Toooo long...

Not sure why, but I've been very unmotivated to post. Maybe it's because I'm fairly certain that virtually no one reads my blog; feels a bit like talking to myself, and I don't feel the need to post the crazy conversations I have with myself! Still, not posting is guarranteed to lose me any readers I do have...vicious circle, really.

Anyway, I'm not complaining, just explaining my absence. I've another FO to post, but it's needing to be blocked and photoed. One more tick on the list of Christmas knitting. I'm hoping to post by this evening, so I'll give you details then. Needless to say, I'm very pleased the result!

Also, I've added quite a few blogs to the right. They are all great, and worth reading. The fabulously funny Neglecting My Kids, and absolutely STUNNING knitting of See Eunny Knit, the hilarious Yorkie....take a looksee and enjoy!

The past few days I've had company at home; hubs was home with what appears to have been a fun case of rotavirus, acquired - it would seem - from our dear nephew, T-bear. T had something funny with his tummy on Sunday at church, hubs held him for awhile, then passed him on to Grampy (my FIL) as we went to leave. Found out yesterday afternoon that Grampy, the WebMaster (my BIL, T's pops) had all come down with symptoms similar to hubs'. So I'm quite glad that lilAuntie didn't feel the need to hold or even really touch T-bear. I love you, little man, but I'm all too happy to skip the entiritis, thanks.

Take care, all, and remember to keep your fluids and electolytes up!

A bunch-a stuff

Some things that make me happy:

1. Watching my puppy watch tv. Movies, shows (especially Buffy) and football, she likes to watch with me, and it just cracks me up every time.

2. Onions. They're yummy. I like them.

3. A good rain. It's been crappy raining here for days. I don't want grey and wet, I want rain I can here thrumming against windows, not just dripping from eaves. I like a good rain, preferably with a little electrical action in there, just for kicks.

4. Having finally found my beading pliers, I am happy playing with beads again. It's been too long.

5. My sleeping puppy. With her eyes all closed and peaceful, and her feet all twitchy because she's dreaming some crazy, active dream.

6. My puppy sleeping with me. I've trained her - unintentially - to serve as both a toddler and a teddy bear. She likes to sleep right up against me, under my arm when I'm sleeping on my side. She's my little bear.

7. A perfect pointe. When I'm dancing and I can feel my foot just perfectly pointed in 3rd rear aerial, or while I'm shedding or backstepping, and especially in rocks...makes me happy.

8. When my puppy plays be herself. She throws her ball for herself, then she watches it, and chases it across the room. Precious.

9. When she tries to play with the dog in the piano. We don't have a dog stuffed in our piano, it's highly polished and she can see herself reflected. Poor thing doesn't understand why that mean ol' dog won't play along.

10. Singing. Almost anything, almost anytime.

11. When hubs cleans the kitchen, or anything, for that matter. It's nice.

12. My nephew. He's a cool little dude, and at 7 months, finds most things amusing. The walls of my living room, very funny. His cat, hilarious. My fingers, another good joke. He's a blast.

13. A newly repainted room. I also don't mind the process, unless it takes a third coat. By then I'm ready for the job to be done, and I've started getting tetchy about doing it.

14. My baguettes (that is NOT some icky euphemism). Hubs and I like the French bread I bake better than the baguettes from the bakery. Go me!

15. Silk. I love sewing with silk. I'd sew exclusively with silk if I could. Dupioni's such a breeze. Gorgeous.

16. New yarn. Starting a new ball of a yarn I've never used for a new project. Except when the centre-pull starts kicking my ass. That makes me angry. Hubs can attest to the rage.

17. Teaching people something when they want to learn. Trying to teach people something when they can't be bothered trying to learn, however, is in the Top Ten of list of Things that Enrage Me. Hear that Leah, Chelsea? Yeah, that means you!

18. Christmas decorations. The importance of Christmas is church, but decorating my home, lights and garlands and a tree everywhere: that keeps the party going from Sunday to Sunday. It is a birthday!

Might as well make this an even 20...

