Deja Vu, All Over Again...

I'm home on a Saturday night, my own choice. I've had this hermitting instinct for the last couple of days. It happens, from time to time. I just want to stay home, curl up, be by myself. It works out well when the constable is on night shift. I get to pursue my alone time uninterrupted.

I have very little trouble keeping myself entertained most of the time. I knit, I read, I organize, I clean...it all amuses me. While doing all of this, I have the tv on, mostly for background noise. This evening, after organizing and doing a little cleaning, I've been curled up on the couch pouring over a slow cooker magazine, planning out a few recipes for the upcoming weeks.

Trying to find something decent on tv, with only basic cable mind you, on a Saturday night is always a challenge. I had the race on for a bit, the NASCAR Nationwide series. I enjoy watching racing, and it's really great for filling that background noice quota. You don't have to pay attention or follow along and the roar or the cars is a nice, constance hum. It put me out for a little catnap.

I was rudely awakened by a large snout to the face, and when I woke up, I actually felt like watching something. So I flicked around. I landed on the History channel, as they were showing a program I watched almost a year ago to the date, about the Shag Harbour UFO incident.

I distinctly remember sitting in my in-laws living room (as I lived with them for a time), with my MIL, watching this program last winter. The constable wasn't a constable yet, he was still in Regina at Depot and it was getting pretty close to the end. I was knitting the edging row of a scarf that I had started around the time that he left, in September. I started it with the intention of wearing it at his graduation.

I had bought the yarn at Value Village. It was a huge ball, very fuzzy, almost laceweight, bright red. And cheap! I'm still not too sure what it is, but the way it behaved when I was knitting it might suggest that if it isn't 100% mohair, it's definitely a mohair blend.

Anyhow, I wanted this scarf to be special. I wanted it to be long and intricate. I wanted it to take a long time to knit. I swatched. I measured. I did math. I picked a lace pattern that I thought would be quite pretty. And this is the finished product:



This was taken at the aforementioned grad, so I got it done in time. I have blogged about the scarf before. That night, almost one year ago, watching the same program, I gave the bind off edge a tug to try and ease a little of the tightness and broke the yarn and the stitches wide open. I froze and I think my MIL stopped breathing. I almost cried. Thankfully, it was only the edging stitches, which I had picked up, so they could be repaired without permanent damage to the rest of the scarf.

Anyhow, I just thought that this whole full circle moment was kind of neat. In watching the UFO program the first time, I knew by then that we were headed for Nova Scotia. The fact that Canada's biggest UFO case happened there only made it that much cooler! I never posted pic of the scarf, so now I have.

In other knitting news, I'm knitting socks. Which I really should be working on, as it's craptacular...again...outside and I've got nowhere else to be!

Until later...

A Flurry of FO's...

As small as they may be, they are indeed finished, and therefore, they count towards overall knitty productiveness.

Seems as though I've been on a bit of sock jag lately. When am I not though, really? I always seem to have at least one pair on the needles. It's almost a kniterly must. For each complicated or intricate project, an equal number of socks must be on the go. One project to challenge, one to 'ease the mind', in the immortal words of my then six year old nephew. He was referencing colouring, but it's all the same bag.



So here we go...two pair of commissioned work socks for the lovely fellows who have been working on the siding. I don't know when or how it came up, but the constable was chatting with them one afternoon and mentioned that I knit and before I knew it, I had orders for five pairs of wool work socks. The darker grey pair, size 10, are for one of the guys. He only wanted one pair, so he's done. The other dude wants four pair total. I told him it takes me at least a week to do one pair, as I am still of the school that knits top down, dpns, one sock at a time. He seemed okay with that, but really, I have no clue when I might get three more pair of socks done. Let me re-phrase; three more pair of plain grey work socks. Top down, dpns...one sock at a time. Gotta tell ya, it's really making me step out of my knitty comfort zone and perhaps learn to do two socks at a time on two circs. or something. I started toying with double-knitting a pair of socks, and kinda got the hang of it, so I may try that again as well. For some reason, I dig the double knitting.



