Friday 30 December 2016

Final Socks

The final completed project for 2016 is a pair of socks for my Nephew. His birthday isn't until February so I'm totally ahead of the game. For now. I don't think he's reading this blog, he's a bit young for it yet, so I'm going to go ahead and post about his socks. If he is reading this I guess he'll have to pretend to be surprised on his birthday. Or not, as receiving socks from me on one's birthday is hardly Earth shattering news.

Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia 4-fädig 4-Ply Solids in Green and Purple
Pattern: Improvised
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 41 stitches/4 inches

As requested, "green with maybe purple"
The colours in the socks are actually much darker than they appear in the picture above.

Now I will have to cast on my Niece's socks right away and try to stay ahead of the game. If so maybe I'll manage to make my Time Traveler socks this year. Such excitement.

Current Weather
-4C and partly cloudy.

Monday 26 December 2016

Birthday Socks

Yep, more socks completed. Super boring men's socks for my Dad. What is it about men and colour? Or rather, the lack thereof. This is the first time I've made socks with this yarn and it is definitely workhorse yarn, it's a bit thicker than most sock yarn I use, and I found it a bit scratchy. Won't matter for my Dad though, he's indifferent to scratchy socks.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Patons North America Kroy Socks 4 Ply in Flax and Gentry Grey
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 36 st/4 inches


Friday 23 December 2016

Yarning

Went to The Knitting Room today to see about some yarn for my Nephew's socks, he's asked for "green with maybe purple". Very metro. Not that I told him that, I wouldn't want to discourage a love of bright colours especially in a nearly tween boy. I did succeed in finding both green and purple so I'm set there.

I also found a lot of other lovely yarn so I treated myself for Christmas, in fact I purchased yarn for a total of five more pairs of socks and only one of those might be for me. You know you love knitting when you consider purchasing a load of yarn, almost none of it destined to be worn by yourself, and consider it a Christmas gift to yourself. Naturally, I didn't think to take group picture before storing it all away. I did however take individual shots for Ravelry, not posting all the individual pics here though.

Made excellent progress on Dad's socks over the past few days. In fact I've finished the first sock already. Considering how slowly the last two pairs have gone I'm thinking I might have my sock mojo back. Here's hoping anyway. Of course, this does mean that I've knitted pretty much nothing else lately. It's a balancing act. I really miss commuting to work via transit; I got so much sock knitting done on the train. Sigh. I'm off work until next year now so I have great plans for a sock knitting/Netflix marathon.

And just in case I'm not back before December 25:


Current Weather
-5C and snowing. It's been snowing all day.

Friday 16 December 2016

Birthday Socks

Finally finished Mom's Birthday Socks. Her birthday was on Dec. 10. She's presently in Scotland.

Meh, they'll be here when she gets home.

Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock
Pattern: Improvised basic sock
Needle: 2.0mm
Gauge: 41 stitches over 4 inches


Now to cast on Dad's Birthday Socks. His birthday is Jan. 11. He's also in Scotland. Fingers crossed they'll be done when they get back.

Sunday 4 December 2016

Bear With Me

I finished a bear this weekend. I think she's a girl bear but my Wee Niece may decide on something else. Who knows with kids. Made her vest in bright red so she's nice and cheerful. She's pictured below with the snow that has been falling all morning. I was not venturing outside for her photo so she's just in the window. The vest is not part of the bear so I predict lots of fun while my Wee Niece takes off the vest and an adult gets to put it back on for her over and over and over again. If I get ambitious I will knit another vest or two in different colours.

Pattern: Magic Loop Teddy by Julie Tarsha
Yarn: Loops & Threads Impeccable Big Solids in Cream for the bear and Loops & Threads Impeccable Brights in Red Hot for the vest
Needle: 4.0mm (for the bear) and 5.0mm (for the vest)
Gauge: not critical


Current Weather
-4C and snowing. We're actually under a snow advisory, which means we're expected to get over 10cm in less than 12 hours.

Saturday 19 November 2016

Hudson Bay Wallaby

OK, didn't see that coming. I also finished the Hudson Bay Wallaby for my Wee Niece today. I suspect this will be too big for her for a while yet so I haven't decided if I'm going to send it over for this Christmas or not. The yarn came from my Mom's stash, she had made a baby blanket from it and there was plenty left over. Still is as a matter of fact.

