Wonder Woman Socks

One sock down!! I am a knitter who does not suffer from Second Sock Syndrome. I think that I’m actually faster on the 2^nd one because I’m not measuring, I’m just knitting to a row count to match the 1^st sock. 
I love it and Petey approves!! The Turtlepurl yarn is a titch thicker than the commercial fingering I’ve been using lately, so it knit up even a bit more quickly. I also had to adjust my toe shaping a bit to compensate for the fewer rows required. 

I have cast on for Lynn’s sweater. I find that swatching for a circular knot is rather challenging, so as much as I am an advocate and believer in swatching, I have skipped this step. I am not doing so without knowing that I may have to rip it all out and start over, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I’m generally a tight knitter, but knit more loosely on circulars, so I think it will work out. Gauge seems good so far, but it’s a bit hard to judge accurately with the short row shaping and rapid increases at the top of Humulus. 

Hopefully time will tell a nice story for me. 

Keeping On Keeping On

Now that we have jumped straight from winter to summer, Dairy Queen is in full swing!! I really love my job and the daily challenges that make it so far from boring. 

I am making some progress on Nicole’s sock.

I have a new project on the needles, so, as ever, the socks slow down. But progress is progress! 

I am keto’ing like a champ! My determination and willpower are unbreakable when I set my mind to something. This was tonight’s dinner - easy enough to put together after a long day and being rather too tried to really cook. I have recently discovered Haloumi cheese and I am quite taken with it! Salty with a nice soft bite to it. Without much flavour of its own, it pairs nicely with a fresh, bright marinara.

I have also tried guacamole. I have truly never tried avocado or guacamole, but quite convinced that i didn’t like it. In a bid to up the healthy fats in my diet, I decided to take the plunge and selected the Good Foods chunky guacamole from Costco. I may never eat an actual avocado, but this guacamole is now Life!!

The summer sausage is also from Costco. While I try to be ingredient-focused in my food choices, I love summer sausage, and this cotton-wrapped one from Noah Martin is just too good to pass up. It’s relative localness is also a plus. The amount of sugar is negligible, so it is one of my few exceptions.

On top of my secular job, knitting all the things, baseball season starting on Friday, I have taken on a reading assignment. The book is The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy. When i read the teaser for the book, I was quite intrigued and was thrilled when I was selected to read and review the book! I have to say that the presentation of the book was quite enticing.

I’m still early on, but the characters are being well developed; they and their interactions are quite believable. You are pulled in to their lives and that is what makes you want to keep reading.

So I’m quite occupied and have yet to cast on anything for my Wee Bean. I am saving and downloading patterns, so I’m not completely unprepared, I just need to get to it.

The puppies are well and Petey remains my constant little shadow.

I forgot to take their food out of the freezer last night, so it was also an easy dinner for the puppies. They seem to prefer the meaty bones with fibre roughage just plain, old dirt, on them. Silly puppies 

Okay ... back to something - the choices abound!!

Mittens, Take Two

A busy week, but I finally remembered to make the time to stop at True North Yarn Co to pick out yarn for my cousins mittens.



Without further ado, I cast on for them after dinner tonight. I'm feeling much more optimistic about these ones!!

I have also made fine progress on my 2^nd Stitch Surfers. Just finished the heel shaping.



Tomorrow a new clue comes out on the Vanessa Ives MKAL - can't wait to see what's next!!

Busy, busy, busy!!

Its Thanksgiving weekend this weekend; I have my son and his girlfriend coming, as well as my dad and his lady friend. I will be cooking all of the things!!

I'm back to work 1/2 days next week. It will be bittersweet. Almost 6 years; I've made a lot of friends and while I am excited about my new opportunity, there are a lot of people that I will miss at The Mighty Mart of Wal!!
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Location:Tree Top St,Essa,Canada

Knitterly Knitter

I feel astonishingly and refreshingly productive!!! 

I have finished my purple socks!!

And we all know that there is no love like a new love. That feeling of anticipation,  just thinking about that soft new fibre slipping through your fingers, seeing the colours dance and twirl on the needles and into a new fabric. Hearing the siren song of a new pattern. Ah yes ... there's no time for tired now.

I cast on Drops 85-11 aka Beth's Zara Print Sweater last night. I forgot how buttery smooth Zara is!! It has such a soft twist that you'd think it would be splitty, especially when I'm using my most fave needles ever - Signature Stilettos. The colouration is wonderfully blended, the cables are popping well.

I am also in the throes of indecision for Westknits Mystery KAL 2012. I read it on Anne & Julie's blogs and thought that I had missed the signup - but I didn't!!!

Not like I need another project but Stephen is a very clever designer and I admire the organic flow of his designs very much. I dove into boxes, retrieved likely candidates, mixed, moved, walked away and walked back.



