The Consolations of Knitting

I'll take that as a hint...

2010-10-01T03:22:00.000-04:00

My boss, the excellent Anne, linked my sadly negelected blog in her sidebar.

If that's not a hint to update the old blog.....well let's just act like it is.

Socks, Baby.

2009-08-14T11:16:00.000-04:00

So last weekend was Sock Summit which by all reports was crazy and overwhelming and wonderful. I wasn't there. Sort of disappointing but realistically it was just too far to go. Of course had the summit taken place at this time last year I would have been a few hours away by car. Alas.

I did think of Tina and the Blue Moon ladies though while working on my socks. Blue Moon Socks that Rock (lightweight) in Garden Daze:

This was the yarn for the July shipment of the Rockin' Sock Club. It is very, very far outside of my usual colour family but I liked it as soon as I opened up the package. So far I have been letting my sock club yarn mellow in stash a bit, in fact a few earlier shipments have not yet been cast on. Not so this, I cast on a couple of days after it showed up. Unfortunately the club pattern and I were not seeing eye to eye. It's a lovely pattern, but I thought it obscured the colours and I was getting some unfortunate pooling. Sometimes a really pretty handpaint just want to be a plain vanilla sock. So it is (with a little picot cuff thrown in for variation). I am zooming through these, not least because I can't wait to wear them no doubt alarming my friends and co-workers.

Another reason it is probably best I did not make it to Sock Summit: I would almost certainly have bought sock yarn and I don't really need more sock yarn. Being in the sock club fills the hand-painted niche very nicely so I've bought some solid colours lately but not much else.

Working in a yarn shop is not without its hazards and going home with more yarn than pay is one of them. Now that I've been there for a while though the effect has changed. I'm at the yarn store all the time. I'm surrounded by the lovely yarn all the time. The yarn fumes have lost some of their power perhaps but mostly I have gotten over that feeling that "If I don't buy it right mow I might never see this yarn again" feeling. The yarn is always there and even if a particular yarn or colour goes away more yarn will come to fill its place.

All very nice and philosophical sounding. We'll see how well this has held up in October, after Rhinebeck.

Socks aside it's been all gift knitting lately. Which of course does not make for good blogging, as some of the recipients read here from time to time. The gift of the moment should be safe; another apple hat for another anticipated baby.

Adam is flying west this weekend for work and hopes to have a chance to visit friends who have just announced they are expecting their first in February. One apple hat coming up. Cast on at Pub knitting on Wednesday and should be done this afternoon (I need to burrow into the stash to find a few yards of brown for the stem).

Blogger tells me that this is the 100th post since I started this blog a little over two years ago, which doesn't sound like a very good pace. Just have to keep going, I guess.

Me? Blog?

2009-07-30T17:13:00.000-04:00

Oh dear. More that six months without a post. To be honest I was ready to let this blog die. Posting had come to feel like an obligation and demands on my time had increased. It wasn't something I planned. When I wrote that last post, way back in January I didn't mean for it to be the last, it just sorted ended up that way and eventually I let myself stop feeling guilty for not posting. If it's any consolation it was not a good winter for me and most of you would not have wanted to read anything I had to write.

Now it is summer (or what passes for summer this year) and things are a little better and a little calmer. Both my mother and mother-in-law have pointed out that I should be blogging and now my lovely friend Jenn has started a blog of her own. All these little nudges add up. So here I am again. I don't know how often I'll post or for how long. Perhaps this is the blogs last stand.

Looking back through those 2008 posts it looks like the cutoff point for really regular posting coincides with my moving back from France. When I was away the blog felt more important to me as a way to keep in touch with my knitting friends back home. I still live nearly as far from my Vancouver Island knitting friends (Canada: it's a biiiig country) and I have knitting friends from France to keep in touch with too.

Despite the lack of blogging I have been knitting. That pink vest that has been sitting half done in my last post for 6 months did in fact get finished in February. I haven't worn in very much. It's a lovely item but I mis-estimated the effect of pink 2x2 ribbing on my tummy region. No photos of that one but perhaps I'll get brave and post one sometime.

I'm not really set up do a finished object report for everything I've finished. I also got a new laptop during the blog hiatus so photos are still in a few different places. I'll add a few here and if you want more info check my Ravelry project page or just ask!

There are more, of course. And I hope they'll all appear here in time.

Not Again

2009-01-28T23:20:00.000-05:00

I had such high hopes for my twice-weekly blogging plan (which in itself should have been a warning sign ....) and it's fallen off the rails before it's even really begun. No time to moan about it though, better to just get back on track.

A number of things conspired to keep me away from the blog. One of our computers coughed quietly once or twice and then died unexpectedly the other day. This throws himself and I all out of whack: We're nerds (as you may have noticed by now) and being down to less than one computer/Internet portal per person is not a good plan. The whole things is made more vexing by the fact that the deceased machine was purchased less than a year ago. However it seems that the nice folks who made the overpriced brick are going to make good. We'll just see how that turns out.

In happier news actual knitting has been keeping me away from the blog somewhat too. As you may recall I dodged the holiday knitting bullet and now the knitting goddess is, predictably, exacting revenge. Since the holidays I've always had at least one "obligatory" knit on the needles. Now it could be worse, certainly, and I'd still rather knit for all of these occasions than just buy something, but my selfish inner knitter wants to hide away and work on things for memememe. And there is one thing for me, the as-yet-un-named pink vest. I was making good progress on it for a while but now it's semi-stalled right in the middle of the bust-darts.

those stitch markers look like rather odd nipple rings in this photo, sorry

I like working on it and I like how it's coming out, but other things have been pushing themselves to the top of the pile lately.

I finished the boot socks for Dad (who reminds me he never reads my blog anyway, so I can post pictures). Pretty standard stuff, but my Dad is not one for interesting foot coverings.

My husband, on the other hand (or should it be foot) has no such constraints. He needed more heavy socks and we had this worsted weight self-patterning stuff in at the shop. I had to buy a couple of balls just to see. You can just see a few of his board-game boxes in the back there, he calls these his Spiele Socken.

Vivid no? The repeat is super-long so I didn't bother trying to start them in the same place or anything. I actually sort of like that they don't match, it seems like they shouldn't, somehow.

With those done I'm zipping through a birthday gift with another to follow closely behind. Those are secret though, so no pics yet. None of this is tedious knitting or anything, I just want to work on my vest again! Whine whine.

Also crimping things a little is the fact that my energy has been kind of low lately. As I write Kingston is in the grips of it's umpteenth serious snow storm of the season, with about 20 cm (that's 7.8 inches for you imperial hold-outs) falling today. It's kind of pretty and fun the first few times it happens but when it's on a Wednesday at the end of January and you have to go to work...well the thrill is gone. It is cold and dark and nasty and everything that winters in Canada predictably are but I'm just tired of it.

However it is good knitting weather and I have lots of that to get through. And lots to look forward to including some experiments in different fibery-arts and planning a knitting retreat in the spring. Which can't come soon enough.

Back To It

2009-01-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

Things are still looking a little messy here at consolations, but it's time to get back to it I think. As well as spiffing up the blog there has been knitting going on.

I finished off Adam's latest pair of socks last week. They actually worked up more quickly than I anticipated, what with the legs being knit on 2.0 mm needles. But ultimately they didn't take any longer than other textured patterns. I really like the pattern, and I'm looking forward to working more of Anne's patterns very soon.

Tears of Offler socks
raveled here

At the same time that I've been refreshing the blog , I've been weeding through my Ravelry queue with a firm hand. Both taste and circumstance change and I had to come to grips with the fact that there were items on there which, no matter how lovely, were never going to be knit by me. Some things stand the test of queue time and I have cast on for the vest which had been sitting in the number one spot for some time. No photos yet, as there isn't much to show, but I'm glad to be working on a garment again.

Also waiting for a photo session is the Thermis cowl. It is done and since this shot has even had its buttons sewn on. A very enjoyable knit as well as a timely finished object, since we are in the midst of a deep freeze here in Ontario at the moment. However it is possible that I am not as elegantly long-necked as some; when I wear this it comes up around the bottom of my ears. I like it though, and can see knitting more of these, even if only as gifts.

Speaking of gifts, the Winter Apple baby did indeed arrive shortly after the knitting was complete and is a little boy. I'm sure he'll be sweet in his little apple hat.

Most of the knitting this month seems destined to be foot coverings for the men in my life. I've just finished a pair of boot socks for my Dad (sorry, no photos till they're in the mail) and cast on a pair for my husband. These heavy-weight socks do go quickly, which is a nice change. Another, more secret, project needs to be done by the end of the month as well.

It was nice to have a bit of a break from regular blogging, but it will be good to get back to it as well. I am hoping to post at least twice a week, but I won't make any promises just yet. There have been so many changes in the last four months and I'm not all that resilient to changes. But things seem to be leveling out (knock wood) and calming down and the pace of things is becoming familiar. I just need to figure out what to slot back into the schedule and what might be better left out. I probably won't get this right on the first try, but I'm working on it.

Done

2008-12-29T15:40:00.000-05:00

The Winter Apple baby set is done, and not before time. I spoke to the soon-to-be Mom on Christmas Day and she's feeling ready to go too, though she's not a knitter herself, and seemed slightly unsure that the bairn was in fact waiting for it's knitting to be done.

The sweater is adapted from F. Pea's Super Natural Stripes, the hat is my usual fruit shaped infant hat. Because I was working on this during late December I was a little concerned that it was looking too Christmasy, but I think it has all come together nicely. The green really is more of an apple green that a Christmas green and the little details are (I hope) cute without being twee.

Click for bigger

The Scotch Mist hat is also done. It's actually been done for a while but it took me a bit too long to get around to the washing and blocking. My photographer is at work today though, so only the 'hat-on-bowl' shot for now.

I still love this yarn, the Topsy Farms 2 ply I talked about here. It softened up some after a good Euculan soak but it's pretty rustic. I like that but I know some won't. The colour is great though and there is so much going on in it. In fact I have picked up a ball of the natural colour and started a cowl, of which more later.

The first of the Tesserae socks is done and yesterday I turned the heel on the second one. The feet go faster than the leg so these should be complete soon. This is going to be the last pair of light-weight socks I knit for a while though. The reality of winter is really setting in and thicker socks are required around here.

So done, done and nearly done. To be frank I'm feeling about done too. Work, the holidays, the weather and a nasty virus brought home by Himself have conspired to wear me down and make me thoughtful. I've been neglecting my blog for a while now and while there have been reasons big and small more than anything else I think I lost the groove of blogging and lost sight of why I started.

I'm going to take some time to make some changes around here. Partly just to freshen and tidy but also to figure out what it's going to take to get me to the keyboard more often. My big (non-knitting) project for the New Year is to finally get my studio/office set up. The room has been full of unpacked boxes and mess and finding anything (even a set of DPNs) has become a pain. Also with no bookshelves all of my books and patterns are packed away, not out to inspire me and with no desk I have been blogging from the dining room table. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to having my fiber space and I really do hope that it will give me a creativity kick-start for both writing and designing.

So I'll be quiet for a little while, though perhaps it won't be a noticeable difference from my spotty posts of late, and things may look a little messy around here but it'll get better. And I'll still be knitting, and will likely have stuff to show.

The cowl seems to be a big accessory this year - which from a knitters perspective is great, they're usually worked in the round, don't take much yarn and are over much sooner than a scarf. This is a cowl of necessity for me. Having been in a warmer climate for a few years I don't have a lot of hand knit scarves and none of those I do have has turned up here yet (I still don't have all of my stuff here). I have several of the enormous, woven euro-scarves that I always wore while living in France but every time I try to wear one here I feel rather self-conscious and affected. I am hoping this is going to be a good solution and finished before it gets ridiculous cold again (it has been both ridiculously cold and unseasonably warm in the past week).

Thank you all for visiting still, I hope that you'll bear with me. I wish everyone a joyous and knitty New Year.

Rockin

2008-12-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

Despite the blog silence there has been a lot of knitting going on around here. Even though I'm not knitting for Xmas this year I'm still pushing to get things finished (mostly so I can start new things...you know).

I've been working away on this wee baby cardigan which is going quickly thanks to it's tiny size and clever top down raglan construction.

It's actually even further along that this now, but it was at this stage that daylight and my being at home actually came together for long enough to allow for photography. The bairn it is being knit for is due soon (and will, I suspect, be early) so this, and the little hat to go with it are a top priority.

The socks are coming along too. The pattern looks really complex but is really just a sort-of offset rib so as long as I can remember what row I'm on it's pretty simple and not as slow as i had feared. The first one is nearly to the toe and I'm hoping to make good progress on the second no with a few days off over the holidays.

In other sock news I've signed up for the Rockin Sock Club for 2009. I hummed and hawed about it for a while but Himself and I came to an agreement - he got a new PSP and I signed up for the Sock Club (and he gets at least one pair of the resultant socks). Marriage is all about compromise I'm told.

The paper whites also are making a sprint for the finish. After doing nothing at all for a couple of weeks they suddenly decided to go for height. Curious. There are a couple of little flower spikes on there though, so it looks like we should have a couple of blossoms in time for Christmas.

Happy Solstice Everyone!

NaKniSweMo Success

2008-12-07T17:15:00.000-05:00

I feel a little sheepish for posting about it nearly a week after the fact, but I did indeed finish my NaKniSweMo sweater within the month of November. I had minutes to spare!

Klatchinan Cobbleston Complete

I am so happy with the way it turned out. The pattern is great, the yarn lovely and the knitting was very simple, yet with enough changes to hold the attention, it fits and he likes it. I think that's the making of a successful project, deadline or not.

This has really helped spark my interest in knitting larger things again. That and the fact that the temperature hasn't risen above freezing all week. We are entering that season in Canada where woolly things are not a matter of fashion, but of necessity. There will be more sweaters from me this winter for certain and I'm feeling excited about it.

I have, of course, cast on for a pair of socks for carrying-around knitting. I'm using Anne Hanson's Tesserae pattern and some Sisu in a gorgeous dark teal colour. It's a brilliant stitch pattern (so many of Anne's patterns grow out of these) and easily memorized but to get a nice looking result I've had to go down to a size 0 needle so these are going to take a bit of time. I'm also starting a baby item which will be the first of several in coming months as this whole baby things seems to be going 'round.

Though I'm not at all regretting my decision not to knit gifts for the holidays this year it feels somehow slightly wrong not to be frantically trying to finish things up now. So far, I'm coping.

For those wondering why Klatchian: I refer you to the works of one T. Pratchett, particularlyJingo.

Still November

2008-11-24T12:39:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned recently how much I love knitting sweaters in the round? I do and I'm especially glad that the Cobblestone sweater is worked this way. Once the body was complete to the underarms it didn't take long at all to knit the sleeves and by Friday afternoon I was ready to join them all together.

Which went fine, though those rounds right after joining are really long. Plus there are some short-rows in the back which are a great design detail but do mean that for a while you're doing a lot of knitting without gaining a lot of length. A chilly, quiet weekend meant lots of good knitting time and now I'm past the first set of decreases (hurrah!) and heading up towards the neck.

Sorry about the iffy photos, not much light here this month.

I'm not entirely confident that I'm going to make it by the end of November but I'm still going to try. Himself has been keeping a keen eye on my progress and we've certainly had sweater weather recently. Congrats to my fellow NaKniSweMo knitters who are already done!

Deadlines can be good motivators but I think I've had too much deadline knitting in the past few months so I've decided not to do any Christmas knitting this year. Not least because if I wanted to do my normal amount I would have needed to start weeks ago. Initially this decision made me a bit sad but I don't think it's worth making myself crazy, and I have distributed some yarny goodness throughout the year. Also there are a few wee bairns coming in the new year who surely will need some woolies.

