unblogged project

I don't think I've ever blogged this project. It's a hooded vest, a Berrocco pattern - Truman - and I used an Australian Merino that I got on deep sale at the Kitchener Knitters Fair a couple of years ago. It's a pretty plain taupe colour.

 Ignore the mess of my sewing room - I'm in the middle of a couple of projects.

 I had just enough wool to make the hood - I would have made it deeper if I had more wool...

The front rib pattern is interesting and adds some interest to the front of the vest, but to be honest, I'm a bit meh about this. I may keep it, I may give it away... It looks OK, but not great. Plus, I think I"m realizing that I just don't wear vests much. It's hanging around, while I decide what to do with it.

Boss socks

A couple of days a week, my boss and I carpool. On the days he drives, I knit. Hey, it's a 30-45 minute drive! that's substantial knitting time!
He gets it, and always asks what I'm working on, and who it's for. I finished up a pair of socks, and to thank him for some flex time off, etc, I decided to give these to him.

He loves them, and is rather incredulous that someone actually hand knits socks. But that hasn't stopped him from hinting for more...

sewing fail

Looks like an ordinary waistband on some summery pajama pants. But look closer - see how it's stretched out completely?
This is a case where marinating in stash is not a good thing. When I sewed up these pajama pants just before Easter, I dug around in my stash of elastic, and came up with a hank that had obviously been there a while. It went in fine. the pants were great. I took them to the cottage for Easter, and the first night, when I put them on, I thought, hmmm, they're a touch looser than I usually make them. Considering the amount of chocolate I'd been testing, (Can't give the kid untested chocolate, now could we??), I didn't think I'd lost and inch or more around the waist. Whatever, it was late, I was tired, I went to bed. The next morning when I got up, I realized it was not my waist. These pants were falling right off me! The elastic I used has lost all elasticity! My husband thought it was pretty funny, seeing me hitch these babies up all the time!
Luckily, it's an easy fix - new elastic, and they're as good as new. Which is good, becasue this cotton seersucker is incredibly comfortable.
The downside - getting rid of a ton of old hanks of elastic that's no good any more. Good think wool doesn't lose any thing with age...

Susan's wedding - my contribution

So the saga of Susan's wedding continues. You've seen the cake topper, and today, I get to show my contribution.

Susan's colour scheme is pale grey and vintage pinks, so I made a Swarovski crystal bracelet in those colours (she bought the crystals and had them sent to me - I made the bracelet and gave it to her when we met at the Frolic).

With the extra crystals, I just strung them on some bead elastic, Susan has the finishing glue for it that I don't have, so she gets a couple of extra bracelets to stack with the hex-weave one I made.

The colours aren't really showing here, and I can't retake the pictures, since the bracelets are in the hands of Susan now.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't take shots in the sunlight with my star filter, so you could really see the sparkle. These babies SHINE!

Susan seemed happy, and that's all that matters. She promised pictures of the bracelets all together.

The rest of the Frolic haul...

After securing my cardigan (okay, two cardigans), and sock yarn, everything else was gravy.
The Purple Purl had Noro and Alpaca on sale, and I've been looking for a combination of this for a men's striped scarf, so I would have been crazy to pass it up.

Especially since we got there early, picked our colours, and later on, that stuff at that price was GONE! We timed it well.

I also picked up another box of mohair locks at Wellington Fibres for gnome beards.

This time, a coppery, brown colour to go with the natural and grey locks I already have.
Then, the last thing I bought (and this was after Susan left, so she doesn't even know...) was this wire knitting kit.

I kept going back, and then said I didn't need it, but at the end, I succumbed, and bought the last copper wire kit. I may or may not use the large bead that came with it - it's not like I don't have a selection of beads to choose from at home...

Frolic Goodies - part 1

As I said before, I was after STR sock yarn, and a cardigan's worth of wool. I succeeded in both of these endeavours.
Meet "I Mad Heart Ewe: Socks that Rock Lightweight - my husband's all time favourite sock yarn.

