Is it October 15 already?

I gotta say, I can't wait for the Canadian election to be over. I am stressed out like you wouldn't believe! Now I've worked election night before, but always in the newsroom. Tomorrow night I'll actually be at a candidate's HQ, I'll have to write two stories, get sound clips and send them AND I'll do a 5 min. thing on the radio. It may not sound like much, but it's going to be stressful and I'll be praying that I won't run into a technical problem.

I've been stressed for a week now, so yesterday, Chris and I decided to go for a relaxing walk on Mont Royal. All you Montrealers know how much fun can be had on the mountain on a Sunday.

There were tamtams (how do you say that in English? Drums?):



There was beautiful foliage:





And there were Dungeon and Dragons fanatics pretending they were in a real battle (or something):





I thought one of them really looked like Sayid from Lost, so I had to take a pic. :)

As far as knitting goes, since I finished my Woven Cables scarf, I decided it was time to knit the second Bird in Hand mitten. I had finished the first one last spring and decided to wait till Fall for the second one.

(I was going to post a pic of the first one, but I realized I don't have one. You'll get one next post).

Everything was going well with mitten #2 -- though I still hate to make the braids and there are three of them on each mitten -- until I realized I was following the instructions for the right mitten when I was making the left one! So I had to frog an entire chart repeat, which was not that long, but it still sucked.

That's it for now! Canadians, don't forget to go vote tomorrow! I think I'll buy myself some new yarn after the election!

Best scarf ever

I finished my Woven Cables Scarf!!!



Pattern: Woven Cables Scarf, by Keri McKiernan.
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca
Needles: US 7 and US 5 circular needles

I love love love it! It's warm and soft and just perfect. And I realized that I didn't have to knit it as long as my usual scarves, because it's very thick so I don't need to wrap it twice around my neck.

Next UFO that I want to transform into a FO: the Bird in hand mittens!

Also, in honor of Socktoberfest, I started a new pair of socks.



It's the lucky clover socks, that I got in the Robyn's nest sock club last March. I love the yarn and I love the pattern so it's going to be a fun knit.

I found my knitting mojo

So it looks like the key to getting back my knitting mojo was simply to not have access to any knitting for a few weeks. Since I got back from my trip, I've been knitting and knitting and knitting.

Or maybe it's simply the fall weather that is inspiring me? I don't know. But I know the thought of a warm scarf makes me very happy. This past week, I've been working exclusively on my Woven Cables scarf.



It's going to be a great scarf. In a neutral colour, so I'll be able to wear it with any hat and mittens. And soft. And warm. Yummy.

And just because I had not posted a pic of it yet, here's one of the Montego Bay scarf that I was supposed to bring with me during my trip but that I stupidly forgot.



I didn't swatch and I should have, cause I think it's way too wide. I'll frog it and start again.

I'm itching to start a new pair of socks and I think I know exactly what I want to make. Stay tuned!

Guess who's back!

Honey, I'm hooome!

After three weeks of pure bliss in Europe, I got home on Sunday and it looks like I brought back quite a souvenir: a huge cold! I haven't felt that sick in a while, though it's a little better today (which is a good thing since I'm going back to work).

Fortunately, I felt fantastic during the whole trip. I had a great time, drank good wine and met nice people. We first went to Rome.



I loved seeing the city and I'm glad I did, but it's definitely not a city where I could live permanently. I found it a little bit too chaotic. I loved the Vatican too (the Sistine Chapelle is definitely breathtaking).

We really wanted to see Pompei, so we took a long daytrip that was totally worth it.



I couldn't believe how HUGE Pompei was, even though I had read about it a lot. Very impressive.

Then we went to Florence, but we took advantage of our rail pass and stopped in Pisa first.



No matter how many time you've seen the leaning tower in pictures, you will still be impressed when you see the real thing. I loved it.

I also LOVED Florence. Much calmer than Rome. Our hostel was great and served fantastic free breakfast, had free walking tours with a great guide and also sold good wine for only 5 euros a bottle. The city itself is beautiful.



