Take a minute

What a busy week it's been! I'm sure everyone else's holidays have been jammed with things too - this year I'm really missing family gatherings though we do have a lovely selection of Christmas cards from friends and family. But the thing that made my holiday stand out was a trip to London! One of my good friends stayed with us for a week over Christmas, and we did some nice touring in Oxford (tea, Pitt Rivers, that good stuff) and then wrapped it up by spending two days in the big city before her flight back home yesterday.
I'm a small-town kid (even though the doctor insists my hometown isn't really that small), and London flat-out has TOO MANY PEOPLE in it. And I've never been pushed so many times in my life! That being said, there are many lovely buildings and things to see, and I'd like to go back with a bit more daylight (winter just doesn't have enough sun in a day) and cram more things in. We got to see the big stuff: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben. We rode the Eye too, and our hotel room had a great view of the Shard. It was also bordered by about six or eight train lines, so that wasn't quite so picturesque! In any case, it was good to finally see the city, and I was glad to share it with a good friend too.
Now that all the holiday bustle is winding down - and big work projects are looming large for January - I have a few days to cram in some yarncraft! The doctor gifted me with a number of knitting-related goodies, and I still have a number of other projects on the go so hopefully we'll get a chance to sit and enjoy a bit of quiet time before it's back to work in 2015!

Happy holidays!

Another long-overdue post, and this one's a short one before I head out to London! For a Canadian, Christmas implies some level of snow, and here there's green grass and blossoming trees (though I hear the unseasonable warmth in central Canada is throwing things off too), so we've had a job of work convincing ourselves it's actually December here! We've had a lovely Christmas though - a friend of mine joined us for a week here, and I made way too much delicious food. Classic holiday.
Yesterday was the Selfish Sweater KAL hosted by Andi Satterlund, and I gleefully cast on her Aiken pattern in a lovely purple-blue aran heather while we watched Star Trek. Pretty much a perfect day right there!
I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday - even if it's going a little differently than usual, I hope you're finding the excellence in wrapping up one year and gearing up for a new one. Happy almost new year :)

Slacker

I won't lie, this last week has been totally nutty! I've been pulled in like ten directions. 'Tis the season, I do believe!
I have about four projects on various needles and hooks (oops, five), and I've been working on cheering up our flat with some handmade decorations as we clearly are starting with nothing - when you move countries, you don't often bring your Christmas decorations...unless you have really special ones but of course I broke my really special one last year. Hmph. ANYway. Thankfully the "dollar" store here (Poundland) has decent stuff so we're working with that and whatever I can speed-crochet. Garlands aplenty!

And of course last weekend we headed to Ireland for the doctor's birthday; we stayed in Belfast for two nights and had an absolutely awesome time! We explored the city, went to their Christmas market (read: German sausages everywhere and an actual pop-up beer hall with full steins of Paulaner beer on tap) and enjoyed the incredible lights in the city centre, went on a day-long Game of Thrones tour of the surrounding area with a tour guide who's an extra on the show (totally awesome!), hit up the Titanic museum (because of course), and had amazing food all weekend. Sweet bonus: we managed to find a pub with actual live music. We sat right beside a trio of musicians (a banjo, a mandolin, and a hand drum) and got to enjoy some excellent Irish beer and excellent Irish music. Even snagged some Irish stew the day we left, on the biggest bap (bun) that I've EVER seen. I know it wasn't my birthday but it almost felt like it! I love our trips.

 I have every intention of getting back to my yarncraft-related posts; in fact, I'm hoping to write my very own pattern for a headband that I've got going right now! For those of you just itching to hear more about knitting, more is indeed on the way!

Hot tea, cold drafts

Sadly I'm still feeling under the weather; we went to Ireland over the weekend and my cold kind of abated temporarily (aside from nose-blowing) but the dryness of our hotel room seemed to make things worse and today I am definitely in slow motion.
So what does one do when laid up with a cold? Apparently put up the double-glazing film in the kitchen window...oh wait, no...that's just me picking odd tasks. Our kitchen is easily the coldest room in the house and I'm hoping the window film will help a little, though there are very obvious drafts coming in at the corner under the counter...not sure what's up there. In any case, I'm almost positive that totally sapped my day's allotment of energy, though it's not quite noon.
I'll post something much more exciting when I'm not at such a low ebb - Ireland is full of lovely sheep and the aran sweaters over there are incredible - but for now, it's chicken soup and pots of tea.

