A 'New' Book

The other day son1 and wife stopped by my desk for a quick visit.  They brought some goodies, one of which was this interesting 'new' book.  

Practical Home Knitting published in 1949 by Oldhams out of Liverpool.  Its a very interesting book.  It still has some of the war years practical knitting, but it takes it just a little farther.  Skirts and blouses are poufy.  Plenty of fabric is once again, fashionable.

Its an interesting mix of patterns.  A lot of them are downright modern looking.  If you add just the tiniest bit more room in the armscye, you would be wondering who this hot new designer was and what else has she designed.  

Some are perfect just the way they are.

I would wear this at the drop of a hat.

Practically perfect.  And because I am very sure someone out there will be interested,

Fortunately, I'm going to give this set a miss.

Though, now that I think about it, I could always use a nice camisole.

The book covers the whole family and kids of all ages, but I will desist.  I will show you my picks of the litter in the category that most excites me right now.

awwwwww

You have to look past the bow and the oddball hair.  The dress is a winner.

Now if that isn't a vision of Scout Finch from to Kill a Mockingbird, nothing is.  And I have the demin yarn to do it.

And finally, oh be still my beating heart,

The most perfect of all baby rompers.  I have to knit this for next spring.

I know I going a little googly over the baby things.  I am trying not to, but it is so hard.  And the projects are so cute.  Oh who am I kidding.  Only a stone cold heart wouldn't.  Warm fuzzies abound, I tell you while looking at these things.

Makes me think my grown boys are very glad that I didn't knit when they were small. Well, I did, but only the very littlest bit. Had I knit, they might have worn this, coordinating just like this little guy with his sister.

A little boys 4 piece set, crisp tam and all.  Now ain't that jest swell.

;)

I love these old books.  There is more but I'll save that for another day when the knitting is scant and the garden chores take precedence.  

Knitting jeans

Goes fast.

They were fast and kind of fun.  They need washing before any of the finishing happens so that the finishing embroidery lays properly on the knitted denim.

I used not quite 2 balls of the dark and barely the beginning of the light yarn.  Considering I have 3 bags of the dark, I think I can safely say there will be enough for many other projects.  

I don't know about anybody else, but doesn't the waist strike you as narrow?  I may have to think about this.  

Anyway, the knitting part of my Olympic goal is complete.  Baby Dressage is a category best knit for speed and if you worry about having enough time to get it all done.  That's me. 

It is garden time and the garden is doing very well.  The peas are at their full picking goodness, the beans have begun and in a surprise move, my beets have decided to populate the world and are abundant and more than ready for picking and processing.   Never enough hours.

Ripping back

I'll be ripping back some.

I don't like how the ribbing is working.  It just disappears.  I guess this means I will have to knit it on later or opt for a different neck edging.  I don't usually do that.  I prefer to have all the edging the same or very similar.  

I think it is the very small circumference and the cramped feel on the needles these first few rounds causing this but I know I can do better work than this. That is a pretty lousy sleeve join.

The underam seam.  I like this part. Nice and tidy and crisp.  Exactly what I want it to be.

But overall, I love the way it looks. Sweet.  


Today is a most momentous occasion.  I have decided, in a move so unlike myself, to join the Ravellenic Games.  I am competing in Baby Dressage and Synchronized Stash Busting.  

My project should be obvious after yesterdays mini revelation.  Baby Jeans from the Knitty pattern Blu.  The yarn is True Blue from Elle, a South African yarn distributor IIRC, one in a dark indigo and the other, with just the tiniest bit of bling in it, a medium to light indigo.  Both will shrink exactly like real jeans so I will knit them just a little bigger and longer than I want them to be for a perfect fit. And according to what I have read on Ravelry, I want to knit just a little more diaper space in the behind.

Everything will be from the stash of stuff I have at home.  The yarn was purchased from Elann in 2010 so it easily meets the time in stash criteria.  I will be using some near vintage DMC floss to do all the nifty little trim stuff, and there will be a patch of leather from a jacket that my dad wore in the 70's.  Here at Chez Needles, the stash of oddities is dark and deep.

