KnittingNutter

Thank you all for all your well wishes for the trip. As expected we had a fabulous time. And as expected my knitting ambitions far exceeded my performance. In fact, I added one more project to my three projects already in progress. Yes, I know...

Of course, I couldn't help myself. I had to get the new project started, so now I'm at four projects. It's a cardigan for my daughter - purple, her favourite colour. I'll show pictures once I've made some real progress.

For now, sit back and enjoy. British Columbia at its finest:

Kamloops Lake

Deadman Lake

Interesting mountain on Deadman Vidette Road

And the wildlife

Aahhh, I feel calm now.

I feel like I'm finally making some progress on my WIPs.

- The designed socks are nearly finished. I'll take photos of them in all their glory once completed in the next day or two.
- The ivory sweater is close to finished as well - working on second arm.
- And all the pieces for the turtle have been knit, blocked and I've started sewing it together. It's pretty fiddly as some of the pieces are quite small.

And here's my new project:

Pattern: Dalebarn, nr. 128

Wool: KnitPicks Merino Style in Cornflower

It's a cardigan for my daughter in her favourite colour - purple. I'm learning some new techniques - the knitover pattern is really neat. I think I might try that in a pair of socks.

I'm using my KnitPicks Options for the first time as I'm using my 3.5 mm circular needles for my socks. I like them. They feel good to hold and the metal helps the stitches flow really easily. My only concern is - you have to screw on the needle attachments onto the circular. I'm a really tight knitter and I'm finding the attachments unscrew as I knit with them. The stitches get caught in the groove between the attachment and the circular part and I'm having to re-attach the pieces after nearly every row. Are any of you other KnitPicks Options users having this problem and how have you solved it?

For those of you who live in the Greater Vancouver Area - the Fibrefest is on at the Abbotsford Trade Centre this weekend. I'm heading out there on Friday with a friend for a day of pure indulgence. Hopefully I'll come home with some new "buddies" for my stash.

For those of you that simply need to add some more sock yarn to your stash (because I know I do..) - check this out: TheSweetSheep is offering a 10% discount on select yarn today. And there's some delicious sock yarn on offer.

09-05-2007
Today only receive 10% off everything in the store in early celebration of my upcoming birthday.
You MUST use the coupon code: birthday to receive the discount
Coupon is a one time use so make sure to grab what you want all at once.

Weekend/Monday Update will include:
CEYEBERFIBER yarns and rovings
Funky Carolina rovings
Louet Euroflax
Sea Silk
Shelridge farms handpainted sock yarn
Enjoy!

The Abbotsford Fibre Festival was everything I had hoped for and more... there was wool, silk, alpaca... there were spinners, there were quilters, there were knitters... and there was me - drooling.

I could have spent an absolute fortune. Indigo Moon was there with their beautiful hand died silk yarn and there were stalls with the most amazing lace weight yarns. My wallet did get out of there unscathed - I managed to spend under Cdn$100 and I came away with some great yarn.

Some Norwegian Sandnes Garn - 80% virgin wool, 20% nylon. Great for thicker socks - on order from hubby.

Misti Alpaca - 100% baby alpaca had dyed - 4ply. I love the colourway in this yarn.

And my favourites - Island Hues: 100 Merio Wool lace weight, hand dyed by Vancouver Island's Judy Maclean. It's great to get some yarn from local talent.

Buying all that yarn got me inspired to finish off some projects, so that I can get started on my new stash.

So, here's in no particular order:

The turtle for my nephew - he's turning 4 at the end of May.

The ivory sweater, blocked and ready to be sewn together.

And progress on my daughter's cardigan. This pattern is a lot of fun to knit. Not too challenging, but interchangeable enough to keep you on your toes. makes a refreshing change after knitting st st on the ivory sweater for the last month.

In the presence of so many "far-beyond my talent"and experienced knitters, I present to you my first effort at designing a pair of socks. Alright, so it's one sock so far, but its other "half" is coming along nicely.

I still marvel at how soft and comfortable knitted socks are.

My method was probably a bit unorthodox, but if anyone wants the pattern, I'd be happy to write it up.

And guess who came to visit last night? We knew he was around as we've had to close the bedroom window in the middle of the night...

Knitasha von Stashenskein (don't you just love that blog name... and we obviously have great taste in templates - we use the same Movable Type blogging template) tagged me for a meme. Thanks Knitasha, I feel like I've been accepted into the club.

So here's my meme:

1. I'm left-handed and I'm absolutely a visual thinker and multi-tasker (my knitting weakness is having lots of projects on the go at one time). Add to that my star sign - virgo and yes, you get a pretty boring person. Oh well.

2. I'm a PR consultant by day (although I'm still dreaming of schemes to make knitting my day job). After too many years languishing in PR agencies, I set out on my own five years ago and it's the best thing I could ever have done. There are days I don't leave home at all.

3. I'm a mother of a four year old girl. Enough said - for all you mothers and women attached to young ones, you know how enriched your lives are with these little ones around. I think the same goes for dogs and cats, my daughter played in the garden with a visiting dog this weekend and they were so alike in many ways - lots of fun.

4. I have no gall bladder. It was removed seven years ago after lots of pain with stones. Talk about pain!

5. I'm Swedish, but haven't lived there for years. My family left when I was 13 to live in England and I met my husband in London. Eight years ago we got married and moved to Vancouver, Canada.

6. Back home in Sweden I was county champion at the age of 12. I lived for tennis, spending mornings and afternoons before and after school hanging out at the tennis halls to get a game in with anyone who wanted to volunteer. Now, I play squash in a social/beer league and having lots of fun swinging at the ball and my opponents.

7. I've left the most exciting piece for last. We put an offer on a cabin this weekend. The cabin is on a lake near Kamloops, BC. Now the due diligence starts, but I can't help dreaming about knitting by the lakefront.

In knitting news, I'll publish the pattern for the basket weave socks this week. I'm making great progress on the purple cardigan and I've started on a new pair of socks. I'll post photos in the next day or two.

Finally, the lovely warm weather has arrived in Vancouver - and not too soon either. This last weekend I was out and about all weekend - serving meatballs and mashed potatoes at the European Festival in Burnaby (a suburb of Vancouver) on Saturday - the proceeds go to the Swedish School that my daughter attends - and running a 5K charity race for local Science Fair kids on Sunday. I'm nowhere near fit enough for a 5K, as proven by my collapsing on the sofa yesterday afternoon for a lovely long nap followed by knitting.

Today, I'm still sore, so I think I'll have to take it easy this evening and do some more knitting - yipee!

I still haven't had a chance to write up the sock pattern, although I have made a start at it. Sorry to those of you who have requested it, I will get to it, I promise.

I've made lots of progress on the purple cardigan, though - thanks to my sore limbs and muscles.

I highly recommend this pattern - it's variable enough to continue to be fun, without teasing the brain too much.

I've also started a new sock experiment. I love the diamond effect on the cardigan, so I thought I'd apply it to a sock pattern. I started with a multi-coloured yarn, and didn't like the effect - frogged that one. So, here's my second attempt in a solid colour: