End of an Era

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Getting Ready for a Big Change

Yeah me!!  I'm so pleased and proud to announce that I have found a challenging new job as a technical writer for a software company.  I'm really excited and therefore very glad that I start Monday.  I can't wait to dig in to it.

But I had just one little problem in my way.  As some of you may remember, my car was wrecked in a crash in September and I chose to ride the bus rather than replace it.  This works fine for London, but my new job is in Waterloo!  And while we may choose to move at a later date if everything works out, I'm going to have to commute in the mean time. 

So, Jim and I went car shopping and now I have this, a 2009 Dodge Avenger:

I'm so happy!!  So if you don't hear much from me over the next little while, its because I'm either on the road or brain deep in learning new tech stuff.  Wish me luck!!

A Sheep, Some Socks and a Sweater

Introducing my newest pal, Paavo!

Ain't he sweet?  I've had the pattern for the Estonian hand puppet in my queue for such a long time, I'm so glad I finally picked up the needles to make it. 

I added a braid to the cuff and followed the pictures to give my sheep a dark face as I see on so many breeds of sheep.

Come on, there's a family resemblance.  I'm sure you can see it.

I chose the name Paavo because it means small and humble, but I think my sheep has a mischiveous side.  His smile is lopsided and he has a twinkle in his eye.

 

I've also been working on another pair of Skews.  Those who know me realize that this is a rare sight, as I'm a die-hard DPN knitter:

Skew is well suited to the technique of working two socks on one circular because of how the heels are shaped.  The pattern just increases up until the moment of grafting, which means I won't have to stop to work each heel separately.

But look at the color on these socks.  If you didn't know I was knitting both ends of the same ball of yarn, you would hardly think it's the same yarn.  Color isn't everything though.  The yarn is working up into a nice fabric and the toe of the sock goes into your shoe anyway.  The yarn seems to be darkening up as I progress.

My last yoked sweater project was finished weeks ago, but it was a disappointment because it was too tight for Jim.  It looked just silly on him. So I searched around for another person it would fit and didn't have far to look.  One of Luke's freinds was quite happy to accept a lovely warm sweater in exchange for her picture being posted to this blog:

 It looks fabulous on her! 

I'm not done with top down yoked sweaters yet though.  I've found the next pattern I want to work: Folklore.  I've bought the pattern and now must consider yarn choices and mathematics for up-sizing it.  What a fun task for a Sunday afternoon! 

Good luck to all you Olympic knitters as you approach your final laps.  I hope your can hold your needles high in triumph as the flame is extinguished tonight.  Paavo and I will be cheering from the sides (and maybe singing O Canada).

It's Sock Time Again!

Hey kiddies!  Do you know what time it is?

That's right, it's sock time again!!

Seriously, it's always sock time around here.  Socks are the most appreciated knits of all time.  And the most worn, and therefore the most worn out.  I've had to pitch a pair this week and have two more pair that are vainly holding on through threadbare nylon.  Jim has also had the treads in his threads wear away. 

Here's a pair for my mother-in-law's birthday:

 

Lorna's laces, colorway unknown, 2.25mm.  Plain and simple is how she likes it best.  These socks were well received at a small birthday gathering I gave on Sunday accompanied by a prime rib roast dinner, and chocolate birthday cake.  If I love you, or even like you a whole lot, I will most likely try to feed you and possible try to clothe you in hand knit woolens. 

Have you seen the hottest new sock pattern?  It's Skew! 

Everybody is knitting this pattern.  Well, at least it's at the top of the pattern list on Ravelry.  Probably because of it's clever geometric shaping that makes working the heel as fun as reading a mystery novel.  And the toes are anatomically correct, however not photogenic.

These were knit with Fleece Artist's Nyoni, colorway Wicked, on 2.5mm needles.  I used DPNs even though the pattern doesn't recommend them because of the need to continually shuffle the stitches around. It can be done; I managed just fine.

I found the fit to be awkward around the ankle for my big feet, even though I tried to size the pattern up by using a bigger needle size with a heavier fingering weight yarn.  The designer does have a larger size prototype with notes on her blog.  I'm seriously considering making another pair.  Perhaps two on one circular...

In other news, I've started up a wiki for the Forest City Knitters. Go check it out!

A Bright Spot on the Net

I've finished a sweater, wiped out at the Knitting Olympics, and celebrated three holidays in one weekend.  All that and no blog post.  But this incredible art has inspired me to pound the keys and share the linkage.

 

Isn't he the greatest?!  He's a Rainbow Toe Sock Goblin by Kasey Sorsby.  You can see more of her creations on Ravelry, her blog, or purchase them from her Etsy store, TangleWood. 

Fashion Report

Fresh from the runways of London (Ontario), this blog's favourite male model is sporting the year's hottest new fashion trend, the man-shrug:

 

  

  

What?  You don't think it will take off?

