Items Finished in 2006

Just a list of things that were finished in 2006, I don't consider this a recap of the year but just cleaning up the sidebar. I might have forgotten some of the items before I started the blog. I realize some of these items do not have finished details on the blog. I will try and get photos taken and the final links up. The photos may be in 2007 but the projects were completed in 2006.
Socks

• Basic Yellow Green Socks
• Jaywalkers
• Trekking Mistake Rib socks
• Pomatomus socks
• Chevron Ribbed Socks
• RPM socks
• Socks of Doom
• Ribbed toe up socks
• Bumblebee Booties
• Charcoal Cabled Socks
  
• Felted Clogs

Accessories

• Hemp Shopping Bag
• Mali Purse
• Swedish Bubblemosa Hat

Vests and Sweaters

• Cabled Ribbed Vest
• Samus
• Dale Marihöne
• Dulaan Challenge Vest v2.2
  

Scarves and Shawls

• Swallowtail Shawl
• Mobeius Scarf
• Trellis Scarf

Blog activities

One post a day for 30 days - Successful !

Successful!

Did not fill in my card :(

I managed not to use all of my exceptions. I may try this again depending on the size of my stash beginning in May- Have to wait and see.

Killed October 3, 2006

Happy New Year

Should I write a redux of 2006 which seems to be popular around the blogosphere. I know I have been quiet these past couple of weeks with all of the holiday events and visiting. All though a rehash of the events of the past year are just not my style.

There is much talk of Knitting from Stash 2007, however I am not going to join. Not that I feel the need to support LYS, but I knitted from stash this past summer and I do not have a large stash. If I wanted to knit a sweater I don't have the yarn for it, even if I wanted it a multicoloured coat. I do have some lace weight yarn that I want to dye and knit up, some sock yarn that has been marinating I think long enough and a few other smaller projects.

I guess the first project for the year will be to finish my Christmas knitting - "what you are not done?" I hear you saying. Nope, and I had no plans on being done for the new year. Let me explain. My family always does a Pollyanna (sometimes called white elephant) gift exchange. This is the type that everyone brings a generic gift, you draw names and can either steal or unwrap a new gift. Half the family loves this style others would prefer to have a specific person. My feeling is that if I am spending $$ on a gift I want to make sure that gift is appreciated. Some people end up unwrapping their own gifts, in previous years I have done gift cards to a large store. This summer though I had an idea - "custom socks" I wrapped up some sock yarn, with a card that said that the recipient gets a custom made pair of socks. They could choose the colour and style - this way if the recipient was an uncle they could get gray or navy socks that fit or if it was a SIL a colourful or lacy pair. The gift recipient like the felted clogs that I was wearing and asked for a pair of those instead of socks. Not a problem. I bought the yarn yesterday when NRYP was visiting.

In other knitting news, I have a finished Friday Harbour sock and 1.5 Denmark socks so hopefully it won't be too long before they can be added to my completed list.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Wishing you all the best for 2007!

Random Pre Holdiay thoughts

I am not sure what is happening with the internet today. Over half the sites I am trying to go to are down. At first I thought it was my connection going in and out, but I think it is the sites. Some sites are consistently working (google, yahoo) but other sites I can't get through. So I can do a google search but not be able to follow any of the links. I guess that means I have used up my internet quota for the month - however blogger is letting me blog.

I have mentioned zip.ca before. Well, Ali and I began watching Lost and like everyone else has gotten into the story. When zip.ca sent out Disk 4 (season 1 so no spoilers), it took a little longer than usual to get to us - then the envelope looked like it had been dropped in the snow and stepped on. I tentatively opened the package up and checked the disk - cracked. I immediately mailed it back out. I checked the box that I would like a replacement sent. Today, we received the replacement - this envelope too looked damaged. I opened it carefully - since maybe we aren't meant to view disk 4, maybe they are lost episodes* with the secret to the island on it. Disk 4 is in fine shape and maybe going into the DVD player tonight. It has been a couple of weeks now since we have seen an episode. I may forget what is going on.

The felted clogs are on my feet currently, they are still a little big- I like my slippers snug- so they might go in another wash.

I decided to knit Friday Harbour from Knitting on the Road, I didn't bother to check gauge - cast on and went. I put the sock on to check when to start the toe decreases. The cuff is very tight- I can get in on past my ankle but I am not sure I like it. I knit these socks on size2.25 mm (US1) with 8 spi, checked the pattern (after trying it on and questioning the fit) it calls for 2.75 mm (US2) with 6 spi. If the pattern was not so lacy I don't think I would be able to even get it on my foot. So here is the dilemma do I rip out the whole sock, rip out the cuff and knit it up. I have lots of yarn so my current thinking is to finish this sock, knit a pair on 2.75 mm (maybe I'll get out my 2.5 mm) and make a mate to the smaller version and find someone with slightly smaller feet than I have.

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday season - whatevery holiday you are celebrating this year, and a Happy 2007.

*you could see that coming I know, but I couldn't help myself.
Stashed with:

Warm feet -- almost

I don't know if I ever showed you this picture before:


it is a partially finished Fibertrends Felted Clog*. Last week I finished them after ripping all the navy out. I thought the navy was a full ball but I had used some of them for Ali's pair of slippers last year. I was able to use one layer of navy on the bottom and the rest is the turquoise. I have been felting other projects in my front loading washer - just through them in with everything else that I wash - and use cold water. I think tomorrow I will be using hot water. The slippers have now gone through 4 cold water washes but are still a little big - they are still a little long and very wide. I was hoping I could be having some toasty feet today but it will have to wait.
I have heard a rumour that Fibertrends has recently released a new sizes that give options for narrow feet - I didn't see anything on the website. Does anyone know if this is true or not? The pattern I have has Wm s/m/l and Men m/l. So there is lots of sizes just not the narrow option.

