Back at it

I have dipped into my collection of Palette, and now it is no longer complete.  On the other hand, Mike now has a hat.

Not Mike's Head

This is the Andean Chullo Hat from Knitpicks, and it is all I can do not to order the kit (now on sale!) to replenish my stash.  I fulled it in the drier after I washed it, as Mike didn’t want it too floppy.  Also, the fulling makes it a little thicker, the better with which to keep out the wind.

I asked Andy if he would like one, and who wouldn’t want to have one of these?

Imagine Andy's face here

 

No thank you, he says.  He would prefer a plain grey ribbed toque.  No turn-up cuff, no pattern, no colour, no texture.  This sounds like a project for someone else to knit.

So, after a two week fibre hiatus due to Christmas and a killer cold, I seem to have recovered.  I have to say that this Christmas was awesome.  Mike really surprised me with gifting, we had good food, we had time with family (although we are looking forward to sharing Christmas next year with the Calgary Contingent, including our grand-daughter, who will be 9 months old by then.  Yikes!), and the weather has been unseasonably mild.  While others may worry about why it’s so warm with no snow, I have come to understand that I can do nothing about it, so I am enjoying the weather while I can.  (It’s a lot easier to be understanding about the weather since we are heading south at the end of next week, so it can get as cold as it wants here any time until the end of February.)

Next time- I show you what arrived for me in the mail, and share why I should never say that I have enough hobbies already.

 

Almost Forgotten Accomplishments

While I’ve been quiet blog-wise this fall, knitting has happened.

I love this sweater.  The pattern is from here, and the yarn is Knitpicks Stroll sock yarn.  I can’t remember the colourway, (maybe Forest?) but the yarn aged in my stash nicely enough that it’s been discontinued.  I really like this yarn- it’s lovely to knit with, and the colour changes are “Goldilocks”; not too big, not too small, just right.  The back of the cardigan is seed stitch, and it’s just so darned cute!  All that’s needed is a little pair of pants, and in spite of the whole pinkness of the situation (the first tutu has been purchased.), I think at least one outfit in earth tones is a good idea.  (Especially if the little one has red hair like Dad.)

What else?

This little Pixie hood is also from the book noted above, and for the first time ever in my life is knit from the same yarn as the sample!  Knitpicks Imagination sock yarn, also a discontinued colourway, but I did have enough in my stash for the hood and this:

Also from the same book, this is a beaded shawl that went to my daughter-in-law for Christmas.  It blocked beautifully, and I was so overwhelmed by how nice it looked that I wrapped it up and sent it off without taking a picture.  Geoff has been instructed to get me a picture of it being modelled, so once I receive that I will post it.  I told Geoff that the picture can include pregnancy evidence or face, or not if they’re feeling shy.  (How shy can they be?  We got a framed copy of their first ultrasound picture.)

Other stuff:

I wove this wrap for Mike’s Auntie Peggy.  It’s Chunky Marble for warp and weft, and the colours turned out beautifully.  I was concerned that there might be some muddying or pooling but the Crafty Christmas Gods seemed to smile on me.

What else?

Glasses sock from the same book.  I lined them with cotton, but I wouldn’t recommend them for keeping your glasses safe at the bottom of your purse.  It was interesting to see how the colours behaved differently just changing the needle size by 1.

Uck- what a crappy picture.  Good thing I don’t take money from people to take their portraits.

What does one do with 65 grams of leftovers from 2 sunglasses socks?  One cranks out nearly 200 feet of icord (at least I think that’s how much it was), then one knits a trivet in seed stitch using fat needles, the size of which I cannot remember.

From the same book (can you spot the emerging theme?) is this scarf.  While I like the wool (Knitpicks stroll hand-paint) and I like the pattern, together they are both sort of lost.  Ah well, the subtleties won’t matter as much when it’s tucked around someone’s neck.

I actually broke down and knit something with my Koigu KPPPM (is that enough P’s?  I never know.)   While I now have no Koigu left in my stash (sad face), I do have this cute little ruffle.  It’s just right for inside my jean jacket.

