his n' hers...

just back from a week on the mainland - an attempt to go climbing all week in Squamish, but the inclement weather only allowed two days before sending us to the big city and shopping. needless to say it's starting to feel a lot like fall around here, which actually isn't the worst thing, for a knitter anyway.

in the last bit the hat bug hit again, and in between my other WIPs, I fired off two quick toques for A and I. First up:

A's hat is Turn a Square (Rav link) by Jared Flood, in some delish Silk Garden and Sublime wool/cashmere/silk. At first I wasn't sure about the colours, as the Noro turned out darker than I expected, but I think it works out well and fits the colours A likes. Plus the dark bluey-black of the stripes slides right in with Project Spectrum.

Great pattern - knits up fast as most hats do.

My hat reflects my current pre-occupation with the slouch. This is Natalie Larson's Star Crossed Slouchy Beret. I decided to make it even more fall-appropriate, and knit it up in some Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed, which is nice and slubby. Had to do a bit of playing around as I used smaller needles, so I cast on 81 stitches, and added an additional 9 right after the ribbing. I'm pretty happy with the fit of the hat, although I think I would like it a bit tighter in the ribbing as it sometimes slides forward and down on my head.

However, this is the first of what I hope will be a few slouchy hats for fall, so I'll figure out the perfect shape as I go, I'm sure.

The sun has of course come out to celebrate my return home, which is a bit unfair since dry weather would have been a bit more useful for my holiday and the climbing of rock. But must enjoy it where I can get it - I still have a whole long weekend before I return to work!

west coast weekend...

Okay, so this is the west coast creative blog, but in reality I live on the east coast of Vancouver Island, the east coast of the West Coast, if you will. Anyway...

Last weekend we went to a wedding on the real west coast, as in next stop Japan. The wedding was hosted by West Coast Expeditions on phenomenal Spring Island, and various creative forms of transportation were required to get there by the guests. We chose to drive to Fair Harbour (lots of logging roads) and then set out on a 5-6 hour paddle out into the blue.


Here's me near the end of our kayak out, near the village of Kyuquot.

Spring Island

Bull kelp, my favourite.

Still on Spring Island.

A walk into the middle of the island, land of big, old trees.

The morning before we had to leave paradise, sunrise on the beach.

A rumpled fellow on the way home.

The entire weekend was just beautiful, and the wedding a memorable event. We were sad to only have the three days, but after another 5 hour paddle back to Fair Harbour, and a four hour drive home, we were tired and ready for our own bed.

more photos: project spectrum edition

dude, I need to catch up on all these photos I have been taking lately. This set highlights the last element of Project Spectrum, which began with the start of August - Water. I've got a few things in mind for water, knitting wise, as blues and purples are really working for me right now. I'm less into black, but will see where it goes. I really flaked on the Air element, I think mainly because I didn't do much knitting in June and July. However, I did start my new cardigan in the last days of July, and it is grey - it's going along well, but I don't have progress pics to show yet.


A trying out a few boulders on the beach.


Later the same day...longboard cruising, which just made worse my mysteriously swollen ankle. But it was so fun anyway.


Wandering along the marina on a clear evening.


See above.


And my first project that fits in with PS, on the sewing front instead of knitting. I wanted to make a cozy hoodie, but add a few twists from the standard. It's off-white sweater fleece, with a few fun purple accents and an off-centre button front. I might still add some more finishing touches, but I'm digging it so far.

distractions...

everyone needs distractions now and then, especially when you're having work days like i'm having lately. suffice it to say things are a bit hectic, but we'll leave it at that. at least when i come home i can see all the pretty green things that are popping up in my windowsill. soon enough, my pretties, and you'll be outside growing fat veggies. not today though - i scraped ice of my windshield this morning despite the nearly-May calendar date. gotta love it.



there has been some knitting, although i'm not much motivated lately. my friend lucas has been complaining that A always has new cool toques to wear, and although he's not the first one to do so, he somehow motivated me where others have not. there's something about knowing have to do something that completely stalls me in my tracks. in this case though, i mostly had fun. i used a variety of stash yarns, with a green and light brown theme fitting for project spectrum (and a bit of blue thrown in). the wave chart is from swell - yet another adventure in my goal to excel at colourwork.



the edge has a few rows of garter stitch rather than my standard rib which i think creates a nice clean effect. the top is an 8-pointed decrease. i have to say, while i do love all the colours mixed together, sewing in all the ends is a pain in the ass. luke won't get this till friday, but hopefully it'll shut him up - i mean, make him happy.



my other current project is child's first socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. After being inspired by pam and kelly, i knew mine also had to be purple. so far so good, but the shell pattern gets to be a bit of snore very quickly. i'm pretty dismissive in this post, aren't i? obviously not quite settled from the day's events. hopefully i have another FO post soon, but i can't say i won't also start a new project before then!

spring, we're so glad to see ya...

although winter is slow to relinquish it's gloomy grip on us (a foot of snow just two hours south of us on saturday!), there are signs here and there that spring is slowly making an appearance, albeit a late one. here are a few shots from today's walk along the campbell river.

feeling earthy...

Just got back from a relaxing weekend at Tsa-Kwa-Luten where my mom and I took part in the Fun Knits knitting retreat. Was a great mix of women madly knitting away, and also good workshops. More on that in a moment, but first, my start for Project Spectrum: Earth.

