Saturday 8 December 2018

Does one get tired of socks?

No, of course not!

Kept this pair for myself; you have to do that once in a while. I must remember to pull from the center of the ball the next time I use this yarn as most of the patterning was at the other end of the yarn.

Pattern: Improvised Basic Sock
Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Pairfect in 09095
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 41 stitches and 48 rows = 10 cm


Current Weather
-3C and clear.

Tuesday 27 November 2018

More Socks and a Wee Sweater

I don't know what it is about socks lately but they're practically flying off the needles.

A pair for an unknown male, may send these to my BiL in Scotland. Assuming the postal strike here in Canada gets mail moving again soon. The posties have been legislated back to work as of today.

Pattern: Improvised Basic Sock
Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Pairfect in 311
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 41 stitches and 48 rows


Next a pair using the inverse colours from a pair I made for my Mom a few weeks ago. May send these to my Sister in Scotland. The irony about this pair is that the yarn was spun in Yorkshire so if I send them to my Sister they'll have crossed the Atlantic twice. Well traveled socks.

Pattern: Improvised Basic Sock
Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply in 805 and 731
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 41 stitches and 48 rows


And a wee sweater for my Wee Niece in Scotland. She's too young to read the internet yet so I feel safe posting here. Plus I'm not actually sure my Sister ever remembers that I have this blog. I made some changes to this pattern, it's written for an aran yarn but I used a chunky so I made the smallest size, it should fit my three year old Wee Niece OK. Still needs blocking and whiskers but he's awfully close to done.

Pattern: Mini Meow by Claire Slade
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Solids in Charcoal and Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Tweeds in Oatmeal
Needle: 9.0mm
Gauge: 9 stitches in 10 cm


Also my Sock Yarn Granny Square Blanket Stash-Ghan is finally done, it only took six years. This is the largest crochet project I've ever done. Apparently I didn't take a final picture, it's much bigger than below.

Pattern: One Big Granny Square
Yarn: Stash Fingering Weight
Hook: 3.5mm



In progress there are a couple of baby blankets, a large fingering weight blanket for myself, a sweater for myself for which I had to re-make the yoke and sleeves because I decided I didn't want another raglan sleeve, and a new stash-ghan, probably another six year project. And a couple of Christmas gifts for my Niece and Nephew in Canada.

Current Weather
6C and partly cloudy. A Chinook is blowing.

Sunday 11 November 2018

Sunday 4 November 2018

Pin Weaving

Playing around with a bit of pin weaving, I setup some of the pieces from my Martha Stewart Kit and set to. Yeah, I know it's not the most expensive pin loom out there but I have it so that's what I'll be starting with. This kit has the advantage of being versatile, you can set it up for quite a number of different crafts, and the disadvantage of being quite cheap.



First I tried weaving according to some YouTube instructions I found with a single strand and got this:

First try.
Pretty bad really. The fabric is far too loose, no matter what you tried to use it for it would wear out or snag or something quite quickly. Not even sure I could use it as a coaster, although I might anyway.

Then I tried doubling the strands, basically working each peg twice.

Second try.
Better, although it is clear I need to practice removing the piece from the loom. Which I did by crocheting it off, this double strand technique did not allow me to just lift the piece off. The weave is nice but the edges are curling a bit, blocking might help here or sewing the square to another.

Next I tried with a bulky yarn.

Third try.

This I'm liking much better. The weave is nice, not too tight, not too loose; and it came off the loom nicely. It's hard to see in the picture because I used charcoal - meh, it's what I have.

Next I decided to go a little bit bigger.

Complete with photo-bombing cat.

Fourth try.

The charcoal is about 11cm (4.5") and the oatmeal is about 17cm (6.5"). I like the size of the bigger square.

Socks

Also knocked off another pair of socks, I'm on a roll with socks again! These are a men's size medium, likely to go to my Dad.




Current Weather
2C and pouring rain. There is still a little patch of ice in the back yard, the North side of the house, left from the snow on Oct. 2.

It's about the size of a diner plate

Thursday 25 October 2018

Socktacular!

Finished another pair of socks. I'm on fire!

These ones are for me, I loved this yarn and colourway the moment I laid eyes on it. I love it even more now that I've worked it up and can see the wonderful pooling.

Pattern: Improvised Basic Sock
Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply in 325 and 801
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 41 stitches and 48 rows = 10 cm


Love, love, love how all four socks came out completely different, the purple are the ones I made for my Mom for her birthday. No, I'm not worried about her seeing them as she watched me knit them.


Other than socks Christmas gifts continue a pace. Not posting pictures of those as they are meant to be a surprise and my Niece and Nephew are old enough to be surfing the 'net now. And an Ugly Christmas Vest for myself, it hasn't progressed far enough for a picture yet though.

Current Weather
12C and mostly cloudy. Fall continues to hold steady this week but it looks like we could get more snow next week. There is still ice from earlier this month in the back yard.

