Cute Hat, Sports Hat

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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...

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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?

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

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.