two months

It's been pretty close to 2 months since I last wrote up a decent post. There is sooo much that I need to get caught up on that this'll be a quick & dirty update.

FOs


Cinnamon Grace - totally ran out of yarn despite using an overweight skein. Ended up making a 2 hour round trip to buy a 27g leftover from a fellow Raveller. Still ran out of yarn. The lace edging should be wider and have a picot bind off.


Another pair of Monkey socks - my 60th pair of socks

Currently knitting on this:


Swirl skirt from the latest IK. Totally in love with this pattern.

Spinning

The Tour de Fleece is moving along. While the nieces were in town, they insisted on "helping" me so I ended up spinning a lot of junky fiber (included in the purchase of my wheels). But I've had the opportunity to spin some nice stuff, too. This is sample of what I've accomplished so far:






We're leaving for Sock Summit in less than two weeks. I have so much to do to get ready. I'm excited!!!!

the sicky

That's me today. My throat is sore, my nose is starting to run, and I feel like I could nap all day long. I'm in bed under a quilt with a chocolate bar, fish bits (prepared dried squid - it's an acquired taste), a bag of throat drops, some sock knitting, a box of tissues, and a cat between my ankles.


The weather's been really crappy the last few weeks so photo ops have been few & far between. I did manage to sneak outside with my latest pair of socks:


My first handspun! My first handspun & handknit socks!!!! I am over the moon. They are very firm & sturdy & a bit too thick to wear in shoes so they'll end up as house socks. I love them soooo much! Aren't they purty?

I am spinning like mad. I've spun and plied about half a pound of undyed merino for a shawl KAL. I have to spin the other half before I can start knitting. I bought some Rambouillet last week and I'm spinning that on the Traveller (still unnamed but I'm leaning towards Clementine). The new wheel has developed a clunk that I'm trying to troubleshoot & fix. Hubby doesn't think I should mess with it but then it doesn't bother him as much as it bothers me.

Writing this post has tired me out. I'm going to slouch down and fall asleep to Glee.

happy hands

So.Much.Food! My little quilting group held our annual Christmas luncheon yesterday. I am so glad that I wore loose pants. There was a ton of food. We actually ran out of table space and I had to serve the soup from the kitchen. I was so full that I didn't eat supper and had a snack around 9:30pm consisting of a Bakewell tart that was leftover from the party. I brought home cabbage rolls and baked beans, too. Hubby ate all the cabbage rolls (the piggy) and some of the leftover soup. I'm going to tackle the baked beans today.

We also unwrapped our presents to each other which means that I can unveil what I've been working on.


Pattern: Funky Chunky Mitts by Lindsey Williard (Ravelry download)
Yarn: Gedifra Volata Tweed; one skein (50g; 110 yds) per pair
Needles: 5.5mm dpns
Notes: I started knitting in June but ended knitting 9 pairs in the last month. Heh - so much for getting a head start. I am so glad this project is done!

Now that I'm feeling better (thanks for all the get well wishes), baking has begun. It didn't start smoothly. The night before the first batch, I came home and hubby tells me that the oven is broken. He tried heating up a shepherd's pie and it took forever. A quick check of the oven proved that the bottom element wasn't turning on. ACK! Our appliance book (the best $40 we've ever spent) said to check the electrical connections but of course, I loaned my DMM to my Dad and if hubby had called, I would've brought it home with me. Anyways, we assumed that the element was broken and not any of the electrical innards. Hubby ran off to the parts store first thing the next morning and the oven is working again. Yay! The new element gets really hot and we managed to slightly scorch the first batch of cookies. So the rack has been raised and hopefully, things are under control now. We baked 8 doz chocolate cranberry cookies yesterday night and we're baking chocolate meltie cookies today. We're making snickerdoodles tomorrow. I'll be making cookie deliveries all next week.

And just before bed, I managed to kitchener the toe on my Christmas socks.


Pattern: my usual 60 st top down with short row heel; changed colours every 5 rows
Yarn: Diamond Yarn Luxury Collection Foot Loose; 1 sk green and 1 sk multi
Needles: 2.25mm dpns
Notes: Pair number 56! I was going to make these for my sister but I'm keeping them for myself. I love manually striped socks because I get to pick which colours to stripe.

