The Fish Knits

Yesterday, in a comment on Norma’s blog, I mentioned the beautiful Crabapple tree outside my apartment. I would love to go and “prune” a few boughs and have the lovely blooms in the apartment,

but it’s surrounded by buildings so I wouldn’t even be able to secretly take some cuttings under cover of darkness.

There are 2 more buildings along the left side, and 3 more on the right…

After mentioning it to Norma I thought you know what? It’s a beautiful day. I want to be out there. So there you see what I did. I went out and sat on the grass under the tree with my knitting and my laptop and my camera, and had a thoroughly wonderful hour! My wireless connection even reached me, so I got to listen to the CBC while I worked. It was great.

Knitting on Imogen continues apace, and I think before long I’ll be doing the sleeves. I have about 15 rows of the back left, so I am hoping to have the sleeves done by the weekend. I love that it’s the same colour as the Crabapple blossoms! Too bad that the colour is so hard to capture. It’s the old hyper-saturated reds dilemma. I’ll do the post-processing work on the photos for the big reveal, but I don’t have the time to spend on that for yer average blog post. I hope you understand!

Oh, speaking of post-processing and photo stuff. I hate to have to be so explicit about it, but…

All images and content on my blog is copyrighted, so please do not take anything from here for your own use!

I just found one of my images used on someone else’s blog, and I couldn’t even see a relevant subject link. Not that that matters, since the person didn’t ask for permission to use my image. Simply crediting the image is not enough. If you would like to use an image you find here, ask.

Right then. I’m going to get back to the laundry I’m supposed to be doing, cause a day off and a boy in school means Tidy The House! In lieu of Crabapple blossoms I have Lilacs on my kitchen counter, so combine that with the sun outside the window and I’m a happy camper.

Do you ever think about that little poem when you look up at the stars? Do you have a wish you’d wish for? I usually wish for the same thing, or at least the same sort of thing, like happiness and health for those I love and some more time with my favourite people, but today? If there was a star in the afternoon sky for me to wish on? My wish would be this.

To knit while at work.

I started my Imogen cardi again last night as my Mothers’ Day gift to myself, and knit 56 rows of the 124 for the back while watching the documentary features of Fiddler on the Roof. It was awesome! That is one of my favourite films of all time. No doubt. But at 2 hours and 56 minutes, I don’t get to watch it too often. So, last night I watched the Special Features and up to the wedding in the film, and then it was gone midnight and I had to go to bed. And now, all I want to do is knit!

I hope all the mums out there had a lovely day yesterday. Now, excuse me while I distract myself from my desire to knit by doing some work, ok?

Seems the knitting Mojo is creeping back in. And that’s a Very Good Thing. It’s been so busy here these days that I often end up collapsing into a stupor at the end of the day, not leaving a lot of knitting time for things which require attention. But my fingers are starting to get that itch again, and my brain is starting to shake out the cobwebs and come up with ideas. Ideas! How novel! Seems I need some help with an idea though.

I have this:

It’s yarn I scavenged from a sweater I picked up at Value Village for all of $8. I do this periodically. Pick up sweaters in thrift shops and disassemble them, saving the yarn for some future project. I carefully check to make sure that they’re conducive to being unmade, and I am careful to go for natural fibres, and I try to contain my enthusiasm when it comes to cheap yarn, since there are reams of unmake-able sweaters with awful yarn. No matter how great the deal, I will never wear anything made with Mustard Yellow yarn. Natural fibres be damned!

Anyway… I picked up a sweater with a great big cowl neck made with this lovely grey tweedy yarn. I thought Tangled Yoke, yarn’s too thick. Coblestone Pullover? Nope. Oh, I know! Ram’s Horn cardigan from Knitting Nature! No, wrong gauge again. I know I could re-write the patterns to the new gauge (well, except the Ram’s Horn. I think that’s beyond me to re-write) but I want something that will require minimum adjustment. Just sleeve length for example. So. The gauge is 17.5 sts/4″, and 26 rows/4″. What would you do? I have enough for a sweater or cardi with some waist shaping.

I also thought you might like to see the Stash Skein of Fleece Artist for the Tempest cardi.

I’m off this afternoon to get its mate. I wonder if I’ll go with a blue or a green skein for the contrast stripes? There are both blues and greens in that skein up there, so either will work beautifully. We’ll see what Gisele has in stock!

Travel Knitting? Yup, there’s some of that too.

My friend Karri and I, as some of you know, have a little business in knitted items for babies and toddlers. We do a local show here in November, and this year we’ve pretty much decided to concentrate on hats. I have done sweaters in the past, but they never sell since they don’t say GAP in the neck (or so it seems). Anyway… the hats always go, so that’s what we’re doing this year. And I need to make stock! I started to make this up as I went along last night, but I have a feeling it’s pretty much a small version of another hat out there on the ‘net. I can’t think of what one though…

And the last feature of today’s post was prompted by this post. I wasn’t going to blog this, but I have to now! Yesterday I came to realise that my hair had become A Problem. I let it out of its regular looped up ponytail and discovered that it reached. my. waist! I haven’t had waist length hair since I was about 11 years old. I know that I tend to neglect it, but honestly. This was ridiculous! It was getting long enough that I would inadvertently pin my head to the bed by lying on it at night! But I was afraid. Read the above post. Honestly! Anyway, I decided it was time and in I went.

