so over these socks...

It's a shame really, these socks are going to be perfect when they're done. I plan on giving them to my dad for Christmas and I know that they are going to be comfy and cozy and loved by him. But still, I kind of hate them right now. According to Ravelry I started these socks on July 3rd, so the fact that they are still lingering means that clearly I'm not that smitten. These socks have a few things working against them; first off, the yarn, though it has a beautiful soft texture (it's 10% cashmere) and a gorgeous, rich, dark colour, it bleeds... like crazy. Normally I keep socks as a purse project to work on in waiting rooms and away from home, but after a few rows of working on this pair my finger tips are completely blue. I could have easily remedied this problem by setting the dye a bit better myself before I started, but I didn't. Lesson learnt, deep colours like this (especially with the hint of turquoise) are notoriously hard to set. I'll give these socks a really good soak before I give them to my dad, and if that doesn't work to get out the excess dye I'll let them simmer in a pot of hot water with vinegar for a bit to see if that helps. For the record - this yarn wasn't dyed by me, it's by another fantastic dyer who's work I'm a big fan of, but this skein unfortunately is just a tough colour to set... I don't blame the dyer, I should have tested it first. 

The other big negative working against these socks... I apparently hate 3x1 ribbing. I don't know why, it just doesn't flow for me. 2x2 ribbing, 1x1 ribbing, we're cool. 3x1 ribbing makes me want to just quit. This is another issue that could have so easily been avoided if I had just remembered that I hate working 3x1 ribbing and had instead made these socks in a ribbing that I enjoy. I don't know what I was thinking. 

Oh well, despite all that, I know that these socks will be beautiful when they're finished, and my goal is to work away on them this weekend so I can finally wash the blue dye off my hands and move on! Dad had better love these socks.

Thank You!

www.layoutsparks.com via TanisLavallee on Pinterest

I hadn't intended to announce that I'm pregnant and then go silent for almost a week, I just got so overwhelmed by all the beautiful and supportive comments that were rolling in that I couldn't help but want to keep that post at the top of my blog for as long as possible! Thank you one million times to everyone who left a comment, sent an e-mail, messaged me on facebook, ravelry, twitter... Chris and I feel so loved! 

So, things are definitely changing around here, and I couldn't be happier about it. Yesterday we went for a nice long walk, it was a beautiful fall day, and as I was admiring our gorgeous colourful foliage I thought about change. I used to think that I hated change. When I was 10 my family moved and I did not cope well. But now, I think I've come around to embracing change, and even looking forward to it. I look forward to the seasons changing every year, I can't wait to watch my belly change into a giant, baby-filled balloon! Now our family is changing, growing, and with that our family business will naturally change as well, but I'm excited about it. Chris and I have always known that we wanted a family, and as we made decisions about TFA, things like: do we try and go big, or do we stay small? do we rent a studio space, or do we build a small studio in our backyard? we always kept our future family plans in mind. 

So now I think TFA is ready for this awesome new change. I am sure that there will be some growing pains along the way, this summer was a bit of a preview of that. My first trimester was pretty good, but I was exhausted and queasy pretty much all the time, which made work much more of an effort than it usually is. But, we made it through, and now I'm in my second trimester and am feeling much less queasy and a bit more energetic. Chris and I are totally committed to TFA, it's our life! Some things may change (has anyone noticed that we haven't had an Etsy update in months? Yeah, our free experimental dyeing time is nowhere to be found!) but the beauty of TFA is that it's flexible, we can make this work. 

Now here's the big ticket question, the thing that everyone wants to know: So much baby knitting to do! Do we know if we're having a girl or a boy? Are we planning on finding out? 

The answer.... no! After much back and forth Chris and I have decided that we're going to keep the gender of the baby a surprise. I always thought that I would definitely want to know, but then when I found out that we were expecting, I suddenly no longer cared. We hope for a healthy baby and we have no gender preference at all. Lets be honest, this baby will be wearing a lot of blue regardless of wether it's a boy or a girl!  

one tiny FO for one very special WIP!

I've finished knitting both the mama version and the baby version of this lovely sweater and I am very, VERY excited. I love my new sweater, but even more than that I love my mini-me version because it's for my own baby!!!

That's right, team TFA is growing by one member who will be joining us in April. Chris and I are over the moon about our expanding family and I am so thrilled to finally be sharing the news with you all! Honestly, ever since we found out we were expecting I've been looking forward to the day when I could share it with the blog. You guys are always so supportive, and telling you is like telling my big, happy, knitting family!  

I think that this is the first week that you can really see a little baby bump if look you hard enough. I can't wait to watch this baby grow!

This wee little sweater is hands down, without a doubt, the number one thing I've ever knit. I've knit lots of adorable baby sweaters, but this is the first one that I've knit especially for my own little angel. I will cherish it forever. 

Both patterns now available!

TFA Tuesday - North Shore

TFA Tuesday is back! For today at least. I saw this awesome sweater on ravelry, wanted to blog it, realized it was Tuesday, so bang! TFA Tuesday it is. 

You all know I love this adorable little sweater (I've knit it twice), part of the "9 Months of Knitting" pattern collection by Tincanknits. Well, they've recently released another pattern collection called "Pacific Knits" and this time there is a pattern knit in TFA yarn! 

The North Shore pullover features Yellow Label DK Weight yarn in the most interesting combination of west coast colours. I love the waves, trees and mountain range fair isle motif. I fancy myself an east coast girl at heart, but I could definitely be swayed by this west coast look.  

