Happy New Year, yeah, I know I'm late

Hope 2017 is treating everyone well so far.

I'll start with a roundup of 2016 in knitting:
I completed 27 projects!! That's a personal best that I don't see happening again too soon. Needless to say my stash is more than a little busted after that lol

2016 saw the publishing of three new patterns via my Ravelry shop. And the designing of three more that I hope to release this year (also the seeds of 4 others are currently germinating; stay tuned).

And what's on the go for 2017, you might be asking.

First and foremost, I have those three as yet unpublished patterns and their four friends to introduce to the world. I'm trying to find a charting system that will play nice with Google Docs, which is where I type up my written instructions and all the important information (gauge, size, yarn, etc). I'm trying to cut down the number of files a person needs to download for one of my patterns. Currently my patterns have a file of the written stuff and another for the charts. I'd love to combine them as I think that'll make my ebook easier for knitters rather having to find which chart they need for which design. That's my goal anyway. Once I have that figured out, I'll be putting out a call for test knitters via the Ravelry Test Pool group. Hoping to have the first three patterns up and running before June.

What else am I up to? In my personal knitting, I've decided to focus on color this year. My stranded colorwork is abysmal at best. With that in mind I went looking for something to ease my way into the twisted strands of multicolored projects. Then someone, I'm not remembering who, tweeted the link to an MKAL (mystery knit along). A different kind of an MKAL as it's a "quest" format. And it's being done in double-knitting.

Are you familiar with the technique of double-knitting?  I had learned it some time ago but hadn't thought about it in ages. It's a twist on ribbing or possibly brioche where you're knitting a two sided fabric that mirrors itself. Let me insert a picture to show what I mean:

As you can see, the colors and designs are reversed in both color and facing.  This is done at the same time while knitting in rows. Isn't that neat? I had forgotten about the technique completely until I started reading the thread for the MKAL. This also resulted in me searching for the designer (Tania Richter) and adding a "few" more projects to my queue ;) Do take a look at her designs on Ravelry. She's also on Instagram as @aetherfang

So I've gone down a bit of a rabbit-hole with the Yarn Quest and double-knitting. In my defense, I had to wait for more wool to arrive to start on the next patterns for the series.

So that catches me up on what's going on with my knitting :)

On to health news! And happily there is news to report: I finally got into physio!!! 19 months after injury, 12.5 months after the referral, I finally got in!

I've had two sessions so far and I have a short list of exercises to do at home as well as a list of things not to be doing (looking at you bending forward and sitting longer than 15 minutes at a go). I'm just happy to be moving forward and hopefully getting back to myself sooner rather than never.

And on that happy note, I'm gonna call this post complete :)

TTFN

Not Quite Fall Catch Up and a Sneak Peek

Sorry, it's been a bit since I posted. There's been knitting afoot (not an actual foot, don't worry) and many pieces of graph paper have found their way to the recycle pile after being scribbled upon (Not to self: buy more graph paper).

It's back to school day here on my lovely island. I saw on Facebook that the kids back on the prairies went back the usual 2-3 days before the Long Weekend; still strikes me as nonsensical. I digress. It's the unofficial end of Summer now that they're back to their books and most adults are done with their vacations. Even traffic was quieter this morning when I popped over to the PO before making my way here. Still 16 days before Fall officially gets here but we all know it's creeping ever closer...

Which, of course, brings me to knitting. Because knitting keeps us warm as temperatures dwindle. And knitting is what I do regardless of season/ weather lol.

I'm up to 19 Finished Objects so far this year!!

This year's Ravellenic Games kicked off Aug 5th. The mass cast-on took place at 7:15pm Rio time, which was 7:45pm here; the first time I can recall actually being able to participate in the Mass Cast-on! Although I wasn't online during it; oh well. Maybe in 2 years I can have both. Anywho, I cast on my "Inamorata" and set to work aiming to be finished before Aug 21 and earn medal glory for Team Mine.

