The Story of a Swap

Set right down there with your cup o' joe and kick back for a spell, I've a mite of a story to share.

I was hangin' out on Ravelry the other day ('cuse me for dropin' names) an' a friend of mine mentioned that she knew of a gal who was lookin' for a skein of Noro Silk Garden. Now my friend knew I've been pickin' up odd balls and sods of Noro here and there, so she brought this to my attention, hopin' I could help.

It seems that a nice knitterly lady named Elizabeth had knit herself a sweater but she couldn't finish the dang thing on account of how she ran out of yarn. Alls she needed was one more ball to finish. Now I know you can sympathize with her predicament as could I. So's I wrote Elizabeth about things such as color numbers and dye lots and such like and it turns out that I had exactly the skein she needed.

Well of course I said I'd send it to her, and she wanted to know what I'd like in return. "Send me sock yarn." says I. So she did.


Now ain't that just the prettiest danged sock yarn you ever did see? I've never heard of this yarn. It's called MadelineTosh Highland Sock, in the color Ocean. Oh yes, and Elizabeth received her skein of Noro Silk Garden today too. I just loves me a happy ending!

A Busy Weekend

All my weekends are busy these days. Dexter must still be walked, even though I'd rather sleep in. Alternate Saturdays mornings Jim and I have a counseling appointment, and Saturday afternoons are for dog obedience training. Sunday mornings we do a big family breakfast. Then there's groceries, laundry, housecleaning, and whatever else we can squeeze in.

For example, this weekend I cut Alex's hair for the first time.

There are some definite problems with this cut, but it was my first time with the clippers. He's such a handsome kid, I don't think anyone will notice much and I know that the next cut will be even better.

I also had to make an extra trip to Walmart to do a return and to pick up a few things. The line ups were crazy, considering how beautiful the weather is. I was about to be bummed out by the huge line when I remembered I had my knitting with me.

I'm never too busy for a little knitting.

Couldn't Resist

Ravelry has put up T-shirts for sale. It's for members only and the beta T-shirts are going to be exclusive. As a kid, I never had the latest fashions or coolest toys. But now I'm a grown up, I can get what I want. I ordered a shirt and three buttons too.

Baaaa!

Manufacturing a Time Crunch

I've got a talent for putting a time crunch on what should be a laid-back hobby. Jim and I will be going to FiberFest North at the end of September, and I've decided I should have the pieces of the Halcyon Aran done by then. While I think I'm pretty good at finishing my garments, I'm sure there's lots more I can learn, and I think this will be just the group to help me out.

So I've got one more repeat to go on the back and then it's cast off and start the front. But suddenly I feel a whine coming on. The wool is rough, the cables hurt my hands. Wah! I want soft wool, with pretty colors. So I said, "Poor baby, of course you do." and I cast on a hat. Pbbbblllt! It's my hobby and I'll knit what I want to. But I predict that the hat will quickly be abandoned when I'm feeling more rested.

There was a promise of another shawl.

This was mostly knit last summer as my vacation project, and I've managed to finish it up somehow. Here's the blocking shot:

Yarn: Knit Picks Shimmer, in color Morning Mist 1.7 skiens
Needles: 3mm
Pattern: Super Spiral Shawl from Gathering of Lace

It's a light and pretty scarf on me, though it might be a shawl on a smaller woman. I really like the way the variegated yarn swirls around. It gives the piece a lot of energy. I think this was a good marriage of yarn and pattern. But honestly, it was a lot of effort for very little end product.

Maybe it wants to be a Christmas present.

Catch Up

I had a really busy week, and I missed my mid-week post. After all the posting at the end of the Frost Flowers and Leaves project, I just didn't have the urge. I even fell behind in my reading, but I'm caught up now.

I'm really glad I knit the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl. I'm really glad you all liked it and I thank you for the kind comments. Now that September is here I'm feeling the call of practical knitting. It's time to knuckle down to sweaters, hats and mittens for the cold weather that's coming.

I've gotten off to a good start with the Halcyon Aran. Thanks to starting with the sleeves, my enthusiasm for this project is high. Higher than the stamina in my hands though. I find the cables tiring to knit for long periods.


Once the first repeat of the pattern is established, I read my knitting to find out what I need to do next. I find this speeds things up and helps me catch mistakes as I go. This pattern is pretty easy to read and I've made few mistakes. It's no Starmore Jo!

Now here's some other tid-bits for you.

Last summer's vacation knitting is a little whirlpool shawl that is half-way cast off now. Don't be surprised if I have another shawl to show you soon!

