Hmmmm yarn...

So, did you guys see the new Knit Picks yarn?

Seriously, Knit Picks, cashmere? How am I supposed to ever save money if you always come up with new ways to FORCE me to order? ;)

Capra Cashmere Yarn
Ok I know it's only 15% cashmere, but the other 85 % is merino which is yummy too. The colours are great too. I will definitely be ordering (no, not now) at least enough to make me a cute little scarf.

There are also some new colours in other yarns. I like the new City Tweed colours and there are some new yummy shades of the Stroll sock yarns too. And check out the new Palette! I love that yarn for mittens.

*sigh*

You know, I really need to actually start knitting again so I can justify buying all this new yarn.

I know...

It's been a LONG LONG while since I last posted. A little more than a month actually! Crazy! I've been wanting to post but just never got around to it as I couldn't find anything I wanted to write about. It's silly because things have been happening.

I mean we just moved into our brand new home! And let me tell you, I love everything about it. It's huge compared to our last place. And I'm loving the new neighborhood. I don't leave as close to the metro as I used to (it used to be a 2 min. walk) but it still takes me pretty much the same amount of time to get to work. So all is good and we don't regret our choice.

The *only* bad thing about our home is that we can't get a signal for our cell phone whenever we're inside! Unless we are close to the window, in the living room. And even then, I sometime lose the signal. It sucks because we haven't had a home phone in years, we only just use our cell phones. We'll definitely have to get a home line now.

We also had two weeks of vacation following the move. We spent most of that time in our new place, settling in. It was fun and I would have taken many more weeks off. But I did have to go back to work two weeks ago. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Yesterday I spent the whole day at parc Jean-Drapeau for the Osheaga festival.



It was lots of fun. We saw K'Naan, Stars, The National, Pavement and my beloved Arcade Fire. It was great. Unfortunately, I started having a killer headache early in the evening. By the time Arcade Fire came on, I thought my head was going to explode. Still, I endured for about an hour but then we decided to leave during the last song of the main set. I don't regret it though as we were able to catch the metro right away. My friend who stayed until the end said it was crazy to wait for the metro after the show.

Chris had a media pass for the festival so he went again today. I wish I could have gone but I'm still not feeling too well plus it's a bit on the expensive side. Today had Metric and Weezer. I would have loved to see them.

Oh and I know this is a knitting blog, but I think I must have knit something like three rows (three LONG rows) of my shawl in the past month. I'm really itching to start new project, but I know if I stop knitting the shawl, I'll never finish it. I really need to try and knit at least a little bit every night so I can hopefully finish it in the next month or so.

Did you guys see the new Twist Collective? It's so nice!

I absolutely adore Red Oak but I don't see myself ever making it. I can't wait to see some FOs of it though. I also like Peregrine, but I'm afraid it'd give me too much cleavage (I'm heavy on the boobie front, if you know what I mean).

I queued Lallans, Gwendolyn (I'd make it without the green border though), Anthera (I especially like the cowl) and Twinflower.

Ok I'll try to write again before the end of the month ;)

Bye bye Petite-Patrie!

We are moving into our NEW HOUSE tomorrow. I'll be sad to leave our current neighbourhood, but I'm excited to discover a new one.

Next time I post, I'll be in NDG!

One week!

In one week we will finally be in our new home. OUR home. It's so exciting! Last weekend, we took a long walk in our new neighbourhood and I can tell we're going to love it. Especially the big park that is less than a 5 min. walk from our house.

As you can imagine, we are insanely busy right now, which explains the lack of blogging (and the lack of knitting). We're still not all done with packing (it will be done on the weekend) and I've been working lots of overtime too. I'm telling you, I cannot wait to be on vacation!

Last weekend, right before we left to go on our walk, I had the TV on at HGTV but I wasn't really paying attention to it. Then I looked up and saw this:



Knitting on TV! Hehe. It was a show called Kirstie's Homemade Home and she was in a yarn shop learning to knit I guess. I didn't watch much because we had to leave and it looked like it was beginner stuff anyways, but still it was fun to see!