This is my Saturday Morning

 

Being home from work means not having to rush out Saturday morning to grocery shop.  I'm surprised I'm not doing more knitting, but I'm so busy during the day, I don't seem to find the time.  I spend the entire morning on job hunt activities, the afternoon cleaning, walking the dog and playing video games and the evening is for knitting.  My kids got me started playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Good escapist fun!

I played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time way back when I was a games developer and just loved it.  So much so, I played it through twice, or was that three times?  Twilight Princess gives me more of what I loved about the Ocarina.  It's like coming back to a good book. (Just for the record Wind Waker was okay, but Majora's Mask was too confusing. Neither were as memorable as Ocarina.)

Last weekend I'd finished up the yoke of the stained glass pullover and tried it on.  It was too big.  I should have paid more attention to the initial planning of the project instead of rushing in.  Oh well.  Nothing a ball winder can't undo.  This week I've been working on Jim's yoked pullover and I'm now on the second sleeve.   Slow progress.... 

Once two sleeves are done I'll do the neck band and we'll have another fitting. I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of the main blue color so there will likely be some creative substitution going on.

Sock Stuff

As I mentioned in my last post, there has been sock activity going on here too.  A pair of socks for Luke, knit from Fleece Artist Nyoni:

Of course, the picture doesn't do them justice.  The yarn is just gorgeous, the colours subtle and there was way more in the skein than I thought. The pattern is Nancy Bush's Madder Ribbed Sock, and I worked it as written, with an 8 inch leg.  The foot fits a men's size nine and yet there was a generous portion of yarn left over, shown below with the sock for scale.

Before Christmas I'd found the Nyoni yarn on sale for just $12 a skein.  I'm so glad I stocked up then, because now I've got a lovely stash of the stuff.

The other thing I did was dye up some yarn.  Jackie at the Forest City Knit Club volunteered to take 10 skeins of my white Paton's Kroy and knit it up into sock blanks.  (In return, I owe her an unknown favour, which would feel like a dangerous carte blanche except Jackie is so nice.) I wanted to experiment with gradual color changes, so I decided monochrome colors was the way to go.  Here's the results:

Again with the crappy pictures, but what can you expect in January?  I'm satisfied with the result, but I think the purple would have been better with a longer gradation of color.

Unrelated to socks, I was sitting in a job seminar today about networking and through the glass door of the meeting room I spotted a woman come into the Coffee Office wearing a brightly colored Koigu sweater made of many blocks of mitered squares, framed in a brilliant turquoise blue.  What a lovely breath of life in January! 

Betcha can't have just one!

I love my yoked pullover so much, I've accidentally started two more.  First I started one for Jim using another Drops pattern and some Elsbeth Lavold Classic picked up a while back.  But both Jim and I didn't like the placement of the colors so it had to be ripped. 

There's not enough contrast and Jim felt that one of the blues was too bright.  Ripping was no problem though because this yarn is lovely to work with and held up well.  Here's attempt number two and the colors are just right.

From here on, the light blue is the main color, knit in plain stockinette, so it was time for Jim to try it on.  But the results were disappointing.  It seemed tight at the shoulders and loose at the neck.  I was so frustrated.  So I put it aside, finished a pair of socks, dyed some yarn, and started another yoked pullover, this time for me.

Since the first one was so great, I decided to make the same pattern again, but it had to be different some how.  So I'm using sock yarn, with a bright colored yoke (Trekking XXL) and dark body and sleeves. Also,  I'll make it a cardigan so there will be a blue button band and collar.  In hindsight I think I was inspired by the tin I use to hold my knitting bits and bobs. 

It makes me happy. Before blogging, I got Jim to try on his yoke again so I could take a picture and ask for advice, but you know, it doesn't look so bad anymore.

Looks like I've got two sweaters to woo me. I wonder which will win?

Good News, Bad News

When there's good news and bad news I like to give the bad news first and follow up with the good news.  It's like taking a nasty medicine and following that up with a spoonful of sugar, letting the sweet taste minimize the bad taste in your mouth.

Well, this week I got some pretty bad news.  I was let go from my job as a technical writer as part of a cost reduction in the company.  I've been with the same company for close to seven years and I'm going to miss all the great people I worked with.  On the positive side, I received a good severance package that includes outplacement counseling and I'll be starting that on Monday.  I've decided to treat this as an opportunity and so I'm looking forward to the counseling as an opportunity to re-evaluate my career. 

Now, for the good news.  I finished my yoked pullover and I love it!

Now doesn't that put a smile on your face?

