Vacation Yarn!

Knitters' Rule: Vacation Yarn does NOT count towards your stash. :-)

While we were away in Cape Breton I got a chance to stop by the yarn shop in Baddeck, NS. I had to giggle at the name of the place, Baadeck Yarns. For knitters out there, they have a Facebook page also where they share links to cool free patterns on Ravelry. If you ever get the chance, stop by the shop. They had a fantastic selection of yarns there, as you will see. :-)

I started wandering around the shop and saw a sample pair of thick wintery type socks that were really cool.

They are made with Mirasol's Hachito yarn which is a blend of 80% superwash wool and 20% nylon. Although the yarn seems heavier in weight, it turns out to only be a fingerling weight. Choosing a colour was hard, but this is what I ended up picking out:

I think it will make a nice set of winter socks. Not far from the socks there was another sample project using Mirasol's yarn. This one was a lovely shawl.

The sample was knit up in the same blue colour in the picture and it was so pretty. But when I started thinking about my winter wardrobe, I decided not to choose blue. Instead I chose grey:

That is Mirasol's Nuna Fina yarn which is a lace weight yarn. It is so soft with it's blend of 40% wool, 40% silk, and 20% bamboo. It should make a lightweight but very warm shawl. I love how it has a bit of shine to it.

I continued to wander around the shop and found they carry Malabrigo yarns. When it comes to colours, Malabrigo (along with The Unique Sheep and Fleece Artist) has some of my favourites. I have a hat pattern, Pumpkin Seeds, which can use Malabrigo Rasta yarn, which is a bulky weight merino wool. I had a hard time choosing just one skein but I did. The picture doesn't show off all the fantastic colours in this yarn. I cannot wait to start working on it although I will have to since I have two projects on the needles right now and a laceweight MKAL starting soon (more on that below!).

Now up until this point all the yarn I was buying had a project to go with it. I've been trying to only buy yarn to go with specific projects rather than just because it's pretty. Well, that all went out the window when I saw this gorgeous yarn from Handmaiden Fine Yarns:

The yarn is Sea Lace which is 70% lace and 30% SeaCell, which is made from seaweed. The colour is called Forge Fire and was specially dyed for Baadeck Yarns by Handmaiden to celebrate CanIRON X, a blacksmith convention (for lack of a better word) that happened in Baddeck over the weekend. Here is a news story about the event. I love being able to buy vacation yarn that has some ties to the place I bought it. The fact that this yarn was specifically dyed to tie into the blacksmith gathering is really cool. And the colours in the yarn are so beautiful - the red fades to a purplish grey to an almost black grey colour. I have no clue what I am going to make with it but I know it will end up being a beautiful project.

At this point I was all done buying yarn. But of course the people running the shop know what they are doing and they had yarn on display right by the cash register. As I was standing there waiting for my lovely yarns to be rung up, I noticed a whole display of Malabrigo sock yarn next to me. I tried...I tried really hard to resist but when I saw this yarn, I gave in:

It is sock yarn, so I will either use it for a pair of socks or more likely to make a shawl or cowl. I've found a lot of patterns recently that use fingerling (sock) weight yarn so I am sure I will find something to do with it.

As I mentioned I will be starting a new The Unique Sheep Mystery Knit-along on July 18. This is the one based on the book the Once and Future King. I had two sets of yarn to choose from. One was a 50/50 wool/silk blend (Eos) called Coral and Cream and the other was a 70 wool/30 silk blend (Ling) in a colour called The Fox and the Raven. After a lot of thought I decided to go with The Fox and the Raven for the MKAL. I got my gauge swatch finished this morning and now it is blocking. I got gauge - yay me!

I started with the lightest colour from the gradiance set so the blocking board colour kind of drowns out the subtle colours in the yarn. I'm glad they had us do a gauge swatch because it gave me a chance to try out different kinds of needles to see which worked best with this yarn - bamboo ended up being the winner. Although there is only a small percentage of silk in the yarn it has a more polished feel so the yarn is a little slippery to work with. The bamboo needles have just the right amount of grip to keep the yarn from slipping but I can still work easily with it. With my Snow Queen shawl I didn't bother with lifelines but with this yarn, I'm thinking lifelines sound like a very good idea. (Lifelines, for non-knitters, are threads/yarn run through the stitches at various points in the pattern. If you should drop a stitch your work will only unravel to the lifeline rather than all the way back to the beginning. Lifelines can save a project.)

