Swap it to me

I've been busy with some small project swaps over the last month or so.

It all started with dishcloths. The purchased kind do not seem to last forever, and I needed to add some to my kitchen drawer to replace those with holes. I read about swap-bot so wanted to give it a try, and also signed up for a dishcloth round robin on ravelry through the dishcloth round robin group.

The first swap up was an international Dishcloth and Tea Swap..... on swap-bot. I was matched with a partner in Croatia and had one month to knit or crochet a dishcloth for her. I had fun looking through the dishcloths patterns and decided to knit up a starfish cloth. My first one was in green, but I found out that my partner did not like green, so I made another using the same pattern and a cherry swirl colourway. I hope she likes it! I also sent a selection of tea and some very cute heart buttons.

I liked the starfish cloth so much that I knit some more for my aunt and second cousin who had both recently moved into new digs. They are quick and easy to knit on road trips.

Then I signed up for an international "homemade bookmarks swap". I was matched with a partner in Illinois, USA - I read her profile and found that she liked Harry Potter, so I knit up a Dobby Style Sock Mark.

I had fun rummaging through my sock yarn looking for the correct colours. And of course this was good practice for toe up socks and wrapped heels. I finished the sockmark last Friday, and the heat had finally arrived in Ottawa. I did not enjoy knitting with the wool sock yarn, as with the high humidity my hands stuck to both the yarn and the needles. It also took forever to block and dry the Sockmark. But it was really lots of fun to knit. I knit both parts from toe up, and then grafted them together so that the toe ends pointed in opposite directions.

I also made a Diamond Lace Bookmark, using crochet cotton. This was easier on the hands. I had fun with these two, and will probably make more for family!

Leave it to me

After a long hiatus I am back to blogging. I lost my camera over the Christmas holidays and found it this month, so I can take pictures again.

I'm working on a baby shawl, using some yummy Malabrigo Lace. I'm thinking of a traditional shetland square shawl model - with center square, a lace border and then lace edging. I recently completed a heritage shawl and was quite pleased with it, but this time I want to make it my own...so I'm letting the yarn inspire me.

The verdes 203 colourway makes me think of ivy and lace.....so that is what I'm looking at. I'm considering ivy leaves, rose leaves, beech leaves, ferns...and am plowing through stitch dictionaries looking for just the right pattern.

Fortunately I'm able to start on the center square, actually a diamond that starts with 3 stitches, increasing one stitch at each edge. So while I ponder what lace border pattern to use I am still able to knit away, though at some point I will have to determine what my stitch repeat is and how many stitches I need on each side of the diamond, so that I will begin decreasing at the right spot.

I usually do not design on the fly like this, but I've decided to give it a try. I'll keep you posted on whether this is a successful method for me.

Dyeing to Knit

Been experimenting with handpainting yarn. In October, took a course on how to handpaint yarn at a great new knitting store in Ottawa, Wabi-Sabi. Along with seven other fibre enthusiasts, painted my first two skeins of yarn. Been hesitant to do this at home - what with white cabinets everywhere - and decided that an alternate location would be preferable.

Had lots of fun - and managed to create two lovely handpainted skeins. Introducing skein #1, a purple, blue and turquoise mix, and skein #2, a monochromatic green mix. Not yet re-skeined, you can see the application areas for the different paint colours.

In mid October came across a great find at Value Village - 10 balls of Medil Kid Seta in a cream colour, which is very much a Kidsilk Haze look alike. Immediately thought about handpainting this yarn. Decided to book the Wabi-Sabi studio for a dyeing session (therefore saving my home kitchen from paint spills and vinegar overload).

Started with the balled Kid Seta.....














In preparation for dyeing, re-skeined and tied the 10 balls....

















And then the studio session (sorry forgot the memory card for the camera!) Three friends came along, and two of them dyed yarn as well. Was a lovely way to spend a Sunday.

It took about three hours to handpaint the yarn. Decided to graduate the colouring of the skeins, by creating a base colour which used moss green and yellow colouring. Then diluted the base colour into three strengths, then handpainted on the colour.

Yes, I really like greens......

Here the skeins are drying. Need to re-skein, then grade according to colour and then ball into centre-pull balls for knitting. Plan on making one lace cape and one lace shawl.

Tagged

Black Star Knitting tagged me to share 7 facts about myself. I'm somewhat new to the blogging game, but I'll play along.

Here are the rules:

-Link to your tagger and list these rules
-Share 7 facts about yourself (random or unusual)
-Tag 7 other people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs
- Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Here are my own personal 7 facts. I decided to share some of the less known things I love:



1. I love the movie "The Way We Were" starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand. I adored this movie when I first saw it 1973, and have since bought it in VHS and DVD versions!

