Another Christmas Bites the Dust

Christmas has come and gone, and I for one am pleased!  So much hype and stress - so much so that [cough, sneeze, sniff] I've landed myself a festive head cold!

But before I close the chapter on Christmas 2009, here are a few photos of my Christmas.

Christmas Eve at Nick's brother's house

Christmas Pavlova

The store is now closed, so I can snuggle up with my knitting and hopefully make a speedy recovery.  But I'm not only snuggling up with my knitting!!  Santa brought me a fabulous gift. Get a load of this baby:

Electric Fireplace

Can you see my smile from space??

I also got a fabulous gift certificate from my family for......[drum roll please...]

COLORSONG YARNS

Oh my!  I've been asking for a yarn store gift certificate for years.  My patience paid off big time!  I can't wait to go online shopping.  I love the store, and I love the owners!

My Daddy also came through and made me some very special wooden sock blockers!  Bless his big heart!  Of course I don't need all of them, so I'm going to list a few pairs in my Etsy Store.

Sock Blockers

On Christmas Eve I finished my Fern Fiddles Mittens.  I love, love, love them.  There was only one big disappointment.....there wasn't enough yarn to knit the linings.  I'm REALLY annoyed by that cos the kit was very expensive.  And then to be so meager with the yarn!!  Yes, I'm going to email them.

Fern Fiddles

I hope you all enjoyed a blessed and happy Christmas with friends and family!

Baby it's Cold Outside

Although not as cold as in other parts of Canada, it's still cold outside!  Only four more days of the store being open and then....

I don't have to go OUTSIDE anymore [laughing] well, not until 1st March 2010!  Woo hoo!  Holidays are nearly here.

Quite honestly, I shouldn't complain about the cold.  At least I'm not a fish!

Three Tier Pond

You might remember in my last post that I wrote about my Caramello Hilja Vest - the project had been stalled due to a pattern error.  Well I'm now delighted to post pictures of the finished project!  It's a great fit, and a really nice little pattern.

Caramello Hilja

Caramello Hilja

I also got around to knitting the lining of my Fiddlehead Mittens.  These mittens are super warm since there are basically three layers of fabric (two for the fairisle, and one for the lining).  Tonight I will cast on the second mitten.  The Tanis Fiber Arts DK (which incidentally looks more like sport weight to me) is very soft and a pleasure to knit with.

Lined Fiddleheads

Today I was swatching for my next sweater project:  Rogue by Jenna Wilson.  There are 1,040 Ravelry projects for this hooded sweater!  Not bad when you do the math at $USD6 per pattern.  There is a kangaroo style pocket pouch on the front of this sweater, but I don't think I'll knit that.  I can't imagine putting my hands in the pouch and risking stretching the sweater.

The yarn I got for this project is Cornelia Hamilton's Heaven's Hand Wool Classic in the chocolate colourway.  I ordered this yarn online, and the colour was darker in person than on my monitor.  So I'm a little disappointed about that.  There is some very pretty celtic cabling in this sweater pattern, and now I'm wondering whether the cables will get lost in the depth of the brown.  What do you guys think?

Swatch

Fern Fiddles

Despite finishing all my Christmas knitting [insert bitta self love and a good ol' pat on the back], my needles are full of other fun projects.

But before I share the good stuff, here are the completed Christmas knitting projects:

Never Smile at a Crocodile (this scarf is for a good friend's grand-daughter, Belle)

Naran Felted Mittens (these are for Nick)

Remember the Caramello Hilja Vest I wrote about earlier this month? Well, I'm almost finished it. The delay was an error in the pattern that I couldn't figure out. I wrote to the designer, but her reply left me more confused. So I wrote to a fellow Raveler who'd knit the pattern last year. Although Julia didn't knit her Hilja as per the pattern, she did help me figure out what the instructions meant. I would like to add here that the designer is Finnish, so the translated instructions were a little hard to follow.

I'm hoping to have the vest finished this week!

On a more drool-worthy note ... I have been lusting after the Fiddlehead Mittens (designer: Adrian Bizilia) since they hit Ravelry in 2008. Earlier this year I bought a kit for them that included the pattern and the yarn from Tanis Fiber Arts. While awaiting replies about my Hilja Vest, I cast them on.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pattern. The yarn is lovely. The colours are lovely. This is super addictive. I've completed one mitten; it's blocked and drying nicely. I'm going to start the lining tonight ... yes, whilst finishing my Hilja Vest [laughing]. Did I mention they are addictive.

