…as of last count I have 12 wips total. This covers stuff that has been cast on with 1 row knit for the last 2 years, and stuff that is finished knitting but needs a lining sewn in before I can call it “done”. 12 wips. 2 of which need to be completed by Labor Day weekend. So what do I do? Add 2 more for the same deadline!

(The blonde might not be natural, but feels that way sometimes!)*

Yannick has been hinting not-so-subtly that he’d like more pairs of knit socks. His attempts at not-so-subtleness involve coming out and telling me that it’s his turn for a pair. I decided to surprise him for his birthday this year and knit him a pair. He didn’t think they counted as a birthday gift. I reminded him that
a) they were good enough for a Valentine’s Day gift last year, and a Christmas gift the year before
b) any gift that costs money plus 100s of hours to knit is a damned good gift
c) we are getting married on his birthday, and technically *I* am his gift. The socks are a bonus.

To be somewhat sneaky, I decided to add a 2nd pair, so he will be getting 2. I don’t know why I think this benefits me, as while yes, I do get the benefit of surprising him, I also now have the task of knitting him 2 pairs by Sept 3rd, along with the Lacy Shrug for the Amazing Lace and the charity baby blanket, also due by Sept.

To make matters much worse, I am really tempted to knit him a pair of intarsia socks instead from a Monarch Hand Knit Sock Book my grandmother gave me. It cost $0.35 and has a copyright to the Monarch Knitting Company in Dunnville, Ontario 1951. They have a bowling pin and ball, which would be really cool because he starts bowling again in September and they could be his “lucky pair”.

You can’t see the other side, but it says “STRIKE” at an angle with a ball. I can’t get in 3 pairs by that deadline, but I’m stuck because I’m already 25 rows into the pair I just started. I’d be upset to finish these and do the bowling ones, because I bought him a nice ball of Regia with cotton for the summertime, which I’d planned as his second pair. Of course, while typing this I’m realizing that I’m only giving him the socks in Sept, by which time the summer is over. Hmm…this means I can pull off the bowling pair and the striped pair by Sept and save the cotton ones for part of his Christmas gift.

Thanks blog! See, for the few of you who write me with comments, I keep writing this blog. And by writing this blog, I brainstorm. And by brainstorming, I realize my problems aren’t really problems. Thanks guys!

THIS JUST IN: I went through the pattern books again, and found another one from my Bubbie: Beehive Hand Knits FOR MEN, also $0.35. It doesn’t say the year, but its from Patons & Baldwins Limited, Toronto 10. I love the fact that in many of the images, the men are smoking or holding unlit cigarettes.
I like this pair better, and will attempt at making it for Yannick. The big question is if I have any red sock yarn lying around…

*No offense to any who take offense at blonde jokes

It’s hard when I can’t reply directly to someone. Anyways…

To the anonymous person who asked about the knitting classes, I did take mine in the West Island because that’s where I live! In the Pointe-Claire Plaza (at the bottom of St-Jeans blvd, right at the 20) there is a LYS called “The Wool Shop” or “Les Lainages du Petit Mouton” depending what language you speak. 😉 I did my courses with Nicole on Mondays from 9-11am. It was a 6 or 8 wk course, I forget which, that included the needles and yarn for our practice pieces, and a knitting book.

The number is 514-694-6268 and I just called them for you to see about any open classes. The owner told me that they aren’t doing summer classes this year (it just didn’t work out) but they will be starting again in the Fall and will offer day and night classes. She said the best thing to do is to go by sometime during store hours and put your name/number down on their waiting list to reserve a spot, because spaces fill up fast. Once they are ready to put their schedule together they will call you to see which day would be good, and all the other info.

I enjoyed my classes. We were a small group (5-6 people) and although I knew how to knit at that point, it really taught me everything I know now. Our practice piece was a mini cardigan (5″ tall) so you learn all the shaping you would need on a bigger piece, including seaming and buttonholes. We did some Fair Isle and grafting, making headbands for Winter, and did a pair of lace socks for both of those techniques. By the end we had chosen to stay on longer and did some felted projects too.

Good luck!

Last night I left work early and Yannick and I met with our wedding photographer to do some casual photos. They’re not really for anything, but he wanted to meet with us and get used to each other’s styles before the big day. We went to the park on Lake Road, the big mountain, and found some great spots to shoot in. Tiny little bridges, gazebos, he even got me to sit in the tall reeds (where there could have been spiders!). He showed us a few of the photos on the spot and they looked so good! (Well, the ones of Yannick, anyways). The sun was on its way down and there was such a glow to the photos…I can’t wait to see them!

After some spicy Indian food for dinner Yannick had to go back to work at my parents’ house, so I got into bed to watch TV and knit. Here’s the progress I’ve made on the charity blanket so far:
The next row will have me cast on another 30 sts on each side, move the red blocks out, the yellow blocks over the red, and add a purple block in the center. I’m not looking forwards to the extra sts as already it’s a pain wrapping the yarn at each join (not to do, but to avoid tangles). At least once that row is done I’ll be decreasing the blocks away and the end will be in sight. I still don’t care for the colors together but I really, really love the yarn and I’m so glad I got introduced to it through this project. Can’t wait to buy more in Florida!

We didn’t do much of the last weekend. Friday night was mostly a bust because Yannick only got home from work really late. He did the same thing Saturday, so while I did get some knitting done, it was pretty much a blah day too. We went to see Cars at night (very cute!) then for a late dinner. Sunday he worked again, so I did some laundry, tidied up, and worked on the charity Harlequin Blanket. My mom invited us over for dinner, but I had some time to kill first so I fooled around in the kitchen and came up with 2 yummy recipes.

In bowl, mix together 3oz of softened cream cheese with 3oz of shredded cheddar cheese. Add 1 egg, 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour, and a pinch of salt. Mix into a dough. Roll out into logs or make little balls then flatten. Bake at 370 deg F for 20 min or until golden and crispy. (I didn’t wait long enough, so mine are more chewy than crispy. Still yummy).

In bowl, mix together granola ingredients to your liking. I used 1/3 cup leftover salted mixed nuts, 1.5 cups large flake oat meal, 1/4 cup pine nuts, 1/2 cup sliced almonds. (I wish I’d thought to include the coconut flakes I have.) In saucepan, melt 2 tbsp butter. Once melted, stir in 3 tbsp sugar (I used fructose). Keep stirring, and add flavoring of your choice. I added Ancho powder for some heat. I meant to only add 1/8 tsp, but was able to add about 2 tsp without it getting too spicy. Once everything is melted and mixed, add in the granola ingredients and stir until fully mixed and coated. Spread onto cookie sheet and bake at 325 deg F, shaking or moving often, for 20 min or until golden. I was worried at first because once golden they were still warm and chewy (and hard to stop eating). Once I let it cool off, however, it got hard and crunchy like normal granola.

Enjoy!

In knitting news, I have been working on the Harlequin blanket and am about 3/4 through the first row of 3 blocks. I didn’t knit at all yesterday, instead I went to bed at 10:30, after the gym, tanning and supper. Tonight I don’t know if I’ll have time to knit as I have a casual shoot with our wedding photographer so we can get to know one another. This will be cancelled (again!) if it rains (again!) so if so then maybe I’ll veg and knit later.

54 days until I’m a Mrs.

Not being much of a soccer fan, I don’t know what the actual WC results were. I can tell you mine, however.

I didn’t finish, but I couldn’t finish, and I’m happy with that. In the last 3-ish weeks I’ve managed to knit 12+ balls of Patons Classic Wool Merino in BLACK ALL FREAKING BLACK, through the heat waves and rainy days, into a bag of my own design. I included an innovative feature to the bag, something I wanted for myself in existing bags that just wasn’t offered out there, and that feature came out perfectly. I felted the giant bag, and as of this morning it is still blocking on huge pile of towels and plastic bags, stuffed with the large knife/wood block set we got for my bridal shower. So it’s not done. It still needs to be pulled and tugged and coaxed into the picture I have in my head. There are still handles or straps to knit, still a patch to knit for a cool touch on something. Still linings and zippers to buy, and sew, and insert. Still straps or handles to attach, nylon to sew, thimbles to use.

But I’m really ok with that.

I am designing this bag from scratch. No other pattern is my springboard. As such, I am finding things out that I didn’t think of at first…like how a pocket would need gussets if I wanted it to achieve a certain goal. And that I had to rip out the existing pocket to redo it with said gussets. Or how I didn’t want to knit the straps to whatever length I guessed would be correct, but would rather felt the bag, then see what length worked with the finished size.

So only once the bag is dry and shaped can I work on the straps. Only once its dry can I work on the interior.

So I wasn’t able to complete the entire bag, ready to wear and use, by the World Cup deadline.

But on my kitchen counter is a bag that only exists because I thought of it.

I think I did win, after all.

:]

Turns out one of my friends has been secretly reading my blog for a while now. I don’t know why it was secret, but I could have sworn I gave her $hit once for not reading it…and today she confessed she reads me daily. So that means Julie and Debbie read me…I’ll forgive Jackie ‘cus she’s got an infant and all, but when he’s in high school I fully expect reading to be going on!

Back in early June Robyn and I had attended the MKG’s indoor (due to rain) “Garden Party”. At this party we were reminded that the upcoming MKG charity project would be baby blankets, and that if we wanted, we could be given kits for the blankets, so we wouldn’t have to use our own yarn. We each took a bag of the yarn with the pattern. The yarn is Tessin by Muench Yarns and it is the Harlequin Baby Blanket pattern. I really like the way the yarn feels knitted up, although the colors are a little “off” for my taste.

(Semi-off-topic- I went to their website earlier and looked up the Tessin yarn to see what other colors it comes in. They have a link to “view knitted sample” so I clicked on it. Call me crazy, but that sample is crocheted!)

Anyways…the pattern as written calls for knitting a square, then casting on for another square, then knitting across the first…doing the same on the next row then working a full square up at 3 squares wide, then repeating for 5 squares, then back to 3, then to 1. This means that at times you are working from 3-5 balls of yarn, having to twist the joins. I had advised Robyn to knit the blanket the other way…working in strips upwards so she was never using more than one color per row. Now that she’s almost done, she told me that she was running low on yarn. Plus, now she needs to seam. After thinking about it I decided to try knitting mine as written. I feel bad about counselling Robyn to work it the other way and forcing her to seam in garter, which I don’t know if she’s comfortable with. We’ll see how mine turns out. In any case, they are for charity, so they will be loved regardless, right?

The latest challenge from the Amazing Lace is this: if you were to bind off your wip right now…what could it be used as? I couldn’t come up with something, so I asked Sam for help. I’d been through enough with him by not including him previously, so I honestly thought I was being nice in asking for his help. Hmph.

Warning: what follows is all Sam*. Blame him, the evil C.A.T. (seen slinking away on the stairs).

What the deuce? No, I’m not Stewie. I’m…Sandra. Yes, Sandra. Lois will never suspect a thing! Cross dressing will one step closer to my ultimate goal: WORLD DOMINATION!

*Don’t look at me like that. I told you this was all Sam’s doing.

To Julie: I told you I’d post. I didn’t promise it would be good!

To Knitting World Cup’ers: I’m thisclose. Just have some ends to weave in, then the knitting part is done. Well, all but the strap. But considering I’ve knit about 12 balls of black wool in the last 3 weeks…I won’t cry if I don’t get a medal. Maybe just sniffle a bit.

I’m feeling particularily emphatic this afternoon. :]

This weekend was fun, but not long enough!

Friday night I spent on my own while Yannick helped a buddy move. It was great to have the night free, though, and I ran around to Fabricville and Bouclair getting supplies I need as I reach the completion of the Perfect Knitting Bag. Project update: I will have all the knitting done by July 8th. I’m not sure if I will have the finishing (attachments, lining, etc…) done by then, but I don’t care. I’ll still feel like I scored a big goal during the Knitting World Cup challenge. I’ve had this bag in my wip list for almost 2 years, and it feels great to see it taking shape, especially since it’s my design!

