Loose Ends

These socks have been sitting in my knitting pile for a while now.  In fact I've probably only had to knit the toe on the second sock for two weeks.  Wednesday night while at Ignite London, I finished the toe, but I set aside the grafting until I was safely at home.  Well I got home, and they were set aside again until Saturday morning.  They fit the oldest perfectly.  Those are size 9 feet, my friends!   I shall not feel too guilty when I send her off at an ungodly hour each morning to the bus stop.  Her feet will be toasty.   Of course she can not wear this pair every day, so I will have to get moving on another pair.  If she's especially nice, I will lend her my size 8 socks in between. :)

The pattern is Wildflower by Fawn Pea, and they were very simple and mindless.  Really.  That one stitch is just purling 3 stitches together, leaving them on the left hand needle, bringing the yarn over, and purling the same 3 stitches together again.  Oh Nelly, it was easy.  I used up some unnaturally green Knit Picks Palette fingering-weight wool.  The wool was super cheap, but it is not superwash nor does it have a wee bit o' nylon.  Ack, it's what we get for $3 (I only used a ball and a half).   Oh but they will be warm, and that's all that matters at this point.  I really don't mind handwashing socks.  Really.

Happy Sunday.

N

A Month of Socks

I could get used to churning out a couple of pairs of socks a month.  Sure, they're plain ol' vanilla stockinette socks, but they're even easier when they're knit to fit an 8-year old.  Only 52 sts on my 2.5mm addis!  Oh how a world of difference only 8 less stitches makes. :)  Please note that my model couldn't even stand up to pose.  She never even took her eyes off the laptop to pull the socks on.  Oh dear.  It's time for a walk to the park.

Happy Sunday, friends.

N

My EYES!!!

What does one do when her projects in progress are blinding her?  Cast on another florescent number of course.  On the top we have a new pair of stripey socks for the Bumblebee that I hope to have finished in time for her birthday early September, and on the bottom is a featherweight cardigan for myself.  I hope to have the cardigan completed by the end of my life.  Knitting a cardigan out of lace is insanity, but so soft.   What you don't see pictured here is a fair isle vest that I am about to start.   I still need to accomplish steeking this year, so I have chosen EZ's fair isle vest from her Knitting Workshop.  The Bumblebee loves vests, and I am too lazy to knit an adult-sized vest.  That's the truth of it.  I found some old Quebecoise 2-ply wool in the stash in bright raspberry pink, bright orange, bright green and bright turquoise.  Are you seeing a pattern?  This may be a good time to get my eyes checked.

N

Summer Sox

My Summer Sox have been finished for a few weeks. They took about a month to lazily knit up.
I think they're quite lovely in appearance and feel. The pattern was easily memorized after one repeat. You gots to love Cookie A.

Pattern: Summer Sox by Cookie A. (free from the Classic Elite website)

Yarn: Regia Silk, 1.5 balls

Picture me taking a big sweeping bow.

N

My Sock Mojo is Alive and Kicking It

The weekend is drawing to a close all too soon once again. Homework is being finished and packed back up in the knapsacks for Monday morning, and waking up early and getting dressed is already being dreaded.

Oh, Flat Stanley, how we will miss you when school ends. I suppose we could try and continue our Sunday evening tradition of writing two or three sentences and drawing a picture of you doing really rad things with the Bee, but I think it's a bit far-fetched to imagine. The Bee is very adamant about doing tasks that do not 'NEED' to be done.
I had to include this picture of Tig Tig absolutely still. She absolutely never ever, ever never sits still for the camera. This sleeping is fake too, 'cause she looked at me before I clicked, and it was a look of futile resistance. I've won - in a sense that it's not a blurry image of the cat leaping away from me.

As for the title of this post, I will allow this picture to say it all.

My sock knitting mojo has returned. Want to know what did it?? An email this week from Classic Elite. I signed up for the weekly newsletter last year, and they showcase free patterns frequently. This here's Cookie A's Summer Sox pattern. You can't say just pass over a free Cookie A sock pattern. That's just ridiculous. So I searched high and low through the stash for a solid/semi-solid soft sock yarn, and nothing I had made the cut. Sure I had lots of variegated sock yarn, and all the solid stuff was Briggs & Little scratchy sock yarn that would be better for a thick cable-y winter sock. I cast on with a bright florescent superwash merino sock yarn, and a few inches into the knitting, my heart sank. It was ripped back, and I went shopping.