Speaking of Christmas deadlines: Do you think my paper whites are going to make it?

Friday Yarn Pr0n (and more changes)

2008-11-14T14:06:00.000-05:00

I am maybe a little bit obsessed with this yarn:

It's Topsy Wool from Topsy Farm on nearby Amherst Island. This is not what you'd call a highly processed yarn. The hand is a bit rough, there is the odd bit of twig.

Maybe it's some sort of genetic memory? It's practically begging to be made into something dense and durable, something more about survival than fashion. It's like wool from an earlier time.

NaKniSweMo progress took a bit of a hit this week but for a good cause: I started my new job. It all happened a bit fast and I'm still on a learning curve but I'm also very excited! Having interesting work with great people and tonnes of learning opportunities is such an energizing prospect.

The past two months seem to have flown by and there have been so many changes but things are really coming together and settling in. There's even time to slow down and toast achievements. Happy days.

Fall Back

2008-11-04T14:32:00.000-05:00

I never meant to be one of those people who starts out all their blog posts apologizing for how long its been since the last blog post. Yet I find myself in that position again.

This last weekend when the clocks fell back Adam and I had a real sense that we were falling back into our real lives. The past six weeks have been insane and slightly blurred and very happy but we are glad that the pace is starting to slow again.

All of the wedding knitting did get done in time. Just. I was knitting the toe on the second of Adam's marryin' socks at 2:00 AM the morning of the ceremony and my Mom was weaving in the ends on my shawl hours before hand (Thanks Mom!). I won't say much about the wedding (which probably deserves it's own post once the photos come in) except that it was lovely and what we had hoped for.

And a slower pace should mean a bit more time for knitting and blogging. During the whirlwind of the wedding weekend my friend Lynn and I made a "blog more" pact and I know Lynn is not going to let me slack on this one. In case that wasn't enough incentive I've decided to do NaKniSweMo this year. I know, I know one would think that I would be running from even the idea of more deadline knitting at this point. But I've had a sweater for Adam in my Ravelry queue for months* and the yarn conveniently arrived while we were away. Also who can say no to Shannon?

I filled in that late-October gap (and quite a bit of travelling-back-from-the-Rockies time) with some mitten knitting. This looked smart when we returned to Kingston in the midst of a nasty snowstorm, but today as I'm finishing them off it's 15 C and sunny outside. I feel confident they'll be needed soon enough.

These are Elizabeth Zimmermann's mitered mitts, one of the May projects in the Knitter's Almanac and the yarn is Noro Kureyon in 149, which is the same yarn as the Noro Hat I knit back in February. The pattern is typical of EZ, really more of a suggested way of proceeding than a line by line pattern. I made long cuffs and trimmed them with garter and used the thumb trick rather than an afterthought thumb. I worked these on 3.75 mm needles so they're pretty dense, but I like a firmly knit mitten - keeps the wind out. The Knitter's Almanac is the smallest of EZ's books but it is a real treasure trove of patterns. It was published in 1974 and the photography could use updating but the meat of the book remains totally relevant, as a quick browsing of Ravelry projects from it reveals.

We still haven't completely unpacked from the move, nor have we opened most of our wedding gifts. But there will be time for those sorts of things...right now we are reveling in the decompression. I need to wash my kitchen floor. I need to get my hair cut. I need to find a new job. But I also need to knit, and to blog, and I will.

*I never really bought into the whole 'boyfriend sweater curse' thing, but surely now I have NO excuses.

Updates and Finished Objects

2008-10-13T18:56:00.000-04:00

Update 1: Furniture. Yes our furniture and things finally arrived a little over a week ago. The whole experience ended up being an exercise in frustration and ridiculousness and an object lesson in why people hate to move. As much as I would like to go into detail the memory of it all is still too fresh (and there is a good chance that litigation is still to come) so it will have to wait for another day. Also it is so nice to be eating off a table sitting in a chair that it feels like tempting fate to grouse too much.

Update 2: Wedding Shawl. Still a lace blob, so I'll spare you the photos but well on the way to completion. Only ten rows of chart and four rows of edging to go (plus the bind-off, which I am refusing to contemplate for the moment, you all understand). Feeling good about this one (which is a good thing since we leave for out wedding in a shocking eight days.

Update 3: Non-knitting wedding stuff. Meh. A few people have asked why I haven't shared more of my wedding planning on the blog. My standard response is that it's meant to be a knitting blog. I read a lot of knitting blogs and it doesn't appeal to me when someones knitting blog morphs into a wedding blog or a pregnancy blog or whatever.

If I'm honest though it's more complex than that. This whole wedding planning thing just isn't fun. Or at least it isn't for me. I've seen the TV programs and the magazines and all these people who devote months and months of their lives to their weddings and I sort of assumed that at some point in the planning the magic Martha switch in my head would trip and that I too would become obsessively concerned with napkin rings and recessional music. Maybe I even wanted it too a little bit (I have this lingering feeling that I'm missing out on something) but it never happened.

This Saturday we engaged in a little wedding-related craftiness that had nothing at all to do with yarn.

not yarn

I can't even tell you how cool this was. We had booked months ago with Sarah at The Devil's Workshop to make our wedding bands. Ourselves. Neither of us has any experience with this sort of thing but the workshop was great and the whole process ended up being very profound.

It's not knitting, but finished objects none the less. I still can't believe we made them ourselves, the sense of satisfaction is great and I think Adam got a little peek into the whole DIY ethos. Rings are almost universally symbolic and wedding bands even more so. Spending a day together in the midst of all the craziness crafting the rings that we'll exchange on that day was time well spent.

And since I never know when enough is enough I'm knitting a pair of marryin' socks for himself. My very first visit to Wool Tyme here in Kingston yielded an absolutely perfect skein of Malabrigo (mmmmm) Sock. He's worth it.

For my fellow Canadians: Please vote today. Vote your conscience, vote strategically, vote however you'd like, but please vote. It really does matter.

Lace Blob and FO

2008-10-02T18:18:00.000-04:00

We're slowly getting settled into our new place - at least as settled as people without furniture can be. Yup, more than two weeks after arriving we are still sleeping on the floor and getting increasingly frustrated with the moving company that told us five to ten days. However they say they're going to be here on Friday. Fingers crossed.

Knitting activity is also getting back to normal. I didn't even touch the wedding shawl for over a week while we were in the worst of the moving and traveling, it takes way more concentration than I possessed at that time. I've gotten back to it in the past week and yesterday it looked like this.

Not too different, I know. It really is bigger though and today I have moved on to chart B which promises a little more variety. The going is somewhat slow and the rows have passed the 300 stitch point but it's fun to work on and diverting as well, which is what I need right now.

I did manage to finish a pair of winter socks for Adam. These were my mindless project for the times when exhaustion and travel and craziness took over my brain. Worsted weight socks are a quick-knit anyway and while it isn't winter here yet, you can feel it coming.

Cable Twist Socks (Hello Yarn)
Patons Classic Merino Natural Mix
Raveled here

The pattern here is actually a mock-cable formed with slipped stitches. A little fussy to work but easier than breaking out the cable needle. Also a little less "lumpy" than a true cable, which is probably a good thing in a sock of this weight.

I'm feeling like a pretty negligent blogger lately, I must admit. Only two posts for all of September. I want to do better in October but I also have to leave for my wedding in less than three weeks, so I probably shouldn't be making any promises. I do hope that in the coming weeks I'll have time to tell you all more about our new home and our new town and all of the exciting things that are going on. I should also be getting reacquainted with my stash and my books and all the things that got packed away when I moved to France - which should provide plenty of ideas and posts and additions to the queue.

Autumn always feels like a time of beginnings to me and this one even more so. There should be plenty to write once there is time for writing.

Apologies.....

2008-09-22T23:30:00.000-04:00

...for the long silence.

This move has been longer and more complex and far more tiring than we anticipated.

As of this morning we have the internets at home so a real post should be coming soon. Thanks for being patient.

secret no more.....

Shawl with no name

2008-09-06T19:58:00.000-04:00

Lace in progress never looks very good. The wedding shawl is so far no exception.

It has actually grown a little bit since this photo but progress has slowed. Those short early rows inspire a false confidence. Now each row has well over a hundred stitches and takes 15 minutes to complete and of course the rows will only get longer. Happily this first motif is pretty intuitive and doesn't require constant attention to the chart.

Good progress is being made in other knitting. The secret thing is finished, but must remain secret for a little longer. The Captain Carrot scarf, which I put down at the start of the Ravelympics has been finished and washed and is now drying. Photos to come.

I scored a copy of the new Debbie Bliss magazine this week. If you're a fan of her style it's worth checking out. There are some really nice patterns and some other interesting content as well. Unfortunately the website seems to be down at the moment.

Blog posts here will likely be a little spotty for the next few weeks as I move and get settled in Kingston. But I'll update when I can and be back with much more sometime in late September.

VIP (very important pr0n)

2008-08-30T18:31:00.000-04:00

So important that it is showing up a day late apparently. Oh well.

I dithered forever on what yarn to choose for my wedding shawl, considering a surprisingly wide variety of fibers and colours (I'm not wearing white, so I have options). Eventually I decided that it needed to be something classic and pretty but subtle.

Zephyr laceweight wool silk in Sable. It is exactly what I was hoping for. It is light but strong and soft with a subtle sheen. I'm still on the first pattern repeat but so far I'm pleased with how it's working up. This shawl probably won't be the biggest project I knit this year in either size or stitch count but it will certainly be the most significant, the most emotionally loaded. I want to enjoy the process as well as the result. Work in progress photos coming soon.

I was also lucky to receive a little gift from Stitches. Socks That Rock lightweight in the Knitter's Without Borders colourway.

Great yarn and a great cause - no way to go wrong there.

The only other thing I have on the needles is un-blogable since it's a gift for someone who reads here. Just a little stash-busting something, but it's fun to work on. Here's a sneak-peek.

Added to the list of things interfering with actual knitting this week is this book:

Lisa Lloyd's A Fine Fleece. This book has been out for a while and I hadn't really had a lot of interest in it. The theme of the book is knitting with handspun yarns and I don't spin. I can drop spindle a bit but I've long thought that I'd rather knit yarn that make yarn. However a thread in one of the Ravelry Cable Knitters forums led me to some project photos and I knew I had to get a look at this book.

Do I need to tell you that I wasn't disappointed? It's not that often that I get a book and really want to knit even a quarter of the projects in it. That's fine with me (truth told I've bought a whole book for one pattern at least once) since I know that tastes change and inspiration is valuable. A Fine Fleece? There are only a couple of patterns in there that I don't want to knit. In many cases immediately - I am only being saved by the crazy that is my life right now.

As has been mentioned once or twice before I am a big fan of texture work and the cabled patterns in this book are incredible. They vary from reasonably simple to extraordinarily intricate. Each project is shown in both handspun and a commercially spun yarn (nice for us non-spinners) and the photography and styling are lovely. It's not going to make me a spinner (though never say never) but I think at least one project from this book is going to be on my needles this winter.

Ravelympic Wrap-up

2008-08-25T00:17:00.000-04:00

It was a close-run thing, but I made it.

Yarrow Ribbed Socks
from Knitting Vintage Socks
Berroco Alpaca Fine colours 1288 and 1285

So far 551 sock put participants have posted their finished items on Ravelry! And team Ankh-Morpork Knitters Guild came through with 40 finished objects, only slightly behind our arch-rivals over at team Hogwarts.

At the moment my primary feeling about these socks is relief that they're done. They still need a wash and patting out, but they look nice. I'm a little unsure about the toe, which Nancy Bush calls the French Toe. Instead of having two decrease points, with one at either side of the foot, it has three decrease points and sort of swirls up to the top. It was interesting to knit but I'm curious to see how it fits, both in shape and in length - the feet on these ended up being a bit shorter than most of Adam's socks. Alas it will be another three weeks or so before he can try them on.

Toe aside the pattern was clear and straight-forward if not especially interesting. It's a good boy-sock pattern though, and those aren't always easy to find. The yarn is nice and soft and fuzzy without being too fuzzy. It's also kind of splitty (not crazily so, but enough to make you pay attention) and very fine. I knit these on 2.25mm needles and probably could have gone tighter. The suggested needle size on the ball band is 3mm, which I am guessing is not a sock-based recommendation. Certainly at my tension a 3mm needle would have made for some very open results.

The socks are a mediumish Men's size and I have quite a bit of each colour left over. If I reversed the main and contrasting colours I think I could get another pair from the yarn easily, so it was a good value. It will be interesting to see how they wear and whether the Alpaca content makes them noticeably warmer than 100% wool.

No time to rest on my victory though, I'm hoping the yarn for my wedding shawl will arrive early this week and that will be a whole new saga, no doubt.

Nearly....

2008-08-23T00:28:00.000-04:00

State of the Ravelympics socks:

Nearly to the toe on the second one. I think I'm going to make it.

State of The Moozer:

Clipped, clean and not at all "doggy". Will it last?

Isn't it Yarn Pr0n Friday?

Misti Alpaca Laceweight, bought at the Make One Studio in Calgary. They had a great selection of Misti Laceweight, but just this lone skein of black. I had to take it. Not sure what it wants to be yet, perhaps one of Anne's little nothings?

Photographing black yarn: Kind of vexing.

Ravelympics Update

2008-08-19T23:44:00.000-04:00

With four days to go I am behind schedule again.

I can't believe that for the last Olympics I knit a sweater and this time I seem to be struggling to get through a pair of socks. I think it's back to late-night marathon knitting for me; maybe I still have a chance. At least I can multi-task and get caught up on podcasts.

Ravelry members can look here to see all the amazing people who have already crossed the Ravelympic finish line.

I have been busy, but not insanely so. I have time to knit but it seems that other things sneak in. With less than a month before we move there is always something that feels urgent. Normally I'd knit to take the edge off these times, but lately I've sometimes been too frazzled even for that. I'd best get back on track though because the yarn for my wedding shawl is on the way and reality is finally starting to sink in. I've got a lot on my plate.

With all this going on I'm not making it to any fiber festivals this summer. But my Mom, Lynne and her friend Linda are going to be at Stitches this weekend manning the Swallow Hill booth. If you're going please stop by and say Hi. And if you're not going to Stitches but need to flex your credit cards a bit anyway Tina at Blue Moon has posted her new colourways (whimper).

Wish me luck for the home stretch!

Friday Yarn Pron

2008-08-15T10:12:00.000-04:00

Noro edition!

The hat I knit last winter in Noro Kureyon was a big success so I figured it would be worth stashing a few more balls of the same colourway. Mittens, I think. These two skeins (bottom) turned up at River City Yarns in Edmonton.

River City is such a great shop and has a great selection - a lot of the standards but some yarns that I've never seen in the flesh as well. The staff is great and friendly too. I wish this shop had been around when I lived in Edmonton back in the dark ages.

We spent a day in Calgary as well and stopped by the Make One studio, which I hadn't even seen since it's expansion. Amy wasn't around that day, alas but we had a nice chat with Sandra (Hi Sandra!) and couldn't resist adding this skein of Kureyon Sock (top) to the 149 collection.

That was actually the second skein of Kureyon Sock that I acquired on that trip; the first was gifted to me earlier in the week. Strangely I would never go and deliberately buy and wear crazily mis-matched purple stripy socks but I can't wait to knit this into some for myself. Yet another knitting mystery.

Kureyon Sock 188 Thanks Mom!

There is more vacation stash to be shared, but I think I'll spread it out a bit in hopes of actually getting back to regular Friday postings.

In Ravelympics news once I got settled with the new pattern my pace picked up nicely. Sock one is past the heel and if I can get it done before Monday I think I still have a chance to finish the pair on time.

