springing forward

Spring is here. In name only though. While we had some super mild temps and glorious sun last week, I know it's not here to stay. Oh no,  not in Montreal. We will likely get one more stupid, blizzardy snow dump, and everyone will bitch and moan about it (including me-probably louder than most) before actual Spring arrives. But, it's uplifting enough to know that in a matter of weeks, I'll be wearing sweaters outside, sans heavy winter coat!

Last week in knitting:
It's been awhile since I shared a picture of  Greenfield :

(and yes, this is a particularly shitty picture, if/when I finish I will definitely take a much better picture) I forced myself to not work on another project until I finished the leaf detail. Which I did finally manage to get done, yay! I don't know what's wrong with me though, I'm so close to binding off the sweater, there's only 3 inches to go before finishing it and I should just take an evening and bang it out.  I don't get it, I love the yarn, I love the colours, I love the sweater, I want to wear it...what is my problem?  My problem is startitis. I want to cast on alllll the things! I am trying to keep it to a reasonable amount, and not cast on too many projects, so that I'm overwhelmed with wips, but it's so hard! So many patterns I'm in love with right now! I really want to finish my cardy though, so what I've been doing is this; if I finish a small project, I make myself knit a few rows on Greenfield. Since I'm going through a small accessories kick, I should be able to get this cardy done by Easter (at the vry least finish the body!)

While at Maison Tricote with mah knitta, I bought one single, beautiful skein of speckled Fox Trail Fibre Arts yarn. It is a worsted weight MCN (merino/cashmere/nylon), the colourway is called Nimbus, and it is perfect. I am in luuuurve with everything about this yarn. I even had them wind it up for me in store, because I wanted to start knitting with it right away.  I cast on a pair of fingerless mitts, but I didn't like how the fabric was knitting up on the size7 needles, so I frogged the whole thing (I'd only knitted the cuff at that point) and cast on Maize by Tincanknits. I chose Maize because I love the mitts (I've made like, 3 pairs), and they're knit on size U.S 6, which works much better with the Fox Trail MCN. I could have re-done the original mitt with smaller needles, but that would have involved math and  mistakes. I wanted no mistakes for my lovely, lovely nimbus, nor did I want to bust my head trying to figure out the numbers, I wanted to knit these babies up as quick as possible!

                                                                 

(Of course, they've been knit up just in time for the weather to go back down to hovering around 0c so it's too cold to wear them. Boo-urns)


I cast on and knit another hat, the Seaforth Hat by Karie Westermann using Tanis Fibre Arts Green Label Aran in Stormy.

Washed it and blocked it, it's wonderfully slouchy. I have another skein of the Stormy, and since I'm on a bit of a finger-less mitts kick at the moment, I'm going to knit up a pair and, because they  take almost no yardage at all, at a later point, I will make a full pair of mitts. In fact, I've already cast on the mitts that I had originally planned to knit with the Nimbus! Perfect!

These are called the Meret mitts by Joyce Weida. The pattern is based on a Wooly Wormhead hat called funnily enough, Meret (mystery beret) which is super cute, and I might need to make at some point. I'm knitting these on US8's-mostly because I'm an idiot. I shoved the wrong needles in my bag and didn't realize until I found the correct needles on the desk. They actually fit pretty well though, so I'm going to finish them and if I don't like the fit after they're all done and off the needles, I'll re-do them on the 7's.


In all that knitting, I still found some time to work a bit on Smash (usually while on public transportation) After reaching 114 stitches on Smash (lace starts after 116 sts) I decided I didn't like the blue/grey and frogged all the way back to the opaline. I just couldn't see myself wearing this scarf. I didn't like the transition from the Opaline to the Dapple Grey, both beautiful yarns, but not together,  not for me.  So much knitting ripped back *sigh*  It's in a time out at the moment, 'cause it's kind of a boring knit, and I have more interesting things to work on right now.

I've been watching Sleepy Hollow while knitting, and it took me a couple of episodes to warm up to it, but then I got hooked. Until now. I just started watching the third season and I'm kind of disappointed. I thought the actors who played Captain Irving, Katrina and Henry Parrish had great chemistry with Mills and Crane and I really miss their dynamic. Also, it seems a little cheesy, with this whole Pandora's box dealio.

I reorganized the den this past Monday, moving bookshelves (a huge pain in the ass, btw) and chairs and stuff. Mainly, so I could be closer to the windows. It's nice when the temperature  starts to warm up, the fresh breezes wafting in, the perfect amount of sunlight to knit by, and eventually the big tree in front will start to bud, and the birds will come back.  When I was pregnant with B, we bought a dresser/changing table, which was perfect for his babyhood. Now, it is home to mah knittings. It's got two big drawers where I stash my knits, sweaters in the bottom drawer, and all the accessories in the top. Two cubbies that I use for storing notions and such. I have it set up so my swift and ball winder are always ready to use (instead of dragging all the things into the living room, which is the only other surface that can accommodate the swift and winder's clamps) and my needles are out.

I feel like the only thing missing from this set-up is more Fox Trail Fibre art MCN yarn...