More Spinning......

I was browsing through my blog entries and realized I hadn't posted pictures of the finished navajo plied merino/silk blend from Aurelia. I finished spinning this last month, but with the basement reno and the furnace installs I just plain forgot. Bought this fibre from Aurelia Wool in Merritt, British Columbia, Canada when we were travelling to Vancouver, B.C. to see DD. 80Merino/20Silk, Spun to 12 wpi which on my chart means DK weight. Colour: Pink Parade. Total weight:96gr/3.5oz. Total metres: 211.5m/231yd. This was wonderful to spin. It's sooo soft, and will be wonderful knit up for anything close to the skin. Oh and I discovered something....when you have the flu try to avoid stranded knitting.....I came down with the flu last week Friday and after a couple days laying in bed I decided to try finishing off some Latvian mittens I've been working on. Well after ripping it back three times I thought I was finally on track, but eventually realized after knitting the entire body of the mitt, there was still three huge errors......so again ripped it back all the way and started again. Flu-brain, yuck. Some thumb shotsA week later and I'm still feeling the effects. With regret I'm having to say that we never made it to Phoenix. I was so looking forward to some warm temps and relaxation, but when you're sick you don't want to leave home. I don't know what was worse the flu or letting my DH and my sister and her family down by not going. Either way I'm feeling somewhat normal now, and the flowers from DH did help :) And my other sweetheart that has become even more clingy, and loved having me sick in bed because I was a great source of heat for her. I swear she would love living in a warmer climate.

Isn't she pretty..........

She has a nice purr to her. This past week I've been coordinating furnace installations in three different homes. We decided to make the plunge financially to replace the old ones as the government rebates were an incentive to do so. At 96% efficiency we're hoping to see some difference in our gas/power bills. We'll see.

While the furnaces were being installed I managed to do some knitting, and finally got the Latvian mitten figured out. The thumb was a real lesson in patience as I had to rip it down three times before getting the pattern right. Hopefully the second one will go faster. I'm loving knitting these up. The weather here has been rainy with some dense fog. It makes for some great knitting weather.

Just a quick video of Anna and Noodles. It's funny the look that Anna can give when being watched, over the shoulder 'Who me?'

Busy Busy Weekend........

In between working on the basement I managed to get some knitting done.

Also some spinning was managed. The 80 merino 20 silk fibre from Aurelia is finally done, and I'm navajo plying. I stopped in at Fabricland and picked up some material to make a kitty and scotty dog stuffed animals. Just a little something for DD and Nathan. DD is missing the kitties at home here, and is desperately wanting a pet of her own in Vancouver. She has terrible allergies and I'm thinking somehow maybe this will alleviate those withdrawals of not having a kitty to cuddle. The Scotty dog will be for Nathan. Just because :)

Next came the books I ordered from Knit Picks. They have a book sale going on until November 4 and I couldn't resist. In Cables Untangled, there is some awesome patterns, and reference to cable stitches. Interweaves Knitted Gifts, is wonderful! There's several patterns I'm wanting to knit up, but one in particular 'Ballet Flats' by Marta McCall. Also if you are a Fair Isle Knitter Alice Starmore's book is an awesome reference book as well it has some wonderful timeless patterns.

Saturday was our 25 Wedding Anniversary which was spent out at a concert with some friends. It was different as the kids aren't home anymore and weren't with us to celebrate, but we had a great time anyway. The next day Sunday was our turkey day. The plan was to have our Thanksgiving around 6:00pm but when DH brought the turkey up in the morning something was off. I mean really off. I kept smelling something, and in the pit of my stomach I was hoping what I was smelling wasn't the turkey, but it was. Bugger. I ended up phoning Costco as I bought the thing only the day before from them. Costco's good that way with returning things, and they told me to bring the turkey back with my receipt and I'd get my $ back. Turns out that a half hour before I got there another lady brought her stinking turkey back as well. So I don't know what was going on with the fresh turkey's from Lilydale. After standing in line up there we ran to Superstore and got a frozen turkey, and Thanksgiving supper was served at 8:00pm instead. With a great bottle of Chenin Blanc from Quail's Gate everything tasted great.

Monday was DH's 52 birthday. Again just the two of us celebrated after a day of working in the pit called our basement renovation. Some progress was made after we did a major backtrack with the insulation. We ended up taking down all the framing which we just finished doing to put in pink rigid insulation to bring up the R value to 20. One of those things that we had to do so there'd be no regrets later on. My camera has this neat feature to take panoramic pictures. (Click to Embiggen) Framing is just about finished. Next comes hooking the electrical back up, and then drywall.

Where am I going with this???

I've been waiting anxiously for this in the mail. Now that it's here I'm not sure where I'm going with it. Up to this point I've been borrowing all the books on weaving from the library, and after doing some reading I know I'm going to have to take some classes. I was naively thinking that weaving was going to come easy to me, I'm not so sure about that now.
Kromski Harp, Rigid Heddle Loom 32"
How it came packed......some assembly is required.
My assistant Noodles.
She soon tired, and took a nap. Right in the middle of my work area. I was trying to assemble the stand for the loom, but it was a two person job and I had to wait until DH was home.
All done! She's a Polish beauty! Now I just have to find the time to warp.
In the meantime I've been slowly progressing on my DD's Pakuna sweater. Blocked the back piece last night which then I can sew the front to the back in order to pick up and cast on for the sleeves.Next I've been forever wanting to knit a pair of Latvian mittens. This is the fourth time ripping this project apart, but I think I've got the size right now.
I'm using 2.00mm dpn with three different colours of yarn. The white I'm using is from my stash Gaella Irish Worsted Knitting Wool. The dark blue is also from the stash Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Artic Pool Heather colourway. The light blue I had a heck of a time finding. None of my LYS carried the type of baby blue I needed so I ended up going to Michael's and buying Bernat Satin worsted weight. The pattern I'm using is 10e Kurzeme, Alsungas (graph 108) from the book pictured below Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis. Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2008 also has a pattern of one of the mittens from the book. The instructions for the mitten in Vogue is a little easier to follow, and it would be a good intro into knitting Latvian mittens.