All The News That’s Fit To Print

Or not. Really it’s probably pretty boring. Have I not actually posted since last Thursday? Friday was so long ago now that I can’t even remember what I did. Where does the time go? And why did my mind follow it? Oh wait! I remember – we were going to go to the Circle Craft Christmas Market but instead we stayed home and raked leaves. Sounds really deadly boring but it was a whole lot of fun. Sometimes it’s your attitude that makes life worth living.

Ahem. Saturday we voted in the civic election. Last election until a provincial one next spring. Thank goodness! I’m so tired of people calling me to ask me how or if I’m going to vote. Enough’s enough already. Then we went to a party. It was a reunion for some of the folks T-Man worked with in a previous job and including a bunch that had also moved on to his current employer. It was so much fun that we didn’t get home until 2am. That’s the latest we’ve been able to remain awake in several years so we must have been having a good time! Judging by the slight hangover and the baggy eyes I had the next day after only 5 hours sleep, it was a definite success.

Sunday I went to our local Ravelry meetup at a local coffee shop. It was a big group this time and we ended up moving some furniture around to get enough seats together. I find it hard to get a chance to talk to everyone in that situation so I ended up chatting mostly with those sitting closest to me. It was an enjoyable bunch and it’s amazing how many different subjects we can discuss in a couple of hours time! After that it was off to visit our usual LYS for an extra whiff of yarn fumes. I bought a copy of Ann Budd’s “The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns” which I’ve been pondering for awhile. I’ve used her first book in the series many times for gloves and berets so I thought I would use this one for basic sweaters that can then be modified to suit. I probably could get it cheaper online but it’s nice to support a small local shop. I buys ’em where I finds ’em. Maybe I’ll give it a review when I get a chance to peruse it more carefully.

Yesterday T-Man had a day off so we went for a long walk to Granville Island and back. We window-shopped and stopped in at the Weaving Studio and both of Maiwa’s shops. We also had lunch with a seagull, a pigeon and a starling overlooking the water. They didn’t get to share our yummy chicken taco salads though. We shopped in the Market for fresh fruit and veggies and tandoori chicken to take home to bake for dinner. Then we carried on up to Broadway to the magazine shop and along to Steeps, our favourite tea shop for Market Spice tea and then finally on home after buying a few more groceries at Capers. We were both tired when we got home so we sat out on our deck with hand-brewed pear cider (me) and beer (him) until the sun started to set. It was a lovely day out and warm for this time of year.

This morning I finished the Purple Ruffles Socks for my granddaughter, Princess Pink. They’re nearly dry from their bath now after sitting out in today’s sunshine for awhile. I’ll be able to give them to her on Saturday when we’re supposed to be babysitting her and her little brother while their parents go to a party. Hope she likes her new socks. I almost ran out of the yarn but squeaked through to the end. I’ll do a proper post on them when I can get a photo.

I decided to end my suffering and bow out of the “weaving with beads” swap and accompanying article I was supposed to do for the beginning of next month. I just couldn’t drum up any excitement for the project and had no brilliant ideas to work with even though I’ve been pondering the question for several months now. I just have other things on my mind these days and weaving with beads isn’t a priority. If I’m going to weave, it’s going to be something I can use because so many of my household items are wearing out. My big loom still has the end of the tea towel warp still threaded so I can tie on a new warp. In beads, I’d kind of like a lariat necklace, either crocheted or kumihimo (faster). I love the one by Virginia Blakelock in the most recent issue of Bead & Button magazine. But it’s pretty far down on the list.

The only knitting on my needles now is the Seaweed Shawl in natural-dyed alpaca which I’m quite enjoying as a challenge to knit. I’m up to the second repeat of the blossom pattern and although the 3-into-9 stitch is somewhat tricky to maneuver, it’s coming along really well. The blossom is the second of the Estonian stitch patterns in the Laminaria shawl pattern (Knitty) and these are fairly challenging to knit. I would consider it at least an intermediate level lace. Not for beginners anyway. Now that I have so many FOs, I need to cast on for the next pair of socks (not too complex) and the beret I want to make. I figure 3 projects on the needles isn’t too many.

The Chocolate Sweater, Finally

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.” - Katharine Hepburn

I had this post written but not posted because I was so darned busy all day yesterday and half of today. The weather turned hot so I had to get out in the garden and then of course, T-Man wanted to walk. Today’s second long walk was my own fault but more on that later.

Backing up to Thursday, it only took me a minute of looking to find some really nice metal shank buttons in a copper colour with a Celtic-knot-like design on it. Kind of like pennies but with more interesting designs than queens or dead presidents. They were only 2 for 49 cents! I also got some more small tapestry needles for sewing up sock toes or other thin yarns. I’m always losing them. That was another 49 cents. And of course I couldn’t pass up the huge cones of thread at 99 cents each, so I got 4. They used to be $2.99 but now that they’re running out of stock, they’re even cheaper. They have several different types including Coats Koban (poly-wrapped cotton) in a couple of weights, pure polyester, a Canadian-made poly-cotton in a 24 weight, and a heavier pure cotton. I once even found a waxed cord. The cones are over a pound each and run from 2000 to as much as 6000 yds per cone so they aren’t as fine as regular machine sewing thread. All will be great for weaving, kumihimo or decorative sewing though. This time I got red, yellow, dk green and medium grey. I passed on more only because I couldn’t carry them! The whole bill came to $7.46 including taxes. Can’t beat that.

