One thing at a time...

I've discovered, over the last year or so, my true knitterly self. I am now proud to say that "I" am a one-project-finish-that-project-then-start-the-next-project kind of gal. I've always been that way; with knitting and with life in general. Within the past year or so, however, I have tried to go beyond my natural state into the life of the multi-project knitter (although, at most I only had maybe 5 going at the same time). This foray outside of my comfort zone has not accomplished what, in my mind, is the purpose of knitting.... relaxation and stress control.... You see, I like control... firm control and I get very stressed out when I have too many knitting projects on needles because I can't finish any of them in the time that I have alloted for that particular project. This is the point when I can no longer enjoy my knitting and I begin to see it as a chore. I'm not sure exactly when or why I decided that a "real" knitter has 30 projects, many of which remain as WIPs (works in progress) or that get relegated to hibernation status, sometimes for years... perhaps it was due to my sudden immersion of into the greater knitting community at large when I joined the wonderful Ravelry. Ravelry touched a place in my knitting soul... It was a place to organize my projects and stash and needles and library of knitting related paper. It was also a place where single project knitters, like myself, seem less common than those knitters who thrive on multiple projects. Knitters who seem not to be bothered by the number of WIPs and hibernating projects on their project pages. Knitters who seemed to be proud of the number of their UFOs (unfinished objects). I felt then, that I must be missing something..... I must join these enlightened beings, break out of my self and perhaps find some creative piece of me that was missing.....

I did not find what I was looking for..... there was nothing missing. I am not a multi-project knitter and so, I proudly pronounce that I will continue to work one project at a time (OK.. two projects, I need a small travel one) to it's completion, or damnation before I start another... even IF the next project is begging to be started..... it will bloody well have to wait it's turn.

BTSS 2009

Oh my... It's that time of year again...The Back To School Sweater (BTSS)...... and it's been slightly over a year since I started my blogging adventure and the first knitting project I talked about was Eli's first BTSS (the 2008 version). I learned a few lessons from that sweater..... mainly... do NOT knit a sweater for Eli in wool... it doesn't matter if we searched forevA to find a non-itchy wool and that he picked out the colours and yarn himself because he will NOT wear it..... He wore that sweater a total of three times last year and only when forced to do so...... so this year I decided NOT to knit another one. That decision remained firm, until I mentioned it to Eli and he looked disappointed...... Here we go again.

This year's BTSS is being knit in Cotton (Estelle Cloud Cotton, to be exact) and is my first fully calculated (no pattern involved but my own) top-down sweater. The plan is to have a kangaroo pocket in front and a hood (Eli LOVES his hoodies). I also wanted something to break up the green and settled on a silhouette of Pikachu (a Pokemon character) on the pocket (my own interpretation of Pikachu, that is). It should be done by the first day of school (which is August 27th this year), but is unlikely to be worn on that day as the temperature is predicted to be in the mid to high 20s (Celsius).

I've also finished another sweater since I last posted, Delphine from French Girl Knits(Ravelry Link), although my pattern came from Interweave Knits Spring 2009 issue. It was a super fast knit, finished in 6 days.











On to non-knitting news.... Yesterday was Chey's 4th Birthday party. She really wanted a "painting party" at our local Ceramic painting store UB The Artist and I was happy to oblige.

In front of UB The Artist	Birthday Girl!
Dino Cake and Fruit Centerpiece	painting her plate

Smurf Teeth

mmmmm.... cake

Grecian Top in Linen...

I finished it today and the results are in.....mostly... I apologize for the washed out second picture... the sun was VERY bright (which is why my eyes are closed as well)





Firstly, I think it turned out well, it didn't photograph particularly well (except for the close up), but it IS quite pretty. The linen did soften up a lot in the wash and shrunk "just enough". I still am not 100% thrilled with the neckline and may alter it yet, but I want to wear the top for a bit to see what happens with the linen as I move......

So, in summary... my mods were as follows:

I used sport weight linen rather than fingering as the patten suggests, Also, I knit the linen at a rather tight gauge which was still 26 sts over 4 inches before washing (pattern was 28, so I knit the smallest size). I also pre-washed (and dried) the skeins, but did not notice an appreciable difference in the softness of the yarn when knitting... I wouldn't bother with pre-washing next time.

I cast on as per pattern and knit as per the instructions until the measurements from underarm were 5." At this point I stopped all the bust/waist shaping so it would not interfere with the lace/cable. I can not decipher my notes as to the number of stitches I used for the lace/cable panel... sorry to those of you that would like to copy my mod, but I did manage to center the panel so that a 6 stitch cable was split when it ran up both sides (hence the reason I didn't mess with any shaping). The lace/cable I chose was from Barbara Walker's first treasury of stitch patterns (page 275), but is an arrowhead lace and 6 stitch/8 row cable (which sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but is from Ms. Walker's own description). I also added 2" in overall length to the top and I'm glad I did...... another inch wouldn't have hurt to be honest.....

