Off the Needles

Lemongrass is off the needles!! It doesn't look especially impressive yet, but that's nothing that a nice blocking can't sort out.  

It's shaping up to be just as busy a week at work this week, so it may take a few days, but I'll be able to drop it 'round to The Needle Emporium next week!

I've started on the the next Hitchhiker. I'm using frabjous fibers Cheshire Cat   again; this is Cats in the Coffee colourway. Not my colours, but it's about the recipient, and I'm enjoying the subtle colours variations that I love in hand-dyed yarns. 

 I think it's a humourously appropriate choice since Jennifer has all sorts of outdoor cats 'round their property. 

Craig and I went to see an exhibition game between the Toronto Rock and Buffalo Bandits on Saturday. 

 It was at the TRAC  so a casual atmosphere, but the playing was intense and not disappointing. 

The friends that we went with have seasons tickets, so I'm sure that we'll end up watching a game or two at the ACC before their season is out. 

Grass is Growing

The Hondas are piling up at work and I've been putting in some long nights. Mostly I've been in the plants, so my knitting time has been rather meager, but last night I was back on the dock and the knitting was good!!  

I got the 2^nd sleeve started, so hopefully tonight will be another dock night!

The puppies love the snow, but hesitate to jump in the deep end! 

 

Chica is adorable - she found this little stone before the snow came down. She noses/paws it off the edge of the loveseat, then fetches it and starts all over again. It's quite amusing. 

 

I need to start getting myself organized. The kids are coming for Xmas dinner next weekend, and I am going to cook all the things. Can't wait to have all my ❤️💖❤️ under the same roof, even if it's only for one night. 

Lemongrass

I finished the front of Lemongrass and I'm onto the back.  

Should be fairly quick as it's simple stockinette. 

Not a great picture, but I can't be bothered to move to lay it out. 

I've been struck by The Dreaded Lurgy. Not the worst one ever, but I'm feeling downright oogy. The puppies are good nursemaids. Not much on fetching tea, but they are great for long naps in bed. Petey has finally mastered jumping up on my bed!! He's a better snuggle buddy than Chica; she's still working her bitch streak, though she's mellowing out a bit.  

I finished my Flamingo Beach socks! They took almost three weeks, but they were done strictly at work; I was off one day and in the plant for 5, so basically two weeks of found knitting time! 

 Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I don't deliberately make my socks identical. I finish one and just start on the next one. I didn't change my strategy on this pair, so it is mere happenstance that they are as identical as one could hope, even if they had tried!! I love the colours and am deciding on the next pair. Though it may be another Hitchhiker instead.   

This one will be for Craig's mom; she knits too so will be especially appreciative of the effort put into it. 
 

We had quite the snowfall here yesterday! Barrie and Alliston weren't hit as hard, but we finished up with 60cm/24" of the fluffy white stuff!!

 

Lovely to look at though. 
 

Swatching

Here's a much better picture of the finished Sorrento  courtesy Julie  I have a tendency to forget to take progress pics and a finished one is hit-and-miss. It takes a village, and this idiot is happy for my village ❤️❤️

 

Wow - I'm even a little impressed with my handiwork seeing it like this!

I should say something about the Studio Linen  Being comprised of 85% recycled rayon linen, it has a softer drape right off of the ball. It doesn't have the stiffness that linen is known for for and that is so hard on your hands when knitting with it. I love linen, the breaking in of it is part of the magic; a shortcut is awesome though! It was a pleasure to knit with, block and seam. 

I have been swatching and knitting on Lemongrass. 

I jumped straight to 6.5mm needles, since I knit tightly in general, though a bit more "standard" on circulars. The swatch was a bit loose, though the row gauge was spot on, which is important on a raglan shaped sweater. I could do and have done maths to correct my inexplicably right row gauges, but swatching is quicker for me. 

I cast on, but by round 16, realized that I'd been knitting tighter, perhaps subconsciously because I knew my stitch gauge was loose. Also, my shorter Addis are standard and the ones that I swatches on were the lace tips. Yes, needles matter. 

 

So I pulled out my Marblz and cast on a new swatch with 6mm needles. 

Much better - stitch gauge is spot on and row gauge is the same as on the 6.5mm. I know, weird. It's a skill; not particularly marketable, but a skill nonetheless. 

