Sockapalooza Done!

Got the project bag finished. (Why yes, that fabric should look familiar - I made my circular needlecase out of the same stuff. My fabric stash is nowhere near as large as my yarn stash...I am a bit nervous about getting my Ravelry invite - I am not looking forward to actually cataloguing what is lurking in the corners of my craft room.)


Included the rest of the skein (should my pal decide that she wants to re-knit them or somesuch) and two beaded stitch markers for good measure. And it's in the mail! Phew.


Have been casting around for a new project to knit, and have been coming up at a loss. I have a lovely single skein of laceweight cashmere...I'm thinking scarf, but have not been able to find inspiration in form of a pattern. Anyone have any suggestions?

Instant Gratification.

So, I have been at loose ends for the past few days - my Mum is up visiting, and has absconded with Mr. Munchkin every day around 8 am for the past week or so. (She wants me to rest and keep my strength up. Lovely woman, that. I know why she's so worried about me - and to be honest, I'm kinda worried about the same thing - but at the same time, I miss the company of my little boy.) Needless to say, this has given me oodles of spare time in which to nap, and craft.

I vaguely remembered today that since the Yarn Harlot is visiting, hats would be collected for a charitable cause. At least, I think so. That's been what's happening at the other locations on her tour, so...anyhow, my fingers have been itching to do something (fyi, spinning on a hot, humid day is so not a good idea. The resultant fluff that covers you leaves something to be desired re: the whole cooling-oneself-down situation.) so I knit a quickie project.

Based off the Harlot's own Ken's Duulan Hat pattern, with a few adjustments. Pom-pom instead of an i-cord knot, and it's much deeper to accomodate the dampness of Nova Scotia winter. Knit with 3 strands of ghetto Malabrigo (2 beige, 1 variegated in pink/purples), this baby took me about an hour to make from cast-on to pom-pom attachment. I tried knitting directly from the pattern without adjustments, but clearly I have gauge issues, as the resulting hat (while very cute) is size-appropriate for a 6 year old. So I have two hats to bring with me. Ninja representing, yo.

Next up, a sewn bag to house my Sockapalooza pal's gift package. Judging from her blog, she seems to like luxe yarns...I'm willing to bet that she'd like a silk project bag.

But I've got an excuse this time...

Really!

But first, knitterly content to distract you...

The Beast. Done. I tell you true love isn't about doves and cherubs and all that jazz...it's working with a man-sized MERINO sweater in the middle of a sweltering summer. I'm not entirely happy with the neckline, as it's doing a weird puckering thing, but I'll be damned if I'm about to touch the accursed thing until the mercury takes a major plunge.

Sockapalooza socks. Done. Hedera in Natural Dye Studios...pure wool. Not entirely sure about this one, as I think that the stripes muck about with the pattern a little too much for my taste...but what the hell - they're not for me. (yay!)

More of the handspun silk/wool...in another pair of socks. These are intended for Christmas gifties...good thing that they're waaaay too big for me, as I'm sorely tempted to keep them for myself. (My socks in this handspun had an unfortunate encounter with the dryer, tragically.)

In other knit knews, I am down two pairs of handknit socks. (My Monkey socks bit the dust with a MASSIVE hole in the heel, and the aforementioned dryer felted my handspun socks. Sob.) So, my next project will be something slightly more amenable to this weather... I'm going to be spinning this lovely roving (superwash merino from Crown Mountain Farms - see, I can learn...superwash = good) into sock yarn, which will then get knit into new Monkey socks for me.

I figure at the rate that I'm crawling through projects these days, I'll be ready to start knitting with this stuff when the leaves start to fall. Also, I'm hoping that the spinning wheel will have a fan-like effect and will cool down my knees. I could be wrong...but onto the excuses!

1) Have been travelling. P.E.I. is possibly the most laid-back place on the planet. We stayed in cottages that were as close to the ocean as you can get, and ate lots and lots of potatoes.

2) Mr. Munchkin turned 4 years old.

He doesn't normally stand on tables...but then again, he doesn't normally get to jump head first into a gift bag either. Nice little party, it was awesome fun to get 4 kids loaded on a massive sugar rush and then send them home with their parents. I'm pretty sure that we're going to be looking at some karmic payback for that one.

