland coast has been an enduring theme throughout our history.)

They have a small museum, short hiking trails, and audioguide tours, but the most impressive aspect of the fort is the view that it offers of the town of Placentia. The long, rocky beach in front was used by the earliest fishermen as a place to preserve and dry their salted cod. On the back side of the town are sheltered sandy beaches facing the harbour.

We spent the night at Rosedale Manor, which is located on the back side of the town, facing the harbour.

This place was a real find. The garden is lovely, and the restoration job on the cottage was very well done. Add to that the fact that one of the co-owners is a pastry chef, and well, it is certainly a place that I hope to return to one day! Being the only guests there mid-week, we had the dining room to ourselves to enjoy a gourmet dinner of lobster pasta and partidgeberry chocolate souffle. Heavenly. (Can I just say that although I extend my heartfelt sympathies to the local fishermen that the current extremely low price of lobster is making it hard for them to earn a living, I am personally doing my very best to keep the local industry going!).

Our second day dawned sunny and beautiful, and we headed out to Cape St. Mary's, an ecological reserve that hosts very large seabird colonies.

It's a long drive out to the cape on a narrow road over the barrens. The landscape is kind of otherworldly, just broad expanses of nothing but peat bog, and then you reach the coast and the view over the steep cliffs is just amazing. The cape is populated by a lot of local sheep, sadly raised mostly for meat. (I say sadly, not in PETA kind of way, but rather in that I wish there was more local wool production going. Personally, I think lamb is very cute while alive and baaaing, and also very tasty on a plate.) The farmers just let them run wild, and although domesticated, they are quite happy to scramble up and down the cliffs, seemingly defying gravity. Hmm, I can't seem to find my sheep pictures...

But back to the reason we came. The birds.

The large white birds flying there? Those are gannets. They're one of the larger seabirds along that live on our coasts, and I think one of the prettiest. But the smaller white fleck that you see it the background? They're all birds too. Common murres. This time of the year, they spend a lot of time bobbing in the waves.

At the end of a short hike, you come to the main attraction. You can hear the squealing and skwarking long before you see the rock.

There's no mistaking it, that's a lot of birds. Over twenty thousand pairs each of gannets (mostly on the main rock), murres, and kittiwakes (mostly nestled into the surrounding cliffs). This huge rock is really a small island, separated from the surrounding cliffs by a very deep channel. It's covered in gannets, two to a nest, clinging to the smallest little bits of real estate you can imagine.

We sat for a long time, just taking it all in. The sky above was alive with birds, swooping in with fish, or seaweed for their nests. Occasionally someone would overstep his territory and a fight would break out. Pecking order must be very important when you live in such tight accomodations!

On the way back home, we stopped to do a little fishing. This is another thing I love about living in Newfoundland - you can pull your car off the road at just about any lake or pond along the highway and fish away. If you're a resident, you don't even need a permit. I caught the only trout on this trip, but it was a fairly large one (Really! Why didn't I take a picture?). It's been fun exploring the areas that are a bit off the beaten path. We may not get much of a vacation this summer, but it's great to know that there's really lots to do and see locally, even over the span of a weekend.

I realize that there's been no knitting in this post. I promised you quilt pictures too, didn't I? We'll have to rectify this situation - hopefully this weekend I'll get around to documenting what I've been working on lately.

Two Years in the Making

2009-05-16T17:41:00.006-04:00

I have finally finished the Mystery Stole 3 project. I started this in the summer of 2007, thanks to encouragement from my friends in Ottawa (c'mon, everybody's doing it!). I've been knitting on it intermittently even since. It's followed us through three different homes, and has kept me company through many, many Sunday morning Coronation Street marathons.

I finished the knitting last weekend, and blocked it a few days ago.

I'm very happy with the result. This project marks the first time I have attempted a "mystery" project, as well as the first time knitting with beads(They're small blue seed beads. They didn't show up well in the photos., but they really pop out in person). It is certainly not without mistakes - there are some glaring ones to my eye, but it seems that only I am able to find them.

I knit the symmetrical variation of this stole. The original involved a very asymmetrical shape with a bird's wing on one side - a stunning project, but this being my first major lace project, I wanted something a bit more traditional-looking.

I'm very happy with the result, and seriously delighted to get this long-term WIP out of my knitting basket, finally! Soon, I hope to have another even longer languishing project to show you. Quilting, this time.

Quick Show and Tell

2009-05-06T17:20:00.004-04:00

Thanks for the kind words. Lassy is doing well, but we're appreciating him all the more now!

Just a quick post to show you my latest Swallowtail Shawl, knit last week. Here's the poor lump prior to blocking:

And here's the full spread blocking:

I even added a few clear blue seed beads to the outer rows, but they didn't really show up too well. If I did that again, I would use bigger beads.

The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss in Aegean. This was the first project knit with my new Knit Picks Options needles (I got the traditional nickle-plated ones. Lovely to knit with.).

I did this shawl as a quick project for one of my favourite annual events. The community band program in my hometown, has a fundraiser called "Sweet Music". It's a big dessert buffet combined with a concert and silent auction. Nick and I were both members of the band for many years growing up, and they even played at our wedding. We try to give something back every year, and we look forward to getting a chance to catch up with everyone (and fill up on cheesecake) at the auction each year. Hopefully they'll have a bidding war over the shawl!

After four times through, the Swallowtail is still a fun knit for me. Overall, it's gotten easier, but the nupps still make me swear a little bit from time to time!

And now I'm off to knit night. I finally got my act together and met some of the local Ravellers in St. John's. I just have to decide which project to take with me.

Lost and Found

2009-05-03T19:40:00.010-04:00

This is a mouse I made for Lassy last weekend. The pattern, from Oddball Knitting, is extremely simple, and a little catnip in the stuffing goes a long way.

Lassy spent a great deal of the weekend torturing this new friend, attempting to tear it to shreds, rolling around in a sunbeam.

Check out those claws!

But later in the week, we had a bit of a nightmare on our hands. Lassy went out in the morning, as he usually does when the sun is shining, and went off to play with the other neighbourhood cats. Now our block has a lot of outdoor cats, and Lassy is well loved by the nieghbours. It's a fairly low-traffic area, and since he came to us as a stray, he really does like to spend some time outdoors wandering. Usually, if not before, he's on the doorstep waiting to get in when I get home from work (Nick is home during the day to let him in and out as he pleases).

On Tuesday, we were a bit distracted by a plumbing problem that my dad arrived to fix, but became concerned when Lassy stil hadn't come home by the time it got dark. This is a cat who doesn't like to go too long between meals!

To make the story shorter, he was still missing on Wednesday, and we started canvassing the neighbours, putting up posters at the corner store, and even got an announcement on the local radio station. By Thursday morning, after two nights missing, we were losing hope, assuming the worst.

But on Thursday afternoon he appeared out of nowhere. Absolutely starving, and meowing for food, but he was home! It's such a relief to have him back.

Our best guess is that maybe he got accidentally locked into a shed or garage in the neighbourhood for a couple of days. There's no other reason really that he would be out so long and come back so hungry. What was that about curiousity and cats?

Things are pretty much back to normal. The catnip mouse has gotten such a workout that it's completely felted now, and Lassy has been even more cuddly than usual.

In the stress of last week, I knit a Swallowtail Shawl (photos to come), and a few more mitred squares for a blanket.

I hope we never have to go through that again!

Another JoJo

2009-04-20T15:35:00.005-04:00

Here is the product of my latest baby knitting, JoJo Cardigan #3.

This one was knit in DGB Confetti, a reasonably priced wool and nylon sock yarn that is available in a nice variety of colourways at my LYS. The solid blue is a heathery, denim-looking shade, and the stripey one is just fun!

Getting this finished was right down to the wire. My mom and I had Friday off and planned to visit my cousin and her new baby. Despite dragging this around with me everywhere for the previous week, I still found myself finishing up knitting the pockets and trying to steam-block the collar to lie flat at 8:00 on Friday morning! In the end, I had to soak the collar and present it, still a little damp, that afternoon.

JoJo #1 was given to my new nephew at a baby shower over Easter weekend, and #2 will go into storage to await the next little girl in the family - although I think the little baby boom that we've been enjoying is over for the time being, with no more arrivals expected in the immediate future. Except for my boss.... maybe if he has a girl I can give it to him...

I have several other projects on the go right now, both knitting and quilting, mostly using up scraps and completing long-forgotten items. One of these has been making juggling balls from yarn leftovers to donate to a charity craft sale:

The pattern, from Odd Ball Knitting which I recieved as a birthday gift this year, is meant to be a kick-bag/hackey sack. I thought that they would make great juggling balls, as they are small and fit easily in the hand, and have a nice weight (they're stuffed with beans). I even sewed the little carrying bags to go with them. I think these will be a big hit with the kids.

Bunnies!

2009-04-12T09:16:00.005-04:00

I don't really "do" Easter, but we do get together for a family dinner, and I can't resist making cute cookies for the nephews. Their moms seem to appreciate this more than if we added to the piles of chocolate that the boys will be given today.

If nothing else, it's a great time to celebrate that spring has finally arrived in these parts (I'm in complete denial that the weather man is predicting a couple of cm's of snow in the next few of days.) The crocuses are out and we've had a few nice warm days. I'm taking the studded snow tires off the car and proclaiming it officially spring at my house!

It's a boy!

2009-04-07T16:32:00.003-04:00

My newest nephew was born on Friday, and by chance my cousin gave birth to another baby boy on the same day, at the same hospital. Only two hours apart!

The new little guys and their moms are doing very well, and of course have lit a fire under me to get my latest JoJo finished asap.

Never one to focus on a single project for very long, I've also been dabbling in spinning a little.

This is a small (60g) batch of merino I bought at Lettuce Knit a couple of years ago. It's my first time spinning pure merino, and it's going pretty well. I find myself always wanting to spin very fine lately, although I generally prefer to knit finer gauges, so that's probably not a bad thing. It just takes a lot longer!

I don't know a lot about the technical side of spinning, and I only have the one spindle, but still dreaming about owning a wheel one day.

My Newest JoJo

2009-03-29T15:55:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered about what makes for a re-knittable pattern?

I am a person who very really re-reads a book. Usually, no matter how much I love a book, I resign myself to the fact that there are so many others out there that I want to get to in my lifetime that I'm not likely to make it back to that same one ever again. There are some exceptions for a few all-time favourite classics. Les Miserables is one such example, but it's still different in that I've read it abridged, unabridged, in English, and in French. It has long been a favourite, but it has kind of grown with me.

Some knitting patterns are the same way - that was great, and I'm glad I experienced it, but I've done that now and I'm ready to move on to something completely different. On the other hand, sometimes I get so delighted with a particular pattern that I have to keep knitting it until I get it out of my system. The gnome episode in January is one example, but there have been other runs like that in my past, of kid's mittens, cabled hats, and toys. Usually it's because I think the outcome is so cool that I want to make one for several different people - those gnomes will make decent Christmas gifts next year, and I'll probably give some to a charity craft sale too. I've done three Swallowtail shawls, and I think it's just the perfect little project for a single beautiful skein of laceweight - interesting enough to keep my attention, and it has been a good way to get comfortable with laceweight.

The latest repeat knit is the JoJo baby cardigan. A few years ago, I knit a couple of Devan sweaters for friends who were having babies. Devan was a free pattern at Knitty.com by the same designer, and it is also a sock yarn cardigan, but a v-neck. While I think Devan is really cute, I like JoJo even more because the button bands are a little wider and therefore easier to manoeuvre on a wriggling child, and I love the little pocket and collar details. I think it's a really practical sweater in a baby's wardrobe.

So on that note, here is my third JoJo: primary colours edition. This time around I'm knitting it for a boy, in two colourways of DGB Confetti. I think part of the attraction for repeatedly kntting these sweaters is getting to knit in fun stripey colours that I would probably never wear in socks. I find self-striping yarn to be endlessly entertaining.

An Ending... and a New Beginning

2009-03-23T17:15:00.009-04:00

It's been a pretty crazy week of ups and downs. St. Patrick's day was celebrated over the span of three days at the pub. What can I say? We really like all things Irish. Several of my family members play in an Irish folk group, so this is our favourite time of year to go out and see them play. The place was packed, and though many beers were consumed, fortunately none of them were green. Who thought that up anyway?

I also celebrated my birthday last week, on the same day as my mother-in-law. In what is now a bit of a tradition, we celebrated with a big family dinner and two birthday cakes. You can't have too many options when it comes to cake, I always say. I received several great knitting books, including Cookie A's new sock book (well, actually, I received a printed copy of the Amazon order for that one, as the book hasn't actually been released yet!). I also received a new GPS, which will inevitably lead to more geocaching during hikes this summer.

The sad news last week was the passing of Molly, the hedgehog mascot of this blog. We have had Molly since 2003, so she had a pretty good shake of it, for a hedgie. Over the last year or so she had been really showing her age, getting slower, rather wobbly on her feet, and crankier all the time. She was never as sociable or friendly as our first hedgehog, Pokey, was, but she had her own personality, and nobody can dispute that she was impossibly adorable! We'll miss hearing her wheel squeaking as she ran late into the night.

The new beginning that's getting very close is the new niece or nephew who should be arriving within the next couple of weeks. The whole family is pretty excited, as this is only the second grandchild for my parents. I also can't wait to see how the big-brother-to-be is going to react to the new addition. He has been the centre of our world for the last four years, so I'm afraid he may be in for a bit of a shock.

So this cardigan is in reserve in case it's a girl:

JoJo cardigan pattern by Holli Yeoh. Knit in GarnStudio Fabel (stripes) and Sandnes Garn Sisu, on 2.5 and 3 mm circs. Size 6-12 months.

This is the second time that I've knit this pattern, and it is becoming my go-to baby sweater pattern. I love that it's machine washable, and the self-striping sock yarn keeps me entertained. There are so many possible yarn combinations, that I'll probably start another one soon. I am also quite smitten with the little floral buttons that I found at Fabricville.

And if it's a boy? Well, let's just say that I've gotten a bit behind in my knitting and need to get moving on that!

With almost every bit of snow gone by last week (foiling my plans to take the Guides out on an overnight snowshoe trip), we were rather depressed to wake up to another dumping of snow on Saturday morning (causing the cancellation of the backpacking trip that we had scheduled to make up for the lack of a snowshoeing trip!). Sometimes you just can't win.

Even Lassy is tired of the white stuff. Come on spring!

Sorrow

2009-03-13T18:36:00.003-04:00

There's been a huge tragedy in the waters just offshore this week. While Newfoundlanders have always been a seafaring people, and tragedies at sea have a long history here, this is different.

The helicopter that went down yesterday morning was carrying 18 workers to offshore oil platforms. While one survivor was rescued, another has died, and 16 people are still missing and presumed lost. Though we were starting to think that spring was on the way, the temperature plummeted to -19C today with wind chill, as if a stark reminder of how unpleasant a place the North Atlantic can be in March.

