And on to more interesting stuff

A few days ago, I talked about how I had a life and other interests and how I should probably post more about the rest of life. It seems I lied. I have no life beyond things on needles.

So here are a few signs of other life. To be absolutely truthful, you'll see a lot of weeds. Life is like that.

Glorious flowers surrounded by a weed here and there.

On needles, I lost a whole row while commuting today. My hands were sluggish, and when I moved to shift needles, I dropped all that I had just worked. I managed to get them back on a needles, but I'm going to have to re-orient the whole row before I can continue. The second of the lace socks is about 10 rows from the heel. I hope to be well past that before I go to sleep tonite.

Mr needles is seriously excited. He hunts. He has had critters at the taxidermist since forever, and they are now complete. We pick them up today. This means I get the next big purchase, and I'm thinking I might just have to invest in some serious wool. Or maybe I should take up spinning. And then there is that serger I've wanted. And I could would sure be interested in a better quality knitting machine... See what I mean.

In which the blogger learns Html

Bwhahahahahah

and more bwhahahahahahahah

Just call me dr evil

More socks?

I am working on that lace project, but casting on is not my favourite part of any project, and this yarn, delicate and light, is so fine that it's a real challenge. Swatching shows it gets better, but I might crochet the first rows to establish a nice neat base and then knit. I'm such a novice, but I really want this to turn out well. sigh

Anyhow, there is a sale at Redbird Knits. They have Meilenweit Cotton Fun on sale. I've worked up a pair of socks with this yarn in crochet, colourway 502. Wonderful socks.

And they have this. And this. You see my problem. Sigh. I understand stash. I know stash. I have an Irish linen and other linen stash that I have owned through 3 moves. (You try hiding stash from your significant other while moving) I have yarn for afghans that is ripe and is having yarnlets in the cupboards. I have skeins of crochet cotton that is older than my youngest sister. I am well acquainted to its joys and its evils.

Sock yarn is taking me over the edge. My work bag can't contain much more and remain an effective work bag. I need more sock yarn because...well, you know. Socks are a really great project when you travel. Sock yarn would make great scarves and fine toques.

I'm not doing a really good job of rationalising my desires to purchase this sale yarn, am I? How about I'm having trouble finding it locally?

After working with Blue Moon Socks That Rock yarn, I also find myself straying to their website wondering how I can rationalise something, anything made out of their beautiful colours.

Who knew knitting would do this to me? Its sort of like linen. Don't ask me to explain. Its just too much for one day.

Housekeeping

I'm often asked how I get so much done. Part of it is how, part is why. Its all about layers. It developed as a coping mechanism in a very small house in some days that might otherwise have been dark.

Very early in our married lives, the Mr needles parents moved to a new house in town. To cut the overall farm costs, we sold our mobile home, and moved to the farm. Its didn't looks so forlorn in those days as it does now that its been empty 10 years. 720 spacious square feet, with an 8 x 10 porch, 5 rooms, 5 windows. Mr. needles had to work off the farm to keep the farm going in the high interest rates of the early 80's. He would be gone for 2 weeks at a time leaving me with 2 and then 3 wee boys. If I did something almost every moment, then I could not think about being alone in the house with the kids 24 hours a day with no adult talk for days at a time, and no money to do anything about it.

I learned that space and time were one, and full. You had a plan for every disaster and you hunkered down, made do, made it up, to find a way. Its connected to the weather and entirely tied to what nature might or might not toss out today. Its very much my farming roots. You get by. You cope. Period.

The easy way to look at it is that I do things in layers. Layers of things, multiples, like a pile of good books, with so many stories sitting there happening on each page all at once. I used to bake buns, do laundry and do needlework in the steps in between. Or read to the kids, nurse a babe, while crocheting. About the only thing I do without needlework in between is cleaning the house. That is an intensive pick up/put away/sanitise operation. In that house, it took an hour. These days I'm looking at granny squares to do while I treadmill, while watching movies.

