Zephirine Tunic Re-release!

The Zephirine Tunic that I had designed for Knit Now Magazine issue #50 is now available for purchase in my Ravelry store! 

About a year ago, I was putting the finishing touches on the sample and pattern. Now, the tulips are starting to bloom in my garden again, and it's time to think about Spring and Summer knitting (and Fall and Winter knitting, but I'm not sure we ever stop thinking about those). Zephirine is knit with Yarn Stories Fine Merino 4ply, which is an excellent yarn with great stitch definition and a lovely drape.

You don't have to be a Ravelry member to shop on Ravelry... just head to my patterns page and click the "buy now" button.

Happy knitting!

Catching Up to Spring

Between Easter and Spring Break, I'm behind on blogging, and really behind on getting around to things in general. I'm getting started on catching up.

For one, I can't believe I forgot to mention it here, but a month or so ago, I was interviewed on By the Fibreside, which is a locally-produced knitting/spinning podcast that you should listen to because it's a truly enjoyable listen (all the episodes, not just the one that I'm on, though that one is: episode 4). For another, we're starting slowly but surely on spring cleaning, which is something that will likely last well into fall at the current rate of progress (but at least there is some progress).

It's been a busy end-of-winter over here, but spring is just now starting to arrive. Less than a week ago featured winter coats, and while I won't risk putting them away before the end of May (that's just asking for a snowstorm), it's spring jackets today and plus 1 degree Celsius on it's way up towards 9!

 The seeds that I've started are sprouting nicely, and I'm finishing up a couple of spring-green projects.

For my friend Kim, who is fond of limes, a wallet the right size for Euros (I am sure she intends a trip to Ireland soonish):

The pattern is from Fabric by Fabric One Yard Wonders , and only the last couple of steps were a tad challenging for my machine to work nicely through all the layers (I really need to sort out the right tension changes that need to be made as the fabric layers are added throughout a project). I may need a new wallet myself; once I sew up a couple more projects, it will be time to poke through my leftover cotton for just the thing!

And for my daughter's friend for her birthday, a sweater for her Maplelea doll.

As we don't have that sort of doll, Grover obliged us with some modelling work!

The pattern is Miniature Gilet Noeud Noeud for American Girl Doll by Amanda Childs, and the yarn is Kroy Socks.

The projects were a delightful diversion from my beige knitting projects and while I admit to starting a pair of red socks in the meantime, my Tralee skirt continues to chug along nicely, as beige as it is! I hope to have a finished project to share soon.

Snow, Easter Eggs, and Dahlias

It's not unusual here to have snow for Easter. However, as the ground was bare yesterday (and well into the middle of the night), I'm rather taken aback by just how much of it is arriving so quickly! These photos are from about an hour ago, and it's still coming down just as furiously.

It's supposed to end in the afternoon, and I do hope so! I also hope it won't delay field openings in May, because I really want to get out there and play Gaelic football soon!

In crafty news, for the first time in quite awhile, I've made a Ukrainian Easter egg. I found the candle-snuffer that has been missing for six years, so it has probably been that long. A good friend had a Psanky party at her house, and we had a great time. Here's what I made:

I also wanted to share photos of my completed Dahlia cardigan, along with a longish story about running out of yarn, but as I am way behind on a lot of tidying and organizing today (and apparently, snow-shovelling), I'll keep this brief, and show you a photo of the cardigan blocking.

The story and better photos will wait for next time.

Happy Easter!

#17 Man's Cable Cardigan and As-you-go Pocket tutorial

I'm so happy that I have finished knitting my husband's cardigan (#17 Man's Cable Cardigan by Josh Bennett), and he is very pleased with it as well! 

I had bought this issue of Vogue Knitting almost entirely because I felt my husband needed this sweater, and now I'm even more sure that I'm right about that. I finished it in less than a year, which is pretty good when you consider that the first sleeve went OK, then the next one sat around being just a cuff for a very long time. I'm sure it would have taken a lot less time if I hadn't knit or crocheted 32 other projects in the meantime.

As it's a classic sweater, when I pulled out the camera, my husband took up the required classic pose, but couldn't quite keep a straight face.

