Just a quick note to say Hi! I have re-activated this old blog, and am looking forward to posting and putting up some new pictures of the things I am working on these days. Its been a while, a long while.

Things have changed a little bit, as they do over time. I still work in the same place, and am married to the same man (20yrs this year!); got the same two (adult) children, but we've added a grandson, who rules my universe!

You are going to see a lot more sewing - a lot more sewing! My love of sewing has been resurrected in a huge way, and I have been trying out new Indie patterns and off-shore pattern companies and taking a lot of classes to expand my knowledge base.

I still knit, there's still at least 10 W.I.P.'s in the queue at any given point. Just last night I finished off a boys sweater for the little guy, which I will post a pic later.

So there you are. No fanfare. No flag waving. I am back.

See you soon!

doomed...

Lately I have knitting startitis and a sort of knitters nastiness about wanting instant gratification and not having to work hard to get something I want. I go through these patches now and again (I have heard
tale that it is a common phenomenon amongst knitters, but it does not seem to be amongst the knitters I hang with so I must be the token ) where all I do is start new projects or dream about new projects
(especially projects above my skill level), or start and rip out projects, or generally hate the project I'm a being forced to work on (you would think at gun point the way I carry on!), and so nothing gets
finished and there is knitting strewn across my house.

I have also fallen off the stash reduction wagon in a huge way:

*    I bought the Bernat Thick & Quick for all those crazy cowls (my girlfriend ordered a purple one - well I might have told her to pick a color since she was getting one, but really what's the difference -
she's gonna love it and think she did indeed really need and want me to make it for her).
*    I ordered lovely hand-dyed yarn from katdry on Ravelry , whom I met during a visit to Wakefield, PQ at a local Farmers Market. Her gorgeous yarns had me smitten, simply smitten, from the get-go and the cardigan she was wearing was just the thing for my winter wardrobe, and so she dyed to order 4 skeins in a grey which I am picking up shortly - I simply can't wait! See what I mean about startitis?
*    I went to Fibrefest in Almonte, 2 weekends ago, and one of my favorite vendors was there, as usual, Julie & Vivianne Stewart of Fine Fibre Finds in Stittsville, ON (sadly no web page yet, so spotting them
free ranging in the wild is a real treat!). Julie & Vivianne un-ravel sweaters and other gently worn knitted garments no longer in service, and wash and re-skein the amazing yarns. These beautiful re-cycled
fibers are too much fun to pass up and so 4 skeins of a lovely blue-green-rust tweedy cashmere blend came home with me for a fraction of what it must cost in the stores. I love to re-cycle, re-use, and
re-purpose things, especially textiles and fibers, so I think Julie & Vivianne are amazing and should get more respect from local shops who profess to offer up un-usual and eco-friendly knitterly wares. Shouldn't re-cycled yarn fall into the category of un-usual and eco-friendly?? Anyway very good stuff these gals have indeed!
*    Next guild meeting is Vendors night - I'm doomed!
*    End of October is Creatif Festival in Toronto - that Susan and friend Lisa and I are going, and they are enablers of the highest order - I am double doomed!
       
In my defense I have knit from stash for the last 18 months, and my stash that is left is really not suitable for bigger projects like sweaters. It's all bits and pieces, odd balls of yarn, save a few bundles bought for specific projects and of course my sock yarn box (yes-it's a box full of sock yarn - what of it?). So when I go there to see what I have, I get frustrated because it's too much work to find a project that goes with what I have. It's good stuff for my charity knitting, and so I will continue to plug away at it for that purpose.

I haven't made as much headway on my WIP's as I would have liked, either this summer. I have made an executive decision last night at Guild when my friend Shelia confided she had taken her gorgeous but much too big, knitted T-shirt to the sewing machine for a re-fit. I have had a sweater vest that has sat in pieces all summer because I know it is too big, but I have no wish to rip out and re-do it. Simple - I'm going to seam it together on the machine and wear it with pride this winter! One down, many to go!

And that Laurie, Shelia and I went to the Richmond Fair on a re-con mission. That Laurie wanted to enter the knitting competition at the Fair so we decided to go have a look this year, and she and I have
committed to at least entering one piece next year (we think we can kick butt - our husbands think we're going to cause major grief and heartbreak amongst the rural knitting community).

