I haven’t posted in a while, although I’ve been really busy. I haven’t done much actual knitting this past week, but done much work about it!

Between Wednesday or Thursday I managed to turn the heel on Yannick’s 2nd “Fair Isle” socks, the ones I don’t work on much ‘cus they’re the only project small enough to keep in my purse for occassions I have “found” time, like an unexpected wait. They don’t usually get much progress, ‘cus I tend to always have my knitting bag with me too, so other stuff gets worked on. I made them a bit of a priority this week because I’d like to give them to him with the thrummed pair as his Christmas present. The heel is turned and I picked up the stitches, so now I just need to work my decs back to my starting number, and then whip around until I get the same # of rows as the other sock.

On Friday I finished the first of the thrummed socks. You know, I absolutely love the Fleece Artist yarns. This one is black and so soft, and the fleece is nice masculine deep blues and greens. But I can’t stand their patterns that come on the paper around the yarns. The part of the pattern for the mittens I gave my dad was just plain wrong (take 13 sts from a holder, CO 13 sts = 26. Next k2tog, k13, k2tog, k13. HUH? Math anyone?) and now for this one…well. On his foot the sock looks perfect. When he takes it off you can see the huge flaw- it looks like an elf sock. It just needs the bell on the end. The pattern has you decrease on each side going inwards like a nice raglan armhole…so basically the toe comes to a triangle point. I was too embarassed to bring it to my knitting class this morning for “show and tell”. I know I could have tinked it, but I don’t want to start undoing knitting with the thrums there…afraid to get it all tangled. I would have loved to use my Ann Budd book of patterns for a generic sock pattern, but the &(*#^#( patterns from Fleece Artist NEVER give the quantity of yarn! They don’t even tell you usually what the weight is in case you’d want to use the pattern again. So without knowing how much yarn was in the skein I was afraid to stray from their pattern and then run out. My LYS only has one kit in each color so I wouldn’t be able to buy more. RRR

From the bad news, to the good!

My grandmother is a knitter and crocheter. She’s also a dog lover. So naturally her dog wears a hand knit sweater. Well, she brings her dog regularly to a really cute store that sells pet accessories, mainly clothing. Earlier this week they told her how much they loved her dog’s sweater, and when they found out she knit it, they asked her if she’d be interested in knitting sweaters for them to sell. She said “No way!” Note: this Bubbie is very active. Between bowling, plays, her boyfriend and her dog, she doesn’t have the spare time to sit around and knit dog sweaters. I, on the other hand, do. (Yes I have the boyfriend/job/friends too, but I always make time for myself to knit, it’s my de-stresser). So she mentioned to them that I’d be interested (and probably bragged a bit too, as Bubbies are wont to do), and they said they’d be interested. Everyone’s interested.

I called them during the week to find out their ideas, and went in on Sunday with my books of dog sweaters to see what they like. I met a really nice woman named Michelle and she gave me some great ideas for what works, and what doesn’t. So…today at my LYS I picked up some yarn and I’ll be making 5 or so samples to a) time myself and see how long each pattern takes, and b) present to them so they can see if they think I’m talented enough. If “a” and “b” go well together and we can work out a good price for each sweater, then Baby I’m in Business! Yay!

And if that wasn’t good enough, my knitting classes started again this morning and I was finally able to work the yarn over button holes on Justin’s Hooded Sweater so all that’s left is the seaming and I can gift this baby! Woo hoo!

I had a fun night Tuesday (unlike Monday night. Let’s just say mild food poisoning- ugh!!). I went to my first meeting of MKG- the Montreal Knitting Guild. It was their Holiday Party and besides the fun of knitting in the company of others, I got to enjoy hot chocolate, tea, and tons of snacks brought in by some of the members. Plus there was a drawing for door prizes, and I won a cute little doll I’m calling my Knitting Muse- her body is a ball of yarn and she’s holding knitting needles in her hand. Too cute. The guild meets the second Tuesday of each month, so I’m looking forwards to officially joining in January.

Then I got home and get an email from my site meter. It tells me no one has been to my site all month. I look back and realize that for the last few weeks they all say “no new hits”. This wouldn’t surprise me, except that I’ve gotten a bunch of emails about the Knitting Game, so I know people have been here. Turns out, when I changed my blogger template, it deleted my counter. Because I was still getting emails, I didn’t realize.

I’ve since updated the counter on this page and added one to the Knitting Game page. I started the counter there at 38, my estimate based on the number of emails I’ve gotten about it. All I can hope is that anyone who’s been here recently will come back!

Last night I was on the computer too long to get any reall knitting done, but tonight I have about 2 hours ahead of me to get a move on the last of the holiday knitting, so see ya!

…to guilt knitting!

I know I have many projects to do for other people. I know they’re due in the near future. But can you blame me for wanting to knit something for myself? I have Yannick’s thrummed socks and Regia socks that are supposed to be his Christmas present, then the 3 baby outfits are due Jan 1st when we get together with his father’s side of the family, then I have a bear to make to sell, then my sister wants a pair of mittens (we bought the softest black and pink balls of Filatura di Crosa’s Zara today!). This is also not mentioning the dog sweaters I might end up making to sell.

