Published by lisawolf December 25th, 2006
in Travel.
Merry Christmas to all. Gord and I are in Canada for the holidays.
We’re currently in Nottawa, ON staying with Gord’s parents. We opened our gifts on Christmas eve and today we spent in Orillia, ON visiting Gord’s grandmother and his Aunt Leigh and her family. Leigh has young kids who kept us entertained the whole afternoon.
Tomorrow, Gord’s Aunt Nela and her daughter and grandaughter come to visit in Nottawa. A few more days here and then we’re back to Toronto for a party with Gord’s college friends.
I brought my knitting with me but so far have not had the chance to knit anything. Oh well, if I hadn’t brought it, I would have wished I did.
Published by lisawolf December 20th, 2006
in Harveyville.
Its raining outside today. Which makes for an unpleasant inside experience as there is no sun to warm up the rooms. Its 58 inside right now. The boiler usually comes on around 12am or 1am so I crank it as long as I can before I go to sleep so I have a few more hours of coldness to go.
The rain also prevents me and Gord from going on our walk. We walk the 2 miles loop around the town at least every other day. Technically, we can take today off since we walked yesterday, but I like to get out as much as possible.
I did drive to the post office today to buy stamps and drop of my Christmas Cards. I ordered them from Shutterfly in early December and they arrived yesterday. So, I cranked them all out and they are done. Hoorah! Of course, I left one behind, and the mailman had already been by, but fortunately Nikol had to run to the post office just now to drop off her stuff so she took my last little card with her.
Gord and I have had a nice mini-Christmas here in Harveyville. Um, rather, I mean we got to open up Christmas presents early since it seems silly to haul them up to Canada just to open them and then bring them back here again. We scored on our Amazon.com wish lists. Thanks Mom and Dad. And thanks Gord.
Here are some photos for fun.
The first is the water pump we pass on our walk. This water pump is the only thing left at the site of the original old Harveyville Grade School. The town tore it down and built the “new” one that is right next to the Highschool where Gord and I live. “New” is in quotes since its been closed for a few years and Ron & Nikol own it. Anyway, in the place of the old schoolhouse is a seed building and next to it is this old water pump. I think about Helen Keller everytime I walk by. “Water, Helen, W-A-T-E-R!”
And here is a photo of me and Gord after opening up Christmas presents. Gord is showing off his new CD compilation and I’m testing out my new tabletop tripod for my camera.
Hope everyone has a great holiday season!
Published by lisawolf December 13th, 2006
in Knitting.
Hoorah, I finished seaming my Rogue Hoodie last night very early this morning. Its all done now (well, the hood could use a re-blocking, but I don’t want to bother with it right now) and its been on me all day.
Here is me outside the school - today was a super nice day outside:
Here is a closeup of the hood - re-blocking will take care of the little wiggle on the side:
And here is a closeup of the side and sleeve detail - so pretty:
Details:
Pattern: Rogue Hooded Pullover from www.girlfromauntie.com,
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed 100% Wool
Mods: extra cable repeat on side for added length, short-row shaping for extra bust ease, no kangaroo pocket
Finished: December 2006
I really enjoyed knitting this sweater. It took about 6 weeks to knit. I learned several new techniques and am less afraid of seaming now.
What’s next? Gord wants a cabled sweater of his own.
Published by lisawolf December 7th, 2006
in Knitting.
This past Saturday, Gord and I drove into Kansas City to attend Julie & Louis’ baby shower (mama-to-be is absolutely glowing). In addition to some Babies-R-Us stuff (no B-R-Us in Topeka - how weird is that!), I knit up a baby bonnet and some booties. Baby stuff is so much fun to make - its small, cute, and knits up fast.
Just for fun, here is Sarken the snow leopard trying on the knits:
For the bonnet, I used a fantastic pattern by Adrian of Hello Yarn. I learned a new cast on technique - the figure 8 - which will come in handy in future projects I’m sure. I did not get even close to getting gauge with the yarn I used (Rowan Calmer) so I had to knit the adult hat in order to get it to fit an infant head!
I had leftover yarn and wanted to make some matching booties so I dug around my pattern books and found a fun one in “Morehouse Farm Merino Knits“. Very easy to make - garter stitch with some stockinette stitch short rows to make the bridge of the bootie. I made the laces out of leftover Koigu KPPPM - makes it more girlie looking for a little girl baby. I was going to cross stitch some hearts on the bonnet but after I did a few tests, I thought that the backside would be too scratchy on a babies head, so instead I opted for some cute little “barrettes” on the bonnet ears.
Overall, I believe it was a success. Here’s a photo of the happy parents-to-be opening their gift.
and here’s a photo of me & Gord and Sarah, a former co-worker of mine at Cerner.
I’m still plugging along on Rogue. I hope to be done in the next week. Photos to follow.
Published by lisawolf December 1st, 2006
in Yarn and Knitting.
I finished my very first pair of hand-knit socks yesterday evening.
From this (Knit Picks Bare Fingering Weight Wool):
To this (Yarn dyed during Yarn School):
To this:
The pattern I used is the “Rib and Cable Socks” by Nancy Bush from Interweave Knits Fall 2005. I picked this pattern because it was the only sock pattern I found that required only 4 size one dpn’s. Every other pattern I was able to locate either requested 00 or 0 needles (which I didn’t have when I started - now since purchased) or more than four size 1’s - that elusive 5th needle, curses! (again, since rectified by a trip to Jo-Ann in Topeka.)
Fortunately, the pattern was actually very nice - easy and well written and the cables repeats kept it interesting. Turning the heel was fun - so fun that I just went ahead and knit it up without going to find nylon thread with which to reinforce the heel. I could have made a trip to the craft store but I just didn’t want to bother with it. So, these socks will be more “lounge around the house” socks than “wear with shoes” socks as I don’t want to have to fix holes in the heels.
I’m very proud - hand knit socks from hand dyed yarn. Huzzah!
Published by lisawolf November 29th, 2006
in Kansas.
Yesterday it was a balmy 70 degrees outside - sunny and nice. Yesterday was also the day all the newscasters went crazy warning us about the first winter storm. It wasn’t quite to the level of “Winter Storm 2006″ da-dum!!!! But it was still hard to listen to - seriously, it was 70 degrees out!
But here we are today, at 1:20pm and the ground is covered in freezing rain and its 26 degrees out. We’re to expect more freezing rain and snow showers for the next 24 hours or so. I suppose our indian summer is now over. Sad but true.
I haven’t any photos of the white sidewalks to post. Gord ran off with the camera to take photos but hasn’t come back yet.
Update: photo fresh off the camera:
Hope you are enjoying nicer weather where you are.