Keeping busy

As usual, I have a few projects on the go, and while I appreciate the zen of knitting and crochet, a lot of the time there are big blocks of stocking stitch. It can be calming but it can also be wicked boring so to pass the time, I usually watch movies or TV (unless there's a particularly good radio station around). So what do I watch?

1. TV series. My favourite show for this is Buffy the Vampire Slayer; I've seen the entire series a few times now and it rewatches very well for me (but I am a chronic rewatcher...anyone who knows me can tell you this). I also rewatch Batman: The Animated Series from time to time, and That 70s Show is a really good one because it's also hilarious and nothing makes time fly like good laughter.

2. Movie series. This covers short AND long series, depending on how you feel and how long you'll be sitting. Harry Potter is a good one, and now that we're a few years in, you can do all three Ironmans, two Thors, two Captain Americas, and so on. Die Hard has five now, that's a gooder. And there's always the super solid Lord of the Rings extended editions, which will give you at least all of your waking hours in one day if you start right when you wake up and stay up longer than usual.

3. Related movies. You can pick any theme you like. Superhero: go Ironman, then Thor, then Captain America, then Ironman 2, then The Avengers....and so on, because they all kind of weave together. Or you can do a Robert Downey Jr. theme, with Sherlocks, Ironmans, and super bonus The Wonder Boys (surprisingly good, despite being a drastic departure from the above theme). Sometimes I'll do old favourites: Labyrinth and Donnie Darko make a good pair.

4. The same movie over and over. Not literally (though I have done this), but I mean Robin Hood, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Robin Hood (Disney). You can do this with Alice in Wonderland, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (...if you're into that), or multiple Sherlock Holmes incarnations.

4. Whatever the heck is on TV at the time. Every now and then, none of the movies will fit the bill. You'll be tired of the old TV sprees. So in that case, you can just throw on a good channel and have at 'er. I usually vote for home and garden networks, or the Food Network. Almost all of their shows can bear sitting through, and sometimes even lame TV is good enough for your attention, but not engrossing enough to distract you from doing a good job and not dropping any stitches.

5. Sports games. For me, this can only be hockey. Maaaaybe football (North American football, not soccer), but only if there's a reason for me to watch - say, the local sports team is having a good season. But we have GameCentre finally, so I can watch all the hockey I can handle, so hooray!

What do you do when you've got a long, steady task ahead? Did I miss any favourites?

Breakthroughs

I've been given the early Christmas gift of a headcold from the doctor, whose coworkers have been passing it amongst themselves - thankfully it's not too bad but it can slow me down for counts and decreases...I'm working on *something* for *someone* that requires a few decrease rows at the end, and then grafting live stitches and something that should've been an easy finish just took me an hour. Well I got it in the end, and as a bonus, suddenly grafting actually made sense to me!
For those of you who are wondering what on earth that might be, grafting refers to essentially sewing live stitches together. This is a useful finish when you want something to look seamless, and it saves the trouble of binding off and then sewing two edges together. However, it can be VERY tricky unless you actually visualize what you're doing in your mind - most of the time I end up with one side looking purled (the little bumps) and one side looking knit (the little vees) instead of BOTH looking knit. Today I had the first attempt: a weird mishmash. Second attempt: purled. Third (and final, no matter what I ended up with): the successful knit! This tutorial at Knitty gave me a hand today, though usually I'm scrolling up and down on the Purl Bee's Kitchener Stitch tutorial, which is also very useful.
In any case...now that I think I've suddenly got it, I'll get to put that to the test when I make a matching....*something*. Geez, gifting is hard when you're also blogging about it ;)

SBS follow-up

On this lovely Monday morning (yes, the two words can go together) with the sun shining and nary a breeze, I wish I had more marvellous news from my Small Business Saturday. While my Etsy shop got some views and generated a wee bit of buzz on Facebook, I didn't end up getting any sales. I thought about this a lot last night and decided to take a few things out of it:

1. Publicity is still pretty important. Now, I understand my network is pretty small and the burden is not on other people to do all my advertising for me, either. This is definitely the most monumental task of a start-up. It seems I still have a lot of work to do in getting word out about my shop.
2. New is new. I'm still an untested brand. This kind of hinges on publicity too, but there's no word of mouth on my products because so far I've pretty much knit for myself and a few other people.
3. Other venues are plentiful. This area has a LOT of craft sales, especially around Christmas. Clearly I don't have enough inventory to set up a table just yet, but it's good to know that I can spend the year building up stock and do more in-person selling in the coming year. Exploring other venues than Etsy might be a better bet!