And it has the BEST gelato!



After Florence, we went to Venice, but we could only stay for a day, due to an error in planning on our part. The city was beautiful, as expected.



We also took a boat to Burano, a little island that is actually part of Venice but you have to take a 40 minutes vaporetto (boat public transportation) ride to get there. It was so cute! All the houses are very brightly coloured and it's just a very peaceful place.





We came back to Venice at sunset.



We left Venice and Italy to go to Nice, in France.



Our goal was to just rest and spend our days on the beaches there, which we did in part, but I really disliked the pebble beaches. I need sand! We also spent a day in Monaco (30 min. bus ride) and it really is a place filled with tourists and rich people. You wouldn't believe how many fabulous cars and designer clothes we've seen there! But my favourite part of the day was the visit to the Oceanic museum, where we found Nemo.



Nice was our only stop in France, and we left for Barcelona, Spain, after a few days. I totally fell in love with Barcelona (I wish I could live there!). We had a lot of fun. We were very impressed with the Segrada Familia church.





We went to the beach again (yay, sand!).



We went to Park Guell.



And, finally, we took a Spanish cooking class where we learnt how to make sangria, tapas and paella! Yummy!



As you can see, I loved my trip! And as for knitting, well... I actually forgot my scarf at home!!! I couldn't believe it when I realized it. I didn't have much time to miss knitting though, except during the long train rides. But I was happy to pick up my scarf when I got home. I had never spent three whole weeks without knitting a stitch before since I first started knitting!

Meh

I am not happy.

I can't sleep because my left eye hurts. It feels as if a tiny little needle was scratching it. Not pleasant.

So I'm leaving in a week and I still don't know what I'm going to knit during the trip. I had decided on the Montego Bay scarf. I even wound the yarn tonight. But now I can't find the damn magazine. All my magazines are in my closet, but the one I need isn't there and I have no idea where it could be.

Maybe I'll just bring sock yarn.

I did it!

I managed to knit two pairs of socks during the Olympics! Scroll down to my last post for the first pair.

For the second pair, I had first planned on making the Lace cuffed socks, by Veronik Avery. But I ended up disliking it in the purple yarn so I changed patterns.

I chose another pattern from the Steppin' Out booklet, the Lace and Diamond Socks, by Mona Schmidt. I finished them this morning.



I love them! I used some Regia yarn that I had in my stash. I shortened the cuff a little (I did 4 lace repeats instead of 6).

I have knit 4 pairs of socks this summer, which means I only have one more pair to knit before I can buy more sock yarn. I don't feel like knitting socks right now though. I'm feeling the urge to work on some old projects. I've picked my woven cables scarf back up this afternoon and I've been working on it. I want to finish it before winter comes, you know...

According to my widget, I'll be in a plane in exactly 9 days 22 hours 6 minutes and 23 seconds. I can't wait!

Olympic update!

As expected, Canada has waited until the second week of the Olympics to win medals (I'm watching the men sing the Canadian national anthem after winning the goal in rowing as I type this). And as expected, I'm going to have to do a knitting sprint to reach my Olympic goal.

The good news is that I finished the first pair.



Pattern:Twist and Cable socks by Veronik Avery
Yarn: Basic Regia sock yarn
Needles: 2.25 mm dpns
Modifications: I made the cuffs a bit shorter

I love love love the socks!

I cast on for the second pair this morning. I'm making another Veronik Avery pattern, the Lace cuffed socks, and I'm once again using Regia. It's going pretty quickly so far, and since the foot is all stockinette, it should go faster than the Twist and Cable. Maybe I'll make it...

Olympic report - Day 2

It is now day 2 of the Olympics! Last Thursday, I finished the sorta-SOS08 socks:



Pattern: Summer 2008 socks by Wendy Johnson.
Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool
Needles: 2.25 bamboo dpns
Modifications: The pattern is toe-up and I wanted to make them cuff-down so I pretty much only used the stitch pattern with my regular sock pattern. The lace part is very stretchy so I had to reduce the number of stitches (from 66 to 50) or it would have been huge!

