Blogmas2017 Day 01: Advent Calendar Overkill

First I said, I don't need to buy a yarn advent calendar this year.

Then the Spicy Homemaker was hosting a yarn advent calendar swap, and I signed up and played along.

Here is my beautiful calendar from Annie (@ann_la112 on Instagram).

Then of course I bought my David's Tea Calendar, because we drink David's every day in this house.

Then I just couldn't resist, and I gave in and bought myself the most exciting Christmas Present ever!

Prairie Dye Studio's Unconventional Christmas Advent Calendar, Day 1 was that gorgeous project bag!

Then since I wanted Kevin to play along too, I made him a super boozy and chocolaty calendar full of surprises.

Oh and just in time for December First, the Body Shop in our mall had way too many Calendars left and marked them down super cheep!

Soooo yeah, maybe overkill? or Maybe it's just Christmas, Christmas, Christmas?!

Either way, I'm  going to try and do one more Calendar here on the blog, and post every day until Christmas. Don't believe me, well we'll see, but as always, my intentions are pure.

So pure in fact I even filmed a podcast tonight! That's a still I grabbed of myself by accident when filming! It should be up tomorrow AM!

More tomorrow! In the mean time, Happy Knitting!

Gift knitting progress report, I might be a little insane

I like to do Christmas knitting. A fair bit of it actually. And last year I didn't mail my box of gift knits to Ontario until well after Christmas (I blame 6 month old twins, moving twice in December for Kev's work, once to a house with no dishwasher, and Kev working literally around the clock in the ICU). This year, however, I am determined to be on time for Christmas, and so I started well in advance.

So far I have finished:

1 shawl. 1 pair of socks, 1 cowl, 3 hats, and 4 pairs of mitts.

I have on my to do list still:

1 baby, two toddler, 1 child, and 1 adult sweaters.

2 toddler vests.

3 dog sweaters.

1 shawl.

1 scarf.

1 pair of mitts.

1 colour work hat.

1 pair of socks.

Oh and the rest of my thesis to finish before Christmas.

Clearly some of the things on that list are going to have to go. But it's still December, and I am still optimistic (ridiculously so) and ambitious (overly). But I am spurred on by the fact that some of those items are already underway, and others will be knit with bulky weight yarn (which practically knits itself).

Yesterday I cast on that child's sweater. I swatched for it way back when.

It's the Little Boxy by Joji Locatelli (pattern page, project page), and it's stockinette knit flat. Borring knitting, so I have set myself a 4 inches a day goal, to force my way through this project. So here's hoping this sweater manifests itself quickly.

Lab Report Episode 05: Guess who's back...

Back again.

Sara's back.

Tell a friend.

Note to self, get an Eminem playlist on your phone for tomorrow's drive to Calgary.

Guys I put up a new YouTube video! a 'long' format podcast. Who am I?!

Watch it here!

In this video:

FOs Pinewood Pullover : https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Mix and Match Sweaters Brown: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Green: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Selbu Mittens: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Cat Hat and Mitts: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Mario and Luigi Hats: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Speckle and Pop MKAL: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... WIPS Deschain: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Knitpicks lindy chain yarn: https://www.knitpicks.com/yarns/Lindy... The Traveller Shawl Design: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... Babbles Traveling Yarns: https://www.youtube.com/user/vanawill... Dancing Deer Mittens: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/turn... New Yarn Borgo de Pazzi Magic Kettle: http://www.estelleyarns.com/borgo-de-...

In other news, I finished my Speckle and Pop shawl, here is a picture of it blocking. I wet blocked it and stretched it to within an inch of it's life.

Grand Shawl Plans for November

It's another month gone by, and the boys are 17 months old today! They are of course celebrating this milestone by being fussy teethers who don't want to nap.

I am celebrating by lining up four shawl WIPs that need to make their way over to the FO pile ASAP.

1) Westknits MKAL 2017, Speckle and Pop

This one is on it's second last row, something that has been determined by that wee little ball of my main colour 1. And while that should mean it'll be a quick finish, you should know I have something like 820 stitches to bind off with a multi coloured icord.... so you know. Fun.

