Really Random Thursday: Knitting, Friends, Swifts, and Hockey

SOoooo - it's been a long time since I had my blogging wits about me for a random Thursday but I'm happy to play Randomeer today!

1) I've been knitting socks like a madwoman over the summer and into the fall. Seriously.  There's been lots of knitting.  Two shawls as well.  And then a little project to deal with leftover sock yarn.

Pattern info clockwise from top left here, here, here, here and here.  Warning about the Honeycomb socks and the Skew socks - they are not really great for folks with high arches/insteps.  The reason that super-cool diagonal is not gracing my foot is because they don't fit my arch and I can't get them on.  Luckily, they fit a friend!

Why all the socks?  Well, the company that makes the only store-bought socks I really liked manufactured items in the factory that collapsed this spring in Bangladesh and then refused to sign any legally binding agreement that would help to make conditions better and safer the people who work there. Several petitions and activist emails later, they still haven't signed and I'm resigned to make my own socks until I can find an ethical mass-made version. 

2) Cindy - yes, THAT Cindy! :-)  sent me a great little bag for my sock-knitting shenanigans.  Look at the perfect fabric she chose... Look at the measuring tape drawstrings!! I heart her.

The socks in the bag are Tintern Abbey, but I'll say this about them, I haven't quite perfected the Sherman Toe/Heel and thankfully am past the heels though I had to reknit them many, many times... Lots of Grr-argh going on.  But it should be smooth sailing from here!

3) Sometimes in life, one's project-loving father retires after 46 years and begins to spend his days in the same house where one's mother has been spending her own relaxed retirement.  First - there's fancy party where one wears a dress and one does the "Snap the picture, already" fashion pose...

To keep him from knocking down walls, taking apart engines and calling out very early in the morning for people to get a move on and help out, or to stop one's mother from demanding he get a part time job because he's driving her crazy...., one comes up with a project and begs for a much needed yarn swift!!

Tada!! Totally collapsible, works like a charm, and no more using my feet and knees!

I use a bag clip to wind center-pull balls - works pretty slick and keeps the tail out of the way!

But no worries - there is no trouble on the M household front. My parents are still incredibly cute.  But now they can have date night any night of the week.  They're schmoopy like that.

4) And another reason for all the knitting is the most wonderful time of the year is upon us again - hockey season!! :-)  I knit while watching to keep from getting too yell-y/bouncy....

Surprisingly, I had never been to a live NHL game before.  I know that an exhibition game in town here doesn't exactly count but I got tickets for my birthday to the Jets/Bruins game here in Sept. It was awesome. The Bruins brought all their stars. We had great seats.  B's 5-0.

I'm on the home blue line - someone pinch me!!

5) And finally, it's really disappointing when the CBC can't spell in the Hockey Night in Canada app....

What's a transcation??

Linking up with the Randomeers at LiveAColorfulLife!  Thanks for hosting, Cindy!

Technical Tantrums and Other Fun Ways to Spend Your Week

The following section contains an explanation for my week+ absence based on a petty first-world problem.  Feel free to skip down to craftiness after the asterisks.

I am a little naive at times.  When my RSS reader (Reeder) told me that it would continue to work after the demise of Google Reader, I believed it. I didn't confirm that it would indeed work closer to the planned date.  Nope.  Imagine my surprise and dismay on July 2nd when it didn't. Blerg! Apparently, they're working on it but it wasn't going to be ready in time. ( I find it important to add here that I am not a total Luddite; I have embraced new technology faster than the average bear, but I'm rarely a first-adopter and I am cautious regarding change.  I still don't like the new Flickr....)

I went looking for a replacement, hopefully temporary, as I love Reeder - I had it all set up the way I like, I was happy with the interface, and it synced across all my devices.  I wasn't crazy about Bloglovin' but the Feedly app wouldn't let me login on my phone.

So then I spent a day and a half importing all my carefully curated feeds manually into Bloglovin'. I was then too tired and annoyed to read any of them for a few days.  And when I sat down to delve in, I hated it. I would even say I loathed it. It changed my settings randomly, wouldn't adapt to needs and ways of doing things, and it wouldn't import some of my feeds for seemingly arbitrary reasons.  I threw my hands up, closed the computer, and stewed.  I tried the mobile app.  Hated it, too.  Had that existential blogger moment where I questioned why I even bother to blog or read blogs, and in the grand scheme of things, what does it all mean???  I moped, offline, for a few more days.

