Arggggghhhhh

I picked up another on the go sock today.  I knit my heart out.  I might still be knitting

if it wasn't that today's sock is a whole different size than the sock from earlier.

Straight up gauge games.  Sigh.

It did seem a little small but then so did the first.  I hate when this happens.

Three Fer

You will be surprised when this blog tells you that this weekend was a three fer.  Three completed projects in one weekend.

1 sweater, of which there is no decent photo.  It is this because, in general, this project was an ughhhhh.  I sort of knew it.  A deep armscyce and a larger, older chest is never a good mix.  I do love the yarn and the button sides will be fine, so I am going to pop it back, and knit an upper section that works better for me.  It's a nice pattern, but we were not fated to be.

In my disappointment, I picked up a sock and early this morning, I finished that.  I am just pleased as punch about this.  It is one of the nicest yarn colour ways ever.

  Jawoll Color, colour 902.0043.  The pattern is Prism by Jaya Shrikrishnan.  It's such a pleasing blend of pattern and yarn.  All together, a very rewarding knit.

You can also see that I did my first learnt toe cast on, which is cast on and knit across and then knit down the backside picking up and knitting as you go.  The heel is Maia Spins Gusseted Toe Up heel.

And then, with a few hours left, I put another older project out of its misery.  I had decided what to do with my Onerva shawl and just needed to clean it up and finish it.

I wanted to knit a full square but I couldn't quite sort out my problem with the decreases.  I just don't have the mental energy to think about that right now, and I really wanted to get it out of the WIP pile.  So I ripped back to the midpoint, and knit some garter stitch rows and we are good.  It is done.  the yarn is going to have a ton of growth on blocking and the size is going to be just right when it is done.  Blocking is going to have to wait though.  It's just too much effort of put it out with kiddies around.

It was  three fer.  They didn't all go perfectly, but that has never stopped me before.

Well actually, it has, but I am working on that.

When I get to knitting

Things actually happen.  Projects actually get completed.  One of the wonders of the world.  When you go and do stuff, stuff actually gets done.

 I'm on the bottom of the  vest, about at the waist.  It doesn't look like it, but the armscyce is long and lower than average.  It is what gives the vest its very laid back and modern look.

I hope.

Update:  Marcus was helping today.  I didn't quite get it all cleaned up before I published!

Back to Work

Back to knitting on my sweater.  It's easy to make good progress when there are so few stitches.

The back is under it.

I quite simply love working with this yarn.  It's mule spun, so it has an entirely different hand than other yarns.  It is said it is more like knitting with a handspun, but I couldn't say.  I haven't knit with enough handspun to be able to really say.

What it does remind me of is knitting with Noro Kureyon.  There is that same full feel, as if you are holding something really substantial.  It feels warm even as each individual stitch is formed. You know that warm is this yarns native state.  It is a simple old fashioned strength to it that has a place in this modern world.

And a funny thing.  When I posted yesterday about the book, I did not expect to find out what happened to it.  It must have been missing for a while, but my spinning friend purchased it at a library sale of discarded books a couple years ago.  Which delights me, except for my strong feeling1 that libraries ought to collect books and keep them.

A Library Addition

Hard Copy!

With my early arrival to fair Saskatoon,  There was plenty of time for a nice long stop at my favourite local yarn store.  No one was waiting on me.  No time pressure at all.  That was a rare gift I gave myself and I had a wonderful time.

The first thing I spotted that I knew I would be going home with was a book. Meg Swansen's  Knitting.  I came across this book at my local library years ago, but somewhere in the last 8 years, it was taken from the library.  Sad that this happens to books, but some people don't like to share.

I looked for a used copy but for a long time, all I could find was used copies for a very big price.  This copy is new and while not quite pristine (It was in the shop for a long time), it is lovely and all mine.