Did you read the Knitty article about Stitch & Pitch? If you scroll down to the bottom you'll see my two friends, Kat and Lynn! What a thrill!

If you missed the Mystery Stole mania, there's a new mystery project in town, Maia's Mystery Socks. I really wanted to make these. The pattern looks very intriguing. I tried it twice. The first was too small, the second was too large, and I don't have the yarn in the stash that is just right. It's too bad. They're looking very pretty.

Dexter is over his cold and is healthy and happy. I wanted to show you how great he looks. I'm very proud of him.

He who has the ball, has the power.

Pretentious Modesty

Finishing a big project like this is very exciting, and yet I'm over come with feelings of modesty.

This is the second time I have knit this pattern. The first I did in a pale green wool blend that did not block out properly. I knit it one winter, when I was depressed, and I stopped two repeats short of the entire thing. I wear that shawl, I'm complimented on it and I enjoy it, but I also regret it. I needed to re-knit it with gusto. So I chose vivid red, and I knit it big!


This work was accomplished one stitch at a time. There's nothing special about it. It's just an accumulation of my time. Hours spent watching television with my husband, or sitting on the patio in the shade while occasionally throwing the ball for the dog.

Yet, with out me, this would not be. There was 580 grams of beautiful red Shetland wool. There was a lovely and well designed pattern. But I was the catalyst that brought these two together. I am a creator.

That'll Do

I'm not a perfectionist. I just don't have the stamina to deal with the stress that comes from striving for perfection. If you are, I admire you and respect the results you can achieve. But for myself, I stick with the good enough standard.

For example, when it came to grafting both ends of the Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl together, I started to fuss and futz with trying to get the yarn to follow the template I'd lain down for myself. What you do, is knit a bit of the lace pattern, I did it in blue cotton, then knit the row you will be trying to graft in an other contrasting color, in my case, some white acrylic. So when I went to graft, it should have been a simple matter of following the path of the white acrylic through the both the blue cotton and the actual shawl yarn.

It sounds so simple, but I found it to be confusing and frustrating. I decided that good enough was good enough for me. With a project this big, no one but a master knitter would be looking for the graft line to see if was done perfectly. So based on what I already knew about kitchener stitch, and with the help of my white life line of acrylic, I just fudged the grafting.

I think that'll do.

Of course you came for the blocking shots. I don't blame you, but I hope you won't be disappointed. I'm not very good at blocking lace. I'm satisfied, but I don't think I did nearly as nice a job as I've seen some people do. To make excuses, I'm not using the best tools. I threaded the whole shawl around with blue cotton before giving it a good soak in Euculan.

Then I pinned it out on the bed. It completely covers the top of my Queen sized bed. My kids and husband were totally impressed.

I think that'll do.
Yes, that'll do just fine.

The End is Nigh

Dish Rag Tag - IT!

It's Dish Rag Tag time and I'm it! Jo sent me the cracker box from Montreal containing thoughtful goodies.

It's doggie stickers and doggie note pads! The cloth she sent is a beautiful lace one in lavender. Jo must read my blog!


Of the cotton yarn she sent I was drawn to the striping yarn. I wanted to make the most of the color changes, so I knit starting at the corners and grafted my triangles in the middle to make this stylishly striped square.


I hope Shelly likes it, because TAG YOU'RE IT!

The box is going to the post office first thing in the morning, and I am going to bed. Good night!

Lavendar's Blue, Dilly-dilly

Feeling blue? This color is such a rich, warm blue, it's far from sad! Thanks Jo, for reminding me about my little carry bag. I've only used it once so far, but it's perfect for my current sock on the go. The colors even match up! I've probably knit too much on this simple Trekking XXL sock (color 110), but I'm fascinated by the color changes. I keep thinking, "Just a little bit more, I want to see what's next."

In the background of this picture is some lavender I harvested from our garden. I was far to late to gather the flowers, but these seed heads are still very potent. I put the sachets in my yarn cupboard.

Thanks for all the advice and concern over Dexter. He hasn't coughed since that one bout, so we're keeping him from too much exercise, checking to see if he's hot, and making sure the water dish is always full of fresh, clean water. I did a stupid thing and gave him grapes on Saturday, so that probably didn't help anything! Poor pooch, the worst problem he has is an ignorant owner. Anyway, he's certainly not listless.

Slow but Steady

I was hoping to finish up the Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl this long weekend, but I don't stand a chance. I've added one more edge, and now I'm almost half-way done. Now we can begin to see the size of the thing.

