Hand-me-down Yarn (a la Cici)

This week I completed a new project using some hand-me-down yarn.

To set some context, I don’t like receiving hand-me-down yarn or fabric. I knit or sew with that which inspires me, and I find it difficult to get inspired by others’ cast off supplies. I hate saying no to my mother, but I’ve had to say no to her offers of fabric and yarn more times that I can recall. I try hard to avoid situations where I have to decline generous offers of yarn, because it is hard for me to get inspired by yarn that I didn’t pick out. We live in a teeny, tiny space, so there isn’t room to store a lot of yarn and fabric for use “someday”. I have received some great gifts of sock yarn in the past that I’ve enjoyed using, but in those cases they were picked out special for me and held more meaning that the typical hand-me-down yarn scenario.

So why did I work on this project using someone else’s yarn? Well it started last Saturday when my sister sent me a funny picture of a dog wearing a crocheted sweater that made it look like a sheep. It was hilarious and Cici would have looked perfect in it, but I just shook my head at it and tried to walk away from the computer. But of course, I couldn’t walk away without checking out Ravelry first to see if the pattern for the sheep sweater was available. I did uncover the source of the sheep sweater, but the pattern is still in development. While on Ravelry, I checked out the other 1,135 patterns for pet clothing (yes Ravelry has 1,135 patterns for pet clothing!) and was frustrated to discover that most dog sweaters are designed for dachshunds or yorkies, not for my muscle-bound staffy. Oh well, I didn’t want to knit Cici a sweater anyway.

As the hours passed by I continued to mull about the idea of a Cici sweater when I remembered I have some completely impractical white hand-me-down yarn in my stash. White and boucle – kind of like a sheep!  At Christmas my sister foisted a bag of yarn on me and said I should use it or give it away or something. It was a bag of quite nice boucle yarn, but not something I’m really interested in. When she gave it to me we were in the midst of family gathering chaos so there wasn’t much for me to do but accept it. But on Saturday I was happy I took it, as the wheels in my brain began to turn.

Then I remembered one other ball of yarn I had, that I didn’t necessarily want. One day a ball of bizarre pink and purple eyelash yarn showed up on our apartment. I questioned a friend of mine about it, since only she and our superintendent have keys to our apartment. Eyelash yarn didn’t seem to be what Simon, the Super would use, so it must have been left by our friend, but she claims it wasn’t her and blamed Cici for leaving the yarn. I decided that the yarn was not something I would ever use, but the frugal part of me kicked in and rather than throw it out, it got stashed away in a drawer.

So, bring all that background info together and the result was this completely impractical white sweater for Cici, with some lovely pink and purple trim. 

She loves it! (You can tell by the look of disdain on her face.)

The best thing about a dog, compared to a cat, is that a dog lets you play dress up with it. J

Two last thoughts… I’m very impressed with the fact that I was able to make up this pattern and it fits her perfectly, and I will never knit with eyelash yarn again.

 

 

 

The Peril of Lace Knitting

As mentioned, I’ve been working on a lace cardigan lately. Lace comes with some challenges:

• For true lace, the yarn is very fine (as in thin) which can be more difficult to work with than a substantial thick yarn
• Lace patterns have lots of “yarn overs” and “knit X sts together” which can be hard to memorize, so the pattern must be constantly at hand
• Checking the gauge isn’t as simple as just knitting up a swatch and getting out the ruler, since the lace must be properly blocked to determine its true measurements

As I started the cardigan I dutifully knit a swatch and blocked it and measured it. It was too small. So I pulled out a larger needle and dutifully knit a swatch and blocked it and measured it. It was too big. So I pulled out an in between sized needle and knit a swatch and blocked it and measured it and it was just right. It took a few days to get through all those blocking stages, but in the end I was happy with the result.

Here are the three swatches. I do think the middle one is just right.

Now that I’ve noted the challenges, let’s get to the peril:

• The true peril of lace knitting is that when you drop a stich, or make another mistake in knitting, it is nearly impossible to pick that stich back up, or rip back your knitting to a point where the mistake is easily recovered from.

I discovered this last night. I had knit half of the second sleeve when I noticed I was short one stich in the row I was on. I counted my stitches, counted again, and again, and again, and I was definitely short a stitch. I could see exactly where the stitch should be, but I couldn’t see how to get that one stitch back. I tried one way and it didn’t look right. I tried a second way and it didn’t look right. I puzzled and puzzled and then I gave up. I yanked out the needle and pulled out a solid week’s worth of knitting and the second sleeve was no more.  Grrrr... so frustrating.

