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28
Aug 2010

Baby Surprise Jacket

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I took a lot of knitting when we went on vacation and had lots of fun knitting and also doing a bit of yarn shopping.  As for knitting, I took several projects but the real project was the EZ Baby Surprise Jacket.  If you’ve never made one, go and run to get the pattern, some needles and some yarn and give it a try.  It’s an addictive pattern and you have to sort of have blind faith that it all work out and turn into an actual garment when you’re done.  and, one row adds after the other and it grows and grows and you just can’t put it down.  It works with all kinds of different yarns but it really is attractive with handspun……… I’m already plotting for several more with one of them that will be made from some handspun that softly shifts from a dark to a light tone of the same colour family.

So, here is my first finished baby surprise jacket and believe me, there will be more.  I don’t think I’ll have the patience to do the adult version but I’m looking forward to other small ones!!

EZ Baby Surprise Jacket - Handspun Yarn

I finished it off with the cutest little heart buttons that I had at home.  I did run out of handspun and I had just shy of 300 yards, knitted on 4mm needles so I’m thinking I need a bit more next time.  I did go out and find the lovely coordinating commercial yarn to finish it off and it actually finished it off so nicely that I might always finish it off with a solid colour…….. don’t you think?

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05
Apr 2010

I have so much to catch up on

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it’s insane!!!  How could I be so blog lazy for so long???  Did the Ravelympics take everything out of me?  Well, I don’t know but I think part of it is that there is so much going on that the blog always gets the least attention.

I guess I’ll start way back when and go in little spurts untilI catch up……..

After the Ravelympics were done, the first thing I did was finish a pair of handspun socks with some gorgeous handspun from Crown Mountain Fibres.  This had been sitting in my stash for a bit but socks seemed like the thing to cast on.  They were a great knit:

Socks and Fingerless Mittens

Knitted on 2.5 mm Hiya Hiya stainless steel needles (my recent most favourite needles) and just my basic top down sock pattern.  The yarn was the gorgoues SW Merino in She’s Like a Rainbow – 3 plied.  I had quite a bit left when I was done so I decided on a quick pair of fingerless mittens.  I love the set!!!

It’s Easter Monday.  We had a lovely long weekend and I’m cherishing that today is another day off for us.  I’m trying to get all kinds of creative things done around here including some chainmailleing, some picture taking, some weaving, some knitting and some spinning.  My current project on the wheel is some super soft baby camel/silk which is a pure pleasure to spin. 

I will try to keep the updates coming over the next few days!!!!

Category: Finished Projects, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Spinning  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment
28
Feb 2010

Go Canada…….. Go!!!

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While the Canadian Hockey team was getting ready to go into overtime at today’s fantastic last sports event of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, I was sitting at my computer, officially crossing the Ravelympic finish line with my projected.  I finished……… YEAH!!!

Here is the collage of my finished handspun Multnomah – it is such a fabulous pattern.  I know I will knit it again – with handspun or with some of my commercial yarns.  It’s a great little pattern.

Ravelympics 2010 - The The Finish Line - Multnomah Shawl

It was a fabulous 2 weeks.  I wish I had taken in more of the action but it seemed a rather large challenge getting around all the people with the little creatures.

I feel accomplished that I got this project done.  During the week, I have to tell you more about my fun shopping trip to my fave LYS, 88 Stitches

Category: Finished Projects, Ravelympics  Tags: , , , , ,  2 Comments
25
Aug 2009

Travel Knitting

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So, when we hit the road for Sock Summit, I had several knitting projects with us.  After all, our entire vacation consisted of about 1,800 km of driving.

I set out our first day of driving starting this baby blanket that had to be knit for a baby shower next Sunday.  It is now finished but I didn’t have it all finished by the end of our trip but I did make good progress.

Jordyn's Baby Blanket

Jordyn's Baby Blanket

The yarn is Puffin from Crystal Palace and it’s super soft and fleecy but it also pills like crazy so on my arrival down in Portland, I was covered in baby mint coloured fuzz – of course, to top it off, I was wearing black pants.  Yup, and that’s how I went to the opening night of the marketplace.  But really, any knitter would understand, wouldn’t they?

Most of my class time was spent knitting my niece’s scarf.  It’s for her birthday and it went in the mail today.  The handspun is one of my first handspun’s from last year when I started spinning.  It’s a lovely SW merino in great, funky colours.  Just right for a 8-year old…. well, she did pick it.  I finished knitting most of it while we were in Portland but I did finish it up and fringe it right here, back at home, the other night.  It’s done in a simple mistake rib pattern with a fun fringe.

