Another Baby Blanket

Almost getting ahead of myself here. Photos of an item I finished on Thursday - a baby blanket.

A girl I used to work with (neither of us work at the same place anymore) is pregnant and I decided to knit her a blanket. She is not due until July so I thought I had plenty of time except her shower was on Saturday. Yikes I need to get cracking I had less than a month to come up with something. I had an idea of what I was going to make so with this short timescale I just went with my original idea and didn't spend time agonizing over patterns and yarn.

I had 4 1/2 balls of baby 4-ply yarn left over from this blanket and I had bought coloured yarn with an idea for a crocheted blanket which I never made. So I chose to make this blanket. Alternating the colours with the white. As I was short of time, I followed the instructions for the smaller size, then worked 4 rows of each colour, finishing with one row of lilac and then the cast off. I achieved all this, except the cast off by Wednesday. I had time but I didn't want to have to mess around with different cast offs to find a stretchy one. I opted for a picot cast off with three stitches in between each picot, cast off with a Russian cast off. This made for an interesting edge that was not at all tight.

Here's an arty picture of the blanket in progress.



I was in the lounge of a hotel when I took this and cannot remember the settings I used but it shows the colours correctly.

Here is the blanket just off the needles.



And for anyone who thinks you can't block acrylic here is the blanket after a quick block.



I wish I had had more time for a proper blocking (did I hear you say blocking wires?). I pinned it out and then sprayed it with water, covered with towels as cat protectors and left it over night. Ready to drop off on Friday morning.

Using Up The Stash

On reading this post from the end of 2009, it appears that my stash is under control and being used. Things went a bit haywire in 2010. I bought yarn while on holiday, bought more yarn on a local yarn crawl with friends and bought more yarn in an end of year sale. And I have been given yarn.

I would like to set a target of when the yarn has to be used by. For example all the yarn bought on the yarn crawl has to be used by 1st day of summer. I know such a target isn't going to work so I shall set myself a general target of only knitting from the stash. This will present difficulties when/if I want to knit something and I don't have the right yarn in my stash. By that I mean yarn of the correct weight. Although I was very pleased that I was able to use yarn from the stash for the baby blanket I am currently making.

To show how good I am, on Friday we went to Canmore and I didn't even look up the address of the yarn store there.

A Hat For Me

After posting about the hat I made for hubby, I realise that I had not posted pictures of the hat I had made for myself. Especially as I made it at the end of last year.




The pattern is Quincy by Jared Flood who is known in the blogging world as Brooklyn Tweed. The yarn is Azapa by Araucania which I purchased in September during our local yarn crawl. I bought the yarn for a specific scarf pattern. But after trying twice with different size needles, decided that the yarn and pattern were not going to work together.

This photo is a better representation of the colour.



I had just under 50 grams of yarn left. Too much to throw away and too little to use but I found a pattern for a very simple neck warmer and knitted until I ran out of yarn.

My Cowl is Versatile

I really liked the yarn I used for my husband's hat; it was so soft. I used approximately 25 grams of the white and it seemed a shame to not use the left overs for something else. I have been trying not to add to my stash by using every little bit of yarn but have rather failed with this endeavour with all the socks I have been knitting as I have been putting all the yarn (new and left overs) in the stash.

I decided to make myself a cowl. I had always considered cowls a nuisance and therefore a pointless garment. Putting them on over your head, taking them off, putting them on again was a recipe for messing up hair and getting lipstick on everything. Or so it seemed, as I had never actually worn a cowl.

But then I realised that a cowl will take a place of a scarf when you go out but won't be removing your coat - going for a walk or a quick shop for example. But going out for coffee you wear a scarf so that you can take it off.

I found a pattern available only on Ravelry so I cannot not link to it here. An easy knit with some lace interest.



And now for the versatility. It can be worn as a standard cowl; if I have my hair in a pony tail and can't wear a hat I can pull it up over my ears; and, best of all, I can wear it upside down on my head and be Queen for the day!

Today I Was The Statue

I mentioned that one of our cats has an idiopathic chylothorax. She had done very well for 2 to 3 months and then the fluid built up again and there were a couple of visits to the vet. After the last visit, the vet suggested some additional supplements and some different food. The food worked well as I think she was happy to have a change. The supplements not so well.