On Friday morning, as I watched the Canadian athletes enter the stadium in Beijing, I cast on for my first Olympic sock. I'm using Veronik Avery's Twist and Cables socks pattern. The yarn is your basic Regia sock yarn. Here's where I am today:



I'm hoping to turn the heel tonight and to finish the first sock tomorrow. We'll see how it goes...

Olympian in training

I finally finished the first SOS08 sock:



The pattern is Wendy's Summer of Socks 08 pattern... heavily modified. I wanted to make it cuff down instead of toe-up so I did. I also had to play with the number of stitches because the stitch pattern is very stretchy and the sock was way too big at first. Basically, the only thing I took from the pattern was the stitch pattern. I made the heel and toe my way too. I love the result.

I'm using sock #2 to train for the Ravelympics. Yeah, I couldn't resist joining, even though I don't have much hope of reaching my goal. I actually want to try to knit two pairs of socks during the Olympics, which is doable for many, but it will be difficult for me.

I cast on for sock #2 last night and my goal is to finish it before the opening ceremony. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, the whole knitting community is going crazy for the Twist Collective, and with reason. So that's where all the Montreal designers have gone!!! I think it's a brilliant idea for a magazine/catalogue. It's good for the designers because they get paid for their work and it's good for knitters because we get quality patterns in each issue AND we only have to pay for the ones we want to make. Perfect. I haven't bought anything from the premiere issue because I have too much on my plate but I'm sure I will in the future. I just need to be disciplined and only buy when I'm ready to knit the pattern.

Ok, back to Ravelympic training. Good luck to everyone who joined!

I'm on a diet!

I got the last skein of sock yarn from the Lotus Knits punk rock sock club!



It's inspired by the Green Day album Dookie. I LOVE IT! It even comes with a little Dookie stitch marker. Cute. The picture doesn't do it justice, let me tell you.

Now that I'm not waiting for any more sock yarn, I guess I can officially begin my little sock yarn diet. When I signed up for the sock club, I told myself I wouldn't buy any more sock yarn until I've knit at least five pairs. Well I've knit one so far, so I have four more to go. I guess it's not really a diet since I only have 4 skeins to lose! ;) But I'm such a slow knitter that it could take a while until I'm done with them.

I'm still working on the SOS08 socks. I've been playing with the pattern a bit so I could knit it cuff down, with my 2.25 mm needles (my needles of choice for socks). I think I finally found a way to make it work and I'm now at the heel. I forgot to take a WIP pic though.

As you can probably guess, I haven't been knitting much. All I think about right now is my trip. I even have a little countdown widget on my desktop. As I'm writing this, I still have 35 days, 5 hours, 4 minutes and 41 seconds until my plane takes off ;)

I have seen the IK Fall preview and I gotta say I'm a little disappointed. There aren't that many projects that I like, and I miss all the Montreal designers! But I like the Knotty or Knice socks, the Fresco Fair isle mittens and I LOVE the Zigzag beanie.

Is anyone entering the Ravelry knitolympics? I'm thinking about it, I'm just not sure which event I want to try!

Fireworks!

On Saturday, I went to my friend Claudia's fabulous appartment so we could go on her terrace and watch the fireworks competition. Australia was competing and we were blown away! It was fabulous.

And to make this knitting-related, at one point, the fireworks were the exact same colour as the yarn I'm using for my SOS08 socks! ;)

(I tried to upload a video but it wouldn't let me. Those of you who are my Facebook friends, I posted it there).

I also have good news to share, now that it's official. I applied for a permanent position at work a few weeks ago and I got it! I'm very happy because it means that I'm assured to always work full time, I get insurance and vacation time (13 days next summer, then 3 weeks the year after!). Yay!

And in six weeks, I will be in Europe! We have booked all our hostels and hotels and we're READY (except we still have a million things to do before we leave!)

Mitten envy

How pretty are these "Let it Snow" mittens? Seriously, I'm in love. Vogue Knitting posted its Fall Preview and I like a lot of things in it, but these mittens are my favourite. Now I really need to knit the second Bird in Hand mitten so I can get started on these (and hopefully finish them before April 2009!)

