Knitting Content

Finally, right?

No pictures, though, because it's a new design, and you know, I don't want to spoil it. You've seen the mock up:



It's designed, dudes. Now it's just getting test knit by MOI, and then I'll find one other test knitter when I'M done, and then when they've knit it, it'll be available. Oy, long process. Such is life when one works full time and dabbles in this on the side, I suppose.

For the project, I'm using a delicious burnt umber kind of reddish cashmere/merino/silk from Colourmart. I cannot say enough great things about that company. I heart them. I'm also using clear glass sead beads, and boy, are they ever going to make this shawl lovely!

Anyway, just though I'd update you all. I am knitting. I just can't show you yet. :)

Renovation Update

Rip out carpets in the livingroom and hallway - DONE
Rip off and dispose of all mouldings - DONE
Wash walls - *almost* DONE
Tape and prime walls - DONE
Paint walls - DONE
Empty spare room and rip out carpet - DONE
Lay subfloor in livingroom, hallway and spare DONE
Lay fancy-pants new laminate floor - DONE
Empty and rip out carpets in Elodie's room and master bedroom
Lay subfloor in E's room and Master
Lay laminate in E's room and Master
Put on new crown mouldings.


That's right, folks. FOUR STEPS LEFT!!! Then I get to renovate the bathrooms. Oh hell.

I've cast on for Vera. Right now, I'm just getting the pattern started, and have one quarter of the shawl on the needles (in a scrap yarn) to do that while I wait for the actual yarn from Colourmart to get here. I'm so freaking excited to get things going!

Vera's Shawl

On May 5th, 2005, my husband's mom, Vera, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Just two months and one day later, on July 6th, she died.

This year, to celebrate her life and mourn the fifth year anniversary of her passing, I will be designing a shawl and releasing the pattern for sale on Ravelry. 50% of the proceeds will go directly to the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

The mock up is finished, and as soon as the shawl I'm working on is complete, I'll cast on for Vera's Shawl.



Provided everything works out according to plan, the shawl will be up for sale on June 6th, 2010 at 7:16 a.m., exactly five years to the minute after we lost one of the brightest, most loving people I have ever met.

So Bronchitis Stinks...

At least, that's what it's looking like I have more and more. On Friday morning, I woke up with a sore throat. Not a big deal, right? By 12:00, when I'd finished my work for the day, I needed to lay down. I slept from 12:00 on Friday afternoon until 6:00 p.m. Saturday night. And my chest hurts. Like, really hurts. I'm thinking that can't be good.

Of course I have work this weekend. Of course.

Hurry up and buy my pattern, people, so that I can knit for a living. LOL!



By the way, you will all be happy to know that well over 20 copies of the pattern have been sold, and it has pushed Annie over the top of her fundraising goal for her 2010 Ride to Conquer Cancer! I'm so proud of her, and I can't wait to see what great changes her ride affects. GO ANNIE!!!!

For now, however, I'm going to go run myself the hottest lava bath possible, smother my chest in Vick's Vaporub and try not to hack up an internal organ. My bandmate has been trying to tell me that drinking copius amounts of scotch would help, but somehow I doubt it.

2010 On The Go!

Well, despite having not blogged for a month, I really have gotten things done. The holidays came and went with hardly a stitch given, save from a pair of socks for my best friend and a sweater for my mom. I decided it was just too much to knit for everybody, and honestly, not everybody appreciates the time and effort of it, so I left my needles pretty cool. As usual, the holidays were very busy, though, with way too much food and drink.

New Year's was a quiet affair with Robbie and I mostly just reading and chatting and having a glass of wine as 2009 went and 2010 entered. And since then, I've been doing not much more than work and sleep. However, I have managed to knit one thing.



This is Wisp. The picture's not great (I just took it, and it's 11:00 at night, so, you know...), but when the sun comes up tomorrow (tomorrow...I'll love you, tomorrow...) I'll get a better picture. It came off my needles about a week or so ago, and I just bothered to block it and weave in all the ends. It's pretty, though, and the Zauberball makes the project, which is a pretty straight-forward (and boring) knit. To add some textural design to the scarf, I changed up the pattern slightly in alternate panels, with a YO, K1 for one panel and a K1, YO for the next. I actually liked the K1, YO better than the called-for YO, K1. It just seemed cleaner to me.

