Well, after trying the toes up sock method using two different increase styles I've decided that I hate doing multiple increases in tiny, tight stitches on teeny weeny needles. The Queen Kahuna book is back on the shelf and I'm back to making socks top down. I knit to avoid that kind of frustration.

Summertime and the Living Is Easy

Here are some update knitting pictures. The top one is a sock using the handpainted merino wool that I ordered from Britain with the fuzzy mohair/silk blend. The two colors complement each other very well. The middle pic is the Philosopher's Wool sweater. The last one is the newest Socks That Rock club wool that came in the mail last week. The color is Peaseblossom and I think it's my favorite. It looks like my sweet peas in full bloom. I'm using a baby cable rib.

I've also started a pair of toes-up socks using Queen Kahuna's book. I wanted to learn Fair Isle and Queen Kahuna's methods this summer so I've started a lot of projects. It drives Dan crazy and he ribs me about having the talent but not the endurance to finish things. I keep telling him it's all about the process right now.

Up until today we've had a ridiculously hot July. It sounds like everyone in the northern hemisphere has. Today it's actually a bit chilly but they're forecasting hot again tomorrow.

Summer is lazy-wonderful! Dan parks himself in front of the TV. I knit with the iPod in my ears so that I don't have to listen to all of the nonsense on TV that he's watching. I subscribed to Audible.com and have been downloading books and podcasts in addition to music. I've really been enjoying Fanny Flagg's latest "Can't Wait To Get To Heaven". She has such a gift for storytelling and she reads it in her southern accent. I really love all of her books. She's definitely one of my favorites and I'm always excited by a new book of hers.

The stores have back-to-school stuff out already. How depressing! Costco actually has Hallowe'en stuff and we even saw a Christmas tree on display there yesterday. I'm not ready to shift gears to thinking about school yet.

Philospher's Wool sweater

It took me a few tries but I have the Philosopher's Wool sweater started with this sleeve. This is the first time I've done Fair Isle and I was on a learning curve to knit with both hands but it's worth it as the Philosopher's Wool technique weaves in all of the yarns on the back as you go. The wool is minimally processed so my hands get nice and soft from the lanolin. I also have to pick out bits of vegetable matter which, for some reason, I find kind of cool. Connecting with the farm from my living room, I guess. This is definitely not a portable project though as all of the colors pretty much have to be handy and I have to concentrate to read the graph. The upside is that it goes much faster than socks on itty-bitty needles!

Happy Birthday Katie!

This picture just had to be shared! Wednesday was my niece Katie's sixth birthday. My sister Darcie took this picture of Granny giving her an enthusiastic kiss! Granny is Katie's great-grandmother Elsie who is 93 years young. She has lost both of her legs but, as you can see, she has maintained her vigorous upper body strength.

A Vow

I reluctantly returned the pretty little spinning wheel to Golden Willow Natural Fibers yesterday. I was talking to Sharon about teaching the students about clothing production in pioneer times and she offered to lend the wheel to me to take to school when I need it. Sharon is just one of those wonderful people who are passionate about fiber and willing to help people who are also passionate. She is truly a gem! I can't recommend her more highly! A group of knitters meets there on Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. so there is always support if needed. Mar Craig, who I've known for a long time through teacher education and K-9 Stubblejumpers dog clug, is an accomplished knitter (who knew?) and she popped into the shop when I was there. Mar has also offered unqualified help if needed. It's so much fun to find a group of knitting enthusiasts on my home turf! I never dreamed that my plan to start knitting last fall would evolve into this much passion.

Passion is a relative term, I guess. I'm starting to think a better word would be obsession. Make that an expensive obsession. I bought a Philosopher's Wool Fair Isle cardigan kit while returning the wheel. It's in beautiful heathered pastels - definitely my colors. I couldn't get Blogger to load the scanned picture of the cardigan so I'll have to send you to the Philosopher's Wool website for it instead. Now I need to learn to knit in the Continental way so I can do the stranded colors more efficiently.

I am now making a personal vow. I. Will. Not. Buy. Any. More. Wool. (At least until I finish using some of the enormous stash that I have accumulated in a short time.) There, it's in writing on the internet.