Things didn't quite go as planned. First, I completed the bodice on Aug 11, which was excellent. I was well ahead of where I needed to be to finish in time. And then I couldn't find the 4.0mm circular needle I needed to continue the pattern. I went through my needles in the lead up to the Games. I swatched and earmarked the needed needles for the pattern; a 3.75mm for the bodice (twisted sts) and a 4.0mm for the lower part (eyelets). But I could not find the 4.0mm!! It was MIA. My Ravellenics project had to be set aside until the 16th when I could get to Wally World and buy another. (As an aside, after the sweater was done, I was sorting through my circulars and I found 2 24" 4.0mm circulars in the box; Grrrrrrr!) I finished the sweater with 1 day to spare, on Aug 20th. And here it is:

I used Diamond Luxury Collection Fine Merino DK in color 8974, a bluer aqua shade. So I was awarded my medal in the Sweater Triathalon by Bobicus :) I also earned the coveted laurels for cables (the bodice), lace (the eyelets and bottom edging), stash (over 6 months? pooh, this yarn was in my stash more like 5 years!!) and mine (this beauty is mine! all mine! mwahahahah!!). I think I did alright by my team.

My last post, I mentioned a series of patterns my little mind has come up with. The first of the seven is done! And by done, I mean knitting is finished, the picture has been snapped and I have both written and chart forms finished! It's not released yet as I want to have at least half the designs ready so i can have the ebook set up at the same time. Drum-roll, please...

Here it is, the "Light Reel Cowl"!

Moss st and rope cables, in a worsted weight wool (shown in Knit Picks "Wool of the Andes Worsted" color: currant), the Light Reel Cowl is a fairly simple piece to knit. I started knitting it on Aug 20 and cast off on Aug 24; hence FO #19 for 2016!!

I'm calling the series/ ebook "All the Jigs and Reels".  My inspiration is the 7 basic solo dances I learned in Irish dance. I'm going more or less in order of learning, so my first piece is the Light Reel Cowl, the light reel being the first dance learned after, more or less, mastering your 3s and 7s. In the introduction paragraph, I compare 3s and 7s to knit and purls for a dancer; I can be almost poetic at times! The cables are 4sts wide and have a 4rnd repeat; reels are in 4/4 time. And I used 7 repeats of my basic layout to form the cowl circumference; 7s move the dancer from side to side across the practice floor or stage. I might have been stretching with that last one lol.

The second pattern is in the works; I have the knitting roughly half done, as I've been tweaking the rough chart as I knit and making adjustments here and there. It's called the "Light Jig Tam" and features a braid cable (6sts) centered in each of 8 wedges of Moss st; light jigs are in 6/8 time ;) I'm knitting this one top-down in a worsted weight wool and am absolutely in love with both yarn and color (Patons Classic Wool in "royal blue"; very me, very yummy). Unfortunately no pics yet. As soon as I can, I will get a few and share.

Next up will be a project, as yet undecided, inspired by the Single Jig and following that (and rounding out the soft-shoes dances) will be the "Slip Jig Shawl". I'm looking forward to that one!! I love shawls and the slip jig has always been my favorite dance :) I'll round out the series with the three hardshoe basics: treble reel, treble jig and hornpipe. I'm introducing each pattern with a short bit about the dance it gets its name from. I'm hoping to have both functional, knittable designs and educate people on my second love: Irish dance. I think it's a perfect pairing for Knit, Dance, Repeat Designs.

And that, my friends, is all the knitterly (and dancerly) news I have to share with you :) Hope you have lots of wonderful knits ready for the cooler weather!

TTFN

Woot! FOs 16 & 17 Plus News

This post puts me back in "regularily" scheduled posting. Well, maybe not scheduled but the subject matter is back on point. Today I'm updating my knitting news.

I can't remember if I told you that I finished my Zephyr Cove. I did and it turned out really nicely; have a peek:

It took 646 yds and was FO 16 :) I'm on a roll this year!! Also, because I finished this in June, it made me eligible for the draw in the monthly KAL in the Romi group :) And I was one of 2 winners for the month!! I chose the Simee Dimeh pattern as my prize; now I just need to find enough colors to make one!

And there's another FO too! I finished the bag I was designing :) Here is Watch the Clock:

And the special thing about Watch the Clock is, you can knit one too :) I have the pattern for sale on Ravelry as of Tuesday (the 19th of this month). Check out the pattern page on Rav for more details.

Something to add about Watch the Clock: this is the first design I've ever included charts with. I used the incredibly easy and clear Stitch Fiddle to make my charts. I'm so pleased with their site!!  If you need to do any charting, I highly recommend them.

