Neverending winter

    My eldest moved out on Friday and I'm just really sad about the whole situation and wish that things were different. It's been very difficult and I'm grateful I have knitting that I can focus on when I get too sad and too stressed and too anxious. There's been a lot of that lately. Even just winding a skein of yarn into a ball helps, the repetitive motion is very calming, very zen. If I'm not actively knitting, I'm digging around in the stash, thinking up future projects for specific yarns. It takes my mind off of things I don't want to dwell on anymore.

   Of course, then another snow dump comes along to add to my misery. This never ending winter is slowly killing my spirit. I don't handle winter well at the best of times, this winter has been never ending and awful.

And because I really don't have much to talk about, pictures: The two fronts of the Cypress Cardy, after being washed. I love the lace pattern.

 This is the back of Cypress in progress, my cellphone washed out the green, the colour is more true in the picture of the front pieces. But you get an idea of the lace on the back. I can't wait to see it after it's been blocked!
 
Now on to pictures of my sock in progress-I've just started working the heel. The heel is called Eye of Partridge and kind of fussy to make, but is nifty looking.

As you can see on my screen, it's -1 (feels like -8) and snowing! hoorah (sarcasm) more snow! 5 to 10 cm!

Green Sleeves

Annoyed. So annoyed. I decided to block the 4 pieces of Cypress that I've already knit. Get them clean, measured out so that when I'm done the back (I'm about 1/3 of the way there) I can block the last piece while working on some of the finishing, like weaving in the ends, and then sew it all up before doing the final ribbing and button band. I get my measuring tape and check the schematics, see if I need to do any stretching after the pieces have been washed. The two fronts are fine. The two sleeves are NOT fine. ugh. One sleeve is 18.75" and the other is over 21".  Fuckety fuck. I cannot stretch out one sleeve 2"...and as far as I know you can't shrink a sleeve 2". ARGH. I decided to go with frogging the 21" sleeve back about 8" and re-doing the shaping on the sleeve. Pissed me off. Because now the formerly 21" is a shade over 18" (very very precise, yes?).
I know the sleeve will grow a bit after a wash-I can probably stretch it decently so that the sleeves are reasonably close. I hope. 
I should have taken pictures to show how completely ridiculous the difference in length was, but I was having a mini-tantrum and couldn't be arsed to grab the camera. 

The crazy thing is, the first cardigan I made, I thought I was absolutely brilliant for knitting both sleeves at the same time! I knit them on my interchangeable circs and used a longer cord to accommodate both pieces. Patted myself on the back for my clever-ness.  But, I found it boring, and working with two balls of yarn made my knitting less portable. Plus the balls kept getting tangled. So I opted to just do the sleeves one at a time for Cypress. Never again though! My sleeves, from now on, will be knit together.

I had hoped to have this last piece of Cypress done by the end of March, and now I don't think it's going to happen. Partially because of the sleeve setback, partially because I've spend too much time on Ravelry and Knitty looking up sock patterns! Throw in a little sock knitting here and there, and you can see how Cypress is fallen by the wayside.

I've not knit with self striping yarn before! It's so lovely! I'm enamored of this sock. And even though I feel clumsy and oaf-ish with my fat fingers fumbling on the tiny needles, I think I can see why people like knitting socks.

I may change my mind when it comes to turning the heel and knitting the foot. Right now though, I'm digging sock knitting. 

I heart Ravelry

One of the things I love most about Ravelry is getting info on the yarn I'm using. Often in deep stash, my skeins, hanks and balls end up tag-less.  When that happens, I get this semi obsessed need to KNOW the name of the yarn's colour. I also find it incredibly handy to read reviews of the yarn.

 I've finally decided to learn how to knit socks.  I had purchased some sock yarn years ago with the intention of knitting socks before going on to big things like sweaters. I bought a book on sock knitting that was incredibly intimidating and obviously not meant for a beginner, but picked what I thought would be the easiest pattern and attempted to use dpns for the first time. Joining in the round was baffling and there was twisting and extra stitches, dropped stitches, seed stitch instead of ribbing-just horrible. I hid everything associated with socks and went on to bigger and better things like hats on dpns! (I love dpns now), anyway, the sock yarn was deeply stashed, and when I pulled it out... *gasp* the label was gone! (Actually, I have 2 balls of sock yarn that don't have labels). Like I mentioned, I get this weird need to know what kind of yarn it is and what the colour is called. It was fairly easy to find the yarn I was using as  I've only ever purchased sock yarn from Mary Maxim and my LYS -and the LYS yarn still  have labels.