Sophia's Scarf Close-Up

Sophia's Scarf Close-Up

Sophia's Birthday Scarf

Sophia's Birthday Scarf

 My other knitting project was done “under the gun”.  Little Miss was so insistent on her fingerless mittens that I had to comply.  I knitted those from our trip from Portland to Leavenworth and finished them up as we headed out of Leavenworth.  Hot summer weather and she wore them for the longest time.  I like the new marketing idea….. Nintendo DS Fingerless Mittens:

Nintendo Fingerless Mittens

Nintendo Fingerless Mittens

Fun handspun fingerless mittens

Fun handspun fingerless mittens

This was handspun that I spun really quite bulky.  A lovely merino from the lovel Ginny of Fat Cat Knits.  Gotta love those fun/bright colours and the yarn just screamed bulky to me.  I think the colourway was called neonicity.

And the rest of my travel time – after leaving Portland – and when I wasn’t working on any of the other projects were my “sock summit” socks – made with yarn bought on the last morning of the market place from Kimber of Fiber Optic.  It’s from her line of batik yarns and the colours are just fabulous.  I used a simple waffle pattern and went to town with my new yarn and my new HiyaHiya DPNs.  I might be getting my time lines mixed up here because I might not have worked on the Nintendo mittens between Portland and Leavenworth because I think I immediately cast on these socks when we hit the road and I made fabulous progress.  I finished them up as we were heading down the Coquihalla heading into Hope.

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Batik Sock Summit Socks

That’s all she wrote in terms of travel knitting.  Not bad though, eh?

Category: Finished Projects, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Spinning  Tags: , , , , ,  One Comment
25
Jun 2009

Finished Lacy Ribs

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Yahoo, I have some finished socks to show off.  I finished the Lacy Rib socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up.  This was a great little summery pair of socks to knit.  Here are some FO shots:

Lacy Rib Socks - Size M - 2.25 mm needles - Yarn: Tofutsies

Lacy Rib Socks - Size M - 2.25 mm needles - Yarn: Tofutsies

Lacy Ribs Pattern Detail

Lacy Ribs Pattern Detail

Lacy Ribs & JR

Lacy Ribs & JR

JR really likes to get his picture taken these days and he always wants to see the instant replay of his pictures on the digital camera.  He’s very cute.  The reason the above picture isn’t much better is because I was shooting off the internal memory rather than my memory card and had ran out of memory.  The cool feature of the camera was though that when I took that picture, it gave me a message on the screen after releasing the shutter that someone had closed their eyes in the picture.  It detected JR’s closed eyes.  Love it!!!!

Back the the socks.  The Lacy Ribs socks were a great knit but I sure had a few issues with it:

  • I started to knit the lace pattern around the whole foot on the first sock once I finished the toe but realized right away and frogged back.  On the second sock, I knitted almost the entire foot to where I had to start the in-step increases when I realized I had, once again, pattern around the whole foot rather than doing plain stocking stitch on the bottom of the foot.
  • I had huge tangling issues with the yarn.  It started with me pulling out a huge blob (I figure almost 1/3 of the ball) out of the centre when I went to cast on.  It took me hours to detangle and finally, I actually sacrificed some yarn because I just couldn’t get it all untangled.  There was a time when ferocious Sam also got a hold of the yarn and I had more tangling issues.  Also, when I ripped back foot #2, I had some issues with the wound yarn slipping off the ball and creating more tangles.  Again, I spent countless hours until I finally gave up and ripped and joined the yarn.  A few rows later, lo and behold,  I had a knot in the yarn and had to break the yarn again.  I have more stops and starts in the second sock than I’ve ever had in a sock.
  • There is something about the Tofutsies yarn that gets Sam, the ferocious kitten, all excited.  More so than even a wool yarn.  On the lable it states that a portion of the yarn is Chitin which it says is made from Crab shells and the like materials.  I’m thinking there’s some scent or something fishy left that makes him go crazy.  You should have seen me knit those socks……… I had to basically sit on the ball of yarn or he would keep stealing the yarn.  The yarn would be in my purse and I’d get the purse ready to go in the morning, sitting by the front door and he’d growl and steal the yarn…….. you get the picture (I do owe you the story of the wool devouring kitten anways).

But, all in all, they are finished.  I love the feel of the Tofutsies yarn.  I really like how the colours worked with the lace pattern.  It’s a stretchy pattern and I really like how they turned out.

Meet Sam and Spice:

Spice's Face

Spice's Face

 

Sam the Man - The Ferocious Kitten

Sam the Man - The Ferocious Kitten

Patchy is missing.  She is into hiding out a lot these days.  Have a good night.  School let out okay.  Little Miss’ report card was good.  She exceeds all expectations in her reading – other than that, she’s right along at the same level with the rest of the pack.  I’m feeling today should have been Friday but it wasn’t so I still ahve to get back to work tomorrow.  Have a great TGIF.

Category: 52 Pair Plunge, Camera, Finished Projects, Kidlets, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Socks from the Toe Up KAL  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment