After dinner Koko came over and the 3 of us watched Waiting. I love Ryan Renolds. Funny movie. Don’t watch it if you ever want to eat in a restaurant again. I needed something to knit during the movie and wanted to pay attention to the Clapotis pattern but the movie actually makes you watch more often than not, so I made up a little swatch. It’s dk weight yarn and I didn’t measure it yet, so I’m not sure if I get the 19st/25row gauge the pattern calls for, but you know what? It’s a scarf. I’m not worried. If you look closely you can see how the bottom is plied with paler colors, and it gets more red in the middle, and as it gets towards the top it starts being plied with some purple. I can’t wait to see the shots of blue and green pop in. I really, really love this colorway. There is a sheen to the yarn that is probably ‘cus it’s acrylic but I swear if I look really close at it I think it’s silk. I think I’m really going to enjoy knitting this. I hope it doesn’t stick for the dropped stitches.

After dinner Koko came over and the 3 of us watched Waiting. I love Ryan Renolds. Funny movie. Don’t watch it if you ever want to eat in a restaurant again. I needed something to knit during the movie and wanted to pay attention to the Clapotis pattern but the movie actually makes you watch more often than not, so I made up a little swatch. It’s dk weight yarn and I didn’t measure it yet, so I’m not sure if I get the 19st/25row gauge the pattern calls for, but you know what? It’s a scarf. I’m not worried. If you look closely you can see how the bottom is plied with paler colors, and it gets more red in the middle, and as it gets towards the top it starts being plied with some purple. I can’t wait to see the shots of blue and green pop in. I really, really love this colorway. There is a sheen to the yarn that is probably ‘cus it’s acrylic but I swear if I look really close at it I think it’s silk. I think I’m really going to enjoy knitting this. I hope it doesn’t stick for the dropped stitches.

After the dress shopping (more tomorrow after I decide which, if any, to get) we raced home ‘cus I had to be at Yannick’s nephew (and godson)’s 5th birthday supper. We had about 6 different kinds of gourmet homemade pizzas, then for dessert B pulls this out. Isn’t it priceless? Can you tell what it is? A train. Made of Swiss Rolls. With Cheerio hubcaps. Marshmallow smoke and headlight. Reese’s Pieces lights. I think it’s amazing!

After the dress shopping (more tomorrow after I decide which, if any, to get) we raced home ‘cus I had to be at Yannick’s nephew (and godson)’s 5th birthday supper. We had about 6 different kinds of gourmet homemade pizzas, then for dessert B pulls this out. Isn’t it priceless? Can you tell what it is? A train. Made of Swiss Rolls. With Cheerio hubcaps. Marshmallow smoke and headlight. Reese’s Pieces lights. I think it’s amazing!

After the dress shopping (more tomorrow after I decide which, if any, to get) we raced home ‘cus I had to be at Yannick’s nephew (and godson)’s 5th birthday supper. We had about 6 different kinds of gourmet homemade pizzas, then for dessert B pulls this out. Isn’t it priceless? Can you tell what it is? A train. Made of Swiss Rolls. With Cheerio hubcaps. Marshmallow smoke and headlight. Reese’s Pieces lights. I think it’s amazing!

Right after discovering my brilliant idea wouldn’t work with the wool I have on hand, I left to go engagement-party-dress-shopping with my mom. Imagine our surprise when the first store we come across in Carrefour Laval carries yarn! While she browsed the needlepoint stuff, I went straight for the wall-o-yarn. Lotsa stuff I hadn’t seen before…Phildar…Pingouin (new, not really old)…sock yarn from Sockissima (or something, $18.99 for 100g) and sock yarn from someone else ($4.99 for 50g). Lots of cotton, and pattern books but all in French. Found this James C. Brett yarn called Marble. Hadn’t heard of it before. I first grabbed a ball in a colorway of grays with beiges and orange, but then saw the jewel tones and couldn’t decide if I wanted to be bold or neutral. My mom decided to go bold, so I bought 3 balls. I couldn’t resist the colors. See where it goes blue and green in spots? LOVE that. It also gets pale in spots. LOVE love LOVE the color. It’s 100% acrylic but they had no pure wool in anything under worsted. I think all I saw was Alafoss Lopi, which is thicker, and I can get it closer to home. What will it be? Didn’t know at first. Kept pulling it out and fondling it and admiring the color. I wanted to do something that showed off the color changes. I finally decided that I’d make a Clapotis with it. (Pattern at http://www.knitty.com). Maybe it’s from wanting to make it for a while. Maybe it’s from meeting Kate last week. Maybe it’s from finally finding a yarn I like instead of being indecisive about what color Shimmer I wanted to use to knit it in the first place. In any case, Clapotis is what it will be. I needed the retail therapy after the huge yarn bomb this morning, and really feel like following someone else’s pattern for a day or so before getting back to designing my own.

