The weather....

What greeted me this morning....



A water main break..... Two car pile-up happened just before taking this picture. What a miserable day for that poor lady.











-30 Celsius produces a lot of steam.












Flooding now is up on the sidewalk.

I'm not sure if I want to venture outside. Neither does Noodles.....Noodles doppleganger Mr. Sweetness.

What joy there is when a movie has some great knitting in it......

I'll have to put Tess of the D'Urbervilles down as another movie with a few glimpses of some interesting knitting. I've never traveled England's countryside but I can imagine that it looks very much like it did in this four-part drama series. Beautiful cinematography.

The thing that caught my eye was a wrap around shawl that Tess Derbeyfield was wearing. I made my husband stop the movie and got him to freeze frame, and from what I could see it was a straight garter stitch with a picot edge shawl. I've attached a link showing a clip from youtube, but it's not the greatest of quality.

After looking through all my reference material I came up with a similar pattern that I'm going to follow to hopefully make something similar to the shawl like Tess's. Folk Shawls 25 Knitting patterns and tales from around the world by Cheryl Oberle It's the Simple Garter Stitch Prairie Shawl. With some of my own modifications I think I'm close to the same design on the movie. I've stretched it out width wise to allow for the wrap around which buttons in the back, and I've added a picot edging all the way around for a finished edge.



Yarn: Berroco, Peruvia, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool, colour: 7105 Prairie Dog, Needles: Knitpicks Interchangeable Needles 5.00mm.












Not quite done yet, but I'll post pictures of the shawl when it's finished.

Some treasures passed down with much appreciation.......



A pretty tin which holds some curiosities.










Still curious that Noodles.








Vintage buttons, thimbles, cloth tapes.







Some old spools of thread. I'll never use any of this as I find it too sentimental.







Old flour/seed sacks.





My goal is to make some aprons out of this material. It's original use was a duvet cover that our Great Grandmother had made. It's now thin in some spots, but overall the material is still very useable.




I have always been on the lookout for retro fabric, and this fits the bill very well. I recently found a contest at Tie One On. I don't know if I'll have time to enter, but it's such a cool idea for anyone interested in entering an apron sewing contest.

Picking up where I last left you.......

Unfortunately the hazard of not blogging consistently means this post is going to be a long one....

Before I start with my present day knitting projects I just wanted to post an update on our bathroom renovations downstairs which is the main reason I haven't been around.

Just to back track...the start of demolition going back to January 2008. Yup this has been going on for long time.











Fast forward to the summer and Dale's jackhammering a hole to start re-routeing the plumbing for shower, toilet, and vanity. My contribution was/is as official photographer, digging and hauling of concrete and dirt, and general grunt work/passer of tools to DH who was/is the lead in this excursion.






Again fast forward...pipes are now moved and refilling of the hole.

As time passed over the summer and I neglected to take pictures of the concrete being mixed and poured. We are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Drywall is up, and now we're laying infloor heating....................................................>


Over this past week we were laying tiles, and grouting, and sealing.

Still a fair ways to go yet, but now comes the fun stuff with painting and decorating. I'll post as progress is made.


So in the evenings I got on a sock kick.

Favorite Socks 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave. Can't say enough about the really nice sock patterns in this book.

I'm knitting these for a ladies size 10 so I've made increases to the pattern for foot length. What caught my eye when searching patterns was the lace design carried down the back for the heel.

Yarn: Trekking Pro Natura, 75% superwash wool, 25% bamboo. Knitted with 2.5mm dpn's.



After finishing the purple sock I was smitten with another design out of the same above mentioned book.

Undulating Rib Socks, knitted with 2.5mm dpn's. Yarn: Lorna's Laces Hand-dyed yarns. 80% Superwash Wool, 20% Nylon. Color: 403 Tuscany.

I love this pattern, and I'm totally in love with hand-dyed sock yarn. Knitting this went by so fast. The repetitive pattern was interesting enough not to be borrowing. (I just came back to re-read this entry and discovered my spelling error, lol, I meant boring! Not borrowing. What was I thinking? It must've been the caffeine, yeah that's right I'll blame it on the caffeine ;) )

So I was on a roll throwing caution to the wind, and I started on a toes up knitted sock pattern. It's always intriqued me this toe first idea because people were saying it's easier to get the length of the foot right and not run out of wool. I really enjoyed this technique, and I'll be on the look out for more patterns toe first.

I had to do some major increasing on this sock to fit my size 10's. I fell in love making these bobbles, and loved the yarn I used which was a gift from last Christmas.

Pattern: Bacchus Socks, by Alice Bell. From Interweave Knits Fall 2008. Yarn: Knit Picks Essential, Colour: Inca Gold Tweed 65% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon, 10% Donegal. Knitted with 2.00mm dpn's.

Hope everyone is doing well!
Happy knitting!!

A quick post.....

We had a good Christmas, but I have to say I'm glad to see 2008 done with. I've heard several people say the samething. What's up with that? Good Charma or kizmit just wasn't flowing last year.

Anyway over the holidays I kept busy with a couple projects which are now finished.

