Post Xmas Jibber Jabber; 2nd edition.

I didn't get to knit much during that last week of school/work before Christmas. There was a lot of volunteering (Our school had a Christmas Bazaar on one day, and breakfast with Santa another day that week) and last minute shopping and baking, on top of still being mildly sick (still coughing). It was very stressful, and not having time/energy to knit did not help the stress. I really need a good solid chunk of at least 30 minutes a day of knitting or I start getting irritable and snappish.  Sooooo, I've been irritable and snappish :/

Things I cast on (and in some cases finished) before Christmas; The Spiralini hat, and the My Head is Swirling Hat by Hannah Fettig.
The spiralini hat was very quick, and very easy. I knit it using the speckled MadTosh Vintage, which really worked well with the pattern.

I've worn it a lot, the colours go really well with my winter coat. I would definitely knit this hat again, it doesn't take much yarn, or time and it's a very cute hat; it would obviously look nice in a solid colour yarn as well as a variegated or speckled.
The My Head is Swirling wasn't technically difficult, but it definitely wasn't as quick. For one thing, it's knit flat. It's been a long time since I had to knit a hat flat, I think the first (and last) hat I knit flat was when I first started knitting, so as you can imagine my seaming isn't great.  It's also knit with bulky weight yarn, and it's Daisy stitch. Daisy stitch is beautiful, but it's  new to me so I had to look up a tutorial. Once I was able to see how it worked (I'm a visual learner) it was quite simple.  The pattern was well written, and easy to follow, and probably wouldn't be too difficult to change the pattern to knit this project in the round as opposed to knitting it flat.

Ok, so this is not a FO picture, but I haven't gotten around to taking one, but I'll take one and upload it in the next post. It does show you what the daisy stitch looks like-pretty!



I finished one of my Tourmaline socks. Yay!  I then managed to cast on sock #2, and even get the ribbing for the cuff done, but I haven't knit much past that-even with all the public transportation (for shopping) I haven't been getting much done. Hard to knit on a crowded metro, especially when it's standing room only.

Once again, no picture of the finished object because I haven't taken one, but it's a vanilla sock in a very pretty colour and when/if I finish this one, I'll take a picture of both of them.

I also picked up and knit 3 more inches on the cuff of my Pescovegetarian mitts. I am much, much happier with the mittens now. In the future, I will try to remember that I prefer super long cuffs on mitts (important because I plan on making thrummed mitts at some point this winter). I have not taken a picture, but if you really are interested, go to the last post, look at the picture of the mitts and imagine a 3inch longer cuff.



So on to the jibber-jabber;

Christmas was lovely, but three days worth of celebrating (the 24th with M's family, 25th and the 26th with my gang of people and cooking both nights) is exhausting and I'm definitely looking forward to two weeks of chill time! So much yummy food (if I say so myself hah!), and fantastic time spent with family! It was so great to have all my kids home.
There were great prezzies too!  Some yarny gifties were among my favourites of course, some Malabrigo Arroyo in Arco Iris

, and 2 glorious skeins of Miss Babs Yowza! in Bat Shit Crazy

(interesting choice for M to choose for me lol) along with a small project bag and absolutely gorgeous stitch markers; matroyska dolls and octopi.

 Books are always a favourite, and I received several; including the Sebastian Bach biography that just came out and that I'm super stoked to read!! I can't read it yet though, I'm saving it for when I have proper time to devote to it, when I know I'll be able to just sit down and read for a couple of hours without interruption. But I know I'll be sitting under my new electric blanket and be super warm and toasty while reading!
I was also gifted a really nice case of markers, in a wider array of colours than what I already have, perfect for my new colouring books; Dapper Animals and Day of the Dead.
My eldest gave me the most amazing gift, she made it into town despite the horrible driving conditions, as well as a fully preserved raccoon pelt (she did it all herself!), plus the skull from the same raccoon, as well as a lovely necklace.
(The theme for this post is obviously "lack of pictures")


Of course there were visa gift cards/cash which I've already spent on a set of Addi Click Nature Olive wood interchangeables!!!  I've been coveting them for awhile, and when I googled where to buy them (looking for the best deal of course), an ebay listing popped up.  The price on them was over 100$ cheaper than anything local, which I'm now panicking about being too good to be true. They are slated to come between January 11th and February 22nd (and as of the 30th had already shipped).  My fingers will be crossed until they arrive.

