What I'm knitting right now

Hello,
not much to say these day...too busy with the new schedule of work. I am back to work since 2 full weeks and it's a whole world of adaptation for baby and me. She's now going full time to daycare and it's been a bit of stress for me. I was worried about her being there for such long period of time and 4 to 5 days a week but she surprised me well. She's doing giant step in her development while watching other kiddos and she's doing well. She's really tired at the end of the day and need time to relax at home, but we all do after a day out of home.

The bigger downstep of being back to work is having less me time and time to knit ! At least I have bigger pay check and will be able to buy some yarn in the future... :-) which is always good news.

Meanwhile I am still knitting two projects :

first a very boring black ribs sweater for my husband that he wanted for so long... umm I said it before but it's boring !

and a very pretty and soft shawl/scarf made of pure silk which is a joy to knit

let's just call it balance.

FO : Haruni

Yes finally presenting my new addition to my collection of knitwear 2010, here are the spec

Pattern : Haruni by Emily Ross

Needle : 3.5 mm (with a needle broke on my harmony set so sad)

Yarn : Malabrigo Lace in an unknown colorway, about 70% of the skein (329 yards), will confirm when I get my scale!

Cast on May 22nd and cast off June 13th

Mod : none but I wish I made it larger to use most of the skein and made it more like a shawl than a scarf/shawl.

Anyway I still love it and enjoy knitting it, I did great knitting and un-knitting many time the same row ! I knit the row 17 of Chart B 4 times, after that I put work aside and continue next day and made the whole knitting part except for cast off.

For the cast off, I used the yarn over cast off to have a stretchy bind off while having no need to use a crochet as suggested in pattern. Since my crochet skills are not so great I wanted to avoid a mess on finishing and It's perfect cast off for a shawl, stretchy and neat too.

About my cold sheep goal : I said I have 4630 yards to knit before reducing my stash from what it was before 2010...

So after this project I still have : 4301 yards to knit before being in the target !!!

Almost FO...

Almost done with my Haruni shawl/scarf... it's currently blocking in my living room. I am pleased with it but it's a bit too small and I have plenty of yarn left on my skein. So I will find a way to use it as well and I will take a note to myself about these kind of pattern : listen to myself when I want to make a shawl larger : just do it ! They do sell yarn anyway if I run out of yarn and even I had made one more repeat I am pretty sure I would had enough and leftovers too.

This project was a bit of pain sometimes because I couldn't knit it while tired or not concentrate on my knitting or I would mess everything also I broke one of my needle tip in my Knit Picks Harmony needle set, so now I need to order a size 4 needle to replace it but again... little problem : I am currently in a yarn diet AND it cost the same to order for 5$ or 50$ in shipping from them :( Will think about it and maybe wait to combine my order with other items.

At least I have my almost FO to comfort myself on my knitting habilities...

Finally FO pics...

I am quite silent since the last week... and I promise some times ago to show you pictures from my last FO of 2008 : here we call the brilliant cowl (also known as Crofter's Cowl by Gudrun Johnston).

Specs :

Pattern : Crofter's Cowl

Needles : 5 mm harmony circular

Yarn : ONline Linie 204 Damara, very less than a skein

Model : my very cute mom !!! :)

2 cowls and a Merry Christmas !

It's what happens in my life in the past 4 days. BF is finally home from Algeria for 3 weeks, yipee ! and we had a wonderful Christmas together and we had been very spoiled as usual ! :)

I only have picture of the first cowl, I need to go back at my mom's house to get decent pictures of the second one.

The first cowl is for my grandma, who request a thin,blue, not to big, not to special kind of scarf to keep her neck warm. So with all the specifications, I came up with the Bainbridge scarf pattern and the Silky wool (Elsebeth Lavold) in Periwinkle color. I first intend to knit her a clapotis out of this yarn but that was not right for her finally...

In progress using my new stich markers

So here the final results :

Specs :

Pattern : Bainbridge scarf by MintyFresh

Size: one size

Needles : 3.75mm circular

Yarn : Elsebeth Lavold in Periwinkle color, about half a skein

Oh ! and I have to tell, I got a skein of sock yarn at Christmas !!! I am SO much amazed to receive it !!! Yippee !!! It's a skein of Trekking hand art by Zitron cie in color Atlantik 506 and 2.5mm DPN, so I'll stop running to get some :) Thanks Josie !!!

Double FO

Yes another, no two new FO I did this week end for my mom. A new hat and neckwarmer set out of the yarn I bought last week end with Shannon at La Dauphine in Sainte-Foy.

The hat is a pattern I found on Ravelry :

Spec.

Pattern : Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer

Yarn : ONline Linie 204 Damara in color Mexico

Needle : 6mm

Mod: I only made it deaper than the pattern suggested and I made a different decrease for the crown.

I did not remember how fast hat are to make. I took me only a few hours yesterday night while watching movies. I should make more... instant gratification !

The neckwarmer has no pattern I just improvise to match the hat. So it feature some seed stich and st st in the middle.

Look at the pretty buttons !!! :) and the pretty smile !!!

FO : Lady Eleanor

Oh yes I did it ! It took me more time than expected because I kept on getting distracted by everything in order to do the fringe which was waiting for over a week on my couch. I wear it the whole day yesterday after doing the fringe. I LOVE it so much.

Warm, cozy and so trendy ! My mom actually want to herself one too (would be her first project for over 20 years...must have interest her a lot !) We tried for long yesterday night to take a good picture of this beauty, but with the rain pictures are really hard to take these days. So here it is modeled by my mom.

Lying in my living room

Spec of the project

Pattern : Lady Eleanor by Kathleen Power Johnson (in Scarf Style book)

Needle : 6.5 mm Knitpicks Harmony wood circular

Yarn : Noro Silk Garden in color 272 lot A just under 8 skeins with the fringe.

Cast on : October 17th

Cast off : November 9th (November 14th for the fringe)

Mods : I made it a little bit narrower by casting on for one less square than the pattern called for. And I did not really respect any of the cast off suggestions. I made it my own way and it went well so why bother with those complicated stuff. ;) The best advice I can tell about the pattern is weave in ends as you go or you will procrastinate at the end for sure.

About the Noro, I love my experience with the yarn and it worth the price for it. It's a bit itchy, but it already soften with a wash. It has quite a few knots but I still love my knitting for the Lady E.

Don't ask, tonight I'm cuddling in my new stole !

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).

Finally something new to show !

I finally found something perfect to keep my hands busy until the beginning of Summer of socks 2008, which only begins on June 21st... so I have been mostly preparing all my pattern, needles and make ball out of the skeins to be prepare for it for the last 2 weeks. So it's why I am pretty quiet here since then... Not really fun for you or me taking about that, kind of do you know what I did today, I just found the perfect pattern for X skein of yarn and I can't cast on before June 21st !!! No, I prefer to keep all the surprises for now. And be prepared because from June 21st to September 1st this blog will be about socks only !!!

So now here is my new WIP : the world beloved pattern ... Clapotis ! And that's nothing more to say that only on Ravelry there are 6011 other clapotis, on needles or off needle since the edition of the pattern in fall 2004.

I am using the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool that I bough a few months ago to do it and I am in love totally with this yarn, this is just SO soft ! Yummy ! I just want to order some more to do myself a nice cardigan for next fall ... It's the kind of yarn that makes you wanna cuddle the yarn all day long !

Here another peek of the first drop stich... say hello to monkey !

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 !