Knitten Knots

Berry Stained Feet

2007-06-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

Big Feet, Little Feet

Wook at the wittle toes... I'm not sure these will be big enough for the intended recipient but I am completely delighted with the miniature simplicity of these newborn socks. And from leftovers to boot!

And these bad boys are all mine...I'm sure you'll recognize the Anastasia pattern from pepperknit even though my rushed morning photo doesn't do it justice. I've got to say this is an extremely well-fitting sock. I was a bit concerned about the shortrow heel but it's a perfect fit for me!

Project Specs
Pattern: Anastasia by pepperknit
Yarn: Delicious berry flavored koigu - I've lost the original band so have no idea what the actual color is - sorry!
Needles: 2.25mm DPNs
Comments: I really enjoyed this knit - I don't like too much action in a variegated yarn pattern so this was just the right amount of detail for me. Not to mention, it is super-intuitive making for some relaxing, satisfying knitting. And did I mention the fit? Perfect for my foot at least... :-)

Pattern: Steph's NewBorn Baby Socks
Yarn: Koigu leftovers!
Needles: 2.25mm DPNs
Comments: Cute, quick, fun!

Seamless Circles

2007-06-14T07:22:00.001-07:00

No seasonal knitting around these parts...

I finished up this EZ seamless yoke sweater last weekend and have been patiently waiting FOUR days for it to dry. This will be nothing compared to the four months or so before I can actually wear it of course. :-)

I swiped the circle yoke chart from the Enid cardigan in a recent Interweave. I don't have the magazine in front of me at the moment - possibly Fall 2006 or Winter 2007.

You can see the edge of our new vegetable garden in a couple of these pics - so far we've got onion, radish, beet, carrot, romaine, spinach...

and BABY GREENS coming up...yum. These should be ready to start cutting next week and I can't wait. Don't they look delicious?

Project Specs
Pattern: EZ seamless yoke sweater from Knitting Without Tears
Yarn: Body: MacAuslands Woolen Mills 100% wool (brown tweed - they don't actually have color names) and I used about 4 hanks; Yoke: Briggs & Little/MacAuslands Woolen Mills 100% wool
Needles: 4.5mm circs
Comments: These seamless sweaters are always fun to knit and I'm very happy with how the circled yoke came out. I wanted something a little less traditional and the Enid cardigan fit the bill perfectly. The only slight problem I had was that I wanted to fair isle the circles so this results in some long floats that needed to be tacked down. That being said the inside is not as neat as I would like but I can deal... The absolute best part about this sweater is how much it cost - check out MacAusland's pricing - this was one AFFORDABLE project. There wil definitely be more seamless sweaters in my future. :-)

Inspiration?

2007-05-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted!! We've been digging in a new garden which has been eating up a lot of my free time but I never meant to let it go this long...

I am having a real problem with inspiration and also decision making when it comes to knitting. I've completed a scarf from Victorian Knitting Today but I haven't blocked it yet cause I just can't decide if I like it or not!

When I first got going with this, I was in mind of seaweed with the colors and the pattern but I've kinda lost that as it went on. I am in desperate need of a project that I absolutely LOVE.

I'm also ready to start the yoke on my latest EZ seamless sweater but can't decide on a yoke pattern - let me know if anyone has any ideas!! Let's just ignore all those dandelions gone to seed in our back yard.

But where the knits disappoint, the pets never do - check out Otis and Niblet enjoying one another's company. Otis was actually wet from a swim but that little cat just cannot get enough of the big guy.

Back with a Blanket

2007-04-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully some of you have missed me while I've been away from the blog!! I never intended to take so much time inbetween posts but my grandfather passed away so I spent quite a bit of time on PEI and then just didn't get back to a normal routine til, well, now. I've been doing a bit of knitting...

This was to be a baby shower gift for a friend but I'm having second thoughts. The pink/purple combined with the feather/fan - is it too much? I'm thinking maybe. Plus it's not quite as soft as I hoped it would be...hmmmm. I'm not sure what to do with it. In a plain color and a softer yarn, there would be no question.

The intended giftee is a knitter so perhaps even if she doesn't like the busy nature of this blankie, she will appreciate the work?? Whatcha think?

