A Wooly Catch Up

Well hello dear reader!  How are we already into February? It's shocking how time flies lately!  Is it too far into the year to wish you all a Happy New Year?  I hope your 2024 has started out well.

Anyways, I thought I'd pop on here to share a project I fully intended to share as soon as it was finished.  An honest to goodness knitting project!  If you follow on Instagram, you'll already have seen it a few times, but for those of you who don't, may I present my Lately Pullover!  It was a new pattern release last summer from the talented Shannon of Very Shannon Knits.  

As soon as she released it, I was OBSESSED.  I was also completely obsessed with knitting it in my cranberry coloured Estelle Eco Shetland Worsted yarn that I'd purchased a year earlier at Wolseley Wool during a sale. Unfortunately I didn't have enough yarn.  I knew I would be at least a skein, possibly even more, short.  I checked Wolseley Wool, but of course they no longer had any in stock.  So I started scouring the Internet for the more yarn, because I just couldn't let go of the obsession of using that particular yarn for that particular pattern.  I found some at Purlin' J's Yarn Emporium in Ontario and decided to order another two skeins, busily trying to plan the best way to combine what would obviously be two different dye lots.

Imagine my surprise when my yarn arrived and it was the exact same dye lot!  What are the chances of that happening?!?  Two different stores, from two different provinces, bought a year apart.  I couldn't believe my luck!  Obviously my Lately Pullover was meant to be.

I started knitting it mid-July, crazily thinking that maybe I could get it done so I could wear it during our Newfoundland trip in August, but alas, of course I didn't get it done.  I knit quite a bit of it through football practices, but it's hard to knit a wool sweater outside in the blazing heat of summer.  So I changed my deadline and decided that having it done before the freezing cold of winter would be good timing.

I did it!  My pullover was finished in November.  It took me about a month to actually block and unfortunately it's not got as much wear as I thought it would.  Not because I don't love it.  I do.  I absolutely do.  It's because this winter has been mostly a non-winter. El Nino has definitely put a damper on wearing warm wool sweaters.  I mean, it was +5C in Manitoba in January last weekend.  That's absolutely crazy - not to mention not just a bit disconcerting environmentally wise!!!!

But my pullover is at the ready for when the temps dip and I do want a cozy, warm layer.  (At least there's been a few times I could wear it and not be at risk of sweating to death, but certainly not as much as I had envisioned!)

It did kick off a renewed love of knitting again and I've got several projects on the go currently and finished quite a few as well.  More on that another day... Right now I've got to get myself off the computer and down to the sewing room.  I have a few things on the go there too that I really want to get working on!  I'm taking part in the #FinishItQal over on Instagram hosted by Village Bound Quilts this month and I'm not going to get anything finished if I don't get at it!

SSKAL 2017

What a busy summer it's been!  I can't quite fathom how it's already September and the little boys are already back to school!  We finished off summer holidays with a bang and took an amazing ten day trip out West making it as far as Revelstoke, BC.  It was fantastic and we did so many amazing things on our trip!  One of the things that I did on the trip was knit.  Did you know that driving across Manitoba and Saskatchewan leaves a whole lot of time for knitting when you're not actually the driver?  A WHOLE LOT.

Thanks to the trip and hours upon hours of knitting time, I was able to finish my project for the Very Shannon Summer Sweater Knit Along.  The KAL ends today and I think this may be one of the few times I wasn't hoping for a deadline extension.  (Good thing too - Shannon mentioned recently that there wasn't going to be a vote for an extension this time!)

When the SSKAL was announced, since the rules allow for finishing up WIPs, I decided that I was going to take the opportunity of motivation of the KAL to finish up a project that had been languishing in my knitting bag for a few months and hopefully knit another project.  The project in question was Little Man's new Greyson sweater.  I had started it in March when I realized that there was no way he could squeeze himself into his original Greyson anymore.  Of course I shouldn't have been surprised.  He'd been wearing it since he was four years old.  No wonder it was too short and too tight!