Fern Fiddles

A Festival of Lights

Yesterday I went on a bus tour operated by Take a Break Travel Inc. to the Festival of Lights in Niagara Falls.

What a fantastic tour!

We departed London Mall at 9:15am. Following several pickups throughout London, our bus load of 56 headed off to our first stop! Shopping for 45mins at Coyle's Country Store. What a nice little surprise for us all! I bought a cute little plum pudding, and a few Christmas gifts!

From there we went to Woodstock for lunch at the Truck Stop. This was only a short stop to grab an early bite since we were having an early dinner.

Once fed and watered, we drove off to the next destination - Kittling Ridge Winery & Distillery. This place was awesome! Rich in history and rich in wine and spirits. Kittling Ridge is the only place in Ontario where you can experience the wine-maker's art and the distiller's craft in one visit. Although not a wine drinker, I did sample three delicious beverages at the tasting bar.

First was an exquisite and multi-award winning Icewine & Brandy! Not too sweet, with a lovely blend of brandy - it's mostly used as a dessert wine. I came home with a few gift packs of this!

Second was an Oh Canada Maple Liqueur. Since this is a blend of maple syrup and whiskey, it was not my cuppa tea. It's often used in baking and cooking, mixed with coffee, hot chocolate and egg nog, and brushed on meat after baking.

Last was a Bolivar Coffee Liqueur. This is an all natural liqueur made from deep roasted, freshly ground, South American coffee beans. It's less sweet than other coffee liqueurs, and somewhat like Tia Maria or Kahlua. It's often used in hot chocolate, over ice or any recipe that calls for a coffee liqueur. Delicious mixed with milk or cream and an easy dessert served over ice cream.

On the road again! Our next stop was the Niagara Parks Greenhouse. The greenhouses feature two ponds, a collection of plants from around the globe, and tropical birds flying around. We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Show of poinsettias, cyclamen, azaleas, and Christmas cactii.

Our next stop was Horseshoe Falls. Although very cold, this attraction never disappoints. You could take a hundred photos every day and still never capture the power, the noise or the vastness of the falls.

Dinner in the revolving restaurant in Skylon Tower was included in our tour. What a fabulous view! The restaurant completes one revolution every 1hr. We arrived just before 6pm, so we saw the city "light up". It was simply breathtaking! The food was great too - hot buttered bread and salad for starters, followed by chicken breast with potatoes and green beans. Dessert was a peach melba and that was followed by a lovely cuppa tea.

After dinner it was back on the bus to view the Winter Festival of Lights. There are over three million sparkling lights along a 5km route! Light displays included: Dufferin Islands Displays, Winter Wonderland Displays, Enchantment of Disney® Displays, and Displays in the City.

I made good use of all the bus travel - of course I knitted like a demon! I'm making another pair of felted mittens!

Although there were no more stops on the way home, we did enjoy a classic black and white Christmas movie "It's a Wonderful Life" starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. For those who've never seen it, the basic plot of the story goes like this: an angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed.

9:45pm - buss pulls up again at London Mall! Exhausted, but exhillirated, we all shuffle out the bus, thank our driver, Darwin, our host Barb, and head for home!

Christmas is all but Wrapped Up!

It's not often that I can boast about having my Christmas packages all wrapped up early! But it's a fact. Last week I sent them by airmail hurtling towards their final destinations in Australia. God's speed my little boxes of goody knittedness!

Just because my Aussie Christmas knitting is done, doesn't mean I can rest on my roly poly butt! I still have a little knitting to do for my mother out law ... AND ... can you believe that there are three birthdays around Christmas I have to knit for too? One on Christmas Day, one on Boxing Day, and one just a few days after Christmas.

Since my last post I finished those darn socks for Mum. Excuse the language, but bloody hell! I thought these socks would never end. I used up all but about 30yds of the availalable 437yds! Why is it that the older parents get, the longer they want their socks? The sock style was a pretty generic sock construction, and I improvised the pattern from a cable pattern book.

