Time in seconds.

The official time-keepers of the planet (International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service) are adding a leap-second to 2005 to re-align atomic time with Earth rotational time.

On the advice of a friend I'm going to take some time myself to remember and savour my friends and family, near, far or virtual. My very best wishes to you all for a Happy and Healthy New Year.

I'll be re-examining old projects in January with a fresh eye.

Christmas delays

I admit the the whirl of Christmas parties is catching up to me and putting a crimp on the blog maintenance. I have been knitting throughout (except the Flame's work party which was deemed a no-knitting-zone - a first!) and completing some languishing projects.

First up, the Vintage Bubble Bag from Pursenalities. I hate to admit, but this has been sitting in a basket for months and only required about 5 minutes to decide that the handle was long enough, graft, stab and tie. I love the slouchy shape and the way the short handle keeps everything safely inside. The combination of Bartlettyarns (Peacock?) and Noro Kureyon (90?) felted beautifully.


Inspired and chastened by how quickly it came together, I dug out the Grover sweater. Grover is fuzzy and blue and a pain in the butt. It's a novelty yarn, and I ran out and could only find a non-matching dyelot to finish.


Be kind, and pretend that you do not see the stripes on the front. Also, both sleeves seem to be paler than the body, but only the sleeve caps. I could be frustrated, but I refuse to put anymore time into this cardigan, it is warm, and cuddly and I love the resin buttons.


The weekend of eating lots and staying up late was mitigated by a quiet Monday night of knitting and, uhhhh, eating lots. Dinner did not consist exclusively of gingerbread cookies and coffeecake, Karen (working here on Flora) and I did share a turkey/pesto/brie sandwich. The Knitbrarian was present but I didn't feel comfortable taking a picture of her secret knitting. It was inspirational and I'm very tempted to start a copy-cat project.


When my head finally caught up with my body Tuesday morning I was pleased to see a Donegal in class.


His wife had just finished it the night before. It's a very neat colourway - brighter and slightly more acid green with less blue in it than most that I have seen.

Sophie

I'm very late to this particular party, but I now understand why the Sophie bag is such a popular pattern. 1 skein of Bartlettyarns, an 8mm circular, my new 8mm dpns and one evening produced this!



I did modify the pattern slightly by decreasing every 9 rows instead of every 10 rows. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and will definitely be knitting more of these. I think I might try to knit a flange into the next one so I can insert a zipper to close the top.

Grey Monday

Lots of pictures waiting to be taken and posted, but the weather is not playing along. Welcome to Vancouver in the winter.

Completed - several scarves - 1 sideways, 2 shaped scarves from Scarf Style, a pair of denim baby shoes, 1 sock (ripped the toe, why did I think a round toe would be a good idea?), a mini hank of Soay (ewwwww) as the start of my spinning homework.

Started - 1 bee cushion, a felted Sophie bag and the Short-Row Hat from IK as soon as I find some yarn, maybe Noro?

Did not touch - secret project.

Ate - a lot of good dimsum from the ever fancy Kirin with good friends.

Enjoyed - the company of more good friends and a smattering of snow.

Good Friday

I trekked over to Bowen Island today and had a wonderful time visiting Dick and Jane. This wonderful store full of stitching supplies and small delights used to be in Vancouver but moved to Bowen Island 3 years ago. I was so glad I popped in as she now has a (very small) knitting section and I picked up a weaving book I had been meaning to buy for a while.



I'm very happy with how the small bee cushion is coming out and can't wait to get started on the miniature sweater. She has 2 other designs, one with a snowman and tree and one that looks like a miniature Setesdal sweater - too cute for words! Since I was distracted on the ferry ride back, it's a good thing I finished Fred's mitts on the way over. I'll give these to her at Knit-and-Pearl on Monday night.



The only small problem is that I left my cell-phone so I'm hopping back on the ferry for a quick run over tomorrow. I'll take the Flame and see what happens.