hot

I think I might finally see why people in California and Arizona don't like knitting heavy sweaters during their mild spring and winters. It's just too hot to think about hauling a heavy sweater around, and it's only in the low 80s here. I love the warm weather, but lately it's just a bit too warm in my house to entirely cool down or even sleep. I miss having an air conditioner. I have a little fan which rotates and pushes some air around.

As I peruse my queue, I see a lot of heavyweight sweaters in there.
Also, it might be time to cut my hair...

Here's the cardi i'm working on so far (pattern - Mary Mary):

mid-June

I started a new project - it's called Mary Mary, it's a lightweight cardigan which I hope to use over dresses in summer. The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah in a light purpley-blue periwinkle color.
It's the first thing I started in a really long time.. I hope the knitting sticks this time.

Weather is warm and I'm really enjoying wearing dresses this year. Almost the whole June, I've just been delving into my closet and wearing dress after dress. I've even given up jeans on Casual Wednesdays. There's something freeing about wearing them, and I feel happier when I do wear them.

I also buckled and got a new pillow. I can't really remember what I was using before..One of the good ones had gone flat after what I remembered was 3 months. Bed Bath & Beyond allows you test out pillows (and once in awhile they have a 20% off coupon), and if it doesn't work out for you, you can return it, and try a different one. They seem pricey, but when it's a good night's sleep that you're trying to get, it seems worthwhile.

I tried a Stearns & Foster one, and then, an interesting goose down one, and now, I'm back to the Isotonic Indulgence, which I hope to keep loftier longer by sleeping on different parts of it, instead of the centre only. They'll also roll over the coupon if you used it from one to the next.  The upside of the whole trial process is that I also bought a hypo-allergenic type cover for the pillow and that has worked like a dream over the last 6 weeks.

BB and B also has a huge gadget section so I splurged on a tea scoop strainer thingy. You rotate the base of the handle, and the 1/2 ball rotates open or closed. It's pretty handy so far. Used it for a couple of teas at work.

Other new loves this summer:
(a) SB Frappuccinos - Red Velvet Frappucino specifically, and I found a really good Black Forest Cake at Thrifty's that reminds me of the ones my mom used to buy when I was a kid. I also splurged on a Rootbeer Float at QV Cafe last Friday - it's a great way to cool off. None of these things are good for me, but they sure taste good.  The Frappucinos are essentially sugar syrup with flavour/colour, crushed ice, and whipping cream (which is whole milk and more sugar syrup). No wonder the whip adds 70 calories on a tall size (yikes!) and the frap. drinks are all around 350-450 calories for the tall. Not that I'm counting, because who needs that when you want a bit of sweetness in your life.
(b) going for quick walks - in the sun..what could be better...


 

It's June

Well, hard to believe sometimes that I'm in a funk.
April was about travel and knitting; May was about neighbour issues; and now, it's June.

I finished off the Making Waves Cardi, and I've been experimenting a bit with yarns..but I'm in a funk again. Both for knitting and weaving. Even squishing yarn doesn't thrill as it used to. I am inspired to get out in the sun..so i'm not totally gone, and the weather has been so nice lately. It's a nice change.

Not much interests me these days for creative pursuits, and I feel a bit like a gerbil on a wheel. This week, I'm down with a cold, a big fat pressure behind the eyes head cold. It started out as an innocent little bit of pressure in my right ear, and then, the sore throat thing. By the weekend, I was light-headed, super runny nose alternating with head congestion. Finally, I bought some antihistamines, and I've cleared right up.

April, I went to Pasadena, CA for Vogue Knitting, and discovered Atenti Bags. Fabulous and beautiful, made in the USA. I made it out without buying yarn (horrors!) but it was a very small show - about 75 vendors, and I didn't take any classes. I did partake in a few days of sunshine, and went to Trader Joe's (a lot!) - I stocked up on a few bags of goodies..none of them good for me, of course!
I also did some general sightseeing in the area.

will try to remember to come back and post some pics

March

Well, I was in a funk, then, I re-looked through my queue and found a pattern I liked - Making Waves Cardigan. I dug out the yarn I'd planned to use and it just didn't speak to me. So, I dug through my stash, and found something that said it wanted to be used. Bugga in Polka Dot Wasp Moth. It's a black with bits of teal in it.

