Ford, Finally Finished!

I'm proud to introduce my latest FO: Ford, the Lopi sweater that took me three years to knit.

This sweater is a testament to my growth and learning as a knitter. From when I started it to the time I finished it I learned many new techniques that I then applied to solve technical difficulties in the knitting.

The pattern starts in the round and then has you knit the front and back flat. I learned steeking, and applied that technique to the arms and neck. The pattern calls for a folded neckband, but Jim finds such necks to be too hot and bulky. I learned the sewn tubular bind off for toe up socks and so this sweater has a single layer at the neck.

I learned the magic loop technique, again for socks, and so my sleeves were knit in the round too. I learned the Philosopher's wool technique for stranding and so one and a half sleeves are stranded.

I'm very proud of my progress as a knitter and that I've finally finished this sweater. Knowing that Jim will be wearing it and having the Harrow Fair as a deadline gave me that last push that I needed to get this thing off the shelf, back in knitting circulation and finally done.

Finally, I'm thrilled to have a handsome husband to wear this piece of art. It looks smashing on him and he's such a good sport to model for me in the summer.

Perverse

Last night I enjoyed the company of my peeps at the knit club's pot-luck held at Lynn's beautiful home. The summer evening was devine, the food was delish, and I perversly enjoyed being taunted and called out for a devilish yarn choice.

If you remember, I'm working on the Sandy Cardigan (ravel it) from Big Girl Knits using a lovely Noro colorway that one astute reader noticed would be perfect with jeans. I'm really enjoying the simple pattern of garter stitch before the complicated fitting stage. I started sewing up the back just for fun.



Doesn't the blurry picture make the colors look nice? Anyway, I've decided that the bulky weight yarn just won't do, so I struck out for London Yarns to find an alternate. Even Jim doesn't think that the grey stash yarn will do the sweater justice. It was difficult, but I found one that makes the colors pop.


Every color sings with this shade. It might be hard to see, but it's a navy heathered with a rich red. There's only one little problem with this yarn:

Can you read it? It says 80% Acrylic %20 Wool.

Catherine at the potluck was not going to let me live down the idea of a sweater made with acrylic and Noro. I tried to explain how the yarn is soft, the color is perfect, and even how the acrylic would be in the location of most wear, where ventilation is requried and was therefore superior to wool in this instance. To no avail! She laughed and shouted me down. I must confess, I enjoyed it a bit.

So what do the rest of you think? Time for me to try a poll!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Getting Ready....

On our excursion to the Tent Sale, Mary Jane and I discussed the Harrow Fair. I'd forgotten all about it, so now I'm scrambling to get some FOs together for the entry deadline, August 23rd. My mom has agreed to send me back the shawl I made for her and I have a two original sock designs that I can enter. Plus I've got an idea for a hat to put together with some mittens already made. But right now, I've decided to work on finishing up this:

As you can see, I've completed one sleeve. Doesn't it look great on Jim? We've decided that it will be another sweater for him to wear to work, which is why the sleeve is a bit short. At first he protested that the sweater was too nice to wear to work, but I told him not to worry, it's been sitting around unfinished for almost five years! Knowing that it will be worn, in addition to the fair, will give me that extra push to finish it. Besides, the Lopi yarn will be really toasty, especially stranded. And I like that it has extra lenght in the torso so his kidneys will be warm, even when his arms are over his head.

Since it is going to the fair, I decided to take a bit of extra effort with the finishing, but I may have been over zealous. I knit a facing for the armhole edge. It looks great:

But it adds a lot of bulk. Oh well, I'm not ripping it now! so I'll just have to make the other side to match. Good thing we have air conditioning, or I don't think I could stand to knit Lopi in the summer.

Yarn Orgy!!

Oh yeah baby! I got yarn!