Needles and strings are very often where I start my day, and where I end my day. There is always a needle of some sort right there to pick up for a stitch or two or ten. Just as every room has some books, and most often a shelf, every room has a form of needlework, and some rooms, 2 or3. I walk by, I do a stitch or 2. I talk on the phone, I work. There are always those moments where I just sit and revel in the needlework. That is the best of all worlds, that meditation of needlework. But all those teeny moment of 'meditation' between all the stuff of life...well it adds up.

Strange things are happening

Last night I was working on the lace socks. They are coming along really nicely, by the way, but I was overcome with a feeling of confidence. After supper I decided to look at books and patterns. It is time to get to work on my special project after all, in a much more serious way.

I dug out a really old book, The Complete Encyclopedia of Stitchery, by Mildred Graves Ryan. I have owned a 1979 version of the book for about 5 or 6 years and if you want a good all around needlework resource and you are just a beginner, this is the one you want. It has a lot of knitting patterns which I never looked at before. And there it was. The special project stitch.

They call it a purse stitch. Simple, idiot proof. I must just be able to pull it off. (There is that confidence thing again but it does me well to keep in mind, my recipe for learning. The fail, fail part of the cycle takes up a lot more time than the succeeding part.) Knit 1, *yarn over, purl 2*. It makes a lovely open pattern, which ought to suit the receiver just right. I have accepted that when its time to work the part in the round, that I am going to have to purl continental style, but you do what you have to. I will suffer for the sake of my art, so to speak and toss wool all over the place to get what I want. Well not really, but to a scoop up the yarn combined knitter like me, it feels like tossing.

I also solved the whole how do I make it fit perfectly when I have no idea what size it needs to be problem while I was talking to almost healed broken leg man, otherwise known as son1. He said to lace it. A very very bright idea. It will allow a perfect fit at every point no matter who tries it on. He also claims that the laces will finish it off just right. I have brilliant sons, in case I have not mentioned that before.

I tried a few inches for gauge, on my spiffy new needles, but alas found they are not nearly pointy enough. Points, people, points dammit So I used the 1.75mm size, which produced a lovely delicate wondrous web. Its teeny, but oh my. I was so excited I forgot to measure before I ripped it to start the work. I am going to have to swatch again at lunch. I really should block it. I need a fairly close idea of size even with the solution of lacing the project.

Enough blathering. I'm excited, and just had to shout it.

Blog flog

Well, that last item looks really great each of the billions of times I have tried editing it so that the paragraphs dislay it porperly. The Blog is changing words adding content, but zippo on the allowing editing for format side of things.

Silly old blog.

I'm just testing here.


Ignore me.

Update:

Well now I'm mystified. That's not new, just recurrent. I've played with my format of older posts too, and I'm going to simplify my profile too.

Weekends are too short.

I'm fairly sure of this. Otherwise this would be a complete sock and thiswould be more than just a toe.

The first is my lace socks. A simple lace, but still a lace. It took half of Saturday figuring out the how and why of this lace. It seems like it should have been simple, but the pattern diagram in the book was wrong. That was a pretty disappointing realization, but I got past it and knitted my heart out. It's kind of a pity the pictures don't do the lace justice. But it is turning our beyond fine.

The Lorna's laces sock for one of the guys, was actually started first. It has become patently clear that I have to keep something simple on the needles when I am working on something that takes more thought. A nice simple plain sock for a big foot is just right. Toe up, peasant heel, and I am free just to work to the end of the yarn. Its wound into 2 balls, one of each sock.

I think I have an average of 3 to 4 crochet things on the go at once. Its a habit of long standing. You never know when you need something different to do. A big project for cool evenings, something smaller and lacy like the ruffle on the pillow, and then a sweater in there somewhere. Intersperse with some embroidery (right now, 3 on going projects cross stitch, 1 hardanger and a lot of plans) and the the result is there is always something that is interesting to work on. Knitting just adds to the mix.

Between all the knitting, we did yard work. Lots to do before the wedding, but its starting to really look good.

I went to the yarn store and...

You can tell by the dots that it wasn't pretty. And yet is was so darn pretty that I could hardly help it.