Club - Sept 2012

The September installment of the Year in Colour Club featured this gorgeous design by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. These socks, called Arching Leaves, feature an impressive combination of leafy texture and scrumptious cables. Works of art!

This month has seen me pull out my wool socks more than once, so it's the perfect time to get excited about sock knitting again! I cannot wait to wear my hand knit socks all winter, and with socks as pretty as this, I think that my feet would be extra warm and happy. Pretty socks make for happy feat right?

The September colourway is called Spice and is dyed on my Blue Label Fingering Weight yarn. Everywhere I look these days I'm seeing this colour in the nature around me. A beautiful warm orange shade that is just perfect for this time of year. 

Yesterday's view

Hmmm..... pretty silks. 

Have a great weekend!

Completely Obsessed?

Guilty as charged! I cannot stop knitting awesome blue gradient chevron knits! This might be my best one yet!

Chevron knit #1.

Chevron knit #2.

I can feel this phase passing, but for now I am still completely crazy about this pattern. 

ps: please excuse the tiny little Stella hairs that are stuck to my couch in the photo above... we love her, but she definitely likes to leave her mark on all our furniture (and clothing).

Stella has a hat on!

Oh my god, this dog makes me smile from ear to ear. I put this hat on her silly little head to take a photo and she didn't move an inch. She has totally accepted the fact that she wears clothes and sometimes models baby hats. What a girl. 

I knit this little hat for my niece Annika using Grammy's Hat pattern (I cast on 72 sts). She didn't really need hats this summer, but now it's getting chilly so it's totally hat time. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Grammy's hat pattern is so simple and so perfect, the ribbing makes it fit really well for a variety of head sizes. Grammy is so clever. I love making these hats for the little ones in our family because as soon as anyone in my family sees one they know immediately what it is. We had so many of these hats growing up, all knit by Grammy using leftover scraps of yarn. She still knits them and me and my cousins still get them for Christmas from Grammy sometimes. It's just a hat, but it's sooo much more than just a hat. 

I finished knitting my Palette Cardigan this week! I laid it out to block last night, it's still drying. I bought buttons today and hope to have an FO shoot done by the end of the week! I am going to live in this sweater this winter. 

Jazz Hands Handspun

My afternoon of rest turned into an afternoon of work followed by an evening of spinning. It all worked out for me though as I ended the night with this lovely skein of very colourful and magical handspun! Unfortunately I think that this is the type of yarn that looks better in the skein than it will knit up. As I was plying it there were sections that were coming together beautifully, but then towards the end there is one really long patch of green. Not terrible, but it's not very balanced in terms of colour distribution. I'll just have to be careful when choosing the right project for this skein. Although, who knows when that will happen, I'm amassing quite the collection of handspun and have little finished projects to show for it! I need to come up with a plan. Until then I'll just keep spinning pretty skeins and hoarding them, that's just as fun!

This skein is 102g and 250yds.  

Rest

Today my mom and I will spend the better part of the day packing up and shipping out the remainder of the September Club kits. It will be a giant weight lifted off my shoulders and I think that I'm going to spend the afternoon relaxing with my spinning wheel in front of the fire. It's getting quite brisk here in Montreal. Cool winds, crisp mornings, it's probably a little premature to be enjoying the fireplace, but I can't help it. I've been looking forward to it all summer! Hopefully I'll have a new handspun to share soon. 

Happy Wednesday!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

source

Ah Pinterest... I'm still as hooked as ever. I pin craft ideas that I will probably never tackle, images of that dream home that I will never, ever live in, and outfits that I will never be able to afford. I have no problem with Pinterest being a bit of a fantasy land, it's fun to day dream. 

I also pin recipes, and they seem to be the one thing that I get an actual practical use out of. I decided it might be fun to share a few of the recipes that I've pinned, tried and loved. I baked these Lemon Crinkle cookies for the first time well over a year ago, and have turned to this simple and delicious recipe time and time again whenever I get the hankering for a sweet baked good. These cookies are chewy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet because of the tart lemon flavour, and really easy to make! Chances are you have most of the ingredients in your pantry already. I've made them for friends and they are always a hit. This recipe gets an A+ from me!

You can find the recipe online here.

Sky Palette sweater update

I'm making good progress on my Sky Palette sweater. Last night I hit a real landmark, I had finished knitting the body and I gave the yoke of the sweater a good and gentle steam. Man, did it ever change the look of this sweater! It was amazing. The last time I took a photo of this sweater it looked like this; colourful, but bumpy and not very crisp. After a gentle steam with my steam iron (my steam iron cost me about $11 at Walmart, and I couldn't live without it) the stitches relaxed and the zigzag pattern really  started to shine! The beauty of top down sweaters is the ability to try them on as you go, but pre-blocking the yoke was kind of bunching up and wasn't fitting just right... post blocking, it's magic! I'm in love with this sweater. 

I'm cruising through the sleeves now and hope to make really good progress on them this weekend. Lots of people struggle with sleeves, they hit the sleeves and get stuck on "sleeve island" (kinda like second sock syndrome I think) I don't have this problem, especially with top down sweaters since knitting the sleeves means I'm practically done! And it gets me one step closer to knitting the button band, and there is literally nothing I like more than picking up stitches for a button band. Hmm, a nice clean edge of perfectly picked up stitches gives me such a knitters high! Anyways, when it comes to the sleeves, I just put my head down and motor through them. They always go quicker than I think they will and I find that if I don't think, just knit, I'll be done before I have time to get bored of the stockinette tube!