A long weekend of knitting

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.

Bad news and good news

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...

Christmas is coming...

While visions of stuffed mice dance through Somerset's radioactive little head, I'm working on some Christmas gifts. The Cow-IL. The story behind the name is available on it's Ravelry Page. Being knit out of some Drops Alpaca laceweight. Abby for my Mom - combining Kidsilk Haze and some of the leftover Zephyr laceweight. This is my first time knitting with KSH, and I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Maybe I'm not susceptible to it's so-called magic. I'm knitting it on smaller needles than the pattern calls for - hopefully it will make for a more wind-proof fabric. We are visiting my family from December 13-16, so I had better get back to my knitting!

Time Off is Great in 2008!

Well, I ended up having a pretty craptacular "holiday season", mostly because of work. Why does Mommy keep threatening to drink both of these in one sitting? But I am now off until Monday the 14th (with the exception of having to go to the hospital to meet with hospital administration and a patient's family to do go over an Incident Quality of Care Review - reliving one of the lowlights of the last 2 weeks, as it were). I have managed to get some knitting done, but am horribly behind on taking photos - will try to catch up this weekend. I do, however have photos of a lovely present that my SP11 downstream Penny sent me: Getting the blues takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to yarn like this! It was particularly thoughtful of her to print out 3 patterns for lace scarves that can be knit with this yarn. Printing things is a bit of a chore in our house - we have a laser printer which is 4-5 years old, and our new computer doesn't have the right port to connect the printer with it. My laptop is the only computer in the house that can it can connect to; and it is usually on the main floor. The printer lives on the 3rd floor of our house. Thank you Penny!!! Although I haven't blogged in a week or so, I have been looking at blogs and Ravelry. It's interesting to see that last year's "Knit from my stash" phenomenon has morphed into "Knit down my stash". Does anyone remember how yarn store owners were apparently wringing their hands, worried that sales would plummet if enough knitters went on a yarn diet for the first 6 months of 2007? I imagine that there were some who were successful, but let's face it, diets are generally doomed to fail, as are the bulk of New Year's Resolutions. So this year, I am making only 4 resolutions: 1) I will listen to more podcasts (I have hours and hours of CBC Radio One podcasts stored on my computer, enough to fill several mp3 players). Maybe once I clear the backlog, I will check out some knitting podcasts. 2) I will document at least 90% of my stash on Ravelry. Of course, this means that I will have to locate a few boxes of yarn that I haven't seen since the move. Which leads to resolution#3 3) I will unpack/figure out where to store the stuff that is still sitting in bins/boxes. The Gambler and I have need to get around to buying some bedroom furniture; right now I keep most of my socks in a Rubbermaid bin! 4) I will drink more water. Well, it is off to fight the crowds at the gym. I got 6 "personal trainer sessions" when we joined the gym in November, but was only able to schedule the first one for yesterday because of my insande work schedule in November/December. I feel like having a shirt made up saying "No, this is NOT a New Year's Resolution"

Birthday rush!

I have a weird relationship with my family in general, moreso when it comes to presents - I have way more stuff than I need, and am fortunate enough to be able to buy myself the things that I want; everyone else in my family is in a similar situation. But my family is very big on exchanging gifts because That Is The Right Thing To Do; at one point my siblings started a Gift exchange, where were each assigned the name of a sibling/siblings spouse and that was who we were to buy a present for. The Gambler got my older sister the first year and she told him that she wanted 2 soup bowls from her china pattern for Christmas. That was the only Christmas we participated in the gift exchange. I hate the "shopping list" mentality when it comes to gift giving - I am OK with wedding registries, but I like to have some thought put into selecting a gift. Even worse is when I am told "Just send us X dollars, and we will put your name on the gift" - nothing like a gift for which I have absolutely no input. Since my family doesn't understand that, I have more or less opted out of giving them large gifts - inpast years I sent my parents and aunt/uncle tickets to a New Year's Day concert . This year, everybody got a flower pot containing an amaryllis bulb and a bottle of wine. I was feeling so proud of myself, having distributed all of my family's Christmas gifts back in November (when we went back to Winnipeg for a visit), and the Christmas Cardi pinned in preparation for sewing up...when I remembered. My aunt (who is also my godmother) celebrates her birthday in early January. Damn - needed to think of something I could quickly knit up for her. Considered the Quickie Cowl; I have some chunky alpaca in the stash, so it would be perfect. The next day (Tuesday), I realized that it was my Mom's birthday! Eek! I didn't have any other suitable bulky yarn in stock, so I thought that I'd knit her a shawl. I woke up early the next morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went upstairs to see what yarn is accessible (as opposed to being "in a box, somewhere") and perused shawl patterns on Ravelry. I decided on the Simple Yet Effective Shawl, and cast on with some sock yarn. After knitting about 20 rows, I decided that I wasn't happy with how the colours looked (the yarn was blue and peach, and it kept reminding me of The Gambler's Da Bears Socks. So I decided to break open some handspun yarn that my previous Secret Pal Lori sent to me. It's a worsted weight merino/silk blend in a lovely periwinkle - a colour that my mom adores. This is how much I knit yesterday (before going to work, a few rows at lunch, and an evening SnB's worth), so I have christened it The Speedy Yet Effective Shawl #1, (because I am going to knit my aunt The Speedy Yet Effective Shawl #2 out of 3 skeins of Kareoke that are also sitting in the stash) BTW- See that combination lock? It is currently driving me insane. The Gambler and I recently joined a gym, and I have only gone there together with him thus far - no need to bring any valuables, so I just hang up my coat and that is that. I want to start going before or after work, so I need a lock for the locker. I used this lock for a few years, several tiems a week. It has been at least a year since I last used it, but I thought I knew the combination. I locked it, tried the combo, and realized it was wrong. So I played around with it, tried to see where the mechanism tightens up, and managed to open it using that method. But I didn't pay close attention to what the ACTUAL numbers were - and after I re-locked it I haven't been able to open it again. I am almost 100% sure that the first number was 35 and the last one was 9. However, the middle number eludes me. Every so often I try to open it again - it's kind of like a Rubik's Cube. I hate to throw perfectly good stuff away, and I am determined to figure out the combination. This photo gives a better view of the colour: And this one gives a better idea of the texture of the yarn: I added the row of yarnovers within the garter section of the shawl to maximize the size of the shawl since I only have about 300 yards of the yarn. My goal is to get both of them in the mail by January 3rd. Which is a bit past midway between the 2 birthdays. But it's the thought that counts, right?