Do you ever run into a ball of wool that has a mind of its own?  Of course you have.  I have a couple of balls that I thought would make a really cute little dress,  but after 7 tries on the hem, I realized that the wool has no intention of becoming that dress.  I have repurposed it as a sweater, and until I was hit by my own version of Christmas Madness, the wool seemed to be cooperating.  Sadly, the arrival of 120 balls of Palette seem to have pushed the little sweater to the back burner.  I intend to take it with me when I decamp to Buckeye in a couple of weeks, as well as my small loom,  there to give the old fibre mojo a much-needed shot in the arm.  The only thing left to do is to arrange for all the cold weather to happen here at home during February.  Oh yeah.  I guess I should take down the Christmas tree, too.

This being December 31st, I wish you all a Joyful and Prosperous New Year, with fibre, inspiration and time all in compatible measure.  Even though most of us have never met, I value each of you as a friend and co-conspirator.  Have a good one.  See you next year.

Late Christmas 2011 Edition

When Mike told me he had ordered my gift online, I suspected that he may have read one of my emails with the link to Knitpicks.  I was hoping for a sampler pack of Palette to use in my weaving adventures- it’s feltable, and comes in lots of colours.

When I came home today there was a box waiting for me.  Apparently it was delivered to the Freightliner dealership across from Mike’s business, and Mike was in receipt of a box of antique truck parts destined for Freightliner, so a hostage exchange  was arranged.

Anyways, here’s the sequence:

Seems like a big box for 30 balls of wool...

Take off the tape:

Hmmm. Doesn't look like any kind of colour theme emerging.

OMG.

Yup, the whole Magilla.

Wow.

From any angle, that’s a whole lotta wool.  120 balls of my favourite weight (fingering), 120 different colours,  and a feeling that I may have to take up fair isle knitting, or at the very least, stripes.  It’s going to find itself in a whole lot of weaving and felting, and I am officially labelling this as the Best Christmas Ever.  My husband- I think I’ll keep him.

Oh yeah, as an aside:  thanks Erin, for telling me how to get the @#!$%*** Angry Birds app off my iPad.  I’m going to remove it as soon as I pass all the levels.

 

ETA:  Something just occurred to me.  You know how there was always a kid on the first day of school who, regardless of what the supply list said, showed up with the ultra-super-deluxe-jumbo special set of pencil crayons and you only had a set of 12 or 24?  I just realized that after 53 years on the planet, I am finally that kid.  Yay!

 

 

‘Twas the day after Christmas

Well, here it is chez Under Sask Skies, and another Christmas has come and gone.  It was , par usual, quiet and uneventful (no trips to the emergency room, no  one vomiting) and we all had a good time.  Mike tells me that the gift he ordered online is floating around in the Canadian postal system (doubtless seeing all corners of the country that I have yet to visit) so my Christmas will continue on until all the mail has been delivered.  I am also waiting for some stick shuttles for a weaving project I am tap dancing around, but that’s not as exciting as a mysterious gift that Mike picked out with only a bit of guidance from me.  He did give me an iPad on which I am two-finger typing right now.  The only thing I am missing is my older son to be on call for the first year to help me navigate.  At first glance the much-vaunted App store is full of lots of apps for which I have no use, don’t need, or can’t understand.   Does anyone have any suggestions for some useful (read: not Angry Bird) apps that might entertain or educate me?  Fibre-related is an option, but not strictly a necessity.

Knitting has been on hiatus for the last week or so.  Does that make me a fake knitter?  I know I’m supposed to be knitting frantically until the wee smalls on the 24th, but I was too busy  with family.  There’s lots on the needles, and lots lined up in my mental queue, so once I stop eating sugar and get some much-needed sleep, fibre activity will re-commence.

 

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, or whatever, and do let’s keep in touch in 2012.  Oh,  right, communication is by definition is two-way, so I’ll pull up my socks and “talk” to you soon.  Happy New Year!

Excuse du jour, in which I channel A.A. Milne

GON OUT
BACKSON
BISY
BACKSON
C.R.

Excuse du jour

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

 

I have, however, put a few projects up on my Rav page.