I started knitting the body 3rd week of Jan

 and when I got down to the back and ran out of the first skein, it turned out that I started the second skein which was a lot darker, so I undid that, and wound and started a second skein.  Somewhere in the middle of the row, the cable on my signature needle broke. I was not happy. Luckily, I reported it to them, and they replaced it. Now, I've knit sleeve 1 and I've started on sleeve 2.

In the middle there about 2 weeks ago, I decided I was inspired enough with my knitting to try again to go to Stitches West. It's been on my list for a very long long while, but being kind of on a yarn diet means that I can't just buy everything. So, I looked for a hotel, and thought I'd booked the room. When I arrived, it turns out that I booked March. Luckily, I was able to find a suitable replacement.

I signed up for 3 classes, and had a great time. I met some people from my online rav groups, and I was very good, I bought only 3 skeins of yarn:

From Left to Right - Miss Babs Sojourn Sport in Violaceous (65% Cashmere, 35% Silk), Invictus Yarns Desert Dream in Sunshine - a lovely honeyed yellow (50% Camel; 50% Silk), and Fresh from the Cauldron MCN Sock in a lovely (non-self-striping) mix of Turquoise Blue, denim blue(s), Ochre yellow, and Brown. I know, not my usual colors, but I just couldn't resist.

I also fell in love with some sari silk wrap skirts (made from recycled sari silk wraps) from A Darn Good Yarn. There were some great deals to be had at the show (one of the booths was offering Offhand Designs bags at 30% off). Unfortunately, I didn't find out about that until the very end of the show, and by then, they designs either just didn't grab me, or with the discount, and our @#$% exchange rate, it just wasn't worthwhile to get. Perhaps I might regret that one day..

I also found some cool collapsible luggage that I might re-look at to get for my next trip - http://store.tutto.com/
They were very appealing, but either did not have the color I wanted in the size I wanted, or the size was wrong to put my carry-on luggage in. As it was, I would have had more room in my carry-on, if I'd brought fewer cardigans to show and to use for class. As it was, I could have left 1 or 2 at home, and had more space for toting home. Or, I could have buckled and checked in laundry and a softer bag..instead I opted to just do carry-ons and get home faster.

I came home to my plum tree blooming out front - full and pink.

On New Year challenges

Wow...I just didn't think it would ever happen to me. I'm in a funk for my knitting. i have 23 pages of queued items on Ravelry, and I just don't feel like knitting with any of them. I've been browsing the pages of my queue and reading the patterns. Most are pieced, need mods, or I'd planned to use different yarn than what I'm interested in right now. In some cases, the things I queued don't appeal to me anymore. I just don't have the excitement I had in past years to embark on the new knitting projects.

I am in 3 groups on Ravelry that have posted challenges for 2015. With the way I'm feeling this year, I just don't know if I'll be motivated to meet any of them.

The 12 in 2015 group, I don't think I'll stay with. I haven't knit 12 projects in a year since 2012 - it was mostly shawls and hats. I made some beautiful ones. I just hardly wear any of them.  So that, in hindsight, seems to be a bit of a waste.  In 2013, I changed to making cardigans, and pullovers, but even with stockinette that requires more attention than I have been able to put in this past year.  This last year, 2014, I was focused on house stuff, so there was a lot of reorganization that went on, and no time to just leave crafting stuff out and have fun. It can be pretty draining to live by someone else's unrealistic expectations of you.

CPA swaps group is having two challenges (at least) this year. One is to declare a bin of yarn that you will knit from, and if interested a bin of Unfinished Objects. You can also state "use it or lose it" meaning that if you don't knit by the end of the year, what you've declared you'll knit in January, you would lose the skeins of yarn to the prize pool. Yep, there's a prize pool to win more yarn if you meet your goals. Some people have offered to chip in $5 per skein of yarn unknit..this they say with 25-30 skeins in their bin (yikes!). Still a small price to pay I suppose for not meeting the challenge you sow for yourself.

The second challenge in CPA swaps is one that is longstanding - Stashdown 2015. You track your INs and OUTs on yarn in terms of yardage, including yarn you knit. I thought about doing this in 2012, but too myself out of the main spreadsheet. Instead, I've been tracking privately each year 2012, 2013, 2014, and including the $ I spent. I thought that seeing the $ go in/out would reduce my spending on yarn. It sort-of works. In the end, if I really want to buy something, I lie to myself and justify it some other way. I have donated a lot of yarn over the years, and gotten rid of the old LYS (local yarn store) yarn through a friend who destashes on usedvictoria at a fraction of the price. Also, my local knitting group has gotten a lot snobbier, so those yarns don't fly there.

