More hooking

Crochet hooking that is!

Remember my first rag rug?

 

It now resides on the floor of our guest room.

As you can see it was crocheted a little too loosely (evident spaces between stitches) but it still serves its purpose.

I came across a few t-shirts to recycle and the urge to crochet another rug came back.

So I did take out my crochet hook once more and cut lots of t-shirt yarn.

This video tutorial is so great!

I was determined to crochet tighter and my hands are paying the price for it. But it was well worth it.

 

This rug is firmer.

There is a lot to learn when using this fabric. They are not all created equal. Some will roll on itself very nicely and hide all the edges, others will not do that. Some stretch all the way to the neighbors while others have minimal stretch.

I now realize that it's important that the center rounds be made with a stretchy 'yarn' with good memory because it ends up being pulled in all directions when you crochet the subsequent rounds.

This rug is about 28 inches and is just perfect for a small bathroom on our main floor.

It was made with 5 ladies t-shirts and one nightgown and some cotton knit fabric remnants.

 

When I was making this rug, our cat Mia, kept parking her behind on it.

This gave me the idea of making her one of her own.

I thought I was so brilliant!

But I don't think that Mia thought so. 

She has yet to use this one.

We are often picking her up wherever she is in the house and bringing her to her cat bed but she's not using it (yet).

 

She's still kicking the dog off his own dog cushion at the front door.

This one measures 18'' in diameter with a 3'' edge that comes up.

 

Now, back to my knitting.



Bits of this, bits of that

Today's post is about little bits of this and that.

I recently purchased the Island e-book. A collection of patterns designed by Jane Richmond.

The patterns are inspired by life on Vancouver Island.

 

I will probably make four of the five patterns included in this book.

 

Arbutus is the first pattern I started with.

It's a cowl with three tiers in the front.

They stack up onto each other making the cowl less cumbersome but still very warm. It gives the look of a wrapped cowl without all the fuss.

 

The yarn I used is yarn that I spun from Alicia's alpaca fibre. Dyed Poppy Red, it feels light and thick and just so soft.

 

 

I've also casted on the Strathcona scarf from the same book. More on that when I can take pictures in a good light. 

 

Remember my Blue Antler cardigan?  When I saw that the designer team of the Antler cardigan had a test knit going on for a new pattern, I voluntered right away.

Here is the beginning of Lush.

I have enough projects on the go and must not be tempted to cast on for anything else!!!

 

Lately, Mia, the cat  has decided to use a half wall as a perch. She can look out the front door from there and out the window as well...perfect observation point!

 

 

But she does sleep on her watch! Not much happening around here I guess.

 







 

Tomorrow, I'll be at the Callander Community Center with yarn and fibre in tow from 10-5.

Come and say hi if you are in the area!!

Alpaca fun run

It's been a while since I've posted anything about the Lonely Oak alpacas.
The three babies are growing well and we will be weaning them in the next few weeks.
They are eating pellets on their own now as well as hay.

Early on saturday morning, hubby led the alpacas to the barn and closed the gate.
What's going on?

We've had a good snowfall on Friday and after cleaning out the driveway

hubby headed for the pastures!!??

I'm not sure if he's using his snowblower because he loves to or if the alpacas really need a path.

But regardless, hubby will make a circuit for them.

You see, alpacas do not like to go into any deep snow. They won't venture out very far in even a few inches of snow. So they tend to stay by the heated water trough or by the hay feeder.

 

So, hubby will make them a wide 'trail' to use.

I was so happy with this picture of Makushla. I rarely get a pic of her with her ears up. She's always so serious looking, for once she seems amused!

 

 No one goes in the barn, all 12 alpacas are staying out to observe the
snowblower make that snow fly.

Hubby is all done and the gate is now opened. They all come out to check it out.

Hummmm, pretty nice.

Which way should we go?

 

Let's see what Coco thinks.

Let's go east first.

And off they go!
They're doing the loop!

And back to the beginning.

It must feel good to run full speed.

Winter fun!

Thrummed mittens

I love knitting thrummed mittens.

They are light and fluffy and thick.

They have that stuffed toy kinda feeling.

 These are knitted with a merino worsted weight yarn that I had dyed a few years ago. When I spotted it in my stash a few weeks ago, I thought of thrum mitts right away.

