Not done yet

Not a FO yet but I'm still working hard to achieve it but I had less time to knit this week end that I thought. I went in my family and had quite a busy week end... so no time to chat tonight, need to catch up on my Lady E...

Here a little preview of the beauty :

Almost snowing tonight...

Yes it is time to think about winter already and snow... I can't believe it's so cold tonight it's almost snowing outside ! It won't be long before the first I will see the real first snow of the season and right after Halloween it will go so fast until the end of the year.

I just from arrived my second meeting of my knitting group this evening. We were 5 of us meeting to chat and knit/crochet together for a few hours. We are trying to trigger a habit and to meet every 2 weeks. I have the opportunity work on my scarf Lady Eleanor and I am in the process of knitting with my fifth ball over 8 now (I want to keep half one for the fringe) so it is going very well! I hope I will be done by next week end to wash it and let it block over week end when I will be out of town for a least a day ... so I won't be tempted to play with it and I will let it dry completly before to move it and take FO pictures !!!

Here some pictures to tease you a bit and I promess some better one by the end of the week with the sunlight...

Green squares

Blue squares

Global vision

Spain part 4 : Barcelona

Yes it is the last city of my trip to Spain last month... it's now a month ago that I came back to real life and I miss the time I spent over there so much and my BF much more...

(Talking about BF, it's our 7th year anniversary on today ! Love you baby... xoxox)

Okay here about Barcelona : we rent an hotel room just next to the ocean, it was pretty fun to walk by the ocean. We had great temperature again, but we feel in the air it was closer to fall as the night were cold. An interesting point is that the other city where all about Picasso and Barcelona is all about Gaudi. It was refreshing to see another artist work. His masterchief (still incomplete) is the Sagrada familia Church. We can talk about a very long contruction time... it all began in 1882. Gaudi works on the church design and construction for over 40 years and he spent the final 15 years of his life only working on it. The church is planned to be done in 2026 (yes 144 years to achieve it) 100 years after Gaudi's death. It only have stopped aroung 1926 during Spanish civil war and the architects worked really hard to respect Gaudi original design even though some of his worked have been destroyed by Catalan anarchists.

The Church will have a total of 18 towers representing the 12 Apostles, the Four Evangelist, Virgin Mary and tallest one Jesus Christ. Really this Church worth the sight !

After we also visited another Gaudi creation : Park Güell. I was a bit tired to walk a lot in the park but it was beautiful. Sculptures, trees and flowers everywhere.

Casa Baltiò (also Gaudi's work)

The arena where the Corrida is held in Barcelona

So here we are at the end of my superb trip in Spain with my BF. Already a month ago, I cannot believe how fast time is flying these days. Hopefully the fastest the time pass, the close I am to be with my BF again !

Knitting now : I cast on for a new treat yesterday and it's SO much fun I can't stop knitting on this. Have to say I waited so long to order the yarn I am pretty excited just by playing with it and it holds his promesses.

I'm talking about Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style I received for my birthday and Noro Silk Garden yarn in color 272. I made it only 6 square wide instead of 7.

Yes green again but at least it's not ONLY green... ;)

I have already 2 skeins knitted and I bought 8. I will see after 4 if I'll order more (Noro yarn are again on sale on Yarn and fiber cie website this website).

Spain part 3 and a little knit

Yes I am quite late in my travel description I know... :) Since it's not a month I'm back it's still ok to talk about it again.

Location number in our travel in Spain : Madrid. Such a beautiful city... I can close my eyes and think about it for a very long time. Madrid is really a cool city to visit by foot, we rent an appartment about 5 minutes of walk away from Plaza Mayor, one of the greatest attraction or Madrid. That was fun not being in another hotel but in a place that feels a little more like home and provided an internet access as well.

We use all the bit of spanish we knew to be understood and ask our way around. The best tool we had was the Lonely Planet guide for Madrid, for sure wherever I may go in the future I will definitly get one of those ! They are small, handy and very useful to find interests points, a good restaurant or habits of the locals (like what time to go to restaurant or where to go depending on day or time).

