Wow!

Somebody loves me!!!!!!!

Thanks Fleegle so much, I love you too, you have one of the most witty blogs around, and while I may well be away for a long stretch of time, I do always come and check a few blogs, and always those blogs, Fleegle has already named most of those on her list of who the award goes to, so I feel I should add 4 more, which is of course part of what I must do when I blog about this most prestigous of awards.


1. Post this award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 4 other bloggers, and add their links as well.
4. leave a comment at the new recipients' blogs, so they can pass it on.

So, sorting through Fleegles list to whittle out the ones that aren't on my side bar is a hard job.

Wannietta isn't though, so she gets one, I love Wannietta, she does the most amazing work, and very fast too, so does Cynthia she is an amazing woman who I am sure is waiting patiently for me to send her a package, I haven't forgotten Cynthia! And I also have one not on my sidebar but I do read all the time too, Kathleen, she is also in the same town as me, her birthday is 2 days before mine and she has a daughter named Elizabeth too, plus she knits an awful lot, including some crazy double knitting that would have had me cursing. And of course the lovely Jean Miles all the way in Scotland, my only non Canuck on the list. I could go on and on, there so many fabo bloggers.

The Mystery shawl

The knit along is going great, with a fantastic group that are well behaved, polite and doing well knitting along, all seems to be well, I am starting to hear eerie music playing in my ears, nothing should be this easy should it!

Well, one more clue to post, then all will be done and I can get back to normal, I guess that would be ignoring the fact that I have a blog, and knitting erratically.

Quite the opposite has been true though during the KAL, I have knit on two things, a spice caravan robe, which is almost finished, and my own, yet another of the Mystery shawl.

Pictures should be coming soon, I know I keep promising, but life has a terrible way of interrupting my thought train. I have loved knitting the Robe, and am already thinking of other colourways to knit it in. That will have to wait though as I have another design on the needles, it just popped up in the past week, so I have been test running it today, and I quite like it, so will see where it goes. So I guess I have 3 things on the needles right now, OK, two are almost finished though.

The girls have been knitting today, both of them, I almost fell over. Katherine can really knit now, and Elizabeth is venturing in the realm of YO's and decreases. A proud moment for Mommy.

The weather has been a bit sucky this summer, either scorching hot or threatening rain clouds and thunder storms. I really dislike settling down on the deck to knit, only to have to run indoors again 5 minutes later burdened down by knitting, cups and other stuff that finds its way out so quickly.

Summer is nowhere near done, yet already I am planning September. I have been asked if I would like to work at my local yarn store, seems like a bit of a silly question to me! Anyway, it obviously isn't a silly question as the owner June, doesn't know my plans. SO I think I will be going to work there soon. COOL!
June is super nice too, I think she is just really lovely, and I can't wait to talk things through with her, should be fun.....

K

Urmm, am I stupid!?!?!?!?

Last Friday, the first day of the school holidays, I was sat on my deck, knowing, deeply that something was missing in my life, something that had happened in previous years, like a tradition, on this first day of the holidays. It was later that day I realized it was knitting, knitting the Mystery stole KAL. It isn't happening this year until August, Melanie has passed along the torch to her Mom this year so that she may have some time with her child this summer, fair do's!

That's all fine and well but what about me?
I feel like a chunk of life is missing, like I don't have enough going on in my life.

Just shoot me now.
I just started a group, on yahoo, for a mystery KAL.
It's lace, it's a shawl, it's triangular, and it's my own design, go ahead join if you think I might have a decent design in me.

Mystery KAL

Let's hope it's not me, myself and I in there.
It will start next Friday, the 11th, and the last clue will be posted on the first of August, in time for the start of the stole KAL that Melanie's mom will host this year.

Hellooo....

I swear I heard an echo.
I have been gone way too long, I know, but have been thinking of blogging for ages now, surely that counts for something.
I have been knitting, lot's actually, and I will be back in a day or two to actually show off some of it.
For now though, I think the fact that I actually managed to write something here is a step in the right direction.

See you soon.

K

Guess what happens

When you forget to starch!

Well, simply put, nothing. I did block, I have proof, but at unpinning time I should have listened to the little voice in my head saying somethings not right here.




I finished the other doily too!



These really are lovely things, I have to block them soon as they are going into a display for the month of February at the local library.

Man, Soo just puts me to shame. I started the Forest path stole when? I don't know, like 50 million years ago. She started hers within recent history, and is almost done! Go check it out, it's stunning, and also the same yarn and colour that I used for the next item of comment.

I finally finished a shawl too, and I am desperate to show it off, it is the third and final version hopefully of a design of mine own! Not an intricate lace, quite basic lace actually, but still it was a challenge for me to think about the knitting rather than just blindly follow a pattern like I have basically all of my knitting life. No pictures today though, I want to get some good pictures first, and they all need blocking.