Pattern: The Wonderful Wallaby
Yarn: Loops and Threads Impeccable Big
Needle: 5.0mm
Gauge: 18 stitches = 10 cm

Cue the cuteness

Wee Mauve Wallaby

Finished a wee mauve Wanda Wallaby for my Wee Niece. I really hope it fits but just in case I might make a slightly larger one as well. I'm totally paranoid about making kids sweaters too small. With the predictable result that I tend to make them far too large. Well, at least kids are more inclined to grow rather than shrink.

Pattern: The Wonderful Wallaby
Yarn: Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Big!
Needle: 4.0mm
Gauge: 22 stitches and 30 rows = 10 cm

Cuteness alert!


Current Weather
-2C and mostly cloudy. It's been unseasonably warm for a few weeks. But it looks like Winter has arrived at last.

Saturday 12 November 2016

Stop the presses

OK, so there's this slight issue with the Hudson Bay Inspired Wonderful Wallaby.

It's far too big for my Wee Niece.

It sure is cute though

Now, this isn't to say it won't fit her someday, that's kinda the beauty of small children..... they grow. However, I'd like her to be able to wear something from me a smidgen sooner.

So, I have decided to knit a smaller Wallaby for her. The catch is that the other one is already the smallest size written. I'm improvising with a DK weight yarn. It'll be fine.

I plan to hold on to the bigger Wallaby and give it to her later. Either this summer when they come to visit or maybe next Christmas.

I'm now in an even greater frenzy of knitting to get the second Wallaby done before Mom and Dad leave for their Christmas visit. Otherwise I'd have to pay for shipping. No pressure.

Wee sleeves

Friday 11 November 2016

Lest we forget

In Flanders Fields
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915 during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium

Tuesday 1 November 2016

Red Alert!!!!

A sweater is urgently needed to be sent to Scotland for Christmas!

I think My Mom thinks a Hudson Bay inspired Wonderful Wallaby is in order for my Wee Niece. This means I'm dropping everything else and power knitting a sweater. Fortunately it's a small sweater. Pictures once I have some.

Monday 24 October 2016

Finishing

Finishing anything is proving elusive lately. The cotton hoodie just isn't going to work, I give up. At last, I stuck with this far, far too long.

Mom's birthday socks just won't finish themselves. Probably because I haven't been knitting them lately. I'm sure there's no correlation.

My blue sweater got frogged and restarted. Again. Urgh, I really hope this time it works.

I have managed a couple Christmas things. So far that's the only bright spot.

Other Stuff

I purchased a sheep skin for the critters. So far Soccer likes it best. In fact he growled at Squish for walking too close to it. No pictures of that unfortunately.

Here's Squish enjoying it before Soccer took over:


Mouse wasn't quite sure she trusted it yet:


Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 3C.

Tuesday 11 October 2016

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

It snowed.

On Thanksgiving Weekend no less. Urgh. And it's staying cold for the next several days. This could be it until Spring.

And I looked at a calendar and realized I need to get moving if I'm going to finish knitting Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephew. No pictures for the obvious reason that the older two are getting to be old enough to surf the 'net.

Did I mention that it snowed?

Knitting

Things continue, I cast on socks for my Mom and I really need to finish them as quickly as I can and not just because her birthday's at the beginning of December.

I restarted the sleeves for my blue sweater and I may frog them and do them again as I don't like the way they're coming out the second time either.

I think I salvaged the cotton sweater and am working better with the gauge on it.

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy -1C. And there's snow on the ground.

Sunday 18 September 2016

A Scent Hurdle Day

Ahab rocked the Sent Hurdling on Saturday afternoon. He struggled a lot in the morning but that was not unexpected by me or anyone else on the team due to the fact that we were running outside on grass and he's never done that before.

We tried to schedule some outdoor practices this summer but every time we ended up cancelling due to a thunderstorm. Not unusual for summer in this part of the world but frustrating never the less. Unfortunately, this did mean that Ahab never got a chance to learn to play Scent Hurdle on grass. Wonderful, distracting grass; it has so many lovely smells......

It was clear from the beginning that Ahab was having a hard time understanding that he was there to play Scent Hurdle and not to sniff the grass. However, as a team we decided to let him keep trying. There are not many sports you can play with your dog that will tolerate, much less encourage, you to train your dog during an event, this is just another reason to love Scent Hurdle. This did mean that everyone else on my team had to sacrifice the chance at points for their dogs and I'm very grateful that they did because after a few runs with me going with him to the box it suddenly clicked for him. Ahab is like that, when he "gets" something it's like a switch goes off in his brain.

