Indy Christmas Market - the start of Christmas fun!

Consistency is key, I'm sure - unfortunately I haven't achieved that with blogging! Maybe patience is key right now ;)

Anyway, I've finished TWO sweaters in the last week (go team!): one for my niece and one for my nephew. I'm looking forward to sharing a bit more about my (insanely ambitious) idea to knit something for each family member's birthday. So far I'm up...eleven knits? And I still have two more to go, not to mention the sweater that's in the offing for the Doctor. For which I intend to strictly follow the pattern...because he's already got a sweater from me that's languishing in his drawer, ill-fitting and sad. That thing's begging to be frogged.

But! Enough of that. Today is the start (for me) of all the exciting Christmas fun in the month leading up to the actual holiday! Never mind that Black Friday stuff - I did a bit of shopping but it was all gift-related...by the time I got to the part where I'd buy myself something, my shopping muscles had atrophied again and I couldn't seem to purchase anything. We'll see how that holds up today - it's good for my wallet in any case! Today is the Independent Oxford Christmas Market and I'm pretty excited because it's a little bit of a departure from the usual markets in that it's only independent shops from around the area. My yarn store will be there, and some other really cool-looking shops I've never been to, so this will be a good chance to see everything that Oxford's independent shop owners have to offer! After that, the Christmas tree lighting takes place in our town tonight so it's time for the first mince pies of the year, mulled wine and some fireworks - and here's hoping it's NOT raining for that part because although we started out sunny this morning, looks like that won't last. Classic England.

I'm also getting ready to do some serious shipping. We've got a lot of gifts (some that are insanely overdue...) and Christmas shipping is sketchy at best, so hopefully I'll beat the rush by shipping this week for most, if not all, of them. Our experience with British shipping seems to have been mostly good so far, so I'm crossing my fingers everything makes it safe and sound!

And then maybe I can work on some projects for me for a year, haha: I'm still plugging away on my Veronika (well, it's on hiatus just now), but I stupidly joined two KALs that are due by Christmas. Thankfully I've pledged small things and let's be real, I could bail, but I can't bring myself to do that just yet! Plus the Leydon handwarmers (for Plum Dandi's Deep Fall KAL) that I want to make are quick and good for the office, the land of eternal air conditioning. Seriously...some epic downsides to an "open air" office.

But for now it's time to finish my coffee and lace up my boots - off to the market!

Just super quick

My office here at work is so cold (the air con is constantly on - I'm wearing two cowls as well as a shawl as a lap blanket) that I was just inspired to write a pattern. Fabulous! I'm looking forward to testing this bad boy out; I've got some Malabrigo Arroyo at home in Arco Iris...a colourway that was deceptively photographed on LoveKnitting as being blues and pinks and is actually 50% green (or at least the skeins I have feature a lot of green). I suggested to the site that they put up a new photo, possibly closer to the one that Jimmy Beans Wool has for the colourway, but the site still has the same one. Whatever - it's tough with small dye batches and variegated colourways, I get it! In any case, looking forward to winding and casting on since I'm sure it'll knit up beautifully :)

But tonight, ALICE COOPER AND MOTLEY CRUE!! I've seen them once already this year and it was a total revelation - I hadn't seen Alice Cooper before or listened to much of his music aside from whatever wandered on the radio, but after the show, I'm a full-on convert. I can't wait to go tonight and share it with the Dr.; it's because of him that we're even going, so props, haha! Happy Friday!

Hiatus?

So! I don't know if I intended to ghost on my blog like that, but my last post was like 8 months ago and shame on me! I'm sure it will relieve everyone to know I've still been knitting (a LOT) and I have a whole pile of finished projects - some good, some not so good.
Although my store is kind of still on hiatus, at least for now, I'm going to try to keep up with the blog a bit more. It gives me a chance to wax poetic about my yarncraft, and a bit of a venue with which to explore ideas for my yarncraft future - pattern design and so forth.
Since it's almost bedtime, I'll just leave a quick note about my latest FO, the Dianthus sweater by Amy Christoffers for Berroco. I completed it as part of Berroco's October Sweater Challenge, although I'd meant to do it anyway and it was patiently waiting for me to finish all the other things when I came upon this sweater challenge. I seamed it up on Hallowe'en and wore it to work today, and while overall I'm pretty happy with it (and I love how simple the pattern was!), I have a few tweaks:
- fewer cast-on stitches. I'm still not on gauge.
- Short row shoulders. I really hate the "stair step" look of the existing ones.
- Kitchener stitch shoulder seam graft. I hate seaming at the best of times, so the less, the better. I think it would look a lot cleaner too.
- a more aggressive blocking! This is clearly my own note for myself (and not a pattern mod) but the bottom of the sweater was curling up all day and driving me nuts. I haven't washed it yet and I'm sure that will help but good grief!
Right now I'm still on my Veronika which is just as gorgeous and drapey as I wanted - just working on the front bottom bit before attaching the whole thing to work in the round. I was inspired by Tanis Lavallee (of Tanis Fibre Arts)'s Veronika and couldn't get the sweater out of my mind so I purchased some delicious Rooster Delightful Lace one night and after 2.5 hours of winding, I had a ball to cast on with! Love it.
Stay tuned for the Finished Object post about all the fun I've been having since February. I won't lie, that might be more than one post :)
Welcome back!

