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

I was rushing home last night for our big family get-together when I was struck with another design idea. I think I rushed through saying “hi” to my future in-laws so I could pull out my sketch pad and jot it down. Can’t share it here obviously (any design-stealers out there?) but man it won’t stop running through my head. I Googled every possible variation on what it could be called and didn’t find even one random scrap of a similarity out there, so if it works, and that’s a big IF ‘cus it’s a lot of work, I’ll be the first.

Had our big family supper. Tres exciting ‘cus it was the first time both immediate families have gotten together since Yannick and I have been dating. Considering how many siblings and offspring there are, I thought it would be nice if we all knew each others’ names before the engagement party. Didn’t want Uncle Whatshisface asking my sister “who’s that” and her not knowing it’s one of Yannick’s sister’s boys, or whatever. Or Tante Jenesaisquoi from Yannick’s side asking his brother-in-law “who that girl is” and he doesn’t know but it turns out to be my sister. At least this way everyone got to meet, great and eat. And eat. My mom believes in cooking for 40 even when we’re only 15. I think one of the desserts didn’t even get cut into. But everyone had a good time (I hope?!!).

Today is idea day. I worked on swatching the idea I mentioned last time. Hmm…still needs a name. Let’s call it Smoke (‘cus that’s the color I’m using and I’m too lazy to think of a more interesting name that doesn’t give anything away). So I was swatching Smoke and realized that the required needles make a fabric that’s too loose for what I want, at least at the point I was at. So I went down a needle size and started over. I’m only doing a 42 st wide swatch so starting over after 4 rows doesn’t waste too much time. I’ve done 9 rows so far on the smaller needles and it’s a bit stiff, but might suit my purposes.

I can’t stop thinking about idea # 2, the one I thought of last night. I mean I really can’t stop thinking about it. I even caved and bought the yarn. I tried my LYS but they didn’t have the right colors in stock, so I called knitpicks to see if my order from a few days ago had been shipped yet. It hadn’t, so I added some yarn in the colors I needed to my order and they said they’d ship it on Monday. I didn’t even realize they’d be open today but hey, lucky me. Still couldn’t stop thinking about it, and forgot to bring a book in for lunch time, so I ate my leftover salad and pickled brisket while sketching charts. I don’t even have a proper scale yet ‘cus I can’t figure out a gauge without the yarn, but I was still sketching. Approximate charts. I’m really thinking of abandonning Smoke in favor of idea # 2 once the yarn gets here, that’s how excited I am about it. It needs a name too, huh? Ok, idea # 2 is now…uh…Flat. Horrible name but at least I’ll remember what I was talking about. Smoke and Flat. Better than ideas # 1 and # 2, anyways.

I was rushing home last night for our big family get-together when I was struck with another design idea. I think I rushed through saying “hi” to my future in-laws so I could pull out my sketch pad and jot it down. Can’t share it here obviously (any design-stealers out there?) but man it won’t stop running through my head. I Googled every possible variation on what it could be called and didn’t find even one random scrap of a similarity out there, so if it works, and that’s a big IF ‘cus it’s a lot of work, I’ll be the first.

Had our big family supper. Tres exciting ‘cus it was the first time both immediate families have gotten together since Yannick and I have been dating. Considering how many siblings and offspring there are, I thought it would be nice if we all knew each others’ names before the engagement party. Didn’t want Uncle Whatshisface asking my sister “who’s that” and her not knowing it’s one of Yannick’s sister’s boys, or whatever. Or Tante Jenesaisquoi from Yannick’s side asking his brother-in-law “who that girl is” and he doesn’t know but it turns out to be my sister. At least this way everyone got to meet, great and eat. And eat. My mom believes in cooking for 40 even when we’re only 15. I think one of the desserts didn’t even get cut into. But everyone had a good time (I hope?!!).

Today is idea day. I worked on swatching the idea I mentioned last time. Hmm…still needs a name. Let’s call it Smoke (‘cus that’s the color I’m using and I’m too lazy to think of a more interesting name that doesn’t give anything away). So I was swatching Smoke and realized that the required needles make a fabric that’s too loose for what I want, at least at the point I was at. So I went down a needle size and started over. I’m only doing a 42 st wide swatch so starting over after 4 rows doesn’t waste too much time. I’ve done 9 rows so far on the smaller needles and it’s a bit stiff, but might suit my purposes.

