The Bleahs.

I've been a bit distracted from the blog for the last little bit due to some sad news. My apologies if you've been waiting on an e-mail from me.

I found the perfect respite in Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy scarf. This pattern has been the perfect companion as I sit quietly and knit, tidying my psychic house. Engrossing enough to keep my attention, sufficiently rhythmic to be soothing and hypnotic. This was such a quick knit I didn't even manage to get the KAL button up in the side bar. Pictures when I get home.

I'm hoping that this small gift can be a token of my thoughts and caring to my friend.

Wow.

SP7 was my first time in a Secret Pal exchange and I agonized over what to send my pal. I don't know how my Secret Pal did it, but everything she picked was Perfect! I'm hoping for a mind-meld with Katrina when I do SP8 so I can do as good a job spoiling my next pal.


A super-cute and useful Miffy bag chock full of the most delicious chocolate I have ever consumed. I'm hoping that I can talk my sister into bringing some home as this is definitely the best dark chocolate covered ginger and orange peel I have ever had. A Baby Bobbi Bear pattern (yay! I haven't been able to find this out here) and 2 skeins of deliciously soft, chocolate brown cotton to make my own BBB. If I had 5.5mm dpns, I would have cast this on already. As it is, I'm contemplating winding my Mixed Berries Shepherd Sock and starting new socks. Must Resist and knit Sockapalooza socks.

A HUGE thank you to my Secret Pal!

Latticework and basketry

If only it woodworking and basketry were really this easy. I finally blocked the Lacy Lattice Stole from Fiddlesticks. Dorothy Siemens is not kidding when she tells you to block it severely widthwise. Even though I blocked it very severely, it is still trying to grow lengthwise. That's OK as I will probably wear it more as a scarf than a stole.


Project specs : Lacy Lattice Stole by Fiddlesticks Knitting

Original yarn : Filatura di Crosa "Baby Kid Extra"
My yarn : Helen Hamann alpaca (very old, no yardage given)

Needles : 3.5mm addis

Started : sometime last year, set aside and picked up Feb 26/2006.
Finished : March 24, 2006


Completely different - so fast, so bulky - a moebius basket. Bob the spokesbear models.

Project specs : Moebius Basket from A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting

Original Yarn : Manos del Uruguay
Basket Yarn : Rio de la Plata, Faded Burgundy

Original Needles : 8mm
Basket Needles : 9mm addis & 8mm double points

Started : March 8, 2006
Finished : March 25, 2006

This is a really quick knit and sat around waiting for me to felt it. I was fortunate as the Rio de la Plata felts like a dream. One short wash and I have a lovely, dense fabric.



I've finally started my Diamond Fantasy Shawl for the DFS KAL, and must start my socks for Sockapaloooza. Pictures and pattern decisions soon.

Late, late, late

Late to the recipient and late to the blog. I whipped these up last week for the Flame's twin brother's girlfriend. Oy. She plays a lot of WOW in her basement suite and had commented upon The Flame's fingerless mitts. I hope she likes them.


Project specs :
Hand/Wristwarmers from Last-Minute Gifts (I think)

1 skein Noro Shinano instead of Cash Iroha
4.25 mm Crystal Palace Bamboo needles.

I did make the cuffs shorter before I split for the thumb hole.

My shishigashira maple is starting to leaf!

Red?

12 oz. of Targhee from Crofton Fine Fibres, hot poured using acid dyes.


Go say hello to Lara at her new blog.

Lacy Lattice

Blocked shot to come. The problem with black lace and dark couches, carpets and bedding is a lack of contrast for good photography. Enter the sunny window.

New colourways from Aurelia

This was waiting for me when I got home from Bowen.

Decisions, decisions. I know that Andrea will be at FibreFest International at the end of the month.

Thank yous

I started a scarf for our host Dan and found the perfect colourway of Silk Garden for Julia as well. His scarf is my own combination of some cables from one of the Barbara Walker treasuries. I'm using a forest green Galway as I find it shows the cables well enough (not perfectly at this gauge), is soft against the skin and lays flat when blocked.


Lara kindly brought me a door prize of dyed llama fibre which I promptly spun up on the Reeves. The colours remind me of orange sorbet and I think they will match my fuzzy orange hat very well. As well, I received a beautiful Tabachek spindle as my birthday present from her. Thank you Thank you.


Holly brought me all kinds of delicious natural-coloured fibre. Merino-silk, Superfine Merino and Merino-Tencel. I can't wait to play with this. I was incredibly spoilt.

