Looking Ahead

I can’t very well look back without also looking forward, can I? My knitting goals for 2009 are:

1. Knit two pairs of patterned socks per month, at least one of which will meet SKA’s monthly challenge. Both pairs must be knit from stash.

2. Make the Great American Aran Afghan for my parents for Christmas. Knit the border as I go, one section for each square.

3. Knit one new sweater for myself from stash. To be determined.

4. Knit more lace. Even though I already have a good selection of lace yarn and patterns, after much consideration I have decided to sign up for Embrace the Lace, a yarn club featuring eight lace projects over the course of a year. With any luck, receiving new yarn regularly will help me to meet goal #5.

5. Cut back on my yarn purchases and knit from stash. Notice I did not say eliminate yarn purchases. I am a realist, if nothing else.

6. Continuing in the same vein, take a realistic look at my stash and UFO’s. Frog anything I don’t plan to finish and get rid of yarn I don’t see myself knitting.

7. Finish three WIP’s, including the Garter Stitch Jacket that’s only missing one sleeve. Anything else is gravy.

8. Make at least one blog post per week, even if it’s just a photo.

9. Enjoy my knitting. Avoid overcommitting to gift knitting and set reasonable goals and deadlines for myself.

10. Feel free to revise my goals at any time. See goal #9.

Happy New Year, everyone.

My Kniting Year in Review

A year or so ago it wouldn’t have occurred to me to look back on the last twelve months of knitting and reflect on my achievements and failures, let alone write about them. Without a doubt, blogging and Ravelry have had a major impact on my knitting life; I am more aware of my craft than ever and feel as though my knitting has taken on a greater sense of purpose. At the same time, I feel more accountable for what I have undertaken and while I still have my share of UFO’s and suffer from the occasional bout of startitis, I know that a sense of obligation (whether real or imagined) has often helped spur me on to finish a project. Most of all, I feel more a part of the online knitting community and enjoy the camaraderie that comes from belonging to various groups on Ravelry and corresponding with other knitters via Ravelry and blog comments.

Last January I made some knitting “nonresolutions”, so named because I don’t go in much for New Year’s resolutions, which always seem deemed to fail. My main goals were to knit more lace, try colourwork, continue to knit socks, and to cut back on yarn purchases and knit more from stash. Well, I have some good news and some bad news—which would you like to hear first?

Let’s get the bad news out of the way, so we can end on a positive note, okay? Despite starting off strong, I definitely did not stick to my yarn diet this year. While I bought less in person, I definitely increased my online shopping. What’s a girl to do when there’s so much temptation lurking behind every click of the mouse? (No, cancelling internet service is not an option.) In my defence, I used “found money” to make a lot of my yarn purchases and I never carried a balance on my credit card. In other words, it’s a luxury I can afford but by buying so much new yarn I am denying myself the pleasure of knitting the beautiful yarn I already own. And sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of WIP’s and potential projects awaiting my attention.

I am happy to report that I did succeed at trying stranded knitting this year and, like most things, did not find it as difficult as I’d feared. I discovered that holding one strand of yarn in each hand was the method that worked best for me. However, despite beginning the Graphic Hoodie and the Autumn Rose Pullover,

I have little to show for my efforts. I ended up frogging the hoodie because I wasn’t happy with my gauge and I put the pullover aside after completing about 4” of the body.

Even though I only finished the first shawl and half of the second

from the Year of Lace Club shipments (I haven’t touched the third and haven’t yet received the fourth) I did succeed in making 2008 “my year of lace”. I completed three other shawls (Shoalwater Shawl, Swallowtail Shawl, and Scotch Thistle Lace Stole) and knit several lace scarves (Storm Water Scarf, Wavy Scarf, Sheer Lace Scarf, and Shifting Hues Scarf). In addition to beginning several other shawls and scarves, I incorporated lace into some of this year’s socks.

And socks there were aplenty! Besides knitting numerous pairs of plain socks, I produced more than twenty pairs of patterned socks. I finally got around to knitting Monkey and Friday Harbor Socks and, thanks to Ravelry's Sock Knitters Anonymous group, challenged myself with Grun ist die Hoffnung, Stricken, and most recently, Firestarters.

But I’d have to say the year’s greatest accomplishment was making the Great American Afghan.

Not only was it satisfying to complete such a large project, I broadened my knitting horizons by learning new skills, such as entrelac and duplicate stitch.

