Oh My God!

I just got my new Interweave Knits in the mail yesterday and found a few wonderful patterns in this issue. I have been a little disappointed in my magazines lately, it just seems like the patterns have been leaning towards all the new knitters. That is all good and I like to see new knitters encouraged but it seemed like they were forgetting us knitters that have been around for awhile and need something a little more challenging.


Then I turned the magazine over and I just about fell off the couch. This sweater is so me.
I have to have this pattern. Looks like I may have to make another trip to Julie's this week. It is in the Classic Elite Spring Issue 2006 , Boathouse.
Looks like this may be my next project. I think I already have some yarn in my stash just sitting there waiting for the right pattern. It's a good thing no one can see me sitting here drooling over this one.

Olympic Challenge

Well, everyone is off to a great start. I personally will not be starting something new. I have decided as my personal challenge to finish as many UFO's as possible. I have started with a cardigan for a customer of Julie's. I have almost half the collar done and the other side to do and then sew it up. Pictures will follow when complete.

Then I will go full steam ahead with Julie's plain pullover no matter how unchallenging it will be.

I did allow myself one little treat though. Two new balls of sock yarn to look at till my Jaywalker's are done.






And I had to throw this in just for the cuteness factor!

No Knitting News

I haven't had much to post lately. I finished the back of Julie's sweater and started the front but it's just stocknette stitch so no need to show a picture.
I have turned the heel of my first jaywalker sock. That's moving slowly also.

Samantha asked to see my stitch markers my daughter made for me so here they are. The one's with the bugs are my favorites.











And lastly my special girl came Thursday for awhile, so again not much knitting got done.

Very Happy Husband

No knitting news is bad news. This weekend hasn't not been a good one for knitting so far. Friday I worked 4 extra hours, and a couple extra hours of computer work, and then my favorite girl came for a visit. We got Jen back on track with her knitting and I did manage to knit about 6 rows of Julie's sweater.

This morning was a visit to the periodontist and I did manage to get a little done on my Jaywalker sock while I waited, (almost 1 hour) I'm just about ready to start the heel. Then on the way home my husband decided to stop at a nearby farm and guess what he did.


We are now the proud owners of a 9 week old black lab. We haven't really decided what her name is yet. The only one I can come up with right now is "Stinky". She is definately getting a bath tomorrow. (and no Valerie, we are not naming her after some roman or greek goddess or mythical something or other, ya weirdo.)







I almost forgot, I did whip up Nakiskaon Wednesday for a friend and I might even knit one for myself for work. It's quite cute and knits up pretty quick.





I think it's time for a puppy pee. I forgot how much fun this was going to be. Maybe I can fit in and hour or two of uninterupted knit time tonight. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Slacker!

I know I've been a slacker but back to work is really cutting into my knitting and blogging time!
I did start a few projects though. One ball of Tussock 14 ply started onJulie's sweater. Straight stocknette stitch. I'm trying not to fall asleep, but it's good to work on if I'm watching a really good movie and don't need to concentrate.







I started a scarf for a good friend. She actually said someday when I had more time she would like to pay me to knit her a scarf. PSHAW!!!!!!!!!!!! This one is going to be a surprise. It's from Jo Sharp Book One and both sides look almost the same so it should lay flat. I had enough yarn left over from Miss P's top down sweater so I'm using stash up too.


Next I didn't like the rib pattern I was doing on my sock so I ripped it out and switched to the Jaywalker sock.









And last, we had a short and I mean very short knitting lesson with Miss P. Her attention span was pretty good but she just didn't understand that we don't stick the needles up our nose!

Day 5,6 & 7

It's amazing how fast a week off from work can go! The last few days have been catching up on housework, shampooing carpets, and a nice visit from my son and granddaughter.













Her cardigan fit nicely and she even has a little room to grow. After reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's chapter on her grandmother's knitting last night, I hope Miss P remembers this moment fondly. She did keep it on all day and wore it home to show mommy.


Last night I decided to pick up the Winter Sunset Cardigan and get back to it. I figured I got past the hard part of cutting the steeks, (which really wasn't so bad), and I only have one sleeve and the front and neck bands left to do.

But no sneak peaks of the right side till it's done. :0)

Day 4

This has been a red letter day. My entrelac bag is done.
I bought some inexpensive beads at Walmart that were perfect. Ive been looking at it all day and I think a few more minutes of felting should have been done, but with my experience in felting I'll wait till I have to wash it and it will felt a little more.

I also fixed my daughter-in-law's little accident with her ball of yarn. Oh what a tangled web she can weave. But it's all better now and ready for her to knit with again.





My other accomplishment today was starting the textured rib sweater for my husband. I'm not usually a swatch kinda girl so I started the sleeve. For me this is a good way to swatch, you don't have to rip out if it works and if you do, your not ripping out too much!!


And after reading the Yarn Harlot's blog today about her cat, she's got nothing to worry about.
Look what I have to look at every day! Mr. Relax-O!

Day 3

The weather was lovely for Southern Ontario. 5 degrees cellcius. Not bad for January!



