‘K’ Is For Knitting!

As anyone who reads this blog on occasion has probably noticed, I find it hard to find time to knit. With two young children, I have no idea why that might be the case ;0). I still have my Not So Shrunken cardie on the needles but, as it’s fitted as you knit and I was rapidly changing size last Fall when I was working on it, it got put away until I gave birth to baby number two. I do not like having two sweaters on the needles at the same time (despite my habit to have many other types of knitting projects on the go at the same time!) and I have been concentrating on small projects. They still take me forever though.

Here are the second pair of Tangle’s Fingerless Cable mittens that I’ve knit this year.


The lucky recipient, whose birthday was in April – whoops! – only just received them. Project specifics: free Tangle pattern found here. Misti Alpaca’s 100% Baby Alpaca, Chunky 2 ply in black, which was lovely to knit with but holy cow does alpaca ever run when you lose a stitch! I also used less than a skein to knit the pair and have enough left over for something very small.

Here are the second pair of Fetching gloves that I’ve knit lately.



Here are the specifics: Mission Falls 1824 100% merino superwash in the Wildflower 662 colour. I had a very accomodating model! Iain calls these the "arm ones" and was breathing down my neck to wear them when I was binding off the second one.


These are going to a very special lady in my life who occassionally reads this blog so I hope she does not mind the 'spoiler'!

I have really fallen in love with this colour and would love to knit a sweater for myself with it someday.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous Malabrigo that is to become a Whisper Cardigan someday.

I bought 2 skeins.

And here are two other DK weight sock yarns that I picked up at Baadeck Yarns. Yummy!

Believe it or not, I actually have another project that will be ready to come off the needles soon. Go me!

On The Road Again

There will be a brief commercial interruption here at Fibreholic while DH, Iain and I fly to Kingston, ON (via Toronto), making this coming weekend a long weekend for us (and that would be why I am on the low post side this week. I’ve been busy doing laundry and packing!). I will be back the middle of next week. Yes, although they are not in the bag yet, I considered which knitting projects to take before I decided on clothes. A true knitter am I!

Until I return, here is some knitting candy to keep you entertained. The picture at the beginning of this post is of my second Fetching glove yesterday morning.


And here is the completed set yesterday evening – a full FO!

Let’s see that again!


I’m very pleased with this knit. I followed the pattern to the letter for this, my first Fetching pair. For my next pair, I will be experimenting with the bind off, finger length, etc. Although the picot bind off the pattern calls for is pretty, is does curl quite a bit. This particular FO is a pressie for someone who uses a computer a lot and has a propensity for being cold. I felt the bind off curl was okay as it allows your fingers to move very freely which is a good thing when using a keyboard.

Details: I used some of two balls of Mission Falls merino wool (I used 'Mallow' 025) on 3.25 mm DPNs. There’s enough yarn left over to add to something else or for a very small project.

Just to keep you up to date on other knitting progress, I managed to get to my LYS on Wednesday and picked up a longer Addi Turbo for my Not-So-Shrunken cardie. Here’s a progress shot.

I really have only knit a row to get the sweater moved over onto the longer circular but I think I had knit some since I last posted a progress shot so you might notice some movement forward.

And, last but not least, we had our first hard frost last night. Yes, fall is coming – my favourite time of the year! Here is a photo of our last rose of the summer. My sweet boy was behind me saying “Mmm! Mmmm!” as I was taking this picture. It turns out he wanted up so that he too could smell the rose and say “Mmm!” more!

One Day a Week for UFOs

I finally decided to become a joiner. I have never joined a KAL (knit-a-long) because I do not feel I can commit to knitting a particular project within a certain amount of time (I realise that that is not the point for all KALs but that’s my excuse). However, when I saw the ‘One Day a Week for UFOs’ group on Ravelry I thought, ‘Now, there’s a good idea for me’.

I posted about the contents of my knitting bag yesterday and, from some of the comments I received, I feel I should come clean. I was only telling you about the WIPs in my knitting bag. This does not include the, say, forty or so WIPs scattered around my house. I was not comfortable with you thinking I am controlled and stick to three projects at a time. No, that’s not me. There’s something about the adrenalin rush of startitis that blows the adrenalin rush of finishing a project right out of the window. I hope to mend my ways and follow in the footsteps of those I am not worthy of blogging next to, like Suzanne and Elizabeth. Hopefully their monogamous ways will rub off on me. Until then, I need a group like the ‘One Day a Week’ers’.

