Ta-dah!

It's done! Triinu, the lovely Estonian lace scarf in that amazing purple silk is DONE!! And boy oh boy do I love it.

I left off the lace edging for 2 reasons - 1, I didn't have enough yarn, and 2, I liked it better without!

Here she is, a blob of wet silk:

Here she is, all pinned out (well, folded in half) and drying. I must get some blocking pins if I keep up with the lace stuff. Hint, hint, family members.

All dry and gorgeous:

Closeup of a nupp. Not bad, eh?

Yarn Shops iz ebil!!!

So while I was down in London visiting the parents, I made my annual trip to The Little Red Mitten in St. Thomas.

It made me want to cry. SOOOO much beautiful fibre, and I was on a tight budget. I could live there. Seriously.

So I only bought 2 projects worth, a pair of needles, and the latest Interweave Knits.

I got some lovely Egyptian cotton from Diamond Luxury to do the beautiful Inara wrap sweater from Alison Green Will. I bought the pattern ages ago, but just finally got the yarn now. The colour is called ecru, but that boring name doesn't really do it justice. It's more of an antique ivory, I'd say. I was reaching for the purples, when I realized that I knit in purple quite a bit. It is my favourite colour, after all. But it can be pretty limited in what you wear it with for a cardigan. So I went with a neutral. The pattern called for Euroflax linen, but I don't really like linen. It's on the same list for me as noro - The Ick List.

Then, I beat my mum to it! I scooped 2 skeins of amazing silk laceweight from Zen Yarn Garden in a soft sage green rather whimsically called 'sprig'. I showed it to her while wiping drool off my chin, and I knew she would do what she did last year and buy it for me for Christmas while I was in the store. But I can't wait that long for it! So I scooped it. It will make a gorgeous shawl.

Oy Flippin' Vey

I am having such internet problems the past few weeks! So knitting is totally happening, it just ain't being blogged.

First FO* of the summer: Louisa tunic. Here it is without the ribbon around the neck. I chose bright green to go with the green flecks in the yarn. I will post a pic of me wearing it whenever the hell I feel like it. It's a very pretty sweater, and I love the yarn, but I can't for the life of me figure out why it turned out smaller & shorter than I had anticipated. This is why I rarely swatch. They lie. My swatch was perfect in width and a little shorter in length, so I added some extra pattern repeats in the body before starting the yoke. Didn't matter.


One of the reasons I love living in Muskoka: this is the walk to my favourite beach. Ten minutes up the road and then a 10 minute walk along this beautiful path.


And this couldn't get any more Canadian - knitting on the beach! I actually showed a girl how to purl. She could only knit, and she had nobody to show her how to purl. I doubt she'll remember, but at least I showed her. I offered to let her try, but she didn't want to screw up my knitting, so she didn't. Very wise of a beginner, don't you think?


And the newest summer project: Bird Socks. Check out that pattern. The leaves & birds are embroidered on afterwards, and the tree branches are intarsia. They'll look so cool with a skirt!

Happy Canada Day!

144 years ago, Canada officially became a country. Well, sort of. In my books, we're not officially our own country until we throw off the shackles of monarchy, but, considering the fact that the poster couple for orthodontic services has timed their visit to Canada for right now, that may not happen in my lifetime. But I digress.

Canada freaking rocks. We are consistently on the top of the United Nations lists of best places to live, best places to be a woman (yeah, well, Harper has a majority now, so that's about to change), best places to emigrate.

Legally, we don't care if you're gay and want to marry your partner. Go ahead! Socially, most of us don't care if you smoke a little weed in the privacy of your own home. Spark it! Emotionally, we do care if we get mistaken for americans when overseas. Hence plastering ourselves with our beautiful flag.

We have some of the most respected social activists in the world. Craig Kielburger, Stephen Lewis, David Suzuki, Maude Barlow.

Hollywood is filled with our kind. William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Nathan Fillion, I could go on forever.

We make damn fine beer (I'm told) and bloody good wine (I attest). Our cheese wins first prizes all around the world.

Our internationally known knitters include The Yarn Harlot, Kate Gilbert and SpillyJane, to name a few.

And I haven't even gotten to our writers, poets, musicians and artists. I could do a whole post on them alone!

But the simple fact is, our Canada is the best. This is OUR day. Take it. Enjoy it. Remember. We. Are. Canadian.

And if you want a good laugh, click on my twitter button on the left for a Cage Fight to the Death between Sir John A MacDonald & Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Srsly.

Finished!

This is such a cute little sweater! The original pattern is a cardigan with a million little hook & eye closures. I had nightmares of not getting them to line up properly and winding up with a wonky closure. Looking at other knitters' versions on Ravelry, I discovered that a lot of people had the same worry, or else simply didn't have the patience to fiddle with hooks & eyes, so they simply sewed up the front! Ingenious! So I did the same thing.
This is adorable. I'm glad I added on more length to the bottom; even trying it on as I went (holy way to do things from the top down!) I was expecting it to be a little bit longer; sewing it together changed that a little bit.
But overall, I am incredibly happy with this project! Now, on to Louisa & ripping out about 12 rows of a lace pattern to fix the mistake that I knew I made after 1 row but had a momentary lapse of reason and thought I'd keep going. Grrr.

Knitting = Learning

There's always something new in knitting. It's like teaching in that respect. If you're not learning as you're doing it, you're doing something wrong.
So my new learning is a top down sweater. I've never done one before. And oh boy do I love it!
I have a pretty strange body. I'm well endowed but short waisted. Deadly combination. So being able to try something on as I go to check the fit is just awesome!
And it's also making me knit even faster, because when I try it on, I just love it and get all excited about being able to wear it soon!
(And aren't the sequins freaking adorable??)

Life Lessons in Knitting

I have several things on the go lately. And each of them has taught me a lesson.

Ambrosia is a lovely little cabled summer cardi. I'm knitting it in a beautiful sequined yarn.

LESSON: Do not eat Easter chocolate while knitting with white yarn.

Louisa is a summery cotton tunic in a lacy pattern, that I'm doing in a doubled cotton tweed.

LESSON: When you're pretty damn sure you've made a mistake in a lace pattern, don't wait 8 or 10 rounds 'just to check'.

Still working on my lovely Estonian lace scarf in that breathtaking silk.

LESSON: Do NOT, under any circumstances, watch ANY program with the dreamy British actor (and my boyfriend, although he isn't aware of that fact) Richard Armitage while knitting complicated Estonian lace that requires nupps.

(Now you understand.)