Saturday 30 December 2017

Squeaking in at the end

Finished up a final blanket just before the end of 2017, nothing planned about that it just happened that way. This was mostly improvised, I selected the 'Snowflake Lace Motif' from the "Knit Stitch Dictionary" by Debbie Tomkies and worked it once, so its really mostly stockinette stitch with a garter stitch boarder. Added seat-belt holes so the blanket can be secured with the baby in a car-seat and the baby can't kick it off. The colour changes came out quite symmetrical which wasn't planned at all.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Caron Big Cakes in Peppercream
Needle: 5.5mm
Gauge: Not critical


Current Weather
-26C and cloudy. If it gets much colder the clouds will freeze. I'm actually not kidding, much colder than this and clouds can't form.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

Christmas Gifts

I don't make a lot of Christmas gifts as I don't like being stressed out during the holidays, I mean; where's the fun in that? This year I managed two, rather ambitious, scarfs.

First was a Star Wars Scarf for my Nephew. I wasn't quite sure what he'd like but I figured Star Wars was a pretty safe bet for an almost 12 year old boy. Come to think of it, Star Wars is probably a pretty safe bet for any human male under 110 years old. And boy was I not wrong about that, my Brother-in-Law was already plotting to steal it before all the wrapping paper was cleared away.

I'm not quite sure what went sideways on me but I did not have enough yarn to complete all the motifs in the pattern. Either the balls were under weight, or it just ate a lot of yarn, or my gauge was way off; I don't know. Although, having checked some of the other completed projects I now think the recommended yardage is low and you need 300-350 grams of each colour to complete this scarf. In any event I eliminated a few of the motifs, it still looks OK to me and I doubt my Nephew will notice. It's certainly long enough to keep him warm.

Experimented with a Russian Join to join the balls of yarn together and it worked really well, it does create a slightly fatter piece of yarn for several stitches but you don't notice it at all. I can't even find the joins and I know roughly where they all are. Whether this would be true for a single knit piece I don't know as this is the first time I've used this join but I will say it works really well for double knitting.

Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed DK in Kitten and Obsidion
Pattern: Star Wars Double Knit Scarf by Jessica Goddard
Needle: 4.0mm
Gauge: 17 stitches and 24 rows = 10 cm

May the force be with you

Second was a Horse Scarf for my Canadian Niece. She's into horses, as any not-quite-ten-year-old girl would be. This was also a complete hit with the recipient and her Grandma kept threatening to steal it. Not my Mom, her other Grandma who joined us for a wonderful Christmas dinner.

I modified an existing pattern to make this scarf. The original pattern is here. Once I'd decided on that pattern I made some modifications:
  • Worked only one horse on each end.
  • Added a horseshoe border, I did this in DK weight yarn not Worsted so it needed a border in order to be wide enough.
  • Added the small horseshoes running up the center between the two horses to make sure the fabric was locked together.
Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed DK in Morning Glory and Plush
Pattern: Modified the Dual Sided Horse Scarf by Miranda Stanbery
Needle: 4.0mm
Gauge: 17 stitches and 24 rows = 10 cm


Current Weather
-26C and partly cloudy. It has been absolutely freezing cold for a week now.

Saturday 16 December 2017

Slow Going on the Knitting Front

I'm suffering from an acute inability to concentrate on any one project right now. Consequently I have a number of projects that are all proceeding extremely slowly. I also seem to have quite a large number of things on the go.

Socks for Dad's birthday in January.



Several blankets that I would love to be able to sell. Working on inventory then will look into how to sell them. Etsy maybe?


Double Knit Pink Bunny

Lavender Diagonals

Double Knit Horses Blanket

Snowflake Car-Seat Blanket

 My Mitered Square Blanket, I'm almost done stripe number five. This one's for me.


A new pair of overalls for my Scottish Niece. Which at the moment is not even one full leg.



A sweater for myself. Sleeves are finished but not pictured.


And a sweater for my Mom which I had to start all over again; not feeling a lot of love for this at the moment. And a sweater for my Scottish Sister that I'm struggling with the cables, not struggling to do the cables struggling to be inspired to work on it. No pictures of either of these or I would feel even guiltier about not working on them.

I did finish one blanket. Mostly, it still needs blocking so I'm not sure it counts yet.

