Back to making

There is more to add to our winter trip: Georgetown, which I loved so much, Singapore, and then Kuala Lumpur, which was everything I had expected when I planned our trip. I'll get back to it, but I also want to write about things I've been making for the past few months.

On the knitting side, I'm happy. I knitted not only one, but 2 pairs of socks! First pair was knitted in Asia; after trying so many times before, it finally happened, thanks to my new Knit picks rainbow wood DPN. These needles are perfect, not as slippery as metal ones, not as sticky as bamboo needles.

First pair

2nd pair

Pattern for both pair is Vivace from Sweet Paprika designs. I'm totally biased, since Elizabeth, one of the owners of that company, is the one who taught me to knit, but I just love how she writes her patterns, this one is very easy to follow for a first pair of socks. And I love the picots! 

Another thing I knitted is a pair of little converse for a baby. Both his parents love sports, so chances are that he will too! Patterns is this: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/converse-baby-booties, but I didn't find it that easy to follow, and I don't know why. I'll have to take a closer look at it before I try it again. 

And I just started Fuse, for the 5th or 6th time? But this time, having experienced socks, DPN don't scare me anymore, and I think that it's going to be ok. 

First sleeve

I've also been sewing. The dress I started last summer became my sewing class project, then was pushed aside while I made a tunic that I brought (and wore almost every day) in Asia. 

Comfy at the Singapore zoo

But now, I'm almost done with the dress as well. I might even finish it this week; I'm excited that I'll soon be able to wear it, since it will be perfect for spring. And I'm also excited about starting something new! 

I'd like to make myself a skirt and a few tops before I go on vacations at the end of June. 

Missing the hems and a few red buttons! 

But that's not it! I wove a little bit as well! 

I'm also done with the 3rd baby blanket. It's off the loom, and I'm working on the hems before I try to add a crochet border. 

I love the natural colours! 

And I started the 4th (and last) blanket: 

Time to plan new projects! Hurray! 

Fall

Hello,
I think that October is my favourite month of the year.  I love the colours, I love the weather that is warm one day, and cooler the next, so we can enjoy long walks outside as well as cozy, homey activities, such as making soups. I didn't realize how much I love October until last year, we were in Transylvania for 2 weeks in October, and it was a chock for me to be away from here.
I missed this:

Not that Transylvania is not full of trees in the fall, but they become yellow. Not orange, and not red. And I missed that a lot last year.

However, this year is a busy October, and I'm not taking advantage of it as much as I should. Today is Thanksgiving in Canada, and I've been so busy that I didn't plan anything outside of home for the weekend. I mean, I had plans, but they were not well thought out, and didn't happen. With the big trip coming, I don't mind that much, but for sure next year I want to rent a cottage and spend some time in the forest!

So, besides my busy work (sending funding proposals and bursary applications all over the place), I've been busy with the wine class (I love it, but I realize how much more there is to learn...), trying to to make it to all my yoga, zumba and pilates classes (not as successful I I would have wished when the semester started), trying to make things (not to bad, considering the little time I have to invest) and cooking things.

In the making things, I managed to finish these for little Victor, born in the Nederlands last week (a few days early, I must say, so for once, it's not my fault he didn't get them before he arrived!)

I now need to start a few more baby items (everybody is having babies around me. EVERYBODY!). I also want to start Fuse , a pattern I bought last year and didn't get around to start yet. This morning, I went to our weekly coffee gathering, and I did the swatch. I think I will like it a lot! And I love the yarn I bought for it.

Talking about our coffee gathering, I'm very proud to report that we got a few regular knitters joining almost every week, and that 2 of the new learners have completed, or are very near completion of their first F.O.! I'm just so proud...

The other thing I finished is the hem of this woven baby blanket. (to see the pattern, it's the picture above).

I've decided not to add a crochet edge on the blanket. The main reason is that I still don't know how to crochet. The 2nd reason is that I washed the 1st blanket, which shrank significantly. I knew it would, so it's not a problem, but I forgot to do the lace and attach it before I washed the blanket. Bad idea. I feel that by the time I try to figure out how to crochet, and calculate how much of the lace would shrink, etc. I will never send out the blanket. My dilemma was then: do I wait, and potentially never send those thing to the babies, or do I take a big breath, decide that the blankets are already quite nice, and send them so they can actually be used?
I chose option 2, and the 2nd blanket is currently being washed so I can send it out tomorrow.

I guess I'll be perfect in another life...or with another baby. Meanwhile, I will try to start my next blanket this afternoon, to get back into the weaving mood.

More news soon! Have a good week!

In need of vacations

Well, first thing I want to say is that life is good again! After a very intensive week training the person who replaced me at the university chiropractic clinic, I'm now finally back in my quiet research jobs. It's still 2 jobs, and it is still not permanent, but at least, it's only 2 jobs with 1-year contracts, the longest I've had in a few years (including the last jobs I had in Montreal). It makes such a difference, although I still need to rest from the 4 last months' craziness. I don't seem to be able to get that at home. I just look around and get depressed about the house and everything I should be doing in it. But then I have no energy to do it. So I get more depressed.

