Chicken!

Knit for a friend, the results are quite charming.

Project specs : Hettie
Yarn : Naturally Loyal and some DK scraps
Needles : 3.25mm needles

I'd recommend not slipping the edge stitches for the wings and using mattress stitch to sew them together.

Belated Birthday Socks

These have been far too long in the knitting. I might claim that the yarn is delightful (which it is) but the truth is that I've been distracted by shinier knitting projects.


Project specs : Cynthia's Birthday Socks, a hodge-podge of my favourite sock techniques

Dates : July 07 - February 27, 2008

Yarn : Austermann Step 21, I love this colourway with it's Tiffany Blue and Charcoal greys

Needles : 2.25mm needles

Yes, this means that I haven't finished all the projects that I wanted to get done in January!

Odd(ball) October

It's been a wierd and crazy summer and fall. Things seem to be quieter now, I'm exercising regularly and maybe my schedule will calm down a bit as well.

Looking around the living room I decided that October is for knitting up oddballs. Hats are my perfect answer to oddball knitting. I love wearing them, they make wonderful presents and it's been darn cold outside recently!

I've knit 2 Odessa hats (one red, one grey) for a friend who liked the blue one I did last year. Sandnesgarn Smart, no beads, pretty boring, but just what Leeann wanted.



The wonderful Foliage hat from Knitty using 5mm needles and Rio de la Plata in Honey Mustard (this is the limiest honey mustard I have ever seen). This was so much fun to knit. I think I'll have to knit another one in a more subdued green for me.


One of Judy Gibson's Braid-Edged hats using Lopi from Custom Woolen Mills. The 5mm needles and bulky yarn make for a lovely, squishy hat. I hope the recipient likes it. I'm very tempted to knit another with slightly fewer stitches so that the hat sits just a little bit higher on my head.

The lovely photos are, of course, courtesy of Venus! Thank you sweetie!

Finally, an FO.

I've had the Melon Shawl from Victorian Lace Today finished since the second week of September, but I have been fighting with my camera. Venus kindly stepped in and offered to do a little bit of picket photography for me. She made my shawl look so wonderful that she may have to do all of my blog photography from now on.


Project specs :

Pattern : Melon Shawl from Victorian Lace Today

Yarn : Handmaiden Cashmere 2-ply, 3 skeins

Needles : 3.5mm KP Options.

Notes : A super-easy knit, the border is a little bit tedious but the finished result is stunning.


3 cheers for Venus!

Me-Me-Menus

The Flame's away this week and I'm eating my way through an odd assortment of leftovers and leftover ingredients.

My food for the week will involve :

a lot of carrots
roasted chicken
braised beef from mum (just need to find some rice noodles to go with this)
tortillas
3 slices of bacon (never did make that bacon/green onion corn bread to go with the chili)
ginger
green onions (see above)
tomatoes

Thankfully I am going for dinner with my parents on Tuesday and I have a BBQ to plan for Saturday.

Knitting? Ha! It's all stealth knitting at this point and I'm having stealthy gauge issues. Wait, I did finish some things.

Project specs : Kiera's bonnet, Dale Book No.142 pattern #8

Yarn : Dale Stork, Pastel Pink #8

Needles : Very, very old UK 13 Aeros (2.25mm)

Started : I bought the yarn when I went to Portland in December and I started the bonnet fairly soon thereafter.
Finished : May 13, 2007 (Just in time!)



This next project is an old UFO. I bought the yarn at Madrona last year and promptly cast on. The sock languished until I decided that they would look better on Lara's feet. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Mazda has nothing on socks knit with thicker yarn.

Project specs : Lara socks, standard top-down sock on 48 stitches

Yarn : Fancy Image Yarn, Spring Garden

Needles : 3.25mm Brittany Birch dpns

Started : February 2006
Finished : May 18, 2007

I don't think I could wear these socks inside of shoes but they would be wonderful around the house.

Flame Socks v.2

Project specs : Flame Socks v.2

Pattern : Top down almost-standard sock

Yarn : Elann Puzzle Collection Color 714 & (very old) Kroy 4-ply 54042

Needles : 2.5mm regia dpns

Wierd sock fitting notes : 72 sts cast-on for leg. Standard 1x1 ribbing for the top, 5x1 ribbing for the leg. I transitioned to stockinette for the last inch before the heel flap. The heel flap is a non-standard 48 rows long. I picked up 24 sts on each side of the heel flap after turning the heel and decreased down to 64 stitches. The toe is decreased on alternating rows down to 32 stitches.

Sitting and Knitting and Winding

There was a lot of sitting in the car and knitting last weekend. Vancouver - Grand Forks - Trail - Grandforks - Vancouver, Vancouver - Seattle - Vancouver looks like this.

A Little Sit-ster from The Natural Knitter for Tricia.


Joanne's new hat design using Jessica's hand-spun. The details are blurry but this photo does capture the transition from dark purple at the crown to purpley-blue at the brim. It's a very subtle change and I love the way it looks.


No pictures yet, but Flame Socks v.2 are finished and I made some good progress on the Garden Path Shawl.