 The yarn I'm currently using is Bamboo Soft Stripes (discontinued) in Ocean. It's a light fingering, 75% bamboo and 25% nylon. It's very splitty, but feels so lovely in my hands. Pretty to look at too!
The other MM yarn I have is Aloe Sock yarn in Blue Lake. It's fingering weight, 75% wool, 25% nylon.

EDIT April 25th 2014:So, it's been roughly a month since I wrote this post and I weirdly just stumbled on the CORRECT yarn that I have. I had mistakenly written that the unlabelled yarn I have is MM Aloe sock yarn, it's actually S.R Kertzer On Your Toes 4 ply with Aloe Vera, and the colourway is called Blue Print.

Another great thing about Ravelry is the free patterns-I found a beginner sock pattern done on worsted weight wool and size 5 needles-I wanted to understand and practice turning the heel and working a gusset before using little needles. (I abandoned this partially finished test sock because I was eager to try little needles). I think I wrote about this a couple of days ago? Malabrigo? Shocking Pink?

So, armed with yet another free beginner sock pattern, I grab some us2 bamboo needles, and my Bamboo Soft Stripes in Ocean and cast on. ugh. tiny needles. splitty soft yarn. Ribbing. Ribbing foreverrrr on tiny stabby needles. FINALLY 1" of ribbing DONE. Now to just knit in the round for 6"...on tiny stabby needles.


Little needles just don't feel right in my hands. I feel extra clumsy using them. Maybe because I'm still working on Cypress Cardy on sz 8s, I haven't acclimated to the wee stabbies.  I started off using 8" dpns, but I kept poking myself with them. I knew I had some shorter ones, so I dug them out and switched the 8"ers with ones that are 5" in length. Hopefully that will help.

Gosh that's some pretty yarn.

I have big feet. Just putting that out there. Big ass feet, size 11 (sometimes 10.5, depending on the shoe) so I have a hard time believing that those teeny needles and thin wool are going to make something that will be able to stretch around my feet. I brought my fears to Reddit, and was assured that the socks will fit, the yarn is stretchy and you want socks to be snug. I'm going to try to believe those lovely redditors, but I will be very sad if I make socks out of this yummy yarn and they don't fit.


Loving the new infinity scarf, and woohoo (<-- sarcastic woohoo) I'm getting lots of wear out of it with how bloody cold it's been! The extra couple of rows have really made a difference and it looks good with my hat and flip-top mitts. I might knit myself another winter hat, seeing as how spring is apparently never coming.

I will share a picture of my flip-top mitts, because I love them and I designed the skull all by myself!

better put your kingdom up for sale

(couldn't come up with a clever title, a line from Gold Dust Woman it is-Hole's cover popped up on the playlist as I'm blogging)

Welp, finished some stuff, started some stuff, still working on stuff.

Finished the infinity scarf. Made it wider, because that's just how I roll. I used most of a skein of Garden Gate, and less than half of a skein of Polar Morn. I love Polar Morn,  white with subtle grey and blue tones.  I'm less enamored of the Garden Gate, now that I've knitted with it.. Perfect name for it, despite my indecision about how much I like it.  The metallic grey/blue with flecks of grey/green really is like an old, weathered garden gate. Its been washed and is now drying on my rack. It will be dry by Sunday (or maybe even tomorrow, I find Malabrigo worsted dries fast) and I'll definitely get to wear it because, apparently, Spring is never going to come. Fuck.

*cries for 5 minutes over the never-ending winter*

Pictures of infinity scarf in progress, and finished. 

