Cats on a Hot Tin Roof

The girls thought it would be fun to see whether Felix would be afraid of tin foil. Not only was he not afraid he thought it would be good place to sit awhile and take a bath. I'm guessing they thought he would dance or something.

"Amazing"

When I first saw this yarn I thought it was beautiful but way too expensive. But when Micheal's handed me a 40% off coupon I knew just how I would use it. The pattern: One Day Beret. So simple even I had no trouble. (I would give yourself more than one day, though! It takes me at least two days to finish this pattern.)

Then! Micheal's gave me a coupon for 50% off. And another coupon! And another! Now I have four balls of the most luscious yarn in a green colorway. I'm thinking of making a "One Day Beret", some finger-less mitts and a cowl or scarf. Here's the yarn. Lovely, green, and so squishy.

A Visit From South Korea

When some brethren from South Korea came to visit last year we were privileged to go out to dinner with them. We were persuaded to order this after much cajoling from our host and Mr. Shin. One whole lobster, complete with "nut crackers" and pics. Bruce and I shared this meal, for your information. And it was delish!

Mr. Shin and his wife also got the lobster.

Hannah and Mr. J were a little more conservative with steak and fish.  

Rob, Peter and Walter flabbergasted by their meals. 

Kasia, Wayne and Jan digging in.

Some of us got dessert. Certainly not me!

I can't remember, but I think we rolled out of the restaurant.

Tea at Susan's

My List

The first thing I pack or even think about before I go on a trip is: What knitting project will I bring? Do I need to bring two? three? How long will I be away? Two nights? Two weeks? Do I need reading material in case my fingers get tired? Having settled that I need two projects for every night I'm away and two "How To" books and one current knitting magazine I am then ready to pack my bags for non-essentials like medication and clothes. So what if I forget a pair of shoes and have to wear my flip flops instead? Or if I forget my tennis shoes for walking (heh, heh) Or even if I have to wear a shirt two days in a row? (Won't happen. I always over pack when it comes to tops). As long as I have my therapy knitting...

I'm good to go.
BTW just looking at this yarn makes me want to knit this: mitered-baby-jacket. Oh, to have grandchildren.

It's Over

After days of shopping, cooking, directing, baking, washing, sewing, and planning, it's all over.

Briggs and Little

Forgive me if I have blogged about this before. My mind is becoming like my mother's - full of swiss cheese (by her admission! I'm not that disrespectful!) Only it seems my cheese is full of bigger holes or maybe it's older. In any case I'm thinking I need more B vitamins.

In the fall we visited the East, as you know. While there we took in a few conferences as well as made many side trips. After all, this is where I was born and Bruce had never been there. We took full advantage of our little rental car and made our way north, south, and west of Newark where we landed. One of the little side trips involved visiting our friends Cam and Judy.

Interesting enough they live quite near the factory where they make one of my favorite yarns. Since Cam and Judy live nearby they obliged us by taking us there. We were delighted! (I was, anyway - Bruce is not usually delighted by yarn shops). In fact Cam's mother used to work for Briggs and Little early in the last century.

On the way we stopped for a quick lunch where we enjoyed East Coast fish and chips. We all laughed when Cam told us that that West Coast fish and chips was what he looked forward to when he came to visit us.

Briggs and Little

No, this is not a statue of what his mother became. This is the front door mascot, though.

What we saw there just amazed me! We examined raw wool just shipped in and full of not only dirt but metal and other fun stuff to make it weigh more. The sellers wanted the best price! What better way than dropping in a horseshoe or two? They're small and they're HEAVY! (Cheaters)

Yarn spun and dyed waiting to be wound into skeins.


The finished product in cubby holes ready to be shipped.

One of the huge machines used to process the wool. What it does, I don't know. I was too busy taking pictures to ask. Dumb me.

Another machine that processes wool somehow, some way.

More machinery. Nothing was going on because it was summer and they hadn't started the fall run yet. We had to imagine the noise, the smell and the process of making yarn.

I. COULD. NOT. RESIST.

I did. I did cave. The "Willow Cowl" called and called and I listened. I opened my yarn box and on top was the perfect sock yarn. I cast on 150 stitches and knit. For eight rounds. And I continued. It's not as if I went out and bought more yarn. I didn't. Nor did I go out and buy a pattern. It was there. It was free. It all whispered to me that it would be a perfect match..."try it out" it said. So, I did.

And how could I not when the weather is like this? 

You want that I should have a cold neck?

I am making progress on other projects. The orange wallaby is coming right along. Two sleeves done and part of the body.

I Almost Caved

My neck is cold and I gave away all my turtlenecks. Is that a good enough excuse to make a cowl? I thought so. I found this on -line - willow_cowl - and wondered if I had yarn to make it. Then I realized that I had far too many projects on the needles to even think about casting on another. So I thought I would try to get at least one project a week done from the previous post and see if my neck was still cold. After all, it should be about May before I get these projects remotely close to being finished.

Here's some progress:



I combined two patterns: the "One Day Beret" and the "Baby Pin Wheel" blanket.
I would show you her face but she was brushing her teeth. I did take a picture though - for future blackmailing. After all, she was the one who wanted me to take the picture. And I never said I wouldn't post it.

The fingerless mitts are done as well. LJ wears them and I know they keep her warm at work. It's been -7degrees C (20degrees F) here and we have snow! So anything made with 100% wool has got to keep her warm.

