Saturday 6 August 2011

Wow ... August already?

July got by me in a flurry of activity ... Summer is always such a busy time, there is rarely time for me to blog regularly in the warm weather months, and I am sorry about the long blog silence. Things are starting to slow down a bit, and now I have some time on my hands, so a blog post is due...

In the last week of July, we harvested the first of our blueberries.
(Big man hand for perspective, and the bowl is a salad bowl that is 11" wide by 3" tall) Now that we've started, we'll get at least this many every day or two until mid September, when we quit from sheer exhaustion! It is a daily task to keep up with the picking (and the eating!!). We've got 9 high bush blueberry bushes in the backyard.

This IS a knitting blog, and I AM a knitter, so there should be some knitting pictures and chatter. I haven't got much to show following more than a month of blog silence (refer to "summer is such a busy time ... " above) but I have got a few things.

Socks that Rock fingering weight has always been in my stash, ever since I discovered the happy that comes from knitting socks, but I had never knit it (I am a hoarder, and don't like to use things up as once they are gone, you might not get them again, and you should save the best to the last!). I won a "rare Gem" skein of Socks That Rock (one of a kind colours that aren't in the regular line ... they are sort of colour experiments at Blue Moon Fibres) about a year ago, and decided to give it a whirl (safely leaving my original STR purchases in the stash ... can't use 'em up!).
The socks are a plain vanilla sock with an eye of partridge heel, knit on my trusty 2.75 mm bamboo needles - and turned out pretty good! The STR is a dream to knit with, and the socks pretty much flew off the needles, when I actually took the time to knit them - which I didn't do often! I finished these socks on July 10, and had started them on April 2, at the Maritime Fibre Arts Retreat. I had read all sorts of things about STR that had me a bit nervous - the yarn is over spun, they bleed badly when knitting and when washing, and they wear out quickly - I can only attest to the first two things, as no one has worn them yet, but I didn't notice any issues with the yarn twisting back on itself from being over spun, and there was not a DROP of dye that came out in the wash. I have been eying the other colours of STR in my stash, and am definitely going to not save all of them forever! I will be stash diving soon, and will knit something with STR!

I love to knit when I am at a movie or a show ... if I have to sit through 2 hours in the dark, I figure I should be accomplishing something else besides just watching a show. It has become a tradition to start a pair of socks on the bus trip to the NS International Tattoo, and see how quickly I can get them done after the Tattoo concludes.
Started these on July 7th, completed on July 22nd. The yarn is Clarke and Kattens Clown cotton fingering weight, and it is a nice yarn to work with (ie; not splitty). It tuns out that two of the Knitterpuddlians have also knit with this same yarn in the same colourway, and warned me of colour bleed when washing them ... I must have grabbed a lucky skein -- very little bleed, even though I left them overnight in the soak. These are a fairly small size ... about a 6 - 6.5 -- I will have to check my list very carefully to see who is in that size range!

I have been knitting for my friend the photographer ... she had requested hats for 10 babies she has photo shoots with in (all were due in July/early August and she generally does a "1 week old" photo of the wee babes, and loves them in a chunky knit hat!). I knit a stocking hat for her, a bit bigger than what I would normally knit for an infant, as she said most of her babies are not tiny wee babes.

Gauge issue! The hat fit a 12 year old!

So back to the drawing board ... hopefully this will fit a young baby ...
This yarn is something I picked up at Walmart - Bernat Roving in the Rice Paper colourway. It is nice to work with, and even though it is 80% acrylic, it has a nice "hand" to it -- it is very soft. I also got some in brown and green, and will keep tinkering with the size to see if I am getting closer to what size she wants (the brown one I am currently working on is too big ... and needs to be frogged! Dang it!)

I've got socks in the works too ... but no pictures yet, as I don't like to take pictures until I have them completely done. I am making a pair for T and a pair for me (I think - I get grabby about wanting socks for me, then get the guilts about keeping them). The pair I am knitting was started specifically for me, because it is a colour of yarn I figured no one else would wear, but I showed it to a friend, and she said it was really pretty ... so maybe these socks aren't too ugly for a home, and will go to the gift bag. I dunno?

I will be back soon with another report ... I will have socks done soon, and probably a few more wee hats for photo props (and, I could get ambitious and tackle a few lurking UFOs too - one never knows!)

3 comments:

Donna M said...

Your blueberries look delicious! And the socks too. Love the hat on the 12 year old! She's gorgeous in it!

Nova kids9 said...

My STR bled like crazy. I've worn them tons, they are several years old, and they haven't worn out yet. I didn't have a problem knitting with it either. I've got three more skeins in the stash, too, but they are lighter colors. My first had dark blue and purple in it, and the water turned almost black!

Nova kids9 said...

Sorry about the name -- it's me! Sheri! Somehow Darren's account must be logged on.