Too Many Mistakes

Most of this week's knitting time was spent on the Doodler Shawl.  It did not help that I made a mistake in the 14th wedge and had to rip it back.  Apparently I cannot count to 5.  Somehow 6 became 5.  Since 6 and 5 are not the same, the stitch count at the end of the wedge did not work.  I could have fudged it.  But then the yarn-overs would not line up properly.  I tried to fix it without ripping back all that work but could not.  All I could do was to rewind the yarn and watch the stitches disappear.

Now I do whatever I can to prevent mistakes.  Clue 1 was a series of short rows.  On each right side, you knit to 5 stitches before the last turn so each row is 5 stitches shorter than the row before.  To make it easier for myself, on the return wrong side row I leave a marker 5 stitches from the turn. That way I only have to knit back to the marker.  This of course assumes I can count to 5.  Apparently I have trouble with this simple task.

In one of the later wedges I forgot to move the marker 5 stitches and knit back to the previous turn instead.   I did not catch this mistake until the wedge was finished and I did not have the heart to rip it all out.  So one wedge is now two rows wider than it should be.  I fudged this mistake by skipping the yarn over that goes on top of the turn so that the hole formed is about the same size as the ones formed by one turn and a yarn over.  You would be hard pressed to find the mistake.  Near the beginning of the shawl I forgot to make the yarn over on top of the turn.  The hole lines up so I just stuck my finger in the hole created by the short row turn, stretching it out so it is approximately the same size as the other holes.  To make sure that the stitch count stayed right, I just skipped a knit 2 together.

Clue 2 came out on Friday.  I had come down with a bug so I spent the day alternating sleeping and knitting.   My suspicion is the bug was affecting my ability to knit the pattern correctly.   Clue 2 is done but not without mistakes.  I had the right stitch count at the end of Clue 1 but as I neared the last cable I counted the stitches and I was one short.  I must have miscounted and done an extra row somewhere so I fudged it again.

I like to hold my work away from me from time to time to admire it.  That is when I realized that 10 rows back I had purled a row instead of knitting it.  Why it took me 10 rows to see it I just can't figure out.   Must be the bug.   Maybe I should have slept more and knit less.  I ripped them out and re-knit.

I have no idea what is going to happen next and there are two more clues and another colour to add. Next clue comes out on Friday.  Can't wait.

There is another mistake I made with this shawl but it is one of those rare fortuitous mistakes.  The grape Hedgehog Fibres Sock yarn had less yardage than the other colours I was using.  I was afraid I would run out so I bought 2 skeins instead of one.  One skein was enough for me to finish with colour A in the pattern.  Many others ran short but I did not.  Maybe there is a mistake in there somewhere  after all and I  have just not found it yet.

I finished the 10th afghan square and the 11th is on the needles.  I sewed the next five together.  Held the column away from me to admire and that's when I saw it.  All the squares had the wrong orientation.  Unpicked all 4 seams and resewed.  I went to sew the second column to the first and realized I had sewn the seams differently.  I liked the second version better so I unpicked all the seams from the first column and resewed them.  Progress is slow when items are ripped and re-knit and unpicked and resewn.

Afghan is 50% complete if you don't count the narrow border to be added at the end.

I am hoping for better progress on the works in progress while I wait for Clue 3.

Last Sunday Hubby had to go to Pelee Island for a meeting.  He asked me if I wanted to go with him. I could take a hike and photographs while he was otherwise engaged.  There was also the hour and a half ferry ride each way for knitting.  The weather was perfect and I went.

The light was amazing and I am pleased with my photos.  I present them here for your enjoyment.

Kingsville Harbour:

My favourite walk on the island is through the woods to Fish Point.  The Point is as far south as you can get in Canada unless you have a private boat and can get to Middle Island.

The woods:

There was a storm from the East since the last time I hiked here and the trail along the east side of the point was gone, eroded away.  So Reba and I traipsed along the east shore until the fallen trees made further progress impossible.

We eventually re-found the trail which takes you to the west side of the point along the shore.

