Huzzah for the shopkeep!

I want to knit all of the baby things.  When I search around on Ravelry for projects, I'm drawn to the itty bitty little baby things, and the cute little stuffed animals and dolls.  I'm really into these crochet dolls right now:


They're by lalylala designs and there's a whole series of them.  I'd like to get one of these under my belt before nugget is born so I can hopefully make a whole fleet of them.

Enough of that pie in the sky knitting stuff.  Let's get down to brass tacks.  I made a trip to Shall We Knit? at the beginning of the month to buy yarn for baby soaker pants, knitted pants, and also to support my hexipuff addiction:

Mostly Sirdar Snuggly (with a Wendy Peter Pan thrown in for colour variation) for some baby pants:



 The ol' standby, Cascade 220, for diaper covers:

 

And a little something pretty for me, some Madeline Tosh Light Unicorn Tails for hexipuffs:





























I whipped up my first diaper cover in a couple nights of knitting.  This will be an easy and mindless knit to plug away at.














These are Milo Soakers by Kristen Rengren from Vintage Baby Knits.  They are knit flat and then sewn at the side seams.  Easy peasy, and a very satisfying little knit.  I have enough leftover from this green pair to hopefully combine it with another colour for a striped one.



What do you think, blue and red for one and yellow and green for another?  I'm trying to keep the colour combinations as baby gender neutral as possible.  I chose bright primary colours instead of blah and boring "baby" pastels.  One, because they're more fun for me to knit, and two, because they are meant to soak up "liquid", which we all know is not bottled spring water.  I can only imagine how disgusting a light-coloured pair of these would be after one wearing.  Gross.

I have to hunt around for lanolin to lanolize these puppies.  That will be a fun adventure, I'm sure it will be sticky or greasy too.  I'll bring you along for the ride when I get to that point.

I also made some baby pants.  As of this morning, I bound off that second leg and grafted the crotch hole.  I still need to weave in all the ends from my colour changes and stitch on the monster face.





The red mouth on the bum is soon to be a monster face, with eyes and teeth and everything!  These are Das Monster by Hronn Jonsdottir, to fit a baby who is 9-18 months.  I have no concept of baby sizes, so I will present these to Tam Tam and she can put them on nugget when s/he is the right size for them.

These were a quick knit too, nice and mindless once you got passed the monster mouth.  I totally have enough yarn in each colour to make another one.  A friend of mine from college just announced that she's expecting a baby in August, and I think she would really love these.  She might get a pair too.

Aside from finishing up these projects, I'm getting back in to spinning.  The speaker at the Guild meeting on Tuesday was telling us all about natural dyes for yarn, which she happens to use almost exclusively on her own hand spun yarns.  When she passed around sample of her yarns, it tickled the spinning itch inside me and I immediately went home and dug out my wheel for a little action. 

I haven't touched my wheel in almost two years, ever since we moved and my flyer got knocked against something and a piece of it snapped off.  It was still hanging on by a tread, so I very gingerly clued it back in place this week, and it worked like a charm!  To be extra safe, I also contacted Gemini Fibres (they're north of Toronto, I've seen them many times at the KW Knitters Fair as a vendor) to ask if a replacement piece can be ordered.  My wheel is my mom's, which she purchased in the 80's.  It's an Ashford wheel, but the ones Ashford sells now aren't a perfect match (the closest one looks to be the Ashford Traveller).  I sent a picture of my flyer to the kind folks at Gemini and told them all I know so they can hopefully make a recommendation. 

In the meantime, I spun some yarn yesterday!  I took a 50g hank of roving that I bought on a knitting field trip years ago and finally turned it into something.

I spun it, plied it, niddy noddy'ed it, washed it, and hung it to dry (weighted down by a Star Wars coffee mug). 



Isn't it pretty!?!?



I think this may get turned into some delicate and pretty fingerless mitts for Tam Tam.  She loves pink more than life itself.