I've charted my first (and almost last - you know I hate charts, right?)) knitted scarf, derived from the stitch pattern of the Mixt Cowl in the latest Weekend Knitter magazine. I made the short cowl as
specified in the pattern (of course you know I did - I'm obsessed with cowls, remember?), and liked the stitch pattern and wanted a skinny fall scarf in a lovely raspberry plum cotton blend from my stash, so I had to convert the pattern from in the round to flat (that Laurie made me do my own chart and I almost died - she's a task-master that one - don't say I didn't warn you). Took me 5 tries to chart it and even more to figure out why my swatches weren't working. But it is finally ticking along and just right for a small take-along project. Probably took me longer to chart than it will to knit the darn thing!

I finished one sock - not a pair; just the one. Sigh..... I could just slap myself sometimes.

Knit on....

He was my good boy...

Aug 5th, 2011. Our beloved Sugar, 19.5 yrs old.

We miss our sweet little furry face.

Make me stop!

Make me stop! Please! (ok maybe not this is too much fun!)

I can't stop crocheting these cowls! So. Very. Addictive. I keep digging through my stash yarn and hours later, look Ma!

Possibly the need for some small, but instant, gratification is the reason behind this prolific pile. All my projects are taking too long, and nothing is coming off the needles in a hurry. I needed some FO's in the worst of ways, and walking through Michael's to pick up picture frames, DD2 and I spotted this cowl from Lion Brand, and so it began.

I followed the first cowl pattern to the letter, then immediately started modifying the stitch counts and the stitch patterns for the next 3 cowls. DD2 has claimed a pale pink, and DD1 and I will fight over the chartreuse green and the charcoal, all by Red Heart. A creamy tweed is born of 3 fingering and sport weights lying in my stash, held together throughout, I suspect DD1 will snag that one. I am rooting through the rest of my stash to see what is suitable for more. I just can't help it!

Knit on.

We have had a few weeks of wet, bumpy roads around our house _ I swear thre is a little black cloud over our head, so don"t get too close, cause you'll get wet!

Purl and I have quarreled again, and this time I have decided that she is just too heavy for me to manage inside tight turns, and so I have made the difficult decisionnot to ride her for a while. It was a very hard decision for me to ome to, Purl the ultimate Harley grrrl, being my dream bike, but at the end of the day riding safely is the first priority, riding a Harley is second. So I will I will find another bike to fill the void. I am sad, but have learned a great deal from her about the wondrous effect of a low center of gravity (as women it is usually not a desirable quality, but apparently it is a good thing in a motorbike!), and about riding in general. The time spent with Purl has not been wasted.

The G-man has also had his fair share, having been seriously rear-ended on his way to work a few weeks back. Physio and massage fill his weeks, and he is lamenting the multiple annoyances of having to deal with insurance companies, body shops, the medical community and, most importantly, the interruption of his golf season!

Happily my Kayla Shrug is well underway, the back is complete. It is surprisingly slow, even for me, who is not a quick knitter at the best of times, and I am finding the pima cotton yarn slippery and the thick and thin nature of it adds to the speed issues as the transition of pulling the yarn through each loop is slower than with a smooth yarn. Still I like the effect the thick and thin brings to the garment and the drape is fluid, and the hand just lovely to work with. So despite the lack of speedy knitting, I am very much enjoying the slow but steady progress. The next step is to pick and knit 200 plus stitches, which should drive me well over the edge. But once that is done, it will be straight single knit purl ribbing for miles and miles.

Last Saturday I went to my friend Laurie's house to her Knit-In, and we had a lovely time, gabbling away, knitting up a storm. One of the things I really like with this group is that we feel free to produce our various project problems for inspection and retrospection, and really have a good time working out the issues and coming up with ideas to solve the problem. We are all at various levels, with two working diligently on their Master Knitters, and this only adds to the interesting discussions we have over our knitting. I always learn so much from these amazing knitters!

I have had quite enough of knitting washcloths for a bit (it's a bit obsessive with me these washclothes) since the spring I have knit 25 of them in various colorways, as I plow through my substantial cotton stash; I think will be quite enough for various little hostess gifts for a while.