I am already breaking open the capsules of rutin, mixing with hot water and administering by syringe. So I crush the vitamin tablet and add to this mix but I also have to give her a special oil. I tried some. It's tasteless and odourless. Great I can add it to her food. Well it's not odorless to my cat. I added 1/8 teaspoon to her wet food - she didn't touch it. I waited a few days, added 1/8 teaspoon to the bottom of her bowl of dry food - she didn't touch it.

I need to get this stuff inside her. As I am already syringing her 2 to 3 times a day. I decided to add a little of the oil to the mix. I suctioned up the multi-supplement mixture pushed the bottom of the syringe, syringe pointing straight up..... and woosh the plunger moved very quickly and I was wearing the green mix.

Clothing Needed in Calgary

I have mentioned that I periodically check the knitting and crochet books in the local library. Late last year I checked out Guy Knits: The Best of Knitter's Magazine. It included patterns for hats, sweaters, sleeveless pullovers and even an afghan. Some of the patterns were very male suitable and some were of the "a man would never wear that" category.

There was a hat pattern that I thought would be suitable for hubby and in a mad moment I decided I would knit it for him for Christmas. I had to buy yarn and work on it when he wasn't around. Three different colours were needed for the hat. It was difficult to find 3 male friendly colours in a yarn I thought soft enough to wear on the head. I purchased 3 balls of yarn and started the hat but soon came to the realization that
1. I was not going to finish by Christmas and
2. the yarn colours were not working in the pattern.
I abandoned the project.

I still wanted to make the hat so when the yarn store had their after Christmas sale it was a chance to buy suitable yarn. I ended up with 2 colours in an Australian merino and a third colour in a different yarn not quite as soft.

The white and grey yarns are Pear Tree Supersoft 10 ply and the red yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

As the original project was to be a surprise I kept this version a secret too. The difficulty being that everytime it was really cold, hubby would work from home preventing me from finishing a hat that he could really use. Anyway it was finally completed and worn as it was still very cold. The hat is reversible therefore double thickness and very warm.



This is a picture of the complete hat.



This is the first version of the hat and you can see that the colours blend together and hide the pattern.

February Knitting

Two pairs of socks and two dishcloths in January. Was I able to continue in February? No and yes. Although I posted two pairs of socks for January, the January mystery pair was not finished until 19 February. I started a sock on 1 February to fit the theme but had to admit that not only was it too big but the yarn didn't show the pattern. I put aside all thoughts of socks in February until I finished January's mystery. February's socks were subsequently started on 19 February and I have finished one sock.

I fared better with the dishcloths making both the patterns.

The one for the beginning of February is smaller which I find better for dishcloths. If I had known this, I could have used left over yarn but that is all part of the mystery. I sent this one to my Mum.

 

Here is the one for the middle of February. By the number of cast on stitches I realised it was going to be bigger so used a new (in the stash) ball of cotton. This was a good thing as it took 40 grams of yarn. Although this could have been worked in two or three colours.

January’s Socks

Of course I am still knitting socks and following the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. Every odd numbered month there is a mystery sock, so for these months I am aiming to make two pairs of socks – the mystery and another pair to fit the challenge.

The challenge for January was: Technique: Mosaic - Slipped Stitches/Socks for a Cause; Designer: Janel Laidman; Mystery Sock designed by Nicole Masson (stefanina)

The mystery sock is always based on the technique for the month so it would be a mosaic or slipped stitch pattern. I purchased yarn in Gina Brown's post-Boxing Day sale especially for this challenge. The yarn was Cadenza by Estelle; 80% Merino and 20% silk. Here is a picture of the two colours before being wound into balls.

When I purchased the yarn I didn`t notice how it was dyed. I don`t know the correct terminology but basically the yarns changes from dark to light in various parts of the skein. When you see the picture of the completed sock you will see that it doesn`t matter for the pink but I don`t like it for the red as it looks like the yarn is faded rather than deliberately dyed this way.

 Here are the finished socks



And here is a close up of the mosaic pattern.



