FO : Proverbial Cap

Another FO that didn't make it to the net... bad me ! I did not even talk about all the yarn acquisition or anything like that. I was asked by my mother for a winter set to match her new winter coat, so here is the first item : this cute cap. Since we have barely no winter here in Quebec this year, it gives me time to knit her the other items... hahaha!

Sincerely, I have to admit that I am very behind on many points in the past few weeks and knitting is one of them ! The Christmas and New Year parties went in and out so fast I have not even realize it's already over for the first Christmas of my daughter... she have been totally spoiled! and she love to unwrap presents,that was very funny to let her rip out paper. I am not sure if we will be able to have a Christmas tree next year but since she still small we went crazy (especially my lover...) and bought a tree that is almost touching the ceiling !

Look this out

We all had a lot of presents and I got all I need to practice on my painting skills, which I am very very happy about. I wanted to do it for several years and N. got me the perfect kit to play with colors.So maybe I will present not only knitting but painting this year !

Back to the knitting concerns of the day : Proverbial Cap Specs

Pattern : Proverbial Cap by Meg Swanson (Interweave Knit Fall 2010)

Yarn : Wool of the Ande worsted by Knit Picks in Fairy Tales colorway (about 1.2 skein)

Needle : 3.5mm DPN

with my favorite model...

 

Comments : This hat is intended for a child of small adult, be careful to read about this to avoid making a hat too small for you ! I knit this for my mom and it have the perfect size for her. It doesn't cover the ears totally but since I said earlier I made this set according also to the mellow temperature we got this winter. When I saw the hat in my magazine I had to knit it anyway because of the cables. I love twisted stitches too. I used the second skein only for the crown decrease and made it a little longer because it was too short for my liking. I would have appreciate a bigger size explanation to be able to make one for me, but I think about doing one for my daughter by just making it shorter... :)

Update on Friday

Yes already a week without posting, but I was just so busy and not much to post about on knitting avenue...

So last week end I end up going to the lake with my extended family on my dad side, that was fun and I wasn't the only preggo belly out there since my sister in law is also preggo, she is due for October so showing too. We had a blast enjoying swimming in the lake, taking boat ride and laughing a lot too ! My boyfriend played with the kids since he still one himself and went in all the mothers heart because the kids were tired at the end of the day ! I can tell he will be the best dad ever !!! :)

This whole week has been about three things mostly : cooking (I filled the freezer with so many food that I have no more place in it!), cleaning and doing paperwork for the immigration of my love, since he will change his job soon and we need to change his work permit. I can't wait to have answer about his permanent residency. Life will become easier when he will be permanent resident I hope and the only little step to do in a few year will be Canadian citizenship...

On the knitting side, I am doing great progress on my last post project that I will have a FO very soon, just a lot more of stockinette to do and hours of seaming too ! Also going fast on my birthday sweater for my boyfriend. I need to finish soon enough because baby is coming soon too and I won't have that many time to knit after birth.

at least I took lovely pictures too...

First day of summer 2010 !!!!

Today it's the first day of summer and I am thankful for many things :

- Perfect weather
- Being 34 week and 4 days pregnant
- Having great plans for tonight with my love (cooking together a wonderful strawberry cake- picture to come later on this week)
- Seeing my fine herbs growing and gosh it's smell so good
- Being on maternity leave (Yippee!)
- and so many more...

Have a wonderful day everyone !

WWKIP day in Quebec city

Last Saturday we had our WWKIP day on the Plaines d'Abraham here in Quebec city and it was so much fun !!! Last year I missed it because I was busy moving but I made my family came with me even if I was the only one knitting and we add a little picnic to enjoy the beautiful weather we had.

Here my belly  at 33 weeks and 2 days

I wish everybody enjoyed it as much as we did and you all showed the world our talents in knitting and how proud we are !!! :)

Mister I do accept your excuses

My lovely and tender boyfriend went on a business trip to Toronto last week and came back soon but with empty hands. It didn't matters to me, it was way more important to have him back in my arms than having any kind of gift but on Saturday he wanted to make apologies for his lack of time to shop on his trip for a little skein of yarn... did I ever mention this man is PERFECT... he think about buying me yarn on a business trip. Even though he hadn't the occasion because he was too short on time...he thought about it.

