Partial FOs

I got started on some of my xmas knitting. And since there are quite a few pairs of socks to be done, I figured that if I do them 1 sock/pair at a time, instead of both right away I might avoid SSS (second sock syndrome). Although it could just end up that I have multiple people with just one sock for xmas as well. (let's hope not).

My first FO is not actually for Xmas but for my brother's birthday in late september. He mentioned to me that he started wearing tuques all the time (summer, winter, whenever). I thought that this was the perfect occasion to finally make him something since I never really knew if he would appreciate a knitted item or not. I decided on the Karma Hat in Rowan Felted Tweed. It took me one day to complete, very fast and I have lots of yarn left (I over estimated) . I will probably make more possibly for myself.

I also finished a Heavy Sock with Briggs and Little Tuffy; I started knitting these on my way to Maine, it's what I'm knitting on the beach. These will be for one of my grandfather's for

These socks are going to be bullet-proof.

Next I finished one of the 3x3 Cable with Moss Stitch socks by Charlene Schurch. These are for my grandmom for xmas

Alpacas & Apples

Sept 7 was la journée Portes ouvertes sur les fermes du Québec. Basically certain farms in Quebec open their doors to the public for tours and info sessions and whatnot.

I heard the announcement for it on the radio one morning while I drove JF to work and when I came home I decide to look it up to see if there was anything that I'd be interested in visiting. At first I was thinking a sheep farm, but then I realized that most sheep farms in quebec are mainly for meat. I didn't particularly like this idea, especially considering I find mutton and lamb to be utterly disgusting. I kept looking and I discovered that there was an alpaca farm not too far from home and just down the street from that was an Apple Orchard. I love alpacas and apple picking so this made for the perfect outing.

Our first stop was the alpaca farm where we got to interact with two male alpacas. (they're so soft). The farm is Alpagas des hauts Vents. The older one was really not happy he stood in the middle of the pen the whole time and wouldn't let anyone touch him.

This is Romeo.
This was Romeo's son, I don't remember his name. I got to touch him and feed him.
The females and babies were in a seperate area.

There was a small boutique on site where they sold mostly items made from alpaca but they did have a small selection of yarn. Some of it was from North American alpacas but I chose the yarn that is spun from the alpacas on this farm (very local). Here's what I got:

Two skeins of 100% alpaca lace weight
100% alpaca worsted.

After the visit with the alpacas we headed for McMillan Orchards. I got some really nice pictures.

We got a big bag full of beautiful apples which I'm sure will be used for deliciousness.

On the way home I happened to see a flock of sheep by the side of the road. JF turned the car around so we could see them, there were apple trees near by so we decided to see if they'd be interested in some apple:

JF feeding them apple.

One of them got really close to check us out.
JF took this one as we were leaving. I just thought it was neat.

Overall a pretty good day. I really enjoyed the two activities. I will be sure and check it out again next year.

My Birthday

For my birthday this year JF offered to take me on a road trip. I desperately wanted to see the Ocean (I miss it so much), so I decided to go somewhere in New England. After a little bit of research I almost chose Boston, but then decided on Maine, since it's so pretty and apparently has quite a few yarn shops.

We took the scenic route down and drove into Portland to check out yarn shops (Central yarn Shop, Knit Wit and Seaport Yarns) and in the evening we took a little Ferry Cruise around Casco Bay. We decided to stay at a B&B about an hour outside of Portland in Kittery where the Outlet Malls are (we were within walking distance to the mall).

On my birthday we went to one of the beautiful beaches along the coast (I can't remember which one) and we shopped at The Yarn Sellar. I had seafood for both lunch and dinner (MMMMM!!!!). In the evening we did some outlet shopping, but only had 2 hours so we didn't actually get a lot done. (I hit Old Navy and got an awesome argyle cardigan in pinks and green Oh my!). We did the rest of the outlets on our last day and then drove all the way back home.

Here are some highlights:

Beautiful sunset on Casco Bay.
There was a spinning wheel in my B&B room. (hehe)

Knitting on the beach.

I did a lot of yarn shopping because I set out to buy most of my yarn for Xmas knitting (everyone is getting something knitted this year, yes I'm that crazy). Here is the haul:

Berroco Ultra Alpaca in (l-r) Plum Mix, Salt & Pepper, Cardinal, Peat Mix, & Winter White.
The purple and green are to be the Icewine Mittens for my Aunt and the rest I just had to have.
Cascade 220 in green for a hat for my cousin.
Rowan Felted Tweed in Phantom for a hat for my brother's bday.
Some Baby Cashmerino in blue for my mom for gloves and the red is mine.

