One Eventful Weekend

Turns out that the Drops Jacket can be knit in one piece - yippeee! I'm planning on finishing the right front tonight and kicking some left front ass before Sunday. My work colleague, Claudia promised to teach me how to crochet the edging. Not making any promises, but my niece might be wearing her new jacket sometime this year (a new personal best!!).

Even more exciting is how I spent my Easter Monday. Kimberly and I finally managed to meet up. She's come to visit her in-laws (who live about 75 minutes away from me) a couple of times now, but are schedules are usually all wonky. Thanks to the 4-day Easter weekend, we finally managed a day to meet up. For some reason, my camera refused to take any normal pictures - so here's an action sequence from our photo shoot attempt:

and a shot of the handsome chauffeur:

The rest of the weekend was spent cooking an Easter ham and turkey, eating said meats with veggies and sweet potatoes (not all dinner guests were impressed with that one, but me and the Venezuelan chowed down) with lots of chocolates and desserts. There was room painting, spring cleaning (please don't tell the kids how many old toys, crappy little Micky-D toys and parts of toys I threw away), picture re-arranging in the living room and general mayhem control. It's finally starting to look more like a home around here :)

F is for Fascinating

Today, F is for fascinating. I've seen people doing some sort of alphabet thing in different blogs and haven't exactly figured out the pattern, but I decided today was an "F" to amuse myself AND because I'm really freakin excited about this whole modular knitting thing. Sunday night I finally started something I've been eyeing up for a while, the Tamareh shawl/scarf/drapey wrap.

I read the directions for the whole modular thing and it sort of makes sense. I mean, it's written in clear English, English is my mother tongue and I understand the whole "first 49 stitches" and "last 49 stitches" thing - but this is proving very difficult to imagine, so I'm knitting as fast as I can to see the how it all works out. It's like a knitting mystery......

Oh, gee, I just realized that my stitch marker is showing (how scandalous!!). I was trying to keep this on the down-low so as not unleash obnoxious bragging into Blogland, but since my little rose has peeked her nose into the photo, I get to show off my new original Kimberly in Berlin stitch markers. It all started when I forgot my only KIB strawberry at Mum's in Nova Scotia and begged Kim to stop her incredibly busy life, teaching job, mother of two, knitter and spinner extraordinaire and loving wife and make me another strawberry right this instant. To my surprise, she did actually stop the world and make me another strawberry, AND a little rose, AND a very Franconian beer mug and the sweetest little Georgia Peach Sunday Go To Meetin's Hat.

Thank you Kimberlolly!!! And there's another little thank you on it's little postal way to your door :)

'Tween the Toes!

Here's a shout out to all UGA fans! I found this Dawg-coloured sock yarn in the Czech Republic a couple of years ago and the spirit finally moved me to cast on last month in Canada. I knew I wanted to call them 'Tween the toes, so I waited until I could figure out a pattern to fit the name (one where I didn't have to knit individual toes).

I used a basic rib pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks and continued until the fat lady kitchenered.

Glovelies

No, I didn't drop off of the face of the earth, but my camera did for a while. This is how my Fleece Artist socks turned out. A tad unusual as socks go, but the 2.25 circular needles gave me a denser fabric that was begging for gloves. This ensures maximum warmth if the temperatures over here ever reach something resembling winter.

I'm finally taking my new 2.25 circs on a true sock-making adventure. I've cast-on 72 stitches from Regia's new Nordic Color line. Same as I the Fleece Artist, I started knitting the diamond pattern, and then ripped them out as well. I keep thinking that diamonds are going to make me happy, but it turns out a nice woolly ribbing is more my style. So I'm twisting stitches in 2 x 2 ribbing and hope to have some progress pictures soon.

Cool colours, though. It looks kind of beachy in the winter. I keep thinking of the scenes in Montauk from The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

p.s. Pictured Regia yarn was bought at my local supermarket, seriously!!

Almost There!!

I've been dwadling on the socks, because I'm trying to finish up a couple of Christmas things.....

Like the stocking I started for Ciara last year. The lettering is all puckered and I can't believe I ran out of red tweed in the middle of it, but she's absolutely delighted. I say take praise where praise is given...

And get a nice Irish stocking for the Irishman....

It's the Aran Stocking from Handknit Holidays. I'm so loving this book. I think Christmas Tree Ornament Balls are next.
Must-knit-faster!!

It's Beginning to TASTE A Lot Like Christmas!

Ciara and Cian's first time handling icing:

We spent this weekend getting into the Christmas spirit. The tree was trimmed, windows were lighted and decorated, presents were bought and hid and cookies upon cookies were baked. We even went ice skating in the town center - even though it's still 3 degrees above 0 Celsius, we bundled up and braved the crappy rental shoes and show-off kids flying past. It was Cian's and Dave's first time and they both gliding around in no time! Here's a crappy but cute picture from my cell phone :)Lastly, there's a running joke between Erica and me about my fear of knitting with the luxury sock yarn in my posession. I let it marinate and coat my feet with the 6 Euro stuff I buy in the shop on the corner. Still pretty colours and great yarns, but not all of the luxury stuff that I've been dying to get. Friday, I received my 2.25 circulars and wanted to cast on immediately. I looked around and my eyes fell on my new merino sock yarn from Fleece Artist. So, here is photographic evidence of my willingness to wrap my feet in luxury fibers.

I'm almost finished with the ribbing - can't turn back now!!

One Size Fits Many

I knit this top the last couple of weeks before the wedding, but didn't sew it up until last week. Some people have a fear of commitment or fear of the unknown, I fear an evening of sewing up. I chose the largest size, 10 years, but Ciara says it fits funny.