I had it down to the Sundara Seaweed & Red Corset Sunkist but the two skeins of Seaweed are sufficiently different that I have decided against them; I don't want to be switching up balls on alternate rows on a Mystery Project.

I think I'm in love with this though. Wollmeise Blue Bell & Dream In Color Some Summer Sky. Seriously - the names alone betoken a perfect summer shawl combination!!
 
I'm also considering a linen laceweight combination, but I'm not as certain about it.

Simplicity

So I am back to knitting on socks - my thumb is sufficiently de-sensitized and mostly just numbish (still swollen & unsightly) to return to regularly scheduled knitting. I finished the first sock and am onto the second one. The 2nd sock always goes faster for me ...

While I couldn't knit on such fine needles (and when I say fine I mean 2.75mm tiny & Damn Fine Signatures!!) and even now to give my thumb a rest, I have been knitting on scarves. I really do love the simple beauty and ease of garter stitch and I love the way Iris Schreier's mitered scarf turns stripes on their sides! I'm going to be saving them up to donate to the DKC Relay for Life team. I've gotten some masculine colours ... can't wait to bang more out!!
Sometimes though, a miter can take a wrong turn. I can't believe that I finished the whole triangle before I realized what I had done!! LOL Back on track though with a healing laugh for good measure.

Oh Wonderful Day!!!

I've gotten lazy about the mail and tend to only send Amanda across the road for it every 2-3 days. I have got to start checking the mail more often. My lovely Signature Needles arrived probably Thursday or Friday and I didn't get to open them until last night. I know!!! Cathy & Daniella included a purple pin - it's the closest that they have to pink right now - thanks ladies!!! Amanda needs to get off of Facebook and wind the yarn for her next mittens ... I need to cast on!!!

When I opened my email this morning there was a newsletter from The Needle Emporium. Sale?!? OMG!!! I have been wanting to knit a Morrigan (Rav link) for myself since I knit the sample for the book and Rowan Calmer being on sale was totally the impetus that I needed. I had my shade cards out but I still couldn't decide on a colour! There is nothing like having the yarn in hand, seeing whole balls of the colours so there was nothing for it -- off to Julie's!!! There was also the Molly scarf that I had finished that really needed to be delivered ;-).

I decided on the Drift - classic off-white which I can also wear to work at The Mighty Mart of Wal - for Morrigan, picked up a skein of DIC Classy in Spring Tickle for Mitten Mania '10 and scored the Holiday IK (I think that it was the last one that Julie had!!). And I got to see Julie - totally worth the drive to Ancaster!!

Mitten Mania '10

We interrupt our regularly scheduled knitting to show you the New Coat & Hat that our young lady is sporting. The colours are washed out in this pic - I'll get a better one tomorrow before school. This, of course, means new mittens which will be knit (mostly & for now) from stash. I know - an extensive stash is something upon which you can draw not just deposit!!

Believe me, I have explained to Amanda that not every girl is so lucky as to have Malabrigo Silky Merino & Yarn Pirate mittens - !!! I told her that these were not snowball-throwing, snow-shoveling mittens but keeping warm & looking good mittens. Not that she is not to shovel ... I told her that there are "work" mittens for that!! Classic Wool is still lovely, but totally more day-to-day.

In the throws of setting up for Mitten Mania '10 I discovered that I didn't have any 3.5mm dpn in 'da house!!! I quickly remedied that with a trip to Signature Needles! A set of 4.5mm also fell into the cart - I have Aeros, but surely an event such as Mitten Mania '10 (which will without fail be followed up with future classics such as Mitten Mania '11 & '12) deserves the elegance, beauty & functionality of Signature DPN? I concur!!!

No Bad News Today

China Clouds progress = excellent!!! I'm almost at the armhole shaping of the back - I might really get this done this month!!!
I am at the halfway point on my On The Easy Side sweater. It weighs 302g which contradicts the 2 part of balls #5 & 6 (which weigh 26g) that I'm on. So I should be good to take out a dark skein & a light skein (I still have 2 light-ish skeins and I only need one for the end of the 2^nd sleeve) and still be able to finish the sweater. The extra 28g won't be problematic - as soon as I hit the spot on the 2^nd sleeve where the light skein needs to be introduced I'll switch to the light skein.

I totally forgot to show you the Signature Needle Arts sock blockers that I received as a gift!! My love for Signature needles is quite well known so this was totally the perfect gift - I can't wait to finish a pair of socks!

AND I won a contest!! It turns out that 800 is my lucky number! Amanda helped me to pick out Vacation as our colourway. You all also know about my love for handdyed yarn so this was a completely excellent win!! Amanda has requested mittens ... she also wants a slouchy winter hat.

