Holi Party

Last night I started to knit Holi Party (pattern purchased on Ravelry) in madelinetosh ASAP. You cast on with 8mm needles and work the neck band. Now you switch to 10mm needles and start the short row shaping. This is to make more rows in the back than in the front. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, take a t-shirt out of your closet. Look at how the back neck is quite a bit higher than the front. If you don't do short rows on the sweater then the front neck will be up at your chin. All was going well. The pattern is very well written. Joji keeps giving you stitch counts so that you can make sure you are heading in the right direction. She forgot one important thing in the pattern - I told you to do it but did you make sure that you changed to the 10mm needles after the 4 rows of the neck band? The Jays were scoring many runs in one inning and I totally forgot to change needles. The short rows were done when I realized that my needles didn't feel big enough. All I could do was laugh. Today I'm taking it back to the neck band and having another go at it.

Melo was very happy this morning watching the golf on TV. His favourite part of watching TV is the commercials. He jumps up and runs closer.

The second chair for our living room arrived this week. Finally. We decided that the back of the couch looked very bare so we ordered a console table. I think the room is done now. Maybe. :)

It's painting day

The Perspective Cowl is growing. With the golf on yesterday and today I sat to watch and knit.

The painters arrived early this morning to paint our kitchen. While they are there they are going to paint the walls going upstairs and downstairs that got marked in the move.

The dogs were happy to see new people.

The kitchen is going to be a dark blue/green. Our cabinets are grey but with the current wall colours and lighting in the kitchen they look beige. Our hope is that the new wall colour will help. Beth is afraid that the colour will be too dark. I told her not to worry. We can always paint it again :)

We picked the greyest colour from the builders paint colours. We could have upgraded to a real grey but knew that the house would be repainted in a year so we took what we could get. There will now be accent walls in real grey. I tried to get the whole house painted this colour now but was reminded that we will have nail pops happening during the next year. Why paint twice? I know they are right but grey walls would be awesome.

I'm home now and loving the colour of the kitchen. The painting looks great.

Unfortunately I can't find my ball winder and swift so I'm going to sign off and roll a ball of yarn the old fashion way. I'm hoping Beth will be sisterly and decide to help.

The Backyard

There is a new, free pattern on Rowan's website.

Knit this ladies long line sweater, the member's exclusive free pattern for June 2015. Designed by Gemma Atkinson using the stunning yarn Kidsilk Haze (wool and mohair), this pretty long sleeved top is embellished with crochet leaf and flower motifs.

Download the pattern…

Here are a few more pictures from TNNA.

A fabulous shawl from Rowan.

A new yarn coming from Classic Elite.

Today was spent at the new house for a few reasons.

1. Bell came and set up our phone, Internet and Fibe TV. So far the Fibe is really cool.
2. The kitchen cabinet company came to make a couple of touch ups.
3. We were getting the backyard ready for the dogs.

Our friend Luke came to grade the backyard. This was his ride for the day. I wouldn't want to go too far in it - it doesn't go very fast and no air conditioning.

The first load of stone. This was tamped down and then another load of much finer stone came.

Dad is working at an arena in Toronto and they had a huge roll of turf. We need to have our deck finished before the real artificial grass can go down. This is temporary until the end of the summer.

On the weekend we are putting up temporary fencing around the turf and then the dogs can move in with us next week.

Beth and I bought these awesome baskets (of course they are for yarn) at Pottery Barn a while ago. They have been in storage waiting for the house to be finished.

The colours are perfect.

My knitting chair is ready for me. Actually, that yarn was put there early this morning and I never got a stitch knit.

The moving company is coming on Monday to pack the house but there are some things that I want to pack myself. That's my job for the rest of the evening. I wish I was Samantha from Bewitched and could wiggle my nose and it would be finished.

Lots of Knitting

Here is Follow Your Arrow at 10:30 this morning. I put it on a 60" needle so that I can spread it out and show the pattern. There were 7 rows to go on Clue #4.

My work area today. The door sill going into the house was dented before we took possession and the door company was coming today to fix it. I was there before 11am. The time of their call. Anytime between 11 and 4. Thank you very much. One chair. No TV. No Internet. No fridge.