I did steal a couple of minutes on the 26th, before all the peeps arrived, to learn a new provisional cast on (watch here) before casting on another Escarpment Cowl. It was a bit fiddly at first because you're using a crochet hook and a needle together. But once you get past the fiddliness, it's really quite easy to do. I'll give my final verdict on this cast on when I remove the waste yarn at the end of the knitting. I didn't get to work on it again until a couple of days later.
So this will be Escarpment Cowl numero dos, this time using Malabrigo Mecha in Arco Iris. It's not as thick as the Biggo yarn, I supposed I could have gone down a needle size (or two) but I think the yarn will fill out a bit after a good soak. This is my first time working with Mecha, and I am enjoying it, it's not splitty at all. It's a slightly thick and thin yarn, which seems to be working well with the pattern of the cowl.The pattern is also working well with the colours in Arco Iris. Speaking of the colours, I was hoping for my skeins to favour blue or purple more, but green seems to be the dominant colour in my skeins.

And sadly, shortly after Christmas, my favourite Foot Ovens (or rather, sock based on Foot Ovens) bit the dust...I will miss them.

 I had started a pair last February, finished one sock;

I started the second, got about an inch into the second sock, then bagged them and forgot about them. They've been in hibernation, but now it's time to pull them out and finish them. They are a mix of leftover bulky yarns, and thankfully I planned ahead-all the yarns are in the project bag and I even had one of those tags with the needle size that I was using, because I use interchangeables and I took the tips off. The only thing I'm missing is a pattern, though because it's a basic sock, I don't really need a pattern but I do need numbers-like how many stitches for working the heel flap, how many stitches to pick up etc. but I'll just end up winging it.

And finally, after months away, mah knitta and I met up at Maison Tricote. It was so nice to be back! We had a lovely pot of Tokyo tea (one of my favourites) and knit on our respective projects and caught up on each other's lives since both of us had been busy the last couple of weeks. We both wore hand knit sweaters, which we were complimented on. We both were knitting with Malabrigo (Rios in Vaa for her, Mecha in Arco Iris for me) Being able to sit an knit and chat was wonderfully refreshing; it's the most knitting in one sitting that I've gotten in weeks. It was soothing, and a great way to close the door on the holiday insanity.

Isn't it gooooorgeous?


EDIT:
I can't believe I forgot to mention that I got sock yarn from TurtlePurl yarns in the colourway Bah Humbug!

It's vry pretty self striping yarn in black, teal and red. I love that Turtlepurl does the sock yarn in two skeins, so easy to tote around. In fact, Turtlepurl was the inspiration for my caking sock skeins into two separate skeins for travel sock knitting.

Biggo FO's..and Not My Boyfriend's Sweater

When I last posted, I hadn't been able to finish my cowl because I did not have the yarn. The weekend after the blog, I was able to get my yarn from mah knitter when we met up for our weekly stitch and bitch. I had brought the cowl with me so I could work on it right away. I russian joined a new skein (that she had caked up for me) and managed to get another 13 inches on the cowl while we sat there and chatted and got weird looks from people.

I finished the cowl the next day, getting a good chunk of it done while B was in music therapy, and finishing up the last little bit/doing the three needle bind off while snuggled in bed feeling awful (a nasty cold). I've been wearing Escarpment nonstop, basically only taken the cowl off to shower. The three days it took to dry when I finally did wash it, were very cold and unsnuggly days indeed.

Of course,  after finishing the cowl, I was not quite ready to get back to the NYBsweater's sleeves (hah, who could have predicted my eagerness for sleeves would be replaced by a total attitude reversal where I whine "dun'wanna" and look for other things to knit)
So yeah: hello Pescovegetarian mittens by Veera Villapuu, a lovely free pattern that just happens to call for bulky wool. I do love me some matchy mittens, and since I have plenty of biggo left, why not?