Regardless, it was worth a shot. I'm looking forward to listing some more items in the shop this week, and my current worksock sweater is nearing completion (I know right? I'm a machine) and is looking so comfy and lovely! Also, now that I know there's lilac tweed...well, I can't resist that action.
Total sidenote: I'm listening to a station out of London that's playing the Johnny Cash cover of "Hurt"...does anyone else still totally goosebump out when this song plays? Trent or Johnny, this song brings out the chills. Best way to start the day is with good music.

Small Business Saturday - the UK edition

So it seems Small Business Saturday was at the end of November for my North American friends but for us in the UK, it's tomorrow! In light of that, and since I've launched my shop and now actually am kind of a small businessperson, I'm offering a little bit of sale!

I'm putting up five of my worksock cardigans for just $60 (plus shipping) apiece! I'll be listing them in a black and cream aran tweed (it's acrylic and wool) but I would so love to try out some other tweeds! For instance, check out this brown. And even better, lilac tweed! So cool.

 

If you just like the sweater style and you like solid colour better, that's always an option too! I love the idea of doing the classic sweater style with an olive green - the red would pop so nicely!
I'll be putting up the listings in my Etsy shop tomorrow so if you're keen to get your own worksock sweater, stop by and support Small Business Saturday!

How to make the most of the trip

Boy, have I had an exciting Wednesday already! Which is something in itself - not all Wednesdays have so much fun in them before noon. Especially not when I have to haul my butt out of bed before 7 to make breakfast for the doctor. However, today involved a trip to the yarn store and that's always a good start. 

This was a special trip, since it is also my run day. Two birds, one trip: I literally ran to the yarn store today. And let me tell you, I didn't really understand how many hills are on that route...until today. Good grief. For a prairie girl, this place is just inclines all over. Sometimes I actually feel like it's all uphill! I'm sure there are downslopes SOMEwhere on my runs, but honestly. 

Anyway. The point was, I went to the yarn store! I'm tasked with making a worksock sweater for my lovely friend Tiffany at Little Mouse on the Prairie and so I had to resupply...but tragedy struck and they didn't have the same colourway that I used! I got a similar one (with more cream in the tweed) so we'll see if it passes muster. In reality, I wanted a yarn much more like the one I bought today than the one I used originally for this sweater, so I think it'll look much more like the first worksock sweater I made, which is warming another friend in Canada.

The gorgeous heathered purple next to that yarn is for the Selfish Sweater KAL hosted by Andi Satterlund - she just announced it and I was only supposed to scope out some yarn, but I couldn't help it. This yarn HAD to be mine. As it happens, I did the last KAL with Andi and she awarded a free pattern to everyone who completed it (which was AWESOME! A lovely cardigan and a free pattern?! Come on); I chose Aiken, a sweater I've had my eye on for some time, and it's one of the patterns she's included in this upcoming KAL! So now I have an excuse to have it jump the queue...which is getting pretty long, haha.

As a little personal hooray for myself, I have finally had the difference between DK and aran yarn made quite plain - they are not quite interchangeable and my own worksock sweater is evidence of that. The cream yarn I used for the edging is definitely DK - it knit up much thinner than the aran of the body and the collar is MUCH too flimsy. But the point is, I snagged some cream coloured aran for the new worksock sweater and it will be a success! High fives all around. 