(Really, this wool is much darker and more intense that it shows here. Sorry, I really should photo-edit more...)

My husband, while he will wear rather bright stripey, coloured socks, is rather pink-impaired. All he asks is no pink, no purple, no pastels. For putting up with the amount of fibre that spills out of our house, this is a request I can honour. I've already wound it into two equal balls (I love my digital scale!), and once the socks I have on the needles are done, these are going on.

As for the cardigan, Susan and I spent a fair bit of time looking. My plan was something from Tanis Fibre Arts, but she was so popular and busy, that any colourway that caught my eye, was usually sold out of the quantity I needed. So we wandered some more. I wish I could remember what booth I found this Fleece Artist Ottawa wool at, but I can't at the moment.

It fulfilled my love of blues and browns, without being garish (anyone want to remember the Romulan sweater fiasco??). These shades are subtle - soft robin's egg blue, with a ton of grey mixed in, and a milky chocolatey brown the colour of the tea/milk/sugar combination young kids drink, thinking they're drinking actual tea. The crowning glory were the deer antler buttons we found to go with it.

The inner of the buttons has the bluish tinge that perfectly matches. I have high hopes for this cardigan. I've already cast it on, (please, no one can be surprised by that...) and I'm using the same sort of pattern as my green Rowan cardigan, which is one of my favourite fits. It's loosely based on the the Sunkist cardigan, by Kirsten Kapur (rav link, sorry), a top down, v-neck with eyelet raglan shaping, and a centre increase on the fronts.

At this point, I was happy. I had my sock yarn, I had my cardigan. But it seems I wasn't finished. There was another cardigan beckoning me. I love a laceweight cardigan for summer. I have the Featherweight Cardigan pattern, and have been looking for the right yarns for it. Tonal, not variegated, natural fibre, in a colour I love. Fleece Artist comes through again.

Two skeins (800 metres each) of a lovely laceweight, courtesy of Feather Your Nest.
Its Saldanha Two, a merino superwash, and according to the vendor, a limited edition wool. Whatever, it's a deep smokey olive green tonal colour that I love. Susan wouldn't even let me look at other colourways once I had this in hand, and she was right. It's perfect.
And of course, the button guy (must learn his name...) had the perfect buttons yet again. I know the Featherweight cardi pattern doesn't require buttons, but these matched so well, I couldn't resist.

Next up, all the other stuff that somehow came home with me...

please cross your fingers...

My son's school basketball team is playing in the York Regionals today. They've already won their Area, and for a team of Grade 5 and 6 boys, this is an exciting day.
For the parents, it's an exercise in STRESS! I'll be at the tournament on and off all day as the school where it's being played is close to my house. I'll come home and work between games, if there's enough time, otherwise, I can be reached by my BlackBerry, so my boss if fine with me not being in the office.
Talk about a great guy. (He's getting a pair of socks today as a thank you!)

This sitting on the sidelines stuff is HARD!

Knitter's Frolic 2011

This year's Frolic started pretty much the same as every year - Get there early for perfect parking, meet Susan, trade off a few things (this year, she relieved me of some fabric that I was never going to use, and she would), find a sunny picnic bench to enjoy the breakfast we brought, then get back in line for the opening.
Once in, our plan was to scan all the booths first, then go back for a more detailed look. Yeah, that didn't work. Our scans became pretty in-depth perusals right from the get-go! We wandered around looking at this and that, buying a little here, and a little there. I was after a cardigan's worth of wool - nothing specific, but I'd know it when I saw it. I was also after some Socks that Rock - now that I'm back onto sock knitting, my husband has requested another STR pair - it's his favourite sock yarn, and I knew Lettuce Knit would be there with a selection. (With all the STR I have in the stash, none of the colourways appealed to him.)

I had hoped to meet up with a few people, but the crowds made that difficult. I did meet up with occasional commenter A. Lurker, who spotted my yellow bag and flip flops as I was exiting the loo. That was pretty cool. And of course, I found Brenda, as I knew she'd be working at the Cabin Fever booth with Deb. I walked up, said "Brenda??", she said yes, I lifted my foot to show my footwear, and she knew right away!

