Stash Queen

Oldies Are Goodies

I blocked my reknit Polka Dot Stole shortly after my last post and the magic never fails!  I am in love with lace all over again.  Here is this summer's pride and joy (meant to be last summer's but so what!).

 

 

 

I have put off using my new Knit Picks yarn to do this month's Snowdrift mittens.  I'm looking for an old pattern for 4-ply weight yarn that uses thumb increases because I'm not fond of the peasant thumb, although it is easier to knit in an allover pattern.  But I plan to incorporate an increased thumb when I get around to knitting Snowdrifts.  In order to have quick mitts for this month I reviewed the free patterns I have saved on my computer.  I saw some Clara Parkes fingerless mitts she named Je Suis Jolie after the brand of angora yarn she used, and I remembered that I had some small balls of angora that I inherited from my aunt's stash.  (She was a beautiful knitter and worked in a yarn store in the eighties, but died of cancer eighteen years ago. Now that yarn is mellow!)  I used them all up in these mitts, color blocked by necessity.  The combination reminds me of rainbow sherbet.  Parkes' pattern includes an optional rolled, ruffled rose, but I decided to go with a flatter flower.  I used the little Buttercup design from Nicki Epstein's Knitted Flowers.  These mitts will go in the basket for gifting.  They're not masterpieces of knitting, but the peach is Georges Picaud 100% French angora and is wonderfully soft.  The rose yarn is a Scheepjeswool lambswool and angora blend, still nice and soft but it doesn't compare to the peach and the white.

My other new/old project is a sleeveless top that I loved in last summer's Rowan magazine 41.  The stash yarn that I had earmarked for this is Bernat's Club Classic, a cotton and acrylic blend.  I bought it when our Woolco closed when WalMart bought them out to move into Canada.  How many years has that been?  I have a bunch of this yarn still, enough in navy and mauve for two long sleeve sweaters, and four balls each in cream and brown for baby/toddler cardigans.  The pattern called for 8 balls of DK cotton, but with the extra yardage in the blended yarn I may not even need six balls.  The back is done; it is filled in up high to the back neck.  I'm just starting the fifth ball to do the top of the left front - not much knitting there since it's scooped with narrow shoulders - but the neck border includes ties that hang down a way at the center front and I'm not sure how much yarn that will take, along with the armhole borders.

When I get this done, I'll be ready if summer ever comes.  Just like the boys in their new summer sun hats.

(I only had one child;  I'm learning now how much harder it is to get a good picture of two children together.  By the time we got a more natural smile from Bub to replace his fake grimace, the Dude had managed to knock his hat over his eyes.  And by the time we got that straightened out, Bub was gone again.)

Catching Up

Since I last blogged, we've gone from snow on May 27th to our first summer thunderstorm today!  I've been busy doing some babysitting for my grandsons while my daughter and her husband are putting laminate flooring throughout their house.  The little Dude has graduated from the activity blanket on the floor to an exersaucer, and Bub keeps us entertained with his chatter.  It's a cliche, but it's true:  they do grow up so fast!

I've also been doing some outside clean up and helping my husband open up our inground pool.  Rather unsuccessfully so far.  Last summer we had so much trouble keeping the water clear that we decided to drain it this spring and start fresh, but the water turned green anyway and required massive amounts of shock.  Now the water level has gone down six inches, and we haven't located the leak yet.  So it's on hold.  I haven't even bought my annual flowers yet, but it should finally be safe to plant them.  In Northern Ontario one has to be patient.  At least my indoor plants have enjoyed the recent sunshine, and Sadie got outside to bask on the warm cement patio several afternoons while I knit on the lawn swing.

I started and completed the Prism socks for the Thrifty Knitters Sock Club during the last few days of the month.  I enjoyed the easy slip stitch pattern and was able to use up some leftover Opal Cotton as the variegated yarn. I will definitely use this pattern again. 

I also completed my other Swirly mitten leftover from April for the Mitten a Month knitalong.  There are some minor, and I hope unnoticeable, differences between the two mittens as I fiddled with the thumb on the second one and tried a three-needle bind off instead of grafting.

So far I've  managed an item for each group for four of the five months, with some other projects of my own on the side.  I abandoned the Earl Gray socks back in February and I decided to skip the Sea Mineral mittens  for May upon seeing that the pattern calls for 80 stitches when the ones I just finished fit fine with 64 stitches.  I don't think I could knit to a tight enough gauge even with 2 mm needles.  I'm not going to stress about missing some months; that's not the point of knitting for me. 

Once again I find myself in the mood for lace knitting.  My reknit Polka Dot Shawl is growing nicely. 

