Non-Knitting Content (Deal with it) (Adriana)

In lieu of a proper blog post (too stressed these days to knit much) you get a little story.

Last Saturday I went here:


To see this:

(Which totally rocked by the way and I recommend very highly)

With this handsome but blurry fellow:

And two of our dear friends
(See the little bit of pink at my neck? Yes, my friends, it was indeed cold enough to break out the Clap!)

The show was fantastic and there was even some highly publicized knitting content!

This was actually one of the posters outside the theatre. I watched carefully and Mrs. Lovett does indeed knit during the show :)

The Gallery Jacket is still trucking along. I have now split for the armholes. I've got a test this afternoon and an exam next Tuesday so hopefully I'll have some more interesting knitting-related pictures to show you soon. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends and for the Canadians, at least it's Wednesday :)

Dum vivimus, vivamus! (Heather)

Ooops! I didn't intend such a long hiatus. I have been working hard, and I am starting to find that when I get home at night I am all communicated out. I have been working on the odd bit of knitting, though. I carry a travel mug of coffee with me to work every day so my hands are full on the way there, but on the 45 minute ride home and on my lunch breaks, I can knit. Provided, of course, that I get to sit down...



My latest project was the Ballet Lace Scarf out of Fiesta Ballet, a lovely tencel-alpaca blend. Like others, I found it a bit splitty, but manageable and well worth the trouble! You get lots and lots of yardage... the scarf pattern called for 14.5 chart repeats but I found I had nearly half the skein leftover at that point, so I kept going. I forgot to count how many repeats I got from it in the end, and it has already gone to its home at Needles and Pins as a sample, but trust me, it was quite a long scarf in the end. The pattern was easy but interesting, and even for me (a notorious scarf-hater) it really hummed along.



Sorry, but the scarf was blocked completely in the cover of night, so it was hard to photograph. I pinned out each point where the waving column of decreases hit the sides. This gave it a really nice waving effect when it was dry. Why yes, I am in fact pretty smug about it. It made its debut yesterday at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair...



Where I was working at the Needles and Pins booth. What a crazy-busy day! Ellen got a fantastic order of Koigu in, and that always inspires a feeding frenzy. I was not immune.



These beauties made their way home with me. I honestly can't decide which ones I love best! I am considering a Syncopated Cap, as I see from Ravelry that some knitters have successfully used Koigu with some gorgeous results. I just hate to break up any two-skein pairs, so we shall see what happens. Maybe some matching gloves?

In the meantime, I cast on for an early fall sweater for me. I picked up this fantastic Handmaiden Cap Sleeve Top kit for a song awhile back, and have been thinking of it ever since.



It is knit with alternating rows of Silk Maiden and Lady Godiva. I tried and tried to take a picture that would show you how freaking soft and deep the colour and texture is, but until you can reach out and feel through the monitor, you are stuck with these pictures instead. Needless to say, I am in love. It is knit in one piece in the round, so it will only make decent commuter-knitting for so long, but I am loving it at the moment!



The textured stitch pattern is simple and quick, but amazingly effective with the soft silk/wool blends.



So firm and pebbly!

And finally, photographic evidence that there is a coherent conspiracy among the squirrels of Toronto to acquire our fibre through any means necessary.



You can look, buddy, but you CAN'T TOUCH!

Friends... do what? (Heather)

It has been so long (possibly a week?) since I worked on Sizzle, or indeed, any knitting at all. Work is keeping me very busy during the day and pretty darn tired at night, and besides that, it is hard to feel the urge to knit when it is so bloody hot night and day. And when you don't knit, it is hard to get around to blogging.

It was also too warm to be a cat.



When FabricFan was visiting, it was so warm in our apartment that I put a wet washcloth on Phlox... and he stayed there cooling off for quite some time. Neither of the cats ever panted, they were just lethargic and slightly grumpy... just like the humans.

SpillyJane and her husband came to visit the humid wonder that is Toronto in August this past weekend, and she practically FORCED me to take her to the local yarn shops. She then forced me to get some Fleece Artist Merino Silk roving...