Keeper does approve of these slippers. On Saturday, I had been wearing them (they are too big for walking normally in but I can shuffle around in them or have warm feet while I sit and knit) I had taken them off and had my feet tucked up under me on the couch, Keeper came over quickly grabbed one went back to his bed and went to sleep. He just thought it made a nice addition to his collection. While I was knitting these he didn't pay any attention to them. Keeper is currently curled up on his bed waiting for dinner. Dinner is not until 6 so he needs to wait, although he will start pacing at 5:50 just to make sure that I haven't forgotten that it is dinner time.



*it wasn't until I found that link that I realized I did the same colours as in the picture
Stashed with:

Moebius update

Monday night I spent several hours reballing the yarn for the Moebius scarf after this debacle. Combine that with the several hours of tinking and this is what I have.
Two of those small balls were taken out of the scarf. Most of the yarn was salvageable just a huge amount of time to fix this.

Keeper does love my lace knitting though (and this hardly qualifies), I put this project in my knitting bag to get ready to take to the guild meeting. I hadn't done the snaps on it, so what does he do soon as my back is turned. Grabs it from the bag. Luckily I was still tinking so the ball wasn't attached and I noticed right away. No more damage done.

Unfortunately, Friday night when we were out Christmas shopping he grabbed Trellis (5 rows from being completed) and put a hole in it. I think I can take out a pattern repeat and graft the two sides together. I was going to show you a pic but the camera died.

Last night at the guild meeting I showed off the compelted Dulaan vest, and picked up a scarf. Someone else used their challenge ball to make a scarf for charity, since I mentioned my scarf was going to Mongolia, she told me to take the scarf to send as well. So I will add to this to my package that I will send to F.I.R.E.

Stashed with: , ,

Serenity

What Firefly character are you? I am Zoe.

Dependable and trustworthy.
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.
Married to Wash




Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz

While I was gone I finished some projects

I went from the post every day to posting over a week later. I was informed last night that my blog had gotten boring (meaning I haven't updated it). So a few updates on what we have been doing.
On Tuesday I went to Sit and Chat at Whole Lotta Gelato in Waterloo. My friend Jen needed help with a sweater so we decided going to the Sit and Chat would be a great place to get help. The place was empty except the 5 of us knitters. I had arrived early (about 6:30) since I had planned to go to the mall (where the LYS is located) before hand. The Waterloo Town Square Mall serves more of the daytime crowd than the evening shopping, so it was closed. The Sit and Chat was great and I started a new project - more on this in a later post.

Why would I start a new project? When I have recently posted all my projects that are almost finished. Well lets look at the list

Charcoal Cabled Socks - done

Charcoal Ribbed Socks
Yarn: Patons Kroy Charcoal
Needles: 2.25 mm (US1)

Dulaan Vest 2.2 - done

Dulaan Challenge Vest v2.2
Yarn: Cascade 220 (left overs) + Challenge Yarn from Guild
Needles: 4.25 mm
Pattern: Ann Budd's Handy Guide to Knitting Patterns
Notes: My first intarsia project

Moebius Scarf - Haven't worked on this since I needed a new needle, and this project will not be portable for a while as I try to untangle the mess.

Dulaan Vest 1.0 is still needing the ribbing around the neck and the armholes. This can wait though maybe until after Christmas. Okay I could have taken this to work on, but I didn't want to.

Trellis Scarf - I am on the end border pattern so this should be off the needles and on the blocking pile soon.

I have also managed to make Keeper a coat- I spoil him even when he drives me crazy. The snow has been flying all week and he has made it clear that he doesn't like bad weather. He had a lighter jacket, which I used for a pattern to make heavier coat. This jacket is a waterproof vinyl material lined with thick polar fleece. It has been keeping Keeper warm. It almost keeps his body too warm as he doesn't want to take short walks but wants his normal long walks. What is the problem with that you say. Well I haven't made the matching booties for his feet. So every two blocks or so, I have to rub his paws to get them warm since when they are cold he starts limping or just sits and holds up his front paws. The cold concrete sidewalks, with the salt on the roads is not good for his feet - although he doesn't realize it. Like a child he doesn't realize that you should turn around for home when you start getting cold not when you are freezing. So we have been going for short walks and fighting with him on the way home. Sometimes though he has been eager to turn around for home after a block.

Thanks everyone for the condolences on the scarf- I think it just needs some wine and a quiet evening. I got the new needle yesterday so I will work on it some this weekend.
Stashed with: knitting, challenge, socks

I should have bound off

or Sarah I need my ball winder back

Tuesday night, I was debating about how wide to make the moebius scarf. I decided to leave it for the evening then decide.

Greyhounds have been known to steal things, you are told if you can't find your remote go look in your grey's bed. After we had Keeper for a week, he picked up Trellis and tried to carry it to his bed. I scolded him. Repeat one minute later. Repeat 1 hour later. After those three times he has been pretty good at leaving my knitting alone. He has been trying to pick up the Dulaan vests that have been lying on the blocking board but WIP have been left. Until yesterday.