Its going to be great socks for one of the boys. Its Lorna's Laces Shepherds Sock yarn. The forest green colour Regia is a freebie.

Is it bad when your yarn store gives you freebie yarn? It might mean I've crossed a threshold and have become a 'good' customer (or is it 'easy mark'?). I should probably worry.

Making holes

I picked up Mary Webb's Knitting Stitches , a very nice book, with words and charts for each pattern. The charts are going to mean that I don't have to translate anything, I just have to read the charts to do a stitch.

After working a sample of the lace I intend to work, I have come to the conclusion that I need to sit down and make me a chart. WHY is it that making a hole in a piece of knitwear is so darn hard when you mean to, and yet happens effortlessly when you really don't want any holes?

After reading on the commute to work this morning, I think the problem I have with my missing holes, has to do with yarnovers. The Mary Webb book made one little reference about how important the way a yarn over lay on the needles, AND noted what would happen if you had the lay of the yarn wrong. Stitches will close if the yarn over is laying on the needle wrong. That must be what I am doing, and it stands to reason because my combined knitting stitches do lay differently. They pretty much lay the opposite from the way a continental or english knitter would see their stitches turned on the needles.

As I work on this challenge, I realize that it is all these intricate little challenges from something so simple and basic as a piece of string and a stick, is why this knitting thing, why all needlework stays endlessly fascinating.

This weekend, I am planning on sitting in the sun, and getting a good start on the lacy sock. I am going to my LYS today (no transportation the last few days) to solve the lack of needles issue, and I still do need that second treat yarn I promised myself for a job well done.

Ends and Beginnings

Last night I finished the pink and white striped socks. Look how neat they fold! They were tried on by the girl with the morphing foot and they fit! Her foot didn't morph. Her sister's foot shouldn't morph when they appear either. The peasant heel was a winner with her. She said it felt like it was custom fit to her foot. I really enjoyed doing that heel. There still are some refinements to be done. I have a little work to go to get rid of some rather largish holes where the heel work begins, but I suspect that using a set of 5 needles and twisting the picked up stitches at that point will take care of it. The grafting at the heel went really well. You could hardly tell that there was a join of any kind. I'm not really happy with the toe shaping. Doing the decreases the way I have, seems to result in a very square edge. I am quite sure someone out there has multiple ways of doing toe decreases, I just have to find that person and do a little reading.
The next project is already on the needles. I started working with the Blue Moon Socks That Rock Yarn. I swear to heaven, I have worked with 6 inches of this yarn, and I am in love. Its wonderfully soft running through my hands. And its going to look superb in the very simple twisted stitch I intend to inflict upon it. Check out the Uzume socks at Socktopia .
Before I get to the pattern part, I am going to have to give a practise swatch a go. I'd hate to ruin the yarn from to many do and redo's. But I can knit the ribbing as a treat with my lovely treat yarn.

Onwards and upwards to lace. There is that lovely lace weight merino in the background lurking, and that is coming back into the bag this evening. Time to get a move on girl and get it finished too.

My version of Philosophy...

Over the last few days, and weeks, I've been thinking about why I feel so strongly connected to string things. I dearly wish I could see a instant replay of when I first begged to be shown how to embroider. That is how it began for me, after all.

But its more than that. Have you ever seen programs on TV showing how men in Africa make nets, and fix them in the ways it has been done for centuries? Watching their hands with their shuttle going back and forth, weaving up and down as they make or repair nets is like sitting in front of a master needle worker from ancient times. It pull something deep inside me and says come discover this too.

Inside my head I can see the forms of work, nalbinding, knitting, crocheting, tatting, macrame, merging, and morphing through time to what I see and know. Is it weird to say that? I can see it, maybe feel it is more correct, I can feel the tie to to ancient things. When my hands are doing something, I am that tie, I am that needle, I am that thread as it wends it way inside, out, around, and through. I feel it, it resonates. That is how it has always been with me and string things.

