brainylady

Four months

2011-04-15T13:25:00.002-04:00

Max is four months old now and such a happy kid. He still spits up quite a bit, but not in the huge volumes that he did before. He laughs a lot. Last week he rolled over from his tummy to his back! All is well.

Ten weeks

2011-02-17T11:52:00.003-05:00

Max is ten weeks old tomorrow. Things are definitely good now; I'd say the first five or six weeks were very difficult for me. At around eight weeks, something seemed to click on in him, with lots of smiles, lots of movement, super-alertness, and a good long sleep at night. Earlier this month we flew out to B.C. so Max could meet his grandparents and other relatives, and he was a champ with the travel as well as with all the new faces, voices, etc. Now I'm looking forward to him holding up his own head and feeding less frequently during the day. Also wondering if those blue eyes are going to change. They're so blue I find it hard to believe they'll turn brown (like mine). Maybe green (like his dad's)?

Five weeks

2011-01-14T13:18:00.002-05:00

These have been the longest five weeks of my life ... but Max is a beauty, I must say, and he's getting more alert every day (i.e., more fun).

It's a boy!

2010-12-21T11:53:00.006-05:00

Maximilian Charles
born at 7:16 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 10, 2010
9 pounds, 3 ounces (4.18 kg)
20.5 inches (52 cm)

Day 1:

Day 7:

Day 10 (yesterday!):

All is well with us. I'm feeding him right now and typing one-handed, so no big story. But I'll be back! Just didn't want to keep you hanging for too long. Also, we wish you all the best for the holidays and the year ahead! Much love to all, from Alison and Max. xoxo

3 weeks out

2010-11-17T13:50:00.005-05:00

My due date is in three weeks, on Dec. 8. We're feeling pretty on top of things -- we're taking our weekly prenatal classes; we've taken a tour of the birthing centre at the hospital; we've got the cloth diaper service set up; we're taking an infant CPR course this Friday; we've got the crib up (but it's filled with other stuff at the moment); the base of the carseat is in the car; and I've finished my part-time job. We've got pretty much everything we need, according to lists like this one, this one, and this one. I think we're as ready as we're going to be! And we're definitely excited. So watch this space -- I may check in again before the baby comes, or the next post might contain the big news...

Bibs

2010-10-06T10:56:00.007-04:00

More sewing! I will admit I've done some knitting, too, but it really does make my hands ache, so I need to stop it! So this is one of the sewing projects meant to take over some knitting time: cute bibs. I have lots of sweet fabrics, from a south-of-the-border trip in the spring where I found bundled fat quarters of 1930s-repro prints at a Jo-Ann store.

I used this free pattern. Cotton prints for the fronts, plain white flannel for the backs, and snap closures. Pretty simple; as with most things, I spend more time ironing than anything else.

(Those little gardeners on the green fabric are killing me with their cuteness. I have them on yellow, too -- and maybe blue.)

So, I'm 31 weeks pregnant today -- two months to go. Still feeling good, other than the carpal tunnel. I'm not sleeping well, but from what I read and hear, that's to be expected, and it's only going to get worse. But in general, all is well -- and fall is my favourite season, and October is my favourite month, so no complaints.

Tag, you're it

2010-09-24T20:03:00.006-04:00

I came across one of these on some website or another a while back and didn't really understand it, but I did some poking around online and the ribbon-tag blankie became my newest obsession. (I guess this kind of object is just something very tactile to occupy a baby -- the different textures and colours are fun and stimulating. Seems like a good idea.) This one, for example, is just so sweet. Some are smaller, like these ones. (And this ribbon-tab "monster doll" is inspired and awesome.) I had to make one of these little blankies, too. So I had a look at the instructions on the Craftzine.com blog, bought some short lengths of ribbon to add to my own meager scraps (several in black and white, for the recommended high contrast), and did just that:

I cut 16-inch squares of a cotton print and a plain white flannel. (Lots of people favor super-soft Minky fabric, but it's too expensive for me.) I cut the ribbons at 2.5-inch to 4-inch lengths -- short enough that the baby won't get tangled up in the loops. Pressed, pinned, sewed, top-stitched, and voilà. It's very cute! I have ribbon left over, so I might make another, smaller one. Plus it was fun to make -- a very rewarding result with little effort.

Have any of you made one of these before? If so, was it a success with the baby? (And how old of a baby would dig this kind of thing? Is my friend's 14-month-old too old for one?)

Foolproof

2010-09-14T10:08:00.005-04:00

Thanks for your comments on my last post. It sounds like the wrist braces at night can really help, so I may go that route. I'm going to wait another week to see if the pain lessens a bit. A real week without knitting, unlike the five days that have passed since I got the bad news.

I know I should have dropped the needles immediately, but I just couldn't. I saw Dr. K on Thursday morning, and he diagnosed the carpal tunnel; I went straight from his office to the hospital for a blood test, and I had brought knitting with me for the waiting room! So, in the spirit of "new rules start tomorrow," I cast on and knit most of a Foolproof Baby Hat (from the Knitter's Book of Yarn) while waiting. (It was quite a wait: 45 minutes for my number to be called at reception, and then I had to drink glucose, wait one hour [plus 15 minutes because the technician was having lunch], and have the blood taken.)

Such a cute little hat! I'd been inspired by seeing Purlewe's version on Ravelry. My version (like Anj's) came out just as cute as could be. It's tiny, but the mistake rib makes it super stretchy. The yarn is Mountain Colors 4/8's Wool.

Besides this wee hat, I had a baby cardigan on the go that was one sleeve away from finished, so I couldn't very well just leave that, could I? So there was a little more knitting there. But I've definitely set aside the blanket I was working on: linen stitch with a double strand of fingering-weight wool. Definitely too hard on the hands.

So I really need to stop knitting now. It's really hard -- knitting is what I do when I watch TV at the end of the day. Last night I went to bed with a book at 8:30 p.m. because I couldn't really think of anything else to do. I can use my sewing machine, but not if I want to watch TV or hang out with Bill (because it's in my office). But I really don't want to mess up my hands more than they already are messed up, since I have a lot of work to do, so wish me luck! I've had to quit things before that I enjoyed. And it's only temporary. Maybe I should just take the extra evening time I'll have and use it to keep working on my thesis. I think my hands are going to hurt either way; if my hands hurt but my thesis is finished, I'll take that.

Noooooooooooooo!

2010-09-09T19:19:00.005-04:00

First of all, please imagine my "Nooooo" in that slowed-down, cinematic way -- like when, in a movie, something precious is falling and someone dives to catch it, all in slow motion, shouting in that low, distorted voice. Thank you. That will be sufficiently dramatic.

I saw my doctor this morning and told him that for the last three or four days I've woken up with stiff, numb hands, and that some swelling and stiffness persists throughout the day. He said this is (pregnancy-related) carpal tunnel syndrome, and that to keep it from getting worse, I need to stop doing anything repetitive with my hands -- like typing and knitting.

"No knitting," said Dr. K. "You need to stop knitting."

Gulp.

Now, I have to admit that normally, I might not actually stop knitting. I might tell my doctor I will stop knitting, and then keep knitting. But he said I should stop knitting and typing. And there's no way I can stop typing, unless my supervisor will accept a five-hour thesis on tape. Stopping typing is simply out of the question, which means I'm going to have to sacrifice knitting in the interests of getting my work done.

It had occurred to me at that at some point in this pregnancy, something might go wrong with my health that would lead to bed rest. I figured that would be bad, but I could still have my laptop and knit. But "don't use your hands"? I hadn't anticipated this one, and I think it's worse -- for me, anyway. (It's funny -- I've never thought of myself as a person who works with her hands, but I am. Bed rest would be devastating for an athlete, or a bike courier, or the mother of a toddler, but "don't use your hands" is worse for someone who spends most of her time sitting and typing and reading and making stuff.) (And I know this carpal tunnel thing is quite common in pregnancy, and the doctor said if I was at 37 weeks it wouldn't really matter. But since I'm only at 27 weeks, there's plenty of time for it to get a lot worse. The word "splints" was mentioned.)

So I guess you'll be seeing more sewing around here...

Wowza

2010-09-01T11:42:00.006-04:00

As I clicked "publish" on that last post, I gave myself a little pep talk about how blogging probably wouldn't be like it used to be after all this time -- it might take a while for people to notice me again, etc. And when I checked back the next day and saw "0 comments," I was OK with that. And then a few hours later (thinking, "Really? Not even one?"), I remembered that I have to approve comments before they appear. And lo and behold, more than 40 lovely notes were waiting for me in comment-modification limbo, making me feel very happy and humbled. I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart. Welcome back to you, too.

And thanks for the burp cloth comments! I'd like to make more that involve simply adding a fabric trim to cloth diapers, or with flannel over one whole side. (Where does one even buy cloth diapers these days? Zellers? Do I have to go to Walmart?) I'm spending most of my time this week polishing off a couple of draft chapters, but I have a second flannel receiving blanket on the go, too, so I can take a break from writing and just roll my chair a few feet over to my sewing table. So far, I've cut the fabric and pressed/pinned the hem around it. At some point this afternoon, I'll do that sewing. From my googling, I see that lots of people sew double-layered receiving blankets, but I'm just using a single layer. A 40-inch-square piece of flannel is big, and I think getting two pieces to match exactly in size -- and to sew them together perfectly so that the blanket lies flat -- would just be needlessly frustrating. I'd rather make a pile of single-layer blankets and just use two if the extra warmth is needed. I'm all about layers. It's because I started dressing myself in the '80s.

So life is all about flannel and writing these days. As for other baby stuff, we're slowly amassing the things we'll need. I've bought plenty of baby clothes secondhand (PLENTY); I scored a Boppy pillow (with a dinosaur-patterned slipcover) on eBay; and my best friend found a really good carseat at a yard sale last weekend. I've signed up for prenatal classes, which don't start until October, and I've put the baby's name (i.e., "Baby") on the city's central daycare waiting list. (Quebec is good to babies, offering things like subsidized daycare, because they need more of them -- but the waiting list is long.) I'm 26 weeks pregnant today. It feels to me like I'm right in the middle of "we've still got lots of time" and "not too much longer now." It's a nice place to be.

In the meantime, here's a gratuitous shot of Mooky, keeping it real on the back porch.

ETA: Funny -- I just noticed that the last photo I posted of Mooky was almost exactly one year ago. That's a long time without Mooky! I apologize! (It obviously wasn't so hot at this time last year, or he never would have been sleeping in the house.)

Are you there, blog? It's me, Alison

2010-08-26T13:16:00.007-04:00

I've been thinking for a week or two about how to make a drama-free return to this little corner of the Internet that I've got here. I lost interest in the whole thing last year (obviously), but I never did say goodbye or officially shut things down, just so that I could come back if I wanted to. I'm still not sure whether I'll start blogging again with any regularity, but I have been finding myself wanting to post certain things, and this seems like the most appropriate place to do that. So hello to anyone who may pop by after all this time!

I'm not going to try to summarize the nine months that have passed since I last posted, except to say this: I'm still living in Montreal and working on my Ph.D. (writing the dissertation draft). In news of the new, I'm expecting a baby in early December -- and that’s what brings me back to the blog. Yep, I'm 25 weeks pregnant and, I must say, feeling excellent.

For me, Ravelry took the place of knitblogging. I could put all the info and photos about knitting projects there, and I no longer felt the need to duplicate that stuff here. But now that a baby is on the way, I'm doing a little bit of sewing and bookmarking a lot of stuff online, and I don't have another place to keep track of that stuff. Also, I probably want to talk about baby stuff more than my friends want to hear about it, because -- let's face it -- stuff can be boring if it isn't about you. I'll be the first to admit that when knitting bloggers had babies and started talking about the babies instead, I often tuned out. If you're not interested, you're not interested -- and I wasn't, but now I am. Life changes like that, doesn’t it?

All this is to say that I might start blogging a bit, and it's probably going to be about babies. OK, about my baby. (But I'm more interested in yours now, too -- I promise.) And I'm jumping right in with burp cloths. What could be more fascinating?

A couple of Christmases ago, I made flannel pillowcases as gifts (a big hit, by the way), and I had some flannel left over. With more than a yard of one print, I made a simple receiving blanket: trimmed off the selvedges, cut about a 40-inch square, turned over a hem all around and sewed it. With smaller pieces of leftover flannel, I made three burp cloths:

I looked at several patterns/tutorials online and settled on this one. I cut out six pieces, paired different patterns together for each cloth, sewed the pieces together, and topstitched. Easy -- once I figured out the tension on my machine had to be set at 1 for the topstitching (only 1!?).

Et voila. I'll probably need dozens more. Several patterns recommend layering a cloth diaper inside the burp cloth because some babies barf that much. This, along with about 273 other things I've read in the last five months, terrifies me.

Monster shawl

2009-11-28T21:02:00.005-05:00

This morning's conversation...

Me: I'm going to take some photos of my shawl.
Bill: I can take them -- you go to the very end of the garden, and I'll stand at the back door and see if I can fit it all in.

Pattern: Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl
Yarn: 2.4 skeins (1,050 yds) Misti Alpaca 2-Ply Lace (colour: 0790)
Needle: 3.25mm Addi Lace

I feel a real sense of accomplishment with this project. The pattern was a challenge, with two elements I'd never done before: lace patterning on both RS and WS rows, and a knitted-on side-to-side border. I think it's my most difficult project to date. As I was blocking it I was a little scared by the size, but the second I draped it around my shoulders, I was in love.

The reason for its hugeness (compared with the photo of the original shawl in the Mimknits pattern) is that I used laceweight yarn with a cobweb-weight pattern. (So typical of me: I meant to buy the laceweight Mountain Peaks pattern but made a mistake, and I was too cheap to just suck up that $6.50, so I just went ahead with the pattern I'd bought.)

Because I used a heavier yarn and, thus, a bigger needle, I ran out of yarn at the halfway point of the border. I turned to Ravelry for help, and it didn't let me down; Raveler luGirl very generously dug into her own stash and sent me a skein of yarn from the same dye lot so I could finish. (Oh, how I love knitters.)

I still love all those small shawls I listed in my last post, but I want to marry this giant shawl. I also want to keep knitting challenging lace. It's very satisfying.

Small shawls

2009-11-15T10:50:00.009-05:00

I know I'm not the only one preoccupied with small shawls at the moment, not by far. The appearance of Ishbel seemed to open the floodgates, and now I'm seeing lots and lots of beautiful little shawls on Ravelry -- lots and lots of patterns that use about a skein of sock yarn. I was gathering links together for myself and thought I'd share.

These patterns are free:

- Fizzi (Ravelry link only)
- Multnomah (Rav link)
- Lazy Day Lace Shawl (Rav link)
- Travelling Woman (Rav link)
- Weaver's Wool Mini Shawl (Rav link)
- [added 11/19] Leaf Peeper Bandit (Rav link)

These ones cost some money:

- Aestlight Shawl (Rav link)
- Antonia Shawlette/Capelet (Rav link)
- Butterfly Forest Shawl (Rav link)
- Centrique (Rav link)
- Damson (Rav link)
- Hayworth Shawlette (Rav link)
- Herbivore (Rav link)
- Little Colonnade (Rav link only)
- Milkweed Shawl (Rav link)
- Simple Things (Rav link)
- Sunbird (Ravelry link only)
- Wast Side Shawl (Rav link)

So many shawls! All I want to knit these days is shawls. These ones, big intricate lacy ones, you name it. (They don't have to fit, for one thing.)

By the way, new Twist Collective today! I haven't even looked yet...

