I have totally lost track of where I am in my knitting projects. I hate to look at my basket of UFOs, it's starting to overflow. I usually can keep all of the projects I'm working on in some sort of order in my head but it seems that that is overflowing too. So one thing at a time is the way to proceed.

My aran weight cardigan is almost finished. It's interesting working with yarn with a gradual colour change. With every new ball I was trying to keep the colour sequence going. It makes for several small balls cast aside as I draw out yarn to find the right place in the sequence. It worked pretty well I think. But now I am at the cap sleeve ribbing and I'm trying to go through the little balls to find the right amount of yarn in the light green, otherwise my caps won't match, oh no!

-Deb

You know those questionnaires that ask 'What activity makes you forget about time?"? Do you have one activity that when you look up you realize that hours have slipped by and you didn't notice? And I don't mean sitting in front of your computer which we all know can take out several hours at a time without you even knowing. For me, it's setting up a new pattern and working it out for 5 or 6 sizes. It's fun, a little frustrating and just when I think I've got it just like I want it I find some little glitch and I have to start part of it again, it means lots of erasing and I love it every time. I would say that of everything I do it is the most satisfying. So as soon as I finished up those couple of projects (see past posts) I got out my paper, pencil, large eraser and yarn and started again.

This is a fairly straight forward ribbed collar (obviously) cardigan in Aran/Heavy Worsted weight yarn (18 sts = 4"/10cm) from the Top Down. I got this bag of yarn out of a remainder bin in a shop. It's Gedifra, Fashion Trend Color. So this sweater will be as long as the yarn holds out, part of the mystery.

I put in Short Rows to raise the back of neck and therefore lower the front of neck.

Many more rows are worked across the back of the neck and very few rows are worked across the front of neck. This technique still kills me. I find it so amazing. It never loses it's elegance for me.

-Deb

It's getting there. I just have the sleeves to finish now. And I'm going to go out button shopping soon too.

You can see the shaping clearly here. I really like an A-line shape which I worked into the sides of this top.

When I look at the photo I can also see some horizontal lines across the middle. I am currently trying to loosen up my grip on the needles. It makes my tension somewhat irratic at the moment. Washing may take some of that out, fingers crossed. The death grip I have on my needles might be due to knitting sample garments and trying too hard to make them look good. I never used to knit this tightly so I'm trying to go back to my old relaxed ways, sometimes a little toooo relaxed obviously.

-Deb

It's Here!

Yes! Teens & Tweens has arrived! Here are a couple of images from the book. I'll post all the colour pages on the gallery on the web site.

The Cabled Hoodie above, Kendra's Tunic below:

The Waffle Scarf & Mittlets, below left, Mirror Stripes Pullover, below right & bottom left, and the Tam & Zigag Scarf bottom right:

Now to update the web site!

-Lynda

I finished Mary's Shawl/Scarf. This is the scarf size which uses one skein of sock wool. It starts at the tip goes up to the top which was a new wasy of doing a shawl for me. I really enjoyed it. The pattern should be ready the first week of May.

And another finished item, yay!

I think I have 3 black and white checkered buttons at the shop. They would look so cool on this Last Minute Baby . It feels terrific to finish a couple of things. Now back to some of the UFO's I have stuffed behind my chair (and we all know why they are behind the chair - guilt is oozing off of them, it's messy).

-Deb

Fiona Ellis (canadian designer) told me that she and her friends do a 'knit count' on all the movies that they watch. So chime in when you have one that's got a high count. Elizabeth has started the list with 'Out of Africa' for shawl knitting. I would add in 'Emma' which has only a couple of shawl sightings but better than nothing. I do remember that 'Cider House' had quite a few of knitted garments in it.

What a fun class we had, 3 Saturdays making socks and mittlets, 2 at the same time. These classes are run by the Simcoe County Arts and Crafts Association  http://www.simcoecrafts.ca/quilting-rughooking-stainedglass-knitting-weaving-spinning.html who's mandate it is to support the heritage crafts. The first class was all about the cast on and it's tricky. I put everyone in training (the Olympics are just over afterall) starting with one sock and then graduating to two socks on the two circular needles. Everyone got it and now they have one pair of mittlets finished, 2 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of mittlets well on their way. Next year I think we'll tackle lace knitting with charts.

And I learned something this weekend. Some projects need a certain atmosphere to progress. My shawl was a little stalled or at least progress was slow. But under the right conditions ...

... it took off. Pride and Prejudice viewing did the trick and I'm now on the second last row! Although there was a shocking lack of knitted shawls. This movie gets a '0 knit' rating I'm afraid. I hope that my knitting a shawl while I watched helped.

-Deb

I think it's really coming along. And are you noticing that lace is showing up everywhere? So to jump on the bandwagon I decided to put a lace border on my summer sweater. It must be this lovely sunny weather that is causing this outbreak of lace.

I think lace knitters would call this scarf 'true lace' where you work the lace pattern on both the right side and the wrong side of the scarf. No gooffing off with a Purl Back row. I am testknitting this pattern so I have worked through both the written instructions and the Chart. I'm definitely a chart person. It makes so much more sense to me to follow the pattern when it's in chart form. But my state of mind is rather jumbled and disjointed at present and I'm finding I can only concentrate for small periods of time (totally me and not the pattern which is lovely to knit) so I've been sitting and working through one set of motifs and then putting it down for a bit. By working this a couple times a day I'm hoping to finish this scarf up next week.

Because I'm also knitting a very quick couple of  Last Minute Baby samples in cotton. They are fast and fun and a really easy TV watching project. I am quite convinced that one must have several projects on the go. Lace for when you are bright and want to really create something beautiful, a simpler lace to add a certain something to a plain sweater and the dead easy, work it in your sleep, project for when you're asleep at the needles. I'm sure that's not enough yet, I should start a sock soon too.

-Deb