And also while I was at the Guild meeting, I borrowed a book for my next project.  Doesn't everyone need a knitted cat?  Spoiler: these may or may not be your Christmas gift from me.



Did you know yesterday was Pi Day?  I made butter tarts to celebrate.  You better hurry up and ask for one, they're getting all cold and eaten.

Which is your favourite cigarette brand, doctor?

Hey kids!  I've been overwhelmed by knitting in the last few days, and not in the way that you probably think.  I've been thinking of all of the yarn I have sitting in my stash, and thinking of ways to use it, and being completed stuck on what to do next, even though I have at least 5 potential projects I could latch on to.  Potential projects include a shawl with my Viola Fibres lace weight in "Wild Rose", either a hat or fingerless mitts or small shawlette with my Viola Fibres fingering weight in "Bruised Plum", dishcloths out of plain-jane crochet cotton for G-ma's birthday in July, a french press cozy for Fuzzyhead (to keep is coffee toasty on WoW raiding nights), a camera case for Fuzzyhead's new camera, and a tablet cozy for me.  I don't know what to do first, I don't love any of the patterns I'm finding, and I'm strapped for cash right now, so paying for a pattern is out of the question.  I originally had both of the Viola yarns listed above pegged for specific projects, but I need to buy both of those patterns and simply can't afford it right now.  I don't really love any of the other patterns I'm coming across, so I'm tempted to leave it for a bit until I can. 

All of the other ho-hum potential projects don't catch my interest yet - they would be fine side projects to have alongside something more challenging, but I don't know what to do with that.  I want to work on everything and nothing at the same time, argh.

In the meantime, this is what I cast-on on Friday night over the long weekend, and this was my progress update picture a few hours ago:

This the the Laurel sock pattern from Wendy D. Johnson's Toe-Up Socks for Every Body (one of my favourites).  The yarn is The Black Lamb merino/nylon sock yarn, which came from my Woodstock Fleece Festival purchases in the fall.  The colour is called "Olive Drab" and it's a pretty close match for the colour used in the book.  It's a very cool green, with flecks of blue and an overall grey-ish tone to it, and the leaf-ish pattern works really nicely with the yarn. 

These socks will be for me, and I'm hoping I have enough yarn for the pair.  Unlike the last socks I made for Poppa (the Java socks from my last post), I weighed out the yarn and split it into two balls so I know exactly how much I have to work with for each sock.  The ball is a solid 104 grams, but according to the label, only has 350 yards.  It doesn't seem overly thick yarn to me, so I'm surprised at how little is supposedly there.  I've turned the heel on the first sock and things are looking OK for the leg (I weighed what was left of the ball and had about 30 grams to play with still).  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to settle for a short leg.

I also finished more yoga socks.  I'm down to my last ball of yoga-sock yarn, which is the other half of the very bright yellow yarn that Catherine gave me.  I'll probably start up another pair of yoga socks to keep on the go, although these pink pretties took 3 months to finish because I just wasn't motivated.  If people start buying them up in droves from the yoga studio, I'll think about caring more.

 Posie pattern running up the front of the sock

I made a little pair of something for me too recently, with the last scraps of the original yoga sock yarn, the green ones I made to match my yoga mat.  These are the Ballet School Dropout Sockettes, which were finished over a couple days last month.  

They're fairly loose on me by themselves, but when pair with my French Press slippers, they are a perfect liner:

I don't know about you, reader, but my feet sweat more than I would like, and felted slippers (or any slippers for that matter) without socks is a nightmare.  Thinking about wearing shoes without socks makes my skin crawl for the same reason.  Also, don't judge if your feet don't sweat, you're just not human and we can't all be as awesome as you.  In conclusion, I'm really loving these as a dainty liner for my slippers - my foot topsies are still exposed to get the most out of the ballet flat style shoes, and I can wash the sockettes without any trouble.  The designer originally made the socks for her ballet flat shoes, but when I tried these on with my flats, they made my feet to squished.  I'll stick with using them with my slippers, and I think they would make a fab gift for the gal-pals in your life.

