not kitting- what's with that?

It's been a busy time even though i haven't been knitting.

but i still love the sheep!

I just had to share...

First of all let's just say that fishing in the rain

Drove us just a little 'Loon'ie!

Seriously though....

Isn't it just too pretty for words? I just had to share. Sunset last night over Berford Lake on the Bruce Peninsula. *big sigh*

(scroll all the way to the bottom, I saved the best for last)

I've Finally Managed To Do It Right! Sock Blanks and Pictures Too

A blog and blog pics all in one post! How did I manage that? Here it is though, a few weeks late but in all it's glory, World Wide Knit In Public Day post.

The World Wide Knit in Public festivities on Saturday June 13, were a lot of fun. I was in New Hamburg with my knitting buddies at Shall We Knit for the morning and half the afternoon. There was quite a bit of Breast Cancer fund raising going on, with a silent auction, which I I didn't win on the items I bid on. The Big Pink Knitting Needles Contest, in which teams of 3 knitters get sponsors and try to knit as many stitches as they can in a certain amount of time using the famous crowd stopping Big Pink 6 ft. long Knitting Needles. I didn't participate in that but it was a hoot to watch! Drawing a Blank, with proceeds being donated, was a sock blank dyeing activity. I signed up for two sock blanks, one for myself and one for my daughter. I decided to do mine in a semi-solid dye job, or at least try to, because I am always so attracted to bright and colourful, wild even sock yarns and I love the new Sock Innovation book by Cookie A. that I got a few weeks ago. The socks in that book are all textured and more suited to a solid/semi-solid sock yarn. I have a lot of wild colourful sock yarn in my stash that just isn't appropriate for all the wonderful texture in Cookie's designs. This one is my blue semi-solid sock blank


My daughter just went to town with coloured dye, applying it willy-nilly as the impulse struck.

Didn't we do an awsome job? and it was way too much fun! We will definately be doing this again.

As the Swatch Lies

I swatched last night after I got home from work. I was using the 3.25mm circ that the pattern told me to use. It turned out too big, quite a bit too big. I had a 2.75mm circ as well, that the pattern said is supposed to be the smaller needle for the ribbing, and so I decided to change to the 2.75mm circ and swatch. 

I knit one row onto one end of the 2.75mm circ. I started on the purl row using the other end of the circ and about 2/3 the way across the row, I felt something catching on the yarn. I scootched the yarn down the needle a bit and purled a few more stitches and there goes that catchy, catchy again. I don't like it when good yarn catches because it could be ruining the yarn. I wiggled the stitches over a bit to have a look and low and behold I was dumbfounded. 

The bamboo needle on the one end of the circ, had been snapped previously and taped together with scotch tape and put back in it's pouch!!! Me??? I didn't do that! I'm sure I didn't do that! Just because I have imposed a self-banning on bamboo circ's thinner than 3.5mm for myself, because I tend to snap them, doesn't mean I did this to my 2.75! I just know it couldn't have been me! 

I looked for another and didn't find one. Hmmm.. seems I have a good reason to visit my LYS asap! (like I need a reason LOL) 

I found some straights I haven't used in a long time. I used to do baby things on these years ago, they are old English plastic needles I inherited from my Grandmother and/or Great Aunt. And I love them! It felt so good to use these needles again. I successfully swatched with the red #10's (3mm) and pulled out the white #11's (2.5mm) for the ribbing. I cast on, worked my ribbing, and into the striped body of the little boy's vest from Rowan Purelife, The Organic Cotton Kids Collection am doing as a store sample. I make it up 4.5 inches and have my ribbing and all the striped part done. The knitting looks very nice to me, and although I had my doubts about the colour choice when I put the red and the brown together, it's all playing nice now. I do think that because of the colour choice that the finished vest will be more suited to a girl than a boy, but since it is a store sample gender isn't going to make or break the garment. 

