Quiet long weekend.

This is my lovely daughter. She won't have to look at her father this way anymore. We just moved her into her first big girl apartment on Saturday. Oh, it's so wonderfully quiet this Labour Day weekend.



So alot has been accomplished. The house has been cleaned, the roast is on the BBQ, all the animals are napping, and blogger is being incredibly slow. Looks like poor Russell is wondering when his girl is coming back.

So onto knitting. I am making some progress with Shelagh cardigan. I have just got past the armholes and the sleeves are on holders. I love doing top downs. Less sewing.














Miss P needs some fall cardigans, so this gramma dug into her stash and found 6 balls of Crystal Palace chenille that I had bought on ebay awhile ago. It showed the yarn as a kit, but didn't come with the pattern. So I'm making my own version , no bobbles. I'm using a pattern from the Miss Bea series by Louisa Harding, and changing the colours from memory. Hope It works.











I had a surprise visit from my next door neighbors on Thursday. One young lady is 13 and the other is 8. They asked if I could teach them how to knit. I was a little nervous, but everything is going great. They are really doing quite well, and haven't lost interest yet. So I guess I'm doing okay. Once they finish their garter stitch scarves, it's on to purling. Julie told my to check Melanie Falick's book Kids Knitting. It's fantastic, and has lots of kid friendly patterns.
Tomorrow night is guild night, then off to the Knitters Fair on Saturday. Whoo Hoo!!!!

Midweek Day Off!

This is the way my Wednesday off of work went!
















She ate more chocolate chips than she put in the cookies.











This is after a hard day of play at the park and a good supper and it's time to go home.


I won't show you the picture of Gramma after a hard day at the park and a full day of Miss P.

A non-knitting Gramma is a tired cranky Gramma!

Wacky Weekend!

This weekend went well. Miss "P" came for our Saturday night special. (sleepover at Gramma's). No pictures because we were just having too much fun to take them. I wish I had taken some of the famous pee dance though. Maybe next time.
Most of my knitting was done on my rib sock, because when "Little Miss Whirlwind" comes to visit, it's easy to just drop and pick up when necessary.

I did manage to get Julies bag finished be fore she arrived.

Before felting.








After felting.









Put together. And all I have to do is find the right buttons. This was a great pattern. The only sewing is to attach the i-cord handles. I probably would change one thing though, I'm wondering if you slip the first stitch on every row if that would make for a tighter edge. It just seemed a little sloppy to me.



I'm thinking maybe wooden toggles.
All suggestions welcome!


Another batch of peach jam for this season.







And 2 good for nothing pets that did nothing to help.

New Yarn!

Now that Julie's Aran is done, next project up is..................

This is another yarn from Naturally call Vero. The purse pattern is from Knitters Summer 2006 issue, and will be done in time for the KW Knitters Fair , September 9th. And I have it on good authority that this colourway should be available too.

I also started a cardigan for myself.
I've had this Super 10 cotton well over a year and intended to remake one of my favorite cardigans. But as all good plans go, it sat there for so long that another pattern has caught my eye.

I'm making the Shelagh cardigan from a website called The Garter Belt.
Hopefully I won't have to work to hard this week and I can get some quality knitting done.

Yarn Quiz!

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Shetland Wool. You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a little on the harsh side. Though you look delicate you are tough as nails and prone to intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are widely respected and even revered.
Take this quiz!








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Ta Da!!!!!

Yes it is finally done. Julie's Aran pullover. I just have to get the buttons this week.
The front.













The back.



Yarn: Naturally Harmony 10 ply
100% NZ Merino 15 balls.
Needles: 4.5mm

This yarn was so nice to knit with. It doesn't have a tight spin so I could spit splice the ends together and there was no weaving in of the ends.



I also finished and felted my French Market bag.















Yarn: 3-50g balls of Naturally Tussock 10 ply
(deep purple with tweed effects, hard to see in the picture)
1-100g ball of Patons Classic ( leftover)

Needles: 5mm

This pattern from Knitty.com was great to knit too, perfect if your looking for a fairly quick knit. It fits my 10 balls of yarn for the next project and a ball of sock yarn. I decided to make it because I can leave my work in it and just pick it up and go.
Both these yarns can be purchased at Julie's store or on line at her website.
As you can see, I received my Interweave Knits in the mail today. So I'm down for the count with my mag and my Timmy's and thinking about my next project.

And so my friends I leave you with gratuitous child and dog shots.

Meanwhile.....

...back at the farm, things are moving along. The weather finally took a turn for the better, and it's nice to sit outside and knit. The last piece of Julie's Aran is blocking.
Then all that's left is the collar and bands.
I wonder if we'll see it at the Knitter's Fair next month.
(sorry the link is not working for the knitter's fair)



















So while I'm waiting I started the French Market bag. In my opinion you can never have enough knitting bags. There's always another project to start and you need a bag to keep it in.
I'm using leftover Classic Merino for the bottom and my daughter so graciously gave me her Naturally Tussock for the main part. Of course I'll have to replace it later. You would think with all my stash I would have something to use but any of the yarn that would felt is waiting for other projects.