19. Snow. It's pretty. And it lets me wear sweaters every day.

20. A good silly laugh with hubs. We are ridiculous people, very silly, often childish. But it's fun, and we're happy that way, so there. I'm not ready to be boring (ok, I'm kind of boring, but this is the absolute limit of my boringness; I am going NO further into boring).

Fun with wires!

I'm not sure why my camera is doing it, but it's taking crappy pictures and pixelating everything. Oh, right, I use my mobile for pics. Maybe some day I'll get a nice digital SLR. And maybe someday I'll wake up a perfect size 2 without ever trying. Ha.

So I do apologise for the image quality. But I promised pics, no matter how bad.

Ok, the felted purse. Here are the tiny flowers on the front of the purse. They sort of wind up the body of the bag and onto the flap. I think it's pretty:

And a section of the funkier embroidery on the strap:


And look what I found!
So I've been playing with wire! I made these:
Fancy beaded stitch markers! Some for the SIL, and some will go to my sp (hee hee, they aren't pictured, in case you're reading this; you won't know if it was me!) I'll pick up some jump rings, and get started on some pretty beaded pattern row markers a la Turtlegirl. Thanks for the specs, Cristi!

I have other things I've thought of to post, silly puppy observations, mostly, and comments on the heinous nature of suburbia. But I need to end this habit of the middle of the night posts. I'm beat.

In the time between posts...

I've played with my washing machine, and totally completed one Christmas gift. A few posts ago I listed all the holiday knitting I have planned. It seemed like a very long list. Now, I think it's not too long, but I may still revise it. Why? Because I want to felt EVERYTHING.

I finished the purse for sis (Patons Classic in Dark grey) complete with very long i-cord strap. (You ever knitted several feet of 10 st i-cord? It is NO FUN.) It was ready to be felted.

I also had this pair of mittens that were Christmas-gifted to me by a good friend several years ago. The were handknit in Nepal of wool and bits of sari-silk (lovely bright coloured silk with a purpley-blue yarn). They have never fit properly. I have very small hands (child-sized, almost) and one-size-fits-all mittens are always just too big. The gauge was pretty loose, too, and let the wind in, so I thought, "Hey, why not felt them, too?!" I was actually pretty disappointed that I hadn't thought of it earlier.

Sooo, the purse and the mittens went into the woolite wash bag, and into a very hot wash with two pairs of jeans I don't care about too much. After squidging around in there for about 15-20 minutes, I had a fabulously felted purse, and two muuuch smaller mittens. They looked too small. Oh. Dear.

(Further backstory: this is the second pair of these mittens this friend has given me. I managed to lose one of the first pair, and when she asked if I liked wearing them, I explained the mitten tragedy, and the following Christmas - pair number two! So shrinking the second pair beyond wearing them would be very unfortunate.)

But I'd forgotten that my hands are silly and tiny, and the mittens are a brilliant fit. Perfect. I put a plastic cup in the cuff of each mitten to make sure I could still get my hands in, and a day later, dry, felted mitts.

The purse, though, is unbelievable. It's super. I embroidered little flowers onto the body of the bag, and swirls, spirals, squiggles, moons, and more little flowers, along the length of the strap, using the peacock blue wool I used for the edgeing on that cardigan I knit last month.

It. Is. Beautiful.

So what can I felt next? I'm thinking potholders, maybe in fun shapes (like letters to spell out 'FOOD') or a little pocket book (I've been meaning to get a cool one).

I've just gotten myself a cool new obsession!

Ooh, and pics to follow tomorrow!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it...oh, it stopped already

Those streaky white things in those two pics are snowflakes. Yay! In time for the beginning of the 2006 Winter Cheer/Spring Is Here SP (we'll be leaning towards the Winter Cheer theme up here!).

I've frogged the hat completely, and started again, but I'm feeling quite discouraged. I think I may need a break from the thing, and spend some time on something for which I have a pattern, to save myself the stress (is there anything more irritating than thinking that all the work you're putting into a project will amount to diddly?).