Its not just knitting, it so much more. Its every colour of my multitude of flosses, every inch of linen, its every needle of the hundreds in the needle box, its every skein of yarn and every skein of cotton thread. When I have a piece of string and a needle in my hand, I breathe deeper, I feel better somehow. Not so rushed, as if time has slowed. I am in a warp bubble where only the project goes fast but time itself goes restfully and peacefully along.

With a piece of string and a needle I am, I exist, I live.

I get all philosophical like this once in a while, and then the Mr. insists on showing me his Father's Day gift.

I am, I exist, I live, and I laugh a lot. Life is good when you work with needles.

Grafting and beyond

Those of you who have knit for a while, avert your eyes. I am about to tell the tale of a novice knitter, who bravely and foolishly tried grafting while far from the Internet, far from her book and far from all the printed instructions she took before leaving for camping. She also left behind her darning needle, and was left with a sock that needed the toe closed, and a crochet hook. I gave it my all. I was really close, except for having to try to reverse the knit purl to accommodate the crochet hook rather than a needle. Oh and then there was that part about what stitches to keep on the needle, and what stitches to drop. Right. It's ugly, its not even close, but the rest of what followed is amazing.

I knit a practise piece. I watched the video from Knitting helps.com on the Kitchener stitch several times,

and magic happened. Right there in front of my eyes, it became instantly obvious, I was very very close to doing it right.

Oh, I see now that my stitches are twisted, but that is a combined knitter thing, and I'll get that figured out too soon enough, but isn't this magic thing fine? So moving on toward the socks awaiting the grafted toe.

First, take out the bad, evil icky attempt. Put the stitches on small needles, because my lone pair of the right size needles is with the other sock. Sit down with proper darning needles, well a really biggie tapestry needle works too, and get to work. Knit, purl, purl, knit.And here I am. A reasonably well done grafted toe. There are a couple of real clunkers in there, but there are also some Mary Poppin stitches in there too (practically perfect in every way). Like all my knitting, the rest will come with practise. For only my second knitted sock pair ever done, I'm feeling pretty good.

I have to go now and figure out how to address the things I learned doing this set of socks.

A) Its critical to have more than one set of needles of all the smaller sizes.

B) Take your darning needle with you no matter where you go.

C) It would really help if someone out there in beer land came out with a softsider beer cooler that had small pouches on the inside so that all the accessories of a really great work bag could stay put. Or I need some small clear pouches to put all my bits in.

I'm fairly certain that a trip to the yarn store will take care of all but the beer cooler part, but I might have to go to 2 yarn stores, just to be sure.

Camping and Knitting, Knitting and Camping

This weekend we scooted of to the mountains. The forecast said a 60% chance of rain. They were a little off. It was more like a 100% chance of 60% rain. The other 40% was probably the space between raindrops.

It was a wet, cold, and very quiet camping trip. By Saturday afternoon every other intrepid camper had given up and left. Rain or not, it was absolutely fabulous.

While I was hiking around, I came across a grouse, who was midst mating. His tail was flared far more than this, and he was looking intently into the bush. I tried to get a better picture of him with his tail fully flared. He heard me of course - I could not sneak up on a person with a hearing impairment if I tried - and he flew off into the bush. I hope He succeeds. Nothing worse than a male grouse who couldn't mate because of some dumb human.

I love this back country campground for its utter quiet. Humans are just a very small part of the world here. You begin to understand just what kind of people our ancestors were, to survive this climate, any climate without anything but what they could make from the forest and plains around them.

There are big grandness, and small grandness, so many things to see. Perfect pictures on any scale (or they would be if I were a better photographer.)

With the miracle of modern tarps, I knit in front of the fire. I knit in spite of the rain. I knit because it was lovely, and almost as good as crocheting in camping conditions. (The only reason its not as good is that there are so many more needles to lose, which is very bad when you are an hour and a half from a store with needles)

I finished the pair of silly socks but for the heels (peasant heels). I'm going to have to practise grafting. My first try at grafting was so bad it deserves a whole blog item of its own. I'm still shivering with the horror of how that turned out.