Pattern: Mostly improvised, cast on 156 stitches then worked in Traveling Leaves stitch from "50 Fabulous Knit Stitches" by Rita Weiss until it reached the desired length then added an i-cord edging.
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver Solids in Light Blue and Royal
Needle: 5.5mm
Gauge: not critical


Christmas gifts are done though so that's an accomplishment. Will post about those after Christmas.

Saturday 11 November 2017

Lest we forget

Three of my four grandparents served in WWII; my paternal grandfather was a member of the Canadian Infantry, he met my grandmother in Belgium where she was serving with the RAF, my maternal grandfather repaired planes for the Canadian Air Force, and my grandmother worked as a factory worker while the men were away fighting. They all came home but we must never forget the sacrifices that have been made for our country, for freedom, and for us, the decedents, of those who sacrificed.


Wednesday 8 November 2017

Wordless Wednesday



I'm going to have to break with the usual Wordless Wednesday format to explain that Soccer somehow moved this dog bed into this position all on his own and without opposable thumbs. I still haven't figured out how he managed it.

Saturday 4 November 2017

Finished a Christmas Gift

Got the first Christmas gift off the needles today. It still needs to be blocked but at least it's off the needles. I'm not going to post a picture or the usual information about the project here right now; although I seriously doubt my Nephew is trolling the internet looking for knitting blogs it is within the realm of possibility that he can, will, or has googled the names of his family members which could get him this site. So no pictures yet, I'll post everything after the gifts have been exchanged.

The Christmas gift for my Calgary Niece continues and I haven't even cast on for my Scottish Niece yet. That one may be late since she's a bit young yet to be disappointed if her hand-knits from her Aunt don't arrive by Christmas day. (I laughed after typing that since I doubt anyone would get that upset if a hand-made gift was late.) Also, I'm not particularly consistent about Christmas gifts so no one is expecting anything. It's possible that is deliberate on my part.

Also started some socks for my Dad. I'm taking some courses and needed something to take on the train with me.

Soccer
Poor, poor Soccer landed at the vet yesterday with another ear infection. He's had one in the Fall or early Winter for the past three or more years. I really wish he'd break this habit. I will have to say though, that the worst one was in 2015 when we had to go to the vet three days after I had my gall bladder removed. They were kind enough to provide a chair since I could hardly stand. 10 weeks later he was finally infection free. I really, Really, REALLY hope that doesn't happen again.

Pain meds are starting to kick in

He's got antibiotics again and the pain meds seem to be helping.

Current Weather
-12C and partly cloudy. It's COLD and supposed to stay that way for quite a while according to the long-term forecast; apparently we skipped the rest of Fall and went straight to Winter. Typical.

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Backwards Knitting

Did you know you can knit backwards?

Me neither.

Then I decided to try entrelac knitting for a largish blanket. If you're unfamiliar with it, here's a video about entrelac, it's a bit lengthy but worth the watch, come back when you've finished watching.

Welcome back. Now, one thing you should have noticed when watching that video is that you have to turn your work every few stitches and work back along your stitches again. This works fine if you have a small or narrow project but what about if you were to decide to do a blanket? Naturally this is what I decided to do and it didn't take too long before I found out that as the blanket gets bigger turning it back and forth all the time becomes increasingly more awkward with every new row you work.

Fortunately I found another video about knitting in reverse, called "backwards knitting" or "mirror knitting". (A quick shout out here to VeryPink Knits, she has some wonderfully comprehensive technique videos on her YouTube Chanel and Website.) So it turned out that by taking on this one project I got to learn two new skills. Three if you count knitting and purling backwards separately. Nifty, eh?

Current Weather
16C and cloudy. That's the official temperature at the airport at this time but it's much cooler where I actually am, about 10C. I don't think we're going to see the forecasted high of 20C, at least not at home.

Thursday 12 October 2017

The Most Boring Update Ever

There's not much to report on lately, hence the string of Wordless Wednesdays.

Knitting progresses on many projects, including a Christmas gift for my Nephew. But none are really worth taking a picture of at the moment. And my Nephew is getting old enough to be on the internet, although I don't think he knows this blog exists. Still, best not to take chances.

