Hi. I have emerged from under my school-related hidey hole, and have some actual knitting to report. Not a lot, but some. So let's get to it.

First, I have been working on my Annetrelac socks. I finished the first one:

And took to second sock in progress on a field trip:

I'm channelling my inner Yarn Harlot with these pics, but it was fun. One of the really wonderful things about living in Ottawa is the Central Experimental Farm. I actually live across the street from this corn field in the middle of the city.

There were cows, trust me, they're there.

And far more importantly, there were sheep:

I wonder if they recognize the sock...

In other knitting news, I finished something:

This is a baby blanket I knit for a co-worker who has since had her little girl, and taken possession of the gift. That makes it bloggable, right?

It's a simple garter stitch blanket based on a washcloth pattern. It's knit out of Sublime Extra-fine Merino DK, which is lovely! I almost wish I could have kept this blankie for me. I did manage to keep back 4 balls though, so maybe something. It's 25 inches square, knit on a 4.5 mm needle. I really love this project.

Not one to settle for a single pair of socks on the go, I also cast on this:

Embossed leaves by Mona Schmidt from the book Favorite Socks. This is a pretty simple pattern to work with, and I'm enjoying them quite a bit. The yarn is On Your Toes Bamboo, and is really slippery and really, really splitty, but I love the fabric it's making. The colour is really pretty too. This picture is a little more accurate:

A nice close-up on the leaves which really pop.

So anyway. I've got a little under two weeks before the fall term starts, and I've joined Mystery Stole 4, so there's yarn acquisition to be done, and there should be some actual activity on this here blog. No promises :)

Yikes!

So, It's been two months since my last post. I don't know what to say, really. I've been super busy. I went back to school part time, to finish my degree. It seems that's taken over my life. I cannot, however let it take over completely. I have been knitting, just not as much.

Before classes started, I was working on some socks, and managed to get them finished, just not blogged. So here they are:

Toe-Up Totem Socks by Hakucho. Sorry for the Ravelry link, non-Ravellers, I can't remember where I got it in the first place. They're knit out of the teak Lang Jawoll that used to be my Bayerishe socks. I made a big mistake in them and they were taking forever, so frog city, and new socks!

Next:

These are just a plain toe-up sock which I basically made up. I half used the basic recipe from Knitty. They're knit from Austermann Step in some colourway or another. I lost the ball band. I like the pinky, purply bits with that sunshiney yellow thrown in there. Good basic socks.

Not done yet:

These are my own design too. I used the Tiny Bamboo stitch from the Vogue Stitchionary volume 1. The yarn is Regia Cotton Tip & Top Color in the 4085 colour. This stitch was kind of fun, and it made a sock that was kind of like a mesh. Here's a close-up:

All round, a good summer sock.

I also managed to get some stash enhancement in:

Paton's Classic Merino in Natural mix. There are actually three balls, but I couldn't wait:

This is the beginning of a pair of Mosey. I'm a product of the eighties, and for me, legwarmers are such a throwback. These ones, I couldn't resist though. It might be the pompoms.

I also got this:

Cadenza by Estelle. This is a new yarn at my LYS, and is a delicious superwash merino/Tussah silk blend. The colour doesn't photograph well with my camera and is actually more on the green side. Makes me think of tropical water. I've set it aside for something really special.

But I can't be without socks on the needles, so I cast on this:

This is the Annetrelac Socks pattern from the Holiday 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. They're designed by Sandy Beadle, and originally knit out of Shaefer Anne yarn. I didn't have any of that, but I did have some Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in Misty Moor. So far (despite the blurry picture) it's turning out well. I've actually added another 5 tiers of rectangles to this since the picture was posted. What can I say, entrelac is addictive for me.

That's about all for now. Hopefully I'll be less than two months between postings. No promises.

Gathered

So, I've been keeping my needles pretty busy of late. I finally got my act in gear and finished my Gathered Pullover. Here's proof:

And a close-up on the gathered cables in the front:

Pattern: Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason from the Winter 2007 issue of Interweave Knits.
Yarn: Sablewool Merino undyed 9.25 50g balls. This was a gift from my parents purchased for me in Australia.
Needles: 4.5 mm Addi Natura 32"
This was an incredibly fast knit, and would have been finished much sooner if I weren't such a wuss when it comes to finishing.

So with that finished, I was wide open for new projects. If you remember, I signed up for a course in traditional fair isle knitting a couple months back. Unfortunately, there was one of many disgusting, nasty snowstorms the day it was scheduled so it got postponed. Postponed until yesterday. So I got to spend the whole day yesterday in a yarn store!!! I did some minor stash enhancing, and I think I did pretty well. Plus, I knit this:

Here is my tam blocking on a dinner plate. It was a really fun knit, and I think it turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself.
Here's the other side:

My first corrugated ribbing. I'd heard people complaining bitterly about corrugated ribbing before and always wondered about it. It's always caught my eye when I've seen it in other people's blogs and on Ravelry. Turns out, it falls into the category of things that I kind of enjoy where everyone else whines. More proof that I'm weird. As if we needed any.
The yarn is Patons Classic Wool in a chocolate brown and Regency for the contrast colour. It's kind of cheating fair isle in that it's really a solid colour and a variegated one. But turns out pretty cool. I've never met a tam that looked any good on me, but I have hopes for this one.