Then, missing the interaction and inspiration (and my damn hockey news!), and blindly hoping that they'd already found a solution to Reeder, I returned to the desktop. Alas, no. But I spend another day manually importing my precious feeds, (and adding several more that I don't really have time for...)  into Feedly.  While it's not Reeder, it is more adaptable to what I'm looking for and how I use RSS.  I could breathe. It'll do.  Faced with an overwhelming total of posts in the 4-digits, I spend another afternoon going through each feed to clear out posts prior to when I'd checked out of the interwebs last week.  That brought it back to a manageable level. That's where I left it last.  Manageable.  Though I still worried about how to read on the go, which is how I do most of my non-comment/lurker reading.

Imagine my delight when the phone app for Reeder has been updated to work with Feedly. And all is right  moderately okay again in my blogging universe, though I still have some catching up to do. Phew.  Sometimes, technology is not worth the paper it's printed on....

******* (These are the asterisks I meant...)

During my impromptu blogging hiatus, I threw myself into sewing.

A July bee block for SimplySolids is done. It was very fun to do, though she'd warned us to be conservative with the fabric.  I didn't want to end up short so I made a little template for each row, save the last one, and used it to cut a triangle from each fabric ahead of time, and religiously trimmed each seam so that it would be easier to line up the pieces.  One pink triangle got a little cheeky but I didn't notice it until I'd already packed up the block for sending. I can see it in the photo but I'm hoping it's not a disappointment to my bee mate...

On my own bee quilt, I have almost all of the blocks (just two to come in) and I've started working on the sashing and border strips.  The sashing strips are 4.5x16.5" and are made from the scraps left over from the blocks. It's much farther along than this photo but I still have the top and bottom "border" strips to do. I've even made the binding!  I'm really enjoying this whole process.

I also finished up the charity quilt made by our guild but I'll save that for another post!

There were rumours this week of looking for a summer job but visiting family and a nasty chest cold that's left me worse than sotto voce (in fact, zero voce!) has quelled that idea.  I'm spending a lot of time watching movies, knitting socks, and glaring at people who ask me questions they know I am unable to vocalize an answer for and then make fun of my hoarseness. (That's right, Dad - I'm writing at you! Now, quit giggling.  It was funny when Seester was the voiceless one, sure, but you've gone too far... "What? What was that? Heeheehee."  Too far, sir.  :-P )

Round One: Done.

Oops!  Been awhile, eh?  Well, I doubt you're surprised. After all, I did warn you that playoffs were starting...  (I even skipped a guild meeting to watch the Leafs-Bruins Game 7, which no one saw coming!  No, it didn't go my way but I'm really proud of how they played so I'm looking on the bright side. After all, they got two more games in the win column than the Habs and three more than the Nucks so that's bragging rights. It just hurt that it was the two teams I love most at each others throats. Oh, the agony!)

Anyway, sewing!  There have been a few days where the sewing machine has seen intense use....

I finished our last challenge for the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild.  We had to draw two crayons sight-unseen from a toque and use only those colours (plus neutrals if we felt like it).  I had yellow and white.  Seester has a yellow living room and a new pillow.

Things learned: 1) Sew and quilt the top BEFORE smocking.  I had wanted to be sure that the smocking would work first but then I had to deal with puckers from hell. 2) Sometimes, that 2" less than the size of your pillow form rule doesn't apply.  Super puffy forms mean that it would have been just fine with an same-sized cover.

I also managed to finish the challenge at the end of the month.  Patti @ retiredtoquilt generously donated a FQ bundle for our members to use making 2 - 12.5" blocks to go into quilts for local babes and kids who need a little extra cheer. Rules:  One block has to use a technique we've discussed at guild, the other is quilter's choice. We can only add coordinating solids or more of the same line.

I chose stacked improv curves in a rail fence-ish setting and surprised myself.  They went together really easily. And curves terrify me.  Hunh.  I also threw together an improv wonky log cabin.  I'm getting very comfortable with improv as I go on.  I think sewing with a toddler on your lap helps you to not overthink things. We had fun with the scraps from this challenge!

For the Simply Solids Bee, Principiessa sent us triangles to randomly create a larger triangle - so fun! - and challenging.  Points, points, points, points....

And the socks I wasn't going to finish during playoffs because they were too complicated? Perfect for clearing things off the PVR. :-)  Misty Alpaca.  Super comfy, but not in dress shoes.

Medallion Lace Socks - pattern found here

I've been working away at other things, too, but my schedule has been crazy so it's spend an hour sewing OR spend an hour reading/blogging. Yeah. When you're battling brain fatigue, sewing it is.

