Rest

Today my mom and I will spend the better part of the day packing up and shipping out the remainder of the September Club kits. It will be a giant weight lifted off my shoulders and I think that I'm going to spend the afternoon relaxing with my spinning wheel in front of the fire. It's getting quite brisk here in Montreal. Cool winds, crisp mornings, it's probably a little premature to be enjoying the fireplace, but I can't help it. I've been looking forward to it all summer! Hopefully I'll have a new handspun to share soon. 

Happy Wednesday!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

source

Ah Pinterest... I'm still as hooked as ever. I pin craft ideas that I will probably never tackle, images of that dream home that I will never, ever live in, and outfits that I will never be able to afford. I have no problem with Pinterest being a bit of a fantasy land, it's fun to day dream. 

I also pin recipes, and they seem to be the one thing that I get an actual practical use out of. I decided it might be fun to share a few of the recipes that I've pinned, tried and loved. I baked these Lemon Crinkle cookies for the first time well over a year ago, and have turned to this simple and delicious recipe time and time again whenever I get the hankering for a sweet baked good. These cookies are chewy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet because of the tart lemon flavour, and really easy to make! Chances are you have most of the ingredients in your pantry already. I've made them for friends and they are always a hit. This recipe gets an A+ from me!

You can find the recipe online here.

Sky Palette sweater update

I'm making good progress on my Sky Palette sweater. Last night I hit a real landmark, I had finished knitting the body and I gave the yoke of the sweater a good and gentle steam. Man, did it ever change the look of this sweater! It was amazing. The last time I took a photo of this sweater it looked like this; colourful, but bumpy and not very crisp. After a gentle steam with my steam iron (my steam iron cost me about $11 at Walmart, and I couldn't live without it) the stitches relaxed and the zigzag pattern really  started to shine! The beauty of top down sweaters is the ability to try them on as you go, but pre-blocking the yoke was kind of bunching up and wasn't fitting just right... post blocking, it's magic! I'm in love with this sweater. 

I'm cruising through the sleeves now and hope to make really good progress on them this weekend. Lots of people struggle with sleeves, they hit the sleeves and get stuck on "sleeve island" (kinda like second sock syndrome I think) I don't have this problem, especially with top down sweaters since knitting the sleeves means I'm practically done! And it gets me one step closer to knitting the button band, and there is literally nothing I like more than picking up stitches for a button band. Hmm, a nice clean edge of perfectly picked up stitches gives me such a knitters high! Anyways, when it comes to the sleeves, I just put my head down and motor through them. They always go quicker than I think they will and I find that if I don't think, just knit, I'll be done before I have time to get bored of the stockinette tube!

Back from the Fair!

Another knitter's fair has come and gone. The weekend was a fantastic whirlwind. We packed up the van on Friday morning, drove 6 hours to Kitchener, set up the booth, ate, slept, enjoyed the Fair on Saturday and then packed up the booth and drove back home Saturday night. It was a very busy 2 days but that's the way I like it! Stella on the other hand... she doesn't love it so much. She stays home with my dad and though I know that she loves spending the weekend with him and his 2 dogs, she doesn't like the idea of left behind. She did her best to try and sneak in the van and hide amongst the bags of yarn. She was probably quite cosy nestled up in there!

Adhara Colour Combo's

In my pattern for the Adhara Shawl I specified that I thought the stitch pattern looked best when worked in two similar shades, with only subtle differences between them. I often get e-mails and Ravelry messages about this, I think that I may have inadvertently made people nervous about picking their own colours. Have no fear! I'm here to help. Here are a few of my favourite potential Adhara Shawl colour combo's:

Left column, top to bottom: Deep Sea and Peacock; Frost and Seabreeze; Lilac and Dove.

Center column, top to bottom: Sand and Gold; Shadow and Atlantic (the original pairing); Pink Grapefruit and Sunset; Stormy and Shadow.

Right column, top to bottom; Spearmint and Lemongrass; Garnet and Velvet; Brick and Chestnut.

There are of course a million other potential colour pairings that would all make gorgeous Adhara Shawls, but hopefully this is enough to get you pointed in the right direction. A single colour Adhara would also be stunning, I'm considering knitting one in my lace weight yarn myself. 

