Issues with Knitting

Reporting on the backlog

2012-02-05T11:54:00.001-05:00

Hello bloggies! It's been too long. Work has been keeping me at the computer and so in my down time, I stay away from it. But this weekend was me-time. I've been to a knit group, a spin group and just now finished updating my Ravelry projects. Whew! Was I ever behind.

Some things will never be documented I'm afraid. A couple pairs of socks and two scarves have been released into the wild and are not likely to be photographed. But I've rounded up some of the more interesting knits for you to see.

Luke requested another pair of fingerless gloves to replace his worn out pair. He wears these constantly as you can see from the rumpled fingers and pilling on the hands:

We both love the colored cuff, a design from More Sensational Socks, and the bright yarn is Cascade Heritage. But next time, I'll find a really durable yarn for the hands. This cheap black sock yarn shouldn't have pilled up so soon.

I'm also on the hunt for a hat for Alex. He never wears the hand knits but this winter he has permitted me the honour of knitting him a "cool" hat. My first attempt was Kittiwake, also in cheap sock yarn:

Yes, that's Jim doing the modeling. Apparently it wasn't cool enough. Windschief will be my next attempt and I'm currently spinning a silk/wool blend for it. I may be investing too much effort in this project. Can you imagine if he rejects a handspun, handknit hat? Or worse yet, LOOSES it?! Still, I'll carry on. This is the first time in a long time the boy has let me show my love with handknits.

Most recently off the wheel was this 3-ply sock yarn:

I love it lots. Oh, it has it's faults, but I'm really curious to see how the colors knit up. But I hid it away from myself for a while so I could get my Christmas sweater finished off.

Yep, I'm that happy with it and I wear it all the time. It's just a comfy pullover in lovely colors. What more do you want?

Apparently what I want is a challenge. Small gauge, more color, and the niggling doubt in the back of my head that I'm really knitting a clown suit.

My Mind is Blown

2012-01-21T19:44:00.000-05:00

Do you know who is teaching in London Ontario this weekend? My local yarn store, Cotton-By-Post, is hosting the Yarn Harlot for the whole weekend.

Friday she gave a speech and did a book signing. The speech was on how knitting alters the brain and not only was it funny (in true YH style) it was educational. Several things I knew instinctively, Stephanie backed up with scientific research, giving me more ammo to use against muggles who may try to deride our noble craft.

Here she is preaching the gospel of the knit.

Saturday was a six hour class on Knitting for Speed and Efficiency. I'm already a pretty fast knitter, but I figured Stephanie is such an interesting person, who has rubbed shoulders with many other interesting people, that I was sure to learn a thing or two. Ah, hell ya! I learned:

lever knitting
norwegian purl
a super fast and neat kind of ssk that Stephanie invented (well possibly, most likely)
a toolbox of techniques to make my knitting more efficient
sources for some really good needles
and that I'm a fast knitter for my area, but slow in terms of the world.

I started the class with a knitting speed of 33.3 sts per minute. I finished with a speed of 38.6. But that's a snail's pace compared to the world's fastest knitter who goes along at a clip of 118 sts per min. Stephanie says that a product knitter's average speed is 100 sts per min.

And I'd like to get my speed up, mostly for socks. I have more loved ones whose feet I'd like to cover in wooly goodness than I have time or patience to knit for. A sock knitting machine is one idea, but too pricey. Learning to knit faster sounds like the answer.

Well, actually, the answer is a whole new way of knitting. Lever knitting, which is killing my brain to learn. None the less, I do hereby solemnly swear to pursue my homework, which is to make a K1 P1 scarf using the new technique for some amount of time every day, for 21 days. I have Noro Silk Garden, 15 inch needles, and I will prevail!

Irish folklore holds that if a master knitter puts needles into the hands of a newborn, the child will have a talent for knitting. Do you think the skill can be passed on in utero?

Tomorrow's class is called Liking Lace. A whole 'nother day to blow my mind.

Doing Double Time on Sleeve Island

2012-01-15T09:41:00.000-05:00

My Silk Garden pullover has grown into a lovely rectangle of both front and back:

I'm now on the sleeves. I've already had to knit the first one twice, what fun. The pattern is an old Paton's design featuring the snug ribbing at the bottom and cuffs, once so popular. To tweak this design feature, I just cast on the correct number of stitches to start for the body. For the cuffs, I wanted a bit of pull in. My first attempt was too snug through the forearm, so I ripped and re-knit. It hurt, but I'm much happier with the result and I think it was worth the effort. I want to love and wear this sweater for a long time to come.

And speaking of loving for a long time to come....

My mother-in-law, who is 87, feels herself to be fading. Moving to a new apartment from her beloved house has taken a lot out of her and she's been feeling blue. Knitting teddy bears has helped. So have her family who are all rallying around her. Her grandson Evan calls from out west on Monday nights. Granddaughter Stephanie brings great-granddaughter Samantha to visit on Thursday nights. Jim and I come over on Saturday nights for a visit.

On these visits we share news, she shows us her momentos, the latest teddy bear and she makes these little requests of us. A special purchase to make, or a thing to look up. Well, a couple of weeks ago came a big request: "Laurie, would you knit me a sweater?"

Oh! this was not the easy yes I wished it could be. For one, she wants acrylic. For another, I've already got a queue of knitting lined up that it would hurt to give up.

I asked if she could wait till next year and she replied that she didn't know if she'd be around next year.

Now gentle reader, please remember that I love my mother-in-law very much, but I couldn't help but laugh at this one! All that work to knit her a sweater and she won't be around to wear it!

So, upon the wise advice of Paula, I offered to knit a sweater together with her. If she could work the plain knitting sections, no shaping, I'd work all the shaping and finishing parts. She tried to wiggle out of it. "Oh, my eye sight isn't so good." "But I knit so slow." But I persisted and last night brought her the yarn.

She was very pleased. She liked the feel of it, she liked the color. We measured up a favourite sweater, she picked a design (v-neck cardigan with a zip) and I wrote out some simple instructions. Just gauge and how many stitches to cast on for the back. And wouldn't you know it, just like any knitter with an exciting new project before her, she cast on that night. Yes!

Here's my hope for this sweater:

that it gives her something interesting to take her mind off her troubles
that she enjoys a feeling of pride in making a garment for herself
that she feels a sense of connection and being loved because we are working it together
that she'll be around to wear it for a long time to come

But you know, after I finish the sleeves of my pullover I've got to work the sleeves of her sweater. In acrylic. Yeah, that's why I say I'll be doing double time on sleeve island.

Just one more celebration...

2012-01-08T08:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Roc Day, the last of the Christmas season festivities, so my spinning buddy Alica and I headed out to the Little Red Mitten to celebrate with the other spinsters.

Here's a mother-daughter team in the foreground with a brand-spankin new spinner in the background:

And the drop-spindlers:

Joan was there, owner of the Little Red Mitten, with our local master spinner in training, Janice. Janice is in the fourth year of the Master Spinners program. Joan on the left in the picture below, and Janice, spindling, on the right.

And here's Alica and I. We're both wearing bracelets of our spinning samples as we were taught to do by Wendy of Gemini Fibers. How do you like our twin Lendrums? We can tell them apart because mine has the beauty mark (that's what I call it, Jim calls it a smear).

Joan has a beautiful store, chock full of beautiful and tempting yarns. I managed to only walk a way with some Tuffy sock yarn, which I consider a bread and milk sort of staple in my stash, and some local fiber. But that's a story for another day...

Take a break

2012-01-05T14:01:00.002-05:00

Okay, so it's not knitting, but we're all grown ups here. We can apprecate good fiber art when we see it:

Crochetdermy.

Pattern Quest

2011-12-26T16:14:00.000-05:00

Guess what I got for Christmas? Yarn!!

Okay, true confession time. I've always wanted a Silk Garden sweater, so I told Jim that was what I wanted for Christmas this year. I've been going to knit and chat on Friday nights at Cotton By Post (first time I've ever felt like I truly had a LYS) and Suzanne carries Noro, so that's where I bought it from. She even wrapped up my purchase so I could open it Christmas morning. (Thanks Suzanne for the extra love.)

Once I had a quiet moment on Christmas day, I swatched it up using a 4.5mm needle and also with a 4mm needle. I washed it, left it to dry and later measured the gauge to be 4.5 stitches to the inch on 4.5mm needles and 5 stitches to the inch on 4mm needles. I liked the firmer gauge on the smaller needle. Silk Garden has oodles of drape, and the looser gauge feels floppy to me. My stitches also seemed neater on the smaller needle.

I chose color 84 - reds, which is understandably very popular.

I had planned to make the Banstead Pullover, but it calls for 4 stitches to the inch, so that pattern was right out for this yarn. I really love the Knitting Plus book, so I pored over it, hoping to match my yarn to a pattern. I considered the Passayunk Pullover, it looked like the gauge would match, but then these words in the pattern description brought me up short:

"The Yoke is fairly shallow... If you know this shallow yoke will not work for you because you are tall or have broad shoulders..."

Oh me! I am tall, I do have broad shoulders. Then I remembered that Lisa Shroyer covers this topic at the beginning of her book:

"...I found that drop-shoulder sweaters fit some women - those with broad, high shoulders - beautifully. The sweaters weren't oversized or disproportionate. In fact, they fit these women much better than the set-in sweaters (my assumed best-fit style for all plus-sized women). Women, and especially tall women, with broad shoulders and a large frame benefit greatly from the wider shoulder and wider cross-back of the drop-shoulder construction."

For me, this is a lightening bolt of truth. The sweater I wear the most is a drop-shoulder design, but I use it for walking the dog because it always seemed wrong. Yes, the sweater was comfortable and fit well, but everything we read these days talks about "fit to flatter", with words like "body skimming" and all sorts of shaping techniques like darts and short rows. Making an old eighties-style boxy design seems so out-dated.

I've worked the yoke sweaters. One creeps up my neck and chokes me, the other is the opposite extreme with a neck far to wide to be warm and an awkward fit. I know raglans are absolutely no good, I look like a ball player.

But now I understand, I have a large boned, tall frame and I'm not the only one. So I'm going to embrace my shape and knit what works for me. This yarn is beautiful and I deserve to have it knit into a sweater that I will want to wear all the time.

I'm using Paton's Back to Basics pattern book for Canadiana, which fit my preferred gauge. I'm leaning towards doing a v-neck, but I haven't ruled out a round neck either. I'm also working this flat because Lisa suggested it for another singles yarn in her book, in order to counteract the tendency of a single to bias. She's smart, that Lisa Shroyer, isn't she?

Oh! And you know what that cutie-patootie husband of mine did? He utterly spoilt me, that's what. Look at this lovely new project bag he gave me for Christmas, also from Cotton-By-Post, art by Laurel Burch:

It was a very good Christmas.

Merry Christmas - the chaos and the aftermath

2011-12-25T12:38:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve we hosted Jim's family for the annual clan gathering. Our house was warmed with 24 souls. A fraction of our group:

What a pleasure it was to see them all, to catch up and offer them a wonderful Christmas dinner. And also, what a pleasure when they all went home and we could enjoy the peace of our small family.

I hope all my friends near and far are also enjoying friends, family and some quiet Christmas moments.

A Christmas Sacrifice

2011-12-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

If you were asked to make a gawd-awful ugly Christmas sweater for a teenager, what would you do?

London knitter Lisa decided to go all out. Her cousin asked for a sweater to help him win a contest at his school. Here's what she came up with:

As you can tell, she's not done yet, but already we have intarsia, embroidered snowflakes, snowman buttons on the tree and a fuzzy beard on Santa. Here's the back:

Yep, that's Santa's butt coming out the back. I think the kid's a shoo-in for the contest.

Demon Santa and his Stoner Monkey Pal

2011-12-10T22:20:00.001-05:00

Found these two criminals hanging out in the hall at the Vintage Green. I don't think my mother-in-law knows that they let such riff-raff in the building. Then again, they let us in there.

We couldn't resist this pair. But if you get too close...

Jim didn't know that Demon Santa was a zombie...

Road Trip

2011-12-03T20:41:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday a local spinning pal and I went on a road trip to Mount Albert to take the intermediate spinning class at Gemini Fibers with Wendy Walen . If you are ever up that way and get a chance to stop in to the store, it's well worth it. The place is jammed to the rafters and I've never seen so many knitting books in one place.

It was a three-hour trip, both ways, and so I just didn't have the time for the blog. You understand. However, here are my notes for your edification and enjoyment.

Slow down. Your singles will be more even. Take time to enjoy the process.
For a ply-back test, let the single wind all the way onto the bobbin (move your hand pinching the single up to the orifice), then pull out the single and do the ply back. This is because you want even twist in the whole single and twist is still being added to the yarn as it winds on to the bobbin.
Make a sample bracelet. Using freshly spun singles that are of the type of yarn you want to make, do a ply back and tie the resulting yarn around your wrist. When you do a ply-back for sampling, you can compare your bracelet to the sample, by touch as well as sight.
Commercial rovings are compacted by shipping, and storage, so it's worth while to do some pre-drafting to get air back into the fibers.
Always test your staple length before you start. It will tell you how far apart to hold your hands, and a lot about the qualities of the fiber (crimp, fiber directions, how "grabby" is it?)
Crimpy wool needs more twist. This I didn't see demonstrated, so I'll have to do a bit of a test for myself with some sampling.
To join smoothly, consider the length of the fiber and the type of spinning you are doing. For the Blue Faced Leicester that we were spinning, Wendy recommended you feather out both ends finely, overlap them and then begin to spin. The join happens as the twist enters the fiber.
Sample lots, sample often. Sampling is not waste. Sample different grist, sample different ratios, sample in the skein and knitted up. While you are learning, buy extra fiber for each project so you can work up many samples to see what works best for the fiber you have.
You can always go back to the single or the plied-yarn and add or remove twist. (Can't believe I forgot this one.)
Worsted yarns need lest ply twist, more single twist. Woolen yarns have more ply twist to compensate for their low single twist.
To fine tune my chain ply:

I need to make smaller loops. I didn't have control over the very large loops I was making.
No tension necessary on the lazy kate. Keep tension in the singles between my two hands.
Must have good integrity in the singles for a successful chain ply.

How to make a spinner crazy

2011-11-21T20:41:00.001-05:00

Here's how I spin yarn:

Spin the singles. Critically evaluate every inch for consistency, but fail to take a sample to check against. Tell yourself you're doing it by instinct.
Pause in single spinning because you're sure it's going badly.
Ply the singles. Briefly admire the resulting yarn.
Ply the second half of the singles. Get bummed out because the second half looks different than the first half.
Pause in plying because your sure it's not going to be any good.
Grumpily finish the plying.
Compare the two skeins. Marvel how remarkably similar they are.
Put the wheel away before you drive your self crazy.

This project started as 19oz of Shetland roving, color blueberry.

I divided it up into 6 portions of approximately 85 grams each, which worked with my plan to spin all the singles first as I own 6 bobbins. That was a long haul.

I intended to spin a DK weight, but I think the result is more of a heavy fingering. I may need to find a new pattern to work this yarn up. Still, it is moderately pretty...

