On, and almost off, my needles, March 27, 2015

I finally got around to casting Travellers End back on, after ripping it out a month or two ago. I'm almost back to where I was when I ripped it out, except the cables are now going the way they are supposed to, or at least I hope they are. There's a long way to go on this one, but it would be nice to have it finished in time for this years camping season.
And then there's the "almost off" project. The one sock is completely done. The second one needs its toe grafted.... my least favourite job, and it also needs its starting yarn end sewn in.... my second least favourite job. So, it's been sitting and waiting for me to do those two jobs, and then I can count these socks as done. I really like the way the blue colours in the yarn spiralled down the sock. This is a Manos del Uruguay
Alegria yarn, not sure of the colour name. I think it's my favourite sock yarn. The colours are always so much fun, and I never know ahead of time what they are going to do, which keeps the basic sock pattern that I use interesting. I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles

On my Needles, July 11, 2014

 We're still here at our campsite, but decided that today was a stick around the campsite and campground and not do too much requiring energy day. Yesterday's hike to the falls, found here, really tired us out. If the weather is good tomorrow, we'll do another hike. Every time we come to a campground, we like to do a walk around to scope out any good sites for further reference, so that was the extent of our exercise today. That meant there was lots of time for sitting and knitting. The body and the hood for my Flyaway Hoodie are done. While sitting down by the lake earlier today I did the boring chore of sewing in the ends I've created so far. Then, when we got back to the campsite, I found a patch of sun, and sat out and picked up the stitches for one of the sleeves.

 And in between working on the hoodie, when my hands needed something to do, but my brain didn't, I've been working on these socks. The instep decreases are done, and I'm on the home stretch for the foot.

This is a picture of our lovely campsite. I am standing in the far corner to take this picture. The site is huge! There is a pull through area where the trailer is, and then there is a sitting area off to the side where the fire pit and the picnic table are. It could easily fit a couple more tents or, if we had remembered it, the screened shelter. In our stroll around the campground, we didn't find any sites that were nicer than the ones in this area. All of them are like this, large and very well wooded and private. I am so enjoying our time away. I'm not going to want to go home. I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles, and then I'm going to see if I can wrap my head around the instructions for the sleeves. I have to do wrap and turns for the top part of the sleeves, as well as remembering to do the right section of the cable that goes down the arm. This has been a fun and challenging knit.

Stash and knitting report, week 27, 2014

I've been sewing up a storm this past week, but I can't count very much of it. Four of us from the guild have been doing a round robin. We are all at work doing the last round, and that's what I've been sewing for the past week. I'm working on Christine's right now. She sent all of her own fabric to use for it, so I can't count any of it as out of my stash. We are all meeting up in the middle of this month to do our exchanges and final reveals of each others' quilts, so I'm running out of time. The only sewing I've done for myself has been a journal book cover, which took one whole fat quarter.

Used last week:                          .25 yards
Used this year:                     50 yards
Added last week:                         0 yards
Added this year:                     52 yards
Net added:                              2 yards

I have some of my own sewing coming up to do. This month's colour for the scrappy challenge is red, so that will work in all of the projects I have going. I also have some backings to sew up, and, at the moment, one quilt to bind, which will help with the stash used numbers. None of that will be happening in the next week, however, since we are off for a week away in our trailer, starting tomorrow. I'm not sure that we'll be able to get an hydro site, since we don't have reservations, which means all my sewing stuff will be staying home.
What will be coming with me is my knitting. My Flyaway Hoodie is coming along well. The body of the sweater is almost done. I've left it on the needles just to be able to get the length right for the zipper. I've started on the hood, and it's almost to the point of starting the short rows, which is going to involve learning a new skill.... wrap and turns.















This is the back of the sweater. I love the cables across the top of it.












I want to take extra knitting with me, just on the off chance that I either get the green sweater finished, or I need a change, so I did up a tension swatch for the next sweater I want to start. And

 then, I've also managed to finish the pair of socks that travel with me in the car as my take along project.
I still have to graft the toes to finish them up. I've started another pair of take along socks, but haven't got a picture of them, since they are up in the car. I'm not sure how often I'll be posting while we're away. I've looked at the wireless coverage in the area of the park we're going to, and it looks like it might be patchy. We're heading up to Grundy Lake Provincial Park, one of my most favourite places to go. It is so beautiful. If there is coverage, I'll try and get some posts done with scenery pictures, which might just make you wish you were there.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and also to her On the Needles. Then I really should finish getting organized to get going first thing tomorrow morning.

On and off the needles, May 23, 2014

Well, I finally did it. My Pinery sweater is off the needles. It still needs ends sewn in, and blocking, but it is finished enough to be able to try it on and attempt to get a picture. This selfie business is difficult. I first tried it with my cell phone, but my arms aren't long enough to get a picture and push the button at the same time. So, I resorted to the old take a picture in the mirror trick, which wasn't the easiest thing either. But here it is anyway. It is wonderfully
 warm and soft and oh so comfy. I don't want to take it off. But, that will give me the motivation to do the boring chore of sewing in all those loose ends and get it blocked so I can really wear it. Sometime this summer, I will try and get Scott to take a picture of me wearing it while standing beside the sign of the park for which this sweater was named by the designer.

 In the meantime, I've been working on a pair of socks. I did a lot on these while we were holed up in the trailer last week, during our extremely cold camping trip. It's an Opal yarn, but I don't know the colour name.