The first time he managed a clean run everyone; and I mean everyone on my team, on the other team we were racing against (they had finished their run), and all the spectators watching gave him a big cheer. It was extremely touching. There might have been a tear in my eye; it could have been the wind.

Knitting
Not much to report on the knitting front. Progress continues on the Cotton Hoodie, a blue sweater, a pair of socks, and a vest. But, not enough for interesting pictures.

Current Weather
15C and mostly cloudy. Fall is in the air and all the leaves are turning. Soon it will be winter again.

Wednesday 31 August 2016

Firecracker

Yeah, yeah; I was that creative and named the sweater for the colourway of the yarn. Bite me.

The picture shows the unblocked sweater so I'll still be able to tweak the fit slightly before wearing it. However, I absolutely love how this turned out, it's wonderfully soft and looks nifty with the tweeding (is that a word? it should be) in the fabric. This was another seamless bottom-up sweater as per EZ. No stitch pattern or anything as I quite like plain, simple sweaters. Plus, they're great for TV watching.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tweed in Firecracker
Needle: 2.75mm
Gauge: 31 stitches and 37 rows = 10 cm

Unblocked Firecracker


Didn't feel like I was playing with fire quite so much with this sweater, I had nearly an entire ball of yarn left at the end. Although my yarn scale says I used almost 11 balls but I know I only bought 10 and there's plenty left. Weird.

I want to do at least one more before taking a break from these. Trouble is, if I stop I may not come back to them and I have three more planned at this time. May just have to power through all three to make sure they get done. I think I'll do blue next; my favorite colour is blue and guess what colour of sweater I knit the least for myself? Yep, blue.

Current Weather
22C and partly cloudy.

Looks like summer is drawing to a close; the weekend is supposed to be pretty miserable.

Saturday 20 August 2016

A Dragon

I finished knitting a dragon today. Heh, that's definitely a nifty sentence.

The picture doesn't show it well but he yarn is very sparkly so he shimmers a bit when the light moves. This yarn is a bit scratchy but I think it makes for a fine dragon. They're supposed to have scales after all. Some of the dragons made from this pattern have contrast coloured spines and wings but I decided to make him a solid. I have a feeling I'll make this pattern many more times as it is just so darn cute. Maybe future dragons will have contrasting colours.

Pattern: Tarragon the Gentle Dragon by Knit-a- Zoo
Yarn: Unknown Sparkly Red from the Stash
Needle: 3.25mm
Guage: not critical but you want it to be fairly tight.

A Dragon!
Other projects are continuing. Firecracker is about half done and I can't wait to have a chance to wear it. It's wonderfully soft. I have to keep reminding myself that summer doesn't last long and they'll be plenty of time to wear sweaters. Sometimes is surprisingly hard. This has been a wonderful project for watching the Olympics with as it's all stockinette stitch in the round. Lovely.

Pennants continues as well but it involves counting so progress is slow during the Olympics when knitting and TV watching must go together.

Not sure if I'm going to finish the cotton sweater; something about the gauge is not working for me.

And socks are at an awful low spot.

Current Weather
Cloudy and 24C.

It's been a few days without rain which has been unusual for the past few weeks. Hopefully the farmers can harvest.

Friday 29 July 2016

Plugging Along

Progress continues on a few things.

The Pennants Blue Vest:

Not that you can see the pennants yet, post blocking they'll show up.

The Cotton Hoodie:

Boring, but will likely be worn to death.

And another light weight sweater, Firecracker:

Hot stuff!

Terribly slow progress on the current socks so no picture of them.

Current Weather
Mostly sunny, 13C.

Wow, stayed in double digits overnight. That's warm for around here.

Wednesday 27 July 2016

The Math Was Right

This

30g

is what I had left after finishing this

Unblocked Hazelnut
What a relief, I was very worried I wouldn't have enough yarn to complete Hazelnut but I ended up with about 30g left. Hmmmm, I could have made the body slightly longer. Note to self.

I'm calling this done although it still needs to be blocked. We have guests at the moment so the spare bed is in use for it's intended purpose and there really isn't anywhere else I can block something as large as a sweater. The risk of feline interference is just too high everywhere else. Since the guests are my sister from Scotland and my Wee Niece and one of my sister's friends with her daughter I'm not really all that worried about it. Besides it's summer so I probably won't wear it for a few weeks yet and it's not like I don't have other sweaters in the meantime.