So we went for a little walk to bakery on Saturday morning and it happen to be next door from a LYS and he bought me 3 fabulous skein of yarn all Canadians products. The first two are from Kamouraska, Quebec. The barn's name is Les laines douceur and it's the first I saw this yarn so I bought 2 skeins one black and a turquoise. They don't have color name and strange weight it will be fun to work with. The third one is from the well known Fleece Artist, Kiss and Curl.

Let just say I am one happy girlfriend !

Happy Happy Joy Joy

For once, I like this Monday morning even if I had a hard time to get up and was too happy to get a coffee to help me open up my eyes. But, with my daughter playing and dancing in my belly I cannot resist to have the most beautiful smile every morning... even on Monday !

Now 31 weeks and 4 days pregnant, my belly is full of life and of love, thanks to life!

WIP : summer knitting is HOT

It's not even summer yet, but it's almost the same with the weather of the last 2 weeks here in Quebec city... it's damn hot and hard to keep a big knit on my lap. So I cast on for a light shawl project with the perfect and adorable Malabrigo lace I had bought back in 2008 when my friend Shannon came in visit from Calgary. Part of my "work in that stash" project in 2010 to reduce my stash it will also be a nice addition to my wardrobe too.

I choose the Haruni pattern by Emily Ross, a free pattern.

I love the colors and again with Malabrigo it's love at first touch... soft and so cool to work with even it's still hot in my hand to work with wool.

Anyway, almost done with Chart A, about 16 more rows to go in it and then the fun begin with Chart B... :)

TGIF !!!

Today I was just happy to be alive and see the wonderful sun outside when I woke up in the morning with my love... I thought about doing a short list of 10 reasons to be happy today !

1- I'm in love and I am love in return too
2- 26 weeks and 1 day pregnant, my belly is full of love too :)
3- no work for me today !!!
4- beautiful weather outside

5- tomorow my parents are a making over in the baby's room (picture after that for sure !!!)
6- one more week and I do have a week off at the cottage to relax before third trimester
7- making progress on the baby blanket
8- doing great on my return on colorwork (post tomorow about it)
9- planning a trip to France to visit Nicolas's family and present baby girl in October

10- TGIF what else to say...

Happy today everyone!

Thursday night knitting

Oh yes it's finally week end for me !!! I had a big week and a very great week end before but I am so glad that it's over and well behind me now... I recently booked my vacation for Riviera Maya and we are leaving in only 3 weeks from now.... I am so excited and I did not even start to think about knitting for the vacation... Really have to take note about that I can't go to a vacation resort for 2 weeks without yarn and needles ;)

Here is a little picture of me playing on the "Muse" statue in Carre D'Youville in Vieux Quebec...


On the knitting side I put the sock on the side for another project that I just bought at the new LYS next door to my place : Thrum mitten kit by Fleece Artist. I really enjoy the project and I knit the first mitten straight in one day and I had almost no time to knit on the second one this week and I am almost done now. That how quick those mittens are !

Here is how the kit look like when I first brought it home. I paid 29$ for the kit, including yarn, roving and the pattern. It's ok since I will use pattern again for sure.

Then I did not stop to take any picture until earlier today. You can see the first mitten all done in the back, the roving left to put in thrums in the second mitten and my wip on the second mitten.

You can see the needle holding live stitches for the thumb placement later but I kept on knitting before coming here to talk about it. I already told you but it's really addictive when you are knitting thrums !! :)

Winter be ready, 'coz I am now !

Sock on the go

What was I doing in the past 2 week on the knitting side ? Since we had temperature over 40 Celsius for many and many days I thought about knitting wool socks was just the perfect thing to do. After all, when it's so hot outside I can only think about frilly night and a good pair of knitted socks while watching a movie with a hot chocolate...

So I wound my Kangaroo dyer yarn in the color Mango Reprise that I bought last summer(right one skein on the picture), I found my 2.5mm dpn and I searched my queue on Ravelry to find a pattern to please my mind, my hands and later on...my feet. And looking to my work so far, I must say happy feet!

I choose the pattern Shur'tugal by Alice Yu to begin my first pair of sock since a very long time, actually if you remember my last one were my Bellatrix socks in mid-January. Just before I change all my life ... so I was kind of worried to knit socks again but everything is alright fortunately for me !