Keeper wanted to go for a walk at 4:30 - walks are usually after dinner around 7 or so. (He had just been out to potty). I tried to get him to play instead, he wasn't interested. I petted him for a couple of minutes then left him. I heard him go downstairs. I didn't think much of it. I heard him playing downstairs - I wonder what he is playing with as his favourite toys are up here. I go down the stairs. He had taken the Moebius scarf downstairs with him. He had managed to chew threw the needle, and several spots on the ball of yarn - besides unraveling the ball. SHIT!


At this point he has nothing in his mouth but parts of the ball are wound around his leg. I get it off him, take it upstairs and start putting stitches back on the needle (at this point I knew the cable was gone but not that the yarn was broken. While I was assessing the damage, he picks Trellis up, shakes his head (so the needle goes flying) and starts moving towards his bed. DROP IT!


So last night instead of finishing a project or even just making progress, two of my projects went backwards. Trellis won't be too bad. Just putting the stitches back. The moebius scarf however is another story. I picked up the stitches last night, and realized that their are loose ends in the scarf, I have started tinking back to where the yarn is continuous. Tinking curly mohair, 400 sts around - anyone want to come over and help. I think I have to go back 2 rounds.

What, what did I do?

Stashed with: Keeper, knitting

DVD commentary

This is my second to last NaBloPoMo post, I will be glad when November is finished. It is difficult coming up with interesting things to talk about every single day.
I'd just like to give a piece of advice to anyone who ends up doing commentary on DVDs from TV shows. Do not talk about future seasons.

Ali and I are making our way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I realize this has been off TV for a couple of years now, but we just got into it this fall and are slowly making our way through the seven seasons. We watch the season, then go and watch the commentary for the episodes. Makes sense, seems like how most people would do it. However, this weekend while watching the commentary for one of the seasons, the following was said "We set it up this way so when XX dies in Season B...." Ah, we haven't watched season B yet*. Thanks for telling me that that person dies. There had been hints and plot points discussed before which could be seen coming or were not overly important. However telling me that a character dies. Not fun. Talking about previous episodes or things that happened later in the same season is fine but don't talk about things that people watching the series for the first time on DVD won't have seen.

Just wanted two put in my two cents.

Stashed with: TV


*see it is easy to talk about a specific event without giving any information away.

Measuring The Speed of Meme:

With three days left in NaBloPoMo, I wasn't sure what I could write about today. Then as I was reading through the blogs, I came across this study in which a Ph.D. student is investigating how fast memes migrate through the blogosphere. Well I have to help out fellow students - it is part of the student code. He is tracking technorati tags, and wants everyone who comes across this post to mention it on their blog and ping technorati, and ask others to do the same. So please go to his site and mention this on your blog. You can also mention where you first saw this survey, although I don' t know if that is being tracked at all.

There is a few questions about validity, and maybe what defines a meme. I join things like NaBloPoMo and Dulaan 10000 or bust but I don't answer those 40 things you don't know about me memes. So the selectivity or entertainment value of the spreading memes needs to be taken into account. It will be interesting to see the results and how it spreads through different sectors.

Stashed with: NaBloPoMo, meme

Weekend knitting

I have now 3 projects that are almost done:
Charcoal Ribbed Socks - one toe needs to be grafted, ends woven in
Dulaan vest v1.0 and v2.2 both need ribbing for armholes and neck, v2.2 also needs to be seamed

So what did I choose to do on the weekend - well it wasn't finish any of these projects. To be honest, v2.2 was damp from blocking, and I want to make sure I have enough purple to finish that one before I finish v1.0. At least that is the story that I am going with. The socks, I have no excuse, they have been sitting in this state for a couple of weeks now.

Where was I? Oh yeah what was I knitting this weekend. I received this skein of Fleece Artist Goldilocks (the colour is a burgundy -similar to the pic in Wild & Wooly but not as bright) last year for Christmas. I thought about making it into a basic triangular shawl in the summer. However, I quickly realized that it would drive me crazy - it is difficult to see the YO and I know I would forget to do them and up with the a funky looking triangle. To the frog pond it went.

This yarn has been calling to me to knit it but it wasn't giving any indication on what it wanted. At the October guild meeting while I was looking at the library I saw Cat Bordhi's First Treasury Magical Knitting. I thought this would be a good combination, the simplicity of a stockinette mobius with the curls of the Goldilocks. After a search for an appropriate needle - I ended up using my Boyle Needle Master with three cords - I have cast on. I am enjoying it when all those little curls behave. I am going to have more than enough yarn so I might make a hat to go with the scarf when it is done.

Stashed with: knitting

Bookflix?

Ali and I belong to Zip.ca, it is very similar to the US Netflix. For those people not familiar with these services, you pay a monthly fee and they mail you DVD rentals. Depending on your plan, you can have from 2-5 movies at a time and 4 and up rentals a month. You have a list of movies on your account and when you return one, they mail you the title closest to the top of your list that they have in stock. We have been enjoying it, it is especially great for TV shows that their are 4 episodes on a disk and you may not have time to watch them all over a couple of days from a conventional rental place.
So where am I going with this, well I love the list feature. If someone recommends a movie, I can put it on the list and remember that for some reason I wanted to see this movie. When I come across a mention of a book that I might enjoy, I can add it to my list and at some point get it. Why can't I keep a paper list - I have tried, it works temporarily but you have to have the list close by (and not lose it). See I would love to go to my library and be able to see the list of books that I want to read and what books that I have in at that branch right now. With zip.ca you can see the lists of the most requested that week, the new releases, most rated lots of ways to get ideas. I have no problems going to my local library to take the books out, I don't need a rental feature for the books. It would just be nice to have a list at the library with books that I want to read.