2) The Traveller

This is a shawl I've been planning for years, I have three beautiful skeins of natural coloured BFL handspun, in about a DK weight, that I knew needed to be a rustic shawl. Babbles Traveling Yarns is having an Outlander KAL, and well it was time to get a move on on this one. I'm just about done the first section... although I may need to spin some more of the oatmeal colour.

3) My homespun Marled Magic

This one hasn't even been on needles for the last month, just the stitches on holders, waiting for me to spin up some more yarn. I've got the next skein ready to go so time to put it back on needles. Well maybe after I finish my other Westknit.

4) My Starting Point (ironically my finishing point as well)

Just keep knitting, just keep knitting, just keep knitting, knitting, knitting.

Happy Halloween from Mario and Luigi

There's been no time for blogging lately, and precious little time for knitting. That's because today was Halloween and I was on a deadline.

A deadline to make all of this.

That's two pairs of overalls.
Two raglan long sleeve shirts.
One adult male's pants;
shirt;
and vest.
One princess dress, complete with lined bodice, lined skirts, peplums, puff sleeves and a train.
Two crocheted hats
and one ridiculous pillow hat.

I also made those little boys, but I did that back in 2016, so it doesn't really count.

Anyways, busy, busy busy.

Plus I've been thesis writing. passed 20,000 words this weekend. 5 bajillion more to go.

Hope you had a happy October 31st, however you celebrate it.

Knit everything twice - Mix and Match Sweater

This summer, Mina Phillip (@knittingexpat) asked if I would be interested in test knitting a baby sweater she had designed. I've test knit for her before, and she knows I have little ones, so I am pretty sure that's why I got the ask.

The pattern was released last month, the lovely Mix and Match Sweater.

I of course, being a mmother of twins, knit it twice.

The pattern is titled Mix and Match, because Mina provides options for plain stockinette or textured sweaters, short or long sleeves, and with or without short row shaping around the neck and hem. The brown one I knit first, with short in both places, but didn't love them in the back of the neck, so I only did the short row shaping on the hem for the green one.

I knit mine from some Lion Brand Yarn Hearland in Kings Canyon (green) and Sequoia (Brown) click those links for the project pages. I thought acryclic would make for easy to wash sweaters, and to be fair, I didn't want to invest in more expensive yarn for a test knit. I used about a skein and a half of each and picked them up on sale at Micheals.

This past weekend I dressed the boys up all cute and took the out to play in the yard and try to grab some cute photos showing off their little sweaters. Some turned out great.

Others not so much. That's Dom at the wheel, making that face becaus his brother is trying to fit in the car behind him.

They do play together nice sometimes tho.

Boreal Forest Cowl and Hat

When I hear the term Boreal Forest, I think of Northern Ontario, where I grew up, and driving along highway 17 from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay. It's very nostalgic for me, and moreso now that I've been living in the Alberta Praries for the past 8 years.

Last year when I saw the first pattern released in Curious Handmade Presents Knitvent 2016 (Helen Stewart) was a colourwork cowl called Boreal Forest, I knew I wanted to knit it ASAP.

Boreal Forrest Cowl Designed by Renee Callahan.

It was just so pretty, plus I love stranded knitting, something about it makes projects fly off the needles.

Problem, I didn't have any pretty worsted weight yarn in my stash in the colours I wanted for this project.

Solution, I did have a couple skeins of bare Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash Worsted in my bin of undyed yarns, and a fearless aditude towards dyeing yarn with food colouring.

You can watch me dye this yarn in this video here (click the link to watch on YouTube).

And the yarn turned out beautifully!

I knit up the cowl straight away last winter.

Here's a shot of my floats, so lovely and even, you can kind of see the trees through them.

And had enough yarn leftover to knit the matching hat this fall.

Boreal Forest Cowl and Boreal Forest Hat project pages.

I did modify the hat a little to lengthen it (notes on my project page describe the simple changes), but other than that, I have a beautiful set ready to be gifted this Christmas.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that it's only 71 days until Christmas? it seems like a lot (I mean it's not even Halloween Yet) until you consided how long my list of gift knitting is, and also that I have to finish writing my thesis by then (thesis update, 100 pages!!)

How far in advance do you start your holiday knitting, and do you still manage not to get everything done in time like me?