I can’t stop thinking about idea # 2, the one I thought of last night. I mean I really can’t stop thinking about it. I even caved and bought the yarn. I tried my LYS but they didn’t have the right colors in stock, so I called knitpicks to see if my order from a few days ago had been shipped yet. It hadn’t, so I added some yarn in the colors I needed to my order and they said they’d ship it on Monday. I didn’t even realize they’d be open today but hey, lucky me. Still couldn’t stop thinking about it, and forgot to bring a book in for lunch time, so I ate my leftover salad and pickled brisket while sketching charts. I don’t even have a proper scale yet ‘cus I can’t figure out a gauge without the yarn, but I was still sketching. Approximate charts. I’m really thinking of abandonning Smoke in favor of idea # 2 once the yarn gets here, that’s how excited I am about it. It needs a name too, huh? Ok, idea # 2 is now…uh…Flat. Horrible name but at least I’ll remember what I was talking about. Smoke and Flat. Better than ideas # 1 and # 2, anyways.

I was rushing home last night for our big family get-together when I was struck with another design idea. I think I rushed through saying “hi” to my future in-laws so I could pull out my sketch pad and jot it down. Can’t share it here obviously (any design-stealers out there?) but man it won’t stop running through my head. I Googled every possible variation on what it could be called and didn’t find even one random scrap of a similarity out there, so if it works, and that’s a big IF ‘cus it’s a lot of work, I’ll be the first.

Had our big family supper. Tres exciting ‘cus it was the first time both immediate families have gotten together since Yannick and I have been dating. Considering how many siblings and offspring there are, I thought it would be nice if we all knew each others’ names before the engagement party. Didn’t want Uncle Whatshisface asking my sister “who’s that” and her not knowing it’s one of Yannick’s sister’s boys, or whatever. Or Tante Jenesaisquoi from Yannick’s side asking his brother-in-law “who that girl is” and he doesn’t know but it turns out to be my sister. At least this way everyone got to meet, great and eat. And eat. My mom believes in cooking for 40 even when we’re only 15. I think one of the desserts didn’t even get cut into. But everyone had a good time (I hope?!!).

Today is idea day. I worked on swatching the idea I mentioned last time. Hmm…still needs a name. Let’s call it Smoke (‘cus that’s the color I’m using and I’m too lazy to think of a more interesting name that doesn’t give anything away). So I was swatching Smoke and realized that the required needles make a fabric that’s too loose for what I want, at least at the point I was at. So I went down a needle size and started over. I’m only doing a 42 st wide swatch so starting over after 4 rows doesn’t waste too much time. I’ve done 9 rows so far on the smaller needles and it’s a bit stiff, but might suit my purposes.

I can’t stop thinking about idea # 2, the one I thought of last night. I mean I really can’t stop thinking about it. I even caved and bought the yarn. I tried my LYS but they didn’t have the right colors in stock, so I called knitpicks to see if my order from a few days ago had been shipped yet. It hadn’t, so I added some yarn in the colors I needed to my order and they said they’d ship it on Monday. I didn’t even realize they’d be open today but hey, lucky me. Still couldn’t stop thinking about it, and forgot to bring a book in for lunch time, so I ate my leftover salad and pickled brisket while sketching charts. I don’t even have a proper scale yet ‘cus I can’t figure out a gauge without the yarn, but I was still sketching. Approximate charts. I’m really thinking of abandonning Smoke in favor of idea # 2 once the yarn gets here, that’s how excited I am about it. It needs a name too, huh? Ok, idea # 2 is now…uh…Flat. Horrible name but at least I’ll remember what I was talking about. Smoke and Flat. Better than ideas # 1 and # 2, anyways.

…and finally, here it is on me. No you’re not going to see a full shot. I look REALLY stupid in hats. Plus it’s too small for me (needs to be longer).

…and finally, here it is on me. No you’re not going to see a full shot. I look REALLY stupid in hats. Plus it’s too small for me (needs to be longer).