And as luck would have it, the day they left, the humidity dropped significantly enough for me to pick up my brand new spindle and give it a whorl. It was fun to spin, less hairy than the Wensleydale-Teeswater that I tackled last, but very very soft with vibrant colours.



I didn't get too much done, just enough to get a taste for it again. This spindle spins like nobody's business! Took some getting used to, I had to up the hand-eye coordination quotient.

Something else I have been working away at is sewing. I picked this summery cotton twill ( I think) out with FabricFan when she was here and am attempting to tackle it on my own.



Armed with my new Stylish Skirts book, my Vogue Sewing Quick Reference, and my speeddial, I am turning two yards of fabric into a cute zippered, fitted skirt with four pleats. This has been a slow process so far. I managed to wash, iron, fold, and press the yardage, then cut out one piece before I realized that I needed some way to actually get the pattern lines onto the wrong side of the fabric. I somehow managed to accumulate three tracing wheels without actually knowing how they were used. A phone call to my mother sent me to Fabricland where I became the proud owner of tracing paper (so smudgy!), dressmaker's chalk pencils, and a year's membership. For some reason, this seems like a much steeper learning curve than knitting.

One interesting difference in sewing versus knitting is the yardage... with knitting you can always joing on another ball, but with sewing the fabric has to obviously be continuous. When we were buying the fabric for this skirt, Fabricfan and the cutting table girl had a great debate over whether I needed 1.5 yards or 1.75 yards. I said to just give me an even two, and they both looked so surprised! The fabric was only 4 bucks a yard, and I can't see how it would hurt to have a little more than I need. I wonder if this is a result of me being a knitter first?

And finally, a shout out to Bertha, who named Adriana and me 'Rocking Girl Bloggers'.



I have swayed more than rocked in the last few weeks, but Bertha seems to be one of those superwomen who work, knit, AND manage to make and raise one of the cutest babies in Blogland (Sorry your gums hurt, June! You looked SO MAD in your latest picture...), so I am very very puffed up that she nominated us. Thanks Bertha! I am sure that June's teeth will be as cute and formindable as June herself.

Ciao everyone... wish me low humidity and high energy levels!

One Year Older... (Heather)

I celebrated my birthday this weekend... we went out to stay for the long (Canadian) weekend at my parents' place. We caught a play on Sunday!



A Comedy of Errors at the world-famous Stratford Festival (I love how Stratford makes it all but impossible for even the most nervous tourist to get lost. I did about half of my driving lessons there, but I still appreciate the ample signage!). The play was fanTAStic. All Greco-Roman costumes, the backdrop and set design were amazing, and the comedy was perfect! I am not a usual fan of physical comedy, but this production had just the right amount. And, it being Canada Day, we were asked to stand for the national anthem. Mike heard a woman in front of us say 'Just like at the hockey games!'. She wasn't singing, so we guessed she was a visitor from the States. Anyway. If you have any connection with or interest in Classics, go and see the play. Even if you don't, see the play. If you aren't familiar with the plot, it is a mashup of Plautus' Menaechmi and Amphitrio. This production was set in the 50s AD, so there were even some Roman soliders for Mike.

In the theatre lounge:



What may be one of the coolest quilts ever. Each square represents a Shakespearean play. Around the border are 140 swans. Mike and I had a lot of fun guessing each square.



Sorry for the crappy picture. I took a few, but the lighting was dim. Is there anything neater than stumbling upon a Shakespearean quilt square inspired by an Exekias tondo? Which play do you think it is?

I finished seaming Amaya. The seaming was not as bad as I was thinking it would be. I do want to fiddle with the neck twist, though. If you are on Ravelry you can see the AWFUL picture Mike took of me wearing the just-finished garment. For the rest of you, I will get a better picture tonight.

I did manage to cast on Coachella, but that is literally all. It was a pretty knit-free weekend. Lest you think it was completely yarn-less, however:



Mike, being the wonderful husband he is, ventured into Lettuce Knits to buy me a skein of sock yarn... one I had never even mentioned to him! This is Dream in Color Smooshy, the color is In Vino Veritas. I think I am in love. It is a very smooshy yarn, and there is lots of it. I am thinking I will divide it in half somehow and give that toe-up recipe in the summer IK a shot. I seem to remember Mary wanted to do a knitalong. Still up for it?

