It's official, Forbes Forest is on the needles for Miri. It's been a struggle to find time to knit these days, I've fallen out of the swing of things. This one's got me back in the saddle, without a doubt. Every row brings a new twist--this has required extreme concentration to get even this far. I see many quiet nights in my future.
Winnie has pulled a finished scarf out of thin air, and has already finished my Backyard Leaves scarf. Winnie, outstanding! Can't wait to wear it.
Thanks to an extra thoughtful boyfriend, my ball winding woes are over. Fresh from the UK came a gently used wool winder, ready for table mounting and immediate use. I don't know how I've survived this long without this unbelievably useful tool. One-hour ball winding and knot detangling sessions: Good Riddance! Thanks a million, boyfriend.
Thanks also to my sister for the extra extra thoughtful knitting reference book she sent up for my birthday, I've referred to it a few times already.Here's something neat: Knit It, a worldwide knitting exhibition piece about caring and compassion. I've been hearing some buzz about this these past few days, and decided to look in to it. I haven't found much, other than tomorrow, knitters in select locations around the world will wear black pants, black jacket, white shirt and red tie, and knit something white. In Ottawa, the action will be at the Parliament buildings.
knitting something white means that you care
It's been a rainy and dreary weekend. The sun is fighting to break through some clouds this morning, and the rain has finally let up from a steady drip since Friday. Another busy weekend has flown by, this time with my birthday to celebrate. Another year older, another excuse for shopping.
I'm quite fortunate in that Mr. Clickety Click most often will take me for a nice dinner, and shopping for my birthday each year. Last year we went border-bound, and hit some great deals in America in Vermont. This year: Montreal. Before leaving, we checked into a craft sale locally and picked up a few gems, which proved to be far more fruitful than the trip to Montreal.
Some prints for apartment decor, featuring ladies embracing wild animals, which I think are extra fun. Also, a very finely made silk pillow with a great screen.
You'll note a finished pair of Koigu mittens. Well, an almost finished pair of mittens. Hiding under the top mitt is a stitch holder holding the stitches where the thumb originally lived. I hacked into the stitches about six rows down from the original thumb location after finishing the entire mitt, and picked up the stitches to make another thumb lower down. The thumb was too high up on the mitt, so I relocated it. I'm so not afraid to cut into stitches and boss things around a bit. All that's left now is for me to dig through some knitting books and learn how to graft stitches. I've done some preliminary reading, it doesn't look so hard. We shall see.
Ohhhh, how slowly knitting progresses when never the needles are in hand. Seconds leap into hours, leap into days, then weeks. Before I know it, a month has slipped by. Long gone are the easy days of summer, boy.
These days, my fingers are aching to finish something other than a sentence; I've been struggling to find time to sit down and knit. I see a window clearing up, so Miri, don't fret, your scarf will be done, complete, and in your hands before the weather turns to cold. I'm contemplating daily affirmations in the form of staring at this beautiful Forbes Forest scarf each morning, imagining it to be completed by me in lush brown alpaca.
Way back, a whole 2 months ago, when signing up for the CD Swap, I discovered the makings of Swap-bot, a clever swap engine that takes the grunt work out of online swaps. Being a swap keener, I've been checking in every now and again to see how things are progressing. Things are looking up, the site officially went up this week, swap-bot is now a go. If you want to give them a hand in testing it out, do wander over and sign up for inaugural swap-bot post-card swap.
Almost every time I sit down to post, something comes to mind. I've been thinking and wondering for a while now, and am just going to come out and state it. Blogger--why no categories? Clearly, there's a need, surely you've seen how popular it is with the kids. Are you really asking us Bloggers to leave our posts out and about all willy nilly, instead of into neat little categories like most decent folk? Even Wil Wheaton has categories, so why can't we?
I have been lazy these past few weeks, too lazy to take pictures, and too lazy to sit and type. I'm drawn in only barely today to acknowledge that I'm still about.
A preview of things to come...
The koigu mittens have been made and remade a number of times, finally settling on a construction with no increases for the thumb gusset. Variegated yarn is tricky, and I'm fussy as hell, so you can imagine what kind of thought went into this. I'm not happy with the thumb placement that I ended up with (too high on the hand), and am not in favour of compromising for longer mittens. So, out came the scissors, a new and improved thumb location is on its way to being. I'll get the best of you yet, darned mitten.
In SYNO news, it turns out that Winnie is quite the clever lass, and has sussed out from mere emails that I'm her swap pal. Well done secret agent Winnie. I hope your yarn arrives to you soon. I hate to make you stalk your mailbox for much longer.
