Neil Gaiman, Fun Ways to Hurt Myself, and a Cat in a Pillow

Many of you will simply not care about this part, but Neil Gaiman is coming to Winnipeg next month. I'm slightly surprised with how excited I am over this. So excited that I told my boss that I'll be leaving early that day no matter what, that I plan on returning home to gussy up, and that I plan on grabbing some knitting and wait in a book store with two other fellow knitters and my very bored boyfriend for a few hours before things begin.

I've never been to a book signing before so I googled it, and wouldn't you know, Neil actually has some Dos and Don'ts on his signings (Last question posed in his post). I'm relieved to know that I can bring along my copy of Coraline with me for signing and he won't think I'm an arse. As well if I get the courage, I would like a photo with him.

The other thing that I had on my mind just recently...in his post announcing that he would be coming to Winnipeg, he mentioned how cold it was. Granted we're having an exceptionally warm season so far (still no snow that's sticking), I was considering knitting him mittens or something. Of course if I did that I should might as well just make him a picture with macaroni and paint like a 2nd grader, right?

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At the moment I'm so very close to finishing the Ishbel vs. Swallowtail Shawl. I had a minor set back this week with fecking up my left wrist so bad it looked like my hand swallowed a golf ball and it got stuck in the wrist. Both the physio therapist and the doctor took a moment to stare at it in awe. Apparently I'm talented when it comes to hurting myself.

The wrist is feeling better albeit I still need to wrap it up once in a while because it starts to hurt, so for most of the week I didn't knit. I should be able to make some progress tonight however there will be no photos until it's finished and I have some sunlight here. Suffice to say, it looks like cat barf and I haven't been able to check how the lace pattern is turning out because my needle cord is too short to stretch it out and take a good look yet.

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So this is what she does when I'm not around.

Finally Fox Faces

Fox Faces are finally done. Only a month too late to enter to win prizes, but done none the less. One thing off the needles for the end of the year, four more to go.

Please enjoy my pyjama pants in the mean time.

Project Specs:
Pattern Fox Faces by Nancy Bush (to be released on her website later on)
Needles US 1 set of 5 DPNs
Yarn Hand dyed Knit Picks Bare Superwash
Adjustments The socks called for a cast on that would have made the pattern stretch out hideously over my feet (which is crazy since I have small feet) so I cast on 72 stitches instead and halfway down the leg I decreased evenly.
Regrets They're just a touch too short on the foot, I like having a good two inches of stockinette toe, these ones ended with about half an inch to an inch.

Hurray I have new socks!

Dash to the Finish

Fox Faces second sock is coming along slowly. I think it's a shame since it's all downhill from here on out. I managed to screw up one of the pattern repeats and I've decided not to bother going back to fix it. I'm ready to be done with these socks and move on to something new.

As I've said before, I don't think I would have normally chosen to knit this pattern had I seen the end result but I love Nancy Bush and I don't regret casting on two months ago, but I should have chosen better yarn. Knit Picks, while cheap (and I really do like their yarn), is very splitty and the yarn still hasn't softened up as I've worked with it. I'm hoping a good wash will do the trick. I expect I should be done the pair in the next few weeks.

My only hesitation on a finish-by date is that I'm finally taking a breath and moving on to the Swallowtail Shawl part of my mashup shawl, which requires me to learn a new technique (nupps), and do math. I'm on the 3rd row of the first Lily of the Valley chart (read: barely started) and I've survived one row of nupps and the reverse side. I've learned to hence forth, keep my nupps LOOSE, but found my cable needle to be handy to purl the five nupp stitches back into one. My fingers on the other hand, ache.

So far I'm 6 rows out of 40...wow, it doesn't seem that much on the paper. I'm hoping to finish the first half (rows 1-12) of the Lily of the Valley border today, the second half of the border this week, then the lace border and scalloped edging before the end of the month so I can block it and send out the package to my aunt before Christmas.

Is this all worth it? I won't know until it's ready to be packed up. I'll probably never know whether she actually likes it, but a finished object that looks great is still a finished object off my needles, and that will be worth it to me.

My plan is to finish as much as possible before the new year begins. I want to be able to cast on many new things in January - I also have 6 sock kits that I made left over from this year's attempt to challenge myself and knit through the sock stash. I'm starting to miss the yarn because I can't remember what I have hiding in those bags.

I've also decided that next year I'm going to try harder at knitting throughmy queue. I'm tired of looking at the same list wondering when I'll get around to knitting them. I use my queue on Ravelry to mark off what I'm definitely going to knit in the future, so far it hasn't budged. Time to change that. First thing New Year's day, I'm casting on Owls...that is if I'm not fighting off a hangover :)

From Andrea With Love

The plan originally was to cast on Owls as my NaKniSweMo (this would be the first year that I participated) yesterday, along with many other knitters intent on challenging themselves and their knitting abilities, but I hadn't planned on knitting a Christmas gift. As well I decided I would prefer spending all that concentrated knitting time working on projects I already have on the needles instead of starting something new only to desert it in a week.

