Summer Break!

   That's right, summer break is upon us. The teens finished last week, and the little dude has his last day of school today. B was very happy to give his teachers their gifts this morning, that he helped make. We did sugar scrubs and soap (just the melt and pour stuff, lye and I are not friends)  and hopefully the teachers enjoy them! He made sure I wasn't too involved, because (and I quote) "I want the teachers to be happy with me, not happy with you".

Yay bodily exfoliation. I miss making this kind of stuff, I used to make soaps all the time...I didn't keep up my stash of essential oils and herbs/botanical additives when I was a single mom, it gets pricey, and lets face it-a bar of basic soap is waaaay more affordable than handmade.



OK, so the downside of summer break is that I will get less knitting time.  Boo-urns. But at least I was able to finish a couple of small things before break? I finished the second polka dot sock. I believe I mentioned the yarn (Knit One, Crochet too Tye Dot sock dots-now discontinued) was splitty and annoying and doesn't look like polka dots?

Well, whatevs, because I love these socks! So squooshy and comfy. Sure, they don't look like polka dots but they look like chocolate cookie dough. Plus, they feel awesome on. It's really a bummer that it's been too hot for socks these last couple of days, because I love them.

I also finished the first sock using the Charivari striped sock yarn by Biscotte & Cie (with heels and toes by Shelridge yarns sock yarn in Iris) and I knit it up on 2mm, because I find the Felix self striping sock yarn to be quite thin.

Anywhoo, I don't like the way the sock fits. yup. Too tight. So, no hurry to make the second one.  (if I ever make the second one, my daughter P will be the lucky recipient since her feet are a tad smaller than mine).

I've still got Nivernais on the needles, it feels like I haven't made a whole lot of progress, I'm still working on the back! It was supposed to be a quick knit, but there just hasn't been much time to sit and knit on this, especially as it's too big to be really portable and I have to keep track of the inches for the shaping. (d'aww cute kitty Nikki)

But I did get to switch from the navy to the grey. That was kind of exciting. I'm hoping to finish this tank by mid-july so I can at least wear it for a few weeks this summer.
While I don't mind the seaming, can I just say that I'm never making another tank/sweater in pieces if I can help it?  Seamless is the way to go. Top down seamless is even better. You can try it on as you knit, there's no bloody purling, no worrying about having the front piece match up exactly the same, especially with the shaping. Now I have to worry about the colour changes matching! I'm already stressing about it, and I haven't even finished the first piece *sigh*

Oh! Oh! Oh! forgot to post the bat I made a few weeks back.

Bats! I mailed the blue one to P which is why I'm down to three. She bought me rats, I made her a bat. I like the trade system. We're currently planning on a taxidermy-cat sweater trade.
I love trading goods!

Nivernais

    My oldest boy turned 15 yesterday. He was such a sweet little guy, and now he's taller than me (and I'm 5'10") and he has this brand new deep voice, and is a delightful pain in the ass. I made him, what is becoming our tradition, a meme cake. This year's cake was based on "Shout out to my pears". I'm aware that no one will ever mistake me for a professional cake decorator but i do really enjoy making these kinds of cakes.

I only felt a twinge of "omg i'm soooo old". It's P's birthday that will destroy me, she's turning 20 this August. ack. ack. ack.

I did some (knitting related) problem solving last week. So I had this project bag, the Lantern Moon Maya Lisu Bag, it was on sale, it's been discontinued, it's black like my soul, and I thought it was a pouch I could wear over my shoulder (like my maison tricotee small project bag)

Alas it is not, basically rendering it totally useless.

And then, it came to me...make my own damn over-the-shoulder strap. I start brainstorming about where to get black cotton, or maybe cut up an old tee and sew a strap, or maybe cut off the strap on one of my reusable canvas bags!
All valid ideas.
Until I take in my surroundings. I am in a room full of knitting paraphernalia, how about I just knit a bloody strap??
Brilliant! I have some leftover Knitpicks Dishie in purple, grab some US6 needles and start I-cording my little heart out. 54 inches of I-cord later...I've got a bad ass over the shoulder, small project pouch. I rock.