And the a couple of days ago, I started the cast on for a new sweater. It's going to be a challenge because it has some new techniques in it, starting right off with a provisional cast on using a crochet hook and a backwards loop cast on. It will be a lovely warm sweater, made out of the same Malabrigo worsted weight yarn I used for Pinery, only in a lovely green. The pattern I'm using is Flyaway hoodie. Obviously, it doesn't look like much, yet. The socks are my take along, don't have to think much project. This sweater, on the other hand, is going to take lots of thought. But I love doing new things. It keeps my almost 60 year old brain from getting any more befuddled than it already is. I originally started another sweater using this green yarn, See You There, which is another hoodie. But, after doing the first repeat for the cable design, discovered that the design wasn't going to show up using this green coloured yarn, so I ripped it all out. I might just have to see if the is a cream coloured malobrigo, so I can do that sweater too. I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles.There are lots of fun knitting projects to see. I always find at least one that I want to add to my ever growing knitting wish list.

Socks and more socks

I finished up the Manos Del Uruguay socks, except for grafting up  the toes. That takes some time and concentration, and with watching the Olympics, especially the figure skating, (Canada's men got silver, yay Canada), when I don't want to take my eyes of the screen for more than a second for risk of missing something, I haven't taken the time to graft those toes. I did, however, start a new pair of socks, since I can do the basic knitting without looking at it, or at least not much. These new ones are a Berroco Sox brand. I love the way these are striping out. I have the heel flap done, and the heel turned, and am ready to pick up the stitches for the gusset. There might be more of these type socks, in different colours, in my future. For that matter, there will probably be more of the Monos del Uruguay yarn in my future too. I think I'm going to finish up these socks, and then restart my Pinery sweater.  I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles.

On the Needles Feb. 7, 2014

I've got a pair of socks on the needles right now. The same ones I started last week, but they've grown considerably. This is a yarn from Manos Del Uruguay. I think the brand name, or sub group name is Alegria, and the colour is Columbina. I really like the way the colours are curling around the socks. These are my watching TV during the olympics project. I can do them without thinking, except for turning the heel, and I can more or less fell my way when knitting them, so I can watch the TV as much as looking at the knitting needles. When I get to finishing the toes, I'll have to break out the how to do Kitchener stitch youtube video again, since I still haven't got it fixed in my head how to do it yet. 
I'm going to Gail's for a sewing afternoon tomorrow, and am planning on stopping off at a yarn shop there to see if I can pick up another hank or two of the yarn for my Pinery sweater. One of the things I learned before I ripped it out was that I had enough to do the sleeves when the sweater was too small, but if I do it in the right size, I might not have enough yarn. There's a store in St Thomas called The Little Red Mitten, which is where I got this sock yarn, and I noticed they had the yarn I was using for the sweater.  Hopefully they still have some. Then I'll feel confident about starting that project over again.
I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles.

On the needles, April 26, 2013

I actually don't have anything on the needles right now, because I finished, not just one, but 2 pairs of socks this week. Woohoo!! And I will repeat again, I am hooked on this hand knit socks thing. The first pair here are done with Kroy sock yarn, using 2.75 inch double pointed needles. When I first started these, I was kinda concerned that, if the stripes didn't match on each sock, it would bug me. They don't match, but it doesn't bug me. I had set these aside for a while, because I had new sock yarn arrives in the mail. (I told you I'm hooked).

One of them was an Antonia wool, with raspberry, grey and pink colours, that looked like they would work for the pooling colours sock challenge that Judy Laquidara suggested. Well, they are done, and the colours pooled, and swirled and striped, and came out looking really cool. Or at least I think they did. I used 2.75 mm double pointed needles. I sort of adjusted the tension as I went, knitting some sections tighter, or looser than others in order to keep the colours pooling The differences in the tension don't seem to be obvious in the finished product.
I have another hank of wool all rolled up into a ball, and ready to start another pair. I think this time, though, I'm going to research a pattern that works from the toe up. I still haven't gotten the hang of finishing off the toe when working from the cuff down.  I'm linking up to Judy's On the needles box

On the needles

I have the socks for the yarn pooling challenge on my needles. And there is definitely pooling happening. When I was doing the ribbing at the top of the socks, the colours were almost totally stacked on top of each other. I didn't do anything special to get them to do this, either. I cast on 60 stitches on 2.75 mm needles and did k2p2 ribbing. I'm at the point of starting the decreases for the toes. What will be really interesting will be to see if the second sock does the same thing.
We have been having internet connection problems, so I'm going to make this quick, while the connection lasts. I'm linking up to Judy's On the Needles.

On the Needles Friday

I think I am in trouble. I think I'm hooked. I finished my first pair of socks, and have started another.
It is also Kroy sock yarn, but striping this time. It should be interesting when I start the second sock, since I didn't make a note of where the colours were when I started the first one, so I could end up with 2 totally differently striped socks. I was reading the other entries at Judy's Patchwork Times and Carol was talking about some yarn that she ordered that was on sale, and gave the link to the store. Just out of curiosity, I went and checked it out. You know what happened next, don't you? Yep, there is yarn coming to my house. The thing is, there is no comparison between the way these socks feel, and store bought ones. So, like I said, I'm hooked on knitting socks. I have a few different yarns coming, including one that will  maybe pool instead of stripe. Judy has a challenge going about getting sock colours to pool rather than to stripe, and I just might join in. I've never actually met Judy, but she is really having an influence on me, and getting me to do all kinds of things I've never done before. Have I mentioned lately that I love blogging, and the people I've met through it?