Hiding

I haven’t really been hiding.  I’ve been knitting and weaving and all manner of things. (Note:  ”All manner of things” does not include any early Christmas shopping.  I may boycott the whole economic stimulus thing this year.) Tomorrow’s project will be to take pictures by way of proving the reason for my blog absence, and then actually posting them on this blog for posterity.

Watch for it!

Spring Cleaning

Whoa!  What’s this in the corner, underneath all that stuff?  Wait, let me move some of this out of the way, and…no, wait, well I’ll be.  It’s a sad, forlorn, forgotten-looking sorry kind of a thing.  I think it’s, yes!  It’s my blog!

Poor Under Sask Skies.  I’ve managed somehow to push it out of my consciousness, and yet it was there the whole time.  I apologize to my blog, and my two readers who may still be out there.  This kind of incommunicado-ism can be forgiven if the end result was that I have written the Great Novel, or trekked around the world, or spent the last several months designing wondrous knitted and woven items, but I really have been doing none of the above.

One of the things that has grabbed my focus has been my newest knitting book:

This may just be my favourite book of all time.  I certainly have tried more patterns from it than from any other book I have owned.  The fact that I have ahem, quite a lot of sock yarn in the stash has been helpful.   Since I seem to have forgotten how to use a camera, I don’t have pictures of everything I’ve done, but here’s one example:

You may notice that these socks are quite small. Each pair takes around 20 grams of yarn, which I generally have left over after a pair of adult socks. I have also done a couple of sweaters (very small) from the book, as well as a little hood and a little toque.  I even did a big person’s scarf, which I may try to remember to get a photo of before it is gifted.   This is a great book.  We loves it.

Not to be constrained by my library, I took advantage of a great pattern on Ravelry, and came up with these:

I love these booties because they also take 20 grams of sock yarn, and the best thing of all, there are no seams to sew afterwards.  Rumour has it that they stay on small feet, but we’ll have to wait until March to test that theory.

Since not everything needs to be knit from sock yarn, may I present this:

This is a Sirdar pattern, details of which can be found on my Ravelry page.  I hope that when it fits the intended recipient, it will not be in the heat of the summer.  Ah well, it should fit someone sometime.

Further to the whole intended-recipient-thing, I spoke with my son and daughter-in-law on the weekend, and was told that I can now focus my wool-buying on pink, and my knitting on little girly things.  So much for selfish knitting.

I am currently basking under Arizona skies, being midway through my solo week before Mike joins me.  Just so he doesn’t think I’m only down here having barrels of fun, I washed windows and screens this morning.  The party never stops.   I am halfway through season 3 of Criminal Minds (my current “crack cocaine” television watching), and working on some other knitting, so life is good.  Warm weather, the prospect of some good company (and perhaps romance?  Mike, are you listening?), cheap wine and tequila, wool and needles. What could be better?  I love my life.

Kinda sad here at Under Sask Skies.  A week ago tonight I was the victim of a senseless (and I do mean totally senseless.  I’m talkin’ strange, nay, alien, neuron firings) crime.

Firstly, we’re all okay- physically, that is.  Mike got up Saturday morning and found that as usual, he had left his car unlocked on the driveway, and someone had emptied out his glove box and his console, and spread papers everywhere.  In spite of the fact that he had a $600.00 radar detector in the console, and almost $2000.00 worth of golf clubs in the back, and several dollars in parking meter change, nothing was taken.  Two points must be made here:  There would be no need for a radar detector if he would just drive close to the speed limit and enjoy the journey, and I know we should park the vehicles in the garage, but there’s no room and that’s a story for another day.

Back to the story: My car was also rifled (I guess I should lock my doors, but at least there was no damage to the car), and at first glance there was nothing missing.  Fast forward to Tuesday night.  Mike was out at a soccer game, and I realized that I had forgotten to bring in the dry cleaning I had picked up Friday afternoon.  As soon as I thought of it, I had a sinking feeling in my gut.  Sure enough, there was nothing hanging in the car.  The little hook was still down, as if to say “Yes, you did pick up the dry cleaning, and it was hanging here.”, but a frantic careful search of the house revealed nothing.  (I deluded myself initially that perhaps Mike had brought in the cleaning and hung it up.  Right, like that would ever happen.)  It was gone.