Comfort knitting

2009-10-29T21:36:00.006-04:00

Well, I worked very hard on my conference paper last week, and got it done (with pie charts!), and ... and nothing. By Friday I was sick with a sore throat and was losing my voice, and on Saturday morning -- when I was supposed to present my paper -- I felt worse. So no conference, no paper. I was disappointed, plus I had this pesky stabbing pain in my throat, and if that wasn't enough, Saturday afternoon came with period cramps. So it was a rotten day. So I started knitting.

As I mentioned in my last post, I already had my eye on the Prairie Rose Shawl from A Knitter's Book of Wool, and I had the perfect yarn for it. On our holiday to the east coast last fall, I'd bought a 400-yard skein of Shetland laceweight that was from the Last Resort Farm in Malagash, NS. It's very woolly -- a little bit thick and thin, spun tight in some parts, fluffy in others. Since KBoW is a celebration of wool -- real, woolly wool -- and since Prairie Rose called for less than 400 yards, it was a perfect match.

So I knit, and I knit, and I knit. I watched TV (Kramer vs. Kramer was on, and then loads of reality shows). I cuddled with Mooky. And I knit. And then I knit on Sunday, too, between cups of tea and hankies full of ... well, I was sick. But I knit and knit, and by Monday evening, I was blocking my Prairie Rose Shawl. And I was feeling better.

Now, the pattern calls for 370 yards of "fingering" (though the shawls shown are knit in laceweight), so I thought I was safe with my 400 yards of heavy lace, but I ran out. I had to knit the final row and do the bind-off in another yarn; fortunately, I had a ball of Plymouth Baby Alpaca laceweight in the same shade of grey. And it actually worked out well. I think the Last Resort wool would have made a bit of a thick edge, while the baby alpaca is finer and made for a more delicate edge. So all’s well that ends well. (Still, be warned!) Maybe I ran out because I went up a needle size (pattern calls for 3.5 mm; I used 3.75 mm) to get a slightly larger shawl. I was cutting it pretty close.

As with all Evelyn Clark shawls, the construction is simple and logical, and the finished product is lovely. Plus, my cold is pretty much gone. Plus, I can recycle that conference paper. My pie charts will live again!

In list form

2009-10-16T16:25:00.005-04:00

1. Rhinebeck (NY Sheep & Wool Fest) is this weekend, but I'm skipping it this year. (I went in 2007, and I had so much fun; I went in 2008, and I froze my ass off.) There are lots of people I'd love to go and see, but I can spare neither the time nor the cash this year.

2. I defended my dissertation proposal last week, so I'm finally whatcha call ABD. (Remember I submitted the proposal back in July? Well, it took three months to actually get three academics in the same room to talk to me about it.) So that's a big step. I'd feel more excited and relieved if I wasn't in the middle of writing a paper for a conference that's only a week away.

2. b) My conference presentation is going to involve pie charts, and they're going to look awesome. If you need to make pie charts -- which, I recognize, is unlikely -- I can recommend this site.

3. I got my copy of the beautiful Knitter's Book of Wool, and I am sorely tempted to drop everything (including the pie charts) to cast on for Evelyn Clark's Prairie Rose Shawl. It's beautiful. (Why can I find no photos to share with you? Hmmm. Just keep checking Ravelry.)

4. I've become obsessed with Babybel cheese -- those little red wax-covered ones. I love them. On the packaging, it just says they are "cheese." What are they?

5. It's getting cold here. In response, I am working to finish a bulky wool/alpaca cardigan vest: the Heather Hoodie Vest. Mine is neither heathered nor hooded. It's a solid orangey-red. When I get it done, I'll post photos here. If this doesn't take place within the next couple of weeks, it probably means I've gone ahead with the Prairie Rose Shawl at the expense of all other knitting. This is a distinct possibility.

6. I am now going to resist the temptation to make a pie chart outlining the percentages of my thoughts currently occupied with the Prairie Rose Shawl, my conference paper, and Babybel cheese. Time to get back to work. Have a nice weekend, with or without Rhinebeck!

Which ewe am I?

2009-10-01T15:37:00.005-04:00

A Thursday afternoon distraction for you: Which ewe are you? The quiz is part of the promo for the much-anticipated (by me, and probably by you, too) Knitter's Book of Wool by Clara Parkes.

(Remember how many yarn-related quizzes there used to be for knitbloggers back in the day? We were always finding out which stitch pattern we were, or whether we were a pair of socks or a sturdy cardigan...)

Third time's the charm

2009-09-24T14:45:00.006-04:00

I've been inspired by Nicole and Jenny -- specifically, by their Single-Skein September initiative -- to crank out some small projects and use up some yarn. In the last week or so, I've knit three hats! The one shown above (Thorpe) is my favourite, and the third one. I used up the Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky that was left over from my BOB cardigan -- which means it has been hanging around for two years. I love this new hat. Bill loves it, too, so it has been christened the House Hat. No need to get possessive.

Hat #1 also used up some two-year-old yarn: a ball of Wool-Ease that I bought in Buffalo because I just liked the colour. Finally turned it into a nice, plain tuque, using this free pattern. I have a large head, so I made the large size, but it's a teensy bit too big. I may rip back a bit to make it shallower. I may not really care. I still love the colour.

And Hat #2 was all about the knitting -- less about the outcome. I've always been curious about EZ's Ganomy hat, and I had a gorgeous skein of Easter-basket-coloured merino (Yarn Love Anne Shirley), and ... now I have a lovely, ill-fitting hat. (See aforementioned large head.)

I don't think the Ganomy will survive, but it was fun to try the pattern. The yarn is so pretty that I want to use it well. I still have half the skein, and I think Ganomy will have to be sacrificed in favour of a tiny little sweater for a friend's new little girl. It will look cuter on her.

Anyway, hats! Single skeins! Quick little projects! Whee!

Oh, yeah -- knitting!

2009-09-02T11:48:00.003-04:00

Here is my Featherweight Cardigan (which I'm calling the Welterweight Cardigan, because my yarn is a heavy laceweight). After this photo, I saw that I wanted a longer cardigan, so I performed some minor sweater surgery. I threaded a lifeline through the last row before the ribbing, ripped the ribbing, knit another two inches in st. st., and starting ribbing again. (So, where the needle is in the photo is about where the ribbing starts now.) I did just under two inches of ribbing and bound off. I'm going to do three-quarter-length sleeves, and I'm going to do the neck/front band in k1,p1 ribbing to avoid the dreaded curl.

My version is a little roomier than most others, but it's because I see this cardigan as a fall/winter layer instead of a summer cover-up. The yarn (Blackberry Ridge silk blend lace) is wool and silk and, like I said, heavier than other laceweight yarns, so this is going to be warm. And it needs to fit over more than a tank top. I just hope it doesn't block out to be really huge. (What? Swatch? Swhaa...?)

I picked up the current issue of Knitscene after hearing Nicole and Jenny talk about it. Is anyone else thinking of making the Heather Hoodie Vest without the hood?

Weekend

2009-08-30T14:08:00.002-04:00

Drifting

2009-08-28T16:02:00.003-04:00

I'm working on a beautiful wool/silk cardigan* and nearly finished a gorgeous alpaca shawl**, but I find my knitting fantasies drifting towards winter hats and mittens. Is it because the days are getting shorter and cooler? Or because I'm bored of having the same two WIPs for the whole summer? In any case, I spent the last half hour trolling the finished Ganomy Hats on Ravelry. (The pattern for Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ganomy Hat was published in the latest Vogue Knitting.) (Come to think of it, all those hats in the fall VK probably have something to do with my tuque dreams.)

Last week, my crafting urges left the knitting world altogether, and I spent my evenings hand quilting! Remember the Scrap-X quilt? I'd gotten as far as making the quilt sandwich, so I pulled it out and started stitching. It's exciting. I'm pretty in love with it.

Once I stitch around the inside of each white square, I'm not sure how I'll quilt the scrap areas. It's a little tricky because there are so many seams, and so many spots with a double thickness of fabric. Anyway, so far so good.

* Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan / Yarn: Blackberry Ridge Wool/Silk Laceweight

** Pattern: Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl / Yarn: Misti Alpaca Laceweight

Unclear on the concept

2009-08-19T11:31:00.003-04:00

Young woman working at the Roots store: Would you like a recyclable bag?

Me: No, thanks. I already have a bag.

YWWATRS: But it's recyclable.

Me: Well, I think no bag is better than a recyclable bag.

YWWATRS: Are you sure? It's nice. It's a recyclable bag!

Me: [blank stare]

Too hot to blahhg

2009-07-30T14:24:00.007-04:00

I'm in B.C., and it is HOT out here. Too hot to knit, but there are plenty of other distractions: peaches, cherries, apricots, raspberries, etc. It's a tasty, tasty heat.

How about showing some knits from the past few months? A quick parade of highlights:

1. Kingscot cardigan.

I love, love, love this cardigan, and I'm looking forward to wearing it in the fall. From the moment I saw it as a Twist preview, I loved this design. I followed Norah Gaughan's pattern to the letter (other than putting buttons all the way down the front), and it turned out perfectly. The yarn is Rowan Pure Wool DK -- an expensive splurge for me, but I loved working with it and I love the results. (Ravelry link)

2. Leafy Medallions shawl.

This was a quick shawl; I needed a lace fix. I used Evelyn Clark's book (Knitting Lace Triangles): 10 repeats of the Leaf Lace chart, and then 3 repeats of Medallion Lace before the edging. The yarn is Spirit Trail Lachesis -- a purchase from Rhinebeck last fall. It's 100% alpaca, but I found it slightly wiry. I didn't love knitting it, but it did block nicely; it's the thinnest laceweight I've used, so the resulting shawl is very delicate and airy. (Rav link)

3. Zetor shawl.

This is the last thing I finished, just a few weeks ago. Another case of simple pattern + yarn I didn't really enjoy = pretty results. The yarn is One of a Kind Lace Solid -- a wool/angora/nylon blend with no elasticity or shine. I do love the colour, though. (Rav link)

4. Portland pullover.

I'm not sure yet whether this is finished. (I have it "hibernating" in Ravelry.) I mistakenly knit an extra repeat into the body, resulting in an unflattering length. I'm not sure whether I'll keep it as just a warm sweater, or if I'll do some altering to shorten it -- I guess it will depend on whether I find myself wearing it or not. It did turn out beautifully; I'm very pleased with my finishing. I enjoyed knitting this. It seemed to go quite quickly. It probably took as long to sew the pieces together as it did to knit them. (Rav link)

At the moment, I'm knitting a Mountain Peaks shawl -- or, I would be if it wasn't so HOT. I chose this shawl because I wanted a lace challenge, and most of Mountain Peaks has lace patterning on both the right and wrong sides. It's been slow going, but before my holiday I finished Chart 1 -- and not a moment too soon. I was definitely getting tired of p2togtbl....

Hello? Hello!

2009-07-17T11:29:00.005-04:00

Well, I vowed to myself that I wouldn't blog until I'd finished my thesis proposal. I didn't think it was going to take four months, but it did, and it's done. I have to do a little tweaking before formally submitting next week, but it's close enough to finished that I can relax. Hallelujah!

So it's been exactly four months since my last post. Mostly I've been working on my proposal, which included a couple of Toronto library trips and a longer road trip to Bloomington, Indiana, to do research at the Kinsey Institute. I've also done a lot of knitting -- I'll put up a few photos soon. In the spring I was on a bit of a book jag, so for now I'll leave you with a pile of inspiration:

From top to bottom:

- Whimsical Little Knits by Ysolda Teague (so charming!)

- Material Obsession by Aussie quilt-shop owners Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke (beautiful photos of fabulous quilts) (I see there is now Material Obsession Two, Lord help me...)

- Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson (patterns + general how-to)

- Ontario's Heritage Quilts by Marilyn I. Walker (wonderful historical quilts -- so glad I found this in the clearance section at a Chapters store)

- Country Weekend Knits by Madeline Weston (one of those books, like A Fine Fleece that I want to step into and live in)

- Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby (old news, I know -- I finally bought this book not so much for the patterns as for the historical info on lace knitting)

- Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson (pretty pictures of pretty projects)

- Chatelaine's Gardening Book (published 1976 -- a nice thrift-store find)

- Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts (need I say more?)

- Retro Knits by Kari Cornell and Jean Lampe (great reproductions of vintage patterns and images)

Whew! Blogging takes a long time. That's why I'm not going to be blogging all the time anymore, but I don't think I'll disappear completely, either...

... along came Ishbel

2009-03-17T15:17:00.007-04:00

In the fall of 2005 I bought a beautiful skein of Fleece Artist merino "basic sock" yarn at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Fair, and I've been saving it since then for the right project. It was just so pretty -- a semi-solid forest green. Too pretty for socks, even though Fleece Artist is a great sock yarn. Also, it was precious because it was from a previous generation of Fleece Artist sock yarn; a few months later, they changed suppliers (or something) and the sock yarn got a little fatter and a little softer. So once this skein was gone, my stash of F.A. v.1 would be gone, too.

And then, just a couple of months ago ... along came Ishbel.

A super-fast knit because it's half stockinette, Ishbel took me just a few evenings of TV-watching to finish. The pattern includes instructions for two sizes (as well as for sock yarn and laceweight); my version is a combination of the two. I'd planned to knit the small size, for more of a scarf, but when I'd finished the stockinette section I still had so much yarn left. I wanted to use as much of my pretty yarn as I could (what was I going to do with a quarter of it left over?), so I kept knitting. My stockinette section is from the large size, and then I went back to the small size for the lace portion. (I see on Ravelry that a lot of people have done this. It's certainly the way to get the most of your yarn.) Blocked, my Ishbel measures about 54 inches (137 cm) across the top, and about 23 inches (58 cm) at the deepest point (which isn't actually a point!). It's a great size -- not too big, but big enough to wrap solidly around my neck. And I have, literally, a handful of yarn left over. (So I'd estimate that it took ... about 320 meters?)

And with that, I'm going to disappear for a while. I need to be more focussed on my school work for the next little while, so I'm taking a break from both the Internet and knitting. Only e-mail and writing for the next month (?). We'll see how it goes, and I'll be back when I've got a good handle on my work. Enjoy the beginnings of spring! And thanks for all your nice comments on my recent FOs -- you're sweet. xo

FO: Amelia Cardigan

2009-03-13T18:33:00.005-04:00

Here's my Amelia cardigan (free pattern by Laura Chau), in a springy green ("larch") wool-cashmere blend by ColourMart. Love it! The yarn felt like a wool-cotton blend while knitting, but it bloomed like crazy in the final soak and is soft and drapey. Much like the similarly shaped February Lady Sweater, I find that Amelia is universally flattering (having looked at a zillion photos of finished Amelias on Ravelry). The vertical lines are columns of twisted rib, which looks sharp and allows lots of stretch for a good fit. I followed Laura's pattern to the letter, and I'm thrilled with the results. Thrilled! New favourite.

FO: Cleite shawl

2009-03-11T11:40:00.006-04:00

I tried to model my lovely new shawl outdoors yesterday -- it was windy and cold, and kind of dark:

Then I realized I'd been showing the wrong side of the shawl, and I was cold, so that was the end of that! Still, you get the idea. The pattern is Cleite, from the fall 2008 issue of Twist Collective. The yarn is Fino by Alpaca with a Twist: 70% baby alpaca/ 30% silk. It feels fabulous, and it's very warm. I did eight repeats of the main chart instead of nine, which the pattern calls for. There was enough yarn to do another repeat, but I thought the resulting shawl would've been too large. Mine is about 70 inches (180 cm) across the top, and about 36 inches (92 cm) deep at the centre point.

It's a well-written pattern, and as far as lace goes, it's easy. Cleite would definitely make a good first shawl for someone to knit.