Gerlinde Cable Socks

Following my sock madness, I needed some project satisfaction, so I cast on my gorgeous cashmere/silk yarn for the Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama. I had exactly 100yds, and when I cast off, I had exactly 1yd to spare! Weird thing is that you knit it inside out...there is no outside pattern....and that was a little deceptive cos I kept thinking I was making mistakes!

Chocolatey Darkside Cowl

Last week I went with Maria and Barb to Shall We Knit. We'd signed up for a two hour workshop entitled Candle Flame Cowl by Julia Allen. I didn't need to learn how to knit a cowl, but I did need a good road trip and fibre fix! I knit my cowl from left over yarn from the Central Park Hoodie. A very fast knit, easy pattern to remember, and very effective.

Ozmoss Candle Flame Cowl

After I cast off the cowl, I cast on for a pair of Aran Felted Mittens #132 by Shirl the Purl . The pattern is by Cabin Fever and sized for a medium lady's hand . This project was a bit of stash busting of Cascade 220 from all those Ayla back packs I made for my nieces! I followed the pattern fairly closely; just made a few mods for a man sized hand. Final thought: if you don’t like to purl, then I would suggest you probably not knit these mittens. It’s ALL purling except for the cabling. And I don't understand why you would purl the palm with stockinette on the inside....I get it if you garter stitch the palm for thickness......it's a mystery!

Jaran Mittens

Whilst the mittens were drying, I cast on for a vest.....at last! I've been wanting to knit Hilja by Niina Hakkarainen, for quite a while. I dyed the yarn three weeks ago, but the Christmas knitting had to be finished first! Remember the caramello yarn??

I searched books and Ravelry for hours trying to find a simple pattern I could incorporate into this mindless stockinette vest. The difficulty is that this is a fitted vest. The front and back increases and decreases are made six inches in from the sides. This left me with only six inches available in the middle.....which would have been OK if the vest had not been a deep(ish) V neck.

I contemplated a cable on the sides, but the cable would have gone wonky where the knitting joins in the round. I thought about off-setting the cables just an inch in from the sides, but that woulda looked a bit weird!

Then I thought about a celtic symbol cable in the middle of the front, but since the largest vest size was for a 36" bust, I will have absolutely NO wiggle room for a cable that has little to no stretch.

Now I coulda put a cable on the back, but since I'm such a cold fish, it would be covered up most of the time.

So, stockinette simplicity it is:

Hilja Caramello

Now, in between all this vest contemplation, I decided that I loved the Jaran Mittens so much that I want a pair. And then Nick saw the Jaran Mittens drying and told me he wants a pair!

Since he's a Christmas baby, I told him I'd knit him some for his birthday, and that he could choose any colour other than black, dark brown, dark blue or dark green. As much as I love those colours, I do most of my knitting at night in front of the TV, and it's simply too much eye strain for this blind bat. So he suggested silver and dark silver??? What the....?

I went through my stash three times....I just didn't have any worsted weight yarn that was the right colour with the required yardage. So....to the dye pot OzB!!

Here is the yarn for I dyed last night for Nick's mittens. He likes it, and that's all that matters in the end:

Silver Bells

Phew!! I've been busy!

Dried Dyed Yarn

Huh....try saying that three times fast!

As promised here are the photos of my dried skeins of yarn.

I LOVE THEM ALL! The colours are just so perfect - exactly what I was hoping for.

Black Forest (will become a Hilja Vest)

Butter and Thanksgiving (will become socks or mittens)

Pomello and Black (will become Fiesta Mittens)

I Dyed Yesterday

Saturday, 14th November, 2009 ...

I had the fabulous opportunity to go on a road trip with Sharon and Louise to Shelridge Farm near Durham, Ontario.

Shelridge Farm has been producing fine yarns and custom knitting kits for hand knitters for almost 20 years now. They started out as an integrated sheep, wool and yarn business, and while they no longer own the sheep, they continue to focus on 100% wool and wool-based knitting yarns that they call Shelridge Soft Touch yarns. They have their yarns spun at a few select mills in Canada and the U.S., but perform all the rest of the manufacturing operations - skein winding, washing and hand-dyeing.

Our hosts were Buffy and Don Taylor. Buffy has developed a yarn production business featuring a wide range of yarn types and a large selection of hand-dyed colours. She's been dyeing yarn for about 20 years now.

Our mission: learn how to dye yarn.