Fish Point:

Reba and the Doodler posing:

We headed back along the west side of the point.  Walking the beach is not easy.  Reba does not like to get too close to the water.  She does not like the waves.  However, with the trail through the bush gone, the west shore was the easier option.

The calm water did not last long.  By Thursday the ferries were cancelled due to high winds on the lake.  When the wind is right, the water levels in the west basin are pushed to the east end of the lake.  Port Dover flooded but the beaches on Pelee Island grew bigger.  The high winds and low water made it too dangerous for the ferry to run.  Hubby went over on Wednesday morning before the storm but was trapped until Saturday noon when the ferry service continued.

Travel Yarns

Progress is being made.  I cast on the second sock but it is just a toe at this point and since it looks exactly like the first sock there is no photo.

I spent a good chunk of this week's knitting time trying to up the afghan square count.  I want to have as many squares as posts on this blog.  That way each Sunday I can keep track of whether I met my quota of one square per week.  This is post 10 and I have 9 completed squares and one on the needles.  With any luck, number 10 will be blocking tomorrow night.  Again since these squares look like the ones before, no photo.

I joined the mystery knit-along for Stephen West's Doodler shawl. My yarn choices was done last month and sitting there waiting for the first clue.  Clue number 1 was released late this week.  I wound Colour A and B and cast on.  I am guessing at the percentage completed.  Clue one consists of 17 wedges; I have completed 12 as of writing this.  The problem is that each wedge gets exponentially wider and taller.  12 of 17 is not 70% but more like 45% of the clue.  I am guessing that it is also maybe 10% of the whole shawl.  It is hard to tell as this of course is a mystery knit.  

Here is a photo for your entertainment.

This is the only photo for this post so I am going to distract you with a video issued by Stephen West

Baby You're a Knitter

and stories about yarn.

There are two different yarns in the above photo.  The purple is Hedgehog Fibres Sock Yarn in Grape.  I wrote about it here.

The pink yarn is Turtlepurl Yarns, Big Turtle Toes in Dirty Girl.  I acquired this yarn as a gift from my Hubby.  He was in Ottawa for a conference.  He looked out his hotel window and saw a yarn store; he is by this time a well trained husband.  As soon as there was a break in the agenda, he headed to the store and bought yarn for me.  He is definitely a keeper.

There is a third yarn for this shawl.  Hazel Knits, Artisan Sock in colourway 203-Blacklight.  From its location in the stash, I think I purchased this yarn at Sock Summit 2011.  To understand why this is amusing, I will tell the story of going to Sock Summit 2009.

When I heard about the very first Sock Summit being held in Portland Oregon, I knew I wanted to go.  It was going to be the Woodstock of the sock knitting world.  Hubby said one evening after dinner that for 2009 he wanted to put more miles on the motorcycle.  I said, "Have I got the trip for you!"

Portland is 3,865 km from here according to Google maps.  We had a total of two weeks to get there, be there and get home.  This meant averaging around 800 km (500 miles) travelling each day as I planned to be in Portland for about 5 days.  To do that type of mileage on two motorcycles each day means anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a day.  We stop every 100 km.  Hubby's bike could only get just over 200 km per tank of gas.  Heading out, it rained one day.   On another, Hubby ran into my bike.  I stopped for construction; he was looking at the river we were crossing.  No one hurt and no damage done.  I refused to stop for the night until we made our mileage quota each day; his reaction was to get up later and later each morning.

By the time we got to Ontario Oregon, just inside the border of Oregon and Idaho, we were hot, tired and barely speaking.  We stopped for the night thinking that the last riding day would be easy at just 371 miles.

I woke up with the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had.  I wish to publicly apologize to whoever had to clean the room.  I am sorry but I had to choose which end went into the toilet.  

To this day I do not know how I kept the bike upright.  We traveled from rest stop to rest stop.  I would get the bike on its kickstand then tumble off onto any handy patch of grass just laying there until the world stopped wobbling, then use the facilities.  Hubby would bring me water and wet down my neckerchief to sooth my head.  

