A Bloggable Bit

You would think from the lack of activity here on the blog lately that I haven't been involved with creative pursuits that were worthy of blogging about. In actual fact I have been so busy creating that I haven't had a moment to blog about any of it. Several of the projects are top secret for now so I can't reveal them yet, but this one is bloggable. (Spell check says "bloggable" isn't a word. What does it know, hmmm?)


This bright splash of yarn is the beginning of an afghan for my 24 year old son. He will be moving out of our home in a few months and I wanted to give him a house (apartment? Condo? Basement suite?) warming present.

This will be a tartan afghan in the "Cunningham" plaid from the Australian Woman's Weekly book, "Easy-to-crochet Tartan Rugs". Our name is not Cunningham, nor are we of a heritage with customary family tartans, but it will make a beautiful afghan and a bright yet masculine spot in a bachelor pad, and quite possibly an extra blanket when needed. My son picked the particular plaid himself. He liked the simplicity of this one and it's primarily red and black colour scheme.

This is only the beginning of the horizontal stripes in the mesh portion. When it is done I will be crocheting 128 afghan length crocheted chains. They are woven through the mesh portion to form the plaid.

I made one of these for my daughter and her husband years ago, but in a different plaid.

Finally Modelled

Finished and blogged about in early December of last year, I finally have the weather to show a modeled shot of Coachella.

Still haven't totally eliminated the visible bra strap problem. *sigh*

Look! We Made The Local Paper

Chilliwack's little rendition of World Wide Knit In Public Day managed to catch the attention of our local paper. Thank you Adian Chafe of the Chilliwack Times for stopping by to see what we were up to. And thanks for granting permission to use your photo here.

The overcast day turned out to be the perfect temperature for sitting around outside knitting. Not too hot, not too cold, and thankfully also not wet.


Although our local gathering was organized by the newly formed Upper Fraser Valley Knitters, announcements were placed in the local papers and we managed to attract a few knitters who had not yet heard about our group. In all we had about 14 knitters drop by throughout the day.

Thanks to Angie for generously providing the photos. I had quite typically brought my camera and then neglected to take any pictures.

We also had "branch" of the group gathering indoors as an alternative in case of rain, and for those who preferred to knit indoors. Louise not only headed that group, but kindly provided a photograph.

This is the project that will eventually be my souvenir of the day. A pair of cotton/wool blend socks knit toe-up, two at once, on one circular needle.


The stripes don't match despite my extensive efforts to make them line up. I'll get over it.

Mystic Forest Finished

(click picture for close-up)

27.85 ounces (797 grams) and 1663.5 yards of "Mystic Forest" my own custom blend of black superwash merino, bright green merino, and green firestar. It should be enough for an entire long sleeved sweater. The five skeins range from just under 5 ounces to over 7 1/4 ounces. Gotta love those giant Majacraft bobbins!

Newly Plyed

Four ounces of 2 ply laceweight spun on a spindle and plyed on a wheel. Roving hand dyed by Fleece Artist.

Masters Monday 2.22

This week my progress toward Level II of TKGA Master Knitter certification consisted of finishing the knitting of the right front and then blocking the back and both fronts of the vest.


Although I'm sure I'll have no problem doing the front bands and buttonholes, I'll be a good girl and halt the vest project for a bit while I dutifully do the buttonhole swatches that I haven't yet tackled. Several of the swatches in this level have to do with finding the best buttonhole for various situations.

I don't like overly large buttons on anything so I have always preferred the YO, K2tog buttonhole. I find it comes out a nice size no matter the thickness of your chosen yarn. However, as I'm finding out with each step of the program, you never know what you could do better until you give everything a fair try and do some experimenting. So experimenting with buttonhole options and doing the related swatches will be my self-inflicted assignment for the week.

Masters Monday - 2.21

No pictures. Brief post.

Working on right front of the vest. Looks the same as the left front did only "reverse shaping".

Being distracted by spinning and weaving.

Spindling Project

While I'm primarily a wheel spinner, I always have a project in progress on my one good spindle. It's almost always 50/50 merino/silk which I like to spin at a laceweight.

This is hand dyed fibre from "Fleece Artist". The spindle is bloodwood and ebony from "Spindlewood Co". Although I had just gone through a darker bronze bit which you see on the spindle, the braid is mostly the golden to rosy colour.

Masters Monday - 2.20

Level II vest, left front complete.

Last week I stopped short of the neckline/underarm decreases because I was having second thoughts about my chosen method for decreases. I was particularly concerned about the way the diagonal line of the V-neck would be crossing various areas of the stitch repeat. I figured I'd have to vary my decrease method depending on whether it would land on a purl or a knit in each row.

Yesterday it suddenly dawned on me that I really didn't need to obsess over the front neckline as much as I at first thought. The whole neckline will be covered by a shawl collar! Duh! The decreases still have to be neat and correctly formed so that they pass the committee's inspection, but they don't have to follow the stitch pattern as closely as I was thinking. Next up: right front.

Woven Baby Blanket

This little blanket was woven on a Beka rigid heddle loom using a 10 dpi heddle. The woven part is variegated Bernat Softee Baby in the "pink parade" colourway. The crocheted edge is made in the same yarn but in the solid pink colour.

The woven portion has a beautiful, soft drape. To improve the drape of the edging I used a relatively unknown technique for blocking acrylic yarns. I "killed' the finished edging by blocking it with steam before it was machine sewn to the woven section. Now it's as soft and flowing as the woven part.