Where's your Knitting Spot?

Crazy Aunt Purl wants to know where your knitting spot is. Here's mine!

Spot: Couch
Location: Living Room
Description It's comfortable and it's in front of my big arsed TV.

Housekeeping

For anyone who has been buying Fleece Artist Seasilk, or will be, here's a quick note! When I bought my first skein back in the winter, it was 500 metres of yarn. A couple of weeks ago I bought another and noticed that it was only 400 metres and still being sold at the same price and still noted as 100g. I could tell simply by looking at the newer skein that it was smaller than the first. So when you're shopping around, check out the yardage! Maybe you'll find an older skein.



And a warning about an upcoming project. I'll be knitting this.

Don't ask.

SeaFeast

I couldn't decide which pics to post of my BEAUUUTIFUL seasilk Storm Water Scarf,
so I'm posting them all!

Near Disaster at Sea...silk.

Disaster was averted during the final stages of the seasilk Storm Water Scarf! Mrs.Peeps and I were on a train bound for Ottawa to attend a conference (on Parliament Hill!) when the last of my yarn disolved into a giant tangle. Luckily Mrs. Peeps knows her knots and was able to restore order.




We also had a chance to visit Yarn Forward, a local yarn shop in Ottawa. I picked up the pattern of the Fiber Trends Estonian Garden Wrap that I've been considering for a while now. I didn't buy any yarn for it. I'll wait till October's Creative Sewing & Needlework Show to find something.

But before I even think of starting that, I've got to finish the seasilk scarf and get working on the garter stitch jacket.

Send 20 balls of Noro ASAP!

Dear Knitters,

Please send me 20 balls of Noro Kureyon as soon as possible so I can knit this! The Lizard Ridge Afghan from the new Knitty. I want, I want!

KW Knitters' Fair

Today myself, Mrs. Peeps, the blogless Ms. Blonde One and another friend trekked out to Kitchener-Waterloo for the Knitters' Fair.

Ok, this place was jammed packed. To the gills. Barely room to breathe. There was so many people there that it was very difficult to really enjoy the shopping experience because you couldn't touch and feel and linger over the yarn with everyone on top of each other and pushing to get closer. I'd give the event a C+. It could be greatly improved by a bigger venue and an extra day.


Still, we were able to make purchases. I picked up some more sea silk for a Christmas present and some blocking wires finally. You can see them here, with the Storm Water Scarf (almost done!) and the Garter Stitch Jacket (not nearly done enough) serving as backdrops.

After the Fair, we jumped over to St. Jacob's for some more shopping and I grabbed a pair of shoes on sale.

Then it was home for naps for all of us. Zzzzz!

I couldn't resist

I saw these Firefly crocuses advertised and knew it was destiny.

Since it's a dull, grey Labour Day weekend, I'll be sitting around in comfortable clothing, watching Grey's Anatomy and alternating between knitting the sea silk scarf and the garter stitch jacket.

Sweater in Progress

The beginnings of the Garter Stitch Jacket.

Farewell 1994, Hello 2007!

Today, after almost 13 years and 172,000 km, me and my 1994 Saturn parted ways. That car and I had some great adventures. Some of our escapades have included:

• New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI (best unplanned trip ever)
• trips to Montreal, one via Haliburton (who could forget?!)
  
• cottage weekends to Lake Benoir
• car rallies at Crystal Lake
• countless visits to where ever my friends have chosen to live
  
• trips to and from Trent University (Woo! Head of the Trent)
• one nail biting winter drive to Little Britain without windshield wipers
  

She's been pretty reliable and my constant companion, but in the last year the old 94 has been losing steam and she's been getting expensive to maintain. Those of you familiar with her, have probably been laughing at me because her window can't make it all the way to the top (we all sag eventually) and I've had to use packing tape to seal her up and keep her dry. I didn't mind.

So she's a little rough around the edges, but right now she runs just fine. Unfortunately she can't stop. Her brakes are kaput.

I'm sad to see her go to Car Heaven because of all the memories, but I think I'll find some comfort as soon as her shiny new 2007 replacement rolls up into my driveway on Wednesday night!

The Assignment

I've been contracted to knit this Fleece Artist Garter Stitch Jacket for Mrs.Peeps who has kindly wound the skeins into yarn pucks for me.

Unfortunately, she forgot the fancy swing needles (I'd never seen these) she bought with it, so tonight let us just admire it.