Navel Gazing

In 2009 I knit this much:

3 sweaters
1 vest
3 hats
2 shawls
3 scarves
4 pairs of gloves
3 pairs of felted clogs
2 blankets
8 socks

Which is down from 2007,  when I knit this much:

9 sweaters
8 hats
3 pairs mittens
2 pairs felted clogs
2 scarves
2 dish rags
2 small bags
2 shawls
18 pairs of socks

Playing video games and walking the dog accounts for the bulk of the change.  But I also think I'm a more adventurous knitter than I was before.  Which means there is more ripping going on, and more projects half-started and then abandoned.  I'm satisfied with the trade off. 

Last year, I'd made a resolution that 2009 was going to be the year Jim and I cleared out the debt in our power line-of-credit.  But early in the year, work dried up for Jim and it looked like we weren't going to meet that goal.  However, when my car was wrecked we made the decision to pay of the debt with the insurance pay out and now I'm taking the bus.  I didn't expect to meet my goal with such a drastic measure.

So, no resolutions this year.  Seems a safer bet.  Instead, I've got intentions.  I intend to take the bus the rest of this year so that we can increase our savings and fix our house up.  In addition, I'm predicting that automotive technology will be seeing a major revolution over the next few years.  It feels like saving up to buy a car would be a smarter idea than going into debt to buy one that may shortly be obsolete. I'm not an early adopter.  I want the kinks worked out before I spend my cash.

Other intentions for this year include not buying yarn on sale. Yes, I'll buy yarn. But I think I want to buy for specific projects as I'm ready to knit them, instead of buying for the stash.  The stash has enough yarn.  No, I don't believe that the stash is alive and will punish me for not feeding it.  It's a charming image and helps alleviate guilt, but as I told my bicycle when I was first learning to ride it at the age of seven, "I'm the boss of this ride!" 

Finally, my personal growth goal is to try to be more compassionate to people that annoy me.  I believe I'm already a very compassionate person, but I've realized that I'm choosy with my compassion.  I give it where it's easy to give. It's a lot harder to be compassionate to someone who has annoyed you, or is mean, or is very close to you.  I'm not compassionate enough with my own family, including myself.  Trying to have more compassion is part of learning that it is not all about me, a lesson I believe we all have to learn over and over again starting from birth.

The yoked sweater proceeds well, and I'm currently knitting the ribbing.  It's nasty.  Well over 400 stitches on 2.5mm needles and I want to get about 5 inches done.  It seems impossible, especially since the knitting is so snug on the needles it hurts my hands.  I'm glad this is at the end of the sweater, because were it at the beginning I'm sure I would abandon this project as not working out.

Worse is yet to come.  When I finish the tortuous ribbing, I intend to use a sewn tubular bind off to finish it.  That's how I did the neck and cuffs, so I want the bottom to match.  I just know it's going to take for ever, require many splices and drive me loony.  But I'm going to do it anyway.  How's that for a great start to my intentions?  Not very compassionate of me to force myself to finish the sweater like this...  But it's the right thing to do, I'm sure of it.

Ringing in the New Year

My ears are still ringing at least.  Five of Luke's friends came over to our house for a New Year's Eve party.  It was about as loud as I expected but they didn't eat as much as I expected.  I had made mounds of food and now have half a mound of leftovers.  For one thing, I made a double loaf of garlic bread from scratch.  While it looks pretty, it wasn't edible.  I didn't cook it long enough and the center was doughy and raw.  Oh well, I'll know better next time.

But fun?  Oh man! These were great kids, very open, funny and with a lot of heart.  I can't imagine a better way to welcome 2010.

Thank you for all the well wishes regarding my illness.  It wasn't too bad and it did encourage me to rest and take it easy.  I got quite a bit of knitting done and here it is.

The pattern is a free one from Drops Designs, but I modified it to work it from the top down.  I started with a cabled cast on, and worked the yoke essentially as written, except upside down which means reading the pattern backwards.  Sounds confusing, but it wasn't so bad.

The benefit of top down is trying it on and I have, several times, which resulted in some ripping.  I required more stitches cast on under the arm for the sleeves and a different rate of decrease in the sleeves.  But it's all good because the sleeves are now exactly right for me and my shape. 

After the sleeves, I tackled the neckband which took two tries.  The first time I picked up stitches, I did so right in the cabled cast on which left holes. I kept knitting thinking the ribbing would pull it in.  I kept knitting in spite of the little voice that told me it was not good enough.  I was almost finished the ribbing before I finally listened and ripped it back to start over.  I'm glad I did because now I'm in love with the finished result.

You can't tell from looking at it that the knitting is going in opposite directions, can you?

Moving on to the body of the sweater, I started with a set of 12 (or more) short rows to allow for my bust.  Now I'm working plain stockinette for a good long while.  Working fingering weight yarn on 3.25mm needles is not a speedy process.  It's great movie knitting though.

I hope your New Year is filled with a happy noise and lots of beautiful knitting too.