Pattern: Improvised bottom-up seamless raglan as per EZ
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Hazelnut
Needle: 2.75mm
Gauge: 31 stitches and 37 rows = 10 cm

To make this I started with the sleeves and cast on enough stitches to make a nice snug sleeve, worked a couple inches of ribbing followed by increasing every third round until the sleeve was as wide as I wanted it to be, then worked it to the length I wanted. Only calculated the gauge after completing the sleeves. After that I just worked the body, joined the sleeves and worked a raglan shaped yoke. Simple.

OK, I admit I've done a number sweaters like this now so what seems simple to me might not be to everyone. If you need a place to get started with seamless sweaters I recommend knittingfool.com. There is a marvelous calculator on this site that will tell you exactly how many stitches you need. Plus, have a good sit-down with Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears. She covers seamless sweaters really well. I switched things around and worked this sweater bottom-up but I have done several top-down sweaters and followed a bottom-up pattern several times before I felt comfortable improvising on my own.

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 17C.

We're into the typical summer weather pattern of low to mid 20s during the day and a thunder storm in the evening.

Sunday 10 July 2016

Hey, there was knitting!

No Scent Hurdle this weekend so knitting was accomplished.

Had to frog Hazelnut back to the start of the body when I realized I'd made it too big and I was going to run out of yarn. Sigh. Hopefully this time it works. This one is also good TV watching knitting as it's mostly stockinette stitch.

Also started a vest with a stitch pattern in it. The pattern is called Pennents, I found it in "Knit Stitch Dictionary" by Debbie Tomkies. This will be a basic vest, well except for the stitch pattern that is. Love vests, they keep you warm but not too warm most of the year. Summer, not so much but it's only summer for a very short time here.

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 18C.

Had a substantial thunderstorm yesterday, lots of thunder, lightning, and hail. Typical for summer in this part of the world.

Sunday 3 July 2016

Canada

Well, I missed posting on Canada Day. But that's OK because The Yarn Harlot did such a lovely job there's just no way for me to compete anyway.

For myself, I spent Canada Day at an outdoor Scent Hurdle tournament getting sunburned. I wore a hat with a wide brim all around my head and still managed to sunburn my neck and face. We won't even talk about my poor forearms where my t-shirt ended. What can I say, I'm just a special kind of Pale.

Ahab didn't do well at this tournament. It was his first time running on grass, we haven't even practiced on grass, and he decided that the tree at the end of the yard was far more interesting than playing Scent Hurdle. I pulled him after that. The team has an outdoor practice coming up so he can work on his focus while on grass.

Soccer went with us to the tournament as otherwise he'd have been stuck at home alone for many, many hours. There was a pond at the site so there was no way I was going home with a dry dog, he was in and out of the pond every time I let him run around. At one point I saw Ahab climbing out of the pond too, he must have slipped and fallen in as he'd never voluntarily jump into a pond. He didn't look impressed with the situation.

Knitting

Everything continues, joined the final ball of yarn for Hazelnut last night and I'm in a slight panic that I won't have enough even though all the math says I should. Nothing for it but to soldier on. And hope. Maybe I should email KnitPicks and see if they have any left in that dye lot......

Gave my sister her birthday socks. She's not a big sock wearer but she does plan to take them with her on vacation to Scotland so I'm calling that a win.

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 22C.

Generally, it's been hot with a thunderstorm in the evening. Typical for summer in this part of the world.

Thursday 9 June 2016

Sock

I finished the first sock for my sister's birthday in July. I've only been working on it since March. Urgh, it's been a horrible year for socks; since I now have to drive to work every day I've lost almost 10 hours a week in knitting time. It sucks.

I am going to have to hustle a bit to get this second sock done.

Current Weather
Partly cloudy 18C.

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Update on Squish

Squish is not well. He's eating a special kidney cat food. Fortunately, he seems to like it; so far at least. Unfortunately, Mouse also seems to like it. I was worried he would refuse to eat it.

All of this means I'm very afraid that Squish is not much longer for this world. Kidney failure is not a good thing; it is a fatal condition. Must make sure I get plenty of Squish love while I still can. Loosing him is going to be devastating. He was my first pet that was my pet not the family pet. I'm also not sure how well Mouse will do once he's gone.

Knitting

Did some math on the new cotton sweater and I came up short. So, I went on a yarn hunt and miracle, of miracles; I found some! Same dye lot and everything. Sweet!

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 24C.

Hot, hot, hot. Actually it cooled off a bit today. We passed 30C several times in the past week. In June no less.