I debated using my oldest needles for this, but no.  Not even for Olympics glory will I go that far.  I will use my several years old 3.5 mm Knitpicks.  I would much rather use my Clicks, but they are just a little too new if you are taking stash busting all the way.

Swatch?  Nope.  I'm living dangerously and going in with only light training.  Besides, how far out could I be?  (You know I am going to get into trouble for saying this, don't you)  I should be close.

If it is the usual Friday quiet around here, I will take my coffee break at 2 and will cast on in the Edmonton virtual mass cast on.  I am ready to go. Start your engines...


Oh wait.  Wrong sport.

I Love Baby Things

Who doesn't.  And I love knitting them.

Look at that itty bitty sleeve.  Doesn't it make you just curl up and want to talk baby talk?  And say itty bitty? 

Proto sleeve number two.  It ought to be ready to attach to the body shortly.  Its just such a few tiny rows.  So sweet.

As you can see, so far it looks just like a very very plain sweater.  Bottom up, sleeves attached.  Its time to make those big decisions about sleeve knitting.  Only in this case, they are not big decisions.  I'm not a real big fan of raglans and since I can now knit a set in sleeve simultaneously in several different ways, that is what I am doing.

These sleeves are going to be set in and will be knit the Elizabeth Zimmermann way.  Up at the top shoulder seams, I am going to do a 3 needle bind off.  I've done the same to attach sleeve and body.  Its a nice crisp way to finish something with no other ornamentation.

I will start the placket opening just after I finish the sleeve round.  I've been thinking about knitting that right on too.  I have to think about that a little.  Might have to knit it a few times to see if what I have in my head is going to work.  It might and it might not.

Knitting a placket means I am going to have to go on a hunt for teeny tiny buttons.    I wonder if somewhere in the button box, I still have a few from when my kids were tiny?  Brings to mind those wee packs of itty bitty sweetie buttons I bought sometime ago, just because.  I wonder if they might work?

Or maybe I ought to look for ladybug buttons.  Ladybug buttons would be so cute on a plain white t-shirt.  With jeans.

Holy hannah, I need to knit some jeans!  

Baby Knitting

Our little foray to Saskatchewan last weekend resulted in one too short stop at the lovely Prairie Lily Needlework.  I had really limited time, but as usual, there is always something to see there.

I had been pondering this colour of Zauberball for some time.  It looks a little odd.  Not really great colours, just a little more yellow in that green than I usually go for, and yet, worked up, it is so stunning.  

The other thing Prairie Lily carries that just takes it over the top on the goodness scale, is a lot of local product. I would guess that some of it is consignment sales but no matter.  These are fantastic yarns.  I found a couple of skeins of pure Alpaca 3 ply from CaRia Royalty Ranch (no website but some contact info for you).  All the local alpaca I have is 2 ply, and I have to admit, I could get used to this 3 ply fast.  Its just has the most marvelous hand to it.  I can't wait to knit it.

That was it for yarny excursions.  Somewhere in the weekend,  I did manage  to get a round cast one for a baby t-shirt.  I did a lot of knitting on the way home.  I was almost to the under arms, when I took a good look at it and realized this thing would fit a 4 year old, not a baby.  So back to the drawing board.

I cast on about 40 fewer stitches and its size is looking much better and knitting up very fast.  If I may just say, yet again, how much I love knitting with Sandnesgarn Mini Duett.  It is just the nicest blend of wool and cotton.  It just feels like I am home as it runs through my hands.  Its a fingering weight so it is fine and light and the wool should keep it all in shape.

There is no pattern for this.  The ones I found online are all sadly lacking, so I will just knit a basic T-shirt with set in sleeves.  I'm going to do it with a placket and buttons or snaps at the neck and with set in baby sleeves.  Fold-over shoulders would work too, but they tend to be just a little more fussy to keep tidy when baby wears them.  If I could only be sure that my cast off would be loose enough...sigh.  I've not decided if the sleeves will be long or short.  I suspect short but the spirit might move me to long.  Depends on how it is all goes and how much yarn it takes.  I have 4 skeins and hope to keep it to 2 skeins so that there will be 2 wee t-shirts.  The plan is for something wearable under jumpers and with sweet baby jeans and under sweet little sweaters like Baby Kina .  A wardrobe staple, baby style.