Our oil industry is still young - the first commercial crude was produced in 1997 at Hibernia, and only two other fields are currently in production. But in those 12 years of permanent offshore installations and daily helicopter trips to the rigs, the safety record has been remarkably good.

St. John's is a small city, and the oil industry here is even smaller. Although I have never had to travel offshore, I work in this field. Many of my co-workers travel offshore regularly. While I am very fortunate that this tragedy has not affected my family directly, I have friends and co-workers who will have lost colleagues and friends. So many people have been visibly shaken by this, and it has been strangely ominous to sit in a downtown office building reading about the search efforts on various news sites, while occasionally looking up to see a search helicopter coming in overhead from across the harbour.

I'll be keeping those 17 families in my thoughts over the course of this weekend, as they live through some of the hardest days of their lives, and as the recovery operations continue offshore.

Coming together

2009-03-06T12:39:00.004-05:00

The very astute Martha noticed the mitred squares blocking in the photo in my last post. This is something I've had on the go for a long time. It's going to be a baby blanket eventually.

I started it some time back, when there were several different amazing mitred square blankets showing up on blogs. For me, it was an answer for what to do with lots of leftovers of sock yarn (my frugal nature never lets me throw out even the smallest little ball!). It's neat that it reflects a history of most of the socks I have knit, with a few sock-yarn baby sweaters thrown in for good measure. I overdyed some of these yarns in my early experiments with Wilton cake dyes and Kool Aid (some of the greens and purples), and I've even picked apart variegated yarns to get some of the colour blocks!

Now with a 13th square completed, I'm beginning to wonder how big I'll want to go. I may try sewing it together at 16 sqaures, but I think ideally, it needs to be 20 or 25. But in the meantime, I've run out of interesting colours again, so I'll probably tuck this away again until I've finished a few more pairs of socks.

Odds and End

2009-03-03T20:42:00.005-05:00

I had a little blocking party on the weekend:

Most of these are projects you've seen before in one stage or another. I've been finishing up a few things, and pulling out a few unfinished, hibernating projects for re-assessment. I even found some cute wooden buttons for the Trellis cardigan and sewed those on. It will be going in the mail next week.

And in the past two weeks, I think the only new project I've started is a pair of socks (of which the first is already finished). I'm not sure how long this latest bout of self-discipline is going to last, but for now, I'm going to take advantage of it to try to clear out some projects and plan ahead. The next step will be finding suitable buttons for the JoJo cardigan shown blocking, above. I'll do a proper reveal of that soon.

Nick and I had planned a little weekend getaway to go skiing next weekend, but suddenly we have had a few days of very spring-like weather, and the rain has taken out almost all of the snow. Looks like another weekend at home with my knitting!

When Film Crews Invade the Neighbourhood

2009-03-01T19:20:00.006-05:00

I absolutely love the new tv ads for Newfoundland and Labrador tourism that came out recently. They have really captured a sense of place. Someone over there in the tourism department deserves a pat on the back for this campaign.

My favourite one is this one.

Most of the city scenes with the colourful houses were filmed in my neighbourhood. There's one scene near the end with a family running up a hill that's just around the corner. I walk down that hill every day to get to work! There's also some great shots of parts of the East Coast Trail on the Southern Shore, which I recognize from last summer's hikes. Every time it comes on, we get excited to see the place where we camped, and our favourite ice cream shop (with the cow spots on the building). Fun!

There's actually been a lot of filming going on here over the past year. In the fall we even had a visitor scoping out our house for possible use as a set in an upcoming tv show pilot. Never a dull moment!

Not So Much on the Road, but Knitting Anyway

2009-02-21T06:57:00.005-05:00

I'm supposed to be in Toronto right now. I had some meetings to attend, and was planning to spend a little recreational knitterly time with Glenna and Martha. But alas, a snowstorm interrupted my plans, and my flight was canceled. Given the level of service that Air Canada has become known for around these parts, they were unable to reschedule me to fly within a reasonable period (i.e. before the date when I was supposed to return!), so I'm grounded at home. Too bad, as I was really looking forward to visiting the Purple Purl and also shopping for new hiking boots - the shopping options in St. John's are somewhat limited.

It hasn't been all bad though. I got to go snowshoeing yesterday in the aftermath of the storm - finally we have enough snow. Also, I've been attending those meetings by teleconference. I can't knit at when I'm there in person, but when I'm attending from my couch at home, there are no such limitations. I knit a whole sock yesterday, and nobody on the other end of the speakerphone knew any better.

Stripey socks, improvised pattern, 70 st in stockinette on 2.25 mm bamboo dpns.

I also seamed up my finished Trellis baby cardigan this week.

Trellis, knitted in Lion Brand Cotton Ease, on 4 mm and 4.5 mm circs.

My only change to this pattern was to knit the bands at the bottom and sleeves on a smaller needle size. Looking at photos on Ravelry, I noticed that a lot of people ended up with bigger, puckered moss stitch bands, and there's still a hint of that in mine, that I'm hoping a final blocking will take care of (I blocked the pieces once already, prior to seaming). I think the smaller needle size helped to reduce the puckering significantly. If I were to knit this again, I would do the fronts and back in one piece up to the armholes. There are a lot of bulky seams for such a small sweater, that could be reduced.

I rushed to get this finished because I was going to see the intended recipient in Toronto this weekend. I guess now I'll have to mail it. Just as soon as I get some buttons.

Knitting on the Road

2009-02-10T17:12:00.006-05:00

A quick post from the suburbs of Houston. Both my hotel and the facility where my course is being held are located in Katy Mills, which is essentially an enormous shopping mall surrounded by big-box stores, chain restaurants, and Interstate 10. Needless to say, this is a purpose-driven visit, not a vacation!

As the neighbourhood does not offer much in the way of culture to take in, there has been significant knitting progress.

This is my Trellis baby cardigan in progress:

It's just zipping along. Luckily I brought along JoJo too, in case I get this finished before my return home. I can't imagine anything worse than a full day of flying with nothing to knit!

Last evening I went exploring the enormous shopping mall next door. In a store called Books-A-Million (How could I not check that out?!), I found this little gem:

I don't know why I've never heard of this book before, other than perhaps that it's very new (published in 2008). I haven't examined it in too much detail yet, but it appears to have very clear diagrammatic instructions for toe-up socks, including multiple cast-ons, and both short-row and flap heels, and a handful of patterns at the back. As I have struggled with my couple of attempts at toe-up socks thus far, I think this may be a useful little addition to my collection.

And Now We Return to Baby Knitting

2009-02-01T16:08:00.003-05:00

After that brief quilting interlude (there will be more quilting to come, rest assured), I have finally settled on a fun new knitting project. Since I still need one or two girly baby sweaters to keep up with the ongoing run of new babies in the family, and I enjoyed knitting JoJo so much last time, I decided to knit another one. Or maybe two - I seem to like being on a roll with things lately. This pattern is great, full of great little details, and it knits up really quickly considering that it's sock yarn.

Those are the two fronts. The yarn is all Norwegian: the bands are in SandnesGarn Sisu, and the main section is another fun colourway of Drops Fabel. The colours are a bit off in this photo, but as we've had a snowstorn here today, the light hasn't been good. The colour that looks like yellowish mud in the photo is actually closer to peach.

I'll be packing up some travel knitting soon. I'm off to Houston in a week for work, and then shortly after, another quick trip to Toronto. I think it might be time for a lace project...

Dabbling

2009-01-25T20:10:00.003-05:00

There was a time when I used to do a lot of quilting. I bought a copy of Quilting for Dummies one summer when I was doing field work up North, and read it in a tent in the middle of nowhere. By the end of the summerI was just itching to get back to civilization to buy some fabric and try it out. There's nothing like a good two months stuck out in the bush looking at beautiful scenery to provide inspiration.

I still dabble in quilting from time to time, and actually finished up a long-languishing quilt for my brother for Christmas this year. (Wouldn't you know it, in the rush to get it wrapped, I forgot to take a photo!)

This week has been particularly cold, so a few afghans have appeared on my couch and I have been forced to acknowledge just how ugly some of those blankets are (I won't provide the graphic details, but think polar fleece with loons - pure Canadiana). As long as I've been quilting, I've actually given most of the results away as gifts. It's high time I had my own quilt. Or in this case, a small lap quilt to snuggle under while I knit in front of the tv. (Maybe I'll build toward the larger goal of a big bed quilt soon.)

This is how far I've gotten on the quilt top:

There are still some more border pieces to go on. I'm totally making this up as I go along, pulling out leftovers and scraps in general themes of blue and yellow/brown. The block is a traditional one called "churn dash". I've never made it before this, but it's actually a pretty easy variation on a 9-patch.

At least I have a sewing machine now. Back in my grad school days, I completed my first two full bed-size quilts completely by hand - both were wedding gifts. It's so much faster now. While I really prefer the look of hand quilting over machine, I don't think I'll ever be able to go back!

Boring

2009-01-18T18:08:00.003-05:00

Isn't it funny how knitting mimics life sometimes?

Case in point: a photo of my desk today:

I've been studying for months for a big exam tomorrow morning. It's the professional practice and ethics exam, which all candidate engineers and geoscientists in Canada have to pass to be considered professionals, as apparently, having a Ph.D. in geology does not qualify me, legally speaking, to call myself a geologist! Pretty dry stuff, most of which applies far more to the engineers than to the geoscientists. (There are far fewer of us, so we get lumped into the same process).

My post-gnome-invasion knitting is equally boring this week (refer to plain stockinette sock above). I have had a few false starts. I knit one Delicato mitt out of some sock yarn leftovers, and then when the suspicion that I was running out of yarn was confirmed by the digital scale, I frogged it. Then I tried starting a second JoJo sweater, but after trying several combinations of colours and patterns from the stash (one self-striping yarn that looked red in the ball was looking very pink knit up, totally unsuitable for the little boy I intended it for!), I couldn't find anything that worked together at all. So I stuck my hand in the sock yarn bin at random, pulled out a ball, and started these plain vanilla stripey socks. When all else fails, I usually revert to stripes.

I'm also knitting a sweater for my brother, which right now is just a big tube of unphotogenic grey stockinette - equally uninspiring blog material.

I'll have to work on getting something more intersting on the go, for fear of boring myself to death. Maybe when this exam is over, I'll be feeling a bit more creative. Then again, once the exam is over, I won't have to procrastinate so much on studying, so I'll probably slow down to my normally slow blogging rate again.

Wish me luck!

One More for Good Measure

2009-01-17T09:24:00.004-05:00

Whew. I think that I may finally be done with the gnomes... for now. Here's number seven (possibly the cutest one yet!)

I think that it may be time to move on to other things. Now what was I knitting before all of this started?....

Introducing...

2009-01-12T19:22:00.004-05:00

Gnome #5...

...and Gnome #6.

#7 is currently awaiting legs.

I can stop any time I want. Really!

One good gnome leads to another...

2009-01-10T15:43:00.005-05:00

It all started with a ball of crazy fun fur yarn at the Dollar Store in mid-December.

I had wanted to try the Yuletide gnome pattern from Irresistible Gifts to Knit by Alan Dart, which I picked up last year in England. (As an aside, it's a fabulous collection of toy patterns. I want to knit the pirate next!) Though I have a large stash of odds and ends of yarn saved for small projects like this, I didn't have any suitable furry stuff for a gnome beard. Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing that I don't have such frightful stuff kicking around. It always kind of gives me the willies. But there, in the midst of the gift bags and tacky Christmas ornaments, was the most hideous pile of acrylic novelty yarns that I have ever seen. Made in China. Smelling vaguely chemical-y. And right on top, this single ball of white hairy stuff. I took it home to try it out. Hey, it was only a dollar.

The lead-up to Christmas in our household this year was nothing short of insane. Nick's business has been really getting off the ground, and he had a lot of catering jobs leading up to the 25th. 6 events in 7 days. This is definitely a good thing, but it really wore us both out. I was busy helping out when I was not at work, and he was even busier. We didn't finish decorating the tree on Christmas Eve until long after we should have been in bed waiting for Santa, and we didn't really get all the decorations up around the house until Boxing Day. Christmas Day was a bit of a blur, with several naps worked in amongst the festivities. But on Boxing Day, at yet another big family gathering, I sat down in a corner, finally well rested and relaxed, and started knitting a gnome. And all was right with the world.

It starts a the top of the head, and you knit down to his bottom (where I added a handful of dried beans to the stuffing to give a little "heft"). Then you add the little nose and arms and legs, and he gets progressively cuter with each addition. The beard is knitted separately and sewn on, but it really takes the addition of the hat to give the little guy his character. I was smitten. Those big blue eyes... wait a minute... you can't see them. No matter. He's as cute as a button.

By New Year's, a few friends had taken up residence on my mantle...

Is it wrong to take this much delight in simple knitted toys?

Today I finished the fifth, and started a sixth. I've already put the decorations away. My bag of stuffing is getting low, and my selection of red and green yarn scraps is getting pretty thin, but I think I may be able to squeeze out another couple before I get over the compulsive need to keep knitting gnomes. (I will get over it eventually, right?) Guess what my relatives are getting for Christmas next year?!

More Festiveness

2008-12-22T15:24:00.003-05:00

While I haven't been blogging much lately, I have been frantically trying to finish up several homemade gifts. I haven't even got my Christmas tree up yet, but I did manage to finish this little guy last night.

The pattern, Knit Father Christmas, is a freebie at Knitting Daily. It was a great use of some leftover yarn, the pattern is well written, and it came together relatively quickly.

Back to the workshop - two more gifts to go. Do you think Santa could spare an elf or two to rent out?

A Christmas Treat

2008-12-17T12:23:00.005-05:00

I'm crawling out from under a large pile of Christmas knitting to share a little pattern I whipped up recently. I made this hat for my nephew's birthday. He loves hats, and last Christmas he wore a cheap felt Santa hat indoors and out, and even to bed, until sometime in March. In need of a more sturdy replacement (the old one was toast), I made him this one, with a bit of extra padding to keep his ears warm outside, and in a washable wool-acrylic blend to please his mom. I've since had a request for an infant version, and I was happy to oblige. Both sizes are included here.

I hope to have a prettier pdf version available on Ravelry, eventually, and I may size it up for adults too. Although, you'll note that for a four-year-old my nephew has quite a large noggin, so the child size may fit adults with heads on the smaller end of the scale.

Enjoy!

Santa Hat

Finished hat, infant size.

Size: Infant: Finished circumference of unstretched ribbed band is approximately 12”.

Child: child. Finished circumference of unstretched ribbed band is approximately 16”.

Instructions are given for infant size, with necessary changes for child size given in parentheses.

Materials:

Yarn: Infant size: approximately 50 g each of red and white worsted weight yarn

Child size: 100 g each of red and white worsted weight yarn

(Samples shown were knit from Patons Décor)

Set of 5, 4 mm double pointed needles (infant size), or 4 mm 16” circular needle (child size), or needle size required to get gauge

Spare 3.5 mm or 4 mm circular needle, 16” or longer

Stitch marker.

Set of pom-pom maker rings

Gauge: 21 st and 14 rows = 4” (Row gauge is not essential.)