Project Specs
Name: Feather & Fan Baby Blanket
Pattern: A simple feather/fan stitch across 154 stitches with 8 rows of garter at start/end and 5 sts of garter at each edge. The feather/fan I used was:
Row 1: knit
Row 2: purl
Row 3: (k2tog) 3 times, *(k1, yo) 6 times, (k2tog) 6 times* repeat from * to end of row. The last repeat will end with (k2tog) only 3 times.
Row 4: knit
Yarn/Needles: I used worsted acrylic for this project so it could be tossed into the wash but a more luxurious yarn would have made me happier in the end as it is not as soft as I would like. Needle was a 4.5mm circ.

Welcome to Munchkin Land!!

2007-02-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

Remember These??

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Yum...sigh.

Memory Lane

2007-02-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

I find myself in an unusual situation this week. Every single project I'm working on is a repeat. Brad got a new pair of heavy socks - the same basic pattern I use for almost all his socks. I've tried others but these are the best fit for his foot and are great for TV knitting. My only complaint is my camera's apparent difficulty with shades of green - these are an emerald heather that I can't seem to get quite right.

Also on the repeat list is an EZ seamless sweater for myself in the same brown heather as the one I made my brother for Xmas. I'm thinking there will be a colorwork yoke on this but haven't ironed out any details yet. Plenty of time to figure that part out...I've only just finished one sleeve and started the body.

And, finally, I'm reknitting my latvian mittens (graph 15 for those wondering) in a larger size. So far they're a perfect fit and I much prefer the cuff minus the navy side bands.

Mitten Rip

2007-02-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

Taking a quick shot of this new latvian mitten just before I frog it - it's too small. I managed to delude myself all the way to this point that blocking would "make it fit"...silly girl. So it's getting ripped...

The bright side is that the reknit will be an opportunity to do a few things a little better. This time I'm going to knit the cuff without those dark blue stripes down the side. I'm going to keep them on the palm cause it just makes things neater and doesn't require frustrating figuring to make the patterns fit but the cuff pattern will fit perfectly in the new size and I think look better as a single piece. Also, my 3-color stranding was a little sloppy so this second attempt should be much neater...cross your fingers for me!

Knitter's Block

2007-01-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

Do you ever get it? Lots of yarn, plenty of patterns but no inspiration...I was on the verge of resorting to some striped potholders Sunday when I found these Elf Hats from Handknit Holidays. They're a super quick project and have just the right amount of whimsy.

Brad and I decided to spare you the spectacle of modeled shots. These will be for the ski slopes...you always need a silly hat for a ski day.

Saturday was a fun day spent at London-Wul taking a drop spindle class. Tanya organized lunch beforehand so I finally got to meet a fellow blogger and the rest of the Moncton crowd. A great group of girls! I forgot my camera but Tanya has some posted on her blog and she's also been spinning up a storm!!

The class was great - I was a little slow to catch on but managed to spin up a bit of something resembling yarn by the time it was over.

And, of course, I'm completely hooked. I bought a bit of fibre to practise with although I'm a bit worried about how to deal with the color so that I end up with something pretty and not a brown muddle.

This is some merino/silk...

And this is a bag of polworth...wish me luck!

Project Details:
Pattern: Elf Hats from Handknit HOliday
Yarn: Briggs & Little Super 100% wool (1 ball each light grey, dark maroon and pink)
Needles: 8mm circ and DPNs
Comments: My yarn did not match the gauge specified in the pattern so I had to upsize Brad's hat by 8 stitches or 2 sizes (he's got a large head) and I also started decreases on the hats 1-1.5 inches earlier than stated in the pattern to accomodate the extra decreases due to resizing and also to accomodate difference in row gauge.

Kitten Mittens

2007-01-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

Eunny's Anemoi mittens make me happy. I love these. They're baby alpaca so I've re-christened them the "kitten mittens" cause I seriously feel like I'm walking around with a couple of kittens keeping my fingers toasty.

These have not been blocked - they went straight from the needles to my hands so I guess they're just going to have to block with wear cause they ain't coming off.

