Twisted Stitches

Well, the only knitting I’ve managed to get in lately is about half a coffee mug sleeve/cozy. Why? Our new shop is very slowly taking shape!

You may have noticed an absence of knitting or knit bloggin on my part of late.

I am still knitting and dyeing yarn, though to be honest, I haven’t done so in the past two weeks at all. What has captured my attention so fully? I am starting a business with a friend, whom you may know as perian (a co-author on this blog). The business will be a used book store/coffee shop, with a knitting group and perhaps a place I can sell my yarn, should i find time to dye more.

We’ve thought about a business in the past, but it was always a “pie in the sky” scenario. In the past two weeks, we went from not even thinking about it, to having discussed nearly all aspects of this business, including funding, marketing, stock, daily operations – you name the topic, we have a list with thoughts about it.

So, being the geeks that we are, we’ve decided to start blogging about the process of planning and starting our new business. Please check us out there if you’re interested in this not-quite-so-crafty side of our lives – the blog is at http://www.faking-sanity.net. Come check us out!

I finally finished the shawl there was quiet a bit of ripping back and starting over but it is finished I just have to block and take pictures of it to show you all

Well I’ve been thinking about trying to make a shawl for the longest time now and I finally broke down and found a pattern that I think may be simple enough for me to do without screwing up too many times. I already had to restart it once because I couldn’t find were I had dropped a stitchand have gotten only as far as the first part of the shawl, pretty close to knitting into the chart pattern soon so I will post pictures when that gets started.

I finally got to go to a great real yarn shop again, now that I am working and got my income tax check back I had a bit of  extra money that I could spend. I decided to find a list of good yarn shops in Toronto that I could visit and when we went last week I walked into my new favorite yarn shop The Purple Purl. Coincidentally it happened to be one of the yarn shops that Amy Swenson teaches at and I had just missed her when I walked in. I wish I were closer to Toronto so that I could go there more often I am going to have to settle with going every couple of months to pet the pretty yarns even if I can’t buy any. Can’t wait to go back .

This is it:  http://www.thepurplepurl.com/

It’s here! I was a good girl this year, and Santa brought me something so big it took over an extra month to get here!

No, no. That’s not the big thing… that’s just my pretty new lazy kate and some extra bobbins… This is the big thing:

I just need to find some plyers to get the e-clip off so I can attach the flyer assembly, then throw the washers and eclip back on, and we’re ready to roll! Err… spin!

I got a package today. This was part of the contents. Can you guess what it was?

Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Well, the project from the last post will forever remain a WIP. On a trip to see the Snowed in Comedy Tour, we rolled our car, and my knitting bag was found, but my knitting remained somewhere near Ponoka… Sad, I really liked the project. I may have to try it again out of my Handmaiden Sea Silk.

On the “upside”, we were incorporated into two separate comedians’ sets. The evening highlight was at the end of the evening, when we got to meet Ed Byrne, who asked again to make sure we were all ok. Sweet, and a funny, funny man. See?

Of course, the wine, painkillers and A535 when we got back to the hotel room were also welcome, and possibly, just as big of a highlight.

In 2009, I started dyeing yarn, opened an Etsy shop, and made my first wholesale order to an LYS in town. I swore that since I could now buy yarn and dye it in colours I wanted as I needed it, I would drastically cut down, if not cut out, my other yarn purchases. Apparently, 2009 was a year of grand delusions!

Dyeing yarn made me realize that I love the intrigue on one-skein-at-a-time, unique colourways. Despite the fact that  I am normally all about process, formulas and spreadsheets, dyeing for me is an outlet for my creative side, and I prefer the surprise of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach.

On the knitting side, it wasn’t really a stellar year. I started 10 projects and finished only 4: 2 pairs of socks, a scarf and a clapotis. I also finished 3 single socks that are waiting for mates, worked a bit on a few old projects that had been set aside, and started and abandoned a baby hat, 2 pair of socks and a blanket. I am happy with what I did finish, though, and in many ways, it was a year of firsts.

