Diamond Fantasy

Yesterday dh and I went on a Valentine's Day outing. Both teenagers were at work (McDonald's) so we had the whole afternoon to ourselves and already had plans to have a date night.



We began by picking up prescriptions at Safeway pharmacy... yay! It wasn't too bad, I brought my cardigan to knit on so the waiting time was enjoyable, dh and me chatting while my fingers flew - gotta love stockinette sometimes.



Then I'd had a whim to visit Chinatown so we headed off there. It ended up to be a lovely long walk in that very colourful area of town. We picked up some great bargains in produce.



We had planned to go for dinner and a movie but it was still way to early when we left Chinatown so I mentioned that I wanted to visit a yarn store. Dh, supportive as ever, said sure. So I headed off to one I hadn't visited before - Homecraft Importers. But, we hit a huge traffic snarl and never got there. We backtracked and found ourselves on Main Street. Guess what's on Main Street? You've got it - Three Bags Full, my favourite lys.



Dh wished me fun while he let the seat back and had a little nap. I found some lovely yarn - Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold. I decided to do another project by Sivia Harding. I chose the Diamond Fantasy Scarf. Lovely lace. I chose a dark orange-red colour of the yarn.



Here's a photo of the Diamond Fantasy lace - I borrowed it from Sivia Harding's website:







Today I visited Bead Works in Newport Village and found some beads to place in the centre of the diamonds. I've done beads before but not in lace, only in ribbing. I'm going to love the challenge.


Oops, sorry, I digress. Back to what we did yesterday:


After the yarn store we went to see Jumper. We actually wanted to see Juno but we didn't actually check what time it started. When we got to the theatre the only thing starting in our time frame that we had any desire to see was Jumper. It was disappointing. A cool idea but there were many holes in the story. And, it didn't end that well.


After the movie we went to White Spot for dinner. I had their Tandoori Chicken Rice Bowl. Not bad at all.


Dh and I had a good time together and have decided to make more frequent plans to spend time together like this.

Stitch Gauge - Evil!

Today my friend Heidi and I went to the Ravelry group Terminal City Yarn Wrangler's meetup at The Grind at 25th and Main Street. Heidi's baby Hadrian provided much entertainment. Before the meetup I introduced Heidi to Three Bags Full. She's hooked, oh yeah!

I had finished my second pair of Rose's Wrist Warmers and I just had to weave in the ends. The first pair I made were purple and my sister Terri, the instant she first saw them, she insisted that I was making them for her. Of course I wasn't; they were for me. So last week I gave them to her.

I had the idea that I would like to make a hat, a beret, perhaps, with the same seed-stitched cable. But I didn't have enough purple yarn to make the hat. So I bought different yarn in a greater amount to make myself the warmers and a matching hat. But my daughter Sylvie wanted a pair too. I found that lime green colour and knit hers up. She just got them and loves them. Now I'm over the whole wrist warmer thing. Maybe I'll get back to knitting myself a pair at a later date... or maybe not.

I'm tired of having to adjust my needle size to match ESG (Evil Stitch Gauge). I knit somewhat tightly and usually end up going up at least two needle sizes. Sometimes it doesn't work out and I just forget the whole idea. Well, I know why my stitches are tighter. When I throw the yarn over the needle I use my index finger to pull tension into it as I draw the yarn through the loop. That's where it happens. I'm trying to train myself to just. leave. it. alone. No tension as I pull the yarn through the previous stitch. And purling is different. I'm going to have to do swatch after swatch just to make it consistently even. But I think it will be worth it if my stitches stop being so tight.

I have some vague ideas what I'll do next but haven't actually started yet. The stoll to match Sylvie's grad dress? Cherie Amour (see image below)? Something I haven't even found yet? We'll see.

No Yarn For You!

I went to Sacramento, California this week. When I found out I was going there to attend a course for work I was excited about it for yarny reasons in addition to all the other reasons I usually am. Sacramento is where Babetta's Yarn and Gifts is - the shop Franklin wrote about in The Panopticon.

Well, I couldn't get there. I sat all day in a classroom and had no transportation when I had free time. Even on Saturday when I had a few hours of free time there were other agendas to follow. Bummer!

No, I'm Not Dead

Well, just in case there are any readers out there who might be wondering.

I've been busy and quite ill and blog fodderless.

I've knit Rose's Wrist Warmers. I love them but apparently I have to give them to my sister who claims I made them for her. I could be strong and resist but I'd like to make a beret with the same cable pattern incorporated in there and I don't have enough yarn. So... I bought another colour of yarn to make another pair and a beret. I also bought a fashionably lime green colour for a pair for dd. That's her colour. She loves it. 'K?

I bought some lovely hand dyed wool from SeeJayneKnitYarns.etsy.com. The colourway called is cafe au lait (I think), creams graduating into browns - it called to me. I'd like to make some socks, or a pair of mitts or gloves might be nice.

