S is for Socks

Hello!

I got the pictures to upload over the weekend!!  Yay!!  I wanted to first off say that I took a break on the sock I was working on in the last post - the one where I ended up in the "black hole of knitting" and went to bed that night.  I started fresh in the morning and it flew right along!!  It's now done and waiting for it's photo shoot.  Today is a lovely sunny day so I should be able to take a few pictures a little later. 

The socks in the above photo are ones that I knit for my Mom while in Norway.  I used DROPS Fabel in a colourway that Mom picked out.  They are plain vanilla and have a 5" leg. 

I started the pair of socks above before I left on my trip, but I had only gotten a bit of the leg portion done on the first sock.  I picked them back up again a couple weeks ago and finished them off during my "vacation".  These were the socks I was knitting at the beach in the photo the other day.  I used Knit Picks Felici in the colour Afternoon.  They are for me and are plain vanilla's with a nice long 8" leg.  Now that I look at them, I should have made them into knee socks, because I like the colour so much!!  I have some Felici in the Tiki colour so maybe that is what I will do with it.

Well, that's all for today.  I'm in the middle of baking bread and while waiting for it to rise, I think I will do a little crocheting.  I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday!!

Much Love, xx   

Finished Project Friday - Feb. 25

Hello Knitters,

I've only got one finished project this week because I've been spending most of my time on the Granny Stripe Blanket. 


Mom's Rainbow Socks

Sorry the picture isn't the greatest, but we got home from the city today later than I was expecting and the sun had already gone down by the time I got to take this.  I think the most "ideal" place to take a photo of them would be on a nice bed of green grass in the sunshine....but that won't be possible here for another few months.  Maybe I can get some better shots tomorrow to add to my Ravelry page.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!!  Aren't you so happy it's Friday?   I know I am!!

Happy Knitting and Hooking!

WIP Wednesday - Feb 23

Hello Knitters,

First off I have to say a big THANK YOU! to all of you who have left such kind, encouraging, uplifting and just all around great comments on the blog lately.  You are all totally awesome!!  I've been unable to reply to comments with my regular laptop for some reason lately.  I actually can't even view my blog with it :(  But I wish I could so that I could reply to each one of you!  But do know that I read each comment and so enjoy them!!  I'm going to do a little more searching around and see if I can fix the problem.  In the meantime, I can from time to time comment back and see the blog from my Netbook, but it's a bit slower on the dial-up connection so I don't use it very often.  It's more of my traveling laptop really.  But I just wanted to let you all know that I do appreciate all the your kind words!!

I did want to answer Stephanie's question from yesterday about if I liked the Felici yarn though: Yes, Stephanie, I really, really like it!!  Both the fingering and sport weights are great.  They're super soft - so great to knit with and even better on your feet!  They (so far) wash great too, although I've only handwashed mine, but the label says it's machine washable and I've heard others have had great success with it.  What I like best is how I can do a plain vanilla sock and not get bored at all - watching the colours change is very fun!  lol  Small things amuse me :)  I'd highly recommend it though.  The fingering weight is a little thinner than their Stroll yarn and it's a more tightly spun yarn which I like because it means less splitting.  The sport weight is a bit thinner than other sport weights I've used and it's not as tightly spun as the fingering weight version, but it is super soft and makes great little baby items as well as quicker socks!  But this is all just my two cents worth :) lol 
Now, on to my little list of WIPs!!  This week I'm just trying to stick to the three projects and not get sidelined trying to finish up the other WIPs that keep being found all over the house.....  So far, I've done pretty good.  My list this week includes:

1. Granny Stripes Blanket - Since this is the biggest of all my projects, I think I need to devote a good chunk of my time to it to get it finished off before the wedding!  I can think of nothing worse than trying to finish this up on the plane!  They'd probably make me buy it it's own seat!  lol  It's coming along really well though and I'm really enjoying it, so that's great.  I find it incredibly relaxing to work on!

2. Galapagos Shawl - This got a good bit of time spent on it over the weekend and is getting pretty close to completion.  The colours are fantastic and the yarn is super soft to knit with.  I'm currently on the "knotted open-work" section right now.  The pattern is called Summer Flies.  I thought it was a very pretty and easy one, plus the butterflies kind of just drew me in....

