Knitting In The North

Knitter's Tea Swap

I had just put the kettle on this morning to make a cup of tea, when the doorbell rang.  It was the postman, delivering my Knitter's Tea Swap package from Kata!  This was so exciting, Kata was incredibly thoughtful.  In the enclosed letter, she wrote that because I had never been to Finland, she wanted to give me a real Finnish experience, and so sent only Finnish things.

The yarn is lovely, Novita is apparently the only Finnish yarn brand, and she sent two beautiful big balls of sock weight.  Check out the colourways, this lady did her homework!  One is all turquoise and blues, and the other green, cream and grey-blue.  I can hardly wait to get started on this!  (Maybe the new Knitty pattern, Breeze?  I'm a bit obsessed by it right now, not only is it a great looking ankle sock, but it is designed by Jennifer Appleby, a LYS owner and designer from near here.)

Kata sent three different loose teas, as well as several bags of green tea (not shown, Gwenyth ran off with them during the photo shoot).  Each tea is unique - I'm drinking a black tea with passionfruit and strawberry as I write this, and it's lovely.  There is also (the yellow bag) a green tea with eucalyptus and jasmine, and (the brown bag) another black tea with chocolate and mint.  Did you get that?  Chocolate and Mint!  Homework, I tell ya!

Since the clever Kata read about my deep and abiding love for chocolate, she included two different Finnish chocolates, one a nice dark one, and the other.... chocolate mint.  Yum.  Even more thoughtful, she included a box of Muumi cookies for the kiddies, which are based on a Finnish fairy tale.  I'm really looking forward to checking this out with the children, especially Katie, who's just finished a Fairy Tale unit at school, and will be right into this.

Finally, check out that lovely tea mug!  So pretty, and with it's own little china coaster, just right for sitting on my desk.  Kata - you're amazing, this package was amazing.  Thank you so much.  To the rest of you - start haunting Suzie for the next KTS - this was a lot of fun! 

A Little Bit of Lace

I got the go ahead from Kim, that my International Swap Exchange package was received, so I thought I'd reveal it to you!

This is the Slanted Eyelet Scarf pattern from Alchemy Yarns, and I used one skein of their bamboo yarn in (I think) the Hush colourway.  The yarn was wonderful to work with, very soft and silky, and knit up beautifully.  It was slightly splitty, but that is to be expected, I think, when working with bamboo, so I didn't let it bother me very much.  I used 5.5mm bamboo needles (they were DPNs, but I put some of those needles ends on them so I could use them as straights). 

The finished scarf is light and airy, but not so delicate that it feels fragile.  I find myself a bit nervous to wear something made from laceweight - I worry that one of the kids will tear it or snag it, or I'll do something terrible to it.  This seems a bit more sturdy, while still maintaining the femininity that I was going for.

Kim is a really neat lady, and it became deeply important to me that I be able to bless her with something special.  I'm so glad that I hit the mark here, and that she's enjoying her scarf.

Here's the arty shot, the scarf resting on my Peony bush.  (I have lots of buds this year, it's very exciting to anticipate all the beautiful blooms!)

Thanks to you all for your wise advice.  I didn't sit down last night and rip the sweater to bits, although I'm still strongly leaning that way.  We'll see after some time passes whether I can come back to this project.  For now, I'm going to hide it in the bottom of my knitting basket, and pretend it never happened.  Let's not speak of this again.

What I did do last night was cast on for the Cool Hemp Ponchette.  I had this yarn (in Deep Sea) and pattern in my stash, and thought it might be just the ticket for some curse-breaking.  Brian helped me wind up the yarn, and I'm a couple of repeats into it.  As many people have said before, the hemp is a bit still to knit with, but I hear it softens into something amazing with some wash and wear action.  I'm really looking forward to it, this is the first time I've tried hemp, and since this is Prince George, I can totally get away with still wearing a little poncho like this.  One of the blessings of living in The North - fashion takes a long time to make it's way here. :0)

Peace

I'm home again from Calgary... the trip was hard, and even harder was my body's reaction to being home.  It was as though all the strength I've been using over the past weeks suddenly left me, and I was a shaking, emotional heap for a few days.  Peace has begun to settle, and I have much blogging to do for you all, as I re-adjust to being home.   Thank you again for your prayers and support, I could feel them as I went about my tasks, and was so grateful.

When I arrived home, I had a package waiting for me.  This is my final Sockret Pal swap parcel - finally, I know the identity of my pal!  I have been spoiled by Joni the Amazing (that's my name for her, not her own!), of Union Centre Knits!

 

Not only is she an extremely accomplished sock knitter (look at the amazing lace socks she sent me!), but an expert dye artist as well!  She sent me two skeins of her own wonderful yarn, one a sock weight, and one worsted.  Also, check out the fibre!  Two different colourways of Spunky Eclectic, plus a giant (what is the right word here?  skein?  bundle?  mass of goodness?) from Mad About Ewe in the most beautiful shades. The fibre is totally fueling my creative juices - now I just need some alone time so that I can polish up my spinning skills.  I don't want to wreck this incredible stuff with my rookie spinning - I'm just going to have to practice, practice, practice until I am worthy of the wool!  There was also an assortment of great goodies, stitch markers, postcards, etc.  Joni, you're awesome.  Thank you!

In my own knitting, I've been working away on the T-Twist sweater from Knitty.  I "found" 5 balls of Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora in my stash (isn't is horrifying how easy it is to forget what's in there?), and have been completely overtaken by the pattern.  It doesn't hurt that there's been a lot of simple knitting in the round, which is right up my alley at the moment.  I'm almost to the arms, and am really excited about it.  Is it possible I will actually be able to knit something for myself that fits and I can wear?  Pictures of this next time!