The Snowdrift Sweater!

Check it out 🙂

I had this idea in my head for a while and finally felt like spending the time to make it. It’s seamless (my favorite) and bottom up. I didn’t use any exact ‘method’ to shape the sleeve caps — unless ‘guess-as-you-go’ is a method, lol. A little bit of raglan shaping, a little bit of set in sleeve shaping and a few short rows to make it all work. Not bad, if I do say so myself. It’s my very first sweater design 🙂

The slippers were driving me nuts!! You can really only knit about 18 pairs before you want to run screaming down the street. You may have guessed, I’ll be putting off the rest of my slipper-test-knitting until after Christmas (…if then, the way I feel right now). The slipper pattern itself seems to be excellent but I’m trying to test knit every size in different wools for a true pattern test. I’d hate to say that something works if I haven’t tested it myself.

Happy knitting! 🙂

Staying Inside Where It’s Pretty!

As you can see, it’s not really pretty outside, here, today!! Raining and almost 10 celcius, everything is melting like mad. Guess that groundhog needs a new job…

So, I’m staying inside, working on a really awesome, ambitious project. It’s a blanket called ‘An African Adventure’ by Horst Schulz. It’s a modular knit and a lot of knitting. And it’s for ME. Really. I’m not even going to change my mind and give it to one of the children.

I’ve spun 16 different colours of superwash merino wool. The result is dk/worsted, thick/thin 2 play yarn…a little bit thicker than the original (which was dk) but I’m sure it’ll do nicely.

From top left; Amethyst, Henna, Earth, Pink Frost, Fuchsia, Deep Red

Sky, Lightest Lilac, Purple Mist, (skipping the colours already seen), Coral, Light Coral, Deepest Green

Deep Sky, (skipping colours already seen), Olive Green, Grass, Light Olive

I can’t wait to start this!

Freezing Cold Emergency

So, last night we realized that we couldn’t find my son’s balaclava (or his dad’s) anywhere. He has skiing today and it’s FREEZING cold (-31 right now). The only possible solution at 9 pm? Knitting, of course.

Then I couldn’t find a pattern for a child size OR for a larger needle knit – which is what I needed considering it had to be done for this morning.

So I designed my own – using the word design loosely, lol!

I used two strands of worsted weight handspun (my silverlights) and large dpns, cast on 72 sts, worked 2×2 ribbing for 8 inches or so, seperated by casting off 18 sts and then casting them back on two rows later, worked another 2 inches of 2×2 ribbing and then decreased gradually over the following couple of inches to form the hat crown.

I’m SO IMPRESSED that it fits! LOL, the kiddo was in bed so I was just guessing and you do start to question your guessing skills once the clock strikes 2 am or so…

Stay warm people…it’s COLD out there!

Elf Business…

This is ‘Fern Glade’ from the new Knitty by Megan Marshall. It was a beautiful knit – fun to make and fairly quick too! I used two strands of Jaggerspun lace weight in boysenberry and columbine. It’s in my projects on ravelry.

I’ve also been working on some TOP SECRET elf business, whenever the kid’s aren’t home. Can’t show you yet – in case they decide to read the blog (unlikely but you know). They are beautiful and I’ll post pics on Christmas!

I’ve started playing around, trying to design a scarf – not worth sharing yet but I’ll let you know – maybe I’ll have something to take a picture of by this evening 🙂

We’re having an entirely homemade Christmas this year, by the looks of it. Later this weekend I’m planning to put it all in one place and see where I’m at. For sure I’m behind a few pairs of those felted ribby slippers!

Right now I’m totally supposed to be baking a birthday cake! Chocolate, in the shape of a football and iced accordingly, lol. My little guy is now 11 — they grow up quickly 🙂

Have a great day 🙂 I’ll be the lady in the kitchen, desperately knitting and baking chocolate cake!

Hello Winter!

The icicles are great knitting inspiration! Seems we can’t warm up fast enough this week — winter’s come so early this year!

I’m working on some felted Ribby Slipper Socks (from the holiday IK) using some mystery wool. I needed to give my hands a break after knitting the first of the floral mittens — I find it works best for me if I break up working on things using fine yarns with chunkier yarns. Saves my hands from the ‘I-can’t-grip’ syndrome.

I suppose another alternative would be to take a break (what is a break?) but I’m not even sure I know how anymore, lol.

The socks are done except for the cuffs — I’m felting them (or trying to) in the sink to hopefully avoid over-felting (not a satisfying experience – been there, done that) in the washer. I HOPE they turn out nice! The pattern doesn’t call for felting so I’m winging that part. I’m going to do the cuffs in superwash after the feet are dry — maybe, depending on the final fabric, I’ll needle felt them too.

Up next – finishing the mittens. Next next? Sewing the quilt. May the Christmas elves be with me! LOL. Happy crafting 🙂

A Lacy Little Hat – Cute As Can Be :)

I wanted a quick something to work on last night…I chose the Beaufort hat by Angela Hahn (which I thought was just beautiful to begin with!) and used two strands of laceweight in place of the called for aran weight yarn.

Ta Da…

Really cute, a perfect fit and very comfy! I think I’ll be making more of these 🙂

OK, Enough Winter Already!

Yesterday, we woke up to a LOT of snow.  They’re calling for another 10 to 20 cm today!  Enough, I say 🙂  I mean, really, it IS almost April!

