The sun came out today

With the sun shining again today, Icarus came out for a little photo shoot. I'm so happy with it.



I think I did pretty well for my first lace with skinny, slippery silk. The feathers are so pretty. And, it's so beautifully light and sheer.



And look at the colour (Gooseberries), and the sheen of the silk. Sundara, I thank you.



I think it just might look good on too.



Pattern: Icaraus by Miriam Felton, knit as written and had 16g of silk left
Yarn: Sundara Silk Lace, Gooseberries. Received in a Seasons I mix up, but I loved it and kept it instead of trading it for my Autumn.
Needles: 3.25 Knit Picks circular


I really enjoyed knitting this and it wasn't a difficult as I had made it out in my mind. I never used a life line, and fortunatley, didn't need one as there was no frogging, just the occasional tink here and there. I used one split ring as the shawl got bigger so I new when I was getting to the centre line and just kept moving it up periodically.

Next: Between my Blue Moon coupon burning a hole in my pocket and the KW Knitters Fair, there has been a little bit of yarn added to the house. Just a little.

A finishing flurry

I've been finishing things. Aren't you proud?



Last week it was the Aleita Shell from Interweave Knits Spring 2008. This was a spur of the momment knit, Jer says "Let's go to the yarn store for your birthday!" so I quickly find a project that isn't going to require too much yarn, nor too little yarn. Plus, we were going on vacation and it was going to be good vacation knitting. And it was, then we got home and I stopped working on it.



I decided Aleita needed to be finished, so I did. It's very quick and simple, with minimal finishing. Fits well, and should look good over a collared blouse.



KW Knitters Fair this weekend! YAY! And I'll have company/enablers this year, Mom and SIL are coming too! I might just deserve something special, since I've also finished this.

Just do it

I've been meaning to do the post for, oh, more than a week now. Sometimes you just have to do it. I'm a terrible procrastinator you see.

I watched a lot of Olympics, I know, I know, everybody does. I just love it, I laugh, I cry, I yell at the TV. I remember the two Olympics that I had tiny new babies and it gave me something to watch on TV at 3am when I was up with them (one of those tiny babies will be 8 on Saturday). I decided that my Olympics project would be my Gumdrop socks from the July RSC package. So I started with this.



Wound it up, and had it ready and waiting. I cast-on while watching the opening ceremonies and it was the only thing I knit for 10 whole days (well technically there was something else but we'll get to that later). Before too long I had this



At this point, I was very worried about running out of yarn even though my scale said I would be fine. I'm normally worried about running out of yarn, but I was REALLY worried this time. You see, I added length to the leg AND I did a flap heel instead of the short row garter heel. Short row heels just don't fit me right, as much as I would like it if they would.



And because I didn't do the garter heel, I didn't do the garter toe either. Not that that had anything to do with my yarn shortage paranoia. So I dove into sock 2 with what seemed like a too small ball of yarn (pretty yarn too), and you know what? The scale was right and I had plenty. I knit the small size and it fits fine, I might like a few more stitches on the foot to lessen the negative ease a little but they are by no means to tight.

Lessons learned?
1. Trust the scale
2. When you are only knitting one project at time, you can finish it pretty quickly
3. I have no discipline when it comes to Olympic watching and my bedtime.




Pattern: Gumdrops by JC Briar for Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight, Goody Goody, the July 2008 Club colourway
Needles: 2.25mm knitpicks circluar, magic loop
Based on the colour, I like these socks a whole lot more than I though I would. The pattern was great but even though I said I would knit all the club socks as written, I just couldn't do it this time.


Oh, and that other project, ballband dishcloths while I watch kids swim in the pool.

Two posts in one day!

That's just crazy.

I started another ballband dishcloth today. It's half done and it's wrong because I was sure I knew what I was doing. Apparently not. I'm not ripping it out, I'm just going to do the next half right. It's only a dishcloth after all.

Purple and green

First we will revisit my last completed knit, the Hedgerow Sock. I finally took some pictures of the sock on my foot. It's showing up a little more yellow than it should be I think, I love the colour of this yarn.





Pattern: Hedgerow Socks by Jane Cochran
Yarn: Sundara Sock, Mossy from the Seasons club 2007, Autumn
Needles: 2.25mm Knit DPNs

Then, while we were away I finished the May RSC socks. They are FANTASTIC, a little tight through the gusset getting them on, but just a little. They were really fun to knit and my first toe up socks so they were a great learning experience. Which was just what I was hoping for from this club and the last two socks have lived up to it.