Finished hat, child size.

Directions:

Using a provisional crochet cast-on, CO 68 (92) st with white yarn on 4mm dpns or circular needle. Place a stitch marker to mark start of row, and begin working in the round.

Round 1: K 1 row.

Round 2: K2 P2 around.

Repeat Row 2 ribbing until work is 1.75” (2”) long.

Next round: Increase 7 (8) stitches evenly around. 75 (100) st. total.

Change to red.

Work even in stockinette st for 4” (4.5”). Work from beginning should measure 6” (6.5”).

Begin decreasing as follows:

For infant size:

[K23, K2tog] 3 times. 72 st.

Knit 6 rounds even.

[K7, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 64 st.

Knit 6 rounds even.

[K6, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 56 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K5, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 48 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K4, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 40 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K3, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 32 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K2, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 24 st.

Knit 5 rounds even.

[K1, K2tog] repeat 7 times. 16 st.

Knit 5 rounds even.

[K2tog] 8 times. 8 st.

Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches, draw together, and fasten off.

For child size:

[K18, K2tog] repeat 4 times. 95 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K8, K2tog, K9] repeat 4 times. 90 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K16, K2tog] repeat 4 times. 85 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K8, K2tog, K7] repeat 4 times. 80 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K6, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 70 st.

Knit 9 rows even.

[K5, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 60 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K4, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 50 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K3, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 40 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K2, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 30 st.

Knit 9 rounds even.

[K1, K2tog] repeat 9 times. 20 st.

Knit 7 rounds even.

[K2tog] 9 times. 10 st.

Knit 2 rounds even.

[K2tog] 5 times. 5 st.

Cut yarn, thread through remaining stitches, draw together, and fasten off.

To complete rolled band:

“Unzip” the provisional cast-on and place live stitches on circular needle or dpns. Turn hat inside out – you will now work with the inside of the hat facing. Join white, and place stitch marker to mark beginning of round.

Purl one round.

Knit one round.

Next round: Knit, increasing 7 (8) stitches evenly around. 75 (100) st.

Continue in stockinette st (K every row) for 14 (20) rounds.

Purl one round to create fold line.

Knit one round.

Next round: knit, decreasing 7 (8) stitches evenly around. 68 (92) st.

Continue in stockinette st (K every row) for 13 (17) rounds.

To join folded band:

Turn hat right-side out. Using spare circular needle, and with outside of hat facing, pick up loops from wrong side of first knit row, immediately below the ribbed band. 68 (92) picked up sts. Fold stockinette band in half, with needle containing live stitches positioned above the needle(s) containing picked-up stitches. Hold both of these needles together in your left hand. Using the end of one circular needle, or a spare dpn, work around as follows: [Insert working needle into one stitch from upper needle and one stitch from lower needle. Knit the two together.] Repeat. Cast off one stitch from right-hand needle. Continue in this manner, knitting the two layers together and casting off loosely at the same time, around.

Block if necessary, weave in ends, and fold up band of hat.

Detail of finished band, shown rolled down. Final cast-off edge is directly below the ribbing.

This one's for you, Sarah!

2008-11-12T19:48:00.003-05:00

Thanks for the shout out :)

Cables are taking over my life

2008-10-17T19:07:00.005-04:00

The cables are becoming a bit of an obsession lately. I finished the Merike gloves (post-blocking photos to come soon), am sewing up the cabled pillow cover, and somehow while watching the federal election results roll in (let's not even talk about that!), I cast on for a pair of Green Autumn mittens from the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting.

Hopefully these will be another Christmas gift - if I don't decide to keep them for myself!

This is the first time that I've bought Vogue Knitting. I saw the mittens on Jared Flood's blog, and actively went hunting for the issue. It took me three trips to Chapters to finally track down a copy (and we only have one Chapters in the city!). There's one other pattern in there, a sweater, that I might consider knitting one day, but most of the stuff is just over the top.

But these mittens, wow. This is an intense pattern - fully charted luckily. Cabling on every row, a crazy slip-stitch pattern on the palm, and bobbles. Who doesn't love bobbles?! (Well, actually lots of people hate bobbles. But not me. I'm firmly entrenched in the pro-bobbles camp.)

In other news, I quit my job last week. And it was a good thing! I have landed a much better one, and am very excited to be moving on. The new job is going to be much more condusive to building a long career, and it's only one block from my house. Perfect. I'm taking a week off between jobs to relax a bit and do a few things around the house. Looking forward to it.

Big Cables, Little Cables

2008-10-04T10:19:00.006-04:00

I'm on a bit of a cable kick lately. The big cables? a pillow cover for my living room. This has been dragging on forever. Well, forever since last January. Lately, I have picked it up again, and am determined to get it finished before... well.... before Christmas at the latest! In my defense, the pillow is an 18" square, so it's really not that much smaller than knitting a sweater! I'm making it up as I go along, but basically it will be two squares sewn together with a flap and some buttons.

The little cables? That's the start of my Christmas gift knitting, 2008 edition. The pattern is Merike's Gloves, from Folk Knitting in Estonia. This is my first time knitting a Nancy Bush pattern, and I really appreciate her attention to detail. (Though I don't think I'm going to become a fan of this style of thumb anytime soon. I guess it would be an afterthought thumb... I should look that up.) I'm using up some leftover Elann Devon, which although it's supposed to be sport weight, gives me a gague smaller than I usually get with fingering weight. I went up a needle size, and am still slightly under the recommended gague. I read on Ravelry that the fingers come out a little large with this pattern, so with the smaller gague and leaving out a stitch or two from each finger, I have a glove that fits me really nicely. Now, I just have to figure out who on my gift list has hands similar in dimension to mine! (I guess I should have thought about that before I started knitting!) Anyway, the pattern is quite fun to knit, and has really kept my interest. Let's hope that it holds through the second glove.

I should also show you my finished Helena.

My only modification on this pattern was to add three buttonholes instead of the i-cord ties. It was fun and very quick to knit up. I highly recomend the pattern

In other news, it has been a great year in St. John's for music lovers. A couple of weeks ago one of my favourite folk singers, David Francy, was in town, and we treated my brother to the show for his birthday. It was fantastic. Later that week, we joined my family to see the legenday local music/comedy group, Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers, at the Arts and Culture Centre. And while I missed my chance to see Leonard Cohen, Feist, Bob Dillon, and Lenny Kravitz, who have all been here recently, last night I got to spend an amazing night at Mile One being entertained by Elton John. He brought no band or backup singers; it was just him and his piano. And yet the sounds was amazing, and he held everyone's attention though a show that last almost three hours with no break. Just amazing.

I'm incredibly appreciative that artists who routinely play to massive audiences for far more money, take the time to come to St. John's and play at our smaller venues, our even our biggest stadium, which only holds 8000 people. I think a lot of them come because they personally want to visit Newfoundland - it's certainly a beautiful place here, at least when it's not foggy, and the audiences and the people are great. I was thinking last night, as I left my highly livable downtown neighbourhood, and walked fifteen minutes to the stadium to see Elton John, how much I love St. John's. It sure is good to be home.

Now all we need is a cute baby to wear this...

2008-09-09T21:27:00.005-04:00

My JoJo sweater is done! Actually, the knitting and even the blocking were finished several days ago. It was sitting around buttonless for a while, but now it's really complete.

This actually came together fairly quickly, mostly because I really enjoyed knitting it and spent a lot of quality time with it, especially during the Olympics. The finishing is pretty detailed (not for those who hate picking up stitches to knit edgings!), and might have bordered on tedious, if I didn't love it so much.

Check out the cute little intarsia blocks on the back.

My one modification was that instead of knitting patch pockets that get sewed to the inside of the front pieces, I made full, free-swinging pocket linings, and then just tacked down the corners to keep them in place.

To re-cap, this is size 6 months, the multicoloured yarn is Fabel by GarnStudio, and the green is Knit Picks Essential. Sock yarn - so versatile! I used only two skeins of each yarn, not the five total that the pattern calls for. This will be a gift for one of the new babies to arrive soon in the family. I'll have to wait and see who has a boy. Despite my early thoughts that the colours were rather unisex, I now think this is really a boy's sweater. I've got other cute frilly things under way for girls!

End of Summer Catch-up

2008-09-03T16:28:00.008-04:00

September, huh? How did that happen?

Here's a brief review of recent activities in photos.

Finally, after many months of lying in hibernation, I finally pulled out the Blu baby jeans, bought some elastic for the waist, and finished them off:

Blu jeans, in "Real Indigo" cotton yarn, size 6-12 months, knit on 4 mm Denise interchangeables.

You can't see the embroidery of the pockets too well in these photos, but they are extremely cute in person. I didn't have a lighter colour to do the fake rolled-up hems, but I think they look alright as is.

Over Labour Day weekend, Nick and I took a short trip to Trinity, on of my favourite towns in Newfoundland. We spent two pleasant days taking in beautiful scenery...

(the fog burned off before the morning was out), visiting lots of historic sites...

and doing a little sea kayaking.

It was great, and I hope to get back again next summer to explore some of the surrounding communities. Nick has decided that he wants to move there and buy an inn or a restaurant.... retirement project maybe?

During the car ride I worked on Helena, which I'm knitting for the first of the rush of babies, my cousin's little girl who arrived last week.

Alas, I ran out of yarn with one sleeve to go. Worse yet, my LYS ran out of the dye lot. I ran out on my lunch break yesterday and bought a ball of a different dye lot, but it is very obviously not the same shade.

Luckily, with the internet to the rescue, I managed to locate three different online yarn shops with the right dye lot for me. Strangely, they're all in Britain. I tried at least a dozen retailers in Canada and the US, but nobody had the right number. It makes you wonder about yarn distribution, doesn't it? (Or maybe that's just me.) Anyway, the important thing is that one more ball is now winging its way across the Atlantic to me so that I can finish this off and get it to the new mom. I'm glad I decided to make size 6 months!

Baby boom

2008-08-21T21:20:00.005-04:00

Exciting news this week - I'm going to be an auntie again! My nephew (almost four) is not quite so excited about being a big brother. When asked if he's going to have a new brother or sister, his reply is always "no fank you". He's got a while to get used to the idea, I guess.

This was followed by news that another cousin is expecting (already, Nick and I each had a cousin due in the next couple of months). Four new babies to knit for! I had to cast something on right away.

These are the fronts for JoJo. If the pattern looks a bit familiar, it's a derivative of Devan from Knitty, by the same designer, Holli Yeoh. I bought this pattern because I really loved the Devan sweater (I know I've knit at least three of them), but I wanted more of a jacket rather than a V-neck cardigan. I love the idea of knitting baby sweaters with sock yarn. It's durable, machine washable, and warm. This very bright colourway is GarnStudio Fabel. It has extremely long pattern repeats, so it took a bit of effort to get the fronts to match. I love the effect though. I figure this will work for a boy or a girl (of the group, we're expecting one boy, one girl, and two unknowns).

Also on my list is Helena, for the little girl who is expected first, in the next few weeks. I'd better get moving on that one!

I recently knit up this quick little hat, Marigold, from my handspun.

I followed the directions exactly for this one. Although it came out a little short, I think it's cute, and will serve me well in the fall.

My other project at the moment s a pillow cover for one of my throw cushions. It's actually about twice as long now as it was in this photo. I adapted this cable pattern from a sweater in Inspired Cable Knits. I think it's going to look great on my couch when it's done, but the pillow quite is large, so it could take a while.

Quick report on actually finishing something

2008-08-11T17:06:00.006-04:00

Finished!

Lady of the Lake Jacket kit by Fleece Artist, size small (40", but my gauge was a little tight). Modification: sleeves decreased to 41 st, instead of 35 st.

Such a lovely texture, this fabric. And it took very well to blocking. I even managed to block in a little waist shaping. I like that the collar can be worn two ways.

Lassy, however, is unimpressed and wants his supper.

This posting brought to you by Fleece Artist

2008-08-08T10:02:00.006-04:00

Ah, there's nothing better than an unexpected long weekend. Regetta Day, our annual civic holiday in the City of St. John's has been postponed for two days due to unsuitable weather. I'm pretty sure that we must have the only weather-dependent statutory holiday in the western world, but there you have it.

This is a big weekend. Nick and I may walk down to the lake this afternoon to take in some of the races and see if I can't nab a candy apple (my favourite fair junk food!). The Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival starts tonight and runs all weekend in Bannerman Park, also a stone's throw away from our place (Gee we love living downtown!). And tomorrow evening, we'll be attending the wedding of a family friend.

Junk food and music aside, my other goal for the weekend is to finish my Lady of the Lake jacket.

As you can see, I'm almost there - just half a sleeve and a collar to go. This kit from Fleece Artist knits up very quickly, but I just haven't had a lot of time to devote to knitting lately. (Work has been more crazy than usually lately, with a very big project just getting underway.) The fabric is very stretchy, so I think that I will be able to block this into the perfect shape.

I have also rediscovered my love of spinning lately. I put away my spindle before the big move, over a year ago now (where has the time gone!) and hadn't taken it out since.

This was a 50 g Wool Silk Sliver, also from Fleece Artist.

I spun and 2-plied it all by drop spindle, with a z-ply. I haven't measured the length yet, but I think I may have enough to make a Marigold hat.

Several people have been asking about Lassy. I've been trying to get photos, but he spends a lot of the day outside now, and sits still so infrequently that he is hard to catch on camera. Last night though, he was sitting, entranced, watching Molly, the hedgehog, eating.

You can almost read his mind here: "Theres something small and furry in there, and why can't I eat it?"

Spinning again

2008-07-21T18:36:00.005-04:00

Inspired by all of the "Tour de Fleece" spinning I've been seeing lately, this weekend I picked up my spindle for the first time in over a year.
This is a Fleece Artist Silk Wool sliver that I received as a birthday gift last year. This photo shows the halfway mark. I've since wound this half f the singles off (I don't like it when my spindle gets too heavy) with plans for a two-ply. My arm is tired!
Nick and I did a backpacking trip last weekend on part of the East Coast Trail. The scenery was wonderful (this little island just off the coast was home to small flock of sheep left to graze for the summer). We saw loons and otters, and lots of whales - what a great trip.

Just back from Calgary a couple of days ago, I think that I am now done with the business trips for a while. I'm looking forward to spending some quality time at home for a change!

I caved.

2008-07-10T20:34:00.005-04:00

The Lady of the Lake is a tempting gal. After I took the kit out to photograph it, I couldn't put it back in the cupboard. I have officially put Gatsby Girl into hibernation to await some cooler weather (summer is short in Newfoundland, so it won't be long before I'll want a long-sleeved wool sweater) and delved into the Lake.

The jacket is knit as one big piece, with sleeves added after. It's going very quickly. It looks very short, but through the wonder of Ravelry I find that several people have already remarked on how much this pattern grows in length during blocking. It still seems a bit bright for my taste, but I think that it's growing on me more and more. Time will tell...