3) I've been sick. In a good way though...I'm pregnant, and have the worst morning sickness. Blergh. The doctor (bless her cheery little heart) says that it's a great thing that I'm constantly nauseous and exhausted - after the 2 miscarriages last year, it's a sign that this is a strong pregnancy. I would have nodded in agreement, except that sudden head movement tends to send me running for the gravol these days. So, we're 10 weeks along now. Cross your fingers for us, please.

There, all caught up. Will be better about posting, as I'm intending on hiding inside from the blistering sunshine until the jack-o-lanterns start appearing on street corners.

Snippets of dinner conversation today.

Me: "Honey, take that off. No armour at the table."

Later, during dinner.

Mr. Munchkin: "BELCH"
Me: *horrified look*
Mr. Munchkin: "What? I'm a boy!"
Mr. Ninja: *falls on floor laughing*

And even later.

Mr. Ninja: "You know those little holes on the sides of Darth Vader's mask? I bet one of them is for his soup straw and the other is for his apple juice sippy cup. And no, Darth Vader can't have jello - it won't fit through his grille."

*facepalms*

We are such a geek household.

Oh, and in yarny news - went to Gaspereau Valley today. Fiber filled post to follow. Also, I think that I may have angered the household gods in some pantheon somewhere...came home, and noticed that there was a spider spinning a web on my Louet. I'm guessing that the bad karma that I'm going to get for squishing said spider is going to seriously jinx any spinning I try for the next little while. I always feel bad about squishing spiders - does anyone else apologize to bugs pre-squash?

Catching up...but no rye.

It's been awhile. Been coughing up a lung (that's why we have two lungs, kids) with a nasty cough. YAY for antibiotics! Have finally been feeling better. Anyway. Knit content, ahoy!


Two mini skeins and one jumbo one. The white skein is alpaca-silk with a bit of angelina tossed in. The raspberry-purple is unknown fibre content ... but it's damn touchable. Big blue is merino, and it's HUGE. Probably worsted weight, maybe around 600 grams. Spinning these was lots of fun - the original plan for the two mini skeins was to ply them together...but the resultant yarn was ooky. The raspberry one was dulled by the addition of the white, and the white just looked murky. So, plied them on themselves with the assistance of my ball winder.

Done one of my sockapalooza pals's socks...'tis lovely. Need sock blockers. Anyone have any suggestions for good ones? Haven't quite gotten around to finishing the second sock, as I've been distracted by Mr. Ninja's sweater (back to miles and miles of beige stockinette - someone put me out of my misery please) and more handspun socks. Toe down, reinforced heel flap. But I haven't finished these yet as I'm debating whether or not to make them into Christmas gift socks. The only problem with this concept is that I only know one person who *might* take care of these socks...and I'm not sure that she'd like them.


My Henry's Attic blanks from the co-op also arrived.

That's a big bag of several cones of Kona superwash - both the lightweight and heavyweight gauge and a one or two cones of various stuff like Andromeda and Licorice Twist. (Psst. I found out that Socks That Rock use Kona as their base yarn, if that tells you anything about this stuff.) Each cone should make me about 4 pairs of socks...I'd better get cracking. I'm debating whether to dye this stuff up and sell it in my etsy store (which is notably lacking in merchandise - *sigh*) or to just keep it around. You never know when you'll need 10 cones of sock weight yarn. Right? Right?

Henry's holidays - Episode II

So, after a couple of days of recovery (and much encouragement to drink water), Henry finally felt up to the task of travelling. Tragically, I had made plans to visit my in-laws cottage in Kingston, ON at the same time as the Yarn Harlot's book launch. *sigh* Henry was not pleased. And oh my, the temper tantrums...I'm pretty sure that Mr. Munchkin was giving him pointers. But I managed to bundle all of them up into a car, and got driving. We stopped halfway from Toronto at the Big Apple. (Mr. Munchkin included for scale)

They had sheep there, and Henry took some time to roll with his homies.

However, we had no time to get misty-eyed and reminice about Henry's wild youth, and thus proceeded to the cottage.