Public service announcement

People, I need your attention.

If you like ice cream, bananas and healthy food, this post will, as it claims, change your life.

OMG. YUM. I will be eating this all summer long!



I added a date cookie in mine, which makes it a little less healthy I guess ;) Oh and if you make it, make sure your bananas are plenty ripe. Mine weren't ripe enough so it probably wasn't as good as it should have been.

sports + knitting = ♥

Blob status = I finished chart 2 (woohoo!) and am now halfway through chart 3. It's a good thing I love the yarn.

Now you all know I love to knit while watching hockey. Or (American) football. I'm a Habs and Alouettes girl! But I've also learned to love soccer so I'm having lots of fun knitting while watching world cup games.



The thing I like about the world cup is that because Canada doesn't have a team, everyone around me is rooting for a different team. We got Italy, France, Portugal, England, Spain (etc.) supporters at work. It's fun. As for me, I got my t-shirt to show my support:



Grandma would be proud!

My life in boxes

My knitting closet is no more. Everything but what I need for my current projects is in boxes.



omg, I am moving in less than four weeks! I'm both exciting and scared (I've never owned a home before)!

I will have to figure out where to put all that knitting stuff in the new house. While our new place will be much bigger than our current appartment, it lacks a bit in storage space. We want to change that, but it won't all happen this year. So I'll have to figure out something.

On the knitting front, I'm still spending all my free time (the little free time I have these days) making the blob grow. It's getting big. I'm almost done with Chart 2, and then I'll have to do Chart 3 and Chart 4 and the edging. They're not big charts but it's still taking me forever. Sometimes I wonder if that shawl will ever end!

The blob

Judging by the comments on my last post, you all seem to want to see the blob, even if it looks identical to the last blob pic.

Well I live to serve. So here you go, taken this morning:



Icarus-in-progress. It's funny how, at the beginning, the project was knitting up so quickly I thought I'd be done in no time. Yeah right. Now that the rows have billions of stitches, I can't ever knit more than one or two a night. I finally started the second chart two nights ago. My goals is to finish the whole thing before the move (though I may have to wait until I'm in the new house to block it). I think I can do that.

And now my question to you, dear blog readers: How do you block your shawls? Do you use blocking wires?

Speaking of which, does anyone know where (if) you can buy blocking wires in Montreal?

What do you want to read?

As I mentionned (I think) in my last post, I've been working on bigger projects these days. More specifically, a shawl and a cardigan.

I'm loving both projects but it poses a problem as far as this blog goes. I've been thinking about what I should write about and I have no idea. There's only so much I can say about shawl knitting, especially since I've been repeating the same rows over and over and over (I'll be starting the border soon, yay!). I don't have anything to say about the cardigan because I haven't touched it in weeks, specifically because I want to get to that damn shawl border already!

Anyways. A shawl in progress looks like a blob. I could post a pic of the current blob, but it wouldn't look much different than last week's blob.

So I've been wondering. What do you, readers, want me to write about? Regular life? (there isn't much going on, really). Future knitting projects? Food? Or should I stay silent until I have a FO to show? Is anyone still reading this blog?

Anywayyyyys. As I was saying, I'm loving the big projects. As much as I LOVE knitting socks, hats, mittens, etc., there's something very satisfying about the act of making a whole sweater out of strings, you know? I just hope I can be happy with the end product, especially since I've been dreaming of future sweaters lately.

These days, I'm daydreaming about the Notre-Dame de Grâce pullover. Ha. You think it has anything to do with the fact that it's the name of my future neighbourhood? I don't know. But I love it. Now, why do I dream of big cosy sweaters when it's two million degrees outside? My mind is weird.

Unfortunately, I won't get to knit the NDG sweater for a while, since I don't have the yarn and I'm not buying any for a while. Oh well...