2. I love the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I've read the 6 books in the series (a total of 6,053 pages) three times from cover to cover, and also listened to the audiobook.

3. I love Bob Dylan songs, mainly from the 1962-1975 period. I have most of the discs for this period in vinyl and CD.

4. I love margaritas. After watching a bartender named Victor (at a Cuban resort), hubby now makes margaritas that rock!

5. I love the TV series "The Waltons" which ran from 1972-1981. Good night Scott-Bob.

6. I love shopping at thrift stores like Value Village, St. Vincent de Paul and Goodwill. My most recent best finds were 10 skeins of Kid mohair silk and a Bob Dylan CD.

7. I love soaking in the bathtub, watching a movie with a glass of wine. Stayed at a boutique hotel in Montreal several years ago that had this feature, and asked hubby for Christmas for the same setup. He made it so!

These are the next 7 tag players:
Hired Hands, Deblog, Wool Power,
Canadian Guild of Knitters, Gennoel, betseydoodle, Andrea Wong Knits

Surprise!

I've been knitting Baby Surprise Jackets like mad. It all started with a request from my husband for a baby gift for a colleague who was having a baby. I had noted that the Elizabeth Zimmerman BSJ was a very popular ravelry pattern, and decided to check it out. Coincidentally there was a BSJ Knit Along just about to start, so I joined up and began my first BSJ. I used a variegated fingering. I decided that the first BSJ was too small, so I decided to use a more substantial weight of yarn, and moved up from fingering to sport weight yarn.

I checked in the stash and found some Patons Astra that I had left from a Franklin the Turtle sweater which was 100% acrylic and would be totally washable. I just started in, playing with the colours and making my selections as I went along.

It was fun to imagine what the jacket would look like when done. I was pleased with the resulting BSJ, and then looked through my button box for four buttons that would match. Would you believe that with HUNDREDS of buttons I did not have four that would work? So I decided to make dorset buttons. They were a nice touch.

By this point I was addicted. Two done ... but more yarn left in all of the colours ... so I decided to keep on going ... and made another ... and then another. It was interesting to see how DIFFERENT each of the jackets was, using the same palette of yarn, but adjusting the balance of colours, and making different coloured buttons.

This became a real stash buster experience and in the end I used up almost all the colours. In fact, I did not put a button band but decided to insert a zipper in the last one, as I decided to use brown yarn around the jacket and found I did not have enough. I was worried!

In fact I did not have any brown left. I used it all when I crocheted around the jacket and then sewed in the ends. This little bunch of yarn is all I have left!

Now I have two BSJs completed, waiting for the next baby shower. Surprise!

More Hugs and Kisses

I'm in GST deferral mode. I should be completing my financial account for the month, but decided to take a brief rav/blog break. I'm still trying to decide what big project to work on next. Christmas present? Baby gift? Not sure, so in the interim I decided to knit another hugs and kisses cap for charity. I'm having fun with the bits of mostly no-name wool in my TV stash basket - still working on the boy colours, browns, greys, etc. Here's number 2.

Decided to knit another one (they are addictive). Here's number 3, in process, that I started last night in soft grey and brown. Now I love the effect, but I must say, the grey yarn (who knows what it is...) is quite soft and keeps breaking - which will mean some ends to sew in. Now, I wasn't sure if I would have enough yarn for a double band, so I did a provisional cast on and then will knit the band at the end. I'm picking up stitches for the band now.

Here's a picture of the first Hugs and Kisses cap, finished with the double tassel. one of things I've been playing with is the tassel, or shall we say tassels. My first had a double tassel, second a single tassel - now I think this time a multi-coloured tassel is in order! I'm going to make it up and attach it before I proceed with the band, so that I don't run out of yarn.

Hugs and Kisses

My first finger workout. This past weekend I decided to work on a quick charity project - the Hugs and Kisses Cap design donated by Mags Kandis for afghans for Afghans. I'll be donating this to the Warm Hands Network.
This knit up quite quickly. As my last two hats were pink ones, for girls, I decided to knit up a male version, and I used a DK weight 100% wool yarn in my stash in dark grey with teal green for the accent.

I knit the seed stitch band, but didn't like it, as I found it was a bit loose, so I cut and removed the band.

I now needed to knit a conventional K1 P1 ribbing band from the picked up stitches. I also added a turn up row, and doubled the band as it would make a much warmer hat. Even when charity knitting, it is easy to go back and make modifications in order to be 100% pleased with the final product.

Just waiting to finish the tassel at the top and sew in the ends.