And even better, the two skeins are remarkably consistent, considering my earlier trepidation. I think the lighter weight may be a bonus, becuase I'm sure to have a good yardage out of the fiber I started with.

However, don't expect me to start a project out of this real soon. I think I need a break from blueberry for a while. Still, anyone know of a good pattern for a plus size vest or shrug in fingering weight?

Afternoon mystery, solved?

2011-11-08T19:28:00.000-05:00

In the waiting room at the doctor's office this afternoon, I was knitting a sock which was noticed by my cohabitants. A woman older than me was there with her mother, who commented that her mother knit all the family's socks. This was after the war she said, and everyone in the community knit socks. In fact, the neighbours used to bring their socks to her mother for her to turn the heel. She turned the heels for everyone in the area.

I was puzzled by this. Why not just teach the other knitters how to turn a heel? It's tricky the first time, but after that, it's almost the best part of working a sock. Aha! That must be it. I'll bet she was keeping the best part of the knitting for her self.

Weekend Away with Eadon

2011-11-06T17:10:00.000-05:00

Jim and I went away this weekend to celebrate our mutual November birthdays. It was sunny and peaceful up until we got home to find that the boys hadn't done their chores.

The weather was just perfect for hand knits. Jim wore his Kiloran and I wore Eadon.

Christmas was creeping up on us all weekend. Even Jim and I were broadcasting the holiday vibe with him in a bright red sweater and me in my green. Plus, I got some Christmas shopping done for those undeserving offspring of ours.

I loved wearing my new sweater this weekend. Eadon is cozy like a bathrobe, but once I found the perfect pin for it, I can wear it closed at the top and wear it like a jacket. This pin I found at Close Knit in Stratford:

It kinda mimics the cables which is a nice touch, and it cost about as much as the zipper I was thinking about adding to this sweater, except I can wear it on other things too. Can't do that with a zipper.

I did make some modifications to this pattern. For starters, I shortened the length by one pattern repeat. Being wide of girth, I felt the sweater would be too heavy at full length. When it came time to do the collar, the pattern has you bind off and sew the ends together. I chose to graft it instead, which worked just fine:

And I don't have an annoying seam on my neck. The shoulders came together beautifully too, and support the weight of the sweater comfortably:

I expect to be wearing this sweater proudly for a long time to come.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

Tonight the sheep specters will descent upon the hills of heathered hanks to give fine fibers to all the knitters who believe in gauge swatches and blocking before sewing up.

I've got my sweater all ready. Have you?

Gettin' ready for the paaartay!

2011-10-29T14:23:00.001-04:00

Oh yeah! It's time for another teenaged house party. This time for Halloween. Preparations consist of cleaning house and stocking up on pop and chips. Not much else is needed as these kids bring their own sense of fun and plenty of noise. (Oh the noise, Noise, NOISE!)

But there are also other preparations going on for a much quieter party. A blocking party:

Oh yes! I have entirely finished knitting my Eadon cardigan. And this blocking party is to be shortly followed by a sewing party.What fun! I love me a nice straight mattress stitch seam.

What's for dinner?

2011-10-21T06:01:00.000-04:00

It's Arnold Shwartzenchicken.

We're here to plump you up!

Productive Weekend

2011-10-16T16:47:00.001-04:00

We had a major milestone this weekend as Jim ripped up the old flooring in our living room and installed new laminate. Our old floor was an engineered hardwood floor that was scratched by Dexter's toe nails and had suffered water damage in multiple locations. We also had carpet in the main living area that used to be an off white but had graduated to an indescribable level of filth. Not that we didn't try at first, but at some point I think we gave up, knowing that the flooring had to be replaced.

Jim started with the landing, so I snapped a shot showing both the old and new.

And here's the whole room finished.

I think it looks very cozy. While Jim was working hard, I went shopping and bought the area rug and the drapes. I know, I've got it rough... :p

There's still go the kitchen-dining room left to go. Jim worked all day to get the one room done on Saturday (assisted by both of his sons, who made very little complaint and were actually helpful (small miracle)), and figures that the next room will be even harder. I know he'll get it done before Christmas though, and that makes me very happy.

So now I have a new background for knitting pictures. First up the project I bought the yarn for on Wednesday and then finished up on Monday.... it's a Curly Horse Hat. (Details on Ravelry, follow the link.)

And also finished is another pair of handspun, hand knit socks.

These will be for my Mom and Dad, so yeah, I am rockin' the early Christmas knits. Winner!

Rosie

2011-10-09T16:14:00.001-04:00

The weather this Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada is just incredible. The sun is shining as though it were June. The quality of the light is so clear, it has saturated the colors in my photos. Here is Rosie, my latest Fiber Fish mitten to be a store sample for Cotton by Post:

The colors are really not so harsh, but are a pleasant rosie pinky-red. This mitten was a pleasure to knit because of the beautiful yarn. I've also been talked in to giving classes based on the pattern. I'm thankful that won't start until the new year because right now I'm so terribly busy with work.

This week my knitting was a comedy of errors. I needed to be at Waterloo for three days this week instead of my usual two. That meant two knit nights with Paula and so I packed accordingly; that is, my Eadon right front, almost ready for the collar, and two pairs of socks-in-progress, just in case. And predictably I forgot my knitting bag in London.

I needed something to work on, so I planned to make a trip in to Shall We Knit? for yarn and needles. My co-worker Kate told me I had a problem, if I couldn't go 48 hours without some knitting. Gentle readers, I know you understand. I told her I didn't have a problem and she replied that all the addicts say that. Well.

I left work a bit early to get to Shall We Knit? before the store closed and picked out what I needed for a new project. When I got to Cambridge I found that Andy was heading out for knit night at All Strung Out in Guelph and I was welcome to come along! If I hadn't left work early to buy yarn, I would have got his email informing me of this and would have been able to buy yarn at All Strung Out.

I tell you, yarn store owners are a gracious bunch and deserve all the support and care we can give them. Paula didn't mind me knitting Shall We Knit yarn in her store, and Karen at Shall We Knit? said, "Oh we like them at All Strung Out." when I pulled the wrong business card out of my wallet as I made my purchase.

So for this Thanking I'm grateful to live near such fabulous yarn shops, for an abundance of choice and a good job that lets me indulge my addiction. Fishy kisses to all the yarn store owners!

Connecting the Generations

2011-10-02T13:04:00.001-04:00

My mother-in-law Cynthia is now 87 and has reduced her knitting output. She finds it difficult to hold a pattern in her head she told me, but felt that she had one more teddy bear left in her. So I gave her some of my handspun and asked her if she would make that last teddy bear for me and that I would save it aside for any future grandchildren that I might have.

She must have really liked that idea because in short order there was this:

Doesn't she look pleased with herself?! And it turns out that this will not be the last of the bears coming from her needles. She asked me for more yarn because her therapist has requested four more bears for the therapist's grandchildren. Jim said "Smart therapist."

I'm happy to keep my mother-in-law in yarn for as long as she wants. Even if her preferred type is acrylic.

Well, maybe not as bad as all that...

2011-09-18T17:19:00.001-04:00

Two weeks ago I was chain plying some singles made from Fat Cat Knits fiber. A beautiful merino/bamboo/nylon blend dyed in gradient colors that I wanted to preserve. It didn't go well. Some of the singles had so little twist in them that they fell apart. I had to knot things together far too often.

Boy was I mad! Beautiful fiber, well prepared in lovely colors and a significant investment in my time and money all ruined because I rushed things. I didn't let enough twist enter the fiber, and I didn't sample enough while spinning to make sure things were going well. I finished the plying anyway, but was so disappointed in myself that I didn't skein it up.

Then came the K-W fair and I started spinning up my new fiber. I went for the Gotland from Hubbart Farms first. I was attracted to it because the cloaks worn by the good guys in the Lord of the Rings were made from Gotland fiber. My yarn came out quite pretty and I'm thinking I'd like to make some color work fingerless gloves from it.

While I was at it I decided to skein up my despised chain-plyed yarn from before. Time healed my wounds because now I'm in love with it! I don't know that it would make good socks, being underspun, but who cares? Look how pretty it is:

Not nearly as bad as I thought. I couldn't even see the knots in it. The colorway is called Wizard Tower and I was thinking of it for Jim, since he's a D&D fan. Want a closer look?

Not too shabby. Possibly even usable. What's the moral of the story? I guess I'm too hard on myself.

Oh what a day!

2011-09-11T12:42:00.001-04:00

Saturday was the annual knitter's pilgrimage to Kitchener for the K-W Knitter's Guild Fair. There didn't seem to be as many people there this year, but what was missing in quantity was more than made up for in quality. I met so many wonderful people that I know from the internet and this blog, plus yarn store owners and vendors from last year that I wanted to say hi to this year.

My first stop this year was to Ashley and Andy at All Strung Out. I just had to get a picture for my mom of the yarn pots she made for them:

There were a few other vendor's selling yarn bowls this year, perhaps because of the article in Vogue Knitting a little while back.

I also made a stop at Hubbert Farms to visit Jody. We hit it off:

Get a load of these grand champion, hand-spun color work mittens she made:

They take my breath away. I aspire to this skill level.

Just over in the next booth, I spotted a fellow blogger and we had a spontaneous moment of bloggers blogging bloggers:

Can you guess who's behind the camera? It's Brenda Knits. Ain't she cute?

We also hit it off and had a lovely chat. Then we kept bumping into each other in the booths. She'd turn around and there I'd be. I wasn't stalking you Brenda, honest!

I even met Anne Hanson and stopped to say hello. I'll confess to being a little shy with her, but it was also weird because I felt like I know her. I wanted to ask how David was and if her garden was still producing. Surreal.

And now, what you've all been waiting for, the purchase report. It seemed to me that there wasn't an IT vendor this year. And having just purged the stash I was cautious about purchasing more yarn. You don't really go to the fair to buy a sweater's worth of yarn. It's more about what's new, or a treat, or finding a bargain.

I found myself buying fiber instead. From Hubbert Farms, I bought Jody's hand-prepared Gotland fiber:

From Wellington Fibers a lovely wool/mohair/silk blend that I think wants to be socks:

From Roving Winds Farm I bought 1oz of pure, cream cashmere. No picture because it just doesn't do it justice. I got sucked into buying it when I felt a sample scarf. I don't think you can actually touch cashmere. It's more like the fiber giving you a whisper of a caress. Lovely.

But the big item this year was almost 19oz of Shetland from Michelle at Hopeful Shetlands:

This should be enough to make me a shrug or a vest. I aspire to a hand spun sweater but decided it would be smart to start a bit smaller. I've worked with Michelle's Shetland fiber before and loved it.

So that's it. It was a great day, with great traveling companions, and beautiful weather. I don't think I could handle this much fun more than once a year.

The only downer was that I couldn't wear my newly completed Folklore because it was just too warm. I draped it over my arm and it started some conversation. The zipper installation is great on it, and I'm moderately pleased with the fit. If you'd like to see pictures, head on over to Ravelry.

Funny Feet

2011-09-06T21:23:00.002-04:00

His feet sure look funny, but he's got cute knees:

The picture is really about his new socks, but I get distracted when Jim wears shorts. He loves long socks, but I don't love knitting them. I'm very happy that this pair is done. The stripes of the Kroy FX helped make them fun.

And in other news, here's a tip for casting on a lot of stitches. I like to put in stitch markers every 20 stitches to make counting easier and more accurate. One time I had to cast on over 400 stitches (it was for a bottom up shawl). Not being sure I even had that many stitch markers, I grabbed a contrasting ball of sock yarn and after casting on twenty stitches I put in a slip knot of the contrast yarn. Then, every twenty stitches I put in a backward loop of contrast yarn, making sure that there was plenty of extra contrast yarn in between. I didn't cut the contrast yarn, so it's not wasted and can be used again or even knit with.

And here it is, my latest unvention:

Oh yeah, and that's no shawl on the needles. That's my Rowan sale yarn in the process of being knit up into an Eadon cardigan.

Rise and Shine

2011-08-30T19:37:00.000-04:00

A good day starts with a healthy breakfast. Well, now you can have your bacon and eggs with fiber.

This knitting project got started when a co-worker and good friend showed me these nifty fingerless gloves, saying "If I had a pair of those, I'd wear them."

And I said, "I can make that." So I did! Details on Ravelry.

Now dig in.

The Purge

2011-08-28T20:08:00.001-04:00

You can feel the season start to change. It's cooler. The leaves on the trees are looking dull, and many that were scorched by summer's heat and drought are already on the ground. There's an urge to prepare, to clean, to focus one's energy for the next shift.

This weekend, my cleaning energies fell on my yarn room. There were books strewn about, left behind as inspiration failed, that needed to be sorted and tidied. Many needles were caught mid-way in a project, abandoned as troubles slowed me down. These I liberated, leaving the project at loose ends, and sized them up to be slotted into their proper place. But the yarn.. ah, what to do about the yarn.

Earlier I had purchased a book, Knitting Plus, in hopes of learning how better to make myself sweaters that fit. I've learned a lot from it already and I'm eager to try out the patterns. Many are very simple, making good templates, and I think I could learn a lot from working them. Others have wonderful cables or pretty lace details that appeal to me.

In looking through my yarn stash though, I realized that I don't have the yarns to make these sweaters. My stash has overflowed its containment, and yet so much of it I don't want to knit with. So I purged. I pulled it all out, bagged it up and called a friend. She's a mom, in school and on a budget. We were recently talking and she said she couldn't go to the KW Knitter's Fair this year. So I invited her over to shop my stash. The price was right (free) so she took it all.

Gosh it felt good to purge it! I feel so much lighter and now I can buy the yarn I need to make the sweater I want with no guilt about what's already at home.

And you should see how much tidier my yarn room looks.

ETA: Re-reading this, I realize it sounds as if I gave everything away. Well I didn't. Just the yarns that were holding me back. Several sweater's worth of yarns that I bought on sale that I can't find a pattern for. Much yarn is still left in the stash, mostly sock yarn, but there's some laceweight and sport weight and beloved odd balls and of course the Rowan for which I am now searching for a pattern.

Afflicted

2011-08-22T19:45:00.001-04:00

Itchy!! I've been so itchy the past week. Poison ivy got me and there's a rash on my leg, on my shoulder going up to my neck, there was a bit on my arm and a smidgen near my eye. It feels like ants crawling on you and you can't scratch. I used calamine lotion, and over the counter antihistamines and the best thing of all was plain ole Benadryl. The meds do take a toll though, and I've just felt flat all week. No spunk. Jim nicked named me Itchy-bitchy.

So how did I get the itch on all these different locations? Well, the one on my leg was the primary contact with the plant, I can tell because it's the worst one. I think the rest came from secondary contact, from something that I touched that touched the plant, but it took me a while to figure out from where. The new spots of rash kept occurring all on the left side. I was thinking about this as I was walking the dog and realized that his dangling leash could easily have dragged through the evil plant.

I couldn't get home fast enough! I threw the leash in the trash, washed down with some rubbing alcohol, then plain water, then a full on shower. So far, so good, no more rashes.

