Happy Halloween!

What am I dressed as today? A turtle, of course!


I have dressed up as a turtle every Halloween since 1999. Why, you ask? Are you sitting in a comfy chair? Ready for a silly story? Good. Here it goes.

I was in my first year in university and my best friend, who was in Grade 12, came up to visit me for Halloween. She wanted to pick up some decorations and a costume at Value Village and, although I already had my strawberry costume, I went along with her.

While Courtney was off looking at festive trinkets, I was perusing the kids Halloween costumes. I found this adorable turtle costume marked "Ages 3-5" and picked it out for a closer look. It was meant to cover a child head to toe. I studied the costume for a moment and thought, "Hey! That would fit my tiny frame. I wonder what it would look like?" I didn't bother to remove the hanger from the costume, nor did I take off the cardboard label that covered the costume like a sandwich board. I slipped it over my head and squeezed into it. I walked over to a mirror to take a look at myself in the turtle suit. "Cute," I thought.

I strolled back over to the rack where I found the costume. I tried to pull it back over my head. Uh oh. It wouldn't budge. I started to panic. I ran over to Courtney. I told her I was stuck in this costume meant for toddlers. She laughed. I was not as amused. I asked her to help me pull the costume off, but she couldn't get it to budge either. I looked at price tag and it read $14.99. Shit. $14.99 is a lot of money for a student. Do you know how many boxes of Kraft Dinner $14.99 could buy? But I had to buy it. I couldn't take it off without destroying it.

You know where this is going, don't you? I walked up to the counter and told the cashier I had to buy the costume that I was wearing. She scanned it. I paid. When we got back to my dorm room, Courtney broke the plastic hanger in two and retrieved the pieces while I cut the cardboard label off the costume. Only then, could I pull the turtle suit back up over my head.



And that's why I've worn this costume for 8 years. I need to get my money's worth.

Of course, this story is only to distract you from the fact that I haven't finished my Socktoberfest socks. I guess I still could finish the second sock today, but, chances are, it'll have to wait until early November.


This is the Hedgerow sock pattern knit up with Oceanwind Knits Merino yarn in sweetgrass. I really like these socks.

Another FO: Urchin

First off, thank you so much for all of your comments on the cabled jumper (which I've taken to calling the "jumper cable" because it amuses me).

Just like most of North America, it has been unseasonably warm in Nova Scotia. However, I know the cold weather is just around the corner. And when those frigid temperatures wash over us, I will need a hat (remember how I had to sacrifice the Kittyville Hat?). That's why I picked up that skein of Manos del Uruguay wool when Annie and I visited Gaspereau Valley Fibres last weekend. I present to you one of the quickest knits I've ever completed.


Pattern: Urchin by Ysolda Teague
Source: knitty
Materials: less than one skein of Manos del Uruaguay 100 per cent wool in Natural
Needles: US 11/9 mm straight needles
Started: October 22, 2007
Finished: October 23, 2007


Modifications: I had to increase the needle size in order to get gauge and I'm still not sure my gauge was accurate. I knit the largest size and while my head isn't anywhere near large, the hat fits very well.

Verdict: Yummy. I love the way garter stitch looks with a slubby yarn like Manos.


And I think it's really neat that the hat looks like a sand dollar when it's laid flat (and, yes, that's Moustache's tail in the upper right corner).

FO: Cabled jumper!

The straps were a lot easier and less tedious than I thought. Last night, after our trip to the Annapolis Valley, I finished sewing on the straps and the buttons. My Dad was kind enough to take some photos of the finished cable jumper this afternoon!


Pattern: DROPS Dress with shoulder straps
Source: Garnstudio
Materials: 4 skeins of Galway Irish Worsted Wool in colour #1080
Needles: US 8/5 mm and US 6/4 mm bamboo circs
Started: September 2007
Finished: October 2007


Modifications: Instead of knitting the cabled portion of the dress 45 cm long, I knit it about 55 cm long. I also used a different yarn than the pattern called for.


The buttons, as usual, are from my Gramie's stash. I had picked out buttons in three different sizes and brought them home to try out. The smallest ones seemed to fit best.


Verdict: I am SO in love with this jumper. It is the nicest thing I've knit yet. I think this is going to be my go-to outfit for the winter. It's so warm and very comfortable. It's a big winner.


Yay! I am a happy gal!

And now we're yarn-comatose

Annie and I had a wonderful trip to the Annapolis Valley yesterday. We had a great lunch, visited a nice bookstore, picked up some fresh produce and, of course, went yarn shopping.

Annie pets the black sheep at Gaspereau Valley Fibres while the antisocial alpaca looks on.

I had been to GVF before, but I didn't spend nearly enough time there the first time. I was in Wolfville on business and my meetings ended at 3: 30 p.m. The yarn store closed at 4 p.m., so I rushed over there, quickly scanned the shelves and picked up some sock yarn. This time, we had plenty of time to touch, squeeze, sniff and caress all the yarn we wanted.

We are happy shoppers!

After walking around the store several times, hemming and hawing, we each settled on our purchases. Annie walked away with a skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool and I picked up a skein of Manos del Uruguay wool (40 per cent off!!!)


and a couple of cones of Casco Bay cotton worsted to make matchy-matchy dishcloths for my kitchen.


It was a happy day.

And now the end is near

The cabled jumper is almost finished! I bound off the body this morning and it fits like a dream. It's looking like this is going to be my favourite knit garment yet!


Sorry for the fuzzy photo. But doesn't it look spectacular? I am so impressed with myself. And I love the way the cables flow into the ribbing. It's so neat.

I've started knitting the straps. I can already foresee they're going to be the most tedious part of knitting this jumper. At approx. 40 cm each, I think I'll be knitting straps for a while . . .


In other news, I've set up an etsy shop. I need to go to my local framing shop and find out where I can get prints done locally, and then I'll put 'em up for sale in the shop. It's kind of scary, but really exciting.

Tomorrow blogless Annie and I are off to Gaspereau Valley Fibres for a yarn pilgrimage. Stay tuned for photos of our adventure.

Travel knitting

I've been doing quite a bit of travel knitting lately. On the weekend, Jesse and I drove to Carleton for a bonfire by the lake. I knit while Jesse drove there and then I knit by the fire until it was so dark that the giant fire wasn't bright enough for me to see my needles.

Yesterday, we went to Halifax and I brought both of my projects with us. I knit in the car, I knit in the hospital waiting room and I knit in the doctor's office. I got a lot of knitting done.


The cabled jumper is almost done. I am so excited to see the finished product! I tried it on over the weekend and it fits so well. Just a few more centimetres and the body will be complete. Then, there's just the straps left to knit. I already have cute buttons from Gramie's stash ready for this dress.


And since the dress is a little too unwieldy to carry around, I also have socks to knit while I travel. This is my Socktoberfest sock. Oceanwind knits merino + Hedgerow sock pattern = love. Moustache is also in love with this sock. I think his love affair started when he attacked the hank of sock yarn. He must be so attracted to the yarn since the colour is, as Steph pointed out, a perfect match with his eye colour. Now, he's determined to steal this sock away from me and keep it with his little collection of toys. Little does he know, I am bigger than him and will be victorious in the sock fight.

You might be wondering why I've been sitting in hospital waiting rooms and doctor's offices. Well, a few months ago Jesse had a lump removed from his neck. It turned out to be a tumor and now we know that it was cancerous. We haven't been telling too many people about this, but since he'll be starting treatments soon, it will become apparent that he's a cancer patient. He's been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease and will be starting chemotherapy Nov. 1. The good news is the cancer is in stage 1A, so we caught it as early as possible. He doesn't have cancer anywhere else in his body, so the chemotherapy will just be to kill off anything that was left in his neck when the tumor was removed. Chances are, he'll have the chemotherapy and will be cured, which is very encouraging. He's also feeling fine (as am I) and we're very optimistic about everything.

I'll be doing a lot more travel knitting in the near future as he'll be getting all of his treatments in Halifax. Of course, I'll be doing most of the driving, so I guess I'll be doing more "waiting room knitting" than travel knitting. In order to make that "waiting room knitting" more pleasurable, I went out and bought myself a gift.


Addi Turbos. My first pair. It's all very thrilling. The next pair of socks on my needles will be knit using the magic loop method.

Also, thanks for voting on the "Amber" paintings. Right now it's a tie between the light and dark backgrounds!

More snowpeople

A few days ago, I sat down and painted four more snowpeople.

Meet Tim:


Shannon and Courtney:


Mike:


and Amber:


and Amber again:


I wasn't happy with my first rendition of Amber, so I painted a second. Now I don't know which one I like better. Jesse's original colour scheme had a dark grey background (like the second Amber) but I didn't like the way the painting came out all splotchy. But I'm not sure whether I like the less splotchy lighter background either. Hmmmm. Time to have a vote!

Happy Thanksgiving!

One thing that's nice about living in Yarmouth is that we're close to both of our families. Today, we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family at lunchtime and Jesse's family at dinnertime. I only baked one apple pie, so I hope to be able to serve half to each family. We'll see how that works out . . .

Happy Thanksgiving/Bonne action de grâce!

Finally! A knitting update!

In between the sewing and painting (thanks for the lovely comments on the paintings, by the way. I just switched to Haloscan commenting and I'm still working out the bugs, which is why I haven't replied to you personally yet. I'm now seriously considering making a whole bunch of snowpeople paintings and opening an etsy shop. It's all very scary, though.), there has been some knitting. I've been diligently working away at this cuterrific jumper from Garnstudio.


And I picked up some sock yarn at Tangled Skeins when I was recently in the Halifax area. I just couldn't leave it there. It's Oceanwind Knits merino in sweetgrass and will become my Socktoberfest socks. As soon as I put it down to take some photos, Moustache came running and started eyeing it up.


Then came the attack!*


I swear, this kitty is the biggest yarn snob. If you put a skein of acrylic yarn in front of him, he won't even look at it. He also passes up cotton. He might take a second glance at 100 per cent wool, but if there's merino, alpaca or cashmere near, he attacks it.

*no yarn was harmed in the making of this blog post.

Snowpeople

Jesse had drawn a series of snowpeople on the computer a while ago. I decided to recreate four of them in watercolour and give them to him for his birthday.





I used to paint a lot when I was younger and haven't done it in a long time. It's surprising how easily it came back to me. Jesse was so excited when he saw my paintings -- he said he always envisioned them in watercolour (which I didn't know). Now he's bugging me to make more and sell them on etsy. I dunno -- what do you think?

FO: Charming handbag

Making that Artsy Clutch and getting all that fabric from Gramie really spurred my sewing mojo. Yesterday, I sat down and started making the Charming Handbag, also from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing.


All of the fabric is from Gramie's closet and the buttons are from her button drawer. Aren't they cute?



This is the most complicated thing I've ever sewn. I'm definitely a novice seamstress, so my seam ripper came in very handy yesterday. I must have sewn every stitch on this handbag twice. But you know what? I don't really mind. It was worth learning from my mistakes and I'm so glad I ripped the ugly bits and re-did them. It makes for a much nicer bag.


I had a little bit of trouble with some puckering around the "U" shaped top, as you can see below. I tried to keep the puckering to a minimum, but I wasn't able to eliminate it altogether. Any idea what I could have done to prevent it?


Verdict: I love this bag and I'm definitely keeping it for myself. Expect much more sewing from me in the future but don't worry, I haven't given up on knitting. I actually have a big project I have yet to blog about and I recently joined Ravelry! It's everything I hoped it would be. You can find me there as knittinging.

Stressed? How about some fibre?

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll remember when I saw this headline and nearly spit out my tea. Well, it seems the page editors at The Chronicle Herald have lapsed again:


This one just makes me roll my eyes and laugh.

Shopping at Gramie's house

I went over to Gramie's house this morning to look for a button for an Artsy Clutch I made from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing book, and came home with a whole lotta loot.

First, the button for the clutch:


Then, she showed me a quilt she's working on. It had some pink peacock fabric in it that she bought in Thailand. I told her how much I liked it and she told me she had some in blue. Not only did she have several yards of blue peacock fabric in her closet, but she had matching blue fabric to go with it!


She told me to take it and make some more bags. Awesome. Then she pulled out this flowery fabric with more coordinating green fabric. She threw it in a bag to take home with me. Wow!