Well, I've got some things to get done and a over-stuffed RSS reader to deal with so I'll talk to you soon!

Progress. Or not.

The trouble with doing a tutorial on random piecing is that you end up with random pieced blocks and not necessarily an end game... 

Th opportunity with doing a tutorial on random piecing is that you end up with a healthy start on an improvised quilt top.

I sewed all my chip and chunks into blocks and started to play with a layout.

Hmmm. Not quite.

Nope.

Interesting...

That's better.

Added some Kona ash.

It's grown a little bit since I took this photo (into a completed top) but my lighting isn't great and I didn't have room to lay down an entire top. :-(  But you get the gist.

Using up my leftover pieces in the centre improv block meant that 8 fat quarters ultimately boiled down to this pretty tiny pile of scraps.  The pile of ash scraps is a little larger but I used the better part of 3 yards on background and binding strips.  I'm thinking I'll quilt it with orange lines... We'll see.

So that's progress.

Weather-wise, not so much.  I woke up to this.

But that's okay...

Brilliant ad campaign, eh?

Yes, on Saturday, the Leafs finally made the playoffs.  First time in 9 years.  I haven't stopped doing the happy dance since. I don't even care if they make it out of the first round.... (I daren't use exclamation points; THAT'S how excited I am.)

I started a pair of socks.  I have a history of knitting something simple during playoffs (hands busy, mouth quieter) and finished a long-running project last year so I need a new one.  This will not be it.

I was reminded after missing a goal, and having to take back every other repeat, that lace and hockey don't mix. Back to the drawing board...

Gifts, the Second

Aha!  A week has fled by and completely unbeknownst to me.

Well, almost.  I am, please hold your disbelief for a moment, yet again recovering from a cold. Say what??  Yes, that's three nasty colds in as many months.  Yes, I'm taking my vitamins, eating right, and getting enough sleep.  Yes, I'm aunt to a toddler who is building an immune system and a substitute teacher who gets the majority of her assignments covering for teachers who have been stricken by illness in various classrooms all over the city. I figure, by the end of 2013, I'll be immune to everything! Mwahaha! [Rubs hands together.] [With Purell.]

Anyways, I have stopped coughing intensely (sorry to the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild ladies who endured the very onset of my coughing during our meeting this weekend.... Yikes!) and can return to blogging without fear that a bronchial spasm will cause premature publication.

Here is second half of the gifts I made this Christmas.

A scarf for my dad using this pattern from The Purl Bee.  I splurged for the specified yarn and was very glad I did so - it's soft, knit beautifully! and is as warm as it looks.  It even held up to six different starts without separating into raggedly plies on me.  (The pattern isn't at all difficult but it took me a while to a) cast-on the correct number of stitches and b) read properly. Once I managed to do both those things at the same time, it was quick and smooth sailing.)  One thing to mention is that because the yarn is naturally hand-dyed, it turned my hands all sorts of black.  Luckily, it washed off easily but I made sure to soak the finished scarf in a vinegar bath before blocking to try and set the colour.  Dad has been warned not to wear it with a white shirt for the foreseeable future.  Luckily, he wears a lot of dark colours.

Mum requested a bag for taking on vacation. She wanted something that would hold a little bit of shopping and could double as a beach-taking bag - something that wouldn't show too much dirt.  She also was pretty specific about the pattern, too,  so I used Amy Butler's Birdie Sling.  I followed the instructions to the letter and took my time with it so I'm very happy with how it turned out.  However, I think I'm now addicted to the good-quality interfacing.  Yep, can't go back to the 99cent/yard crappy non-woven fusibles now...  Stupid Amy Butler, raising my expectations of everyday sewing notions! (Ok, I'm not really mad, but it does change my sewing budget.)

And since a certain auntie gave a certain nephew a train set, she also felt he should have a bag to put all his train pieces in.  I found a paper-piecing pattern on Etsy and then built the panels into a box bag using some fabric from my stash.  It was a last-minute project, but took the better part of a day since I had to take a simple idea and tweak it until it was no longer simple...  It's not the best sewing job but it has the choo-choos required and, perspective, the recipient is 2.  He's happy, I'm happy.

So that's the rest of my Christmas makes.  I have been doing some other sewing but that will come later.  I've rambled enough for one post!

