Truth

As cute as it is in this photo, 

But the reality of the colour changing here, there and everywhere, is this.

It's going to be a busy morning.  

Also any plan by me to knit another for Enmmett is gone.  I weighed the gray.  There is less gray yarn left by weight than there is in the wee sweater.  I think I could a do a vest but not sleeves.  It's a relief.

Falling In Love All Over Again

Things go fast sometimes, truly fast, not just feeling fast.

This is where I started on the wee sweater in the morning when I first picked it up.  

Before my knitting zoom, I bound off on the body of the sweater and you know what?  My

previous feeling of being just a trifle bored with it and bothered by it, was gone.  It cleared off as I knit the little red row.  Even here, that pop of red is everything.  By the time the zoom call was over, I had finished sleeve one and was well on the way on sleeve two.  

My hands weren't tired anymore, so I just kept knitting.  (Possibly all in my head?)

After the second sleeve was done, I picked up the stitches along the neck and fronts and I really felt like knitting more, but I realized it was getting a bit late for my best thinking me.  I had messed up the pickup and used the wrong strand of yarn for half of it. The stitch counts were all good but there will be extra ends to weave in because of it, but it was enough to stop me from screwing up any farther.

First thing this morning, I started working the neat little collar.

It is going to be adorable.  I am back, entralled with it all.  The colour,  the design, the sheer and utterly adorable goofiness of the elbow patches and pockets.  And yes, there will be pockets, because I must.

I may not enjoy the yarn but I am enjoying the project again, so much so, that as I was sitting uploading all the pictures here, I caught myself thinking, I don't have to be at their house till Monday.  I have three good days plus part of today to knit Emmett a wee sweater too.  

Some days

I am having a morning.  It's been one of those, "I put my pants on backwards and I am not even sure if I care" mornings.  (Oh come on.  If you live in stretchy pants, you know this.  It is not just me.)  That is kind of how I feel this morning.  It comes from having a really terrible sleep, and that comes from having the kind of dreams you do not want repeated, ever, the night before.  

It is a bit better now after having my first coffee and yes, the pants are on properly and they were right all along.  I have been wearing mostly handmade, custom fit pants lately and this morning, I grabbed one of my few remaining pairs of store bought pants and I guess I am getting used to proper fit and coverage in all the places, not just in the places a garment manufacturer thinks I have places.  I am very very happy with my pants that fit.  A shout out to Muna and Broad .  If you are large and are over ill fitting garments, consider looking at their patterns.  The pants will work for you and if you need them larger, they will do that for you.  These amazing women understand shelfie butt.

I did all kinds of knitting yesterday, but did not seem to get too far.  I am a wee bit farther down the body of the wee sweater than I was before the ripping started, but it is slow going.  My hands have been really achy and I can't seem to do a lot of rows before I need to set it aside.

I am so much happier with the size though that all the reknitting and ripping was worth it.  Now it looks like something that will fit reasonably soon.  

With a wee bit of luck, I will finish the gray today.  I know, there are sleeves to do, but they are small and not terribly long, so I hope to get there, and perhaps tomorrow, there will be cream and red knitting, which always excites me with this colour combination.  

But that and my catch up chores are about it today.  And knitting with friends via zoom.  I will have to ask what others want to do now that warmer weather is here and townfolk can sit in sheltered spots of afternoon sun in warmth and comfort to visit and chat at a distance.  I am still not going to drive into town to visit, and maybe there are some who will still like to zoom just for the ease of it.  We shall see.

One thing about days that start like that.  They can only get better and that is a good thing.

Call Me Content

Yesterday while knitting on the little gray sweater that really ought to be a smaller gray sweater, I realized something.  I am not fond of knitting with acrylic. No way does it come close to what it feels like as it runs through your hands and fingers and pours on to your needles as it does when you knit with a good basic wool.  There is a life, a liveliness to a natural fibre that isn't there with acrylic.  It has its place in the world of knitting of course, but as long as I can knit with something else, I am very happy to do so.  

This is a little distressing because I do have to finish one more Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket and then I have acrylic yarn to knit myself a variation on a Persian Dreams, the Friesland blanket by Jenise Hope.  Plus, I may have ordered too much of the blue and white, first given to me by Marcus, and may have enough to do a blanket for Marcus too.  I just have a feeling about that.  