I also finished my Amelia cardigan on the weekend, so I'll show you those photos next time. March to the finish, knitters! Get those languishing knits off the needles!

Oh, Noro

2009-02-27T11:40:00.005-05:00

I recently bought a ball of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, and I want to use every single inch of it. There are two steps to achieving this goal: (1) divide the 100-g ball into two 50-g balls and (2) knit socks from the toe up.

Step 1 is done. Obviously no attempt will be made at making matching socks. For me, the whole point of Noro Kureyon is the colour changes, so I will be knitting plain stockinette socks and just watching the magic happen. This is colourway S236: medium green, teal, black, grey, pink, gold, lime. It sounds like a crazy combination, but it will work somehow, because it's Noro.

I'm not going to cast on for these socks until I finish something else, though. I have five WIPs on the go right now, which is a lot for me: two cardigans, two pairs of socks, and a shawl. My next FO will likely be either a Cleite shawl (1 repeat left) or an Amelia cardigan (1 sleeve + yoke left).

Mooky says have a good weekend...

... and can I come in now, please?

Review: Knitting the Threads of Time

2009-02-23T12:16:00.006-05:00

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Knitting the Threads of Time: Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft takes knitting seriously, as a historical practice, a significant economic force, a means of communication, a gathering place for women, and a path to self-awareness. No apologies, no distancing from "grandmas," no deprecation of knitting's pleasures -- indeed, Nora Murphy does the opposite: she actively seeks to locate hand-knitting within a larger history of fiber and fabric production, and she writes of both her own WIP and the craft in general (and the people who do it) with nothing but respect.

At one level, the book is the story of a sweater, from conception through finishing. The author decides to knit a sweater for her son, and the project takes her through four winter months in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Any of us who go through a similar "dark season" each year can certainly relate.) This WIP is a device that allows Murphy to weave a number of different ends into the story, so to speak: arriving at the point where her stitch count requires a switch from DPNs to something longer, for instance, she ruminates on the material origins of "knitting pins" (early North African knitters used brass wires, rural knitters in New Zealand used fencing wire, etc.). Such historical information is not limited to knitting but extends to weaving, First Nations beading and quillwork, and other crafts; Murphy also brings in ancient legends and historical events related to handicrafts, fabric, and clothing, showing that such "women's work" has in fact played a very important role in culture and history in many parts of the world.

I absolutely recommend this book. Because I'm bookish and nerdy, KTTOT had me at its index and bibliography (swoon!). It's a smart book about history, a compelling account of a craft, and even -- just a little -- a tale of suspense (Will she or won't she finish Evan's sweater by Christmas?). It has something for everybody without trying to please everybody, if that makes sense. I can imagine I may even pull it off the shelf and read it again when next year's dark season comes around.

p.s. to Nora Murphy: Have you considered making your other son a quilt? Because I'd read that book. I'm just saying...

Slaving over a hot stove

2009-02-20T14:08:00.005-05:00

...to cook up two batches of yarn.

1. starting, 2. measuring, 3. cooking, 4. cooling, 5. drying, 6. admiring

Last weekend, I did some stovetop experimenting with wool, food colouring, and white vinegar. I had a 100-gram ball of white wool, which I divided into four small hanks. Batch 1 had 20 drops of red food colouring in it (which made a pretty light pink), and batch 2 had about half the 28-mL bottle (which made the most saturated bright-raspberry colour!). I think I'll knit a striped hat.

Hollow book

2009-02-14T17:07:00.005-05:00

This is a project I've always wanted to make. I remember discovering that a particular little green book on my parents' bookshelf wasn't actually a book at all, but a hollow hiding place. My mom would sometimes take money out of it before church, for the offering plate. I thought it was the cleverest thing ever, and now I have one, too! A few weeks ago I bought a secondhand hardcover book, and today I followed this How To Do Stuff tutorial. (Let me say that I ordinarily don't believe in the defacement of books. I bought this one at a thrift shop -- a Reader's Digest version of My Ántonia, which I've read before -- and since it was unwanted, I consider this to be repurposing rather than vandalism.)

All you need is a book, white glue, a paintbrush, a ruler, a pencil, and a sharp blade. And some patience. Mine turned out better than I'd thought it would. Here's the finished inside:

I've always been a person who likes to have secret hiding places. (Probably everyone does. Why not?) This was fun, cheap, and easy to make. I can fit my passport inside, or cash, or whatever, and put it on my bookshelf with all my other books. (And two months from now, when I forget which book my passport is inside, well, that's what blog archives are for.)

I hope you're having a good weekend and a happy Valentine's Day! xo

Happy Friday!

2009-02-13T08:08:00.002-05:00

A link for you: check out artist Joy Kampia O'Shell's website for some impressive crochet sculpture. The links under Portfolio will take you to examples such as the crocheted bicycle and the sundae dress as well as lots of food, from breakfast through dessert. Enjoy!

FO: Icelandic Top

2009-02-10T10:50:00.007-05:00

I am here to testify that you CAN crochet a cute top that doesn't look like a 1970s granny square. Behold the Icelandic Turtleneck (published in the Crochet Me book)! Easy enough for a basic crocheter like me, and the result is a cute, warm, stretchy layer. I love it.

Here's exactly what I'm thinking in the following photo: Um, Bill -- taking this photo from below is probably not going to be so flattering for a pear-shaped lady like me...

Oh well, it's a good photo of the top. I left off the turtleneck -- I did about half of a turtleneck. (It's folded over in these shots.) Otherwise, I followed the pattern for the 41-inch size. I used a 3.5 mm hook and (I think?) 4.5 50-gram balls of Jojoland fingering-weight wool. The result: a 35-inch bust, which is perfect! Clearly I have some issues with gauge in crochet, but happily, it all worked out in my favour.

I didn't block it. All the crocheting is done through the back loop, which makes a stretchy garment. I don't want it to lose its springiness. You can see the weird bagginess in the upper chest area, which I don't really understand. Doesn't matter. I'm happy with this top -- putting it on is like slipping into a big sock. It's great.

I tell you, the more I crochet, the more I love to crochet! I enjoy the motion of it. I'm not sure what's next in my crochet queue; I like the Pinwheel Beret in the current Interweave Crochet magazine. There are also a couple of cardigan patterns I've got my eye on (like this Rav link), and I'm also thinking of using up some pink angora to crochet a ripple scarf. Oh, and I want to make a Tiramisu blanket for a friend's baby, but the baby won't be here until late summer. We'll see. For now, I'm back to knitting my Cleite shawl.

Lace love

2009-02-08T10:33:00.007-05:00

The preview is up for the spring issue of IK! It looks good. I've been preoccupied with lace yarns and patterns lately, so I'm very excited to see two! shawls! as well as a stole and an adorable little laceweight cardigan.

Good incentive to get cracking on Cleite -- so I can start a new lace project when IK comes! I've done four repeats. Of course, each one is longer than the one before, and the pattern calls for nine repeats, so... I've got some knitting to do.

I bought some new laceweight yarn last week, too, with no particular project in mind -- but I am powerless in the face of that vintage aqua blue: 2 skeins of One of a Kind wool-angora lace. Lovely, isn't it? Like a bit of blue sky on a winter day. (Thanks again for the home delivery, Robyn!)

(In a quick thrift yesterday, I happened to find a Melmac platter in that same fabulous aqua. Woot!)

Personalized Ches

2009-02-05T11:41:00.003-05:00

Bill's golfing Che on the left; my scarf-wearing Che on the right.

What I did on my winter vacation

2009-02-03T09:44:00.009-05:00

- got plenty of much-needed vitamin D

- read the last few weeks' worth of New Yorkers on the gorgeous beach in Varadero, Cuba

- drank a lot of Cristal, plus a proper Mojito and a Cuba libre (not because I even like rum & Coke, but for the same reason I had a Singapore sling when I was in Singapore)

- took two tennis lessons with, it turns out, Cuba’s 1977-81 national champion (or so we heard)

- went to a Cuban National Series baseball game in Matanzas, in the Victory at the Bay of Pigs Stadium (Camagüey beat Matanzas 15-0! Ai-yi-yi)

- took a daytrip into Havana on a lovely sunny Wednesday

- had lunch at the Hotel Inglaterra (est. 1875), one of the older, swankier hotels in central Havana

- rode in a bicycle taxi through part of the city, alongside Ladas and big beautiful old Buicks (the city feels like a living museum of the 1950s, mixed with very old, crumbling fortresses and elaborate architecture)

- visited a UNESCO World Heritage site for the first time: Old Havana

- admired the interior and exterior of the 220-year-old Catedral de la Habana (and then had a beer in the square out front)

- went into the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the oldest fortification in Cuba, and climbed the bell tower to get a better view of the water and the flea market below

- enjoyed the visual freedom from commercial bombardment: no billboards advertising products, only messages promoting socialism (many of which pointed out that this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the revolution)

- wandered through a colourful outdoor used-book market (most of the books were about Cuba, in Spanish)

- spent my last peso on a postcard of Che Guevara wearing a knit scarf (Bill bought one of Che playing golf. There's a Che for everyone!)

- had a fabulous, relaxing, wonderful time with three of my very favourite people

- knit one and a half sleeves of a Forestry cardigan and three repeats of a Cleite shawl

2009-02-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

I'm back from Cuba -- I'll post a holiday recap soon!

No cankles here

2009-01-23T15:52:00.005-05:00

A few days ago, I was doing the toe decreases on my first Alternating Rib sock, and I realized it was time to stop and face facts. Every time I'd tried on the sock-in-progress, I could see what was happening, and I could ignore it no longer: I was knitting what would become, after about five minutes of wearing, a slouch sock. And since I haven't actively sought out a pair of slouch socks since about 1985, I knew what I had to do.

Rrrrrrrripppp!

I ripped the sock back to about 5 inches of leg and started doing paired decreases (every 5 or 6 rounds) at what would be the back of the sock, so that by the time I got to where I wanted to start the heel flap I had 8 fewer stitches than before. And it was So Worth It. The sock fits better, and the stitch pattern looks better. I think I could have maybe tried harder to make the decreases look better in the back, but I'm happy enough.

I'm not advocating perfection; I'm just saying that sometimes you know you have to rip. And you should. It's only knitting. It's like hair -- it grows back.

----------
More from the "We like free" Department: In case you don't know, the Canadian Living site is a good source of free patterns. At the moment, you can find the Mason-Dixon hand towel pattern (Ravelry link) and a pattern for crocheting a tote bag from old plastic grocery bags. Plus the site archives its patterns -- both patterns that were published in the magazine and those excerpted from books (e.g., the Bountiful Bohus cardigan pattern [Rav link] from More Big Girl Knits).

OK, we're off dark and early tomorrow morning on our holiday to Cuba! See you in a week or so!

Review: The Expectant Knitter

2009-01-21T12:32:00.005-05:00

I'm not pregnant. (If I didn't say it right off the bat, I know you'd be wondering, and I'd get wink-wink questions in the comments. :) But if you are, or if your friend/sister/daughter/partner is, you'll want to pick up The Expectant Knitter: 30 Designs for Baby and Your Growing Family. It's like a knitter's version of What to Expect when You're Expecting. It includes patterns for baby knits, of course, but there are lots of other useful things, too.

The Expectant Knitter is organized into four parts: pre-pregnancy, and then the three trimesters. Each section contains relevant patterns as well as information about conception and pregnancy. For example, in the first part -- "Planning Ahead" -- you'll find notes on prenatal vitamins and adoption alongside a pattern for the "Take-Me-Home Swaddle Blanket" (and other stuff). I learned that breast enlargement accounts for about 2 pounds of weight gain during pregnancy (really?), and that a newborn uses about 10 diapers a day (really?!).

The patterns throughout are both precious and practical. On the one hand, there is a long, delicate christening gown knit in a blend of silk and cashmere; on the other hand, I imagine the pattern for wool diaper covers will be indispensable. In all, there are about 25 patterns for baby -- pants, tops, cardigans, dresses, socks, hats, a bib, washcloths, etc. -- but there are also a handful of patterns for other family members. (The dog-sweater pattern is followed by a page of info on introducing a new baby to one's dog.) My only complaint is that the yarns called for are generally quite fancy and expensive, but of course substitutions can be made. (Personally, I think baby duds should be machine washable, but at the same time, who wouldn't want to wear a cashmere romper?) And to top it off, the book itself is pretty.

(Psst! The author of The Expectant Knitter, Marie Connolly, is also the owner of Stitch DC, and on the shop's website you can find links to two free pdf patterns: a wee sweater (Ravelry link) and little legwarmers (Ravelry link). They're not from the book, but they're free. We like free.)

FO: Knotty Pillow

2009-01-17T12:28:00.009-05:00

I finished the crocheted faux bois pillow, and it turned out so well. The pattern says it's 20"-by-20", but mine is about 17" square. (I stuffed a flattish 19" pillow into it.) I bought 3 balls of Red Heart Soft Touch and 2 balls of Bernat Satin for this project, and I think there's enough left for a second pillow. You know what would be awesome (and pretty easy to do)? Adapting this pattern to make a blanket.

I wish I could photograph this pillow against the wood panelling in my parents' house! That would be crazy.

I spent some time last week putting lots of my vintage Beehive pattern booklets into my Ravelry library. (Rav link.) It was inspiring. I want to use more of those patterns. The patterns for women's sweaters can be tricky, because they were generally designed for women who are smaller than me to start with, and then wearing a girdle or a corset or something, but the sock patterns are gold. They usually have to be adjusted slightly, because today's sock yarns are generally 4-ply while the patterns are usually written for thinner 3-ply (and most of the patterns I have are for men), but that's not hard to do. (For example, I'm planning to start a pattern called "Alternating Rib" next, from Patons book no. 113; the stitch pattern is a multiple of 4 stitches, so instead of casting on 72 sts., I'll cast on 64.)

I don't know if it's cold where you are, but it's super-freezing here. Another week of this winter weather, and then we're off to Cuba for a week! Bill found us a cheap all-inclusive deal in Varadero, and two of our best friends are coming, too -- I can't wait. I'm thinking a lace shawl will be a good thing to take, so I'm packing a skein of Alpaca with a Twist Fino and the pattern for Cleite. Who knows? Maybe I won't knit at all. Maybe I'll read novels! Maybe I'll just look at trashy magazines! But I'll tell you what I won't do: slip on the ice, freeze the tip of my nose off, or stay indoors all the time.

Quick fix

2009-01-14T11:07:00.003-05:00

Bill was recently complaining of having cold feet in the house. Sure, he has handknit socks (not nearly as many pairs as I have, poor thing), but he still had chilly feet. Me, I have leftovers of worsted-weight wool. Everybody wins with scrappy slipper socks!

They ain't pretty, but they're effective. Worsted-weight wool held double, knit on 5.0mm needles. (Isn't it weird how they look kind of pixelated where the green and black were held together?) No pattern; I cast on 32 stitches and improvised from there. They weren't that fun to make, because I was using two circular needles, so there was a lot of circ-cord action happening. I'd make another pair, though -- on dpns and with prettier colours. In fact, I might have to. I'm a little jealous of Bill now.

Crochet WIPs

2009-01-11T12:05:00.006-05:00

I've been crocheting, and the more I crochet, the more I like to crochet. I'm feeling more confident with my (still limited) skills. Now I know where the end of a row is, and how to count the stitches. I know I'd rather dc or sc than hdc. I'm just past the mid-point of two projects at the moment: a top and a pillow.

