Stash Queen

Happy Mother's Day

This is what my patio looked like earlier in the week with the new furniture I picked out as my Mother's Day present.  I enjoyed a few days of outdoor knitting and reading - my favorite things.

But this what Mother Nature sent us for Mother's Day.  When the weather forecast said snow on Sunday, I expected a skimmer, not another full-on storm with roaring winds and poor visibility.

We just cancelled our reservations for the Mother's Day Buffet at the Italian club tonight.  I think I'll stay in my pj's all day and putter in the yarn room.

I've been playing with yarn all week rather than making serious progress on any large projects.  I knit a little pair of Ballerina shoes from a new 25 gram ball of My First Regia. They take hardly any yarn at all; I might still have enough yarn for another pair.  The toes don't seem to come up as high as the illustration on the pattern book.  Although I knit the larger size, they might already be too small for the princess, but they'll make a cute gift for someone. 

Next I knit two socks - notice I did not say a pair of socks.

The sock on the right is my basic top-down heelflap style, adapted from Lang Socka Book 6.   I use 60 stitches for the leg and foot.   The yarn is an On Line cotton blend, great colors and nice fabric for summer.

The sock on the left is the Discovery sock from Cat Bordhi's book Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters.  I bought the book when it came out in 2009, but I loved her first book so much that I kept knitting more socks from it and never got around to trying the architecture of this second one.  The yarn is from Opal's Vincent Van Gogh line and uses the colors from his painting of his bedroom at Arles.

The insouciant sock looks wider and the heel more bulbous than the traditional sock on the right.  But it fits great!  It was knit toe-up and fitted to my foot as I went.  I used 54 stitches for most of the foot, then added stitches to accomodate my instep as I knit towards the heel.  Lifelines are put in to mark the middle of the leg, close to the ankle bone, but the foot is knit in rounds as a tube right to the heel.  Circular decreases give a nice bullseye effect, just like the toe, and the heel is knit together or grafted like the toe in a top-down sock.  To finish the sock,  the leg opening is picked open and the leg stitches can be knit up in whatever pattern you'd like.  I chose plain stocking stitch with a basketweave cuff instead of ribbing.  Then I learned a new stretchy cast off and Voila!  a really new sock. 

The only downside was six ends to darn in: two from the start and end of the foot, two from the row cut in the middle and opened up for the leg, and two from the start and end of the leg.  But really easy to knit, and a customized fit.

So which sock will I knit a mate for now?  Neither.  I couldn't resist buying the last Cat Bordhi sock book as an ebook download from Ravelry.  Now I'm on the way to my first Sweet Tomato Heel.  If you don't want to buy a single pattern or the book, you can still learn the technique form her video here.  Go, check it out, and I'll show you mine, next time.

Look Who's Knitting Too

Risa, the kids and I went down to Mom's mid-April and got caught in the late season madness that brought torrential rain and floods in central Ontario, changing to freezing rain, slush and ice pellets further north, and still more snow back home in Timmins.  We ended up staying an extra three days to wait for a decent driving day.  We were looking for something to keep Bub occupied.  He'd already built a large Lego set, following a 64 page illustrated instruction booklet all by himself.  He's tried knitting  a couple of times and could manipulate the stitches all right if he could just figure out how to hold the needles more securely.  This time I thought we'd try a knitting loom.  He had it mastered in about two minutes and was very proud of himself.

He completed a red and blue striped hat in two days.  He insisted on two colors for his project, which doesn't really make it any more difficult as long as Nana is darning in the ends for you anyway.  The circle size that we chose turned out to be a bit small for his head, so he gave his first hat to his brother, making the little Dude very happy too.  The best was this:   earlier in the week we'd been to Port Perry, where I traditionally visit Carol's yarn shop Never Enough Wool, while my daughter takes the boys to the great waterfront play park down the street for a half hour.  Bub said excitedly, "The next time we go, I can stay at the yarn shop with Nana."  Meanwhile, I will give him as much old chunky acrylic from the stash as he can handle.