To cope with my affliction I amused myself with stories of how much worse it could be. And I treated myself to some bright colors, spinning some FatCatKnits fiber in the colorway nerds, then knitting it up into these precious mittens:

They are size 6-8 and I'm going to put them aside for Christmas. The superwash BFL will make them easy for even a muggle to care for.

I was supposed to be tackling the zipper on my Folklore, and I tried, but it was ten stitches to the inch. I did three inches and it took an hour. Seriously? Times two sides? Not happening. So today, I took the sweater to our local tailor and he tells me he can do it, no problem, and have it done by September 9th, all for $28. It sounds like a great deal to me. Of course I'm nervous that something bad might happen to my knitting, but then again, if I were to do it myself, something bad might also happen. You could even say a bad something would be more likely to happen in my hands than in the hands of an experienced tailor.

Well, it's in his hands now. I'll try not to think about it. Lets just look at mittens again.

Kilronan, the second

2011-08-14T15:26:00.000-04:00

Beautiful, non?

The first time I knit Kilronan for Jim it was from Lavold Silky Wool. Jim loved it. It was soft and the pattern let him feel like a knight wearing chain mail armour. It looked good on him too except... the Silky Wool soon gave up all memory. The cables went flat and the sweater flared out at the back, exposing Jim's lower back. He wore it faithfully for as long as possible, and then requested another.

My first hurdle was finding the right yarn. Jim knew he wanted red, and that it had to be soft. I found both these qualities easily in Cascade 220 super wash sport. I bought the yarn from Paula at All Strung Out in Guelph. The store has an impressive wall of Cascade in rainbow colors. I bought what I thought would be plenty of yarn, but forgot to reckon in that Jim wanted extra length. What luck then that Paula could get me two more skeins in the exact same dyelot, several months later. I used over 15 skeins on this project. It is a long garment:

But the Cascade makes for nice rounded cables. I worked almost all of them without a cable needle. The five stitch cable was a bit too much though.

The trickiest bit of this sweater was removing that center ribbed band that nips in the waist. It's very feminine, but not suitable for a knight's surcoat. Removing the ribbing means that you can't follow Alice Starmore's detailed instructions anymore and instead, you must hash out where to end the cables all on your lonesome.

And let us not forget the wicked sleeve caps. I ended up removing the last four rows of plain work at the top of the sleeves and then removed the extra stitches during the cast off round. I was hoping for a blunter cap to the sleeve. It almost worked, but they still want to puff. The sweater needs a good tug at the back and then Jim's shoulders fill out the caps.

I recently realized that I knit Jim sweaters and me socks. It's time to switch that up and give the man more socks and me more sweaters. But I'm glad I took the time to resurrect this old favourite. Jim deserves it, if only for being such a good sport.

What season's next? Sweater Season!

2011-08-13T18:23:00.000-04:00

The stores may be gearing up for back to school, but I'm gearing up for sweater season and I'm getting excited!

This week, I completely finished Jim's sweater, the one with the puffed sleeves, but I haven't taken any pictures yet as its hot outside today. I'm still not thrilled with the shoulder caps, but it will do.

Also this week, I finished the knitting on my Folklore sweater, but it is far from done. Today, I've been working on hand sewing the steeks. Here's a steek peek, from the wrong side:

I'm catching every strand through the middle with my needle and thread. This is a super wash yarn and I want to secure it as best I can. Here's what it looks like on the right side:

Can hardly see it, eh? Still, this faint thread will be turned under to the back.

After I sew it, I'll cut it. Then I'll prepare my zipper according to this fabulous technique developed by TechKnitter and explained here by Eunny Jang:

After that, it's just a matter of knitting the zipper to the sweater with some i-cord, then capturing the cut ends of the sweater beneath the zipper tape with another row of handstitching, this time in a non-contrasting thread. Piece of cake, right? No, I'll confess, I'm quailing at the thought of the amount of work left to do on this sweater. I even want to reknit the cuffs still.

It's just under a month till the KW Knitter's Fair and I'm hoping to be wearing it there. Will I make it? I know you're just on the edge of your seats.

All this and I'm suffering under the handicap of being distracted by other projects I want to start. At first I thought I wanted to make Twist and Shout, then the Twist Collective Fall 2011 was released and I thought I wanted to make Eadon. For a long time I waffled between these two projects and then I saw a Drops sweater that trumped them both, except I want to make it a pullover, from the top down.

Don't you love sweater season?

Sharing the good and the bad

2011-08-06T14:17:00.000-04:00

I've got two items to share with you, which shall we start with?

Let's see, I guess we'll start with the good first. I've finished another pair of handspun socks, by best so far.

I'm so much in love with these, I don't know if I can stand to wear them anywhere. The fiber is by Lofty Fibres, a super wash silk and merino blend that I hope will last. I used the fractal spinning method, spinning one of the singles with long repeats of color and the other single with short bursts of color. I know a two-ply isn't the best for durable socks, but... so pretty!

And now for the bad. One morning this week I decided it was time to sew on the sleeve to a sweater I'm making for Jim. I haven't finished knitting the second sleeve yet, but I decided that it wouldn't hurt to get a jump on things. I worked on it for well over an hour, seaming, pulling it out, and seaming again. That evening I told Jim he had to try it on. Thank goodness he did before I started seaming the side and sleeves because the cap of the set-in sleeve had a decided puff. Jim is not a puff sort of man.

It's not so bad. I had a good laugh, I hope you have had a good laugh and it was easily ripped out again. That's an hour of my life I won't get back, but it's another learning experience under my belt.

Over Coming the Hurdle

2011-08-01T14:08:00.000-04:00

I took a two-week hiatus from spinning: the week before and the week during vacation. It was great to get back to my wheel when we returned. The spinning wasn't co-operating though. I started working the targhee braid and the fiber was so compacted, almost felted, making it difficult to draft. Also, the fiber would pull out of my hand and then get lost on the bobbin. Seriously! I was so frustrated! I couldn't find the end to continue spinning.

So I flipped to a different fiber I'd put aside before vacation because I was frustrated with it. It was doing the same thing. What the heck? A search through Ravelry's forums soon put me right. It turns out that if you don't move the yarn guide to a new place on the bobbin often enough, the singles will pile up until they fall to either side, breaking the fiber and burying the end of it at the same time. I had recently changed how often I move the slider on my Lendrum and that's why this problem was now occurring when it hadn't before.

Other things I learned on Ravelry's forums was to lay a life line by spinning the yarn on in one direction, say bottom to top, then moving all the way back to the start in one move. This lays a thread along the bobbin and makes it easier to find the end if it gets lost. Also, to find the end, I learned one can spin in the opposite direction real fast to make it pop out, or cup one hand over the bobbin while spinning in the opposite direction to tease the end up. I didn't need any of these tricks though because moving the yarn guide more often solved the source of the problem.

So I finished up both these yarns. The first a mohair wool blend (Spinning Moon Farm), the color in keeping with our heat wave again:

The second the Targhee, soft squishy and fine:

I joined Natchwoolie's Take Out Club, snack pack size. I get one ounce of fiber every month for six months. The fiber arrives in cute little takeout containers. This month it was Merino:

Last month it was blue faced leicester that had a wonderful sheepy smell. I worked my first laceweight with it:

I'm hoping that I can work the other snack packs into more lacewieght that I can then knit up into one shawl. It would be a wonderful sampler.

Yeah, but I sooooo need to stop spinning and get back to the needles. I have a ton of almost-done projects that are pining for some TLC. I think I'll have to put the wheel into time out for a bit. Whaaaaaaa.....

Hot, HOT, Darned HOT!

2011-07-23T18:57:00.000-04:00

Oh man, what stinky hot, soupy weather we've been having. I have to walk the dog in the morning or it won't get done. Even so, you can see the humidity in the air and I return just slick with sweat. The dog flops on to the cold floor, six inches of tongue dragging out, not even bothering with the cool water I immediately set out for him.

What's a knitter to knit? Not much, but silk works:

This is a Baktus scarf, knit in Fleece Artist Sea Silk. It was a fun little knit and about the only pattern that the brightly dyed yarn could handle. I will confess though, it's been on the needles a while. It was just its turn to get finished up.

I love the drape of the fabric, and the colors are much richer in a softer light.

Hot colors for hot weather. I hope it rains tonight.

Bitter Smurf and the Bad Luck Animals

2011-07-19T07:41:00.000-04:00

It was a bitter-sweet vacation. This was likely our last vacation for our family. Luke made it abundantly clear that he wasn't enjoying himself and if possible, he was going to make sure no one else enjoyed themselves either. Seriously, there were words exchanged. Eventually we reached a truce and perhaps even moments when he enjoyed himself, but not before he earned himself the nickname "Bitter Smurf".

The cottage was very sweet, clean and comfortable. The area where we were staying was very quite and rugged.

I was fascinated by the little wildflowers growing in the crevices of the pervasive rocks. Not only little flowers and grasses, but bushes and even trees grew in the rocks. Cedar shrubs hugged the ground in miniature looking from a distance like lawn.

The water was so clear! Fresh and blue, it was wonderful. There's a place called the grotto that was on the must see list and it was so worth it. A shade of blue I never expected to see in Canada.

We also did a 7km hike on the Bruce Trail. It was of moderate difficulty and I was very proud of our whole family for sticking it out.

Dexter's eye was better by the end of that first day. It must have been a bug bite. For a while there, he looked like a boxer who'd lost the fight.

The story of the trip though came one night around the campfire. We heard a rustle in the bushes behind us and saw a frog hop out onto a rock. It just sat there like it was enjoying the fire with us. Every time we looked back it was still there. After about 20 minutes, it jumped, toward the fire. We laughed and said "No, don't go to the light." But by golly if it didn't jump again, right into the fire! I thought for sure we were going to hear a hiss and a pop. We were all on our feet, yelling, helpless, when it jumped back out of the fire. I herded it back into the bushes, but you know, it came back. Twice. We nicknamed it suicide frog.

Then, when we returned from vacation, one of our guinea pigs had died. She was six years old and spry and chipper when we left, so we figure it's just old age. The other pig seems to be fine, but we're keeping an eye on her.

Finally, yesterday, I had the day off work. I cleaned did laundry, got groceries and generally tidied up loose ends. I was eating lunch outside with Dexter running in the yard when he caught a squirrel. He had it pinned and didn't seem to know what to do with it. He wasn't biting it or anything. So I grabbed his collar to pull him off it, but he had it pinned between his paws. It was as if after years of taunting he'd finally caught one and wasn't going to let it go. But after a bit, the squirrel fought back and then there's Dexter shaking his paw as if to say "Ow! Get it off!" Finally the squirrel let go and lay there in the grass, on its back panting for a bit before it scampered up the tree. It seemed fine and Dexter was none the worse for wear.

And that is the story of Bitter Smurf and the Bad Luck Animals. The end.

Pre-Vacation

2011-07-10T08:51:00.000-04:00

The family is packed and about ready to head out for a week at a cottage in the wilds of Ontario.

We'll be staying near the Bruce Peninsula and have plans to hike, swim, canoe and just plain relax. Except, we're not off to a good start. We've got the typical pre-vacation stresses such as:

A heavy work week leading up to vacation in order to tidy up loose ends.
Husband injuring his pinky finger at work (likely in haste to get things done)
Cleaning, packing and loading up the vehicles.
A grumpy eldest son, who is "wasting a week of his life" for us.
A dog with a mysteriously swollen eye. It appeared just after an early morning walk designed to tire him out before the trip. We're pretty sure it's a bug bite and hoping it responds to Benadryl.
Vacation knitting that didn't pan out warranting a swift change of plans. No time to cast on - my fingers are crossed that this version of yarn will work with the pattern.

I have a finished knit to show you, and some laceweight yarn that I spun (my first!) but as you can tell not a lot of time or energy to show you properly. Wish us luck that the vacation ends better than it began.

A Puzzlement

2011-06-28T09:16:00.000-04:00

Last night, I bought both my boys fedoras and flip flops at their request. My almost 15 year-old son just walked out the door dressed in athletic pants, a t-shirt, flip flops and his fedora. No doubt he's quite pleased with his look but it's a puzzlement to me.

In the interests of teen-aged dignity, there are no photos at this time. Perhaps after they've had a chance to break in the new duds.

Much to Learn

2011-06-26T17:31:00.000-04:00

One of the things I'm enjoying so much about spinning is the challenge it presents to me. There's so much to learn. To help with that, I bought a couple of Judith McKenzie videos at Interweave's Hurt Book sale.

I just got them transferred to my iPad today. I had a technology fail when I was trying to figure out how to get them on the iPad. It took a week for it to finally occur to me that I could add the videos to my iTunes video library and then sync the iPad to download them. Duh. Too simple perhaps?

I like what I've seen so far of Judith's videos, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot, but I have one criticism. Like a lot of experts, Judith tends to gloss over the very simple steps that are a bewilderment to the newbie. For example, she's using a Lendrum in the video and she mentions that you can wrap the yarn around the guide to slow down the uptake when spinning lace. Now I knew about the slowdown trick, but I couldn't see in the video where she hooked the yarn and I have the exact same wheel. I would have really liked to have seen that!

Anyway, here's a parade of yarns coming off my wheel these days:

The first two are two-ply and the last, dark one is a three ply. I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture of the fiber. I don't have the technical expertise to supply more details about my spinning than that I'm afraid. So much to learn!!

Finished in Time

2011-06-20T13:07:00.000-04:00

Yes! My father's socks were done well in advance of Father's day (thank you for asking).

I was right and the second yarn was thinner than the first, but I knit the second sock with the same needles and the same stitch count the result being that one sock is lighter than the other. Dad tried them on and they both fit about the same. I bet they'll wear different.

My mom forgot to bring her knitting, so while she was visiting I put her to work on my first pair of handspun socks and she finished up the cuff for me.

One of these socks was spun too tightly, and the other was spun looser, but knit too tightly. The result: they both are stiff and tough to pull on. Now I've relearned the lesson about the trade off between durability and comfort. You know the one, you can knit a durable sock at a really tight gauge, but will you enjoy knitting it and will the owner enjoy wearing it? Turns out the same thing applies to spinning. Who knew?

Finally, I captured a magical, musical moment in digital space forever (or as near as we can get). Please enjoy the musical stylings of Alex, my trumpet player:

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T09:43:00.000-04:00

To all the dads: ever notice how on Mother's day, you get to take the kids to the park to "give mom a break" and then on Father's day, you get to take the kids to the park to "spend time enjoying your children". Quite the racket we mom's have going on, eh?

Jim and I chuckle over this every Father's day. We were like this back when the kids were very little. I was a stay at home mom for 5 years and Jim was our sole provider. It must have been a very difficult time for him. I recall that he was always tired and would spend the better part of the weekend sleeping. I think if he had been spending more time with the children, we wouldn't have fallen for the racket.

This Father's day Jim has enjoyed breakfast cooked by his eldest son (we nudged each other under the table, but said not a word of critique out loud) and this afternoon we will be hosting my parents for a BBQ dinner in the lovely June sunshine during which youngest son shall be serenading us with his trumpet. He has a lovely mature tone to his playing even if he only hits the right note 90% of the time.