Friday 19 October 2018

More Socks

Have I mentioned that I love socks? I love to make socks. I love to gift socks. I live in a climate where socks are a requirement 9 months of the year, and a good idea from evening to mid morning the rest of the year, so I suppose this is a good thing.

These are my latest socks, destined for Mom for her birthday. She likes socks too; or, at least she likes to receive the socks I make for her. And she wears them, this makes her entirely knit-worthy. So is my Dad for that matter.

This yarn is just so dang COOL; I love it! I found a variegated and solid in both purple and blue (the blue will be for me) at my LYS that just cried out to be used together. I absolutely LOVE the results. The striping came out really neat, different on each sock, even different in different parts of the sock. Wonderful. There's enough yarn left to do an inverse pair too.

Pattern: Improvised Basic Sock
Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply in 805 and 731
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 41 stitches and 48 rows = 10 cm


I forgot to post about this when it arrived a couple weeks ago:

It contained this:

Yup. Knitpicks had a cotton sale. When they have a sale it's usually enough to discount the exchange rate to Canada so I stock up. This should keep me busy for a while.

Actually, it's not all cotton, there is some Knit Picks Gloss DK in there too for my very own Star Wars Scarf. I made a Star Wars Scarf for my nephew last Christmas and it was well received but it still pained me slightly to give it away. I'm keeping this one for myself.


Current Weather
9C and clear. We've had a brush with Winter and now we're back to Fall. Prairie weather is totally messed.

Wednesday 10 October 2018

A Flight of Dragons

So... what do you call a group of dragons? I'm going with a flight of dragons unless someone suggests something cooler. Three more Tarragon the Gentle Dragons by Knit-a- Zoo. Wonderful pattern.


I'm also working on some socks for my Mom for her birthday, I've been having problems with my sock mojo lately and I was afraid these would take a long time so I cast on really early, but I appear to have recovered as I've already finished the first sock and I only cast them on on Oct. 3, her birthday's in December so I'm rocking these socks. I didn't take a picture of the single sock.

Current Weather
0C and cloudy. Weather has been unbelievable this month!!! We had a huge dump of snow on Oct.2, so much that I had to work from home for two days as the roads were a total mess. And by "huge" I mean 40cm of snow at my house; that's not the official total, that would be about 35cm recorded at the airport. We broke every record for snow for Oct. 2 and for all of October. And we had more snow yesterday. I'm tired of winter already.

Monday 24 September 2018

A Brace o' Dragons

Two more Tarragons finished and ready to go to their new home. My boss is having a baby, actually his wife is doing most of the work on that, so I'm sending him a pink dragon for his daughter and a blue one for the new baby, a boy according to the ultrasound. Neither have actual eyes, with a newborn I didn't want to sew on buttons which could become a choking hazard so I just sewed a couple of lines in for the eyes. Not particularly good embroidery but it will serve the purpose I hope.

Pattern information for the pink dragon can be found here.

For the blue dragon:

Pattern: Tarragon the Gentle Dragon
Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver Solids in Royal and Light Blue
Needle: 4.5mm and 2.75mm
Gauge: not critical but you want a fairly tight fabric for stuffing.



This means I can finally get the dragons and baby blanket into the internal company mail and sent off. My boss is actually located on the other side of the country. In Canada that's a long ways away.

In other news this little bird flew into the front window the other day. Poor thing must have had a terrible headache but managed to fly away after about 30 minutes.


Hiking

Hiked Ptarmigan Cirque with some good friends on Sunday. The hike wasn't too bad, although quite steep at the start/end but the trail was terribly muddy and slick. And my boots are pretty worn without a lot of grip left, I should have put more effort into finding my spikes, so I really had to feel my way down. Ahab was an awful mess coming home and we'd taken their car out, fortunately there was a blanket for him to sit on so he wasn't shedding mud all over the seat. They're also dog people, although between dogs at the moment.

We even met someone who'd had a dog much like Ahab, including missing the back right paw, 20 years ago. She had a 20 year old trip down memory lane; even when he's not trying he helps people. It's not hard to wonder why he was such a good therapy dog.

It's a tough life.

Current Weather
8C and mostly cloudy. Second day of Fall feels an awful lot like the last three weeks of summer.

Monday 3 September 2018

Cotton Vest II

Finally, after two spectacular vest failures in a row I managed to make one that will fit and did not get dyed an unfortunate colour. And let's just hope it stays that way. I suspect I will wear this a lot since I love vests, they provide just the right amount of warmth indoors during Winter. The yarn is basically a cheap-o kitchen cotton but I made a sweater out of it years ago that has held up well so I have hope this too will last for several years. I'm thinking of making one in blue.

Sort of followed EZs percentage sweater to make this but modified the yoke to allow for buttons and put in some waist shaping. And it's a vest. I cropped my head off the picture because I couldn't manage to take one that didn't end up with me looking like I was having a health crisis.