The trip to Seattle was for the first fair-isle
winding party. I still have 24 skeins to split up and wind (25 bobbins/skein) and I think Denise's present will come in handy. Surely I will be able to achieve a sense of Zen as I meditatively wind yarn and contemplate my potato.

Naughty Knitting

I've been a bad, bad knitter. I should be working on Pebbles, my March UFO pick of the long abandoned Garden Path Shawl or the beautiful Campanula socks.


Instead my schedule and lack of brainpower have me working on far less complicated projects. Here we have the Flame's next pair of socks (blue/green/grey/white, I am at the heel flap of sock 2), my finished Vintage Socka Socks, new socks for me (Regia Spirit in blue) and an Odessa hat in grey.

Project Specs : Vintage Socka Socks - mish-mash pattern from various sources. I use Priscilla Gibson-Robert's toe-up start and Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's toe-up turned heel. Everything else is my fault entirely.

Yarn : Fortissima Socka Colori, I lost the ball band a long time ago, but perusal of on-line colour cards has me believe that the current 2414 would be a good match.

Needles : 2.25mm dpns (Aeros, maybe?)

Started : so very, very long ago, I picked these up as my January UFO Resurrection project
Finished : end of February 2007

Notes : 67 stitches in the foot, 68 for the leg. Washed and dried, these have the thickest, softest hand of any socks so far. Better even than my Conwy socks out of Socka 2434 on 2.5mm needles. I think I have mastered my perfect sock.


That hasn't been all of the Nau(gh)tie knitting I've been doing, here's my Swap Softly creation hiding in the wild. I'm really pleased with how he turned out. My tentacles look as if they are growing out of the knitting organically.

I picked up two stitches for the bottom of the i-cord. Each stitch was picked up so that they were off-set from the original stockinette by half a stitch (so I picked up into the left half of a stitch and the right half of the stitch to the left of it simultaneously).


Once I have both stitches on my double-pointed needle, I take a second needle and pick up into the centre stitch 1 row above the two stitches I have just picked up. I place the loop onto my original dpn and start working my i-cord.



Project specs : Nautie from Knitty

Yarn : KP Wool of the Andes in Fern and Marks and Kattens' Dream in pale blue (nothing like soft, fuzzy tentacles)

Needles : 3.5mm Brittany Birch dpns

Started : March 2, 2007
Finished : March 19, 2007

I knit the face onto the body as it seemed easier to continue stuffing as I went. It worked out very well as the pick-up made for a very definite turned edge.

In the pinks

Poor rabbit, here is Flopsy modelling a larger baby hat.


Project specs : Baby hat from One Skein by Leigh Radford

Yarn : All Seasons Cotton

Needles : 4.5 mm addis and 4.25 mm Crystal Palace dpns

Started : February 13, 2006
Finished : February 15, 2006

A quick and easy hat that looks great. I didn't start with a full skein of the ASC so I had to eliminate some of the plain rounds between the decrease rounds at the top. It made the top of the hat a bit bunchier than in the original but I'm fairly pleased as I didn't have to rip and re-knit and I had exactly this |------| much yarn left.


Next up, my Spin to Knit Swap package came a while back and I've been a bad blogger :( Many thanks to Jessica for her beautiful skein of burgundy wool (fibre from Rheinbeck, almost as good as going myself), my new blue Chibi (who would have believed that I didn't have a blue Chibi?) and Chocolate. Mmmmmmm.

This skein is so soft and lustrous. It is gorgeous and deserves a better photo. I think I'll knit it into a lace scarf. Hopefully I can get a start on that this weekend.

Yes Melanie, that is my mum in Truly :) Galway Highland Heather in that gorgeous Ruby colour. I should have made the sleeves a bit shorter for her though.

A little valentine.

For friends and family near and far. My nephew at Christmas with my mum.


A finished Trellis with shoes,


and hat, as kindly modeled by Flopsy and Jacques (he wants to go on vacation somewhere warm, but the best he could do was a felted lei).


Project specs : Trellis from Knitty, bootees from the 50 Baby Bootes to Knit book, Short-row hat (I just winged this)

Yarn : Dream by Marks and Kattens, a lovely blend of acrylic, nylon, rayon and angora (just a teeny bit)

Needles : 4.5mm KPs

Started : can't remember but it was mid-to-late December 2006
Finished : February 10, 2007

Project Notes : The yarn releases a lot of short fibres as you knit with it. I was initially very concerned about using this for a baby project but after washing and drying a swatch all of the loose fibres seem to have worked themselves out and the fabric is beautifully soft. I mirrored the travelling stitches on either side of the diamond (can't help myself) and I converted the shawl collar to a 5-stitch moss stitch band all the way around.

I'd happily use the Dream again for a project for myself and I think I will use the leftovers for Shedir if Pearl doesn't object (she went stash-diving for me so I would have enough to finish).

Small successes and a teeny setback.

I've been battling that nasty virus that seems to be lurking around 'most everywhere these days. It's made me pretty grateful for the little things (and some Big Things too, scroll down for the MSF/KWB total).

