Christmas Wrap-Up and Pretty Yarn

I just went back and checked my Christmas List, and actually, most of my gift knitting is done, or getting close to done.

Last night, while at the Knit Cafe's Knit Night, I finished up the Mini Dalek Coffee Cozy.  Let it dry overnight after blocking, and volia!

 Ugh, and yes, the pictures are sideways.  I thought I'd fixed that, but I guess not.

Also while at the Knit Cafe, I discovered that they sell some of the Fleece Artist yarns.  I don't know how I missed this, they've apparently had them all summer!  I was seriously debating waiting until the boxing day sales to get this, (given that I already got yarn at EatSleepKnit's Black Friday sale) but it just kept calling me.

Anyway, given my roommate's love of deep forest and regal greens, I came home with a skein of Fleece Artist BFL Sock, in what I think is "Spruce."  (Fleece Artist doesn't label their colourways, so that's my best guess).   The photo doesn't do the deepness of the greens justice, I think.

When I showed her the skein, she loved it, and requested a hat in it.  I was kind of hoping to make socks, but she declared that "it's too pretty for socks!"  So it's going to become a Small-Gauge "Knotty but Nice" hat.   It may be next year's birthday or Christmas present. I'm not sure yet.

Knit Night fun!

Well, I went to Knit Night over at The Knit Cafe last night, after a few weeks of not being able to make it.

I got a lot done on my projects, which is great. . . and I came home with more yarn.

I usually don't buy yarn unless I know exactly what it will be, but the two skeins of Manos del Uruguay Wool Classica in "Blue Jay" just kept calling my name!

Once I got it home and had a look through my patterns, I realized it would make a perfect Tweed Hat and Scarf,  yet another pattern from Knitting Everyday Finery. It's a very versatile pattern book! (My only worry is if it pools funny, but I won't know that until I start knitting!)

Going back to the Knit Cafe for a second, I also found out that they will be hosting a class on designing your own sweater in November/December, and I'm really tempted to sign up. I've got a stash of Briggs and Little Softspun that I've got my own sweater idea for, and this might help me figure out exactly how to get the idea I have in my head translated into an actual sweater design.

A Bad Day with A Good Ending

Long Post Warning:  

So I'm writing this under the influence of a rather unhappy stomach.  It's better then it was last night, but, well, let me tell the tale from the beginning.


I had work this morning, then a whole bunch of errands to downtown in afternoon.  Already, I knew this was going to be a long day.

Lets just say I fell on my behind and ended up in a lot of pain, didn't do half the errands I was planning, the place I wanted to go for lunch/dinner was closed (this involved quite a walk), and the place I did go for food. . . well, it disagreed with me.  Violently.

So by the time I got to Knit Night at the Purple Purl, I was nausious, thirsty, and hurty.   Not the best mindset to be knitting in, but actually, it mostly worked out.  Oh, I didn't feel great, but once I had the chance to sit down, sip a mug of tea, and actually re-compose myself, I felt a lot more human.

Thank you!

Ok, so I was actually going to the Purple Purl in search of yarn.  I've been looking for the right yarn for a friend's Christmas gift.  It has to be grey superwash, fingering-weight, wool.

My first choice was the Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label in Charcoal, which is a colourway that Eat.Sleep.Knit doesn't stock.  Of course, unfortunately, the Purple Purl didn't have it either.

However, they did find me yarn that will suit perfectly.

I now have two skeins of Spud and Chloe Fine that will become a Caffinate! Coffee Press cover. 

The pattern calls for worsted weight, but my giftee has a mini-coffee press, and the idea of a mini-dalek made her giggle with delight over the phone, so I'm planning to just scale down the pattern in stitches per inch, work it with fingering-weight yarn, and call it done. I got dimensions out of her, so I should be good to go.

(Also, happily, I discovered in uploading this this morning, that Ravelry will keep stash entries separate if they have separate dye lots.  Well done!)

After getting my yarn, I then settled into work on my knitting at the knit night. I got the index finger done on the Birthday Gloves, (no new pic yet, I haven't had the energy), and started the thumb.

Holy crap, an afterthought thumb in fair-isle is hard!  A lot of the others there were saying that it wouldn't be easy, and they were right.   The bottom nine stitches came together just fine.  The top stitches. . . well, after a lot of cursing everything's on the needles, but it looks a little deformed.

I don't want to do this again in fair-isle.  I'd be a lot happier casting off and picking up.  I might, however, try it again on the left glove and see, however, if part of my frustration and inability was just simply the day I'd had.

So, after that long day, my stomach still lurching somewhat on the streetcar ride home, yes, I have new yarn, but I'm still not feeling that great. . . 

I come home to two boxes sitting in my living room.  One is small, the other big.  My roommate tells me that the post came for me.  No customs fees, no problem, the boxes just simply got dropped off.