Actually, I guess you could say I'm building my stash more than I'm actually using it. Dh mentioned it the other day..."you sure have a lot of yarn in our bedroom". I replied: "it's called a stash". Just so he knows the terminology. He's pretty good, really, quite supportive and he has learned what 'frog' and 'tink' mean - because I explain it quite often as I'm doing it, I guess.

Post-Christmas

I'm back from a couple of days in Powell River, BC. We were visiting my dh's parents and brothers. DH stayed up there for a couple more days while ds and I came home. Dd didn't even go - she had a cold and wasn't feeling all that well, but admitted that seeing her aging grandparents is hard on her. Her grandmother doesn't remember much of anything these days and constantly has to be reminded who people are. She does remember her own children but can't remember if they're married or have children. Dd said that the emotional pain on top of being sick would be too much for her. So we let her stay on her own for two days at home. The first time. She's 17 so I wasn't too concerned. She's not the type to invite lots of friends over and trash the house. She did make more of a mess than the post-Christmas mess we had when we left. Darn! I wish she had gotten the cleanup bug, LOL.



Dh's two brothers and one nephew live with his parents. One brother is their caregiver. The other brother is unemployed and content to stay that way. The nephew is there temporarily, I think. They have turned the basement rec room into a bit of a 'den of iniquity'. Friday and Saturday nights (the nights I was there), they had 2 - 3 tables of poker players come in. It felt just like a casino. I played a few games over the time I was there. It just didn't feel like visiting family. Even my dh, who loves getting into long conversations with his family mentioned it. Hopefully these next couple of days are better for him.



While in Powell River I looked for yarn stores. Dh was quite supportive. He even helped me look for stores in the smaller towns along the 4-5 hour drive up and asked if I wanted to make small detours to look more. I didn't take him up on it on the way but went out on my own once we got there. Dh's brother said there was a yarn store in the mall. It was two days away from closing and was mostly cleaned out. But, what was there was 80% off! I bought some acrylic yarn to add to my stash - not exciting but cheap. I found some Linie 64 Nobile, regularly priced at 13.99 a ball, in the same (I hope) colourway as my dd's grad dress. It's a deep almost brown burgundy colour. It has shiny flecks in it. I want to make her a shrug to wear with her dress. In all I got about $170 worth of yarn for $30. Oh Yeah!



Right now I'm knitting some wrist warmers. I wanted to do a cable and found a lovely pattern:




It's called Rose's Wrist Warmers and was, apparently, copied from an episode of Dr. Who. This is a photo I found online. I'm about halfway finished one of them and I'm using purple Alpaca Merino from Sweaterkits. It's lovely and soft but does have some clear coloured flyaways. I'm knitting them with my new Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle set that I got for Christmas. Maybe I'll see if the store where I bought the yarn (Shan's Needlework in New Westminster) has enough left for a beret. That would be a nice set.


Have a happy new year!

Christmas

I see I have not blogged since Dec 2. No, that's not true. I did blog one day, then clicked the wrong button and that entry went to post heaven. I missed it very much for a few minutes but did not replace it. It was too soon.

All the Christmas hats done; the bags are felted. They are all in one big box, each filled with plastic bags of three different kinds of fudge and a couple of lottery tickets -big gift-giving items in my family.

The preparations for Christmas went well. Lots of money was spent on electronics. Tomorrow I shall see if I got my Denise Knitting Needle set.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at church tonight at 6:00. Both of our kids, teenagers of 16 and 17, were working at McDonald's. They're growing up and things will only continue to change. Jobs, marriages, moves to different locations will all affect how Christmas works each year. With our oldest graduating this year, this may be the last Christmas we're all together. But, really, I don't think so, at least not yet.

Merry Christmas.

Knitters at Christmas Parties

Last night I went to my husband's company's Christmas Party. It had snowed overnight so the Lower Mainland could go into its usual snow-tizzy -an inch of snow and a little ice on the road and many people get stuck on the road. Last year it took me three hours to get home from work a couple of days.

This party was at Swan E Set golf and country club way out in Pitt Meadows (funny name, eh?). We thought it was smooth sailing until we found the road we were supposed to turn on and P put his foot on the brake and we slid on black ice right past it and another car that had gone into a ditch. The ride home was a little treacherous too but we made it fine.

But - at the party: P has been working for this company for only about 6 weeks so even he didn't know many of the people there. I, of course didn't know anybody. When I looked across the room I saw somebody knitting! I got right up and went over to talk to her. She was knitting a scarf. She was quite a beginner, someone who was looking forward to knitting lace. I showed her the long tail cast on and how lace is made - yarn overs and knit two togethers to keep the number of stitches on the needles constant. I wrote down some web sites for her: Knittinghelp.com, Ravelry. She asked a lot of questions. I think I scared her when I said knitting could become all-consuming. She said she already had one of those hobbies: water-colour painting.

Well, you know, you plant the seeds and see what grows.

As for my own knitting, I haven't been for a few days. I've finished about 5-6 hats and have been thinking about felting those bags. I guess I'm a bit stalled but that's okay, I've gots lots of time before everything has to be finished.