Rhinebeck planning, SQUEE!

It's October, it's getting cold outside, and I'm going to Rhinebeck next weekend.  Let that sink in for a moment.  I'll wait.

I'm going to Rhinebeck!  The holiest of all holy knitting events, and this little kid is going.  Catherine and I booked our place on a bus tour in the summer (mildly sketched out at first, we blindly sent money to a stranger and crossed our fingers that it was legit and not a knitting scammer), and we leave on Friday morning. This is where we are going.  I'll wait again while you check it out. 

I've been getting emails every week from the organizers of our trip with reminders and itineraries and I'm super psyched.  I'm even excited for the 9 hour bus ride to get us there, where I can knit and chat and read and eat car snacks.  I've been trying to focus on what I actually need to get while I'm there, since I didn't buy a single thing at the Knitters' Fair this year.  Catherine and I are meeting up on Thursday to go over vendor lists and project plans - we'll be keeping each other on track and on budget.  I really think being accountable to your buddy is necessary at a place like this.  It's way too easy to bring a credit card and just stop thinking about how much you're spending.  Here is my project list that will require purchasing yarn at Rhinebeck:

• Knitted pillow shams in a bulky weight yarn (preferably roving style), mentioned in my last post here 
• Baby bunting bag for my hair dresser who is expecting a baby around the new year

• Possibly getting yarn for a sweater project for me, I'm leaning towards this:

 It's called "Paulie", and I'm in love with it.  I can see myself wearing it at my go-to fall and winter sweater, and likely wearing it at work

• Sock yarn, any and all.  If it's cheap or pretty or it's being sold by the pound, I'm going to be all over it.  I don't have any patterns in mind, but it doesn't matter.  I always need sock yarn.

Aside from actual projects I'm planning for, I will also be on the lookout for awesome project bags, accessories, and knitting-related things that I need.  I've seen a knitter or two sporting a knitting needle gauge necklace, and I want one real bad.

I'm setting myself a budget of no more than $400, although I'm not picky about what I have to get from that amount, and none of the projects on my list need to be done right this second with only brand new yarn.  I will be bringing a reasonable amount of US cash with my for general spending, but I hate going to the trouble of getting US cash and then not spending all of it (and refusing to lose money by selling it back to the bank), so I'll also be using credit cards.  Expect an epic blog update later this month.

In regular non-Rhinebeck knitting news, here's what I've been working on.

Rock Island shawl is DONE.
 

 

It's too pretty.  I wish it was for me.  I'm debating whether Tam Tam will get it for her birthday or Christmas.  Her birthday is coming up at the end of October, but I have something else planned for that (horseback riding!  Shhh, don't tell her).  I've already taken this shawl everywhere without the joy of actually wearing it - it came to the first Guild meeting of the year for Show and Tell, I entered it in a Fall Fair contest and won first place, and it came to regular knit and chat night.  Right now it's neatly folded up in my stash baskets, waiting for me to decide its fate.  I'm leaning towards Christmas.

My Cuff au Lait fingerless mitts are DONE!  I don't have a picture of the finished pair, so you'll have to settle for a picture of the left finished mitten.  Get over it.

I like this picture because it looks like I'm holding the ball of yarn between my fingers.

I'm working on Fuzzyhead's Christmas socks - a manly man's pair of socks in semi-solid black, in a railway stitch.  How masculine.  The stitch pattern is from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, one of my favourite sock books, but modified with a toe-up construction.  

I'm really curious to see if the rows of knit stitches will even out with blocking or if they will stay a little wonky.  

