Double the fun

Just a quick post today to show a couple of baby sweaters recently finished. There are for a friend who is expecting twins. I had a lot of fun mixing and matching different colours of Bernat Cotton Tots. The very cute pattern, which I altered a little bit to change up the colour schemes and to add three button holes on the band, is available for free at f.pea's blog. A top-down raglan, this is a really easy and fast baby gift. These are my second and third sweaters from the same pattern, and there will probably be some more in future.


Now I just need to find some ultra-cute buttons.

Have a few minutes?

There's a neat thing going on over at the Girl Guides of Canada website. It's an online film festival of short films centred on the experiences of girls in today's world.

Worth checking out.


.

Grey and Soggy

We've just lived through an extremely rainy and cold week in eastern Newfoundland. "Well, there can't possibly be much more rain up there to come down, can there?", I thought to myself this morning as I trudged to the office in the mist and the fog.

No such luck.

(Depressing image, courtesy of Environment Canada)

Fall was a beautiful time of year when we lived in Ontario, and I always wondered why I hated the fall so much when I was growing up. Now I remember. Well then, I guess it's time that I gave up on outdoor running and went back to the gym. Hrmph.

We did get a bit of a break from the rain (but not from the freezing cold) on Sunday for the Run for the Cure. I organized a team at my workplace this year, and 20 of us, including some family and friends, participated. Nick and I both ran the 5 km. It was his first organized run, and I beat my previous best time by a couple of minutes, so we're both pretty proud of ourselves.


Since the weather has turned so chilly, it is a good time of year to have a newly completed woolly vest. My Ivy League turned out just lovely, a perfect fit.

Ivy League Vest from Interweave Knits Winter 2007, knit in KnitPicks Pallette in colourways twig, cream, tidepool heather, blue note heather, brindle heather, and mist.

I knit it exactly as written with no modifications, which worked well for me because I'm short. The vest is a very nice addition to my fall work wardrobe. I definitely like this Fair-Isle business, and there will certainly be more of it in my future. Steeks aren't so scary - you just have to show them who's boss.

Steekage

First there were no holes....


And then there were holes.


I did it!

Projects finished, projects started

After almost two years in our house, Nick and I are getting around to some of the small home improvement projects that have been nagging us. Behold: the front entrance.


It looks so plain and unassuming, but I assure you, hours of work and weeks of procrastinating went into this scene. First there's the handrail. There never was one there before. That was purchased, sawed off, stained, and then sat in the kitchen for a month before we got around to actually attaching it to the wall. The wooden stairs were scratched and notched and in desperate need of repainting (the previous owners were kind enough to leave a lot of half-empty paint cans in the basement, so this didn't even necessitate a trip to the hardware store), but I quickly discovered that alkyd paint, once dry, is extremely slippery. That led to a trip to the hardware store to buy the stick-on tread tape that along with the handrail, should decrease the chance of having visitors severely injure themselves before they've even made it inside. Then I painted the moldings. Lassy helped.

And you should hear the new doorbell. Now we'll even be aware of when visitors are on the doorstep. A novel concept, admittedly.

On the knitting scene, I've managed to finish a cute little baby cardigan for an upcoming shower. One of my co-workers is expecting a baby boy early next year.


I improvised the pattern using a simple cardigan pattern from a Sirdar booklet. I basically went through my stash looking for anything that was machine washable and suitable for a baby sweater, and came up with two small balls of the dark colour, and half a ball of the lighter denim yarn leftover from a pair of Blu baby jeans I made last year. They're different yarns, but both DK cotton, so I just threw them together and this is what came out. I had just enough yarn (it was a close finish), and decided to accent it with some cute contrasting buttons. I think the mom-to-be will be pleased with it.

In other baby news, my dear friend Deanne had a girl recently. I sent her the second JoJo cardigan that I made some time ago. Finally, a little girl to claim it! Happily, that gives me an excuse to knit another baby girl sweater now - I always like to have one in reserve, as there are more babies on the way in my circle of friends.

My newest distraction is a new lace project.


