purl this!

Cheap Post Trick

2011-03-31T23:32:00.001-04:00

Rather than posting self generated content, here's the results of an online quiz:

At a glance:

In depth:

My personalDNA Report

Back from the dead

2011-02-24T21:02:00.002-05:00

Time flies. A lot has happened...

I've been to some far places

and some near places

I've even managed to fit in a little knitting here and there

Some of it quite little

Others not so little

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-10-19T00:01:00.003-04:00

I am not sure if I should, but I do get an inordinate amount of pleasure from the fact that my various cards and gifts all coordinate.

BTW - I have caved in and embraced the social network by re-activating a facebook account I cancelled over 3 years ago. If you'd like to be my friend, message me on ravelry to get my facebook user name

What's that Tweeting sound?

2010-09-30T20:59:00.000-04:00

Since I am ~~too lazy~~ unable to sort out how to blog from my Blackberry (plus for some reason I can't upload Blackberry photos to Flickr), I have started to use my Twitter account.

I actually first learned about Twitter back in 2007 when we were in Berlin. The Museum of Communications had an exhibit featuring a web page projected on a wall. Every few seconds, a random statement would appear from somewhere in the world. The exhibit explained that this was an online service which allowed people to post brief messages for all to see. There was a terminal that you could post at using the museum's account; I am pretty sure that we both posted something that day. Truth be told I was more impressed by the exhibit which showed photos of heavily tatooed people accompanied by their statements about what tatoos meant to them/why they did it, etc.

Subsequently, Twitter became all the rage, and I opened a Twitter account last year, but I did very little with it. A month or 2 ago, a new twitter app showed up on my Blackberry which made it easy to log on. So now I'm following several knitting buddies and intermittently tweeting as LadyLungDoc.

Hey - I just knit a sweater!

2010-09-28T22:00:00.003-04:00

I sat down with a 4.5 mm crochet hook tonight and ended up with a finished sweater:

(Making do with a bathroom mirror reflection photo as nobody else is around to take a picture right now)

Overall, I am ~~relieved that it fits~~ happy with the fit post blocking. However, I'm not sure about the neckline:

The pattern instructions are to do a row of single crochet, but I am toying with the idea of ripping it out and doing a few rows of garter stitch, or at least another row or 2 of crochet. Since the sleeves and bottom of the garment both have a 1 cm garter border, the single row of crochet looks kind of skimpy to me. Any suggestions/opinions would be appreciated.
One minor problem is that I used the leftover charcoal yarn as the contrast colour on my Twisted Vest, and I don't know if I"ll have enough to complete the I-cord and arm/bottom edging. Why do I so often find that projects intended to use up leftover yarn leave me having to buy another skein of the "leftovers"?

Ready To Wear

2010-09-26T08:02:00.002-04:00

I didn't quite make my Labour Day target of completely finishing my Honest Tee, but I did get the ribbons sewn in and weave in the ends during the month of September:

At some point I will have to "hem" the ends of the ribbons to prevent fraying:

In addition to lengthening the top, my other significant modification was to extend the back so it would be the same length as the front.

As written, the front narrows down to straps which get attached in the back. I suspected that this would lead to issues with bra strap coverage. Luckily I had adequate yarn - actually had a bit more than a full skein left over.

Next up is sewing up and knitting the I-Cord trim on my Twisted Vest. I am hoping to get that done for next weekend when we take a short trip to Ottawa.

But more exciting is this:

Cast on January 2007. The only thing left to do is to crochet the edging on the neckline. I want to finish it in time to wear it home to Winnipeg for (Canadian) Thanksgiving.

Twisted

2010-09-17T08:35:00.005-04:00

I do appreciate the supportive comments regarding my last post. I don't want to go into exactly what upset me; I have always been a very private person, and although I have read many posts about other blogger's personal tragedies, that's not how I roll. Fortunately, I have several IRL friends to talk to, and they have been a great help. But the virtual hugs are nice - many thanks. Luckily I am not back to work until next week, so I have some time to sort things out.
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Ages ago, during my second SeaSocks cruise, we went to Tricoter in Seattle. One of the women who run the shop is quite a talented designer who can sit down with you and come up with a simple pattern that works for you and the yarn you have selected. There was a sample tank top which had been knit out of 2 different types of Blue Moon Fibre Arts yarn: Twisted and a mohair blend (Silkmo? Kidmo?) I wasn't crazy about the texture that the mohair added, so I instead got a skein of Twisted and a skein of Geisha, (which is a mohair yarn with minimal halo), as well as a pattern for the tank based on my measurements. It has sat in the stash with other potential projects since then.

A few weeks ago, I decided to instead use the Twisted to knit a Jellybean Vest. I had hoped that I would be able to complete it over the Labour Day weekend, but I ended up doing other things that weekend so didn't make that much progress.

A single skein of Twisted is 512 metres, so based on the pattern requirements, I knew I would be cutting it close. In an attempt to make the yarn go further, I cast on with contrasting yarn which I will use for the armhole edging as well as the "wrap".

The mock wrap is an I-cord which runs up the front and the neckline edging; at the end, stitches are picked up along this diagonal band for the applied I-cord. Very neat idea.

After knitting the front, I had exactly half of the skein left. Since the back will use more yarn, I knew that I would not have enough yarn. It would have been OK if I hadn't had to lengthen it, but then the waist would have sat at the bottom of my ribcage. Luckily, there was another Toronto knitter (Dr Steph) who had used the same colourway of Twisted to knit a baby sweater, and she has been kind enough to send me her leftovers.

By the way, the colourway is "Carbon". Initially I thought it was the magenta that drew me to it...

...but maybe there was more to it than that:

Somehow, shedding on this is much less satisfying than usual.

One of the "other things" that kept me from The Twisted Vest" on the long weekend was this:

This is a Buttonhole Mobius Wrap. I am knitting it with Silk Garden Sock yarn held together with Estelle Cadenza. The idea for that mix came from a shawl pattern created by Martina at Kniterary .

The one-row buttonholes are much easier than I had initially thought. My goal is to finish this in time for me to wear it to a wedding at the end of October.

I also visited Mokuba (which is a totally awesome shop - makes me want to knit more projects that feature ribbons!) on the long weekend and found some ribbon for my Honest Tee:

There was a different ribbon which appealed to me more on the spool, but surprisingly, this ribbon looked much better threaded through the eyelets. Kind of like how sometimes handpainted yarn looks better in the skein than it does knitted up.

Now it is just a matter of figuring out the best way to anchor the ribbons at the top and bottom. There needs to be a bit of give to it; I will have to try the top on and do a bunch of torso contortions to figure out how much exactly.

Crewel world

2010-09-16T00:02:00.001-04:00

Mommy started a new project today. It's not knitting - it is a vintage needlework/applique collage.

She says that she needs something to distract her...

...because today everything got turned upside down.

She feels sad and mad and confused all at once...

...and just needs some time to figure out what to do.

Maybe cutting up bits of felt and stitching them onto some fabric will soothe her more than mindless knitting will. Or maybe it won't. Maybe she will just cry herself to sleep instead.

The Summer Finishes...

2010-08-29T19:59:00.005-04:00

Now that they are officially above board, they spend all their time in the back window.

Cats. Sigh.

I managed to finish 2 projects since I last posted:

These booties took me almost 3 years to make.

Okay - truth be told, the knitting part took a weekend, crocheting the first 2 button loops took about 5 minutes, and then there was a 30+ month interval between that and me crocheting the last 2 button loops and sewing on the buttons. I am able to rationalize the time out because they were definitely boy colours, and the babies born in the interval form whom I would knit something were either girls, or were unknown genders and thus required gender neutral colours. (I realize that that excuse does not apply to the rest of my long list of UFO's.Oh well. )But now the wife of one of The Gambler's fencing coaches is expecting a boy. So I had the incentive to finish them.

I also finished knitting my Honest Tee:

In this case, it's just the knitting that is finished. I am still going to have to weave in ends, block it, and sew it up. I had toyed with the idea of knitting it in the round, but since this yarn apparently stretches after washing, I decided the seams might minimize bagging.

And even though one of the benefits of knitting in the round is being able to try the garment on as you work it, it's possible to do it with pieced garments:

I created temporary seams with T-pins that my Secret Pal so brilliantly gifted to me:

The shoulder was "seamed" by alternating front and back stitches on the needle:

There were 2 key learning points to doing the temporary seams:
1) Insert the pins with the points facing upward if you are going to pull the garment on over your head. This minimizes the likelihood that the pins will jab into you.
2) It is best to leave a bit of a gap below the underarm join, because if the pin sticks into the armhole proper, your armpit is going to get stuck.

Now my goal is to get it to wearable state by Labour Day.
Labour Day 2010, that is.

What's more fun than 6 inches of 3x2 ribbing?

2010-08-25T11:03:00.000-04:00

7 inches of 3x2 ribbing!

Someone on Ravelry had commented that this top was a bit short. So for reasons that are still not clear to me, I decided to add an extra inch to the ribbing. [This is after knitting 6 inches of the ribbing with 3 mm needles before admitting to myself that negative ease is not a good idea in the waist area.]. I decided to take a break from knitting the front to work on the ribbing for the back, and I am finding it incredibly tedious. I think that the eyelet section in the front at least broke it up a bit.

I have also added some length to the non-ribbed section of the top, and I suspect that I will be adding some length to the section above the armholes. This is another reason to start working on the back before finishing the front - if I catch up to the front, I can try it on before I cast off for the neckline. I find it somewhat ironic that I won't be putting the front and back onto the same circular needle until after the armhole shaping begins rather than knitting it all in one piece.

Busted!

2010-08-24T13:32:00.004-04:00

We got a notice in the mail today from Toronto Animal Services. At first I thought they were referring to the occupant of our carport,

but then realized that they meant our contraband cats.

Greedo had no idea how they knew about him.

Somerset thought that maybe she could just blend into her surroundings. Given the amount of cat hair on our furniture, it's surprising that she wasn't successful.

Look Ma! It's a rectangle!

2010-08-14T11:45:00.000-04:00

I am finally knitting something other than a 12cm x12cm square:

I am calling this project "Honest Tee"; according to the SWTC website, this colourway is "Honesty" (because apparently Rowan does not hold the patent on using yarn colourways names that give you no clue as to the actual colour) Pattern is Emerald Seas.

Speaking of patterns: I came across this pattern while cruising the Ravelry pattern browser today. A whole sweater of corrugated ribbing! And it will use up sock yarn!

Maybe I'll name that project George...

My garage went condo

2010-08-13T20:13:00.004-04:00

As I was getting some stuff out of the car today, I realized that I was sharing the carport:

Rocky had probably been taking a nap in the overhang above the door, and was rudely awakened when the automatic opener kicked into action.

I wasn't able to get my camera out of my purse in time to catch the various "La la la...Nothing to see here...I am just going to streeetch over towards the other rafter...These aren't the droids you are looking for" contortions. They are nimble little bastards; which is good, because I have this thing about wildlife landing in front of me.

Oh Bee-have

2010-08-11T16:41:00.002-04:00

Instead of a front lawn, we have a rock garden with some perennials and shrubs.

The Eyes have it

2010-08-10T22:48:00.006-04:00

Chicago Sightseeing:

Our summer "holiday" in Chicago involved a me attending a 5 day review course. The only way to make it through lectures that went from 7 until 5:30 was to bring some knitting. (By the way - did you know that if the atmospheric humidity is >70%, your sweat cannot evaporate? That was one little factoid I picked up during the course that I am quite enthralled with given that I don't think I will ever get used to humid Southern Ontario summers. Although I firmly believe that the statement "It's a dry cold, so it's not so bad" is complete and utter bullshit when the temperature is below -20C, it is waaaay easier to tolerate heat when the humidity is low)

This vest is from a Gedifra booklet. I probably could have finished this before the end of the flight home if I hadn't ended up frogging several sections a few times. Since I forgot to bring a cable needle with me, I ended up using various other implements; first a swizzle stick, then a pen, and finally a crochet hook. (Cabling without a needle wasn't feasible because I often had to put my knitting down to take notes). What's the fun of knitting if you don't repurpose non-knitting items from time to time?

Although the pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, I used Cotanani that I picked up at Passionknit on clearance this June. It claims to be DK weight, but which seemed much plumper to me, and I was able to get gauge without it being too loose.

