best laid plans

I like lists, cataologuing. I am secretly a librarian at heart. I make lists for everything: packing lists for weekend vacations, grocery lists, lists of clothes for the kids. To-do lists so that I can understand the full extent of my procrastination, or stupidity. For future reference, of course. Here, for your edification, was my to-do knitting list this winter:


This is all the yarn I had in my mental queue for the winter — which is to say, this is the yarn that I have bought (mostly this winter) with the intention of knitting this winter. Looking at this pile, I can only come to two conclusions:

1) I have obviously vastly overestimated how fast I can knit and the amount of time I would have, and

2) I really like the colour blue.

Clockwise from the top left: Artyarns cashmere sock. Love. I wanted really warm socks this winter, and I would have made excellent use of them ... if I had had them. Next, two skeins of Shalimar Breathless (in Ore), with a ball of A Verb for Keeping Warm Floating. Also dreamy. These were going to be some sort of colour-block sweater, although I might have to revisit that: those two skeins of Ore are not the same colour at all. (Yes, I know about dye lots, and no ... I did not apply that knowledge. The second skein was sort of an emergency buy.) Tanis Fiber Arts laceweight, from one of her one-off sales on Etsy; this was going to be something "relaxing." Ha. I am thinking perhaps a large Orchid Thief ... I am also thinking, perhaps not right now.

And finally, the big pile of robin's egg blue is Quince & Co. sparrow, which is pure linen. The colour is actually "Birch," but I know robin's egg blue when I see it. It's a bit of a cheat; it's the only thing on here that's not really winter knitting and so, consequently, also the only thing that I particularly want to knit. I am most of the way through the body of Kirsten Johnstone's Hane and I am really looking forward to wearing it. It's been a long, cold winter. I need spring.

straights vs circulars

We had a cold snap yesterday! It's still cold today, but yesterday it was positively winter — the temperature actually went into the negative and everyone scurried around in winter gear: coats with fur-lined hoods up, chunky scarfs, mittens and boots and bright red cheeks from the wind.

Of course, by March this selfsame temperature will feel positively balmy, but we're still in the onset of winter, here, so everyone is bundling up for the long haul.

I had been delaying knitting a new neckwarmer/cowl for the Spanish Inquisition. (Her daycare requires it, in that they prohibit scarves — a strangulation hazard. I'd like to tell them that my daughter is hardly Isabella Duncan, and there's a subtle difference between a short chunky knit and flowing silk beneath spoked tires, but I doubt anyone will listen.) I'd meant to knit it out of Dream in Color Starry, or some other kind of sparkly yarn, but I hadn't had time to buy it yet — so I kept putting it off.

Until it got cold, and I felt guilty that her neck would be unprotected. So I grabbed some leftover baby alpaca sport (which, don't let the name fool you, is actually a bulky yarn) and knit one up right quick. Because time was of the essence — I had about two hours to knit the whole thing — I decided to knit it on my 6mm straights instead of DPNs.

(I wish I'd taken a picture for you. But I finished it and went straight to bed, and now it lives exclusively at daycare, so I lost my chance. Just imagine a purple tube in 2x2 rib about the size of a toddler's neck.)

And ... it turns out that straights are so cumbersome! I never used to think this before. I learned to knit on straights — these particular ones, in fact. And I'd loved them. I only stopped using them because I've been knitting things that are bigger than I'd feel comfortable putting on a straight needle, and Pd had given me a set of Addi interchangeable circulars a year or two ago. But now, I kept noticing how the straights would bang into my elbow. Or the table. Or how I would have to really arc my knitting wide when I changed sides. And heavy! And I would think, really? I actually preferred this?

I will probably still use my straights when I can, or when it's convenient to do so. I want to rediscover my old habit. I have some lovely bamboo and rosewood pairs, the latter of which are so lovely that I will actually pause my knitting just to look at them. They're warm, and supple, and feel so much more personal than aluminum. And I firmly believe that tools get better when you use them.

All that being said, this is my current knitting obsession:


Manos del Uruguay Fino (yes, again), in "Ivory Letter Opener," on, yes, Addi Interchangeables. I had something very specific in mind, so I'm designing it myself. Miles of stockinette — again — but broken up just enough by the texture of the seed stitch. Creamy and lovely for cold days and nights.

