Guess what I did this weekend...

That's right I reinstalled my camera, and what a hassel, my own fault, I packed the software to install it, luckily there was some on the companies website. So in leau of getting her back online I bring you pictures. Lovely lovely pictures.


Now this may not look like much but I assure you it is. The Texture pattern is basically a cross between a rib and seed stitch, and anyway you slice it that takes time to do. But I do love the jacket so I am willing to slag away on it. And I did get a fair bit done (about seven inches - I'm taking the waist shaping out since I don't like to emphasize my waist so basically it's pattern until a certain point then switch to other pattern and volia jacket is done).


The Turtle tank (as I call it - it's really Norah Gaughan's Basalt tank from Knitting Nature) is coming along since I picked it up again. I'm on hex 6 of seven. I plan to wear it over long sleeved shirts etc when it's done, unless we manage to get more hot weather, but I really hope we don't. The construction of this is so much fun, it's easy and yet interesting, plain and yet complex. I don't know how she does it but she does it so well. I think I have a knitter crush on Norah.

When the heat went above 35 (celcius folks - canada does celcius) there was no way I was going to knit with wool. There was no way I was going to knit, I was sweaty and unimpressed. I found a solution however, and that was to spin in front of my fan. I got two skeins of two ply and a little skein of three ply out of this. It's Lambchop a Rambouillet from Auntie Annies Stuff. I processed the fleece as well as dyed and carded it. This is just a little bit of it, I batch dyed it in different colors this is the second color I've spun up, the first being the grey-blue stuff. I recommend Auntie Annies, great customer service, quality fleece, and just plesant all around.

Last but certainly not least is the Aestlight Shawl, I've been plodding away steadily since the beginning of the month and I'm on the edgings now, I passed the half way mark for it last night (while watching The Big Bang Theory Season Two). I'm guessing it'll be done by the weekend.

I also picked up fabric for my convocation dress this weekend. I have a little under a month to get it ready, I also want to knit a shawl to match so sometime this week (soon this week) I'm going to go to the yarn store and pick up some coordinating fingering weight for it. I know I'm going to be under pressure, but I'd rather wear something I like that I can wear again than go out and spend a lot of money on a dress I'll wear once and forget about. Oh practicality is my third middle name (and if you believe that....).

I'm getting better at this posting thing

now to get the pictures back.

I'm onto the edging of the Aesthlight Shawl (not that I have learned to spell it yet). This is the first time I've done an edging like this, I feel all learned and such. It is going to be very pretty and bright when it's done.
The turtle tank also seems to be getting more attention, I'm almost done hex 5 of seven. I had such lofty hopes of it being done in time to wear as a tank top this season, but I guess it will be making apperances over long sleeved shirts in the winter months (yes I'm preparing for winter - it's Canada for crying out loud). Either way my love of Norah Gaughan is always reinforced when I knit on it, her patterns are amazing and her designs are simple yet complex. Plus nature and math totally raises my geek flag.
Lacy Baktus has had a little more time as well, it's my purse knitting so it gets a row here and a row there, last night when I was at Alisha's getting my letter of intent all gussied up (final revisions before submitting it) I worked on the Batkus. I double I'll get much done once home buying goes into full swing, and the end of september is shaping up to be one of those uber busy times.
Either way by November I'll be able to slacken off for a month or two and that I'm really looking forward to. Lately it's been about cleaning and packing and doing house work for my mom, and I really don't get much time for me anymore. It's a lot of work and what everyone else wants and what I need to get done. And I need to get my place ready for the move. I prefer to have a smooth move as averse to a chaotic mindbend. But for optimum smoothness I need to figure out how to get more money, save more money, just money in general. I really dislike how much of life has become about money, but there are always bills and they just get bigger.

idle chatter

Still haven't gotten the camera re-hooked up since the great virus attack, stay posted for actual picture content. Still on the needles (and getting attention) are the Aestlight Shawl which is almost done the lace portion, the basalt turtle tank (which I picked back up again), the Lacy Batkus (which is suffering without being knit on for a few weeks), and the snail mittens (which get intermittant rows). I've been spinning though.
On the wheel is the ram I got and processed from a sheep named "Lambchop". It's dyed greens and blues, and I think will have a really nice heathery barberpole when it comes to fruition. I want to do a two ply instead of navajoing it because it's rather thicker than I'd use on a three ply.
As I was checking in to see where the intentions yarn club was at, I was saddened by the way it's been going, and what i expected vs. what has come around. I don't fault Miss V. as when it rains it pours and clearly she's got some troubles. And while I am still glad to be in the club etc, it's money I clearly could have saved if I hadn't signed up and there's no steady supply of yarn to keep me from feeling a bit like someone who got stood up at the prom. I don't think I'll do it again.
I thought it would be more like the Wollmeise yarn club, I suppose having expectiations isn't a good idea when joining yarn clubs.
In other news a bag of free yarn came today. I have some ideas I want to chart and pattern to make for samples. I squeed when I saw it. Who would have thought a sock pattern would lead to having people want you to use their stuff. I have no problem being a yarn whore, as long as I liked the product before hand.

