Cruiser's Creek

CG13 wanted me to update to assure her that I was still alive.

To be honest, I swear I was going to update today anyway. I have things to show!

I've almost finished the bpt cardigan for my mother. I just have to put in a zipper & figure out what to do with the neckline. The pattern calls for a hood but a) my mom doesn't really wear hoodies and b) I don't have enough of this yarn to make one. I'm thinking I'll just do the attached i-cord around there too. To keep things even.


It's totally cute, and once I had the help of knittykat, the pattern made sense & it was smooth sailing. This was my first time doing an attached i-cord & for some reason (instincts? is that you?) I switched from my size 8s & did the cord with a size 6 needle - it turned out just right & I'm hoping those decisions from my gut are my newest knitting skill.

The other night I cast on for the Sienna Cardigan from the new Interweave Knits. I'm trying to use up all my stash yarn so this is knit from plain ole black Lion Brand Wool Ease. It's going so freaking fast that I'm thinking one in brown might be in my future if I like the end result as much as I think I will.


I'm almost done the back! Worsted weight & size 9 needles go wicked fast!

And here's this bit of information. Today is August 30th. August is just about over & I am in awe of my ability to stick to my "no new yarn this month" rule - in fact, I didn't buy any fabric either! I've even put off buying the zipper for bpt so I can say I didn't buy *any* crafty things (except for the new IK & Vogue Knitting) So what if this is due to my inability to manage my money now that I only get paid once a month - but it's good to see a little more room in my stash box(es). Now, if only September would get here.

Orangina.

Just moments ago I finally finished Orangina.


It's alright. The pattern was really simple & I loved watching it develop, but maybe I just have to get used to it since I don't have anything else in my wardrobe that looks like this -- my reaction to it when I put it on was 'meh.'

I extended the lace pattern & put less ribbing on the bottom - I wish I had a little more of the yarn because it could stand to be about another inch longer. Speaking of the yarn - yerg!

I used Estelle yarns 'Young Touch' - 100% Mercerized Egyptian Cotton. There was tons of thread seperation & it was hard on my hands - it's also a little too shiney for my tastes, but I'll just suck it up & wear the thing & see how I feel about it after giving it a chance.

All in all, this is a really great pattern - very simple, interesting enough to hold your attention & the end results look impressive. I just don't know if it's all that ideal for my body shape.

Whee!

T-O-BER-MOR-Y ALRIGHT!

With another looooooooong weekend at our feet, Gord & I decided to ditch the city & head for beautiful Georgian Bay. The events of the trip are somewhat long & hilariously sordid, so I'm going to skim over most of them but here is a very short synopsis of our trip.

We started out early Saturday morning from my parents house in Hamilton (long story #1) With many stops & a bunch of last minute shopping, we were finally on our way. Way, way, way up the highway. It was somewhere around Mount Forest (a town with a sign we thought was pretty hilarious)

that I cast on for some Jaywalkers. I brought them for the soul purpose of being car knitting, so I didn't get all that much done on them. In backroad camping, every inch of space is precious - so my knitting didn't make the cut of what went in the pack.

After hours of driving we finaly arrived at Bruce Peninsula National Park. Our plan was to hike in from Head of Trails to Storm Haven--the overnight rest stop where we had reserved a campsite. The next night we were supposed to hike to High Dump overnight rest stop - 10 km away from Storm Haven. We were told that if we parked at Halfway Dump side trail we'd have a 'nice calm walk in'. Neither of us were prepared for what that acutally meant. What that actually meant was 5.3km of fairly rugged terrain. Mostly rocks, lots of climbing, and lots of telling myself outloud "It's okay, it's okay, I can *DO* this." At one point when we were feeling pretty beat that Gord reminded me of why we came to this particular spot:
There were almost tears, there was more sweating than I've ever done in my whole entire life, there was a lot of looking up at the rock we had to get up in order to keep on trail & saying "What the FUCK??" But we finally got to our site. What do two city kids look like after a crazy hike in the woods? We were all like "is there wireless up here or what? OMG guy, we should have made a movie of that to post on youtube!" um, we weren't actually like that at all. We were mostly just a stream of expletives with a few "this is awesome!!"'s thrown in.

Because this part of the trail is right along a very rocky cliff, the sites have these little decks to pitch your tent on, which I thought was pretty good because that meant that maybe the Rattlesnakes wouldn't get us. We weren't expecting to be hiking such a difficult trail, and really, neither of us had ever done this sort of thing before (except for my portage trip last summer which was not nearly as tough as this) so the next morning we decided to hike back to the sidetrail & see how we felt. Would we *really* feel up to hiking another 5km & then 7km back the next day - when we'd (meaning Gord) would have to drive 4 hours back to Hamilton & then take the bus back to Toronto & then go to work the next day? I hope it's needless to say that the answer was no. We didn't feel up to that. Not one bit. To be sure, the camping was lovely, but we most definitely learnt some important lessons. Mainly that *less* is *more*.

And also, I learnt that I love this man so much it makes me dizzy.


Oh, and because there are two little ladies who are very curious to see, here's the progress on my bpt sweater for my mother's christmas present. Turns out, with this one that 4th cast-on is a charm. It also doesn't hurt to have a knitting guru help you along.