in which I ramble...

There's been lots of knitting going on behind the scenes, I promise! I've just been so swamped lately --fall seems like a crazy time for everyone, and things are really ramping up for me at work lately (and socially if I'm being honest...) though I can finally see the light at the end of this particular tunnel. We also had a liitle rescue on our hands who sucked up A LOT of my spare time:



This is Gary. Yes, he is as adorable as he seems. We found him abandonned in a field near our house on (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend. More pics/details can be seen on my flickr, but the short story is that we've adopted him out to some friends of ours now, even though I really REALLY wanted to keep him. The timing's not right for us, and truthfully I'm still just not over this guy's passing.



If nothing else though it's shown me that there's likely to be more kittens in my future (maybe after Poncho's gone) and I look forward to that day with less anguish than before.

So in lieu of any knitting of my own to share right now, I thought I'd post a few fibre-related items I'm drooling over right now.

I know I've mentionned before how much I love that Kate Spade's doing a clothing line now. I was never much for her purses but her clothing is mod and fabulous --totally my thing, and she has the funnest accessories and knitwear:


um, is it wrong for me to say that I totally plan to knock these off for myself?

and this fabulous Fox pullover from Brit designer Peter Jensen:



Of course Gravity Pope wants $400 for it so I'm thinking it's not likely to ever be in my future, short of charting it out myself (which let's face it, i'll have lost interest by the time I EVER get around to that!)

and finally, howz this for some Holiday stash busting ideas?



These adorable yarn wreaths are from Agnes Blum at Knockknocing.



Think about all those yarn bits you have languishning in your stash that you'll never actually knit with!

Or you could just go buy one here.

I actually kind of went a little crazy buying patterns online the other day, mostly silly things it seems, but I've been dying to knit this little guy for ages, and finally caved and bought the pattern:



What can I say? I spent 5 years in Germany, and growing up an army brat who WORE A DIRNDL (oh yes, I did...) it's kind of left me with (if nothing else) a penchant for all.things.kitsch.from.the.Black.Forest. I'm not lying, it's kind of a problem I have...have you seen my cuckoo clock wall?



Anyway, kind of an old picture, but you get the idea (and as usual I totally just got derailed from what I was talking about originally...)

The Bunny patterns and all the clothes are by Barbara Prime, and she has some seriously adorable knits for sale. I tend to leave all the "toy" knitting to my mother, since that is definitely her passion, but for freakin' lederhosen I simply have to make an exception...

Happy Halloween everyone!

back to basics (again and again)

Well, I really thought I'd at least be able to squeeze out another post still in the month of September, but well you know how that goes...how is it October already???

Today marked the first morning I've actually had to wear MITTS in the car on my drive in to work (ok they were fingerless, but still that steering wheel was FRIGID), and I know that it's unseasonably cold around these parts right now, but today is definitely a day for snuggling under my big down comforter with a mug of tea in hand and a good book.

And casting off on some cozy alpaca just in time.





There's not a lot I can say about this scarf, apart from the fact that it's very simple, and gorgeously soft and will no doubt get tons of wear. It's taken me a while to knit simply because it's been my "at work" knitting. I'd bust out a couple rows every lunch hour or so on 3.25mm needles. Many times at work I would hear "you're STILL knitting that?!" Really, where do the non-knitters get off criticizing? But now that it's done I'm back to crosswords until I come up with something similar to taunt me at my desk every day.

The yarn is from Bonne Mines, a local Alpaca farm in Quebec, and was a gift from my sister. I think I cast on 40 sts and the border is about 7 sts of seed stitch both sides. I used up the full two hanks.



Now, that said I am definitely allergic to it. But like all animals (my own pets included) you learn to live with what you love. And you learn to live with what you love stealing your scarves from you as well:



Now, in cowl news...y'all KNOW how much I love a good cowl. It's the one thing I've consistently knit and worn over and over since the beginning of my knitting career. As knitters we've long been doing the cowl thing. Have you noticed this year that they appear to be everywhere in fashion?

I meant to scan a few pics from the last Vogue (but as with most things lately never got around to it) as there are quite a few awesome chunky cowls from designers in there. And really, why pay $500 when you can just knit your own? Granted, things seem to be taking on larger, more "snood-esque" proportions this year. In fact miss knit lit just posted about this very thing as well. (head on over there and check her out if you haven't already, her eye for fashion is amazing!)

Though I am currently digging the über-simplicity of this cowl spotted on Mila Jovovich at a Louis Vuitton show:



That would definitely go up likety split. I do find the bind-off a bit strange though --would it not have looked nicer to bind it off "in pattern?", but then I guess I'm no designer and that's why I'm not smart enough to get rich off these things.


Rodarte Fall 2009


via doucement le matin


Dries Van Noten Fall 2009

Anyway, you get the idea. Cowls aside it seems like the chunky knits are everywhere for designers this year.

And if you ARE looking for a cowl of your own to knit but would rather have an amazing pattern already thought out, allow me to plug this amazing 'lil number from my friend Michele over at knitting is kneat-o.

Only 4 bucks on etsy for this gorgeous snood! I'm headin' there now myself...