(The picture at the very top is technically Christmas knitting, which I have abandoned in favour of the Manos right now. Luckily there is still some time. I loved the gradients so much when I spread the skein out that I had to take a picture. It is SweetGeorgia's tough love sock in "Shipwreck," and it knits up in a reasonable stripey fashion.)

Into the fall

Fall is my favourite time of year — the crispness in the air, the deeper, darker colors, the clothes. I'm not a great fan of what comes next, and November is never not depressing (much like March) — but the transition time, right now, the still-hot days and the cool nights, is perfect.

Fall knitting, too, is deeply satisfying. It's the timeliness of it. Mid-winter, all you want to do is knit fast as you can, before hypothermia sets in — and Christmas knitting is only gratifying after it's done, not during. I never knit sweaters in the spring; there's just no motivation. And summers are for socks or shawls or other small things, something to take the edge off and keep your hand in, but small enough that you aren't sitting with a pile of delicious alpaca in your lap — because, trust me, nothing woolly is delicious in 40-degree heat.

But now! I am already well on my way. Before August ended, I had cast on a small cardigan for the Spanish Inquisition — Olivia Petit by Connie Chang Chinchio. I love the back detail.


It's lovely in the original cream, but I had quite a bit of Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend left over from another sweater project, so in it went. It's 70% merino, 30% silk; super soft and warm but not, unfortunately, machine washable — I'm less picky about that in my own sweaters, frankly, and as I was anxious to get started and the yarn store had yet to get their fall yarns in, I decided to overlook that small deficiency — and it is super adorable. I knit the 12-month size; the Spanish Inquisition is on the small side. It's a little bit big on her, which means that it's perfect.

The super cute buttons are dyed mother-of-pearl from Fyberspates. I happened to be on their web site (investigating their yarns, of course), and they were, simply, perfect. One thing I have not been able to source to my satisfaction, in Toronto, are buttons. I'm sure that perfect buttons — perhaps even the perfect button store — exist, somewhere, in this city, but I have been unable to find them. I even deputized my mother — so far, nothing. I have lucked out, here and there, but these are the only buttons I've used so far that are both perfect for the project, and perfect by themselves.

It's been very cold in the mornings this past week, and particularly this weekend, so we've already put the sweater to use. I would say that she loves it, but honestly? She doesn't really have an opinion about clothes. Shoes, on the other hand, she definitely has an opinion on: they belong in her hands, or in her mouth, but not on her feet. Never, ever.

And now, something for me. This is a sweaters' worth of Fyberspates Scrumptious 4-ply in "Water."


This is a yarn I've been meaning to try for a while, but haven't been able to find in North America. (WEBS carries it now.) It's 55% merino, 45% silk — do you sense a pattern? It's because I love things that drape, and nothing drapes like silk (or bamboo — but that's another story).

It is going to be a Pas de Valse — actually, it's already most of one; I've only got most of one sleeve and the crochet edging to go. It's a surprisingly fast knit. (I know, this isn't the best in-progress picture ever. I just wanted to capture the beauty of the silk stockinette. This colour is perfect for a blue-grey obsessive like me — incidentally, the colour in the photo above is slightly more accurate. It's getting harder to take photographs in natural light, now.)


I originally knit this pattern when it was first published, out of some BMFA Wooboo (which is 40% bamboo). Unfortunately it hasn't held up very well — the yarn was a bit thicker than called for (it had originally been for another project), and I had had to do some re-calculations on the fly, and so it was always a bit on the larger side. Now it's a bit misshapen and droopy. I love it, though; it's a staple of my fall wardrobe, so this year I decided it was time to knit a new one. I'm very excited.

I haven't decided yet what I will knit after this is finished. Socks? A shawl? (A lace project in the winter is never remiss. I may knit shawls in the summer — but fall-winter is when I start them.) It's too early to think about Christmas, so this knitting time is all about me, me, me. It's not often that I can say that anymore, so I will revel in it while I can.

the beginning of something good

Look what came in the mail for me!


Yes, sock yarn. But it's special sock yarn, because it's the first (of six) installments in the Cookie A sock club! Pd gave me a membership for my birthday, and it really is a gift that keeps on giving. For the rest of the year, anyway. (Sock Club, for non-knitters: you pay a certain amount of money, and they send you sock yarn and a pattern to go with it on a bi-monthly basis. Like any other kind of club, really.)