Up next, more socks! The adult pair are knit in Bernat Hot Jazz and are for me. I started the first sock in July as a travelling sock. It flew home to Ontario with me and kept me company on my two week sojourn. The second sock was intended as a tutorial sock to get Carrie over her heel hump, but she figured it out all by her little self and now has a fabu pair of Hot Tamale to call her own.

The children's pair are knit from Regia Nation Colour and really, the pictures don't do the colour justice. They are way more yummy in person. Bright and bold, but not loud. I spied the yarn in Mahone Bay, at where else, Have a Yarn and it leapt right into my arms and refused to be left behind. Something must be changing in my colour personality, cuz I'm all about bright and bold colour lately.



As you can see, the socks are fraternal, rather than identical, which I personally love. I've done a few self striping socks that matched one another, but I think I prefer this route. It just makes it all the more fun for me. Anyhow, these socks were started shortly after our company arrived and were intended for my neice, but unfortunately I didn't get them done by the time they departed. Hopefully by the time they reach her by mail, her feet won't have grown exponentially. Can't wait to see them on!



I was going to hold off on showing this project until it too had been sent off and received, as it was a commissioned project as well, but I couldn't wait. This hat makes me feel like a bona fide knitting GENIUS! I mentioned it in my last post. This is the project where I tried a whole bunch of new techniques, like provisional cast-on, fair isle and double knitting. I didn't use a pattern, just measurements, and completely improvised the entire thing. And if I do say so myself, I think it turned out pretty dern well. The hat was knit from the bottom up and I cast on provisionally so as to be able to make it reversible. I knit the striped version first, leaving enough stitches on both sides on spare yarn to knit the ear flaps at the end. After finishing the striped version, I picked up the live stitches off of the provisional cast on, cast on additional stitches to match the ear flaps, knit the fair isle version of the hat (being mindful to weave in the ends as I went before the whole thing was closed up at the crown), tacked it down to the other hat and voila, reversible! Then I picked up both sets of stitches for the one ear flap, double knit them and finished off with an I-cord tie. Same for the other ear flap. But you know the thing that impresses me the most about putting this hat together? I had the forsight to make sure that all my wonky bits where I started new colours were at the centre back! Now that's smart. Can't tell you how many times I've done striping in the round and my wonky bits are right smack dab in the centre of the front. Grrr. Anyhow, the hat is intended for a wee one, and since it is doubly thick, I'm hoping it will be nice and warm for all those days of playing outside in winter. Hope there is some appropriate weather to accompany it!



Lastly, a pair of cotton dishcloths, Bernat Handicrafter, for my mom. She loves these things, and as she bleaches her dishcloths within and inch of their lives, she's always in need of a steady stream to restock her supply. She's a knitted dishcloth junkie. This pattern is so simple I can probably knit it in my sleep now. They make for a great teaching project though. While my SIL was here, she decided to try her hands at the needles once again. We'd been down this road before, and since I was fairly novice myself the last time I tried to instruct, I feel as though I was a very inadequate teacher. I used a loosey-goosey cast on at the time, couldn't really give any insight as to how mistakes were being made. This time though, we made great progress and she caught on frighteningly fast. Picked up on things that I wouldn't expect beginning knitters to really notice. In any case, I showed her this simple dishcloth pattern and she finished one a quarter of the size in an evening. I was mightily impressed. My favourite quote from the evening was when she had completed the first couple of rows and turned to me and said, "Is this supposed to look like something? Cuz it doesn't." Ah yes, a true knitter in the making I hope. I do believe I also heard her say, "I want to finish this before I go to bed." The force is strong with this one.

Well, it seems that my prolonged absense from the blogsphere has left me with a lot to say! There's still more projects to talk about and some exciting news to share, but I will leave it here for now and return another time. Today is one of those perfect knitting days, where it's blustery and rainy outside, in addition to being a Saturday, so one feels completely justified in doing little else than curling up on the couch for a very loooong knitting session with a stack of movies to keep company. With that in mind, I'm going to go complete the few chores I absolutely need to get done and then hunker down to crank out some more FO's.

Until later...