All, in all, not a bad knitting year at all! Tune in tomorrow for next year’s resolutions, er, I mean goals.

Yesterday's Post Today

Or maybe I should call it Tomorrow’s Post Today. I’m posting Monday’s installment early---that is, on Sunday night—because I am getting up at some ungodly hour tomorrow morning to go to work with Cameron. But really, if all had gone well Sunday morning it’s the post I had planned to write—you know, the one where I tell you all about the holidays--hence the title. I guess when it gets right down to it, it’s today’s post today. If I haven’t confused you too much, please read on…

For the first time in 37 years Canada had a white Christmas from coast to coast to coast. Despite being known as “the great, white north”, the fact is that some parts of Canada usually remain fairly mild through the winter and see little or no snowfall the entire season. I live in the southwestern region of British Columbia and there are some years when I never even take my winter coat out of the closet. Not so this year.

The snow fell hard and heavy on Christmas Eve, threatening to play havoc with everyone’s travel plans. This year it was my turn to host the big day so we didn’t have to go anywhere but my some of my family had a fair distance to drive. Thankfully, despite my worries, Christmas Day itself dawned sunny and bright and all of our guests arrived safely to join us for an afternoon and evening of celebration. I think it’s safe to say a good time was held by all. The snow returned the following day so we really did luck out with the weather.

I received some lovely gifts but I know the ones you’re really interested in are of the knitterly variety. A few days before Christmas I received an unexpected package from my friend, Lori, (aka Ms. Oceanwind Knits), containing some beautiful handspun merino in shades of beige and taupe.

I’ve never knit with handspun before and I’ll be putting a great deal of thought into what to make with such special yarn.

I knew Jessica had been up to something (the Keep Out sign on the family room door was a good sign) but I was not prepared for her gift of a Forest Canopy Shawl made from Dream in Colour Smooshy in "Dusky Aurora".

Doesn’t it look beautiful photographed against the snow? Her knitting has come so far in just a few years and I’ll treasure this gift for many to come.

I think Ed may well have earned the title of “favourite brother-in-law” with his gift of not one, not two, but three skeins of Lisa Souza yarn, one of laceweight and two of sockweight (from left to right, Berry Poppins, Mother-of-Pearl, and Gendarme).

I was equally pleased to receive the cables and lace volumes of the new Harmony Guides from my mom and dad—they’re so inspiring to look through. I guess sometimes you really can get what you want (if you ask nicely and provide a detailed list, allowing plenty of time for shipping).

But of course we all know that it is better to give than receive and that was certainly true again this year. Jessica loved the Alternate Steps socks I made for her (absent until now from the blog and my Ravelry projects page), along with a matching sock blocker keychain.

And the moment I’ve been anticipating for months did not disappoint.

Alison loved her new afghan and even shed a few tears. She kept it draped over her lap while she opened the rest of her gifts and kept patting it and looking at the various squares. Totally worth every stitch.

Cameron and I had been hoarding another secret from the kids for months, a trip to Disneyland next spring. Cameron loves to give gifts in a fun and interesting way and had the idea of taking apart a Mickey Mouse hat and wrapping each ear and the crown separately. Matt and Colin were each given an ear and they and Jessica were told to guess what it was. It was so funny to see them holding the ears every which way, trying to figure out how they might go together and what the missing part might be. Just as they were about to give up, Colin held the two ears in such a way that Jessica recognized them for what they were and shouted, “They’re Mickey Mouse ears and we’re going to Disneyland!”

I thought of the three that she was the most likely to figure it out. We’ve always wanted to take them there but could never afford it while they were young. The great part about Disneyland is that you can enjoy it at any age and I can’t wait to take them there next May.

In the end, my day off on Sunday was everything I’d wished for and more. I not only ate lots of chocolate (and turkey soup and Christmas baking), I finished and blocked the Scotch Thistle Lace Stole I’d begun back in October, just in time to wear for New Year’s Eve.

My brother-in-law’s band is playing at a local hotel so we’re getting all dressed up and going dining and dancing instead of staying home, as we usually do.

Just a few more hours of my day off remain so I am off to knit and watch a movie with Cameron. Happy Monday! Or should that be Sunday?

The Best Laid Plans

The knitting fates are not the only ones with a sense of humour.

