Spring in High Park

Even with flowers, I gravitate toward this palette.  Purdy

Me Like

Here is the next project I want to make.  It's from Vogue Spring '98 and I think it's terribly cute.  The nineties were kind years to me fashion-wise.  Shorter, looser tops flatter my no boobs/big butt figure so much more than today's long tight shirts.  Also, this is the perfect project to use my Berroco Linen Jeans.  There's just enough in the stash.

The problem I'm having is that after reading the instructions, I find that the collar is knit separately and sewn on during finishing.  This turns me off in a big way.  I wonder if there's a way to do it by picking up the stitches?

Cables In The Sun

She's done.  Love the cables.  Love the colour.  Love this photo of me on my fire escape.
Unfortunately, the finished cardigan is a tad disappointing.  Once again, I've managed boxy.  I can't seem to get the length and width right on my sweaters.   Regardless.  It's not a disaster.  The sleeves are perfect - nice and snug to the body.  Knitting the smallest size was definitely the right choice.
Sewing this up was a challenge.  I've never seamed reverse stocking stitch before.  Tricky business.

Casa Loma

Working at the Art Gallery entitles me to admission to many of Toronto's other tourist attractions.  I'm trying to visit as many of them as possible before my contract runs out in a few weeks time.  

On Tuesday, I went to Casa Loma.  I hadn't been in years, not since I took The Daughter when she was small.  I'd forgotten just how big the place is.  Being the off season, there were few other visitors.  It was a strange feeling to wonder alone the huge rooms, gardens, and towers.  I tried to picture what it must have been like to live there, outnumbered twenty to one by the servants, dwarfed by the furniture.  Such wealth.  Unimaginable.

Hairspray Knitting

I bought a 1963 McCall's Needlework and Crafts at a second hand store the other day.    If something is truly gorgeous, then it remains so for all time.  The silhouette of these fashions is stunning - one of my favourite periods.  OK, the gold colour doesn't do it for me, but just look at the shape of those cardigans.  The collars are almost as bad ass as the womens' hair styles.  These models make my heart rate increase with their overt fabulousness. I wish I was as cool as the brunette.  She knows what's going on.
Below is the ad on the back cover.  I love everything about this.  The sweater, the pose, the beautiful fresh colouring of the model.  I want to introduce her to my imaginary big brother so she can marry him and then be my best friend.

Blocking

The back and front panels are coming off blocking today.  The next step is to join them at the shoulder seams then pick up a million or so stitches with the circular needle to create the cabled collar and button band.  This project is way satisfying.  Hope it fits!

Yup. Dug It Out.

Bye-bye ugly, scratchy sock project.  From deep in stash comes the hand dyed, fingering weight, superwash merino by Indigo Moon.  The colour is called chestnut but I think it more resembles a chocolate milkshake.  It certainly is as frothy.
I threw it on the swift this morning and wound it into a ball.  Then it came along to work with me to visit Henry Moore's Large Two Forms in front of the AGO.  
Fingers happy.  Mood brighter.

Question

Is life too short to knit with unsatisfactory yarn? The working class pragmatist in me says keep on with the socks I am not loving. Ripping would be a waste of the well intentioned, though, kinda disappointing in a too-much-scratchy-acrylic kind of way, gift sock yarn. The knitting snob in me says FROG! and dig out the Indigo Moon already.

Too Sick to Knit

I'm home sick today with a terrible cold.  It's the cough, runny nose, watery eyes, extremely sore joints, type of cold.  Sleep last night was near impossible.  
Today, my hands are much too sore to knit. So, I've spent the morning hauling out a bunch of old projects and updating my Ravelry pages.  To that end, I've been fooling around with the camera and have finally figured out how to set the timer so I can photograph myself.  The process resulted in this:

It's not the best photo of the Tzarina Wrap from Wrap Style, but I quite like the way the mid-morning sun is coming through the window.  Note the purposeful turning away of the face to hide the red nose and general scariness of my feverish visage.

Here are a couple more oldies.  There's a tank top from 2005 that I still wear today and Gillian Moreno's ruffled scarf from Knitty Fall 2003.