I'm currently working on Vertices (Rosmary (Romi) Hill; Ravelry download) in two colorways of KnitPick Stroll Fingering. For Color 1 I chose "Spectrum Handpainted"; color 2 is "Train Station tonal". It looks like rainbows and storm clouds; hence my project name lol :) This one is a fairly quick knit and the garter st sections are great for tv/ movie watching. It's also an adaptable pattern: it's written for different weights of yarn and you can do options for doing all one color or following the striping. Here's my latest progress pic:

And about sums it up for today :)

TTFN

Gratuitous Cuteness!!

And now you understand the title of this post. I took this last night, as I finally added Maureen's Blankie as a project on Ravelry. And I can't have a picture of Blankie without Little Miss, now can I? 

So here she is, Miss Maureen age 18 with her Blankie which, as well as I can remember, was knit back in October 1998. It's actually the oldest FO I have on Rav! 

I've updated the Patterns page so all the web-based patterns now have links directly to them :) And I've updated the blogs and other websites in the sideboard too. Busy morning!!

And with that, I'm off to continue with the designing of a certain bag pattern; around 1:15am NDT today, I think I hit upon the right way to do what I hope to do with this pattern.

TTFN

I Have Pictures!!! And other news

I know things have been a bit dull around here. All my project talk with no pictures. Today I'm correcting that!! I has pictures to post of most of my lovelies of this year :)

First up, a shot of me wearing my "January Amusement"

This beauty (the sweater; please ignore the model) is my rendition of Jordana Paige's "Amused". Turned out fabulous and only took me 8 days to knit!!

Next up are three pics of my "Gansey-style Bunnyhug" ("East Nuek Hoodie by Kristin Orne) :)
First, the front:

 

The back (all the patterning is expanded from what would've been in the hood section):

And finally, the detail of the neckline, since I had to alter it in removing the hood. Also it shows off the adorable snowflake buttons I used ;) (Truest color of these is the first one)

My Habs scarf isn't as red and white as I'd have liked this season but I did finish it off rather nicely as shown in the next 2 pics:

That border just gives it some punch, right?

I mentioned knitting a quilt block. Here's the photographic evidence:

And, yes, I do have a classic car block on my wall.

This brings me to the latest projects, 2 of which are FOs!!

First is the one I called "Mitties" ("Hidden Gusset" by Mona Drager in the First Fall 2014 edition of knitty.com). So quick!! I started one evening (May 27 to be exact) and finished the next afternoon! The pic shows them in progress:

And then I turned around and knit a second pair for K:

Mine were from an ancient ball of Opal I've had in the stash since... I'm not sure when lol! K's were done in Bernat Sox.

And my latest pretty, as I believe I mentioned last time I posted, is Romi Hill's "Alcyone" (project name "Back to the Future") :) I'm just over the halfway point :) Much less in the pic but it gives you the idea:

The yarn is KnitPicks Hawthorne Kettle Dyed in "Delphinium"; it ranges from blues into blue-purples. And depending on the light it looks really purple :) Loving it!

And you might've noticed by the title that I have news...

New pattern in my Ravelry shop as of about an hour and a half ago :) It's a trivet and coasters set that I called "Garden Blooms". A quick little something to use up some cotton I have in the stash and I think it's pretty cute. 

So that's all the pics and news caught up :)

TTFN

It's Wednesday...

That seemed like a good reason to post. Am home after my trip to Town, Monday, for the MRI. Results should be at my dr a week to 10 days after the scan; roughly mid-November.

It was a decent trip in and I liked doing a bit of exploring on my own, even with my waddling with a cane. I noticed I was getting tired quickly though. Thank goodness there's benches around Town. I managed to (finally) get to COCO, which was a lovely treat yesterday morning :) And I stopped at the David's Tea in the Av mall for a cup of chocolate macaroon while I waited for the taxi to come back home. All in all, a decent trip but it sure was nice to sleep in my own bed last night with the furries around me.

On the knitting side, I'm up to row 13 on the edging of my Carson. This is a row I've decided to add beads on so taking a bit of time to get it done. Brought it with me to Town to work on at the the hostel but I found it difficult to concentrate as my back wasn't happy. Most recent pic:

What I did work on in the taxi is a new little something off the top of my head that I'm tentatively calling "Hap-Hazard". No beads so it was much more travel friendly than Carson is at this point. I put a sneak peek on Instagram, so here it is for you too:

I treated myself to a New York Fries poutine when I got to Town on Monday.

So, that's all the news that's fit to print at this point!

