I've been trying to be more active on social media but it's hard to not show favoritism to one medium. I would say it's like picking a favorite child, but it's really not because some are clearly better than others (unlike children.. clearly, because they're all equal, or so my mom tells me.) And it's a problem of finding a balance on what to share on facebook, twitter, instagram, ravelry, this blog, and my podcast. I'm pretty sure you would lose interest if I told you the same thing 5 ways in the same day or even the same week. I want to avoid being a broken record.

So how will I manage this? Well, if you know me at all then you clearly know that Instagram is my favoured media. I'll post a pick of a new yarn, my dog, food, stuff, yarn and things. Whatever tickles my fancy and feels like it's worth sharing. I'll also post announcements on instagram and I'll have that share to twitter, which links to my facebook so all three get the important news for sure. And Sometimes I'll post an article or other things to facebook.

The real challenge is the blog and the podcast. I think I'll try to keep the blog more lifestyle, so things going on with me, Miles, big shop developments, just things I want to write about but don't necessarily fit into the podcast. And the podcast I'll focus non my knitting, announcements, Ravelry group notes and contests, shop info, and shop yarn porn.

Inevitably, there will still be some overlap because I'll be excited about some yarn thing and have to post it here to talk about and really get into the subject or technique or opinions. I try to keep the podcast light and entertaining, but the blog is more my outlet.

Since I haven't podcasted yet and shown this off, I'm going to add it to this post. I've finally picked up my Arenaria tank top and I'm almost done the body of it! After the plain body bit, the tricky bit happens with the binding off, patterned neck, dividing stitches and all of those terrifying things I haven't done before! This is going to be my first real piece of knitted clothing I'll complete and I can feel the anxiety growing with each stitch closer I get to the horrible dividing of the stitches.



I know I have instructions, and I know I'm good at following them and I can handle myself, but it's still daunting! What it I mess up? What if it doesn't fit? I think this tank is so pivotal to me because if I can finish this, then I can knit a sweater. I currently have two sweaters cast on, and a third, the Ginny Cardigan (which will be my second finished clothing item) ready to go and a fourth (the terrifying Vivian) already planned out.

Ginny Cardigan

I'm hoping to finish Arenaria in the next week or so (in time for spring/summer too) and I'll order the Amy Herzog book to go with my class and do my best to have Ginny finished by October so I can have a warm sweater for the winter. I also have plans to knit an Evenstar from my Adelie lace, the baby alpaca/cashmere/silk lovely and then gradient dye the finish shawl, which will probably be more nerve wracking than the finishing of Arenaria.

One of my new years resolutions for this year was to knit a sweater, as well as some other lofty goals that I'll touch on a bit in this post. (I do plan to do a goal review post soon.) This year I managed to cast on and knit a few inches of a crazy cabled sweater. That for me is a bit of a success but I got scared off by the waist shaping.

Being a big chicken, I ran to the Amy Herzog craftsy class. I decided I would watch the videos and then work on the Ginny cardigan. Once I finished an easier sweater I could go finish my cabled one. Good plan, but I only got half way through the videos. Well there's always next year.

Another one of my goals was to do a colourwork piece. My friend, Elly, hat just designed a colourwork sock pattern and has asked me to test knit it for her (it's also in a knit purl version but I thought it was time to face my fears). So here I sit, 5 days until Christmas and 12 days until the new year (my birthday, yay!) and I have a cm of the ribbing done. I will not finish before the year is over but I want to ask you... Does this count? I started them in 2013 but will not finish until 2014. Which year do they count for in your books?




Also, what do you think of the new layout?

Ji and I have been feeling a bit under the weather for the past few days so nothing has gotten done. I haven't even gotten much of my yarny work done, which is pretty lazy on my part. I have had a bit of time for knitting though which is a nice change to the past few weeks. I started on and got a good inch and a half done on my Arenaria tank. For the size I'm making, the bottom hem is supposed to be about 35" around. I didn't measure, but I "tried it on" and I'm pretty sure it was closer to 45 or 50" around. It was massive! I even did a gauge swatch and blocked it and the swatch said I would be half a stitch too small! I'll try not to get into my rage about gauge swatches, but I'll have to do another one.

I pulled out my Wild Child Fair from KirbyWirby yarns and set to designing. I tried a bunch of different stitch patterns and found what I like. I'm pretty sure I've knit a whole sock once, but it's been all ripped out so I have nothing to show for it. Well, not nothing exactly. I do have a rough pattern written up. I just need to type it up and make it look pretty and get some lovely people to test my design out for me while I knit up my version for photos. This is my goal for this week.






















Today was the first day Ji and I were feeling a bit better so we went to see R.I.P.D. it was pretty ridiculous but I had a few good hours of movie theatre knitting time. I ended up stopping about 30 minutes form the end because I thought I had dropped a stitch. It's a good thing I did because it turns out I had dropped a stitch about an inch below. I now have a tight vertical row up my sock from where I picked up the stitch but it doesn't really bother me. I might try to even it out later or just hope it loosens up a bit with blocking.





















I realized this post is very here and there and random, but the title was a warning.

Also, these arrived :D
























Moo,

I'm slowly getting over my sickness and am starting to get back into my knitting. I've turned my heel on my PB&W socks and am trying to get those finished up asap. There are about a billion other projects breathing down my neck and whispering in my ear while I'm sleeping in an attempts to get cast on. So many yarns and so many new patterns coming out. It feels like the spring/summer season is one of the busiest for pattern releases and new yarns to come out. It is because they are trying to get us to keep knitting during the summer?

In an attempts to get myself more organized for the upcoming events, cast ons, projects, and even new podcast episodes, I'm making a real effort to get my craft room fully cleaned up and in use. I would like to eventually have access to my sewing machine because I would like to, eventually, make myself a few project bags and maybe a dpn case or something. I've cleaned the closet and sort of organized the cubicles. Now I need to clean off my table, sewing table and the corners that are full of mostly empty boxes. A clean craft room leads to a happy crafter.

There are about a million things coming up. In June and July Just One More Row, The Knitabulls, and the Penguin Soup Podcast are having a self striping KAL! Break out your needles and Kirby Wirby (or other self striping dyer) and get ready to cast on! You can triple dip with this!

At the end of June there is the Tour de Fleece, which runs alongside the Tour de France. You're supposed to hop on your spinning wheel (or grab your spindle) and spin alongside the riders. You spin on the days they ride and rest when they rest. On their long days you're supposed to spin more than you usually do as well. There are a lot of different ways you can participate as you set your own goals. Some people try to spin a certain weight or yardage, others try to spin up a whole fleece. I'm going to try to spin every day they are riding since I haven't been spinning a lot lately. I might need to get a few new rovings to help motivate myself. I'm going to be putting together a Penguin Soup groups as well.

There is also camp loopy. I believe it has already started but you can still join in. There are different challenges to complete each month with prizes, discounts, and other stuff to be had from The Loopy Ewe.

There are always swaps where you craft and buy items and trade them with other people. There are a bunch of groups that have swaps and some ravelry groups are even specifically just for swaps.

I'm sure there will be a bunch of other KALs and events to keep you busy throughout the summer. I'm going to be working on a few patterns to release and maybe some other stuff. And if you get bored, there's always Christmas knitting.

I've probably already said this, but there's never enough time. I have to fit food, shower, work, knitting, cooking, chores, hubby time, and sometimes video games into a day. It's just not possible. And the chores, cooking, and knitting have been suffering because of this lack of time. The knitting is tempting me to sit down, relax, and enjoy myself for a little while. But I just can't give in to the knitting because the dishes are starting to turn into muppets and my stomach is growing at me and telling me to go to the store and but it some food.

Thankfully, I have about five days off in a row. And they're going to be the busiest five days ever since I have to get my house in order before the next spurt of work/eat/sleep starts. And I mean total house clean which includes the floor, baseboards, and windows. The whole thing. And I know you're probably sitting there, in disbelief or possibly yelling "but what about the knitting?!?!?!," never fear, dear knitters, never fear. I have all Friday to myself. I plan to get my knit on, dye my hair, and attend the two Virtual Knit Night events that I have set up in the group. I really really hope that my 9" circulars will arrive tomorrow so I can work on my Witches' be Trippin socks without haveing the little laddering nonsense going on. (You know, the annoying line that runs up your sock where your needles meet so you have to keep moving your needles back and fourth a few stitches to avoid it)

No pic today. :(

I feel like I have somehow fallin into The Song of Ice and Fire series, and I now reside in Westeros. You see, in Westeros their summers can last for years. From as little as 1 or 2 and all the way up to 10. Now this sounds fantastic, but there is a downside. The downside if they have a few months, or maybe a year of falls, and then their winters are as long as their summers. Imagine 10 years of winter. Cold, dark, blustery winters. That sounds like hell on earth to me, but thankfully I'm a knitter. I'm sure a lot more people would learn to knit if the winters lasted that long.