This was the inspiration for my first colour work sweater, a tiny baby sweater.  I think I have some posts on this blog about it, but I don't have any project post on it on Ravelry so I can't show you, but I used the colours from Meg's lovely cover sweater to pick and choose the colours for my wee sweater and did the corrugated ribbing as she does hers, with a few rows of all knitted stitches at the transitions. 

Over the years, I would go on Ravelry and look at projects knitted from it, and dream about the lovely designs, and plan how I would used the calm Lupine patterning and the vibrant Phoenix.  I dreamed about the lovely belted Saddle Sleeve Jacket.

I took the book, and then sat and we planned out a sweater from it.  I still need a good warm sweater to replace my fluffing out down coat, and even though my last try was the ultimate disaster of Romulan shoulders, I am undaunted. 

I will do a sensible Rams Horn Cardigan with it's soft variations of grays.  I won't make the shoulders quite so deep a sleeve, but otherwise, this completely patterned design will be followed other than doing what I need to do to make it fit nicely.  Its double stranded worsted weight nature should be perfect for winter when worn with my  vest (which will cut wind) for all but the very coldest of days. 

I still have to finish the sweater from Thanksgiving weekend, but then this!  It's all me time!

Or it will be soon.  I still have to work on Pole for my daughter in law, but that is such lovely easy knitting, that once I get to it, it won't be a long knit.

So on to exciting times.  Colourwork and a book that I have long admired.

Arrived

I did leave home yesterday. The weather reports just looked bad, and trying to outrun the storm seemed like a good idea.  I do not like freezing rain.  There are 2 major stops along the way and if I got tired, I would stop.  So I stopped at Lloydminster and checked the weather.  Storm was upgraded to a watch.  I kept driving.  I stopped at North Battleford.  An alert on there too.  I kept driving.

I called my brother to find a place to stay in Saskatoon.  He didn't answer.  When I talked with him this morning, he said he crashed early last night and never checked his phone when he crawled to bed. It was too late to call my sisters or my mom and dad, so I did what I was originally going to do (if I had stopped along the way) and found a nice hotel with a comfy bed and complimentary coffee.

I am going to take myself out for breakfast and then will pop over to my local yarn store, Prairie Lily Knitting to play with yarn. There is another shop here in the city, that I haven't been to and I might stop there too.  Then tea and shopping at the best bookstore on  the prairies, McNally Robionson.

I am on vacation and I intend to indulge.

In the meantime...

Wee mittens for my little boys!

Wherein I Spin

 I have been meeting a friend to spin once a week since I moved back to my big house.  It is one of the mainstays of my week. 

It means there is actual spinning production, though it seems that it has not increased the amount of finished yarn I produce. 

I have come to realize that I have a little thing about plying, it seems and the more I watch other spinners and talk and listen and read, the more I come to understand just what the heck my trouble is.  One day soon, I will have enough fibre spun up to see if the things I have been thinking about will change plying where my biggest difficulties lie, in my head.

Isn't that the way though.

In the meantime, I have singles.

 Not evenly loaded on the bobbin.  Sigh.  I sorely need a needle nosed pliers in my spinning kit. I love the sliding flyer hooks, but you do have to squeeze them firmly once in a while, to give them a little tension on the flyer.   It is several months since I did that, and it really is starting to show up as the yarn winds on.  No matter.  One of my solutions to my plying thing is going to be rewinding bobbins before plying.  That will give me a chance to even it up some. 

But, I am pretty pleased with my singles spinning.  This bobbin isn't nearly as pretty as the first, but I am becoming more even the more hours I clock on my wheel.

I took some pictures of the loveliness happening on the other wheel.  My one still photo was horridly fuzzy so I give to you the very lovely, but almost surreal pictures.

Everything looks still, but for the flyer and the yarn itself.  the yarn looks almost as if it was drawn on by an animators hand.  Mildly surreal in a still photo.  You don't see the lovely work in detail, but you get a really really great look at the colours of this braid.