P.S. The seasilk Storm Water Scarf continues to grow in length.

Take time to stop and smell the yarn.

So here we are at about 27" inches in length.

I like this pattern. Very easy and pleasing to knit, perfectly portable and I still love that salty sea scent of the seasilk (say that five times fast!)

Round 15ish

That's more like it

Round 1

This is one of the easiest patterns to knit, but it was kicking my arse all week long! I can't even remember how many times I had to pull it out and restart and I can't imagine why, since it's a very repetitive series of knits, purls and yarn overs and the highest I had to count to was 9. I nearly took that seasilk yarn and tossed it back into the ocean where it came from, but I persevered, even through extreme heat alerts (that must be why) and supercell storms to bring you this single repeat of the pattern.

You may notice I'm not using the dainty, pink metal needles anymore. After knitting on those a while, I felt the pattern wasn't as loose and flowy as I'd like, so I moved up a couple sizes with a much better result.

WTF?

Right now there are about 20 joggers who have been circling the block around my house for the last 40 minutes or so. They're very industrious. They've even set up little tiny pylons to mark their way.

I can't understand why, for two reasons:

1. It's about one degree cooler than hell today and
2. Why just jog the same block over and over?

I've been swimming, so I made sure to splash extra loud each time they went by. ;p

Storm Water Scarf

A jaunt out to Linda's Craftique in Port Credit on Friday night got me back on track with the knitting. I bought the Storm Water Scarf pattern to knit with my sea silk but (can't believe I forgot I had that!), as it turns out, it's pretty much the identical pattern to the Midwest Moonlight pattern in the scarfSTYLE book. No matter. It only cost me $2. I've changed the size of needle from a 4mm to a 3.25mm, only because I don't have any free at the moment, and I like my dainty, pink, metal needles. Saturday was definitely the appropriate day to knit the Storm Water Scarf because it was POURING OCEANS OF RAIN all afternoon. I was left trapped indoors, watching three movies in succession (Jerry Maguire, War of the Worlds and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

But it's now Sunday morning and the skies have cleared, which means I'm heading back outdoors to the pool! Maybe I'll finally give aquatic knitting a shot.

Things are getting woolly around here

wool·ly also wool·y (wl)adj. wool·li·er, also wool·i·er wool·li·est, wool·i·est
Relating to, consisting of, or covered with wool.
Resembling wool. Lacking sharp detail or clarity: woolly television reception. Mentally or intellectually disorganized or unclear: woolly thinking. Having the characteristics of the rough, generally lawless atmosphere of the American frontier: wild and woolly

I've been trying to knit. Really. I've surrounded myself with knitting books from the library amd all my available yarn and needles, but I just can't settle on what to do. Something's sure to stick soon. Until I figure it out, I leave you with some prize winning wool from the Royal Winter Fair a few years back.

New Yarn Store: Kniterary

Whitby finally has a wool shop!

And it's a good one. Kniterary opened a couple weeks ago and I had a chance to get over there yesterday. (You know, since it was 40C with the humidity, it seemed like perfect knitting weather) I was impressed. First the location is fabulous, with parking at the back, and the interior is spacious and bright and full of yarn. More yarn than I was expecting, actually. I mean, what does Whitby know about good yarn? We've been stuck with Michael's and Walmart for years and we're used to all that crappy acrylic! Well, apparently Whitby does know something about quality, because Kniterary's got plenty: Debbie Bliss, Noro, Opal, Mission Falls, just to name a few and there's more on the way, I hear (Fleece Artist, Fleece Artist, Fleece Artist!).

All that goodness was hard to resist, especially when a 20% discount coupon is thrown in (check your Fri., July 14 Whitby This Week, people!). That there is a couple of balls of Kathmandu Aran yarn (nice and soft) and some handpainted Opal sock yarn (love those colours). I'm sure I'll get it from my coworker, who I've been bemoaning my financial shortfalls to lately, but c'est la vie!

Kniterary's a couple blocks north of the four corners in Whitby at the corner of Brock & John St.

Ho Hum

Not much knitting going on here. I'm on vacation from work and craft, apparently. Maybe I should return to knitting the Bridal Veils Shawl.

Then again, maybe I'll just go back to the pool!

Lazy Butt

I'll try to get my lazy butt in gear with some knitting this weekend. Being short of funds should keep me homebound for the holiday weekend!