The good news is I only have five projects on the needles and one NEEDS to be finished this month so I can mail it out. The bad news is I've been having pain in one of my fingers and I haven't been able to figure out if it's from the way I'm holding my needles with one of my sock projects, or if there's something seriously wrong. I'm leaning towards how I'm handling my sock needles at the moment.

I was shopping through some knitting cataloges over the weekend, trying to pick out a Christmas gift for myself since I will not be participating in any swaps this year, and I was noticing some knitting tags, the ones you attached to a finished project with care instructions? They all had what was supposed to be clever saying on them such as these from Patternworks, but I'm starting to feel these things make knitters look bitchy. Why would you knit anything for someone you think needs these tags attached to your gift? Anyway, I guess my point is that I didn't find any gift tags that has sentiments of love for the person you're knitting for with ease, and that I'm sick of this, "I'm a knitter, mother fucker" attitude.

The podcast idea is going slowly. What I'm waiting for is for Mister to get get his extra headset/mic back from our friend, who inconveniently just moved so it's probably packed away right now. Maybe I should just add it to my Christmas list? In the meantime I'm going to keep jotting ideas down and knitting crazily so I don't end up with five episodes in a row where I'm working on the same damn thing.

Cheers!

ETA: OMG, my Heath's Socks pattern is being linked on pattern databases and shop websites, it's very exciting to see something I created up on high volume sites like this. I swear, once I knock off some WIPs, the first thing I'm going to to is sit down and work on the other pattern ideas I have swimming in my head - thank you everyone!

Where's Waldo?

Last week I was here:

Or maybe it was here:

Or here:

Possible here?

But definitely not here yet:

And I had yet to see here:

Okay enough of that, clearly I was traveling overseas. I didn't get any knitting done, and now I have a cold. Seems a bit unfair but what can I do? All I know is I'm taking tomorrow morning off as sick time and perhaps I can get some more work done on the Swallowtail/Ishbel mashup shawl.

The plan at the moment is to increase my stitches to 195 (a perfect match to the lace of Swallowtail) and see if I'm satisfied with the size. If not, I'll continue to increase the stitches in intervals of 10 (the amount of stitches in the pattern repeat).

I realise today while in photobucket, that all my lace projects have been green. There was the unfinished Mystery Stole, and then Ishbel. I swear this hasn't been on purpose.

I also suspect that I will not be finishing the Sock Knitter's Anonymous mystery stock my Nancy Bush in time. I'm a little disappointed in myself but on the other hand - I went to London, who cares?! The bad news is, I didn't make it to a yarn shop in either London or Paris, the good news is I met a fellow Raveler on my trip - sadly I didn't get her Ravelry name, but I do know her real name....I just got side tracked looking, but I think I found her!

Anyway, we're going into the worse time of year (all eight months of it) for me to be a blogger, the time where no daylight can be found to take photos in. Arg.

Keep warm my peeps!

Luckiest Girl in the World

How flipping awesome is this package? I'll tell you, it's super times a million awesome.

My secretpal who still remains nameless (I think this is the first time I haven't accidentally or otherwise found out who my partner is!) showered me with fibrey goodness. In the package was Berroco Sox, a sparkly sock yarn in multiple colours per ball, some Sock Knitter's Anonymous Sockittome with Cherry Tree Hill base yarn in colourway Walking on the Sun, some fibre for spinning in a beautiful array of colour, and also some lace weight merino from Artisan NZ in this cool packaging that complete with a pattern.

The non fibre goodies include another Heidi Betts book, some much appreciated chocolate, a magnetic notepad for the fridge (I love these things!), and JARED FLOOD'S BOOK!!!!

Mie, once again, you've won my heart. Thank you!

Swallowtail Shawl vs. Ishbel

This is so unlike me, but I pulled my aunt in our annual secret Santa family swap and I decided to knit her part of her gift. In honour of her buying her much desired hobby farm this past summer, and since this is Canada, I thought I'd make her a heavy weight shawl. But of course I couldn't decide on a pattern and even after I thought I found the right pattern and ordered yarn, I quickly changed my mind and then the yarn arrived.

What's a girl to do but find a few patterns she can agree on and do a mashup.

I feel like a mad scientist trying to merge two patterns and come out with what I see in my head. I'm afraid the first half (quite clearly Ishbel) won't be big enough when the stitch count matches Swallowtail Shawl which means math.

Once upon a time I used to be great at math. And then the other day I was trying to do multiplication with decimals by hand and head...and I wasn't sure if I was doing it right.

So suffice to say, this should be interesting.

Fox Faces

Nancy Bush is an amazing knitter and designer. In a matter of days she whipped up a pattern for a Mystery Knit Along before zipping away on vacation. I don't know if I would ever have knit this sock had I seen the finished product before casting on but I have a high regard for Nancy and her patterns that I trusted her enough to cast on with hundreds of other knitters.

The last clue was released on Tuesday and in it she names this pattern as Fox Faces. My favourite part thus far is the horizontal braid. Only a few weeks ago I was wondering how it was done, and now I know and it's really very easy. Knitters are amazing.

I had to frog the sock early on and re-cast on a larger number of stitches. I just knew 60 would not be enough. I was getting socks that were over stretched on my legs which to me, looks just awful. So I cast on 72 stitches for the calf and then decreased to 64 as I worked the leg.

The heel is worked in a Honeycomb Heel Stitch and it's absolutely lovely.

I have yet to begin clue #4 which finishes the sock, and if I don't complete it by Tuesday I will be behind. I have to finish the second sock by the end of October and I have my trip coming up. I think I'll risk taking my sock on the plane since I have a layover in Chicago of a few hours and then of course the flight overseas itself and the excitement that will keep me from sleeping. I hope my fingers can keep up.

I like the way the clues were broken up so that knitting each section wasn't too demanding however realistically two months isn't an ideal amount of time to complete a pair of socks. I am hoping to finish the foot today however since it's fine knitting weather, overcast, chilly, autumn.

My only other concern right now is the Transition Gloves. I've finished the arm of the first one and have begun the hand, except the pattern doesn't seem right as I can't get my stitches to do what the pattern is saying. I'm underwhelmed with my ability to do fair isle and would prefer to cry and frog the whole thing. But then I remind myself that I'm not thirteen and crying doesn't solve anything. I really want these armwarmers so I'm going to try finishing them as best as I can despite the pattern not making sense to me, and then giving them a wash to see if the stitches straighten up some. I would hate to find it doesn't help though.

Surprise! I've Been Knitting!

Yes, it's true. Somehow I managed more than just socks lately. I cast off my second Gretel on Sunday. As I may have mentioned earlier on this blog, the first Gretel I knit was too large for me so I sent it off to my best friend T. in the States. She says it's a bit big for her too but she seems to like it that way. Phewf. I'm always afraid the knitting I gift to people is subpar, but I was pretty proud of that hat.

I need to stop giving Mister the camera. He was complaining about needing to get to work but still managed to waste time taking terrible photos of me.

Knit out of stashed Cascade 220, it was blocked out a little too big on the brim so I might have to wet it again sometime in the future if I'm not too lazy. I like the colour a lot. It will look great with my red peacoat.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I don't particularly feel the need to cast on for anything right now. I have lots of projects I want to start however they can wait. I really want to finish my Transition Gloves and work on Mister's sweater - plus I have Nancy Bush's Mystery Socks on a deadline.

Just give it time and I'll have five new projects on the needles making me feel guilty.

The Forgotten Bloggiversary

I guess I let my bloggiversary pass without so much as a peep. Oops. Three years of blogging about what I'm doing with yarn and pointy sticks. I want to thank everyone who has read this blog along the way, who have left comments, and who have been an encouragement in the knitting community. In the upcoming year I hope to have more finished objects, more interesting content, and possibly a podcast.

I finished my pair of Evening Stockings for a Young Lady last night before going to bed. They're the softest socks I've ever made. I also managed not to screw them up at any point. Deb at Fearless Fibers - I love you and your yarn. Unfortunately all I can think of when seeing these photos is damn, I have fat ankles.

I had plenty of yarn left over that I could have knit them to be truly knee highs however hindsight is 20/20 and how was I to know I would have so much yarn left over? The socks will look great with my work skirt and a pair of dark brown mary janes (I think). The weather is still deceivingly hot here so I won't be wearing them out quite yet but I suspect things will change quite soon.

Minnie Mouse remains unimpressed.

New Love

I got a new spindle a week or so ago.

I didn't mean to keep it a secret for so long but I'm in the midst of knitting things that are so unphotogenic that I decided to save it for a posting slump.

This beautiful spindle is from Butterfly Girl Designs on etsy. There was a lot of hemming and hawing over this purchase. Was it the spindle for me? How big was it going to be? How small? Did I want red? What did it feel like? Was it well put together (the answer is yes, by the way)?

The spindle is small, I'll admit. It feels small compared to my first spindle, however in reality it really isn't much of a difference, other than the first one is chunky and this one is refine and polished.

