Oh, that was really not the wisest thing ever...

:D

Knitpicks has superwash fingering in stock again - or they did until I placed my order... maybe not anymore... .... ....


Also, my swift arrived. It is cute metal and blue vinyl and made in Japan and called a 'reeling machine' the instructions are the cutest thing ever. Now if only my yarn would arrive to allow me to skein it....

Also - anyone know off hand whether white/white-ish/natural merino-tencel fingering weight is to be found at any of the shops in Toronto?

Cottage Knitting

So I've finished the Fawkes, and here they are. They are in Koigu, which was nice to knit with, but I think I'm missing something since I'm at a loss to know what is so special about it (please don't hit me...). Like I said, they turned out a little short and next time I'll make them longer.

and I taught my sister to knit! And here is her first project, she is knitting Fetching in some yarn I hand-dyed.

So much knitting, so little vacation

But I am making the most of it.

Fawkes is done. I like the pattern, but the leg ended up a touch on the short side. If I make them again I'll add at least one repeat of the chart, 4 just wasn't enough for me.

The thing I can't talk about is also done.

I'm thinking tomorrow might be a good day to cast on the Clessidra (or I could do some work... nay!!)

Vacation knitting

Tomorrow my family leaves for vacation, a week at a rented cottage.

So I've been preping and packing all the knitting I will need.

Thus far I've got:
* my shawl, which I'd love to finish
* the Red Carpet Convertible, which I need to finish for the july KAL at Sexy Knitters Club
* a random hand towel in elann's Camila for testing that yarn with
* the first of a pair of knee socks for Nonna (I'll leave the other one until she's tried the first one on)
* something I'm thinking I might try submitting to Knitty and therefore can't talk about...
* a pair of Fawkes to be knit with some Koigu from my stash
* a pair of Clessidra to be knit with the green below
* and I've also thrown in a ball of Austermann to maybe try the Monkey socks with

oh and my little sister wants to knit a pair of Fetching, so we'll be using some leftovers from my stash for that - which I dyed red for her earlier this week.

Yesterday and today I've done some last minute dyeing.

Yesterday was this for the thing I can't talk about, the colour is irrelevant to the project in many ways, I just wanted to see what would happen if I combined Tropical Punch with Cherry:






And today I did up this, for my Clessidra socks, it is Emerald Green with some Jet Black of the Jacquard dyes, I need to find my sister to help me wind it...

Also: I broke down and ordered a swift, which should be here when I get home and the fabulous Captain will hopefully bring me my very own ball winder when she comes up next month. So now that I've gotten pretty good at winding respectable cakes I won't have to do it myself anymore - go figure!

(*Pets VISA and promises to be good in the fall). I may also have ordered 20 balls of off white superwash to dye up for various things, including some Christmas knitting.... and decided that come the fall I'll order the necessary wool to knit my sister the Dr Who scarf she has long desired...

um.... look isnt' it pretty!!
[EDIT] After posting the above I walked to the mail box and found...



fashion accessories from Australia!!!

And now the After Dark Nightie is finis! The blue doesn't match exactly, but it isn't horrible. The red I think will match the Euro-flax exactly, the purple is beautiful, but very dark and the olive is quite bright. I'm even thinking that maybe the clear printed ones might be an nice alternative. But I am pleased with them over all. (They are from Strap Me Up, and the girl there was friendly and prompt, so if you are looking for something... NB: When I ordered shipping to Canada was $10AUD, so you might want to order a few things at once).

Here is the finished Nightie, straps attached:

varia

Socks - they are going to be knee highs for my nonna (bed socks since her feet get cold), I dyed the yarn myself and am quite happy with the way it has turned out.

And - the needles -I made them too!! How awesome is that?!

And I just finished convincing a friend to try the two in one socks - Rock on!!

Gaaahhh!

Kristen, your package is in the mail!

I've been AWOL for awhile, as I am the maid of honour made of awesome. I hope to be back to knitting and blogging soon.

Victory!

It is done! Well, the knitting and the seaming is done. I'm trying to figure out what I should do about straps as the only ones I can find are white and that would look horrible on my lovely blue handknit. Suggestions would be much appreciated. (I'm looking into http://www.strapmeup.com.au/ - they have neat stuff, but I'm not sure what shipping prices/turn around times are like). It feels silly to order one bra strap to be sent all the way from Australia.