So far this is the most accurate shot of the colours in this sock - it's vexingly difficult to photograph. It's going to be a busy few days with friends visiting from out of town and lots of planning for the move but if there is knitting time to be found I will find it.

Hindsight is 20/20

2008-08-12T02:56:00.000-04:00

I suffered an early setback in the Ravelympics on day two when I had to frog all work completed to that point and start again. With a different pattern.

The pattern I started of with had a sweet little twisted stitch cable detail. Fun to work and (in theory) a nice non-fussy accent for a boy sock. It was all printed off and laid out with the yarn ready to go on Friday. Unfortunately it soon became clear that this yarn and this pattern were not meant to be together.

The Alpaca Fine is soft and lovely to be sure, but it is soft and lovely because it is somewhat loosely spun and has a very slight halo. And the main colour for this project, Blueberry, is also lovely but is a dark, light-sucking blue. The result, completely unsurprisingly to everyone with an ounce of sense (but not me), is that the sweet little twisted stitch detail was lost completely and the rest of the sock was looking a little floppy.

I slept on it Friday night (not literally because: pointy!) and in the light of the morning knew I had to rip. Fortunately I was only a few inches in. Needing a new pattern quickly I did what I should have done in the first place (ah, hindsight) and dug out my Nancy Bush books and choose a nice simple-but-interesting ribbed pattern. A solid weekend of knitting and I'm back on track.

Since speed is of the essence I've gone back to aluminium needles for these socks. I actually started the ill-fated pattern on some Inox double points I picked up last month. The Inoxes are steel, which is wonderfully smooth and pointy but (since the laws of physics apparently still apply) WAY heavier that aluminium. They'd be manageable for a nice hard spun wool being worked tightly but they just weren't playing well with this yarn and I feared that I would be courting hand pain with the marathon sessions the Ravelympics demand.

So far today real life has interfered cruelly with knitting time, but I think that if I can finish the leg and knit the heel flap by Wednesday morning I might be able to have sock 1 done by the end of the week. Knit knit knit.

Changes

2008-08-07T23:28:00.000-04:00

With only a couple of hours to go before the Ravelympics I have yarn but have not yet decided on a pattern. I spent a couple of hours last night leafing through New Pathways For Sock Knitters - and while it is a fascinating book and there are some patterns I am eager to try, I'm not too sure that completely rethinking the way I knit socks is something I should undertake just now.

The fact that it has taken me this long to get around to even reading this book says a lot. I received it for my last birthday (which is in November, for those who do not feel the need to check up on my Ravelry profile) but promised myself I wouldn't get 'too involved' with it until I finished my Christmas knitting. I finished my Christmas knitting Christmas morning (shocking, I know) and 24 hours after that found myself happily, if unexpectedly, engaged. That rather took over for a few days and a month later I moved to France and Cat's book was packed away in a box, not revisited till this week. Which is a shame, really, because I so want to knit through a few patterns in this book and understand what's going on but I fear it's still going to be a few months before I can really get stuck into it. Sorry Cat, your brilliant mad knowledge will have to be theory-only to me for a while more.

The yarn for this project, picked out by Adam before he headed back to France is new to me (clearly there have been interesting yarny developments in my absence). Berroco Alpaca Fine sock yarn. There's a good bit of wool in there too, as well as some reinforcement which I'm hoping will give it some spring. I'm looking forward to trying it though and think these should be some nice, soft and very warm socks. The lovely yarn is seen here reposing on my lovely new bag. It was a bit of a splurge, but I treated myself to a Namaste Knitting Messenger. Now that I'm knitting some larger projects again, I need a larger bag sometimes and this one has capacity. I think that it will hold a decent sized piece of knitting AND my laptop and camera if necessary. It's like a mobile blogging unit!

And warm socks will soon be needed, because by this winter we will be living in Kingston, Ontario. I don't know much about Kingston, but I do know that they have real Canadian winters there. After several years of living in milder climes it's going to be nice to have a reason to break out the heavy artillery (wool-wise anyway). Also it is close(r) to Rhinebeck, as Adam likes to point out (I think I've mentioned before, this guy knows his audience).

I won't be going to Rhinebeck this year though because I'm getting married that week. I know, I know this is like an NFL nut getting married on Super Bowl weekend. We needed to set a date pretty quickly after we got engaged and I was clearly slightly stunned and not processing information at full speed. Strange but true: in those few days wool was not the foremost thing on my mind. I've since recovered, clearly.

Here are some snaps from our vacation in July, click on the top pic to flip to the next one. Stash enhancement still to come!

Knit On

2008-07-31T12:07:00.000-04:00

Only three posts for July - not good. Fortunately August should be more prolific, in both knitting and blogging.

The knitting will be driven, in part, by the Ravelympics. I'm not so much feeling the actual Olympic spirit this year, but I'm always up for a knitting event. I participated in Stephanie's Knitting Olympics in 2006, knitting (and completing) my Ribby Cardi in the specified period. Since I have a few more things on my plate this year I'm being a little less ambitious and have signed up for the Sock Putt. Haven't decided on a specific project yet, I'm hoping that a trip to my old LYS this week will clear things up.

I'm knitting for Team Anhk-Morpork Knitter's Guild.

Also likely to be keeping the needles moving in August is the premiere issue of Knotions, which goes live on the fourth. Knotions promises to be a different kind of knitting magazine and their commitment to fair treatment for designers should start important conversations within the industry.

Posting should be getting more regular very soon. In the meantime here's a vacations snapshot sneakpeak of the second slurm sock visiting Pyramid Lake in Jasper National Park.

Good News Everyone.....

2008-07-27T15:44:00.000-04:00

We're back! Not back in France, but back on Vancouver Island visiting my parents and back to a good high-speed connection and being in the same place for more than 12 hours at a time.

I think this July is turning out to be a bit of a lost month. I've had so much to do and so many demands on my time that the days seems to have passed incredibly quickly. It's mostly been a lot of fun, but I haven't had a lot of time for regularly scheduled activities like knitting.

I let my blogiversary go by un-noted this month. I didn't intend to, I remembered on the day and everything. It's just that I spent most of the day driving from Lilooet to Squamish and finding enough wireless to blog would have meant fighting it out with the beautiful people in Whistler. Meh.

The slurm socks did get finished, proving yet again that doing a round or two here or there really does add up to a finished sock. The pattern (Charade by Sandra Park) is wonderfully hypnotic and has no purling at all in the leg and foot. I think it could translate to a good boy sock as well. I don't think I need to say anything about the yarn (Socks That Rock lightweight) except that it remains my favorite sock yarn ever. This was my first time working with one of the nearly solid colourways and I can't wait to use another one. For the record, the colour is a little closer to true in the first photo (the second was taken at twilight in shade).

The Captain Carrot scarf has also grown some - though it turns out fingering weight scarves don't go quite as quickly as one might hope. It is pleasingly mindless though and as such is good tv/car knitting. I'm only about halfway through the first 100g skein of this yarn (I have three) and I'm thinking that unless himself wants a really long scarf one skein is going to do it. I may save the other two skeins and see what sort of gauge I can get holding it doubled - perhaps a matching hat someday?

Someday is a word we're using a lot lately. That and 'after October'. Our wedding is now less than 100 days away (ack!) and we've got quite a lot of excitement coming up even before then. I can't spill all quite yet, but it's going to be a crazy few months here at chez consolations, it's all to the good though.

Next time I should have some holiday snaps as well as some new stash to flash. It's good to be back.

Still Here

2008-07-13T14:52:00.000-04:00

Well I never intended to let two whole weeks pass without posting, but time has been flying by. We made it safely to Canada (avoiding the Lufthansa baggage handler strike by hours) and have been on the go ever since.

My brother's wedding was beautiful and joyous and all the things that a wedding should be. Unfortunately I completely forgot to get a good photo of the Greenwood blanket before it was wrapped up (!) so you'll have to keep waiting to see how it turned out. I'm hoping I can convince my brother to take a few shots.

There hasn't been a lot of knitting time - the second slurm sock is past the heel and the lovely orange scarf is growing. Yarn has also been purchased, so if I can find remember to take and download photos I should have a more interesting post soon.

Adam and I have had a little (too little, really) time to catch up with friends and now we're packing up our car and getting ready to hit the road for phase two. I'm looking forward to some car knitting and time in mountains and some down time with my sweetie.

More news from the road soon, I hope.

We're off

2008-06-29T12:04:00.000-04:00

Our bags are packed, our apartment looks weirdly empty and speculation has begun as to whether I can get my travel knitting past 3 countries worth of airport screeners.

We're off to Canada to see my brother married, put some finishing touches on our own wedding plans and (we hope) figure out where we're going to be for the next few years. It's going to be a busy trip.

I'll blog from the road when I can and I'm wishing everyone a wonderful summer and good knitting.

Blanket coverage

2008-06-25T07:57:00.000-04:00

The knitting of the Greenwood Blanket is done. The ends are woven and I just need to figure out how I'm going to block the thing but I feel I can allow myself a sigh of relief.

It really wasn't that much of a slog - and it was probably good that it was on a deadline. It turns out that if you keep working on something progress will be made and it will get done. Who knew?
The knit itself wasn't really enjoyable. The patten is great but I think lace on this scale just isn't for me. The chunky yarn and big needles said "mindless knitting" to me, but of course the chart reading was anything but. In fact the part of it that I enjoyed the most was when the charted bit was over and I got to settle in last night with a DVD and the garter edging. For some reason that's the sort of knitting I associate with afghans - quick and repetitive, something that can be worked on autopilot. I've been toying with the idea of a log cabin (a la Kay and Ann) to really explore the zen of garter stitch. I should probably hold off until we have some idea where we'll be living by the time the cool weather comes again.

All that said, I'm very happy with the results and looking forward to seeing how it blocks out. I suspect that because of the relatively high synthetic content it's not going to hold as hard a block as 100% wool would, but I think a little organic ripple will be okay here. There's a pre-block sneak photo on my Ravelry, and I will post a real set of photos here sometime in July after it has been gifted.

Yesterday was my Ravel-versary. A whole year of Ravelry, how many hours logged in I wonder? It's an amazing tool though and has fundamentally changed the online knitting culture. It's had a few growing pains, which I guess was inevitable but the volume of information and the ability to connect with other knitters is so valuable.

I hope to sneak in another post or two before the weekend when we start making our way back to Canada. July is going to be a very hectic month but there will still be knitting and I hope there's opportunity to blog it as well.

mmmm, pastis

Baa

2008-06-21T15:06:00.000-04:00

Something to distract you from the lack of finished object photos - it is hot here and we've been busy.

'Tis the flickr meme: Type the answer to each question into flickr search. Using the first page of results only choose one image. Use fd's mosaic thingy to make, well, a mosaic.

From left to right, top to bottom:

What is your first name, what is your favourite food, what high school did you attend, favourite colour, celebrity crush, favourite drink, dream vacation, favourite dessert, what do you want to be when you grow up, what do you love most in the world, what one word describes you, what is your flickr user name?

I don't usually go in much for the memes, but as a visual person this one intrigued me. The real trick in is limiting yourself to the images on the first page. Can you guess my answers?

Inspired by Kristi and others.

It's mid-summers night and I'm planning to spend part of it relaxing on the balcony with Adam, a pastis and the slurm socks. I hope yours is as pleasant.

The Knitter Alone

2008-06-19T00:57:00.000-04:00

Himself has gone off to Britain for a few days, and though disappointed not to be accompanying him, I'm coping with my usual aplomb.

I cannot stop knitting these socks! Sometimes one yarn and one pattern converge into something truly wonderful.

If you haven't already, please take the time to read (and consider) Franklin's post from Tuesday. It is moving and important and there is nothing I can possibly add.

Everybody Loves STR

2008-06-16T08:47:00.000-04:00

There are so many good sock yarns out there these days (trust me on this, I've tried a few) but Socks That Rock is something special. I don't know what kind of mad chemistry the ladies over at Blue Moon use, but I hope they keep doing it. Just winding the skein of STR lightweight into a ball was enchanting - so soft and smooth and evenly spun.

The diffinition in this twisted rib is wonderful. I'm being selfish and starting a pair for myself, the first in months. The colour is actually slightly more lurid in real life that it appears here (if you can believe it) and has led these to be coined the slurm socks. The nerdy runs deep at our house.

There were no organized events here for World Wide Knit in Public Day, but I did manage a little on my own.
The knitting goddess smiled on us and it was nice to have a little sunshine for knitting in the park. Unfortunately the reprive was temporary and the rain is back today.

The vanilla cardi is ready for its bath and the greenwood blanket is less that 40 pattern rows from completion. After a couple of weeks of feeling like I've been knitting and knitting with no real progress it's nice that things are finally being wrapped up.

French shops, French Monks

2008-06-13T12:19:00.000-04:00

An old friend has had a baby since I've been in France and I thought I'd whip up a quick little sweater to gift to her next month. I've got heaps of patterns for that sort of thing and figured it would be a nice, quick, fun project for odd moments and traveling. Normally a good stash-buster but I'm still many miles from my stash and so would need to buy yarn. Not exactly a hardship.

Well shouldn't be, at any rate. But I spent much of the afternoon questing about in search of 500m of worsted weight, machine washable yarn in nice colour for a red-headed little girl and was completely thwarted. To be fair one of the shops was in the midst of a going out of business sale and was pretty picked over, and I only received actively rude/hostile service at one of the three shops I tried (that counts as a good day here). But at the end of the day I came home not just without the yarn I wanted, but completely empty handed. I miss North American yarn shops and their variety.

Like so many things about France the yarn shops here aren't bad, necessarily, just different. I know that I came here and that it's up to me to adjust. Maybe I've not done a good job of that. I also miss fish and chips (with vinegar), saltines and Starbucks (heresy, I know). I could go on, but I won't.

So the baby sweater will have to wait and I'll knit from the ever-shrinking stash on hand. I carried this Socks That Rock lightweight here because the colour reminds me of Chartreuse and we live near the Chartreuse range (as well as the monastary where the legend began). Seems appropriate to begin to knit it here.

I know falling back on socks is hardly suprising for me.

In other news the knitting on the French Vanilla cardi is done! There are a few more ends to be woven (not many) and it need a good wash and block but the finish line is in sight on this one. I've had a few preliminary try-ons and I'm pretty happy with it. They'll be a real finished object post coming next week, but here's a little sneak peek.

mmmm, garter stitch goodness

Don't forget that Saturday, June 14 is World Wide Knit in Public Day. Please do so.

Stripey

2008-06-11T06:52:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since I've had a finished object to show you, but I hope that this is the first of several coming up in the next week or three.

Stripey Socks

Lang Jawoll Aktion 132.0206
Raveled here

No pattern for these, just my usual sock recipe on 72 stitches and worked in 3x1 rib. As mentioned previously, I experimented with fit a bit on these, making the ball of the foot slightly looser by increasing needle size. I did the legs and heels on 2.25mm and went up to a 2.5mm after the gusset decreases. I had Adam try them on before washing and there is a noticeable difference in the fit. It will take a few wearings to get a true verdict, I'm sure, but I'm happy with the results. I plan to revisit this idea soon.

The French Vanilla cardi is also very nearly finished, needing only a neckband and a little weaving. I can't believe how long it has taken me to knit this thing. In truth it hasn't been the knitting time, but the waiting for things time and the fact that it keeps getting shunted out of the top knitting-time spot. I'm still keen on the pattern and the way it's coming out, so I'm really looking forward to finishing it up and giving it a good wash and block.

Even the Greenwood is crawling towards completion, nearly through the 5th pattern repeat which means about 75% of the knitting is done. Still can't show you much though.

