Oh Canada

another year older and another year wiser

Happy Birthday

 

I really love all of the patterns from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush.  Somehow the ones I have completed aren’t for me.  I have promised myself the next pair.  These are a present for Mr. B and I think they are just perfect.  The pictures were taken indoors with the sun streaming through the window.  For good reason!  Yikes, it is -11 celcius out there.  Much nicer to stay in here, pretending that it isn’t the end of January and only the start of winter.

KnitPicks Stroll was the yarn of choice for these in Buckskin, Pine and Merlot Heather on two 2.25 mm circs.  I really enjoy knitting with Stroll, it is soft and very easy to work with.  It seems to make colorwork just that much easier.  While I was knitting them I was introduced to the Philosopher’s Way of stranding.  A video of the technique can be found here.  It made a big difference in my tension and am eager to try it out on a full colorwork sock.

 

 

The socks start with an interesting three colour Latvian twist and have a lot of nice details including a purl row that defines the  two colour charts and the body of the sock.  There is also clocks pattern that runs down to the foot.

 

All in all a very satisfying knit.

Read Full Post »

Up Escalator

 

We had the briefest moment of sunshine for the pictures.

So off to the front porch it was.  I wonder what my neighbours think?

But at least the colour is more accurate that I was getting inside!  This is a richly textured pattern which shows off hand painted yarn beautifully.  I used the Rib and Welt Diagonals stitch pattern in A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker.  I found the Escalator Socks pattern on Ravelry but I needed to scale the stitch count down and really wanted to do a toe up version.   The Rib and Welt Diagonals pattern is an eight stitch repeat, so I settled on a 64 stitch sock.  It is a really easy pattern to get into and once  established you always know where you are.  It produces a nice stretchy sock that will fit a wide range of sizes.  That is something I like to take into consideration when I knit for others.  I can easily see doing this one again when I need a giftable pattern.

I won the yarn from the Red Bird Knits KAL on ravelry.  It is Mama-E’s C*EYE*BER FIBER sock yarn in the Autumn colorway.  It was absolutely wonderful to work with and very soft.  I used 65 grams.  That leaves me with 35 grams for another project.  As I was knitting I kept thinking it would make wonderful butterflies in the Flutter By pattern.  I just may try that when I find a yarn suitable for the background.

And the details are: 

• Turkish Cast On, increased to 32 stitches per needle
• favourite heel of choice, the Fleegle Heel
• topped with 10 rows of 2 x 2 rib
• the Surprisingly Stretch Bind Off.

For a final peek

Read Full Post »

Avocado Sandwich, Tea and a WIP

Umm, lunch.  What could be nicer than a sandwich and some tea?  When the avocado has ripened to just so, it is the perfect reason to rustle up some whole grain bread and some toppings for one of the best lunches around. 

And that is just what we did.  Mr. B provided a wholesome loaf of bread and some fresh radishes. I added the avocado and spinach and a hint of mustard.  Oh, wait … must have cheese, a thin slice of gouda.  Voila!  Delicious and nutritious. 

And the SiP? A little taste of Rib and Welt.

Read Full Post »

Busted

Leftovers are good to have on hand.  Whenever I make a meal, I try to make enough so that we have leftovers.  Today was leftover meatloaf.  The real bonus is that leftover day is really a day that I get off.  Just heat up dinner; off we go.

Leftover yarn, however, is another matter.  It usually just gets tossed in a drawer and sits there, waiting for a project to come along.

Stash Busted!

Dream in Color meets the Stashbuster Spirals. The DIC is Beach Fog, Pansy Go Lightly and Cool Fire.  This is a toe up sock pattern and as always my heel of choice is the Fleegle Heel.  It is easy to execute and fits like a charm.  Try it out the next time you are making a toe up sock and can’t face another holey short row heel.  As you can tell I am not a fan of short row heels and I like to find alternatives.  The how to’s are on Fleegle’s Blog.

Here is a close up of the heel.

Yes, leftovers are yummy.

Read Full Post »

A New Year

the sun is shining so brightly
and there is just enough snow
that the outdoors is a wonderland
as this new year begins

 

There is a renewed energy that comes with a new year.  And this year, being the beginning of a new decade, that energy has a stronger force. All of the goals we have at the beginning of this year can be explored with wonder and all of the achievements that are possible this decade are ideas that our minds are just starting to see.

There is no need for resolutions just a need to try a little every day to reach out to some of the ideas and foster their success. Aim for a small success each day and at the end of this year, all of those attempts will have added up to change. Change, when you really did not even see change happening.  

How are we different from a year ago?  Some things have changed, even if a lot of things are still the same.  Are the changes positive?  Then we know that we are on the right road.  Are the changes negative?  Then we know that we need to move on and find our way.

Yes, a new year and a new decade.  A lot of possibility for happy changes if we choose to try.

Read Full Post »