Luscious Mittens

Since I bought the knitting word poetry magnets at the OHS and put them on the fridge, there have been a variety of sentences. Mostly it's Amanda making cute phrases. I'm usually a little slow when someone is trying to make subtle hints, but this one was kind of obvious and I was hopped up on caffeine so I didn't miss it.
Yeah, hard to miss, huh?
So anyway, after I got used to seeing all of the gorgeous colours at Lindenhof and I could see them separately instead of a a rainbow-blur, I fixated on a particular handpainted skein. I couldn't get it out of my head. Then I couldn't get it out of my hand. I think it fits the bill and Amanda certainly agreed.

The fronts of Veronik's sweater are blocking and the 1st sleeve is waiting its turn. Today I will knit the 2nd sleeve and have it blocking with the 1st one by the end of the day (or early into tomorrow).
I'll get to that as soon as I have a chocolate chip muffin. Amanda has become a great little coffee runner (Tim's is just around the corner and up a block and Amanda loves being asked to go there!) and sometimes a reward is in order. And I'm just not one to make something really delish and not have one (or three). I even made up a little ditty - "Do you know the Muffin Woman ... who lives on Robertson Road?" It works out quite well into the Muffin Man tune. Ha - now you won't be able to get it out of your head either.

Vogue Cover Sweaters

While they're not all going on my "to-do" list, they all have a certain appeal that made them cover sweaters. The best news? You can download all of them - for free!! Thanks VK - Happy Anniversary.

lol cats

Your Score: Lion Warning Cat

67% Affectionate, 51% Excitable, 37% Hungry

You are the good Samaritan of the lolcat world. Protecting others from danger by shouting observations and guidance in cases of imminent threat, you believe in the well-being of everyone.

To see all possible results, checka dis.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Fall IK

Summer is quite over - the Summer '07 Knitty Surprises are up, but I'll have to start cramming as much fun & knitting into what's left of summer. The Fall IK preview is up and, while I really don't want to rush summer and what's left of my time off, with sweater like this to look forward to it's going to be a great fall!!

Knitting in the News

Knitted Gingerbread House
Knitted Shreddies - Has anyone seen this commercial? It brings a whole new meaning to 'fiber' in your diet!! Ha ha - I kill me!!
Is coconut the next bamboo?

A weekend at Lindehof

Joan Kass and I were invited up to Lindenhof Wool Mill this weekend for a tour, roll naked in to meet and knit with their sumptuous yarn and work out some pattern ideas to knit up with their yarn.
We just had to stop in Meaford for a picture in front of Georgian Bay. The colours of the water were so varied & beautiful.
We had a positively delightful time! Angelika took us on a tour of the mill when we arrived Saturday. Never having seen a mill before I was a bit surprised by how much hand work is involved in processing and milling wool. And then the skeins still have to be given a final wash & dyed. OMG - the colours! Unfortunately, my picture of their yarn wall was hopelessly blurred, but here is a shot of some of the yarn that Joan & I are going to work with. They do hand paints and "mostly solids" and the colours are so rich and alluring. Even the naturals seem to have a special richness that just begs to be invested into the perfect sweater. They use wool, alpaca, silk, mohair and angora to create a variety of yarns and rovings.
Ohhhh, looky!! Prize-winning 100% alpaca.
While doing all of the things necessary to make sure that the household runs smoothly while Angelika and Sabine are in the Mill, Oma knit socks. Clickety-clicking away she just cranks out socks with the Lindenhof sock yarn. Joan brought home her favourite colourway - good thing that she did; for now the hand painted sock yarns are produced in unique, non-repeatable colourways. Because my German is limited to "guten morgen/nacht", "Ich spreche nicht Deutsche" and a few numbers and colours, Sabine translated for Oma so that I could write out her standard sock pattern.
Not only were we treated to this personal introduction to unique yarns, we were wined & dined and put up in a beautiful guest house. Being just a few hours out of Toronto it's a perfect place to get away for the weekend!

Live from Alterknit con't

As the knitters wrote reviews of the various yarns, they were asked to use a single adjective to describe each yarn. Amy went through them and selected the most amusing, appropriate and ear-catching ones and put them into a lovely bag. A random draw was done - the bag is the prize! Joan & I dug deep into our vocabularies 'cause a girl can always use another knitting bag ... right? I'm not weird (well, at least not about this!).
And the winner is ... Sandy!!

Live from Alterknit

Here we are - yarn tasting at Alterknit. Here are some of the yarns that I sampled - Tilli Tomas, Lorna's Laces, Art Yarns and Alchemy Yarns. It's a blast - sorry that you couldn't come - maybe next month! Amy had a great time officiating.

It was a bit like being the monkeys at the zoo though - pedestrians kept stopping and looking at us through the large front window. We are an entertaining bunch apparently!

Stitch 'n Pitch

I mentioned the upcoming Toronto Blue Jays (vs the A's) Stitch n' Pitch on Sunday and I just wanted to elaborate a bit more.
You don't have to like baseball to come. Like you don't have to like reading to go to the local knitting guild meeting at the library. But if you do like baseball this'll be an awesome night!
This is going to be a massive KIP opportunity. I mean, how many time do you think that an entire section (or more if necessary) of knitters will get put up on the JumboTron? And really, what are the chances that sports commentators are going to be able to ignore the most fun-having section in the Dome? I don't think so!!

We are also encouraging any and all kinds of stitching - crocheting, cross stitching, embroidery, needle point and, of course, knitting!!
I'm not one to watch baseball on TV but I love a live game and to not be the only knitter there - there's no way I'm gonna miss this!
You can get tickets here, or from Joan Kass at the DKC or from Julie at The Needle Emporium. We'll all get a Blue Jays knitting bag and I'm told that there are going to be knitterly goodies in it!! So whadda'ya say - shall we "knit, knit, knit for the home team"?

Down the Rabbit Hole

I have fallen into the Rabbit Hole that is aka Summer and I'm trying to slow down!
Appointments, Amanda starting a paper route, Kyle starting at McDonalds, charters (not that I'm complaining on that score! I didn't do any charters last summer and so far I've done 3 and have 3 more scheduled.) While it's cutting into my knitting time it pays more than U.I.. Amanda & I went to the Ontario Science Centre and, among other interesting activities, she became a chameleon! See what I mean - she's practically invisible!!

I met Revital at Alterknit when I was on a charter last weekend. Alterknit was literally right around the corner from where we parked the buses!! She was knitting on her first pair of socks.

Bonne's sweater is on it's way to her, Veronique's is going very well as is Elise's. I know, but you'll just have to trust me on these.

Joan Kass & I will be down at Alterknit this Friday for the Knitty Yarn Roundtable Night.

Amanda, Elise & I will be going to the Toronto Blue Jays' Stitch 'n Pitch on August 15th - it's going to be great!!



Click here to create your own painting.

Thanks Sam - it's better than I could have done on my own.

I'll try to do better at summer blogging. And summer knitting that I can take pictures of.

The World Cup comes to Canada

A lot of Canadian teams have dropped the ball of yarn puck this year and the Stanley Cup but The Spiders have picked up the slack. We took the fleece, spun it & knit it really fast and now, Canadians from coast to coast have reason to stand and cheer - The Trophy is here!!!

I give you The World Cup of Knitting - the Scottish Wool Centre Trophy, awarded to the fastest B2B team each year. Hopefully we can get the team together for a celebratory dinner and some pics of the team hoisting the trophy , kissing it hello (no worries - no tongue).

Oh - good luck to Canada in the FIFA U-20!