(Deb on the left, Brenda on the right)

Brenda is really as nice and engaging in person as she comes across on her blog. I wish I had more time to spend with her, but she was working and I was shopping!

I saw a few of my fellow Guild members, but almost always from afar, and never really had a chance to meet up. Most disappointingly, I missed Marie fron Sel et Poivre. We've tried so many times to meet, and it never works - Marie - next time, we set a time and place!

While I have the stuff I bought to show, I'll save that for another day. My best thing all day cost me nothing. After a couple of years of singing the praises of my table top loom, I finally convinced Susan to buy a Cricket! It actually wasn't that hard to convince her, so I think there was an underlying WANT for her. I love the  Cricket - I wish mine was one - Mine is much bigger and less easy to cart around (I still love mine, but now I want a Cricket, as well!) I'm sure she'll love it, and the best thing about it (next to it's compactness), is the rate at which weaving eats yarn! Since she's moving later this summer, bringing a small package (loom) into her place that will potentially eat a large box of wool just made sense. (Or so I told her...)

Is anyone really surprised?

Of COURSE I bought the felted flip flop pattern! I mean really... HELLLOOOOO, It's me, remember?

Right now I'm probably going to use this taupe and dark green worsted I have hanging about, but depending on how well that goes, I have plans to stock up on Cascade 220 and go to town...

I'm working on a Knitter's Frolic post - i over-bought (big surprise..), over-enabled (wondering if Susan is still talking to me...), and under-met (Marie, where were you????)

Anyone Frolicing this weekend?

Saturday April 30th is the DKC's annual Knitter's Frolic! Who's going? Susan and I are making our regular plans - an early meet up - early so we can snag good parking, and we kill the time until it open by having breakfast together nearby.
Our plan this year is lots of looking, maybe some shopping (Tanis, I'm coming for you!), then hanging around the lounge, looking at, and hopefully meeting up with other knitters. No classes for us this year, although some were tempting, but I didn't know I could even go until just recently. (I coach basketball on Saturday's, so I had to make sure my team was in good hands!)

I'll be wearing flip flops for sure, and have my bright yellow I KNIT messenger bag over my shoulder.

Will we see you there?

Susan's wedding

As mentioned, Susan's getting married, and we're having a blast making plans. (Okay, I'm having a blast, since it's not my wedding, not my stress, I'm not even going to be there! - Second wedding, small for mostly  family, plus I told her not to invite me. It's a weekend in August, as well, and we're cottagers! I'd rather not be in the city, all dressed up. We'll raise a glass to her and G up north...)

But the planning thing - we've been having fun throwing ideas back and forth - colours, dresses, and all the fun things. As it's the second for each of them, they are taking a much more relaxed view of it, and letting the planner do the work with their ideas. Soooo much better.
But, as most of you know, Susan is crafty (in a good way), so there will be a degree of hand crafted items in the theme of the day. And she's been nice enough to let me showcase them here.

Starting with her cake topper. While one of the most elegant people I know, Susan has a streak of whimsy in her, and man does it show here! I love these! SO much better than those preformed plastic monstrosities one finds these days...

here's her words...

I even made little tails for them on their backsides. G loves them too (though I suspect he knew using them is going to be mandatory).  Clay blocks come in a block that is divided into 4 equal sections with lines. Two lines made a body, 1 made a head, and then a little white, orange and a mixture of a purple/pink for the orange and white accents, bow tie and flowers. The girl penguin will receive a crocheted thread veil that I'll glue to the back of her head flowers with some E6000 jewellery glue. Then I'll see if I can get a candle base or something like that to attach them to for the cake. The clay is not toxic but apparently not food-safe, so you have to do that.
Very fun to make.
 
She makes it sound easy, doesn't she?
 