 

I've finished the centre medallion and the plain holey section for the second half.  I'm on the home stretch with only the last polka dot end left to knit.  The stole looks so much more balanced now that I've alternated the skeins throughout.  The moral:  don't assume you can get away with short cuts; do it right the first time.

Gadabout

I've hardly been home the last two weeks.  First I spent a week at my parents', including a great day with my best friend from high school.  We stopped in to see Carol and Jude fell in love with a display item once again, this time an entrelac scarf.  For a non-knitter, that girl sure loves the Noro.  I bought some hemp in just my color for a summer top.  I might have to try designing something myself; I can't seem to find a pattern in the right gauge that matches what I have in mind.

I was home just long enough to pick up a cold again, do laundry and repack my suitcase for a long weekend on Manitoulin Island.  Beautiful place!  This is part of the Gore Bay waterfront.

My parents moved when I was only two months old, but I have lots of aunts, uncles and cousins there that I don't see often enough; so many relatives that there are some I don't know well.  My sister and I feel something special each time we cross the bridge at Little Current.  The occasion this time was my aunt and uncle's sixtieth wedding anniversary.  It was an amazing night with four generations  gathering to share memories and enjoy each other's company.

My mom and dad were maid of honor and best man at the 1948 wedding and married in 1950.  Both couples are still together and still healthy enough at seventy-five to eighty years of age to dance all evening to a live country band.  Over two hundred people packed the little community hall at Silver Water to celebrate with the family.

Not much knitting was accomplished on either trip.  I drove down to my parents' place by myself, and read aloud to my husband on the other trip, so no car knitting was possible.  The knitting slump is turning into an acute bout of startitis in the quest to find the project that will get me back in gear.  It might be the Rowena cardigan from the Knit 2 Together book, with lots of soothing stockinette and very pretty ruched borders.

The other freshly started project is crochet, a simple tote from the new issue of Crochet Today, that may finally bust my stash of odd colors of Patons Cotton Chunky from 1994.

Today is already May 20 (although it was snowing here earlier this morning!) and I haven't even started the monthly socks or mitts for the Ravelry groups I joined.  I must make the Sea Mineral  mittens since I bought the yarn from Knit Picks already.  Stay tuned to see how much I can accomplish in 10 days. 

Free Time

I've been in a knitting slump.  It happens periodically. 

I have only one Swirly mitt finished for this month's knitalong.  I made the thumb opening a little too small and I will correct that on the second mitt, setting aside 14 stitches for a total of 28 stitches.  I am pleased with the cuff pattern and the coordinating palm pattern that I chose.  I love the chart for the backs and am so glad Golden Thread shared it.

I have all the pieces knit for my gnome but am procrastinating sewing him up. 

So what have I been doing instead?

Got sick with the sinus cold virus that's been hitting people all over town this spring.  At least I only had it a week.  Lots of people report being down three weeks.

Hung out with the grandkids.  Tried to get a picture of Bub wearing my straw beach hat, but he wouldn't cooperate.  Much too busy.  But the Little Dude is full of smiles these days and he can't get away yet.

Played the Sims 2 expansion game - Free Time.  When a new game comes out, I usually lose about three straight days creating new buildings and families and getting them established.  The new twist is that now the Sims have hobbies, and one area is Arts and Crafts.  They don't actually knit; they paint, they buy a sewing machine and make quilted potholders, or a potters wheel and make plates.  But they enjoy talking about knitting to people or on the phone in Simlish with a little icon of a ball of yarn with needles stuck in it.  In bed they even dream in little thought bubbles about knitting.  It makes them happy.  Now they're really my people!

Read.  I got a big stack of books from the library.  I'm catching up on the volumes of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series that I've neglected the past few years.  I lost interest when the protagonist's son Ramses grew up, but now he has five year old twins who are also delightfully precocious.  I'm also trying to get all the books in Val McDermid's Tony Hill, forensic psychiatrist, series.  I recommend them especially to those who like a British setting.  But I also picked up Barbara Allbright's Oddball Knitting and Doris Chen's Everyday Crochet.  So I think I'm ready to get back to work.

I have another Jaywalker on the go, using some Opal yarn leftover from a baby sweater I knit last spring.  It's making nice wide bands and the speckles aren't too distracting. I've got two colorways of Kaffe Fassett Regia yarn, Twilight and Earth, on deck.  All my first generation self patterning socks are wearing out at once, and I keep gifting the new pairs away.