I haven't done a lot of knitting this past week. No, scratch that. I got quite a bit of knitting done but I frogged most of it so I don't have anything to show for it. I suffered from delusion and even though I knew that my SOS 08 socks were way too big, I kept knitting and knitting, thinking they would fit. I finally came to reason after, oh, four inches. I started them again but I'm still at the cuff.

I also want to mention that I'm writing this post on my brand new laptop! My old (desktop) computer was 7 years old and I thought it was about time that I replaced it. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much about the computer, I don't know anything about these things and my boyfriend helped me when I bought it. It says HP Pavilion on it. And it's black. I can't say anything more. But I LOVE it.

One for the summer of socks

I finished my Clash socks! The yarn is from Lotus Knits (exclusive colourway for the Punk Rock sock club). I didn't use a pattern, it's just plain stockinette. They fit perfectly and I love the way they striped!

I'm now ready to cast on for pair #2! I'm going to make the Summer 2008 socks (Ravelry link) by Wendy Johnson, except I'm gonna make 'em cuff down.

I have the perfect yarn for it too, it's similar to the one she used in her design:



It's Sea Wool by Fleece Artist, or something like that. Pretty eh? Oh and the cute hippo is my brand new notion storage case. I got it from Robyn's nest when I visited Robyn herself on Monday. How cool must it be to have a yarn store in your own home!

I spent the afternoon knitting with Robyn, Angela, Robyn's sister Amy and Madeleine. I also got to see Robyn's son Sean again, and meet her new baby Mack!



Awwwww! I love that pic, Robyn I hope you don't mind that I posted it!

Lookie! New sock yarn!

I had a crazy busy week so I didn't have time to show my new sock yarn. It's the June yarn from the Lotus Knits sock club.



The colourway is Loose Nut. It's very cute! I *think* I may use it for socks for my sister, I know she'd love them. We'll see. I have a few other skeins of yarn I want to use before I use this one.

I've been knittin' for the Summer of Socks and I'm almost at the heel for sock #2. I plan on finishing it this week.

Happy Canada Day!

Fellow Canucks, I wish you a happy day off and a fun celebration if you celebrate! If there are any Quebecers who are moving reading this, I wish you a happy moving day.



I finished the first Clash sock! Yay! It fits like a glove and it's really soft. I still need to weave in the ends obviously. I started sock #2 but I'm still at the cuff. I expect to finish it quickly though. I already have chosen what I'll make for my second Summer of Socks pair!

I renewed my gym membership yesterday and I chose to get a full fitness evaluation. It's going to be on July 12 and I'm already nervous about it. I've been going to the gym somewhat regularly for 10 years now (I've had a few off periods though), but I still don't feel I'm in good shape. I'm hoping that the test will help the trainer give me a really good program that I'll be able to stick with. We'll see. I know I was really feeling like going to the gym today but it's closed :(

Eat your veggies!

My boyfriend and I decided to try an organic produce delivery place. Basically, you subscribe to their service and you get bags of organic fruits and veggies delivered to your door every week or every other week (we chose to try every other week first). We got our first bags today and I'm very happy with what we got!



We usually always buy the same veggies (pretty much) at the grocery store or at the market so we're happy that this service is going to force us to eat more varieties of vegetables. Though I have to say that this week, we got stuff that we buy pretty often: lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, celery, broccoli, red grapes, blueberries and mangos.

If anyone in the Montreal region (they cover a pretty wide zone, including the North and South shores) is interested, here's their website. Let me know if you try it!

Oh, and I guess you want some knitting content, right? ;)

Summer of socks officially begun on June 21 and I didn't want to knit anything complicated. So I started some plain vanilla socks, using the not-plain-at-all yarn that I got through the Lotus Knits sock club.



This is the May yarn (The Clash). It is so soft that I need to stop knitting to pet it once in a while. And I really like the funky stripes.

I should get my June yarn soon (I'm hoping tomorrow!). I can't wait!