So today I took my sister for her permit (computer) test, so I had about an hour and a half to knit. I did a few rows on the Regia sock, then switched to the thrum ones. When I got home (after the lys expedition and her treating me to lunch) I kept working on them while Yannick played Zelda: The WindWaker. So after supper when I sat down in front of the tv I pulled out the socks, did a row…STALLED! I just couldn’t muster up the will to keep working on them!

It’s not the socks- the Fleece Artist kit yarn is super soft and I love the colors (black with deep purple/teal thrums). I just wanted to do something for ME for a change. So I started rationalizing. The socks are due in two weeks. I have another week after that for the baby outfits, so I can start working on them again next week. Tomorrow night I’m going to my first MKG meeting (Montreal Knitting Guild) and I don’t want to bring my “ME” project there ‘cus it’s 364 sts with markers and too detailed for a first meeting. But- the Regia socks are perfect for that. So…aha! Justification! I can work on ME now, and Yannick tomorrow. !!!

I pulled out the bag with my project, did a few sts and felt the stress vanish. I just made a pot of tea, and have CSIs and Law & Orders on tape. I am sooooo settled in for the night!

So goodnight, and remember: don’t knit out of guilt! Knit what you love, justify later! 🙂

I can finally post about the secret stuff I’ve been working on. I posted a pic a while ago showing the thrummed mitts in progress. I gave them to my dad last night and think he likes them. I know he’s a bit disappointed he can’t wear them all the time in the cold- no fingers so he can’t smoke. That wasn’t deliberate, I swear! [insert evil grin here]

I also finished/gifted the other secret project, a modified booga bag for my mom. I had to modify it ‘cus I needed to insert a zipper, so I made a tab on each end and put in grommets for the strap. It came out so nice she thought I’d bought fabric and just made it for her by sewing it up! I had to explain to her that it was actually knitted. Silly me though, forgot to take pics with my digital so I’ll try to get the reg pics scanned and posted soon.

We celebrated Hanukah with one side of the family last night, then split up and exchanged our immediate family gifts. I came home with a lot of goodies…but I have a suspicion I’m the only one who came home with Hanukah homework. 🙂 My auntie had knit (or possibly crocheted) a scarf for her granddaughter, and had one more skein:

that she wanted to make a matching, to-be-gifted hat with:

so somehow I wound up like this at Yannick’s and my weekly Sunday brunch:

Yes, I’m knitting at Boccaccino’s. Laugh all you want, that’s 1.5″ less for me to do later, so pthtphththth! [insert image of me sticking my tongue out and spitting here]

I posted a link to my previous post to the knitting email loops that I follow: knitlist, knittingnovices and knittingincanada. I got great feedback on the little game I came up with for truly random knitting, so I posted a link to it over on the sidebar over there–>

The Official Knitting Game. Enjoy!

So before my knitting teacher left for an emergency to Florida (a real one, not an “I need a beach, bad!” one), she’d knitted one of those throws where you use a mix of yarns. It used a combination of knit rows and purl rows to create an interesting texture, not to mention yarns ranging from mohair to ribbon, plus cutting the yarn at the end of each row gives ready-made fringe. She asked us to go around the store and pull out colors we liked, and to try to work a scarf like that ourselves.

These are the yarns I chose. I call it my Winter Icicles Scarf (I know, lame name):

From left to right, clockwise, starting from the large gray pouf, they are:

1. Schachenmayr nomotta Hair (light smoky gray, 65% mohair/35% acrylic),

2. Katia Flash Print (navy edged ribbon with silvery slashed centers that go from ice blue to purple, 50% cotton/40% polyamide/10% nylon),

3. Estelle Pearl (light to medium blue with a gold filament running through and skinny, soft, short “eyelashes”, 30% merino wool/43% polyamide/27% acrylic)

4. (center ball) Lana Gatto Crystal (silver icicles just like tinsel on a Xmas tree, 63% viscose/20% polyamide/17% polyester)

5. Schachenmayr nomotta Novellara (also a ribbon with slashed centers, this time a muted range from gray through blue with some bright blue spots, 35% new wool/35% polyamide/30% acrylic)

6. Katia Ingenua (darker gray-mauve, 78% mohair/13% polyamide/9% wool)

I love the yarns, and the colors, and am looking forwards to having a blue scarf to wrap around my blond head to show off my blue eyes. But- I’m a bit of a control freak. I know. That rumble of the earth you just felt? Caused by my entire family and friends doing a collective gasp. I admit it. I like being in control.

Theoretically I could do what Nicole (knitting teacher) suggested: put the balls in a bag and just reach in at the end of each row. This leaves me with a problem. Unless I decide to knit while wearing gloves, I know I can tell the difference by feel between the yarns. I can at least identify which 2 are the mohairs, which 2 are the ribbons, which 1 is the tinsel and which 1 soft ball is the golden fleck one. I know myself. I will be utterly incapable of reaching in and pulling a random ball out. I will most likely end up deciding which ball I want, and going by feel to pull that ball out, purely accidentally of course.