At this point I thought to stop to double check my gauge. This is when I discovered my swatch was lying to me. The width of the back of the vest was one inch too small!!! Go figure! 

It is now on hold awaiting my new 2.75mm circ this weekend so I can re-cast on the ribbing and have another go. In the mean time, it is the Cable-Edged Vest by Sally Melville from Mother - Daughter Knits in burgundy Zara, another store sample. It looks like a very interesting design and will be fun to knit. The yarn is totally yummy too! (I need to get some in my stash muhaha...)

I love to play with new yarns and patterns. Isn't this so much fun?

Backbuster Yesterday

Yes, I know it's not Tuesday anymore, and yes, I know I am not posting pics again, but too bad suck it up! (now I know why no one reads my blog! LOL)

This was from yesterday but lazy me is just getting around to post it now.....

I have spent a goodly bit of today trying to beat the fact that life is getting in the way and staying strong and true to my knitting goal for the day. That goal is finishing the back of the Ballooomin' Cardi, hence I have named today Backbusting Tuesday.

I started off well with a whole pattern repeat with my morning coffee. Most people would have a piece of toast or a muffin but not a knitter, or at least not this knitter! A coffee and a repeat then on to a few things that needed me, then back to my knitting. A simple enough plan one would think. Well I think that I was the only one who thought this plan was solid. I was sidetracked when my daughter and granddaughter came over to make bread and do laundry, a few calls to Mom and other assorted tidbits of knitting time abusing activities occurred, and it was after lunch before I knew it. I rushed to my chair and picked up my needles and did a couple more rows. Wonderful, but not enough to finish. I headed out early, well, I tried to head out early thinking that I could manage a couple more rows at All Strung Out the LYS that's near my work, before I had to go to work. Well my early wasn't early enough and I only had enough time to arrange to get some merino and silk fibre drum carded and quickly visit with and pet all the glorious yarns on the shelf. Then a rush to work, flying in the door with just minutes to spare. See I wasn't late for work after all! 

I have my breaks coming up and not that many rows to go was all I could think as I sat at my desk and started in on the emails of the day, hoping for a nice quiet evening without too many problems for me to solve, after all I was wanting to concentrate on keeping my knitting mojo strong). Well as life always happens, I was fairly busy all night, but I did knit during breaks. I didn't quite get finished though. I am home now, tired, and am going straight to bed. 

I will finish the last TWO shoulder decrease rows in the morning... night, night. 

 

Life As It Happens

Me thinks me gets too caught up in life as it happens. How do you balance the two? Knitting/Life.... Life/Knitting. Is there a balance? or do we all just go with the flow? I have been very guilty (is there a state more guilty than guilty?) of living my blogging life through the blogs of others. 

Yes I am lazy. 

It's so much easier to just pick up the needles, or sit in front of the wheel, instead of having to think creatively and write out a blog entry. I have so much to blog about since the last time, where in the world do I start? The knitting, the spinning, the workshops, classes, fun events with knitterly friends? Is there any rhyme or reason to it all? All the little treasured moments are all packed inside my memories and then mish-mashed around by life as if it was a high-speed blender inside my head. 

I have a bunch of pictures on my camera waiting to uploaded to my computer. 

I have some FO's that are waiting to be bragged about. 

I have spinning projects and cast on's as well. 

They are all neglected in print as I continue to let life just lead me along.

Suffice to say that I will not try to catch up my cyber life with reality. (yes I can still tell the difference, isn't that amazing?) I will instead try to highlight some glimpses into my memory with bits and bites of things past as so I get inspired to. In other words, I am going to try (really hard trying) to blog often over the next while, before I explode from keeping it all in.

 

Topic for today, Current Events.

