Knitteroo!

Schparkle!

2011-11-06T10:34:00.006-05:00

It was the end of daylight savings time, that lovely time of year when we can all make like Cher and turn back time. Despite the advent of 4:30 sunsets, I was thrilled to have an extra hour on Sunday to dedicate to blogging. Blame seasonal affective disorder (NOT seasonal affected disorder) on my inability to finish the post for two whole weeks. Can I get some love and understanding? Do you believe in life after failure to blog? Can the beat go on? How do I fit gypsies, tramps and thieves into this? Maybe I'll just turn to something else Cher is no stranger to: sequins!

In what must be a record-breaking turnaround, I have managed to knit souvenir yarn into a finished object within a month of purchase. 30 days! That's like, standard invoice turnaround!

Pattern: Made 'er up.
Yarn: Sequin-spangled cotton yarn I brought back from Germany, striped with wool sock yarn picked up ages ago at a thrift store.(I guess you could call it a half breed?)
Needles: 3mm and 3.75mm circulars (magic loop)

This yarn was screaming beret and I listened. I figured the sequins would be pretty scratchy around the 'ole noggin, so I opted to use wool for the ribbing. When a co-worker suggested striping the wool in with the sequin yarn I thought it was a bang-up idea. It's a good thing I listened too, because by the time I started the decreases that little cone of yarn was looking mighty thin. I finished the beret with just a few meters to spare!

I'm thrilled to have a shiny little whisper of a hat to wear before the real warm woolies of winter are needed. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to like it!

Honeymoon Part 3: Germany

2011-10-29T13:15:00.012-04:00

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Arriving in Berlin to see a Marimekko store directly across the street from our hotel, I knew I was in trouble. I'm convinced Berlin is the birthplace of "hipster". I saw a guy walking down the street in a full mechanic-style coverall - Somehow, he pulled off this look without looking like an extra from Grease. If you like a 5 shoe stores on every block (I do!), the Scheunenviertel may be for you.

So what does a young couple do in a European capital dripping with history? Visit museums of course:

Clockwise from top left: The Ramones Museaum repro CBGB's style awning/
Outtakes from the Ramones album cover shoot showing Dee-dee stepping in poo/
Promo needles and pins-uh/Leaving our mark in the guestbook.

Why there is a Ramones Museum in Berlin and not NYC is beyond me. Of course, we couldn't leave Berlin without checking out some local history too:

Clockwise from top left: The Trabant: East Germany's sexiest ride!/
Re-creation of a typical east German apartment at the DDR museum/Bits of the wall/
The un-monument at the site of Hitler's bunker and "grave": a low-key sign in a parking lot/
The very monumental holocaust memorial

But wait, didn't we visit yarn and record stores? Of course we did. Who's vacation do you think you're looking at?

I should mention my husband's affinity for collecting extends beyond records. On the left is his happiest place on earth, the Taschen store. On the right, compulsive flea-market purchases leave the collector sad at the prospect of hauling 10 tonnes of books and records back to Canada. (I had considerably lighter baggage, but only after curbing my appetite for giant European fashion magazines)

Handmade Berlin had a couple of Ruth Marshal's knitted animal pelts on display - cool!

Somehow, shopping in Berlin left me with very few actual German souvenirs. I bought yarn from Italy and Japan...

At left: Italian cotton/sequin yarn. Right: Laceweight Japanese yarn
(yes, it's Noro - a cashmere blend - yum!)

...fabric from Finland...

...and boots from Spain.

Fabulous handmade Vialis boots!

My only truly Berlin souvenir? A couple of tiny Ampelmännchen ornaments for my Christmas tree.That's a wrap folks! My "honeymoon". Two weeks, 3 countries, 6 planes and a whole lotta fun.

Honeymoon Part 2: The Netherlands

2011-10-22T13:20:00.009-04:00

For some, Amsterdam brings to mind tulips, windmills and wooden shoes. For others, marijuana, prostitution and Harold and Kumar. Me? Amsterdam's allure was it's geographical location directly in between our other vacation stops, Ireland and Germany. Don't get me wrong, I was very interested in seeing Amsterdam, it just wasn't at the top of my list. Now having been there, all I want to do is go back to our little houseboat on a canal!

This was our floating oasis for 3 nights. It was directly across from Anne Frank house
- you could watch the queue from the bathtub. Sirrussly, you guys!

While reading your morning paper, you could also feed swans
out the window. Sirrussly, you guys!

Amsterdam really blew me away. I found myself walking around just groaning; "Waah! It's so beautiful!".

The medieval city centre looks like a postcard at every turn.
Sirrussly, you guys!

Some highlights: Bikes!

Special traffic lights just for bikes!

As a cyclist who has to navigate busy city streets riding between traffic on my left and parked cars on my right (ready to open a door in my path at any given moment), the dominance of bicycle transit in Amsterdam made me want to cry. We rented bikes one day and it was so refreshing and fantastic to ride along dedicated, separate bicycle traffic lanes - with their own traffic lights! The only downside? Getting lost on a bike happens a lot faster than on foot.

Beer!

Now y'all know I'm a wino at heart, but Holland is beer country. The Arendsnest serves exclusively Dutch beers - 120 bottled and 30 on tap. You could have a different brew every day for almost 6 months!

Food!

Moeders (Mothers) is plastered floor to ceiling with pictures of people's mums.

While herring doesn't exactly appeal to me, let's not forget the Dutch like to serve french fries with mayonnaise (sinfully yummy!). I did give the old' hutspot a try at Moeders.

Shopping!
True to form, where He purchased records, She purchased yarn. I made a point to check out De Afstap. The store was very cute, though the majority of the yarn they carried was Rowan, which I can get anytime in Canada. I didn't find any Dutch yarn (does that even exist?), but picked up a nice skein of Swedish lace-weight wool. I also picked up a couple of really cool Dutch stitch dictionaries.

It's a good thing the books have readable charts because one thing
I didn't pick up in Amsterdam, was Dutch.

Warning: If you feed those canal swans once, they come out of nowhere,
Terminator style, every time you open your houseboat door!

Since returning home, I find myself sounding like a pretentious Gweneth Paltrow; "Oh, you really MUST go to Amsterdam, it's simply DIVINE!". I need to go back there someday! Sirrussly, you guys!

Honeymoon Part 1: Ireland

2011-10-08T16:48:00.014-04:00

Despite the fact the b.f. and I planned on taking a European vacation before we planned to get married, everyone is calling our recent vacation our "honeymoon". I'm not sure why I feel strange about the word "honeymoon", but then again, I'm also having trouble using the word "husband". What it all really boils down to, is that no one gives a rats-ass that I don't want to call my trip a honeymoon; it's the first vacation my ~~boyfriend~~ husband and I have taken after our wedding therefore, it must be our honeymoon. ("If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck").

Honeymoon Part 1: Ireland

Fiddle-dee-dee and such! My ~~boyfriend~~ husband's extended family is from Northern Ireland, so we spent the first half of our trip in Belfast and the surrounding area, with a quick stopover in Dublin.

Things you may know about Ireland:

1) It is green and hilly.

I refused to leave Ireland without visiting a caste. This one on the right
is in Carlingford, a name for whatever reason, we had infinite trouble remembering;
"Where was that castle again? Carlington? Carlsberg?"

2) There are lots of pubs.

The Crown Bar in Belfast is the epitome of Victorian decor.
The pub is such a historical monument it's owned by the National Trust.

3) It's damp.
4) There are a lot of (natural) red-heads.
5) U2, James Joyce, the Pogues, Frank McCourt, Van Morrison, Sinead O'Connor, Colin Farrell

Things you may not know about Ireland:

1) The Republic of Ireland (the one with Dublin) and Northern Ireland (the one with Belfast) are two different countries. (Seriously, a lot of people don't know this).
2) George Best is a very famous Northern Irish footballer (soccer, that is). I'm the moron that landed at George Best airport and asked; "So who is this George Best anyway? A politician?"
3) The "Peace walls" have stood longer than the Berlin wall. Irish political history should not be taken lightly.

4) English currency is the pound sterling, Irish currency is the Euro, Northern Irish currency is a different Irish pound. You can use English pounds in Northern Ireland, but you can't use Northern Irish pounds in England. This results in a wallet full of confusing bills.
5) Thin Lizzy, Liam Neason, the Titanic, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Before Ireland, all I knew about Thin Lizzy was "The boys are back in town".

Now the entire "Lizzy" discography is sitting in my living room.

Sprinkled in with the family visits and pints of Guinness, we managed a little shopping.

Him: records.

Her: yarn.

Some hobbies are easier to fit in your suitcase than others.

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION STAY AT HOME: PART 3

2011-09-10T16:49:00.007-04:00

D.I.Y.!

During one of our lunch-hour conversations, me and my ladies at work coined a new term; "Borderline pioneer disorder". Loosely defined, if you have conducted, or had the desire to conduct any of the activities you may know from Little House on the Prairie, you may be suffering from this malady. Make a quilt? Borderline. Can your own homegrown tomatoes? Borderline. Raise a sheep, shear it, wash it, card it, spin it into yarn, knit it into a sweater? Well, that's full-fledged pioneer territory.

My "pioneer" efforts this summer were decidedly more Martha Stewart than Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Bourbon Poached Peaches. This was an amazing year for Ontario peaches, so I decided I should preserve some of the bounty. Unfortunately, peach season coincided with the ongoing heatwave we call July in Toronto. Nothing makes you feel more pioneer-y than slaving over a giant pot of boiling water in 40 degree (104 F) heat.

After an afternoon of sweat, I produced exactly one and a half jars of peaches. Sigh. Despite following the recipe to a "T", something went awry and my peach-to-syrup ratio was seriously unbalanced. So what did I do with all that extra peachy-bourbon syrup?

Nothin' beats a heatwave like a Mint Julep.

Martha may have let me down at the peach party, but she came through like a champ in the cut-and-paste category.
As a renter, I can't say I've ever put much thought into my light fixtures. When we moved in (10 yrs ago!) we covered the bare bulbs in each room with cheap and cheerful paper lanterns from Chinatown. When I saw this idea in Martha Stewart Living, a light bulb went off (har-har!).

If you'd like to make a lantern yourself, I used regular white craft glue
instead of double-sided tape with great results.

I'm sure Martha did not intend for these paper-crafts to be used as permanent indoor lighting solutions, but hey - I'm not Martha. I also hope to move out before these lamps (I made two, one for the bedroom and one for the kitchen) get dusty and yellow. A friend told me the lamp shade looks like a swan's ass. Swan's asses are pretty, so I concur!

Last but not least, I broke out the spray-paint. Not very "pioneer" at all, but Soule Mama is terribly pioneer and she did it too.

After scoring some frames leftover from a photo-shoot, I gave them a cohesive look with a coat of turquoise spray paint. Spray painting is messy, but I love the result. Behold the new hallway gallery!

I finally found a home for the funny brass peacock decorations I thrift-ed years ago!

After a stinky hot summer in the city, I'm finally taking a vacation. The new hubby and I are packing up a heading to Belfast/Amsterdam/Berlin. Stay tuned for tales of European adventure!

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION STAY AT HOME: PART 2

2011-08-27T17:03:00.008-04:00

Gardening!

Slowly but surely, I've turned my self-proclaimed "black thumb" into something close to a shade of green. Each year I learn a little more about gardening, and here I'll share with you some of the knowledge I've gained.

1) Some annuals are really "biennials".

Last years pansies and alyssum(s?) showed up for another patio season. This has not only taught me a little bit about those specific plants, but I've learned a little lesson in "just go with it" gardening. I didn't plan on these guys showing up, but it's not like I hired a landscape architect. If the plant can survive the desert-like blazing sun of my patio, it is more than welcome to hang out with us.

2) Not all unexpected garden guests are weeds.

Now, I'm not talking about neighbours or long-lost cousins showing up unannounced, I'm speaking strictly of the flora variety. Sometimes the unwillingness to pull weeds in a timely fashion, coupled with the inability to recognize plants unless they are in flower can yield a few extra blooms in the garden.

What's that purple thing in the nasturtiums?

A pansy - Surprise!

And who invited Iris? Surprise!

This is an iris, right?

I think of these plant pop-ups as a little reminder that flower don't exclusively appear in the tightly controlled environment of a nursery. Mother Nature knew what she was doing long before greenhouses and "Miracle Grow".

3) "Organic" gardening is hard work, or, "pests suck".

When faced with garden pests, you have two options: chemicals or elbow grease. Despite the fact I'm not growing food in my garden (I learned that lesson last year), I have a real aversion to using pesticides. For that reason, I learned a lot about slugs this year:

-How did I get garden slugs?
There were probably eggs in one of the plants I purchased.

- How did I discover I had slugs in my garden?
Dahlias are slug filet mignon. After a week or so of "what's eating my dahlias?" I finally asked google. Because slugs only come out a night, they are hard to discover unless you're really looking for them.

- How does one get rid of slugs?
Ugh! Dedication and determination. Without chemicals, you basically have to just pick them out of the garden and squish them. I tried beer traps with mediocre results. Waiting for the sun to go down and picking the little suckers worked best. I think oats helped a little too (they eat them and then the oats expand inside them and kill 'em - muah-ah-ah-ah!). Drunk on the power to eradicate garden infestation, I started to play god with #4...

4) Resurrection is possible.

Buying a few dahlias this year has apparently been quite educational. I'm not sure if "real" gardeners would classify dahlias as finicky plants, but they seem to be fussy babies to me. What's wrong, dahlia? You don't like being eaten by slugs in the scorching July sun? Suck it up, princess!

Princess Dahlia shortly after her rescue from the desert sun.

After their near death experience in my full-sun planter box, rather than throw them out, I re-planted the sorry-looking Dahlia stubs in pots and placed them in a slightly shadier corner. A few weeks later ...

Ta-da! Back from the dead!

5) Pay attention.

This is probably the single most important thing I've leaned about caring for plants. If you don't ignore them, they don't die. What a crazy concept! People that claim to be horrible with plants don't have some kind of recessive gene for plant-killing, they just aren't interested in gardening. If you don't look at your houseplants more than once a month they will probably die. If you simply cast your eyes upon that philodendron once a week, you may remember to water it and therefore, sustain it's life. It's not rocket science. Anyone can keep a plant alive, you just need to have an interest in doing so.

Thus concludes today's lesson. I think I'm still light years away from being a great gardener, but perhaps I'm on the right path?

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION STAY AT HOME: PART 1

2011-08-27T15:57:00.011-04:00

It appears most of the summer has elapsed without a single word here at good 'ole Knitteroo. Let's catch you up in installments shall we? Think of them as a collection of "what I did on my summer vacation" essays. Try to ignore the fact that I have neither taken a vacation, nor do I intend to write a formal essay.