By the time we reached the Umatilla rest stop on the Columbia River, this was routine but after bringing water, Hubby went to sit somewhere he could keep an eye on me but far enough away so the folks staring at me would not think he was with me.   It was here he sat down next to an emergency room nurse.  She expressed concern for my welfare and came and checked me out.  She provided me with a banana and Gatoraide and finally I started to feel a little better.

I spent the entire Summit feeling sick, not able to eat much.  Hubby located a grocery store and kept me supplied with bananas, oranges and Gatoraide. Yet despite being incapacitated I had the time of my life.

The trip home got worse.  I woke up in South Dakota with a wicked cold.  It is impossible to sneeze and keep your eyes open.  Try it, you'll see.  On a motorcycle you can't sneeze forward or you end up wearing it.  Traveling through Chicago's traffic on a motorcycle, and sneezing is my definition of hell.  I had to develop a system of checking traffic around me to make sure it was safe to momentarily close my eyes then tuck my head under my armpit and sneeze.  Never mind not being able to blow my nose; that takes two hands and one had to be on the throttle at all times.   On the other hand there was no place to store or access tissues anyway and even if I could, they would just blow away.

We arrived home safely.  I ended up sick in bed for another week.  When I heard about the second and sadly last Sock Summit, I mentioned it to Hubby.  He said, "You are going to fly aren't you?"

"Yes".

"Have an nice time", he replied.

Trick or Treat

I carry my knitting everywhere.  I want to be prepared.  If traffic comes to a standstill I want to be ready to pass the time until the highway gets moving again.  Running out of yarn is a constant fear. Why I think I will be able to accomplish a week's worth of knitting in an hour is just one of those mysteries of life.

A couple of years ago I was going out for dinner with a co-worker while at a conference .  Also going was a former co-worker and her husband.  The restaurant was just across the street from the hotel.  I was planning what knitting to take with me.  Now I was not actually planning to knit through dinner.  I was just planning for any "in-case" emergency.  

So I put the current project in my project bag.  Then I thought, what if one of us is taken ill and I have to accompany the ambulance to the hospital.   There could be hours spent in the emergency room.   I put a second project in the bag.  Another horrible thought.  What if the restaurant was taken over by terrorists and I had to hide in a closet for two days until rescue arrived.  I stuffed the bag with enough yarn for a year. 

So I hauled this overstuffed over-sized project bag with me to the restaurant and of course there was no ambulance, no terrorists and no knitting during dinner.

This year at the conference I was going to be brave.   I was not going to buy a ticket for the crazy train.  The project bag would stay behind.  I was going to dinner with friends and I was not taking knitting with me.  Just as I was heading out the door of my hotel room  this thought hit me.  What if I get to the lobby first and have to wait.  I picked up the project bag.  

I did get the back done for the man's sweater during the conference. I have this dream that one of these days there will be others knitting at this conference but so far I am the only one.  I did have one participant recognize my bag as a project bag and asked what I was knitting.

I think I should have put something in the photo for scale.  This is 28" long and 25" wide.  When blocked it will be slightly narrower and slightly longer.

Most of yesterday was spent adding fringe to the poncho.  Cutting fringe is always a challenge.  Simply wrapping the yarn around another object stretches the yarn.  Once cut, the yarn contracts so that each yarn piece is a different length.   I like to use a hard cover book to wrap the yarn around to get the fringe length.  Hard cover books have a cover slightly longer than the inside pages.  This gives a channel for the scissors to cut the ends.  I choose a book with the width approximately the length I need for the fringe.  For the poncho each fringe is one strand of the three types of yarn used.  Each stretched differently being wrapped so I had to take care that there was ample slack in each yarn as it was wound around the book cover.  

Once finished my next problem was to get it photographed.  A flat poncho is dull and lifeless.  Actually it is hard to lay flat at all and have it look like a poncho.  I wanted a model.  I have three nieces and one granddaughter, all beautiful young women who would willingly model for me but all live a long way away.  My friends were all unavailable yesterday afternoon.  Time for some creative thinking.  I went to Essex Source for Sports (I have connections). They kindly lent me one of the manikins from the store window and carried it outside to the old Carnegie Library building for photos.

I think the fringe turned out okay.