There is some knitting to do today, and then, if the weather report this morning is anything to go by, some packing and possibly some driving.  The weather is supposed to get bad again as rain and snow are in the forecast.  The snow is doable, but I am not a fan of driving in freezing rain.  Leaving early might be a smart move. 

Pretty Pretty

I finished the back of the sweater yesterday and was left with an entire evening where if I could have knit more, I would have.  My hands gave out, long before my desire to knit did yesterday.  I was left, digging through my current projects, looking at books and oh so pretty pictures, and not a whole lot else. 

This morning I got up and I was so ready to knit, much readier to knit than to write, much readier to knit than to shower.  I sat myself down to work it out of my system.

If you have to work the need to knit out of your stem before you start your day, the sensible thing to do is to pick up socks.  There are 3 pairs in the works here, and all of them are pretty.  This morning demanded pretty but not requiring brains.  I picked up these. 

Slip stitch is easy to tell if you have messed up a row, and there is only one possible thing you can do wrong.  This was the pair that struck my fancy today.  The longer I work with this yarn, the more I like it.  It is such a stimulating pattern and I still think about going back to get another skein. 

It's time to get my day underway.  I am spinning today with a friend and it is a school morning here for my granddaughter.  Plenty to do in a short few hours and pretty knitting to get me started.   

Not Quite a Sweater

It's not quite a sweater yet, but it is coming along.

What with one thing and another, the weekend, where I pretended I was away, did not have nearly as much knitting time as I hoped.  It was suggested that since I was here, I ought to cook a turkey for those who could make it at short notice.  So I did.  It took a healthy day out of my knitting time though, but still, I am pleased with the way it is coming along.

The pattern is  the Linnea Tunic , a nice button sided garment with a very relaxed sort of look.  I want the tunic length to wear with a new pair of pants that I have that simply demands the longer length.

I am not 100% sure this is going to look good on me, or even look reasonably decent (which is kind of what I shoot for in the first place).  It is entirely possible that it will accent my hips, but I hope not. My solution is to knit it as if it was a regular sweater, even as it maintains the general shape of the original.  While I do plan to have buttons at the sides for decoration, I am planning to sew the sides at least to my waist for ease of wearing.

In a lot of ways, my Linnea is going to be an inspired by.  My gauge is very different.  14 stitches on 4 inches rather than the original, and the bottom of necessity, will have increases across the back hip line and will have a modified a-line shape on the sides.

It's early days, and I need to order 2 more skeins of yarn, at least, but here is hoping for a new wearable garment soon!

Updated:  Yarn ordered.  Good to go.

So...

I had travel plans for the weekend.  It didn't work out.  

 Yeah.  It happens.  It is October.

 I would still drive but my mum called and said to wait till next weekend.  My mom still cleans 2 condos and this snow is going to give her a load of extra cleaning.  So when she says she isn't wanting me to come this weekend it isn't personal, it is that she is going to be pooped and won't get to have a good visit. And I would really like a good visit with mom.  

Plus whatever cooking plans she has are that much harder to make happen when you don't feel good about driving on icy roads an aren't comfortable going out to get groceries.  And my mom is all about the cooking.

So, in order not to upset the weekend plans of family upstairs, I'm going to keep myself busy and knit me a quick sweater.  The debate is raging over which sweater and which yarn, but that is part of the fun. 

Mittens

When my granddaughter, Cassie came home from school yesterday, she told me that her fingers were chilly.  She said it very directly and seriously and in the way that seemed to be saying, Grandma, can you fix this?

Of course I can.

I'm halfway done almost before she was finished asking.

Tiny mittens.  Left over sock yarn.  Best instant gratification project ever.

And then there is Marcus and Carter and Isaac...and then they need heavier ones for the deep cold of winter...

A Stash

What with the small acquisition yesterday, I realized just how long it is since I did any real maintenance on my stash recorded at Ravelry. 

