I have big plans

Due to the large number of papers and absurd flock of quizzes I seem to be ploughing through these days, my poor knitting is suffering.
I am starting to doubt that I am going to make this so-called "December 25th deadline" everyone seems to be chattering about.
Sigh...
Since I have no actual knitting to show, I shall show you what is GOING to be knit.

About two weeks ago, I took my little car over the bridge and bought this.



From here.



To make this.



All this Christmas knitting is making me greedy. I want to actually keep something that I knit holy smokes! Don't count on seeing this cast on though for... quite some time.
I'll let you know when the day comes.

Oh, and before I forget.
Do you have any idea who I am going to be eating cheese and sipping wine with on sunday?
Here's a hint.

Well aren't I posh?

Swell Enough Socks

You know Christmas is coming, and you know that school is getting busy when I start to crank out the socks. I am just ploughing through them... Some, admittedly are Christmas gifts which I suppose I will not post for now (maybe sneak them in a little later and pretend they're for me) but most of the socks coming off the needles these days, are for me.
I just had this overwhealming urge to spruce up my sock wardrobe a tad.
Now, don't get me wrong... I have plenty of wool socks. Handknit no less and I'll give you a glimpse of them someday... but not today dear friend. Not today.
Today is for my latest accomplishment out of this yarn. (this is kind of like a "Where's Waldo")



I have found myself drawn to far more subdued colours as of late.
I was always the first to gravitate towards the electric pink and shocking yellow sock yarns, but I have come to realize that when I wear those socks, I have to coordinate my whole outfit around, MY SOCKS.
That's crazy.
I know.
I feel like... I could be the only one that does that, but maybe I'm wrong.
In any case, when I saw sock yarn that was simply black and white, suggesting that I could be sporting zebra striped socks... I went bananas.
It's a more subdued sort of zany.
Right?
Black and white go with everything. But it's animal print.
I love.
It's probably just a phase though.
I'll be back in my hot pink socks in no time.

And here you have it.
Zebra.


In the meantime, I have been chugging along on some socks out of this yarn...

That currently look like this.


In regards to the comment that Helga left asking what exactly a "Daddy sweater" is... I came up with this.


"Daddy sweaters" are what our fathers wore when we were wee tykes and we associate these sweaters with them. Just because they wore them when we were wee tykes does not necessarily mean that they are out of style, they are just what our dad's wore. They're classic. Those sorts of sweaters were also worn by our mothers, our grandmothers, our aunts, our uncles... but we just call them "Daddy sweaters". What kids want to wear to "be more like dad". At least, that's the kind of sweater I was aiming for when I knit it for dear Maggie.

Kind of like when my brother was a kid and he had a toy car that loosely resembled this one.

It was referred to as his "Daddy car" although my dad has never owned a red car and at least in my brother's memory, has never driven one that really even looked like that. It was still his "Daddy car" none the less.
Come to think of it... I don't think my dad ever owned a sweater that even really looked like the one shown above either...
You get the point though.

The Baby is in Brown

I marched on home to Ontario for the weekend from Halifax, Nova Scotia to see the loved ones, eat a decent turkey and not feel weird about loitering in a wool shop. My-oh-my am I ever glad I went. Weather was perfect... Turkey was divine... The company, always entertaining.
One little friend in particular.

Meet Maggie, in the "daddy sweater" that I knit for her before she even graced this dear earth. I had yet to see it on her and I am glad to see that it she is putting it to good use. It's that time of year when most everyone in Canada needs a "daddy sweater".
Please note the crispy leaves in which Maggie is posing in.

Yarn: Pingouin "Le Yarn".
Pattern: A King Cole pattern I've long since lost track of.

I was going to knit yet another pair of socks this evening, but I think that I have convinced myself that everyone really does need a "daddy sweater". I'd better cast on. I don't have one yet.

More on what I've been knitting recently soon, soon, soon.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope that your turkey, weather and company was as lovely a combination as mine.

Felt for feet

I had the best of intentions when I bought the Cascade 220 for these lovely and always reliable felted clogs last week. I was going to get started on those Christmas gifts that I have made a million mental notes of. I was going to be one step closer to being done. Make less stress for myself when the season rolls around. You know???
So, I knit the giant things...

And I felted them...


and then when I put them them on and my roomate exclaimed how they matched my outfit today perfectly, how could I honestly put them in "to gift" pile?


I mean really.
Of course they're for me. They were all along.

I've gotta block those blocks

I finally get this thing up and going and what do they do??? They take away my internet.
Sigh...
Well, at least it gave me a week of pure knitting and erm... school work?

So, here's the dirt. I started a blanket in the summer while working at my mom's shop Mary's Yarns in Unionville, Ontario. (Ok, so we may not have our own website yet but please bear with us. We're knitters. Not web-wizards.) We began what became informally known as "the block a month club" where we knit a square each month out of Manos del Uruguay, the goal being that in a year, each person would have a 12 square blanket. The pattern is the Four Seasons Throw and I just picked two colours... the two colours that just weren't moving from the shelves. Customers... I mean REALLY! Where IS your taste??? I think that this would look stunningly gorgeous in just about any living room, draped over the neon pink couch we all have in there. I quite truthfully am utterly thrilled that I landed these fantastic two colourways because believe me... one day, I WILL have a neon pink couch, and this blanket will look GREAT. You'll be sorry.

So, the blanket is actually knit in strips but to keep is easier to cart around with us, we decided to knit it in squares. This is what I have so far. 10 beautiful blocks in my stairwell.


I just got this sudden burst of energy to get this thing into the final stretch this week and so I cranked through 3 squares. I would love to have it done by Christmas and at this rate, it's most definately possible. I know I will indeed put off the sewing together of it for quite some time though. It's the knitting that I love! Not the sewing...
As I look at it though, I don't think that I will be getting to the sewing of it until Christmas anyways. One quick look at the next image and you will see why I desperately need to borrow my mother's blocking wires.


Wow. Yeah. I know. I am going to have to block the living you-know-what out of these blocks to make them all even. Well, I have faith. And if that doesn't work, I'll just have 12 zany cushions to give away for Christmas.

My dishes are gonna be soooo clean

Meet my new obsession.
I don't know what it is about these. These Mason Dixon dishcloths are addictive little things! Wow. Could it be that they can be whipped up in an evening? Could it be that they are terribly useful? Could it be that you can get the yarn is such phenomenal colours to spice up your otherwise plain-soft-green kitchen? Who knows!?!? But over the past few weeks I have been cranking these things out like dishwashers are going out of style.
They make great little gifts and are ever-so-useful.
I knit things in obsessive crazes and this appears to be one of them. My usual sock fetish seems to have subsided for the time being but I have faith that once the Christmas season rolls around, I will hop right back on that bandwagon.

So, having knit numerous, numerous dishcloths as of late, I decided to switch it up the other night. I just didn't want to stop knitting and at the end of the evening... I ended up with THIS.


See what I mean??? It's SO FUN. Ugh.
There is a significant size difference between this lovely creation and the above ones and it is...
SO handy! Wow. Just wow.

While strolling through a Value Village in Quebec City last summer, I stumbled across a fantastic bag of buttons for a whopping $1.99 and of COURSE splurged. What did I find in that little bag of buttons you ask??? This wonderful vintage creation.


I think that in this case, you may have to trust my word and not my camera on it... but it's just as wonderful and vintage-y as you had hoped. I'm sure of it.

So ladies and gentlemen, I think that I have found a use for that whopping bag of buttons.
Place your orders now.

Some of my creations...

Here are some pics of my most recent creations to get this knitting-blogging party started.
Much, much more to come.
Until then, happy knitting.