This'll be my last post before the 25th so I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Ricky and Phoebe would like to add "Meowy Catmas":

lotsa knitting going on

Pattern: Dashing by Cheryl Niamath
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy; 1 skein (100g; 250 yds); col Go Go Grassy
Needles: 4mm dpns
Notes: Another Christmas gift crossed off my list. I have 40g leftover. I knit the larger size on smaller needles for a firmer fabric.


Ignore the fact that they look small on hubby. He's got monster hands and big wrists.

I immediately cast on for a child's sweater.


I'm using the seamless yoke design from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. The hem, cuffs, and yoke will have stripes. The green is the leftover Classy from the Dashing mitts. Father & son will match!

I joined a CAL on Ravelry and I've picked socks as my project. I've never crocheted socks before so I swatched.


I got gauge on the second attempt. I think this will be fun.

I wound up a few skeins of sock yarn to make another pair of manually striped socks.


I think they look very festive. Hopefully, I'll finish them in time for Christmas.

sunshine and socks

Still on a bit of a sock knitting binge...


Pattern: plain top down sock
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock; col 180; 2 skeins
Needles: 2mm dpns
Notes: Pair #54. I started these in Jun 2008 and they're finally done! I decided to finish them in time for hubby's bday. These were a bear to knit - 80 sts per round on teeny tiny needles in a colourway that I don't like (hubby went to the store and picked it). And hubby has size 13 feet. He's got 5 pairs of handknit socks now.


I just finished teaching a beginners knitting class and one student completely finished her scarf. Yay! And three students have signed up to take their second class. I'm still teaching my baby sweater class and that is going reasonably well. I'm scheduled to teach a sock class starting next week but no one has signed up so I expect that one will be cancelled. That's ok - more time for me to knit socks.


Pattern: top down sock; picot cuff
Yarn: Trekking XXL; col 126
Needles: 2.25mm bamboo dpns
Notes: Pair #55! I'm going to be matchy-matchy by wearing these socks and the matching mittens at the same time.

I have restarted Linda's R2S raffle socks. The previous sock was not going to fit her (after knitting the entire leg) so I ripped it out and put the yarn in timeout. This was in Aug. I can finally stand to look at the yarn but not the pattern. After some searching, I found something that would work and I've got 3" knit and I'm pretty sure it will fit ok. Fingers crossed!


Ricky doesn't really have anything to say because he's unconscious.

freak

I'm in a KAL over on Ravelry and it's all about striping socks. I've got a coupla pairs on the go and this is the first one that I've finished:


Pattern: 60 st top down; 2x2 ribbed cuff; short row heel (to preserve striping)
Yarn: Yarn Candy Sweet Fiber's 100% merino sock; 2 skeins unknown colourway; 50g per skein
Needles: 2.25mm dpns
Notes: Each stripe is 5 rows. Tried a coupla jogless stripe methods and ended up using the "on the first stitch of the second round, knit into the stitch in the row below". There's a bit of a ridge where the yarn is carried but I'm hoping that will even out after a wash & block. For the heel, I knit the first half of the short row with colour A and then knit the other half of the heel with colour B. It preserved the striping on the instep. Alternated the start colour so that the toes would be different.

And lookit my new "show off hand knit socks" shoes:


I've been looking for a good pair of Mary Jane style shoes for what seems like an eternity. These aren't too dressy but they're not too casual either so I can wear them all the time.

And in the niece knitting news, my sister informs me that my niece took her knitting to bed and fell asleep while working on it. Funny but a little dangerous if she'd rolled over onto a knitting needle (even if they're blunt bamboo ones). Her tension is improving (less squeaking of yarn on the needles) and she's dropping less stitches. Woo hoo!