I am on a bit of a vest/tank kick right now - for a few reasons:
1. With the hot humid weather we have been having, it just seems wrong to knit something with long sleeves. Even if the weather will be different by the time I finish it.
2. I have acquired a collection of yarns in amounts less than that required to knit a full adult garment, but more than what would be needed for a hat or mittens.
2.1 Even though the amount might be perfect for a scarf, I do not like knitting scarves because they seem to take forever and for a huge percentage of the project they do not appear to get any longer no matter how much you knit.
2.2 Even though the amount might be perfect for a baby/small child garment, I knit very few baby/child garments because ~~I am selfish~~ most of the yarns I have are too ~~nice~~ high maintenance, plus I usually buy vibrant/dark colours.
3. Along with a long torso which requires extra knitting, I also have long arms, which require even more extra knitting. Vests and tanks have no arms.
4. I usually wear a lab coat at work, and a sweater in anything other than a very fine yarn is usually a bit too warm underneath. However, a vest is perfect, especially during the spring and fall when the air conditioning is turned up too high.

This weekend after I finished sewing up the vest, I knit several swatches with 2 different yarns: Yin (clearance quantity) and Kiwi laceweight (which turned out to be a true laceweight, thus not an appropriate sub for Rowan 4 ply). I started on a Green Gable, but realized that in order to get gauge, the fabric would be too loose for my liking, so I instead am reswatching for Emerald Seas(because I was keen enough to swatch in the round for Green Gable, so now I need to swatch flat!).
The Kiwi is going to be used for Arbor (with the yarn doubled up). In this case, I swatched flat, but now need to swatch in the lace pattern.

Hmmmm...perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I am on a swatch kick right now. I am just cranking out those little 12cm x12 cm squares.

Summer FO

2010-07-20T17:11:00.005-04:00

I have accumulated a number of projects that are "finished" with respect to the knitting part of the process, but are not yet completed - Poppy and Flair being the most recent: I often end up stalling at the point of weaving in ends, blocking, or sewing buttons on. I knit a pair of baby booties a few years ago when one of The Gambler's friends was expecting a baby - all that remains is to crochet 2 chains on each bootie and sew on buttons; the kid is now starting preschool, and the booties remain unfinished...

For example - I finished knitting these 2 Cable Baby Cardis during the Olympics; I even finished weaving in the ends before that final hockey game started. But it wasn't until last Thursday night that I finally got around to sewing on the snaps and the buttons so that I could give them to the moms-to-be (both of whom are due to go on maternity leave within the next week or 2).

I didn't get around to buying the snaps until that morning, and then realized that afternoon that I ~~did not have~~ could not find an appropriate sewing needle (all I could find were darning needles that were too thick), so I ended up picking up a pack of them when we went out to go see a movie. I stayed up late so that they could be delivered before anybody's water broke.

Despite my awesome procrastinating skills, I decided that I would completely finish Dusk Jewel in time to wear it this season: this weekend I not only wove in the ends, but I also did the crab stitch edging on the armholes (several times, since the first attempt was too loose, the second attempt was too tight, and finally on the third attempt it was juuuust right)

Because there's an inch or 2 of ease around the waist and hip, it will definitely work as a vest. (Just not over a tunic length blouse - or maybe I can start a new fad.)

And here is some very blurry evidence that it will work as a tank as well.

(I really have to figure out where I can do mirror self-portraits other than our main floor bathroom) .

The Mumble Cardigan is progressing slowly - other than increases at each end of every 4th row, it's mindless stockinette. Unfortunately, the knitpicks needles have a tendancy to unscrew every so often, and the plies of the yarn often separate, so it doesn't zip along as quickly as you would think.

There are a few more summer tops that I have been considering starting, however, I am attending a course in Chicago next week, so I am possibly going to cast on an Eiffel Tower Shawl
to be my travel knitting. My rationale is that since it is knit from the top centre outwards, much of the early part of the shawl is stockinette with just enough pattern bits to keep it from being monotonous. I will use some laceweight merino/silk that I received from a Secret Pal 2+ years ago.

Speaking of Secret Pal gifts - to my current Secret Pal: Thanks for the second package! I opened it yesterday, and will do the photo documentation in the next few days.

You know it's been a long time since you did laundry...

2010-07-16T08:37:00.005-04:00

...when you can do a load of "turquoise"

Don't think that I have taken separating your laundry to a whole new insane level; I had a pair of turquoise jeans that hadn't been washed before, and as I was sorting the piles of stuff to be washed, I kept putting other turquoise things aside. When I was through, the turquoise pile was pretty substantial - I only had to supplement it with a (navy blue) bathrobe to make a full load.

For a change, the full hampers were not just due to work - we spent a long weekend in Montreal. The Gambler was competing in a fencing tournament:

I had lots of time to knit (5 hour drive there, 8 hour drive back - nothing like hitting Sunday-of-a-long -weekend-traffic in 2 different provinces).

By the time we checked into the hotel, I was back to the point from which I had ripped back:

I am much happier with the silhouette of the garment now. I got much more knitting done during the tournament, and since we got back I made it down to the bottom ribbing:

The original plan was to do the same length of ribbing at the bottom as at the top, but that would have made it a few inches too long - an unusual occurence for me! The top is intended to be knit as a tunic, with the bottom ribbing split to provide the "vents". Instead of knitting it full length, I just kept knitting in the round until the end. Interestingly, the bottom ribbing is looser than the top - presumably because the purl stitches were purled every row in the round rather than being knit stitches every second row. I don't mind it on this garment, but will have to keep this fact in mind in the future.

All that remains now is to sew the shoulders together, and a crochet border for the arm openings. Hopefully I will get that done this weekend.

Instead of starting a new project, I decided to pick up a WIP that has been hibernating for close to a year - The Mumble Cardigan:

I had finished the knitting, and was halfway through casting off the bottom when I realized that I would not have enough yarn left to complete the cast off. I was going to rip back the sleeves a few rows in order to salvage some yarn, but was not particularly thrilled with how it looked on me. Specifically, I didn't like the fact that the bottom of the garment took off from the shrug portion right at my armpit. I theorized that after blocking it would have less of a "garment I have grown out of" look, but didn't really believe that would happen. So it sat in a bag all winter.

This week I gave some thought to frogging the whole thing and using it for a Mythos Cardigan, but realized that I really didn't have any problem with the top part of the cardigan. So I ripped back the bottom and started it higher up in front.

The pattern as written instructs you to knit 4 sets of short rows so that the bottom edge will be straight rather than curved. I knew I would have to do extra short rows to get that effect, and actually ended up doing the short rows all the way back to the middle of the back:

This is going to lead to the bottom at the back being a bit higher than in the front. But given the popularity of "wrapigans" this year, I don't see it being a problem. Luckily I was able to pick up another 2 skeins of the yarn - I don't think it is dyed, because the colour looks exactly the same a year later.

The only decision I have to make now is how often to increase along the edge - as written, the pattern has you increase on every knit row, but I am thinking of doing it on every second knit row.

Did I just go a whole month without a blog post?

2010-07-02T08:45:00.004-04:00

Oh dear.

I was very close to having a June blog posting this Tuesday, but Flickr foiled me again! I wanted to upload a batch of photos from my computer to Flickr, but I could only do one photo at a time, and 2 or 3 photos repeatedly failed.

So finally, about a month after I recieved it, here is a great package I received from my SP15 redux Secret Pal:

Literary Cat card, 2 skeins of some beautiful DK weight purple yarn, and some dark chocolate (which is long gone!) Thanks Secret Pal!

Luckily, I did manage to knit during some of my non-blogging time over the last month.

Some projects were secret:

Some were gifts:

(You'd think that I would have had the foresight to take pictures of knitted gifts with my camera before they get wrapped. Apparently not)

But this one is for me:

This is Jewel from the book "Custom Knits" by Wendy Barnard. The yarn is "Dusk" by Filatura di Crosa. Several of my non-knitting hours last month were spent at my LYS Passionknit, perusing the bags of yarn that they had on sale for 50% off. More hours (and yarn) than I care to admit to. The Dusk was one of the yarns they were clearing out that followed me home.

The pattern is written for 20 st/10cm, but my gauge was 21.5 st/10cm, so I started knitting the Large instead of the medium. This worked out OK until I got below the bust - then it started looking too loose in the back.

Because of the contortions involved, this shot doesn't really demonstrate that fact very well. However, at this point I only had 1 decrease left, and was not yet at the narrowest part of my waist. So I ripped back to a few rows before the bottom of the bust (over 2 skeins of knitting - sign!), started the decreases earlier, and added some extra decreases in.

At long last...

2010-05-31T21:09:00.004-04:00

My word but I have sucked at blogging over the last few months. My latest ~~lame excuse~~ reason for internet silence is that I am no longer able to upload photographs from my blackberry onto flickr. Meaning that I have to go to all the trouble of taking pictures with an actual camera, and then downloading them into my computer before uploading them to flickr. My life is so hard.

I'm hoping that come July I will be much prone to being immobilized by intertia - we have managed to hire some new doctors to work in the ICU, and there will be 2 of us working at a time on weekdays, which should lead to my quality of life improving by leaps and bounds. More time to do all sorts of fun things when I am on call like sleep! Possibly even some time to knit.

I have gotten a reasonable amount of knitting done in the last few months, although since early April everything I have knit has been for other people (which not my usual practice!)

In May I finished knitting Herbivore for The Gambler's Mother:

I still have a reasonable amount of yarn left, but it was becoming quite tedious - the "pattern" portion involves purling through the back loop on the wrong side. So this was what it was like to knit it: " Okay, some mindless stockinette, not a problem, what's on TV? Slightly tricky twisted rib section on the right side - oh damn, did I forget to twist those stitches? Mindless stockinette...much longer slightly twisted rib...mindless stockinette...oh good, it's the short twisted rib section - I am almost finished this row...mindless stockinette. Turn work - mindless stockinette again...OMG it is a pain to have to purl through the back loop; thank goodness this section is so short...mindless stockinette...OH MY LORD, I am going to grow old and die before I finish this middle twisted rib section; how big is this damned shawl? Can I cast off soon? Mindless stickinette...stupic twisted rib - at least this section is shorter...mindless stockinette...Thank God! It's the right side row!!!"

I~~gave up on it and cast off~~ got to a point where I thought it was a decent size just before TGM paid us a brief visit. I knew where my blocking pads and blocking wires were, but had no idea where my blocking pins were.

So I improvised:

Anyone up for some corn on the cob?

By the way - Secret Pal - your package arrived today; I'm going to open it tomorrow. And even take some pictures!

Secret Pal 15 questionnaire

2010-05-07T20:25:00.001-04:00

Oh my - has it been 3 weeks since I last posted? I have been knitting - but for some reason can't upload the picture of the cats sleeping on my lap while I'm knitting. So here are some old pictures of the cats sleeping:

The rest of this post is a Secret Pal Swap questionnaire; hopefully next week I can do a real post with actual new stuff.

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What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? I tend to prefer yarns with a nice tight twist.
What fibers do you absolutely not like? Splitty yarns. I am also not a huge fan of yarns that shed excessively - I have cats who do that for me.

What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a great needle roll which I received in a swap from indigomouse

How long have you been knitting? about 8 years now

How did you learn? I took a learn to knit class at a yarn shop (which has since closed) in Burlington Ontario. Much of my more recent learnin' has been Internet based, although I have taken a few workshops.

Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? Somewhere between intermediate and advanced.

Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? No

What’s your favorite scent? Cloves. I also like lavender. But not the two together.

Do you have a sweet tooth? I am a fan of chocolate - the darker the better, not so much a fan of candy.
Favorite candy? See above.

What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? When I was young, I used to do needlepoint. When I was in university, I did a bit of "strip quilting". I acquired a very basic sewing machine a year or 2 ago with the intention of doing some sewing or quilting, but I think I've only used it a dozen times to do quick repairs/hems.

Do you spin? Dye? The nice people at Rowan, Patons, Berocco, Mission Falls, Auraucania and all of their compatriots do a good job of making yarns, so who am I to horn in on their territory? Plus, I don't have enough time to knit, so the last thing I want to do is start aquiring a fibre stash! I've done a bit of Kool-aid dyeing, but again, the commercial and indie dyers seem o know what they are doing...

What kind of music do you like? I'm a bit weird in that I listen almost exclusively to CBC Radio One, which is similar to NPR, or BBC4. Most of my music listening is at the gym (during classes), or when I am driving with my husband in his car with his satellite radio. I like 80's music, as well as folk/alternative. Not a fan of hiphop, but some pop songs strike my fancy.

Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) Yes.

What’s your favorite color(s)?
Red (deep blue toned red rather than orangey red), purple, and greens (olive/lime/forest/teal/turquoise, but not kelly green). I'm also a fan of chocolate brown.

Any colors you just can’t stand? Pastels don't work for me - baby blue, lilac, pale grey, most pinks, but I do like charcoal and fuschia (not necessarily together).

What is your family situation? One husband, 2 cats.

Do you have any pets? See above

Are you allergic to any pets? No, but my female cat seems to have a housedust allergy, and since 90% of housedust is shed skin cells, it's possible that my cat may be allergic to me! Perhaps she should wash me regularly.

Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Ponchos no - everything else yes.

What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I usually have at least one pair of socks on the go. I am trying to focus on knitting sweaters/tanks, since my queue is full of them, and I have several sweaters' worth of yarn sitting in my house waiting to be knit up.

What is on your needles right now? A shawl for my Mother in Law, a Poppy Sweater that just needs to have a few ends woven in before I block it and do a crochet border on the neckline, a pair of plain stockinette socks that I am striping by alternating yarns, a garter Noro striped kerchief. These are the active projects - I have several hibernating UFOs.

Do you read knitting books? See below.
What kind of books i.e. technique, pattern, fiction? Mostly pattern books, and combination pattern/technique books. I read one "knitting fiction" book, so I really have no need to read another one, and I have no interest in anything that the Yarn Harlot cranks out.

Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Yes!

Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Circs all the way. I am a HUGE fan of Magic Loop.

Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I tend to use metal needles for the most part, but also use wooden ones.

Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Yes; the swift is one of those ones that looks like an umbrella skeleton; in retrospect a wooden one would be more sturdy.

How old is your oldest UFO? I have a red cotton tank top that is at least 5 or 6 years old. It's probably about 65% done, and I am starting to wonder if I should just frog it, since it's a somewhat boxy tank and I prefer stuff with waist shaping.

What is your favorite holiday? A beach holiday!

What winter holiday do you observe? This year we took a beach holiday over Christmas - most relaxed Christmas I have had for quite some time.

Is there anything that you collect? WIPs

Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on?
The new Chrissy Gardiner toe up sock book, a set of "connectors" for the Knitpicks interchangeable needles, patterns: Koolhaus, Sahara (by Wendy Bernard).

What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? None.

Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn? I hear that there are knitters who actually finish one project before starting another one - that would be pretty neat!

Are you a sock knitter? yes.

What are your foot measurements? Women's 11. I think circumference is about 10 inches, length 10.75 inches. I do have a high instep, so the cuff portion of the sock has to be able to stretch to at least 13 inches

When is your birthday? October 19

Are you on Ravelry? yes - I am Ladylungdoc there as well.

Are you on KnitPicks Knitting Community? No

Maybe it is a cat pillow after all...

2010-04-18T19:07:00.003-04:00

Flair is so versatile!

I am about to finish the second sleeve; then I will be ripping back the first sleeve because I discovered 2 mistakes - I missed a decrease, and there's a small hole where I created a stitch. Neither are visible to anyone but me, but that hole will drive me crazy.

I am also debating whether or not I should rip out the bottom few inches and reknit due to the visible colour change:

Of course, there's also the issue of the colour change at the top of the garment:

And this happened despite alternating skeins! It's not a dyelot problem - this yarn has no dyelots, but there is some variability between skeins in terms of colour distribution. I thought that I had balanced them out, but apparently there were a few skeins which were significantly lighter than the others. Hopefully the overall variegation of the yarn masks it somewhat.

By all rights I should have finished knitting this by now, but I took a short hiatus to knit this:

The pattern is Molly ; I picked it up this fall when I was in Vancouver. The yarn is Estelle Arequipa. I knit an extra repeat of the lace trim at the start; I am happy that I did, because I think that it would look a bit skimpy otherwise. I'm giving it to The Gambler's Mom, who also has a fairly broad forehead.

If I'm not knitting a cat pillow...

2010-04-13T19:59:00.003-04:00

...it must be a cat afghan:

I'm making good progress on Flair:

This picture is actually a few days old; since taking it I finished the body, and am almost completed the first sleeve.

By the way - I've signed up for Secret Pal 15 redux, and they are looking for more participants - here's the link.

A little Flair

2010-04-07T21:11:00.005-04:00

I have come to the conclusion that Wendy Bernard is short. Not just "shorter than I am" short - more like "wee little bit of a thing" short.
Why?

Because I am knitting myself a Flair cardigan out of some bulky yarn. Since the pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, according to my tension swatch, the instructions for size XS would knit up to something that would be the right size for me.

This was how far I got before I decided to try it on. Sadly, the fronts barely overlapped. But another problem with it was that the buttons were far too close together; even despite the change in row gauge. If you look at the Ravelry Project Gallery page, most people end up adding several buttons to the front. Probably because the "bottom" button ends up landing at or just below the bustline. Rather than at the bottom of the rib cage or lower as the pattern photo suggests.

I switched to 18 rows between buttonholes, and will probably stick with just 5 buttons. At this point, according to the pattern, I should have started knitting the seed stitch border several rows back. Now I know that I'm taller than the average person, but that's mighty cropped! Luckily I have 4 more skeins than the yardage called for. I should even be able to knit full length sleeves.

Keeping Warm

2010-04-06T20:41:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, Somerset demonstrated her weather predicting ability:

It never fails - if she's sitting on the vent in the morning, it's going to be a cold one. Luckily I had my gloves to keep me warm:

They are super comfy, and fit perfectly post blocking.

The Gambler likes the look of them, so I'll knit him a pair for next winter. I'll shorten the cuffs, and instead of the star pattern on the back, I'm going to use a much less feminine motif.

That awkward stage...

2010-03-19T07:39:00.003-04:00

The Gambler and I are heading to Kingston (Ontario, not Jamaica) this weekend; he's fencing in a tournament. We are driving there, so I am faced with the question of what knitting project to take.

Isn't it frustrating when you know you will have a few solid hours of knitting time, but your WIPs are in an awkward stage where they are either near a tricky part that you wouldn't want to work on in the car, or so near completion that you'll have to bring a second WIP anyways?

Granted, I do have one travel appropriate project on the needles:

This is the Herbivore Shawl by westknits. I initially started it as a present for The Gambler's mother. Recent events have led me to put in on hold, because to be honest, I have limited time for knitting, so if I am knitting for someone else, they had better be deserving of it! It's the subject of a whole other blog post, but suffice it to say, she definitely does not fall under that category, even if you factor in the sympathy part of the equation that led me to start the project.

Case in point - when I showed one of the nurses at work the first Baby Cardigan, she offered to pay me to knit one as a gift for one of her friends who is expecting a grandchild soon. I told her that as my life is right now, time is far more precious than money. I couldn't think of a $ amount that would make it worth my while to knit something I had no interest in knitting. Given the current economic climate, I am incredibly lucky to be in this position, and I am well aware of it.

Speaking of Cool Weather Clothing...

2010-03-18T22:09:00.007-04:00

I just finished the first of the Yummy Fable Gloves, just in time for the nice warm weather :

Somerset is unimpressed.

Once you get to the fingers and thumb, it's a free form pattern; the designer provides some motifs to mix and match. I'm thinking that the next pair I knit (in green, and shorter) I'll just stripe the fingers as well.

Speaking of thumbs...when are you supposed to stop knitting the thumb gusset and start the actual thumb? Is it before the web between the thumb and palm is covered up or after it's covered up? When I followed the pattern as written, I still have visible "web":

It occurs to me that the glove pattern is written for hands that are average length, rather than for someone with long hands. The next pair I'll add a few rows to the bottom and the top of the motif, and I need to figure out how much longer the thumb gusset should be.

Spring Ahead 2010

2010-03-17T22:01:00.001-04:00

The rays are getting warmer.

I am happy to announce that I managed to finish my 2 baby sweaters prior to the last day of the Olympics:

I highly recommend the pattern - a nice combination of mindless stockinette with the cabling to keep you from getting too bored. Good SnB knitting.

With that out of the way, it was full steam ahead on Poppy:

The sleeves are too short, but my test swatches of the Lorna's Laces Worsted grew significantly with blocking. Since I have several balls of the LL left over, I can always knit them longer.

This photo gives a better shot of the colours. I am glad that I knit the sweater with negative ease.

Yay! I have completed another sweater!
Granted, I have to weave in loads of ends, block it, crochet a border along the neckline, and knit a border (probably garter stitch) along the bottom...but since I am off next week, and have 2.5 straight weeks off in April, I swear by all that is holy that I am going to wear this sweater some time this spring. While it is still appropriate for the weather.

(BTW: if Indian Summer is a warm spell after a period of cold weather, is a cold spell after a period of warm weather called Inuit Winter?)

New York Minute

2010-03-16T21:39:00.001-04:00

* I started to write a post last week, but ended up having to go back to the hospital. While looking for the draft of the post, I came across some unpublished posts. Because ~~it's faster than creating a new post~~ I hate to waste a perfectly good creative effort, I'm going to go through them and publish them over the next few weeks as Oldies but Goodies. Kind of like what happens when there is a TV writers' strike.

[November 4, 2008]
I had some time to wander around New York City after Rhinebeck. I discovered Madison Square Park - which turns out to be nowhere near Madison Square Gardens.

As I was walking through the park, I saw a squirrel crawl into a garbage can. He emerged with a crumpled up paper bag that must have contained something that smelled appetizing. As I watched him, he spun it around in his paws as he tried to figure out how to get at his snack. Eventually, it fell out of his paws and dropped to the ground. The squirrel gave up on the bag, and decided to look for something less labour intensive.

The paper bag remained on the ground beside the garbage can.

At that point, I realized that this squirrel had just littered!

What you looking at?

Given my history with rodent encounters, I decided it was best to just keep walking.

Slate Grey is the new Silver Sage...

2010-02-18T21:32:00.003-05:00

...or so the latest Restoration Hardware catalogue tells me.
Given my iconoclastic tendencies, the combination of a "x is the new y" statement with a business which is hawking "I want everyone to think I am stylish, and a unique individual, so I will buy these quirky/luxurious accessories that are so nicely laid out for me because I couldn't pick out home furnishings with character on my own if I tripped over them" type overpriced items led to much eye rolling on my part. That and a brief moment of amusement when I imagined hordes of ~~lemmings~~ their customers tossing out their Fine Egyptian Cotton Silver Sage towels, and their subsequent horror when they realize that the Slate Grey linens line won't be out until the next issue.

But enough about people who have more money than sense/style/guts etc.

How about some knitting?

This is the first of my 2 Olympic projects - Cable Baby Cardi the First:

We were in Ottawa last weekend, so I had the chance to meet up with some of the local knitters there for some knitting over brunch and a bit of a yarn crawl, as well as several solid hours of car knitting. I also went skating on the Rideau Canal and learned a valuable lesson - if you have not skated for more than 20 years, when skating on a canal, you should really turn around before the 5.4 km point; my ankles are still recovering.
Monday was Family Day, which I observed by hanging out with The Gambler, the cats, and the couch. By Monday evening I had finished the first sleeve and was a few rows into the second sleeve. Then I started work Tuesday morning, and it is only tonight that I am able to pick it back up again. It is currently a race to see if my pager will go off before I get to the end of the sleeve.

Picking up Poppy volume 583

2010-02-02T20:44:00.005-05:00

Once I finished the Gambler Striped Scarf, I picked up my Yummy Fable Gloves (which would come in handy given that several rodents did or did not see their shadow today which apparently means that we will have 6 more weeks of winter - I have a news flash for you people; it's February, and this is Canada - no sh!t that it's going to be cold for the next month and a half)

If I see my shadow, it usually means 6 more hours of nap time.

But sadly, I ran into a problem:

No, that's not a stray DPN...

That is the tip of a 3mm bamboo Addi - snapped right off. At least it happened right near the end of a row (and just as I was thinking of calling it a night at the SnB).

My needle-less hiatus from the gloves was followed shortly thereafter by a stint in the ICU which barely allowed time to sleep, let alone do any knitting.

