See you in a week!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week of knitting. I will post when we are back from our little adventure. See you soon.
K.

FO Friday – Urbana

My dad is a simple guy as I think most dads are. So anything I knit for him has to be pretty simple. With that in mind, I present his finished Urbana. (I was hoping to get some great pictures of my husband modeling it, but we’ve been having a killer heat wave here for about a week. Yesterday it was 120 degrees when you factor in the humidex. Not only can I not make him wear a scarf I actually can’t even be witty right now as I’m pretty sure my brain is turning to mush as I sit in my AC. Us Canadians really aren’t used to this heat. 20 below and a raging blizzard I can deal with. Having sweaty eyelids is a little much.) But, here is the scarf.  (Just for the record a freak one day blizzard would actually be a welcome event right now. )  For more great fibre creations check out Tami’s, Creative Fridays, and Fibre Fridays.

WIP Wednesdays – My Gallery of the Absurd

Synonyms for Absurdity  as presented by thesuarus.com: Applesauce, craziness, flapdoodle, folly, foolishness, hot air, idiocy, illogicality, illogicalness, improbability, inanity, insanity, irrationality, ludicrousness, ridiculousness, senselessness, unreasonableness

Antonyms: logic, reason, reasonableness, sense

I think it’s pretty safe to speculate about what side of that fence I am on this week.  (Okay, most weeks, but this week is exceptional even for me.) For those of you who really aren’t sure what I’m talking about take a quick peek at this post from Monday and it will give you all the gritty details.  I think we can be honest in saying that my descent down the dark fibrous tunnel started when I made my Year of Projects list and then was added to when I found the Stephen West KAL and is now (hopefully) complete with my discovery of the 26 pair plunge.  (I’m counting on a soft landing, preferably in a pile of cashmere, at the end.)  In fact, as I type this, the lyrics to Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” are thundering through my head and will probably stay there for quite some time.  You know, for the duration of my knitting life.   Anyway, since this week has become all about socks for me, I thought I’d spread the crazy around a little for all of you and show you my sock WIPS.  ’Cause crazy is so much more fun with friends!  (Oh, and as my own little aside, I realized that a sock group will have Cookies.  Haha!)

First on the list are these Rattlesnake Creek Socks by Anne Podlesak.

Cast one in 2009 they got delegated to the naughty projects pile because I am convinced that there is something wrong with them.  I have a firm belief that if leave them alone long enough the knitting elves will magically appear in my closet and finish them for me.  The Yarn is Tanis and it is truly scrumptiuos.  These are on the YOP list.

Next is Kai-me by Cookie A (See!  There are Cookies.)

These were cast on in February and I love the colourway.  The yarn is Koigu and my second favourite sock yarn to knit with.  I need help with a tricky bit on these socks, but then they will be back on track and ready to be finished sometime soon. That’s the theory anyway.

Here is the Manly Socks by Hannah Six.  

These are wrong.  Somehow they ended up way to freaking big for anyone I know let alone my husband.  Maybe a giant or a man with freakishly oversized feet.  But not my husband.   There needs to be some ripping back and reworking of these.  I don’t remember what the yarn is.  It’s been that long.    

Moving on we find Falling Leaves.  

 Cast on this year and my first attempt at toe up.  Know what I discovered?  I really hate toe up construction, a lot.  As I’ve said before, it’s not the pattern.  The pattern is fine.  I just don’t like the construction.  This is more Koigu and I have to stop being such a wimp and just finish them.

The newest additions to the mess are Fishbone Gansey and Flaming Desire both by Anne Hansen and both using Indigodragonfly sock yarn.  Also Duckies, but not in Indigodragonfly or made by Anne Hansen.  These are all new and have just as much of a chance of being ignored as all the rest of them.

Fishbone

Flaming Desire

Duckies

So that’s seven pairs of socks.  Seven.  If I finish all those that will be a few YOPS out of the way and I will only have 18 pairs left from the 26 pair plunge.  Told you I had a good start on this!!!!!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and try to get that earworm out of my head.

 ”I’m going off the rails on a crazy train“

Is it really that far down? Or it seemed like a good idea at the time

Earlier today I was poking around on Ravelry, as us fibre folks are wont to do, and on someone’s project page I came across this picture.

