Introducing Abrazo!

I have a new pattern available through Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts: The Abrazo Hoodie!

Abrazo, which is Spanish for Hug, is a cozy hoodie perfect for a transitional season layering piece. Worked in Ancient Arts Bunny Hug, it was designed to showcase the combination of colours and textures of this amazing bouclé yarn, available in a broad variety of Caroline Sommerfeld's signature colourways. As the term Bunny Hug has long been a Saskatchewanism for a hooded sweater, it was only right to make sure there was a hoodie designed for it!

Here, Abrazo is pictured in the three following colourways: MC Pieces of Eight, CC1 Lichen In My Crevices, CC2 Iron Horse.

For more information and photos (including in a different set of colours in a larger size), head on over to the pattern's entry on Ravelry.

The pattern is available for purchase through Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts: https://ancientartsfibre.com/garments/abrazo_hoodie.html

Featuring Further Fall Flora and Finished Footwear

Carpathian Bellflower

Peachleaf Bellflower

I really enjoy the Campanula in my garden, especially since they keep surprising me with long blooming periods, and for putting up with frost and utter neglect.  I water them once in the spring, and then ignore them other than taking a few photos.  I have a set of Peachleaf bellflowers, and a set of Carpathian bellflowers, and they spread bit by seed, though not enough to be a nuisance.  As an added bonus, the bees seem to like them, and the foliage stays a lovely green well into fall. 

 And as for finished footwear, here they are, finished at last, one pair of Flame Wave Socks by Ann Budd, with slightly unusual increases :

They're a little big for me, but that's just fine since they're for my mother-in-law, who is wonderful and deserves nice socks (so hopefully they're really comfortable to wear).  I can't quite believe how long it took me to knit these, as it took almost no time for the second sock once I actually sat down and made myself work on them.  For some reason, I couldn't quite memorize the pattern.  It's not that it's a terribly tricky pattern or anything, but it just wouldn't stick in my head, so it was harder to convince myself to take the time to sit down with these and focus properly, at least until yesterday, when I had to ice my foot (due to an injury from indoor soccer caused by a collision with a player on the other team.  She went flying, but came out alright, and my foot is a little sore still, but much better than yesterday).  Now that I have actually taken time to knit these socks, they're done.  Imagine that.

Fall Gardening Plus Bonus Finished Hat

A few weekends ago, some friends of the family gave us an oak tree that they had in their garden.  After all, they already had a mature oak in the yard, so they didn't really need another one space-wise.  We were looking for a shade tree, and particularly like oaks, so we were happy to transplant it.  I'm not sure what sort of oak it is, so if anyone has any guesses, I'm happy to hear them.  Since I took these photos, the leaves have all changed colour, though they are still hanging on, unlike those that belonged to the cotoneaster.

There was a fair bit of mulch left over (yay for more mulch!), so I added it to the southwest bed, and did a bit of transplanting, and adding a few tulip bulbs (Banja Luka, Van Eijk, and Giuseppe Verdi).  I'm also rather fond of buying a perennial or two at the end of the season when they go on sale, so I picked up some pinks (Dianthus 'Pixie Star'), and my eldest picked out an orange bearded iris called Maid of Orange.

We had a busy weekend again this weekend, heading out to the zoo one day, the library the next, while also getting winter preparations done for the garage and garden, and then to Prairie Gardens in Bon Accord for their Haunted Pumpkin Festival with Grandma and Grandpa.  We had a great time there, and took a wander in their corn maze, posed for pictures,

pet goats,
rode on a pig (statue, that is, and it used to reside at the zoo when I was a kid.  This farm apparently bought up the old statues and things from the storyland section, so hopefully when the other ones are taken out, they'll buy them too to reunite the collection),


and also, finished knitting a hat.

Specifically, the

Amelia Earhart Aviator Cap by Flor.

This was a really fun knit, but the jury's still out on whether it suits me or not.  It resembles a Tudor coif as much as anything (only textured).  I might follow the lead of others and add a lace hatband.





At any rate, I know black isn't my best colour, but I do have a black coat that I wear occasionally, and it will also be handy for my daughter's Halloween costume.  She's going as a butterfly, so we'll just put her antennae on top so she won't freeze out there (it often snows here around then).

Now, to actually finish making the costume...

Things I'm in the Middle of

Ulysses by James Joyce

Actually, I'm just over half-way through re-reading it, but now we've entered Night-town, which nearly defeated me last time.  It's much better on a second read, where I'm just trying to keep track of what's actually happening instead of attempting some sort of half-baked undergraduate close-reading of a dense immensity (not the best strategy on a first read-through as it turns out).  Since it's for fun this time (no, really), it's actually enjoyable, and I think I might read Ellmann's James Joyce afterward if I can track down a copy since I never did read the famous biography back when I intended to do so.

Winding Angora Yarn

Specifically Fleece Artist's Peter Rabbit, intended for a scarf called Misty Garden by Jo Sharp.  I might have to call the project McGregor's Scarf or something like that.  The yarn is lovely-oh-so-soft, and I think the colourway is 'glacier' which suits it just grand; the one shade of blue in particular rather glows (maybe not in the photo, but in person for sure) even in the dim light.

