A Riddle for You...

Question:

What's the connection between...a bag of multicoloured worsted...a bunch of adorable wee... needles and Police Headquarters?

Answer: (I bet Michele will get this right away)

I'm going to be teaching a little after school knitting class for kids!

In Toronto, (maybe across Ontario?), many organizations require people working with children to provide proof of a squeaky clean life. I need the most basic form of these checks which I can get done, while I wait at Police Headquarters downtown. They will then give me an official letter to submit to the school.

This school "gig" isn't something I sought out - rather it, via my Chiropractor's secretary, sought me (She may have witnessed the odd bit of knitting I've done in their waiting room.) She thought a knitting class would be a great addition to the extra curricular enrichment program she runs at her children's alternative school.) I was hesitant at first but eventually she convinced me to give it try. After a good Chiro adjustment I almost always laugh and feel quite giddy. I suspect she probably caught me at one of those moments when I was feeling ultra fab and took full advantage to get me to agree. (And just in case you are wondering - no I've never been a teacher, not even a camp councilor. I have been a full time parent for a few years - that's it.)

After that I'm headed back to Romni (I was already there on Saturday buying supplies for the class) for more needles and yarn since three more students have signed up at the last minute.

En route to these various downtown locales I will also be able to knit as Toronto Transit whisks me along to my destinations.

As running errands goes, I'm hoping today should be pretty enjoyable! I hope you have an enjoyable day too! Thanks for dropping by!

+.3 Doing the Trick with .3 Left to Go (I hope!)

Love: The Yarn and Pattern (Although the light today is just not allowing me to capture the great depth of colour with which this nubby beauty seems to abosolutely glow!)

I was able to work quite a bit on the Darling Daughter scarf over the weekend and so made good progress, polishing off two skeins, yielding 5' of length. Its lovely yarn to work with and the pattern is turning out nicely both with the yarn and in absolute terms.

The pattern is from Drops Design* but 'calls for "super bulky" while I'm working with "chunky". To maintain the effect of the pattern's bulkiness and style without achieving its overall size because of the finer yarn I used a 30% larger needle than called for on the ball band (8mm rather than 6mm), swatched, calculated and then cast on 1/3 more stitches and made each cable 1/3 wider (8 stitches instead of 6). This is working to nicely maintain the relative scale between cable and borders and minimize the effect of the yarn...did I mention the yarn is lovely?...

The Needle, is not so lovely...

I'm using a lousy 8mm circular with a cable that's too long for the task. It also has these weird bumps in the cable close to the join. Despite having warmed and straightened the cable as best I could before starting it seems to be intent on reverting to more of a corkscrew arrangement with every row I knit. I can get a better needle tomorrow but I was kind of hoping to be almost done by then.

And I'm at the 2/3's finished point where, with scarves I tend to...

• Wonder why I think they're fast and easy when they're often easy but rarely fast.
• Loose enthusiasm as the frequent turning gets tougher with each added inch of length.
• Just feel it should be done long before it is.

This scarf is to be big and looooooong and Darling Daughter, at close to 5'11", wants and can carry very long and very big so I'm starting to suspect that what I believe to be the "2/3's point" is actually going to become "just past half way"

Bottom line, being a mother I just really want my "baby"(nearing 6' tall or otherwise) to be warm so I want to get the thing thing done already so she can wear it in this bitter cold weather ASAP!

Oh speaking of "cold" and "ASAP" - I've gotta head out into it and walk!

Thanks for dropping by!

*Be careful if you follow that link - there are 2800 Free Patterns at that site, with all of them save the baby knits being modelled by 6' tall Scandinavians and so looking very compelling as a result!

Hot Water Bottle Cover FO

Pattern: "Gimme the Heat" Hot Water Bottle Cover

Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton

Colour: White

Needles: 5mm & 7mm straights

Start: 7:00 pm Finish:11:00 pm December 5, 2009

I've always loved hot water bottle covers. The Buttoned ones are especially cute. The cabled ones with the turtle necks, lovely Fair Isle versions and don't even get me started on "Mr. Popper"!

'Problem is, I also love and often use a hot water bottle and those beautiful knitterly covers have always frustrated me because they keep the heat in the bottle rather than letting the heat out to where my cold feet can appreciate it. And cute though buttons may be, I don't want one and really don't want several sticking into me and/or getting between me and that heat.

During our chilly summer of '09 I picked up some white Handicrafter Cotton with a mind to sort out a hot water bottle cover that protects the skin from the hot surface of the rubber but that also lets all that wonderful heat out for my comfort and enjoyment.

I chose cotton over wool so that if someone sick is using the hot water bottle its easily laundered and quickly dried and its nicer on bare skin.

I chose white because I love red and white together and with all the holes I had planned for the cover I figured I'd better use the red of the rubber as a design element of its own. (Are all hot water bottles red? I've never seen one any other colour.)

So here's what I came up with to cover a 10.5"x8" bottle with one ball of Handicrafter cotton in one evening. Its stretchy enough to allow the bottle empty or even pretty full to pass through the neck (just slightly fold the bottle lengthwise) without the need for ties or flaps, buttons or snaps.

With 7mm needles CO 41

Knit 2 rows

Row 3 *YO, k2tog* repeat from * to end of row K1

Row 4 (WS) Knit

Row 5 Increase 4 sts evenly spaced

Rows 6-11 Stocking Stitch

Repeat these last 8 rows 5x

Row 51-54 K2 P2 Ribbing

Rows 55-58 K1 P1 Ribbing

Row 59 (WS) Knit

Change to 5mm needles

Rows 60-62 (RS) K1P1 Rib

Row 63 (WS) Knit

Cast off Knitwise

Cut yarn to 18"

With right sides together sew side seam.

At bottom corner sew to match rounded corner of the bottle itself.

When sewing across the bottom, I left space for the hanging tab by passing yarn loosely through edge of one side of tab space then continued sewing bottom together. At the opposite corner I matched the curve I had already established at the previous corner.

I turned it right side out, tried it on for size, filled it up and I was done!

The next night I knit another one so now I have one for the cottage and one for here at home. I played around a bit on the second one (above) but frankly I think the first one (as outlined)has the better approach.

BTW all these photos are of unblocked and oft used (during the furnace outage!) covers. The stitching would obviously look much tidier after a bath but I kind of like the wonkiness - like a cotton wash cloth after its been used a bit rather than pressed and neatly folded for a photo shoot.

'Wee bit of a lag between the idea/yarn purchase phase in the summertime and the execution phase immediately pre Christmas but other than that I couldn't be happier with the result!

Thanks for dropping by! Its so fun to share my little ideas and hear what you think! (And if you decide to try one for yourself, do let me know - I'd love to see!)