Anyone who is thinking about making these - I say go for it! They're a great fitting pair of mittens and I really enjoyed the non-repetitive chart - wouldn't want everything I knit to be non-repetitive but it was kind of like making a puzzle or something. If you like that kind of thing (and I sure do), you'll enjoy this project.

And they were finished just in time cause someone rilly, rilly, rilly wants to go play in the snow!

Project Details:
Pattern: Eunny's Anemoi Mittens I made the size Small.
Yarn: 100% alpaca bought at Cricket Cove - 1 skein of chocolate/1 skein of cream with enough left over for a child's hat or mittens
Needles: The recommended 2mm and 2.25mm.
Comments: Absolutely love these - one of my favorite projects. Not sure how well the alpaca will hold up with a lot of wear but the warmth and softness are a huge bonus. One issue I had was that I used the recommended 2mm needles for the first cuff and found it was too tight (I can barely get it over my knuckles. On the second mitten, I used the larger needles for the cuff and it was a much better fit - this may have been due to the yarn I was working with or the tightness of my ribbing.

Petites Mitaines

2007-01-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine recently had a baby and I've been quite negligent with the knits what with Xmas and all so I finally cast on some little mittens for her.

The stitch pattern is either fleur-de-lis or peeled banana depending on your perspective...

I decided to go with the thumb-less, corded version rather than the usual cuff mainly because it looked more feminine and also babies don't need thumbs on their mittens anyway, right?

I hope they keep this little one cute and cozy this winter!!

Project Specs:
Pattern: Petites Mitaines en Fleur-de-lis from Favorite Mittens in the 0-6mos size
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette - same colors I used on my latvian mittens back in Dec.
Needles: Bamboo 2mm DPNs
Comments: This was a fun and quick knit. Not having to knit thumbs made this much less finicky than it could have been - to be honest the worst part was having to knit the little i-cord ties! I would definitely turn out another pair of these in future.

The Pool's Fine...

2007-01-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

I did one last London Wul lace scarf last week...this was actually a reknit of some HandMaiden Cashmere (Devon's Touque Kit) that I had knit into a skinny scarf last year. I found the skinny scarf curled too much and didn't want to "waste" cashmere so I actually knit right from one scarf to the other rather than ripping and reknitting. Blocking took care of any kinks...

Ordinarily pooling would be an issue for me but in the case of this scarf/yarn, the pooling actually worked itself into a zigzag pattern and didn't bother me all.

Can you believe it's January in the Maritimes and we've got no snow? It's actually raining out today. I quite enjoy winter snow so although I know a lot of people are probably appreciating the mild weather, I'd like for things to get back to normal. The ski hills are a mess at the moment. :-(

My next project is a pair of Eunny's Anemoi Mittens. Love these. I'm using a chocolate brown and a beige 100% alpaca. It's a bit splitty but is so so soft.

I would normally use 5 DPNs for a project like this but I didn't have any bamboo in the appropriate size and found the metal needles too heavy - they were really distorting the join stitches. So I switched to 2 circs - unfortunately one of them has a rough join so I'm having all kinds of equipment troubles on this project. Will be so worth it though...

Happy Holidays!!

2006-12-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Bigsy wishes you all a Merry Christmas!!

All gifts are finished and wrapped so I've finally got time to pull together a little blog entry. First up are a couple of twin scarves. This was such an easy TV pattern that I did it twice. They are going to sister-in-laws on both sides of the family.

My brother is getting a seamless sweater from EZ's Knitting Without Tears. I had a laugh at this picture - it looks like a miniature sweater - it's actually a men's LG - about a 48" chest.

It's the saddle-shoulder...please ignore the pine needles on the floor - we were near the Xmas tree (and my house is a disaster right now).

I made the mistake of not deciding on the hem color before starting the sweater so added it later and had to hand-stitch it down - it still looks fairly neat but the stitching was kind of a pain after completing a "seamless" sweater. :-)

My mom is also getting a sweater - this is Grace from DB Cotton Angora. It's actually a beautiful shade of sage green but try as I may, it looks grey in photos. I'll try to get a pic of her wearing it over the holidays - it looks great on and is super cozy.

Finally my own personal favorite. Latvian mittens for another sister in law. Sigh...I love them.

I striped the palms rather than carrying the pattern all the way around - should make for a sturdier, longer lasting mitten.