These represent my first test-knit and completed top-down sock, the first acrylic/nylon project that I love, my first project with a singles yarn, my first bamboo project, my first project wth corn yarn, my first attempt at designing my own heel, and my first bulky project, which also doubled as my first slam-dunk as far as gift giving is concerned.

Here’s to a 2010 filled with joy, peace and prosperity (that is dyeing, knitting, and yarn)!

Remember these? They were well loved. Today, they abandoned my feet to the cold of a Calgary winter. Both socks went to Safeway with me, but the left heel never came home… it disintegrated as I pulled off my boots. It was a sad goodbye, but since these were a gift, I don’t have the rest of the yarn, so fixing them isn’t an option.

I have a problem with socks… I love knitting them, but I get bored. It often takes me a couple of days to knit the first sock, and yet months later, the second one is still lingering in my stack of UFO’s. That being said, I love wearing the pairs of handknit socks I do have completed; I just need a little extra motivation to finish them. Tonight, I found it. Much of my stash is sock yarn, and I just discovered that I have nearly 50 km of yarn in my Ravelry stash right now, and that some of my sock yarn is not even in there yet.

Good friend Annarose was talking about doing a personal sock club: bundling up patterns and yarns already in her stash, and then knitting those as a sock club next year. It sounds like a great idea to work through your stash, and rediscovering previous yarn finds is always exciting, so I think I might try something similar, but with a little tweak.

I’ll be going through my stash – probably over Christmas – and bundling up 6 kits (I knit slowly, and only when I can chat with others). For each kit, there will be enough yarn to complete either a pair of socks or mittens. Quick aside: did you know the word for mittens and gloves in German – handschuh – is literally “hand shoes”? How cool is language! But I digress… Along with each kit of yarn, I’ll include a pattern, or perhaps two, for either mittens of socks. I’ll allow myself to knit other stuff if I’m not in the mood for the kits, but it will have to be from my stash, and preferably something I’ve already started.

Maybe I can get down to 45 km of yarn by next Christmas, and get some cozy socks and mittens to wear, or have Christmas gifts ready ahead of time, too. Maybe. I’ll definitely be giving it a try, though!

Packages are so much fun! Remember me mentioning I won a contest on Gingersnaps’ blog? I was thrilled to get this package in the mail today! She was so generous, and this gift was definitely customized to me.

There was a whopping 4.2 oz/120 gram skein on Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Peacock, and the colour is absolutely perfect (the colour appears a bit darker than it actually is – I had to play with the flash and exposure as it’s dark so early here now).

She also included a can of maple syrup from the Beauce region of Quebec, which is where my family is originally from. Yum!

And as if that wasn’t enough, there was also a big container of “sucre à la crème”. The ingredients vary from one recipe to another, but basically, it consists of sugar (usually brown or a combination of brown, maple and icing sugar), cream or evaporated milk, maple syrup, and a bit of butter. In English, it’s apparently called maple fudge, which always strikes me as odd since the French for fudge (“fudge”) refers specifically to chocolate.

A friend recently posted a bit of a contest on her blog, and was looking for suggestions for a good workhorse yarn. I had to pipe in with my love of Lambs Pride Superwash. I don’t like the original – the mohair, it is not my friend – but the superwash is awesome. It isn’t shiny or silky, but if you’re looking for a smooth, non-itchy yarn that is machine washable, holds up well to frogging/reknitting and washing, has awesome heathered and solid colourways and is relatively inexpensive, get thee to a yarn store to buy some, post haste!

As for the winning part, well, that may be a bit of a stretch: no one else posted a suggestion, so I won by default. So, if you don’t already read it, go grab some gingersnaps with tea.

On the knitting front, there isn’t much going on.