Designing is addictive. I have this one finished now, and another pattern on the needles now, another one all worked out, and ideas for about 10 more. One I am really stuck on though, and it's bothering me, I can't quite figure out which way is up with the bloody thing. I think I get a good idea about it then shoot it down almost immediately. It may have to wait awhile. I have way too many things that need finishing.

It's strange to blog twice in such a short period of time! Not much has happened, so I feel like I don't have much of anything to say!

Coming to terms with

I think it's fair to say that the more I don't blog, the less I want to. I had to come to terms with having not blogged in over a month, with 155 pictures on the camera to wade through, with a number of other things, all before I could get to this, a post finally after a month and 13 days!

Yikes.

Well lets cover some ground then. Happy Christmas/holidays, happy new year, gosh, if I had left it much longer I would have been wishing you many happy snogs on Valentine's day.






Bad news out of the way first I guess. I failed one of my courses, the one I feared I would fail, so it wasn't too hard to absorb, and I got right back onto that horse, enrolling right back into the course.

Both of our Guinea Pigs died in the hiatus too, one just two weeks ago. We are now down to our last small animal Woody the Hamster who turns 4 this month we think. He may be blind and deaf, almost bald and quite jumpy, but is leading a very happy life from what I can tell.

Well, I got some neat stuff for Christmas. I ordered the new Cat Bhordi book for myself for Christmas, I ordered late, and was sure it wasn't going to get to me for the holiday, especially when Friday rolled around and no book in the mail. Strangely enough my sister in law saw the mail van at the door on the Sunday, and almost came over to investigate. It was my book! Who knew they delivered on Sunday. Perhaps the Canadian postal service would be more efficient if they worked week round delivering.
I started a pair of socks already, they are sweet, and being knit in my own hand dyed yarn. The yarn is from Sheldridge farms. Really nice soft yarn.



I did of course start the second at the same time, no second sock syndrome here.




I also bought a Burda magazine on Ebay. No work done there yet. I have this linen thread all lined up to do the cover picture, although I have done a lot of Red work recently so I am leaning more towards a mid/deep blue in the same linen thread it's a 16/1. I didn't get any translation sheets with the Burda so have some Babel fishing to do, if that fails to enlighten I have a German friend I may ask for some assistance .




A while ago dear sweet Jane sent me a package that was absolutely bang on the money made for me! Such superb stuff in it I had to stifle the tears.

Amongst all the stuff was a brilliant lace magazine, an Italian publication that is jam packed with great lace patterns, big and small. If I can grasp what it says on the cover, over 60 items. The Lacis bag Jane sent was promptly put into action, and the other items, a Bone magnifying glass and needle case are hidden from childrens paws, I can't honestly say I use them yet, maybe when I know I don't have to worry about the brats fingers grabbing them all the time.
Jane is so lucky living so close to Lacis!






I have already knit up one doily, and am working on a second. Many more are definitely on my to do list. Lots of blocking coming up in my future. The one I am working on right now is the top one on the second photo here.








I did a lot of weaving leading up to Christmas, two table runners and three scarves. I got to try a few new patterns, and one new yarn I was dying to try. The Silk garden lite yarn, it's really nice, and weaves up like a dream.




One runner was for my Mom, she loves it, and says the colour is spot on.





I have been trying new things again, tatting was top of the list as I keep trying and keep failing, many pathetic attempts later I was frustrated. So I set aside time to work on it. Work I did. I decided on heavier yarn than I tried before, this helped me to be able to pick back if needed, and I needed that quite a lot as it turns out.

This is project 1



Not yet finished

This is project 2



A Celtic bookmark

Almost finished.

I almost started project 3 last night, but managed to stop myself in time when I looked at my knitting basket. I don't want to go into multiple projects with this.

I also tried Chain Maille too, this has called me since I saw a Post on Wannietta's blog over two years ago when she tried it at the Creative needlework show.

I have done one bracelet for myself, since it was my first attempt I used stainless steel, mistake number one. I am allergic to nickel, so now it just lies around. I ordered some brass rings online and have done some more work with that, here is a little bracelet I made for Katherine.



I will leave you with a picture of just some of the snow we have had so far this season. This is my Brother in laws race car.

A disappearing trick

Well for a few days at least anyway, Exam time again.
These feel really important this time. I will be half way through this course if I pass all this term. I think there is still lots more to do after those, but right now, half way. It will be good, and I think I really have to screw up the final to fail.

Lots of knitting and weaving going on.
Christmas stuff mainly.

