Why are there so many talented and creative people in the world?

Designers, I love you all, but you're making my life difficult.

As I'm happily continuing to work on the simple cardigan from a FCEK magazine, I'm daydreaming about what kind of sweater I want to make next. My "things I want to make someday" list is getting quite long, but for the next project, I had narrowed it down to two:

Simple Knitted Bodice

AND

Central Park Hoodie

But then someone posted a link to this:

Lucy in the Sky.

Awwww. It's so pretty! I want it!

So please, designers of the world, take a (well-deserved) break*. I have too much to knit already and I need to catch up without being distracted by new beautiful patterns.

* I'm just kidding of course. I surf pattern sites like others surf porn.

Happy Head

It's getting quite cold in Montreal so it was the perfect timing to finish a new hat!




(I swear I'm not stoned on that picture. My eyes have been itchy since yesterday).

Pattern is Véronik Avery's Short row hat (Pattern in pdf format).

I used the recommended yarn, Faith, by Ami-Ami, colour A-48. The yarn is very soft and the hat is warm. Let's just hope I won't lose this one!

Last Friday was Stitch N' Bitch night at a new yarn store, Effiloché. Some people from the Montreal Knits group were there, as well as a bunch of other people I had never met before. The evening was nice and I got to touch a lot of beautiful yarn. I also got to see the original Clapotis as well as the original Union Square Market Pullover (Kate Gilbert, the designer, teaches knitting classes at Effiloché).

I was very good and I only bought two things. I got a skein of Austermann Step sock yarn. The yarn has Aloe Vera and Jojoba oil in it, which makes it so incredibly soft. I can't stop fondling it since I got it back home. The colour I got is the one used for the fingerless mitts on this page (I'm not affialiated with this site at all, I just found it when I googled the yarn's name).

I also bought the fall 2006 issue of Knitscene (finally, there's a place in Montreal where we can buy this magazine!). I got it only because of this pattern. It's so beautiful. It's so me. I must knit it.

I will leave you guys with the preview for the next Interweave Knits magazine. I like a lot of the patterns but my favourite one is the cardigan for Arwen, though I would personally make it a bit longer.

Hmmm, Fall!

Fall is my favourite season. This past weekend was so perfect. It was sunny, and just cold enough to wear a scarf and a sweater. My boyfriend and I decided to rent a car, get a hotel room and go to Quebec City for the weekend.

I knitted for part of the trip, so I could finally progress on the Jaywalkers:



I'm getting close to the toe on the first sock. I'm loving the colours.



How could anyone not LOVE fall? The leaves were so beautiful in Quebec all weekend, I could have taken thousands of pictures.



Fall is also apple season. So we went apple picking in L'Île d'Orléans.





We brought back a huge bag of apples. What will we do with all of this?, you ask.


Apple bread. It's delicious.

Socktober 1st

Socktoberfest has officially begun!

I was hoping to post a pic of my Jaywalkers-in-progress today, but I just realised I left it at my boyfriend's.

So instead, I'm going to talk about all the socks I've made in my knitting career. Don't worry, it won't take too much time.

My first socks were made of Bernat Hot Sox. Yes, acrylic. I don't wear them often (they are way too big), but surprisingly, when I do, they don't make my feet sweat. I was extremely proud of them when I made them. I used a simple pattern from the Lion Brand website.

I then discovered the wonders that are self-striping yarns and made these simple socks. I think I used the same pattern, but smaller needles.

Then, a secret pal was wonderful enough to send me some Fleece Artist sock yarn. I instantly fell in love with it. And I made a pair of feather and fan socks from Socks Socks Socks. I think they're my favourite socks to date.

For Christmas 2005, I decided to give socks as a gift. My mom's boyfriend got these, my little sister got these and my mom got the Go with the flow socks from a past issue of Interweave Knits.

That same Christmas, I gave my godfather some simple ribbed grey socks (pictured with the other Christmas socks).

I got a little sick of socks after that, but I got right back into them for the Knitting Olympics. I made the Embossed Leaves socks, designed by the lovely Mona for Interweave Knits, as well as a pair of simple blue socks. Sadly, I didn't finish them in time to win the Olympics.

The last pair I made are these, using no pattern at all, for the first time. I started them while I was on a business trip to Paris (I love to say that).

So that's it. Next post will (hopefully) have a picture of my sock WIP.

Celebrating Socks

I joined Socktoberfest!



I'll try to post about socks (I mean more than usual) during the month of October. If you love socks, do the same!

