Sunday, March 19

Wow, the sun is actually up in the sky - it seems like weeks since we've seen it. The temps are quite mild, just below freezing, but there's quite a wind howling. I don't know if any of our very great abundance of snow has melted today.

I have been working here and there on Festive; I am doing the sleeve cap shaping on the first sleeve. I have modified the pattern for a long-sleeved version. Once I get the sleeve cap shaping done, I'll see how it will all fit together. I have put in a lifeline at the beginning of the sleeve cap shaping in case I have to rip it out to compensate for the longer/wider armhole I did on the body pieces. There's nothing photo-worthy, just sweater pieces in a nice heathery light blue.

In puttering around the house, I have noticed I have uh ... a lot ... of yarn. There are a few yarns that were bought with specific projects in mind (i.e. the yarn I got for Starsky) but for the most part, I just liked the colour or the brand of yarn. I'll have fun working on whittling down that batch of yarn. I have lots of cool yarns for socks and hats, etc. so I am looking forward to getting going on some of those easy, portable projects.

We are nearing "adoption time" with our greyhound and we are so excited! I have been browsing online and there's quite a huge amount of information to process. I found this site the other day. Such beautiful dogs!! I had a lot of fun looking at all the photos. They also have some links which I am still in the process of perusing.

The other morning when I was in my computer room loading up my backpack before leaving for the day, I looked out and saw this:

Sitting quite serenely on the top of the snowbank across the street was one of the red foxes that has been around town during the winter.

Not the best photo, but it wasn't full light yet and I was shooting through the plastic wrap on the inside of the window. He was quite unconcerned with us and sauntered off down the road by the time we got outside.

We are going to bbq steaks for supper tonight and have a good supper. Chores and laundry are all done for the week, so we can relax and get ready for back to work. I hope to do the sleeve cap on sleeve #1 for Festive tonight!

posted by Terri at 3/19/2006 04:06:00 PM (0) comments

Wednesday, March 15

 

time flies when you're having ...

eh, whatever. It's been busy times here at Knit Blog; unfortunately not much knitting has been going on. I have finished the back and both fronts of Knitty's Festive and am stalled at starting the sleeves. Well, not stalled, per se, just haven't been able to get them started yet. I'm going to make long sleeves as I doubt I would wear a short-sleeved sweater made of wool. I have some numbers sketched out, I just need to sit down and cast on.

I had a couple of parcels in the mail last week - one from Elann with the gorgeous yarn (in redwood) I need for Starsky; the other had some beautiful Brittany birch needles and a swift!

The swift is awesome - I can't believe I've been a knitter this long and have not had a swift. It makes winding hanks of yarn into balls so much easier and more time efficient (and I'm all about time-efficiency!). It's just fabulous.

We continue to be snowed under although the past couple of days we have seen the sun. It's not warm enough to start melting anything yet. After an entire winter of above average temperatures, we're now experiencing our winter.

Something else the big fella and I have been looking into and arranging has to do with one of these which will be joining our family in a couple of weeks! Fun stuff! We're both pretty excited about the whole thing!!

posted by Terri at 3/15/2006 07:02:00 PM (0) comments

Sunday, March 5

 

it's not us, it's the pattern ...

That was the title of my email to Ande regarding this hat pattern. You can see Ande's results here. Bearing in mind that Ande had used the proper (chunky) weight of yarn and needles and ended up with a gargantuan hat, I used worsted weight, smaller needles and still ended up with a hat that would fit someone nicknamed "punkin-head". So I felted it. I tried handfelting but that didn't work well enough and all I got out of it was a nasty blister on my knuckle from mashing the wool fibres together. I threw it in the wash and that shrunk it up nicely. This will go in the Dulaan Project box.

(oooh, look at all the snow outside - this week we had received about 14" as of Friday afternoon, got more yesterday and another four inches last night!)

Before (above) and after (below):

I used Lorna's Laces "Butterflies and Bullfrogs" which is a wool/mohair blend. The colourway was "Lakeview". So nice!

In other news, I have finished the back of Festive and have started the front. I have also ordered some great chunky weight Elann wool for Starsky. I don't know how I keep missing these great patterns in Knitty. I need to pay more attention, I guess. There's a really cute hat pattern at MagKnits, too.

posted by Terri at 3/05/2006 12:37:00 PM (0) comments

Thursday, March 2

 

unbelievable!

In the past two days we have received about 12" of light, fluffy snow! Here's the view out my office window. Wow! It makes walking really hard. We went out last night for a snowshoe (first of the season - on March 1, how sad is that?!) and it was a lot of fun. Not so fun getting to work this a.m. I also had occasion to walk back to my building from "downtown" after lunch and it was hard work. I ended up with snow packed up my pant legs, down my boots and socks. But it sure is pretty!

This was the walk home. Luckily one of the roads crew plowed our path, so it was a much more pleasant stroll.

My Better Pal's final package arrived yesterday. Look at the great loot I got! The Sensation Socks book is filled with fantastic patterns and stitch ideas; I can't wait to try some of them out. And Starbucks coffee beans - yum! Also a nice skein of Cascade Quatro; I can see a cute little hat with this stuff. OH, and my pal was Rebecca; so thanks Rebecca for all the great goodies! The Better Pal exchange was a lot of fun!

Survivor night - bring on the freak show! Heh. I'm making some progress on Festive; the back is at the armhole shaping point. Oh, and how do I miss all these great patterns on Knitty?! Here's a very cool one - Starsky!!

posted by Terri at 3/02/2006 07:15:00 PM (0) comments