I have made little progress on my Plain Jane socks ( a pair is perpetually on the needles) but have managed to turn the heel, so the first one should be done soon enough. The second one, I am sure, will follow just as slowly.

I have made the decision to rip out my Citrine socklets. I'm not enjoying knitting the heel portion of the pattern, haven't for some time, and the knitting has stopped for more than 2 years, so it is ridiculous to have them still on the needles. Back to center pull balls it probably should go. The yarn is amazing, coming from Sanna as part of our Knit Tea Swap 4 several years back, and will be re-deployed into something else even more wonderful.

I have been thinking about mittens, having been catching up on my reading at Lene's blog, Dances With Wool. She was showing some amazing mittens, and I immediately thought how well Sanna=92s wool would be suited to such a project. I was even thinking that the cuff portion of the Citrine socks patt=
ern, which is without a doubt the most interesting part of the sock, would adapt to a lovely mitten cuff. Hummmmm...

This weekend we are off to a truck rodeo - a joint competition between the provincial truck enforcement officers and the best truck drivers, where the G-man is cranking a wrench to create the truck defects, judging truck inspections, and generally work his arse off putting them back together the right way! This year a number of officer wives are going to enjoy the evening festivites, and so hence, I will see my first truck rodeo ever! I have packed my Kayla Shrug and my never-ending socks to keep my hands busy for a few days.

In a few weeks we will spend a week at the cottage, during the mid-point of the summer. My intention is to bring only WIP knitting with me and see what can be completed before I return.

That is all for the moment.

Knit on....

catching up!

I've unintentionally been away from my blog for another long spell. A dry spell perhaps, or too tired to say, but either way the result is the same. So a catch up is an order.

First and foremost: the family. Aside from some heart lurching moments with my mother and my aunt, who both became terribly ill within weeks of each other earlier this spring, all is stable, and the two matrons are recovering slowly but surely, much to our surprise and our great delight. DD1 is back to work ¾ time, and feeling pretty good most days. The fatigue is still her constant companion, but she pushes her endurance with yoga and now that the weather is improving, some lovely bicycle rides on her vintage style Electra around the neighborhood seems to be doing hera world of good. DD2 juggles job-hunting with part-time work, her bunny Artemis, and a nice new beau. And the G-man is travelling and working like a mad man, and seemingly quite happy about it.

Purl and I have started off another season, and are playing very nicely together. The first ride out was shaky for sure, but I remembered more than I forgot and after a few evening cruises around the neighborhood to get my bearings, I ventured out to the countryside and had a lovely and very satisfying ride last weekend. My biking pals have been more than supportive in their encouragement and understanding of my momentary stage fright, and as the riding season gets under way so do the plans for more training and cross-country tours. I made some equipment changes to Purl as well, and for the modest investment I had to make, I already see huge improvements in my handling issues. I began riding to work this week - getting up earlier (4:45am) and taking the long way home to avoid the heavy stop and go of rush hour traffic is a good way to ensure that I am sleeping like a rock at night!

And now the knitting. Which is also slow at the moment, as I have traded some of my former knitting time for more time spent in the gym over the past winter, and it is paying off! Still I've been working away at finishing things. Or ripping them out depending on my inclination. Either way the WIP pile is slowly shrinking. I've finished the Paton's Olive Cardigan which still needs to be sewn together. And some socks. And 3 sets of 8 dishcloths (part of my on-going stash busting) finished. Another of the never-ending TV watching baby blankets is at the halfway mark, and should finish up quickly now that I'm on the decrease side. I made 3 of the very trendy Katia scarves with the crocheted looking loops, and gave one to my housekeeper who apparently took an instant liking to it! I am working on something new - Haku silk wrapped wire yarn, from Rose Haven in Picton, ON to be worked with some wool, lightly felted after knitting, for a light and airy and artist summer scarf.

And my dear friend Katester (on Ravelry) and I went to the spring Creatif Festival in Mississauga, ON earlier this spring and spent a lovely afternoon wandering the mostly sewing and paper craft vendors. The yarn shop vendors were definitely an exception this year, with only two or three in attendance. I did however buy a few gorgeous skeins of steel grey Americo Pima Cotton to make the Kayla Shrug from Wendy at the Unwind Yarn House. Simply devine! I think I will cast on shortly (after I find my ball winder!) for that little beauty.