Palette sweater progress

I'm working away on my Sky Palette sweater. I sailed through the colourful yoke and am now working on the stockinette body. I'm not 100% certain how this cardigan is going to look when it's finished. I cast on using a provisional cast on so I can decide how to finish the neck edge later. I think it will have pockets and a zipper, and likely a touch more zigzag on the cuffs or something, but for now I'm just winging it. The chevron style of the stripes in the yoke is achieved with slipped stitches, so I'm only ever working with one colour at a time, which makes for a really easy knit. It looks kind of bumpy now, but that will all be smoothed out in the end with blocking. 

The K-W Show is this weekend, we leave on Friday and have officially hit that point where if it's not done yet, it's not going to get done! It's a funny feeling. I feel like this last week leading up to the show should be the most chaotic, and though it does include it's share of last minute organizing all the major work (the dyeing!) is done. Hopefully that means I'll have more free time to spend working on this sweater!

Tonal rainbow

You know how I always talk about colour? How I've clearly found my calling because I love being surrounded by colourful yarn all the time? And sometimes I'm minding my own business in my office when I look over at the drying racks and am completely enamored with the colour combo's that happened to fall into place? Well, Chris does it too. Another reason why I love that guy. The other day he stops in the office and admires the racks and says that he would love to own a striped sweater knit in those colours (I should have taken a picture because I have no idea what colours they were...) and then as I get up to come and admire the colours with him, he says to me: "never mind, you wouldn't get it, it's not a tonal rainbow." 

What!? Is he trying to tell me that I only like colour pairings that make a perfect gradient rainbow!? That's totally banana's. 

And then I started thinking... maybe he's right! Maybe I'm in a rut. I was laying out all of my Green Label aran weight yarn and getting it labeled and boxed up for the K-W Knitter's Fair next week when I noticed that I had lined them up in rainbow formation... 

I had printed out my stickers to label all that yarn and, you guessed it, more rainbow formation...

And last night I started a new sweater. I love it, it's going to be amazing, I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's going to look like this hat, only in cardigan form and, yup, totally blue rainbow formation.

I think I'm going to make it a goal to knit something colourful that is not a tonal rainbow at some point. I seem to have a "thing".

Watercolour Baby Sweater

Another languishing WIP finished! It feels really great to be cleaning out my knitting basket. 

This little sweater, my Blank Canvas Baby Sweater pattern (free!) knit up in leftover bits of sock yarn in only the prettiest, watercolour tones, turned out exactly how I'd dreamed it would. I'm completely crazy about it. I'm really glad that I waited for that extra little bit of purple to be leftover after my last Clara dress to knit the sleeves. I think they needed the light pinky-purple, otherwise it would have been too much blue. 

These blue-green-purple shades are totally me, I wish I had this exact sweater in my size!

Ravelry project page here. 

Small Victories

I finally finished this Clara dress. I had planned on finishing it as one of several Ravellenic Games projects, but I was on vacation during the Ravellenic Games, we don't have a tv at the cottage, I was completely not following the Olympics (which I really missed because I LOVE the Olympics) and I didn't knit while on vacation at all. I'm not entirely surprised by this. I always pack enough knitting to last me at least 4 months when I go out of town, and I rarely knit while I away, I think it's because I'm so used to my routine here at home. I have my knitting nook all set set up in my living room (I only ever knit in one spot in my house, the same corner of my sofa, no exceptions!) and when I'm out of my knitting routine I just never seem to be able to find a new knitting mojo. 

Anyways, thrilled to be able to call this little dress done, but I'm not super pleased with the colour... I loved this skein, it was so multifaceted and pretty, but knit up it's left me feeling kind of bleh... I think it's the brown bits, they're just not working for me. I haven't blocked the sweater or sewn on a button yet because I'm considering over-dyeing the whole thing a slightly darker purple to play down the browns. But then again, maybe I just need to sit back and live with it for a bit, maybe it will grow on me. Stay tuned!

The good thing about finishing up the Clara dress is that I was able to use the leftover yarn to finish knitting the sleeves of my Watercolour Blank Canvas Baby sweater. This little number is hitting all the right marks for me. I love everything about it and plan on finishing it tonight so I can block it, add a few buttons and have another wee FO. This was another project that was supposed to be part of my WIP Wrestling for the Ravellenic Games... 