    I cast on, and did several small mods; for one thing, I cast on 26 stitches instead of 30. I didn't change needle size when I finished the ribbing (doing 1x1, another mod). In the first round of the mitts, I increased 4 stitches, bringing the total to 30 stitches. I didn't want to go up a needle size, because I wanted a denser mitt, denser means warmer! Plus, they are just a touch roomy, if I had gone up a needle size, they might have ended up too big. I hadn't washed them yet so I didn't remember that Biggo grows significantly.  Anywhoo, on the first mitt, I messed up the thumb gusset, doing the increases one after another instead of leaving two knit rounds in between. I do what I want. I just made sure to knit 4  rows after the second set of increases and it worked out just fine. I got it right on the second mitt though. Yay me!
    The other mod was to do a three needle bind off instead of pulling the tail through the final stitches, I don't like the pointy tip mittens get from weaving through the last stitches. The three needle bind off definitely looks nicer, especially as I turned the mitt inside out so the seam is inside.
   Despite feeling horrible , I finished both mitts in 2 days. Laying around, sick (my cold turned into laryngtis, YAY!), in bed makes for lots of knitting, in between dozing off. I'm really happy with these mitts, they're super cute and super warm! They did grow with washing, but a quick toss in the dryer, and they are just fine!

I think though, during xmas break, I may try to add some length to the cuff. I like super long cuffs that I can tuck into my sleeves. I'll likely just pick up stitches around the cast on and keep to the rubbing.

With the mittens finished and being sick and miserable and unable to pick a new pattern to cast on, I ended up, reluctantly, with NYBsweater in my lap, working on the first sleeve. The pattern is written for 3/4 length sleeves, which I don't care for, and there are no decreases written;  I'm making the sleeves full length, and doing some minimal sleeve decreases. About 13inches into the sleeve, I tried on the sweater and decided that I wanted to do the neck ribbing before finishing the sleeve. I had this not-fully-formed theory about how the neck ribbing will pull up the sleeves a bit and I'd end up with sleeves that were too short. (in my defense, I was on codeine cough syrup at the time) Anyway, I used my 4.5mm needles and picked up stitches around the neckline. The wavy edge I had been worried about?? Turns out that I didn't need to worry! It looks fine, really! Can't even tell there was waviness. Once the neck ribbing was done, I just got super enthused by my almost finished, gorgeous sweater and finished the sleeves-which actually didn't take that long!
I love love love this sweater. I know I need to wash it, and block it to bring out the lace, but I think I'm going to wear it a bit first.
Pictures! Keep in mind that I'm sick, it was morning and I hadn't yet showered (I had just dropped B off at school) and it was coooooold.

I've still got the first vanilla Tourmaline sock on the needles, and it is progressing nicely for how little I've been knitting on it.

What is a travel sock when there hasn't been much travelling?

I've been craving hat knitting, especially since finishing Asphalt Heather mitts and cowl. I wanted to finish the NYBsweater before casting anything else on, but now that I'm done, I can't figure out what to cast on!  I'm definitely going to cast on another Escarpment  cowl in Malabrigo in Arco Iris at some point, but first? MORE HATS!! I've favourited a number of hats, some free, some not; all interesting! There's a Wooly Wormhead hat called Karenin that looks fun to knit, but I'm not sure if I would wear it. There's a pretty hat called Perception by Leah Good. The free Spirilini Hat by Jane Tanner is pretty cool looking and I think would be a neat pattern for a speckled yarn (like the speckled MadTosh Vintage I just happen to have

...isn't it pretty? We will not talk about how it came into my possession *cough*)
Black Diamond by Amy Miller is a bulky weight hat and would be a perfectly quick knit for the leftover Biggo yarn. PennyRoyal by Tracey Lambert is another pretty, fun looking, free pattern. I love knitting hats. It's a great way to use up those single skeins that I have and a good way to try out new yarns.

It's less than two weeks until Christmas, and things are starting to get a little bit cray cray, with working part time and volunteering at the school (looks like I will be helping out in the library from now on) and that whole shopping/wrapping gift thing, so I probably won't be blogging again until after Christmas (post -xmas jibber jabber), so whatever you are celebrating, or not celebrating; I hope it's happy, and healthy!

FO: Shining Armour socks.

I mentioned I signed up for the free trial of Netflix right? I was kind of iffy about it, but winter is fast approaching (our first snow happened on the 20th of November* ) and I tend to watch more television when it's horrible out (aka winter).
I was on the fence about Netflix, but I definitely did not want to get cable again with it's overpriced packages, 62 channels no one will watch just so we can get the 3 or 4 channels that we will watch. I have to say that Pee Wee's Playhouse and Blackstone sealed the deal for me. I loved Pee Wee's playhouse when I was a kid, and Blackstone is an amazing (Canadian!!) show I got hooked on right before we got rid of cable, several years back. The series ended last year, so I've got 4 seasons to catch up on. Plus, there are a ton of documentaries that I haven't seen, and some old shows that I didn't watch the first time around (Buffy the Vampire Slayer for one).
I think the kids will enjoy Netflix as well. There's lots of anime and Korean dramas for A, C will be able to watch The Walking Dead and there is Thomas the Train and lots of kiddie movies for B. I think my dude might even find a few things of interest!


I couldn't stick to knitting solely on Not Your Boyfriend's Sweater. I couldn't be monogamous, and I really, really tried. To be honest, I wasn't  enjoying the knit all that much. It was exactly what I was looking for in a sweater, something different, with a bit of interest. But I found getting through the raglan increases really, really long. To the point where I was looking forward to knitting the sleeves (seriously, who does that?)

I needed to take a break from the sweater for a bit so I cast on The Escarpment Cowl by BohoKnits.
I'm using yarn that I bought from the giant knitpicks sale. I'm going to blame mah knitta, for this slip off the wagon (because she'll just roll her eyes at me and laugh) she put in an order and asked if I needed anything.  I got some more Biggo by Knitpicks-this time in Asphalt Heather, which is not a true black, but pretty close and it makes my inner wanna-be goth vry happy.
Anywhoo, I had knit about 5 inches of the cowl when I realized that my cowl looked nothing like the picture. So I re-read the pattern. If you have guessed that I was not following the pattern, you would be right. There are only 3 rows to knit, and then you repeat the 3rd row for the rest of the pattern. I was not doing that. I was repeating the 3 rows over and over. Not the fault of the pattern, it was very clearly written, I am the dumbass who didn't read the pattern correctly.
I frogged the whole damn thing, and re-started, using the actual directions this time. And guess what? It actually looks like what it's supposed to look like.
I'm still not sure if I'm doing the K1b/knit one below correctly, I probably should have watched a tutorial before actually starting it (twice), but it doesn't really matter, it's lovely, it's textured, it will be warm and it will be cozy.
Of course, 20 inches in, I realized I fucked up a row, 3 rows down. I had reversed the k1, k1b. I had to frog it, it was not a mistake I could live with, and it was so glaringly obvious. After I ripped back 3 rows and got the stitches back on the needles, I started knitting again, but it still looked wonky and wrong and weirdly stretched out, so I ripped back again. further this time. Got the stitches back on the needle and tried again. Looked a bit better, still funky in spots but I couldn't bear to frog anymore so I tried to tighten it up a little by knitting through the back loop, and even k2tog a few of the really loose loops.  I'm pretty pleased that it's barely noticeable now, I can live with the minor imperfections.

I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with Biggo for holding up so well through the repeated froggings. I'd like to get this cowl finished, washed up and worn for a bit to give my final review of the yarn but I have to say, as of right now, I quite like it. Now, I'm pretty sure I've used Biggo before, I recall receiving a free skein and making a hat that I then gave away, but it was before I paid attention to the properties of the yarn (how it knits up, splittiness, pilling etc)
But now I have to set aside the Escarpment cowl and go back to the NYBsweater because I ran out of yarn. It's not a big deal, I knew it was going to happen. I had only ordered 2 hanks of the Asphalt Heather, intending to make some mitts, but I came across Escarpment and had to cast on immediately. My plan was to see how much of a cowl I could get out of the 2 hanks that I had and then decide whether to make it bigger (which would mean ordering), or just binding off and enjoying a smaller, but no less cozy cowl. Luckily, mah knitta was placing another order with Knitpicks (their sale prices are absolutely bonkers right now!!) so I asked her to add 5 more hanks of the biggo in Asphalt Heather to her order. I only need 1.5 more hanks of the Biggo yarn to finish the cowl, but I wanted extra for mitts and a hat, and maybe even a  pair of mitts for B.

In between having to stop the cowl, and picking up the NYBsweater, I finished the second Shining Armour sock.

I love them! They are so pretty, they're my new favourite pair of socks!I wish I had made them just a tad longer in leg length.  The Piccolo sock base by Julie Asselin is really nice, knits up well, feels good on the feet, and washes well.
As soon as I finished the Shining Armours,  I cast on a pair of socks using the Fleece Artist Trail sock in Tourmaline. Gorgeous, gorgeous colour. I would knit all the yarny things in this colour.

 It's yarn that was originally being used for a Be Simple, but I just wasn't feeling it. It was sitting in a project bag for like 4-5 months so I frogged it, and  I'll definitely get more wear out of this yarn being made into socks. I have a lot of scarves/shawls that get no wear because I only want to put on my absolute favourites.

On the 24th, I went and saw YARN!

At the Montreal museum of fine arts (MBAM). It was fantastic documentary, just beautifully shot.It opened up, as it should, with a gorgeous shot of sheep grazing in a windy desolate field of green.  The animated cut scenes were well done, and the music fit in perfectly.  The fibre artists were so amazingly talented, with really interesting perspectives, I would totally watch a documentary on just Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar alone, her opening scene is nailing a grey crochet star to a fence post as a protest against breeding out coloured sheep (as white is the most wanted colour fleece).  Another fibre artist named Olek made these incredible crocheted body suits, and the scenes with people in these suits walking around and interacting with people was hilarious. I laughed hardest though, when one of the artists talked about how everyone freaks out when a man knits. I've not seen people do this in real life (I don't know a lot of knitters to begin with, especially men that knit  #introvert), but I've witnessed people freak out over male knitters online.
The director was Una Lorenzen (who also did the animation if I recall correctly), who's from Iceland and living in Montreal, and she was at the showing and did a little Q&A session afterwords which was pretty neat.

Finally, I couldn't put it off anymore, and picked up the NYBsweater again, and started working through the body. I didn't need to do much in the way of waist shaping, as there is meant to be quite a bit of positive ease to the sweater, but I did do a few sets of decreases. I started to enjoy the rhythm of the sweater after awhile and actually finished the body! Now, I can started working on the sleeves, and hopefully within the next couple of weeks I'll have a new sweater!

 I'm seriously considering leaving the front of the sweater unribbed, and maybe just doing a couple of rows of garter at the back neckline, to unroll the edge a bit. I can play around with it, it's not that much knitting. I should probably wait until the sleeves are done though.


*Snow happened, it was horrible, but it meant it was cold enough to wear my legwarmers and they are fantastically warm and I've gotten so many compliments on them. Action shot!

And then the snow melted and we've had mild temperatures and rain since then; which I am totally okay with.

Full of gratitude

It's been a while since I posted;

Remembrance day (as always) was on November 11th and I watched much of the ceremony on tv.  The moment of silence was observed, and gratitude was felt for those who served. Man, do those bagpipes ever get to me.

   

Happiness is receiving yarn in the mail. Does anything feel as good as opening up a box of yarn? I mean besides walking out of a lys with an armful of yarn...My malabrigo Arroyos arrived. It's not super exciting, just some lovely black yarn to make another Margot sweater.
     A couple of days later my Knitpicks order came in, with some Biggo in Duchess Heather

(which is a purpley colour and therefore does not photograph well) and my Niddy Noddy. I immediately put the niddy noddy together and grabbed the leftover Madtosh Vintage (from Le Biscornu) and watched a couple of tutorials on youtube. Nifty!

     My Knitters Pride cubic needle arrived a week after the Niddy Noddy came in.  I like the length of the needle, but haven't actually had a chance to use it yet.

Speaking of Le Biscornu, I finished it!!