Did I mention I love baby knitting?  I do.  What will be next?  So many sweet things...

Its not that there was no knitting

Last weekend contained very little knitting.  On my part anyway.  

My daughter in law was working on an edging for a blanket.  It's going to be really cute.  A simple blanket in bright strong colours with a ruffled edging.  My kind of plan. 

I found some fabric that follows her theme.    

I'm still working on the exact combination, but it will be from among these pieces of fabric.  I originally had the plain yellow to use as backing but I've changed that to a clear crisp royal blue.  These strong colours demand something with a little kick for balance.  

I hope to sew up the wee blankie this week, but in truth, I'm not going to hold my breath.  We are moving some farm equipment this week and it is pea picking time.  Those two things don't sound like much, but oh my how they eat up the hours.  

3 a.m. and Midnite

It was a long weekend.  It was a short weekend.  But the one thing that surely was is these bones are tired.  My exhaustion is exhausted.  

Mr. Night Shift (son1) drove and he just kept on going till we arrived in Saskatoon.  It was 3 a.m.  We parked and crawled into our respective sleeping areas of the camper.  They were ready to sleep, but my internal clock was just about ready to wake up so...

Saturday was a very busy day.  The baby shower was lovely and I hope everybody had a good chance to visit and meet someone new. The evening was spent telling stories and looking at moms old photo albums and a fairly early night., thank heavens.  Sunday morning we went out for breakfast and then went out to the old home place to introduce our lovley daughter in law to my husbands parents.  We went out to the old farm where we lived when the kids were small.  

Pictures were taken, places were explored, people were met, we hit the road and got home around midnight last night.  

I'm tired so all I will say is photos tomorrow and oh yes, the pink jacket is done, but it was just a wee bit late for the shower.      

25 bucks

I booked a couple hours away from work and rather than errands or a doctors visit or dentists, I took the time to do something most of us don't think about.  I took an hour and a half and had coffee with a friend I haven't seen since February.  

 And it was wonderful.  

In all my visions of a textbook perfect moment, there is a sunny window, a comfy chair and a really great cup of coffee.  Sometimes there is knitting and sometimes a good book, and sometimes just me, my coffee and the sunrise.  This was just like that.  Only better than text book.  

The sun was streaming in around us.  Cafe Haven is renowned for some of the finest coffee in the city, and we sat and knit and had a really good chat, the kind of chat that restores the ragged edges of a soul. (Chatting with this friend is always like that.)  Perfect.  I hated to leave.

Most people would say oh my, she did that on company time.  But do you know how I look at it?  None of it is company time.  Not one moment of it is.  It is all mine and it is all I will ever have.  I choose to exchange some time for cash but it doesn't belong to my boss.  It is always and forever, mine to give.

We will spend 20 dollars to go see a movie or we will spend it on a bottle of wine or a pretty new blouse or a knick-knack for the house or yarn. We will spend 20 bucks almost without thinking about it. The one thing we never think about spending it on is time for ourselves.  We should probably think about that.

I took my 25 dollars and bought myself an hour and a half to sit in the sun with a friend. Best 25 bucks spent in my life.

Sleeve one done

Sleeve one is done and I am fast running out of time.  In order to have it ready for the baby shower, I will have to finish the 2nd sleeve, make up the ties and put them on, weave in all the ends, and block it tonight.  We have to head out tomorrow evening so that we can be in Saskatoon.

I hate this chicken with a head cut off sort of feeling.  Still I will get over it.  Somehow magically it will all get done, and everything will be just fine. 

And if I tell myself that enough, I might even start to believe it.  Pictures tomorrow morning!

It is also raining again.  It is starting to feel just like last year only that the rain came a week later so I could get the garden weeded.  

