So where were we? Oh yes, Sheldon. Well he is now in his new home, anxiously waiting for baby to arrive. Meanwhile, I think baby's mommy is glad that she doesn't have to share Sheldon yet. He was received in just the manner we hope our knitted gifts are received.

Remember Henry? Well, I finished Henry (made with Knit Picks Gloss) in early March, with still plenty of winter to go, as it turned out (not that I was worried – winter will come again next year, so the scarf will get used). 

This is a gorgeous scarf. Before blocking, I was concerned that I wasn’t going to be happy with it. The fabric was quite stiff, with little drape, and it was shorter than I had wanted (51”). But the magic of blocking fixed that. It now has much better drape and is 62” long and 7 1/2” wide (I did 6 repeats instead of 7).

The only drawback is that it was incredibly tedious to knit. The only thing that kept me going was the end product, which I really liked the look of. But it was not a fun knit, by any stretch of the imagination. The scarf is knit length wise, so you have 452 stitches on the needle. The pattern is made up of slip 2, k2 the whole length, offset by one each row, to make the herringbone pattern. It was repetitive enough to not be engaging, but easy to screw up, so you had to pay attention. I was glad to see this one come to an end! But the end result was worth it!

I’m not thrilled with the ends of the scarf as given in the pattern. The ends flare, and I think if I were to make it again, I would play around with options for the beginning and end of each row. However, I really don’t see myself making this again – once is enough!

I put details on the cast on and cast off on Ravelry, so if you're interested in those geeky details, check there.

Another thing I've finished recently is a Baby Surprise Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Opinionated Knitter. I made this from Nova Yarns Real Jeans, that I bought at Wool n Things a few months back.

This is for yet another colleague who recently had a baby boy. I had hoped to have this finished before he was born, but I didn't quite make the deadline. So I'll go visit next week and take it over.

I used the buttons I bought at the Fabric Flea Market in October.

As with anything designed by Elizabeth Zimmermann, this is a really ingenious pattern, and lots of fun to knit.  

I have one other thing finished, but it's currently blocking, so it will have to wait until next post. But here's a sneak preview:

In non-knitting, but fiber-related news, on Easter weekend I went on a road trip with Paula and her daughter. We headed out to the country to visit Aline and her 5 little new lambs. You can read more about them on Aline's blog, but here are a couple of cute pictures

One of the lambs got rejected by her mother, so Aline (and her kids) have been bottle feeding her. And since she was a bit underweight, and it still pretty cold, she was dressed in a sweater

How cute is that! The only thing cuter was watching her little tail wag as she sucked back the milk. After visiting with the lambs (and their moms and dad), we spent a couple of hours knitting and chatting, and then stopped to do a little yarn shopping on the way home. Thanks Aline and Paula for a lovely day!

• 6 scarves (3 of them lace)
• 2 pairs of mittens
• 25 korknisses
• 4 pairs of socks
• 2 hats
• 1 crocheted bag
• 1 top
• 2 shawls
• 2 afghans (one was a group project)
• 1 pair of baby jeans
• 1 pair of hand towels
• 4 dishcloths
• 2 pairs of slippers
• 1 hedgehog
• 2 iPod cozies
• 1 child's sweater

For a grand total of 33 projects (counting 25 Korknisses as 1 project, and including a dishcloth that doesn't have it's own picture (but you can see a glimpse of it in one of the other dishcloth pictures)

I guess you could say I like variety in my knitting!

Of these 33 projects:

• 19 were for me
• 12 were gifts
• 2 were for charity

And to break down the weight of yarn used:

• laceweight – 5
• fingering – 10
• sport/dk – 2
• worsted/aran – 12
• chunky/bulky – 4

And to break down the pattern source:

• online, free – 8
• online, purchased – 2
• books – 4
• magazine – 3
• leaflet – 3
• heavily altered from an existing pattern – 4
• my own pattern (improvised) – 9 

Last year I made a resolution that 2007 would be the year that I made a sweater that fit and looked great. Well, I didn't quite accomplish that, though I do have one still in progress that, if I ever get the sleeves done, should fit the bill nicely.

