Fibersnob! Confessions of a Stashaholic

A little bit about me, all things knitting and the old day to day.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Go on over to AmyKnitty's blog for pics of the closing ceremonies party and a much better pic of me wearing the finished DFS.

It's here! The mailman may not be back tomorrow though, the little dance I did when he handed me the package may have frightened him just a little (he half walked, half sprited into the stairwell away from me). It says something sort of sad about me that the highlight of my day is the mail no matter what comes but today was happy mail and I was excited.




It's perfect: it's warm (I had to turn the heat off and put an extra blanket on M when I got a bit hot wearing it around the apartment), the colour is incredible and the texture is so fun. MelissaAmy you rock! She dyed and spun the yarn herself, it has thin and thick spots that pooled really cool when she knit it so it's lumpy and I love it. The colour is deep purple with patches of a great medium blue. When I put it on and looked down at it I realized it matches almost perfectly with my Koigu socks that I was wearing. A million than yous, well worth the wait and I really hope you're feeling better Melissa. The package had a pink KitKat bar and some Jelly Bellies too, candy and I don't go well together...everytime we get together one of us magically dissapears (I'm a sucker for jelly beans).

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Triple gold for me, yay! I'm no Cindy Klassen but I'm still pretty proud of myself. I wasn't as down to the wire as I thought I might be although I got some funny looks while I was stitching up some titbits in the Second Cup over coffee and a muffin this morning while I waited for a friend. Here are my Olympic medal winning projects:

The Diamond Fantasy Shawl:


A fun knit and a really well written pattern, I highly recommend this one for newer lace knitters as it's not overly complicated and it comes out beautifully. Sivia Harding has super customer service too, she answered a lot of questions for me (and I imagine I was making her a bit nuts for a while there). I'm excited to wear this to some summer weddings.

Toe up, magic loop, picot edged socks:


From a generic toe up sock pattern by Wendy Johnson (the picot top was my own addition). These are so comfy and I like that I could have ended them at any time had I run out of yarn, I've already cast on another toe up pair. I did not, however, like the magic loop and I don't think I'll be using it for socks again. I got ladders between the two needles that I don't usually get, I'll be sticking with my beloved dpns I think.

A pair of TitBits:


A super easy (yet funny and heartwarming) knit for a great cause. Thanks Gina for telling me about them and I'm sure to have more on their way to you soon. Check out the link and knit one (or a bunch) yourself.

The closing ceremonies party was a good time and we got to see Stephanie finish off her sweater. As this is a family blog I won't repeat what she said when she finished it! It was great to see everyone's gold medal efforts in person, now I have about twenty projects I want to knit....

Friday, February 24, 2006

It's soooo close to being done it hurts (just some ends to weave in and I prefer to do that after the blocking). Here's the DFS resting after it's bath. I have to say that it's incredibly gorgeous if I may be so humble.


And a closeup of the detail.


I'm really glad I decided to end it when I did, another repeat would have made it much too big to really consider wearing, as it is it's almost as wide as my bed is long and I probably could have blocked it more severely than I did. Just as I suspected thought the colours aren't as horrible now that the lace has been opened up so it's going to be a really nice accent to go with a plain sundress for wedding season. I have faith in lace again.

In more Olympic news my socks are getting there, I'm about halfway up the leg to the picot round then just the facing and finishing to do. I imagine these'll be done today then I just have some titbits to go for my medal.
(In the interest of decency and because I love you all I even went to the trouble of shaving my legs for this pic, enjoy.)

I like how comfortable I am on time with all this, I was really worried at the beginning that I had taken on too much and there was no way I was ever going to get it all done. In retrospect had I not been working last week this all probably wouldn't have been the challenge I thought it would be. Many thanks to the inventors of the exersaucer for giving me the time to knit.

Monday, February 20, 2006

I cheated, I'll admit it. I tried my best on Saturday when I was out with S but I caved and bought yarn even though I'd had my day for the month. But one piece of cake doesn't ruin a whole diet right? I don't feel so guity about it though because it was on sale and I was really restraining myself....

Anyway, I came home on Saturday afternoon and O had moved M's crib into his own room (formerly the yarn room). I'm glad he just went ahead and did it because even though I knew it was time to move him from our room I wasn't really looking forward to doing it and was really a bit nervous about him being on his own. Saturday night I slept pretty lightly, everytime the lights on the monitor flashed I was wide awake and freaking out a little. It took every ounce of willpower not to go running in and check on him every three minutes. It's funny, he's getting to be such a big boy but he's still such a baby when I think of him being in there all by himself. I was torn between wanting him to sleep through the night and prove to me he's ready to be in there and wanting him to cry like crazy because he missed his mommy. In the end he slept pretty well (for him) and I'm getting a bit better about it.

The Olympic projects are coming along, I'm not as far ahead with any of them as I had hoped to be but there's still a chance that I'll finish. The shawl is almost through the fifth pattern repeat and the second sock is almost at the heel. Half of one TitBit is done but they're a quick knit so I'm not that worried about it. The more of it I do the more I think there's a huge element of faith to knitting lace and the shawl is definately testing mine. It looks like Chinese noodles or somewhat organized yarn barf at this point and it's not really encouraging. Also I'm really starting to hate the colours of the yarn, there's a semi flourescent orange in it that I'm a bit worried about but I'm hoping that with washing and blocking the colour will either fade/run or the lace will open up enough that it will seem less bright. Fingers crossed on that one. At least my work project is done for this quarter so I'll have a lot more time this week plus O came home at noon today sick and likely won't go in again tomorrow so that at least gives me a bit more time because M is far too interested in knitting these days for me to get much done when he's up.