Mary Jane and I did the road trip to Ancaster yestereve for the Needle Emporium's annual tent sale. This is the best yarn event for quality and quantity yarns. I didn't take any pictures while I was there, though I did bring my camera. I was solely focused on the yarns. Even to the point of ignoring knitting friends from London! Kat, Nadine, Kata and Will, plus others, all got there before us and were ready to chat up Mary Jane and I when we arrived. They were quite thrilled with their Noro acquisitions, but MJ and I were all like: "That's nice! Bye! Gotta shop!" Sorry ladies (and gent). I am happy for you about the Noro.

So I know you want to see the haul. (Hi Laurie B! This edition of flash your stash is dedicated to you.)

That's the whole she-bang. I calculate 4 sweaters and 8 pairs of socks are in this. Plus some scarves or hats.

I found a yarn to go with my Noro:

It's called alfa and it's a wool/mohair (85/15) blend. Hmm... I just entered that into Ravelry and it's listed there as a bulky weight. Oh dear. Well, if it doesn't work out for this sweater, 14 skeins ought to make a sweater for Jim.

I got a washable cotton/acrylic blend to make a sweater for Alex:

18 skeins of Schachenmayr nomotta Punto

Jim got a sweater's worth of yarn too:

16 skeins of Elsebeth Lavod Classic Al baby alpaca/wool (50/50)

Now this could be a sweater or a shawl:

10 balls Madil Kid Seta mohair/silk (70/30)

After filling my bag with all this lusciousness, it was time to round off the corners. First with sock yarn:

Then with oddments of mohair, cause it's soft and squishy:

Then just as I was dashing out the door, I saw more red cotton and thought of Mary Jane's motto "Buy it all because you wouldn't want to run out of yarn!" so I stuffed that in there too.

Uh oh! It wasn't till I was out of there that I realized that this is actually a different yarn all together! It's up for trade folks, though it's beyond me what anyone would do with 4 balls of mercerized red cotton.

It's very freeing to be able to grab all this great yarn for such a reasonable price. I'm going to be enjoying this haul for a long time to come. After the sale, Mary Jane and I moseyed over to the Needle Emporium store for a look see. I'd never been and it was worth the trip. Tons of yarn, books, bags and so on. Lots of variety. I was thinking I wasn't going to be able to leave the shop without buying something else, but I was all shopped out.

After that it was time for dinner, and Mary Jane and I had intentions to meet up with the gang, but instead we stumbled on a jewel of a spot, India Village. I almost hate to blog about it, since the dining room is so small, and the food was so good. But you know, they deserve the publicity. They have a tandoori oven on site and made fresh papadum that was light on the inside and crispy on the out. The butter chicken was tender and flavorful. Everything tasted fresh and full of flavour. It was the perfect end to the day.

The only down side of the whole thing is that I have to wait a year to do it again.

A Little Holiday Indiscretion

In spite of the weather, and being under the weather, I did get up to no good this week, which means it must have been a good vacation, right?

It was late one night and I was sitting at the computer poking around when an e-mail pointed me to an e-bay listing from musthaveyarn. My will weakened and I found myself placing a bid. I think my twisted logic was that I likely wouldn't get it anyway, but that I was doing Robyn a favour by putting up the price. Ahem... I won it of course.



Ten skeins of Noro Kuryeon, color #188. It arrived the next day.

I'll admit, I was thrilled. I felt naughty, which was nice, since it felt like I hadn't done anything for myself this past vacation week. So to compound my indiscretion, I cast on with it!

No, it's not going to be a scarf. Ten balls might not be enough for a sweater all on it's own, so I've decided to make the Sandy Cardigan from Big Girl Knits. I'm not worried it will interfere with my other projects, since I don't have the solid color picked out yet. I'm considering using between grey stash yarn (Beaverslide) or buying some navy or black. Any thoughts?

Also, it's really the wrong season to be knitting a wool sweater. But man! I'm having fun and that's what it's all about.

Muddling on....

