Flip Side

We arrived back in town from the cottage last night. Son gone (sniff). Replacement vehicle here (phew) and an extra long weekend at the cottage under our belts.

Sunday was a gorgeous day on the dock working on my double knit mat to the point of exhausting the 4 skeins of yarn I bought as a start for the project. Tomorrow I'm back in the neighbourhood of Romni for a hair cut so I'll be picking up another 4 to yield a mat about 26" x 41" (maybe 5 skeins just to be sure).

Having taken that project as far as I could I picked up Deco again after a year's hiatus. As of this morning the first short row shoulder is done and I'm moving down the sleeve. Maybe.

Its a bit wrinkly where the short rows join the shoulder.  Steam blocking will tell me if I'll be able to get it to lay flat. Oh my goodness I hope I can get it to lay flat!!! I do not want to rip and re-do it again!

I must say I am in love with this yarn - "Tove" by Sandnesgarn sport weight wool. When I bought it at Romni the girl at the cash said Tove was her favourite yarn.

Given the massive selection she sees every day that is saying something. I now know what she meant...nice and sticky with a bit of a halo, a gorgeous fabric knit up but relatively easy to break a single strand..working with it again had me cruising Ravelry and the Brooklyn Tweed website last night for projects calling for "Loft" because it seems like they share similar qualities but the price for "Tove" is vastly better and there's no where in Canada to buy Brooklyn Tweed Yarns.

All this knitting fun over the weekend but the best part was cool nights and chilly mornings saw me keeping warm WEARING TINDER!!!

A scant three years since falling in love with the pattern, taking a while to find a yarn I liked, working Deco (a couple of times) and doing two big knits for My Beloved, now after only about 3 week's dedicated knitting, its just 7 buttons short of an FO post!

A bit ironic, I wanted this long, cozy cardi for cold mornings and evenings taking Number One Son water skiing and we won't be doing any of that this summer. I'm not worried though - skiing will no doubt re-commence once he's back next summer and this sweater will be a wardrobe staple for years to come.

It fits perfectly!!! I wasn't sure I would ever say that about a cardigan for myself but it really does. I have to get Darling Daughter to help with some modeled FO shots.

So tomorrow, after hitting Romni for more Briggs and Little "Super" I'll see about buttons for Tinder and also Deco from one of the many button/textile shops on Queen Street West.

My Beloved's idea for me to have my hair cut next to Romni was brilliant. Two birds with one stone! Without the need to do both I'd likely get around to neither this very short week!

Btw a special thank you to those who left comments on my last post!. I wasn't sure anyone would even see it!

Thanks for dropping by today!

Busy

Contrary to what my posting rate infers I have been knitting and scheming about knitting and reading about knitting on line and even finishing things. I've even been writing posts about it - both in my head and at the keyboard. I just haven't been hitting the "Publish" button.

So here we go with a big post to catch everything up then I can delete all the unused "Drafts" and start fresh...

This week I'm in town as Number One Son prepares to head off to London for the next six months. (I'll admit to a mild panic about this but also know in my heart that the late teen/early twenties are not years when guys typically hang around with their mothers all the time and judging from his Instagram feed - its probably just as well!)

Without him working at the cottage all summer there'll be no reason I can't travel back and forth to the city with My Beloved between weeks when he's on holiday. It'll be the first time I've had a summer like that in 15 years or so. I'm looking forward to it in many ways - it'll be such a novelty to just be the two of us (with a big poodle of course!).

This week we are also having to arrange for a new vehicle. Mine "got all wrinkled" as My Beloved likes to put it, through no fault of ours and with no injuries incurred, so many thanks for that to the Powers that Be!

A week and a half ago Hudson and I got the most basic of Obedience Titles - PCD) and the first of three "legs" on the next (CD). I set my sights on this stuff as a kid 'so its very gratifying to finally be on our way beyond the uber-basic CGN designation he earned last year! (There are many, progressively more difficult levels in Obedience - we'll see how far we go but practising for the ring yields a better quality of life for the Dog and all of us and for an amazing bond between Hudson and I so I don't plan to quit any time soon.)