I do like having it there.  It's really handy for dreaming and planning future knits.  It is the first yarn store you go to every day and it is the one you should shop at first. 

But if you don't maintain that record, then how will you know, and how will you track and record it?  Everybody has their way, of course.  Mine just happens to be Raveley.  It's been just over three years since I did any real work on it.  It was a round to it sort of project .  I wanted to take photos this time too, so that I don't have to search for colours when I am looking on Ravelry too. 
It's a big job and there is going to be a reckoning. 

It will be a while,till I get there.  One more move to go and then peace and tranquility?  Maybe.

A major new road opened today in Edmonton.  The Anthony Henday Drive rings the city.  Construction began in the 90s, though some roads were there even earlier, with the major push in the last 10 years.  It is high time.  I took a drive right round the city.  In heavy traffic!  I wasn't the only one just out on a lovely day on a Sunday afternoon cruise on the Henday.

While I was out I took a minor detour and picked up some lovely stuff.  A local Raveler was selling stash she isn't 100% in love with and I came away with some lovely things.  For no good reason, but hey.  What the heck.

 Some stunning Three Irish Girls Merino and Silk.  This is going to be a vest.  It is a little short on the gray but I have something that will, I think, work to beef up the metres fairly seamlessly.  Failing that, I will see if I can source another or will make do, and turn the colours around from my original vision.

And here we have another vest.  Again, it's three of the more simply coloured skeins and two of another and a single of a third just to make up yardage.  But again, I think it will work together and look great.


A sunny October afternoon is good for stuff like this.  Dreams and schemes and feeling good!

Isaac's sweater

This blogger delivered a sweater today.  A seriously fine sweater that fits just right.  

Just long enough for a year or twos growth and exactly right in the sleeves.  

It everything I was looking for from this project and everything I hope he was looking for in a sweater.

And his mom really liked it too.  Which means I really have to get my buns in gear and finish hers!

Wondering what happened to Thursday?

Me too.  i have no idea where it went but it sure did go.  ah well.

I did the final bind off on Isaac's sweater yesterday.  All the knitting is done.  Only ends to weave in and the zipper facing to be sewn to it's final resting place.

 

It's going to look great!  And it will fit him for sure.  In fact, I hope it isn't too large.  I know he likes it a little large so I am hoping it is exactly what he likes in a sweater.

Hmm.  It also appears that I have to sew the side seams on the pockets too.   

I think I will see him this weekend, so there is a little pressure to get it all done.  

Then just one more must knit till I am free to knit for me, and to knit more than socks.

There was also a little sock knitting.  This was completed.

And for my commenter yesterday, the yarn is Paton's Kroy and the needles are 2.25, which is a little tighter than I generally use, but the only reason I don't use it regularly is that 2.25 mm needles are harder than average to get in the shorter length I prefer (6 inches).  The needles are Susan Bates, and while they are good 8 inch needles, they don't stand up to the test I put them to.  They are all bent out of straight after just one firmly knit sock. 

It should also be noted that I added four stitches to the pattern, hiding it in each purl colum between pattern stitches.  I deviated from the pattern and knit a ribbed top of cuff and a heel flap heel rather than the short row heel as given.  Just to be ornery.

Nuts to me.

I was spinning yesterday and decided to go to the knitting circle in the afternoon.  How nice it was to visit with everybody again.  But I realized before I went, that I only had one pair of socks to work on and it was not in a good place for group knitting.

Off I went to pickup a bit of yarn and some needles.  I started my Christmas shopping too, so it was an all round good stop.

And then, over a bite to eat, I had to pick a pattern.  I went with Nutkin. 

Nutkin is a really nice textural pattern, one of the most knit sock patterns on Ravelry.  And I am pretty pleased with my version too.

It's a shorter than average sock for the pattern, but that is what works for me.  I've switched lots up on it.  Ribbed cuff instead of a fussy one.  Heel flap heel.  Still for all its differences, it is the heart of a Nutkin.