 

For the other pair of socks for January, I made Socks for a Cause. The idea for this was to buy a pattern where funds were donated to a charity. I had pink yarn and I had a breast cancer awareness pattern but the pattern was free so I chose another pattern Pearl`s Diamonds Socks where all proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The socks are OK; not the best I have made. The gauge for these socks is 7 stitches and although the yarn label showed a gauge of 28 to 32 stitches, these would look better at a tighter gauge. The yarn is Fine by Spud & Chloë which I bought on the yarn crawl last September. And, obviously because it appears that I had my own sock theme going for the month, this yarn is also 80% wool, 20% silk.

January’s Dishcloths

In this resolution's post, I said I was going to use up the dishcloth cotton I had in my stash. The easiest way for me to do this and make patterns new to me, is by knitting the patterns that come up twice a month in the Yahoo Group to which I belong. This is how I knit so many dishcloths in 2009. I still belong to the group although I did not knit any of the featured patterns in 2010.

The two patterns for January both used more than one colour of yarn so I was able to use part balls which made me happy.

This is the first one for January. You should have seen the look on the Spousal Unit's face when I showed it to him. He actually said that we didn't need any more dishcloths.



I explained that I was using up stash so he was very pleased when I told him that I was giving this next one to my sister. This is the second cloth for January and I really like it especially as it is an ideal way to use up two part balls of yarn. It will be a pattern I return to if I have no other way of using up the oddments.

This is the front



and this is the back

Where Are My Royalties?

Way back in 2006 I posted about making bread in my bread machine and how I didn't like the hole left in the bread by the paddle.

Recently I had to purchase a new machine as my old one was leaking. I liked the features on my machine especially the delay option, and the size both of the machine and the loaves made. So I was looking for something similar. Considering that Superstore is my shop of choice I was a little dismayed that they did not sell bread machines. Yikes that meant going somewhere else - in the winter. I was soon appeased as Canadian Tire had a sale on some bread machines.

A new machine was purchased. The same make as I had before. Two functions that my old machine had that I miss on this machine, are letting you know where you are when going through all the options and letting you know where it is in the dough/baking cycle.

But what it does have that is an improvement on the old, the paddles drops during baking. No more big holes. So come on Breadman surely I'm owed something for my idea!

Winter

In December I posted photos of hat and mittens to show that I was ready for winter but I haven't commented on the weather to let you know that winter is here. Our first big snowfall and freeze hit the night of 15 November and temperatures stayed cold and it continued to snow most days for a good week and a half. We have had a number of snowfalls since then of varying amounts. Last weekend it was very windy. We didn't have much snow but Monday I cleared about a foot of snow from the driveway that had been blown there over the weekend.

Here is a photo of the trees in our front yard after we had an inch or so of snow one night in December and then there is a photo of a Chinook after Christmas.

Starting the Year Off Right

On 1st of January l finished a second sock. I had been really trying to finish it by 31 December but the last rows of ribbing had to wait for the New Year. Here is a photo of them being worn and then a photo to show the pattern close up. The pattern is easier than it looks although rather fiddly as there was much manipulation of stitches. Not something that I could work on while watching a subtitled film.


......

Pattern details.

Pattern: The pattern is by Caoua Coffee and available on Ravelry.com

Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns, Alpaca Sox. Bought in Denver - see bottom photo in this post.

I have started and finished two other projects this year already - photos to follow. And the oldest project I have was started when l went to Texas so I am not doing badly for completing projects; although I have a new lace project on the needles which will be a long term project.

New Year, New Resolutions

Unfortunately Not

I am going to reference this post. Especially this sentence:- "But if I continue knitting at least one pair a month I will finish the year with much less sock yarn than I started the year." Just one problem with that, I bought more sock yarn. So not only is this year The Year of the Sock it is also The Year of Not Buying Sock Yarn. As well as socks, I am going to try to use up all the dishcloth cotton stashed away. I have a few unused balls but it is mainly part balls left over from all the dishcloths I made in 2009. It will be nice to use up most of it. And as I completed the lace shawl I have started another lace project which will be my long term project.