I love the look of the gusset, but if I were to do these socks again I think I would leave out the side ladders that travel up the sides of the foot and around the edge of the gusset. I can see myself doing another one of Yarnissima's patterns Firestarter perhaps?) as I really enjoyed this knit.



The socks are fraternal for more than one reason (heehee). First, I just kept knitting on the leg of the second sock without looking at the instruction and negelected to start the transition to the 1x1 rib in the last diamond on the back. Also, I cast off purlwise on the first sock and although it's not too tight (I worked really hard to make sure it wasn't) it's not all that stretchy so I did a sewn cast off on the second sock and I like how it looks. This is the sock with the rib where it's supposed to start.



Pattern: Cleopatra's Stockings by Yarnissima
Yarn: Socks that Rock lighweight, The Incredible Shrinking Violet. The May RSC shipment
Needles: 2.5mm Knit Picks 32in circular, magic loop
Mods: I'm not normally one to modify a pattern much, but I didn't do the twisted rib on this sock. It drives be batty to knit it and I don't much like the look of it either. But I'm VERY happy with these socks!

Like I said, I finished these while we were away. And what was waiting for me when we got home? The new package, complete with two patterns, I do beleive that Gumdrops will be my Olympics project.

Happy Birthday

It was my birthday on Saturday. My IL's took the kids on Wednesday so Jer and I could go out, he mentioned that he hadn't bought me anything (it was still only the 16th and he is a man) and was there something I wanted at THE YARN STORE. So before we went to dinner we stopped at The Needle Emporium, in addition to some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for an Aleita Shell, I bought this



It's yummy and I love it. Happy Birthday to me.

I have also finished my Hedgerow socks but I don't have a very good picture of them yet, so this will have to to. All I can say is, I love Sundara Sock yarn. Amazing. And I love the heel flap in pattern.



Also, prepare yourselves, I finished Jer's socks. I know, crazy isn't it, I'm almost going to miss seeing them on my WIP list. Almost.



Heehee. I made him stand like that, he wasn't pleased.

We are leaving for a little vacation tomorrow. I have the second Cleopatra's Stocking to finish (the toe is done on #2), and Icarus to finish. I'm probably going to start the Aleita Shell too. That should be enough knitting for 4 days right?

A WIP post

Mostly, because nothing seems to be finished. I am failing miserably at SOS'08. I had such lofty plans then the 'must do' knitting came up and there were the 'these need to be finished before I start more socks' projects. So I'm stuck, finishing my Hedgerows that are sucking the life out of me the way Retro-Rib did, but I really like the finished sock so I persevere.



I'm really loving the Sundara sock yarn and the socks are looking really nice, I'm just about done the gusset decreases on the second sock. When these are done I will be casting on Cleopatra's stockings with my STR lightweight, The Incredible Shrinking Violet. Love. It. If all goes well, I hope to have them done by the time the July Kit arrives. I'm not really sure where May and June went, they just kind of disappeared.



I'm also plugging away on Icarus. I'm really enjoying this. I've finished all the repeats of Chart 1 and I'm about halfway through chart 2. It's getting to be rather slow going as the rows get longer and longer, but it's so so pretty. I'd love to be done for my birthday, but I'm not sure if I'm going to get enough knitting time to actually accomplish it. With the boys home from school and all that actual parenting that needs to be done. It's Sundara Silk lace from the first Seasons mailing when I recieved Spring by mistake, but I loved the Gooseberries, so I wasn't too upset.



And that is what's going on here.

The Ballband Dishcloth

So last week, after finishing the baby blanket, I got an urge to knit dishcloths. So I drove down to Mary Maxim to have a look at the Sugar'n Cream colours. I found I few that I liked, bought 4 balls and came home. As I was knitting that afternoon, I realized that I didn't yet have end of year gifts for the teachers and wouldn't this be a great idea. Too bad I didn't think of it BEFORE driving down to MM. So I finished up one for me, with the plan of hitting Michaels in the morning for some Bernat Handicrafter cotton.



The colour selection of the Bernat are a little less appealling, but I managed to find 3 combinations that I liked. A solid blue and a varigated white/blue/yellow for two.



The same solid blue and a varigated white/blue/brown.



And yellow with a varigated white/green/lighter green. This one is really cheery, but not obnoxious bright



I did two for each, with the possibility of a third if there was time. There wasn't, but I have plenty left to make at least 3 more cloths, possibly 4. I made them in co-ordinating pairs by reversing the colours (Betcha didn't figure that one out! :)), and knit them over 39 stiches instead of 45 as called for in the pattern. All in all, not a bad showing for 5 days worth of knitting. I missed the kick of of Summer of Socks but that's OK, the teachers have gifts and school is done tomorrow.