Hot and Bothered (Heather)

Not a lot of knitting being done Chez Heather, for various reasons. It's been a busy time, not the least reason being that my husband Mike formally received his teaching degree last week!



I gotta say, I enjoyed the UWO ceremonies better than the U of T one, but perhaps that is a bias. Also, the B.Ed hoods? What an awful colour? I think they are supposed to be mint green, but due to there being at least three phases of the same hood, the colour varies from mint to chartreuse to crossing-guard-neon green. But it was neat to walk out of a door and see the CN Tower staring us in the face. And now Mike is a full-fledged teacher of high school Latin! I am very glad that he has found a career that he is passionate about and went and did what was necessary to achieve it. Who knows where this will take us?

I did manage to finish the first Dahlia sock!



Have I mentioned that I love this yarn?



I am rather partial to the finished sock, too.



This being the first sock I have knit without ribbing, I don't find that the picot edge slouches at all. The true test will be when I wear them for a day.

I finished the sock on Saturday and seamed on Amaya for awhile on Sunday, but it has been brutally hot here and the humidity has stolen my will to live. We have an air conditioner, but we haven't installed it because as long as I can live with just a fan (a really big one) I feel like it makes up for me using the electric dryer, not composting, and all the environmentally conscious things that are difficult to impossible to do in a wee apartment in a densely populated area.

I know that some people think we are crazy, but to be honest, I have lived in Southwestern Ontario my entire life and I only have air conditioning for two summers out of that. On top of that, we have poor fuses in our apartment that I am not sure could take the onslaught of the A/C (since they refuse to accommodate the microwave AND the kettle) and we only have two small windows and I am not prepared to give one up for the summer. I do have sympathy for Mike, since before he met me, he didn't really have a working knowledge of humidity (being a Vancouver native) but he seems to have accepted the summer extremes of Ontario as well as the winter ones.

The downside of the muggy state of our apartment is that the idea of knitting seems pretty abhorrent on days like this. I might head over the air-conditioned library if it gets really bad this afternoon, so maybe I will cast something on then. On the plus side, my herbs are growing like crazy!

Oh, I got my Ravelry invite today! I was so excited that I promptly signed up and misspelled my user name. I feel like a total idiot and am waiting to see if there is anything that can be done about it before I start using it. At least I can blame everything on the heat.

Finished Socks and Kitty Jarheads (Heather)

While not the most productive weekend knitting-wise, I did manage to finish Mike's second sock. I've even sewed in the ends since I took this picture!



Yarn: Regia Canadian Colour
Pattern: My standard sock pattern.
Needles: Addi Turbo 2mm 32"circ
Sleeping Cat: Molly

While Gen and I were shlepping around downtown TO on Friday, we came across Romni's brand spankin' new Fleece Artist shipment. Gen managed to snag a 750m ball of fingering weight Merino for a really great price. The same price, actually, as the 325m skeins.



And it don't look too shabby, either! I am in love with this yarn! Gen cannot resist the lure of potential itty-bitty baby garments. They are like potato chips! Finish your blanket first!

Do you know how long it takes to wind 750m of yarn?



A loooooooong time.

The basil continues to shoot up. I took this picture after I snipped off the entire top leaf growth in an attempt to stop the plant from getting tall without getting wide. Anyone got a good recipe for pesto that wouldn't require garlic?



Now that the sock is done, I am free to start a fun sock. I have so many top-of-the-list socks that I am having a hard time choosing. In the meantime, I am going to finish Amaya.

In completely random and probably unneeded news, the catnip has gotten sufficiently low in the container that Molly has to stick her entire head in to get at the yummy catcrack. This makes me laugh more than it ought to, I suspect.



Phlox won't even try...

Drop Dead Exciting (Heather)

Not a great deal of creative juices flowing 'round these parts lately. I have had a fair amount of car/waiting time, which has produced most of a Mike-sock. It is really interesting how much longer it takes to knit a mens size 13 than a women's 6 (and I like them tight). But really, socks for me are just really quick these days... socks for Mike still take less time than my first few pairs took me. And I know he appreciates his handknit socks.



