21 Aug
I can’t believe that it’s been almost a year since I’ve blooged over here – oops! I’ve been really busy with life, and just haven’t had the chance to! A post with photos of what I’ve been up to with knitting should be up towards the beginning of the week!
Bye for now!
9 Sep
Howdy folks! It’s been awhile since I last posted, but it’s been busy busy around here! Now that I have a bit of free time, I figure that it’s time for an update on the Christmas knitting!
I don’t remember if I ever posted the “Knit Gift List” (and I’m too lazy/tired to check), so I’ll do that now:
Here’s what I have so far:
All projects that are started (along with those that are finished!)
Finished projects are:
Dad's socks
Swap Ornaments
Noni Felted Bag
Balaclava for RJ
And the in-progress projects are:
Felted Slippers
Aestlight Shawl
Blanket
Julia’s shawl would have been done by now, had I not made a mistake that involved me having to rip the entire lace section out! I’ve been so frustrated with it that I haven’t picked it up since I had to do the ripping. I’ll get back to it eventually!
Seth’s blanket is one of those projects that I can only seem to work on in spurts. It’s really simple, and moves quickly when I do work on it, but I haven’t been working on it as much as I perhaps should. If I buckled down on it, I think it would take me less than a week to finish (but the chances of that actually happening are not that high).
The slippers are a quick knit, and I should be able to finish them today!
That leaves the stole for Gramma A and the socks for the kids to start/finish. I have the stole pattern picked out and bought – just have to buy the yarn for it, and I’m going to wait another month – month and a half to knit the kids’ socks (want to make sure they won’t grow out of them before they get a chance to wear them – but I do have the yarn!).
So, things seem pretty much on track to be finished on time – as long as I don’t procrastinate too long on the larger projects!
10 Aug
Every summer, DH takes at least one week off around his birthday (which always falls around the “Civic Holiday” in August). We spent the long weekend in Sudbury, visiting his family here:
I always feel relaxed when we’re there, and I’m always sad to leave. We stayed there Saturday and Sunday, left for home on Monday. After we got back, we ran errands, then left the rest of the week for relaxing – which left a lot of time for knitting!
The day after our errand day, I managed to get these two projects finished:
Summery Socks - knit from Tofutsies
and
Verde Ripple Mittens - Knit from Mirasol Hacho
After I finished these two projects, my replacement Noni pattern came in, and I was able to make some headway with the flowers (the 3rd one is almost finished now)
Noni Flower - Pre-felting
Noni Flower - Felted
I also managed to make some progress on two other Christmas projects:
Aestlight - One repeat into the lace part of the body
and
Petit Poisson Blanket - 25% done!
That’s about all I have to show for FO’s and progress. I plan to finish the flowers for the bag this week, and I have hope that I can finish Aestlight this week as well.
Unfortunately, we received news this morning that DH’s Memere passed away late last night. While it is sad, we knew it was coming and it was her time to go (she was in her 90’s and deteriorating quite quickly over the last few weeks). We will be making the trek to Kirkland Lake for the funeral (likely) sometime this week (funeral arrangements have yet to be made).
The trip will be a long one (8+ hrs one way), so I’ll have to find a new project to occupy myself in the car (the blanket is just too big). We’ll see what I come up with…
26 Jul
So, I tried to update the theme over on my Blogger hosted blog, and it deleted all of my sidebar links, lists & etc. – I was not (and still am not) impressed! I had already been considering the switch, and that, as they say was the “final nail in the coffin”. It may take a bit of time, but I’ll be adding more sidebar stuff (like my “On the Needles”, etc) and pages as I find the time 🙂
On the knitting and yarn front, I received more yarn in the mail this week:
From L to R: Cascade 220 in Magenta, Cascade 220 Heathers in Olive, Mirasol Hacho in Verde Ripple
The Magenta C220 is for the flowers on the 9 to 9 to 9 bag (which I would have started this weekend, had DH not accidentally thrown the pattern in the recycling that went out this week), the Olive C220 is for a pair of Thuja socks (a Christmas gift for DH), and the Mirasol Hacho will be knit into a pair of mittens (a simple, somewhat mindless project for our long weekend camping trip to Sudbury).
Other than that, I’m still trying to finish up some WIPs, concentrating mostly on a pair of socks (but managing a few rows on the Aestlight shawl). I’m hoping to finish up this sock today so I won’t feel too guilty about starting DH’s Thujas when he returns to work tomorrow!
Happy knitting!
24 Jul
Pattern: Cozy Critter Cap (Ravelry Link)
Needles: US5
Yarn: Patons Decor
Comments: I don’t know if it’s because I’ve knit the Monkey socks a few times now, but I just couldn’t manage to stay interested in this hat for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. I, however, love the finished product. Definitely a product over process knit for me!