There is a solution to this problem. It is called a lifeline. The theory is that if you put a thread through a row of stitches you know are correct, it will hold those stitches in place and be your lifeline so that when you have to rip out your knitting to correct a mistake, you only have to go back as far as your lifeline where you will be able to easily pick up the stitches. I know that lifelines are good, as you can see with the two white lifelines that I’ve put into the body of my sweater.

But did I use a lifeline in the second sleeve?  Nooooo, I got cocky. I knit the first sleeve perfectly, so why waste time putting in a lifeline when I could easily knit the second sleeve just as perfectly. (Not)

Oh well, I’ve got many knitting hours ahead and the sweater will get done. (But not this weekend.)

I’ve been so frustrated with the lace sleeve debacle that I turned my thoughts to other random ideas and I’ve stepped over to the dark side and started this new project.

 

I’m not prepared to tell you what this is yet, but it starts off with some eyelash yarn (shudder!)

Big Projects (and a bit of a vent about KnitPicks)

I’ve got a couple of big projects on the go right now, which doesn’t make for interesting blogging fodder. Sure I could post a nice step by step tutorial of my projects which would give me regular posting material, but sadly I’ve got a lazy streak that prevents me from taking that approach.

In the past few weeks, I’ve made some good progress on my quilt. I’m just about ready to put on the final border that will finish the top. Here are the border pieces working themselves together.

Here is the rest of the quilt top in its current state.

When I’m not sewing, I’ve usually got my butt on the couch watching TV and knitting (that’s the lazy I spoke of.) I’m working on a lace cardigan that is coming along nicely, albeit slower than a pair of mittens or socks.  It is difficult to find a good way to photograph lace in progress.

And now on to KnitPicks…

If you’ve been reading my blog you will know that I am a huge fan of KnitPicks. I love their website, love their catalogue, love their prices, consider their quality acceptable, and respect that they give independent designers a professional sales outlet. All that said, my KnitPicks shopping days are now behind me. Here is my vent, to tell you why.

On February 2, my credit card was used fraudulently. If you know me well, you will know I’m obsessed with our finances, and check my bank statements on a daily basis. I was checking our accounts one night when I noticed that someone had been doing some shopping down in Florida. While I wished it was me, I knew I was stuck in Ontario, in the midst of a Canadian winter. My husband immediately called the bank, and they identified that the fraud occurred on my card, not his. (Darn – he’s been enjoying that part of the story way too much!). The bank asked if I do any shopping online. I said, “only KnitPicks and they couldn’t be the problem.” So, my credit card was cancelled and I waited a week or so for a new one to arrive. We’ve had to cover the charges on our card, for purchases we didn’t make. I’m certain the bank will reimburse us, but we haven’t seen the money from them yet, so as of now we are out $564.

Since then, we’ve been wondering where my card might have been left vulnerable… until this weekend. Thanks to the wonders of social media, I discovered that KnitPicks unwittingly disclosed their customers’ personal info including names, credit card numbers, home addresses and phone numbers. They discovered this error on January 25, when they filed the necessary paperwork, but did nothing to notify their customers. They claim they do not store customers’ credit card info, but clearly they did store the info and left it vulnerable.

I have no way of knowing if the KnitPicks breach was responsible for my case of fraud, but judging from what I’ve learned this weekend, it seems highly likely. Social media has been alive with discussions of the KnitPicks situation. Twitter, Facebook and Ravelry, have hundreds of knitters stepping up to say the cards they used at KnitPicks had to be cancelled due to fraud. In all cases it was a similar pattern of small charges being made that added up to several hundred dollars.

The folks on social media all shared the same thoughts that it was appalling that KnitPicks did nothing to notify their customers and continued to stay silent in the midst of all the social media conversations. Eventually the President spoke up last night and posted ablog addressing the matter. Well, he addressed the matter for US customers, but did not make any mention of customers from Canada, or other countries. This, of course, caused more stirrings, so eventually he updated the blog post to say that letters of notice will be sent to Canadian customers.

While I understand that fraudsters can attack any company and KnitPicks is one of the victims of this fraud, I can’t stand loyal to a company that handled the situation the way they did. They stored my information unsecured; when they discovered this, they stood silent. If they would have told me about my card being compromised on Jan. 25, I would have cancelled it and it wouldn’t have been useable on Feb. 2. The fact that they are just now getting around to producing a communication to their Canadian customers is just rubbing salt into the wound.

I’m sure KnitPicks has learned from this lesson and will be secure in the future, but after this experience it seems stupid to willingly give my money to such an irresponsible company. Sadly, I will shop KnitPicks no more.