I spent the past two weeks since joining the group trying to decide what day of the week to commit to (yes, don’t jump into things too quickly there, Patty!). I thought Wednesday would be best originally. You know, Wednesday, ‘hump’ day, the day when there’s not usually a lot going on around Chez Fibreholic… Boy was I wrong. Turns out, Thursday is the better day for me. I am usually recovering from whatever went down on Wednesday and sticking close to home on Thursday.

Thanks to the group, I set up last night (aka fixed a mistake in the cabled cuff portion of my second Fetching glove) and managed to get some knitting accomplished today. Yeah peer pressure! I am now five rows away from binding off the fingers. Not bad considering most of the glove was knit while standing and watching Iain throwing the ball for Para and/or playing in his sandbox (Note to Self: If you actually pulled yourself together and gardened for ten minutes, those ten minutes of pruning might just allow you to sit and knit because you could actually see the part of the backyard that Para and Iain like to play in). No, no progress piccies. DH had the camera today so I cannot show you any progress shots to verify.

We did, however, have a visitor arrive at our screen yesterday morning that will provide the visual stimulation you’ve likely come to expect in my posts. DH, Iain and I got to watch her/him groom him/herself just before dawn (just like a cat!) and then fall asleep on our kitchen window screen for the day.

I dearly love bats, which is not to be confused with me liking vampires. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been terrified of vampire stories. Small bats, on the other hand, I think are quite neat and useful. However, like most things, I do not really like the species if they grow on the large side. We saw some frighteningly large bats when we were visiting Animal Kingdom several years ago. Bats and spiders should remain small, I say, to maintain my equilibrium with the world. As a frame of reference, our wee bat was only about 2.5 inches long. Yes, I know, there are those of you out there shuddering right now. It's only a picture on the Internet! Besides, s/he was the perfect guest. S/he hung there all day with nary a bit of movement which was quite nice as s/he was also hung right next to the door we use all day long.
And, for all of you remembering that day so few years ago, my thoughts are with you on this September 11, 2008.

What Projects Are In Your Knitting Bag?

I am shamelessly stealing an idea from Barbara’s blog. She posted about her ‘short attention span’ with a picture of her current WIPs. What a great idea!

Here are the WIPs in my knitting bag:

One Celtic Cable scarf, the second Fetching glove, and my Not-So-Shrunken cardie.

Now, I’m curious. What is in your knitting bag? Do you even have a knitting bag or am I the only one who carts around multiple projects in hopes that one of them will suit the occasion I’m attending? How many of you do things like bring knitting in your purse (like I did to the Wing Commanders Garden Party on Sunday) but do not take it out of because it just did not seem like ‘that kind of event’…whatever that is?

Come on! Curious minds (well, mine anyway) want to know!

Fetching Fever

It is so nice to be able to print out a lovely pattern,

To find such a tantalising selection of yarns from your LYS,

To start knitting said project from your most recent SEX,

And to have it work out so well.

This is what I was knitting up over the Labour Day weekend. Always a couple of years behind the trends, I too have succumbed to Fetching fever.

This is a good thing because, the thing is, here is my current state of mind. On Tuesday when DH came home, I was a little stressed. He gave me a nice long break by taking Iain pretty much from the time he got home, including putting Iain to bed. He says,

“Are you mad at me?” and I replied,

“No, I’m frustrated but not at you. I just don’t feel like I accomplished anything today.”

This said the day after our long weekend camping trip, when: I’d washing and line dried four loads of laundry; folded all that laundry and put it in a basket to be put upstairs and put away; made supper from scratch; walked into town to go to the bank, post office, and grocery store; called and made a vet appointment for Para; had a short play date with a friend and her little boy; gotten recommendations for a local optometrist and seamstress from a neighbour; and called our oil provider to update our billing information. Not to mention time and effort involved in caring for a 14 month (today!) old. Yet, I still ended the day feeling like I hadn’t accomplished anything. I think, perhaps, my standards are a little high.