Knitting In The North

Staying Warm

 

 

As I started to get ready for this winter to arrive this year, I decided that each of the kids needed a new hat for the season.  Here are Katie & Gwenyth, modeling their new woolies.

Katie really loves the colours of Noro, and so I used some Kureyon I had lingering in the stash to knit her up a Noro Hat, and a matching pair of fingerless gloves.  For Gwenyth, I also chose Noro, but instead used Bonbori, which is a bit chunkier & therefore faster to knit.  Her hat is a simple vanilla hat, and the fingerless gloves were knit with some old leftover tweedy wool.

Next up - warm winter woolies for the boys, too...

Technical Difficulties

 

 

Hooray!  After waiting, and waiting, and waiting, Typepad has fixed whatever was keeping me from uploading pictures, and I'm back!  Sorry for the delay, I didn't really think it would take so long...  and I kept waiting.  

 

My school break was lovely, and I'm back into a new semester.  The kids are happily settling into their new school year, and Liam is alternately hating that the big kids are gone, and loving our time together.  I've managed to get a fair bit of knitting done, and have lots to show you!  Stay tuned.

FO: Spring Forward

 

 

It's been so long, I've almost forgotten what it feels like to post a Finished Object, especially a pair of socks.  All my grand plans of a pair of socks a month have gone by the wayside, and truly, I have wondered if my sock mojo was gone for good.  This pair has brought it all back, though, and now all I want to do is cast on for another pair of socks!

 

 

Particulars:

Pattern - Spring Forward, from knitty.com

Yarn - Handdyed from Knitty Dirty Girl, an etsy seller who is no longer dyeing yarn, sadly.

Needles - 2.5mm wooden DPNs

Notes - After the drama of the two socks not matching, and getting the yarn ready to re-knit, I wasn't sure I would be happy with these socks.  I followed the pattern exactly, however, and I love them.  I can't get over how simple the lace pattern is; I am usually the kind of person who has to continually refer back to the pattern or chart, but this lace pattern is so intuitive even I could remember it.  I am sincerely hoping that these socks are meant for me, although somewhere in the back of my mind is the thought that they are a gift, even if I am not sure who the recipient is yet.  It may be part of my twisted thought process that thinks I have to give away all nice things, instead of keeping them for myself, but then again, maybe not.  We'll see.  I definitely do want to build up my sock wardrobe, and these really are so pretty.

Yarn Along

 

 

If you compare this Yarn Along picture to my last one, you might think I haven't done any knitting at all.  Sadly, my super duper plan to have a quickly finished project didn't quite pan out.  I finished the first sock, but when I compared it to the one my friend had already knit, I saw that our gauges were vastly different.  One would think I am an experienced enough knitter to cotton on to this idea before knitting a whole sock... but one would be wrong.  Sigh.  I ended up ripping out the sock that my friend knit, skeining, washing, and hanging the yarn, and am now on the homeward stretch for sock #2.  And then, for sure this time, I can get back to that little blue sweater...

My book this week is for another school project.  I had to assess a historical fiction novel, and The White Queen seemed like a good choice.  I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, and am feeling grateful this week that I'm taking a class that requires me to read novels.  How can I not enjoy that?

Yarn Along

 

 

I've been feeling a bit restless in my knitting this week.  Life seems so crazy, and I'm hurtling through one school project after another, that I felt like I needed some "instant gratification".  Quite a while ago, a friend was fed up with her own project, and put it in a yarn swap we both took part in .  She was working on socks, and had one sock finished and the other underway.  I snatched it up, thinking I would probably rip it all out and do something different with the beautiful, hand dyed yarn.  This week, though, I pulled it out, ripped it back a bit to figure out where she had been in the pattern, dug out some needles, and carried on.  The pattern is Spring Forward, and I believe the yarn is from an Etsy seller who is no longer dyeing yarn.  Which is a shame, because this is lovely.  Now the big question will be whether or not I get to keep these socks, or if they are meant for someone else...

 

I've heard from many people, in the Yarn Along and elsewhere, that A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is an awesome book, so I had to pick it up.  I haven't actually started it yet - I'm waiting until I finish the school project I'm currently working on.  I find it very effective to have some kind of reward dangling like a carrot in front of me, and at the moment this book is my carrot.  How do you motivate yourself to get things done?