Because I love TUS yarn, I signed up for their ABC club. One of their customers challenged them to create a colour for each letter of the alphabet and they accepted the challenge. It has been going on for a long time now as they are up to the letter T. This is what I received for it:

The colour is Terra Teal and it came with a Tie-Dyed Towel. I'm not sure what I'll use the towel for (it is a cotton towel, not terry cloth) but it is cute and I love the colours in the yarn. I'm already plotting what I'll be using the yarn for.

Well, that's it! I'm stocked up in yarn for a while so I better get back to knitting if I'm going to use up all this yarn before our next trip to Baddeck. The yarn shop there is going to become one of my regular stopping places when we go there I think. :-)

Tuesday is for Housework

Today has been a busy day. With S's friend coming over this afternoon I wanted to make sure the house was in order. Also, it just needed a cleaning. I cleaned all three bathrooms and ran the vacuum through the house. I also mopped the kitchen floor. Yeah, our visitor was only 5 years old, but her mom was coming to get her and I wanted the house to look presentable.

I also reorganized a few of my kitchen cabinets. I recently got an electric kettle and found that it was on one side of my kitchen (by the sink) and all my teas were on the other side, which just didn't make sense. I turned the cabinet above the coffee machine/kettle into a "coffee/tea station" and moved my baking things to the cabinet right behind where I do my mixing/'prep work for baking. I thought for sure I would go to the wrong cabinets today but actually I didn't, which tells me that things were in the wrong place before.

I did quite a bit baking today. I made a batch of mini blueberry muffins for S and her friend (okay, I may have eaten a few). I also tried out something new for me - yeast rolls. In the past I've made yeast-based bread, but that was usually in my bread machine. But S's friend's mom shared a 30 minute yeast roll recipe with me. The recipe can be found here. For my first time making them, they came out almost right. I think I didn't knead the dough enough before I let it rise the final time. I had to end up baking them an extra 5 minutes, probably because they were kind of dense. S was the only one who didn't like them. I think if they were lighter and fluffier she would have liked them more. I'll keep trying until I get them right because they were good.

I think I mentioned that I ran out of yarn making my GoT cowl. I had posted about it in a discussion thread on Ravelry. Yesterday evening I received a private message from the designer apologizing for the shortage of yarn and offering to send me another skein so that I could finish the pattern as written. That meant a lot to me, that she would offer to get me more yarn. I declined because my cowl is already done and honestly, I like the way it turned out. Mine is unique. :-) I thanked her for the offer and told her that I appreciated that she was willing to make things write. Good people do exist in this world.

I finished up a different cowl recently. I used Handmaiden's Sea Three yarn, which is a blend of silk and seacell, which is made from seaweed. It is very soft and should be warm in the winter. I just discovered that this yarn is discontinued, so I'm glad I was able to make something I like with it. I still have enough left to make a hat or a pair of mitts. Of course as I was taking this picture I discovered I managed to cross some cables in the wrong direction, but you won't be able to tell that when I'm wearing it. Also, I hid those mistakes when I took the picture.

The lighting in this picture isn't the best - the yarn is actually a little more purple than it looks here. I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow if there is some sun. It's suppose to be cold (8C/48F) and rainy tomorrow.

I am working on a pair of gloves right now - you can never start preparing for winter too early around here. I'm also working on a new shawl I'm making with 100% eri silk yarn from Belfast Mini Mills. Now that it's June, Belfast Mini Mills is open every day. I may have to make a trip out there in the next day or two to see what they have for this season. I'll do my best not to buy any yarn...no promises though!

Christmas in May!

I had intended to post a blog yesterday but I was really busy running around trying to get errands done. And then by the time I got a chance to sit down it was so beautiful outside the last thing I wanted to do was sit at my computer. This morning has been busy too with packing up for our hockey tournament this weekend. There will be no blog for the next few days since I'll be out of town and I don't want to drag my computer with me. But before I go, let me show you my Christmas in May that occurred yesterday. :-)

When I came back home from getting the oil changed in the car, I found two packages on the porch. One was the yarn for my Once and Future King MKAL. When I ordered the yarn I ordered an extra set of lace-weight yarn because I was having trouble deciding which colour to use plus I found a pattern I wanted to do that used lace-weight.

This is how the Raven and the Fox yarn turned out. It is a 30/70 blend of silk and wool and should knit up really nicely. It has a nice shine to it.