3. Ishbel - Oh poor Ishbel!  She has been neglected over the last while.  I really need to seriously sit down and work on her since I'm planning on wearing her at the wedding.  That means I have about a month to finish her, but with the Pancake House opening soon, I will be super busy baking so that won't leave much time for knitting - meaning she has to get done within the very near future.  She might end up being my weekend knitting project.

That's it for my current WIPs.  My other ones are just sitting somewhat patiently by waiting for their turn.  In the meantime, I'm just going to keep plugging away on these and hopefully they will be featured on a Finished Project Friday post soon. 

Happy Knitting!!

Happy Belated Canada Day!!

Hello Knitters,

I know I said I was going to be back on Wednesday with a picture of me in my dress I sewed, but you know what, I forgot my camera at home when we went to the graduation! My Aunt did get a picture of me, so hopefully I can get a copy from her and share it with you soon. I wanted to write on Wednesday and update you all, but I wasn't feeling very well, so I just laid low and relaxed. Yesterday was super busy, I baked bread and worked on various things and before I knew it the day was done! So here I am today :-) Ready to share a few projects.

First off, last Sunday after I finished my Seaside socks, I began another pair of socks using Knit Picks Felici Fingering weight in Positively Pink. I'm using a pattern written for a child's sock and adjusting it to fit my feet. I really liked the design and wanted to have a pair of my own! So far it's working out. I've gotten to where I'm about to start the heel. These are anklets so I can wear them even on warmer days. Here's a picture:



The next thing I wanted to show you all is the finished project bags for the giveaway winners. They are now all ready to go. I'm hoping to mail them out on Monday. I thought it best to wait till after the holidays to send them out.

And last, but certainly not least is my most current project. It is a Wrap-Me-Up Puppy from Itty Bitty Toys. I'm making it for a special someone and will reveal more once it's complete. I started this on Wednesday, but soon realized I forgot my fiberfill at home last week, so this evening my sister and I are going to Fabricland to look for wedding related material, and I thought I'd pick up a bag while there so I can get this little one finished soon. I also hope we get a chance to go to Walmart so I can pick up a ball of cotton yarn to make the blanket with since I don't have any colours that I want for it here. My goal is to have this done by the end of the weekend.

Yesterday was Canada Day here. We didn't do anything exciting, but I'm hoping that on the weekend we will be able to have some sort of a celebration. I'm thinking of combining Canada Day with the Fourth of July since part of my Dad's family lives in the States and I feel like I have a small little bit of American on the inside of me :-)

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to the long weekend. Take care to be safe and enjoy the festivities!!

Happy Knitting!!

Chats and Socks

Good Morning Knitters,

How is everyone doing this lovely day? It's quite windy here but other than that, it's sunny and beautiful. My Mom is coming up today and we're going to go out shopping for a bit this afternoon. Tonight is my cousin Matthew's high school graduation. I started sewing myself a dress for the occasion (can't remember if I mentioned that or not) and it's almost done. I just need a little help from my Mom with advice about the hem and some hand sewing. Hopefully I can get some pictures of me in it and post those tomorrow. The fabric that I used is a cotton voile, and it's so comfy. I've never worked with cotton voile before, but I'm so glad that I chose it for this dress. It's flowy and silky which I was surprised at for being 100% cotton. Anna Maria Horner has some voile in one of her lines that I've been looking at, so now that I know how it wears, I think I might have to purchase some in the future.

As promised, I'll give you all an update on what I did this past weekend:

Like I mentioned earlier last week, my sister's bridesmaid Jessica came for a weekend visit. It was so great to see her since I haven't in about 5 years! She's such an awesome friend, and I miss her so much! It was great to get to catch up. We didn't do a whole lot of things other than chat! On Friday Mom and I picked her up at the airport in the morning, then we got some lunch, headed back to my sister's and just talked. My sister came home from her business trip that evening and that brought a lot more catching up! Saturday Jess taught me how to cook ribs and we made a nice dinner of Maple Glazed Ribs, Broccoli Cheddar Salad, Jell-o with Fruit Salad, Whipped Mashed Potatoes and Baguette. For dessert I made a Chocolate Snack Cake. It was so much fun to cook together and I learned a lot. I'm excited for the next time I can make a full meal. Improving my cooking skills has been a goal of mine. Last night I made my sister a Mushroom Wild Rice Soup, she said it turned out good, and I found I really enjoyed making it. I've already begun to plan meals for the rest of the week/weekend. Since July 1st is on Thursday, I'm going to make something special, and then I really like to make things for the 4th (it's my inner American coming out!), so I need to start planning that as well. I think I will do some research online for some cute ideas. Now where was I....oh right, Jess's visit. Sunday we were planning on relaxing until her flight time at 4:00 pm, but she got a call around 12:00 pm, that said her flight was cancelled and they were putting her on an earlier one, so we all rushed around to get ready and managed to get her there on time. After that, Sayja and I went to the grocery store and then came home and just laid low the rest of the day. Jake came over in the evening and he and Sayja watched a movie while I did some knitting. All in all, it was a great weekend. A bit too short in my opinion, I would have liked to have had much more time to spend with Jess, but it was great the time we did get to spend together. She says she'll be back again before the wedding, so I'm looking forward to that.

I did manage to get a knitting project completed over the weekend (chalk it up to all that talking time). I started and finished a pair of toe-up socks using Felici Sport in the Seaside colourway.

I also never got the chance to post a picture of the socks I made a little while ago using Felici Sport in Neapolitan. I wanted to share these with you earlier, but I some how managed to leave one sock at home and had one sock here, so I couldn't take a "pair" picture. Now they are together, so here it is:

These ones are cuff-down. I tried to match the stripes on these ones, while the other ones I just decided to wing it. I like how both turned out, but I must say that the toe-up ones are my favourite because the heel is very comfortable. Sometimes when doing cuff-down I end up making the heel pick up stitches bulky on the inside, but with toe-up, that whole process is completely eliminated. This is by far some of the best sock yarn I've used though. Very soft and warm and great since it's sport weight it knits up so fast!

Well, that's about all the news I have to share right now! I should go and get myself ready to go out this afternoon. Have a great day everyone!

Happy Knitting!!

What I've Been Up To

Hello Knitters,

I know I said I'd post again on Tuesday, but I couldn't wait, so I'm posting today. Today is our Victoria Day in Canada, which means that everyone has the day off. My sister and I did a little tanning this afternoon and my parents when to the greenhouse to pick out some plants. May 24th is our "safe to plant" date here. The weather has been beautiful, very warm and sunny. Yesterday my sister and went kayaking quite a few times up and down the river. It was really fun and a great way to get a sunburn! My sister is red as a tomato today! I'm not as bad, but the sad thing is, we only burnt the fronts of our bodies and the backs were very un-tanned, so we laid out today for a bit to even things out. I'm not sure if it worked though yet. Anyways, I wanted to do a little re-cap of what is been happening here this last few days, so here it goes:

Tuesday was my birthday as well as my parent's anniversary. It was a nice and quite day. Since it snuck up on me, I didn't pick out my presents yet, but my Mom surprised me with the Jane Austen An Illustrated Treasury by Rebecca Dickson! So perfect since I'm taking part in the Jane Austen Read-Along/Knit-Along! My Dad surprised me with the lovely flowers in the picture above! And my sister gave me the most amazing card ever! I have such an awesome family!!!!



I got to dye some yarn too, which is something I've been wanting to do for a very long time. This is it in progress. The colours weren't quite as deep as I wanted when it dried though, so I'm re-dyeing it today. It was such a fun process, I'm for sure going to do this again!

While the yarn was cooling, Mom and I took a walk and picked some forget-me-nots. This is the path to the lake, doesn't it look like a fairy trail? That's me off in the distance....I still have my dyeing clothes on as well as yellow rubber boots....I know, classy eh? Later that evening I got a visit from two of my aunts and a cousin. It was so good to see them and have a nice visit, we don't get a chance to get together very often. My one aunt gave me two amazing cookbooks, one about cupcakes and the other on chocolate. She said she thought she'd benefit from it since we always bring my baking experiments over for them to eat! (Since my cousin's birthday was on Saturday, I baked him a cake and then used one of the icing recipes out of the cupcake book as a filling for the cake, so she got to sample that! lol). All in all, I had a fantastic day, it made getting older a little easier to take.