Somedays

Some days there isn't a lot to say, other than there is knitting and that there is also not knitting. 
there was a fair bit of knitting yesterday, but most of it isn't quite where I can show it off.  Later this week perhaps.   

For now, there are socks.  Pretty blue socks that move along so fast it hardly seems I am knitting them at all. 

It feels as if there was not more than a half an hour spent on these.  I know it was more, but it just feels like less. Relativity in action.  B)

The most amazing day

Yesterday was the most amazing day.  A completely unexpected amazing day

I stayed at Mundare on Saturday night and did not get home till mid morning.  When I got home, I was told it's going to be busy today and we are glad you are here.  I more or less, kept the kids out of the way of the big stuff, while making sure Cassie saw the interesting stuff going on.  Mommy had a photo shoot and we were awash in beautiful costume.

 Just a few shots as they dressed and prepped, and a few closeups of the amazing dress.

I took a few closeups but nothing could adequately express the beauty, the feel of the work in these garments. 

These are each hand made and all are antique.  They are part of the collection of two of the ladies who organized the day and the project behind this most amazing photo shoot.  The collections goal is to have an example of the traditional costume of each area of the Ukraine. 

The most spectacular work was not the very ornate, flowery, beaded wonders, though they were spectacular.  The most amazing were the detailed work on the white on white dresses and the very small densely worked details of this simple costume. 

It looks very simple, doesn't it? 

But look at this detail shot. 

Breathtaking.

And that sweater?

Today is supposed to be delivery day for the sweater.  I'm not there yet.  I am there tomorrow and the sweater has problems.  I have to redo the three needle bind offs and pick up a different number of stitches so the zipper sits smoothly in the whole.  It is a little crinkly looking right now.  Soon mended though.  Time for that this afternoon.

For now, I have socks. Well, a sock but the second is my daytime knitting with the kids.

 Isn't that a nice one?  I am so pleased with this colourway that I might go back and pick up exactly the same skein just to knit it again!

I knit this toe up with a more usual toe up toe. (It's a lot of toe ups in a single sentence) It also uses Maia's Toe Up Gusseted Heel  which explains how to make a gusseted heel by winging it when all you knew was a topdown heel. It's some great instructions if putting a heel flap on the bottom isn't something your mind wraps around easily.  It also is really good instructions for getting the fit just right. 

This is a really nice pattern, Prism, for when you just want a little something more than vanilla. 

So socks seem to keep happening when nothing else does.  There is almost always knitting.  Almost.  I wish there was more.

The knitter and the very good day

Yesterday was a good day.  It was the kind of day that you just don't get too often, or maybe it is that you really don't notice it.  It was great actually, not in huge big ways, but in the warm fuzzies that fill your life with comfort and strength and a sense that you will make it.  Where and what it is, is not known yet of course, but suffice it to say it was a really good day.

And then I looked at my knitting. 

I have to back up a little.  I started the day with spinning as I usually do on Tuesdays.  Someday I will even show you.  We started a little later than usual, though I left home at the same time.  I decided that I would do a little sock knitting before my spinning partners arrived. 

I picked up the knitting and worked a bit on the heel.  Then I noticed an error on the lace.   I would have to go back.  I worked back the half dozen or so rows to before the error.  Once I did that, I found a second error.  I had forgotten to restart the lace after the heel turn.

 And I knit merrily on a few rows more.

And then it hit me. 

This is a top down sock.  I had just started putting lace on the bottom of the foot.  Sigh. 

I took it out and threw the whole thing down in disgust.  I started spinning.  My partner came and things improved.  We talked about spinning and fibre and the upcoming fall sale by the Edmonton Weavers guild.  I'm thinking I ought to go just to see the samples and how things work up and to talk to weavers.  Weaving is a bug that has bitten hard, but not one that will happen right now.  There is just no room and no time.

The day got better after a very successful appointment in which I was pleased and relieved.  Suffice it to say, that the small things I wish to do in my life can happen.  On the my next appointment.