Verdant Gryphon group is doing 12 projects in 2015, or can be counted as 12 skeins, for those of us that knit sweaters - yay! I might actually meet this one this year, if I can find a pattern that I want to knit with, and yarn I want to use. Yarn must be VG or the old SG (Sanguine Gryphon yarn). With the goal of meeting 14 skeins last year (2014), I would have been close if they'd counted the 3 skeins I used from CY, but alas no. Even with weaving projects in there, I think I used about 8 or 9 skeins, and nowhere near 12 projects. Only thing is that if I end up knitting with other yarn -some of my madtosh or skein, for example, those wouldn't count.

I think even since December, my plans are changing:

• I miss the sun, and I'd like to do some travelling (which I haven't done a whole lot of since 2012, and even before 2009) this year.

• I need to remember to Be gentle with myself..as I'm at a crossroads now that I feel like my mind is changing daily on what inspires me, and where and how I want to spend my time

• I am giving myself permission this year to succeed, to be an artist, and to fail faster (if need be, to reach my goals. For info, read more on Tien Chiu's blog). For a long time, I've resisted this idea of being an artist thinking that I had to create from scratch, or to have more original ideas.
  
  I've realized that I'm great at taking found materials and making them my own. I have for a long time adapted patterns from designers to add the features, techniques or the "look" that I want, and that's ok. It's part of my creativity process. I do have a running list of ideas and I want to play and explore with them this year, without creating undue pressure on myself to be perfect the first time, or to formalize the result in some way.

• I want to continue with the weaving (and potentially knitting) but on my own terms. I'm going to make what I want when I want to make, and most likely, make for me....with the possibility to gift items later. 

• For some reason, people in my group feel the need to razz me about the knitted cardigans I make, or about not knitting and just socializing when I go to knit night. For me, knitting has always been about choosing what I want to make for me, as no one else really will appreciate the time and effort I've put into it.  These days, going to knit night has become more about connection to the people in my group, and less about the churning of product knitting that I have done in the past (especially in light of the challenges on Ravelry to knit - which is more about quantity than quality). I actually spent one recent night doing weaving planning which was intensely liberating.

• On weaving, I charged out of the gate in October and made a bunch of scarves through December. There are endless ideas, and I'm working on some of my own, but I need to visually "see" what the end result will look like...and not to worry about conforming to what others have done, or to feel restricted by "rules".

• My woven items are about "contrast", which differs from my knitting where yarns that are used in contrast tend to look gaudy. In weaving,  contrasting yarns seem to make the designs "pop" more.

• I'm also going to try hard to resist buying.all.the.things...even as my 2015 self pushes to make.all.the.things...and to make items from my stash as I can.

It's a new year!

It's a new year, and I'm planning a largish knitting yarn destash shortly, so stay tuned for upcoming posts. May also have some books, and circular needles.

Woven scarf is done - yay!

The woven scarf is done..Ta Da!

Even though I warped it up on the 20th, the majority of the weaving was done the last couple of days. I'm guesstimating 7 hours of weaving with the overshot technique. I now thoroughly understand how it works..you need a 2nd shuttle doing an alternating tabby after every row of weft so that if there are multiple rows stacked up one after the other, they stay there instead of pulling back out.
Here it is in the sun today pre-block:

Still have to do the hemming, which I wish I'd done while the scarf was still one the loom. I was so excited when the warp hit the back of the heddles, that I just cut the scarf off the loom, and now, I have to do the hemstitching on the end, so I can block it. This might have to wait until I can get a clear picture how to do it to match the nice stitching that Kathy made on the other end of the scarf.
It looks gorgeous - hope I did not beat too close so that the yarn has a chance to plump in the right places. This is one scarf that I wish I'd done blocking of the sample before I continued.