I AM

You are 100% Canuck!

You rock, you are an almighty Canadian through and through. You have proven your worthiness and have won the elite prize of living in a country as awesome as Canada. Yes I know other countries think they are better, but we let them have that cuz we know better than they do, eh?

How Canadian Are You?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

but

You Are 39% New Jersey!

You've got a little Jersey in you. Not too bad, however you could have done a lot better. Based on this score, you may not actually be from New Jersey. You're missing out!

How New Jersey Are You?
Create a Quiz

Stashed with: misc

Sock wars - Truce

Socks wars officially ended today. The original plan if there was more than one survivor was the first to kill Yarn Monkey would win but there is an amazingly 79 participants alive. I think this was more than anyone thought there was going to be - more than I thought. Instead of getting 79 pairs of socks, people will kill Yarn Monkey with a post card and kill their last target with current socks.

I think there was postal delays - people were eager to get their socks out, but if they died, it might take them a couple of days until they got to the post office to mail their socks in progress on to their assassin. Some socks got sent across the Atlantic a couple of times. All of this contributes to the slow down in the momentum of the game. I think in the first week over 200 people were killed, in the two weeks maybe 20. The concept of the game was fun, and there was a lot of work done by the organizers. I think though that for another game something needs to be changed. Maybe there were too many people (and too many deserters -56), too quick of a pattern, several people knit the socks in one night. I don't know if a fewer people with a more complicated pattern on thinner yarn would do the trick. I am torn with the idea of an end date - part of me believes the end date is important as the game has slowed down, part believes there shouldn't be an end date to an Assassin game - the last person standing is the winner. I know I got frustrated early on dealing with a deserter and didn't finish my socks as soon as I could since I didn't know where I would be mailing them.

It will be interesting to see what happens during Head Games which was started by a few participants in Sock Wars - it is going with the same premise but with hats instead of socks. Another sock battle game is Sock Madness - which is a race against one other competitor with sock patterns that increase in difficulty. It looks like it could be a lot of fun but I am going to sit it out since I know I am not a fast knitter.

Stashed with: sock-wars

Day 23

Last night, with 10 min before we left to go see Rent, I remembered I hadn't posted yesterday - hence my very quick post. With 9 days left in this NaBloPoMo I wasn't going to not post. Although it is becoming more difficult to come up with things to say.

In 2001, Ali and I went to see Rent The Musical on Broadway and loved it. Last night we saw the production on tour and was also fabulous. There was a great response from the audience, everyone seemed to know the characters and there was loud cheering when Maureen came on the stage blinding everyone with her "motorcycle". The audience "moo-ed" during the performance piece. It is these sorts of things that I love about theatre and why I don't enjoy movie productions of the theatre (I haven't seen whole Rent Movie yet). Actually I am not a big fan of the musical movie anyway.

I have a couple of other thoughts rumbling around in my head, I am going to go work on them to see if I can get them into a post.

Stashed with: NaBloPoMo, misc

Rent

I am off to see Rent with Needle Rich, Yarn Poor and True North. I will try to report back later tonight. I fully admit this is a lame ass post.

Happy Turkey Day tomorrow to my US friends.


Stashed with: NaBloPoMo

Challenge Vest 2.2

I think this version will be kept. The front is done, and I have enough yarn to put the stripe up the back as well. If I had enough purple (I am pretty sure I don't) I would do a stripe up a sleeve of the sweater instead of the back of the vest.
I enjoyed the colours behaved in the stripe - the stripe was wide enough to have the colours appear in flowing segments blending into one another. It works well, the horizontal stripes caused the long one stitch wide stripes so you couldn't see the colours and and they looked more muddy. The stripe goes into the exact purple of the sweater at the shoulder, which helps make it seem like it belongs on the vest.
The one thing I am counting on blocking to help with is the difference in thickness of the two yarns. The challenge yarn is homespun, the outside of the ball was similar to the cascade 220, but this was pulled from the center of the ball and it is thicker, so the stripe doesn't lie flat.

Here is version 1.0 this time in focus, it is still waiting on the neckline and shoulder ribbing.


Stashed with: challenge,

Challenge Vest 2.0

Keeper wishes for everyone to know that he is feeling better today. He is enjoying being fed 6 times/day instead of 2 but wishes all the portions were bigger.

Challenge Vest 2.0
I didn't want to do horizontal stripes again. I wanted to use the yarn in a different manner. I thought about the brick like look of the ball band dishcloth, but new I didn't have enough challenge yarn to incorporate it all over the vest. As I was going through ideas in my mind, I thought about a vertical stripe, on one side from hem to shoulder, it could on the same side up the back as well. I cast on 100 sts in purple (I was making this in the round), I started the ribbing, and joined in the challenge yarn, oh - this may not work. I did two more rounds - getting to the stripe, pulling the yarn across the stripe knitting across. I thought if the stripe was small enough I could do it in the round - it could work. After the third round I finally admitted that the stripe area was going to have 4 strands of fabric over it and the rest of the sweater just a single thickness. Not a good design feature. Out it came.

Challenge Vest 2.1
The vest needs to be knitted back and forth if I want a horizontal stripe. I have decided that since there is 9 sts at the shoulder, the stripe will be 6 sts wide, with the three purple stitches being on the arm side of the shoulder. Cast on 52 sts, start the ribbing. I knit until 9 sts from the end, add the challenge yarn then finish the row with the purple. I do all the ribbing rows and start the stockinette portion. I start thinking about the three stitches at the end, begin thinking that 6 won't be balance since one of those will be used in the seam, begin to think I should have had a 5 stitch stripe. This was not the problem though - do you know what the problem was with that design. Think where did I have that stripe.

