Swift

Finished up the kids mittens the other day so I could felt them along with my mittens and a diagonal bag. I used Patons Classic Wool in Leaf Green for the bag, Forest for my mittens, and leftovers of both plus Chestnut Brown for the kids mittens. They ended up fitting the Oldest One. They're a little tight to get on, but once they're on they're fine. They were too long for the Littlest One. (I think for him I'll follow the pattern except start the top shaping after 7" instead of 8" like the pattern says. For the Oldest One I think future pairs may require an extra couple of stitches or I may use 5.5mm needles instead of 5mm.)

This is actually the same color! Patons Classic Wool in Harvest. The one on the right is mine that I bought for felted mittens. The one on the left came with the yarn order this week. It's not just a difference in the way the skein is wound! The new one has BLACK in it, but the other one doesn't, it's dark brown. I took the new one to Knit Nite and showed Heddy. She's got the stuff from the same lot as mine and has been knitting a dog sweater with it. There's definitely no black in it!

One of the blogless knitters who comes to Knit Nite when she isn't working always brings her swift and winder. I have a winder, no swift. I really NEED a swift. Really I do. I NEED one. I wound two skeins of Briggs & Little Tuffy for work socks and seven skeins of Noro Sakura for my Sakura Cherry Blossom shawl. Woulda wound more but I didn't have anything else with me! (She will be there next week, so I'm taking three or four skeins of sock yarn to wind!)

Nova Knitter gave me two skeins of Briggs & Little Heritage that I can use for work socks.

And that's it for now! Working steadily on Christmas knitting. Running out of time!

Happy knitting!

PS Guess who's coming to the Metro Centre on January 26! I'd love to go. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning, but I don't think I can afford it right now. I know there will never be any tickets left in two weeks time. :(

Eighteen of Fifty-Two

Edit: Yarn ordered has arrived! Some new colors in Patons Classic Wool and the Tweeds and restocked Kroy sock yarn.

Can't start my post with anything but baby pictures of my new nephew. I took these three pictures on Sunday, so he was just a week old.

The Oldest One holding his new little cousin.

The Littlest One sat still long enough for two pictures with his cousin, then it was, "You hold him".

One dozen dishcloths knit with various shades of Bernat Handicrafter. They are intended for four different people, three each, for Christmas gifts. I'm doing up bags with three dishcloths, a smelly candle, melon-scented hand soap, and a nice aromatherapy dish soap.

My new camera and printer that I picked up last week. I haven't had time to read much about the camera yet. I did get the software loaded onto the computer so I had pictures for this post.

Lastly I have pair eighteen of fifty-two finished for the 52PP. These also make my November socks for the SAM4 KAL. Not very interesting, granted. They are Briggs & Little Tuffy (80% wool 20% nylon) work socks in Smoke with Red Mix stripes. I used the B&L Heavy Socks pattern. These are for my step FIL for Christmas, and I have the yarn to make another pair in Oatmeal for him. I find with these socks I need to takes breaks once in awhile. The thick, stiff yarn on 3.25mm needles gets hard on the hands. He wanted wool work socks, though, so I know he'll greatly appreciate them.

That's it for FOs for now. I do have a diagonal bag to felt and a pair of mittens. I am hoping to get a second pair of mittens knit tonight out of the leftovers from the other mittens and bag so I can felt the three things together.

Happy knitting!

Introducing...

Introducing Baby K, born November 18, 2007, weighing in at 6lbs 8oz. My new little nephew! He looks just like my Littlest One when he was newborn. I'm having flashbacks just looking him! I got to see him in person today, and he's SOOOO sweet! Almost makes me want another one. Almost. Getting too old, though, and I'd have to be guaranteed a girl, so it ain't likely gonna happen. (I'm sure I'll be babysitting lots, so I'll get my baby fix.)

Knit Nite tonight. I am on dishcloth 12 of 12 that I needed for Christmas gifts, so I'll take that with me. I also have a hat on the needles. I already made one, now I am making another the same color, plus I have four more planned for Christmas gifts. I am quite particular when it comes to hats. If it doesn't have a good shape to the top then I don't like it. This pattern is really quite nice and uses worsted weight yarn. It fits really well, too, since it's all ribby, and I think I may make myself one. The only thing I did differently was add five rows to the length of the hat, other than that it's done exactly as written. (Pictures to follow.)

We finally got our sock yarn order today. There's only one skein of each of the colors, stripey and solids. There are some really pretty colors. There's one in particular that M and I thought looked like Heddy, so I put that aside. I actually have that and three other skeins to take to Knit Nite to show.

Hope to have pictures next post. Not only can yarn follow me home from work, but today a new digital camera and photo printer did, too. I haven't learned all of the gadgets on the camera yet, nor did I have time yet to set up the software. Couldn't pass on the printer deal. I got it for $120, and since I also bought a digital camera on the same receipt I have a rebate to send in to get $80 back. It's not really the camera I wanted, but for now we figured we'd get this. Christmas is coming, the new nephew is here, I need a decent camera. Maybe for Mother's Day I'll get a fancy-schmancy one, and hubby can take this one in the truck. But then again maybe this one will suite my needs just fine.