I discovered that I tend to make stupid mistakes like dipping the shuttle down and under threads instead of through the open shed when I'm tired or hungry. yuck. lots of twisting and untwisting going on. I think it took me about 45mins to do each pattern repeat. Since the tie-up was the spaces, I really should have been putting the pattern sheet on my loom upside down so I could see the pattern as I was weaving it in the right direction. Now, I understand why the previous owners numbered the pedals 1 to 4 from right to left, to match the shading of the squares when the pattern is upside down. It actually made it a lot easier to weave from, rather than numbers, since I'm visual, and much easier than trying to put the pattern on a post next to the loom.
...
Lots of end of the year sales on yarn..see my Yarn enabler tab for updates.

weaving in the works..

Trying out the overshot technique now..

This ia a laceweight black 100% Jaggerspun Merino, and the weft is Verdant Gryphon Bugga (Sportweight) in Orchid Inspiration 07 which is a variegated pink. It is weaving up like velvet.
Pattern is from the Miniature Overshot Pattern book by Bertha Hayes.
Really lovely.

Sportweight Cardi Water and Stone has been split at the armholes, and I'm working on the waist decreases/increases now. This to be tried on, as I'm not sure how well it's doing. I'm only knitting on fridays these days.

Christmas is coming...

I have been a busy gal. I've been exploring weaving on a borrowed loom. Mostly yarns from my stash - sportweight and made a couple of scarves. I'm very happy with them. They take a couple of evenings, plus time to wind warp, warp the loom, and finishing, including twisting the fringe (which is quite a thrill).

Halcyon yarn is having a Win your Wishlist contest through Dec. 12th.
Here's mine - mostly weaving yarns and equipment for my new love. Any jeweltones for yarns and laceweight (since I don't have a lot of lacweight knitting yarns).

Of course, I still am slogging away at my old love...Water and Stone Cardi. I unknit and re-knit about 2-3 cable repeats, and ended up dropping ends down and picking them back up in cable pattern to fix the hiccup. Now, I've split for the armholes, and I've knit 1.5" of 3". Pretty much very slow going.

My tree is up and sparkling, and I am also interested to explore a bit of painting over the Christmas holidays..Also, doing some destashing on Ravelry...hope to have a page up here shortly.

mid-October

Two weekends ago, I went over to Vancouver for Knit City. Class with the Yarn Harlot on Knitting for Speed and Efficiency was a lot of fun. I think I will try out the lever knitting technique.

I bought some yarn (pics to come later) from Sweet Georgia 2 Skeins Trinity Worsted (MCN base) in Mulberry a lovely red-purple...surprising ? haha, and also a couple of bulky skeins of Superwash Skein - 1 in mulberry (can't resist the colorway...) and Deep Cove (a lovely dark teal) which I really love.

Also visited with a friend, and tried to do some shopping with my mom, and had some good food there. It was a beautiful clear day both going over and coming back on Harbour Air - these were my 2 free tickets from a year ago.. What a treat!

For knitting, I'm in a bit of a funk. One one hand, brimming with ideas, but not as motivated to knit them, and not motivated to knit anything on my queue. So...last weekend, I started weaving again. I am borrowing (likely buying) a loom from a friend at the Handweaver's and Spinners Guild. It's a table loom (up to 15" wide) with a stand. I dug into my stash, picked out a pattern, and made a simple scarf in a couple of evenings. Well, not a plain weave, but an arrow-like chevron design, and some waves. Yarn is Verdant Gryphon Bugga in Wales (Dark Gray-brown with blue in it) as the warp, and VG Bugga Eye of Newt (pink, orange, and black). I also added some in VG Bugga Blue Stick Insect (which is a brilliant turquoise, and navy blue) for some watery-like bits.

I sprung for a Tassimo coffee machine with the Sears points I'd been accumulating..yum!

In yarny news,  my Tri'Coterie Luxury Yarn club arrived. It's a camel-silk blend - red and black together, with a shawl pattern, solid perfume (roses), and a beading needle.

pics to come.

October

My brain is somewhat fried these days..i've been enjoying life and have overscheduled myself just a bit too much. Work is going well, and I'm enjoying that very much.

I've been doing some swatching and playing with yarns, and I volunteered to do a newsletter for my guild, so that's been keeping me busy. I started socks with a Tri'Coterie Sock Gold Dust yarn called The Girl who was on Fire, after the Hunger Games theme. I wanted to make socks like these..

 

but my feet are narrower and smaller, so i'm getting a striping look on the toe up - i'm not sure i'll keep this. I'm wondering too if I'm getting a bit of lost mojo...or just was too tired the last few weeks.