3KCBWDAY5 Something a Bit Different

I would like to welcome you all to this evening’s meeting of the Unloved Knits group, and I would like to introduce our newest member, Whendidibecomeaknitter’s Roam Cardigan.

(Roam steps sheepishly up to the podium to wool muffled applause.)

“My name is Roam, and I really hope that one day when I grow up I will be a lovely warm cardigan that my knitter will wear with pride.  I hope that I will keep the cold drafts away from her and make her feel cozy at the end of a long day.  I want to be her go – to cardi, you know, the sweater she grabs without a second thought on her way out the door in the morning because I fit so well and I look so good.”

(Other partially knitted garments bob in agreement.)

“But, here’s the problem.  It’s not that my knitter doesn’t love me, it’s that she’s scared of me.  She tried really hard and bought a yarn that she knew she would love and thought that would help.  But then the horrible memories of the nasty Noro sweater she made for herself crept back into her thoughts and she was terrified that I would take her down that same road of hard work and anticipation, only for her to be left sobbing into my wool before banishing  me to the back of the closet but unfortunately not out of her mind.  I have tried to point out that my knitter has successfully knit four other sweaters that fit the recipients and that are all worn with love and pride.  She is still convinced that in the end, I will not work out for her.”

(Another knitter’s sweater in the audience purses her stitches together and sadly sways back and forth in resignation.)

“But, I have been taking steps to help my knitter.  I started by getting gauge.  I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do it, because we all know how tricky it is.  But I pulled it off!  This made her happy and she rewarded me with more time in her hands and less time in the basket.  I have also been sneaking into her bed with her on cold nights and snuggling up to her to show her just how much I love her and how well I will keep her warm when I am finished.”

“I haven’t figured out what I will do to help her overcome her dread of joining my sleeves, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.  My hope for now is that I can stay here with you and get ideas to help support and love my knitter through this trying and challenging time.”

(Roam goes back to its seat getting my loving pats along the way.  A nearly triangular afghan starts asking quiet questions about gauge.)

Thank you for your story Roam, and know that you are welcome here as often as you need to be.  And I wish both you and your knitter luck with the path you have chosen to go down.  And now I turn the floor over to Out of My Knitter’s Comfort Zone sock, whom I see this week has brought most of a twin sister along!

3KCBWDAY4 A Knitter for All Seasons

I knit year round.  Just like the old saying about the postal service, neither rain nor snow will stop your mail getting through.  (But, I will argue that incompetent Canada Post Employees have on a number of occasions stopped my mail from getting through, including once when the gentleman behind the counter  tried repeatedly insisted that I had picked up a certain parcel, which I protested adamantly.   Only then did he discover that it had been put with the garbage and almost thrown out. But clearly I digress.)  Unlike the postal service, I actually do knit year round and weather does not stop me.

See, for me knitting is not a hobby.  It’s an addiction.  It’s certainly not as life shattering as say a drug or alcohol addiction, but it is an addiction never the less.  And like any addict I indulge, usually daily, year round.  Weather doesn’t usually have too much of an effect on my knitting as I knit a lot of small things and am willing to knit larger things over the hotter months of the summer because they are usually Christmas gifts and the more I can get done before crunch time hits, the more harmonious my life and marriage tend to be.

A teeny tiny part of my addiction

Spinning, on the other hand, whole other story.  Spinning is mostly a summer hobby for me.  It’s when I have the most free time.  And while I will spin occasionally throughout the year and always miss it when I don’t spin, knitting comes to the forefront and takes over and then my spinning suffers and my wheel waits for the summer to hit so that it will get the love it wants and deserves every day.

 

So there you have it.  I have been known to cast blankets in the middle of August (which usually makes me shake me head and admit for a second that I may have lost my mind) and breezy cotton scarves in the dead of winter.  I cast on whatever catches my attention at any given moment.  Finishing?  Well that’s a whole other story.  Just ask my pile of WIPS.

3KCBWDAY3 The Perfect Knitting Day – Wild Card

In my head the perfect knitting day has less to do with setting (though let’s be honest and say a lovely cabin surrounded by good friends and a roaring fire with amazing food being placed in front of me and good wine certainly wouldn’t hurt at all) and more to do with what would happen.  (Maybe the occasional deer would saunter past the window and we could all ooh and ahh for a moment.)

