hints of the changing season

Bow Falls Fingering - Dandelion

I'm not quite ready to admit summer is over but there are definitely some signs that the fall season is imminent:

• the days are getting shorter;  it's dark by 8pm
• the leaves are starting to change colour
• people are dressed in long pants and sweaters
• there are shows on TV that aren't reruns
• the kids are back in school
• hockey season starts soon
• it's time to cast on a new pair of socks

WIP Wednesday

one fan - it's a start!

Turns out ripping out a finished sweater is a lot more work than I thought. Sewn in ends, stitched seams and added button bands make the ripping out very time consuming and tedious! So far I've ripped out one side of the front and one sleeve - enough yarn to get started on squares.

The pattern, Swirling Fans Throw, is made up of crocheted blocks assembled with a border. What I hadn't realized was that for each block you crochet the fan shape, then finish off and restart to add a border to square up the block. FOUR ENDS per SQUARE - no fair! The first square is pretty wobbly but I'm confident that assembly and the final border will firm the whole thing up. It will, won't it?

The baby girl is due at the beginning of October, so I'd better get a move on with this! Mom and Dad are in South Africa so a lacy cotton pink blanket seems just the thing. But it does mean I have to factor in a couple weeks for shipping. Yikes, I'd really better get a move on!

This post is part of Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday meme. Have a look here to see lots more fun and interesting projects. After all, you can always find room in your queue for more patterns, right?

knitting squares

After several days of tiny hats on tiny needles, I had an urge to knit worsted weight. Looking through my stash I came across several balls of Patons Classic Wool Merino originally purchased with the Warm Hands Network in mind. But recently the Warm Hands Network changed their specifications - now that the band councils have purchased washers and dryers for most households, they prefer superwash wool instead - so what to do with all this handwash-only wool?

Within the discussions of Ravelry's "The Greater Good" group there is a thread with links to various charities requesting knitted goods. There I came across a request for 8" squares from wool for Knit-A-Square - just the perfect project for this yarn!

The trick, I'm told, to keeping your squares square is to knit them as mitred squares. I've followed this pattern with 74 stitches to start on 4mm needles and the result is a perfect 8" square. If I'd known how easy mitred squares are to knit, I'd have been knitting them and contributing them long before now! Another great thing about mitred squares? The rows get shorter as you go along. Love that!

My plan is to knit up all this wool into squares and then send it off. It'll take a couple weeks I think, but I figure I should be able to get about 20 squares out of the wool I have on hand. The only decision left: thick stripes, thin stripes, or uneven stripes?

my big knit

25  wee hats !!

How cute are they? For the last couple of days I've been finishing up my hats for Innocent's Big Knit. My coworker Andrea spent a few days mass producing pompoms; I've finally made up the corresponding hats. Look closely - lots of different "peerie" patterns there. It was kind of fun to experiment with all these little Fair Isle patterns this way. Now they're all boxed up and ready to go. None too soon either; the deadline for hats is October 14th and these have a long way to travel.

It's a great way to use up scrap yarn from my stash. Last year's hats were all from leftover DK, this year, I've made inroads on my stash of baby yarn. With these hats complete I've used up the last of the green, yellow and purple, and used half of the orange.

It's a holiday Monday in honour of Labour Day but thanks unsettled weather - threatening skies and cold, gusty winds - we've had to change our plans. Looks like a day of quilting and knitting before heading out to my sister's for supper ;)

Come Blog Along Pattern 02 Post 06

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

There's an old Chinese proverb that I'm sure you're familar with: better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. For the last few weeks I've been cursing the darkness. I've struggled to make any progress with this second sock because the light in my living room was insufficient to see the intricate stitches of this pattern clearly with this dark yarn.

Suddenly it occurred to me to sit on the other side of the living room in the Barca Lounger usually reserved for company. Doh! The recliner is directly below a bank of pot lights providing light from above and behind the person sitting there. Perfect!

With a handful of productive hours of knitting this week, I've turned the heel of the second sock and made good progress on the foot. And I'm confident that I can finish the sock before the end of the holiday Monday and get started on pattern #3. Much better than cursing the darkness, isn't it!?!

Finished Object Friday

CeCe is done! It's a beautiful pattern and the resulting cardigan is also beautiful - I'd highly recommend it. When you're doing raglan decreases and neck decreases at the same time, you do need to keep track of where you are, but otherwise the pattern's not nearly as difficult as it looks. In fact the lace pattern is just eight rows (four pattern rows + four rest rows) across nine stitches so it's pretty easy to memorize. It still needs a button - I hope to find the perfect one at the KW Knitters Fair in just over a week.

Andrea is modeling here, but she's about a foot shorter and considerably smaller than the person for whom this cardigan is intended. Which explains why she's swimming in it. I've knit the medium size and added length to the sleeves and the body for a very tall person. Personally I like the red cardi paired with the yellow sundress but Andrea thinks the combination is altogether too much "ketchup and mustard".

The yarn is okay; it's a mohair blend and a bit scratchy. I gave it a Eucalan soak, and then I gave it a Pantene hair conditioner soak, so it's better than it was. Andrea found it a bit scratchy for bare skin but said it'd be fine over a thin turtleneck or something like that. I'd love to do the cardigan again in the recommended silk or cotton blend yarn.

As always check out the list at Tami's Amis for lots more inspiration!

the big knit update

A reminder postcard arrived in the mail recently, and that's just the kick in the pants I needed to get these little hats for the Innocent Drink company's Big Knit done and sent off. After all, September starts today and the deadline for hats in the UK is mid-October. There's really no time to waste.

This morning I cast on a little red hat. With Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting beside me, I'm decorating this hat with a four row "peerie" - this one looks like a row of staggered arrows. The word "peerie" is Scottish, Alice says, meaning "small" and is used to describe the smallest Fair Isle patterns of one to seven rows. Who knew I'd find this book and all its charted Fair Isles such a useful and interesting reference?!

As of this morning I have twelve little hats done, a thirteenth on the needles and pompoms pre-made for a dozen more, so a grand total of 25 hats is the goal. That should keep me busy for the next couple of days!