Saturday 28 May 2016

Squish

Poor Squish isn't doing too well right now. His thyroid packed it in spring of 2015 and now he's having problems making it to the litterbox. Off to the vet we went and the urine test shows he's not concentrating his urine. This could mean renal failure; his kidneys are not working right.

Took him in again today to have blood taken to confirm if this is the case. The vet techs told me he was really good, right up until he'd had enough of being poked and prodded. Can't say I blame him for getting tired of being poked.

Here's hoping this is treatable.

One cute Squishy.
Knitting
Started a new cotton sweater, I need more indoor/summer sweaters. The fabric was coming out too stiff though so I had to frog the sleeves. Oh, well; starting with the sleeves means I can use them as a gauge swatch. This one is worsted weight so it'll go much faster than Hazelnut.

Hazelnut continues. Knitting fingering weight sweaters does take some time. I plan to do several over the next months/weeks/years so I have lots to choose from.

Current Weather
Partly cloudy, 15C.

Rained a bit early in the afternoon but then cleared up again. I was expecting more rain this evening but so far no signs.

Took the boys for a nice walk this afternoon. They enjoyed it for sure.

Sunday 22 May 2016

Sleeve

Today the plan was to finish knitting the sleeve for my Wee Niece's Seamless Purple sweater.

Which I did.


Figured it would be best to pick up the stitches for the second sleeve at the same time so I wouldn't do something silly like use the needle for another project when this one's not yet finished.

Then I just started knitting the second sleeve and before I knew it I was finished the sweater. I was reading a book at the same time, e-books are great for this, maybe that explains it. Made this one solid with no second colour. Other than that it's exactly as the pattern is written; ummm, perhaps a bit longer. Hope it fits.

Pattern: Seamless Blue by Felicia Semple
Yarn: Easy Knit Tricot Facile (Marotex) Bébé Luv Baby Georga in Grape
Needle: 3.0mm & 2.5mm
Gauge: 26 stitches X 35 rows = 10cm


This is one of the nicest acrylics I've ever worked with, nice and soft.

Squish
Squish has been sick. He's not using the litterbox which is very upsetting. Took him to the vet yesterday and he clearly has some pain in his abdomen. He's got some painkillers and Mom will take him back to the vet on Tuesday so they can collect a urine sample to see if he has an infection.

After doing some reading on-line I also decided to replace the litterboxes. Not just the litter but the actual litterboxes. They're almost 15 years old (both the litterboxes and the cats) and accumulated odors could be a problem. Just bought the cheapest pans I could find since that's what my old kitties seem to want, no covers or anything. The litterboxes are in a storage room with a cat door for them to come and go through (this is so Ahab won't snack on cat poo which is totally gross), it's lit by a night-light and unsurprisingly they're using the one closest to the light the most. Go figure. I actually replaced the light recently too in case the poor old things are having a hard time seeing in the dark. Age y'know.

Ahab
Ahab earned his second Scent Hurdle title on May 7. Total surprise, I though he was still 20 or more points away from earning it.

Current Weather
5C and raining.
It has been raining all day, except for a few hours this morning when it snowed. We desperately needed the moisture so it's not a bad rain. But did it have to happen on the long weekend?

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Sorry I'm late

It's just been busy. And when I'm not busy I don't feel like writing.

My knitting progress is suffering because of it.

Sigh.

Hazelnut continues. There's no point in a picture as it doesn't look like much of anything at the moment.

Have not yet cast on for a planned vest.

My Wee Niece's dragon is stalled, he's missing only his spines.

So is her purple sweater. It's missing a cuff and a sleeve to be finished.

I'd up load a video from Scent Hurdle since that is what I have been doing for the past two weeks but they're all too large. Sadly, I haven't even been doing most Scent Hurdle stuff with my dog, I've been bogged down in Board of Directors stuff.

Sunday 1 May 2016

Life in the Slow Lane

It's been a slow week for knitting.

My brown sweater has a little more ribbing. I didn't bother to take a picture.

My Wee Niece's purple sweater almost has a sleeve. I'm feeling too lazy to fix the picture.


And her dragon has his tail attached and a pair of wings not yet attached. He's much more sparkly than the picture shows.

Current Weather
Mostly sunny 19C.
We're back to sunny and above average temperatures this week.

Sunday 24 April 2016

Ambition Struck

And I organised a couple of random cardboard boxes full of yarn into new under the bed storage boxes.

This project included frogging a couple things that weren't working so I could put the yarn away.