The good news is that I will definitely have enough yarn to finish these. I was slightly concerned when I started the second sock that I would run out. Definitely a downside to the 100g balls of sock yarn. I wish I had access to a scale to help me divide the yarn more evenly.

Speaking of which, the latest issue of Interweave Knits has a handy-dandy recipe for knitting socks toe-up, which I have only barely attempted. Perhaps it is time to give it a shot?

To distract you from the sad amount of knitting going on here, I took a picture of my tropical window garden:



From the front: Mutant Basil, Oregano, Double curl Parsley, Spearmint. The Basil grows a few leaves every single day... I started pinching it on top so that it grows outwards as well as upwards, but I think it just put out more leaves up there. The mint and oregano are just holding steadily, probably putting down more roots now that they have more root space. The Parsley? Well, it turns out that my dear sweet feline friend has developed a real taste for it.



There were originally three wee plants in that pot. I caught her with one of them in her mouth, root still intact, so I replanted it. The next day, only one stem remained. At least she will have fresh breath! I have moved the parsley between the oregano and the mint, hoping that their strong smells and flavours will discourage her. I am not holding my breath...

Go on, Frolic! (Heather)

Saturday was entirely consumed by the Downtown Knit Collective Spring Knitter's Frolic. This was my first year, and I was working in the Needles and Pins booth. This is actually a fantastic way to do a show without spending a fortune, since you only go out into the show proper in short bursts. You get to see everything, but you have a reason to be there besides buying everything you see *ahem*

And you get to see the most amazing knits! I was running the cash when I saw this drift by:



Babette! The blanket that simultaneously makes me want to crochet and quilt. Someday this blanket will be mine. This one was actually coming home to roost, since the kit came from Needles and Pins. Totally drool-worthy. And the baby who was wrapped up in it was pretty adorable too.

It was an incredibly busy day in our booth, just a few short breathers while knitters hit the workshops, but I did get to make a quick shopping run. Since I was feeling committed to not buying yarn (and we were having an Alchemy sale, people!), I knew exactly what I should get.



Palmwood buttons! Bought from the same man who made my walnut buttons. He assured me that they are completely real, despite the opinion of everyone who sees my walnut buttons. He tumbles them in sand to give them that nice finish, no shellac or varnish needed, so they are totally washable. Very very cool. I had a hard time choosing between these and the yew buttons, but these were just too fun to pass up.



I am in love with these buttons. I meant to get the man's card for blogging purposes, but he was busy helping someone else by the time I thought of it. He'll be at the K-W fair, I'm sure.

The DKC Frolic was HUGE! I think it was bigger than the K-W fair, and the venue was gorgeous. It was held in the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, and everything was just picture-perfect. Our room was a bit sauna-like, however, and I came home feeling like I had worked a full day in the jungle. Despite that, what a terrific day!

Some koigu did follow me home...



Mike and I are heading out to London for a few weeks, so I will be back at the yarn store! It's a good thing that fabric wasn't included in my yarn diet, that's all I'm saying.

Long Weekend (Heather)

This remote blog brought to you by my mom's computer. I hope everyone is having a spectacular Easter weekend! My mom is doing her best to send us each back at least ten pounds heaver. Last night she cooked a ten pound turkey for the four of us. If this continues, I may have to knit some pants.

I still have high hopes for Central Park to make its Easter debut tomorrow, despite the fact that it has only half a sleeve set in. I don't think this is a problem, since I am at Mom and Dad's and the many distractions that kept me from seaming thus far are absent.

On the other hand, lots of fun Easter distractions!



We employed a variety of dyeing techniques this year. I am craving hardboiled eggs so badly right now! Just... a few... more hours!

In order to make some actual progress, I only brought one knitting project besides the Central Park Seaming. You may remember this yarn from my mini-stash flash:



I am working these into another pair of gauntlets from Sally Melville's The Purl Stitch. This is a fantastic pattern for a beginner knitter. In fact, it was my very first knitted project in which I utilitzed that tricky maneouver called the purl stitch. Ah, memories. That pair was in Koigu also. This pair is going much more quickly than the first (maybe three years of frenzied knitting has something to do with that?)




