Ravelympics FO: Gathered Pullover

Apparently if you take your knitting with you absolutely everywhere, you'll churn out a complete sweater in 2 weeks. In the spirit of the Yarn Harlot, here is one of the sleeves at a Radiohead concert last week:And at Canada's Wonderland a couple days later:And just one day shy of the closing ceremonies, I ended up with this: (Note: when doing FO photo shoots in parks, friendly dogs that are enjoying their leash-less freedom like to participate) Pattern: Gathered Pullover Needles: 4.5 mm circular and dpns Yarn: Knitpicks Telemark in cilantro heather. Mods: about 4 inches of extra length, and waist shaping. I decreased about 6 stitches on each side for the waist shaping. And in my zeal to race through this project, I accidentally made one sleeve about 1" longer than the other, so I had to undo my cast on cuff and rip it back slightly. In order to preserve the rolling cuff look, I needed a bind off that would mimic my cast on. Enter Elizabeth Zimmerman's Sewn Bind Off. It turned out perfectly, and was ridiculously easy. Magic, I tell you! Also, when I wet blocked it, I added glycerin to the water to prevent felting. So when I ran it through an industrial dryer in the local laundromat in a fit of impatience- it still didn't felt. I'll definitely be using that handy little trick again in the future- I love wool! Notes: According to Ravelry, there are 507 Gathered Pullover projects either completed or on the go, and it's in over 2000 queues. That's one popular sweater. And I completely understand why- I love it. It's infinitely wearable, comfy, and classic. This isn't a sweater that will be out of style next season, or any season. And hey, green is my favourite colour. Cheers to that! Woohoo! I finished the Sweater Sprint for Team Knit Girl!

Ravelympics Project: Gathered Pullover

I went on a minibreak to Mont Tremblant in Quebec the same day as the Ravelympics started. If you want to get a lot of knitting done, I suggest sequestering yourself in the Canadian wilderness with no cell service, television, internet, or computers. It does wonders for your knitting. I cast on that morning before I went to work (with my backpack for the cottage packed beside me!): And knit a bit in the mind-numbingly awful traffic out of the city after work (I swear I'm fully stopped on the highway, I'm not actually endangering anyone): And somewhere between this thisthisand this I came back home with this: That's the Gathered Pullover, right after the cabled motif and just when it sections off for the neckline. I also got started on a sleeve:This happy green sweater is going to be done in no time. I have to say, it's been a real eye-opening experience about my own knitting process. Give me a deadline, and suddenly I'm not only capable of project fidelity, but also racing through. Typically, when it's time for finishing or sleeves, I start to pick up another project and leave the first to languish quietly for a while.But I'm shockingly dedicated, even when the new Knitscene is tempting me with so many great projects. And with all the lovely yarn showing up in my mailbox lately, I have to admit that I spend a lot of time thinking about which project will be next. Great yarn, and great projects for that great yarn? I'm in absolute heaven. Phoe was responsible for sending the Silky Wool my way, and I purchased the Handmaiden Seasilk off of Ebay- I couldn't resist that colourway. By the way- when cottaging, this product was awesome:great sunscreen, great coverage... loved it. And cheap, too!

Ravelympics Day 3

Kevin and I drove out of the city to pick (read: eat) giant blueberries on a farm. Couldn't have asked for a better day. The sun was shining hot and the clouds were freaking unbelievable. The farm is located on the top of a valley so you see the cloud systems form in 3D. I'll get some pictures off of Kevin's camera and throw them on the flickr.

I also had a few hours to work on my Kiri. I'm about half a repeat ahead of this photo now. I wasn't kidding about the giant fact, these are secret of the ooze berries! They also had fresh cut sunflowers and gladioli for 75 cents each!! Hells yea, I bought some. When we got back to the city, Kev, Toby and I threw our hands together and made Toby's superduper delicious homemade hamburgers. This is the only photo in existence of these burgers as they kinda disappear into my belly faster than I can whip out the camera. I'll post the recipe later if he doesn't mind. A great end to a great day <3

Ravelympics Day 1

Like Julie mentioned below, this Ravelympics is an outstanding concept/idea. From the interfaces Casey has made to all the crazy groups and teams. One can now spend even more time on Ravelry than they thought humanly possible. And The best part of all? IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE KNITTING! I cast on for Kiri just before the games begun so I'll be entering into Wips Wrestling as part of Team Canada.

On that note let me show you the goods... I'm using one skein of Alpaca with a Twist - Fino and the first progress photo (taken Aug.2, now on 5th repeat) It's such a beautiful color that I get excited each time I see it! The actual lace repeat is easy and quickly memorized...having never made anything in laceweight (and finished it) this is crucial. I'm going to knit as much as I can today. Lets see how many repeats I can get through! I've got my knitting mojo back! yay!@ Happy stitching!

