Tale of Two Socks

Technically it should be the tale of four socks

I had two balls of sock yarn - different colours and manufacturers - let's call them a and b. And two different sock knitting patterns - 1 and 2.

I had decided to knit pattern 2 with yarn b which left pattern 1 to knit with yarn a. Which I did, way back in in February. Except I didn't like the way it looked. Yarn a was Trekking XXL and although self-striping it was a variegated type so blended into the stripes and just didn't look right for a pattern developed especially for self-striping yarns. So I frogged what I had done and decided to work pattern 2 with the yarn instead so then I worked pattern 1 with yarn b.

So two pairs of socks later, I decide I don't like pattern 1 mainly due to the yarn I had chosen.

It is rather dull and would have looked better in the original pattern.

Here they are, artistically posed no top of a scarf I had knitted - details to follow.

What Colour Green Are You?

So I followed a link from another blog and took the test.

You Are Olive Green

You are the most real of all the green shades. You're always true to yourself. For you, authenticity and honesty are very important... both in others and yourself. You are grounded and secure. It takes a lot to shake you. People see you as dependable, probably the most dependable person they know.

What Color Green Are You?

Sounds too good to be true but maybe a bit boring. I'll have to show you the results from what kind of weather are you to show my otherside.

Another Baby Blanket

A girl at work is pregnant so a chance to make another baby blanket. I had some yarn in my stash mostly purchased when a shop went out of business. The yarn was ideal to make another blanket from the same pattern as last time but I didn't want to make the same thing so soon. I had seen a pattern in one of the Vogue Knitting On The Go books that I really liked. The yarn I had was thinner than called for in the pattern but I thought that wouldn't matter as I would just knit more rows and cast on more stitches but what I was making was floppy and didn't look very good so I doubled the yarn and it looked fine. The pattern is a series of squares where you start off with one and then increase every so often and when you have half a blanket you start decreasing. I was aiming to stop increasing after using half the yarn but that wasn't so easy as I had an odd number of balls so I had to guess and I didn't quite use them all but the blanket is the right size for a baby.

Here it is.



Yarn: Sandnes Garn Mandarin Petit (Used double)
Needles 5.5 mm

Saturday Sky

Haven't posted a photo for a while, so thought you might like today's view.

This is 7.30 this morning.


And this is the same view at 11.30 this morning



Not much of a difference except there is a bit more sun in the second photo.

It started snowing around 9.00 yesterday morning and hasn't stopped.

All Change

Remember this?

Well it became



and then



Although that might be a bit misleading because I couldn't turn that yarn into a cat.

I realised that I was never going to wear the jacket and it seemed such a waste of yarn - which wasn't cheap. So back to balls and onto the needles pretty quickly so that I could wear it this winter. If I left it, I was in danger of finishing it in the summer and then forgetting I had it. I have learned a few things from the original project. One is to take better notes. I am very fond of writing "used size needles to get gauge". Hmm not much help when the pattern is from a library book and I have no idea what the gauge was.

The pattern I made up from measuring a (shop-bought) sweater that I really like and I stuck to the measurements apart from adding almost an inch to the length. The ribbing was worked on smaller needles but with the same number of stitches as the main part. The body and sleeves were worked in the round as far as the armhole shaping and then they were joined and worked in the round with raglan shaping until the neck shaping.

I am really pleased with how the sweater came out and as I finished it in time for a cold weekend it has been worn.

The other thing I learned from the original project - if I don't like something when I finish it, I am unlikely to change my mind later.

Saturday Sky

It's been a little while since I've posted a photo of Saturday's sky so today you get two.

One from this morning and the other from this afternoon.




Not much difference in the sky but a couple of degrees rise in temperature makes the snow disappear. And snow in the morning was a perfect excuse to finish the sweater and wear it.

Where Have I Been?

You may have noticed that I haven't said anything for a while. Not for lack of imagination nor trying. For some unexplained reason I could not access my blog. So after a while I stopped thinking about what I wanted to write but it seems that I have access again so I will leave you with some knitting.





The photos don't show the colour well but they are lime green. Knitted for the boy child who has very cleverly worked out that if he asks me to knit him socks I pay for the yarn so he doesn't have to spend his money on socks.

