Last day of Pink Month

I am glad that in September, we switch to yellow. Maybe I can find some yellow knitting.

For the first time in ages, I am all alone in the house! I still have to clean the kitchen, but today I am doing it with Tom Jones blasting!

Post box confusion

I saw this picture on a fashion board on Pinterest (it originally came from here), and of course, wondered about the post box!

Can it be a real British one? Flowery top like a Penfold, round base?

I suspect trickery of some sort, but haven't scoured the internet for confirmation... yet!

Do you Pin? I find it amusing and think it might be a good way to keep track of pages to go back to, like recipes, but can't imagine having the time to just collect pretty pictures and look at them.

But, heck, one can find odd pictures of hybrid pillar boxes, so I guess it's fine!

Still a few days left to enter to win a skein of yarn, on the previous post!

ETA: My sister pointed me to this, which is a meter-high garden ornament. That one in the picture is more than a meter high and not quite the same; one must presume it is the real-life model. I wonder if I can find a sponsor for a trip through the UK to find it. Hmmmm.  

A giveaway!

It's still a bit early for a 6-year-2-month blogiversary celebration, and it's the end of August, so who knows if anyone is even out there reading, but, the time has come for me to part with this reddish brownish lace-weight wool/mohair yarn, so I will have a contest!

Is it red or brown, or chestnut?

This came to me in a swap, and I was delighted and have admired it for 2 years now (!) but, since it is 80% mohair and 20% wool, it would make me sneeze like anything, and I know I am never going to knit with it. It is 420 yards and 100 grams, so could make something really lovely!

Mohair slight fuzziness makes it always look out of focus.

All you have to do to make this your own is leave me a comment! Let's see... I'll leave this open for a week, till September 2nd, my friend Dave's birthday. Then I shall charge up the random number generator and pick a winner!

Good luck and happy knitting!

Abrupt turnaround

Ahem, hmm, and other throat-clearing noises!
I've been hacking and hewing lately, feeling like I had a funny cold/sore throat/stuffy nose, but not really a cold. Well, finally the light bulb in my brain turned on, and I realised I'd been through all this before, more than once. The lovely soft wool is making me sick!
For now, I will put the Malabrigo away and go back to the denim, and we will see if this throat gets better!
Grrrr.

WIP Wednesday

I think I used to do this WIP Wipeout Wednesday. ... Now my WIPs are so numerous and oppressive and all so delightful, I must use some of my superpowers to tame them.

Off the top of my head, I will tell you I have:

1. Botticelli, in Felted Tweed, a perfect fall sweater. Unfortunately, I finished the back and then switched to cotton knitting for the summer, and so fall is almost here and I don't have a finished Botticelli. But I will get on that... but not right now.
2. Sunday Best, in Rowan Denim, a perfect fall sweater as well! I am not quite finished the back. OK, I am about half-way done the back. And I was distracted away from that one day when I needed something where I didn't have to count or think too much, so I started...
3. The Malabrigo wonderful colourful thing. I knitted a triangle of bright turquoise blue. Then, I knitted a leafy scarf in wonderful bright pond-scum green. Well, OK, not a whole scarf yet.

It starts with a little point

and gets wider!

This is Lucy Neatby's Falling Leaves scarf, which is a super wonderful pattern. It will get attached to one side of the triangle, and a wild and crazy orange scarf-like thing will get attached to the other side, and you will see, it will be lovely!

There are also a few socks, the gorgeous Noro shawl, who knows what, lying around. But this crazy scarf thing seems the most pressing at the moment. It is so quick, you know, that I will just polish it off before doing anything else. (Eye roll, whatever)

Where does the time go?

My house is full of half-finished projects of all sorts. There are cut-out things, glued things, knitted things... dirty dishes, dirty laundry! I, for one, can't wait till school starts and I boot everyone out the door in the morning!

Now, isn't that mean?

But, I think I have been amusing people quite well lately. On Wednesday we went here:

Arthur and me with that ol' camera-at-arm's-length trick

I would show you more pictures, but they are on the other camera and it has already taken me days to get this far. I can tell you we didn't go on the Maid of the Mist, but we went in tunnels behind the falls, down to a platform sort of beside them, which is pretty darn fun, too. We also walked out on the bridge to the USA. On our next trip... we will go to Goat Island, in between the Canadian and American falls. It's likely been about 10 years since our last trip, so don't hold your breath!

On Friday we did something we've been talking about for some time, and took a bus tour of Toronto!

We started by walking down our street to get to the bus stop. Elaine was in charge of the camera, but she kindly took this pink bush picture, as I am terribly aware of my lack of pink for Project Spectrum. 

The map of the bus route through downtown

The CN Tower from the top of a double-decker bus

I will endeavour to take a picture of the state of the knitting. I got carried away with the Malabrigo and am now working on the green bit. Just you wait! I am being unorthodox...

I found some pinkness

This poor old bit of a shawl was sitting in a corner, just waiting for me to return to it. I now have the perfect idea of what to do with it when it's done, so I dug it out and am once again having a ball with it!

It doesn't look very pink here, but it will, it will!

The bottom point, adding the 3rd row of scallops

Top left-hand corner, with pink!

The whole thing, thus far

I hope nothing terrible happens, like running out of yarn. Certainly I could add another kind of Noro sock yarn, but I'd rather not!

It's a bit of a scrumpled mess, but it will block out divinely, I am sure. 

 A bit of a pink leaf

Pink and purple month

There might be a bit of pink and purple in the stash and craft cupboards, but not a lot. To celebrate pink and purple month in Project Spectrum, I give you a few flowers.

That is all.

So many things, knitting edition

Geranium

There was talk of sock knitting, but I haven't touched a sock since I finished the stripey one.

I finally got around to working on the July Block of the Month, right around the end of the month. This reminds me of why I don't have that big fancy-pants cabled sweater.  

 Every right side row has a cable on it and the poor knitter never gets a break! I plugged away at it in a few sessions and am glad it's done -- and August's square is cabley too, so I'm not jumping in to do that right yet!

dappled shade on the deck

Now I really do have to go buy more yarn. I figure I need to have 16 squares to get a blanket, so I'd best buy 3 more balls. Perhaps lean toward a fall-leaves sort of palette?

I needed something easy-peasy to knit while distracted, so I took one of Melissa's balls of Malabrigo and started a triangle.

 

 

dappled shade, but also semi-solid yarn

I am not sure how far one ball will get me, but will just see how things work out. I am certainly willing to make a blue/orange/green shawl.

When I am not knitting squares or mindless triangles, I am making my Sunday Best.

I am super keen to see it finished! Knit knit knit. It is nice because it's cotton and one can hold it without breaking a sweat. I am almost at the armhole shaping on the back, so there is still a long way to go!

Marigold