I realized too, that I do not want to knit another wee sweater right now.  I want to knit my many other pretty things.

yesterday morning

I sat down and counted up stitches and checked my gauge again.  I knew gauge was part of my problem.  I am getting 4.5 stitches per inch with this yarn and needles combination rather than the five the pattern asked for.  I had already gone down a needle size and I already find the fabric almost stiff.    Nothing for it but to rip it back.  

The pattern does have you add four stitches under the arms.  Simply taking those out should help enormously.

after the first rip back

I knit about an inch more and then redid the counts the gauge and the math.  The sweater was still going to be much too large.  Even without the button bands, it was over twenty-one and a half inches around.  Sigh.  I pulled back again this morning, but this time, I pulled off the last increase repeat.  That changes the count and shortens the depth of the yoke and the depth of the armscye.

That is much better.  Just over twenty inches, which means when the sweater is complete, the body of the sweaters will have a circumference of about 22 inches, which is the maximum amount I wanted.  Anything bigger and it won't fit this little boy till next winter and I wanted it for this summer when they are camping.   

after the second rip back

I haven't knit quite an inch more, which is my standard to knit before you really take a good look at it, but it looks so much better.  It is starting to look like a sweater a baby can wear.  

call me content.

And now I can knit happily, knowing that I only need to finish this one little jacket for my wee fella, and then I will be able to move forward and keep working on my gorgeous Starting Point and it's rich and vibrants colours.  And then a top or two for summer.  

And a blanket for the landlord.  

Perfection in a blanket

I finished the wee blankie and it is everything I hoped for.

It is about 36 inches by 32 inches so it is exactly right for putting under baby on the grass at the park or because of the ripple of the rib, perfect for tucking around baby's chair.  Best Blankie ever.

Now I just need to finish the landlord's.  Speaking of the landlord, I managed to source enough of the soft gray smoke colourway of Remix Light to knit the lanlord a sweater of it.  It's a fibr blend I think he will apprciate.  He actually wears his Remix version a lot, particularly at this time of year, when his basement study is a bit cool. (the furnace doesn't run because it is warm upstairs)  Remix Light is even better for the non wool lovers in your house than Remix,.  It is hard to believe it but true.

I have a lot left of the yarns I made the wee blankie from.  I was hoping more would go into the blankie but no.  I was going to knit a sweater using the same yarn and I am but the sweater is turning out distressingly large.

It might fit a two year old.  It might even fit Emmett and while that would be sweet, the job is to knit a sweater to match for my wee Owen.  Since there seems to be lots of yarn, I will finish this one.  It won't take long but then I will knit one for Owen to fit in fall.  0 to 6 months size.  Aiming for the 0 size.  

I don't really enjoy knitting for babies because the things always seem to be so large.  Well, I mean I enjoy knitting for babies but I am so seldome happy with the size of things.  Sigh.  Oh well.  The blankie is perfect.

These colours are blowing my mind!

Yesterday morning, I worked very diligently on the wee baby blanket, and it is looking good for finishing this week.  But in the afternoon, I did something much more fun.

I started my version of Joji Locatelli's Sarting Point stole before I went to the kids.  I thought it might be the right thing to work on while I was playing.  Wrong.  there is much more going on here than just garter stitch.

Yesterday,, I picked it up and worked on it for a shile and I am having a lot of fun. There are twisted stitches.  There is lacey bits.  There is glorious garter stitch.

And then I came to something I liked but I really was dissappointed with the yarn I had choosen.

 

See that bit on the needle?  It is a beautiful yarn, but it just didn't work with the strong colours the others were.  It needed some punch and some vibrancy.  In the ball it looked great with all the other yarns. Knit up, it just did not work.  Plus, having the two multi coloured yarns side by side really did not work.

I went digging.  The first thing that came to mind was purple.  I had some purple out as one of the colours initially, but dropped it in favour of the darkest teal blue.  I couldn't find the original yarn I picked so I pulled out another one that I knew would work, Some Punta Yarns Mericash fingering solid.  It's a light fingering weight yarn, very like the Colour Adventure yarn I am using and like the yarn I am replacing. 

Plus I have lots of this pretty on hand. So I knit.

In the first few rows I knew this was right.  Much better and by the time I made it to the next section, fantastic!

The deep purple doesn't show up in any of the other yarn, but it makes the blues in the multi coloured yarn take on a purple hue and emboldens, enriches the greens.  It is the perfect match for the rest of it.  

I think I am really going to love this.

With a little bit of luck.

