finally found a use for it!

Way back when, Needles generously gifted me with some lovely local (to her) Alberta alpaca. It's a gorgeous, fawn coloured wool. slightly more than fingering weight, and about 300 metres. Delicious stuff. I've been looking for the right pattern for it - I was definitely thinking scarf or shawl, knowing how nice the alpaca would feel around the neck, but nothing really spoke to me. Until this. This would be the Suncrest Shawl, from Tanis Fibre Arts. I saw it on her blog, and fell in love with it. (check the blog pictures - I think they show it off better than the actual pattern pictures).
But... problem. There wasn't enough of the alpaca to make the shawl. I knew I could make the shawl bigger, but I didn't want to make it smaller. So then I was on the hunt for something that would co-ordinate - I could use the alpaca for the garter section that will fall against the neck, and something else for the shell lace part. I found a couple of things that could work (Come on, the Yarn Store was having everything at 50% off! off course I bought a few options...) But nothing seemed quite right. So I stopped into Needles and Knits, to see what Tove could find for me. We looked at a few things - some alpacas, some sparkly things, but again, nothing was quite IT. Until Tove brought out some chocolate brown silk. That was IT. I knew as soon as I held them together.

The milk chocolate colour of the silk was the perfect tonal quality to bring out the lushness of the fawn colour in the alpaca.
I added enough stitches to add 4 more repeats of the shell lace, and used up most of the alpaca. I bought one ball of the silk, but halfway through it, realized I needed another, so I dropped back in to Needles and Knits, and picked up the other one. It's perfect.

I can't wait to see it blocked out, to see the lace all stretched out. Plus, that spaghetti-like mess on the edge of the fawn coloured garter stretches out and the join is great - it just looks like hell right now, but trust me, blocking will do wonders!

drive time and baseball games...

...equals lots of sock knitting time. I've finished one pair in Cascade Heritage Silk Paints (85% Merino Superwash Wool, 15% Mulberry Silk), and started another. the yarn is THAT nice...)

The completed blue toned ones will probably be a Christmas gift for my boss - he did not hide his admiration for this colourway during the time I knitted them as a passenger in his car. I actually prefer when potential gift recipients state their likes for something - makes it so much easier!

The second pair is as yet unspoken for - it's a lovely, earthy combination of colours. It could go to my father in law, or my husband, or maybe my son.

Can I speak to this yarn? The colours are spectacular, there's no pooling (perfect for Nancy...) there's a slight patterning, but it really just comes across as random. And the 15% silk content gives a sheen to the finished item. This is something I expect from an indie dyer, something I'd be happy to pay upwards of $25 - $30 per skein, yet it's Cascade, and it's $19.99 at the Yarn Store! (and during their 50% off sale last week, I may have stocked up a bit...)

Plus it's 400 metres, so we're talking about a substantial amount of very pretty yarn...

weaving 3

And... the third weaving project.
Once I took the blue scarf off the loom, I immediately dove into the "basket o' odd balls" and came up with this combo. I ball of Pink kid silk laceweight, and some multicoloured silk laceweight I got from Grand River Yarns years ago.
I again entertained some people by warping the pink across our screened porch, but the difference this time is in the heddle (that slotted white thing in the picture below). The Cricket originally came with an 8 dent heddle - meaning there are 8 slots per inch. An 8 dent is perfect for fingering up to worsted weights (and probably bigger, but I haven't woven anything bigger than worsted). I knew I wanted to weave some finer weights of yarns, so I asked Tove if she could order me a 12-dent heddle, which she did, and I picked up the day before we left on our vacation. This heddle is perfect for laceweights, so off I went.

Of course, weaving with laceweight is taking a MUCH longer time, but I'm loving how it's coming out. I've got a lot more than this done by now, but weaving has stalled a bit - I haven't touched the loom in a week or more - looking at these pictures, I really must get at it again - it really is lovely to work with the silks.

weaving 2 - two days!

Once I cleared the green silk off the loom, I immediately started digging in the basket of odd bits and pieces of yarns I brought up to the cottage for possible weaving. (that was a fun basket to put together - tossing the stash for odd balls here and there, and then seeing what could work together).