I had been considering other sock clubs, but I chose this one in the end. Most other sock clubs are run by dyers, not designers, so they emphasize exclusive colours on (generally) the same yarn base, with surprise designers. On the other hand, this one is run by a designer, and the accompanying yarn is a surprise (we were promised "good" yarn, though). Since something like half of all the socks I've ever knit were designed by Cookie A, and the idea of discovering new indie sock yarn is exciting, this one won out in the end. Also, this one comes with cookie recipes. I'm serious! And I like cookies.

Anyway, no regrets so far, except that the yarn took a long time to get here (and that wasn't her fault; that was Canada Post. The yarn was shipped in the middle of February). I like the pattern (like I said, I like practically all her patterns), and it really is good yarn. This one is really nice and snuggly — there's 10% cashmere in it, so there's a nice loft and I anticipate the stitch definition will be good, too. I'm not knitting with it yet, though — I noticed the other day that I had barely touched the sock yarn I acquired at the Frolic last year, and that my skein of cushy Handmaiden Casbah (also 10% cashmere — even when I don't pick the yarn, I'm predictable) had started to come undone.


Handmaiden Casbah, back when it was still tightly skeined.
It was like a sign from the universe that it was time to ball it up and knit. So I did. It's making me very happy — even if it's likely that the weather will be warmish before I finish.

Another sign: I finally finished my German stockings! These were started, I kid you not, in October 2008. They are so old that they predate my flickr account. I think they were something like my second pair of socks, and they were seriously cursed: I broke two bamboo needles (I think this is when I switched to Addis, because at least it's harder to break metal), I kept reading the pattern wrong — twice! On both feet! — and it was just a mess. I neglected to get a finished object picture, but here's a progress shot of the second sock:


Come to think of it, these were designed by Cookie A, too
Sitting on my Icarus shawl at the lacrosse game we went to last week.

Oh! Yes! We went to a lacross game. I don't really know anything about lacrosse, but I thought it was interesting that they kept the music playing throughout the game (and not just during breaks). The atmosphere is very different from a Leafs game. For one thing, the seats were a lot better (and a lot cheaper). For another, we actually expected the Toronto team to win.


(I am a total Leafs fangirl, but come on. I'm not stupid. Just a sucker for disappointment.)

(Oh, and yes. We did win. It was touch-and-go when the other team evened it up in the third quarter, but then we stormed back in the fourth and took the game. And at some point the goalie took it in the nuts, which ... I know it's horrible, but it's actually kind of funny when it happens to pro athletes. All I can say is that he took it like a man — he went straight down.)

just what the doctor ordered

It's always a good day when I get a box of yarn in the mail.


My first yarn order from WEBS — two skeins each of Cascade EcoWool in black and grey, and one skein each of Spud & Chloë Fine, in Lizard and Popcorn. I've squooshed the Spud & Chloë before — there is 20% silk in it, so it's super soft — and I've heard really good things about it, so I'm looking forward to playing with it. I am thinking intarsia mittens.

The EcoWool is slated for the rest of the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket that I started last spring — I stopped knitting it because I ran out of yarn. I've been really cold, as I've mentioned, so a heavy wool blanket sounds heavenly right about now — especially since I am home today thanks to being utterly flattened by the flu, and straight garter stitch is about as complicated as I can handle right now.

FO: Celandine

(Everyone who isn't interested in knitting: go away. This one is all about yarn.)

I finished Celandine!


Indigo Moon Natural Muga Silk, in Chocolate. US 3 needles (medallions on US000).
It turned out beautifully. I trusted in the designer's assurances that the silk would release and the top would become longer and flowy-er with blocking, and it actually worked. It's a little bit more sheer than I anticipated, but wearing a tank underneath is not a big deal, and I loves it. I literally wore it all weekend.

Now, I have a little bit of a problem. I took stock of my last few projects (that I've finished) — here's a list: Véronique from French Girl Knits (a light cardigan), the Two-Toned Shrug from Fitted Knits, and Celandine. I am obviously on a sweater-ish kick.

So here's the problem.


This is my haul from the Knitters Frolic in early May. (I'd meant to blog about that, but then I didn't. This is me sneaking it in under the wire.) You can see the muga silk still in its skein to the left, and then that big pink-grey fluffball is 1000 yards(!) of laceweight from Fleece Artist. It was a good time; a good haul. I stayed within budget and everything. But can you see the problem?

It's all sock yarn. Really good, great, even stupendous sock yarn, true, but still. Yarn. For socks. Not sweaters. And I don't really wanna knit socks right now.

So I did that thing that I'm not supposed to do. I went to the yarn store.


810 yards of Louet Euroflax sportweight. I'm an addict; don't judge me.

most of a bathroom!

... because an entire bathroom would apparently be pushing it.


Anyway: we have a vanity and sink! And medicine cabinet! And light sconces!

All of these things were put in last night. Granted, the plumbing is not yet hooked up (more on that later) and so the faucet (not pictured) is not actually functional, and I have yet to unpack the bathroom box so the medicine cabinet is empty, but ... the lights work. That's something.

Anyway, I took this picture last night to share the excitement of having an actual bathroom sink with you, but when I looked at it just now I realized that ... the wall is not actually that colour. It's actually the colour of this hallway, so you might want to mentally colour-correct:


Much nicer, don't you think? You may remember that I mentioned that the bathroom was going to be painted "Cool Sky." After two weeks of staring at medium-blue drywall (bathroom drywall is a special moisture-resistant kind that comes in either blue or green), I decided that the bathroom could take a darker blue and went with the same paint as the hallway. Literally the same paint: there was a lot left over so I used the same can.

You may notice that the vanity is a bit on the large side, considering the size of the bathroom. It's 40 inches across. We had originally ordered the 32" one, but they're backordered until the end of May because the Chinese government diverted the electricity from the factory that makes them. Seriously. So the manufacturer offered to ship the 40" instead (as we had already paid) and, given the choice between having a sink or brushing my teeth in the kitchen for another two months ... I decided that my bathroom could handle a 40" vanity perfectly.

The long wait explains the following conversation Pierre and I had last night, immediately after installing the vanity:

Me: Hey,didn't we specifically order the one without the drawers on the bottom?
Pierre: (looking up for the briefest of moments) I don't care.

So now we have a vanity with drawers. And we need to go back to the Home Depot to get a smaller P-trap or ... something. It's a non-standard sink (much wider, and shallower), so the standard fittings that came with the faucet don't actually fit. It would have been helpful to have known this earlier. Then again, earlier we didn't know we have a vanity with drawers, either. The one with the shelf sits lower.

Meanwhile, I have some Deadline Knitting to do, which luckily I've become obsessed with (luckily because obsession may be the only thing that will drive me to get done in time):


Noro Chirimen in shades of blue and grey (and some brown). I told you I had a thing for blue.

stash management

A few months ago, a friend who worked at a library told me that they were selling some of their card catalogues.

I bought one.


In retrospect, that might have been a tad ... premature. It is large, and my apartment is small. But I'd wanted one forever, so we brought it home. And there it has sat, dominating my living room and doing nothing whatsoever, for the past few months.

We are planning on refinishing it and turning it into a cabinet for my printmaking supplies, including large rolls of paper. I have no idea how we're going to do that, exactly, but that's the plan. For now though, it sits there. Empty. Hulking.

Yesterday, I had a thought: I have this big cabinet with lots of little drawers. I have lots of yarn, especially sock yarn, that comes in individually small skeins that can fit into little drawers. One is empty, and one is taking up space. And so, voilà:


The new location for most of my yarn stash. There's the Dream in Colour Smoochy drawer, the Socks that Rock lightweight drawer, and my personal favourite, the bright blue Malabrigo drawer. Because everyone needs bright blue Malabrigo, no?


Sadly, I didn't have enough Handmaiden Casbah to give it its own drawer. (That's a beautiful purple Dyed in the Wool sitting behind it.) That will have to be fixed. (And no, that's not the entire stash. Ha. That's not even the entire sock yarn stash.)

I was very proud of myself for finding such an ingenious solution. Or rather, I was proud until I opened the middle section of the card catalog ...


... and discovered that my husband had already beaten me to it.