Soft Hearts

It has been a few weeks since I finished this blanket ~ it has finally been washed and a picture taken (actually, as I am not a great photographer, quite a few pictures were taken to ensure that at least one was blog-worthy).

It shrank quite a bit length-wise, but it came out ever so soft and cuddly from the wash/dry.



Pattern: "Precious in Pink" from Leisure Arts Book #3219 Our Best Knit Baby Afghans
Yarn: Schoeller Portofino Soufflé
Needles: Circulars - Started on Addis 4.5mm; finished on Knit Picks 4.5mm
Pre-Wash size: 36"x42"
After Wash/Dry: 36"x38"

For some reason, the Addi needles and/or cables were not slick enough and the yarn wouldn't move along at a pace that suited me. Once I switched to the KP needles, the frustration level went down to zero and I finished the project very quickly. I'm glad I finished it on a happy note - I much prefer to knit cheery thoughts into my projects, especially those destined for gifts.

I Love Surprises

Sometime in March, I sent Jennifer a scarf as part of the Pay It Forward "thing" that was going around the blogs in July. In return, she surprised me with this lovely box of gifts! Some Socks That Rock yarn AND Malabrigo! Along with the yarn goodness, there were a number of other lovely goodies: cookbook, notepad, assorted teas, bath bomb and some mints and caramels (they were delicious!). Thank you so much Jennifer!



Sock Photo

As usual, some socks were completed. This pair in wonderfully soft Handmaiden Casbah. They left home as a birthday present. I really love that yarn though - I think I'll need to acquire more and make myself a pair.



On the needles

I started Ann Hanson's Honeybee Stole. This is destined to be a Christmas gift ... I'm starting early.



The blue hearts blanket turned out so nice that I started on another one, using the same yarn (I have a tendency to always buy more than one colour of any given yarn!). For some reason though, I didn't buy the same quantity of the tangerine and cream as I did of the turquoise and I don't have enough of to make a blanket of a single colour - hence the stripes.



Stash Enhancement

And of course, what blog entry would be complete without new yarn purchases. This time from a new (to me, anyway) vendor. I can't remember which blog is responsible for sending me to this shop, but Woolgirl has lovely yarn and her packages are a joy to receive.

March Madness

I am very thankful that this month is finally over!

It started off with an extreme ear infection which had me in tears and kept me home from work for three days. Just when the antibiotics were kicking in and the pain was finally receeding, I caught a cold. I am still coughing. I hate being sick!

The weather has been chilly - which I don't mind. I was mightily cheered up by the sight of cherry blossoms popping out all over a week or so ago. Another few days, I thought, and it will all be picture-worthy. Last week, we had hail with thunder and lightning. On Saturday, it was snow and sleet. Enough already ... I moved from Montreal to Vancouver to get away from this kind of March weather.

Work has been so busy I can hardly find the time to, em, attend to basic needs. Never mind trying to keep up with blogs - either my own or others'. If you haven't seen me in the comments friends, I am not ignoring you and hopefully I will catch up with all of you in the next week.

I have managed to do a bit of knitting.

Predictably, there have been socks:

My favourite garter rib pattern in Rabbitch's "No Mean Feets". Lovely yarn! I don't think there is any stock on this in her store at the moment - she was "Harlot-ized" a while ago and hasn't yet caught up with the demand. I was lucky enough to place an order a few weeks before this happened. I am keeping my eyes open for more though - I like to buy from local people.



Tesserae Sock in KnitPicks Essential Tweed - colour is Inca Gold. These were a fast and easy knit. I am wearing them today and they are very comfortable. I love the fact that you start right in on the pattern - basically a 2/4 rib which alternates starting points every six rows. So simple - wish I'd thought of that! I'm sure there will be more of those in my future.



I have started trying to clear out the UFO pile and I am making good progress.

Here is the feather and fan scarf in Wooly Wonka superwash sock yarn:





I don't think I ever blogged about this one, but I started it quite a few months ago and got sidetracked. The Skeleton Scarf from Arctic Lace in Qiviut! What a wonderful knitting experience - soft and lighter than feather. The best part is I have a second 50g skein to look forward to. I had bought a shawl kit from Arnica.dk but decided I would rather split the yarn up and make two separate projects.





