number 47

It was Purling Pirate's birthday last week and I knit her a pair of socks.
Pattern: No Purl Monkeys by Crafty Pancakes
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM; no idea what the colour is; 2 skeins (50g; 175 yds per skein)
Needles: 2.5mm Hiya Hiya dpns
Notes: She's got big feetz so I only had a teeny bit of yarn leftover. My 47th pair of socks!!!!


The pics don't show off the colour well but trust me when I say that these are really bright!

The Lacy Kerchief Scarf is moving along. It looks about the same as it did last week but longer. I was hoping to get more done but my time has been spent playing with the nieces. And in a few days, hubby's parents come to town (not staying with us this time) so we've got a whole list of events for Easter weekend.

I didn't get any knitting done tonite because Dad's washing machine flooded the laundry room. Despite the fact that three people (I was not one of them) checked the outlet hose to make sure it was securely fastened, it wasn't. We spent almost 2 hours cleaning up the mess, reattaching the hose (securely this time), and testing it. I am currently washing 3 loads of towels used in the clean up because my washing machine is bigger and Dad doesn't have a dryer. I'm exhausted.

Li's fault

Last week, Li posted her latest FO - a cashmere scarf. I spent Sat at work thinking of the yarn I could use to knit myself one. Right after supper, I dug around in the stash and settled on a skein of Malabrigo Sock in Cote d'Azure.


The scarf is more than half way done and I'm loving it. Thanks for my latest obsession, Li.

Today, I went to our one and only local fiber festival. It's teeny but worth the one hour drive. I scored some SweetGeorgia sock yarn:


And a skein of undyed silk/cashmere (still blaming you, Li):


And that's it for me. I bought a drop spindle & some roving but it's for a friend who wants to learn how to spin. I was very restrained. Probably because this arrived in the mail this morning:


This is my hubby's yarn stash. It's his because he ordered and paid for it. This yarn represents the Whistler sweater (made famous by the Yarn Harlot) that I'm supposed to be knitting for him. Am I insane for agreeing to knit a huge (hubby is 6'4") fair isle sweater?

I don't have any good cat pictures to share with you. Phoebe is pretty much glued to her heated bed and Ricky's taken to sleeping under the quilt on our bed. They're not very photogenic. So here's a gross picture:


It's a paper wasp nest that hubby found in our crawl space yesterday night. I sent him down there to see if there were any foundation issues (no leaks so we're keeping the big maple tree) and he found this under the wood floor near the fireplace. That explains the occasional buzzing that I heard last summer. Ewwwwwww!

Pooh vs. The Ducks

Well, that was an interesting grocery shopping trip. I was walking down the aisle with my overfull basket in one hand and a bag of pizza shells (hubby is lactose intolerant so we don't order in pizza anymore) in the other. All of a sudden, my precariously balanced self became unbalanced as I watched my pizza shells roll down the aisle. The seal at the bottom of the bag split open and since gravity works so well, my pizza shells made a run for it. I picked up the now grimy pizza shells, trooped over to the opposite side of the store, left them with a bakery person, and I picked up another bag - carefully checking that they wouldn't fall out. They made it home without any further incident. Phew!

I have all this free time now that I'm not hand washing dishes anymore. Yay! I started a crazy looking scarf.


The yarn varies from fun fur to rayon ribbon and even sequined sections. It's seriously crazy stuff to knit with.


Crazy enough that I can't stand it for more than a few rows at a time. Don't know how I'm going to get through the second scarf.

Hubby has been hinting that I should be working on his Noro socks.


Surprisingly, they are almost matchy-matchy. I didn't deliberately do this. Just grabbed the second ball of yarn and cast on.

After staring at my Outside In/Inside Out socks for weeks, I frogged them and started over with another pattern.


I am much happier.

My quilt group came over to my house yesterday for our weekly SnB. I found this little vignette on my coffee table this morning.


These were props for explaining hockey rules - icing, off side, and I can't remember the other one. The ducks are on one team and Pooh is on the other. The ruler is some sort of line and my retractable tape measure is the hockey puck. I suspect that the Olympics have turned some of them into hockey fans.

still here

I am not my usual self these days. I am battling a mysterious pain in my mouth/jaw. I've been to the dentist 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Two dentists can't figure out what's wrong. I've been xray'd and poked and prodded. And those salt water rinses are gross. I have one more appointment scheduled for this week where they will check to make sure my nightguard fits properly. If it's fine, I need to make an appointment with a specialist.

In a fit of knitting last week, I got the birthday present finished and in the mail. I hope it gets there in time. I'll post pictures when it arrives.

This weekend, I snagged hubby into taking some decent pictures of me in the Helleborus Yoke Cardi. Compare these pictures to the pre-block ones:


It lengthened a lot and I think that explains why it got smaller in the bust.


