Good-bye November

So, here we are again. On the bright side, November is finally on its way out the door. I don't know about where you are but here the weather hasn't been doing anything to further endear this month to me.  Dreary, drizzly rain all week, and more on the way. 

On another note, shortly after my last post the blocking of the blanket was finally complete and I gave it to its eagerly awaiting owner (who loved it). 

 

 

 

 

Up until this point I haven't formally reviewed any patterns or yarns I've used.  I think you and future me will definitely find it useful if I do.  The pattern is The Bobble Baby Blanket and is available as a paid pattern on Ravelry.  It is a well written PDF and is clearly illustrated with many photographs.  I would totally recommend the pattern.  That said, I found it slightly frustrating that the yarn requirements are listed in grams rather than yards.  My friend had already made this blanket in Cascade 220, so I did the logical thing and converted her yardage into my KnitPicks Swish DK, arriving with an order of 11 skeins in Sugar Plum.  I used 8 skeins and wound up with a blanket whose length spanned our double sized guest bed.  It's not the end of the world at all, but it is definitely surprising.  

Now onto the yarn.  Generally I liked the yarn - it was consistent.  There were no knots in it, and it was pretty soft, though not as soft as Cascade 220 superwash.  I washed it in Eucalan even though it is machine-washable, simply because I didn't want to mess it up before giving it to the new owner.  It smelled distinctly of wet sheep when I took it out of the laundry sink.  This is likely a good sign, one that means it actually came from a sheep, but it was a bit alarming to me, who had not yet washed a large project entirely made of wool.  The other thing I learned is that I hate that colourway.  I'm not sure if it was the colour itself or the lack of variegation in the yarn, but either way by the end I wanted nothing to do with Sugar Plum or anything resembling it.  It just seemed dead to me.  Once it was all washed and blocked and set aside and I was no longer forced to look at it, I liked it again.  Over all I would recommend this yarn to someone else, and I would knit with it again, but it would not be my first choice. 

Snapping me out of this colour funk is my latest love, as you know, my ripply blanket.  I am loving this project for all it's wacky colour changes, plus this yarn is soft, soft, soft!  The only problem I'm having so far with this is that I start getting a blister if I work too long on it.  Solution - alternate with knitting.  Hehehe.

 

And what am I knitting?  My UFO socks that have been shoved in my knitting bag begging for some love since well before I got married last June.  What can I say?  It turns out that I'm a fickle and unfaithful crafter.  But at least I always come back.  

 

November clearly wasn't all bad.  Mr. Frogged took me to my favourite Mexican restaurant, Dos Amigos, the other day, and allowed me to knit socks in public while drinking a lime margarita.  The food was great, the drink was great, the knitting got a little sketchy - I'm not gonna lie.  I don't think one is meant in any realm to turn a heel and consume alcohol.  It's just a thought.  But look how far I've gotten!  Erin from the Anatomy of Knitting Podcast is right.  No matter what happens, you always feel very clever after turning a heel.  I used some bastardized version of Wendy Johnson's Toe Up Socks With a Difference.I'm working with Shibui Knit Socks and I do like it very much.  It's boingy somehow and feels good on my foot (in my first pair of socks). I'm kinda champagne taste with a beer budget when it comes to sock yarns, so it's fortunate that I have small feet and that I like ankle socks so I get 2 pairs per skein. 

What I don't understand is how I ended up with this crazy hole in each corner?  Is it because I didn't wrap my stitches?  But the pattern stops wrapping after a certain point.  Is it because I didn't keep track of when to stop working across and occasionally knit right the way across?  I think that might cause this but any confirmations would be greatly appreciated.  Post me a comment to help solve this mystery. 