Denisa loves it and it makes her boobs look loads bigger. Dontcha just love the benefits of hand-knits?!
Gotta go, I'm busy making some Buffalo Chicken Dip. Yummeeee!

Houston, we have a Tassel Landing!

Too cute????


Also got a cool pic on the way to work today......I still can't believe the sun wasn't up and I was driving to work!!

Hand-Dyed Creativity

Look Ma! I made a hat in under a day. This is the hand-dyed merino that I've been fussing with for a month or so....... The hat needs some icing though - my neighbor suggested cords with tassels. What do you think? Alternating colours for the tassel and cords?

Sister Socks

Just to torture the eldest with pics, I've got some handspun knit up into Sister Socks. I was so excited to finish my first "nice" wool on the wheel, but disappointed that it wasn't totally and completely perfectly twisted and even. Erica made the great suggestion to knit it a bit tighter and these socks are brilliant. Mohair, wool and spun full of love - whose got lucky siblings?? ;)

Wool vs Acrylic : The Final Debate

After the shock of my first wool shop find in Karlovy Vary, The Acrylic Heaven (and literally, I mean shock - how many balls of acrylic can you sift through before everything and everyone gives you an electric shock!) and my yummy lunch, my blitz visit to the Handwork store was every wool lovers' dream.

In every store I enter in the Czech Republic, I ask if they speak German or English. Few admit to understanding English and fewer still want to practice. But the wonderful nice lady in the wool shop preferred and spoke wonderful English. She had a shop full of all sorts of needlework supplies - from Opal sock yarn to cross-stitch kits. The wool set up was the same as the other shop - one basket with every colour from a certain series - one has to choose their wool-type and colour and the owner delves into what must be miles of shelving in the back of the shop to get the amount needed.

This is the best part! The first thing my eyes fixed onto was a apple-bushel basket on it's side full of skeins of 100% wool in natural-looking colours. Nice Shop Lady explained that all the wool in the basket was spun in a factory only 10 miles away and that same factory spins wool for all of Europe. She pulled out a drawer with sample wool and their labels for loads of countries. Here is one for Denmark-Love Garn (how sweet is that?) :

Then, the other best part - 100gram skeins of 100% wool cost approx 2.25 Euro (like $3!). God Bless the Eastern Bloc!

I checked out the web address on the skein labels when I got home and found every single type of wool that ever existed (from sock yarn to fun fur to superwash wool and 100% felter's dream) , and the costs are about half of the shop prices. All of it shippable in the EU - and should be import-tax free up to €200! Woot! Woot! Woot!

The only reason I haven't ordered yet is because my Czech isn't quite up to snuff. But, hey, that's what neighbors are for, right??!! I bet a batch of sugar-glazed cinnamon rolls would butter her right up ;)


Below are my stash enhancers from the acrylic mix family. Can you believe Red Heart has made it as far as the Czech Republic???

Rainbow Sprite!

One day, in a small Gulf Coast town in Texas, when I was about knee-high to a gnat, I was colouring with my cousin Jeannie. I was jealous as all get out because she was easily chatting away while outlining pictures in dark crayon and shading the figures and mixing colours - I, on the other hand, had half a tongue hanging out of my mouth (Charlie-Brown-style) and sweat on my brow as I simply tried to stay within the lines. The whole way home to Houston, I dreamt about the day that I would use crayons to do outlining and shading in my Mickey Mouse colouring books.

Sadly, I am not the brilliant Crayola Shading Artist I dreamed I'd become. Crayons gave way to coloured pencils, which gave way to cameras, which gave way to blogging. (Jack of all trades, master of none?).
In an effort to amuse myself further with hues from the rainbow, I finally tried my hand at dying wool. Last night's results weren't too solid, they all came out a bit lighter than I'd hoped, see light pink yarn here from the hearty red packet. ( I've committed to making these skeins blood red in time for Halloween, darnit!)


Completely flustered and out of Kool Aid and Batik dyes, I grabbed the nearest thing I could think of: a packet of Crystal Light Raspberry Ice and came out with a much darker (and way cool!) tone.
´
Ms. Mayor of Doubtsville thinks it might end up a bit sticky. Maybe so, but the colour is still really cool! There's gotta be some sort of need for sticky yarn, eh? Maybe a hat that 2 year old fingers finally can't pull off the head while in the stroller.....







Today I went shopping at Idee in Nuremberg and found loads of proper dyes, dyeing bottles for painting and pipettes for just general messing around. The light amythest from last night has been submerged into King Blue and the tips of my Briggs and Little Sock Yarn for my space-dyeing attempt. (I can't just try dyeing and work in other techniques later - I have to try dyeing skeins and also figure out space dyeing at the SAME TIME!! and buy bottles and pipettes to play with yarn and fleece painting RIGHT THIS SECOND!)

Because it's not just about scribbling in your Mickey Mouse book and being happy playing with colours - it's about being able to do all the techniques everyone else can do on the first try, right? Or at least the second try......otherwise I'm going to end up with lots of over-dyed black and browns ;)



Asides:

Ciara's Quote from the weekend: I never thought dyeing yarn could smell this good.

How do you like the Groovy Green tiles in my downstairs bathroom?

Also, at Idee, I found this pull-chain music box. How sweet is this??!! I just need to figure out something to knit around it and which chubby-cheeked drooler is going to get it. (probably whichever one doesn't end up with their fingers stuck to a Crystal Light toque).

First Try on the Sock Yarn Raglan Sweater

New Favourite Soap Opera: All My Chins
LOL
not the most flattering picture of me, but it captures the sweater on my first try. It's a bit tight around the tetas (the 2nd try only made it a bit looser, so the third try is going to include another round of phases 1 and 2 of the South Beach. Yea veggies!!) Wish me luck!