more white stuff

It really snowed hard yesterday. I shoveled twice - once in the morning and again in the afternoon. Hubby shoveled late in the afternoon before it started raining. It's still raining but it's going to take awhile before all the snow gets washed away. I whined to my sister who told me to "suck it up, buttercup". She's been suffering through a brutal cold snap. I read that her city was the second coldest place on Earth behind Antarctica. Brrrr - that's cold!!!!

Finally, an FO and a WIP that I can show you. At work, I finished a crochet sample for the yarn shop.




Pattern: Sunflowers Satchel by Asami Kawa
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Sock; col S279; one skein (100g; 328 yds)
Hook: 3.25mm
Notes: I made the smaller size. This bag will be a store sample. Overall, this was a fast & fun project. I ran into some problems right at the end - the start location of the mesh and the start location of the shoulder strap. I ripped out the mesh twice and started each side of the shoulder strap twice. The first shoulder strap error was completely my fault - I didn't see in the instructions to switch from double crochet to single crochet.

I'm taking a wee break from secret Christmas knitting to show you my attempts at pooling:


This is very boring garter stitch and nothing like what Gladys (the genius that she is) creates. If it turns out well, I might give it to hubby for Christmas.

white stuff

We woke up this morning to 2-3" of snow.


This is one of earliest snowfalls that I can remember where it didn't all melt by morning. It was borderline freezing so I did have to chip a layer of ice off the back steps. It's supposed to stay cold and clear so I expect the snow to last through the week.


One of the prettiest plants in my garden is the Beauty Berry bush out front. It's so pretty covered in snow.

lumpy rain

Yep, it's that time of year. I encountered freezing rain and wet snow on the way to my LYS tonite. It was wet snowing on the way home. I had to take hubby's SUV (with bald-ish tires) because my Subaru was at home getting the snow tires installed. We've ordered new tires for the SUV but they haven't arrived yet so we'll be sharing my car if the snowy weather continues.

Lots of knitting going on but a lot of it is top secret so I can't blog about it.

Christmas shopping is in full swing. Hubby and I went to our first craft fair on Wed. We're going back tomorrow to look for a few more items.

Since the house is colder, Ricky has created a snuggly sleeping spot for himself.


This is a deep bookshelf in our bedroom that I use to store quilts in. Ricky reached up and pawed at one of the quilts until it fell on the floor leaving this nice little spot for him to curl up in. He's such a special kitty.

what a pain in the butt!!!

Literally! I went outside yesterday after lunch to throw some tulips into the ground. I'm planting a small cutting garden. I was out there 15 mins tops in heavy sweatpants and the one mosquito in the entire province found me and bit me in the ass. It's November! How can there be any mosquitoes left? My butt itches every time I sit down. You have no idea how annoying that is. I really, really hate mosquitoes.

I've been pretty busy last week - a couple of knitting classes to teach, some homework for an upcoming class, hanging out with my peeps, and going to a book reading.

My manually striped sock is progressing well. I'm past the heel now:


This is Grant Lawrence. He's the author of the book at the book signing. The book is titled - "Adventures in Solitude: What Not To Wear To A Nudist Potluck". It's a memoir of his adventures in Desolation Sound - a boat access only recreational area. I really enjoyed reading it. The book reading was lots of fun. He showed us a short home movie and his wife, Jill Barber sang a few songs. I got my book signed and he graciously posed with my sock for a picture. While I was taking the photo, I heard a laugh behind me and it was Grant's Mom. She told me that Grant learned how to knit when he was young. Maybe holding my sock will inspire him to start knitting again?

Christmas knitting is zooming along. I have just a few finishing touches to make on the yoked sweater - weaving in the remaining ends, knitting the button bands, and sewing on the buttons.


It looks so darned cute!

Hubby is going out of town for a Yahoo conference so we spent most of yesterday catching up on housework and watching a few rental DVDs that I wanted to return today. I didn't feel like working on one of my WIPs so I cast on a new pair of socks for myself.


My MIL gave this alpaca/bamboo blend to me a few Christmases ago. I find alpaca incredibly itchy despite the fact that I'm not sensitive to wool. I've been wanting to make something nice with this yarn but the only place where I can tolerate wearing alpaca is on my feet.

Gladys has been playing around with yarn dyeing so I dragged out a few skeins of yarn this morning to over dye. I had this pretty blah skein - off white & beigey tan. Three packages of Kool Aid later (2 Changin' Cherry and 1 Berry Blast), I've got this:


It reminds me of beach glass in the sand. I like it.

After being terrorized by Ricky this week because her favourite sleeping spot is on the rug right in front of the litter box (Ricky cannot resist smacking Phoebe when she's lying there), Phoebe's found a new favourite sleeping spot.


It's an ootch too small for her butt and her tail & back leg fall off. I should go and get another one and glue them together. Or would that be spoiling her too much?

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.

Dyeing with a knitting loom

There's a stripey sock KAL going on in one of my ravelry groups, and of course I had to join in.

Part of the discussion involved dyeing your own stripey socks -- and since I picked up a ton of easter egg dye last May, I had to try it out.

Most dyers use some kind of warping board to create their striping patterns. I had received a set of knitting looms from my mother-in-law for Christmas a few years ago, and I wondered if it would work as a warping board.

The answer: perfectly!

I wound my yarn around a section of the knitting loom a few times, then moved onto the next section for a few more rounds. I tried to keep it random, between 5-15 loops per group. 

Then into the dye colours they went, purple, green and blue. 

Then after a soak and a little time in the microwave, here they are. This looks like a tangled mess, but it's two skeins of yarn, and all the little loops are securely tied in a couple of places. 

A little bit of a towel dry, then the loops went back onto the knitting loom to dry overnight. 

 I wound them off the knitting loom the next day, and they were so pretty!

So of course I had to knit them up.

And wear them.

the dreaded C word

There's 56 knitting days left til CHRISTMAS. Bet you didn't know (or want to know).

I am looking at my current gift list and trying to figure out how much knitting I'll do for friends/family. To help me decide, I had a quick look at the knitting that I've been doing this year:

11 pairs of socks: 7 pairs for me; 3 pairs given away; one is a Christmas gift
1 short sleeve cardigan for me
1 short sleeve pullover for me (that's too big)
1 baby cardigan: gifted to my newest niece
1 pair of mittens for me
1 pair of fingerless mitts: bday gift for my sister
1 scarf: bday gift for my BFF
2 small shawls: one for me and one sent to my Shawl Wars target
1 mumble-mumble: Christmas gift for P-la
1 mitten: quilt label for Arlene's mitten quilt
1 crocheted scarf: store sample
Finished knitting Nancy's sweater for her

I've actually done a lot of knitting for others this year so I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't do much Christmas knitting. Since some of it is already finished (pats self on back), my current list looks like this:

BFF's hubby - fingerless mitts; 75% done
BFF's child - sweater; have yarn; no pattern picked
2 nieces - Hello Kitty hats; have yarn and pattern
Hubby - I need to frog last year's Tux mittens and reknit them so that the thumb fits.

That doesn't look too bad, does it? Certainly do-able in 56 days.

I have started Christmas shopping, too. My goal every year is to finish by the end of Nov. This year's date might slip a little since Circle Craft (a high end craft show) is scheduled 2 weeks later than usual. While I was out today, I picked up a stocking stuffer for the nieces:


This gift is definitely going to keep me in the "Favourite Auntie" spot.