April showers...

  It's been a rainy couple of weeks in Montreal (at the time of writing, it's raining quite heavily), and I'm okay with that, because rain means flowers, leaves and all that jazz. I can appreciate a grey, rainy day with a nice hot cup of tea and some knitting!
Easter came and went, and with it a five day weekend for me (as well as B&C) It was mostly awesome. I ended up with a gastro or possibly food poisoning-not sure which; I didn't eat anything different from anybody else, and I was the only person who got sick. It was pretty horrible. I was so sick that even though I was in bed, I couldn't knit. The motion made me nauseous.

Anywhoo, it's been a shawl and socks kind of month.
 I finished the second Felici self striping sock in Fanciful.

I love having a new pair of socks. My gauge is different from the first sock, but not horribly so.

I also cast on and finished a first sock using some Scrumptious Purl self-striping yarn in Business Casual. It's the yarn that was sent to me after my Baby Beluga socks bled (and still do, but I wear them in boots, because they are bloody comfy socks! It's a very good sock base) I really like knitting with the yarn, and I'm hoping this sock doesn't bleed, because I love it.
Because I like have a contrasting heel and toe when I use self striping yarn, I combed through my stash until I came upon the leftover Fleece Artist Trail Sock in Tourmaline, which I feel is the perfect combo.

I've decided to keep knitting socks at a 2.25mm at this point. I like the fit and the fabric it makes.

I cast on a Taiga Hilliard pattern called Freefall, and it's my new favourite. I know I say that every time I make a shawl, but I mean it every time!

I knit the shawl using that new Brooklyn Tweed yarn called Arbor, in the colourway Butte-which is the perfect orangey red. The yarn is a DK weight, 100% Targhee and is absolutely wonderful to knit with. It feels a little rustic in hand, but once washed, it softened up and is very, very wearable.

Then I decided it was time for some new slippers, using my favourite slipper pattern; Leethal Mary Janes by Lee Meredith. I used some ugly Noro Kureyon that was in stash, and also some leftover Bulky O wool in brown. I had 2 skeins of the Kureyon, which I caked up into three balls (i'm clever like that) and added the O Wool to make it bulky enough for the pattern, which is knit up on US 11's.

They knit up super quick. (Even accounting for the break I had to take from knitting them because of my gastro, they only take a couple of hours per slipper)

And now I am working on another Ambah O'Brien shawl called Aperture. I am using my most precious yarn...yes, the Miss Babs Killington in the wild iris colourway In The Night. I was originally going to knit another Reyna with my Miss Babs, but since joining IG, I've been exposed to so many amazing patterns, including Aperture and just had to cast on (plus? there was an automatic 20% off the pattern! Thanks Ambah O'Brien!).

Aperture calls for a fingering weight yarn, but as usual, I upsized it, with the sport weight Killington (in Polwarth and silk <3 <3 <3) and went up a couple of needle sizes, to a 4.5mm. I could have gone up to 5mm, but I wanted to use my Addi Olivewood clicks, and the set doesn't come with 5mm needles, and I didn't want to go bigger.

I think I need a break from shawls after I finish this one and start a sweater, or maybe some kind of t-shirt, oooh, I do have some linen in stash...

Shawls, socks and weird looking needles.

So it's been a while since I last blogged. I haven't been busier than usual, I just couldn't be arsed to write. I did jot some notes down over the last couple of weeks, they make good memory aides, and I need it as my memory has been crap lately.

On to the knitting; I have a couple of FOs!  In the last post, I had picked up Zaria again and was working on the lacy part. I knit through the lacy portion really fast (for me) and really enjoyed it. I finished that section with just a couple of yards left and I struggled with whether or not to do a few more rows of lace. I would have had to cake up the second skein of the Chickadee, but I really wanted to save the yarn for something else (like, maybe some fingerless mitts, because one can never have too many pairs of fingerless mitts).

I knew I wasn't going to have enough Arroyo for the last section of the shawl, but I managed 7 rows, and the edging which was more than I thought I was going to be able to knit. Speaking of the edging? Gorgeous! I'd never done an applied I-cord edging before. It looks so nice and neat.
Nonetheless, I was disappointed when it was done, and the ends were weaved in, because it was quite small, even going up a yarn weight and up 2 needle sizes.

Blocking really helped. Or would have helped, if I hadn't done such a rubbish job of blocking it. In my defense, it was late and I was tired and wearing a head lamp because everyone else in the house was asleep and I'm considerate (and impatient) I really didn't block it to the right shape, and  consequently, it's a bit wonky. Also, one of the cats was being an asshole and having crazytime near the shawl and jumped/fell into my blocking pins, and actually BENT them.  What the fuck, cat?

Despite my trash blocking, I've still worn the shawl several times. I'll probably wear it several more times, or until I drop food on it and have to wash it.