Jim was explaining to a childless friend what it means to be a father. "It's the contrasts. Within the same hour I've been absolutely furious with them and then so proud my heart hurt."

So here's to the dads who never complain when the have to mow around the swing set and the yard toys, to the dads playing endless rounds of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the dad's who smile as they chew their dry slice of fried ham, and the ones who accept their children with all their flaws. Gosh we love em!

Workin it

2011-06-06T07:56:00.000-04:00

So Louise got me worried that I might not have time to spin and knit socks for my dad. Brenda reassured me, but still, life does happen doesn't it? It wouldn't hurt for me to bump these socks to the top of the queue. There's already a quadrillion projects on the needles, all lovely things, but abandoned for various good reasons. What's one more?

So I finished up the first skein of yarn and started in on my sock. The first incarnation was beautiful, though in this picture the color is washed out.

I loved how the cables popped in my yarn. What a thrill to see my handspun making really nice cables! But the sock was too big, and I was worried about my yarn supply. So I ripped it. boo.

So I switched to a toe up, with no cables, and here's the second version of the sock all knit up:

I don't think the pattern does my yarn justice, it's a simple beaded rib, but I now have some yarn to spare. It just looks like a dad sock, doesn't it? The color, and the simple ribs are classic for dads and granddads.

And on Sunday, I finished the second skein of yarn.

I was freakin out on Sunday morning when I was plying this thinking I'd made a noticeably thinner yarn. I was so upset, but I figured, I'd just knit a sock with the same rib pattern, only more stitches. It bugged me though. But after washing and drying, no, it's the same weight. All that self-flagellation for nothing!

I'm very pleased with my spinning progress. The yarn is squooshy, mostly even, and a delight to work with. I don't care if it doesn't wear well, because truth to tell, I think my dad will love these socks so much he'll hardly wear them.

Lots to Learn

2011-05-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

The first handspun sock is all knitted up and it is mighty dense! It was not fun to knit. The second sock is on the needles and is also working up just about as dense, and just about as annoying to knit. While the yarn was more lightly plied, it came out thicker and fluffier, but I'm working it on the same size needles so the fabric has about the same density. Here are the socks, posed with their respective yarns, for comparison:

I wish you all could give the fabric a feel and see the yarns for yourself. Another consideration is how much of the density of the fabric is the result of the knitting and is there any performance differences between a sock that is dense due to spinning, vs one that is dense due to plying?

It's interesting, this learning by internet wisdom thing. While I have lots of theoretical spinning knowledge, I don't have the practical experience that makes it useful. I've read lots of places to put more twist in the singles and the plying when making sock yarn, but the practical question is how much more? More is relative, a fuzzy logic problem if you will. (heh) So this is a grand opportunity for me to learn through trial and error, experimentation and most likely some small disasters. Hopefully, not too many.

Next up on the wheel, surprise, more sock yarn! I decided that I should work up some handspun, handknit socks for Father's day for my dad. There's plenty of time yet, right? Right? Fiber on the wheel is Cupcake Fiber Company's SW BFL with nylon, the only thing that will do for a gift.

In the category Husbands say the cutest things, Jim was watching me plying and I was talking to him about the lazy kate.
He asked "Why is it called a lazy kate?"
I replied, "I don't know. I guess it's because kate was too lazy to tension the bobbins on her own."
Thoughtful man returned "Well, that's silly. It should be called a clever kate, cause it's a smart idea."

Beyond Thrilled

2011-05-23T17:20:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you just have to strike while inspiration is hot. This weekend, I spun myself sore but I managed to finish my first skein of sock yarn. This fluff:

Became about 210 yards of this fingering weight 3-ply yarn:

Which is knitting up into this sock:

I'm so thrilled with this yarn. My patient husband endured many exclamations of happiness and joy. It was worth sore legs and achy shoulders. I didn't injure myself and today I took it easy and didn't touch my wheel.

But now have to do it again. Is there such a thing as second sock spinning syndrome? Just as a knitter puts variations into the second sock to mix things up a bit, I'm thinking of spinning the second sock differently. The sock is knitting up super dense, but with a smooth feel. I'm thinking of spinning the second skein of sock yarn with less twist in both the single and the plying. This way I can compare how they wear and learn how much extra twist is really required for durable socks.

Way back, when I first started to seriously knit socks I experimented with heels, toes, toe-up and bind offs, searching for my what I liked, what fit, and what wears well. Now I feel like I'm on the same journey, only I'm now in search of how to best spin sock yarn.

There's a little voice in the back of my head saying "Gee, that's an awful lot of work for socks." But I'm ignoring it. The heart knows what it wants and mine is singing for joy over the wonder of this new journey I'm on.

Obssesed Much?

2011-05-21T09:27:00.000-04:00

It's a gorgeous Saturday morning at the start of a long weekend. If I don't sit down and write you a blog post now, chances are it won't happen.

I'm still loving my spinning wheel and in the past week some online fiber purchases made it to my door. I know you want to see them.

Clockwise from top left: Fleece Artist BFL, Spirit Trail Fiberworks SW BFL, Spirit Trail Fiberworks Targhee, Cupcake Fiber Company SW BFL with nylon and Fat Cat Knits Symphony project bag. There's still two more missing from that lineup and they are a mohair-wool blend from Spinning Moon farm.

My current goal is to spin up some nice sock yarn. Hence the superwash, the nylon and the mohair blend fibers. I finished up my first three-ply, which might make a good sock yarn because it's over-plied:

Certainly it would make a warm, dense hat which is what I believe it's final incarnation will be.

Anyway, before all this fiber bounty jammed up the front door so that Jim could barely get in the house, I needed something else to spin, so I started in on some Louet Northern Lights. This is the same fiber that I made my mom's chunky yarn from. It spins very easily and I know it's got some bounce. I divided my fiber into six equalish parts and I'm spinning it fine with lots of twist. This is bobbin two, half done:

I'm excited to ply it to see how the colors come together and what the three ply looks like.

As for knitting projects, well, there was a pair of socks a while back, worked up in my own hand-dyed yarn:

Love em! It's about time I had some nice long socks.

I also knit my wheel a tool holder:

Isn't it cute? The yarn is fiber from the Hopeful Shetlands, spindle spun before I got my wheel. I decided to leave it all fuzzy, fresh from the felting. I think it suits my wheel.

Now the only problem I have is how to reconcile all the spinning I want to do against the desire to knit it up and not increase the stash. Good thing it's a long weekend. I think I'll spend it playing with fiber.

Enjoying my Connections

2011-05-15T20:18:00.000-04:00

I've been making connections, enjoying my connections and connecting the concepts.

On Saturday morning my mom and I enjoyed being part of the Forest City Knitters' display at the Canadian Embroiderer's Guild Gathering Threads conference. I met lots of new people and some old friends too. We had a wonderful display of items gathered from the members of our group. Some of the favorites on display were Isa's illusion scarf and felted mittens, and my fiber fish mittens.

Last weekend I had started making a hat from some handspun I been gifted with a year or so ago, from Maia. I was working a simple top-down hat and it was just not doing justice to the yarn. So I went for a pattern I'd seen a few years back, the Bias Ridged Hat, and as I'm downloading the pattern, I made the connection that this was an original pattern, created by my friend and fellow Forest City Knitter, Reina! The two were meant for each other:

Now won't that warm your ears in the grey days of November?

During the knitting, I realized that the yarn was chain plied. My novice spinner's brain started clicking along. It looks really nice! So I tried some for myself. It was okay, but I'm sure I can do better. The fiber had been felted during the dying process and it was difficult to draft.

In the mean time, I thought I'd try a regular 3-ply. I've been plying all day and I've still got another third of the fiber to go. I can hardly wait to see what it looks like washed, but my legs are getting tired. Yep, that's a lot of treadling....

I've enjoyed hearing from you who read this blog. I appreciate your support and input. All my connections are important to me.

A Gift for Me and One for Mom

2011-05-08T11:42:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's day! My family has been good to me with cards, and chocolates and a wonderful breakfast. Later today we're going to play games and go for a walk. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day enjoying my new wheel, spinning yarn for my mother as a gift for Mother's day.

So about the wheel, I chose to buy a Lendrum from Jane's Sheepish Things in Delaware. The reviews I've read all touted it as a solid, all purpose wheel that grows with the spinner and lasts for years. It's made in Canada, out of sturdy and stable hard maple. It's a portable wheel that folds for storage or travel and its incredibly easy to set up and adjust.

I already feel completely comfortable with this wheel. Friday night was spent learning to adjust it to make a single. Saturday morning I figured out the adjustments for plying. Here's what I learned:

A wheel is like a bicycle. When you shift to a smaller ratio the wheel will turn faster for the same speed of treadling, but the treadling will take more effort. Just like pedaling first gear on a bike is so much easier than pedaling tenth gear, but you'll go faster in tenth gear.
A looser tension on the brake of the bobbin will cause less take up pull on the yarn. Tighter tension will cause a faster take up. At least on my wheel. I've often wondered what was meant when someone would write "adjust your tension" because they would never say which adjustments would give what result.
When plying with the Lendrum, the mother of all needs to be lowered to loosen the tension on the drive band. I had to search the net to figure out why my wheel just stopped when plying. I was told that the mother of all was adjustable so as to account for the height of your chair. In my experience, this is just not so.

This wheel spins so quietly. The action is very smooth and the double treadles feel like a kitten making biscuits. In no time at all I was turning out even singles, and could even do so without looking. In the above shot you see the slider yarn guide; a very elegant solution to winding the yarn on evenly. Changing bobbins on this wheel is very easy too. I can do it with one hand. I know, cause I tried.

By the end of the day Saturday, I'd spun up a half-pound of fiber into this bouncy, chunky weight yarn.

I think my mommy will like it.

Break away, and OMG! I did that!

2011-05-06T20:20:00.000-04:00

So yeah, Hi! How have ya been? I had a nice break. My first in what, five years? The technology is changing and it might be time for me to change with it. I'm contemplating Twitter, and I'm thinking about dropping blogging. Life is very full and busy right now. I'm not sure where the pieces fit. So my plan is to try blogging again, and see if I enjoy it or if it becomes one more chore. If a chore, then I'm afraid it must go.

There's still plenty of fiber fun going on. I've finished some hats, socks and the body of a sweater. I also made this, from my own spindle-spun yarn:

I still can't believe it! I spun that! The fiber was BFL from Viola that I spun and plied on my Forrester spindles. Here's the original fiber:

The pattern is Multnomah, but I added my own twist to it with a crochet picot bind off and a picot shell ruffle around the neck edge. It adds depth to a piece when a design element is layered; in this case, the element of scallops. I was careful not to block out the ruffles and the frilly picots. I especially love the loopy ends the crochet work added.

I've been admiring this ever since it came off my needles (and hook in this instance). I find it hard to believe that I made this yarn after only a few months of spinning. And I determined I had to get a wheel, because with more practice, how much better can I get!!

So, tonight I bought one, and it is here in my living room. Talk about your impulse purchases. Speaking of impulses, I have one right now to stop writing and go back to spinning.

Cute Hat, Sports Hat

2011-03-20T10:31:00.000-04:00

Sounds very Seussian, but that's what I've got for you today.

I made myself a very cute spring time hat:

The pattern is Sockhead and I love it so much. The colors are pretty, the weight of the hat is just right for this time of year and the slouchy style makes me feel trendy and stylish. Never mind that I'm wearing sweatpants and a 10 year-old coat to walk the dog, I just assume that all anyone sees is my cute and trendy hat. It certainly is the brightest part of my exercise get-up.

The yarn is Fleece Artist BFL. I bought one skein, knit a shawl and had a lot left over. So I knit this hat and I still have a lot left over, enough perhaps for a pair of gloves to match. That's one big skein!

And now for the sport hat:

It's a Thorpe, made of Cascade Ecological wool (also a big skein) and it's for a fan of the Wolverhampton Wanderers. Merv is doing me a favour and in exchange, I agreed to knit him a hat. Thorpe was a great pattern. If you've got to knit a large men's hat in black, this pattern works up super quick. Merv's got a team badge to sew on to it and I think it will look very sporty.

After two weeks of renting a wheel and working on spinning thick, I've got a few skeins of handspun that I'm dreaming of knitting up into more Thorpes. It's a potato chip hat: betcha' can't make just one!

Thank you to everyone who wrote in with their own stories of silly parking accidents. It really does feel better knowing I'm not the only one.

Snap Shot

2011-03-13T17:38:00.000-04:00

Grumble, grumble, grump, grump.

I'm in the demoralized zone. It's the weather. We've been walloped with more versions of precipitation than a teen-aged boy has excuses. Though on Friday morning the images coming from Japan were enough to quell my grumbles. It was quite frightening enough to me when we had a wee tremble last summer that left me feeling nauseous. Words fail me for this disaster, but I'm watching..

It's been a full month since I last posted here. There's been plenty going on, perhaps too much. So here's a quick snapshot of my month:

The body of Folklore is done and I'm sick of knitting navy sock yarn so that project has stalled.
I finished a pair of socks and a hat.
I'm taking some spinning lessons and rented a wheel which resulted in that brown skein of yarn up there. The fiber is from Hopeful Shetlands farm and it's the lamb's fleece of a Shetland/BFL cross. It spun up beautifully but smells like a barn when wet.
I bought an iPad and quickly became obsessed with playing Pocket Frogs and now Infinity Blade. I love my iPad and all the things it can do.
I started knitting Jim Kilronan from Cascade 220 super-wash sport, purchased from All Strung Out. The yarn is lovely and soft and not navy. It makes me happy to see those cables pop and all that texture.

Now, I have a story to tell of my idiot moment. Yesterday I was out and when I came back I always park my car in the garage. I have to get out of the car to open the garage door and then get back into the car to drive it in. But yesterday, as I started to drive in, I saw a roll of aluminum flat-stock sticking out a bit in the path of my car. So I quickly hopped out of the car to move it and saw my car slowly rolling towards me! I'd forgotten to put it into park!

I jumped back into my car and my brain failed me. Instead of stepping on the brake like a sane woman, I panicked as I watched my drivers side mirror slowly get crunched by the wall of the garage. What's worse, my leg was sticking out of the door of the car. I'm yelling no! about the mirror when the door started to close on my leg.

It sounds worse than it was. The pressure was quite hard, but my leg kept the door open which stopped the car from rolling forward. I collected my scattered wits, hit the brakes and put her in reverse. Once out of the garage, I turn off the car entirely and went into the house to freak out.

My leg is fine, my door is scratched, my mirror is toast, and my self-respect is on the floor. I was moaning about this incident most of the day yesterday till Jim told me his story. Over twenty years ago, he parked his car outside of a variety store and left it running (you could do that back then). When he came back out he found it at the other end of the parking lot, stuck in a big bush. He still doesn't know if he forgot to put it in park or if he knocked it into reverse as he got out. I gave him a big smooch and thanked him for being as big an idiot as me. And we both agreed, it could have been worse!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T05:29:00.012-05:00

Dexter's dog lips are really his tongue. It's super long and almost always sticks out. This time it stuck out so far, that when he smushed his face into his blankie it folded back on itself. We are classy, non?