So there you have it. A major catch up. Now that summer is here I make no promises as to when you\ll heat from me next. Blogging takes a serious backseat to summer weather (and life - which is apperently not quite done messing with me yet!) and the chance to be outdoors. We ahve precious little summer time as it is in this end of the province and I want to take full advantage of it every opportunity I can get!

Knit on......

No February Blahs!

I think I just found a potentially awesome pattern http://knitty.com/ISSUEw11/PATTconstantine.php?printOption=printImages  for some Cascade that I am having over-dyed from dusty rose to something in the dark rusty brown family.

The actual color will be a bit of a surprise, since I have handed  the yarn over to my good friend and Sunday knitting pal, Yvieknits, who has become renowned amongst our knitting community for her technical expertise in dyeing yarns. She truly has an eye for color and I trust her completely in this and can't wait to see what she does with my impulse yarn purchase!

While I waited for the yarn to be processed (I am in no hurry since I have 2 jackets to knit, a sweater to seam, a cardi-wrap and a vest to finish first), I was starting to keep an eye out for a suitable jacket pattern for the weight of this yarn, and this popped up on Knitty.com! How wonderful is this, a cape and yet not quite a cape! I love it!

Knit on...

February! Where? When?

January slid by, and here it is mid-February already which has caught me completely by surprise! I have been so wrapped up in work, coughs and colds, and weekend jaunts to Quebec and Toronto, that I barely noticed the weeks slipping by on the calendar.

But in between all of that I have been knitting and seeing good progress. The Regia Hand-Dyed Effects socks are finished, and I love the way they turned out! And I was able to successfully make them very matchy-matchy which suits my Libra need for all things equal! You may recall the yarn was a lovely gift from Laurie and Lyse when I was still on crutches and unable to take the road trip to Janie H. Knits last fall, so that makes these socks that much more special!

And I am in the home stretch for the Ottawa Area Ravelers UFO-KAL. I had a few things on the UFO list - the Regia socks were one such project which I finished quickly both because I wanted to see how the yarn would turn out and because it would be incentive to move quickly onto the next UFO project. Then I picked back up the Olive Cardigan from Patons Falling For You pattern book and was pleased to see I was further along than I thought! So now all the pieces are complete and are blocking. All that remains is to sew the sides seams and add the collar and it will be done. I am aiming for total completion this weekend and hoping it fits as I have played with the sizing a bit, knitting up the larger size on smaller needles as I am somewhere in between the two sizes!

In between UFO's, I had some lovely Kroy sock yarn which was an impulse buy some time ago and so I pulled it from stash and whipped up another beret, which I am quite pleased with. I have 2 ½  balls left so I am mulling over gloves, cowl, light scarf or something to go with the beret. A little scarf seems to be winning out, since I could wear this set more into spring it is so lightweight. I am checking my books for a good candidate!

Next up after the Olive Cardigan for the YFO-KAL is to finish my Americo Cardi-Wrap. I definitely want it for spring, and have enough time to get it done, maybe even in time for the UFO-KAL deadline. Only a few inches of front section remain and the sleeves. No seaming required, so blocking will make this a speedy finish.

In other news, the leg continues to mend well, progress is slow but steady! The tibia is confirmed completely solid once again (my X-ray is very cool with all the hardware, at least to me!), and all that remains is to coax the tendons and muscles to ignore the hardware and move smoothly as I practice strutting my stuff! I still have a slight limp on cold days, but otherwise it is becoming much less obvious that I was ever injured, even when I wear heels! Purl has been fully repaired, sporting new handlebars and is ready for her spring ride as soon as the weather and roads permit.

And DD1 is marking her 3rd month of official remission and she is back to work part-time and feeling quite good over-all. We are all looking forward to celebrating her 1st year transplant-versary in mid-March! Hard to believe it's been a whole year - and what a year it was!

All for now. I'll be back soon. Knit on..

Happy New Yarn, eh, Year!