Finally, I'm reknitting the polka dot stole from last summer, alternating balls of yarn.  Originally I was lazy and I really thought there wasn't too much variation in the two demi skeins of Country Silk.  Wrong.  Never underestimate the uniqueness of handpainted yarn.  The second skein had way more yellow in it and made the ends of stole look unbearably unbalanced.  The trip to the frog pond was heartbreaking.  But I'm even enjoying the knitting the second time around.  It's going quickly since I'm so familiar with the charts already.  And it will look much better.  I want this ready for this summer. 

 

Knitting through the Cold and Colds

Still below zero.  Still snowing.  Still getting sick.

I finished the Coriolis socks and enjoyed the novel knitting.  But the pattern says that you will need more than one ball if you want to make the socks longer than 7 in.  So I made the first sock 7" before the seed stitch cuff as directed, and counted the number of rows for reference.   On the second sock, I was running out of yarn about seven rows short of the leg length, not counting cuff and cast off.  Austermann Step is expensive enough that I didn't want to double the cost of the socks.  I figured out how far back to frog the first sock to make both legs the same length and reknit the cuff of the first sock.  For me, the leg is now only 23 rows between returning to circular knitting and beginning the 5 row cuff.  I like these socks, but they're short enough and heavy enough now that they'll be house socks/slippers rather than shoe/boot socks.

I started a mitten for this month's knitalong.  I like Eunny Jang's Endpaper mitts and had bought some Knit  Picks Palette to make them.  But where I live, if it's cold enough for mitts, you probably want your fingers covered too.  So when I checked the new thread for other suggested patterns and saw Swirly Mitts, with credit to Jang's Anemoi mitts for inspiration, I switched my plans.  The designer gave some directions for setting up a hemmed cuff and complete graphs for both mitten backs, but figuring out a palm pattern and planning the thumb placement is left up to the knitter.   I used Sheila McGregor's The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting and The Swedish Mitten Book  for reference and decided to put a pattern in the cuff too.  This is how far I've got:

We went to Sudbury this week for a medical appointment (all OK) and took the opportunity for a Costco/Chapters run as well. In the magazine section at Chapters I was thrilled to find Irresistible Gifts To Knit by Alan Dart.  It's a special Issue of 50 collectible patterns from the British magazine Simply Knitting.  (I have saved Dart's patterns from Women's Weekly over the years and am a big fan.)  I remember tracking down his pattern for Swedish gnomes from someone's blog the Christmas before last, and backing off when I realized the back issue plus postage would run about $17.  When I saw the gnomes were included here, plus a cool pirate and mermaid, and a farm set and a Noah's ark set and a nativity set and ... I gladly paid the $30, even though a non-knitter (aka husband) might think it exorbitant for a magazine. 

Like the Jean Greenhow dolls, the knitting on these things is pretty straight forward and the little pieces are finished quickly.  I know the sewing up will make me swear that I'll never knit another doll, until I see how cute the end product is.  This doesn't look much like a gnome yet, but with a few more pieces and a lot of fiddly sewing up, it will.

New Tricks

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?  Cat Bordhi can!  See my progress on the Coriolis sock as proof.  It's my first toe up, my first on two circular needles, and certainly my first with swirling increases instead of a traditional heel gusset.  It's mindboggling, but be a blind follower and it works.

I am using the free pattern from Bordhi's appearance on Knitty Gritty.  Warning though: There is an error in the instructions for the first sock.  You transfer 3 stitches from the sole needle to the instep needle when you start the arch increases.  Before starting to shape the heel, you must transfer 3 stitches back to the sole needle from the same end of the instep where you made the initial switch.  The site says you are transferring from the sole again, which would leave you 6 stitches short instead of getting you back to the original number.  Having figured this out, the rest of the pattern was easy enough to follow.  I am using two strands of Austermann Step, as the pattern specifies, so this is a heavy sock.  That's okay because it knits up fast, but I'd like to get the book New Pathways for Sock Knitters so I can knit this style in thin socks.  Besides, some of the other architectures look really interesting too.

I finished my Jaywalker socks for March and really like the DGB colorway in this style.  When I checked online for more of their yarn, I found that they don't  make this series now and the new yarns don't appear to have the same variations in colour and width.  I'd really like to try the Kaffe Fasset Landscape yarns for Jaywalkers and see if the bands come out in nice widths like this.  (And Regia is still my favorite yarn.)

My other finished item is the Marisol sweater.  I think it makes a great jeans sweater, even if it isn't the most slimming style.  The stripes kept the knitting interesting, I love all the colors, and it was a good stashbuster. 

The weather here seems to indicate that we will be wearing heavy wool sweaters for a good while yet.  We had a storm on Tuesday which closed the highway into our city for hours and dumped another foot of snow in the driveway.  But today was sunny and melting.  I am beginning to yearn for bamboo needles, cotton yarn, sleeveless patterns, and knitting on the patio.