Today was Monday Knit and Chat at Starbucks. Yes, I actually went today, on a Monday. I don't often, but I felt the need for a good cuppa coffee and a bit of knitting. (Friday's K&C was a well needed social event for me, with a whole 7? or was it 9 or 10? stitches accomplished in the 4 or 5 hours I spent at Starbucks that day.) I managed several rows on my Baaaloooomin' Cardi (Interweave Knits Winter 2008 cover choice). I am so happy to be back working on it. I had put it on hold for a few months to work on other more prioritized projects. I am almost finished the back now and I KNOW I  am going to wear this sweater tons. I am totally in love with the yarn. (I weally heart it). It's Cascade EcoWool in black umm.. oops... in colour #8095/! and I can see myself using this yarn again, and probably again too. 

Hmm... what projects can I plan for more Ecowool??? 

Oh wait... I am trying to stick to my self imposed yarn diet. I have cotton that I want to knit. remember the mantra... I need to knit summer cotton tops.... I need to knit summer cotton tops.... I need to.... Oh crap forget it, I know I am going to knit whatever inspires me at the moment.

P.S. Gessh, isn't this boring with no pics??? Maybe tomorrow....

 

Isn't it just Wonderful?

So now everything is dry and not felted. 

It has been re-skiened and braided. (yup I figured it out) 

I am pleased and so is my grand-daughter. (now renamed Laughaholic as I see from her brand new membership to Ravelry) 

Here's the promised pics of the finished dye job. Yarn and Fibre look great! I on the other hand still have grey roots! (Should have done my hair while I was at it!)

The first pic is Laughaholic's first handspun. Not a bad job of it I think. Looks better than my first did! The second pic is the blue one with beads. It has already been cast on. She has decided to make a lacy scarf from it. The third pic is her  handpainted skein. 

      

                                                       

                                                    

See the big smile on her face. 

These ones are mine.....

     

First pic is two ply Shetland laceweight/fingering, the second pic is about a worsted weight three ply

The third and fourth pic, below, are before and after pics of what used to be grey Icelandic wool rovings. Notice it's not grey anymore!   :D

      

 

Then we have the rovings.

Pic one, two and three, quite self explanatory. 

Beautiful? 

Ithinkso.

    

Dye Day What Fun

We survived! Tick-Tick, my eldest granddaughter of 13 yrs (who insessantly drives me insane with the constant tick-tick of the keyboard as she chats constantly on messenger with her friends) , is slightly green and blue in several spots, and I even have a tinge of off colour on my hands too, but we had a blast!

I found all the natural handspun I had hanging around the house including the first practicing at beaded yarn and a skein of somewhat dark grey Icelandic Wool yarn I had spun.

Tick-Tick had her skein of 'First Handspun' to dye as well. I also decided to throw in some natural off white rovings as I had 4 kg of it before I starting spinning, aka playing with it and my wheel.

We went to Michael's Craft Store on Thursday night and Tick-Tick picked out 5 colours of Wilton Food Colour to use in our dying. We had Sky Blue, Juniper Green, Teal, Orange, and Buttercup Yellow. I am so glad the the local grocer's was sold out of McCormick's Neon Food Colouring! (Neon yarn is not my cup of tea)

We re-skeined the yarn that needed reskeining, put it all in a vinegar bath. I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and got the dye ready in it's squeezee bottles.

Then we went at it. We hand painted the off white skeins, including the beaded one, and two batches of wool rovings, wrapped them in Saran Wrap and steamed them on the stove to set the colour. 

I put one batch of wool rovings in the crock pot and when it was all hot and steamy I added three colours of dye to the crock pot and let it cook for a couple of hours.

The dark grey skein was an experiment to see if it would over-dye. I tried handpainting it and though you could see there was other colour added to it, it still looked grey. We left it till last and decided to try a dye bath for it with a microwave chaser. We chose teal as the dye colour. I make a strong teal bath, put in the grey yarn to soak, then nuked it for two minutes at a time until it had exhausted noticably some of the dye. At that point the dye water was much lighter teal than when we started. I took it out of the microwave to cool and as it cooled, it took up even more dye. After much cooling when it was good and warm instead of still hot I noticed the water was almost clear with very little dye colour left in the water! I was amazed! My grey yarn was now a deep greenish teal and I am extremely pleased with the colour. Truly amazing I say! I am so glad I tried this, and as I have more of the grey Icelandic wool to spin I can guarantee that I will be making more of this colour.