The other colour I chose is Coral and Cream and it is also a blend of silk and wool but it has a totally different look and feel since it is a 50/50 blend. It has a more matte finish to it.

Those two were in one box. In the other box was my first shipment for the Sip-n-Stitch club I joined. Every other month starting with May I will receive a specially dyed yarn, some kind of tea, and a little goody. This month the tea is Marrakesh Chai and it is delicious! The goody is an adorable mug with the Unique Sheep icon on it, and the yarn is Sushi Sock yarn, which is a blend of bamboo and wool. The colour of the yarn is listed as Marrakesh, to go along with the tea.

Also, yesterday the latest issue of Sandman came out (finally!) and I swung by the comic book store to pick it up. I was also looking for the next book in the series that my friend gave me for my birthday. They didn't have it in stock but the nice woman at the store helped me pick out a couple of things to keep me busy until I can find book 3.

And after I went to the comic book store I was able to walk down the street and join C for lunch. The weather was beautiful so we were able to eat outside. Add that to the yarn and the graphic novels and it felt like I was having Christmas in May with all the fun treats! Let's hope the rest of the weekend is the same way. ;-)

A Day for Knitting and Cooking

S was still sick today, so I opted to keep her home from both J's hockey game (they lost their game but the coach was happy with the way they played) and the birthday party she was suppose to go to. I knew she really wasn't feeling well when she didn't put up a fight about not going to the party. She usually will protest about not going but today she just said okay. Yeah, not feeling well.

To keep her occupied, I started teaching her how to make a friendship bracelet. She got a kit for her birthday but I was concerned that the embroidery floss in it would be too hard for her to start learning with so I whipped out some yarn and we started with that. She is getting the hang of it but she got tired/bored after a few rows and said she'd work on it later. I think it is hard for her to concentrate with her nose being so stuffy. At least the medicine I have for her seems to be helping control the cough which is triggered by the runny/stuffy nose. Too bad the stuff only lasts 4-6 hours. It would be nice if it was at least 8 so she could sleep well tonight.

Because I was home today and S was content to just play/watch TV/rest, I was able to get a bunch of knitting done. I finished the first clue for the Outlander MKAL I'm working on. Here's what it looks like through clue 1:

I was reading through the comments on the spoilers thread on Ravelry and a lot of people seem to be having the same thought I've been having - that the yarn and the pattern are competing against each other rather than working together. Also, the photo above made me notice that the yarn is beginning to pool as we knitters call it - the colours are clumping up. I'll have to see how that continues. I looked to see if I had a solid colour to use but I don't have enough of anything in the right weight so I will just keep going and see how it turns out. Worse comes to worse I tear it out when it's done and use the yarn for something else.

I also got work done on my Solar Flare shawl. I made it through the clue for the third skein of yarn. It's hard to get a decent picture because I don't have long enough needles to show it all off but this is one section of it:

I have begun adding in skein 4 which has a lot more red in it and it looks really good. I can't wait to see it all spread out when it's done. The designer is going to release the clue for skein 5 this week so I will be able to keep plugging away at this one. It's definitely taking me longer to do each clue than the Snow Queen did. I think it's because there is less lace work in this one.

I also remembered to take pictures of my recently acquired yarn. Here is the Casterly Rock yarn for the GoT MKAL:

Yup, it totally reminds me of the Lannisters. I'm excited that GoT starts back up again on Sunday. The MKAL won't start until May so it won't be competing with the Outlander MKAL so much. I'm curious to see what we make with this because it definitely is a heavier weight yarn - it calls for size 10 needles. Perhaps a cowl?

This is the yarn my mom sent me for my birthday:

 

The yarn on the left side is 100% mink yarn and the colour is Aegean. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for but I'm sure I'll find something. The yarn on the right is from a company Simply Socks and it's 600 yarns of my favourite Unique Sheep yarn - Luxe. It came in a really cute zip-top bag which I will take a picture of tomorrow. I've seen a shawlette/scarf pattern that would be perfect for this yarn.

I didn't spend all day knitting - I made supper this evening. I made Feta-topped baked chicken, orzo, and Brussels sprouts. We had hummus and tzatziki sauce with pretzel chips as a snack type side (I dipped my chicken in the tzatziki sauce). For the Brussels sprouts I steamed them until tender but not overcooked and then tossed them with Parmesan cheese and butter. The Feta-topped baked chicken is so easy to make so I'll share the recipe:

Feta-Topped Baked Chicken

Oven 350F.