Plus Ca Change

So I knit both of the On the Easy Side sweaters in the previous post - the Sweet Spot hit reliably at the 40 st point on the sleeves and at that repeat # in the body of the colourful version. On my current sweater it hit at 36 sts on the sleeve - why? I think that it's because I'm using Susan Bates needles instead of the Signature Needles that I used on the other two - my Sigs are being used for China Clouds & I'm loathe to change needles mid-project. Also because of the stiletto tip on the Sigs and my tendency to knit off of the tips I tend to knit tighter on them. I love this sweater so much because of the way the Sweet Spot hits in the body of and shows off the Koigu Kersti so well and that is entirely reliant on the #of sts in the body and I'm doing the M so it's the perfect repeat for a 40st Sweet Spot!!!

So ... I'm already on a 4.5mm (SB) needle and the gauge/fabric is lovely but I tried going up to a 5mm to see if that would work out - too loose and the patterning was too thin (I'm picky ... it's one of my many lovable quirks). Now it's a matter of adjusting the # of sts on the body to hit a 36st repeat. OMG - this is all of the scratching that I did trying to work that out, in addition to having a calculator almost overheating!! I'm going to blame it on the chemo (I will blame as much on treatment as I can) - my brain is totally addled lately!! I need to keep reminding the kids that it's not just because I'm getting old. I will have 20 extra sts on the body; boy am I glad that I dyed up the extra 2 skeins!!!

You'll see if you look closely (up near the top) where I've joined ball #2 - it's definitely a bit more intense in colour. All the more reason for my sorting out the gradation for a more balanced effect across the sweater. This definitely renews my admiration & appreciation for the indie dyers out there who create & re-create predictably such lovely colourways!! It's also cool that the increases above the Sweet Spot creates a bit of a stripey section then the next increase creates a sort of blocked effect.

I'm well under way for NaKniSweMo (OMG - you have no idea how many times I have to type that to get it right!!) even/especially with knitting probably half again as much sorting out the needle sizing - I knit a whack with the 4.5mm Sig, then the 5mm SB then ripped it all out and continued with the 4.5mm SB.

I started on the back of China Clouds - it feels so good to be on the last piece - I'm starting with the border again.




Amanda made the basketball team again - when will she get that she's really is good?!?

Catching up

So Stitches Midwest was awesome - working at the Signature Needle Arts booth, seeing Elise again and the live debut of my Sweetspot afghans. They were very well received and I've been doing more swatching with more yarn. My last blog was from my iPod & for some reason it wouldn't let me type out an actual post.Cathy, Daniella & Laura were as awesome as ever and really made me feel at home in the booth. 5'5.5" has never felt tall to me until I looked at this picture.

I've got to give a shout-out to Mary - it was so nice to meet you


I got a mug from Starbucks that people sign, then you bake in a low-temp oven and it's good to use & put in the dishwasher. It's filled in nicely!!


Work has been kicking my ass since school started up again. We've been scrambling to cover routes so I've been driving more days than not and with the new office set-up and phone system the 10-12 hour days that I've been putting in have been just keeping my head above the ocean of paper, but it's been seriously cutting into my knitting time and I'm starting to feel like a soulless automaton.
But I have finished putting together the squares for Luke's blanket for Cindy and I'm finally making good inroads on the Leaf Motif Jacket (#31) from the winter Vogue Knitting.
Kerwyn has had a few promising interviews and we've got our . The gods have been cruel enough for long enough I think.

Oh yeah - The Amazing Race starts up again tonight and yes, I'll be there watching it with you & blogging it. I don't have a favourite team yet, we'll see how the first leg goes.

I hit the big 40 on Friday and I don't feel older (well, not most days). I feel like I'm really starting to hit my stride and find my place in the universe.

Next!

So I finished the Candy Stripe Jacket - including the i-cord all the way around the bottom - blocked out the collar and then totally forgot to take a picture of it before I sealed up the box. I know ... how do I even dress myself in the morning & hold down a real job?!? I'm sure that Julie will oblige with a picture when it arrives tomorrow or the next day.

There was a small error in the pattern - I've sent an email to Spud & Chloe, but for anyone else making it, it may save you a "wtf?" moment.

The final instruction on the Back Neck and Shoulder Shaping reads:

Next Row (RS): BO 4(5, 5, 6, 8)sts at armhole edge twice, then 5(6, 6, 7, 7)sts 4 times, and AT THE SAME TIME, BO 2 sts at each neck edge once.

There just are not enough stitches to do this and it would not match the shoulder shaping on the front pieces.

It should read:

Next Row (RS): BO 4(5, 5, 6, 8)sts at armhole edge once, then 5(6, 6, 7, 7)sts twice, and AT THE SAME TIME, BO 2 sts at each neck edge once.