My goal :

1) Finish the Jaywalkers
2) Start to teach myself to knit 2 socks on 2 circs

Sock lusting

Remember how I fell in love with the Cable Net socks from the new issue of Knitty?

Well believe it or not, I found a sock pattern I like even more. Meet the Bayerische sock by Eunny Jang. It's so beautiful it almost made me weep.

I definitely want to make me a pair (as well as a pair of Cable net because I still love them). But before I do that, I must:

a)Finish the Jaywalkers (and considering I'm still on the leg of the first sock, it may take a while).

b)Teach myself how to knit two socks on two circs, something I'd rather do with a plain sock pattern.

So yeah, it will probably be 2007 before I make these beautiful socks. But I will.

Also, my good friend Bianka gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy (named Isaac) on Monday. I held him when he was only one day old! Of course, now I really want to knit something for him. I was thinking of making Kate Gilbert's Peapod set (scroll down the page to see it). I could make it in a six month size and give it to him for Christmas. I'll see. I've been wanting to knit this since I first saw it.

UPDATES ON MY PROJECTS

Kiri shawl: I've been working on it quite a bit this week but I keep making mistakes. I must pay more attention when I'm knitting lace, no matter how easy the pattern is. I really want to finish this for my cousin's wedding on Oct. 14 but at this rate, it's not going to happen.

FCEK blueberry cardigan: I haven't touched it since I've finished the back.

Jaywalkers: Like I said, I'm almost done with the leg of the first sock. I'm loving the yarn I'm using (Regia in one of the Canadian colours).

Knitty!

Ok, if I only knit one thing from the new Knitty, it will be the Cable net socks. Most.beautiful.socks.ever.

Projects update:

Blueberry cardigan: Back is done. Will start the sleeves soon.

Jaywalkers: I decided to frog and reknit them. So I only have about an inch done.

Kiri: Haven't touched it in weeks. I really need to get back to it. I'm using magnificent fall colours. It needs to be done now!

Wool and needles

You know, I really hate not having a camera. In one week I'll finally be able to post pictures again (and I'll get to see my boyfriend after two weeks without him!).

I'll be able to post a new Mariah pic because it finally has a zipper! Yay!

Did I ever mentionned how much I love shopping online for yarn? I'm having a love affair with Knitpicks. Seriously. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping in the Montreal yarn stores too. But I can rarely afford a sweater's worth of wool in stores here. And I LOVE to receive packages.

I received one two days ago. The Blueberry Wool of the Andes is the perfect colour for the cardigan I wanted to make. Perfect. I also got some sock yarn that I can't wait to try. I also can't wait to try my new needles! I want to do the two socks on two circs thing.

As you may have guessed, I cast on for the new cardigan right away. I have 10" of the back done. It's going to be beautiful!

Hello, I'm still alive!

I haven't posted in quite some time because I haven't had anything interesting to post about (also, I'm very busy with work).

Mariah is still zipper-less. And Kiri is kicking my ass. I realized that the spine wasn't aligned correctly and decided to start over again. I'll call it the shawl of perseverence. The most annoying thing is that it's actually an easy pattern but I can't seem to make it work. Needless to say, I won't finish it by the end of August and I WILL start something else before it's done.

I've gotten bored with the Jaywalkers after I turned the heel. I realized they're going to be too big for me so I'll give them to my mom, probably for Christmas. Even though I had told myself I wouldn't knit any gifts this year, I'm beginning to feel the itch to start making things for people. Oh well.

I bought yarn from Knitpicks to make another cardigan, this time from an old issue of Family Circle. I can't find a pic of the original sweater online, but I found one that someone made on this blog. Funny, it looks like the colour I ordered (I got Wool of the Andes in Blueberry). I also ordered some of the Knitpicks needles, some sock yarn that was on sale as well as a bunch of colour cards (I was especially happy to see they had a Wool of the Andes colour card back in stock as I plan to order it often).

Mariah!

Mariah is pretty much done and only needs a zipper. I'm not sure when I'll have time to go and buy one (and install it) so here's an almost-FO pic:



No need to tell me how bad the picture is, I know! I'm alone in the house and this is the best I could get before I got the "batteries exhausted" warning. The camera had just enough energy left for me to upload the picture. I look like shit, c'est la vie. I'll have my boyfriend take a better picture once the zipper is in.

The Kiri shawl is the other project I'd like to finish this month before I start my fall projects. I'm on the seventh repeat right now and I'll probably do 12 of them.

