Finishing Up

 When I make socks or hats, I don't normally block them. The socks get blocked into the shape of your feet as you wear them. The hats are much the same, and a lot of the hats are acrylic anyway.

However, scarves and shawls are a different story.

Yesterday, I took 3 scarves/shawls and soaked them to block them. It turned into a bit of an adventure. After the water cooled, I saw that the water in the sink was bright turquoise. After 9 more rinses, this is what the water looked like.

Better, but still blue. My hands were also blue by this time. Hopefully it is surface dye, and it is all out now.

This is the culprit. 

It is a long skinny scarf, in a merino cashmere silk yarn. Lovely yarn to knit with. The pattern is called Valiant, by Clare Slade. I started it last May and finished the knitting yesterday. It's about 2 m long. This is the lace.

I also blocked Boublay. I started it in February of last year and finished the knitting in March.

its a little neckerchief with bobbles and a beaded edge. The yarn is Uneek Sock. I have the second ball from the sock set, so I can knit another.

The most neglected shawl is Sobriquet. I started it in February of 2024, and finished the knitting the end of March 2025. Since it is the same yarn as the hat I made 2 weeks ago, I thought I should block it to make a set,

This bear was a big help in modelling the shawls. She is a fashionista from a department store in Chicago. My sweetie saw her when he was there on business, and knew I would like her. Her head is the wrong size for hats, but shawls are her thing.

Time to pick a new project to cast on.

August Holiday Weekend

 The first Monday of August is a holiday "at local option" in much of Canada. It is called various things depending on where you live. In Ontario, each municipality gives it a name, so in Ottawa it is "Col. By Day" . Col. By was the engineer responsible for the building of the Rideau Canal. Without the Rideau Canal, Ottawa would never have been chosen as the Capital of Canada. The other sites recommended for the capital were considered to be too close to the US border. 

The summer has been cruising along. I have done a lot of knitting but not much else creative (unless you count making salads that use up the contents of our basket of CSA vegetables, every week). Last night we were watching fireflies in the backyard with our favourite small person.

I had two finishes in the past week.

This is the Get Set and Go shawl. Under the Olive Tree Knits is having a summer knit along, and I joined in again this summer. The pattern is on Ravelry and on her web site, free until the end of August.

Here is a closer view of the yarn colour. I have yarn leftover. Maybe some gloves to match.

I also needed some knitting for video chatting, so I made another pair of baby socks.

The yarn is leftovers from my April socks and is TurtlePurl in Joy. They are actually identical!

Solar activity this past week lead to some spectacular Aurora sightings. I live in the big city where the sky is too bright, but my son lives in Northern Alberta, far from the big city lights.

These pictures were taken early Tuesday morning and are used with his permission. I have seen the Aurora Borealis myself. When we first lived here our neighbourhood was at the edge of the city, but it has grown up around us. The pictures don't actually do them justice. They move and change constantly. My son said that these were like an umbrella over them so you saw them everywhere you looked.

 

Hobbies

 It is odd that sometimes you see the same topic come up in different places and from different sources, all on the same week. In the past week, the topic I keep seeing is placing a fair value on handmade items. There was a YouTube video, where the price of a hand made queen sized quilt was broken down. Then I saw a blog post on whether pattern testers, who provide their own supplies, and their time, should be paid to test a pattern that the designer intends to sell. Then I saw a post about the undervaluing of traditional women's arts. 

After reading and watching all this, I was asked the other day how much I would charge for something. My response was "This is my hobby, I love to buy nice yarn and pretty fabric, and make things from it. I enjoy giving my things away, to people that I know will appreciate them. I don't want to make this a business, where I have deadlines and and someone else decides what I will use to make something."  

When I was in high school, I took some knitting commissions. I was terrible at putting a value on my work and was happy to take what ever they were willing to pay me, as long as they provided the supplies. Now I am not an improvised student and I can do what I like. If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

So, what have I been doing lately? I knitted in the dentist's waiting room (while everyone else played on their phones). I also did some sewing, and some bag planning.

The "Shawl that never ends" finally got its ends sewn in and I got it blocked.

I tried it on and it is huge (that is a queen sized bed). I have sent it on its way to someone who thinks it is perfect.

I started a new shawl.

It has progressed a bit from when I took this picture.

I finished my first sock and started the second. 

I made a quick flannel blanket for a friends who are Ottawa Senators fans. It took longer to thread the serger that to hem the blanket.

I have also finished clue 1 and 2 of the Saturday Sampler bag for February.

A tiny bit more to finish on clue 3, that is for today.

Preparing

 Advent is defined as the season of preparing. I find my days have been filled with preparing lately.

In our tradition, the Advent candles, lit on the four Sundays before Christmas, are green, blue, yellow and red. This year, I found some cat proof candles, since setting fire to the cat is generally a bad idea.

I have LED candles that I can set to the colours. For Christmas, I will set out real candles, but these are much safer when I don't have anyone to guard them.

Many gifts have been sent. I can show you a few.

Two pairs of little socks were commissioned by a friend for her great-granddaughters. They are now on their way in Great Grandma's suitcase.

 The dog bandanas for this Christmas are in some silly fabric I found in my stash. My Christmas stash has been greatly depleted in the last few years, since I haven't been doing in person shopping.

I made this lace scarf back in the summer, and finally got it blocked. It is on the way to its new home.

This is a closeup of the lace border. The yarn is alpaca and silk in a lace weight, that was in my stash.

I was asked for a red hat, so this week, I made a red hat.

It is my favourite hat pattern, Bankhead. The yarn is Knit Picks Brava.

I did lots of baking to send to family that don't bake. For my baking I go for taste over appearance, so the shortbread is just rolled into balls and squashed with a fork. Add sprinkles and they look sort of Christmas-y.

