There has been knitting - I swear!

I have a serious case of startitis.  Christmas is coming faster than you thing.  We're past the less than 3 months mark!  I have a ton of things to do on my list, and I am starting to think about whittling that list down.  I need some serious knitting time, but I also have a zillion other things on my plate right now, so the knitting time isn't likely to happen, at least as much

And funny enough, I feel not at all like starting the Christmas projects.  Who can knit Christmas projects when it's still 20 degrees C outside?  And when I've got sewing to do for my upcoming trip?  And when I'm being swayed by the siren song of other beautiful textures and colours?  Besides, isn't Socktoberfest starting soon???

What have I been working on, you may ask??  Well, in the past few weeks, I've started these:

Undulating Rib Socks, modified for toe up
See Jayne Knit Superwash Sock in Monach Butterfly

And these, the Chrysanthemums Mittens in MeiMei Sock Yarn in Cream, and Araucania Ranco Multy in Perfect Jeans:

The mittens were actually further than that, but I've had to tink them back due to operator error.

And then there are the projects without photos.

The yo, K2Tog scarf I started last night out of Estelle Drake.  I have a good excuse for starting ANOTHER project.  I was in the house, the socks were in the car and I didn't feel like going back outside.  And I was tired and needed a brainless project to add some colour and texture to my wardrobe.

And the baby sweater out of Sirdar Denim Chunky.  It's from a heavily modified pattern that is turning out in weird proportions.  It may go the way of the lily pad, but I haven't had the heart to do it yet.

See...there has been knitting :)  With hopefully more knitting time this weekend when the weather turns cooler and rainy.

Tough Day

Today is a tough day for me.  Just one of those days where the world feels like it is out to get you.  It's a kick-you-when-you're-down kind of a day.  The kind of day you feel it like a fog just behind your eyes.  I'm not going to let it get the better of me though.  I'll pull out the knitting needles and meditate for a bit, just to focus and re-centre.

In the meantime, and on a happier note, I've finished these:

The Secret Knitting.  Well, hopefully secret for the recipient anyway.  They're toe up socks, plain vanilla construction, with an after-thought heel. Apparently, I need more practice with the Kitchener stitch.  And maybe a better guide.  Funny thing is, I usually research everything to the n-th degree, except this time I grabbed a book and just went to it.  Shoulda grabbed another book, or a cup of coffee and a video or something.  I'm not impressed with the way it turned out, but after blocking they're not too bad.

And, more Secret Knitting:

Who? Mittens, free Rav pattern.  I used Sirdar Eco Wool DK.  Next time I will add a few rows between the cuff and the start of the pattern, to accommodate our "man-hands."  Hopefully these will do for the time being.  I just have to add the buttons for the eyes and they'll be off to the recipient. 

What's next on the needles?  Something for someone who's day is much worse than mine right now, I'm sure.  I've cast on the Lace Trim Chemo Cap, out of Mirasol Chirapa in the Olive colourway

I chose this colourway because I was told the recipient likes earth tones, and I figured the yellow would brighten her day.  The pooling is sort of looking like camouflage, which I'm not sure will be her "thing," but given that she's battling cancer, I'm hoping that she will wear this cap with courage.  It feels lovely, and the lace trim has turned out just the right amount of feminine touch to it.

Up next on the needles:

1. Chrysanthemums
2  Maine Morning Mitts out of Fleece Artist BFL Aran in yellows, greens and a touch of red.  For me :)
3. Snug Baby Jacket out of something bulky weight from my stash.  I need to do a few baby jackets, I'm a bit behind.
4.  Socks out of See Jayne Knits Monarch (perfect colourway for fall)

Counting my blessings:

1.  I am healthy.  My girls are healthy.  My parents are healthy.  My extended family is healthy.  We are blessed.
2.  I have food on the table every day.  At least three times a day.
3. I have a lovely home, with heat and hot and cold running water.  With toilets, fridge, stove, washing machine and dryer.  With comfortable beds, big windows, large rooms filled lovely furniture and lots of closet space.
4.  The sun is shining today, after a grey start.
5. I get to carpool with my oldest daughter to work every morning.  I'm enjoying the few minutes of "car talk" we get.

I am grateful for...