The knitting, sewing and weaving also suffered from this lethargy.

For example, I knit those baby booties at the speed of the light, because I wanted a friend to bring them in Hungary at the end of March to give to a friend who is expecting. But something went very wrong..I did not notice anything before I almost gave them to him. The plan is now to knit a 2nd one for each of them. While in vacations.

I also started a little kimono for another friend who was expecting (she had a beautiful baby boy last weekend). It's an easy knit, which I keep fixing, because I seem to have forgotten how to read instructions. Or that there are instructions to be read. I don't have a picture here because I can't find the bag in which it is. Vacations, vacations...please come soon!

I missed about 3 sewing classes in the past month, between Washington and a meeting. So when I went back this week, I was wayyy behind everybody else, although one of the things I love about this course is that everybody can go at their own rhythm. The other excuse I have for being behind is that I had to do everything twice so far, mostly because we had to modify the pattern to fit me after the first try, but also because I can't seem to be able to sew straight anymore. I have to admit that I am a little bit happy that we had to modify the pattern, because I have been complaining my whole life that nothing fits on my unexistant shoulders, and this seemed to have proven my point.

Looks more like a pyjama than a blouse, I know

Did I show you my beautiful fabric, and the beautiful buttons I found to go with it?

I can't wait to wear it, and I feel I should knit something to go with it. I'm thinking about this or this. What do you think?

The good news of the week is that after about a month, I finished warping my loom, and started to weave a little bit.

It's a baby blanket for the baby that was born last weekend. I better hurry if I want him to get it before he enters kindergarten! It's a beautiful pattern, easy to follow, but I still need calm and quiet so I don't get confused between the treadling. Can you see the mistake I made already? The problem is that in our new house, the loom is facing the TV. So I got totally distracted when my man started watching it while I was weaving. I will try to weave with ear plugs, so see if it makes a difference, but it is something I already wrote down as having to change when we redo the basement.

a mistake, already :-( 

So, really, I need vacations. I can't keep working like this, one stitch/one mistake.

The only thing that can help is a little trip, and I am looking forward to Paris a lot! I think that the fact that it was not planned, nor even part of my bucket list makes it even more exciting. I mean, of course, I'm happy to go to Paris for a week, but it is not in my top destinations, so I have no expectation, and no plan, except for having a "café-crème", and a glass of good wine.

Well, of course, I started to make a list of interesting stores to visit. Most of the addresses I found here. I looked around, and most stores seem to still be open (the post is from 2009).

But there are still 17 days before I leave...Hopefully that means about 40 inches of baby blanket, but I suspect it will be 17 days of mistakes. Until then, I'm going to go play in the snow, because, yes, of course, we are getting 5 to 10 cm of snow today. It's a very wintery spring, this year. Meanwhile, in Paris, they are expecting 23 degrees this weekend. Imagine in 17 days!

Back to my normal mistakes

I was able to weave and knit a little more this week, slightly stressed by the fact that a loom has to be moved, and a baby will soon come. I'm not even going to talk about my future peasy, there are too many other priorities right now. Such as 5 expecting friends. 5. Five. Cinq. What??? (Well, as of Monday, it is actually 4 expecting friends, and a newborn).  How did that happen? Where did I meet all these baby-makers??? Fortunately, they're not all close friends, and some probably don't know I knit, and don't expect anything, but on the other hand, I find that one of the greatest pleasures of knowing how to knit is to be able to give people special presents. I'll see what I can manage to do, I've been having a lot of insomnia lately, I could put that time to good use.

Talking about baby knit, I got a little further with my cardigan. I'm even learning to knit with double pointed needles for it, happy to know that I will eventually be able to use that skill for a future pair of socks. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at keeping all my stitches on my needles, and currently, after I almost lost it yesterday, the cardigan looks like this:

Not too bad, except for this:

There is a whole in my sleeve :-(

I'm not sure what to do, so I'm using my favourite strategy, which is to leave it aside until tomorrow morning, when I'll have a clearer mind, and will be able to TINK it. (I just learned that word from a very funny video I discovered this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Tx32hwJ28&feature=share.)

Meanwhile, in weaving land, all is good. I was able to start and weave over 20 inches of piece #3, and I think it is my favourite pattern so far. It is also an easy pattern, but very quick to weave because there are several different  steps in the treadling (It's goes much faster if I check how many more inches I have after doing 2 or 3 times a six-step treadling, than if I check after 2 or 3 2-steps one). I know, I'm not patient, but I'm on a deadline!

End of previous piece, beginning of the new one. It's crazy what the difference the pedals' order can make! 

Details of the new piece. I love it.

 And here is the system I described in my last post, for the broken threads.

I can manage how long I want the correct thread to be.

The weights in the recipient help keeping the right tension.

My goal is to finish the baby piece and this 3rd woven piece for Monday. I have a meeting with my Farmers' circle on Monday, where we usually bring our F.O. to share with other crafters, and I've been able to bring something in November, January and February. I would really like to have something to show at each meeting until the end of the year (June). Hopefully I'll have woven bags for the last meeting!
Until then, I hope to have something new for the next post, this is getting redundant!