There would be no distractions of any sort.  There would only be perfect pleasant conversation and laughing.  All involved would be incredibly happy because we would all be sharing the perfect day together.  The phone wouldn’t ring,  there would be no crying children or job demands.  Whatever you needed would magically appear in front of you with nothing more than a thought to summon it.  You could eat whatever you wanted because nothing would “go to your hips” since the mere act of breathing and knitting would counteract whatever you ingested. But, most importantly your chosen fibre art would be perfect.

Our fingers would make light work of our projects and loop after loop would slip perfectly off of one needle and onto the next.  Gauge would be perfect, every time.  All the patterns would be clear and well written and therefore easy to understand.  Mistakes?  Never.  Not on this day.  By the end of the day, any WIP touched would no longer be a WIP.  Finishing as many projects as you wanted would be simple, because you would have everything you needed including all the skills and speed, to finish whatever your heart desired.  There would be cheers and applause and glasses raised whenever a project was finished, but no one would be so affected by drink as to interfere with their knitting.

And the hours would stretch into a day, and at the end we would sleep among the huge number of WIPS that we had finished, and it would be the best sleep you had ever had.  You would wake up refreshed and relaxed and without a care in the world.  And the best part of the perfect knitting day?  It would all happen again in the morning :)

3KCBWDAY2 – You Know You Wish This Were True.

The other night I had the most wonderful dream.  I was having a bubble bath and as the bubbles popped they turned into balls of yarn.  It was heavenly.

For more day two Knit and Crochet Blog Week entries Google 3KCBWDAY2

3KCBWDAY1 Colour Lovers

People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and its ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them. ”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Is there anything more visually important in life than colour? It affects our emotions, our appetites, and our sense of tranquility. Political parties can be identified by a colour. Religious holidays and major social holidays often are associated with colour. (If you think I’m wrong, what colour is Halloween or Easter?) Good cooks know that you are more likely to eat a meal of colourful well plated food than a meal of bland white or brown. And black cats were evil, and harbingers of doom. Colour has been an important aspect of our lives since the beginning of time and will continue to be.

So it stands to reason that as fibre people we have our preferences for one colour over another. For me it’s pretty clear-cut. Red, indigo, black and blue. The deeper and richer the better. According to What’s your sign.com, these choices mean that I am a passionate, imaginative, expressive, forceful type of person. I think that can translate to “Type A” personality with a smattering of creativity just for balance. And you know something? That’s not wrong. I am not a complete perfectionist or a rigid schedule follower, but I am willing to admit to having many “type A” traits. It’s also interesting that my choices correspond heavily with my Zodiac sign. I’ve been told that us dead of winter babies are more likely to pick darker more serious colours and at least for me that theory holds true.

However, when it comes to my colour choices for my fibre selection, it depends on who I’m knitting for. I will leave my colour comfort zones (and believe I have one. Just ask the little skein of yellow yarn that inadvertently made its way briefly into my stash. It came as part of a gift and I tried really hard to convince myself it would be okay to knit with. I never got there and thankfully I know the dyer and upon finding out that I received the yellow skein she exchanged for me ASAP) if I know that the person I am knitting for really loves a specific colour. But for myself, it’s simple and easy and straight forward. It does lead to things like having “When I Bit Him I Could Taste the Ocean” in multiple bases. But I don’t care. I love the colours that I love. They make me happy and cozy and comfortable. They’re the colours I knit with and wear on my body and my fingernails. They are me and I’m happy to be in those colours.

Just don’t look at my socks. The rainbow of colours I am willing to knit my socks in discounts everything I just said. They are loud and bright and fun and never, ever, yellow.

To find other posts from today’s topic, google 3KCBWDAY1.

YOP Update – April 22nd

 

I’m starting to feel a little like a broken record in these updates………..lots of progress, no finishes.  This week is no different.  But it has been fun.  First, two swaps for sock yarn were arranged and it looks like there may be a couple more in the works.  My yarn ends have been sent off and there are yarn ends coming to me.  I  was able to send off a ball from my stash to a knitter in the UK who contacted me because she was going to be short a ball of yarn for the Jersey she was knitting and strangely I had the same dye lot that she needed.  Not sure how that happened.  She’s  sending me some stitch markers in return and maybe I should see if she has some sock yarn ends too.

