TGIF.

I've been knitting Thermal pretty much all week & this is what I have to show for it:

2 inches of 1x1 twisted rib & 2 inches of the waffle stitch pattern. I'm really crushing on this thing though - I think about it all the time, I count the minutes until it's back in my hands, and at night when I close my eyes to sleep I swear I can still feel it's cushy fabric. I'm so glad I'm using the Elann baby Cashmere for this - OMGITSSOSOFTICOULDDIEINIT! It occurred to me though - what sort of maniac finishes a grey adult man's sweater & then starts an adult woman's sweater knit on size 2 needles with fingering weight yarn in.....grey? Thankfully the alpaca, merino, cashmere blend makes up for the fact that I'm swimming in a big grey sea.

In hopes of making this go a tiny bit faster, I thought I'd cast on for a sleeve & carry that around in my bag for sporadic ttc, park, restaurant, dancehall etc. knitting. To do this, I needed to free up my favourite size 2 dpns which were in use. Remember the Fleece Artist merino? I had started knitting a simple sock with cables down each side for Gord (I've knit this guy a sweater & about 4 pairs of socks now...I must like him an awful lot) but it was inching along - amazing how much faster you knit when you want the needles for a totally different project.

This colourway is awesome! When I bought it, I thought that the acid green & blue bits would be more prominent, but I like how it's turned out. I let Gord know that the second sock will be along in about 2 months, when I'm done the Thermal sleeves.

Working for the weekend.

About a week or so ago, I ordered a bunch of Elann's 'Baby Cashmere' so I could start a new project - "Thermal" from Knitty winter '06. Luckily, I got it in the mail mere minutes before I left to go to a friend's cottage for the weekend. I threw a couple of balls of the stuff into my bag with some needles & the pattern & off we went for some serious chillaxing in the Kawarthas.

I cast on in the car (308 stitches, size 2 needles, fingering weight yarn...yipes) & began the 1x1 twisted rib. I've mentioned before how much I dislike 1x1 rib - but add twisted knit stitches to that & watch my chin quiver. About an hour & a half later, I had only knit about 5 rows, but I was pretty pleased with it - so I stowed it away so I could get back to it the next day.

There were bigger & better things to do...like cast on some beer!

Lots of beer. And my friend Dave made a giant pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea so everyone proceeded to get royally crunk. I'd post some pictures, but hilariously enough, out of the 50 or so I took that night, the only one that was clear was the initial photo of the beer fridge. All the others sort of look like this:

The next morning after breakfast & lots of coffee & Gatorade I sat on the deck chatting with friends, answering lots of "what are you knitting?" questions by holding up my measly 5 rows of tiny ribbing. "A sweater". "Oh......awesome?"

What wasn't awesome was when I laid flat my (by now) 2 hours of work & noticed that my stitches were twisted.

M-F'er!!

I swear I totally checked to make sure my stitches weren't twisted. After lots of swears & trying to explain my mistake to non-knitters, I asked the cottage gnome to wish me luck & tore all my work out to start again.

By the time I had cast on all those stitches my interest in knitting was pretty much reduced to nil, so I painted my nails, read some magazines, sang some karaoke and drank some more beers.

All my photos from there-on-in look sort of like this:

That's our fire? I guess?

The next day was home time, so after our visit to the Whetung Gallery & the Antique Barn (where I bought some cute pyrex mixing bowls & an awesome FireKing bowl) I sat in the backseat trying to get back the ribbing I had ripped out. I guess I should mention that I err... well, I actually ended up twisting the stitches AGAIN (GAWD! MissMuffy take note: see? I'm not so great!) but I shamefully "fixed" it by retwisting a stitch. I just didn't have it in my poor little heart to rip it out again. Now I am a little more than half done with the ribbing & very optimistic.

oh happy day.

A really super great day!

I wore a new skirt I made!
Pattern drafted by me, totally copied from a denim skirt I wear all. the. time. For those who are wondering, yes there is a waistband on this :) And the zipper is yellow! I was on warp speed & made this in about an hour & a half.

I got these totally adorable Keds for half price!


Gord phoned me at work to tell me he scored *TWELVE* pieces of Fiesta Ware at some crazy CBC prop sale. Just the boost my aspiring Fiesta Ware collection needed!

So far so good, right?

Yeah, well then it got even better. I got my invitation to Ravelry & so far I am really, really loving the site. It's so....cozy! And full of knitters! I can tell it's going to be a mega time-sucker-upper.

And then when I got home, there was this lovely postcard waiting for me. A friend I really should get in touch with wrote me to say they were thinking of me.

Lovely.

I love you, Elizabeth Zimmerman.

*SO* happy with this...