So my year of self-imposed stash only knitting is finally over! Hallelujah! And while I see good progress, great progress actually, I am surprised at how much yarn I have left.

So one of the jobs I have assigned myself is to begin reviewing my leftover stash for real knitability, as in things I really want to knit, not just things I could potentially knit if I felt like it; and either find patterns to go with the yarn or gift the yarn to someone else. 

To jump start this process and hoping to score a pattern for some beautiful Peruvian Baby Aplaca I received for Christmas I used another Christmas present and broke out my Chapter's gift card to purchase this gorgeous book:

I love this book! I have talked ad nausium about it with my Sunday Knitting group, and read it cover to cover already, and am headed back for more. It is well written, not over-whelming, and I think a large number of the patterns are well within my knitting abilities.

As well, our Sunday Knitting Group are having our 2nd year anniversary later this month and by way of celebration we'll be pot-lucking here at home with moi, and indulging in a little stash exchanging too! I need to get busy and bust that stash of mine wide open!

And so 2011 begins anew. It will be interesting to see where my stash is at the end of the year - with luck, no bigger and much more well defined with a more managable amount of assigned projects.

Knit on.....

Last minute knitted goods!

I got a request from DD1 to help with a Christmas hamper for a rather large family with all girls; specifically they needed hats and mitts. Usually I have some of these items set aside in my charity box, but this past summer/fall I had been focusing on baby blankets and there was not a mitt or hat to be found. 

So last week I dug into the yarn stash, I came up with several large balls of Phentex Chunky, and grabbing my 6mm circulars I cast on and began knitting like a mad women! I had a road trip planned to the Eastern Townships of Quebec for the weekend, and knew I could get about 6 hours of straight knitting time there and back, and figured I could add another couple of hours in the evening and shuttling my Aunt around during the day on her various errands. So maybe about 10 hours or so over the weekend. My tally after the weekend – 4 hats and 1.5 pairs of mitts! Not bad! As of Monday, 4 hats and 2.5 pairs of mitts. Last mitt on the needles Tuesday night!

I didn’t know if there would be enough time to crank out 4-5 hats and matching sets of mitts, so I put out a call to my Sunday Knitting buddies, and God love them didn’t they check their own stashes and WIP’s to see what they had that would be suitable. Anja had 2 beanies already done up, just needing mitts, and Kirsti had a full set on the needles she could send along. Trust a fellow knitter to understand the need and step up to the plate! And at Guild last night, Yvieknits let me know if I ran short she had a hat to spare too! 

Between the three of us in just a week, we managed 4 sets plus 3 extra hats (2 in a soft cotton which we will send along to the Chemo ward at the hospital where DD1 was treated, as we well understand the tender needs of the heads of patients who are undergoing treatment!). Outstanding! Pics to follow in the new year!

Kirsti, Anja, Yvonne – thanks for helping out! You guys are the best! It is so heart-warming for me to know that I can turn to my knitting friends and say “I need…”, and they always step up  to lend a helping hand. Truly I am blessed to keep such fine company.

Merry Christmas all!

A goal for 2011...

Already I have been thinking alot about continuing on my no-yarn-buying-total-stash-busting trend for 2011, but to be truthful, as happy as I am about having stuck to my goal for a whole year (that's nothing to sneeze at!) I know that I am weakening, and while I still have much in my stash, I am thinking to revise the goal slightly to allow for a small select amount of buying for 2011.

What I am talking about is something that was discussed in Knitters Review discussed back in 2008 - Slow Stashing. The idea appeals to me very seriously as a new way to continue to stash bust and yet enjoy the occassional foray into my LYS's without completely deprived and like I really had no right to be in there window shopping.

In some areas of my stash I am almost ready to do another purge as I am getting to colors or yarns (mostly gifted from other stash busters during my early knitting years) I just don't know what to do with. I feel like purging un-loved yarns from my stash earns me some yarn-buying credit. I'll be sending the yarn to a local school knitting club. More brownie points!

I have learned throughout this past year that I can control my yarn buying impulses, and not add yarns to my stash that I don't have an immediate purpose for, and so that keeps room in my stash to buy only yarn I know I can use.