And now a blast from the past - remember when I learned to spin?  Refresh your memory here, here, and here.

When we last left our hero, she was working on her final project from Kit's spinning class, where she was supposed to do something with all those sample skeins she spun.  Quick recap, she didn't do anything with them.  For two years. 

I turned the red and red-orange into balls, but the rest were waiting for a long time to be touched again, until my restless knitting mood took over and turned them all into balls in a week:

 These little pretties are stuffed with old plastic shopping bags (what's up 3 R's, re-use anyone?), and for now, they are back in the box where I had them for the last two years.  I will be turning them into a sheep wreath, as inspired by Not So Sleepy Sheep.  Each ball will get a little sheep face, and little sheep ears, and four little sheep feet, and I'll firmly attached them all to a wreath base of some kind.  Until I get my second wind on this project, they'll be in the box. 

Also, it's Easter weekend, did Break and Enter Rabbit visit your house last night?

G'night all!

Onward,

vrock

Queenie wave

It's essentially fall, dear readers, in case you were confused by the sharp ups and downs in temperature this week, and that means knitting is afoot.  Get ready for the updates:

First of all, the KW Knitters Fair was this weekend, in all it's woolly glory.  My camera was in my bag, but I was so busy being an awesome volunteer at the Fair, that I forgot to get any pictures.  I was on the fair planning committee this year (my attempt to be more involved with the Knitters Guild), and my task on fair day was to quietly sit behind the administration table (knitting, obviously) and help vendors with whatever they needed.  I received regular shopping and bathroom breaks, and I cataloged my purchases the next day.  These are the things I loved enough this year to bring home with me:

 A knitting bag from ZigZag Stitches, the boxy variety.  I've had my eye on one of these every year that I've gone to the fair, and this time I ran there first, right when the fair opened to get my pick of the litter.  Not super crazy about the liner fabric, but I adore the old-timey fabric on the outside.  It has already been put to use holding my current pair of yoga socks on the needles.
 

  More roving, to satisfy my insatiable spinning lust.  I bought two bags of the same variety of roving last year from Gemini Fibres, and I really liked how it turned out.  I spun and knitted a whole project with the roving from last year's fair, and I figured one more 100g bag would let me do a little more with the final product.   I bought three bags of this in "Pomegranate".

A pretty new drop spindle, also from Gemini Fibres.  My original drop spindle is clunky and makes me look like a newb - this one is pretty and delicate and worthy of my love.  I've been spinning mostly on my wheel lately, but this little beauty might bring me back to portable spinning.

  Allow me to introduce you to my new love, Viola Fibers.  I loved this booth at the fair, it was facing me from where I spent most of the day at the admin table, and it was easily the nicest looking booth there.  Her yarns are delicious.  So delicious even, I bought three of them, and blew most of my budget there.  Totally worth it.  This yarn is a fingering weight in "bruised plum", destined to become a lovely pair of fingerless mitts/gloves.

 This is sock weight yarn from Viola in "sea storm" for a lovely pair of socks for me.

 

My find of the day from Viola, a lace weight yarn in "wild rose".  This one will be a shawl for older sister thing, because she likes pink things but needs grown-up colours to match her almost-thirty-year-old self.

I want to take some/all of these yarns with me on my upcoming knitting retreat, where I'll be in South Hampton with my Monday night knitters for a few days away to knit and do nothing.  I will also be taking along my other current projects, including the cupcake mittens seen in my last post (I started the second mitten, and I weaved in the spaghetti mess inside the first mitten), and my current yoga socks project.  

