Cottage country

I've lived in Toronto for many years now, but still am uneasy about what happens when one goes beyond the end of the subway line. This weekend, if we don't fall off the map as we pass the last station, we are heading off to the shores of Lake Huron, for sun and sand.

Ha! We are packing sweaters and raincoats, as well as a beach towel or two.

I need car knitting and beach knitting and simple knitting!


I'll take the rainbow sock (I started the heel on the second one the other day in the park) and my (ahem) new project of the weaver's wool mini-shawl.


This is what I will use my Rowanspun for. I notice in the instructions we need 350 yards of dk weight yarn, but 6.5 mm needles. Well, I am not using such gigantic needles, so maybe my mini shawl will be even more mini than most. Oh well.

As you can see, it is very mini right now.

Will I come back next week with a finished sock and more of a shawl?? Who can tell?

I'm not used to beaches without tides, having grown up on the west coast. What's the point of a sandcastle if the tide won't come in and fill your moat, and then wreck your castle!? Perhaps we'll learn.

Book swap package!

Once upon a time, I took part in a book and bookmark swap. I had fun finding a pre-1960 book with a knitting reference in it, and greatly enjoyed finding pink beads for my partner, which I probably wouldn't have bought for myself, but which were, if I do say so myself, very lovely!

And now, thanks to the joint efforts of the Royal Mail and Canada Post and some camels and sloths, I bet, I got my package!


The book is I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith, which I know nothing about, and which, I hear, has no knitting in it! But I am assured that it seems like the characters should be knitting, and they probably are, but we're just not told. I look forward to reading this! The bookmark is a shimmery fabric one -- it looks very complicated to li'l old me, layers of fabric held together in some magic way.

My swap partner was Katie, who is master of many crafts!

She made buttons (the pin kind, not the sew-on kind) of old paper pictures, and envelopes (not cards, as I had first thought) made from pages of old kids' books! You can see the beautiful fronts, and the backs with flaps. There are stickers to address them, but I think these might get used for secret correspondence, tucked into gifts or other such things.

Let's see, what next?! A skein of Rowanspun DK, just what I needed! I started thinking of a shawl last night, and got out my white Rowanspun, and another bit of dk wool that turned out to be not quite right. Now with this, another 200 meters of the same yarn, I am happy as can be. (We'll talk later of the wisdom of even thinking of starting this project before finishing the 274 projects in line ahead of it...) A book of Rowan patterns for felted bags, slippers and so on. A bar of lavender and wildflower soap. And a card of the painting of Katie in her studio that you see in her blog's banner!

Thank you so much, Katie, for the wonderful package, and Zoe, for organising this swap!

Oops, forgot to mention the chocolate! You can see its opened and crumpled wrapper in the picture! Delicious milk chocolate!

Wow, I heard this at 4 am

This morning at 4, a blast of air came in our window and rattled our heavy venetian blinds. We leapt out of bed, thinking those scary thoughts that come into your brain when you are jerked awake by loud noises at 4 am.

There were thunderous booms, and after I realised the tree had not fallen on our house, I assumed we were in for another thunderstorm. But, no hail, no rain, no more wind after that first blast.

And the thunder was weird, too! Just distant thumps, and lots of them. And, hey, lots of sirens, too, which we don't usually hear. Something seemed to be exploding. We live near the train tracks and remembered the accident that once occurred on them. We got up and looked outside but could see nothing.

So, this morning we learn there was a fire at a propane depot, about 5 miles from here, as the crow flies. It sure made a heck of a noise! The news report says there have been injuries, but no details. I bet there will be lots more coverage of this story!

Wait, there's more here!

And of course, there's video on YouTube.


And you know I don't like to post without a picture and I don't have pictures of fireballs, so here's my "things I'm working on/thinking about" pile by the side of the bed.

It only looks like there have been explosions here!

Don't you love my old Coleman cooler I rescued from the trash? It's full of sock yarn.

Knit on, with no more explosions!

That long pointy thing, and some knitting

A number of you have commented on my long pointy thing.

We have "sail making." Eh, but why so long? Why pointy on both ends?

