just another raveller

Here is a photo of the yarns that I will combine for the project that I described in the last post. There are two shades of Debbie Bliss Angel and two of Skaska lace weight merino. Mmmmm. 

Off to Montreal, Ottawa, Wakefield today to visit family and the  Three Crazy Knitters : Juie, Maureen and Kathryn The current post (Jun 24th) shows Kat's new studio. I hear that she has given up her day job and is painting and dyeing full time. I am looking forward to visiting Riverside Studi o this week. Her merino singles are gorgeous. First I must get out of Rochester. My first flight was cancelled. I was to fly through Philly but am now flying west to Minneapolis in order to fly east from here to Montreal. Crazy. If I get there on time it will have taken 14 hours to fly what normally takes 5.5 hours to drive. Don't ask. In the meantime, I am catching up on the knitting blogs. There seems to be rash of people posting photos of their ancestors. I'll have to see what I can come up with. Here's my current knitting....an edging from Heirloom Knitting. My idea is to knit it to about 70 or 80 percent of the desired length and cast off. Then pick up all along the ins...

I've probably given up on about half the sweaters that I ever started. And, if I finish a sweater, there's a good chance that no one will actually wear it without serious adjustments. Witness my Lopi , my Minimalist Cardigan,  and the Mark II  among others.   Bit Red seemed to be a success at first, but later I learned that the giftee secretly tried to shrink it and then gave it away. There are other tales. My sweaters have accidentally been tipped into washing machines, adopted as dressing gown liners, and re-purposed as cat beds.  But I never give up. I keep at it. Sometimes I manage success.  The North Sea Jacket  worked out well and I wear it often. Sometime in March, I volunteered to test knit Copperline for Eileen Vito. It turned out well and I took it to Iceland where I wore it daily under my winter coat during our whirlwind car trip through the Eastern Fjords.   Then I volunteered to knit BFL Sweater for Kuduja.  ...

Let there be radishes! Black Spanish radishes! We grew these last year too, but they quickly bolted. We only had a few meals out of them, but I saved all the seeds and planted 4 rows on Memorial Day (May 27th). They are longer to harvest than regular radishes and won't be ready until late August. If they bolt again, I'll just save the seeds and try again in cooler weather. It's been pretty cool though.  Can't believe I haven't written here since February! I have been knitting like mad. I grappled with my sweater issues and completed three between March and the beginning of June. They were two test knits , one of which I liked so much that I knit it twice. The first was my friend Eileen Vito's Copperline, which you can see here in Ravelry.  Copperline is a long sport weight cardigan with a cabled yoke and lovely detailing along the seams. I knit my version in two colours. Then I wore it to Iceland. Whirlwind one-week trip. More on this later...

I said I was tired of winter. I lied. I've been throwing myself into snow drifts and making snow angels for 24 hours now. Loving it. 5 pm: 10 pm: 10 am: But mostly I am thrilled that I was able to frolic in the snow without my ankles giving out on me. I remember last winter when I could hardly walk downstairs while having all that reno going on at home and I am grateful. In knitting, at our guild last month some of us started sock circles. There are 5 people in mine. Each person starts a pair of socks for themselves. We're doing top down, so you knit the cuff and halfway down the leg. Then you pass it on to the next person. Month by month, each member of the circle knits part of someone else's pair of socks. I started mine and passed it on. I 'm using leftover red and blue bits of sock yarn.  Hope it goes well. Here's what it looks like: ...

There has been enough snow today to have a bit of fun. I hate to think about the fruit trees though. See how our birch is completely bent over....

Winter seems to start afresh here in Western New York every week or two. Then the snow melts away and everything seems dull. And don't try to tell me about the days getting longer. I'm not having any of it. Winter's getting tired and I'm getting tired of it. Period. In knitting, Fleurette and the Amaryllis Mittens are languishing on the end of the couch. I finished my relaxing project, a North Sea Scarf and just cast on for my fourth Swallowtail.  The living room curtains remain in an unhemmed state. The wedding shawl is coming along nicely. Not so secret any more, I'm knitting the Curved Shawl from Victorian Knits Today. The main stitch, in fact the only stitch in this shawl, apart from the edging, is Birdseye, or Spider . I'm almost finished the body, just 2 or three more pattern repeats. Every couple of rows in the 12 row repeat features a series of double decreases, which I stupidly started out by following the original pattern and doing them as k3tog. I...

We received our first snow of the winter overnight on December 26th. It's barely stopped since. It makes going for a walk a bit more challenging than usual but it's a bsolutely gorgeous to look at. Here are some things that I would like to knit in the coming months. Excuse the margins. 1) Finish my Fleurette II cardigan. I have only the top of the sleeves to do and to put it all together. 2) Knit up the Amaryllis Mittens kit that I won as a prize last year in NaKniMitMo 2012 during the month of January. 3) Knit a secret wedding shawl before the beginning of March. 4) Chug along on my current North Sea Shawl, a very relaxing project, pictured below. 5) Hem and press the bleeping living room curtains that I recently sewed and hung in place, also pictured below. The ones in the previous post only cover half the windows. I had a complete pair of beautiful, pale green ones that I found in the Salvation Army in Bath, NY, but the fabric was disintegrating. I'm ble...