Otherwise it was a very enjoyable project and the yarn is wonderful to knit with! I, the professional yarn vacuum, even managed to do the M in with 5 skeins!

ETA: I received the following response from Spud & Chloe. I was apparently confused by the RS part of the instructions, when they were instructions for both sides of the body.
Next Row (RS): BO 4 (5, 5, 6, 8) sts at armhole edge twice, then 5 (6, 6, 7, 7) sts 4 times, and AT THE SAME TIME, BO 2 sts at each neck edge once. *you should bind off 8 (10, 10, 12, 16), then 20 (24, 24, 28, 28), and 4.
Perhaps the confusion may have come in with the first part of this row where it indicates to bind off 4 (5, 5, 6, 8) sts at armhole edge twice. This means each armhole edge once.

Knit One Below will never lose it's appeal for me. I have cast on a new pair of socks for Elise that I will deliver, in person, at Stitches Midwest. I'm so excited about this show - another opportunity to visit with Elise in person, getting to work with Laura & Daniella and the incomparable Signature Needles (yes my eagle-eyed reader, those are Signature DPN in my sock!) and the chance to see, touch and buy yarns that we don't see way up here.

I brought Amanda and a friend to work with me on Friday. They hung around for a bit, then walked to the town pool for an afternoon of swimming then a Blizzard. While they were at the office Amanda showed Jodi how to make paper picture frames. Amanda is awesome at making them & they are totally cool. Poor Jodi was a good sport but I don't think that origami is quite her thing!
Amanda also got new glasses. Actually it's more of new prescription - she has been coveting Kyle's (very) old frames and remarkably enough Iris was able to put new lenses for Amanda in them!
Amanda has been saying for a couple of months that she doesn't need her glasses any more, that she sees just fine. I countered with, "No one has such a bad astigmatism that they need a patch and then, in two years, are miraculously cured. Wear the glasses, I'll make an appointment with the optometrist." It's not so much as I was wrong as I was not as right as I might have been. Amanda adamantly and doggedly debates this point. She does still need glasses, but only for serious distance - back of the classroom with fine print on the board, movie theatres, etc.
Doesn't she really look like a mini-me with those frames? With the attitude that she is developing along with the knitting skills ... at least she got some of her dad's looks!!

Going for a 3-peat

The Toronto Spiders are going for a 3-peat of the International Back-to-Back Wool Challenge at Black Creek Pioneer Village on May 31st.

If you're going to be in the area, come on by and cheer us on - the middle bit is not much to get excited about but we sure do know how to rock out the beginning & finale!! Signature Needle Arts is the Official Needle Sponsor for the Spiders - all of the knitters will be knitting with Signature Needles. We're really hoping that this will help us take a few more minutes off of our time in our quest for the World Record.

Stitches East

I have had an unforgettable experience this weekend. Being a part of Elise's book, Knit one Below, seeing the garments that I knit on live models and photographed so very well in the book, teaching people how easy it is to k1b and seeing them planning what yarns to start experimenting with is a high that I may never come down from. The book has sold out here yesterday!!! Congratulations Elise - I really hope that this is just the first of many books.

I got my 2nd set of Signature Needles - aren't they gorgeous??!! sorry 'bout the glare Cathy, Daniella & Laura are so nice; they let me sit in their booth on Friday and knit on Amanda's sweater and extol the virtues of these wonderful tools that really do change everything.

I knit a swatch of the Therapi that Joe had given me. I'm generally quite skeptical of yarn that claims overtly soothing properties, but I have to say that this yarn has a je ne sais quois about it that is calming. The 20% silk gives it a wonderful lustre but the jadeite fibre is backing it up and plays a subtle suppporting role. It flows through your hands with a mercurial ease; it's like you're sensing the yarn more than commanding it.
I knit it to the suggested tension of 20 sts, but if I were doing a straight-up stockinette stitch sweater I would probably go a bit tighter. It took well to cables and lace. I have yet to block it - I'll let you know how that affects my opinion on the cables.

I'm off to do my part to stimulate the American economy for a couple more hours before I hit the road. I've got Amanda DVR'ing The Amazing Race for us - I won't be able to watch/blog it until tomorrow ...

Signature Needles

They came, they came!!! I love them - they are absolutely works of art in and of themselves. The tips are remarkable! On the bottom is the Stiletto, then the Middy and on the top is my favourite (old favourite?) Aero. Yeah, I use it a lot.
Then the lovely teardrop shaped end. It fits perfectly into my hip and slides effortlessly in and out for quick row changes. I feel a small teardrop of my own - I'm getting a bit verklempt.

And they are so light and well balanced. I do believe that these may be my ultimate needle. I'm off to the local big box yarn store to buy a ball of Red Heart to practice with. My training is kicking into high gear now.

Maybe I need to take Mischief with me - she's been working on her hypnotizing.