This past weekend I finally had time and enough of an installment payment on my sleep debt to pick up the needles again. I decided that I should pick up the second Tweedmanaire sock (that had been sitting on a shelf since before Xmas). I had taken the sock off the needles right in the middle of knitting the heel. Since I use a cheat sheet to knit toe-up flap heels, I made the assumption that the numbers written on the piece of paper attached to the cheat sheet were actually representative of the Tweedmanaire sock. So I knit 4 more short rows, knit around, picked up the stitches, and then started the decreases. But there were extra stitches on the needle. Maybe I had done too many gusset increases. I started to rip back the sock, then tried holding it up against the first sock. The number of gusset increases seemed correct...

Perhaps this wasn't a 68-stitch sock after all. And looking at the actual sock, I did some high level math (I used to teach calculus labs, you know) to determine that a sock that had 5 repeats of an 8 stitch pattern across the top of the sock was in fact an 80 stitch sock. Luckily I had only ripped back about 4 or 5 rows prior to the last gusset increase, so after about 2 more hours of working on it (which included 30 minutes to thread the slightly splitty yarn back onto the needles) I was able to catch up to EXACTLY WHERE THE SOCK WAS BEFORE I PICKED IT UP TO KNIT IT AGAIN!!! Apparently I had stopped right at the end of the short rows. Because that is such a sensible place to stop, and I would OBVIOUSLY remember (or check the Ravelry Project Page) that I just had to knit across and pick up the wraps.

Sigh.

Despite my ~~utter stupidity~~ ~~sieve like memory~~ miscalculation, I was able to get almost to the end of the heel on the sock. So the project has again achieved purse knitting status - the short row part of the toe up flap heel is a part of the sock that is intimidating enough / hard enough to remember that I have to do it with my cheat sheet for reference.

But since I am off work for a few days, it's a good time to work on that second sleeve of Poppy:

This evening I officially completed the black hole part of the sleeve - for the first time I make measureable progress with each row.

There are benefits to being tall, but sleeve length is not one of them:

25 inches from the shoulder. Not surprisingly, I didn't go with the bell sleeves that the pattern calls for.

Gratuitous cat shot

Call the newspapers - I found my shadow!

On an unrelated note, it was only today that it occured to me that the whole Knitting Olympics bit would be starting up again. I could be virtuous and attack my large pile of WIPs during that time period, but I instead will try to knit not one but TWO sweaters.

Baby sweaters that is - both our dietitian and our pharmacist announced to me last week that they are both pregnant and due some time in the summer. As tempting as it was to go out and buy some new yarn, I decided that I would use some ecru Butterfly Cotton that was originally intended to be a boxy sweater that I gave up on.
I found the Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater on Ravelry; it seems to fit the bill nicely. I am debating replacing the garter stitch hem on the sleeves and bottom with ribbing to minimize rolling. I will probably also change the cables so that they are mirrored.

At least if I am overoptimistic of how much I can get done during the olympics, I'll have several months to ~~let them sit on a shelf~~ leisurely complete them.

Stick a Fork in This Scarf...

2010-01-18T19:04:00.002-05:00

Because it is done!

(Except for weaving in the ends, that is)

All told it used up 8 full skeins of Mille Colori from my stash, as well as the partial skeins that were left over from the first Mille Colori scarf. It's a bit more than 9 feet long.

Now that it's done, I want to try to get that second sleeve done on my Poppy. I am off this weekend, so hopefully I can get the shoulder cap and at least a bit of sleeve done before I am back to work on Monday.

Happy New Year's Project!

2010-01-05T21:36:00.003-05:00

Almost 5 feet of 1x1 rib:

Widening the scarf to 55 stitches has significantly increased the yarn requirements - initially the plan was to use 2 skeins of a blue colourway, 2 skeins of a bright multi colourway, and a single skein of a blue plus pastel skein as well as a single skein of a muted multi colourway. However, I have instead resorted to using up the random skeins of Mille Colori that I picked up from a clearance bin, as well as the leftovers from the first Mille Colori striped scarf that I knitted.
I am still debating whether I should use the same 2 colourways at the end of the scarf so that the 2 ends coordinate to some extent. However, in order to have adequate yarn, I might end up having to use 2 skeins which are predominantly browns and greys.
It's stash busting vs. aesthetics.
Luckily The Gambler is a) a guy and b) colourblind, so he is probably not going to be very concerned if the colour schemes don't "flow" throughout the scarf.

Holiday Knits

2009-12-31T22:23:00.002-05:00

The Chevalier mittens knit up quite quickly - I really should knit more with bulky yarn.

The cuff is some Silk Mountain I recieved in a Secret Pal exchange a few years ago, and the body of the mitten is some Lamb's Pride Bulky that I picked up on clearance at some Toronto yarn shop (possibly the predecessor to the ill-fated In The Loop; I've forgotten what the original shop was named)

The cuff is reverse stockinette; I actually like the way it looks when the cuff is folded up.

I've got about half a skein of the Lamb's Pride left, as well as 1.5 skeins of the Silk Mountain (FYI - the yardage estimates for the book Knitting New Mittens and Gloves are VERY GENEROUS!!!). I was planning on knitting up a matching hat with the leftovers today (my last full day off before I head back to work tomorrow evening), but when the Gambler and I braved the "cold" (-15 and they call a cold weather alert in Toronto; I talk to my Mom in Winnipeg and she tells me how it was very cold for a few days, but now it's not too bad, because the temperature has gone up to -15) to go see a movie a few days ago, he bemoaned the fact that he doesn't have a scarf that he can wrap around his neck 3 times.

This is the first 2 feet of what is going to end up being about 8 feet of 1x1 rib. It's being knit out of some Mille Colori. Because it's 55 stitches across, the striping isn't as well defined as when I knit a narrower scarf using the same yarn. With the length of these colour repeats, it's probably preferable to be 41 or less stitches across to avoid colour changes within a stripe.

And I am proud to say that both of these projects are from stash yarns - one of my goals for next year is to actually get around to knitting up some of those skeins that are stowed in various nooks and crannies around the house.

Lovely weather we're having...

2009-12-20T17:24:00.003-05:00

The Gambler and I arrived in the Dominican Republic yesterday, ahead of the storm that is screwing up other people's travel plans. Nothing like watching scenes of snow filled streets while you are putting on sunscreen.

In addition to a stack of books, I did bring some knitting with me - it is a secret project which conveniently uses a yarn suitable for warm weather.

I ended up needing a last minute gift for someone, so last week I quickly knit up a cowl out of some Noro Kochoran that was sitting in my stash:

It's called the Wave Cowl, and because of the short rows, it works nicely with long colour repeats.

I have another skein of some Noro yarn (silver thaw?) sitting in the stash; when I get back I might knit another one of these cowls for myself. Somewhat uncharacteristically, I will have several days off after I return from holiday; I hope to at least start the second sleeve on my Poppy sweater, as well as knit up a pair of Chevalier (from the book Knitting New Mittens and Gloves)out of some Lamb's Pride Bulky that I have.

Speaking of that book, the Hand Hoodies that I knit last year have worked like a charm:

My fingers are sheltered from the wind unlike with regular fingerless gloves. I highly recommend them. Just in case you miss your flight to the Caribbean...

We'll have a Green Christmas...

2009-12-06T21:12:00.003-05:00

The Gambler and I decided to deal with holiday stress by taking evasive action this year; on December 19 we leave for the Dominican Republic for a week.

This gives us an excuse to not bother with putting up the Christmas tree this year (I don't remember what last year's excuse was...)

So instead I knit a Christmas tree out of some Manos:

With cat for scale:

Decorated with vintage buttons (I inherited The Gambler's Nana's button collection):

The pattern is available at Kniterary, my LYS away from home.

Next year I might just knit 2 of these out of some bulky yarn and make festive touques for myself and The Gambler.

Knit a sweater in November - hahah that's a good one!

2009-11-18T22:40:00.003-05:00

I am so out of the loop that I did not even realize it is National Cram an Insane Amount of Activity Into Thirty Days Month (NaCrInAmAcInThMo?) until I was dropping in on a SnB that I don't usually attend and someone mentioned that they were on track to knit their target number of stitches for the month. The person suggested that one could still meet a goal of 15,000 by knitting 1,000 stitches per day.

Right now there are some weeks where I might be lucky to get 100 stitches in. Luckily, I have been off since Saturday, and between naps I have had the time to do some work on Poppy.

I have started to do some decreases, and am quite happy with how the sleeve is fitting at this point.

I'm very happy to have reached the point where I can perceive actual progress on the sleeve. Unfortunately, I am wondering if my somewhat irregular "jogs" where I switch skeins are too obvious, meaning that I should rip it back and start over:

Does it look too Frankensweaterish?

Getting ready for The Games

2009-11-08T19:47:00.001-05:00

Somerset and Greedo are hoping to make the synchronized napping team...

If I could knit during meetings, I'd have a drawer full of sweaters!

2009-11-07T19:38:00.005-05:00

Sigh.

Happenings of late have led to many meetings that I must attend - sometimes 2 or 3 a day. There is much need for contingency planning and trouble-shooting right now. And then there's that whole providing patient care schtick; it does tend to cut into my knitting time. Heck - it's cutting into my sleeping time - yesterday was the start of 3 days off, and my afternoon was spent taking a 4 hour nap.

This weekend's project is socks:

(I really really need to start taking pictures with my real camera rather than just with my Blackberry)
These are socks for The Gambler that I started knitting while we were on holiday in September - I am calling them Tweedmanaire - the pattern is Luminaire, the yarn is Regia Tweed which Glenna passed on to me. I've just finished the foot of the first sock, and I am halfway through the heel of the second sock. The second sock is that far along because I got to a part of the sock where I had to refer to the pattern, so I slipped the stitches onto waste yarn and resumed work on the first sock to make it more transit knitting appropriate.

Poppy is proceeding at a slow pace - the first sleeve is in a black hole phase where I knit and knit but it doesn't get any longer. (I'm not working on it this weekend because it is sitting at the condo - I brought it with me to Wednesday's SnB, and then stayed at the condo that night so that I could make it to the hospital at the crack of dawn.) I've already found my post-Poppy project: The Diagonal-Front Jacket from Debbie Bliss Home

Of course it's that time of year where I am starting to think about Christmas presents...maybe this year will be a good year to give books!

Special Delivery

2009-10-24T13:48:00.002-04:00

I ordered some yarn from Serendipitous Ewe a little while ago. In addition to some of her Sock Summit colourways, I also got a custom colourway:

Hmmm - what's this?

There's something about this colourway that looks familiar...

Call to Arms

2009-10-23T14:58:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I had 2 days that I could devote chunks of time to knitting.

This was the result:

It's now resembling an actual garment! Only the sleeves remain.

As the pattern is written, I should be knitting them from the cuff up, but I am going to try pickinng up stitches around the armhole and knitting them top down using the technique described in Wendy Bernard's book Custom Knits. My only concern is that it involves short row shaping at the top of the sleeve. Since I have at least 4 different dyelots (it is entirely possible that each of the 6+ skeins I have comes from a different dyelot), I am going to have to figure out how I can alternate skeins while doing short rows.

Then there's that whole matter of all those ends at the bottom...

Picking up Poppy

2009-10-11T13:54:00.002-04:00

Next week my parents are coming to visit us. Visits from my parents are always a great incentive to try to tidy up our place a bit. On Friday The Gambler decided to attack our loft, which functions as our office and also stores many books. It's also where I have a few plastic drawer units that contain yarn. Non sock yarn tends to go up into the office.

When I came home (the joy of my new position is having to attend meetings at work that are held on my days off), he pointed out that there was much yarn in the loft which was not in a drawer. There was yarn in bags, yarn in the closet, and yarn in bins in the closet.

Sigh. I don't want to count how many sweaters I have the yarn for that are just waiting to be knit up. So I am really really really going to make an effort to curtail the aquisition of new yarn, and start using up what I have.

I hung out with Glenna yesterday; we had lunch and then went to The Purple Purl. I mentioned to her that amongst all that yarn up in the study was the bottom panel of a Poppy I started 2 years ago. She pointed out that if I had completed the bottom, that was a huge chunk of the sweater already completed.

So last night, I picked up Poppy for the first time since we moved.

The body was knit with Cascade 220 and Mission Falls, and the remainder of the sweater is being knit out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Black Purl. Now, there is a bit of a story behind the Shepherd Worsted. Initially I got 2 skeins in exchange in a swap through the knitty board - it was a bit of a screwup, because I sent the other person sock weight yarn not realizing that she was trading worsted weight yarn. I subsequently sent her more yarn to make up for the difference.