With a little bit of luck, I will finish this sweet wee blanket tomorrow.  

I can already see him snuggled in it.  

And I can't wait to whip up a quick gramps cardigan too.  

Not a monkey sock thing in sight.

Much though I love all this blanket knitting, blankets can be hard on the hands.  By yesterday afternoon, I needed somehting different.  

For the last few weeks, one of the bookks in my bathroom 'library' is my copy of Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.  I love this sock book.  It is all patterns of socks from the vintage sources, Weldon's Practical Needlework. They are not ornate in general, but are useful practical sock patterns.  I have long intended to knit all the socks in the book.

I keep getting waylaid at this pattern, Gentleman's Shooting Socks

I've knit this pattern once before, years ago and it was a kind of comfort at the time.  It was enough to keep my mind occupied with counting and tracking my place in the pattern but I could put it down and pick it up and know just where I was by knitting just a few stitches.  I wish I could say it was a really comfortable sock, but I had barely finished knitting the second sock when I lost one of the pair.  I suspect it got lost, clinging inside something I was tossing out.  It feels like the right sort of sock to be doing this week as I try to sort out where I was before the baby stuff came up.

I came home to a pile of mail.  I had packages coming in from all over the place.  I wanted to try some Tru Earth Laundry deteregent strips and they finally arrived.  I had several packages of really long shipping time things from Amazon, some movies with Peter Ustinov in them, fabric from my usual online fabric source, Fabricville, and these.

A package of suspender clips.  I know.  Weird, but...

I have some Sport yarn from Briggs and Little purchased while I was on my Epic Adventure to knit another  Kay's Tess of the D'Ubervilles Shawl. (available now on Lovecrafts).  

I loved it, but my mods to make it wide enough to tie up behind my back ended up making the shawl less than sturdy. It was like wearng a sweater without the fuss of arms, long enough at the back to keep my forever chilly lower back toasty warm, and tied at the waist to keep it neatly in place.  The only part I found difficult was the sizable knot made with the knit fabric.  

My plan has always been to knit it again but I have never been sure of how to close it.  I thought of long icords at the tips but that limits the number of ways to wear it.  In my meandering through sewing I  was looking for clips for a possible pair of overalls, and found suspender clips.  In my ripples on the pond way of  thinking this led directly to a solution for a second Tess shawl.  There will be an icord, with a clip at each end to catch and firmly secure the tips of the shawl on my back.  Further, I can use it to wear a few other shawls in my closet that I could wear as a sontag as well.  

Which just really makes me want to sepnd the entire day searching for good triangle shawls on Ravelry to wear as sontags, sigh. only I won't.  Sigh.  Maybe another day.  

   

Thinking on Sock Monkeys

Besides laundry, I did not do a whole lot yesterday.  I did knit though and have taken the wee blankie to just shy of half done.

The pattern is written for a big blanket but converting it is the simplest thing in the world.  I cast on a hundred stitches and just began.  I am using slightly smaller needles, a size 8 mm, this time rather than the patterns size 9 mm, because I have only one size 9 mm needle, I can make an 8 mm with my Addi set and I have a regular circular 8mm/32 inches.  

My size 9mm needles are still busy on the very much larger Sock Monkey Cabin Blanket for the landlord.  I was thinking about knitting on that yesterday but I would like to get this finished quickly because in a couple weeks it will be my cheeky ones third birthday and that means I will get to visit them again, though more at a distance I suspect.  And with masks. 

Once the wee baby blnket sized blanket is done, I am going to knit a very quick gramps cardigan by Tin Can Knits .  There will be yarn left from this baby blanket.  With a bit of luck, it will be enough to do a single stranded sweater where the ribbing has the shot of red through the cream and the body is the solid gray.  I have seen a few online like this and they are just too sweet.   It might even be possible to squeak a little hat to match so my wee Owen will be completely stylish for fall.  

This also opens up the possibility, because I now have the pattern,  that Grandma may just knit herself a  gramps cardigan with a sock monkey sort of air fior next fall too. 

A life back to normal

It was a busy week and though I wasn't able to be the most amazing teacher in the world (that would take a lot of skill and training as well as a completely different me) I was able to be of some help.  Thankfully.  

 

Morning snuggles with my cheeky one

Breakfast

Helping with understanding colour in science.

The itty bitty one

The big one

Chillin'

And knitting!

Mom was pulling out all the wee small things for a wee one to wear and came across this.  I knit this little Pepita by Martina Behm (her first pattern!) for my peanut when he was a wee tiny thing.