Just moving along

Just moving along on the baby sweater at a good clip.  By ridge count, I have 3 remaining on the back section, then the 2nd front and sleeves and that is it.  The only seams on this sweater are going to be the 3 needle bind offs on the shoulders.    

It would be silly to knit the sleeves, garter stitch though they may be, flat and seam them.  By knitting them in the round, I get to work with my beloved dpns.  Besides, continental combined knitting in the round makes garter stitch easy peasy.  

And if your sweater is named Easy Peasy, well it only seems right.    

Important stuff

I really ought to have something important to say today.  Its Tuesday and there is usually stuff to talk about on a Tuesday.  

In truth, today I am just as placid as a cow in a field of green, chewing her cud on a sunny summer day. Cows are good.  Peaceful.  

Knitting the wee pink baby sweater in the Easy Peasy pattern is that good.  Really good.  

Rain and knitting

We got out to the garden on Saturday morning where Mr. Needles did more watering.  Mr. Needles has been watering as often as he can in the unrelenting heat of last week.  It isn't an easy thing without a well on the property and without Mr Needles hard work, everything would be completely fried.  We both did some weeding and it was past time to hill the potatoes.  In the afternoon, I had the chance to start this. 

Yes.  It is time for baby knitting.

This is the Easy Peasy Baby Jacket from Churchmouse Yarn and Teas.  My favourite LYS, River City Yarns,  carries all their patterns and as soon as I saw this one, I had to have it.  It is elegant in its simplicity.  With the wrap front and a tie closure, this is a sweater that could fit baby for many months.  The pattern is written in two gauges so there is an almost limitless supply of yarn choices.  But neither of the gauges is baby yarn.  

Easily resolved.  I am knitting the large DK version and hope to come out to a close to infant or 3 month size.  So far so good.  The yarn is the most magnificent Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino pink , photographed so true to life there, and so far from its gentle pearly pinkness here.

I'm just starting the decreases for the neckline and the sleeves have just been split.  (I'm knitting all in one though the pattern is written to sew together.)  Things this tiny do move so wonderfully fast.

Sunday morning, well, through the night actually, I woke to the sound of pitter patter on my roof.  We were in the middle of a gentle rain that went more or less, all day.  It was still raining a little yet this morning.  

This is a picture of the garden this year.  The far stuff in the background has been sprayed for weeds and once we get the new tractor home, make that new to us, as well as the equipment, we shall have it worked up into nice black ground, clean and tidy and proper.  Later this fall or early next spring, we will put it to grass seed for hay.

The lush green in the front is my garden.  I am so pleased with it.   (and that large green pile just at the bottom right corner is dirt removed from building the driveway, due to be moved shortly)


We are released from the watering chores for a while (thank heavens), and somewhere mid week or later this week, I will have to get and do a little pea picking.  Just a little.  That first picking is usually small, but oh so very worth it.

Baby knits and pea picking.  It is going to be the best sort of week!

Things are crazy

Things are going crazy right now. High summer is a nutty time of year.  Knitting, ever my solace in a nutty world, is getting kicked badly and you know what?  I can feel it. Not a speck of knitting last night.

Or maybe its this:

Its very smoky here this morning from forest fires up north.  Its been horribly dry the last few weeks and this last week, very hot.  The great masses of fir and spruce are sitting there ready to be torches to whatever little thing comes along.  Its mother nature at her worst and best.  Forest fires have a job to do.  They cleanse the forest floor of deadfall that might otherwise choke new tree growth, they open up seed pods from some trees, so that the seeds can fall and be fertile, it opens up forest floors to green open areas for new grazing for wild animals.  From every fire, comes renewal.  It is just very hard to keep that part of a forest fire in mind in the modern world.  Its one of the places where mother natures wisdom and modern life do not play nice together.

If it isn't those, its the garden.  We went out to the garden last night to water, and I found so many good things.  I took home some baby beets and some lettuce.  I pulled the last of the radishes but not to eat.  They are done and any roots are woody and hard.  The potatoes are blooming.  In just a few weeks, I will be able to steal baby potatoes.  Yum, yum.  Tomatoes are blooming all over and there are some tiny wee tomatoes on the Tiny Tim tomatoes I put in.  This is the most prolific of any cherry or grape type tomato in this growing zone and I hope for a bumper crop.  