I knit this sweater in Paton's Classic Wool, Chestnut. The only change I made, besides knitting the sleeves in the round, was to add pockets. With a cursory search, I didn't find quite what I wanted in the way of instruction for adding pockets the way I wanted to, so I swatched my idea, and as it worked quite well, I have in-depth details below.

As-you-go Pocket Steps

1. Having figured out your gauge, measured the hand in question, figure out the number of stitches, and doubled them to make enough for both sides of the pocket. Make a crochet chain, in the same weight yarn, several stitches longer than you will need for the pocket.
   
   
2. Determine distance from side-seam to add pockets and select the purl section nearest to this.
    
3. On the Wrong Side, Knit in pattern to this point, then pick up the number of pocket stitches needed from the crochet chain. Knit in pattern to next pocket location, and repeat. I had to connect two cables together with a nifty little joiner to have a long enough cable to work all these stitches.
   
   
4. Knit in pattern, purling the pocket stitches on the right side, and knitting them on the wrong side, until your pocket is tall enough.
   
   
5. Carefully unzip the provisional cast-on, placing half the stitches on one double-pointed needle, and the other half on another. Perform the three-needle bind-off. There will be a slight gap at the point where you joined the pocket, but this can be tidied up with the finishing work later. Repeat for second pocket. 
   
   
6. Double-check that the pocket is indeed tall enough (it's a bit easier to measure against a hand with the one edge finished), and if it is, knit in pattern to pocket section, place half the stitches on one double-pointed needle, and the other half on another. Perform the three-needle bind-off. Again, there will be a slight gap, but it will close up nicely later. The pockets may extend a touch beyond the sweater edge at the moment, but the wide button-band will cover it quite well later.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Once the sweater is complete, sew up the gaps, and gently whip-stitch the top edge of the pocket to the sweater. Be sure to do this with the pockets facing in the correct direction (luckily I had my husband try the pocket out before sewing the second one backwards too). The whip-stitch does show a very little bit on the right side, but not that much, and I am very pleased with these nearly invisible pockets!
   
   
   

My husband, being a good sport, even went out into the welcome-to-spring snow we had flying yesterday (it might still be snowing, but it's early enough that I haven't looked out the window yet), and all for the sake of sharing sweater photos with you.

I'm so glad I knit this sweater; my husband's enjoyment of it makes each and every stitch worthwhile, and I must say, he and the sweater are both looking fine!

Happy Victoria Day!

It's gardening weekend! Today is overcast and rainy, which is fine with me, as I put most of my seedlings into the ground and pots back on Saturday. We did our yardwork that day too, and found that we have a great deal of work to do over the next while just fighting dandelions. It might be a good day to pull up some of those now that the ground is softer with the rain too. Though, it would also be a great day for knitting and listening to the CBC, so I might just do a bit of that, at least, until I head off to Gaelic Football practice. In the meantime, I'll just leave you with some of the flowers that are in bloom right now. Hope you're having a great long weekend!

Blueberry Ripple

Demonstrably not Queen of Night, despite label on package.

Still not Queen of Night, but I do like these.

Demonstrably not Queen of Night, but lovely anyhow.

Banja Luka

Banja Luka

Banja Luka

Peach Blossom

Lily-of-the-Valley

Lily-of-the-Valley

Banja Luka

Queen of Night

Apricot Parrot

Van Eijk

Catching Up

I've been even more busy lately with Gaelic Football, but at least we're out training on the pitch now. After all that snow we had, we're all a little surprised that the ground is dry enough for the fields to be open, but they are, and we're enjoying it. The fake wedding fundraiser went very well (sold out, and I laughed harder than I even thought I could during the show), and here is a photo of the cake I made for it:

I have to say, rather immodestly, that it was delicious. I used the Jiffy Chocolate Cake and the One-Bowl White Cake recipes from Company's Coming Cakes, and the marshmallow fondant recipe from this link.

And, here's what I wore:

I wore my Haruni shawl, and made myself a fascinator using a barrette, a bit of craft foam, some feathers, buttons, and a glue gun.