I let him pick out yarn from Webs and he'd chose red and black James C. Brett Aztec - an acrylic, alpaca blend that I think will prove to be soft and very cozy.  He also chose how he wanted the stripe pattern to be. The sweater knit up fairly quickly given the very little I worked on it and within a month or so I was done.  Except the neckline was horrendous.  I should have taken a before shot to show how bad it was because it defies description.  I'm not sure what I did, but all my centered double decreases were not centered. Nor were they even in line with each other.  It was a hot mess.  So I was frustrated and left the sweater laying in my knitting bag until about a week into the SSKAL.  Then I ripped that offending neckline out, picked up the stitches and had it done and looking good by the end of the evening.  It was perfect timing, because the next morning Little Man woke up feverish and miserable.  Shivering and cold he curled up in his brand new sweater claiming it made him feel much better.

A few days later I had the chance to wind the wool for Baby Boy's sweater, because his second Greyson had also long since been outgrown.  He had also chose the black Aztec yarn and then had picked out some Estelle Chunky - an acrylic, wool, nylon blend - from the lys in the city and planned his stripe pattern.  I was determined to get his sweater done in time for wearing in the mountains, so knit like the wind, working on it every spare moment I had, which unfortunately with work and other mundane things like taking care of the house and yard wasn't a whole lot.  Thank goodness the sweater is small!  I started it on August 14th and by the time we headed out on the  highway August 26th I had just put the sleeve stitches back on the needle.

By the time I put my knitting down just outside of Moose Jaw, SK. because it was too dark in the truck to see anymore I had one sleeve done and 18 rounds plus a cuff left to do on sleeve two.  That was a LONG drive!   The next morning I picked it up again and had the second sleeve and ends woven in about a half hour or so west of Swift Current, SK.   Good thing too.  The next morning when the boys crawled out of the tent in Drumheller, AB it was quite chilly.  Baby Boy was thrilled to have his new sweater to put on and stay cozy until the sun warmed everything up.

I had high hopes of getting the perfect finished object photo in the mountains, but trying to get photos of these two little goofballs when they're excited proves to be difficult, so I had to settle for this next one atop Whistler's Mountain in the Rockies.  You can sort of see the town of Jasper below through the smokey haze.  (No worries - there was quite a bit of land behind that rock they're standing on, it is just the angle that makes it look like they were perched on the very edge of the mountain!)

Finishing Baby Boy's sweater so quickly gave me loads more road knitting time, but I'll tell you about that project next time!  I've got to catch up on some housework and then get the boys out to their power skate workshop this afternoon, plus I'm sure if you've read this long, you probably have other things you need to be doing too! LOL

Just one other quick "housekeeping" thing before I leave off.  I want to apologize for how some things are looking on the blog lately.  As you may be aware, Photobucket, which is what I used for a few years for photos on the blog, suddenly changed their policies without any warning in the spring.  In order to keep the photos showing up from them on the blog, they want a fee of $399/year.  Not going to happen!  So I need to clean things up and re-upload photos, but unfortunately I've had no time to do so yet, so please bare with me while things are in a bit of a messy state.

Summer Sweater KAL Antrorse

I'm done! I'm done! I'm done!!!

I've finished my second sweater for the Very Shannon Summer Sweater Knit Along!  This one is Antrorse, designed by Shannon Cook of Very Shannon.  I won the pattern in a knit along in her Ravelry group last Christmas and thought it the perfect choice for this year's Sweater KAL.

I had initially started knitting my Cascade Eco+ pullover at the beginning of the KAL, but summer being summer, it quickly got way too hot to have mounds of warm wool piled on my lap, so I did put it aside for a few weeks while I worked on my Sunshower cardi I showed you in my last blog post.

Like Sunshower I had some adventures in knitting my Antrorse.  Not nearly as bad as Sunshower - I didn't have to reknit anything and it was certainly nothing design related, but I did get off to a spectacularly rocky start with my gauge swatch.