We are such experts at reading the map that we kept on getting lost around the town and discovering some amazing stuff but not really the stuff we were heading to. The best one is when we were trying to go to Plaza Mayor on the first day. We turned on left instead of right on the "main street" and we walked the other side for like 20 minutes and then we kind of realize that we were not exactly going in the right direction and we had to pratice our spanish a bit. If you had seen the look on her face when we asked her for direction. She probably thinked, what are those crazy tourists... Finally we gave up on walking that time and took a little taxi ride to Plaza Mayor...

Here a picture of me on the morning to Plaza Mayor

Then we walked and walked to look at all the lovely building and statues. We also went to Museo del Prado to look at some major painting of Picasso and some cool statues again. And to Museo del Reina Sophia (or something like that, have to check for the right name) anyway to my Museum with a major painting : Guernica, totally crazy this painting is so much for their culture in Spain.

Another focal point is the Palacio

The inner court ...

The outside and his park

Another thing we think was funny, on the last night in Madrid we head out of restaurant around 1 o'clock in the morning and there was people everywhere !!! Kiddo with their parents, tourist, couple, bunch of friends, it's was a long week end and evrybody was out in the middle or the night in the streets. So strange for us but it was really fun to see it !

Here a pic of the crowd and the cool building (a theater)

But the thing I miss the most about Madrid is my BF, Mr. Wonderful !

Here the knit part... yesterday I was looking for stash busting project and found the Vine lace baby hat on Knitting daily.

Here the little cutie ...

Specs.

Pattern : Vine lace baby hat on Knitting daily by Interweave knit

Needles : 3.5mm Bamboo DPN

Size : 3-6 months

Yarn about 0.15 skein of Noro Kureyon Sock in color S150 (left over from my Pomotamus socks)

I only have to wash it and block, but I can of like the look of it just the way it is...

Note : I did not make this hat for any other reasons that the pattern is tooooo cute !!! and I will have enough yarn left to make matching booties in the next few days to use the yarn. I also made a commitment to myself try to use my leftovre of sock yarn as soon as possible. I will be enough unisex to be use for my future baby maybe... who knows... The pattern is easy and fun to knit, just have to pay attention to YO because I missed some and have to rip 2 rows, that was not fun with Noro sock yarn... but I do survive and love the result. Unfortunatly I have no baby to model so I use yarn, my only baby for now after all.

Good night for now and stay tuned for last city visited : Barcelona and for sure more knit !

Fo : Kiwi Green Gable

Yes I did complete the whole thing yesterday night, but had to wait for some light and a person to play photographer (read my mom) before to able to show you my hard work !!!

Please have a seat and enjoy the view...

Specs : #28 Vihervaara -huppari / GreenGable -hoodie

Name of the pattern : #28 Vihervaara-huppari / GreenGable - hoodie

Availabre in the Vogue knitting magazine fall 2008

Cast on : September 5th when I leave for my travel in Spain

Cast off : October 12nd

I could have finish was faster but I had some distractions in between start and finish and for sure I did not knit at all in Spain.

Needles : 6.5 mm Kitpicks interchangeable wood harmony (I LOVE THEM !)

Size : 36-38 (I was a bit off gauge so I played in between the 2 sizes)

Yarn : Cascade Eco +, under 2 skein of yarn

The yarn is really cool and I recommand it. The stiches definition is clear and it react really real to unraveling (since I did the yoke twice and frogged some part quite a few time it was helpful to have a yarn like this). I have another full skein in this color + another skein in red, I'll find another fun project to work it. I really like the fact that the ball is big and has enough yardage you can actually do a short sleeve sweater out of one single ball and it was pretty cheap (14.95$ canadian).

Pattern note : Umm, the first thing I want to say is a good thing : the sweater construction and fit is fantastic, I love it and will wear it a lot this winter for sure. The second thing I want to point out is that it's not really a beginner pattern because a lot of parts in the pattern are unclear and you have to know how to resolve your own problem to go through the whole thing. In general it does look like to most of Vogue pattern, errors in the pattern, unclear and really helpful to read other persons comment on Ravelry or on their blog for sure !!!