I got the new IK today. I also saw the new Vogue Knitting but I'll probably buy it later. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many copies there were in the bookstore (especially of VK). I remember when I first started to buy knitting mags, there would be 2-3 copies in the bookstores. More copies = more knitters. Yay!

So, in the new Interweave Knits, my favourite patterns would be Coral Crossing and the Weekend pullover. I don't think I'll make anything from that issue anytime soon though. Not that the designs aren't lovely, I just have many other projects in mind.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that I started a pair of Jaywalkers. I LOVE THAT PATTERN! I'm using Regia sock yarn in one of the Canadian colours. They will probably be the most beautiful socks I've ever made (and I know I say that about every pair I make but I really mean it).

Avoiding the stash

A couple of posts ago, I mentionned Elann's hemp yarn that was on sale. Jeannie suggested that I buy it even if I'm not planning on using it for a long time. I'll admit I was very tempted. But I'm a weird kind of knitter.

I don't want a stash.

It's not that I think knitters shouldn't accumulate crazy amount of yarn. There's a part of me that wishes I could have my own yarn store in my appartment. I do look at people's stash pics and I drool. I'm only human.

But I don't want a stash.

Of course, having a little stash becomes pretty much inevitable at some point, unless you're the type of knitter who can buy yarn for one project and not buy anything else until it's done. I'm not like that and I tend to buy yarn thinking I'll start a project after I'm done with my current ones, but by the time I'm finished, I often don't feel like knitting the item I had planned after all. I've also received yarn as gifts and I have participated in Secret Pals exchanges. Not to mention that I have a bunch of crappy yarn that I bought when I was just starting and didn't know better.

So I do have a little stash but so far it fits into two medium-sized baskets. Oh and I also have a couple of cones. As well as a few skeins in a drawer. But that's it.

You may be wondering why I don't want a stash. It's simple. I live in a small one bedroom appartment. I have no space for a stash (and I tend to clutter and don't want to make my problem worse). So I feel guilty when I have too much. Then I feel like I should really use what I have and I end up having to knit stuff I don't necessarily feel like knitting just because I want to use up yarn.

So I try not to buy yarn unless I *know* I'll use it soon. The only exception (HA! Of course there's an exception) is sock yarn. I don't mind buying it even if I don't think I'll use it right away because I know for sure it'll get used eventually. I have some yarn (mostly the crappy acrylics I mentionned before or balls of yarn that are leftover from other projects) that I have no idea if I'll ever use. But sock yarn? I'm not worried. I still try not to go crazy and buy 20 balls at once though.

So today I went to the yarn store and got yarn for two pairs:


I'll see if I can work on Kiri at tonight's knitting meetup, but that may not be possible so I won't have any choice but to start a new pair of socks (poor little me!) ;)

Oh and I'm sure you're all dying for an update on Mariah. Well let's just say I had no idea that knitting a stupid hood would take that long. I'm almost there though.

I'll end this post with a link to a beautiful sweater pattern: Clicky!. I'm not sure when I'll have the time to make this, but I really want to!

So close!

This is where I am with Mariah. It actually looks like a sweater now!



Only 12 more rows and then I'll get to start the hood. And then all the knitting will be finished. Yippee!

I went window shopping on Knitpicks today. I don't want to order anything right now (or else I'll be too tempted to cast on for a new project) but if I did, I would order:

10 ball of Wool of the Andes in Sapphire Heather. That would be for what's probably going to be my next sweater (a very simple cardigan from a past issue of FCEK)

2 balls of Knitpicks Simple Stripe in Autumn.

Knitpicks classic circular needles in size 1 (one 24" and one 32/).

I would also order colour cards for Andean Silk, Palette, Merino Style and Shadow & Gossamer. I badly want a Wool of the Andes colour card but they don't seem to sell them anymore. Bummer.

Anyways, all of this would bring me to a grand total of 41.86$ + shipping (I'm in Canada so no free shipping for me, sadly). It's still pretty cheap.

*sigh* A girl can dream.

If everything goes according to my plan, I'll make an order in mid-August so I'll be sure to have to yarn on hand when I'm allowed ready to start a new project. Of course, by then I'll probably have changed my mind about what the next project will be so I may decide to order something else entirely. In the meantime, the virtual order will remain in my Knitpicks cart.

Month of the UFOs

As I've mentionned before, it is my goal to finish my current projects before I start new ones (though the fair isle sock doesn't count as a current project, I'm still not sure I'll ever finish it, let alone its twin). To keep me motivated, I joined this:



I invite all of you who want to finish those beautiful objects to join too!

