Strawberry Bag/Purse
Originally uploaded by wendymc

I knit up this strawberry purse/bag for my neice's 4th birthday. My sister appreciates my handknits, and I like to gift something special for family, along with a toy or other gift. I couldn't find a free pattern I liked so I worked from some photos and just made it up as I went, and I'm happy with the result. Patons Classic Wool is always a good choice for felting, and I knit it with 2 strands held together so it's quite thick and strong. I hoped the birthday girl would like it, , but couldn't have guessed how much......"It's all mine and I love it!" she said. Later on talking to grandma she said breathily "I've been wanting this ALL YEAR LONG!" which was pretty cute. So I did well with this gift.

Other projects are on the needles, matching hats for the 3 neices for christmas, a cabled vest for me, and recently I test knit a pattern for a friend. She makes some really fantastic soft toys and has a pattern for convertable mitts, and the alien hat I test-knit, in her shop at Coy. Here's Argen modelling my Alien Invasion hat:

Skull Tea Cozy

Skull Tea Cozy
Originally uploaded by wendymc

We went to halloween wedding this year. It was a lot of fun, very casual and kid-friendly, which was great. We gave the couple cash, since they already lived together and didn't need much, but I wanted to give them something a little special, too. They're into zombies and stuff (they'd have to be to have a halloween wedding!) so I figured this would suite them. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I like the cliche nature of a teapot and cozy for a wedding gift.

My 2-at-a-time Socks!

Socks
Originally uploaded by wendymc

Wow, almost three months and no updates, I really am bad at blogging!

I finished my 2-at-a-time socks, and I'm quite happy with them. I carry my knitting around quite a bit, so it gets jostled and tossed here and there, so I did find I was sorting out the skeins and untangling a bit. Moreso than I would with socks done 1-at-a-time. I'm not sure if the appeal of getting 2 done at once balances out the frustration of dealing with two skeins all the time. I think I might just stick with single sock knitting.

Since the sock bug was ignited (and my munchkins saw my socks and decided they NEEDED some, too) I knit them each a pair:

Argen's are with leftovers from my socks, some knitpicks essentials kettle dyed, and Teagan's are from Lorna's Laces Lucky Stripe.

They're pretty happy with their socks, and have been wearing them a lot. I'm happy about that, they might wear them out before they grow out of them - no small feat for growing feet!

And for something completely different I knit a "runner's companion" (pattern on ravelry) mp3 carrier that fits on your forearm. I happened to have some obscenely bright and festive Cascade Fixation kicking around, which I thought was perfect. My boss (recipient of this birthday gift) was happy as well.


On to Christmas knitting, I'm starting the first of it on our trip to Vancouver this weekend! Matching hats for my 3 neices.

2-at-a-time socks

2-at-a-time socks
Originally uploaded by wendymc

I've been eyeing my copy of "2 at a time Socks" by Melissa Morgan-Oakes for a while now, and finally cast on for a pair of yesterday. Despite the fact I'm knitting two socks at once (and thus they move along half as quickly) and that I've been busy this weekend, I'm making good progress. So far I'm managing to keep things fairly organized, and not get all tangled up between the two skeins of yarn. I'm scared about the heels, though.

I'm heading on a trip for work in a week, and debating whether this would be good travel knitting. It could be that this extra level of complexity means it is NOT good travel knitting, especially if i want to talk to my coworkers on the plane. but I'm loathe to cast on yet ANOTHER project, just to have something simpler to work on.

Victoria Fibre Festival

Teagan Weaving
Originally uploaded by wendymc

Last weekend found me at a yarn crawl and outdoor fibre market, the final events in a week long local fibre event, The Victoria Fibre Festival. Saturday our local knitting group met up to do a shorter yarn crawl than previous years, visiting 3 great shops within walking distance of one another, and ending at a Pub/Restaurant for Lunch and BeerKnitting. I found a few treasures in the shops, everyone had some items on sale. I bought a skein of Cloud Cotton which is much like the Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton, but much cheaper. 3 skeins of Soya cotton were priced so well they had to come home with me also. I found a good deal on some Tanis Fibre Arts Sock yarn and grabbed that as well.

Sunday was the fibre market, and being Father's day I didn't feel right ditching my husband with both kids all day to play with fibres.....so I brought Teagan with me. She's pretty crafty, and a new knitter, so I thought she'd be a fun companion. It turned out to be a great day for her. Everything about the event thrilled her, starting with riding the taxi shuttle down to the park, trying out weaving (see photo*), needle felting, spinning and loom knitting, and exploring the rocks and tidepools on the shore. I found a beautiful oversized skein of Gaia's Colours Worsted in pretty greens to purchase, and then teagan and I went out for Vegan pizza and brownies downtown. Good times!

*Our local knitting group had a little photo contest for pictures of the knitting events of the weekend, and this shot of Teagan weaving won me a GORGEOUS skein of Sundara sock yarn!

Teacher Gifts

I like to knit little thank-you gifts for the daycare staff, both at Christmas and the end-of-year celebrations. We're coming up to the end of the year, so it's gifting time again. I might have been over ambitious this year, since Argen moved from one centre to the other, and I wanted to gift his old and new caregivers. So, the total comes to 13 caregivers and 2 admin staff this time around!! I think the admin staff are just getting cards, because I don't think I have it in me to finish enough by next friday. Argen gifted the staff at his new centre today, since it is their end-of-year celebration day. They were very well received:



Some have icord straps, some garter stitch, one seed stitch. I used this basic pattern:
Lacy Leaf Water Bottle Carrier and then switched up the patterning a little. I had some lighter weight cotton that required more stitches for some, and tried different striping in the stitches, so I didn't lose my mind knitting them all. I still have a few to knit up over the next week, too.

Teagan's First Knitting Project!

Teagan's First Knitting Project!
Originally uploaded by wendymc

My daughter is a knitter. I'm so proud! Teagan's been interested in my knitting since.......well since she used to dance inin utero as my circular needles tapped on my belly! I got her a knitting loom a little over a year ago, and while she enjoyed playing on it, her attention span didn't let her do much with it. More recently she asked to learn to knit with needles, and I of course obliged.

She did well playing with some needles of mine, though they were thin and a bit slippery, so we picked up a set of short bamboo 6mm straights. I cast on and set her up, and other than a few rows grandma did, and me picking up a dropped stitch or two, she made this! With instruction she even did the casting off herself!

(in case it's not obvious, this is a rug for her Barbie doll house. It was going to be a comforter but it was far too narrow for the bed, and I figured picking up stitches to widen it was a more advanced lesson than she was ready for)

I *heart* Tanis Fibre Arts

Telemark in Tanis Fibre Arts
Originally uploaded by wendymc

This may be the most wonderful yarn I've yet knit with. It's squooshy and soft, lightweight (for wool) in your hands as you knit, and the colous......oh the beautiful colours. I'm talking about Green Label Aran Weight from Tanis Fibre Arts. It's a lovely Superwash wool in 215yard skeins and gorgeous colourways, and available locally at Beehive Wool. It's a little pricey, almost $20 a skein, but I'm so glad I splurged.

I've been enjoying every moment of knitting this up into the Telemark Pullover, a lovely top down toddler sweater. But I've run into a problem. I'm nearly out of yarn and I'm just coming to the bottom hem. I haven't knit the arms yet. I have three choices:

1)knit the body a little short, and finish it off as a make-shift-vest with no sleeves. (and hope I have enough yarn for this!!)
2) buy another skein of yarn, making this a $40 baby sweater, for no one in particular - ouch!
3) rip it out and start over with a different pattern. (I actually have a vest in mind that I should be able to manage with this yardage)

I'm leaning towards #3. Knitting with this yarn has been a real pleasure, so I wouldn't cry about the lost "work" because I'd get to knit with the same skein twice. I do plan to buy more of this yarn, maybe even to knit a larger item for myself, but I'm bothered by spending $40 to knit up one baby sweater, when I don't even have a recipient in mind. What would you do?

Super Fast Baby Knit

I had a field hockey tournament on the weekend. Our first game was in the morning, and while there I learned one of the players (someone I knew fairly well from playing over the years) had actually had her baby a few weeks back. (and YES she was out playing! Wow!) Between games I whipped up this little hat, in a soft sage Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton I had:



It came together SO quickly, probably 2 hours of knitting time? I was finishing it as my husband drove us back to the fields for the afternoon game (hence the crummy photo, snapped on my skirt on my lap in the car at the last second!) but I did get it done in time to deliver it.

