Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Here's one of the finished wine and roses mitts. I had it finished a couple of days ago, but my daughter broke a nail and didn't want her hand to be photographed.

Knitting this mitt went really fast. The pattern was fairly easy to memorize. It was just late at night (11:30pm) when I'd lose my way with the lace pattern. When my eyes start doing loopty loops I know I just have to put it down, and this goes for any knitting that I'm doing. Lace in particular though, I think it's the yarn overs that get me.

The Superkid and Dawn yarn used to knit this up was great to work with, but unfortunately it doesn't photograph well. The lace pattern isn't coming through and I think it's because of the mohair. Personally I wouldn't change it I love having the mohair in there as it makes for such a soft mitt.
Pattern: Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Thought the state of affairs in my lilac tree needed to be updated.... the Mama Robin and her chicks are all doing fine. I've been checking periodically around the tree for the neighbouring cats and they seem to have vamoosed. The nest is getting overcrowded. I don't think it'll be much longer and they'll start leaving. Happy Day, Mama's free!

Monday, June 25, 2007

I can't believe that almost five days have passed already. It was a
busy weekend, and nice weather at that.


In between sock knitting and starting up with the lacey mitts I've had in my knitting bag a project that I started with some yarn that I picked up in Alaska. In August of 2005 we went on a one week Holland American cruise leaving Vancouver, BC.

Throughout the whole cruise I was on a mission to find any kind of product that was produced locally, and finally in Ketchikan I came across this hidden jem The Bead and Yarn Shoppe. Besides carrying yarn there was fabric, and beads, and a wide selection of notions for any fibre artist. It was a beautiful shop with stained glass windows, and lamps, and artwork from area artists. It was on the second
floor of a tiny mini mall right next door to a quilting shop.

It was too bad as I only spent maybe half an hour there. I could've stayed for a lot longer, but there is only so much time that you're allowed off the ship when docked in port.

So the fibre I picked up is a 50/50 wool, and soy. Hand dyed. Colour: Jacobs Coat. It's produced by Rabbit Ridge Designs out of Anchorage Alaska.


I knew I wanted to do something special with it, and I thought a long scarf would be a good memory of the trip. The pattern I'm using is from a gorgeous book Knitting on the edge by Nicky Epstein. I didn't count but there's got to be a couple hundred borders/edges for knitting as well as several nice patterns included.




The pattern I chose is the embossed twining vine leaf. I thought it made sense to pick something that could be winding the whole length of the scarf, and with the embossed knitted effect it's a unique look. Nothing that I've ever done before.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007


Over the past several days I've been having fun picking out yarn for my next couple of projects. The first being a pair of fingerless mitts for my daughter Nicole. I went to my stash and I had some black, but of course it wasn't the right gauge and I didn't have enough. So off to River City Yarns




The pattern I've picked is Wine and Roses Mitts
designed by Jolene Treace from Interweave Knits,
Winter 2006.

I decided to go with two strands as I kept looking
at the pattern and thought it was calling to have

some fuzzy texture. I found some Super Kid Seta
Alessandra by Filati which is made up of 70%
Super Kid Mohair, and 30% Seta-Silk. The colour
is 1014. I wish it had a name for the colour,
but it's listed as just a number.

The other strand is Dawn 2ply 50% Wool - 50% Silk. Colour #4. It's made in Auckland New Zealand for Naturally, Hand Knit Yarns

I've got the wrist made up and I'm now starting the gusset. The pattern is easy to follow, and is going quite fast. I wanted to incorporate beads into the mitts so I've been putting them in where I think it would look best intermingled with the lace pattern.
As I've said before, it's going fast so I'm hoping I won't suffer from second mitt syndrome after finishing the first one.


Next up is a pattern from Knitty . Issue - Winter 2005, pattern - Mrs. Beeton

I loved this as soon as a I saw it. It's incorporating beads, mohair, and lots of colour. Designed by Brenda Dayne from the U.S. living in west Wales.