I've been stalking the mailman for the last few weeks for my ISE scarf and at this point I've totally lost faith that there's anything coming my way. My scarf has been sent but I don't see that it's arrived yet but I let my pal know it's on the way. Maybe I'll do a stashbuster scarf for myself after the Olympics are over to make me feel better about the whole thing.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

So after many restarts and agonizing over patterns I'm finally getting somewhere on my Olympic socks. I started with the figure 8 cast on and actually got it right the first time but didn't like the shape of the toe it made so I found another toe. Having to do the short row toe three times I think I like it better, it fits my foot a lot nicer. I've elected to eschew the lace and let the yarn speak for itself with a plain stockingette sock, the colours are so great it really doesn't need anything fancy. I'm getting nervous though as the heel is fast approaching. Everyone told me I'd love magic loop for socks but I'm not really enjoying it, I miss dpns.




I've put the shawl aside for the time being, the first three repeats of the second lace chart went fine but the fourth has been frogged numerous times now (thank heavens for lifelines!). I think if I leave it for a few days and go back to it with a fresh brain I'll be a more attentive lace knitter.

I've really not had near the knitting time since the Olympics started as I thought I would have. Working, family stuff and M's refusal to nap have been getting in the way. Hopefully this project will be out of the way for another quarter by Friday so I can concentrate on what's on the needles. It's all the corrections to other people's work that's taking me so long (which is frustrating but seeing as how I'm being paid hourly isn't all bad I guess). How's this for inter-office communications: S got a promotion this week (yay!) but only found out about it in the company wide e-mail that was sent out to announce it. For all the garbage she deals with I sure hope it comes with a pay raise!

I'm headed down to yarn heaven with S on the weekend, I'll have to be good to keep my resolution but I never said anything about buying books and patterns....

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

First, see new button at right-----> Go ahead and give it a click.
I've joined a second team for the Olympics, Team TitBit! I've committed to knitting two titbits in honour of my aunt Val who has successfully battled breast cancer. The pattern is linked from the site and I'll get it linked here asap. Even if you only knit one (and really they look like a really quick knit) you're helping in your own way. As they say, every muffin counts!

Monday, February 06, 2006

The River Rapids socks are done, I thik they came out pretty well. There should be enough of this yarn left over to make a small pair for M too.

(my readers should feel special knowing that I even shaved my legs specifically for this pic..LOL). I've decided that I love KPPPM, it was really nice yarn to work with and I'm looking forward to my shawl.

Here's the finished ISE scarf too, it'll be mailed today. I keep looking at the blog wondering which of the scarves is headed my way, I have no patience for presents, I'm worse than a little kid.



I started the Crafster Circular Shrug too to give me something to work on until the Olympics start. I'm using Knitpicks WOTA in a really nice chocolate brown. I'll post pics when it starts to look like something.

Friday, February 03, 2006

My pattern is here, my pattern is here! Yay. I want to start right now, not seven days from now. I've been training all afternoon, had a good read of the pattern, soaked the cord of my new bamboo circs to mellow them out a little and now I'm trying not to let myself wind the yarn because I know once I do that it's game over and I'll just have to start.

I finally finished my ISE scarf and it's blocking at the moment, I'm so glad to finally have it over with but I'm really pleased with how it came out. Maybe all that humming and hawing over pattern and yarn were worth it in the end. I'm going to try and get it in the mail tomorrow.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

I can't believe I blogged earlier and forgot to mention what went down at my LYS yesterday. I was in for my yarn shop and took the socks I'm working on with me to get some advice.


(Sockbug's River Rapids socks in Koigu KPPPM). I wasn't happy with the little points on the sides after grafting the toe together and I wanted some help.

One of the guys who works in the shop asked if I would be interested in doing some knitting for pay, he really liked my work. Now I didn't think I was that good a knitter. He took my e-mail and phone # so we'll see if he gets in contact. I was really flattered.

I don't think anyone would be surprised to hear that I've had February's yarn buying day already. Oh well, I was very good and have actually kept my resolution so far. I changed my mind about what I'm knitting for the Olympics so I needed new supplies. The original plan was to knit Kiri with KSH but it seemed a bit blashemous to knit a pattern designed by an Anmerican with British yarn for the Canadian Olympic knitting team. So I bought this yarn:



Koigu KPPPM (made in Canada) to knit the Diamond Fantasy Shawl by Sivia Harding (a fellow Canuck). Talk about customer service, I e-mailed Sivia with some questions before I ordered the pattern and she was not only really helpful but got back to me almost instantly, I see myself knitting some of her other patterns in the near future. Other than needles the only other thing I bought for me was a Fleece Artist merino sock kit. I did pick up some yarn for my secret pals but in the interest of said secrecy I won't post pics.

In other news I've changed my mind (again) about my ISE scarf and I actually have this one almost done. I bought the yarn months ago because I loved the colours but had no real plan and it had been languishing in the stash ever since. I was a bit worried about how it looked on the hank



but it looked a lot better once I'd wound it



and this is the scarf, the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf and it's going really well. I'm about to start the third ball of yarn (I might as well use it all up, my pal wanted a long scarf anyway) but I think I'll cut the pieced for the fringe first so I don't run out at the very end as it's taken long enough and I don't feel like having another setback.

Recently a new species of mammal has been discovered hanging around our place: it's smallish, eats everything in sight and is irresistable drawn to any yarn within a five meter radius. It has been dubbed "knittus interuptus" and I managed to capture it on film today: