Mystery Project Revealed

It's been shrouded in secrecy and I know you have been on the edge of your seats to find out what I have been knitting... Well I'm sorry to let you down but it really just an ordinary pair of socks in a beautiful, yet manly, colour scheme.

The socks are for Jake, my English friend who I met in Guatemala and became instant friends with when it was discovered that we both knew of the same purple house in Ucluelet. It's true. Jake moved to Victoria, and we were going to be roommates last summer, but then I got this job on Gabriola, backed out on him, and agreed to knit a pair of socks in return for him being okay with it all.

I was off work yesterday and at home all day working on this blasted project. In the morning I took the socks for a walk and photo session at the beach to get the blood pumping and visit the ocean.

Enroute to the beach we encountered a couple varieties of Gabriolan fauna: these ducks that seriously freak me out (they come at you honking like this and I think they will bite me one day)...

...and the peacocks, that I can get along with much better.

Feeling like I imagine it feels to be a new parent with a digital camera, I positioned the socks against various backgrounds and experimented. Now, the seasoned blogger or photographer would just choose the best and post only one, but I kind of like all of these. So here you go:

Socks on fucus

Socks on sandstone

Socks on assorted seaweed and stones

It wasn't all socks. I also took pictures of rocks (and if there had been a fox I'm sure I would have snapped a photo as well). Here are a couple of shots of the beautiful Gabriola sandstone.

Writers block and new creations

As of tonight, I am 50% finished a project that I started in May and was stalled at about 40% until last night. Sneak preview below. I don't knit much during the summer, and I've been having shoulder problems that are aggravated by knitting. And although I have reached an advanced stage of denial about graduating, I will admit to you that I haven't graduated yet, and the last things I ever feel like is working on are the two papers (or a "project" and a paper) that I have to finish.


I have decided on a new approach to this problem, however. What I really need is motivation, and I need inspiration to achieve this motivation. I could read academic papers, chain myself to my computer desk, tell myself how ridiculous it is to keep paying tuition, but these things haven't worked so far. So I've decided to get inspiration elsewhere, and get my creativity going again. I unpacked my "nick-knack" box yesterday and did some more decorating around my place. I have a dried kelp installation on my window sill which I'm quite proud of. Simple but beautiful. I'll take a picture in daylight. And of course, I finished 50% of the mystery project pictured above, which has led to a good sense of accomplishment and should motivate me to accomplish other things. I am going to unapologetically work on the other 50% and it will feel great to put the project in the mail to its intended recipient. Just in time for winter. I hope he'll forgive me for the delay.

Knitting gallery updates

The knitting has been kind of sporadic recently. I finished one sock of a pair I'm making out of beautiful deep pink heathered stuff (after taking it out back to the heel because it was too tight). And I'm part way through a brown-ish pair for my Mom with a new toe-up pattern. I have yet figure out the perfect combination of needle size and number of stitches for a sock to fit my foot but both of these pairs will be closer than I've been before.

Brown toe-up

Beautiful pink

I had the worst flu of my life last month (unless there was something when I was very young that I don't remember) that I am still kind of fighting off (every few days I get a sore throat again and feel really tired). Appropriately, I was inspired to knit a cover for a hot water bottle that I bought at the thrift store for 39 cents. I experimented with the seed stitch, and worked in a reindeer (or elk, or deer, whatever you want) that I designed a few years ago but hadn't used in anything yet. I also managed to use eyelets for the drawstring which are actually very easy to make.

The last new knit is these legwarmers that I made for Jenny's Christmas present. She was away in January on a practicum and took them with her (yay, she likes them!) so I just got the chance to take a photo recently. I'm quite proud of these too because although they are not a 100% from nothing creation, I didn't stick right to one pattern. Being the kind of person who gravitates more towards following instructions than creating something myself, I am quite proud of my progress in altering and creating patterns.

ps. Does anyone who uses Blogger know why I have so much trouble with formatting spaces when I use pictures?

The trials and tribulations of a knitter

I did the unthinkable. I took apart a completely finished pair of socks and reknit them. I had even worn these socks around a bit before I admitted that I would be much happier if they fit a bit more snugly. Recently gaining the confidence to alter a pattern, I decided to do it. And finally, the reknit socks are complete. I love them! And the fit is fantastic. Although now of course I am thinking that they are too snug, and might be more prone to a hole at the toe, but I am definitely not knitting them a third time.

The tragedy has to do with the felted slippers I boasted about earlier. I finished the knitting, and decided to do the felting this morning. I also threw in the wool sweater I bought at the thrift store last month that had holes in it that I couldn't patch to my satisfaction. So I felted the sweater, and have plans to sew something out of it. Maybe a purse...I don't know. Other ideas?

But the tragedy. I suppose you want to know about the tragedy. I don't know if I can speak of it. I am so embarrassed. I feel beyond disappointment that the hours I spent knitting the damn things are lost, and I will never get them back. I just feel dumb.