If I could only find my jewellery pliers (nice slender round-tipped jobbies) I could get started on some stitch markers. Bah again, to post-moving chaos.

But, oooh, pretty snow!

Boo!

Here's to Hallowe'en, and the official beginning of the Retail Christmas Season! (*sarcasm*)

Guess who didn't get off her ass early enough to get a pumpkin? Yeeeah...
But I figure a squash is a squash, and the first jack-o-lanterns were carved out of turnips, so why not? Lucky the Basics market had a ginormous box of Acorn Squash for 50 cents a piece. So I got three...


These suckers were surprisingly hard to carve! They're as thick as pumpkins, but much smaller, so carving through them was tricky. But they looked cute, I think, in a spooky way.


And Wembley got into the Hallowe'en spirit. She got her ballet on, as you can see...


Off to teach some kids to make noise with their feet. I'm out.

Gah!

Swatches, always knit swatches, everyone says. And I DON'T, because I am, you see, very dumb. I knit a swatch for my sweater because fit was so essential. But for this hat...no. And now I'm paying for it.

I need to learn some lessons the hard way. Like the "Don't Dye Your Hair at Home Using Boxed Dyes from the Drugstore" lesson. My hair looked like shit for years, and now I have vowed never to do it again. And it's starting to look better.

So maybe now I've learned the swatch lesson. Not having a pattern for a kitty hat, I improvised (it's just a tube that tapers to close at one end) but didn't calculate the number of stitches I needed.

Heh, heh.

I just measured the hat. It's over 30 inches (yes INCHES) around. That's like the size of the WAIST of the girl who will wear the damned thing.

I gotta go frog.

Damn.

Get a Job, Sha na na na, Sha na na na na

Having been referring to myself as a 'seamstress' for the past two months, I am happy to report I am actually seamstressing for hire! Yay! Fifteen identical dresses made to fit fifteen mid-teen girls, plus some special occasion dresses for other dancing pals. Again, I say, Yay!

So tomorrow turned into three days, so here we have my list of things to complete before Christmas. Keep in mind that for most of these I have yet to purchase or even choose yarn:

1. Felted bag for DS. Front of the bag is knit, so now we need a back and strap, to felt it, and add some ornamentation. Yoopee.

2. A hat to match the My-So-Called Scarf I knit for DS LAST year, but couldn't quite complete before Christmas (because SOMEBODY ate my knitting needles with the scarf on them).

3. A lacy wrap for Mum.

4. A knitting-themed gift for SIL: a knitting caddy (sewn by moi) with hand-made stitch markers and stitch-row markers (thanks for the fab directions, Cristi!), possibly with funky needles

5. Knucks for Dad (lots of carpentry in a BARN in Ontario winters requires Knucks, I think).

6. The promise of kilt hose for Future-BIL.

7. Maybe some knucks for Mum's BF...

8. Maybe a cool scarf and matching wristlets/gauntlets/gap-warmers for Dad's W.

9. BIL and FIL: I can't knit samurai books or fantasy lit, so I think we'll be visiting Chapters.

Yikes. I have my work cut out for me. I need to finish that kitty hat pronto. Here it is so far:Looks a little like a bat hat...I'm a little concerned it won't be 'kitteny' enough. Maybe I'll embroider "meow" with the CC near the brim, to clarify.

Huh.

In purse-uit of happiness

I have finally finished the cabled purse!

A quick trip to the fabric store in O-town hooked me up with some fab lining fabric in a smooth printed non-silk satin. Black with white print (the white background would have gotten too grimey looking, I suspected) in a Chinese theme (ooh! dragons!) which topstitched up nicely. After blocking the front and back pieces (I felt the gusset was already very straight and lay quite flat, due to its moss-stitchiness, and I didn't want to risk it growing in length) I used the gusset and a front/back piece as pattern pieces to cut out three lining pieces, then I added a pocket to one side of the lining to hold various small girly things. Stitched the pocket to the right side of the fabric (lots of neat topstitching for that bit) and then the front and back to the gusset (a slightly tricky finagle on the curvey corner bits). This didn't take long on Friday evening, and I went to bed to crochet the gusset to the front and back of the bag, stitch on a faux-horn button and add a button loop. I discovered that gusset was at least 15 cm too long, so Saturday morning there was a quick frogging and re-knit of the decreases for the very end.