I've decided to use the yarn I bought for a large loom knitting blanket project that didn't work out for a double knitting blanket project instead. (Because I totally needed another project on the go.) I had to abandon the loom knitting as what I wanted to do required a loom too large to use without some kind of stand. I'm letting the stand idea sit in the back of my mind for now. But double knitting produces a very similar fabric, at least for two colours. Also sitting in the back of my mind is whether or not you can double knit with more than two colours in the row. Stripes are obviously possible but I was thinking of multiple colours within the row. Haven't found anything on YouTube but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

The Fence

The fence was replaced last week. The contractor did a good job and it only took them three working days to complete. It did take five calendar days because of a Sunday and a wind storm during construction. Boy did I miss being able to just open the back door and let the dogs out together, for days I had to carefully let them out one at a time on a rope otherwise they'd have been happily off exploring the entire neighbourhood.

old fence gone

new fence
That wind storm really did a number on the fall leaves.

Cat News

In somewhat sadder news Mouse has had a couple of pancreatitis episodes over the past month. The last one was really bad, the poor cat was clearly in a lot of pain. We ended up at the emergency vet after she had vomited half a dozen times and started passing loose bloody stool while lying on her side. She's on some pain and antacid drugs now. She seems OK but it took almost three days before she wanted to eat much. She's still not eating a lot at a time but she is eating a lot of small meals throughout the day.

Current Weather

-1C and cloudy. Fall has truly arrived, there's snow on the back deck.

Thursday 14 September 2017

Fall Mittens

Finished my Fall Mittens up just in time, the weather turned yesterday becoming wet and cold. I originally purchased this yarn to go into my Mitered Square Sock Blanket but I ended up with too much orange so I decided to use the Alpaca for mittens instead. Yarn this lovely should be seen anyway so it worked out well. I think there is enough left for a hat to match the mittens.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Lang Yarns Super Soxx Alpaca
Needle: 3.0mm
Gauge: 58 stitches and 40 rows = 10 cm


There's even a hole to put your finger threw in order to use your smart phone:


I tried to do a thumb hole too but it ended up too high on my thumb and I can't get it to poke out of the mitten since I made the cover flap. Meh. Not thinking its a big deal; call it a learning experience or something.

Current Weather
6C and cloudy. It rained heavily overnight on Tuesday and was still raining lightly until almost noon the next day. Then it rained again last night.

Sunday 3 September 2017

Well Dang

I decided to whip up a quick Buster Blanket with some old Red Heart from my stash, I was hoping to use it all up.


Clearly, that didn't quite go according to plan. There's just enough left that I can't justify throwing it out even though I don't much like it. Maybe I'll think of something else to do with it.

I did finish the blanket, its currently blocking. Its got a couple of holes in the center so you can use it with a car-seat to keep the baby warm. I saw on the evening news a few months ago that a child should not wear a thick jacket when buckled into a car seat as the belts won't secure properly and the child can be ejected from the car seat in the event of a crash. It occurred to me that using a blanket could be problematic too as the child could (let's face it - will) kick it off, the holes allow this blanket to be buckled in with the child keeping it from landing on the car floor. I'm hardly the first to think of this as Ravelry is awash with patterns for this sort of baby blanket.

There isn't much pattern to this blanket, I just worked two rows of single crochet, one of double crochet, and two more single crochet in yellow. Then one row single crochet, one row double crochet, and one single crochet in blue. Mostly anyway. The center section is a bit different in order to make the holes come out centered. Final measurements are 51cm X 66cm (20" X 26"). I will also say that crochet goes a lot faster than knitting, and I need to do more of it. There are things knitting is just not good at.

Not really a super fan of this yarn, it was purchased years ago to make sweaters for my dogs and I ended up with plenty left over. Enough to make this as well as the blanket below.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver
Hook: 6.5mm
Gauge: 9.6 stitches and 8 rows = 10 cm

Before Blocking

During Blocking


Current Weather
20C and partly cloudy. Today we get a break from the hot, hot weather we've been having after a north wind blew in late yesterday; bonus - it blew all the BC smoke away. Supposed to warm right back up in a day or so though.

Wednesday 30 August 2017

Sale Blanket (I hope)

Interrupting the Wordless Wednesday again.