Right after discovering my brilliant idea wouldn’t work with the wool I have on hand, I left to go engagement-party-dress-shopping with my mom. Imagine our surprise when the first store we come across in Carrefour Laval carries yarn! While she browsed the needlepoint stuff, I went straight for the wall-o-yarn. Lotsa stuff I hadn’t seen before…Phildar…Pingouin (new, not really old)…sock yarn from Sockissima (or something, $18.99 for 100g) and sock yarn from someone else ($4.99 for 50g). Lots of cotton, and pattern books but all in French. Found this James C. Brett yarn called Marble. Hadn’t heard of it before. I first grabbed a ball in a colorway of grays with beiges and orange, but then saw the jewel tones and couldn’t decide if I wanted to be bold or neutral. My mom decided to go bold, so I bought 3 balls. I couldn’t resist the colors. See where it goes blue and green in spots? LOVE that. It also gets pale in spots. LOVE love LOVE the color. It’s 100% acrylic but they had no pure wool in anything under worsted. I think all I saw was Alafoss Lopi, which is thicker, and I can get it closer to home. What will it be? Didn’t know at first. Kept pulling it out and fondling it and admiring the color. I wanted to do something that showed off the color changes. I finally decided that I’d make a Clapotis with it. (Pattern at http://www.knitty.com). Maybe it’s from wanting to make it for a while. Maybe it’s from meeting Kate last week. Maybe it’s from finally finding a yarn I like instead of being indecisive about what color Shimmer I wanted to use to knit it in the first place. In any case, Clapotis is what it will be. I needed the retail therapy after the huge yarn bomb this morning, and really feel like following someone else’s pattern for a day or so before getting back to designing my own.

Right after discovering my brilliant idea wouldn’t work with the wool I have on hand, I left to go engagement-party-dress-shopping with my mom. Imagine our surprise when the first store we come across in Carrefour Laval carries yarn! While she browsed the needlepoint stuff, I went straight for the wall-o-yarn. Lotsa stuff I hadn’t seen before…Phildar…Pingouin (new, not really old)…sock yarn from Sockissima (or something, $18.99 for 100g) and sock yarn from someone else ($4.99 for 50g). Lots of cotton, and pattern books but all in French. Found this James C. Brett yarn called Marble. Hadn’t heard of it before. I first grabbed a ball in a colorway of grays with beiges and orange, but then saw the jewel tones and couldn’t decide if I wanted to be bold or neutral. My mom decided to go bold, so I bought 3 balls. I couldn’t resist the colors. See where it goes blue and green in spots? LOVE that. It also gets pale in spots. LOVE love LOVE the color. It’s 100% acrylic but they had no pure wool in anything under worsted. I think all I saw was Alafoss Lopi, which is thicker, and I can get it closer to home. What will it be? Didn’t know at first. Kept pulling it out and fondling it and admiring the color. I wanted to do something that showed off the color changes. I finally decided that I’d make a Clapotis with it. (Pattern at http://www.knitty.com). Maybe it’s from wanting to make it for a while. Maybe it’s from meeting Kate last week. Maybe it’s from finally finding a yarn I like instead of being indecisive about what color Shimmer I wanted to use to knit it in the first place. In any case, Clapotis is what it will be. I needed the retail therapy after the huge yarn bomb this morning, and really feel like following someone else’s pattern for a day or so before getting back to designing my own.

Flat isn’t going to work. Not in worsted weight, anyways. Not enough stitches in the size I need to do the designs I want.

‘Cus I can’t stop thinking about knitting. This is getting repetitive.

Last night after work I still couldn’t stop thinking about Flat and I really wanted to chart out some pattern ideas, but knew I couldn’t until I had the right yarn. Then I remembered I had some Wool of the Andes at home from a previous design attempt that didn’t work so well. (Hmmm…foreshadowing?) So when I got home I sat down and was right in the middle of casting on to do at least a stockinette swatch to measure the gauge and be able to create some graph paper when Yannick called asking for help with something he was working on. He’s bailed me out more times than I can count, so I dropped everything and went to help him. After the work he, Koko and I went to Jack Astor’s for a late dinner. I really mean late. I think we got there around 11:30pm. It’s a good thing we didn’t end up making plans for cards with Julie and Rich, ‘cus they would have ended up sitting around for nothing. I had a salad with grilled chicken crusted with Asiago cheese- yummy!! (BTW- am I too old to still be using the word yummy?) Got home just before 1am and crashed. Tried watching the premiere of Canada’s Worst Handyman with Yannick so I could free up the tape but kept falling asleep, so we’ll watch it today.

Lying in bed just now and realized that the swatch that I’d planned to do in the round because I was thinking I needed to do Fair Isle and hadn’t done it before with purling back…well, it turns out that what I sketched out to swatch is actually intarsia. Don’t know why I made the mistake before, but it’s clearly NOT Fair Isle. So I will end up doing my swatch flat. And the name works in the end. Flat will be swatched Flat. I’ll take some pics when there’s more than just a cast-on row. If you can’t wait that long, picture an addi turbo with a bunch of stitches cast on in Wool of the Andes, color Carrot. No, this color has nothing to do with the eventual design. Just stash stuff lying around.

…or is it? Maybe the color has EVERYTHING to do with my design. Maybe by analyzing the color choice you can figure out exactly what I’m up to, what my design idea is, steal it, chart it out for yourself, knit it up, submit it, have it in print and impede me from doing anything about it- all before I even have more than a cast-on row. Maybe I’ve given you everything you need and the rest is in your hands…

…or maybe it’s just the only ball of feltable wool in my stash that I didn’t think I’d ever use, even if it was just for a felted flower or clogs or something one day.

…Damn I just gave away the fact that this project is going to be felted!

…or did I? Maybe it was just a clever ruse to get you to THINK its felted so…no. Too tired to come up with another knitting-related theft idea. It’s felted.

…or is it?

Mwa ha ha