Then I topstitched the lining into the knit bag itself. I wanted the topstitching on the inside to be neat and tidy and as close to the edge of the lining itself as possible, so I used red bobbin thread, and a spool of black thread for the needle (top) thread. Worked out nicely and the stitching is very difficult to see (ok, if you look closely and try to see it, you can, but it's certainly not obvious, and hides nicely in the cable pattern). The lining wraps around the D-ring at the end of each gusset to insure the gusset doesn't stretch oddly under the weight all those loonies and toonies I always end up carrying around. Wrapped each end of the gusset through a D-ring and topstitched down using only red thread. Having successfully (and tearlessly, thanfully) frankened the strap off the suede messenger bag...

Oh, dear messenger bag...


...and here's a big part of the reason I haven't carried the thing in years: the strap was held on with a safety pin!

I topstitched one end to one D-ring, checked the length, trimmed to length, and topstitched the second end. Ta da! One completed purse!

Here's the finished deal:


...in all its red-dy cable-ness!

Here's a rather blurry detail shot of the closure:



And in the spirit of all the blogstalking that's been going on, here are the contents of my lovely bag (today, at least):

So here we see the effects of teaching highland dancing to a bunch of kids. Above we have, from the top: a fiddle cd by Natalie MacMaster, with hand written notes for a choreography number for the girls, my sunglasses (cheap, Fossil) my keys on a purple carabiner, and my ghillies (ooooohhhhhh...capezio split-soles).

And the contents of my handy-dandy pocket, from top left: driver's license, Shopper's Drug Mart points card, key card to get into my church, OHIP health card, BMO interac card, business card from the cobbler where they do great work on dance shoes (I need some extra eyelets put in those ghillies!), my Starbuck's card (totally spent, waiting to be refilled), a $10 bill, silicon earplugs (DH plays a lot of gigs at crappy O-town clubs where the soundguys...well, frankly, they suck, and think louder is always better), some L'Oreal Glam Shine in Diva (how appropriate!) and MAC lipliner in Soar.

And here's what helped me get this bag finished:

Thanks, Wembley! I couldn't have done it without you!!

Tomorrow: Christmas gift knitting plans!! If you're family, don't read it, you're probably on there somewhere!

A quick note before choir practice

Ha ha...get it? Note?

Ok, a few little things before I leave for the first choir practice I'll have attended since early September (for reasons I will explain later):

1. Knittyheads are fecking hilarious. Hi-f*cking-larious. I'm (slowly) compiling a list (a little down and to the right) of awesome knittyhead blogs. Check 'em out.

2. How long can a shih tzu go without a trip outside? Because mine is refusing to go outside due to the nasty rain. Surely my puppy needs to pee! It's been nearly 24 hours!!

3. Also regarding knittyheads: it would appear that many of you are Whedonites. While our logic may not resemble your earth-logic, it is, in fact, far more advanced. And if you don't understand, you obviously haven't watched enough Buffy. Send me a message, we can look into a lending programme of my dvd's to get you started. You'll be better for it, promise.

Heather, if you happen to read this, I'll bring your hat on Saturday so you can get a look at it mid-knit.

Later, all.

Why does it always rain on me?

I need to recommend...

It's a rainy day in Ottawa, and DH is off to Toronto for a conference on education gifted children. One night away, I'll miss him tonnes, but I have the bed to myself, and sometimes, honestly, that feels pretty luxurious. Just me and Wembles, and possibly some sort of girly movie watching. Can you say Gene Kelly musical?

I have to say, I'm much happier with my blog now; after doing some alterations, it's nearly a perfect fit. I suspect that this will lead to better and more frequent blogging, because now I actually want to look at the darn thing, instead of just feeling disappointed by it. Yay!