Schoo-ools out for sum-MER! I am a free woman for two months.

Happy belated birthday Canada! Anyone who wants to re-affirm their Canadian-ness or learn about our wonderful country go to Yarn Harlot's Canada Day post. I enjoyed all of the comments too. Definitely worth a read for this one.

Here is the first Pink Mist sock made with Socks That Rock mixed with Kid Mohair. I like it but it's a little snug. I suspect that it will block fine but I'm using it as the model for sock #2 so I don't want to mess with it until I'm done the pair.

This pretty little spinning wheel was very kindly lent to me by Sharon at Golden Willow Natural Fiber. I'm not sure how I didn't know about this place until a couple of weeks ago. She has an amazing little store filled with wonderful yarns, clothing, spinning, and weaving equipment and supplies! Sharon gave me a spinning lesson and sent the wheel home with me for a week to see if I liked it. It took me a while to get the hang of it and I wanted to drop-kick the thing a couple of times but I finally did it! The resulting yarn is not pretty. It reminds me of the kids' first attempts at knitting this spring but it is definitely yarn. Unfortunately my career in spinning is not to be. My allergies have flared after both sessions I spent with the wool. I don't think that I'm allergic to wool but I know I have grass allergies so even though the roving looks clean, it is likely the culprit. Sharon won't have seen the last of me, however. Walking into her shop is better than setting me loose in a candy store. Now that I won't be buying a wheel I can spend money on yarns instead! (Shh, don't tell Dan I said that at the start of summer when neither of us has a paycheque coming until the end of September.)

Here is the Socks That Rock wool combined with the mohair/silk blend on the foot. I think it just looks like a pink mist over the wool. We'll see how it feels when the sock is done.

A birthday surprise for me!

My husband surprised me yesterday with a new digital camera! It's a Panasonic DMC-TZ1. I haven't even read the manual yet. As soon as the battery was charged I took it outside to try. These pics are not retouched and I have no idea what the camera settings were. Not bad, huh? Imagine how much better a photog I'll be when I know how to work it. Thank you, thank you, my sweet thoughtful Dan! It's hard to surprise a spouse of 28 years but you did it!

Fuzzy sock solution?

I decided that I would try knitting sock soles with the addition of a fuzzy yarn and see if that would make my feet happy without changing needle sizes or having to reverse stockinette the feet. I found this lovely Super Kid yarn that is 70% super kid mohair and 30% silk. It's very fine so shouldn't make the socks too thick. Expensive but it has a lot of mileage so should do many, many socks. I hope it works!

Here it is, my first sock! I like how it looks, I like how it fits, I like how it matches my jeans. However, I don't think I'll be able to wear it. It feels like I'm walking on mesh and it's going to bug my diabetic-sensitive foot. Oh well, it can be my learning sock. I'm going to try again with a new yarn, a tighter gauge, and do reverse stockinette on the sole so it's smoother.

Wednesday evening

Still alternating rain and sun. Now there's a large, bright rainbow. This is the view from my backyard overlooking the park. I love the way the light and shade alternate over the trees.

jeesh!

Can we all say "c-r-o-a-k" again? This is my first sock. I foolishly did not count my heel flap rows thinking that I could just count down the sides and that would tell me how many there were. Turns out that those lovely slip stitches only show up once for every two rows knitted. So I made a really long heel flap that was more a rectangle instead of a square. Yes, I read all the books about how the heel flap should be a square yet still I continued to knit. It wasn't until after I worked the heel turn and started picking up the side stitches that I realized something did not compute. I also learned that frogging back to the k2, p2 ribbing was easy but that picking up those itty bitty twisty stitches wasn't. This yarn is Sock It To Me! Collection, Puzzle from Elann.

Wednesday afternoon

I've been home from work all week with a sinus infection. Because of the diabetes, when I get an infection, I'm sick and don't get better until I get on antibiotics. Other than feeling like crap I rather enjoyed this afternoon. It's one of those sunny, warm days except for when heavy black clouds roll in and it pours. Then it's sunny again, usually while the rain continues to come down in sheets. The smell in the air is better than any perfume. Only a little lightning and thunder could make this better. I love storms as long as they're just show and don't do any damage.