Stash enhancement, did I say something about stash enhancement? Mmmm, yeah, okay, maybe:

I did get this. Applelaine Apple Pie sock yarn in the Strawberry Jam colour. I've been drooling over this for a while and it occurred to me that where pink is my favourite colour, I've never made myself pink socks. Something must be done about that. Close up on colour:

It's pretty close to the colour on my monitor. Really subtle variegation. I'm looking forward to knitting with this.

But that's not all. I finished two big projects, so I started a new one:

This is actually supposed to be forest green, but it refuses to photograph as anything other than teal. This is the best I could do. The pattern is Tomato from No Sheep For You and designed by Wendy Bernard. Due to the colour, I've dubbed this sweater "Fried Green Tomato." The book actually has a pattern in a contrast colour across the bustline, but I chose to do it solid. I'm also laughing in the no sheep idea's face. This is Galway Irish Worsted Knitting Wool. Incidentally, I cast this on Friday evening and knit a tam yesterday. This is a super fast knit. Plus, no sewing! I expect to be wearing this in no time flat. Wish me luck.

Exercises in Avoidance

A month! Where did that go? Wow. So my Gathered Pullover is knit. I have to set in the sleeves and sew in the ends.... So:

Here's what I've been doing instead.

Yep, that's not knitted lace, there is a crochet hook at the top of the picture. I'm not turning to the dark side. I've always crocheted, just lately I've decided that I like knitting better. Hence knitting blog. This is pure avoidance. It's a crocheted doily that I've actually made before but seem to have lost somewhere in the not ever actually using doilies that is my life. That's neither here nor there. I've messed up though, so now it sits until I feel I can tackle the thing again.

Lest you despair, however, there has been knitting.

A couple hats for the charity bin. These are random free patterns I pulled off the net. I have the specs somewhere, but can't feel motivated enough to find them. I did not invent the patterns. The yarn, I can tell you because it's stash yarn which I have the info in front of me (as opposed to in the other room). The purple is Bernat Big Value, and the red and black is Bernat Satin. All lovely and acrylicy. Mmmm plastic...

I also finished the first one of these:

Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang for a co-worker. I had to frog it the first time because the guage was too loose. Now it's good, but I've knit this pattern twice before, and I've grown bored with it. I guess I'd better finish it someday.

I finished some stuff too:

Sweetheart socks. Regia 4-ply yarn in a bright turquoise colour. I'll post a modelled shot next time. Finished socks mean new sock... right?

Pomatomus by Cookie A. from Knitty. Sorry no link today. Google it if you really want it. It's free :) I've knit these before but they came out really loose. So I used 2.25mm needles instead of 2.75mm ones, and it's coming out beautifully. I was admiring it yesterday when I looked at the rapidly diminishing ball of yarn (Bernat Sox) and took a look at the label. I bought one ball because the label said 1 ball for the socks pictured. I looked again and saw they were kid's socks. I'm not going to have anywhere near enough to knit these socks. Wah!

Moving on to happier stuff. Lady Eleanor, she is done. Here she is blocking:

And feeling fringey.

It's a terribly dark picture, but you can see the knotted fringe which was, I have to admit, part of the sell for me on this stole. Specs: Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole by Kathleen Power Johnson from Scarf Style edited by Pam Allen. The yarn is Noro Silk Garden in colour 244, and I used a 4.5 mm needle. Next up: dinner. Yay!

What, did you think I was going to say finishing? Pshaw!

Fastest Sweater Ever

So almost two weeks this time. I've been trying to keep busy and knitting. Mostly I've been obsessed over my Gathered Pullover. I'm amazed at how incredibly quickly it's coming together. More on that in a little while. First I wanted to share my finished Azure Socks:

To refresh memory a bit, this is the Azure Socks pattern from Knitty. Hopefully the link above works. The yarn is Koigu KPPPM. I can't remember the colour, but it's all pretty soft muted blues, lilacs, and greens.

This was my first time working with Koigu and I did get a little pooling. Luckily for me, it happened almost exactly the same on both socks. Same colour pool, same spot on the ankle/instep.

This is a really pretty pattern with a lot of interesting detail. The heel construction was unlike anything I'd ever encountered before, but owing to the fact that I'm still learning, I followed the instructions as written and they turned out beautifully. They are extremely snug. I almost couldn't get them on. I'm still determined to wear them though because I'm in love with them.

Enough of that. I've got other socks on the go, but nothing much to report progress wise so, meh, moving on to more exciting stuff. Like my sweater:

Here is my progress thus far. I finished the body and one sleeve already.