This all makes it sound as though I've been very productive but in truth I've been feeling scrambled and at odds a lot lately. Knitting helps, but I'm feeling the need for a new project or two ( I haven't even picked up a cable needle for months). We'll be on the road for, well, July and I'm already plotting my travel knitting.

Skirt it

2008-06-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

The tedium of the greenwood blanket may be starting to get to me. I suspect this because in defiance of all reason I have become obsessed with the idea that I must knit a skirt. I have never knit a skirt before, never even seriously contemplated it until the blanket began to suck me down.

I know this is madness. There are many reasons why I should do no such thing. Even leaving aside the fact that I need to finish the blanket I have several other projects in the planning stages which are finish-date dependant. I'm not even sure knitted skirts are a good idea - certainly it would seem that they could get a bit stretched out in certain areas. And I'm not certain that's an area of my person that should be covered with knitted fabric. With these things in mind the whole skirt-knitting idea should have passed quickly.

Instead I logged onto Ravelry and looked at patterns. This was a mistake. I had no idea how many patterns there are for this sort of thing! Clearly the knitted skirt is a thing people actually do. Knitters never cease to amaze. This book has just been released as well, so clearly there is a bit of the fibery zeitgeist going on here.

There's this one, though perhaps the detail is too much and a worsted weight skirt seems a little heavy. There's this, which really would be a LOT of stockinette in the round (not good blog fodder). I could never in a million years get away with this, but it's a great pattern. This has potential, though in a solid colour, I think. What should have been a fleeting thought has now nestled in and started getting comfortable.

What do you think: Knit skirts, yea or nay?

Half-knit

2008-06-05T10:38:00.000-04:00

I said in my last post that the pattern for the greenwood blanket was becoming intuitive, but it's not relaxing. There is some lace knitting that I find, after a while, becomes meditative in its repetition. This is not that lace.

Part of this is absolutely my own doing. When I began looking at patterns for this project (months ago, my intentions were good) I was restricting myself to those which had plain (or rest) rows that were either all knit or all purl. I have found in the past that this really makes the work go faster as well as allowing the mind (and the hands) a little rest from time to time while still adding to the piece.

I don't know how this pattern slipped past my filter, but it did. It wasn't until the day I started knitting it that I realised that the wrong side rows also require attention. Not too much, just counting. Knit so many, purl so many, and only two of the wrong side rows are the same. This shouldn't be a big deal but having to pay strict attention all of the time, rather than half of the time (right side rows) is slowing me down.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not regretting the choice of pattern in the least. It's clearly written and interesting to work and it is coming out beautifully - you'll have to take my word on that for a but longer. I'm now about half way through the knitting and I'll be glad when it's done. Normally I consider myself a process knitter but on this one it's all about the product.

The yarn too is an issue. I like the feel of it, which surprises me considering the high synthetic content, but I find it a little difficult to manoeuvre. I think it's the weight - for some reason I can't manipulate the chunky yarn as quickly as I would something finer (though admittedly the thought of knitting something this size in a DK is enough to make the blood run cold).

In future I think I'll restrict my lace knitting to worsted weight yarns or lighter. And the next time I knit a blanket of this size, I'm doing it in winter.

Lucky me

2008-06-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

Adam has me figured out - no question. We had several hours last weekend in Lyon to wander around in the city center and do a little shopping. Adam likes to plan these things out and had googled and mapped and researched and was ready to go. He was on the hunt for board games - Europe does amazing board games and we're developing quite the collection. Clever boy that he is, he'd also printed off a list of yarn shops and after lunch our first stop was La Droguerie.

It's an amazing shop with all manner of goodies. The ribbons and trim section was literally unlike anything I'd ever seen. As you might imagine, there was also yarn. The cashmere and linens were lovely and tempting but (as usual) I ended up with some good, plain wool.

It's lovely soft and the colour (picked by Adam) is really rich. There's 300 grams of it here, I'd guess between 600 and 700 meters at a light worsted weight. Sometime in the coming months it will become a scarf.

So, with me on the slight high of stash acquisition, Adam was able to spend the next several hours wandering amongst the game shops of Lyon in peace. It was a wonderful afternoon and a I am so fortunate to be with someone who not only understands my craft but encourages it.

On Sunday afternoon we visited the Lyon Textile Museum. Lyon was once the center of the silk trade in France and still supports a significant textile industry. The museum only had a few knitted pieces (including a pair of silk stockings knit at a gauge that I truly do not care to attempt - about15sts/in) but the collection is remarkable. Weavers in particular will be interested in the completely accurate scale models of looms showing changes in fabric making technology over the centuries.

The sock visits the musee tissus,
Lyon

The greenwood blanket did not make the trip to Lyon, but I've been hard at work on it since we returned and it is growing steadily. I set myself a goal number of rows per day and usually manage to achieve it. The pattern has a 36 row repeat so there's no way I'm going to memorize it, but now that I'm into the third repeat it is at least beginning to become intuitive to some degree.

I can hardly believe that it's already June (the weather certainly seems to be stuck in April) and that in less than a month we'll be making our way to Canada. Best get knitting.

Scheduling issues

2008-05-27T11:14:00.000-04:00

The good news is that the afghan knitting has begun and (despite one large frogging incident) is progressing nicely. That's 'nicely' and not 'at a pace rarely achieved outside of highly skilled areas of the Faeroe islands'. It will be done in time for the wedding of the brother. The second project for said wedding, which up until this weekend I thought still stood a chance, is off.

I don't know what I'm thinking sometimes. I hoped to knit a little sweater for myself to wear to said wedding but it just isn't going to happen. I could, in theory and if I did nothing else probably finish the afghan and a small sweater in the month I have, but I know I wouldn't enjoy it. Knitting on the afghan for more than a couple of hours at a time wears me out, since the pattern requires full attention at all time. Better to take the money I would have spent on the yarn and buy myself a nice top and (as an added bonus) maintain sanity.

Of course the french vanilla cardi and the stripey socks are still lingering as well, waiting to be finished up. I work on each one a bit each day but the afghan has taken over at the moment.

I'm still not sure how much of it I will reveal on the blog before it's gifted, so that's it for photos for now. Plus macro photography of tweedy knits makes me feel like Jared (except less talented, alas).

The afghan did get a bit of a break this past weekend as we were in Lyon doing a little sightseeing and visiting friends. I got quite a lot of sock knitting done on the way there and back though, train travel is so well suited to knitting. I also got to see the new Indiana Jones in an actual theater in actual English (luxury!). As a result of this I feel I can confidently predict the majour motifs of at least the next two Indiana Jones films, but it was a fun show and a good time.

There was a little time for shopping as well.

What's in the bag (and why is this knitter smiling)? Answers next time.

Don't Panic!

2008-05-25T03:42:00.000-04:00

It's International Towel Day!

Do you know where your towel is?

Douglas Adams 1952-2001

Progress, finally

2008-05-19T10:50:00.000-04:00

My much anticipated extra needles finally made it here last Thursday and a wet, slow weekend meant lots of knitting time.

The bottom ribbing and one sleeve are done. The sleeves are 3/4 length and the knitting went quickly. All it needs now is the other sleeve, the front and neck bands and a little finishing work. Although the thing is getting a bit big and floppy work on the seaming avoidance which knitting in one piece enables is worth it. There will be a good number of ends to work in, however.

So the cardigan will be done in the near future, but I won't be working on it exclusively. Though it goes completely against my usual knitting philosophy I have another large project started already. This arrived the day after the needles (it was a good mail week).

The yarn for deadline project number one, all the way from Canada. I have not yet decided how much of this project I'm going to blog. It's a wedding gift for my brother and his bride and they've been known to read here from time to time. I'm not giving away any secrets by telling you that it's an afghan and that the knitting is going to be a marathon. I know it will get done, the question is whether deadline project two will even be begun.

Once I've worked a few rows of the pattern I'll have a better idea of the time-scale involved, so far its all edging. At least today was cool - there is a good possibility that I am going to regret the decision to work and enormous wooly thing in the heat of summer.

We're still waiting for a few things here, but at least I'll have no trouble keeping busy.

Merci bien

2008-05-15T01:00:00.000-04:00

Careful readers will note that there has been a lot of fruitless waiting around here lately. Which made this little bit of mail an even more welcome surprise:

A care package from our friends John and Melissa back in Canada. I'll be teaching Melissa to knit this summer (see Mel, it's on the internet, it must be true) and clearly her taste in books is already excellent. I've been coveting this one for a while. And certainly young L. is showing a prodigal mastery of both the watercolour and pen and ink forms.

Thank you guys, so much. We miss you.

Same again

2008-05-13T11:12:00.001-04:00

Inside out (and not quite finished).

It's a pretty good description for how I've been feeling lately. Still waiting for all the things I was waiting for last week and the stress is starting to leak out. I put my back out yesterday doing nothing more acrobatic than hanging up a towel and have been moving slowly and confined to quarters ever since. Fortunately this has not effected knitting and I'm feeling much better this evening.

I have reached the point on the vanilla cardi where I can go no further until the needles arrive and I'm beginning to worry about where they are. This thing is taking forever, and if I can't complete it very quickly it's going to get shelved by some deadline knitting. I hate to even consider this - we'll see what gets here first, I guess.

On the up side the socks are seeing a lot of action. I'm doing a bit of experimenting with these. The pattern is pretty much my usual way of knitting boy socks, with a 72 st cast on. The difference is that I've decided to go up a needle size after the gusset decreases are complete. I've mentioned before that himself has rather wide feet, and they're widest in the couple of inches before the toes. Of course I could also just decrease fewer stitches at the gusset....maybe I'll try that next.

I worked most of the sock on 2.25mm dpns and then went up to 2.5mm. Only a difference of a quarter millimeter, yet the difference in gauge is immediately apparent. The fabric on the larger needles is a little floppier than I like for socks and I'll be interested to see how it wears.

The yarn is Lang Color Aktion and appears to be a limited edition colourway. I picked it up some time ago in Canada intending it to be a pair of Jaywalkers (pattern now found here) for myself. I made the mistake of leaving in plain view, however, and Adam adopted it. Like a lot of the Lang sock yarns it came with a cute little spool of reinforcing yarn tucked in the center. Great idea but matching up a self-striping pattern on the yarn and the thread is totally beyond my mental energy level at present and I'm not really fond of the way striping yarns look on flap heels. So the heels and toes are in some solid brown stash yarn and I'm actually very happy with the way it looks. They were in danger of being too stripey.

After a miserable wet April, May has brought summery sunshine and much higher temperatures. After what seemed like a long winter it's a welcome relief. I have to wait, a warm breeze helps me think that good things are on the way.

Hurry up and...

2008-05-05T10:13:00.000-04:00

Wait.

It seems like waiting is going to be the theme of the week. Waiting for news, waiting for needles, waiting for yarn. In knitting, as in life, needing something additional before I can move forward. I've got a plan, but the fates might have plans too.

What do we do while we wait? We knit, of course (it helps keep the panic down).

I can still count to four. I can still make a sock. There is some peace in that.

Queue up

2008-05-02T09:37:00.000-04:00

Despite my continued efforts to trim it, my Ravelry queue seems to be settled at around 30 projects. I've tried to be ruthless and deleted projects that were unlikely or too similar to others (how many cabled, hooded cardigans am I really likely to knit?) but I've just added others. I'm not sure why this troubles me.

There are ten sock patterns in my queue - my hope is that sock patterns, like sock yarn, don't really count. More curiously there are three vest patterns. I cannot recall the last time I wore a vest and am not even sure I'm a vest person. Apparently I aspire to be. There are four cardigans, but I already know that I'm a cardigan person. And though there has been a dearth of serious lace knitting lately there are still quite a few such projects on the list.

So much knitting, so little time. Is this what Jenny and Nicole mean when they talk about the knitting fantasy life? At least the queue also contains some accessory (read small) projects that may find their way onto the needles in the coming months.

The real bad news? My next two large projects, the ones that must both be done for the beginning of July....I never bothered to queue the pattern for either of them.

Progress....and yarn

2008-04-28T20:12:00.000-04:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I showed you the sweater that I keep claiming to be knitting. True there was the distraction of the grey socks, but I really have been working away at the thing and it is now beginning to resemble an actual knitted garment.

Well sort of anyway. The rows were getting soooo long before separating for the arms, but are now back to a much more manageable length. I'm in the 'largely mindless' portion of the pattern now, just stockinette back and forth and remembering to decrease every now and then. It is not the most exciting knitting, to be sure, but it's good for keeping the hands occupied when the mind is elsewhere (I really don't feel a need for more excitement at the moment). I am feeling the beginnings of the urge to cable, but so far it's in control.

Less in control, as a glance at the photo above suggests, is my tension. I'm still on gauge, but this knitting is less even that I'm used to. I think the problem lays, in part, with a difference in my knit v. purl tensions which I normally avoid by working in the round. The yarn is also slippier than I'm used to, which may be contributing. It's also only 40% wool, so I'm not too sure how it's going to react to blocking, which would normally be my first strategy with something like this. It's not bothering me enough that I'll be upset if it doesn't block out (and certainly not enough to rip it back).

I mentioned that I may have picked up some yarn while I was in Vienna.

Not too much damage, really. I have a great fondness for German sock yarns and knew going in that I wanted a few skeins for my souvenir of this trip. I visited three yarn shops in Vienna, all of which held many temptations.

The German companies seem to do the best self patterning yarns, so I was happy to bring a couple of those home. The pinky one is probably going to be socks for me. I almost never wear pink of any kind, but I do like the pink/grey/black combination and feel I may be able to put it on my feet. The greener one is what Adam picked out for himself.

The blue yarn there represents the only self-imposed buying rule that I broke. I didn't intend to buy any solid colours while I was away. There are lots of other, nearer sources. But I'd never seen this yarn (Lana Grossa Seta Cashmere) before and couldn't resist. It has an amazing sheen, which photos don't convey, together with a so-soft hand and a good hard twist. The actual cashmere content is only 4% (with 15% silk) but it's a nice luxurious little touch. I don't regret picking this up at all.

My dearest also gifted me a little yarn while we were there:

Regia sock in a colourway incorporating my favourite purple and chartreuse combination (yes, really) and designed by Kaffe Fassett, no less. Squee. I'm thinking these will be Monkey socks for me, one of these days.

My largely theoretical (and clearly completely delusional) knitting schedule had me finishing the vanilla sweater by the end of this month. Doesn't seem likely, does it? And with two more must-finish projects coming up before the beginning of July it may be a while before I get to start a pair of fiddly socks for myself. One of the great things about yarn? It'll keep.

Deadline

2008-04-24T00:09:00.000-04:00

I did get a reasonable amount of knitting done while I was in Austria, I was on a deadline after all. Here we see the second of the grey socks in a moment of repose in our Viennese rental flat (which was fab).

The sock also went to one of the finest emporia of food and drink ever, Centimeter II*.

The tape measure you can see was not brought, that's printed on the menu. Centimeter II sells many of their foods and some of their beverages by the cm, you see. It is of course also handy for the visiting knitter. Though to be fair, Jaggermeister can lead to measuring inaccuracies.

We saw the hippos at the Imperial Tiergarten. The living ones were too busy practicing their (remarkably graceful) swimming to be photographed, but this little guy was an excellent stand in.

So by working away at a row or two here and there (some very lovely heres and theres) and leaving the toe to finish the morning after we returned home I did finish the socks on time. I may not be ready for the 52 pair plunge, but it turns out I can turn out a pair in a hurry if I need to.

Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern
by Nancy Bush (of course)
from Knitting Vintage Socks
Phildar Preface

Finished Monday, washed Tuesday and packed into another suitcase for another journey on Wednesday. I may be able to get some modeled shots when they return. As usual with Nancy the pattern is excellent, though I wish I'd made them slightly longer in the foot. In fact I'm sure I'll knit this pattern again.