Pattern: EZs Percentage Sweater (sort of)
Yarn: Handicrafter Cotton Solids in Sonoma Print
Needle: 4.5mm and 5.0mm
Gauge: 16 stitches and 26 rows = 10 cm


Current Weather
13C and mostly cloudy. Feels like Fall is knocking on the door.

Sunday 26 August 2018

Cotton Vest Disaster and a Dragon

I made myself a cotton vest, just using some Bernat Cotton, nothing fancy no real pattern.

Then I put it in the wash.

I didn't realize the new sheets were going to shed this much purple/red dye.


It seriously looks like someone bled all over it. A lot. I've washed it a couple times to try to get the dye out but no luck so far. I can't even donate it since it looks like it was part of a murder spree.

The dragon came out much better. Another Tarragon, love this pattern so any excuse to make another one, in this case my boss is having a baby so I made a dragon for his daughter. Will also make one for the new baby, said to be a boy, in blue.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Iris and Watermelon
Pattern:  Tarragon the Gentle Dragon
Needle: 2.75mm & 4.0mm
Gauge: not critical but you want a firm fabric for stuffing




Pets
Everyone had their annual physical yesterday.

Mouse (17 years old) kept trying to run away from home when we got back even though I told her we were not likely to go back to the vet for a while. Her blood pressure is high so she's going onto some blood pressure meds, hopefully she likes the taste of pill-pockets as she will need to take these for the rest of her life along with some pain killers for arthritis. Blood work shows her just starting to have kidney problems so she's moving to a kidney support diet. Other than that she is wonderfully healthy. Not bad for the feline equivalent of 84 years old.

Soccer (13 years old) is in the poorest health of us all. His kidneys are not doing well at all, but he has gained a couple of kilos over the past few months which is good news as he was terribly underweight earlier this year, to the point where I thought I was going to loose him; the improvement is a huge relief. Waiting for the blood work to see if his kidney values have improved. And will be increasing his daily dose of pain meds for arthritis, he walks with a zombie shuffle in the back end because his hips are failing badly. Getting old is not for the weak. The vet also said that he is one of her favorite dogs ever which is really nice to hear because Soccer is the only dog (so far anyway) that I've had that I needed to seek professional help to train, I guess we got it right in the end.

Ahab (12 years old) is now retired from Scent Hurdle, he needs pain killers for his arthritis to get through the day; sports are done. He's done more than enough for the sport of Scent Hurdle as any dog could as the first tri-pawed to compete (I had to get the rules changed so he could compete) he's earned his retirement. He had more teeth removed in July and his mouth has healed up nicely; we're working on tooth brushing. Other than the arthritis he's doing well.

Current Weather
16C and mostly cloudy. Yesterday the smoke cleared off for the most part, today it seems to be back. We've been chocking on smoke from the BC wild-fires for over two weeks now.

Friday 20 July 2018

Socks Bound for Scotland

Finished a pair of socks for my Wee Niece. Just basic socks in a self-striping yarn. Will actually have to mail these as there is no one going across the pond who can deliver them for me this time.

Pattern: Basic Sock
Yarn: Cascade Yarns® Heritage Prints in Autumn
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 41 stitches and 48 rows


Current Weather
20C and sunny. Possible thunderstorms on the way. Typical summer weather here, hot during the day with a thunderstorm in the evening. Bit cooler today though, we did have a couple days over 30C.

Saturday 7 July 2018

Socks

Finally, something to post about. Just a pair of plain ol' black (charcoal grey really) socks for my Dad. They were supposed to be for Father's Day but they're a bit late. Fortunately I'm sure my Dad will forgive me. I don't think I'll use this yarn again as the ball was seriously underweight, it was supposed to be 100g but when I put it on my yarn scale it was only 91g. I've never found a ball that was the perfect weight, most are underweight, but 9g is a lot of yarn to be missing.

Pattern: Basic Sock
Yarn: Lang Yarns Jawoll Color Jacquard in 902.0156
Needle: 2.5mm
Gauge: 40 stitches and 48 rows = 10 cm


Current Weather
24C and mostly sunny.

Saturday 2 June 2018

Camo Blanket - Night Sky

Another baby blanket has dripped from the needles. I'm loving entrelac, the way it allows you to combine two colours is just wonderful. And it seems to work well for a yarn with a really short colour sequence. I know that if I tried to do a long row with the Twilight colourway it would just look like a mess but in short rows it works nicely.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Craft Smart Value Ombres in Twilight and Craft Smart Value Solids in Navy
Needle: 5.5mm
Gauge: not critical


Pets
I put this together in memory of Squish:


He died close to a year ago now but only recently did I feel ready to do this for him.

Current Weather
20C and partly cloudy. After three days of cold rain it got nice again just in time for the weekend.