I have been carrying about a huge guilt trip that I have not been supporting my LYS's this past year, and in such a bad economy this is an important concern of every knitter, if we want to have the quality and selection available to us that knitters are clammering for. But that doesn't mean I can abandon my own economic responsibilities to myself and my family budget and begin to buy willy-nilly again.I learned some great lessons in self restraint this past year, and that money not spent on OMG-I-love-this-even-though-I-have-know-idea-what-I-am-going-to-do-with-it yarn, means I have money in my pocket and space in my yarn storage for projects and yarn I know what I want to do with.

Instead I need to completely and fully adopt the Slow Stash Movement. And this is it, direct from Knitters Review: "At its core, slow stashing involves being mindful of every skein we own, and only bringing in new skeins that are truly deserving of our time, our attention, and our resources." Finally a stash management option I can really buy into (and use to resist the sale signs!).

I have the skills, I have the discipline, and I have the desire to have a well managed, well thought out, and well turned-over stash. This is exactly the right objective for me to embrace for 2011. Phew! And I thought making a new stash resolution was going to be very hard after the rocking success of 2010!

Knit on......

Still here!

I am definitely still here! Apoligies for the lengthy absence. Life got a whole lot busier this last month. I had forgotten how much stuff there is to do when you can walk! Yes, I am walking around without my cane, finally, and that means I am back at the gym three times a week, along with the never ending physio (those people love their job way, way too much). It certainly makes for a busy week when you move as slowly as I still do!

And the G-man has been away on business for the past almost three weeks, so DD1 and I have had to fend for ourselves, which means..... I have been cooking. OMG, yes, I had to re-discover the stove. Interesting device. I still don`t like it very much but we managed, and I even lost 2 more pounds - when you have to make everything yourself you tend to be more moderate in your portions so you get two meals from every cooking session!!

In between I have been knitting and even started some Christmas knitting, using of course, stash yarn, in this case my leftover balls of baby bamboo yarns in various colors. I have been stash busting and working on other WIP`s in between.

Take a look at the gorgeous pashmina scarf from Scotland my dear friend Heather gave me for my birthday, and the great yarn that matched up and made a lovely beret (or Scottish Tam!) to match:

 I also finshed several charity baby blankets - my latest method of speed knitting these little utility blankets is on the diagonal, adding a stich at each end until the blanket is about 36 inches on any one side, and then decreasing one stitch at each end, which allows me to crank these out while watching tv as well as use up my stash of less than desirable acrylic colors:

In more stash busting I whipped out another cowl from a skien of lovely handspun I won a year or two back at Guild - just the thing for Ottawa`s icey cold winter winds:

And these too, cosy wristlets from Taos yarn, to match a previously made beret and scarf - used the yarn to the last 6 inches!:

 And last, but most importantly, can I tell you what wonderful friends knitters are I received this awesome skein from my friends Laurie of Nepean, found over here on Ravelry, and Lise, both from the Guild, who picked it up from a Janie H. Knits fieldtrip that I had been unable to mamage while still on my crutches. Just my colors, earthy, tweedy and simply lovely, and made even more so because of how it came to me! Talk about a pick-me-up! Thanks Laurie & Lise!:

And so you are now pretty much all caught up. Monday I begin the gradual transition back to the working world, having worked out a return to work plan for the next few weeks, and arranged some premium front door parking for the winter! i am ready, at least my head is ready - I hope my leg is too!

Knit on........

Time flies....

On the eve of my 48th birthday I am am astonished at how much time has passed since the last time I really took note of my age! Seems to me the last time I looked I was in my early to mid 40's, a period in my life that I was really enjoying. I had learned to knit and was having a blast allowing my time to be consumed by anything and everything woolly!

But if I stop to think about the time, it was in the middle of my 40's that DD1 was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, and that is where I think I was no longer concious of the passage of time. It is hard to believe that almost 3 years has passed since then - it screamed by like a freight train, running the rails flat out, with barely enough time to be cognizant of the ever changing view. There, and then gone, in a flash - like when you are stuck in your car at the railway tracks, staring out through your windsheild, and then the flash and roar of the train as it fills the view, and then its gone and the barriers lift, and your vision clears, you move forward.  And that's how it is that I have come to the surprising realization that tomorrow, I will be 48, officially in my late 40's. It is very, very weird to be here.