Adrift

2011-02-06T11:39:00.000-05:00

Oh February how we love to hate you. The shortest month of the year is witness to the shortest tempers of the year as we struggle to lift just one more shovelful of snow. Our spirits drop with the thermometer as the wind chill cuts through our heavy layers of winter wool.

And yet there is a promise in February that the end is nigh. Last weekend I saw ducks in the creek and Canadian geese flew over my back yard. My heart lifted to hear their cries because I couldn't help think that maybe the geese know something about the turning of the season.

And as my winter world is adrift in snow, I find my knitting universe adrift in projects and color. A tonic for my winter-weary soul, yet I am weighted down by a longing for yet more things to create. A blessing to have ideas and yarn to carry them out, yet cursed with finite time and energy to fulfill my dreams.

I did it!

2011-01-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

Just like a kid riding their first two-wheeler, I want to shout it to the world, "I did it!" I learned to spin on a wheel. It turns out that the reason the yarn wouldn't take up on the bobbin was because it was wrapped around the guide on the woolee winder. Doh! But you know, learning something like that the hard way means that next time I have a problem with take up, I'll double check that the yarn is flowing freely.

I was so happy, I got Jim to shoot a movie.

Sparkle Fish: last of a rare breed

2011-01-26T12:45:00.000-05:00

Hello, it's not Sunday, but I do have a fish to show to you. This is sparkle fish going for a swim. She's a winter fish you know.

I pray this be the last fish mitten I ever knit. I'm quite over the thrill of working this pattern. I'm delighted that so many people like the pattern. It was a joy to work the first coupla. But I'm SOOOO done with it now. It's because the working up is fiddly and perhaps because I've made six fish all told.

Oh, sparkle fish wants her close up now. Prima donna.

All Strung Out in Guelph

2011-01-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

It's been a whirlwind week, and I don't just mean the weather.

Tuesday night I was voted president of the Forest City Knit Club. I had tried to take the position last year, but my out-of-town job intervened. This year my work situation feels so stable, I thought I'd try again. I'm so excited because I've got lots of great ideas and the people in the group are so excited and enthusiastic. If you live in the London, Ontario area, come check us out.

Then I went to work on Wednesday in Waterloo and I also stayed overnight on Thursday because of a big meeting on Friday. Well, Thursday night is the knit and chat evening at All Strung Out in Guelph and here was my chance to check it out.

First off, All Strung Out just moved to a new location that has beautiful stone in the walls, a high antique tin ceiling, a wonderfully huge street-front window, and it's packed to the gills with yarn. The place is Cascade heaven. Just check out this gorgeous wall of color as rendered by Cascade 220 and Cascade sport:

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Almost every weight and put-up of Cascade was represented. Plus plenty of other yarns, some fiber, and a generous selection of needles and accessories. They stocked up the new location plenty and I'm pretty sure they aren't done yet.

But I didn't get to all these delectable details until after the knit and chat. When I first came in, the store was packed with happy knitters doing what we do best. It was a little intimidating, I'll own, but they soon made me welcome with a hearty shout out and showing me a chair. It didn't take long before I felt just like one of the gang. There was a new knitter, just trying out her first sock. There was lace knitters, a sweater design in progress, and one girl was using the store's ball winder and swift to turn her skeins into cakes. A bunch of yarn was making the rounds for pats and smooshes.

Of course I bought yarn. I know you want to see, so here it is:

The red I'm going to swatch up and then get Paula to order me enough to make Kilronan for Jim. The greeny-blue is Cascade hand paint sock yarn. I just couldn't leave that color behind! And that glittery Berroco is what I'll be working with tonight. I can hardly wait. I'm going to make a store sample of my Fiber Fish mitten pattern. I wonder if I can get it done to show you on Sunday evening?

Distractions

2011-01-15T13:47:00.000-05:00

So when I'm not knitting the endless sweater of tiny navy stitches, I've worked on socks and spinning. Two pairs of socks have come off my needles. One a pair of boot socks that I won't trouble you with further, the other pair are the sweet socks.

They're sweet, they're socks. Not much more to say about them.

I'm afraid that my spinning has exploded this week. In much the same way that I have many, many projects on my needles, I now have multiple spinning projects in progress. At first I was staying faithful to the Viola fiber and finished up a second skein:

Ruh roh! There's a little problem with consistency here. Not within the skein but between the two skeins. Lesson learned: one must spin with a reference. These two skeins represent about one third of the fiber.

Then I thought, I should practice my heavier spinning. I don't really like that cheap merino I bought, so I've decided to use it for experiments. Spinning it heavy seemed a good idea and it worked great for that, making a nice fat squishy yarn:

So happy results here. I'm going to have to make more of this. I also notice that I have less consistent yarn when I spin thicker. I need more practice at this weight.

And then I had a thought, I wonder if I can spin a laceweight? Ahem. Apparently, I can.

This fiber is a merino cashmere blend that Paula gave me. I hadn't felt worthy before this, but now. Oh god, it's an obsession. I want to spin this all the time. What's with me and the fine gauge?! I'm having dreams of knitting it up into an heirloom Shetland lace shawl. That will only take me a life time to finish, especially if I keep getting distracted, which seems inevitable because now look what has come for a visit:

The only thing that keeps me from playing with it all the time is that I'm such a noob. It's another learning curve to surmount and I think I've retreated back to my spindles to remind myself of the fact that I CAN learn a new thing.

This wheel is on loan from the gracious, generous and oh so helpful Paula. Paula is my hostess, who rents me a room to stay in when I'm working in Waterloo. Next week, I have to stay two days and I'm going to get to see the new location of her yarn store. I promise, I'll bring my camera....

Should I have my head examined?

2011-01-09T13:30:00.000-05:00

My dog is staring at me with big brown eyes, heaving great sighs of impatience. It's snowing outside and I don't want to go for a walk! Now he's turned his back on me in disgust. Why is it that dogs don't feel the cold? They walk around in the snow in their bare feet and enjoy themselves while I have to wear a ridiculous the amount of layers just to feel comfortable.

There's no doubt about it, this is prime knitting season. This is the time of year when a knitter's thoughts turn to sweaters. I've got one on the needles, but I don't believe I will finish it in time to wear it before spring.

This is Folklore, now progressing into the body which is a vortex, black-hole, mind numbing, finger wearing, time suck of knitting. It constitutes cruelty to the knitter to have anything less than excellent conversation or an absorbing program on TV when working on this. I love it still, I want to wear it madly, but the sweat equity may kill me before I get there.

Perhaps I'll start another yoked pull over. These days, I think top down yoked sweaters are the most perfect thing ever, because:

I can try it on as I go, ensuring perfect fit and perfect length.
Because I can try it on as I go, I can experiment in the yoke with the minimum investment of time and effort.
Knit in the round, they are seamless.
Knit in the round, they are speedy (unless you are working at a ridiculously fine gauge, in which case get your head examined).

How Not to Relax on a Day Off

2011-01-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

First day for the kids to go back to school and Jim and I both have the day off work. So what kind of fun shenanigans did we get up to? Oh, just a little something called working on our budget. Sure, we do know fun.

I hadn't made any New Year's resolutions, but I have a strong impulse to after a morning of number crunching. It's not that there is a shortage of cash. It's a question of how that cash is slipping through our fingers. I think one of my biggest problems is wanting a little treat now and then. Those treats add up. And yet I feel I deserve something for all my hard work.

So how do you reward yourself when you deserve a treat? What sorts of pats on the back do you give yourself?

One idea I have is to stash dive to find treasured yarn and pack it up in bags with a nice pattern. Then, when I want a treat, I can "open" a present and find some fun waiting for me. Sort of like the Yarn Harlot's personal sock club.

On the other hand, I may try to go cold turkey, and don't buy anything for a month. I'd like to make it three months, but I don't know if I can go that long. January is a horrible month anyway. The weather is awful and there's nothing to look forward to. But I've already taken January's measure and lined up a treat for a the whole family at the end of the month. As a Christmas present I bought us all tickets to go see Ron James when he comes to London, January 30. A dose of laughter is just the antidote to the gray days of winter. Here, have some for yourself:

It's all a blur

2010-12-31T13:31:00.000-05:00

Whoa. Christmas was like...

So much fun! But so fast, and then it was time to rest. The week between Christmas and New Years was for quiet, time for my husband and boys, and yes, time for knitting for me.

The yarn bowl was made by my mom and it's very handy when the ball of yarn gets too light to handle a pull for more yarn. The pink yarn is Kroy that I dyed up using food coloring. I was after red, but this was a happy accident and I'm enjoying using it for this project. I didn't use heat, just let the yarn sit in the dye over night and found the color exhausted the next morning. It has subtle shading in it that I love.

But I must run, there is more fun to be had. Our boys are having a New Year's Eve party again this year. I shall see you all again in the New Year.

It ends well...

2010-12-21T20:08:00.000-05:00

So busy! Work is slammin' me with ends to tie and projects to wrap up. Still knitting up odd bits of the stash for Christmas though. Here's the output (details on my Ravelry project page):

Oh yes, that's a hand spun neck warmer! Yippee! It's going to my mommy cause I think it will match the mittens I made her a few years back.

And look what I made:

So very happy with this!! I had it sitting on my desk as I worked today so I could admire and pet it. The fiber is BFL from Viola! that I bought at the Woodstock Fiber Festival in October. It spun up more evenly than the merino did, but I had a bit of a break down when it came to plying. Seriously, there were tears.

I had read in Respect the Spindle that it helps with yarn management to wind your singles off into a ball before plying. So I did, and pushed it off the ball winder onto a TP roll. Then that went into a coffee cup and I was off. Everything was going swimmingly, I was watching Elf and having a jolly ole time when one of my plies broke. And when I looked at the yarn coming off the ball, it looked as though the plies were coming off unevenly. Don't ask me how, I just thought it looked like a bunch of knots, pig tails and a rotten mess. The thought of several weeks worth of work wrecked brought me to tears.

If I had a mentor, she or he could have talked me down, but as it was, on my own, I had to get a grip and investigate the horror more closely myself. And of course, everything was fine. It was just the plies coming back on themselves. Put under tension they started to behave again. What a moment though! Now I know, and I don't think I will ever forget that lesson.

There's plenty more fiber to go. I'm enjoying spinning this up so much and I'm flabbergasted at how beautiful the colors are:

I'm so proud of me!!

Snow Music

2010-12-14T18:15:00.005-05:00

Last week, I attended Alex's Christmas concert. Worth a listen, and entirely appropriate to the season, here's the Banting Chamber Choir, performing Pakkanen, which moved me to tears. They're not my kids, but I'm still so pleased and proud of them:

Second Wave

2010-12-12T17:30:00.000-05:00

We survived the first wave of Snowmaggedon. It was very strange to hear people telling me "Oh, I heard about London in the news." Now a second wave of winter weather is heading our way, with up to 25 cm of snow expected every 12 hours. Yikes!

A lot of people asked me if I got more knitting done, since I was snowed in. Well, no... because I'm a telecommuter now I don`t really get snow days. However, I have found some time to knit. I've been as busy as an elf, finishing up a whole slew of Christmas gifts. After I finished the obligatory socks, I decided to stash dive for odd balls and knit them up. It's been fun! I see them as bonus gifts. I knit what I like and if it happens to end up in a pretty gift for someone then good. I can't stand the pressure and guilt of traditional Christmas knitting. That sounds odd, but you know what I mean, right?

So, in no particular order, here is the second wave of holiday knits. I guess you could say I've been knitting up a storm. (Oh groan! Bad pun, I should be ashamed.) And all links are to Ravelry for details like yarn and needles.

Dad's Christmas Socks

I love that detail on the bottom of the foot.

Brother-in-law Stand up Comic socks

Tudora Ruff (niece)

Estonian Lace Scarf

This is just a little scarffette, based on a shawl pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Estonian lace. I had just one skien of an bamboo, merino and alpaca blend (from an alpaca named Cheri, so you know it's for someone special). I can hardly wait till it finishes blocking to see the softness and drape of it.

I knit one edging, put it on a holder, then knit the other edging and continued into the middle lace until I ran out of yarn. It worked beautifully and I think with a pin to keep it closed, this will be a cuddly accessory for my mother-in-law. I hope she doesn't mind that I didn't make her socks this year. I was feeling all socked out.

How's your Christmas knitting coming? Right now, I feel a hat coming on...

And so it continues...

2010-12-07T19:06:00.000-05:00

Another snow day for Jim and the kids. Here's what accumlated on the picnic table today:

That's about twice as much as there was yesterday. I took Dexter out for a brief walk at lunch, but the snow was blowing in my face, so we turned for home. The accumulation on our house was amazing. I went to the front door to ask Jim to hand me my camera so I could take a picture for you all. But as I was speaking to him in the doorway, there was a sound, a slither and a slump! as all the snow on the roof slid down on top of me and the dog.

I took a picture anyway, and it looks like kids were using our roof as a toboggan run:

We're supposed to get another 10-15cm of snow tomorrow, and the school board has already declared the schools closed. The mayor of London very nearly decided to declare a state of emergency, but didn't. Instead, he's asked that everyone stay home so that road crews can work unhindered.

For more amazing snow pictures, check out the gallery at the Weather Network. You can run a search on London Ontario.

Blog Worthy Weather

2010-12-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

Remember that winter storm I mentioned yesterday? Well, it's still here and looks like it will be staying around until tomorrow. It is snowing hard. All the schools were closed, so the boys were home. It was too snowy for Jim to be working outside, so he was home. And me, I was home: working! Every one else got a snow day, but not me. One of the perks of working at home I guess.

You want to see how much snow we got? The guys had to go out shoveling twice yesterday and twice today.

Oh yeah. And it's still snowing. I had to take Dexter out for a walk, regardless of the conditions. Fortunately I have all the gear I could need: snow pants, good boots, lots of woolies for feet, hands and head. Even Dexter has a super great winter coat, from Chilly Dogs.

Not that he cares. He loves the snow!

And tonight, we made Rum Balls. I published this recipe before, but it bears repeating:

Chocolate Rum Balls

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 eggs slightly beaten
pinch of salt
1 3/4 cups graham wafer crumbs
2 tbsp dark rum

Combine butter, icing sugar and chocolate chips in a double boiler. Add beaten eggs and salt. Stir until chocolate melts and mixture thickens and is smooth. Remove from heat and add rum and crumbs. Combine well. Refrigerate at least three hours. Shape into balls; roll in chocolate shavings, coconut or nuts.

A Discovery

2010-12-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

We had a snow storm in the merry old town of London, Ontario! So what better thing to do, besides knit, than to decorate the house?

So gaudy, and yet so effective at chasing back the gloom and chill of winter snow and wind.

I was working on a pair of stranded socks for my dad, when I accidentally switched which hand held which color. You've heard of Yarn Dominance? For some knitters, it can make a dramatic difference which hand the yarn is held in when working a stranded pattern. I always thought it didn't affect me, but look at this:

You can clearly see how several rows are more predominately black. I flipped when I saw that! Then I took a look at the public side of the work:

Oh. Yes. Well I guess it doesn't affect me all that much after all.

