Pattern: Petal Bib from One Skein
Yarn: Bernat Cot’n Corn in Avocado
Needles: 4.0 mm bamboo

Too cute. I really like the pattern–the details kept me interested, but it wasn’t so involved that I had to turn off the TV to concentrate. The yarn was a pleasure to work with, too, and the whole bib took less than half a skein. I may have to knit another. (And block the first one–it’s a bit sloppy-looking, yet.)

The applied i-cord around the neck edge was done with a slightly different technique than what I’m used to–rather than knitting 2 stitches of a 3-stitch cord and then knitting the last stitch together with a stitch from the neck edge, the pattern has you knit the first 2 stitches of the cord, slip the third, knit one stitch from the neck edge, then pass the slipped stitch over. It makes a tighter, neater, more secure edge.

I have more weaving.

Pattern: Plain weave with twisted cord fringe
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino in Chestnut Brown and Handpaintedyarn.com’s Colonia 140 in Sotobosque
Dimensions: 5″ x 63″

Ooh, I like this one a lot! I used solid brown for the warp and pretty variegated for the weft; the solid breaks up the pooling that would have happened with a knit fabric. The selvedges are so much more even this time around, too. It does curve just the tiniest bit (I appear to have warped one side slightly tighter than the other), but that only serves to make it fit around my neck better, so I’m content regardless.

Pretty. It’ll go nicely with my brown corduroy fall jacket.

Pattern: Plain weave
Yarn: Bernat Satin in Maitai and Sirdar Tuscany in Pink Passion
Dimensions: 4″ x 43″

Mom had asked for a scarf knit with the Tuscany months ago, but it was so irritating to work with that I’d never done more than a few inches. I frogged the scarf, paired the fuzzy stuff with some pink acrylic, and had the scarf done in a few hours. She likes it, so mission accomplished.

Tomorrow, I’m going to start a Dumpling bag in sage green, with brown and gold for the embroidery bits. I’m also going to start a pair of intentionally tacky socks. Hooray!

Yarn: Less than a skein of Manos del Uruguay
Dimensions: 5.5″ x 46″, including fringe

And here it is in its unwashed and unblocked glory. The edges are a mess, I arsed up a row near the end, the fringe is uneven, and I don’t even care. I love it anyhow. I probably could have used a less sticky yarn for a first project, but that’s a small detail. The pink Manos is significantly coarser than the last couple of skeins I’ve had, but feels great woven and will be even nicer once washed.

I had no frame of reference on which to judge potential yarn usage, so I ended up with a lot left over. I likely could have made it six inches longer, but it’s a nice length for a scarflet.

I was going to do my weaving upstairs in the living room for a while, but somehow the loom found its way into my bedroom. Odd, that.

The loom came from the lovely London-Wul, a shop I don’t get to visit nearly often enough. Construction on the highways made the drive to and from Moncton much longer than usual, but it was entirely worth it. While I was there, I stopped at Cricket Cove to say hello, and of course I had to go to Chapters, too.

Knitting Classic Style, the fall Interweave Knits, Wisdom Yarns Sonnet, Noro Kochoran, Skacel Merino Lace, LW hand-dyed sock yarn, and one exquisite skein of Fiber-Isle’s laceweight bamboo/cashmere/bison.

I think a woven scarf from that Kochoran would look fabulous. Tomorrow evening’s project, perhaps?

Or rather, since I’m exhausted and need sleep, stat, let me introduce you to the logo on the box it came in:

Tomorrow? Playtime.

Because I both woke up later than expected and was distracted by making sure I had all the patterns and knitted things I meant to bring, I left my debit/credit cards at home. I had no cash on me, and couldn’t make use of the on-site ATM. Few of the vendors have shops or regular market stalls elsewhere, so I’m a little disappointed. My bank account is pleased, however.

It was nearly 30 degrees, so not the best weather for selling wool, but thanks, perhaps, to the autumn-like temperatures and wind we had earlier this week, there were a good amount of people thinking about cool-weather knits. I love having the chance to promote the things I love, even if I’m kind of awkward when talking to potential customers.

