2010 Goals - Knitting and Otherwise

Knit some lace - in lace weight yarn. Note - may have to work up to this...errrr...down I guess really. Meghan (of 'Stitch It' podcast fame) likens it to knitting with nose hair. We shall see. My one attemp at knitting in lace weight was an unmitigated failure, but that may have to do with the fact that I was too cocky to use a life line. Won't be making that mistake again.

1. Knit more EZ patterns. (That would be knitting royalty Elizabeth Zimmerman to you non knitters out there). I've been lucky enough to acquire 2 more of EZ's books in 2009. My hope is to have the all some day. I now have 3. I've knit only 4 of her patterns so far. A baby surprise jacket, 2 pairs of mitered mittens, 1 ganomy hat, and one baby surplice jacket. She was brilliant. I want to make a tomten jacket and maybe the seamless hybrid sweater in the future.
2. Continue exploring colourwork. 2009 was a good year for colourwork for me. I am now a convert. I want to continue in this vein and perhaps even knit a full adult sized fair isle sweater.
3. Blog more and include more photos of non knitting stuff. I'm not a photographer and I'm not about to convince myself that its something that I'd like to do or even be able to do well. But, I am living in one of the most pristine places on the planet. I'm not sure for how much longer I can continue to say that sadly. Development is occuring here at too rapid a pace. I'd like to document some of the beauty of Labrador for the next generation to see.
4. Get rid of some of the crap in my home. I'm a pack rat. I've come to terms with it, but the time has come to start getting rid of some stuff. I'm running out of room for my yarn. My china cabinet could really hold alot of yarn. Right now its full of a bunch of crap that is of no value to me - sentimental or monetary. And imagine how pretty a china cabinet full of yarn will look. Especially all the handspun thats tucked away.
5. Knit with my handspun. Really, there is too much of it tucked away. Its too, too precious not to be doing something with it. Even if it is, displaying it in my china cabinet and admiring it. There is a new knitty pattern called 'King of Confidence', that is just calling out to me.

So, that about sums up what I'd like to accomplish in the upcoming year. In keeping with goal #5 here are some photos that I took while at my cabin this weekend. It was pretty frosty.

Happy New Year.

Can you believe its 2010? Not me. Well, I'm not too sorry to see 2009 go. It hasn't been kind to us really, at least the last month. Mr. C is no longer with us. He passed away on Dec 26. He was a kind and gentle soul. I will miss his laughter and his wit. The world is a sadder place without him.

A lot of knitters will chose to cast on a big project at the start of 2010 and this year I decided to do the same. I got 'The Knitter's Book of Wool' for Christmas, and I was anxious to start a new project. I will be making Pam Allen's Comfi Carigan. This cardigan appeals to me as a knitter and as someone who wears a cardigan every single day. I'm making this in Knitpicks City Tweed HW in the colour marsh.

The construction is interesting as it starts from the center back and is worked outwards. The yarn is really lovely to work with. I'm hoping it will wear well, unlike the knitpicks swish that pilled like a son of a bitch after a couple of wears.

Here is what I have so far.



A close up of the tweedy yarn. I just love tweeds.

Can't Believe that I haven't blogged this...

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My friend Sheryl got married! I was the MC for her wedding. I'm not sure how I got talked into it, but it went something like it being an honour, and there isn't a whole lot that I wouldn't do for Sheryl etc. And it was August when she asked and November seemed such a long way away, and it seemed as though I would have plenty of time to prepare. Well, needless to say I was up until 1am the night before, putting finishing touches on my speeches, jokes, toasts etc. 1am is late for me. Somehow, I also volunteered to make a wrap for her, because, lets face it...Labrador in November is pretty freaking cold. I also volunteered Jess to do half of the knitting on the wrap.

Sheryl picked out this pattern herself. Its called 'Deciduous' by Sheepy Time knits. The good thing about this pattern that worked well for 2 person knitting is that is it knit for the center outwards using a provisional cast on. So, I knit one side, then handed it off to Jess to knit the other. Jess had a little trouble getting our tensions to match, but did so well enough that only a seasoned kntter would notice. We had a funny conversation at work that went some thing like, "I'm loose, but Jess is looser" Dirty minds had a great chuckle at that. I also worried that white leaves would look like feathers and Sheryl might look like a giant partridge. But not so, Jess thinks the leaves look like frost in white. I agree.

In any case Sheryl was very pleased with the wrap. It is now carefully folded and lovingly put away, while her wedding dress remains in a heap on her bedroom floor.