Retrograde Retrospective

Last week I caught a cold of the sinus infecting variety, and my computer caught a nasty virus (which I suppose was enevitable since it was virtually unprotected for several years). Thusly I was not only without my faculties but also without the interwebs that I have become accustomed to and love so much.
Needless to say until I can re-install all my software there will be no pictures of my current projects (no matter how this unnerves me).
Currently I'm frogging back half of the first half of the Weekend Sweater as I misread the instructions and rather than ending with a RS facing I ended on an RS and compleatly fraked up what i did. The sadder part is that I only realized this AFTER finishing the right front side. *facepalm* I will go back and re knit it but for now it's recieving a time out.
I started christmas knitting, not that it will loosen the chaotic grip of Decembers mad dash to finish everything, but I have started.
The Aesthlight Shawl is trucking along, I'm now onto the border, it's good to have the main triangle done, it gives me a vague sense of actually accomplishing something.
I have also dug out the snail mitts for moms friend and started back up on them again. The first one is 75% of the way done.
I appear to be drowning in WIP's and have thusly put myself on a stop casting on kick until at least two of the things that are on the needles are done. This could take a while since many of them are larger things.
Vilai got frogged, mostly because I felt the med. weight STR was a bit too heavy for it, I will knit them just in a different yarn and at a different time. I have a thing about STR since it's relatively expensive and hard to find in these parts (ie. if you don't order it from the internet you better have a friend that lives somewhere that has STR), but I get a bit neurotic about which socks get to be knit out of it. Maybe someday that will change but on my student budget it makes sense to me.
I am currently at the office wearing the finished earth maiden. I need to do the I-cord for tying it up yet but my fervent dislike of i cord's means that could take a while. I'm also contemplating useing a ribbon or something similar so I don't have to make the I cord.
On the wheel is "Lambchop" some fleece I processed then dyed and carded into rolags. I'm doing the blue/green stuff right now. I imagine it will be very pretty when compleated. And when I get tired of all the stuff I have already blogged about (because my knitter/spinnerly add knows no bounds) I break out the carders and work on the Corridale I got a while back and processed. It's a yummy chocolate brown/natural black that makes me want to drool.

The house papers are signed! Possession on the 22nd of October. I am very excited.
However since I promised some yarn pron, lets get right down in it.

Baby Belle (pattern by CosyMakes) Knit out of two different handspun yarns of mine, "Blue Ruin" and "SparkleMotion".
Both handspun yarns are three ply navajo to keep the color from barber-pole-ing, I felt that would be best for the yarns I was making at the time.
Sparklemotion comes in at 8 wpi and Blueruin is getting 8.5. So I concider them a close match.
Sparkle motion is spun from a spinners salad from Golden Willow which is a 60/40 merino silk blend that I hand carded along with some nylon fibers for the “sparkle”, Blueruin is hand carded mohair locks (I know this because it made me a bit itchy) and romney also from the willow.


It's going to be Zibbie's birthday present, she'll get it tonight at her party, I hope it fits and she likes it.
Since I appear to have been on a Cosy kick

This hat is from Cosy's book "Knit One, Embellish Two" Which you can buy on her Etsy site autographed I messed around with the pattern a bit, I didn't want it to go to a point so I went to a certain point and then do a three needle bind off. In the picture in the book the hat looks pointless, and that is the line I went for. I ended up getting this very slouchy big fluffy warm hat for the winter months.
That's one of the great things about Cosy's patterns, they are all good simple knits that allow for customization out the wiz-waz.
Not to be missed would be the spinning I have been up to

This is from my Joni Mitchell hand-dyed farm roving. Colorway "My Old Man", I spun up all four ounces of this colorway and I'm glad I kept it for myself, It's going to look so great as a hearty winter garment. And while it is warm out, the nights are cooling off and I really think it's time to start the prep knitting for winter (I should probably get back to work on my andre scarf).
And not to be left behind, as soon as I cast off the Earth Maiden (by Ilga Leja which can be seen on her website in two different yarns) and got it all wetted and laid out for blocking, I felt the call to join the chant and start knitting The Aestlight Shawl.

I'm useing a varigated jewel tone Tofutsies and then a hot fuschia for the eyelet part then going back to the varigate for the edging. It should be interesting and bright, I forsee doing more of these in other colorways (possibly christmas presents) as the pattern is just so darn loveable.

Wow that was a lot of show and tell, and you know I'm not even done, but I am done for now, until I get around to taking more pictures. Upcoming will be Earth Maiden, possibly the progress on vilai, the lacy baktus in all it's half finished glory, and possibly some more spinning.

I know I promised more yarny goodness (and it is coming)

but I got a HOUSE.
Okay okay, I don't have it yet, but I am going after work to sign the papers, and I'm setting up all the different disconnection/reconnections, giving notice at my apartment etc. right now.
It's been a really stressful week in which I wasn't going to convocate on time and then I am again, needless to say I am no longer hyperventilating because of the idea of an extra symester for one class.
I've been plodding along getting my grad stuff ready since I found out I get to convocate (I found out yesterday which meant today was emails galore to profs for recommendations, revising my CV, digging out the letter of intent to merge the two copies together).
On the house front I've been tracking down home inspectors, who I am still waiting on return calls from, calling people about floor restoration (there's oak hardwood under the carpets in the bedrooms and the living room - I want to take possession early so I can get the floors refinised before I move all my stuff in).
This house is fate, Seriously, I will call her fate. I found her on a private sale website and when I called the man I talked to said there was an offer in and that they were going to get financing, but if the financing fell through he would call me. I gave up then and there, the stress of last weeks educational bumps/ falling down the stairs/ house hunting had taken their sweet toll and I was nearly done in.
Then yesterday I heard from my academic advisor that there was a transfer credit I could use to graduate on time, and the man who owns the house called to say the other people's financing fell through.
Mom and I saw the house after work, and then went to supper, after supper I called with our offer. So begins the newest chapter of sadie life, I am looking forward to having an "office/computer space" seperate from my living room and a garage that I intend to turn into a work area. YAY.

Without further adeau I give you the future backyard