sweetgeorgia

Angel at my feet

Somehow, I managed to finish a pair of socks this week. Now that I’ve finished them, I also notice that somehow, I managed to goof one of the heels.

Anyway.

I have finished socks!! Here are the finished Jaywalkers in “Angel”…

The best thing about turning 30… Contest

So, with this post I have the rare completed object… and the FIRST EVER sweetgeorgia blog contest! That’s right. That’s like two for one. Lucky you.

In the spirit of my upcoming birthday, I’m hosting a little contest and the prize will be either 2 skeins of superwash sock yarn or a braid of BFL fibre — your choice! You choose the colourway and I’ll dye it for you. All you need to do is leave me a comment starting with “The best thing about turning 30 is…”. The contest will close at midnight on Wednesday, July 19th (i.e. 11:59:59 PM) and we’ll randomly draw the winner.

Happy thoughts, people. Send happy thoughts. =)

Secret Cove

Life has thrown me a few happy, crazy, angsty days since my last post on Thursday. Jen and I are both long-time volunteers involved in the organization of the annual DanceSport BC SnowBall Classic DanceSport event and we spent the past couple days tucked away in the Sunshine Coast participating in a massive strategic planning meeting that covers all things “SnowBall” from now until 2010. It was eight or nine hours a day of thinking, analyzing, dreaming, planning — all very inspiring. It’s so uplifting to be around people who are all so optimistic and enthusiatic. Their passion is palpable. The entire committee stayed at the gorgeous Rockwater Secret Cove Resort in Halfmoon Bay.

When we weren’t indoors, this is what we got to see:

And this is what we did each evening after dinner:

Jen is borrowing my Ashford Joy wheel indefinitely and so we were both spinning and chatting until late each night. A perfect way to relax after all that work — and I managed to get more of my Gotland spun up. Relaxing AND productive. No better combination.

As for the angst, see this lovely new 50/50 silk/wool laceweight yarn that I dyed?

Well, I can’t decide if I like it as the Diamond Fantasy Shawl or as the Kiri Shawl. Ridiculous, no? I started knitting each shawl from either end of the same ball of yarn… I’ll let you know which shawl wins out… when I decide.

Orange you blue?

It’s starting to warm up here in Vancouver and that scratchy, heavy Shetland wool fair isle is sort of the last thing I want to knit right now. I’m itching for some lace. Being without a Zephyr project or shawl project right now makes me antsy. Gah, my hands want lace.

So here is my respite. Orangina. Stephanie Japel’s perfect solution for easy peasy and pretty lace. It’s lovely mindless knitting in quite a nice cotton. Rowan 4-ply Cotton doesn’t split but it does remind me a bit of thin dishcloth cotton. Whatever, my hands are happy now.

The Power of Knitting is Fierce

Thanks so much everybody for your wonderful and mood-lifting comments! You guys made me laugh — especially Gleek who said “we yarn-buying ANIMALS totally hosed your server!! the power of knitting is fierce.” And we all know that with great power comes great responsibility…

So in celebration of the new dedicated server and yarn-buying animals everywhere, 10% of the sales on Monday will go towards the Canadian Cancer Society via my friend, Jazzi, who is participating in the Relay for Life on June 9 in Salt Spring Island.

Michelle was superfriend yesterday and when I said something about “this is the kind of day that needs wine”, she bought me a bottle of Cedar Creek Ehrenfelser — a wine that’s been described as “fruit salad in a glass”. Ah yes, because that’s what friends do. They bring wine on bad days.

But last night, during dinner (much to the amusement of the waiter), I finished my Pomatomus socks and Michelle finished Kate Gilbert’s Anouk — Michelle’s version is knit in denim yarn with the cutest red ladybug buttons. Must get a photo of it! My socks are here:

…and now I can continue to work on Fair Isle Yoke Cardigan (Elizabeth Zimmerman)…

The photo is of the left shoulder… and yes, there are no real sleeves yet. The EZ method is to knit the body in the round, then knit two sleeves separately in the round, then join them all together and start the fair isle yoke bit. Same idea as the Hourglass Sweater except that the Hourglass has raglan shaping and the EZ cardi has round shaping (evenly spaced decreases).

I wanted to break up the long stretches of plain, grey stockinette rounds, so rather than knitting up sleeves, I just did a provisional cast-on for the number of stitches that I want at the top of the sleeve and joined the “sleeves” to the body. Now I can enjoy the fair isle portion of the sweater. When it’s all done, I’ll just pick up the sleeve stitches and knit down to the wrist. Easy and lazy.

Happy weekend!

The Perfect Red

Last April, we were visiting Japan and I felt the need to buy Noro in the “mother country”. The selection of Noro Cash Iroha at Okadaya near Shinjuku station was surprisingly limited — a lot of black and a bit of red. So, I bought the red.

This red was a warmish, rusty red that just wouldn’t wear well on me, so after I finished the sweater, I overdyed the whole thing. I wanted to shift the colour from warm to cool without darkening or muddying the existing colour. Solution? Overdye with just over 1% WashFast Magenta.

Since the yarn has a bit of silk content, I had to soak the sweater at least overnight… I was busy most evenings, so I ended up soaking it for three nights. Then the dyeing happened on Thursday evening with 4 g of dye powder (the sweater weighed 360 g, so this is just over 1% DOS), 36 g of citric acid (to make the dye strike) and 36 g of glaubers salt (to promote even dyeing). I agitated pretty much continuously for the first few minutes and then I’d come back and agitate the sweater lightly during each commercial break of The O.C. The sweater cooked for about an hour in total and I let the whole thing cool down overnight.

Hourglass Sweater

• Pattern: From Joelle Hoverson’s “Last Minute Knitted Gifts”
• Size: I knit the smallest size (33″) but the sweater stretched on its own to about 36″
• Yarn: Noro Cash Iroha, 9 skeins (the ball in the photo is what I have left of the 9th skein)
• Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm Addi Turbos
• Mods: I shortened the sleeves by about an inch (they were 17.5″ before joining to the body). Oh, and lazy me didn’t kitchener the sleeves and body under the arm. I did — of course — a three-needle bind off.
• Notes: Well, I think everyone who has made this sweater with Cash Iroha has made the same comments before — if in doubt, make a smaller size since the yarn will stretch out. Also, the neckline is very “Flashdance”. I had to string some additional yarn through the neckline in a lame attempt to maintain the neck shaping.

A couple months ago in Seattle, I came upon Cash Iroha in the exact same dyelot as I bought in Japan, so I purchased 2 additional skeins (for a total of 11 skeins) but ended up not needing them at all. I’ll probably use the remainder of the yarn for a little scarf or maybe a hat… and then overdye that too.

This sweater is super easy to make and so so so comfortable to wear. I think I might even make another one… with more mods of course.