I dream of Europe...

I know I've been m.i.a. lately. I'm just not knitting much. Not because I don't enjoy it anymore, I just don't feel the need to knit every day. Summer will do that to you (at least it does to me). I want to cast on for a new pair of socks but I want to wait for Summer of Socks so in the meantime, I've been working on the Cardigan for Merry, but I haven't made enough progress to warrant a pic.

Work as been keeping me very very busy. Many coworkers are on vacation, which means a lot more hours for me. I'm not complaining, I like the money and I like my job.



What's been on my mind the most, though, is the trip that Chris and I are planning. We bought our plane tickets last week! I am very excited. We are leaving in September for 3 weeks and we're going to Italy, France (and Monaco) and Spain. We plan on visiting Rome, Florence, Venice, Nice, Monaco and Barcelona. We also want to add another city in the south of France, we just haven't decided which one yet.

Expect some yarn goodness in my next post, I will probably receive the June shipment of the Lotus Knits sock club soon!

Summer summer summer

There's a contest at Skeins her way. It's the annual "List your summer goals" contest! And because I like lists, I'm entering!

I'm not going to set too many goals because I've been in a knitting slump for most of the year and I don't know if I'll ever come out of it. Still, I have goals:

1. Knit 2-3 pairs of socks
2. Finish the Cardigan for Merry
3. Knit (or at least begin to knit) an Alan Dart toy

That's it!

In other news, I am terribly frustrated with the Cable Net socks. I've now knit the leg twice and it just doesn't work. My gauge changed and the sock is way too big. I thought I probably knit the wrong size by accident so I tried again with the smaller size and it was way too small. I'm so frustrated that I don't even want to look at the yarn anymore. I think Cable Net sock #1 won't ever have a mate.

Simply irresistible!

A few weeks ago, I went to Ariadne and spent an afternoon knitting with Molly Ann and Jennie.

Jennie was knitting a super cute Alan Dart toy (a sleepy hedgehog). The pattern was in Irresistible Gifts to Knit, which is filled with toy patterns from Alan Dart.

Now despite the fact that I've never knit a toy in my life, I couldn't resist and I ordered the book a few days later. And I got it today! Everything is SO cute! See the hedgehog! There's also a fantastic pirate, a very cute elephant, not to mention Noah's ark, Mr and Mrs Noah and a whole bunch of animals.

My favourite pattern, though, is defnitely the Yuletide Gnomes. Adorable!

So yeah, I've never knit toys, but now it's all I want to knit. I wish I didn't already have 162 items in my Ravelry queue because I'm about to add a dozen more.

(BTW, if anyone wants to order the book, I got it here for 11.95£ including shipping.

New yarn for your pleasure

WARNING: I'm going to talk about the May shipment of Lotus Yarn's sock club! Stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled!

Ok, before I talk about the new yarn, I want to mention two patterns that I've discovered on Ravelry recently (thanks to the option that allows you to look at what your friends put in their queue!).

Numéro Un: Le Lapin Noir (Sorry I don't have a non-Ravelry link. If you're not on Ravelry, you need to get an account now!). Isn't it beautiful? I've never tried intarsia but this really makes me want to try it. And I'd probably use the same colours too, they're perfect.

Numéro Deux: B-side cardigan (non-Ravelers click here). This one showed up on many of my friends' queue so I have a feeling it's going to be très popular.

I also really like this pattern (here also), which I found on Lime and Violet's Daily Chum. Simple, yet very pretty.

Ok, so now I'm ready to show the yarn.



Pretty? I think so too. The name of the yarn is "The Clash" and it's 100% Superwash merino. I'm not sure which pattern I'll use with it. I think I may actually just knit it in plain stockinette and see how it looks.

Oh and is it bad that I can't wait till the June shipment already?

Shopping!

Yesterday, I realized that I had a gift certificate to Effiloché that expires on May 30th. So, what other choice did I have but to use it, right? Not to mention that I had to go to the store right in front of it to get a new passport picture.