I was hoping to post progress pics, but I'm at my mom's for the weekend and I forgot my camera. But here's an update anyways:

Mariah: Things are going well, but I have to tell you, those yoke rows are going a lot slower than I expected. Of course there's over 300 stitches on the needles (the good news is that I decrease every right side row). I'm not sure I'll finish it before the end of my holidays, but I'll try.

Kiri: I worked on it today during the hour long bus ride to my mom's. I love that thing, which is good because it's going to be almost the only thing I'll work on after I finish Mariah.

I say *almost* because of course I'll need to cast on a pair of socks (or maybe I'll go with slippers) so I have something to bring to knitting meetups. But new socks don't count as new projects (as long as I don't have more than one OTN, fair isle socks non included).

I got an email from Elann this week about a sale on this nice hemp yarn. I was very tempted since I remember a beautiful pattern made with hemp in a back issue of Interweave. I resisted, though, because I have many things on my dream knit list already. The colour I wanted (raspberry) is all gone anyways.

I'll end this post by saying that I love the orange sweater on the front of the new Knit Simple. Love it.

Go Red Sox!

The red socks are DONE. I love the colours and I'm currently wearing them even though the weather is not really one for warm socks. My appartment is pretty cool though so I'm not sweating.

I feel like I hadn't had a finished object to post in forever! In fact, when I uploaded the red socks pic in my 2006 finished objects gallery, I realized I have only completed seven projects this year so far. It's crazy.

In comparison, last year I finished something like 20 projects.

I mean, my goal isn't to knit more and more each year, so it's really no big deal. Mariah was (is!) a challenging project for me and I prefer to finish it than to knit 20 hats and scarves. I guess I was just surprised today to see so few finished objects so far this year.

I am happy to say, though, that Mariah will definitely be finished this year! My goal was to have her done by August 6th and if I don't get distracted by other projects life, there should be no problem. In fact, I finished (re)knitting the sleeves! So now I only have to join all the pieces and knit the yoke and hood. And sew the zipper.

In other news, the fall previews are up for Interweave Knits and Vogue knitting. They've actually been up for quite sometime now (especially the IK ones) but I don't think I've mentionned them yet. Both issues look promising. IK once again have great patterns by Montreal based designers : Véronik Avery, Mona Schmidt and Kate Gilbert.

Other good news (or bad news, from the wallet's point of view): KnitPicks has new yarn AND new colours for some of their old yarns. I WANT THEM ALL!

Books!

I received the books I ordered from Elann.




I love the way Elizabeth Zimmermann writes. And the afghan project is something I'd like to do someday. Will I ever get around to it? Who knows!

Projects update

Mariah:
Sleeves are going well. I'm actually a little bit further than that. My goal is to finish them by the end of next week, but I'm not sure it's going to happen. We'll see.

Kiri: I've only knitted a few row of it since the last time. I'm too much into Mariah to even think about finishing this one right now.

Red Socks: I turned the heel and am now on the gusset on sock #2.

To blog or not to blog

There's currently a thread in the Knitters' review forums on knitting blogs and the fact that there are a lot of them. The original poster thinks there are too many uninteresting ones. I guess it depends on what you think is interesting. I know some people love blogs with techniques and tutorials. I like them too, though they aren't the ones I read regularly (I usually find them when I'm googling a particular technique, and boy am I glad they exist).

I like to read about other people's projects. Mostly because it gives me inspiration (not that I need any new projects ideas right now ;) ). For instance, I have now added this cardigan to my list of future projects. Not because I like it so much on the pattern picture, but because I've seen it finished on this blog (see her 4th of July post). Gorgeous!

I also like to read blog posts on project I'm currently making. If you've made Mariah, I've probably read your blog. Seeing pictures of it finished motivates me to work on mine.

I also like to read knitting blogs simply because knitters are so damn cool and nice. Saying there are too many knitting blogs is like saying there are too many flavours of ice cream. You can choose to eat only vanilla if you want, but I like variety (and now I'm craving a mint & chocolate chips ice cream cone).

Projects update:

Mariah: I've picked it up again! I know that some people don't like KnitPicks's Wool of the Andes, but I personally adore it. I've done quite a bit of progress on the sleeves in the past week. My goal is to finish them in the next two weeks and to finish the sweater by the time my holidays are over (I'll be off from work from July 28 to August 5). I think it's a pretty reasonnable goal.

Kiri: I frogged half of it and I don't think I'll touch it much until I'm done with Mariah. But I will finish it, I promise.

Red socks: I'm almost up to the heel flap on the second sock. I love them!