A Year in Review

According to my projects listed on Ravelry, I have 31 items for 2010. Of these, there is one I unpicked, 2 that I started in 2009 and 1 I started in 2008, and 2 projects that are not finished. Of those 31 projects, 9 are pairs of socks, 4 are dishcloths, 8 are for charity, 1 baby blanket, 5 shawls or scarves, 1 skirt, 1 bag, 1 hat, 1 pair of mittens. Fewer projects than in 2009, but last year I made way more dishcloths. 3 of the items were gifts, everything else was made for me, the advantage of this is that I know I am going to like the finished item and if I don't then I am not hurting anyone's feelings by unpicking it or giving it away. I am pleased to say that everything mentioned in this post has been completed.

I have worn the skirt a couple of times and really like it. This is the pattern. It can be easily adapted for any yarn and I would not be surprised if I made some more. Will post some photos when I can persuade someone to take a decent one of me wearing it.

Here are photos of the mystery socks for September and November. I really enjoyed the patterns for both of these and am grateful that both designers gave of their time to provide these free patterns for the group.

What I haven't talked about are the blankets I have worked on for Western Canadian Odd-ball Baby Blanket Society. Information on this group which incorporated as an official non-profit charitable society this year can be found here.

The stash did increase rather this year with the shopping trip in Denver and a yarn crawl with other like minded people from my neck of the woods. More about plans for the stash to follow.

On the book front, I read 97 books this year. This surprised me as I thought that I wasn't reading as much. Some of these books were children's books and graphic novels. As usual my reading is across the board but does tend to avoid science fiction and fantasy. Books that I have read are shown on my shelf on this blog.

On the personal front; the boy child graduated high school this June and spent the last three months of the year in Denver although he plans to come back to Calgary to study or work. Our beautiful white cat has an idiopathic chylothorax. The first visit involved draining over 400 ml of fluid from her chest. Subsequent vet visits drained over 300 ml each visit. The last visit was a month ago but I am religiously giving her supplements twice a day.

And as usual, as today is our anniversary, I thank my husband for another wonderful year.

Ready For Winter

In October I told you about the yarn my husband had bought in Finland. He had purchased the yarn with a hat in mind, so as winter was knocking I started knitting and this is the hat.



The pattern is from Shawl and Scarves: The Best of Knitters Magazine. I used about one and half balls so decided to make the matching mittens.



After completing one mitten I weighed the remaining wool. I have a balance scale and with the mitten on one side and the remaining wool on the other, the scale balanced. I had no room for error.

There was just enough yarn. Which means no extra in the stash - yea.

A word about the pattern for the mittens. I achieved gauge and the hat fit fine; as written the mittens were enormous. No wonder they were photographed flat. I rewrote the pattern to fit my hands.

Do you like the snow effect in the photos?

Baby Blanket

I recently completed a blanket for an ex-colleague whose baby is due 1 January 2011. I didn't rush to start a blanket as I had plenty of time. I had had an idea of the blanket I wanted to make and even had the yarn in my stash but for whatever reason I chose not to make it and started looking in all my books for something that I thought would work. The next pattern I chose was knitted with elephants on it but decided against this one as the crochet blanket with giraffes was given to a colleague at the same work place and I didn't want my friend to think I was fixated on African mammals.

Eventually I decided on a pattern from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Baby Blankets Two. A bit of a risk I know as these books are riddled with errors but I checked on Ravelry and Sixth and Spring's website and couldn't find any errors. Having made a decision on the pattern, the next job was to find the right yarn. I felt that a flat colour wouldn't work with this pattern and I needed a variegated yarn or yarn with a bit of texture. I eventually bought Sirdar Snuggly Tiny Tots. This is a great yarn as it comes in non-traditional baby colours. i.e. there are colours other than pastels in the range. I chose dark pink. I bought the yarn at the end of August and started the blanket on 7 September. It was an easy pattern to memorise, the only bug bear was on one row you worked knit 4 together and then knit 4 together thorough back of loops. I was in pain after that row as I was gritting my teeth so tightly. I had to come up with a solution if I wanted the knitting to be an enjoyable experience. So on the row prior to the decrease, I wrapped the yarn twice round the needle for one of the stitches in each set of 4. This gave me just a little extra yarn and made it easier to get the needle in the stitches for the decreases. I'm glad I came up with this solution as it made the knitting much easier and enjoyable. Which was a good thing as I thought I had plenty of time to complete the blanket, but my friend decided to have her shower on 21 October. I suppose I could have turned up without a gift and given her the blanket later but she knew I'd be knitting a blanket and I didn't want to disappoint her. I exclusively worked on the blanket and finished it completely on 12 October.