Laundry Week

While I do do the laundry every week, this week's laundry feels interminable.  This is probably due to catch-up and extra laundry from camping last weekend.  We had a lovely time camping with my family, but I found it rather cold out (high of plus 9 Celsius).  Luckily I had a new wool cardigan to keep me warm(ish).  It was a first time camping for the kids, and they had a grand time.

Birthday Cardigan

I'm knitting a Ballet Top by Debbie Bliss for my youngest, but only sort-of, as I've changed it a fair bit.  I've changed the weight of the yarn from sport to fingering (re-calculating accordingly), changed the stitch pattern to a clover-leaf lace (as in the

Lucky: Clover Lace Wrap

by Melissa Wehrle, re-calculating accordingly again), used a seed-stitch/moss-stitch edging, and I can't quite make up my mind whether to make the body seamless or not.  I started with the sleeves so that I could postpone the decision, and would be perfectly pleased to hear opinions on the subject.

Preparing for Tuque Knitting

My Dad, after seeing my brother's Whistler tuque, thought he'd rather like the same or similar, so I'm knitting up the Lake Louise tuque from the same Dale of Norway booklet (NR 8501).  The only problem is that for whatever reason, the directions for the tuque are there, but no chart (though the directions do state that you should follow this non-existent chart).   So, working from this teeny wee photo, I have charted the hat.  Next, obtain hat size (I keep forgetting to measure his head, but hopefully I'll rectify that soon), and swatch away.  I love stranded colourwork, and am really looking forward to getting into this one.

Training for 5 Kilometer race

Oh yeah, I guess I should go for a run or something...  I need to register yet for that matter.  I do plan on doing this, and have done it before, but it would be great if I was getting out for more than two runs a week to prepare.

Celebrating the Edmonton Wolfe Tones Ladies' Gaelic Football win at the Calgary Tournament

I missed the tournament while camping, as a late scheduling change disrupted my plans to do both, but am hoping to obtain a Time Turner, or perhaps Time-Lord Technology so I can go back in time and be in two places at once.  Ah well, I understand that the team had a great time and played some excellent football with Calgary, who were gracious hosts.

Fall Cleaning

Yes, it's fall, not summer, whatever the calendar might say, and has been for a week or so.  I bring your attention to the high of plus 9 last weekend, and say that's enough to convince me.  Rather than spring cleaning, I do fall cleaning.  I think that that's because by the time I've noticed that spring is sprung, it's already moved on into summer (after all, it snows in spring, so it's hard to tell if it's spring or not).  So, a chill in the air will send me scurrying to wash windows, shake out the dust, find the warm clothes and so shuffle the closets and such.  I do love fall.  I love the colours, the slight chill that allows for nice warm heavy blankets at night, the lure of cozy new clothes in both rich and mellow colours, warm soup, baking, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot (still yet to come), the last gasp of splendour from the garden, and the diminished threat of mosquitos and sunburn.  Might I add less dandelions and more knitting?  For me, fall is the start of the year, a time for changes and new beginnings, whereas spring is more a revealing of things that were hidden and sleeping.

Garden Planning

Hopefully the planning will translate to actual gardening over the next few weeks, but in the meantime, aside from all the weeding to do, I'm planning to renovate two of my beds and apply mulch to both.  I had been wanting new beds, but upon reflection, the best way to improve the yard at present is to deal with these two beds. Sigh.  Here are the beds in all their weediness:

I transplanted away those of the desired plants in the first bed that I could do easily, and have been fighting weeds, but the weeds are winning because: Lack of vigilance, lack of mulch, and the fact that those logs are just sitting on top of the grass and so keep nothing out.  The plan is to put in a better barrier, really get rid of the weeds, add copious mulch, and add the desired plants that are currently hiding (so I can't see them anyway) under the weeping crabapple (I really thought it would get taller a bit faster, but nothing doing).  Next, add much mulch under the crabapple, and in a much larger circle/oval so that we don't have to hold up its branches to mow under.

The fun part will be all the charts and lists that come with planning the transplants.  I love lists and charts.

I'd love to share the nice surprises I found in the weedy bed when I went out to take photos though:

Wanting to Ditch my Projects for New Ones

Did you happen to see these Spiffy T-Shirts at Made By Rae (pattern link)?  They make me want to embark on a T-shirt-sewing frenzy replete with embroidery and appliqué, but I have a large stack of mending and a just as large stack of fun sewing to do first.  Must resist!  Knitwise too: Sweaters!  Mittens!  Hats!  Gorgeous patterns lurk everywhere.  I think it's a fall thing.  Also, a trip to buy ballet slippers and tap-shoes for my eldest (who we just signed up for classes, and is very, very, very excited) almost had me crocheting bun covers (for what?  She's sporting a 'Dora' type haircut) and knitting legwarmers.  Almost.  I did just spend way too much time on Knitpicks.com just now picking out 14 shades of Palette fingering yarn for an imaginary sweater that hasn't been planned yet, but I think I can keep those on my wishlist without adding them to my shopping cart (at least, so far...)  

But for now, after spending most of the day being in the middle of writing this post (with frequent interruptions, of course), I'll get back to all that I'm in the middle of so that I can get to the end of at least some of these projects.