Which leaves two questions: Does this mean that the vanilla sweater is finally getting some time and did I buy any yarn in Austria? It is and I did. Next post.

*the slight stirring you may have just heard was my friend Nemo actually finding something on the blog interesting for the first time....ever? Or possibly my Dad and Ragnar having a laugh at the wee Jager bottles.

Grey, grey, grey

2008-04-11T19:33:00.000-04:00

Grey weather and grey socks are suiting my grey mood at the moment. Actually the sock yarn is great to work with and the pattern is diverting yet speedy. Already well into the foot of the first one.

And finally there is something to show on the french vanilla sweater. Not much progress, I know, but a start. I haven't had a lot of time to work on it yet, but I've enjoyed it when I have. Working top down in one piece means that the rows get long fairly quickly - I'm heading towards the shoulders here and if uninterrupted I can get in about four rows in an hour. Its been a while since I've worked at sweater scale.

I think my favourite thing about this project so far is the chance to use my new(ish) Knit Picks Harmony set. I love these needles. They're perfect for wrangling this very smooth yarn and the points are the best.

The grey mood does not allow for meditation upon the queue at the moment. I'm hoping that my soul will be soothed by a week of yarn and yummies in Austria. Blogging as connectivity allows.

Hardly ever

2008-04-07T19:03:00.000-04:00

I did something unusual this weekend. I visited my Ravelry queue, called up the pattern in the number one position, and clicked the 'cast on' button. No, not the sweater, but the Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern, which had been languishing in said position for 5 months, apparently.

I needed a pair of travel socks to work and himself has an event coming up that might benefit from the luck and comfort of a new pair of socks. I have wanted to knit this pattern since I got the Knitting Vintage Socks book (as well as most of the patterns in it, but I digress). I love the subtle texture and the calf shaping. They're long though, calling for 550m of yarn, and for the intended situation need to be in a subdued colour so......

I bought yarn. French sock yarn! So far I'm liking it. This project is on a very short deadline, which is good both because it will keep me going, but also because it will limit the number of blog posts dominated by pictures of grey socks (again). The sweater will have to be started as well, if only for respite and blog fodder.

The satisfaction of casting on the top item in my queue was diminished slightly when I noticed that I still have over 30 items on the list. Many of them are small, but still. Wasn't I just saying something about needing to make a knitting plan? Now topping the queue: The Snail Mittens. They haunt me still.

Still here...

2008-04-04T20:01:00.000-04:00

But without much to show. The sweater that I keep threatening is still waiting to be cast on. It's not that I lack enthusiasm for the project, though I am still a little suspicious about that gauge, but I just couldn't sit down and get started. The yarn, though lovely, wasn't calling to me.

It eventually came to me: I felt guilty. Buying the yarn for the sweater, even though it was on sale and not all that spendy, was a splurge for me. The Canadian dollar has plunged like a stone against the Euro in the past little while and living in Europe is expensive. Plus I'm not working, so the balance is only going in one direction.

This realisation really surprised me. I'm not at all an extravagant person, but I've never really felt guilty for buying yarn before (even when perhaps I ought to have). I've always been able to argue that yarn (okay and books) are my only indulgence. I'm fortunate to have a wonderful partner who has not only never denied me yarn but often enabled me in its purchase. And none of this has changed, not really. I was able to afford the yarn that I bought, without much of a pinch. Would I feel differently if the finished object were to be for someone other than myself?

So I will, in the next few days, release my lingering doubts and cast on the sweater. We're leaving on a little holiday next week and the miles of stockinette should fit the bill nicely. I have a hat to finish up (surely this will be the last hat of the winter) and then I can begin a pair of travelling socks as well. I haven't had a sock on the needles since I finished the birthstones, I think I needed to catch my breath after that marathon of lace.

Speaking of which, here's a better fo shot of the amethyst lovelies before they hit the post. My feet aren't quite the same size as the recipient, but you get the idea.

Looking over my Ravelry queue today (no shortage of sock patterns there, let me tell you) made me think that I really need to make some sort of a knitting plan for the rest of the year. It promises to be an incredibly busy and not stress-free 9 months. I will need some knitting to see me through.

First time for everything

2008-03-27T21:06:00.000-04:00

For one day (and one day only) I really wish I were in Toronto. This whole scavenger hunt thing is going to be Big Fun and I'm bummed that I don't get to play along. The city isn't going to know what hit it. Perhaps I'll see if I can't stage a few of these pictures here in Grenoble. We have a hockey team.

As hinted in my last post, I really am starting a sweater. Not a first, but certainly a rarity in recent years. I have decided on a light cardigan which I'm hoping will provide for use in a few seasons. The yarn is a wool/synthetic blend and superwash no less. Not something I probably would have considered at home, but when in France.....

I love the sheen and softness though as well as the colour, which is a lovely soft neutral vanilla.

It's not quite the weight the pattern calls for but it's very close. I got gauge no problem in my swatch. Suspiciously easily in fact: on my first try. This worries me slightly (it shouldn't be this easy) but I did a good size swatch, no cheating or stretching. We'll see. I was slightly consoled when I realised that achieving gauge on this needle size meant that I did not have with me the needles I will need for the sleeves or the front band. So perhaps having to order those to be shipped to Canada and then sent on to me will be vexing enough to appease the knitting goddesses and save me from a gauge incident later in the project.

Tomorrow I cast on. To add another first, I'll be using my harmony interchangeable needles for the first time. I think I've finally found a big project I can get motivated about.

Done and done

2008-03-25T20:31:00.000-04:00

The birthstone socks were, in fact, done on Easter. Okay it was Easter Monday, but I've decided that it still counts. They turned out beautifully. A fortuitous meeting of yarn and pattern. Here they are fresh off the needles, unblocked and not showing to full potential.

V's Birthstone Socks
pattern: Hedera by Cookie A.
Fleece Artist Basic Merino in Amethyst

Overall I really did enjoy working on them. I finally decided that the problem I had sticking with them came down to the lace element. I like knitting lace, and I like knitting socks, but I knit them in entirely different situations. The combination meant that I needed an additional, plainer sock project for my traditional sock moments.

Speaking of plainer socks, the Serious Hiking socks are also finished. It was a productive week. Not least because the weather here, in these first days of spring, has been absolutely wintry. This pair has already had a trial in the weekend snow.

I have some thoughts about these socks, but I'm going to save that for another post. I may write up the pattern properly and offer it free here at some point. Anyone interested? There don't seem to be a lot of heavier weight sock patterns out there at the moment.

The clouds did lift for a time today and all the snow had a highly picturesque effect on the mountains. Alas it seems that there is more weather to come and thoughts of spring knits remain far off. However the Spring Interweave has finally arrived and the weather will catch up eventually. And there is a sweaters worth of yarn on my coffee table, just waiting to be wound.

Half way?

2008-03-19T20:40:00.000-04:00

I've been knitting on the second birthstone sock almost exclusively [I took the hiking socks to knitting group on Tuesday, I can't work the lace and carry on a conversation at the same time] since Monday morning. And this is all I have to show for it.

The leg and heel flap are complete. Next is the fiddly bits and the long rounds (nearly 100 stitches at the start of the gusset decreases). I may make it. May.

I'm giving up a couple of hours of knitting time tomorrow happily: I'm off to a yarn shop with Yvette. I haven't bought yarn at all since I've been in France, so I think I can justify a little treat. Perhaps I'll have some pr0n for Friday.

No snakes here

2008-03-17T16:25:00.000-04:00

The first birthstone sock is done, finally. When I started this project (February 27, according to Ravelry) I thought I could have the pair finished by Easter, no problem. They've been dragging on a bit, clearly. In fact I let them languish for a couple of days last week, needing only a few rows before the toe, without touching them once.

What? How do you celebrate?

I love everything about these socks, but more often than not when I sit down to knit for a bit these days I seem to be reaching for something a little more mindless. It's a sign (I'm sure) of where my mind is these days. Life seems complicated enough.

I'm not a slow knitter, but lace isn't my strongest event. And I haven't been working on these enough to get into the rhythm necessary to gain speed. It's less than a week now until Easter, if I really crack down and apply myself can I have the second sock knit by then? And should I even try or is this an invitation to cranky, squinty madness? Hmmmm.

The cold, grey rain returned on the weekend and we've been reaching for wool socks and hats yet again. It seems that spring is slow to come in a lot of places this year. As a consolation I definitely earned my Proselytize Knitting badge last night while wandering (through the drizzle) back from the pub and explaining to my compatriots why wet wool isn't cold.

If St. Patrick's Day has you thinking of cables and twists you can get a wonderful vest pattern and help fund important research at the same time. Visit Kirsten at Through the Loops to find out more.

There's an Alp back there somewhere...

Noro Hero Hat

2008-03-10T20:26:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure I would, but I really like this hat!

Saartje's Noro Hat

pattern here
Noro Kureyon 149

It was easy to knit without being boring. Saartje says that she used a little over one skein of Kureyon but mine took closer to two (both of which had the Noro standard one knot to mess up the striping). I'm actually pleased with the way the striping worked out here, though it was utterly by chance.

And Himself likes it too! He's been wearing it everywhere. I suspect (hope?) it will be too warm here for wooly hats soon, but this one will be tucked away safely for next Autumn. There are some really lovely examples in Silk Garden popping up on Ravelry as well...maybe I'll make one for myself by then.

my hero

Fiddling

2008-03-07T20:01:00.000-05:00

Winter is having a last gasp here in the Alps and the cold (really cold!) wind blowing down the mountain has pushed thoughts of cute summery sweaters right out of my mind. This week we were back to winter scarves and extra layers to keep warm and I was reminded that I had promised Adam a pair of thick hiking socks.

I have knit many pairs of these socks before. They use a worsted weight wool, so they usually work up really quickly but with this pair I have decided to take some time to tweak and properly record the pattern. When I first knit socks at this weight, I think I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's pattern for Woodsman's Socks. The number of stitches I cast on has remained the same, but little else.

Funny looking objects to be sure, but they really are warm and durable and they're meant to go inside one's hiking boots, where high fashion is (happily) not the primary concern.

I'm still knitting pretty socks too, having completed the heel on the first birthstone sock. Progress on these is steady but feels slow. I like working on them - the lace pattern is nicely absorbing and the yarn is lovely in every way - but after a few repeats I have to take a break. I can't get into a rhythm on them.

As a quick comparison of these photos might suggest, a couple of days ago both of these socks hit the fiddly heel bit at around the same time. In the future I must try to keep something at a non-fiddly stage at all times. I wouldn't usually have two pairs of socks on the go at once, but the knitting of these (fiddly heel bits aside) is completely different.

The cold weather here has given me the opportunity to observe the cold weather accessories of the locals (they're a well accessorised people, the French). Scarves are very big and I've spotted a number in the past few days that I'd swear were hand knit. Yet knitting is not very popular here at all, especially among younger women. Are there still French grannies out there somewhere knitting for their families? Or are these insanely pricey designer scarves that are being churned out in a factory somewhere? Even at designer prices hand knitting seems unlikely, is the new trend in machine knitting to look more like hand knitting? Curious. Knit hats are also very popular, though these seem to be machine made. I will never, ever be able to wear a knit hat (no matter the pattern) as chicly as a Frenchwoman. Oh well.

I am going to order yarn for a big project this weekend, so something other than socks should appear in this space fairly soon. And won't that make for a nice change?

Waffling

2008-03-03T20:03:00.000-05:00

I finished the waffle socks a week or so ago, but didn't manage to get decent photos of them until this weekend.

These were largely made up as I went along. As you can probably tell they're a little too tight across the instep. Adam's feet are widest right at the ball there, and I didn't compensate enough in the pattern. Also I'm not entirely happy with the gusset decreases. Happily they're still good, wearable socks - and I know what I'll do differently next time.

I can give a good report on the yarn though. It's the Elann Sock it to Me 4 ply, which is 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon with 210m to 50g. It's not very soft in the ball, but it wasn't unpleasant to work with and the twist is nice and tight. Washing the finished objects made a huge difference, they came out nicely soft and sproingy. I have 2 more pairs worth of this yarn and may buy more.

We saw the finished boot socks of betrothal already, but they look a lot better with feet in them.

I really liked this pattern, both the working and the end product, and would knit it again (though perhaps not on a deadline). The pattern called for 2.75mm needles and I went down to a 2.25mm. I nearly always need to go down, but I think in this case I would have been better off trying a 2.5mm. The firm, cabled fabric isn't all that elastic.

The Noro hat is done as well, but it may be the weekend before I can have it modeled in the manner it deserves. There has been some suggestion that winter is on the way back to our Alpine valley this week, so wooly hats might be just the thing.

Leap!

2008-02-29T19:27:00.000-05:00

So I was entering the birthstone socks on my Ravelry last night and having a look at my projects. There's not one sweater on that list. I never went back and entered all of my older projects on Ravelry, many of them had long since been gifted away and a few I'm not so proud of now and I didn't blog back then so hauling things out and photographing them was more than I was willing to take on. So most of the items on my project page are things I've knit in the last year or so. A lot of socks, of course, a couple of scarves and (after the Christmas knitting) quite a number of hats. No sweaters. Rarer even than leap years.

Speaking of the birthstone socks, they're ticking along nicely. Also why don't I work in twisted rib more often? I'm enjoying the pattern, the lace is simple but pleasingly engaging. Yummy yarn too.

But back to the sweaters (or lack thereof). I have knit sweaters. Quite a few in fact, though some more successful than others. As near as I can recall the last sweater I knit was the Christmas before last - a top-down raglan for my Dad. My Dad is a fairly big guy and likes his sweaters very plain, so I can see how it might have taken it out of me for a while, but over a year? I certainly didn't make a conscious decision not to knit sweaters. Maybe I just didn't feel I had the time to take on a big project, or maybe it seems like a lot of yarn to buy at once.

When I went through the stash before storing it away I noted that I didn't have a sweaters worth of anything, but I certainly have lots of sweater patterns. Patterns that I have intended to knit. My Ravelry queue has several sweaters.

I need to get back to knitting sweaters and there are currently several good reasons why I should. My brother is getting married this summer and Adam and I will be in Canada for his wedding. I'd love to make a nice little summer sweater to wear to some of the family functions. Summer sweaters are small, maybe that's a good place to start. Also I'm engaged now, and it's time I knit Adam a sweater.

So I'm doing preliminary reconnaissance. Looking at patterns, plotting whether it is better to try and find yarn here or order from overseas. Easing into it.

Nothings going to happen too quickly though, because at the moment I am completely obsessed with Norwegian Snails. These ones:

click for big

Yeah, I can't explain it either.

Heads and toes

2008-02-26T20:26:00.000-05:00

No points for guessing what this is.

Ah Kureyon. So pretty and yet so frequently vexing. Why is it so often the case that the best this yarn looks is sitting there in the ball? This time I seem to be lucking out and things are still looking good. This colourway, 149F, is about as neutral as Kureyon gets, I think, and the pattern works with the yarn rather than against it.

Another hat for Adam, who has gone way above and beyond for me this week. He does like a knit hat, though we've been having unseasonably spring-like weather recently so this may be the last one for a while.

Also in gift knitting: anyone remember this?

One of the yarns from the Chevron Scarf Fiasco (let us never speak of it again). I came across this Fleece Artist Merino the other day and was reminded how nice it really is, despite the fact that it didn't work for it's intended project. The colourway is Amethyst, the February birthstone, and as it turns out my soon-to-be Mother-in-law has a birthday in February. Perf! She won't get them anytime close to the birthday, of course, but it's a nice idea anyway.