There are peas blooming.  There are pods all over the place.  

There are pods.  Pods.  Last summer everything was behind at least 3 weeks.  The peas didn't even look big enough to bloom in July wet cold and I didn't pick till the 3rd week of August if I recall right.  I suspect the next couple weeks are going to pea picking heaven this year.  While I like that, I confess, I am a little unprepared.  It seems to early, but in my heart, I know, and in comparison with my old garden records, this is the time they should be peaking.  Ready or not, I will be in pea mode soon.  I hope that we can keep them blooming through this heat.  Perhaps with heavy watering and a little grace, I will get twice the crop I had last year.  

Anyway, I'll do my best, knitting wise.  I hope to work on the pretty shawl made from the Mooi every day.  If I can do at least 4 long rows a day, I will be pleased with myself.  I do have that blanket to work on for brainless knitting and for take along knitting, I am dragging the pink sweater.  I'm on the last sleeve so not too much more there.  Its just round and round till its long enough.  Easy peasy.  Maybe socks if it gets really bad.  There are all those WIPs too, but lets not talk about that, OK?

It might not be knitting exciting, but there  might be photos of gardens and produce and piles of peas shells, so bear with me.  Its just the 'Things' part of the blog taking its turn.

And when all this is done, there will be baby knitting.  I'm really looking forward to the baby knitting.  My hands can hardly wait.

Goofing around

There was a day a while ago when I did not have anything I wanted to do with me but the very large and very pink sweater.  If you are trying to sneak in a few stitches at work, large and pink pretty much ensures that somebody will notice.

So I hied me off to the yarn store and did a little looking around.  I came back to work with a skein of sock yarn.  It was the oddest thing.  I really wasn't enamoured of it, but I bought it anyway.  That just doesn't happen in my world. I think I was thinking scarf till I held the yarn against my neck. With scarf out of the way, I couldn't think what I would ever want to do with a yarn that I didn't feel was sturdy enough for socks (singles, low twist).  

Then I remembered this book,  101 Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders.  Surely there was something in there.  

There was a really sweet little bag.  Zaubertote is a sweet little granny square bag that takes just one ball of yarn, but do pay attention.  If your gauge is off, you may need a second ball.  

My yarn choice , Mille Colori Socks & Lace is a wee bit shorter in length than Zauberball, so I have just decided to go for it and to expect to do the bottom, sides and strap in another colour.  The yarn will be fine for a bag because the bag will be lined with some good sturdy cotton.  

I am really pleased with the way it is working out and I am having an inordinate amount of fun watching the colour combinations work up.  I can see that the thrill of this project is seeing all the many ways a self striping yarn can look in such a simple shape.  

I'm keeping this project at work.  I decided that my desk requires a ball of yarn all it's very own.  I do not want to be stuck without a spare project ever again.  With its simple pattern, and small size, I can sneak a stitch in here and there any time I need to.

When you park in front of a yarn store...

When you park in front of a yarn store on vacation, you know that just a little something is going to follow you home.

One of the most delightful things the shop had was Need a Sock, 

co-written by my dear blogger buddy, BrendaKnits.  It hasn't hit our stores here but I hope to see it make it in this falls book order at my LYS.  While I really don't need a book to knit socks, I am just completey thrilled to have this one.  Plus there is a really really nice cable thing that really appeals to plain sock knitter me.

They had some really great buttons too.  These are going to look marvelous with the soft pink Baby Cashmerino I have waiting in the wings.

And then the yarn.  She had a really great slection of sock yarns.  She had a bunch of different things that we don't have here in the city.  It was tough, but I knew I had to keep it sensible.  (That big sale on the 1st blew the budget already)

I came home with just one skein of yarn.  But what a skein.  Its silk and wool and enough nylon that everybody told me it would be great for socks.  It would, but what a waste.  