No, I'm really shivering because even with the van, even after an night in my own bed, I am still chilled to the bone. I need a serious upgrade to my long johns before we go back up there in the fall.

Some days...

Some days you get up and you just feel like staying in bed rather than going to work. Today is sort of like that. I have not touched anything interesting for 3 days and I'm grumpy. Nothing is so awful as when work gets in the way of the really important stuff.

We are going camping this weekend, and my whole weekend is going to be filled with knitting, crocheting, and other assorted projects. Times like this is when the sweaters made from Jane Snedden Peever's books, Crocheted Aran Sweaters, and more Crocheted Aran Sweaters come in very handy. They are heavy and warm and wonderful. My only regret is that they are not lasting well because they are acrylic, and washing them is the ruin of them.

This is some detail from a bright yellow cardigan I made 3 years ago. Its a staple part of my work wardrobe, and now its starting to sag. It is going to need replacing.

I'm working on a sweater with cables up the front - 3 sets of chain 6 cables. At the middle of each cable, the yarn changes colour. The yarn changes mean its a finicky project, but it looks great. I am going to have to get to work on it though to have it ready for winter. Pictures next week after this orgy of socks this weekend.

Hmpffff

That is how I feel this morning. The first pink sock is complete, and tried on. The heel fits poorly. I am keeping in mind that it is the girl with the morphing foot that is trying it on. I am keeping in mind that this sock is not for her, but for her sister (who probably has that same genetic flaw), but the heel seemed to be in the wrong place, too low on her foot. It kept trying to slip to her instep. I think that the heel might be too shallow, or maybe I made the flap too long. Back to the drawing board.

Maybe it would help if I used an actual pattern. There has got to be a trick to this whole frogging thing. At this rate, I will have more experience frogging than knitting.

Crochet is so much simpler. There is always that measure of safety, that if this becomes too ugly, I can still make socks with all my lovely new yarn.

Update: Girl with the morphing foot tried on her sister's sock again, and voila, a closer looks shows that the socks are just too short in the foot. They need to be reknit, of course, because the calf is just too darn large, but the heel turn is indeed as I suspected, just perfect, thank you very much. I feel much better about this whole heel turn thing.

I went to the yarn store...

It was a very bad thing. Or maybe not. There was a sale on. I controlled myself pretty well.
I bought my reward yarn which is Blue Moon Socks That Rock . A reward for what, you ask? Well, let's just say I have one company switched over to the new protocol, successfully. I deserved it.
Next I bought some Lang JaWoll in a nice plain black.
And then, DBG's Confetti Cotton from the sale section. I should have bought more. I might have to go back and buy more.

Could someone tie me to my chair or take away my cards, please.

A better quality heel turn

On the weekend, I completed my first pair of knitted socks. They are not pretty, indeed if there was a competition for the ugliest first sock, mine would win, or come very close to it. The yarn was an Austerman Step yarn, so my hands always felt great working with them, and I hope my husband likes them.



The problem with my first socks, was the heel turn all the way. I think I understand now what I did wrong, and I am really hoping that this second set,

turns out much better. I think it is, though the decreases on the turn are not in perfect working order, I am a lot closer to the principle of the thing this time. I am a little concerned about the way the stitches are picked up along the side - I'm not sure if I am picking up enough threads - but overall, I am very very pleased.

My only fear now is that the feet I am making this pair for is not as big as the sock. The yarn is Lustersheen, which is not stretchy at all, so I added a few extra stitches and suddenly the darn things are the same size as Brian's socks.

This sock business is really wearing me out. The only way to solve this is to go get more sock yarn. Instant energy!

Other needlework

You might think you have seen everything in my current workbag, but no, not a chance. I've posted none of my needlework or any of the many pieces I really enjoyed doing. I have no progress on anything, so I will toss some of these things in today's mix.

These panels are in my study, covering some damage on the closet doors. The designs are all from Blue and White Cross Stitch and Red and White Cross Stitch.

This is from the same source, but will be a pillow in the new little bench, made just for frou frou pillows. I'm in the process of crocheting a ruffle.