Coming next week - my contribution...

more sock knitting

I finished the next set of sock blanks - Now I just have to determine who they're for, get the size and add the heel.
The front runner to receive them is my boss - he's been watching me knit them in his car when we car pool, and as I've said before, he GETS it. He understands the need to knit as a passenger (all that time!).
That and the fact he's a great guy, I've know him forever, and he was a great friend to my Dad.
Yup. These socks are for him. Now I just need to get his shoe size...

one more sewing project

I have a pretty big collection of Ponte knits. I've made skirts and cardigans, but to match my more casual lifestyle, I made this pullover hoodie. The trim is a foldover knit binding - I didn't want to use regular woven double fold binding, as it would interfere with the stretch of the Ponte. So the foldover braid is perfect. Luckily, Fabricland had a dark green that works with the green of the knit. This is super comfortable - perfect for tossing over my pajamas when I don't feel like getting dressed right away, but need a little more coverage.

summer cottage sewing

I seem to be spending a lot of time in my sewing room lately - working my way through stashed fabrics (as well as new stuff I've bought. Yes, I'm weak. so what?)

This is a new thing. Seriously, 5 minutes, start to finish. (The fabric comes pre smocked)

Buy one metre. (preferably during the Fabricland member's sale, so it was che-e-e-a-a-a-p-p!) Wash it to pre shrink, sew up the back, hem if necessary. (It wasn't in this case, but you could add 5 more minutes for hemming). This is going to the cottage as a bathing suit cover, or it could be worn with a little white jacket, but for me - probably the cottage. It's a batik print, black and white. Fabricland had about 12 other patterns, but they were all a little too seventies, bad acid trip for me.

I bought this border print back in the early spring - I loved it, and thought it was fresh and pretty. My firsts thought was a skirt, as that's what I always think when I see border prints. But once I washed it, and opened it up, the realization hit me. This was a double border print - i.e. the black bottom border was on both selvages, rather than just the one. So I only had about 22 inches to work with. This top fit the bill, as the front and back don't actually go all the way to the shoulders - it's a raglan type construction. So this allowed me to get the maximum depth out of the print. The neckline is just gathered with a black satin ribbon, and it's a very comfortable top to wear.

And with the leftover - I had enough to craft out a quick pair of shorts - perfect for the summer with a black t-shirt.

be still my heart...

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/felted-flip-flops

(picture shamelessly lifted from Kalamazoo Knits)

Marie of Sel et Poivre turned me on to these. Knit and Felted Flip Flops! Who's betting I cave and buy the pattern soon? Who's betting I've already bought it?

summer outfit

I'm going through my sewing room, trying to sew up some of the fabric I have stashed. (My fabric stash rivals my yarn stash, and we know how bad that is...)

I've had this black linen skirt cut out for a while, but it got buried under other projects, and really, I wasn't that interested in sewing linen while we were still dealing with winter. Once the flip flops came out, it signaled a change, and this came together in no time. Really - a couple of side seams, a zipper, a faced waistband, hem, done.

The border print here is actually embroidered, and adds and dimension and weight to the hem of this skirt. Contrary to how it's hanging here - it's actually quite long - somewhere around mid-calf length, and I made it a gentle A-line shape.

 The turquoise fabric is a rayon/cotton blend, and matches the pale blue embroidery perfectly. I used this as sort of a wearable muslin - it was more a test of the pattern, since I plan on making the dress length of the top pattern. But the turquoise turned out very well, so it will become a nice summer outfit, for those odd days when I wear something like this. (I work in a pretty casual atmosphere - not a lot of need for dresses and skirts).

 And lookie here! The return of the one ball blue sweater! IT matches the darker blue embroidery on the skirt, and has flecks of the lighter turquoise in it. This is the sweater that I had to stop short on, since I lost the other ball of Rowan wool. Of course, I've now found it, so I think I will add some length to the sweater, and perhaps the sleeves a bit.

baby knit

A friend of a the family just had a baby girl. he family isn't close by, and this baby girl was an unexpected and completely joyful addition to their family, so I figured a quick little sweater and hat would be appreciated.