I hunted around a bit for a little scarf or wrap, but defaulted to socks (I know, look surprised). I'm thinking something something a little lacy for spring. I'm thinking Hedera. This semi-solid should make the pattern interesting without obscuring it. Also despite ogling many, I've never actually knit one of Cookie's sock patterns.

Off to cast on and try to follow the NHL trade deadline via the Internet. Because apparently you can take the girl out of Canada......

look! alp!

Good Dog

2008-02-24T17:39:00.000-05:00

very good dog

Vetta 1993-2008

Two hats

2008-02-19T05:47:00.000-05:00

This hardly qualifies for a finished object post: Adam's hat is the one I knit on the plane on the way over. No pattern to speak of, just ribbing. The yarn is Berocco Peruvia and is very soft. Too soft I suspect to be durable enough for a sweater, but very nice for a hat.

awwwww.....

My hat is the one that was started in the leafy period back in January. I finished it before I left but didn't get around to blogging it and I didn't need to wear it until I got here. The pattern is Foliage from Knitty. I almost certainly could have gone down a needle size, but it's a great hat.

I'm afraid I still don't have a whole lot of knitting to show for my time here. I've been working on a pair of socks. Often I work on them while listening to podcasts on my laptop - which I do when I get to the point where I really need to hear English for a while.

This is another one that I'm largely making up as I go along. The yarn is Elann Sock it to Me 4ply, which I haven't used before. Shortly before I left Canada a bunch of this went up on the Elann site and I'm always on the hunt for good solid colour sock yarns. So far it's not the softest, but we'll see how it washes. It has a nice hard twist and great stitch definition. If you've got a pair of cabled socks in you queue this is a yarn worth considering. Can't beat the price either.

Happily I am finally feeling settled and have been considering some bigger projects, so things should get a little more interesting soon.

Home, away.

2008-02-12T16:31:00.000-05:00

Long distance moves are never simple, but for some reason this one has had some complication at every available turn. I'll avoid the gorey details, but even I was surprised to look at the calendar and see that it is nearly mid-February.

As promised, the Alpine booties were finished and felted before I left Canada.

Fuzzy Feet
Teresa Vinson-Sternson Knitty
Patons Classic Wool

They've come in very handy indeed. Apologies for the iffy photos, I'm working with different light here.

Also finished were the Bootsocks of Betrothal. I was at first shocked that it had taken me a month to knit these, but the pattern is fiddly. The result is good thought. All those crossed stitches make a really dense fabric. They do fit (only just) though I have not yet managed to get an 'action' shot.

Uptown Bootsocks
by Jennifer Appleby
in Favorite Socks
Dalegarn Sisu

I'm glad that I had these to work on in that last crazy month. They kept me busy and focused and mindful of what all the crazy was for.

I decided against socks for the plane knitting this time, opting instead for a small project I could have done in the course of the trip. I decided on a simple ribbed hat. I cast it on to a bamboo circular the night before I left and had no problems with security. And due to some "issues" during travel I ended up having to clear security three times in three different airports. Fun. Hat photos will have to wait for next time, as it is being proudly worn to the Netherlands, where Adam has gone for a couple of days of meetings.

That's the old stuff dealt with, and actually there hasn't been much new knitting since I've arrived. Within a couple of days of getting to France I was felled by some sort of Euro-virus which wiped a week out of my life. I'm feeling a bit better now, but I'll save the wip shots for next time, if only to have some filler. There's nothing very exciting.

I also haven't yet had much of a chance to see what's on offer locally. I have made contact with a group of local knitters through Ravelry, and I'm hoping to meet up with them in the next week or so. I'm hoping they'll be able to give me to inside info on stash aquisition - I'm already a little worried about how long the supplies I carried with me are going to hold out. Very disconcerting!

I want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes and wondered how I'm doing. It's been a time of huge change and sometimes has felt a little overwhelming. It's good to know that there are people out there thinking of us and wishing us well. Thanks. I'll keep updating here, stay in touch.

Up and away

2008-01-31T15:12:00.000-05:00

There are finished knits to be shown, but you'll have to take my word for it for a few more days. Have you seen the ticker over there? Yikes.

So I've been busy busy but regular posting will resume in a few days.

I'm off to sort out my plane knitting.

leafing out

2008-01-21T17:16:00.000-05:00

In a small act of solidarity, I knit a couple of leaves.

And then I couldn't stop:

It's addictive, clearly. I really ought to be packing boxes or something....

Reckoning

2008-01-16T01:07:00.000-05:00

I spent an evening this week going through my stash. It had to be done. What do I take with me to France, what goes into storage until we have a longer-term place to live and what gets de-stashed. It was hard.

We knitters do get a little odd about our stashes, don't we? At the end of the day it's just yarn, but in reality there seems to be a lot more caught up in the strands. After much sorting and re-sorting and gnashing of teeth I had a big box of purged yarn and 6 bins for storage. And that's all of it. Every back of the closet, stuffed in a drawer, trunk of the car (ahem) meter of yarn is accounted for.

Some surprises:

Most of the purged yarn was easy to part with (what was I thinking of when I bought the pastel mint green scary shiny baby yarn). Some of it will find a better home with other fiber artists, some will likely end up in the thrift shop. Overcoming that mental barrier that says "you can't get rid of that, it's yarn" needs be done only once. After that it hardly hurts at all.
I don't have a sweaters worth of anything. A lot of the stash is comprised of leftovers and "one off" skeins. I'm okay with that. I've been knitting lots of small things lately, so these quantities do get used up.
I do have a couple of shawls worth. Thought I knit less of it last year, I am surely a lace junkie. And apparently I can buy yarn for lace a little more impetuously and tuck it away out of sight. Of course this is in no small part because a shawls worth of yarn is a lot more compact than a sweaters worth of yarn (even if similar in yardage). Also I can guesstimate and buy a shawl yarn I lust after without having a pattern in mind, I would be much less likely to do that with a sweater.
I very little cotton. And if you subtract dishcloth cotton I have almost none. I should probably either come to terms with cotton or give up on it entirely. This should be a post in itself.

Less surprising (Zimmermaniac that I am) is that I have quite a bit of good, plain, solid wool. And there is some sock yarn. Fortunately sock yarn doesn't count.

So it's tidied and sorted and packed away. There's only one way to celebrate this sort of thing.... Buy yarn!

I know, clearly I'm past help. None of this is going into the bins though. That sock yarn on the left is for a pair of mindless striping socks for me. I suspect with all the chaos in the next few weeks I'll need a project like this. The lovely green on the right is Cascade 220 and is going to be cast on very soon. It's become colder here, will be colder still in the alps and I've been saying I need a hat for a while. That green is a reminder that spring will come.

The tweedy brown is Elsebeth Lavold Silk Wool, surely one of my top ten yarns. That one's going to France. Another hat, I think, something lighter for when the days begin to warm. Mostly (and irrationally, I know) I just want a skein to take with me.

The alpine booties are nearly ready for felting. There is a mistake in one of the heels (3 am knitting again) but nothing that will be noticeable once they're done.

Should be the first FO of 2008.

Greenfeets

2008-01-12T02:30:00.000-05:00

I don't know whether to notch it up to the fact that I'm moving soon and don't know whether I'm coming or going half the time or just the recent heavy use, but I came way too close to leaving the house with a cable needle in my hair. This is why.

I've been putting in some serious time on the boot socks of betrothal. I love the way they're coming out, but the cable rows are fiddly and the extra needle gets a good workout. And as always, when you're crossing stitches you lose some elasticity. I had a few hours of panic shortly after the heel turn when I convinced myself he wouldn't be able to get them over his heels. Measurements were taken and compared, and I think we're okay, though some tugging may still be required. Were I to do it all over I'd probably go with a 2.5mm needle.

Adam reports that the Alpine Clogs are proving to be well suited to their eponymous local. Our flat over there has bare floors, drafty kitchen windows and (not to put too fine a point on it) is on an Alp. Which reminded me that I'll need some feet warmers too.

So I started some booties for myself. These really are ridiculous in the pre-felted state, but they work up fast.

And just under the wire for yarn pr0n Friday:

A skein of Berrocco Peruvia, which is a new yarn to me. It's lightly spun and lovely soft. I suspect it wouldn't have the wear properties I'd want for a sweater, but that's okay as this skein is destined for a hat. I love this cognac brown colour and my LYS had some other beauties as well. Somehow saturated and subtle at the same time.

There's only so much more packing I can do before I have to really deal with the stash. That ought to be good for a post or six.

Renovating

2008-01-08T03:35:00.000-05:00

The blog is getting a bit of a face lift for the New Year so things may look a little funky for the next day or two.

New Year

2008-01-06T16:06:00.000-05:00

New year, new projects, new stuff. Where to start? I did indeed get all of the xmas knitting finished, though the mystery project didn't come off the needles until the wee hours of the morning of the 25th.

They were felted clogs, from the (brilliant!) Fiber Trends pattern. I gifted them in their comically large pre-felted state so that I could felt them with the recipients feet present for the best fit. It took a couple of cycles to get them felted down, but the end result is excellent. I can see knitting more of these.

Alpine Clogs
Pattern - Fibre Trends Felted Clogs
Patons Classic Merino

The coffee bean socks were also finished and a big hit, though I seem to have neglected to get a photo of them in their finished form. The Somoko was a dream to work with, beginning to end and washed perfectly. All in all a successful season of gift knitting.

I got a few lumps of coal for xmas (corundum too):

Yes, I was surprised. And very happy. Spreading the news and celebrating made the rest of the holidays even busier than usual, and knitting (for once) took a back seat. After a couple of days things began to return to normal and we made a trip to the yarn store. I picked up 3 balls of Sisu on sale, which are becoming the Uptown Boot Socks by Jen Appleby from Favorite Socks.

The large size of the pattern is pretty large, so I went down a couple of needle sizes, which is also giving a really nice thick fabric. If you look carefully you can see that my Harmony sock set finally arrived from Knit Picks. Pretty no? The finish is exceptionally smooth. I may be truly converted to the non-metal school of sock needles.

So 2008 is shaping up to be a big, exciting year. Stay tuned.

So close

2007-12-23T19:59:00.000-05:00

I just might make it. The Gran hat is done. It still needs the ends woven in and the button sewn on (I found a button on Friday - harder than I expected) but it's done.

The coffee bean socks have been zipping right along. They need only a toe, a little weaving and a quick wash. Easy.

The un-bloggable gift is where I may fall down. I worked on it till the small hours this morning, but it still needs several hours before it can be called done. This doesn't sound bad, I know, but my non-knitting life is starting to interfere. The wrapping and cleaning and cooking and requests that pull one away from the needles.

So tonight, yet again, I'll be plugged into some podcasts and knitting after midnight. I'll get it done. It might be close, but I'll get it done. I thought I'd kept the list short this year, and started in good time. Perhaps the knitting expands somehow to fill all available hours? No time to speculate now - must knit.

Yarn pr0n Friday

2007-12-15T00:47:00.000-05:00

Though only just (and as long as you're reading this in the Western half of North America). The weather here has settled into West Coast Winter. It's gray and drippy and not really conductive to drool worthy yarn photos. I persevered though, because this is too good not to share:

Squee! Socks That Rock in Pond Scum, Scottish Highlands, Jasper Rainforest and Socktopus. I got a couple of patterns as well, but they don't photograph very interestingly. Adam (who knows how to keep his knitter happy) sent me a Blue Moon certificate in November and I dithered about colours for a while before I ordered. I'm so pleased with my choices. I think the Pond Scum (I love that name) will be a pair of Embossed Leaves socks. I'll be living very near the Chartreuse mountains in France so it seems appropriate that this yarn should be knit up there.

I'm in the early phase of deciding what to take with me and what will be left behind in storage. The smart thing to do would be to sit down and plan out projects, assemble required materials and stick to the plan. Any bets on how long that would last? When does the first Knitty of the New Year come out? Yeah. And then there's the whole book problem. I'm used to having all my resource materials at hand. I'm sure some of you have been in this situation before - any hints?

Returning to socks, the second coffee bean sock is started

and with the holiday knitting nearing an end I hope to have it done before Adam arrives. I notice than Simply Socks now has some of the Somoko. Try it, you'll like it.

Getting there...

2007-12-14T01:36:00.000-05:00

Is there an inverse relationship between the amount of knitting and the amount of blogging? Surely this shouldn't be. When one is knitting a lot one should have more to blog. I think I'm running out of things to say about hats.

This one has taken forever to dry (it's winter, apparently) and so will be late getting in the mail. With luck it may still make it for the day.

Utopia Hat
by smariek
Cascade 220 Heathers

And the last gift hat of the season is cast on. This one with no cables at all.

Bright, isn't it? This one is for my Gran, and she loves her purple. Pattern is by Rachel and can be found here. Very quick knit in bulky yarn, the only challenge will be finding the perfect button. The knitting portion should be done by the weekend.

There is one more gift on the knitting list for this year, which isn't even started yet. Still, I think I might make it. Knitting all these gift hats, combined with the chilly temperatures, has had me thinking about a topper of my own. I have cables twisting in my brain and I should get them onto paper and onto the needles.

In fact, there has been lots of yarn activity here I just seem to be having trouble merging it into a cohesive post. Aside from the holiday knitting (and the non-yarn holiday planning), I'm in my last few weeks at my job and getting ready to move. Having small projects to work on has been good - I can't seem to focus on anything for more than half and hour at a time. I think for January I'm going to need something absorbing, yet not too trying to absorb my pre-move anxieties.

The mail this week included a package from Scappoose, Oregon so lighting allowing, there will be pr0n tomorrow. Maybe a book review too.

Times two

2007-12-04T23:53:00.000-05:00

It's very rare that I knit a pattern twice and even rarer to knit a pattern twice in a few weeks. But the Christmas knitting makes us do unusual things. Having finished the second Basic Cable hat, I have started a second Utopia.

What can I say? A good cabled hat pattern is a good cabled hat pattern. With 20 days to go (and less, really, as these need mailing) I'm not feeling like it's time to innovate.

The three phases of coffee socks aren't Christmas knitting in the deadline sense, but they are distracting. I can't say enough about this yarn. It is so subtle and soft and lovely. The surprise?

Those are bamboo needles and I don't have to fly anywhere for weeks. I was very happy with the High Altitude socks, and I took some time to think about what makes the difference between a satisfactory project and a really great one. Obviously the end result is big, but for me, the process has a lot to do with it too. In the case of the HA socks, needle choice was dictated by the travel. I stumbled onto the Kertzer brand, which are a marked improvement on the Clover bamboos I've tried in the past, but I still considered them a stand in for my preferred aluminium double points.

The more I worked with them, the more I warmed to them. I'm lucky not to bothered much by hand pain but I did find I like how light the Kertzers are, and though I suspect that I knit a little more slowly on them, I can knit for longer. That's the process part. I was more surprised by the product bit. My knitting, straight off the needles, was much more even, especially in ribbing. I initially attributed this to the elastic content in the Megaboots stretch that I used for the HA socks. A little swatching and experimentation, however, suggests that a stickier needle plays a part as well. Who knew?

So given the slick nature of the Somoko and all the ribbing I decided to stay with the bamboo DPNs. So far, so good. I've even been eyeballing a set of those Harmony wood DPNs from Knit Picks, having heard that they too are nice and smooth. I'm not the only one, apparently, since at the moment I'm on the waiting list to be emailed when they start taking orders (back ordered) again. It's great to see businesses serving knitters doing so well, so I won't complain.

I'm curious though, what are your favourite DPNs and why? Leave a comment.

Say when

2007-11-25T23:55:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you've just got to admit when you've gotten it wrong and cut your losses. As enchanted as I was with the Shepherd Sock in Red Rover, the more time I spent with it, first photographing it and then casting on the socks, the less comfortable I started to feel. An inch or so into the ribbing I had to face facts. Parts of the Red Rover colourway are, in fact, pink. Oh I told myself it was just a bit of a faded red and remembered Meg Swanson's advice to "tell him it's raspberry". But in the cold light of the full spectrum lamp there was no way to deny it. Pink.