And this is my current Hardanger piece. It too will be a pillow top. The pattern will be over the entire surface and about 1/3 of it is done.
The picture here, shows why I have not worked on it for a while. If you count carefully on the section where my needle is, to the centre completed pattern, you will see I am out of line. You can frog in crochet and knitting, but needlework ripping is even worse.

Yarns I have known and loved.

Yarn Harlot was asking about projects we just could not stop repeating because they were so much fun. I don't have a project so much as a yarn.

I have no idea what it was called, I cannot even remember what it is made of. Its a lumpy novelty yarn, in browns and blacks with a opalescent sheen thread too. It was pricey, but I wanted a warm and still stylish shawl for summer evening weddings. It was one of those times, when cost be darned, I touched those small skeins and I could not leave without it. It had to be mine.

It was like working with liquid gold, warm and almost living as it went through my hands. It's heaven when I wear the shawl I made from it, but I sure do wish I could find it again for the joy of working with it.

I have one small skein left. My plan is to make a little bag to carry when I wear the shawl. I'm looking for fittings for the closures and I came a cross Lacis, so I might have a source now for what I need. Then I'm going to work with this lovely, molten thread again.

Sigh, It send s shivers down my back just thinking about it.

Some Days

Good days are usually followed by bad ones. My sons car engine blew today. considering this was a car he was just about done fixing after purchasing it well used, well, he is feeling bad.

And I had a funeral to go to today. Not a family member but a friends brother. So many funerals for me. I don't attend a service regularly in any denomination so it seems all I go to are funerals. I am hoping for quite a few more weddings to counter act that.

Thinking of funerals, I have to think again of my Auntie Lorraine who passed away just a few short weeks ago. She is part of the reason I started to blog. She never married, so excepting a huge family of nieces and nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews and another generation after that, she had no children. I hope she did not go to her grave thinking no one would remember her. I do. She gave me the path to myself a long long time ago. It has shaped who I am and how I see myself in every way.

She taught me outline embroidery so many long years ago. She was working on some dish towels, and I must have been fascinated by what she was doing. I probably nagged her so she showed me how. Pretty soon she sent along a set of ducks to embroider onto tea towels, and I don't think I have ever been without a needle since.

I learned some very very basic knitting in Brownies. When I was 12 or so, my god mother, Auntie Alma gave this beautiful tiger in crewel work. By grade 4, I learned enough to sew a little and made barbie clothes for friends, and then when I was about 14 or so, I bought an afghan kit and taught myself how to crochet. I made all my friends doilies as grad gifts. I then picked up needlepoint, and petit point, and followed that through all the years with sewing much of the clothes I wore. I've done some quilting too. I found cross stitch and then on to hardanger and many many other kinds of counted thread work.

Always something, forever something, a needle and a thread, and so much joy. That was Auntie Lorraine's gift to me.

Just a Quickie Post

There are some days when you feel really good. For me they start with a new battery in my electric toothbrush. I know I should not use it, but I love the way it feels. I'm not fully awake till I've brushed my teeth.

I finished knitted sock one. That is enough to make a day, but then I also began sock 2, and have plans for socks 3 and 4, and maybe even 5.

I have yarn, with no specific task, and it will be socks. there is some Luster Sheen in a brilliant hot pink, which will be striped with pure white. I have enough for 2 sets of those, and I aim to do something fancy down the sides on both. Then there is some Briggs and Little in black that should make a very serviceable pair of socks. This has already been swatched and washed and I am really happy with how it turns out once it washes. It feels a little firm and uncomfortable before you wash it, but once you do, its just wonderful to feel. Its going to make great socks. Short ones, but great ones.

It has also come to my realizatoion that most of this blog is about handwork. Yes its a huge part of my life, and it is much of what i love to do, but lest anyone get the impression that this is all I do, I am going to have to expand my posts to cover the rest of my life. The music I love, the books, the outdoors have all scarcely been touched upon.

So much to do, so little time.