The interesting thing about this is the yarn - I used a ball of Collinette Jitterbug I had hanging around, and used the same baby sweater pattern that I used for the blue one a while back

This pattern isn't written anywhere, it just sort of lives in my head. I change up the yoke every now and then, but both of these have garter yokes and front bands.

What you'll notice is different is the front band and hat of the pink set use a different yarn. Collinette Jitterbug is kind of stingy with the yardage. Whereas the blue Fleece Artist had plenty for a sweater and matching hat due to the approxinmately 325 metres, the 270ish metres of the Collinette caught me by surprise. Luckily I found the cotton-wool blend in the stash and it matched pretty well.

I have to say, the Collinette also pooled a TON on the sleeves, and not in a matching way.

I'll take Fleece Artist every time, given the choice.

new sock

It seems my son's socks were not an anomaly - my sock knitting mojo has returned. This one is a bit further on - I've got about 2 more inches to add, then some ribbing. Then the next sock will be knit, to match (sort of), and I'll decide on recipient, get a foot measurement, and insert the heels. I'm enjoying it so much, I picked up two more colourways of the Lang Jawoll Magic superwash wool. Because, even with the store's worth of sock yarn I already own, I seemingly needed more...

it's about frickin' time!

Spring has returned to my neck of the woods. Those daffodils are almost ready. I've been wearing the flip flops for awhile, however - as soon as the snow was gone. At least with the warmer weather, I'm not getting as many strange looks...

a little sewing

For my golf and basketball loving son, some new pajama shorts.

Summer's coming, and with the growth spurt the boy has been going through, his pajama shorts were getting a little TOO short, if you know what I mean. He requested some new ones, and these fabrics just had to come home with me when I saw them.

I'm very lucky - he loves it when I make stuff for him, especially pajamas. I know this won't last forever, but I'm hopeful.

simple pleasures

I am a big user of technology - I live and die, it seems by my laptop and my BlackBerry. I use email extensively for correspondence, both work related and personal. It keeps me in touch with family and friends, near and far.

However, there's still nothing like letters. Hand written, stamped, addressed letters. I still love the idea of mailing birthday and anniversary cards (although I have a huge aversion to the traditional annual Christmas card fiasco*).
Because I once worked in the paper craft industry, I have a large stockpile of card making components and will often whip up a quick birthday card to mail off to family members - it's a nice touch in addition to the usual email or phone call. Now I do it because I like to - I certainly don't expect anything in return, but I tell ya, yesterday in the mail, there it was! A hand addressed, totally unexpected thank you card with little gifts inside! Totally made my day, seeing it there with the bills and flyers and junk mail!

I had sent Robyn some bits and pieces of novelty yarns I had sitting around (she's setting up a photography business and needed some for props). I'm ashamed to say how much novelty crap I had sitting around, so it was easy to send her a bunch. I was happy to do it, and certainly never expected anything in return, but she sent me a lovely card, some SOAK labels for garment care, and best of all, a Kitchener Stitch reminder dog tag!!! How cool is this? When I started the afterthought heels, I forgot I needed to Kitchener them closed, and to be honest, had to look up the steps again - this shortcut dog tag is PERFECT, and will always be there to remind me of the steps. Robyn, you could not have sent me anything more appropriate. Many, many thanks.


*My MIL sends out tons of Christmas cards every year. She insists on hand writing notes in each of them, and has a list that extends over multiple pages. She starts complaining about them in November, and every time we talk all I hear about is how many more cards she has to write. I ignore the complaints, and she ignores me when I tell her to just bag the practice...

April Fools, and my husband's birthday

Yes, we've heard all the jokes, and if we haven't then his parents have. My wonderful husband, who puts up with all the wool, silk, fabric, and other crap that attaches itself to me, is 52 today.

I love him to death.

getting the hang of this!

knitting with silk mawata - it seems easy, and really, it is, once you get the hang of it.

