Of Josh and Angelus

Not much to report on the knitting front. Mostly I've been tearing around trying to get ready for my trip (4 days and counting). I have been getting some work done on my "Kakhi" Cables. The back is starting to look like it might actually be on its way to becoming a garment:

I'm past the armhole shaping now and have about 4 more inches to knit before I reach the shoulder shaping. I'm loving how this pattern looks, even if it is fussy with all that seed stitch and cable work (I haven't figured out how to do it without a cabling needle). Here's another close-up:

Now that all that exciting knitting is done with (this is a knitting blog after all), I'll move on to what has me the most excited today. Josh Groban! He performed here in Ottawa last night at Scotiabank Place and I had my tickets months ago. Here is a shot of the stage:

It was really impressive! All the panels lit up and had images on them that changed throughout the show. Josh sounded spectacular (no surprise there)! Here's an "action" shot:

For his encore, he came out wearing this Senators jersey which was really awesome. It had Groban 07 on the back, which was pretty cool.

I took lots of photos but I wasn't allowed to use my flash so most of them look like this:

This was an absolutely phenomenal concert and I can't wait for him to come to Ottawa again!

Also on the not knitting front, on Saturday instead of groceries, I came home with this:

This is a thing of beauty! The Sword of Angelus from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is the one that features in the 2nd season finale where Buffy stabs Angel and sends him to hell. Yeah, good times. This is my first blade, and hopefully, it's just the beginning!

Well, I guess that's enough of non-knitting stuff for now, hopefully I'll find time to post again before my trip (4 days, did I mention?), that is assuming I have actual knitting progress to report.

Bad Blogger

I am such a bad blogger! I can't believe it's been so long since my last post.

I recently found out that there is a knitting guild here in Ottawa. A coworker of mine told me about it, and I went to a meeting last night. It was awesome! I've been wanting to check out a group of knitters, and this is a big group. I think I'll be going again.

I have been knitting, and have a few things to mention. First is a finished Endpaper Mitt (designed by Eunny).


I don't remember if I mentioned the yarn I used in previous posts, so I'll do it now. This is Schoeller Esslinger Fortissima in colour 144 and Scheepjes Invicta Extra in colour 1350.

Here is the inside:

Looks kind of the same as the outside, if I do say so myself :) This is my first time using two colours at the same time. I have done stripes before, but this was kind of addictive. Who knew?

In works in progress:

Here is the "Kahki" cables cardi so far. Eh. Not so exciting blog fodder. The black looks gray, but at least you can see the pattern. For the record, I hate seed stitch! I do like the way this is coming together though, even if it is slow going. I think I'll make this my priority piece. I have small things going too, but I'm going on a trip in a little less than 2 weeks, and want to save them for airplane, bus and train trips :)

Anyhow, I hope that I will have a couple more posts up before I head off for vacation, but until then, it's time for House and he gets cranky(er) if I'm late.

More Finished Stuff

Wow! I am on a roll. I guess this blogging thing could be the solution for my inability to finish projects. So I have socks:

These are just plain old stockingette socks. They are Navy Patons' Kroy Socks 2.5 mm dpns. I've knit two other pairs like this and I find they're great everyday socks. Inexpensive yarn that knits up well and I can throw them in the washer and dryer.

I also finished this:

This is Grumperina's Odessa hat minus the beads. I loved this pattern! I can't wait to try it again with beads this time. It's knit out of the Luxury Collection Fine Merino Superwash DK. This was also left over from my brother's holiday scarf. He won't miss it I'm sure :)

So now that I've got a bunch of little projects finished, I really should work on the bigger ones. Here is the start of the Kahki Cables Cardigan:

Not much to look at. You can barely see the cables. It's just going to be a black blob. I doubt I'll blog it much, unless there's serious progress. Despite its lack of blogability (new word?), I really like this yarn and the pattern is knitting up nicely. Should be working on it more.

There's also this one:

This is one I've had on the needles for years. It's a Michael Kors design aran top from the Holiday 2005 issue of Vogue Knitting. And the back is almost entirely done. I think the holdup is that it's knit in acrylic Bernat Big Value. Now that I've discovered the joys of natural fibres, the acrylic, just doesn't feel right. Not to mention that it's Michael Kors (his, incidentally is knit in cashmere).

So, instead, I have more little projects. Like:

Endpaper mitts. These are from Eunny's blog, and they are my first attempt at colour work. I'm over the moon with how well they seem to be coming together. I'm terrified that they will be too small though. They look really small. I think I may just be comparing them to socks and my wrists are considerably smaller than my ankles. Time will tell. Anyway, there's more UFOs kicking around my place, but this is already a picture heavy post and it's almost midnight which is way past my bedtime, so I'll save them for another time.

Of Fetching and hats

Wow! It's hard to believe it's February already. The shortest month of the year, so why does it always feel like the longest? I've been away from the blog for the last week, but that doesn't mean I've been away from my knitting. I knit scarves for everyone on my holiday list this past year, and had some leftover yarn from those projects, so when I heard that my sister could use a pair of fingerless mitts and my brother could use a new hat, I got on it.

This is a simple stockingette hat in boring black. I used the pattern for the Fana Cap from Charlene Schurch's Hats On! I just neglected to change over to another colour. I guess I figured that the Boy might be more likely to wear a plain black hat than one with a pattern in it. His scarf was the DNA Illusion scarf from MagKnits:

It's not the greatest picture in the world I took it on my old camera, but you can see the double helix not too badly. The scarf and the hat were both knit with Luxury Collection Fine Merino Superwash DK yarn which was a dream to work with. My other FO for today, is a pair of Fetching from Knitty. (Someday, I will figure out how to link to things, I'm afraid of stealing bandwidth)

This yarn doesn't photograph well. It's Luxury collection Alpaca Peru (100% alpaca, mmmm) and the colour is a kind of midnight blue with bits of turquoise and fuschia blended in. Really pretty. I don't have a picture of her scarf, but it was Here and There Cables from Scarf Style. I hope she likes these, she's a little particular. I love them, and if she doesn't, I might just take them back. I've been wanting to make a pair of these for me since they made their Knitty appearance.

So, 2 FOs, I figured I could celebrate so:

Austermann Step, and Lang Jawoll. I've worked with both of these yarns before and was happy with them both. I'm itching to start some socks now. I think I'd better get the number of UFOs down first, though. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.