"Suturing." You would not want to be sutured with this baby, lemme tell you. Perhaps suturing together a dead elephant... Which leads us to "leather needle." Maybe, but still, why so long? Why pointy on both ends?

Our last suggestion is "a rug needle," which might work, but... I dunno.

So, I did a bit of googling around, and found that it probably is a leather needle, but I still don't know why you'd need points on both ends! And you know, if you google something about needles with points on both ends, you end up with knitting stuff! Surprise, surprise.

We'll file this away for future research...

I haven't just been spending my days fretting about long pointy needles, you know. I have actually knitted some stuff, too!

This is the denim yarn. I couldn't resist casting on... even though I have a very muddled idea of how this will all turn out. This is Sleeve #1 (a pattern from the Learn to Knit Afghan Book) and Sleeve #2 will not be identical. That much I know.

Then there will be a hodgepodge of pattern and colour in between the sleeves. Sorta like this -- scroll down to Narvik. Here it is on Ravelry. Of course, I haven't got the same yarn, the same colours, the same gauge, and I think I will knit it in one piece from wrist to wrist.

So, not really like that at all....

Some pretties for Eye Candy Friday

We got a new camera. So we've been taking pictures...



Delphinium. My, this was taken quite some time ago, and these flowers are now finished.


Breakfast. I love these little egg cups, but we hardly ever use them.


Oh, and Arthur, having snatched away the Basalt tank!

Buying strange things for cheap

Elaine and I took a trip out to Value Village this afternoon. She tapped her foot while I cruised through housewares, and then gladly tried on a bazillion fall jackets before settling on a purple reversible one.

We picked up a few other clothes, schmancy girly jeans (you'll see the pink ones below), some shorts for Arthur....

Then we hit the knitting needle shelf.


This all came in one bag. There were a few more, without the "head" on, and I've just tossed them. (What is the correct term for the knobby bit on the end? The knob, perhaps?)


Luckily knitting needles are really fine decorative objects... none of these has a mate.

And then there was this thing... (click to embiggen, as always)
About a foot long,


steel,





with an eye,


and both ends have these triangular points, excellent for piercing innocent fingertips.




Some kind of needle, for sewing really tough stuff -- that point indicates serious business. It's about the diameter of a sock needle, 2.5 or 3 mm.

Elaine, who really knows very little about sewing, said you could make a ruffle with it, piercing all the gathered fabric at once. This, she felt, would explain the great length. Clever idea, but I'm not sold on it.

So, anyone know? Anyone want it??

Accomplishments and goals

I made a list at the beginning of June, but haven't checked in on that yet!

I said:


I hope to finish the brown wool wrap in June, though it won't get much use then!

Um, no. In fact, it is likely still in exactly the same spot it was. I look at it and my hands get sweaty. Let's leave that till September!

And something for my mom's birthday in July

Done; I sent her the Swallowtail.






And the jazzy socks

Progress has been made.

And the Basalt tank (oh, my gosh!)

Finito!

Here you see it needing a few ends sewn in, with my crib sheet. The pattern in the book is hard to follow, so I wrote it out line by line, marking off each row when I was done.


I saw someone had fiddled with this pattern and used a few carefully placed pentagons instead of hexagons, and made a beautiful dress. With some side shaping...

If I had been paying attention, I could have fiddled in a similar way. Now, I don't have a lot of waist shaping myself, but this top could really use some! Maybe padded hip hexagons are needed!

I will wear a tank top underneath, or maybe it will get more use in the fall over a shirt. Anyways, it is done, it was interesting to make, and I may have learned that I don't look like the tall thin model in the book!

And some lace

Begun! But I can't show you here. I hope to get something up on Ravelry, where prying eyes can't see!

And here's my plan for the future:

Make the secret lace thing.
Make some kids' socks for Afghans for Afghans.
Cross another thing off the WIP list. Maybe the rainbow socks, for the beginning of school.

That's it for now!

Oh, so schnell und trendy, mit 3 colours

I've been thinking of this yarn for some time. It's denim, 100% cotton, shrinks and fades with use... It's heavier than Rowan Denim, and seems a bit softer initially. And I see it whenever I go to the depths of Romni's sale room.

