Under the wire

I really didn't want September to slip away with only two blog posts, and so here is a quick update for a tired Friday afternoon.

Triangular scarf being knit for a dear friend's 88th birthday. The pattern is Celeste's South Slocan Scarf. I think this pattern is brilliant - especially the way Celeste incorporated the increases into the edges to keep the continuity of the pattern. Celeste is a long time long-distance knitting buddy. We both teach at the yearly knitting retreat in Sorrento now. The yarn is Diamond Yarn's Fine Merino Superwash DK in a light lavender. A friend at school gave it to me because she wasn't going to use it, and it's perfect for this project.

 A sock I've been working on - I'm not sure who it's for yet.

A close-up of the cuff - I put in a couple of purl ridges between the cuff and leg, loosely inspired by Lene's socks here. Check out her blog if you don't know it - she is an amazing knitter and designer in a lovely low key way.

 

And finally, a bit of early-autumn colour on the patio today.

 

A different craft

Geninne's Art Blog is one of my favourite blogs, even though it's not about knitting! In August I got very inspired by Geninne's posts about carving your own rubber stamps, and after a small investment in materials I was able to try it today. It was so much fun and I'm happy with my results, which is a bonus!

Here is the first rubber stamp I've ever carved:

And here is a gift card I printed using my new rubber stamp.

Now I can use these on my knitted gifts for people. It's nice to have small accomplishments to take joy from!

Photo shoot

I've finally gotten some pictures of my knitting. The weather has changed to overcast and it does make for very good light for getting accurate yarn colours in photos.

Here are the toe-up socks I knit for David in Toronto. They've been finished for weeks and languishing... I hope they'll forgive me! My excuse will be that it hasn't exactly been wool sock weather in Toronto lately!

Here is another pair of finished socks. These were a fun knit, because the yarn is gorgeous. It's Fleece Artist Nyoni (I think it's been discontinued) that I got at Gina Brown's Yarn in Vancouver. The pattern is one that Dave and I ran across at Lettuce Knit in Toronto. The colours are quite true in the second picture.

Here is my current work-in-progress. It's the shawl I started back in June - Pretty Maids from Knitty. This past summer wasn't very conducive to sustained concentrated knitting, but I've been able to make some real progress on it since the weekend.

 

The yarn I'm using came in three shades, and so I'm planning one more colour change when I get into the last lace pattern.