So the tragedy. Well, I bought the yarn at a thrift store a while back, and it turns out it's not wool. It must be acrylic, and acrylic doesn't felt. Who knew that rough-looking, ichy-feeling yarn could be acrylic and not wool. Well, a lot of people actually, but not me. Now I have learned the hard way. So now I have a completely useless pair of large and floppy unfelted slippers. Might I remind you that this is the second time I have attempted to make these slippers? Is this is a sign? Do I quit here? Or should I go for the old "third time a charm" belief? I don't know. I think I am putting slippers on the shelf for now, even thought I desperately need a pair for myself. I have yarn for four pairs of socks (or maybe some gloves in there somewhere) waiting to be knit, and it is all beautiful, and I have a new sock pattern to try.

I should probably be reading scholarly things and writing papers anyway.

A slipper in the making

Believe it or not, this will be a slipper. And this slipper will fit my foot. And my foot stopped growing long ago.

It is experiment #2 with felting. #1 was a dismal failure because I used the wrong yarn, and it didn't shrink down enough when I felted it, ending up about 5 sizes too big for me. If you have a big foot maybe I will give them to you.

This picture was taken last week, and not much more progress has been made since because I was busy with the first week of classes. The beginning of the end, my last semester at UBC! (Although I won't finish my own project until August, probably.) Then, who knows what is next, although I have my ideas...

New Knits

It's been a busy knitting season in our house with Christmas approaching. Jaunts up the street to the yarn store abound, and projects are flying off the needles. There is some diversity, but this knit farm is a bit of a monoculture at the moment. A brilliant pattern for fingerless gloves is the project of choice, and here are two recent examples:

Everyone loves a good slaw

I think that a picture always improves a post, so here is one from the archives. This is Marla at Wickanninish Beach last summer.

I have been storing up several things to say for days now, and I am finally ready to blog them. Let me start with cabbage. Thanks to Sheena's postcard recipe, I made a delicious and simple cabbage and noodle dish last night. (My roommate says it's Hungarian, and that her grandma makes it all the time.) I learned, however, that cabbage shrinks down a lot when you cook it. So it turned out to be more of an appetizer than a full meal. (Sheena, I didn't follow your measurements for amounts, just followed the basic idea to make it for one person...and made it for half a person.)

By the way, receiving a recipe on a postcard was super cool. I support Canada Post!

Also on the topic of cabbage (there's so much you can do with one head), I made a slaw from the Rebar Cookbook that is absolutely delicious. I discovered that the food processor part of my hand blender does a fine job of shredding the veggies, so that makes it extremely quick to prepare. However, I have to admit my biggest flaw as a cook: I have a terrible tendency to put too much onion and/or garlic in things. And I did put too much onion in this slaw, and have had onion breath for two days. (Sorry Mike and Bri for the salad on Friday. I realized afterwards that there was way too much garlic in the dressing!)

I just read Jessica's recommendation of the More with Less cookbook and I want it. Can you say used book store scrounging? I wonder if it's at the UBC library. Somehow I don't think they have cookbooks. (Just checked, no dice.)

In other news, the second sock has taken backstage to a visit from Mom, homework, and watching Battlestar Galactica (thanks Bri and Mike). I haven't even finished the ribbing at the top yet. That's the problem with socks. You finish one, and it's great and wonderful and you're so happy, but then you have to make another one exactly the same. What's the fun in that? I'd be happier to knit socks for amputees.

One down one to go

A knitting post

In Yarn Harlot style, I have taken my partly knit sock out to the streets of the city. I predict that you will see more knitting pictures on this blog in the future, as I seem to have leaped full speed ahead back into this hobby.


I got quite a bit done today on the bus to Commercial Drive for the first session of filming our video "Downhill Both Ways" (we do fun things in planning school), then quite a bit more done as Max and I waited an HOUR for our other group member who unfortunately was the one with the camera.

Then I got quite a lot more knitting done on the bus BACK to UBC because the guy never showed up! We knocked on his door and he's like "oh, hi" and we're like "where the #*^% were you?" And he's like...

Okay, so this could go on and on. The short story is he had no excuse and is just extremely irresponsible and I can't believe I have to work with him!!!

*end rant*

So the sock. I love the sock so far, but am kind of mad at myself for spending so much on the yarn. It's hard to find cheap yarn in Vancouver with stores called things like "Urban Yarns" and "Homecraft Importers". These socks will hopefully end up being warm, comfy and stylish, but will have cost about the same as a pair of Smartwools, and taken hours more than it would to go to the store and buy them. But no need to become obsessed with money, it's fun, and gives me something to do while waiting AN HOUR in the COLD at Broadway and Commercial for a delinquent group member who never showed up! (oops, rant was over)

Back to (somewhat) happy things. Before I started the sock, I decided I should use up some of the big bag of yarn I already have. So I knit a dishcloth. Not just any dishcloth, but a HUGE dishcloth. I don't really know why I didn't start over when only a few rows in I realized that if I was going to make it square, it would be huge. Perhaps I figured if I took it all out that would be it; it would be another two years before I felt the urge to knit again. My roommates assure me that the dishcloth is very nice, and even though as it stretches out we have to fold it several times to be a manageable size, we are still using it three days later. Something very good has come of the huge dishcloth, however. I have learned a very nice texture, the "waffle" knit, and figured how to "K1 in next stitch in row below" after a very long time with Google and trial and error.

Here is the HUGE dishcloth (that has now evidently stretched in a strange way so it is much more rectangular than square), and a close up of the waffle pattern.