This is the yarn I used.

The finished blanket.

And a close up.

Eating Animals

I'm not talking about vegetarians versus meat eaters. This is much more important - sweets in the shape of animals.

Do you ever give a second thought to chewing a gummy bear and a gummy worm is just a longer bear, right? Personally I like the blue gummy sharks. And I have even cooked cat shaped pasta for my son.

On Monday when I was doing the food shopping, I noticed some liquorice in an animal shape. There is a limit to the shapes I will eat. I'm sorry I cannot eat black cats.

Coping With Texas’s Air Conditioning

So my last post was about the cold of Texas despite the warm temperatures. Today's post is about how I was able to improve the situation.

Just a few days before I went away I finished a shawl. Not just any shawl but my oldest UFO. The shawl was started on 3 July 2008 and the final blocking completed on 19 October 2010. The yarn was left over from knitting the shawl for my Mother-in-Law which is photographed here. It is also the item for which I needed more yarn.

I wasn't working on this shawl continuously from start to finish. It was put on hold many times when I had other projects that had to be finished. I finished it at just the right time as it was really useful in Texas. Here are some photos of it in its many stages. The pattern is Laminaria from Knitty.com

Air Conditioning

This post is dedicated to my friend Myrna. She and I have a friendly difference about the need for air conditioning in Calgary. It does not get hot enough or humid enough here to necessitate air conditioning. True, the sun beating in through a window can cause an unnatural spike to the temperature but I have found that there is usually air movement ranging from a gentle breeze to near hurricane so just open some windows and the air cools down. Myrna, who, incidentally, has no meat on her bones, thinks that above 25^o C is hot and air conditioning in Calgary is an absolute must.

The purpose of this post is not to point out Myrna's temperature foibles (although I am sure she thinks she is the normal one and I am the one with issues) but to talk about air conditioning in the US. I have visited our southern friends twice this year. In the summer I went to Denver. Having lived there I knew I would not have any problems with the temperatures. I loved the 90 degree weather (note speaking American now) and restaurants were not over cooled so that you did not need to add clothes when you went inside. I have just returned from a trip to Texas, specifically Houston and the hill country. Conditions are a little different there. They love their air conditioning. It was hot, high 80s, loved it although my feet in new shoes weren't so happy. But everywhere indoors was cold. One hotel was so cold we had to have all the blankets on the bed. And I knew Myrna would have been contented so I wonder how she is getting on in Egypt which I am sure is not so heavily air conditioned. Although if you check out her blog she is having a great time.

Non-English Speaking Yarn

Earlier this year hubby went to Finland (and was stuck there a few extra days courtesy of Eyjafjallajökull). I asked him to buy me some Finnish yarn. The only stipulation being that he had to buy enough to make something. I had visions of him returning with balls of yarn that would make one glove or one sock. To assist with my request I told him where there was a yarn shop in the town where he was staying. Information I had obtained from a Finnish group on Ravelry.

Being the dutiful husband that he is he went to the shop and bought yarn. I am impressed that the person who helped him was able to describe in English to a non-knitter what each of the yarns were suited for. She told him that there is not much of a demand for Finnish yarns as the locals want yarn from elsewhere which I totally understood because they are looking for something different.

He managed to come home with a ball of Finnish sock yarn and 3 balls of Létt-Lopi from Iceland.

Helping With the Stash

The last post was about additions to the stash. Most of them are skeins which will have to be wound before they can become socks or shawls. This is an occupation for movie watching and something I do by myself - all requests for help from the other occupants of the house being refused. So I treated myself to this as an early Christmas present from my husband.



A Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder

I bought it at Michaels and I used a 40% off coupon which made the price much more reasonable.