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER ~~VACATION~~ STAY AT HOME: PART 1

I got married!

After 11 years of coupledom, we decided to get "serious".

The dress:

From "Vintage Mix 1" , Ossingston, Toronto. $30!

The Shoes:

From "Original" on Queen St W, Toronto - Don't ask $$$!

The city hall cermony:

The guy who married us was named "Gordon Brown".
I'm fairly certain he was never the prime minister of England.

The dash to the restaurant:

Okay, nothing much special going on here, I just love this picture!

The dinner:

La Palette: We sorely miss their Kensington market locale,
but the food and service was no less spectacular on Queen Street.

There you have it. No horse-drawn carriage, no 200 of our closest friends, no chicken dance, just family and a nice meal. I couldn't imagine it any other way.

P.S. All photos by Jennifer Rowsom. She's amazing!

Wild and wooly

2011-07-01T11:16:00.008-04:00

When I first saw Patons Wild Child yarn, I thought it was a coo-koo as it's name. Tufts of wool on a string? What are you supposed to do with that? That's not yarn! When I saw a sample of it knit up and realized it looked like sheepskin, I changed my tune a little. My focus was singular; "That would make a great pillow."

So I knit one.

Despite the fact Austin Powers references are both passe and cringe-inducing,
I've got to say the term "shagadellic" is pretty appropriate here.

The details: I knit this in stockinette stitch from corner to corner, using smaller than recommended needles (6 mm) to get a denser fabric. It's funny that the tufts of wool show up only on the purl side in stockinette stitch, so that's what you see as the pillow's right side. If you knit in garter stitch, the tufts show up on both sides. How do I know this? Swatching my friends; Knitter's best frenemy!

The 'pattern': It's pretty simple...

Cast on 3 sts.
Next row: Kfb (Knit into front and back of next stitch). P1. Kfb. (5 sts).
Next and following wrong side rows: Knit.
Next and following right side rows: P1. Kfb. Purl to last 2 sts. Kfb. P1.

I repeated the last two rows until the two sides of the resulting triangle were the same size as my pillow form, then I changed colours and decreased like so:

Right side rows: P1. P2tog. Purl to last 3 sts. P2tog. P1.
Wrong side rows: Knit.
I repeated those last two rows until I was down to 5 stitches then:
Next wrong side row: P1. P3tog. P1. (3 sts).
Cast off!

To put the pillow together I made a simple pillow case with some dark grey lining-type fabric and slapped (sewed, really) my knitting to the front of it. Voila - one big ole' shaggy pillah!

April showers bring May cables?

2011-05-07T14:05:00.006-04:00

If April showers bring May flowers, Toronto should be one giant bloom by now. At least the crummy weather makes staying indoors with some wool and needles look pretty attractive. As a result, I have a rather unseasonable new sweater to share with you:

Pattern: Cable Tunic from Patons "Anti Freeze"
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Roving in #77010 Natural
Notes/Mods: I added about 9 inches to the length to make it a bum-covering (and therefore leggings appropriate) sweater.

Despite being an easy and fun pattern, this took me ages to knit! I kept putting it on the back-burner. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of it ... you know, next winter when it's actually cold enough to wear a bulky-weight 100% wool sweater! My one beef is the neck:

The neckline is somewhere between a stand-up collar and a cowl and really needs to make up it's mind. The pattern has you knit "until work measures length to fit around neck edge" which is a little vague. I think the collar really needs to be smaller than the neck edge and slightly stretched to make it look like the picture in the book. I don't think the yarn has enough drape to be a cowl, so I'm going take out a few inches and futz around with it until it behaves itself. Hopefully I'll get around to that before next spring.

I'm thinking of starting a lightweight spring cardigan. Maybe I'll be debuting that for fall?

Stuff in my house

2011-04-10T10:40:00.003-04:00

Lately I've found myself suffering from serious decor envy. My newfound obsession with decorating blogs (like this one, this one and this one) combined with the general "spring renewal" vibe of the season has got me itching to redecorate my entire apartment. Seeing as I plan on moving within a year, this endeavor would essentially be a waste of time. Forever the optimist, I've decided to try and celebrate the little corners of my home that do make me happy. Once in a while when the light is right, and the shabby bits are cropped out of sight... stuff in my house doesn't look half-bad.

Clockwise from top-left: Sunshine on my Liberty of London for Target bedspread,
My childhood bedroom fan (super-dangerous!) used as bookend,
kitschy kitchen knick-knacks, My favourite wall of the kitchen .

Fashion Weak

2011-04-01T21:36:00.009-04:00

Okay, so I don't really think Fashion Week in Toronto is actually weak, but I can't resist riffing on one of the best album titles ever. In past years, I've always felt like fashion week was this cool kids club that I wasn't invited to. Managing to swing a free pass this year felt like being invited to the prom queen's birthday party: I didn't expect to become her best friend, but you bet your Louboutin's I'm wasn't staying home!

Wednesday night I took my definitely-not-Louboutin's down to the red carpet to check things out.

The demographic at Heritage Court was quickly apparent: 25% media; 25% industry; 50% fashion blogger.

I was photographed by fashion bloggers twice in half and hour and thought; "Wow. I must be fashionably inspiring!". Before long I realized the high density of fashion bloggers at the event required the bloggers to photograph almost everyone in attendance to ensure their blogs weren't solely plastered with other fashion bloggers. The fashion snake eating it's own tail, perhaps? Maybe the ouroboros will be all the rage next fall.

After purchasing a "totally reasonably priced" glass of wine and passing on a photo-op with Ken...

...I got in line to see the new "Attitude" collection by Jay Manuel for Sears.

Never underestimate the power of celebrity. Our homegrown make-up artist turned Tyra gbf tuned a Sears fashion show into a standing-room-only event. As a result, this was my view of the runway:

I was close enough to recognize Rebecca Hardy and Yasmin Warsame strutting their stuff, but I never caught a glimpse of the silver-haired man of the hour. In fact, I wasn't even sure he was there at all until I checked reviews the next day. There's a perfect review of the show here.

The fashion world is fun and silly and I try not to take it too seriously. Overall, I thought the event was interchangeable with the vibe at a music festival like NXNE: More hype than art. I think a lot of these events become more about being seen and having the best VIP backstage pass than the music or fashion they intend to showcase (back to the cool-kids club). That said, I think getting a bunch of fashion bloggers (and myself) to line up for an hour to see clothes from Sears is pretty fantastic! "Work it" indeed.

Ah la fraise!

2011-03-28T21:43:00.004-04:00

How do you choose a baby pattern to knit for an expectant knitter? Knitter-to-knitter? Tricky! If you're anything like me, you will start by over-thinking, and therefore; procrastinating.

"If the baby is due in spring, do I knit a warm weather thing for a newborn, or a cold weather thing for a 6 month-er?"
"I'm definitely knitting this...or is it too impractical?"
"Nevermind, I'll knit this instead. But do I want to sacrifice cute for practical?"
"Alright, then this is better... but I'll never finish it in time.
"Okay, I know she likes this, so I'll just knit that. But wait, what if she knits it herself?"

Eventually I reached a compromise between me, myself and I, and settled on "Ah, la fraise!"

It's hard to beat the French when it comes to fashion... even if it's for those too small to have fashion opinions. All the better to dress them up like produce!

Pattern: "Ah, la Fraise!" from La Droguerie's Babies
Size: 6 mos
Yarn: Ella Rae Baby Cotton in Peony, White, and... Celery? I think?
Notes/Mods: The pattern instructions are pretty vague. I'm sure some of the oddness is due to poor translation from French, but it was fairly easy to figure out. The arms seem a little too long and skinny in proportion to the body but I'm not sure if that's me misinterpreting the instructions or the instructions misinterpreting the limbs of tiny humans.
I kind of love this yarn. I don't normally enjoy knitting with cotton, but the nylon content in this yarn gives it a nice springiness. I must have spent an hour trying to find the right yarn for this at Romni and Ella Rae won! I wish the green was a little, well, greener, but the pattern is so darn cute I think it works anyway.

I can't wait to see the little munchkin that gets to wear this delicious little number. Ah, la fraise!

Bonne fête

2011-02-20T16:27:00.009-05:00

This year I celebrated my b-day mangling the French language in Montreal. Whee! Or, j'mexcuse... Oui!

I treated myself to a new camera and spent the weekend gallivanting around Montreal trying to figure out how to use it (the camera, not the city).

And you thought Katy Perry was overexposed!

Birthdays are a great time to convince others to participate in activities they would normally have no interest in.
Ice skating! On Mount Royal! My rented skates were named "Soft Cameo". Is it just me, or is that hilarious?

This marked my first time on skates in 15 years. Highly embarrassing for a Canadian. My initial though after stepping onto the ice was; "Oh no! This was a big mistake! What was I thinking?!". After a few wobbly circles around Beaver Lake (also hilarious) I got my groove back. I may have to make this ice-skating business a more than once-every-couple-of-decades kind of thing.

After the ice-capades, the rest of the weekend was spent doing more more or less standard activities from my favourites list.

Drinking fine wine with fine looking gentlemen:

Fine dining and fine doodling:

It's a paper placemat. I didn't deface anything, calm down!

And of course, fine thrifting:

This was the largest Salvation Army I have every set foot in. Look how far back that goes! And there's an second floor! I nearly had a heart attack faced with all that bargain hunting!

In the end I only picked up a couple of sweaters and these guys:

100% wool yarn on cones. Should I let the fine looking gentleman know
a 69 cent cone of yarn thrills me more than fine dining?

Mild frustration ensued browsing the furniture department, full of interesting things we had no way of hauling back to Toronto.

These two chairs would have been pretty great for enjoying our respective hobbies: Newspaper reading and knitting. (If that floral chair had been pink and orange I might have been calling Via Rail to inquire about oversize baggage).

In the end, carry-on luggage was just fine for our souvenir bagels. Bonne fete a moi!

Snowmantic Interlude

2011-02-03T18:57:00.009-05:00

Yesterday was a snow-day! Despite receiving only 15 of the 30 centimeters (or 3 gauge swatches) of snow expected, the whole city shut down and I luxuriated in the chance to work from home.

HOW TO SURVIVE A SNOW-DAY

1: Sleep in. But not too much. I spent the 45 minutes I usually waste commuting on the Sufferin bus luxuriating in the comfort of my own bed.

2: Make pancakes. Cereal is for suckers. You've got time on your hands, so whip up a batch of blueberry banana decadence!

3: Work. Okay, so it's not all sleeping and pancakes. Channel all that extra energy from good sleep and complex carbohydrates into a productive workday. Boot up the old Mac, but do so sans make-up whilst sporting mix-matched clothes and cozy slippers.

4: Take a walk. Time get outside and burn off the maple syrup. Don't even think about riding your bike.

This is not my bike because I am not a moron.

I kind of wish I had brought a sled to Trinity Bellwoods, but in reality,
sledding by yourself is kind of creepy and weird.
If only I'd had the forethought to put together a toboggan posse!

4: Come inside and dmire snow melting on your hand-knits. 'Nuff said!

5: Make chilli. Nothin' tops a bowl of chilli after a long walk through the snow. Well, actually, the best yogurt in the world tops it.

6: Relax. Might I suggest some appropriate cold-weather indoor activities? Mario Wii?

World 3 is especially apropos - it's all snow and ice and you get to dress like a cute penguin!

More about crochet Mario here.

7: Knit. You know I can't let a day go without knitting, right?

Don't be hatin' when I be hattin'

2011-01-30T21:23:00.006-05:00

Winter is long and cold. Far to long and cold for a girl to wear the same hat for months on end.
Pattern: Kat by Kim Hargreaves (published in the book "Precious")
Yarn: Patons Angora Bamboo in 90010 Sand
Notes/Mods: Despite quite a few boo-boos in my knitting, I knit this one strictly as written.

I love this hat!
Right from the get-go I had the idea to add a fur pom pom. Yup, fur. The controversial fashion material I once claimed was "okay, but kind of icky" and now find riding on my head on a regular basis.

While I've dodged a few trendy fashion bullets (harem pants, "boyfriend" jeans, peep-toe boots), I am not immune to trends. Case in point: I am currently wearing "jeggings". Falling hard for the fur trend, I didn't stop with pom-poms.

Check out the new specs too!

I picked up this vintage hat/hood for $10 and I love it. The first time I wore it I expected protesters to throw red paint at me when I left my house. As it turns out, no one is waiting outside my door paparatzi-style to critique what I'm wearing each day. Hunh!? In fact, I've had a lot of compliments on this furry little number. I especially love this comparison:

I'd guess I'd rather wear fur than go naked (I'll leave the nudity to the models). Don't throw red paint at my blog!

Knitgifts Round-up!

2011-01-22T09:21:00.008-05:00

When it comes to holiday gift knitting, I have spent years acquiring the following wisdom:

1: Start early. This does not mean 6 am December 24. Early means summer if possible.
2: Knit only for those who appreciate your handiwork. When you're knitting into the wee hours of the night trying to finish a gift ask yourself; "Is the recipient of this gift losing sleep over my gift?". If the answer is no, put down your needles and pour yourself a whiskey.

And the one lesson I have yet to learn...

3: Take pictures of your knitting before you stick it in a box and wrap it up in shiny paper!

My failure to photograph has left me with only a work-in-progress shot of my brother's Dr.Who scarf:

Pattern: The stripe pattern is from this crazy website
Yarn: A mix of random worsted weight from my stash
Notes: I used my machine - I'm not a masochist! I knit the scarf twice as wide as I wanted my finished dimensions and then sewed up the side to form a tube. The finished scarf is about 7 inches wide and 18 feet long.

Let's just pretend this is my brother wearing his new scarf:

You may remember I've actually made my brother a Dr.Who scarf in the past. Sadly, he lost the scarf along with almost everything he owned in a house fire this past year. (It's a long story, just know no one was hurt and everything is looking up for 2011). The fire is far enough in the past that I can now safely mourn the horrific loss of all the knitting I've done for him over the years. At least I can sleep sound knowing the natural wool fibres I chose would have been self-extinguishing.

So how about some knitting that has nothing to do with house-fires or sci-fi? (Sorry, I couldn't think of a more appropriate segue). I made my super-friend Cathy some thrum mitties!

Thanks for the pic, Cathy!

Pattern: Mostly based on the Midwest style thrummed mittens from No Sheep for You
Yarn/Fibre: Noro Kuryon colour #8 with Natural black Alpaca Roving from Meadowview Alpaca farm

They match her new winter coat, she wears them, she loves them, what more can a gift-knitter ask for?