's Wonderful

A big thank you to our gracious hosts Dan and Julia at the Lodge at the Old Dorm.


The company was excellent, the food delicious, the fibre exploits magnificent.

’s wonderful, ’s marvellous
You should care for me!
’s awful nice, ’s paradise,
’s what I love to see.

It was a blur.

Take 3 crazy ladies (Lara, Holly and I), 1 small car full of stuff, 3 Asian malls in Richmond, and shake.

We got an early start on our weekend away with a little bit of shopping. I can't photograph most of our loot as some of it has already been consumed (Asian candy anyone?) but Daiso in Aberdeen Centre saw a lot of us as did Alpha, Candyland and Iwase books in Yaohan. The yarn store in Parker Place was OK and had some interesting swivel-style bamboo circulars, but I didn't get any. I will show off my new A4 folders with built-in page protectors once I get my Engeln leaflets inside them. I was very excited to find these as most North American page protectors are too short for the European patterns.



We had so much fun, we missed stopping at the Knit & Stitch in West Vancouver, but we did NOT miss dinner at Troll's in Horseshoe Bay. A large contingent of the weekend crew met up with us there and we even managed to get onto an earlier ferry to Bowen! All in all, it was a wonderful, fun day.

Fleeces anyone?

I've got to develop a system where fun, bloggable events don't consume all of my blogging time, before, during and afterwards.

Anyways, it's going to be a day (March 15th) full of posts so I'm going to back date them to the day that I was thinking about all of this so they make more sense.

I had bad fleece news, and good fleece news.

Treenway sent my 2 fleeces (Gotland and Polwarth) Expedited. Our mailman delivered them by leaving them on the front door-step, and they are nowhere to be found. Kerry, I wasn't holding out on you, I just hadn't seen them. Mostly I'm just upset because I'm sure whoever stole them off the front porch wasn't interested in finding 2 gorgeous, unwashed sheep fleeces.

The good news, is that this Romney Cross fleece


finally became this


It makes a wonderful, soft, sproingy 3-ply yarn. Here's a tiny sample.


There are 5 lbs so I think the Flame, and myself may end up with sweaters out of this. I haven't forgotten about the sweater I'm going to knit for him, I'm just having some trouble picking out a suitable design.

I also have 2 bags (about 3 lbs) of Border Leicester X which is quite a bit scritchier that I have to spin with less twist at a thicker grist, or hand off to someone with more of an appreciation for longwools. Any takers? It's a gorgeous dark grey with silver highlights.

Done!

I've finished my project for my Secret Pal. I'll finish up buying and wrapping the other bits this week. I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope my Pal enjoys it.



I've been working away on the body of the Lacy Lattice and think I'll have it done before too long. I only have 4 more body repeats, the lattice and 2 borders to go. It's a long black blob now but I hope to have pictures before too long. Maybe next week?

Undecided.

I finished this up at the beginning of February but hadn't written it up yet. This was nearly completed except for knitting 1 tie and crocheting around the neck. As you can tell from my pose, I'm not really sure if I like it or not.

Project specs : Wrap Cardigan from Rebecca #29

Original yarn : GGH Soft Kid
My Yarn : Alpaca from the Magic Stash Box, overdyed.
Needles : 4.5mm addis

Changes : I picked up and knit the ties directly onto the front (decreasing as necessary in the first row to achieve the correct stitch count). I crocheted around all edges, including the neck, instead of picking up and binding off.

I'm going to let this marinate for a while in the closet before I make a final decision. It might be much cuter on my sister.

Look at the pretty pictures

I'm knitting on a black blob so there isn't really anything photogenic happening right now.

On Monday, I gave the Knitbrarian her present from Madrona. I think the Fred Flintstone Socks that Rock match her blog.


We had a small problem with the furnace yesterday (leak) so I spent the evening snuggled into bed with an extra duvet, keeping warm. Proof that I am working on those Regia socks that have been in the sidebar for waaaaay to long. Ignore the green knitting, that's already been ripped as I don't think I'll have enough yarn.


I did manage to pick up my yarn for my Sockapaloooza pal. I'm hoping to zip through this pair of socks and cast-on this week or next.



The Flame is going to get lucky - I'm going to cast-on and knit-along with June on another Large Man Sweater. I won't be designing my own, but I think her's looks wonderful. Time to ponder the Flame-stash, both yarn and pattern.