When I decided to knit Poppy using the Black Purl instead of Silk Garden, I tried to find more Black Purl. That was when the colourway was at the height of it's popularity, so I ended up doing another swap or 2 through the knittyboard, and one person was kind enough to send me several balls that she had leftover from a previous project. Needless to say, the yarns come from many different dye lots.

So I am going to be switching between skeins very regularly (sometimes every row), and am going to have to try and balance out the amounts of some of the outlier skeins to keep some degree of homogeneity in this sweater. I guess it could be worse - it could be a solid colour yarn!

I did promise some yarn pr0n; this was some yarn that I picked up in Italy at a little yarn shop in a small town called Monte San Savino. 1400 metres of laceweight wool for an astoundingly low price - I think it cost about 5 euros.

The colours are great - purples with blue, red, and some bronze and green thrown in as well.

I will have to find a nice place in the loft to store it.

Slow news day

2009-10-09T18:28:00.003-04:00

Nope, nothing of note happening today...
No siree Bob.

Have your toddler bring his driver's licence...

2009-10-07T08:02:00.002-04:00

Oh dear, another one of those "Yes, almost a whole month has gone by since my last post, and even though there has been travelling and knitting and cute cat pics, I am quickly posting a picture I took with my Blackberry" posts.

I do have a bit of an excuse - I have been promoted at work to Lead Intensivist, which translates into the person who makes the call schedules, attends all sorts of meetings, and tries to recruit new people to join our team so that I can have more time to knit.
It also involves putting up with a not insignificant amount of crap from the person who was recently fired from the position, but that could be a blog unto its own.

Will try to get some Actual Knitting Photos and even some yarn pr0n up this weekend.

Shawl and a Class promo

2009-09-10T22:29:00.004-04:00

I did not manage to get much work done on the Roman Wedding Shawl while I was on call:

Cat shown for scale. And because he is so cute.

However, since finishing ICU call last Sunday morning, I have made much progress.

I really should link directly to the Morning Surf Scarf pattern I guess. Although you can't go wrong checking out Random Cyn's blog.

As written, the "seafoam" sections are separated by stockinette - I eliminated a single row so that it alternates between stockinette and reverse stockinette. I have realized that the pattern is a) very forgiving and b) a bit of a pain to frog, so I am not worried about the errors - some less obvious than others. This "no-Frog" plan has accelerated the rate at which this is shawl is growing. It actually turns out that just one skein won't be enough - so this week I picked up a second skein. I imagine that I will have enough left over to do a proper fringe on it (once I get home that is - I still am holding out hope that I can get it done in time for the wedding)

Gratuitous cute cat shot.

And for the class promo:

The lovely ladies at Passionknit are holding an inaugural Beginner Crochet Class on the last Monday in September. The class project is a Noro Granny Square in your choice of yarn. Above is a Kureyon Sock Square. Below is a Kureyon Classic Square.

The class will be held in the afternoon, and one or two spots remain. Contact Passionknit if you are interested.

Roman Wedding Shawl

2009-09-02T10:02:00.001-04:00

I can't remember if I have mentioned that we are going on a trip ~~in September~~ this month

OK, who stole August? I swear that last week was the first week of August. I hate getting older.

Anyways, the reason for the trip is a wedding that is going to be held in Rome. Unless, dear blog reader, you work for Revenue Canada - in that case, the entire purpose of this trip is for me to attend the European Respiratory Meeting in Vienna.

One of The Gambler's good friends is getting married there. On the 11th (one of the cheapest days to fly), we travel first to Vienna, and then on the 16th we go to Rome for the wedding, which is a few days later. Since there is no way that I could finish my Ella Freezes Over prior to the wedding, I am attempting to knit a "quick" stole out of some Americo Cotton Flame that I got in exchange for an extra skein of Americo Cotton Alpaca yarn that I purchased so that I'd have enough yarn for the Mumble Cardigan.

Background info for non Greater Toronto Area readers - Americo is a shop in downtown Toronto with its own line of yarns. Cotton Flame is a thick/think cotton yarn that is wonderfully silky.

There is a popular (in the GTA) pattern called Roman Holiday which uses 3 skeins of Cotton Flame. Since I am at short least 1.5 skeins and a few months of knitting time to attempt that, I decided to try knitting a Morning Surf Scarf

Here's the start - it's an easy enough pattern, although not completely mindless; I have had to rip the odd row back because I was off by a few stitches at the end of the row. I hope to get a fair amount of it done while waiting in the airport and on the plane. In addition to however much I am able to knit between now and the 11th, that is.

A New Old LYS

2009-08-27T22:35:00.004-04:00

I am now officially spoiled.

Before, I envied those who lived mere steps from a nice friendly neighborhood LYS.
Now I did live close to a shop which sold yarn, but the customer service there left much to be desired. (Remember the Seinfeld episode where they went to get soup? Enough said)
If I wanted to go visit a yarn shop and just hang out for a while, I would have to travel anywhere from 20 - 45 minutes by either car or public transit.

But lo and behold, the other day I noticed a thread on Ravelry about that nearby Yarn Shop having new management!

It turns out that the "new" Passionknit is a super friendly place. And slowly but surely it is filling up with lovely yarns.

As you can see, they are one delivery away from completing their Wall of Bliss!

Word is that there will be a Monday night SnB starting some time this fall - and loads of classes too. I can hardly wait!!

I have really got to start making some headway on stash reduction!

Decisions Decisions

2009-08-25T20:30:00.003-04:00

A few days ago I went to pick a few things up at the grocery store. Milk was of course at the top of the list (even though I am a big fan of variety in meals, I can eat the same cereal for breakfast every single day - I'm never sure what to make of this.) I am sure that I stood in front of the milk setion of the dairy aisle for a good 5 minutes, trying to decide what to get. Ultrafiltered. Calcium enriched. Omega 3 enriched. Skim Plus (with extra milk solids so that it tastes like 1% milk).

I was paralyzed with indecision. Completely immobilized. Could not for the life of me make a decision as to what type of milk to buy.*

So I bought the soy milk that was on sale because it was cheaper than all of them.

This was the first iteration of the Rorschach Socks: unfortunately, the "diamonds" don't really show up well against the colour changes. The yarn does stripe nicely, however. I can also already tell that the sock will be a bit bigger than I prefer.

So I ripped back to the point where the toe was 64 stitches, and started knitting Monos Locos/Toe Up Monkeys. But I didn't like the way that the yarn was spiralling.

Now I was using 2.75 mm needles, so I thought that perhaps I should go down a needle size - that way I could do a 72 stitch sock and not have the fit/spiralling issues.

I managed to decide** between a 2mm and 2.25 mm addi lace needle and started knitting Unholey Monkeys with a 2mm needle. The stitch pattern doesn't get totally lost (you can see a bit of it above my foot stigmata there)...

But the stripes are definitely spiralling. Sigh. Maybe I should have gone with the 2.25 mm circs. Or maybe 2.5 mm is the way to go...

*A few years ago, I read a book called The Paradox of Choice; here's a link to a lecture by the author.

** Of course, the milk crisis may have been triggered by the fact that I am a Libra - one of the nurses at work (who has a birthday a few days before me) and I have a running joke about how we can agonize over meaningless decisions - she had the hardest time choosing which background to go with for her son's school pictures, and many a time I have to ask The Gambler to pick which pair of shoes/top/etc I should wear for a particular occasion.

The Tenacity of Beauty

2009-08-24T09:01:00.003-04:00

As I walked down our street the other day, I looked down into the gutter.

It looked like someone had dropped a plant onto the road.

But on closer inspection, it appears that this plant is rooted in the organic matter that has built up on the street. In other parts of our neighborhood, there are weeds of all sorts that are thriving in the gutter. I don't know if this is a normal occurence, or if this is a byproduct of our recent municipal strike - maybe we missed a few street cleanings?

The streets beautify themselves.

Maybe next year I'll toss some sunflower seeds onto the street and see what happens.

Better than drugs

2009-08-23T08:03:00.001-04:00

Anti-inflammatories did squat, P#rcoc@t makes me sleepy, and Lyrica makes me feel drunk (without the hangover at least).

So right now I am spelling relief T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N. That thing in the lower left corner of the photograph is a bag holding 20 lbs of water, which is hanging from a pulley that is hanging from the door to our main floor bathroom.

I sit like this for 10-30 minutes several times a day. The idea is to take the pressure off of the cervical spine so that there is less pressure on the disc. The cats find it quite fascinating.

I posted these photos on Flickr because I took them with my Blackberry - if they end up being "faved" by some bondage ~~freakshows~~ enthusiasts, this post will disappear. So enjoy my frog imitation while you can.

New socks!

2009-08-22T20:43:00.000-04:00

I finished the Close Your Eyes And Think of England Socks:

You have to love that Lorna's Laces yardage; I still have 20g of yarn remaining.

So tonight I plan to cast on for my next pair with this yarn:

It's Flat Feet by Conjoined Creations - I picked it up in Alaska during the Sea Socks Cruise last year. Because each flat is an original, so there are no real colourways. I have taken the liberty of labelling it "Rorschach's Blue Period". The pattern I plan to use is Diamante; I selected it because the designer has large feet, so I know for certain that the pattern should fit me as written (plus it is toe up; . It's going to be interesting to see how this knits up The flat is about 100 stitches across, (and the sock is 72 stiches) so it's really hard to predict. I guess that the green is pretty likely to pool, but I have no idea what is going to happen with the purple/blue/white bits. I'm christening them "Rorschach Socks"; hopefully they will help me to maintain my sanity.

It could be worse...

2009-08-22T18:06:00.005-04:00

The issue with my neck (a prolapsed C6/7 disk) is unfortunate, but at least the big old tree in our backyard* made it through Friday's storm OK.

This house is about 8 doors down from us:

This side street is a block and a bit away:

These people have been without power for 40+ hours;

And 2.5 blocks away from us there was this carnage:

Luckily, the only damage was downed power lines

As I walked by, I heard a father reassure his small daughter "It's OK, the wires can't shock you - they aren't electrified anymore"

It must have been quite the sound when this tree limb was ripped off by the wind.

And we didn't even get hit by the tornados that touched down north of the city.

*This tree is right beside our garage, and is taller than our house. If it toppled over it would take out 2 garages at minimum, and could easily hit one of 4 houses. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Trifecta of misery

2009-08-21T13:13:00.002-04:00

Right now, I am dealing with
- Seeing The Blue Screen Of Death every time I turn on my new laptop
- Pain in my right arm due to a prolapsed disc in my neck*
- The Gambler being out of town until the end of next week

Wah.

This neck collar wasn't able to provide adequate traction, so now I intemittently hook myself up to a contraption that involves pulleys and straps and a bag that contains 20 lbs of water. The cats find it quite fascinating.

I am very tempted to buy myself some yarn from Indigodragonfly.

Or maybe I'll just spread the word about her offerings so that no yarn will remain by the time I make a selection...

* Rest assured that I can still knit (what else am I supposed to do while I'm sitting in the traction device?) Luckily I have not lost any strength or coordination; I just have to deal with a constant aching pain in my forearm and numbness in my index and middle fingers.

Goings on

2009-08-03T08:48:00.004-04:00

My but this summer has flown by! Sadly, this has been partly because I have been working more than I should (We really really really need to hire another 2 doctors to work in our ICU).

However, I am in the midst of a short stretch of days off (it was supposed to be 10 days, but that shrank down to 6 all of a sudden - grrrrr), so I have been able to get out a bit.

Thursday evening The Gambler and I were finally able to sit down and celebrate our anniversary together. So we cracked open a bottle of wine.

Literally.

This wasn't even a bottle of wine that had travelled cross country during one of our moves - he had picked it up less than 2 weeks ago!

On Friday I hung out with Glenna and Kim (who is a very talented dyer: check out her wares here and here); we had lunch, then visited The Naked Sheep and The Purple Purl.

There were many pretty yarns to see, but all in all, this was the most beautiful thing I saw that day:

The 5+ week long civic workers strike is over! Garbage cleanup has begun!!!

And I have even had some time for knitting - I picked up Ella Freezes Over after ohaboutayearandahalforso.

Note to self - converting a shawl pattern from worsted weight on 6mm needles to laceweight on 3mm needles may seem like a good idea, but it is not. Going from a gauge of 20 st/24 rows to 32 st/40 rows does not make for a quick knit.