More to come after it dries but the bottom line is, we had a ball with it all, lots got dyed, none got felted and we are very happy with the results of our labours. Next time, it will be McCormick' NEON! (please help me!!!)

And now it be Silk

Specifically, hand dyed Tussah Silk by Libertina Yarns bought at All Strung Out in Guelph On. After spinning two braids of singles I am now wondering if I will ever spin anything but silk again. Oh it is so lovely and soft and cushy and heavenly and beautiful, oh excuse me, am I gushing? I plan to ply it for a resulting DK weight 2 ply. The braids have spun nicely, giving me generous yardage. I will measure the metres after I ply though.

 

 I am hoping to pop over to the store tonight and show the resident dye master the singles with my comments and hopes that more can be dyed to match what I already have. If I get enough yardage, I am going to make a light spring/summer camisole or tank top for me! 

Are the Knitting Fates Pulling my Leg?

I am happy again. Enjoying my knitting. LOVING my knitting. Flying through the cutest little tiny girly baby vest in the world. The MOJO has come back, I am sure of it. the 2 skeins of Filatura Di Crosa Maxime Print Soft Socks, colourway 5072 has me thoroughly enchanted and inspired again.It has grey in it. It will be for my Husby's replacement grey socks. ( to replace the socks I made for him that I gave away to his cousin on finishing them last summer)

I am truly inspired to knit my current projects and am excited to start a pair of socks again. 

Had I written this post yesterday, that is what it would have said.

Today, the knitting fates are kicking my arse. They have been playing me for a fool. They bumped me up a few notches just to drop me down and crush me yet again. Ok, yes I agree, that is what they do best. I admit it. I totally and absolutely bow in their presence and acquiescent in the  magnitude of their power.

What's up you ask? Well it's that cute little baby vest. I started the front last night, knit the ribbing, and worked up to the armholes this morning. Totally forgot, in my excitement over the beautiful work I was managing to get done, that I didn't change needles after the ribbing. And YES I needed to. Rib is on a 3.25mm, body of vest is on a 4.0mm. Major gauge difference between front and back that resulted in a complete frogging back to the ribbing.  

The Knitting Fates are still batting 1000.

My arse has been well kicked.

P.S. I think I will go cast on those socks. Lets see how badly I can screw them up! 

Good, Good Blogger (for a change)

I am patting myself on the back because in a timely fashion, for a change, I have some pics to post. Not too much to say though, I am tired. Knitting all day at Knit and Chat can do that.

        I have finished the sample Baby Sweater and matching Socks for my LYS, Shall We Knit  It is a nice lace pattern with short sleeves knit using Shepherd Baby Velvet DK. Matching socks make a nice touch. 

The spinning is coming along very well. I have spun a nice cushy soft skein of what I am now calling my Vampire Yarn. I got three batts of yummy hand dyed, fibre from All Strung Out My other LYS.

The colourway is called Real Vampires Don't Sparkle by Libertina Yarns. It is 65% wool/ 35% silk/ and a little bit of vampire sparkle. Very awesome! I loved it the second I saw it.

                                      

                      

Nice huh?

    

lost the interesting?

Oh knitting mojo,
Oh where did you go?
I thought you were back on the weekend.

You played me, and teased me, and led me along,
and what did I find?
that you were still gone!
:(

I even WANT to knit, and I am not making mistakes, I just can't get the interest going! What's with this? There are so many wonderful things on my to knit list that I can't wait to start, oh, and finish the ones already started. The baby sweater is finished. Yes pics to come. And the baby socks are started. Sock one is at the toe. I keep picking it up and feeling how soft it is, admiring how darn cute it is, ooooo'ing and ahhhh'ing in wonder at it's tiny size... but then I just put it back in it's baggie and NOT knit on it. It's so not me! Geesh!