I scored some pretty pale grey Regia Silk, and it's perfect! I'll be hitting that heel any minute now.

Happy Sunday!

N

Progress However Slow

This is a sock that was started up at the cottage in the middle of the summer. To avoid losing these precious Addis when I finished the sock that was on the needles on the way up to the cottage, I quickly cast on another pair with some Lana Grossa Meilenweit in a marbley green colourway. They're just plain ribbing, and they've become my travel knitting - always in my bag ready to knit a round or two while waiting for one thing or another. It's still only half a sock, but I managed to turn the heel a new way to me, and it was fun and easy. I have no idea what it is called or how to describe it, so I will leave you in suspense, but once it's finished, I will model it, and perhaps you can see what I have done differently. At this pace, it could be some time from now. I am thinking that they will be a Christmas stocking gift for El. Her feet are easily a size larger than mine. Eek!
Here's a quick shot of the progress on the Woodland Shawl. I am nearly finished skein #2! I've gotten a bit cheeky and over-confident, and some errors were made, but there's no way that I would be able to fix them properly, so I stayed calm and carried on. Maybe me and a few knitters might spot the gaps in the pattern, but I can live with that. Trust me. I prefer imperfections in a lot of things when I think about it. I am very weary of 'perfect'. It's too slick and shiny. Or maybe this thinking is a defence mechanism, and I unconsciously know I am unable to achieve perfection. Nah, that's not it. I like scruffy, chipped, tousled, faded, and worn in my life. I truly do, but I like my coffee crisp.

N

Fini!

Cabled Hat
1.25 skeins of Patons Rumor
5.5mm and 6mm needles
Finished in one day sitting on the beach.
Commissioned by a co-worker for a daughter-in-law's Christmas gift.

My first toe-up socks - made to fit in plain stockinette stitch, Black Lamb superwash merino-nylon blend and 2.5 mm circulars. I learned two new processes - Judy's magic cast-on and short-row heels.

I also finished a third quickie cowl using Misti Alpaca Chunky in a light blue. I could knit this cowl forever. Again, it only took a couple of hours to knit. Gots to love that. It actually looks exactly like the one on the pattern page. No need for a picture. :)

Cheers! Happy Civic Holiday! I gets to return to work tomorrow. Oh, the dread.

N

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No! It's a toe-up sock! That's right. I learned another fancy-pants technique - Judy's magic cast-on. It's brilliant.Starting a new project and learning a new technique was my reward for finishing the Candy Cane/Canada Day plain stripey stockinette socks. I used no pattern - I just used the first one to measure against for the second sock and just made it up as I went. That's the nice thing about socks - once you've made one and throw all caution to the wind, you can do just about anything! Really!

And just to show you that it's not all about the socks here, I am working on my lace ribbon scarf very diligently. I love this scarf. It will be just for me. It is so flippin' soft and drapey and all lovely and most precious.
This is what B was doing this morning while she was eating her cereal. I must point out that we just dropped a LOAD on new windows, and I kind of forgot to warn J that it was nothing to freak about since the markers were special window writers. Of course I was busy chatting away on the phone when I actually heard him stop breathing. Poor guy. Must remember to communicate quicker! I like this little depiction of a princess - see the emerald diamond in her crown. Super cute.

Off to brew some coffee and sit down with my newest sock project - I have to learn how to knit the heel when knitting toe-up! Eek. I've also been knitting to the Pretty In Pink soundtrack - who doesn't love a good dose of The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, New Order and Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark??? I borrowed the movie from the library, and I forced El to watch it this weekend. I'm not sure what my next childrearing move into the teen years might look like - Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, or Weird Science? If J can introduce the kid to Dr. Who and some other really weird sci-fi tv shows, I think I can foist some retro 80's movies on her. I was so in love with James Spader and Anthony Michael Hall and Andrew McCarthy. Oh they were so dreamy then! I could spend all night linking all my favourite flashbacks, but that's seriously enough. Next up: dread Monday.

Cheers!

N

Sock'n'Roll Momma

The next sock I have started is a plain stockinette (I am determined to knit in stockinette!) with my Black Lamb superwash merino/nylon sock yarn in a stripey red and white. They will be my candy cane socks or Canada Day socks! I love how they are knitting up. It’s nearly time to start the heel.