I was going to have the stripe run up to the underarm - six or five it didn't matter. All those stitches would be bound off for the underarm shaping. The vest was frogged again.

Challenge Vest 2.2
After figuring out those problems last night I decided that casting on for 2.2 could wait for tonight. I am sure there is another flaw that I am missing. Maybe I will catch it tonight...

Stashed with: challenge, Dulaan

I got nothing

I'd love to write a post about something meaningful, maybe a FO - but I got nothing. We were suppose to go to a nephews birthday party today but had to cancel. See last night was the holiday party for my husband's work and we left Keeper out of his crate. He hates being in there and is quite stubborn about going in. He has been great when we have left him for a short periods so we thought we would let him have access to some of the house while we were gone. He is a good boy. However, the food we have been feeding hasn't been agreeing with him. Some days his digestion is fine others well the extreme was last night. We came home to him sleeping upstairs on his bed and diarrhea allover the kitchen floor. Judging by the state of the accident I think it had happened a couple of hours before. I must give him credit - we have carpet through most of the house (ugly, but carpet) - he had his accident on the tile floor so cleanup was do able in the wee hours of the morning without a hunt for a steam cleaner. I am glad he wasn't in his crate - as that is in the living room (on carpet) and dogs who have diarrhea in crates make massive amounts of mess (either getting it all over themselves or trying to angle the gush out of the crate). The accident was near his water bowl so I don't think it was a behavior issue. His stomach has been rumbling all day today and he has been switched to a bland diet. We will slowly introduce a different type of food over the next couple of days.

Maybe I will have knitting content tomorrow, as the only reason you are getting this post is because of NaBloWriMo.

Stashed with: Keeper

Google earth rocks reason #5432

Google earth has recently come out with a new edition that has historical maps which you can overlay on the satellite photos.
Here is London England

Challenge Yarn - Becomes a Challenge Vest Part 2

I decided to knit the vest on 4.0 mm (US 6) vest, and since size wasn't critical I guessed that my gauge would be around 5 sts/in with the Patons. The pink being the dominant colour that I had was going to be the main colour with the purple and the challenge being accents. I decided to modify the pattern to be knit in the round. According to the Knitters Handy Book of Patterns for this gauge I cast on 128 sts and started off in k2p2 ribbing. After 4 rounds of pink, I did one round of purple, one more of pink and then the ribbing was done. My plan was to have a some stripes of colour below the separation for the front and the back. I guestimated that the stripes that I wanted to do would be 2". All is good so far.
I start knitting the stripes, I pause..

I don't like the colours together - the pink is too light of a pink to balance the purple and the challenge yarn. I also haven't used very much yarn - there is no way that this vest is going to take 550 m. I keep knitting, I sit back and the v-neck is done, the back of the vest is done. I kept thinking I was going to like the colours if I continued to knit.

Well I don't, the vest is blocking and waiting for ribbing around the neck and armholes (I am going to repeat the strip on the ribbing). I am also glad that I didn't knit this vest for a specific child as there is no way this vest fits a 2-4 yo, I have several nephews (and 1 niece) in this age bracket - it won't fit any of them. Maybe it will fit a 6 year old. Oh well, lots of kids in Mongolia, and it is wool and will keep the warm, it should fit one of them.

So what is a knitter to do? Well I think the major problem is the pink colour (I was worried about this from the start), I didn't use enough of the challenge to get to the pink area in that ball, what I was hoping for balance. Halfway through knitting - it dawned on me that I could have kool-aid dyed the pink a red colour and would have gotten a better balance (next time).

I still want something that I can take to the guilds December meeting, to show what I did with the challenge yarn. So I think another vest is in order. I still have around 200 yrds of purple left, which should work for a vest. I haven't yet decided whether I will cast on fewer stitches or keep the same size of vest.

My camera is being a major PIA, it has refused to take a picture for the past week, today it decided to take photos but is refusing to focus. Since I am discussing colour balance - you get to see these crappy photos to look at the colours.







Stashed with: challenge, guild, dulaan

Challenge Yarn - Becomes a Challenge Vest Part 1

Remember this ball of yarn
from the guild challenge. I mentioned yesterday that I had an idea on how to use it. On the meeting on Tuesday night there was a couple of requests for charity knitting - the Alzheimer's foundation, Vests for Hondoruas and I was thinking - vests for Dulaan - hey I can use this ball with some other yarn from my stash and make a vest as one of my items for the project. So last night I got out Anne Budd's Knitters Handy Guide of Patterns and looked up vests. I have heard the patterns run large so I would make the smallest size (to fit a 2-4 yo), now on to yarn requirements - very general as you can imaging but she lists 550 m -925 m for child sizes. I figured smallest size I need to come up with about 500 m of other yarn (I am not quite sure what length I have of the ball challenge). At the meeting I thought about using yarn left from Samus - purple Cascade 220, however I only have about 200 m ... not enough - what other colour do I have lots of ... - I have some Petal Pink Patons Classic Merino 300 m. However in all the colours in the challege yarn I don't see pink. I unwind the ball some - okay it is there. So now I have pink, purple and rainbow - I should have enough. Stay tuned


Stashed with: guild, challenge

Knitting Guild November

Last night was the November knitting guild meeting, I should have brought my camera. During show and tell two knitters told the story of the sweater that ate Manhattan. Priscilla, I think this sweater was larger than your poncho would have been if the design had not been changed 1/2 through. It was massive, it could fit four people. How did this occur? Did they swatch? Yes they swatched and noticed that their swatches grew after steam blocking. So they adjusted and cast on fewer stitches (close to 1/2). The jacket just ate up all the yarn, they bought more yarn. There is $200 of yarn in this giant unwearable coat.

