2013 knitting

Other than the socks that jumped into the new years post - there's been other knitting too

Henslowe is actually finished - cast on January 1st and cast off January 18th - and it's blocked but no photos of that yet

Glove love was on the needles again - 4th pair I've knit for Cory - he bought me some Cascade 220 for Christmas so I could knit him a pair - so thoughtful eh? again, no photos yet

Voodoo You Love Me - by Susan Claudino - a knit for a swap I'm participating in in the Dancing Dog Dyeworks group. LOVE the pattern - and it was so much fun to decorate!

Haruni is nearing completion - just 2 more rows, an epic bind off and blocking remain

And I've got a pair of stripey socks on the go - with just a little bit of a pattern/recipe on them too

knitting - end of year recap

Oh and there's been knitting/crocheting -  here's what's off the needles since I last checked in:

except for the stripey socks that apparently jumped the queue in the January 1st post...

Charades got finished (Nov 25th I think...)

Cat toys got made - the girls LOVE this pattern - Zoie likes to destroy the tails - Ellie likes to chase them - I can't make these fast enough.

and destroyed

Some baby booties for a friend/colleague

A penguin Christmas ornament - this was a test knit for a friend - loved knitting him up

and a snowman one

2 larger snowmen, a tree, and a caroling bird

Greta the captivating cat

A pair of snowflake earrings

A dissected rat (belated birthday gift for a friend - she loves these things - I've made her the frog, pig and earthworm so far - up next is the bat)

A cowl for the same friend

And a cowl for me

Well that was a quick and dirty post - I'll try to be better about keeping up with my projects and details - if I don't have so many then it is easier to post more details. For now all the yarn, needle etc details, as well as any modifications - are in my Rav project pages

there's been spinning!

A verb for keeping warm - corridale - split the pink from the purple and spun them separately - then n-plyed them. I got about 45 yards of each.

Sweet Georgia Fiber - superwash BFL - spun and plyed (2 ply) on Christmas day - nice and bulky - club colourway from July 2012

And on the wheel as of last night - and the first thing on the wheel this year - a gift from Dana of the Just One More Row Podcast and Unwind Yarn Co. It's Mulberry silk silver from Tyrannosaurus Knits. I got almost half done last night - I like it, it isn't even but for my first time spinning silk I think I'm doing well. I'll 2 ply it and see what yardage I get - I could go so super fine with this fiber (and sometimes unintentionally do) but I'd rather more bulk right now - maybe that's because of the cold weather? I'll certainly buy more of this (though not from this dyer - she no longer seems to be dying)

Ten on Tuesday

The one with the stuff in my car -

This week’s directive is: “10 Things You Keep In Your Car”
1. window scrapers (3 of them at the moment - one works better for wiping snow off, the other 2 work better on the ice)
2. iPhone/iPod charger
3. cord that links the iPhone/iPod to the car audio system
4. BC license plates - from 2006 when we moved to Alberta
5. lint roller brush - we have 2 cats - a black and white one and a grey one - their fur is EVERYWHERE and the battle never ends
6. a loonie - for the carts at the grocery store
7. jumper cables
8. hamper full of travel safety things - like warm gloves, a blanket or two... it gets cold here and the roads can get bad
9. worther's original candies - not really sure why they're there
10. the iBent - well that's what we call it - Cory's iPod nano got caught in the door one time - it is bent but it technically still works - it is engraved and says Ninja Robot - I'll try to remember to take a photo tonight but don't hold your breath

11. spare grocery bags
12. kleenex
13. grocery bag for garbage
14. likely other random things in our trunk that I'm not thinking of right now - could be toilet paper, kitty litter...

Happy New Year

Right, so that didn't last long... I hope to be better in 2013, I swear

2012 has been great to me but I hope that 2013 will be even better. There are big things on the horizon - not the least of which is that I hope to start designing.

Goals - I'm not sure if I made any for 2012 - certainly not on the blog.