Completion and destruction

I didn't feel too good and the end of last week so I ordered two books : Barbara Walker's Learn to Knit Afghan and Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I should receive them sometime next week or the one after.

Ongoing projects update:

Mariah: Still haven't touched it. That should change too cause I have a feeling I'll put the shawl aside for a while (see below).

Kiri shawl: See that pic:



That was the shawl after, I don't know, six repeats or soo. Notice the little pale blue thread close to the needle? That's a lifeline. I religiously used lifelines for these six repeats and then I got cocky. I hadn't really made a big mistake so far, so why use lifelines? I'm now on the 9th repeat and I've done something wrong that I can't identify. As much as I don't want to rip it all back to that six-repeat lifeline, I think it'll be easier to do so than to try to find the mistake and fix it. :(

Red socks: Of course, with the shawl catastrophe, I needed an easy knit so I worked on the sock.



And the rib is almost done on sock #2.

Blast from the past

My boyfriend comes from Drummondville and while we were there last weekend, we decided to go to the Village quebecois d'antan, which recreates a village in Quebec in the 19th-beginning of 20th centuries.

The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time. Of course, I spent the whole time taking pictures of yarn...







... spinning wheels...



...sheeps...





...and pretty much anything that had something to do with yarn and knitting!







In other knitting-news, I'm keeping up with my resolution not to start anything new until I finish projects. I haven't made that much progress, but I'm getting there... slowly...

Mariah: Haven't touched it since the last post
Kiri Shawl: I'm on the 9th repeat (I'll probably go up to 12 after all). I made a mistake in the last row though so I'll have to fix it before I go on.
Red socks: I'm on the foot (of the first sock)

Must.finish.projects...

No pictures in this post, unfortunately, and that's because I can't seem to finish anything.

So I decided I wouldn't participate in the World Cup Knitting challenge thing. Nope.

I'm also resisting the urge to cast on for this top.

Or for Tubey. Or for this cool cabled cardigan that I saw on Crafsters a while ago and that I have the pattern for (it's from an old Vogue Knitting magazine). I also won't start an alphabet blanket, felted clogs for my boyfriend, Madli's Shawl (using the cashmere I bought on Ebay) or a Clapotis.

Nope.

This summer, I am finishing stuff. From now on and until these projects are finished, I can only work on three things:

-Mariah. This sweater should have been done a long long time ago (if only I didn't decide to start over the sleeves, we wouldn't be having this discussion). I know I can finish it before fall comes back and I'll be happy to have a new sweater when it gets colder.

-The Kiri shawl (pattern in pdf format here). I'm loving working on this so I don't doubt I'll finish it soon. I have almost 7 repeats of the pattern done so far and I'm planning on doing 10-12 of them.

-Socks. The plain red socks that I started while I was in Europe.

The only exception to my "I'm not starting a new project before I finish these" rule is that I will be able to start a new pair of socks when I finish the red ones. That's only because I need a portable and easy project that I can work on during the knitting meetups.

Hopefully I'll be able to stick to this commitment and you guys will have FO pics to see soon :)

Back home!

I came back home last Thursday after a three weeks business trip/vacation to Paris and London. It was great. Unfortunately, though, I worked so much in the first two weeks that when my week of vacation started, I was exhausted! But I still managed to have a good time.

I only visited one LYS during my trip, La Droguerie on Rue du jour in Paris. It was a lovely shop and I was especially interested in their bamboo yarn but I ended up not buying anything. I did, however, buy this beautiful scarf in another shop.



It is not knitted but it is handmade and beautiful. And it kept my neck warm which is a good thing since apparently, Paris and London never got the memo that it's almost summer now. It was so damn cold the whole time I was there!

While I didn't buy any yarn during my trip, I did spend a bit of time knitting. I began a pair of striped socks:



I'm loving the colour!

I also started the Kiri shawl with some AmiAmi yarn. I can already tell it's going to be a beautiful thing, even though it currently looks like crap.



I can't wait till it's finished. I'm working on it like a maniac even though I really should get back to Mariah. I told myself I wouldn't start any new sweater until I'm done with this one and of course there are one million sweaters I want to start right now.

Today I went to the bookstore and was happy to see that they hadn't sold all their copies of the summer issue of IK (I got the last one!). I think I want to make the Looking glass top, except without the cable in the back. I'm also totally in love with the Icarus shawl (actually, I think I'm just totally in love with lace shawl knitting).

Ok that's all for today. I now have three weeks worth of knitting blogs to go read :p