I look like a freak today. I walked into the bathroom this morning and my left eye is only about half open. There seems to be a bug bite on my eyelid so it's all puffed up and I've got a huge stye that seems to have cropped up in the lower lid. It looks like someone whacked me in the eye. Time to slap a warm compress on my eye and have a little lie down.

yarn hangover

Have you started Christmas knitting yet? I have :P


Pattern: your basic top down with a picot cuff and slipped stitch heel
Yarn: SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock in col River
Needles: 2.25mm dpns
Notes: These are a Christmas gift for someone special but I'm not telling who. Pair #52.

For my birthday, hubby bought me tix to see Harry Connick Jr. The concert was Fri night.


They don't allow pictures inside the theatre so this is all you get. Harry was wonderful even with a huge walking cast on his right leg (something about ripping a calf muscle while exercising). Lucky for us, leg injuries don't impact the lungs or vocal cords. It did limit his movement on stage but he did manage to shake his booty enough to make me drool a little.

Today, I have a bit of yarn hangover. Yesterday, I filled hubby's SUV with 4 other crazee knitters (3 that I'd never met before), a bunch of food, and went on a yarn crawl called Yarn Harvest.

We started out at Black Sheep Yarns (where I work) to witness the MadTosh mosh pit. It was pretty hectic. I didn't buy anything but I think everyone else in my group did. We had a knitting newbie in our group - Meggin and we worked hard at corrupting her. She broke her "only buy yarn for a specific project" rule at the very first store. I'm so proud of her.

After BSY and struggling through some crazy road construction, we made it to Baaad Anna's. Didn't buy anything there. I was saving myself for our next stop - SweetGeorgia!!!!! I was not disappointed. She had racks and racks of yarn and spinning fibre drying in the main room. We headed up to the loft area to do our "real shopping".

I just happened to have a sock WIP in my purse and I asked Felicia to pose with it.


That's vintage SweetGeorgia yarn (in the framboises colour) that she dyed before her hiatus. The picture's blurry because I might've been a little excited to hold the camera steady.

Then we headed east and into Surrey. We took a little break for lunch at Semihamoo Park in White Rock. We decided to skip Penelope's and head to Knitopia. Their new shop in White Rock is teeny tiny so there's yarn stacked right to the ceiling.

Our last stop of the day was 88 Stitches. I was hoping to meet Judy Marples but she'd already left by the time we got there. She's the designer for the Dover Castle shawl which is one of the patterns in Shawl Wars. BTW, Gladys and I are still very much alive.

And this is what the back of the SUV looks like after a yarn crawl:


Hubby's SUV is a Toyota Highlander so that you can understand the scale of our purchases. Not all of it is mine. Just this:


From left to right: 3 skeins of SweetGeorgia; 5 skeins of Yarn Candy; a skein of Berroco Lustra; and a skein of West Coast Fibre Works (the perfect Yarn Harvest colour)

I also bought half a pound of West Coast Fibre Works BFL from Knitopia for spinning:

As we headed to the restaurant to meet all the other Yarn Harvesters for dinner, I realized that I wasn't that hungry. We'd been eating all day - pakoras and chocolate coconut bars (courtesy of Marina), chips & 3 layer dip (Meggin's contribution), and a super yummy chocolate banana bread (love you, Judy).

The dinner was super fun. All these knitters crammed into the private room and spilling out into the restaurant. A lot of us showed off our purchases. The yarn fumes were overwhelming at times. After dinner, the organizers held a draw for all the door prizes.


My number was drawn twice and I won a pattern book and a small notebook for keeping track of yarn/projects i.e. the hard copy version of Ravelry. My friend, Vicki won the grand prize (valued at $275) containing yarn, patterns, Namaste bag, and a gc to Signature Needle Arts.

After being on the road for more than 12 hours, I had just enough energy to drop off everyone and then head home for my bed. I slept for 10 hours straight.


Phoebe says, "The best cure for any hangover is a little catnap on my new cardboard lounger."

the big five-oh

No, I didn't age a decade in the last month but sometimes it feels like it. We're mostly recovered from the camping trip although our cookie stash is still severely depleted. I made 8 doz chocolate chip pecan cookies and they didn't make it past day 3 of our camping trip. Yes, we're oinkers when it comes to cookies. The nieces definitely helped out.

