Knitting Musclemom

Socks and Lace

So there are three things to report on in the knitting happy land:

1) Wee Tiny Sock Swap 2008

I don't do swaps; I get all excited by them at the time, then I procrastinate and run out of time, and then I get all panicky and resentful about the imposed deadline. Then I never know if the recipient is really happy about what she/he received or whether they are being merely polite. I mean, after all, you can't really insult someone who has made something for you, even if you hate it -- that would be cruel and totally horrible. But I couldn't resist when I saw the Wee Tiny Sock Swap; a couple of hours of knitting and a deadline that was immediate, so it did not give me the opportunity to lose my enthousiasm. I actually knitted the sock on Friday, waited for the info regarding my sock pal, and posted it on Sunday to somewhere in Alabama:

 

Some of you may recognize Meg's Twisted sock yarn in the Karma colourway, left over from the pair of Dolomite socks I just finished. It's so cute! I inserted it in one of Cindy's lovely Knitting note cards and off it went to its recipient who will, I hope, have the patience to wait for Canada Post to send it by horseback to the U.S. Actually, more like turtleback, considering how slow the mail is.

2) I am test-knitting a sock pattern for Sockaholic Katie. It's going well and the pattern is easy to knit. I chose for it a finer sock yarn, Fearless Fibers in the Coral Pink colourway:

It doesn't look like much now, but I will post more pictures once I have finished this sock.

3) A Year of Lace (careful -- SPOILER!)

I received my first delicious shipment, it just arrived! Lovely Claudia Handpainted 100% silk lace and a pattern by no less than Sivia Harding. With beads! I can't wait to get started on this one:

What a beauty! Thanks to Cindy for encouraging me to subscribe to this wonderful club (not that I needed a ton of encouragement), this is really worth it.

4) and finally, I did achieve a bit of progress on my Jane Slicer-Smith Mitered Jacket; it's slow, but steady:

It should be ready for Gone Stitchin' 2008 (hopefully...)

That's it on the knitting front. It's bleak, foggy and grey out today, but hey! it's above zero, so who cares?

Vacation socks

So, during my two-week holiday, and despite the 4 skeins of yarn and half a dozen patterns I had brought (plus an extra WIP, just in case), I managed to knit one, and only one, pair of socks. It's not like I was that busy; but by 8:30 p.m. every day, I could barely keep my eyes open, and since I knit mostly in the evenings, it put a serious dent into my knitting time.

I actually used one of my precious skeins of Twisted Fiber art sock yarn, in a colourway I had just received: Karma. Actually, I had received two skeins, which is why I used one, otherwise I would have never risked it. I might never be able to get another skein again, see? So I can't use a single skein in a single colour, I can only use duplicates. No, I don't need therapy, thank you, and yes, I have admitted before being very insecure about my yarn.

I used a pattern I had also just purchased: the Dolomite sock from knitspot. The last pair I knit, I combined Twisted with a Knitspot pattern, so decided to do it again, with a different type of yarn and a different pattern. Obviously, I am a bit fixated at the moment on Twisted and Knitspot. Here's the result:

The only modification was a regular heel flap and dividing equally the stitches between the foot and the heel (30 + 30) as opposed to 28 + 32. And I did a 3-needle bind-off when there were 10 stitches left on each needle (20 in all). The socks are really nice, here's a close-up of the stitch effect:

The pattern produces those lovely little zigzags across the leg -- the colour of the yarn is wrong here though, the real colour is closer to the photo below.

 

The texture is sooo soft, it's Meg's Kabam! yarn, which is 30% bamboo, 60% Merino, 10% nylon. Love it. I would probably use 2.5 mm needles next time instead of the 2.25 mm recommended. Although I got gauge, I tend to be a tight knitter (yes, I do tend to break thin wooden needles, why do you ask?) and the socks are a tiny bit tight, but they will probably stretch after a few washes.

I also went on a yarn buying frenzy, I don't know why, it must be Spring or something. Nine skeins of Twisted appeared on my doorstep yesterday, a combination of pre-ordering on the Ravelry Twisted group and a bit of buying madness when she did her regular update. I also bought some lace yarn from Yarn ahoy because she had a sale and was going away for two months. And then... I think I may have bought some sock yarn from Fearless Fibers because it was pretty; and I may have bought some lace yarn from Ball and Skein because I was getting a discount to knit up the Oh! Canada wrap, and then I wanted six skeins, but she had seven, and offered me a special price on the seventh, and why not, and so I will be receiving a lot of packages in the next little while. In addition to the various sock yarn clubs I have subscribed too (although in a moment of incredible restraint and self-denial, I have chosen not to renew two that were coming up for renewal; I still have pangs of regret, but it's OK, they sold out within a few hours and I might as well let others enjoy them, yes?).

I am eagerly awaiting the first shipment of A Year of Lace and I just received this little package from the STR March shipment (CAREFUL - spoiler):

 

It's really pretty, isn't it?

