one monkey

My knitting on the trip was one Monkey sock and I finished it shortly after we got here. It was made with Sweet Georgia yarn, in Honey Fig which I bought when I was in Halifax this past winter.

Being unemployed and all, I decided to make my own sock blockers out of a plastic place mat from the dollar store. They are multi-functional as they can be used as guides when figuring out all that math that comes with knitting.

Since finishing the log cabin blanket, which Tomma uses nearly every day FYI, I have been casting on new projects like a mad woman. I currently have a wool soaker (also for Tomma), the beginnings of a Charade sock, the second Monkey, and I’ve finally put some time into some projects that were started last fall.

Tomorrow I’m going to Vancouver and will be there until Sunday. I think I’ll buy yarn to knit this sweater that I’ve been drooling over since seeing the preview last month. On Thursday, I will turn the big 2-5, a full quarter century. It seems like the right time to start my first sweater.

hello from the island!

Hello! We made it to Victoria in one piece, with only one minor mishap involving our bike rack. Don’t worry, the bikes are still intact, but it was a terrifying few minutes when we looked in the rearview mirrors and saw only one set of tires behind.

For those of you just tuning in, my partner Silas and I just moved from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Victoria, British Columbia.

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We left Saskatoon the evening of Tuesday August 28th after a teary goodbye in front of my old apartment building. Our dear friends Katie, Steph, Lori, and Ferron came to see us off. We were only going to Si’s parents farm that night but it was the beginning of our long epic drive towards the Pacific. Luckily, we were treated to a beautiful late summer sunset, the kind that only a prairie horizon can give you.

It was so perfect and bittersweet. I had tears in my eyes all the way to North Battleford. We made it to the farm, and got an early start the next morning at 6am. After a brief stop in Camrose to say goodbye to Sarah, we were on our way. We took a lot of photos and made a few silly videos on my little Canon.

We drove through Jasper, only stopping for gas, and saw goats and elk frolicking along the side of the highway. Everything through the Rockies was A-OK.

British Columbia welcomed us! We stopped that night in a town called Valemount, about 40 minutes past the BC-Alberta border.

The bike incident happened just outside of Kamloops. We had to pull over rather abruptly on a steep incline and readjusted the bikes. One of the brackets holding my bike frame came loose but luckily the other one held. It was fixed right up with a bit of duct tape and we were back on our way. It was the only thing that caused us anxiety on the trip, which seems pretty good. We couldn’t see out any of our back windows because the car was stuffed to the ceiling with our belongings, but that didn’t prove to be too big of a problem.

We made it to my parents’ house in Vancouver where we were stuffed full of Korean food and enjoyed a nice soak in a hot tub. Then it was off to the ferry the next morning.

And we made it! We stayed with my sister and brother-in-law that night, where finally (finally!) I got to a) meet my newest niece Tomma and b) give the log cabin blanket to her as a belated birthday gift.

I think she likes it.

So we’re here. Silas has started school and I have been enjoying visiting my sister, Dan, and Tomma every day. I am a lady of leisure these days, but the job hunt will start soon. There are more knitterly things I can share with you, but I’ll save that for another post in the very near future.

question

Okay. I’m SO close to finishing the log cabin. This is what it looked like on Friday.

Except now it has another orange strip on the left side and the yellow strip on the bottom has just been started.

Question: do you think I should leave it at 7 strips on each side, or go for 8? I’m going to do a border as well.

This weekend I picked up the Monkeys that I started months ago and am just at the heel of the first sock. I think I’ll actually have a FO to show you soon! This month has been so hectic as I am wrapping up at both of my jobs and trying to cram in as much friend love as possible. This Friday I am a bridesmaid in my former roommates’ wedding, and the weekend after that is our going away party and then yet another wedding at which Silas and I will be photographers. And then, three days later we’re leaving the province and setting out on a new adventure.

So the knitting content may be a little sparse in the next few weeks. As Megan says, between the stitches there is life.

breezy.

Proof that I’m still working on the log cabin:

Please excuse the ultra-yellowness of the photo. Now that it is August, I’m getting terribly sentimental about everything, since we leave this lovely town in 28 days. For example, last night at stitch & bitch, where the above photo was taken, I kept thinking, “I’m going to miss this so much. This is my fourth last stitch & bitch.” However, I am looking forward to checking out some knitting groups in Victoria and meeting new people who are crazy like me knit.

When I’m not slogging along, I can be found looking and obsessively clicking this:

Oh Ravelry. I’m trying to keep my queue of projects reasonable and I have realized that my humble stash is nothing compared to some of you out there. I also destashed about 10 skeins last night to my lovely knitting companions. This is bad news because it gives me reason to splurge a little once we make the move. Did I mention I’ll be living within very close proximity to Beehive?

Most of my worldly possessions are in Victoria, BC now, including my stash and needles. I obviously didn’t finish the log cabin by July 29, as Silas left for Victoria on Monday, and it is pictured in my possession in a photo from Tuesday. Oh well, now I’ll get to deliver it in person. I just cast on that purple thing in the round, borrowing some needles from Kirsti. It’s just a quick distraction from the blanket for a friend’s birthday.