I was there yesterday, and lo and behold, there was a sale on! An extra 20% off the sale price... What could I do?!

There was enough of the dark to make a whole garment, but I don't like it as much as the others, so I picked up all the light and medium there was, plus a few of the dark. The balls are only 50 meters each.


I have crazy plans, or perhaps "ideas" would be a better word. I think of Gee's Bend quilts, patchwork denim jackets for hippy-wannabes from the early 70s, sampler lace bits...

This will take some thought and planning and hemming and hawing. I want texture as well as colour. But somehow, it shouldn't look too tacky*!

Gad, maybe I should make a blanket...


* I used to link to a picture of a tacky denim jacket here, but I am sick of being connected to that picture. My stats will show a dip, for sure, but the picture was never here anyways! I'm sure you can all imagine a jacket in your minds...

One of those bullet-list posts

• I got a book of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories out of the library, wondering if Arthur would like to read them. I have skimmed through it and am stunned by the number of "girls" who get "in trouble." This often seems to be reason for murder. I think we've got over that in our society. We also don't call women in their twenties "girls" much anymore.
  
• Arthur seems more interested in Sherlock Holmes.
• Yesterday we had all red food for dinner. Radishes and tomatoes and cherries and raspberries and strawberries, and red tortillas with red meat (ie. cooked ground beef with taco seasoning), salsa, grated cheddar. Kim chi, perhaps. Red wine, red freezies. I confess I put (white) yogurt in my tortilla as well.
  
• Tonight we will have Jamie Oliver's potato salad with smoked salmon.
  
• Except I bet Elaine won't want it.
• We have sweet corn growing on our back deck, and there are even teeny cobs!
  
• That picture up above was taken a while ago. Cute, innit? Robot-like.
• Still haven't finished the Basalt, but really, any day now!
  

Hot, hazy and humid

I went to the 68th floor of a bank building today. It could have been a stunning view of the city and the lake, but we could barely see the CN Tower.

The forecast is for rain, thunderstorms, temperatures and humidity to knock you out, and muck like that.

Knitting continues in a sort of sluggish fashion. A sock could well be the limit.

And now I have learned about the Afghans for Afghans campaign for clothing and blankets for children for the upcoming winter. I can hardly imagine the upcoming winter, but this gives me an excuse to use up some single 50g balls of sock yarn. I could probably provide socks for a large number of children with my single balls!

I am determined to finish Basalt before embarking on anything else, and there are lacy shawl patterns bookmarked all over the place, but I will certainly take these children's socks on my week's holiday this August.

Now I'm off for a glass of ice water.

Which reminds me... Yesterday I stopped off in a Second Cup coffee shop for a Chillatte, which is a blended ice and coffee drink. And then I checked some stats, and found some amazing things. A chillatte has 293 calories, more than a Tim Horton's Boston cream donut! But, a Second Cup skinny chocolate chiller has... (drum roll, please!) 433 calories and 82 grams of sugar! It's called skinny because it has only 2 g of fat, but you won't be skinny for long drinking those when all you need is a cool drink. We all know what a 50 gram ball of yarn looks like, but I can't quite picture 82 grams of sugar... (But of course, the internet tells us everything, so now I can tell you that "According to GourmetSleuth.com, one gram of granulated sugar is about 1/4 teaspoon, so about four grams of sugar would be in a teaspoon." Which means that 80 grams of sugar would be in 20 teaspoons. Holy cow!

Right, now, off to the kitchen tap for my fat-free, sugar-free and cost-free glass of water!

Basalt Q&A

When last we spoke, there were some questions raised. Let me set some things straight.

Anonymous, or Anne as we call her, wondered about the side hexagons, and said, "Could you turn them in to 1/2 hexagons so that the bottom edge is even?"

Short answer: No.

People have made this with 1/2 hexagons there, but those people had their moment of panic before jumping off the cliff. This top is knit hex by hex, and stitches are picked up from hex 1 to make the edge of hex 2, etc. The low side bits are numbers 2 and 3, so I would have to rip out everything I've done back to the very first central hexagon, and then redo it. No way, Jose.