3287 days and counting...

2009-07-22T22:51:00.002-04:00

There was a special delivery for me at work today:

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary. Sadly, I won't see the Gambler until Monday because I am staying at the condo near the hospital during my 7 day on call stint. In past years we have managed to celebrate the day properly, but I don't have to see him to know that this was the start of something awesome.

I love you sweetie.

You're the best.

These are the cat days of summer...

2009-07-21T19:44:00.002-04:00

I have always associated the phrase "the dog days of summer" with long hot days where the air is thick, and all you want to do is find a cool place in the shade to stretch out for a nap.

So far, we haven't had any of those type of days (or if we did, I was stuck in a windowless overly airconditioned building for more hours than is healthy). If anything, the weather is generally pretty conducive to napping with ~~mini heat sources~~ cats. Actually, I have been quite happy with the summer weather we are having this year: warm enough in the daytime so that you can wear summer clothes, but not so hot and sticky that you could stand to take several showers per day; cool at night so you can sleep, with enough rain that our outdoor plants will survive without frequent watering.

As has been the case so often of late, work is stealing much time from the rest of my life. Not enough time for sleeping, let alone all of the fun stuff, like knitting.

This was what I accomplished this weekend:

Magic slippers to match the BSC. Knit out of leftover Kureyon sock because I couldn't find the rest of the Regia yarn that was leftover. It's a nice little pattern which is easily memorized: I will probably knit another pair that is a bit larger, since I still have more leftover Kureyon sock. They will be packed up soon and delivered to the intended recipient some time in the next few weeks. Hopefully.

By the way, as I entered this project into Ravelry, I discovered that there is now the option to enter data to allow one to calculate the actual product cost!!! Quelle horreur!
Interestingly, the default currency looks to be Icelandic krona - maybe the total won't seem so bad in a currency one is totally unfamiliar with.

Seven Score

2009-07-10T18:43:00.003-04:00

You know how you sometimes get very caught up in weird conversations?
As we were driving home from the cottage, the subject of birthdays came up. The Gambler said that maybe he would turn 40 this year (rather than 2 years from now) to get it over with.

I made the comment that the only reason why the ages of 20, 30, 40, 50 etc caused so much angst was that they ended in zeros. I pointed out that if our numbering system was base 7 rather than base 10, that we would have totally different milestone years to dread.

(I have no idea why I picked base 7 *- maybe it was fate)

We then got in an ~~argument~~ heated debate over what base 10 number was the equivalent of 100 in base 7. The Gambler said it was 70, I said it was 49. To try to prove my point, I counted out loud in base 7 as I kept track of the (base 10) number of digits I had spoken with my fingers. Which is harder to do than you would think it might be. We were still doing the
"70" "No, 49" "No, it's 70" thing when I started to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Anyways. Pictures. Knitting. How about some pictures of knitting?

Not my knitting - here are 2 knit garments on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum. They were from an exhibition of the collections of the 2008 Royal Collage of Art Fashion graduates.

This dress was knit out of triple stranded Rowan Polar; the designer used the custom made needles shown behind the garment to knit it.

I wonder how large her tension swatch was.

This dress is machine knit. The neat thing about it is that the trompe l'oeil zipper is not printed onto the fabric, but it was programmed into the actual design using 4 different shades of yarn (apparently the maximum number of separate yarns that can be used with this particular knitting machine). So theoretically, it could be reproduced in handknitting using either stranded or intarsia techniques. Which is cool. To me at least. But then again, I get all worked up about wacky things like numbers.

*I never did watch more than a single episode of Dr Who in my formative years - I was more into Monty Python. Which is a good thing, since I don't know how long it would take me to knit the requisite scarf.

More England

2009-07-08T19:13:00.004-04:00

Sadly, my attempts to post every day in July has been foiled by dodgy wireless coverage at the cottage we are staying at this week.

These shots are from our last night in England - we ate at a seaside restaurant near Dover. This gull was on the beachside pathway.

The fellow who created this beach pebble art told us that one of his previous creations was a life-sized caravan.
Apparently finding pebbles of the appropriate colour can be a challenge at times. Afterwards I regretted not having asked him if the red stone had inspired him to do the gull, or if that was his plan from the start.

BSC

2009-07-06T21:20:00.002-04:00

I added several rows to the bottom of the Baby Surprise Jacket, making it more like a Baby Surprise Coat. For the last few rows, I added the green Regia yarn back in.

Instead of buttons, I am going to make some I-cord ties out of the Regia.

Now I have to decide what to do with the remaining 1/2 skein of Kureyon sock.

Where to 'go' in London

2009-07-05T21:51:00.002-04:00

The tower of London.

BSJ take 2

2009-07-04T22:38:00.003-04:00

Last week I frogged my first BSJ attempt and cast on for the second version. This time I am using 4mm needles. Progress up until yesterday was pretty minimal because of being on call - on a good day I would get 4 rows knit. But now I am speeding right along.

The first few rows are knit out of some leftover Regia sock yarn; it works well with the colour of the Kureyon Sock, and will be much more suitable for sewing up. I intend to finish the jacket this week. I might also knit up some booties or legwarmers, depending on how much yarn is left.

The recipient (our third niece) was born on July 1, and is a girl. Sadly, her parents (The Gambler's brother and his wife) have decided to go with "theme" names - so both she and her older sister are named after semiprecious stones. I also brought the Knoroyven along to finish off; hopefully they will both be done by Friday so that I can get on with knitting for me!

High tech containment device

2009-07-03T21:39:00.002-04:00

My new internet stick works like a charm; I can connect from almost anywhere.

However, there is no way to keep the cap with the rest of the stick when I am using it.

Luckily the mini rubber bands are 50 for a dollar. The come in handy as stitch markers too!

New Arrival

2009-07-02T19:07:00.002-04:00

My sucky 6 day call stint is over, and my new laptop is here!

Finally, I can download my England photos!

Canada Day* DIY blog post

2009-07-01T08:43:00.004-04:00

In May, I pledged to post at least one photo every day in July. Sadly, I have been stuck in the hospital for all but about 2 days of the last 2 weeks.

I have been relying on cat photos emailed to me by The Gambler to maintain my sanity. They were taken with his Blackberry and uploaded from my Blackberry, so the resolution is not the best.

I loaded the photos into a draft post last week during my very brief break. My intention had been to complete the post at work. Sadly, blogger is now considered a "social network" by the hospital, so it is blocked.

This post is being written from my condo on my old laptop - we picked up an Internet Stick so that after a long day on call I can ~~see what Knitpicks has on sale~~ check patient Xrays and test results that were processed after I left the hospital. Sadly, I don't have the time/creative energy to come up with witty captions for the photos.

Feel free to post your captions in the comments.

A

B

C

D

*I realize that the post and the photos have nothing to do with Canada Day. So here is a link to a recycled photo - fireworks seen from our house in Kelowna on Canada Day 2006.
We love Canada - socialised health care system and all!

Because I haven't posted any cat photos for at least a week...

2009-06-22T08:30:00.000-04:00

Just hand over the can opener, and nobody gets hurt!

Out with the old and icky

2009-06-19T07:03:00.003-04:00

I have decided that it is time to replace my laptop. Not only does the battery hold no more than 20 minutes of charge, the hinge doesn't work very well, meaning that the screen will fall flat if it is open to an angle > 110 degrees. Plus I only have 1% of the hard drive space available to me*. And a crack appeared in the battery casing some time during our trip. I guess that 5 years is a long time in computer years.

Actually, my laptop froze up while I was customizing my new Dell - serves me right for clicking on the "show me more details" regarding the $20 messenger bag. Lord knows, for all the other options, I basically went with whatever The Gambler suggested. Even when I reassured it that it would not become landfill fodder (it will spend the rest of its days in the condo so that I can look at Xrays in the middle of the night), I had to remove the battery to power it down. We ended up having to re-enter everything on The Gambler's laptop.

And the mystery plant is no longer - I was seriously having visions of it going all Little Shop of Horrors on me and reaching out to grab my ankles one day. It is now off to ~~weed heaven~~ wherever the City of Toronto takes its yard waste - maybe it will be reincarnated as biodiesel. To be honest, I suspect that it will figure out how to make it into garden compost, and pop up all over the city next year. But not in our yard !

After ~~exorcising~~ ripping it out, I planted this lovely Prairie Tulip. Isn't it nice and benign looking?

Speaking of lovely, the first Close Your Eyes and Think of England sock is looking good:

Because the pattern is very stretchy (at least partially because I suffer from purl-stitches-that-follow-a-knit-stitch-are-loose-syndrome, and each pattern motif is flanked by purl stitches), I plan to knit it further up the calf than I usually do.

At this point, I have 17 grams of yarn left, so they certainly won't be kneehighs on me. But I am holding out hope for a bit more than halfway up the calf.

*This is my excuse for not downloading any of my pictures from my camera since we got home. Thank goodness I can upload photos from my Blackberry to Flickr.

Stuff you find on The Internets

2009-06-18T16:41:00.003-04:00

Methinks wearing these shoes would lead to turned heads, but not admiring glances...

Someone please convince me they are kidding.

Horticulture is my blind spot

2009-06-15T21:40:00.002-04:00

I'm hoping that someone can identify this plant for me. Specifically, I am wondering if it is a weed:

We had our front lawn replaced with a rock garden and some perennials last fall. The Gambler thinks that this is something that was planted, but I really don't think so (we didn't do the planting). It is creeping along the ground in a very weed-like manner, and there is no sign of any type of flower. It actually looks kind of sinister with its thick red stems - I have visions of it reaching out and grabbing my ankles.

I have tried various "weed identification" websites to no avail. And if I enter "weed black spot" into Google, I find all sorts of useful information about how to deal with a fungus that affects marijuana plants, but I am no further ahead in figuring this thing out.

Even if it's not a weed, I really don't like the look of the thing, but I hate to rip it out if it is just in an ugly duckling stage.

Signs of the Times

2009-06-13T08:14:00.000-04:00

Then...

...and Now.

Link of the week

2009-06-12T03:36:00.003-04:00

Website

Blog

(Thus far, knock on wood, neither The Gambler nor I have left anything of significance behind during this trip. Other than our optimism about English weather, that is.)

clap clap clap

2009-06-11T04:52:00.001-04:00

Polite Applause is done. Blocking will have to wait.

And because I have finally finished knitting this shawl I had intended to use on this trip, the weather has finally turned sunny!

When the owners are away...

2009-06-09T04:01:00.002-04:00

...the cats will nap.

(Many thanks to Glenna for taking care of them last week, and for sending me the photo)

Wi-fi access has been either dodgy or overpriced, so The Gambler and I instead resort to checking for Wi-fi signals with our Blackberries as we wander about. Which keeps me up to date on my emails, but not with blog posts.

All packed

2009-05-30T10:26:00.003-04:00

I am all packed for our trip to England:

The project on the left is the Dropped Stitch Scarf from the Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting. The projects on the right will be a pair of Synesthesia Socks aka Close Your Eyes and Think Of England Socks. I have't decided if I will use magic loop or DPNs yet.
(The "project bags" started out life as packaging for pillowcase covers.)

I picked up 3 skeins of Koigu KPPPPPPPM from The Naked Sheep for this, because the yarn I initially intended to use was a sportweight with only 275m in the skein.

The pattern is easily memorized. It reminds me alot of the Clapotis, although all the fun of dropping stitches doesn't happen until the end. But it's not all delayed gratification - there is the joy of the "multiple wraps" row - knit one row, and all of a sudden the scarf grows 1/2 inch!

I was toying with naming this "Clap for England", but instead I have christened it Polite Applause.

We are off tonight - will try to post a few times while we are gone.

TTFN

Being 2 Laces at once...

2009-05-19T18:25:00.003-04:00

Baltic:

1 : of or relating to the Baltic Sea or to the states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
2 : of or relating to a branch of the Indo-European language family containing Latvian, Lithuanian, and Old Prussian

3: a gift I recieved along with my Sockapalooza socks a few years ago.

Baltic Sea:

1: arm of the Atlantic; N Europe enclosed by Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, & Germany

2: some sock yarn that followed me home from The Knit Cafe a few months ago.

