Knitting saves

I’ve started my next and possibly last round of photography courses this week, and mostly in support of completing the courses required to submit for a ‘certificate’ from the photography program at the school. (I like having pieces of paper like that, plus I’ve taken enough courses by now that I’m most of the way there, so I’d like to close out the last few requirements). One of these is a course in Photoshop, about which I have heard universally mixed reviews from other people in the courses. So, I lowered my expectations accordingly, and made sure knitting was in my handbag.

Oh, knitting friends. We hit the 2 hour mark (out of 3) before even turning on the computers. It was a test of my patience, and the actual practical stuff we did (finally) learn in the end was new and useful, but man. I now have a new benchmark for what I consider a slow pace of classroom learning.

I thought briefly that maybe it was just me, that maybe I was being overly impatient. At one point I looked around and the nice retired lady sitting behind me met my eye and nodded at my knitting with a very envious expression. “You’re really smart,” she said, “I wish I was a knitter.” (Perhaps, then, it is really not just me.)

I think we shall be classroom friends. And also, I think I shall, if nothing else, achieve some sock knitting progress along with a few tidbits of Photoshop knowledge! And it’s a good thing, too, since my travelling pair of ribbed socks has been sorrily neglected since I started them two months ago. Thank goodness for knitting.

Have you had any knitting projects come to your rescue this week? What kind of “carry with you” is your favourite lately?

Pattern: A Nice Ribbed Sock
Yarn: Sweet Georgia Yarns Cashluxe Fine

The system works

The other day last week I was putting away some little ends of fingering weight yarn from a finished project. I have two bins in my stash shelf that are those cube-shaped drawers that fit right into the cube-shaped shelves from that Swedish store that many of us seem to get our stash shelves from. So, the fingering weight ends (essentially, sock yarn remnants) have their own bin that they also share with a few laceweight remnants, and the worsted weight and almost-worsted-weight remnants (DK and bulky get shoved in here too) have their own.

I’m not entirely sure why I keep the leftover bits like this, to be quite honest. It’s a bit of an X-factor. I do know that there are limits to what I will keep. It’s got to be a sizeable enough amount to do something with. A little Christmas cork elf, for example, or maybe mini mittens (Ravelry link) for an ornament or bookmark. Anything that’s well over half a skein still stays in its regular stash place with its full-skein friends, though, so this isn’t a holding station for just anyone. It’s just the little bits of potentially useful stuff, and I hate getting rid of useful stuff.

It turns out that my sock yarn remnants bin is shockingly tidy, even more so since I allowed myself to be distracted for a few minutes that day by winding a few of the more errant bits into proper balls. So I then turned a few procrastinatory minutes to the worsted weight bin which was, well, more of a tangled mess, to be honest. And it’s a remnants drawer, so really, it’s allowed to be messy and I left plenty of mess still behind, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to tend to it a little bit.

I was however, starting to question my system a little bit. I considered to myself that maybe fussing over stash remnants like this was not the best use of my time, and also starting to wonder exactly how many other knitters have their stash remnants organized by weight and neatness, when I got an emergency Tweet from my friend Jo. “Do you have any leftover bits of Tanis DK?” She was trying to finish a baby hat and had literally only 2 inches left to go but had run out.

And you know, I did have that yarn. And friends help out friends with things like extra yarn.

So I sent it off to her and she finished the hats, and all was well in knitting world. The End.

This system works fine.

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New Designs: Charlotte St. Mitts and Cowl

All anyone can talk about around here is the weather. I include myself in that ‘anyone’, because man, Mother Nature got us good this weekend. We had a couple of sunny days of +10C, just in time for Easter, and we all thought, “ahhh, how nice, spring might actually be on its way now.” We started thinking, “hey, maybe the down coats don’t need to come out of the closet any more, we can go dig up the light jackets now. Maybe the cold times will be done now.” Hah. This week around Southern Ontario we are back down to freezing or just below, and for the last couple of days the weather has been rotating back and forth between sunshine and snow squalls. Even the sky can’t seem to make up its mind.