It wouldn't have bothered me were the socks going to a female friend or relative, but boys don't wear pink socks. So I frogged the little bit of ribbing, rewound the yarn and tucked it away in the stash. It's still lovely, it just needs to find the right project.

Adam still needs new socks, so there was a small falling down of the Fleece Artist kind. A skein of Somoko in Earth. So soft and lustrous. The colourway actually reminds me of coffee beans in all their stages. There's a little bit of green in there that looks like the fresh beans and it drifts through a golden caramel and on into rich browns. The darkest points have that silk sheen which is evocative of that slightly oily look of dark espresso roast.

And the hand is just beautiful. There is a bit of kid in there, but there is very little halo and it has enough nylon in it that it doesn't feel fragile. Too early for a full review yet, but if all goes well this one could go on the sock yarn lurve list.

The only downer is that it didn't suit the ringwood pattern at all. I'm working it in a nice, simple garter rib. And there's still a surprising thing about this project, which will have to wait one more post.

Deja Vue

2007-11-23T00:39:00.000-05:00

The mossy cables hat joins the list of finished gift knits. I ended up doing 6 repeats of the cable, which makes it too long for me, but will hopefully fit the recipient well. Excellent quick knit. The Cascade 220 looks great, as usual.

Basic Cable Hat
from Stitch and Bitch Nation
Cascade 220 Heathers

The second of the pair is started, this time in Patons Classic Merino. I'm working this one on 4.5mm Addis, aiming for a slightly smaller finished circumference than the one above.

The lovely red Shepherd Sock is looking even lovelier now that it's wound and resting in the (rare) autumn sunshine. I've gone back and forth a few times on a pattern for this yarn. The colourway is not really variegated but there is a lot going on it. And the colour itself is eye catching enough that it's going to obscure detail. As is so often the case, I have returned to Nancy Bush and cast on the Ringwoods from Knitting Vintage Socks, though I'll modify the leg length. I can see these becoming my soothing go-to knitting in the stress of the coming weeks.

Though my reverting to knitting one of Nancy Bush's sock pattern isn't unusual there is one surprise about this project. That'll have to wait till the weekend.

Friday Yarn Porn (Saturday edition)

2007-11-17T19:49:00.000-05:00

So I'm a little late. In my defense this yarn only found its way to my mail box yesterday, and by then it was really too dark to take photos. Today it was really too grey and rainy to take photos, but I did my best.

Two skeins of Shepherd Sock in Red Rover. The red is actually slightly subtler than it appears here. Adam picked this out for his next socks. I love these shifting tonal shades. Should be fun to knit.

And since I could scarcely just order two little skeins of yarn, I threw in a little treat for myself.

A GoKnits pouch! I've been coveting one of these for a while, but always convinced myself that my usual zip-top baggie was working fine. I saw the purple size small in stock when I was ordering the yarn and decided it was a sign. Haven't loaded it up yet (with the gift knitting in full swing, I don't have a sock on the needles right now) but the size looks great and the little internal loop to keep your yarn untangled is the kind of detail I like.

Yummy sock yarn and a well thought out knitting accessory: A good way to start the weekend.

Quick Trip

2007-11-17T01:12:00.001-05:00

Gift knitting continues. Progress has been somewhat slower this past week as much of my spare time was spent filling in forms and collecting documents in preparation for a visit to the French consulate in Vancouver.

Travel knitting was a top secret project, seen here in earlier days.

And that's all your going to see of it until it has been gifted. Though of course everyone who has knit this pattern is looking at that k4p1 ribbing and going "I know what that is". Gotta love knitters.

The second gift hat is nearly complete. It's even farther on than this now, I ended up adding several repeats of the cable. The pattern (basic cable from Stitch n' Bitch) is seriously short as written. A quick Ravelry check confirmed that I was not alone in this decision.

The ability to do this kind of search is, to me, one of the most useful aspects of Ravelry. If there's a problem, I tend to assume that it originates with me, not the pattern. Having a quick way to find out that others have had the same issues saves much knitting anxiety.

Aside from the length foibles I am loving this pattern. I'm now planning another, though in a slightly brighter shade, for another person on the list. At first I felt like that was a little cheaty, but the yarn choice makes an enormous difference. The two hats will go to a couple.

I got some long anticipated yarn in the mail today, but too late to take photos for YPF. If I get a little luck with the weather I'll post photos in the next day or two. New yarn is a good closer to a great week.

Cover your ears

2007-11-07T23:56:00.000-05:00

The gift knitting continues. I'm with Carolyn; this year it's hats.

The red cabled hat for the Aunt is done.

Utopia Hat by smariek
Patons Decor

Again with the boring flat photo. Must find better way to display hats.

I've been going back and forth a bit on how to deal with blogging the holiday gifts. The red hat is for an Aunt who I'm fairly certain does not read the blog. The next hat however is for someone who does look in on these pages from time to time. Gifts are pretty much all I'm working on at the moment, without them I will quickly become low on blog fodder. I've decided to continue blogging gift projects but in most cases I won't identify the recipient. Friends and family may read (or not) at their own risk.

Next up is another hat with cables. This one in Cascade 220 Heather, a yarn which I really like to work with.

It's a bit further on now but since the time change chances for good photos are few. I have been craving earthy greens lately and this one will suit the giftee perfectly. If I can bear to be parted from it.

.

What gets knitted in

2007-11-05T01:25:00.000-05:00

Knitting is nearly always more than the stitches formed when needle meets wool. The knitted object, especially when gifted, also represents our time and our affection for the recipient. The wavy and woolly scarf was a particularly loaded knit.

It was birthday gift for Adam, begun much too late for the actual day, but in what I thought was lots of time before I would see him in September. Adam and I have spent most of the last nine months apart, which does leave me with some extra knitting time but is mostly very hard.

This scarf came to be my late night project. Something I could pick up at the end of my day and work on while listening to the radio. Something to quiet my brain. The late-at-night hours are sometimes hard ones. Days are full and rushed but when it is late it is quiet and there are few distractions and your mind can wander to missing someone. A lot. And I thought and I worried and I missed. I worked on it when I was exhausted and sad. All that went into that scarf. It absorbed a few tears as well.

I'm sure this late-at-night knitting for absent loved ones is as old as knitting . Because the act itself is soothing and a camouflage for day-dreaming and wishing. And hours knit away are hours of separation that are past forever. And when someone wears the knitting then they will know that you missed them. They will be warmer and somehow safer for your efforts. This knitted thing becomes more than the sum of its parts; what happens when needles meet wool.

Or so I hope. Maybe I'm just a knitting romantic. Either way, there is bound to be more late-at-night knitting, but that's okay. There is strength in it.

Socktoberfest

2007-10-31T19:37:00.000-04:00

The high altitude socks have been completed before the end of Socktober. Only one pair for me this year. I'm extremely happy with them though.

Oak Rib Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch Softcolours

Aside from the previously mentioned toe modification and a slightly shorter leg these were worked as written. The yarn has a bit of elastic in it, which took a little getting used to (keeping an even tension seems to be key). The stitch definition is still good, though I don't think it would be ideal for detailed texture work.

A shot of the modified round toe for Sarah (who seems to have the cold now). There is still a little extra fabric drawing in towards the closure, but probably not enough to be noticeable. When I get a report from the recipient, I'll pass it along. These are now making yet another high altitude trip back to France to Adam.

So far I've resisted the siren song of the lace knitting and cast on for the first Christmas gift knit. Another hat. I love to cable and this one is going quickly. It's easy to be optimistic in the early days, isn't it?

This yarn turns out to be an excellent match for the little Japanese maple in the front garden. This is the last tree to turn in the autumn and with the time change coming this weekend, it really is starting to feel like winter is on the way.

The Signs of My Undoing

2007-10-30T02:33:00.000-04:00

Anne Hanson, genius lace designer has done it again. If you haven't seen the Cluaranach, go now. Right now. I'll wait.

Gah!! The thistle pattern! The Scots Gaelic! The wearable rectangularnes. I'm in lurve. And (and!) I have yarn in the stash that may have been waiting for this pattern all its life.

Must....knit....Christmas gifts.....

Gah!

Quatre

2007-10-29T00:19:00.000-04:00

The little hat is finished and embellished and ready to be popped in the mail to start winging its way to the birthday girl.

The basic template is the Inca Snowflake from Itty Bitty Hats. The edging reveals my lack of dexterity where the crochet hook is concerned, but I'm really happy with the overall result. It is being modeled there by a one liter wide-mouth Nalgene bottle, which doesn't really help the shape. Here's the flat shot.

Still cute. However if hat knitting is going to continue at this pace, I'm going to have to think about getting one of those Styrofoam heads. Where does one even look for something like that?

I've been searching through hat patterns on Ravelry and plotting more gift knits. This may reach knitting jag proportions.

Joyeux anniversaire, Jeanne!

Blank Canvas

2007-10-25T00:28:00.000-04:00

Once I recovered my senses enough to knit straight I zipped through the little hat in just a couple of evenings.

Doesn't look like much yet, but there is embellishment yet to come. That's the fun part.

The yarn is Patons Decor, which is 75% acrylic. Does anyone know if they've changed the 'formula' for this? I used Decor a few years ago for a couple of kid projects (washability, ya know) and didn't like it at all. Squeaky, sticky, kinda stiff - the usual complaints about the genre. This ball (and the three others I picked up recently) seem better. The label still lists 75% acrylic 25% wool and says it's machine washable. It's not something I'd use for a real garment, certainly, but the hand isn't all that bad.

The second high altitude sock is nearly complete. The pattern calls for a round toe, which I've never used before. It's easy to work and looks kind of cool so I'll be interested to hear if the fit is as good as my usual toe. I did modify it slightly: I don't like the little hole that inevitably results when drawing the tail through live stitches to close the top, so I reduced down to 16 sts as directed by the pattern, then closed as usual. Sort of a modified round toe, I guess, but I find that little flat bit pleasing.

I finally got a copy of the Interweave Knits Gifts Special today so now I can start my holiday knit list in earnest. I'm thinking more hats.

Brain Fog

2007-10-21T23:18:00.000-04:00

I have the cold. It seems to be going around and I (foolishly) thought I had dodged it. No such luck. Whether to blame the recirculated airplane air or variety of contaious people I have contacted since my return to Canada seems irrelevant now.

I should have seen it coming. I was willing to attribute the tiredness to jet lag, then I started craving sugar. Then the stupid knitting mistakes. I cast on this hat late last week, a gift for someone with a fourth birthday coming up.

Those sticking out bits on the sides will be ear flaps. I strongly considered ignoring the pattern, picking up stitches and adding them at the end. But there is an edging to come, and to keep it smooth I followed instructions, knit the flaps first and held them on DPNs to be joined with the cast on row. And join them to the cast on row I did. Backwards.

Twice.

Clearly the virus had already begun it's invasion. The flaps are on the right way round now, but the brain fog remains and means that progress has been somewhat slow. Must get on with it though, the gift knitting season is truly upon us and I already feel like I'm behind. I'm trying to keep my knitting list manageable this year. Any bets?

Actual knitted things!

2007-10-18T18:07:00.000-04:00

The Fabric of the Cosmos bag was in fact completed and felted in time for my departure. I was concerned that I may have over felted it, in fact, but I've decided that I'm really happy with the results. Those big, wide stripes are so little now! It's a good, useful size for carrying a book and MP3 device and sock in progress (the necessities of daily life, in other words). The straps have stretched out a tiny bit, but I can always re-knot them. I'm calling the bag a success and suspect that I'll get lots of use out of it.

The secret unblogable knitting on the other hand was not finished before departure. At some point when I was knitting exhausted at 3 a.m. I decided that I had to give up. It just wasn't going to happen. I did finish it while in Grenoble though. Here's a peek - a full post is coming on this soon. It's s scarf for the coming winter, accurately described by Adam as being both wavy (his department) and wooly (mine).

The Beryl socks were finished as well and seem to have been a big hit.

The Socks that Rock Midweight does work up thick and results in a cushy sock. Despite my yardage worries there was plenty left over so I probably could have gone an inch longer in the leg. My only minor issue was that there was a lot of change in the colour way from the beginning of the skein to the end. Some of this is to be expected with the hand paints, of course, but for whatever reason this was enough to make me batty. I ended up cutting out some largish sections and weaving a lot of ends on the second sock to get a better "pair".

In another example of my personal knitting lunacy I stayed up the night before I left and cast a sock onto bamboo DPNs for plane knitting. Typically I would rather drive tiny bamboo DPNs under my nails than actually knit a sock with them. Once again though I have been pleasantly surprised by the superior smoothness of the SR Kertzer brand. I was concerned that my usual aluminium needles would raise additional suspicions at the security scan. I have no idea if that would have happened or not, but the sock beginnings on bamboo got through without any comment.

So I knit on them on the plane, and I knit on them in Pearson International (layover) and on another plane and on the TGV and even on the regional Rhone-Alpes train between Lyon and Grenoble. The pattern in Oak Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks, but they have been nick-named the High Altitude Socks, and they'll be my Socktober project this year. The yarn is Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch softcolor. The colours shift in a pleasing and subtle way.

First one all done and second in the gusset shaping. Sorry about the iffy photo. Though it still felt a bit like late summer when I left here, I returned to autumn in full force and it is a dark and stormy afternoon.

This post makes me look much more productive than I've felt. That chevron scarf I was going to knit while I was away? Well.....that's another story for another post.

Apologies

2007-10-16T17:11:00.000-04:00

So not only did I fail to blog before I left for France, I didn't blog while I was in France. Despite assuring several people that I would (and therefor leading my brother to read a knitting blog, something which he normally would not do).

What can I tell you? It wasn't lack of time or lack of knitting or even lack of Internet access. I just didn't know where to start and so I never did.

There is a lot of change happening in my life right now. And while it's all good, it's a lot. Some of which can't yet be shared here. But this is above all a knitting blog so there will be knitting posts in the near future. Really.

How was France? France was awesome.

Bad Blogger (no cookie)

2007-09-22T20:23:00.000-04:00

As Violet would say.

Where is the time going? September seems to be whooshing by at an alarming speed and though I've been doing plenty of knitting there doesn't seem to be a lot to show for it. The second Beryl sock is past the heel and gusset and working towards the toe.

I love this green, but it's difficult to photograph. Another few hours should see these done.

Part of the apparent lack of knitting progress is that there is secret un-bloggable knitting. Not a job, alas, but a gift for someone who reads here. The knit itself is not difficult, though it requires full attention. Interestingly, though, the project has become invested with a surprising amount of emotion and I am plotting a full post on this after it has been gifted.

I received a package from Simply Sock Yarn yesterday (surely I am not the only one taking advantage of the strong loonie in this way?). Amongst the contents were these two skeins of beauty.

Fleece Artist Merino, one of my very favorite yarns in Amethyst (r) and Cosmic Dawn (l). Yes, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and knit me a Chevron Scarf while I'm on vacation. The example in the book never really spoke to me, but having seen some of the amazing examples on Ravelry has pushed me over the edge. The knitting itself should be unchallenging (ideal for holiday knitting in fact) but using this much colour...yikes. The Amethyst is pretty much what you see here, but there is a whole lot going on in the skein of Cosmic Dawn. I'm way outside of my comfort zone here, but that is part of what travel is about, I think. Doing things differently than one might at home.

And speaking of travel, I have a staggering list of things to do before I leave - I haven't even packed my knitting bag yet. Best get on that, non?