Congratulations Steve and Jenna

Friends of ours that live in Vancouver had a baby boy on May 27th. His name is Liam, he is very cute, but I'm not going to post his picture because he's not my kid. Sorry, you'll just have to take my word for it. Very. Cute.

Way back in February, I started a blanket for him. I went like crazy for awhile, then I kind of languished a little. Then I realized it was May, and the baby was due in May so I started knitting a little quicker, albeit, not quick enough.



I chose the Modern Baby Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting, it was cute, looked like fun, and was something I had never done before. I knit an Intarsia baby blanket for my nephew in 2002, and I never want to sew together that many squares every again, this blanket, no seaming. None. I had a really hard time choosing yarn, I wanted to use the Rowan Calmer, really wanted to, but I need 12 balls and at $13/ball it just wasn't going to happen. I spent a really long time at the LYS looking at different DK-ish yarns, the washing instructions and the colours. I had already decided on the colour look I wanted and it needed to be easy to take care of, and not stretch out of shape since it was going to be fairly large. I settled on Sirdar Snuggly, acrylic, I known, but it feels nice, washes well and the colours were right. Well, as right as they could have been, the Calmer colours were RIGHT.





And it was fun, the squares (and I use that term loosely, they're acutally rectangles) started off being small and quick. Then they got bigger and took longer and longer. I'm pretty sure the second to last set (2 side by side knit at the same time) took forever. Then, it was finished and I thought I would maybe do an applied I-cord border, so, I consulted the project pages on Ravelry and I like the look of it so off I went to learn how to do it. Then to decide what colour. I laid the blanket out on the floor and consulted the boys. "Navy Blue or Brown" I asked them (7.5 and 4.5 by the way). The small one didn't have much of an opinion, but the big one said "Well, there is a lot of dark blue around the edge and not as much brown so I think it would show up better and look nicer if it were brown". I couldn't argue with that logic, Jer had been thinking blue, but had his mind changed by C.



I applied I-cord for an hour on Sunday night and didn't even make my way across one of the short sides of the blanket, very discouraging. But then Monday night I was an I-cord machine just zooming around churning it out. I had to make myself go to bed because the end was in sight and I could have stayed up to finish, but it would not have been smart. So I finished it last night. It looks so good. Other than my too-tight cast off across one of the ends that alters the square-ness of the whole thing, I'm pretty happy with it. I hope they are too.



Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting
For Liam McKinley H.
4.5mm circular needle
Sidar Snuggly DK, Ivory, light blue, navy blue, brown

Secret Project

Well, my secret project can now be revealed since it has been given to the recipient. Although, it probably wasn't that secret since I have mentioned it here before, but after my Mom got on Ravelry I decided not to talk about it anymore in case she read this. Are you reading Mom?

For my Mom's birthday I knit her Mags Kandis' Modern Quilt Wrap. The momment I saw this pattern on Knitting Daily last summer I knew it would be perfect for my Mom, the quilter, the knitter.



I ordered the Rowan Kidsilk Haze in the colours recommended in the pattern from Webs in early September. All of it was backordered. Forever. I think it was February before I finally received it.



I started knitting March 1, with my May 29th deadline. It was slow to begin, I've never worked with Kidsilk Haze before, it's very tiny and I was using my Addis because that's what I had and I don't really like bamboo so I wasn't going to buy any unless this really wasn't going to work.



It works. And I got faster once I got the hang of it, pretty slippery though and the grey yarn was tough to see on the silver needles. I really enjoyed knitting this, I though I would get tired of mitred squares, but I think the colour changes every 5-7 rows kept the interest higher. I finished on May 1st. I wove in the ends as I went and I'm so glad I did. I think I had about 8-10 ends to sew in when I was done and after I clipped them off, I added them to the one cup of ends I already had. I don't even want to think about how many that is.



It turned out really beautifully, although, I'm a bit critical of the edges, but that's my own pathology.



Modern Quilt Wrap by Mags Kandis
From
Folk Style: Innovative Designs to Knit, Including Sweaters, Hats, Scarves, Gloves and More, but I downloaded it as a free pattern from Knitting Daily
Rowan Kidsilk Haze
4.5mm Addi Turbos

Someday soon it should stop raining and I'll show you all my unfinished "Earth" projects. And my new RSC08 yarn!