Lace and Wristwarmers

On Saturday there was a sucker sighting at my house, and I grabbed him. He held the lace weight yarn while I made a workable ball. A swift and ball winder would be valuable additions to the tools of my trade.

I pondered how to begin. I really have no patterns only a loose idea of what I want. something delicate, and sexy, not at all handwarmery in the practical sense. Because this is not a project that I can try on the recipient as I go, I am going to have to take that into account. I plan to make a button closure, something that could be adjusted to fit simply by moving the buttons. That means to me that I have to have a bit of a more substantial outer edge, so I began like this.

I'm going to make this piece a test for width, and buttoning to see if what I am thinking will work. I've tried a couple other patterns, and so far this simple chain pattern wins. I might shorten chains (this sample is ch 5) to make a more dainty looking fabric. The general plan is to end up with something like the wrist warmer from Lily Chin's Couture Crochet Workshop with that lovely pointed effect, looped over the finger.

Opinions on the lace choice and project plan would be greatly appreciated.

Knitting Practise

This weekend I practised knitting. I started by working on the vest, but there is not a lot of significant progress there. Its too big and heavy. My wrists won't tolerate it for long. I also made an executive decision. I kn0w enough to make socks.

Considering that I really only understood my problem with knitting for 3 weeks, this is pretty brave of me. Since I have a long history of going off half cocked, I expect I will stumble along like usual and will eventually understand what I am trying to do. Its seems that is how I learn best. Fail, fail, fail, and voila light, then success, fail, think it through, reason it out, and then finally, success and even better understanding and clarity.

Sunday morning I sat outside before it got too hot and I began casting on. Then I did ribbing. I had a few hiccups and a few unexplained events, but mostly, according to my spouse, I just that there giggling, talking to myself. This happened.

Sort of looks like knitting, doesn't it. Not great knitting, not even good knitting, but knitting good enough for a person who learned 40 years ago, but never did it much. It looks really great in this photo, but I must tell you, that is the ugliest heel turn in the history of mankind. You must accept this. I already have. But its my very best heel turn ever. Considering its my first, I am darn proud of this ugly heel turn.

The sock pattern is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's from Knitting Rules .

Shawls and so much more.

While cruising the interent today, I came across This .

Now is that not just the most amazing thing to find when I am talking about making shawls, and lace. This concept will be perfect for my leftover lace weights. Thank you Mrs. Who, whoever you are. This is going to be great for my girls - who are really not my girls. (I can firmly state that my boys bring home the nicest girls.)

And then there is this pattern from a favourite book Crochet Your Way On the page that says part 3, Creative Projects, you will see a picture of the shawl I plan to do. This one will be for my mom, and will be for Christmas in the purest most loveliest of whites.

Now to address something else, from an entirely different source. I have used the name Canadianneedles and Needles in another segment of my online life. I keep getting little clues that some of you who know me from these sources, are visiting. Welcome friends, welcome. Just me, and proof positive that I can't spell, and my grammar is still atrocious.

Contemplating lace

Now that the socks are complete, I'm sort of hanging around, whiling away the hours, till I can con someone into holding the yarn for me while I take it from the hank stage into a workable ball. I bought online so I can't do the store thing - that would seem rude to me - and I don't have a swift and a ball winder.


The yarn is Filatura di Crosa's Centolavaggi there is no way to describe this yarn except to say its is delicious. It feels like it's going to melt in your hand it's so soft. I simply cannot wait to work with it.


Oops I got a little lost over there at Red Bird Knits. Its a wonderful little online yarn shop. It is the source for the Centolavaggi, and I also picked up some really nice Jagger Superfine Merino Lace.

These days, I seem to get a little lost over the yarn shops, online and in person. I could wax poetic, but well, you all know how I feel. So much great yarn out there.

When I can, I purchase from my local shop River City Yarns It's a great store. As is Ewe Asked for It, another of my local stores. Sadly they don't have an online presence. Don't tell River City, but I am currently stalking their supply of Fleece Artists yarns. And their Noro yarns. And so many more. They are just close enough to get over there on lunch, have a wonderfully tactile time.