Cross-Country Chullo, free pattern from knitty.com

Yarn: Patons Decor (Purchased at Michael's)
75% Acrylic
25 Wool
Colours: Pale Sage Green, Rich Grey Heather




It's been so cold I've been thankful I managed to finish this in time to actually use it this winter.

Next project came along while we were in Jasper, Alberta over the holidays. I stopped in at a little yarn store called A Stychen Time, and picked up some Sari-Rainbow Silk from Nepal. 100% silk, 200 gr., 200 yards. I always liked the pattern Morning Surf Scarf, and I thought the silk would work for this pattern.


Morning Surf Scarf
Pattern from Spin-Off Magazine, Summer 2008









Blocking....silk doesn't stretch as much as wool, and this pattern gulped up the 200 yards I had. The finished measurement is 20cm x 158 cm. Or 8in. x 62 1/2in.


Dry cleaning is recommended, but it says on the label you can wash in luke warm water which is what I did with vinegar to set the colour. Whew! What a smell that came off this silk. I used some essential oils to combat the odour, but what seemed to really work is laying Bounce fabric softner sheets underneath the scarf while blocking. All is well now.


Hope all is well with you, and stay warm!

Noodles knows how to stay warm....I can't get her out of the lightbox I use for photography. She feels the heat from the lamps and loves it.

You caught me snoozing.

(Haha Mae :) I'm heading to Michael's this morning. They have a bunch of yarn 70% off sale. DH is still working on our bathroom reno downstairs. I'll post pictures asap of progress there. I'm missing my blogging, and I'll get back at it, but unfortunately I'm being rather lazy. Could it be because of the weather? hmmmm

Welcome to the inside....away from the cold.

I figure I do a fair amount of decorating, but it's gotten to the
point where I'm cutting down as I have to think of where I'm going to store all this stuff after I buy it. Plus cutting back on the decorating helps with the knitting schedule. Click to embiggen any of the following pictures.

The front living room. This year we bought a new Christmas tree. It's artificial pine/spruce slim tree. It's in a smaller box that I can lift myself, and putting it away won't be such a chore.

Close up of the Christmas tree decorations. My DD is a graphic designer and she fell in love with this colour combination....it's sort of a dark plum/brown with coordinating gold ornaments, and tinsel garland.










Looking in the other direction in the living room.

My DD was at a Christmas function a couple years ago and won these wire deer. Something I never would have thought to buy, but I'm sure glad she won them as I really enjoy them.











A little closer look at the guardian of the liquor cabinet.






















Santa Claus.













Off the living room area is the dinette where breakfast, lunch, and supper is served, or to our American friends its dinner, or to the British its tea.













Heading downstairs to the basement is a antique buffet we recently received which promptly got decorated. I think it looks happy.




















The final decoration I usually put up is in the rumpus room downstairs which sits on a mantel above the TV. It's a metal house bought from Costco a couple years ago. It holds three tea lights inside which light it up from the inside. This year I was surprised that Costco wasn't carrying much for different decorations such as this one.



Finally after all this is mostly a knitting blog, and of course I've got a sock in progress. Pattern from Favorite Socks 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave. Page 39 Merino Lace Socks by Anne Woodbury.
Yarn: Trekking Pro Natura.
Made in Germany
100G=420m
75% New Wool
25% Bamboo
Colour: 1515

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Fantastic New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peace and Love from my house to yours
See you in the New Year!
Charlene

Day 1.....I'm such a joiner........

I saw this.....












on Susan In Stitches blog, and thought it was such a cool idea. You can find the link in my sidebar, or go directly to BooMama's blog.

So today is day 1 for me. I'm starting with the outside of the house which I've been trying to take some nighttime pictures of Christmas lights, but haven't figured out my aperatures/shutter coordinates yet. Bear with me more research is needed.....





The backyard.....
I think it's been almost 15 years I've had these candles and I still like them. I've also had the large red bows for many years and only now thought to put them on the fence and trees. They sat in a box for the last two years because I didn't know where I wanted to put them.












The lights were on and I thought they'd show up more in this picture, but it still needs to be darker outside. I've already filled that bird feeder for the second time in two weeks. The sparrows and chickadees are really chowing down.










This is the front door with a bit of garland and another couple of trees decorated with some red berries on either side of the door.



Front door wreath and bells >












I was inspired by Susan's blog and her talent at taking Christmas pictures of all her animals/pets. I recruited my daughter to help with my Noodles to do some sort of garland arrangement, but there was so much movement by the model, this one turned out kind of blurry.















This was the best one, but as you can see by the placement of the ears she wasn't thinking this was fun.











Yeaaahhhh....this was fun. As you can tell by the tinsel shredded on the floor this wrestling match ended quickly. I had to save the garland.









There has been some knitting going on. Sparse as it is. I've made five of these hotpads in different colours, and given most of them away. I am using them as hotpads, but the pattern is calling it a dishcloth. The pattern is free and was found on Ravelry here. If you're not on Ravelry then it's here. Yarn used: Bernat Handicrafter Holidays, Colour 47706 Mistletoe, 100% Cotton, 100g/3.5oz. Any of the Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn works great with this pattern. I can make one in about four hours while watching television, and I'm not a fast knitter.

Tomorrow I'll have more pic's of Christmas decorating inside the house.