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................

I

HolidailiesPost #11: Speedy

I'm a pretty fast knitter. It helps that for basic knitting, things like straight knitting or a simple rib, I can do without looking at my fingers. I can knit while walking, watching tv, or talking to people - lets me be more efficient for sure. I also carry my knitting all over, so I can sneak in stitches here and there.

Yesterday I decided I needed a cowl, so I started one on the bus this morning. I'm 3/4 of the way done, and suspect I'll finish it on the bus ride into work tomorrow. Talk about instant gratification knitting! I'm not used to the huge needles (8mm) or the thicker yarn (2 strands of worsted held together) but it's a nice change. I usually knit with dk to worsted weight, on about 4mm needles. This goes SO much faster. I think I'll be looking for more heavy-gauge knitting projects in the future. Photos tomorrow, hopefully.....

Holidailies Post #10 : Brrrr!

I think I need to knit myself a cowl. It's cold out there, and apparently the cold weather and snow will be sticking around for a couple of weeks! We're just not used to weather like this around here. Thee are so many lovely cowl and neckwarmer patterns, but I just didn't see that I would need one, but now I do! I'm eyeing the Janie Cowl pattern, if I can find a bulky yarn in my stash, or make it work in worsted. I need something that I can pull up over my face and ears, that will stay there - maybe a ribbed top would work better? I could whip one up in a couple days......if my knitting to-do list weren't already a mile long.

Holidailies Post #9: Snow!

It's snowing outside! Really and truly snowing. They've been forcasting it for days, but I never believe it until I see it. Living in Canada, it seems strange that snow is such a big deal to me, but here on the west coast we rarely see the white stuff. A white Christmas is rare, so snow near christmas gets folks excited.

I am not a huge fan of snow. I don't like people driving in it, I hate feeling stuck at home, worrying about how to get places, and what we'll have to cancel. Since we rarely see snow here, no one knows how to deal with it, and driving can be dangerous. I'm worried about my neice's birthday tomorrow, up island over the mountain, grocery shopping in the morning, work on Monday.

But it sure is pretty, the white blanket over everything, christmas lights glittering through the blowing flakes still falling. For now, I'm just going to bundle up on the couch with my husband and my knitting, and deal with the worries tomorrow.

Holidailies Post #8: I want to Dye!

I just can't take it anymore - I want to DYE! hehe.

I bought up a whole bunch of easter egg dye tablets on sale after easter, and stored them away until I had the time and inclination to try them out. I've only ever tried Koolaid Dying in the past. I really like koolaid dying. It's fast and cheap, though the colour choices are a bit limited. It's hard to get nice rich shades of a lot of colours, especially blues and greens. Easter egg dye, from what I see, gives you nice vibrant colours. It requires the additional step of adding vinegar, but I think I can handle that.

I want to make Bike Helmet Earwarmers for my supervisor, and I think it would be fun to dye up some yarn for them. Magnus is out this evening, so I'm on my own anyways, the perfect time to dye. Watch for photos tomorrow!

Holidailies Post #7 : Finishing Work

I really don't enjoy finishing work in my knitting. I try to use seamless/one-piece knits so that all I have to do to "finish" a piece, is weave in a couple ends. (and I hate having to even do that much sometimes!) The bulk of my UFO stack at any given time is a number of items that are done, except for seaming up, weaving in ends, or adding buttons. Sometimes all three. I enjoy the knitting, I love watching a project take shape and move from rows of stitches into a pattern or shape, but the end details don't thrill me.

I think part of the problem is I'm not great at seaming, I've never taken the time to learn the proper techiques or practice. This means it's always a struggle, trying to figure out what will work best, look ok, and be strong and sturdy. I also worry that poor seaming will muck up a perfectly good knit.

I currently have 4 toddler mittens, all knit up and ready to seam. I sense a LONG evening ahead of me.....

Holidailies Post #6: Winter 08 Knitty!

The new knitty magazine is up, an exciting time for any knitter. This magazine consistantly offers a large variety of patterns, in a variety of skill levels and styles - all for FREE! The photos are great, the instructions complete, and the magazine is popular so you can always find someone else knitting the same pattern you are interested in. The server is still pretty slow, what with 8-trillion knitters accessing the site, but I managed to get on to see the patterns.

I LOVE Amused, which is a top-down seamless pullover, with a deep neck and cabled detailing for the collar. It is a 3/4 length sleeve, I might want full length, and the long ribbed panel at the waist worries me a little. It could either be slimming, or cling too much. Some speedy knitters will no doubt finish it before I have a chance to start, and hopefully I can get a better idea of how this looks knit up in a size L.

I had pretty much decided to knit the Cable-Down Raglan, and even purchased enough Cascade Superwash to knit it up. But I'm seriously considering using that yarn to knit up Amused. I feel like it might be a better choice for my personal style and body shape. The cables in the raglan appealed to me, but I'm not sure they'd look good on my not-so-tiny self.

I like the Fish Hat and may knit that for my son at some point. Amelia is really pretty, though I'm not sure I'd knit that one. There will be a pair of Fargyles socks in my future. How can I not knit such a fun pattern, written for DK weight yarn - speedy socks!

Both Poinsettia and Maja caught my eye as beautiful things I'd love to knit, but I just wouldn't wear them myself. Perhaps one or the other would be a good item to donate to the tea festival fundraiser this winter? What do you think - would folks bid on either of these?

I can't wait to get my knitting "to-do list" cleared off so I can tackle some of these new patterns!

Holidailies Post #5: Wishlists

Online chatter turns to holiday wishlists this time of year. Message boards post "What do you want Santa to bring you?" topics, websites set up wishlist options, and we're all expected to have a list of our desired gifts. I'm struggling to make one up. The truth is, there really isn't much I need. I don't covet fancy expensive items I can only rationalize as christmas gifts, I don't want for the latest and greatest gadgets, and I do almost all of my reading thanks to our great library system. Not that I am totally non-materialistic, I do like "stuff" and buy myself "things" from time to time. I am already so busy making use of what I do have, and living my life, I can't imagine where I'd fit more things.

That said, I love surprises, and little gifties, so I hope my family can come up with an idea or two for me ;)