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Friday 31 August 2012

A Moment To Relax

The last few weeks have flown past in a blaze.  I'm sure the last time I checked it was the August Civic Holiday and now it's Labour Day weekend.  Work has been busy and wearing me down so I've taken a few days off.  I'll have five days off - in a row.   The last time I had that much time off I moved.

So here I am.  It's mid-afternoon on a Friday and I've finished a sweater, and crossed the countryside checking out the newer yarn shops in the area.  I picked up some roving (100% organic merino), a silk hankie, some new yarns, buttons and generally had a marvelous time.  But the best part was reveling in the fact that today is Friday and I'm off touching yarn, not at work.

So this is the newly finished sweater.  The yarn is Jojoland.


I picked up two skeins of sock yarn too.  One by Fleece Artist

and one by Cascades Heritage.

But I think I'm most excited about the silk.  I've never worked with a hanky like this before it looks like fun - and I admit, I was sucked in by the colours.

Monday 27 August 2012

What's goin' on?

Most days I can find something to talk about - the challenge is to find the time to write about it.

But lately, I find myself with nothing to say.  Nothing.  I have a few pictures to share later on, but I have no substance to go with them. 

And then I'm confronted by this:  Blog Stats.

People are stopping by the blog to see what's new and I have nothing to offer.  It's like when a friend drops in at home and you're out of coffee and tea, the milk is sour, the juice is dodgy, the beer is warm and the dog just threw up on the kitchen floor.

I suppose part of the problem is a valued colleague has just left work for a new opportunity and while I do sincerely wish her the very best, it's left me in a really tight spot.  I don't feel I have enough knowledge to complete tasks, and I certainly don't have enough time to complete my tasks, her tasks, and support another employee as they come up to speed.  I find this to be a stressful situation as I really dislike looking incompetent and missing deadlines.

The reality is something has to give.  This week it was the blog.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Knitting for Kids

My 11 year old son is a big fan of hand knits.  In the heat of summer, when we were melting on the porch, he mentioned that he wanted a new sweater for the fall (wool, solid colour, gansey style, no frills) and has been eyeing my socks.

He's a bright lad and has already figured out that nothing makes me happier than to knit for my family.  So I thought I'd go one further and make him some socks.  I know it's a bit of a gamble to knit socks for kids as they are so hard on their clothes but what's life without a little risk.

I also wanted them to be a secret - a christmas present perhaps.  So I decided to knit them from work.  Brilliant!  He'd never see them here and then I could just bring them home and tuck them under the tree.  So I cast on at work one day and started knitting him socks.

The thing about knitting at work is I have very limited window of opportunity to get anything done.  It's just over lunch.  So this sock has taken me about a month to knit - lunches only, Monday to Friday. 

Today I finished the first sock, sat back and had a good look at it and you know what?  I have run right into the issue with knitting for kids.

My son grew.  The socks won't fit.

Saturday 11 August 2012

End of the Drought?

It's Saturday again and the most exciting thing is that it has rained.  I don't mean just a little tease of a sprinkle, I mean measurable rainfall.  In some ways it's very good - a huge relief that might be in time for some crops.  But truthfully, there has been rain for the past week and my yard  is now a different colour - it's green again.  We need to cut the grass and I think all the little slips of trees that I planted in the spring might even survive.



There has been some knitting happening too.  I've finished a sock and most of a mitten.  Before anybody asks, no - there's no second-sock syndrome or second-mitten syndrome happening.  I simply don't know how I want to finish the mitten so there it sits on the needles waiting for me to make a decision.  I'm leaning towards a very simple cuff - but part of me wants to make something big and extravagant.

As for the sock, I finished it and grafted the toe late last night while watching TV.  I even started casting on for the second sock but when I couldn't correctly count to 64 (to make sure I had the right number of stitches) I gave up and went to bed.

Which is when I decided that maybe this much rain isn't a good thing.


There is about 2 cups of water in the bowl.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Butternut

Ta Da!!!  Here it is.  Butternut, designed by Anne Hansen - another project done for GiftStash 2012.


While it felt like it was a quick knit, it actually took just over a month.  It was done in the evenings sitting in front of the TV as well as a few weekend mornings sitting on the porch.  What I like is that I'm not really taking any time out of anything else - I can't just sit and watch TV - I need to do something with my hands so this feels like I'm not "wasting" time in front of the tube.


There's also an interesting lesson in economics here.  This skein of yarn (Marrakesh, from Handmaiden Fine Yarn
was purchased for about $36 (CAD).


My initial thought was that was a scandalous amount of money to spend on a single skein of yarn and I was somewhat resistant to the idea.  When I was shopping, I couldn't decide so I polled a pile of other knitters on what I should get for a pattern I was going to start and this was their vote.  But here's the thing.  The skein was 100g - just like so many others I've bought, but unlike the others,  it was 700m of yarn.  700m....that's 0.7km of silk and baby camel yarn.  I didn't think of it at the time, but you can make A LOT of stuff with 700m of yarn.

This was the original scarf.



And I still have 140m left.  It's not a huge amount, but with some careful planning I can get a third something out of the skein.

So two silk and camel scarves and a future consideration for $36....not a bad deal at all.