What worked first was this three way combo of three blues.

Two separate alpacas in a light blue and a medium blue, which I striped in the warp (I made it about 6 feet long...) I used up almost all of these little odd balls...

Then the weft was some Fleece Artist (I think) merino silk (I think) with maybe some mohair (which leads me to believe that it may be from Wellington Fibres instead of Fleece Artist), but whatever it is - it was almost a full ball of tonal blues with some purples and greens tossed into the mix.

Magic.

The colours above are pretty true - the modeled shots below are not even close - it's very blue, not grey tones as shown. And as the title says - it took me two days! I warped it in our screened porch one afternoon (it turns out our screened porch at the cottage is the perfect size to warp a scarf...). This was the source of much amusement from family members and friends - my husband and son are pretty blase about seeing great lengths of yarn strung across a room, but others were fascinated by the process...
The next day I wove it, using up all the Fleece Artist/Wellington Fibres whatever it was..., and fringed it the following morning. Less than 48 hours, and during that time there were also meals, sleeping and general cottage merriment.

Next up - the third weaving project which is going to take me longer to complete...

weaving 1

A few weeks back, when we were at the cottage for a week's vacation, I brought my Cricket loom up to clear a few projects. This was already on it when it came to the cottage, so first on the agenda was finishing this.

It didn't take long (weaving rarely does), and now I have this luscious green silk beaded scarf.

The colour is a bit in between both of these pictures - not as gold as the top one, but more vibrant and earthy green than the bottom one. The silk means it's got some heft to it, and the beads have placed themselves on both sides of the scarf randomly, so it is a very wearable piece. Again, like the jeweled cowl, I haven't decided if this is a keeper or a gift!

Details - I skein of Tilli Tomas pure silk fingering weight for the warp (I used about half, so still have about 150 metres left), and one full skein of Tilli Tomas beaded silk for the weft - used it all! I bought both of these skeins at the Kitchener Fair about 3 or 4 years ago and finally used them up. Makes me feel better about what I will probably buy at this years fair!

modeled jeweled cowl and an explanation

First off, the explanation of my absence...

Work has been, shall we say, difficult. I love my job - the people, the flexibility, the work I do. Love it all. Well, actually I loved it all until about 2 months ago. Now I just some of it. About 2 months ago, we acquired some new divisions. This is a good thing - I like being busy, and setting up the logistics of this is part of what I do, and I like doing it.

But, one of the divisions is Electronics - and we acquired it when a company went bankrupt, and we inherited 3 people - the ex-owner, the director of sales and a sales rep. Herein lies the problem. They have come on board and tried to change how we do things to the way they do things. Whereas we assume they will change their way of doing things to match our way, as I have a number of divisions to manage, and I need them to all function in a reasonably similar way. It's been a nightmare. Without going into too much detail - the main issue is the director of sales. He doesn't respect me, he tried to undermine me, he doesn't copy me on important things, when in a meeting, he won't listen to me, but when my boss says what I have just said, he gets it. It's very frustrating, and I've spoken to my boss, and he has spoken to the jerk. Numerous times. The jerk just keeps apologizing, saying he forgot to include me. Really. How stupid does he think we are?

And the ex-owner, now a VP of our company, is lobbying for a bigger role to play in our company, beyond just electronics. It won't happen, because he's not really trustworthy, but still - it's out there.

It's funny at times, but some of the time, it's very frustrating and almost disheartening. I know I have the support of my boss, and the CEO (who is a friend of the ex-owner, hence the reason we threw them a life preserver when they went bankrupt...), but still. It has sucked the life out of me lately, and I just haven't had the spare time to be online as I would like to be.

Having said all that, I'm getting a better handle on things, and hope to be more of a presence around here - I've been doing lots of knitting to relieve stress!!

Going back to an oldie but goodie project - may I present the green jeweled cowl?

(the colours are much more vibrant in real life)

I've shown this before in stages of development - but wanted to show it in use - It's so soft and drapey, and the beads add a sparkle that just sets it off. This is going to be hard to give away, and honestly, I haven't convinced myself to do so!

why our cottage has become a tourist attraction...