A long weekend of knitting

2009-05-18T22:35:00.003-04:00

We spent the Victoria Day Weekend with my friend Ute at her cottage. The weather was very conducive to knitting. Although I brought several WIPs along, I spent most of the weekend knitting these:

Even though it is a simple pattern, the classic Ballband Dishcloth never fails to impress. And these ones match her kitchen!

The yarn is Carezza :colours 26, 27, and 4.

Tee Hee Hee

2009-05-12T22:30:00.000-04:00

Bread Bum

Bad news and good news

2009-05-11T22:32:00.004-04:00

Well, the I-cord neckline looks nice, but it is still too small - about 18 inches around, and the recipient has a head circumference somewhere in the 18.5-19.5 inch range.

So once again, I have ripped it out. The next step is to knit the I-cord bind off using a larger needle.

(btw - someone suggested the K2 tog, slip back on the needle, repeat bind off - that was the "stretchy bindoff " that didn't work even when I went up a needle size)

The good news is that I picked up a shirt and tights to go along with the jumper:

Check out the colour coordination:

Now if I could just finish that damned neckline...

Fit issues

2009-05-03T20:52:00.005-04:00

I have finished knitting the body of the Knoroyven, but am having trouble with the neckline:

I have no idea what size the average 2 year old skull is, but I think it's significantly larger than the neck opening was once I cast off.

I have ripped back and re-cast off this neckline about 4 times. I tried a larger needle (too small), a picot bind off (too floppy), a "stretchy cast off"(too small), and the "stretchy cast off" with a larger needle (still too small).
Somerset couldn't bear to watch it anymore. I plan to try an i-cord bind off next.

I also demonstrated that gauge can affect baby garments:

This is a BSJ knit at a gauge of 7 stitches per inch - newborn size is supposed to be knit at 6 stitches per inch. (In my defence, this was a travel knitting project - I guessed at the needle size that would work, and did not bring a ruler along. So it wasn't until I got home that I could measure my gauge.) Again, I am quite sketchy on how large the average baby is, but I am thinking that the jacket should be bigger than a skein of yarn (not that it should use a skein of yarn, but the dimensions should be greater). I guess this size would work OK for a preemie, but given that the baby is due some time in June, that doesn't help me.

Watch this space!

2009-05-02T20:41:00.002-04:00

My goal is to do at least 6 blog posts this month. Sad, I know.

For some reason I have lost my picture taking mojo; I still carry my camera around with me in my purse all the time, but manage to go for weeks without taking it out. In July* I will try to take and post at least one picture each day. The Gambler and I now have Blackberries, so I can take advantage of the mobile blogging feature.

It will certainly be a few steps up from 6 posts in a month.

*I would start in June, but we are travelling for 2 weeks - this time Britain.

Now with pictures!

2009-04-11T22:21:00.002-04:00

A quick update before bedtime:

Greedo has taken up Yoga:

Somerset has normal thyroid function, and remains incredibly cute:

I am knitting a jumper for my niece out of Kroy and Kureyon sock yarns:

The pattern is called Tjorven. I have named my own version Tnoroyven.

It is a good thing that I decided against knitting socks for myself out of the Kureyon - the yarn broke once, and several times I have found myself knitting very gently out of concern that the unspun bits will pull apart. Not to mention that there was a knot about 1/8 of the way through the yarn. I would end up having dozens of ends to weave in when I finally finished the socks.

Although my usual practice is to just let Noro stripe as it wishes, I have altered this yarn - there should be a green band in the middle of the fuschia - I had initially planned to include it, but the knot that I came across connected the 2 strips of fuschia together. I thought it would look weird to suddenly have green appear more than halfway down the skirt, so I will be excising the green bits.

I still have a second skein of Kureyon sock that I am going to use for a Baby Surprise Jacket. The parents of the jumper recipient are expecting Baby #2 around the same time as Kid #1's birthday. The colourway (S150) is pretty gender neutral - grey, charcoal, green and turquoise. I have until June to finish them both.

Oops

2009-04-10T15:55:00.002-04:00

Thought I would write a quick blog post while I took a break from work. However, I hit the wrong "new post" button and it got published on a different blog

I can't cut and paste the text, and didn't have the heart to retype it, so you will have to go to the link to read it - sorry, still no photos.

I guess the sleep deficit is taking its toll on brain function. Luckily I finish tomorrow morning.

Sad excuse for a blog posting

2009-04-06T19:10:00.003-04:00

This was amusing for at least 3 minutes.

Even though I haven't been blogging, I have been knitting. Sadly, I can't post any photos because my work computer* can't access flickr. There are some shots on Ravelry.

*Because work is so incredibly busy, I now have an apartment near the hospital that I stay at the nights that I am on call for the ICU, or if I have to be at the hospital at some ungodly hour like 07:00. Since I slept there about 20 nights in March, I haven't seen as much of The Gambler and the cats as I would like. Doing the quality time thing doesn't leave alot of room for writing blog posts. However, I do have a glorious 5 days off (in a row!) next week, so I plan to do some catching up.

Spring Ahead

2009-03-20T08:01:00.002-04:00

Check it out - actual knitting content!

No need to adjust your computer; the 2 skeins of yarn are in fact different colours.

Master Grey + Tom Cat = Master Cat Socks. I am also referring to them as the Stripey Cat Socks.

First completed Pinkery Sock.

Post-op Argyle Socks.

I had to take the scissors to these before I could complete them; more detail in an upcoming post.

And here's my newest project:

My version of the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Knits; its working title is The Mumble Cardigan. Being knit out of some alpaca yarn I picked up in a stash swap.

I intend to knit the sleeves longer and narrower than as written, so I did a provisional cast on at the point in the pattern just past the last pattern decrease. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, I decided to cast on 70 stitches rather than 76. However, since my gauge is 22-23 stitches per 4 inches rather than 24 as called for in the pattern, I am hoping that this will not be a fatal error.

I am using 4mm needles as my largest size. My dilemma is that the pattern calls for 4.5mm, 3.5 mm, and 2.75 mm needles; what specific smaller sizes should I be using? Rather than obsessing about proportional decreases in size, I let the needles make the decision - I was able to find a 3mm circ and a 2mm circ without having to leave the living room (in the needle roll of all places - imagine that!), so those are the sizes I will use.

We are heading to Montreal this weekend; The Gambler has a fencing tournament on Saturday, so I am hoping to make decent progress. I am particularly looking forward to the knitting 3 inches of 1x1 rib over 296 stitches - gah!

I am starting to think that there is some kind of twisted contest on amongst the IK designers to see exactly how far they can push us. Case in point: the Float Stole with it's 405 stitch cast on. Of course the Frost Flowers Stole still retains the title of Most Likely To Make You Want To Poke Your Eyes Out with its 996 stitch cast on and 220 stitches of grafting right at the end.
But the one that gets me the most this issue is the so called Sweet Tee, which calls for a whole skein of Manos Silk Blend (pink) in order to knit somewhere between 26 and 34 stitches.

You know you've been working too much...

2009-03-01T08:53:00.002-05:00

When (with the exception of that guy who overdosed) you have no idea who any of the Academy Award winners were a week after the broadcast. Somewhat ironically, partially due to an assortment of other people who overdosed. At the risk of generalization, my experience is that people who take overdoses (and their families) probably have some work to do in the coping skills and communication departments.*

To help get me up to speed, comment with the award recipients who gave you the most satisfaction, or those who puzzled you the most. Wardrobe disaster descriptions will also be appreciated.

Now I'm off to go skiing for a few days. I'm planning to check out this "fresh air" thing that everyone keeps raving about. Maybe even do some knitting.

See you late in the week.

*I do not intend to make light of the pain and suffering that everyone involved in a suicide attempt experiences. It's just that I could do without the spitting.

Ad-ition

2009-02-21T20:41:00.002-05:00

Last night we went to see Slumdog Millionaire. The movie previews were "brought to us by" A Large Canadian Bank Who Shall Remain Unnamed.

So the bank is sponsoring advertising now?

Isn't that like my phone bill being sponsored by Nike?

Speaking of finishing...

2009-02-21T00:07:00.002-05:00

The Toronto Craft Alert is having a Get Er Done Giveaway.

I think this is the longest I have gone without starting a new project for some time - 3 weeks now!

Time flies when you work too much...

2009-02-18T08:19:00.004-05:00

Oy. You know you don't have nearly enough "Me" time when you create your "February 2009" photo folder on February 18th.
Several months back I read somewhere that economic times are uncertain, and many people lose/are in fear of losing their jobs, the overall health of the population declines. That's definitely been the case in our ICU - the last 3 months we have been busy, and the patients are even sicker than usual. Lately "a good day" means that I am out of the hospital by midnight!

This is my excuse for not blogging very often of late, and totally falling behind on reading other blogs. (I guess it's technically a "doctor's note", isn't it? Maybe I can get a note excusing me from going to work from Epstein's Mother)

But I press on with my plans to finish ~~a small fraction of~~ some of my ~~embarassingly large selection of~~ many UFO's.

I now no longer fear the I-cord bindoff:

I really like the look of the "coiled cuff", and will probably incorporate it into future projects - looks much nicer than ribbing, although it is more bulky.

I still have the second Hand Hoodie to finish, and then it's time to pick up the Yummy Fable Gloves again. When I can find the time, that is...

February is For Finishing Frankensocks

2009-02-12T18:25:00.003-05:00

I joined the "February is for Finishing" group on Ravelry - because the UFO completing fairy is taking its sweet time in making it to my house.

Today I finished weaving in the ends on my Raindrops Keep Falling on My Socks. I started working on them April 2007, and they have been sitting on a shelf for at least a year just waiting for me to finish the toe on the second sock.

Why the delay? Well, it turned out that I ran out of yarn. This is what happens when you knit a size 11 sock at 11 stitches to the inch. In a cable pattern to optimize yarn consumption.

I had some leftover Socks that Rock, so I used it to do the bottom part of the short row toe.
Note the perfect grafting job at the bottom - they may be Frankensocks, but they are Frankensocks without a visible seam.
Sock #1 knit up fine, but the first time I knit Sock #2, something seemed wrong - then I realized that I had used a 2.25mm needle rather than a 2.0mm needle - so I frogged it back, and then put the socks on a shelf because some other project caught my eye.

Next up is either Hand Hoodies or Yummy Fable gloves - I am realizing that my projects often get put aside at particularly finicky or difficult points in the pattern. Do I want to figure out how to knit the thumb on the first Yummy Fable glove, or figure out how to do applied I cord with a circ? Sounds like a good night to do laundry!

The things you find on the Internets - craft fiction

2009-02-04T07:48:00.002-05:00

And you thought that the number of knitting based novels was getting up there...

I was going to make a joke about the untapped scrapbooking fiction market, but it turns out I would be in error.

In fact now I'm getting kind of scared...

Miss Match

2009-01-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

I am liking my Yummy Fable gloves, but...

I do find the cuff is quite long as the pattern is written. And it turns out that I will be several grams of yarn short of the Fable yarn judging by the amount of yarn left thus far. So I decided that once I finish the right hand glove, I would knit the left hand glove using the yarns I intend for my second pair - and eliminate one of the charts to decrease the cuff length by about 60%.

My plan was to use some green anonymous sock yarn I had bought some time ago together with the green Yummy yarn. I gave myself points for using up some stash yarn...

But unfortunately, the solid yarn disappears into the handpaint yarn at the lighter parts of the handpaint.

So, I took a trip to Romni Wools and picked up 2 skeins of Fable - one was THE LAST skein of the coral (whew! Good thing I didn't just wait until I ran out!! Obviously this was a sign from God that you should never postpone a yarn purchase). I also got this skein of teal:

The colour combo seemed kind of familiar...

I cast on for the second glove that evening:

It's looking pretty good, although if you take a look at the part of the cast on that overlaps my ring finger, the contrast is much less at that particular point of the Yummy colourway:

It's a little more obvious sans flash:

Apparently I still have a ways to go in embracing the colourwork concept of not matching too closely.

BTW - I fully intend to wear the gloves as a pair once I have a right hand and left hand glove. Hey - the pattern will match, right? It's like the Steven Wright joke: "My socks DO match. They're the same thickness."

In the last month or 2, my posting frequency has dropped off because it has been INSANELY busy at work. So next week, we are taking a well deserved Beach Holiday.

I'll be back in February - stay warm!

Feel the Glove

2009-01-11T19:57:00.001-05:00

I have finished the cuff on the first of the Yummy Fable Gloves.