I cast on for those little one on August 13Th and I don't knit a lot these days so my progress aren't the one I am used to. But on August 15Th I went to my nephew birthday to Boisbriand and came back in the same day so a lot of road knitting was done on that day. My BF was more than happy to drive my car on the way back anyway !!

Those socks are kind of slow knitting and I love seeing the hand painted colors swirl around the sock, some may call it bad pooling but I love it and since they are for me anyway it doesn't matter !!! So far I am almost done with the feet and I will toes soon now on my first one... the last picture was taken a few days ago.

The best story about me knitting this pair of sock happens yesterday after work. I was at my head office for the afternoon and I went out of my meeting at 4:30 just on time to hit the traffic and with all the workers coming out of office plus the work on the roads of Quebec, it took me one hour to make a simple 12-15 minutes trip back at home... So at some point I was completely stopped for 2 or 3 traffic lights and I don't my car these day (yes again BF is driving my car but that's another story) and the one I am renting is automatic so I pulled my knitting and I had time to knit 5 rows of my sock before being able to move again !!! The man in the car probably thought that I am a bit crazy but at least I didn't spent 15 minutes of life in a negative feeling about traffic but I enjoyed a good moment of car knitting... ;)

I must now begin Christmas knitting also so I will finish sock #1 and then I will knit a Christmas gift and then I will be allowed to finish my pair of sock. I think I will have a lot of Christmas knitting this year.... the best moment to start is probably as soon as possible.

Great Saturday....

Simple story of my super awesome Saturday, on August 8Th....

First of all I went to vieux port de Quebec ta take a walk on the morning and we visited "Plein Art" an exposition of handmade stuff from people around Quebec and I got a lot of compliment on my Shalom sweater.... ;)

So we spent a great morning walking around and going to the market buying some local stuff and also tasting fresh jam and blueberry chocolate !!! Look on the next picture the pretty little hat I found at Plein Art, I love it so much !

Then on the early evening we head to l'Ange-Gardien to join the group of aventurers to go on the fireworks at the Montmorency waterfalls using kayks ....We even had dinner on water !!! So cool I can tell to eat watching the sun falling down into the water....


I took a few pictures of the spot where we stopped to eat, enjoy the view....

and then the bouquet final, the Grands feux loto-quebec from the water.... I had a fantastic day !

The run before Xmas

That was 10 days before Xmas and that was crazy for her. She was running and running. Don't forget, the food at grocery store, the gift for the friend, the family and don't forget the special exchange gift too ! 10 days before the BF is back for 3 weeks and 1 week and a half before the holiday to begin... that was the running week end.

So she ends up after the shopping part to make food for the co-worker sweet tooth...

Here is the results

Chocolate mini-fondants

Cookies

So not much knitting time is the past few days... oh and I almost forget, we had 2 snowstorm this week... CRAZY I must say. Off to bed :)

I'm not dead

It's my first time not posting for more than 7 days except when I'm out of country. I feel guilty :P No, just joking, I had a crazy week at jod and last week end I had the chance to meet my swape in Fall season swap 2008 : Shanderson from Ravelry. She was in Quebec city for her job at first and then we hand out together for the week end.

Thanks Shannon I had so much fun with you and now I'm dreaming of going to Calgary one day to meet you again in your own city ! :) It was weird how we seems to have the same taste in many stuff : colors, clothes, shoes, food and good wine !

We did some shopping and she offered me this gorgeous scarf from Simon

And before to go she also gave me my first knitting pouch in a superb turquoise color that we both love.

I hope we could see each other soon enough and have as much fun hanging out together again ! Huggs to you Shannon !

I will post FO pictures of my Lady E. tomorow...

Second summer sock

Hello !

Now summer is really here (knock on wood) at least I hope so now it's gone for a summer hot and spicy ! :) Full of socks as you know...

Speaking of socks I have a new pair to show you, really quick those. They are Lacy Multi-colored socks by Cascade Yarn (free pattern) done in the called yarn : Cascade Fixation Spray in color Multi. DPN bamoboo needle in size 3.5mm were used to achieved these...

here the evidences :

Oh, by the way,... I'm late but this week have been crazy ! Happy late anniversary to Canada, Quebec city and USA ! I had the privilege to see the fireworks of Quebec city 400th anniversary from my own balconny... unfortunatly I did not think to bring my camera to show it to you, but it was totally amazing, 5 to 6 time bigger in number of effects than usual fireworks in competitions... WOW ! A true fireworks fan like me was more than happy to see it and enjoy it... from home !

