The Grumpiest of Pants...

It's only 9:15 am and I can already tell that today isn't going to be a personal best for me. The constable has been working nights all week and while I wake up when he gets home anyway, I generally don't have too much of a problem falling back to sleep. Until last night, where I was totally exhausted from working hard on the house all day yet was still up rather late (for me), around 12:30 am. I spent the evening watching a documentary on Broadway too, which you think would make you drop off almost instantly but darn it if it wasn't super interesting. I always say that I'm not a fan of musicals, but after having watched that show, and thinking back on the couple that I've seen, I seemed to enjoy them. So I guess I'm a liar.

So lack of sleep coupled with the weather are making me cranky. It seems the weather gods are making more a liar out of me all the time. On my recent trip home, back to what I remember as the sweltering heat of Southern Ontario, with the exception of a few days, the weather was clear, dry, sunny and mild. I come home to the east coast to find muggy, moist, dreary and did I mention moist? It's been raining most of the morning already, a steady sort of rain, and there is less moisture outside than there is in. How can this be? My first day home things were somewhat damp. Then all the paper started wilting and my feet started to stick to the lanoleum. Now we've moved into just plain soggy. And it's creating quite a lovely aroma in this old musty house.

Plus, the guy from the oil company, the septic guy and the electrician are all supposed to show up 'between nine and ten' this morning. The constable is a write off, he's fast asleep. While I don't mind dealing with everyone, I have no clue what I'm talking about. All I know is that 'we hooked up the water in the house and it's not hot...check out the furnace thingy'...'I'm having house guests and I don't want the septic system to explode...please pump it'....'I would like my dryer in the house instead of the garage...please make that happen'. This is the extent of my technical knowledge regarding my home.

So let's just sit here, drink some coffee, feel groggy and soggy and look at some knitting.



I have been extremely unproductive in the knitting department of late, but I did manage to get these little gems done for a certain someone's first birthday. A lot of my creative endeavours have been for her over this past year, and I don't see why I should stop now. First, the particulars. Both sweaters are knit from a Cabin Fever pattern, a good Canadian company with fun little top down sweaters. I picked up a book of toddler knits last....fall?...when I went to a big craft exposition in Toronto with Carrie . I believe the pattern for the pink one was called 'French Stripe' and the blue one, 'Basic Cardigan'. Pink stripe is sized for 12 mos. and blue cardi. for 18. My own personalization of the cardi was to do a seed stitch collar and cuffs instead of garter stitch. Oooo, I'm such a knitting maverick.
Both are knit from Sirdar Denim Tweed, which I bought quite some time ago with these sweaters in mind. They were on sale, so these little beauties hardly cost me a thing! That's not to say I believe in making cheap products, but who wants to spend a tonne of money on baby sweaters that will be smeared with all manner of foodstuffs? Cotton/wool/nylon blend, perfect weight for going over clothes. And here are the outfits I bought to go with them.



Here's a gift I got for Carrie, who's birthday is this summer and I wasn't going to be around for the actual day, so she got it early. The fabric is funkified and totally her, although I seemed to have scammed some for myself. Perhaps we'll have to Crafternoon a challenge to see what we each make out of our half of the booty. The needles are from the River John Needle Company, native to Nova Scotia. They have something called 'swing needles' which I can't quite figure out but am intrigued by. The pin is somehow related to Fleece Artist , although it is pewter and not some spectacular hand dyed sea silk or something. It's a sheep, in case you can't tell from the photo. The knitting related items were procured from the most adorable knitting shop in the wide wold in Mahone Bay, NS. It may possibly be my new favourite place. It's full to the brim of things I can't really afford but am likely to buy anyway.


And finally, this is what I am working on, or rather, what I should be working on.

A good friend of mine had a wee one back in June and as it's a girl after four boys, pink and frilly was the order of the day. I love the pattern and the yarn and the whole notion of knitting for an itty bitty girl, but at this rate, she'll be finishing grad school before I'm done. I gotsta get crack-a-lackin' on this one.

Either later today, as I'm not likely going to be much good at getting actual work done, or tomorrow, I'll show off the veritable cornicopia of craft related gifts I've recieved recently. I'm one lucky knitter, I'll tell you. For now, my coffee is cold and the oil guy has been here almost an hour, which means our problem didn't involve flipping a switch and is going to cost me money. I hate that.

Until later...

The Mighty Mitre...

This is mainly a mini-tutorial for Carrie, my former and forever Crafternoon buddy, to show her how I did up my little mitre's so that we can do a mitre project together. As I am on the coast and she is in my hometown area, some 2500 km away, we are going to (hopefully) pull off an entire afghan by sending squares back and forth for each other to build on.

Here's the specs: Six inch squares made up of four small mitred squares knit into one, all done in cheap-ass acrylic as this blanket, (final destination yet to be determined) needs to be totally wash and wear. And with the mailing costs thrown in, it also needs to be inexpensive. Worsted weight on 3.5mm needles. We've got an entire month (perhaps less as time goes by?) to knit up a completed six by six and send it off to the other person. The catch is that we will not disclose colour choices or pattern variations, should their be any. When we get the mitres in the mail, it should be a surprise whereby the recipient will continue on where the other left off.

Now, there are a few wild cards thrown in for fun. The six inch square is our basic template, so if we get sick of knitting mitres, or just for s&g, we can knit whatever we want, as long as it's six x six inches, which may prove very eeeeenteresting when it comes time to put this sucker together!
We have not determined a final project size yet, so this may turn into a Franken-blankie, who knows. The point is that it's going to be colourful, easy to knit and fun. Oh, and BTW, if you're reading this and are confused about the whole Crafternoon thing, email me if you're dying to know.

So without further adieu, The Mighty Mitre...


Tip: You can pretty much knit a whole small square while Blogger uploads your photos whilst on dial-up speed.

This is square one. Three by three. Basic recipe is as follows:
With MC (main colour) CO 30 sts
(WS) Knit
Knit 13 sts, K2tog, K2tog, K13 sts
Knit
Change to CC (contrasting colour), K 12 sts, K2tog, K2tog, K12 sts
Knit
K 11 sts, K2tog, K2tog, K11 sts
Knit
Change back to MC, K 10 sts, K2tog, K2tog, K 10 sts
Knit
K 9, K2tog, K2t0g, K 9
Knit
Change to CC...

Continue in this manner, knitting each stripe in garter stitch so that you get two ridges of each colour. Continue decreasing until there are six sts left at which point you knit 2 tog three times, knit one row, k2tog, k1, bind off remaining two stitches, fasten off. Now you have one little square. But the real goal is to get this...



And how you get this is by doing this...



With right side facing, pick up and knit 15 sts along one side of square. Cast on 15 additional sts, for a grand total of 30. Knit another small square in the same manner as the first, which will give you this...



I think you can see where I'm going with this now. So the next square evolves thusly...



With right side facing, pick up and knit 15 sts, cast on 15 more and knit another mitre.

When you've got three mitres knit together, all you need to do, with right side facing, is pick up and knit 15 stitches from one square and 15 sts from the other. Knit a fourth mitre.



And yer done. Weave or leave your ends. Voila.

That's all she wrote for today folks! Carrie, hope you found this helpful. Lemme know when you'll be ready to swap!
Until later...