springtime bandit

I finished Kate Gagnon's Springtime Bandit this week. This pattern was a fast knit. The yarn was great for a summer knit - it's a light rayon (Berroco Softwist). I had used the same yarn for the Swallowtail Shawl, a birthday present for Mom. This was the "left overs" - and I have the same complaints about it: it splits badly while knitting.

I'm looking forward to wearing this through the summer in the evenings when it gets cool. I will definitely make this again. It's also a great pattern for someone wanting to tackle lace for the first time.

I'm off to Knit in Public Day now ... have a good Saturday - I hope it's sunny where you are!

the minstrel

I ordered an unfinished Kromski Minstrel after Fibres West back in March. It arrived through Canada Post in early April -- it has taken me over two months to put it together and get it working. Part of the reason for the major delay was waiting for stain to dry - I chose an oak stain which is my favourite wood. Although there isn't a lot of grain in the wood, the stain is still beautiful. The oak is more interesting than the clear stain (my original choice) as it has a beautiful golden finish.

M. and I put it together tonight - which was interesting as I have only spun on wheels completely assembled, M. has no understanding of spinning wheels, and I don't really understand the tensioning systems (yet). Needless to say - the wheel doesn't have the Scotch tension set up yet.

However, once I got the hang of playing with the tensioning screw, the wheel started spinning like a dream. Gorgeous. Except now I need to go buy some roving ...

I think patience paid off with this one. I am one happy knitter-turned-spinner!

green garter baby throw

Here's to finishing a second baby throw! I knit the last two weekends straight to get this finished - unfortunately the photos aren't great but I'm hoping to get some better ones in the days to come. The throw is actually baby-mint-green and a gorgeous plum-purple colour for the third Feather & Fan repeat and bind-off.

The dimensions are the same: 36" x 38" in worsted weight acrylic on 8.00mm circular needles.

Now onto non-baby knitting ...

garter baby throw

Coming up at the beginning of June is a Baby Shower for two friends who are both due in June. One is having a boy, the other a girl. Back in December, I bought some 100% acrylic yard that were good baby colours to be eventually knit into baby throws for my two friends. I finished the first one while we were driving down to Anacortes, Washington, on Friday evening. Lets just say, I was/am stoked to have this finished since it has been a 5-month project.

I came home tonight to see the Tweed Baby Blanket that brooklyntweed created and it's beautiful - and I really love the effect of the garter stitch knit on the diagonal compared to the straight square like mine.

I'm actually really happy with my finished project but I was taken by surprise when I saw his because I had, like him, completely made it up as I went along! I was actually flipping through old Barbara Walker Treasury books before we drove out on Friday trying to decided how to finish it and stumbled on one of my favourite old lace patterns: Feather & Fan.

The finished dimensions of the project on 8.00mm circulars (for both the garter and lace) is 36' x 38' out of relatively cheap acrylic. I didn't want either Mom to be afraid of throwing this in the washer or dryer. Now to finish the other one ...

o w l s

It has been a while. I have found getting back into the swing of things these past two weeks has been difficult. I have been looking forward to the Spring because I was really hoping that life would start to slow down a little bit. It hasn't. If anything, I think we are busier now than we were in the Winter. And to think, I'm not balancing school right now on top of work! There has not been much creativity around here. I have managed to paint my wheel with the first coat of oak stain - but I forgot my camera at home (the wheel is currently living in Mom & Dad's garage) so I can't share what it looks like just yet. The oak stain, thus far, is warm - I'm very happy with it.

It has been a long time coming but I wanted to share a couple of finished project photos of o w l s by Kate Davies. I knit this very quickly and finished over two months ago. I have not worn it and plan to rip it out to re-knit it this summer.

The pattern is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Kate did a great job and I would not shy away from knitting another Kate Davies pattern - I would probably rush right in again (just like I did this time). However, because I rushed in and didn't take into consideration that I don't have broad shoulders and don't need a lot of waist shaping ... well, it has ended up bagging out so much between my shoulder blades that it unwearable.

Ironically, when I turn the sweater around and wear it backwards, the "problem" is fixed. So, that is what I am going to do next time: knit two fronts by omitting the waist shaping. My favourite store bought pullover sweaters have no waist shaping so why meddle with a good thing?

I chose to knit this in Cascade Ecological Wool in colourway 8063 (brown). It's very gray, which I love and it was a good choice for this project. Gauge was slightly off though, so be forewarned to need to take that into consideration but I would definitely chose it again.

I suppose I should get back to work ... may everyone have a good Victoria Day long weekend!

aloha

Through an unusually difficult winter for a variety of reasons but mostly just made worse by the weather, M. and I decided to get some sun in O'ahu, Hawaii. Rather than ramble about the trip, I would rather just show you. If you have any questions about where we stayed, what we did or anything of the like - please ask me. In the meantime, the colours:

mahalo & aloha

swing bag

I've been keeping busy with sewing projects because Mom and I went to the Sewing Show in Abbotsford last weekend. The show was smaller than other years but still enjoyable. There wasn't anything new there from last year but I did pick up a couple of patterns and a book. One of the patterns I picked up was the Swing Bag by Amy Butler. We went down to Opus yesterday so that I could buy some duck canvas, which lines the bag. I used left over fabric for the rest that I have left from other projects. 

I had some buttons laying around that were left from other projects so I added them on. The sash should be another 10" long but I was running out of fabric, so it's not long enough to tie it in a bow - or I'm not patient enough!

I am hoping to use it for work - especially since I used heavier fabric than called for. And back to knitting I go ...