Well, I suppose I could ask for my friends to give me pictures of themselves wearing my knitting whilst looking like a marble sculpture:

Thanks for the pic, Jenny!

Despite the creamy complexion, I can assure you Jenny is not made of marble. She's just knows how to rock some knit-wear and use her photographic talent to capture it with style.

Pattern: Directly from my brain
Yarn: Band - Estelle Superfine Alpaca (colour 302); Flowers - Patons Silk Bamboo (Apricot); Leaves - Patons Shetland Chunky (Leaf... appropriately)

Another very well received gift. Seriously, do I know who to knit for or what? I really love giving people hand made gifts that they actually appreciate. You can bet these peeps will be on my 2011 knit-list and this time I'll try to remember to bust out the camera before I bust out the wrapping paper ...or at least hire Jenny to bust it out for me.

Kitschy, Crafty Christmas

2011-01-02T15:07:00.004-05:00

Hope you had a great holiday!

We went a little crazy this year with our self-designed christmas cards. It would not have been possible without the wonderful camera-work of the talented Jenny Rowsom and the generous loan of a "Jersey Girl" wig (Snooki, Amy Winehouse, Elvira... it's really a multi-purpose look) from Nicole. Thanks guys!

This year marks the first year we got a tree too. A real tree, not the 5 dollar little artificial jobby I bought at Honest Ed's 10 years ago.

Of course a tree measuring taller than 12 inches requires considerably more decorations.
I'm beginning to start a collection of kitschy vintage decorations:

And of course, my tree wouldn't be complete without the crafty decorations too:

Patterns: Free Santa and Reindeer ornaments from the Lily Sugar n Cream website
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter
Hook: 3.5 mm

The mushroom was stolen (or just about) directly from Cara's beautiful christmas tree. You can find info on the 'shroom on her blog here. Thanks, Cara!

Now there's a few things that I just can't resist when it comes to holiday crafting and that's pinecones, Martha Stewart glitter and crocheted snowflakes:

(Pinecones and glitter not pictured)

Pattern: Crocheted motifs from a Japanese book - sorry, not much help there!
Yarn: Phildar Sunset
Hook: 3mm.
Notes/Mods: I really want to make more of these for next year and I'll definitely use a smaller hook next time. Them snowflakes should be toit!

Having a real tree this year made me realize how much I freakin' love christmas trees. I love the bit of nature indoors, the warm glow from lights, the pine smell...sigh. Alas, my living room is neither large, nor the natural territory for a Balsam fir. It's well past New Year's and it's time to get Mr.Tree ready for garbage day.

Happy New Year, guys!

Fa-la-la-la-la, cough-cough-cough-cough

2010-12-13T11:18:00.005-05:00

I've often thought there should be a statutory holiday sometime around the beginning of December. You know, a day off to wrap presents, bake cookies, or bust out the glue gun and glitter. Winter Craft Day? Craftorial weekend? Maybe I've dreamed of this blessed day off a few too many times because I seem to have contracted a cold in order to make this dream come true.

Unfortunately, recuperation and "whirlwind of holiday preparations" do not exactly go hand in hand. To make matters worse, Toronto is in the middle of a cold snap and it's -26ºC [-15ºF) with the wind-chill. I am NOT going outside. I'm also not planning on wasting any more energy than what it takes to make a pot of herbal tea. It's a good thing I've already spent the last couple of days wearing my Martha hat in the kitchen.

We're having a cookie swap at the office and I went a little crazy.

I used a recipe from the holiday issue of Martha Stewart Living and they turned out pretty darn good. We're exchanging a half dozen of each others cookies, and 10 of my co-workers will be taking this little selection home:

Each your heart out Cake Boss! You're not the only one to tame a piping bag!

So with baking behind me, an unseasonable cold outside and an unreasonable cold in my chest, it sounds like a good day to curl up with some movies and knitting, non?

Okay, so most of my knitting is gift related and therefore, unbloggable. Can I distract you with this pretty snowflake? My ongoing obsession with crocheted snowflakes continues (don't even get me started about my pinecone obsession). My crochet skills have vastly improved since last year's attempts and this Phildar Sunset practically leaped off the shelf begging to be crocheted into little flakies. Who am I to I deny a sparkly French yarn?

So there you have it folks. I must say, it IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Knitters' dream home

2010-12-10T18:51:00.002-05:00

If you're staying up till the wee hours trying to finish your holiday gift knitting, you just may experience hallucinations like these:

Thrumbelina

2010-11-28T13:34:00.006-05:00

I am not ashamed to admit that these mittens are the result of both peer pressure and blatant plagiarism.

As someone who is lucky enough to work in an office where people sit around and knit at the lunch table, I always get to to check out my co-workers projects. For whatever reason, the cool thing to knit these days is thrum mittens. Naturally I had to join in.

Pattern: Mid west style thrum mittens from No Sheep for You
Yarn/ Fibre: Fibrepalooza Wool/Cashgora blend (undyed) & Schoppelwolle Fingerwolle pencil roving
Needles: 3.75 mm (I intended to switch to 4 mm after the ribbing but I forgot. I'm glad I didn't though because they're a perfect size!)
Notes/Mods: Obviously, my mittens are not "no sheep" like in the book. I added thrums to the thumbs (thrum-thumbs!) even though the stitch count doesn't fit the thrum pattern repeat. I fudged it to make it work. Why leave your poor thumb out in the cold?

The cozy thrum-y interior. Mmm!

As for the plagiarism, that was somewhat sub-conscious. Given the thrum tradition originates in the maritimes I thought my souvenir Nova Scotia yarn would be perfect for my mittens. When it came time to pick out roving for the thrums I thought I was a genius for choosing rainbow-bright fibre to really pop with that neutral yarn. I somehow forgot that I'd seen my friend and co-worker Jen wearing thrum mittens in that exact colour combo last year.

Enh? Whatever. They're awesome mitts, I don't care if I didn't invent them! Hey,when it comes to knitting, I don't mind being a sheep (groan!).

Royal Deutsche Baug

2010-11-14T17:01:00.012-05:00

Every year I think; "Hey, I should go to the Royal!" and then I realize it's mid December and the fair happened three weeks ago. Not this time, baby!

Cows!

Those are award-winning bums!

Butter sculptures!

Giant mutant vegetables!My hand is in there for scale, but feel free to admire my new Axxium mani.

Sheep petting!

Hilarious signs!

Superdogs!
The Superdog show was more fun than I thought. I expected a tightly rehearsed show-dog type scenario and instead witnessed a canine version of a hockey tournament where the pups routinely decided to ignore the rules and do their own thing. That's right, doggies! Don't let those trainers boss you around!

Your fun at such an event is closely tied to your choice of companion:

I believe I chose wisely. This dapper young man is my brother and fellow enthusiast in farm fresh food, shopping and wine tasting.

Hey, braving those crowds makes you thirsty!

The Royal did not disappoint when it came to appealing to the fibre enthusiast either.

See an alpaca...

Buy some alpaca!

I had a good chat with one of the ladies at the Meadowview Alpaca stall and impressed her with my knowledge of northern Ontario landmarks. How often do you get to buy yarn from the person that raised the Alpaca?

My review of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair? Two thumbs up! I highly recommend it. I also highly recommend not leaving without some of the best got-dang maple butter tarts I've ever had.

Royally delicious!

Insult Injury to Injury

2010-11-04T19:29:00.014-04:00

Last week I went to yoga class and thought; "Ow. There's something icky going on with my wrist". Several I-should-have-known-better plank/chaturanga/bakasana/and even headstands later, I was icing my wrist at home. But it wasn't the yoga that hurt me, my friends.

Ah, crochet. How I have learned to love thee. You're speed, your strength, your ability to evoke 70's afghan nostalgia. But you have scorned me crochet. Or perhaps I am the scorn...er?

I crochet like my Mum taught me. Like this:

I've been accused of crocheting "fancy". I crochet like an aristocrat, delicately sipping tea with a pinky finger extending from a glove-clad hand. The only problem with being fancy, is that it's often completely unnecessary, like shaving your legs and painting your nails and then sitting around the house in sweatpants all day. Why all the extra work?

My tendinitis (self-diagnosed) is a direct result of crocheting too fancy whilst attempting to finish this afghan before winter sets in:

After THREE FULL DAYS of no knitting, crocheting or yoga, I was ready to poke my eyes out. (Seriously, what do non-knitters do with their hands when they're watching 16 and Pregnant? They just SIT there?) After my few days of R.I.C.E. I allowed myself some very minimal knitting and started to learn a new way to crochet:

Things were looking up. Then this happened:

My first hospital bracelet since discovering my penicillin allergy 14 years ago!

Tendinitis, meet Ankle Sprain! I've lived in Toronto for 14 years and am lucky enough to have never before had cause to visit a hospital emergency room. I have heard nothing but horror stories of the obscene wait times at the E.R. As far as I was concerned, if you weren't bleeding to death from a gun-shot wound, don't even bother going to the hospital. Then I found myself in tears after walking the two blocks from the streetcar stop to my door. Speaking of streetcars, allow me to fill you in:

Internal monologue, Wednesday Nov 3rd:

8:15:00 am - Hey the, streetcar is coming!
8:15:30 am - The stoplight turned green! If I run I can totally catch that streetcar!"
8:16:00 am - I'm running! I'm gonna make it! Ow! I twisted my ankle! I'm still running!
8:16:30 am - Yeah! I made it! I should do ankle circles...
8:17:00 am - (Ankles circling) Meh, I'm good!

I was fine. Totally fine. No pain. No swelling. Until I got up to leave work at 5.

5:10 pm - Damn! Has this parking lot always been so big? This limp to the bus stop is taking forever.

A long and painful ride later, I found myself barely able to walk the two blocks to my door.

6:03 pm - (Crying on my stairs) S**t! I have to go to the emergency room!

True, I wasn't bleeding from a gunshot wound, but I know if pain is making me cry it's probably a good idea to seek medical attention. 2 hours later, I was back at home, using the ice-pack formerly applied to my wrist, to ice my newly diagnosed Sprained Ankle.

Lessons learned:

1 - Save your fancy for when it counts.
2 - Never run to catch public transportation.
3 - Toronto Western Hospital E.R waiting times are totally reasonable.
4 - Always keep an icepack in the freezer.

Place safe kiddos!

October Oval

2010-10-30T16:56:00.004-04:00

The "October Oval" is complete!

Pattern: My own craftiwork inspired by the September Circle cowl.
Yarn: Zauberball Crazy (#1564 I think)
Needles: 4.5 mm
Notes/Mods: As I found this yarn at a yard sale and it was only a 90g ball, I wanted to make the most of my yardage. As a result, I didn't work any garter rows or other such anti-curling stitchery at either end. It curls like a Canadian at the Olympics, but it doesn't bother me too much.

Somebody left this fuzzy guy at a loading dock

around the corner. Ah, Kensington market.

Still looks sharp with a pumpkin too.

Baby Got Back

2010-10-23T17:12:00.005-04:00

It's just about hat season, and this girl is ready:

Please excuse blurry photos!

A long awaited glorious finished knit!

Pattern: Brioche stitch hat from Patons Anti freeze
Yarn: Farmhouse yarns Andy's Merino (one skein)
Colour: Seabreeze
Needles: 5.5 mm
Notes/mods: My yarn is much finer that the yarn the pattern calls for, so I crunched some numbers and changed the gauge. The assembly is tricky. Tricky enough that you ask yourself "Am I doing this right?" the entire time. Trust the diagram.

Despite my successful assembly, the first time I took this hat out for a test run I found it constantly sliding down the back of my head. Blame the back-heavy style or my silky smooth hair (hah!) but it wasn't working for me. I ended up tightening the fit by sewing down some of the business in the back.

Yes, this hat has got some serious junk in the trunk. Me likey!

Has my nose always been a perfect triangle? What am I, a cartoon?

Yes I am.

Ode to Sally

2010-10-13T20:30:00.004-04:00

There is no arguing Mad Men has had a huge influence in fashion since it hit the airwaves. Where a decade ago we were deciding to be Samantha, Charlotte, Miranda or Carrie, now we're choosing between Betty, Peggy or Joan. I could never entirely decide which SATC character I identified with (I think I'm a Carrie/Miranda hybrid to be honest) so it's no wonder I'm looking beyond the leading ladies of Mad Men.

Don't cry, ballerina!

I think I'm a Sally. Okay, maybe I don't possess the personality of a little girl dealing with her parent's divorce, but damn! That little girl's got style!

Lil' plaid jumper? Don't mind if I do!

Mod print in bright fushia? Yes please!

I would totally wear that.

Gaawd! Don't you just wanna give her a hug?

Seriously, if my wardrobe looks anything like that of a Mad Men character, it's Sally's. Does that mean I dress like a prepubescent girl from the 60's?

Thanksgiving Yarnucopia

2010-10-12T20:01:00.008-04:00

Last weekend my bro and I packed up a rent-a-wreck and went back home for Thanksgiving for the first time in years. The Ottawa valley must have know we were comin' cuz she sure tarted herself up for the occasion.

Our ride was so full of ridiculously showy folliage we had to keep screaming "IT'S SO *$%#@ BEAUTIFUL!!!" It got to the point of ridiculousness when we saw the pumpkins for sale by the side of the road. Really? Really country side? A picturesque little farm selling pumpkins via the honour system from a little red wagon? You really are that quaint? Really? Are we on a movie set?

Naturally, we had to stop the car so I could snap pictures of knitting.

So just what is that bit of knitting kickin' it by the adorable olde tymey graveyard? Why it's a Crazy Zauberball of course! I've admired these colourful little balls of sock yarn from the first time I saw one, but being a self professed "not-a-sock" knitter I didn't see much point in picking one up. Then I found one... at a yard sale! (That was one helluva yard sale, but that's another story)

I looked up my groovy german friend on Ravelry to see what not-a-sock patterns people were making with these Zauberballs and fell pretty hard for this cowl:

Photo shamelessly stolen from MissVirginia on Ravelry.

It's the September Circle by Melissa LaBarre. I'm not really following the pattern so much as, well, let's be honest I'm ripping it off. I figured I didn't really need a pattern for such a thing. Let's call mine the "October oval".

I finally have more time for personal knitting and I'm itching to start a million projects. Hey, and with the universe handing me chance sock yarn and charming scenery to photograph I should be doing a lot more blogging too. Now that's something to be thankful for!

Going Coastal

2010-08-28T16:34:00.007-04:00

Nova Scotia!