But throughout, the knitting has stuck with me, constantly soothing, always within reach, a welcome and sometimes necessary distraction during the crazier moments, the yarn with comforting fimilarity, slipping through my fingers on an almost a daily basis. And with every finished project I could mark the time on the tracks like a railway station, where I have stopped to re-fuel, or load or un-load some cargo. The beauty of all that knitting is that I am able to look back at the time - the time that went by in a flash - well marked by the projects, the train stations, that I created as I sped along those tracks, and see that the time was, indeed, well spent.

Happy 48th to me! Knit on....

Rip it, Rip it! WIP#5

Sigh -  this one's gonna have to be a complete do over. I still like the pattern - the front is done and the back is 2/3rds of the way completed. The problem (for the completed knitting, and not for me) is that I am 32lbs lighter and many inches smaller around, than when I started this item two years ago (see what I mean - not a problem for me, per se!) and a quick check of the now much-to-big fit assured me that I am making the right decision.

So I need to frog it, and knit it again at least 2 sizes smaller. But it will be great over a long sleeved-T this winter. So I will be calling the frogging of WIP#5 complete when the yarn is back in to skeins. It will become a new project when I am ready to start again.

Knit on.......

Addendum:  Jody asked me how I lost the weight - I wish I had a secret to pass on, but it was the old fashioned way. Watch what you eat: lots of veggies for lunch and dinner and snacks- I love most veggies with hummus, high protien to keep from getting hungry - but exercise portion control, low carb - but couldn't give up toast and peanut butter for breakfast, no booze Sunday through Thursday (hey - a girl's gotta have some fun!).

Mostly the Sunday to Thursday rule made the difference I think - as long as weekends weren't too strict I could get through the week just fine. And I stopped "treating" myself at Starbucks to the fancy coffees and just had coffee misto's - I found I was just as happy with a great cup of coffee with steamed soy without all the sweet calories. Slow and easy kept it coming off slowly but surely.

And even though I have spent the better part of this summer on my arse, if anything that arse has shrunk from lack of moving (lost some muscle mass which will undoubtably come back), and my eating habits have kept any probable weight gain a bay. Yippee for me!

WIP#4 complete!

Are you tired of socks yet? I hope not there are still two more after this pair to complete! DD1 is beginning to think I have a more serious illness than a broken leg - that there have been some brain damage, as is evidenced with all the sock knitting - I don't understand what she is talking about!

These were started when I arrived home from the hospital, and didn't have anything mindless or small enough to work on,already on the needles.so technically not WIP for long. Since I couldn't get upstairs to my stash (so still full-filling my second mandate to knit form stash) at the time, I road-mapped the G-man to my sock yarn stash cubbie, and I'll be dammed if he not only found it, but selected an excellent ball of sock yarn: Online Supersocke fancy color, colorway 940, 65 g .

I tried to find a link to this yarn but it would seem that the Fancy Color family is no longer available in the Online Supersocke line. None the less, there are lots of new color families at the Diamond Yarn site to choose from, and I can certainly recommend that you do. The yarn is sturdy, has a good hand, and works up easily. I was also able to easily match the color changes in the yarn so the second sock matched the first perfectly (i am a sucker for matchy matchy socks!) without any fiddling around.

Knit on.....

Addendum: Jody asked what pattern I am using. I am using my own generic 2x2 rib sock pattern, stolen from several other generic patterns,but mostly created from a German Sock chart of stitch counts for each foot size that I received with a sock kit for my first sock, with the addition of some techniques that I learned along the way, like wrap and turned heels which fit my narrow heel well. It is tailored to my foot, hence not to many others get socks from me unless, like the DD's, they are similar in siz,e just a bit longer! I cast on 60 to 64 stitches, depending on the yarn guage. I like to knit on 3 needles so the heel flap is simply the count of stitches on the needle with the most stitches- either 20 or 24. I do a wrap and turn heel, and simply decrease every other row for both the gusset and the toes.The result is a sturdy, utlitarian sock that hugs my foot without slouching or bagging, perfect for winter wearing inside my safety boots that I have to wear to work every day. I have yet to wear out a pair since I started knitting my own socks some 4 years ago, So I do indeed have a lovely drawer full! Lucky me!