J and I treated ourselves to bicycles yesterday – my bike from our years living beneath the poverty level was stolen years ago. The price of gas has really sparked the environmental activist in me. It wouldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds either. I don’t know what it’s like in other parts of the world, but here in London, a city with a population of 350,000; it’s rare to see a person out walking or riding a bike. I blame a lot of it on the space between all points of travel. However, J and I both work in the downtown area, and it takes us about an hour to walk the distance between our house and our workplaces. He tends to walk and take the bus more than I do because I do a lot of the dropping off and picking up of children. Neither of us minds walking or taking the bus when we’re alone, but neither of us want to be held up by the short legs of a 5-year old or an unenergetic 12-year old unless the walk is meant to be taken at our leisure.

So my next step is to get a couple of helmets, so I can begin to ride the bike to work. I can’t believe how expensive this ordeal has become. We’ve dropped a load on two adult bikes, a bike rack, two locks, and lights. Two helmets will set us back another $60 at least. I know, I know – you can’t put a price on your life. And I have to keep reminding myself that $60 has become three-quarters of a tank of gas that doesn’t last even a week! Yes, our vehicle is a shameless gas guzzler. Ugh.

How did my excitement so quickly turn into dread? It’s too much thinking. It’ll all pass once I get home and ride my bike through the neighbourhood at a breakneck speed with my hair whipping up in the air. Yes, that’s the ticket. Happiness is riding a bicycle up and down little tiny streets covered with great big canopies of green leaves and the smell of lilac bushes blooming in May.

When I was at the Knitters Frolic last month, I bought some raffle tickets, and lo and behold, I won a gift certificate to a yarn shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was in the mail last night! What a treat! And speaking of more birthday treats, I nearly forgot to blog about these little cakes of 100% llama laceweight in my favourite shade of gold! Kat, my knitting chauffeur, went to Americo in Toronto, and I guess she figured I didn’t quite get enough for my birthday. The yarn Gods are looking over me! I think Kat would agree when I think that maybe I should put my gift certificate towards a yarn winder. Sheesh!

I am loving the inspiration from the Crafty Crow lately even though I haven’t had the time to put some of it to practice, but today I happened upon this project, and I think while I am out buying bicycle helmets, I will pick up a set of oil pastels at Michaels. This art is completely my speed and will appeal to the littlest as well as the oldest.

Toodles,
N

Happy Mums Day

My mum is in Spain today, so I had to give her the Monkey socks a week early, and I was thrilled that she was very pleased with them. They fit! I hope that she is having the time of her life. I can think of no one who deserves it more. I mean, the lady had to put up with me for twenty years in her home, and she is still putting up with my antics over a decade later. She's nothing short of a saint.

Happy Mothers Day!

N

Mix & Match

I'm finished two socks with my Fleece Artist Basic Merino Sock yarn, but they're not quite a pair. I knit up the first sock in plain stockinette because I was impatient and was lazy, and I ended up very disappointed with it because it simply did not highlight the transitions in the semi-solid gold colourway. I loved this yarn, and it deserved a pattern. I wasn't particularly yearning for a lace pattern after having just finished a pair of monkeys. I love the monkeys, but I wanted to have a knitting project that was brain-numbing easy and a cinch to throw down when I was busy chatting or cooking or sumpin' sumpin'.

So Kat suggested knitting a second sock in a pattern that was worthy of the Fleece Artist, and if I really liked it, I could frog the first and knit it to match the second. Well I love it, but I am feeling lazy again, and would it be absolutely horrible if they just didn't match??? I have so many balls of sock yarn begging to be knit up, and I can live with these. Could you?

N

Two for the Price of One

I am in finishing mode! Except for the felted bunny that is. I cajoled the oldest to pose with the socks and the cowl, and I begged J to fix the card error on the camera, and I was able to capture some adequate photos.

The Quickie Cowl by Fawn Pea using exactly one skein of the called for Misti Alpaca Chunky wool in a minty green and a pair of 10 mm needles. Started at bedtime March 24 and finished March 26 in the car on the way home from work. This was super quick and super easy and super soft. I could have finished it in less time if I had stayed more focused. Here it is in action!

And my second FO of the day is the Monkey socks by Cookie A. using Patons Kroy 4-ply wool and two 2.5mm circs. I started these socks when I was really sick on March 7 and finished one sock by the next day. The second sock took me a bit longer, and I ended up grafting the toe after dinner today. This pattern is 12 rows, but so mother-flippin' easy that I didn't even refer to the chart for the entire second sock. They are destined for my mum for Mother's Day. I hope she loves them as much as I do!