Cute, just as is

2010-12-04T15:40:00.001-05:00

Some people are so ambitious! Nadine has beautiful plans for her winter holidays. Nannette has pages of links lined up for gifty knitting. Me, I'm trying to simplify my holidays, but I'm constantly having to fight my own impulses. There's so many fun things to do!

I thought I'd have some wonderful socks to show you this weekend, but I got distracted. So, there's this instead:

A hand spun, hand knit hat, knit up in one evening. It's fun knitting with my handspun! It's got it's lumps and bumps, but don't we all? Especially in the early stages. Like this fourteen-year-old, needs a shave and pimple cream at the same time, 6 foot tall, man-boy:

But ain't he cute?

Stand up Comic?

2010-11-30T12:00:00.005-05:00

I like to knit my socks at a firm gauge, for maximum durability, but perhaps this is going too far?

Then again, as socks they sure stand out. They're for my brother-in-law as a Christmas present and he's a stand-up sort of guy.

These socks sort of look like they're ready to take a walk off on their own. Too bad they don't knit themselves...

Home Improvement Reveal

2010-11-28T13:19:00.001-05:00

It took quite a few weekends, but the exterior of our home is finally finished. Here's the before, in all its minty green glory:

And here is the new, neighbour approved, maximum curb appeal, improvement:

Hooray! We decided against putting the shutters back up and eliminated the screen door. I think it fits in better with the design of the house and looks more modern. Some how the house looks bigger now.

And thanks to Jody for the spinning tip, I've decided to keep practicing my thicker spinning. If I make an effort to learn both at the same time, perhaps I can avoid being stuck in only one kind. It can't hurt and it might help. So, here's some black welsh in progress spinning:

I love the yarn this made. It's thick and cushy.

Laughing my Face Off

2010-11-22T19:20:00.001-05:00

When I began to learn to spin I stated to many and all that my goal was to learn to spin fingering weight. It's my favourite weight of yarn to work with. But I was met with a lot of skepticism from well-meaning friends. They all told me that once I learned to spin fine, I would find in extremely difficult, impossible was implied, to spin thicker again.

Well, I'd say, you just draft more fiber, use a heavier spindle and off you go.

Oh no! said my friends with a laugh. It's not that simple, everyone has this problem.

Mary Jane said "Laurie, when you come crying to me that you can't spin thicker yarn, I will laugh in your face."

Well, look who's laughing now.

I just decided to give it a try and got these results on my first attempt. I imagine I could get better with practice. Here's a comparison with commercial Shetland fingering weight on the right:

Mwhahahahahaa!!

Wipe the Slate Clean

2010-11-19T17:20:00.001-05:00

Nosevember is finally here in all its gray glory. The first time I walked out of the office at 5:30 after the Daylight Savings Time weekend I had a horrible shock, as it was pitch dark! Their seems to be a heavy expectancy in the air; the trees and fields anticipating snow, the people anticipating the Christmas rush. It's time to be still and marshal one's strength.

Just because I haven't been blogging the knits doesn't mean the knits stopped happening. They've backlogged into such a jumbled pile that I don't even know where to start in recording them all. I've neglected updating Ravelry too. Actually, my husband noticed that my Ravelry project page is prettier further down that it is at the top. I don't know quite what's happened to my knitting lately, but I don't think my most recent batch of projects will help pretty up the page much. It's all utilitarian, chill blocking stuff.

So, I'm just going to come clean with all my projects and we'll start fresh. Works in progress abound and the next big thing is will hit me soon enough.

Let's start the parade:

Details on my Ravelry project page.

Too tired to blog

2010-11-07T19:00:00.000-05:00

I had good intentions to write a blog post this weekend. I was going to talk about the serious case of startitis I've got, driven by the November wind and a desire for warm woolies. I want a chullo, maybe a Thorpe, for keeping my ears warm when I walk the dog, and a new pair of slippers, snugger than the felted clogs. But what's on the needles are oodles of socks and some Christmas gifties.

I was going to take photos to show you the socks, and talk about the my latest crush, Stephenie van der Linden. Her book Around the World in 26 Socks has fed my fever and I've cast on multiple socks from her book. Two have stuck, one having the neatest and easiest short row heel I have ever worked. Ever. The other one the first stranded sock pattern I have worked that actually fits my foot. I'm so thrilled and it's so beautiful, I can't wait to show it off! But I don't have any pictures.

Why? Well, because our home renovation project ate my blog post. This is the biggest UFO of them all and as much as a new hat will keep me warm, a finished house will be even better.

That toothpaste green at the top is the color of the old siding. It's the original 30-plus year old stuff that's become full of holes. The grey at the bottom is the new stuff. The blue in between is the styrofoam insulation Jim is adding to keep us warm and toasty. This house reminds me of Pinochio. It's becoming real!

And just for the record, I'm not the one doing the work, it's this goof-ball:

I just have to take on his share of the weekend chores in addition to my own and that's what's left me so pooped.

My Regrets

2010-11-01T18:20:00.000-04:00

I regret that I haven't written this sooner. I have completely finished my Noro blanket and I am underwhelmed.

Perhaps there are too many beautiful versions on the net. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Perhaps in skimping on the cost of wool by buying my skeins on sale, I short changed myself.

I regret getting so caught up in the process that I neglected details like gauge. Even the gauge on my edging is wrong, resulting in an untameable curl.

You know what, I don't care. I'm willing to live with my regrets. Because at the end of the day I have a warm, colorful blanket that my family has already been enjoying. Bring on the winter! We has a blanket.

Gone Shoppin!

2010-10-23T20:41:00.000-04:00

As you may have noticed, I've been bit hard by the spinning bug and this weekend was the Woodstock Fiber Festival. The WFF is a cute little fair that included an exhibit of our lovely fur-bearing friends. Sheep, and rabbits, and lamas, oh my!

Lots of people would have been willing to bring this cutie home. Those big brown eyes are as soft has his fleece.

Inside the building was a good variety of vendors that included basket weaving, rug hooking, wheels, fleece and wool. I had a definite shopping list in mind that included spindles, all Forresters of course. I'm lucky to have such a resource in my area. The festival had no other spindles of this caliber and in such a variety of weights, in my humble opinion.

The are two for spinning fingering weight singles that I can then ply off from onto my larger first spindle. And the wee holey spindle is for laceweight.

Of course I also bought fiber, like this pretty.

And romantic fiber like this black welsh,

And some more fiber till I accumulated this stash.

And finally niddy-noddy was crossed off my shopping list, to help me manage all the beautiful yarn I'm going to make. Hopefully this will be enough to keep be busy through the year. I'm not as good a spinner as I'd like to be and I only know one way of getting better. Practice. And that requires fiber!

It's all about the Yarn

2010-10-16T13:15:00.000-04:00

Knitting is happening, but these days I seem to be all about the yarn. Spinning does that to you.

I was working on my Koigu Braid when something just clicked. It occurred to me that when I let the twist enter the fiber to pinch just ahead of the part I'd drafted. In other words, to leave some of the drafted fiber out of the twist. This made it easier to draft the next bit of fiber. And from there I flew! I don't even know if I'm still doing that any more, but it was the magic moment. I am now beyond park and really drop spindling. I feel like the training wheels came off my bike.

Oh, I still have so much to learn though! Consistency for one thing.

I still think I can make something out of this yarn. Especially if I stretch it with some commercial yarn.

I got some beautiful batts from Paula at All Strung Out that I'm not ready to spin yet. One is a merino/silk blend and the other is a merino/cashmere blend. I think the merino/silk should be socks and the merino/cashmere should be a shawl. But I can't spin them yet. I want to finish my Koigu braid first, but I also need a lighter spindle. No worries, because next weekend is the Woodstock Fleece Festival!! I'll be there with bells on.

And in other yarn news, I'm very pleased to show off these naturally dyed beauties:

These were originally natural-colored wool I bought at the Waterloo Farmer's Market. Mary Jane cooked them up with some natural dyes and now I've got these coordinated skeins to play with . I love them.

I'd better get back to knitting though. The stash is experiencing a growth spurt.

Catching by Breath

2010-10-11T13:57:00.000-04:00

I'm barely on top of it all these days. Work, family, home improvement, knitting, spinning and oh don't forget to walk the dog... whew!

Last weekend I drove my mom in the rain to Toronto to get her pottery supplies at Tuckers. We had fun in spite of the weather but I caught a cold and that's why there was no blog post.

I'm still spinning and something just clicked this week. I'm getting a fingering weight now on my 50g spindle which is awesome, plus I'm past the park and draft. I'm not trying to make yarn for a project with the Targhee Koigu braid. Instead I'm trying to learn to make good yarn. Easier said than done, but I'm getting there.

I knit my first handspun into a hat, which has already been adopted by a teenaged girl. It's my fault because I asked her to try it on and she squealed. Who can resist a squeal for hand knits?

Top down on a 6mm needle, I started with 5 stitches and increased 5 stitches every other round until it seemed big enough around. Then I knit till I ran out of yarn and used a sewn bind off to finish it. It's a cute little hat, but no good on me what with all the curly hair.

I've also finished another pair of socks. I'm getting a supply in before the really cold weather hits so that my family has warm feet. This pair will be going to Luke, who very much appreciates his handknit socks.

I was trying to use every last bit of yarn in the skein so I worked these toe up with an afterthought heel. I was too aggressive though and ended up short by just three little rows at the end of the heel. So I subbed in some Trekking and you can barely tell. At least I think so. Can you see which sock I had to fudge?

Things I learned at my Spinning Lesson

2010-09-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

A mnemonic for twist direction. S-twist goes to the left so it's sinister and therefore counterclockwise.

Draft to the fiber you want to spin. It's not enough to just open up the fibers, the amount of fiber present will determine the size of the single. Want a smaller single? Then draft less fiber (split it, or take more time during spinning to put less fiber in the single).

The spindle will spin less long on a thicker single because more fiber absorbs more twist. The fiber acts like a shock absorber. It absorbs the energy of the twist faster. To spin that heavier single, use a heavier spindle or be prepared to spin the spindle more often.

You can spin a terribly fine single on a rock. Tabi did this. I watched her. She used a nice smooth beach rock, about the size of an apricot. A couple of fine sticks were wound into the yarn around the rock to anchor the thread being spun.

There is no single right distance between the hands when spinning. The length of the staple determines how far apart your hands should be. Your hands should be slightly further apart than the staple length of the fiber.

If you want to spin a thick and thin yarn, then draft thick and thin. Though in spinning thick and thin, one must be careful to put enough twist in the thick part and not too much twist in the thin. The physics of the thing will want naturally go to the opposite extreme.

A badly weighted whorl spins funky because it's got two axis. Which is sort of like astronomy when a planet wobbles in its orbit.

When the roving gets sucked into the spinning cry "the vortex!" It won't help anything, but it's fun.

It's all in how you look at it

2010-09-20T18:35:00.000-04:00

Having confessed my disappointing yarn to all the world, my brain kept spinning with the topic. (Oh yes, that pun was intended.) I finally caved and dived in to my bag of Black Lamb pencil roving Saturday afternoon. I had no idea how to draft such fine fiber so I didn't bother. Instead I just spun the stuff, straight up. And you know, it was a pretty straight forward process. I got some nice singles that way.

Then things got a little crazy. Instead of stopping half-way through, I spun up the other half of the fiber Saturday evening. And in the wee small hours of Sunday morning, I woke up and was unable to sleep. You know what happens next. I plyed. Both sets of singles.

What's your view?

Is it stubborn mulishness and an unwillingness to be less than my best?

The kinder among you will say it was persistence in the face of difficulties.

Either way, I made a rather nice chunky yarn.

But you know, I'm still disappointed! It should have been a lovely fingering weight. I'm telling myself... next time I'll make fingering weight yarn. Cause you know there will be a next time!

Now to knit it. I'm imagining a nice hat.

Fric Frac Farg!

2010-09-18T09:36:00.000-04:00

Fiddlesticks. What a frustrating week. Spinning is a disaster. It's not even acceptable art yarn. See:

Over spun, under spun, horribly plied. The book said plying was a snap compared to spinning. They lied. Each little balls of singles went into a coffee cup and was tensioned around the handle. Things were going okay until I found myself plying three strands together. What the fric? The outside of the ball got caught on the wool coming from the inside of the ball. That's when I discovered that spinning is not like knitting and you can't rip back your work. Unplying is not a word for a reason.

But I'm not giving up. Oh no. I'm angry-frustrated. Frac it! I'm going to learn to do this. I have a deep want for my own handspun yarn. I'm disappointed that it's not going to be the effortless process it seems to be for some. Pat, I'm looking at you. Though I did go back to your blog and note that you had lessons from others. I think that's what I'm missing. So I've signed up for some spindling lessons and the Forest City Knit Club will be doing some spinning for their first meeting.

In other news, Noro Blankie is a backstabber. I spent an entire evening with her, sewing up one of her seams. There's only one more to go. When I started to put that one more to the rest of the blanket, it was too long. This is the panel I ADDED length too. Farg!! So now I've got to take out what I added, and then take out what's too long.

This week has caused me to wonder at my own abilities and decide I'm not much more than a fumble-handed hack.

At least I can still knit socks.

A Great Big YES!

2010-09-12T09:43:00.001-04:00

It was the knitter's equivalent of Christmas. Remember as a kid, counting down the sleeps till the Big Day? Do you remember wondering with excitement what presents you might open that morning? Speculating on if you might get that big item you've always wanted, but hardly dared hope for? The thing your secret heart wanted, but you never spoke aloud because you knew it was so unlikely you'd ever get it.

Saturday was the Kitchener Waterloo annual Knitter's Fair. This is my Christmas. The day that gets me excited and happy and is full of fun. This year I headed down with Isa and Barb which made for a very fun road trip. I had a pocket full of guilt-free cash and a resolution to only buy what I loved. Again the Fair filled two large ballrooms at Bingemans and again it was packed with wonderful vendors and happy knitters.

I had resolved not to buy sock yarn, but there seemed to be an awful lot of it this year and some of the prices were too good to resist.

The Noro Silk Garden was only $7 a skein and since I love my Silk Garden socks so much, I just had to get some more. The natural yarn is also a silk blend I want to use for dyeing. Then there's the Starry Night. Who could resist silver in your yarn? I later noticed that a lot of vendors had hand-dyed skeins with silver in them, but none had as good a price as the Needle Emporium. And finally the wool-hemp is for swatching for a sweater idea. I think I can make a swatch cap out of this big ball.

I also bumped into a ton of good friends at the Fair, both new ones I've made at the K-W Knit and Chat evenings and old ones from London who were so wonderfully enthusiastic about my return to the London knit group.

One of my new friends is Pauline from All Strung Out. When I was asking around for a spare bedroom to rent for my over-nights in Waterloo, she volunteered her place. What luck! (Jim quaked a bit when I told him I'd found a room with a lady who owns a yarn store. I was thinking how jealous my knit-friends would be. :p) Pauline had a booth at the show and I stopped to say hi, and meet her mom, and ask about her vacation, and we both said how much we were looking forward to our own knit nights when I start staying with her. (Have to wait till after Pauline's mom's visit is over.)

