Colleen Dragon Knits

So, I am on Team Canada for the Ravelympics!!  

The plan is to knit a pair of Olympic mittens during the time of the olympics and I cast on this morning!  Ooooo!!!  They are very nice.  It took so long to find an inspired pattern that I didn't know for sure until yesterday.  I am altering the pattern slightly, since I want more red in the mitten and will include a little 'Intarsia' which is new for me.  Also, I'm going with browns  instead of greys, since that is what I have in the Palette colours by Knitpicks.  White, Deep Red, dark Brown and light Brown.  Hope they look nice, after all they have caribou on the backs, so they've got to be awesome.

I'm hoping that I can also finish some other projects at the same time, such as my norwegian fingerless gloves, and the baby sweater, and maybe....start the angora mittens I have been drooling over. 

It is so weird, I just want to make Mittens!!!  and many pairs.  There is still that thrummed pair I have been meaning to continue and I was just looking at all that colourful fishermen's wool that I dyed and had more mittens dancing in my head.  Eek!

I guess that's winter for you.  I really need to get out on the canal soon for some real winter activity.

Also, I designed and knit a baby cocoon in white fluffy Patons Be Mine which is nylon and ridiculously soft.  I hope it still fits Jasmine, but I'm starting to doubt it. 

Go Team Canada!!

This list is from White Horse Knitting blog, with my interpretation!

http://whitehorsedesigns.blogspot.com/

Knitting Check Off List

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan

I-cord

Garter stitch

Knitting with metal wire

Shawl

Stockinette stitch

Socks: top-down

Socks: toe-up

Knitting with camel yarn

Mittens: Cuff-up

Mittens: Tip-down

Hat

Knitting with silk

Moebius band knitting

Participating in a KAL

Sweater

Drop stitch patterns

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn

Slip stitch patterns

Knitting with bananafiber yarn

Domino knitting (=modular knitting)

Twisted stitch patterns

Knitting with bamboo yarn

Two end knitting   ??

Charity knitting

Knitting with soy yarn

Cardigan

Toy/doll clothing

Knitting with circular needles

Baby items

Knitting with your own handspun yarn

Slippers

Graffitti knitting: knitting items on, or to be left on the street

Continental knitting

Designing knitted garments

Cable stitch patterns

Lace patterns

Publishing a knitting book

Scarf

Teaching a child to knit

Knitting to make money

Button holes

Knitting with alpaca

Fair Isle knitting

Norwegian knitting

Household items: dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…

knitting socks- or other small tubular items- on one or two circulars

Dying with plant colours

Knitting items for a wedding

Olympic knitting

Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn

Knitting with dpns

Holiday related knitting

Teaching a male how to knit

Bobbles

Knitting for a living

Knitting with cotton

Knitting smocking

Dying yarn

Steeks

Knitting art

Fulling/felting

Knitting with wool

Textured knitting

Kitchener BO

Purses/bags

Knitting with beads

Swatching

Long Tail CO

Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards

Machine knitting

Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn

Stuffed toys

Knitting with cashmere

Darning

JewelryKnitting with synthetic yarn

Writing a pattern

Gloves

Intarsia

Knitting with linen

Knitting for preemies

Tubular CO

Freeform knitting

Short rows

Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers

Pillows

Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine

Rug

Knitting on a loom

Thrummed knitting

Knitting a gift

Knitting for pets

Shrug/bolero/poncho

Knitting with dog/cat hair 

Hair accessories

Knitting in public

So, Monday night Jen and I trooped to the Knitting Guild Vendor's night meeting for October.  We arrived early and I am now Officially a Guild member!  Anyone seen The GUILD internet series, by any chance?  LOL.  Well it was nothing like that but there were lots of vendors from around town and from farms around the area too.  Alpacas and Sheep were represented, I bought some lovely brown alpaca roving to spin and a gorgeous ball of hand-dyed merino/cashmere in deep pinks and purples, perfect for some really soft socks!   I still need to get to a few stores in Ottawa, such as the one on Wellington, haven't been there yet.... and they sell spinning wheels!  ooooooo!  Jen picked up some recycled yarn and some great stripey sock yarn too.  I really liked some stuff, there was a lot of lace and fancy silk blends, divine to touch but so pricey!  oy.  There was also a smattering of Quiviut, but only at outrageous prices, unfortunately.  Something like 30g for $95, or something. I guess it's nice, but it's not that soft.  Some merino seems just as nice to me.    I really want to go pet an alpaca now.  Can I have one???  Maybe a hamster will make a good substitute... some of them have pretty sweet fuzzy coats....

I really liked the magnetic chart keeper strips, and almost got one.  There were some gorgeous shawl pins too.  and I almost came home with even more sock yarn, yummy stripes in my favorite colours (sunset), but I'm very proud that I came home with only 2 purchases, and my hubby sweetly said that yarn collection was the one thing that he knows he won't be able to change about me, so he's quite understanding!  

After what feels like forever and missing the first 3 weeks of the colourwork knit-along, my supply of Palette fingering weight yarn in many colours is finally here from Knitpicks!