1. My daughters, my family and my friends.  Boy, can they ever give encouragement when you need it.
2. The sun is shining after a dreary morning.
3. Internet access - I can connect with family, friends who are far away and a whole new group of friends I never would have had through online communities
4. My yarn and fabric stash - Oh stashing for the rainy day certainly is paying off in spades!  I'm fortunate to have so many lovely things!
5. The ability to knit and sew.  I am SO fortunate to be blessed with a creative spirit!
6. Hot and cold running water - many, many people are not fortunate to have potable water, let alone the convenience of hot and cold running water
7. Chocolate Motzartkugels/Mirabell truffle type candies from Austria.  I'm still savouring the ones my mom brought back for me
8. Green tea.  Served "black" and very hot.  Soothing and Reviving.
9. Books by Alexandra Stoddard.  Her writing refreshes my being like a breath of fresh air.
10. A freezer full of food.  We have plenty!  
11. A Crockpot full of delicious soup.  Yum.
12. A clear starry night.  The number of stars in the sky are always awesome.
13. The man who held the door open for me this afternoon.
14. Bank machines and online banking (there's that internet access again!)
15. My puppy who is always so happy to see me when I get home.

I certainly am very fortunate to have been blessed with so much richness in my life.

Where does time go???

Wow - another week since I've posted.  I keep telling myself I want to do more of this.  I will get back into my regular routine next week when we officially return to our "regular" office hours.  That means when I wake up at 5:30 in the morning, I don't have to rush out of bed right away, I can actually do yoga, walk the puppy and then maybe do some puttering in the morning before heading out to the office.  Anyway, I digress...

This weekend was a busy one with limited knitting time.  My parents came up on Friday evening, because Saturday I was doing this:

Racing at the Barrie Dragon Boat Festival.  That's me on the left, intent on paddling, but having fun at the same time. What a gorgeous morning for racing on the water!  Our first race we did very well, finishing first in our heat, and our time placed us in the top class.  Make a note of how smooth the water looks in this picture.

Our second race was more difficult, with us finishing in fifth in our heat (aka last).  Our third race, for the consolation round, was a nail biter...

The bay was starting to get very choppy, but we managed to win that heat, but 0.07ths of a second, which put us in 6th overall, out of 55 teams.

 Not bad for a group that's only practiced about 6 times together.  It was an amazing day. Our team was raising money for the Seasons Centre for Grieving Children here in Barrie.  There's so much more to the festival than just racing.  It was a day of celebrating overcoming odds, and a day of remembering those who are no longer with us.  I am definitely doing this again next year.

As far as knitting content...well, I did knit on Sunday, but not much.  I'm finishing up the leg on my Not-So-Secret Socks (that All my Readers know about, but hopefully the recipient hasn't found this blog.  Yet). I'm working on a stripe of red below the ribbing, so I'm almost done, with just the ribbing and the heel to go.  They'll be done in plenty of time for the deadline.

My daughter and I searched endlessly (well, for a couple of hours on Sunday evening) for a sweater pattern for her to start because she's getting bored of Plain Vanilla Socks all the time.  She's chosen the Silken Scabbard, which she is making out of charcoal grey Cascade 220.  It will be a bit of a challenge for her with the cables (new technique for her), but like I told her, cables are easy as long as you keep track of where you are.  So far, she's learned the Cable Cast On technique (which I've been doing forever, just never knew it was called that).

My next project might be The Chrysanthemums, which is for more birthday knitting.  And maybe a cardigan for myself.  It's fall.  Every fall I have a craving to start a cardigan for myself.  This year, I'd love a mustard yellow tweed-y one, but I don't have that in my stash, and I'm trying to be fiscally responsible.  So, I'm thinking of either brown or pine green heathers, both of which I have in my stash.  And I have to finish my Trinity Shawl.  And get started on my Christmas knitting.  Yikes, Christmas is less than 4 months away.  I'll have to knit 24/7 to get everything done that I want to do!

Oh yeah, how did I do on my goals for August??

Knitting:

1. Finish Plain Vanilla Socks 2.2 Done!!
2. Finish Trinity Shawlette 2  Nope, not yet.  Haven't even picked it up again.
3. Start secret knitting project  Started, and almost finished!
4. Finish cable section Melissa's Ski Sweater - deadline September 30, 2011 Again, haven't even picked it up again.
5. Plan realistic Christmas knitting  Ideas have been percolating, but nothing formal has been written down.

Sewing:

1. Finish items I've already cut out (a couple of pairs of cropped Oxfords, a few more tanks, a gorgeous chartreuse crushed velvet cardigan, a cardigan out of a brown mesh knit) After my marathon sewing session, I haven't even really looked at the sewing machine.  I need to get those done!  It's going to be too cool to wear crops soon!
2. Plan and start cutting/sewing travel wardrobe for October trip to LA (so excited!!) I have a fixed deadline for this - I MUST get going on it!  The long weekend is coming, so maybe that's what I'll do.