The On Hold socks are a really enjoyable knit now that I have the 12 row pattern repeat memorized.  I am even keeping true to the pattern for the gusset and heel shaping. The only change I have made is to add a bit of shaping in the back for the calf.  

Once I finished the poncho I concentrated on the socks.  Even last night during the trick or treat event.  Hubby is the one who hands out treats at the door.  He always manages to say something to the kids to get them to speak to him.  I get to stay in the background and laugh; after all kids say the darndest things.

The first child was amazed that he was the first trick or treater to arrive.  (Someone always has to be first).  He looked at the bowl of treats and said what a waste.  Hubby and I discussed this afterwards because we were not sure what he meant.  We finally decided  he meant "what a waist" if we ate the leftover treats.

One little girl after getting her two treats demanded to know why her brother got two treats.   Hubby explained that she had also gotten two but must not have seen them go in her bag.  I suspect she will grow up to be a feminist.

Near the end of the evening, one little boy wondered if we had many children come.  He confused the full bowl of treats with a low turnout.  Hubby explained that he had refilled the bowl four times.  The boy looked at the bowl, held out his bag as if to say that if we didn't have many kids, perhaps we could give them all to him. It was the same look our dog gives when food is left on the kitchen counter.  She looks up at the counter, looks at us with a look that obviously means if you don't want it, can I have it?

Hubby upped the count from two to three for him.

There were a few chants of "Trick or Treat".  There was one girl who gave the longer version of "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat".  They all take me right back to childhood.  But there is one chant I miss hearing.  I can't remember ever hearing it here in southern Ontario.  It was a common chant in Winnipeg.  I long to hear "Halloween Apples".  The sing-song always sounded haunting and sad with flavouring of alms for the poor.  But each Halloween I hear it in my head and remember my years in Winnipeg; many child voices' repeating  and echoing down the street.

I used my time to progress on the sock.  

Almost complete sock.  Just the ribbing at the top to complete then the blocking.  The problem with socks though is you have to make two.

Conference Knitting

This week has been busy and full with little time to complete any projects.  I am off tomorrow to Toronto for a conference on Monday and Tuesday.

Years ago I found that I got more out of conferences and courses if I knit through them.  As long as the pattern did not require concentration on my part, if my hands were busy, I stayed awake and learned what I needed to from the course or the papers presented.  If the knitting was not enough to hold my concentration and keep my eyes from closing, I could stab myself with the needles.

There was one other advantage.  Even in a crowded room, I had lots of personal space.  No one wanted to sit next to the crazy lady knitting away.

This is just a round about way of saying I have been choosing a project for two lovely conference days of knitting.  I chose to start the Unisex Adult: Raglan Sleeve Jacket from Patons Canadiana Back to Basics. 

This sweater will be for my brother.  I measured him up at Thanksgiving.  He chose the pattern and the yarn from my stash.  He wanted a very basic sweater.  His choice suited me as well.  The sweater in the Back to Basics booklet has a zipper.  Neither of us wanted a zipper but this is the same pattern in an older booklet called Canadiana Raglans by Beehive which is a button front cardigan.  The trick is that the older booklet does not have the larger size that I need.  But I have both booklets and see no difficulty in making this sweater with buttons.

The colour of this yarn is somewhere between grey and brown depending on the light.  I think it will be beautiful knitted up.  The yarn was a special run for the 2014 Listowel Tent Sale.  It is no-name Patons Classic Wool.  If you know your brands, you can recognize the unlabeled yarn bargains at the tent sale.

To round up the 3 project plan, I started socks.  While rooting around in the stash, I found the baggies of sock yarn from the 2009 Sock Summit purchases.  I purchased Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up and was in love with her patterns.  I vowed I was going to make each and every pattern in the book.  I laid out the balls and skeins of sock yarn on the bed at home opened the book and asked each skein what it wanted to be.  I placed each in a zip lock bag with a note stating which pattern it chose.  I made three pairs of socks before other patterns took my fancy.  It started with a desire to make a hat.  I convinced myself that I would come back to the socks.  Well first the hat, then mittens, a sweater and as time passed the baggies in the stash were forgotten.

