Adopt-a-sheep
I was browsing the
TreeHugger 2007 Gift Guide this week and, among a number of cool things, I came up with this: the
Owen Farm Adopt-a-sheep program. For $125USD or $160CAD you can be the proud owner of a sheep without all the hassle of having to take care of it. You get an adoption certificate, 7 seasonal visits to the farm to cuddle your sheep, 6 letters from the farm, a storage binder, photo journal, and Sheep Year Calendar to record your experiences on aforementioned visits, an invitation to shearing day, your own sheep's fleece (raw, but they will wash and card it for an extra fee), a picture of your sheep, pedigree information and history of your sheep, a phone call when your sheep goes into labour, and an invitation to the End-of-the-Sheep-Year party. How cool is that! If I knew someone who would be willing to drop $160 on a single gift for me, and if we had a car that could survive multiple trips to New England, I would so ask for that for Christmas! Sigh. I'll just have to wait a while before I can vicariously live the life of a sheep farmer.
Until next we knit!
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Let the season begin!
This morning we had the first snow of the season. Of course, it being mid-November, it was more along the lines of "flurries" or "snow showers" as they called it on the 680 News weather report. Still, that means the fingerless mitts are definitely not going to cut it much longer. I must get to work on the gloves (I've decided to make them fingerless gloves with a fold-over top for maximum versatility). I need to learn kitchener stitch for the pattern I'm designing (I'm knitting these on the fly right now) and that is a skill that has eluded me despite a number of attempts to figure it out. I must bring hem to the Westend Woolies meeting next Thursday and get Sarah to show me how it's done.
I did end up going to the Yarn Boutique sale looking for yarn for the Juno Shawl and was sadly disappointed: not just with the sale, but with the whole store. This is the first time I've been in there since the first week it re-opened under new management. The old shop didn't have a lot of variety, but the owner was super nice and you could knit and chat with her forever. It had a cosy, rather cluttered feel that felt very comfortable. When I went last night, there still wasn't a lot of variety, but it had lost a lot of that welcoming feel. Instead of the warm browns of the old store, it's now been painted a bright sterile white. Instead of an owner interested in a chat, it had an owner (I assume it was the owner, there was a picture of her and her kids on the table) absorbed in the TV while she knit. When I asked for some lace weight yarn I practically had to explain to her what lace weight was. When I told her what gauge I was looking for we searched the store for it and couldn't find a single ball or skein with that gauge. Then she just went back to the TV (she was watching I/R Cold Case Files on A&E, a show I love, which prompted Nyron to wonder allowed what it was with knitters and A&E crime documentaries).
I took a moment last night to look up the retailers for the actual yarn called for in the pattern, Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace, and it turns out that they carry it at Lettuce Knit. Looks like I'll be going there after work tonight. I've decided that I'm definitely going to knit it and hope to get it done in time to give it as a gift to Kathryn (I hope she's not reading this blog). I've been budgeting very well this week, so I think I'll buy another skein of the Dream in Color yarn for the Rocketry blankets and sweater for Amy's baby. It's reasonably priced for hand-dyed yarn (although still more than I usually spend per skein) so I'm hoping to make it stretch for 2 babies.
Until next we knit!
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So much knitting, how do I keep track?!
It's official; all the symptoms are there. Someone call a doctor: I have Startitus. I think it's caused by the scratchiness of Nyron's Christmas sweater. I just can't knit it for long periods of time, and since that's exactly what I have on Tuesday nights when I work at the Rogers Television station I need to make sure that I have something soft and friendly on the needles that won't peel the skin off my index finger. I started the Rocketry sweater from Lettuce Knits that Yarn Harlot was obsessed with and it will be a gift for a co-worker who is pregnant. I'm also making a blanket out of the same colours, only instead of doing the blanket they have pictured on the yarn company's website, I'm doing a log cabin blanket in the same stripe pattern of the sweater. However, it was so fun and quick to knit (I think I'll do one for Amy, as well!) that I've already knit as much as I can until I know if the baby is a boy or a girl (it effects which side to put the button holes).
So that left me with the question of what to knit tonight. I loved the scarf that I knit for my Ravelry Scarf Exchange pal, which was just the cable edging from A Cardigan for Arwen with an added repeat to give it some extra width, that I've decided to make a whole scarf, mitten, hat set for myself. I'm working on the mitts right now (which may end up becoming gloves, I haven't decided) because I need a pair of mitts. I only have some fingerless mitts that I knit for myself when I was living in England (where fingerless mitts are appropriate pretty much all year round).
But now, when I've only just barely cast on for this 3 piece project this very morning, my eye is wandering once more. I didn't really pay much attention to the Knitty surprise patterns when they came out because I was really busy at work that day and then I just forgot about them. But I just saw a link for the
Juno Regina Shawl on someone else's blog and am smitten. It's so lovely and I could work on it on my commute no problem (a rare thing with lace shawl). This may become my next project for me. Or I might knit it for my friend Kathryn, since I'm still looking for a good gift for her. Maybe I should stop off at Yarn Boutique on my way home from work sometime this week. They're having a sale...
Until next we knit!
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Birth of the Westend Woolies
Ravelry has done it again. For years I've been trying to start or join a knitting group closer to home, so that I don't have to travel the hour trip downtown or stick to ones that start immediately after I get off work. I had one last about 6 months or so and then fizzled out. I'd put entries up on Freecycle and Favorville looking for a groups to join or start and hadn't got a lot of response, so I'd pretty much given up. Until I saw a post on Ravelry, by a woman named Tracy who was about to move to the High Park neighbourhood and was asking if there was a group she could join. In less than a week there were half a dozen other Westenders joining in and before I knew it, we had become the founders of the Westend Woolies.
We had our first gathering on Thursday and it went really well. We all get along and were able to find lots to talk about. Right now we meet at a Starbucks, but I'd like to look into finding a place that serves food, since I still end up going there straight after work.
I'm preparing for a soft opening of my etsy store, since I'm sick of it sitting empty. My problem seems to be that I have so many crafts that I do and so many ideas for products that I don't know where to start: so I just don't. I've decided to focus on one craft right now until I've got lots ot items ready before swtiching to another. Right now I'm inspired by having located my papermaking supplies, so I'm working on some handmade recycled paper and some Christmas cards to sell. I'll move into bookbinding in a bit, when I really get a good method worked out for making lots of paper at once. I'll let you all know when I start listing things on the store.
Until next we knit!
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Secret Pal show off post
This is the second weekend in a row that I haven't been able to make the video post about the gift that my Secret Pal had me pick up from Lettuce Knit, so I don't want to put it off any longer.
This is what was waiting for my at Lettuce Knit:
Fleece Artist sock yarn! Hurray! Isn't it lovely? apparently she had a chat with Laura who works there about what I've bought in the past and what she thought I would like, and my SP settled on Fleece Artist because it's Nova Scotia (awwww) and sock yarn because I've been dabbling in socks lately (although my last pair didn't turn out so well, but that's the fault of the pattern).
I'm working on a tweed sweater for Nyron right now. I hate knitting tweed, it's so scratchy, but these are the things we do for love.
Until next we knit!
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