Of course I could buy something that isn't teal, but why?

(new summer top:)

(I'm thinking I'll spin this merino/mohair blend into something resembling this.)

There has also been knitting. And pattern writing. And general insanity that is the month of June when you have 2 kids and a construction-oriented day job.

And if you live in Winnipeg and are in town next Saturday, I'll be at Wolseley Wool with my patterns and stuff, so come say hi! I'm looking forward to talking knitting and yarn for a whole day.

Have a good weekend!

dogwoods

Pattern: Dogwoods (mine)

Yarn: 1 ball each Sandnesgarn Sisu (80% wool, 20% nylon) in 3 colours: MC: I755 ‘Dark Teal’, CC1: W001 ‘White’ and CC2: I733 ‘Turquoise’

A few months ago one of my fabulous LYS's, Ram Wools, challenged people to come up with a sock design and I really like a challenge, especially a knitting one, so I charted and knit until I made these. There was some trial and error, but I'm really happy with how they turned out and I really, really like this yarn for colourwork.

They have deciduous trees in profile on top of the foot and on the leg, and in plan on the bottom of the foot (yah. I'm a landscape architect). They're knit from the toe up, with short row toes and heels. I would recommend having some sock knitting and colourwork experience before trying these, but I'm certainly not going to fence you in if you're keen.

They're a free download from Ram's website (see above and sidebar for link). They're also crazy comfy and I'm wishing it was still warm sock-wearing weather. However, it is perfect warm sock knitting weather, so there you go.

decisions, decisions...

I decided I wanted to spin another sweater, so I bought 550 grams (20 ozs) of some gorgeous handdyed Falkland from Kirsten to spin into a 2 ply dk-ish weight yarn.

I have about 600 yds after finishing 8 ozs, so I'm hoping I'll eventually have enough for a light cardigan.

But I can't decide if I should find a simple pattern for it like this one, or come up with something simple myself.

Meanwhile, I'm at the top of the yoke now with the child's cardigan I'm designing, so I have to make a decision about what I want the neck to do. I found some good buttons for the front this morning, so I'm nearly there. I'm really happy with this yarn and the way it's turning out in general.

I also just bought some impatiens for my porch planter, half my juniper bed perished this winter and needs severe pruning, and the weather is finally nice right now, so I should get outside and get dirty. Happy weekend.

random saturday

The warm weather is finally finally here, therefore I want to work strictly on small or lightweight projects for the next few months. So currently in progress are some socks, a shawl, a fingering wt. scarf, a cardigan for me and the cardigan you see above which is something I'm designing for a fabulous woman named Mona who owns one of the yarn stores here. It's in sport weight cotton, sized for children and will have a cardigan or pullover option. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I also put together a bird, nest and tree-themed wall in my diningroom (click on photo to en-biggen).

a. this is what I started with, as I've owned and loved this antique photo of a bird on a tree (complete with real feathers at the bottom) for years

b. my fabulous cousin sells these in her shop here . I adore everything she makes.

c. print by Matte Stephens - his shop is here. Awesome, no?

d. I owned these already - original prints of trees by a local artist whose name I don't have - they were in a pile of prints for sale in another artist's studio when I toured through one day

e. print on page from a dictionary from this shop

f. print of birds in the forest from this shop

I love Etsy. Since I'm talking about it, some of my other favourite Etsy shops are: here for spinning fibre, here for handdyed yarn, and here for wooden buttons.

I hope your weekend is going well. Now I must take my dog for a stroll in the sunshine.

we'll buy a dog named...

Pattern: Seeds

Yarn: Cascade Superwash Sport, colours 900 (dark grey), 1946 (light grey), and 1910 (light teal)

I decided to try out Cascade Sport for stranded projects since I can buy it at my LYS, so I made another of my Seeds hats. I really enjoyed this yarn. One of my beefs with some superwash yarns is their "filminess" of superwash coating. This one doesn't have that. It's lovely and soft instead. I want to make a whole sweater out of this now.

And because I know you are all on the edge of your seats, the name we finally picked for the sweet beastie below is: SOPHIE.

About 2 months ago while my daughter and I were still haunting the humane society every saturday and I knew every adoptable dog in the city by name, my daughter started singing this Backyardigans song over and over again. That made us decide that if we were to ever get a girl dog her name would be Sophie. Then we got this dog and got sidetracked with a million other names until finally circling back.

But it made me laugh when I saw this comment here last week:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to embarrass myself by de-lurking & offering the name that instantly popped into my head: Sophia. Her eyes are calm & wise (but not w/o sass). I love dogs, I hope she's your girl.

Amazing and cool. Happy weekend, peeps.

new things that are great

Things have been busy lately here in the Doodle house. First I have to show you these fantastic socks I've been testknitting for Susi. She is such a fabulous sock designer. I can't say enough about them. They're challenging, graphically intriguing and super warm and well-fitting. My Rav project page is here. I used a mix of stash yarn to get the colours I liked. Many fingering weight mostly-solid yarns would do. She's also done a fingerless mitts version, which I love.

Thanks Susi for this wonderful pattern!! I know I'll be making these again.

The other news is we have a new friend in our house. She's a 6 month old Lab cross from one of the wonderful shelters here. She's been in foster care for the last while with a fantastic guy and his 2 wee dogs, so he did lots of great work socializing her and helping her with her shyness. This is her first day with us, and she's already adjusting really well. We hope very much that she likes it here. As several of you know I've been searching for the right dog for us for quite awhile.

We're still trying to figure out what name she needs and have come up with a long list of candidates so far. Something will click soon.

Hope you have a great long weekend. Happy Easter!

socks are hard

So I got it in my head about 6 weeks ago that I wanted to design some socks. Seeing as I've knit lots of them I thought I knew my way around them a bit. So I started charting and knitting and more charting and more knitting and ripping. It's 6 weeks later and I have knit a total of 4 complete socks and have 1 to show for it.

Pretty frustrating, but each time I kept telling myself "hey. it's just a little sock. not much to rip back and reknit....after its timeout." It started having 3 charts; now there's 2. I've also switched up the heels and ribbing. Susi offered a very helpful tip, as well; many thanks!

I think it's there. It's super comfortable and warm. But I guess now it needs a mate.