I figure the best way to deal with this (as with so many other things), is just to keep knitting, and I’ve got 2 more accessory patterns to add to my Urban Collection Vol 2. They pair nicely with the Jackson Creek cardigan I released last week, or with any outfit really, for just a little hit of coziness and warmth. Presenting the Charlotte St. Mitts and matching Cowl (currently available on Ravelry – individually and as part of the whole collection. Will also be available later in May on Patternfish once the collection is complete.)

Each pattern uses a single skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Purple Label cashmere sock (70% superwash wool/20% cashmere/10% nylon) or your preferred equivalent. They are shown here in the brick colourway, which I think I can pretty much count on using again, it is delicious.

The mitts are written for 2 sizes (6.5″ and 7.5″ circumference), use a nice little lace pattern down the back of the hand, and are meant for a slightly slouchy fit. The nicest feature for me, though, is the long ribbed cuff that folds over at the top of the mitt. It gives the mitt a nice comfortable finish while still being a bit fitted around the knuckles, and makes for such a cozy feel – without having to knit little mitt fingers. Full disclosure: I generally like the things I design, but it’s not all the time that I cast off a design and immediately wish I had more yarn to start it again. I want these in twelve colours. And I don’t know why I haven’t got twelve more colours of this yarn in my stash. I plan to rectify this soonest.

The accompanying cowl pattern is a nice quick little accessory, and features the same lace motif as the mitts. It’s written for one size, about 26 inches in circumference, but I suggest a few modified larger sizes that will still use only 1 skein of the TFA cashmere sock. Overall, I like this set for a friendly little hit of colour! The time commitment for either of these projects is fairly quick, just right if you need a colourful distraction from other projects on your needles (or just from the weather outside).

Enjoy, dear knitters! And whatever the weather where you are, I hope you’ve got some fun projects to work on! I’ll be back to report on other ongoing knitterly activities later this week.

New Design: Jackson Creek Cardigan

Dear knitters, it’s been about a month since I introduced you to the first Urban Collection, Volume 2 patterns, which means it’s about time to add more to the mix! I’ve got a new cardigan pattern to show off to you today (never fear, it will shortly be followed by some accessory-sized companions as well). Presenting the Jackson Creek cardigan! (Ravelry link – pattern is currently available on Ravelry only while the collection builds to completion, then all patterns and collection will be available on Patternfish as well, in May.)

The collection patterns are getting gradually lighter as we move towards spring, and nothing is quite as satisfying as a new spring cardi. 3/4 sleeves! Scoop neck! DK-weight yarn instead of worsted or chunky! All signs point to spring comfort. And I am told that spring will indeed arrive eventually around these parts, despite the grey clouds and lingering patches of snow that seem to persist around here.
No matter, for we have yarn and can knit our way into a new season!

This cardigan takes its name from a public trail in Peterborough, one of my favourite knitterly towns in Ontario. It’s the place to be when the weather gets warmer, and can take you from a park in the downtown right on out towards the marshes and rural routes. All in all a nice spring image to knit by, no?

I’m keeping the cabled love going and showing off some nice fluid, vertical, flattering vertical cable panels on the cardigan front, and keeping the rest simple with stockinette sleeves and back. It’s worked in pieces (always an ideal option when making sweaters with superwash wool) from the bottom up and then seamed together before working the button-band. Although I’ve used 3/4 sleeves here for a spring/transitional season style, this could easily be modified for full sleeves for an even warmer look.

The Jackson Creek cardigan is written for eight sizes, between 32 and 53 ins at bust circumference (when worn closed), and I recommend this for zero ease or slight negative ease, or to preferred comfort. It’s a comfortable but flattering option for your wardrobe, perhaps for workdays or cafe visits, or whenever you feel like a cardigan-and-jeans kind of day. (I have already road-tested mine as a cafe cardigan. It works.)

Thank you once again to Tanis for the beautiful yarn (shown here in Yellow Label DK in sand), to Austen for modelling (in unfortunately less-than-spring-like temperatures, even), and Maureen Hannon for technical editing.

Enjoy, dear knitters! And have a great weekend. You’ll be hearing from me again soon. Happy knitting!

