Baking, Blocking, Etc.

Winter hibernation means Her Highness is taking over my duvet. I don't always get to sleep under it, because you can't disturb a cat that comfortable. At least, I can't.

To be fair, this time she took over while I was busy blocking the christening dress (so, obviously not using the duvet, right?) Steam-blocking for the method of choice again, and it went quick and easy, laying the dress out on the ironing board. There's always a little twinge of concern than I might scorch or melt the knitting (which would be super obvious on a white lace dress), but so far so good, and now that is folded up ready to deliver.

I'm being sociable again tonight, going to visit friends in the wilds of Gatineau. I promised to bring dessert, so last night I made mint snowballs.

Tasty little things, shortbread-y with mint flavouring in dough and icing, and topped with coconut. Been a while since I've had them, don't know why I waited so long. And now I'm thinking, we've always made them with mint, but I bet other flavours would be good too. Citrus, or cherry, or chocolate...

Sock Phase Begins

With the christening dress off the needles, the next project up is 3 pairs of socks. When my cousins saw the socks their mother got from my mother for her birthday, they loved them. So my aunt decided to commission a pair for each of her 3 girls, and gave me the size and colour info over the holidays.

First up is a pair for Wendy, who wanted grey for the main colour and 4" below the knee. She and one of the other girls are  solidly-built, with wide calves, which is why the sock leg looks like it does. The grey is blackberry cane with iron mordant, with indigo blue and greenweed yellow in the trim.

I'm a little farther now than the picture - working on the heel flap. It's been slower going than normal, but my excuse is that I've been on a cleaning jag. Comes on rarely, so I like to take advantage while I'm in the mood. About the only thing in the apartment I haven't cleaned (yet) in the last 3 days is the fridge inside and the kitchen cabinets, but the rest is done, dusted, and slightly better organized, so I'm happy (it's a load off my normally-lazy-about-housework conscience) and looking forward to more knitting time again.   

White and Lacy

Pegging along at the christening gown for Joan's grandbaby-to-be. It's this christening gown from Marie Connolly's 'The Expectant Knitter'. Getting very close to the end - I have one sleeve left to do, then the finishing.

The lace pattern for the skirt and trim is only a total of 3 patterned rows, 15 stitch repeat, so it was easy to memorize. I ended up making the skirt about 20" instead of the 29" the pattern gives you, but I think that was about the only modification, apart from adjusting the needle size to get gauge. The shortened skirt was because Joan sent 3 balls of light fingering, but the pattern called for 3 balls of lace weight with more yardage, and I was worried about running out of yarn partway through the bodice, when the first ball got me 12" of skirt. Now that I'm almost done, I think there would have been enough to make the skirt longer - but I'm not ripping back now! Only 6" or so of plain knitting to go (albeit on 2mm needles), and sleeve 2 will be done.

I will have to think about the blocking. The yarn is a nylon/acrylic mix, so maybe that's better steamed than wet-blocked, like plain acrylic? Must research.

And then? Tomorrow will be Saturday, and I will get to start something new and fun. Socks for my cousin, with colourwork bordering. Grey for the socks, from the blackberry canes I cut over the holidays, with a trim of daisies on a blue ground. I can't wait to see if they look as good in real life as they do in my head.

Tiny Treasures

Every January for the last few years, I spend part of a Sunday helping count inventory at Canada Beading Supply. Next door is The Glass Shoppe, which has supplies and things for lampwork, and the two share common space. This year, it just so happened that on inventory day, there was a class going on next door. The teacher hails from Quebec, not so far from my parents, his wife is an embroiderer and knitter, has played with natural dyes, and has an interest in mycology, definitely someone right up my alley.

And the little glass things the teacher brought were adorable. Gorgeous. If you haven't clicked on it yet from the class link, look at his pictures on Picasa. I'm afraid most of my day's salary went straight next door, and after hemming and hawing for a while (well, really, he had like half a dozen trays of pretty things to look at), I picked out two pendants and a button.

I'm thinking I will have to incorporate the button into a piece of knitting somehow. The pendants may stay with me or may become gifts, we'll see. For now I'm just happy to look at them, little flower-filled gems.

Oh, yeah, and on the knitting front. I did finally get my sweater done, a few days after the New Year. The steek didn't get trimmed yet; I'm not sure if it needs it, really. Shoulder fit really benefitted from blocking - it's still a little loose there, but overall I like it, and very glad it's finally done.