Speaking of yoga socks, I finished another pair:

That makes two pairs now in my inventory of yoga socks to sell at the studio.  Just this week I received a message from someone on Ravelry about selling a pair of socks.  I've thought about opening an Etsy shop a few times, but I'm not 100% sold on it.  Etsy charges you 20 cents for every item you post, and if it doesn't sell in 4 months, you can re-post it for another 20 cents, or just let it expire.  I don't know how well my socks would sell, and if by some chance everyone and their chicken wanted a pair, I could never keep up with production.  It takes me about two weeks to make a pair - that's me picking up the needles 4 or 5 times a week while watching TV after work and the occasional all-day Saturday knit-a-thon.  Etsy also takes a cut of your sale when you do sell something, and PayPal gets their chunk since you need them to arrange for payment from strangers.  For the nice gal in Florida who contacted me through Ravelry, I'm sure we can work out some arrangement with a money order, but I'm wondering if there are other interested people out there who need a way to access my stuff.  Help me readers, you're my only hope.  Tell me what to do!

Onward,

vrock

A coat to dream about

It’s picture time!
First up, pictures from my trip to 7th Heaven Alpaca Farm in June 2010.  Fuzzy Head came with me to watch the annual alpaca shearing. 
Holding down the first alpaca as they are finishing up and ready to flip the table back over.  We missed the real action, we came in just as they were finishing.

The yarn selection available to purchase.  Fuzzy Head is blocking the view of the yarn I ended up buying, pictured here:
This is a delightful alpaca blend.  The tag was mega confusing on these because the two skeins were tied together with one tag that says 245 yards and 4ish oz, so I assumed that between the two skeins, that’s what I was getting.  I weighed them only recently (when I got my yarn scale from Knit Picks, eeeeee!) and together they weigh just over 8 oz, so the tag was only for one of the skeins.  I’m not sure exactly how many yards I have, but I’m hoping to make a pair of mittens and possibly a hat, but we’ll see.


This little baby alpaca was available for petting, but kids kept getting in the way.  Kids ruin everything.

These fluffy ones were waiting in a barn for their turn, we left before we got to see them sheared.

This is the alpaca from the first picture, all naked and romping around in the field.
My newest baby:
Hello spinning wheel.  I love you.  You’ve easily doubled my spinning speed.  I powered through the rest of the bag of my rust coloured wool, which I have been working on since I learned to spin earlier this year.  I carded the last of it over a couple days when I saw how quickly I was going through it with the wheel.  Also pictured above is my yarn scale, on the little table next to the wheel.

This is my Alpaca Acres roving from Vixen, spun up over a weekend with my wheel, being turned into:
My very first handspun project!  I’ve got a few skeins of my other hand spun yarns, but this is the first thing I’ve made with something I made.  This will be a spiral cowl – a perfect little project for the amount of yarn I have.
Thinking about Christmas presents now.  Last year I was all about making gifts for everyone, and it nearly killed me.  I had to plan all year to get everything made in time, and I had no time to work on my own projects.  I would love to do that again, but I don’t have enough time now this year.  I’ve got a few small projects picked out for gifts, but not for everyone.  I’m trying to think of projects that are easy, that I could make for everyone, that they would get some use from.  My first thought was felted potholders, but I’m still thinking about it and I wouldn’t be doing it for this year’s gifts.  Any suggestions?  Christmas presents for extended relatives this year will be home made red pepper jelly.  I bought the canning jars last week and I’m just waiting for red peppers to come into season.
Happy knitting everyone!
Onward,
vrock

Dennis Quaid wants a coffee!!

Knitting news and updates!  Get ready for the yarn:

This sweater vest was started literally a million years ago after my very first knitting field trip to the big city.  I bought Sensual Knits by Yahaira Ferreira and this seemed like the quickest project to satisfy my need to create a hand knitted garment.  I bought a cotton/angora blend by Debbie Bliss on clearance from Herrschners, and as it turns out, didn’t quite buy enough.  I bought 5 balls, and I came so very close to the end of that last ball that I nearly cried.  I had it in two pieces ready to stitch together when I realized how little was left.  I put the whole project aside for a long time, and got the courage to pick it up and use the last of the yarn to try and finish it.  It turns out I had just enough to sew the shoulders and sides, and pick up a few rows around the neckline to finish.  I used every single scrap of yarn for that neckline, some of them were so short I only got 3 or 4 stitches out of the piece.  Picking up a border around the sleeves was optional (although I wish I had enough to do it), so I left it as I had it.  Voila!  Stylin’ green sweater vest.

