March is crazy!

Well, Easter weekend brought the end of the first pair of socks. They're finished, and they fit Sweetie. As he has perpetually cold feet, I think they'll get a lot of wear. I also think I'll try and make it a practice to have a pair of socks on the go at all times, as they're a great project for bus riding and waiting in line. I may even invest in one of those cute little drawstring sock project bags.



We spent Easter weekend with our families. One of the highlights was watching my 3 1/2 year old nephew hunting for Easter eggs. He was so delighted! My mom had placed a basket at the front door, and the Easter Bunny left a trail of eggs up the stairs to the living room.

The weather in the last week has been very crazy. We've had snow (twice!!), which is very atypical for Vancouver at this time of the year. I mean, c'mon, our daffodils are already blooming, as are the cherry trees! It has also hailed several times, and today the sun is out. I tried to take pictures of the snow on Easter Sunday, but they came out very poorly. Fortunately the snow has not stuck around at all, and melted when it hit the ground.

This may be my last post for the next two weeks. I'm finishing my semester, and have 3 papers and a presentation due in the next week and a half. Also, tomorrow I begin teaching full time, which means a pile of lesson planning. The timing is a bit hair-raising, but at least the stress is finite. By April 14, come hell or high water I'll be done.

On the knitting frontier, I'm going to be swatching for some fingerless gloves for the Neil Gaiman swap on Ravelry. I've been charting some patterns. I don't want to risk ruining the surprise on the off chance my swap recipient stops by the site, but I'll post some pics once I've sent the package off.

I'm also considering dipping into the UFO tickle trunk and resurrecting my Sizzle. The weather's almost nice enough to make knitting a cotton tank top an appealing thought. April 14, I can't wait for you to get here!!!

Bloom shalaka!

Spring has arrived. The crocuses and daffodils are here, and the blossoms are appearing on the later blooming trees. The spring showers are here too, in spite of a recent spate of sunshine, or even merely overcast weather.


In the knitting world, I've finished the gusset shaping on the second sock, and will hopefully finish it this week. I'm nearing the end of the semester, which means a lot less knitting time. I've also been teaching a fair bit recently, and as such a lot of my free time has been eaten up by lesson planning. Yikes.

However, I have to get this sock done so I can get cracking on some fingerless gloves for a Neil Gaiman swap I'm part of on Ravelry. Here are some chart sketches. This will be my first time doing major mods to a pattern, and I'm nervous and excited. I'll post a few more details once I've begun in earnest.



Also in the realm of knitting, let me share this adorable critter knit by my friend. Knocknees is pictured here astride her trusty steed, and sitting in a slightly intoxicated sidesaddle pose. My friend makes a variety of different, adorable woodland creatures and also mutant creatures. Most amazingly, she knits them freehand. I really admire her creativity. She says she admires my ability to follow a pattern, but I'd take her skills anytime. I'll post a link here if she ever opens an Etsy store to sell these guys, but so far she's been reluctant to, not wanting to ruin the magic of making them with enforced production.




Anyhow, hopefully my next post will be full of FO sock pictures, and WIP swap pictures! Fingers crossed.

First sock- done!

Notice that I can't yet report my first pair of socks complete yet, but I did just finish my first sock. Even better, it fits Sweetie's foot just fine. Here, have a look:


The socks are actually more grey than blue, but I wanted to get some pictures taken and thus I'm stuck with the fluorescent light in the kitchen. Once the other sock is done I'll make sure I take the pics in daylight.

The time in the semester has arrived when I really have to get down to business. Additionally, I've been working a lot, and that too is only going to get busier in the next month. I love the work I'm doing though, and as I left my previous life as a corporate cog to pursue my studies and this new career path, that can only be a good thing.

I've also made some decisions about my studies that have been plaguing me for the last few months. I don't know what it was mentally that shook loose, and allowed me to finally come to some decisions I'm happy about.

On a less serious note, there's some doggy drama in the house. We're pug-sitting for a friend of ours who's spending a week in sunny Cancun. Merry and Ripley have some issues, in that both of them are poorly socialized in dealing with other dogs. It's pretty funny watching them not interact all day. I'm hoping that by the end of the week they'll be snuggling, but for now that seems a lofty goal.

This post is turning out to be a bit of a hodge podge, but here's another little thing. I think I'm going to play around with the look of this blog a bit, as it is un petit peu dull. I'm debating a seasonal colour scheme change. Orange and green are my fall favorites, but pink and a green the colour of new leaves speak to me of spring- cherry blossoms and buds. After all, there's no rule saying it has to look exactly the same all the time. If I hit on something I really love, I do reserve the right to keep it! Any thoughts? Is this the kiss of death? Is it annoying, or ok?