Troldeskov is doing well. I've had a lot of interest, which is great, and I'll be releasing the pattern for sale on Ravelry in just a few days. All my test knitters are finished, and for the most part, the pattern feedback was really positive. I do have a few things to adjust, such as some errors I made in the charting (sorry, folks. Check out the errata on Ravelry) and maybe a bit more clarity for my overseas friends who may knit the shawl. Overall, though, I'm extremely thrilled with the response that I've been getting on my first real design, and my husband has been encouraging me to design some more. I'm thinking a shawl based on Vulcans...hmmm...

Finally, I leave you with a bit of my day today. Elodie was transformed by the super powers of broccoli into Super Elodie, with the super power of cleaning up all her toys and eating all her lunch (and ice cream for desert!).


(so happy with how clean and shiny my Counter top looks in that last one. ;)

Troldeskov - Completed

It's done. It's beautiful.

When I dyed this fibre back in September, I was going for a jewel-toned green. HAH! My dye pot laughed at me, and shattered my dye. The resulting Corriedale was green, blue, brown, red and yellow. It was, in one word, absolutely beautiful. I didn't wait until the fibre was completely dry to start spinning it. I just started.

I took the fibre with me to Airdrie Centennial's Homecoming Weekend where I was doing a spinning demonstration.

When it was plied, I had 600 yards of the prettiest laceweight. It was luminous, and I knew it had to be a shawl. I started searching for the perfect pattern, but no luck. No pattern really called to me. Alas, what's a girl to do? I started designing my own.

What would I use for inspiration?

In the country of Denmark, there are several forests with distinctive trees, called Troll Forests, Troldeskoven. The trees are old and knotted, their branches twisting whimsically in all directions. One particular Troldeskov, near Jels in southern Jutland, was my absolute favourite. There was one tree that bent right upside down and then reached for the sky again, forming a perfect circle.

For a young child, it was as if the forest was magical. Completely silent and still, one could hear the birds singing, examine all kinds of squishy little creatures, watch the sun filter through the leaves and peer through the spiraling trees for signs of the trolls who lived there.

Several years ago, a hurricane swept through Denmark, felling 80% of her forests. My forest was decimated. On a recent trip, I went to see what was standing of the Troldeskov. I was sad to see that it was dying, slowly being replaced by commercial tree farms.

This shawl is inspired by my memories.



It's perfect.



Troldeskoven's trees are so higglety pigglety, but they have a grace and beauty that are hard to find. The elements in this shawl try to emmulate that unexpected grace. They don't seem to belong to just one shawl, and yet they blend so nicely (and rather pleasantly for the designer, I might add).



It looks lovely with a pretty shawl pin and sits just so on my shoulders. This would be lovely in a heavier weight yarn on just right needles to be a warm fall shawl. The really lovely thing about the way this pattern is designed is that the knitter can make it as big or as small as they want. The elements, while dependent of each other, do not require a certain stitch count to work correctly. So, given plenty of yardage or minimal yardage, you can knit this shawl. As it were, I wanted it for when I return to Denmark next year for my grandfather's 90th birthday, when I will walk in the forests again.



One day, as I was knitting in The Knitting Room and visiting with the store manager and my friend, Annie, she was telling me all about how she's riding in this Ride to Conquer Cancer next year. She needs to raise $2,500 to do it. Well, since I was just going to submit the pattern for free on Ravelry anyway, why not help a friend out, says I? I know that knitters are pretty awesome people, and it's for a good cause.



So, friends, the pattern is written, charted, photographed and tested. I'm bringing it in to Annie later this week. Knit, enjoy and go for a walk in the woods. :)

Design for a Cause

I'm too lazy to ride bikes. WAY too lazy, and too fluffy. I'm working on it. I've never been one to be active, per se, but luckily for all of us, there are people out there who are. Annie is going to be partaking in the 2010 Ride to Conquer Cancer. Don't ask me how many kilometres she's going to be biking. I know it's a lot. It's more than I care to think. It makes my bones ache just thinking about it.

But she does have to raise $2,500 in order to partake, and I wanted to help. Especially wanted to help since I can't exactly bike along with her. Enter a new shawl design.



This is the first shawl I've ever designed. EVER. It's not done, obviously. This is only stage one, and there's still two more pattern elements to come up with before I cast it off, but I LOVE it. It's knit out of my own handspun, four ounces of corriedale that I dyed with Wilton's food colouring.

The colour is most accurate in the next picture.



I've already named it Troll Forest (or Trolleskov in Danish) because it reminds me of walking through my favourite forest in Denmark. Once it's completely written, which should be around the end of this month, you will be able to purchase the pattern from Annie for a nominal fee to support her in her ride. I'm realy excited about it!

After that, I'll keep the pattern up for sale, but if you are interested in knitting this, please purchase from Annie before June so that you can support her in her cause!