Silence

There seems to be a silence amongst my bloglines subscriptions...everyone must be out enjoying the beautiful day(for those of you who are actually having one). Me...I just woke up from a night shift which involved tons of knitting, and watching season 4 of Nip Tuck. What a great show! I watched it the first season it came out, then lost my way for a couple of years. Last year I caught a few episodes, but I wanted to catch up on all of them, so I bought the box set. (I've already watched all the season 5 episodes to date). All I can say is WOW. Those writers know their stuff. I'm at the point with Mr.Man's sweater that he needs to try it on before I continue...the arms should be set aside soon, then it's blissful easy stockinette the rest of the way. Perfect Nip Tuck knitting. I have no new knitting photos, but I do have a sunrise from the windshield of the car last weekend as we were approaching Timmins. It was beautiful even though my camera couldn't quite catch it the way I could see it through the salty dirty windshield.

She Weaves Too!

I'm in lurve...


This is a really pic heavy post (just so ya know)
I have caught the bug. I finally sat down and figured out how to weave on my little loom I got for Christmas. As many a Canadian crafter know, Lewiscraft went out of business a little while ago, and my sister went to a clearance sale and found me this little loom that the sales woman said had been sitting in their back room for close to 20 years. She got it for 15 bucks! Can't beat that. (I've also had a Bergere loom for over a year now but had no instructions on how to use it). Just a small start, but it's so much fun! I had promised myself I'd learn to weave for quite some time,but I kept putting it aside because there really aren't alot of resources on how to begin weaving online(until now, but I'll get back to that in a minute). So, I just bit the bullet and followed step by step the instructions that came in the box. I think this little project may turn out to be a guitar strap for my wireless Guitar Hero guitar. Something has to be girly and pink in this house filled with boys. I'm finding the rhythm (once I found one) very relaxing. I can't wait to warp up the loom again and try some of my silk/cashmere from colourmart. I do have a couple of tension issues, but I think it will be ok in the end once I wash this baby.
There's also been lots of knitting going on. I'm almost done with the first campfire sock (it's been my bedside table knitting).


And...I cast on yet another sweater. For Mr.Man this time. He wanted a simple mock turtleneck raglan pullover, so that is what he shall get. I cast this on last night, and am about halfway to the dividing for the arm holes. It's going pretty quickly I think seeing as how it's being knit in Elann Alpaca Fina(colour is Tumbleweed) on 3.75 mm needles. I'm just winging this one using the EPS (Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system). I am writing down what I'm doing though so once I'm done I can write up a quick and dirty pattern if you'd like.



This sweater is super soft, although I'm a little concerned about the itchiness factor around the neckline.
Oh, and Mr. Greenjeans is getting it's button bands knit right now even though I haven't done the arms yet. It's a little snug right now since I made that stupid mistake with the cabled ribbing, but I think it will block out ok since it's 40% cotton (at least I hope it will). What are your thoughts on colour? I thought I might over dye it since the green was really "green" but after trying it on with my super dark jeans, I started to like it a little. I can't decide. The colour in these shots are actually showing the green much more muted than it actually is. It's truly a bight spring green (picture brand new greeny- yellow grass)

See that bonehead mistake? dumb arse that I am couldn't read the pattern.

So I'd love to hear what you think I should do about the colour. Should it stay or should it go?

* I'm really sorry about the lack of links, but I'll try to link everything up a little later today

Les peaux de lièvres

This is amazing! Each panel was knitted and then used to create this "music video". What patience that must have taken.

Been knitting lots of Socks

I'm headed on a road trip for son the second's hockey tournament so I've got some socks on the go to keep me occupied while I cheer him on. I had a total brainstorm while I was trying to figure out how the heck to take some sock pictures outside without totally dunking them in the snow. Did you know that hockey sticks make great holders for sock photos? Neither did I till I slapped the monster sock on it.














These are for Mr.Man who has monster size 12 feet. The yarn is from an indie dyer I have come to love Fearless Fibers ( I am totally into indie sock yarns these days) In the "Smoke" colour way. The man picked it out, and I am in love with this colour. One sock done, the other one is about 3 inches past the heel, so almost done. What's a girl to do when the socks are almost done? Cast on another one of course, but this time for my own little frozen tootsies.
It's been super cold, and snowing like crazy, so the hand knit socks have been in circulation. To top it off we're headed even further north to Timmins, where we can expect temperatures in the vicinity of -35 c all weekend. Frikin' cold. These are Black Bunny Fiber in the Campfire colour way. So smooshy! I love this base yarn. I can't wait to have these babies on my feet
Maybe the whole campfire colour will trick my feet into actually believing they are warm. In -35 I don't think there's anything that can actually really truly keep them warm, but hey, I can look warm right?
Speaking of Timmins, I found out that there is a yarn shop called Knit-Wits about 2 blocks from our hotel. I will definitely check that out when we have some down time. Have any of you been there before? I do know they carry one of my favorite locally spun wools from Belle Valee. I'll be grabbing some of that for sure. I hope all of you have a great weekend. Keep warm.

A Few New things

A few new knitterly items have made their way to my house this week, and I thought I'd share cause I have a few minutes before the Super bowl festivities start ( Go Patriots). The first is something I picked up at Canadian Tire * for about $19.99 in the bait and tackle section. It shall make my life bliss as I try to figure out the yardage of the hand spun on my bobbins. Every knitter/spinner needs one. It even clips to your belt so you can keep it handy. Who knew fishermen were so smart? I can even use it in the dark. SO COOL. It's made by Rapala and can count up to 1000 feet at a time.







Next up is some beautiful sock yarn I purchased from Blue-Hands Fibers I saw a little ad for them while I was trolling Ravelry, and decided to check her out. Stunning sock yarn, and just a peach to deal with.



Quick go buy her yarn. She's running dangerously low, but is suppposed to get some new stuff in her shop soon. I'm definitely looking forward to more of her yarny goodness. I'm so sorry I couldn't quite capture the true colours of this yarn, but the main colour is a salmony red, with browns and golds and a few spots of old rose pink. I'm so happy this is more of a girly colour, cause then The. Man won't beg me for this pair of socks to be knit for him. That Focaccia bread is destined for my dinner plate wit a little dollop of olive oil drizzled on my plate to dip into. Yumm...... Last but not least, I've gotta send you over to Necia's blog. She was my secret pal for SP7 , and I dyed and spun her some yarn for the exchange. She's

knitting it up into a gawjus (as she would say) Pi shawl in combination with some of her own hand spun. I can't wait to see how it turns out. It's like seeing a baby grow up...every skein of hand spun has it's own story...this story was especially for her, and I'm so pleased to see it become something so beautiful.

* Canadian Tire is a hardware and car servicing( and everything else home improvement or outdoorsey) institution in this country. Don't know what we'd do without them.