He was most impressed that I had a picture of him wearing it and that I could find it so quickly.  I was wondering if he was ever so small.

I had a blast and am going to miss all the noise and the movement and the laughter more than you can possibly know.  I am even going to miss the kid fighting. I am going to miss the little one saying wait every time I telll him to stop doing something he ought not to be doing and the horrors of a tablet falling into  a beautiful pile of whipped cream and syrup on top of your morning pancakes.  Oh the horror not once but twice and then later in the week, to the big guys phone! 

What I am not going to miss is youtube and the abomination of no filters to keep kids from things they really do not need.   

And now I am home and it feels weird.  Other than being on my epic adventure a few years ago, I haven't been away from home and my own bed for that many nights in a very long time. It feels kind of empty and aimless this morning. And yet I have so much to do.  

There are blankets to knit.  I started the wee ones Sock Monkey Blanket and had hoped to get it finished while I was there but knitting did not work during school supervision and my evenings were spent watching a movie with the big guy, my oldest grandson.   Keith's blanket is calling my name and is waiting for finishing.  And my fingers are so excited to go back to the Shetland shawl.

Plus there is sewing.  I did not have quite enough time to sew up the first peasant style blouse and there is fabric to cut for another few shirts that I want for this summer.  I finally have a respectable number of pants though now that those are complete, there will be some whole outfit sort of sewing that will include pants.  

I am even looking forward to cooking.  Whoddathunkit.

But before all of that, before anything else, there is laundry. Life back to normal.  With a vengance.

I am at my new bubble home today, busy sorting out school and reading and math and all sorts of play for my wiggly giggly Emmett.  I did think about knitting for 10 whole minutes but that was as much as I got to.  I have a feeling that it is how the week will be.  

I am having huge amounts of fun and I only hope I am helping as they need it.  

Have a lovely time yourselves.  

News this morning is rather sad.  Be you royalist or not, the Queen and Prince Philip were a fact in the lives of Canadians and this morning one of those stalwarts, one of those unerpinnings of things we know is gone and it makes me feel a bit sad, mostly for the Queen and her family.  Nations will go on, but for a family it is an loss of someone important and that makes me sad.

Such is life.  No getting away from that.

In sewing news, I am now the proud possessor of decent pants enough to go away from home for a week.  Such a relief.  Later there will be a few more pairs of casual pants and pants that are not black, but this gets me where I needed to be.  

Today I am moving on to tops.  One plain black boxy top with sleeves, and one, and possibly two peasant style blouses before I am done.  I love that look, It may not love me.  I do not care.  Two because I found another piece of fabric that is really perfect for a peasant blouse style.

It was orignally bought for blouses to wear under suit jackets for work.  I debated turning it into a dress but honestly, who am I kidding.  I really don't need a lacy looking dress.  It is too white to wear to a wedding and there will be few of those anyway for the next few years.  All my family has reached the age of between and not yet.  Even as a plain blouse this one felt almost too fancy or not right somehow for who I am now.

But I do need something for better wear.  I don't want to be in that place again where I have to find something decent under severe stress ever again.  But to have a fancy something just in case is not  sensible.  I have to look at how I live and what I do today and where I see me going in the future.  Places that I will go will be the sorts of places that I can wear a nice flowing draping pair of pants to.    A nice embroidered almost lacy looking peasant style top will look really nice and with a tank, or other top under it for a bit more warmth, will look as dressy as I ever really need to be.  With my good chain and one of my lovely pendants, almost fancy even.  But a simple pesant top won't be overdressed in this fabric going out to shop or get groceries or even for Canadian Tire or Peavey Mart.  It probably is the style I loved most in my youth and loved to wear, just this side of hippie.  

The new clothes are lovely.  It is just nice having things that are new even if it is just pants so far but you know what the best thing is?  How much I am learning.  Learning about fit, learning about ease, learning about taking something and just running with it, learning that I am not alone as a above average sized person trying to find something that fits nicely and that my frustrations with ready made are not mine alone.  It is also learning that my body is what it is and that I am okay with it, that I don't need to be other than I am.  It is so very like finding knitting all those years ago and finding a bit of that same expression of self and freedom.  But it is also acknowledging the me who sewed dolls dresses from the time I was allowed to use moms sewing machine (she had a really nice machine) and how much fun making things is.  It is like picking up threads of the past.  

