Friday, February 28, 2014

Cupcake with sprinkles

 

This week I finished another baby hat for Anna Laberge Hospital  . I modified the pattern  (Little Scallops ) by inverting the scallops , I was hoping to get sort of a cupcake look . Because I was using DK weight yarn , not sport as in the pattern , I cast on 72 stitches instead of 81 . Actually as I was almost done the dark pink section I realized that it was only a 4ply not DK . Oops , I decided to plow on and hope for the best . The lighter pink is a DK weight , I think that it turned out alright in the end . I have enough yarn to knit one more ,  I'm still working down the stash .

Production may have to slow down in the next little while as I'm experiencing a lot of shoulder and wrist pain . I always have some pain due to arthritis but crocheting the ripples blanket made it worse . Ignoring the pain I rushed to finish my Patina socks in time for the end of the Olympics . I'm trying to limit myself to only short periods of knitting and then not even everyday . I'm hoping that helps . Unfortunately I'm allergic to ibuprofen so that leaves out a whole bunch of anti-inflammatory medications that I could use to manage the pain . Guess I'll have more time to catch up on my reading , not a bad thing ...

Speaking of the Patina socks , out of all the socks that I've knit , these are my absolute favourite . The design is just gorgeous , the pattern is well written and Tanis' attention to detail makes for a very nice knitting experience . In fact I liked the pattern so much I immediately cast on for another pair . The Madeline Tosh sock yarn isn't too shabby either . I fell in love with the Robin's egg blue colour the minute I saw it at a yarn shop in Florida last year . Isn't it gorgeous ! It gets me Florida dreaming and away from this awful polar vortex of a winter .



Have a wonderful weekend !


Friday, February 21, 2014

Rainy days and Fridays

...are perfect for knitting and watching an exciting Olympic hockey game . Boy , oh boy , were my needles flying during the men's Canada vs USA hockey game this afternoon . It was a real treat to watch , it was such a good game that could have gone either way . There is no lack of talent on both teams . Lucky for us Canada won and goes on to play against Sweden for the gold medal on Sunday . Yesterday the girls played their hearts out and managed to eek out a victory in overtime to win the gold for Canada . It was a nail biter of a game and heartbreaking loss for the US girls , who were winning until the last minutes of the the third period , when Canada managed to tie it up . They played an amazing game. No lack of talent there either .

 
Only a few inches more knitting to reach the toe of the second sock . Plenty of time to finish them off before Sundays' closing ceremonies in Sochi . This pattern is just so much fun to knit and the yarn is beyond wonderful . I love the colour , it brightens up today's gray skies .


Last Friday saw the completion of my pastel ripples baby blanket . Unbeknownst to me I had a deadline to finish it . Once Chantal saw it , she asked if she could have it for a shower gift for a friend . She needed it by Saturday . I worked on it almost monogamously for the better part of the week and I managed to finish it in time . The mom to be loved it !

I'll leave you with this picture of Charlie , I love her smile , isn't she just the cutest  !

 
Have a wonderful weekend , with lots of blue skies and whatever makes you happy !

Friday, February 7, 2014

Pastel Ripples


I didn't realize just how much baby yarn I had in the cupboard until I started going through all of the containers .There's bags and bags of it and it would take me a really LONG time to use it all up by knitting only baby hats . I decided that crocheting or knitting a couple of blankets might speed up the destashing process . Crochet is quicker and uses up more yarn so here's the first blanket , almost ready for the gift box . The baby hats are coming along quite nicely with 5 hats completed so far . I'll post photos when I have a few more done . There are so many cute patterns for baby hats on ravelry that I'm really enjoying this process .

To make a change from all this baby knitting I cast on for my ravellenics2014 project this morning during the  Olympic opening ceremonies in Sochi . I 've entered the sock hockey event and am knitting a pair of  Patina socks as part of Team Canada . There's not a lot to show at the moment , I'm almost done with the ribbing . I can't wait to start the pattern on the foot , it looks interesting ! If you're participating in the ravellenics2014 , what's on your needles ?

I'm looking forward to watching all the Olympic coverage this weekend and cheering on all of our athletes . Go Canada go !