 

The Knit and Crochet Blog week starts tomorrow and I’ve been working hard to make sure that is all set to go since I know that I do not have the time to write a blog entry every day.  I’m almost finished and I hope that you enjoy what’s coming up this week.  For more info about the blog week you can go here.

 

I’m starting to think that it may be about the right time to start organizing Year Two of “A Year of Projects”  so if you missed out and want to join for this coming year or you want to start thinking about doing this again next year, check into our Ravelry  group here.  I’ll post the new info within the next seven days.  The new year starts for us on July 1st, so not to worry, we have lots of time to think about it.

 

Also, my pesky minions have been up to no good again and something may have to be done about this.  Maybe after the blog week is over………

 

Anyway, here’s  my list. 

 

 WIPS:

• Clockwork (cast on June  &  part of the Knit-a-long of Doom) (Finished July 2011)
• Wallis Cardi (cast on August of last year)
• Rattlesnake Creek socks (cast on about 1 1/2 years ago)
• Noro Log Cabin Blanket (cast on in June & it’s Christmas Knitting)
• Toe Up Socks

Christmas:

• Super secret BFF gift (I know you read this.  No peeking, but you’ll like it.) (Finished Sept  2011)
• Super Secret Husband gift (He reads it too.) (Finished Dec 2011)
• Urbana  (Finished July 2011) (Dad)
• Podsters
• Saturday morning slippers x2 (FIL, mom)
• Minion (Teiff) (Finished October 2011)
• Gargoyle (Sean) (Finished October 2011))
• Strangling Vines scarf (Christine) (Finished Dec 2011)
• Windcheif hat (dad) (Finished November 2011)
• Cherie socks  (mom)(In Progress)
• AStericks (MIL) (Finished November 2011)
• Dog Chewie (Maggie) (Finished October 2011)
• Super Secret Little J gift (See first super secret gift.  That’s her mum.) (Finished Oct 2011)
• Kleenex covers x6 (Finished October)
• Algonquin (In Progress)
• Washcloth x2 ( I really thought I was finished with those!)  (Finished Sept 2011)

 

Shawls

• Flamboyan (Finished Jan 2012)
• Reunion Cowl (Finished Jan 2012)

Cardis

• Roam (In Progress)

Socks

• Lenore (The third) (Finished Dec 2011)
• Flaming Desire 
• Staked  
• Fishbone Gansey  (Part of the Knit-a-long of Doom) (Finished October 2011)
• Cut & Paste
• My Vampire Boyfriend (Part of Nerd Wars) (In Progress)
• Cauchy 
• Masonic Lodge (In Progress)
• Flutter-by (Finished February 2012)
• Aragorn
• Duckies  (Finished Aug 2011)

12 Shawls in 2012 (first 6)

• Different Lines (Finished March 2012)
• Sharktooth (In Progress)
• Flavia (Finished Jan 2012)
• Stephen West Club shawl (February 2012)
• Stephen West Club shawl (Feb) (In Progress)
• Walnut Grove (In Progress)

 Dishcloth Challenge (first 12)

• 10/12 complete

 

Newly added

• West Knits Mystery KAL (Finished Sept 2011)
• Julia
• Minion Army (Finished October 2011)
• Blue Whale shawl – replacement MIL Gift (Finished Dec 2011)

 

The running totals so far are:

25/46 complete

13/21  in progress

To try to have a better idea of what happens in my stash

Balls in/Balls out

0/11  (January)

8/5 (February)

0/3 (March)

0/4.5 (April)

The Epic Blanket of Insanity Goes International

As it turns out, I am not the only person who is willing to devote many, many hours of their knitting life to a sock yarn blanket.  And after working on it for a short period of time I can see why.  Each little miter square is fast to knit up so it’s easy to feel like you’re making progress.  (At lest for now, I admit that I am in the very early stages.) And it’s pretty.  Really pretty.

Here’s my blanket so far.

I’ve been very smart and have been weaving in the ends as I go.

And these are the rest of the squares for the first row.