("Icelandic Turtleneck" from Crochet Me, but without the full turtleneck -- in fingering-weight Jojoland 100% wool)

("Knotty Pillows" from Crochet Today -- in Bernat Satin and Red Heart Soft Touch acrylics)

Wool, wool, and more wool

2009-01-08T15:32:00.006-05:00

1. Wool

My friend Candy is awesome: she's a master thrifter, and, to my great fortune, she's not a knitter. She recently sent me 14 balls (!!) of Captain Bob's Aran Wool, split up into three taped-up plastic bags (i.e., as packaged at whatever garage sale/church bazaar where she found them). At first I thought the little price tag on each bag said 5.00, but then I realized each one said 50¢. (I wasn't exaggerating -- Candy's a master thrifter.) The ball band reads as follows:

CAPTAIN BOB'S genuine ARAN WOOL for fisherman knits SCOURED Made in Ireland for Eaton's 100% pure new wool Color: Bainin Dye Lot: 996 Code 172 .79 APPROX. 2 ozs. BALL

I must say, though, when I think of an Irish fisherman, I don't think of somebody named Captain Bob. Captain Bob seems better suited to selling fish sticks or suspenders than to Aran wool, no? Anyway, very exciting! All hail Candy, thrift queen!

2. Wool

Behold the giant wool ball! This cost $5.99 at my local Value Village last month. My little scale only goes up to 1 pound, so all I know for sure is that this is way more than a pound of wool. It's lightly twisted 2-ply, and I'd says it's either sport or DK weight. No idea of brand or yardage or anything. Just very happy for the yarn karma that allowed me to find this giant woolly bundle.

3. More wool

Another recent thrift score was this lovely big wool blanket, whose label reads "BALBIRNIE Pure Wool Only / Made in Scotland." It's the second cream-with-blue-stripes blanket I've thrifted in the last few months. Hmmm. Do I smell a new collection? (Uh-oh...)

Next!

2009-01-05T15:17:00.004-05:00

OK, two finished things in the last two posts, but what about the unfinished stuff? There's lots. First up, recent progress on my scrap X quilt:

The smallest-size blocks have been finished for ages, but over Xmas I sewed them together into panels of 12 (i.e., 3 Xs). I haven't sewed those panels together to finish the top, but I laid them out on the bed to see how it looks. (Once everything is sewn together with quarter-inch seams, the quilt top will measure 60 x 72 inches.) Since I won't get around to basting the quilt sandwich together for a while, I'll leave the top in panels since they're easier to stow away. I bought solid red cotton for the back. I think I'll use this quilt to practice machine quilting. We'll see. The whole project is being packed away for a while. (To recap, this quilt was inspired by a scrap X quilt at happythings.)

Second, I'm crocheting the Knotty Pillow from the latest issue of Crochet Today. If I'd never crocheted anything before, I would learn how just so I could crochet a wood-grain pillow. I love this project.

Still working away on my Icelandic Top -- also crochet. So far, so good.

As for knitting, I started a front piece of the Tweedy Aran Cardigan, using Patons SWS; the gauge is right, but I think the soy-wool yarn is too soft for the project. I think it should be something else, and I should knit the Tweedy Aran with something like Briggs & Little. The SWS may want to be the Vaila pullover instead -- but with a split collar instead of a turtleneck. We'll see. I need to start spending a lot more time on my schoolwork starting NOW, so there will be less knitting, etc. It might be a while before I finish another sweater.

Oh, I have some thrifted yarn to show you, too, but my camera batteries are charging. Next time, then.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T11:53:00.008-05:00

Well, 2009 is off to a good start Chez Brainy: after almost exactly one year, I've finally finished my Flock of Triangles quilt!

(The big crease down the centre shows why we're not supposed to keep quilts folded. I haven't washed and dried the finished quilt yet, so I'm sure it will look normal afterwards.) I'm very proud of this. I love Denyse Schmidt's quilts. My previous two baby quilts were kits, with precut squares of fabric; this is the first time I've started with only fat quarters and a quilt pattern.

I sewed the pieces together for the top by machine and then did the quilting by hand. I didn't know what colour to use for the back, and I think I was influenced by Kris when I chose the grey.

The red quilt on the bed beneath my Triangles is yet another rescued vintage quilt, bought a month or so ago. It's lovely, but a bit fragile. So much hand quilting! The fabric is faded and thin, and at first I thought of packing it away for safekeeping, but what's the point of that?

Did you spot the approaching kitty tail in the top photo? About five minutes after photographing my quilt(s) -- which isn't easy to do! -- this was the scene in the bedroom:

Busted!

FO: Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks

2008-12-31T14:13:00.006-05:00

It's the last finished project of the year: socks for Bill, from a Nancy Bush pattern, in (surprise) Patons Kroy 4-ply sock yarn (colour "Gentry Grey").

As you can see, 2 balls of yarn was not quite enough; I finished the toes with leftover Regia 4-ply. (FYI, the Regia is a little thinner than the Kroy.)

They fit me perfectly. (I'm modelling them because Bill is out playing poker and I wanted photos today.) If I were to make this pattern again for Bill, I'd do it with more stitches around the foot. Weirdly, the pattern is 70 stitches around the leg and only 62 around the foot. I probably should've stopped decreasing at 68 for Bill's feet.

These socks have a Dutch heel, which really cups your heel. It looks odd in the photos, but that's because I didn't block the socks; they actually are flat and comfortable under your foot. In fact, when I had Bill try on the first sock when I was about halfway through knitting the foot, he remarked that the heel was very comfortable. This morning, before I grafted the toes closed, I had him try one on again, and he actually said, "Love that heel."

Happy new year, dear readers. If you are celebrating tonight, have fun and be safe. xo

Xmas knits

2008-12-28T11:21:00.005-05:00

I didn't do too much gift knitting this year -- just socks for my parents. (Didn't get a pair done for my brother. Sorry, Tom!) I used Patons Kroy 4-ply for both pairs, which is one of the best workhorse sock yarns out there. For my mom's socks, I used my own pattern:

For my dad's socks, I didn't use a pattern. To be speedy, I just knit plain st. st. (with a *k1, p1* cuff):

These socks are "Glencheck" Kroy (plies are grey and brown), and the low-contrast toes are "Mercury" Kroy. My mom's socks are "Muslin" Kroy. Both pairs were received happily.

FO: Top-down raglan cardigan

2008-12-24T14:16:00.008-05:00

Has your stash ever spoken to you? I had five skeins of yarn that, about a month ago, spoke up loudly; they said, "Knit us now. Knit us into a simple and comfy cardigan, and do it now." I don't even know what the yarn is. Each 100-gram skein has a little tag that tells me it is 25% alpaca / 35% wool / 40% Acrylic, and that's it. I'd say it's either heavy worsted or aran weight; it has a felted texture.

I looked for a raglan pattern that would make the most of the yarn (i.e., no seaming) and decided on cosmicpluto Laura's Top-Down Raglan Cardigan. I was happy to find there was enough yarn to make a longer-than-usual sweater, for extra coziness. I used a 4.5mm needle. If you knit this pattern, I'd recommend using a smaller needle at the start to work the neckband. I found the neckband too wide and floppy, so at the end I picked off the original neck, knit a new neckband on a 4.0mm needle, and attached the new neckband with a three-needle bind off. Much better. Then, to contrast with the sea of tweedy grey, I went to my jar of vintage plastic buttons and found ten blue and green ones.

It was all pretty easy until I tried to actually take pictures of my new sweater. Tricky! There's not much light getting into the house, and it's snowing outside. But I tried my best. I took some photos in the kitchen...

...and then I went out on the back porch...

...and then I took some photos in the living room, but when I looked at those ones I realized my fly was open in all of them. Sigh! Anyway, it's a simple and comfy cardigan, and my talking yarn and I are satisfied.

Happy holidays!

2008-12-22T19:11:00.003-05:00

Psst ... Mooky here.

I haven't seen you in ages! I hope you're doing well. I'm OK -- spending a lot more time indoors these days, what with all the cold white stuff outside. Anyhoo, I wanted to let you know that there's a cardigan blocking on Alison's office floor at the moment, so she'll be back here soon. In the meantime, I'm going to go and keep helping her make the bed. She says I'm a big help. Well, she says it like, "Oh, yeah, you're a biiiiig help, Mooky." And then I bite the sheet and try to scratch her. Fun!

Over and out,
Mooky (a.k.a., Mookus, Mookala, Mookros-Mookros-Ghali)

Open letter

2008-12-02T11:16:00.003-05:00

Dear transit riders,

When you are on the bus or the subway, and you see a fellow passenger drop her or his mittens, the decent thing to do is to get that passenger's attention and point out the dropped mitts. Maybe you don't care about your mittens, maybe you regard mittens as disposable items and go through several pairs each season, and that's your prerogative. However, please don't assume that others feel the same way. The person who drops her mittens on the bus or the metro may have knit those mittens herself and regarded them as irreplaceable. She may have spent hours twisting their little cables and wrangling their little bobbles, and when she finds herself suddenly without those mitts at the end of her trip across town, she may feel sad. After all, neither the bus nor the metro was crowded, but she's pretty sure somebody must have noticed when she stood up and the mittens fell from her lap to the floor.

In closing, I do not mean to suggest that any given loss of mittens is your fault; each of us is responsible for our own seasonal accessories. But are we not also responsible to some degree for one another? We all get on the bus and keep to ourselves, but we watch and we see, and sometimes we can help. And let's not forget there are innocent victims in this situation: the mittens.

Yours in the spirit of community and public transport,
Alison

Now that's a lot of yarn

2008-11-24T12:09:00.004-05:00

Here's a sight that any knitter would be happy to come across:

Thanks to a tip from reader Marlyce, I stopped in at the Coats & Clark outlet store just off the 401 in Mississauga on my way home from Hamilton on Saturday. (I was doing research in Toronto, but staying in Hamilton.) It was my kind of place: treasures mixed with horrors! I love that kind of shopping, because if you find something good it feels extra special. (It's the same principle behind the fun of thrift shopping.) Say, for example, if you go through shelves of glittery fun fur, and then shelves of decent wool in hideous colours, but then you find yourself looking at a wall of Nashua Handknits chunky wool-alpaca in a lovely shade of brick red for $25 a bag (1,100 yards -- enough for a toasty cardigan) -- well, that feels pretty awesome.

I'm off to browse bulky-cardigan patterns on Ravelry now... hmmm... maybe Sienna? Or a modified Shalom, with long sleeves? Or just a top-down raglan? Or maybe Kyra, or a beltless Starsky, or... or...

Too much for one post

2008-11-15T11:31:00.007-05:00

... but I'm going to jam it in here anyway. It turns out that my looming-est deadline has been shifted and the pressure lifted a bit. (Whew!) I'm going to do more primary research before submitting my thesis proposal. Instead of writing madly for the next couple of weeks, then, I get to do one of my favourite things: spending time with moldy old newspapers. (I know -- sounds awesome, right?) First, I need to blog a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to tell you about for the last little while.

1. I was in Ontario last week at a conference. For me, one of the thrills of going to Ontario is going to Michaels craft stores! (Yes, really.) I wanted to pick up some Lion Brand Wool-Ease for an inexpensive sweater project -- and I went to Michaels in three different towns and couldn't find Wool-Ease! They all had the Thick & Quick version, but no worsted weight could be found. Has it been discontinued or something? Where in the world is the Wool-Ease?

1. b) At the Michaels in Belleville, Patons SWS was on sale for $2 a ball! I bought 16 balls of Soy Wool Solids (= 1600 m) in the colour "natural berry," to make some kind of cabled cardigan (even though I suspect cabling will be ... challenging, as this is a barely twisted single-ply yarn).

2. I bought a PedEgg, and it is awesome. I may love it a little too much. I want to grate the skin off my calloused heels all the time.

3. The book Knitting Noro by Jane Ellison is a good one. There are lots of good, basic patterns for cardigans, pullovers, and jackets that could be knit in all kinds of yarns. (I have my eye on the Turtleneck Tank [at right], for a bunch of grey alpaca-wool I have in my stash.) I'm thinking that (someday) I'll probably frog my ill-fitting Dolman Updated sweater to reuse the Kureyon in a pattern from this book, because I do love that yarn and that particular colourway.

4. Back to that conference in Ontario -- my M.A. supervisor was there. You may recall that I knit him a pair of socks once I'd defended my thesis. He loved those socks. He thanked me over and over; in e-mails months later he would mention them. A dream recipient of a handknit gift. Anyway, I spent time with him at the conference last week, and at the end of the first day we were standing around having a glass of wine and talking about what we'd been up to lately, and I mentioned Rhinebeck, and he started reaching around in his bag and talking about the socks I'd made him. Actually, he said, "I have some bad news." It turns out that he'd lost one of his socks six months ago, so he had brought me the surviving sock and asked if I would please knit him one new sock. He said, "I'm only asking you to do this because I really love those socks." Obviously, I'm going to knit him one new sock.

5. The new issue of Twist Collective? Be still, my heart. I simply must knit Norah Gaughan's Kingscot cardigan, and I'm also swooning over Kate's Sweet Pea Coat and the Postwar Mittens. And the design of the "Critter Comforts" feature is brilliant.

6. The forthcoming issue of Interweave Knits? It looks pretty good. I quite like the Manchester Jacket, the Ropes and Picots Cardigan, and the Dainty Pinstripes Pullover. I'm looking forward to having the hard copy in my hands to look at the patterns.

7. I recently picked up the book Crochet Me, mostly because I had to try to make the Icelandic Turtleneck pullover right now.

This project is simple enough for me and my minimal crochet skills. The FDC row was a bit tricky, but I eventually got the hang of it (I think). I don't want this top to be tight or clingy; I want to be able to layer it easily over a long-sleeved T-shirt. My actual bust measurement is 37 inches; the pattern has instructions for 38 inches and 41 inches. I chose to do the 41-inch size, but now I'm wondering if there will just be too much excess fabric with four inches of positive ease. (Any thoughts?) The yarn I'm using is inexpensive Jojoland fingering-weight wool, in a shade of dark blue that I only like (not love), so it's perfect for this highly experimental project (i.e., if my Icelandic top turns out to be very, very bad, it's OK). Crocheting is fun, but unlike knitting, I have to watch what I'm doing with every stitch. I can watch TV, but not a movie with subtitles.

8. I went to see Passchendaele, and I quite liked it. The reviews have been a bit meh, but I suspect a lot of those reviews were written by dudes who don't want women or romance in their war movies. The battle scenes were truly stunning. My only issue with the film was Paul Gross's casting of himself. I hesitate to even say it, because Gross is ridiculously handsome and I was very happy to look at his face for two hours, but his character is supposed to be in his mid-thirties, and Gross himself is ... no longer in his thirties. (Dead sexy, though.)

OK, enough. I have some work to do today, plus I have to get stuff ready for a research trip to Toronto tomorrow. Have a nice weekend! It's rainy and grey here -- perfect knitting weather.

FOs: socks and mittens

2008-11-10T10:20:00.007-05:00

Hello! I thought I'd pop in to show you a couple of recently finished objects, so I don't forget altogether. First up, finished yesterday, is a pair of Little Child's Socks (from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks):

I love them. The yarn is vintage Lady Galt Kroy 4-ply (four 1-oz. balls). I made just a couple of small modifications to the pattern: I did 5 extra rounds of stockinette between the cuff and the start of the instep pattern, and then 8 extra rounds between the last calf decrease and the heel; also, I knit the foot on 60 stitches instead of 56, so I had to decrease 4 stitches before starting the toe. If I were to knit these socks again, I would do two things differently: I would work the heel flap on 30 stitches (why decrease to 26?), and I would do an extra round of decreases just before pulling the toe stitches together (to 8 stitches instead of 16). But it's a great pattern, and I love the socks.