May/June also saw me re-activate my epic framing and photo cataloguing project wherein I'm looking to the images/artwork/items we've amassed over the years, organizing them and arranging them to best be part of our home/decor/daily life instead of being stored in boxes out of sight and mind.

And knitting? I am a button band away from finishing "Tinder". I started scheming this knit back in 2011!

I cast on some socks, revived a long neglected half finished pair and made up a little packet to leave in the car so when we travel back and forth to the cottage I can knit instead of being a crazed nervous passenger.

I finished the Maplewood Mitts that I have no memory of either starting or almost finishing back in February.

The cottage floor can get cold at night and EZ's double knit pad from Knitter's Almanac has long intrigued me as an insulating mat to replace the stack of old folded blankets we currently use to address this with Hudson. So I started one using Briggs and Little "Super" in "Khaki" that I picked up at Romni last month.

EZ's method for achieving a nice flat garter border is very slick and of course working with such big yarn always feels like a novelty so I'm enjoying working on it and I feel good about the results so far.

I'm looking forward to soon finishing off "Deco" once and for all. After knitting the body and shoulders twice in four months last year I've only got a couple of sleeves and some button band work for that one to be wearable.

Similarly close to the finish line are my Olympic Leggings. I've taken a few runs at the waist band but I've yet to create anything satisfactory in the way of fit/rise so once Deco is done I'll likely turn my attention to those.

I've also taken a bunch of socks and a pair of knit gloves needing darning to the cottage and added them to my knitting project pile. They will be good to work on when having a heavy piece of wool knitting on my lap doesn't suit the weather.

My most anticipated project for the summer will be "Devlan" by Bristol Ivy using remnant Shepherd and Shearer yarn. I've been swatching carefully as the yarn's limited but with narrow sleeves, a cropped design and a drapey stockinette fabric I should be able to squeek one out with about 50 yards to spare. Many of the smaller projects for this on Ravely cite a tendency for this to come out on the large side so I may even risk making it a size smaller than I would otherwise try but will give me even more latitude on the yardage. Knit in one piece and from the top down I'll know pretty quickly if it isn't going to work.

It'll be a great treat if I can be knitting this in late August as the weather gets cooler and I peruse the new fall offerings without any lingering projects, project requirements or stash beyond a few remnants and one lonely ball of sock yarn. (BTW do remnants count as stash? I'm never sure about that.)

So now here we are, with Canada Day behind us looking forward into July. By late Saturday morning we should have word that our "wee boy" is safely over the pond, as they say, we'll have picked up our new vehicle en route to the cottage and I'll be knitting away on my socks as we head north among the trees, rocks and lakes of Ontario cottage country.

Once we arrive and unpack I'm looking forward to a Gin and Tonic lakeside and diving into all those projects!

So there! Summer 2014 is officially underway and this blog is all caught up!

Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClureFO

Pattern: "Sockhead Hat" by Kelly McClure

Source: Free Ravelry Download

Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts Sock
Source: DKC Frolic

Modifications: None

Started as a lark, more to use up the yarn than anything while car knitting to NYC over Christmas but most of its construction occurred over three evenings in T.O. watching the Star Wars Trilogy.

Around and around and around knitting mindlessly in the dark with only the Stars of the "Galaxy", the blue-white flash of explosions and the flickering of the fire to see by. In other words I just knit but never really paid any attention to it.

Then quite suddenly it seemed to materialize into a hat.

Then again, without any real expectation to do so, I wore thing.  It pulled so nicely down over my ears with a generous ribbed brim it was long enough to cover my neck, under my cowl and scarf, creating a complete block against the wind, once the collar of my coat was turned up.

It also turns out that it goes with a lot of things!  The yarn in the skein was such a riot of equal parts garish green, pink, blue and white I thought it would be an orphan for sure but the net affect once knitted up is very chameleon-like. The pieces I wear with it with visually dictating what will appear prominent among the colours of the hat.

Its such a great piece a couple of other knitters from Craft Group have whipped up Sockhead hats of their own after seeing mine!

Bottom line on this free pattern is it is meant to use that single skein of multicoloured sock yarn, will work equally well with any solid or marled colour if that's what you prefer and Darling Daughter tells me the shape and fit make it bang on trend right this red hot minute. Its all a surprise to me!