I also want to knit a quick brain slug for my Halloween costume this year.  Last year, I spent way too long and way too much money on a costume I will probably not wear again (which is too bad, because vrock as sexy hamburglar needs to happen again).  I'm working on Halloween day and I was searching for the perfect costume that is work appropriate, and not so awkward that I can't actually work in the costume.  I've decided on a brain slug on a headband as the perfect costume.  I can wear my normal work cloths and it doesn't require special make-up that needs to be re-applied or checked on all day.  I might even bust out my rarely-used crochet skills and try my hand at this little beauty:

 

Or support a fellow Guild member and make one of these felted slugs:

 

I'm also gearing up for Christmas, because I'm a giant nerd, and I look forward to this all year long.  In August, I wanted nothing more than to make a 2012 Christmas planner to keep track of all my crafty and baking and decorating holiday dreams.  The step by step DIY guide I followed is here, and it required a composition notebook, some standard paper crafting supplies, and Christmas themed scrapbooking paper.  Michaels let me down big time on the Christmas paper - in August, when they were already rolling out the Christmas ribbon and Christmas ornament aisle, they had not a single sheet of Christmas scrapbooking paper in sight.  Shameful.  How is a crafty gal supposed to get her craft on for a Christmas planner in August without Christmas scrapbooking paper?  I went back in early September and found exactly one style of Christmas paper (which I also happened to love), and my 2012 Christmas planner was born:

It has tabbies for all of the most important Christmas planning activities - a calendar to keep my on track, the list, the master Christmas card list with addresses, home stuff, and food.  

It even had a ribbon to tie it closed and keep peeping peepers out of the Christmas secrets.

Also, I'm firmly into the role of President at the Knitters' Guild.  If you haven't seen me strike passion in the hearts of Guild members, you should stop by and watch me in action at a Guild meeting.

And now I've got zombie-themed baking to accomplish today readers.  It's the season premiere of Walking Dead tonight dontcha know.

Onward,

vrock  

Malkovich oreos

Happy Boxing Day dear readers!  On this sacred of all holidays, while I sit around the house in lounge-pants (thanks Santa!) and put away all my new toys, it's the perfect time to recap some holiday knits and gifts and how they were received.

A few weeks ago, during the over-scheduled weeks before Christmas, I made this little gal as a last minute contribution to the Knitters' Guild ornament exchange:

This is Holly, of Holly, Ivy, and Steve, a pattern I bought on Ravelry from Danger Craft.  I first stumbled on the pattern when I was browsing Etsy on the train home from my forced Montreal trip with Slim Jim.  I was severely strapped for cash at the time, and I couldn't even justify the $6 price tag for the pattern.  When at last a pay-cheque was tossed in my direction (let this be a lesson to you kiddies, always pay your caterer promptly), it wasn't until the weekend before the Guild meeting, so I didn't start Holly until Saturday night.  Sunday night had me out at a party (serving my dear readers, I never get to be the invitee at holiday events), and I had to stay up way passed my bedtime on Monday night to finish her.  In total I spent about 8 hours making Holly, but it should have been more - I cut the scarf way short when I realized how long that one element was going to take me.  I also didn't have white felt (or any felt at all actually) to make her teeth, no buttons for the eyes, and no stuffing to fill her, so I improvised.  Her teeth are stitched on with the same white yarn I used for the scarf, her eyes are made from tiny knots of brown yarn I had around the house, and she was stuffed with old plastic shopping bags.  Aside from a slight crinkle when you squeeze her, you'd never know.  Holly is a wonderful little stash-busting project, I used old yoga sock yarns I still had, plus some KnitPicks yarn from the Cupcake Mittens.  I still have boat-loads of this yarn left, and since Holly takes very little to make, I'm thinking I can bust out the rest of the gang and make an Ivy and a Steve.  My original Holly is long gone - she was snatched up quickly at the ornament exchange, and is hopefully sitting on someone else's tree right now.

And now, my crowning achievement in knitting for this year, drum roll please!

One FINISHED, neatly folded, and ready to be gifted Man's Cabled Cardigan:
 

This sweater was finished in late November, with buttons sewn on shortly after.  I followed the sizing for the man's small, which matched Fuzzyhead's measurements almost exactly.  My gauge was bang-on for stitches per inch, but not so hot for rows.  I only really had to think extra hard when the pattern told me to do something "every other row" or "for x rows" since my row gauge was not the same.  This caused the biggest trouble for the tops of the sleeves, where I had to made my own adjustments and still hope it would fit in the arm-shaped hole I had already made for the sleeve in the torso piece.  But as you can see here, it all came together swimmingly:

The sweater fits great, and I'm currently wearing it while I type this post.  He sported it around town yesterday to two different Christmas celebrations, and he'll be wearing it again tonight at the last run-around Christmas we have to do. 

