New Road

To all of you who were waiting for me to figure out the colour join in the Road to Golden sweater, I must apologize. I ripped the sweater. I did like it, and someday I will knit it. I'm sure km's comment about giving the yarns a full twist is the ticket. There's just too many projects I want to do, and I might as well choose ones that don't frustrate me.

Like this one:



Minimalist Cardigan in Dream in Color Classy, Vino Veritas. This yarn is so awesome; the colour is rich and the yarn is so soft and squishy.

Lately we've been having some gorgeous, mild weather. We took advantage of one of those days by going apple picking.



This fun, little farm had hay mazes, a big fort playground, wagon rides, stinky animal farm, and of course, lots of apples:



Ladders were not provided.

Hemlock Ring

Ugly duckling:

Beautiful swan:

This was a fun and easy knit, and the blanket turned out gorgeous! I first bought this yarn to make a bag out it it, but decided it was too beautiful to use to shlep my stuff around. So instead, when I wake up, I wrap this around me and have some tea, and it helps alleviate my morning grumpiness.

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket

Yarn: Peace Fleece Worsted, 3 skeins (had very little left over)

Needles: 5mm or 5.5mm, depending on what length circular I had

Size: about 45" across; I knit the same number of rounds as Brooklyn Tweed

Pleasant Surprise

I had such a great day yesterday. My husband surprised me by arranging to have a friend watch the kids for the afternoon. My husband is not very good at birthdays and anniversaries, but every once in a while he'll do something like this for no particular reason, which makes it very special.

We started off having lunch with our friend and the kids at this neat place called Sushi Train, on Yonge just south of Bloor. They have this revolving track that carries plates of food, and you just grab what you want. Very cute! Then our friend went off with our kids to the Royal Ontario Museum, and hubby and I were FREE!! Whoohoo! We checked out the movies at Varsity, but we were in between shows, so we ending up just wandering around downtown all afternoon. First window shopping on Bloor, then we took the subway to the Eaton Centre. I forgot how enjoyable shopping could be without children! We grabbed a latte, then slowly walked our way back up Yonge St. We had a quiet dinner at a dark, candle-lit restaurant, then picked up our kids at our friend's place. What a great day!


Oh, and I finished my Monkeys:



Great pattern + great yarn = great socks.



Yarn is Koigu; did these on 2.5mm. Love 'em!

The Esther socks are coming along nicely too:



The pattern is by Stephanie van der Linden and is available for free at Socken-Kreativ-Liste Yahoo. The group is free to join, and there are a few other really nice patterns there, but the site is in German. If you're familiar with joining other Yahoo groups, then it's a piece of cake because the sign-up routine is the same. The pattern is in the Files section, or "Dateien", and in a file called "Monatsmuster". There, you'll find lots of nice patterns in either German or English. The Esther pattern is "Juli 2006". This sock is a little slow-going with all the twisted stitches, but I really like the pattern. I started with the small size on 2.5mm, and it was tiny. I'm knitting the large size on 2.25mm and now it fits fine.

Jailbird

I'm quite pleased that I was able to fix the long, lost Jailbird sweater into something wearable, without ripping the whole thing to pieces.

I knit a new neckband. I undid the side seams, and lengthened the front and back by about 4 inches. Then I seamed the sides back up, but at where I wanted the measurements to be and not at the edges. All the excess fabric on the inside I steamed flat, and you can't tell from the outside.

The wool is Patons Classic Merino. A little pilly, but soft and cheap.

I also finished a Sidekick Squatty in one evening.

I used two balls of Patons SWS in Geranium, and followed modifications from here. This was my first time felting, and I did it by hand in a tub of hot water. What a great way to get a good arm work-out! I was so surprised at the amount of shedding. Do you remember reading on Yarn Harlot's blog a while ago that she had to replace her washer because of felting? After seeing all that lint, I totally believe her!

Can you guess what I've been obsessed about lately?

Olivia's Lace by the Plucky Knitter

(single ply merino like Malabrigo...so soft!)



Esther socks in Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, Jungle



Brea bag in Patons Shetland Chunky, Dark Leaf Green



Hemlock Ring blanket in Peace Fleece

Malabrigo Loafers by Cocoknits

These slippers are so awesome! I just happened to have just enough to knit the small size (about 1 3/4 skeins). I don't think they will be very durable, but they are so soft and comfy, I will definitely knit more of these. I love 'em!

Green! Green! I can't get enough of green!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Need some help, please!

I started the colour part of Road to Golden over again. It wasn't because I didn't like the purple and green (it actually grew on me; reminded me of irises), but because I realized I wouldn't have enough yarn. Now I'm using pink and green. Aside from some 2-colour mitts, I don't have any other stranding experience, so I need a little help.

This is the beginning of the round:



and this is what it looks like when I gently stretch it:



Is it supposed to look so messy? Am I doing something wrong?

When I start a new row, I lay the unused yarn across the working yarn, and it gets picked up. Am I supposed to give the yarn one full twist instead? Check out this join. Mine looks
nothing like that:



If anyone has any tips or advice, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

It's like I made 80 bucks!

Have you ever dug out an old pair of pants or jacket, reached into the pocket, and pulled out a long forgotten 20 dollar bill? Well, this past week, instead of finding money, I found UFOs. Four of 'em!

I was cleaning out my closet, uncovering boxes and bags of my stash. I was gonna start photographing it for Ravelry. I found four projects that I had forgotten all about.

[Btw, after cleaning, I have definitely decided that there is no way I'm putting my stash up. First of all, it will take too long. Secondly, the amount that I have is terrifying. I would much rather have my stash be a fuzzy blur in the back of my mind, especially when I'm not willing to give up yarn buying.]

This is the oldest one:

Mitered Squares blanket from Mason-Dixon. I started this almost two years ago, and it's made of acrylic. Not those new breed of acrylics that are silky-soft. I'm talking about the dry and crunchy kind. You see, I'm a horrible pack rat. I inherited the pack rat gene from my mom, who got it from her mom. When I started to knit, both of them "donated" their stash of yarn to me, which consisted entirely of worsted acrylic. I'm sure there was yarn in there that was older than me! Lots of the stuff doesn't even exist anymore (did you know Simpson's made yarn?). Of course I couldn't throw any of it away, and this is what became of it. I really do like this blanket, even though snuggling up to it is as comfy as hugging astroturf. The colours are fun, and I can see it taking lots of abuse from the kids.

Next is the Graduated Ribs sweater from Knitter's Stash:

This is just the body:

I started a sleeve, then gave up. This was before I learned how to knit socks. I remember trying to use DPNs, and getting so frustrated because I couldn't get the hang of it. Should be a piece of cake to finish this now, but probably not 'til spring because it's cotton.

Next is Go With the Flow tank from Inspired Cable Knits.

I noticed a mistake in the lace, but this baby is knit on 3mms, so I'm not really interested in ripping back. Besides, this piece is the back. Nobody will notice, right?

And last, one my husband calls the Jailbird sweater:

This is the first sweater I tried knitting without a pattern. I guess I also tried knitting without taking a single measurement. The fit was terrible: 3 extra inches on both sides of the body, and it ended at my belly button. (???) I'm trying to fix this without ripping out the body, but it may be unsalvagable. We'll see!