Other kinds of work in progress

For the last year and a half or so I’ve been expanding my digital photography skills through courses at the local college, and it’s been a useful exercise to say the least. My photography has certainly improved and it’s been good to get out and be forced to practice new techniques in order to complete assignments. (Some days this is also a frustration. Often this frustration overlaps with days that also involve poor weather or fatigue, interestingly enough.) It’s also been a useful exercise in learning that is both very applicable to knitting (creative processes are always mutually beneficial no matter what they are, also I get to take better knitting photos than I used to), while still being potentially not related to knitting at all. Some times a knitter just needs something altogether different to infiltrate her time, even if it takes time away from the knitting.

This week I finished up a course on Urban Landscape/Documentary photography, and my chosen subject was Bay St. in downtown Toronto. The final project had 25 photos in total as a photo essay, and I thought I’d share a few of my favourites with you here.

What other creative pursuits compete for your time alongside knitting? I definitely hope it’s something fun. Until next time, knitter friends!

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The cure for March

Last Friday some Toronto knitter friends took a day off and came and picked me up and we drove off in search of yarn and wineries. As you might imagine, it was a very long, hard day. (Note: it was not actually a very hard day.) It occurred to me that it was almost exactly a year ago that I did virtually the same thing with Elspeth when she visited here for a week – our trip included Niagara Falls instead of wineries, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I think everyone has just generally been suffering from “March.” We’re all tired of our winter coats, tired of cloudy chilly days (days that, were they to arrive in November we would totally think of as harsh and foreboding, but in March we are seriously considering how much we still need the winter coat because dear God don’t make me put that same coat on again), and overall wanting something different to snap out of it. So when a gal gets a message saying “hey, we’re going to look at wineries and yarn on Friday, you in?” well, there really is only one answer to that question.

We tasted some wine…

…had delicious lunch (and pie)…

…and tasted more wine.

(We were really very discerning about the wine).

Through sheer luck and awesomeness on the part of a local alpaca farm, we ended up getting to see a tiny little baby alpaca. (Admittedly, the mama was less interested in us).

And then to finish the day, we bought some yarn. (At Stitch, in Jordan Station, and also a visit to The Fibre Garden across the street).

And to top it all off, I got to finish my Chilly Podster mitts, which I haven’t managed to photograph for good yet because they’ve taken up swift residence in my handbag to be worn while it’s still winter.

I hope you’re having a good weekend, knitterly friends! Until next time.

I was told there would be spring

You know, I really thought I was okay with the fact that winter seems to not want to leave us yet. Last year winter was so mild, after all, and isn’t the Canadian cultural consciousness shaped by our shared experience of a long cold winter? And by knitter standards, isn’t it sort of a good thing to have a long winter, since we get to wear our handknits for that much more of the year?

Then it occurred to me that for the last week or two I’ve had to just about physically restrain myself from starting three new projects (despite having no shortage of things to work on), or haunting the WEBS website for wool I’d like to knit more sweaters with (despite the fact that any sweaters I would start now would not likely be done in time to wear in the current season – or the fact that I also have no shortage of sweater quantities of yarn in my stash). I realized then that maybe, just maybe, this is what spring fever looks like when you’re a knitter. It’s right up there with spring cleaning or longingly reading swimsuit catalogues and buying tickets to sunny climes – that clawing need for something different, whether it’s the immediate surroundings or the knitting project in hand.

Rather than give in to those longings, I decided to put on my resolve face and head back to my current projects with new determination. The most satisfying route to new projects is through finishing old ones, and finish something I shall. I started these podster mitts back in February and dangit, at least one advantage of the apparently never-ending winter is that if I finish them this week, I really do stand a chance of getting to wear them this season. (Plus, I lost one of my current gloves when I was in DC back in February, and the ones I’ve been using since then just don’t feel quite as awesome as my well-loved ones. New gloves it is.)

I did at least manage to get a second mitt started, and both are at the same point of needing the thumb and the flip-over mitten top. At this stage of the game, with all the ends from each finger and all the waste yarn holding the thumb stitches and the marked-out mitten top stitches, each sort of looks like a tangled mess.

But I want to finish something, and I want these mitts, so I shall persevere. I am resolved!

What are you most looking forward to finishing right now? Is it something you’ll be able to wear soon? I hope so! Until next time, knitter friends.

Pattern: Chilly Podster mittens
Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca, in beetroot

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