I finished another skein from the ‘mystery roving’ I have in blues/greens.  This one ended up more the weight I’ve been aiming for.  A good yarn for socks I think!  I have 362.5 metres and the wpi is 22 🙂

Here you can kind of see the size against the paper clip…

Now I’m kicking my ass for starting the superwash merino I’m spinning.  There is a ravelry only spinning contest that I want to enter but since I would have to use SakinaNeedles Fibre…I’m out of this month…no money for such things right now.  Next time I guess 🙂

A One Day Project

As it turns out, the brown hand spun wasn’t really brown at all.  I was restless last night so I wound some of the skeins.  Check it out! 

I had about 100 yards (guessing by the size of the ball, lol) so I made the Drops Headband.  I have just enough left over to accent some mittens 🙂  The cream handspun has some soft fibre in it…alpaca or something like that…very nice I think for gloves or mittens to go with this.  That’s the plan anyways.  I SHOULD be knitting the sweater for my mom…I have a habit of getting sidetracked.

Here’s a picture of the finished headband…

-31 is COLD

We woke up this morning to temperatures of -31c (-23f) and it’s cold!  I took this picture from inside the house 🙂

Jack Frost came to visit!

Have a great day 🙂

I LOVE It Here :)

Today, not much knitting — We went out on the snowmobile instead!  We stayed on the farm but it’s acres and acres…from one concession road to the next.  Here are some pictures…

It’s about -20 or so with the wind today but we were warm as can be…only one thing…I need real boots!

The trees look awesome don’t they?  I love how the sun shines through.

Ok, Couldn’t Help IT…Started the Coat!

I was restless yesterday…wanted to start something new even though I have the blanket to finish AND the carpet AND the socks AND the shawl.  Yeah.  LOL.  I managed to work on the blanket squares for a while first and they are getting there.  Another day of work to finish the blanket I predict.  And I will finish the carpet.  Later.

I tried spinning with a drop spindle yesterday, for the first time.  The fleece hates me, to begin with…I suspect the spindle may hate me too!  Anyways, not the most successful attempt but I could see improvement happening quickly.  Makes me truly appreciate a beautiful hand spun skein of yarn!!  LOL.  Definitely worth paying for! 🙂

The Malabrigo I’m using for the Hedgerow Coat is so buttery soft!  Georgeous stuff.  I will definitely look at making more things for myself out of it.  This is my first time knitting with it 🙂

It’s super cold out today….Husband cannot work, they have an ‘extreme cold’ warning on.  Yet they say it will warm up a lot by the end of the week?  We’ll see.

Off to knit a beautiful coat….

Enjoy!

The View!

It’s awesome to be surrounded by space…pictures of the other views to follow!  On a side note…dial up sucks…took me about an hour to load those two pictures 🙂

A Little Snow…

Um yeah….I’m not sure if we will be getting this table out, any time soon….

Hopefully the trampoline base!  We do want to take that.  The chairs should come easily enough.  It would figure that a huge storm would come just as I need to clean out the yard!

This is the TREE….(please ignore any similarities to any Christmas tree of mine you may see later on during Christmas 🙂 )

Finished Christmas Gift :)

I have a little nephew, Matty , who loves anything I knit for him.  I gave him the knitted gansey sweater I made a while back.  I’ve made him a scarf and hat (for Christmas) out of the leftovers from that project…

The yarn is James C. Brett Marble (dk weight).  I used the ‘my so called scarf’ pattern for the scarf and an improvised 2×2 rib hat (cast on 100 sts, size 6 mm circular needle/dpns).  I think he will love them…

Finished the Alpaca Gloves!

My mission this weekend was to work on something which needed finishing…and I’ve finished my Fitted Alpaca Gloves 🙂

 Very very pleased with these..they are my own design and a perfect fit.  The yarn is so nice and soft – I used Ultra Alpaca for these that I had left over from the cable yoke sweater I made a little while ago.

 The cable pattern is a sort of travelling vine with berries and leaves…I kept on with the reverse stockinette for the entire top of the gloves.

A better picture of the cable detail…

I carried the cable ribbing up the underside of the gloves, just past where the thumb gusset begins and did the palm in stockinette.

Very glad to be done and can’t wait to wear them! 🙂

The So Called Scarf

I realized I forgot to post a picture of the ‘my so called scarf’ I made for my nephew (it will be his Christmas gift – with a hat once I get it done!)

Hello Winter!

We woke up to gifts from mother nature this morning…WINTER is here!  The kids are excited…they had their boots out and tried on before I even got out of bed at 7:00 this morning.  LOL

 I just had to give my daughters their Christmas mittens, LOL….my youngest knew they were for her and came down asking about them…so I caved and they got their mittens early 🙂  Told her I better see her wearing those all day on Christmas!  It’s not like they didn’t have other pairs but they are excited about the new ones.  I don’t do ‘surprises’ with the number of children in this house…at least not when it comes to the things I make.  It would be impossible to get anything done!

My husband went ahead and checked the mail yesterday, no wool yet.  It’s for the best…I need to finish this skirt first!

I just lost another pair of mitts/gloves…my oldest daughter wants to know why she doesn’t have some…so my youngest is letting her choose between the two selbuvotter items I made and the composed mitts.  She chose the selbuvotter gloves in the browns and off white…good choice 🙂