The yarn is Country Silk from Fantastic Knitting.  It is the big skein and comes in at a hefty 250 grams and 800 meters. 

Its going to be a something to toss over my shoulders, something where the pattern won't fight with the gold/tan odd man out colour that is on two small sections of the skein.  A small ruanna or a simple long shallow shawl.  It will be the right kind of thing to go from late summers cool evenings, to cool fall days.  It should be perfect at the office in winter.  

I don't know if it will make this fall, but you never know.  If I can just get this darn sweater done...

PS.  They are asking us to conserve water and keep our power usage really low.  They advise cutting out laundry and dishes.  Oddly enough, I will have no trouble doing my part.

Vacation

Last week, as some of you may have guessed, I was up at the lake.  It was cold as usual, but for one day, when it was hot.  There is no reasoning with the weather it seems.  And it continues now I am home.  33 C is when prairie people start to melt.  Hot, hot, hot.

Our daughter in law came with us and I think she had a really good time.

She sure looks like she had a good time.

As you can see, we took a side trip to Jasper so she could get up close and personal with the mountains.  

While they took the opportunity to go up the mountains, I took the opportunity to find the yarn store in Jasper.  

Stychen Tyme is a really great little store.  I did not ask Mr. Needles to go there. I did not tell him the store existed.  But wouldn't you know it, we parked right in front of it, well, 2 spaces from it actually, when we stopped for lunch.  He was appalled.

It was meant to be.   

I know what I said but...

I know I said I was going to work on just two projects.  I know that it is past time to finish the sweater.  I know that the shawl will probably fall apart with age before it is complete, but I just had to do it.

I started something else.

I had some yarn given to me by a lovely lady this winter.  It was the loveliest heathered blue green of humble origin.  It is so humble that I haven't been able to find it in the Ravelry database.  It was one of those great big huge gigantic 5 pound balls of yarn things (It is the size and weight of the average family cat.) from the local big box store.

Its been tossed around the study because there just was no place to tuck it.  Its size demanded a space all its own and I had none to give it, so that meant I could only do do one thing with it, and that was to knit it asap.

There is so much yarn there the obvious project is a blanket. I tossed the blanket ideas around for a while. Umaro was a top contender. So was Girasole (Follow the Umaro link.  It's there too.).  I looked at all sorts of patterns from the Walker Treasuries too.  I couldn't decide.  

Then I remembered the Hemlock Ring.  In the early days of Ravelry, Jared Flood found a doily pattern on the internet and heavily modified it and reinterpreted it as a blanket.  It was one of the first lace things I coveted.  

That was the perfect type of blanket pattern.  Growing ever larger, I could stop when I was tired of it.  It had no long cast on.  It would look stunning in any sort of yarn, even this most basic and prettiest of green-blue melanges.  

And so, I am begun.  

I'm a little farther than that now and I have loved every stitch of it with no waning yet.  I am well into the feather and fan, and though that might strike some as a very boring ever repeating pattern, each one of the lace patterning rows is different.  For all that there are 4 knit rows between each, it isn't something you can knit in your sleep.  

It isn't hard though and once you know the repeat for the row you are on, its just the same all around. Its the perfect thing outside of  garter stitch.  Simple.  Beautiful.  Rhythmic.

Half done is well begun.  I know I am not half done, not by a long shot, but I am very very well begun.

All the other ongoing things

Last year I worked very hard to get my WIP pile under control.  It worked well, and I was really really pleased with myself.  This year I was just going to knit for joy.  

And I am.  I have been having a very good time, but I still feel driven to get some things done like sweaters.  I was feeling very compelled to knit sweaters earlier in the year and did a few and started even more.  

and soon,

I wish there were more.

Then there was the sock event.  Driven is the only way to describe that whole month. 

And lately, I have been thinking shawls.  Soft lovely lacy stunning shawls that are so beautiful I want to cry.  I don't feel quite so driven by this last.  Shawls are too delicate for driven feelings.  They are more like a craving to knit, craving to wear, craving to have the yarn run through my fingers.  The lovely beaded one from the MOOi I got at the RCY sale for Ludmila from Kiev is just a breath of what I want.