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use chicken tenders)

2 Tbsp lemon juice, divided

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp oregano

1 cup Feta cheese

1/4 cup diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup diced fresh parsley

1. Arrange chicken in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

2. Drizzle chicken with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano.

3. Top chicken with Feta cheese and drizzle with the remaining lemon juice.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes (25 for chicken tenders) or until the chicken is cooked through.

5. Sprinkle with red pepper and parsley before serving.

I typically forget to buy the red pepper and parsley and it tastes fine without it. When I do remember to buy them I like to throw the red pepper in with the Feta cheese on top of the chicken before baking. I serve this dish over orzo pasta that I've tossed with butter and sometimes extra Feta cheese (yes, we do like Feta cheese around here). It's an easy meal and so tasty. I can even get S to eat the baked chicken although hers can't have any Feta on it. Silly girl does not know what she's missing!

Knitting Tuesday

Today ended up being a laundry and knitting day. I probably should have worked on my story since it's looking like the kids will be home again on Friday. I made the mistake of turning on the TV while I was folding laundry and got sucked into watching reality shows. So out came the knitting to work on while I was waiting for the dryer to stop. I typically don't watch reality shows but every now and then I need to just watch something mindless.

Most times I've got two knitting projects going - one is usually a short term project while the other is long term. My short term project is a simple ribbed scarf with some stripes at each end that I'm making for C. I made him a hat using the same colours and he asked for a matching scarf so I pulled the yarn back out of the cabinet and started it. I just finished the stripes at one end so now I have 46 inches of ribbing to do before I get to the other end. That doesn't sound very short term, does it? It's actually going faster than I expect so I'm putting it into short term category. My long term project is also a scarf but it's a much wider, much longer scarf and it has a section of cabling running down one side of it. I've gotten to the point where I've memorized the pattern so in a way it's become non-thinking knitting, which is good for watching TV.

But next week this project will get put on a back burner for a bit. I'm starting a mystery knit-along (KAL) for a shawl. I'm a bit nervous about this KAL because I've seen some of this company's shawls and they are amazingly intricate lace shawls. I have a love/hate relationship with lace. I love how it looks when it's done but at times I hate doing it. It requires me to pay close attention to what I'm doing as opposed to the two scarves I'm working on now. I will get a clue a week for the shawl. I hope I can get each clue done before the next one comes out.

I really do love knitting. I taught myself to knit shortly after J was born and I've been knitting for almost 10 years now. I taught myself to crochet when I was a teenager, possibly before that, so I've been working with yarn for along time. But once I learned to knit I ended up liking it better than crocheting. I will still crochet but I'd rather knit instead. I have made many different things. If you're a knitter and on www.Ravelry.com, feel free to stop by my page and check things out. My name there is Jennilynn.

I've been good about my resolution of knitting from my yarn stash. I have been slowly knocking down the amount of yarn I have by knitting lots of hats and now some scarves. The yarn for the mystery shawl was purchased before my resolution kicked in. I'll keep knitting from my stash as long as I can. I'm starting to get down to the point where I have more sock yarn than yarn I use for making hats so I guess it might be time to start making socks again. Or else I'll have to pull out my one-skein sock yarn book out and see what things I can make. But the good news is that I am making progress on using my stash. Maybe soon I'll get to go buy some new yarn. :-)

Sunday evening post

Sorry for the lack of creative title - some days call for blah titles. :-)

Ah Sunday...I realized the day was coming to a close and I had yet to write a blog post. I figured I would have to wait until the kids went to bed, or at least until S went to bed, to get a chance to write. But after we ate supper the hubby took the kids across the street to skate on the neighbour's rink so I cranked up the music, fired up the laptop, and sat down to write. I may or may not have danced around, singing along with Shake It Off first. Damn that song is catchy.

S had a birthday party to go to today so I took her while the hubby took J to his hockey game. The host mom said parents didn't need to stay so I left for a bit to go wash my filthy car. It had reached the point where I couldn't stand to even be close to it. Yeah, it got dirty driving around on sloppy roads afterwards but it was at least cleaner than before. After the car wash I decided I wanted to find a certain knitting magazine but that meant going into dangerous territory - Michael's Craft store.