Yes, I'm back, and I do apologize (I do that a lot lately...) I have some great knitting and weaving to show you, as well as a bit of an explanation of my absence, but all that can wait.

We're headed back to the cottage tonight for the weekend and to see the boy after not seeing him for 10 days - he's been at the cottage with the neighbours and my brother in law and his cousin for the past week and a half, living the life of Riley. And if given the opportunity, I believe it's a life all 13 year olds should be so lucky to live...

I have a quick picture to show you for a laugh (and god knows I could use a laugh these days...)

As the backstory - we had a small water leak at the cottage last winter - nothing major, my husband and I fixed it without much effort. But this leak did make it's way to the ceiling tiles, and left a water stain in a spot between our dining table and the door to the deck - in other words, right smack in the middle of the action at a cottage. If you look up, it's what you see.

Our kids think it's hilarious, and have invited their friends over to see it. We think it's equally funny and have shown it off to our friends. My Mother in Law is mortified by it, and wants to change the tiles (no way!)

I'll leave it to you to determine your own reaction...

sorry, sorry...

I really didn't want or mean to go away, but things and life conspired against me. I've mentioned how my job has exploded and consumed so much of me, and there have been some other things going on in my personal life. Nothing earth shaking, and nothing that is directly affecting my immediate family, but nonetheless, it's stuff that has been taking up my time, and brain space. We spent the last week at the cottage and it was wonderful. I knit, I wove, I read, I relaxed, I spent time reconnecting with my husband and son, and spent time with friends. I need more time up there.
We'll head back up for the long weekend this weekend (Simcoe Day here in Ontario), and that will help.
I promise to show the stuff I knit and wove. There are scarves, socks, and I've become reacquainted with my navy laceweight cardigan, and I love it.
Give me some time to straighten out my brain, and I promise to share everything soon.
thanks.

nothing, nothing, nothing...

I got nothing. I'm running around, like the proverbial chicken with my head cut off this week. While my entire office has known for weeks that I am on vacation next week, now is when that fact is actually registering. So everyone wants things done NOW. Do what I can, but I can't fit 50 hours of "I really need this before you go!!" into what's left of my week. As I mentioned, we have expanded out company recently, and added some new staff. (we bought out another company that was going under and inherited some of their people). These are the main culprits. I get a lot of "Well, that's not how we did it at XXX!" I'm so close to saying, "And XXX went bankrupt - see the correlation??"
So I've gone to my boss and asked him to give me a priority list, which I have attacked in order. There are some unhappy people, but I'm one person, and can only do so much. And I have one day left to do it!
Add in the fact that my husband is pretty much going through the same thing at his job (except he owns the place, so it's a little worse for him), and we are trying to get everything together that we want to take, plan out most of the meals so I don't have to go into town if I can help it, and still get the boy to baseball games and other sundry affairs - well, the knitting has taken a back seat.
I'm still knitting sanity-saving socks, but that's about all my fried brain can take right now.
I do have grandiose plans for our vacation week, though - If I can only decide what knitting / weaving / beading I want to take...
Oh to hell with it - I'm taking it ALL!
I'll probably be posting from the cottage - once the wine, beer and "cottage coffees" work their magic on me...

fickle, fickle...

I'm fickle. Really not a surprise, but anyway... Last weekend at the cottage, I planned on making a bunch of blanket squares, and ended up exclusively knitting on my green jeweled cowl. Not a problem of course, but just goes to show how difficult it can be for me to stick to a plan. This past weekend, I also had plans to FINISH my jeweled cowl, since I had made such great progress on it, and wouldn't it be great to get it off the needles?
Can we imagine how well that worked?

It is green and it is beaded, but it's not the jeweled cowl...
A little background... we are in town this week, but starting next weekend, we are at the cottage for the whole week. Even though we will be taking both cars (husband has to leave early for a work commitment), thereby giving us more space to cart stuff up, I still thought to bring my Cricket loom up this weekend, so I could finish the green beaded silk scarf that's been sitting for a while. I was going to put the loom away until next week, but it kept staring at me... and, well, I succumbed.