At some point I have to decide on the fate of the remaining yarn - I overbought by a large amount, it seems, being deathly afraid of running out of any colour, when I wasn't sure anyone in Ottawa even carried the yarn.

After that project , everything seems quicker and easier - I've since banged out a laceweight infinity scarf, and a lopi scarf and mittens, for commissions, and currently tackling a christening gown for a baby due in April, at the grandmother-to-be's request. Details on that one to come.

Getting There...

Last  night I got the arms joined onto my sweater. It's starting to look like something. Now I've got a repeat or two left to go of the pattern while shaping the shoulders, then graft the underarms, cut the neck steek, and add the collar. Oh, yeah, and weave in 6 million ends.

What are the bets I'm going to be able to finish in the 1.5 days left before the New Year?

An Old-Fashioned Christmas

Most people, I think, would normally call our Christmas a little old-fashioned - cutting our own tree, decorating with greens, hand-knit stockings for everyone including the critters, a creche filled with corn-husk figures...but this year was really old-school for the 25th.

The wind picked up overnight Christmas eve, and howled all night. At some point before sunrise, we lost power, and it didn't come back until 6 in the evening, despite assurances from Hydro at intervals that it would be on within the next hour or two. I'm sure a lot of people had sudden changes of plan regarding Christmas dinner. Fortunately for us, we have the well and a wood stove with an oven, and an unheated pantry, which served to keep the milk and cream cool in a pail of snow. And there's always plenty of bushes outside to use for a toilet and no neighbours visible from here...I tell you, if ever I get to buy a house in the country, the well and wood stove are going to be counted as essentials. They've earned their keep here so many times!

So life went on well enough for the day. Mom and my brother were collaborating on a pair of trigger mitts he wants made from a piece of shearling. I curled up and knitted on one of my commissions, a pair of gloves, which got finished last night:

Later all four of us sat around the table and shelled dry beans from the summer's harvest, producing two bushels of hulls, and a large bowl of beans. We stoked the stove up to heat water for breakfast and lunch dishes and for cooking dinner (it produced a beautiful rare Who roast beast), and lit the tinware chandelier above the table when it got too dark, so we could read and knit by candlelight while the roast cooked and the veg simmered. The lights came on just before dinner, so that was helpful for washing up. All in all, a nice relaxing day ;)  

With the gloves and a second commission, a super-cute pair of baby socks, finished...

I'm back to my sweater for a while. Sleeve number one is done, and I've started the second one. I'm determined to have the thing finished this year!

Bigger Than You Figure

So I'm settled at the parents' for the holidays, and yesterday Mom and I went out to cut down the tree. It proved to be a bit more of a job than planned. For starters, there's more snow than there was in Ottawa. It was about knee-high, and wet, heavy stuff. I couldn't find the good saw we usually use, so took the next-best one, and we trudged down the hill to find the tree we marked.

When we found the tree, we both looked at it, and decided that it really wasn't as good as we'd thought.  So we took our tags off it, and tramped around for a while trying to find a better one. The one we finally chose was tall enough that the cut site was a good 5 feet off the ground; a little awkward, but whatever.

At that point we found that the saw had lost a nut or something, and the blade was loose and unusable. So I stayed to mark the tree, and Mom tramped back up the hill to get another saw. The saw (not one we usually use) proved to be horrible for cutting live, damp, sticky wood. We took turns sawing, with the second person pulling on the tree to keep the sawed gap from closing and pinching the saw. By the time we were maybe 1/3 of the way through, both our arms were tired, and I said, 'Why didn't you just find something to fix the blade of the other saw so we could use it?' At which, Mom decided that was a good notion, and went back up to see about fixing the second saw. While hunting for a nut, she happened on the good saw, so brought that back. Two minutes later, the tree was down. In fact, it was so fast, that I had to suddenly back up out of the way, tripped on a shrub hidden under the snow, and ended up lying in the snow, laughing at how hard it was to get up.

It must have to do with the height it was above the ground initially, but seeing the tree on the ground, it looked a lot bigger than we expected. (This is a regular issue. We always worry it'll be too small, and wind up with a tree we need to trim before it'll fit in the room.) We hauled it back through the brush and up the hill to the house, and squeezed it through the door and into the shed to start defrosting, and found it was too tall to stand upright in the corner, so it's leaning against the attic stairs.

This afternoon we will have to take off whatever's necessary, before we haul it into the house. We did leave a big space in the living room:

But I don't think the space is as big as the tree.