Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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!

Friday, January 11, 2008

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.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

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.