July catch-up

2008-07-06T16:10:00.006-04:00

Wow, I was doing really well there for a while with the blogging regularly, and then June happened....

My most recent adventure was a five-day camp with my Pathfinder Unit (Pathfinders are Girl Guides aged 12-15, and I have been so lucky to have ended up with the most amazing group of girls!). Even though the weather was crap-tastic and cold, we had a lot of fun. More adventures are planned this summer with a couple of weekend backpacking trips coming up.

So, back to the main theme of this blog... what am I knitting these days?

My main focus has been my Mystery Stole 3, which I abandoned last summer somewhere around my second house move. I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, and it is now my concentration knitting in front of the tv. Unfortunately, it just looks like a big black blob, so I haven't photographed it in a while. Further updates to come.

My mindless travel knitting has been this plain stripey sock. I bought the yarn on a whim on my last trip to Wool Trends, mostly because I loved the colourway - these are definitely my colours. The yarn is called Boston, and the company is Wisdom Yarns. I'd never heard of it before, but it's very similar in structure and price to Regia and Jawoll sock yarns. Nothing too special, but gee, I do love those blues and greens! Just one more sock to go.

I was actually at Wool Trends to pick up this:

It's a Lady of the Lake jacket kit by Fleece Artist. I had been admiring these at my LYS for some time, but the only colour they had left was a bright turquoise. It was way too loud for my taste. But then I found out that Fleece Artist will custom dye kits to order, and that was just too amazing to pass up. This colourway is called Paris, and I chose it by looking through a piles of skeins of SeaSilk. It came out a little brighter than I expected in the kit (though still not quite as bright as it looks in this photo), but I think it will look great when the colours all get mixed up together. I haven't examined the pattern too closely yet, but I think that it's knit holding together strands of the two different yarns together - Curly Locks (or the right) and Kid Aran (on the left). Now I just need to decide which to start first, this or my Ivy League Vest.

Something I've been doing over the last months is trying to catch up on all those things that I wouldn't allow myself to do while I was finishing my thesis. It's been a strange experience, catching up with the rest of the world on a number of fronts. I finally read the last Harry Potter novel (Sigh. So good. Hard to believe it's all over), and continuing the trend of being last to the party, i joined Ravelry. I've actually been on there for a few weeks now, but I haven't had time to do too much with my page yet. Come find me if you haven't already - I'm KBH over there.

I've had several requests for kitty photos, so I'll try to get some of those soon. Lassy is doing well, and has started going outside now. He seems very happy running about the neighbourhood and checking out the neighbour's garden.

I can't promise that I'll be updating the blog too frequently in the coming weeks. I've got a business trip to western Newfoundland this week, and off to Calgary the following week. Hopefully I get lots of plane knitting accomplished anyway! I'll leave you with a FO photo of my latest Swallowtail. I gave it to Nick's grandmother on her 80th birthday. As a life-long knitter, I think she appreciated it.

MoSI-ing along

2008-06-17T17:35:00.011-04:00

(Note - This post was written a couple of weeks ago while in Manchester... but I lost the internet connection before I managed to get it posted.)

Back in Manchester yet again, on a very short visit this time.

I did knit in public on WWKIP day on Saturday, in several different airports and in international airspace. Unfortunately the sock that I started and knitted on for most of the journey was too big and has been ripped back to start over.

On Sunday, after trying rather unsuccessfully to sleep all night on an airplane, I stumbled over to the Museum of Science and Industry - MoSI there on this trip. - in Manchester. As the museum is not open in the evenings, this would be my only chance to get there on this trip. It is a huge place, with more to see than one person can possibly take in in a day, and happily, with free admission. I only had three hours, so I beelined it to the Textiles Gallery.

Luckily, I got there just in time for the daily tour and demonstration of all of the working machinery - old restored carding machines and machines that draft out cotton fibers, and spinning machines, and bobbin winders, and automatic looms. I learned about block printing and trademarks and how Manchester used to be a world centre for textiles manufacture. Cotton was certainly king here.

Knitting has been scarce lately, as I have been just stupidly busy with work and other commitments. At least this one will be a very short trip - just one week.

Blocking never gets boring

2008-06-06T18:18:00.003-04:00

This will just be a short post tonight to show off my newly finished Swallowtail Shawl. Because who doesn't love a good lace blocking shot?

I gave it a soak in a Eucalen bath and threaded it onto the wires this evening. Hopefully I'll get around to taking FO photos before the weekend is out.

It's been a busy few weeks chez Hedgehog Knits, with travel and meetings and not a lot of fun. And I'm off to Manchester again in a week. At least the weather has improved, so I've been making time to get out walking and biking. So long for now.

Finishing up

2008-05-18T13:48:00.007-04:00

The return to the foggy, chilly St. John's spring has been a bit of a shock to the system, but it's good to be home. Finally, yesterday, we got our first really nice warm spring day, and being Victoria Day weekend (when traditionally, you can start planting things in Newfoundland and not have to worry too much about frost), we spent yesterday planning and starting our patio garden. We inherited a pot of chives from the previous home owners, and put in some strawberries and shallots yesterday, and started seeds for lettuce, spinach, and zucchini. The peppers, tomatoes and herbs will have to wait until it gets a little warmer though.

After a good day of moving planters and dirt around, I sat down in the evening to put together Marjorie.

Marjorie from Knitty.com, size medium. Knit on 2.75 mm circular needle with GarnStudio Silke Tweed.

I really enjoyed knitting this sweater and the fit turned out to be just about perfect. It had just the right degree of intricate detail to keep my interest, and I knit on it almost exclusively from the time I started it. It took two months to finish, but since I haven't had a lot of knitting time lately, and it's a fine gauge, I think that's pretty good for me.

One word of warning about the yarn: it leached a lot of dye. See?

That's the first of four soakings, and even the fourth one still gave off a bit of colour. It's almost as if they didn't rinse the fibre at all at the factory after dying it. Strangely, none of it came off on my hands while knitting and the colour of the yarn didn't fade at all after all that soaking. I am going to have to be very careful about washing this sweater separately.

Now I have returned to knitting on Gatsby Girl and I also started yet another Swallowtail shawl during my flight back from England.

I'm just starting on the second Lily of the Valley border. It surprises me how fast I can whip one of these off now. Perhaps it's time I tried another shawl pattern... or finished up the Mystery Stole that I started last summer. Here's to clearing out some of the long-languishing projects while I'm in a spring cleaning kind of mood.

And then there were two

2008-05-05T16:57:00.004-04:00

Two sleeves - count 'em.

This has been a lot of knitting. I hit the shoulder decreases on the second sleeve of Marjorie this evening and saw that the end was in sight, so I decided to push on to the finish. Probably not a great idea, since my right carpel tunnel is not so happy with the result. But I'm very happy to be done.

This represents the longest phase that I have worked on a single project in years, and it will also be my first finished sweater of 2008. I'm looking forward to getting home to give it all a good soak and blocking before seaming it up.

But for now it goes into my suitcase, and I start thinking about a lace project for the flight back. I think I should have wound the skein of laceweight before left home...

Chester

2008-05-03T16:21:00.005-04:00

Today was the big day, the day of the quest for souveneir yarn.

Since I have a few free days in northwest England this trip, I asked the folks at the Manchester office to suggest somewhere to go on a day trip. Chester came up repeatedly, described as a beautiful city with lots of history and fantastic architecture. York was also considered, but my very short Google search did not turn up any LYSs in York's city centre, so the decision was easy (I'll save York for the next time I'm over).

Chester is only one hour from Manchester via the Arriva (north Wales) rail system. To be honest, hearing all of the Welsh place names announced on the train made me wish that I was venturing a little further on, over the border. But I'll save north Wales for another future trip. So many destinations, so little time!

Chester has ancient stone city walls and Roman ruins all over the place, including an amphitheatre that is still under excavation. The core shopping district has these two-tiered shops, with an upper walkway running along the second storey. So many fabulous little treasure troves, mixed in with fancy designer shops, pubs and cafes. I bought a couple of kitchen gadgets at Lakeland, found a fantastic deal on a trench coat at an end-of-season sale (alas, the end of the season for needing a fairly warm rain coat will not be ended yet when I return to St. John's, even if it is springtime in England!)

And then finally, I made it to Stash Fone Yarns, tucked in a little alleyway.

You can see just a smidge of Chester Cathedral in the background there - it's just around the corner. I totally forgot to take a photo inside the shop. As I'm sure you can understand, I was a little occupied with admiring colours and petting various skeins of fluffiness.

The store is actually very tiny, but I am told that they will be moving to a more spacious location in the near future. You probably wouldn't be able to fit more than 7 or 8 people in the place at one time, but luckily I had the place to myself this afternoon for full maneouverablity. They have full collections of Louisa Harding, Debbie Bliss, and Rowan squeezed along one wall. Notably, the Rowan yarns and books are far cheaper than in Canada, even considering the exchange rate. I'll have to keep that in mind for future projects.

In the end, though, I stuck with unique yarns that would be hard to find anywhere else. Here's the haul:

A set of those cute little 5" brittany sock needles, Knitglobal bulky alpca in "blue twist" (this line is naturally died), Fyberspates 100% silk laceweight (hand-dyed in northern Wales), and two little 50g skiens of four-ply from Clwyd Vale Alpacas in northern Wales. I spent a while trying to decide on a couple of colours of this last yarn, but then realized that the skeins were labelled with the individual alpaca's names. I couldn't resist - my two skeins? Hansel and Gretel.

All in all, it was a great day. I got very tired after all the walking and carrying my loot around, so I appreciated the solid hour of sitting and knitting on the return train journey. Now that I mostly understand how the rail system works here, I'm seeing a lot of possibilities on the map for future jaunts.

Travels with Marjorie

2008-05-01T13:03:00.006-04:00

Forgive me for starting on a negative note, but I must once again voice my displeasure at the incomprehensible lack of logic displayed by the folks who run Air Canada. Air Canada, the airline that aside from having no concept of the meaning of customer service, no longer thinks that Newfoundland, the farthest eastern part of Canada, actually needs an air link to Europe. The details of the story are maddening, and I won't get into them here, but suffice to say that I travelled to Manchester this time around via London and TORONTO. Now nothing against Toronto. Toronto is a lovely city with a plethora of beautiful yarn stores, that I would be happy to visit on any other day. But I actually calculated the distances (believe me, I had plenty of time on my hands while I was flying over St. John's, a city that I had departed from only 9 hours before!), and figured out that this is approximately the same as flying from New York to England via Minneapolis. Ridiculous, no? Ah, but what can you do when you live on an island?

The upside to this inanity is that I am making excellent progress on my sweater, Marjorie. A 17-hour journey will do that for you! I took the one-and-a-bit sleeves out onto the balconey of my flat for a photo this evening.

I left the completed front and back at home, and will probably finish the second sleeve on the flight back (mercifully, connecting only through London and Halifax this time). I think that for the first time ever, I will need to find an alternate yarn with which to sew up the seams. The Silke Tweed is very nice to knt with, but it is fairly loosely plied and it breaks easily when you yank on it, so I don't think that it will stand up to the abrasion of all that seaming. I'm thinking I might be able to find a similar colour in a sturdy sock yarn to use instead.

Manchester truly is a lovely city. I feel safe here walking around by myself, and there's lots to see and do. Here's the view up and down the Rochdale Canal from the balconey:

Manchester is a city of canals, much the same way that Ottawa is (although the history goes back so much farther here). The locks in the photo above actually look just like those on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, probably dating from the same era.

I hope to bring you some yarn-related tourism over the weekend, when I have time to get out and about a bit more.

Travelling again

2008-04-30T02:39:00.003-04:00

I'm back in England again for a bit, enjoying this thing they have over here called "spring". Lovely stuff.

As we have a long weekend coming up for May Day, I'm hoping to do a little touristing, and maybe get out of Manchester for a bit to visit other towns. Hopefully there will be some yarn-related touristing to report. I'll keep you posted.

Sweater in a Sunbeam

2008-04-05T07:13:00.003-04:00

I don't remember the last time that I worked exclusively on one project for this long. Going on three weeks now, Marjorie is not what I'd call an instant gratification knit.

But she sure is pretty.

With the back done, I'm now working my way up the front, with no signs of getting bored yet. Just as I start to tire of the constant cabling (on every right-side row), I get a nice long section of stockinette to break it up.

I'm planning to get this done to wear this spring. And with no signs of spring on the horizon yet (other than the occasional bit of freezing rain mixed in with the snow, but that kind of happens all winter long here), it looks like a reachable goal.

Published!

2008-03-26T19:17:00.005-04:00

At long last, my first freelance piece has been published. I'm pretty excited.

Three-finger trigger mitts, knit by Nick's grandmother, "Muddy".

It's an article about heritage knitting (specifically mittens) in Newfoundland. This has been my pet project for the last year or so. The publication is called Downhome Magazine, and it's basically a Newfoundland lifestyle periodical that is very popular, especially with people who have moved away from the province and want to stay connected. We loved getting our subscription when we lived in Ontario.

There's a short teaser (and one of my photos) on the Downhome Life website, and I know that the magazine is available across Canada at Chapters.

My first pair of Newfoundland mittens.

One fine-gauge sweater deserves another

2008-03-24T19:24:00.004-04:00

Another couple of weeks have come and gone with scarcely a peep from me. I've been caught up lately in trying to spend some time outdoors, especially now that daylight savings has kicked in and there's still some daylight to look forward to when I get home from work. There has also been a little celebrating of St. Patrick's Day (we take our Paddy's Day very seriously here), my 30th birthday and my MIL's birthday (on the same day), and Easter, all within the one week. And then there's the spare bedroom that we're painting, a project that somehow managed to drag on for over a week. Finally finished this morning, thankfully!

So I certainly have not been bored.

Needless to say, there has still been knitting. Take for example my finished Jitterbug gloves:

Women's gloves in Colinette Jitterbug, colourway 77 "dusk", own design. Worked on 2.25 mm (cuffs) and 2.5 mm dpns.

These still haven't been blocked, but I've been wearing them for a couple of weeks now. This was one of those cases where I'm glad that I chose what the yarn wanted to be.

I have also finished the back and the first sleeve of Gatsby Girl. As the sleeves are entirely K1P1 ribbing, this was no small feat! At this point, I am convinced that the amount of stretch in the pieces should result in a sweater that I can wear. By that, I mean that I will physically be able to get it on. I am still not convinced that it will not look entirely silly on me, but I am wiling to continue the experiment in "negative ease" for the sake of a good learning experience if nothing else.

In the meantime, the new spring editions of both Knitty and Interweave Knits appeared and distracted me into all sorts of daydreaming. The printed silk cardigan and the flutter-sleeve cardi from IK will definitely be short-listed. Knitty, for the first time in ages, contained several patterns that I want to knit for myself, but Marjorie caught my attention right off the top. So much so, that I have already started in on it.

Because just what I need to break up the fine-gauge cable work of Gatsby Girl is an even more cabled fine-gauge sweater! Why do I do this to myself?