The best laid plans

My plan today was to blog about all my unfinished Project Spectrum Elements: Earth projects. But, I left my camera at my parents last night (I kind of feel like I've lost an arm) and I have no photos of said projects. They are, Hedgerow socks, Icarus shawl, and the leaves from Vintage Socks. All very earthy, all very unfinished. It's probably against the rules, but I'm thinking about extending Earth through Air, since the Air element isn't really my thing and I don't have stash that matches and I'm not going to go buy Air yarn. So my Earth, may just continue.

But for today, a non knitting PS:Earth photo, in the shape of a very noisy frog who sat on our pool shed for a very long time being very noisy.

RSC March Kit

It took me awhile to get to it, but my March RSC socks are done. Leafling, by JC Briar. STR mediumweight, Lucky.



Once I started, they worked up really quickly. I was glad I didn't start them right away and learned that there were sizing issues from those that went before me. So I knit the small, something I never would have done on my own. Yet another YEA RAVELRY momment. I love the dotted leaf pattern that runs up the front of the sock, even though I never did commit it to memory.



The other thing I love about this sock, the heel. It was fun different, and fits my foot perfectly! And so nice and squooshy too.



The next installment should be shipping next week. Hopefully the mailman isn't too afraid to deliver it after last time.

I've done a few more leaves this week for Vintage, I need to get cracking on that a little more. And, I started Icarus, I'm into my second repeat of chart 1, so far so good. I'm using my Sundara Silk Lace from the first seasons club mailing, it's so so pretty. I'm thinking about starting Hedgerow socks with some Sundara Sock yarn tonight, we'll see. I might just do some leaves. So, it might be awhile until I have another FO post! I'll have to stick in some WIP post's I guess. I will have a cake to show you soon though, I'm doing a cake for a Victoria Day party this long weekend.

Mmmmm, Cake.

Good luck Mr. M

My small boy is in his first year of Kindergarten (there are 2 years here, Junior and Senior). He loves it, he loves his teacher the bald (an important fact to the 4 year old) Mr. M. This is also Mr. M's first year teaching, and it's Kindergarten. He struggled a bit at first, you could see his frustration, but he has come a long way and has been having a lot of fun with them. The kids adore him.

On May 2nd we got a note home from school saying that the teacher on Maternity leave was coming back early and that Mr. M was leaving and that his last day would be May 9th. A week. New teacher starting on the 12th to finish the last six weeks of school. I won't go into the moaning and complaining and general discontent this caused with the parents, as those of you with kids can probably well imagine. It turns out that Mrs. S is pregnant again, needs to get her weeks in so she can get her full leave again and because Mr. M is the newbie, he gets shuffled off to go teach grade 3 for 6 weeks.

But this is about knitting right! Since the momment I saw Koolhaas in the Holiday Interweave, I knew I wanted to make it for Mr. M for his end of the year gift. And, I knew it would be the perfect project for my first Malabrigo experience. I found some at the Knitters Frolic in Toronto a few weeks ago, lucky, since I had such short notice of his departure and wouldn't have time to order some.



I started knitting that night. I kind of wish I used the opportunity to learn to cable without a cable needle, but I got into a good rhythm and didn't want to mess it up.



I am so happy with this hat, I loved loved LOVED the Malabrigo. I forgot to take picutres of the hat on my husbands full sized head, so my (not quite) 8 year old agreed to be the hat model for me.



Mr. M liked it too.

Playing receptionist today

My husbands secretary is ill today, so I'm filling in. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just sort of muddling through. I need to fill in for a week in June though, so this is good practice. But on with the knitting.

I finished the socks for my MIL in mid April (yes, I'm a bad knit blogger), on what I though was going to be the last chilly day of the season, but good old Mother Nature has decided that we do indeed need spring and not spummer.



This is the Retro Rib Sock from Interweave Knits Favorite Socks, knit in the lovely Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight, Love in Idleness. It's so pretty!



She was wearing them today when she came to watch the small people for me and says they fit perfectly. It's nice to make socks for people whose feet are the same size as your own (I'm sure I've said that before)



I went to the DKC Knitters Frolic in Toronto last weekend. Ooo it was fun. Lettuce Knit was there with a table full of STR. I came home with a mediumweight skein in Philosophers Stone and a lightweight in Moss Agate. I also got a Tulip kit, because I couldn't hold out any longer, and a skein of Malabrigo Worsted to make a Koolhaas hat for J's Kindergarten teacher. I'm in love with the Malabrigo. I want my sheets made out of it. There is more in my future, guaranteed.

Well, my car knitting wasn't in the car (silly me for not checking) so I have no knitting. Tragic isn't it? So those poor ribbed socks languishing in the WIP pile will languish a little longer, the ribbing is done though and I'm ready to turn the heel.

Coming soon, the secret project.