First sweater of the year, maybe I'll have time to knit another one by the end of the year :)

The yoke of doom

Yes I am at the shoulder and hood really soon now ! But the pattern is so unclear sometime + I am in between gauge and size so it makes it a bit harder for me...

I had redone the yoke twice because I had missed out a complete row in the cables pattern, yikes, so I undo and redo the whole thing again and now I am pleased with it, finally ! If anyone is looking to do this particular sweater, always read way ahead in the pattern and use your imagination/intuition to move forward or you will maybe be stucked somewhere !

Out of these technicalities, the sweater is really cool and so far the fit is perfect on me : YES ! I was so afraid of not getting the good size, but it's perfect ! :) Can't wait to be finish on this one... it will be soon count on me for this.

As I unraveled quite a few time I can say the yarn act beautifully and I react well to knit/unknit factor without any problems. (Reminder it's Cascade Eco + in color Kiwi)

Until the end of the project at least here are the proofs that I have 2 sleeves and a yoke completed !!!

And for now what about a cookie ?

I've been tagged !

Yes I am. I am so happy it's the first time I ever get tagged for a meme ! :) I begin to be more "popular" around blogland and it's fun. Thanks to all of you guys for comments and reading my little aventures about knitting...I am near of the hundred readers by weeks ! and it's still not a full year I blog here, pretty cool. Thanks again

The meme : "6 randoms things about me"

The rules :

- post a link to the person who tagged you : It's Steffi from Original Stitches

- post the rules on your blog, currently doing it

- write 6 random things about yourself, see below

- tag 6 persons... umm I think I will skip this one because about every blog I read has been tag in the past 6 months or so... so if you want to give it a try, just do it with me !

- let the tagger know you done it... the comment is done in the minute

So here we are... 6 random things about me

1 - I have a total addiction to animation movies such as Nemo, Happy feet or older one like Aladin or Lion king. When I will have kids one day I will finally have a good reason to listen to them and pretend to be annoy to listen to them 4 times in a rows... arrhem no not in the same day, in 2 days... ;)

2- I can do dishes, clean the bathroom, do laundry of the whole week and some ironning and still say about my day that I did not do that much.

3- Since english is my second language and I spend a lot of time on Internet reading, listening and writting in english, I do sometime not remember the word I want to say in french but I know it in english.

4- I love to read since childhood and I always read big books. I read pretty fast and everytime a new Harry book came out I read again the whole serie.

5- I played with my Barbie till the age of 15.

6- I can "shop" for a pattern for hours before to choose the right one to knit.

Done ! wow seems so easy when reading the answers on other blog but I really had to think about what I could tell that would be fun to know for you !

Instant gratification

Yes a quick little project in between the Green Gable... yes I failed to be monogamous to a project for once, but it's for a good reason : I needed to have something handmade for my "favorite thing swap" so it doesn't really count.

Here the FO : Chlorofyll Mittens by Tarja (link on Ravelry)

I found the pattern on Ravelry and totally like it at first glance because there are bobbles and I rename my project "Bobbles mittens" and second because it seems to be quite underground so far and unnoticed. It's a free pattern release on March 2008 and including the designer there are only 4 projects on Ravelry about it. Pattern is ok, well written and clearly charted but if I had knows that I would use only about 5 yards of the second skein of Merino Style to finish it I would have shorten the ribbing at beginning by a few rows...

Here the Specs...

Yarn : 1.05 skein of Knitpick Merino Style in color Storm

Needles : 3.25 mm DPN because I don't have 3 mm

Cast on : evening of October 1st

Cast off : evening of October 2nd

Note : very quick and easy as said earlier I would prefer to shorten the ribbing by 2-3 rows to be able to use only a single ball of yarn.

I also have a note about the yarn : it's my first time working with it and it works beautifully BUT the skein had 6 knots !!! I guess I have reason to be a bit disapointed...

Now I'm waiting to have to have my partner name to send it with my package !!!

Back to regular scegule on Green Gable soon...