1 table runner for mom, second on loom went to guild shop.
3 woven scarfs, one for Sisters chap.
2 headbands one for niece other for Katherine
1 scarf for sister, the fiddlesticks florence, almost finished, although I have now missed the deadline for guarenteed delivery to Britain for Christmas.
Hat and mitts for Elizabeth, mitts done, hat, all the yarn is spun up, and hat is about 33%


Buying, lots, heehee, of course. I tried the silk garden light in a woven scarf with a black weft and it came out awesome.
I finally got me a cone of colourmart cashmere/silk, yes I was a colourmart virgin. Feels good to have passed that now, boy, great service and a wonderful product.
I bought an ebay item, a Burda magazine, that should be here soon.
One of the nicest things though has been a skein of Naturally one ply angora wool, I made two headbands from it, and it is divine, I see lots more of it in my future.

Hopefully I can insert some photo's soon, but my mind is all a tiz with studying, and trying to sort out photo's right now is not appealing to me.

So I will be back after Thursday with piccies.

K

Back at it.

After the brief hiatus from knitting last week, I got right back on that horse and started finishing things again.

Veil of Isis is finished, and stunning. I was going to go for an extra repeat and make it bigger, but decided to see how the 5 repeats would work out. I blocked her, and she is a bit small, but I think I could block her a bit more, but then the shawl will be very fine, hopefully I can find a nice balance.
This was a great knit, and I reckon I may well knit this again, Andea the designer is very talented.









Also finished is the Whisper scarf. Katherine likes to get in on all the photos opportunities.





I am very close to finishing a weaving project that has been on loom way too long. A table runner for my mother, and a spare to go for sale in the guild shop.

The guild is making progress finally with a website, which we have, but there hasn't been any activity on it for a long time. Hopefully we can get things running smoothly soon, and talk of a spinners blog for the guild has come up, it could be interesting.

Not sure how much actual knitting I can do today, my arms are killing me after playing a little to forcefully (maybe thats excitedly) on a thing that the girls are getting for Christmas, I had to test it out....... It's great fun, and I think I will enjoy it as much as the kids will, maybe even more, I already have tons of items picked out to go with it.


I ran into a fellow raveller in my LYS two weeks ago, things are getting weird here, she is also Kathleen, her one of her two daughters is Elizabeth, and her birthday is two days before mine. There is another Raveller from our town that has a birthday right in between me and Kathleen.


Ron is progressing on the log cabin pretty quickly, the roof is almost complete, and he plans to have the wood stove in this weekend.
I drove out there last week, it's pretty amazing what he has done.






So of course I get motivated each weekend to work on the braided rug, I gotta tell you, this thing could be addictive, it's beautiful in a way I had never appreciated before, and the possibilities are endless. While I can't see me ever actually making any of the cords needed for the braiding as it is sewing, if I were ever come across another great stash of the wool again, I would snatch it up. The rug itself is stunning, a lovely rug to stand on too.
My actual braiding and joining may well be far from perfect, and I fear will need some resewing pretty quickly, but the rug hides a lot of my flaws.

I don't know what happened.

None of the pictures are enlarging on my last post, I am unsure what happened.

I will try again.



See now that one worked.
I see now what I did, dingbat, it must have been a fevered mind I was working on.




Sickness has passed through our house, and I think we are all back up on our feet again today, although it was a very rough few days, and the knitting needles are stone cold.

This blog post by Kate made my heart sink. There are a few of us around here that have that very fear I think, and this is the main reason I decided not to go with the one ply silk for the WRS.

All that said though, my heart breaks for Kate, how painful that must have been to see. I lost a stitch on Princess way back in the beginning, it was almost the undoing of the whole thing, yeah, even with all the yarn, needle angst. I dropped a stitch on the border, and such as mercerized cotton does, it ran like you wouldn't have believed, it was at ten rows down before I caught it. But the damage was done, and it lost all sorts of other little slipped stitches and YO's

So ten times 800+ stitches, in a yarn you hate at this moment in time, on needles that have given you nothing but heartburn, on a shawl you are quickly coming to loath, hmm, rip or tink, big question huh, I don't think I would have been too torn up if the ripping had gone awry.

I did of course rip, not thinking that if one errant stitch can go so bad then the potential for 800 or more was really, really disaster in the making.
However we do know that the story did indeed end well, so the ripping wasn't such a bad judgment call on my part.

Kate's story though has reminded me of something though
My brain needs a few good nudges this past week.

I took the Forest path stole out of it's little bag last week, and was set to start again, and there is was, three broken strands in the yarn two blocks back. Now, this isn't a major issue on the Forest stole, not a biggie at all. But WTF!!!

It's been in a bag, all along, waiting, doing nothing.......

