Subway Knitting

Here we have a basic vanilla sock using the ever reliable Regia.

I believe I already mentioned that I got a new part time job last fall. It involves a commute of just under an hour on the subway. My shifts are at odd times, so I'm never travelling at rush hour and I always get a seat. I've actually been enjoying this time immensely. I pop in a podcast and knit away.  After a solid 45 minutes of knitting and listening to favourites like  The Guilty Feminist, The Poetry Magazine Podcast or Stuff You Missed in History Class, I arrive at work quite calm and refreshed. These days, one takes "Me Time" where one can.

Spring is finally here. I know most knitters get the cast-on bug in winter but the light and air of spring inspires me. Knitting outside, blocking on the balcony, taking natural light photos - the prospect of all these things make me hopeful. Regarding photos, I do intend to try to get back to blogging more regularly. It's been a hard winter here and my creativity, other than some personal writing (a sample of which is in my last post), has been at a low. I miss the chatter of the blog and taking pretty pictures of pretty things. Even if no one reads it, I remember enjoying it and am going to keep at it for my own sake if for no one else's. If you are reading this, Hello!

New Year, New Knitting

I have noted that my knitting has really slowed down the last several months. I notice this because I also notice that I miss it. Quiet evenings with my records or a podcast, knitting away, used to be common. Those solitary peaceful evenings are much more seldom these days for several reasons. I work mostly evening shifts at my current job and when I am home, it's rarely quiet. Not to be complainey (well a little complainey), the fact is I share a teeny living space with a person who likes to watch a lot of loud TV. He finds it relaxing. I find it jangly. In warm weather I sit on the balcony and pretend I am not dangling in the sky by keeping my eyes locked on my project. In winter, it's more difficult.

There is a solution. We have a few common spaces in our condo that people rarely use. I have sometimes packed up my tea, mp3 player and knitting and taken myself off to one of them for an hour or so.  It's a bit of trouble but I think I need to do it more often in the new year to preserve my sanity.

I finally started the sleeves on my Bombus!

Knitting can always be a learning experience. That's one of the best things about it. Notice the awesome tidy edge on the ribbing? It's because I learned a new cast-off. It's not a fancy or difficult technique. You just do a yarn over before the purl stitch, then pass over both that yarn over and the previous knit stitch. It creates more stretch and that beautiful straight edge. Even as I was doing it, I was excited about the result. It's so great when it all feels fresh again, isn't it?

Laundered my socks yesterday. See?
Continuous knitting results in warm knitwear.

A Sock for Now

I am still editing my London trip photos. I know that other people's vacation shots can be dull so I promise to to keep the album brief.

In the meantime, let's enjoy some knitting shall we? My knitting and (knit blogging) has slowed considerably but has not altogether stopped. I finished a Christmas gift hat the other day and the body of my latest cardi is done as well. 

There's also a sock. Isn't there always a sock on the go? Once again I find myself knitting a pattern by Evelyn A. Clark. This one is Go With the Flow Socks. It's an easily memorized stitch that produces a simple yet elegant looking fabric.

The yarn is "Sassy" by Mt. Rutsen Studio and this is the single skein I purchased on my trip to Rhinebeck in 2014. It's a BFL/nylon blend and it feels like a knitted hug. I'm enjoying so much working with it. The colour is perfect for winter.

Nice photos right? I took them on Friday at a local pub after calming down fron a big panic attack. My anxiety and panic disorder has lessened considerably as I've aged but it still pops up now and again. So when I found myself standing on the sidewalk, numb and hyper-ventilating I knew i needed a quiet place. I went into the warm pub, ordered a sandwich and then knit and knit until I felt better.
See? Always good to have a sock on the go.

River Knitting

I rode out to the Humber River today. Well, not all the way at once. The distance is much further from my current home than from where I used to regularly make the trip and there are still all those hills to deal with. I had an appointment at about the one third mark - my original reason for heading in that direction. Then I stopped for lunch at approximately the halfway point. From there I did all the nasty hills involved in that particular westward trip. It was a whim really.

