The Fish Knits

Today is the big day… That handsome young man up there and I are packing a bag and moving out to the Adventure House for the summer! I am really looking forward to being able to slow down a bit. Have my own space. Learn (finally, once and for all) to spin. The wheel is coming with me, as well as the drop spindles, some fibre and High Whorling by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Also coming with me is a (rather large) selection of yarn and patterns, as well as some UFOs which really just need a few hours each to be done. I mean honestly. My drop stitch sweater is all done but for the weaving in of ends and blocking.

That’s it! And it’s been like that for almost 2 months. Another one… do you remember Durrow? I need to re-work the neckline, but I’ve been putting it off for a good while. Well, now’s the time.

I really feel like I’m about to get going. Hit the ground running. I just have to watch out that I don’t get slowed down and run out of that oomph that I’m feeling now. The people for whom I’m house sitting aren’t actually going until Monday, so there are a few days of overlap. This is so that I can get sorted out with the power system in the house and learn how to charge the system, learn how to drive the lawn tractor, learn how to re-light the water heating system in case it goes out (it’s in line! That’s cool. Never run out of hot water. And since the bathroom is on the main floor there shouldn’t be a pressure problem like there is here in town.

And now for something completely different.

Suzi of Suzi’s Knits is here in Ottawa this week, all the way from California, so yesterday we met up for a yarn crawl! I love a good yarn crawl… Suzi was a very good blogger, taking photos of all the shops we hit along the way, but I’m afraid my camera decided to drain the last of its battery power just before I left the house. So no pictures for me. That said here are my spoils! Please excuse the pictures as I’m trying to throw this post together and get packed and get Evan organized and get out to the Adventure House all by about 1:00pm. It’s now ten to eleven and there’s a long road ahead!

First stop was Wool n Things in Orleans, to see Gisele and bask in the lovely stuff she has there. I picked up some more Lullabye to make a zip up cardi for Evan for the fall, and figured since it was on sale I may as well pick up what she had left so that I can use it for STiKs knitting.

(I know, awful photo. I’ll do better next time, I promise.)

I had initially picked it up as a MUCH less expensive alternative to the Berrocco Suede called for in Knitty’s Coachella top in the current issue. It won’t work for that since it knits up feeling a lot like chenille, but it will be ideal for baby stuff. Nothing with any real patterning or open work though, since I expect it would get lost in the texture of the yarn.

While at WnT I thought bugger it. I’m getting that Hand Maiden Silk Lace yarn that I saw the last time I was in and haven’t been able to get out of my head since.

There are only 600m, but I’m thinking of doing Evelyn A. Clark’s Shetland Triangle. The yarn is finer than that called for, but I have an extra 100m of it. So we’ll see. I am so in love with this yarn that I don’t quite know what to do with myself. Pardon me while I go and splash some cold water on my face…

There. That’s better.

Next stop was Knit Knackers, a really great place in a big old house just off of Bank Street where you can get super fibre for spinning. They also have beautiful Indian silk, which is eminently dye-able but very lovely on its own. I have some laceweight to try out a little swatch to see if it will work for the Mystery Shawl. Don’t you love that I’m pretty much already behind and it hasn’t even started yet? Must buy yarn.

Lunch was next followed by a stop at Yarn Forward and Sew On, where I always love to go and chat with the ladies there and see what’s new. I found some Lily Chin Harlem, which somehow jumped me. I fell to the floor and wouldn’t you know, my card swiped through the machine on the way down. Funny how that happens.

This is attempt #2 at Coachella, though there will have to be some pattern adjustments made due to a rather pronounced difference in tension. Despite that, I think it will work out ok. And if not, I’ll have the yarn for something else. I’m in the mood to create, don’t you know.

Ok! So, it’s 11:30 and I have to get on with it. Next stop: Adventure House! There will be photos shortly…

It’s yarn day! It’s yarn day!! The June shipment from the Rockin’ Sock Club arrived on my doorstep this afternoon, and it’s beautiful! I think it’s my favourite colourway so far. Hee hee! And I love the sock pattern too! I wish I could splash photos of it all over the blog, but since I’m nice, I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t had theirs yet. If you want to see though… Click here! The fun part about it is that the package references the solstice, and it arrived here- On the solstice! So now the decision that has to be made is whether I make the socks out of the yarn which just arrived, or do I make them out of some other sock yarn I have kicking around and use this stuff for a wrap or something which will be more visible than socks on my feet. Oh the decisions.