The guest speaker was Denise Powell who spoke about the history of fulled knitting (commonly called felted) and the process she goes through when designing with this technique in mind. One of things that I learned from her is to use smaller needles then what I have taught. The common thing is to use much larger needles then you would normally for the pattern. She uses needles only slightly larger, the fabric maintains straight sides if it is an unconstrained side, and the fabric retains drape. If you are making a purse or something stiff you may want something stiff but for a hat or gloves then something with drape is useful. She also told us the story of when she knit a beaver ..... the animal, and since it was for a book needed to make it for Jamieson Smith yarn. The yarn after two trips through the washer had not felted but had grown in size. It took a total of 6 times through to get it too felt. The yarn is spun tight, and didn't want to felt however once it started to go it went. Just to keep in mind if a wool doesn't felt and you know it should (not superwash, not bleached) it will succumb if given enough time.

I still have one more month for the one ball challenge and I got a great idea last night at the meeting. Stay tuned while I figure it out exactly.


Stashed with: guild

Your vote does count -

Especially if you live in Dorion Township

Nothing very exciting happened in Kitchener elections. Many of the incumbents were re-elected. However, listening to the CBC today they reported on the election in the small Township of Dorion where there is a tie for the position of Reeve. Yep, the exact same number of votes for the two candidates. This automatically generates a recount (hard to believe huh?), if after the recount it is still a tie – the names go in hat – yup get elected to politics by having your name pulled out of a hat. There was one ballot that someone did not vote at all for the position of Reeve - I wonder how they are feeling today. So your vote does count.

I am looking for a web story I can link too but can’t find one right now.

Stashed with: misc

Election Day

Today across Ontario is municipal election day. Since Kitchener is part of the Region of Waterloo - I get to vote for Kitchen mayor and town council plus Regional chair and councilors for the region plus school board trustees, in total I get to cast my ballot for 11 people. I have never voted in a municipal election before. The first two after I turned 18 I was in university, didn't know the people running and knew it would not be an informed choice. Then I moved to the US and couldn't vote in the elections so here we are time to vote.
I have almost decided who to vote for. In one of the positions two candidates I feel lukewarm about and the third I don't like the politics of at all - another group I have it down to 5 candidates (I get to choose 4 so it is not that bad) from a field of 10. So I have some more reading to do before I go to the polls this afternoon.

While I was looking for the photo for Saturday's post, I came across the this post. The photo is on flickr
I remember this mural from university and completely forgot about it until then, the person who wrote it is very cynical.
The mural says:

Vote for Nobody
Nobody keeps election promises
Nobody will listen to your concerns
Nobody will help the poor and unemployed
Nobody cares!
If Nobody is elected things will be better for everyone

by Anonymous
Nobody tells the truth

Blog Guelph has some wonderful photos from around the city, as well as some local political commentary.

Stashed with: misc

The Royal

Yesterday, Ali and I went into Toronto to go to the Royal Agriculture Winter Fair. It has been a long time since either of us went and Sarah had a family pass as she was working at a couple of booths.
After fighting the traffic to get in and park - a nightmare beyond comprehension. We met up with Sarah and Vick and they got us in to the show. We immediately went to see the llamas and alpaca - so soft. The booth beside Monica's had two baby alpacas there - so cute (we didn't bring our camera since we are such bad bloggers but you can go here to see some photos. There was some horses who were warming up for a competition that we watched for a little while. Then we went and checked out the exhibition area. So many things to try and to take in - Sarah and Vick figured you could eat for an entire day (healthy) with just wondering around all the exhibits. There were apples given away, cheese, milk, smoked trout, not to mention all the oils, dips and jams that were being used as samples, then the cooking demonstrations. Lots of good things to taste - the Hagen Daaz people were not giving away samples though.
I think we will try and go next year as well - lots of fun when the "Country comes to the City".

Stashed with: misc

In Flanders Fields

photo from TrekEarth

Stashed with: misc

IK is here!

I have seen several posts that have discussed the new IK - and finally the mail brought my issue. I have seen the preview on line but it is not the same as flipping through the pages. There are several sweaters in there that I like and I might put the Nantucket jacket by Norah Gaughan on my list, although I will make it with long sleeves. I find sleeves that end at the elbow annoying, it feels like they have been pushed up too far. There are a couple patterns with boat necks, which I don't care for. I still need to actually go through the issue.

Keeper loves chewing on rawhide bones, but I don't like letting him have them unless someone is around, as they can be a choking hazard. So today I bought him a Nylabone- he took it chewed it for about a minute then went and got his rawhide. I'll keep offering it to him and see if it he likes it. I think if it is the only thing in his crate he may use it.

Stashed with: future-project, Keeper

Dulaan 10000 or bust

For the past year, I have been thinking that I should do knit something for charity. I haven't yet, but to help induce me in October I signed up for Dulaan 10 000 Items or bust challenge. I have challenged myself to send five items to F.I.R.E. by July 2007. So know that I have made it a public statement I will do it.



I have been working on the charcoal cabled socks, I am working on the cuff on the second one. I tried photographing the socks but the light wasn't very good. It just looked like a black blob - not very good blog fodder so instead you get another photo of Keeper.