Wip it good

I haven't been posting much lately. I'm currently on a yarn diet so I don't have any goodies to post. And I'm working on bigger projects, so I don't have any FO either. Life has been pretty ordinary. Work, work, pack and work. I am incredibly excited about our move in July, but damn I hate the whole packing thing. I can't wait until we're there!

I've been mostly working on the Icarus shawl and I now only have one of the center repeats left. Unfortunately, a shawl-in-progress isn't an wasy object to photograph. It'll looks good when it's done, but now it doesn't look like much.





Hopefully I'll have an FO to share soon.

In other news, after not knitting socks for a few weeks, I find I'm itching to knit them again. I may do the summer of socks thing. I also need to start a baby blanket for a friend.

Ok, back to the shawl and hockey watching. I'm hoping it won't be the last game of the season.

Busy Bee

My man is currently out of town for the week-end and I purposefully didn't make any plans (other than a dinner with friends Friday night). I wanted a quiet week-end, filled with knitting and that's what I got! I was busy!

I am still working on the Honeybee cardigan and I realized I'll probably be spending the next few months working on it. It's going slowly, but I can see progress.





I have 5 inches done. I need 15 before I start the sleeves. Yeah, it'll take a while ;) But I'm loving working with the yarn (Knit Picks Gloss), so that's ok.

Yesterday, I finished my Kai-Mei socks.





Pattern: Kai-Mei, by Cookie A., from her book Sock Innovation.
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rocks, Lightweight in 24 Karat
Needles: 2.25 mm DPNs
Mods: I was scared I'd run out of yarn so I made the leg one inch shorter.

Oddly enough, I don't feel like making socks right now (shocking, I know) so I didn't rush and cast on another pair as soon as I finished these. Instead, I cast on for the Icarus shawl, using this yarn:



(Knit Picks Shimmer in Maple Leaf)

I'm hoping my shawl will be as beautiful as this one. Yeah, call me copycat, I don't care. I saw it and now I want it. ;)

Oh and I went to Effiloché earlier today to get needles for the shawl and I did.not.buy.any.yarn. Willpower. I have some. I did go and fondle the Tanis Fiber Art sock yarn though.

Already tempted

So I decide I need to go on a yarn diet until the end of the year (crazy idea, I know) and Knit Picks decide to release these yummy sock cocktails: Mojito, Violet Martini and Rob Roy.

Yum.

Don't worry, I'm tempted but I won't buy. :)

PSA

April 24 - May 1st is National Infertility Awareness Week. As you play with your kids today, or tuck them into bed tonight, please take a minute to empathize with the millions of couples out there struggling to achieve what you have. If you or someone you love is affected by infertility, please post this in your Facebook status (or blog!) this week to show your support.

Stash. Meet new yarn.

My last post ended with a little bit of yarn porn and I'm now continuing where I left off. I got a big box from Knit Picks a few days ago, filled with goodies. I had gotten a 10 % off coupon and couldn't resist ordering. Wanna see?

First, I got a set of 2.75 mm Harmony DPNs. I love these needles so much, I already have three sets of the 2.25 mm but sometimes I need a little bigger so now I'm all set.

But I know you all really want to know about the yarn, right? Well here you go.



I got 8 skeins of Comfy Worsted in Honey Dew. My best friend is pregnant and due in November and I definitely want to knit her something. My first plan was to do something like this. But then I was browsing projects made with Comfy and I found this. I think we have a winner. I still have a long time to make this but I want to start on it ASAP so I don't have to do a knitting marathon in the Fall.

Ok, I also got this:



Stroll Tonal in Springtime. What can I say? I love me some sock yarn and it's new and I just had to see it in person. Very pretty and very soft.



Shadow Kettle Dyed in Clementine (2 skeins). It's definitely not as bright (though it IS very bright) in real life, but I couldn't get the colour to photograph well. It reminds me of orange popsicle. You can see better pics of the colour here. That colour had been on my wish list for a while and when I ordered, I noticed it was now a "last chance" colour so I decided to buy it. Plus, I sort of have an obsession with laceweight these days.