Lastly, I went to a thrum mitten class at Serenity Knits in Newmarket this weekend.  I cannot say enough good things about this store.  It's such a pleasant relief from the small, overfull stores you often find in The City.  It's roomy, but not overwhelming.  There is a lot of selection, and their yarns are clearly selected with care.  In case you don't know, thrums are essentially 4 inch bits of roving that are worked into stitches within a mitten, or hat, or sock to add a fleecey layer of warmth to the garment.  Traditionally, I learned from Beth who taught the class, they were used in Newfoundland and Labrador in unwashed wool providing the fishermen with warm and waterproof mittens.  Naturally I bought the materials for the class - Fleece Artist Thrummed mitten kit - Yum, and I am making this first pair for Mr. Frogged in a lovely green colour as you can see, and in a size large because he's got big hands and is obviously masochistic by requesting such a big mitten.  Can you see the cute little heart-shaped stitches that the thrums create?  I mean, very manly arrow shapes....

Naturally, to dispell mitten envy, and quite possibly theivery, I had to buy a kit for myself in this luscious red.  Please ignore my finger encroaching on the photo.  I'm posting unusually late tonight and promise I will get you better pictures of my mitt yarn soon.

 

There was a 10% off student discount at Serentiy, so I obviously bought something else too.  Oops...

It's not my fault.  Really it couldn't be helped.  First of all, it's the coolest sock yarn in the world because it's designed for two at a time socks and has been dyed two strands at a time, allowing me to make identical socks without having to curse out loud.  Second, it begged to be brought home with me and practically hopped in my knitting bag when I threatened not to succumb.  I had to buy it or risk the yarn framing me with shoplifting.  Tough decision, but someone's got to make it.  

Oh jeez, I'm getting a serious case of the head nods so I better go to bed.  Until next time, friends, Happy Crafting!

The Mean Reds

So here I am, after an embarrassingly long (and unplanned) hiatus, blogging again.  I meant to blog, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  You may remember from here that I hate November.  You might have thought I was being cute because it's cold and dreary, and really, no one likes this particular month, but I wasn't.  I've spent the past two weeks battling the most obscene case of the Breakfast-at-TIffany's-defined mean reds. 

"Listen...you know those days when you get the mean reds?" --Holly.
"The mean reds? You mean like the blues?" --Fred (Paul)
"No... the blues are because you're getting fat or because it's been raining too long. You're just sad, that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?" --Holly
"Sure." --Fred (Paul)
"When I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump into a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away." --Holly

Now, as you might well imagine I can't saunter around the nearest Tiffany's every November to make me feel better.  For one thing, it makes poor Mr. Frogged break into a nervous sweat this close to Christmas if he catches me too close to that turquoise-laden store.  What I can do, is wander around my stash.  And since I think I've teased you quite long enough, I think I'll finally share with you what the stash enhancement I mentioned here actually was. 

As a bit of background, a friend of mine was clearing out some things that she no longer had any use for and came across a stack of retro needlework magazines (knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting, needlepoint, etc.) that were her mother's.  Knowing me to be, well, me, and therefore constantly with one eye on needlecrafts, she offered me this treasure trove of magazines from the 70's, 80's and 90's.  Naturally I jumped on it.  What I didn't expect when I received the magazines was the grocery bag full of crochet thread.  Now when I say full, I mean FULL of all different colours and weights from a time when each ball cost less than one dollar, but was of better quality than that which I recently paid five dollars for.  Imagine my glee!  Well, no, don't imagine it....live it with me for a moment while I show you through my new aquisitions. 

Two of this luscious creamscicle colour.

A beautiful beige grey linen colour.

A sunshine-y yellow.

Odds and ends of greens and browns, plus a lovely variegated blue.



Intense purple.  It is the new pink after all.

Bits and pieces of some VERY fine thread.

Fine white thread.  Doillies here I come...

My happy colours - Reds, yellows, oranges, and combinations thereof.

I should note that while I did not ever meet my friend's mom, one thing is clear from this grocery bag of thread.  She was a very talented crocheter, and with thread as thin as the thread below, she must have had an abundance of patience also.



I don't know what these were going to be, but I love how the colour changes look in this circle.



Each of the crocheted flowers that were added to this rick rack are no bigger than a dime.  The thread is so thin you could easily sew with it. 

Can you see how tiny these little wings are?  I LOVE them, and want to learn how to make them too. 



A sweet crocheted rose made up of scallop stitches. 

You can see I have some mighty big crocheted shoes to fill here with this thread, but I hope that I can learn from these things that were given to me, and honour the memory of such a talented crafter.  