Stitches tend to stretch more widthwise and since this garment is constructed in the opposite direction than a traditionally seamed sweater, the horizontal stretch that you expect is now in the vertical direction.


I've worn it a few times and I'm ok with the fit. Too bad Sis! Phhhhhbbbbt!!! If she wants one, she'll have to knit it herself.


These pictures make me cringe when I think about how badly that boxwood needs pruning.

On Fri, I stopped at Costco to pick up a bag of potatoes and I also came home with 6 pounds of mussels which forced me to make a side trip for bouillabaisse supplies.


One of my better impulse buys. LOL! The crusty bread dipped in the broth was the best part.

miscellany Monday

I've been knitting up a storm but since it's super duper top secret, I can't show it to you until it reaches the birthday girl. No teasers either because she'll be able to guess what I'm making her.

Isn't this a wonderful sight?


After a full month of hand washing dishes, my dishwasher is fully functional (sounds dirty doesn't it?) Hubby put it all back together on Sat while I was at work but he was too chicken to turn it on. So I flipped the breaker and hit the rinse button Sun morning. It did fine rinsing but sounded horrible when it drained. I did a quick search online and it turns out that another part was broken, too. We didn't look at the diagram when we took it apart so we didn't know. But when hubby put it together using the diagram, he should've figured out that "#13 upper discharge assembly" is a single piece. In his defense, he was sick and probably high on cold medication. So I picked up the part this morning and hubby popped it in and voila! It works - no leaks! Hopefully, the dishwasher will last another 10 years. Fingers crossed!


We had a special visitor this weekend. CraftyCupcake came up for a quick visit. Gladys and I met up with her and Janice for Chinese food. Don't we look like triplets? She made us those lovely gold medals. And she let me pet her Wollmeise Molly sweater (the yarn base is no longer available which makes this garment extra special).

So hubby has the snifoos... I've been sleeping in the guest bed the last 2 nights. He's been sleeping propped up to help his sinuses drain. I popped into Costco yesterday to get more cold meds and stock up on 3ply tissues with lotion.


Ricky sez, "My nose is wet. Can I have a tissue?"

and the winner is...

Last week, we made a quick trip to Calgary to visit family and on the way home we stopped at the Big White resort near Kelowna which is famous for its snow ghosts. After a day of riding the Snow Ghost Express chairlift, you can hang out at the Snow Ghost Lounge for a little apres ski.

There are 4 correct entries and I tried to get Ricky to help out with the draw.


I don't think he was very interested.


Eventually, a slip of paper slid off his butt. And the winner is...


Bea!!!! Congrats & thanks to everyone else for taking a guess.

downgrade to silver

I can't claim the gold medal. Why? Because gauge swatches lie. They are such liars. You knit one, wash & block it and what does it tell you? Lies - all lies.

So now that my Helleborus Yoke is dry, it's too small. The sweater was designed to have positive ease. I knit the size that would give me zero ease (because the next size up would be too big) and now I have negative ease. ARGH!


Ricky sez, "If you're not wearing that sweater, can I sleep on it?"

Reminder: Contest ends tomorrow at midnight. Go here to enter. There are 3 correct answers (one of them isn't specific enough but I'll give her points for trying ;) so your chances are very good at winning.

Contest closed.

golden

After a flurry of knitting and weaving in a bajillion ends, my Helleborus Yoke is finished in time for me to claim a gold medal.


Pattern: Helleborus Yoke by Mathew Gnagy
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool; col 8010; 2 skeins (250g; 478 yds per skein)
Needles: 5.5mm & 5mm Addi circs


Mods: I made a lot of them. I'll just highlight the big ones...
- knit extra rows in the yoke for a larger sleeve diameter
- knit garter sleeve cuff in the round (instead of rib) to match button bands & hem
- knit the body in one piece rather than casting off at sides & seaming
- knit the collar & attached it to the body at the same time
- centered the button holes on the band

Post Knit Analysis
- I knit the second size which gives me absolutely no ease. The next size up is way too big for me.
- Cascade Eco wool is awesome!!!! Great yardage for the price. It's very soft and the cables really pop.
- I have a huge button collection but ended up buying 7 Mission Falls B10 buttons.
- The sweater needs a good wash and block because my stitch gauge is way out which is why it looks a bit short. I'm hoping the block will also fix the pulling at the top of the yoke and open up the yoke section.

I'm going to wear this sweater a lot. I find my Mondo Cable Cardi a bit too warm to wear everyday. Although, the Eco wool is thicker, the sleeves are short so it's almost like wearing a vest and perfect for when I need just a little extra warmth.