I have been looking forward to today with great anticipation. It is my first true day off in weeks, a day without work or Christmas preparations or social obligations. The gifts have been wrapped and unwrapped, turkey dinner for 24 has been cooked and consumed, and my mother-in-law has gone to her daughter’s after spending the last six days with us. Ahhh…

The plan was to sleep in, drink lots of tea and eat lots of chocolates, pet my new yarn, catch up on blogs (including my own), knit on my shawl, read a book, take a nap, and just generally spend the day doing nothing in particular. The first part of the plan failed miserably when Colin’s alarm began to ring incessantly at 6:45 this morning. (How he can be lying three feet away and not hear it is a mystery to me.) Then, as his alarm droned on, the house alarm started sounding. Meow. Meow. Meow.

Sighing, I dragged myself out of bed, woke up Colin and told him to shut off his alarm, hit the bathroom, fed the cat, and gratefully crawled back into bed. But just as I was slipping back to sleep Colin’s alarm began to sound again—he’d hit the snooze button instead of off. Seconds later, the house alarm began to ring again too. Meow. Meow. Meow.

Defeated, I climbed out of bed and once again told Colin to shut off his alarm. (Dazed and confused, he mumbled something about how he thought anyone could mine the rock. Huh? “You know, the rock,” he said, patting the top of his alarm clock. Ah yes, that rock.) I let the cat outside and put on the kettle to make tea—no reason to let the second part of the plan fail. With a nice, hot cup in hand I headed downstairs to my computer and almost stepped on a fresh deposit of cat yak on the top step. Oh joy. It was only 7:03 a.m. and something told me my day off might not be as relaxing as I’d expected.

An hour later, I am on my second cup of tea, I have a blog post written (though not the one I’d planned), and the rest of the household is starting to stir. Life feels pretty good and I have hopes that I can salvage this day after all. Now, where did I put those chocolates?

Happy Holidays

Like many people I am busy with last-minute jobs but I wanted to take a few minutes to wish everyone all the best this holiday season. Looks like it will be a white Christmas for us this year. It's my turn to host dinner and at last count we are expecting 24 or 25 in all. It will be a full house but tons of fun.

Enjoy the festivities but be sure to take care and travel safely, my friends.

Mission Accomplished

I really shouldn’t be blogging. I have Christmas cards to write and presents to wrap but lately it seems I’ve had very little time to call my own so I am snatching a few minutes for myself.

My Christmas knitting is done. I cast off and blocked the Shifting Hues scarf for my soon-to-be sister-in-law Monday night.

If you look carefully you can see how the line of yellow zigzags along the entire scarf. What you can’t see is the mistake I made about a foot into it and with any luck neither will anyone else!

We have snow today; after several days of frigid Arctic outflow winds it is our first significant fall of the year. I put some birdseed under the patio table this morning and Carol’s Avian Café has been hopping ever since. One little junco was too impatient to wait for me to go inside before he dined so he made it into this shot!

I’ve really enjoyed having a feeder this year—it’s been great to see the familiar birds return every day and to occasionally spot a less common visitor.

I’m afraid my time is up and duty calls. I can hear the minutes ticking away and fear the last few days before Christmas will disappear just as quickly. Remember when we were young and they seemed to last forever?

One Thing Leads to Another

Saturday afternoon I gratefully wove in the end of the second of these two pairs of slippers.

As much as I love the slippers themselves--I wear mine all the time--I have made so many pairs in the last couple of years that I no longer enjoy making them. As I was knitting stitch after tedious stitch every fibre of my being was silently screaming, “I want to be knitting something else. Anything else.” But my sister-in-law has worn her old ones to threads and my sister asked me to knit a pair for her daughter-in-law--how could I not make them when they are so appreciated?

I wound up the remaining yarn and went to cram it in the bag with the other leftovers. As I did so, I thought I really should sort out all the worsted-weight, feltable wool and put it in one place. Before I knew it I was sorting and rewinding my entire collection of leftover yarn—enough to fill an under-the-bed storage bin plus about four large shopping bags. I had done most of it by the time I went to bed but it still took me to almost lunchtime yesterday to completely finish. I am keeping all of my feltable wool and sock yarn (Jessica and I have plans to knit an afghan a la The Heathen Housewife), plus a few other yarns that may come in handy. I will give my mom first dibs on everything else (she makes scrap afghans for seniors) and donate whatever she doesn’t want. This is a job that was long overdue and it feels very good to have rid myself of all that clutter.

Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment to get my hair trimmed and my roots touched up before Christmas. My hair is thick and curly and I usually wear it fairly short but earlier this year I decided to grow it out and try a longer style. I am finally past the worst stage but there is still a ways to go--some days I just want to hack it all off again. After my hair was cut and coloured my hairdresser asked me if I wanted to have it straightened, just for fun. Now, I have never seen myself with straight hair--when I was younger my hair was just wavy but as I’ve gotten older it’s become curlier and curlier. So I figured, why not?

I couldn’t stop grinning as she ran the straightening iron through it—it just didn’t look like me. It didn’t feel like me either, so light and thin.

I felt like an imposter as I walked in the door, expecting my family to ask, “Where is Carol and what have you done with her?” It was so funny to see their reactions—Jessica raved about it and the boys immediately whipped out their phones to take pictures but I don’t think Cameron knew quite what to think.

My hair was even straighter when I woke up this morning, minus the little flip at the ends, but still looked presentable so I decided to enjoy my new look for one more day. I know the real me will return as soon as the shower hits my hair tomorrow morning but it’s been fun to pretend to be somebody else, if only for a day or two.

Another Month, Another Challenge

Since discovering Ravelry’s Sock Knitters Anonymous group earlier this year I have looked forward to the first of each month and the beginning of a new sockdown challenge. Regardless of whatever other commitments I have, I make a point of making at least one pair of qualifying socks per month. This morning I ushered in December by casting on Firestarter socks in Handmaiden Casbah.

Those of you familiar with my knitting preferences know of my aversion to toe-up socks so you might be surprised at my pattern choice. The thing is, the other categories this month—leftover socks and “almost” socks (ie. those missing usual sock components, like pedicure socks or yoga socks)—didn’t appeal to me so I was left with the third choice, socks designed by Yarnissima, aka Marjan Hammink.

Marjan has designed some exquisite socks, most with intricate and interesting cable detail, but there is one catch (for me, anyway) and that is that they are all knit from the toe, up. It’s not that I find it difficult to knit a toe-up sock, I just haven’t found a bind off or toe construction that compare with my usual long-tail cast on and toe decreases. Somehow, toe-ups just don’t look or fit the same.

But a big part of the philosophy behind SKA is to challenge ourselves by trying new techniques and mastering new skills so I gamely cast on the toe-up Firestarter. After working my way through the wrap & turn short-row toe as written, however, I promptly frogged my efforts. A) I decided I wanted the end of the toe to be wider, B) I find the w&t method much slower and more cumbersome than the yarnover method, and C) I screwed up a couple of wraps/stitches when picking them up (see B). My second attempt went much more smoothly and, in addition to a perfectly acceptable yo short-row toe, I have worked the first repeat of the cable pattern. I love this yarn—it feels yummy and I am really happy with the way the colours are knitting up.

I was not so happy with my recent experience with Franklin by Valley Yarns. Remember my decision to keep it simple and knit plain socks from some of my hand-dyed yarns? I was eager to get through the last of my Christmas gift socks so that I could cast on a pair in this beautiful green, turquoise, and purple colourway .

But when the time finally came I was disappointed to find that despite trying several different combinations of needle sizes and stitch counts I could not avoid a mass of purple pooling on one side of the sock. This yarn is a perfect candidate for a slip-stitch pattern to break up the pooling but I didn’t want to cast on another patterned sock so back in the basket it went. My next choice, Shuanmi, a wool-bamboo blend from Lime & Violet, was much more successful.

I’m enjoying watching the progression of colours as I knit it up and the bamboo gives the yarn a lovely sheen. (Not that you'd know it. It's hard to get decent light for a good photo these days.)

As you may have guessed from the sizeable gap between posts, life is a little busy right now. I have been indulging in my other great passion, genealogy, and have been spending a lot of time on the computer trying to track down my elusive great-grandfather. Despite my having devoted countless hours to this quest over the space of four or five years, he refuses to be found. I’ve also been away from home quite a bit, helping Cameron to set up a new store in his territory. All this other activity means less time for knitting and blogging, which brings up the last item I want to share with you, this handy, dandy clip-on knitting light.

Thanks to a heads-up from my daughter, who discovered this wonderful gadget at work, I can knit on the 30-minute commute from home to store, even at night. While I can technically knit plain stockinette in the dark, I do like to glance down now and then, especially at the beginning of a row. This light clips to my seatbelt and produces just enough illumination so I can see what I’m doing, without distracting my chauffeur. With a few Christmas gifts still to make and the crazy season just ahead I’ll take any chance I can get to indulge in some mindless knitting just for me.