2007 was a roller-coaster year for me – lots of high points and plenty of low points. One of the high points (that, quite frankly, got me through many of the low points), was the number of knitters I got to know this year. It was in the last few months of 2006 that I start to meet other Ottawa knitters, and those friendships grew over 2007. Whether I've met you in person, or virtually, I've really enjoyed meeting everyone I have over the past year. You've all enriched my life!

And speaking of enrichment (of both the friendship kind and the yarn kind), I recently participated in a couple of group yarn orders (Peace Fleece and Knit Picks), and when those orders came in, I met up with Sarah, Dave and Paula in order to collect my yarn.

It was great to finally meet Dave, who was one of the first people I didn't know to leave a comment on my blog. He's as lovely in person has he is on his blog.

Here's a shot of the 4 of us (and no, I don't always look like a deer caught in the headlights!)

and of course, what would a knitter gathering be without a funny picture of Sarah to add to my collection

Happy New Year! Personally, I'm hoping 2008 is just a wee bit less eventful than 2007! 

Is she gone yet? 

So, at Knit Night a couple of months ago, Tara asked if anyone would be interested in doing a yarn crawl to Montreal – we could take the early morning train, spend the day shopping, take the 6pm train home. Never one to turn down an opportunity to fondle yarn, I thought that sounded like a marvellous way to spend a day in August. So that's what we did this past Saturday. Although a number of people initially expressed interest, we ended up being a small group: just Tara, Nancy, Linda and me. We had planned out our route ahead of time – we knew which stores we didn't want to miss, and which stores we would do depending on time available. We were armed with a map, yarn store addresses and phone numbers (and directions to get there). I lived in Montreal for 12 years before moving to Ottawa, so I know my way around pretty well.

After a really early start (the train left at 7:30 am), a couple of hours of sock-knitting on the way, and breakfast, we headed to our first stop. We took the metro to Beaubien station, and after a very short walk, we were at Effiloché (6252 Saint Hubert Street). It is a really nice store – comfortable and inviting, with lots of interesting yarns! There were some that I didn't know, and others that I had heard of but had never fondled. 

Here's Tara contemplating some Banana Silk from Nepal

And Linda and Nancy squeezing the merchandise

I didn't make any purchases there. I had decided that I was going to exercise restraint on this trip – I would only buy yarns that really moved me. Although there were lots of interesting things, and some of it I may consider purchasing in the future, there was nothing that I absolutely had to buy.

Off to store #2. We headed to La Bobineuse de Laine (2270 Mont-Royal Est – go to Mont-Royal metro station, then take the 97 bus east). La Bobineuse is at the opposite end of the spectrum from a high-end yarn store. You buy by the cone and pay by the pound ($8 – $12 per pound, depending on the yarn) It's mostly acrylic yarns, with quite a bit of cotton and a little bit of wool. Most of the yarns are multiple strands of different colours, though you can make your own custom yarns by choosing the singles you want and they will wind them together for you onto a cone (though as they're not plied, I would imagine that it would be pretty splitty). Tara found some cotton in a nice blend of blues and greens, but other than that, there wasn't much that interested any of us. I probably wouldn't go back the next time I go, unless I was specifically looking for cotton yarns for dishcloths, etc.

Our third stop was A La Trictoteuse (779 Rachel Est), only to find a sign in the window that they were closed for vacation until August 15. 

By that point, we were all getting hot and tired and hungry, so we stopped for lunch. We went to Café Santropol on St-Urbain and Duluth, which was one of my favourite haunts when I lived in Montreal. They were really busy, and the service was really slow, so it took a lot longer than we had planned. It was mid-afternoon before we left the restaurant, but that still left us enough time for one last stop…..

Mouliné, at 2657 Notre-Dame Ouest (Lionel Groulx metro, near Atwater market).  If you haven't been there yet, and if you live anywhere within a couple of hours drive of Montreal, and you like high-end yarns, you must go check out this store. Remember I said earlier that I was only going to buy yarns that really moved me? Well, my credit card got a serious workout at Mouliné. The only thing missing from the store is a defibrillator!

See the giddy looks – nice yarn will do that to you

So what did I buy? Well, that little pile on the counter is mine. I came home with:

 - 2 skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk. Yes, I know I can get Sea Silk in Ottawa, but I haven't knit with it yet, and have been waiting to find a colourway that wowed me. And oh, did this stuff wow me. We were all drooling over the same colourway (don't worry, we were careful to keep the drool off the Sea Silk), when we heard a soft voice saying those magic words "I think I have more in the back". So Nancy, Tara and I all went home with the same colourway.

- One skein of Yarn Ahoy! sock yarn in a yummy colourway called Sholay Red. It's a lovely mix of oranges (I know, I'm incorrigible)

- 2 skeins of Inca Gold 100% Baby Alpaca, and a delicious red

- 8 skeins of Phildar Bamboo yarn in Orge (which is Barley in English), which is destined to become a tank for me.

- a set of five 5" 2.25mm Brittany Birch dpns. I've wanted to try short dpns, which I've never used.

And there was so much more that I wanted to buy, but didn't. They have some seriously nice stock. Here are the owners of Mouliné – Svetlana and Scott (Scott isn't really sleeping on his feet!). They have a wonderful store, and they really know their yarn!

After getting all light-headed on all that yarn, we returned to the train station and headed back to Ottawa. It was another fabulous day with some very fun knitters!

I finished the Mystery Blanket a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn't had a chance to block it. Today I pinned it onto my bed and used my steam iron on it. I'm still not 100% satisfied, so I may wet block it sometime when I can figure out where to do it. It's hard to block a blanket!

So without further ado, here it is. Details will follow the pictures:

The pattern is the Mystery Blanket from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. The blanket is the April project. Each square is knit from the centre out, and the live stitches are then put on a holder (I used waste yarn). The squares are then grafted together, so you end up with a seamless blanket. 

When I first bought my copy of Knitter's Almanac, I was intrigued by this blanket. The picture in the book is of a solid colour blanket (in white). But when I first saw it, I wondered what it would look like in a self-striping yarn.  The yarn I used is Paton's SWS. The inner part of the squares is done in the Natural Navy colourway, and the outer part (and the border) is done in Natural Denim. 

EZ recommends grafting the squares together as you go, though I decided not to do that. Because of the variations in the blues, I wanted to be able to arrange the order of the squares. So first I did all the knitting (which, being squares, were great travel knitting), and then I did all the finishing, which took a while. I did 30 squares (5 x 6) and each square had 23 stitches on each side, plus 5 in each corner. That's a lot of grafting!. And a lot of ends to sew in. I could only work on it on cool evenings, because it was way too warm to have on my lap on hot days!

One word of advice if you make this blanket – as you finish each square, count the number of stitches on each side, and make sure they're all the same. Despite the simplicity of the pattern (or perhaps because of it), as I was sewing it up I discovered a number of squares in which I had made extra (or too few) increases, so that the sides were uneven. Had I checked each one as I went, I would have had fewer do-overs to do.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love the colours in the yarn, I love the variation in the squares, and it's going to be a wonderful warm afghan to curl up under on chilly nights. 

As I mentioned on Saturday, yesterday the Ottawa Knitting Guild held their 2nd Annual Knit Out at the Agriculture Museum. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures to show. There was a great turn out, and I met a couple more Ottawa Knit Bloggers that I didn't know – go visit The Fabric of Her Reality and My Hidden Stash. I also got to meet Gillian, who is a regular commenter here. Hi Gillian!

And finally, an update on the dyeing party from Saturday. I had purchased some white Kroy sock yarn to dye. I did the sock yarn in orange and white (anyone surprised?) and in blue/green/red.

Yesterday I re-skeined them on my swift – here they are looking very pretty. I'm looking forward to knitting with them (especially the orange!)

I'm really happy with the results, for my first time dyeing. I also did some Worsted Weight in reds, but it's not as vibrant as I had wanted. And my skein got very tangled – once I get it untangled, I'll take a picture of it too. 

We had niddy-noddies

Yarn swinging (and yet another interesting picture of Sarah on my blog – I'm working on a collection)

Lots of Kool-Aid (and some acid dyes)

Artistic Visions

Great colours

Yarn hanging from trees

Of course, it's not just about the dyeing. There was also some knitting going on.

Some spinning

And kittens

Some of which are still looking for homes. There sure are some cuties there.

Thanks again J. for having us over. I sure hope you do this again next year!

The Big Pile o Lace

is finished. Well, the knitting is finished – I still need to block it.  It's pretty big, and it has some curves to it, so blocking it will be a challenge, but I'll figure it out. I'll give more details on this project once it's completely finished, but here it is in its pre-blocked state

The Afghan

I currently have 24 of 30 squares completed. Number 25 only has a few rows left. So I only have 5 squares to go and I start grafting it all together. That's going to be a lot of grafting. Elizabeth Zimmermann recommends grafting the squares together as you complete them. I've decided not to do that though, because the yarn I used for the outer part of the squares (which will be grafted together) is not a uniform blue, but changes throughout the ball (as do all of the SWS colourways). Therefore, I need to wait until all of the squares are finished so that I can put them in an order that works with the colour variations. Meanwhile, here's a picture of the Leaning Tower of Afghan

 I also have a couple of new things on the go. I have one completed giant slipper, which will become human-sized once it has been felted (it's the Fibertrends Felted Clog pattern, which really is an ingenious pattern). It's a really quick knit, but I only have one finished because a) I've been focusing on other projects and b) I knit the second slipper on a smaller needle than the first slipper. It may not have made much of a difference once I felted them, but since it's a quick knit anyway, I opted to undo the second slipper and start over. Except I haven't. Yet. But I will.

Last weekend I went out for some much needed Yarn Therapy with Betseydoodle. Our first stop was Yarn Forward where I spent some time looking through Victorian Lace Today. It's an incredibly beautiful book and, well, somehow it came home with me. Our next stop was Wool n Things, where I spent some time rolling around in all of the luxury yarns they carry (okay, so I didn't really roll around – but I thought about it. And I did sniff a lot of skeins and hold them up to my cheek). I decided that I needed to buy something really luxurious and decadent for myself. I wanted to buy something yummy to make a triangular scarf that I could wear with my olive green spring/fall coat, since it is quite open at the neck. I looked for something orange-y (big surprise there), but could find the right skein (there was some sea silk in the perfect colourway, but it was part of a shawl kit, so it was twice as much yarn as I needed). So I started holding up various skeins to my coat, and came upon this beautiful skein of Handmaiden 100% Italian Silk in a gorgeous red/bronze/brown colourway.

I didn't wind it into a ball until yesterday, because I wanted to finish the Big Pile o Lace before I started on another lace project. But I left the skein on my desk all week and stroked it regularly. Yesterday I wound it into a ball, pulled out my Barbara Walker Treasuries and started swatching. After trying 2-3 stitch patterns, I came upon one I liked, so I cast on. I'll use this stitch pattern for the body of the scarf, and then something else for the edging. I haven't decided on what yet though – I'll figure that out when I get there!

It doesn't look like much yet, but it yarn is heavenly to work with and I think it's going to make a fabulous scarf.