These socks are a variation on Yukon Leaves, which I previously interpreted in my niece's little hat. I knitted the socks toe up (of course), so my leaves perhaps look upside down, although I think I like them better this way. I was initially concerned that the four repeats called for in the pattern would make the socks too big, so I started with one up the instep with a twisted stitch cable on each side. For the leg, I did three repeats of the Yukon Leaves pattern, with a cable in between each.



The cable up the back is different from the other two - a bit bigger and with three strands instead of two. These socks fit awesome, and I'm pretty happy. However, you may have noticed a little something - see how the sock on the right is evenly variegated? then notice the sock on the left? yeah, that's right about where I was. This yarn is Sweatermaker, which is soft and lovely, and local. But the second ball turned out to be noticeably lighter, and unfortunately did this strange pooling thing whereby the dark part worked its way in a spiral up my leg. I've let it go, breathing has returned to normal, but this was my first real experience with bad pooling, and colour my unimpressed.

There will be several more installations for this segment of Project Spectrum - a brief glance at my wardrobe will confirm that it's not hard to get me excited about green and brown. Stay tuned.



So what did I do at the workshop? Learned how to spin of course. I do tend to get frustrated when things don't work for me instantly, so there may have been much huffing and gritting of teeth, but ultimately I'm pretty pleased with the result. I can definitely see it is a skill you need to practice again and again, but at least the basics have been explained well to me. This is Romney wool, by the by. And a great colour for PS.

One last bit of "Earth"? Check out the tiny tomatoes poking their heads up behind the handspun. Yummy veggies are on their way!

the twisted end of the spectrum...

oh, so many things to post about, and lots of pics. have just returned from a week in the ottawa area and had a really great time. will share some photos soon, but to start, i finally finished my first project spectrum project:


yay for red mitts! you may have noticed in previous mentions i was looking for the perfect pattern, something a bit cabled, possibly some lace, and wonderfully long, and i've come out pretty happy on this one. you may recognize the middle lace pattern as one half of the baudelaire chart. in fact, the mitts are mirror images of each other, so each mitt uses one half. the lace is bordered on each side by a simple cable.


the fun part was the twisting. i knit these from the hands up, so on the first mitt i put in a k2tog and a m1 on either side of the cables and lace pattern, doing these stitches every second round. on the second mitt, i did m1 and ssk, so the mitt would twist the opposite way. tops and bottoms of the mitts are 4x2 rib. the main problem i found with knitting from the fingers up was that i had a lot more trouble adding in the thumb afterward than i normally do. i'm not completely happy with them, but the rest is so great i can live with it.

the yarn, as previously mentioned, is colinette jitterbug in morello mash. wonderful colour that i love endlessly, but the yarn itself i could take or leave. i've definitely used many softer fingering weights (although it may soften with washing), and i also encountered numerous knots in the skein, several ridiculously close together to have me gritting my teeth.


despite my love of red, this is likely my only project for the fire part of project spectrum, especially as the end of march looms quickly toward me. dare i admit that i've well into a project for april/may? not sure if that's allowed, but the green yarn was calling to me and socks were a perfect travelling project. but the earth months will be easy for me, so i'm sure there will be more projects to come. plus it's not hard to be in a green and brown mood - did i mention that it's spring here? i'm going to be starting garden plans this week, and i'm terribly excited about it!

spring is calling...

you can definitely feel it in the air. it's a bit warmer, a bit more mild. i actually wore flip-flops the other day. this crocus shots were taken a week ago - our yard is full of them, mostly purple, with a few yellow ones glowing sunnily in between. not much else is going on yet, but that soon will change. we have been talking dreamily about the coming season and all the vegetables we will plant. i am eager to start some things indoors, but i am going away next week and figured i would wait to do until i return. but soon i will hopefully be filling this blog with images of fresh veggies bursting forth.

but to take an abrupt turn away from spring, next week i will be heading to ontario, where i hear winter is much less ready to release its clutches on the landscape. it will be an adventure, i'm sure, but will also make the spring weather that much more enjoyable upon my return.


my project spectrum project is well underway. these fingerless mitts combine a bit of lace along with some cables, and i'm very excited about the finished product. i am well into the second mitt, although the first still requires finishing touches (to thumb or not to thumb?), so i hope to have a more revealing image to show you soon. this colinette jitterbug is gorgeous, and perfect for ps.

fire in my belly...

sunday was one of those clear, crisp days that make winter easier, the sun sparkling through the tree, nearly warming you if you stayed sheltered from the wind. A is in charge of alpacas and sheep while my folks are in Cancun (i would be but it adds far too much to my daily work commute), so we spent the day on the island. started the day late with scrambled eggs and veggies, including these lovely cherry tomatoes. we went for a walk at the beach, checking out the ice that spreads across the harbour, driftwood suspended in its clutches. but by mid afternoon A convinced me to shun the weather in favour of several hours spent in front of the tv, watching the boys play ball.


but on to what i really wanted to talk about: project spectrum. i've decided to participate for the first time, hence the red theme to these photos. i'm working on some fingerless gloves out of this gorgeous colinette jitterbug - the colourway is morello mash. far to pretty to disappear on my feet, so it's been waiting for me to get motivated. project spectrum seemed like a perfect excuse to finally let it shine. looking forward to see what others come up with in the fire theme.

oh, i also finished my neckwarmer from the previous post - it's been working out well. somehow i missed posting about it, but please check out the FO on ravelry.