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...