From top left: Lunenberg, olde-timey bench in Lunenberg, the most famous lighthouse in Canada,
Peggy's Cove, Fish n' Chips everywhere, the Bluenose II (I think!),
olde-timey suitcases we use that are easy to spot on the luggage carousel,
Halifax sunset, more Peggy's cove, sign at our favourite airline, me in the "Oscar Wilde" room at the Waverly Inn,
place I kind of regret not buying a bag at, interesting thingamajig on the side of a building,
Lunenberg harbour, the still at Ironworks Distillery.

This year the b.f. and I broke with tradition and headed east instead of north this summer. Our maritime trip marked my first time boarding a plane in Canada and landing in... Canada. No customs, no currency exchange, no culture shock: nice!

We had a super relax-y time, ate lots of seafood, read lots of books and I managed to finally get back to my Geodesic cardigan:

It's hard to take good pictures of your knitting in the midst of strong ocean breezes whilst being nibbled by mosquitoes.

Do you ever find yourself seeing knitting everywhere and thinking you're crazy?

Seeing this tree initially had me thinking I was a little too obsessed with knitting and was beginning to lose my grip on reality. Turns out, Halifax is just really cool.

I only managed to visit one yarn store on my trip, but it was enough to ensure I wasn't leaving the coast without yarn in hand.

The Loop is small but mighty, with a nice selection of high quality yarn. I was lookin' for real souvenir yarn that I wouldn't be able to find at home and was not disappointed:

I picked up two skeins of undyed wool/cashgora from Fibrepalooza. Yarn to make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside and the outside. Lovely! Too bad I was on the other side of the province - it looks like the Fibrepalooza farm would be a neat place to visit!

Lastly, a little handmade touch from the country house we stayed in:

Over the course of a week I became quite smitten with this rag rug.

Sigh. I feel like I blinked and summer is over. Cicadas are buzzing, the Ex is in town and I have an irrational urge to buy a new binder... autumn is coming! I'll try to console myself with dreams of fall/winter knits... mmm... sweaters.

Stitch 'n' Pitch

2010-07-31T16:38:00.009-04:00

I always seem to miss the annual Stitch 'n' Pitch event but 2010 took me out to the ballgame!

I wasn't leaving without a giant pretzel and a giant beer.

While I am far from what you would consider a baseball fan, there's something about sitting around with a bunch of knitters in a relatively un-knitter-ly place that makes me darn happy.

I was definitely in good company. My bud Jen came out and between the two of us we probably managed to catch about half the game. I was too busy checking out what everyone was knitting (my apologies to baseball fans, and players, everywhere). I did, however manage to catch the first pitch thrown by non other than the Yarn Harlot herself!

If you don't know who the Yarn Harlot is, you're probably not much a reader of knitting blogs, which forces me to question how you came to read these words in the first place. Regardless, her account of the experience is a great read.

What's this poking out of my souvenir goody bag? I needed some "dum-dum" knitting to take to the game and used this as an excuse to cast on something new.

While this Brioche Stitch Hat might be dum-dum knitting, it's the assembly that is far from stupid. Wish me luck that I can manage to put this origami-style hat together when the time comes!

The yarn? Some deliciously squishy Andy's Merino that has been stash-languishing for far too long. This stuff is so fun to knit it's flying off the needles!

Speaking of flying off, I'm off to the east coast tomorrow! I'll be spending a week with the b.f and his fam not far from Halifax, Nova Scotia. You can bet there will be much sea-side knitting!

Of course, this is week my cherry tomatoes have decided to start ripening. They will no doubt be perfectly ripe the week I'm away. Garhghh!

Off to pack my knitting!

Wanted: Red-handed Squirrel

2010-07-20T21:08:00.004-04:00

I awoke this morning to discover a horrifying crime in progress.

WANTED

Black Squirrel aka Sciurus Carolinensis

Suspect is wanted in Ontario for grand theft green-tomato. Suspect may be responsible for previously unsolved crimes at the same location including disturbance of mulch and kidnapping of underage zucchinis.

Suspect is described as 10 inches [25.5 cm] in height, dark hair, beady eyes, bushy tail. Suspect was last spotted fleeing north on Augusta Avenue.

Seriously, what was I thinking trying to grow tomatoes in the city?

Vin et fromage, quel dommage!

2010-06-19T14:34:00.013-04:00

Last weekend I took a little trip to La Belle Province:

I have nothing but wonderful, glowing, gushing things to say about train travel. After flying the worst airline ever to Vegas, Via Rail felt like riding in Cinderella's carriage.

Ample leg room, food and beverage service, lovely scenery... and this is economy class, people! There are few things I enjoy more than a glass of wine and quality knitting time; enjoying this while simultaneously being transported to a different city? Sweet!

You know what's sweet about Montreal? The French influence that requires wine and cheese to never be more than twenty paces away:

Contrary to instinct, I did manage to ingest a few meals outside of the vin and fromage category.

La Montee? AOK. Make sure to look up when you go to les toilettes:

Unprepared, I gasped and ducked!

With all that good eatin', some good walkin' was in order. Summer in Montreal, much like summer in Toronto, is filthy with festivals. The weekend I was in town offered Les Franco Folies festival as well as The Grand Prix. While these events weren't really up my alley, the latter made for good scenery while walking off the cheese curds.

Am I alone in thinking Lamborghini's are hilarious? I don't think me and the owner of this ostentatious vehicle would have much in common - except maybe an appreciation for the colour orange. I'd much rather take a ride in this little guy:

Tee-hee! Fiats are hilarious too, but in a different way entirely.

No yarn purchases this trip, but I had to bring home a bag of these:

I know, I know, you thought I was finished talking about food, but they don't let you leave Montreal without a dozen oven-fresh bagels in tow!

Back in the T-dot, sober and dairy-free (temporarily!), I'm admiring the progress you can make on the Toronto-Montreal-Toronto route even on a lace-weight cardigan.

C'est bon ca!

99 Problems but the Stitch ain't one

2010-06-06T16:41:00.004-04:00

It looks like crochet has stolen my heart this summer.

New and desperately needed dishcloths. Since I started using handmade cotton dishcloths, I just can't go back to those store-bought rags! Plus, they're fun and easy to make.

Pattern: Daisy Wheel (left) and Primrose Dishcloths - one o' them freebie tear-off patterns from Michaels.
Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n' Cream
Hook: 5 mm (US H or 8 - seriously, what's up with the confusing hook sizing?)
Mods/Notes: Just switched up the colours, but pretty much stuck to the pattern.

I'm also looking to check one of those Knit-o-lutions off my 2010 list:

That there is the first 3 motifs of the 30 it will take to make this guy from the Bernat website. I'm hookin' her up with Patons Classic Wool. My classic wool stash is big and mighty and needs to be taken down a peg! Though I resolve to finish the blanket, I will make absolutely no resolutions about the time frame for finishing said blanket. I've got things to do man!

Like this:

I used to be a self-proclaimed black thumb, but I'm slowly learning how to take care of our leafy friends. Turns out they need both sun and water - crazy! I've managed to keep several houseplants alive and the past few years I've had a decent flower garden happening on my patio. Methinks my black thumb is turning greener (Brown thumb? Olive-green thumb?). This year I'm branching out (pun highly intended) into vegetable gardening. Nothing too crazy, just a few tomato, zucchini and basil plants. If I can get just one calabrese salad out of these pots I'll be thrilled!

And check this out:

My bread-baking skills are improving too. I think I'm slowly becoming a farmers wife. Maybe I should get a cow for the patio.

What happens at Target...

2010-05-27T20:03:00.010-04:00

Well, hello there! Where the heck have I been? Well, first I went here..

..with this guy...

... to see a these guys get married...

Good times! We all went here...

...and here...

...and I got a souvenir sunburn here:

As far as I'm concerned whatever happens in Vegas, does NOT stay in Vegas, especially if what happens is a Liberty of London for Target shopping spree. Whee!

I'm a sucker for limited-time designer collaborations and am embarrassed to admit how much I spent on the Liberty collection. This is just a sampling of the haul:

I must remind U.S. readers that there are no Target stores in Canada, yet we are frequently teased with ads for "so-and-so for Target" collections. I got m'self a Zac Posen tank too, but that might be headed for eBay. Drunk on shop, I had lost all sense by the time I got to Zac.

I'll be back soon with knittin' news! Now I'll just slip into my Liberty robe and relax with some tea in a Liberty mug, on my Liberty duvet...

Rude babies and green apples

2010-04-17T08:38:00.012-04:00

It seems like I'm fighting a losing battle trying to catch up with this blog, so I'll just hang back and take a leisurely pace. Hey, the tortoise beat the hare, right?

First, lets celebrate a victorious finished object!

Pattern: Boys Cable Raglan from Patons Bamboo Baby and Bunnies
Yarn: ??? Cotton acrylic blend
Needles: 4mm and 3.75mm
Notes/Mods: No mods. Cute! Easy! Love it!

This wee raglan is a gift for my preggers co-worker... er, formerly preggers co-worker. Allow me to explain. I finished this little number Friday, April 16th, a whole three days before the intended recipient's baby shower. (Let's pause here to pat me on the back. Did you pause? Did you pat? Okay, let's resume.) So what happened? The baby came three weeks early! Gaah!

Really, fetuses of the world, listen up; We know your due date is just an educated guess as to when you will decide to grace the world with your presence, but you gotta cut us some slack guys. Sirrruslee. Knitters are incredibly adept at leaving gift knitting to the last possible minute, as well as prone to greatly underestimating the time it will take to knit said gift. As for you Mr. 5lb 2oz healthy baby boy? Your early arrival is rude and inconsiderate. Your mother didn't have time to finish your nursery and her co-workers have been denied a pot-luck lunch! Uncouth, young man! Uncouth!

I'll make sure to have a stern talking-to with the little man the first time he dare show his face at my office. In the meantime, I'll celebrate the completion of my gift knitting with a rare occurrence these days:

I'm starting a sweater for me! Sometimes I think the best knits are the un-pre-meditated variety. I liked the Geodisic cardigan the first time I saw it in Knitscene, but had no intention of "actively pursuing" the sweater. Then I went to Romni one day, saw a nice healthy heap of Malabrigo Lace and it all went to hell in a knit-basket.

Green! Retina-searing apple green! I think this cardigan is perfect to go over summer dresses when the sun goes down and patios get chilly. Plus, it probably glows in the dark, eliminating the need for patio lanterns! Unless, of course, you are referring to the Kim Mitchell variety.

Is anyone else ready for summer?

Three seemingly unrelated subjects

2010-03-14T12:33:00.009-04:00

In an attempt to catch up, blog-wise, I am forced to present you with three topics of no apparent correlation other than their relation to my life. Think of it like a dinner party with an old friend from high school, a co-worker and your cousin from out of town: they all know you, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will get along as you break bread. Speaking of bread (nice segue!)...

Learning to make bread has been on my to-do list for a long time. Baked goods involving yeast have always intimidated me. I was under the impression making a loaf of bread was a complex process involving fancy equipment and hours of kneading. I pictured myself exhausted, biceps burning, covered in flour as I took loaf after loaf of flat, brick-like failure-loaves out of the oven. I was only half right.

My first attempt, using this Jaime Oliver recipe, was most definitely a failure-loaf. Heavy enough to use as a door stopper and tough enough to chip teeth, this "bread" soon found it's way to the compost heap. In Jaime's defense, I used the wrong flour, though he does like to use words such as "stodgey", "bashing and squashing" "fandabidoz" in his recipes. Such unscientific language is probably not beneficial for newbie bakers lacking confidence.

Second try? Fandabidoz!

I used this recipe for my second attempt, and am still shocked that it turned out so well. It looks like bread! It tastes like bread! Not a chance of chipping a tooth! Though pretty and tasty, this recipe did make a loaf akin to Wonderbread. My ultimate goal is to make something more like crusty french bread, but hey, baby steps!

Now let's baby step over to some new socks (not so great segue):

After knitting myself some wellie-warmers (not to be confused with willie-warmers), my pal Cathy asked me to knit her some as well. Like any good knitter, I got around to it several months later.
Pattern: From my noggin. Plain ribbed socks with a short row heel.
Yarn: Lopi, with bits of Nashua Creative Focus Chunky.
Needles: 4.5 mm to make 'em nice and dense

Now to knock those socks off (groan worthy segue), ever heard of the Pillow Fight League?

A friend of mine will be filming some future matches, so I went along to check out a pillow fight. Craziness! I had originally dismissed the PFL as another silly exploitative pseudo-sport like mud wrestling. No way! Think roller-derby meets old school WWF.

Great entertainment. Highly recommended!

There you have it. Failure loaves, wellie warmers and pillow fights. Just an average weekend!

Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice.

2010-03-04T19:27:00.008-05:00

Once upon a time, I was lucky enough to win 4 skeins of Twinkle Soft Chunky yarn. Though I adore big chunky yarn, it sure is difficult to pull off sweater-wise: a lesson hard-learned. After knitting most of a couple of sweaters that made me look like a morbidly obese "Where's Waldo", I decided this particular yarn would be best knit into accessories:

Pattern: Mobius Cowl from Bernat "Cold Front" booklet (purists will argue this is not a true mobius, but whatevs: it's twisted!)
Yarn: Twinkle Soft Chunky in Peacock Blue (possibly discontinued colour?) Not sure on the quantity as the yarn was re-used from a previous project. Perhaps two skeins?
Needles: 12.75 mm
Mods: I did some numbah-crunchin' and modified the pattern for my heavier yarn gauge.

Quick, easy, totally satisfying knit. Unfortunately, I didn't really factor in the spread of the stitch pattern combined with just how darn HUGE this yarn is. The weight of the cowl means it just keep on growing! Now, I'm not one to shy away from bold fashion accessories, but there is a line between bold and foolish. After a couple of outings, I began to feel like the cowl was eating my head. Your fashion statements shouldn't make you look like this guy:

(Oddly, not the first time I have referenced the Beetlejuice shrunken head character on this blog)

I love a great big dramatic cowl, but I think this is destined to be re-knit. I'm not thrilled with the way the twist lies around the neck either. I do love me some shaker rib though, and will definitely use this pattern for a do-over! As usual, my heavy winter knits are being completed just in time for spring. Oopsie!

Abandoning the isle of fair

2010-02-21T15:35:00.005-05:00

Way back when I actually posted knitting on this blog, I told you I started this sweater dress:

Started is the operative word. After a few rows scowling at my knitting while working flat fair-isle - I surrendered. Life is too short to be angry at your knitting! I think the fair-isle tunic was a mere fling, a passing fancy that seduced me from a magazine cover. I've still got a hankering for a sweater-dress, so I decided to revisit a past love:

This Patons pattern caught my eye when I was working at Ye olde Yarn Hut and I never thought I'd have the patience to knit it. Wrong! The cable pattern is really easy to memorize and it's all I want to knit.