Anywho, knitting. There's been some. My travel sock is coming along nicely. I did do a contrasting heel, like I had mentioned in my last blog post, but I did not use stashed yarn. Here's what happened; I was just minding my own business, drinking tea and knitting at Maison Tricotee and just happened to spot  a totally  lovely skein of Shelridge Yarns in Iris, a deep blue-y purple.

Which I figured would look great with Biscotte&Cie Charivari sock yarn. Really reasonably priced. Quite a bit thicker than Biscotte&Cie Felix (their self-striping sock yarn) which I figure is not a bad thing-extra thick heels and toes will last longer!

Cute, right?!

And then I finished my Be Simple Scarf/shawl/thingymabob.

I lurve it. I love the colour, the shape, the eyelets and I did the picot bind off, which is such a lovely little detail. Kind of annoying to do with all those stitches at the end-but totally worth it.

I had to split the picot bind off into two sessions, it was tiring! I did the first third, then finished the rest the next morning. I really enjoyed knitting with Blue Moon Fibre Arts Socks that Rock, and after a long soak in some eucalan, it came out nice and squishy.
I ended up with only a tiny little bit of yarn when it was all done.

And now I'm sick of socks and scarf/shawls/thingymabobs. Which isn't awesome, because I have three single socks on the needles-I need to not be sick of socks so I can finish at least two of those singles.

On the other hand, being sick of socks and neck apparel means I can devote my knitting time to knitting nivernais! A  free pattern from Berroco it's a simple, summery tank. Mouline (my other favourite local yarn store) was having their summer sale and I happened to have a visa gift card (well, M had a visa gift card, that he gave to me <3)  and I bought 6 skeins of Berroco Modern Cotton (60% cotton, 40% modal). I bought two of each colour; Hope, Loon and Warbler.

I'm actually going to go outside my solid colour comfort zone and use three colours in my tank!
the bottom will be Hope, middle colour will be Loon and the top colour will be Warbler. I am so very brave and daring.

I'm kind of worried about the sizing-many of the comments from people who've made this tank complained about how very big. So, i'm going by my actual measurements-and hoping for the best because I did not swatch. In my (limited) experience with knitting cotton it grows, and I don't want to be wearing a tent. I'm not sure how modal wears/washes. but I guess I will find out at some point this summer. Unless I start hating it and it ends up frogged or thrown into a basket to hibernate.

But so far, so good, I'm not having any trouble with this yarn, it's not hurting my hands like other cottons have done, i'm going to assume that's because of the addition of modal.

Also,bloody hell , look at the colours Modern Cotton comes in! *drool drool*

On my way home from Mouline, I had my first sock knitter spotting. We both got on  at the same station and noticed each other. We exchanged glances and I basically terrified this poor woman by harpy-screeching "YOU RE KNITTING SOCKS TOO I'M SO EXCITED" at her while gesticulating wildly, with my super sharp circs flying through the air. We then exchanged pleasantries (what kind of sock yarn we were using) while I bounced around like the hyper dork that I am, and she nodded politely, probably hoping I wasn't getting off at her stop. I wasn't.
So, lady on the green line, knitting toe-up, two-at-a-time socks,if you're reading this, I am not normally so spastic, you were my first public sock knitter and you're english!  You're practically a unicorn!
At least I was able to suppress the urge to force a selfie on you?

insecurity

 I had planned to drag out the knitting on my Sinnesfrid, but I realized that I had less to knit than I thought, so, BAM, finished it.  

It turned out okay, I guess. I had to fudge it a bit, like picking up some extra stitches on the button band after because I apparently suck at knitting a button band, and hadn't knit it long enough. And then I found it kind of saggy and gapey at the button holes so I ended up just sewing it closed. I love the buttons though, little acorns! super cute. 

So, I start feeling kind of  insecure about my knitting, and hesitant to knit any big projects that I had queued up, because it feels like nothing I knit will turn out like it's supposed to. I'm just going to end up filling my drawers with unwearable items. What a waste of time, money and beautiful yarns. 