This is On Hold Socks.  The yarn is The Periwinkle Sheep Watercolour sock yarn in Fresh Lavender, chosen at random from the collection.  As this pattern requires some concentration it will be reserved for quiet time in the hotel room.

The knitting is done; I have started to assemble the poncho.

One more seam and the fringe still to go.  The stripes are growing on me.

Mohair Woes

I love mohair, I really do.  I love the halo.  I love how mohair takes up colour.  There is depth, tone and richness to any colour in mohair.  I absolutely become ecstatic over the sheen of a mohair fibre.  Working with mohair is an amazing experience.  But then there is always a "but".  

Mohair is miserable to rip back.  Fibres get everywhere.  Pink and purple fibres are covering the brown recliner.  I had to put T-shirts in the dryer with lots of fabric sheets to remove as much mohair fibres from the cotton as I could.  It is up my nose, in my hair and this morning I found the dog's water dish with a floating haze of mohair.  If I am ever kidnapped I hope I am wearing mohair.  There will be a trail of fibre to lead the police to the perpetrators no matter how much they vacuum the trunk.

The shrug is mohair and silk.  I carefully measured the rectangle before sewing up the sleeve seams.  I tried it on and then made each sleeve seam 2" longer.  It had to be right before I added the ruffle edging.  Mohair is notorious for being hard to rip back.  This fabric is doing something strange.  It is changing length and shape continually.  It was the right measurement before the ruffle.  It has grown.  My lovely niece B is modelling the shrug.  It should have fit her.  I think it is too big.  It now sort of fits me but I swear in another week it will be too big for me too.

I have asked B if she would like this item after the Fair.  If so, I will cut off the ruffle, lengthen the sleeves to narrow the back to fit her.  I have lots of this yarn left to reknit the ruffle.  If not, then I will find someone else who will fit the shrug.  It is really quite beautiful and weighs almost nothing.

The Elegance Poncho is also mostly mohair.  I am trying to blend four yarns in pinks and purples.  I am not sure I am succeeding.  I love this pattern.  I love each and every yarn I am using.  I also love each and every colour.  I am just not sure that they like each other.  I have completed the first panel.

There is triple striping going on.  There are three types of yarn each creating a type of stripe.  There are actually three colour themes going on.  Dark Pink, Wine and the mohair which was unlabelled as to colour but there are differing shades of purple in it.  There are also different textures knit into the piece creating their own striping effect. I think is it beautiful yet it leaves me a bit unsatisfied.  I am not sure why.  Maybe too many stripes?

On Saturday, my friend Connie and I took a trip to the Woodstock Fleece Festival.  We have been going together for several years now and we just have a blast of a time.  We used to leave early in the morning to get there right at opening.  We live 2 hours away from Woodstock so it was a very early start.  We would get there wait in line in the cold and the rain to get in.  The venue was crowded.  The vendors' booths had great selection but we could not get in them to have a good look around.  So the last couple of years or so, we leave later, stop and have lunch then get to the festival around 1PM.  We don't have the big crowds, we can get into the booths and browse and we can park closer to the venue.  We enjoy the yarn orgy so much more.

This year this was again our plan.  We were enjoying the drive and commenting on how lovely the weather was.  It did not look like rain.  The Fates love to mess with us.  Less than 10 minutes later we were in a snow squall being bombarded with graupel. Shortly after that we were at a standstill on the 401.  It took forever to exit at Putnam Road.  We made our way to Ingersoll where again we crawled along to the four way stop sign on the edge of town.  The 401 traffic headed south and we headed north.  It has been more than 20 years since I spent any amount of time navigating the streets and byways of Ingersoll.  I thought at one point we were correctly heading north but the compass on the dash of the car said west.  West was wrong.  The lovely app on my I-phone confirmed I was right and the compass was wrong.  We made our way to what used to be Highway 2 and which also happens to be the road we needed to get to the Fleece Festival.  The delay and detour put us in Woodstock almost an hour behind schedule.  Would there be any yarn left?