I went about blocking it rather aggressively hoping to get some width out of it. I ended up with a very long shawl, still not super wide, but I've worn it a few times and it is quite lovely and warm around my neck.  It's crazy to me that it only took 5 days to knit, but then again 6mm needles are pretty big, making things go much faster.
 I may make another at some point since it was such a quick and easy knit, and I love how the sections look. I think I would do the next one with complimentary colours instead of contrasting colours.  It was a good knit for watching tv/movies because it's  really easy to memorize the pattern. I finished season two of Outlander while knitting the shawl.  We finished the first season of Ash vs Evil Dead before I even started Biscornu, so now I'm back to have nothing to watch.*

With Le Biscornu done and not particularly enthusiastic about working on the socks in progress, I cast on a new project. It's called Not Your Boyfriend's Sweater by Vera Sanon and it's a free pattern from Cascade. It's very well written, and very easy to follow. The directions are both charted and written.  I'm using that deeply stashed Malabrigo Rios in Aguas just like I said I would. I don't know why I remembered Aguas as being more teal and less green, but it's definitely not the teal-aqua colour I had in my head. I'm not any less happy with the colour though, it's pretty fantastic.
It's a top down, raglan sleeved pullover, with a lace panel in the front and back. Which I think will help break up any weird pooling.

 I'm making it a size smaller than my actual bust size and going up a needle size.
I've been working on it a little over a week and it really feels like it's taking a long time to make any progress. I've finished the raglan increases and separated the sleeves and am now just working on the body. I tried it on once, and it did seem to be a bit large, but it is supposed to be a roomy sweater.

I'll get a better feel for the fit once I knit a few more inches and start working a few decreases for the waist (which is not called for in the pattern but I'll do anyway, though not in any extreme way).
Allow me a moment of whinge; it's knitting up so slooooowly.

Travel sock is coming along slowly. I'm almost done the gusset decreases. B got into the SwimAbility program (one on one swimming lessons for kids with disabilities) so once a week I should be able to get some serious progress made on the sock, with the public transportation knitting, and during the half hour lesson.

Being project monogamous (socks don't count) makes for uninteresting posts. Here; have some filler:
I've started tossing my socks in the washing machine (except my Scrumptious Purl Baby Beluga socks which still bleed, and the brown socks that I cannot, for the life of me, remember what/who it is that bleeds DREADFULLY) and the dryer. I then take them out when they are still slightly damp and hang them up.

They seem to be handling the washer/dryer routine quite well. I have enough socks that I only have to wash them every 2 weeks.

It's been curl up in bed and read weather, and I've been reading some great books lately. I can read and knit, if I'm reading on a kindle and the pattern is simple, but I've been so engrossed in the books that I haven't managed more than a few rows here and there. I started off with two Stephen King short story collections that I'd never read (Full Dark, No Stars and After Sunset; both fantastic). Then I read The Couple Next Door (a disappointing read, and does not count towards the great books) I read Carrie Fisher's  A Wishful Drinking, which was more clever (and funnier) than I expected. I need to get my hands on a copy of Postcards From the Edge.  After that, I read NOFX: the Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories by NOFX and Jeff Alulis. I love NOFX, so obviously I was going to enjoy the book, but it was way better than I thought it was going to be and in fact, I'd say it was one of the best music biographies I've ever read (and I've read a bunch) After the NOFX book, I read All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood and I was just blown away. It's sad, and beautiful, and deeply disturbing, all at the same time. I forced myself to take my time reading that book, it was that good. I didn't want to burn through it. Then I read What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell, which I really enjoyed, though I wished there was more detail into her child's symptoms/progress of early onset bipolar disorder. Now I'm reading Nine Months by Paula Bomer, that has a somewhat interesting take on pregnancy and motherhood without all the lame platitudes (so hard, but so rewarding! my child is my best friend! you become a better person when you become a parent! and all the other blah blah blah). I do have to admit I'm not as invested in this book because of how unlikable every character is. I will finish it though.

So not a whole lot of knitting going on in this post. But isn't that life? Sometimes you get a lot of knitting, sometimes  you get a little. Either way, I'm thankful for it!
(still haven't come up with a new name)


I don't feel I can finish this post without at least making mention of the recent election that happened in the United States. What happens in the U.S affects us here in Canada.  Without getting overly political, I was dismayed to see trump win the presidency.  I'm sad and worried for women, for people of colour, for Muslims, for LGBTQ folks, and for those living under the cloud of poverty.


*I wrote that paragraph before I signed up for a free trial of Netflix.