In other non-stitchy news, the weather has finally given us a break after two weeks of hot, unbearable humidity and 30ºC or higher temps. Yesterday it rained and today is a lovely breezy 23ºC which makes me much more pleasant to be around. I was able to turn on the stove without sweat instantly forming in my pores.

happy ness

The last four days were spent in the boreal forest of northern Saskatchewan at the Ness Creek Music Festival. It was a lovely weekend full of sun, heat, camping, dirt, stinky outhouses, hippies high on life (and other substances), beautiful stars in the night sky, northern lights, and good friends.

There was swimming in Nesslin Lake and lounging on the beach:

Cuddling and reading with S. in a hammock:

Delicious food provided at the community kitchen:

At Ness Creek, there’s a community kitchen where everyone contributes food and the awesome volunteers make a big communal supper for everyone using the ingredients.

Good music and dancing barefoot in the sand:

And an impromptu stitch & bitch of sorts:

A good weekend. And ahead of me is a week of furious knitting and packing.

More photos here.

lack of finished objects

I suppose a lack of finished objects makes for a very boring knitting blog. There has been lots and lots of garter stitch. I’ve been reading a whole shwack load of knit blogs and spending a lot of time (thus getting very addicted) to Ravelry. I am feeling inspired by all the projects I’ve seen/read about but I won’t let myself start anything new until I finish my current project. There’s a good post on Annie Knits that expresses exactly how I’m feeling.

This weekend I’m going to a big hippie fest and will spend a lot of time in the bush finishing up that darn log cabin blanket. Slog slog slogging along.

My goal is to have it finished Sunday July 29 so that S. can take it with him when he goes to visit our future home in Victoria. (Grumble grumble… he’ll meet my niece before I do!)

Wish me luck. Oh, and if you’re wishing me luck please throw in a little extra for packing up all of my belongings by Sunday July 29 so it can be packed up in a truck and driven to the west coast.

Stress? Just a bit.

yay!

Man, what an awesome day. It’s Friday, I have a new niece, and this afternoon in my inbox, I found my long awaited invite to Ravelry!

I imagine I’ll spend a lot of my weekend photographing my stash and browsing all the beautiful projects on there.

cricket cricket.

Oh, summer.

Sorry so quiet. I went away for the long weekend and I’m still working away at the log cabin, now even more furiously than I was before because my niece was born this morning. Her name is Tomma and she and mom (my sister Joyce) are doing well. I’m so thrilled to be an auntie for the third time! I can’t wait to meet her.

So yes. It has been quiet. Did I mention I learned how to spin? I learned from a friend’s mom who was kind enough to lend me one of her wheels to get the hang of it and see if I have a taste for it. Fibre folks really are the nicest people.

There has been spinning. Uneven, frustrating spinning, but still spinning nonetheless. There has been knitting, just not very exciting knitting. I’m slogging along. It’s hard to update a knitting blog when all you’re knitting is long strips of garter stitch. I’m hoping to finish this blanket this week and send it off in the mail, and after that I have a list of projects to finish/tackle.

A knitting to-do list, of sorts:

• finish ribbed purple scarf (which was started last fall)
• finish up my pair of Monkeys
• finish the felted yoga mat bag from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
• knit toe-up short row heel socks out of Watermelon Tourmaline STR
• fall project: Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert with some orange tweed in my stash

Talk to you soon!

tumbleweeds

It’s been quiet on the knitting front ’round these parts. Still plugging away at the log cabin baby blanket – no baby yet. The Monkey socks are at a standstill and I’m lusting over so many patterns I want to tackle. Took a trip to Edmonton and Calgary (Andrea & Jason got married) recently and acquired three skeins of Socks that Rock (remember, sock yarn doesn’t count in the 2007 Knit From Your Stash yarn diet) as well as two pairs of circular needles for my upcoming jaunt in to the land of socks on two circulars.

Hopefully an update with photos this weekend. Stay tuned friends!

trouble.

Disaster has struck. I have started the log cabin baby blanket over from scratch. As in, from the beginning. Started it over. The progress made thus far is null and void. This comes sixteen days before Joyce’s due date. Gah!

It wasn’t working out because I consistently didn’t pick up enough stitches on one side so it was progressively getting smaller/shorter on the pink/yellow side. Despite my denial (“it’ll be okay once I block it”) and my attemps to stretch it out (“PULL! Harder!”), I have come to terms with the reality of the situation.

SIGH. I hate being a perfectionist! I don’t consider myself to be a beginner knitter either, so I feel particularly foolish making this mistake. I blame my non-committal relationship with the log cabin and the occasions I picked up stitches after several pints of beer. Really though, I want to start over and give my full attention and love and care into every stitch of this blanket, because the little one who will be receiving it definitely deserves it. I consider that first attempt a learning experience. It will be great eventually. It will, right?

In other news, my yarn swift arrived safely and exactly as it was described on eBay. Here it is set up in my kitchen in spinning motion!

Yesterday I attended the convocation ceremony where I received my undergrad degree in sociology. It was cheesy and long but at the same sentimental and nice. Here’s me as my name is being called, before I walk across the stage.

Silas’ sister sent me the best grad gift which arrived in the mail with perfect timing. Yesterday was a good mail day! I don’t have specific plans for it yet, but I would like to make socks and forever refer to them as my graduation socks.

Wish me luck on the log cabin. My Monkey socks are still progressing well but I think they’ll take a seat on the back burner as I try to churn on a baby blanket in less than 3 weeks.