Completed

Well, the stocking went well. I have been given rave reviews and lavish praise, which is great for my ego, but honestly I am just glad that my sister liked it. My niece won't care for a few years yet.

I guess I just want what all aunties and knitters who create things for children want. To create something that a child feels is special. Maybe they drag the blanket you knit around forever, or maybe the toy you make is the one that makes car rides go smoothly. To knit comfort into an object. In a way I have jumped that hurdle with this project and again in the new year when I knit the matching one for my nephew. It's a Christmas stocking, you only get one, and you know what it means when every year it gets pulled out of the decoration box. On that thought, I guess I should give her something to keep critters away. I would hate to see it ruined by little moth mouths.

A note on the pattern. The toe notes I found on ravelry I mentioned last post, but I didn't see any notes on the finishing method. This pattern calls for a turnover row and hem edge. Not a problem, except it wants you to continue in the box colours so there is a bit of a scalloped effect if you are not careful (I thought I was, but apparently not enough) and it asks that you fold it inside and tack down the live stitches. Not really possible using DPN's. So I turned the stocking out and tacked down the stitches that way. I felt that this was a good solution to the finishing, but that tacking down live stitches left a bit of waver in the end result...... so I may try to cast off then tack next time, that way I can pin it into position and hopefully eliminate any bunching.

 I don't think the scalloping of the edge is really any worry, at least not for me, I like it. If I hadn't told you it was an oops, the only way to know would be to find other projects. Any how, to finish it off before I gave it away, I rolled up a towel, stuffed it inside and gave it a good steaming with my iron. Worked like a charm. Hope your Christmas projects turned out well. I will have more next post. Happy New Year!

Busy Weekend

What a great weekend. I don't think I really got much rest in. Rest will be for the week. LMAO. I amuse myself  some days.

Yesterday was a Yarn Crawl to check in on shops that had signed up but didn't have flyers or signup sheets for the Yarn Harvest event next month. It was great! We hit 6 shops, and we could easily have done at least one more, but we started a bit late. This wasn't go in say hi and leave either....... there was shopping. We browsed in each store, chatted to staff or customers. This crawl is going to be fantastic! Want to see the goodies?

 I would love to show you but Blogger isn't letting me. That's no fair. I wanted to show off the Organic fair trade laceweight cotton, the Fleece Artist Nyoni, the purple blend Kauni, and the Blue baby alpalca laceweight too!

I also planned on showing off the beautiful peaches that I spent most of this afternoon-evening canning. They are beautiful, and will be yummy! Sad really, it's not often that I have image issues. I wonder why.
Well... anyway have a great evening and week. If you are not familiar with the Yarn Harvest yarn crawl that I am organizing and you want to know I will shamelessly plug it, or answer you if you let me know you want info. I thik I will be going to be and dreaming of what to do with my lovely yarns..... yay!

World Wide Knit In Public Day

I was at 88 Stitches yesterday for the first of the WWKIP days. It was a great day to be outside. Beautiful weather, not too hot, lots of sun, perfect. There was a great group that and our lovley hostesses had coffee, snacks and cookies. Thanks so much gals! I had a great time, and made some good progress on my Ox Blood sweater.... and then I had a yarn issue so I had to switch to my Essential Cardigan sleeves, until I could get home to check out the dye lots.
I had started a new ball, and the red was a bit different.... oops. Thankfully, I did a check at home and it was only the one that was a different dye lot. Whew! So ripped the odd one out and started a new ball again.


I did post up on the main WWKip website a Langley gathering for next week. The Tuesday group had been talking about paralelling it with the Langley Community Day, as we did last year. Last year was a fluke, but this year, it's a plan! LOL Check out the site for directions and details.


Bring whatever you want to work on, not knit exclusive. Hope the weather will be just as good as this weekend was. Hopefully I will be alot farther on my sweater.

I have some Fo's

Really I have a finished object or two kicking around. It is not just a rumor that I have been perpetuating.

The Blue Sedum I have mentioned is complete... and a button shopping expidition may be called for. I agree Aesderina. So no more new pics of that.... I will wait for buttons.

I did also complete some fantastic Mittens! My Canadian Pride Mittens by Vicky Taylor-Hood. I can't link to a site other than Ravelry, my apoligies if you are not on it. The pattern is available  free through Ravelry if you want to make them yours. She calls them  O Canada Mittens I love them... the pattern is easy, and it added a new skill to my repitoir. The braided edging. A technique that I have already put to use on a new mitten project. This I think will kick off my year of mittens... not that I will be knitting 52 pairs or anything, but I have many patterns that I want to make and they are small and portable.... just like socks, but intresting in a different way. Anyway more mittens are coming but first let me show these off.

Yes there is a dog foot in the shot... he really wanted to know what was up.
Back to the mittens, as I have small hands I used the modification provided, and went to town. They are lovely, and just in time for spring!
I used Patons Classic Wool....  about half a ball of each colour. So, affordable, quick and warm... go knit a pair! LOL

So currently on the needles I am in sleeve purgatory. The Ox Blood pattern knits the yoke to the sleeves and then you knit the sleeves before continuing with the body. Very cool, so I went with it. So, one project working on sleeves.