I have however got the spins. I took pics last week of the 'Real Vampires Don't Sparkle' colourway of the hand dyed hand carded batts made at All Strung Out . I have not however uploaded them from my card to my puter. I have finished spinning all 3 batts into yarn. I used a thin singles and a thick/thin singles (that was supposed to be a thick singles, but hey as a still somewhat beginner, I am still winging it aren't I). I went with my knitting buddy to the All Strung Out Sunday afternoon spin in and worked on the plying. I plied the two singles together haphazardly without a care in the world. I wanted it to look the way I wanted it to look and went for it totally and relentlessly ignoring (on purpose) the fact that I was supposed to check for a balanced yarn. Ya man! It looked good, it plied good, and it felt good. Instincts prevailed and when all was said and done, and the yarn was skeined up, THE YARN WAS TOTALLY BALANCED! I am now the owner of 150 m of luscious, soft, cushy, wonderful chunky Vampire Sparkle Yarn. and did I say I totally LOVE the results?

Having finished my Vampire Sparkle Yarn, and planning to spin more of the Blue Fusion to make matching mitts to go with my Moebius (which is now finished and I love) I went over to the fibre shelves of the store and gave in to my cravings for hand dyed silk. So beautiful, so wonderfully soft and silky, 100% hand dyed silk rovings started turning into gorgeous silky singles on my bobbin before long.
Oh and by the way, don't forget to charge me for the silk on my wheel!

Simply a Rant

baby sweater (as pictured in previous post). both fronts done up to almost the armholes, you know all the lace part (go figure right?) mistaken in the patt and frogged halfway back to the start. I am now doing much needed and very overdue housework. Does that mean something?

OK! I'm UP!

and would be knitting but for a few minutes here to blog. Need coffee still, the writing might be bad! LOL

Linen Stitch Socks for husby are finished. And for your viewing

pleasure, I even braved the weather, ran outside in my pj's and bare feet and took a nature shot of them in the wild.

Work Socks #1 for The Boy are also finished. Work Socks #2 are cast with 4 or 6 rows done but will be frogged (today) and re-cast on with 48 sts instead of 44 sts. We thought they might be a little loose in the leg before they were finished. They were cast on with 50 sts so to tighten the leg a bit I cast on 44 sts on Socks #2. Now that Socks #1 are finished and tried on and even already worn once, they fit well. The leg is not too loose and it turns out that 44 is a rude number and just has to go.

Baby Sweater #1 is half way done. See (I am working on stuff besides socks!) The back is done and the fronts will be cast on as soon as I can get to them.

(It's lime green, colour in the pic is bad)

Moebius is into it's second lace panel, though I haven't been working on it as much as I was hoping too. You know how it goes when work and life just get in the way.

Oh and I have some errands to do today. It snowed (like crazy again) again and made winter miserable, messy, and hard to drive in. So I might end up not getting any knitting done today? Ahhh.... such is life.

Maybe since I might not end up with time to knit, my errands might just manage to take me to a yarn store or two today? Oh imagine how BAD that would be! NOT!

Pics are here too! (YAY for me huh?)

