Three yr. Blogiversary

A Very Merry Blogiversary to me, who me, yes you. Lol got the Mad Hatter stuck in my head today. So it’s been three years since I’ve been blogging about my crafting both crochet and knitting. Since I’ve started knitting it’s mostly been about knitting. So it being my third year blogiversary I’m giving away a few prizes. Due to the current economic conditions, it’s been easier to stick to knit from one’s stash. What is your favourite item that you have knit or crocheted with your stash yarn this year? Don’t forget to let us know the details or link to your rav project page. If you add a picture or link to a picture of your favourite item made from stash yarn, you will get entered twice! Now due to the high cost of shipping, I’m going to have to limit this contest to Canada and US, sorry all you International folks. I will post pictures of the prizes later; however I’ll let you know what you are getting yourself into

• Two balls of Jamieson 2 ply Jumper Wool and the Slouchy Hat by Yarn Forward
• $25.00 gift certificate from Knit it Up (I won her socktoberfest contest when I made a purchase of her lovely gift tags for knitters last year and instead of a skien of sock yarn that I was allergic to Knit it Up nicely sent me this, which I am now passing on to some lucky knitter/crocheter)
• and for those since this is a no-sheep blog I’ll be giving away a hank from Yarntopa Treasures (must be a non-animal fiber yarn), winner’s choice. I am in love with their laceweight yarns and the cotton bamboo is yummy as well

So enter before June 20th July 13th and I’ll announce the winners sometime the week after this contest closes. Please remember to post your answers on this post for it to count! Good luck!

Oh and my favourite stash busting item that I’ve made so far this yarn didn’t really bust a lot of stash, but boy were they cute! They are Owlets that I made for my HSKS 7 pals wee ones. I used up a little bit of Cotton Ease that had been sitting in my stash and the reminder of the Cotton Ease will probably make some more of these cute owls if not a washcloth.

So I’ve been home from guide dog school for little over a week and I’ve managed to knit a few rows on my Wing-’o-the-Moth Shawl.  During training as well as last week I did knit three washcloths.  Two were for my awesome trainer C, I used these patterns Get a Clue (which is a paw print)and Guide Dog 1 every other row washcloth You can find pictures up on my Rav project page.  They were a fun and simple knit.  I also finished a washcloth for HPKCHC June Charms class.  The project assignment was we had to knit or crochet a item using shadow or illusion knitting.  I found this cute pattern on Ravelry, it’s Illusion Witches Hat All these patterns are free and the Illusion Witches Hat is a free Rav download.  So if you aren’t a member of Ravelry (one where have you been for the last few years!?) then consider this incentive for joining.

Time she’s a tickin’

So I’ve been busy packing and haven’t really had time to knit.  The only thing I did get done was a few rows on my Ishbel shawl when I met Julia and Monica at Steeps.  Funny thing is I really should have counted my stitches since when I finally did I was over the stockinette part by about 16 sts.!  Oops.  Well I’m not bringing this project with me while I’m training with my new guide, though I do plan on taking on of my newest lace projects.  I started the Wing-o’-Moth shawl for my OWL in HP Knit and Crochet House Cup.  This is my first year participating and it is super fun so far.  Of course I was sorted into Ravenclaw and I signed up for two classes this month, DADA and Muggle Studies.  Once I have more time I’ll blog about that more   Here’s a picture of my swatch.

So other then not really knitting much and packing, I have been planning on what knitting projects to pack.  Boy has this been hard!  I decided to bring a few balls of Panda Cotton (to make into socks from Wendy’s toe up book), my on-hold socks (from Wendy’s book), my clapotis (good plane knitting especially since I’m using Knitpicks Harmony needles), my Rose Wristwarmers (another HPKCHC project) and some cotton to make dishclothes (good travel projects).  I really want to bring more, but I don’t really see myself having a lot of time to knit and my house cup class projects (except the OWL project) are due by the end of the month.

So with that being said I’ll be taking a 3 week hiatus from this blog.  I did set up a blog to document my adventures in training with my new guide.  You can find us here.  Well back to packing and cleaning for me!

Decisions, decisions

So I’ve been hit by another bad case of startitis.  I’m trying to stop the mad cast on urges.  I already have too many projects on my needles Here’s a list of the  active WIP that I currently have I’m not adding UFO’s on it because that would take way too long right now!