But, here’s the part where it gets really exciting.  (I realize that non-fibre people wouldn’t think that tiny little knitted squares are even a little exciting, but we know better.)  My blanket is going international!!! I am very fortunate to  have wonderful friends in the knitting community in my city who are willing to pass on ends to me to incorporate into the EBI.  (Which is either really nice of them or some kind of sick social experiment regarding my actual level of sanity  that they have decided to collaborate on and I am the willing brunt of the nasty joke.  You know what they say, ignorance is bliss and I’m willing to go with nice.)  In the first few squares alone I can point out what came from my stash, from my BFF’s stash, and from my friend Suzie’s stash.  It’s already very multicultural so to speak.  And now that diversity is spreading.  Swaps have been arranged with the Twisted Stitcher and with BigMonkeyPie and that means yarn from a whole other country!

My husband was very sweet and helped me wind my extra ends into 10 grams balls so that I could send off the amount of yarn that was agreed upon by both my swap buddies.  (While we were sitting there I did make a comment that apparently I had crossed some sort of fibre related magic line and had gone from addict to dealer since this is clearly intent to traffic.)

Don't mind the escaping Lady Eleanor in the background.

In the end it all looked like this.

So that means that there are now 5 different knitters involved in this blanket.  That works out too one Province and 2 States.  I would love to make this a truly international blanket and collect as many countries, states, and provinces in it as possible.  So, if any other knitter is knitting an EBI and wants to swap, find me on Rav.  (I’m Harleagh.) I’ll be knitting this for a really long time so no rush.

For now,  I’m off to start stalking my Postman.

Knitters involved: 5

Countries: 2

Provinces: 1

States: 2

On my Needles and Between My Pages April 18th

On My Needles
After a week of scattered focus, I seem to finally be back on track.  While I am still pretty sure that I may be the WIP Queen (or at least one of the Princesses), I can say that fewer projects are dominating my knitting time.  First, my Hubby’s Masonic Lodge socks have received some love.  The first round of the leg is finished and I am hoping to be finished the first heel this week.

My Epic Blanket of Insanity has become my one a day project and it’s coming along nicely.  (There are photos coming of that tomorrow.)

Lastly, Roam is chugging along.  And I’m enjoying it! And I have row gauge!  That almost made me faint dead away.  And after a brief moment of sheer panic when I thought I had cast on the wrong size, I realized that I hadn’t, and have to very quietly admit (lest the cardigan knitting powers that be hear me and smite me for my arrogance) that it seems to be going fairly, sort-of, maybe a little bit well.  So far.

Between My Pages

The classic coming of age story meets Alice on the other side of the looking-glass, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is exactly what the cover says, peculiar.  That’s not to imply that it is not an enjoyable read.  I look forward to seeing how the plot unfolds and how the charactors develop.  I think it speaks volumes for the author’s creativity that he was able to look at a collection of photos and weave a tale of that incorporates time travel, Romeo and Juliet, super powers (though up until now the super powers have been used for little more than entertainment value) and WWII.  Slightly gritty and rough around the edges, this books lacks the polish of some other novels I have read, but that works well with this story and makes it an intriguing read that I am enjoying.

For more great Wednesday stuff check out WIP Wednesday and the Yarn Along.

YOP Update April 15th

It’s been a scattered knitting week for me.  I’ve picked up whatever project strikes my fancy at any given moment and work on it for a bit.  It’s really perfectly fine and it means that I have made progress on a bunch of things.  I blame the lack of focus on the rather high level of stress that’s been hovering around me this week, and unfortunately it threatens to get worse before it gets better.  But that’s just the way life is sometimes   I will knit my way through it and maybe come out on the other side with a few more finished objects.

I did however, finish the last of the knitting for Oeste and only had to fudge the very last triangle a little bit.  Now I just have to sew it all up.  It will be off the list soon.  There are  also some super fun things happening with the sock yarn blanket or as it will now be known as, the Epic Blanket of Insanity (or EBI for short).  (Thanks Suzy for letting me use that name too.  It’s perfect.  If you want to you can check out Suzy’s blog here.)  More about those details later this week, but I will say that my EBI has become my go to project (at least for now) and it’s great when I am too tired or cranky or stressed to focus on something bigger.  Needless to say, it’s gotten a lot of love from me this week.