Reposing on a bed of teeny-tiny petunias. You should have seen my mom's face when she saw this picture. I thought I might be sleeping outside tonight...

Stash Flash! (Heather)

Well, Adriana outed me as a yarn pack-rat. But not a repentant one... I come by my stashing tendencies honestly and I really like my stash. In fact, there are very few regrettable items, and for the most part the abundance is inspiring instead of overwhelming. I am on a yarn-diet right now, but not really because of shame but because I really really love the yarns I have bought and want to work with them before I move forward. To each their own, eh?

Instead of flashing you the entire stash (which would eat up my day and yours, as well as give some people heart attacks) I decided to showcase the yarns that have been catching my eye more than others lately... ones that are on the top of my list. Click to make the picture larger!



You've already met the red Felted Tweed and the purple Kid Classic, they will be sweaters before June 12th, if I have my way. The fuzzy blue and green is Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit, which is a delicious angora and has been wanting to be knit up since I bought it. The purple/grey luxury tweed beside it is a lovely alpaca/lambswool blend that needs to be made into something very special, perhaps this coming fall. The grass-green Noro Cash Iroha is at the top of my list for must knits, but I don't quite know what to use it for. I bought the two skeins for a pair of gauntlets, but I am not sure I need another pair at this very moment. At the far end is two skeins of very colourful koigu which I have earmarked for a special project, some Rowan 4 ply cotton that would love to be a summer blouse, and two colourways of Fleece Artist Merino sock yarn. One will be Pomotamus when I give my eager KALers the word, and the other had better be something special too!

So yes... I guess I have my work cut out for me. Which means I ought to be knitting more right now, but as is normal, I hit a slump during the weekend. Things ought to pick up, and I am still well ahead of my deadline for the Central Park Hoodie, though I don't want to tempt fate.

In other news, on my way to make the coffee this morning, I noticed dew on my Pothos vine:



Is this normal? There were other leaves with droplets as well, perfect and tiny. They were gone within an hour.

Bowing to our Feline Overlords (Heather)

Today I met my first Toronto Knitblogger! Mary DeB and I met up for coffee at Alterknit this morning. While we chitchatted I managed to do more unknitting than knitting, but did eventually finish the second (left) front of the Central Park Hoodie. At home later, I cast on for the first sleeve while my pants dried. On an unrelated note: whoever was driving the Fed-Ex truck on St. Clair West at Vaughan Road ought to review their sense of human decency.

Rain, though, instead of snow! Today's weather was decidedly springly. Spring fever has hit my parents hard this year, as it does every year, back home. Mom starts nearly all of her own flowers at home (and flowers for many friends and relatives as well) and Dad pitches in. Today he had some stern supervision from Chicago, my childhood companion...



I have no idea where Molly and Phlox get it!

Interestingly, Chicago was the feline who taught me to talk 'cat'*. After I left for university, I am told that she would look for me every night, meowing. One day my young cousin remarked to my mom that the cat was saying 'Heather! Heather!'. Mom and Dad both swear that she was. I tried to take her to live with me in the city, but she is a country cat, and decided she is much happier on the farm.

Mike had a busy day as a student teacher and used up all the batteries in the camera. For now, just imagine that the second cardigan front looks appropriately similar to the first. But mirror imaged, obviously. On schedule!

*yes, I have not only admitted talking to my cat... now I have confessed that my cats talk back.

Sunny Stupor (Heather)

In contrast to the last few warm but distinctly gloomy days, today was brilliantly sunny, but only 0 degrees (Celsius). For those of us in an West-facing apartment, it was a sunny, sleepy afternoon. Phlox needs to work on more flattering napping positions.



He usually keeps to Mike's lap, but once I got all my other work done and finally got back to CPH, he planted himself firmly on my legs. I had to do some emergency blogging in situ before the sun went down.