The first project on my new Cricket and I choose an unyielding fibre like 100% silk. Then I add in the fact that there are beads interspersed along the silk.

My edges are a touch wonky right now, and this piece needs a good soak, and I still have to finish the fringe first. (Must find my fringe twister...)

But I love it, and am pretty happy with it. The best thing is that my loom is now open for so many possibilities. I left it at the cottage and will be bringing an assortment of weavable fibres up for our holidays.

Which, knowing me, I will proceed to ignore...

travel knitting

As is well documented, socks are my go to for travel knitting. Whether its when I'm in the passenger seat going to work with my boss two days a week, or Friday and Sunday trips to and from the cottage - socks are easy - I use a plain vanilla, no pattern, afterthought heel, so nothing more than a tube with a toe sock pattern, meaning I am fully engaged in any conversations in the car. So I can brief my boss on what's happening in my department, or talk to my husband and son as we catch up on each other's lives, and what went on during the week. It took a while for my boss to realize that my brain could be fully engaged on work issues while knitting a sock - he still finds it funny sometimes. My husband and son are used to it, and find it odd when I'm NOT knitting.

You'll see two different socks on the go - this is standard, as I stagger them, so as not to have to worry about toe decreases, or ribbing, if possible. The red above is a cotton stretch, knit with 56 stitches on 3.25mm needles. Soft and cushy, these are favourites of many of my girl friends. The yellow and black swirly stripes is Tofutsies (50% Superwash Wool/ 25% SOYSILK brand fiber/ 22.5% Cotton/ 2.5% Chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells!) from SWTC yarns. Fun and comfortable, the cotton makes it easy to knit in summer. For this thinner yarn, I use my standard sock recipe - 64 stitches on 2.25mm needles. These socks will probably go in the gift bag, with a potential recipient already in mind. The colours are the same as my son's school colours- black and gold - so I see a teacher gift this Christmas!

blanketing my deck

I'm still thoroughly enjoying the POP blanket squares. I think it's the Noro Silk Garden that is keeping me amused. I love how the colour changes seem subtle, but show up quite nicely in these squares.

I'm using 3 or 4 different colourways of Noro Silk Garden - I started with two when I started the blanket, but when I (quickly) decided to make this a full size blanket rather than a baby or lap blanket, I dug around and found a few more balls of Silk Garden hanging around. I love the mix of colours and tones it is creating.

Above is 34 squares (now at 35), and I think this is about a quarter of the blanket size I want. I'm still on the first skein of the Cascade Eco Wool (the black border wool), and I have 2 more of the black and 2 of a dark grey. I haven't decided if I'm going to randomly add some grey squares or build a pattern. (I can hear Nancy right now - PATTERN! ORDER! NO RANDOM!) I think I will have to wait and see once I get all the squares done. I get the feeling it may take as much time to place the squares as it will to sew them together.

This is not a short term project...

revisiting an old favourite

When I spend a weekend at the cottage, I tend to overpack the knitting. (Surprised? I thought not...) This summer seems to be all about the smaller projects, which is a good idea when it gets hot. So, socks and blanket squares have been the norm so far. But this past weekend, I tossed in a UFO that had been hanging around, and it caught my attention. So much so that, other than car time (which I save for socks), it was all I knit on this weekend.

Meet jeweled cowl, version 2.0. I've knit this before in a peachy/grey mix cashmere laceweight. This one is a richly toned green fingering weight merino/silk mix. I like the slightly heavier feel of the fingering weight, and the tonal green beads match perfectly.
I'm hoping I can stay reasonably committed to this project - I;d love to finish it before it gets put aside yet again...

Done with School!

Today is the last day of school - just a half day, and like the entire week so far, nothing is being done, I'm sure! The boy has had a great year, and is looking forward to a terrific summer - friends here in town, with camps and sports, and numerous trips to Canada's Wonderland with his friends I love the fact that they can go on their own, and they all look out for one another. (Luckily we live close enough that it's a reasonably easy drop off or pick up for us parents). Plus, weekends and holidays and vacations at the cottage with his "posse" there.
Oh, to be 13 again!
We're leaving tomorrow - I have to drop by the office for a few hours, as does my husband, but we're hoping to get away in good time. Luckily, we don't face the ugly Muskoka traffic - we're in the Kawarthas - an area in North Eastern Ontario that has more routes to get there than the one main highway that feeds the Muskoka area.