(Meredith – this means more in-person yarn shopping is in our future!)

January Mittens Finished!

I'm pretty impressed with myself right now. (not very modest, but can't have it all!)

I decided on January 10, that I could knit a pair of mittens in January. I also decided to make a fully lined pair, with is basically knitting two pairs of mittens. As of last night at 10 pm, I finished them! Yay!

They are made from KnitPicks Palette, in Oregon Coast Heather and Bison colours. The lining is made from KnitPicks Gloss, which is a nice wool/silk blend that should feel nice to the hand. The lining colour is Bordeaux. I love how the Bison and Bordeaux colours work with the subtle mix of colour in the Oregon Coast Heather.

Now I just hope the rest of the winter goes by without a day that is cold enough to wear lined mittens!

QR Code Mittens

I’m in a blog rut today. It has been a week since I posted, so I want to give you something new, but I got nuthin’. 

I did finish the mittens a posted about a couple of weeks ago, but just the mitten shell, not the lining. I want to wait until they are completely finished, before I post about them. Other than working late, and working on those mittens, I haven’t done much. I did do some baking (and trading) yesterday, but we ate most of it before any pictures were taken.

So, I’ve decided to look back and post a picture of some mitts I knit back in November as a Christmas gift. I have a friend who appreciates things that are a bit on the nerdy side, so I decided to knit her some custom QR Code mittens.

I drafted a custom design that includes four QR codes – her first and last names, and two words that describe her. They were fun to knit and hopefully not too nerdy for her to wear out in public.

Finshed Pillow and First False Deadline of 2013

I’ve fallen ill to startitis lately, and I now have too many projects on the go. I was determined to finish something this weekend, so yesterday I slept in (priorities!) and then I hopped out of bed and finished the pillow I was embroidering. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.

First False Deadline of 2013

Being a sucker for a possible prize, I decided I NEED to make a new pair of mittens by the end of January, to participate in a little contest on Ravelry. I get bonus entries if the mittens are lined, and of an “ethnic” nature. All of that collided into starting these mittens.

I plan to line then, and the pattern is influenced by traditional Latvian patterns, so I think I can get all the bonus entries I’m striving for. Mostly, I just wanted to make a pair of lined mittens for myself, and I figure it is better to do that before the winter ends. (Although given the wonderful double-digit temps this weekend, winter may already be over!)

I was also desperate to use the Oregon Heather Palette I had in my stash. I photographed the mitten start outside, hoping the natural light would help me catch the beautiful colours in this yarn. It is an incredible combination of blues, reds and yellows against a sandy brown base. So beautiful, when the sun brings out the colours. Here’s a close-up of the yarn.

What’s Next?

Now I should be sitting down to knit, but I’m off to the grocery store to buy some avocados. I’m easily influenced, and @DinaPugliese posted on Twitter that she is having guacamole with the Golden Globes tonight, and now I NEED guacamole too!

Big Plans for 2013

Happy New Year!

 

The first days of January are always so wonderful. A vast, full year of potential lies ahead. For me the potential holds the following:
 

More blogging

I won’t promise to achieve this immediately, but I do know my blog has dwindled lately, and I miss it. My day job (the one that pays!) has been very greedy with my time lately, which is why the blogging has slowed. I have a plan in place to help correct this situation, but it doesn’t take effect for another few weeks, so you won’t see an immediate change, but I hope there will be more frequent posting in the future.

 

More pictures

I’ve just bought myself a wonderful new camera. It isn’t state of the art (in fact, it is last year’s model), but it is a wonderfully compact Nikon Coolpix S6200 that will live in my purse so I’m more frequently ready to take a picture or two, to share with you.

I didn’t actually use it much over Christmas, because we were either talking or eating, but I did take a moment to snap the following picture while I was eating my lunch today. The view of the decorations from my food court table, at First Canadian Place, was quite stunning. This picture doesn’t quite do the holiday décor justice, but I’ll share it as just one example of pictures to come.

 

 

More cooking

We spent the weekend with our great friends in Niagara Falls. We were there long enough to enjoy some spectacular food and drink. In addition to hanging out in their kitchen we had some time to kill during the day. What are two women most apt to do with time on their hands? Shopping!

We stumbled upon a Stokes store that was having a great sale and so I bought some great new toys. I’m not much of a cook, but I do love a good kitchen gadget. I recently decided that my hand mashed potatoes were not good enough, and that I NEEDED a potato ricer to improve things. So, into the store we went and I bought a potato ricer, micro plane grater, stainless steel measuring cups and a 14L stock pot.