Things were running late and for the very first time, I had time to knit.  The sock is now long enough to measure for fit.  I didn't mind the delay at all.  It was rather nice.  And then I got the very encouraging news that I am pretty darn normal and that all the little things of the past couple years have been weathered and resolved or otherwise managed. 

It all wound up being a very encouraging sort of day. 

The wee ones above my room are making noise and are moving about.  For all the stresses and strains of living with one of my kids and his family, as I do right now, listening to the little ones start the day is one of the nicest things. 

It is an encouraging start to another very good sort of day.

Just one more day

I worked on the sweater this weekend, to the exclusion of everything else. 

 

Things moved along smoothly enough, I think, though at this point, it is a little hard to tell if I have it right.  If it isn't right, it is a matter of gauge.  I put stitches on the zipper to match the gauge of the knitting so that when the zipper is knitted in, it all matches smoothly.  However, at first glance, the one side of the zipper that is installed isn't quite as perfect as I would like.   

I have a little bit of work to do before I can see if I have it right and the shortcomings I see are just construction issues that will be fixed once the sweater is done.  Time will tell all.

I really need just one more day.  One good long day and it would be done.

If you give a mouse a cookie

There is a children's story called if you give a mouse a cookie, which, if you know it, you already know where this post is going.  But it is a truth, universally acknowledged among knitters, that, if you leave a ball of brightly coloured sock yarn sitting around, you will end up with socks.

 I have bright but when I started knitting with it, I found something unexpectedly spectacular, far beyond the simplicity of bright.

 This is the instep of the sock, using Jaya Srikrishnan's Prism pattern. It's a nice little slip stitch thing.  Pure and simple.  I will show you the back side so you can see the difference between plain vanilla and Prism.  

It is very reminiscent of the kind of colours you get on the very complex colourwork of Turkish socks.  Either way, I win.

I took a bit of a stop at my local Micheal's this evening.  I really just went for the embroidery floss, but I haven't been at that store for a long time.  I wandered through the yarn aisles too and came home with some of the very nice Lion Brand Sock Ease and a couple balls of Kroy in a colourway I did not have.

I put this in a bag that I cannot see through...

because if you leave a ball of sock yarn in plain sight,...you will end up with socks.

What sweater?

I am an olympic level champion procrastinator. 

It takes me absolutely no effort at all to find something else absorbing in order to avoid working on the sweater.  In this case it is particularly goofy, because I already did the pickup for the stitches for the button band and all I have to do right now is knit for 8 or 10 rows.  It is silly to be avoiding it but the evidence quite clearly shows, that is what I am doing.

I did talk about starting another sock to knit while I was upstairs.  And I did.  I picked something that would be fun and lacy and where there was something new to learn.

I started the Brussels Lace Socks from Stephanie Van Der Linden's Around the World in Knitted Socks.  The pattern begins with a folded over cuff and I haven't done one of those yet.  Fiddly, if I might say, but very nice once it is complete.  We shall see how it goes in the wearing.  I need a good stretchy cuff and I do hope that this works out. 

And then I just kept knitting.  It is s simple little chart, and because it is a sock, the knitting and the chart rows move along swiftly.  It is entirely possible that, after years, since 2007, of knitting plain vanilla socks, I have been bitten by whatever bug it is that drives people to knit patterned socks.

I have knitted my way through 4 plus hours of 'The Code' (out of Australia and pretty darn good.) and gone through the first repeat of the chart.  There are two repeats on the calf portion of the sock, so I guess I would now be about one quarter of the way through this project.  Thing is, my spirit is very, very willing to keep working but my hands are giving up.

I had a good talk with myself about knitting to long and injuring myself.  I might not get to knit at all tomorrow, and that would be rest enough, right?  but I am expecting a fairly quiet day.  Cassie has just started preschool so it is just Marcus and myself tomorrow morning.  Marcus gets in a lot less trouble without his big sister helping.   The afternoon is nap time, so that isn't a problem.  There could be a lot of knitting time. 