This last image has nothing to do with knitting, but I finally finished reading this epic novel, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I started reading this book in February I think, and just finished it yesterday. It's nearly 1200 pages, and took me forever to really get into. After the first few hundred pages, I really started enjoying it. I consider it a real personal victory that I actually finished it. Yay me!

Making lists

A few of my fellow Canadian knit-bloggers have already blogged about this, but I was on vacation when this issue of Canadian Living came out so I'm a little behind. I have to share this myself though, because it's just too cool not to mention: I am quoted in Canadian Living! 

A few months ago I received an e-mail from Austen, the Canadian Living craft editor, asking me what type of notebook I use to organize my thoughts. Honestly, that's kind of a tough question, a quick round up of the notebooks that I had laying around my office, coffee table and knitting baskets produced 5 different books, all in active use. The big Ecojot notebook that is pictured in the center of this pile is the one that lives permanently on my desk, and it's where I jot down most of my to-do lists. However, the second Ecojot notebook pictured on the left is also a favourite. That one has blank sheets of cardstock, making it perfect for sketching design ideas and doodling. Plus, don't the Ecojot books just have the best artwork! I love those owls!

The truth is, I often grab sheets of looseleaf or post-its to jot down notes, and I have a  massive spiral bound Hilroy notebook where I keep track of all of my TFA wholesale orders. When I'm working on patterns they usually start in one of the notebooks pictured above, but then when I'm working out the math for sizing I switch to loose leaf. Interestingly enough the one place I never takes notes is on my computer. I'm on my computer all day long, so you'd think I'd be more comfortable with it, but there is something just so extremely satisfying about writing out a list and then crossing things off! I think better with pen and paper. 

I'm currently in the process of making lists (the kind of lists that seem to go on forever) with all the things that we need to do to prep for the K-W Knitter's Fair in September. It always takes us a bit of time to readjust to our work schedule after a vacation, and this past week has been no exception. We've had a few setbacks, including Chris, the head dyer, recovering from a finger injury that left him in no position to dye at his usual pace (luckily his finger is just about all better now, so this week should be closer to normal) and I have been feeling under the weather, which makes things move slower than I would like. I'm sure we'll get 'er all done, we always do, as long as I've got my lists to keep me organized! 

Vacation

Did you know that Chris and I have been out East on holiday for the past 2 weeks? Ha! Aren't I tricky? I planned a few blog posts to go up while we were away so nobody would feel neglected and I was able to almost completely unplug. It was glorious. Like most other years I spent my summer vacation at my family cottage in Nova Scotia doing absolutely nothing. I managed to bring my camera out a few times over the course of our time away, but most of the time I was too busy relaxing to remember to reach for the camera. 

We timed our vacation so we would be out East for my best friends' wedding. Sara and Marcel tied the knot in style. She is gorgeous and they both looked so happy all night long. 

Another highlight was when my 94 year old Grandmother got to meet her newest great grandchild Annika. Grammy is a G-G (Great-Grammie) to 14 great grandchildren now! Incredible. I love that shot of Annika's plump, wee little hand next to Grammie's beautiful 94 year old skin (Grammie has the softest skin, I don't know what her secret is!) 

And of course, Stella got to meet Annika for the first time too... she was slightly less impressed. She didn't seem to mind her, but I'm not sure she was completely certain of what exactly she was either. I think they'll be best buds soon enough. :)

I hope that you all managed to take some time for yourselves too this summer. My two weeks in paradise were just what I needed. Now it's time to shift gears and start thinking about fall!

Mooncrest

Remember this scarf? I loved the yarn, loved the pattern, but the two just didn't work together... so the scarf got frogged and I re-knit it into my new Suncrest pattern. I am thrilled to finally have the right project for this gorgeous yarn. Hopefully in this incarnation I'll get lots of use out of it and it will be the signature piece I've been dreaming of!

This shawl used just about every last yard of 2 skeins of Koigu (kpppm) fingering weight yarn. 

This pattern grows a lot after blocking. The garter stitch stretches out beautifully to show off every last garter ridge and the border really opens up.  

I can't get enough of this scarf!