fo:: argosy baby blanket

This project has been unfinished for so long that I don't even remember starting it.  It was definitely a work in progress for 3 years! If you think that's a long time, then, don't catch the post where I finally finish the Moderne Baby Blanket - that's been four years for sure!

This blanket has no intended recipient.  I started it because I inherited a bunch of acrylic yarn and I thought that, when finally complete, it would make a great car or stroller blanket.  The acrylic didn't really soften up in the blocking process, but it's still cute and warm.  And I like the color.

Project: Argosy Baby Blanket
Yarn: old old old acrylic yarn from The Bay
Needles: 4.5 mm addi turbos
Modifications: none

I would knit this blanket again in a heartbeat, now that I know how rewarding it is when it's finished.  It's an easy pattern to memorize and is overall an enjoyable knit.

Finally, it doesn't get much cuter than this, now, does it?

Long time no see:: Birthday Cowl as FO

Birthday Cowl in Red

As you can see, I haven't exactly been a faithful blogger over the last two years.  Sometimes you just have to take a long time off.  Studying to make a job change, a job change, a home change and job stress don't always make time for knitting.  However, as is the cycle of life, things have calmed down for now and I have found myself with a renewed inspiration towards knitting.  Projects that have languished in dresser drawers for two years are being welcomed into my world again and are slowly being worked toward completion. I look forward to sharing them.

In the meantime, I will feature projects that have been finished in the last two years but haven't been written about.  Given that I have recently celebrated turning 38 (38!! - crappers! can't believe it!!), I will start with the Birthday Cowl....




FO:: Birthday Cowl
For: me
Completed: Winter 2010
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK in red
Needles: 4 mm
Link to pattern: here

Comments:  I made no modifications to this cowl.  It was an easy knit and I wear it frequently in the winter because the yarn is soft and it's super comfy to wear.  I can't stand anything itchy on my neck, so this is a frequent go-to accessory. The color also pops nicely against the brown and black coats I wear in the winter.

fo: special day silk hat

Did you know that baby hats are the perfect one-skein stashbuster? I have been so obsessed with busting my stash by knitting baby hats that I actually forgot to post here in the month of April! I knit four hats, though, so at least there has been knitting happening at my house!

Here are the details:

Pattern: Special Day Silk Hat from Baby Beanies by Amanda Keeys

Yarn: Rowan Soft Baby in a beautiful butter yellow shade

Needles: 4.5 mm/ 16" circular - addi turbos

Modifications: None

Recipient: My mom purchased this from me this morning to give to a former neighbour's little baby.

Thoughts: Great and easy pattern but the ruffle is created by a k3tog pattern which was extremely difficult to knit. The result, however, is worth it in the end, wouldn't you say?

Happy May!

fo: berry bramble hat

This month's goal is to post at least three times. I'm already up to two - so this is going very well so far!

I finished this hat a few months ago and the picture even sat in the computer file for a while before I realized that I had the time to blog about it.

This pattern is the Berry Bramble Hat from a very cute little book called Knit One, Embellish Too by Cosette Cornelius-Bates. It's a glorious little book that appealed to me because I am currently under a binding agreement with my mom to "stash-bust" and this book offers lots of ideas for accessories just perfect for stash-busting!

Pattern: Berry Bramble Hat from Knit One, Embellish too
Yarn: Ella Rae Palermo, color 2
Needles: 4.5 mm addi turbos
For: Me! It's my dog-walking hat.

Modifications: The hat is actually supposed to have a cute little tree embroidered on the front in a contrasting yarn and buttons, but I did not have the patience to do this. It's also supposed to have a crochet-chain edging along the bottom of the hat, but I didn't do that either!

Comments: I love the hat and the way it looks, however, next time I would use a thicker yarn and maybe knit it in a smaller size. This was meant to be a dog-walking hat, and I have worn it to walk my dog, however, it just doesn't keep my head warm at -40 degrees (which is the only real time I think about wearing a hat). In any case, it's a jaunty little knit and I recommend it to anyone!

fo: presto chang-o

Blogging has been a long time coming at my house these days. Since Christmas, DH and I have each been sick twice and I am currently on my third round of sickness. In addtion, DH has been plagued with foot and back difficulties. The winter has not been kind to us - we are eager to see a change in the energy of our house!

This little project was a baby gift for DH's cousin and his wife. They are expecting their first child in April - we already know it's going to be a little girl and so this cute little sweater is the perfect gift for who I know will be the quintessential girly-girl!

The Specs:
Pattern: Presto-Chango by Jimmy Beans Wool
Size: 6 months
Yarn: Bernat Soy Naturals
Needles: 5 mm addi turbos
Modifications: none

This pattern is perfect for beginner knitters. The body is knit entirely in one piece and the front panel is an easy lace pattern that knits up quickly. I found the biggest challenge to be the time it took to sew on 8 buttons!

In the end, I'm super happy with the way it turned out and I would knit this sweater again in a second!

FO: Drop Stitch Scarf

this is the scarf that I thought was lost forever, until I prayed for it to come to me.... and it did. this, of course, has changed my entire perspective on the concept of praying.... but I'll save that for another time!

in order to close out the year the right way, I will leave 2008 by writing up a post that focuses on my new favorite thing - a finished object!

Project: Drop Stitch Scarf from Ravelry
Yarn: Ella Rae Palermo, Color #7
Needles: addi turbos, 4.5 mm
Start to Finish: August 2008 to December 2008
Recipient: Kathy, my sister-in-law

Special thanks to my Mom and my dog, Titus, for being such willing models on Christmas Day.

All the best to you and yours in 2009!

Krista :-)

shawl fever.... not really

Previous posts have alluded to the difficulty I had finishing this shawl, however, once it was finished, I immediately thought about starting another one!

As a finished project the Goldielocks Triangle Shawl is quite pretty and very light. A perfect accessory to any type of outfit. I just might knit one for myself one day, considering that I have 2.5 more hanks of the stuff.

The specs: Goldielocks Triangle Shawl from Fleece Artist
Yarn: Goldielocks yarn from Fleece Artist (but I don't see it on their website anymore so maybe they no longer have it)
Needles: 6 mm addi turbos
Project length: about 10 months
*** no modifications, except that I probably cast off too early and next time I will cast off with a bigger needle. *sigh*

For: Mom.... on her birthday!

baby fever

I'm not quite sure there's anything cuter than a pair of baby booties.

Anything? Anyone?

I didn't think so.

These booties are for my friend/colleague Corinne, who is expecting her first baby in December.

The 411:

Pattern: "Be-ribboned Booties" from One Skein Wonders.

Needles: 3.25 mm addi turbos.

Yarn: Lang Mille Colori, can't remember the colorway.

Comments:This was a super bulky yarn purposely knit on a smaller needle to increase the strength and warmth of the bootie. Sometimes the yarn was difficult to knit with on such a small needle, but the variegated colors in the yarn and the simple garter stitch combined to make such an awesome texture, that I forced myself to stick with it. I did have cramps in my hands for days afterwards, though!

And I couldn't bear to give Corinne a pair of booties without a cute sweater to match!

The 411:

Pattern: "One piece Baby Kimono" from Mason Dixon Knitting

Needles: 4.5mm addi turbos

Yarn: Rowan soft baby in yellow

Comments: The yarn wasn't as easy to knit with as I thought it would be, but it ended up being so soft that I don't really care. The pattern itself was a dream to knit - excellent for TV watching. I improvised on the closing of the wrap front - just using ribbons and buttons. Hard to explain how I did it, but let's just say that the only effort required was sewing on the button and slipping the ribbon through the knitted stitches to create a tie. I'm quite happy with the end result.

Cue the picture of super cute button detail:

FO: Dishcloths for Kim

These dish cloths are for Kim, a co-worker of mine who turned the concept of tradition on its ear and bought a house by herself. Let’s face it, it’s fairly common to wait until one is part of a couple to make such a monumental purchase and I’m proud of Kim for choosing not to wait and to go it alone. Such an accomplishment deserves something small and noteworthy – like some cotton dishcloths and kitchen soap from Tval.

Congratulations, Kim! I, too, was one of those females who stared tradition in the face and purchased a home on my own. It’s an accomplishment to be proud of because it means that there has been years of individual scrimping and saving to make a dream come true.

Aren't we women awesome?

Pattern specs: Traditional dishcloth pattern (the one where you cast on 3 stitches and then start each row with k2, yo, k to the end to increase and then decrease with k2, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k to end)

Yarn: Bernat dishcloth cotton

Needles: Addi turbos, 4.5 mm circular

FO: whale of a tail hat (project spectrum continues)

I spotted this hat in a craft shop during my most recent trip to Newfoundland. Spotting the hat equals finding the pattern (in my mind) so off I went to Wool Trends in St. John's and found it - it's called A Whale of A Tail hat and it's by Cabin Fever.

This hat is surprisingly easy to knit - even the little whale tail at the top was not that difficult - only a little awkward. I mean, the tail is done with dpns and when you're down to 8 stitches and you're knitting two together and trying to keep the wool from twisting, I felt like I was just barely controlling it all, but it turned out okay in the end!

Wool: Ella Rae Palermo

Needles: Addi turbos 4mm / 60 cm long then switched to bamboo 4 mm dpns to finish

Modifications: I started the decreases a lot earlier than called for because I wanted the hat to hug my head and not end up like one long tube.

Totally enjoyable and fun. I completely intend to wear this on my morning dog walks during the winter, because something has to be fun and enjoyable about walking the dog in -25 degrees and complete darkness at 6 a.m.

Posts will be even more brief and sporadic over the next few weeks. School is starting up and God knows what will come up between now and October that will sabotage honest knitting and blogging efforts.

FO: Toni's cushion

This one is about the patience of friends.

This cushion was started over TWO years ago for my friend Toni. I started it when I had just started knitting and was naive to the ways of yarn - super chunky mohair-y yarn that's a pain to knit and is impossible to frog. But I kept with it and actually finished it a year ago.... and it still took another year to finish.

I say it again, this is definitely about the patience of friends.

And in this two year period, Toni may have mentioned this cushion to me just once; where she may have asked how it was progressing and I may have brushed it off and said, "Oh, it's fine." And then, being the super patient person that she is (in addtion to the very spiritual person that she is), she simply let go of the attachment to when she was actually going to receive it and let me finish it in my own good time..... which happened to be over two years.... but I digress.

What I didn't realize is that it's not as hard to knit something as it is to figure out: how are you going to put it together? what buttons will you use? should you use ribbon? how does seaming actually work?... and what is always, always underestimated, how much time is this actually going to take?????????????????

So, as I said before, for some things it takes about two years, but what I also realized through this is that if you're lucky to have a friend like Toni, two years is the perfect amount of time because it's appreciated no matter what.














Thank you, Toni. Your friendship warms my heart and keeps me strong in the calmest and most stressful of times. Namaste!

FO: Florida Mittens

After losing two days of school last week due to freezing rain and excessive snow fall, you can imagine how not really excited we were to cancel our March Break trip to Florida because of the 40 centimetres expected over the weekend. The snow days had given me some time to knit, but working on a baby blanket in pastel blues and greens was not going to get me through a consistent 16 hour snowfall - I needed colour! So as soon as I could, I headed over to the LYS and picked up two balls of Lang's Mille Colori (colorway 057) and set out to spend the snowstorm knitting myself some Florida mittens.

I loved knitting these mittens so much that I think I really did knit for almost 16 hours on Saturday - I didn't pay attention to the passage of time because I was in a serious zone! This pattern did not require knitting in the round and it allowed me to practise my seaming and weaving in ends - which really proved that I was pathetic at both because if you look closely you will see that the stripes don't match up. But what do I care? I've got a new pair of mittens and they match with both of my winter coats and many of my scarves. I am styling it up these days.

So, these are my Florida mittens because they are colourful like Florida and they just might melt some of the 40 cms of snow we did actually receive. Note where they are located in the picture..... but obviously there is really no melting going on. Just lots of shovelling, as you can see in the pictures below:

The picture on the left is the pathway in to our house. The snowbank to the right is actually about 12 feet high and if we get more snow this week, there will be no other place to put it. Even my secret space - up around the lantern stand you see in the back corner - is full of snow and, if you look at the picture on the right, is now a snow bank on its own.

So, Dad, when you said, "Don't put that lantern stand there, the wood will swell up with all of the snow," and I said, "We never get snow there, Dad, don't worry about it," this is where we can comfortably say that you were right and the lantern stand is probably going to be warped beyond belief by Spring. Oooooooooops.

Anyway, the snow also made it completely impossible for Titus to find a place to pee in the backyard. The poor little guy had to find a space UNDER the side burner of the BBQ, which prompted the creation of an actual play space for him. I guess you can say we really had no choice, especially if you look at how happy he is.... Yay for Titus!

At least someone is appreciating the snow!