After Zaria, I immediately (not an exaggeration; I popped Zaria in the soaking bucket and took out the needles and caked up yarn) cast on Ingot by Lisa Mutch, using Artfil Mericana dk in Storm. Maybe because I was tired and forgot that I generally don't wear cowls (unless they are loooooong and wrap around one's neck 3x) and that I really don't wear ponchos.
Anywhooo, I knit a couple of inches, and just didn't like it. Maybe I would have liked it with a thicker gauge yarn that was solid, but I wasn't enjoying anything about the knit, so I frogged it.

I've got a bunch of Lisa Mutch's patterns favourited on Ravelry, Ingot didn't work out for me, but I know one of her other stunning shawls will!

I cast on Through The Darkness (by Kelene Kinnersly) with Storm instead. This knit went much better. Sort of. I feel like the pattern and the yarn went well together, and I liked the fabric. It was a quickish knit, and quite fun once I got to the lace. I messed up a couple of times, like ending up the first section with 10 extra stitches, and dropping about 35 stitches because I had changed the cable to a longer length and apparently forgot to "click" the needle in. I managed to get them all back on the needle, but it wasn't very pretty looking at that point in time. The last section of the shawl called for 20 rows, and I knew I wasn't going to have enough, but stupidly, persisted and about 1/4 through the bind off, I had to admit defeat. So I vry, vry slowly unpicked the bind off, tinked the last row and then, finally, was able to complete the bind off.
And I love it. It's gorgeous! I'm so, so happy with how it turned out! It's such a good size! Of course, I immediately stopped wearing Zaria and have only been wearing Through The Darkness. I'm fickle that way.

After Through The Darkness was finished, I went into a mini-funk. I had no projects on the needles (except for that felici sock, which doesn't count). There were projects I wanted to knit, but I didn't have the right yarn, or the right quantity, or, I had yarn that I love, but haven't found the right project for it, so I was just bummed. I had no yarn caked up except for some ValleyYarns Huntington in Mustard so, what the hell, cast on some socks. But not just any socks, oh no! I decided to knit another pair of '58 Chevy socks. My last pair took foooooreverrrrrrr to knit, so why not knit the pattern again? It's a good knit, I'm making it a shorter sock, which looks cuter with mary janes in my opinion and of course, is quicker to knit. Not that that makes me feel better when I'm knitting the foot of the sock, with my big feet.
That being said, I finished the first sock, YAY. It took me only 4 days of monogamous knitting, which is amazing for me, especially as I went down a needle size; 2.50mm to 2.25mm which doesn't sound like a lot, but definitely felt like a lot when knitting. I haven't cast on the second sock yet, it'll probably be awhile as I need something new to knit on, something with bigger needles.

Which brings us (and by us, I mean me) to Espace Tricot where I originally wanted to get some dk weight merino in teal (I always want teal) to knit a shawl. It didn't happen. I did get some dk weight yarn, but it wasn't teal and it wasn't merino. I was drawn to this lovely orangey-red/medium rust coloured yarn.

It's the new Brooklyn Tweed yarn, Arbor ( which is Targhee and not merino) the colour is called Butte and I'm going to use it to knit Freefall by Taiga Hilliard. I'm very excited to knit that pattern and try out a new kind of wool. I'll also be trying out some new needle tips.
A couple (or 6, whatevs) months ago I placed an order online, and in order to qualify for free shipping I added some KnittersPride Cubics in 5mm (us 8s).

I never used them. They are very short and kind of weird looking, but i'm going to try them now. They're supposed to be easy on the hands.
We shall see. I'll be casting on sometime this coming week.


I joined Instagram (cambkits-easy enough) solely so I could enter a contest from Espace Tricot. (details here) I love the look of the LYKKE driftwood needles, but I really cannot justify the cost of them, especially after buying the Olivewood interchangeable set a couple of months ago. But, they're really, really pretty. I covet them, hardcore. I also luuuuurve the wrist ruler, I wear mine every day, so a backup one would be nice. The winner will be announced on the 4th, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed until then.
I'm actually really enjoying instagram, and I didn't think I would, at first. It's less drama and less finding out your favourite relative is terribly homophobic, and the kid you were best friends with in hs is a raging racist*, and more about sharing, support and love. I could be way off base about this, as I've only been using IG for like, 3 days, and maybe because I'm sticking to knitting related hashtags so there isn't a lot of human garbage polluting people's pics, but I like it, I like looking at pictures of yarn, and other people's knits, and I feel like if people are following me, it's because they like looking at yarn too! My tribe!


I did not forget about posting pics of the Nereid Shawl (why yes, I did take pictures of all three shawls on the same day)

Still sort of/not really knitting on my fanciful sock.

Fin.


*As far as I know my favourite relative isn't homophobic, and I don't think my bf from hs is racist-I was just using those things as examples.