Rather than drive myself nuts by going steady with just one knit, I let my knitting fingers wander onto other projects. I cast on a plain sock, since we must always have at least one on the needles. And I cast on my second sleeve for the Halcyon Aran. One ball of yarn took me all the way to 18 inches on the first sleeve and that's enough for now. I'll adjust the length to the proportion of the body, once I've knit that. I'm still excited to start the main part of this project.

In other news, Dexter seems to have a cold. Since he's my first dog, I have no experience with this. But he's got a runny nose, he sneezes, and yesterday, after a particularly vigorous play session he had a cough. Man, dog coughs are nasty sounding! The cough went a way after he rested.

I looked things up on the net, and I'm pretty sure it's kennel cough. He was vaccinated against Bordetella shortly after we got him, so this illness is a little puzzling. He's still eating like a horse and wants to play, so I'm not going to take him to the vet yet. We're watching him though.

The rest of this weekend will be filled with housecleaning, and shopping as the kids prepare to go back to school. I think they're really ready to go! Summer got boring for them. Can you remember those days?

You can't get much luckier than this...

I chose to knit on the Halcyon Aran sleeve last night and I was still fired up about it this morning. See how much I've got done:


Starting with a sleeve is great! It made a great swatch, and I still have the excitement of starting the main body before me as an enticement. But I'm going to have to put it away, because my yarn from Jamieson and Smith arrived today.

The flattened ball band on the left is from the last ball I knit onto the shawl. See those lot numbers? They match up, every one of them. You should have heard the noise I made! WOW! So now I can finish up my Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl and I don't even have to rip back what I started.

I'm going to contact those nice people in Scotland and give them a big Canadian thank you.

Hot Again

Thoughts of knitting an Aran have been driven out of my head tonight by the warm temperatures. I took Dexter for a walk in the woods after work. It's cooler in the woods and he loves to romp in there. It must be dog heaven with all the lovely smells in the earth. Yet even as I was sticky with sweat, I noticed red leaves on the ground. Funny weather.

Further heat comes from the Sunbeam Socks I finished tonight!

Pattern: Lacey Socks, from Folk Socks
Yarn: Hill Country Yarns, Sweet Feet
Needles: 2mm

They're so sunny, I hope that they drive away the grey winter blahs for my mother. Since her birthday is October 30th, they are just too appropriate for her.

The pattern was interesting, and it did a good job of mixing up the variegation in the yarn. With only two colors, I think I would have gotten some serious stripes with this yarn. But there is a lot of knitting involved, and it uses up a great deal of yarn. These would fit a women's size 10 foot and even with the short ankle, I used up almost the entire skein of Sweet Feet. For those purled rows, you have 102 stitches on the needles. Yowza!

I wonder what I'm going to knit tonight? It's time to get off the computer and find out.

I Succumbed

I'm dreaming of a thick Aran sweater to wear when walking the dog. I started the sleeve, but instead it's a swatch. My gauge is off, and I don't like the transition between the rib and the first ring of the circular cable. But I love the color of the yarn, Black Water Abbey's silver, and I'm moderately excited about the pattern which is Halcyon Aran. Though my thoughts keep straying to Alice Starmore's designs, or a Lavold pattern, or even Rogue (for the third time). So I may go astray yet...

Anyway, back to socks for me. The Sunbeam socks are almost to the toe, so I aim to finish them this week. But if my red Sheltand wool doesn't arrive soon, I know what I'll be knitting next weekend....

Knitting on the Fly

My mother-in-law's cozy vest is done and I made it with a handful of yarn to spare.

Pattern: my own
Yarn: Sirdar Denim Ultra - 5 skeins
Needles: 10 mm (I had to put two cables together on my Boye needles to get all the way around this bad girl.)

I don't remember who it was that said, "the knitting will tell you what to do", but I often find that to be true. In this case, the heaviness of the yarn didn't work well with cables or ribbing, so I used the simplest of edgings.

I also achieved the nirvana of a no-sew project since I knit the garter-stitch edges as I went, used a three-needle bind off for the shoulders, and knit on further garter-stitch edges at the top of the neck. I wish I'd had a bit more yarn to do a garter border on the armholes, but at least I slipped my edges, so they look nice and clean.

I've decided not to bother with entering my knitting in the Fair this year. I'm just too busy right now! The nice thing about this is that I got to wear my Oregon vest to work this past week. The cooling system turned the office I share with three co-workers into a meat cooler. It's fixed now, but there's nothing like wearing Shetland wool to give you a hint that summer is on it's last legs.