I didn't seem to get as far as I would have liked today but the Raglan Hoodie is DONE!



Yeah.!!!!! I wanted to start something new, but I'm still thinking about it.
Should I start the sweater for the mister, or go back and work on the Winter Sunset Cardigan?
I've also been toying with the idea of ripping out the ribbed sock and doing a different pattern.
So much for progress. I think I'll sleep on.

Day 2.

Nothing very exciting today. I have made alot of progress on the raglan hoodie. The button bands are on, the hood is finished and now all that is left to do is sew it together. Tomorrow should be a banner day.

Vacation, yeah!

Day 1:

My dear husband got up this morning and asked if I would like to go to the big city with him. I said, "Sure let me throw my knitting in my bag" and off we went.

First stop Tim Hortons. The weather was fine, our favorite radio talk show on and I'm knitting away. He's done at the store and says "We better get gas and I'm hungry". No worries, I'm knitting like mad. Next thing I know he's going the opposite direction from home, and says "We'll just go for a little drive, what else have we got to do?" No worries, I'm still knitting!

Somewhere on the other side of Elora, a few hours away from home, I am getting to the end of the ball of yarn, and guess what? Yep, I forgot to put another ball of yarn in my bag.
The mister looks at me and says " I guess we have to look for a yarn store."

But living with former boy scouts, I was prepared. I had a ball of sock yarn and 2.5mm needles in the bottom of my bag that I had been carrying around for a month.



The yarn is a marl of black and tones of red, fushia and yellow, but the camera doesn't show them well. I didn't have a pattern either, so I decided to do a 3-1 rib. So add one more project to my WIP's.

My Felted Bag

Felted Bag Almost Done!


Before


After

Now I just have to wait for it to dry and sew on the strap. I almost had a catastrophe on the second time of the wash cycle, my tie came off of the pillow case and the bag was loose. Then with all the agitation it pulled the ribbon out of the band on top and it almost felted itself together. Luckily I caught it in time and with a little perserverance I got the ribbon back through.

So, while the bag is drying for a few days, I will be back to the Raglan hoodie which is 90% done. And I have given some thought to starting a raglan rib sweater for my husband that I bought
last January while we were on holiday in Ottawa.

It's from Paton's Classics"Indigo Days".

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Well another Christmas has passed and another New Year begins. I didn't fair too badly, only one sweater didn't get finished on time, but to a two year old it didn't matter.







I had to make a quick trip to Julie's today to pick up another ball of yarn to finish my Entrelac bag. I'm hoping to have it almost ready for felting by tomorrow nights guild meeting.






Paisley , Valerie and I had a lovely visit to see Samantha and Lily and Owen. The kids hit it off, and Miss P said she would like to visit Widdy again soon! My only regret is we both forgot out cameras. We also helped Vicki with her entrelac bag so she is off and running now. I hope to see alot of progress on it by tommorrow.

Three Days Left!

Three Days Left!!!!!


Haven't had to much time to post. Between delivering a ton of mail for the last two weeks, finishing up shopping, and figuring in some baking, I haven't had very much knit time. We just finished our fifth and final birthday today, "Happy Birthday MOM", and now we have 3 days left to Christmas!!!!!
We did manage to get the tree up and decorated on Sunday, (Husband's Birthday).







I did manage to finish the pink kitty hat and mitts for Jennifer which she will receive on Boxing Day.









Poor raglan hoodie will not be done on time with one sleeve, the hood and the button bands to do time is slipping away.







My entrelac bag is suffering. I hear it calling "finish me, finish me!". But I have been contacted by another guild member and I think there maybe a small mistake in the pattern on row 1 of the top triangles. I'll have to let Julie know before the pattern is printed.





And from the sounds of the weatherman we may have rain for Christmas. So we will enjoy this snow for now till the next deep freeze.






I'm off to finish up baking and wrapping a few last gifts.

Merry Christmas to all. HOHOHOHO

Weekend Gone Awry!!

Over the years my daughter has shown a slight interest in knitting. Mostly which sweaters she likes and how fast can my mommy knit it for me. Lately though, with all the new novelty and fancy yarns she has shown some promise of a becoming an avid knitter. She has made some scarves, a felted hat and felted bag, and some Debbie Bliss toys for gifts. Thursday evening we went to the mall to get her birthday gift and some how ended up in the Dollar store. Do you know they have yarn at the dollar store? So after $5, which I thought was well spent, I started to knit but just couldn't bring myself to go farther than one inch. I handed the reins over to her and this is how our evening ended.

Thank goodness he's a good natured cat!!!

After she went back to Toronto on Friday I had the perfect weekend planned. Nothing but lots of knitting. Saturday was minus 1 degree, a light snow falling, maybe a couple of good movies. I figured I could get two kitty-cat hats and 2 sets of mittens done. Then maybe I would try Julie's Mist scarf with some lovely fuschia angora I bought 2 years ago at the Knitters Fair in Kitchener.

Guess who showed up for a visit? Gramma's little angel.
The kitty-cat hat fit perfect, and we did get the mitts done late last night after she went to bed.
She went home this afternoon, after a morning visit to her great-gramma's and grocery shopping. So much for my quiet week-end of knitting.
Tonight I will start the other hat and mitts and then maybe by next week-end the scarf.