TTFN

A Knitting Front Round-Up

Yesterday, I explained my health situation and I mentioned that I've been knitting quite a bit during this whole thing. So, I figured today I'd do a bit of a rundown of what I've been working on and where I'm at with various projects. There's even two (count 'em: 2!!) FOs to report ;)

Back in May, I started a second Carson (Romi Hill). If you've read my posts, you're familiar with my first one getting lost in the aftermath of our little flood. So, this is kind of a replacement but it's such a beautiful design that I just really wanted a finished one.

The purple is a hand-dyed with a sparkly strand spun into it that I bought while living in Regina, at the now closed (sob!!) Golden Willow. The black is KnitPicks Stroll Glimmer so that both yarns are shimmery shiny. I'm up to the lace edge on this one and I've chosen to take the shimmer and factor up a notch by adding in beads! I need my head examined lol But it's looking good and that's what I want.

Here's a view of the two yarns and the first row of beads. Progress is coming along on this beauty :)

In June, Romi Hill released the first of her 'Asymmetry' small shawls series. I love her little series; I have 3 of the 5. The first design is called "Purless", an all knit piece. It really spoke to me so I cast on with some KnitPicks Stroll Tonal in 'canopy' my dear friend Susie gave me ages ago. I think I was less than two weeks knitting it. What a sweet and quick little piece! And it works with a variety of yarn weights. Good for gifting, hint hint ;)

A few in progress shots and the finished object (Told ya I had FOs). I still haven't blocked her but I'm really pleased with how it turned out :)

My second June start was a second Purless. Remember I mentioned it can be knit in various yarn weights? I found a brilliant colorway of Patons Canadiana and immediately knew it was for Roomie's birthday gift. And after how easily I finished my Purless, I thought it was just the ticket. I started near the end of June and by mid-July I had it done :) Had to wait til she was out of town on a visit to block it but it turned out really well :)

Hmm, in a display of technology doesn't like Síle, I can't find the finished picture. But it is on Ravelry, dear knitters. The project is called 'Shoe Girls' and is under my 2015 tab as well as a few others.

In July, I started getting bored only being able to knit. I know, I know: how many times have any of us said that we want unlimited knitting time? Or that that's all we would do if we could? We've all said it at some time or other. I learned the truth isn't nearly as fun. Everything just felt like a chore and after finishing the second Purless, I didn't touch my needles for about a week. Then one evening I was watching "Princess Bride" (YTV saving Saturday night tv!!) and it struck me that what I wanted was something simple, almost thoughtless. I grabbed a skein of the Bernat Satin Shimmers I had bought (color is Amethyst; my birthstone) and cast on a Clapotis (Knitty.com). I haven't really worked on it since that evening, but it was just what I needed to relax my brain and hands. I have it hibernating in one of the project bags on the back of my door. If I need it, it's there.

In August I was having some difficulties. The tendinitis in my left shoulder flared up, leaving me unable to knit for a few days. I'd do a bit on Carson, and I cast on and frogged a few things. Nothing seemed right. The September KAL on the Romi Hill group on Ravelry was to knit with a yarn that is Preciousss to you. I've had this lovely hank of hand-dyed from Lindsay for awhile. She dyed it for my birthday so it's a one of a kind thing; it is my Preciousss yarn.

I cast on for Alcyone. Love the pattern and the yarn is gorgeous but the colors in the yarn were muddying the lace pattern. I set it aside. I still want to make something with this yarn now that it's caked. I frogged the Alcyone and am now looking at Diane (Romi Hill) as a possibility.

Also in September, I decided it was time I had a new sweater. And I have six balls of lovely green Red Heart Soft Touch that Roomie gave me. Hmm... My search led me to 'Amused' (Knitty.com); top-down with clever reversible cables at the collar and plackets, perfect for fall layering. Sold! I happily started my sweater :) But after I joined and started in the round, I discovered a problem. A big one. The other 5 balls of yarn were missing. Not in any of the stash in my room and I tore through my few remaining things in the basement: no more lovely green yarn :( I wanted to cry. I haven't frogged it and I set the project page to hibernate. If I can find more of that color at Walmart, I will finish it. I really want that sweater!! *sigh* I so rarely go for a big project like a sweater so it's a real blow. Hopefully I find more of the green.

October is upon us and boy is there a bite in the air today! We're at 5C, 2C with wind and what not factored in. Second rainy cold day; autumn or rather pre-Winter is here.