Once I got to the applied cable edging, I ran into big problems..... it looked TERRIBLE with the linen, mostly because I couldn't go down any further with needle sizes unless I used darning needles (hmmmm... I wonder if that would work?? LOL). This meant that the row gauge of the cable was a lot bigger than stitch gauge of the top which made the cable flair and roll like a tire around my hips.... the In the end I decided to do a crochet shell edge. I did one row of SC and then a DC shell on top of it, but only around the sleeves and neckline... I did a single crochet bind off for the bottom edge....

I think that's it.... I would make this top again in a heartbeat, but next time I'll use silk... I think it would look fantastic in silk....

New Tools and Dreams...

I went to Shuttleworks yesterday, to spend the gift certificate that Dale gave me for my birthday. When I originally received the gift, I wasn't sure I'd use it up quickly... after all, I'm a new spinner and I already have all of the tools I need to spin processed top/roving/sliver (and I have quite a bit of that in my stash) into yarn and I really, really had NO intention of delving deeper into fibre preparation beyond fluffing and pre-drafting the processed stuff..... Then I bought a new book about spinning (Start Spinning by Maggie Casey) that had a whole section of nice photographs and easy to read instructions about washing and preparing fleece for spinning...... and I thought...... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....... wouldn't it be wonderful to take the "hair" right off the back of a sheep and go through the entire process from freshly shorn fleece to hand spun yarn to finished item???? That's it! I was sold and decided right then to use my gift certificate to buy combs, carders and whatever other tools I decided that I needed ... errrr... wanted for the job. And here is what I bought.... a set of mini-combs from Majacraft, 2 sets of carders (Schacht carders, a medium and a fine) and a flick carder (also from Schacht)...



(The bowl in the picture is one that Eli painted......)

and last week, I decided to try to find something with which to start my new Fibre journey..... I was reading a thread in Ravelry (I don't remember what about) that pointed me to The Spinning Loft (the store is offline right now for upgrades) and a nifty box of sheep samples called the Super Fiber Sampler "Here is the ultimate breeds study in a box. This sampler comes with 2 ounces of 18 different sheep breeds" and apparently has a bit from down breeds, medium and long hair breeds and is unwashed, but good quality fibre....... Exactly what I wanted! Now I'll know what I like to spin with (and wear, I'm all about soft and not scratchy), learn a bit more about sheep in general and different fibre preparation of different types of fleece....... when the box arrives a blog post about the process will begin.......

All of the thinking and buying and watching of uTube videos regarding fleece prep has been very disruptive to my sleep.... I can't stop dreaming about fibre ...... sigh.......

On the knitting front, my Grecian Top is going very well. I've started with the attached cable edging along the bottom, although I'm not convinced it (the cable edging) looks good with my mods (mainly the fact that I am using Linen that is a different weight than the pattern suggests and adding a lace and cable pattern from under the bust) ...... I've never used Linen and I'm not sure how it's going to change once it's washed....... I did wash my gauge swatches, but wasn't satisfied by this and decided to "wing it" anyway...... It looks REALLY pretty and IF it washes up as nicely as linen is supposed to without excessive sideways shrinking, then it will be fantastic........ we shall see......

The Great Room Exchange.....

This is the title I've given to my latest home project. It started out when I looked at my yarn stash and realized that I had no more space to add to my collection (it can't very well be called anything else, but a collection at this point, there is far too much to actually knit it all in any reasonable time frame.) I was also quite concerned about all of that yarn in my basement.... living in the dark closet all alone with no room to breathe and only the occasional visit from me when I either added to it, or chose something from it..... And so, an idea was born. I decided to try convince Eli to move downstairs so that my yarn could have his bedroom upstairs. My convincing argument was masterful. I sold him on the idea that we would make the basement a "Boy Zone". All of the video games would be down there and eventually we would buy either an air hockey table or some other game table to put down there. He would also have his very own bathroom and lots of privacy from his sister. He wasn't sure about the idea at first (he's rather attached to me at the moment and I think the idea of him being so far away at night was a bit scary), but slowly came around to the idea....

Here is a picture of my poor, lonely, crammed stash:





Once Eli was convinced, step 1 of the GREAT ROOM EXCHANGE could begin..... Eli told me what he wanted his room to look like (I braced for a disagreement regarding a Pokemon themed room... I think he's getting too old for themes and I didn't want to re-paint in a year or so) and was pleasantly surprised when he told me his design... wavy, horizontal stripes with dark blue on the bottom, turquoise blue in the middle and light blue on the top. I then started dismantling the room (it was my office/throw-all-the-crap-lying-around-the-house room) to prepare.... This took forever as I didn't realize I had so much crap in there and I hadn't really thought about where it was going...... I was going to post a picture, but I don't have one.... I've never taken a picture of that room....... that should tell you something... I then began to paint. The room was painted a dark brown and Eli wanted medium to light blues. This required three coats of primer and three coats each of the darker colours and 2 coats of the lightest colour to completely cover the brown. It took me 4 whole days to finish! But it turned out beautifully and he really likes his new room.