And the guts cause I know folks like to see them...

They fit me perfectly! Do you know how hard it is to give these away??

See you all in 2007!!!

Project Specs:
1. Twins Scarves
Pattern: A freebie from: The Woolworks/London-Wul
Yarn: London-Wul Shepherdess (60% merino/40% angora) for the pink and another London-Wul blend that I think was polworth/angora for the grey.
Needles: The recommended 5mm - I used bamboo.
comments: An easy, satisfying TV knit. And a good way to great yardage out of a single skein. I believe these were 120m skeins and I used one for each.

2. Seamless Sweater
Pattern: Saddle-shoulder seamless sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitting without Tears'
Yarn: 100% wool from Briggs and Little in Brown Heather - they sell by the pound so a very affordable gift. I believe it took about 6 skeins total.
Needles: 4.5mm circs throughout
comments: I really enjoyed knitting this - the body and sleeves were great for TV knitting and you feel really clever as you begin to work the saddle seams. I will definitely be making more seamless sweaters!

3. Cabled Sweater for Mom
Pattern: Grace from Debbie Bliss 'Cotton Angora'
Yarn: Jaeger Shetland Aran in a special dye lot (sage green) bought from eBay - $65USD per pack - I've got about 3.5 balls left over so got some great yardage.
Needles: I was able to get gauge on the recommended 4.5 and 5mm.
comments: An extremely cozy knit and I would definitely use the Shetland Aran again if it holds up well to wear. There were a couple mistakes in the pattern and they only gave one version of the sleeve which is a bit narrow through the wrist in my opinion for a size LG sweater...other than that, a great project with very satisfying results.

4. Latvian Mittens
Pattern: Kurzeme Mittens from Lizbeth Upitis' 'Latvian Mittens' - chart 108
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette - there is plenty left from the 3 balls for 1 or 2 more pairs of mittens.
Needles: 2mm bamboo
Comments: It was a challenge to get these started properly - just to sort out the charts for the size I was making and to lay out the stripes but I'm very happy with the end result and will definitely be making more. Next pair is for me!!!

Long Suffering Bigsy

2006-11-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas knitting season is in full swing here and no one knows what that means better than poor Bigsy.

Bigsy has the misfortune of being approximately the same size as mom's little dog Jack and also of being too fat to escape. I actually think he's starting to like it tho...I may even have heard purring this year. Either that or a really low growl...

Project Specs
Pattern: Stripes & Paw Prints from Patons booklet "Another Dog's Life"
Yarn: Briggs & Little Heritage 100% wool in Washed White, Navy, Teal Heather
Needles: I went up to 5mm for the ribbing and 5.5mm for the body
Comments: This is the same sweater I made last year for Jack cept I did the striped/name version this year instead of the paw prints. I also went up a needle size cause last year's sweater was not very stretchy for getting paws and head into.

Latvian Smackdown

2006-10-30T06:57:00.000-08:00

Mom's green sweater is almost completed. I just need to sew in the left sleeve and side seam. I am VERY happy with this project - I think she's going to love it and that it will be a good fit. I've got a few qualms about the DB pattern mistakes and the sleeve sizing but I'll not get into that at the moment. I'm planning to finish it up this week but I keep getting distracted by this:

I finished the first of this pair up on Saturday (minus the thumb) and have been patting it and admiring it ever since. It wasn't until I took this picture that I realized there is a big honking mistake. Why did I not see this before? Why did I sew in the ends at the mitten tip - why, why, why? That is what I get for feeling so smug I guess. I'll have to dig out the ends and rip back a couple inches to correct it. If it was one stitch I could live with it but an entire row is too much. Sulk.

(Updated with error: The very top flower has a line repeated in the bottom petals for those who are having trouble spotting it.)

And the Winner IS....

2006-10-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm officially 30 and the TTAAL contest is officially over!

The lucky winner of the Fleece Artist yarn is Rita!! Rita I have no email or website for you so please send your mailing details to knittenknots@hotmail.com so I can send out your prize. Thanks!!

Here are the correct answers for those who are wondering:

Week 1 - Twilight Zone Edition
#3 was the lie - I was NOT patted on the head by a ghost although I realize the other options were just as (if not more) far-fetched and that it probably says something about my psyche that I believe I've possibly seen a UFO and a sea monster.