I have things on the needles, of course. Like a fuzzy scarf in Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit.

It’s an easy but not mindless knit, and the angora… mmm. I do have one complaint, though–it’s hard to make any progress when I have to stop after every row to pet the stitches.

I was itching to do some colourwork again, so I started a Lillehammer hat, in two colours of Sirdar Balmoral. I chose light wedgewood blue and oatmeal–it won’t have the strong contrast of the original pattern’s black and grey, but I was aiming for something more subtle.

Also, I have a Geordie Cardigan from Natural Knits for Babies & Moms, in two colours of Bernat CottonTots. It’s plain stockinette with contrast trim, but thoroughly enjoyable because the yarn is so unexpectedly soft. No photo yet, but I have the back and sleeves done.

Time to fall into bed, I think.

Pattern: Verity by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: About half a skein of Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester Aran
Needles: 4.5 mm

I wish I’d managed a better photo, but gorgeous pattern + lovely yarn = fabulous beret. The stitch pattern for the band looks like seed stitch, but it’s a slipped-stitch pattern that makes for a firm yet flexible fabric that doesn’t slip around. It’s a little too warm for wool at the moment, but I’ll have this hat on my head as soon as the weather cools down.

I think the (locally) handmade button perfectly compliments both the yarn and design. I snagged it at my LYS.

Pattern: Zinnia (written for my LYS)
Yarn: 1 skein of Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon in #12
Needles: 8.0 mm and 20 mm

A simple but cute little bag. The “stitch pattern” is actually just garter with one huge and one smaller needle. I’m not usually one for novelty yarns, but I like the Sari Ribbon. The handle casings are each five rows of garter stitch with the smaller needles, folded over and stitched in place.

I would have preferred a black or clear handle, but the bamboo doesn’t look bad.

I’m still working on my Sideline Socks, plus a pattern for baby socks with heel and cuff variations. Square Cake is still on the needles, too, with one handle to go–I just keep getting distracted by other shiny things.

When Square Cake is done I’m going to cast on for a new project. I haven’t decided yet, but there are a few things waiting in the wings:

The yarn is Fleece Artist Woolie Silk, and it’s a mossier, earthier green than it looks. It’s a lighter weight than the pattern calls for, so I plan to knit the larger size on smaller-than-recommended needles.

Mmm, Sea Silk. And green Sea Silk, to boot. For a pattern, it’ll either be the included Storm Water Scarf or Knitty’s Lace Ribbon.

For basic-but-never-boring socks, I have new(ish) Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock: Winona, South Shore, Red Rover, and Woodlawn. One skein of each, since I prefer shorter socks and don’t need two skeins for a pair. I already have a substantial stash of LL sock, but these colours were irresistable.

Or, you know, I could just knit striped mittens with two different colourways of Kureyon. Preferably ones that clash. <3

Most of the knitting has been design-related. Nothing earth-shattering, of course, but I’m still eager to get the patterns finished and make them available. Some will be released here, and some will be exclusive to my LYS. Exciting. <3 I have sneak peaks for a couple of them, too.

Sideline Socks. The yarn is Socks That Rock mediumweight in Mist; it’s been in the stash for over a year and I’ve tried several different sock patterns with it. None of them pleased me until this one. It’s knitting up at a cushy 7sts/inch.

This skein of Sari Ribbon, plus the bamboo handles and some as-yet-undecided lining fabric are in the process of becoming a bag I’m tentatively calling Zinnia. The photo’s kind of washed-out, but the ribbon’s proper colours are gorgeous, vibrant pinks.

Pi apparently has good taste in yarns–that’s my STR he’s napping with.

Stevie’s an indoor cat, but once in a while I take him outside and allow him a little bit of supervised exploration. He’s a little less skittish when someone (or something, like the dog) he trusts is with him, and this time he managed to find an acceptable spot to lie down and sun himself. He posed so nicely, too.

I’ve just started reading Philippa Gregory’s The Queen’s Fool. I have to admit to a shameless love for historical fiction. I also have to admit that I haven’t read her other books, although I do have The Virgin’s Lover and The Other Boleyn Girl next in line.