The sewing goes on.

Next week while I am toddler wrangling, I suspect that I won't be able to post.  I am so looking forward to this though.  How I have missed playing with kids and babies.

Sew Much to Do

I wish I could say sewing was going well, but it is not.  It is going well enough in most ways, but I have not gotten nearly as much finished as I hoped for for no reason other than my back is not happy sitting on my chair and I am having to take more breaks than I would like.  I am trying to do lots of getting up and downs to help compensate and moving around more than usual.  Maybe with that, today will be better.

I have a pair of pants and a top to sew today.  The pants are a quick sew but the top is new so I can't really tell how it will go.  It isn't a difficult pattern, but the first time around is always more of a test than anything.  If luck is on my side, it will fit well, and I can do another top or two.  If not, I will have to adapt it before going forward.  I am considering taking this self same pattern and using it with some knit fabric to make a loose style boxy top with very narrow sleeves something akin to Joji Locatelli's Boxy!

I did wash one piece of fabric for another pattern I found online, a peasant blouse.  It's a nice piece of krinkle cotton and should be perfect for the loose gathers of a peasant blouse.

Lots to think about, more to do.

All Good Things

There was a fair bit of knitting on the shawl over the last week or so.  I was two motifs from corner one when the new yarn came in and since then, I have made strides.

I am so pleased with the way it is all working.  I used a variation on Nancy Bush's Estaonian technique for sewing straight edgings around a corner, to make sure I have a nice flat lying piece of straight lace there.  It looks as if there is a fold or a ruffle but there isn't.  I am also pretty impressed with how far down side two the knitting goes.  

If I look at this side of the work, it looks pretty fine, if I do say so myself.

However, it will have to wait.  This has to be a sewing week.  I am home this week, but will be away next week because 

Owen Michael decided it was time to arrive.  He missed my mom's birthday but he came in close enough that his Grandma (me) will remember the day he was born because of it.  His mom sent me this shot from just before he is heading home for the very first time.  My sweetums. Destined for a sock Monkey hat.  Maybe a sweater too.  And certainly a blanket.

His big brother Emmett liked him and then ignored him, but when baby was still there the next morning, he started to get the hang of having a baby brother.  His other brothers are really pleased that he has arrived safely and is home.  Me too.

Of socks.

The other morning, I was putting on my socks and realized that this pair was done.  More than done.  

As you can see they have been repaired and worn many times since, and the repairs are failing. And now, the good part of the heel has a hole.  I am calling these done.  I checked how old they were and they predate me putting everything I knit on Ravelry.  These socks have been in action for over ten years.  I think.  I have to confirm that on the blog.  There are things here that did not get to Rav.  No matter, these are very old socks.

On now, to new socks.  I have finally assembled my yarns for a couple pairs of I Scream socks from the Operation Sock Drawer book.  

The landlord figured the carmel golden colour was wrong for cones, but the better colours were gone and I didn't want to miss the sale.  Close enough to the original for me.  Ah the foolish dreams we dream but I wanted these socks for the memories of my dad and childhood and special ice cream.

And then, with all the knitting zooms I have been doing lately, my sock production for the year is sky high.  This one is a pair of tubeys using some very nice String Theory dyed yarn that I was given.  Very pretty. 

So much much more.  I have a new Grandchild, a sweet little boy who came in at a nice sturdy nine pounds even and whose name is still under disscussion.  A photo of my newest peanut will be up as soon as mama and dad say it is okay.  And, I talked with mom and dad and I am so happy that they have come thorugh all this okay.  Long may that continue.

It was a good weekend.  A lovely way to start a spring.

Quick this morning

I slept in this morning, long and good.  It is a couple of weeks since I felt this awake.  I will be working on the shawl today.  I hope to make it past corner one today.  It was not a thing I could knit while visiting with people on the zoom call yesterday.  I will try a sweater maybe.  

I found out about a new little shop in Edmonton that is carrying yarn and I am delighted about it.  Little Blue Fibre Studio is located in the Terrace Heights area of the city and is carrying a really nice selection of Canadian yarns, Briggs and Little, Custom Woolen Mills, and a few others, but the one I am most excited about is that they are carrying some of the lines from Hemp for Knitting. I have worked with one of their yarns before and loved it and I am thrilled to find someone carrying it locally.  

They also have supplies for embroidery, felting, rug hooking, macrame, and weaving too.  I can't wait till I can see it in person.