Note to self...

When a friend asks for socks for Christmas.... ask what size feet he has before merrily agreeing!! Size 13, Earl Grey Tea socks ala Yarn Harlot. Haven't heard yet if they fit.

Knitting content

So I did get a whole lot of stuff knit up for Christmas. Some of it was started quite a while ago, some of it of course became last minute. I had a failed attempt at making the Snow Devil hat but in a moment of late night clarity, it really wasn't working so Foliage stepped in to hold it's place. I'm liking this hat more and more although unfortunately, I lost mine.

Christmas busy

Hi all. Can you believe it's been almost two months to the day since I've posted? I can. A lot happened in there. In fibre talk a LOT of Christmas knitting that I couldn't post, a suit and a pile of little sewing bits. I started a new day job, spent a little short of a week in Ottawa working on another Creepy Puppet Project and started learning to belly dance. No point in getting bored!

So I'm going to back up a bit in blog land and tell one story at a time as not to completely kill those of you with slower download speeds.

Intelligence Quotient is the latest film in the Creepy Puppet Project series. Give it a watch here.



Maybe I'll post some of the pics of the wardrobe in partially done stages later. For now, a belated Merry Christmas!

I did it!

Well, it survived. This is Foliage from Knitty, knitted up in my souvenir yarn from the September cottage sabbatical. I love cottages in the fall, most people have gone home and it's so nice and quiet. This will be nice and cozy for the winter. The yarn is Freedom Spirit from England, 100% wool. It's nice and soft, I thought though after the third frog it was a goner!

Finished Object

I wore this last night and got so many compliments. How nice is that?

Finished Object!!

In only 3 1/2 weeks, done! Yay! I hope this will be fun to wear. I'm having to wait to see however as I entered it in the fair this weekend. Soon I will have a fun new sweater.

What's On the Table

Finally, I'm back to the sewing table. It feels good now that things are rolling again. The last couple of weeks I just accepted that all I could do was night shift. My body seems to have accepted the changes, so finishing work has commenced on the suit. Today, one blouse done.

Mystery Stole Three

Despite night shift doldrums I got something done.

It's Raining

I do not have babies, I do not want babies. In fact I tend to avoid babies (nieces excepted of course!), so why the all encompassing fixation on cute baby hats? Come on, tell me this hat doesn't make you smile on even this rainy cool morning! It doesn't even have a future owner yet but I had to make it.

Strechy unnamed cotton from Lettuce Knit in Toronto. They are small skeins but I may be able to get a second baby hat out of what's left.

Psst... Violet. This sure would look good on the Daily Chum next week!

I'm baaacccckkkk!!!

Sorry bout the silence there all. Nothing personal. It's summer time so I have been running around lots, soaking up sun and fun and too many fish fries! I also had a couple of weeks of being pretty low energy, I finally have my chiro to thank for a quick diagnosis, I got some antibiotics and I'm almost back to my old self.

So what have I been sewing/knitting? The mystery stole 3 has taken over my world. I stay up late knitting it, drag it around with me. I'm loving the twist of it being assymetrical. I really am enjoying the process. I'm finding however that how I hold my needles doing lace is doing bad things to the tendons in my wrists. Looks like lace knitting cannot become a long term addiction. Oh well, I have lots of addictions already.

I'll leave you with a pic of Trevor, aka a miner in Heist. I haven't gotten any more recent pictures lately. Don't worry, this was dress rehearsal, everyone received a warning about shiney shoes.

Creepiness!

A couple of weeks ago I did some wardrobe work for a short film a friend was doing. It's done! Check it out.

Blind Rage

They Didn't Rock

Recognize this wool, FROGGED! Bummer. They were really uncomfortable. I only wore them a couple of hours and the ridges under my feet was not comfortable. So, I frogged them right away rather than torture myself. The wool is going to go away for a little time out. I love the colours when it's all skeined up like this. I wonder what the medium weight would look like in Hedera?

Socks That Rock

I finally finished my Socks That Rock kit, with mods of course. I don't think anyone is capable of just knitting a pattern are they? The details are: Socks that Rock Medium weight in the Monsoon colourway in the Inside Out pattern. I did not do the cables on the leg (I tried, they were too tight) so the leg is just a rib. Overall, I'm ok with them but not in love. I'm concerned that the rib on the bottom of the foot is going to be too textured. I did arse up the pattern a bit so they really aren't of a gift quality, so, I have some more socks.

Letting go of the kit mentality is hard for me. If the pattern or yarn don't sing my name, or the combination of the two, I need to ditch one or the other and just make what I like. Next time, I think....

Finished!

The chicken viking hat is done! The drumsticks are almost a complete match. I'm thrilled. It wasn't perfect substitute for yarn but damn close. Cottontots by Berdina. It sure wouldn't stand up to frogging, a good tug snaps it and there was lots of tugging in those little freakin' drunsticks. I would highly recommned this pattern!

By the way, it's visiting the crabapple tree in my back yard. A couple of days after this photo it exploded in bloom. Everytime there was a breeze I felt like I was living in a music video covered in petals. Doesn't get any better than that...

Socks

These baby blues are my New Year's socks. I flew to Ottawa for New Year's and of course needed something to work on in the plane.

These are Hedera by Cookie via Knitty. The wool is a vintage superwash from the local Sally Ann. There's definitely something to be said for 50 cent wool! I hope that balances out the wool that is a bit more than that.

Overall, a good pattern resulting in a good sock. They fit well and in fact this scan is after quite a few wearings and washing. Good stuff.

Catch Up

I'm going to play some catch up and post projects I've finished up since the New Year.

A dear friend saw thrummed mittens and fell in love, so she picked up supplies. Then of course, she called me, told me about them and said, "I have no idea how to make them but I'm sure you'll figure them out."! Well, we figured them out.

We both worked off to the freebie pattern from Yarn Forward, in Ottawa. I used Patons Classic Wool in Bright Red and hand dyed sliver from Fleece Artist called Wensleydale Teeswater. In retrospect I think the sliver was too smooth and fine, as you can see the mittens already have quite a halo and I'm not sure how the thrums will hold up. They are super soft and cozy though. Also, I'm not sure I'll make many of these, the prepping and inserting thrums sure interfers with the rhythm of knitting and is SLOW.

All in all, a success if I do say so myself.