Saturday afternoon Yannick and I went to see Superman Returns (our verdict: unlike Batman Begins which was an amazing movie with amazing graphics, SR was an ok movie with amazing graphics. No regrets in seeing it, or in paying full- not cheapie night price to go. But it didn’t blow me away, plot- or acting-wise.) After the movie we grabbed a light supper at Bocaccinos then went home to get together with Julie and Rich to play cards. (Shout out to Julie!) (Am I too white to be doing “shout out”s?) (Probably).

Sunday we cleaned house, then I went to Robyn’s house. She hosted a little girl’s knit-night out and I went over early to watch Knitty Gritty with her. What a cheesy show! It was the episode with Lily M. Chin and other than 1 cool technique I learned, everything else was so dumbed-down! It was like “Cosmo” for knitting. Lily ACTUALLY pronounced the knitting acronym “yo, k2tog” as “yo-ke-two-tog”. Who says it as a word? People don’t SPEAK in acryonyms! You don’t tell your friends “brb” or “lol” or “roflmao”, and if you DID you’d pronounce it sarcastically, like “el-oh-el”. Tres annoying. Then Jennie, Karine and Kadi got to her house and we gabbed, knit, gossiped, ate, watched movies, did riddles and just had a nice fun girl’s night. I’d be up for that anytime, we laughed a hell of a lot and I had a great time. I’m really glad I started going to more knitting meetups because I really like everyone I’ve met.

The only annoying thing about yesterday is that I brought 2 projects with me to Robyn’s, and didn’t really accomplish anything while there other than scrapping them. The black acrylic will be way too hot to do the tank in, and the Goldilocks I brought to do a shrug in is too thin of a yarn to work with the pattern. Then I swatched the acrylic for the shrug, but THEN noticed that the pattern’s largest size is for a bust 3″ smaller than mine (with a bra on, anyways). Spent a long time last night looking up tank patterns online.

Anyone out there have any great tank top knitting patterns? I’d look at free and pay patterns. Suggestions please!

Today my goal is to work on the PKB. I DID go to the gym this morning (yay me!) but I’m under pressure because not only is the wedding OFFICIALLY 2 MONTHS AWAY AHHHH but my gym membership expires August 16th and I doubt I’ll renew it.

So here’s my dilemma. While cleaning I found some yarn I’d forgotten about. It was a kit from Fleece Artist. It’s listed as 150 (total) g of yarn for making socks or mittens. I don’t want to use it for that, so I emailed her a long time ago to ask the yardage, as it’s not listed on the label. She said that both the Blue-Face Leicester and the MO (mohair) should be approx 75g and 100m. I wound up the 2 yarns into cakes with my ball winder.

Ahem.This is the Blue-Face Leicester. The color sucks, but picture it in the colors below.
I weighed it- it is 72g. Ok, I can believe that this is approx 100m.

This is the MO. This pic is VERY accurate for the color. It reminds me of Easter.
It weighs 94 g. I can’t believe it is only 100m. NOT because of the extra 20-ish grams.
No…because of

This. It’s misleading when you see them apart, but side-by-side the difference is huge! The B-F L is clearly smaller, and even wound a little loose. The MO is so dense that you can’t even see the layers. If you look closely in the good-color photo, you can barely see the rings of the layers (think rings of a tree slice)…it’s PACKED with yarn!

I really really really REALLY really can’t wait to ask for a yarn meter counter for my birthday or hanukah, because I really REALLY need one!

P.S. To “Anonymous” who left me a comment on my last post…um…thanks for commenting, I think. I’m just not sure why I want to know about the diapers you wore when you were a baby… am I missing something?

I got your stitch markers in the mail yesterday!You can’t tell they’re your first time, honest! They are really pretty. And I’ve never seen the metal wrapped around the way you did it, makes it look almost old-fashioned. Thanks so much! :]

I’m off to go sit outside for a bit with my neighbors, as there is a Canada Day parade about to go parading down my street, right in front of my house. Does this mean I have to bring some red knitting with me outside?

I fell in love again.

I feel a bit adulterous, as I’m crazy for the lacy shrug, head-over-heels for my own design, the Perfect Knitting Bag, and enamoured with the Herringbone Haze Tunic. And yet…

And yet…

I stumbled across this today:

Isn’t it gorgeous? And it’s a FREE pattern! From here.

I must *not* cast on new projects. I must *not* buy more yarn. I must…

…not?