I went into the store determined I would keep my resolution to not buy yarn unless I needed it, which at this time I don't need it. I will admit, it was very hard. I walked around, touching all the pretty yarn, picking it up, and then carefully putting in back down. I tried very hard to ignore the fact that most of the yarn was on SALE. It was a really good sale too - some yarns were 50% off. But as I had no need of yarn, I made myself walk away. I couldn't find the magazine I wanted so I left. Without buying ANYTHING. I was proud of myself for sticking to my resolution. I went over to the bookstore and although I couldn't find the magazine I wanted I did find a few others I liked. I looked at it as a reward for sticking to my resolution.

As for my other resolution of writing every day, I was thinking about my Kilynn story today. I was trying to figure out where the story was going and not coming up with much. Then at a time when I couldn't get to my computer to write, Kilynn and her brothers told me where they wanted the story to go. The gave me the plot and now it's my job to get them there. So tomorrow, after the kids go off to school, and either before or after I hit the grocery store, I will sit down and write about the plot my characters gave me.

Galavant will have to wait for Tuesday. Make sure you watch it tonight - Ricky Gervais is on tonight as Xanax. I'm looking forward to it. But now I'll keep this short and go over to my friend's backyard and hang out until it's time for the showering of the children. No, I will not be skating. In high school I was a really good skater. I stopped skating in college (lack of time) and over time my center of gravity has changed. The last time I went skating I ended up with pulled, possibly torn, muscles in my bicep and shoulder. It was not fun. I enjoy watching and chatting with friends.

I'd like to give a shout out to a long-time friend and former co-worker of mine who writes a blog too. She was kind enough to give me a shout-out today and I want to return the favour. She writes a good blog. Enjoy! Lahdeedah's blog

Resolutions

Ah, New Year's resolutions. It is the 12th day of January. How many of you have stuck to your resolutions? I bet a lot of people haven't. I have to say, it is hard sometimes to stick to them. I tried this year to set resolutions that were reasonable. Mine this year were to write daily and buy less yarn/knit from my stash.

So far, I've been doing well with the first one. It was tough over the weekend to squeeze time in for writing but I managed to do it. And now I've made it 7 days through the 21 they say it takes to make something a habit. Some days have been harder than others to think of what I wanted to write and some days I've had too many things I wanted to write about, which is nice because then I can always save that topic for another day. I still have to work more on my Kilynn story, and I had intended to write a recap for Galavant today. Galavant will hopefully be tomorrow and Kilynn Wednesday. I'm still trying to figure out where that story is going. The second resolution, about the yarn, hasn't been a challenge - until today.

I love to knit. I try to squeeze it in where I can. I have been known to take knitting projects with me to the hockey rink, the soccer field, and to the doctor's office. It is hard for me these days to just sit and watch TV without my hands being busy. And my friends in my neighbourhood have come to realize how much I enjoy knitting and have asked me to make things for them or as gifts for others. This has been fun for me - I enjoy having someone to make things for and getting paid for my work is a bonus. I know I undercharge for my work - I usually just charge for the cost of the yarn. If they pay me anything over that, it is their choice. I do it out of friendship, not as a job.

Recently a good friend sent me a picture of a knit hat and asked me if I could make one like it for her. I looked at it and realized that yes, I could. I was busy with a few other projects but one of those got finished today so I was able to start working on her hat. I was thinking that I didn't have the yarn I needed and I was going to have to go out and buy some (yay!). But I decided to be good first and checked my sizable stash and found that yes, I had the yarn I needed not only for the hat she wants but for a second hat I saw recently and wanted to make.

In a way I was disappointed that I had the yarn I needed. I wanted to go out and buy new yarn even though I didn't need it. Resisting that urge was difficult. I went ahead and got started on the project so I would be less likely to run out to get yarn. I did other things to distract myself - like doing a much needed purge of the refrigerator, and working on this entry. Writing down that I want to go buy yarn is helping me to resist the urge. It isn't easy though.

And I understand it's not easy for others to stick to their resolutions. The friend I'm making the hat for made a resolution to give up her favorite candy. I had to admire her for that - I am an admitted chocoholic and it would be extremely hard for me to give it up. Yesterday she broke that resolution and I won't judge her for doing it. I could have easily broken one of my resolutions today (and I thank the snow falling for that. Didn't feel like slopping around in it).

She said she should have made moderation her resolution. I think that's a good idea - moderation in everything. I will do my best to knit from my stash and only buy yarn when I don't have what I need. And I will try to moderate my chocolate consumption because I should. But I won't give it up completely because chocolate tastes good. We'll see how the year goes. Resolutions - love'em, hate'em, keep'em, break'em. And try for moderation.