No more scowling at my knitting. I'd much rather have laugh-lines than frown lines!

Know your enemy

2010-02-06T11:42:00.006-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks a strange cycle has developed in my apartment. I'll be minding my own business when the b.f. suddenly starts clapping his hands in the air. Then he says the word that I don't want the here; "Moth!".

"Moth? What moth? We don't have moths!" I say, trying to convince myself. All the while thinking what a wonderful shangri-la my abode would be for hungry moth larvae. There's more wool than air in this place!

Last weekend I smartened up and decided denial would get me nowhere. I declared war! I took my yarn from here:
To here:

I figured a couple of nights on my porch in the middle of February might help freeze anything that was in there. Then I organized a mass evacuation of wool sweaters, jackets and pants from my closets. I washed my sweaters in Eucalan and decided to store them in my cedar chest when dry. Jackets and pants went to the cleaners (chemical warfare). Hats and scarves joined their yarn-y brethren out on the cold front-lines.

With my stash successfully divided and conquered, I sat down with my good friend Wikipedia to do some research to prevent further enemy invasion. Some of you may be questioning why I didn't do my research first. Heh-heh. I'm asking myself the same question.

Allow me to share what I learned so that you may learn from my mistake.

The clothing moth: aka carpet moth, aka knitters worst enemy:

The indeanmeal moth; aka north american high-flyer, aka pantry gross-out:

Gaah! I've declared war on the wrong nation! The more I learned about the two varieties of household moths, the more I was sure I had a meal-moth problem. Before I drag my yarn back inside (and apologize to it), let me give you the short-list of identifiers so you can...

KNOW YOUR ENEMY:

Clothing Moth:

- Petite, with big fuzzy heads, they are like insect Olsens.
- These guys don't fly far from home. In fact, they don't fly much at all. If you see these fluttering near your clothes or yarn (!) you might have a problem.
- The larvae (ew!) are the wool eaters, not the adult moth. If you see holes in your clothes but don't see moths, you could still be screwed

Indianmeal Moth

- The easiest way to identify these bad boys is by their wings; two-tone!
- Buy a lot of bulk grains? They are often come "free" hiding in your basmati or cornmeal!
- The mealies are fly by nighters. You'll see them most often in the evening and unlike their wool-eating buddies, they often travel far from their food source.

I sincerely hope you don't have do deal with either of these icky pests. Now it's time to put on my combat gear and attack the kitchen cupboards. I'm bracing myself for what I might find! Oh the casualties of war!

Debbie does Anaheim

2010-01-30T15:00:00.005-05:00

I'm back from my first ever business trip! I'm like, so totally grown up! First I get an accountant, and now a business trip! Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to show you, because, well, you know, it was business. I spent most of my time in Anaheim shuffling between the convention center and the Hilton, so I saw a lot of this:

Only press is permitted to take pictures at the CHA show itself, but I don't think you're missing much. The show is, no joke, 90% scrapbooking. (Who are all these scrapbookers? I saw Laura Ashley scrapbook paper for heaven's sake!) There were however, some interesting displays from other areas of craftiness. Martha Stewart had an impressive booth (duh!) where I was mesmerized by glitter. Then the Clover booth had me looking for reasons to make heart-shaped pom-poms. Naturally, I had to check out the yarn companies...

Cue sound of needle-skating across record!

I was standing with my co-worker by the Coats and Clark booth when I realized I recognized the blonde lady sitting at a table nearby. Without thinking "Oh my god that's Debbie Stoller!" came out of my mouth, probably a little too loud. One of the 'Coats' ladies nearby laughed and urged me to break out of my star-struck state and go talk to her. I did!

Being a huge fan of both Bust Magazine and the Stitch n' Bitch series of books, I was thrilled to have the chance to speak with Ms.Stoller herself. Debbie was there to promote her new line of Stitch Nation yarns. Wicked! I got her to autograph a pattern tear-off for me. It looks like she may have thought my name was "Jane", but whatevs: I met Debbie Stoller!

Later that day I fulfilled another wish much further down the bucket-list.

Yes, I actually made it a point to not leave California without stopping at Tar-zsay. You have to understand, Target doesn't exist in Canada and with all the media attention surrounding their stylish bargains Target was quickly becoming my land of Oz. One of my travel companions thought I was nuts to choose a trip to Target over a trip to Fashion Island; "Target? Eez like Zellers!" (It sounds much cuter in a Latvian accent).

Fashion Island, Schmashen Island! I bought 4 pairs of shoes for under $60! Who's laughing now?

Okay, FINE!

2010-01-19T21:47:00.005-05:00

Consider the bullet, bit:

So I've started the Fair Isle Tunic are you happy now? It might take until next winter, but it's underway!

I on the other hand, have a bid-ness trip underway. I'm heading out to Anaheim for the Craft and Hobbies Association Winter Convention and Trade show. I'll try my best not to judge the scrap-bookers and Swarovski crystal enthusiasts. I may not understand decorative die-cut paper, but I'm sure those scrap-bookers wouldn't get this either:

I'm really becoming a fan of the crocheted cotton dishcloth. They're cheap and quick to make, and so much cuter than a sponge. I'm going to try to whip one of these up every few weeks so there's always a fresh one hangin' out by the kitchen sink. The pattern is based on something from a crochet motif book and the yarn is scraps of either Lily Sugar n' Cream or Bernat Handicrafter. I'm so smitten with robin's-egg-blue lately. It looks so nice in my pink kitchen!

I will bid you adieu as I need to start packing. Cross your fingers they will still let me knit on a plane!

Why fair isle tunics are like pancakes

2010-01-16T14:13:00.006-05:00

I've been itchin' to start a sweater project for myself. To be more exact, I've been taken with the idea of knitting a sweater-dresses. A big commitment I know, and probably not something I'll get to wear until next winter, but a sweater-dress just seems like something my wardrobe could really use. Next thing you know, bam! Vogue Knitting comes to the rescue:

I fell head over heals with the Fair Isle Tunic by Jean Moss. A little colourwork, a little cable work, modern, cute... sign me up! I immediately got the yarn, in exactly the same shades no less.

Then something funny happened. Me and the fair isle tunic? We broke up. Somehow I totally lost interest in knitting this pattern that just last week, had me captivated. The whole experience reminds me of something Mitch Hedberg once said:

"As a comedian, you have to start the show strong and you have to end the show strong. You can't be like pancakes. You're all happy at first, but then by the end you're f**kin' sick of 'em."

Is this sweater like pancakes? Or did I just psych myself out? Contrary to good sense, I rarely read a pattern all the way through before I begin knitting. This time, curious about the construction, I decided to read the whole darn thing before even casting on a swatch. Dang man! It's a complicated pattern. I'm not afraid of a challenge, but I don't know if I want to take on a long project that requires so much concentration.

Where does this leave me now? Well, I've got a sweater-dress worth of yarn and a waning interest in a sweater-dress pattern. This is how stashes are born!

Gluten free

2010-01-09T14:22:00.007-05:00

January is traditionally a time to clean up your act and start the new year with your best foot forward. I for one, start each year with a 'cleanse', abstaining from booze, sugar, caffeine and a long list of other delicious stuff. Whether it does my liver or digestive system any good is up for debate, but it's sure does some good for my mental health. I enjoy the temporary view from the morally superior high-ground. It's really the only enjoyment one can expect from two weeks without wine and cheese.

From my high-horse of health, I'm finally ready to take whatever kicks come from looking back at last year's knit-o-lutions. Here goes nuthin'!

KNIT-O-LUTIONS 2009

• Do more knitting for myself: I knit almost every day last year and how many projects were for me? Not nearly enough. 2009 will be the year of ME!

Ha-ha! That so never happened.

Cowl - for Cindy
Crochet Fawn - for Cara...
Kumara bed Socks - for Maggi
Kumara bed Socks - for Mum
Fair Isle Tam - for me
Entrelac Wrap - for me
Shoulder Shrug - for Cathy
Crochet Cat bed - for Teddy (though in my house, so kind of for me?)
Tea Cozy - for Mum and Dad
Baby Surprise Jacket - for Renesha/Jerimiah
Cable pillow - for my bro
Crochet bead necklace - for me
Jenny Cloche re-knit - for Jenny
Cashmere Birthday Beanie - for the b.f.
Snowdrop Cardi - for me
Dishcloth - for me
Owl sweater - for me
Paul Smithish scarf - for my bro
Julia hat - for me
Pat hat - for my bro
Bird in hand mittens - for me
Crochet snowflakes - for gifts

I may have missed a few, but that list makes 22 items, 8 for me. That's the year of me? 36%?
Grade: Fail!

• Publish three patterns: Eek! A tall order, but I think I can do it.

My new job makes this one null and void. Let's just say it's all good.
Grade: Pass.

• Stash bust: No more hanging onto yarn I might use one day. Knit it or pass it on!

I think I'm getting a little better on this one. While my stash ebbs and flows, I definitely kicked the habit of buying yarn just because it's pretty.

Grade: Incomplete

Well, that's a crap report card. But before you punish me, let's not forget my remarkable grades in health!

KNIT-O-LUTIONS 2010

1: Make an afghan for my couch. This is so overdue it's not funny.

2: Make some other nice things for my home. I made a lot of home dec-y stuff for other people last year, so why not some nice stuff for me?

3: Make a sweater I like to wear. This one's a toughie. I think I've learned enough about tension and ease to make sweaters fit better, but fit isn't always the issue.

Now that I've got a plan it's time to get my steady caffeine-free fingers away from the keyboard and into the yarn! I wonder how long it will take the February cocktails to wipe this 2010 plan from my memory?

English / Icelandic Fusion - in sock form!

2010-01-01T12:16:00.007-05:00

There is cold weather, and then there is oppressive, bone-chilling, dear-god-are-you-going-outside? weather. The last couple of days in Toronto have been the latter (-25 ish Celcius with the wind chill factor). How do people live in climates colder than this? How in gods name does one survive in Yellowknife? Anchorage? Reykjavik?

Well, we all know one thing Icelanders have to keep them warm, right? Lopi!

Love it or hate it, the rough stuff from the land of Bjork is certainly good yarn for keeping your toes warm. Okay, so you might not want to wear this stuff next too your skin (mmm! exfoliating!), but that was not my intention with these socks. Until I find the ideal winter boot (I'm picky) I'm wearing my wellies this winter. They score the highest of points when it comes to water resistance, but warm they are not. The manufacturer of said boots sell winter wellie-liners ... for about $40. I might consider such a purchase were they not cheap ugly polyester fleece! Seriously, the Queen of England endorses these boots and I highly doubt she would slide her royal tootsies into such and inferior fabric!

How did showing you my socks turn into a rant about the Queen? To get back on track, I knit these Lopi socks for the sole (!) purpose of wearing between my regular socks and my wellingtons. It's like English/Icelandic fusion!

Pattern: Made it up (I might write a half-arsed one size pattern in the future)
Yarn: 2 skeins of Lopi (not sure of the color # as I picked this yarn up at a craft swap)
Needles: 5mm

Well, I guess the singular purpose isn't entirely true. Given the weather I've hardly taken them off. Turns our they're also great staying-indoors-and-playing Nintendo socks!

***Special thanks to the b.f. for fulfilling my 1985 x-mas wish ***

Holiday Wrap

2009-12-28T18:57:00.011-05:00

Hey guys! You still there? I know it's been a long time. I'll try to make up for lost time with lots 'o knitting! It's a holiday wrap... not to be confused with holiday rap.

This year I decided to only knit for those that would truly appreciate a handmade gift. Sounds like common sense right? Well, maybe if you're a sane and rational person, but I whole-heartedly refuse to behave in either fashion. After years of gifting hand knits to those that would rather receive a Tim Hortons gift card, it took incredible restraint to slash my knit -gift list to nearly nuthin'. In the end, it saved me both time and heartache. Is there anything worse than sweating over a hand-made gift that barely gets a thanks? I'd rather spend my time knitting extra special things for extra special people!

Special person #1: Mum!

Mums are hard-wired to love any gift crafted by their children. It would have been a lot easier to
make her a macaroni necklace but these socks will do a better job of keeping her feet toasty.

Other Mums!

The b.f.'s mum, Maggi was gifted a pair of the same socks. Socks so nice I knit 'em twice! Perhaps I should have included instructions to wear them on your feet. Har-har!

Bro's!

This cabled pillow I knit way back when, has finally found it's home at my brothers house. The sad array of pillows on my own couch solidifies the fact that I knit many more nice things for others than I do myself. At least I can rest soundly knowing my bro can dispose of the sad, bedraggled pillow I knit him years ago as a less experienced knitter. ( I should have taken a picture of that old beast, but trust me; it's a atrocious.)

There wasn't just knitting under the 'ole tree this year either - we had the raw goods too!

My Mum fell in love with Patons Silk Bamboo at her local yarn store and picked up a few balls with no particular plan. She ended up deciding to make a granny square blanket and just buy more yarn as she went along. (I think Mum prefers fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants projects to meticulously planned ones.) With my Patons blog connections I procured enough yarn to keep her little hands busy all during the holidays. Yay!

With Mum re-stocked in the yarn department it was time to fill a few holes in my stash.

You give some yarn, you get some yarn. Mum picked me up some Noro and a great cherry red bag to put it in! She crocheted, and I spent a lot of time curled up on a sheepskin knitting a last minute gift:

More on that gift later. I hope you all had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Whatever!

Do these needles make my socks look fat?

2009-11-21T14:09:00.009-05:00

There are socks on my needles... and I'm loving it.

"Socks you say? But I thought you were a self-proclaimed un-sock knitter?"

"I know, right?"

You see, there is just too much to love about these socks to deny them knitting. For one, they are for my Mum. I knit her 'slipper socks' a couple of years ago and she wore them so much she wore them out! It's high time I replaced them. Mums are always good gift recipients, and being a knitter, she is at the top of the knit-gift recipient list. (Yes, that means I'm kicking the x-mas knitting into high gear)

Mmm, yeah okay, they don't look so good when they don't fit.
My mum's feet are two sizes bigger than mine, so it should work out okay.

What else is so great about these puppies?

Big needles! None of that teeny tiny fingering-weight-knit-on toothpicks for me! Go big or go home! And last but not least; the yarn.