Non Sockdon Ended

If it's possible to get sock burnout, no I don't mean by blowing a big hole in the toe of it, sock burnout, I had it now it's gone. YAY to me? well pair one of socks for 2009 is done, and pair 2 is almost done. I am tired of socks again though and want to knit things. Not socks, but things. That wonderful moebius that is whispering to me from my canvas bag, just a bit more than half done and will be needing another ball of yarn spun before it's completed. That barely more than a start,and because of gauge woes second time around, sweater for me, you know, the one that has obsessed me since my copy of Interweave Knit's Winter 2008 has come into my itchy little knit friendly fingers. It's calling, and calling, and calling for more attention than I have time for. Poor old KW Guild Mystery Shawl, that lays depressed because of neglected since sometime in December when it was so on top of the world. Then it was 'THE project of the day'. Beautiful, beautiful Granddaughter Sweater, is thinking that it's not going to be worn by the girl that will be much to big for it before it's finished. And oh, the two new projects, one 'just' started and the other, only a strand peeking over the edge of it's bag of keeping. Baby sweaters, both of them, waiting for their birth.
What will I do tomorrow morning when I get up? Finish second sock of the pair that almost are, then cast on a new pair of socks.
I am going to bed now, it's late and I can't fight the urge to stay up and knit any more.
Good Night.

In Case You Were Wondering,

Yes Husby and I went to the show last night. After a wonderful day of knitting with friends and drinking Skinny Vanilla Lattes, I headed home, did my dishes as I said I would, and started supper. The Asian Chicken and Rice Bake was delicious. We will definately make that one again.


Wonderful Husby brought me the EcoWool colour 8095 from Shall We Knit that I wanted for my Blooming Cardigan from Interweave Knits Winter 2008 Yes I am totally obsessed with this design and I HAVE to make it.








Anyways. as a thank you treat for being a non complaining stash enhancer on my behalf, yet again, I decided to treat him to go and see the movie he has been wanting to go to. Gran Torino with Clint Eastwool.

Of course as the fates that control the midnight shift would have it, my sleep deprived body was slow in getting ready to go to the show and we were late for the early show!

The theatre was packed and we would have missed half the movie by the time we got our tickets waiting in the long slow moving 80% teenage strewn lineups at the ticket wicket and concession stand. Next show, 9:50 pm! We were at the mall with time (3 flippin' hours of time) to kill so we did what the teens do and hung out. Window shopped the mall 3 times over, tried on a ton of clothes, mostly jeans as Husby and I both need new ones badly, and sat and drank our Tim's (coffee) in front of the skating rink that was sporting kids hockey league games one after the other all evening long.

Yes it was nice. Yes it was a date. And yes it was fun. When it was time, we bought our popcorn and drinks and headed into the theater. Me, having not slept for over 24 hours now, gave Husby strick instructions to, in the case of emergency, wake me up before leaving the theatre after the movie was over. LOL. I didn't fall asleep. I enjoyed the movie. Husby enjoyed the movie. We ate popcorn, drank pop and laughed at all the funny parts. In short the movie was awesome. In my opinion, and that of Husby's a very good movie and highly recommened.
Go See It.


now... I have laundry to do, Husby went to the Toronto Boat Show with our grandon, lovingly nicknamed Bug and I have the day to myself.

Moebius Woebius?

We had Techniques Night at KW Knitter's Guild meeting this past Tuesday night. I was hoping to get in on Debbie New's Freeform Knitting Workshop, and Karen's (Shall We Knit) Moebius workshop. As it was announced to make your way to your chosen workshop in a few minutes, everyone rushed to the places they wanted to go to right away. Needless to say, Moebius was packed, and Freeform was even more packed.

My Knitting Buddy made her way up to Moebius but came back to where we were sitting saying she didn't have the right needle and it's packed. So we sat with Another Knitting Buddy (of the 'don't give her chocolate' fame) and chatted, and knit, and knit, and chatted. At the 20 minute mark, Knitting Buddy and I made our way to Moebius and got in on the second session.

The technique is very cool! I didn't start mine right then because the circular needle I had with me was too short to knit with but I did learned the cast on with it.

When I got home, in my rush to get to work, I took a few minutes to sneak my knitting needle box out of the bedroom without waking my Husby, and grabbed my longest circ, a 120cm long 3.5 mm Addi Lace.