Since we had the long weekend just passed, Miss P came to stay on Sunday night instead of Saturday and it's impossible to get any knitting done between chasing her and the "DOG". We had a blast making muffins though. Next time, she wants to make cookies.





And after it's all said and done guess who gets the nap.
Certainly not me.

One Hot Knitter!

Well, it's been a busy week. Hot, Hot, and some more hot. But we have perservered, and made a little progress. I thought it was time to get back to my Winter Sunset Cardigan, and at least knit on it for 1 or 2 hours a day if I can. This is what I came home to on Thursday.









Isn't he looking so innocent and cute! Mr. Tibbs just has no control when it comes to wool. I mean I can't blame him, but does he have to leave me such a mess to untangle.










So, most of my afternoons this week have consisted of coming home (after working outside in the heat and humidity), having a shower and sitting on the back deck with a beer and my knitting. You ask how could I possibly knit in this heat, but we have a covered deck, and throw in a few late afternoon thundershowers and then some wonderful breezes plus toss in the lastest episode of "Cast On", and life just couldn't get any better for me.

Well, maybe a few more skeins of yarn to top it off.

I'm half way through the second sleeve of Julie's Aran.





My friend Samantha is looking for squares for an afghan for a family friend, so I whipped up a couple I found in Sally Melville's book 3,. I mailed them off yesterday , but don't tell her it's a surprise. I didn't tell her I was making some. I even threw in a crocheted one.
Sally has a really neat pattern for the mitered square, and used it in a jacket design. She also did the log cabin block that everyone is talking about.






These are the new stitch markers I made this week.

And last but not least I leave you with dumb dog picture. I don't understand what her fasination with standing on the table is. Doesn't look too bright to me!

Intervention! No Way.

You know you have to do something when you hear your family talking about an intervention, and not the show on A&E.
I don't think I have a problem. I know there are millions of you out there just like me, so how can it be a problem.








I keep the door shut so they can't see, but I'm sure it was starting to overflow out the room. So this was my mission this weekend.


TaaDaa! Who need's an intervention now!






Even Mr. Tibbs could finally see out the window. I might even get motivated to get back to my quilt.













So I am declaring this day "Tidy up your Stash Day", so your family doesn't know exactly how much you really have.

I even finished and blocked one sleeve of Julie's Aran. Onward and upward! And happy stash hiding.

Too Hot to Move.

Sorry fellow bloggers, but this week has been just to hot and humid to make any progress.
I'm slowly moving along on Julie's Aran and I knit a tension swatch with the Nashua she gave me and I'm still deciding which pattern to use.
Miss Pee came for our Saturday Night special, and she actually let me knit a little, but I had to do it outside while she played in the pool and it was just to sticky to do for too long.
Hopefully this week I can make up for it.

Progress!

It been a great weekend. I finished the Hedera socks for my daughter.

Needles: 2.5mm
Yarn: Fortissima Socka
Free pattern from Knitty.com







I changed the heel length from the original pattern, just because it was alot longer than what I usually knit, but other than that it is a good pattern.

I started a new sock for my take along bag. Just a simple 3,1 rib.














And I'm halfway to the armholes of Julie's Aran.

On other news, I have been listening to all the episodes for Cast On, a knitting podcast hosted by Brenda Dayne. You can find the link in my sidebar. I've been enjoying it alot and I'm getting more knitting done. She is also putting the book the Age of Innocence on podcast for you to download and listen to. I use to read alot before knitting came along, then I stopped because it interferred with my knitting time. So this is a great way to read a book and get your knitting done also.
She has also mentioned a couple of websites I thought some of you might be interested in.

First is the Knitting Fool.com, a free interactive sweater pattern generator. You provide your gauge and size to generate a pattern.
Second is the Sweater Project, this site is still a work in progress, but you can type in your cable pattern and it will put it in a chart for you. They have some cable stitches on it now and will be adding more in the future.
Cool eh!

The Power of Harlot!

You really know when you have the power to control peoples thoughts and will. After reading the Harlots blog about cherries and the upside down cake I had to have one.
+

= Cherrie Upsidedown Cake!

Can't show you pictures. We ate it. Maybe next time.

Strawberry Jam - 34, Fish-8, Knitting 0

Saturday started of with strawberry picking, then 34 jars of jam, and for dessert Strawberry shortcake with whipcream. Miss P actually picked more than she ate.

Sunday was left for house cleaning and maybe a couple of rows of knitting.

And today was fishing day. I couldn't knit in the boat because it was too choppy.
But we are having bass for dinner.

I could hardly hold them up!

I'll make up for the knitting tonight.
Happy Canada Day weekend.