It Turns Out That...

...casting off in twisted rib produces a delightfully angular edge.

They are done!
The Flemish Lace Socks by Naomi Herzfeld from Lace One Skein Wonders.

...and getting your bike tuned up can be an aesthetically pleasing experience.

The bike shop in my new hood.
Nice staff and a beautiful brick wall next to a large window.
Mark one on the positive side for this place.

Easter Egg Colours In The Sun

A sneak peak. Notice how one sock is so much more colour saturated than the other?
The result of an unevenly dyed skein.

I made a ridiculous mistake joining the round after the heel turn. This was followed by another, sillier, mistake. So I had to rip back and start the section again. What this means of course is that the sock is not done as I planned it would be.

The bright side of this, and I mean bright is that I got to sit in the brilliant sunshine of this Easter Sunday morning working away on the colourful sparkly loveliness that is this yarn. Just delightful.

Imagine When Spring

Inspired by Glenna's post about showing up for your knitting, I sat down and committed to getting something done. You know what? Glenna is right. If you just show up and knit the darn thing, it actually gets done. In fact, the shawl came off the block several days ago but the weather has been conspiring against photography. Finally the sun came gloriously out for the first day of spring and I got many lovely shots; happily so, as this Imagine When shawl is off to its gifting recipient soon.

I am delighted with my work. The decisions about where to place the solid areas among the short rows seem to have been the right ones. I love the asymmetry of this pattern and the open work rows are delightful. 

In the spirit of showing up, I have also been progressing well on the sparkly socks and they should be ready for their own photo shoot by tomorrow.

Yarn: Sweet Georgia Sock and Koigu KPPPM
Pattern: Imagine When

Not So Vintage

What exactly is "vintage"? I often find myself wondering about the definition of this particular word as it applies to clothing. More and more I see 80`s style referred to as vintage. I have a problem with this simply because I was alive and wearing the clothes of that time. As a child of the 60`s and 70`s, fashion was then for me what the "grown-ups" wore, so yes, that feels nostalgic to me. But the eighties? My first adult personal wardrobe choices (sometimes unfortunate ones) were made in the mid-eighties. How can my own fashion evolution be historical? How can items possibly be vintage when I still own and wear one or two of them?

We are, as they say, none of us getting any younger.

Well, vintage or not here is a beauty from an old Pingouin Ete. Isn't it perfect and light and summery? It's one I've been eyeing for several years. I have a crazy fantasy that it would look cute on me. However, this I know from experience to be highly unlikely. I've tried on many dresses of this shape in the past. I even tried to knit something similar about ten years ago. Loose fitting A-line dresses just don't suit me and no amount of wishing will change the fact. 

The yarn used in this pattern is Pingouin Nacre, a DK cotton/rayon blend long since discontinued. This meant the dress could happily live on in my fantasy world. Then the other day, I happened into Americo and saw their oh-so-lovely Bebe yarn which is almost a perfectly exact yarn substitution. Suddenly, this dress really wants to become reality again. 
Damn.

Just Wool

Strolling through Kensington Market on Saturday, I found myself at Yarns Untangled. I wanted to see whose yarns they were carrying as their reputation is for small, local and natural.

I found myself drawn to this worsted weight oh so woolly wool from Topsy Farms in Ontario. Neutral gray is not my usual thing but this yarn said yes to me. It has such a great hand and a sturdy, rich loft. It smells divine. (The rest of you smell your yarn, right?). 

I was reminded of some Briggs and Little I have had for years. A quick walk over to the stash, now in storage up the street, was easily done. Now the brown heather, also Canadian but from New Brunswick, is hanging with its new friend. I think they may work well together. On what I don't know. I'll just let them be and see what comes of it.

The Integration of the Books: The Make Version

Integrating the books of two people into one collection is an intimate activity.

"Do you think Milton will be OK beside Yeats?" I asked when combining our collections. Thus Bill Bryson is hanging out with John Ashbery, Jamie Oliver with Sophie Grigson. It's a very friendly, if somewhat self congratulatory, hall bookshelf.

Problems arose when moving over to the corner. There just wasn't enough room for all our things combined. His martial arts volumes take up considerable space as do my knitting magazines. Neither of us could, or should be expected to, put into storage such integral parts of ourselves.

Now, he is a buyer and I am a maker. A "make doer" is more accurate a term. My magazines had been living in milk crates. Though they fit perfectly into the available space, a more aesthetically pleasing solution was desperately needed. So, while he was scouring around for the perfect thing to buy, I picked up some inexpensive fabric that closely matched the existing Ikea shelves and wrapped it around the crates. 

I quite like the result. It's not fancy but it is tidy and does the job. It also gives my yarn bowl the prominent home it deserves.