Former Green Vest

Former Ugly Christmas Sweater
Current Weather
-2C with fog and clouds
Finally getting some rain, sort of. It was supposed to rain all day yesterday but only sprinkled occasionally instead. I gather there was more rain not far from here. This hill is such a bizarre micro-climate.

Saturday 23 April 2016

Slow

It's been a slow knitting week.

Made progress on my sweater, not that it looks like much.

Sweater

 Made progress on my sister's socks, not that it looks like much. Need to make better progress on these.

Socks


My Wee Niece's Dragon has a tail, not that it's attached yet. Now he just needs arms, legs, wings, and spikes.

Dragon

 And I got a new toy. Should be good for making nice warm afghans. Suspect it's going to require pretty thick yarn.

Knitting Loom


Also indulged in a new book "Knit Stitch Dictionary" by Debbie Tomkies.

Hmmm, I guess it wasn't so much slow this week as I just didn't complete any projects.

Sunday 10 April 2016

Rabbit

Finished a Rabbit. Not to be confused with a Bunny; those are smaller. I just decided that.

The tail didn't quite come out how I expected it to. It's much smaller. Maybe my gauge was too tight or something. I'm not stressing about it too much. I think I did a better job with the eyes this time, they seem more even. I think. I hope my Wee Niece likes it; then she can take it home and it can be played with. Maybe it will become Real. (If you got that reference you clearly read "The Velveteen Rabbit" at some point. If you haven't I recommend it; make sure you have tissues handy at the end.)

Pattern: Henry's Rabbit by Sara Elizabeth Kellner
Yarn: Lang Yarns Denim Cotton Recycled in Off White
Needle: 3.25mm

Should I call him Peter?

I used up all my remaining stuffing making this Rabbit so I must remember that I need more before I can stuff any more toys. The annoying thing is that I made a trip to Michael's earlier today but didn't realize how close I was to running out of stuffing so I didn't buy any more. I did get some supplies to try para cord braiding though.

Reading
Read "Hunter" by Mercedes Lackey last week. A good read; but then she's one of my favorite authors ever. I really liked how she handled the teenager in a dystopian future genre which is so popular right now. I'm not going to do a book review. I think elementary school scarred me for life when it comes to book reports. Suffice to say, it was an enjoyable read.

Current Weather
7C mostly cloudy.

Sunday 3 April 2016

Scent Hurdle

Judged my first Scent Hurdle tournament yesterday and no one cried, screamed, or cursed my family unto the ninth generation so I'm calling it a win. Now to send the results to the Statistician. Hope I recorded everything right.....

Ahab wasn't running last night as this was a CKC tournament and he can only run in independent tournaments. Meant I got to try my hand at judging. It's a lot harder than you think.

The tournament didn't start until later than expected so I made some progress on my sister's socks. It's a good thing I don't need these until July.


Another Scent Hurdler was there working up some socks in Felici Time Traveler. Doesn't look like Knit Picks has this in stock right now. I have some of this in my stash but I think I might just delay using it until my sister goes back to Scotland, otherwise there is a serious risk I could loose the socks. I'm sure it would be a total accident that would land them in her suitcase..... ;-)

Other Knitting

There hasn't been a lot of sock knitting going on lately because I've been focusing on a light weight sweater for myself. At the moment I have partial sleeves (I usually work sleeves two at a time), mostly because I had to frog them and restart when I realized the increases weren't working right. This time is going much better.

And there is another vest on the go, a cardigan this time. I'm not sure if I like this one though so it might get frogged yet.

Finally my toy kick continues with a rabbit. This one's a bit more complicated that the bunny I did at Easter although it's from the same designer. At the moment it looks like a blob. I'm working my way up to knitting a Loch Ness Monster so I'm knitting up some practice toys first. My Wee Niece will benefit immensely from this.

Rabbit blob.

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy 10C.

The weather has been crazy warm since about mid January and shows no signs of stopping. I do wish it would rain though as it's been so dry I'm having problems wearing contact lenses. I took eye drops with me to Red Deer for the Scent Hurdle tournament yesterday and did not regret it as I had to drop my eyes several times throughout the evening. And the farmers are going to start doom and glooming if we don't get some rain soon. Hard to believe we had severe flooding only three years ago in June of 2013. By "severe flooding" I mean downtown Calgary was evacuated due to being submerged in several meters of water for five days and it took weeks, in some cases months, for all the businesses to recover and re-open. The Calgary Stampede went on as scheduled though; they had to completely replace the track for the chuck wagon races, a project that was expected to take months and was completed in weeks instead. Says something about the "git 'er done" attitude around here I suspect.