I didn't knit too much while I was away, too busy helping out with the kids so my daughter could get a bit of a break and do some out-of-town shopping by herself.  I got a start on the Vardar vest I promised to knit for my friend Jude.   It's a different construction, knit in a horseshoe shape, but actually involves a lot of long soothing/boring rows of stockinette.  Someone else on Ravelry chose a multicolored yarn for the pattern, and I think mine in Fame Trend should look cool too.

I got back home to find my order from Chapters had arrived, including the booklet Fun Fashions:  Contemporary Outfits To Knit for 18" Dolls.   I couldn't resist whipping up the cover outfit (buttons not found yet) for my $20-on-sale American-Girl-wannabe.  It's an Einstein coat in Patons Classic Wool with Kroy FX sock yarn accessories!

Did you know that there is a line of Canadian dolls that are the same quality and price as the American girls?  I bought Leonie for my grandaughter when she was born.  I'm keeping that doll new in the box.  By the time the Princess is old enough to appreciate her, between knitting, sewing and buying, she should have a complete wardrobe.  There are some outfits that I love in the Oh Canada section of the Maplelea catalog.

Also, one more UFO got smacked down.  I weighed the remaining yarn from when I last set down my Trillian scarf and decided that I'd better put the edging on.  It's a bit smaller than the one I knit for my friend last year.  I didn't like the yellow stripe in the KnitPicks Chroma Urban colorway, so I cut out those stretches from the skein, leaving just a bit for transition with a Russian join.  Thus I had only enough yarn to go to 179 stitches, not 191 as the pattern suggested.  But it will do and it's done!

 

 

UFO Smackdown

Back from a lovely two weeks in Arizona.  I won't bore you again with more whining about all the snow still here.   I was able to do three of my favorite things at once while I was away:  sit outside, read, and knit.  I was on my third knitting project and my fourth book by the time I returned.

I couldn't decide what project to start knitting on my trip.  Then I realized the solution was obvious.  Don't start anything new!  In my yarn room are many plastic zip bags (assorted sizes from buying pillowcases, sheets, etc.) of hibernating projects already bundled with their needles and pattern instructions.  I chose two projects in sock yarn, and without the distraction  of a multitude of other yarns and patterns calling "Try me, try me," I managed to finish both these UFO's.

The Spring Forward Socks were probably started when the pattern came out in 2008, in a luxurious wool and silk blend.  They were always meant to be a Mother's Day Gift, so this is the year! 

This is a beautiful lace pattern, and although it looks intricate, there's really only one pattern row to remember.  It's repeated five times with a relaxing plain row inbetween and then staggered a few stitches over and repeated another five times.  I have no idea why I didn't finish these socks promptly the first time around.  Now I want to knit the pattern again.

The other project is a year older, and I know exactly why I didn't finish it in a monogamous fashion.  It's bloody boring, and I had to force myself constantly not to pick up something else instead.  But having said that, it's also beautiful:  the Montego Bay Scarf in Handmaiden Sea Silk.  It's a cruel truth that the simple projects that hold the least interest while knitting usually turn out to be the items that I wear most.  Product versus process. 

 

I was undecided ( feeling lazy) about braiding versus regular, loose fringe.  I did a few and decided the trim was definitely worth the effort.  Actually, I wish I had cut the fringe lengths a little longer than recommended, since the scarf is more than long enough with what's left from the skein.  (It really seemed as if the knitting would never end.)  As I finished this scarf, I could visualize how nice, and different, it would look in a brightly colored cotton and wool sock yarn I had in the stash, but I know it would probably take me another six years to knit, so I'm trying to slap that idea out of my head.

My reward for finishing was starting a new pair of socks to have a good takealong project on the go again.  I have some  mauve and grey Arequipa that looks like Hermione's Everyday Socks, a popular free pattern.  I'm in no rush to finish them, and I'll wait to show you when they're further along.

Back home, I completed my former takealong project, the Princess's Sirdar garter stitch poncho.  I used the one year size, but there's no fit to the poncho, of course, and the hat seems small in circumference, although it's quite deep to the crown.  I can see she's going to eat the tassels.  I have a full ball of yarn plus some partials leftover, so I may make an alternate hat later.  But darn, this one is cute anyway.

I also finished my first Swing Knitting Workshop pattern, and I like it as a little pouch. 