Up here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we're sitting at six months of winter so far. The rest of Canada (specifically Ontario) has had warmer days and a lighter winter. They even hard grass around Christmas time. But in good ole Winterpeg, we've had snow on the group (and a good amount of it) since around the end of October. The past two weeks have given us more snow. Some has melted a little, but then the snow would come back and replace it. We actually had a snow storm where there was very little visibility.

Now it's really hard to keep your spirits up when the rest of the internet is posting about the pretty flowers, the blooming trees and starting their gardens. I haven't seen grass since the end of October! I'm doing everything I can to keep my spirits up. I've put away the hats, mittens and scarves with the hopes that we wouldn't need them again this year. I did leave the coats and boots out though. I guess I need to get my hat back out. I've also tried to spring clean my house (I can usually do this with the windows open every other year). It's cleaner, but the stale air is still floating about since there's no fresh spring air to let in.

What else can I do besides pack up and move? I can try to make the best of it. I can grab my pretty spring coloured yarns, a cup of blueberry pie tea, and sit myself in front of the fireplace (yes, it's that cold) and try to trick myself into believing that it's November and that the snow is normal. And as we knitters know, November is just one month away from being December. So I'll knit like mad until I finish everything or until Spring decides to show up. Whichever comes first.

As the Pandarens in World of Warcraft are quick to tell you, slow down. These past two weeks have been a constant stream of work, eat, sleep. I haven't even had time to stop and smell the coffee because if I had taken the time to make a coffee, the I would have been late. I have been running myself ragged and it's not healthy nor is it enjoyable and it needs to change.



I've only been living in Manitoba for about three years now. I went to school for two of those, but I was never quick to make friends. I even tried going to knitting groups to make a few friends in the province who shared the same interests as me, but that never happened either. So I started spending more time on Craftster and Ravelry and made some friends there. I met Laura on the Tiny Owl Knits Ravelry group and we've been chatting for a bit over a year now. This whole long explanation is going somewhere, just hold on. This past week Laura has been running around like crazy as well. She tried messaging me a few times, but we kept responding when we could and it took forever for the other to answer. Totally understandable and crazy and I hope her baby's fever goes away and the new puppy behaves!

Thursday and Friday I had to stay home with a hurt foot. I had been working and running around so much that one of my toes went numb. I went to see a doctor and he said I needed a support bar for my shoe, some anti inflammatory drugs and some rest. I had to stay home. I even tried to put my shoes on and walk around for a bit but my foot wasn't having any of it.

Segway again, last year, I saw in Let's Knit! magazine that someone was looking for a pen pal. I decided to write to her, and that's how I met Katie. We chatted back and fourth for a bit and realized we both love knitting, video games, and nerdy culture. Life got busy and I wasn't able to respond as much and kind of forgot for a while. I started talking to her again and we spent a lot of time chatting these past two days. She has helped me to realize that I need to rest, slow down, and enjoy doing the thing I want to do. We've even spent a bit of time browsing yarns together, which I realized is actually ok. You don't have to browse with the intent to buy, sometimes it's alright to just enjoy the beautiful fibres from afar. And sometimes, you just can't help yourself.



This rest and relaxing has really helped to put me into a spring like spirit. I want to knit light and airy pieces with bright and beautiful colours. I want my house to be clean and the fresh air to run through it. There's only one problem with that though. I live in Manitoba. While most of the world has grass and has maybe had a nice day to sit out side or two. We're just starting to hit positive degrees and there are only a few patches of grass here or there. The rest of the grass is buried beneath almost a foot of snow still. This officially marks the 6th month of winter and I want it gone! I want to stay relaxed and comfortable, but outside and not by the fireside!



I'm hoping to get back to blogging about three times a week. The reason I haven't been is I was so busy so I didn't have time for crafting and therefore, had nothing to say. I'm working on hanging this.

Until next time,

We had our first Virtual Knit Night today and it was pretty fun. TheRovingLampman and knitinsanity showed up and we had ourselves a grand time. Therovinglampman is working on a really pretty shawl that began looking like a napkin because it was on such small needles and knitinsanity is working on some Catching Butterfly mits by Tiny Ow Knits and she just started her first toe up pair of socks. I also found an awesome Lord of the Rings esque book of sock patterns that I need to buy. I moved my So Square socks onto my Karbonz needles and really loved them once I got used to the density of them. (I'll do a review once I finished the sock)

I would really love for this to be a weekly or bi-weekly event. Maybe a weekday and a weekend event would be nice. My new job is scheduling me some pretty random shifts right now so I won't be able to make a definite schedule but I would love to schedule it in whenever it would work.