Happy knitting!

Knittin' Along

I made a couple of more bags. They are both made with Patons SWS. The stripey one is Natural Geranium, and the solid is one of the new fall colors, Natural Berry. The solid bag takes 2.5 balls, so I used the half ball to do the i-cord on the diagonal bag. It was raining when I took the pictures so I had to do them inside. More accurate color over here.

I also made a Bernat Black Lites scarf for the store. I marked this yarn down from $4.99 to $3.99. There isn't a lot of yardage in a ball, and it hasn't sold very well. I thought maybe something knit with it may help move some of it. I only had two balls, so it isn't a very long scarf. (By the way, these yarns are all discounted. Most of them were $4.99 now $3.99. Bernat Black Lites, Haven, Eye Lash, Patons Grace, Cha Cha, Brilliant. Patons Silverlash was $6.49 now $4.99. Bernat Disco was $5.49 now $3.99. I'll check tomorrow to see if I missed one. Can't remember if it was eight or nine yarns marked down.)

I went to Knit Nite last night. I finished a dishcloth there, and when I came home I started work socks for step FIL for Christmas. They are made with Briggs & Little Tuffy in Red Mix and Smoke. I'm using their Heavy Socks pattern. It's a quick knit on 3.25mm needles. I'd like to make him another pair, too. (I have six of the twelve Christmas gift dishcloths knit. I will take a picture of all of them when they're done a post. Kinda boring.)

I've been getting a lot of nice compliments on the sweater I finished for the store. I'd really like to see it become a Christmas gift for someone sometime soon!

I think I forgot to mention, too, that I finally got around to activating the free three-month gym membership I had. I really like it so far. I'm trying to get up at least four days a week. So far, so good.

Back to the work socks.

Happy knitting!

Casual Cables

It only took over a year, but here it is at last -- Casual Cables! Made with about six-and-a-half skeins of Briggs & Little Regal in natural white, I believe it was. It is an adult medium, a pattern from about 15 years ago that was originally for Patons True North yarn. I started the sleeves last Saturday at work, and I finished them Thursday night. Seaming was completed Friday evening, and the sweater was soaked in wool wash, lightly blocked, and left to dry in front of the fan all night.

Since I've always had a super tough time felting Briggs & Little and I've always machine-washed-in-cold-water a B&L afghan I bought about 15 years ago, I put this in the washer on a very short delicate cycle in cold water. I didn't let it agitate hardly at all, then it soaked in the wool wash for almost an hour. After that I skipped the rinse cycle as per instructions on the bottle, and let it spin off. (Pictures always look better over here in Flickr.)

It started to rain, so I could only snap a couple of quick shots outside. Cables didn't show at all in the inside pictures. The rain only lasted a couple of hours, then it turned to this.

Our first snowfall of Winter 2007 on November 10. I took this picture this morning. It didn't amount to much, but it made the roads very slippery. We also lost power from 11:30pm til 8:30am the next morning! That's the longest we've ever had a power outage. Cell phones and internet were also out til about noontime the next day. (This didn't compare to poor Nova Knitter last weekend.) We had gone to Bridgewater and had to drive home in the mess. Good thing we have a 4x4 truck!

Much to my surprise, my best friend's brother arrived at my house today bearing gifts for hubby from my BF. I didn't know he was coming home (lives in Alberta about 40 minutes from her), so she took advantage of free delivery services. There's a nice permaplaque (still in the plastic so not a good shot) with the years the different Calgary Flames jerseys came out.

And a great big full-sized flag.

Must go back to work on a felted bag. I have one done and ready to felt, but I want to finish this other one and do them together since they're both pinks.

Local knitters, Knit Nite starts up again this Wednesday at the Liverpool SuperStore Community Room from 7-8pm. It will continue now every Wednesday, same time, same place, til the week before Christmas.

Happy knitting!

Cha-Ching!

Yesterday my cell phone rang, and it was one of my co-workers. There were some ladies in from the town where my brother lives (45 minutes away). They bought three of my bags, a hat and scarf set that's been there for almost three years (knit it when we first took the yarn shop over), and a pair of kids socks. Two of the bags they bought were the ones I finished Saturday. Then today I was working, and a lady bought my two pairs of adult socks, so now there's only two pairs of kids socks left. She loves hand-knit socks, and by the sounds of it if I can get more knit she'll most likely get them. So I went home today with another small bag of yarn to make some more stuff for the store, tyring to sneak it in between my Christmas knitting. (Circle of Life -- make money off selling knitted goods, spend money earned on more yarn....)