Attenuating the silk is still something I need to work at. I can get it pretty even, but since this was my first time, I wasn't sure how fine or thick to stretch it out - I would have hated to get to within an inch of the top of the mitt and find myself out of silk. However, by erring on the side of caution, I think I am going to have extra left over. These mitts are never going to stop wind - they are a little fine for that, but already I can feel how warm they are going to be. Seriously, Stephanie was right - they are like little hand ovens.
I have this colourway (Blue Moon's Dragon's Dance), and another from them (Lagoon), and last week I fell down and hurt my credit card on Etsy and bought a couple more bundles - Once I get them, I'll let you you the details of the Etsy buy, but I want to see them first. Their price was a lot better than Blue Moon's, but I'll wait and see on the quality - one never knows...

(A good hand cream is your best friend while knitting this stuff...)

Going forward, I think I may keep the needle size (3mm), and stitch count (48), since it works for my hands, but when attenuating the silk (thanks, You Tube!!)(the attenuating part starts around 5:00 minutes) I may keep it thicker the create a denser fabric.

(I've already got more done than this shows - the thumb gusset is done,

and they fit snugly, but not tightly. Perfect.)

Either way, I'm in love. Really, really in love with these. They weight nothing, look spectacular, and to my non-knitting extended family that saw them in progress, simply re-confirmed the fact that to them, I'm the weirdest of the weird.

Works for me.

not sure I ever showed you these...

I did finish my son's socks - after the road trip to Kingston, I put in the afterthought heels n an evening, that's how simple they are. Robyn was asking if they are difficult, and really, they are not. Not at all. What's nice about them is how you can custom fit a sock to someone after the fact. What's not so nice, is it's hard to do any patterning, as you have to break into the sock at one point to insert the heel. But you can preplan these as well, and insert a row of wast yarn if you know where the heel is going to be.

Considering my son grew two and a half shoe sizes in 2 months*, I wasn't taking the chance of preplanning where the heel went! He could have outgrown them by the time I finished knitting.

*That shoe growth made me the favourite person at SportMart - new school shoes, new regular shoes, new basketball shoes and new track shoes. The kid working that night made a nice commission off us!

bunnies and birds

I live in the suburbs. It may not be a totally urban area, but it's houses, pretty close together withe retail, industrial and commercial areas nearby. I would not in any sense of the word, consider it rural, yet we get flashes of the wildlife that was here first.

Birds walking just outside my door...

Birds at our birdfeeder - they are quite used to us now and don't fly away nearly as much when we come to the door...

Bunnies hopping around near our front door...

And Bunny that likes to sit outside the door and just stare at us when we come or go.

Seriously - he (she?) doesn't move, even when we talk to him (her?), or move around. For four days straight now, he (she?) has been in the same place, right outside the door, near the hedges. Not sure what he's (she's?) waiting for, but it is kind of cute.

News!

Some of you may remember Lucky Canuck's short lived blog, and have heard me mention her here - either as Lucky or Susan. She occasionally guest blogs, or I have highlighted some of her fabulous creations, whether they be crochet, knit, sewing, beading, card making, jewellery... She and I are each other's enablers, and we haunt knitting shows and sales together, and when one finds a new craft, the other usually follows (thanks for the polymer clay jewellery kits, Susan - I cant wait to start them!)
Well, Susan is about to embark on a new journey, and has allowed me to announce it. She's getting married! Susan and G. have known each other a while, and since this is the second time around for each of them, they have gone a little less traditional, and I love it!
Here's the ring:

And here's her words as she described it to me:

The ring, presented last night is 18k matte gold with a green peridot setting. Designed by Eles Designs, Toronto. Completely unorthodox, non-traditional, chosen by me and all my style. I am marrying the best guy in the world for me. Plus, he has a nice craft room waiting for me in his house.


Stay tuned as Susan lets me document the plans - you should see what we have in store for the dress! (I've known about this for a while, and we have had many an intense email discussion about dress, flowers, jewellery, etc.)