They don't call Saskatchewan the "Land of Living Skies" for nothing! This picture is from my sunroom as the clouds roll in for the latest outburst.

Here is the Black Water Abbey wool (bluestack) washed, dried and ready to be wound. Just looking at it makes me happy.

I am now doing the FLAK sleeves in the round on two circulars. It's so much easier than doing it on one short circular and I won't have to seam it.

two parcels

I got two parcels yesterday - the Black Water Abbey wool from the States and the ball winder and swift from Camilla Valley Farms in Canada. Having never played with a winder and a swift, I think that these tools are fascinating! The wool is Bluestack and it is absolutely beautiful! I have the sample card for the Black Water Abbey wool but the small sample doesn't do it justice. There are so many subtle colors and shadings that I can now see in the skeins. I'm going to wash all of it before knitting it. That way I can play with my new toys (swift and winder) as well as eliminate shrinkage and soften it up before I try for gauge. The buttons are also from Black Water Abbey and they are lovely. The silver Celtic patterned ones are for the FLAK cardigan and the dragonfly ones will be for the Black Water Abbey cardigan. I haven't decided what pattern I will use for the Black Water Abbey yet.

I also, like a lemming, saw that Blue Moon Fiber Arts opened up some more memberships in their Sock Club so I joined. As if I need more yarn now! But the Socks That Rock yarn looks so beautiful that I couldn't resist.

Croak! again

I suddenly realized why I've been avoiding working on the FLAK cardigan lately. Since I switched to shorter circulars and joined the sleeve to work in the round my hands have been hurting. I think that it's because I'm holding the needles differently (fibromyalgia could be responsible for this phenomenon). Subconsciously, I've been avoiding that discomfort and couldn't face knitting the sleeves in the round for as long as it would take me to finish both sleeves. So I frogged several rows back to where the join is and will knit them flat instead.

Knitters' Club

So far, I've taught about a dozen kids to knit. It gets easier as the first students to learn help the rest of them (kind of like big families where the older kids help look after the little ones, I guess). I've learned that if you want to improve your own knitting skills, especially fixing mistakes and untangling yarn, teach a group of kids to knit. Just kidding! It's been a lot of fun. When other people come into the classroom these days they are amazed and impressed that so many students are knitting. It's nice to watch the children encouraging and helping each other too.

Aren't they cute? This group of girls happened to be in for recess with me when I took the camera to school yesterday. They're the really eager ones who would rather knit than go outside! From left, meet Dawn, Vanessa, Danielle, Kenda, and Kevina. I have several nice pictures of these children so parents, if you email me privately (there's a link on this blog when you click 'View my complete profile'), I'll be happy to send you the ones with your child in them; and I apologize in advance if I have created fibre monsters in your families who are addicted to knitting and buying yarn. I promise that I won't introduce them to silk and cashmere yet....

Croak!

Frog it I did. Thank you Roxanne Richardson for suggesting that I do the math using my swatches and measurements to more accurately calculate the ratio for picking up stitches. I told my husband the math teacher that, if his students ever question why they are learning math and how they will ever really use it in the real world, he should tell them that they will need it if they ever want to design sweaters that fit!

My sock yarn (Sock It To Me) arrived yesterday from Elann. I can't wait to start swatching and see what cool patterns develop.

I have another kid-bit (as my cousin Terry describes them) to share. This one falls into the 'might as well give it a shot' category. I have two deaf students in my class, both in grade 3. One has had a cochlear implant (inside the head, very fascinating) and can hear me through a broadcast system that also sends my voice right inside his head. My mike is the same kind that the Secret Service wear when guarding the president. I sometimes have an overwhelming urge to mutter into my mike things like "Jelly Belly to Ugly Swan. Code Sister. I repeat, Code Sister..." but I digress. The other child has limited hearing but wears hearing aids to help him. Both boys know some sign language but the goal is to help stop them from relying on sign and to increase their receptive language and communication skills.