Aside from a stubborn, painful cough and several days of grey, rainy skies, it's been a pretty nice vacation. We've had a nice mix of activities, including a family picnic, going to the movies and a very nice game of mini-golf with my parents on Canada day. But the cough is wearing me down. I don't think I took proper care of myself because of the vacation excitement. It's getting to be terribly annoying.

Of course, there's been knitting. Not as much as I had envisioned I would do at the start of vacation. I had plans to frog or pick up some UFOs, but when it came right down to it, I wanted to have fun instead. So I started another pair of mittens:

Pattern: #31 from Knitting Marvelous Mittens by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: mostly Kroy, but other sock yarns too
Needles: 2.25mm bamboo

Last time I tried to knit these, I ran out of the light grey yarn. This time, I used virgin sock yarn, Paton's Kroy, that I got on sale at half price. Actually, I'm loving the Kroy. I need to make some textured socks with this stuff, I think it would look great.

I love this pattern so much. It's a gem! But these mitts are slow going, they're 92 sts around. I wanted the large size so I could give them to my brother-in-law, but they would also be a good size for me if I knit a pair of liners for them. I'll have to see if I can be a big enough person to give them away.

Now this pair will be easy to give away:

Pattern: Annemor #4 from Selbuvotter by Teri Shea
Yarn: Dale Falk
Needles: 3.25mm?

I can give these away easily because they don't fit me! The pattern as written is for a girl, and bigger yarn and needles did give me a bigger mitten, but not big enough. That's okay, I think I know who they need to go to...

The long shadows of a bright summer evening were a perfect time to get a shot of the texture in Jim's sweater:

It's almost ready for the underarm gusests. Which means I'm getting to the fudge it part. It's a tricky stage for a knit. So easy for it to turn into a UFO. Keep your fingers crossed for this one.

Busy Relaxing

I'm on vacation, and boy am I tired! It's hard work relaxing at home. There's a lot of knitting to do, extra long dog walks to enjoy, ravenous boys to feed and even the Corriveau Family Reunion picnic on Saturday. Worst of all, I've discovered an addictive strategy game called Gem Craft. Click the link at your own peril.

I have all of next week off too. Who knows, you may see an extra blog post or two. On the other hand, I also have plans to go to the beach, the movies, more knitting, two dog obedience classes....

Ah heck! Lets skip along to the knitting. I finished the Trellis scarf.

It's long and wide and so soft and light. Hanging from my neck it falls below my waist. There's room to maneuver with this scarf. I bathed it twice because the water was dingy after the first wash. Then I lightly blocked it by smoothing it out over the bed. I didn't feel that a severe blocking was called for since I'd knit it so loosely. (Good advice Kat!)

I've got more knit-news to share, but it can wait for later. After all, I'm on vacation!

He Did It!!!

Congratulations to our Grade Eight Grad: Luke Barnard!


It's been a tough row to hoe. We had our dark valley in the middle school years. But with a concerted effort, and with the help of many caring teachers and resource people, Luke worked hard to turn things around. He's come a long way and we are very proud of our boy.

I had no idea that I would be this touched.

Luke didn't win any awards. He wasn't on any teams, didn't participate in school activities. He didn't make the honour roll. But by golly, he's happy, he has friends, and he knows who he is. His Dad and I will be behind him on what ever path he chooses to take into his future.

Events

Yesterday Jim and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary! Jim had forgotten that morning, but redeemed himself with reservations at a very nice restaurant that evening. Right now, he and Luke are out getting their hair cut because this Tuesday, Luke graduates from grade eight. Luke is not looking forward to this because he has to dress up and he thinks he'll feel out of place. Poor dear. We're just trying to ease him through it with the least possible angst.

I had a very relaxing morning today. I finished up a mitten.

Pattern: Annemor #4
Yarn: Dale Falk
Needles: 3.25mm

This was quite a quick knit at this gauge! I'm so used to fingering weight yarn on 2.25mm needles. The original was to fit a girl's medium. I was hoping for something bigger, but while this fit's my boy's hands quite well, it is too snug for me to wear. And here's the back.