I'm loving the mix of alpaca yarn and wool yarn - the outer surface of the gloves feels almost silky. So far, the inside doesn't have the same effect - it may be tempting to wear them outside in.

The alpaca yarn is pretty fuzzy, but that's toned down nicely by the smooth sock yarn. I had expected the Yummy to be more of a sportweight yarn - the yardage is less than I'm used to for fingering weight. But it knits up like fingering. Maybe they use particularly heavy dyes.

It's interesting to see what happens in terms of pooling with this pattern - I don't have a clue what a sock knit with this yarn alone would look like. I am definitely feeling the stranded love - although I do have to concentrate when reading the charts, because she uses dark squares for the MC, which in my case is the lighter yarn. Our Xray imaging software has a function that allows you to reverse black and white on an image - too bad I can't do it on a PDF.
(I realize that it may be technically possible to do it, but I have no idea how to do it - I treat my computer like my brain and generally use only 2% of it's actual capacity at any given time)

Bright Shiny Things

2009-01-09T17:51:00.000-05:00

One project is never enough.

I have to wonder - do painters start planning their next work before they are halfway through a painting? Do songwriters end up humming completely new melodies as they are sorting out an arrangement?

I have worn the same pair of black leather gloves almost every non-warm day this winter and last - never change them.

But before I am even finished the first cuff on this pair of gloves, I'm already starting to debate what contrast colour would work when I knit the next pair with the green Yummy yarn that I bought at The Naked Sheep .

Pattern: Handpainted Gloves by Karendipity designs. You have to love a pattern that includes the following instructions: "At this point, put down your knitting and go into the kitchen. Eat an entire bar of chocolate"

You say Stasher like it's a bad thing...

2009-01-04T20:26:00.000-05:00

You know how every so often you come across some obscure piece of information that you find fascinating for entirely inexplicable reasons? This weekend I was reading some information from our provincial Poison Control Centre - it was regarding the appropriate treatment of overdoses. There was a phrase that made me laugh:
"Whole bowel irrigation is appropriate for the management of drug stashers, but not drug stuffers"
I freely admit that part of the humour was probably derived from the fact that it was around 3 AM, and I was starting to get a bit punchy. Since I'm not hip to cool toxicology lingo, I had to do an internet search to find the following information:
Stashers are people who pack their GI tract with bags of heroin in order to smuggle the illegal drug from one country to another. In these persons, the drugs are carefully packaged for safe passage. Stuffers on the other hand, are people who ingest all the drugs in their possession in order to conceal the evidence from the police. Because these packages are typically not designed for safe GI transport, they easily rupture and frequently cause poisoning.

Tee hee. Stashers.
Oh man, I really have to get some sleep...

The things you find on the Internets - genetics

2009-01-03T20:05:00.000-05:00

I wonder if one of the parents works for Colinette.

First FO of the year!

2009-01-02T21:36:00.005-05:00

Since it seems everyone and their dog has a slouchy beret (OK - I may be exaggerating on the dog berets. But given that there are cat sweater patterns out there, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine someone has knit their dog a beret to match their doggie sweater) I used the multi-lot iona yarn to knit a One Day Beret - for my purposes, it is christened The Bandwagon Beret. The pattern is top down, and works for any gauge; so if you are both afraid of running out of yarn and too ~~lazy~~ impatient to knit a swatch, this is the perfect beret pattern.

On New Year's eve we ~~were boring and vegged out in front of the TV~~ decided to spend some quality time together. I cast on for the beret at the start of the Canada-US hockey game, and had gotten almost to the point of doing the ribbing by the time we were ready to go to bed. I decided to try it on to see how it was looking:

Isn't it funny how you often don't notice stripey pooling as you are knitting, even when it is blindingly obvious if you look at the project in its entirety? Even the monkey perched on my head doesn't distract you from the stripes (I guess this would be a Bellini Beret).

Since the nice people at Colinette had so kindly separated my skein of yarn into 2 parts, on New Year's day I frogged it, and re-knit it alternating the 2 yarns:

Even though I went down a needle size, my ribbing is pretty loose. Sadly, I suffer from "the first purl stitch after a knit stitch is loose" syndrome; 1x1 ribbing is probably a bad idea because of this.

It looks like the ribbing is stretched out, but the beret really just slips on as is. I even did a simple crochet purl-wise cast off to try and tighten things up.

Since I would hate for it to blow off in a strong wind, I think I'm going to rip the ribbing back and re-knit it in 2x2 ribbing with an even smaller needle. If worst comes to worst, I'll knit some elastic into the ribbing.

The sordid details are: 5 mm needle (4.5 for the ribbing). I knit the top until it was 9 inches diameter(16 stitches between markers), did 2.5 inches of straight stockinette, and 1.5 inches of ribbing(12 stitches between markers). I had 11g of leftover yarn, so it used about 130m.

Now if only I could keep up this pace of one FO per day - I could finally make a dent in my stash!

Letter from the Iditor, New Year's edition

2009-01-01T20:58:00.003-05:00

Dear people at Colinette:

You do make very lovely yarns, and your colourways are inspired. I know that it's very important to make certain that you buy enough yarn in a single dyelot to complete your project in order to prevent having noticeable differences in the finished product.

However, you'd think that this shouldn't be a problem with a single skein project. Apparently, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a 2 for 1 special when I bought a skein Iona a few months ago - 2 dye lots in 1 skein. You see, there was a knot in the skein about 1/4 of the way through, and there's a definite difference in how much of the lighter colours are present in the two parts of the skein.

Now I realize that you probably dye the yarn in small batches. However, if you ran out of yarn from one dyelot while winding up a skein, it's somewhat poor form to just make up the rest with a second dyelot. Unless you then toss it into the mill end pile rather than the "Those Canadians are too polite to complain" pile.

Happy New Year,

LLD

There's someone for everyone...

2008-12-27T08:22:00.005-05:00

I finished both the Cow-IL and the Softie Cowl in time to give them to their respective recipients (and I'm pretty sure they were only a wee bit damp - luckily tissue paper breathes).

I didn't take a photo of the Cow-IL (imagine a square of pale blue stockinette with a few rows of garter stitch at the top and bottom), but here's the Softie Cowl:

The pattern would definitely be a good choice for a luxury yarn - I had 4 metres left of the 100m skein. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the second skein. I might use them as the lining for a pair of Fiddlehead Mittens.

Because I don't have nearly enough projects on the go.

Actually, on December 24th, I decided that it was high time to add yet another new project - one for me. I'm calling it The Mixed Marriage Kerchief. Pattern here.

The bride is Midori - exotic, capricious, and trendy. Her tastes are expensive, and you never know what she's going to do next.

The groom is Gunter - steadfast, kindhearted, with a quiet sense of humor. Predictable, but not without personality. He's a big teddy bear.

Like all good couples, together they are more than the sum of their parts.

I've realized that I prefer to wear a triangular shawl rather than a scarf, because with a scarf, I always end up having a little patch of exposed neck just below the knot - I can temporarily cover it up with the scarf ends, but invariably, they shift during wearing. I've been wearing my Tri Tri Again Toscana a fair amount - I just put the point in front, wrap the rest around my neck and tie the knot under the body of the shawl. Wow - what an incredibly awkward way to describe a simple action. I have newfound respect for people who write instruction manual copy. GOOD instruction manuals that is. My favourite instruction manual quote comes from my Vehicle Owner's Manual: "Dynamic Stability Control prevents the driving wheels from losing traction when you pull away from rest or accelerate. The laws of physics cannot be repealed, even with DSC. An appropriate driving style always remains the responsibility of the driver." Bwa Ha Ha - love that German humour!

Monkey Doo Doo

2008-12-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

As we were getting ready to leave for Winnipeg last Saturday morning, I was trying to decide which socks to wear - I put one Feed My Brain sock on my right foot and a Monkey sock on my left foot and asked The Gambler which I should go with (even though I have to make very important and snap decisions on a regular basis when I am at work, I can still be immobilized by indecision on issues that really don't matter. It's like a secret power.) He said "Wear the right socks". As I started to take the Monkey sock off I noticed something:

There's a hole in my Monkeys!

I initially cursed whatever had snagged the sock and ripped the yarn, but after a closer look:

I realized that all the strands are intact. I either a) dropped a stitch when I knit them and didn't notice until now, or b) knit a stitch with only a few fibres of yarn, leaving the bulk of that stitch "free", and when those fibres broke, the stitch started to drop. Whatever had happended, I had worn (and washed) the socks at least 5 or 6 times before noticing it.

At first I thought that I would just rip back to that point in the sock and re-knit it, but since it is just above the ankle, I'm going to use some of the leftover yarn to pick up the stitches and do a patch job.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

2008-12-18T10:00:00.005-05:00

The socks for my Dad will probably end up being bed socks due to the abbreviated cuff.

Or maybe he'll start a new trend of men's cuffed ankle socks.
This was the amount of yarn leftover from each sock:

Now I did use 3mm needles, and the hybrid heel does use a fair amount more yarn than a short row heel, but still! My dad has size 9 feet! What if I'd been knitting socks for The Gambler with his size 11 feet?!? The yarn is Stomp by (the now defunct)Needful Yarns. Other than the yardage, it was pretty good to knit with. I'm sure that if you used 3.75 mm needles, and were knitting socks for a women's size 8 foot you'd have no problems at all. Definitely a good buy if it's on clearance somewhere.

I finished my Dad's socks just in time - the morning that we returned home from a short visit to Winnipeg (when it's -25C without counting windchill, a short visit is all I can stomach!). On the plane, I worked a bit more on the first Stick to Your Ribs sock:

I'm quite happy with the Garter Rib - it's nice and stretchy, so I'm able to continue the sock up a bit past the point where my calf widens. I do like the look of it with this yarn.

But there are still more gifts to knit - I picked up some Bamboo Alpaca blend yarn at the Royal Winter Fair this fall, and am knitting it into a cowl for my Non-evil Stepmother-in-law.

The yarn is loosely spun - the label calls it "Lopi yarn", and it is wonderfully soft. The pattern is The Diagonal Ribbed Cowl. The yarn fuzzes up a bit, so I think it looks better this way than it would as a simple stockinette. After that is done, the only Christmas knitting I have is to finish the Cow-IL, and knit a shawlette for The Gambler's Nana with 3 bulky yarns held together and obscenely large needles.
And I am on call from Friday morning through 'till Wednesday morning. Luckily we won't see Nana and the Non-evil Stepmother-in-law until the 26th!

Tanning with a Purpose*

2008-12-17T22:31:00.002-05:00

I always take the subway to my Wednesday knitting Meetup. I only had one token left, so on my way into the subway, I stopped to purchase more tokens at the machine. I usually buy 8 at a time - it comes to $18, so if you put in a 20 dollar bill, you get 8 tokens and $2 change.

Today, the machine sounded like a jackpot - the coins kept on coming. The only thing missing was the bright lights and ringing bells. At first I thought that the machine had malfunctioned and given me way more change than it was supposed to. Then, when I started digging the coins out of the slot, I realized that they were all nickels. Two dollar's worth of nickels.

I cannot believe that a TTC token vending machine punked me.

*************************************************

As of tomorrow, Somerset is no longer radioactive.

To celebrate, we put a month's worth of used kitty litter into our green bin. Special treat for the collection crew!

*The title has nothing to do with the post. It was a line from a newspaper ad that caught my eye as I glanced at it on the subway. Turned out that I had misread it - it actually read "Training with a Purpose". I like my version better.

Green is the new Catholic

2008-12-07T19:31:00.001-05:00

Is it just me, or do other people experience guilt over not recycling/composting?

It pains me to throw recyclables in the garbage, and causes me angst if I see something recyclable sitting in a garbage can - sometimes it is very tempting to take it out and put it into the appropriate collection bin. I'm starting to fear that I am on the road to Crazy-lady-that-rifles-through-garbage-bins-ville.

**********************************
I ended up christening my Mom's Cowl The Fuzzy Navy Abby - it looks black on the white background, but it is indeed navy:

It knit up quite quickly:

After 6 pattern repeats, it was 12 inches long. Since my Mom will wear it around her neck rather than as a headcover, it's plenty long enough.

Now I'm onto a pair of sportweight socks for my dad:

They also look black against a white background, but are in fact a dark blue/teal colour. I'm not very hopeful that I'll have them finished by next weekend when we go to visit my family, but if I can at least get to the heel, he can try them on to make certain they fit well.