The yarn I decided on is Wellington Fibres Mohair/Wool blend rovings in Blue Fusion colourway (blue/green blend) spun in my attempt to purposely make a chunky singles. Well, now that I have been spinning for a little while, my usual yarn is two plied to a fingering to dk weight yarn and I 'can't' do thick anymore! I had to work hard concentrating on NOT drafting more than just a little, and NOT putting a decent amount of twist into it. I took my time, predrafted to the size of fibre I wanted and put in just enough twist to hold it together. (at least I tried to LOL).
I am very happy with the results even though the finished yarn wasn't quite what I was going for.
I ended up with a dk to worsted weight singles, lightly twisted. IMO it is going to be a very nice Lacy Moebius. I cast on again during my break at work that same night and did my first round. I added a few more rounds last night including my first repeat of the 2 row lace pattern repeat.

I plan to wear it as a cowl not a wrap, and it's not very far yet but here's the pic.





The pattern is White Lacy Shoulder Wrap from A Treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi.

So in answer to the question Moebius Woebius? NOT! In fact it's Moebius Glow-bius cause the pattern/yarn combo is just too yummy!

Obsessed I Am yet again

Ok so I got the new Interweave Knits Magazine Winter 2008 Issue, oh, a number of weeks ago now, and ya know, like most knitters I know, I don't like bobbles. But, I am totally obsessed with the Blooming Cardigan! bobbles and all! I just can't figure it out, but I HAVE TO make this cardigan for myself. (I think I am more obsessed by this cardigan than I am by the fact that I just HAVE TO get me the Shawn the Sheep game for DS) Well I had decided weeks ago I was going to cast this on over my two week Christmas holiday from work. I trashed my stash looking for yarn that would work, after all, it's Christmastime and the last thing that would be good for my bank book would be to purchase a sweater's worth of wool. Right? (sigh) I came up with nothing in my stash and that I had enough of that would match or be close to the guage in the pattern. My purple Shelridge Farms DK is too thin, and the beautiful Manos (colour # 42 Marl) that would work beautifully for colour and guage was bought over a year ago and is two skeins short of the right amount. Go Figure huh? Hence my dilema creating an even more growing obsession with this bobbled Cardigan.

When I was at Shall We Knit last week I got looking at yarns in the appropriate weight. I think that Cascade Eco Wool will work guagewise. Colour choice of the instore stock is somewhat limited though. The only in stock colour I can choose that will work for me is black. Ok so a textured stitched, somewhat aran style with bobbles, kind of cardigan will not look good in black. It's a waste of time. The beautiful stitch details will be lost in the blackness of it all. Won't it? hmmm... what do you think? (sigh, sigh, sigh) Ok so now I also NEED to HAVE a black cardigan.

(Happy side of the whole thing, more Cascade Eco Wool is coming in soon and I am pretty sure my colour of choice can be ordered if need be) (happy sigh)



P.S. I will placate myself by spending tomorrow knitting all day while I wait for the Mr. Fixit Dude of the washing machine variety to show up with the parts to fix my ailing fairly new Maytag! (Thank Goodness for extended warranties LOL)



P.S.S. I will placate my Blooming Cardigan and Black Cardigan obsessions (somewhat) by casting on the Climbing Vines Pullover (scroll down to find the pic) with the purple Shelridge Farms DK.

