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.

sometimes the decision to finish is made for you

As I have previously posted, the lovely horseshoe pattern scarf was taking nothing short of forever to finish. A finicky pattern, combined with slippery yarn and needles, tested my patience for almost a year and a half. But then, along came Lolly and the Project Spectrum Water element and I said to myself, "enough is enough, this is the inspiration you need to finish this personal knitting nemesis of yours."

And so, with renewed vigor and inspiration, I decided to switch the type of needles I was using (from Addi turbos to bamboo) and off I rode towards the finish line. One Friday night, however, as I was nearing the end of the skein (I figured I had approximately 1-2 repeats of the pattern left before casting off), I decided to take a break from the knitting and my marathon viewing of the Season 2 DVD of Gilmore Girls, and went upstairs to check email.

Well, email turned into internet surfing, which turned into checking my blog roll, which turned into Ravelry surfing, which basically turned into me being completely absorbed by the computer. Now this, you may agree, is perfectly fine as long as you don't happen to own a miniature schnauzer puppy with a major yarn fetish. Which I do.

So, the realization that I had left my long laboured over Handmaiden Seacell/Silk blend horseshoe pattern scarf on the seat of the recliner in the living room WITHIN eating distance of the schnauzer with a yarn fetish was somewhat like the realization that Sephora cosmetics (oh, makeup how I love thee) was finally coming to Canada -- I think the earth moved. And, as a result, I developed a sudden likeness to a certain Usain Bolt and probably made it downstairs in less than a second to see how much damage had been incurred to my knitting (my time getting to Sephora was significantly slower and hampered by a 20 minutes drive downtown - for those who need to know).

Anyway, sure enough, no recliner seat is too high for the "Super Schnauze" when the end result is chomping down on some yarn, and when I landed in the living room, there sat Titus on the living room rug surrounded by Handmaiden yarn, calmly SWALLOWING and EATING the remainder of the skein. It was the most concentration and devotion you will ever see on a dog's face and his thought process was incredibly obvious: this (swallow) is (swallow) sooooooo (swallow) good(swallow).....yummmmmmmmmmmmy (swallow).

How maddening. Seriously.

Is it much of a surprise, then, that my only way to stop this madness was to pick up the yarn from the rug and start pulling on it? Pulling so that what had just gone in to the dog's mouth was now coming out? I tell you, I had no choice - that skein cost me 35 bucks and I would be damned if the dog was going to dictate when I was actually finished with this scarf.

So I pulled.

And pulled.

And pulled a little more.

After about a minute of solid pulling, I was left with about 5 feet of goopy, swallowed Seacell yarn and a dog with a huge yarn-eating grin on his face. My only choice? To cut the yarn off, cast off, and try to salvage the remaining pieces in case I wanted to add on a fringe. Which I haven't done yet because I think I'm still traumatized by pulling 5 feet of yarn out of my dog's mouth and stomach.

As I said at the beginning... sometimes the decision to finish is made for you.

And, sometimes, the dog knows better than you do because the scarf is just fine as it is.

restoring order

have you ever noticed that sometimes you declare something to be true and then, once it is declared, it changes to something else within days?

such is what happened with the last post, where i declared that I seemed to be starting more and finishing less. ever since I wrote that post, I have been obsessively finishing things and restoring order to my home. the finished items will come later... right now it's about restoring order.


restoring order (decluttering, reorganizing, tossing out, recycling, buying new) seems to be what I do on my vacation. as a teacher, i have ooooooooodles of vacation time (no need to make me feel guilty, my DH does that) and i find myself using "restoring order" as a way to relax. i find that the chaos of a school year does not allow me to keep up with housework or simple organization, so i tend to do it during holidays. it grounds me.



on my current "restoring order" list:

- cleaning up my office to make room for a new dresser to hold my yarn and a new bookcase to hold my books

- finding art posters that we purchased in Nice, France on my husband's desk - they get new frames tomorrow!

- finding wedding gifts in the spare bedroom closet and either: putting them to use where they need to go (e.g. the new ironing board cover) or finding places to display them

- cleaning up the laundry room with a new rug, new shelves, and a new curtain - because laundry should be more fun than it really is

- gathering up gently used clothing and housewares that I no longer need to donate to the local women's shelter

- writing thank you notes for our wedding gifts


.... and much much more, of course. Some might wonder why I would choose to do so much during my holidays. And I say: because it makes me feel balanced, grounded and centred like these rocks:



















how do you restore order to your life? do you find it as relaxing as I do?

starting more, finishing less

It seems that this summer may be a lot about starting things and a little less about finishing things. The Argosy scarf has been finished, the horseshoe pattern scarf is definitely closer to finished than started (it's my Water project for Project Spectrum), but the Goldilocks shawl has been s-h-e-l-v-e-d. Listen, I lurrrrrrrrrrrvs me some garter stitch, but there's something mind-numbing about garter stitch when I'm working on that shawl...... it kills me, it pains me, it makes me want to chew broken glass.........

So while it's been shelved, I continue work on other projects. The perfect baby kimono, a la Mason-Dixon knitting, and a little Whale of a Tail hat that I happened upon when I was in Newfoundland (see first pic). It's just a basic hat with a little whale tail that comes out the top of it, like a whale's tail comes out of the water. So cute! And it will be for me! So I continue to work on it....

And finally, in addition to travel, eating, shopping and lots of sleeping, this summer has been a whole lot about Titus. We've become so attached, that he now has to sit on my lap while I am at the computer; it is somewhat difficult to update a blog when a 25 pound miniature schnauzer is on your lap and breathing in your face. As DH and I always say......

"At least he's cute."

FO: Ashley's Argosy

These are my friends Karen and Ashley. Ashley (to the right) is heading off to Thailand to teach for two whole years this Friday. She is going to be missed - she's bright, hilarious, beautiful, organized and she has one amazing laugh. On top of this, she is a great friend and many moons ago, I decided that I wanted to knit her something to take with her to Thailand.

Now you just can't knit any old thing and send it on to Thailand, since I understand that it is somewhat of a tropical country and woolen garments/accessories/items do not exactly make great Thailand fashion (all you people who spout about the breathability and "wicking-ness" of wool can just shush right now, even you guys wouldn't knit something out of wool for someone in Thailand). So I dove into the stash and resurfaced with some Paton's Grace (color: tangelo - sounds like ice cream!) and some 4 mm needles (the wrong needle size in the end, ...pecsh!) and the perfect pattern: the Argosy scarf. It took quite a while to knit but it was worth it because it blocked like a dream and now Ashley is going to float off to Thailand with gorgeous cotton-y scarf like beautifulness wrapped around her neck.

So you'd think that, after all of my enthusiasm for this project, I would have the presence of mind to take a picture of Ashley while she was wearing the scarf, but I was too busy giving her a hug and wishing her well. So instead, I'm stuck with this crappy picture of the Argosy in its completion.... and if someone knows how to photograph the color orange, please let me know!


Safe travels, Ashley! Keep in touch! xoxo

Homeward Bound

Off to spend a week in my favorite place in the world - Newfoundland (see pic). My cousin Natalie is getting married on Saturday so it will be a week full of serious Newfoundland-type partying.

Making good progress on the Argosy scarf (thank god) and will finish in the next week. I will bring it with me on my trip and will hopefully finish, but not while I'm partying, okay? I will also bring a baby sweater that I am working on. Hoping to make lots of progress on that because I will rely on my super-knitting grandmother to help me figure out seaming the sweater together.

Enjoy your week. Looking forward to posting photos when I return!