Mitten #1 is little M approved, now to start on #2.


Sock Wars started last night but although some people seem to already have their first pairs knit and in the mail I'm barely past the heel turn on the first one. M has been snotty and barfy and miserable all day so I haven't had the time to pay much attention to it. He had the forethought to aim a particularly nasty upchuck all over my cell phone, we'll see if it lives. And as much as winning this thing would be cool I don't think it's going to happen, it's a non-priority until M feels better. Even though he wasn't feeling the best he didn't have any trouble taking a minute for some monkey business.


Budding musician in the family maybe.


I think I've managed to knit two rows on Lucy in as many days so I won't bore you with a pic for tonight. I got my hair cut on Thursday, a more updated, less flowerchild look and as soon as I have opportunity to jump in the shower I'll get a pic taken and a before shot posted too.

Having no small and portable projects on the go makes me an unhappy knitter so although I know the KAL doesn't officially start until the 23rd I started an EZ project. This is the first of a pair of Sideways Mystery Mitts from Knitting Around. Now that the seasons have turned from "road construction" to winter as they do in Toronto, my little guy needs something to keep his chubby hands toasty. I knit this one from some leftovers of fingering weight yarn, Lanett Superwash, I had used for some socks. They're still going to be big on him but he'll grow into them. I left some live stitches when I was doing the bind off and I'm using them to knit a bunch of i-cord so I can loop them through his coat so they don't get lost.

These were knit on faith that the Goddess of knitting knew what she was doing because until you're 3/4 of the way through it didn't look like anything that could be mistaken for a mitten at all, but in the end it was an interesting knit and I'm excited to start the second one.

(crossposted from Zimmermania)

Camera battery is charging so maybe some pics later. I've finished some stuff: FORECAST!!! (if you would believe it) and the BSA cropped cardi (actually finished Saturday but who's counting?). I've started some stuff: odd little mittens for M, Lucy in the Sky cardi for me and have a little something (oh who and I kidding, a giant something) in the planning stages for O. Joined some KALs which was dumb because they're all starting in the next few days, Gray's Anatomy KAL today, Sock Wars Tomorrow and Zimmermania on Saturday so I'm going to be a busy little mamma.

The boy has a real mouthful of teeth that he's sharpening by chewing on O's fingers. He took a few steps on his own over the weekend but hasn't done anything like walking since but is standing on his own longer and longer the more he tries it seems. So scary that soon he'll be off and running with me gasping for breath behind him.

I don't like it, I really wanted to...but I don't. I'm thinking maybe when it's dry and I try it on again it'll cast some sort of knitterly pride/magic spell over me and I'll want to wear it for the rest of my days but for right now I'm not really feeling it.

Just for a bit of levity this was the scene when I peeked my head out of the apartment yesterday:

They're replacing all the toilets in the building to low-flow models and here they are ready to go.

A sleeve and a half to go for the cropped cardi, I don't want it to end the yarn is so cushy and wonderful.
Truthfully, beyond these two weddings I don't think this'll be something I'll wear a lot but I'm going to reserve judgement until it's had a block and a try-on. If I still don't think I'll wear it after all that I might frog it and recycle the yarn for a long sleeved Glee which is something I can see myself wearing a lot. Hard to believe that this is the first fall/winter I'll have handknits to wear, it seems like I've been knitting forever! Now that the weather has turned cool I've already worn hourglass a few times and gotten tons of compliments on it.

Here's Forecast in all her unfinished glory, I'm stoked to get back to her now as I'm loving the buttons (they're not really attached yet, safety pinned on for placement for now). I'm thinking they'll need something for backing so I might pick up some grossgrain ribbon to match to give the buttons something more to anchor to. Hopefully the cropped cardi will be done today so I can sit down with this for a bit.

A group shot of everything I'm working on right now, it's a icky gray day outside and none of the other pics I took were enjoying good lighting so I shoved them in all together.

The cropped cardi (the soft gray) is about 4 inches into the 7 of ribbing it needs for the body then I just have to pick the sleeve stitches back up and knit down from there, hopefully the body and some of one sleeve will get done today then the other sleeve tomorrow morning so I can get this bathed and blocked and have lots of time to dry before Saturday.

Not having the greatest time with the Donegal Tweed for M's jacket, it refuses gauge entirely and it'll need some more work for me to bend it to my will. It's pretty nasty scratchy stuff but I washed the first swatch and a small hank of it yesterday with the old shampoo/conditioner combo and it's a ton better to work with now (less twinelike). I think I'll actually end up washing all the yarn before I start using it to make it a better knitting experience.

