Miscellanea (Adriana)

When I was visiting my parents at the beginning of the month my mom and I made a pilgrimage to Mary Maxim, conveniently located 15 minutes from their new house! I was quite impressed with the non-acrylic selections which included Cascade 220, TOFUtsies and even some Noro! There wasn't anything I needed so we just left with yarn for mittens for mom and socks for dad.


Mom's mittens were a quick knit. I hadn't heard of this yarn before (Wisdom Yarns Poems) but it was nice (for a single ply) and had cool colour gradients. I used what is becoming my go-to pattern for quick mittens, Yarn Gear's Mittens from the Top.
I have christened these Mom's Mittens of Wisdom which is a play on the yarn name but is also very appropriate if you know my mom.
I like the striping effect so much that mom has even agreed (it took a lot of arm twisting, let me tell you :P) to allow me to knit her a multi-directional scarf like the beautiful one Gen made.

Dad had requested some socks to wear while he freezes in the workshop/garage. Since I'm the one who has to knit these enormous things, I picked yarn I would enjoy working with, Patons Classic Merino in variegated browns and blues with solid blue for contrasting heels and toes. The yarn pooled fiercely at the beginning but has split up nicely when I decreased a few stitches after the ball of the foot. (Not pictured because I forgot to get a more recent picture and the sock is still at my parents'.)

Here they are posed with the Christmas cactus and the iron dog which for the purpose of this photoshoot mom has named Angus.

Don't think I'm neglecting knitting for myself these days. I got some STR a few months ago and I nervously cast on for Marigold socks at the beginning of December. I've heard such horror stories about pooling so I was absolutely delighted when this yarn behaved itself. I really love this pattern because the purl rows look like garlands!


It's a little tricky to photograph properly but I love it and am thoroughly addicted to STR.

This weekend I got to see Heather, Mike and Sam for some Christmassing before Heather and Mike head off to Vancouver to spend the holidays with his family. I had dyed some yarn for Sam for her birthday but hadn't had a chance to give it to her until now.

I call this colourway Five Alive and it turns out that Sam used to live on the stuff to ward off scurvy in high school (after pirates, high school students are the most susceptible to scurvy, didn't you know)

Heather was the recipient of some of my stealth knitting

Sorry for the terrible picture. This is what happens when you try to photograph lace at 10pm right before you have to wrap it. Hopefully Heather will get a picture of her modelling it (it looks so good!).
For those of you not obsessed with lace like I am, this is Wisp in Misti Alpaca laceweight. Believe it or not, it was actually a fun and fast knit. I carried it in my purse for a few weeks only knitting on it on the bus (often while simultaneously studying for an exam). I definitely see more Wisps in my future.

Well, that's it for now. I am very excited to be revealing more Christmas knitting in the near future. I'm not sure when I'll be able to blog next since I'm going to be heading home soon. This Christmas is going to be different for my family; not only are we in a new house but I'm going to be spending the 23rd, 24th and half of the 25th with my boyfriend at his parents' house. At 1pm we're going to hop in the car and (safely) make our way to my family. This is the first time we're going to be attempting this so I am nervous but excited. I think it will be worth it in the long run.
If I don't update in time, Happy Holidays!