I've been trying to incorporate walking into my daily schedule but since I've been sick since last year I haven't been able to. The girls wanted me to walk up to the mall (about 3 km away) but I only got as far as the corner. At that point I turned and walked home. So my walk was truncated to about 1 km. So all in all I've walked about once since the turn of the year. Keren, I need you. We could walk every morning.

Here's where we parted ways.

A Little Progress

We had Korean Beef for dinner tonight. At least, it's my variation of it. I dumped a splash of soy sauce in a non-stick pan and added about 1/2 cup of brown sugar on top. Then I mixed it around til the brown sugar was dissolved. Added sliced up inside blade steak (?), placed it on a burner and while it was cooking away I made some oven roasted veggies - broccoli, onions, carrots and green pepper. I was too lazy to put rice in the rice cooker so I popped a couple of potatoes in the microwave and nuked them. Add to the whole thing -potato fixings, a side salad and sliced avocadoes and I was done. I would serve it to company.

I finished another "One Day Beret"! This is in "Amazing" yarn in the Glacier colorway. I think this is the best yarn that Micheal's sells. At first I refused to buy it because it was/is so expensive but finally, I clued in to their 50% off coupons. Makes it reasonable. Where else can you get a beret for $4.99?

Laura's fingerless mitts are coming along nicely. Things come along nicely when you stay home all day when you're sick and can't really do much of anything besides knit or read.

Hopefully, I'll have them done tonight!

Finally, some progress on the sweater-scarf. Heidi's scarf is kinda so-so for me. I've enjoyed thinking up new stitches to add to the mix but the yarn is not fun to work with. I guess I'm using a needle that is too small for the thickness of the yarn. But I usually err on the side of small when it comes to needles because I like how firm it makes things. But it sure cramps the fingers!

Cozy Warm for Poland

She told me she was cold at work. Her shoulders. So I whipped up (ha!) this cozy little shawl to keep her warm. She loves it and now that it's cold and dreary here in Vancouver she wears it all the time at work.

It's called multnomah.



It was a fun knit and I really like the pattern, the yarn and the colorway but when I knit it up I was a little disappointed in how the colorway showed off the stitch pattern. Not. The variegated yarn I buy is often beautiful in a ball or in a skein but when I knit it up it's not as beautiful as I thought it would be. Plus it often distorts the stitch pattern. It often depends too on how long the row is. For instance,

the yarn ~

I used for this cowl~

and fingerless mitts: 

looks much nicer in the fingerless mitts, don't you think?

It looks like the shorter rows worked best with this yarn. So in the future I'll be doing more experimenting with row length or else knitting a whole lot more in solid colored and muted yarn.

It's either that or turn 'em all into woven squares.

Some Knitting

Well, since the title of this blog has the word knit in it I thought it would be about time there was some knitting content. (Aside from last time). So what am I working on now?

I have a "one-day-beret" in the works... Almost done. Same ole pattern I've been using forever. It's about time I at least varied it a little by adding some kind of pattern. Maybe leaves like the Saroyan would be pretty.

There's a burgundy citron - a lace pattern that is more "fiddly" than anything. Still I've been admiring this for a long time and wanted to get it on the needles at least.

I'm using a #2 or #3 - 16" circular. The pattern calls for a #6 but I just couldn't keep all the stitches on the needle and it really looked sloppy. I suppose that it's suppose to look sloppy until you block it but I just didn't like it at all. We'll see whether it comes close to what the pattern intended.

This wallaby has been waiting patiently to be finished...Ioi's #5 baby got a green one but I had promised her one in a larger size at first. So it needs to get done before H grows up. This will be one of the first projects I finish after the beret.

Sweet little kidlets with LOTS of energy!

LJ and H are always clamoring for finger-less mitts, gloves and even hats...Same pattern as Beck's mitts.
The beige/pink ones are for LJ and the Turquoise balll will morph into mitts somehow...Briggs and Little 100% scratch wool that is so "old fashioned", nostalgic, rustic??what?? Can you think of what I'm thinking of?

I like to have socks on the needles because they are so portable but haven't even started these yet...Maybe I'll put a picot edging on the top to vary it a little

I frogged a shawl because I didn't like how it was turning out and reverted back to a favorite pattern. Here's another "damson"... I really enjoyed making this before and this time will be no different.

I pulled out a half done sweater from years ago and Heidi told me it would make a great cowl. I readily agreed since I knew the sweater would never see the light of day...I've already worked a little more on this and have changed up the stitch pattern to stockinette for an inch and garter for another inch. I think I'll continue to vary the stitches. It's going to be (DV) about three to five feet long and I will make a circle grafting the ends together.

Laura gave me some yarn for my birthday this year and I found the perfect pattern for it...Bandanna Cowl. I probably have enough for a hat/beret or even finger-less mitts. Luscious!

We have some new babies arriving next year and I thought I would forgo making another Wallaby (a tradition, it seems!) and try something new... Here we have the yarn for a norwegian-sweet-baby-cap  and phazelias-mitered-baby-jacket...

Hat 

Both Hat and Sweater

Finally, a very fun project for myself out of kauni yarn. I made up the pattern borrowing heavily from EZ and the Wonderful Wallaby...

This should keep me busy for a long while. I'll keep you updated and try to get these done at least one a week. Well, maybe not the sweater!