My ribbed bolero, made using the angora/wool blend yarn that Tam Tam got me for Christmas.  I only had three balls of it, so I needed a project to show off how gorgeous and soft the yarn is, but also be small enough to use just 3 balls.  This project was perfect.  It used the exact right amount of yarn, and it was a super fast knit.  I think I finished this one in a week.

Moving right along with my new love for spinning, I am finally able to take the bag of beautiful orange wool and turn it in to yarn.  I got this for Christmas along with my learn to spin kit, and now I know how to use it!  Yay!  This is spinning up pretty thin, so I’ll get a lot of yardage for my 100 grams.  I’ll see how much I get out of this bag before deciding on a project, but I’m in no rush.  I like having a spinning project available on the side for when I’m in the mood.

It’s been a while since I actually finished this, but this is my very first handspun that I made in my spinning class.  It’s a white corridale wool that we dyed in a crock pot.  I chose oranges and yellows for this yarn, although now I don’t know what to make with it.  It’s a little over 50 grams, but it’s my first handspun baby, and I need a special project to show off the wool.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

My latest and current project, this is my honeycomb blanket that is helping to use up the Bernat SuperValue I originally purchased for Fuzzyhead’s LOST scarf.  The Lost scarf got frogged, so this is recycling and re-using at its best.  I love the texture of this blanket, and that I don’t have to use more than one colour at a time (the gathered sections of grey are slipped when you work the white, and then knitted when you do the grey sections to hold it together and pull it into the honeycomb shape).  It’s going to be a cute little lap blanket, or maybe even a baby blanket for a deserving youngster.

Another update from my finished spinning class.  This is my completed colour wheel set of yarns – all carded (we only had primary colour rovings to work with), spun, and plied.  It took me a while to decide on a project to display this practice work.  I’ve decided on a wreath made of little rainbow coloured sheep – each colour will be knit into a small ball and stuffed, then a little sheep face and feet will be attached to each one.  It’ll be cute, I promise.  This one is kind of on the back burner right now while I get my groove back in to socks.

This will be delicious yoga socks – no toe and no heel for good grip on the mat.  This yarns matches my green bamboo yoga mat and I’m excited to finish them and show them off at class.
Happy knitting my lovelies!  Love your mothers tomorrow.
Onward,
vrock

Troll hair

Knitting updates!   
I have learned to spin, as mentioned in other posts, and two weeks ago we learned how to card!  Tamster bought me some hand carders for my birthday (very belated by the way, my birthday was in January and I received my gift in March).  Our homework from spinning class was to first of all spin the primary colours (from roving that was already dyed that we bought at Lily Lee’s).  Then the next week we mixed the roving to make secondary colours (see pictures above).  We spun those up, and then moved on to make tertiary colours.  The assignment was to make a colour wheel.  I’ve carded almost all of my tertiary colours, and I’m not sure how I want to present my final colour wheel.  Our instructor made simple leaves out of each colour and sewed them to a black square.  I think it would be super cute to make 12 little baby skeins to attach to some kind of background.  I love spinning!

My primary colours, spun, washed, and looking cute

My original handspun, with my primary colours, and my adorable sock project bag which happens to be a perfect size for spinning in progress.  My first handspun has now been dyed and I’m deciding what to make with it.

Also, I now live with Fuzzyhead, and this is my knitting corner, conveniently located in the living room for easy access to knitting while watching TV.

Thanks for checking in readers, I think I’ll be having a knitting and spinning day. 

Onward,

vrock