Rather than the recommended alpaca, I decided to use stash yarn. It's Silke-Tweed by Garn Studio, another bargain find from Wool-Tyme in Ottawa. It's a silk-wool blend very similar to Elsebeth Lavold's silky tweed, with that wonderful crunchy feeling of raw silk. I think it may be discontinued, which is sad, because at 200 m per skein, the the mileage is excellent. I started thinking that I may have to chop the sleeves shorter to get a sweater out of the 7 skeins that I have, but I'm now thinking that I might have enough. On 2.75 mm needles, it's not exactly flying by, but for some reason I can't put this sweater down. I wake up in the morning wanting to knit on it. I've been working on it in the car. My wrist and elbow have been starting to act up, but it still holds its appeal.

I have also been scheming up some future projects and put in another Knit Picks order. I've got supplies ont he way to knit the Ivy League Vest, inspired by Glenna's lovely example, plus another sweater's worth of wool, possibly for Argyle. Luckily, or unfortunately depending on your taste, "sweater weather" never really ends in Newfoundland. It just happens later in the day during the summer. So I'm perfectly happy going on knitting with wool when everyone else is starting to make the switch to cotton tank tops and the like.

Thanks for dropping by!

Discovering my Roots

2008-03-06T18:44:00.006-05:00

I've been spending quite a bit of time lately delving into my heritage. I've had a little knitting heritage project on the go (more about that in the near future), and I recently started recording my family history at ancestry.ca. It's amazing how much genealogy you can dig up in just a few hours of internet research. The next step will be picking the brains of my relatives and undertaking a little research at the provincial archives, just up the hill (I love living downtown!)

Cabot Tower (built in 1897), atop Signal Hill

I've also been rediscovering some of the great walks and historic areas of the city. A hike last evening on Signal Hill proved a little chilly, and the trails were very icy, but I'm sure we'll be heading back up there when the weather warms up a little. The hill, overlooking the very strategic narrow entrance to the harbour, still bear physical signs of a military history dating back to the eighteenth century, and as recent as artillery from the Second World War.

Fort Amherst, as seen from Signal Hill. The grey structures below the lighthouse are the remains of a WWII gun battery

What an amazing, rugged bit of coastline we live on. It's prettier and a little greener on a sunny summer day, but sometimes you have to wonder what the first settlers from Europe were thinking when they made landfall and decided to call this home.

Jitterbugging

2008-02-27T19:39:00.004-05:00

A couple of friends have been waiting to hear the story of a particular skein of yarn. Last summer, when I was still living in Ottawa. Leanne and Nancy introduced me to Wool 'N Things, a very posh little yarn boutique in the far east end of the city. At the time, my yarn budget as a grad student was pretty tight, so it was a rather dangerous excursion and my wallet did take quite a dent that day.

Aside from a few wonderful bits of silk (which I still haven't gotten up the courage or inspiration to touch), we each bought a different colourway of Colinette Jitterbug. I believe that they have both already made socks out of theirs. That was my plan too - a plain pair of ribbed socks to show off the gorgeous colour. Knowing that people tend to have yardage issues with this yarn, I got out my kitchen scale, and dutifully wound the skein into two equal balls. I even swatched, which I rarely bother with for socks. Even though the yarn is plump, I liked my swatch on 2.25 mm needles best, and decided to knit a pair of nice, dense, warm socks.

I got about this far (yes, that's a heel flap on a rather short sock):

When it became quite evident that, A) I was not going to have enough yarn left for a foot, and B) I wasn't really fond of the way the beautiful water-coloury variegation was pooling in diagonal stripes.

Hmm, what to do....

Rip it out and knit gloves!

Somehow, I have ended up with several pairs of mittens in my collection lately, but not a single pair of gloves to my name - a situation soon to be rectified. I'm completely winging it on 2.5 mm needles (2.25 mm for the ribbed cuff), and it looks like I'll even have a little bit of yarn left over. Phew.

The yarn is so pretty that I'm going to miss it when I'm done knitting!

What I've been doing while I haven't been blogging

2008-02-16T12:25:00.005-05:00

Time is seriously flying this winter and I've been enjoying the feeling of being very busy but not stressed about it. It's been a fun kind of busy, mostly involving family events - baking birthday cakes (three in two weeks!), going to family dinners, attending several concerts (all involving different family members on stage - we're a rather musical bunch), and taking in a little of the great outdoors, with a smattering of volunteer work thrown in. Life is good. Nick and I took a little jaunt around Pippy Park (a campground right in the city) last weekend on snowshoes. It was a beautiful day. I've been wanting to get him on cross-country skis, but it rained a lot this week so the snow is not so great. Maybe next weekend. My knitting on Gatsby Girl was interrupted again for another birthday present. Nick actually picked up a copy of a KnitPicks catalogue that I had left lying around, and requested this scarf. He so rarely asks me to knit anything for him that of course I had to oblige. After a couple of minutes of squinting at the pattern, I had it figured out. Now why didn't I think of that - reversible cables!
I cast on 66 stitches, knit a couple of rows of 6X6 rib, and then proceeded to cable on the first (right side), and 6th ("wrong" side) rows in a 10-row repeat. Continued for about 7 feet, and cast off. It took three balls of Patons Classic Merino (the shade is called "new jeans", a little bluer than it looks in the photo above) for a pretty hefty scarf. If I were to do another of these for myself, I would make it a little narrower and a little shorter, but Nick thinks his is perfect - a nice warm scarf for chilly days.

So now I'm back to Gatsby Girl. I finished the first back/front piece, and am now plodding through the first sleeve. It's endless 1X1 ribbing on 3 mm needles. To be honest, it's starting to try my patience a little, but I have another cabled, lacy, beautiful front/back piece to look forward to. The second sleeve is going to be a killer on this one - I can see myself getting easily sidetracked.

Done!

2008-01-25T21:20:00.000-05:00

Surprizing even myself, I finished my dad's socks in record time. They were done on Wednesday. Man, I should knit in worsted weight more often!

Men's plain stockinette socks (no pattern), in Red Heart McIntosh, 48 st on size 3.75 mm dpns

I used a regular gusset heel with an eye-of-partridge heel flap. This type of heel is really easy (simple instructions here), and turns out just as thick and sturdy as the more common slip-stitch heel.

The yarn (30% wool, 70% acrylic) was a little underwhelming, but that's what you get for buying emergency yarn supplies late at night at Walmart! Speaking of which, all three Walmarts in the St. John's area are now open 24 hours... I wonder how long that's going to last?!

I'm making good progress on the Gatsby Girl, now well into the herringbone lace pattern, and inching closer to the shoulder shaping. It still looks small to me, but it's very stretchy, so I'm going to trust the pattern measurements and my gauge and keep chugging along.

I went to a fun knitting lecture last night at The Rooms, a beautiful new facility that houses the Provincial Museum, Art Gallery, and Archives. Shirley Scott gave a really fun talk on traditional Newfoundland knitting. So nice to see someone else interested in promoting our local knitting heritage. I spoke with Shirley briefly after her presentation, and I hope I'll get to meet her and more local knitters soon at a knit night gathering. I have finally tracked down a local knit night (this Sunday!) and I'm going to try to make it out.

A wee break for mansocks

2008-01-20T13:57:00.000-05:00

The realization hit yesterday that my dad's birthday is only a week away. He is notoriously hard to shop for, but he has always loved a good pair of socks.

Sweater knitting has been put on hold for a few days while I whip up a quick pair of mansocks. I'm not falling into the trap of eternal fine-gauge mansocks this time though! As he likes thick socks for his work boots, and I'm on a tight schedule, it's worsted weight this time around. A speedy 48-stitch sock in strictly utilitarian acrylic-wool blend. I would have liked to have used superwash wool, but couldn't find any on short notice (this is not a city where soft superwash merino grows on trees like it seems to do in places like Toronto!). And in this particular gift situation, hand-wash only socks would be a curiosity akin to having a bowl of fruit on display that is not meant to be eaten. Completely illogical.

This is the morning's progress while lounging in front of the TV. At this rate, I'll be done by Tuesday. Wish me luck!

So far so good

2008-01-19T12:55:00.000-05:00

The front (or back - they're the same) of the Gatsby Girl pullover. It looks very small, but those sections between the cables are 1X1 rib, so it has a lot of stretch. I opted for the smaller size, the 36", so let's hope this works!

The bottom edge is a facing to be folded back, so it should look a lot neater when it all goes together. I have never been so happy that I taught myself to cable without a cable needle - I'll never go back! Still loving the yarn very much, and looking forward to moving on to the the lace section soon.

This just might work...

2008-01-13T17:08:00.000-05:00

Keeping up the trend of ignoring my well-intentioned list and going wherever my next whim takes me, I decided to break out some really nice yarn that I had been saving. I bought myself a little graduation gift when I was in Ottawa - 12 skeins of Silana by Lana Grossa in a pale blue. It's a beautiful DK merino-silk blend, soft like kittens. This is definitely the nicest yarn that I have ever had in such quantity - I usually just buy a skein or two of something lovely, and then I never know what to do with it! It was deeply discounted (possibly discontinued?), but still a splurge by my standards.

Feeling marginally better today, I've been doing some swatching. I think that I have decided on a pattern: the Gatsby Girl pullover from the Fall 2006 IK.

With more than enough casual wear it my closet, I've been looking to knit something nice enough to wear to work. I think this will fit the bill nicely.

My only hesitation is in trying to decide on a size. Every one of my measurements falls exactly in between two sizes on this pattern, and it recommends an exact fit for zero ease. I don't really feel like tweaking the pattern, so I can't decide whether to go for the size that's an inch smaller, or play it safe and go an inch bigger. Since I usually err on the side of too big and end up disappointed, I'll probably try the smaller size. I like my clothes fairly fitted, so it shouldn't be a problem. But why then is it so hard to take the risk?!

Tweedy comfort

2008-01-12T09:23:00.001-05:00

I find it amazing that no matter how I try to prioritize my knitting projects, making lists of upcoming projects, stashing yarn and purchasing patterns with definite plans, that if the right mood strikes, I will be forced to drop everything, start something new, and knit on it continuously until it's finished, or a different whim overtakes me, and I abandon it in favour of the next big thing.

I go through moods of wanting to clear out my works-in-progress to start fresh (I can dream, can't I?), and there are other times where I start three new projects in a week. There are times when a new pair of socks needs to be started just to fulfill the need for a simple, portable project to take on a trip, and then there are days like yesterday.

I've been fighting a nasty cold for a few days, and finally called in sick yesterday to stay home and be miserable lounging around the house. I've been working on a design project, trying to make some sort of cardigan out of a big pile of black Patons Fresco that's been sitting in my stash for way to long. Through the haze of cold medication yesterday, I couldn't bring myself to pick up the calculator. I needed something to pass the day and make me happy. Something with explicit instructions that I couldn't mess up very easily.

I finally downloaded Anne Hansen's Delicato pattern for lacy fingerless mitts.

There was no way that I would be leaving the house (or even getting out of my pyjamas), so I pulled out the only yarn I had on hand that would work, a cone of laceweight Derby Tweed left over from a vest I knit last year.

Exactly what I needed, and a very well written pattern. And they'll keep my hands warm in the chilly office when I return to work.

I also bought the Irtfa'a lace shawl pattern while I was at it, for another day when I'm feeling a little more adventurous. For today, I'm going to curl up and finish the left mitt and spend some quality time with Harry Potter - finally, I get to catch up with the rest of the world and read book 7.

Year-end FOs (in Knitting and Life)

2007-12-31T09:18:00.000-05:00

2007 has been rather a monumental year for me - finally moving home after so many years away, buying our first house and car, starting a career. I feel incredibly blessed by the good fortune that has come my way. It has been very exciting, yet stressful at times. Mostly, I have felt very disorganized and scatter-brained, no doubt resulting from moving twice and living out of boxes for the better part of the fall.

Things are finally starting to come together. The unpacking is mostly done, and the first floor is exactly as we want it. With the recent addition of furniture, if I may borrow from the knitting jargon, I'm now happy to declare the living room an FO:

We now look forward to painting some of the upstairs rooms and feeling a little more settled in the new year.

A few other recent FOs to report on. The interminable Brigit socks have finally been completed, and were gifted at a family gathering yesterday.

Brigit socks (link to pdf), in Meilenweit wool, 2.25 mm bamboo dpns. Altered the heel to an "eye of partridge" heel flap.

Also known as the "Smurfy Cables", these socks were the cause of much blue dye staining my hands over the last few months. I started them on a train trip from Toronto to Ottawa, and the first sock came very easily. However, I tried taking the second sock out to knit night, and it proved to be wholly incompatible with anything that distracted my attention even remotely. The repeating cable pattern is the same every time, and really shouldn't be that difficult, but every time I started feeling comfortable with it, I would cross a cable the wrong way, or turn the heel and then realize that I had mistakenly added an extra pattern repeat before the heel. Soon the Smurfy cables became the cursed cables.... Nancy and Leanne can attest that even a couple of weeks ago, as I was attempting to turn the heel for the third time, these were still giving me grief. I'm happy to see them finished, and I really like the way they turned out. Surprisingly, I think I would even knit these again for myself, but would make them a little longer. The yarn? The Meilenweit is a perfectly serviceable wool sock yarn, but not destined to become a favourite of mine. It just didn't do it for me, you know?

I've been off work over the holidays, and decided to finally organize my stash closet. I rediscovered all kinds of treasures that I had forgotten about. Among them was the end of a cone of very furry mohair blend that I bought on a whim at Woof Designs last summer (mostly a machine-knitting sweater business, they sell off their cone ends and discontinued yarns by weight. I always love to pop in and see what new on the yarn shelf at the back). Inspired by the cold snowy weather we've been having, I decided that I needed some very warm mitten for the daily trek through the snow to work.

These were knit holding together a strand of the mohair (burgandy) with Elann.com Peruvian Pure Alpaca (sherwood forest). Together, it gave a bulky weight, and and incredibly dense, warm, fuzzy fabric. These may well be the warmest knitted mittens ever - and much less bulky than my thrummed mitts.

The biggest FO of the year though, is my Ph.D. thesis. I was in Ottawa for my defense on December 13, and my presentation and oral exam went very well. The corrections were minimal, so I managed to get them all finished and submit the final copies before the week was out. It was all a bit anticlimactic really, as I had worked myself up into a nervous frenzy over it, and since we were heading into the holidays and many of my friends had already graduated and left, there weren't really many people around to celebrate with. More than anything, it brings me an enormous sense of relief to be finished. No more guilt over procrastinating, no more self-doubt about whether my work is good enough. It was wonderful, for the first time in 11 years, to be able to sit back this Christmas with my family and know that there would be no more term papers or exams, no more frantic late nights at the library, no more frustrating encounters with university administration (perhaps that last one is a little premature - I haven't got my diploma yet!). But I have regained a lot of peace and sanity these past couple of weeks, and hopefully I'm a nicer person to be around than I have been recently!