Of course, the special part of thrum mittens is the inside. Little tufts of fibre to keep our fingers toasty warm on those bitter cold winter days.

The fibre is from Alicia, one of our alpacas. Almost a shame to use it on the inside...almost, but not quite. It's very soft and warm, so it's a good thing actually.

Do you want to make your own thrum mittens?

Look at what I have just added to my Etsy shop.

Lots of Thrummed mitten kits (and more to come).
The kits include 115g of hand dyed worsted superwash merino yarn, 55g of hand dyed merino top and the pattern to knit a pair of thrummed mittens.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth?
I made a short video to explain how to make thrums and how to insert them.

After several tries, I decided to just publish this video on Youtube. It's not perfect but I hope it's clear enough. I could have used a lighter yarn and the stitches might have shown up better but I hope it will still encourage people to knit their first pair of thrummed mittens.
 

Why not treat yourself to a little luxury?
zenitude.etsy.com

Blue Antler

The Antler cardigan is all done. Even the buttons are sewn on! And all the ends woven in.

 

I had bought the Fleece artist BFL Aran yarn at my LYS last year as a kit to knit the Imogen cardigan. But I decided to use it for the Antler cardi instead.

I'm so glad I did.

It was a nice treat to knit in such a thick yarn. It seemed like a fast project even though there were many hours of stockinette stitch involved.

Once I got to the yoke and the cables started to appear, I gave it as much time as I could.

I know I'll get a lot of wear out of this cardi. It will be great for spring and fall and a few of our cooler summer evenings. 

Project information here.

A little unfaithful!

Knitters are often very faithful to their craft and don't think of picking up a hook to manipulate their yarn. They stick to their needles.

But I did just that for a quickie project.

I put the needles aside and picked up a crochet hook.

But I used a very different kind of yarn.

I had collected several chenille bedspreads over the years. I had many plans for it all. But when I was cleaning the my stash room the other day, I came across a few boxes of chenille fabrics and I decided that since I had not yet done anything with them, it was time to let them go and send them to a recycling store. I guess that this thought scared me into action because that very same night, I started ripping strips and strips of chenille. I had so much chenille fluff at my feet, it looked like I was walking in snow!

I made several balls of rag yarn, some with chenille, some with flannel fabrics.

After viewing some videos on Youtube, I was ready to go.

If you would like to give this a whirl, I highly recommend Cassandra Pook's videos.

She made three videos to explain the whole process from ripping your rag yarn to crocheting the rug.

 This is the first video.

 

 

The rag rug was done in a few evenings. It's really a quick project.

I'm not the only one that likes it. Bjorne loves it too.

It's big enough for him to stretch out on.

I had cut all of my strips 4'' wide (as the video suggested) but quickly realized that this was too wide for the thick chenille. So I ended up ripping them down to about 1½''.
At this width, it was much easier to crochet.

I find that this first rug is crocheted a little too loosely and I plan on making the next one at little tighter. 

Yes, there will be a next one, probably done with all the blue fabric I  have around here.

You can use old bedsheets, curtains, and fabrics of all kind to make a rag rugs.  

I'm also interested in making one out of t-shirt material so I'll be on the lookout for that too!

So much for clearing out the stash room...sounds like it will get full again!

The deep deep freeze

Everybody is talking about it.

It's all we hear on the radio and the weather channel.

We have just about had enough of it. 

The only good thing about it is that the sun has been shining brightly for several days.

It's darn cold out there and it's been this way for several days now!

Last night was another night of frigid temps

-34C

See the small number in the bottom right hand corner. That's the lowest it went to last night.

 

Add a bit of wind to this and you end up with -40C!

Did you know that -40C is -40F?

 

But we cannot say that we are cold in our house.

Thanks to this in our kitchen.

 

The fire in the cookstove is going all the time.

The wood from the wood shed is making it's way to the house at a fast pace.

A little too much at times!

If you check the above themometer again, the small number on the bottom left hand corner says +27C! That was the high in our house yesterday! Well, if not the whole house, in the kitchen at least. At one point, I realized it was -27 outside and +27 inside. After a few hours working outside, hubby came in frozen and loaded the stove up and we ended up with a tropical heat wave.

When it gets this cold, I think of those people that are shivering outside or in poorly insulated homes. I think of the children that do not have warm clothes to face the cold every day.

I'm very grateful for our warm home.

 

I've been busy with some house cleaning.

I've also been prepping a guest bedroom for a fresh coat of paint.

And there has been some knitting going on as well.

Antler is coming along. I joined the sleeves to the body and have started on the yoke. I was so eager to get to that part. After miles and miles kilometers and kilometers of stockinette knitting, I was looking forward to the cables.

Once that's done, all that will be left is the button band and sewing on a few buttons.

I'm really excited about this cardigan.

 

I walked into a Roots store last week to purchased a .50¢ shopping bag!

The salesperson would probably have liked me to have a look around the store before purchasing an empty shopping bag. But all I wanted was this bag.

 

 

It's become another one of my knitting project bags.

Cool, eh?

 

With Antler almost completed, I'm already planning the next project.

That's it for now.

Stay warm!

Milo 2

Having knitted the cute little Milo vest for Loïc in a size 12 mths, I looked forward to knitting another one in a size 5 for Olivia.

It's a great tv knitting project because of all the stockinette stitch involved.

I've knitted this one longer so it fits more like a tunic. 

And I chose a different cable than the first one I knitted. But I guess I was distracted (by the tv) and did not follow the directions for the Aran cable very well. I came up with something very different. I noticed my error at the very end and decided that I did not mind this version.

Since every little girl likes sparkly things, I added a row of beads on the cast-off. 

Olivia was very happy with the beads.

And now that this is done, I'll have more time for my Alcyone and my Antler cardigan.

To live with it or not

No matter how I look at it

No matter how good or bad the light is

 

 No matter how I place them

They are just too different for me to live with it.
(It's worse in real life than what my camera can pick up.)

I tried to convince myself that it was all ok.
I tried to tell myself that they were not that different after all.
I am ok with hand dyed yarns that vary slightly from skein to skein. I'm ok with parts of my knitting not being identical. This is why I enjoy hand dyed yarns.
But when I look at my two sleeves I don't notice the beautiful colour anymore, I just notice how they are not matching.
I know that we should always knit from two skeins of hand dyed yarns in order to even out the colour. I had planned on doing just that for the body of the cardigan.
I had hoped to get away with it for the sleeves.
I've decided to frog up to the ribbing and start using a second skein from that point.

Sigh!
 



Off and on the needles

I don't think I've ever had so much time to sit and knit quietly.

These projects are quite straight forward (at least for now) except for one of them. There seems to be a prevaling colour scheme going on too.

Let's start with Milo. All done. A perfect little knit. We tried it on bébé Loïc the other night and it fits him (with room to grow) just right!

Project page

 

Loving the first Milo, it's only natural to want to knit a second one.

This one is for Olivia. She came to the LYS with me the other day and picked her colour.

Now, why am I not surprised we came home with purple!!

The plan is to knit this one a little longer than what the pattern calls for so that it fits more like a tunic.

I was at her house a few days ago with my knitting bag in tow. She came over to me and asked what I was knitting and I told her that this would be hers.

She went on to play with her books and came back to me about 10 minutes later asking: Are you done yet?

LOL!

She also requested that I put a flower on it. I'll have to think about this for a bit and see what I can come up with.

Project page

 

This shawl project is the one that requires more attention.

I have done chart A and Chart B. It's going well but I do need to count and follow the lace pattern very closely.

Project page

 

And I have a third project on the needles.

This photo shows how too large the sleeve was on me so I frogged it and am doing the increases further apart. I've knitted up to the elbows and I'm much happier with it now.

This is mindless rows and rows of stockinette knitting for now. A good project to work on when the shawl is too much.

 

I don't usually work on three things at once. I prefer to focus on one project and maybe a second one at the most. But I expect to be finished with the second Milo in a few days and I will be back to two projects.

 

There will be some car knitting at the end of the month. After waiting for 7 mths I finally have an appointment at the allergy clinic four hours away from here. The doc that will see me specializes in people with headaches and migraines caused by allergies. I'll keep my fingers crossed but won't hold my breath. I've seen too many doctors about my migraines and I'm more cautious now about getting too hopeful. But still, positive thinking is best!