Next up is another last minute project that I was thinking about and planning for months, so I guess you can't really call it last-minute.....except that I mailed it on almost the last possible day for mailing things to get it there before Christmas.  For this beauty, I learned to crochet from my wise and patience crocheting friend Catherine.  We stopped in at Shall We Knit? one night on the way to Thursday night knitting and I bought a skein of a heathered charcoal yarn for the hat (Cascade 220, what's up!).  I had a 4.5mm crochet hook in my bag and a pattern I couldn't understand on my Playbook.  Catherine and I somehow entirely missed the knit mob group that night, but we went to Coffee Culture by ourselves for some quiet crocheting.  I made real progress on the hat in that first night, and I finished the rest in two nights.  Fuzzyhead is modeling the finished hat here, before I wrapped it up for gifting to my friend Adam.

In the grand tradition of last year's red pepper jelly gifts for relatives, I made home-made jam for everyone on my list for Christmas.  I started the project in the summer, buying up canning jars when they showed up at the grocery store, and stocking up on pectin and sugar.  I chose to make strawberry jam when the Ontario strawberries were at their peak, but I didn't act fast enough to make the amount I needed before the precious two weeks of Ontario strawberry season were over.  For the rest of the jams, I made peach jam, and I did a couple batches of carrot cake jam in smaller jars for everyone.

The recipes for the strawberry and peach jams were taken right from the helpful pamphlet included in each and every box of Certo liquid pectin.  I dressed up the jars with a festive gold ribbon around the band, and a cutesy topper for the lid:

I found this "homemade goodies" stamp at Michaels during my crazy Halloween paper crafting obsession in November.  I cut discs from card stock I already had, and stamped them with brown ink.  They make the jars a millions time cuter.

The little carrot cake jams were all finished with holiday ribbon glued around the band, as well as the "homemade goodies" topper.  The carrot cake jam was inspired by a trip last year to the New Dundee Emporium for afternoon tea and scones, and I found the recipe here in a random google search.

In the same day I was tying ribbon around jars, I threw together a welcome gift for our new neighbours, who moved in on December 1st.  I had a Christmas cookie tin leftover from last year's gifting, so I wrapped up some red velvet whoopie pies I made that day for the Guild Christmas meeting.  Welcome neighbours!  Don't you wish you lived next to me?

Onward,

vrock

Circus of values

It's the last day of Movember kiddies, and I say good riddance to bad facial hair.  Anyone who participates in this moustache-growing month should really wear a sign.  I sat through a whole meeting at work today wondering if the nice gentleman I was talking with sports a 'stache year round (and really thinks it looks good) or if it's just for charity.  Moving on.

We begin, dear readers, with a recap of things that happen in my life that aren't necessarily all about knitting.  Kind of a downer, I know, but they all relate to crafting, promise.

For the first time in many years, I got dressed up for Halloween this year!  We were invited to a Halloween party at Fuzzyhead's friend's house, and told to dress up to keep the fun alive.  I spent way too long and way too much money on a costume that I wore for a few hours, but I was proud of my creative spirit.  Here we are in poor lighting in our kitchen about to leave for the night:

 

Do you know what I am?  I'm a sexy hamburglar!  I completed the outfit on the way to the party with a quick stop at McD's for a happy meal box, which I tied onto my skirt.  Fuzzyhead could almost pass for his every-day-self except for the plastic hunting knife tucked into his pants.  He was as Locke from Lost, the shaved head makes him a dead ringer for anyone else with a shaved head.  The scar over his eye (washable marker is good for everything) brought the whole look together.

And we of course carved pumpkins, albeit a bit late this year.  We bought them on the Saturday before Halloween, and carved them on Sunday night.  My pumpkin saw a bit more action than Fuzzyhead's since I didn't cut all the way through the flesh and thus there was less pumpkin rot.  By the following week they were both in the green bin.  Sad.  

Oh no!  A snake-faced Voldemort!