What a beautiful day! I watched this guy fish for quite a while. Perhaps the cool fall weather is the reason he or she was the most active heron I have ever seen. He caught two fish then disappeared.

The bridge. The distance is a very easy ride but
I usually stop here a while for the view then turn back.
I am always tired. Did I mention the hills?

Knit for about an hour on my Bombus until the sun became too direct and started to burn my knees. This blue looked so lovely in the outdoors. It makes me love this project even more than I already do.

Trying To Grow

Did you ever read The Hotel New Hampshire, in which the physically small character Lily refers to her creative attempts as "trying to grow"? That's kind of where I'm at with my knitting right now. I feel I can't keep doing the same old thing. Heck, if I'm going to spend so much of my time doing this, I should at least get really good at it. Time to learn new things, to challenge myself, to not give up when it gets hard. Time to grow.

Thus I am knitting Bombus. When I originally cast this PomPom pattern on a few weeks ago, I thought of it as just a cool cardigan that I'd like to knit. Then the stitch pattern and the construction totally whooped my butt. I had to rip back and restart several times. There is a twelve row Bubble pattern knit over short row shaping and raglan increases - no walk in the park. I was tempted to chuck it until I got a hold of myself.

I went back to basics and practiced the stitch pattern on a separate swatch until I felt I had a good understanding of it. I used whatever wound yarn I had at hand. (I forgot I had this gorgeous Hemp for Knitting and now want to find something special just for it).

The project yarn I chose is a lovely woolly DK that I know will be cozy and satisfying when knit up. It's slightly more warm in tone than I was able tp photograph on an overcast day.

I ended up drawing a schematic of every row with notes that perhaps only I can understand. I marked every increase, every count between markers and every row of the Bubble progression. I am determined not to let the math defeat me and if this is what it takes, then that is what I must do. Taking it one step at a time and with liberal use of stitch markers, I am now off and running. Exciting! Stay tuned. 

Distractions

Do you ever feel, as I sometimes do, a little guilty about all those WIP's waiting for attention? I am trying, really I am, to finish the lace stole I started over two years ago. Well, maybe it was actually three years. 

How can one sit down and apply oneself when there are distractions like the Pompom Anniversary issue hitting the shelves? I ordered a copy as a birthday gift to myself and the store called the other day to say it was in. There are so many beautiful things I want to cast on. Right. Now.

However, I am only on Row 258 of the approximately 600 required to finish this lace project. Quiet opportunities to knit complex lace are few and when they do come along, I find I only manage 8 to 10 rows in a sitting. 

I am making a pact with myself. No new projects until I hit Row 310 and also finish the current pair of socks. This seems a reasonable goal. Then, who knows what delights await?

Another stole seems silly but this one by Thea Coleman is so beautiful.

A sideways sweater would be a new challenge.

Bits and Pieces

The recent Ravelry post about scrap yarn projects and the beautiful socks featured there, confirmed my long held suspicion that I should be gathering my leftovers and making something fantastic. These socks in progress are being knit with the remains of five previous warm-toned pairs. Aren't they gorgeous? They're knitting up super fast too as they are just stocking stitch with two pearl rows down the front. The Daughter saw me working on them, declared them hers and said I should definitely make more like this. Good thing I have a pile of blue/greens waiting to in the wings for myself.

Here we have my favourite acquisition from the Knitters' Frolic charity magazine sale this year. It's the 1987 Knitters special lace edition. It cost the large sum of fifty cents! I picked it up late in the day and can't believe no one grabbed it earlier - especially as it features Elizabeth Zimmerman's first publication of her famous Pi Shawl pattern. I am currently stash diving to make one. It's about time I added this bucket list pattern to my repertoire.  

New Year

The coming of a new year makes me feel somewhat obligated to write some sort of piece on the theme. However I find myself with little to say. Rather, I may have a lot to say but no appropriate words. The holiday season was exhausting, involving as it did a string of obligations mixed with disappointments. 
So I choose for now, to be quiet. I am however, making, making, making. Many projects are on the needles. I knit every day, sometimes for several hours and that's enough until my voice and other enthusiasms return. 