Week 2 - I Was Almost Killed Edition
#2 was the lie - I did NOT open a taxi door into oncoming traffic - I was appalled at how many of you thought I was this stupid actually. Thanks guys! ;-)

Week 3 - Yarn Buying Expedition Truth
#2 was the truth - I bought the prize plus a few other things for Christmas presents. I did not go hog wild though I was sorely tempted and it would have been extremely easy to do. Great little shop!

Your Prize and the Final Question/Countdown...

2006-10-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

I visited London Wul this weekend (1.5 hours away) and picked up the contest prize. It is a gorgeous hank of "Peter Rabbit" from the Fleece Artist. This yummy stuff is 250m of handdyed bliss (70% angora, 20% nylon, 10% wool) - the colors in this picture are fairly accurate too.

If you are anti-angora or don't like the colors, I can offer up some DGS sock yarn to the winner instead - it's perfect for Jaywalkers.

I was going to post some pics of the finished fronts of the DB cardi but I'm going to try to push through and finish it by the weekend so decided to wait. Instead you get the final installment and last chance at a correct guess for the Lies contest.

This week is a little different - which of these is the TRUTH!?!

While at London Wul, I got to play with and snorgle the excessively charming Finn and admire the handsome though somewhat aloof Angus. Most importantly, what did I buy?

1. I went there to get one thing and one thing only. The skein of Peter Rabbit for the contest winner.

2. I browsed for a long time and finally decided on several skeins of yarn for Xmas presents. Enough for a few pairs of socks, a couple scarves, hats and some mittens.

3. I went hog-wild people!! I bought yarn for 2 sweaters, an afghan, at least 4 shawls PLUS Xmas projects.

I Was Nearly Killed! and a Latvian Swatch

2006-10-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

What do you think of this little swatch? I'm trying to decide if the colors are too "something" for a latvian mitten. I think I may want something more subtle but they may not be for me so I'm confused. Thoughts, opinions please?

And here is the second installment of the Two Truths and a Lie Birthday Contest. Guess which story is a lie and you get another chance to win the grand prize (also feel free to continue to post guesses for week 1's Twilight Zone edition.) The contest is open til Oct. 21st.

TTAAL "I was nearly killed!" Edition

1. My friend Erin and I were both selected to be flag bearers in the Canadian Divisional Figure Skating Championships held in Summerside, PEI the winter of 1993. This was huge as Canadian ice-dancers ShaeLynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz were competing - wooooo! On the way home from our first night of practise, we hit some slush/ice and totalled my parents car. We were lucky to have absolutely no injuries and were able to complete our flag-bearing duties.

2. Brad and I travelled to New York the Summer of 2000 for an extended weekend trip. On Saturday night, we headed out to a couple of comedy clubs where we had a few drinks and lots of laughs. We walked through Time Square until about midnight and then took a taxi back to our hotel. Having had a few drinks and, quite frankly, growing up in a town that doesn't even have a taxi, I threw open the driver's side back door to exit the cab and it was promptly struck by a passing car resulting in a good deal of damage to both our taxi and the car that hit the door. Luckily I was a little slow to exit so was completely unharmed.

3. In the Spring of 1998 (my last year of University), a few friends and I headed to France for a 2-week long vacation. We flew into Paris and drove to the South of France where we spent the majority of our trip. On the drive down, we took a few scenic routes. One in particular was a winding road up into some hills that was essentially one 90 degree turn after another with a deadly drop off to the side. As we approached a sharp curve, a bright blue car with a racing stripe down the center careened toward us obviously trying to break some sort of land-speed record. The driver in a completely controlled fashion neatly sidestepped us and was around the next curve and gone before our mouths had even fully dropped. It was one of those "did that just happen? I think I'm gonna be sick." moments.

Two Truths and a Lie Birthday Contest (Week 1 - Twilight Zone Edition)

2006-10-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

It's birthday month here and I'm trying really hard to stay positive about the end of my 20s. How'd it happen, where'd they go? Sigh...