Stashed with: Dulaan

Day 8

I would have a fuller post, but Blogger was having difficulties earlier. Instead you get this quiz. I tried different combinations and apparently Canada never turns up so I don't think we are an English speaking country anymore.

You Belong in Australia

Ace! Sunny, upbeat, and cute You make the perfect surf bum Now stop hogging the vegemite!

What English Speaking Country Are You?

Stashed with: quiz

The trellis grows

I am plodding along the Trellis scarf. I have finished 14 of the 23 pattern repeats. I am understanding the pattern more now, so it is starting to move along. It is nice that I can see a forgotten YO right away as opposed to a couple of rows later and have to tink back.
Keeper has been very good at keeping out of my knitting.

There was only one day he bothered it, picking it up three times (within an hour) to bring to his bed. I think he likes to test the rules, since he hasn't bothered it since. The only damage he did was the third time the knitting got pulled off the needles so I had to carefully put all the stitches back.

I find this election map scary. Did Ohio learn nothing from 2004? When looking at a map like this I can see why there is apathy towards voting, however the system doesn't get fixed through apathy.



Stashed with: knitting, trellis, lace

Day 6 NaBloWriMo

Today is just going to be some random things

1. There is still 111 (about 15%) people alive in sock wars. I am surprised by that number I thought more would be dead. However I think the mail is slowing things down. By the time you mail you socks and your victim receives it and mails their socks in progress back, it can be several weeks. The game end near the end of November. I wonder how many people will be alive then.
2. A new sock game is starting, I'll be sitting that one out since it seems just too stressful. SockMadness looks like it will be a competition with who can knit the fastest. Since I know that isn't me - why add the stress.
3. FireFox 2.0 came out the other week. I am enjoying the built in spell check. As I type in blogger or gmail or any site, if I spell a word wrong it is underlined in red and as in word right click gives me spelling options. As a horrible speller and one who often forgets to hit spell check. You should notice an improvement in spelling at this site.
4. Pink Elephant created a randomizer for people in NaBloWriMo, I cruised through some sites today looking for some inspiration on what to write. I must say there are several posts that start "I don't have much to say ..." and then go on for a couple of screen lengths. Wow what are these posters like when they do have something to say.
5. For my American readers - get out and vote tomorrow - if you haven't voted in an advance poll yet.

Stashed with: misc

Visiting Dogs

So as I quickly mentioned yesterday, we went to visit my family yesterday. They have two poodles and two cats, I knew Keeper would get along fine with the dogs. The cats can always be tricky.
After we were there, I got out a rawhide bone for Keeper, of course the poodles immediately wanted one as well so I got small ones out of the cupboard for them. Ginger does not like starting chew sticks, so as usual she immediately dropped hers, but instead of trying to steal who brother Zeus stick. She decided to try for Keepers. Keeper growled, why should another dog steal his toy.
We kept Ginger busy for awhile and she seemed to give up on the large chew stick, Until Keeper got up to see what was happening in another room. Ginger immediately seized on this opportunity ad started on the large stick. We watched to see what would happen when Keeper came back. He looked at the situation and picked up her stick. (He didn't chew it for long, before just deciding to lay down - otherwise I would have taken it from him)


When greyhounds lay down, their bums don't touch the ground, the configuration just doesn't work with their legs. I don't have a good photo but look here to see what I mean. Both Ginger and Zeus, decided to lay down like this. Zeus has short legs so he just bent his front legs and chewed his stick, Ginger bent her back legs, neither poodle stayed in the position long.

He was great with the cats, kept them insight if they were in the room and would follow them out of the room but he didn't chase them. However, today while watching a TV show, there was a cat that screeched. He immediately jumped up and ran around the house to look for the cat. He came back to the room and was just about to lie down when another screech, and another tour of the house was necessary. At that point we decided to turn the volume down on the tv and watch that episode with subtitles.


Stashed with: Keeper

Saturday post

The worst part of NaBloWriMo is posting on weekends. Just not part of my routine. I tried to do Saturday Sky and failed after the first week. Today we went to my parents, in part to introduce the dogs when not much else was going on. They have two poodles (and two cats).
They got along great and I will show some pics on tomorrow post.

How Many of Me?

If you want to know how many people in the US have your name, check this site out. Even though neither of my names are common (not of unheard of either) I was surprised with how many people had my combination of names. This number also does not include Theresa and other alternative spellings.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 23 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Stashed with: misc

NaBloPoMo

In support of NaNoWriMo*, I have signed up NaBloPoMo*. Instead of writing a novel in a month (those people are crazy), I will post a blog entry every day for a month. I have a few ideas, on what I can post, and will be stretching those out to cover 30 days. One of the major differences between the novel and blog posting is length. The NaNoWriMo wants a 50 000 word novel thats a lot of words, for the blog a simple picture will do, or just a couple of quick lines. If you except that 1 picture=1000 words if I post 2 pictures a day I will easily surpass the 50 000 (all though I don't think that counts as a novel.


*National Novel Writing Month and national Blog Posting Month-

Stashed with: NaBloPoMo

October Books

I didn't read many books in October. No real reason just one of those months.

Son of A Witch by Gregory Maguire – I have to agree with Jenni not as good as Wicked. There were some sections that I think someone else wrote, they didn’t seem to flow as well with the rest of the book. It tells the story of Liir’s coming of age and determining who he realy is. It starts with Liir being found almost dead in coma, and then through flashbacks tells the story of how he became in the position.