I spent and agonizing and hellish time trying to get my gauge to work out.  In a momentary lapse of all reasoning I actually was going the wrong direction needle size wise to try and get gauge.  I kept going smaller and smaller and gauge was getting so far off I couldn't fathom what was going wrong, I started suspecting a problem with the pattern.  Let me tell you, I felt pretty darn silly when moments after I posted something to that effect on Ravelry (wondering all the while nobody else seemed to note any problems with the pattern) it hit me that I should be using larger needles instead of smaller. More stitches to get gauge = needle too small not needle to big, obviously.  Sigh...  Oh gauge how you continually vex me so.

As soon as I got that sorted out, gauge was easy to achieve and knitting in earnest began.  No further problems were encountered other than the heat and knitting Antrorse was an easy, stress free task.  I knit it exactly as written and it turned out exactly how I hoped!

I'm really loving my new sweater!  I'm especially loving it this morning!  It was 3C when I crawled out of bed this morning.  Brrrr.  But Antrorse to the rescue.  I'm sitting here cozy and snuggly warm!  The Cascade Eco+ in the Lake Chelan colour way - possibly my absolute favourite colour way of all time - is warm but without the heavy weight you'd expect from it.  It's an absolute dream to knit with and pretty darn economical too!  Each skein has a whopping 478 yards of bulky goodness on it, which means a whole lot less darning in of ends too!  (always a nice bonus!)  I'm definitely going to be looking to add some more Eco+ to my stash the next time I have some extra yarn funds!!

So, for me, another Summer Sweater Knit Along comes to a close and I have to say it was yet again a great experience!  The knitters in the Very Shannon Ravelry group are all very chatty, encouraging and motivating, which makes the KALs held there so much fun!  I'll definitely be signing up again next year!!

Now it's time to switch gears for a wee bit before jumping into the next KAL (Andi Satterlund's Penelope KAL over at Untangling Knots Group).  I'm going to be getting a start on some hush, hush holiday sewing and knitting for the next few weeks!

Summer Sweater KAL Sunshower

I'm happy to report that I've got one finished object done for the Very Shannon Summer Sweater Knit Along.  The KAL was to officially end yesterday, but it looks like most everyone voted for a two week extension, which is all kinds of awesome, because it means there's a good chance I'll get to finish my second sweater before the actual deadline!  Whoot! Whoot!

The purpose of the summer sweater knit along is to keep knitting through the hot months of the summer so that you have a shiny new something ready to wear come the cooler temperatures of fall.  It turns out that finished project number one for me goes with absolutely nothing in my fall wardrobe, but no less than four dresses in my summer wardrobe.  Ooops!  But that's ok.  My fall wardrobe needs some boosting up anyways.  I'm sure I'll come up with something that will work with my new bright red Sunshower cardi!

(as an aside... I'm looking for inspiration in the fall sewing department!  I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have for me!  I've had a couple suggestions for Tilly and the Buttons Coco dress.  I'm thinking of Closet Case Files Ginger Jeans.  What else do you have for me?)

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled posting about my new cardi.

Like all of Andi Satterlund's designs I've knit so far (Salt, Miette, Hetty, Myrna, Marion, Vianne and now Sunshower) it is an easy to follow pattern.  I love the way her patterns are written up, and I love the vintage vibe of her cardigans.  They're perfect for popping on over a dress too.  Did I mention this latest one goes with four dresses in my closet?!?  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that!  My only modification to this pattern was my usual one that I do on Andi's cardigans which is to eliminate some of the waist shaping so it doesn't have quite so much negative ease.

I used Ella Rae Classics in Monarch red from Webs for my Sunshower.  It is a bit scratchier than I remember Ella Rae Classic being - but then I've not used this particular yarn in about six or seven years and that was for a pair of mittens so maybe I've just forgotten.  Or maybe it's not actually that scratchy in reality and the hives that suddenly appeared on my arm this morning (what the heck?!?!) are just making me a bit more sensitive.  Who knows.  I normally wear Briggs & Little without batting an eyelash, so c'est la vie.  Scratchy or not, I think this cardigan will be getting lots of wear in the future!

