Halloween WIP

I hope that those of you who were in the path of Frankenstorm made it through safe and sound. Our little island took quite a beating from the high winds, but luckily the flooding and storm surges that are usual occurrences here during a hurricane were absent. It is funny how people react differently to stressful situations. The little guy was totally oblivious and just happy to be having a few days off from school. My normally health conscious hubby binged on junk food the whole time. Luckily, I had my knitting, otherwise there would have been some seriously nasty fights over the stash of Halloween candy which is now almost half gone. There is nothing more calm-inducing and comforting than an easy stockinette stitch top-down sweater pattern such as tea with jam and bread. I am just adoring knitting this right now, as evidenced by how fast my progress has been. Look, pockets! And a finished body! And half a sleeve!

Hopefully, I can get in some more knitting in between handing out treats and tricks to the trick or treaters tonight. I will try to post a picture of the little guy in his costume later. It is so cute to see his excitement over his costume this year. Have a safe and fun Halloween!



Check put WIP Wednesday for some frightfully talented bloggers and their ghoulishly good knitting and crochet projects ;)



eta: last year he was The King, this year he's The King of Pop!

Do-Re-Mi

a new sweater pattern by my favorite designer

a way to use up some soft Ultra Alpaca from my stash

a chance to play with colors and stripes

but trying to restrain myself by keeping to a softer palette as I

happily look forward to wearing the cozy finished sweater

whilst singing along to my favorite musical and

drinking tea with jam and bread.



And you? What is on your needles or hook on this lovely autumn day? Go check out some talented folks and their projects at WIP Wednesday over at Tami's.

FO: Spoked Cardigan

The cooler weather has brought on a burst of sweater knitting energy which resulted in my finally finishing the Spoked Cardigan. This project has been languishing in the WIP basket for about a year now. It seemed appropriate to finish it during my favorite season because this colourway of Noro just shouts Autumn to me.

The sweater is knit sideways, beginning at the right front and working around the body to the left front. It was my first time knitting this type of sweater construction and I have to say that I much prefer my usual top-down method, which seems more intuitive and fluid. You don't know how many times I wanted to scream when I read "break yarn, place stitches on holder" while knitting this cardigan. And towards the end, having to graft two sleeves was a big factor in why this project was buried for a year. All that being said, the pattern is extremely well written and shows off the beautiful color changes of Noro to its best advantage. It also includes cute sleeve and hip tabs, perfect for using up some rustic wooden buttons from the button jar.

Another disadvantage to knitting a sweater sideways is that it is much harder to get a reading on how well it will fit and to make adjustments along the way. Also, getting the correct stitch AND row gauge is essential to the final product. My sweater ended up being a little snug with the fronts buttoned up, so it will probably be worn unbuttoned, which is how I normally wear my cardigans anyways. In the end, I am glad that I ventured out of my knitting comfort zone with this project and the final sweater will see a lot of wear in the months ahead. Just not on the days when I feel like being a wallflower because the colors are quite outrageous, don't you think?


(linking up with FO Friday over at Tami's)

26 Candles

How I celebrated my birthday on Wednesday:

♥ Went a little wild at the craft store and set out to buy one skein for every candle on my birthday cake. So that would make me umm...26 years old.
♥ Spent waaay too much time on ravelry looking at possible contenders for a crochet blanket project in order to use up most of the above yarns. So many choices!
♥ Ate 4 slices of yummy cake.

♥ Finished knitting the Miranda Hat, which I modified slightly to be more of a slouchy style hat. This one will be donated to charity. Such a fun easy knit and the resulting hat is warm and comfy. I really want to make another one for myself.

 ♥ Took a moment to appreciate the beauty of a vase full of roses and to be grateful for all the little bits of happiness sprinkled throughout this past year. 


(Heidi was the first novel that I ever read on my own and remains one of my favorites. It felt like the right moment to reread it, now that I'm umm...26 ;) Linking up with FO Friday over at Tami's blog)

Knitter's Amnesia

The Scene: A knitter is in the process of grafting the sleeves of her almost completed sweater. The air is thick with tension.

The Knitter: (mumbling under her breath) knit off, knit on....or no, is it purl off, knit on?!? Sh*t! 

The Kid: Mommy! You shouldn't swear at your knitting. 

The Knitter: (looking guilty) You must have heard me wrong. I said knit, not sh*t! 

The Kid: See! You said it again! Now I get to wash your mouth out with soap! 

The Knitter: D*mn. 

And so presenting the first in a series of Knitter's Amnesia Coffee Mugs: 

Guaranteed to get me through the Kitchener well caffeinated and without a speck of soap in my mouth. 


(linking up with the talented folks participating in WIP Wednesday over at Tami's blog)

Clickety-Click

It has been unseasonably warm for October (80 degrees and muggy!) so I am taking a quick break from sweater knitting in order to make a Miranda hat.

What a fun and easy project! I love watching the little diamonds pop up as the knitting goes round and round. The yarn (Bamboo Ewe from Stitch Nation) has great drape and is very soft. The grey color is really showing the stitch pattern well. Everything is going clickety-click. Except there's one....... tiny.......... thing......... nagging....... at me.........

There, that's better!


(linking up to WIP Wednesday with Tami's Amis)