On to the knitting!! Let's start with the newly completed addition to the wardrobe (currently worn by moi!). This sweater was a great first sweater largely, I think, because it wasn't a great first sweater. I've looked at patterns for beginner sweaters (and beginner sewing patterns, crochet patterns, classical vocal pieces...you get the idea) and, quite frankly, I'm usually bored by them. If I had the money - and I don't - I would be wearing designer clothes. Why? Labels? No, detailing, cut, attention to the little aspects of what make some garments beautiful and interesting to the eye, and an understanding that without said little aspects, simple, classic garments can quickly look common. So when I'm faced with a simple, knit-in-the-round turtleneck, I am often not impressed. This cardi was different. I used over one ball of Paton's Classic on just the band of ribbing around the body. It's nearly 15 cm deep, with matching ribbing at the cuffs. It has contrasting colour yarn on the outside edge of the ribbing, and the ribbing is slightly flaired. The body piece required a great deal of shaping, as the sweater is quite round. I am totally in love with it.

Before I started the sweater, I knit a purse from this pattern. Biggest fun? Casting 129 sts of double-stranded Paton's Classic onto 14" long bamboo.

Here we have all the stitches:



The bag is knit as a half-moon, so the stitches begin decreasing immediately. After working the cables for this bag, I must say, I appreciate a proper cable needle. I've used dpns, I've used hair pins! but I quite liked how well the little zigzag in the cable needle kept the stitches from falling off. I have issues with sts falling off needles. Can you comprehend the fear I had when I was knitting that last GIANT band of ribbing on the cardi, I had over 500 sts on the circ, and I pulled a couple of stitches OFF the needle?!! I very nearly had a cow.

Anyway, the purse. Adorable cable pattern. Comes out looking like this:


Knit another one to match, and a band in moss stitch to attach the two around the bottom of the bag. The problem? It really should be lined. With wicked awesome fabric (I'm damned proud of this thing, I want the inside looking as cool as the outside. Also, I need a pocket for my mobile, and another for lipstick. I am, you know, a big girl) of which I have none. And a strap, since I am NOT sending away to M&J in NYC for a $20 usd (plus S&H and duty) purse strap. That strikes me as the not wise. So I'm going to Franken-purse.

I have an old suede messenger bag that I wore to it's absolute end when I was an undergrad. I think I got it between 2nd and 3rd year at Old Navy, for about $20. It's plain, it's brown, it's perfect. With careful arrangement, I could get my clipboard for lectures, at least one or two of my smaller texts (novel-sized paperbacks) my wallet, my half-litre Nalgene, my discman, and a handful of pens and some lipgloss into this thing. I LOVED IT.

But it's old now. The suede has gotten all pressed down and shiny in spots, the stitches are starting to go, and I am not in undergrad anymore. Boho philo-student chic isn't really my look, now, and I haven't carried this bag in years.

It has a plain suede strap.

I'm going to go hack it off, and use it for my new cabled bag.

I feel guilty, like I'm hacking a part of an old comrade. I anthropomorphise to the extreme.

I'll let you know how it goes, if there are any tears....

Other WIP's: a small felted purse in dark grey with peacock embellishments (more Paton's Classic...I have a new fave!) for DS for Christmas, and a black hat in Bernat Boucle with kitten ears and bright pink pompoms on the chin strap for my friend Heather. It started off looking like this:


Because I'm doing the ears as a series of increases, I needed to knit the hat top down, or the ears would look rather...upside down. Kind of a pain, but it's a manageable size now, and the ears have just started. I hope they work: this stuff is a b*!ch to rip out!

May join my puppy in a snooze...rainy days are good for snoozing!

Holy Construction, Batman!

After concluding that my page was boring as all get-out, I've begun construction. It's all a little higgledy-piggledy at the moment, so I hope you'll excuse the state of it, and keep checking in.