At 3:30 pm I had finished Clue #4 and was 3 rows into Clue #5. Still no door company. They finally showed up at 4:05. And the new door sill was also dented. I sat there all day for nothing. The quiet was nice. The knitting was good. I made it through a few episodes of Elementary. This is not how I wanted to spend my day. I should have been working.

The fireplace is almost finished. The trim kit is on and looks great. Now they need to put in the stones and then we can have fire.

The house is starting to come together and we are hoping to move at the end of May. Thank goodness our townhouse took so long to sell. At least we can stay here while the new house is finished. I would be really upset if we were living there through all the work.

Cerro

I received an email from Dream in Color last night. There are new colours of Classy Mini-Skeins coming in about two weeks. This group of 25 colours is going to bright, cheery Spring colours. Cathy is going to be happy. Now she will have an excuse to knit another Technicolor Cowl. Rumour has it that she was looking at colours to make another one on Saturday.

We've been rearranging garments and found our Kalinda shawl knit in Classic Elite Cerro. The pattern is available in a book (#1402 Sunny Day) or you can buy the individual pattern on Ravelry.

A triangular shawl worked from the center top to long lower edge in a sampling of eyelet stitches.

Purchase the pattern on Ravelry...

A few more patterns from the Sunny Day pattern book.

A lacy wrap with large tassels added to each of the corners for a whimsical flair.

Purchase the pattern for Marisol on Ravelry...

There is a cute summer top in the book as well - Abelona.

Lace panels combine with openwork mesh for a light and airy summer smock top.

Purchase the pattern on Ravelry... 

Cerro is a blend of soft pima cotton and alpaca that creates a yarn with drape and excellent stitch definition.

85% pima cotton
15% alpaca

24 stitches = 4" on 3.5mm needles
135m / 150 yards on a 50 gram skein

And then I found a free pattern from a Classic Elite Web-Letter.

The Kudzu Shawl by Rachel Henry is one of the Web-Letter’s greatest hits. The clever way the braided cables at the top grow into rows of leaves, flowing from one tier to the next makes it an irresistible knit for lace lovers. A quick click through of projects on Ravelry brings up beautiful modifications too – more leaves, and beads!

Download the pattern...

Beth and I snuck into the house today. The fireplace is taking shape. Now we are waiting for the stone to be put on face. We chose the stone from a very small sample and are anxiously waiting to see how it looks on a large surface. 

I need to sign off and head back to the store. I forgot the cord to my computer. UGH! I've never done that before and it makes me mad. I'm wasting time that could be spent knitting. 

Cloudgate

A new yarn from Lorna's Laces.

Beth brought two skeins home from TNNA and is knitting the Squishy Spiral Cowl. The pattern calls for one skein but we decided to use two and make it really tall. She likes the tight twist of the yarn.

100 gram hank
100 m / 110 yards
6mm needles

$23.50 a skein

A few colours just arrived and more will be coming in a couple of weeks.
Multis...
Solids...

Beth snuck into our house today to see how things are going. The railings are in on the stairs and they look great. The stain on the wood will be grey.

The painting has been started. We upgraded to a grey colour. The whole house will be painted in a year or so but I couldn't have builders beige.

We are supposed to get snow tonight and tomorrow. If you have to be out and about, drive safe. It really is a good reason to stay in and knit.

National Sweater Day

From the WWF website...

Since 2010, over a million Canadians have participated in National Sweater Day. Be sure to follow our blog for tips and stories as fellow knit-clad Canadians celebrate across the country.  

National Sweater Day is a fun way to learn about the importance of saving energy, and inspired you to use less heat all winter. Heating accounts for 80% of residential energy use in Canada, and is a significant source of emissions. If all Canadians lowered their thermostats by just 2 degrees Celsius this winter, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 4 megatons – equivalent to shutting down a 600 mega watt coal-fired power station.

This morning Beth and I went through the new house.

 The tile in my shower is finished.

The floor is down. They just finished it and were trying to wash it when we came in. Hence the footprints in the next picture.

 Going up the stairs.

What happens when you forget to bring knitting to work?

I cast on another CustomFit cardigan. Bella Lino from Classic Elite held double. This is the same cardigan that I wore at TNNA and I love it.