So last night, as planned, I met up with the lovely gals of the Ottawa Knit Nite, at Bridgehead in the Glebe. There was a lot of chatting, which was nice, and the conversation kept rolling along, people changing places to visit others. A few of us brought books, which of course did the rounds, and I was reintroduced to a book I had seen in the shops and had kind of dismissed.

Weekend Knitting, by Melanie Falick, turns out to have a bunch of fun looking projects in it, a number of which are now on my To Knit list.

There’s the Farmer’s Market bag by Pam Allen; the Unisex Knock-Around Cashmere Pullover by Teva Durham (which I will most certainly NOT be making in cashmere…); a Cache-Coeur by Veronik Avery which I might be interested in, but not 100% sure; the Petticoat socks, also by Veronik Avery; not to mention the super cute Almost Famous Luggy Bonnet by Lucy Mackenzie & Kirsteen Mitcalfe. Don’t forget the usual couple of scarves and the nice mittens… So, I went off to the library this morning and picked up a copy. I also checked out Wrap Style cause it was there, and I have always liked the Shetland Triangle (who could do a better job of showing off that shawl than Jared over at Brooklyn Tweed?), and a copy of Alice Starmore’s The Children’s Collection. I have never looked through a book of hers, but I have certainly heard all about her. There are some really beautiful sweaters in there. Nice and bite-sized!

Let me tell you, it’s book day around here, big time. Another new addition to the library is Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel of Glampyre Knits fame. I am really excited about it. True, some of the same elements can be found through many of the patterns in the book, like the bands of horizontal reverse stockinette, but I’m ok with that. If I want to make one pattern look less like another then I can always play around a little with it, while still keeping the basic design. What I really like is the way she thought through all the shaping, and that it isn’t always down the side seam. For those of us with a somewhat to very ample bust, her construction makes a lot more sense. No funny gaping under the arms! Hooray! The Bluebell sweater is next on my hit list, and the Keyhole Tee and Textured Tunic with side buttons are not far after.

Now, if perhaps someone could help me out by donating their unused hours in the day over to me, then we could see some real knitting progress around here! The LBT suffered a bit of a set-back last night when I realized that I had started the bust darts about an inch and a half too low. The last thing I need is to be encouraging southward migration! So it got ripped, and I managed to knit back up to the midlle of the short row shaping while watching So You Think You Can Dance last night. 2 hours of reality TV later…

Holy cow, so this is a wordy post. Almost done, I promise! I made mention above about donating unused hours in the day, but there are a couple of things going on in the blogsphere which are, believe it or not, more important than my inability to plan my day effectively. Claudia is at it again, riding for MS and there are some marvelous prizes that she has set up to entice you to donate to her ride. And just today, I saw that Annie Modesitt is offering a beautiful pattern in exchange for a donation to her husband’s fight against Multiple Myeloma. I’m in.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of good works and donation drives going on in our internet community. They’re just a couple that I came across and which I thought I could give a shout-out about. We all have things we have to work through in our lives, and which set us back in one way or another. These are a couple of ways you could decide to help should the spirit move you.

Anyway, the sun seems to finally be peeking its head out from behind the clouds, so I had better seize the opportunity to go finish the oil change on my car!

Ciao!

It seems I’m back into that once-a-month blogging territory… It’s funny how sometimes you can just find yourself here!

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say, either… Not all of it is knitting, though, so I feel a little funny about posting it here since this is, after all, a knitting blog! For those of you who keep up with me on this here blog, an update. Sorry they’re not more often!

**A quick note here for those who don’t want to have to read all the way to the end to see this, tonight is the Central Ottawa Meetup at Bridgehead (on 3rd! Look Paula! I got it right! LOL) in the Glebe. Come one, come all. Hope to see you there!!** Ok. Back to the news.