The weather has been gorgeous lately, but it's early in the spring yet, so I haven't done too much gardening yet--other than my spring cleanup, which I usually get to sometime around Mother's day. I know that if I did a cleanup in the fall, it would, in many ways be better (especially for my mold allergies), but I do love brushing aside dead leaves from last season to find emerging bits of green. I don't do a perfect job of this either, as leaving some leaves for ladybugs to hide under is generally a good idea. It's also good to get a bit of a head-start on the weeding, which I don't suppose I would do if I wasn't in a rush to see what's coming up, like my Giuseppe Verdi Kaufmanniana Tulips:

The very sight of those tulips were what really got me out gardening yesterday; they're so cheerful! I'm always so happy to see my tulips, and am eager to see the rest of them.

I can't risk planting anything outside yet, despite the positive overnight temperatures, but my seedlings are doing well, and I will start hardening-off the first batch this week. The tomatoes are getting tall, and I should really put them into their own pots today if I get a chance. Later this week, I will plant my veggie seeds and such that can be put outside directly, and I am quite looking forward to this.

In Which Wildlife Interferes with Laundry

I've been meaning to blog for awhile, but felt like I didn't have much to blog about this week.  That's not to say that I haven't been busy, as I have, but not as much with knitting and such.  I had a lovely visit from my parents last week, so this week seemed a little slow in comparison, yet I'm not sure I accomplished much, and am not sure where the time went.  I did actually get some knitting done, but it's so hard to get excited about posting pictures of a grey shawl this time of year.

Fortunately, the sun did come out this week for a bit (I can tell because while we still have a ton of snow, the sidewalks and streets are drenched with melted snow), and spring seems to be starting, however slowly.  It's going up to +2 degrees Celsius today!  I'm so excited!

One sign of spring I hadn't been expecting came in the form of rustling from the dryer.  I was working on blocking my shawl, and was startled by the noise.  It didn't take too long to assess that the sounds were coming from the dryer vent, unfortunately about the point where it connected with the dryer, rather than near the point at which the critter might leave the house.  My husband was coming home soon, and good thing, as it was rather a two-person job to coordinate releasing the critter, at that time presumed to be a bird, squirrel, mouse, or possibly, as our imaginations ran wilder, even bat.

There may have been more patient and reliable ways of releasing the critter than what ended up happening, but we really needed to wash the diapers, so we needed to get that thing out of the dryer (where we discovered it was hiding, as it was not inside the pipe after all).  We taped an ice-cream bucket to the back of the dryer, and left it alone for a bit, hoping it would prefer to hang out in the bucket.

It turned out to be a bird (which is good, really, as from that list, the bird has the most motivation to leave the house rather than stick around).  We waited patiently for the bird to come back to the bucket (it kept going back and forth, then taking breaks and trying again).  At some point, while my husband was bringing our younger daughter upstairs (she was a bit loud for the bird's taste), our eldest and I  watched the sparrow slowly muster the courage to come out once more.  Rather than trapping the bird to bring it outside as planned, it turns out that I'm not as quick as a bird, and it escaped to flutter around what I tend to term the Alcove of Anarchy (though it's much better since we put in shelves, it's still rather a jumble of stuff).  The way to the wide-open back door was clear, but since it's upstairs and around the corner, we were not too surprised that it didn't quite spot it.

Chaos and confusion reigned for the next while, my youngest returned to shout "over here, birdie!", and we tried unsuccessfully to herd the poor thing out the door.  At last, it lit on the top of the laundry room door, letting us think we were getting closer to sending it out, only then the sparrow decided it was going to hide up in between the drop ceiling and the main floor.  It's possible that the bird then proceeded to leave through the large gap in the drop ceiling of the adjacent room and fly directly out the wide-open back door that would have been very visible from there, all while we stared at its last known location.  I really hope this did happen.  In the meantime, all we can do is leave out a tray of birdseed, and watch to see what happens.  At least we can do the laundry now without worrying about the bird.

I didn't think to get pictures of any bird-related antics, but since the shawl is finished blocking, I do have a few of it:

Presenting the Old Shale Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, in Knit Picks Palette, Silver.  This was a quick, relaxing knit, used up stash yarn, and will look great with one of the dresses I want to wear to one of the Gaelic Football dinners this year.  At least that went well.