And then, when I thought she had showed me all of her cute stuff, she hauled out this Inuit fabric. Holy shit. This is the cutest fabric I have ever seen. It's friggin' Inuits, people! With more coordinating blue fabric!


As if all this loot wasn't enough, she showed me a bed spread Nana (Gramp's Mum) knit in 1966 with gorgeous cotton yarn and Gramie pieced together in 1967. This is one beautiful bed spread. As soon as I got home, I pulled off my cheap bargain bin comforter and slipped Nana's bed spread on my bed.


Check out the detail. It's incredible. This is one of 120 squares.


I'm pretty sure it was knit with US1/2.25 mm needles. No wonder it took her a whole year to make it, and another year to piece it together.


Shopping at Gramie's is so much fun! And all I went there for was a button! Now you know why I frogged two mittens and a hat for the Summer Shawlette I knit for her!!

FO: Summer Shawlette

The illustrious Kenneth dropped by this evening to take some photos of the secret FO that I've been waiting to blog about. Believe it or not, (no, believe it) I have finished knitting my first Christmas present of the season. I've always been a gal who likes to be organized and ahead-of-the-game, but never before have I had Christmas presents ready this far in advance. It's safe to write about this FO because it's for my Gramie, who doesn't know what the "Internet" is and, even if she did, she wouldn't be interested in it. However, if you happen to see my Gramie, please do me a favour and don't let the cat out of the bag.


Pattern: Summer Shawlette by Sandi Wiseheart
Source: Interweave
Materials: nearly two skeins of Misti Alpaca worsted (colour #972)
Needles: US 10.5/6.5 mm bamboo circular needle
Started: August 31, 2007
Finished: September 9, 2007

After I saw this finished Summer Shawlette, I went ahead and started knitting it right away. I used bigger needles and different yarn because I wanted to make it a bit bigger than the pattern calls for. After a few bumps and hitches (could the beginning of the pattern be any more confusing?) I completed what I think is a lovely shawl for my pink-loving Gramie.


I only had one full skein of yarn to work with and I secretly knew it wouldn't be enough, but I told myself one skein would do. When I got a little bit more than halfway through and ran out of yarn, I regretfully frogged these mittens. I liked those mittens, but I had to sacrifice them for Gramie (she's very special). When I used up all the mitten yarn, I went back to my bag of winter knits and frogged this hat. Again, it was a good hat, but Gramie's just that special.



So, now I'm in need of some new mittens and a hat. Don't tell anyone, but the thought of needing to knit myself a hat and mitts is sort of thrilling.

Trellis, the model shot

Sherrie just posted a photo* of her baby son wearing the Trellis sweater I knit for him a while back. I am amazed at how great it looks on him.

I have a new FO to blog about, but I don't have any photos of it yet. Oh yeah, and I bought some yarn yesterday for a new project. I know I just posted about how buying a house means I can't buy yarn, but I caved yesterday while perusing the shelves at Have a Yarn in Mahone Bay.

*Warning: The photo is unbearably cute. Clicking on the link may result in saccharine sweetness convulsions.

Merci mille fois!

A little package of amazing-ness arrived in my mailbox this week! Here's what I found tucked inside . . .


A Resistance Is Futile t-shirt from Christy. Sorry for the crappy photo, but this t-shirt is so perfect! I want to wear it every day. You can get your own at her etsy shop.


The cutest clutch from Ashley. One of my weaknesses is handbags and I love this one. I should also note that it has passed my tough handbag test, which is simply making sure my EpiPen fits in it, so I'll definitely be carrying it around very often.



And what's that peeking out of the clutch? Delicious Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in "chocolate cherry" from Julia. My yarn stash is virtually nonexistent (I guess that's what happens when you spend all your pennies on buying a house), so I needed this yarn. Julia also sent me some embroidery patterns and floss. I've never embroidered before, so I can't wait to try my hand at a new craft.

As soon as I opened the package, I laid the contents out on my bed and admired them. I left the room for a few minutes to make lunch and came back to find Moustache curled up on top of everything. He started licking the t-shirt, then he licked the clutch and then dove into the yarn. But I swiped the yarn out of his paws before he could inflict any damage. He's definitely my kitty -- he loves all things crafty.

Un gros merci mille fois pour les cadeaux! Thank you so much for the package! I am over the moon.