Many Mittens

Karen and I have been very busy getting ready for 2 craft sales. They are both fundraisers for girl guides. We are going to Gander next October for the Guiders conference once again. We weren't planning on going, but 2010 will be 100 years of guiding in Canada and the celebration is supposed to be huge. We are not ones to miss out on a good party.

Julie donated an old wool camp blanket to us. Karen sewed up the mittens and I knit the cuffs (pattern can be found here http://www.purlbee.com/felt-mittens-with-knitted-cuff/ at the purlbee) And we both needle felted on the designs.

The mittens were a hit. We sold each and every last pair, and I also have 3 more pairs that I haven't found the time to knit the cuffs on. We are having another sale in February. And guess what? We still wear mittens here in February. I can so picture some nice heart themed mittens for V day.

Here is a close up of my favorite ones (that is the favorites of the ones I made. Karen, though new to needlefelting has a great eye for these things, and all of hers are my favorites)

Breast Cancer Scarf

I bought this kit from Jimmy Beans Wool. Its the first time I've ever shopped there and I was curious as to how it would go. They were fast, and the shipping was reasonable. I will likely be buying from them again.

The first thing you have to do with this kit is to cut the yarns for the fringe. The kit is 5 different pink yarns held together. Its a simple lace pattern knit on size 19!!! needles. It was a bit like knitting with turkey basters. It was super fast, and I think the results are quite nice.

$5 from the sale of this kit go to support Breast Cancer charities. I'm going to donate the finished scarf to our local Cancer society. Every Christmas they hold a soiree. They have a silent auction and there are usually loads of local items that have been donated. This time I'm going to have something there too. I'm curious as to how much it will bring in.


Its going to be kind of hard to give up really. I think it looks quite stunning with my black jacket.

Adventures in Felting

I've been wanting to make myself a pair of hand knit slippers for sometime now. We have very little carpet in our home - mostly tile and hardwood. In the Labrador winter this can lead to very cold toes. In my quest for the perfect hand knit slipper I came across this little gem of a pattern called French Press Felted Slippers. The pattern can be found on raverly and is worth every penny. I sometimes find that felting patterns can be so unpredictable. And slipper patterns often may look cute, but be so impractical. But these are cute and practical. They stay on over the heel and they felted to just the right size after two washes in my front loading washer. And let me tell you, they were huge. I jokingly showed them to Kev prefelting and told him that I thought there must be an error in the pattern because they came out a little (a little!!) to big. Try 42cm long. See??? Huge.


But boy, oh boy are they ever cute. I'm wearing them now. I'm debating a little needle felting to embelish them a bit, but for now, I'll leave well enough alone because they are just so cute!!

This is what happens when we buy a skidoo

Seriously. I know that we pretty much live north of everywhere. Not quite north of 60 but pretty darn close. We bought a new snowmobile yesterday. Kev promptly comes home and checks out the weather channel. He tells me (I thought jokingly) that we were gonna have 30cm of snow. Not joking! (Oh, and isn't Morgan just the cutest thing with his new haircut?!)


All of this snow has put me in a mitten mood. Considering all the other moods that I could have chosen from, I'd say a mitten mood is pretty good. Then again, I'm always in a mitten mood. They remain my most favorite thing to knit. I'm thinking the second pair my end up being sent to Warm Hands.

The fair isle mitten is called 'Fiddlehead' mittens. I bought these from Tanis fiber arts off of etsy. I love her yarn. I've bought several skeins from Mouline in Montreal. The pattern is from Hello Yarn. I've been coveting the pattern for quite some time now. When I saw the pairing of one of my favorite yarns with this beautiful pattern, I just couldn't resist. These will be mine. The great thing about these mittens are that they are fully lined. Essentially like knitting two pairs of mittens, but oh so warm.

The second mitten is called 'Mittens Interupted'. They are an Interweave pattern written by Eunny Jang. I've been meaning to knit these for some time too, but never had the correct yarn. I got a knitpick order this week and it had some Wool of the Andes Bulky. So, I cast on right away. Two pairs of mittens on the go at once. One pair is TV knitting (specifically Criminal Minds, my new favorite). The second pair requires a little more concentration. I must admit to enjoying both patterns immensly. Enough to knit them again maybe. (Easy to say that when I've only gotten about 1 mitten done on each right?) Isn't that slipped stitch pattern very sharp looking? There is not much stretch to it. Its almost like a woven fabric. But very dense and warm. Great for all that snow.