When I downloaded these pictures from my camera, I found bonus pictures that I hadn't taken. Here's the best of the bunch.

Pig in a pigloo

The State of the Knitting

Lots on the needles here and out of it all I've got four active projects going. The ubiquitous traveling sock of course, a pair of stranded mittens, a scarf, and a sweater.

The mitten is for working on when I can't sleep. Every now and then I get up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. I toss and turn. Rather than wake Jim up with my restlessness, I go to the spare room and knit. Usually less than an hour will get me in shape for going back to sleep. The mitten is really cute, but I'll save the pictures for when its done.

The scarf was born out of an irresistible urge to try out that Wild Geese Fibers that I got in exchange for my leftovers.


This is the Trellis Scarf Pattern, from Interweave Knits. Since my yarn is fingering weight, I'm doing it on a larger needle. I'm thinking it may be more stole-sized when blocked. The loveliest thing about this pattern is the point of the diamonds. They look like swirly knots. (You can sort of see it if you click the picture for a bigger view.) The maneuver where you create 5 stitches by knitting into 7 is a little tricksy, but not so bad. My trick is to knit it on the point of the needle.

The softness of the alpaca is a nice treat when I need a break from the sweater I started for Jim just before Father's Day. The yarn is acrylic/viscose blend and starts to feel like rope in my hands after a while.

This is the Aberlady Sweater from Alice Starmore's Celtic Knits. I think I'll call it Aberlord though since this is for Jim and will be more of an interpretation. I'm using a heavier weight yarn than the fingering weight called for. But since this is a gansey style sweater, I don't expect too much trouble switching it around. I swatched, measured and calculated to get the correct number of stitches to cast on. The pattern has arm gussets, which I plan to fudge, and I want to change the neckline. But at least the sleeves are knit down from the arms, so I can just pick up a reasonable amount and figure it out as I go.

Damn, that all sounds so nebulous! Does it help to say I'm confident? I guess because I've designed a gansey on the needles before, it doesn't seem so intimidating. Still, I'm going to stick this thing on a longer needle and slip it onto Jim to see if my initial calculation was correct before going any further.

I'm in a lovely state of anticipation for all these projects, because one week from today I will be on vacation. We don't have much of anything planned, there's a family picnic and the company picnic. Actually, I do have plans. I plan to relax!

Dad's Glory Days

Dad's socks were done in time for Father's Day, but I couldn't give them to my Dad. Unfortunately, we had colds in our house and my parents would just as soon not catch one. I called Dad up though and we had a nice chat on the phone for over an hour.

Last time we visited Dad gave me some old photographs of himself. (Click for bigger.)

Wasn't he cool? The writing in the dust on the bottom of the car reads "Luella loves Chester." That young couple would be my future godparents. It tickles me to see evidence that my oh so proper aunt was once young and giddy in love.

Here's Dad on his motorbike:

There are two things that I notice in this picture. First, my fashionable pop has a chain attached to his wallet. Second, there are two young ladies discretely watching from the window.

I'm really glad to put these photos of my Dad on the internet. It's nice to have one's glory days remembered...

Can't Stop to Blog....

Too busy knitting to a deadline.

Father's Day Socks
Vintage Patton's Pattern
Scheepjees Yarn

I'm fond of grey. Many of you told me that you don't care for it much. That's okay, more for me! Grey goes with anything, it shows patterning well, and it reminds me of soft, lovely things, like doves, sheep, water-smoothed pebbles and fluffly clouds. Just this week, I traded some of my leftover Rowan to Raveler RuthD for this:

Lucky me! I think it's gorgeous. It's Wild Geese alpaca(90%)/merino(10%) on the left and Ruth's own handspun on the right.

Big thanks goes to Frieda Pelletier for donating to the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Big Bike Ride.