Yarn: Meilenweit Cotton by Lana Grossa
Needles: 2 mm
Pattern: Basic sock pattern

Coincidences

Sometimes I have two books on the go. Usually if I am reading a book that is too big/heavy to carry outside of the house. The two books I read recently are Leonard Woolf's biography and The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. I chose the biography as I had read Virginia Woolf's biography and thought it would be a good idea to read about her husband. I thought it was interesting that in his biography it was made clear how bad Virginia's mental illness was whereas when I read her biography I didn't get that impression.

I chose to read The Enchanted April as I was looking at the upcoming plays at the local theatre, one of them being The Enchanted April and it was said it was adapted from the novel; so having seen the movie a few years ago, I decided to get the book out of the library.

The first coincidence was that from reading the blurb at the front of the book about Elizabeth, it said that E M Forster had been a tutor to her children. E M Forster was a very good friend of Leonard Woolf.

Then I was eating my lunch in a cafe downtown when a guy came in and I could tell that he was looking at me and chose a seat near me before going to the counter to place his order. I thought it a bit strange but as I was about to leave I wasn't worried. Well, he stopped me on my way out and asked me if I was enjoying the book The Enchanted April. Turns out he was an actor in the production which was in rehearsals and he was pleased to see someone reading the book, so, of course, I had to tell him that seeing the play advertised had made me want to read the book. It wasn't until later that I realized that I hadn't asked him what part he was playing.

The Weather

I was going to write about a couple of books I am reading but it seems more appropriate to write about the weather. Here is a screen shot of the appropriate page form The Weather Network.



There are two important things to note: the temperature and the feels like. Feels like everybody should be indoors.

But did you note the sponsor Workopolis's tagline - "It's a great day to look for a new job in Calgary."? Who are they trying to kid?

ps if you click on the picture you'll get an enlarged, easier to read version.

No Boxing Day Sales For Me

Two yarn stores were having Boxing Day sales and one store was having a day after Boxing Day Sale but I decided to pass on all three. I just didn't feel like swarming with the masses to purchase yarn that I didn't know when I would use or on what just because it would be cheaper than when I would eventually buy it. And I am trying hard not to add to my stash just for the sake of it.

But I did buy a bag at The Gap that was on sale that I had decided not to buy before Christmas as I didn't want to pay the asking price!

Happy Christmas

It's Beginning to Smell A Lot like Christmas

Because in the oven right now is the Christmas Cake. The spousal unit had enough of the cheapo American whiskey left for me to soak the fruit last week and today I made the cake.

The theory is that next week the cake will be marzipanned and the week after it will be iced. But it has not been unknown for the cake to be iced after Christmas so I am not bound to that timetable.

And we have appropriate Christmas weather for the making of the cake as it has been so cold the snow has been lingering, add the Christmas songs from the radio and it feels a lot like Christmas.

A Baby Blanket

One of the ladies in our walking group is pregnant (or maybe not as she has passed her due date).

That is music to my ears when a friend or family member is in the family way because what an excuse to knit (or crochet in this case). And. of course, there is nothing in the stash.

I found this pattern when looking at some else's blog. She had made the blanket when pregnant and I had saved the link in case and was glad to be able to use it. Don't you find that the blogging world is dangerous with so many links to different patterns and yarns? I actually save very few patterns or links otherwise I would be overrun with them.

The pattern is produced by an Australian company so, of course, the yarn isn't available here. But, once again, thanks to the scope of the internet I was able to get yarn details from another site. So off to the yarn store I go.

I ended up with an Italian cotton yarn, Pluto by Punto in an aqua green colour. My friend did not want to know if she was going to have a boy or a girl and I did not want to use white so I decided green was a good colour for either sex. I had to guess at the hook size as the size on the pattern seemed too large for the yarn, the ball band suggested needle sizes of 2.5mm to 3mm so I used a size 3mm hook. I think the finished blanket ended up smaller than the pattern size but I forgot to measure it before I gave it away but it was still a good size.