I am pooped. G'night, all!

N

Sugar Bush Jungle

J took the girls to a sugar bush yesterday, and El took 117 pictures. Of what, you ask? A poop load of signs, and some other random stuff. J says that's what I get for taking a zillion pics of yarn and feet. I have a few of them for you - again they're just random.

B leading the troops through the sugar bush.

Get it?
Here's her view on the horse-pulled wagon ride.

My absolute favourite - B's hand through a plank of wood (that's her blue and black glove sticking out).I did what any normal person would do, and I snatched my camera back, and took a picture of my Monkey.

N

P.S. Did you see the new Knitty? I love this scarf!

On Fire

I woke up this morning very sore with a headache. I must be fighting off something vicious because my entire body feels like it's on fire. But things need to get done. El had a friend sleeping over, and B had an afternoon playdate, so I cleaned the house - washed floors, made beds, tidied up, baked my stand-by butter tarts, and threw on a pot of tea. I thought that would make me feel a bit better, but truth is it briefly diverted my attention from the fact that I was in pain. Depsite all this, I survived. Crafts were made, socks were knitted, company was hosted, and the driveway got shovelled (this was no easy task as snow fell fast ALL day!). Here are some cardboard eggs we decorated for Easter, and one day of knitting the Monkey. I am using Patons Kroy 4-ply sock yarn that I had in the stash, and it is knitting up quick! The pattern is easy to memorize even though it is 12 rows. This was the first time I followed a chart - are you shocked?

I should head to bed and at least appear ill. Toodles.

N

All the Trees are Hers

The concert rocked. Even J shook his head grinning that he hardly expected 'that'. I can honestly say Hawksley is 100 times better live than recorded, not that I don't enjoy listening to his albums all night and all day because lord knows I do. It's just he exudes something on stage that I can't explain. I forgot my camera in all the excitement, so I can't even show you.

Picture the band deep into "Striptease" breaking into "Crazy in Love" - the crowd just lapped it up. It was hilarious. Check out this interview - it's Hawksley talking about his new album. He's so dreamy!

The Charade socks are complete! I am so thrilled. I would wear them tomorrow, but I have a 'function' to attend bright and early in the morning that requires something a bit more dressy. They will just have to wait for the weekend for prancing and parading.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's the last day of school before March Break. I am not sure who looks forward to the time off more - me or the girls - but I do know that I will cherish each of those five mornings in which I do not have to pack nary a lunch or school bag. Five mornings to sip my coffee and read the news on-line and dress for work at my leisure. It's gold.

Cheers.

N

Road Trip

Unfortunately I won't be up at the Market this Sunday knitting with my posse because the girls and I are going on a road trip to another market - Newmarket! Ladies, if you're out there reading, remember to pester the Tea Haus staff in my absence. Em and I tried the "But you let us take our tea to the end of the balcony last time!" in an annoying whine, and it worked last week. I'm just saying, that's all. I have some great shots of Dora the Explorer and the Town Crier, too, if anyone wants me to share. This is my knitting and my much-too-far-away tea.

I've made some slow progress - I now have one baby orange Koigu sock and one adult-sized Charade sock. I love how both turned out despite the square and snippy toe of the Charade. I purposely did not take a picture of the Charade that showcased the dang toe. It's rather embarassing as Isa tried to tell me that I was leaving too many stitches to graft, and I stubbornly refused to listen to reason because I would not stray from how the pattern read. It screams square toe. Isa tried to console me by saying that some people have square toes, but I don't think they're anything like this! That Isa is a true friend.

Well, I'm off to pack. I picked up some awesome movies from the library, and I am so stoked to sit down and watch them! We're going to stay up late watching foreign films, eat cinnamon buns and chocolate by the bowlful, knit and sew as if we were really crafty, go thrifting and antiquing, and just laugh like it's 1992! I am looking forward to the skinny latte with which I plan to treat myself tomorrow morning as we head out onto the highway.

And T, one last birthday treat for you - check out this new video from our dear sweet Hawksley. It's cheesy, but in all the right ways.

N

Ribbed Queasiness

It fits perfectly! One down, one more to go. Do you like the outfit she picked out to wear today? I am loving those stripey tights. My knitting will be slowing down starting tomorrow - it's back to work. Ugh. We're on our way to the grocery store - we need to stock up on lunch supplies like juicy drinking boxes and bread and stuff. Woo-hoo! It's also time for the girls to go back to school.
N