I keep procrastinating about resoling the socks I made my Dad for Christmas last year. He completely blew out the heel (seriously, I can stick my fist through the hole), so he’ll get the same socks again this Christmas, with double-knit soles and specific instructions: “if you walk on gravel in hand knit socks with no shoes, you will not get any more hand knit socks!”

I’m still knitting on the very basic 2×2 ribbed alpaca scarf. Not very impressive to photograph, but I just finished the first ball of yarn today at lunch.

As for the Summer Solstice cardigan? I was able to get a clarification on the instructions, so I have 5 rows to rip back, and then I can pick this up again… perhaps that will be this weekend’s project… because, really, who needs to work on Christmas knitting?

I’ve only been posting about dyeing recently, so here’s a quick update on other stuff. I haven’t been knitting much, but I’m nearly finished a pair of socks (not one, but two socks!) for the roommie out of Zauberball in Brombeeren. I also started on a new sweater this week. The irony couldn’t be missed: it started snowing the day after I cast on for Summer Solstice. The construction of this sweater is quite different, but I really like the look of the finished sweater. Here’s how they both look so far:

I also made a few purchases this past week or so. First, I bought some of the squishiest black yarn ever to be used for a scarf for my brother in law… I think! And most recently, I purchased a Namaste buddy case to carry aorund my knitting tools, as well as a Hermosa bag. I’m still debating on this one as to whether I should keep it for myself, or give it as a Christmas gift. What do you guys think?

but, do you know what this is?

This is a completed sock. Woo! And a delivery of about 25 pounds of yarn! Yah! Now, if only I could start dyeing again, I’d be set!

Last week, I arranged a purchase on Ravelry for some Lamb’s Pride Superwash Worsted. Although I missed the impatient delivery man, when I got to the door, there was a package on the floor. Wee! The yarn is the most amazing deep red (it’s called “Shane’s Red”) and the ever so slight heathering gives it so much depth. I’ve been itching for a sweater lately, and I think this will be perfect. Must decide on the perfect match, though… I’m tossing around the idea of that Corsica sweater (Ravelry link) I was originally planning for my Noro.

And can I take this time to point out that Americans are crazy when they complain about the US postal service (not that the person I bought this from is one of those)? The parcel took 7 days to arrive despite a holiday in between (4 business days), and it cost less than $11 to ship. For me to ship the same parcel to her address would cost nearly $17 for the cheapest option with no insurance, tracking, guarantees, etc, and their delivery standard is 2.5 weeks (12 business days). And the cost only drops by 50 cents if I want to ship the same parcel to my mother, here in Canada. I do have to admit that Canada Post has improved greatly in the past couple of years at their standard delivery times, but they still lose and damage stuff frequently, and when you’re paying more to start, for a slower delivery time, you tend to have this weird, perhaps unfounded expectation that your package gets delivered. To the right address. Undammaged.

Thump. Stepping off my soap box now.

Working from home today, but currently taking a coffee break, and noticed a link to these new needles in my inbox. They look cool, but I don’t know about the “slightly flexible” bit… I may have to try a pair though; since I already have a set of standard options, it would be pretty cheap to try a single set of tips of these.

Several months ago, KnittingGrammy had been working on some thrummed mitts, and mentioned how tedious it was to prepare each little thrum, and suggested it would be easy for someone  to find a market to sell bags of pre-made thrums. I would never have the patience to prepare each thrum for a pair of mitts that I wouldn’t get to knit, wear, or even see, but ask and ye shall receive: voilà!

I got two deliveries this week; one was more anticipated than the other… Can you guess which?

I can’t believe it! There is a yarn/fibre shop that accepts Canadian Tire money as payment (at full face value). Really. When you click on the “We accept Canadian Tire Money as Payment” link, you get this:

Yes, we really do.  So go dig through the glove box, the MacGyver drawer in the kitchen, the kids’ toyboxes and everywhere else that Canadian Tire Money gets to… now it’s good for yarn and fibre, too!