On that note, here's hoping the mean reds clear up and I blog again soon.  I have a big FO unveiling for you and a new piece of hooky goodness to share too! 

Until next time, happy crafting!

Kickin' the Habit

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. ~Mark Twain

This weekend I was kickin' the habit. I had all the usual symptoms. I ate more. I became emotional at the commercials. I even acted irrationally once or twice. But really? Do you blame me? I abstained from the Creativ Festival.

It's not that I didn't have offers. Oh, I had offers. I coulda gone, like, ten times over. But, psh, I looked those people in the eye and said, man, I'm way too cool for that.

Actually, I had more like one offer and I rather sheepishly declined it after a long and serious, not to mention a bit guilt-ridden glance at my stash. I realized that there was nothing at the festival I needed and that I had over 10 projects waiting for me in yarn form in my stash. So, I didn't go like a good girl.

So, what did I do instead? I threw a high tea for my girlfriends! Yay!!





The tea entailed homemade scones, homemade Victoria sponge, finger sandwiches, and mimosas all round. Not to mention tea and lots of it! It was fabulous. In fact, I can't wait to do it again!





On Sunday I also made dinner for my parents. For dinner I decided to honour the other half of my heritage by making bracciole in homemade tomato sauce with rigatoni (yum). AND my dad liked it! This is big news as my dad can tell you to the milligram what is missing from a recipe. He's usually right, to boot. Yet still, victory was mine! Hahaha.

So with all of this grocery shopping, baking, entertaining, and cooking I barely had time to think of needlework, nevermind the ginormous festival wreaking havoc on the craft community of downtown Toronto.

I do, however have a couple of confessions to make...
1) I have a huge stash enhancement that I haven't mentioned to you yet,
2) It was free, and
3) I'm not going to tell you any more about it yet. Sorry guys!

Lastly, I've decided on the costume...Betty Page. The Notorious Betty Page. A bit scandalous, yes, but I'll be tasteful, I promise. And Mr. Frogged? Well, he'll be the photographer of course. Don't hold your breath for pictures on this one, though. I'm not brazen enough to post a swimsuit picture to the web.

Tell me what your Halloween plans are!

Until next time, happy crafting!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Yarn, Yarn Everywhere...

Hello one and all,

As you may remember from the last post, yesterday was the start of the sale at the The Knit Cafe and the continuation of the sale at Romni Wools, both on Queen West in Toronto.  This brought me and my yarn buddy downtown by about 10:30 am yesterday morning just to make sure that we caught all the deals...and deals there certainly were!

We began at the Knit Cafe partly because it's a bit more manageable first thing in the morning, partly because I knew the regulars would be up and at 'em before I even had my foot out the door, and partly because I love the friendliness that greets me every time I'm there. 

Well, we were not disappointed.  The first find?  A beautiful Fleece Artist sweater kit complete with 800g of merino-alpaca blend yarn on sale for half price, meaning that I could buy it without the usual guilt-instilling price tag.  Plus it is in my favourite colours and it will be so scrummy once I can snuggle into it.  I can't wait to make this up.  There is one dilemma...I realized upon getting it home that I will need 1000g of yarn since I am apparently a size L in this pattern.  Of course I can't hope to be able to get more yarn in this colourway/dyelot, so what's a girl to do?  My idea so far is to shorten the pattern in the length of the body and the length of the arms, since I'm after all only 5'-0", and then this may afford me the extra yarn for around my bosom.  Any other suggestions would be welcome. 

 

The Imogen Sweater






 

The almost kilogram of yarn!!

 My next find was this little cutie - Kooly the Koala Kritter Craft Case from Clover.  Now I should specify that upon first inspection I thought he was a frog.  On second inspection I realized he wasn't, but decided that since he is green-ish, and was reduced to only $1 sale price (crazy!!) I would consider him froggy enough for me.  I do like him and can't wait to stick all my odds and ends into his zippered mouth for safe keeping.  No more losing darning needles (which I also bought).  And lastly, I bought my first bottle of Eucalan.  Now that I have all this delicious fiber, I know I'm going to have to take good care of it. 