Besides, I kind of like the whole hexagonality of the whole thing. I just think it looks a bit dumpy on me right now... When I get those dang straps knit, it'll all hang much better, fer sure.

And Rosie perhaps went in the opposite direction by saying, "were I about 30 years younger I might be tempted to add stuffing to the lower hexs in a rather Vivienne Westwood-ish way!"

Vivienne Westwood, apparently, can make anything. Check out this dress! Her new collection looks like this. She and Malcolm McLaren had a shop on the King's Road and sold ripped up clothes to punks 30 years ago. However, although I have a stuffed-hip image hazily in my mind, I can't find just the picture I want. I will do my best to think of Vivienne Westwood while finishing this, though.

And Mary Lou said, "Thanks for the reminder that i have about 12 balls of that in my stash in a lovely sagey green...NOT for chaircovers, though."

Oh, dear, no! I will not make chair covers out of 2 balls of Cotton Angora! No, indeed. We need sturdier stuff, I imagine. My chair cover idea has been dumbed down so that I am now considering squares with ties to cover up the icky seats on the dining room chairs. You'll be the first to know when the idea becomes a WIP!

And I'd love to see your sagey green yarn in action!

Now, we can't have a post without a photo, so I will tell you about my cooking adventures! I got the latest Jamie Oliver book from the library, and the photos are fabuloso! We want to make everything... So yesterday Arthur and I made the Blackberry and Apple Pie.

Well, first we decided not to make our own crust. I find pie crust rather intimidating, and always fall back on store-bought in the end.

Then the recipe calls for ginger in syrup. Well, what the heck is that? So we used a scrap of fresh ginger.

And our blackberries were in terrible shape, so I used a handful of raspberries as well. So we ended up with a very loose approximation of a Jamie Oliver pie.

We bought vanilla frozen yogurt to put on top, but then invited The Moth Man and Kentish KT over to help us eat it, and The MM made us custard (with no skin or lumps!).

Ta da!

Basalt progress and other really interesting stuff

I'm working on the central back hexagon of Basalt. It connects the whole thing around, and so I can kind of try it on.


There will be an inch or so of border and straps on the front, so it won't be quite so low in front! And I hope the side hexagons don't droop like that when the whole thing is together!

Funny. I'm still not sure about this at all!


But we do have a hot pepper growing upside down. We will have quite the harvest of these; we'll have to string them up artfully and dry them. Our other attempts at back-deck farming are even harder to photograph.

Oh, my, what's this? I went to a new-to-me thrift store the other day and got these two, plus some crap I put back in the donations box, for $1.99. I am thinking of something piratey.

I'm also thinking of knitting a chair cover. (That will take you to the Ravelry group.) Or maybe just some seat covers for 6 dining room chairs. I'll let this stew for a bit.

Tuesday funnies

Did you know that it takes three sheep to make a sweater?

No, I didn't.

I bet you didn't even know they could knit.

Hahaha ha ha ha ....

Courtesy of Elaine's new joke book.

I said it was funny looking

I have finished hexagon #4 of the Basalt tank, a five-sixths hexagon.


If I fold it, you can see the neckline (well, kind of half the neckline, and there'll be straps...) and how the bottom hexagons go around the sides. It'll be interesting to see how this all works out.

The urge to reward myself for getting this far is great. I should, somehow, be allowed to abandon this, for a moment, to cast on something else. ...even though I have several more unfinished things lying about, and I want to finish this, and casting on something new will get me nowhere! I got a book from the library with knitted lace tablecloths. It's where this awesome delight came from. I do not want a lace tablecloth, or anything like one, but I just can't wait to fiddle with these patterns. There are a couple of scarves I can see in my future (that future where I can knit really fast...).

I think of posting more often and more thrillingly, but somehow, this is what you get....

Actual knitting

I find myself with actual knitting content today. And some pictures!

Since it is the last day of the the month, let's have a look at those June goals... Hmm.

Big brown thing, no progress since I last reported.

Basalt, I have finished the 3rd hexagon and have started number 4, which will be five-sixths of a hexagon! It's a crazy looking thing at the moment, not to mention that I haven't taken a picture of it. Next time, I promise.

Pink and navy shawl?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

My model was not especially cooperative.