My start project this month is one that will take me the better part of a year to complete. I was looking for hockey themed knits and I happened across the pattern "Crackerjack". Originally conceived for the baseball fan, it's been adopted and adapted by fans of other sports. The basic premise is simple: a win/lose record of your favorite team's season. I started with a little border in Garter st before joining in the round, and I've happily knit 4 rounds for every game  (one game got 5 rnds as we had a shutout :)) my Montréal Canadiens have played so far. I chose 4 colors to represent away wins, away loses, home wins and home loses. And I went with 4 rnds per game in honor of the late #4 Jean Beliveau. Fitting, I thought. So after every game, I knit my 4 rnds with the appropriate color and by season's end I'm gonna have one heck of a scarf! Which is cool, because a scarf is something I can use. Unlike hats which I never wear or mitts that I always seem to lose.

If you'd like more details on any of my projects, visit my notebook on Ravelry; I'm knit-dance-repeat :) And until I can get the other pics to work here, all my good project photos are there as well. You can also follow my progress on Instagram; I'm the imaginatively named knittingsile ;)

That was quite a round-up today! Now maybe I won't take so long between posts lol

TTFN

(edited 6:19pm NDT: pictures are working again :) )

Live on Ravelry!

Announcing the return to the stage of  Isadora Duncan...

Ok, not really. But my new pattern, Isadora Duncan, is available on Ravelry this afternoon :)

That's my big news :) My first for sale pattern is up and I'm feeling pretty good about it. In fact, I think I'll celebrate with a Pepsi and a few rippled chips ;) I'm a classy gal afterall

TTFN :)

Anyone remember that little challenge I gave myself...

I think it was over a year ago now. I was going to get back into dance shape and kind of push myself a bit. We all know where the road to good intentions go...

But I'm quite pleased with myself today. Today marks my third go round with my noisys (ie hardshoes) since the move :) And each session has been at least an hour :)

Have to give credit where credit's due: it's the new place making this possible. Not only has my daily to and from work gone from 12.2km down to 2.6km, giving me actual energy to dance after 8 hours on my feet, but there is a lovely unfinished basement. A concrete floor just begging for stomps and stamps, trebles and toe-jumps :)

Ah, it feels good after nearly 3 years away from it. Haven't tried anything softshoe; a little concerned about the hard floor and only having ghillies between it and my toes.

So for now, I'm trying to do one day a week for at least an hour. I've even got the Oracle out and been tackling not only good ol' St. Patrick's Day (steps 1 & 2 for now; my stamina is gone!!! how did I ever survive 1-5??), but I've dusted off the stampy Hornpipe (heehee, still picture David clapping to this) and Bernadette's Mayhem, the first (only?) treble jig I ever remembered mostly what I was supposed to do :) It feels good to be back at it :) I know my technique has gone to pot and my turn out is atrocious, but I'm working at it and maybe, maybe mind you, with a little perseverance I can get back to looking like a "real" dancer again. Or at least feel like one.

 TTFN

They say bad luck comes in 3s...

Oh dear. Where to start? As someone (Lewis Carroll?) once wrote, start and at the beginning and when you come to the end, stop. So here goes.

The 12th of January saw melting in the morning on my way to work. By lunchtime it was freezing rain and light snow was falling by the time I got off at 2. My first mistake was thinking it was fine to walk home. The second was taking the little cut through by the Bare Mountain trail. I fell. And once again landed on my left hand. Only this time I felt a pop. I took off my mitten to reveal the already bruising and swelling hand. Uh oh. I picked myself off, texted Roomie I was on my way back up the hill to go to the Emergency and slowly made my way back up passed work. Long story short, I cracked a bone in my hand and spent 11days in a splint/half cast and a further 4 weeks in a full cast. There was also soft tissue damage, again. Have to wear a tensor bandage around it if I'm at work still. Cast has been off 12 days today.

As if January wasn't sucking enough, there was heavy rains on the 25th. And with the ground frozen guess where the water decided to go? The joys of a basement apartment :( We got about 2" of water, which wasn't as bad as some but still bad enough. And I was at work when it happened. With a two-day-old full cast on my dominant hand. Oy. Long story short on this: we wound up moving to a lovely semi detached in a much more central location (15-20mins to work instead of an hour- hour+10).

