I've fallen....

off my yarn diet LOL!  I did make it through January LOL!!!

I knew it was not a good idea to go with friends to THE NEEDLE EMPORIUM (say it loud with an echo)......

The lace tips are about 2" shorter than the regular Addi Click tips - and you can see that they are pointier! (very technical description)

You can buy them separately, as well as 16" and 20" cords - these short cords don't work with the longer tips!

I had ordered some Addi Turbo Lace Needle tips......I didn't want the whole set, just a few of the shorter lace tips to use with my Addi Click system, when knitting smaller circumferences.  Julie ordered them and they were there, ready for me to pick up.

I asked some friends if they wanted to join me on a road trip to Ancaster........5 of us in total went happily off to Julie's shop of yarn enchantment......me hoping that I could shop vicariously through my knit buddies (I know - seriously delusional!).

I have to admit it, I AM SO WEAK LOL!

Have you seen the latest must knit shawl on Ravelry - it's called Color Affection, and for a while there it was only available in kit form from The Plucky Knitter.  But as of February 1, it was available to purchase as a pdf pattern.  The designer, Veera Välimäki, is relatively new to me, but a few of her designs I now realize have caught my eye.....her web site is Rain Knitwear, and of course she has a Ravelry shop also.

Well, I've been looking at this and thinking how lovely it would be done in......Madeleintosh Merino Light of course!  I do have some of this yarn in my stash, but the combination of this new pattern, and the fact that Julie  had just received I don't know how many new shades of "Tosh", well, I can tell you that my heart was pounding, and I could hardly breathe!  Seriously, IT WAS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY!

So, the only thing was to give myself a shot of Tosh to get me through it....well, 2 shots of Tosh because as usual I couldn't make up my mind and all of the shades were just so wonderful!!!!

Onyx, Manor and Mica

Earl Grey, Amber Trinket and Kale

But as with all rushes, you know what I mean - eat that candy bar and ten minutes later you are on a sugar high type of rush....well after the rush of the Tosh wore off, I felt YARN REMORSE!

So, back to the 2012 Yarn Diet guide......

I'm going to take this as a great lesson - yes, this was a little treat (allowed per the 2012 guidelines LOL!) but honestly, I didn't need this treat.  I already have some Tosh, and (hiding my head in shame) when I got home I wanted to put all of the Tosh together in a bin to make a lovely collection of Tosh to fondle and pet....well darn it all, I couldn't find the previously purchased Tosh!  I know it is around here somewhere.  That is telling me, well, shouting at me, that I MUST take charge of my yarn.  (While typing this I had an idea, and YES, there it is - the missing Tosh - so now all of my Tosh is in one rubbermaid bin......they look lovely.....and I will remember where they are this time!  (TOSH label on the bin!)

So back on the yarn diet......I am bundling up a big pile of boucle and ribbony stuff to take/donate to a local charity that has a huge craft room and loves this kind of thing.......

I am still going to destash some more.....but I think I'll do it via the Ravelry Stash page, it's honestly too embarrassing to keep doing it here on my blog LOL!!!  By putting it on Ravelry, knitters who are interested in the yarn will find it when they search to see if there is any available from another knitter for sale - it's a much more relaxing way to destash - put it out there and they will come!

This whole destash on the blog has made me shy away from blogging.....I don't want to record here for posterity my failings and failures.

This blog has always been a journal for me to keep track of the great things in my life, and that's where it's going to focus on again......no more winging about stash!  From now on, just fun stuff, like Daisy and Lackie (constant sources of laughter), retired life with the DH, our travel, my knitting, my attempts at painting, whatever makes me happy.

Big sigh, I feel better......

Happy Knitting!

Expanding horizons.....

I knit.....A LOT
I read....A LOT
I have 2 dogs that like to play, with me, A LOT
I have a hubby, he likes to be fed....occasionally.......
then there are the normal things like grocery shopping, dusting, laundry, well, you know.....
it seems that each day goes by in a flash....like it's already February 2012 - where did 2011 go?

So, do I need another hobby????

I have always wanted to try painting with watercolours.....so when the new Milton Arts Centre in town opened with beginner and intermediate Watercolour Painting....well, I signed up.....once a week for 10 weeks.

The beginner class happened before Christmas......it was frankly a blur - lots of technique info packed into each class.....frankly, too much info for a total beginner like me.....but I did realize that I liked it, and I wanted to do more.