Knitting of this one was a bit of a challenge for me.  Not because of the pattern mind you, but because sometimes I'm just a bit daft about things.  I posted a week and a half ago about my fudging the pattern and then having to go back and re-knit it.  Well, things like that just seemed to keep happening.  Maybe I've been distracted or maybe I've just taken leave of my senses as of late.  I am not sure, but whatever the case I was glad to finally make it to the sleeve cuffs without further incident!  I had initially planned to do the sleeve caps individually then continue the rest of the sleeve two at a time, as I normally do, but my circular needle was both too inflexible and too short for it to be a convenient method.  I was driving myself batty dropping stitches and trying to keep sorted where the centres were.  I gave up a few rounds in, put the sleeves back on separate needles and zipped through the first sleeve up to the cuff in an evening.  The next evening I tackled the second sleeve, then put them back on the too short, too stiff circ for the cuffs.  I hate trying to keep track of ribbing and I figured it was easier to suffer through the TAAT with a bad needle then count rounds.  It worked and I finished it up pretty easily a few days ago!

Next up is going to be finishing up my Antrorse!  I'm so close - six more rounds of the bottom band, then onto the sleeves.  I have a beautifully long and flexible circular needle so it should be no problem to two at a time them!

I had told myself that after Antrorse is finished I would focus on holiday gift knitting exclusively, but Andi's gone and thrown a big ol' wrench in that plan.  (Yep.  I'm blaming her.  Not my lack of will power in the face of a new pattern.  Nope. Not that at all...)  She's gone and published another cardigan pattern this week and I'm completely smitten with it.  Not only that.  She's planned a Knit Along for it.  I resisted for about 30 seconds and then decided I'll spend the rest of this month focusing on gift knitting so that when the KAL starts the beginning of October I can knit, somewhat guilt free, on Penelope.  Take a look at those gorgeous scallops and tell me that you would have been able to resist.  I didn't think so! If resistance is as futile for you as it is for me, you should join the KAL on Ravelry.  It'll be fun!  (and Andi's even got a discount for the pattern going on right now!)  I'm dreaming of colour combinations right now and thinking that I have a nice caramel coloured DK for the main colour and if it works a really nice wine colour for the scallops and the button band already sitting in my stash... Fate?  I think so!

Summer Sweater KAL Works in Progress

Let me just say, first of all, that I am in denial that it is already September.  Summer has flown by at break neck speed it seems.  This time next week I'll be getting the boys lunches packed up, making sure their back packs are ready and mentally preparing myself for the first day of school.  It's going to be an especially hard one this year given my last baby will be off to kindergarten.  What am I going to do without my littlest side kick with me?  I'm going to really miss his non-stop chatter and stories.  (He tells the best, most involved stories ever!)  It's going to be an adjustment for sure and I'm pretty sure there will be some tears involved - mine, likely, not his.

So instead of focusing on that, I will, instead, focus on knitting.  Not only does summer holidays come to an end next week, but so does the Very Shannon annual summer sweater knitting KAL.  I always enjoy Shannon's knit alongs.  There's lots of chit chat in the thread on Ravelry, oodles of motivation and inspiration and it's just down right fun.

This year I was really eager for the KAL to start because I was planning on knitting Shannon's pattern Antrorse.  I'd purchased my wool with my birthday money and was chomping at the bit to get going on it.  I dove into knitting pretty much as soon as the KAL started, although I had some issues with getting gauge to start with - only because I was being really daft and kept going down needle sizes instead of up when I was knitting my swatch.  I was getting desperate and thinking there was something really off on the pattern when I'd gone down to about a 4mm needle (using bulky yarn none the less) and still couldn't get gauge.  I even posted about it in thread.  And then felt really, really silly, when I suddenly realized what I was doing wrong about half an hour after posting.  D'oh! There are days I should just put down the needles and back away slowly.  Ha ha!