I was dreaming of casting on something new this weekend, but I think I'll stick with finishing somethings up instead. I'm in no danger of running out of things to knit.

Going to Extremes

I've never had two such extreme gauge projects going on at the same time before. It's kinda spicy!

The Sirdar Yarn is an ultra chunky, and that has drastically limited what I could do with it. I decided on the simplest vest possible, and if I run out of yarn, I'm going to rip to the arm holes and knit it up as a baby blanket. Although I'm most comfortable with the lighter weight yarns, I'm enjoying the super cushy fabric this yarn is making.

I have some other happy news to share. Last week I signed Dexter's adoption papers, transfered his ownership, and bought him his liscence. He's officially ours now! Yeah! Puppy pictures for all.

Finally, I'd like to announce that I received a small promotion at work and I'm now the Team Lead for the Technical Publications department.

Sockday

Ah me, I had fun playing with all that new stash, photographing it, and getting its stats. I've already cast on with some of it too. Can you guess which one I started with?

But before I let myself cast on, I finished up the Earth socks:

They are destined for my brother-in-law, George, as a Christmas present. I think the earthy colors are especially appropriate for him since he works in a green house and enjoys fishing and skiing.

I also finished up one of the Sunbeam socks:

I was thinking that these would be for my mom for her birthday in October. She used to have wallpaper in the kitchen that was yellow and orange like this, so I thought she'd enjoy them. But they ended up fitting me perfectly! My mom's feet are smaller than mine.

Also, I don't have much confidence in this yarn. It is Hill Country Yarns, Sweet Feet, and while it feels soft and cushy, the strand that was dangling from my cast off, didn't fare very well in use. It fuzzed up a whole lot. Take a look. The orange strand is fresh off the ball, and the yellow one was dragged around for two weeks, being knit.

click for bigger

I think I'll just keep these socks for myself and use them gently. Maybe as bed socks. They certainly feel luscious on my feet.

But all this is mere distraction as I wait for my yarn to come over the sea to me. I'm patiently anticipating the finish for my shawl.

I'm so High, I swear I can Fly

Whooo weee! I'm still flying high on the yarn buys.

Last night, Mary Jane and I struck out for Ancaster to the Needle Emporium's mega Tent Sale. I was a yarn sale virgin, and wow! what a way to go. Just look at our smiles:


Now, I don't ordinarily talk about my yarn purchases here. Everyone has different budgets and I don't want to compare my stash to anyone else's. But the yarn prizes I collected yesterday are just too good not to talk about.

In bag number one we have:

Handpainted Alpaca

Score!

30% Possum, 70% Merino


I've got 6 skiens for a quick-knit vest for my mother-in-law for Christmas.

Ankle socks

I picked up 20 balls of this.

Someone said, "Oh, you got all the Noro? I saw it earlier and thought I'd come back for it." And I was like, "Why the heck didn't you snap it up!" But I did give her the lone skein of Blossom. Aren't I nice?

70% Alpaca, 30% Merino - 9 skeins. I want to have a shrug from this.

All of the yarns you saw above fit into one bag and cost me $150 minus a 10% discount because I paid cash. I'm floored. I love these yarns! It's gonna be a fun winter.

Now the following yarn was a little extra (okay, a BIG extra) that I just couldn't resist. Rowan yarn, at $10 for the 100g skein and $5 for the 50g skien.

Urban Aran for Jim.

Gotta be a Shedir.

I've been basking in the glow of this all day. It was a lot of fun to take pictures of it all. Now I think I'll go post it on Ravelry.

FOs

It was pretty disappointing to realize that I can't complete my Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl until I get more yarn. I'm not really expecting the yarn I ordered to be the same dye lot as the rest of the shawl and Jim pointed out that I can at least have all the edging knit from the same dye lot. I think this is a smart idea. It puts an element of design around a necessity. But it does mean that I may have to rip out what I've done on the edging so far.

I consoled myself this weekend by knitting a sock.


And playing with my flying dog.


That's two FOs for you: a finished object and a flying object! Ha ha! I'm SOOoooo funny. :p

Sweet Feet

My Sockapalooza socks arrived yesterday! What a nice way to end the week.


My sock pal, Chrissy, did a great job. She even designed the pattern herself. I really like the baby cables and the ribbing ensures a snug and comfortable fit. The yarn colors are beautiful and the socks feel so cozy. Chrissy, they fit perfectly and the cuff is exactly my preferred length. Thanks for such an awesome pair of socks!