Thursday 24 March 2016

A Productive Saturday

First I prepared for Easter by making a bunny. This is significant as my usual nod to Easter is to watch Jesus Christ Superstar. He looks a little sad but that's probably because I'm not particularly good at embroidery. He's on my desk at work next to the gallbladder jar. The paws and ears were fiddly due to using much smaller yarn than called for but I think it worked out OK in the end.

Pattern: Henry's Bunny by Sara Elizabeth Kellner
Yarn: Georga Baby Luv peach
Needle: 2.75mm
Gauge: much smaller than called for as this pattern calls for worsted weight yarn. I didn't figure it would matter much for a toy as long as the fabric was fairly firm.

Sad Easter Bunny

Speaking of gallbladders, I made another one. By request.

Pattern: Pear-fecto! by Susan B. Anderson
Yarn: Georga Baby Luv peach in red
Needle: 2.5mm



Also cast on socks for my sister in Red Deer. She says I haven't made her any, I remember making her a pair but they may have been lost. Perhaps they were not a preferred colour. This time she picked the colour.

Current Weather
Snowing. Quite hard. Glad it held off until I got home from work, snow really messed up your commute.
1C

Friday 18 March 2016

2fer

I delayed writing this until I had finished up a couple of things. In my defense to my loyal readers (none that I know of) I was only one arm and the hat away from finishing the Knubelchen when I made this decision.

First up, socks for my Niece. Finished these with a little more time to spare than my Nephew's socks last month. I don't need these until Sunday, that's most of two days away. For some weird reason the two balls of yarn were wound in opposite directions so one sock goes green, orange, pink, grey and the other goes green, grey, pink, orange. By the time I noticed it was too late to go back and work the second ball from the other end. Calling it a design feature.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Hjertegarn Sock 4
Needle: 2.0mm

Socks!

Followed by another Knubbelchen. Made this one out of some leftover Noro, I see people raving about this yarn all the time but I don't much care for it. It twists up on me for some reason, maybe because it's a single ply, and I find it a bit rough and it doesn't have the stretchyness of wool sock yarn, even yarn that's 25% nylon. Then there are the knots, the weird colour combinations, and that it changes thickness all the time. I'll just leave it for those who like it.

Pattern: Knubbelchen by pezi888
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Solids, Heathers & Twists in white for the head and Noro Taiyo Sock for the body.
Needle: 2.5mm
Knubbelchen

I was asked to knit a gallbladder for someone. Words I did not expect to type. Ever. He even offered to pay me for it. So, what is fair market value for a knitted gallbladder?

Current Weather
Clear with periodic clouds. -2C

It actually snowed a bit this week for the first time in a long time. It was getting so dry my contact lenses were gluing themselves to my eyelids. A bit of precipitation seemed to help. Now it's drying out again and the contacts are back to sticking. Sigh. Maybe I should wear my glasses more often.

Sunday 13 March 2016

Scent Hurdle

It took a while before anything interesting happened again.

Ahab did fantastically well at another Scent Hurdle tournament on Saturday. Terrible picture but here he is waiting for his next turn to run.



I also have video; no video of Ahab because I was busy when he was running but this is my team on a race when he was the backup dog. As you can see we didn't win but a good time was had by all. Ahab and I were both beat when we got home. Still waiting for points but he will not have earned a new title yet, he's going to need a few more tournaments for that.


Much lack of knitting lately as I've been so tied up with Scent Hurdle stuff. This is what I get for volunteering for the Board of Directors I'm afraid.

Current Weather
Partly cloudy, 7C. There was a bit of a wind when I was out earlier.

Friday 26 February 2016

Monster Pants

Finished up the Monster Pants. Too cool for school these are. My Wee Niece is coming to visit this summer so I'll give them to her then. I really hope I made the right size. Also left out the elastic waistband for now; once she's here I can measure and insert it. Gave him one tooth because I got tired of duplicate stitch, if I get overwhelmed with ambition I'll add more. Don't expect that to happen.

Pattern: Monsterbukse by duBedåre
Yarn: Georga Baby Luv in Baby Mint and Baby Yellow with White and Black for the eyes
Needle: 2.5mm & 3.0mm
Gauge: 30 st X 10cm & 35 rows X 10cm

Too cute!

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 11C.

Bizarrely warm for this time of year, I'm told there is still good skiing if you know where to go in the mountains though.