That's it for the knitting content, and on to the knitters content. This past Friday I went to the regular 1st Friday Knit Night at the Bridgehead on Wellington. As always, it was lots of fun. I teased Katrina of KnittyKnatty that she never posts, to which she responded that she doesn't have a camera, so she can't take pictures for her blog. So I took a few pictures and emailed them to her. Here's a picture of the group that was there on Friday (plus me, I'm safely behind the camera!)

From left to right are Kelly, Blogless Audrey, Sarah, Katrina, Tara and Lissa.We were sitting right across from the bar, so we had lots of stares, smiles and strange looks.

Thus, my holiday gift-giving is limited to a couple of very low-key gift exchanges at get-togethers. For one of these, I decided to do a collection of nice soaps and some knit washcloths to go along with them. These were all super-quick and fun to make.

First up is a really cute little soap bag. I saw this over on this post at "I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can" Directions can be found here.

I used a worsted weight cotton (Bernat Handicrafter). The soap bar I used is not terribly big, so I only needed 20 stitches to make the right size. It's really quick and easy. Next up, is a ripple washcloth, with an i-cord tie to make a fancy presentation:

I was about to make a crochet chain to tie it up, like in the soap bag, but then got inspired to do something fancier. So I made an i-cord and ended it with a bobble (which I just kind of winged by increasing in every stitch over two rows, then cutting the yarn and threading it through all of the stitches). On the other end, I folded the i-cord over to make a loop and sewed it.

The cloth itself is the same diagonal ripple-stitch dishcloth I made for my mother (which begs the question, when does a dishcloth become a face cloth. The way I see it – if you give it as a gift with a nice bar of soap, it's a face cloth. If you was the dishes with it, it becomes a dishcloth. It's that easy!). I love the look of these, so I've made a couple more. I have the pattern written up (and charted), so I'll be posting that shortly.

And finally, I made a scrubby, well, because it's cute:

This is much simpler than it looks. The pattern I used is "Dishcloth Duo" which is a .pdf file I found on Knitting Pattern Central, with a few modifications. I used 10 more stitches than the pattern called for, and a few more rows. I used two colours, alternating every two ridges (four rows). After making the three pieces, I still had yarn left over (from 1 ball of burgundy and 1 ball of white Bernat Handicrafter) so I decided to make a white washcloth with a burgundy i-cord tie to complete the set. I ran short of the white with just a few rows to go. So I'll be picking up another ball of white today, so I can finish that one off. Then need to find a nice little basket or bowl to put them all in, and the gift will be complete.

I showed these at the Guild meeting on Monday. It was my first "show and tell". At the guild meeting, I was sitting with a lovely group of women, and during a discussion of calf sizes for socks, discovered that Su and I were wearing matching socks!

Mine are longer, have a picot-edge and ribbing on the foot and leg. Su's are shorter and only have the ribbing on the leg. As you can see as well, the stripes go in opposite directions. Mine were made toe-up, so it would appear that Su made hers top-down. So our socks are cousins, but there is a clear family resemblance! The yarn is Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy. I love these socks.

Speaking of Sarah, although she’s not in the picture on her blog, I already have a picture of her on mine, although I didn’t know it. Remember this picture from my Yarn Harlot post?

I didn’t know who she was at the time, but now I know that it was Sarah. But she doesn’t always have that look on her face!

Wednesday evening I had a great time chatting with Lynne, who convinced me to check out the Ottawa Knitting Guild meeting on Monday. So I’m going to head there tomorrow, and will then decide if I want to join the guild. After 2 years of playing Everquest and 1 year of playing World of Warcraft (which I quit playing a year ago, thus freeing up way more knitting time), the whole “joining a guild” thing makes me think more of gaming than of knitting. I wonder if this guild does raids.

By 7pm there were knitters everywhere. even on the floor.

All knitting, laughing and having fun. Louise from Yarn Forward was the opening act. She was very excited that Stephanie was coming. We worried that she would stop breathing every time the door opened.