The Flame's pretty handy in the kitchen even if he insists in making (Spinach) Pie are Squared.


I finished the Flame's first ever pair of hand-knit socks. There are some fit issues to fine-tune but we're both quite pleased. The Flame is pleased with his warm toes, and I am pleased that I did not get bored with knitting men's size 13 socks. They are about twice as long as my little size 6s.


I spun up the first bobbin of Tamarillo for the mind-reading, awesome-cookbook picking Knitbrarian.



I unmasked my Secret Pal! She has designed the most beautiful pair of socks and inspired me to go dye some sock yarn so I can test-knit these babies.

I'm practising Doing this month. Unfortunately, that meant that following the pattern for the Suri Raku was a mistake on my part. For whatever reason, the swatch god(s) decided that while I should use the specified needle size for the squares, and achieve a satisfactory result. I was not meant to use the smaller (yet still specified) needle size for joining the squares. Nor was I to use the next size up. Apparently, I was just supposed to continue with the same needle size. Huh.

Off to the dye-pot.

Looking ahead and looking back.

Knock on wood, things are looking up around here!

Monday dinner was yummy risotto leftovers. I'm too much of a klutz to peel squash so I just slice the squash into 1/2" slices and pop it into a 350-400F oven for about half an hour.



Tonight is probably going to be Chinese takeout or home-made Stroganoff depending on how early I get home (ended up going out on the weekend so neither of these dinners happened).

Wednesday may be sushi with The Flame's cousin. I have to admit that eating out is sounding pretty good as the plumber will be over to dig up the front yard and jack-hammer by the front door to prepare for laying a new line to the house (Yay!)

The Flame gets to spend Thursday at home with the plumber and we'll clean out the fridge that night as we're heading to Portland on Friday morning!


This past weekend was very busy, but wonderful in so many ways. Saturday was spent in Point Roberts at my friend Sam's annual fund-raiser/craft fair/ for the Point Roberts food bank. Over $2500 was raised and everyone went home happy. I was certainly happy as I won the silent auction for a beautiful little art quilt. I'm going to need some natural light to truly capture it's colour and texture as all of my flash-enabled photos are too yellow and flat to do it justice.

Sunday morning was breakfast with the lovely Mr. and Mrs. Knitbrarian, drop off of a recent FO at Three Bags Full,


a quick trip through a Farmer's Market/Craft Fair (if it was cheese or cheese-related, it came home with me) and then puppy pick-up. Not for me(!) for Mr. and Mrs. K. The puppy's a real cutie-pie and very sweet-natured. If you don't see the knitbrarian around for a bit you'll know why.

The Flame and I unwound that evening at a wonderful Advent tea hosted by the parents of a good friend. We're so honoured and lucky to share in their family tradition, it's always a highlight of our holiday season.

Project specs : Angel Pearls Scarf by Sivia Harding

Yarn : Rowan Kidsilk Haze Violetta (633), just 1 ball

Needles : 3.75 mm KP options

Started : sometime this fall
Finished : December 9, 2006

I did notice the slight heaviness of the KP options needle tips as compared to my other needles. The pointy, pointy tips did compensate for that as it made the decreases really easy even though I was using a dark, fuzzy yarn. I love the finished item and I definitely see more of these in my future. Especially since I already have yarn for at least 3 more in the stash.

Mad hatter.

I am Still waiting for the plumber. As of 9:45 am he has promised to show up in an hour and a half. I'm not holding my breath.

I suspect that this will only get worse.

Good thing I've been able to get some knitting finished around here.


Another one of Jean's Diagonal Hats and a beadless Odessa.

Project Specs : Diagonal Hat

Yarn : Noro Silk Garden 205 (3 skeins = 2 hats!)

Needles : 4.5mm addis

Started : December 4, 2006
Finished : December 5, 2006

The last version was done on 4mm needles and the size difference was quite remarkable. I still had a little bit of yarn leftover but if you want 2 hats out of 3 skeins I'd advise knitting one on 4mm needles and one on 4.5mm needles.

Project Specs : Odessa Hat

Yarn : Sandnesgarn Smart (5936 I think)

Needles : 3.5mm old casein dpns (ick) and 4mm dpns (my old stand-by Aeros)

Started and Finished : December 5, 2006

I want to try one with beads! This is a really quick knit and I love the organic decreases at the top.

Can you stand another clever hat design?

Project Specs : Short-Row Hat by Veronik Avery

Yarn : Noro Silk Garden #233 (I think this is another one where if I had 3 skeins, I could have made 2 hats)

Needles : 4 and 4.25mm dpns

Started and Finished : December 6, 2006

The hat turned out quite long but it can easily be worn with the brim up. I didn't manage to pick up 32 stitches at the top but it was easy to fudge and blocked out nicely.

Glamour shots

This would be the 7am happy dance of a blocked and dry shawl.


The realization that it is only 2C outside (35F).


And a quick swoop back indoors for warmer clothes.


Warm and October 31st used to look like this. (I'm the one on the right)