Pomatomus is driving me crazy !

I just love how this pattern turns out with this yarn. I knitted all day long for the whole week end and here is the result : a first sock is done and the cuff of the number 2 sock is also done... wow ! It went fast. SOS is a perfect motivation to knit faster and to try new pattern without procrastinate with the second sock. Cookie A pattern are so well written that it makes me wanna knit all of her patterns. Pomatomus is now a knitting classis in Ravelry is it because of :

a- the fame of Cookie A
b- the genious pattern
c- the freebie factor
d- the exposure because of Knitty.com
e- all of the above

I would certainly answer e in my case, I love her writting, I love the way the stich pattern looks and I waited so long to knit those because I wanted them to be in the perfect yarn and knitted them perfectly. I love knitty.com because it makes me know new designers and try patterns that are differents. It also a good way to show : "hey I'm a designer, look what I do." Freebies are always a good way to get to know a designer style and writting style.

Look at all the pretty colors. They are definitly a keep for myself those, sorry everyone but they are MINE !!! :) The socks won't match for the colors but I don't care, I did not want to scrap a super long tread of green to match them. I like socks that are not perfectly the same anyway and as humans, socks can't be perfects neither. This is where the fun begins...

Tomorow I can knit all day long because it's day off for everyone here in Quebec, it's the national celebration for Quebec. 400 years of history in Quebec, 400 years of french speaking in america... I will explain a little bit of history about this "nation" tomorow.

Contest

Hi just a quick post to say there is an interresting contest on Studio knit and you have to join the fun ! (Please say I refer you!). It's a very simple answer a few questions and have a very good chance to win goodies !

No pictures in this post... my BF is gone to see Montreal Canadiens winning the 7th match by the score of 5-0 against Boston. So bye bye Boston !

Tomorow I will have knitting content.

Fo : Wisp

Yes I did a project in less than a week and I'm betting record as my secret project is goiing to be done under a week as well too, but I can't talk about it anymore because SHE is reading !!! lol Hello Josiane...

About my wisp now, proudly presenting

Moumou wearing it

While blocking

It's in full glory

Spec of my Wisp

Needle : size US 8 / 5.0 mm

Yarn : Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino (I ran out of yarn and I had to use my cast on tail to cast off and even another thread I had very similar for the last 8 stiches !!!)

Colorway : Ultra Blues

Notes : I use the Flexible Edge Cast-Off suggested by Evelyn Clark and Cat Bordhi. This gives a beautifully flexible edge that’s just wonderful for shawls. It blocks extremely well.

Knit two, * return to the left needle, knit two together through the back loop, knit one, repeat from the * . Actually, I skip the returning to the left needle part and knit two together on the right needle after inserting the left needle into the front loops.

It's even stretchier than my very loose cast on I recommand it on lace.

And finally, I'm sure now that I love making lace and I will shop to find another fun laceweight project to do somewhere in the future.

About another FO, my Lazulie booties finally got button sew on, hopefully because I will give them tomorow morning as we do a little something to say bye bye to future mommy Janie. Look at them now they are done.

Oh! Almost forgetting... cross your finger for tonight game I want the HABS to win this one also!

GO HABS GO !!!

Sorry for the title but... my hockey team just won his second playoff game against Boston... Yes I am talking about Montreal Canadiens !!!

Here some pictures M.Wonderful took at the first game last Thursday at Bell Center (another victory... 4-1 and tonight 3-2).

About knitting now... Currently finishing my Wisp, so close to ran out of yarn so I had to cut off a repeat for the lace pattern only 16 instead of 17 but it's still long enough. And also working hard on a secret project I had to rip off completly and restart this week, but it's very quick and I am 50% done so far.

Picture of my Wisp will be taken tomorow because I don't enought light tonight.

Finally, I went to my LYS today and I found this :

to replace GarnStudio Muskat in a future project and :

this to be a fabulous pair of sock by the end of the year!

Good night !