Squishy soft merino from Misti Alpaca. It's not the most popular yarn out there, but I think it's perfect for this project (the label says 'worsted' but it's really more like an aran). Best of all - this here yarn is on sale at ye olde yarn hut - and Webs. Whee!

I might just have to knit more than one pair!

That's a wrap!

2009-11-14T15:04:00.007-05:00

At last!

Knit to the last drop, I finally finished my entrelac wrap/giant scarf.

Pattern: Just entrelac. I used this tutorial from Interweave, doubling the cast-on number. Add a little fringe and voila!
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in #35 Frank Ochre (4 skeins)
Finished Size approx: 15" wide by 60" long (excluding fringe)
Notes: Before I started the last skein, I cut my fringe and set it aside so I could knit until I ran out of yarn. And boy did I cut it close! I intended on adding a reverse single crochet border along the long sides to neaten the edges but didn't have enough yarn left. Ah well, I'll live.

Don't you find the knits that are the biggest slog end up being your favourites? I'm totally in love with this thing! So soft and smooshy! So big and cozy! So frank-y ochre-y!

Mother nature now has my permission to turn down the heat.

Confidentialy yours

2009-11-07T11:16:00.005-05:00

Dude, where's my blog? As much as I told myself I could keep up Knitteroo in the midst of everything else going on in my life, I'm finally willing to admit defeat. It turns out, nothing kills a knitting blog quicker than gainful employment in the knitting industry. Blargh!

Ladies and gents, it is not for lack of knitterly content that I have abandoned you, if anything, I have twice as much to talk about! Unfortunately, there's this little thing called a "confidentiality agreement". Despite living and breathing knitting, I can't really tell you about it unless it has nothing to do with my job. Need I say, blargh?!?

This is about all I've got to show for non-work related knitting:

The same project I began at the cottage in August! Okay, so three whole skeins of Malabrigo is nothing to sneeze at, but I still have one more skein to go! And yeah, I fringed one end already to allow for maximum yarn usage. This is a big 'ole marathon of knitting, but it's going to be SO fantastic to wrap this merino around my neck when I cross the finish line!

I hope you don't think I'm complaining - far from it! I think in the new year I will have more time to spend on "unconfidential" knitting and I'll be thrilled to tell you all about it. In the meantime, please forgive my sporadic posts, and don't forget you can find me once a week on the Patons blog (as "Juliaknits"). I'll be back, just do like Journey and Don't stop Believin'!

The Statement Necklace

2009-09-27T09:39:00.018-04:00

Recently, my wonderful and talented friend Cindy came to visit. Cindy, the fabulous jewelery designer behind M.O.T.H. Metier , was in town for a bead trade show. Seeing her excitedly pouring over her strands of garnets and bags of pendants was all too familiar. Ever been to a fibre festival? A big sale at a yarn store? I knew exactly how she felt; anxious to use every new purchase immediately!

While a bead doesn't light my fire quite the same way a fine cashmere does, I have been known to dabble in beadery. My bulletin board always has at least one necklace or bracelet idea tacked up. With Cindy's contagious enthusiasm, I dusted off my box-o-beads and gathered my inspiration.

Inpiration #1:

Inspiration #2:

I love these earrings, but the weight of them makes
me feel like they're pulling my ears off!

After couple of hours of wrestling with pliers and jump rings I eventually had this:

I heart colour.

If you read fashion magazines you've probably heard the term 'statement necklace' . Statement is exactly what I had in mind when I made this piece though I have to laugh at the thought of jewelry literally making a statement. What does your necklace say Sara? "Oh, it says pro universal health care system!". How about you, Laura? "Mine says stop clear cutting our forests!"

Flava Flav's necklace says; "It's ten to twelve!"

My necklace says; "I match your whole wardrobe!"

Ye Olde Tyme Knitting: Anatomical Afghans

2009-09-06T23:53:00.005-04:00

So, it's come to this. My new job is encroaching on my 'personal' knitting, and without knitting, well, the blog lies fallow. That is, unless I plant a new crop of yarny seeds! From now on, if I don't have any knitting to blog about, I'm going to pick something from my ever-growing collection of vintage patterns and write a little bit about that. (At least, that's the plan.) So without further ado, let Ye Olde Tyme Knitting begin!

Here's a little something I picked up this summer:

The pattern is called "Afro Afghan and Wall Plaque.
"Capture the African beat on your wall or as a striking afghan..."

Now that afghan on the right... and the wall hanging...um... remind you of anything? Me? It calls to mind a particular scene from the Big Lebowski:

Maude Lebowski: Does the female form make you uncomfortable, Mr. Lebowski?

The Dude: Uh, is that what this is a picture of?

Maude Lebowski: In a sense, yes. My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina.

The Dude: Oh yeah?

Maude Lebowski: Yes, they don't like hearing it and find it difficult to say whereas without batting an eye a man will refer to his dick or his rod or his Johnson.

The Dude: Johnson?

You get the picture. Just don't hang that particular crocheted picture on your wall please.

But hey - I'm not writing this to just laugh at the fashion of yesteryear. That's been done. Besides, we've all worn stuff in the past we regret, right? (Pleated jeans anyone?) It's easy to dismiss vintage patterns as dated and silly, but sometimes you just need to get past the front cover. The back cover of this same booklet looks like this:

The blanket on the left? Awesome! I love the colour combo! And here I thought I was the best thing to be born of the seventies!

How much is that tree?

2009-08-28T10:45:00.010-04:00

So we've established you can take the girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl, right? I think perhaps the opposite is also true, as this girl was taken out of the city, full of boutiques and shopping malls and still managed to flex her spending power among the trees and lakes.

My little country spend-a-thon began visiting the 'rents in my hometown. I was lucky enough to land there on a Saturday for the town farmers market where lurking among the prize winning zucchinis and home made jam, I discovered a table full of crochet.

A lovely lady was selling her hand crafted wares, including teflon pot scrubbers. Say what? Crocheting with teflon? Why ever would one want to do such a thing? (She assured me she wore gloves.) Her prices were far too low for that kind of torture. I picked up a few granny-square dish cloths, you know, just to support my peeps.

Next up? I hit every thrift store in town...

A whole set of matching hotel ware from the 60's!

...and then every thrift store in every neighbouring town. He-heh! I won't bore you every little chotchkie I picked up, but here's the crafty business:

Button haul '09! I believe the haul of '09 is much better than button haul '08. I couldn't resist sorting them the minute we got back to the cottage.

Is it weird that my idea of a good time is relaxing with a tray of buttons and a glass of wine?

I also picked up a whole whack of vintage knitting and crochet patterns:

I'm amassing quite a library of these. I especially like the older ones:

I'm thinking of doing a regular once-a-week-ish post featuring vintage patterns. They really pack a lot of entertainment value! Besides, I think my knitting news might be a little bland in the next couple of weeks.

Yup, still entrelac. Still yellow. Slightly longer. This one may take a while.

See? I can support consumerism anywhere! Who needs malls when you've got farmers markets and charity shops?

Entre-lake

2009-08-25T14:42:00.012-04:00

I'm back from two fantastic weeks out here:

You can read about the canoe knitting on the "other blog"

Where's here? The middle of nowhere and that's how I like it! It might be quite some time before I can afford the luxury of two weeks off again! There's a lot to catch you up on, so let's make this the catch-all of random cottage happenings, shall we?

First up? NAY-chur!

You just don't see too many mushrooms growing in downtown Toronto. If you did, you can be sure you'd want to stay as far away from them as possible. It's amazing how things that are quite unacceptable in the city, are totally no biggie in the woods. Like this:

Yes, that's poop behind him. Do mice just poop constantly?

This poor little guy got stuck in the bottom of a bowl (that will teach us to do our dishes more promptly). We found him running in place frantically trying to get up the slippery wet side.

After a few minutes of pointing and laughing (and picture-taking) I decided to stop being a cruel city gal and release the country mouse from his ceramic prison. The mice weren't really so much of a problem but the chipmunks on the other hand...

Those little buggers were relentless! Fortunate for them, they're so darn cute it's hard to get angry when they get into your food. Case in point: One morning the b.f. woke up to see a chipmunk run out from inside my moccasin (awh!). Later we discovered the little guy had broken into our bag of rice stored the grains in my shoe (again, awh!). Why would a he bring the rice from the kitchen to my shoe? Chipmunk logic I guess. I don't expect to understand.

It wasn't all rodents, thank goodness. Our cottage rental also appeared to include a dog.

She just ran out of the woods one day startling the be-jesus out of us. Later we saw her swim out to another dock across the lake (it's a really small lake). I dubbed her 'Possibly Layla" as one morning I heard someone call out "Layla!" to a barking dog. She would have been "Definitely Layla" but she only responded to this name about fifty percent of the time. This proves she is either a) Not named Layla, b) named something that merely sounds like Layla or c) is named Layla, but is not very obedient. Regardless of name, she visited often and it was nice to have her company.

Apart from the flora and fauna, you can bet there was some knitting. Turns out mosquitoes like Malabrigo almost as much as I do:

Do mosquitoes count as fauna?

I don't think I could face the winter without that lovely sunshine-y merino wrapped around my neck. I decided to give entrelac a go and printed out this great tutorial before I left. Then using this as a guide, I doubled the cast-on number to give me something more like a wrap/stole than a scarf. I think it's going to work, but it's going to take a heck of a lot of yarn - especially when I'm thinking fringe!

Next post I'll tell you what I bought. Leave it to me to find a way to shop in the middle of nowhere!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

2009-08-06T18:40:00.005-04:00

Yesterday marked my last day as an employee at Romni Wools.

No, I wasn't fired for pilfering cashmere! What have you heard?!?

Starting at the end of the month, I will be beginning a new job at a yarn company. Whee! Yes, if Romni was 'Yarniversity', I suppose I am now working on my masters degree. (Would that make sheep farming a PHD?). I'm gonna miss 'ye olde yarn hut', but you can bet I'll be visiting! My fellow employees sent me off with some gorgeous flowers, and naturally, I couldn't leave without buying myself some yarn. That yellow stuff up there in the corner? Three skeins of Malabrigo worsted (mmmmmmalibrigo) in "Frank Ochre". A colour not for the faint of heart, but you can bet my ticker is in fine shape!

Not only am I leaving a job, but I'll be leaving town for couple of weeks. (Again - Whee!) Two glorious weeks at a cottage in the middle of nowhere. I can't wait! I've spent far too much time fretting over what knitting to bring. What if I change my mind? What if I get bored of my projecst? Omigod, what if I run out of yarn? There aren't any yarn stores in the middle of nowhere! Can't I just bring my whole stash? Should I learn how to sheer a sheep just in case?

Here's the list as it stands now (we'll see what fits in the car!)

The definites:

- My 'other blog' project (It's a must. Ob-blog-gational knitting - har-har!)
- My new malabrigo (duh) to make an entrelac scarf (new skill to learn!)

The probablies:

- A sweater project I've been meaning to knit forever (with Rowan felted tweed)
- Knitty's aeolian shawl with my turquoise cone yarn (it's just a small cone)

The "I should probably leave at home's":

- Lopi socks (to line my wellies for winter)
- A freeform crochet scarf of my own design (It would mean six more skeins of yarn to pack!)

Off, to pack, but I've got one last FO for you:

I feel guilty enough leaving a sick cat behind while I go on vacation (don't worry, he has a sitter). The least I can do is leave him with a new place to sleep!

Pattern: Straight from my noggin'
Yarn: Drops Alaska left over from my Owl sweater (2-3 skeins I think)
Hook: 5mm

See you in a couple of weeks!

Love labours

2009-08-04T09:54:00.007-04:00

Out of the three projects I've been working on lately, exactly three are for other people. What gives? Am I Santa Claus or something? Ghandi? Mother Theresa? Alas, it's not all selfless giving, though feel free to build a temple in my honour. The first project is something I've been meaning to do for months:

The original Jenny cloche, frogged and re-knit smaller. I wrote the pattern for two sizes, and Jenny (the girl, not the hat) was given the large-size prototype when a small would have been a better fit. Considering the hat knits up so quick and is named after her for chrissake... I probably should have got around to this a lot sooner. Of course, now I have to get around to giving it to her...

And who are these lovely new models?

These fantastic plastic ladies have moved in after losing their positions as wig models in Detroit. Long story... the recession..., you know what I'm talking about. I especially like the snooty look on Miss Thang here:

The models were gifts from my main man, so it was only fair I got around to finishing up something I started for him, in , oh... December.

Please excuse crap photo. The recipient is not around to model
and black knitting is next to impossible to photograph!

Okay, so it's not much to look at, but that there is what you'll find in the dictionary if you look up "labour of love".

Labour of Love: (ley-ber uhv luhv): noun
A hand-knit 1x1 rib, black, laceweight 100% cashmere beanie.

Started for Christmas, finished for an August birthday. My mother Theresa-like status is sinking by the minute.

But wait!

A big circle of double crochet, soon to be a bed for my kitty Teddy. Teddy is not well and I'm sure he could use a nice place to sleep. I won't get into the details, but he's got a hyper-thyroid condition. Crochet can totally cure that, right?

All thumbs

2009-07-25T12:33:00.007-04:00

Ta-da!

Pattern: Bird in Hand mittens by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: O-Wool Classic in 'plum' and 'saffron'
Needles: 2.75mm

Much like the movie Titanic these mittens have serious continuity issues. I think the problem lies in my almost complete inability to choose both the yarn and pattern for a project at the same time. The saffron-coloured O-wool I used for the mittens was purchased to knit a Gretel beret. I had so much leftover after knitting the hat, I decided to pick up a contrasting colour and try my hand (ha!) at some some mittens. Almost a full year later, I cast on. Six months after that, I cast off.

The mittens turned out surprisingly large. I knit the second size up, which meant knitting 'worsted weight' with drastically smaller needles than recommended. Talk about some uptight knitting! No wonder I abandoned the project for so long. Why would I want to work on these tight-ass mittens that were going to be too big to wear anyway? Combine that with trying to teach myself two-hand fair isle? Sheesh!

I figured the only way I would finish these was to stop torturing myself and just knit my regular (right hand all the time) style. It drastically improved my tension both knitterly and psychologically . You can really see on inside of the second mitten where I switched knitting styles just before the thumb!

I conquered one issue sure enough, but why were my mittens so big? I was beginning to think that the pattern just ran on the large side when I made a startling discovery.

O-Wool classic is not worsted weight yarn.

Palm of hand slapped firmly to forehead. I have no clue what led me to believe this yarn was worsted weight. The label clearly states the gauge as 16-18 sts to 10cm on a 5 to 5.5mm needle. I knit this stuff on 2.75mm's! It's amazing I've retained the ability to move my fingers!

