A sweater started/A diversion needed

I decided that it was high time I get a move on what will probably be my greatest knitted undertaking so far- my first sweater. I am knitting a hoodie for my kid sis for Xmas. I am almost finished one sleeve and because the sleeve is full of intricate chart reading I decided that I needed a break. So I grabbed a ball of Naturally Woodland yarn- a mohair/acrylic blend and knit my self a crazy easy and fast scarf. Instant gratification!

Hopefully this will allow me to refocus my knitting energy on my long-haul sweater project...

Fall Fair Finds

This weekend we took a family trip to my hometown of Sackville, NB to visit the Fall Fair. The highlight of the trip was definitely when we went to Doncaster farm for the Agriculture Field Day. There was horseback riding, a corn maze, live music and dancing, games, a petting zoo, wagon rides, food and a market. It was fantastic! There were lots of old friends I haven't seen in years and lots of family around too.

Of course, I was ecstatic to see a spinning demo happening in the barn-turned-market. There was an employe of St. James Textile Museum spinning and Heidi Wulfraat from London-Wul Fibre Arts was there with her beautiful fiber and weaving demonstration. There was also lots of knitted products for sale courtesy of Brenda Trafford

- a fantastic creator. She had great knitted hat kits and gorgeous felted bags.

I wanted to buy the entire room but because there was no banking services close by I had to settle on one skein of beautiful handspun wool. Spun in varying thicknesses and dyed with natural dyes it called to me from the basket. I was so in love with it I couldn't even wait to get back to Halifax I had to knit it up right away! I settled on The Yarn Harlot's scarf pattern but since I didn't have enough yardage to make

a full scarf I settled on a neckwarmer that could double as an ear warmer!

It turned out beautifully- the pattern really shows off the varied thickness and colour and texture of the wool. Now, I just need to find the perfect buttons to fasten it with!

A fixin'

Usually I am very careful to put my knitting up or away when I am leaving the room or doing something else. With a 4 year old and a 15 month old I know to be careful. It only takes 1 time. One second and all of those tiny little stitches are unravelled...

Of course I found this out the hard way.

I was working on my wrap when a knock came at the door. I put my knitting down, grabbed my 15 month old and headed for the door. I figured my knitting would be safe, after all, the main demolisher was in my arms! Well, I got talking and baby got squirmy, so, down went baby...then I noticed the silence and, sure enough, baby had pounced on my lace and pulled it out :(

Oh the horror.

I put it on the shelf, I couldn't even bare to look at it.

And there it stayed for a month.

But, finally I gently picked it up last night and assessed the damage. I tried my best to repair it and I did a fairly good job. It is still noticeable to me but I can live with it.

And, I learned a valuable lesson.... :)

Magical knitting

*Warning* This post contains mention of knitting related injury.

This story begins back when I was knitting these socks for myself and I was carrying them around the house in a little project bag clipped to my belt loop. I thought that this was a fantastic idea, having 2 small children I needed to be able to up and go from room to room with my knitting if I wanted to get any done! So, one day I was chasing them up the stairs and when we got to the top they wanted to play in the landing a bit. My youngest then dashed for the stairs so I plopped my self in front of her to keep her from tumbling down and when I did that...

One of my dpn size 1 came through the bag, through my pants and 2 inches into the side of my knee. Thankfully it went in on an angle so it wasn't straight in bu

t along the skin. So...I pulled it out and administered first aid to myself and put my knitting away for awhile!

Of course, I picked it up again eventually and finished my socks. When I went to start the next pair though I first bought these. The I merrily knit Mar's mini jaywalkers. When I began my next pair- the last pair I finished- I really wanted to do them in the round in order to eliminate as many sharp points as possible. So, I looked for some circulars but fount that the 12" size 1's were way to cumbersome to knit in the round with . Then I discovered the magic loop method...well...I shouldn't say I discovered it then, really, I had heard of it awhile ago, but never really looked into the specifics of it. Anyway, with the help of my LYS I picked up some nice long circs and came home to research magic loop.

These are pics of my new sock project- some grown up Jaywalkers for my friend Sarah using knit picks stroll multi sock yarn in Fruit Punch.

I will never use dpn's again :)

Summer of knit-love

So I am now back to work teaching and therefore I have way less time to work on my projects. During the last month I knew that this date was looming and I tried to finish as many of my projects as possible. Well...I really only ended up finishing 1. But, they are lovely and will make amy far away med student friend (hopefully) very happy as she will finally be the recipient of my handiwork after many requests on her part.

So, here they are- Kai-Mei's for Katie.