It is small! More of a tuck-into-the-coat shawl, than a wrap-up-against-the-elements shawl, but really, for one ball of yarn, that's quite all right!

I have great plans, shawl-wise. I'm going to tackle one of the shawls in Victorian Lace Today. I have some stunning Malabrigo lace yarn. It might just have to be a bit of a secret, though, so I will say no more for the moment. I also have a plan for my laceweight that Pixie gave me last fall.

But here are some immediately do-able goals and plans:

Basalt. It can be done!

Brown thing. Yes, do that, too!

I've got a second sock on the needles, so that might see some action.

Other UFOs hanging around include a nice second mitten, which is grey and so fits in with Project Spectrum these days, and a border for a blanket, which I think I've figured out, but which will have to be done in short bursts so I don't die of alternating boredom and fuss-tration.

I'll finish something before casting on the next big thing!

And I'll show you the Basalt progress next time! You'll be amazed!

A bit of a postbox note

(on Mull)

I am thrilled whenever I check my site meter and find that people still come here looking for postboxes! I get visits most often via a whole list of Edward VIII boxes on the web. It covers at least 57 of the 100+ pillar boxes. To think, I haven't seen a proper pillar box in almost two years.

(Mousehole, in Cornwall)

My most sought-after pillar-box post is the one with dear Edward VIII, here, but there are others.

(Falmouth)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and also makes me forget that I once thought I would make a photo group on Flickr to show you the whole gallery of postal pictures. Maybe, one day when I have a moment.... I should also put those labels on my posts, so you can easily find them. Yeah, one day when I have a moment. It's on my list!

(London)

WIP Wednesday

What's been going on this week?

I got a good start on the second half of the big brown thing, but it is a bit hot to knit this.

I fear I will put it aside for a while and it will become a burdensome WIP. Must be strong...

I finally found enough yarn -- I bought the first 3 skeins at Knitomatic, and when I went back there looking for more, found only 1 more skein.

Lettuce Knits doesn't carry Manos, Romni didn't have the colour, so I ended up at the Knit Cafe, where I found many skeins of exactly the right stuff. I got 3, so I should have plenty. I might let it slide for a short time, but I must have it when the nights turn chilly!


The sock of all colours just needs its toe grafted. Of course, then I'll have to knit another one.

I got out the Basalt Tank, finally. You might be able to tell that I've knit a few rows since you last saw it. When was that, November?? Yeah, well.... This is still the third hexagon.

And remember I said I wouldn't start anything new? I don't think that frogging and reworking is really starting something new, is it?

I ripped out the pink/navy scarf and am turning it into a Swallowtail Shawl. Really.

It's now a blob, especially since I am knitting it on straight needles.


I assume it will be pretty when it is done! (It's garish in real life, but not this garish!) It is destined to be a gift, and I even know for whom, and when it needs to be done. So there.

Blogger now lets you postdate your posts, so I will click a few things and this should appear like magic tomorrow morning. Let's try, shall we?

Saturday activities

Today was the end-of-term picnic for Elaine's school.
So we got up late, hurriedly bought some fruit and arranged it artfully.

Then we went to the picnic and there was a bubble machine.



This is the wall. Make it into a blanket and report back.



On the way home we saw that last night's storm did some damage in our park!
Things will be bad, shade-wise, if they decide to chop down the whole tree, but they likely will, since it is rotten inside!



And here's some moss on the fallen bough.



All right, everyone, back to your knitting.

We are the champions

This past weekend was the Brooklin Spring Fair again.

Last year I was a big loser there, but Arthur won two ribbons for his photographs.

This year I entered 5 things: 3 photos and two knitting items. My photos didn't win anything, but the red lacy scarf got a first and my wormy cabled hat got a second. I was going to enter Stephen's Retro Rib socks, but that didn't work out. He took them to a conference in Norway and came back with only one! He checked with the hotel and everything, but the sock has vanished.

Arthur added a second prize ribbon to his first and third from last year!

This smiling goat was entered in the "Farmyard Heroes" category.

I'm not sure how heroic she really is, but what the heck, a second place ribbon is jolly good.