Then she arrived. Wearing the wedding shawl, no less.

I laughed so hard it hurt. I’ve read all of her books, and I always read her blog. But she’s even funnier in person. Her prepared stuff is great – lots of the great stories from her books and blog, but the spontaneous stuff before and after is even funnier.

She shattered my illusion that non-knitters think that knitting is as cool as I do. But I’ll recover.

After her great talk, and a few Q&As, the book-signing portion began.

I got to pose with her and the sock (Sorry for the closed-eye picture of me – this is what I look like when I can’t stop laughing!)

Kit presented Stephanie with a signed copy of her new book

Natalie presented Stephanie with a gift of a magnifying glass and a bottle of conditioner. If you don’t understand what that is so funny, go read the PS at the end of this post.

The magnifying glass even had a light (sorry for the blurry photo, but her expression is just too good to skip).

It was a big hit.

Mairi showed Stephanie her multicoloured braided scarf, upon which she was working each strip at the same time. Stephanie seemed impressed.

J. forgot to bring her copy of the book, so she had Stephanie sign her hand

Louise posed with the picture of her blob and the sock (congrats, Louise!)

While Stephanie was busy signing books and chatting with knitters, a few of us snuck in a fondle of the Wedding Shawl. It is truly exquisite

All in all, it was a fabulous evening. And I got to meet some very nice Ottawa knitters that I didn’t know.

So then what to do when those two world firmly collide, which is what happened last week? In order to talk about one, it is necessary that I share a bit about the other.

I work in the field of international development, and I am currently in Mozambique visiting a number of projects. One of the projects is working simultaneously on issues of Sustainable Livelihoods, HIV/AIDS and Gender Equality. The project is being implemented by Oxfam Canada, who are working with 5 Mozambican organizations, each with a specialization in one of these issues. Some of the project partners work at the national level, and some work at the community level. All are doing incredibly important, wonderful work.

During the first week of my stay here, I went to Manica province to visit some of the on-the-ground work being done by two of these project partners. We flew to Chimoio (located in the central part of the country, near the Zimbabwe border) and then drove several hours north. We visited the two most northern districts of the province, bordering the Zambezi River.

One of the project partners has trained sex workers as HIV/AIDS activitists. Now, when I say "sex workers" please don't think of your stereotypical prostitute working the city streets for drug money. Instead, think desperately poor rural womem with little or no education or opportunities, struggling for basic survival for themselves and their children. Some of these communities are on trucking routes, and sex in exchange for money is often the only source of income these women have. It is also extremely risky, as HIV/AIDs rates in these areas are extremely high.

Don't fret – I'm about to get to the knitting part!

The activitists go out into the communities, and using songs, dances, skits and discussion, educate the communities about HIV/AIDS. We went to visit them at work in one of these communities. After chatting with the activists for a while about their work (very inspiring, I might add), we went to where the community had gathered for the presentation.

Lo and behold, among the community members was a woman knitting! Of course, I spotted her right away. Two or three other members of our group pointed her out to me as well, as of course, I had been knitting on the plane and in the car the whole way, so everone knew I was a knitter! She had a baby in her arms, and a toddler at her feet, and she was knitting away while watching the presentation

I had never seen anyone in Mozambique knitting before (and I have been to lots of rural communities over the past few years). I was so excited. Once the presentation was over, I went up to talk to her (through a translator). Apparently, she had learned years ago from a missionary. It is not easy to find yarn where she is, so she recycles yarn from discarded sweaters and uses that yarn to make things for her babies.

We didn't have long to chat, but when I told her that I also knit, we had an instant connection to each other, although our lives are worlds apart.

When we flew back to Maputo (the capital), one of my colleagues told me at the airport that he had been sitting next to an Australian woman who was knitting as well. He introduced me to her as we awaited our luggage, and we chatted about knitting for a few minutes.

Such a bond we have, we knitters of the world.