Stampede Pictures

My Cashmere and Pearls scarf won a 1st place Ribbon in the small items class. It will be sent off to my Secret Pal in the Single Skein exchange. I hope she likes it. Orange is not a color that every one likes but when I saw the ball of yarn in the store, it call out to me and said it needed to be this scarf.
This is a project I think I will knit again but I will make it longer. I was limited to knit with one skein of yarn and I had just enough beads for this length.







The Christening Gown

First of all, there is no baby for this gown. My daughter is not expecting. I knit it for the challenge! And it was a challenge. I estimate that it took approximately 300 hours to knit. I was thrilled to see that it had won first in the baby class and third in the knitting section.

The pattern is designed by Valerie Lewis and it was knit in DMC Cebelia size 40.

Last night I put the edging stitches on the first side of my Mystery Stole 2. I decided it was time to post a picture of Mystery stole 1. It wom second place in the shawl class. I was pleased. I didn't think I had knit shawls that were worthy of entering until the night before the entries were due and I looked through my book of finished projects.

So, why are our ribbon colours different? Have we always awarded first place a Red Ribbon rather than the Blue ribbon that is used in the USA? Is this one more cultural difference between Canada and the US? Or is Calgary the only city that uses Red for First Place?

IT'S OFFICIAL!
I've become one of those bloggers who never updates.

Since my last entry, I have had lots of knitting related things to blog about and found an equal number of excuses to procrastinate. So here goes.

I finished my Diamond Fantasy Shawl and love it. I finally have a black shawl that I can wear. I also started the Mystery stole 2 in the same yarn since there is still lots left on the cone but it has been ripped out. I should not have attempted to pick up the stitches from my provisional cast-on when I had visitors who were learning how to knit and in the darkening hours of the evening. (Stupid, stupid!)

I am in the Single Skein Exchange organised by Interweave. In June I received a wonderful skein of Debbie Bliss silk in my favorite color. It's one of those yarns that I never would have bought since I would be calculating how much a whole sweater would cost and if I didn't like it then I would have all this yarn sitting around. With one skein, I get to try the yarn and not have a large amount making me feel guilty. Somehow, I never use that logic when I am in a yarn store except for sock yarn. That could explain why I have sock yarn for 100 pairs of socks, and still only have 2 feet.

Cashmere and Pearls

This is a http://siviaharding.com pattern. It didn't take very long to knit when I actually worked on it. There are beads on the scarf that were placed individually rather than being strung on the yarn before knitting. I will be using this technique again. I am also working on the Diamond Fantasy shawl and wish that I had put beads on that one as well. I may have to knit it again just so I can put beads on it.

My Sockapaloooza Pal Jenn received her socks and took a much more glamorous picture. Maybe it is because socks look better on the right feet than thrown on some rocks for a picture. http://itisrocketscience.typepad.com

Quilting class as a bonding tool!


I recently took a quilting class with my daughter. Even though I have made several quilts over the years, I realised that there were many things that I needed to learn. I now know a few new tricks to make my life easier, but more important, my quilts should look better. The best part of the experience was spending time with my daughter. I have tried over the years to convince her of the thrill of cross stitch, the magnificance of knitting all with little success. We are now looking for our second class.

My Sockapaloooza Socks are Here!

Today the mailman brought me a wonderful parcel from Pella, Utah. I received marvelous Mock Croc socks, Yummy chocolate and spiffy new stitch markers. Thank you Debra!
This is the first pair of socks that anyone else has knit for me and they fit perfectly.
I now also understand the difficulty in acheiving an attractive picture of one's own feet.!

I have a whole new appreciation for people who blog every day. I now realize how difficult it is to come up with something to say everyday that someone else might find interesting.
I finished my quilt last night, but when I went to take a picture, I realized that my batteries are dead.
Today is a good day to start a new project. The lace skirt I started yesterday has been returned to it's lovely ball stage. It seems as though I have had many days that are spent ripping out what I have just knit. The "Cashmere and Pearls" knitting yesterday was knit twice since I was looking at the wrong page of the pattern. If the pattern had been charted instead of written, I could have seen much earlier that I was making a colossal mistake. It also would have helped if I had paid attention to what I was doing and followed my instincts when I thought it didn't look right!

These are my Gilli-hook Heritage Knitting Guild Sock Exchange socks. (I hope this post works since that is something that I don't want to keep typing!) The pattern is Yukon Leaves and the yarn is Lorna's Lace sock yarn. They are slightly narrower than I would have liked but I hope they will fit my sock pal. According to the information I have, she does have a narrower foot than I . She requested a colour that wasn't too dark so I hope this fits the bill.

Sockapaloooza Socks are Done!

Over the long Easter weekend, I had some car knitting time and finished the second sock. The first one was finished long ago but I felt the need to start 3 other socks before finishing the second sock. Of course, I just thought I had written enough notes on my pattern so I wouldn't forget what I had done the first time. Second sock was knit twice. Once with the wrong size needles since I used 2.25 needles instead of the 2.5 needles the pattern called for.

My sock pal asked for pretty socks. I hope these qualify. I think of pretty socks as being pink and frilly. My husband believes that these are pretty because they are lacey. I hope my sock pal agrees.

No time to Knit!

I finished the "Creatures of the Reef" and gifted it to a dear friend who has recently purchased property on Vancouver Island. It couldn't have a bettr home.
I am back to knitting socks for Sockapaloooza and the Gilli-hook sock exchange. I also started shadow knitting. It is an amazing technique, but since I am knitting in cotton, my tension has gone all wonky and I will be reknitting the section I have done. One eigth of the body and two days I will never see again!

Pictures of knitting. No pictures of cats, dogs or birds.

Second attempt:

This is my new blog and I lost my first post!! This may not be as easy as I had originally thought!