This year, the new year brings a lot of opportunity, as I have re-gained a lot of energy and free time to devote to non-academic pursuits. I plan to get myself off the couch a little more (off to research gym memberships this afternoon), and I will finally get around to checking out the class offerings at the Anna Templeton Centre, a fantastic textile arts centre just around the corner. My sister-in-law is even interested in taking a pottery class with me. I may do a little more volunteering, and I also have a little freelance writing project that I'm anxious to get working on.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year, and may your knitting continue to bring you joy in 2008.

Gift Knitting

2007-12-30T12:39:00.001-05:00

I have discovered yet another reason that I love our house: we're on the up-wind side of the street. I have spent a good deal of time these last few days digging out from successive dumpings of snow, but the folks across the street definitely have it worse. The wet snow has made for heavy shoveling, but it does make the neighbourhood look pretty.

The view across the street.

I have a number of FO shots to share with you, so I thought that today I would give you a round-up of the Christmas gifts. I tried to keep it under control this year, inspired by memories of casting off a scarf last year at 2AM on Christmas morning! The red sweater that I designed and knit last spring was a gift for my aunt, an accomplished knitter herself, and she was delighted with it. And my mom really likes her Swallowtail shawl.

This touque, in Smart Superwash, was a requested replacement for a similar gift last year which, sadly, was lost. I knit a different pattern this year. making it up as I went along, out of the same yarn to match the scarf given last year.

Gift toque, in Smart Superwash, 90 st with cabled ribbing, modeled by yours truly.

Then there was the rescue knitting for another aunt. She had knit this lace sweater up to the armhole decreases, but given the challenges of decreasing in pattern, combined with a really poorly written pattern, she passed it off to me to finish. The yarn, Mandarin Petit, is a fingering weight multi-ply cotton. It's quite nice and soft, and I would definitely use it again. The pattern though, I hope to never see again.

The rescue knitting sweater, pre-blocking.

And then, there were the jackets for the wee ones of the family. I chose to try out the Accordion pattern from Knitty.com in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Accordion jacket, size 2 Toddler, in Knit Pick Swish Superwash.

Gauge was interesting with this project. I thought that the recommended yarns were worsted weight, but I had to go up several needle sizes to get gauge with the Swish. I think my jackets have a lot more drape than the pattern version as a result, but they are cute and warm nonetheless. I added an inch of two to the measurements to account for the notorious vertical shrinkage with this yarn, and washed the pieces before seaming. The only problem this caused was difficulty finding zippers in odd lengths, since it was difficult to predict the finished length of the garment until after it was washed.

It was on this last jacket that I fell down in the gift knitting department. I didn't finish it in time, and I still haven't gone shopping for a zipper - maybe later today. It will hopefully be finished in time to be a New Year's gift. The recipient won't know the difference - he's three!

Accordion Jacket, Size 4 Toddler, in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Must go finish off the shovelling. Happy New Year to all!

FOs and the start of the tour

2007-12-03T19:09:00.000-05:00

Ah, it feels good to finish something. Especially when it feels as though the unpacking and organizing of the new house will never end. A couple of little FO's to show today.

Here's the Swallowtail shawl, finally blocked and dried, and looking lovely if I do say so myself. I'm very happy with how this turned out.

And, at long last, I have finished the Tofutsies socks.

Ribby cable socks (my own design) in Tofutsies. 72 st on 2 mm needles.

I have been dragging these around with me since the summer, mostly as commuting knitting. Squeezed in between other projects, they seemed to drag on forever. The ribbing is K4 P2 cable2 P2, although the detail of it is rather obscured by the striping.

I can't say I'm particularly fond of this yarn. I heard good things about it, so I tried it when it became available at my LYS. To me, it's not much different from cotton, and I am not a fan of cotton socks. It's also fairly dense, and not very stretchy, so I think the socks would pool around my ankles after a couple of hours. These are going to be a Christmas gift for someone with slightly skinnier calves who I think will get a kick out of the colours.

In other business, I promised you a tour of the house. There still aren't many parts of it that are fit to be photographed. We have open and emptied most of the cardboard boxes at this point, but there is still a lot of clutter sitting around, each item waiting to be given its designated place. And we certainly haven't gotten around to details like hanging up the artwork. So, if you'll excuse the clutter, I'll show you my office:

Here's the part I know you'll love.... built-in yarn storage!

Have I mentioned that I love this place?

Now, I hope you'll bear with me for another couple of weeks of scarce postings. I'm off to Ottawa next week for my Ph.D. defense, and that means I have a presentation to prepare, studying to do, and general nervousness and self doubt to get over. Moreso than wanting to do well, I just want to get this over with and never have to think about it ever again. Wish me luck!

This cat can block...

2007-11-26T19:52:00.000-05:00

or at least get in the way! Lassy and I blocked the Swallowtail Shawl yesterday. She was very helpful with setting out my blocking mats.

Then she chased a toy beetle under the mats.

And then, the all-important naptime.

This is her natural position, lounging importantly. She already knows that she owns the place.

Finally, I had to bar her from the room to get this blocked out. I hope she'll understand.

The new blocking wires are a godsend.

Traveling again

2007-11-22T19:40:00.000-05:00

Whew. It feels as though I've hardly been home this fall. Following the late summer trip to Manchester, I had to go to western Newfoundland for a little field work. Then there was a quick weekend for meetings in Toronto (sorry to my Toronto friends, I didn't have a moment to spare this time! But I'll be back in February.), and now I'm in Calgary on a week-long training for work. I'll be back home for a couple of weeks before I have to head off to Ottawa again for my defense. Don't get me wrong, it's all been rather exciting. But sometimes I'd like to be able to see my husband in person and enjoy just lounging in the new house. Oh, the house? Right. I promised you more pictures. I have only one with me right now:

This is what hubby likes to call "Kelly in her natural habitat". That's the first test drive for knitting on the new couch. I'll have to take some more photos when I get home. Lassy, the cat, has finally joined us in our new home, so I will have to provide the long-awaited kitty photos soon too. Yup, it's a real knitting blog now. I have cat photos!

My flight to Calgary was ridiculously long, but the upside is that I managed to get more knitting done during the trip than I have in the past month. I started a Swallowtail shawl (the second one for me) as we took off from St. John's, and after several hours lounging around Halifax and then Toronto airports, I had the rosebud lace section finished by the time we touched down in Calgary. I've been working on the border in my spare moments since I arrived. Here's a shot of it - please excuse the ugly hotel chair!

It should be ready for blocking by the time I get home, and will likely be a Christmas present. The yarn is Knit Picks Shimmer (70% alpaca, 30% silk) in the Turquoise Splendor colourway. I'm not delighted with the stripy pooling that's happening - I was hoping for something a little more random - but I can certainly live with it. Re-knitting this pattern has been a really interesting exercise. The first Swallowtail shawl that I knit was my first project in laceweight yarn. I found it pretty challenging, especially at the beginning. It felt clumsy, it was hard to "read" my knitting, and the P5tog nups really tried my patience. It has several obvious mistakes in it. Now that I've been knitting lace for a while, this project is going really smoothly. I haven't frogged once - although as you can see, I'm still cautious enough to have put in a life line before the borders... can't be too careful. (Note to self - always carry dental floss when traveling!) Even the nups seem much more manageable. It shows me that my skills are definitely getting better. I have been thinking about tackling a major lace project, like a full-size shawl. This one has really caught my interest. Maybe in the new year.

It occurred to me recently that, in the craziness that has been my life lately, I completely missed the passing of my one-year blogiversary. I've been pretty bad with anniversaries in general - I have been away from Nick and out of the country for our first two wedding anniversaries! I'll mark the date on my calendar (for the blogiversary - I know when my anniversary is!) and try to do something special for next year.

I'll up again from Newfoundland next week. I've got a great little FO there to share.

I'm back!

2007-11-14T19:34:00.001-05:00

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone is still dropping by here.....

I have finally crawled out from under many, many piles of boxes, and I'm happy to report that the unpacking and settling in have progressed to a level wherein we now have an assembled computer AND internet. High speed no less. Sigh. It is truly home now.

If I could find my camera, I would give you a tour of the house, or show you the meagre progress on my knitting, or even show you the photo I took of the box containing the twenty pounds of paper that constitutes the examination copies of my Ph.D. thesis. That's right - it's official. It's been submitted, and I'll be journeying back to Ottawa for my ~~torture session~~ thesis defense on December 11. But since my camera is still lost in a labyrinth of boxes (somewhere on the third floor, I'm told), you'll have to be satisfied with this stock footage of the new house:

For those who aren't familiar, much of the St. John's downtown consists of similar 100-year-old brightly painted wooden row houses on hilly little narrow streets. Nobody has ever accused the place of lacking character! We got lucky with this house in that we're only attached on the back, and we have that little garage with the deck over it. So far, I'm loving the neighbourhood, and the ten-minute walk to work. Even better is the two-minute stumble down the hill to Tim Horton's. We have so many plans... painting the outside and the inside, installing a real garage door, setting up my little craft studio.... but in the meantime, I'll be really happy when the new couch arrives tomorrow and I have somewhere comfy to sit and knit!

That's it for now - just a teaser, I know. But I'm back now for real, and you can count on hearing a lot more from me in future. I have really appreciated having other blogs to read in my rare free moments these past few months. I've been trying to keep up on the news, even if I haven't been much for commenting lately. And thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement, and for sharing my excitement through all the many changes lately. It certainly has been quite a year!

Hanging in

2007-10-11T18:46:00.000-04:00

Just a short note today to mention that I'm still alive, though knitting has become a rarity reserved for my indulgent Sunday morning tv-watching. Thesis submission is imminent, and the house purchase appears to be going through. I've heard far too many horror stories over the years to want to show you photos, or tell you too much about it until I have the keys in my hand... but it would appear that we will be taking possession on Hallowe'en. I'll bring you a virtual open-house tour in early November, and by then, perhaps I'll also have my thesis defense scheduled.... it's all coming together.

If you've got the time, knit a row for me!

Taking in strays

2007-09-30T15:18:00.000-04:00

Wow, how did three weeks go by so quickly??

Today I bring you a little rescue knitting that I've been working on. One of my aunts, who is quite a good knitter, started this lace pullover for her daughter. Despite her uncertainty and lack of experience with lace charts, an employee at our LYS convinced her that she would be able to tackle this pattern. And it probably would have been alright if the pattern was at least well written.

Alas, the pattern (from a back issue of Knit 'n Style) has many errors and ambiguities, and doesn't really explain how one is supposed to alter the charts when faced with armhole decreases, neck shaping, ad sleeve increases. In the interest of getting this gift finished in a reasonable time (I think that it was originally intended as a gift for last Christmas!), I decided to take it in and work on it in my spare time (whatever that is!). It came to me with the biggest part of the knitting already done - both the front and back up to the armholes. I actually just have one sleeve cap to finish now, but it looks like I have to go track down one more ball of yarn.

It's a nice yarn to work with : Mandarin Petit by SandnesGarn. I think I counted 7 plies of cotton. It's quite soft, and about a sport weight. Makes for some fine detail on a sweater.

The other "stray" that I've taken in lately is a cute little cat who has been hanging around the house for the past six weeks or so. Molasses ("Lassie" for short) was a skinny little black thing when she first wrapped herself around my ankles as I was hanging out clothes one Saturday morning. She had no collar, and seemed very hungry, so we've been feeding her and fattening her up a little, and Nick and I intend to take her with us when we move into our own home. Which leads to the next exciting news....

We put in an offer on a house in downtown St. John's this morning, and the offer was accepted! We still have to go through home inspection, and the deal won't close for a full month. But we're well on our way to having our own home! We're very excited. After a full month of searching and viewing houses, this one, though a little bigger than we really need, seems like a place where we will be happy to put down roots. We loved it from the first minute we stepped in the door. And we'll be able to walk to work.

So, lots going on here, with precious little time for knitting. Next time though, I hope to bring you photos of the first finished Accordion jacket - almost done!!

Actual knitting

2007-09-03T17:12:00.000-04:00

I finally managed to take a little time to myself this weekend - a little guilty pleasure for the holiday weekend. And nothing goes better with a work-free Sunday afternoon than a new knitting project. I haven't done that in a while! To say nothing of writing two posts in one weekend.

I dipped into the Knit Picks yarn that arrived a couple of months ago, and started an Accordion jacket for one of the very little people in my extended family. I may not do too much holiday knitting this fall, but I do intend to make two of these for the boys. This is size 3 years in Swish Superwash, which is worsted weight, making it a fairly quick knit. I've already done the back and half of one of the front pieces.

So far, I love the yarn. This is my first Knit Picks purchase and above all, it's very soft. I am allowing for a little bit of vertical shrinkage, as this yarn does have a bit of a reputation for that. Just to be sure, I plan to machine wash and dry the pieces before assembly.

After a couple of years of experience knitting for the babies and toddlers of the family and receiving feedback from parents, I have learned a couple of important things. Firstly, all members of my family are genetically predisposed to having large heads. Even the babies. This means that pullovers are much more likely to go on if they have a button closure on the shoulder. Secondly, most little boys really hate to have you put anything over their heads. Struggling with an uncooperative kid with a big head means that short zippers in the front of the neck are especially out of the question, as they usually end up stuck in somebody's eye. I hope that this jacket will be loved and worn for a long time because it will involve minimal hassle to get it on, and the ribbed texture makes for a very stretchy jacket that should give quite a bit of room to grow.

Now that I know the yarn will work with the gauge for this pattern, and KP has introduced new heathered colours for this yarn, I plan to order a little more. The second Accordion will be a slightly bigger size 4 years; I'm thinking squirrel heather grey with Dublin green trim. And while I'm ordering, this might be the perfect opportunity to finally get me some good lace blocking wires. But that's all. Really.....

Checking in

2007-09-01T11:00:00.001-04:00

Wow, time has certainly been flying these last few weeks. There has not been much knitting - just a little progress on the Tofutsies socks while flying. That's right, I'm happy to report that while being the most confusing and least intuitive airport that I have ever had the displeasure of navigating, the Heathrow security staff had no problems at all with my 2.0 mm metal dpns. Just don't try to bring any killer shampoo onto a plane!

I had a productive work week in Manchester and got to spend most of the weekend exploring on my own. I toured the City Centre, checked out the historic canals (birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, so they say), visited the John Rylands Library, and saw a very good local production of West Side Story at the Palace Theatre.

The Gothic-style John Rylands Library

Manchester Town Hall

Peter Street, in the City Centre

The architecture is quite nice in Manchester, and I really enjoyed the short visit. I didn't manage to make it to any of the museums and galleries on this trip, but it sounds as if I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the city in the months to come, so I'll save them for another time.

Life has not slowed down much around here. I'm still trying to dedicate evenings and weekends to the last round of thesis revisions, so I haven't had time for much knitting or anything fun really. I had to register for one last semester as a part-time student, but I am looking forward to a thesis defense later this fall. It will certainly be nice to have it all done and be able to have some guilt-free spare time!

I have not been keeping up very well in blog-land lately, but I'll re-emerge before Christmas, I'm certain. Thanks for bearing with me!

Off across the pond.