I have two works in progress, one waiting to be blocked and constructed, and one still on needles. After spending 3 hours messing around with Blogger, Photoshop, and Photobucket, and considering I actually have to be up before noon tomorrow, I'll have to post them tomorrow for you. Ooooh...I'm sure you're all just quivering with anticipation....

A thought for the evening: a nice marriage to come home to is, perhaps, made up of little things. I came to bed last night and my husband was already asleep. My feet were cold - they always are - and in his sleep, he slid is feet over to mine to warm them. A sweet, little thing, but it's special, I think.

Have a good night!

I did it!!

First completed sweater, ever!!

The sweater is knit in Patons Classic "Paprika", with "Peacock " trim, and the pattern can be found here.

More super-fascinating blogging soon. In the meantime, I leave you with a picture of Wembley snuggling with my lovely new cardi while it was in process, and wearing some yarn herself (her right eye looks entirely wonky in the pic, but I swear to you, she's normal enough looking in person, or I should say, in dog). Enjoy.

Errata

Isn't it lovely to discover you're doing things wrong?

I delivered the scarf and gauntlets from my previous post to the recipient, and she was delighted; really really thrilled, which, of course, was a thrill to me! As I suspected, her younger sister - who has punk aspirations, as well - took one look at the gauntlets and coveted. It was adorable, really, super cute. So they negotiated, and I brought home the left-over balls of yarn to knit some more gauntlets.

After many, many froggings, I got a look at the first pair I'd made. Low and behold, I hadn't cast on 20 stitches, I'd cast on 32. Big difference. For the record, though, if you're looking to make child-sized gauntlets, 20 would be just right.

I should really write these things down as I do them...my memory is trashed!

We'll travel round the world, just you and me, Punk Rock Girl

Sometimes a punk needs a big red scarf...

Several weeks ago, a very dear friend of mine asked me to knit her a scarf. She knew that I knit, and she hadn't been able to find the scarf she wanted, so she asked. And of course I happily agreed!

She picked out some soft, fluffy yarn from which I could knit my punker friend a punky scarf: Paton's Melody in bright red, and Bernat's Harmony in black. I knit them together; it made a nice marl, very rockin'.

My very bestest dog, Wembley, agreed. She kept trying to use the scarf as a bed...


...sometimes while I was knitting it. Nothing better than knitting in bed, watching some Buffy, hangin' with my puppy!

And here's the finished scarf. It's giant. It's huge. It's verging on ridiculous. But she asked for an oversized, chunky scarf, and by gosh, by golly, that's what she's got!

Here's Michelle's scarf:

While we were at Michael's finding her yarn, she says to me "Now we have to check out the Halloween section to look for skulls." Because that's part of the thrill of being friends with a punk: you're always on the lookout for another good skull.

Which got me to thinking: a big marl-y scarf is nice, but one that comes with matching skull-adorned gauntlets, fab!!

So I used this pattern for the gauntlets (4mm dpn, casting on only 20 stitches) and I used this pattern for the skulls. This was my first colourwork attempt, so it was an interesting experiment. The wrong side looks rather horrific, all crazy strands going every which-way, but I think the right sides turned out well. I'm very pleased!

Here are some pics of the completed gauntlets, perfect for a rib-breaking mosh pit, or *ahem* catching a quick cig between bands at a show.



I like this pic, shows off my manicure!


Thanks for having me do this for you, Michelle, it was fun!!

First blog ever!

Woohoo! So...blogging...alright! I swore I wouldn't get sucked into this (you know, like I said about MSN and text-messaging....) but here we are. At least I haven't bought into myspace, right?

In my explorations of the 'interweb' of late, I have noticed the proliferance of knitting blogs. Hey! I knit, and I'm proud of what I knit, and I frequently make mistakes from which others may learn - or gain much, much amusement. I should blog my adventures in needle-iness!

More importantly, I am days (perhaps a couple weeks...) from embarking on the fabulous odyssey which is handspinning. Yarn is expensive, particularly the lovely lumpy handspun I crave; unspun fiber is not, hence spinning.

Join me on my quest to spin the Golden Fleece.