Sweet Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yarn Along: KAL

 

 

I do love me a good KAL!  As soon as I heard about the Stash Sweater KAL in the Stash & Burn group on Ravelry, I was in.  The idea is to knit a sweater in the next two months from stash yarn, which is always an idea I can get behind.  It's inspired me to get Liam's sweater out of the basket and back to the top of the priority list - I'm sure you can imagine his reaction.  He's thrilled to see me knitting His Blue Sweater again.

 

I did manage to finish Lonesome Dove in time last week.  Once I got into the story, it was actually pretty good (probably why it won a Pulitzer Prize...), although I think it's better suited as lazy day reading than get-through-it-quickly-so-I-can-write-about-it reading, if you know what I mean.  Now that that project is done, I've turned my reading attention to Making It.  I love this book!  It's full of great suggestions for things you can make and do at home.  I particularly appreciate the way it's organized - the book is broken down into daily, weekly, monthly and every so often projects, which I think is really useful.  I was a fan of their previous book, The Urban Homestead, but this one is even better.  If you are at all interested in doing things yourself, I highly recommend you check this one out.  And as much as I love and support my library, this is one I'm going to have to own for myself.

Following The Trail...

 

 

When I'm trying to sneak in a bit of schoolwork during the day, and it suddenly occurs to me that the house is strangely quiet, I find it a very good idea to stop what I'm doing and look for Liam.  By following the trail he leaves behind him, I generally track him down...

 

 

 

I suppose I'm thankful that he knows how to entertain himself, and enjoys using his imagination...

 

Yarn Along

 

 

I was so happy this morning when I realized it was Wednesday, and I could join in with the weekly Yarn Along!  I don't have a whole lot to show for it - here is my Echo Beach, in Noro Sekku.  I am more than a little in love with Kieran Foley's designs.  There is another one I have queued up, just waiting, that I love even more than this one.  See how restrained I am, not abandoning poor Echo.  This project is pretty slow going, thanks to the lace weight yarn and smallish needles, but I keep reminding myself of Elizabeth Zimmerman's advice to knit complex patterns with fine yarn if you are a knitter on a budget.  I'm practicing frugality, that's what I'm doing!  (Don't be surprised if, next week, I show off a completely different, bulky weight pattern.  All this discipline is making me long for some instant gratification, and I have just the right project in mind...)

My reading at the moment is less than thrilling for me, I will confess.  As part of one of my classes, I am learning to assess fiction, and am required to read several novels, which sounds heavenly (and it is, really).  However, we were specifically asked to read something from a different genre than usual, and since I have several nice old men at the library who read Every. Single. Western. that we get in each month, I thought I'd try a western.  I did first look for something on the shorter side, but then one of my co-workers suggested Lonesome Dove, and I was swayed by the sticker declaring that it was a Pulitzer Prize winner.  I'm only a few chapters in, and finding it slow going, but I hope it will pick up as the characters develop.  If nothing else, I will choose to appreciate a class I am learning a lot in, and I'm sure I'll find something to enjoy, even in the Westerns.  It's a book, right?  What's not to love?

 

Birthday Boy

 

 

Although Liam turned three last week, we celebrated the big 3 today with him, and a few of our family friends.  I really love having a theme for parties, so when I discovered an Eric Carle Birthday Party kit a month or so ago I knew that was it.  Liam LOVES Eric Carle books, and one of his favourite is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so that is what we went with.

 

 

The kit came with paper hats, a cardboard birthday banner, as well as goodie bags and stickers.  It also had a book filled with ideas for a themed party, that were all too complicated for me to deal with.  We had a do-it-yourself helium balloon kit, and Katie obliged us with custom artwork for each one.  I planned a couple of simple crafts, but we ended up just playing and visiting, although Katie did also offer her facepainting services.

 

 

 

I baked cupcakes last night, and this morning Stuart helped me quickly decorate them before our guests arrived.  The sun shone, we played outside, everyone was happy.  And most important - the birthday boy felt loved and special (and even tried out his new run bike).  I suppose that's what it's all about, right?