Bousta Beret

I’ve wanted to make the Bousta Beret ever since I saw Christy’s version well over a year ago.  I even loved the colour she chose.  But the yarn proved hard to locate until a kind shop owner in Edmonton offered to order it in and Erin kindly offered to ship it off to me. Finally, it is mine.

I did screw up and forget some of the purl bumps but I love it anyway.  I wore it to the city on Friday and I felt very chic for a change.  The Sublime Angora Merino is so very soft. I would love to make a big comfy cardigan out of it someday.

For now I’ve tackled a long overdue project.  We’ve been using an ugly fleece throw from Ikea or Zellers for probably six or seven years now.  It’s my knitterly secret shame  Every year I say I’m going to replace it but every winter sweater projects get in the way.  This year I’m not making many garments until I see how this baby grows (more on that later) so I finally had an excuse to order a big pile of Classic Elite Aspen on closeout from Webs and some twelve millimetre interchangeables from Knit Picks and away I go.

It’s going to be cabled chunky softness all around.  I’m making up the pattern based on a vague memory of an acrylic throw I spied at Chapters a few weeks ago.  I’ve already made my way through two of the eighteen balls of yarn so it should be a quick knit.

Ingrid has been diligently posting a baby progress shot every week over on Flickr and I thought it was high time I get in the game. Except that I’ve been taking photos for two days now and exasperatedly deleting them because either my hair looks crazy, my butt looks huge, I think I’m smiling sweetly but I’m actually scowling menacingly or my face suddenly got fatter when I wasn’t looking.  Usually  it’s a combo. Bravo to Ingrid for her diligence.  I don’t see this becoming a habit for me.

16 weeks

See? I honestly thought I was smiling here. I’m hopeless.

Wintertime and the Living is Easy

You may remember me saucily hinting at a summery quilt in the works back in July and then seemingly abandoning the project.  The truth is I ran out of batting, then when batting was secured I realized I had no safety pins, which then took weeks to arrive, and then I held out for a walking foot.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about living in a remote area it’s that running out of supplies is not an easily rectified problem.

Well, wait no more! Set your clocks back to summer because the Darla quilt is finally done.

It measures about seventy by fifty-four inches.  Not that we own a Double or Twin bed.

The Tanya Whelan fat quarters were sent by Melina in June, the white cotton for the sashing and backing and the binding fabric (from the Sweet line by Urban Chicks) were purchased at Fabric Depot in Portland in a total panic because I could not for the life of me recall what the fat quarters looked like at all. I think they match pretty well despite my poor planning.

I hate to chop up fabrics I really like so I chose to leave the pieces pretty much whole, using the Avalon pattern from Material Obsession (also from Melina!) for the front.  The pattern in the book was quilted all over in a random floral pattern but I don’t have the right machine foot for that nor the skills.  Instead, I stitched a foots length on either side of the rows, making a sort of double ditch.

I’m still not completely convinced that quilting is a craft I’m well suited to.  But, I still have a few fat quarters of my beloved  My Folklore fabric (which has apparently been discontinued!)  and a bit of coordinating linen so I may tackle a small baby quilt and then I quit! For now.

One Warm Baby

Between all of Sagan’s baby clothes that Michelle and Alex kindly gave us, the Threadless t-shirt that arrived in the mail from Erin the moment we broke the news and the big packet of onesies, baby pants and “i love grandma” bib that came from mum yesterday, there was really no need for this:

But it was all I could do not to throw those stupid, boring socks aside and cast on for some baby bell bottoms once the first trimester past and my superstition allowed me to start thinking this was all very real.  Then, I had a whole lot of the gorgeous Arequipa that Melina sent left over and decided a matching hat was in order.

It’s my Isolde pattern but with a whole lot more repeats thrown in because either Socks that Rock is way thicker than Arequipa or I was drunk when I wrote that pattern because three repeats was not gonna make a hat to cover a newborn’s cone head.

With that, I think the baby knitting will be put on hold until we know the sex because all of my stashed yarn seems to be pink and / or purple and I’m not up for making any strong statements if it’s a boy.

Baby O

So, I’ve been a little quiet lately. There are a few reasons for this: I’ve been busy with work, when I’m not at work I’ve been exhausted, and, relatedly, I’ve had a secret that I didn’t want to spill:

This is baby O’Dell at thirteen and a half weeks. And now more than you ever wanted to know about my fetus:

• I’m due April 25th
• I had a dud of an obstetrician but today I found the best ob who ever practised.  I heart her.
• Yes, I do have to drive two hours to the city when I have appointments and when I deliver.  We will cross that bridge when we come huffing to it.
• I am feeling well now, thanks for asking, but weeks 5-10 were pretty rough.  I had just started work and nausea came right along with me.
• I do have a slight medical flag related to a clot I developed after our long flight from Japan and I will need to start injecting myself with an anticoagulant but it’s for the health of me and the baby so I really don’t care.  (that much)

That’s all I can think of.  My brain is tired now. Thanks for sharing our news.

Zzzzzzzzzz

Ah! My foot's asleep

These poor socks started out as Vilai after they failed to become an original design at my Cookie A class due to my inability to pick out an appropriate stitch pattern.  Vilai proved to be too much for my brain to handle right now so I gave up and made plain socks.  On 2.25 mm. needles.  My eyes would glaze over just thinking about working on them.  I really should have made something simple yet engaging like another pair of Monkeys since it was Cara’s Monkeys that inspired me to order this yarn in the first place (STR in Watermelon Tourmaline).