The cooking fun begins tonight with some mashed potatoes, but there will need to be future recipes that involve a large quantity of soup or stew in the stock pot, and something with lemon zest so I can try out my new grater.

For the sake of a gratuitous picture… I give you Cici and her New Year’s friend. Sally played hostess to Cici and the two dogs played, and played, and played. Cici is still exhausted.

More sewing

The weekend shopping spree also saw the purchase of quilt batting, to stuff the quilt I’m making. And, I bought a new pillow form and some fabric for a new pillow for our couch, to replace the current one which Cici has claimed as her dog bed.

More knitting

And finally, I have great plans for more knitting. I’m afraid to look into my stash, as I know I will be overwhelmed, but there is plenty of yarn to keep me busy.

I’ve started my first 2013 knitting project, with plans to complete a lace cardigan in 2013.

I’ve already distracted myself from that project, and decided I need to complete a new pair of mittens before the end of January.

The “I make mittens” group on Ravelry, has been highly active in 2012. Mary Elizabeth, one of the moderators, proactively sought me out this weekend, and had me count up the mittens I made in 2012. I came up with six pairs, which means I now want to knit at least 7 pairs in 2013. Must get started now!

I’m sure I’ll knit some socks, and I’ve got yarn that would make a good hat, and of course there is the Leftover Blanket which would be great to finish in 2013.

So much yarn, so little time!

More time with friends!

I have had some good times with friends in 2012. You know who you are - if you were laughing with me, and not at me. J I hope there will be more coffees, lunches, dinners and drinks in our future!

I’ve also made some online friends for the first time in my life. My introverted, cautious side has held me back from calling people friends, if I haven’t met them face to face, but all that changed in 2012. Sharing a common love of all things Walt Disney World, I’ve been able to virtually meet some great people, that I truly call my friends. Again, you know who you are, if we’ve shared some laughter and support together in 2012. I wish you more laughter and only good times ahead for 2013! (And of course, I wish you many trips to Disney, which some of you are well on your way to accomplishing!)

Soooo…. That should be enough to keep my busy this year!

Itty Bitty Socks

I was having coffee with a couple of crafty friends the other day, when a new idea came up. (Cheryl is a wonderful seamstress who makes great purses, and Megan makes the most beautiful note cards.)

We were talking about my socks and mittens and they mentioned they have a friend who is known for wearing unique socks, and that friend is having a baby. That of course sparked the idea of baby socks. As I walked home, thoughts of baby socks ran through my head, which led to a search of baby sock patterns on Ravelry (Ravelry has the most amazing pattern search functionality!), and the next thing you know I’m rummaging through my leftover sock yarn and I pulled out some that could be sacrificed for a sock trial.

The first pair of socks was so darn cute, that they were soon followed by three more pairs. I saw Cheryl again on Saturday and gifted her with the following bunch of baby socks which she can now re-gift to her sock loving friend.

Blog Catch Up (and a dog party!)

I’ve been a bad blogger lately, and have not found the time to keep up with this thing. My day job has been keeping my busy lately, so I’m home around 7 most nights. By the time we eat and clean up, there isn’t much time left for this blog. I’ve got some plans in place to remedy this in the New Year, so if we all just hang on for a bit longer, this blog may come back to its former life by the end of January.

For now I give you a small sampling of what I’ve been up to in the past week, or so.

We had a pot luck lunch at work this week so last weekend was all about making some broccoli salad and peppermint cookies. The broccoli salad was well received, and the peppermint cookies pleased me, as they always do.

Cici loves the smell of peppermint cookies, so while I iced and sprinkled she worked on perfecting her begging pose.

I’ve been working on the Leftover Blanket lately. It is a great project for a cold winter night. Cici is quite fond of the smell of the real wool, so she usually come in for a snuggle as I knit.  One evening when I turned my back on it for a brief moment, I came back to this…

Admitting that in addition to lacking the time to blog, I also lack the time to bake, I solved my need for Christmas baking, by picking up an order from Gracie’s Christmas Cookies. It has been a challenge to keep certain hands out, to allow for some cookies to still be around on Christmas Eve.

I squeezed in some quality sewing time yesterday, which allowed me to make good progress on my quilt. I now have 48 12” squares ready to be joined together. I predict the quilt will be finished in the first half of 2013.

And finally, yesterday Cici invited some friends over. It was dog party central in our house.

There was begging in the kitchen,

Monitoring of the outside world,

Hanging out in the living room,

And much holding of the dachshund, against his best wishes. Cici is too big to hold like this, so we were all over this little guy.

Only eight days until Christmas! Love this time of year!

 

I Heart Cyber Monday!