Still no sign of the sock yarn order. I sent them an e-mail to see if it has been shipped yet. We have about four or five people (in addition to myself!) impatiently awaiting its arrival. Haven't heard back yet. When the Boss Lady gets back from Boston she'll need to order some Austermann, too, since we only have about eight skeins of color 01 and only one of 11, and that's it! *Edit: Got an e-mail back from the company. Their supplier was short, and they won't even be getting the yarn til next week! So that means we probably won't get it til the end of November. :(

Some assembly required.

Happy knitting!

Three Bags

Took the three felted bags to work Saturday and added the buttons, so now I can class them as FOs. (Once the brown one dried you can kinda see some little tweed flecks in it, but it's not like I hoped it would be.)

There weren't many people around Saturday, a few ladies in the morning getting yarn so they'd have something to do in the evening as the remains of Hurricane Noel passed through. By the time the rain started around lunchtime hardly anyone was around, so it made for a long day. I started the sleeves to the sweater I started for the store over a year ago, though. This is the progress as of lunchtime today.

First time I've ever knit two sleeves at once on a circular needle. I'm liking it a lot and wonder why I waited so long! It's so much better this way.

We didn't lose power in the storm, and our yard didn't seem to suffer any damage, but one of the humungous trees in the neighbor's back yard had to be taken down. This is a crappy shot out of my bedroom window. The tree farthest on the right has a lean to it, so I thought they'd take that one down, too. They didn't, and if the wind blows hard enough in the right direction somtime it will fall into my yard and onto our garage.

Hubby's grandparents had a surprise 50th wedding anniversary party on the weekend (Nov 3). In the back from the left is hubby's brother, hubby's sister, hubby, hubby's sister's boy, and my two hoodlums are on the bottom with their great grandparents. (BIL will be a dad any day now for the first time -- my SIL is due Nov 22.)

And that's about it. I have to go fill my water cooler jugs, then I'll take the Littlest One for a walk, and it's back to work on the sleeves. I'm pushing to get this sweater finished this week, then it's going to be all Christmas knitting. (Well, I may squeeze in a pair of mittens or two for the boys as well, but nothing big is getting started til the CK is done!)

Happy knitting!

What I Learned About Felting Today

Nova Knitter is going to a felting course tomorrow that is being held by the yarn shop about 45 minutes from town. Here's three things I learned today when I felted my three diagonal bags. (They still need buttons yet, so I won't class them as FOs.)

#1 -- Don't felt with tweed yarn unless you don't want or care to have the tweed look. I kinda had it in my head when this Patons Classic Wool Tweed chestnut tweed was felted that you wouldn't see the "tweeds" since it isn't heavily-tweeded to begin with. This also nixed the idea I had floating in my head for felted mittens knit with the chestnut tweed with an old gold motif. Guess if I wanna do that I need to make them non-felted.

I can't see it, can you see it? (The colored blips are the tops of my straight pins.)

#2 -- You really should have zippered pillow cases (which I don't). I had three bags, one bag free-flowing, the other two inside pillow cases loosely knotted. Upon checking it after about five minutes, the three bags were all free-flowing, and the i-cord straps nicely morphed into a big, bulging knot. Detangling wet i-cord is not nice.

#3 -- I decided on the light-colored blah bag to add a flower. Never made felted flowers before. I whipped it up out of my head, but if I ever decide to do it again I will try to make it a little smaller. I used tapestry wool (Heddy's suggestion awhile back -- thanks!), so that probably didn't felt as quickly as the Classic Wool, either. I just would have preferred the flower to be a wee bit smaller. Oh, well. It's a learning process.

Here's the loot from Halloween night. We went a tad bit further than we usually go, but there were also a lot of houses where no one was home. Most were like me, out taking their kids around trick or treating. My nephew worked this year, and hubby was away, so no one was home from 5:45 til almost 7:30. (Usually the nephew comes to hand out the candy, eating as much as he is giving out.) I normally get 40-50 kids, but since I missed the peak trick or treating time I only had 13 kids. Needless to say there was a lot of leftovers.

The cat was either hoping to get given away as a large and lumpy treat (which I doubt, he loves his Momma), or he was trying to steal some treats (doubt that, too, it's not his soft foo-foo), or he just liked the box (bingo!). Don't ask me why his face looks like that, guess he was trying to be scary.

My weekend to work. No curling this weekend, either, so I get ripped off on sleeping in. Tomorrow a big storm is due to pass through. I have my fingers crossed that power will go out by two, and I'll get to go home. Can't see anyone coming out in 100+km/hour wind and heavy rain. (Not unless some of the really hard-core knitters run out of yarn or something. And I know most of the hard-core knitters in town, and they have plenty of stash to rummage through without venturing out into a tropical storm. Radio just said it could gust up to 130km/hour or 80 miles/hour. Hold on -- another forecast says winds up to 140km/hour.)

Oh, yes -- here's the baby blanket from hell.

Still highly impatiently awaiting the sock yarn order. Personally I think it's been hijacked.

Heddy's got links to contests.

Happy knitting!

PS Don't know why we're open Friday nights -- not one customer! Typical.