I love it. I tried it out on some yarn that I was in the process of unpicking and then I went onto a lace weight yarn. It was yarn that I had already wound by hand but was unhappy with the way I had wound it. Next, I wound yarn from a skein. I had to hold the skein between my hands as I do not have any sort of yarn holder or swift, and having the skein on the back of a chair which I would do for hand winding did not work with this machine. But it is so quick that I wasn't holding skeins for long.

When I was looking for pictures of this machine (I ended up taking my own photos for this post), I found some reviews. The common complaint was that the balls were wound too loosely. I had this problem at first but found that if the yarn is tensioned before going into the machine, the resultant ball of yarn is more compact. The machine does not produce a cake like those produced by a hand winding machine. The final shape is much more like the put ups from Red Heart.

I love this machine so much that I am winding all my balls of yarn before I use them.

In The Stash

This post is courtesy of my husband. I showed him the yarn I bought in Denver and he said I should put it on my blog. Apparently, as I write about what comes out of the stash I should write about what goes in the stash.

We moved from Denver about 4 1/2 years ago and in that time some yarn stores have closed and some new ones have opened. During my trip, I visited 4 yarn shops, plus Joanne's, Michaels and Hobby Lobby. The stores I visited were chosen solely based on their location.

The first place I visited was I Love Knitting, opened since I moved away. This shop was at a disadvantage being the first place I visited as I hadn't really decided what sort of yarn purchases I intended to make this trip. I was the only (potential) customer and the proprietor (I assume) acknowledged me and I said I was just looking. She let me look without talking to me further. I was very good and didn't buy anything just because I was there.

The next shop I visited was Colorful Yarns. I have a feeling that it might have opened before I left Denver. It is in a strange location and I am glad I phoned for directions. It is not in a position where shoppers would drop in as they are doing other shopping so you know everyone is in there because it is their intention. I decided that I wasn't going to waste my time just looking at the same yarn in yarn stores, so when I walked in and the proprietor asked if I needed help, despite there being many other customers she came up to me to ask me this, I told her I was visiting and was wondering if she had any yarn that was specific to the area. She showed me sock yarn dyed by a woman in Morrison. The name of her studio is Red Rocks Fiber Works. That seemed very local so I bought a skein. The other local yarn I bought was a mix of yak down and fine como. This came from a yak ranch in Elbert near where the boy child went to scout camp. I shall have to decide very soon if this will become a hat or a scarf as it is already cold here in Calgary. (Spot the post I wrote but took forever to finish.) I really liked this shop, the helpfulness of the owner and all the different yarn so I just had to buy more. I have decided that the easiest yarn to buy is sock yarn as I know how much is needed for a pair of socks. To the local yarns I added yarn from a dyer in Portland, Oregon. This is where Him Indoors grew up, so it seemed appropriate. I chose the Mount Hood Rose colorway. Then there was all the yarn that I had read about in the Ravelry sock group so I bought a skein of Madeline Tosh and a skein of Smooshy by Dream in Color. Oh and I got some needles – for sock knitting and some gifts to give with the WCOBBS blankets.

Here's a picture of the yarn. (Minus the yak/como which must be so special that I don't want people to see it?)

You would have thought that would be enough except there was a new yarn store I wanted to see. My next trip was to Lamb Shoppe. This is in a nice setting in an older part of town, just north of Cherry Creek North, if that makes sense. I was tempted by some sock yarn that had been dyed in Elbert, not the same place as the yak yarn, but I came to my senses because there weren't any colours I liked so I would really have been purchasing because it was independent and local and not because I liked the yarn. I ended up buying some more sock yarn – Panda - as well as the Noro I showed you in a previous post.

Well that really should have been it. Except I surprised myself and went to Knitty Cat. I hadn't planned to visit but I went to a liquor store in the same complex. (As an aside, I went to the liquor store to purchase Canadian Whiskey. Whiskey that is imported from Canada to the US which I would take back to Canada because it is way cheaper in the US. Go figure.) The reason I was surprised that I visited Knitty Cat is because I hadn't been too keen on the store when I lived in Denver. The owner always came across as aloof with her favourites and cliques. This visit she was very friendly and helpful and even offered the swift and ball winder to wind the yarn I had purchased - Araucania Ranco Solid and Alpaca Sox.

All in all a very successful trip.