Anyways, once that issue was out of the way it was smooth sailing.  I really love the Cascade Eco+ I'm using.  It's so soft and cozy but feels light.  Winding those gigantic skeins is a bit of a beast though.  Turns out my ball winder outright refuses to wind the whole 478 yards, quitter that it is.

Really?  That's as far as you'll go??? Slacker!

I was doing really great with the knitting and it was really coming along, but then it got really hot and muggy and I just could not face having all that bulky wool sitting on my already too warm lap.  So, what's a girl to do but cast on a different project?

Deck knitting Antrorse and drinking a wine cooler
(non-alcoholic of course, because alcohol and knitting don't mix!)

My second project is an Andi Satterlund design (Of course it is!  I can't resist her patterns!) I'm working on one of her newest patterns, Sunshower, and it's so pretty.  I had really hoped to finish it last week for my girls' night out with my sisters and cousins, but alas.  No go.  I made a pretty epic mistake in my pattern that required me ripping everything out from the start of the second pattern chart at the bottom of the sweater all the way to the beginning of the left front.  Oh how that hurt.  But on the bright side I learned my lesson.  You see, I got a bit cocky with my "reading" of my lace and started thinking I was off a bit on my stitches.  Things had been looking a bit wonky for awhile, but I put that down to it being just because all those stitches were squished on my needles.  But then I started fudging rows here and there because things weren't lining up the way I assumed they were supposed to be lining up.  Of course all that fudging led to a wrong stitch count and so my new pattern chart wasn't working out.  At that point I was advised (by (BF)G none the less) to rip it out and start again. Oh how smug he is that he was right about my knitting.  Ha ha!  Long story short, I am really glad I listened to him and ripped it out, because I would've been really disappointed in the end result otherwise. I quickly realized I'd been totally reading the knitting wrong, stuck to the chart, used stitch markers with wild abandon to make sure I didn't get off track with the increases and got it done.

After all that crazy push though to try and get it done, not only did I not finish in time for girls' night out, I ended up with really sore wrists and had to take a week off of knitting to let them rest.  I'm back at it though and have just finished up the button band tonight.  Tomorrow I'll launch myself onto sleeve island.  My plan of attack is my usual one.  I'll do the short row sleeve caps individually and then put both sleeves on the needles and do them two at a time.  No second sleeve syndrome for me.  No siree!

Body is done!  Sunshower just needs some sleeves!

After I finish up Sunshower, I'm going to jump back into finishing up Antrorse.  I'm so close!  Just one more pattern repeat on the body, then the garter stitch band at the bottom, then sleeves.  I'm hoping I can get both done by then end of the KAL, but that might be a wee bit ambitious.  We'll see!

So that's what's up for me in the knitterly side of life.  I've been sewing a bit here and there too - a few new projects and techniques under the belt, but I'll save those for another day.  In the rest of life, it's been a whirlwind of gardening, canning, harvesting garden veggies, (beware of zucchini and cucumbers... if you turn your back on them they multiply quickly!  At least I think they must!), visiting, and spending lots of time with the two littlest. I've even managed to have not one, but two visits with N and his girlfriend in the span of a week (He even cooked me lunch on one of those visits - having a chef for a son has it's perks!) and then G and her boyfriend were out too this past weekend.  Now all I need to do is pin the elusive J down for a visit and I'll have it made!

Splish splash!  These two little guys and I have had a fun summer!

I guess that's about it for me tonight.  (BF)G just came into the kitchen shaking his head at me likely for being a night owl again.  (I stay up way too late, then am always so darn tired during the day.  Go figure. He thinks I'm nuts.  He's probably right in that assessment!  LOL) I should probably hop to it and get the things done that I need to do before I head off to bed for the night.

So I'll bid you adieu and hope you all have had a great summer in whatever way you've spent it!

Plum Blossom Tee

Well, it only took me one year and two Tops, Tanks and Tees Knit Alongs to do it, but I'm finally finished my linen Plum Blossom Tee!