Okay, back to the Dad socks. They've gotta be ready for Sunday....

Letting Go

Hooray it's Thursday! Thursday is a good day of the week. Thursday is the Saturday of the work week. You get Saturday-Sunday then the weekend is done, but we also get Thursday-Friday and the work week is done! So in a way, Thursday is even better than Saturday. I put this theory to a co-worker, who asked me if I couldn't do something about Tuesday. Nope, Tuesday is beyond hope, I told him.

Luke and his friend seemed to have mended their fences, on the playground at least. We haven't seen the friend over this week. I'm not getting any further involved unless Luke asks me too.

I'm very proud of our little family. In spite of our difficulties, we have somehow managed to establish a relationship that includes negotiations. There were two incidents just this week. The boys were supposed to be doing chores, and Luke didn't want to sweep because he'd just done it yesterday. I suggested he vacuum instead and he readily agreed. The other incident was that he wanted to take a shower right away and I wanted him to do his chores first. But he calmly explained his reasons to me and so I agreed. And he did the chores later. I am hoping this bodes well for the upcoming teenage years.

After writing this, I see that a big part of it is me willing to let Luke decide how to do things for himself. I've given up some of my control in exchange for his willingness and pleasant attitude. A fair bargain in my eyes.

And this is where the knitting ties in. In my latest project, the marvelous mittens, Pattern 22 from Charlene Schurch's book, I didn't try to match up the grey self-striping yarn.

I didn't match up the stripes, nor the direction of the color gradients. I'll confess, one cuff is even longer than the other. That was sheer accident. And I like it.

I've sometimes been told that my knitting looks like it was done by a machine. A compliment to be sure, but not the effect I'm after. By not matching the colors, I hope I've increased the likely hood that someone will notice that these mittens were worked by hand. And part of this bargain of giving up on matching, is the mesmerizing way the colors lead the eye around. Letting go is really working for me these days....



By the way, I will be participating in the Heart and Stroke's Big Bike Ride. If you'd like to sponsor me there is a link in the side bar that will take you to my personal donation page. I'm not going to offer a prize or anything. I just think that if you want to, and can, then I will greatly appreciate your donation. Big thanks!

Emotional Drama

It's Sunday night and I'm just getting at the computer for the first time this weekend. The weather has been rainy and then sunny. It's lovely weather for the plants. Everything is lush and green with plenty of colorful flowers. Beautiful for walks.

Friday night I came home to a small crisis. Jim was very upset on behalf of Luke who had been insulted by a friend. I don't want to go into details here, but it felt like a slap in the face to our whole family from a boy who is over at our house 3-4 times a week and has dinner with us almost once a week.

Jim felt he couldn't talk to the parents of the boy, so the job fell to me, but I was okay with that. This set of circumstances felt like a teaching moment to me. We had a chance to show Luke that he deserves to be treated with respect, and to demonstrate that with our actions. So the boy's mom is talking to him and we're hoping this will all just blow over. Eventually.

Saturday night, we took my parents out for dinner and had a lovely time. They are not spontaneous people, so it was a special treat to get them to come out on short notice. I was very happy they agreed.

I did manage to finish up my traveling pair of socks. (For the record, I always have a sock in my purse. Now that these are done, I've cast on another pair. It may take a while before you see them here though. Traveling socks get finished slowly/) I've been wearing these anklets all day and I'm in love.

Yarn: Regia Silk
Needles: 2.25mm

Using the leftovers from the Chalet socks for the toes gave me just the right amount to eek out these little socks. The Regia Silk feels lovely on my feet and I'm thrilled with the little anklet. The yarn was bought as an odd ball at a sale.

And of course the mitten proceeds. One down, one to go.

I feel extremely daring. I'm knitting this one with the stripes going in the other direction. What a rebel I am.