For 2013 here are some loose goals/guidelines/suggestions

1. knit a sweater or two or more - starting with the Blackberry Cardigan by Alexandra Charlotte Dafoe
2. spin more fiber than comes in - or at least break even
3. the whole designing thing - at least 1 pattern
4. knit more from patterns already in my library - I should put a number on this but I don't know what is reasonable - 2013 could be a very busy year so I'm going to keep this vague
5. knit more with handspun - I'm going to say at least 6 projects with handspun MINIMUM

And in other news, I've got a butt-tonne of FOs from the end of November and December but I'm going to skip talking about all them and start fresh with January. I'll just direct you to my project pages on Ravelry.

I did finish a pair of self striping socks today - I just had half a heel to do but it is officially a 2013 FO

Update - Sunday Night edition

We're finally starting to thaw out a bit here in Calgary - but we've had a lot of freezing fog in the morning and certainly have had to scrape the car every morning. It makes for some very pretty frost on the trees.

Been knitting a lot this past week - but no spinning.

Finished up a pair of toe up after thought heel socks - ended up ripping out the cuff once they were finished and adding 6+ stripes per sock. Nice and tall now :)

The colour is more accurate in the previous post - the pink is much more vibrant.

I started another pair of toe up stripey socks - I bought this yarn in a destash from a friend. The information is on my Ravelry project page if you really must know more about the yarn. This yarn has only been in the stash for a few months - max

They're going slowly - my mindless get ready for bed socks.

I've also got a pair of Charade socks on the needles in Dancing Dog Dyeworks yarn on the Jive base - the main colour is Owlies and the contrast solid is Beach Glass - this yarn has been in the stash for less than a year. I can't believe how colourful these are turning out. The photo is from earlier today - I'm now almost done the gusset - flying off the needles, free pattern. Probably the funniest gauge I've ever seen written in a pattern (Gauge: Meh.) You can see Zoie in a shoe box in the background - the girls love that box so much I've repaired it.

And in other news - my students wrote their midterm on Monday. Ellie helped me mark - she's good like that yo.

Catching up

Long time no post - well not really given my track record but longer than I'd like. I visited my mom in Kelowna before she left for Italy for 2 months (to visit family) so that threw a monkey wrench in the posting - well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Here's a few photos that I've taken in the last few weeks - I'll use them to catch up.

I finished my Jedi Mind Trick socks - love them - have loved most of the patterns and all of the yarns this year in the CookieA club. I'm 90% certain I'll sign up for the club again - my only issue is that it takes so long to knit socks that if I wanted to knit all the socks in the club I'd knit little else through the year. And I'd like to knit a few sweaters - it makes sense given the climate I live in. I'm a little torn. I think I'll sign up again and delay my decision for a year. I've knit 3 out of the 5 sets of patterns - so 3 out of 10 patterns but still 3 from 5 shipments. I think that's pretty good - right? right!

In Kelowna I visited with mom and my canine brother - Zeke. He's a love but he smells a little like a dog and likes to steal my seat. He's a beautiful, chubby, pure bred beagle.

While in Kelowna I knit most of a pair of after thought stripey socks - love stripey sock yarn - these would be done but I had a lot left over so I ripped out the cuff and am knitting them taller. The cuff was annoyingly short. Socks would go so much faster, I'm sure, if I didn't rip out bind offs. The yarn is Canon Hand Dyed - Charles base (I think) in the colourway, In Mine Eye She is the Sweetest Lady. It is my entry for the AlphaKal that my LYS is holding. I've got until Oct 31st to complete them and I should make it.

And finally, we've really hit winter weather here in Calgary. I've got to be honest - winter is my favourite season. I don't mind the cold, and I love how the world looks with snow all over. I like that I can add layers and be warm and snug - whereas in the summer there are only so many layers that you can take off in public. Plus we don't have air conditioning or windows we can open to create a through breeze. I also like watching hockey (though with the strike we're watching a lot more NFL and so I'm starting to understand football and therefore liking it more). I also like how winter makes my hobby really useful and there is a lot of time in which to use hand knits. It has been knit sock weather for quite awhile here - LOVE IT! What I don't like is driving in winter conditions - or taking transit when roads are bad. Transit has already been disrupted 2-3 times this season and that is a lot given how many weeks of winter we've had. It doesn't bode well for the rest of the winter.