As you can maybe guess, January was *not* my favorite month.  And enter February. Not too bad until the cast came off. Because of soft tissue damage taking longer to heal, I have a tensor wrapped around that hand/wrist at work. And two days after the cast came off I was hurrying to fill an order for several hot chocolates (mini rant: why do people come through drive thru and order huge orders?? Seriously, up to 4 drinks, fine. But 12? 15? And then complain that service is slow? You try doing your order, buddy. Let's see if you can fill it in under 2mins. Bet it would take you 10! Sorry, readers. end rant). Here's an interesting thing about hot chocolate: it's hot. And when it splashes back on a bandaged hand, it burns. And continues burning until the bandage can be pulled off and hand plunged under cold water. And an ice bath *will* prevent further damage but nasty blisters do form. Guess who gets hot chocolate burn scars down her thumb? Oy very.

2015 hasn't been too kind so far, but we're settling in and making the new place a home. The cats love the big windows and running up and down stairs (it's two stories plus full basement). I decided yesterday I was going to use the wool wash on two projects that got soaked in the flood and maybe work on one. I had tried to dry them in the damp apartment but not much luck so had put them back in their respective project bags (also soaked) and put both into a plastic bag *with* my bottle of Eucalan. And yesterday I made a discovery: that plastic bag never made it here :( It must've gotten shifted in all the confusion and wound up on the garbage pile :( So my lovely Carson shawl is no more :(

Even worse, the bag I was using for it was the bag I knit in 1999 to carry my softshoes, notebook and pen when I first started taking Irish dance. My lovely pale blue cabled bag that Ita (my first dance teacher, who passed from cancer in 2004) thought was such a clever thing and never failed to show people.

Ok, 2015, enough bad things. Can we now get on with the good stuff? Maybe a lottery win? Hint hint lol

Here's What's Keepin' Me Outta Trouble

My latest project has been the "Carson" shawl by Rosemary (Romi) Hill :) What a gorgeous pattern! And it's not difficult, just very effective: two color(yarn), there's also a three color option, piece using a slip st pattern. I'm well into it (row 128, I think) and still enjoying it. For the main color I chose Online SuperSocke100 in multi-shades of purple (color 1464) and for the contrast KnitPicks Palette in black.
TTFN; pics to follow

FO Report!!

I know this doesn't happen very often lol My Wingspan is done. Complete. Off the needles. That's all she wrote. :)
I knit 10 points using about 6yds shy of an entire skein of Elann Sock it to Me dankai. Lovely yarn to work with; luh-ve how the colors shade!
So that's my excitement of the day :)
TTFN

So Much for Spring

Big storm hit last night and still nasty winds today. Thank goodness it's my weekend; I've stayed inside with cups of tea and my knitting.

And my knitting has turned back to designing. I got inspired when I saw that someone knit my "Pyewacket" on Ravelry :) I've had this piece in progress since not long after I moved here. Time to breathe some life into it. And it's going well too. It's a bit quirky and I'm thinking of submitting it to Knitty. Actually it's going so well, I just composed the pattern blurb and designer profile a la Knitty lol Feeling optimistic in the face of not losing power last night I guess!

In kitty life, we're celebrating Charlie's 11month birthday today :) He's turned into such a distinguished looking cat! Maureen's doing well here in her new home, I'm happy to report. And Jake is a bundle of fluffy, energetic kitten cuteness. First pic is Maureen and Jake on my bed. Second is Charlie on yhe back of the couch :)

That sums up the day. I'm off to brew another cup of David's Tea 'Toasted Walnut' and get back to this piece of lace ;)

TTFN

Hello Spring?

Well, Spring may have arrived here in my little corner of Newfoundland. The snow is melting and streets are actually quite dry. Ice isn't out of Random Sound yet though so we might see another go. Gotta say I'm not gonna miss the snow this year.

In injury news, my wrist wasn't actually broken but the ligament in my wrist was torn as was the one that controls my thumb. Been 7+ weeks now and still have to wrap it with a tensor for work. But it is getting stronger.