As I was leaving, Pauline happened to ask if I spin. "No," I replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh," says Pauline. "Because I have a spinning wheel you can use if you want."

My heart leapt! My heart knew what it wanted! Oh yes. A big YES.

So now I knew what this Christmas-Fair was going to bring me. I headed over Gemini Fibers and came away with book, spindle, and fiber. I said to the cashier that I felt like I had a new baby. I guess it's all so new and exciting and a bit scary too.

At a different booth, I purchased some fiber to aspire to, which is the superwash merino pencil roving in those pretty pinks and oranges.

I believe it was Wendy at Gemini Fibers who guided me through spindle selection, and the very beginnings of a tutorial. She was very helpful and encouraging. My learning fiber is Coopworth and my spindle is by Thomas C. Forrester. It's a Linum whorl, made of maple.

I started spinning right there at Bingeman's, and then again when I got home even though I was so tired. I always said I'd wait to learn to spin till I had more time, but with weekly access to a wheel... Seriously, how could I say no?

Today, I feel like the happiest kid on Boxing Day. All set to play with my new toys. But first I had to show my friends what I got for Christmas.

Going through a phase

2010-09-06T18:58:00.000-04:00

Noro Blankie and I had a falling out this weekend. Maybe she was in a snit because it had been a while since we hung out, but that wasn't my fault. She's too hot for warm summer weather. Well, like whatever....

At first I thought she was glad to see me. I started working on her seams and we enjoyed some fun time together. We played some tunes and discussed our new favourite band. Everything was going along smoothly, and then wham! She threw a hissy fit at me. As I approached the end of the seam one of her panels was a whole repeat short. And as if this wasn't bad enough, it was on the cast on side. The witch. I mean, if it had been the cast off side I could just undo it and add more length.

But she was all like "Well, it's not as if it were my fault. You knit me." Like I didn't know that. She didn't need to use that snotty tone of voice.

So like, what could I do? I wasn't going to let her diss me like that. I dumped her in a closet and walked out on her. Yeah, maybe I was a bit sulky. I'll admit, I started wanting to hang out with other projects. There's this friendly cardigan see... I even spend an evening chatting with a merino/alpaca scarf. But these new friendships just weren't as satisfying. All the time that Noro blankie and I have spent together means a lot to me. We just need to get over this hump.

So we've made up. She very nicely agreed not to hold the closet time against me and I agreed to just pick up some stitches instead of ripping out all my sewing. In the end, our friendship is going to look a bit patchy, but at least we're still speaking to one another. Which is great, because we still have a long way to go together...

First Day as a Telecommuter

2010-08-30T19:13:00.000-04:00

Today was my first day of working at home.* My perks include:

Zero commute: just roll out of bed and cruise down the hall.
Superior break room: not only does my kitchen have anything I want for lunch, it also includes my family to enjoy lunch with. I played Rock Band during my break with my son, then took the dog out to the yard to play ball for a few minutes.
Quiet: almost too quiet. I found myself singing out loud to myself. I've had to train myself not to talk to myself out loud at work so I wouldn't disturb my co-workers. I don't want to unlearn that skill!
Music: I can play my music out loud instead of having to wear headphones. Which could be a cure for the previous perk.

I got a lot of work done, but I did miss my co-workers. My office assistant kindly helped me out by coming over for a pat periodically.

*Actually Friday was my first day, but it's a bad memory. I couldn't get my laptop to connect wirelessly. The fix involved some highly technical shenanigans that included resetting my router.

I couldn't remember the router's password and so I called Jim at work to ask him if he could remember. Then my eldest son said that he and his friend had reset the password and he explained that the reason was because they could never remember the password. "Well good!" I exclaimed "What's the password then?" His response: "I forget."

And.... Switch!

2010-08-22T14:02:00.000-04:00

I had a very exciting week. I've been hired full-time at my job in Waterloo! Yippee!! And the best part is... I get to work part-time from home! I just have to be in Waterloo on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Fortunately, we've a spare bedroom just waiting to be converted into a home office. Here's my new workspace:

Notice my office assistant? He's going to be very happy to have me at home. Oh, of course, some other people might be pleased too. Maybe Jim and the boys, my extended family and possibly the London knitters.

Oh, I'm just kidding! If they're half as happy as I am the grins will split their faces. Look out London! I'm back.....

Dang Hot!

2010-08-15T16:43:00.001-04:00

It's been too hot for much of anything this past week. Too hot to steam block, but I did it anyway, for all six panels of my Lizard Ridge blanket. I didn't want to wet block it and leave it home to dry all week in the care of my husband and teen-aged boys. The steam block worked just fine and it was quite the thrill to see how the Noro softened up and how the panels looked flat with all their glorious colors on display.

It's been too hot to seam a wool blanket, but I did work up two seams anyway. I love mattress stitch, but this is a bit fiddly because I want the waves to line up. Plus, there's the yarn I carried up the edge confusing things a bit, and some of the colors blend to the point that there are no waves. Only three more seams to go, but I'm waiting for the cooler weather.

It's just too hot for the Lizard Ridge blanket. KnitTech wanted to know how long my Lizard is. Ahem. It's long enough to satisfy me, but I think Jim would like it to be longer.

So what does a Canadian knitter work on during the sweltering mugginess of an August weekend when she wants a little fun? Cat mittens by Jorid.

Oh yeah! That hit the spot!

And, if you'd rather see some hot lace, go check out the new pattern by FishyKissKnits. Lace and beads and colors, oh my!

The Knitting Phase is Over

2010-08-08T18:16:00.000-04:00

The past three weeks at work have been intense. On Friday I finished up the last bit and I told my co-worker it felt like a load off a guilty conscience. Similarily, in my knitting I worked this weekend to finish up the knitting on my Lizard Ridge Blanket. I like how it looks as a mess:

But all laid out, and even unblocked, I can see the potential there just waiting for me to unfurl it. No worries about ugly strips, they all go together beautifully.

I've been puzzling on how to block it out for sewing. A full on wet block would be proper and correct I think, but a quick steam with an iron would be faster.

Pretty Colors

2010-07-31T10:18:00.000-04:00

Can you believe the summer is half over!! This weekend is a long one in Ontario and I'm so ready to have some fun. Work has been crazy busy and next week promises to be the same. A pair of plain stockinette socks were just the ticket for relaxing evening knitting.

Project details over at Ravelry.

And as an extra special treat, there was a prezzie waiting for me when I got home:

Isn't it pretty! I won a contest over at Lismi Knits for guessing what project she was working on. It was Lizard Ridge and that pattern is engraved on my brain. Thanks Christine!! I love the yarn.

Lost in Translation

2010-07-21T20:28:00.001-04:00

I like to read, almost too much. If a book is too interesting, I'll keep reading it and neglect other important things like going for walks or knitting or sleeping. Therefore weekday reading must not be too interesting and so I am currently re-reading Don Quixote. The first time was for my university novel class which was twenty years ago. Don Q has gotten livelier and more interesting over the years. What, you say my comprehension has grown? How kind of you.

The thing I want to share with you is the translator's note to the following passage. In this scene Don Quixote's friends and housekeeper are going over his books deciding which ones to burn because they believe that the novels of chivalry have blurred Don Q's grasp on reality, causing him to think he is a knight.

"With all my heart," said the barber; and not caring to tire himself with reading more books of chivalry, he told the housekeeper to take all the big ones and throw them into the yard. It was not said to one dull or deaf, but to one who enjoyed burning them more than cleaning out the biggest and finest cobwebs. So, seizing about eight at a time, she flung them out of the window.

I am reading a Norton critical edition, geared towards students. The footnote adds clarification for the translation of what the housekeeper enjoyed less than burning the books; the part in italics. The footnote explains:

Ormsby and others translate this as "weave cloth" or "weave a tapestry," which seems illogical. Perhaps the text is faulty.

Faulty! I laughed out loud. When I think of the fiber artists I know and read about who can barely keep their hands off their projects, I perfectly well understand what Cervantes was writing here and I'll bet you do too. The online translations do better by the author's original intentions:

"With all my heart," said the barber; and not caring to tire himself with reading more books of chivalry, he told the housekeeper to take all the big ones and throw them into the yard. It was not said to one dull or deaf, but to one who enjoyed burning them more than weaving the broadest and finest web that could be; and seizing about eight at a time, she flung them out of the window.

Ah yes! That would be a true test of what is more enjoyable. I think what was really lost in translation was a man's comprehension of how much a woman might enjoy her weaving.

Bonehead

2010-07-18T10:07:00.001-04:00

I've got no knits that are news-worthy to share. I did finish the second foot on Jim's Clessidra knee-highs which is nice. And I made a stupendous error in judgment with regards to gauge that has temporarily halted progress on my Lizard Ridge blanket.

See, I was having difficulty finding the right needles to work the strips of the pattern. I tried circulars, but the cable was getting in my way. So I bought a pair of pink plastic needles at the Zellars in Waterloo because they are short. I knit most of the stripes on them, but after a while they made my hands ache because the yarn doesn't slide around on them well. I got really fed up with them. Yet I was eager to work on the project because I could see the end nearing, so I switched needles at home for a pair of DPNs, putting point protectors on the ends so the yarn wouldn't slide off. Now I could go to town on the project and did, finishing the last strip this week in Waterloo.

Except...

As I was about ready to bind off, I was congratulating myself on having so much more yarn leftover than usual....

And then it hit me. I'll bet my gauge was off between the pink plastic needles and the DPNs. Why the heck didn't I check? Did I think I was immune to the laws of gauge? What a bone head! I made myself step away from the knitting and stuffed the offending fabric into it's ziploc baggie for the trip back to London.

Then I pondered my choices and I've come to my conclusion. I'm not going to rip, or re-knit or let this project die a slow death at the back of the closet. I have a plan and this is it. I'm going to knit this smaller gauged strip to match the length of the other strips. Yes, the lizard's ridges won't match up and I've decided that this is going to be the creative, innovative, wonderful feature of my blanket. I'm also considering buying a few more balls of Noro to make another small-gauge strip, just to emphasize this special feature of my blanket.

Except I have to get over my annoyance with the project to actually knit it. I won't deny that I started a plain stockinette sock this weekend. I'm thinking of it as a confidence booster. Also, there were distractions. We had a fun Saturday night out. The whole family went to visit old friends who also have teen aged kids and the eight of us all went downtown to the Home County Folk Festival to listen to Bruce Cockburn. It was a beautiful evening and just the way you want a summer's day to end, by forgetting all your troubles.

Randomly Rambling

2010-07-10T08:32:00.000-04:00

I'm rambling along this Saturday morning with a collection of knit-thoughts to share with you.

I've refooted Jim's favourite socks, Clesidra (first knit in April 2007). Remember when I darned them? Well darned if that didn't work so well. The patch held, but it wasn't big enough. Jim wears the socks a lot and they were just wore out.

Then another knitter asked why didn't I reknit the foot? Good question! I even found a whole ball of the exact same sock yarn in the stash. This time around I made an improvement by adding re-enforcement at the exact spots that wore out.

It's an intarsia patch just at the ball of the foot. There's a similar one at the heel turn. It's not a lot of fun to knit, but I expect that it will extend the life of the sock. Jim pulled the first completed one on last night with a sigh of "Ah, my old friend." How's that for appreciation!

In the "I should have my head examined" department, I've been thinking about that Rowan Aran weight yarn and dreaming over sweater patterns. This past week has been so hot, with temperatures in the 30s, and so muggy, the air has been a soup of smog and moisture, that one can't even step out the door without breaking into a sweat that immediately pools into a slick of moisture on the skin. Everyone has been huddled inside air conditioning. Actually, I'm sitting under the air vent at work, so I've been well refrigerated. I've found it necessary to wear my shawls, and step outside to "heat up" periodically. Perhaps that's why I'm dreaming of knitting sweaters.

So I've narrowed it down to two patterns I love. The contenders are Faery Ring and St. Brigid. The problem of course is fit. I don't want this sort of fit:

So I'd have to do some modifications to either pattern to account for my shape. Faery Ring has a style similar to one of my favourite store bought sweaters that I love.

I know I'm going to love working with the Rowan yarn and I want a finished object that I will want to wear a lot. Even though it's still hot, I may start swatching soon. A swatch will tell me a lot more about which pattern is better suited to the yarn.

This week, Mason-Dixon Knitting posted a link to the same video I'd posted last weekend. I clicked the link through to where Kay had seen it and darned if that blog didn't link back to here. An example of six degrees of separation on the knitternet. Or only three I guess...

I've been reading "The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath". Not your typical light summer reading, but I've been enjoying it. It makes me think. The author examines how humans treat animals and the contradictions in our treatment. She also writes about various activists and their ideas. I haven't quite finished reading it and I'm curious to see what her personal stance will turn out to be. I'm still thinking about my own.

Okay, I'm rambled out. Have a great weekend!!

Must See YouTube

2010-07-04T06:56:00.006-04:00

When someone asks you why you knit, point them to this video.

Thanks Marcy!

Live or Let Rip

2010-07-03T15:29:00.000-04:00

I'm almost finished the fourth strip for my Lizard Ridge afghan and I have finally decided, after weeks of effort, that perhaps this isn't a very pretty strip. In fact it may be the ugliest strip ever knitted for a Noro blanket.

Perhaps it will look better in context. Once it is surrounded by the other strips, this fugly one may pick up some tips on looking good from its peers. Or it may be that this strip will make the others look even prettier just by being near them, like a homely bridesmaid in a wedding party.

I've decided to finish it. After all, I won't really know until all the strips are blocked and laying out together. If I think it ruins the blanket I can always buy more yarn (I'm good at that) and make a new strip.

A Big Night

2010-06-29T09:18:00.000-04:00

It was a big night in our house last night as Alex prepared for his grade eight graduation ceremonies. There were shaving lessons to be given, and hair styling to be performed and a tie to be adjusted to put the finishing touches on this:

It's hard for me to believe that this tall handsome fellow was once my puffer-belly baby. Well, maybe not so hard, he was a beautiful baby after all.

And now you know why I was working so hard to finish the Aeolian shawl. It was so I could stand proudly next to my boy for this:

It was so much fun to fuss over my son and I loved how he enjoyed his big night. His good friends were there and we re-capped their Halloween shot:

Look out world, here they come!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Lunch

2010-06-28T15:45:00.000-04:00

I met with my knit-buddy Mary Jane for lunch today in downtown London. Mary Jane lives in Essex and works in London. Now that I work in Waterloo, we haven't had any opportunities to see each other and we don't anticipate many more in the future. Yes, we communicate via the knitternets, but it's not quite the same thing.

Now, I'd heard through the grapevine that London's high-end yarn store, Needles and Pins, was going out of business. This is very sad news. The fact that they are selling everything at 50% off was very dangerous news. My stash is getting a bit poogey, to tell the truth, and I've been trying to slim it down. Knitting a lace shawl doesn't help much, despite the vast number of stitches involved, but it's summer time and we all do what we can. But Needles and Pins is closed on Mondays, so I felt safe in driving buy and saying a fond farewell to the place.