One of my favourite things about arriving at the Fleece Festival is the parking.  Parking is on the Woodstock Racetrack.  Any kid who watches hockey dreams of being the Zamboni driver when they grow up.  If you spend any amount of time watching horse racing, you want to be the pace car driver.  At least I do.  At Woodstock, I get to drive around the racetrack to find the perfect parking spot.  Sometimes I miss it and have to drive around a second time.  For that brief moment in time, I am the pace car driver; 8 horses and sulkies are following me until the barriers lift up and I accelerate out of their path.

Connie and I separate once we get there.  It is too hard to stay together but that does not mean we are not meeting up.  I like to scope out all the vendors and figure our what I want to buy before going back and actually making my selections.  I found Linda's Craftique who had a selection of Fleece Artist kits for the Elegance Poncho.  I checked them all out.  Did I want to start a second one?  I found Connie and took her back there for a second opinion.  I showed her a gorgeous blue and green combination that stunned us both with its rich colours.  I then pointed out a second combination as an alternative.  Connie took one look at it and said I had to buy it and I had to buy it now.  

The colour is labelled as Ebony.  C called it "Bark".  I call it "must cast on now".

Both C and I signed up for the next Stephen West Mystery Knit Along.  It calls for three colours of fingering weight yarn.  C had picked out a lovely combination from her stash but wanted to keep her options open.

I had picked out three as well but didn't like one of the colours with the other.  C didn't like it either.  I brought them along to pick out something better.  I went from booth to booth holding my two skeins against possible thirds.  Nothing was working.

Eventually I made my choice.

The two on the outer edges are from my stash.  The two in the middle are my choice from the Festival.  I bought two as the yardage was less than the other two colours and I wanted to be sure I did not run out.

I ran into Connie after buying the Hedgehog Fibres at Georgetown Yarn.  She at least was running.  I was sauntering along and thinking that I never win a door prize at these types of events when I heard them call C's name, looked up and there she was running towards me and asking where the red balloons were.  The announcer had said that prizes could be picked up at the red balloons.  She had won two lovely skeins of yarn.  I can't wait to see what she makes with them.

So, since we were together again, I showed her my Hedgehog. I thought she was going to faint she was so excited. Hedgehog!!!! Where did I get it!  She had to have some! So I took her to the booth.  She picked out three combinations for the Mystery Knit Along Shawl, plus a few extra.  C never under-does anything.

Here are my other purchases.

  Another skein of Hedgehog Fibres.  This one because it is speckled.  C kept saying on the way down that she wanted speckled yarn.  She did not have any in her stash.  Turns out I am very susceptible to persuasion.

I had to stop by Zig Zag Stitches.  Numerous people saw the bag I was carrying and asked if I got it there.  No, I made it myself.  However I did fall in love with the above project bag.  Now when I ask Hubby to pass me my sock bag, he will know which one holds the socks in progress.

C and I finally met up just before 4PM.  I asked if she was ready to head home.  Yes she was, she said, she was out of money.  Me too I replied and we headed towards the door.  C just had to introduce me to her new friends at Red Sock Blue Sock Yarn, an indie dyer.  I just had to have the linen project bag and then I accidently touched the Olive skein of 70% Baby Alpaca, 20% silk and 10% cashmere.  I could not let go.  I dug into my hidden cache of just in case emergency cash and they came home with me.

Here is C with the lovely ladies of Red Sock Blue Sock Yarn.

  Here are some other photos from the Fleece Festival.

I couldn't resist this skein of yarn.  The ladies at Dyed by Lindsay were so helpful trying hard but unsucessfully making a match for that third skein for the mystery knit along,  I just had to buy something.  This was too beautiful to pass up.

Progress Report

The Cowl is done.

The first 5 squares of the afghan are done and sewn together in a strip.  3 more strips to go.

I have added an Excel spreadsheet to the sidebar.  You can click on it to see progress on each project.  I will be updating it from time to time.

Yarn Story

My yarn speaks to me.  I hear their little voices from the Rubber Maid tubs in the basement.  "Knit me first.  I want to be a shawl.  I don't want to be a sweater.  Knit me now."

