Finally, Some Chatter

WiP: Emilien for Dallas; felted mittens; wedding blanket for Wedding #2 (last August. Shhhhh...)
FOs: None

Reading: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Remember, you can donate to the Canadian Red Cross here (any amount at all): http://www.redcross.ca/donate
You can also donate at your Alberta-local Starbucks, although if you need a tax receipt, you need to donate online. Only donate as much as you can, but remember that if you are more affluent, $20+ will get you a tax receipt. ;) I'm pretty sure that if you donate to the "Disaster-Relief Fund," if the Red Cross has left over money, it gets shuffled to the next disaster they need money for...Never a bad thing to have the extra!

It's been a busy couple week around here! Between flooding and not, we've done our engagement photos, and I had my birthday, and we even went up to Olds to take a look at their Fibre Festival market this past Saturday!

Dallas and I have been walking a lot, as I am now trying trim up a bit after all the weight training. Although the night before last we got absolutely soaked by a thunderstorm that rolled in halfway through our walk!

This weekend is Canada Day, and our forecast looks amazing! I'm stoked about having a long weekend to relax at home, although our plans had originally been to go out to my parents'.

I'm hoping to finish Dallas's sweater, and then to be able to block it, have it dry, and take some photos in Confederation Park this weekend! Fingers crossed he doesn't melt in it! If it's nice, I'll try to also coerce him into taking some photos of me in my Marion cardigan as well.

Otherwise, need to patch up his blanket, where some of the squares have had their sewing unravelled, try to finish the wedding blanket, and then maybe, just maybe, start my shawl.

But that might have time high jacked by the whole felted mitten thing.

Have a lovely long weekend, and Happy Canada Day! :)

Katie =^..^=

P.S. The Calgary Stampede is selling these t-shirts: "Hell or High Water" t-shirt
These are while supplies last, but proceeds are going to the Canadian Red Cross fund. 

A Fail

Legitimate Progress on Dallas's Cardigan!

WiP: Dallas's Cardigan

Pictures from Tuesday, May 28, 2013. 

Finished the back and fronts...Now just for the sleeves and collar~!

Katie =^..^=

We Were On an Adventure!

WiP: Dallas's cardigan
FOs: None

That's right! We drove out to Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park, and then went down and explored Banff's Cave & Basin, the birthplace to the Canadian National Park System!

We also visited Jacques Cartier Clothiers, which is the shop that carries Quiviut. I have 1 skein at home, and I needed a pattern, so I found it's destiny in a Wavy Lace Scarf. I'll keep you updated as I go on that.

Otherwise...Dallas's cardigan went into  a time out yesterday, although it rode along with us. I messed up the shaping for the fronts, since I followed the directions to a T...And had to pick out all the shaping from the arm hole up on both fronts (I'm knitting them two-at-a-time so that they match). So I lost all of my work from Saturday morning. I was soooo peeved.

But, I got it more or less back to the same spot on Saturday (at least I used up the same amount of yarn, so that's a good sign), and now I'm ready to finish the fronts and move onto the sleeves. I hope.

Other than that, a quiet weekend. I think we're going to go Star Trek tonight, which I'm super excited for.

And I'll actually have a crane update tomorrow!

So, the knitting agenda as it stands now:

Dallas's cardigan
Cast-on shawl
Cast on Hanna Fettig's Calligraphy Cardigan
Cast on SSP
Cast on a pair of mittens to felt
Put cuffs on other mittens to felt
Make more felted bags for Etsy update in August.

...

There's a lot of work to do, and very little time, so I will leave you here!

Have a lovely evening, my dears!

Katie =^..^=

Catch-Up Thursday

WiP: Dallas's Cardigan
FOs: None

So, the past weekend was the long weekend. We were super busy, being out in Cochrane all four days of the weekend.

However, we got to drive out to Canmore for Knit & Caboodle, and then went to the second-hand bookstore as well, where I picked up Marion Zimmer Bradley's Forest House, a prequel to The Mists of Avalon.


I got the back finished on Dallas's cardigan; now it's the fronts, sleeves, and collar. I have less than a month to finish it now! But I think it'll all be good.