I also pickup a bunch of supplies including new circulars, extra interchangeable cables and needles and a ball winder which is super!  The hand-held handle of the ball winder doesn't seem to stay attached too well, but I can always clamp it to the table if it gets too irritating.  I spent a little while winding a couple skeins to get the hang of it

I also pick up some lovely cotton/linen in a chocolate brown to make a top, and a few balls of the Shine sport yarn (cotton, modal (wood fiber)  and oh my gosh is that so soft.  I think it will knit up with tremendous drape, so maybe the baby sweater I had planned will be revised...

The last really cool item I got was the magnetic chart holder.  It is very sleek and I'm liking the magnetic way to hold the pattern, mark your place and the fact that it can stand up for easy viewing. 

I'm glad I checked the tracking number and found out they were delivering today, otherwise, I'd probably be stuck without until Monday!  Swoon.

Yay Yarn!  Now, where am I going to fit all of this stuff......

Lucky me!  I just got 2 new additions to my knitting library collection today!  My birthday present from my parents, and I got to pick!  They both contain interesting new techniques, lots of ideas and lots of patterns!  Woot! 

The Art of Fair Isle Knitting  - I really like the way it demonstrates the great way to alternate the same set of colours in a pattern.   Also the history of the craft and detailed techniques   Fun fun!

Knit one Below - A really neat technique with lots of nice patterns in the book.  What a cool effect!

Can't wait to try it!

Last night I went to my first knitting guild meeting which was a real eye-opener!  The place was packed!  We had to scrounge chairs and a table and it was a bit surreal.  The church hall was filled with knitters sitting around tables, knitting (or crochetting) at speed at an incredible variety of project with many luscious yarns.  The weird thing was that the hall was relatively quiet with everyone listening to the announcements and then the speakers for the night.  The main topic for the year is focussing on BAGS.  They gave so many examples of great ideas for different types of bags to make from dressy, to classy, to useful and unusual!  I think I'd like to make a felted bag this year, but I also want to replace the cotton bag I use for everything relatively soon as mine is wearing out!  Maybe I'll add to the design I already have with a big Cabled panel on the side and cables on the strap....  mmm.

I should also look into figuring out the design for Lise's hat from the pictures I took.  I bet she'd like another one similar (if I could make it fit....)  I need to figure out a soft wool that wouldn't be itchy though, since the one she has now is cotton, nice and soft.  Angora would be too hot.

One girl I met at the meeting was making a lot of entrelac knitting and she says that it is very addictive, once you start, you want to knit more in that style!  She was also making the nicest lined mittens as gifts for her mother.  A beautiful wool 2-colour scandinavian design on the outside and the most soft, warm angora on the inside.  Apparently, she made this mitten last year for her mother who wore them so much that the liners felted and shrank to become MINI mittens only reaching to mid-palm.  Hilarious!  So now, she is just replacing the liners, and this time she's aiming a bit bigger and doing a little prefelting to nip that in the bud.

Fun Night!

Still waiting for my yarn from Knit knackers.  OOPS!!  Knit Picks!!  WHEN will it get here?!

I think I am quite intrigued and definitely interested in trying the new MYSTERY colourwork knit-along project being posted on the knitpicks community forums..... I looks like it would be a great way to get into the whole colour madness that is approaching!   The pattern is released a bit at a time (every Friday) and some new rows are made available.  Everyone knits that portion and then shows off their handiwork.  This has great possibilities, since each person may choose to use different colours than those suggested.   The funny part is that we don't even know what we're making, but it is probably a matt of some kind.  The scary part is that when you're done knitting you have to cut up the steek and hope your knitting doesn't fall apart!   I may join this group when the yarn arrives....Woot!

Thanks so much Paula for the lovely B-day yarn!  It is this great handspun and handpainted wool from a farm in Cape Breton.  I've got two large skeins, one blue stripes, one orange stripes and I'll have to decide carefully what i end up knitting with them.  A moste excellent present that goes great with my new Kaffe Fassett's Pattern library book, another gorgeous b-day present!   I know colourwork is in my near future...

I can't wait for the arrival of my stash and tools from knitpicks.  It was shipped on Tuesday and now it's friday.  I guess it should get here early next week?  I've ordered a yarn winder, some needles, lace blocking wires, a pile of single skeins of colourful sock yarn for some great fair isle knitting and a 5 skeins of lace (all related colours) and a stack of brown linen to knit up into an awesome wrap/top.  Yay!  I've also recently discovered the awesomeness that is ravelry and I didn't know about the great ways to search for ideas until yesterday.  I put (almost) all my stash into the ravelry database and now I can easily search for interesting projects to use those previously considered useless small lots of yarn.  I have started to put in my half-done projects and maybe this will increase my interest in completing some of those long abandoned creations.  I think my squares lap blanket will soon make a re-surgence, if I can finish those oh-so-cute baby mittens!  Almost done my baby Hat, booties and Mittens set!  Just need to knit one more mitten and then add ribbon.  I just can't decide on the colour, since the yarn is interesting with dark blue, and orange and tan accents.... 

This is my new Blogging beginning!

Cheers World,

Colleen