My knitting is filled with joy. 

I have also amassed a stunning number of WIPS.  The basket runneth over.  When I started this post, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the new stuff but I'm not anymore.  

There is a pair of stranded colour work mittens on the go.  They are my kitchen mittens and they are just where the pattern gets complicated.  I have to take some marking tape up there to get back on track.

I have a work project, a nice little bag that is for those times when I would go crazy if I couldn't do something.  

There is a blanket that I am doing out of left over sock yarns. No rush there.

There is a very pretty shawl that may or may not work out.  Its a dye lot thing.  There is another pretty shawl that is about to go for the big fancy edge.  

There is a bag that just needs the lining sewn.

There is a basic black turlteneck that is going to get frogged and restarted as a contigously beginning.  No point making knitting hard if you are knitting black and simple.

The rest of the things in my WIP pile are older shawl things that I do intend to complete and that I am working on once in a while.

You know, I think I feel pretty good.  I know where I am going with each of them and I know if I will keep them or not.  

Its a long list, but it isn't unbearable. After 6 months, I think I feel pretty good, even if the WIP baskets are overflowing.

What I am working on today.

Though I have all these stunning yarns, and though I did start one new shawl, I do have a plan for the next few weeks that has nothing to do with any of the lovely things I have just put into the stash.

Remember this?  It is a really lovely Clapotis made out of some pretty, pretty Wendy Happy Sock yarn.  If you haven't seen Wendy Happy, it's Bamboo so it is deliciously soft, but in no way right for practical socks.  It will be a magnificent shawl if I ever get it done.  It has been on my needles since December of 2010 and I really don't want to have to take it to 2013.  That would just be bad karma. If I work hard I might get it done by the middle of next week.

And the pink sweater.  I am knitting on that too.  I have about a third of the sleeve left to do, so that won't take long, but then I have to decide if I need to add to its length and go tunic or shorten it and go comfortable casual sweater.  I should get the sweater done in a lunch time or two.

I have to focus on these and get them done before the baby knitting begins.  And I can hardly wait for the baby knitting to begin!

Another Mother

My daughter in laws mom will be coming for two weeks in the fall when the baby is born to meet the new sweet one.  Or will be if the government of Canada and the department of immigration are working right.  

I'm looking forward to it and wanted to knit something Canadian for her. 

I don't know if there is anything particularly Canadian about what I am doing but it is a more or less a Canadian yarn and I am knitting it.  That will have to do.

It starting like this.  Here is hoping that the cast on is loose enough because I really really want dramatic points.  I had the perfect amber copper beads in my stash.  

It is doing this naturally though, so I have high hopes for it.  

The pattern I am doing is a Susanna IC design, Icicles.  She has some really lovely designs but I chose this one because I would love to make one for myself.  Remember this?

Yup. This one. Icicles.  

What came home

I think I mentioned going yarn shopping the other day.  I thought I would show you some pictures of the haul.  It doesn't look like that much and yet, it is 4 miles of yarn.

I went back today to see if they had any more of this colour of Misti Alpaca Lace.  They did,but just one wee ball.  Yes, I needed a a 6th ball.  There are several shawls I'd like to knit that need at least 2600 yards.  It takes a dismal picture.  Up close the yarn is a rich warm earthy brown and green melange.  Its wonderful.

Then these.  I thought I had some of these.  I don't though, but I am sure I will find something to do with them.

Because there always has to be Noro and this lovely subtle colourway goes with everything.

The most marvelous green Misti Alpaca Baby Suri alpaca and silk.  I have used this before and though I seem to have missed recording it in my active stash, I know I have at least 2 skeins in there somewhere, for a grand total of 6, a nice amount to do something splendid with.

A skein of Tonos from Misti Alpaca and a skein of Kidsilk Haze Stripe.  The might get used together.

And the most magnificent green/blue ever dyed.  I have two of these somewhere already.  I didn't know there was more but when I saw them, they had to come home with me.

There is another yarn, but I that one is already under construction.  More tomorrow.