And second, I finished my alpaca Druid Mittens a couple of weeks ago, and they're also a success -- great pattern, great mittens:

I wish I'd added half an inch or so to the length of the hand, but they're totally wearable. I love the Zimmermannian saddle across the top -- no suprise, coming from designer (and EZ devotee) Jared Flood. This yarn is label-less alpaca, bought at Birkeland Bros. in Vancouver -- I was told it came from Golden Fleece Alpacas in Mission, B.C. The softness of the yarn obscures the lovely cables a little bit, but that's OK. My favourite part of the mitten is actually the palm -- weird, right?

OK, back to work! I have a couple of big nose-to-the-grindstone weeks ahead of me. See you after they're done.

Rhinebeck recovery

2008-10-21T09:31:00.004-04:00

I've been home for 33 hours, and I've slept for 21 of them. Rhinebeck was freaking exhausting, I tell you.

No big recap from me; basically, I was happy about the people I saw there (lots!), sad about the people I didn't see (too many!), and way too cold to go to the Ravelry party on Saturday night. I bought two skeins of yarn (one sock, one lace) and a bumper sticker that says "Make Gloves, Not War."

And now I need to disappear for a little while. The deadline for my thesis proposal is rearing its head in my airspace, and I have a paper to write for a conference that's only two weeks away. It's time to buckle down. I'll be knitting a bit and posting progress on Ravelry, but I need to stay away from blogging until I get on top of my school work. Wish me luck!

Different kinds of cables

2008-10-16T10:10:00.005-04:00

Thanks so much for your birthday wishes and cardigan compliments! I did indeed wear it to the polling booth and, later, to meet friends for drinks, and by the end of the day I was even more in love with my new sweater. And nobody asked if I'd made it myself, which we knitters often take as some kind of compliment (even though we like to take credit, too).

For a while now I've been working on various lace projects: shawls, Grannie Smith, the February Lady Sweater. Recently, however, I've started turning my attention to cables -- back to cables, really, as there have been lots of cabled socks and sweaters in my knitting past. This rebirth was launched with the Autumn/Druid mittens I started last month. Not too much more to do on those; all is finished except for the two thumbs. And now I've cast on for a new cardigan. A cardigan that -- shockingly, to me -- nobody on Ravelry has even started, let alone finished: Mari Lynn Patrick's Soft Linen Jacket, published in March (issue 30) in the Classic Elite Web-Letter. I think it's adorable, and I'm knitting it.

I'm using the ultra-pillable Knit Picks Merino Style, from my stash, in the colour "nutmeg." This is a new kind of cable for me, with the garter-stitch background. Because row gauge is different in garter stitch than in stockinette, the cable stitches are slipped on WS rows. Clever!

And speaking of new kinds of cables, I've had a chance to look at Melissa Leapman's new book, Continuous Cables: An Exploration of Knitted Cabled Knots, Rings, Swirls, and Curlicues. The cables in this book are "continuous" in that they form self-contained, closed-ring shapes. None of the patterns is a must-knit for me, but the book is a great technical resource, with a 60-page "stitch dictionary" of closed-ring cables. I can imagine knitting an otherwise-plain raglan sweater and turning to this book for a cable motif to add to the fronts, or down the sleeves.

I'll be at Rhinebeck this weekend. If you see me, say hello!

FO: Grannie Smith Cardigan

2008-10-13T16:47:00.007-04:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful that I've finally finished my Grannie Smith Cardigan and -- even better -- that I'm thrilled with it.

When I chose this project, it was because I wanted a very wearable cardigan, the kind that I would buy. The pattern calls for Kidsilk Haze, but I decided to use Lorna's Lace's Shepherd Sock yarn, and I'd definitely recommend it (or any sock yarn) as a substitute. (I used seven 50-gram skeins.) I followed the pattern exactly as written, for the 40" size, except for the button band; more on that later. I'm very happy with the fit. I knit the five pieces and blocked them, but once I'd assembled the whole thing, it was too small all over. I reblocked the finished sweater according to the measurements of another cardigan that fits perfectly, and the result is a perfect fit. I like that I can wear it all buttoned up, but it's more likely that I'll just button a couple at the top. That's what I usually do.

You may have noticed that the top button is not in line with the others. The Grannie Smith pattern says to make five buttonholes evenly spaced along the button band, and then to add the neckband. I wanted to change it a bit; so the buttons would be closer together and so they would go right to the top, I planned to make six holes in the button band and one in the neckband. It wasn't until I was seaming the sides and sleeves that I realized I'd forgotten to make the buttonhole in the neckband. Crap!! I wasn't about to undo the seaming I'd done and the whole neckband, so in the end I just added a loop at the edge of the neckband. That's why the top button is over a little bit. I can live with it.

You can see that I went with the pearly grey buttons after all. Mostly I chose them over the red ball-buttons because I thought these ones would be less likely to slip out of the buttonholes. Overall, I enjoyed making this cardigan, and I think I'll wear it a lot. It's a great pattern, I love the yarn, it fits well, and it can be dressed up or down. I'm so, so pleased with it. I think I'll wear it tomorrow when I celebrate my birthday by voting!

I'll probably dream of buttons

2008-10-07T16:38:00.006-04:00

I'm a person who gets overwhelmed with choices in a video store. (Is anybody not like that?) So you can imagine how I felt when I took my almost-finished Grannie Smith Cardigan to the button store today...

Oh my lord. That's just part of the floor-to-ceiling wall of buttons. I loved that there's a board that pulls out so you can lay your garment down flat. (Sweater preview! Just one more side seam and sleeve to sew up!)

Quelle surprise -- I couldn't make a decision. The cardigan is knit in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in the colour "charcoal," which is a pretty shifty colour, as a matter of fact. I find that in natural light it looks brown, and in artificial light it looks grey. Plus there is a slight variation in darkness, as with all LL semi-solids. Add to all this the fact that I'm just not sure what effect to go for. Do I want the buttons to blend in or stand out? To match or to complement? I ended up buying two sets of buttons: one is a round pearly cherry red, and the other is a flat pearly dove grey. I'm leaning towards the red. (I asked a Russian lady in the store for her advice on these two choices, and she pointed to each one and said, "No, and no." She elaborated that the red buttons were "an obligation," in that I'd have to also wear red somewhere else. I disagree.)

As an aside, here's something I've learned about sweater assembly: When you've finished knitting all the pieces, and all you have left is seaming and adding neck and button bands, you'll be tempted to say on Ravelry that you are 95% done your sweater -- but you're not. You're really not. More like 60%.

For locals who are looking for a huge dusty button collection, I'd recommend the Centre de Couture Snowdon. (Look at that blue sky! We're having a gorgeous fall in Montreal.) It's just a few blocks from Snowdon Metro. As well as buttons (many, many boxes of which date from the mid-1980s), you can buy thread, sewing notions, trims, buckles, etc. And in the back is an odd assortment of yarn -- mostly Patons, mostly vintage (because that's how long it's been sitting on the shelves), lots of acrylic but also Kroy sock yarn in not the most attractive colours. I did end up buying a few 1-ounce balls of Lady Galt Kroy sock yarn in a Harvest Gold colour, at $3 a ball. (It's not actually the hugest bargain; keep in mind that today's Kroy is a 1.75-ounce ball.) You never know -- the sock bug may bite me again one day.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Department for Women Readers

2008-10-06T17:20:00.004-04:00

I was doing research in the library today, and I thought you'd appreciate this item from the Jan. 8, 1900, issue of the Toronto Evening Star, published on page 5 under the banner "Department for Women Readers."

Curiously, the illustration seems to be the fashion hint -- I couldn't find any text to go with it. (Maybe that's why it's just a "hint"?) Anyway, quite the hats. The top one must be a hat, right? And not just a bird of some sort that has crash-landed onto the lady's head? I think a woman must have needed one of those giant fur collars to keep her head propped up under the weight of such an enormous specimen of millinery.

And the menu below was also free of explanatory text, so we are to suppose that it is just a good day's worth of eating for a woman -- and we are left to ponder the significance of the quotation that seems unrelated to ... everything. I hope you can read it (click the image to make it bigger). It's quite the complex menu, and I can't imagine anyone preparing these three meals at home in one day. (I'm totally going to find a recipe for Potato Balls, though. What could be bad about Potato Balls?)

Almost done (x 2.5)

2008-10-01T12:14:00.007-04:00

I often find myself finishing a couple of different projects at the same time. I'm not sure why this happens. This week it's my Grannie Smith Cardigan (button bands have been added, so all that's left to do is seaming and neckband) and my Flock of Triangles quilt (done but for the binding on three sides). Exciting! I'm very pleased with -- and proud of -- both of these projects. Both have taken a fair bit of time and skill.

Those are the two almost-done projects; the almost-half-done project is one I only started this week: the Druid/Green Autumn Mittens from the fall VK. I'm using the 100-gram ball of B.C. alpaca I bought in Vancouver in June. These are fun to knit, and they're going quickly.

The softness and hairiness of the alpaca prevent nice, crisp cables, but I don't mind. These are going to be soft and warm, and they're still pretty.

You want books? I got books.

2008-09-29T18:25:00.008-04:00

Here's what I've learned since my last post: Don't think you can cross those Mason-Dixon ladies quietly and get away with it. It turns out they have strong ties to the blog-commenter mafia, and they know how to mobilize; within hours, your inbox will be flooded -- with hundreds of friendly comments! They will also use their Photoshop skills to create a representation of why you are crossing them -- but they'll put white wine in your hand when in fact you'd rather have a beer when in the tub. (See slightly revised image, above.)

One result of the huge response to my little contest is that, instead of the usual one-in-50ish chances of winning the book, each commenter ended up with just a one-in-370ish chance. However, another result is that I saw the opportunity to unload a few other, older books as well!

The book-to-space ratio in my office is way off, and I just don't have room to keep books that only have one or two patterns in them that I may knit one day. So there is more than one winner today. Drum roll, please...

1. J. (baad medicine) wins Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines!
2. Steph (Bits of Happy) wins Twelve Months of Knitting!
3. Anna (photoknitnerd) wins The Yarn Girls’ Guide to Knits for All Seasons! (Anna, please e-mail me, since Blogger won't send me your info)
4. Susan (Our Daily Thread) wins The Knitting Experience: Book 1: The Knit Stitch!

(If you're one of the winners, and you don't want the book you're getting, please let me know!)

I'd asked for your favourite knitting books of the year, and I was very interested to find that Elizabeth Zimmermann is number one by far. Of more recent pattern books, Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters and Lisa Lloyd's A Fine Fleece were recommended most often -- as well as everything written by the beloved Yarn Harlot. These were followed by The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes, Knitalong by Larissa Brown and Martin John Brown, Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr, Favorite Socks from Interweave, Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard, Inspired to Knit by Michele Rose Orne, and Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan. (There were many others, too; if you're looking for new books, have a read through the comments.) I'm really glad I asked that question, because there were books I'd never even heard of in there. Plus, even though I'm off socks at the moment, I feel like I should probably look into that Cat Bordhi book. And clearly I should spend some time with EZ.

Thanks for playing, everybody! This was fun.

Review: Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines

2008-09-25T11:35:00.006-04:00

I've been sitting on this book review for a week, and I'm feeling pretty hesitant. You see, I like Mason-Dixon Knitting, I really do; I even spent at least fifteen seconds chatting with authors Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner at Morehouse Merino during last year's Rhinebeck, so I know they actually are both nice and funny. Also, all the other reviews I've seen are on the gushing side of positive. But me? I can't figure out how to fit this book into my life -- and that's why I'm going to give it away. Would you like it?

This is both a pattern book and a humour book; check out the subtitle ("Patterns, Stories, Pictures, True Confessions, Tricky Bits, Whole New Worlds, and Familiar Ones, Too"). The patterns come from Kay and Ann as well as from other familiar designers (e.g., Bonne Marie Burns, Anna Bell). There is, literally, something for everyone, with projects for women, kids, babies, and the home. (OK, not so much for men -- or, specifically, for men who don't use a Swiffer.) (Of course, the socks could be made for men.) There are patterns for clothing, accessories, kitchen items, and holiday decorations. My favourite designs are the red-and-robin's-egg-blue Liberty blanket and the Super Eggplant-inspired Kiki Mariko rug. Lovely!

Alongside the thirty-odd patterns is plenty of sassy Mason-Dixon writing. These are funny ladies. They use terms like "Loonyville," "Bathrobe Syndrome," and "the holy crap moment." The best part about these sections is that they are actually useful, providing tips about calculating ease when knitting a sweater, steeking, felting, knitting in the round on two circs, and so on. There's a lot of practical info in this book, and it's fun to read, to boot.

So... what's my problem? Sounds like a good review, right? Here's where my hesitation comes in. It is a good book, but as I mentioned at the outset, it just doesn't fit me. Strictly as a pattern book, it contains only a couple of patterns I actually want to knit. On the other hand, as a knitting info/humour book, it's too big. That's right -- I have a problem with the size of this book. Much of its content is the kind of stuff I want to read when I'm in the tub, or in bed, but it's in this huge hardcover book. That's my problem.

If you'd like to take this enormous* book off my hands, just leave a comment telling me what your favourite knitting book was/is this year. I'll draw a name in some random way on Monday night.

* I exaggerate. The book measures 9 inches by 11.5 inches.

Entry cut-off is 6:00 p.m. Montreal time!

FO: February Lady Sweater

2008-09-22T14:40:00.006-04:00

Happy first day of fall! Challenge of the day: photographing a solid black sweater.

Just like eighty thousand other knitters, I've made myself a February Lady Sweater! I used Peer Gynt, which is a basic sturdy wool, and the result is more like a little jacket. I think it's really cute, and I'm pleased with it. Here are some easier-to-see photos of the front and back:

And here's me giving you my best stern-librarian look:

The wooden toggles were originally intended for a Sunrise Circle Jacket; I bought them at City Knits in Detroit when we were living in London. In an attempt to lessen pulling on the stitches, I put a flat button behind each toggle:

Thanks, Pam, for upsizing EZ's original baby pattern. This is an easy project -- knitting lace while watching TV? yes! -- and when you're done, you're done. No seams, just some ends to weave in and buttons to sew on, and voila! And judging by the gajillion photos of finished Lady Sweaters on Ravelry, it seems to be a universally flattering shape. What more could we knitters ask for?

East Coast goodies

2008-09-19T15:45:00.008-04:00

I'm quite happy with the multi-craftual indulgences I made during my holiday -- I even managed to add a whole new craft to my list of things to do! I hope you're not expecting heaps and piles of yarn, because I'm pretty cheap. (Last year at Rhinebeck? I spent $40.) And I'll tell you right now there's no Fleece Artist, because I can find that here. When I travel I like to buy things that I can't get at home. (See how I'm trying to lower your expectations? Is it working?)

I started off being predictable: the first thing I bought was yarn! I bought this skein of 2-ply laceweight Shetland wool at the Loop in downtown Halifax. The yarn is from the Last Resort Farm in Malagash, Nova Scotia, which (gasp!) doesn't have a website. It's only 400 yards, but I'm going to squeeze a Swallowtail Shawl out of it -- maybe without the nupps, to make sure there's enough. I love this natural light grey colour.

I mentioned Chéticamp and rug hooking in my Nova Scotia post, and that I had bought a kit at the craft co-op there. I nearly chose a graphic design of a lighthouse but ended up picking a non-picture design of squares. I just have to figure out something to use as a frame for the burlap. (Any suggestions are welcome!) The burlap has to be taut and parallel to the ground; then you hold the yarn underneath and bring it up in little loops with the hook. When it gets really cold this winter, you'll find me nestled on the couch with this little hook in my hand...