It is also late.  I get up early.  There is that.  School mornings are always a little rushed so keeping routine is very important in the excitement of school for my sweet thing. 

I must quit knitting.  The stopping place is right.  It is late.  My hands need a break.  I have every reason to put my work aside and go to bed. 

But oh how I want...

Completion

I think I am ok with all the sock knitting I have been doing lately.  I ought to be working on the sweater, and though I have started it, it is not without it trauma drama.  Maybe tomorrow I will talk about that.

But today was spinning day and sitting at son 2's new house waiting for the furnace repair guy.  How lovely it was to sit in such a bright and sunny kitchen.  Or it was once the furnace was fixed.  And my spinning company, Frazzledknitter, brought some muffins and there was tea and good conversation.

When I got home, there was my granddaughter, who had her first day of preschool, and was so excited to talk about it, so I didn't get a chance to sit down and knit till much later in the evening.  All I had energy for was socks. 

So it was a good thing that I had a pair of socks that were oh so close to completion. 

Such a bright and cheery pair were the perfect answer to a period of sluggish knitting.  It was a great little pattern.  Just enough pep to keep you going on and on.  

It is a simple little knit and purl pattern, that recurs exactly often enough to keep you wanting to knit just a little more, and then just a little more.  Good for what ails you.

I have three sets of sock needles that are now empty.  I feel an incredible urge to cast on a bunch just to scratch the itch.  I won't though.  I can be firm with myself right?  I can be strong against the power if interesting sock patterns, right?  I'm not a slave to socks, am I?

We shall see.

Something in the air

The Fall air must be funny.  It is making me do all kinds of things I don't normally do.  Knitting a sock pattern

obsessing over finishing a sweater rather than being totally comfortable with it sitting in the WIP bin for a year (OK, this is valid.  He is growing like a weed.)

And this.

I bought not just one knitting magazine, but 2. 

I haven't bought knitting magazines on paper for several years.  If I did buy them, I was buying a digital copy and there was something I really really wanted in them.  Heck, I don't buy regular magazines of any kind.  They are all just too expensive and they are, in essence a throw away item.  Now, a book on the other hand...

But these magazines just looked so fresh and...

So they came home with me, and I really really enjoyed the reads and the ads and the thumbing through paper.  But as much as I like it, these are pretty much throw away things and before long, they will be in the bin.  I will pull any patterns that I am positive I will want to knit.  The next batch of magazines I buy will be digital.  It makes so much more sense.

But just for this moment in time, I am really enjoying the paper.

Binding off

I bound off a shawl today.  It was magic. I love that part.  It doesn't matter if it is a shawl or a sweater or a pair of socks.  I just love the cast off.

When you cast off stitches, it is the final proof that you did something.  That you completed a task that you set yourself and nobody but you did that.  In that moment, all the things that you ever felt that you failed at, or weren't good enough to do become invisible and fall by the way side.  Nobody did this but you.  No one did it in exactly the same way as you, or worked with the same yarns, or knit in the same flaws. 

It is yours and despite its quirks and flaws (or not) it is a finished thing, utterly unique and yet  part of a greater whole.  It is one of a group of many other shawls made using the same pattern.  It touches the thoughts and minds of knitters from all over the world as they interpreted this same design and connects you to your people:  knitters.

No one can take this away from you.

Right.  I did say that I was going to finish that sweater, didn't I?

Quiet now

This late posting comes to you via Mr. Marcus, who is two today.  It was a very busy morning opening presents and listening to a small boy squeal in delight at his Peppa the Pig figures.  They are off this morning for preschool orientation for Mr. Marcus' big sister.  Honestly, it was hard to tell who was more excited today.