My November was not terribly fast-paced, but I was dragged to Montreal with Slim Jim to find her a place to live.  She starts school on January 3rd at Concordia and didn't think too far beyond being accepted and packing her cat and dog up to take with her away from Momma's mess-filled house.  In case you're wondering, it's really hard to find a student-priced room/apartment where you can bring your barking dog without being evicted.  The dog/cat thing has been pushed to the back burner, and in our whirlwind weekend (took the train in on Friday night, left on Sunday afternoon), we found her a place to live.  BUT, the important part of the story is that I spent some quality time at a knitting store since I was rudely pulled away from my weekend off.

I consulted Ravelry in our hotel room to find nearby knitting shops that we accessible by metro/walking.  One of the forum posts highly recommended Effiloche, just a few short metro stops and a quick walk away from our hotel.  Please excuse the glare on the store window, it was an exceptionally gorgeous day outside.

 

They sell fabric and yarn, and even rent sewing machines by the hour.  So cute!  The fabric was all adorable, no old-lady patterns to be found.  It's exactly the kind of fabric I would stock up on if I sewed.  I wanted to snap a few pictures of the inside of the store, but I always feel weird doing that since some places are all up in your face about not taking pictures.  Really, what does it matter?  I don't like being yelled at so I settled for some shots from outside.

They have a cutesy little display of felted outdoorsy things that I also loved.  I want a felted toadstool. 

I returned from Montreal with two skeins of yarn for Momma's dog walking ear flap hat for Christmas.  I've finished the basic hat shell already and crocheted a border all around the edge.  I'm working on an ultra-warm inner shell to keep her head toasty during winter dog walks.  Fuzzyhead has an ear flap hat and I know gusty winds whip right through the bulky knit, so two layers can't hurt.

Also, I'm a wee bit of a paper crafter, and I spent some serious time crafting up these puppies:

 Fuzzyhead and I host his annual Christmas gathering for his friends, mostly for their Secret Santa exchange, but in recent years, also for me to play super hostess.  We settled on a date many weeks ago to be sure everyone could make it, and I made up the invites more as a courtesy than a true invitation.  We chose our theme months ago, and I patiently waited for Halloween-y themed paper and stamps to appear at Michaels.  I spent 5 or 6 hours crafting the invitations, and only finished all of the wording last night.  Oh, and just because I'm me, I made my own envelopes:

I bought a roll of craft paper (cheap and cheerful and sold by the roll!), and measured around each card to make a custom envelope.  I love the Halloween stamps I bought so I found an excuse to use the big feature stamp image on the outside of the envelopes.  I.  LOVE.  THEM. They're all addressed and waiting for stamps. 

My yoga socks are still around in the background, I've got a pair on my needles right now, but I'm in no rush to produce them.  I had a request through the yoga studio for a pair so I finished up the purple ones I was working on.  The lady who requested them didn't have a colour preference, so I brought all three of the pairs I had on hand to the studio for her to choose from.  I pinned them to an old bulletin board and added some core information, made myself a little display board.  She chose the red pair so I'm down to two pairs in my inventory.  I told the studio to keep the board there since I'm sure people are more likely to buy them if they can touch and feel the finished product. 

Tres cute, non?

I'm working my way through Christmas gift knitting for 2011.  I'm so glad I didn't commit to more holiday knitting, it would kill me.  I finished both of the felted slippers for the sister things and made my way to Michaels again this week for some puffy paint for a non-slip grip on the bottoms.

I used Tulip brand Puffy Paint in white.  The slipper on the left has been "puffed" while the one on the right is waiting its turn.  The paint took more than 4 hours to dry (never blindly trust the instructions kids), but puffed up nicely with some direct heat from a hair dryer (the instructions called for holding a hot iron up close to the paint without letting it touch, but this was way easier).

Slim Jim's slippers, puffed and ready for wrapping.  Note the heart for extra love.

Remember that manly cabled cardigan I was working on.  Done.  Here's its trip through the blocking process, and when it's properly revealed on Christmas morning, Fuzzyhead will be a fine model for the finished product.