In other exciting new, I’ve ordered the yarn I need to start working on the TKGA Master Handknit Program.  I’ve printed everything off and have it all organized in a binder.  In theory when the yarn arrives, I will be ready to start.

So, not a lot of change on the list.  3 More balls out and one more dishcloth finished.

 

WIPS:

• Clockwork (cast on June  &  part of the Knit-a-long of Doom) (Finished July 2011)
• Wallis Cardi (cast on August of last year)
• Rattlesnake Creek socks (cast on about 1 1/2 years ago)
• Noro Log Cabin Blanket (cast on in June & it’s Christmas Knitting)
• Toe Up Socks

Christmas:

• Super secret BFF gift (I know you read this.  No peeking, but you’ll like it.) (Finished Sept  2011)
• Super Secret Husband gift (He reads it too.) (Finished Dec 2011)
• Urbana  (Finished July 2011) (Dad)
• Podsters
• Saturday morning slippers x2 (FIL, mom)
• Minion (Teiff) (Finished October 2011)
• Gargoyle (Sean) (Finished October 2011))
• Strangling Vines scarf (Christine) (Finished Dec 2011)
• Windcheif hat (dad) (Finished November 2011)
• Cherie socks  (mom)(In Progress)
• AStericks (MIL) (Finished November 2011)
• Dog Chewie (Maggie) (Finished October 2011)
• Super Secret Little J gift (See first super secret gift.  That’s her mum.) (Finished Oct 2011)
• Kleenex covers x6 (Finished October)
• Algonquin (In Progress)
• Washcloth x2 ( I really thought I was finished with those!)  (Finished Sept 2011)

 

Shawls

• Flamboyan (Finished Jan 2012)
• Reunion Cowl (Finished Jan 2012)

Cardis

• Roam (In Progress)

Socks

• Lenore (The third) (Finished Dec 2011)
• Flaming Desire 
• Staked  
• Fishbone Gansey  (Part of the Knit-a-long of Doom) (Finished October 2011)
• Cut & Paste
• My Vampire Boyfriend (Part of Nerd Wars) (In Progress)
• Cauchy 
• Masonic Lodge (In Progress)
• Flutter-by (Finished February 2012)
• Aragorn
• Duckies  (Finished Aug 2011)

12 Shawls in 2012 (first 6)

• Different Lines (Finished March 2012)
• Sharktooth (In Progress)
• Flavia (Finished Jan 2012)
• Stephen West Club shawl (February 2012)
• Stephen West Club shawl (Oeste)  (In Progress)
• Walnut Grove (In Progress)

 Dishcloth Challenge (first 12)

• 10/12 complete

 

Newly added

• West Knits Mystery KAL (Finished Sept 2011)
• Julia
• Minion Army (Finished October 2011)
• Blue Whale shawl – replacement MIL Gift (Finished Dec 2011)

 

The running totals so far are:

25/46 complete

13/21  in progress

To try to have a better idea of what happens in my stash

Balls in/Balls out

0/11  (January)

8/5 (February)

0/3 (March)

0/3.5 (April)

Fishy!!! FO Friday & a Dishcloth Update

A few weeks ago I discovered the fish Tawashi on Ravelry. I immediately had to resist the urge to cast one on. They are cute, fast, stash busters and can be used for the Dishcloth Challenge.
But this week, I could no longer resist and had to make one. The pattern calls for “a small amount of yarn” so I took what I perceived to be a small amount of yarn out of my stash and set to work. A very short period of time later, I had this. It’s a fish scrubby ready to scrub my dirty dishes clean.

It is clearly a fish. And it’s cute and fast. But what shocked me was the minuscule amount of yarn it did actually use.
So I decided to make another one. I started by bringing out far less yarn. 22 grams to be exact.

This is what 22g of Mission Falls ends look like.
Another very short time later I had this little guy to match the first one.

And after weighing the yarn that was remaining I discovered that each of these little guys only uses 12 grams of yarn.  That’s a tiny amount.  Really tiny.  I see a few more of these in my future very soon to use up the itty bitty ends that I thought were too small for anything.

For more Friday knitting check out FO Fridays, Creative Friday, Fiber Arts Friday, and Fibers on Friday

The original idea for dishcloth challenge came from  Ruth.  Head on over to her blog to read all about it.