Visit post

On my second coffee, large and fluffy kitty at my side, listening to Temple of the Dog. Just about to pick up my knitting. It might be the best Thursday ever...or at least, in a while. While here in Canada, I'm staying with one of my good friends who owns a small collection of pets, and I've really missed the cat love. I'm pretty sure they didn't initially remember me because before I left they were definitely not this cuddly! I know one of them remembers me now because I'm the one who doesn't give out treats and she's not a fan of that. But this floufster is good pals with me from time to time, and she's just wishing I'd let her on my lap. Sorry honey.

I've been working on a few different projects, though I planned to knit much much more...because I am overly ambitious and forgot about all the other stuff I'm doing out here. However, I'm about 3/4 through a baby blanket, and a wee bit of the way through a scarf that's my own pattern - cable on the left side, and slip stitch in the rest so that it kind of looks like ladders. I'm using Fyberspates and it's lovely and gorgeous but it's also very fine, and it's taking a long time to knit up. I won't lie, I'm a chunky knits girl at heart.
I'm only here for a little longer, and then it's back on the plane...with LOTS more yarn than when I came. I did some "shopping" in my own stash and have a pile of Bernat Satin, some burgundy Phentex, and some gold Bernat Super Value, and aside from all that, my mom and I went to a local yarn shop and got me some birthday yarn (my birthday is in April but I won't be here for it): Louet Euroflax in Shamrock. It is gorgeous linen yarn, and the most beautiful deep green. I can't wait to knit something with it!
In the meantime, it's blanket-finishing day. I'm set on it. And then...blanket #2. The sequel.

Miles to go

It's pretty obvious I've been MIA for a while here. No excuses: I have a ton of regular-job work, and that combined with preparing to head out to Canada tomorrow (well, pretty much tonight) has left me with little free time. However, in the past few weeks, I have gotten a ton done, which is nice:

1. Aiken

After some neckline hassles and my own modifications to length, my Aiken KAL sweater is finished! I didn't have time to block it, but I threw it in the wash anyway and it seems to have held up. I'm a little worried the length of the sleeves isn't going to be enough, but the body is definitely long enough. I still love the colour, but the gauge must be off since the entire sweater is a little too big and this is not a style that wears "baggy" well. It's going to be one of those "let's wear it and see" items, I think. I'm glad to have the pattern though - now I can redo it :P

2. The doctor's raglan

The entire sleeve redone and another sleeve knit up to match, I was feeling pretty zesty about this one...until I finished it and was left a little dissatisfied with the body length, especially compared to the sleeves, which are really long. I'm planning on giving it another go (with another sweater, not redoing this one) and this one has taught me some fairly important lessons about gauge and measuring. The more you know.

3. Grammy's knit toque for me

This pattern from Tanis Lavalleé of Tanis Fiber Arts has become my new favourite toque pattern. It's so easy and quick, you can use pretty much whatever you have to hand, and it's a nice classic toque. Pretty much everything you could want in a knit! I had trouble with the sizing on this particular one because I used the leftovers from the doctor's sweater, which is JC Brett Marble Chunky - very thick, even when you're using a smaller needle than given. So the toque is too big, but meh.

4. Cap Sleeve Lattice Top

I've loved the look of this top from the Purl Bee for a long time, and as I may have mentioned, I've already given it a go once (and recently frogged the entire thing for more useful endeavours). Now I'm using The Fiber Company's Acadia, acquired in Vancouver because I always come home with yarn from that lovely city, and so far it's knitting up perfectly. I'm a little worried I'll be short on the contrast colour since I only have one skein, but I guess we'll see how it goes. I'm almost half way now, so here's hoping that what's in the ball will be enough!