Anyway, in the spirit of being festive rather than horribly depressed - a birthday contest! Back in August, JulieFricknits played a little game called Two Truths and a Lie. Over the next 3 weeks, I'll be posting a new Two Truths and a Lie every week - spot the lie and post it in the comments and you could win the grand prize. Every correct answer gives you a chance to win. I turn 30 on the 21st of Oct so all entries prior to that date will be included and the prize will be really, really good. Trust me.

The theme of this week's TTAAL is 'Welcome to the Twilight Zone'...

1. In mid-August of 1994, the Perseid meteor shower peaked. On the evening of the 12th, my mother, my little brother and I were lying on a blanket watching for meteors in the flatbed of my dad's truck. After about 20 minutes of meteor-gazing, we saw a strange yellow light similar to that of a plane but moving much faster pass by. We all thought it was a bit unusual and decided to walk to the edge of the yard so we could have another look at it. In the field behind my parent's house, we witnessed glitter falling from the sky similar to what you see after fireworks have gone off. Suddenly 3 horizontal lights became visible about 150ft off the ground, after a few seconds this became 8 lights and started rotating. About that time, we ran like the dickens into the house where my 12 year old brother was hysterical for the better part of an hour. Mom and I may have started running without him - whoopsy.

2. One sunny summer day when I was about 8 years old, my dad, my older brother and I were walking to our favorite swimming spot. We called this place "the rock" because there was a big rock jutting out into the water that we could jump off of - creative naming was obviously not our forte. So just as we're about to scamper over the cape and cool off, my dad (a fisherman) saw something out in the water. It was approx. 100ft off shore and basically looked like a GIANT sea snake. Black on top, white on the bottom and 20-30 ft long at least. We didn't go swimming that day or any other day for the rest of the summer. A couple of years later I was paging through our Childcraft Encyclopedia "Stories of the Sea" edition and saw a drawing of exactly what we had seen surfacing next to an American sub.

3. The second year I was living in residence at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia (love that place) I had a single room. Even though I was a second year student, I still had a couple of 8:15AM classes that I would drag myself to in winter, hurrying back to my room afterward to crawl under the covers for a nap (never was a morning person). One particular day I was lying on my side and just about to fall back to sleep. My hair was in a ponytail and I felt someone lift it gently and set it back down. There was no one in the room with me. That year 4 other girls had their heads stroked by unseen hands in Plessis House.

LOL - so take your best guess at which of the above is the lie. Did I NOT see a UFO, did I NOT see a sea monster or was I NOT touched by a ghost?? Please note: I realize there are perfectly reasonable possible explanations for the above - don't judge, just guess! ;-)

Also doing some knitting - these are Xmas socks for Brad's dad. No way to glam them up - they're your basic work socks. Same ones I always make him...

Summer in a Bottle

2006-09-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's been 4 days since I picked up knitting needles. FOUR. WHOLE. DAYS. What could possibly keep me away?

60 pounds of tomatoes
7 heads of celery
several pounds of onions (couldn't keep track through the tears)
40 peppers
3 days of my life
________________________
53 - 500ml bottles
7 - 1L bottles
3 - jumbo 1.5 L bottles

SALSA!!

Knitting resumes tonight.

Grace

2006-09-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

Another Christmas present is well underway - I'm on fire over here people.

This is the completed back of Grace, a very cozy DB cardi from the cotton angora book. I'm using some Jaeger Shetland Aran that I bought from Janette a few weeks ago (great yardage on this stuff). I love the sagey color - although it has looked grey in every photo - I had to saturate this picture to get it to even look green let alone the warm sagey green that it actually is. This will be for my mom and I know she'll enjoy it. The cables and ribbing are making it very luxurious and "cushy" and this yarn has absolutely no itch factor. I want one for ME too!

Fun With Flowers

2006-09-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading through Heidi's blog and saw that she had done some dying in her studio with goldenrod. Liking what I saw, I decided to give it a try myself! It turned out to be super easy and quite a bit of fun actually.

The first step was to run around the yard collecting my dying material. No sweat - there is an abundance of goldenrod around these parts.

Into the pot it goes... (I just filled my stock pot - not sure how much water this was - it wasn't a very scientific experiment - if I had to guess I'd say it was about 2 gallons.) The information I found online suggested 1 pound of goldenrod to 4 gallons of water to 4 TBSP of alum.