Step 2 consisted of painting his old room and turning it into my yarn's boudoir....Officially this room is the Guest Room, but let's be honest... it only has guests a couple times a year, so it really IS my yarn's boudoir.... This room took took 4 coats of primer and 2 top coats (just look at the picture below and you'll see why), but WOW... I did gooooood and my yarn is much happier.....There is yarn in the closet, yarn in the plastic organizers and roving/top in the cedar chest and the acrylic/novelty yarn is under the bed... in vacuum bags.... The best part?? There is LOTS of room for more.....

Before:



And now (and I'll say that it's about one million times prettier in real life...)




I'd still like a headboard and maybe a screen for the plastic bins and notice the glass bowl full of my favorite special yarns in tones of blue:

Step 3 and 4 consist of turning our fifth bedroom into Chey's "den" and the basement in the aforementioned "Boy Zone" Pictures of those as they are finished... no more painting though... I.can't.do.it.

PS.... please be advised that I didn't really convince Eli to move downstairs so that I could move my yarn upstairs... this was actually a wonderful side benefit to the "Great Room Exchange"... but I like the above version better... I felt I should explain... just in case someone thought I'd actually force my son to live in the basement so that my yarn could live upstairs.....

PPS.... I'm currently taking bets as to how long Eli will last in the basement... He is only 7 (turning 8 in a little over a month) and scared of the dark.... so I am fully prepared to move him back upstairs if need be...... but I won't be repainting if that happens......

Barnacles, beaches and lots of driving

This is a little slide show of our trip to Vancouver Island. We left early Sunday Morning and arrived to find that my Dad and Caren's car (which they kindly lent to us for our stay) would not start.... Dead battery. We looked on this small issue with a rather good sense of humour, mostly because it was early in the morning and the weather was Super Fantastic!. After a short-ish wait, the tow truck arrived and we were finally on our way. Our first day of exploration took us out past Sooke to Port Renfrew and then over a very winding (but lovely) road over the mountains towards Duncan. We did take a wrong turn somewhere and ended up coming out at Cowichan Lake rather than Shawnigan Lake, but it was still a lovely trip.

Day 2 was our "explore Victoria" day. We took the Mill Bay ferry to Brentwood Bay and stopped at the Butterfly Gardens. After this we drove across the Saanich Peninsula and drove along the ocean to Victoria. It was along this drive that we discovered something interesting about Eli...... He is afraid of Barnacles...... There are an AWFUL lot of Barnacles near the Ocean and our patience was sorely tested (OK... I'll admit it... I had NO patience... I mean, come-on.... BARNACLES????.... not giant man eating squid or evil man eating sharks or even just creepy crawly spiders...... but BARNACLES) He was afraid they would leap off their perches and attach to him and suck out his blood or something.... and although he normally trusts me when I explain how things work (this is the child that helped me calculate how many years it would take for Christmas to be in mid-July if we didn't have leap year)... he did NOT trust my explanation about barnacles... we even READ about barnacles and that didn't help......

Day 3 we drove out to Ucluelet (stopping many, many times along the way) and Long Beach were we played in the sand and in the waves and hiked along the beach to touch anemones and try to overcome the "FEAR" (which was semi-successful, hopefully his week on the boat with Opa and Cary will take care of the rest). We spent the night there and started to drive back.

Day 4 consisted of driving back to Duncan from Ucluelet, but along the drive we had some trouble... Chey started whining and saying that she felt "coughy"..... We soon discovered that "coughy" meant "pukey" as she vomited all over Opa and Cary's car. We stopped in Port Alberni to buy cleaning supplies and a clean outfit and then when to one of the harbour Quay's to clean up and let the kids play... We loved it down there. There were lots of cute little shops and a nice play area for the kids... Pukey-girl actually ended up making our day....

Day 5 was leaving day and we spent the morning touring around Duncan before heading for another tour of the Saanich Peninsula and home...... we did leave Eli behind to spend his first "alone" week with Opa and Cary on their boat..... I was a bit nervous and sad to leave him, but I know he's going to have a blast.....

It was an exhausting trip, but very enjoyable..... if I could sleep for a week... it'd be great......

That's how it was supposed to look...

I gave the sweater to Christina..... it's looks amazing on her, whereas it looked like a sack on me (regardless of my attempt in photos to make it look otherwise)

See....



That is how it is SUPPOSED to look.... when it fits properly... :)

And now I'm knitting a scarf, a very simple 1x1 rib scarf... I want to knit something that I know, without a doubt, will turn out.... It will be knit out of my handspun. (3ply yarn, approx 8-9 WPI, out of Superwash Merino roving/top from Zen Yarn Garden's "Spin Art Fibre Club"). It's very soft and sproingy.... It'll be a short scarf (I've only got about 200m), but it will be my first "real" knitting item of my own handspun.....





and it won't matter if it stretches in the wash......