I should have thought to get a picture of it before I went to coach last night in a steamy pool, but there you have it. New hair! And no more head-pinned-to-the-bed. Whee!

Doesn’t that little face make you want (another) one of your own? My good friend Tom’s daughter just gave birth to Sadie last night, and I had the pleasure of meeting her this afternoon. A lovely little one she is, too.

I have already started her off right, with a pair of Tulip Toes and one of my Baby Toppers. There is a long list of knits I would like to make for this little one. I don’t think she’ll object.

Then again?

She is already working on her Teenager Scowl.

This morning I saw that Knitty has their Spring Surprise up, and I absolutely Must. Make. This: The Tempest Sweater is a beautiful light cardigan made with Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester 2/8 wool. I just happen to have a hank of it which I have been hanging onto for just the right project. And this is it! It’s even one of the colours in the sample! When does that ever happen? So I’m stoked. And since half of it is already in the stash, I can convince myself that it only costs the price of one skein, right? That’s what I thought. Off to Wool ‘n’ Things I go!

Seems I say that sort of thing a lot on the blog, no? This time I mean it though. I’m back as I was away for two weeks. In Europe! And I have a Finished Object! I *KNOW*!

Meet the Europe Shrug.

This is a project I cast on on the flight over to the UK.

And worked on on the EuroStar train to Brussels.

My plan was to have it done while in Europe, so that I could wear it while away (I was hoping for spring-like weather, you understand…) but alas, it was only completed once home. It’s not that it was slow-going or anything, it was that I was so busy! And honestly, we spent a lot of time wandering around rather than taking a cab or other means of getting around, and when we were on the Tube I was happy to kind of cuddle with A rather than whip out the knitting. It came pretty much everywhere with me though- just in case!

Speaking of spring-like weather, check out Hyde Park Sunday-before-last…

Yup, SNOW. Trust the Canadians (displaced Brits?) to bring the snow! It was actually pretty, and disappeared shortly after it came. So not too bad.

Part of what kept me from knitting on the Europe Shrug was some outstanding work which had to come with me from Canada. As usual, this was a case of “Be careful what you wish for”. As I have mentioned once or twice, I am constantly looking for solid, good paying work with proper hours (ie. no evenings/weekends!). I really love my job at the store, but the hours are really brutal for a single mum, you know? Now, I have a TON of skills (I seem to collect them as I go along) but none of them really bankable, and I don’t have a degree. Two diplomas yes, degree… no. So. I got a leg up at the store, which is great. More responsibility! More interesting stuff! Yay! But required training. Then I got a one-day-a-week gig with a guy working on a really cool website for Trail Networking. Diverse responsibilities! Looks great on a CV! Cool! Then I got a short contract to work on a paper for Synchro Canada (Danielle, you’d think this was really cool!). And all of this coincided with the Little Man’s March Break. Gah. Anyway, all of the work was really great, and I was excited to do it, and then…

I got sick.

Really sick. As in, my mum was really worried about me and I went and spent a weekend with them so that I could sleep and sleep and sleep and they could hang with The Boy.

So, needless to say, I had to take the Synchro thing with me to get it done in time. I was hoping to have it finished before I left. At least A was working for a few days (the whole reason for the trip) so I felt ok about spending the couple of days in the hotel chugging away on the work. Look! Belgian yogurt!

The Iced Tea in the background is FIZZY! Carbonated Iced Tea! I love Europe…

Anyway. Let’s get back to knitting, shall we?

A’s scarf has gone, well, not too much further than last report. I hate knitting scarves. It’s true. The bloody thing is just so long! 3 skeins of Cascade 220. I’m into the 3rd now, but my enthusiasm has waned. Particularly since I know it won’t get worn till next winter. Instead, I have been knitting on socks!

Travel socks. They’re going pretty quickly, especially when waiting in a doctor’s office for 3 hours.

Take 2 on the Knee High to a Grasshopper socks from last year’s Rockin’ Sock Club

The above is take 2 since I found the toe, as written, to be too narrow. It could very well be operator error, since I haven’t done toe-up socks before, but I found the ends of the cast on to be pointy! So, I made it wider to wrap around my toes more, and I think it will work. I made the Stocking Stitch section longer too. Not much though.

Imogen has been ripped back, and now looks like this:

I am thinking though that it won’t be long before she’s back in action. I have a renewed itch to put her into full wardrobe rotation! Considering that she’s all Stocking Stitch, and that she went really quickly last time, I think it’ll be a quick knit again this time. Fingers crossed.

And lastly, there has been a joyful reunion! The Boy has a stuffed frog, named Frog, who took off on an adventure on the 27th of December. He was AWOL, and E was SAD. Nothing worse than losing a lovie, since there is really no replacing a Most Favourite Object. I think I was as upset as Evan was. I kept hope alive though, and thanks to JoVE, he’s home! Frog spent the winter in the snow, communing with the animals and Snowmen. Unfortunately he had a little accident, not unlike JoVE’s cat, incidentally, and has returned minus an arm.

Evan took it very well.

The bandaid is a Snowman bandaid, in homage to the friends frog made over the winter. That seemed to help.

Evan is not letting Frog out of his sight these days…

All in all, a very happy reunion! Hooray!