The Birth House by Ami McKay – I loved this book, it was recommended to me in the summer by Megan, and I immediately requested it from the library – I was 48th on the list.
Dora Rare becomes a midwife under the tutelage of Miss B. during the Great War and has to struggle with the not so local doctor who doesn’t think anyone without an MD has the knowledge to help women during child birth. Women in the small town have to struggle to prevent being forced to travel long distance over treacherous roads to deliver their babies in the hospital under chloroform anesthesia. Dora has her own personal problems that extend beyond helping the women of her community. On the Birth House website you can take the quiz to find out if you suffer from hysteria or neurasthenia, there was another treatment besides a hysterectomy for this problem - which women understandably preferred.
I am looking forward to McKay's next book The Virgin Cure

Stashed with: books

Socktoberfest

Well October is almost finished and I managed to finish one pair, start a second pair and knit a pair of baby booties and . However I really didn't devote much knitting time this month to the socks. The charcoal ribbed socks are languishing - I should have listen to this yarn it wasn't ready to be knitted yet and I am paying the price. This is how the sock is behaving - I decided my gauge was too loos and I ripped out the couple of inches that I had started with, it then took me about 1 day to cast on. I kept casting on either the completely wrong number of stitches or screwing up the cast on in other ways (dropping stitches several on row 1). I then knit to the heel flap and decided I didn't like the pattern so out it came. I am currently satisfied with the sock although I realize that something dreadfully wrong may occur at any moment. Oh yeah I also lost a needle last weeked it was either left at the Poconos or is in the car somewhere.


Here are a few more pics of Keeper.


I have a coat for him, but haven't purchased the wool yet for his sweater. He will wear his coat, the first night we got him we put his coat on for a walk and 1/2 through the walk I began to wonder if he would do his business with it on (he hadn't yet). I took the coat off and within a few minutes he started marking his territory. I had heard that some male dogs don't like to pee with anything on their tummies (makes sense to me). However Sunday morning it was cold and it was time for a walk so I put on his coat (I figured I could take it off part way through the walk) and he happily did his business with the coat on. This bodes well for the winter (when he may get booties to wear as well).

Stashed with: socks, knitting, Keeper

Trellis Scarf

Last week I started the Trellis Scarf from IK Spring '06 designed by Evelyn A. Clark. I am knitting it in Misti Alpaca in Melange Forest. The pattern calls for 3.75 mm (US5) needles however when I started this I looked at the yarn and realized that there was no way that was going to work. I cast on instead with 3.25 mm (US3) needles and my gauge is still off but it is a scarf. For some reason with this pattern it requires my complete concentration. I don't think there is anything difficult with it I just can't seem to knit it without the pattern by my side and stitch markers at every repeat. This dependence on markers is a pain as they move twice in the 16 row repeat.

There have been requests for more photos of Keeper. There is something that needs to be said about greyhounds though, they sleep a lot with just a few short bursts of energy (which I never have the camera ready for). So here is a couple pics that I snapped of him sleeping.

Stashed with: trellis, lace, knitting, Keeper

Keeper

Ali and I have adopted a retired racing greyhound named Keeper. He ran 69 races under the name KL Rambo's Matt, and is now very content to sleep on his bed. He is a healthy 3.5 year old dog, that had past his peak so was retired. Greyhounds live for 12-14 years so Keeper will have a long retired life.


or to play with his stuffed Tessa Owl


We adopted him from Greyhounds in Need of Adoption. He spent his racing career in Florida so I will have to knit him a coat for winter. Can you believe that there was no yarn at Rhinebeck - I wanted a heavier - aran or worsted Superwash wool and didn't see any suitable for a dog sweater.

Stashed with: Keeper

Rhinebeck weekend

This past weekend there were two events that Ali and myself like to go to. The first is the World Tang Soo Do Region #8 championships. It is held at Fernwood Resort in Pennsylvania. I will let him tell you about this. The second event is the New York Sheep and Wool festival or as it is called around the blogosphere "Rhinebeck".
On Sunday we drove from the Poconos to Rhinebeck and met up with Wily Jeneric and Priscilla for some fiber shoppping. Since we are very bad bloggers there are very few photos and they are all over at Wiley Jeneric's. People who went on Saturday complained about the crowd which is the advantage of going on Sunday. The place was busy but you could easily move around and lines were not long. The downfall is some of the yarns are sold out. I purchased some copper mordant for some dyeing that I am planning on.

I did not fill my Bingo card, I did meet some bloggers who were squares but most of these people were not on my card. Oh well. I met two or three people who I was on their card. So people were playing. Thanks to Stitchy for organizing this.

I have some other updates to make later in the week.



Stashed with: Rhinebeck, fiber-fest, bingo

Dale Lady Bug Sweater

(Warning to those on slow connections - this is a photo laden post)

Priscilla was the closest with guessing a sweater, however this sweater is not for me but for Baby Jeneric

I was knitting the Dale Lady Bug Sweater that I received as a kit in the spring from Spin Blessing. To be fully honest with my readers, I have been knitting in secret since the summer. That is why some weeks I seemed to have done no knitting. Just to give you a photo essay on this sweater.















Project details
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull in colours Spring Green (#8523), Bright Turquoise (#6714), Yellow (#2317), Tomato Red (#3718), Deep Blue (#5545), Deep Lavendar (#5135) and Charcoal (#0083). Baby Ull is an incredibly soft superwash, although a little splitty. I will use it again
Needles: 2.75 mm circ and dpns, and 2.25 mm for the facings
Pattern: The Marihone in Dalegarn 152

Stashed with: knitting, colourwork, lady-bug-sweater