Made this car seat blanket. Ends still need to be woven in and it needs blocking.



Hoping I will be able to sell it but I'm not sure about the ends. I'm worried they're going to pull out and look awful but I'm having trouble finding information about securing really slippery acrylic. Fortunately the ends pictured below are just from the single crochet I ran around the seat-belt holes to help stabilize them, so if it all unravels it won't be a complete disaster.



Eclipse

We were in the path of the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, about 80% of the sun was covered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Below is a picture of the max sun coverage from my home made pin-hole camera. No, I did not look directly at the sun at all during the eclipse. For one thing that's a stupidly bad idea and for another my eyes are really light sensitive and I was having enough problems seeing with my back to the sun. Except for about the 10 minutes before and after the maximum eclipse; about 20 minutes total, I had no problems seeing without sunglasses during that time.


It surprised me how light it stayed with 80% of the sun covered by the moon; the light levels and temperature dropped noticeably but it was more like the hazy light we've been getting on days when the smoke from BC is really thick than anything else. Still super cool to see.

And last night the moon was blood red. No doubt the smoke from BC was the cause but it was creepy-cool to see. I didn't try to take a picture of it as I don't have a camera that could possibly do it justice.

Current Weather
28C and partly cloudy. Also the smoke from the BC wild fires is thick enough to choke on out there. And we're under a heat warning, meaning the daytime temperature got above 29C and the overnight temperature stayed above 14C. At the end of August. Wow.

Meanwhile, Texas has had the equivalent of a small sea rain down on them.

Wordless Wednesday


Saturday 19 August 2017

Full Steam Ahead

My first attempt at steam blocking. I hope I hit it with enough heat, but not too much; I didn't want to kill the yarn. Pretty impressed with the pooling too, it stayed remarkably consistent through the entire project.

This was a pretty basic blanket, just cast on 155 stitches and worked it in a pattern called Diamonds from “Knit Stitch Dictionary” by Debbie Tomkies. Stopped when it was as long as I wanted it to be.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Big!
Needle: 4.5mm
Gauge: 18 stitches and 27 rows = 10 cm


Current Weather
19C and partly cloudy.

Friday 18 August 2017

Mitered Square Update

I'm working on a long term project. It started as a way to use up some old sock yarn that I suspect was a bad superwash batch from KnitPicks but it soon became apparent that I was going to need a lot, and I mean A LOT more yarn than I had. I didn't really want this to be another scrap yarn project, I already have one of those, it's been on the go since 2012 and I really wanted to have a chance of finishing this blanket within a year; so I bought a bunch more sock yarn.

progress so far

I still don't have enough yarn to finish but I figure I can just go buy more when the time comes. I'm really enjoying this project. I suspect it's the soothing effect of Garter Stitch. I've waxed eloquent on the wonders of Garter Stitch in the past so I won't do so again here.

It's taken about two months to get the first three strips done so if I can keep this pace up I should be done in about six months. I don't actually anticipate being done that quickly; maybe eight or nine months. Maybe a year. We'll see how it goes.

Current Weather
27C and mostly cloudy. Still enjoying some wonderful summer weather.

Saturday 12 August 2017

Family

It's been super busy around here this summer with some extended family visiting - my Scottish Sister's in-laws came to visit.  They went on a few road trips on their own but there were a couple of weeks where we had 9 people staying here. The three of us who live here, my Scottish Sister, her husband, and my Wee Niece, plus my Brother-in-Law's parents and sister. Whew, what a crowd. Mom was brilliant at arranging home-cooked meals for 9.

My Scottish Sister and her husband held a vow renewal this summer so her Canadian friends could attend. It was a very informal ceremony held at our parents' recreational property (they own a part-share of a private campground). A friend of my Mom's conducted the ceremony and she kept it really light-hearted, even referencing my Dad's goof in writing Vowel Renewal on the calendar. We all had to review our vowels.

My two Nieces totally stole the show. My Canadian Niece was made a last minute junior bridesmaid, my Sister was not going to worry about it but decided to let our Niece have some fun participating in the ceremony. She was also in charge of keeping her young cousin (the bride and groom's daughter, my Wee Niece) entertained so they were both front and center through the ceremony. It was wonderfully cute and off-the-cuff and fun.