Plymouth Galway Colornep for Koolhaas hats for JF's parents and Galway Paint for some felted slilppers for my grandmother and JF's grandmother.
Berroco Touché for an Anouk for our friends baby girl.
Sock yarn (l-r) Oasis Aussi Sock in grey for my dad, Colinette Jitterbug in October Afternoon for myself (I just loved the colours) & Jojoland Melody superwash for me(interesting and cheap).

My birthday also brought an awesome gift from Robyn. I only photographed the yarn but included was also some awesome Sheep themed oven mitts and pot holders, some candles, a couple of interesting drink mixes, a wip/notions pouch and this awesome pendant:

from http://jessejanes.etsy.com
the yarn. Some lovely green mystery merino and Colinette Jitterbug in Ginger cinnabar (I was eyeing this in her shop).

Thanks so much Robyn I love it all!

Finished Baby Sweater, Hat and Booties

I finally finished the baby sweater that I was knitting and I decided to knit a matching Hat and 2 pairs of booties as well to make a cute set.

Details:
Sweater

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (February) by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy - Some Summer Sky
Needles: US 3 / 3.25 mm
Made for: Éloïse
Timeline: July 9th, 2008 - Aug 15th, 2008
Modifications: Did sleeves in the round

Hat

Pattern: February Baby Hat by teeweewonders
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy - Some Summer Sky
Needles: US 3 / 3.25 mm
Made for: Éloïse
Timeline: Aug 15th, 2008 - Aug 22nd, 2008
Modifications: None
Bootees

Pattern: Mary Jane Saartje's by Starry
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy - Some Summer Sky
Needles: US 2.5 / 3.0 mm
Made for: Éloïse
Timeline: Aug 22nd, 2008 - Aug 22nd, 2008
Modifications: For the bigger pair I cast on more stitches and followed everything else.

I actually did enjoy knitting this sweater once it stopped kicking my ass.

JF's birthday cake

I totally forgot to post about the cake I made. I decided to have a surprise birthay party for JF since he spent his actual birthday in Japan. He has an affinity for lego, it's a childhood thing he didn't have much of an exciting/fun childhood but lego was the one thing he remembers that he loved. Today he still buys the expert sets, and it allows him to connect with his inner child which is never a bad thing. I found the recipe here. Here are the pics of my version:

It was really fun to make and it took a little time but the result was worth it. Everyone was amazed. The blue was really bad for staining the teeth and tongue but otherwise excellent. If you have a lego lover in your family I recommend this recipe.

Random New Stash

I'm really bad about blogging about my new stash purchases. I don't even think about it. I did the photography for a bunch of new stuff I had bought and I realized that I should also blog about it. Some of this stuff I've had for months.

First is some Rowan Summer Tweed, I traded this with Jessie for some of the stitch markers that I sell at Ariadne. (I do plan on getting them in an etsy shop as well, I just haven't found the time for that yet).

Colourway: Dew (it has flecks of blue, yellow and pink)

I got the June Sock Club from Robyn's Nest, and even though everyone has already seen this yarn because of the fact that the Yarn Harlot blogged about it, I will still show you it.


Next is the yarn that JF brought back from Japan for me. He really didn't know what to get and wasn't about to buy a lot cause maybe he would make a mistake on colour or fibre content so he just brought 1 ball. It is very nice though.

Munswell Merino 150 Queen. It's 40g of 100% superwash merino. It's sockweight so I will probably find another sockweight yarn in brown or white to go with it.

As is probably getting a little obvious, I'm getting a little obsessed with Dream in Color yarn. I loved the way my Monkey socks knit up and decided that I had to get myself more of the yarn. I got the following three colours.

Happy Forest - destined to be socks for me.

Pansy GoLightly - destined to be socks for my grandmother for xmas.

Some Summer Sky - already being made into a Baby sweater.

I was craving a semi-solid pink yarn and I wasn't loving either of the Dream in Color pinks and then Robyn showed me this:

Colinette Jitterbug - Whirlyfig

And last but definitly not least is some Frog Tree Alpaca singles. I wanted to try a 100% alpaca yarn after my problems with Mohair. I really hope I am not allergic because I have enough Warani (50% alpaca, 50% merino) for a sweater. This will probably become yet another pair of fair isle mittens.


It is possible that I've forgotten some things but if you want to see everything in my stash click here to see my stash (Ravelry link)

Briggs and Little Tuffy

So I promised that I would blog about the Briggs and Little Tuffy that I bought while I was in Newfoundland. I kept forgetting to photograph it but finally remembered late last week.

Here it is:

Instead of showing a pic of all of them seperately I decided to do it like this. From bottom left:
Oatmeal, Smoke, Oxford, Cocoa, Blue Mix, Blue Jeans, Anniversary Twist (not Tuffy), Ecru, Red Mix and Forest Green.