This new shortrow technique certainly held my interest.  I've downloaded Workshop II and am quite excited about working my way up to doing a shawl eventually.  With a bit of patience, even an old dog can learn some new tricks.

Knitting for Arizona

I am looking forward to getting away.  Mother Nature is still dumping on us.  We had to get the driveway plowed two days in a row - $120 worth of snow!  At least the boys like it.

You can't see the seat or the back of my lawn swing in the gazebo, just the canopy frame.  The stack of chairs that you can see is actually four high.  I'd like to get a new set of furniture so we didn't bother to take all the frames back to the storage shelter at the end of last season.  The snow is the height of the bar side of the gazebo.

I couldn't open the screen door on the other side of the living room because the snow had driven into it.  I took a photo anyway to show the boys crouching in their fort, the natural passage beside the house that is open to underneath the back steps.  If the snow wasn't so hard packed, the boys would have sunk over their heads trying to walk to the back door.

So it's a little surrealistic trying on summer clothes and packing my suitcase.  Unfortunately, they seem to have shrunk over the winter.  Sometimes I wish we could hibernate.  Eating yourself silly in the fall and waking up skinny in the spring sounds good.  Anyway, I'm almost packed. 

The gift knitting got done.  One cotton Clapotis in Noro Chirimen.

With a skein left over for an Easter hat for the Princess.

My Gemini sweater didn't get finished because I decided to knit something for the two little girls we'll see down there.  Their mom's family were our best ever next door neighbours for about eight years.  They don't need as many warm woolies as in Northern Ontario, or even Salt Lake City where they lived until this past year.  I pulled out some cotton blend and knit some bright headbands just for style or to keep their hair out of the way.  The pattern is Ropes and Ladders again, with one fewer cable repeat and two fewer garter ridges each side on the purple one for the smaller sister.  I'll let their mom or grandma sew on the buttons to adjust for fit. 

I'm tucking each one in with a Canadian treat.  They're in a keepsake tin this year to celebrate the company's 100th anniversary.

Now I just have to decide what yarn and pattern to take to knit while I'm away. 
Something that will hold my interest, but not so difficult to make me ignore my
friends.  Not something I'd have to lay out and measure all the time.  Not too
bulky, but not lace weight.  (I can't handle it without looking.)  Probably sock
yarn again, but for socks or a shawl or baby knitting?  I am the the Queen of
Indecision.

I'll catch up with you after Easter.  I hope there's some sign of spring by
the time we get back.

 

 

 

Still Winter

Since it's a balmy -13 C today, I went outside to take a couple of pictures to show you the winter we've been having.  This is my garage, which came down on top of my car on Dec. 21, the day we got our first huge dump of snow.  My son-in-law and daughter had to crouch inside and hold it up on their shoulders while I gunned the car out backwards.  Then they dropped and scrambled out as fast as they could.

The bent frame left a couple of gouges on the roof and hood of the car, but didn't break any glass or cause major damage.  Immediately after the holidays, the temperature dropped to 40 below and stayed in the -30s for three weeks.  My car wasn't  plugged in (the extension cord is somewhere inside the downed garage) and wouldn't start.   It hardly seemed worth boosting it until the cold spell was over.  But then the heavy snowfalls started again, and I'm not that motivated to dig it out.  So we're waiting impatiently for spring.

In some ways, time has passed quickly.  Addi is 4 months old this week, upsizing hats from her collection.

I kept her one day while the boys were at school so her mom and dad could go skiing.  It wasn't too hard.

She seemed to be having a good time.

On the knitting front, my March goal was to try Swing Knitting.  I purchased workshop #1 on Ravelry and found it very well explained and illustrated.  I finished the first small piece in two sittings. 

It was meant to become an armwarmer, but mine seemed small, and I don't think I'd wear an armwarmer anyway.  Instead of grafting the side seam from the provisional cast on, I picked up stitches to knit in the opposite direction.  I'm planning to add lining and a zipper to make a little cosmetic bag.

 We are going to get away to Arizona at the end of the month to see friends.  So next my knitting thoughts turned to  cotton.  Possible gifting:

A Clapotis from Noro Chirimen, a mostly cotton, wool and silk  blend in DK weight, so this one will be more suited for warm weather wear.