It's the long Canada Weekend for us - so Monday is a holiday, as July 1 is on Sunday. We'll be at the cottage, relaxing with friends and family, and celebrating our wonderful country.
To my American Friends, if I don't get back here in time, Happy Fourth of July! I know you celebrate your country as we do ours.

sewing for the weather

I was digging around my pajama drawer recently, and realized that most of my pajama pants were long pants, and mostly flannel. Not good for the kind of weather we've been having and are expecting for most of the summer. Even some of the sleep shorts I have are flannel, and when the cottage is not air conditioned, even flannel shorts can be too much.
So I rectified that this weekend.

I have three new pairs of sleep shorts For a pattern, I took my favourite, and only pair of cotton sleep shorts and traced out the pattern from them.
All of these fabrics were bought on sale at Fabricland, two from the clearance (the red and black floral, and the tie dye stripe) and were around $5/metre. The golf print was around $8/metre, and I think it's my favourite. I originally bought it to make jammies for my son, but co-opted it for myself. He's got a drawer full of jammie shorts, so I'm sure he won't miss this one!
For the t-shirts, I hit our local Zellers - it's closing down (becoming one of the first Target Stores in Canada later this year! - so exciting!*) and I got a bunch of sleep t-shirts for 30% off. Score!

*Most of us Canadians are inordinately enthralled with Target. Maybe once we have our own Target stores, the thrill will wear off...

Socks are my comfort knitting

What with the job stress lately, socks have become my comfort knitting. Add into that the fact that I will be spending more time in the car coming up (cottage trips), it's a good thing my sock mojo is in full force. (that and blanket square mojo - I think I'm up to about 20 squares now...)
My FIL loved (LOVED!) his cashmere socks, and I haven't heard a peep about the mismatched pooling, so it's all good (I was away for Father's Day, so didn't get to see the reaction in person, but I heard all about it).

I know Misti Alpaca is one of his favourite sock yarns, so I have a pair ready for his birthday, which isn't until September, but I knit a ton on these at my girls weekend, so they got done pretty quick. They've gone into the gift box to be ready.
And to ensure a smooth ride when I'm a passenger, I've got another pair on the go - this time with some Tofutsies I bought at The Yarn Store. I bought a bag of 4 balls for a great price (which, of course, I can't remember. I know it was a good deal). This yellow and black is knitting up quite nicely, and I almost think I may have to put the finished socks away for a teacher gift for next year, as it's the colours of my son's school!

I've used the Tofutsies before, and it does knit up quite nicely. My husband has a pair in this yarn, and loves them.

ummm, hi!

Hi! Sorry, I seemed to have gone away last week, but in actual fact, I was right here. As I mentioned before, my job has kind of exploded around me, and my workload has kind of increased in size a bit (Our company added three new divisions, and as the logistics person, I have the fun job of making them all work.) Suffice it to say, other things got dropped, the blog being one of them. I'm going to try and get back to a reasonably regular schedule, but if I miss a day now and then, you'll have an idea as to why. Note that I'm not complaining about the added workload and longer hours in the office. It's still a great job, and the alternative would be job searching, and I don't want to do that.
Another reason I was a bit lax - I tend to pre-write a few things on Sundays, and last Sunday I was away for a girls weekend at a friend's cottage. This is a cottage where I spent a good chunk of my childhood - two moms and four kids all week, and two dads on weekends. The parents were best friends, and J and I have stayed close through the years.
When three girls and five dogs get together, there are tons of laughs, lots of wine, and great food like this:

Plus, when you're the only non dog owner around five dogs, they tend to do this a lot:

Meet Rosie - a "jug", which I'm told is a Jack Russell - Pug Mix. Rosie spent a lot of time in my lap, which made knitting interesting. But I did get quite a bit of knitting done (even with the wine), as I stayed pretty much to socks.
Two pairs of sock blanks have found homes. These stretch cotton socks have gone to Nicola - a friend and fellow baseball parent, who has taken on the chore of scorekeeping the games so that I can knit during them.