“My, those are cute sheep!” I thought  to myself. They are  inviting, and create the illusion that there is something soft and wooly and cuddly behind them. They’re even knitting. In my experience knitters are nice cuddly people even if we walk around with pointy sticks. (I’m not sure how nice I am before caffeine with or without pointy sticks. But that’s a whole other story.)

So I click on it.  (Really how bad and dangerous to my ever frail knitting sanity can anything on the other side of those wee little knitting sheep be?)  And what I find is a curious project page that really explains very little but does provide me with a helpful link to this group. (Just before clicking I’m pretty sure that I heard someone say “we’ve got cookies,” or maybe that was just the kids in the courtyard again.) And for a brief moment I think “jackpot!” a group that’s running at the same time as the Year of Projects and is about knitting socks. Yes please, sign me up. So I did. Though I did have a moment of (unusual) stunning realism when it comes to my knitting abilities.  I refrained from attempting the 52 pairs challenge and happily settled on the 26 pairs. I will  bow down to anyone who can make 52 pairs of socks in a year. I would never be able to knit that many socks in a year (that’s 104 just to put it in perspective) without quitting my job, reducing my sleep time to 4 hours a night, eating one meal a day, and no longer cooking, cleaning, or doing anything else that keeps my husband happy, married to me, and tolerant of my fibre habit.

So first I checked my YOP list. 11 pairs of socks already slated for this year and WIPS count too so that puts me somewhere around the 14 mark. 14 out of 26 already accounted for! I’m practically finished before I even start!  With that kind of head start how could I say no?  I kindly request that you do not point out that still leaves me 12 pairs to fit in. I am aware of that. I’m just choosing to ignore that detail at the moment.
How hard can fitting in an extra 12 pairs of socks be?  It seemed like a good idea this morning.

(If you want to join in go over here. Sign ups close July 24th).

Success & Temptation

Success: “an event that accomplishes its intended purpose.”

Temptation: “the desire to have or do something you know you should avoid.”

In the world of fibre arts I am going to plead that success is not possible without temptation. The fibre artist becomes distracted, drawn away from the current project to heed the siren call of something new. Maybe it’s a new yarn whose colours or textures are so seductive that the artist finds it impossible to resist. It’s so pleasing to the senses that leaving the yarn on the shelf in the store would actually be painful. Maybe it’s a new design that comes across your hands and you think “I must do this. Without it my life will feel hollow and empty.  This pattern will give me all the answers to Life, the Universe, and Everything.” (Okay, maybe going a little over the top there, but I know other fibre people get it.) Sometimes you look at something and realize it’s perfect for your spouse or mother or friend, and that knitting it cannot possibly wait until you finish your current project. Whatever the reason (at least if you’re me), it’s enough to have you fling your current projects aside with gleeful abandon and run willingly into the open arms of temptation.  I firmly believe all successes in the journey down the woolen road start here. That’s at least my story and I’m sticking to it.

First the success. My father’s Urbana is finished and blocking.

Check back on Friday for more photos

It’s my first official Year of Projects success story. Cast on and finished this month. With any luck it will be shipped off on time to arrive in his hands for Christmas. Unfortunately it didn’t use up as much of the yarn as I thought it would, which means I have to find a way to use up yarn that I wasn’t planning to still have.  And here we have discovered another reason for temptation, which is necessity.  I’ve already decided to make a matching pair of flop top mitts (which are on my Year of Projects list), but now there will also have to be a hat (which is not).  I’ve found a hat I like.  Unsurprisingly it’s another Stephen West pattern. Windschief will accompany the rest of the gift. It not a huge diversion, merely a soupçon of temptation. Something to wet my lips with while cheating every so slightly on my List. And if things had stopped there all would be well. My little diversion would be enough and things would be continuing smoothly. But where would the fun be if things stopped there?

While poking around for a hat pattern I came across this.