The spindle there has some merino from Cosmic Pluto in a really pretty colourway, summy yellow and teal. I'm surprised how finely I can spin this, there have been so many times that I'm sure the single is going to break and drop the spindle on the floor but it hasn't happened yet, at this rate this'll be a two ply sock yarn!

The green lump there is Forecast, I actually pulled it out last night and worked on the neverending sleeve a bit. I knit the whole section of horizontal rib that separates the cable section from the ribbing on the forearm, more progress to come hopefully once the cropped cardi is done.

I'm totally cheesed at blogger right now, I want to brag a bit but can't seem to get photos to post....

Remember that Fleece Artist BFL from way back when? I pulled it back out yesterday and finally finished it. Now I'm itching to start into the second braid and wondering if I can find more of the same colourway as I'd love a sweater quantity of this stuff. I said at the outset that these weren't colours I'd have chosen but I'm super glad that I picked this up anyway, I think I had a feeling about it and it's a good thing I trusted my gut on this one. In the end it's about 110m/50g so about a DK weight. I'm loving the barber-pole look that I got and spinning the two halves in opposite directions worked out perfectly.

Linkies to pickies:
the colours- yummah!
with a dime for reference

My One Skein secret pal package arrived Friday; I almost dropped it when the postman handed it to me, I didn't expect it to be so heavy. Thank you, thank you Stephanie, you've spolied me thuroughly rotten. The package included: a great cabled bag made from one skein of yarn, a sheep tape measure, playing cards with pictures of Oregon on them (where she lives, waves in the general direction of Oregon), a really cool pin cushion, a great pattern for kids sweaters in multiple gauges and sizes, the current "Bend Living" magazine and some fantastic vintage patterns!!


Also in the mail on Friday was a really nice thank you note from J, she loves the shawl and I'm much relieved to hear it. Just a few more short days until wedded bliss, I'm looking forward to it. My dress for the wedding is sleeveless and the ceremony being in a Catholic church (no bare shoulders) and the reception being in a barn (she's a farm girl and I love the barn reception idea) I've started a little cardi as a coverup in case of cold and to throw over my shoulders at the ceremony. It's a really easy top down raglan and it's moving along well, the yarn is a dream too. Initially I had a really hard time getting gauge, the pattern calls for 8mm needles with the yarn doubled but I'm using 5.5mm and finally it's working up to the right size.

In other knitting news I'm going to start swatching for this little jacket for M with some lovely tweedy goodness he picked out all by his little self.
I'll start this when the cardi is done and blocking. Klaralund has had a sleeve rewrite but no knitting has happened yet, I'm promising myself I'll finish Forecast first seeing as how I picked up buttons for her on the weekend.

The paisley lace is finally off the needles. The picot cast off took most of yesterday and all morning today to finish, cast on 3, cast off six.... Oh well, it's done with lots of time to spare and I'm really happy with how it came out.

Now maybe onto something for me to wear to the wedding in the form of a shawl/wrap thingy to go with the super cute dress my mom bought me for the occasion?

Klaralund hasn't been ripped yet but I'll probably get to that today. I need to have a look at changing the sleeves up a bit, more hourglass sleeve-like I think. Not sure how much reworking I can do seeing as how the sleeve width determines the size of the top of the sweater but I suppose that if I'm picking up stitches and knitting the body down it should be pretty easy to adjuzt the length if need be. More on that when I figure it out.

No pics today, I'm staying with the parentals while O is away for the weekend and I forgot the camera. The paisley lace is six rounds into the 20 round edging chart and holy mother the rounds are taking forever at this point, anyways I think I should have this done by midweek or so. I have to say I'm not loving the Zephyr, it's lovely drapey stuff but it's horribly splitty.

The front (or back) is almost done for Klaralund but I'm seeing now what a nightmare it's going to be to have to do the splice and dice to make the striping on the front and back match up so I'm going to frog it and take another approach. I'm going to knit the sleeves first (in the round to the underarm) then seam them together at the neckline then pick up and knit the body down from the selvedge edges. Plusses here are matching stripes around the body (it'll still be some work to get the sleeves to match up but I can live with that) and amost no seaming at the end. We'll see how it goes. Really this sweater pattern couldn't be simpler and it'll be nice to feel the accomplishment of having a larger project finished pretty quiclky.