FOs and failed diets

Lately, I've been thinking about changing my blog name; PurlPurlKnit came about after trying a zillion different combos of knit/purl (all of which were taken), I was starting to get frustrated and desperate and when purlpurlknit came up as available, I just grabbed it. I wasn't crazy about it at the time, but patience isn't really my strong suit. I don't actually have any great contenders at the moment, but I have been tossing a few ideas around.

Halloween was a success! B dressed up as Luigi of Super Mario Bros fame, and disturbingly, the majority of people called him Mario; usually using an awful, exaggerated Italian accent.

 Only a few people knew he was Luigi. Even less people knew what I was dressed up as (? block), which was hella disappointing, I was ridiculously proud of my last minute costume (literally thought it up the day of Halloween and put it together in less than 30 minutes). Guess there isn't a lot of SNES fans in the neighborhood. We went out for a little over an hour, and B had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy, way more than last year...A&C were giving out the candies at our house and texted me just as we were finishing up to let me know we had actually run out of candy this year! What a difference from last year when only 4-5 trick or treaters showed up. The weather was decent, and B stayed warm in many layers of clothing under his costume.

I have a couple of small finished objects to share! My Bitchin' Rainbow Legs are done (although technically they're not small). Just in time, cause it's getting chillyyyyy, especially in the mornings. I made them with Biscotte Griffon yarn which is an aran weight, and the colourway is the Arc En Ciel that they also have in their sock yarn base.

 Despite putting them down for weeks at a time to knit other projects, they were a relatively quick knit.  I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, and the yarn was absolutely lovely to knit with. I can't wait to wear them! Pick up and drop off will be just a little bit warmer.

My first Shining Rainbow sock is done too!

(I love me some rainbow yarn in case you couldn't tell) I've cast on the second sock, but I haven't gone anywhere on public transportation the past week and it's been too cold to knit at school drop-off and pick up, so there hasn't been too much progress on that.

I knit a Windschief hat, by Stephen West. While it's an easy pattern, I did struggle with it a bit. 1x1 twisted ribbing is just not intuitive for me and I have to pay attention to it. I can do 2x2 ribbing, and 3x1 ribbing for an hour and not have to look at it once. But 1x1 twisted ribbing? No looking away, no getting sucked into what ever it is that I'm watching. Focus, focus, focus. Knitting through the back loop just doesn't feel right, and I'm sure there are a few spots on the hat where I just knit the stitch normally.

   I was concerned about sizing at first. The pattern has 3 sizes, and can stretch up to 4" more than the initial circumference. I read through some of the project pages, and it seemed that most people found that the hat ran large, so I knit the Medium. I'm glad I did, if I had knit the large, it would have been way too big for my head. As it is, the medium is not quite as snug as I would like.
   I used stashed yarn, one of my favourite stashed yarns in fact! Fox Trail Fibre Arts mcn, in the Nimbus colourway. A silvery yarn with speckles of blue, red, and yellow.
I started off buying one skein of this yarn at Maison Tricotee, and made a pair of fingerless mitts with it. The leftover yarn wasn't enough to make anything, so I bought another skein.  I didn't know what to do with the 1.5 skeins I now had in stash, and couldn't find a project I liked enough to use it (I would have adored a sweaters worth, but there was none to be found). At some point, I decided to make a slip stitch infinity scarf. I got about 3-4 inches of the scarf done before losing interest and leaving it in a project bag. Last week (or two weeks ago?) I decided I was going to go through my WIPs and figure out which ones I was going to finish, and which ones I was going to frog. The infinity scarf ended up being frogged. I would have liked to make some kind of shawl, but there just wasn't enough yardage, so I opted to make a hat, and a pair of (full) mitts. I've made a lot of lacy hats but I wanted a beanie style hat to show off the speckly yarn, and I had admired the Windschief mah knitta had made and I'm a big ole copycat, so I made my own.

 
 The mittens were done using the numbers from Tincanknits Maize pattern, but just knit in stockinette, no patterning whatsoever.

 By the way, this yarn is fucking impossible to take pictures of, it looks different in every single shot. Very frustrating! It's a medium silvery grey with little, bright flecks of teal, yellow, purple, red, blue and orange. Not one picture has captured how pretty it looks in real life.
     Anywhoo, it another super quick knit and perfect for cooler weather, don't think they'll hold up to -20c weather though I'm thinking of sewing an inside liner of cotton to possibly cut the wind. I don't think I could make a fleece lining, I didn't make the mitts big enough for fleece, but maybe jersey or a thin flannel lining would be nice.  Matching hat and mitts, with a yarn that has flecks of so many colours that I'll easily be able to wear something around my neck that is complimentary. Which pleases the fuck out of me.