Beautiful place. But cabin fever sets in awfully quick there. I'll spare you the photos of Henry's boredom...needless to say, it's a good thing that he's already a felted monster. And yes, red wine does wash out of his greeny goodness. Quick trip up, quick trip down. Back in Toronto after the weekend at the cottage, I needed to re-urbanize, stat. So Henry, my lovely SIL and I took in some high theater.

Yup, that's a honking big copy of the Necronomicon. We went to see Evil Dead: The Musical. And it delivered on all the gore and fake blood that it had promised...and more! If you're lucky enough to be in Toronto during this show's run, go see it. Btw, fake blood also washes out of Henry's tough outer shell, just as an FYI.

The next day, Henry, Mr. Munchkin and I all went for a visit at the Ontario Science Centre. It's a lot smaller than I remember it being when I was a kid. But they have a kick-ass area just for little kids and monsters.

Steph, take a deep breath. He's felted, remember? Anyhoo, we were all tuckered out after the OSS, so I went to pick up some dinner.


This, my friends, is a chinese BBQ joint. Yes, those are whole roasted ducks, a whole roasted pig (behind Henry), a couple of cooked cuttlefish, and assorted other entrails and fun things like that. Amid much gagging (from Henry) and stern looks (from me), we managed to get some roasted duck and scooted on home.

Another couple of quiet days playing in the big backyard at my parent's place, and we finally flew back home to Halifax. This greeted me when I got inside...I think may have finally reached SABLE. That's mostly roving, with a few skeins of sock yarn included for good measure.

Gah. Time for a yarn diet.

Henry's holidays...

And lo, the continuing adventures of Henry are discussed.

Just before Mr. Munchkin and I left for a long visit back to Toronto, Steph kindly dropped by with some homemade cookies for the trip. Imagine my surprise when I was digging through my purse for my plane tickets and I found a stowaway. Needless to say, I let the boy have his way with the little green miscreant.

This is Mr. Munchkin enthusiastically showing Henry a close-up view from the plane window. You can almost hear the whimpering from here.


I vaguely remember Henry muttering something about no woman being worth this amount of pain and suffering, not even a Harlot. Too bad for Henry that I wasn't planning on being in Toronto for the Yarn Harlot's book launch. >_<

On landing, we were all starving. (6 am flights tend to do that to me.) So, I took the crew to a little strip mall around the corner and got takeout.

Surprisingly, Henry is quite the connoisseur of authentic Chinese food - he was trying to haggle with the woman behind the counter about the amount of bok choy in his dish. Unsuccessfully, mind you. I think it might have gone better, had Henry actually known Chinese. *shrug* Then again, he might have been distracted by the wall of Pocky.

The resultant sugar highs meant that the rest of the day was a write off for everyone in terms of sightseeing...so it was a lovely, quiet day.


Henry enjoyed this game, right up to the point where one of the checkers landed on his hand. Tears and wailing ensued. But a liberal dose of Pocky seemed to help. The next few days passed quietly as Henry and Mr. Munchkin amused themselves with the myriad assortment of toys that my Mum had collected and saved from the childhoods of me and my brothers. But on Wednesday, I decided to traipse down to Lettuce Knit and do dinner with some friends. Henry insisted on coming along to chaperone.

Frolicking in the sale bin at Lettuce Knit. Lovely store...but holy is it tiny. I may have gone a touch mad over the Koigu KPPPM.

Dinner was lovely - my friends took me out to Cafe Diplomatico, and we spent a fantastic evening sitting on the patio, eating antipasto, watching beautiful people go by and sipping adult beverages. Henry begged for a sip of my drink, as he said that Steph never let him try any of her "grown-up drinks". I cautioned him that it was rather strong, but what the hell - I was on holiday. He took to it like a fish out of water, Steph...


And it all lead to this...I have no idea what's going on here - I went to the bathroom, came back to a table of people and small green monsters looking very innocent. Apparently, this is the documentation of someone daring Henry to chug a Guinness. Which would explain the moaning and cursing that I heard from the guest bathroom the next morning. And on that note, I'll leave the remainder of the trip for the next post.