Pictures:

Back pinned down.

front and back

seamed!!!

detail of lower edge lace

detail top edge lace

I'm going to cast on the Red Carpet Convertible tonight while I watch movies with my lil' sis - Kowalski (my camo goknit pouch) is all loaded up with the various necessities and the pattern is printed out. Tomorrow the knitting will take a backseat to all things Parzival for a little while.

I got my new printer so yeah, I can print patterns (and other stuff too, but mostly patterns). My blanket chart looks so cool all printed out.

HSKS Trivia 1

Trivia

1. "What happens if I wave my wand and nothing happens?" "Throw it away and punch him on the nose." Which two people are talking?
Harry and Ron

2."If he raided our house he'd have to put himself under arrest." Who say this?
Ron Weasley

3. When sitting on the wall next to Professor Dumbledore at the beginning of the book, who does Professor McGonagall bet was the wizard responsible for the shooting stars seen by Muggles over Kent?
Dedalus Diggle

4. Known by the students as Nearly Headless Nick, what was Nick's actual name?
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington

5. When venturing into the Dark Forest with Hagrid for their detention, who is the first centaur Harry and Hermione see?
Ronan

6. We know that Parvati Patil was sorted into Gryffindor house, but what house was her twin Padma sorted into?
Ravenclaw

7. What colour do the flames turn when you use Floo powder?
Emerald green

8. What colour tie was Cornelius Fudge wearing when he came to take Hagrid to Azkaban?
Scarlet

9. After running away from the Dursley's, Harry took up a room at the Leaky Cauldron. What number room did he stay in?
11

10. While Ron, Hermione, and his other classmates are in Hogsmeade, Harry stops in for a chat with Professor Lupin. What did Lupin tell Harry he had just taken delivery of for their next lesson?
Grindylows

Picture Scavenger Hunt
The pictures can either be posted on your blog or you can link to them from your blog.

Harry's Aunt
Whomping Willow
Cornelius Fudge
Buckbeak
Emma Watson

Kool

I've finished the back of the nightie, and started the front. So (*touch wood*) I might actually get it done in time - even in lots of time.

Yesterday I taught a friend how to knit, she was very persevering and now has a couple of cms of ribbing (well, not even ribbing but ribbing) for a pair of socks - as she got bored with flat knitting.

I'm sitting in the kitchen waiting for the timer to go off so I can remove the yarn from the dye pot and set up the next one. I'm dyeing 3 skeins of fingering - two superwash and one not. I'm going to try to do one in Ravenclaw to throw in with my HSKS, but it turns out that the one dye I was going to use which comes in a blue package is in fact red (?!) and so I'll be doing that in a mixture of the acid dyes I had in my stash. The non-superwash is going to be green and orange (kool aid); the other superwash is in the pot now and is purple, pink, orange (kool aid) and natural. The purple looks like it will be quite patchy. I am very slowly learning things that I should be able to realize before I do them with each dye attempt (like you need ample space for the yarn if you want it all to have colour...).

The weather is nice though, and I've set the drying rack up out in the back so I'm hoping that it won't take as long for things to dry as they did last time when I had vinegar scented yarn in my shower for ages.

I'm hoping that the self-stripping thing will work again this time, I tried to replicate the conditions from last time, but I altered the stripes a bit so I don't know how it will work out.

Also, I need a *&%^*%*&*(-ing swift. I think my next knitpicks order is going to include one.

sort of like swatching..

Today I worked on my bag for the swap, it is all done but for a fixture I need to pick up on Tuesday (when the stores reopen).

Since I was drafting the pattern myself, I had to go search the house for a geometry set (you'd think with all the math being done around here that wouldn't be hard). Right angles confirmed I made a mock up out of an old shirt that didn't work out quite right. It was definitely worth doing the mock up (which I almost never do), it enabled me to work out what kind of seams to use where - though I did have to make a few more modifications on the final project. Then I took out the fabric for the project, (why did I buy 1.5m of it when I hardly needed a foot....). I learned some interesting things while working with the actual bag material:

1- I like natural fibers best even in sewing
2- fray check will actually re-solidify on this stuff and peel off
3- circles suck (well I figured that out with the mock up, but they really suck with slippery, synthetics)

But the bag looks lovely - though I'm not sure if I should/am allowed to post pictures if it is for a swap... I'll put some up eventually. And now I have enough material to make another 6 at least.

Anyway, back to the nightie I go, I'm nearly to the waist shaping.