Thanks to the faceless model - my friend Christine.

That's all for now - must get back to work.

Angel Lace

Just a short post to show off the latest finished object.



It has been quite a while since I've knit a shawl and I've really enjoyed this project.

Fibertrend's Angle Lace Shawl in Handmaiden Cashmere, knit on 3.5mm Addi Turbo Lace needles.

I added a few repeats of the pattern to use up as much of the yarn as possible. I weighed my skein after each pattern repeat so I could eventually estimate how much I would need for the edging and casting off. I did well - I only have 7 grams left.

It is decadently soft and as light as a feather (or angel wings, I suppose).



I'm still in a shawl-knitting mood, but I can't seem to decide which pattern to do next - so I'm knitting a sock while I come to a decision.

Sockless

Amazing but true ... a post without a sock photo in sight!

Completed Work

The pink baby blanket is done and has been delivered to a happy grandmother.



To answer a question from a couple of posts ago on this blanket, it uses a very simple slip stitch pattern and you only ever knit one colour at a time. The stitch is in one of Barbara Walker's Treasury books - I'm not sure which one.

You need a multiple of 4 stitches plus 3.
Cast on with colour A (white).
Row 1: Purl
Change to colour B (pink).
Rows 2 and 3: K3, *slip 1, K3*. Repeat * to * across row.
Change to colour A.
Row 4: K1, slip 1, *K3, slip 1*. Repeat * to * to last stitch, K1
Row 5: P1, slip 1, *P3, slip 1*. Repeat * to * to last stitch, P1
With colour B, repeat rows 2 and 3.
With colour A, repeat rows 4 and 5.
The slip stitch should be done purlwise, with the yarn to the wrong side (at the back when knitting, at the front when purling).

You get a very different effect if you use more than one colour. In this blanket, colour A is still white, but I have used alternating rows of blue, pink, green and yellow.



The Crest of the Wave scarf was finished this weekend and it will be on its way (as soon as I can haul my sorry self to the post office) to a recipient who will remain unnamed for now. There are many many patterns out there for this. I used Judy Jacob's (which I found on Ravelry), but I cast on 65 stitches instead of 53.



Stash Enhancement



This is wonderful lace weight merino from The Sweet Sheep. It is oh so soft and the colour is simply amazing! It will become Ann Hanson's Snow Shawl whenever the pattern becomes available.



Sock yarn doesn't count, right?



Some cashmere from Purl Soho. See how I get sidetracked ... Someone posted a link to the Giacomo Baby Hat pattern. Very cute, I thought. I read through the pattern and considered whether I might ever want to knit this. I read all the way down the page where there was a link to a pompom tutorial. Ah, there was something I might use. Clicked on the link, but the tutorial used a product I had never seen. So I went to that site to purchase their pompom maker. While I was there, one skein of cashmere just jumped in my cart!

New on the needles

Let it snow

This was the view from my apartment window just before I left for work this morning. It is pretty - from the inside.



I like snow ... as long as I don't have to make my way to work in it.

I was so pleased with the weather forecast last Friday. It was to snow during the weekend and get back to rain by Monday evening. Perfect for me since I had Monday off. I thought it would all be gone by the time I had to go to work on Tuesday.

If there is one thing you should never trust here in Vancouver it's the weather forecast! Oh, it did snow on Sunday - pretty much everywhere except downtown Vancouver. It was nice and sunny downtown.

There was really only about two inches of snow on the ground this morning - but it was enough to make the sidewalks treacherous.

I don't know what I'm complaining about really. You'd think that after spending most of my life in Montreal where they get "real" snow storms, I wouldn't give the snow in Vancouver more than a passing nod. I suppose that 20 years is long enough to forget what was and to take issue with what is.

Now THIS is snow:



I remember this storm well - March 4, 1971 - 18 inches of snow in 24 hours! I'm not good with dates, but this was also the weekend Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau married Margaret Sinclair and for some reason I've connected both events.

That's my mom (with dog Milou) in the picture. She always loved to shovel snow. She is 76 years old now and she still enjoys that activity ... although not on that scale!

