Books

I received a Chapters gift card for my birthday, so I thought I would share with you what I decided to get.  


I have been buying Bust magazine for a few years now.  I like how the articles are about women for women.  They don't pull any punches, and have some interesting interviews.  Debbie Stoller, the author of the popular Stitch and Bitch knitting books is the editor, so there are often crafty or DIY articles.  




I got the latest Pamela Ribon book, you take it from here.  She is the author of the blog Pamie, my husband bought me her previous novel, Going in Circles and I really enjoyed it, so I thought I would try this one.  

Pamela Ribon is a comedy writer, not only novels, but TV shows as well.  I loved her show Samantha Who, with Christina Applegate and was disappointed when it got cancelled.  

I have been listening and enjoying the podcast Knit 1 Geek 2, a podcast about knitting and various items in geekdome, from Harry Potter to Avengers to comic books.  They talked about a series of books, the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, about a Private Investigator with various magical things thrown in.  This series has been going on for a while, but I had never heard of it, so I thought this would be a perfect time to try it.  I bought the first book, Storm Front to see if I liked it.  If I do like it, there are MANY more books in this series, I will have a nice supply of reading material.  


The last book I bought was Moonlight in the Morning, a romance novel by Jude Deveraux.  I have been reading Jude Deveraux for years and love her work.  







































Her books are either modern day or historical,  usually with a twist.  She has some novels that are about time travel, ghosts, or angels.  Then she has the books that are in a series or about a family.  These are not the typical series though, it can span centuries, and are not necessarily in chronological order.  I love reading a book about two people, then a character pops in from a previous book.  It's nice to know the characters live on even though the book is over.  


This weekend we are going away to a family cottage, these books will make perfect beach reading material.  

Current Knitting

I am a monogamous knitter, so it’s a good thing I have other things to write about other than just knitting.  Being monogamous is what motivates me to finish projects.  I knew if I started my new sweater, there was no way I was going to do the fiddly sewing of the Mario blanket.  Right now I have two things on the needles.  The first is a toe up sock with an after thought heel.  

This is out of Knitted Wit, Rose city, 100% superwash Merino that we got at Twisted, a local yarn shop in Portland.  I got the needle holders there too.  This project travels in my new Jordana Paige, if you have the knitting bag, you might as well use it! 

The second project is the Evendim sweater.  I have had my eye on this since it came out in the Twist Collective in the Fall 2011 issue.  The crazed wedding knitting pushed this aside until now.  I had the idea to use the yarn that I dyed for it.  When I dyed the yarn, I wanted to be sure that it would all be the same colour, so I could use it for a sweater so I dyed it all at once.  When I first looked at the completed yarn, I thought the technique I used was Kettle dyeing, so I was expecting more variation to the colour, but the skein looked all the same, the colour consistent.  As I’m knitting it, it’s not solid!  I love the way this is yarn looks! 

I have now finished the body, this sweater is knit from the bottom up, starting with what I love about the pattern, the cable/lace pattern instead of regular ribbing.  

This pattern is repeated on the sleeve cuffs and the wide collar.  Once I finished the pattern, the stockinette section knit up really fast!  

First week:

:

The next day:

The day after:  Body finished!

I’ve tried it on, and so far, so good.  I have a habit of making things that don’t fit.  The schematics on this pattern are really good, and there is a wide variety of sizes, so I should be able to make this work and have it fit.

I have finished the pattern on the first sleeve cuff, now on to the stockinette.  I have wide upper arms, so I’m making a larger size at that point, so we will see how that goes. 

I went to wind another ball of yarn, and realized, I might not have enough.  I’m really not sure how I did this to myself, but I’m almost positive I’m going to be short.  Since I dyed the yarn, this is probably going to be a problem getting the colours to match.  I ordered more yarn from Knit Picks, I’m going to try doing the same things I did to the first batch and hope for the best.  

Super Mario Blanket finished

Hurrah, hurrah, the Super Mario blanket is officially finished.  Tim and I have had all the knitting done for a while, it’s hard to get motivated to sew it together.  I was regretting my decision to knit the brick strips separately, it meant more sewing.  My sister-in-law had the baby which was the blankets recipient, so now it was official, sewing had to commence.  I started sewing all the strips on when I discovered that one’s gauge is not the same side to side as it is up and down.  The strips that we had knit for the vertical divisions were too long.  The strips on the interior of the blanket, this didn’t matter, they could just hang over on the inside, but the top and bottom, it would show.  So, I ripped them out and was tired of this sewing thing, so I picked up stitches along the edge.  Then I would be sure that the strip was the right size.  Knitting a blanket in the summer is not the best idea, picking up stitches meant that the whole warm blanket was on my lap. Thank goodness it is only crib sized and we have air conditioning. 

The blanket was then all put together.  We had decided at the beginning that there was no way to make the blanket look nice on both sides, so we would add a flannel backing.  This was a great idea, it meant that we didn’t have to weave in any ends, and there are a lot.  I had never added a baking to my knitting before, I was a little freaked out about putting the knitting we worked so very hard on through the sewing machine.  I was picturing the machine chewing it up, the sewing machine needle getting caught, the knitting stretching out of shape, getting fed through the machine at the wrong speed, a multitude of things.  So, I decided to hand sew the backing on.