In May, just after the Trad Climbing course that the last post’s picture came from, I was off to New Brunswick for my swimmers’ Nationals. I flew down on the Wednesday, coached all week, and took the bus back with the girls. That’s 12 hours of knitting time! I made the most of it, since while in St. John I was lucky enough to find Cricket Cove in the St. John City Market. What a wonderful place! Market and Yarn Shop. While I was there I gathered my chin up off the floor and picked out a sweater kit from Fleece Artist. Imogen, from Pearl Grey, is a very cool pattern for a raglan sweater, knit all in one piece. During the few hours at the pool and the 12 hours in the bus, I almost finished it! The girls thought I was crazy, even knitting at Mexi’s where we went for dinner.

What…? I put it away when the food came…

So that sweater is now done, though it will be frogged and remade. Sigh. Here’s the story, such as it is. It was the yarn fumes. I tell you! I was in the store, fondling yarn (funny, I just wrote that as “yearn”. Freudian typo? Hmmm…) and talking to the very nice guy who worked there. We talked knitting, then traveling, then I mentioned that I work at MEC here in town, we talked about that. We talked climbing, and knitting, and I did some yarn winding… in short, it was a really nice way to spend an hour in the middle of a competition. I went back to the pool and cast on with the needles I picked up while I was there. Can you see where this is going? Don’t get ahead of me…;) There are two sizes on the label. The smaller fits sizes 6-10, while the larger fits sizes 12-14. I am the queen of making sweaters too big, and technically I fit in the 6-10 range, though top-wise, probably more like a 10. I have a wide back, you see… The way that the thing is constructed though, I was having a really hard time picturing how to alter the size should I need to. So I took a deep breath, cast on for the smaller size, and crossed my toes (fingers were busy knitting!). It’s too small. Not the end of the world though, for two reasons.

Reason one: I really enjoyed knitting it! I made the whole thing, start to finish, in 4 days. True, there was a 12 hour bus ride in there, but still. 4 days. I’m not burnt out from knitting it.

Reason two: I think I might want to change the collar. But I haven’t decided quite yet… Here’s the deal…

You probably can’t really tell from the photo above, but the collar on the sweater is worked at the same time as the fronts. They are the same depth all the way around, as in, there’s no shaping. Now, it may be because I haven’t knit the right size, but I can’t seem to get the collar to behave properly. I’m thinking about adding some increases to the collar section, or maybe some short rows, so that it will lay flat on my shoulders instead of rolling up. We’ll see.

And I do love the colour! I won’t mind at all knitting this again. It will have to wait a little bit though, because I have other things both on the go, and in the queue.

This is a detail of Jenna Wilson’s Little Black Top from the first Stitch N Bitch book by Debbie Stoller. There’s not really any point in showing the whole top so far, since it’s just a mess of black yarn all scrunched up on a circular needle. I have made a couple of changes to the pattern so far, like knitting it in the round and making the centre front panel a little wider, and with an even number of stitches, because I am planning to modify the neckline from a funnel neck, as written, to a deep V with the garter panel splitting at the V and continuing half up one side of the neckline and half up the other. I’ll have to decide pretty soon what I want to do with the back, since I am getting to that point. I just finished the short row bust shaping last night, so, if I want to have a lower back on it I’ll have to get on that soon! Maybe I’ll just leave it high. Less thinking (and possible tinking!) involved…

For anyone who hasn’t heard, and who might be interested, Pink Lemon Twist is at it again! Mystery Stole 3 is currently taking sign ups! I’m on the list, still need to get the yarn. I have some nice Navy yarn in the stash, but I think it’s too fine (cobweb as opposed to lace-weight) and I’m not sure that I’ll wear a beaded Navy stole. I kind of have that yarn flagged for something else. Off to the shops, I guess! I know, I know… woe is me!

Let me know if you join up, and we can have a little Ottawa MS3 support group…

There are some changes coming down the pipe in terms of living arrangements this summer, so I really have to tell you about the Adventure House. It will be amazing! It’s out in the country (Yoohoo! Justine!!), and off the grid. There are Apple trees, and flowers, and great open spaces where E can run his legs off, and a barn… Hostas everywhere. I love Hostas! I think it may just give me the kickstart I need. Expect photos.

Hope to see you tonight!