FO: What will be known from now on as "My Standard Baby Sweater"

I've found the perfect pattern for the perfect baby sweater.

It is knit entirely in one piece, the pattern is easy to follow, it doesn't get boring to knit and it's cuter than the picture of my dog that concludes this post.

On top of this, it really only took me a few weeks of intermittent knitting to finish it up. This is very encouraging for me because, quite frankly, it is baby fever around here (not me, everyone else is pregnant, though) and this pattern just might save my butt when it comes to thinking of the perfect gift.

In addition to this, it only requires that I seam up the sleeves and weave in the ends. Of course, due to my excellent procrastination skills, it will inevitably take me a few weeks to do this very small part that would probably only take 30 minutes to complete if I actually made the effort.


I was lucky enough to find this little gem of a pattern from a stash of pattern books that my aunt saved for me when she moved my Grandmother to a senior citizen's complex. My grandmother used to be a very accomplished crafter (knitting, crocheting, sewing, ceramics, etc) and I feel so fortunate to have something that was hers to carry on her tradition of crafting. I have no idea how old the book is, but the price tag says 35 cents, so I'm betting it's older than me....! Even so, it doesn't matter how old a knitting pattern is, it still creates something classically adorable. Check the pic:

So, I have officially dubbed this"My Standard Baby Sweater" and it just may appear on a baby near you sometime soon. I used Sirdar "Snuggly" DK, shade 0347 on 4 mm needles (Addi turbo circulars). I thought the red was a good choice for either a boy or a girl, especially because I don't know the sex of the baby it has been knit for. However, I will not use this yarn again because it split constantly, and I found that very frustrating. In the end, though, it didn't even use 1.5 balls, so I will not say anything more because that now means I have 5 more balls of this stuff to knit up!

And so, it wouldn't be a post without the latest picture of MY baby and his newest toy. Honestly, have you ever seen anything cuter than this?

FO: Stashbuster Neckwarmer

It all started with this very pretty yarn by Debbie Bliss. I think it's called Maya. I loooooooooooooved the colorway and kept it in my stash for a long time because I only had one skein and wanted to do something special with it.

Then I finally realized that time was going to pass quicker than finding something "good" to knit this with and went out and found this neckwarmer pattern from here.

Very handy... verrrrrrry easy to knit. Perfect for me during exam time when I'm marking like a whirling dervish, like a woman possessed, like a cat on a hot tin roof, like a street with no name...(oops, wrong simile.... anyway...). I must admit, though, it was my first time working in the round on circular needles and let's just say that some areas will need to be cleverly camouflaged with some creative piecing. Notice also (scroll down), however, that I ran out of the Maya ( I didn't have as much as I thought - another rookie mistake) and I had to find a complementary colour that was going to provide a solid colour border as well as not look like poop on a plate.

Hence, the choice of Natural Charcoal in Paton's SWS. Quite possibly one of my favourite yarns ever. Look at my finished project here, wrapped around a candle so that it stands up and looks pretty:

But, you see, I didn't really feel like the candle was the best model, so I set my sights to finding a more appropriate model.... like something/ someone with a neck. First - I considered myself, but nixed that because it was only 7 a.m., I had been up since 5 and had not yet had a shower or put on makeup, so I was looking pretty hideous. Second - I considered going upstairs and putting it over my sleeping husband's head and snapping a picture, but nixed that... I mean, he was asleep, for God's sake, and he'd look worse than I did, not to mention the ill effects that would be brought on our (new and loving) marriage because I had the bright idea of pulling a multi-colored, handknit neckwarmer down over his head while he was sleeping. This would clearly be one of those Mars/Venus things where the woman thinks her idea is innocently fantastic and the man not only thinks she's from another planet, but threatens to put her on one with his bare hands.

So, I took a good look around the room and couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of the most perfect model ever. He never talks back, he's generally good humoured and he's cuter than my husband and I put together on our most loving day. Cue the dog wearing the neckwarmer:


What a pose! What poise! What control! What style!! He wears it and he wears it well!

And no, despite what it looks like in this picture, I'm not one of those crazy people who dresses up their dog in hats and sweaters. I have standards.... kind of..... let's just say that I won't mention Titus' winter jacket anytime soon.









And on a "new favorite books" note, you should really make every effort to read this book that my friend Jena lent me. Jena found it hilarious, I found it incredibly sad, but at the very least, it made us both think about life a little more than usual. Read it. I couldn't put it down.