Festive Hats

I made  a lovely hat for The Daughter for Christmas but wrapped it before getting a photo. What a shame. So, of course, I cast on another hat. This time it's lovely and natural wool from Topsy Farms. It is so full of lanolin that it is actually moisturizing my fingers as I knit. What could be better in the cold dry winter?

Cables

I am so enjoying working Jameson's thick satisfying cables. As the weather cools here in Toronto, it is the perfect kind of knitting to be doing.

Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!

Ha ha! I cannot stay true. How can one possibly do so when the internet dangles such delights? Surfing blogs while bored I found that Thea Coleman, aka, Baby Cocktails is having her Fall KAL. So not only is this pattern called Jameson, my favourite whiskey, but it's also on sale for the KAL. I just happen to have a bag of aran weight Fiddlesticks in my stash that's just itching to make luscious, intriging, cables. So I had to buy the pattern and cast on right away! I just had to. I always was a flighty thing. 

Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow! 

Faithless am I save to love's self alone. 

Were you not lovely I would leave you now: 

After the feet of beauty fly my own. 

Were you not still my hunger's rarest food, 

And water ever to my wildest thirst, 

I would desert you — think not but I would! — 

And seek another as I sought you first. 

But you are mobile as the veering air, 

And all your charms more changeful than the tide, 

Wherefore to be inconstant is no care: 

I have but to continue at your side. 

So wanton, light and false, my love, are you, 

I am most faithless when I most am true. 

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Modifying the Heck Out of This

I have long admired this peasant blouse pullover from a late eighties Scheepjeswol booklet. I particularly admire the yoke with the drawstring closure. 

Surely this can be updated, I'd always thought. Made more sophsticated?

The recent discovery in my stash of some silk yarn in the exact gauge as the original merino/silk of the pattern solidified my resolve.
So on with the mods!

Slim the whole thing; arms and body. Eliminate the unflattering bulk of folded over ribbing at the waist and replace with a mirror image of the yarnover row in the yoke then go straight into the garter stitch. Do the same for the sleeves and make them three quarter length. Make the yoke more shallow to get rid of all that extra fabric under the arms. Leave the bottom side seam open for a few inches and make the back a few inches longer than the front. Use a simple suede or leather cord for the drawstring.

Good plan? 

Accidentally Olympian

It was never my intention to knit an Olympic project this year. However, I just happened to cast on Veyla the afternoon of the opening ceremonies and despite one huge set back where I missed ten rows and had to rip, this pair of gloves is now about 80% done. Combine that fact with an invite to watch the closing ceremonies with other knitters, and suddenly I am determined to have these complete by tomorrow night. 

Creativity: Lace and A Blog

So we are at the height of summer which often means the knitting slows waaay down. This is even more true than usual for me this year. I have knit a total of three socks since May. This bothers me. I find I am doing many familiar activities less than I used to - less reading, less drawing and writing, less exploring new ideas via the library and the internet. 
Part of the reason is location. All that porch knitting and reading I've done in years past is over simply because I no longer have a porch. My new home is very small and affords little privacy. Part of the reason is time.  Being in a relationship, while wonderful, means I have much less quiet time alone. There are many new rhythms and patterns I am still navigating in my changed living situation.

Much of the reason is simple lack of mojo. My creative drive has dulled of late and I'm not sure why. I have been peripherally aware of its niggling lack in a non-specific way but it became more apparent this morning after reading Karie Westermann's excellent blog post about taking control of your creativity. I know how necessary it is for me and my mental health to explore and to make things (like socks and blog posts). I need to re-focus and recommit to doing so and to finding the joy within that pursuit. Find the space. Find the time.

One thing that's helped is picking up again the Peacock Feathers Stole on which I have been slowly working for over two years. Lace knitting has always been a meditative act for me. It can calm my anxiety, which is very high lately. I find that knitting a few rows in the morning instead of reading the newspaper, starts my day from a much more centred place. The silk/merino yarn is beautiful in the morning light. I'm only on row 220 of the more than 600 but this project is definitely more about the process than the product.