BUT, I will knit those projects anyway, despite my insecurities, because how am I going to improve if I don't keep knitting? And I keep reminding myself of all the things that I've knit that I love and turned out great, like mittens, and hats, my hitchhikers are awesome and I wear them all the time. I wear my v-necks pullovers and I love how they turned out. I've knit 8 pairs of socks, and 6 of them are wearable. Plus, numerous pairs of slippers. I'm not a bad knitter, I just wonder if I'll ever be a great knitter.
And, I need to remind myself, it's not about the finished object...knitting has given me so much more than finished objects. It soothes my soul and it helps me concentrate better. It calms my stress and anxiety.It keeps me from being fidgety and  I think knitting even helped me stop biting my nails ( a habit I'd had since early childhood and could never curb).

I think a lot of my insecurity in my knitting is based on being self-taught. I've never had anyone tell me I'm doing it right. (on the other side of that coin, I've never had anyone tell me I'm doing it wrong either) I asked my grandmother  when I was in my twenties, if she would teach me to knit, and she  got frustrated with me and said I was hopeless (or helpless? I can't remember). So I dropped it...but a couple of years later when my daughter joined a knitting club in her elementary school, my interest was piqued again. I bought a knitting for dummies book, and bought crappy needles and acrylic from Zellers and wondered why my hands hurt, but the seeds were planted and started to root...A couple of years later and I knit almost every day, i'm obsessed with beautiful yarn and I blog about knitting. 

Anyhooo, back to things I've been knitting since the last time I blogged:

Cast on, and knit another bat. I love making these things-they are so cute and satisfying and a great way to use up stash! I used leftover Malabrigo Rios (from Sinnesfrid). I also decided to make angry unibrow, because why not?  I'm glad I bought the toy eyes instead of just using buttons, it totally ups the cute factor. 

Cast on another pair of socks, just a vanilla pair for travelling while I had the second polka dot sock waiting in a project bag for the heel flap and gusset to be worked on. It can take a while for me to get around to the heel flap/gussets so it's nice to have something always ready to go. 

I'm knitting this pair in Biscotte & Cie Felix self-striping yarn in the Charivari colourway. 

Casting on on 2mm needles as I find this yarn rather thin.

(on the school bus, headed to the Eco Museum with B's class for a field trip-had a couple of kids interested in learning to knit so I let them "help" but then had to undo a few rows)

Waiting at a bus stop, after running some errands. Man, do I ever love my Mary Janes by Dr Marten.

I'm planning on knitting the heel and toe in a different colour, a solid, I think it will look really nifty, and won't break up the striping. I was thinking of using some leftover mustard yellow sock (from these socks) or some hot pink  Frog Tree pediboo sock yarn I have in deep stash.

The other vanilla sock, polka dots sock, needs one more set of gusset decreases before it's ready for travel knitting. 

However, due to my love of biscotte, I probably won't put the polka dot sock in my travel bag until I'm ready to knit the heel flap on Charivari.

I've been knitting off and on on my Be Simple (variation) scarf. I try to keep it for when I go to La Maison Tricotee (which seems to be once a week at this point) because I feel weird about knitting with yarn I haven't purchased there-but I'm using Blue Moon Fibre Arts yarn that I bought at La Maison Tricotee for my Be Simple, so it's all good! 

It's really coming along and I love it, but I've reached that boredom point where each row takes.for.ever. 

And finally; today, I met with mah ladyfriends for a stitch n bitch, and I cast on another bat. 

I haven't made the wings, or the ears yet, but I did stuff it, and sewed it up (and added eyes of course). I'm making bats until I figure out my next "big" project to knit. It'll probably be either a top down raglan of some kind, or a little cardy to wear over a summer dress. I do have some cotton in stash that I could use...

My daughter A graduated from high school last week, with honours! She received a small bursary from the staff, 2 class awards and two recognition awards. Very proud of her, she's all kinds of awesome. Good lord does one ever feel oooold when two of their children have graduated high school. Two down, two to go.