There's a lot of cute knitwear out there this season (yet I don't seem to be doing much knitting myself these days--what's up with that?) but I think that all deserves another post of it's own. We'll all be gearing up for some Christmas knitting soon and I for one know that I could use as many fresh new ideas as possible!

meow

Indulge me in some pictures of my fluffy beast, will you? They are sort of knitting related...he recently discovered the comfort of laying in my WIP basket.



Though I likely won't let it happen again.

In ACTUAL knitting news, this cowl:



free pattern: birthday cowl
yarn: 1.5 balls of Sublime Cash Merino Silk DK in "Ink" (leftover from the Raglan Wrap sweater
needles: 4mm




LOVE it. I really love a good cowl.

that is all.

"not everything is flat on the Prairies"...

...I used to have a t-shirt with that very slogan that went right across my chest. Yeah, that's right, I'm a classy lassy. (Though in my defence I never really wore it out in public).

Bet you thought you'd NEVER see these done:





They've been sitting over there on my toolbar under "hibernating" for about a year and a half now. One boot completely done, the other just the sole. And there they sat all this time until I finally just got so SICK of looking at it and cranked out it's mate.

And cranked I did. I seriously feel like it took about two seconds to knit so I'm all the more confounded as to why I put it off for so long.



pattern: Prairie Boots from Coco Knits
yarn: Patons Classic Merino in Olive (knit double-stranded) and some random Lopi (single-stranded) for the soles
needles: US #10
buttons: random. I really just wanted to get these done so I couldn't bring myself to go out and buy new and matching ones.

When I first bought this pattern I think I really fancied myself a pair of those "knit-style" uggs that were in all the stores at the time. Like these, but I didn't fancy the $150 price tag. I know, I know --Uggs?! uggs, you say?! It's a love/hate thing for sure. For the record, I've never owned a pair of Uggs. I did however have a cheap knock off set and Sweet Marie they were THE BEST. 40 below outside and need to warm up the car in ten feet of snow? No laces? Awesome. I am not ashamed. Fortunately the bloom fell off the rose before I forked out any money and I decided to knit myself the nearest facsimile.

The main problem with waiting a year and a half to finish a second boot: apparently my gauge is much MUCH different now. Boot number two is about two sizes bigger than the first. That sucks a little bit since boot #1 is pretty much a perfect fit! But no matter --they will pretty much just be worn as slouchy/warm/around the house booties anyway. (Though note to self: glue dots for the bottom of these as I'm wiping out LARGE on the hardwood floors).

Also on the sticks right now is a cabled pillow. After two sad attempts at using this Manos,

sad attempt #1:


sad attempt #2:


I'm going for a third and already fearing a lack of yarn. And I really, really don't want to buy more of it.



This is a free Drops pattern btw--already mine is looking nothing like the original (seen here PO-005), and I basically had to re-write it before I could even get going on it. It's been a while since I've knit from a pattern in "British" English (I'm Canadian --aren't we speaking the same language? or is this a Norwegian translation?) But I forgot how much more general or "assumed" things are. i.e K1 in the pattern --simple --"knit one" right? wrong. Knit seems to be used in a much more general way. Like "go" "make this sweater". Aye yi yi. But once I got into the mind of it again, all was right with the world. NOW I get it: purl means knit, knit means garter, up is down and hamburgers eat PEOPLE. got it!

I may just need to accept that this lumpy-ass yarn is quite possibly, cursed. Or really, scrap this pillow in favour of another.

bow-nanza!

Ok, I think I am juuuuuust about caught up on everyone's blogs and officially ready to get back into the knit-swing of things again.

I am rested, back to work, and more importantly: back to knitting baby! My wrist pains appear to have subsided. (knock wood)

And in honour of that small miracle I hunkered down and finally finished off the BEHEMOTH that is Laura Irwin's Alpaca Silk Bow scarf.


not sure what this expression is saying...

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk (50% silk/50% Alpaca). About 5.5 balls of the "Chestnut" brown, and less than one of the "Mandarin".
needles: 3.75 mm

This is even the yarn that the pattern calls for so it was a real splurge for me. It is seriously beautiful and gorgeously soft and silky.

Scarf-y here also marks the fourth item that I've knit from this book --the others being the Raglan Wrap sweater; and both the sideways grande and side slip cloches. ALL fabulous, well-written and "sure-are-purty" patterns from Laura Irwin.

So, even though this is the yarn the pattern called for, I'm not sure if it was necessarily the best choice. It is just SO drapey that it really makes weaving in the ends a pain in the butt (though possibly I am seriously bad at this task and it's just me...), the silkyness equals ends-that-pop-out-just-when-you-think-they're-woven-in-perfectly.

For a normal scarf the prospect of a couple of yarn ends sticking out here and there might be all well and good, but this was intarsia. My FIRST attempt at intarsia. Sure-- intarsia, as it turns out, is easy. But it is also totally maddening. Every six inches look like this:



My one consolation here is that I was smart enough to weave the ends in as I went. Had I left them all until the end, this scarf would still be incomplete. Permanently.

And indeed so floppy that any hopes of a bow like this...