As we drove through the Cape Breton town of Mabou, I saw a small roadside sign with a sheep on it. High alert! Then another sign, with the sheep, that said YARN. Stop the car! We followed a series of these little signs until we arrived at Bellemeade Farm and its little shop. There was a whole wall of rugged worsted-weight wool in lots of colours, but nothing was really calling out to me -- and then I saw the thrummed mitten kits. Perfect! I've always meant to knit a pair of thrummed mitts. The wool I chose for the mittens is an undyed oatmeal colour, and the roving is big blobs of rainbow colours (red, green, purple, yellow, orange, blue, and pink). I'm excited to knit these.

Finally, I bought two fat quarters of Anne of Green Gables fabric just before leaving P.E.I. They're awfully precious, I know, but cut up into squares and worked into a quilt someday, they'll be nice little souvenirs of the trip. (But can you believe that one says "Anne Shirly"? What the heck? And I always thought Diana had dark hair, but am I just thinking of the movie? Was she blonde in the book?)

So that's it! All things I can't get here, and all things that will remind me of a great holiday. Anyway, I needed to save just a little money for Rhinebeck. Yes, you heard me. I said Rhinebeck. Will I see you there?

P.E.I.

2008-09-17T16:04:00.009-04:00

We loved Prince Edward Island. I don't know why I didn't take many pictures there, but here are some.

beach near North Rustico

Lighthouse Café, North Rustico

We took the ferry across from Nova Scotia. I'd hoped to visit Belfast Mini Mills, but we didn't arrive on P.E.I. until almost 5:00 p.m., so we were too late. Instead, we drove straight to St. Ann's Parish for a lobster supper. There are several places that serve lobster suppers, but the church basement seemed the most appealing, and it was great.

The next morning, we went to Charlottetown. We started doing a walking tour, which included the huge St. Dunstan's Basilica, Province House, and the art gallery (which had a fabulous photography exhibit). After a while we ended up just wandering around the waterfront and the downtown. It was charming, and it was a beautiful day.

St. Dunstan's Basilica, Charlottetown

We decided to have our own lobster supper that night, since we were staying in a cottage with a kitchen -- and since lobsters were only $7.95/pound. We bought two live lobsters in Charlottetown, and then we went up to a fishing village called North Rustico and bought two pounds of mussels ($1.75/pound). We had a feast. Earlier we'd thought of going out that night, but after stuffing ourselves all we could do was sit on the couch and watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada auditions. And it was worth it.

P.E.I. lobster

The next day, we visited the home of my bosom friend Anne Shirley. You didn't think I'd skip Green Gables, did you? I think Bill and I were the only tourists there who weren't Japanese; the Japanese love Anne. Bill didn't know anything about the story; as we walked through the house I was saying things like, "And then Gilbert called Anne 'Carrots,' so she stood up and broke her slate over his head!" (There is a little pile of broken slate pieces in Anne's room, of course.) Bill was a good sport. Later, as we drove away, he said, "I just don't get it. It wasn't the author's house, it was somebody else's house, but now it's decorated as though it belonged to fictional people. That was the weirdest tourist attraction I've ever been to..."

Green Gables (the upstairs bedroom with the geraniums in the window is Anne's)

From Cavendish we drove down to Summerside, but then we decided just to get on the road and head home. After a quick stop at a fabric store (more on that next time), we headed over the 13-kilometre Confederation Bridge to New Brunswick. Thirteen freaking kilometres!

last few kilometres of Confederation Bridge

The radio in our car is always tuned to the CBC, and as we drove over the bridge we listened to a call-in show about misheard song lyrics. I didn't even notice the moment when the bridge finally ended, because suddenly I was turning up the radio and shouting, "It's a knitter!" Did you know that Ingrid used to think Lynyrd Skynyrd were singing, "We-ee all have a grandma!" Heh heh.

So that was the end of our holiday. We drove all the way home, about twelve hours. I hope we go back someday; I lost track of how many times I said something like, "Look, we could buy that house and move here!" I loved it. And yes, I did buy some crafty things -- those are for the next post.

Nova Scotia

2008-09-15T14:35:00.011-04:00

I'm going to do two or three posts about my holiday instead of just one -- today: photos from Nova Scotia, plus lots of links in case you're planning to visit.

lighthouse at Peggy's Cove

On the day we left home to start the trip, we drove to Saint John, New Brunswick; the next morning we took the ferry to Digby, Nova Scotia, and drove across to a campsite near Peggy's Cove. This was my first trip to Atlantic Canada, and I found it just as spectacular as I'd hoped. The coastline was lovely, the ever-changing ocean was dramatic, there were pretty lighthouses all over the place, and the people have one of my favourite accents ever.

Peggy's Cove

We spent some time in downtown Halifax, which included the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (with its excellent exhibit on the Halifax Explosion of 1917) and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (with a whole gallery devoted to Maud Lewis!), but unfortunately not Pier 21 (next time!).

From the Halifax area, we headed up to Cape Breton Island, with Hurricane Hanna hot on our heels. We found a room for two nights in Sydney; it rained, and there wasn't much to do, but we did encounter the local flea market and spent $20 there on knick-knacks and fudge. (I have absolutely no self-control at flea markets, and I may even have purchased vintage salt & pepper shakers shaped like naked ladies.)

sheep within the Fortress of Louisbourg

The rain passed, and we headed to the Fortress of Louisbourg, which was great. Reconstruction of the fortress began in 1961, partly as a make-work project for unemployed area coal miners; what's there now is about a quarter of the French town as it would have looked in the 1740s. I love stuff like that -- people wearing historical costumes, "soldiers" firing cannons, women making French bobbin lace, etc.

lighthouse in Louisbourg

We also went to the Cape Breton Miners' Museum in nearby Glace Bay, which was excellent. We took the tour underground, with a "retired" coal miner named Abbie, where we wore hardhats and hunched over to walk through dark tunnels just 4.5 feet high. When I feel like my work is too hard, I'm going to think about being a coal miner and get over myself.

view of Cape Breton's east coast, from the Cabot Trail

From the Sydney area, we set off on the Cabot Trail, which involves driving up and down mountains almost all the way around the coast of Cape Breton. It was a grey day, but the views were dramatic nonetheless. We drove as far as Chéticamp that day and decided to stop there and stay at a motel, since another storm was coming. We went to La Co-opérative Artisanale for an Acadian supper -- mmmm, cod fish cakes; eww, canned peas -- and after eating we went into the attached gift shop, which was filled with traditional hooked rugs. I fell in love with them, and when the woman working there showed me how the rugs are made, I had to buy a small kit. (More on that another time.) Chéticamp was super-charming, and it was also the beginning of the most stunning section of the Cabot Trail. We didn't stop too often for photos, but there were lots of Oohs and Ahhs.

off the Cabot Trail, south of Chéticamp

After a quick detour into a wool shop on a farm in Mabou (more about that another time, too), we drove on to Caribou, where we caught the ferry across to Prince Edward Island....

FO: Crosswalker Socks

2008-09-13T15:36:00.005-04:00

I'm back! And I want to tell you all about my fabulous holiday in Nova Scotia and P.E.I., but we got home late last night and there is laundry to be done, things to be washed and put away, all that post-road-trip stuff, so for now I'll just show you the socks I finished on the road.

The free pattern can be found here. I tweaked the pattern a bit; in fact, I probably wouldn't recommend this pattern to a first-time sock knitter. It's not a bad pattern, but you need to know how socks work in order to tweak successfully.

Here's the main thing: Because the diagonal stitch pattern really cuts down on stretchability, you need to work the leg on 80 stitches, but when you get to the foot -- where only the top of the foot is worked in that diagonal pattern -- 80 stitches will probably be too large. I continued the gusset decreases until I had just 30 stitches for the bottom of the foot (still 40 for the top). Keep in mind, though, that you want to end up with the same number of stitches on the top and the bottom when you get to the toe; to even things out, on the last 10 rounds of the foot, I did the decreases at the sides but not the increases in the middle -- this way, I ended up with 30 stitches on both top and bottom when it came time to decrease for the toe.

One more tweak that is worth doing: Because the stitch pattern involves side-by-side increases and decreases, it makes more sense to put the gusset and toe decreases side-by-side, too, than to follow the pattern's traditional "knit to the last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1" / "k1, ssk, knit to end" decreases and end up with a knit stitch or two between decreases.

I still like the colours together in the ball better than how they actually came out in the socks, but I'm warming up to them. I finished the second sock yesterday afternoon while we were driving through New Brunswick, and I realized as I looked out the window that all the colours in the yarn could also be seen in the landscape outside: yellow wildflowers, green trees with some leaves turning reddish, brown dirt, yellow-green marshes, blue patches of sky. And then I was happier with my socks.

I've got lots and lots of photos to sort out, but I'll be back soon to tell you about my trip. Do you think I bought yarn? It's possible....

Another quickie

2008-09-02T23:30:00.004-04:00

To continue the whirlwind nature of the last few weeks, I'm just popping in quickly to let you know that I'm heading off on a camping trip bright and early tomorrow morning. I got home from Edmonton yesterday and have been busy since then, and now Bill and I are heading east to Nova Scotia. I'm so excited -- I've always wanted to visit Atlantic Canada. We're heading to Saint John tomorrow and then ferrying to Digby; beyond that, we're just going to see what happens, which is the beauty of setting out with a car and a tent.

I'm quite looking forward to being away from my computer for the next ten days or so. See you when I get back!

p.s., I'm knitting those Crosswalkers with Lang Super Soxx (colour: 630.0074[!]). Thanks for the compliments, but I'm still not sold on the way those colours are coming out...

Crosswalking

2008-08-30T17:15:00.004-04:00

All is well in Edmonton -- I even ran into a local knitting group in its natural habitat on Wednesday evening! After conferencing all afternoon my colleagues and I were going for dinner at a place just off campus, and as we walked in, one of them said, "Look, Alison! Knitters!" Yay! Hi, T and J!

Above is my Crosswalker sock in progress. The pattern that's coming out is not really what I was expecting, but I like the quick colour changes. It's been a long time since I knit with self-patterning sock yarn -- it's a perfect project for simple on-the-road sock-knitting.

Ready or not

2008-08-26T08:44:00.004-04:00

Well, my flight leaves at 3:30 this afternoon, which means I'll leave the house at about two o'clock, which is a little more than five hours from now. I'm about 80 percent packed, and my paper is (gulp) about 75 percent written. But I've done the really important stuff, like picking out yarn and a sock pattern for the plane ride.

I think I need a priority adjustment...

Two tragedies, no comedy

2008-08-25T10:20:00.005-04:00

Scene 1

I was out on the back porch yesterday when I saw it. It was just sitting there, and I thought, "What a pretty leaf." And then it occurred to me that the pretty leaf had fallen from a tree. And I looked closer and saw that the pretty green leaf actually had tiny bits of red in its green. Srsly? The leaves are falling?

* * * * *

Scene 2

I was in my office/blocking room yesterday when I saw it. I'd finished knitting the final piece of Grannie Smith, and I lay the two fronts down on my desk to double check that they were the same length. I noticed that one row of diamonds was smaller than all the others. One time, I had missed two rows of the 12-row repeat. One time, just at the beginning of the armhole shaping, which means I have to rip back eight or nine inches of the front piece. Damn it!

* * * * *

I'm off to Edmonton tomorrow. I have to finish writing my paper. I have to pack. I definitely have to make more coffee...

Briefly

2008-08-23T13:07:00.004-04:00

I'm back home -- for three days, before heading off to Edmonton for a conference. I knit through the whole bus ride from Toronto to Montreal yesterday (about six and a half hours). As we were leaving Toronto, I was chain-stitching for the provisional cast-on for the right front piece of Grannie Smith, and as we were pulling into Montreal, I was doing armhole decreases. I probably could've finished the whole piece if I'd been able to sustain my knitting pace, but after a couple of hours of lace knitting with sock yarn, my fingers were a little fumbly. Still, it was a lot of knitting. And that's my last piece of Grannie Smith! I may start blocking the other pieces today while I work on my conference paper.

OK, back to work. Have a good weekend!

p.s., Mooky is fine! Sorry to leave you hanging. It turned out that his tongue was not punctured -- just missing the top layer of skin in one spot and a bit cut. The vet gave him an injection of antibiotics (to save me from having to get pills into his sore little mouth) and some anti-inflammatory medicine, and within a few days, the Mook had stopped drooling and started washing again. Whew!

Tired Student Seeks Juicy Research Materials

2008-08-19T21:08:00.007-04:00

My research isn't always fun, but sometimes it can be extremely entertaining.

I'm in Toronto again, poring over the local postwar scandal sheets. (The image above shows the front page of a May 1946 issue of Hush Free Press.) There's a ton of material for me to draw from -- it's figuring out what to do with it that's the tricky part. At least it's amusing. I should start a list of the best headlines for you. For now, I'll leave you with one of my favourites. It can be hilarious to see the levelling of all variety of "crimes" that happens with placement on the front page...

(Knitting continues at a blistering pace; I've finished both sleeves and the back of Grannie Smith and am nearly done the left front!)

Flea market weekend

2008-08-10T19:01:00.003-04:00

It has happened so rarely this year that yesterday afternoon was remarkable for its sheer summery-ness. My best friend Frootee and I got out of town -- we went to a giant outdoor flea market in St. Eustache. It was huge! There was tons and tons of new crap for sale -- cheap T-shirts, knock-off watches, perfume, faucets and showerheads, you name it -- as well as a few tables of food -- fruit and vegetables, baked goods, cheese curds. There were auto parts, golf clubs, fishing gear, and kitchen appliances. There was a life-sized motorcycle made out of wicker. There were puppies! Then there was all the old crap, which is what we were after. We pored over old dishes and vases and costume jewellery. Within an hour, Frootee was carrying a cardboard box filled with coffee mugs that resembled tree trunks, a pair of plastic sunglasses with "Max Headroom" printed all over them, and various other precious items. I forked out $4 for a necklace with three strands of giant blue baubles. (Neither of us bought an owl, for some reason -- maybe the display was too perfect to disrupt with a purchase.) When we came across draft beer being served out of a ten-foot apple, we headed back to the car to drop off the box, but when we got back the apple was closed. Still, we found beer being served elsewhere -- big plastic cups of Molson Ex for $3 -- so we bought our beer and kept walking around in the hot sunshine and agreed that it was the best summer day of the year.

Whoosh!

2008-08-06T14:51:00.005-04:00

A combination of rain and insomnia has led to plenty of evening and late-night knitting chez Brainy. I've already knit (and blocked) one Grannie Smith sleeve and am on my way through the second one. Of course, it helps that they are three-quarter-length sleeves, but still, lace is speedy!

Mooky and I are off to the vet in an hour. During a screaming middle-of-the-night catfight that took place across three different front yards the night before last, Mooky got slashed through the tongue, of all things. (Please, no "cat got your tongue" comments. Have mercy.) I can't tell the extent of the damage -- ever tried to look inside a cat's mouth? -- but I think at this point all that can be done is a dose of antibiotics. He's been able to slowly eat wet tuna, but a cat that can't lick himself is not a very happy cat. I'll let you know what happens....

Mid-summer round-up

2008-08-04T13:27:00.010-04:00

(I love Michelle's caption for this photo -- Stop: Mitten time!)

It's August, and I just finished my Vinterblomster mittens. They'd been done but for the thumbs for the last couple of months, and I finally picked them up and did it. I'm not madly in love with them, but I like them and I'll wear them. I like that they are lightweight (two layers of sock yarn). They would've looked better with a lighter grey, but no biggie. I'm glad they're done. When projects linger, I start to feel stressed out.