The winter schedule offered both beginner and intermediate classes again - unfortunately the beginner class didn't fill up, so I bumped myself up to the intermediate class......a little nervous, but what the heck, it's only paper, pigment and water.........you need some brushes too LOL!

This class is taking it much slower - we are learning how to take a scene, from a photograph, decide on the perspective for our painting, how to pick the shades we are going to use in the painting (not too many now!), how to mix the right shades, and how to fix our mistakes (very important).

We start with a photocopy of a photograph - the photocopies aren't the greatest.....and that is good because we have to interpret the photograph.  In class we are all learning the techniques and even though we are following the technique lessons from the instructor, we are all coming up with our own versions of the same painting.

We started with this.....

It has taken 3 classes to finish our first painting.........what do you think?

We are working on 1/8 sheets for this class......good size paintings that well, look like paintings!  I'm quite happy about this project - I learned a lot and I'm really looking forward to our second project.

Off to finish the homework for class this week.....then I'm going to sit down and knit.

Books and Knitting...

seem to go together.

So many of us knitters are avid readers......I love a good book and will stay up very late reading....

I was really looking forward to this book as I love P.D. James, and I really enjoyed Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The idea of a sequel to P&P sounded fabulous....

Unfortunately the book itself isn't that great - sorry P.D. - but I found this totally boring... with minimal interaction between Darcy and Elizabeth...and precious little story, with an ending that just pops out of nowhere.....no hints, no intrigue, no nothing......for me that is.

Any of you read this - what did you think?

I just picked this up yesterday at Indigo's in Milton - it's great to have a big book store only 8 minutes away!

I have read every Inspector Lynley book by Elizabeth George....I LOVE HIM, er, I LOVE THESE BOOKS.  I love Lynley in the books...I am not overly fond of the character as portrayed by Nathaniel Parker in the BBC "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries".  Nothing against Nathaniel, but he's tall and dark, Lynley is tall and blonde - and to an avid reader like me who has a picture of Lynley in their mind...well, this just didn't do it for me.  Other than that, the series is good like most BBC productions.  

So back to the book.......Even though I have a Kobo and I buy e-books, I have every Elizabeth George Lynley in hard back, and I do like to go back and start from the beginning every few years....so I will continue to collect these in hard cover. As a book lover though, I have the same problem with books as I do yarn LOL!!!  Oh well.....on to the knitting....

While on the Scotland and England tour in September, we spent a day at Rowan - remember?  

We couldn't buy yarn at the Rowan Mill (they should call it their head office LOL because there isn't much yarn there at all!) so we stopped at the yarn shop in Holmfirth - Up Country.  It's a cute little shop - sells clothes and shoes and a jumble of stuff on the first floor....and the yarn is on the second floor.  

I picked up a ball of the Rowan Kaffe Fasset Kidsilk Haze Stripe - we had been given a preview of it at Rowan earlier that day, and the shop had some, so of course a lot of us bought a ball.  No patterns were available yet, but there was a free scarf pattern and I use this as my "I'm too tired to think very much" project.

Like so many simple knits, it is taking me a while to finish as I get bored, it gets tucked somewhere out of sigh (out of mind) and I do other things.  But I've decided to FINISH things.....so this is now my "5 rows every night" project - and I am making significant progress.  I would say I am over half way through the ball.....as the scarf is almost 5 feet long!!!!

The colours in it are beautiful......and although I'm now thinking they really aren't my shades......if I decide I don't like it, I'll gift it to one of my non-knitting friends.  That might mean that I'll have to knit a few more of these... I'll have to rethink LOL!

Boreal is coming along.......when I got to the row where the pattern shifts - background becomes foreground shade and vice versa, well, my brain had a hard time with this and much tinking back was done.....I only have a row or two to go and then I will be knitting the sleeves.......I really would like to get this done in time to wear it this Winter.  It calls out for photos taken with lots of snow.

Excuse me, I have to go knit!

While we here in Canada (at least in Southern Ontario) are having a very mild winter, Europe is suffering with extreme cold - stay warm over there!

Happy Knitting everyone! 

Rosy Hibiscus....

Janine Bahus, aka Feral Knitter, recently did a post on recolouring a fair isle design - and she chose my "Hibiscus Cardi" pattern as her example.

I must say, I love this new colourway!

Janine goes into great detail about the process on her Feral Knitter Blog and is offering this new colorway, as well as my original colourway......here!

It's fun to play with colour - the more shades you have on hand, the easier it is to play!

Happy Knitting!

Snowy Friday......

It's a good day....if you like snow.  It's been a while since Daisy and Lackie popped in to say hello.