Gord's Saddle Shoulder sweater is finished! Honestly, this was one of the most enjoyable knits I've done in a while - and considering it's pure stockinette, that's saying something.
I started it the first week of May & bound off the neck stitches on Friday night. So about a month in the making.
I have to say that I was a little nervous when I started - there was measuring, and gauge swatches, and percentage systems! Math! But the absolutely perfect fit of this sweater has made me realize that that's exactly what I should be doing every time I start a sweater.

I know its been said before, but I can't not say it - Elizabeth Zimmerman is a mother freaking genius. The raglan & shoulder decreases blew my mind as I knit them! Amazing!

I already wrote about the contrast hem - here it is in action. mmmmm!

I used 12 balls of Elann's Peruvian Wool in 'Oxford Heather Grey' & 1 ball of Patons Classic merino in 'Too Teal' for the hem. The Peruvian wool was great - it's soft enough, the colour is really nice, the price is amazing & I love that they are Canadian. (In fact, I just placed an order for lots of baby cashmere for my next project...more about that later..)

It's actually Gord's Christmas present. I had knit him a different sweater but the fit was way off & not really his style. He was honest & told me that he wasn't too jazzed on it, but that he knew I had spent lots of time on it. I told him I wanted to make him a perfect sweater that he will love. We talked lots about patterns & colours & now we have this - a perfect sweater that he loves. And I love it too! I take it as a great nod to our relationship that we were able to avoid, nay, SMASH the Boyfriend Sweater curse! Gord was able to be honest with me about the original sweater - it takes a brave soul to tell a knitter that they will never wear a gift that has been made just for them. Knitters almost always have pointy sticks in their hands.

Boyfriend approved!

dress me up.

It's been snot central around here this whole past week. I came down with some nasty symptoms on Monday & have been struggling to feel even part-way human ever since. YUG!

This was the scene on Wednesday .....
I was off work Tuesday & Wednesday. I tried to get a little knitting in since the mercury dropped way down & I figured it was as good a time as any to make some more headway on Gord's Saddle Shoulder sweater which is 100% wool. That's a sleeve there in the photo with me.

To my amazement, the sweater is finished - and currently blocking! There's some fit issues I hope I've fixed with my 'no sissies allowed' approach to blocking... I have my fingers crossed.

This afternoon I spent some time with the dress I started last week & now it's done!

Gord took these photos while standing on a chair, so they're a little wonky & in a bunch of them I'm yawning or making some kind of face.


Anyhow, the dress is cute & I'm pretty pleased with it. It's my own pattern & looking at these photos I see a couple of places that need some tweaking, but on the whole I'd say this dress is ready for the public.
The fabric is a dream - pastel plaid seersucker! I made the obi type belt with some broadcloth from my stash - the green ties were the best I could do - but Gord suggested maybe pink would be better & I think he's right.

My favourite part, I think is the little puff cap sleeves. Will I ever get sick of puffed sleeves? Doubt it!

OH! And P.S. wtf? The last post had adorable baby booties, a baby hoodie & a log cabin pillow....and not one single comment?? *BABY BOOTIES* & no comments? What more do you people want from me?

all projects big & small

My allergies have been totally kicking my ass all weekend so if this entry is garbled & confusing, lets blame it on all the drugs I'm on.

It was a busy weekend! I spent a lot of it in my sewing room working on a dress. It's almost done, but I'm taking my time with it, so I didn't want to rush completing it just for the sake of having something to show. Luckily, I finished a bunch of other stuff!

First off, I sewed a Clock Din patch onto a tiny hoodie for friends of ours who just had a baby

The baby daddy is a clock din member, Gord made these patches a while ago & we got the teeny tiny hoodie from American Apparel.

Babies are fun to craft for since they're so small, I made these booties in no time!

I used some brown & green DK superwash from my stash. I love how these turned out, they *almost* make me want to knit things for a baby of my own. But not really - some day I'll knit 4 of these & put them on some dag paws.

The free pattern for these little treasures can be found here. This is also the source for the awesome korknisse pattern! This woman is awesome!

And finally - this afternoon I was all about finishing the dress I started on Friday night, but when I went into the sewing room I suddenly found myself making a log cabin pillow for the living room:

Last weekend Gord had asked me to fix a couple of his shirts - they had rips in the elbows, so I turned them into short sleeves. This guy's got an exceptional selection of vintage buttondown shirts, so to toss the shirt fabric away would be a sin. I used the shirt scraps & some stuff from my stash to make this pillow.

(the orangey plaid stuff & the dark blue stuff is the shirts)
I'm deeply in love with this pillow. I followed the instructions from the Crafter's Companion
which is an awesome & inspiring book that you should go buy right now. (I pre-ordered mine & got it way back in November or December, but this is the first project I've done from the book)

I took a small break from all this crafting to see The Sea & Cake on Saturday night. Luckily, the show was across the street from my house & worth every one of the no more than 20 steps it took to get there.

I'm going to go take more drugs. Craft on!