Alpaca Cloud in Peppermint. This was an impulse buy. The soft was calling me. So I put it in my cart. I do NOT regret it. It's beautiful and omg soft! In fact, my only regret is that I got only one skein, because after my order had shipped, I found this pattern that was made for this yarn, but it requires two skeins. Oh well. I'm sure I can find a cute scarf pattern that'll only use up one skein.

So, that's all for the yarn porn. I kind of felt guitly about buying that much, so I decided it was time for me to start a little yarn diet. No more yarn buying in 2010. Eeek. That's a long time! But with the house we just bought, I can't justify buying more yarn, I have more than enough to last me until the end of the year (and the next, and the next, but a girl's gotta indulge once in a while). I hope I can do it!

Bits of softness

This post is brought to you by the word SOFT!

It's been 11 days since my last post (sorry!) and I got a lot to talk about. I've kind of gone crazy with my credit card (well crazy for me, I know some people are a lot worst). But before I get to the yarn porn, let me show you the current WIPs.

First, a sock of course. Cookie A. is the designer of the month for the Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge, so I figured it would be a good time to knit something from her fabulous book, Sock Innovation. I chose Kai-Mei because it's the one that had first caught my eye when I got the book. Here's the first sock in all it's unblocked glory:



Let me tell you, this picture definitely doesn't show the beauty of the sock. But I like to save the sock blocker pics for the finished pair.

Also, I'm someone who's usually late to the party and if there's a trend, I'll probably end up following it... two years after it went out of style. I find the same thing happens with knitting. In fact, I'm currently thinking that maybe I should make a Clapotis. ;) I'm saying that because my Kai-Mei are made with Socks that rock, and yes, it's my first time using it. And I LOVE it. I just love the fabric it makes, it feels sooooo good on my foot. *sigh* I'm sure that in 5 years, I'll tell you all about my love of Wollmeise... ;)

Ok, WIP #2. Believe it or not, I'm making a cardigan! I haven't made a garment in a long time and I hope that I'll finally make one that I actually want to wear. The fact that it's seamless will help. It's made of laceweight so it's not a quick knit, but here's the little bit I had done a few days ago:



It's the Honeybee cardigan and I'm using Knit Picks Gloss in Bordeaux. The yarn is very very soft and I love the colour. Funny thing: the Honeybee stitch pattern is very similar to the pattern on the foot of my Kai-Mei socks.

Ok, now I give you YARN PORN!

After looking many many times at SlackFord Studio's web page and hearing good thing about the yarn, I decided (after yet another bad day) that I needed yarn. So I present you:



Stalwart Sock in "From Dusk Till Dawn".



Stalwart Sock in "Steelyard Blues".

The yarn is really, seriously beautiful AND soft. And from what I've seen on Ravelry, they make beautiful socks. Looking at those skein makes me happy. But not as happy as when I feel this:



Nimbus Lace in "True Blood".

OMG! So soft! Of course, the fact that it's 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere definitely helps making it soft. I love love love love it. I have 650 yards of it and I need the perfect project (a scarf, I'm pretty sure).

I've been obsessed with laceweight lately for some reason, but I've been adding the yarn to my stash without actually starting lace projects. That needs to change.

Oh and if you thought that wasn't enough yarn porn, it's not over. I got a big box from Knit Picks waiting for me at the post office (I had a 10% off coupon, I couldn't resist). Expect more laceweight. :)

Just a scarf

Just as the weather is getting nicer, I finished a beautiful wool scarf. Oh well, we still have a few scarf-days ahead of us and I can always use it next fall :)





Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers
Needles: US8/5.0 mm circulars
Notes: I had two skeins of Cascade but I ended up only using one. It's a bit on the short side, but I like it.

Now that I finished the scarf, I sort of want to start a new project or ten. I already have Kai-Mei socks on the needles (LOVE!) but I also want a non-sock project. I hesitated... A cardigan or a shawl? And then I thought... Why not both? Wild, I know. I have yet to cast on but it shall be done soon. Stay tuned.