The pattern was very easy. Mostly double (treble) crochets and some chains and like all circular projects goes very quickly at the beginning and then it seems as if it will never end. So even though I had yarn left over, I didn't make the blanket bigger.

Before I post a picture of the blanket, I have to tell you the best thing about the yarn; the day I bought it the shop was having a 20% off everything sale which I didn't know about until I got there.

Our First Snow

Frequently, I take a picture to post on this blog and it never gets posted because I am mentally composing the post or I have no idea what to say except " here's a photo of x". This photo was taken way back on 25 October after it had snowed overnight. Although we have had a couple of snowfalls since then, this is the picture of the first one. The way the snow had melted made it look like pussy willow on the trees. Hope the photo does it justice.



There has been some knitting and crochet going on and a photo ready to post next time.

Saturday Sky and.......

I did take a photo last Saturday and I was getting ready to post it today when I saw this



So I decided you could have two sky photos today. We get interesting cloud formations which makes for wonderful sunrises. But you have to be quick as they don't last long.

And here is the photo from Saturday.



It was taken just before sunset. Unfortunately, you can't see the sun shining between the clouds and the houses.

A Cucumber

When we planted the new beds, we sewed cucumber seeds even though it was a bit late to plant them. They came up and then were all but destroyed by a late hail storm. This seemed to give them strength but it was too late for them to do anything. So I forgot about them and let the squash take over. Well this is what I found when I cleared the bed the other day.



It was a determined plant that had stretched to the end of the bed. Cucumbers will be on my list of things to plant next year if they are going to try this hard.

Happy Thanksgiving

Yes I know Thanksgiving was yesterday but I couldn't write anything before dinner and I didn't feel like writing when we got home.

The boy child and I went to a friend's house for dinner. There were 13 of us and not one person present was born in Canada. The only Canadians were the host family but nobody's going to turn down a good meal, right?

This year I bought cranberries when they went on sale as they are unavailable in November. They're a seasonal item I was told last year. They just didn't celebrate the same season as me. So now I am ready for the 23 types of cranberry sauce that I serve.

Saturday Sky

It's been a while since I've posted a photo of the sky, so to make up for it here's two from yesterday.

This is what the sky looked like in the morning. No way was it going to be an 11 degree day. Although the sun came out in the afternoon, the high only reached 6 degrees.
What I find interesting about this photo is that the camera has picked up a blue tint in the sky that could not be seen with the naked eye. I saw it through the view finder before I took the photo. To my eye the sky was very white, I do not know if the blue was there or if this is a quirk of the camera.



We did not get any snow but this is the cloud formation last night.



As usual, the weather forecast this morning is different from the report two days ago; it seems that everything is a couple of days off, so instead of it being a nice weekend, it will be fine just in time for everyone going back to work.

Finished Object and A Change of Mind

I finally finished a second sock this week. I had so many easy things on the go that it seemed to take forever to finish anything. This was a simple pair of socks that I am sure I must have started during lacrosse season but I can't remember. I used the Supersoxx yarn I bought at the Boxing Day sale. As this yarn was self-striping I worked the leg in k3 p1 rib and the foot plain. I worked a star toe which I have not done before but I am not really sure I like that style of toe. Well you don't know until you try.



I changed my mind on the shawl I had started knitting on vacation. Although I liked the pattern, I decided I didn't want a triangular scarf, so yesterday I unpicked the thing. This is how far I had got before it became a ball of yarn again.



I like the lace pattern its the shape of the shawl that put me off. I should have unpicked it when I first had doubts. But, never despair, I cast on for a stole last night in a different lacy pattern. Let's hope I like this one.

Knitting Update

Some of you may have noticed that I was a bit vague about the knitting I took on vacation. That was because one item I was knitting was a present for my mother-in-law. Her birthday has passed and present has been received and admired so I can now post photos. They are not very good photos but I think they will show the effect.

I knitted a shawl using Misti Alpaca Laceweight.
This is the shawl off the needles.



and this is the shawl while it is being blocked.



You should get the effect of how the shawl changes once it is dampened and stretched.

Also on the knitting front I finished a jacket for my niece.



And this week I finished a sock which was leftover from lacrosse.