I sewed 3 of the buttons on my Chocolate Sweater in the bus on the way to my guild meeting. Most of the rest of them were applied during the business part of the meeting and I would have finished except that I couldn’t find the last button card with the last 2 on it. (I had to take everything out of my pack when I got home to find it!) The Program we had was really interesting though so I stopped button-hunting to pay attention. It was a discussion of llama and alpaca fibre by Gretchen Hoff, also known as the Scattered Gardener. Gretchen owns 30 animals from which she gets the lovely fibres that she has processed for sale. She also was accompanied by her buddy Susan Forsyth of woolcomb fame. (I own a blending hackle and mini-combs made by Susan and her husband Andrew.) Susan demonstrated combing llama to rid it of the prickly guard hair. After combing and while the fibre was still on the combs, she pulled off the hairs which were sticking out and ready to be removed. At the end after doffing some were left along with the really short down, vm and noils on the stationary comb. Easy-peasy! Only a very little of the coarse hairs were left in the combed fibre when she was done and it felt much softer and nicer. Later Gretchen used the mini-combs to comb some badly processed baby alpaca where the combs removed a majority of the broken neps thereby saving a crappy but expensive sliver. Very slick. Susan had brought along some of her garments including nuno felt scarves, lace shawls and a little purse knitted out of the llama guard hair. Gretchen even gave out labeled samples of dehaired llama, huacaya alpaca and suri alpaca so that the spinners among us could try them out. Nice to see and feel things in person. We textile folk tend to learn a lot through our fingers. I’ve nearly spun up all the samples so I’ll show them off when I’m done.

For now I bet you wanted to see the full Chocolate Sweater revealed in all its glory, right? OK, you win. Unless you’ve already peeked at my Ravelry page.

Chocolate Sweater


Begun: July 2007
Completed: May 15, 2008

Yarn: Shepherd 4 ply crepe, 100% NZ wool, 1.2 cones = 1920.0 yards (1755.6m), Colour 8475, Brown.
Needles: Addi Lace circulars, 3.25mm for ribbing and 3.75mm for body & sleeves.

Pattern: Katharine Hepburn Cardigan, by Kathy Zimmerman, from Lace Style (2007)
Size made: 40.5”

Comments: So glad to be done with this project! It took me nearly a year in total. (After knitting most of the sleeves, the gauge was off so frogged it and started over again.) I spent a lot of time graphing out the various increases and decreases but it really helps to have a visual idea of what to do while keeping in pattern. (I love Knit Visualizer ver2!)

This yarn is at least 15 years old and has been marinating in my stash since I tried machine knitting in the early ‘90’s. It’s a lovely soft cable-twisted 100% merino wool in dark chocolate brown. A bit splitty but not too bad. It does lose its apparent sheen when washed. (In reality that’s the wax added for ease of working on the knitting machine.) And it gets a bit of a halo.

It took me the better part of a day to get it stitched together but it went well. I ignored the pattern and only put 10 buttonholes in. They seemed to fit better with the rib pattern and 10 buttons is plenty. The other modifications from the pattern are that I knit the “selvedge sts” in stockinette instead of garter, I kept the shoulder sts live and joined them with a 3-needle bind-off, and I made the body an inch longer than specified for my size. It hits me better below the blubber! The 3/4 sleeves are just about regular length on my short arms. Perfect.

I found the neckline and shoulders stretching with wear so I crocheted a single line of chain sts across from one shoulder point to the other along the seams. Worked like a charm.

Now I can get on to other things. Yesterday since it was definitely summer-like weather I was inspired to do about 4 hours work in the garden in the morning before it got too warm. I got the beans in and transplanted a few things around. I put my summer squashes in bigger pots but left them still in the house under the lights. I’m not putting them out in the garden until they are as huge as I can get them first. I’m trying to foil the sow bugs and pill bugs from eating through their stems. The tomatoes are ready to go in the greenhouse but I needed to clear the mizuna out first. I gave the bolting arugula a haircut in hopes that will keep it going for awhile longer. Meanwhile I have a huge bag of it in the fridge. Tomorrow we hope to get some more done and it promises to be a little cooler which should help.

Today, however, it’s really hot which inspired us to walk to the Trout Lake farmers market because our closer one doesn’t open until June. It was packed only a couple of hours after opening so it was hard to even get near the booths:


There was a gamelan ensemble entertaining everyone and lots of folks opting for a picnic under the trees. I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the music of the gamelan but the instruments are very beautiful:


Some popular stuff had been snapped up already from the booths and a long line-up was in front of the organic greenhouse-grown tomatoes. There were lots of seedlings and other potted plants to choose from but couldn’t carry them home so all we bought was some shiitake mushrooms from the ’Shroomy Lady (that’s what I call her!) and some yummy herbed pepper (garlic, cilantro and ginger) from Maison Coté. I’m addicted to it so I try to find Jean-Pierre’s booth at least once a year. He only sells at craft fairs and markets. We took public transit partway home because it was hot and we were tired and hungry. So hungry that we couldn’t get past our favourite sushi place without slipping in the door. Now I’m tired. And full.