The other big thing that happened is that we finally figured out why my computer (less than a year old) has been acting flaky the last 8 months - bad RAM. It started out with the odd app error and escalated to full out OS crashing. We ran a diagnostic tool which pointed a big finger at computer memory. I convinced hubby to yank the RAM out of his computer and put it into my computer. We ran the tests again and the RAM passed so at least, we knew it wasn't the onboard memory that was flaky. Hubby did some research and I made him pick out a "better than good" RAM for me to buy. I installed the new memory and I've been crash free for 3 weeks. I don't even want to think about what data might be corrupt on my HD...


Pattern: plain top down 60 sts with picot cuff & short row heel
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight; col unknown (mill end from Sock Summit; might be Spy Say Guacamoly)
Needles: 2.25mm dpns
Notes: Number FIFTY!!!! Yes, I have knit 50 pairs of socks. I've been knitting socks for 4 years now and I'm averaging about a pair each month. That's pretty good.

I've been working on another pair of socks which are top secret. But after completing the first leg, I had to rip the whole thing out. I decided that it was too tight in the leg and the row gauge was so far out that the heel wasn't working out. It's one of those Cat Bordhi heels and my row gauge resulted in a too-high instep. I'm going to go up a needle size (to solve the too tight leg) and use the shorter instep heel instructions.

I always need a plain pair of socks to work on. So I dug in my stash (nearly got lost) and pulled some Claudia Hand Paint that P-la gave me for my birthday last year.


The base reminds me of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock which I absolutely love - my second favourite behind STR.

Sadly, I haven't gotten very far. I seem to have hurt the thumb on my right hand. When I grip stuff a certain way - chopsticks, steering wheel, knitting needle - it hurts. I don't know why but it does. So I'm giving my thumb a rest. If I hurts, I won't do it. I haven't knit for 3 days and it does feel better. This self-imposed ban is driving me a little crazy but it's not like I don't have stuff to work on.

I finished sewing on the binding on a quilt top that I rescued.


It's taken me 3 years but it's finally done. Talk about a labour of love. I bought two embroidered tops and carefully took one completely apart. Then I took one strip of blocks from the second top apart because those blocks clearly matched the other quilt top. There was a lot of careful measuring and cutting to get all the blocks the same size. I fixed up some of the embroidery where the knots had come undone or the tails had been pulled to the front. I used Fray Check on some of the places where there wasn't enough tail to make a knot. I hunted high & low until I found the perfect sashing & border fabric (Aunt Grace 30's repro print). I preserved the original layout of the blocks. With one exception - I accidentally turned one the blocks on its side. Oops! The backing is unbleached muslin. It's machine pieced & hand quilted. All that's left is a label. I'm going to see if I can use pre-treated fabric in my new printer otherwise, I'll have to go the iron-on transfer route. I know what the label will say. It will identify the flowers in each block and document the construction of the top. This is one quilt that will hang on a wall to preserve the embroidery.

I've also pulled out my drop spindle. I had some BFL on there and decided to ply it to see how it looked.


I was aiming for fingering but I seem to have lace instead (that's Claudia HP on the right).


That's why the spindle never seemed to fill up no matter how long I was spinning. Oh well... I don't have much of the BFL (and the store that I buy it from no longer has a source) so I'm trying for fingering with another fiber before I return to the BFL. Wish me luck.

Neither cat has been very photogenic lately. Phoebe is sleeping under the bed and Ricky's in a heap on the washing machine. A few days ago, they were standing guard by their food bowls. Every time you got near them, they would dance on their paws and meow at you. When you left, they'd settle down and wait.


Phoebe's sitting on the new step stool that I bought from Ikea. It helps her and Ricky reach the "cat shelf". I used to have a small desk in front of that window but the cats were always sleeping on my stuff and knocking bits onto the floor so I got rid of the desk and installed a shelf for them. I'm well trained, aren't I?

number 48

Pattern: No Purl Monkeys by CraftyPancakes
Yarn: Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Stile; col 8002; 1 skein (100g; 459 yds) with very little leftover
Needles: 2.5mm dpns
Notes: I seriously thought I would run out of yarn. Kinda surprising because these aren't very big. I loved the colour in the skein but I'm pretty meh about it knitted up. These socks are going into the Christmas gift pile.