Anyhow, time for me to head to bed. I've got homework to do and lots of prep to take care of for work on Tuesday. The days are just packed lately.

Heel turned! Boo-ya!

Well, today was a momentous day in the knitting of the first sock! I turned the heel! It wasn't even too hard, but it made me feel disproportionally clever. If you've been afraid of knitting socks, give it a try - I can see how people love it. I've just finished the gusset shaping, and tried it on. It fits my foot, which means it'll probably fit Sweetie's narrow foot. Unfortunately for me, his foot is longer than mine, which means I've got about 5 inches to knit before I get to shape the toes.

I'll try and post a pic soon. I'm too bleary eyed to attempt it now. I'm going to admire them again, then hit the sack.

Sock knitting rules!

Spring and Socks (er, sock)

I don't know about you, but I'm unfortunately prone to the Feblaharies. This time of the year, I have a hard time believing that spring will ever come. One of the first things I look for are the earliest cherry blossoms. Not the ones that will burst out all over the city in a few weeks, but the rare few early ones that appear just after the snowdrops. The other night I was driving home from class in the dark and rain, when I spotted dapples of ghostly white in the trees along the road. I went back a few days later and confirmed, to my delight, that the first blossoms had arrived.



My spring feeling has been nurtured by the beautiful sun we experienced today. I went for a walk, bought some art supplies, and went ice skating. Sweetie and I have been skating the past few weekends, and it's a lot of fun. When you try something new like skating, it's always a delight at how fast you seem to progress. I felt a lot less wobbly today than the past times we went.

I've been working a bit on the sock at night these days. I'm finding the ribbing a bit dull, but the self striping yarn provides the modicum of amusement I need to keep knitting away on my tiny needles. This is my first time using 2 mm needles and the going is a teensy bit slow! However, the thought of learning how to turn a heel is also keeping me going. Here's a shot of my progress so far:



In other knitting news, I've started listening to a few knitting podcasts this week. I've tried Lime and Violet, and Stash and Burn. If you have any favorites to suggest to me, please let me know! This may be a slippery slope...

Foliage Finished, and First Socks Started

Well, this post has been a long time coming. This semester is kicking my butt a bit more than I expected it to, and sadly there's no end in sight. Nonetheless, I've found some time to finish Foliage, the red-orange version, which has been keeping my head cosy for the past week or so.



I've also just begun my first pair of socks! I'm very excited about this. I'm using Silver's Sock Class top down sock tutorial to attempt them. The socks are going to be for my Sweetie, and as such I've chosen some superwash wool in a manly colourway: DG Confetti 100, colour 19.05, which is a self striping yarn in various greys. I hope I can make a successful pair of socks and then try some fancier socks. There's a beautiful skein of Cherry Hill sock yarn in my stash. I'd love to give a sock like Monkey a try, or the Jaywalkers, but decided to try a simple pair first. I don't even know how to turn a heel yet!

Change of subject: the other day I was out for a walk in my neighbourhood and I spotted some graffiti I'd never noticed before. It may be new, or it may be that I've just not noticed it before. Here's a shot for you to enjoy:



The caption painted on the wall says "a end in sight".

Coming next post: sock in progress shots!

Foliage. Part Deux and Diving Ducks

I've been battling the beast that is grad school this week- reading, writing, and reading some more, which makes for very dull knitblogging. Last night, I finally got my head above water and cast on!

The hat jag continues, and seeing how much Sweetie loves his Koolhaas made me want to knit another hat for myself. And there was that skein of Malabrigo in the stash...



I'm taking another crack at Foliage. I knit one for my SIL for Christmas using 3.75 mm needles. It turned out nearly too big for her, and certainly too big for my tiny, tiny head, so for this go-round I'm knitting with 3.25 mms. Hmm, I notice the yarn looks kind of orange in the picture; in real life it's more of a red orange. I'll make sure and take my next pictures in natural light.

Today I went for a lovely walk by the water with a friend of mine, and was quite excited to see some ducks I'd never seen before. I haven't identified the first ones I saw, and they were too reticent for me to get a good picture of, but I did get some pics of these guys:



They're Goldeneye ducks, a diving duck that winters on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and, according to this site, eats molluscs, crustaceans, small fish and aquatic plants. We watched them dive down to the rocky sea bottom and nibble at the seaweed.

I love unexpected urban naturalism! My poor friend had to put up with my nature geekfest, but I can't help myself! I must have watched too many episodes of Wild Kingdom as a child.

I'll leave you with a shot of a cheeky pair of Mallards, who were not at all shy about having their picture taken, and who I strongly suspect were looking for a snack.