2007-08-18T09:56:00.000-04:00

Well, that didn't take long. I'm off on my first business trip to the UK tomorrow, on rather short notice. Ordinarily, I'd be very excited, but I just have so much to do right now! Hopefully I'll get a bit of free time in the evenings to catch up on the non-work commitments that I've been neglecting a bit lately.

I'd love to hear if anyone has suggestions for a good yarn shop in Manchester though. (Sarah?) Surely I can make time for a little souvenier yarn!

Before I get off to start packing, here's a quick update on what I've been working on lately:

My Mystery Stole, at the end of Clue 4. I've decided to be an old stick in the mud and to make a more traditional symmetrical stole - the original pattern is a bit more, um, artistic than something that I'm likely to wear. I'm opting for the alternate instructions which means I have to knit another whole piece like this, and then join them via a knitted panel in the centre. I've already started on the other half. I'm really enjoying knitting it. The beads are a bit irritating to work with, but I think the effect is worth it. I have resigned myself to the fact that this is going to be a long-term project, to be worked on when I have time to fully concentrate on it. I'm not going to hurry it.

And, as always, there is a pair of socks on the needles. This is the first one completed.

The yarn is Tofutsies, which I picked up at Yarn Forward in Ottawa just before I left. I like the way the striping works out on these, but I'm still not sure if I'll keep them for myself. I'm not a huge fan of cotton in my socks, but this blend is a little different from what you usually find.

These will be traveling with me next week, and I will probably bring along my gorgeous skein of Collinette Jitterbug as a back-up in case I finish this pair. I haven't managed to dig out the Jitterbug to photograph it yet, but the colours just take my breath away. So pretty.

One advantage of being so busy and frazzled lately is that I haven't been feeling the need to start any new projects. I steal a few moments to work on my WIPs when I can, but I don't have the free time to browse patterns and daydream about yarn purchases like I used to. My new Interweave Knits came in the mail this week though, and I have flagged the Tangled Yoke Cardigan and the Mirepoix Bodice for future knitting, probably substituting Knit Picks yarn for the latter. I am impressed with this issue, much more so than the last couple.

I'm not likely to be updating from the road next week, but I'll try to take some good photos of my travels to share when I return. 'Til next time!

New FO photos

2007-08-11T09:26:00.000-04:00

A short post today to share some FO photos of my new lace top. As you can tell from my hairdo, it was a fairly blustery day!

Original design, in Zitron Polo, using 4 balls. Free pattern will be posted here eventually.

I haven't caught up on my blog reading yet. I've been popping in here and there, but haven't been commenting much. I have a stack of emails that need answering, volunteer work that I need to get around to, I'm two weeks behind on my Mystery Stole (just finishing Clue#4), and I don't even want to talk about my thesis progress - to which I will be dedicating the remainder of the weekend.

The posts may continue to be a bit sparse for the next few weeks - please bear with me while I try juggle everything. It's not so much that I have no free time anymore, but rather that my brain is being tugged in so many directions right now that I can't bring myself to sit down and try to write something at the end of the day. I'm lucky if I have the energy to concentrate on knitting a bit before going to bed most evenings! We just got the wireless internet sorted out and set up though, so there's hope that I may be online a little more.

A new era begins

2007-08-05T09:38:00.000-04:00

Well. It's been an exciting couple of weeks. I don't think I'm going to re-hash all of the details here. Suffice to say that the move went well, the new job seems interesting even if I'm still settling in there, and life is pretty rosy right now. The flight, for once, was relatively uneventful, and even though little Molly the hedgehog had to travel beneath us in the belly of the plane (silly airline restrictions!), she seems to have fared well too. We lived through the tail end of a tropical storm that wreaked havoc on eastern Newfoundland last week, causing major flooding in some communities. Luckily, other than a little water in the basement and a bit of a treacherous drive to work, we weren't too adversely affected. Living in Newfoundland, you kind of get used to whatever Mother Nature can throw at you.

Here's a shot of half of our belongings sprawled across the parking lot of our apartment building in Ottawa. This is the first time I've hired professional movers, and it was a really nice experience. It was very pleasant to sit back with a cup of coffee and watch them load everything.

The first thing that we had to do in St. John's was to buy a car. Unfortunately, this city does not have a good transit system, and we really couldn't manage without one. It was as first-time experience for us, as we had been happily living car-free in Ontario for many years.

Here's the cute new Suzuki Swift, posing in front of Conception Bay, just steps away from Nick's parents' driveway. That's Kelly's Island in the background - not named after me though!

In amongst all of the craziness, there has still been some knitting happening, especially in airports and planes. I have started some new socks, and finished that little top that I was designing:

It obviously still needs a good washing and blocking, so I'll get a real FO action shot of it when that's done. I plan to write up a free pattern for this eventually, although I can't promise that it will be very soon. My life seems to have gotten very busy now all of a sudden. It could really be a while before things are back to "normal" for me and the blog.

But for now, it's off to my parents' for Sunday lunch.

Signing off... for now

2007-07-24T23:05:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to let you know that I'll be offline for the next week or so. The movers arrive in ten hours, and we're still finishing up the packing. The computer is next. So I'll be back when we've landed in Newfoundland and have settled in a little. Wish us luck!

Long time coming

2007-07-22T19:28:00.001-04:00

Well, would you look what I found when I was packing. I finished this lace scarf over a month ago, but I never did take any FO photos. You'll have to excuse the less than idyllic setting of my balcony over the parking lot - my place is in a shambles right now and I don't have time to take a scarf to the park for a walk. I'm lucky that I can still find the camera to be honest!

Bramble Leaf Lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today, in SRK Collection Ovation, Purple Haze colourway. 4mm circular needles (I think).

This pattern is one of the many scarves with wide end borders in VLT - I think it's actually called something like "scarf with trellis border and bramble leaf insertion". As a very early lace project for me, I wanted to keep this simple so I left the border off and basically just knit the "insertion". I think that the first time that I try a knitted on lace border, I want it to be in something a little less frustrating than mohair!

Thoughts on this project... The yarn is really lovely and soft and I highly recommend it. It's a silk/mohair blend, very much like Kidsilk Haze but just a little thicker. Since I bought it from a bargain bin, it was much more affordable than its Rowan cousin. I used a little over two skeins and the scarf is just over 6' long. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, the pattern comes out a little different from the sample pictured in the book - this seems to be a recurring theme with VLT. The centre garter stitch panel is narrower in the photo.

These photos also highlight my need to obtain some good blocking wires. The pins that I've been using have made the edge all wonky. Perhaps when I finish my Mystery Stole, I'll get around to mail ordering a set. Suggestions for suppliers would be very welcomed.

I had a bit of a yarn adventure yesterday, but unfortunately none of us thought to bring a camera. Leanne and Nancy took me out to Wool 'n Things in Orleans for the first time. Wow. It's a very well stocked little shop. They carry the full line of Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Berocco, Noro, Fleece Artist, all the really good stuff that is hard to come by in my usual haunts. Highly educational, since I got to fondle a lot of yarns that I have often heard about but never seen in person. I have made some notes for future projects, and my wallet may have suffered some damage involving Jitterbug and a lot of silk. Photos tomorrow if I can find the yarn amidst the pile of boxes! Honestly, it was really fun to shop with other keen and excited knitters, and I think we managed to enable each other into buying stuff we really loved. I'm going to miss my Ottawa knitting friends and access to so many great yarn shops. But then perhaps my bank balance will be better for it!

The view from here

2007-07-16T22:02:00.000-04:00

... is one of total chaos.

We've entered that fun stage of moving where we're trying to pack things, but not everything just yet, because we still have to live here for a while. So we get to discover junk that we didn't even know we had, and trip over boxes for the next week or two. Of course, it would help if the moving company would nail down the precise date that they're coming. My home being in a state of insanity is actually a good reason to spend a lot of time at the office, which is becoming more necessary all the time. I'm not allowing myself to even think about the new Harry Potter movie or book until my thesis is submitted. I really want to get it all finished before we leave next Friday. Eeek!

So, let's not talk about that anymore. Wanna see some knitting? I finally ripped out the Soleil tank and re-knit the top part of the front.

Soleil from Knitty.com, designed by Alexandra Virgiel.
Knit on 3.75 mm Denise Interchangable circular, with Elann.com Sonata, a DK 4-ply cotton, in Lilac.
Modifications: Cast off an additional 5 stitches toward the front of each armhole (for a total of 12 CO stitches in each armhole), and then decreased 5 stitches instead of 4 on the front armhole decrease.

This modification seems to have tamed the "wing" effect that I was getting before, but the front is still a little broad:

Not bad though over all. Other than the tinkering with the shaping, this was a pretty easy, fun knit, and is very economical. I made the 36" size and used less than 6 balls, for a total cost of about $13. Sonata is a pretty basic cotton, so for those who don't like the hard feel, or how cotton is hard on the hands, you might want to look for a blend. I love the lace on this top, but it really needs to be blocked out every time it's washed in order to keep the lace flat. At least it's machine washable.

Hopefully I'll have another new summer top to show you soon, if the Mystery Stole doesn't take over all of my knitting time!

Sucked in

2007-07-09T11:35:00.000-04:00

I had a lovely time at Knit Night on Friday, despite spending the last half hour ripping out everything that I had knit on my Brigit sock during the first two hours. Apparently complex cables don't mix well with conversation - who knew? I ended up with a cable twisted the wrong way, purls where there should be knits, and too many stitches on the needles. Argh.

Then I got to see a few versions of the Mystery Stole 3 in progress. I had seen Leanne's stole on her blog last week, and though intrigued, I thought that I had too many projects on the go already. Then the Yarn Harlot talked about the lure of the shawl, and I sort of considered it. But then I saw a couple of the shawls in person, got to pet them, and started considering the possibilities for laceweight and beads in my stash. Leanne talked me into it... "Just join the group, and then you'll have the pattern. You don't have to keep up with the group. You can do it later when you have time." That sounded logical.

Alas, I am weak:

This took a large chunk of my weekend, in between starting to pack boxes, and running a few errands. I didn't even go into the office on Saturday - I don't remember the last time that happened. I have completely sold my soul to the Mystery Stole project. So this is knit up to the end of Clue #2, and apparently I have to wait four whole days until the next clue is released. That's probably a good thing!

I'm knitting with black 3-ply laceweight merino on 3 mm needles. The yarn is from China, so I can't really read much of the label. I bought a big lot of it on eBay a while back, and it's very nice to work with aside from a few knots that I've encountered. I'm using dark blue seed beads, sort of a frosted metallic colour. They're hard to see in the photo, but they show up better in person. I still have no idea what the theme of the shawl is based on this little bit.

Registration for the Mystery Stole is now closed - sorry to tease you! But I think the pattern will be available for sale later on, after the knit-along is finished.

Designing again

2007-07-06T13:37:00.000-04:00

Proving yet again my inability to focus on any particular project longer than three days, I just had to dive into the new pile of yarn that I bought last week and start swatching and dreaming. Nevermind that my Soleil tank still needs fixing, or that I have a cardigan and two pairs of socks on the go - I can't seem to get beyond the new yarn smell that draws me to make a decision on a project.

Browsing through past issues of Interweave Knits, looking for possible summer tops in finer gauge, I came upon this ad for Nashua Handknits:

I don't know why I never noticed it before, but I really like this. I have a couple of store-bought tops in this style, in stretchy lycra fabrics, and I like the way they look over a tank top. I love the idea of a lacy summer top, and I think the shape will look pretty good on me. Rather than go looking for this particular pattern, I decided to try to design something similar myself. I'm still new to this whole designing thing, so I could use the practice.

Since I don't have much in the way of a stitch dictionary (I really should invest in some), I started browsing lacy patterns to find something that I could adapt. After swatching a few different variations, I settled on a lace stitch that I borrowed from the Convertible pattern at Knitty. So far so good:

I'm going to knit the bottom without any shaping, as it will be kind of loose and drapey, and then decrease for a garter stitch band under the bust before working the top. I'm kind of dreading the shaping for the top - it's probably going to take a few tries to get it right.

So far, I'm loving the yarn. It's Polo by Zitron, which I believe was recently discontinued, but is still widely available on eBay. It is so soft that it feels like chenille. It's a cotton-acylic blend, and is machine washable. The swatch that I washed came out looking exactly the same with no shrinkage, and the lace blocked nicely. I have five balls of this colour, but if that's not enough, I have the option of doing the top part in blue. I'm pretty excited about this project. I hope I can get it to come out the way I want!

Tonight is my last trip to our monthly neighbourhood knit night. I wish that I had discovered the group a long time ago, as I've only been to a few events and now I'll be moving. I must try to find something similar in St. John's. I can't find anything official online, but I hear rumours that there's a weekly knit night at The Ship Pub... I'll have to look into that. We bought a pile of boxes last week, and plan to start the packing next week. I'm getting stressed out just thinking about it, and in the meantime, I still have a thesis to finish. So on that note, back to work!

Swatchy swatchy

2007-07-04T11:22:00.001-04:00

Something new is in the works....

Another sock-filled post

2007-07-02T13:05:00.000-04:00

There has been a bit of a sock-knitting binge lately here at Hedgehog Knits. I tend to go through moods with socks. Sometimes I find them incredibly tedious and boring, and I let second-sock syndrome take over. I can let them languish unfinished for months on end. And then at other times, I have three or four pairs on the go at once and want to knit nothing but socks. I think it has a lot to do with having a fun pattern and a nice yarn. When I get that perfect combination, I just don't want to put them down.

This pair, just completed, is a rather simple, quick gift for a friend:

Basic 3X1 rib socks with stockinette foot. 68 stitches on 2.25 mm bamboo dpns, in Garnstudio's Fabel Superwash.

This is the first time I have knit with Garn's yarn and it's a really nice sock yarn - very soft and fairly squishy, and for a reasonable price. I really wish that it came in more solid colours, because like many people, I really have gotten over the jacquard patterns by now. The company's website only shows three solids, in beige, brown, and grey, amongst a wide range of jacquards. I will definitely check out their other yarns in future. This particular pair of socks is going to be delivered to my friend D who is spending the summer doing field work in the mountains of British Columbia. When I was doing bush work, I always loved to get letters from home delivered by the helicopter pilot, and a care package of little luxuries was the most exciting thing ever. I'm sending the two things you can never have enough of in any field camp - wool socks and chocolate!

And then there's this odd pair. I suppose I should get to work and make another pair just like it.

Bayerishe (left) and Brigit (pdf; right).

Peg mentioned in the comments that I seem to be buying a lot of solid yarns lately and wondered if I was tiring of handpainted yarns. I can't say that I'm tired of them really, since I haven't actually knit with a lot of handpainted. Partly that's because my LYS's don't really carry much in the way of handpainted options, except for the locally made Apple Laine, which as I've discussed before, I'm not particularly happy with. I know that there are plenty of mail-order options out there, but the other factor is price. Most of the beautiful handpainted sock yarns that I really covet, I find on US e-tailers' sites, where of course I would have to deal with exchange rate, international shipping rates, and the possibility of paying duty at the border. And then there's the fact that I like to knit socks with complex cabled and textured patterns, and though I see a lot of people knitting such patterns with bright variegated yarns, I really think they show up better in solid or semi-solid colours. Ditto for lace shawls. I think that I'll probably try dyeing my own sock yarn sometime soon. I like the idea of graduated shades of a single colour.