SO... apart from the size issue, sloppy first-time stranding, the flower I forgot to knit in the palm chart of the right mitten, the wrong thumb chart I used on the left mitten, and forgetting to embroider the bird details all-together? Totally perfect mittens.

Attack of the UFOs

2009-07-17T17:31:00.007-04:00

Oh dear. I'm in a dilly of a pickle. While innocently searching for a set of wayward needles, I came to the startling discovery that I'm drowning in unfinished objects. How does this happen?

So what's the cure for the UB (unfinished business ) flu? Vitamin F (finishing)!

Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! These UFOs have got to go!

THE GALLERY OF SHAME

Project: Wavy scarf
Progress: 30%
Excuse: Need one more ball of yarn to finish.
Plan: Froggeroo! Manos is a little itchy for a scarf anyway.
I'll salvage the yarn for future felting projects.

Project: Snowdrop Jacket (fixes)
Progress: 98%
Excuse: Pschologically "over" working on this piece,
despite the fact it is virtually un-wearable until I re-attach the pockets
Plan: Suck it up, sew it up!

Project: Phildar "Poncho Sweater"
(more of a batwing actually)
Progress: 25%
Excuse: Horrendously boring to knit
Plan: Knit up a swatch on the Bond and
see if it's a possible machine project.

Project: Springtime in Paris Cardigan
Progress: 25%
Excuse: Put aside so long ago I can no longer recall why it was put aside.
Sub-Excuse: Not sure if I was knitting brioche properly
Sub-Sub-Excuse: Have come to realize out the yarn is far too heavy for this pattern.
Plan: Rip it out!

Project: The Original Jenny cloche
Progress: 0%
Excuse: Though it looks perfectly finished, this is actually a rip-apart and re-knit situation. This was the prototype of my Jenny Cloche pattern and now that I've made improvements to the design I want to fix the old one for Jenny. My excuse? It's already knit!
Plan: Rip it, skein it, soak it, dry it, wind it, knit it (again)

Project: My very first socks
Progress: 60%
Excuse: When your first sock looks as hilarious as this one,
it's hard to find the motivation to knit the second.
Plan: a) Re-knit wonky looking toe to try to create some semblance of a normal looking sock. If plan 'a' proves successful, knit second sock. If plan 'a' fails, move on to plan 'b'.
Plan: b) Find someone who likes Regia self-pattering sock yarn

Progress: 75%
Excuse: abandoned after first mitten proved to be larger than intended
Sub-Excuse: Find stranded-knitting holding one colour in each hand too awkward
Plan: Switch to right hand all-the-time knitting and get 'er done!

***Gallery does not include unfinished sewing, beading or other various crafty projects.***

TCB, BTO, BSJ

2009-07-12T13:26:00.010-04:00

Takin' care of BIZ-ness...

EVERYDAY!
Takin' care of BIZ-ness...

EVERYWAY!
Takin' care of BIZ-ness...

IT'S ALL MINE!
Takin' care of BIZ-ness ...

...and workin' overtime - WORKOUT!

I don't know how hard BTO is workin' these days, but I myself, have definitely been working overtime. This leaves little time for knitting, and even less for blogging about it. Somehow, I managed to squeeze out this little BSJ.

PATTERN: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (duh!)
YARN: Mission Falls 136 Merino (just over one skein per colour - ink #22 & natural #1)
NEEDLES: 4mm addi turbos (60cm/24")
NOTES/MODS: The new BSJ wiki on Ravelry was invaluable for helping me through this. I used one of the spreadsheets there to help me keep track of my rows. No real mods, though I had to fenangle a few rows to make sure my two-row stripes were consistent.

Let me just say - I love it! I've never really been a fan of the BSJ. It always looked so 70's to me. Not 70's in a good, Fleetwood Mac/boho/gypsy... kind of way, more like a god's eye/granny-square-vest/macrame sort of way. Know what I mean?

I think colour choice can drastically change the look this little sweater, and I couldn't be more smitten with navy and white stripes! There's something about two-row garter stitch stripes that just makes me happy.

What doesn't make me happy? The one tiny flaw in my knitting:

I suppose it's not so much a flaw, as an inconsistency. There's a section in the pattern where you need to pick up stitches around an edge. In order to keep my stripes in, well, order, I had to pick up stitches from the wrong side of the work on one end, and from the right side on the other. This means they don't match - grr! I'm sure there's a way to pick up the stitches so that they would match, but it doesn't bother me enough to rip back and fix it. I'm picky, not crazy!

And hey - if you're reading this and suspect you will be the recipient of this little sweater, just keep it to yourself and act surprised when I give it to you, okay?

FO! Coming to a blog near you...

2009-07-09T09:52:00.002-04:00

Okay, you totally know what my surprise is now, right?

I'm beginning to think Elizabeth Zimmermann and Frank Gehry have a lot in common.

Deadbeat Mom

2009-06-28T12:54:00.005-04:00

It's happening already. One measly month of practicing polygamist blogging and my first family is suffering. I have precious little to blog about here this week. Oh, Knitteroo, I'm sorry! (I suppose this is why polygamy doesn't work in the first place. That Big Love show sure is entertaining though...)

Well, like a deadbeat parent who forgot their kid's birthday, I'm going to rummage through what I've got lying around the house, tie a big bow on it and call it a present! Hope you like smokes! (kidding)

Hey, what's this here? A swatch I forgot to show you!

Oh, hang on a minute... TA-DAH!

Happy Birthday! This is the gauge swatch from the Aeolian Shawl I'm thinking of knitting. Unfortunately, I'm only thinking of the knitting. I really can't cast on anything new with all of this blasted deadline knitting going on. (The 'surprise' from the last post has a deadline. Why must I torture myself so?!) Future cottage knitting perhaps?

Having knit exactly one lace shawl in the past and given this is mysterious 'label-free' cone yarn with no label info...

... d'ya think the swatch looks alright? Needle size okay? Calling all lace knitters! Opinions, please!

Whew! I managed to eek out a post. I guess I won't loose custody of Knitteroo just yet. Now, go pour Mommy a glass of wine, will ya?

Summertime and the beading is easy

2009-06-21T19:28:00.007-04:00

Bonk!

Yup, the crochet necklace is over and out. My original intent was to crochet every bead in the necklace. Ha! After about five I changed my mind.

For one, single crochet isn't my fave. Two? I crocheted the little critters around wooden beads. For anyone who is familiar with crochet, you need to insert your hook through the work to create another stitch. Where one would normally encounter air on the other side of the work, I was butting up against a hard little nugget of wood. Awkward. Not fun.

In the end, I picked up some coordinating wooden beads and strung myself up a necklace. I'm quite pleased I strayed far-far away from the inspiration:

What do you think she's listening to that's making
her look like that? Barry White? A lullabye?

The "other lover" will be monopolizing a lot of my knitting for a while. Lucky for you, what you can't read here, you can read there! I've decided that though the "other" must be tended to with a certain amount of priority, I get weekends off. That is, weekends are knit-wherever-the-wind-takes-me. This is how the wind is blowing on this first official weekend of summer:

Let's just say it's a "surprise"

The other blog

2009-06-17T09:37:00.003-04:00

Dear Blog;

We've been together for several years now. I trust our relationship is strong enough to handle this. Yes, there's someone else. We never said we were exclusive. It doesn't mean I feel any less for you. My heart is big enough for the both of you. I hope you understand.

sincerely;
Julia the polygamist blogger

Not so 'super'- wash

2009-06-12T10:35:00.007-04:00

Please cue the theme to Rocky:

Why Rocky? Well, I've sure gone some rounds with this heavy-hitter. This sweater was a challenge. First there was "at the same time", then there was "the sleeve incident" and in the last round I had to contend with "not so 'super'-wash".

Somehow I have managed to knit for years without ever dealing with superwash wool. Silly me, I expected it to behave, well, just like wool. Maybe even better than wool. After all, it calls itself "super", right?

My first clue that all was not well came in the blocking process. I soaked the sweater sections in a luxurious Eucalan bath and they took it upon themselves to get a little too, well, relaxed. I pinned the pieces to the schematic in the pattern and was horrified to find there was no way all that extra fabric would fit those dimensions.

Eek! This is why you should wash your swatches!

Well, what could I do? I carried on and hoped for the best. So much finishing!

When all was said and done? Yup, it was too big. (Not monstrously so, but just enough to bug me.) I did a little survey among knitters (W.W.B.D?) and got mixed reactions. The majority of answers fell into two categories: 1) "Superwash? Oh yeah, that stuff grows like crazy!" and 2) "Weird, it got bigger? That's never happened to me." Most knitters agreed on one thing; my big sweater could very well benefit from a trip in the dryer.

DRYER!?! I know, I know, scary right? I gave my sweater another bath, said a Hail Mary, crossed my fingers, toes and miscellaneous limbs (I do yoga, remember?) and sent Snowdrop on a trip around the dryer.

She survived... Mostly.

While the sweater shrank back enough to fit better, it did full a little. The yarn has lost a bit of it's former luster. And then there are the pockets:

Patch pockets + shrinkage = puckering. Dang! I am however, quite pleased with my choice of buttons:

mmm...velvet-y suede.

So, have I really won the fight? I plan on removing the pockets and re-attaching, adding another button and possibly re-jigging the sleeves. It looks like Snowdrop and I are having a re-match. Place your bets now!

Conehead

2009-06-07T14:03:00.005-04:00

For anyone who has visited ye olde yarn hut, the shelves of cones in the basement can be intimidating. A lot of the yarn on those cones is too fine for hand knitting and some of it has "mystery" fibre content, but with a little patience you can unearth some treasures. Behold my bounty!
How could I turn down a wee cone of brilliant turquoise? I swear there's gotta be angora in there somewhere (I tried the burn test with inconclusive results).

There's something naturally hairy in there, am I right?

The best part? At $7/lb, this cost me a whopping $3.04. There's bargains in them there cones! It's fingering weight-ish, so I thought I might turn it into something like this.

Just when I thought I'd had my fill of conical yarns, I went bonkers and picked up that cranberry coloured thing in the background. Yup, it's most definitely 100% not wool, but it's a pretty nice synthetic. What am I planning to do with a big honkin' cone of acrylic?

I've decided if I'm to master the art of machine knitting, I'm going to need a project to work on. (I'm more of a product over process knitter, so I'm definitely not going to knit swatches on the machine just for s**ts and giggles.) Have you seen the popular drape-y style cardigans that look like this?

From Sublime Book #605

I've always liked the look of these cardigans but the thought of knitting an enormous rectangle of stockinette stitch had me snoring just thinking about it. The knitting machine however, thrives on miles of stockinette! It also thrives on swatches, which must be knit and washed and blocked and offered up to the gods if you have any hope of turning out a satisfactory project. I set about to swatch, but I knew I'd need to solve a little problem first.

The Bond knitting machine has no device to regulate tension and feed the yarn through (though schmancier machines do). That's fine if you're knitting from a ball of yarn rolling around on the floor, but what about a big 'ole cone? I set up the machine and then went about the task of McGyver-ing up some sort of tension arm/yarn feeder. I gathered items I thought may prove useful:

Alas, they were not.

Then I had a stroke of genius:

Looks like a recording studio, doesn't it?

This isn't the first time my microphone stand helped me out in a knitting crisis. (I'm beginning to think yarn stores should start carrying boom stands.) With the help of my buddy Mr. Mic Stand I easily knit a fine and hearty swatch from my cone.

Is the garden frog smirking? What's his problem?

Look at that perfect stockinette! Look out cones!

W.W.B.D?

2009-05-29T09:24:00.011-04:00

Some lessons are hard-learned. I appear to be the kind of person who either learns a new skill so fast you'd swear I was born doing it, OR refuse to catch on until I've practiced so many times you'd swear I was developmentally challenged. This is a tale of the latter.

A couple of nights ago I finished the second sleeve of my Snowdrop Jacket only to make a horrific discovery. The sleeves, knit sideways, are meant to look like this:
My sleeve looked like this: The fact that I had knit two of anything was a miracle in and of itself (notice lack of mittens and socks in my knitting history). I sighed and went to bed.

The next morning, fortified by rest and fully caffeinated, I resolved to fix rather than re-knit the sleeve. My mistake was right at the cast on row, so I unraveled the edge...

... knit a new little piece of stockinette...

...and grafted it onto the correct end of my sleeve:

Nice kitchener stitch, loser! Graft much?

Okay, so grafting should not be attempted under a time crunch. I left for work pleased that my plan would work if executed properly and without time constraints. Then I talked to Barbara.

Barbara (paraphrasing); "Oh, so you unraveled the cast-on and knit the other way."

Me; "No, 'cause it would show if you knit the other way. You can't knit in the other direction, right? Because the stitches are like V's and if you knit the other way they'll be upside-down?"

Barbara; "Well, no... you just pick up the loops..."

Barbara explained. I listened. Barbara explained. I didn't understand. Barbara explained. I didn't believe her. Barbara explained using props. I still didn't get it. Barbara explained the new knitting wouldn't look upside down but you would end up half a stitch off...EUREKA!

Obviously Barbara has the patience of a saint and I have trouble letting go of preconceived notions. I have no idea how I got it into my head that you could not pick up live stitches and knit "upside-down". I'm sure I read something about it somewhere and I suppose my feeble brain retained the off-stitch-count information and ignored the rest.

So there we are. Lesson learned. Next time I run into a problem I'll just think; "What Would Barbara Do?".

Distractions

2009-05-24T15:32:00.008-04:00

I keep looking at the pieces of my Snowdrop Jacket and thinking; "Why aren't you finished!?!".

Maybe because I spent a day making this:

Pattern: Simplicity 2725
Fabric: Irish linen personally imported by the b.f.'s mum (thanks, Maggi!)
Notes: I had to modify the bejeezus out of this to make it work. I shorted it (possibly too much!), took four inches off the sides, added darts in the back and set in pockets. (The whole reason I bought the pattern was because I thought it had pockets - oops!) It fit like a muumuu before I messed with it. Not the look I was going for.

And I finally finished this:

No, I didn't drink that much wine! I had donations!

New inspiration board!

And then I planted this:

Okay, it doesn't look like much yet. It's a work in progress.

And that darned crochet bug keeps pestering me:

...as does that marigold colour. Maybe I should crochet a belt to go with that dress... See how easy I get distracted?

Crafty Genes

2009-05-19T21:27:00.005-04:00

I made mention that I took a last minute trip to my hometown last weekend. Unfortunately it wasn't to open a cottage for the season but to visit my Mum in the hospital. BUT WAIT! Hold your sympathy, it's not that bad. Mum fell and dislocated her hip (bad) but is recovering nicely (good), isn't in any pain (good) and is simply bored out of her gourd having to lay around with her leg immobilized (bad, though a good sign that she feels well enough to complain of boredom).

It was a whirlwind trip, and I found very little time I found to knit. I did however take the opportunity to document some of my Mum's crafts around the house. Wanna take a tour?

Come in the front door and you will be greeted by Dad's Lopi sweater hanging over a dining chair:

Now, I know you're a knitter, so you probably want to check out the inside:

Nice, right? What's over there on the couch?

Quilting too, huh? And what's this?

Oh yes, the throw Mum crocheted so quickly she had to wear a wrist brace!

Let's pop downstairs to watch some tv. Need something to occupy your hands? There's always a work in progress by Mum's chair:

And check out the hooked rug!

Yup, we're going back in time here. 70's! Speaking of which, have you seen the quilt in the guest room?

I love this thing, especially because most of the fabric is from my Mum's old dresses... and might I ad.. was stitched by hand?

Don't even get me started about the multi-craftual stash:

There's not enough room on the blog.

Yup, my Mum's pretty crafty. No wonder I turned out this way!

So very square

2009-05-18T21:01:00.005-04:00

Ladies and Gentlemen... start your laughing:

If you look up "What Not To Wear" in the dictionary, you should see this picture.

A last minute trip to my parents house this weekend had me digging up my pubescent attempt at crocheting a granny-square vest. Eeek!

Crotchety Crochety

2009-05-10T13:56:00.005-04:00

The jury has spoken:

To be honest though, I may have chosen
teal and orange no matter what the results!
Muah-ah-ah!

These little "snowdrops" are deceptively easy
and fun after all that AT SAME TIME nonsense!

Thanks for all the input folks! I find it truly hilarious that there was hardly any consistency with the votes.

Though I've been trying to remain project-monogamous in order to get this jacket knit before the heatwaves of summer... there's been a bit of an accident:

I don't know what happened! I got a bee in my bonnet one day about resurrecting forgotten crochet skills, then a certain someone kindly showed me how to hook a granny square and before I knew it all hell broke loose!

I suppose my definition of "all-hell-breaking-loose" is this crocheted Christmas ornament.

I think the knowledge was buried in the back of my grey matter somewhere just waiting to be dug up. You see, at the tender age of 13 I started making a granny-square vest (horrors!). I know the project was inspired by something I saw in a magazine (Seventeen?) but it never came to fruition. Apparently my mother KEPT this incomplete nightmare (must remember to photograph on my next visit home). I seem to recall a lot of black combined with primary colours. Eeek!

The 'hooker' in me returned with a vengeance, as did my mild distaste for the granny square motif. Wait now, allow me to explain. You see, my granny (yes, I actually called her 'granny') used to crochet giant blankets in completely insane colour combinations. God love her, she was a fantastic grandmother, but her colour sense lacked a certain, um, 'je-ne sais quoi'. Her penchant for combining red/white/green Christmas yarn with 80's neon yellow and 70's mustard has scarred me for life.

Solution? HEXAGON!

The slightly more complex shape pleases me to no end. I know there are beautiful examples of granny-square goodness out there, but it's gonna take this girl a little time to heal, okay?

Colour me good

2009-05-06T12:39:00.003-04:00

Too much choice can be overwhelming. When I didn't have cable, I could always find something to watch. Four television channels takes the job of channel surfing from endless ocean to wading pool; French channel? Je ne parle pas. Soap opera? Nah. Cooking show? Maybe... Simpson's re-run? Bingo! Limited options can be a blessing. Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time surrounded by 6000 square feet of yarn.

This makes my colour choices for my Snowdrop Jacket tricky. My original contrast colours were chosen under the "no cable" situation: the yarn (Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000) was on sale and colour choices were limited. Then I discovered Filatura Di Crosa's Zarina is virtually identical yarn and suddenly I was looking at "HD Digital cable with on-demand".

I'm paralyzed by choice. Help a girl out!

From Top Left:

1 - Deep orange & Teal (I'm leaning toward this one)
2 - Cranberry red & Purple (my original choice)
3 - Deep Purple & (nearly impossible to photograph) Mustard yellow
4 - Teal & Cranberry red
5 - Rust Orange & Bright Orange
6 - Teal & Mustard yellow (can you tell I like teal?)
7 - Pink & Peach (2 colours I never wear that I'm throwing in just for kicks. Think of it as the "home shopping network")
8 - Teal & Deep Purple

And those are just the combinations I photographed! The main colour is a grey/olive green/khaki sort of hue - Cool Wool 2000 #534 (gotta love that futuristic-sounding "2000" tacked on the end!)

Remember, this is what I'm knitting:

I'm convalescing with a bit of a cold (no swine flu jokes please) which mean ample knitting time. I need to make a decision before I get to the pockets!

The Name is Bond

2009-05-03T15:33:00.008-04:00

Saturdays in general are pretty kick-ass. I get to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, read the paper and generally do whatever the bloody hell I want. This Saturday? It kicked ass like an ultimate fighter. Why you ask? RUMMAGE SALE!

The b.f. picked up a lamp that looks like some kind of Art Deco UFO:

We picked up some books too - I'm saving Coffee Tea or Me for cottage reading.

And me? I found something I've been hoping to find for ages:

Boo-yeah! That there is a Bond knitting machine people! Not that the guys at the church sale had any clue. Our conversation went something like this:

Me, palms sweaty, heart beating like a drum; "Um, excuse me? How much is this?"

Bewildered church volunteer; "I dunno. What is it?"

"It's a knitting machine." (Resisting the urge to use words like "duh" and "obviously")

"We didn't know what the hell that was. Do you know how much they are?"

"I have no idea" (Lying! To a church volunteer!)

"How's ten bucks?"

"Sure!"

I took my new friend home (the machine, not the volunteer) crossing my fingers all the parts were there and maybe, just maybe, it would come with instructions.

Score! Not only was it all there, it had never even been used! I spent the better part of the afternoon figuring out how to make the thing knit:

Looks more like a lap-steel than a knitting thing to me!

It knits!
It was fiddly and slow but I'm sure with some practice I'm sure I'll be cranking out rows of perfect little stitches. Whee! Suddenly all of those patterns that require endless stretches of stockinette stitch seem so much more appealing!

Snowdrop the bomb

2009-04-28T09:36:00.009-04:00

I came to an interesting revelation the other day while helping a customer at work; Vogue Knitting magazine rates their knitting patterns by level of difficulty!

How novel! Yeah, I know. This is probably news to no one but me. Most knitting patterns have rating systems, I just choose to ignore them. I suppose that says something about me. I'm either A) so fantastic I don't care what challenge may unfold or B) have my head so far up my $#! I can't heed a simple warning when it's right in front of my face. My come-uppance has come uppeth!

See that? AT SAME TIME. Three little words that can strike fear into any knitter. In the James Coviello Snowdrop Jacket I'm knitting, it appears THREE TIMES in the "left front" instructions alone! I read it through. I took heed. I prepared!

Take that At-Same-time! I wrote it all out! Line by line!

... Alas, t'was not enough. I missed a set of increases. (Son of a %*&@$!!!) If you knew the extent of the convolution (is that even a word?) you wouldn't blame me. When I got to the point where the pattern states "When all shaping is complete, 39 sts rem.", I was left with a paltry 29.

Should I have been forewarned by the the "Experienced" rating on the knitting pattern? Essentially, this piece of knitting is just an oddly shaped bit of stockinette. Increases, decreases, knitting, purling... no big woop, right? Or maybe, I should have interpreted "experienced as "I have experienced the brevity of Vogue Knitting Magazine patterns" and will take extra care.

I understand that a print publication such as Vogue needs to cram a lot of knitting instruction into a small amount of space. Sometimes though, when information is edited down to it's bare minimum, the time it takes to decipher the information seems in direct opposition to the economy of the communication in the first place. Enter: my distaste for text messaging! (I swear to god, I'm turning into a grumpy old lady before my time. Before long I will only accept correspondence handwritten by quill on parchment.)

I guess at the end of the day I'm just frustrated I had to rip back three quarters of my knitting due to my inability to properly read a knitting pattern. Gaah! I suppose it happens to even the best of us. I invite you all to shake a fist at the sky in silent protest to confusingly written knitting patterns everywhere!

What's that they say about spring showers? (Or snowdrops?)

The Hunch-back of Notre Hibou

2009-04-19T13:12:00.005-04:00

The curse of the Alaska yarn has been lifted!

Patio pictures are back! Now if only I could take a self-timer
picture where I don't look vaguely pissed off.

I believe the gods were appeased with my penance of the sewing-on of forty-two buttons:

I think the button-sewing took longer than the sweater-knitting.

Pattern: What, you don't know? OWLS by Kate Davies. Do you live under a rock?
Yarn: Previously cursed Drops Alaska (colour #51 - dark olive)
Buttons: Vintage wooden things
Needles: 5 & 5.5mm addis
Notes/mods: Knit an XL size with finer gauge - a total gamble and it worked - whee!

This sweater's a winner except for the odd bunching I'm getting in the back. It's not quite clear in this picture, but I get a bit of a hunchback thing going on above the waist shaping. According to Ravelry I am not alone in this issue. If I were to knit it again I would definitely put the waist shaping at the sides. (Why are they at the back anyway? And how did other people avoid the hunch-back? Do I have an abnormal back?) I blocked it twice to try to remedy the situation but it's still a little poufy. I'd just wear it backwards if the neckline didn't dip in the front to give it away. I guess I'll have to learn to live with it. Or grow a hump... or back-breasts? Ew!

Simplicity is as Simplicity does

2009-04-12T13:32:00.004-04:00

Bam!

Yes, I've been cheating on my main squeeze Sir.Knit and had myself a little fling with Mr.Singer.

I'm not a big spring / summer knitter. That is, I knit during the summer, but I don't knit summer things in the summer, dig? Knit cotton tanks? No thanks. Once in a while I dust off the old Singer (that's a blatant lie, it has a dust cover) and bust out a garment. Of course, by bust out, I actually mean sew and re-sew seams that I messed up, curse when the the bobbin runs out of thread, burn myself on the iron and end up with a virtually unwearable, decidedly homemade looking, sad excuse for a garment.

Once in a while I get lucky.

Pattern: Simplicity 4077 (view D). I made view F last year
Fabric: Mystery silky synthetic from a craft swap. Thrift store buttons. In fact, I spent more money on the thread for this project than anything else.

***Skip this next part if you're not a sewer. You're eyes will be in danger of glazing over***

Mods/notes: Despite having sewn this for the second time, I kind of messed up the collar. I couldn't figure out how it was supposed to line up so I trimmed it. Oops! Now the gap at the top of the button band it a little big, but enh? We'll say it's my own personal twist on the mandarin collar. I did however learn from my last crack at this blouse that while it fit in the bust fine, it was a little looser than I liked around the waist. This time I cut the fabric to the same bust size, but graded the pieces to the next size down at the waist. It worked! Other mods - I flipped the sleeve cuffs up because they hit at a weird point at my elbow that drove me bananas. I also added a snap between the second and third buttons to prevent dreaded boob-gappage.

Yeah, that's right. I'm workin' a bit of a faux-hawk.

Whew! Okay that's it. Knitters - you still with me? I promise something woolly and wonderful is on it's way next post! Hoot!

I get around

2009-04-05T15:19:00.008-04:00

If you're anything like me, you have a constant list of things you'll "get around to" some day. Do you find if you're a crafty individual, applying your craftular talents to own home proves exceedingly difficult? Par example, the lowly washcloth:

This sad state of affairs is the one and only washcloth I have knit for my own home. Really, it's a swatch, the result of my mosaic knitting curiosity. This poor little cloth has been used and abused for months as the primary dish wiper in my kitchen. It was time:

Why did it take me so long to get around to it? Because it was easy.

I'm having a passionate love affair with garter stitch these days.

Pattern: Made it up - garter stitch on the bias, throw in some YO's and stripes,... done.
Yarn: Mayflower cotton 8 held double
Needles: 5mm addi turbos

Another project finally underway: the recycled wine corkboard. I've been saving corks since the dawn of time for this project.

Turns out, if you've been saving corks since the dawn of time, you will still be left with exactly half the number of corks necessary to complete a cork-board. Oh well. Back to work!

Go-go garter stripes!

2009-03-30T10:32:00.004-04:00

Eat your heart out Paul Smith!

Pattern: CO 352 sts, Knit every row, EZ sewn BO, tie ends as fringe - done!
Yarn: Drops Alpaca colour #0618, La Droguerie Alpaca (from scarf kit)
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace 3.75mm 100cm

Mmm...stripey. This was so easy and satisfying. Once in a while I really need to bang out a garter stitch somethin-or-other just to remind myself that knitting does not have to be "work". Besides, pretty stylish for a garter stitch scarf, enh?

The biggest pain in the posterior was the bind-off. Working side to side instead of end to end, I really wanted the bind-off to match the cast-on edge. What matches a long-tail cast on? The Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn method works pretty well... unless you have THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY stitches to bind off! What's the problem? For those that have never used the technique, it requires one to cut off a length of yarn THREE TIMES as long as your work, then work that long tail through your stitches one by one (see link for exact details). It's a pretty simple technique and looks great when completed, though takes eons. It took two evenings to bind-off this puppy! Perfectionist? Me?

Well, heck, it's worth it for this guy:

I sincerely hope my brother doesn't tire of hand-knit gifts any time soon!

Pat & Julia

2009-03-21T12:48:00.007-04:00

At long last, my double-whammy hat pattern Pat & Julia is finished and available for purchase on Ravelry!

These two designs, much like their namesakes, are brother and sister. Knit from the top down, the hats are a great way to get the most out of your yarn yardage. (Try knitting the ribbed edge in a contrasting colour if you run out of yarn!) The slip-stitch pattern on a background of reverse stockinette is an ideal mate for busy self-striping yarns.

The PAT version is a snug-fitting unisex cap.
The JULIA version is a loose-fitting beret.

Instructions given for three adult sizes.

Here's some outtakes from our super-fun photo session with the fabulous Jenny!

Goofiness apparently runs in the family

We both also posses a remarkable ability to blink at exactly the moment a flash goes off.

My best "vogue" face, though Tyra would argue I'm not "smiling with my eyes".

Patrick clearly wins the vogue-ing competition.

We tried to get a picture of us nose-to-nose but couldn't stop laughing long enough to snap the photo.

BIG thanks to everyone who test knit and gave me feedback on the pattern!