So, another order came in from Eat.Sleep.Knit, for starters, and, as well, my Yarn Swift arrived!

I put it to work as a trial immediately, and I -love- this thing!  I'm actually really impressed by the Hornshaw Wood Works.  Their stuff is awesome, shipping was quick, and it was really well packed.

I needed 1 contrast skein for my plans with the Sweet Georgia Merino Silk Aran, and "Hush" seemed like a good contrast colourway.

I also got two skiens of Sweet Georgia Superwash Worsted.  This is me planning ahead -- this is for my Father's Birthday next year (no knitting 3 hours before the deadline again, I hope!)  I usually wouldn't have bothered, except the Superwash Worsted is a Power Boost Yarn, so I might as well buy it now while I get a bonus for it.

So coming home to yarn and a swift really helped perk up my day.

I crawled into bed somewhat soon after that. 

I'm feeling somewhat better now, though breakfast is still a question mark.  But I'll distract myself with knitting, for the moment.

The Mittens are Done: No More Grubby Hands!

So, if you recall, I was working on a pair of fingerless mittens to keep the crap, crud and general -stuff- off of my hands while using the wheelchair?

They're done!

I finished them up at Knit Night last night. I was one of the last people out, trying to actually get them done, and the ends woven in!  I really do find I'm more productive with my knitting at knit-night.

. . . maybe it's because there's no internet. . . :D

Anyway, when I pulled them back out for a picture today, I had missed an end.  That was a two-second fix, though.

I really like the pattern. The cable on the back keeps things interesting.  They're called Flying Geese Mittens, by Mel Clark (who is very awesome and really sweet about answering questions on Ravelry, by the way!).  They're from a book called Knitting Everyday Finery, which I picked up off of Amazon and am totally loving.  The book is in print and easily findable on Amazon (and I've seen a few stores stocking it too). 

The mittens knit up very quick, (when I'm not ignoring them in favour of other projects!).  Only comment is that the small isn't that small.  If you have smaller hands, like me, you might want to take out a few more stitches around.  For my purposes right now, a touch loose is perfect, because that way they can also go over coat cuffs and such and keep them protected.  It's an easy fix, though, and several people have put how to make them a touch smaller in their pattern notes on Ravelry.

I've also signed up for another sock test knit, so there'll be more on that soon!

Birthday Knitting Reprive

So, I just found out that I've got an extra week on the Birthday Socks, since I won't be seeing my giftee until later in August.

Whew!

But, today is my birthday, so I feel absolutely no obligation to do any chores, and I don't have work today . . . so I'm just going to sit and knit on my fun projects for a while.  I'll probably take the socks to knit-night, just so that I do have impetus to work on them, though.  (That, and I haven't been to knit-night in a few weeks, with the new job and such, so I'm really looking forward to it!)

Sale Timing and my Bad Luck

So I went to The Knit Cafe tonight for their Knit Night.

I often go there, Knit Night is a great motivation and a chance to hang out and be social while knitting. (That and their tea is awesome, plus they stock these organic fizzy lemonades that I love!) 

When I went tonight, they had a sale on.  There were 5, 10 and 15 dollar remnant bins, and most of their regular stock was 15% off.  It runs until this Sunday, so if you get the chance, go in and take a look!

Unfortunately, it came at a bad time for me, since I get money at the end of the month, and the sale will be over by then.   The even more sucky thing is that I actually have several projects planned using the Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton, which the Knit Cafe does sell. (They sell both the Worsted Cotton and the Skinny Cotton).  I would have loved the chance to pick some up on sale.   That's how I try and buy a lot of my yarn -- wait until it goes on sale, and this time I completely missed my chance.

Oh well.  I still have lots of other things to knit, and there will be other sales.

Knit Night and grubby hands

So. . . remember how I mentioned I was going to work on my Birthday Socks at knit night?

Didn't happen.

Why not?

Because wheelchair plus hot ash-fault is asking for hands stained with black goop, which is exactly what happened. My hands were covered in what looked like soot.  It happens every summer, and I wasn't going to work on a relatively pale gift with goop on my hands that didn't come off easily.

(I didn't get pictures of my sooty hands, I didn't want to get that stuff on the camera!)

So, instead, I worked on these.

I'd already finished one mitten a bit ago (hence the not-so-great picture), and I started working on the second. I decided to make them as a solution to this exact problem (stuff on my hands and sleeves when using a manual wheelchair), and I'm going to be very glad when they're done.

I got about half-way through the cable pattern before I was concerned that I might not have enough yarn with me to finish the pattern that night  . . . and I'd forgotten my back of scrap yarn at home (I needed stitch markers to do the gusset increases).

So I came home early from knit night, but all is good anyway, since I came home to sushi for dinner. :D