On Saturday, I drove out to Langley with some friends to see a quilt show. There were two car loads - the slowpokes (they got kicked out of a quilt show because it was closing and they'd been there all day!) in one car and the speedier ones in another. I made a beeline for the vendors. Most shows, I look at the quilts first and then head to the vendors which I've discovered to be a poor plan because all the good stuff is sold out by the time I get there.


I got the very last Sweet William pattern and scooped up a huge stack of FQs - these pretty Japanese reds & assorted Japanese taupes. I also bought some cute potholders (currently MIA for this photo shoot) and when I showed them off during our coffee break (where we met up with the slowpokes), Nancy wanted a set for herself. But by the time she got to the boutique, they were sold out. The show was great - lots of inspiration. I will sort through my pics and post a few when I have time.

slave to the sewing machine

Hubby's big Ride2Survive fundraising bike ride is in less than 2 months and I promised him that I would help fundraise. So I've been sewing like mad - working on two quilts that will be raffled off (keep your eye on the blog for details).


::tweet, tweet:: These blocks are so cute! Everything is fused and I just need to dig around in my big box of thread to find something to applique the edges with. This was supposed to be a quick project but I always forget that there's a lot of cutting with scissors which slows me down. I even had Hubby help me cut out the legs, beaks, and eyes when my hand got tired.


This one is already pieced and waiting to be basted which I will do when I'm at Dad's because he's got easily accessible floor space.

In the evening, I've been working on my Monkey sock. I got the first one done catching up on Torchwood.


I got the second one started while watching "The Proposal". Such a lame movie. I don't know who put it on the rental list but it must've been me since hubby would never willingly choose a chick flick.

Ricky's current favourite sleeping spot is the big sofa (which he barfed on Friday night). But if someone's sitting in his spot, he will pace around complaining loudly and waiting for the person to leave. He will eventually give up and plop on the person (Hubby). This is the only time Ricky is a lap cat.


Ricky sez, "Wha?!?!?! Are you talking about me?"

open window season

What a glorious day! It is incredibly warm and I have to open the windows to let in some fresh air.


This is Ricky's favourite season because he will camp out beside the open window (oh look! There's a stack of boxes that are window height) and sniff the fresh air. It is his favourite thing to do other than eating.

The nice weather also means that I'm out in the garden. We have a decent sized property with established flower beds that we've been slowly overhauling. Over the years, we've done quite a bit of work in the back and side yards and we're slowly working our way around to the front. Last week, I pulled out a huge pieris japonica that I'd left thinking that it would look better once it stopped being crowded out by the rhododendron. It never really recovered so I hauled out the serious tools (bow saw, ax, and pick) and got rid of it. Hubby was impressed that I got the stump out by myself because the shrub was easily 3 ft across and about 6 ft tall. I splurged and replaced it with a lovely purple azalea. It was a splurge because I bought a 5 gal one because they were sold out of the 1 gal size.

In the evenings, I only have enough energy to do a little knitting. I keep myself occupied with hubby's Noro socks. I'm past the halfway point on sock #2. I started these almost 2 years ago and I am soooo ready to have these finished and off the needles.


But knitting them makes my finger hurt because the tips are pointy and I tend to push the needle with my left index finger. So I cast on a new sock Sat night when I couldn't stand to work on them.


I want to tell you what hubby ate for dessert yesterday night (cuz it was sooo gross) but he'll kill me because he doesn't want people think he's pregnant. Ha ha! Instead, I will tell you what Phoebe did yesterday. Hubby came home from a long bike ride and he took off his cycling jersey and placed it on top of his shoes/arm warmers. Phoebe came downstairs and proceeded to sniff and rub her face all over his jersey. We've never seen her do that before. I picked up the jersey and put it right on the floor. She flopped on it and rolled all around like she does with catnip. Phoebe rubbed her face and pulled it close with her paw when it slipped away. She drooled all over it. What a silly cat!

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.