Recent Aquisitions

2007-06-30T10:30:00.000-04:00

I haven't been knitting too much lately, but I've been spending a lot of time at the office. There's no better therapy for a stressed-out graduate student than a little (or a lot of) yarn shopping. I've kind of gone crazy with it lately, but as I mentioned before, there was a big going-out-of-business sale to contend with (all 50% off), and I'm starting to feel the need to stash yarn because I know I won't be able to get it easily after I move next month. St. John's only has one LYS, and while it's fairly well stocked with a variety of fun yarn, they can't possibly carry everything! Luckily I'll still be traveling to Toronto a few times a year, so I can still frequent places like Romni on occasion.

Okay, enough blathering. On to the yarn!

8 balls of Zitron Polo, which is a 60% cotton, 40% acrylic blend, with really soft feel, almost like those fake suede fabrics. For some sort of sumer top.

8 balls of Stahl Natura, 70% cotton 30% linen, also probably for a summery top. I wish I could have found 8 balls of one colour, but selection was getting pretty slim at The Knitting Centre by the time I got there.

10 balls of Merino Blend DK Superwash, 100% wool, by King Cole. I'm probably going to put this away for a sweater in the fall.

Sock yarn: Supersoxx cotton/wool blend (I loved the wool, so thought I'd try this for something new) and good old Regia 4-ply, one of my favourite basic sock yarns.

And from the recent Knit Picks group order, a pile of Essential sock yarn (I'm thinking green knee socks), and a pile of Swish Superwash for kids' sweaters, something along the lines of the Accordion jacket from Knitty (this is just a selection from a big bag of it!).

Crazy, huh? Even though I was trying to reduce my stash, think I just doubled it in the span of a week! I don't feel bad about it though, because the difference is that I've bought it in sufficient quantities to actually do something with it, instead of two or three balls of something pretty here and there with no purpose in mind. I consider it an investment in my future knitting through the summer and fall. It's also the first Knit Picks yarn for me, so there's a certain amount of research here, to see how I like it. Mail order is probably going to become important to me in future.

Tomorrow is Canada Day, and I still haven't decided if I'm going to brave the crowds on Parliament Hill tomorrow for one last big celebration in the capital. I may sit at home on the couch and knit and watch it all on tv. We get a good view of the fireworks from our balcony. Enjoy the weekend, whatever you're doing!

Warming up Afghans

2007-06-27T16:24:00.000-04:00

Just a brief post today to share some information for local Ottawa and Toronto knitters.

I'm sure many of you have heard of afghans for Afghans and the great work that they do supplying warm blankets and clothing to people in remote, impoverished parts of Afghanistan. Like many of the wonderfully worthwhile international relief charities that seeks donations of wooly knitted items, the cost of postage is often a barrier to participation for me and many others. So I usually knit a few items for local charities.

That's where the folks over at the finding forty gathering knitting blog come in. They have started a project here in Ottawa as well as in Toronto to collect items for afghans for Afghans, and they'll look after the shipping. What a great initiative! Here are the details from their flyer:

YOU KNIT, WE SHIP

Calling all Ottawa and Toronto knitters! How about dedicating some of your stash to an outstanding summer project? Yarn Forward (Ottawa and area knitters) and the Knit Cafe and Knitomatic (Toronto area) are teaming up for this worthy cause.

afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks to the children of Afghanistan.

Helpful hints
· Wool and animal fibres offer the most warmth and perform best in rugged conditions. Please avoid synthetic yarns – they cannot be shipped.
· Knit or crochet your favorite patterns or try something new. For sample patterns see the AFA website, below.
· Please do not use representational images (e.g. faces or animal designs) or religious or national symbols.
· Avoid white or very light colors. Feel free to mix a bright and cheery palate from your yarn collection!
· Please assume standard garment sizes. You are knitting for a Canadian climate. Hats need to cover ears, sleeves need to go the wrist and torsos need to be long.
· No used items or scarves please.

Drop off and Deadlines
You can drop off your projects at the following locations:

Yarn Forward 581 Bank Street, Ottawa
Yarn Forward 474 Hazeldean, Kanata
Knit Cafe 1050 Queen Street West, Toronto
Knitomatic 1378 Bathurst, Toronto

The dead-line for the next shipment is September 30th, 2007.

A visit to the website reveals that they are especially looking for wool baby blankets, baby hats, and baby socks (not booties) for a hospital in Kabul this year. I'll be dropping off a few items at Yarn Forward sometime in July before we move. There are lots of links to free patterns on the website too.

For those located in other parts of Canada who wish to participate, you can actually mail finished items to Elann.com, as they are acting as a collection point, to save on postage to the U.S. (and presumably to avoid problems with customs).

Time to get knitting... as if I needed an excuse!

No Smurfs were harmed in the making of these socks

2007-06-23T10:49:00.001-04:00

I had to do a little travelling this week. Nothing major, just a couple of short trips. I needed something small and portable to keep me busy, but the idea of trying to concentrate on the Bayerische socks on a train was not really appealing to me. (A good call, as it turns out, because I ended up sitting across from a bunch of loud and obnoxious people, and at times couldn't even hear the details of a podcast on my earphones over the racket!) So what did I do to try to take a break from tiny cables? Start another sock with tiny cables!

To be honest, I took along a ball of yarn, a few different patterns, and my recently obtained copy of Sensational Knitted Socks (finally, it is mine!), and took my time deciding. I ended up starting in on Brigit (link to pdf), a pattern from the Socktopia site (go take a look, there are several free patterns there. Click the "SE Patterns" link on the right.)

While the tiny cables may be similar to Bayerishe, there's a lot less cabling overall, and only one cable motif which I memorized pretty easily. My one critique of the pattern is that I would have preferred a chart to the written cable instructions. The instructions are very clear though, and the pattern, written for two circular needles, is easily adapted to dpns.

The yarn, Lana Grossa's Meilenweit sock yarn (80% new wool, 20% Polyamide) is a new one for me. I'd say it's pretty average sock yarn. It doesn't split badly, and is priced pretty reasonably, but it's a bit fuzzy, sort of like Lang Jawoll. This particular shade (1329) is very bright blue (I've been referring the sock as "Smurfy cables", as opposed to "Insanity cables", my pet name for the B socks). The excess dye appears to be turning my hands blue!

I'm going to have to be very careful about washing these socks! Do you suppose my feet will be blue too?

In other news, I have been aquiring new yarn at an alarming rate this week. My knitting group made a big combined order to Knit Picks, and I finally made it to The Knitting Centre downtown, which is going out of business after many years, and is currently selling everything at 50% off. For those of you in Ottawa, they plan to close at the end of July, but there's still some good stuff there including Regia sock yarns at less than $3 a ball. Unfortunately the circular needles are all gone now. And don't forget, it's an old fashioned cash-only operation. I'm considering one last trip there today... I'm awfully glad that I didn't officially join the Knit From Stash Challenge. I can take advantage of a great bargain without any guilt!

Why does my knitting hate me?

2007-06-18T16:58:00.000-04:00

Well, my Soleil tank top is finished.... sort of.

I tried this on a few times while knitting and tinkered with the pattern a little. I added an inch in length because it was looking a little short when I got ready to start the armholes. This alone is a little strange. I'm barely 5'2", so I'm usually shortening patterns, not lengthening them! I also started the division for the v-neck a little higher up than the pattern calls for. I didn't see the need for a neckine that plunges six rows lower than the armhole bind-off - it's perfectly low enough now, beginning at the same row as the armholes. I thought it was going well, but sometimes you really have to sew up the seams and block something to see how far off it really is.

Don't let the camera angle deceive you. The upper fronts are way too wide for me. In fact, the extra fabric has sort of rolled under in the armholes. See?

I've got wings!

Now I'm not one to rip out my knitting because of the tiniest little mistake, but there's no denying that this is really taking away from the look of the top, making it look and feel rather frumpy. I'm also not one to want to show off my underwear to the world. I chose this particular pattern because it seemed to offer a little more in the way of coverage than a lot of knitted tank patterns that you come across. (News flash - cotton stretches and sags, people!) But this is a little more fabric than even I wanted.

I'm going to bite the bullet this time. I plan to rip it back to the armholes and re-work it for a thinner front "strap". Oh well, at least the back fits well.

P.S. Do you like my snazzy office decor? Nothing says "bomb shelter" like unfinished cinder blocks!

Finally, back on track

2007-06-17T11:54:00.000-04:00

This is more like it. I've gotten around to finishing a few things, instead of just starting more and more projects. Today's accomplishment? I finished knitting my leaf lace scarf.

I've never blocked mohair before, so I'm anxious to see how this pile of fluff is going to react to water. Wish me luck! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some FO photos for you.

Sock acrobatics

2007-06-16T12:03:00.000-04:00

I have finished the knitting and crochet edging on the Soleil tank top, but I want to wash and block it before I show it off. The Sonata cotton is nice, but it has a distinct chemical smell. I'm hoping a run through the wash will soften it up and rinse the scent out. So stay tuned for FO photos soon.

In the meantime, I gritted my teeth and tinked back a few rows to ressurect my Bayerische sock. Boy, I'm glad my eyesight is really good, because untwisting these tiny cables was quite a challenge. I may have uttered a few un-ladylike phrases in the process and threatened it with a pair of scissors. The sock and I both seem to have recovered from the whole experience now and are getting along alright once again.

I tried to take some photos this morning, and though I already knew how hard it is to get a good angle when photographing your own feet, the acrobatics of trying not to stab yourself while you wrestle five needles onto your foot was a whole new experience. So this is why lots of people prefer socks on circulars! Here are the best out of a bunch of blurry photos:

Side view.

Top view, with a flash (colour is close to true).

With only half as much cabling as the leg, the foot should zip along quickly. I am really enjoying the challenge of this pattern. If you are considering it, I would suggest a smooth, tightly spun yarn like Lorna's Laces. The Regia I'm using is nice but it's a little fuzzy, so it obscures the look of the cables a bit, and it does have a tendancy to split sometimes when executing the twists and cables. I also wish my needles were a little pointier.

Off to the office for my Saturday afternoon routine of thesis revisions and watching the campus groundhogs frolicking outside my window.

Progress shots

2007-06-14T14:04:00.000-04:00

Not much time to chat today, but here are a couple of shots of what I've been working on.

Soleil is almost finished. Once I get the knitting done, I'll just have to seam the shoulders, crochet an edging, and block it. I have a new summer skirt that's going to look great with this!

And I'm also making progress on that baby blanket. Unfortunately, I just looked at the photo and realized that I got the Q and the O in the wrong order! Argh. I think I'm going to let it go though. The acrylic stash is significantly reduced, but I did have to go out and buy a little more to do the border. If I survive the monotony of the long moss-stitch borders and don't get distracted into starting another new project, this should be done soon too.

Thinking dry thoughts

2007-06-12T13:37:00.000-04:00

Minor crisis averted: I finished the second sock last night and wet blocked it. It's almost dry now, and soaking up a few rays on the balcony to eliminate that last little bit of dampness. Then we're off to the post office.

A couple of extra skeins (Lassa Grossa sock yarn and some Koigu) followed me home from the yarn shop too. I had racked up enough frequent customer points to quailfy for a 15% discount, and since I'll be moving soon and won't have access to the store, I figured the responsible thing to do would be to make a big purchase to get the most out of my discount. I know you'd do the same thing ;)

I've been doing a little housekeeping on the blog over the last few days. The upcoming knits section has been divided into true upcoming knits, which I am actually planning to knit, and "up for consideration", meaning I haven't bougt the yarn or pattern yet, but I would really like to knit this sometime in the future. It's more or less a tool for me to flag these patterns and to keep a few projects in mind for when I see a good yarn sale and need to figure out how much to buy. Inspired by Martha's recent lingerie knitting, but warned of the difficulty of sizing bra tops, I've really fallen in love with the Rita Mae pattern. (The link goes to a pattern library, so it might take a bit of hunting around there if you want to look the pattern up. I couldn't get a more direct link.) It's shorts and a little cami that laces up the front (I'll bet I could add buttons), with pretty leaf lace patterns. Definitely something to keep in mind.

I want to eventually get a Flickr account and set up a Finished Objects gallery, get a little more organized, and get onto Bloglines. But I think I'll put all of these projects off for a while until my life settles down a little. Right now I don't want to take up any of my already scarce knitting time to start fussing with changes!

I hope the sun is shining wherever you are today too.

Oh for crying out loud!

2007-06-11T11:39:00.001-04:00

I was so close. SO close. I need to get these socks in the mail asap for Father's Day, and I got halfway through the toe decreases before running out of yarn. Ack!

So I'm off on my bike for a stop at the LYS on the way to the office. I'll have to finish and block these tonight, and hope for good drying conditions. Wish me luck!

Multi-tasking

2007-06-09T10:15:00.000-04:00

After finishing a bunch of long-languishing projects this spring and beating myself down to only two works-in-progress, it appears that I must have let my guard down. A bunch of new projects seem to have lept into my knitting basket when I wasn't looking. 8 projects of the WIP list?! How did that happen? And I think there may be one or two small unreported ones besides! Obviously this is getting out of control. The latest offender:
I'm still on a quest to clear out odds and end from the stash. I had a huge bag of mismatched acrylic bits, which seem to have morphed into a pretty psychadelic baby blanket. I pulled these out one night, and thought of knitting more mitres, but instead I found an old pattern for a girl's alphabet sweater, with intarsia blocks. Pulling colours at random, I knit this in verticals strips that have been mattress-stitched together. I think it still needs about two more columns, taking me up to R, but unfortunately the pattern that I've been using only goes to L. So I need to sit down and try to graph a few more letters in the same style in order to continue. I also ran out of interesting images from the sweater pattern early on, so I've been pulling them from different sources. Nursery Knits by Debbie Bliss is great for that, and my favourite, the lady bug, is from Animal Knits by Zoe Mellor. I think I will knit a mitred border in moss stitch, similar to the last baby blanket I showed you (the animal one). The finished blanket is destined for the Warm Woolies donation box, and will just about fill it up. The latest addition to the box:

Again, this was a response to my recent obsession with getting rid of yarn ends. Cute, no?

My recently aquired ADD has also manifested itself in starting a new cardigan design. It's a pretty plain little black cardigan with lace edging in Patons Fresco, which I have ooodles of in the stash. I'll try to get some photos next time I pull it out. Having a cat in the house these days means I can't leave too much yarn lying around in open view, so most my WIPs have been carefully stored for the time being. She did manage to shred a little ball of acrylic that I left lying around one night, so I'm not taking any chances!

And of course, the knitting continues in fits and starts on mansock #2 and on the Soleil tank top.

Somebody stop me before I start something else!