So I have about 12 or 13 inches down at this point, and the pattern says to start the armhole shaping at 13.5". I want a longer sweater, so I am going to knit to 15" and then start. I ought to have more than enough yarn to satisfy this modification. Speaking of yarn, I absolutely love it when the yarn cake becomes a yarn nest. See what I mean? It is nice to be working with a sticky, woolly yarn!

We are visiting our Alma Mater this weekend to hear a conference on anger in the ancient world. I don't know how much knitting time this will afford me, but it will be nice to be in our old stomping grounds!

Spring Debate (Heather)

"So, it is pretty warm out there. All the snow is gone"
"Yeah, but it won't last. It never does."
"Oh Phlox, you are such a pessimist."

What? The conversation was obviously taking place. And it mirrors a few dialogues I have held (with humans) in the past two days. Temperatures of 14 degrees do not a spring make, not when the snow will be returning on Friday. Don't rush spring, folks! It will come, it will come.

Against every likelihood I knit another selkirk swatch.



I don't seem to have 3.75mm needles, or more likely I do have them and can't find them anywhere. So I went down to 3.5mm, and it seems to be fine. I measured once, got gauge, then threw it away before it could change.

I cast on the back last night and got the ribbing done this morning. I want to add 2 inches to the length of the sweater, but I decided to add it to the pattern instead of the rib. I like the proportions of the sweater as it is shown, and I think that adding in pattern will least disrupt that. It is cooking along at a fair rate.




I am cabling without a cable needle, and that seems to be working quite well for me. As always with cabled items, I am constantly impressed by how fast it seems to be moving along. I blame it on the mentality of 'well, there are only three more rows until the cable row, so I will just get that far before I put it down'.

The photo is fairly true to the colour (I love our camera) though the yarn is a little less luminous than the photo suggests. It is not a soft wool, but it has great body, and it really makes the cables 'pop'. It doesn't have any tweedy bits (only lots of straw) but I think it is the perfect stash yarn for this project. Serendipity! I bought it from Ram Wools during a Valentine's sale, and am currently very happy that I did.

Roots of Pathos (Heather)

Don't worry, the following post is not as dire as the title suggests. A pothos vine I renamed my pathos vine suffered a dehydration trauma a few months ago, and to remedy this, for some reason I clipped off the vine from the stem and stuck it in a handy bottle of water.

Only after I had done so was I mildly corrected, that it would take months for the slip to take roots, and that the long vine would quickly die. Well, there were more than a few leafy casualties, but the majority of the leaves stayed green, and now...



Roots!! I didn't kill it after all!! My mother, when I sent her this picture, wisely recommended that I transfer the slips to a new, more wide-necked container, as the roots would keep on growing, but the neck of the bottle would not. Since I would rather not go the mess and bother of breaking the bottle in situ, I will do so.

I had a post all ready in my head the other day, but a head cold and a busy schedule kept me from realizing its potential. I even had it photographed!



The trekking sock was a creature of fits and starts. In one sitting I knitted the cuff and about three inches of sock. In the next sitting I knit to the heel. Then the heel and half the foot, then the foot and the entire toe. Since usually a sock is a long gradual process for me, it was interesting to note that although none of these sittings happened in the same day, it would be entirely possible for me to knit a sock in two days, possibly even in one, if I had the right motivation and particularly strong wrists. Alas, I am a sucker for a distraction, and I finished the first sock (for all intents and purposes; I will graft them both together) in five days of very intermittent knitting.



And i virtuously cast on for the second sock in the same sitting as I finished the toe of the first. Last night I made a lot more progress on socke the seconde and it is halfway to the heel already. I have intentionally made these socks as long as I can without requiring increases to accommodate my calves. I know that five days is not that impressive for knitting one sock, but it seems encouraging to me, and confirms that sock-knitting might be just the thing to get me out of my knitting slump.

Speaking of sock patterns, dis anyone else get twitchy when they saw Clessidra? The only thing stopping me from casting on rightthisminute is that I have enough yarn in only one colour: grey. It's even the called-for Regia Silk, but will grey properly convey the richness of the pattern? And how would they look on my pale chicken legs?? The debate rages.

In other news, my windowsill is a veritable bumper crop of blooms! It looks like the final count will be eight blossoms from two bulbs.



Sure brightens up the room!