Thursday 25 February 2016

Throwback Thursday

Kittens
Update on Ahab's Scent Hurdle points; he did earn his first title on Saturday. So proud of him. I suppose I can now introduce him as "Captain Ahab, SHD". Wait, that means he's got more letters after his name than I do. Figures. ;-)

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 7C.

Honestly, I thought this segment would be more interesting but the weather's been strangely predictable lately. I'm sure it'll pick up once the summer storm season hits. Or, maybe we'll get some wild spring snow soon.

Sunday 21 February 2016

Scent Hurdle

HE DID IT!!!!

Ahab did extremely well yesterday at Scent Hurdle. He struggled in his first couple of races and I had to go with him to the box to remind him of what he needed to do. So we took a break for a couple of races. Then we tried again near the end of the morning tournament and this time he did it! So proud of my boy.

In the afternoon we ran with a different team because my team only wanted to enter for the morning but I wanted to get some more exposure for Ahab and run in the afternoon too. Another team was willing to take the risk on a green dog so this time he was racing with dogs he didn't know and he still did awesome. He even had another dog cross into his lane which threw him off a bit but other than keeping a close eye on the dog in the other lane on his next run he was fine. I don't have any video because I was so busy with Ahab and I never thought to ask someone else to take some for me. I never thought to take pictures either. Ah, well; next time.

I don't think he earned his Scent Hurdle Dog (SHD) title because we just weren't fast enough to get 10 points in each run. He needs 50 points to earn that first title and he had 10 from last year before he had to stop running until the rules were changed to allow him to run again. I think he earned another 20 yesterday, we had a lot of runs that I'm pretty sure took too long to earn any points. I could be wrong though so I'll wait until the Statistician has posted the official results to be sure. But he took some big steps towards earning that title and I couldn't be happier with how he did. In any event points, titles, and such are for the human; all he cares about is that I was really happy about what he did on the race course.

And the buffet that was the floor; he cared about that a lot. We were racing in a horse barn so there were traces of horse poo in the dirt. He thought it was a great smorgasbord. Urgh, poo-eating hound. Fortunately Garbage Guts didn't get sick.

After getting home from Scent Hurdling

In other dog news, Soccer behaved himself when Mom took him for a walk. It was clearly a good dog day.

Knitting
With all the Scent Hurdling yesterday all I manged to knit was another fish for the Fishie Blankie. I was pretty tired when I got home.

Current Weather
Sunny and 3C.

Friday 19 February 2016

A little bit of progress

Another Knubbelchen is progressing nicely.


And my Niece's socks are coming along as well. Let's hope these don't come down to the wire as badly as my Nephew's did last week.


My Nephew liked his socks, or at least he was too polite to say otherwise. Actually, I think he liked them. Mind you, he's pretty accustomed to getting socks from me. His comment when he pulled them out of the bag; "gee, I wonder who these might be from?" Cheeky kid.

Scent Hurdle
Tomorrow Ahab is going to try for his Scent Hurdle Dog title. He has 10 points from last year before it was discovered that he was in violation of the rules for missing a paw. Have now got the rules changed so he can play again. I just hope he remembers what he's supposed to do; he's only been doing it at our practice facility for quite a while now. Oh well, if it's a disaster so be it. He needs 15 more points for his title. Fingers crossed.

I think I've got all the documents printed off for the tournaments tomorrow. It's my job to bring all the score sheets and stuff. There will be two tournaments, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Ahab is running in both, in the morning with our team and in the afternoon with another team since the rest of my team only wanted to come for the morning and I wanted to try for the whole day. Although, if Ahab can't make it all day I'll pull him.

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 3C.

Sunday 14 February 2016

Down to the wire

Finished the socks for my Nephew at last. I was seriously beginning to wonder if I was going to manage it. Now, I just hope they fit given the way this kid's feet tend to grow.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock in SY54 Mountain Path
Needle: 2.0mm

Done! At last!

Better get started on a pair for my Niece ASAP just in case I experience anther case of "Sock Block". Hers will be needed by the middle of next month.

Future socks.

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy
7C

Saturday 13 February 2016

Another week gone

Well, that was both productive and..... not.

Finished the knitting on the Monster Pants. Now I just need to worry about embroidering on the eyes and teeth.


But that was mostly so I could procrastinate on finishing my Nephew's socks. As you can see that went swimmingly.

These need to be done in two days

Then I knitted some fish for a possible A Recipe for Fish blanket. That's helping splendidly with the procrastinating as well.





What is it about these poor socks? The kid's birthday party for the family is on Monday I have GOT to get a move on.

Current Weather
2C and cloudy.