Soaking in the tub

The finished pieces are blocked to their final measurements and set out on the futon to dry.  I did this on Friday morning before leaving for my Montreal weekend and I left them to finished drying while I was away.  They were very damp when I set them out since I ran out of wool/dog appropriate towels to squeeze out more water.  

More pictures and updates up soon, I've got lots of knitting that needs to be shown off.

Onward,

vrock

Sunday afternoon matinee

Dearest blog readers, here come some updates:
Garden News:
First and foremost, I have a garden, that’s news in itself.  My last post show updates from my little weensy garden space, and now I present to you the progress report:

The back of the yard garden, which has exploded with zucchini and radishes.  The giant patch of overgrown green you’re looking at is the most successful batch of plants.  To the left, if you squint real hard, you might be able to make out the carrots and the single green bean vine that’s clinging desperately to the fence.  The lettuce was a dead end, I never saw a single plant.  They have since been dug up and replaced with a more formal spot for my exploding tomato plants.  I didn’t have the heart to choose which ones got to live and die, so I let them all live, and now I have 5 tomato plants.  Only 4 actually fit in this teensy patch of garden…

….the other one gets to live it up bachelor style in his own plant pot on the porch, next to the saucy downtown herbs.  The tomato cages are courtesy of Momma Vrock, who let a giant tree fall on them, so they are mangled and twisted and look like they belong in a Tim Burton inspired garden for twisted and mangled things.  I bent them back into shape as best I could.

The shady corner garden to pretty plants that we don’t plan to eat.  They’ve all grown bigger, and I really should have weeded before taking this picture.  Please don’t assume I’m a horrible garden mother, I do eventually get around to pulling out the offensive plants.

Keep your pants on readers, now we’re getting to the knitting news:

Remember the humble beginnings of my Laminaria shawl?

 

Ummmmmmm, it’s DONE!

It was a long road to get there, as you may recall…

(imagine sappy recap music, tenderly playing as we stroll through my blog montage of how this glorious shawl came to be)

Waaaaa-bam!

I also just bought a shawl pin yesterday, a sassy little wooden number that won’t weigh down my delicate lace.


Also, I may or may not have finished a baby sweater.  No big.
Ms. Bear is modeling here, showing off the finger details of the owl cables.

The completed little package, with my personal care instructions card.  I had 500 of them made (vistaprint.com, love it!), and I left the spaces blank to write in the washing and drying instructions for all of my handknit things.  I also included my personal “handknit with love by vrock” stamp on the back.

The finished and wrapped package, ready to ship to Virginia for Fuzzyhead’s cousin’s baby, arriving in August.

And late last night and this morning, I started and finished a pair of felted slippers.  These are French Press Slippers, from Fresh Press Knits, and I love them.  I’ve loved them since I first saw them on Ravelry, and I only very recently got together the gumption to actually purchase the pattern and make them myself.

Here they are drying on my porch.  I used two strands of grey and one strand of black for the three-strands-held-together-extra-thick soles.  This was partly because I didn’t think I had enough grey yarn, and partly because I liked the idea as a design feature.  This is my tester pair of these slippers so I can mass produce them for Christmas presents this year.  So far Slim Jim and Hamster are getting a pair, and considering these took me a grand total of 3 hours to make, I might just make them for everyone I know.  We’ll see.

The flaps for the slippers, drying on my clothsline.  I wonder what my neighbours must think of the knitting-related things I hang on the cloths line.

Also, I’m into paper crafts now.  To accompany the owl baby sweater to Fuzzyhead’s cousin, I made this little card:

We just need to sign it, and then the whole kitten caboodle can be sent off.  I was waiting for more than a week to zip to the fabric store to get buttons to sew on to the card. 

This is my collection of card making stuff.  I bought a card organizer recently, and that sparked my obsession with making my own cards instead of paying way too much for them from Chapters.  My collection of embroidery floss from my childhood days of making friendship bracelets really came in handy for the stitching details on the cards.  Oooooo, I’m so crafty!

And finally, I will leave you with images from my Canada Day celebration on Friday:

Actually, just cupcake pictures.  The fireworks, puppydogs, and ice cream party was in full swing, and I make ice cream cone cupcakes so we could avoid the giant line-up at DQ.

Onward,

vrock