Although..... if I squeak in one more ramble, I am overjoyed that the NHL lockout is finally over.  :D Seriously, I've been watching KHL highlights from Russia.  Still trying to decide how petulant a fan I'll be and for how long.  Mostly, I'm just scared that my beloved Leafs will trade for Luongo. If you've talked to me at all about hockey, then you already know that's my hockey nightmare....

Knit Wits.

Okay.  Taking a break from catching up on two months (!) of blog reading.  I've missed you, people!  And I'm only just getting started on all the fabulous thoughts you've had, projects you've started, photos you've taken, and trials you've endured.  It doesn't help that as I get older, I find it increasingly harder to sit still for long periods of time so it's taking a while. Lol. I'm finding myself becoming more and more like that dog in Up;  I start out focused and th..."Squirrel!"

Turns out, I am becoming more dependent on keeping my hands busy just to keep my wits.  I was without anything on the needles since my last knitting projects with the big floor pillow and works-in-progress list I finished conquered months ago and  and I needed something else quick.  I ransacked my stash and came up with a chunky skien of wool that I picked up at a farmer's market in Edmonton about three years ago. It hadn't been dyed or processed and the woman who sold it to me raised the sheep and spun the yarn herself.  Definitely time to do something with it.  I'd always wanted to experiment with mixing feltables and non-feltables so I grabbed some neutral-coloured natural fibres like silk, soy (felts like crazy), bamboo (shrinks a little), cotton and linen from the leftover pile.

I randomly worked in little blocks of these throughout the wool background.  I had an idea that it might be a clutch with little bubbles of clear stitches popping out from the felt.  After several washings in hot, soapy water, it looks like this.

I'm sticking to clutch as its final identity and I'll let you know how it turns out after I've lined and finished it.

Then I knit the ugliest mittens this side of Thanksgiving.  I'm calling them Turkey Mittens.  Orange, brown, greeny-purple, and yellow.

Yep.  Uh-glee.  I think I'm going to flip them inside out and use them to line a larger pair of grey mittens so that I can bask and delight in their ugliness while keeping them from triggering sense memories of stuffing and gravy amongst the masses. :-)

But since my hands were free again, I cast on a scarf, again using stash. (I've done pretty good at using my on-hand supplies and not spending on new lately... yay!)  This pattern was written as one colour but I decided that was boring (read:  I had two colours in my stash and not enough of either to go with just one).  The good news is that the two-tone seems to be working really well so I'm happy.

Because I'm back to keeping the hands occupied, I have managed to clear some things off the PVR, which admittedly was getting kinda stuffed with shows and old movies that I always intended to watch and then never found the right time or mood for...  However, like my "one new recipe a week" rule, I've tried to make a habit out of actually watching the things I tape.  And boy! I've seen some gems but begun to lament the general lack of Cary Grant-ness in everyday life...  Such are the consequences of knitting.

Finished: Another Sweater for the Little Gentleman

I think I might like knitting clothes for my nephew more than I like knitting clothes for me.  Why?  It takes a lot less time, for starters, so I get the satisfied feeling of accomplishment sooner.  Second, it takes a lot less yarn so I can use the stuff I like.

This is a Debbie Bliss pattern from the latest(?) issue of her magazine.  I also used her yarn - Baby Cashmerino. Because I love it.  It knits well, it washes nicely, and the pattern called for it. And I had the exact right amount in my stash for just such a thing. Serendipity.  It's sweltering right now so he won't need it for a few months but it's big on him right now and should get him through winter,

I know that it's just a matter of time before he's bigger than I am and it takes 30 skeins to make him a sweater instead of 5.  I figure that he'll tower over me by the time he's 13.  And by then he probably won't want auntie sweaters... or live for monster-noise making contests, singing "If you're happy and you know it", or giving baby fist-bumps and diving, sprawling, tackling hugs...

 So I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Seasonal Recap

This post is a little behind schedule.  I meant to post about the projects I managed to not screw up during hockey games after the Cup was won (or lost, if you were cheering on the side I was) but then I had computer issues so I spent the last week re-downloading two seasons of Republic of Doyle* that were lost in the crash, cooking new things, finishing projects and visiting with extended family.

Finished during the Cup run:

1) Scrappy Afghan Floor Pillow

2)White socks

These two polished off the list of unfinished projects I'd given myself until the end of June to complete.  Done and dusted!

Started during the run:

3)Seagrass socks 

I cast these on and then noticed that they seemed a little small in the toe.  Read the pattern a little closer and it turned out that the Small & Large sizes where for children.  I picked the pattern out of a book I had on toe-up socks (here) and didn't even realize that this one was kids' only. I was knitting small child socks.  I shrugged and took them back a bit so that they were the large size instead.  Figured if they didn't fit, I'd give them away.  Luckily, the large was large enough for my size 7s. Finished during great and constant rains.