We put up the tree, and Emme helped.

She really gets into her work!

I had a birthday and a creative friend made me this card.

It is very fancy, and very non-Christmas-y. I have gotten a lot of Christmas cards with Happy Birthday written in them, over the years. The colours in this card are more my style.

i hope to get some knitting and sewing done this week, The sewing has been lost lately.

The Shawl That Never Ends

 I am reminded of a campfire song: "This is the song that never ends, It just goes on and on my friends". At the end of July, 2021, I started a shawl. It was a kit for a Knit Along, and I fell in love with the yarns.

This was the first picture I posted. Somehow, I just decided that I should knit a shawl, in mohair and a very loosely spun merino, that was going to end up over 2metres long, entirely in garter stitch. By the time I figured out that it was not really going to be my thing, I had knitted enough stripes that I couldn't have salvaged that very expensive yarn. It seemed like a better idea just to ignore it. 

I finally told myself I couldn't start another shawl until this one was finished. And then, I just knit a lot of socks, and a couple of baby hats, but no shawls. September came, and along with it, a Fall Finish Along. So I did...Finish! 

As you can see, it is very long. It still needs to be blocked and have 40 or so ends woven in, but all those rows of garter stitch are done.

In celebration, I cast on a pair of socks, of course.

This is the first pair of Christmas socks. There are members of my family who love to get new hand knit socks for Christmas. I like the bright colours, and socks always seem to go faster if the yarn is striped.

Meanwhile, Mudd says he hasn't appeared on the blog, lately, so here he is, helping me knit, with a stolen package of pot scrubbers.

What's New Pussycat?

 This isn't actually about my adorable kitties who end up on here often. 

I finished a shawl, that I started back in September. I finished it on Sunday, casting most of it off during remote church.

Yesterday, I blocked it.

Sorry, I should have taken the picture from the other side so I didn't cast a shadow.

It is called "What's New Pussycat" by Jem Arrowsmith. 

Off the blocking boards.

My kitties are a bit wonky. I struggled with purl 2 together through the back loops. I got it figured out for the ears.

Oh well, I think they are cute.

The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss Fingering. The beads are from my stash.

Okay, I couldn't resist.

Where Did August Go?

Suddenly August is half over, and I have little to show for it. So I'll show you what has sort of been keeping me busy.

I started this shawl in early July. Just a little one skein shawl, but somehow, it didn't go as fast as I would have expected. 

It is really long so it was hard to take a picture. The others I have seen finished seem to have the same problem. I used some Stroll Glitter yarn that I had in my stash, and used 104 gm. of yarn (which meant I had to go into another skein).

The lace is quite simple so I don't know why it took so long. The pattern is Trail and Blaze by Jem Arrowsmith and is available free until the end of August.

The other bit of excitement is that we have retired from fostering cats and kittens and adopted our own kitties.

This is Mudd, who has already found a friend in my grandson.

Mudd is about 3 months old.

We also adopted Emme (pronounced Em-me) who is 10 months. She is a bit more cautious, and is currently residing behind the dryer.

Each day she is getting a bit braver, so I am sure she will join us soon. They already have their own Instagram account (@muddandemme) and will soon have more followers than I have. 

With school starting soon, I have masks to make again, so I need to get working on that.

Ursula

 

It is a balmy -15C. My friend Michelle dropped off some supplies and I asked her to show off my newly finished shawl for you.

This is a test knit for Rhyflower Designs and I don't know why I volunteer to test knit. I always end up having to push through at the end to finish on the designer's schedule. However, I am loving the shawl. It is large and bright, just the thing to wrap around you any time of the year.

I blocked it without pinning it. It came out just the way I wanted. It is 210 cm long so it is a big shawl. I used blocking mats and an old yoga mat to give me enough length.

This is a closeup of the lace, which shows the colours better. The yarn is a Merino sock yarn from a hand dyer in England called Under the Olive Tree. I ordered it from a shop called Knitting Needle Lane, in Cambridge, England.

The hot pink doesn't show very well in the pictures. Need to work on my photo adjusting skills.

It goes well with my azalea!

Still Knitting

 With furnace troubles and extreme cold, I find that I have spent most of the week, hiding under a quilt, knitting. 

My test knit piece is nearly done.

A closeup of the stitches.

The colour really provides a lift on our "Oh my goodness that is cold" days. 

No sewing got done. I had an idea for the Project Quilting Prompt 13.2. The prompt was silhouette and I think I will follow through with it, but it won't be done in time for the deadline of 2PM today.

Meanwhile, my plants are deciding to provide some cheer.

This orchid was a grocery store purchase, years ago. I only remember it flowering once before, after the original blooms were gone. I wonder what we did right this time.

The azalea was slated for trimming but it had other ideas.

Obviously, the secret to indoor flowers in Canada, in winter, is benign neglect. 

I Sewed Something!

 I've been avoiding my sewing room for weeks, but I saw something on another blog, last week, and had to try it.

From Sandra's blog MMM quilts, I saw these makeup bags.

https://www.mmmquilts.com/2021/08/makeup-bags.html

Since I have a bunch of charm squares and no plans for them, I grabbed 9 and started cutting. I have lots of batting scraps, so I got one of those, and some scrap fabric for the lining.

This is my version of Sandra's bag.

The other side.

Bottom

And the lining! My seams mostly match, my zipper is a nice contrast and the lining was a perfect match. These charm squares were a give away by Northcott from the AQS show in Syracuse, a few years ago. There were nine in the package. They were meant to become a little pouch.

I'd try a few more, but I don't know just what I would do with the pouches.

Meanwhile, the Birds of a Feather shawl is progressing.

It is going to be a long shawl.

And, a new foster cat has arrived. Say hello to Mia. 

She will be with us, until somebody sees her on the web, and decides she needs to live with them.