I find the voices hard to drown out in the quiet of the early morning when I wake up sweaty once again, another hot flash ruining a perfectly good solid sleep.  I lie there and tell the yarn to shut up.  If the Hubby is on Pelee Island, I simply turn on the TV to drown the yipping noise from the yarn.

I tell the yarn that yes, I will knit with you.  But I want to knit what I want to knit when I want to knit it.  Don't nag me.  Your turn will come.  But then I go out and the fibre in the store is new, exciting.  I am seduced by the curve of the skein.  The colour has never been so bright.  I am overcome with a warm glow (could be another hot flash, I can't tell the difference).  I don't care that I have lovelies already at home.  I have to have that virgin merino, polworth or alpaca.  I have no self-control.

The voices from this yarn were getting strong and making themselves heard over the din.

There are three yarns in those piles.  I purchased this yarn many years ago from Grand River Yarns.
The plan was to make the Simple Elegance Poncho from the book Knitting with Fleece Artist 2, The Yarn Garden.  I can't find a photo of the poncho but there is a photo of the Simple Elegance Afghan and the pattern is the same.  Just visualize half the afghan and the ends sewn to the sides to form a poncho.

I have tuned out their voices for a long time.  I love pink and purple but for the last few years I do not have these colours in my wardrobe.   I still don't. However, my boss does.  She says that she is willing to wait a year to receive it and wear it.

I located the yarn in my inventory records.  It was not hard.  They were the first entry.  That shows that I have had this yarn at least as long as my recording system.  More than 10 years I think.  Well, out it comes.  I take the pictures, separate the skeins and then I take a close look at the Curly Locks.  I swear a few times, pound the table and have a little cry.  I don't think I have enough of the Dark Pink Curly Locks.  I weighed the skein.  It is only 100 grams.  A regular skein is 125.  In fairness to Fleece Artist, I purchased the pink as a kit for another sweater because it had 2 of the three yarns I wanted.  I never thought to check if the kit had full skeins or only the amount needed for the kit sweater.   In 10 years the yarn stayed silent on its skinnyness.  I needed fat skeins.  Now what.  I booted up the desktop and started my search.  Confirmed the colour is discontinued.  Confirmed a standard skein is 125 grams.  Checked if any of the current colours could work.  The colour named Wine seemed like a likely choice.  Next step was to check if any of the yarn shops between home and my mother's place carried this yarn.

Hubby and I would be passing through London Ontario on the way to Thanksgiving dinner at my mother's place in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  I could not believe my luck when the Wool Boutique website showed they had one single skein of Fleece Artist Curlylocks in the colour Wine.  It would only add 45 minutes to our trip to detour to the shop.  I tried calling from the 401 before exiting but the shop was so busy on the Saturday morning no one answered.  I decided to chance my Hubby not speaking to me for the rest of the weekend if we got there and the skein was gone.  Luckily (or not depending on your point of view) he is still speaking to me.

I did check the skein colour to make sure it went with the other colours and I can't believe my good luck this weekend.  Right now this is making the top of my list for what I am thankful for.  I know I should have more profound things to be thankful for, and I am, but today this tops the list.

I did resist the siren calls of the other yarns in the shop.  It wasn't easy but telling Hubby I would be out in 5 minutes helped.

I finished casting off the shrug in the car.  Hubby drove again, letting me play with the needles.  I did not think the cast off would ever end.  I did not count the stitches but the circular needle was 24 inches long tip to tip, the yarn was thin and the needle was stuffed full of stitches.

The cast off took 5 hours but worth it for the lovely little ruffled edge.

I am waiting on the arrival of a niece later this afternoon to take final photos for you.  The shrug looks like nothing special photographed flat.  It needs a body inside to show off its charms.

40 left to go.

One Down

I am so excited.  I finished one entry.  Only 41 left to go!

Hubby took the photos.  I think he did a good job.  I have been trying to teach him good composition.  I did edit a little bit but I think cropping a photo to improve it is okay.  When he first starting taking pictures of me in knitwear, I would get a lovely photo of my head centered in the photo.  I would then have to explain I wanted a picture of the sweater.  I would then get a lovely photo of my breasts showing off the sweater.  The third time I would get a photo of all of me with these strange expressions on my face.  A still photo of a face while giving verbal instructions is never a pretty sight.

