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...