This scarf bears the daunting title of "Scarf with Edging 21 and Insertion 25 from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, Thompson Bros., Kilmarnock, Scotland 1850". For anyone familiar with the book, it's easy to guess that this is from Victorian Lace Today. This is for my mom. She picked out the yarn, Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace, when we were in Halifax in June and I dragged her to Loop Yarns not just once, but twice in one weekend. I've been wondering whether I should have used a smaller needle size (the pattern is actually written for fingering weight yarn), but I'm going to trust in the magic of lace blocking and hope that it will turn out as beautifully as previous lace projects that I had my doubts about.

My other big project this week? I'm dehydrating a bunch of food for an upcoming backpacking trip with my Guides. My whole house sticks of onions. You can even smell in outside on the sidewalk. I can't wait to be finished!

Descent into dishrags

I would appear that I have been neglecting the blog again. Summer is flying by all too quickly, and I'm busy trying to soak up every last minute of it.

I haven't updated on any of my knitting projects in a long time. My Ivy League vest is still not steeked. It seems that I made it almost to the top, keeping track of increasing and decreasing for the the waist, while at the same time adding steeks and related decreases for the necka nd armholes, and feeling all proud of myself thinking I was almost done, and then realized that I forgot about the steek at the back of the neck, and I had no idea what row I was on any more, and I decided that I needed a break from Fair Isle. Perhaps I'll pick it up again soon as the weather cools off. It won't be long now before I'll be wanting to wear a wool vest.

After than, I descended into a bit of a rut. I joined Facebook (finally!), so that ate up a week while I went through the big high school/undergrad/grad school reunion experience that is the typical first week of Facebook membership (when did everyone I went to school with start having kids anyway?!) I've had a lot of things going on, and my brain wasn't able to process anything more complicated than a dishrag. So I knit up a dozen or so.


This week, I'm taking a bit of a "staycation", with a week off work and very little planned. As a result, I've finished up a baby cardigan, started a new lace project, and put in some serious work on my "Box of Chocolates" quilt: 29 out of 42 squares completed, and looking awesome.

So evidently, I'm back on track, and ready for some new challenges.

Summer Bliss

We are having quite the summer here in Newfoundland. I understand that much of the rest of the Canada has been colder and wetter than normal over the last few months (except perhaps British Columbia, where the heat and drought have been causing a lot of forest fires), but this the weather in Newfoundland is better than any year in living memory.

I've been taking full advantage, spending as much time outdoors as I can manage. I've been running regularly, and even started a running group at work. We're going to take part in the Run for the Cure in October.

Summer in Newfoundland also means that it's folk festival season. My dad and both of my brothers play in a Celtic/Newfoundland folk group, and I make "special guest appearances" with them on occasion.


Here they are last weekend in Ferryland, at the Shamrock Festival. Left to right, that's Tony (younger brother), Chris (older brother), Dad, and their good friend Derm. The show was very good this year, and we had a great time. Next weekend is the big one, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, which happens in Bannerman Park, just a couple of blocks fom home. Being so conveniently located near the venue, I'll be making a big pot of chili next weekend, and expecting a lot of drop-in visitors. This will be the first time the guys will be playing at this festival, which is by invitation only, and they're very excited.

The other thing I've been up to lately is puttering in the kitchen. I raided Nick's grandmother's rhubarb patch last week (rhubarb grows like a weed in many people's gardens) and made a batch of rhubarb-apricot chutney and a rhubarb upside-down cake. Both were highly successful.


Today it was time to clean out the freezer a bit, in light of the fact that the wild raspberries and blueberries are almost ripe, and it will soon be time to start picking and putting away more for the coming winter.

I made a batch of blueberry-patridgeberry jam and a patridgeberry coffee cake. I understand that outside of Newfoundland, partridgberries are known as lingonberries. They grow wild in boggy areas all over Newfoundland.


I like my jam not too sweet, so this is kind of tart, and works well in sauces with red meat.

Nick and I have also spend some time trout fishing.


We haven't caught much, but it's peaceful just to stand at the side of the pond and take it all in. I never get tired of the landscape of glacially-scoured barrens.


I hope that wherever you are, that you are also enjoying the summer, and taking some time to relax and soak it all in.