From there, off we went merrily to Romni where all yarns were 20% off!!  I bought my four skeins of Cotton Fleece from Brown Sheep in the colour Pink-a-Boo. 


This is going towards the making of the next baby blanket.  It will basically be a replicate of the first pink one with the brown ribbon.  Hopefully it goes faster this time. 

I also bought two skeins of self-striping sock yarn (one for me and one for the Mister).   Mr. Frogged got a very manly blue colourway - 4739, and I got 4352 which is nice and warm and will probably match my sweater kit well. 

The last thing I bought was a big cake of red wool.  It is 100% wool and spun into quite thin yarns.  I'll need to hold it two strands at a time when I use it for my planned project, which is a cabled tam, but I think I can manage that. 

Now I realize that it sounds like I spent a small fortune on all of this, but since a couple of projects are requests, I will be repaid for the yarn required on those guys.  So for myself, I thnk I only spent about $75, which is less than you'd usually spend on the sweater kit.  After all that, I was on a yarn related high for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow will have to be the first day of my yarn diet. 

Until next time, friends...happy crafting!

I'm in LOVE!

Hello there and thank you for reading!  Thank you to any friends and family who visited the site.  Especially those who posted comments which helps it to look like someone actually reads this. 

Today I'm going to talk a bit about my current project, a bit about my upcoming project, and a bit about some luscious yarn I bought - I hope you enjoy.

So first - about that white crocheted baby blanket I've been working on.  I should mention that if you like the pattern so far, it is the Ruffled Snapdragon Baby Blanket on Ravelry.  It turns out that although it is pretty tedious to do the same stitch over and over along such a ginormous piece, it is a PERFECT travelling piece.  It is beginning to get a bit on the big side for purse storage, but I'll keep it in my purse anyways.  It is good mindless stuff that I can work on at all kinds of functions which sounds a little anti-social, but the long and the short of it is this: 1) I eat less at parties when I have a project in my hands for the obvious reason that I can't eat and crochet at once (what a pity), 2) I can talk and crochet at once, and 3) this project needs to be done in two weeks time in order to give me enough time to wash it and block it before taking it merrily with me to meet its new tiny little owner all the way over in England.  It's getting closer and closer to completion every day currently measuring a whopping 21" x 36", but I must say I'm beginning to panic just a little. 


Now onto my upcoming project...
First let me make mention that the recipient of the Strawberry Tiramisu baby blanket was so tickled by it that she requested I make another!  We will be picking the pattern for it this weekend and I will be sure to let you know what it is as soon as I do.  Now this is all very exciting, but it also means one more crocheted baby blanket which, if I don't become a crafting bigamist, will actually cause complete insanity.  So, here is the perfect solution!  I am going to begin my Superstar Knit challenge.  If you haven't flipped through Debbie Stroller's Stitch n Bitch Superstar Knitting  I can't recommend it highly enough.  I'm reading through the intro and instructions right now just for fun and it is amazing.  As usual, she has paired fashion relevent patterns with unique knitting techniques for newly minted advanced knitters which I cannot wait to try out.  So without further ado, I introduce my first frolic into her pattern book (and my first lace pattern to boot):   The Frilly Filly Scarf!  I do have some alterations in mind for this pattern already though, and mainly that is to turn it into a beautiful beaded cowl.  Think, Knitty's Ice Queen meets this pretty, beginner lace pattern. 

And now for the piece de resistance, and my love of the moment - the yarn!  Oh the, yarn!  I bought it with a gift certificate from my friend and it is DELICIOUS.  It is Debbie Bliss Angel and is the most beautiful coral colour.  I can't stop talking about it - even my personal trainer has heard about this yarn.  It's soft, and delicate, and quite possibly the prettiest thing I have ever knit with!  I'll let you know how it performs once the cowl is started, but in the meantime just know that it will be in my carry-on on the way to England eagerly awaiting it's cast-on. 

I hope it's ok, but I haven't included any pictures in this post, mainly because I tried to link back to things wherever possible.  I'm sure I've gone on too long, so here's where I'll bid you farewell...until next time Happy Knitting.