And then there was knitting.  As in none.  It has been two days since I picked up needles and knit.  And with everything I am, I can feel it.  It's funny how this isn't an addiction (it isn't) and yet, the days seem just incomplete somehow if I didn't make time to knit a little.  My day feels like a cake without icing.  Like poutine without the cheese.  It feels as if some vital ingredient is missing.  It tastes ok, but it isn't anything to write home about.

I have been thinking of knitting, though.  A lot.  I've been looking at patterns and deciding what to knit next, and do I want a cozy warm fair isle vest of do I want a soft blue pullover?  Lots of questions, many answers, and nary a decision in the mix.

Today is a quiet day for me.  I don't have kiddies to watch, so I am going to attack Isaac's sweater and get the zipper in before I lose my nerve. 

That is the plan, no putting it aside.  If I wait longer he will grow out of it before I get it to him.

The things you never thought of.

I am a pretty ordinary person, not generally given to grandiosity.  I never thought I would be one of those people who wore shawls.  I just couldn't see me putting up with the fuss.

And yet, having become a knitter, I adore shawl making and even more, shawl wearing.

Big shawls. Little shawls.  Light lacy things of fine yarn.  Plain heavy warm ones.  I adore the feel of that little bit of warmth over the top of my back.

 Shawls are instant warmth and it is a wonder we ever stopped wearing them.  Sweaters are fine, but lots of times, a shawl is the real answer to being warm.

In case you wondered, I am airing shawls today and generally making them ready for winter and heavy winter rotation.  I love this time of year.

Something Not different

I had the biggest urge to knit on Saturday morning. Huge.  Giant.  But I did not have the brainpower to do anything serious.

I dug in the boxes and out popped the new sock yarn skeins.  New, as in they haven't made it into the sock stash container.  I pulled out a random ball and went searching for a pattern.

Yes.  I did.  Went searching for a pattern.  That seems to be a regular thing lately.  I want to knit socks, but if I start a new pair, there is always this niggling thought that maybe it is time to knit sock patterns. By then it was time to go watch the kiddies for the morning.  I spent another couple of hours searching when I came back down to my knitterly den.

I thought very seriously about Skew socks, but...I don't recall why I ruled them out.  I think it may have been a gauge thing.  They are so innovative that gauge would be crucial and I just didn't feel like doing that work.  Lazy am I.  What I really needed was a pattern 'lite.'

I eventually ended up with the Swirl Socks.

It's amazing.  These have just the right touch of that special sock something that makes you unable to stop knitting no matter how exhausted your hands are.  It's like knitting stripes only more so.  Like stripes on steroids.  You cannot stop knitting and when you do stop, you cannot sleep because your brain is still busy working.  It's counting and purling and...

Well, you know.  I finished 3/4 of the first sock late on Saturday.  Then I finished it and started the second sock in bits and pieces of time on Sunday.

    They are bright and cute and all the things needed to banish a wee case of the heel and toe blues.

I have heels to do on two pairs of socks, and then there is going to be a number of days doing repairs on socks. 

Only then will the sock drawer be fit for winter.  Till then, a whole new pair, heels worked in, are almost ready.  And that bright Fluoromania colour is going to lift my spirits through the darkest of winter nights. 

Gallivanting.

I don't think I knit at all yesterday.  I was gallivanting. 

My second son took possession of his house yesterday and I am so excited for him.  And me!  It will be my next move and will be my last with a little luck.  Or at least, the last for many years.

Plus, there is a garden.  I will have a real garden, not huge but a garden.  And manageable flower beds that are well filled and maintained.  The only thing it lacks is that it faces north and south with only one bedroom window east.  I won't have my morning light pouring in, but that's ok.  The trade off is that the living room ceiling has a light.  And fan, but the light is so much a bonus to me.  No more feeling like I am working in the dark.  The living room will be more or less my territory  and it will be a fine stdio/study/library. 

And closets!  Tons of closets.  Darn.  I hear little people.  I must get a move on.  The short people are hungry.