Snap Judgement

While browsing my stash this weekend I decided to put two yarns together in a combination that had never occurred to me before. One was a pink that is so bright it seems harsh, and the other is a graduated grey that seems perfect for men's socks, but deadly dull to knit. Together, they are making this:

And the moral of the story is, that it is always worth while to buy yarn on sale. Even when it is an oddly colored sock yarn.

Like Nasty Medicine

I'm well over my cold and I found that missing project. It was tucked into a cloth bag hanging in my stash closet, nice and neat, where I'd never find it. I put it back though. Today the weather is just glorious and I've spent the entire day outside.

I did manage to finish yet another project that's been lingering on the needles. It was such a chore, I just made myself do it, the same way you just plug your nose and down that Buckley's.

Jim's Boot Socks
Yarn: Philosopher's Wool
Needles: 4mm

These are toe up, with a heel flap and a tubular, sewn bind-off. They're 40sts around. The gauge is so snug, it hurts my hands to work them, plus him likes them long! But I know he'll really appreciate them on the coldest winter days. Thankfully we can put them away for a good long while.

The Return of My Favourite Sock

Sometimes, a pair of hand knit socks mean so much more than warm feet. For me, this pair is about love.

About 4 years ago, I bought myself some Regia Silk Yarn and knit myself this pair of Gothic Lace Socks.

They've been my favourite pair of socks all this time. I loved the pattern, which I found through my friend Holly and I loved the yarn, in part because I splurged on myself. But as you can see, these socks are wore through. They deserve to be honourably retired.

So when Doug's beautiful merino/tencel yarn came to me last year, I knew just what I wanted to make from it. To me, they are the ultimate Gothic lace socks because of the color. I'm just thrilled to have my favourite socks back!


I haven't written is so long, in part because I've been sick. It's just a cold, but being sick over the long Victoria Day weekend isn't much fun. I had to miss out on two really great trips. No one wants to go for a car ride with a sickie! But it did give me an opportunity to devote myself to my knitting though, since I wasn't good for much else. Aside from finishing my socks, I did an inventory of my WIPs. Some needed to get over a hump, and some needed to get ripped. One got lost. But I think it may be in the stash under the bed. I forgot about that spot.

From my Thirteen year old Son, on Mother's Day

I don't often write poems
It's easily true,
But this one I wrote
All just for you.

My poems aren't the best
And they don't seem that hard,
But I guess in this case,
They sure beat a card.

So let's celebrate you
On this Mother's Day,
I hope you'll enjoy it
In your own special way.

Happy Mother's Day!

My grandmother, my mother, warmed and graced by my knitting. I find this picture utterly beautiful.

Still Having Fun

I'm having fun with my knitting these days. I've abandoned a lot of my "shoulds", and a few WIPs at the same time. I have this thought in the back of my head that one day I'll come back to them, but right now, I'm really enjoying my carefree knitting.

I did return to finish off the second sock of my first Noro experiment, even though these socks will never fit me.

Someone will be getting a lovely present though.

And I'm having a load of fun with this guy:

Yep, Barnacle Bill is in the works! I'm using fingering weight stash yarns and everything seems pretty good so far. I've got some plans to work around some of the details in the original and I hope they work as well as I'm envisioning.

My mom gave me some patterns last weekend, including a cool vintage Paton's sock book. Here's the cover:

Don't you just love those molded feet? I'll bet you could find them on E-bay. (Sure can!)
A nice feature of this book is the visual table of contents on the inside cover. I wish more knitting pattern books were designed this way.

There's a few patterns in this book I'd like to try, but just now I've cast on for with my merino/tencel yarn from Doug to make some Gothic lace socks. It looks lovely, but I've got horrible ladders. The yarn is very slick, so I'm thinking it might be typical of merino/tencel yarns. But I'm wondering if the pattern is exacerbating (that is a horribly difficult word to spell correctly!) the problem, since it has a ribbing to it.

I'm pulling as snugly as I can at the join and it's not helping at all. Will it wash out? Any advice?