I have a LONG day of travelling ahead of me, but I also have lots of yarn and various projects to last. If I'm not so tired that I drop all the stitches, or something extreme. I'm also going to modifying a pattern to make a scarf (not for me), though I haven't settled on which pattern yet. Does anyone else ever have the problem of just picking a pattern? Should be simple since I just have the one skein, but my brain jumps from cables to lace to simple to complicated...I'll settle down eventually. The most fun I'll have on this trip will be hand-winding my skeins on the plane(s), I'm sure. I'll try to make that one an airport activity, since looping the skein over my knees tends to take up a lot of room and I'm sure my seatmates wouldn't be into it. 

Here's to smooth flights, no delays, no missed flights, and more blogging!

On the go some more

I warned that it would be a busy month, but little did I know...I definitely have more than enough to keep me at the computer for long days, but now I'll be taking a "business trip" back to Canada next month! I like to think of myself as fairly versatile and able to plan on my feet but usually I like a little more than two weeks' heads-up to plan trips that big! Ah well. I've already got some knitting plans for my time there (a good friend of mine has pretty much my entire stash, and my parents are holding the stuff I couldn't give up, so I have more than enough to play with...though you know I'll buy more, it just goes that way) and now I have two goals:

1. Finish my Aiken this weekend
2. Finish the doctor's comfy raglan

My Aiken is coming along at last - I spent a LOT of time grinding out the body last weekend. I wanted a longer sweater and this one now fits the bill; it's probably about 19 inches from the armpit, which is definitely lengthy. The neck has done something odd...I'm not sure if it's my cast-on or what, but the entire top went kind of rogue and is way too loose, even though I was sure my gauge was on. I threw down a row of edging and between that and the blocking I'm really hoping the whole thing tightens up. If not...well I'll do what I can with it, but I'm still finishing it. I'm partway through the first sleeve decreases but since the sweater is full-length instead of cropped, I'll probably make full sleeves. I think I have enough yarn; I bought one of those ungodly large balls of aran with wool but I must've pulled from the wrong side because it's been nothing but tangles the whole time. Comedy of errors, this.
The doctor's raglan is going a little more smoothly, despite my having to frog that whole first sleeve. I'm still a little worried about the body and this is the first large garment I've made him so I'm just nervous about the whole thing in general. But we'll get this other sleeve finished this weekend and get the whole thing together in short order, and then either it'll fit or it won't, but we'll see.

I still need to pick a project for the trip, though I'm really hoping there'll be some sleep in there. I've never gone against time zones before so we'll see how this jet lag shapes up. This may actually be the chance I need to start work with the gorgeous Tanis Fiber Arts Yellow Label yarn the doctor got for me for Christmas; I picked out a pattern last month but no one is surprised to hear that my queue is getting out of hand! It's that, a cowl (materials also from the doctor :D), or just all my yarns wrapped together to make the thickest scarf and toque I can manage - Canada is going to be quite a bit colder than England!

Both at the same time

It probably comes as no surprise to people who try to multitask, but there's actually no good way to efficiently do two things at once. This is my segue into talking about how much work I've been doing in my regular job this week, and how much is coming up this month. That always spells disaster for knitting achievements - when my regular job is flush with work, it usually means 12 hour days and not much of anything else but sleeping and coaxing the doctor into making meals when he gets home from his 12 hour days. Between the two of us, it gets pretty hectic during busy times.
In any case, I'm still plugging away with a variety of projects (my Aiken; the doctor's raglan, which just had an entire sleeve frogged as punishment for my not paying attention to size; an experimental scarf pattern; and still that headband, lurking in my nightstand) and have a few coming up as well. This week, my trip to the yarn store was rewarded with finding the exact perfect yarn I need for an upcoming worksock sweater (and maybe a sweater for me too!) as well as some lovely buttons. Have I mentioned how awesome buttons are? Probably not because I'm just learning to appreciate them. Before we moved here, I had incredibly limited access to excellent accessories. Buttons were difficult to find - I had to buy an assorted bag from Michaels and it was of incredibly limited use. Most buttons in it were too small and almost none of them matched. My yarn store here is fantabulous, a veritable Willy Wonka's chocolate factory of buttons: colours, sizes, shapes, patterns, you name it. So my favourite thing this week was picking out two pretty buttons to go on a crocheted bandana that's going into the shop. They don't quite match the main colour but I feel like they provide a nice monochrome accent, and they have a pretty pattern that adds a little bit of interest, depending on how you wear the piece.
Also headed into the shop: another cowl in the Magic: The Gathering series, this one for blue, or Islands. And now that I've got my hands on some lovely red aran, I'll be able to put together a red (Mountain) one. Ooh! And I just remembered I have white. So Plains are on the list too and then I'll have all five! Clearly I'm a collector. And a nerd, but that's obvious and awesome. So if you'll pardon me, I'm going to put on an Ironman marathon and do some data analysis. Happy Saturday!