Tuesday night is our guild meeting and we get to work on our felted entrelac bags finally. After that it might just finish it before the next meeting.

Santa Parade

It was a lovely day in Southern Ontario this weekend. Saturday was our annual Smithville Santa Claus parade. This was the first one I have been to and it was also Paisley's first one ever.
I didn't hold out to much hope for her, I figured she wouldn't understand or even be interested, but boy was I wrong. The weather was perfect it had snowed all morning but by the time the parade started at 2pm it had stopped and was quite mild. What a pretty scene. It was quite a parade for a small town and Paisley enjoyed the whole thing. Her favorite was the marching bands and after they passed she kept asking for more drums. It was so cute watching her waving to Santa, I really didn't think she would understand, when she saw him I heard her say HOHOHO. The only sad part was I forgot my camera!!!

So as you can see after a long day of HOHOHO it was time for bed!

Now for knitting! I found this pattern on Knitty.com for fingerless gloves with a mitten flap made with sock yarn. Seeing as I have a stash of sock yarn I thought I would give them a try and voila! They only took me a week to finish (inbetween working and doing a little Christmas shopping) and didn't even use the whole 100g ball. Now my hands will look just as good as my feet. You can find the pattern at:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/PATTbroadstreet.html

Tonight I have to start a new kitty cat hat for Paisley because she has already grown out of last years and another one for 5 year old Jennifer, our new niece who joined our family this summer. It has been a family tradition that all the girls must have one.

Best November Days!

1. Paisley came for a visit wearing her top down sweater and I decided to wear my leaf cable from the book Hot Knits made with Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere. The weather was still warm enough that we didn't need our jackets.
   
   I'm still plugging away on her raglan hoodie, trying to write the instructions as I go. The body will be one piece and the sleeves separate and I haven't quite decided how I want to do the hood.
   
   I did manage to make a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend at work. These gloves are a lettercarriers dream. I still have to make a pair for myself . I still had some Patons Classic leftover from a sweater I made for my husband a couple of years ago thus reducing my stash just by a little. The pattern has the mitten flap too but she didn't want that, so they only took me a couple of nights to finish. I prefer to wear a pair of dollar gloves under them just to keep the chill off the fingertips and you can still flip through the mail bundles.
   
   During the summer I went through all my magazines and my daughter helped me catalog all the ones that I really want to make. So now my quest is to start using up the yarn I have bought ( with no sweater in mind) and knit those sweaters. I know this will not be an easy thing to do but a girl has to do what a girl has to do. I'll just have to tell my husband he will have to a little bit more cooking and cleaning till my quest is done. (LOL)
   Happy Knitting!

I've Been Tagged

Looks like I got tagged too!

What is your all time favourite yarn to knit with?
I have had the opportunity to knit with alot of yarns thanks to Julie and the Needle Emporium, but I think right now my favorite would be Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino. Can't wait to try her other yarns.

Your favourite needles?
My favorite needle are of course the addi turbos, circular ones of course, but not one that has been stepped on. They have a flat spot!!!!!

The worst thing I ever knit?
I remember knitting some mohair sweaters back in the late eighties or early nineties. It seemed that everyone that came into The Needle Emporium wanted one. I recall making about 12 or 14 in every colour available. It got so I didn't need to look at the pattern anymore and could finish one in four days!

Your most favourite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it...but it was the most fun to knit)
Again there have been too many to even list over the past 25 years. Right now I'm enjoying knitting any of the Cabin Fever childrens sweaters for my granddaughter and I love Debbie Bliss and
Jo Sharp. They're patterns are classics.

Most valuable knitting technique?
I'm with Julie. Since I learned the mattress stitch it has changed my life. I also like the 3-needle bind off.

Best knit book or magazine?
I love my Interweave Knits and Knitters magazines (although I was not too impressed with the fall issues this year). And right now Sally Melville's new book Colours Book 3 is fantastic.

Your favourite knit-a-long?
Don't have one.

Your favourite knitblogs?
That is still a work in progress. You'll have to check later.

Your favourite knitwear designer?
That would of course be Debbie Bliss, Jo Sharp, and Alice Starmore.

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)
That would be a cardigan from Cabin Fever, Summer Braids. It's made with Patons Weekender but I plan on making another with Super 10 Cotton. Already have the yarn, a gorgeous shade of blue.



I finally finished my Debbie Bliss Weekend Sweater, made with Cashmerino Aran. I wore it the the guild meeting last night and everyone was touching me!!!

Paisley's Poncho

Since I still haven't finished my current project I thought I would share Paisley and her poncho. She loved it and and of course Mr. Tibbs had to get in on the action too.

I am hoping to get my Debbie Bliss pullover done this week-end ( only 2" left on the collar).






And in keeping with the holiday season, last year Paisley got a pumkin hat because she was too small to Trick or Treat. But guess who got in on the action.
Yep that's my Russell !

And our greatly missed Kobi.

They made better models than the 2 year old did.