Not much in knitting news because of the above. Done a bit more work on the Wingspan and started a lovely new piece just the other day. I had picked up Interweave Knits Spring issue while we were in Town the first weekend (celebrating my 2nd year anniversary in my adopted province of Newfoundland :) I can't hardly believe it's already 2 years!!!!) so I was flipping through it while the laundry was in and a number of the patterns were appealing to me. Long story short, I cast on the Serendipity Tee (Jesie Ostermiller) using DGB Confort from my stash. (this is the yarn I used to knit my St. Moritz sweater a few years back) Loving it :) The pattern is a simple but engaging top-down sweater with a lovely "smocking" look from well placed cables at the neck and top of the sleeves. It looks very classic, dare I say vintage inspired, and extremely wearable. And I already love the yarn so isn't that a bonus? ;)

As mentioned above, I've now been here for 2 years. Wow. Some days it feels like I was never anywhere else; like this is and always has been Home. That's an odd feeling for a girl who never quite felt like she belonged anywhere because she was uprooted too many times. But Home I seem to be and Home I'll stay.

It's Saturday night and there's a Habs v Leafs game on CBC. I've got chips, an Eatmore bar and a Snack-and-a-1/2 waiting in the freezer; other than my team, I'm Dad's girl lol So Go Habs Go!! (sorry, Daddy; hope your Wings can pull ahead) And hope everyone enjoys their weekend

TTFN

I Hate Ice

I have good reason too. And it's nothing to do with being cold.

I slipped and fell at the end of the driveway yesterday. Road rashed my left hand a bit and bruised my butt. Got up, dusted myself off and continued on my walk up to work.

After being at work about an hour, I noticed that not my left hand was not only a bit sore but there was major swelling going on at the base of my thumb and I was becoming unable to move it without a lot of pain.

I figured I'd last to the end of my shift and then go to the hospital. I only made it 4.25 hours before the pain got to be too much :(

After xrays, I have a hairline fracture near the top of the big bone in my wrist. Because of the amount swelling, I was fitted with a backplate and have to go back up for a full cast next Monday. I'm off work until then, at least :(

So now, I'm in pain and I can't knit, can't bake and can't dance. I'm supposed to "rest". Rest? I'm bored out of my friggin skull!!!! I want to scream! I can't even wash my own hair!

So yeah; I HATE ICE!!!!

One Down :)

Yay me!!!! *Kermit arm flail*

Just over an hour ago, I completed my first project of 2014. It's another Pimpelliese, this time in solid red Diamond Luxury Collection Superwash Merino DK :)

Only one problem: what can I cast on and finish in a month? It's one month to the cast on for the Ravellenic Games. Must go ponder queue and stash...

TTFN

Who Wants Pit-chers?

I finished Daphne more than a month ago. And you all still haven't seen the finished beauty. And I started/finished another Pimpelliese in that time too. And I have a ton of progress pics of my new blankie which shock of all shocks I'm crocheting. So today's post is gonna be all about pit-chers of the lovely yarny creations surrounding me. And as further proof of yarniness, I'm typing this while wearing my "piquant" tank from the Knitty store :) Let's dive into the goodies now!

Pit-cher #1: Daphne is finished and being modeled (somewhat scarily) by moi. Turned out quite nicely, I think. Such a different construction method working side-to-side. Not a difficult knit at all, although I do recommend having a couple row counters on the go for this one. Project details on Ravelry under "Opa!"

Pit-chers 2-5: Pimpelliese #6 aka Easy-peasy Scarfy-dealy. Since me and Roomie/Sis decided to go into Town and visit Big Sis #2 for their mutual birthday weekend, I needed a little something to knit on the two-hour drive each way and keep my hands from too much snacking while there. Hence another Peasy was cast-on. As always, such an awesome pattern. (Shared the pattern with Big Sis #2 as she not only knits but spins and thought it lovely and full of possibilities :) ) This is some hand-dyed I brought with me on my trek East that I had bought at Golden Willow in Regina. Project details on Ravelry under "St. John's Waltz (Easy-Peasy Scarfy-Dealy #6)"

Pit-chers 6-12: Giant Granny (from the Bernat Satin booklet "Around the Seasons Afghans"). Of course color changes have been made and a yarn substitution. Red Heart Shimmer and Bernat Satin Sparkle work really lovely together. Project details on Ravelry under "Not Gran's Blankie"

And there you have it; 12 new pics of the yarniness being created in my little corner of Newfoundland. Hope you enjoyed. The blankie is going quite quick so I may have something new OTN sooner rather than later. Just a slight tease to bring you back ;) If anyone's reading. Do leave me comment if you're there; makes it feel less like I'm talking to myself... or the kitten. Ooh, I'm going to leave you with a pic of furry-nephew Charlie.  He'll be 6 months old on the 27th. Isn't he a darling?

TTFN