Fall in Full Colour

I am really enjoying Ann Hanson's Fall in Full Colour Club.

I've been pretty monogamous with knitting the first project. Its called Longshawdows, which is a great name since the colours do look like shawdows. Here is my progress so far.

It is such a great lace pattern and the yarn is stunning! This yarn is a custom blend made for club members by Spirit Trail Fiberworks. Its a laceweight merino, cashmere and silk blend.

I've also received my second shipment. I love this one too. Here is Morgan modelling it, since he thinks it looked like hair.

The pattern for this yarn is a triangular shawlette - which I love knitting. I'm resisting casting on until I finish the first one.

And in family news....guess who started hockey this week??

Too big!

Random Saturday

I was thinking of having regular blog segments. Things like

* Favorite Thing Friday (where I'd write about something I really, really like or I'm really into at the moment, something like Meghan of 'Stitch it' podcast fame

* Spinning Wednesday (where I'd talk about fiber and what I'm spinning or maybe why I like one wheel, or one spindle)

* Yarnie Thursday (where I'd feature a new yarn I've tried and do a review of it)

I think this is a great idea and would likely get me blogging on a more regular basis, I just can't seem to get my s@#t together and do it. So, here is my favorite thing Friday - except its Saturday.

My favorite thing this week is homemade yogurt. All the ladies that I work with make it. I didn't think it was worth the trouble, though I was intrigued with the idea. Then last weekend, Kevin came down with a severe dental infection and was on IV antibiotics. I was so scared of c. diff infection. (I personally know someone with resistant c. diff and I really didn't want that for Kev) I became obsessed with feeding him yogurt and lots of it. But I think he was getting bored with it. This coincided with Courtney bringing me some of her handmade yogurt to try. Oh my!!! It was so delicious. I tried it right away.

Here is the recipe that I used. Super easy and great results! Next time I will leave it for longer than their recommended 7 hours. Courtney and Charlotte and Mehrnaz all leave theirs for 24 hours to get a thicker yogurt. But first I have to eat the litre that I made. Not too hard when it looks like this.

Spectra

Here it is...another Stephen West design. Obsessed much? Well yes, I believe I am. Lol. Make no wonder, just look at this stuff that he comes up with. Unbelievably simple, yet so effective.

Its knit in Berocco's Ultra Alpaca Fine and Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. I really enjoyed knitting this. I knit quite a bit while travelling to Toronto earlier this summer and vowed I'd knit until the yarn ran out - so its quite long.

I decided to lay it out on the piano so you could see the length of it. I highly recommend this pattern. It curves around the neck in such a nice way. There are endless possibilities in how to wear it.

Mystery solved

I just finished up Clue 4 of the West knits mystery knit a long. I'm super happy with the result and am wearing it now as I type. Fall comes quickly to the big land. I'll be wearing it outside soon enough.

It is quite large - about 190cm in wingspan and 60cm deep. I love the colours too. Next up, my Knitspot club knitting.

In other news, I did squeak in knitting a bit of handspun - as was my knitting resolutions this year. This pattern is a freebie called Lychee mittens. A simple knitted mitten pattern with a few stripes thrown in for good measure. I knit a pair for each of my students this year. I think the handspun makes them even more special

I've finally lost my mind!

Let me warn you all first that if any readers are participating in Westknits mystery knitalong ...there are spoilers in this blog post!!!

Okay, now that formality is out of the way, let me go on to tell you why I feel that I've finally lost it. Kev and I just got back from a trip to Toronto!! We had such a great time. We went to two Blue Jays games. Saw the musical "Billy Elliot". Went to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and had our pictures taken with the Stanley Cup!! We ate at some great restaurants and did a little shopping! And I even got to go yarn shopping!! Surprised? No, I didn't think so. Here is what I bought.

Yeah, thats a lot of yarn!! It cost surprisingly less than I had thought it would. There are some yarns there that are totally new to me - yarns that I've never tried before, but have always wanted to try out. And there are some old favorites. There is even a sweaters worth of Cascade 220 in the greatest green colourway ever - destined to become some unknown cabled hoodie. I'll figure out the pattern at some time in the future. Knowing me, it'll be like 2 years into the future, but the way I look at it, I'm saving up all this knitting for my retirement.

I bought all of this yarn at a place called Romni. Let me tell you, this place is stocked. Overstocked in fact. A lot of my friends on Ravelry recommended this place to me, and I'm so so glad that I went, but... the day that we went was sooo humid and hot. And this store is so crowded and big and not air conditioned. It was really difficult to make my way around. So I basically made one sweep through, without really thinking about what I might like to make, and this is what I walked out with. I didn't even look at the books and magazines (of which there appeared to be plenty)

In other news, I was so excited to sign up for a Stephen West mystery Knit along. I've praised this man's genius on the blog before, so its no surprise that when this opportunity came up, I signed up right away. The first mystery knit along that I did was by Lee Meridith and I loved it! It was so much fun that I knew I would definitely enjoy Stephen West's KAL too.

So far, Mr West has not disappointed me! Here are my results to date.

Oh and did I mention that I ordered the yarn from 'A Good Yarn'? And did I mention that Jenny helped me pick out the colours? And did I mention that I couldn't decide on a colour so I bought enough yarn for two shawls? Is the title of the blog post starting to become clearer? No? Well, the cincher for me would have to be, when I got home from Toronto there was a package in the mail. A package from Knitspot!!

Apparently, I signed up (and paid for!) a six month club membership and totally forgot about it! I must be crazy, right?

There is Nothing Cuter...

Than crafty kids.

Here the boys are stringing beads for necklaces for their moms. Morgan strung half dozen or so then got completely bored with it, but Max wanted to keep going and make necklaces for his nan and me and every other female he knows. Too cute!

Its August?

I don't know what it is about summer, but its like we are in some sort of time warp. I don't know if time speeds up in the Northern hemisphere, or is it just that our summers are so darned short. In anycase, I cannot believe that its August already. Only 8 more sleeps and I'm heading to Toronto!!! Hurrah...yarn shopping anyone?

In the meantime, I finished up some more Tour de Fleece yarn. Sadly, my Tour was way less productive than in previous years. I think it was because I was suddenly unexplainably smitten with my spindle. Go figure, and I have two wheels.

Jess was in town for the month of July. It was so great to see her and talk knitter with her. I had almost forgotten our language. Lol...good thing that I have ravelry and that I went to the spinning workshop. And Jess has finished her Sylvi. I was so impressed with it that I took pictures. This is in part to show off her mad skills and to pressure myself into at least casting on for Sylvi. I've had the yarn for close to two years now. Shame.