Daisy LOVES the snow......

She loves to show Lackie how to play in the snow....

See all of the snow that she has nosed through, rolled in and generally cleaned herself on?

Yup, when she comes in from a snow adventure, once she's melted off, she is so nice and white.
She takes her ball with her up onto the chair in the window to watch the world go by....

Eventually, they settle down for a nap, planning their next great snow adventure....
probably in about 15 minutes - I love these snow days LOL!

It's a lovely winter day here.....really wet sticky snow and the potential for freezing......and I'm going to knit and maybe sort out some more stash!  Have a great dat everyone, stay safe, stay warm and happy knitting!

Rowan California Cotton is.......

Going to a new home in Michigan with Kathy B!  Please get in touch with your address details Kathy to me at a.featonby at gmail.com - and I'll get a quote on postage to you.

I have just set my blog to allow replies to comments......this is a new feature that blogger has implemented.

So if any of you ask a question in a comment, I'll do my best to reply there.....and if someone else knows the answer to your question, well, they are more then welcome to jump right in and reply also.  By using reply, rather than another comment, it keeps the conversation intact....makes it easier to keep track of things.....so I hope that this becomes part of the conversation of this blog.

Now, just so that you don't think I'm ONLY finding unfinished knitting projects in my ancient stash cupboard, well, let me tell you - I'm NOT!  I'm also finding attempts at being a beader.  I'm cracking myself up right now because the only thing I have ever finished from a bead kit that I bought, well, someone else, Vall (Hi Vall!) finished it for me.  That didn't stop me though, I proceeded to buy a tiny bead bracelet kit, and a beaded amulet bag.....what the heck do you put in an amulet bag you say?  An amulet silly!

am·u·let  (my-lt)

n.

An object worn, especially around the neck, as a charm against evil or injury.

---

[Latin amultum.]

Well, if I'd ever finished the bag, I could have put a few stitch markers in there, Or maybe my leisure centre pass?  No, I don't think so.

Anyway, I'm not going to get the chance......my bead projects are going to a new home on Friday....and although Vall is a bead person - well, she's on a stash diet herself and resisted my beads....but Vall is taking a small stash of roving and a drop spindle I just found.  Vall is also on a yarn diet, and you can read about it here.

Back to Boreal knitting....

Boreal swatching.....

It is interesting to me, that many accomplished knitters don't swatch, have never felt the need to swatch, and don't really know how to swatch.

I meet one of these knitters on the Norway cruise....an accomplished knitter......Kaffe Fassett Tumbling Blocks throw, Kaffe cushions, Debbie Abrahams mystery blankets......all done without swatching.

We discovered that we shared a great admiration for the designs of Kate Davies.  (I've mentioned her before and I'm going to mention her again because I'm sort of on a Kate Davies knit quest these days LOL!)  When discussing Boreal via e-mail since our return from Norway, my friend (name withheld to protect the innocent !) admitted that she really didn't swatch, and didn't know how to "read" her swatch.

So this is for you........and anyone else who doesn't swatch and wonders why they should.

Make a swatch - knit enough stitches and enough rows that you can measure over a 4" square. Wash your swatch in one of the great wool washes that are available - I LOVE Eucalan (no affiliation).  Stretch out gently, patting here and there - leave your swatch to dry.  Once it is dry, you MIGHT want to lightly press on the back - depends on the content of the yarn you are using....this is wool so I gave it a very light steam press on the back.  You'll need those long knitters pins, and a measuring tape to accurately measure your swatch.

I'm looking for a gauge of 5 stitches and 5 rows to the inch.....so I insert the pin horizontally across the top of a row of stitches.....count down 20 (4 x 5 rows).......insert the pin at the bottom of that stitch row.  (Each stitch forms a V inserts the pins at the top and the bottom of the V.)

AFTER you have inserted your pins designating the number of rows you want....THEN you measure!  Lay your measuring tape over the pins -- you can pull the pins out a bit so that you can see where the pin shaft is.......it's even easier to do when counting stitches....

So looking at my swatch measurements - I'm getting exactly 20 sts per 4 inches, so that's 5 stitches per inch, and ever so slightly less than 4 inches for my 20 rows.  I'm comfortable with that as I can either add an extra row or two in length somewhere, or block my finished garment more vigorously for length.

Swatch until your counts are right - saves a lot of aggro in the long run.  If you are the kind of knitter who is always running out of yarn for your projects....you have to go back and buy more....well, it's probably just a matter of gauge.

Happy Knitting