Train Knitting

I went to visit my family yesterday. One of my favourite parts of this little journey is the commuter train trip. It's a one hour, air conditioned pause from hectic life; a chance to rest, knit, and listen to a book. 

On the mp3 player: Moby Dick courtesy of The Big Read
On the needles: Diagonal Rib Socks courtesy of Ann Budd

New Colours

One interesting aspect of knitting for others is the opportunity to experience and appreciate new colours. Take this mustard toned Manos del Uruguay Allegria for instance. It was purchased, with The Daughter's help, to knit gifts socks for her best friend. Normally, this is a tone my eyes would pass right over on my way to the blues and reds.

"That one up there", said The Daughter pointing to the top row. "She'll love that."

It's true. The young woman wears this family of colours all the time. And now, like a pop song dismissed when heard for the first time, but that grows on you with repeated listening, I am coming to like this colour. The bald statement, "I don't like mustard" has been reconsidered. Every time I look at the rich tonal dyeing on this sock yarn, I appreciate it more and more.

Here we have the socks in progress for Brother of Best Friend - much more within my comfort zone in purple and blue. Both "children", now in their twenties, have birthdays in early August, so knitting socks for them now is a nice leisurely warm weather pastime. 

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.

Blue and Brown

Life is too short to wear unsatisfactory knitting. I was very unhappy with the shawl I originally knit with this Sweet Georgia Sock yarn. Not being shy about ripping, I did exactly that after just one wear. Why let beautiful yarn languish as a never-worn garment? 

Recently a friend introduced me to the Imagine When shawl. A little light went on as I pictured this yarn becoming garter stitch in short rows. I think the variegation looks nice in these triangular panels and is not too busy. 

The pattern calls for 500 metres and I have only about 340 so I'm inserting a panel of leftover Koigu from my Fella's gift scarf. Turns out the blues match almost exactly. Stash busting! It's all good.

Hello Lucy. Settling into your new home?

Nothing But Mittens

You know how obligation knitting can sometimes drag you down? Last winter, both The Daughter & I lost a mitten - she the left, me the right. Between us we had a mismatched pair; same pattern, different yarns. I thought nothing could be simpler than whipping off a couple of replacements of this Robin Melanson pattern. Wrong I was. 
Somehow I must have made an error in my original Ravelry entry because the new left mitt I produced for the kid was the wrong shade of Cascade 220 Red. She still has no matching pair! I shrugged and went on to mine in Rowan Pure Wool Worsted. I discovered too late that I had screwed up again by inexplicably boggling the cuff. It looks nothing like its mate. Oh well, nothing long sleeves can't hide!
I am now, with great mother guilt, knitting a third Daughter mitt. No knitter would let someone wonder the town in unmatched knit wear. I can't wait for this to be over! It's all I've worked on since the holidays and, with the stress of packing for my move, I need some fun knitting. I am itching to cast on some lace.

The Hat That Wasn't

A skein of Bartlettyarns wool in a beautiful berry tone has been in my stash since January 2013. I purchased it at VK Live in New York so, even though it is a reliable and economical wool (read not trendy), it had a special place in my heart. I had always intended it to be winter hat.

Apparently, the yarn had other ideas.

A few months ago I cast on a pattern only to frog a few weeks later because of bad results. Then last month, I cast on yet another beret, the same Paton's pattern I've made a half dozen times before. I finished quickly; seamed and blocked it in a flash, only to discover that the finished product was mysteriously HUGE. Rip again.

So, last week, I started once again. I made the necessary adjustments for the aran weight of the yarn and it was all going so well... 
Then last night, while Christmas shopping I discovered that my knitting had at some point, leaped out of my shopping bag. I retraced my steps to every place I had visited in the previous hour but to no avail. It is gone forever.

This yarn really did not want to live life as my new hat. It took a good set of needles with it.

So here is a sneak peak at The Daughter's gift instead. A simple cowl that gave me no trouble whatever.