Speaking of which: I know everyone thinks their passport pic is ugly, but mine truly is the ugliest! No one ever told me I had one eye so much higher than the other! It's almost on my forehead! Man! But oh well, the pic has been taken, it's now in the hands of the passport people (btw, fellow Canadians, don't you just love the new simplified passport renewal process?)

That being said, I'm sure you want me to get back to the point: the yarn! I looked at my Ravelry queue to figure out what project I wanted to knit soon that I didn't have yarn for. I found one: the Montego Bay scarf! I figured it could be a good project to bring along on a trip (aren't I the planner!) So I bought this beautiful Sea Silk:



It's going to be a beautiful scarf, let me tell you! I'm itching to cast on for it right away.

I had money left on my gift certificate so I also bought this:



Handmaiden Casbah. 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% Nylon. It's going to be the most comfortable pair of socks ever. If I use it for socks. We'll see.

I am ashamed!

This is going to be a quick post because I need to go to work in an hour. Here's a FO!



Pattern: No pattern. Plain stockinette socks.
Yarn: Opal feelings, colour 1704
Needles: 2.25 mm bamboo dpns

I am very happy with them, they're very comfortable and cute. I just wish the brown sequence didn't go so long (it's actually a lightish brown, followed by a slightly darker brown, followed by the lightish brown again, but it just looks like a huge brown stripe).

That being said, I am ashamed. When I uploaded the pic in my Photobucket FO account, I realized that this pair of socks is only my SECOND finished project this year!!! The only other thing I've made in 2008 is a pair of fuzzy mittens (which I have lost, btw).

I know I had lost my knitting mojo for most of the year and there was a lot going on in my life, but seriously, two FOs by May? It's crazy!

I'm hoping to have #3 soon, as I have wound the yarn for Cable Net sock #2. It will probably take me a long time to finish them because of all the tiny cables, but I'll do my best.

Two FOs. I can't believe it.

Summer of socks 2008

These days, all I want to do is knit socks. Mostly because I want to use my sock yarn, so I can buy new sock yarn without feeling guilty.

So I decided to join in on the fun of Summer of Socks 2008. It starts on June 21st, until September 1st.

I didn't enter the "most knit socks" contest, because I'll be lucky if I finish two pairs (I am still planning on knitting other things). I also didn't enter the "vacation" contest, because my vacation will be in September, most likely.

I just decided to set my own personal sock knitting goals. I would like to finish the second Cable net sock (I'm actually hoping to finish it before the Summer of Socks starts, but we'll see). And then I'd like to knit three pairs of socks. Not sure I can do it, but I sure will try.

I WILL NOT BUY ANY SOCK YARN UNTIL THE END OF THE SUMMER.

The Lotus Yarn sock club yarn doesn't count because it's already bought. Oh and I still have some gift certificate from Effiloché that I might use to buy sock yarn. Ok screw what I just wrote, I will most likely buy sock yarn. Which is why I need to knit socks.

Speaking of which, did you see the Knitty surprises? The sweater is very nice (Tempest), but I don't think I'll ever knit it. But the socks (Froot Loop) are already in my queue!

Ok look at the time. I need to get ready for work (of course that happens when all I really want to do is look at patterns online or knit!)

New camera! New IK!

I got a new camera! Woohoo! I LOVE it! I've been playing with it quite a bit, but I haven't taken any good knitting-related pics yet so I don't have anything to post. But it's great. It's a Canon Power Shot A720 IS.

I'm almost done with my plain vanilla socks, so I should have a pic to show soon.

In other knitting news, the preview for the summer 2008 issue of is up! I gotta say I'm pretty disappointed in this issue. It's just not my style. But if there are any IK-designers reading this, don't feel bad, it's definitely a case of "it's not you, it's me". People are raving about the issue on Ravelry.

There is one pattern that made my heart beat a little faster though. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was love. Yes, I am totally talking about the Apres Surf Hoodie. IN LOVE I AM. It's beautiful. I want one.

And just like that, it became item #148 in my Ravelry queue. It will probably get made sometime in 2026...