The second problem I have is that we are supposed to just knit or purl a row at random, to create an interesting look and see how the rows play off each other. Again, I can’t do this. (See above re: control freakiness).

So I came up with a great idea. I’m claiming it as my idea for the moment unless someone points me to a source who came up with this first (I’m sure someone did). If not, than it’s mine mine mine!

I call it the Vegas scarf. (As an aside: am I truly surprised I named the scarf after the place two of my favorite shows occur? CSI and Las Vegas are cool shows. Now if only they would make a Law & Order: Las Vegas I would be in heaven. As an aside to my aside: am I the only one who would be thrilled with weekly TV consisting only of CSI and Law & Order-type shows? In any incarnation? I’d even give up my reality TV for that! -Sorry for the rumble again folks. That was the collective gasp again.)

I rambled, let me start over. I call it the Vegas scarf. Why? ‘Cus it embodies the stakes of chance, fate and luck. Tools needed: 1 die and 1 coin. Beginning to see how this will work? This is how I will knit this scarf. Before I begin I will assign each skein to a number on the die. (Possibly I already did above). I will then assign (for example) heads = knit and tails = purl.

Step 1: Roll the die, get a number, cast on with that ball, cut ends leaving 4″ tail.

Step 2: Roll the die, get a number, grab that ball. Toss the coin, get a side, tells me to knit or purl that row. Follow the directions of fate across the row, cut ends leaving 4″ tail.

Step 3: Repeat step 2 for scarf.

Step 4: Roll the die, get a number, grab that ball, bind off, cut ends leaving 4″ tail.

Voila! A completely random scarf that fulfils my need for control while leaving things totally up to chance! The cool thing is that no 2 scarves will ever be alike! (Uh- if anyone ever manages to make 2 scarves exactly alike by this method, run, don’t walk to your nearest casino or depanneur and play blackjack or buy a lottery ticket or something, ‘cus that’s freaky!)

I’ll post pics as I have stuff to post. I’d love to see pics of any scarves anyone else makes with this method. If I get a bunch of pics eventually I’ll make a page for them.

Yah, I admit, it was kinda stupid, and not knitting or even crafty-related at all. So it’s out.

I don’t have much to show or share lately ‘cus I’ve been working like mad on holiday gifties that are supposed to be surprises. I can show a bit from Sunday though.

This, in one of my favorite knitting pictures EVER, is the Knitting Goddess blessing my knitting and protecting it from harm…

…which is a really good thing ‘cus a moment later the knitting was in mortal danger. (What you can’t quite see in the pic is the large NO SMOKING WARNING DANGER sign on the wall of propane tanks right behind Yannick- and just a foot away from me.) Luckily, no knitting was hurt. Thank you Knitting Gods!

I hope so, anyways. Today I felt my first such project, a kinda-booga-bag. I had to play around with the pattern ‘cus it was too short, and the intended recipient doesn’t like bags that don’t close. I’m going to add a zipper once its felted, so I grafted the i-cord to each of the two ends pre-felting, to have the bag/handles in one piece. I hope I can figure felting out. I hope my washing machine is easy on me.

Once this is done I can let it dry for a few days and rush like mad to finish thrummed mitten #2 before Saturday when we’re getting together for Hanukah and I need to gift them to my dad. I was going to have him try one on pretending it was for Yannick, but if he doesn’t like them, I’d rather not know in advance.

p.s. I’ve done away with the dictionary words…it felt stupid.

u.t. and i. send or come out in a jet.- n. jet. [orig. uncertain]

Wow. I honestly did not know that spirt was a word. As such, I feel I have no obligation to make it fit into my post. Yep, changing the rules as I see fit people. My blog.

Has this ever happened to someone else? I was brushing my hair earlier, and ran my fingers through ‘cus a) I have really, really long hair, and b) due to said longness, it tends to break a bit when I brush it and I’d rather catch broken pieces now than try to pull them off my clothes. I don’t know how or what I did, but when I looked at my hand the hair was PERFECTLY shaped like a thrum! Yes, I actually entertained the thought of a pair of mittens. No, I threw out the hair and will go bang my head against a wall for a few minutes to get rid of the thought.

Be amused. Be afraid. Be very, very sad for me.

n. worthiness, excellence, claim to respect; honorable office or title; stateliness, gravity.- dig’nify u.t. give dignity to.-dig’nified a. stately, majestic.- dig’nitary n. holder of high office. [L. dignitas-dignus, worthy]

Oh like I could pretend to be. When this whole post was to show you where I was spotted knitting yesterday.

Yes, I knit at Reno Depot, while waiting for paint for my father.

Yes, I knit during our weekly card game. If you had 6′ of i-cord to knit, you’d fit it in where you could too. (Oh, and for those who can’t read the score on the pad, that was Julie and I kicking Rich and Yannick’s a$$es until they cheated. Yes, I said it. No one manages to deal themselves the A, K, Q, J, 9, 6, 4, 3 of spades without cheating. Richard, I’m talking to you.)