The reception was just 'burgers and 'dogs with some salads on the side. Much fun was had by all. Although I had to leave early to care for Squish.

Which was of course the saddest part of the past month; saying good-bye to one of the cats who have been with me for my entire adult life. I'm still shocked at how big a hole a 5kg cat can leave behind. Fortunately Mouse seems to be adjusting to being the only cat quite well, one might almost say she is embracing it. She has been meowing more and more, I don't know why she's suddenly decided to 'talk' to us lowly humans so much more but it is terribly fun filling in my half of the conversation. Example:

"Mew."

"Yes Mouse, I know it's hot, we don't have a/c."

"Meow."

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do. You could try going downstairs where its cooler."

Which advise she promptly ignores; you get the idea.

My Uncle and Aunt also came to visit while on their cross country motorcycle trip and we invited another cousin and her husband who live nearby; we don't get together with them nearly often enough. We tried to surprise Dad with his brother's visit but we were undone by a chicken. Basically, we wanted to prepare far too much food for the number of people he knew were going to be attending dinner that evening so he guessed there would be extra guests coming. We tried. It was still really nice to see them.

Kitting

Knitting was done while the guests were here and even some finishing.

Another dog poo-bag holder, I think I'll call them Aww-Poo Bags. This one came out a bit too small I think.

Pattern: not finished
Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Pairfect Cotton in Ocean
Needle: 3.0mm
Gauge: 42 stitches and 49 rows in 10cm




I have also been working on some baby blankets and a sock weight cover for my bed. That one's a long term project.

Speaking of baby blankets, the Blue Pennants blanket was gifted to a friend who recently had a baby boy. It should keep him nice and warm once fall arrives.

Oh, and a number of dish cloths. Just used up some random cotton I had lying around to make these. I just cast on a few stitches, increased to the size I wanted then decreased again.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: cotton from the stash
Needle: 4.5mm
Gauge: not critical


The frankencloth already has a story to tell; it had barely made it into the cupboard to go into circulation when I accidentally slammed by elbow down on a dirty wine glass breaking it and cutting my elbow quite badly, my Scottish Sister was there (it was early in the morning so I'm glad she woke up early that day) and she thinks I hit an artery; it would make sense considering how much such a small cut bled. In any event, the frankencloth was called into service to stop the bleeding; which it did quite well. Of course, since I'd broken a wine glass and dripped plenty of blood on the floor my sister had to clean up the kitchen before first aid could be applied. She cleaned the cut out for me and put a band-aid on. It seems to be healing nicely but there also seemed to be a lot of bruising inside my elbow; I had difficulty using it for a couple of days. Two days later I sliced my finger open on a piece of glass that somehow got caught in the sink drain, fortunately that was considerably less dramatic. This is good because this time I was the only one home and had to do first aid for myself. Everything's pretty much healed now.

And there were socks. Keeping these for myself.

Pattern: improvised
Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Pairfect Cotton in Ocean
Needle: 3.0mm
Gauge: 42 stitches and 49 rows in 10cm

Ocean Socks


Current Weather
21C and Sunny. We should get up to about 28C this afternoon.

Thursday 27 July 2017

In Loving Memory

Squish crossed the Rainbow Bridge this morning after suffering what appeared to be a stroke on Monday, by Wednesday it was clear he wasn't going to recover. He had also been suffering from thyroid failure for a couple of years and his kidneys had started to fail about 6 months ago. He was one week shy of his 16th birthday.

Four months before passing

Three months before passing, still looking healthy
Squish is the only cat I know of who ever got caught with both front feet in a lasagna pan while he drank the sauce. When I yelled at him he went racing across the kitchen floor leaving a trail of orange paw prints behind him. He had orange paws for a week. Tragically, I don't have any pictures of this incident as it occurred before cameras on cell phones where a thing. In fact, cell phones where still really expensive at the time and all they did was text and make phone calls. And my camera was still packed from moving.

Chowing down, Squish always got the top spot
He loved to sit on my Dad in the evenings. As a kitten he could purr so loudly he'd almost drown out the TV, although in later years he quieted his purr quite a bit.

Chilling with Dad
Writing this was especially hard because Squish is no longer here to sit in my lap and help me type. Miss you my feline.