I ask you, how is a little knitter like me supposed to resist the incredibly magnetic energy of a Stephen West KAL? It’s simply not possible. (If the man ever starts designing socks I will be lost to the world.  But I will have warm feet.)  I have a love affair with the man’s designs.  I knit my first pattern of his in February.  Since then I have  made 2 Boneyards, 2 Ubanas, I’m finishing a Clockwork, casting on Windscheif later today, and have everything I need for a Herbivore and a Flamboyen.  I had yarn for the last one custom dyed by IndigoDragonFly.  I feel like I should be in the middle of a circle of knitters saying “Hi my Name is Keri, and I have a problem.  I’m a Stephen West addict.”

So there it is.  Temptation is its truest and nastiest form.  It puts too many things I really like into one space and I am not strong enough to resist.  The good news is that it doesn’t start until August 1st.  That’s lots of time to have a few more successes before the next temptation rears it’s soft, pretty, inviting head.  I will be strong for the next two weeks and then all bets are off, at least until the KAL is finished.

I Was Hoping For A Victory

So today I was hoping to be able to share a great victory with you.  I thought I was going to be showing everyone my first fully completed spinning project.  I had visions of finishing the last of my plying, sending all three skeins into a lovely soapy bath, hanging them to dry and glisten in the sun and then photographing them and sharing them with you.  I thought of how proud I would be to thrust slightly damp wool into my husband’s hand when he came home while saying “look what I did today!”.  I was going to show them to our friends who are coming up later today.  One is a knitter and the other is a recipient of many knitted goods from me so they would be at least a little impressed.  I had even thought of showing them to people in the courtyard of our building, and tracking down the handyman who was shocked and just about brought to tears at the site of a spinning wheel in my living room (we’re pretty sure it reminds him of his Grandmother’s place in the old country).  That was my plan.  It was a good plan and a sound plan and a plan I was so very, very excited about.
When I sat down at the Ashford yesterday morning this is what I had left to ply.  That’s it.  Just this.

Not sure how I ended up with such uneven bobbins.

I got myself arranged.  Coffee on one side, bobbins on the other.  Slipped my bare feet onto the treadles.  The wood was smooth and cool and welcoming.  I pushed down with my left foot to start the first rotation that would allow my well laid plan to come to fruition and… snapped the drive belt.  Yup, that’s what I did.  And so now I still have this left to ply, 

and my husband will fashion me another makeshift drive belt while I await the arrival of a proper one.  So alas, there is no victory today, just mild disappointment and a second project on my little Victoria that will get some love (and hopefully be finished without any major problems) and I have hope that one day soon there will be a finished spinning project to share with you.

FO Friday Hat edition

A few months back myself, my husband, and one of our friends were standing around waiting for one of my favorite restaurants, The Black Hoof, to open for dinner. It’s in very up and coming Hipster infested neighbourhood and as we were standing around one of us came out with “look at all the hungry hungry hipsters.” It was immediately decided that “hungry hungry hipsters” would make a great yarn name and I twittered my friend Indigodragonfly while we were still standing around. The two of us virtually tossed the idea around for a while and while the three of us were having dinner I sort of forgot about the whole thing until the next time we were at the Hoof again waiting to get in.
Jump ahead a few months and I’m having a bad day. A real bad day. The kind of bad that manages to creep into every part if your psyche and makes you hate the world and everything in it. To say I was unhappy would not do days when I am unhappy justice. I slapped something up on twitter about it and Indigodragonfly sent me to the spoiler thread for the June club pack. So because it’s Kim I listened and checked the thread.
The package included two beautiful yarns in a yak bamboo combo and combined they make the hipster hat. I chuckled and thought of the name again and was in a better mood than when I started reading the post.
A few more days went by and then June package was in my hands to love and fondle. And then I read the colour story and name. And guess what, she named it Hungry Hungry Hipsters and said it came from her loyal minion Keri. (that’s me!!!!) Really, you would have thought I had just won the lottery. It actually made me squee all over the house for a couple of minutes.
So of course it had to be cast on immediately. And in a very short time my Hipster Hat appeared. The yarn is wonderful to knit with and the final product is both versatile and unisex.