I sold a pair of mitts and a pair of socks recently, so I had some money burning a hole in my wallet. Thankfully KnitPicks does a pretty good job of celebrating Cyber Monday.

A wonderful box from KnitPicks arrived in our home this week and it is as every bit as lovely as I’d hoped for. Here is what the box contained.

The four balls on the left are Palette, my favourite KnitPicks mitten yarn in White, Lantana, Oregon CoastHeather and Oyster Heather. I’m not sure where and when I’ll use these, but I just picked a few random colours that were on sale.

The two skeins on the front left are Gloss that I bought as possible lining yarn for a future pair of mittens. The Bordeaux colour may actually work well with the colours of Palette above.

On the right are four skeins of Shadow in Garnet Heather that are destined to be used for the Oregon Coast Cardigan and my first foray into lace knitting. (lace knitting sounds scary!)

And finally the skein at the back is some hand painted Stroll in Make Believe that is planned to be used to tie the quilt I’m making. It has some nice green and purple spots that will work well. There are some blue-green spots that I’m not too sure of, but I can always cut those out. Here’s a picture of that skein against the quilt block back drop.

So that should be enough to keep me busy for a bit!

Learning Lining

This week’s knitting has been all about learning how to line a pair of mittens. I’ve been making it up as I go along and so far so good. I did have a couple of false starts until I figured out the gauge of my knitting yarn, which although similar is just a hair wider than the mitten yarn used.

Here is the work so far. I’m liking it! I put in a Cyber Monday yarn order with KnitPicks and threw in some yarn that will be perfect to line another pair of mittens someday soon.

 

November Project - Large Mittens

UPDATE - When this was orginally posted, these mittens were up for sale. Then tonight I decided they were just large enough to be perfect for lining. So I'm busy knitting up some lining for these mittens. Stay tuned for a post when the lining is finished. They will likely return to the For Sale pile at that time.




My November project was another pair of mittens, using the Fall colour theme again. I wanted to see how the mittens would turn out when knit with a larger sized needle. The results are good and the mittens did turn out larger. Since most of my mitts fit a small to medium hand, I’m pleased to offer a larger mitt for sale.

 

 

The pattern is my own design, and the yarn is KnitPicks Palette. (I'm dreaming of more Palette yarn, in the hopes that KnitPicks has a good Cyber Monday sale tomorrow!)

• Size: Large (will be roomy for a medium sized hand, and quite comfortable for a larger hand and wrist)
• Content: 100% Peruvian Highland Wool
• Care: Hand wash/dry flat (that’s the official instruction, but since I like the look of mittens that are slightly felted, I just put mine in the washing machine on a gentle cycle)
• Price: $25.00 (CAD) plus shipping costs

If you are interested in purchasing these socks please email me and I will let you know the shipping costs.

A Few Pairs of Socks For Sale

In addition to mittens for sale, I have a few pairs of socks that would like to go to a new home. I am offering these socks for sale, not with the intent of making a profit, but rather to ask just a bit above cost to make some money to feed my yarn habit.

If you are interested in purchasing these socks please email me and I will let you know the shipping costs.


Summer Vacation Socks

These socks contain a pleasing mix of blues, greens and yellows. The colour’s name is “summer vacation” and it jumped out at me when I was trying to find something to knit while we were off on our summer vacation.  The pattern is made of a wavy rib that forms a mock cable.

• Size: Women’s medium-large
• Content: 75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon
• Care: Machine wash, gentle cycle/tumble dry low, or dry flat
• Price: $25.00 (CAD) plus shipping costs

 

Snow Crocus Socks

These socks came to life when I spotted the ball of yarn with the colour name “snow crocus”. The name was perfect as the yarn has a beautiful blend of purple, yellow and green, against a light background that brings to mind the colours that are seen when the first crocuses of the year come up. The pattern has a plain back set off by a set of cables running down the front of the sock to the top of the toe.

• Size: Women’s medium-large
• Content: 80% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon
• Care: Machine wash, gentle cycle/tumble dry low, or dry flat
• Price: $25.00 (CAD) plus shipping costs

Castle Walls Socks

The colour name for these socks, “castle walls”, captures the subtle shades of grey and beige. The touch of alpaca in the yarn makes them a wonderfully soft treat for the feet. The pattern is an all over rib with a cable detail running down the side.

  

• Size: Women’s medium-large
• Content: 50% Merino Wool, 25% Superfine Alpaca, 25% Nylon
• Care: Hand wash, dry flat (unless you don’t mind a bit of felting, then you could machine wash on a gentle cycle and dry flat)
• Price: $25.00 (CAD) plus shipping costs