Close to my Heart

What blog?

Wow, I think that is truly the longest blog break I've taken yet!  Hopefully this blogging thing won't continue to be something I do on a quarterly basis.  Longtime readers will remember that I'm a big spring/summer girl, and what with today being the first day of spring, I forsee much more blog fodder as the temperatures continue to warm and I can once again spend time outdoors.  We'll see though, I won't make any promises.

Let's see, where to catch up on life here in the last amost three months?  My zumba obsession continues.  I attend four or five classes each week as well as one bellydance class.  As a result knitting time has decreased greatly, occuring for the most part on weekends only.  Add to the mix some long overdue home renovations, and the upheaval of that has meant I haven't spun in a few months either.  Soon though.

This past week, the nasty cold bug that I thought I had avoided all winter hit me.  I took two days off from work (I hadn't taken a sick day in over two years) and was unable to attend my beloved zumba and bellydance classes. I did however learn to slow down again, and spent some relaxing hours reading and knitting.  As a result, I have an actual finished object to show you, a pair of monkey socks:

Ravelled here.

Well I think I'll end this post.  I could go on about zumba, but I'll spare you that for today.  I do reserve the right to make a zumba post in the near future though.  I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better now, and am excited to get back to my activities this week.  Yeah!

74

is the number of days you have left to complete your Christmas knitting.   On that note, I'm going to run and hide as soon as I post this, since I don't want anything thrown at me!  I admittedly don't have  a large number of people on my Christmas gift giving list, and even less of whom will receive hand knit items.  I do however love to knit socks for my Dad, he loves the ones I've given him previously and I know he wears them.   Here's this year's pair:

Yarn and pattern info can be found on the Ravelry project page here.

I still blog sometimes....

Wow, I think that is the longest I've ever gone without blogging since I started!  I think Facebook and Twitter have taken away any blog fodder I actually have had, much easier to write a sentence or two than an actual blog post.  As well, my new active lifestyle takes a fare bit of time.  By the end of tomorrow, I will have exercised every single day for five weeks.  I'm also trying to spend just a little less time online, and more time reading actual books (remember those?).

Not sure if my blogging will become any more regular, but I'm here now anyway.

I have a few fibery things to show you tonight.  In honour of Tour de Fleece, I pulled out my Lendrum for the first time in months.  We enjoyed spending some quality time together, and turned this pretty roving

 

Into this:

 

I haven't checked the wraps per inch yet, but there's over 500 yards and I'd estimate it at being heavy fingering or DK weight yarn.

In the last few days, I've been on a bit of a sock knitting marathon, thanks to being on my annual summer vacation.  I finished both second socks to the first socks I showed you in my last post those many weeks ago.

First, these are the Port Ludlow socks, which are Ravelled here.

 

And these are the Longjohn socks, Ravelled here.

 

Tomorrow I'm off to Vancouver to visit my sister and enjoy the city.  Am also looking forward to a fun filled yarn crawl with my friend Uli.  Not sure that I'll be blogging my adventures in the city, but I'll definitely be tweeting, since I always have my iPhone with me.  If you're interested in joining along, I tweet as closetomyheart.  My tweets are protected, but if you mention that you know me from the blog (you'd be surprised at all the spammers who think I should friend them there) I'll happily add you.

Until next time, whenever that may be. 

A mid-June blog post

We're almost halfway through June, yet this is my first post for the month. I think my crafting and blogging mojo have both suffered this month. Nonetheless, I did graft both toes on a pair of socks this weekend:

 

 

Well they may not be matching socks, but they are both patterns from Knitspot. On the left is the Longjohn sock (a great simple pattern) and on the right is the Port Ludlow sock.  The Port Ludlow is quite simple too, but not quite as mindless as the Longjohn.  I'm enjoying both of these patterns and cast on for both second socks this afternoon.

We've had a rather wet and cloudy spring here this year and therefore I haven't spent quite as much time outdoors as I would like to by the time June rolls around.  The weather forecast for the week ahead is much more promising, so hopefully I'll be outdoors much more as July approaches.  Today I ventured down to the local Farmer's Market for only the third time this spring.  It was kind of windy so I was quick, but did manage to bring home this:

Salad mix, cilantro, homemade bread, and smoked salmon. Meals today included a bit of each item, yum!

Fear not!

Some things in life, particularly in crafting, need not be feared.  Nevertheless, there were and are things that I do fear.

One thing that I feared was set in sleeves.  I'd see a pattern I liked, realize that the sleeves were set in, and quickly eliminate said pattern.  Turns out that I had nothing to fear.  Case in point, "Hey, Teach," my first garment with set in sleeves.  I did my homework prior to seaming, and found this Berroco video very helpful. Turns out that set in sleeves aren't difficult at all!  Project details here.

 

Something else that need not be feared is the disappointment over a project that is not quite right, because blocking does indeed help.  The top of this little shrug curled, and after crocheting, I was very disappointed and almost ready to frog.  I thought I should try blocking it first though, and blocking did indeed prevent the curling from happening.  Details ravelled here.

And finally, something else that should not be feared is that knitting plain vanilla socks will lead to major boredom.  If you use fun self striping handpainted yarn, they will knit up in no time.  Details including yarn source are here.