I also took a photo of my (languishing) February Lady Sweater, which I started knitting when I was out in B.C. -- and which I haven't touched since I got home. The wool is Peer Gynt, which is much coarsar than what most people have used for this sweater. I think it can work. If I ever work on it again.

Before I headed to Toronto two weeks ago, I told you I was talking a ball of alpaca and the pattern for Matilda. I spent most of the train ride working on that project, but it has since been frogged. The yarn (the mysterious alpaca I bought at Birkeland Bros. in Vancouver) was too heavy for what I wanted; plus I wasn't enjoying knitting with it because it was a little greasy and still had guard hairs in it. Who wants to knit with alpaca that isn't soft? Not me. Here's how Matilda looked on the train; I was enjoying the pattern, but that yarn was all wrong:

In the last few days I've started a brand-new project, and believe it or not, it's not a shawl. Remember when I bought a bunch of charcoal Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and thought I could crochet the Butterscotch Cardigan? Well, I made the back piece, and I ended up with 15 fewer stitches than I was supposed to have. Now, I think I could probably figure out how to do the decreases correctly, but I no longer feel the need to make this particular sweater. I still wanted to make a cardigan with this yarn, though, because I love the yarn (and because buying nine skeins of it was quite the splurge!). So I turned to a pattern I've loved for ages, and I started swatching. I knit swatches, washed and blocked them, and it all looked good.

So I'm now knitting a Grannie Smith Cardigan! I like the idea that I'm turning (char)coal into diamonds. :) I'm starting with a sleeve, and so far it's looking good. Actually, the pattern had me at the picot hem.

I still have plenty of shawls in my queue, of course, and when I was in Ancaster last week I bought a skein of alpaca/silk Fino in the prettiest shade of light blue.

Why do I never think to have yarn wound into a ball when I'm at the yarn store? Arrgh. I have a ball winder, but Bill is my swift, and 875 yards of laceweight can get a little challenging to wind.

My Flock of Triangles quilt is still on the go, too; I've hand-quilted around almost every triangle, so I'm hoping to be attaching the binding in a week or two.

Equally exciting, but in a different way, is that for the first time in many months I find myself wanting to do schoolwork! This past year was a real struggle for me -- to the point where I doubted that I belong in grad school -- but I think I've turned a corner. I've planned another research trip to Toronto for later this month, and in the meantime I'm reading and thinking and feeling (tentatively) much better about things. So if I'm not blogging as much, it's because I'm being productive with my research. Hallelujah for that.

Twist!

2008-08-01T13:02:00.002-04:00

The premiere issue of Twist Collective is now online, and it is so exciting! (I've already purchased the pattern for Miriam Felton's Cleite shawl. But the socks! And the sweaters! Fabulous.)

Of dishes and yarn

2008-07-22T23:34:00.005-04:00

Out running errands this afternoon, I just happened to find myself in a Frip-Prix thrift store (that name makes sense in French), where I found two excellent things:

1. Several nice plates -- that vitrified hotelware I'd mentioned recently; two dinner plates at 99 cents each, and three side plates for 49 cents each.

2. Three and a half balls of Pingouin Typhon, a chunky wool-mohair-acrylic blend, for 99 cents total. It's about 175 yards, and I'm thinking mittens.

(Our back porch is being resurfaced, and the concrete looks cool right now.)

I'm off to Toronto in the morning, where I'll be spending the rest of the week in the archives. Then on Sunday Bill and I are going to Hamilton for a few days. I'm not taking my laptop. I may or may not blog while I'm away, so don't be concerned if I don't. I've packed a ball of alpaca laceweight and a shawl pattern, so we'll see whether I get to that. Have a great week, and I'll be back soon.

FO: Flower Basket Shawl

2008-07-19T15:10:00.007-04:00

If you saw me this past Wednesday at NDG knitting night, this is what I was working on: the Flower Basket Shawl (by Evelyn A. Clark), from the fall 2004 issue of IK. (That issue is no longer available, but Fiber Trends sells the pattern.) I love how this turned out. I love the size: 49.5 inches across the top, by 24 inches deep at the point. I love the yarn: Handmaiden Mini Maiden (50% silk, 50% wool).

The pattern calls for laceweight yarn held double, knit on 4.5mm needles. The Mini Maiden is considered a fingering weight yarn, and I used a 4.0mm needle. I didn't want this shawl to be super open and airy; instead, I want to wear it as a warm scarf. The pattern calls for seven repeats of the basket lace chart, and I did ten repeats. I only used three-quarters of the skein, so I certainly could've knit more repeats, but I didn't want it to get too big. I think it turned out perfectly. In fact, my only complaint is that I cannot get these photos to show the true deep richness of the peacock-blue yarn. So forget the colour. Rest assured it is gorgeous. But so is the shawl, so here are a couple of faded photos for you:

Seeing the wrong colour drives me crazy, but the faded colour is just kind of pretty. It really sets off my priceless heirloom shawl pin, too, don't you think?

I'm thinking of casting on for an Icarus Shawl next, or maybe the Go Fly a Kite Shawl. Or can I hold out until Twist Collective goes live on August 1? Because they're going to have a shawl. (Hold your mouse over circles 44 and 29.) Which Twist previews are you most anticipating?

Personal Metal

2008-07-15T12:30:00.009-04:00

I did indeed go to a movie on Saturday afternoon, to the excellent documentary Global Metal. I don't know if it's showing widely, but if you get the chance to see it, you should go. I loved it. It totally rekindled a long-dormant affection I have for headbangers and heavy metal music. When I came out of the cinema (the Forum) I wandered into Future Shop and flipped nostalgically through the Metallica CDs; I couldn't choose between "Kill 'Em All," "Ride the Lightning," and "Master of Puppets," so I just wandered out again. Probably for the best.

I listened to heavy metal in high school, and I have this soft spot for certain late-'80s albums that, in my memory, are connected to certain boys. Because metal was definitely boys' music, and in high school, boys said what was good and what wasn't. In my group of friends, it was the boys who picked the music. Us girls made mixed tapes for our cars with girl songs by Salt 'n' Pepa and Pet Shop Boys, but in mixed company, boy music ruled. It was in the boys' basements that we would sit and listen to Kiss LPs and watch "Cliff 'Em All" over and over. It was because the boys said so that we knew Iron Maiden were amazing and brilliant and that Slayer was a kick-ass deadly band. It was at the boys' urging that a bunch of us travelled to Seattle to see Metallica during their Damaged Justice tour in the summer of 1989 (although us girls went to Calgary to see the show again, without the boys).* At our high school graduation ceremony, "Orion" was piped into the arena while we all marched out in our caps and gowns.

None of this seemed gender-oppressive at the time. These boys were so passionate about music that it made me love music, too. And us girls had a blast at those Metallica shows; we held our own in the mosh pits and banged our heads so hard that we couldn't move our necks all the way home. We bought the T-shirts and had crushes on the musicians (for me, it was Jason Newstead), but we really did like the music, too. From the boys I learned how to really listen to music and how to talk about music and take it seriously. They made me mixed tapes and really wanted to know what I thought of the songs. And when I came across Jane's Addiction and the Pixies in Grade 12 I knew that I'd started to find my music. (And when I went by myself to see both bands play at the PNE Forum in 1990, with Primus, all the boys were jealous.)

Over the last 20 years, I've been introduced to lots of different music by boys, but increasingly by other ladies, too. I've met women who are musicians and critics and serious fans. And I haven't listened to metal in a very long time. (Probably my last close encounter was at an all-day concert in the summer of 2004 on Fulong Beach outside of Taipei where Andrew W.K. played. I don't know if he's technically considered metal, but he's certainly freaking loud.) But I suspect I'll always have a mushy fondness for metal and the boys who love it. Global Metal is about both of those things, and I left the theatre on Saturday feeling exhilarated in that way that can only come from spending an hour and a half in the presence of really, really noisy music. (Seriously, watch the trailer.)

Link: interview with the filmmakers on CBC-TV's The Hour

Link: "I'm a huge metal fan" T-shirt

* My mind is blown a little bit right now. I vaguely remember cameras swooping around during the Metallica show in Seattle, and now there are all kinds of videos on YouTube of that show. I was there! I was right at the front, actually, so if you see a sweaty girl among all those sweaty boys, it might be me. :)

Happiness is a good skirt

2008-07-12T13:16:00.009-04:00

Now this is more like it. My basic summer uniform is T-shirts/tank tops and skirts, so why haven't I been making skirts? Making a skirt is easy! I made this one yesterday. I got the fabric at Ikea, of all places -- $7.99 a meter, and it's wide enough that one meter was enough. It's superheavy cotton, like a heavy denim or canvas, so this is a solid year-round skirt. (I like a sturdy fabric on the bottom half, holding everything in.) I like that the fabric pattern looks like it could be sprigs of berries, or it could be microscopic creatures of some kind.

I used the skirt pattern from Sew U, size large. In Sew U sizes, my hip measurement is large and my waist is off the charts, so I just made the large size without sewing any of the waist darts. I wanted the skirt to sit low, and I certainly didn't want it to be tight (two words: muffin top), and by omitting the darts I ended up with the right shape for my body. It just meant I had to cut my own facing pieces rather than using the pattern pieces, which is easy enough to do. I put the facing on the outside, just for visual interest, with the fabric pattern flipped vertically:

Next time I'll reduce the width of the pattern by an inch or so. I was so determined not to make this skirt too small that it's a tiny bit too big. (I also think that I, like lots of women, think I'm bigger than I really am.) Bill thinks I should make it shorter, too, but ... he's a boy. Also, I'll make the next one more A-line. I'm thrilled with my first skirt, though -- I'm already looking forward to wearing it with boots in the fall.

Have a great weekend! The humidity is creeping back into Montreal. Ugh. I think I'll escape it today by going to a matinee.

Quilt Rescue Society, world headquarters

2008-07-10T19:17:00.007-04:00

Oops, I did it again. I bought a quilt this afternoon -- for $15, seemingly my magic number when it comes to old quilts. This one was at Value Village. I hadn't been to la boutique VV in a while, but I was having a grumpy day (the result of three terrible nights' sleep, which were in turn the result of horrible humidity), and that's somewhere I go to cheer up. And it worked! Because this is what I found there, as seen on my backyard clothesline:

It's very thin -- I think it has a sheet of flannel instead of batting inside. The back is plain white, with yellow-orange binding from the front. All the sewing was done on a machine. It also has some small rips and tears. I haven't washed it yet (which is why the price tag is still on it, just above the centre there). I love the cheerful colours, and there are some fun fabrics -- polka dots, etc.

I didn't measure it, but I'd guess it's for a double bed. I think we'll use it to sit on outside. In the meantime, I'm just going to keep looking at it out on the clothesline, where it is blowing back and forth and brightening my day (and my neighbours'? and yours?).

Another orphaned-quilt-finds-a-home success story!

I made a shirt. It's OK.

2008-07-07T20:11:00.007-04:00

I sewed this shirt yesterday, from the basic Sew U shirt pattern. Even though I sewed the size (large) that best matched my measurements, I think it's a little too big. I think the size might work in a drapier fabric, but with this 100% cotton I'd like it a little more fitted. I know I could alter it, and maybe I will. I do like the fabric (just some basic cotton from Fabricville):

I did the buttonholes today, and I'm quite pleased with them, except they're a little too big -- easy to fix with some bigger buttons. Anyway, there you go. It's a shirt. It's fine. I like sewing quilts better.

[And with that, I promptly got up, got my camera and my quilt-in-progress, and came back outside to take some photos. Then I went into the kitchen and made Bill and I each a vodka-tonic, and now I'm back out on the porch. It's a lovely summer evening. But I digress...]

A bit of the front, and a bit of the back. I'm quite pleased with my hand-stitching. I'm using a leather thimble this time, which I'm finding works well. (With the previous baby quilt that I quilted by hand, I used a metal thimble.) I'm not sure what to do with the binding. I'd originally thought I'd use a solid yellow, but then I thought maybe red would work. I have both. I guess I'll see what strikes me when I get to that point.

Did you notice I got my hair cut? I'm growing out my bangs, which means I'll probably wear them pinned up all summer, but at least the rest can look good. It's kind of hard to take a picture of the back of your own head, but I did my best:

Oh, the skirt in the photo up top? I got in in Vancouver at Smoking Lily; the woman in the store said the print was copied from a vintage plate.

Well! That post was a little bit of everywhere, wasn't it?

Quilted inspiration

2008-07-05T13:07:00.007-04:00

1. in its new home!, 2. Celebration, 3. Orange and Brown quilt, 4. Doll Quilt Swap I: received, 5. Safety for Birds, 6. Vintage Quilt, 7. Finished Quilt, 8. Paletas Quilt - Finished!, 9. bento box quilt, 10. hourglass quilt, 11. finished quilt, 12. double wedding ring quilt, 13. aqua red babyquilt , 14. Zig-zag quilt., 15. Numbers quilt, 16. it's done!!!

I'm working on my Flock of Triangles quilt again! I'd gotten stalled after finishing the quilt top in May, because the quilt top was wider than the fabric I'd bought for the quilt back. But earlier this week -- on Canada Day, actually -- I took up the project again. I patched three pieces together to make the right size of a backing, and I made the quilt sandwich and basted it together with safety pins. Since then I've been hand-quilting just inside the edges of each white triangle. It's so much fun. I'm about a third of the way through the triangles -- just starting in the middle and sewing out from there -- and then I'll probably also do the vertical lines as shown in the book.* I want to finish the whole thing by the end of July, because Bill's sister is coming to visit, and not only is she a quilter extraordinaire,** but she's the one who sent those yellow fat quarters to me that were the basis of this quilt.

I know that ideally one is supposed to use some kind of frame or hoop while hand-quilting, in order to keep the layers together and taut, but does everybody do that? If you think it's really important to do that, please stop reading. Here's how I do it: I sit on the couch with the pinned-together quilt sandwich heaped on my lap. It seems to work just fine.

* OMG, while looking for the link to the Denyse Schmidt book, I found this Single Girl Quilt pattern. Love it.

** Note to self: Photograph and blog about the amazing quilt Debbie made Bill and me several years ago.

More finds

2008-07-02T16:45:00.008-04:00

Just in case you've come over from looking at Rachael's smashing new dress and you're into thrift shopping, I'll give you some thrift shopping. (And if you didn't click over from there, I'll happily wait while you go and look at Rachael's smashing new dress.)

Melamine (a.k.a. Melmac, although I think that's a brand name) is a relatively recent collectible for me. For many years I've collected vitrified china made for use in diners and hotels, but that stuff is harder and harder to find nowadays. Melamine, however, can often be found -- although the prettiest colours are harder to come by -- and it's often cheap because the people who set the prices figure it's "just plastic." The photo above shows my haul from four different thrift stores in Vancouver and Penticton, B.C. Most pieces were 25 cents each, but I paid $4 for the cream-and-sugar set. Now I've added these to the turquoise bowls I already had at home, as well as a mint-green cream-and-sugar set, a black lidded bowl, two yellow cereal bowls, some avocado-green bowls, and a pink covered butter dish. It's such a cheerful collection!

(Click that one for a closer look.)

Happy Canada Day!

2008-07-01T09:58:00.003-04:00

Mooky's taking the day off, for a change.

New yarn

2008-06-28T14:44:00.005-04:00

When I was out west, I wanted to buy yarn that was at least a little bit local -- that originated from B.C. animals, or was spun and/or dyed there. I'm happy with what I ended up with: yarns that speak to me (and will remind me) of the west coast.

This wool is really special. Remember the sheep photos in this post? Those sheep (specifically, the white ewes in that group of sheep) made this wool. They live on Cortes Island; a lovely woman named Joy raises them and dyes the wool (which is spun at a mill in Alberta). Each skein measures about 50 meters; I thought I'd make striped mittens with these colours.