New/Revised Goals:

Knitting:

1.  Finish Not-So-Secret Knitting Project self-imposed deadline by September 6th
2.  Finish Trinity Shawlette 2
3.  Finish cable section Melissa's Ski Sweater - deadline September 30, 2011
4.  Plan realistic Christmas knitting
5.  Start The Chrysanthemums


Sewing:


1.  Finish items I already have cut out
2.  Start sewing travel wardrobe for LA


Wow, some of those look familiar, but with the return to "regular" hours and fall weather and looming deadlines, I should be able to get something accomplished! I leave you with this thought - Should Christmas and birthdays be viewed as looming deadlines??

Spoiler Alert!! Just for Miss Fanny Petting

Oh. My.  I was reading with much jealousy yesterday about the members of Tempted Yarns Club who had received their first package in the Burlesque yarn club.  I eagerly anticipated mine coming in the mail.  And, yesterday it came!!! Hooray!  I'm SO excited!!!

The Tempted Yarns Burlesque Club Members all chose a Burlesque name from a website generator.  Mine was Fanny Petting.  I like it. It's a great name for an alter ego.  Can't you see her sashaying around?  With feathers fluttering and false eyelashes slowly blinking up and down, and fake little jewels glued by her eyes?  Anyway...onto the yarn!

This yarn...it was dyed JUST FOR ME!!!  I have NEVER had someone do something like that for me before.  I'm super happy.  One of my very favourite colours is Chartreuse, and there it is.  I can't wait to cast this on!  The yarn came with a knitted pastie magnet that Stacy knitted herself, which is now proudly hanging on my fridge, along with a handwritten note also just for me.  Oh Stacy...you are the BEST!

Where does Time Go?

No posts again for almost a week!  I start each day with really good intentions...

Last week, we celebrated the 19th birthday of my youngest daughter, Melissa.  The days before her birthday party  were filled with running errands, going to appointments and prepping for her return to school in a distant province.  Exhausting.

We also hosted a party at our home for some of her friends, where I appropriately served a Jack Daniels (Red) Velvet cake made from The Boozy Baker by Lucy Baker (Amazon Link).  I didn't have any red food colouring, so it was just a Jack Daniels Velvet Cake.  It turned out to be "Oh, YUM", and SO appropriate for a 19th birthday here in Ontario.

The university and party prep left me so exhausted that for the remainder of the weekend, I did hardly Anything.  At. All.  That being said, I did sew a few knitting related objects.

Large project bag - fits a whole sweater project

Small-ish box bag, fits a sock project

And of course, there was knitting.  A lot of knitting.

I finally finished these:

Plain Vanilla 2.2

And started these:

Almost Vanilla

Almost Vanilla.  I'm hoping the recipient hasn't found my blog yet.  These are toe up plain vanilla socks.  I CO 14 stitches with Diamond Yarn Happy Feet (leftovers from my Mom's Cafe Curtains), and increased to 74. I then switched to Araucania Ranco Multy in Perfect Jeans colourway.  I did a K5, P1 rib across the top of the foot, and SS on the sole.  When I placed the waste yarn for the afterthought heel (which I'm going to do in the red), I switched to doing the rib pattern all around the leg.  I'm now about 2" up the leg.  I can't believe how much I got done on these already!

Super sloth weekend (the weather actually did promote it, with it being cloudy, rainy and cold).  Yay for knitting time.

Happy Summer Weekend

This past weekend was a great summer weekend.  I visited my parents and both girls came along.  There was cake - we celebrated Melissa's upcoming birthday.  (It's a big one here in Ontario).  There were presents.  There was really good food.  There was a family reunion with a BBQ and lots of little people running around in all their summer exuberance.  There was a pool and some swimming, mostly by the aforementioned little people.  There was more cake, to celebrate yet another birthday (my cousin's), and of course...there was Car Knitting!

Dorky picture of yours truly.  I couldn't get the girl to take another picture...but I do look ridiculously happy, don't I?  I was inexplicably happy to be able to knit in the car.  For two hours.  I was sad that it was dark when we left and I decided I shouldn't knit on the way home (I slept instead).  And those Plain Vanilla socks I want to get off the needles to work on some Secret Knitting that has a deadline fast approaching...still not done.  I don't remember ribbing ever taking so long!!