What a fantastic day! I enjoyed every minute - the gloriously warm sunshine, the dyeing process, the puppy dogs, lunch in the workshop, Buffy's expert tutelage, and the very warm hospitality.

The cost of the course included the dyes, workshop and six skeins of yarn!

I dyed three skeins of light worsted and 3 skeins of fingering.

The three worsted skeins will be for the Hilja Vest by Niina Hakkarainen. Two of the fingering skeins will be for the Fiesta Mittens 220 by Lucy Neatby. The other two fingering skeins will be for socks - pattern not yet decided upon.

Who wants to see pics???

Louise dyeing sock yarn for the Tug Boat Socks by Lucy Neatby.


Worsted skeins for my Hilja Vest.


Fingering skeins for Sharon's Stained Glass Sweater.

Shelridge Farm Yarns



Group efforts

When the skeins are dry, I'll post more pics :-)

Will ya Look at This Weather?

I mean...c'mon! What lovely weather for this time of the year!! Who could possibly complain about 17C and 18C days - and what's more - combined with sunshine!

Nope, not even this Ozzie can find fault with the weather.

So, I've been taking advantage of it. Besides working outdoors to get ponds ready for winter, I've been Fall cleaning and dyeing yarn!

The following yarn is worsted weight Highland Peruvian wool. There is about 660yds - just enough for Hilja a lovely little vest I'd like to knit. The variegations didn't quite come out the way I wanted, but I still love the colour. Entirely my fault...I put a bit too much overlay colour on the base colour. It's all good though - I'll know for next time.

Caramello

Then I piddled around a little bit with some Kool Aid dyeing. I've never used this method before, having always preferred the vibrant shades attained with Jacquard Acid dyes. I'd also heard that KA dye produces soft pastel shades. Hmm.....

Kool Aid Skeins

Christmas knitting is almost complete. The last pair of socks are on the needles and I'm about half way done with them.

Theresa's Easy Goings

Dad's Huberts

Mum's Gerlinde Cable Socks

Stay tuned for my next exciting adventure at Sheldridge Farm!

And because it's Fall....some pics!

Spooky Knit Night

BOO!

Ha-ha-ha-haa [insert blood curdling and ghoul-like laughter]

...before I write about the Spooky Knit Night, let me quickly babble about some of my lovely yarn aquisitions this week.

First off, while surfing my friends' blogs, I noticed that Anne from She Ewe Knits, Milton, Ontario, was having a closing down sale. Although somewhat sad, she assures me she is moving forward and onto bigger and better adventures, so I'm smiling between my frown lines.

Wait a minute...did you hear me mention a SALE? Oh my! Some of my favourite yarn too! My credit card coughed and gurgled at the end of my stash enhancement, but I'm now the happy owner of 19 more skeins of Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift (Fingering, 4 ply, 14 wpi). The colours are all complimentary (earthy tones), and what's more, they even match the load I had in my stash! As a bonus, I got a fabulous hoodie pattern: Rogue, by Jenna Wilson. It was on sale for $1, but Anne tossed it in for free! Thanks bunches Anne :-)

Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift
The day after the Shetland arrived, there was another package! This one was all the way from the UK. It contained a 128g skein of beautiful sock yarn (VG Utopia High-Twist Merino), and a 55g skein of gorgeous hand-dyed 55/45 silk/cashmere. I'm going to knit a cowl from this delicious skein. Despite it being called "aran", it really is what we term as worsted.

VG Utopia Sock Yarn

Silk/Cashmere

And lastly, yesterday a package arrived from Atlanta, US. Inside, eight delicious skeins of Cornelia Hamilton's Heaven's Hand Wool Classic (worsted) in the chocolate colourway! This yarn is specifically for my Rogue Hoodie. And I suppose that if I hate the hoodie, I could always eat it! [laughing....]

Heaven's Hand Wool Classic

And now........THE SPOOKY KNIT NIGHT!

Last night, a few of us got together for a knit night! It was a lot of fun, and as always we chatted about the good, the bad and the ugly! Our fabulous host, Lynn, arranged the usual yummy snacks, and we knitted and laughed and petted and laughed some more.

Lynn's house was adorned with halloween decorations - from skulls, spiders and rats, to ravens, bloody handprints and jars of eyeballs! It was brilliant! I'll let the pics do the talking:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!