So, what did we lose that was so devastating?  Well, for starters, Mike had just bought a new sport coat to celebrate a substantial weight loss, and had worn it twice while we were on holidays.  More importantly, because it was mine, was the loss of my mother-of-the-groom dress that I wore to Geoff’s wedding.  I had just had it shortened, and it still fit, and I loved that dress.  And now, it’s gone.  (I told Mike that if Andy gets married I will have to get a new dress, but truth be told, I would have anyways.)

Oh, and because there are no pictures of Mike and me with Geoff and Courtney,

But I digress.

My neighbor’s truck was gone through, and all he lost was a pair of sunglasses.  That I get-they were Oakleys- but who the hell steals dry cleaning?

I should be glad that it was not a home invasion.  If I feel this shitty about a silly dress (even though I looked spectacular in it) I am sure that if we were broken into I would have to move.  All I can do (after filing an insurance claim with Visa for the sport coat) is assume that someone badly needed a cocktail dress and a little beaded jacket and a sport coat for a very important cocktail party.  It’s only stuff and life goes on.

But I’m still sad.

My knees hurt.

We rented a nail gun- fun is my middle name- and installed baseboards in the basement yesterday.  The mitre saw was on the floor, and the baseboards were-of course- on the floor, and in spite of the cushy underlay and the new carpet, when you’re as old as Mike and me, more than a few minutes kneeling is too much.

So, to add injury to injury, today I put some shelving together.  Here’s where I started this morning:

That’s my Uncle Hap’s old trunk.  It smells like an old trunk, so I don’t open it, but I love that it has his name scratched on the top.  He was my mother’s only sibling and we lost him eleven years ago.  I still find myself thinking some Sunday evenings “I should just give Uncle Hap a call”, and then I remember that he’s gone.  I smile though, because he was a pleasant man and a gentle man, and family meant a lot to him, especially in his later years.

Later in the day, the view progressed to:

I knew I wanted wooden shelves, and rather than risk marital discord by insisting that we stop at Ikea on holidays to buy shelves there, I sourced some out at the local RONA store, and 80 screws later and more abuse on my knees, I have shelving.  The rug I bought at Pier 1 when I worked there many years ago.  I noticed the label warned that there could be dye transfer if it got wet, but we are supremely confident that that could never happen.

At the end of the afternoon, I foolishly accepted Mike’s offer to help me move things from the office upstairs to the new Playroom in the basement.  I don’t think he had any idea how many little bins of fibre were living in the closet of the home office. (He did say something about getting not needing to feel bad about buying that new 3 wood he’s been eyeing up.  I think he should go for it, because he needs encouragement in his hobbies, and he certainly isn’t going to knit.  Just like I’m not going to golf.  We have reached an Understanding.)  I just tell him that I am my own personal economic stimulus program.  I haven’t moved any weaving paraphernalia except my tapestry loom, as I still have to install a work surface in the old closet, but at suppertime tonight here’s what one end of the room looked like:

It's mostly sock yarn and laceweight. Not a big stash by some people's standards, is it?

I have lots more to do, since I have been waiting and planning for this for 11 months.  It’s very exciting.  I almost don’t want to go on holidays next week.  But go on holidays we shall, to visit family in the Okanagan (interior of BC for those who might not be familiar with our western Canadian geography) with a side trip to Quebec City for a weekend right in the middle of the BC trip.  Not exactly on the way, but Mike won a free trip, so I’ll go.  We’ve always wanted to see Quebec City anyways.  Then it will be home again, and finishing touches on Judy’s “I can’t believe it’s actually finished” Playroom.

Thanks for all the encouraging words over the last year.  It’s been a bugger getting all the yardwork and interior work done (outside is not quite there, but we can see light at the end of the tunnel), but in the end, we’re happy with the results and hope that we’ll never have water issues in this house again.

I will post soon about some rather interesting knitting I’ve been doing.

***Oh yeah.  We also got the treadmill and the Bowflex set up in the other room.  But that’s exercise, so who cares?