The skein of Anniversary Twist is the same lot as my CPH because I bought it at the same store. She was still running the $1.50 a skein as long as you buy 2 other skeins. I couldn't resist. The rest was bought a little all over the place wherever I could find it. I figure this will become a couple of nice pairs of fair-isle socks & mittens.

February Baby Sweater

So I know I should be updating more, but I really do have an excuse, I hadn't been knitting much and then over the weekend my computer decided it was going to die. Luckily I had done a backup as I was preparing for a reformat. Now that I am once again functional I can post some progress.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have another baby to knit for. JF's best friend & wife are having a baby so I decided to try the February Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman. This pattern and I do not get along. Don't get me wrong the pattern is written correctly but EZ's simple style is apparently too simple for this knitter. I frogged the yoke 3 times before finally getting it right. (Note to self: 4 ridges = 8 rows). I know this but my brain kept processing 4 rows.

Here is my progress now that it finally looks like something.


The sweater is knit from the top and you are supposed to do the sleeves flat but I decided that I didn't really want to seam lace.

Close-up of Gull lace pattern.

Now that it's working I'm really liking the pattern. I'm a little worried that it will be small but I'm gonna block the crap out of it and hope for the best. I'm using Dream In Color Smooshy in colourway Some Summer Sky.

The Little Birdie

I decided that I would start another project with my Mohair scarf gone. At first I was going to do the Norwegian Mittens by Elizabeth Zimmermann but I can't seem to find my copy of The Knitters Almanac. This probably just means that my office got hungry cause it's a really big mess in here. I joined the bandwagon that is the Bird in Hand mittens and while it is not technically my first fair-isle project, it is the first fair-isle project since I've become a more experienced knitter (my very first knitting project was fair-isle, because I absolutely wanted a pair of snowflake mittens, they were acrylic and I only ever did one). I am enjoying it, although the braid did kick my ass at first, once I actually read the instructions properly I had no more worries.

Here is my progress:


I haven't actually knit much on it since I took these pictures a few days ago, but then again, I won't actually need them for at least a few months. I'm thinking about getting started on Christmas gifts. Also I have a few more babies I want to knit for.

In other news, check out my Meez on the sidebar and tell me what you think.. (Click on my blog link if you're looking at this in Bloglines). It might not stay for a long time, because I am thinking about getting a logo designed.

WIPs june

Ok, so I'm finally caught up. More or less anyway.

As I mentioned a little earlier, JF is now away in Japan and has been for almost 2 weeks. I can't wait till he's back cause it really sucks being alone all day and night. The bright side of this is that is has allowed me to drive a lot more than I ever thought I would. You see back in April we invested in a new car. We decided together that it would be an automatic because I find the manual transmission to be unnecessarily complicated. I hadn't gotten to drive much because JF wanted me to get some practice while I was in Newfoundland (which I did) and then he would add me to the insurance. When I got back he kept forgetting to do it and we just kept putting off getting me to drive. When we found out that he would be going to Japan for 3 weeks we put everything into motion for me to get as much practice as possible so that I would be free to use the car while he was gone. I kind of thought that I would be the kind of person that just didn't like to drive. Apparently it was just because I really had never practiced enough. Since he's been gone I've even driven in Montreal and on the highways and I'm actually starting to enjoy myself while driving.

Anyway this is a knitting blog so I'll update you guys all on that. The first bit of knitting news is an FO which is actually a little older but it had to wait until a certain baby showed his face to the world. First of all I'd like to Congratulate Robyn on a second beautiful boy; Who I am falling in love with.

I also made Mackenzie a Trellis set:



Next is a very disappointing WIP now traded project due to an apparent mohair allergy.



I absolutely loved this and although I'm not sure I would've been able to wear it due to extreme warmth, I really enjoyed it and was enjoying knitting it as well. Unfortunately I realized while knitting it that my allergies were going crazy and it was the only thing that had changed. As soon as I stopped knitting it my allergies went back to normal as well. Fortunately I was able to give this to a good knitting friend, Madeleine (ravelry), who liked the colours, the yarn and the design.

Finally I decided to finally cast on Mona's Embossed Leaves (ravelry). I've been meaning to knit this pattern for a while, I just never got around to doing it. A while back I had bought some Cherry Tree hill from the girls at Ariadne in Mint Green. So I decided to cast on for my very own Embossed Mint Leaves socks!


I'm liking how they're knitting up, I am not liking the fact that I can't seem to memorize the pattern, but it's ok because they're knitting up fast despite this.

I'll leave you with a picture of Mackenzie and I since he is so darn cute.