A bit of colour to end the year...

The hat I knit for our young friend, Jasmine.  She's six and she requested bright pink. I think this will fit the bill.

The Baby Surprise Jacket I'm almost finished, and the sweet hand-painted alpaca buttons I found at The Wool Station yesterday to go with it.

And the very pink yarn I've just wound for some Very Pink Socks I'm going to work on next. I'm planning a picot edge at the top, and I haven't decided on the rest yet. I got the yarn on sale from KnitPicks.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Ending the long silence!

Here are a couple of knitting-related projects from the last few weeks.  I made this zippered boxy knitting bag following the tutorial found here. The instructions were very good, but I found some parts of the project challenging. Every so often I choose to sew something because I want the finished product, but I really don't enjoy the process much. That's why I'm a knitter and not a sew-er!

This is the matching drawstring project bag:

I followed the instructions found here. This was a fairly simple project, even for straight-line sew-ers like me! I'm likely to make some more of these.  It is also fully lined (even reversible), which I really like the look of. I think I will try some interfacing on the bottom on a future one, and I might change the placement of the hole for the drawstring.

I made this hat as a Christmas present.  I used the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret pattern but had to change the number of stitches to suit the yarn better.

In other knitting news, I've whipped up a Baby Surprise sweater in the last few days but forgot to take a picture of it in daylight - I'll post it soon. I'm also about two thirds of the way through the second green sock in the pair I started in November. There is no rush on these ones, and they're a men's size 11, so progress is a bit slow. I've also finished a couple of hats, but one didn't get photographed before it was gifted. I'll post a photo of the other one.

Photo Catch-up

Here is my finished Leaf Lace shawl.  It has taken a while to get enough light to photograph it in.  I have been wearing it a lot already - I'm really happy with it.  The beads worked out well.

I've also finished the socks for my young friend, Taylor.  He requested this yarn, and they've knit up very quickly - in about 10 days, actually. I'll get them in the mail to him today.

Extreme Cuteness

A quick project

Last Tuesday I thought I'd start a small shawl.  I had 99 grams (about 640 m out of the original 1600!) of Fiddlesticks Country Silk left over from the Lotus Blossom Shawl I knit for one of my sisters-in-law last year. This yarn is discontinued, but I see here that you can buy an new incarnation of it, that has been dyed by Fleece Artist.  I'd been wanting to knit something for myself from this yarn ever since I finished that shawl, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. It knits up rather like twine, though softer, but when you immerse it before blocking it blooms into something quite lovely.

So on Tuesday I went on ravelry to find a pattern for a small shawl that I could drape around my neck for a bit of colour without too much bulk.  It took a while, but I finally remembered that I own Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn Clark, and have been itching to knit something from it.  So I chose a simple shawl with a single lace pattern (leaf lace) and went to work.

Here it is last Tuesday evening, after the first chart was knit.

This has been a very quick knit.  I worked on it a bit each evening and by Sunday it was beaded and cast off.

The shawl before blocking.

 And here it is again, this afternoon, after its bath and neatly pinned into its finished dimensions.  It stretched out to about 48" across and 24" tall.

 The colour is probably most accurate in the first photo.  It was hard to get good lighting today - maybe all the snow outside is reflecting too much light...

On Sunday I promised a pair of socks to our young friend, Taylor.  He got to pick out his yarn, and here is a little sock beginning, for the record.

Cuteness

Lucy is finished.  I wish it was my size!

I really like the reverse stockinette rolled edgings, and I found the perfect buttons again - this time at Laura's in White Rock.

Blocking Lucy...

... under careful supervision.

Another sock... quelle surprise!

Basic top-down knit3 purl1 ribbed sock.  Men's size 11.  For a friend in California. Fortissima Socka Mexico in a colour that doesn't appear on the website but is very pretty.  The yarn is also very soft. Knitting for those with limited brainpower at day's end!

I have managed to finish the first sleeve of the Lucy cardigan, and will endeavour to finish the second in the next few days so that I can get the cute little thing assembled.

Oh and we've heard from the bear family - they are happy with their socks! :-)

Mama Bear... Papa Bear...

Dave and I have been knitting a family of socks for our good friends in Vernon.  He and I have each just finished a pair, and so now the set is complete.

These are Brother Bear's socks, that I just finished.  Although Brother Bear is nine years old, his feet are as long as mine and a bit wider, and so these socks are generously proportioned.  They're actually a little bigger than Mama Bear's socks, which are the brown-striped ones I finished back in May.

Dave knit Sister Bear's socks for the four-year-old.  They're super-cute!

Here is the entire family of socks together, posing for a photo-op before they get packaged up and mailed away.

Pink Socks and Sunshine

They're finished at last!  These socks have taken almost three months, because they kept getting put aside for other things, particularly when they required too much brain power!  However, they are done, and I think they're very pretty.  The sun even came out this afternoon so that I could photograph them.  The colours are quite true in the photos, which is always nice.

Not much to report here...

Half a second sock has been knit - this is my simplest current project and the only one I've been working on this week.  The mums are blooming yet again and adding some lovely fall colour to the patio.  It's all very colour-coordinated, n'est-ce pas?

I thought that with the minimal knitting content today would be a good day to post pictures of our cats.  I'm not sure they agreed... 

This is what Thibault thinks of the idea...

and Mookie just wouldn't look at me. 

At least you have something to look at besides half a striped sock!

Knitting progresses slowly...