A new top for me:

KnitPicks Cotlin in the Conch colorway for the Gemini I didn't get knit last summer.  It shows more pinkish onscreen (which is why I bought this shade), but is a truer orange in person.  

Two summery projects to finish in the next three weeks. 

What's going on inside the house does not match what's still going on outside. 

Resolutions Holding

In January, after the rush of Christmas gifts, I got the knitting blahs.  I did some boring, useful knitting, completing a pair of plain ribbed socks and a stack of dishcloths, which I'll put in my photo album for the sake of a complete knitting record.  I spent a while reorganizing the stash and reminding myself that I do have an abundance of nice yarn for any type of project from laceweight shawls to worsted sweaters.  I resolved yet again to knit more from the deep stash this year.  After my inventory, being more aware of what I have, I find I am slightly less tempted to purchase on impulse.  But I admit that I am a yarnaholic and not a day goes by, browsing the net or flipping through magazines, that I don't think, " I'd like some of that."

I set some goals, month by month for the year, to try to realistically plan what new techniques I'd like to push myself to try and what projects I'd like to complete for gifts or have to wear myself.  Before Christmas, I bought Lucy Neatby's instructional DVD on Double Knitting.  I've tried to teach myself twice before and given up before completing even a potholder.  Switching two yarns between every stitch just seemed like more bother than the finished project was worth.  When I met Lucy Neatby two years ago, she was leaning against the doorframe of her kitchen with a scarf in progress thrown over her shoulder, doubleknitting as if it was the easiest thing on earth.  I vowed at the time to try again.  I'd really like to make the Pendleton scarf, but I thought I'd better start with something a bit easier and quicker to complete.  I studied the video and realized that I should be able to knit with one yarn in one each hand, since that is how I do stranded knitting.  And that was the trick that made the whole process manageable.  For my beginner project I used the free Incognito cowl pattern from Knitty, but doubleknit for two complete reversible layers.  In conjunction, I also used a free Ravelry download of Moustache Styles by Lisa Wilt.  This one is the Walrus.

My son-in-law laughed when I presented it to him and pronounced it "Awesome!"  He couldn't wait to try it on and see himself in the mirror.  The double layers will be toasty warm for snowboarding.  I'll probably have to fit the child's version into my knitting schedule for the grandboys.

Meanwhile, the Princess is growing out of her newborn to 3 month sized sweaters and I need to get ahead with some 3 - 6 month, and 6 month sizes.  First up was a little top from the Sirdar Ooh La La booklet.  I was surpised to find that it fits her already!  Here she is, looking Ooh So Serious.

Today I bought buttons and put the finishing touch on her spring jacket and hat, another Sirdar pattern.  I bought the exact yarn pictured on the pattern leaflet.

My current WIP is a little poncho and helmet in Baby Crofter, again the exact same yarn used in the pattern illustration in the Cozy Little Crofters booklet.  Did I mention lately how much I love Sirdar patterns for babies?

The second garter stitch rectangle that makes up the poncho is my carry along KIP knitting.  I'm fighting off the urge to start something ( or 10 things) new; I still have several UFO's that I should tackle first, including two for other people.  Stay tuned and see how long I can resist.

Dinotopia Two

 Despite temperatures from -30 to - 40 degrees C (the point at which Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures coincide) for almost a week, a stocky triceratops is the most recent denizen of our rainforest.  He entailed much less piecing than the stegosaurus, making him a happier knit.  The only truly fiddly parts were sewing up the small white horns and placing them on the head.  I think I should have put the front horn more on top of his snout rather than on the end, but at this point, he is what he is.

 The purchase of some fabric glue made for less sewing with the felt too, though it stiffened the piece under the eyes to the point that it was very difficult to push a needle through to sew on the buttons.  The glue is supposed to hold up even with washing, so it should be a good choice for a child's toy which just might get dirty, or spilled on, or suffer an even worse fate with the kids being a little under the weather with cold and flu symptoms this week.