And I'm well on my way to finishing my second sleeve. This picture was taken yesterday and the sleeve is about twice as long as this picture shows. Incidentally, the question I get asked a lot about knitting with cats is whether they bother the yarn. The answer is actually no (except for rare occasions or if the yarn in question is alpaca). The thing they like most about knitting is the needles. Also any writing implement I'm using to keep track of where I am in my pattern, and as evidenced in previous posts the book, magazine or paper the pattern is actually on. It's not insurmountable, I figure small children are actually more problematic to knitting than my cats could ever be.

Today I dragged my yarn stash out of the closet. I decided it was high time I went through my old stuff. Some of it was from when I was in high school. A lot of it was leftover bits from other projects (including some leftover from my grandmother's stash when she decided she'd never knit again and passed it on), and almost all of it is acrylic. I'm determined to work my way through some of it. Lots of charity knitting I think will be appearing on this space in the coming months. I'd like to point out that I'm not going on a yarn diet. I would never hear of such a thing. As with all diets, I'm of the firm belief that imposing a no good stuff restriction will result in a serious binge in the future. Nope, not me. I'll still buy yarn, I'm just making a concerted effort to designate stashed yarn into specific projects and put it to good use.

That is all.

Beanies and wooden stakes

Well, it would seem that I'm not quite on track with my once a week blogging. I've got blog-worthy stuff going on, but there was a visit from the family this weekend to celebrate by grandfather's birthday. So that's taken most of my time over the weekend. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it. If anyone cares to complain, all I have to say to that is:

Actually, in all seriousness, this is a prop replica of the Slayer's Scythe from the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Very pretty. Zara thinks so:

I know it's not really knitting related, but I like to knit while I watch Buffy. Does that count? No, there is a pointy stick part:

And if that weren't enough to kill vampires:

So shiny!

Okay, fine. Enough geek, more yarn. How 'bout this?

I knit this a little while ago, but never got around to blogging it. Here's a bad shot of me wearing it:

It is so hard to take pictures of yourself in the mirror. Anyway it's the Beanpole Beanie by Cerebral Hemorrhage. I used some of the leftover Briggs & Little Regal from my Not-so-Kakhi Cables cardigan which is a lighter guage than the pattern calls for. It makes for a much smaller hat. I have a pretty tiny head, though so this worked to my advantage. It's not as slouchy as it would have been with a heavier yarn, but I think I like it anyway. I like the pattern too, and might even try again in a chunkier yarn some time.

As for more current knits, I started this last week:

And took this picture last night. Then went out for coffee and didn't blog. So I took this one tonight:

This is the Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason from Interweave Knits Winter 2007 issue. The yarn is this:

I can't find reference to this yarn anywhere online, but it's a really gorgeous undyed black sheep merino yarn that my parents very graciously brought back from Australia special for me. I can't remember if I blogged it before. I've been hoarding it since October, so it's entirely possible that I was keeping it to myself. I know you would have too :) Anyway, I was waiting to find a great pattern for it and this simple pullover with a great bit of cabled detail seemed to be just right. It even looks like the yarn used in the picture in the magazine.

So I guess that's it for now. I'll just leave you with a picture demonstrating one of the reasons it can be hard to get much knitting done around here:

They don't make a habit of playing with yarn, but magazines, papers, books, needles, and pencils are obviously designed specially for cats. Right?

Finally Finished

So this is what it looks like outside today:

Yeah. Time to knit.

But first, I have a finished object to show you. I finally finished my Not-so-Kakhi Cables cardigan and took some pictures. First I tried the mirror:

That wasn't bad, but I really needed someone else to be photographer. So I found a friend and got this:
and this:
Much better. So, as you can see, this turned out to be wearable which is encouraging. I put a year's worth of work into this sweater, so it's good to know that I will wear it. So the pattern, one last time is Kakhi Cables by Penny Ollman. It was from Knitter's Magazine Winter 2006. The yarn is Briggs & Little Regal in black. I've forgotten the needle size I used, it was whatever the pattern called for. On the whole, a successful project.

Onwards! I've signed up for a workshop at one of my LYS in fair isle. The class is tomorrow, hopefully the miserable mess from the earlier photo will have cleared up by then because this particular store is in an industrial park way out in the middle of nowhere. Blech. Anyway, the yarn they wanted us to bring was this:

Patons Classic Wool. I needed a variegated and a solid, so I got Rosewood and Taupe (which I think is really more chocolate brown, but whatever). Hopefully they'll turn into something nifty. Wait and see. More about that later.

While I was in the yarn store there was also this:

On Your Toes Bamboo. Mmmmm this is so soft, I can't even describe it. It's new to me (I think to the store too) and is 75% bamboo and 25% nylon. It's also machine washable and dryable. I'm doing a happy dance in my chair over that. The colour is called Tropical Dusk and reminds me of sterling roses (my favourite!). So pretty!

But that's not all, there was also this:

Arequipa 65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca, 15% nylon. Did I mention alpaca? Alpaca socks for me! Sorry, happy dancing again :) Ahem. The colour is number 201 and is all greens and blues and some lavender thrown in for good measure. It makes me think of spring, which considering the weather, isn't such a bad thing.

Anyway, now that I've blown my yarn budget, I'm going to go and pet the new stash for awhile.