I don't think I've shown you my wormy hat, because I once had the idea that I would write up a pattern and make my fame and fortune from it.

But that whim has passed, so here you go.

I would still like to write a proper pattern, but really, just knit a hat with cabled braids, making one rope of each cable in a different colour. This hat has 3 ropes of 3 stitches each, with 8 stitches in reverse stocking stitch between. (I knit it flat, because of the little bits of colour. I think it could be done in the round, but you'd have to be careful with the coloured ropes. I'd also like to know how to make a lovely neat seam on reverse stocking stitch.)

When the hat is long enough, and you want to start the decreasing, put the coloured stitches on a safety pin to work in I-cord later. I worked a couple of rows of plain reverse stocking stitch before decreasing on 8 points. When I got down to 8 stitches, I did K2 tog all around, and worked I-cord for an inch or so before finishing off. I then worked the coloured ropes into I-cords of varying lengths, tying some in knots, letting some just dangle. La de da!

I'm still plugging away on the big brown wrap. I've got one half finished, and a few inches done on the other side.

It's getting rather warm and humid for working with Manos wool! At least I'm not knitting with this great thing in my lap! Things are going much more easily the second time through the pattern. It'll be so nice and cosy when it's done, though I'm not looking forward to grafting the two bits together.

This would actually be a nice pattern to adapt to the guidelines from Afghans for Afghans for a rectangular shawl for women. They need big wraps, but lighter than this, I think. Perhaps that will be next winter's charity project...

It's now too hot

This morning it was 20C before we'd even had breakfast. Muggy and stinkin'.

So, soon Elaine will want to be trying out her rollerblades instead of her ice skates.

I wonder if I should show her this:

These little ladies are modelling the latest in baby hat fashions.

The hats and many other things will be at the Pedestrian Sunday in Mirvish Village this weekend, though I'm not sure the dollies can make it! The Palmerston Squares, my gang of knitting moms from our school, will be part of the festivities, showing off things we have made this past year to send to an orphanage in Zimbabwe.

We will have a table and some chairs, some yarn and some needles. We just need YOU! There are lots of things going on, so check out the scene and say hello to the knitters!

June list

The beginning of the month is a good time to sort things out, settle things down, straighten things up. Let's see now....

I would like to show you pictures, but one camera is dead (really dead; every picture it takes is totally black) and the other is off with Stephen today.

I'm still happily working on the big brown thing. I still don't have enough yarn and have tried two small yarn shops in vain. A trip to Romni is in order. I should really take with me my Friend Who Buys More Than Me, but I already took her to Lettuce the other day, where she dutifully did her part.

I'm also working on a sock, just because. I'm turning the heel. I got this yarn from Heather a while back, and thought I'd written about it, but maybe not. It's what you'd call "colourful." The pink on the left there is Tofutsies which Haley gave me.

And I'm acquiring new yarn, too, though not really with much purpose. There was a swap at Knitomatic yesterday and I took up a garbage bag full of stuff I'd collected... People know I do charity knitting and clubs with kids, so they tend to donate/dump yarn. Mostly I really appreciate this, but sometimes it just seems stupid for me to store all this stuff I'm probably not going to use. It's not like 10-year-olds learning to knit are going to use up more yarn than a constantly knitting adult!

Anyways, I took up some nice stuff and some crap and brought home 3 balls of Debbie Bliss merino dk and 2 more balls of garish sock yarn!

After the swap, I returned to our street, where our annual street party was in full swing. We do many silly things, including sell our junk to one another at our little yard sale. I came away with two balls of glittery something, which I will photograph for you one day soon. It's not fuzzy, just shimmery, and perhaps I can even hold it together with the Debbie Bliss, which can only be described as "pale putty" coloured and could use some perking up. Sometimes I feel I have to use up the silly acquisitions even more desperately than the stuff I really have an idea for when I get it! This is foolish, I know...

Goals for the future

I hope to finish the brown wool wrap in June, though it won't get much use then!

And something for my mom's birthday in July
And the jazzy socks
And the Basalt tank (oh, my gosh!)
And some lace

That's more than enough for June! So here's my one vow for June: I will not cast on anything new! I'll put an end to the startitis which is creeping up and gaining control!