Wednesday, April 25, 2007

On the upswing




These have been my constant companions since Friday . Although we've had absolutely beautiful weather , I've managed somehow to catch a doozy of a spring cold. Today is the first day I'm up and feeling as if my head won't explode and am not gasping for breath.















Here's what I'm up to today . You know that if there's chocolate chip cookies baking and knitting in my hands , all's right with my world. I do wish that the rest of the world was equally lucky.

Friday, April 20, 2007

A beautiful day




The weather has changed since my last post at the beginning of the week . Maybe spring has finally arrived . I decided to take the dog s for a walk along the banks of the river near our house .














There's a bird sanctuary along here , which is the summer nesting ground of blue herons . You can see the island of Montreal from our vantage point across Lac St. Louis .

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Spring?




Bingo's wondering what happened to spring and who ordered the snow. It sure was discouraging to get this much snow in April . The good thing is it doesn't last long , but still ... I'm ready for green grass and spring flowers.




Because of the horrible weather and spirits that needed lifting I decided to go to the LYS and do some stash enhancement . This was made particularly easy by a small winning I had with the loto last week . That cash was burning a hole in my pocket , let me tell you . I added a little more sock yarn and some sock needles to the stash. I bought a little more than these two balls , but gifted some to my friend Marie ,who has rediscovered the joys of sock knitting . This isn't as selfless as it sounds as I am sometimes the recipient of her efforts .


I started Mike's sock as well this week-end. The Lorna's Laces yarn kept whispering to my restless needles and begging to be cast on . What's a girl to do ? I quickly cast on another pattern from SKS . It's the stansfield # 10 ; I'm loving the yarn and the pattern. There is some pooling , but I feel that it'll make these socks unique , one of a kind. The colour in the pic isn't quite true, the main colour is a little more brown and a bit more grey than blue.
I'm still plugging away at my April socks. I'm just about at the toe decreases on the second sock . I always seem to get bogged down at this point . I'll give them a push tonight while watching American Idol . I'll also get some knitting time tomorrow as I'll be at the garage having the car checked. There's some funny noises coming from the front end , hoping that the financial damage won't be too great.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

I've got mail !



Look what the mailman brought ... Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock ! This is an ebay win and the first time I'll knit with this yarn. The colour is called mineshaft . These socks are intended for my husband , who in his younger days worked in a nickel mine in Sudbury , Ontario for a couple of years.


Here's a pic of my shawl in progress . It's not really a difficult pattern , but I must say the beginning of the first chart gave me fits. Once I was able to get a " read " of my knitting it all came together. I think I tinked as much as I knit . I'm pretty close to the upper body / chart B. Thank God I didn't work it in mohair , the tinking would have been a nightmare .


Still no progress on the socks , though . The new sock yarn will be motivation to get them done.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Spring Things Shawl



I finally have a few minutes to post today . It's supposed to be spring here , but we're not having very spring like weather . We woke up to a light dusting of snow , overcast skies and cool temperatures . The Easter Bunny will have to wear a sweater and warm woolen socks to make his deliveries tomorrow.

The cool weather is conducive to knitting , however. I've cast on for Susan Pierce Lawrence's http://knittingasfastasican/ Spring Things shawl . Susan used a mohair laceweight yarn ; I'm using Jaggersun Zephyr wool silk . I really like this yarn as it's easy to tink if you make a mistake , and blocks out nicely.



One of the other projects in the rotation are the April socks for the Sock a Month KAL . I'm just about at the heel portion of the second sock. This is an easy 4 row pattern on 64 stitches and 2.0 mm needles . I'm hoping to get them done by the end of this week.


After that I'll focus on the girl's bolero . That should be a quick knit .



Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Starting out

So ... I'm joining the blogging community .I've enjoyed reading knitting blogs for awhile now and am amazed at how many terrific knitters there are out there . It's encouraged me to try new techniques and yarns and just generally to expand my horizons . I'm starting this blog primarily as a record of my creative life and as a way of sharing it .

Now having this intro out of the way - on the needles - sock #2 of the waffle rib pattern from More Sensational Socks . I just love that book ! I'm using Regia cotton surf and 2.0 mm needles . I'll get the camera out and take pictures for the next post .

Also on the go is a girls bolero pattern by sirdar . I'm not loving the pattern instructions ; having the attention span of a flea these days , I'm finding their row by row instructions a bit of a pain . The deadline is May as this is intended as a birthday gift for a friends' grand-daughter .I'm such a good procrastinator .