Saint-Martin

I have been very quiet, but I had a good reason. It started on this day:

The day of the big snow storm, March 8th. Yes, we were at the airport and yes, at least half the flights were cancelled. However, international flights were still operating and there was our plane being cleaned and loaded, which was very reassuring.

After a thorough de-icing and taking off, this is what we arrived to 4 1/2 hours later:

It was sunny, it was 28 degrees (celsius) and it was heaven. This was followed by two weeks of rest, sleep, swim, sun, food. Just three of us the first week (older son is at university) and a fourth one, a friend of my daugther's, joined us the second week.

Yes, that's me from the back. Like many French women, I don't wear a top. Ever. I despise wearing a top -- I think it's the most unconfortable piece of clothing ever. I can understand the bra; but I don't understand a bathing suit top. I H-A-T-E it. So I go to French islands where nobody cares if women walk around on the beach not wearing a top. And frankly, when I see some men walking around with only shorts on, I don't see why I should wear a top -- they need it more than I do.

Of course, my daughter hates that I don't wear a bikini, but she was raised in Canada and thinks it's indecent. Proof:

See, she's there to save the day and show only her mother is mad. Anyway, we had a really restful time; here's one of our only outings at a restaurant:

 

It's called the Chanteclerc, and it's in the marina of Marigot. The food is wonderful, but it takes one two days to recover from it. Since we're in a villa, I cook most meals at home; the choice of food at the supermarket is wonderful; Air France flies in everything twice a week from France, and even if it costs a small fortune, it is great to cook and eat. 90% of the food is organic, the vegetables taste like they should, the lettuce actually has a taste of lettuce, the tomatoes have that tangy tomato taste and the strawberries feel like they have just been picked. You can find absolutely everything, as long as you are willing to pay for it. But I make the excuse that out of 14 days of meals times three meals a day, we only end up eating out about four or five times, so it's still less expensive than restaurant food and at least, I know what I'm eating.

The weather was great and less hot than in previous years (around 26 to 29 degrees every day), so we never had to switch the air conditioning on.

We also went to Orient Bay on the east coast of the island; it's a long stretch of beautiful beach (it takes about an hour to walk back and forth the whole length), and about a third of it is nudist. Needless to say, my daughter and her friend got some sunbeds with an umbrella and lounged on the regular side of the beach, while my husband and I went back and forth for a wonderful walk. No, no photos allowed in the nudist section, sorry. But here's the rest of the beach:

All in all, we had a great holiday and came home on Saturday, rested and actually happy to see even Toronto was sunny.

As for the knitting... you think I had TIME to knit? Actually, I managed to finish 1 sock and half of a second one. I will post photos next time. I will just show a last photo of the full moon on the last evening of our stay:

 

Henley Perfected

I finished, in a month to the day, Henley Perfected. It would have looked better if I had bothered to wear a bra when I tried it on, but at least I made an effort to wear non-clashing colours this time:

Yes, it's all done, except that I haven't blocked it, and it is lacking buttons, which I have to look for. The finishing took 3 days (assembling, re-doing the button bands twice each, no less -- my fault entirely, turning all the hems and stitching them in place, and finally knitting the collar and stitching it), which is way more than I like to spend on finishing an item. When I finish knitting, I would like 99% of the work done. Not so in this case. But the result is nice and even my 15-year old daughter agreed (that's a first). Here's the back:

 

I used 9 balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and knit the second size (35" bust circumference). I also modified the button bands to follow Connie's second Henley sweater, i.e. doubling the button and buttonhole bands to match the doubled collar and hems. It's way nicer than the Interweave Knits version, but that's my opinion -- some people prefer the looser and curlier buttonbands of the original pattern. I really like the detail of the lace pattern:

I wonder if it gives me footballer shoulders? Anyway, I will block it and I will sew buttons on (I will, I promise); the hardest part, which in my case is the slow, tedious and boring finishing is done (the two completed sweaters waiting for over a year in a corner of the room to be finished attest to my lack of finishing will power). I enjoyed the knitting part; fast on the stocking stitch parts, but interesting on the lace part. Having a bit of both is good; I am not sure I would have enjoyed knitting the entire sweater in lace, but just doing the upper parts in lace was perfect.

I'm getting my knitting organized for going away on Saturday -- two weeks in St. Martin, the French part of the island, where we go every winter for March break. This is what it looks like:

   

I know you all hate me now, but this is what keeps me going this winter; the thought of leaving all this cold, endless winter behind for two weeks and enjoy this view. Just the three of us (unfortunately, my son will be deprived for the second year in a row, since he's at university) for the first week, and a friend of my daughter's coming to stay for the second week. Otherwise, she gets bored and obnoxious. The first week, she doesn't care, she's so tired that she sleeps and reads all day long.

So I'm taking sock yarn and sock patterns (Fratello and la Digitessa -- a bit ambitious, I know), and I'm taking my Fifi project with me in the hope that I will somehow finish it while I sit by the pool, sipping something cold and alcoholic. I always end up knitting a lot less while I'm there than I normally do -- I wonder why?