Another project I finally frogged was the Be Simple I started last May using Fleece Artist Trail Socks in the most gorgeous colour ever; Tourmaline. Right now though, the yarn is just hanging out on my swift, chillin' out, maxin', relaxin all cool. *cough*
I'm going to hank it up, and probably just use it for socks at some point in the future.

I fell off the wagon. Yes,  I've broken my yarn diet.  I am weak. So very, very weak.  While riding on the metro, I had another sock needle splinter on me, this time it was my Knitter's Pride Dreamz. Yeah, the ones I JUST ORDERED. *sigh* A bad enough splinter that the yarn was catching and in danger of breaking.  Luckily it happened while I was heading to meet up with mah knitter for a stitch&bitch. Since we were heading to Espace Tricot anyway (so I could break my yarn diet with just a little we smidge of yarn) I was able to pick up a new circular needle, because there was no way I was going to go home on public transportation for 25 minutes without sock knitting. I purchased a metal tipped chiaogoo circular, since they had no bamboo tips in the size I wanted. I forgot how slippery metal tips are, how fast you can whoosh through your knitting. Obviously, I go into beast mode way too hard when knitting socks and bamboo/wooden needles are not for me. I guess I'll ease back into using metal tips, I'm still scared of using sock rockets though, I don't like bleeding all over my knitting.
    The reason we were going to Espace Tricot was so I could buy some yarn for the Biscornu Shawl. A shawl I absolutely haaaaaad to make, because I got the pattern for only 1$. So there I am, itching to cast on this shawl, but I have no aran weight yarn in stash.  What was I supposed to do? In hindsight, I could have just waited and cast on another project, but I have poor impulse control.  I bought two skeins of Tanis Fibre Arts Green Label Aran in Ravine (sooo pretty) and because I couldn't find any TFA colour to complement it, I bought one skein of Madtosh Vintage in black.

I'm proud of myself for only buying that yarn, and the one circular needle. I could have left with way more, notions, bags, they have Mirasol Nuna on sale, and I love that stuff.

Of course, once I fell off the wagon, it was easier to fall prey to the sale offers in my inbox. Thanks to a 25% off sale (and free shipping!!) I ordered a sweaters quantity of Malabrigo Arroyo in black to make another Margot sweater. I also ordered a set of Knitter's Pride cubic interchangeables in US 8, just to try.
    Then, I ordered a small Niddy Noddy from Knitpicks. Because I feel like I really need a Niddy Noddy. Not a fancy one, just a small one so I can hank up leftovers and frogged yarn. it's a handy tool, especially if I ever start spinning. To make shipping worthwhile, I also ordered a couple of hanks of Biggo in Duchess Heather (a deep purple) because it was on sale. Shipping just the Niddy Noddy was going to cost more than the Niddy Noddy itself, and I hate paying more for shipping than the actual item costs, so a couple of hanks added to my order is better value.

So I fell off the wagon, but it could have been worse. I basically just dipped into the last of my tax refund, so it's not like I won't be able to buy my kids' bus passes, or that we'll be eating kraft dinner every night this week. It's all good. As long as I hop back on the wagon and not buy any more yarn.
(#no promises)

I cast on my Biscornu today, just before heading out to meet mah knitta for some stitchin' and bitchin'.

I like it so far. Seems pretty nifty and I lurve the yarn. I think I can probably have it finished by the end of the week, knitting on those 6mm needles (US10s) makes for quick work. The pattern is very easy to follow, and I can knit on autopilot!

Come to think of it, clocks went back, I don't do dst very well. Even when it technically is in our favour,  it takes me a few days to adjust. So maybe I should give myself a two week window to finish Biscornu...Then I can focus on making a sweater! Not sure what sweater I want to make yet, but I know what yarn I want to use. I've got some beautiful Malabrigo Rios in Aguas that has been stashed for a hella long time, I just need to find the right pattern. Something top down, raglan sleeved, but with a couple of interesting details...