Also, it's less than fourteen months to the wedding! Couple more months and I can start pinning down the detailed parts of everything.

And once I've finished Dallas's cardigan, on to the shawl! And some more SSPs (super-secret projects).

Tuesday night we went to see "Iron Man 3", which was amazing! I loved it. I'm really glad that they didn't ignore "The Avengers," which was completely possible. I'm also super stoked to see "Thor: The Dark World" this fall!!

Next on the list, which I think will be good as well is "Star Trek: Into Darkness." And then I think the next after that will be "The Lone Ranger" with Johnny Depp.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this weekend that the weather will be good for the Lilac Festival on Sunday, and maybe for a hike on Saturday.

Either sun, or absolutely pouring rain so that I don't feel bad staying inside and knitting or sewing.

What're your plans for the weekend?

Katie =^..^=

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing, Sewing, Sewing...

WiP: Basic Cardigan: Two Ways; Cascade 220 Heathers, "Forest"

FOs: Sewn Box Bags x 2, Triangular bag. 

That's right, folks! I'll have a new and exciting addition to my shop starting in August! Box bags!!

They will be fully lined, 100% cotton bags, although the handle here is made with a sateen ribbon.

I'm super excited about these, because the fabric gives me a super easy way to customize these compared to knitting. 

I even put zippers in; this was only the third one, and I must say I think it came out quite well.

I'm super excited to continue with these and to be able to start providing a new and varied product in August!

The other super exciting part of all of this is all of these pictures are taken on our new camera!! We've been talking about getting one for about the past year, and I finally bit the bullet, did my research, and purchased a Canon Powershot.

I must say, for the little that I've experimented with it, I'm very satisfied with it. I can't wait to take it out hiking and such to take pictures and really test it out. :)

What did you folks do this weekend?

Katie =^..^=

So I Don't Chatter Dallas's Ears Off...A Post!

WiP: Dallas's Cardigan
FO: Marion (Yes, still counting it! hah)

 

 Basic Cardigan: Two Ways (Photo by Jared Flood)

So, this is the cardigan that I'm planning to make Dallas.  I have done my swatch, and I cast on last night. Little did I think about the back panel...Which I don't like. It's two strips of reverse stockinette stitch in the back surrounded by stockinette stitch.

Now, not only does this make for a bit of challenging time for me, since I have switch my stitch every so many stitches to create this "striping" as it were...It won't look good on Dallas. And I don't want to knit it! I kind of wish there had been a picture of the back in the ebook; I also could have looked at the Ravelry projects before I completely committed to this project, but that's my fault. haha I like the collar on this project, and the zipper, so I'll stick with that. 

But I think there are going to be multiple alterations. I already am sizing for a 46" chest, which is an inbetween size for the multiple measurements and gauges (I love that they are all listed, no doubt)! 

However, I'm also going to add a hem at the bottom to match the sleeves, and to avoid rolling because of the other changes I'm going to make. I'm going to shift the reverse stockinette to either side so that it lines up across the shoulders on both back and front. It will define the sleeve (I hope). I am then also going to do the reverse stockinette for the zipper and leave the rest alone. 

Now that I've said all this, I have a sneaking suspicion it won't work...But I'll get it worked out. I really don't want those lines down the back of the cardigan.

By the way, this is what we did the past weekend: 

It was my brother's wedding out in the West Kootenays. And that's my Marion cardigan in action! Sooooo comfy. I will provide better quality pictures soon. :D

(Dress is from: PinUpGirlClothing.com.)

Then it was Dallas's birthday, and we did a beautiful drive and took the inland ferries. Most excellent weekend. I had a few days off of work, so this has only been a two day week, which I'm certainly not complaining about.

This weekend, I plan to cast on my wedding shawl and a few other things that I have to get finished here soon so that I can then shift my focus back to prepping stock for August for the restart of the Etsy shop, and for the fall/winter craft shows.

This means I'll actually be able to sit outside and enjoy the warm weather, hopefully!

What're you up to this weekend?

Katie =^..^=