A little treat!

Yesterday I talked the G-man into taking to Chapters and Starbucks for a coffee and a browse through the latest knititng books. This is not as easy as it sounds since for outings I still rely on my wheelchair, which requires a willing pusher, and I leave the crutches behind, as the standing around is still exhausting.

I hadn't really thought I would find anything to new, and my knitting book collection at home is very reasonable and I have to be careful that I don't already have something reasonably similar. But I stumbled across this lovely book by Wendy Bernard from Knit and Tonic:

Chapters must have just got it in 'cause I hadn't seen in before. It is terrific - there are more than 10 sweaters I really, really like, and several that will be able to be made from stash yarn! The book is very  well laid out, and Wendy does an awesome job of detailing the potential alterations and variations that could be done to each of her patterns to customize the fit or change the look. It's like getting twice or even more, the patterns in one book. As well she has utilized either top down or bottom up in round for most of the patterns making seaming all but obsolete, and patterns faster and more streamlined knits. What's not to like? this time I decided not to wait for a sale or a coupon or whatever and went ahead and paid full price. I think I got a good deal considering what I am learning and all the different patterns I can make up from it. Highly recommended!

Knit on....

ps. This doesn't count as breaking my no yarn purchases and knitting only from stash self-imposed sentance, does it?? After all the intention is to knit a few of these patterns from the actual stash, right?

WIP#3 C'est Fini!

WIP progress continues. WIP#3 is done!

I had completely forgotten that I actually enjoyed knitting this easy lace pattern , lace and I frequently not playing well together - looks a little like dainty cabling without all the work. I'm sorry but I couldn't seem to get a good picture of the lace work being confined to indoor lighting. But it is pretty, and the socks are very, very bright! They will be just the thing to brighten up the dull winter days!

Knit on.....

Two down, lots more to go....

WIP #2 complete!

Off the needles are the grey socks, started during DD1's stem cell transplant earlier this year. Like so many other half finished sock projects lying around, I had only a half foot to complete and the pair was finished. I can't for the life of me imagine why I do that - stop just short of the finish line - but I seem to have a thing everytime I get really close to finishing a project, particularly socks, I wander off to the next one. Case in point: WIP #3 is another pair of socks, also stopped just at the second heel, languishing in its project bag since ( gasp!) the summer of 2008. Ridiculous!

Knit on.....

We interrupt this WIP program....

When you break your leg and have two major surgeries in under a week, the healing process is very slow. Part of that tedious process includes lousy circulation in the afflicted leg, which leads to an annoying ailment called hot foot/cold foot.

In addition, when you leg is in a staightjacket of sorts (a soft cast) it is very hard to put on and take off your own socks as is required due to the hot foot/cold foot syndrome, This requires you to beseech any passerby within earshot to please, please, just one more time, put on, or take off, your sock, again. Which you then realize is actually too hot, or too cold, anyway, and so the cycle begins again.

Yesterday as I sat, all but captive in my rented Lazy-Boy chair, cursing the lack of immediate family in the vicintiy to assist in dealing with yet another round of hot foot/cold foot, surrounded by baskets of stash yarn, WIP's, one pair of 6mm straights, and my laptop, I had a moment of genius. I know, rare, but it does happen: I needed light little ballet slippers I could wriggle in and out of myself.

5 minutes into surfing I happened upon this free pattern - perfect!

And a few hours I had the offending foot taken care of, and by the next morning a matched set.

Just what the doctor ordered!

knit on......

1st FO of self-imposed WIP challenge

One good thing about being somewhat imobile for long periods of time is that some knitting is finally getting completed!

Witness: One charity Crib sized Blanket made entirely from miscellanious stash yarn:

No particular rhyme or reason to the placement of the squares - I just pieced them together as I pulled them from the stack. It has a very "Little House on The Praire" look to it, almost juvenile. And I am A OK with that. I was aiming for rustic, and that is what I got.

Next up, DG Confetti 100 superwash socks in grey.

Knit on.....