So I cast on anew and am at round 16. Again. The best part about using and interchangeable set is that I can just upsize/downsize the cord as needed. 

I didn't get much done on my Flamingo Beach socks last night; I was in plant 2 for 3/4 of the night as they were short-handed. But my step count was higher, so trade off; my steps are about 1/2 when I'm working dock. 

Swatching

Here's a much better picture of the finished Sorrento  courtesy Julie  I have a tendency to forget to take progress pics and a finished one is hit-and-miss. It takes a village, and this idiot is happy for my village ❤️❤️

 

Wow - I'm even a little impressed with my handiwork seeing it like this!

I should say something about the Studio Linen  Being comprised of 85% recycled rayon linen, it has a softer drape right off of the ball. It doesn't have the stiffness that linen is known for for and that is so hard on your hands when knitting with it. I love linen, the breaking in of it is part of the magic; a shortcut is awesome though! It was a pleasure to knit with, block and seam. 

I have been swatching and knitting on Lemongrass. 

I jumped straight to 6.5mm needles, since I knit tightly in general, though a bit more "standard" on circulars. The swatch was a bit loose, though the row gauge was spot on, which is important on a raglan shaped sweater. I could do and have done maths to correct my inexplicably right row gauges, but swatching is quicker for me. 

I cast on, but by round 16, realized that I'd been knitting tighter, perhaps subconsciously because I knew my stitch gauge was loose. Also, my shorter Addis are standard and the ones that I swatches on were the lace tips. Yes, needles matter. 

 

So I pulled out my Marblz and cast on a new swatch with 6mm needles. 

Much better - stitch gauge is spot on and row gauge is the same as on the 6.5mm. I know, weird. It's a skill; not particularly marketable, but a skill nonetheless. 

So I cast on anew and am at round 16. Again. The best part about using and interchangeable set is that I can just upsize/downsize the cord as needed. 

I didn't get much done on my Flamingo Beach socks last night; I was in plant 2 for 3/4 of the night as they were short-handed. But my step count was higher, so trade off; my steps are about 1/2 when I'm working dock. 

The end of that, the start of this

I finished Sorrento, pockets and all! Yeah, you know pockets aren't my fave thing, but they really add the perfect touch to this sweater.  

I did discover an small error on the inc section of the back; the correction is on the errata section of the Erika Knight website. 

I'm sure that Julie will post better pics, this one is rather dark. 

I have moved from the plant at Honda to the dock crew. There is more parking, driving, and getting driven back around. It's a smaller crew, just 4-5 of us and Mark is chill and lets me knit while we're in the bus. Seriously, it's just dead head time. I take the expected teasing in stride, just happy to be able to fill in the time productively. 

 I started these on Tuesday, and considering that I spent most of Friday helping out in Plant 2, I'm well pleased with what I got done. I estimate that if I only knit socks in the bus I could get approx 1 sock knit per week. Impressive for straight up bonus knitting time yo!! 

My plans for this weekend fell through and with Sorrento finished, Craig and I decided to head to Ancaster to trade a finished sweater for a potential sweater and chat with Julie and Cathy. It was a decent day for a drive when we set off. Ditto has been in play in Pokémon, and we've both been capturing low level Pidgeys, Rattatas, and Zubats like crazy trying to find one. Well, Ancaster is the place to go! 5 between the two of us, and I caught my first whilst I was sitting in The Needle Emporium!

 We stopped at Costco for my work week snacks (chicken nuggets, eggs to boil and yogurt) and when we came out it started pouring bone-chilling rain. I dozed off on the drive Back and woke up when Craig stopped at a Tims just south of Orangeville. We went in for a coffee and when we came out it was snowing giant, fluffy flakes like someone had just shaken our snow globe!! 
 

Needless to say we started to think that we should stop stopping and just get home!! HA!! 

Since we decided on chili for dinner, there were a couple of stops for provisions, then I set to the making as soon as we got in, getting Craig set to his sous chef duties. 

 This is the start of something delicious!!

We are enjoying a lovely bottle of red while the chili cooks down.

 

 As soon as I post this, I am going to wind one of the giant skeins of Cascade Yarns Eco in Turtle and cast on for Lemongrass  I was admiring pics of her new Vneck Boxy on Jojis instagram feed, so I'm excited to knit this up!!

Bread's ready - gotta go!