Lookee, Lookee

See who got a big boy haircut!

And isn't the little Dude looking bright-eyed these days?

My family loved having the boys around for a week.  The baby had people lined up to hold him and tell him what a good looking, good boy he is, and Bub kept us all in stitches.  Example, when my mom gave him a treat, I prompted him, "Grandma gave you a chocolate.  What do you say?"  His answer, "Luckyyyy!"  Also, my mom is known to her children and grandchildren for one frequent saying at the dinner table, which has now continued to the next generation.  "What does Grandma say?"  Bub  replies, "Don't muck!"

I came home from our trip with more stash.  At Kawartha Yarns, I picked out some heather Cascade 220 to make a vest from Sensual Knits, which I bought on my Chapters run.  I was also happy to get to Carol's shop and couldn't resist the Noro along with the new Jane Ellison pattern book to go with it.  My daughter caught the bug too and picked out two balls to make armwarmers from Stitch 'N' Bitch Nation.  Noro usually gets knitted faster than other yarn in the stash so maybe you'll see it here soon.  Meanwhile, since Carol thought Noro 150 looked ugly in the ball, this is one of my older projects knit in that colorway to show that its subdued colors do knit up nicely.  The pattern is the Rose Again Bag from Bags by Mags.

 

Recently my daughter made the comment that I don't knit sweaters anymore, and I realized how true that is.  I have been mainly knitting little things for the past couple of years.  It's so fast and easy to knit mitts, scarves, shawls, socks, and baby items, without carrying around loads of yarn or worrying much about fit.  But the sweater I still wear most often is an allover Fair isle, knit from Briggs and Little yarn after our trip down east in 1992.  I have a bunch of abandoned Briggs and Little that dates from almost that time and was originally destined for a Rowan multicolored extravaganza that I knew I would probably never finish knitting and never get all the ends darned in if by some miracle I did.  I love Mags Kandis' patterns and decided that the Marisol pullover from the Mission Falls Spirit booklet would look suitably rustic in the rougher yarn and make a great jeans sweater.  Horizontal stripes may not be the most flattering style, but damn, they are the most motivating to knit.  I got the front and back knit up in one week.  I like to sew up what I can as I go, so there's less chance of procrastination when all the pieces are finished, so I put the collar on too, a little shorter than the pattern calls for or it would be a nosewarmer.

March is almost done, so I have to get working on my groups' projects.  I made myself finish a Peekaboo mitten then promptly ripped it out.  It was too short and the homespun was too thick and thin.  I made my first pair of Newfoundland mittens instead.  I've had the pattern since I first started browsing blogs and Maggie Luongo emailed it to me.  More recently, the pattern has been adapted by Creative Whimsy.  These are great fun to knit and I have lots of ideas for more creative color combinations.

 

The Jaywalker socks are coming along slowly since they are just my KIP project.  But look where they're resting now - I got a new bag that's the perfect size for small projects.  My daughter was purchasing a super new diaper bag online  and I added this smaller bag to the order.  The coated fabric is very serviceable as well as gorgeous.  I love it!

Back to Snow Country

Back from Cuba after a very relaxing week.  We had mixed weather, with only three days sunny from start to finish, one solid day of rain, and the rest mixed sun and cloud.  They hadn't had rain since Dec. 12, so the Cubans were happy to see it.  The resort, rooms, pool and beach were all beautiful, five star for sure, and the entertainment the best quality singing and dancing I've seen on my six holidays.  So no major complaints.  But it's depressing to put away the sandals and sleeveless tops for another three months.  Back to socks and mitts.

I've abandoned my Earl Grey socks - they just weren't inspiring me.  I started knitting socks when the first generation of Regia self-patterning yarns hit Canada, and a plain color in a fairly plain pattern doesn't keep me going.  Instead, I took some D & G Confetti yarn with me and started knitting a pair of Jaywalkers in the Lobby Bar the day it rained. 

When I came home on March 1, the first thing I checked on the computer was the Thrifty Knitters Sock Group recommended patterns for the new month - and there they were, Jaywalkers!  So I have a head start, and may even get round to trying Cat Bordhi's Coriolis socks before the month is over.  Her "New Pathways" look pretty interesting, and I have some Austermann Step in the stash I could use.

I'm using up some old unknown handspun from a craft show years ago to make Peekaboo mittens for the Mittens A Month Along.  They're a fast undemanding mitt, and I really like the idea that you can wiggle your fingers in and out of these without needing to have the other hand free.  I think they'll be warm enough for in and out of the car days; I don't intend to wear them for making snowmen.