1. Mountain Peaks Shawl (for my great grandma’s 99th birthday)
2. Clapotis (take out of the UFO pile and worked on during my trip to the cabin) the ravelry button for this project does seem to be working right now I’ll try again later
3. Baktus scarf
4. Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet (mods – making the sleeves longer and the body length as well)
5. Anne (crochet lace scarf)
6. La cumparsita (lace shawl, using lovely Handmaiden Sea silk in Pumpkin from Andrea)
7. Mystic Roses (Mystic KAL just finished and the pattern is available now)
8. Los Monos Locos aka Crazy Monkey socks
9. Rogue Roses (BMFA March sock club shipment, using Whimzy Pinzy Panda Cotton, yum!)
10. Ishbel (laceweight shawl version)
11. Frances Revisited (one and two — both of sorta become UFO’s but I plan to pick them back up this week or so)
12. Alhambra (lace scarf — just picked it up again after a break today)

Okay this is is not including a lot of other projects I haven’t picked up in a while like Cables and Os.  I seriously need to finish up a lot of these projects before I can start any new ones.  Especially since I leave for training in Oregon in two weeks!  I still have to figure out what I want to pack in terms of knitting projects.  I can’t have anything to difficult and not easily memorizable since I won’t have too much spare time while training with my new dog.  I might take Wendy Johnson’s book, Socks from the Toe up with me because I’m thinking socks and maybe an easy knitting tank or shirt.

So now to the main reason why I wanted to blog today, besides the fact that I really needed to blog since it’s been a while.  I am working on the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet to wear at the Boring campus and maybe for my pictures and graduation if I like it alot.  The yarn I’m using is Knit Picks Comfy in Pomegranate.  It’s soft and machine washable which is perfect!  I’m having problems deciding if I should use this wonderful pewter button that my SP 13 gifted to me, a lovely antique button I purchased from Knitting for Brains or no button at all and use the many lovely shawl pins I have here’s some pictures what do you think?  Help! 

Anthro capelet with Pewter button

Anthro capelet with Vintage button

Anthro capelet with no button and fastened with a shawl pin

Biding my time

I want to start this post first by thanking my downstream SP 13 pal Ruth, she sent me the most fantastic thank you package!  She makes these awesome stitch savers (many LYS’s sell them, so does the Loopy Ewe or you can purchase one and get it personalized at her etsy store) She made me one with my name on it and sent me some cables and pockets for my Options sets as well as some really yummy yarn.  Thanks Ruth, you rock!

I also finished my Norwegian Woods shawl and it’s currently blocking! I’ve had a lot of practise knitting this shawl (I knit the scarf size) I had to rip back after finding out that I didn’t have enough yarn a row or two till the end of the shawl because I added an extra repeat of one of the charts. See the picture below for the sad picture.

Then I ended up knitting back from my life line at Chart B all the way to the cast off with no problems till I decided to cast off when I was really tired. Oops not a smart idea and ended up having to remove the beads and rip all that knitting out because I ended up dropping a few stitches beyond repair. So I ended up casting on for the third time (i’m sure there was more than this in the beginning but for the purpose of this story I’ve will limit it to the three important times) and I’m happy to report the third time is a charm! Norwegian Woods is now blocking in my living room, see

Picking up the pieces

Philmore Point on Galiano Island, BC taken from a canoe trip

OMG WTF!!  I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post.  Seriously I didn’t mean to go on hiatus from my blog for this long.  It’s been a very busy month for me.  I had tons of doctor’s appointments and tests, plus my home interview with GDB because Maylee is being retired due to her allergies. A dog allergic to pollen when you live in the suburbia of Vancouver, BC  is not good!  We have lots of trees on our property, plus we live near a very large park that I love walking through.  Sadly May is allergic to many of our coniferous trees (plus grass) and folks I live in an area of the world known for it’s rain and coniferous forests.  It’s beautiful in all it’s green splendour and I know that Maylee loves it, but I can’t go exploring like I used to.  We like to a few long weekends over at the cabin in the Gulf Islands (probably be there for Easter) and even though my guide dog loves every minute of it especially canoeing and vegging in front of the fireplace it makes her a very itchy dog.  I need a guide dog that will be able to handle all this greenery without having to take lots of anti-histamines, it’s bad enough that I have to take them!  Good news is I go back for training with Maylee’s successor in May.  I get to go down to Boring, OR to train for three weeks with my new guide dog.  It’s bittersweet because I’ll be saying goodbye to Maylee and meeting a new puppy breath who I will be working with for many years to come (cross fingers).