...are immediately dashed.
hahahahahahahaha.



See!? It's a BOW.



Oh, who am I kidding, I am literally never going to wear it that way anyway. I will likely just wear it in the usual "drape-it-around-my-neck-way" that most of us just wear our scarves anyway.

Though, knowing this NOW does not really help me.

(And might I add I kind of feel like this particular project was what was really keeping me from knitting anything else --I didn't really want to be working on it, but at the same time didn't really want to stray too far from it either--which essentially amounts to: hardly ever knitting it OR anything else). Had I known months ago when I started this scarf that I wouldn't wear it in "bow-format" I would have made the following changes:

a) ALL ribbing. There are two sections of it that are knit in stockinette, you can kind of see those changes in this photo:



The stockinette is the flat part that allows the bow to be more, uh "bow-tastic". Again, it's also so drapey that I don't think it matters that much. Plus if you did it all in ribbing it wouldn't look quite so odd when you did just decide to wear it a more "normal" way.

b) Sweet Jesus I would have made it shorter. A LOT shorter. Not sure if the photos really divulge how many times this thing is wrapped around my neck (while still having ends that hang below my hips). I think even about three feet shorter would still mean substantial length and a decent bow. But again, perhaps this is just down to my own gauge (which I know is loose, even though I repeatedly check it). Plus there are just so many ends that tearing it out to salvage the yarn for other things is just pointless.

Perhaps you need some empirical evidence of it's length...some perspective maybe?

BAM!

(N.B---this was before I blocked it even...I tried to block it out a bit wider/shorter, but it's still groooooowwwwiiiing)

It's meant to be 9 feet, it's definitely longer than that and by the time I get home it may have eaten my cat and anyone I ever cared about.

But all ribbing aside (yeah, pun intended), it really is a beautiful thing to behold. It felt like a major undertaking for me, and the fact that only one other person on ravelry appears to have knit it should have been my first clue. People often say to me "how can you knit so many scarves?" --I know they are virtually like knitting a sweater sometimes, but this is really the first time I was feeling like "yeah this scarf is taking forever, I may need to take a take a break from these".

Now that it's done I can laguish in its gorgeous-ness, as the memory of all it's hard work floats away.

And you know, cuz I can never have enough crap around my neck it seems, I've started another cowl.



Perhaps someone would like to buy me this $1300 Nylon "knitting bag" from Dolce & Gabbana to carry it around in?

cute knit overload dot com

I know, I know, I am presently M.I.A.

And this post: purely fluff, I'm warning you now. Just popping in to say: "I haven't died, I'm on vacation, I'm lazy, new knitting is coming, please forgive me".

By way of apology, please enjoy these adorable animals in knitwear:




(this guinea pig is enough to make me change my mind about crochet...er, yeah.)









All images courtesy of cuteoverload.com, naturally. If you've never been on that site something is seriously wrong with you. I am pretty much obsessively there on a weekly basis. (Maybe the problem is mine?...I also subscribe to Maru's blog). Ok, confession time: lately my cuteness obsession has extended to "favouriting" cute bunny photos on flickr. I am obviously a softie at heart.

like this:

(flickr i.d: Little Bay Poo)

and this:



But then that would be me getting away from knitting...

If nothing else I can stop agonizing over what to knit as these sites have provided me with the perfect wedding shrug pattern:


kitteh shrug! (image also courtesy of cute overload)

Tommorrow I am off to soak up some cottage-style rays with my knitter-in-crime Julia. Par for the course we will likely obligingly pull out the knitting for 5 minutes before abandoning it all for beer, board games and charred veggie dogs.

Can't wait!

Sweet Marie, she knit something!

in an effort to try and get some of my knitting mojo BACK, I busted out a quick hat.



free pattern: Robin's egg blue hat from Rachel Lufer
yarn: leftover Patons Shetland Chunky in "wine" (less that 1 ball?)
needles: 5mm
vintage button from an antique sale.



At this point in my knitting career I have ENTIRELY too many hats. It's time to do a serious purge.

This one's very cute and is a great well-written pattern (and did I mention free?!), though kinda not really my style. I think it'll make an excellent gift, and I will likely stash-bust out a few more as prezzies. I've had a moratorium on all yarn purchases lately, due to some very recent (and questionable) spending on my part, so it's time I re-visisted the possible surprises in my stash anyway!


It's July? are you sure? My sister bought me that shirt at Giant Tiger for 4 bucks--I kind of feel a bit like I'm channeling Flight of the Conchords in it, but she bought it more as an homage to this (if you have some time and want a laugh, read the reviews on amazon.)

Ironic t-shirts aside, I wish I could chalk my non-attempts at knitting up to summer-time frolicking (in truth this is partly true) but mostly it is that my dreaded Carpel Tunnel has reared it's ugly head again. I'm hoping it'll all just heal up on it's own before it gets to the point that I need surgery or something.

I've really only started one new thing...



...and the times that I do pick it up are fleeting at best. It's another attempt at a wedding shrug, not unlike this one, so that's not very exciting.

I'm pretty much just countin' down the days until my summer vay-cay at this point.