Oh, you can guess where this is going, can't you? It's like watching a scary movie and the music is building and you shout to the teenaged girl "No! Don't open the door! He's got an axe!"

As I drove by two sights met my eyes, one was the big 50% sign. The other was the word OPEN. Before I knew it my steering wheel had veered sharply to the right and I found myself in the the door. I had half and hour before lunch and no restraint. I walked out of there with 58 balls of Rowan and only a vague idea of how much it all cost.

It's a good thing to have knit-buddies in times like these because as I slid into the booth across from Mary Jane and explained why I was late, the only thing I got from her was sympathy. "Been there, done that!" she told me with a laugh.

And yes, I have confessed the whole lurid story to Jim. It's my money he told me and he pointed out that I'd spent all my holiday money. The only thing I didn't tell him about was the parking ticket I got because I forgot to put money in the meter!

Can't All be Perfect

2010-06-26T18:49:00.000-04:00

Today begins summer vacation. One week for Jim and I, and two months for the boys. It doesn't sound fair, does it?

No matter. Last weekend Jim and I enjoyed a wonderful time together in Waterloo to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. We ate too much, laughed a lot, and enjoyed one perfect day on Sunday. I figure a perfect day only comes along a few times in anyone's lifetime, so it should be treasured and savoured. it was perfect because there was never an off moment between the two of us and everything we did was enjoyable. We went to the Wings of Paradise butterfly conservatory and to the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery. We finished up the day with a fabulous dinner at Margarita's. The food was very fresh, creative and perfectly prepared. Yum!

Today we tidied the house, got some groceries, I cooked for the dog and we visited my mother-in-law. Being away, I don't have a chance to look after my loved ones very well. So the house keeps getting messier, and the dog hasn't been eating very well lately, and my mother-in-law is looking frail after a minor fall. There's not a lot I can do and I don't feel guilty about it (much).

The shawl is finished and is currently blocking on my bed. Its huge! I have a queen size bed and the shawl doesn't quite fit, I had to pin it over the edge.

Pinning it out almost drove me to tears. First I started pinning it to the floor of my knitting room. But there wasn't enough space and the thing was almost drying out already, plus I hadn't sewn in my ends! So, I unpinned it and I dutifully sewed in the ends (but didn't cut them). Then I wet it down again and just squeezed out the water so I could start pinning it out all over again.

This was just before we were going to visit my mother-in-law, and I didn't want to be late but I also wanted the shawl to come out right. So I was bent over the bed, pinning and re-pinning till I was slick with sweat and my legs were beginning to tremble. I was getting so frustrated with it!

I asked Jim to look at it and help me but he didn't know what I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to take a match to the whole thing and just destroy it. It didn't look right. Jim wanted to know what "right" looked like and I said even and perfect like the ones I've seen on the net. He just gave me a look. The look that says "Woman, you know perfect is overrated." I guess he's right because it does look pretty darned good, even if it is uneven.

I don't think anyone will even notice once it's being worn. Oh yeah, and to add insult to injury, I blocked it knit-side down. We can't all be perfect...

If You can't say Anything Nice...

2010-06-13T13:40:00.000-04:00

My teenage boys are very tall. ~~I call them lurch and slouch.~~ They are fun loving kids with an excellent sense of humour and a well-developed sense of play~~, watching stupid videos on the net and playing video games all day~~. They've taken on quite a bit of household chores while I'm away in Waterloo, including cooking, dishes and cleaning bathrooms. ~~I just spent 15 minutes arguing with my eldest about why the dishes should be done NOW and not later.~~ We miss each other, but they understand the importance of my work to the family. ~~I've just been told that life is a lot easier when I'm not around during the week.~~

I'm still working on my red shawl. ~~It's a freaking blob of crimson stitches that never ends.~~ But it's not photogenic at this stage. It's not much of anything but potential.

Next weekend, Jim is coming to Waterloo for a visit, so I don't know if I'll have a blog post then. Not to worry, because the week after that I'm on vacation, Alex has his graduation, and the shawl should be complete. Please have patience with me till then. ~~Teenage years are a phase and this too shall pass...~~

Wonderful

2010-05-30T21:23:00.000-04:00

One of my favourite things to do at this wonderful time of the year is to sit out on the patio. With a lovely knit project, a family game of Scrabble, a cool drink and a dog in the grass.

I hope you also had a wonderful weekend.

Rest and Relaxation

2010-05-24T19:10:00.000-04:00

It`s been a glorious May 24 weekend. I`ve had lots of fun, sun, rest, relaxation and socializing. But also housecleaning, shopping and cooking. It`s amazing what a difference that one extra day makes.

Oh yes, there was also knitting. Have you seen this magazine?

It is packed with projects using traditional techniques taken from back issues of Piecework magazine. There are some really great things in here. Like Bohus:

And Finnish mittens:

And twined mittens, also known as two-ended knitting:

I tired twined knitting a couple of years ago, but gave it up because not only is it incredibly slow to work, but it is also recommended that you use a yarn with a Z-twist. Most commercial yarns are S-twist and they tend to come unspun when working twined knitting. See, here's the difference between the two types of twist:

And see this, a close up of the yarn shown above with the magazine:

That's z-twist yarn!!! I was flabbergasted. You know where I got it? You'll never guess. At the Waterloo farmer's market! I was at the market just last Thursday and I bought the yarn to support the local farmer, and because it's nice stuff from a British milk-sheep. So now I think I want to make twined mittens or socks.

But also in the same magazine was a pattern for Party Socks by Nancy Bush:

Oh yes! Party-hearty weekend!! Knit on my friends. :)

End of an Era

2010-05-16T15:38:00.000-04:00

The company I formerly worked at for seven years, TVWorks, will be closing its doors June 25th. This week I was in London with Sandvine, my current employer, as part of their job fair for recruitment. It was a strange occasion for me. I was delighted to see my former co-workers, many of whom are also my friends. It was like I'd never been gone. But I'm sad to know that the place is closing down. Being there in person brought it home to me. But I'm hopeful that I'll end up meeting some of those good people again, in other times at other companies.

Fortunately, this weekend the weather has been a huge pick me up, with blue skies and warmer temperatures. Garden centers were packed with happy people picking out plantings. I know, because Jim and I were there too. We got our front garden weeded and put in a few new plants, something we do every year. We're not the smartest gardeners. We plant, and hope. That's about it.

When we moved here, there was one spindly clematis planted by the garden shed, in heavy shade. I transplanted it to the front of the house where it roasted to a crisp in dry sandy soil and full light. After two years, it still wasn't dead, so I gave it a try again over by the side of the house. This year it has fully recovered and is going gang busters. I'm seeing lots of growth and many buds. Brave thing!

And now for the knitting. Here's a progress pic of my Lizard Ridge:

It's coming along great and still lots of fun to work. I decided to divide my 20 balls of Noro into three packs of mostly reds and two packs of mostly blues. This was my little way of putting my personal stamp on a ubiquitous blanket. I like it fine.

I'm looking almost halfway there and thinking about casting on a shawl. It's such a treat for me to knit with Noro, I feel like savouring it. Plus a shawl is great summer knitting, and there are so many beautiful free patterns out there.

I've lately come to the conclusion that so long as I have yarn and needles there's really nothing to stop me from casting on and abandoning as many WIPs as I want. I generally get around to finishing them eventually. Radical thinking I know, but as the song says "If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad..."

The Gift of Giving

2010-05-09T18:01:00.000-04:00

This Mother's Day I gave myself the gift of making others happy.

For my mother, the lovely orchids you see to the left in this picture. She was delighted with them and with me.

For my godmother, an Icarus shawl:

I knit this shawl for the fun of it, and as I neared the finish, I decided that it would make a nice gift for my god mother. I didn't know that she's been going through a rough time lately with illness, both for herself and her daughter. This shawl came at a good time. But even better, I could tell she was just thrilled to have me visit, which I haven't done in quite a while. You know how life can get in the way.

My sons cooked for me, and bought me chocolates and resolved not to fight with each other. The sun even chose to shine by the time I was ready to walk the dog.

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's day too.

Backyard Romance

2010-05-02T20:13:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to finish up a shawl just now. One that I'd like to give as a Mother's day gift to a lovely lady who was very motherly to me. Now that the weather is so nice, I like to knit outside on the patio. Dexter always comes with me too. But lately it hasn't been very peaceful in our back yard. Meet the reason why:

This is Esmé. She lives next door. If Dexter and I are hanging out in the backyard it's not long before we hear scratching and whining as Juliette strives to be reunited with her Romeo. I'm no Montague and as a result we have this to enjoy:

Oh yes, it is a fierce romance.

It isn't always pretty.

But they are a happy couple.

It's so nice for everyone in the family to be happy.

True Colors

2010-04-25T17:23:00.000-04:00

Every project on the needles pales in comparison to this:

Hello, my name is Laurie and I'm a Noro-addict. Even though I know it's not the best of yarns, it's thick-n-thin, twisty, scratchy and knotty natured, I'm endlessly fascinated by the seductive color.

I returned home from Waterloo this weekend to my package from Little Knits and almost immediately dived right in. How could I resist?

I played around with other ideas for creating my blanket, but decided to stick with Lizard Ridge to maximize the yardage of the Noro. With twenty balls of yarn to work with, I've decided to work five panels each using four balls, thereby eliminating wasting yarn in horizontal seams.

It's ridiculous how much I can hardly wait to see how the next color wave will play out, how eagerly I'm anticipating the next panel which I'm planning to be more blue-green.

In other news, work and commuting continue to be exciting. I've had a few growing pains, but I'm learning SO much! This weekend we took the boys out for brunch as a family treat. It's funny how getting them out of the house changes their behaviour. They're much funnier and more polite. They actually told me they missed me. I choose to believe it.

Now, if I could just have some sunny weather on the weekend...

Color Riot

2010-04-11T11:13:00.000-04:00

It's been another busy and successful week in Waterloo. While in Waterloo, I've been working on a shawl, Icarus, and I'm just getting to the exciting part of the lace, but I'm home again and having a riot. A color riot.

I left my Folklore yoke in London because I'm playing with all the colors in my crayon box. It's slow going but so much fun! On Saturday I decided it was time to do a sanity check, since I'm not working to gauge and I'm sizing the pattern up. So half the stitches went onto a spare circular and I laid it down over the yoke of my last successful knit:

It's lookin' good! I'm happy with the neck line too. I found that the green and purple yoke sweater rides a bit high on my neck and can get irritating.

These two projects have me interested and are exciting, but there's more excitement coming. I received notice of a sale this week that was irresistible and I bought enough yarn to make Lizard Ridge. I tried to make this blanket once before without success. I'm feeling much more confident in my color skills this time. I've learned not to play it safe!

Play

2010-04-04T15:24:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter! I came home this weekend to sunny skies, green grass and little flowers popping up in the lawn. We've had family visits, lots of time to sit out in the sun, dog walks and visits with the neighbour's dog for some ruff and tumble play. Very fun.

All week long I had knit not a stitch as I'd brought the Nintendo DS to Waterloo with me and was absorbed hard core in Pokemon Diamond. But color stitches were calling me, so this weekend I've been working on Folklore:

I love the brights!! The rest of the sweater is going to be the navy color which should be able to support that much color. This is another top-down yoked sweater so I'm confidently re-sizing the pattern and using a different gauge of yarn. My intention is to compare the size of this yoke against my purple and green one to ensure I'm on the right track.

This is a process knit for sure though. I'm not even sure I care if the finished project is flattering or not. I'm just having so much fun getting wild and crazy with the color. It's been awesome.

And in other news, have you heard of Stuff on my Cat? Today, we had stuff on my dog:

Oh my! I just checked, and there's also Stuff on my Dog. I should have known....

Spring Things

2010-03-28T11:27:00.000-04:00

Finally, I have a finished object to show! You are probably not surprised to see that it is a pair of socks:

Pattern: Nancy Bush's Child's First Sock
Yarn: Fleece Artist Nyoni in color Orchid
Needles: 2.5mm

I thought I was making myself a pair of socks, but I wasn't. These annoy me somehow. It's not the color variation between the pair. I almost expect that from Fleece Artist. I think it's that the color is too close to the color of my skin. The socks make think of bacon. With a color name like orchid I thought they would be flowery spring time socks. Instead, I want a BLT when I see them.

It's just me though. Jim thinks they are lovely socks. He doesn't think of bacon when when he sees them and he and the boys think that bacon is nature's perfect food.

I've decided to put them away for a future gift. Mother's day is coming you know. Spring has already arrived in sounthern ontario. There are crocuses, ducks on the neighbour's pool and at work they had to send out a notice that the Canada geese are back so please drive careful in the parking lot!

Laughing the Weekend Away

2010-03-21T07:05:00.000-04:00

The homesickness only lasted that one night. My evenings in Kitchener seem quite full what with working late and going for a long walk in my new neighbourhood. Walking is my exercise and I love to wander, so there's a whole new challenge when you're transplanted to an area that's entirely new to you. I'm building a map of the area in my head and as lots of people have already told me, Waterloo is twisty! There's lots of winding streets, cut-throughs and double backs.

After my walk, I fix a quick supper, get cleaned up and then have a nice phone chat with Jim. We have a couples plan so we don't have to watch our minutes. It's sooooo nice to flake out on the bed and gab away at him. We've been playing the "you hang up, no you hang up game", just to be silly. A little bit of knitting and then I'm so tired I fall right asleep.

The weekend is the big pay off for my week of hard work. Being away means that the whole family just wants to hang out more. Jim and I have the giggle fits, the kids are hugging me and the dog is cavorting around like a puppy. Someone told me that there would be a honeymoon period and then it wouldn't be as lovely and I wouldn't be surprised if that's true. But right now, I'm loving and laughing my weekend away.

Away from Home

2010-03-16T20:49:00.001-04:00

The new job has totally thrown my life into a new loop. Not only do I have all new colleages, new technology and new process to learn; not only do I have a new car, a new cellphone and a new city to get used to; now I also have new diggs to settle in to!

See, the commute totally kicked my butt. I will freely admit that when I arrived home after my first day I threw myself at Jim and cried "What have I got myself into!" Literally cried. I was so exhausted, not only from the new situation and the commute but also because I hadn't been sleeping well from excitement. So on the second day, I stayed at the Howard Johnson's and got a good night's sleep. After that, I decided I needed to find a place to stay in town.

Long story short, tonight is my first night in my new rented room. Want to see where I'll be sleeping?

I had fun picking out girly sheets and of course I had to have a knitted blanket to throw on my bed. Makes it feel more homey.

One of the perks of my new quarters is Misty, the cat. Misty already discovered my lovely Noro throw; I found it all rumpled when I went back upstairs after dinner.

And of course I brought my family with me. They've got their own little shrine in place.

I've never lived on my own. I moved out of my parent's house straight into Jim's apartment and we've been together every since. I'm a bit excited to be responsible only for myself during the week, and I feel sort of like a college kid, away from home for the first time. But right now I'm starting to feel a wave of homesickness. I guess that's part of the experience.