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting but not really any finishing.  I was binding off my Norwegian Woods scarf two nights ago and somehow dropped a few stitches and didn’t notice till I had casted off half of the stitches!  So not good.    I wasn’t able to save it so I frogging it then right away started it again.  I have to say this is an awesome pattern Sivia is very talented she wrote a pattern that I don’t mind frogging a few times and still continue knitting it! The reason why this project is taking so long is a little while ago I had to rip back to my lifeline that was at the end of the repeats of Chart A due to the fact that I ran out of yarn!  I tried to add a repeat, but didn’t have enough yarn, doh!  I’d add the pictures I took, but my camera is hiding on me somewhere.  I’ll upload them here later when I get a chance to locate that rogue camera of mine.  I finished Ishbel and gifted it to a friend for a belated x-mas present/birthday present.  The yarn I used was SWTC Pure in the Blue Depths colourway (soysilk, squee!) and it was so yummy.  I love this pattern it is a fast knit and so pretty.  I made the small option for my friend’s and I’ve started one for myself in laceweight that I will knit the large shawl option.  I’ll post more details and pictures in the near future.  I’m also working on a few other projects and I think April is a good month to finish up some of the projects that have been on my needles for a while.  Sadly I’ve have a case of startitis, which I seem to suffer from quite a lot lately.  So I am in need of some motivation to finish a whole bunch of things like both Francis Revisited that I knit, one just needs some weaving of ends and the cowl back sewn onto the back of the sweater and mine needs the cowl knit then the same finishing as Mini-me’s.  I just haven’t found the will to do this yet.

I need to stop casting on more projects, but it’s so hard not to go ohh shiny, must.knit.this.now.  See here’s something that has caught my eye, any BSG fans reading or just fans of pretty cabled socks please drool over this lovely knitted socks of geekiness!  I know I shouldn’t be starting any more projects but I saw the first clue of Knit & Knag’s Mystic Roses Shawl KAL and signed up.  I know I’m starting a little late, but I really want to catch up to everyone.  Sign ups are still open, but the price is $8 CDN instead of $6 CDN if you had signed up before March 20.  It’s still a great price and looks like it will be another beauty from the talented Anna.  Come and join the fun!

all apologizes

I’ve been dealing with some stuff as well as taking forever to recover from the cold of DOOM (think of Invader Zim saying this.)

Sad news is I’ve made the decision to retire my guide dog Maylee due to her allergies.  I’ve been struggling with this decision since she was diagnoised with allergies, we are dealing with it by allergy shots and anti-histamines and it has gotten better; however not enough that it will not affect her when she is working.  I have put a lot of things in my life on hold hoping that it will get better enough to be able to pick them up again and I realized that it’s time to face the fact that this may never happen if we continue to be a working team.  I’m heartbroken, but I’m also relieved that I’ve finally made a choice.  In the long run, it’s a good decision for the both of us, there is a possiblity that Maylee can be a guide dog for a person in a low pollen area or be a canine companion or even a happy retired spoiled pet.  I will miss her emmensely and it will take some time to get over having to give her up especially since she is my first guide, but I know that no matter where she ends up she will be loved and happy.  I’ve applied for a retrain class to get a new guide and I just need to go through the interview sessions again, as well as some more paperwork.  I will continue to work with Maylee till I go to class, so it’s not goodbye yet.

Now for the good news!  I got a wonderful cocoa swap package from Monica She had to hide the fact that she was spoiling me and I’m sure that was hard especially since we see each other at knitting meetups.  I recall joking with her at one that I saw her little tease closeup picture and that I was going to comment on her post that it looks like she was making a mini-maylee.  Well guess what I was correct!!  Thanks Monica, Mini-Maylee will give me comfort when I no longer have Maylee to hug.    Maylee loves her mini-me as well.  Here are some pictures of her and Mini-me.

Maylee with Mini-Maylee

Monica spoiled me rotten with yummy coconut chai breakfast cakes that she made herself, they were delicious!  Some camino dark cocoa mix that is lactose free, oh so tasty, I used some in some comfort brownies today and it was heaven.  Some yummy yarn Tatamy Tweed and Maizy.  Lol, now I know why you were complaining about a lot of the yarn we talk about at knitting meetup is hard to find in the Lower Mainland, see the internets are a good thing most of my yarn is purchased online.  An awesome sheep mug (that she teased me with the last knitting meetup I saw her at!), beautiful stitchmarkers that she made herself, cute tissues, super cute stationary paper, an adorable rubber duckie in a tux, bottle of hazelnut flavouring from Starbucks (thanks Monica you knew I wanted to try some at home!), lovely smelling lavendar soap (not to strong!  perfect) and crystalized ginger.  Also she included a sock pattern, the recipe for the tasty breakfast cakes and vegan whipped cream!  Plus she sent some goodies for Mini-me and His Tallest, some Hersey’s milk chocolate (sadly His Tallest can’t have lactose either so Mini-me happily ate it all, to save him for the milk ingredients, of course) and a “OMG IT’S SO ME AND CUTE” is what Mini-me said when she saw the pretty purple watch Monica sent for her. She loves it and says lots of thanks, hugs and squees. Thank you so much Monica you are an awesome spoiler and friend.  I apologize for the lateness of this post.