Kids being kids, these two boys have developed a special bond and will often sign to each other in a pigeon mix of sign language and their own invented signs. We have them seated across the room from each other in class as they get silly together and have a hard time staying on task. During a recent spelling dictation, my teaching partner noticed that one of the boys kept turning around and looking at the other. When she casually walked around so that she could see what he was doing, she saw that he was surreptitiously signing the letters of each word to his buddy. Hey, worth a shot, right? From a teacher's point-of-view, this is not something that was covered in those education classes at the University.

We have been studying Heritage in Social Studies for the last few weeks and have been discussing how the pioneers made their own clothes. I told the kids that if anyone wanted to learn to knit I would help them during afternoon recesses. I sent notes home on Tuesday asking their parents to provide a pair of 6mm needles and a skein of worsted weight yarn. I had two kids bring their supplies yesterday already so we started. By the end of the recess I was wondering what I had done to myself! The kids were all thumbs and it seemed like this was a serious mistake. However, I called them over to me when they were done their work at the end of the afternoon and sat with them for another few minutes and they both caught on and were knitting! I don't know who was more thrilled - me or them! They both excitedly took their knitting home to continue practicing. I suspect that the other interested kids (10 of them or so) watched this happen and will show up with their knitting supplies today. How I'm going to get that many of them started at once I have no idea. But we'll have fun anyway.

And, ending on a sad note, condolences to my sister and her family on the loss of their Bichon buddy Meemo in the wee hours of this morning. His health had been failing and he just couldn't go on any more so was helped to a more peaceful place to join his Bichon friends, my Murphy and Ceilidh. Rest well, dear old dogs.

Do I need to visit the frog pond?

I have done about 2 inches of the sleeve and I'm a bit worried that I might have to frog it as it's flaring out too far. I picked up the conventional 3 stitches for every 4 rows. If I have to start again I will pick up one stitch in every other row. Oh well, better to find out now than after I've knit more of the sleeve. I'll set it aside for now and gladly accept opinions before I 'rip-it, rip-it'.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted here! We had spring break this past week and have been very busy trying to do all of the things that we haven't had time to do at other times like going to appointments and shopping. I think I need a holiday to rest from my holiday.

My aunt and uncle visited from Manitoba for Easter. It's always nice to have a visit with them. I hosted Easter dinner and had the family over here, even my 93 year old grandmother in her wheelchair. We had an absolutely beautiful day! It felt like summer (without all of the bugs). We were able to eat out in the sun room and the kids ran in and out all day without their shoes. We nicely got into summer mode and then, blam, winter hit again early in the week. We had a lot of rain and some slushy snow. Luckily it only lasted a couple of days.

I haven't done much knitting but I have read a lot of books about knitting! Janet Szabo's new book Aran Sweater Design is wonderful! I'm sure that I'll be referring to it a lot. I did manage to start the sleeve on the FLAK sweater (the top part of the photo above). I played around with the hue on this picture so that the wool looks more like its true color.

I discovered that it is very difficult to knit in my old Lazy Boy rocker that's in the sun room as it tips me too far back to be comfortable looking down at my hands. So of course that meant a shopping trip for a glider rocker to replace it. It's so soothing to glide back and forth while knitting. I'm telling myself that it must burn a lot of calories at the same time so that counts as a workout, right?

I also read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's 'Yarn Harlot' and 'At Knit's End'. Absolutely hilarious!! For some reason, I've had an irresistable urge to go yarn shopping after reading these books. She rationalizes doing it so well. I never thought that I would knit socks but after reading these books I've ordered self-patterning sock yarn and an instruction/pattern book from Elann. Of course that meant that I had to order several sets of double pointed needles too. And if you have funky hand-knit socks you don't want to hide them in runners. I happened across a new pair of Birkenstocks that would show them off nicely so needed to buy those too. If I finish the socks they will be worth their weight in gold! Way to go, Yarn Harlot, you enabler you. Stephanie has a new book, 'Knitting Rules', but it's sold out everywhere I've looked. If you're a knitter and haven't yet discovered Yarn Harlot, go get these books now and check out her popular and entertaining blog.