Home from the forest

We survived another camping trip intact and have returned to civilization where making coffee is as simple as flicking a switch and my indoor plumbing is a mere few steps away from my bed. My bed felt great last night and I was fairly confident in the knowledge that I was not going to be woken up by either raccoons or chipmunks snuffling around my sleeping quarters. We did  have a great time. We had close to prefect weather and aside from the first night, (no one should ever have to hear a dance remix of Rolling in the Deep let alone at 2:15 a.m. while lying in your tent,) where sleep was a little hard to come by, we had good camping neighbors.
I had to break down and leave my Victoria at home since there was no room in the car for it. But I did get a lot of knitting done. All Year of Projects stuff and of the five projects I took, (you never know what you will be in the mood to knit,) three had attention given to them.
There was knitting by the fire.

Dad's Urbana in its infancy

And knitting in the dark.

The neck light was very helpful

And knitting in the car. You just have to trust me on that one. The Urbana for my Dad went from barely started to mostly finished. The first leg and heel turn of my Duckies was completed. And another blanket square was finished.
I snuck in a quick trip to Rose Haven and picked up three lovely spinning batts. (Sorry, the picture of the last one is pretty crummy). 

And I even met two very lovely goats named Knit & Purl.

My friend feeding the goats

One morning during every camping trip we walk  20 minutes to the little cantina and drink our morning coffee on the day use beach before the people arrive. It’s one of my favourite moments in every trip. Just me, my husband, and the waves. It’s one of the rare times when being up at 7 a.m. is enjoyable.

I'm not sure why I thought posing for a photo at 7 a.m. was a good idea

We wandered over to the sand dunes this year, (there was no knitting at the dunes,) and climbed up to the top. The view was great and worth the effort.

 

From the bottom

From the top

Over all a lovely camping trip and a nice way to relax for a few days. Now, I’m getting another cup of easily obtained coffee.

Sneaking this in……

Managing to sneak this in quick before we start loading the car and heading off to the wilderness for the next few days.  My husband and I both grew up in a place with a lot more trees then we have around us know so at least once a year we run off to the woods, pitch a tent, cover ourself in bug repellent and hang out by a campfire.

I love knitting by the campfire and I am using the next few days to work on YOP things.  For the five days that we are camping I am taking 2 squares from the log cabin, my Fishbone Gansey socks, my dad’s Urbana, the Duckies (socks that apparently can be knit in two days,) and my clockwork.  I do not expect to get this all finished while we are camping, but how frightening would it be to run out of knitting?  (I won’t mention that if memory serves there is a lovely little knitting store in the area right close to the field of sheep.  And there is an even lovelier knitting store in town.  Hmmmm…  *I don’t need more yarn. I don’t need more yarn*  :)

I also have a secret weapon in my ability to knit more this year.  My friend Suzie was very sweet and gave me one of her extra sets of neck lights. I was having a really crappy day and when I asked her what I owed her for it (since I had originally told her I would buy one from her) she told me I owed her nothing more than a smile  (I did just about burst into tears at that moment.)

She loves hers and says it helps her knit much longer into the evening while she travels, and she travels for work a lot so I believe her.  They also have the added bonus of being extra lights while walking around the campgrounds at night.   Fortunately where we are going usually has nothing more fierce than raccoons and bullfrogs.  But it only takes one walk back to the campfire in the dead of night without extra lights and realization that there is a pack of wolves or coyotes in the area howling and baying, (it was really very beautiful,) to make you always want to take as many lights as possible with you when you leave the fire.

This was the first time I had a real chance to use my YOP binder and it was wonderful to have.  I packed the few projects that I knew I wanted, then opened my collection and was able to pull out two more and grab the yarn from my closet and Voila, knitting projects picked.  This whole being organized thing is kind of useful!

Anyway, I may try to throw up a picture post in the next few days, otherwise hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll post when we get back.  Happy Knitting!!

FO Friday – These Mice Are Nice

I present to you a bunch of felted mice! These little guys will be tossed in with Christmas packages for my cat loving family members. They are super fast to make and a great way to use up ends of balls. These mice are a combination of Lamb’s Pride, Knit Picks, and Gallaway.

They start off like this.

Then I get out my super high tech hand felting system and toss the mice in.

Those are exfoliating shower gloves over my yellow rubber gloves. It makes things go much faster.

Then it’s off to dry. They started outside in the sun and then got moved to a baking drying rack inside. (I always forget how long it takes for felted objects to dry.)

And finally, when they are filled with roving and catnip they look like this.

Ready to be destroyed by the kitties I know.