I bought enough fibre to do two sets of these Victorian styled gauntlets.








Dream Mohair, colour 582, 95 metres
Misti Alpaca, worsted weight 4 ply, colour EZ14, 218 yards
Glass beads from Michaels craft store



Second set of gauntlets will be made up of Italian Mohair, Idena Mohair Lux, colour 4053
I'm guessing by the label it
holds 180 metres My Italian isn't that good.

The other yarn is from Dale of Norway
Tiur Dalegarn, colour 4545, 60% mohair, 40% wool, 115 metres




Hopefully this should keep me occupied for sometime. I'm looking forward to wearing them this fall.



In the meantime here's a pic of a robin's nest in our front lilac tree. I'm having to keep tabs on the neighbours cat whose latest hangout is sitting at the bottom watching the mom and chicks.



Tuesday, June 19, 2007


A Happy Birthday goes out to my daughter.....June 18. I brought some peonies from the garden, and went for lunch....oh boy, another year gone by.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Lively ain't they??? Finally finished them. I heard of this saying 'second sock syndrome.' I couldn't figure out when knitting up a pair of socks why I was so slow in getting the second one done. Low and behold they've got a name for it.

On to the next project....some black angora fingerless lacy gloves. Possibly with some beads incorporated into them. I've got the pattern, but no yarn or beads...time for some shopping. More details later.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Another nice day today with a forecast of rain tonight so I'm in a hurry to get the rest of the plants in to catch some free moisture.

This is a perennial that was planted last year, and survived! It's a Geum, Dwarf Orange. I try to save the tags from my plants so I can go back to them for info., and I was happy to see this plant blooms from May to August. Looks like it's a good producer of blossoms over the summer. So hopefully the blooms will still be around when I finally get time to sit and enjoy them!


Monday, June 04, 2007



Just a quick note showing some pics from this past Saturday. Went out to the farm and did some gardening. I was taking a break at this moment, I wished I wouldn't have forgotten my knitting otherwise I would have been working on the last of my Retro Rib Socks......



My husband continued on helping me lay the edging down in +28C temperature. For some reason the beer tastes better the hotter it is outside. He's so sweet....Thanks Dale!

I've been meaning to post a picture of one of two our cats. This is Noodles...she's not fat, she just has short legs. haha. She loves her teddybear, and I couldn't resist this shot. She was the inspiration for my blogs name....KnittingNoodles

She's a 14 year old tabbycat who loves the sun, rolling in fresh dirt, eating grass, and going bathroom in my flower garden. But most of all sleeping is her main hobby.

I picked up my new toy. As seen on Maia's blog Maia Spins. I'm looking forward to starting some winding. Of course while I was picking up the winder at my local fibre retailer here in Edmonton, Wool Revival. I was immediately drawn to a basket on the floor. Bonnie is always getting new stock in, but I have never seen these colours in Briggs & Little Sport Yarn (Orange Col:32 and Red Heather Col:76).

The picture probably doesn't do it justice, but there is some orange in the red heather. I immediately thought of making some mittens from one of the patterns in...Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition, by Terri Shea. (Another recommended item from Maia Spins). It's a book loaded with patterns as well as the history of Selbu Mittens and gloves. I think these two colours will look great in a pair of Norwegian mittens on a cold and grey Canadian winter. Gosh...I can't believe I'm already thinking of mittens for winter! Spring isn't over yet! I've been doing so much gardening, but my mind is still on my present and upcoming knitting projects.


Speaking of baskets on the floor...Bonnie also has been bringing in more products from Lantern Moon.

The basket pictured here is their Rice Basket, Cranberry, small. It can be folded in half inside itself so that the handles aren't in the way. It was the right size for holding my knitting in the car as we headed to Stettler AB this past Saturday for my Sister-in-law Norah's birthday party. A great time was had by all....