But!  They’re finished and now it’s on to better and less-coma-inducing things!  I’ll be back real soon.  Promise!

Golden Jubilee!

Today is my mum’s 50th birthday.  If you are a long time reader you may have noticed my mom requesting every single sweater I have ever made in her size, without fail.  So, I took a sweater I was going to make for myself and I made it for her instead.

This is the last time it will ever be hanging from a hanger, I swear

This is the Katherine Hepburn Cardigan from Lace Style using Louet Gems Sport Weight in Willow.

She swears it fits perfectly, which is a miracle since she has yet to ever give me her measurements.  She also promised to send a modelled picture but I’m still waiting for one of her wearing her uniform top so I won’t hold my breath.

The only modification I made was to add the v-neck because I thought it might be more flattering and I was concerned about running out of yarn, although I still had a good hunk of a hank left.

And with that my knitting has ground to a halt.  I crawl home from work and collapse on the couch in front of Seinfeld repeats to wake up hours later in a puddle of my drool.  It’s a glamorous life.

T.G.I.p.js

The weekend is here and for 48 hours I’m living the good life goshdarnit. I might even knit a little.

I do have a couple of projects yet to share.  The first is a hat for Chris’s mom’s birthday.

I finished this over a month before we had to mail it so don’t ask me why I settled for only one, slightly creepy, photo.

Anyway, Chris’s mum had requested an Interwoven hat in pink (I used Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Prairie Rose) months ago so I finally whipped one up just in time for us to have our first heat wave, which, thankfully Southern Ontario had at a normal time of year.  She reports that she really likes it which is always nice.  Now I’m going to pretend it’s not 35 degrees outside so I can knit me some socks.  Happy weekend!

The Wind Beneath My Wings

I just wanted to stop by and thank everyone for their super sweet comments about the new job.  I would come home tired and stressed and when I saw them in my inbox it would perk me right up.

I would love to say that I made the transition from lying around watching American Justice and painting my nails to getting up to a shrieking alarm and spending my day trying to locate a safety vest, pleading with students to give me a sign that they’re still breathing and shoving cold cafeteria fries in my mouth gracefully but mostly I’ve been a big whiny nerveball.

But now it’s the long weekend and Bowie’s finally getting a little exercise, some deadline knitting is getting a little attention and my teaching replay dreams are getting shorter every night. Yesterday marked ten years since Chris and I met and we were actually able to drive to a nicer town and have dinner followed by ice cream and a lovely walk because we had both acted like responsible adults all week and had gotten out of bed to go to a job.

I promise I won’t be a stranger and I hope you won’t be one either.

Short Story Long

So,

A few weeks ago a new officer moved here with his wife who is also a teacher.  This Tuesday afternoon she called me and mentioned that she had been hired as a grade three teacher at the school on the reserve, which is located right behind my house, but that they initially wanted her for home ec and she was so relieved when she didn’t have to teach it.  I asked if she thought the position was still available and she said she didn’t know but that I should call the school board (which administers a grand total of one school).  So I called the board and no one seems to know if anyone’s been hired but a few minutes later the superintendent showed up at my house and asked me to come in the next morning for an interview.

Wednesday morning I frantically gathered some physical evidence of my craft competence and headed to the school board / grocery store / hair salon for my interview with four board members.  I felt it went well and they said they’d contact me that day to let me know since school started for teachers the following morning.

By eight that night I still hadn’t heard anything when the phone rang.  It was Chris’ coworker’s wife calling to ask if I had heard anything. I said no she said that she had been at the board office and they had told her that I had the job.  Huh?

In conclusion, as of yesterday morning I am a full time permanent home ec teacher.

And I am freaking out.

I do have a beautiful room with amazing Janome sewing and embroidery machines and a pretty hefty fabric budget.  I do not have a working computer with which to type lesson plans or course outline, any knowledge of where the staff room is, or a clue as to what I am going to do.  School starts Tuesday.

See you when I can breathe again.

More gift knitting and Fall Favourites

My dad’s birthday was on Friday and I made him some socks the weekend before, much to the chagrin of my poor wrists.

I’m not entirely pleased with them.  They were meant to be the exact reverse of these socks that I made for Chris but I realized much too late that the cream yarn, Scheepjes Invicta Extra, has a conservative yardage.  I ended up having to cut off one cuff and unravel in order to have enough to complete a short second sock.  My dad seems to like them, although he can’t imagine wearing them in the heatwave they’re having (I have no sympathy – it’s been 14 degrees and rainy here all friggin’ summer).

I’m finally starting to receive my Fall pattern magazines which is always so exciting!  The one I’m most intrigued with is atypical – this sleeveless dress by Sauniell N. Connally from the fall Vogue.

Photo courtesy Vogue Knitting

This photo isn’t so convincing but seeing it in the VK 360 was what did it for me.

My Interweave pick is unsurprisingly Connie Chang Chinchio’s Farmer’s Market Cardigan.  So clever!  I’m also fond of the Big Montana Tunic (although if it makes that skinny model look chunky I shudder to think how it would look on me) and the Maple Street Cardigan.  I’m so happy to see Interweave getting back on track.

Twist is amazing yet again and I’m particularly loving Luminen (without the snowflakes on the back).

I also need to get my hands on Made in Brooklyn and Berroco’s Blackstone Tweed booklet.

So many patterns so little time!

In other news, I’ve swapped my standard brownie recipe for Emily’s and I’m never looking back.