Prezzie knitting!

Knitting like a fiend for Christmas. Of course I can't post any photos, because the only people who read this blog are my family, and the prezzies are for them! We can't ruin the surprises, now, can we?
Finally the winter edition of Knitty is up and running. Lots of neat sock patterns, but nothing much else to catch my eye. I like the 'Aoife' sweater, but a bolero jacket is not for big girls. The sleeves are amazing, though.

Still here!

Long time no blog. Have been knitting, just not posting. Between marking, report cards, being sick, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Whaddaya gonna do? As I say to my darling students, 'Poor Baby!'
So here are the cozies that I've knit for my darling niece. Hoodie sweatshirt in cottonlicious (pattern here), cargo pants in 'Kim' - a rather bizarre string-like cotton/acrylic from Italy, and the baby Viking Hat in Kertzer's Northern worsted acrylic. Isn't that hat the greatest? I'm debating adding yellow yarn braids. But seriously, check out the site. There's also a cute cupcake hat I plan to do, as well. But first I think I need a Viking hat! I'm adjusting the pattern for myself right now.
And on the weekend I picked up some more wool (because you can never have enough projects on the go!) to do a requested Christmas dress for Avery, and the traditional socks for my Dad for Christmas.
Once report cards are finished this week, serious knitting can begin!

Yowza

Knitting adorable things for my adorable niece and watching The Tudors on cbc. Holy schamoly. Gorgeous men in doublets and hose. And lots of sexy love scenes.
I think I may need to stop knitting - I keep dropping stitches. But that could be from the horrible sound levels on cbc - you need to turn the sound way up for the actual show, then the commercials blow you out the back of the room with their volume. And there seems to be commercials every 5 minutes.
Here's the back of the hoodie sweater I'm doing for the child, in a beautiful salmon-coloured cotton from cottonlicious.

New toy!

I just found the neatest thing online - it's a pattern generator. You just load in a jpg of your logo or photo, and it generates a grid schema of your image. I'm in the middle of designing a courier bag. My plan is to submit it to Knitty - cross your fingers for me!

Completely and totally off topic

Somebody actually wasted money on a study to show that men choose women based on their looks. Seriously. There was a study of a group of speed daters in Germany - 26 men and 20 women and who knows how much money to confirm this. Because the millions of single women in their 30s and 40s out there couldn't have proved this on their own. Want a laugh? Here's the link to the article.

speedy gonzales!

I am just whizzing along on Cromarty! Here is half a sleeve that I just started on Sunday. I love doing cable and knotwork! I usually find single colour knitting to be ridiculously tedious, but cables and knotwork make it go much faster.
The colour is a little off in this pic - must be the flash. It's actually a really dark, eggplant-ish purple.

Ah, knitting.

It's so Zen. Seriously, there were times on my trip where I thought I would go insane because I couldn't knit - on the train, the plane, sitting in a beautiful park in Paris...
I've been working on Cromarty and watching Pride & Prejudice all day. Colin Firth - sigh. For those of you who fell in love with his brooding Mr. Darcy, you are hereby commanded to track down a copy of North & South with the beautiful Richard Armitage, whose brooding knocked Colin Firth right out of my Freebie Five. That's saying something!
I may have to watch North & South now. Richard Armitage - droooooool. He broods very well as Sir Guy of Gisborne in the very cheesy new BBC Robin Hood series. And in black leather, no less. I had planned to stalk him when I was in London, but I never saw him. Apparently he was filming Robin Hood in Hungary, which was not on my itinerary. Oh well. Next time.
During knitting breaks (in order to avoid knitting injuries - I had one before; don't ask) I surfed knitting sites and found this cool one from Interweave Press. You have to register (free), and there are tons of great free pattern downloads. These sites are so dangerous - they distract ADD knitters from their projects and cause them to go bankrupt buying more expensive yarn for new ones. Is there a cheaper hobby I can take up?

The return of me!

I have returned from 3 weeks in Europe! What an amazing vacation! It broke my heart to pass by all the yarn shops, but if I hadn't, I would have run out of money a lot quicker than I did (just ask my mum). There was one shop in Bayeux, France, that probably is still trying to get my nose prints off the window! I will, someday, do a knit-and-yarn based voyage to England.
So I was back in time for my lovely niece's christening - jetlagged, but there to stand up as godmother. And here are some pictures - the gown and ma petite souricette wearing it.
I'm now working on the 'Cromarty' sweater from Alice Starmore's Celtic Collection book. I'm doing it in dark purple New Zealand guernsey. (sorry, can't find a link for it) All the knotwork and cables are making it very thick - it's going to be a warm one! But the square neckline is so beautiful. Here's a link to a fellow knitter's blog showing her finished sweater.

More sweet niece things

Here's the little cardigan and shoes I knit for my lovely niece. My sister wanted something 'girlie' - I don't think it gets more girlie than this! Pink & white & flowers - oh my! It's actually been finished for quite some time, but I just found the perfect buttons today. So here it is! And I've almost finished her christening gown - just in time, because I'm off to France soon and I can't knit on the plane! I apparently can't bring human bodies, either, so there go my plans for in-flight reanimation experiments during electrical storms. Oh well.

photo of baby set

Yay! It worked!

I'm ba-ack!

Thanks to the greatest brother in law in the world, I'm up and running again! So regular posts shall return, and updates shall ensue.

My darling sweet niece was born in early April, and I'm a bit in shock over it. I have no experience with babies, and so here I am knitting these wee tiny things that I think are impossibly small, but then when I took them down to my sister, they're two or three times bigger than the baby! They won't fit her for months, if not years! How odd. And most of them were 0 - 3 month sizes, too. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to design baby stuff that will actually fit a baby.

Photo of a sweater and slippers I made out of Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino (leftovers from my 'Heather' sweater) from her Baby Cashmerino book will be coming as soon as I can get photos to upload without timing out. Damn windows vista/dial up Internet combination!!!

I think I'm still here....

I have a crashed computer at home, so the posts aren't happening. Knitting is happening, of course, but there is no way to post pics of the masterpieces, nor comment on their progress!
Fingers crossed that I'll be up and running soon.

Babies everywhere!

Yet again, stuff for me is on hold so baby stuff can be knit. My sister has asked me to do a christening gown. I'm honoured, actually! I'm using a lovely Paton's pattern that I've had for years and some beautiful cotton baby yarn called Stork from Dalegarn.

Oh. My. God.

It is the most sumptuous fibre in the history of knitting, that's all. Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk. 80% baby alpaca, 20% silk and so soft it makes you want to cry. Or knit like a fiend. And my darling Karen had it on sale - can't go wrong! I've already picked out the pattern (check it here), and since I just have the sleeves to go on the Grecian Plait sweater, I can start any day.
Oh, I'm so excited!!!
Oy, I need to get a life.

Baby, baby

My sister emailed me 2 pics of the ultrasound of my almost-ready neice. One was a very cute little foot. The other was something resembling the ghost in the basement of the New York Public Library flying at Ray, Egon and Venkman in Ghostbusters. But it inspired me, anyway! And 2 days later, here is the completed Anouk, done in cottonlicious.
My mum thinks that all baby things should be knit in icky pastels. I think she'll change her mind when she sees this brilliant little bit!

Ta-dah!

Yes, it still needs buttons. So sue me. In my books, it's finished. Which is good, because I believe the recipient was born this weekend. At least, she was due on Sunday! But the '1 year' size was requested, so it's not like they'll be putting it on her right away.
Yay, one more thing off the 'on the needles' list!

I love quick knits!

Gotta love speedy knits! I'm almost done the back of the Grecian Plait sweater. I've done some adjustments - I did some hip shaping, and when I do the front, I'll add in some short rows to give the girls some extra room. If you have an hourglass shape like I do, and you're a Big Girl, you to check out Big Girl Knits. I'm not a huge fan of most of the patterns, but the information on measurements and short rows and other stuff is more than worth the price. The sweater is going to be a bit small, but I've lost 7 inches at the gym in the past 6 or 7 weeks, so it will fit! Some day.

KADD - 1, Me, - 0

I knew I should have put the mohair away! But no, I had to leave a ball of it on the coffee table to tempt me. But, again, I justified it! I finished both sides of the front of the Sam cardigan, plus half a sleeve yesterday, so I rewarded myself with starting something new. The something new is Grecian Plait. The plait stitch is a lot easier than I expected, and it will knit up in no time. I'm always amazed at how bulky mohair actually is, considering it's so fluffy! So here are some pics of the wee bit of Grecian Plait I've started, and the pieces of Sam. Sam is being knit in cottonlicious.

KADD Strikes Again!

Knitting Attention Deficit Disorder - I am a victim, albeit a willing one! No sooner do I get a sweater done, then I'm madly pouring over my books and binders, trying to find something new to knit. I still have 3 baby things on the go, plus a sweater and socks for myself. I just can't help myself!
The way I see it, the Cromarty sweater is heavy and complicated with all the Celtic knots and cables, so I won't have it done in time to wear before it warms up, so why bother rushing through that one?
I am very resentful of most of the babies on the way, because my social life will be coming to a standstill, so, quite frankly, there is a large mental block on the baby stuff (except the stuff for my niece, and there are 2 coming before her, so she can wait).
Socks are my fallback 'portable' knit, so I don't tend to do them except in certain situations.
Therefore, something new is needed! See, I can justify anything. You should see me do chocolate and cheesecake justification!
I have a wack of Sublime (SR Kertzer, discontinued) mohair that I had Karen (my personal knitting goddess) order in for me to do the Belle Epoque sweater, but the variegation on the yarn didn't show the pattern of the sweater well, so I changed to Venus for that one (then had to rip the whole thing out because it was huge). The Sublime is aptly named, and I'm trying to find something to do with it. Maybe I'll just start again on the Belle Epoque.
Or maybe I'll do 2 at once. Wouldn't be the first time!

And, of course, Bronte helped with the seams.

Enfin!

Finally finished! Turns out that I didn't read the pattern closely enough, and I didn't do the arm shaping on the front. So I had to rip out inches and inches of bodice and redo it. But it was worth it! I think I'll do another i-cord, though, and longer. The pattern said 20 inches, but it seems too short to me.

Yargh, finishing!

Why does it always seem that finishing a sweater takes almost as long as knitting the dratted thing? Blocking and seaming, seaming and blocking. Enough already!!!

But I am quite proud of these shoulder seams - and even though they are far, far, far from perfect, if you had seen my previous seams you'd understand. I was never really taught how to do them before (that means you, ma!). But I figured out what the Internet is really for - knitting tips! Between knitty and some German site that fortunately had pictures, I found out how to do them properly! So now all I need is practise.

I had wanted to have this done to wear to school tomorrow, but that ain't happening. Hopefully Tuesday, and of course pics of the finished product!

Of knitting injuries, politics and IKEA...

Yes, I have a knitting injury. I was afraid I had tennis elbow (except that I don't play tennis!) or some other sort of repetitive strain injury, and the only repetitive activity I do is knit! Turns out that, yes, it is a knitting injury, but just muscle strain. I'm only allowed to knit in 20-minute bursts, then I have to take a 10-minute break. Poopie!

Well, our 'esteemed' Prime Minister Stephen Harper has done a cabinet shuffle. Somebody's expecting an election! At least he moved Rona Ambrose out of the Environment portfolio. Come on, putting her in as Environment Minister when she was one of the people spearheading the Alberta campaign against the Kyoto Accord? So the new minister is John Baird. One of the few Conservatives I have a tiny bit of respect for. He's come out admitting that global warming exists, which, for the Tories, is huge! So baby steps, folks.

IKEA baaaaad! I went down to Barrie yesterday to get new curtains for my living room, because The Idiot had shredded the old ones. I wound up spending almost $200. That place is evil! No matter how resolved I am to buy only what I came for, I can't do it!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog - Her Majesty Knits. I am Her Majesty, the Queen. For reference, check out Miranda Richardson in Blackadder. Then you'll understand.

This blog is under construction, and a work in progress. I shall attempt to build it up between knitting frantically for 3 expecting ladies (2 friends and a sister), and 2 sweaters and a pair of socks on the needles for myself.

This creature above is Bronte, AKA The Idiot. This is what happens when I knit. She either attacks the needles or the yarn. She can chew through Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in no time, the little bugger. I've tried explaining to her that she is allowed to play only with the little ball of Briggs & Little left over from my father's Christmas socks, but she seems to want the forbidden things. Hmmm... where could she get that from?