Some people drink, some people use drugs...

... I buy yarn.

After a BAD day this week, I needed some retail therapy, and then I heard the Canadian dollar was pretty much equal to the US one and I knew that some yarn shopping would make me feel much better. Yarn diet, schmarn diet. Who cares? I had been eyeing the sock yarn at Slackford Studio for a while so I decided to treat myself. I wasn't too bad. I just got two skeins of sock yarn and one of laceweight. I'm not saying which colours, I'll show you when it gets here.

In the meantime, here's a pic of my latest FO:



Pattern: Ice Cream Cone Socks by Veronik Avery
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll in Mermaid
Needles: 2.25 and 2.75 mm

I love them, they're pretty. I think I'll keep them in my Christmas box and give them to my sister.

Making Cookie...

Today I took this:



And I cast on for Kai-Mei, by Cookie A.

I think... I know... I have a sock addiction. I want to work on something else but I keep seeing sock patterns I want to make and I can't resist.

Speaking of socks, I also finished a pair, but they're lace and blocking right now so you'll have to wait for pics.

Oh and did you guys see the new Twist Collective? I'm usually not much into Spring/Summer patterns but I gotta say the newest issue is just lovely. I have queued Poplar & Elm, Azami and Tanis because they're just so full of deliciousness. Whether or not I'll ever get to knit them is another story. The queue is, after all, 468 patterns long, as of right now.

WIPs and Wants

Apparently, I only blogged ONCE in the whole month of March! Cray-zee. I know I've been out of the country for half of the month, but I could have still posted a bit in the two other weeks! I'll try to do better in April, promise!

Thanks to those of you who congratulated me on the new house! We're very happy, excited and scared (because of the OMG25yearsmortgage!) and we can't wait to move in in July. The "house" is actually a condo. We have the first floor of a duplex + basement. The frontyard and (tiny) backyard are also ours. And it's in the Notre-Dame the Grâce neighbourhood, which is a beautiful place, even though we are not *that* familiar with it. We can't wait to discover it though. It feels like we're moving in a whole other city and it's very exciting! But I'm going to miss being close to the Marché Jean-Talon and Effiloché!

But enough about the house, as this is a knitting blog, right? And I've been knitting a little. I'm almost done with a pair of socks:



The pattern is "Ice Cream Cone socks» by Veronik Avery, from the Steppin' Out Too booklet. I'm pretty sure they're going to be a gift for my sister, but I may wait till Christmas to give it to her.

I've also been working on a scarf:



The pattern is the One Row Handspun Scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and I've used almost a whole ball of Cascade 220. I'm not sure how long I'll make it (I have another ball of the same colour). We'll see. I'm not too motivated to work on it right now since the weather is so nice.

I have, however, been hit by a bad case of startitis! As soon as I finish the Ice cream come socks, I'll cast on for a Cookie A. sock from Sock Innovation. I'm not sure which one... possibily Kai-mei.

I also really want to make me the Honeybee cardigan... Oh and a shawl! A little while ago, I was able to get two skeins of laceweight from Tara:



(Knit Picks Shimmer in Maple Leaf)

I wasn't sure what to make with it, so I browsed projects in Ravelry and I saw a beautiful, beautiful shawl made with this exact same colourway. And I already have the pattern. Soooo... I'll probably cast-on for it soon and tell you which one it is.

Speaking of Knit Picks, did you guys see their new Tonal sock and lace yarns? OMG! Semi-solid! Beautiful! Want!

News!

I know I have been M.I.A., and it's not because of a lack of things to blog about. I've just been sooooo busy these past few weeks.

I went to Berlin...



And I went to Copenhagen...



Oh and Chris and I also bought a house!



So yeah, lots of things happened :) I'll write more about all of this when I'm not so freaking tired. I have a bit of knitting to share too (no FOs though).