For those of you tuning in just in the hope of more motorcycle photos but without knitwear, enjoy.

I like to finish well.  Often it is the finishing details that takes a good knitwear into a great one.  Here is the detail of the finishing of the zipper installation.  I added grosgrain ribbon to hide the black zipper tape.  I think it finishes off the zipper nicely.

I can also hide the yarn ends in behind the zipper and ribbon.

 Also, I expect I will drive the car while wearing this sweater so I wanted a zipper that unzipped from the bottom.  Opening the zipper at the bottom helps keep the bottom edge from stretching out while sitting.

I thought you might like a picture of the pocket detail.

This is all that is left of the ball of yarn the lovely Tammy sent to me for the collar.

I am later in posting this blog this weekend.  My hubby and I took a trip to Stratford.  We were celebrating three milestones; my birthday, his birthday and our anniversary which falls between the birthdays.  We went to see the Alchemist and stayed overnight.

My Husband and I have been together for 22 years and still he manages to surprise me.  We were discussing what time we should leave on Saturday.  Stratford is about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive if stops are kept to a minimum.  I wanted time to check in to the hotel, have dinner and generally relax before the play.  He suggested we leave at noon.  I said great, the yarn store closes at 6.  He choked on his drink and said, "I didn't see that one coming".

Close Knit is a lovely little store in downtown Stratford.

We checked into the hotel and the receptionist said we had a cute suite with a fireplace.  I thought how romantic.  It was pouring rain out and a cozy fire would be just the thing to dispel the damp.  I saw the fireplace and could not stop laughing.

This isn't a fireplace, it is a child's toy.  Yes it gives off heat but no warmth.  See, no fear of damaging the knitting.

The shrug is about 3' long at this point.  The yarn purchases from Close Knit are holding the piece in place.  I got a lot of knitting done on the drive.  Hubby drove and I was grateful.  He prefers if I drive on long trips or where I know the route better than him.  I qualified on both counts.  After all I lived just north of Stratford 40 some years ago.

Earlier in September I dropped by Maclaren's to have my 2015 Harrow Fair photos printed.  Brad Maclaren had a film crew in to make a commercial.  He asked if I would mind being in his commercial.  If you blink you will miss the back of my head.  Feel free to laugh out loud if you want.  I can't stop giggling.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B55PypfC5HCgUE1rUXVIY1VUYUk/view?usp=sharing

I have finished another square for the afghan.  17 to go.  I wouldn't even bring it up if I didn't have a story about this one.  Last week I told you about knitting a square at the Essex 73's game.  Turns out I was so focused on the square not only did I miss all the goals, I also had the wrong team playing.  Last week it was Dresden not Blenheim.  On Tuesday of this week it was Blenheim.  I was working on a new square.  This time I did see all 4 goals - all for Essex.  Zip for Blenheim.  They thought they had two but sadly didn't.  Hubby made it to this game.  I thought the crowd was pretty tame for this one.  The yahoos who taunt the other team's goalie (and annoy me in the process) kept quiet most of the game.  The fellow who jumps up regularly shouts at everyone and pounds on the plexi-glass stayed seated and only turned to ask me if I was making a crying towel for the other team.  I rolled my eyes and kept on knitting.  Hubby suggested later that I could stop those sorts of comments if I went down, sat with the guy and proceeded to explain about the choice of yarn, colours, the Harrow Fair and my blog.  He would never ask again.

The game ended and on our way out of the arena, something happened that I have only ever heard about but never before witnessed.  A fight broke out in the crowd.  Not on the ice.  Not with the players.  This was spectators.  I  don't know what game offense started the altercation but I was a witness to the the shove and the punch.  I am not going to get into a discussion of violence associated with hockey.  Just suffice to say I was not impressed and I wish it hadn't happened and more over, I wish I hadn't seen it.  So what does this have to do with knitting you ask?  The game ended, my husband was ready to leave.  If we had gone then and there we would have missed it but instead I said "just one more row".