Because I just can't sit quietly, I finished up a chunky crocheted bandana-style scarf this morning too. I'm thinking it wants fringes so it's not quite ready to go up in the shop, but it's pretty and squishy and chunky and I'll probably wear it if it sticks around for a while ;)

Christmas craft roundup

Well I already vacuumed so I can feel productive today. I know I'm not the only one who does one chore and then sits down at the computer "just for a second." No guilt here - I still have coffee to drink.
In any case, the purpose of my break today was to hunt up some crochet patterns for the holidays. The doctor and I have had some trouble getting our flat to the coziness of our old apartment (seriously, the walls are bare and I have over 1,000 wedding pictures and not a single one has been printed. For shame) and this is our first Christmas away from family and friends in Canada. This place needs to get seasonal in a big way! We already have green curtains in the living room so my job is half done...okay, not quite, but it helps. I'm just looking for some inspiration (yup, via Pinterest) to yarncraft my way to some holiday cheer, and I have a few good leads:

This adorable little wreath from cookiecuttyer. I'm not sure I can get my hands on a foam wreath shape but who knows, this town can be surprisingly resourceful!

There are approximately 1,000 crochet star tutorials and ideas out there, but this one from Jelly Wares looks pretty straightforward and is free - the best part, as always. Etsy has a few for sale too, if you're not into making your own.

Wee Christmas trees by turkisa-turkisa, featured here. There's no words but if you can read a crochet chart you're set. If you go to the original source, I do believe it's not English but sometimes Google Translator comes through...and sometimes it provides many unintentional chuckles.

Calypso's Craft Works featured these two patterns, one of which is Japanese and one of which is Russian. I love the charts; I actually find them less confusing than text, which can be a bit overwhelming. For instance: "Rnd 3: sc around dc from end of rnd 2, (ch 2, In next ch 6 sp work [2 dc, ch 4, sl st in 1st ch, tr, ch 7, sl st in 1st ch, tr, ch 4, sl st in 1st ch, 2 dc] ch 2, sc in next 5 ch sp) repeat around, ending with a sl st in the first sc made." Yeah, that's what I thought. Just pictures, please.

Anyway, there are a few items I thought would be welcome additions around here. I'm also thinking of making a cover for the hideous wall heater we don't use in our living room...nothing says "shabby chic" like a rusted electric heater, I know, but for some reason it's just not doin' it for me. Also on deck, a trip to Poundland (the dollar store...which sounds hilarious. Just me?) where everything actually IS just one pound - take a memo, Canadian dollar stores. They've got Christmas lights, the one thing I'm not skilled enough to DIY. Between the doctor and me, we don't have enough electrician/engineering skills to figure that out - sometimes, it's just OK to buy a few things.

The launch of Christmas

Another Monday rolls around and another weekend is behind us - this one no doubt full of promotional codes and full online shopping carts/baskets, haha. I will admit, I couldn't turn down Yarnspirations' Bernat Super Value sale; 40%, yes please! It even makes the shipping worthwhile. Aside from all the hoopla in stores, the doctor and I headed into town centre for the official switch flipping and fireworks that signal Christmastime here, and it was awesome! We had some mulled wine and mince pies (which do not contain meat, and the filling isn't minced...not sure where the name comes from but they were delish) and after some mumbly talking on a poor soundsystem, suddenly everyone started counting down and at 1, the tree and all the surrounding decorations lit up :) And then fireworks! I am now of the mind that every Christmas season everywhere should start with fireworks.

After which, we went to a pub for supper. As you do.

Aside from that excitement, I did much knitting, as I had hoped. I finished the edging on my worksock sweater and it looks MILES better than the first go-round, so I'm satisfied there. I'm disappointed with the quality of the edging yarn though - and yes I know, I picked pretty much the cheapest yarn but still, Bernat Super Value is much more robust and gave the first worksock sweater much more definition on the collar. This one (Special DK, I believe) just rolls up...I'll actually have to sew it in place if I want it to really sit still.

Also, in this photo you can see the elusive sixth buttonhole, which is now totally extraneous since the collar starts right after the fifth buttonhole. Alas. This is definitely my pilot sweater.

I also cast on for the Tanis Fiber Arts Holiday Knit-along with my lovely Blue Label Fingering; I'm making her Prism Shawl, a nice simple pattern open to whatever embellishments you wish to add. I'm putting in a row of eyelets every time I change colour and I've done one already...hopefully blocking the shawl will settle down the eyelets as right now they look kind of funny. But the yarn is gorgeous, I wish I could knit with it all the time!