Toronto Stitch n-Pitch

Last night was the Toronto Stitch n' Pitch for 2008. Which was lots of fun. There were complimentary tote bags: And they had free yarn in them! There were knitters as far as the eye could see: And the Jays won! They don't do that very often, so it's really something to remark upon. ; ) All in all- a very good time. Nex ton the knitting agenda: I've been getting ready for the Ravelympics! I'm participating the Sweater Sprint for Team Knit Girl!. I'll be casting on for the Gathered Pullover from Interweave Knits Winter 07 during the opening ceremonies tomorrow. I can't wait! Hats off to Ravelry for coming up with such a fun idea.

FO: Chinatown String Bag and Baked Goods Galore

Pattern: Such a heavily modified version of The String Bag that I don't think I can say it is the same pattern at all- but definitely inspired. Needles: 3.5 mm and 8 mm circulars Yarn: stash cotton/ramie blend, about 400 yards Modifications: Oh, where to begin. First off, I changed the lace/netting pattern of the body of the bag to the pattern from the Montego Bay scarf. This meant I could happily do a repeat of k2tog, yo round and round and round. I switched to the 3.5 mm and bound off the sides of the bags, and then knitted the handles one at a time, one on each side. The handles are 8 stitches wide, and just plain old stockinette.But how they attached, that's where I wanted things to be flexible. Enter the buttons, one of which is sewn on the inside of the bag at the base of each handle:Since I put in a button hole at the end of each handle, there are two ways to arrange the handles for easier carrying. Doubled up:Or grocery bag style: I can't tell you how pleased I was that the handles worked out. I was a pretty happy bunny about those handles! Notes: I had no idea that the lace would be that stretchy: Which has it's good points and bad points. Good: This thing could hold a full grown cow, it has that much stretch going on. Bad: Who wants to carry the weight of a cow on their shoulder? Not me. Or G, for that matter. Since G ends up carrying all the groceries we get in Chinatown, he mentioned that it could be improved upon by making the lace section shorter, and having the option of a shoulder strap so that it could be worn diagonally across the body.Better to make the trek with a cow's weight worth of veggies. Since it is undyed cotton/ramie blend, I'm going to throw it in the tumble dryer and see if it shrinks up a bit. If that doesn't fix it, I'll probably tack down part of the lace to shorten it a bit. Even though it turned out bigger than expected, I really am pleased. It is my idea of the perfect reusable grocery bag. As it was a long weekend here, I decided it was the perfect time to do a bunch of baking, and invite some friends over to partake in all the goodies.My List of 101 Things included doing a bunch of baking I hadn't done before, like making cinnamon rolls from scratch: These were so popular that once I pulled them out of the oven and put the cream cheese icing on them, they went so fast that I didn't have time to get a picture of a full plate: Thanks to Teresa for the wonderful recipe! Also in keeping with the list- My goal is to try five different cake recipes that I've never made before. Juicy Knits sent me a recipe for a delicious flourless chocolate cake, and Phoe sent me a recipe for an amazing ginger cake. (Sorry for the wonky lighting, not sure what happened there). They were absolutely amazing. People loved the brownie-like texture of the flourless chocolate cake, and were equally enamoured and impressed with the satisfying spicy/sweet ginger cake. So thank you for the recipes! I know I'll be making all three of these again in the future.

Sweater Dress Love

I was on Net-a-porter.com earlier today (I can't afford to shop on this site, but I enjoy cruising the knitwear!) and saw this: That's a Chloe Ribbed Knitted Dress, regularly priced at $1404.20, for the summer 2008 collection. Doesn't it look remarkably similar to the Ribbed Mini Dress (ravelry link) from the Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting? I hate to say it, but it looks like the design team at Chloe totally ripped of Mary Lynn Patrick. But I did see this, and I'm absolutely in love with it: This little number is courtesy of Stella McCartney, and I'm seriously considering knitting it. Minus the batwing sleeves and with a tad more waist shaping. I've had a secret obsession with knitted dresses for a while now, but haven't yet made one. The trouble is, there are two very good reasons why I haven't yet taken the plunge- 1. That's definitely going to take a lot of time! I have no idea what I'd blog about while knitting it ('hi, here's a shot of the stockinette... and more stockinette two weeks later....' etc.)2. That's a lot of yarn, and it won't be cheap. Of course, it would be much cheaper than a ready-made Stella McCartney dress, but still. A bit more than my little yarn budget can handle at the moment. Has anyone knit a sweater dress? How did you find the whole process? Any words of wisdom for those about to journey down the sweater dress path?