The triceratops has been relocated to the bedroom of my now 7-year-old grandson.  It's a cliche to say it, but I can hardly believe how the time has flown since I first started this blog and set up a photo album of the baby knitting I did for my first grandchild, here nicknamed Bub.   Now he's grown into a wonderful boy, loving and helpful and smart.  He was chosen for a monthly award at school last week. He likes to play Skylanders adventures on his Nintendo, invent machines with his Legos, and race down the ski hill.   We're very proud of him.  Happy Birthday from Nana, Nonno, and your new dinosaur friend.

Playing Around With The Blog - It's Still Me!

I haven't changed my blog in a long time.  With the old colored design, I had the option of an image instead of text in the banner, but I could never get it sized properly, so I gave up. 

When I was working today to wind up my Photo Album of Finished Items for 2012, I explored Typepad for a while and found a new theme which made it easy to add a photo banner with my blog title.   That's the plus.  I can't do much to customize the rest of the blog design at the level I'm paying, and I haven't been blogging enough to justify paying more.  I liked my old color scheme better; white might turn out to be too blah for me.  But this is a fresh, clean look.  

I'm going to try this out for awhile.  If you want to leave a comment about blog design, I'll take it under consideration. 

On to Birthdays

Christmas is not the end of gifting season for us.  As I've mentioned before, we have four January birthdays in our family.  It's always been an extra-busy time.  We used to spend Christmas here with my in-laws, travel 8 hours south on Boxing Day for a delayed or second Christmas with my family, return north for New Year's Eve with our friends, then throw a birthday party for our daughter (who was our city's New Year's Baby the year she was born) before we all returned to school.  Now we've added one grandson whose birthday is the day after his mom's, and the other grandson whose birthday is at the end of the month two days before my mom's.

I decided not to knit sweaters for the boys this year.  They're already at an age where they prefer fleece hoodies.  When I saw this book, I formed a different plan.

Making dinosaurs for birthday presents would give me an extra month for the second one at least.  I got the first one knit before Christmas - the easy part, as it turns out.  The sewing up has taken the last three days, but as with so many projects, it has all seemed worth it on seeing the final results. 

A big-eyed purple Stegosaurus has been spotted in living room rain forest.

The dinosaur is about 18" end to end.  The knitting is very simple but as you can see, there are a lot of little pieces to assemble on this one.  The legs are thread jointed so he can assume different positions, a new technique for me.  It's not that the seaming is difficult, but sewing all those little pieces together and stitching them in place does tax my patience.  I'm not going into toymaking in a big way, no matter how cute the patterns are.

However, I do have two grandsons, so there will be one more dinosaur in my near future.  I have some Patons Astra yarn for the red and blue Triceratops seen on the right in the book cover photo.  Then I will be free to start a new project for me after months of baby, Christmas, and birthday knitting. 

 

 

Christmas Aftermath

My new Yuletide Gnome and I hope you had a good Christmas and are headed into a Happy New Year!

We enjoyed a Pre-Christmas turkey dinner at my daughter's when my sister, niece and nephew's girlfriend brought my mom up.  Mom is staying with me for a couple of weeks, but the others drove home to be back with their guys for Christmas Day.  The most fun part of Christmas Day for us now is going in to town at 7:30 a.m. to watch the kids open their gifts.  Risa can't hold them off any longer.  Then we enjoy a big Christmas brunch and a quiet afternoon and evening at home, leaving them free to join my son-in-law's family for dinner.  Post-Christmas we hosted another big dinner, switching to ham, inviting my husband's nephew and his family, and our good friend and his daughter.  I've got to the point where I'm looking forward to not eating so much in January.

Here as promised are modelled photos of a couple of my Christmas projects:

Risa in her Infinity Cardigan.  The back is a showstopper! 

The fronts in the Indian Cross stitch tend to take in at the bottom, since there are no fasteners to hold them as they were blocked to the schematic measurements.  This was evident even in the photo from the pattern book, and the front view photos of other Ravelry projects show that's the case for everyone .  Still a lovely knit.

Also modelling, we have our princess in her Christmas Wreath crocheted beanie.

She did wake up a bit later and join the festivities.  Great-Grandma is taking every opportunity to hold the wee one.

Our New Year's Baby is two months old today, and we're all looking forward to a year full of achievements.