This is a sock I'm working on for my Mom. It is the Rainbow colourway of the new Knit Picks Felici Fingering weight yarn. I'm really liking how it's knitting up, and Mom loves the colours! I've been working on this yesterday and today since I made a mistake on my shawl and needed to put it aside and do some mindless knitting for a bit. I'll get back to it soon, but I just need a break.

Like I said earlier, today I'm re-dyeing the yarn from before. I thought since I was already getting out the yarn and dye stuff, I might as well try some crockpot dyeing at the same time. I just poured in the colours and now I'm waiting for it to 'exhaust'. I hope it all turns out beautiful and I can share some pictures with you soon. Anyways, I should get back to that. Have a great rest of the day everyone!!

Happy Knitting (and dyeing as the case may be)

P.S. While getting the link for the Felici yarn, I noticed that there are new colours of Imagination sock yarn if you didn't already know. Very pretty colours....I'm already planning my order!

One FO and a New Project

Hello Knitters,

I've got pictures!! I'm in the process of blocking the little baby cardigan I mentioned I was knitting, but after making so many mistakes and having to take it out and re-knit, I wanted to show you right away....before something else happens to it!


The pattern is the Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer Hoel and the yarn is Knit Picks Felici Sport in Picnic. It's an easy, cute pattern and I have no idea why I had so many problems. I think it might have been because most of the time when I was working on it, I was also chatting with people. Usually I don't have a problem with that, but this time I guess I did. The yarn was great to work with. A little bit splitty at times, but nothing too bad. It's super soft and the colours are fantastic. This picture doesn't do it justice because the sun was coming in the window and messing with my camera, but I hope to take another picture once I get the buttons sewn on.


My newest project is the Traveling Woman Shawl byLiz Abinante. Recently I joined the Austentatious Fiber Artists Group on Ravelry and right now they are doing a RAL/KAL for Pride and Prejudice!! My absolute favourite book of Jane Austen's and my favourite movie of all time (the A&E version with Colin Firth)!! The KAL part is lace themed, so I picked this shawl as my project. I'm so incredibly excited about this RAL/KAL if you can't already tell. I haven't read P&P all the way through since Grade 9 and I haven't really done much in the way of lace. The yarn I'm using is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Blue Yonder. It is way more prettier than I ever expected, and it's such a joy to knit with! I had originally purchased it for socks, but now that I look at it, it's almost too pretty to be hidden in my shoes all the time! Now I'm considering making shawls with my other skeins as well....but that's for another time :-)

I hope everyone is having a great week! I will be back soon!

Happy Knitting!!

It's the Weekend Already??

Happy Saturday Knitters,

My how this week has flown by!! I was hoping to have some pictures to show you today of this cute little baby cardigan I'm working on, but I've been having some trouble with it so it's not ready to be photographed just yet. I don't know why, but I've been making mistakes left and right with this project. I've got to take out one arm and the bottom edging and re-do them. When I picked this out, I thought it would be a quick knit I could finish in a couple of days, it's been almost a week now and I'm still not done! I just hope I can get it finished soon.

I mailed off my Springtime in Paris swap package yesterday, so my swap partner should get it early next week. I tried to find a pretty box to put it all in, but I had no such luck so I went to the US Post Office and bought a box there that was pink with butterflies on it. It's very cute, but smaller than I thought it was going to be. I had to squeeze everything in there really tightly, so I hope it arrives in good condition!

I got more Knit Picks Felici in the mail the other day! Yay! This time though it's for socks for my Mom and sister. I got them to go through the colours and pick out which ones they would like for their own socks. Now I just need to knit them! It sure seems like I'm accumulating yarn faster than I can knit it....I have a feeling I'm going to have to make some sort of plan of action to take care of this soon....

Today I've done a bit of baking. I made a carrot cake in a 9x13 pan as well as banana butterscotch cupcakes. I have to ice both of them yet, but I'm waiting to see if I should freeze one of them instead and bring out next weekend. I'm also going to make up some overnight French toast for Sunday breakfast tomorrow, but I'll do that after supper. I think right now I need to go and get to work on that sweater! Wish me luck!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Mother's Day Preparation

Hello Knitters,

I was going to start this post by showing you all pictures of my knee-socks I finished last night but....we woke up to SNOW here this morning and it's been dreary all day...definitely not conducive to picture taking. The snow has melted, thankfully, so I should have some pictures to share soon.