It was the safest option, but the most time consuming and tedious.  Then, making my life more difficult, I sewed it on in two steps.  First I whip stitched the backing on with the right sides together, then I turned it right side out and did a running stitch along the edge.  To me, this touch looked like quilting, and it kept the edge of the blanket flat. 

I was worried about hand stitching not being as durable as machine sewing, I thought that the two seams would make it stronger. 

I think the blanket looks great, hopefully the recipient likes it as well.  

Jordana Paige bag

I celebrated a birthday over the weekend, my new husband got me the perfect gift.  A Jordana Paige bag.  I had heard about the company through various knitting magazines, then most recently on the podcast The KnitGirllls.  I liked supporting a company that is run by a young woman, with a great design esthetic.  

The knitting bags I previously owned all looked the same, quilted fabric, usually with a floral pattern, not something I want to take out in public. 

The bag I chose was the Rio in blue Vegan leather.  The bag is technically a knitting bag, but no one but me or someone in the knitting community would know that, the bag is so stylish.  It’s a larger bag, the interior is divided in half, the idea being that one side is to hold your knitting, and the other is to function like a normal purse.  My problem with regular purses is there are no divisions, no pockets, this bag solves all that and more.  The center divider has a zipper, turning it into a pocket, then there are zippered pockets sewn into the sides.  

The coolest part is a zippered pouch that is snapped on  the inside, to hold knitting notions like stitch markers.  There are pockets that can hold needles, lip balm or scissors sewn into the side of the bag.  To make knitting easier, there are 2 tabs that can be snapped around the yarn from your current knitting project, so the yarn can stay in the bag and not get tangled.  I was surprised that there were two, you could have two projects at once!  The bag is definitely large enough to hold them.  There is another tab that you can snap around your keys.  There are 2 pockets on the outside, perfect to hold keys and a cell phone.  The flap that closes the bag has two snaps so if you fill the bag all the way, you can close the flap on the outer snap.  There are metal feet on the bottom of the bag so I can put it down and not worry about the bottom getting damaged.  The handles are the perfect length, it sits on my shoulder very nicely.  

I love the idea of everything I need to knit can be stored in this bag, and I can take it with me where ever I go.  

Purchases in Halifax

No vacation would be complete without finding local yarn stores!  First we visited The Loop Craft Café in downtown Halifax.  The store was open and bright, really nice to walk around and browse.  We like to look for local yarns, the shop owner was more than happy to help.  The yarn I picked was Lange’s Rock Farm from the Cotswold sheep.  She explained that this was a rare breed of sheep that are at risk of becoming extinct.  The shop owner is lucky enough to have a local farm with this sheep.  Since I am obsessed with Aran sweaters after our trip to Ireland, this yarn would be perfect for that.  It is different from other Aran sweater wools, rather than the typical off white colour, this yarn has a gold undertone.  It smells wonderfully sheepy and is full of lanolin.  The farm this yarn came from is unique, it’s also a rock quarry, so the animals are roaming around the rocks. 

So cute! A Cotswold Sheep.

The second yarn store we went to was LK Yarns.  This store was very full of great yarns, many well known brands.  This store had a wide selection of yarns that come from Canada, and the Atlantic coast.  I bought some Fleece Artist from Nova Scotia.  She had a much bigger selection of this company than I had seen at my LYS.  My goal was to buy some solid sock yarn, so I bought Trail Socks, 80% Merino, 20% Nylon in a teal colour.  I want to make some socks that have a lace or cable pattern, this will show up better in a solid colour.  The colour I got matches the yarn I dyed perfectly! 

We stopped into a few other gift shops, I got a ceramic soap dish holder in the shape of a bathtub.  I have a few of these now, I think this will make a great prop when I take soap pictures.

I just love it, it's so cute!  It's 7" long, 3" high and 3" deep.  I think it will fit a few bars of soap nicely.  

  

Canada Day in Halifax

Tim and I were in Halifax over the weekend, going to a friend’s wedding.  The trip was over Canada Day weekend, which was a different experience.  Since we live in the Capital of Canada, I am from Ottawa, Canada day here is a HUGE deal.  There are a few ways I have celebrated here in the Capital.  When we were young, my parents got us sparklers and barbequed in the back yard.  When I was a teenager, the cool thing to do was to go downtown.  I lived in the suburbs, so we took the bus over.  We had to get there early to get a good spot on the grass to watch the fireworks.  This involved navigating through lots and lots of drunk people.  It was almost impossible to get seated at a restaurant.  We also had to deal with the weather, there were many Canada Days that it rained the whole day, or there were a few times that were so cold I had to get a winter jacket.  Now that I’m older, I have decided that I don’t like crowds and just watch the whole thing on TV.

The celebrations in Halifax were nice, smaller, less people.  You could actually walk around without getting bumped, and eat in a restaurant and get seated right away.  It was really nice.  The thing about it for us, the wedding was the night before, so we were already tired and drinking was out of the question.  We walked down to the waterfront and watched the boats which was lovely.  

We took a boat tour as well, got lots of good pictures.  We saw Theadore the tug boat!

It was great weather for the whole weekend, but extremely hot and sunny.  To walk anywhere was tiring.  I felt bad for the men that wore jackets to the wedding, it was so hot.  

We found some yarn stores, more on that tomorrow!