Finish or Frog it Friday — Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks Scarf

I am starting to feel more human and now have a lot of packages to send in the post or get ready to send in the post in the next week. I apologize to everyone who is eagerly awaiting swap packages and thanks for your patience.

I’ve been meaning to participate in Finishing/Frogging Friday for a while, but haven’t gotten to it.  If you want to join in click on the Frogging Friday button to take you to the Finish/Frog it Rav group.  This week I come prepared, I dealt with this scarf earlier this week and took pictures, so that way I’d be ready to get this post up by Friday.  This weeks project is my Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks scarf in BMFA Luscious Silk (colourway Blue Brick Road)  I love this pattern and I love this yarn, just not together.  Here’s the pictures of the UFO (with closeup) and then the yarn frogged.

Belated Thank you to my Secret Pal Pam!!

So I got a package from my secret pal and I’ve been meaning to post a public thank you for a while.  I’m so sorry that it’s taken me so long, but thank you Pam everything is lovely.  I’d brag on and on about the wonderful package that she sent me with loads of awesome yarn plus a beautiful print of a black lab, pretty buttons, cookie cutters including a teapot shaped one! and more but it would be better for me to just show you the pictures.  I’d go into more details but I’m sick with a horrible cold, it’s so bad in fact I can’t knit, due to the fact that I have to blow my nose every minute or so.  Meh!  I hope that this cold clears up soon because I have lots of knitting to work on and some pretty new yarn to try out.  Thank you Pam and I promise it won’t take me a long time to post about the last package you said was on it’s way.  To my downstream pal, you know who you are your package and the lovely Koigu is being delayed due to this cold from H-E-doublehockeysticks has got me bed or at least house-ridden.

I almost forgot those wonderful cards are made Pam with her own photography, so gorgeous!  Also the candles smell divine, but I can’t be in the same room with them meh I really hope my other allergies get better before the seasonal allergies start!  Thanks Pam for the great package and for being a fantastic secret pal and good luck with your schoolwork.

The Good, the bad and the oohhh shiny

Gaaahh, it’s January 29th, where did all the time go?  I’ve been meaning to blog for over a week now and it’s just feels like a few days!

I have some good news and some bad news.  I finished my Frances Revisited and it’s beautiful.  The bad news is I knit the wrong size and now it’s going to mini-me.  She is very happy and can’t wait till I am done the finishing.  All I need to do is stitch the cowl to the back and weave in the ends.  Once I’m done this I’ll take some pictures of mini-me modelling her new awesome sweater.  Till then here’s a picture in the snow that I took yesterday.

I also finished my ISE pal’s scarf, well shawl. I hope that my pal doesn’t mind some errors…um I mean design features. I used Handmaiden Sea Silk in Burgundy and the pattern in the Forest Canopy Shawl. Very pretty!

So I’ve been bitten by the lace bug and want to knit more lace.  Since I’m a self-taught lace knitter I thought I’d take a class.  Well I found one.  Sivia Harding will be teaching two project classes at Three Bags Full (Vancouver, BC LYS) starting mid-Feb.   Details are not yet up on the Three Bags Full Site, but you can find some info on the classes on Three Bags Full Rav group (link to post here) or by contacting Three Bags Full.  I hope to see some of you locals there!  Oops almost forgot to tell you all what class I’m taking the project class on this pretty number,Norwegian Woods

Cocoa Swap Scavenger Hunt Answers

1. Who wants to try plant fibers? Emily

2. Who wants to learn to crochet? Michelle

3. Who collects yarn (Don’t we all!)? Penny

4. Who loves yellow? Alicia

5. Who doesn’t like fruit flavors? Jenn

6. Who loves Malabrigo (who doesn’t??? hahaha) ? Ruth

7. Who has one mitt to go to finish her Endpaper Mitts? Elizabeth

8. Who’s favourite animal is a dog? Marylynn

9. Who likes to paint? Kathy

10. Who has too many stitch markers?  Michelle

11. Who likes Bailey’s in their cocoa? Sarah

12. Who likes Starbucks salted caramel cocoa? Darcy

13. Who can’t stand vanilla flavoured cocoa?  Chan

14. Who’s favourite animal is a hedgehog? Ariel

15. Who might stab themselves over Neon Yarn?  Laurie

16. Who’s oldest UFO is at least 15 years old? Kate

17. Who likes crystallized ginger? Me!  Yummy

18. Who likes whipped cream in their cocoa? Rachel

19. Who likes marshmallow fluff in their cocoa?  Becca

20. Who needs stitch holders? Holly