23 Jul
Today I figured I’d blog about my progress on my Holiday Knit List – especially seeing as I didn’t post any photos in my last post (and now I have a few). Lets start with the “in-progress” photos that I have so far:
First we have the 9 to 9 to 9 bag:
The main body of the bag has been knit and felted (photo shows pre-felting size), and I am waiting for the yarn for the flowers to come in (which should be any day now. I have the lining fabric (black with white pin-dots), and still have to find some handles (no luck finding any online that don’t come to $20+ after shipping).
Then we have the Aestlight Shawl for Julia:
The main garter triangle is done, just have to pick up the stitches around the endge, knit the lace portion, then the edging. I don’t think it’ll take me too long – but I haven’t had the concentration for it lately.
I do have progress on other projects, I just don’t have photos yet – So, onto the finished projects!
First we have socks for my Dad:
These have been done for quite some time now, and I couldn’t be happier! My Dad loves plainly knit, plainly coloured socks, which are a monotonous knit. He’s a hard person to shop for though, and he loves these, so they’re worth it in the end!
Next we have the finished ornament set for the Ottawa Knit Nights swap:
I had been considering adding a navy blue and a variegated blue/eggplant/coppery-brown ones, but I’m happy with this colour combo, and I’m not sure that it would look like a “set” with those 2 ornaments added. I may change my mind later, but I’m happy with how these 4 look together for now 🙂
That’s all I have for photos for now – I’ll post again when I have more. Happy knitting!
18 Jul
We all know that there’s a big holiday that’s 5 months (and a bit) away, and I started freaking out last month because I had absolutely *nothing* done, and by June, I’m at least 30% way finished shopping/knitting through my list. I guess you could say that it really snuck up on me this year. So, I sat down and started making a list of people that my family will gift to, and choosing which ones I think are knit-worthy – which in the end, turns out to be not that many! I think I’m safe to post my Holiday Knit List, (minus one or two projects that will be for some people who may or may not read this). So, here it is (along with project statuses):
So, not bad progress on the list now – most of the projects are at least started, and one is done! I’ll post again with photos when I have a bit more done (and actually have photos to post!).
Bye for now, and happy knitting!
16 Jun
I can’t believe that I’ve gone so long without posting anything – sorry about that! While I’ve been away from blogging, I have managed to get a few projects done – mostly baby knitting it seems!
What I’ve knit (in no particular order):
1. Stash-busting Wascloths
2. Blanket for my newest nephew – Baby E (who is pictured, along with my handsome DH)
3. Soap Sock
4. Felted bowl (my first felting project)
5. Helena (from Knitty) for another Baby E (the second great-granddaughter on my DH’s side) (This is actually complete – I just forgot to take a photo before sending it off. The new Mom has promised to take a photo for me when she gets a chance )
6. & 7. Daisy (from Knitty) with a matching Miss Dashwood hat (also from Knitty) for Baby K (new daughter of a family friend)
(photo with the buttons on)8. Slipper Socks (Spa Socks from an old issue of Knit.1)
9. Lake of the Woods (while it was blocking – haven’t managed to take any other photos of it yet)
I also have a few other projects on the go (mostly socks), but I don’t have any photos of them – I’ll post again when I do!
1 Mar
Happy March everyone! It’s starting to feel like this year is just zooming right by!
February seems to have seen the return of my knitting mojo – 7 completed projects in February!
I have also started a pair of slippers, but after completing the first one – and despite getting guage – I’m thinking I might have to re-start with the next size down. I’m going to see if I can shrink/felt the first one first, so we shall see how that goes…
In other news, I recently realized that I haven’t bought any yarn in over a month! Everything I’ve knit this year (with the exception of the Branching Out and J’s socks – but J bought that yarn with her own money), has been knit with stash yarn and I’m not even on a “yarn diet”. I’m just a little bit impressed with myself and can’t help but wonder how long this is going to last…
8 Feb
I’ve wanted to knit Ilga Leja’s Lake of the Woods from the moment I first saw it – same colourway (Nova Scotia) and yarn (Fleece Artist Silk Stream). When I went in search of the yarn, I was dissappointed to discover that it had been discontinued.
When looking around on Ravelry, I learned that Fleece Artist had produced a “Very Special Limited Edition” yarn for Knitty-Noddy (Merino 3/6) that would be a perfect substitution. When I went and checked it out, they had it availible in the colourway I wanted, but the photos of the yarn looked darker than those on Ilga’s pattern. I went with it anyways, thinking “such is the nature of hand-dyed” and that it would still look beautiful.
The funny thing is, while I was knitting, all I could think was “Ninja Turtles”, and when I showed this to DH…
Me: Can you come look at this? I want to see if you see the same thing I do.
*DH comes in*
Me: Is it just me, or does this look like…
DH: Yeah, it looks like Ninja Turtles
I didn’t even have to say it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I want to walk around looking like the blue Ninja Turtle exploded all over me!
I will definitely knit this pattern with a different yarn, but this one is off to the frog pond!
greenapples knits 