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.