Thanks

so very much for the support for my post weight loss shopping expedition, and the congrats as well.  I've gotten rid of the guilt and am enjoying wearing my new clothes.  Today I bought myself a new two piece bathing suit. I think the last time I wore a two piece I was about 10 years old, just a few years back!  Not sure if I have the nerve or not, but $9 on sale for a really nice suit, it's worth a try.

Today I have some socks to show you.  These were a long time being completed.  I cast on during the Olympic closing ceremonies (over two months later I'm still so sad they are over, still never want to forget the awesome experience the Olympics were for me) but they seemingly saw very little knitting time.  In the time it took me to finish these socks I completed two shawls, a shrug, two baby sweaters, and a cardigan (which you will see in my next post).  Here's the pics, I had fun playing with a collage maker for the first time.

 

Ravelled here.  Back soon to show you my new cardigan.

A week later....

Well, post Olympic withdrawal and re-entry into work life has been a bit of an adjustment.  Almost a week later, I'm still sad the Olympics are over.  Anyhow, I'm late in blogging about the other significant event of February 2010, the Ravelympics.  I competed for Team Manic Purl, and ended up completing two events. 

The first was the Sweaterboard Cross:

For this event, I knit Leisl. 

It was a quick knit, completed in about a week of after work while engrossed in the Olympics knitting.  Not the favourite sweater I've ever knit, but do love the colour and it will be a great spring and summer sweater.  Details can be found here on my Ravelry project page.

The second event I completed was the Sock Hockey Event.

 

For this I knit the February Lady socks, however adjusted the pattern to knit toe up with a short row heel.  I started these during the ferry trip to Vancouver for my second visit to the Olympics.  I knit them at my sister's condo during breaks from the festivities, and finished them at home the final day of the Olympics.

 

Again, specific details about this project are on it's Ravelry page.

In the post Olympic week, I've started a pair of plain vanilla socks that live in my purse (got a new purse that I should show you too, there's a suprise!!), and completed one baby sweater and started another.  Major baby boom here at the moment, but I'll show you those items another day.

I'm baaack

Evidently I've moved away from the daily picture post thing.  I'll blame it on the January blahs.  While I'm not going to commit to returning to the daily post thing, I do have a number of posts planned for the coming week.

Today's post is about finished objects.  Yesterday I finished my first pair of socks for 2010.  These are toe up vanilla socks.

 

Yarn is from a local indie dyer, Sweatermaker, and is available from Fun Knits.  This particular yarn is a blend of 15% Bamboo, 15% Silk, 10% Nylon, and 60% wool.  It's so soft and was a complete joy to knit with.  The finished socks are lovely and soft, I hope the nylon will make them wear well.

And finally, today I was able to take a post blocking picture of Damson, so have that to show you as well:

 

If you look really closely you can see a kitty in the upper right corner.

This second picture shows the colour a bit better, as well as how I stage many of my pictures during the winter months. And of course Frisbee is again part of the action.

Back again in a day or two!

FO Catch Up

I've certainly neglected the blog these last couple weeks.  I'd planned a big catch up post, but that just seemed too overwhelming and it appeared that wasn't going to happen. Instead I've decided to do a couple shorter posts to bring the blog up to date with what's been happening for me.  I'm back to work this week so might as well get back to the morning blogging routine.  This post will bring you all up to date with a couple completed projects.

My final knitted Christmas gift was a pair of Dashings made for my Brother in Law, a photojournalist who will be covering the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.  Picture these being used on the streets of Vancouver and various Olympic venues come February 2010.  These were a fairly enjoyable quick knit.

 

Also over the Christmas break, I knit a pair of socks for myself.

They're toe up garter rib socks knit with Koigu, and Ravelled here.  The no wrap/no yarnover short row heel I talked about a while back makes short row heels so much more enjoyable, and Jeny's suprisingly stretchy bind off is excactly what I've been wanting for a long time.  I think I'll be on a toe-up kick as we enter 2010, in fact I have another pair on the needles already!

New Techniques

I'm safely at my parents place now.  I came a day early because of impending snow.  Tomorrow we drive to Victoria, Dad's surgery is Wednesday.  Hoping the forecast is correct and that the snow that we are waiting for (which already hit at home but not yet here 90 minutes south) turns to rain.  Nor sure if I'll be able to continue this Photo 365 while away with the parents, or even through the holidays.  I return to work December 29th, and plan to stay and help my parents following my Dad's surgery and through Christmas.

Anyhow, over the weekend I quickly knit up a pair of socks for my Mom, using the yarn leftover from the cowl I just made her.  I knit toe up to make use of every last bit of yarn.  I also used two new techniques that I highly recommend.  First, the short row method explained on this youtube video was awesome.  It's a non wrap, non yarnover method, and I'm using it from now on.  Second, Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off totally rocks, and Cat Bordhi's video brings it to life.  Fun trying new techniques!

I snapped pictures of the socks while getting packed at home this morning.  Not great light, nor did I have much time to fuss with presentation, but here they are.  Oh, and that's garter rib on the sock leg.

Yarn is dyed by local indie dyer Sweatermaker, who I've mentioned before, as recently as yesterday.  Great stuff available from Fun Knits.

I'll be back to the blog when I can.