There is a finished sock to show - it came together fairly quickly between a long meeting, a knit night, and "TV knitting 'cause we're too tired to do much else."  Now I need to start its mate so this pair can be sent off before the weather turns much colder.  Doesn't it look good in the coleus?

Progress has also been made on Lucy - there are now two fronts and a back.  This is the just about the perfect knit these days - the only thinking involved is some measurement and decreasing, and I've even managed to have to rip back a couple of times to get those right, but luckily it's a quick knit back!

Some items completed and others begun...

Completed: One pair of striped socks in Regia Stretch sized for a seven-year-old boy.

Completed: A quick scarf for myself knit from Mango Moon Chakra.  Simple garter stitch - knit in an evening.  The yarn is spun from recycled fibres with glass beads hand-tied on. 

Begun: Socks for a nine-year-old boy whose feet are bigger than mine!  Regia 4-ply.

Begun: and progressing apace: Holli Yeoh's Lucy knit from a Kaffe Fassett Regia 4-ply and some Opal in pink.  I've now finished the back and am almost halfway up the left front.  I've had to play around with the sizing on this pattern - it's very generously proportioned.  When I first started I was knitting the size 1/2 but producing enough sweater for a six-year-old!  It's cooperating nicely now and I love the colours in the sort-of-stripey yarn. 

The Bubblegum socks are coming along as well - I'm halfway through the heel on the second socks, but right now Lucy is too much fun to stop - and such an easy knit for my tired brain these days!

Presenting...

the Brandywine Shawl

In at the deep end...

I haven't managed a lot of knitting this first week of school (no surprise, really), so I decided to focus my limited time on the Brandywine shawl.  I would like to finish it soon and get it to its patient recipient.

According to the pattern I have one and a half more 16-row repeats to do, and then the top edge, which is basically two rows, with some short rows worked at the tips.  I'm thinking that I'll probably work at least one or two extra repeats (even though I'm getting bored with these 16 rows!), because I've only used half of the yarn so far.  I think I'll end up with the dimensions listed in the pattern after the recommended number of repeats, but the pictured shawl looks bigger.  Also, this yarn is lovely and smooshy, so I don't think it will be unwieldy if I make the finished item a bit bigger.  I'll see how it looks in a repeat and a half.

Here is something pretty to show you.  In the summer I'd mentioned to my friend Annemarie that I like the little boxy project bags, and when I gave her the laptop cover I'd made her she gave me this lovely little bag.  Well-fitting zippers always impress me, as I am more of a straight-line sewer, and the appliqued and embroidered birds are just too sweet.  Thank you, Annemarie!

Summer's End

As well as the quilt I've completed a couple of other, smaller, sewing projects this summer.  At the beginning of July I made a laptop cover for our new laptop, and this past week I made another one for a friend.  I made them using 2 fat quarters each, and a bit of extra fabric for binding, and kind of made up the pattern as I went along on the first one.  For mine I used a couple of fabrics that I liked but that didn't really go with any others that I had, and so this was a perfect use for them.  The binding is leftover fabric from a jellyroll quilt I made for one of our nieces last year when she went off to college.

I made Annemarie's using 2 fat quarters that she gave me for the purpose.  I happened to have exactly enough of a matching fabric to do the binding left over from my first ever quilt. 

I have also had time to do some knitting this past week.  Surprising, really, because since we got home from the Okanagan a week ago we've canned 16 jars of peaches, 24 jars of tomatoes, and 24 jars of dill pickles, as well as dealing with fresh produce in various other creative ways!  I also had a day at school, and have slowly been wrapping my head around starting a new year tomorrow.

I finished the first Bubblegum sock, and I'm about halfway up the Brandywine shawl in terms of number of rows (though only about a quarter of the way through the number of stitches.  As you can see, it now stretches across the length of a 24" circular needle, so it's coming along.

I think I'll actually have more time to knit once I'm back to work, because the summer canning and other projects will be out of my way, and my 'leisure time' will be mainly devoted to knitting once again.

The Quilt

No time to knit - dealing with a car-full of Okanagan produce, so I leave you with these!

Progress Report

I finished the first sock of a pair I'm knitting for a seven-year-old friend.  I think they look like big boy socks.  I started these once I finished the blue-striped ones so that I'd have something that I could knit in the car or while carrying on a conversation.  Since we then traveled to Nelson, where I spent a lot of time catching up with a knitting buddy, the sock got done quickly!  The yarn is some Regia Stretch that I got at Dressew in Vancouver in their amazing $1.99 a ball sale.

I'm also making progress on what I'm now calling the Bubblegum socks.  I'm about halfway up the leg on the first sock.  This is the one I'm knitting using a 32 inch ChiaoGoo RED circular (scroll down to see the right needles) and the Magic Loop technique.  These are great needles, with excellent tips and joins, and today I went to the LYS here in Vernon where I got the first one so that I could stock up on more.  Unfortunately she is all out of them, and so I will have to go without for now (sigh!).  I'm enjoying this yarn and pattern.  I haven't used Tofutsies before, but it's very nice to work with, and I like the way the striping is working with the Lacy Ribs pattern.

Nothing to report on the shawl-knitting front.  I haven't had the kind of focused knitting time that it requires.  I have finished the quilt I've been working on, though, so I'll have more time (except that I've discovered P. D. James and she is cutting into my knitting time!).  I'll post photos once I've finished the last pressing.