I'm absolutely thrilled with how this turned out and so very glad I didn't give up and rip it all out like I briefly thought I should do figuring I'd never finish, it wouldn't fit anyways and I'd be wasting my time.  I LOVE this top!

I had started with great gusto last year during the Very Shannon Kal, but quickly lost steam when I realized I'd made a terrible mistake in gauge. (Oh gauge.  How many times you vex me.)  I don't know how or why it happened, but I had got about 10 inches or so in when I realized my error.  My top was huge (like fit two of me in it huge) and upon careful investigation of gauge swatch, which at that point I thought was bang on, and the pattern I noticed I had only seen the gauge listed for one needle instead of both and had smartly achieved the larger needle's gauge on the smaller needles.  What is it about following simple directions that gives me such trouble???

The gauge issue had also come on the heels of a yarn winding mishap that led to a four hour linen rat's nest untangling marathon.  Linen is a slippery little devil to contend with.  It doesn't like to be wound on a ball winder, oh no, it prefers special treatment and likes to be wound by hand.  For me, who can tangle a skein of yarn just by looking at it, the fact I was using Euroflax Linen at all was some sort of miracle.  In the end a well worth it miracle, but at the time I wasn't as enthusiastic, that's for sure.  Euroflax Linen really is a gorgeous yarn to work with (once it's wound that is!). It was a bit hard on my hands at times, but the fabric it creates is wonderful!

Between the wasted knitting time spent untangling and the gauge disaster requiring me to restart, I was about ready to throw in the towel on the project.  However, Plum Blossom had been in my queue for quite some time and I had the yarn and since I knew what I was doing I figured I might as well try, try again.  The fabric was definitely looking better at the right gauge and my short rows had vastly improved, but I was frustrated though for being so behind in the KAL and in the end I gave up around November, having not worked on the top in ages and threw it in the back of the closet in my knitting bag and ignored it.  Come spring I thought I'd try again to see if I could get some motivation going, but I'd knit a row or two here or there and give it up again feeling like no matter how much I knit the darn thing didn't get any longer.  2 3/4mm needles and sport weight yarn will do that to a girl used to knitting sweaters and tops in worsted weight.

Then Shannon announced the TTTKAL and I figured in for a penny, in for a pound, pulled out my top, found some determination and got going again.  I was going to finish it this time round come hell or high water.  And oh my goodness there was a lot of hell going on once I got to the lace.  Nothing to do with the pattern, I assure you.  It was all on me.  I couldn't keep straight what row I was doing, or what stitch I was on for love or money.  It was knit three rows, rip two back, knit a row, rip it back halfway.  On and on.  But I plugged away at it and finally finished the front lace yoke.  Thank goodness I had knit the top in the round up to the armholes, because if I'd had to start an entire back of the top at that point I really would have given up.  With the lace done I was able to try it on and really get a good idea of fit and how I liked it.  Motivation sky rocketed.  I immediately dove into doing the back.  Then had to rip it out.  Then started again.  GAH!!!! But I finished the lace on the weekend, tried it on again and set to work doing the applied i-cord edging.  The neckline went beautifully.  Can't say the same for the first armhole edging.  It was a Goldilocks moment getting that sucker to fit.  The first time was too small.  The second time too big.  Third time was the charm though and was just right!  Phew.

What a crazy ordeal for one little summer tee, but so well worth it and I am so happy I persevered!  I wanted to get some photos quickly today before it starts to rain again so I ran outside with my camera and tromped around the yard until I got a couple shots with the timer that I thought were decent enough.  I will just say it's not easy getting photos of oneself.  I had the camera precariously perched on the slanted roof of the shed behind the barn at one point as I twitched and flailed about smacking mosquitoes while waiting for the timer to go off.  I'm pretty sure my neighbours, who are out planting their garden right now, wonder what on earth crazy and possibly evil antics I am up to, given the odd looks they were shooting at me from across the field.  I'm sure it was a sight to behold.  Ha ha!