The second is the Iron ore sweater.... waiting to be steeked at the arms so I can begin sleeves. Since I am trying a new steek reinforcement I am not sure if it is the not wanting to cut or not wanting to knit sleeves.....

Last but not least I began the Essential Cardigan from the latest Interweave Knits. The Tangled Yoke wasn't working fot me and The stars aligned.... so I cast on and decided that I really should get the sleeves out tof the way if they are something that I really don't like knitting...... riiiight.

I do have the pair of mittens that I mentioned, but I began them once and they were huge, so I ripped them out and have started again, so Ihave no reall progress to show you. Two pairs of socks, one of the circular needles I do majic loop with snapped off in a filing cabinet accident and I am sharing the needle for both pairs. The Coastal Swallowtail is also still on the needles, but i just took a refresher on the beads and I think that after this post is done I will sit with it on my bed and make some progress. I think that's it for my current projects. I guess I just really want to be knitting new things..... spring startitis. I can say proudly that all objects are using yarn from my stash! I love my stash..... and I have so many thoughts on what to knit next. More on that in another post. Enjoy your weekend. Knit on, create more, make art!

Loooong weekend....

Happy Victoria Day!

Hope you are all getting some fun in the sun with family and BBQ's and stuff like that.
I will direct you to a cool contest I was made aware of....
Jane Richmond is planning on giving away her entire pattern collection to one lucky winner June 10th.
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. Sweet deal.

You may remember that her Mustard Scarf is pretty popular I made a few at Chistmas as gifts....

Great quick gift knit! Actually recently I finished her sweater Sedum too......

No seriously... It's finished. I just need to find better buttons.... the ones that I have don't really work.... hmmmmm, I may have some in my button stash though. More on that later.

Anyway, go enter the contest and then get back to sunshine, wine, ice cream, knitting, woodworking, or whatever you were up to! I will have some FO information next post. I have seen some of the other FO's out there.... it makes me want to knit more! LOL Too bad I have to work!

Here are some neat things....

As I mentioned I was spoiled in our group gift swap.
Here is the proof. First a fantastic hand quilted Bodum cover. The fabric is devine and she did swirls for me! I love swirls.... lol They came with 5 matching cup cozies... for travel mugs and home cups. They are just as pretty!

Next up is.... my amazing baby ice dragon. Isn't he amazing. He is about the same size as the Bodum.... and at the moment he is nestled  in a nook in my book case with some lovely yarns... to keep him safe from the live furries that I have in my home. Sam took one look and then folowed me around the house trying to talk (imploring eyes ) me into giving up the stuffie.... No way. Mine! This picture doesn't do him justice, his tummy is sparkly white and his tail is fantastic! I will have to sneak him into the sunshine and take some better pictures... without the dog noticing! LOL

He hasn't been named yet... nothing has been apropriate, I will let you know when I do.

This all came in a fantastic black and white project stand/ basket, with a copy of Jane Austen's collected works, chocolates, cookies and really cool teas. I think it was the best gift! She knows me well!

Thanks very, very much to my gift giver..... Dragon Rhapsody

Amazing stuff gal! Pop by her blog and see her pics of it... he is super cute in her picture!
(The baby and the dragon!)  ;)

Hello... how are you?

Hi there! Busy long weekend in the works? Not for me.
At least, I hope note.
So far this morning I was at 88 Stitches for a nice sit and stitch with the owner and a pal of mine. Lovely muffins and coffee on a blustery day.
Then on my way home I stopped in at a favorite nursery for potting soil and two new house plants.
Now I am blocking shawls, blogging and spending sometime getting back on line. I seem to be exhausted when I get home from work lately, so I avoid the computer altogether ..... but hey, What can I say. I really want to see what everyone is up to so I really can't stay away. LOL

So news. Fibres West was a great day last Saturday. Jane has a great little synopsis on her blog ... go check it out. There was a great vendors area, althought no presentations that we wanted to see while we were there. Lots of local yarnies, and some great hand-dyers.
We saw some friends grabbed some lunch and spent some money. I wish I had planned a little better, last year I had notes on the patterns I was intrestd in and the yardage i would need..... not so much this year. I was just happy to have some time out with the gal pals.

The Three purchases.
One: Soak Unleashed I was out of wool wash, and this was at a booth, YAY!

Two: Sweet Georgia's Silk Crush Sock Yarn ..... yummmy. The color is named "Saltwater" and this photo does not do it justice. It is beautifully deep and a lighter shade of blue. Not softer, just lighter, if that makes sense.

Three: Licorice twist from Unwind Yarns, which I have been stalking for a year. I wished that I had bought it last year and so this year I found it and took it home.

I was wearing my completed Central Park Hoodie! YAY  I finally finished it. I love wearing it! It Is so warm and comfy, so I am considering making a second ..... we shall see.

I have started a new sweater and I am not really  along enough to show it off, so I will save that for another day. In short it's a design by my friend Jane, mentoned above, called Sedum. I did have much in my stash that would work for it, so I was doing some swatching, and  finally settled on a yarn that I already own. That makes the process way easier, so I started, and I am almost to the arms which makes it just a strip of knitting at the moment. As I said pictures when it is a little farther along.

Hope you are well and getting up to something that intrests you. I look forward to reading about it. I think my next post will be about something neat to get up to on rainy days......