Holidays

I'm hoping you're all having peaceful and warm holidays; I sure am. The heat wave we're experiencing right now sure beats the Siberian nightmare we've been in the last couple of weeks. Although there's something to be said for surviving -38 with a wind chill of -1,000,000,000. We Albertans are a tough breed if nothing else.

My husband decided on the 23rd that we should forget about time and just relax and get things done in as leisurely a fashion as they could be. This is an entirely new stance for him and it shows his growth this year. Me and my ADD brain rejoiced in this idea. We got done what had to get done and had a great time doing it. On Christmas Eve, we got a visit in with a special knitterly friend of mine. That was awesome and I hope we can make it an annual tradition.

I've made great head-way with the shawl; I got through the edge of the first side, through the point (with a great deal of phone advice from the aforementioned knitterly friend), and am now almost done the second and last edge. I'm a little nervous about whether my edge lace will end where it should when the shawl edge ends. I'm letting the plan for that percolate for a bit.

I've also been moving forward with the Mrs. Beeton's Wrist Warmers. I've got the two bells for the first one almost complete. This is my first beaded project, and I really like how the beads look with the yarn. Perhaps a future shawl will include beads.

(Click to embiggen to see the beads.)

I'm going to visit my alpacas today. I didn't bother when it was so bitter out; I know their fleece is keeping them toasty warm. I hope to do some spinning today. I've been wanting to get at the wheel, but the busy-ness of the last couple of weeks prevented it. I'm spinning some corriedale that is dyed a hunter green (purchased at Pam's Woolly Shop). I'm trying to spin my rovings in the order I purchased them which means it'll be a while before I can get to the lovelies that I bought at Celeigh Woolen Mill. But then again, this wheel spinning is so fast compared to spindle spinning. It may not be so long after all.

Next up are the Snowbird Mitts using this yarn.

When my shawl is done I'm going to start my Agatha. Can't wait for that. The Mission Falls is calling her name.

More about my New Year plans soon.

Dec. 14, 2008

My knitting of late: I'm putting the edge on my red Snowdrop Shawl. It's lovely, and easy, but soul-suckingly s-l--o---w. When I need a break from it I work on Mrs. Beeton's Victorian wristwarmers. They're going well, but looking humongous right now. I'm hoping they'll be right in the end; could that be the sound of knitter's denial? I'm too deep in it to pull my head out of the sand just yet. Knitterly denial truly runs deep, eh?

I hoped to debut the shawl at Mo's party last night, but I didn't get it finished. Her party was awesome. We had a great time, met lovely people, and enjoyed watching kids, who were ramped to the max with Christmas excitement. We look forward to next year's party. And Mo and Rick did a dance demo; they glid (my new past-tense version of glide) around the floor as if on air. I took ThatLoganChick's advice and used my triangular shawl swatch as a boobage shawl and tucked it in my bra so it would show under a green blouse. Worked great!

Then I hoped to have the shawl finished to wear to Anne's party tonight, but that's not going to happen either, sigh... (Anne is the woman who drove us to Medicine Hat and trailered Mac home. She rocks.) Now I'm hoping to wear it Christmas day. I think I can manage that goal. There it is again...the distinct sound of denial...did 'ya hear it?

I did a stash dive and came up with 100 gms of Welsh-made Prism worsted from Colinette yarns to make the purl arrows hat. It's calling me constantly. And I love it when I can shop in my own stash instead of spending more yarn dollars elsewhere. It's not like I don't support my LYS's. Hell, I should have partial ownership in them by now. I do love my LYS's.

Back to Knitting

Ok. Enough about horses already. On to more knitterly business.

TA-DA!!!!

My first handspun yarn on my wheel! This is 134 gms of lovely and natural corriedale, spun from roving bought from Marg at Celeigh Woolen Mill near Millet, Alberta. I spun it on my wheel and plied it on ThatLoganChick's Spinolution. Wow, her wheel can ply a load of singles. I'm waiting for this yarn to tell me what it'll be; I think mittens, but I'm not sure yet.

I'm moving forward with the Mrs. Beeton's wrist warmers. Pics to come soon.

I finished the Yellow Harvest Mitts (Vogue Knitting Fall 2008). My daughter is modeling them "Jennipoo" style. Thanks for the help Jennifer (of Nennie Knits). Jennifer gave me some assistance with the chart 1 for this pattern, as she had completed a pair already. We sat together at the Make One Knitting Retreat Pajama Party, where a good time was had by all.

Why are the cuffs so long you ask? Because I mistakenly knit 3 repeats of the cuff instead of 2. All the warmer I say. I'm loving making mittens. Jennifer introduced me to the Snowbird mittens, also in Vogue Knitting Fall 2008, so those are the latest mittens I'm gaga over. Really Jennifer, I'll stop copying everything you knit...really...

Miranda played in her high school band's Christmas concert this evening. This concert band and the jazz and stage bands at this school are absolutely amazing. They win top honours in every competition they participate in. In September the stage and jazz bands were invited to compete in an international music festival in Grimma, Germany. They were the only high school bands competing with adult bands from many countries around the world. They kicked butt as they always do. Miranda is in the concert band. I videoed one of their numbers tonight, but Blogger is not cooperating with me trying to add it to this post, and I'm not geeky enough to have it do my bidding. Yet. Stay tuned...

More Mac and Cheese

Mac is settling in to his new home nicely. He's learning where his place is in the pecking order, but I figure eventually, since he's the biggest guy out there, he'll do allright. I thought I'd post this first picture to show how he's taller at the shoulder than my daughter is at her full height. And he's only 2...he could grow for a while yet. I call him my Steady Eddie, because he's so relaxed and easy going. And he's got a sharp and willing mind.

Bringing Mac Home

Miranda and I spent the last two days in a truck traveling to Medicine Hat and back to fetch our big boy Mac. We were driven there by our friend Ann, and Miranda's coach, Diane. Ann kindly offered her truck and trailer to go get him. It was so kind of her and we had a great time with them both. Mac really didn't want to get in the trailer, but eventually he got over himself and walked in. He traveled fairly well for a two-year-old. He's been in trailers before, but not this trailer which had all new scents.

He's so laid back; when we got to our barn, he strolled out like an old pro and took to the new place easily. We're off to check on him this morning. We had such horrible winds yesterday, and we were worried about leaving him outside in the dark in such gales, but he's got a thick winter coat and where he's from he experienced lots of wind.

I got some good knitting done on the trip. I was able to get past the first chart on the yellow harvest mittens.

They're turning out quite narrow so they'll probably go to Mary up in Inuvik.

The pattern is lovely, so I may try to make a bigger pair for me when these are done.

Mary is leaving today, which makes us all really sad. She'll be in a semi-truck with her dad for the five-day trip back to Inuvik, which includes traversing the Dempster highway and its ice road. It sounds scary, but he's a seasoned truck driver and they've traveled this road many times.

We got the chance this visit for me to teach her how to knit. She's a bright girl and she learned quite quickly. She's taking home some needles and some practice yarn in a few colours. What better hobby than knitting in Inuvik in the winter. I hope it will get her through the truly dark days of winter.