At left is a 820-yard skein of laceweight silk (Silk Tree yarn #60), which I bought at the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island, in Vancouver (where I watched silkworms munching on mulberry leaves for a while). It's very thin and has a thready feel.

At right is a skein of Handmaiden silk-wool Mini Maiden, which is dyed in Vancouver (by Fleece Artist's daughter). I bought it at a cute shop called Mad About Ewe (no website? really?) in Nanaimo. I think I'll use it for a Flower Basket Shawl (Ravelry link).

And in the middle is a ball of laceweight alpaca that I bought at Birkeland Bros. Wool in Vancouver. (That store has really changed and now carries tons of yarns.) This yarn had no label, but I was told it came from Golden Fleece Alpacas in Mission, B.C.

And that's it! Clearly I'm all about teal and lace, either separately or together.

Plus, while I was gone...

1. Holy February Lady Sweater! According to Ravelry, about eleventy gazillion knitters are working on Pam's awesome EZ-based design, including me. Many are using soft, pretty yarns; me, I'm using slightly scratchy wool. I like the idea of the juxtaposition of lace and heavy wool -- like a winter bed jacket for a pioneer woman. I'm not entirely sure it's going to work; plus, due to increasing humidity, I may put this whole project away for a few months. (No need for progress photos, since my version is solid black.)

2. I thought I'd lost her! But Cari, formerly of Dogs Steal Yarn, is not gone -- just moved to a new spot: Dispatches from Utopia. Whew!

3. I had a look at this here blog from a few different computers, and much to my horror, the colours in all the photos looked really bright and garish. Everything looks perfect on my laptop. How do things look to you? Have I been posting garishly coloured pictures lo these many years? Or is my computer right and everything looks OK?

Alpacas!

2008-06-23T14:20:00.007-04:00

Welcome to the second annual post of the Brainylady Alpaca Appreciation Society (an acronym more suited to sheep, but it will do...). Some of you may recall that my parents live up the road from alpacas, and you may even remember last year's inaugural BAAS post, which can be viewed here. My visit this year is a few weeks later than last year's, resulting in two major differences: haircuts and babies! (Among the alpacas, I mean.)

Aren't they funny, with their mop tops and furry legwarmers? As of yesterday evening, there were three babies, but they tend to hang back and stay close to their mamas. The other ones are pretty friendly. I love all their colours; I match them to yarns, like, "Oh, the skein of Touch of Twist I got at Rhinebeck must've come from an alpaca that looked like this one...." I bought a skein of laceweight chocolate-brown alpaca when I was in Vancouver, which apparently came from a farm in Mission, B.C.

You don't think anyone would notice if I just took one little alpaca and put it in my pocket, do you? Bill, can we keep him? Can we? Can we?

I fly home tomorrow. I'll show you my new yarn soon, plus a few more thrift finds. It's been a good trip, a very full three weeks. Now that it's summer, I actually feel ready to get back to the libraries and embark on thesis research. Big plans, big plans...

A find

2008-06-19T15:41:00.007-04:00

I have long maintained that thrifting in B.C. -- and particularly in small-town B.C. -- can't be beat. When I was in Vancouver last week I spotted a vintage quilt in the window of a shop on Commercial Drive; they wanted about $100, and it wasn't something I couldn't live without, so I left it there. Then, last Sunday, I went to a flea market just off Highway 97 in Summerland, and lo and behold, there was the quilt I couldn't live without. For $20. Yes, please.

I brought it back to my mom and dad's, washed it, and hung it out on their clothesline. I'm no quilt expert, but I'm thinking it is probably from the 1930s or 1940s. (Any confirmation or other guesses are more than welcome.) A scrap quilt, with bits of solids and prints, and even eyelet lace strips. Hand-quilted, of course. I didn't measure it, but I think it would fit a single bed. Can anyone tell me the name of this fan-style quilt block pattern?

It needs a little TLC; you can see the frayed edges, and there are already a couple of patches on it. My favourite part is that pink fabric around the edge. I'll have to figure out if I should patch it or just try to sew up the holes.

I was happy to find a quilt shop in Penticton earlier this week, where I bought four nice fat quarters for ... something.

And now I'm off to do some more thrifting this afternoon! Oh, and I may have already cast on for a February Lady Sweater, like the rest of the knitting universe. More on that in the next post, where I'll show you my west-coast yarn purchases.

Speaking of the west coast, how about those severed feet?

More photos

2008-06-15T16:20:00.010-04:00

Another visual update, with more highlights from Vancouver (again, click to embiggen) ...

(It's the lovely and talented Mandy! Happy day!)

And now I'm at my parents' place in the Okanagan. Ahhhh. For now, I will only say this, and listen carefully: If you happen to find yourself visiting your hometown, and you offer to do some shopping for your mother on a Sunday morning and decide it doesn't matter that your bangs are kind of greasy, you may just find yourself a few feet away from the boy you had a mad crush on in high school, and then you will regress a couple of decades and pretend you didn't see him, and you will turn and walk away, cursing both your vanity and your greasy bangs.

A visual update

2008-06-12T16:32:00.011-04:00

Here's a look at my West Coast trip so far -- in chronological order, with bonus shots for the foodies (and all pictures can be bigger with a click) ...

All is well with me -- and with you, too, I hope. xo

Yeehaw!

2008-06-02T12:02:00.004-04:00

I seem to have knit myself a neck kerchief! (...which makes me think of the Wild West, hence the yeehaw.) The lace-leftovers swap is underway, but I didn't use leftovers for this. At Rhinebeck last year, the ladies from Ariadne were handing out tiny sample skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Merino Lace. It turns out that with about 95 yards of laceweight yarn, one can knit a lace triangle that measures about 25 inches across the top -- big enough to wear as a kerchief. (I don't think I actually will wear it, since I'm not really a hot-pink kind of girl, but I could.)

Rather than a wearable object, I think of this triangle as a sampler. It enabled me to try a new yarn (colourway is Wild Cherries) and some new lace. I used Evelyn Clark's book, Knitting Lace Triangles, and did two 10-row repeats of Medallion Lace and one 20-row repeat of Ripple Lace. I learned that these two stitch patterns look good together, and I learned that the Ripple Lace looks sharp but wasn't very fun to do. (Did I mention it's a 20-row repeat?)

OK, I need to pack! Talk to you soon, from the west coast. Oh my goodness, I just realized I don't have anything to knit on the plane...

Quelle surprise.

2008-06-02T10:57:00.003-04:00

The forecast for Vancouver:

Wanty

2008-05-30T18:48:00.005-04:00

(That's worth clicking to embiggen.)

1. art wall., 2. Jen Duncan's super cute kitchen!, 3. Another new bargello, 4. Living room, 5. New (To Us) Sofa!, 6. Bedroom, 7. Apartment therapy, living room, 8. her casual living room, 9. Mirror collection, 10. Untitled, 11. thrifted quilt, 12. Dining room, 13. new credenza, 14. Stash corner, 15. dining room, 16. plates in display

I've been feeling wanty lately. Covetous. Just wishing that I was more settled in my life, that we could buy a little house, that I knew where we were going to end up living beyond 2010, that I had a little more money to spend on my surroundings, etc., etc. I don't like feeling this way, but at least I do know it will pass. In the meantime, I decided to spend a little time cruising around Flickr and feeding this demon of wantiness; what you see above represents that cruise. (I love seeing these mosaics on other blogs, but I'd never made one. Fun! I used this site, and I'll definitely be making more of these.) It's quite clear that I'm not a minimalist, right? I do like to live with my stuff around me. In my years of thrifting and sale-ing, I've managed to gather some stuff that I really love. I like groupings, and collections, and salon-style displays of art.

And don't get me wrong -- I do like lots of things about where I live now, and probably if somebody else came in and took some pictures in my house with a really nice camera, and put the pictures on Flickr, I'd be quite impressed. Because I'm a bit ridiculous. :)

I'll be writing a paper this weekend, and then on Tuesday I fly to Vancouver for a big conference. Once the conference is over, I'll be taking a holiday, visiting friends and family in different parts of B.C. I plan to knit, and crochet, and thrift, and sleep, and read for fun. I can't wait.

Golf socks for Bill

2008-05-28T17:13:00.004-04:00

A couple of summers ago, I knit two pairs of ankle socks for Bill to wear golfing; they were a smashing success, and he requested a new pair, which I just finished. He claims they are more comfortable and less sweaty than store-bought cotton socks, even though they are wool. A pair takes about one 50-gram ball of sock yarn -- I used wool/nylon Scheepjes Invicta Extra -- so this is a good stash-buster; plus I used yarn left over from Roza's Socks for the contrasting cuff.

No pattern, but here are my notes, in case you're interested:
- c.o. 68 (CC)
-8 rnds k2tbl,p2 rib
-1 rnd k all –> MC –> 5 rnds k all
-short-row heel on 34 (to 12)
-toe dec. every other rnd (to 24)

And that's it! Simple sockies. How happy am I that Bill prefers ankle socks to traditional golf stockings? Phew.

Smrt

2008-05-27T19:02:00.004-04:00

As you know, I'm getting a Ph.D. (Thanks for your comps congrats! Let's never even say the word "comps" again, OK?) So obviously, I'm real smart, right? Yeah. So let's take a look at a photo for a second:

I wanted to show you my new T-shirt, see, and clearly the best way to do that is to take a photo in a mirror. Honestly, it wasn't even until I pulled up the shots on my computer that I realized this would mean the print on the T-shirt would be backwards. Yes, I am living proof that book-smarts has nothing at all to do with being able to function in day-to-day life.

Fortunately, I have PhotoShop and can flip the photo so you can see the awesomeness of my new shirt:

In the days before I was to submit my ~~comps~~ paper which shall not be named, I was spending a lot of time on Ravelry because it was a much happier place than my brain was. It was in the midst of Ravelraising, so there was all kinds of stuff going on, and I happened to enter a contest and win a prize for my entry. It was a real boost at the time. Now, the day after defending my you-know-what, my prize has arrived in the mail! I'm now the happy owner of the aforementioned awesome T-shirt, which came from City Knitting, as well as the very spring-pretty skein of yarn I'm holding there, which is Anne Shirley (!) by Yarn Love, in the Serenity colourway. I'm very lucky. And, let's not forget, real damn smart, too.

Leftovers

2008-05-26T21:14:00.003-04:00

Yay, there are a dozen lace knitters willing to swap leftover yarn! I'm cutting it off now. Thanks, everyone who responded.

I defended my comps this morning, so that's done. Done! I've never been so relieved. Next step: thesis proposal (which will be so much more fun).

FO: Adamas Shawl

2008-05-23T16:12:00.009-04:00

My impatience got the better of me; when the sun came out for five minutes this afternoon, I clothespinned my shawl to the living room curtain and took a few pictures.

I'm pleased with the finished shawl. The pattern is clear and straightforward; I didn't change a thing. The yarn (Yarn Chef Buttercream merino) thrilled me from beginning to end, and I imagine I'll get some more sometime. Love it. And this is about as variegated as I'd want to get with a lace shawl.

I did try to model it for you, but there just really wasn't enough light. Here's the best one of those shots:

That's about all I have to say about that. One of these days when I'm wearing this shawl, I'll take a photo so you can see it in action. But, you know, I'm going to scrunch it up and wrap it around my neck like a scarf, and it will get stretched out and soft, and it might not look as pretty in a photo, but it will be a beautiful thing.

I used about 80 grams of yarn for this shawl, and it's a biggie: about six feet across the top and three feet deep at the point. So I have 20 grams left, which is about 176 yards, give or take a dozen yards. If you've knit a few shawls, you probably have small amounts of laceweight yarn left over, too. (I have a little over 100 yards of Zephyr wool-silk left from my Swallowtail Shawl, as well.) You've probably wondered, as I have, what to do with it. If so, and if you're on Ravelry, allow me to direct your attention to this mini lace triangle, made with just 94 yards of laceweight merino. So cute! (Sorry, non-Ravelers; the knitter's blog is here, but she hasn't posted about the mini shawl -- not yet, anyway.)

And here's what I'm thinking. I don't want to organize a big thing, but if there are a few lace knitters out there who have about 100 yards of laceweight lying around, shall we have a little trade? And then we can knit little neck triangles? I think it would be a fun way to try a new yarn and to use up some leftovers. OK, I'm making this up as I go along, but how about this: if you'd like to be part of a Laceweight Leftovers trade, send me an e-mail (brainylady[at]hotmail[dot]com) over the weekend, with "mini-shawl yarn swap" in the subject line. (You can leave a comment, of course, but stupid Blogger won't give me your e-mail address and I'd want to be able to reply.) Depending on the level of interest, I'll figure out the details for a wee swap-ola.

(Please note: This would in no way be a Big Deal! Leftovers only! No buying new stuff allowed! None of that swap-insanity where people spend a gazillion dollars adding extra shit to a package of yarn!! In fact, the amount of yarn should be small enough that it could be smushed and flattened and stuffed into a pretty small envelope for a reasonable amount of postage.)

Anyone?

Floored

2008-05-21T13:01:00.005-04:00

My Adamas shawl is finished, but I'm certainly not going outside to model it for you -- it's windy and rainy and only 10 degrees out there! (That's 50 American degrees.) So watch for the next post; the shawl is lovely. The colours! The lace! All will be revealed!

That's all, really. I just wanted to check in. OK, I'm going to wrap my chilly fingers around a hot cup of coffee now....

In the backyard

2008-05-14T12:11:00.008-04:00

Part 1: Blanket

Bill (from the back porch): Ali, come here!
Me: OK. [Off I go...]
Bill (pointing next door): Look at the crocheted blanket. Isn't it pretty, hanging in the sunlight? I really like it.
Me: I like it, too. And I'm proud of you.
Bill: Why, because I'm showing you a blanket?
Me: No, because you know it's crochet. [pause] Is it legal to photograph your neighbour's laundry?

Part 2: Tulips

Mooky and I walked around the backyard the other day looking at all the lovely tulips that have burst open recently.

It almost feels like summer already, but I hope spring stays for a little while.

Mah kwilt

2008-05-12T18:49:00.004-04:00

Lookee what I finished this afternoon!

Sewing the triangles together into rows was reasonably straightforward, but sewing the rows together got a little tricky; I did quarter-inch seams for all the triangles, but the triangle points got cut off when I sewed the first two rows together with a quarter-inch seam, so I had to use only an eighth of an inch. (Scary! Please don't come apart!) I still lost a few pointy points, but you can't really tell unless you're looking -- which I know you are, so here's a closer shot:

I would never have thought to use yellows, but Bill's sister (who is an amazing quilter) sent me some fat quarters for Christmas, including the dogs and the sailors. So I found the other yellows in various places, and I'm very pleased. This will be such a cheery little quilt! The yellows are very warm. This is quite a bit bigger than my previous two quilts, but still just crib sized; this top measures about 46 inches by 54 inches. I'm not really looking forward to putting the layers together, because I don't really enjoy crawling around on the floor, but I'll do that next and then start hand-quilting.

Elements of a good Saturday

2008-05-11T11:16:00.002-04:00

Véronik, coffee, driving, Ottawa, craft sale, cross-stitch pins and buttons, Miss Twiss, Robyn, vegan peanut-butter cups, sunshine, walking, giant used-book store, Byward Market, memories, carrot and celery sticks, more walking, more sunshine, Jennifer, the Manx Pub, beers and smoked-tofu wraps, stories of dogs and cats, talk of books and TV and movies, more coffee, more driving, home, sleep.