New Year To Try Again

So it's now 2009. January 4, 2009 to be exact and my first post of the year. Ok so it only took me four days to do this. Am I getting better at posting? I think maybe so? As I felt so compelled to post a post somewhat timely for and in the new year that I am actually doing it! Ok New Year to try again and be a good blogger again. My 2009 mantra is: If I post often, I won't have to write a novel every time I post. Think it will work? got my fingers crossed but I'm not gonna hold my breath. Ok now on to the post.
Tons of things have been happening since last I posted. Hopefully over time I can catch at least some of them up. But for now, today's doin's.
I finally made it to All Strung Out. A very nice store with some wonderful yarn and fibre. Ashley, the store owner is very nice and extremely helpful. My score for today, Briggs and Little Tuffy yarn for socks. This is a strong worsted weight wool/nylon combination that is a workhorse of a yarn for socks. My 'I'll never be caught dead in handmade socks' son, asked, of his own free will, shortly before Christmas for handknit work socks. His new job is working on cars and the big bay doors are open most of the time, freezing his feet. I took the trip up to Spinrite in Listowel for Tuffy and got two skeins of the only colours they stock. Light grey and darker grey. Those colours are fine for him but the hour long drive for only two boring colours (imo) will not be something I want to do alot. I was so thrilled to see Tuffy in All Strung out today that I bought a bit of a stash in generic colours for more socks. And best of all, it so close I can go there anytime I want. I feel so blessed. Now I have two wonderful favourite LYS's that I can stash enhance from any time I want. Shall We Knit and All Strung Out.

Spin-spired Again

It was the KWKnitter's Guild Knitting Fair this passed weekend and I volunteered for security duty so as to NOT (hopefully) be used by the yarn and fibre and provoked into yet again breaking the bank of Lyz!
It was a wonderful day. I worked too much (planned it that way and it was such fun) and therefore missed a lot of the 'good' stuff. But no need to despair, I got a few really yummy things and I am all in all very pleased with the day. Simply put the day was awesome fun for all. I had very little shopping time but since I had nothing on my 'I have to get it' list, that was okay. I went with the attitude that I would listen for what called to me and pick out a few special 'just for me' treats.
I treated myself with:

• An afghan pattern from Sandy's Needle Nook called Hexagon Afghan (Pattern #NN177)
• A cardigan pattern by Ilga Lega called Shorelines
• 100g of chocolate brown Alpaca fibre from Alpaca Acres, it's soft as butter and now half spun up into a lace weight singles I think for a nice light lacy scarf for me
• A litre sized mason jar filled with all sorts of fibre goodness by The Roving Spinners. It contains silk, wool, alpaca, firestar, and mohair for a total of 100g in the colourway Boysenberry which is mostly purples with a bit of grey and pink added in for fun. They call it a Gourmet Carding Recipe but it reminds me of the Surprise bags that I used to get at a birthday party when I was little. All sorts of good stuff stuffed and packed into it. Inside the jar there are all the makings for a luscious batt just not made into a batt. That's where the fun comes in. You can make your own custom 'designer' fibre batt or just spin it up as is. That is what my choice is. That is once it's finished being a gorgeous centerpiece on my coffee table LOL.

The highlight of my day though was trying out a couple wheels at Gemini Fibres. Though it won't happen for quite a while yet, I have already decided that I am ready for my next wheel and that I am outgrowing my first wheel. I love it to bits but it's just not always thinking along the same lines that I am. It seems to like thicker yarns better and I have figured out that it is going to be an awesome plying wheel, when I have another wheel with a little lighter touch and a little more speed to spin the thinner singles I love to spin. I tried out two Kromski wheels and they were both just lovely to work with. I liked the Minstrel a little more than the Sonata though. Even though I haven't touched my wheel in over three months and still consider myself a beginner spinner, just learning a bit more than a year ago, I sat and spun like I had done it every day. I plan at some time in the future to try to get up to Gemini Fibres and try out some of the other wheels. It doesn't hurt to be prepared LOL.

The only slight regrets (which I am not crying over at all cause there is always next year) is that I didn't realize that I was one skein short of the Jitterbug (Colourway 142 Sea Breeze) I was going to use for the Guild Mystery Shawl Kal. Had I known, I could have got some yummy fingering weight just for the shawl.

My other slight regret was that I had that awesome Heere Be Dragons Shawl pattern IN MY HANDS damnitall, and I forgot to go back and buy it!!!

So if I can't locate another skein to match my Jitterbug soon, I have decided to spin something up for the Kal and as for the pattern, there's always next year!

And, oh ya, as usual, pics to follow soon (hopefully)