That absolutely deserved socks! She chose this pair, so all I had to do was add the heels, and she was thrilled.

The black and red pair is also going to a baseball parent - David has been whining for 2 years, and just to get him to stop, I offered up this pair. He is pretty hard on socks (so he says), and these are a pretty tough pair, and he loves them. One heel to go and we'll all be happy!

Brenda and I - separated at birth

Brenda and I could easily have been separated at birth. We both gravitate to the greens and earthy tones. We both love to vacation in the north of Ontario. We have similar knitting styles and project choices. We both have LK-150 knitting machines, both gifted to us by our husbands.
At the Knitters Frolic, we both bought very similar yarn.
And we both knit up the Fleece Artist Zambezi mohair into machine knit versions of the Whisper sweater (or vest, in Brenda's case). She did hers in pieces, while mine was one swath of fabric, with after thought sleeves that I put in using the three needle bindoff.

I still have to finish the fronts, hem the sleeves, and possible add some length to the whole thing. It's a work in progress, and kind of a unique item. Very sheer, yet immensely warm. Fitted sleeves, but drapey front.

I have enough of the yarn left over to make something small that may coordinate. We'll see. Like I said, a work in progress.

quick answer

Marlyce in Windsor asked me how I would remove beads from a garment when they were attached using the crochet hook method. I guess I could have explained that better - I was saying that on my blue laceweight sweater, I was planning on adding lines of beads to the body using the crochet hook method, but if I didn't like it, I could always remove them. Well, the only way to remove them is to frog back the knitting, the same way you would remove any kind of design element that didn't please you. The nice thing about putting them on with a crochet hook is that they are not prestrung onto the wool, so when you remove them, they are gone.

There is another way...
simply smash them with a hammer and pick out the bits and pieces of glass bead that get flung all over your knitting (and probably immediate area as well). I don't actually recommend this method - you make a huge mess, and often, the sharp glass edges of the beads will cut or mangle your wool.

Not that I know from experience, or anything. cough, cough...

second chance

I was planning on frogging this sweater, but the governor called and gave it a second chance.

The back story:
I wanted to make a contiguous sleeve cardigan, using some delicious Tanis Fibre Arts Laceweight for a lightweight cardi. So I kind of worked with an existing pattern that is sort of the weight I'm working with, that uses the contiguous method, and changed it from a pullover to a cardigan. I did some math, so I thought it was going to work.
As I was continued, I wasn't sure it was going to work - it seemed to be pulling along the shoulder seam, and it just didn't seem to be the right size.
In order to photograph it before frogging, I lengthened the needle cable to be able to see it fully, rather than all bunched up.

Well. That sight gave me pause. Now that I could see the actual size (rather than bunched up on a smaller cable), i could see that it WAS the right size, and the shoulder "seam" although it still looks like it's pulling, is actually the right tautness that a shoulder seam needs to be.
the tonality of the yarn is beautiful - deep dark blues, with hints of lighter tones. The slight v-neck I have created is the perfect neckline depth (I did drape it over my shoulders to test fit).

The contiguous sleeve method is brilliant, and one I will use again. I love me a top down sweater, but sometimes, raglans get a little boring, or are too casual for the look I may be going for.
The colour is most true in the upper photo - the close up of the sleeve needed some lightening in order to sort of show how the sleeve grows from the shoulder "seam".
Since this is a rich, deep blue, I have thoughts of adding rows of beads to this sweater throughout the body, to really ramp it up and make it more of a dressy piece. It's so lightweight, that it will suit this kind of treatment (I hope!) The nice thing is, since I will be adding the beads as I go with a crochet hook, if I don't like the effect, I can remove them.

What this taught me was, don't give up on an project until you REALLY look at it. Take it off the needles, or at least put it on a needle that's big enough to show the ENTIRE make. Doing that saved this project from an untimely death, and I couldn't be happier to have this back in rotation.