The socks turned out very much like I was hoping! They're the perfect thing for cold winter nights, or even cool summer nights when you're wearing shorts. For those of you wondering, no, I do not agree with the shorts, socks and sandals thing, but these do look incredibly cute worn with shorts and no shoes, just around the house. I'm a huge fan of knee-socks so I have a feeling I will be making more of these in the future. The yarn is fantastic as well - it's Knit Picks Imagination in Unicorn. It's so soft and warm!! It is hand-wash, but I think it's worth it.

Today I did a bit of cooking. I made this although I can't tell you how it turned out yet because I froze it to use when we have company over. I needed to use up some extra chicken I had left over after making chicken salad which is part of my Mom's Mother's Day lunch tomorrow. I also made a strawberry-pretzel salad for dinner tomorrow. I thought I'd try and get as many things done ahead of time as I could because I think we are going to run into the city to see my Grandma who is in the hospital right now. I'm trying to figure out how to strategically plan out everything since I'm making breakfast, lunch and dinner. So far I think I have it figured out...wish me luck!

For Mom's Mother's Day gift, I made her two pairs of earrings using two of her favourite colours; sea glass green and turquoise. These are a surprise, she is picking out the rest of her present herself. She hasn't quite decided yet, but she's thinking either some flowering trees to plant in the yard or some lawn furniture.

Tonight I'm hoping to start knitting with some of the new Felici I got the other day, now that I'm done the knee-socks. I have a certain plan in my mind....we'll have to see if I can get it to work or not though.

Well, I should go and get to it! To all you Mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!!! I hope you have a wonderful day filled with family, love and knitting :-)

Take care everyone and enjoy the weekend!

This Week's Adventures

Hello dear knitters,

How is everyone today? This week we have had a visiting evangelist at our church, so every night we've been going to meetings from 7:30-9:00 or 9:30 pm. They have been wonderful meetings and we've all been enjoying learning so much. Tonight is his last sermon, and I'm sad about that, but I'm excited to hear what he is going to preach about tonight! God is SO good!

On the knitting front: I'm still working on my socks. I'm onto the leg part of the second sock, so I hope to be finished soon. They are knee-highs though, so it might be a little while longer!

Yesterday my Mom and I went to the city and I got to pick up my Knit Picks order with all the new Felici yarn! It is so soft and beautiful! The colours are amazing. I can hardly wait to start knitting with it. I got the 6" Nickel Plated DPN set to go with the sock yarn, and I just switched my sock over to them. Boy do I ever really, really, really like them. They're so much better than the 8" dull old grey ones I was working with before, and the Nickel makes them so nice and slick. I also got both of Wendy D. Johnson's books Socks From the Toe Up and Toe-Up Socks For Every Body. I want to start planning out socks from the books to coordinate with all the new Felici! I guess this means I better stop yabbering on and get back to my sock!

Have a great day everyone!

Thank You!!

Good Morning Knitters,

First off, I have to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who have commented on my 100th Post Giveaway! You are all so kind! I never even realized so many of you were reading my blog. THANK YOU!!

On another note, I'd like to explain why I haven't posted in so long. My Mom and I have been cleaning out the bush around our place for the last week or so, and each day by the time we come in I'm usually so tired that I just don't have the energy to come online. We're finally getting very close to finishing it though, so I'm hoping that I'll be around more often!

I have been working on a little bit of knitting. It isn't anything too fancy, just very simple since by the end of the day, I can only do something easy. It's my first ever toe-up sock. I wanted to do them this way because I have to skeins of yarn and I wanted to be able to use them both up and make long, warm socks. I've got one partly done so far. I found doing the heel a bit tricky, but I think I figured it out. I'm basically making my own pattern as I go. I seem to have a little bit of trouble sticking to sock patterns...I like to experiment with them.

Oh, I should also mention that the new Knit Picks Felici fingering and sport weights yarns are out! (Although I'm so late in posting this, I'm sure everyone already knows about it, but on the off chance that at least one of you does not, I thought I should say that) I placed an order on Tuesday morning, and it shipped the same day! I'm very excited to see the new colours, and the yarn. I've never worked with Felici, but I've heard so many good things about it. The new sport weight will be nice because it will work up faster (which I always like) and be a bit warmer and squishy on my feet. :-)

Well, I'm off to do a little more clean-up outside. I hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Happy Knitting!!