So I ripped, and redid.
Then I got sick, so it went back to it's dark place again. I don't want to knit those blocks any more times than is necessary, so I think I will knit on her again today, just to be sure that all is well.


Anyway, back to the point, where are all these broken threads coming from???
I am utterly stumped. I had two skeins of laceweight do this, like cuts not animal bites, one skein was particularly bad, and now I remember way back, about 4 years, another skein.

The breaks on Forest path were all in a line, three rows, stacked ontop of each other.

I am clearly doing something to cause this, but when I don't touch something for months on end, and it's in a zippy bag, with no holes in it. HOW????

Anyway, final comment for a rambling mind, I received a package the day I was flat on my back completely unable to move, it sat on my bed for a while, Katherine put it there I think, then someone moved it, it got moved a few times, and was finally opened a day later. I knew it was yarn in there, and there was no desire at all to open the box, I think at that moment I should have asked someone to call the coroner, just to see if I was indeed dead.

So I've been busy!

Is that really an excuse not to post finished Princess pictures?

Ok, so we had a crazy week or so with the MIL in hospital, that definitely qualifies as a valid excuse.
The rest of my excuse basically boils down to FO'S.

And while I have been busily knitting on other things too, this is about the FO's as it shows some actual achievement.

Pants for little David.
A pattern from knitty, Blu, that I was dying to use up the last of my denim yarn on, but even these didn't extend to the last ball, so I have a solitary ball of denim now, waiting patiently to get used up in some cute little project.



They clearly need a little finishing.

As does this, the whisper scarf one.



Upon finishing that I quickly started a new one.
The florence scarf also from Fiddlesticks.
I am using Malabrigo baby merino lace, which is stunning, I fell in love at first touch.



Clearly a bad picture, and to be honest I am not loving knitting this thing already, I had planned to send to Sis for Christmas, but I seriously doubt it will be finished.


I did finally block the Faroese shawl, but bad pictures persist, I will try again later.



I finally finished the mitts for Elizabeth, my handspun from Bluefaced Leicester I got at Etsy. The plan is a hat too.




Noro is nearing completion, I have two more rows of squares ready to be sewn on.



This blankie is going out to the log cabin that Ron is building on our Bush property out in Mosport, Clarington, that is also nearing completion so I will for sure post piccies when that is done.

Also, as part of a guild group we have been braiding rugs, here is mine so far, there is a little bit of bump in it, that I keep thinking I should fix now before I get any further, but I keep going and regretting that move with each bit I sew up.



This is also going to the cabin.


Princess is clearly determined to be a rather prickly thorn in my side forever.
It needs blocking again, that's for sure, less length more height is needed.
And clearly asking a person half your height and well over 1/6th your age to try to take picture's is not the wisest of things to do. Due to darkening days I ran out of people of a decent stature to take daylight pictures outside, and resorted to the shrimp doing the photog's for me. Clearly this is one of my dafter moments.

The end result of half pint taking pictures while trying to balance precariously on a tiny chair is me resembling the Hunchback, and Princess not exactly having her finest of hours, although the poor thing has seen worse.







Good old coathangers.





Clearly lacking considerable brain power today too. I almost forgot to add some blocking pictures.













On spinning, I have almost completed the classes I am taking, and loving it so much, we had a great week two weeks ago with a lot of light bulb moments on everybody's part.

So much sampling, trying out new techniques, great fun, odd results.



Our spinning instructor is having us come up with a final project for our last class on friday, I have of course gone with laceweight. Using the new skills I have acquired, I am washing some beautiful corriedale fleece I got earlier in the year. Flick carding, always preserving the lock, so that I can do a worsted prep and worsted spin.

Not going to badly I think.



And finally, some mohair I received from a guild member, that wasn't in the best of shape, the mohair had been washed once by the person selling it, and clearly needed another wash, which I tried, then let it get bone dry, and tried Laritza's dryer method to remove some of the debris.

It came out good enough that I now want to play with it. I didn't want to screw up the entire lot, so just did half.

Princess is finally finished

Can you believe it!!!

So long in the making, and finally off the needles. A big hole in the knitting basket eagerly awaits a new project.



Finished and unwashed





Lightly pinned out on a 6 by 4 mat.




Edging detail




Even on a 4 X 6 mat it has plenty of give.

Clearly my mental math trying to figure out how many blocks I need to block was way off, so I will be buying more today, then maybe get it blocked out properly tonight.

She still needs another good long soak, all the greying hasn't gone yet, it may be a boil that cleans it all up, thank goodness I used cotton.

I still can't quite get my head around her being finished.

And yet, I have so many more things going on I barely stopped.....

Princess, completed, October 27th 2007, will she lie in peace now for a good number of years?

No way, she will be dragged out for everybody to meet.