I've been carrying it around with a gob of some higher standard roving than I've used in the past, afraid to start spinning. It JUST dawned on me that I've been over spinning some of my current wool and I want to practice before torturing prettier fibre.

Also, you may have noticed the new photo background - I have a new table that sits at the back of my futon/couch. It's an old teak table from the centre where I work. I need to scratch up the surface to remove some black markings and then wash it with teak oil or I could be lazy and leave it as is, but the wood is nice and sturdy and the black of the back of my couch is great for photos!

Yellow Surprise!

It seems that everything I'm knitting on right now happens to be yellow. Not a bad thing since it's my favourite colour.

I cast on for a second attempt at Gretel. This time I'm knitting the Fitted size with Cascade 220 Superwash in 9455.

To go with this happy yellow hat will be these red and yellow Transition Gloves that I'm hoping to complete before it gets chilly here. I'm just shy of finishing the first glove, even though I've been knitting on these since, what, February?

Lastly, I'm knitting on Ravelry's Sock Knitters Anonymous' September Sockdown which started today. The challenge that I'm working on is to knit a Mystery Sock designed by Nancy Bush in yellow.

The yellow is cheering me up this month. Plus the casting on and new projects are easily justified as I'll also be participating in Ravelry's Needle Harvest Group, which aims at freeing up needles from WIPs and UFOs one way or another. I'm getting very close to casting off the second Evening Stocking that I can taste it.

Happy Yellow September Everyone!

Am I a Contributing Member of Society?

I've been trying to explain a feeling to a friend recently. Mister finally finished something that has been hanging over his head for years and now that it's done, he's feeling a bit lost. When a large amount of time is dedicated to a task, it tends to define you as a person - much like the retiree who doesn't know what to do now that he no longer works.

I bring this up because I've been to this lost spot in life twice now after completing both my degrees. The only reason why I got a second degree was because I didn't know what to do with myself - and now that I've finished numero dos... well I signed up for a French course to brush up on my language skills if that's any indication.

I just realised today that all of a sudden I'm trying to fill my non-working life with time consuming projects. I don't know if this is healthy. My newest bright idea is to start a podcast. Do you know how boring I am? Does this sound like a good idea (the answer is no BTW)? I don't know if I should just go ahead and try it, seeing the over-crowded knitting podcast market and scream, "ME TOO!", or just remind myself that I will probably get discouraged and unmotivated after a month.

I have downloaded some software and I'm working on a script and trying to record, I think it would be great if someone could do me the favour of talking me down please? Thanks.

~~~~~

In other news; Secretpal Mail!

Secretpal Mie sent me an awesome haul! Chocolate, which I can never get enough of, yellow sock yarn from Brown Sheep Company, a Simply Knitting magazine that came with a Really Useful Little Guide to Socks, a great card and three of her favourite knitting basics/pattern books that not only she's found very useful, but were also signed by the author!! I love them so much, I can't believe I have something signed by the author!

Thank you Mie!

Start Afresh

I bought a new grid workbook. It's just a hardcover notebook with graph paper. I was making a mess of my other one while trying to design and I HATE that. So now I have a working notebook and a final notebook, I guess a type of portfolio.

I'm hoping to take designing a little more seriously in the upcoming year, maybe it will lead me to what I want to do with my life (not necessarily designing). We'll see how that goes. I'm just glad I have some ideas finally.

I also splurged and spent imaginary money on two new books for my knitting library this weekend. I picked up Simple Style, which I didn't know existed, and Spin Control, which I haven't sat down with quite yet. I should have picked up Knitted Lace of Estonia too. I was so overwhelmed with the selection at the bookstore, definitely a new thing! They had Cookie A's book, Wendy J's book, and Wendy B's book. That's definitely not normal. I think I'm going to redeem my Air Miles for a gift card so I can buy some more books. I've given away all my 'Learn to Knit' books and am ready to fill the gap with more serious material.

Favourite Things of 5elementknitr

I received my Favourite Things 4 swap package last night! What a wonderful box. Here are some of Ruth's favourite things:

A jar of her homemade peach & plum jam which, as she suggested, I'm about to have on pancakes. A knitted sock on a sock blocker key chair, some delicious chocolate mint lip balm, two bars of Big Hunk, which I've never had before, and a skein of hand dyed sock yarn from Prism in the Lipstick colourway, good choice!


Ruth is famous for her stitch saver key chairs. Having a crochet hook comes in handy for sure, I love this idea, isn't she creative? Her etsy shop can be found here! I'm sure she'll have more stock shortly as she just came back from Sock Summit!!

Finally, Ruth added in this dragonfly bookmark. It's absolutely beautiful!

Thanks Ruth! It's all so lovely!