A few days ago I cast on fr the back of the Cypress Cardigan! wasn't as painful as I was expecting. I got through the ribbing while at a a birthday party for one of B's classmates. Unpopular opinion-little kid birthday parties suck. It was at a Mcdonalds. Thank god for knitting. B had fun, though after the cake, he got a little insane and we had to make a hasty exit. He's got my tolerance for sugar. That is to say, he gets  hyper and irrational and just a touch aggro. It's not pretty.
Ribbing taken care of, then set up markers for the lace part on the back. Did the waist shaping decreases today after bringing B back to school after lunch and managed to get a couple of increases in before having to pick him up after school (I stayed at my mothers and watched deja view-Roseanne and Golden Girls, this is my thing now instead of going back home and doing something productive like cleaning or laundry).

It's likely that I won't knit the cardy at all this weekend; I don't ever seem to get much knitting time on the weekend.

 I started knitting a sock this evening. YES. I'm tackling scary scary sock knitting. I'm following a super easy, step by step, explain-like-i'm-five, pattern for a worsted weight sock knit on size us5 dpns.  I'm using leftover Malabrigo worsted in Shocking Pink. I knit the cuff,  I turned the heel (!!), and picked up stitches on both sides. 
I can already tell that I'll have second sock syndrome. I don't even want to finish this one!  I'm looking forward to making a "real" sock with sock yarn I've had in my stash for years. I just need to find a pattern that will accommodate my huge-ass feet (size 11! holla!) and is written for dummies (ie: me)

Polar Morn

Huh. I cast on the second sleeve on the 4th and it's 9 days later and I haven't finished the sleeve yet :/ I'm close though! I have some decreases to do before binding off. Sometimes I feel like an imposter calling myself a knitter.  I barely knit at all over the spring break-only when we headed to the Biodome did I bring any knitting, because it's a 30-35 minutes subway ride and I'd  have gone mad without knitting (the older kids had their DS and Kobo to keep them occupied and the 4yr old just stares out the window and zones
out).
So, almost finished sleeve-I'll sit down tonight and actually finish it.

Not going to lie, I'm dreading starting the back-so much ribbing! 3.5 inches of back ribbing. Which is obviously why I started knitting another infinity scarf? Because I know that I have a fuckton of ribbing coming up-so lets put it off and knit something fun! oooh! I know what's a good idea! Knit an infinity scarf with some of that Malabrigo stash! So what if winter is finally coming to en end, it's still cold! (And we just had a winter storm that dumped about 20 cms of snow last night).

I've already used this pattern (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wrapping-ribbed-cowl)  using Malabrigo worsted in Paris Night. This time around I'm using Malabrigo Worsted in Polar Morn and Garden Gate-I'm going to add an extra couple of rows, Polar Morn for the first and last 7 rows, and the Garden gate for the inner rows.

I've got one more purl row before I start using the Garden Gate. I wonder if I'll have enough Polar Morn leftover to do a hat? I only have one skein of each colour and I don't think I'll have any Garden Gate left when I'm done; It took more than one skein, but not quite a half of another (maybe less, I don't keep track of these things very well) the first time I made this scarf.


I need to find a pattern for a cardigan that is simple, plain, slighly fitted using fingering or sport weight-I have some knitpicks yarn in my stash (cardigan yardage if 3/4 sleeves or shorter) taking up space. I would like free, because I need to see the pattern before hand-so there's no sneaky crochet work, or weird cast ons that I can't do...provisional? what the hell is that!
^ still trying to avoid cypress cardy back ribbing.

March Break

I hate March. It's an awful, awful month. Adding to the chorus of "this winter is soooo long" whinge. March in Montreal is windy, grey, COLD, sometimes slushy. I've hit my March slump. Hit it before March even started to be honest. I'm trying to combat the slump-I've started working out again and doing yoga more frequently. I've been re-reading a lot of old favourites. I've been  playing Age of Empires 2.

The only good thing about March is March Break. I love having the kids home. I love not having to set any alarms. March break should be all of March. Electricians should get March break.

Still knitting Cypress Cardigan. Of course. I finished both fronts, and finished one sleeve, and just today, cast on sleeve number 2. I haven't been watching much tv, and that seems to be when I do the majority of my knitting this time of year. My goal is to have the last sleeve and the back finished by the end of March.