After about 30 minutes of simmering the goldenrod, I strained out the plant material, added about 2 tablespoons of alum and let that heat for 15 mins. Yarn time! I only had one skein to dye and I let it simmer for a little over an 1 hour.

The resulting color is not a bad yellow at all. Inside near the lamp, it has a warm, golden hue.

Outside in the sunshine, it has cooler tones...

Either way, I'm pleased with the result and can't wait to knit me up some yellow socks!

Thanks to Janine once again for gifting me this Knit Picks "color your own" skein!!

Last Socks of Summer

2006-09-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year... Harvest season. Time for bottling salsa and pickles. Packing up the canoe and deck furniture. The leaves are just starting to turn and the mornings are refreshingly crisp and cool.

These are my favorite socks for my favorite time of year. A cozy fitting rib not too heavy for slightly chilly mornings and evenings.

As much as I love the fall leaves, I'm hoping to get in at least a few more weeks of this...

Project Specs:
Pattern: Fine Socks by Briggs & Little
Yarn: Briggs & Little Sport 100% wool
Color: Grape
Needles: 2.75mm DPNs
Comments: I make these socks in both fine gauge and heavy over and over. They have such a comfortable ribbed fit and are perfect TV knitting.

Mousierama!!

2006-09-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

The boys got some new felted mousies today and they were very excited. I barely got a photo of the mousies before they were over to claim their own.

Bigsy decided on the green one...

While Niblet preferred the more "natural" looking gray one...

Their mousie "kill" strategies were also vastly diferent. Bigsy used his ample frame to advantage with a series of crushing manoeuvres.

While Niblet took what I like to call the "nutbar" approach which basically amounts to a lot of flipping and jumping around really fast without any real damage being inflicted to the prey.

So glad I took the time throw together a couple of these - it was fun to watch them play.

Project Specs:
Pattern: Free Pattern by Jo Chandler found at About.com.
Yarn: Scraps of Briggs and Little Heritage 100% wool
Needles: 4mm DPNs
Comments: Results in very cute sort of medium sized mousie with the worsted weight yarn I used. I love the bobble ears - your cats will get months of enjoyment out of one of these little guys. I throw a little cat nip in with the stuffing and it gets their immediate attention.

One Down....

2006-08-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling very ahead of the game today. It's still August and I just finished my first Xmas gift. This has never happened before so let's hope the trend continues... Maybe...just maybe...there won't be maniacal and ill-fated last minute knitting in the car on the way to deliver gifts this year. One can always hope...

Trellis enjoying the cool late summer breeze...

Trellis enjoying the view...

Trellis all folded up and patiently waiting for Xmas morning...

Special thanks goes out to my favorite Guernsey Gal and lace-knitter extraordinaire Janine! Not only did she gift me the yarn to complete this project but she also offered sound advice re: using string for blocking instead of tres pricey blocking wires. It works people!! Thanks Janine! By the way, go check out the Mountain Peaks shawl she just completed. Absolutely gorgeous!

Project Specs:
Pattern: Trellis Scarf from IK Spring 2006
Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud, 1 skein, color 04 Autumn
Needles: The recommended 3.75mm circ - I may have been able to go down to a 3.5 in retrospect.
Comments: I really enjoyed this project. It was my first time working with laceweight and although the 7 into 5 cluster just about finished me on the first couple of repeats, I've got to say once I got the hang of those, it was smooth sailing. I almost didn't want it to end. The blocking wasn't bad either once I followed Janine's advice. I just threaded a string down both sides and used it to keep the edges from scalloping - a few pins to keep it taut and it worked perfectly.

Blocking....well, sorta

2006-08-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Why is it that we always think somewhere in the back of our minds that somehow, someway we will succeed where countless others have failed (or at least suffered). That it can't really be as difficult as all that...

Heh - lesson learned. Tonight I tried blocking lace - the real stuff - for the first time. I've blocked many non-lace projects in the past and figured "so I'll use a few extra pins" to avoid any scalloped edges - it'll be fine - I really didn't see what all the fuss could be about.

Tonight - I cried uncle. Tomorrow - I buy blocking wires.