Yep, that's a pasty white leg, right there.

I'm of two minds on the whole toe-up vs top-down socks debate.  Both have their perks.  Toe-up means no kitchener stitch grafting to relearn every time, no picking up stitches along the heel flap, and you can make the legs as long as you have yarn for without worrying that you'll run out of yarn before you reach the toes.  Big plus if you like long socks and/or hate leftover sock yarn. However, I have not found a bind-off method for toe-up socks that's stretchy enough for my liking or leaves a nice edge.  I've tried adding extra stitches to the last round (boo!) and the tubular bind-off (close, very close, but no cigar. Also, complicated.  Muy, muy complicated. Way more than the kitchener stitch.)  Regardless, I have decided to always do my socks two-at-a time.  Tangles, be damned!

4) Guernsey-style sweater for nephew.  In the great re-organizing rampage I went on this spring, I found six balls of Baby Cashmerino.  Perfect. 

It's finished now but that's another post.

Well, I've got some reading to do.  I'm waiting desperately to discover whether my Leafs are going to pick up an albatross to mind the net next season.... There will be tears if it happens. We're talking ugly cry. 

* For those who don't get CBC, Republic of Doyle is a Canadian series about a family of private detectives set in Newfoundland.  It's a little like Magnum P.I. but instead of Hawaii, hibiscus, and helicopters, you get the Rock, fish'n'chips and a GTO, not to mention the great regional accent. It's got a dry, quirky sense of humour and can be a tad silly on occasion but it's wonderfully (painfully) Canadian.  It doesn't take itself too seriously and requires a sincere suspension of your disbelief at times but I adore it.  Russell Crowe guest stars in the Season 3 premiere. True story.  It's the kind of bizarre thing that happens in Canada...

Lemons to Lemonade: Scrappy Non-Afghan Floor Pillow

You know when everything seems to be going along a little too well?

I had knit all five panels for my scrappy afghan.  The length looked to be good and I had figured that it would shrink up about 30% from cast-on to bind-off edges, and about 15% from side to side when I felted it. The measurements seemed like they would provide a decent-sized throw afghan.

This is what FOUR panels looked like:

Seemed about 5' square.  Nope.

Then I sewed the panels together.

Oops.  I'm not sure what happened - maybe the seams pulled the panels shorter than intended? Maybe the same thing caused them to expand the other way?  Who knows...  But I ended up with a knitted beast of a  piece of fabric about 9 feet long and 4 feet wide.  Yeah.  That's not a great afghan size.  Unless you need a stadium blanket for 6 people. Honestly, I had no idea until I'd sewn all the seams and stretched it out.  And then, I just about fell over with laughter.

To heck with it, I decided.  I'll felt it and worse comes to wear, I have a ton of colourful homemade felt from which to sew things.... Into the washing machine and three hot water cycles!

It felted beautifully.  Far nicer than anything I've felted before.  But it was far too thick to cut apart for a patchwork afghan, and not the right size to leave it as it.  Solution?  Floor cushion!

I made myself a template and shaved the corners down so I wouldn't get that weird pointy corner cushion thing happening.  I cut, clipped and sewed.  Let me tell you, hauling all that thick fabric through my machine wasn't super-fun.  Might have gone better if I'd remembered to reduce the foot pressure but hey, you live, you learn.  I used a knit stitch to reinforce it in case of sudden impact.  (In my neck of the woods, children love to flop on over-sized cushions.)

3/4" seam allowance.  Just to be safe.

It was sewn together for a couple of weeks while I tried to figure out what to stuff it with.  I wanted foam chips but nowhere in town had them. I wasn't going to pay to have that volume of stuffing shipped to me.  This was supposed to be a scrap project costing me exactly ZERO dollars and only leisure time.  Eventually, I bit the bullet and opted for polyfil.  I'm not a fan of the less than smooth way it distributes itself, though I tried to minimize the lumpiness by lining the inside of the cushion with a woollen quilt batt that I'd never use because it was hand-wash only.  There's about 8 lbs of stuffing in there so when it comes to a certain nephew rough-housing on it, it won't be sliding around...

Scrappy Afghan Floor Pillow
Knit from Patons Classic and Lion Brand Fisherman's wool leftovers and felted
approx 36" square, 8" high

All in all, I'm calling it a win.