M & Ms and I-cord

2007-09-13T01:30:00.000-04:00

My friend Pepsi (not his real name) estimated at the time of his thirtieth birthday that by that point in his life he had almost certainly eaten his weight in M & Ms. He further anticipated that he will repeat this feat over every following decade. Pepsi is a big guy so that's a lot of M & Ms (these facts may not be unrelated).

That little factoid crept into my mind since in the past few days I have knit more than my height (in fact more than Pepsi's height) in I-cord. It's one of those rare times in the knitting when it's okay to knit too much (it'll be cut anyway) so I have decided to err on the side of too much, rather than run short. I want the handles of the fabric of the cosmos bag to go comfortably over my shoulder and I-cord always looses a lot of length in felting.

The Beryl socks have finally hit a stride and are moving right along. The mid weight STR is working up at a significantly larger gauge than I had anticipated. Now that I've stopped fighting it I can see that the end socks are going to be lovely and cushy. The yarn has a nice hard twist so the stitch definition is fab.

See? Nice. This sock progress shot has been brought to you by my new camera. I'm still getting used to it, but I'm pretty pleased thus far. Macro goodness!

And with the new camera we finally have a FO shot of the mercury twist socks. It's vexingly difficult to photograph ones own feet in a pleasing manner.

See how the cable takes a funny little jog over the heel? I should have fixed that. Overall though I'm very happy with them. The pattern is Cable Rib socks from Favorite Socks and the yarn is Patons Kroy (4ply) in Mercury.

The evenings are getting cooler here and it's only two weeks till I head to the Alps. Woolly socks are definitely back in the wardrobe rotation. This makes me happier than it probably should.

September already?

2007-09-04T23:50:00.000-04:00

Knitting progress has been good this week: The body of the Fabric of the Cosmos bag is done. It is comically large and floppy as all pre-felting pieces are.

No, I haven't finished the book. I'm still working on it though. I would say so far the reading and knitting experiment has been a qualified success. Next time I'll maybe go for slightly lighter reading matter. The knitting is a bit substandard as well. Some of the sloppiness is due to the loose pre-felting gauge. The tension just isn't consistent. In this case it will all even out in the felting. The colour is a little truer in the first photo.

Before felting however I must knit a whole lot of I-cord for the handles. I was all set to whine about the length of the I-cord, but I am humbled in the face of Ann's edging. Ann's steadfastness in the face of miles of garter stitch remains an inspiration to us all, I know. Still, it's lots of I-cord.

The black yarn and overcast skies conspired to make for difficult photography....sorry.

The three day weekend let me get a start on the STR socks. Several times in fact. I can report that if nothing else, the yarn holds up well to frogging. Not enough to show yet, but I think I'm on the right track.

Now what?

2007-08-31T00:10:00.000-04:00

The second mercury twist sock is about here ( a little past here, actually, blogging having been delayed slightly by real life).

An hour or so of tennis this evening should see these done. I'll save the finished object photos till they've had a soak and block.

Next up I need to figure out what I'm going to do with this:

The skein of STR medium weight in the Beryl colourway that Adam picked out. It's only 380 yards, which isn't a lot for a pair of men's socks. I'm thinking of something with a bit of texture that won't get lost in the colour shift. It'll have to be a fairly speedy knit as well, this skein needs to be completed socks, ready to go, in a little over three weeks.

Suggestions? I'm off to troll Ravelry for inspiration.

Thirty-two

2007-08-28T03:59:00.000-04:00

Today we take a break from your regularly scheduled grey knitting to wish a happy birthday to my brilliant, funny, handsome and hand knit appreciative better half.

Happy Birthday Adam! Here's to another amazing year.

Read, knit, repeat

2007-08-22T01:21:00.000-04:00

I'm making progress on the Fabric of the Cosmos bag and the book as well. It's slow going so far. I haven't given up much in knitting speed, but the reading is slow. I'm still needing to look away from the book several times a round and every time I look back, it takes a moment to find my spot. This can't take more than a few seconds, but it adds up. I think I'm getting faster though, so I hope perseverance pays off.

The pattern is based on the Booja Bag, but a little bigger all round. I knit the base in the solid charcoal and then picked up all around and began the body of the bag in the self striping slate colourway. And look: colour

I'm putting in two-round stripes of the purple here and there. Randomly. This is another challenge for me; I'm not good with random. So not good at random, in fact, that at one point I considered using a d20 (*ahem* nerd) to determine the stripe placement. And yes, those are bamboo circs. My usual Addis were too slick for the yarn and limited attention. These are the SR Kertzer bamboo which I'm liking much more than Clover. They seem smoother and slightly pointier.

The yarn is so soft and lustrous that it's almost going to be a shame to felt it. That's still some distance off though, I'm estimating that I'm about a third done. It remains to be seen whether the yarn, the book, or my patience will run out first.

Usually I'm a process knitter but since I want the bag for a specific use, I'm motivated to get it done. The Fall knitting mags have been making their way to my house over the fast few weeks and are combining with the cooling weather to give me a touch of startitis. I'm craving something tweedy and cuddly. I guess it's that time of year.

Shades of Grey

2007-08-16T11:20:00.000-04:00

The attentive reader will have noticed that there has been a lot of grey knitting going on around here lately. This trend is unlikely to shift anytime soon. Grey is unquestionably my favorite colour (or perhaps tone) and I knit with it a lot.

So imagine my surprise when watching some decorating program on television this evening to hear a stylist say "The colours you choose say a lot about your personality, I mean how many interesting people do you know who really like grey?". I nearly dropped a stitch in the grey sock.

Grey isn't boring. It has many moods and shades. It is subtle, quiet perhaps, but not boring. It's the colour of old brushed pewter and weathered granite and the North Sea. How did it get such a bad name?

Just in case anyone is still doubting the potential loveliness of the grey, check out Veronik's design for the VK anniversary issue - free pattern here (pdf).

I'll continue to knit grey (and to spell it in the spell check defying Canadian way as well). If that makes me uninteresting, well, so be it. I'm sure a bit of colour will sneak in from time to time.

First mercury twist sock complete, second cast on. The shorter leg worked out just right at 74 rows. I'm looking forward to having these done and tucked into my suitcase when I head to the Alps this Autumn.

Skill Set

2007-08-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

So I've been busy. Nothing new there - everyone's busy all the time and summer is flying by. Not much knitting progress to show this week, though the first mercury twist sock is past the heel and headed for the toe decreases.Still grey, still not much to look at. Alas. I've been swatching and planning and spending way too much time on Ravelry, all of which are knitting activities and therefor count as knitting time. So while there has been lots of knitting time, there hasn't been all that much knitting. The hazards of the modern times I suppose.

This evidence of limited progress combined with my moaning to Adam about how long it's been since I've had time to read a book just for pleasure got me to thinking a bit about time and how it's spent. Knitting, together with the previously mentioned knitting related activities take up large chunks of my free time and I'm fine with that. It seems ridiculous to complain about not having time to read, when the real issue is clearly one of priority.

Or perhaps multi-tasking? I admit that I have always been envious of people who can knit and read at the same time. I tried once or twice back in University days to combine these favorite activities but never got the hang of it. I think it's time for another attempt.

Choice of project is clearly important here. I'm fairly sure that the reading is going to require the greater part of my attention so the knitting must be something that can take place on auto-pilot. Stockinette in the round seems like a good place to start and something without shaping to keep track of. A bag! A felted bag, since felting will conceal many errors and variances in gauge I had some highly feltable SWS in the stash and a trip to the LYS to pick up another skein revealed that this yummy yarn now comes in solids as well.

Nothing says summer like soy wool and theoretical physics. Let the experiment begin.

Down time

2007-08-06T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'd been feeling down a pint all week and by Saturday evening I had to face facts: I'm sick. Sore throat, stuffy head, exhausted, went 24 hours without knitting a stitch, sick. What a way to spend a summer weekend.

The will to knit has returned, though the mercury twist sock is about as much as I can manage. The pattern (Cable and Rib Socks from Favorite Socks) suggests working nine repeats of the cable pattern before beginning the heel flap, but I decided on seven. This pair is for me and I don't want them too high.

The Patons Kroy is a little thicker than most sock yarns and is working up firmly on 2.25mm needles. Experience suggests that they'll relax and soften quite a bit after the first wash. The slightly fuzzy nature of the yarn means that the cables aren't quite as defined as they might be but this seems right for cozy cold weather socks.

I've been using some of the knitting down time to scheme. I've got a trip coming up in September and have a few things I'd like to get done before I go. Then there's projects to be planned for the trip itself. I'm still behind on baby knitting and Christmas will be looming before I know it. Oh and then there's the seething den of temptation that is Ravelry. So many patterns, so many projects.

In summary: Bad time to be sick. Good time to be a knitter. Grey socks make for boring blog photos. Further updates as events warrant.

Une Pomme Pour Lucien

2007-08-02T01:32:00.000-04:00

Ah babies. So small and gratifying to knit for. I hope fruit hats are en vogue in France this Autumn.

Status Check

2007-07-30T01:59:00.000-04:00

Glacier socks - Done, ends woven, awaiting a Euculan soak.

Hat - Done, embellished, blocking.

Meaning that at this moment I have absolutely nothing on the needles. Weird. How long is this state of affairs going to last?

Excuse me, I need to set up the ball-winder.

What I Bought on my Summer Vacation

2007-07-28T19:37:00.000-04:00

In which I am a model of self-control and restraint.

When I lived in Edmonton it was pretty under served in the yarn shop department. That was before the recent knitting boom, of course and I had heard that the situation had improved somewhat. Time constraints and the realisation that Adam's yarn shop tolerance, while good, should only be pressed so far, meant that I only hit two shops in town. The expedition was a success.

My favorite shop was River City Yarns. This shop was profiled in VK a while back and had a lot of buzz so I was looking forward to checking it out in person. It did not disappoint. They had Socks That Rock! One skein of the lightweight had made its way into my stash earlier in the summer, but I had never seen a selection of colours and weights in person. Wow. There were easily 5 or 6 skeins in colourways so lovely I was tempted to own them as art.

I managed to keep one foot in the real world and remind myself that I often don't like socks knit with wildly colourful variegated yarns, no matter how pretty they may be in the hank. The skein you see is Midweight in the Beryl colourway, which is one of their shaded solids. Adam picked it out for his next pair. What can I tell you - the boy has taste.

This shop also had a great notions selection (I do love notions). I had been looking for a Norwegian Knitters Thimble for ages and was pleased to find one. I'd never seen the Phildar DPNs before, but I'm always on the lookout for good ones, so I'll give them a try. Difficult to see in the photo (glare, sorry) is a little bag of coil-less safety pins. I remembered Elizabeth Zimmermann's admonition in Knitting Without Tears that one should always take a card of these when you see them. Who am I to argue?

The Rowan Felted Tweed came from Wool Revival, a shop which has existed in various versions for a long time. It is very much an old school yarn shop. Bags and baskets of yarn spilling all over and not too much rhyme or reason. Some nice yarns but mostly stuff I can get easily enough at home. I liked these colours of the felted tweed together though - I'm thinking maybe Nucks. I was very happy to find a copy of Knitting on the Road there.
The Travelling Knitter will be an accurate description of me for the next 16 months or so. And I can never resist a Nancy Bush pattern. Itty-bitty hats was also a vacation purchase. Lots of gift ideas in that one.

That's it. I was even able to zip my luggage on the way home. Yarn is the best sort of souvenir don't you think?

And for next time....does anyone know if there's a yarn store in Jasper?

What I Knit on my Summer Vacation

2007-07-26T00:06:00.001-04:00

An old friend's wedding on 07/07/07 meant that I was Alberta bound this year. Having finished a big lace project on a deadline just before I left (a dedicated post on which is coming soon) I decided that smaller, less challenging projects were the order of the day for travel knitting.

The idea of knitting in binary appeals to my inner nerd. A binary hat for Adam seemed like a good vacation sized project: Something I hoped to get done and send home with him at the end of the trip. I picked up a couple of skeins of Cascade 220 and cast on the night before departure. Bamboo circs aren't my favorite needles by a long shot, but I had airport security in mind. Happily I had no problems and was able to listen to podcasts and knit all the way. I am very, very uneasy whenever I have to fly, but having my knitting seemed to make a difference.

After the wedding festivities (which afforded sadly little knitting time) Adam and I headed to the Rockies for a few days much needed down time. A few hours of solid highway knitting and the hat was looking like this.

Ah yes, more stockinette in the round. What can I tell you? It wasn't a challenging knitting sort of vacation.

The glacier socks also saw their beginnings on this trip. I will probably think twice before trying to cast 70 stitches of slippy yarn onto aluminium needles in a moving car again. However I just didn't feel right without a sock to work on. As mentioned previously this is a simple sock pattern, but not without interest. A successful join was ultimately achieved. I didn't work on these as much as I would have liked - the gauge was a little small for camp-fire knitting.

Looks like grey and blue and stockinette were the themes. And I did get to work on them in some pretty amazing scenery. The binary hat was completed, with whole hours to spare, and sent back to France with Adam. We had an amazing trip and I hope that a hat knit in all these places will be a better reminder than a postcard.

Next time: What I bought on my summer vacation. Hint: Yarn!

Socks on Ice

2007-07-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

It's been a cold, wet weekend, well suited to being inside, knitting. The second glacier sock is past the ribbing and going quickly. It's been a long time since I knit a mostly stockinette sock and it's zipping along.

The pattern is the Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks. I really like the pattern. The Dutch heel isn't one I've used very much and the single purl stitch making the faux seam at the back is charming.

I am slightly concerned about the fit. The sockee has fairly wide feet, so I did fewer gusset decreases and worked a 66 stitch foot. They'll be snug, but I hope they'll work.

Happily I'm loving the yarn so much that I won't mind if I have to frog them and start again. It's Trekking Pro Natura, which is a wool/bamboo blend. The colour is a blueish gray, shifting between the two depending on the light. I'm not sure yet if there is a true repeat in the colour shift. I'm guessing that it's yarn dyed, unlike Trekking XXL which is dyed before it is plied and doesn't really repeat. However they do it, I lurve it. The colour shift is subtle in spots and quite sharp in others. It makes the most of the plain stockinette sections.

The glacier sock is another of my projects that seems to have named itself. I cast on for the first sock in the car between Edmonton and Jasper National Park on holiday earlier this month. I worked some early rounds near the foot of the Colombia Ice Field and photographed it on a chunk of ice below the Angel Glacier. Yes, that photo was taken in July.

I started another small project this weekend. The first in what I suspect will become a series of baby projects in the next few months as a whole bunch of our friends are expecting or have recently had babies. The hat you see here is a mash-up of a couple of patterns from Itty-Bitty Hats. Actually the hat you see here is the second attempt - the first one having been frogged owing to the double whammy of a gauge "hiccup" and my apparent inability to read simple instructions correctly. The yarn is Classic Wool and the red defies accurate photography. The mindless round and round soothes the mind. All good.

Welcome

2007-07-19T23:34:00.000-04:00

July 19 is an important day for me and seems a good day to make a trial launch of the blog. There are so many amazing knitting blogs and bloggers out there that I am more than a little hesitant to join the fray. My hope is to post a few times a week and to get more involved in the amazing community of knitters on the Internet.

Knitting is important to me. Hours of my days are spent pursuing this passion. It is my outlet and my comfort. I've been knitting for 16 years and I love that I am always (always!) learning.

Pictured above are flowers sent by my beloved to mark and ease this day. Nestled within you can just see the first rounds of the second Glacier sock. More on that next time.

The past year has been a dynamic one for me and there are more changes to come. Watch this space, it is very much a work in progress.

In Development

2007-06-22T02:02:00.000-04:00

The Consolations of Knitting should go live in late July 07