Right now, I'm working on felting my Hopsalots bunny slippers. I really hope (and doubt) that they will dry before Easter, but we shall see. I'm hopinh to finish Clarus and get some work on one of my pairs of socks this weekend, but I doubt it since Easter is a busy family time for me.























I got some new gold stitch markers from Knit Picks when I ordered the yarn. There's a lot, they're super small and light and thin so having the 30 or so there are on the shawl isn't weighing it down at all. I think I'll save these for my next shawl pattern.

I hope everyone has a good Easter Holiday. I'll try to blog during the weekend, but if not, see you Monday!

So apparently I was a really good girl today because hubby got me a new yarn! It's Storybook Art & Fibre's Luxury Sock in the Mist colourway. It looks a little summin summin like this:



















It is dyed locally (ish) in Teulon, Manitoba and all of her colourways remind me of Manitoba in some way. I've used this yarn before but in her sunset colourway for a pair of socks before. The yarn really does make me think of a Manitoban sunset. This Mist colourway makes me think of a misty Manitoban morning when the sun hits the mist that's hanging low upon the wheat crops. And yes, I have been up that early, and yes, it was terrible!!

Anyways, I talked hubby into this yarn because I'm joining Laura Nelkin's new mystery knit-along! I've decided to use this colour combo:



















The solid colour is Dream in Colour Smooshy in the Bermuda Teal colourway and some Malabrigo Sock in the Rayon Vert colourway. I won the Malabrigo sock in a Sock Bunny giveaway about a year and a half to two years ago. I've been saving it for something special for myself but it was the only colourway that I had that worked with my solid yarn for the mkal. I was so sad to use the special yarn that I needed to replace it with a new special yarn, hence the Storybook yarn.

I'm having amkal knit-along (yes, kind of redundant) in my Penguin Soup ravelry group. Those who finish on schedule and post a picture are entered to win a shawl  pattern of their choice. Go sign up!


Also, those are some sa-weet Knitter's Pride Karbonz needles!! I'm pretty excited to try them out since they're supposed to be flexible and warm and pointy and just slippery but in a good way and all those things a good set of needles should be. (Run on sentence, I know. Ignore it.) I've heard that they're super awesome needles and have a good price point. I would love to some day try Signature needles but at $50 a pop for a set of 5, I don't think that's happening anytime soon. Although, if they would like to send a pair for me to review, I would like the 2.5mm needles, thank you!!!

I realize that this is a bit of a badly written blog post. Sorry about that. I've got sweater calculations on the brain and a puppy trying to get his face as close to mine as possible.



















Kind of like he is doing to my Cloudlover fibre as I was trying to photograph it.


See you Monday!

I know you already know this (because you are smart knitter), and that I've already mentioned it in a previous post, but it must be brought up again. The importance of swatching and how it always always lies to you! That's right, I swatched for my large Clarus shawl (at least I think I did), and I did it my proper cheating way. I even ran all my yarn through my yard counter thingy and it said I had about 5-10 yards more than the project called for. It was going to be close, but I should be able to finish it.

Well, last night the unthinkable happened. I ran out of yarn on the 13th row out of 26 for the boarder of my shawl. I guess I should have seen it coming, but I purposely made sure that wouldn't happen. I was so confident in my swatching and counting abilities that I never ever checked how much yarn was left until it fell out of the bag while I was recording Episode 4. Either I was destined to fail, or I failed because I did see the amount of yarn left and started to doubt myself. I'm choosing to believe it was because of the ladder.

Hubby is being nice and breaking my yarn fast so I can get the yarn I nee to finish this damn thing. I think he feels sorry for me since I've been working on this thing forever May 18, 2012. And this past week and a half I've been talking about how awesome it will be to have it finished. And last night I get to the end of the row and let out an exacerbated f***.

Here's a picture of it stretched out as far as my cable will let me.

And no, at this point I don't care if the dye lot doesn't match. It's the border so no one will notice, right?

We left yesterday shortly after dinner. This meant that there was no way I was getting at knitting done since I like to be able to see my stitches if I need to. I'm not quite so pro as to be able to knit in the dark...yet. (Movie theatre knitting, here I come!) We ended our first day of driving around midnight.