Next week I'm off again, but not so far south.  We're going down to my parents, with my daughter and her kids while my son-in-law takes a course in Hamilton.  It will be our first chance to show off the Little Dude to my sister and her family.   And of course, anytime we get down south there will be shopping involved!

Finished at Last

I finally did some sewing, so that I can actually use two of the bags I knit ages ago.  The Tioreg bag now has a linen lining cut from an old wraparound skirt.  It doesn't look any different from the outside so I won't bother with another photo.  It's shown in my Finished Items album for last year.  The Mosaic Flowers bag got a new black damask cotton lining and different handles than I had originally planned.  I decided against plastic handles and went for a canvas pair that allow me to wear the bag over my shoulder.  It's a casual look, which suits me.  I put a magnetic snap at the top, but I wish I had made the lining with a zipper, since the bag is not as deep as a tote bag.

I finished a pair of Chevalier Mittens for the Mittens a Month Along over at Ravelry.  I couldn't put the first one down; it was so exciting to see the cables taking shape.  Even so, if they hadn't been part of a knitalong, they might have been in danger of languishing in the knitting basket like so many patterns of the past.  Joining knitalongs is a great motivator and guard against things like Second Sock Syndrome and Mittens for the One-armed Man (I've always been a fan of the original The Fugitive series).

I haven't been blogging very regularly for the last couple of months, and I won't be around next week.  We're off to Cuba for a week of sun without windchills of -40 C.  I'm saving my knitalong socks for the trip.

Before leaving, I hope to finish the Little Dude's sweater.  It's sized 0 - 3 months, but my knitting always comes out a little larger than gauge and on kids' knits that's not a bad thing.  He's six weeks old aready and wearing three months sleepers because of the length of his arms and legs, so I'd better get cracking.  The Sirdar jacket pattern has a moss stitch collar and it's going to be really cute, so it will match its wearer, who is finally keeping his eyes open more in the daytime.

The Little Dude has some pretty big boots to fill in the cute department, coming after Bub, who's trying to fill some pretty big boots himself!

Little Stuff

You have to appreciate the little things in life, and our life is full of baby and toddler activities just now.  Bub had his second birthday on Jan. 27.  He knows how to count to ten  and many of the alphabet sounds (thanks to Leapfrog's video The Letter Factory, which I highly recommend).  He speaks a variety of words clearly ("hockey" is one of them, and he recognizes the Toronto Maple Leaf's logo to his dad's delight) and tries to parrot almost everything we say.  He sleeps in his "nice big bed," feeds himself pretty well, and is getting very interested in poo and the potty.  He's growing up.

And now we have the Little Dude and can enjoy all the baby cuddles again too.  It's hard to believe that he's already one month old.  My parents came for a short visit last week to meet him and be here for Bub's birthday party as well as my Mom's birthday two days later. 

We fit in a lot of our favorite things the four days they were here.  One night my husband cooked spaghetti carbonara, one of the dishes for which he's famous among friends, and another night we ordered more Chinese food than we could eat in two nights.  We played euchre every day, and the rivalries were quite spirited, whether it was the the men against the women, or by bloodline with my husband and daughter against my mother and me.  We were having such a good time we didn't even mind the major storm which shut down all the businesses in town as well as the highways out of town and delayed my parents' leaving for an extra day.  We're planning to get down to Lindsay in March for a week, so it won't be too long until we see them again.

Since I signed up for the Thrifty Knitter's Sock Club late in January, I finished my Little Shell socks instead of starting one of the recommended patterns (that's allowed).  The leg pattern doesn't show up very well in this colorway; it worked better with the pastel Regia that I used for my mom's last Christmas.  But they're nice bright socks to wear with jeans.

I'd still like to make Cabletinis or Bellatrix sometime because I do like both patterns, but I want to knit one of this month's patterns now and not run a month behind all year. So I started Earl Grey men's socks, a Yarn Harlot design, which my picture does not do justice, since the twist pattern doesn't show up unless stretched out and the yarn is really a loden green Kroy that's been mellowing in the stash for years.

Since I cannot remain faithful to just one project and I did join two groups to use up yarn, I also started Chevalier mittens for the Mitten-A-Month-along.  This pattern is awesome.  I'm not usually a calbe person, but I love the unusual V arrangement of the cables at the cuff and top of this mittern.  I must confess that I cabled "back" once when I shoulda cabled "front," and ripping and cursing was involved. The beautiful red yarn is Cascade 220 that I received from the Secret Pal 9 exchange last year.

I'm looking forward to getting lots of little projects completed throughout the year for gift giving.  Both these Ravelry groups select two free internet patterns each month.  Check them out even if you're not a Ravelry member or don't want to commit yourself for the year.