Now for knitting content

There (of course) has been some stash enhancement since my last post.



Two skeins of Dream In Color Smooshy and some lace weight merino from Sweet Sheep. I thought I would do the Honeybee Stole with the lace weight, but I'm not completely happy with the colour - too bright; it looked a bit more subdued on my monitor.



Two skeins of sock yarn from Rabbitworks. The lilac yarn has already been converted to socks (picture below).



Some lovely Handmaiden Casbah which I received as a gift.

FOs



Some Dream In Color socks for me. Love the colour name: In Vino Veritas. Stitch pattern is "Stems" from More Sensational Knitted Socks.



These are from the lilac yarn from Rabbitworks. Also in the "stems" pattern. They will be on their way to my mom today.



Hourglass Lace pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. Yarn is from Wooly Wonka. These will also be travelling to Montreal - for my mom's best girlfriend.

On the needles

It's NOT socks!



A Crest of the Wave scarf in cashmere from Posh Yarns in the UK. I bought this yarn eons ago - it is oohh soooo soft!

Winter blahs

I've been sitting here staring at the screen for ages. I want to rant about the rain and gloom, but I can't seem to round-up my thoughts to produce some kind of coherent sentence. My brain is as soggy as the weather.

So, a bit of a knitting update for now.

I finished the main part of the pink baby blanket last week and started on the border. I had hoped to work on this all through last weekend and finish it up this week, but I got sidetracked. I really want to get this done so I can get to something else (I have been having cashmere dreams!).



Here is the sock of the week - just your basic sock. Yarn was a gift from my son's girlfriend.



This is what sidetracked me from the blanket border last weekend. My office neighbour had been complaining of cold hands all last week so I decided to try knitting my first pair of fingerless mitts. She was pleased by the gift and has been wearing them every day.



I searched Ravelry for a pattern and ended up using this one as a starting point. I used the garter rib stitch I have used so many times in socks. Yarn was Dream In Color Smooshy (Wisteria) left over from a pair of socks. A quick and satisfying project.

Given that I've been in a doom and gloom kind of mood, there has been some stash improvement purchases - online shopping is my answer to good and bad moods! Some of the purchases have started coming in. I'll post photos next time.

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a happy holiday season and I wish you all the best for the new year.

I was lucky enough to have nine days off from work and I can't believe how quickly they went by. As is my usual practice on my return to the office after the Christmas holidays, I have been easing myself back into work mode by contemplating my 2008 calendar and pondering the allocation of my days off for the year - that always cheers me up.

Here is the knitting round-up for the end of 2007:

Christmas socks for my friend Claire who lives in Montreal - I haven't seen her since I moved to Vancouver 18 years ago, but we email and talk on the phone. Claire always wore high heels and I remember that she particularly favoured red ones - so I picked this lovely red yarn (Schaefer - Anne) for her socks.



While I was knitting them up, I kept thinking about The Wizard of Oz and Dorothy's ruby slippers. In the card accompanying the socks, I told Claire that these were soft ruby slippers for us "older gals" who need to keep our feet warm at night.

I got this picture from her in an email ... she was wearing these the day the socks came, so she plunked them on the scanner! I guess I had her number right :)



About a week before Christmas I decided that I needed something more for my son's girlfriend and started to whip up a blanket for her. When she took away the baby blanket I had knit for her new godson, she commented that she was tempted to keep it to snuggle up with while watching TV, so I knew she'd like this. I had 10 balls of Austermann Inverno and went with a plain garter stitch, corner-to-corner construction using 6.5mm needles. I finished this at 8:30pm on Christmas Eve. It blocked out at five feet by five feet - it probably could have blocked out larger than that, but my carpet is five feet wide and that is the only space I have for blocking.



I was afraid it wouldn't be dry in time for her arrival at 11:00am on Christmas morning, but I kept a fan going all night and I was able to wrap it up. She was very happy with it.



My last bit of stash improvement for 2007. I received a generous gift certificate to my LYS (Urban Yarns) and I wasted no time redeeming it! Two lovely skeins of Handmaiden laceweight cashmere!



I think this cashmere will have to jump to the front of the knitting queue - I just can't keep my hands off it.