The Blue Sky Alpaca cotton is lovely yarn to knit with. So soft and squishy, not like the cheap handicrafter kitchen cotton I usually knit with. Even though it's expensive, I think a skein would whip out two of these hats easily, so they are fast and affordable baby knits.

As it's been a month since my last post, I'm due, eh?

I'm knitting as much as I can, feeling inspired by everything I see and eager to cast on 100 different things. I'm trying to finish a few here and there, as well. There have been babies and kids to knit for, which are luckily smaller projects.

This Oriental Dress was for a friend of mine's new baby, and the fruit purse was for the 2 year old sister of the baby:


I knit up the "everlasting Bagstopper" pattern from knitty, adding knit handles and omitting the drawstring. It was going to be for my sister as part of her present, but I liked that one so much I kept it - and knit another one for her. They're a fast, fun, useful project!


And finally, my daughter lamented, while dancing in the living room, that she "just can't do proper ballet without ballet slippers!". Knitting to the rescue! I whipped up these little slippers for her, and she was as happy as can be. She slept with them by her bed for a few days, so she could put them on first thing each morning.


I'm working on some baby socks for one friend, and a little dress for another (I have such fertile friends!), but dying to cast on the Medallion Vest on the cover of the new Vogue Knitting. I'm not sure it would suit me, but I just HAVE to knit it. I'll see how long I can hold out.

A new month, and a new post.....

I am knitting plenty, I just rarely feel like I have anything worth posting about here. That and I forget about the blog. Oops. Nothing noteworthy is going on in my crafy world right now, but I felt like it was due time for a post.

I've finished up the giant pile of yarn I got from the shop downtown, to make hats and mitts. I don't know If I could have made a whole mitt with the leftovers I worked down to, so I feel good about that. The small yardage on the Knitpicks Shine Worsted forced me to use more than one colour on every item anyways, so I went even further on some and added 3 colours. I don't normally like colourwork, but the results were fun:


I finally finished up the Placket Neck Vest I was knitting for Argen in Shine Sport. Not a moment too soon, it barely fits my big boy:


And now I'm working on baby items. I have nearly finished a dress for a friend who just had a baby girl, and I know of a couple other gals who are due very soon, so I'd better get moving. Teagan would like something knit for her, since I just gave her brother something, as well.

I finally finished the shawl this week. I think I just about knit the thing twice with all the mindless errors and reknitting I did, but I'm quite happy with the result. Panda Wool was really nice to work with, not at all splitty and had really nice stitch definition. I liked the colours as well. I hope it fetches a good bid at the Tea Festival next weekend!







Now I'm working on some more hats for the shop, and thinking about finishing up some fingerless mitts I started for a friend. Plus I have about a million other projects milling about in my head, as always.

Well, I failed pretty miserably at the holidalies deal. At least I had few readers, so I didn't embarrass myself in front of many? See, there can be benefits to not being popular!!

The holiday season got the better of me, and add in a sinus infection and a lovely bout of bronchial pneumonia attacking me together, and I didn't have much interest in blogging. I have been knitting though. I managed to finish knit washcloths for all the daycare staff. I knit a couple more than were pictured here, those had to go out early as the student assistants didn't work to the end. I packaged each with a foam bath sachet:


I am nearly done this Transformers Hat for my husband:

I'm pleased with how it's turning out, and the fair isle wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My favorite part is the writing along the inside of the hat. (it reads - more than meets the eye) I am running out of yarn for the very last part of the lining, so I'm using some black bamboo yarn I had left over. Magnus likes that his hat has a "secret bamboo panel", go figure.

I hit the boxing week sales and scored some fun yarns. Babyboo, my favorite bamboo yarn for baby items, some berocco comfort, another great baby yarn, and Loveit Colours:


I'm knitting away on a Shetland Triangle shawl now for the Tea Festival Silent Auction. It's a simple lace pattern, but coming out very nicely. I'm struggling with what "value" to put on it, as that will be displayed with the item and sometimes guides the bids placed. I was thinking $100, but Magnus says $200-300 is more appropriate, but it's hard to imaging a shawl I knit being worth THAT much................

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