Hmm. Knit or read before bed? Decisions, decisions.

Thursday morning, two weeks to the day after my interview, I put all the applications, letters, and resumes in a folder, and got dressed up nice so I could deliver them in person. I was searching for an appropriate pair of sandals when the phone rang. It was the hospital.

I start tomorrow.

“Pleased” is an understatement. After a rough few years, life started heading in the right direction last August, and I’ll fight as hard as necessary to make sure it stays that way.

I’ve given notice on my place in Moncton, and am on the lookout for an apartment here in the city so I don’t have to clutter up my parents’ basement longer than I have to. Sometime in the next few weeks I’ll have to rent a moving van and make an overnight trip to the old place, as all I really brought with me this time (other than the necessities) were the cats, the computer, and the yarn.

Now that I think about it, all three of those things count as necessities, for me.

And now, I have to put a damper on an otherwise gleeful post. This week, I said goodbye to my nearly-two-decades-old tabby, Cookie. I’m comforted by the fact that he lived a long and healthy life with people who treated him well, but… we adopted him when I was nine years old, only a year after my family moved to this city. I can’t remember this house without him in it. In a few days, maybe, I’ll have to share some stories.

● I’ve picked up a week’s work at the coffeeshop while I wait to hear from better employment. It’s no different than it was before, but knowing it’s temporary makes it easier to handle.

● Lew was featured on Lime & Violet’s Daily Chum. <3

● Mineco has been downloaded 494 times in the past five days. Fabulous.

● I’m having problems writing up the pattern for a cotton clutch, because I’m not familiar enough with crochet terms. The basics are fine, but I’m not familiar with the conventions of crochet pattern writing and I fear it’ll come off clunky or confusing or just plain wrong.

● This jacket is cute. I’ve been itching to knit some kind of garment lately, but I’ve not been able to settle on both pattern and yarn.

● I have a candy apple.

● There appears to be yet another bag on my needles. The yarn’s fabulous (Fleece Artist BFL in Peridot), and the pattern’s fabulous (Square Cake, from Knitty), but I’m not sure if they’re fabulous together. The yarn’s looking more variegated than I’d like, and even after 1.5 out of 3 total repeats I still can’t decide what I think.

Pattern: Mineco
Yarn: 3 balls of Bernat Organic Cotton in Prairie Rose
Needles: 5.0 mm circular & DPNs
Hook: 4.5 mm

I love how there are six dozen patterns for cotton totes and I choose to knit none of them. I wanted something that wasn’t quite as large as most of them, something I could knit in the organic cotton in the stash, and something with a stripe or two. This little bag meets all of those requirements, and it’s cute, too. It’s small enough to roll up and cram into a purse corner, but it stretches substantially to accomodate whatever I choose to stuff into it.

It’s easy but not boring, and great TV knitting–I watched a couple of episodes of So You Think You Can Dance and I was done.

Pattern is free, and available for download.

Also? That’s half a watermelon in the bag. Mmm, watermelon.

The Good:

In addition to fixing the blog (ha), I’ve remodelled and relaunched my photoblog under a new name. You can visit Winterlights through SBH’s gateway, or by clicking the direct link in the navigation bar at the top of this page. The gateway for the main site also has a new splash and colours.

I took a look at the preview for Knitscene’s Fall 2008 issue and there are some cute sweaters and accessories. I even see a couple I could knit from stash yarn–bonus!

Speaking of which… I think it’s stashalong time. I’m fine with the size of the stash, but there are lovely things hiding in there that I’m forgetting about. I’m not going to set an end date for the stashalong, but it’ll be sometime after the end of the summer. Also, when I start work again I want to focus on getting loose ends tied up and loans paid off and some cash saved up and all those things that need to be done to put myself in a better financial situation. I want to get a good plan in place and get it started.

The Bad:

I still have two days until my hospital interview. I’m hoping beyond all reason that I get it, because if I don’t… I don’t know what I’m going to do. I found two fantastic job openings elsewhere, one in the city (and hospital, even!) I was born in and one in Nova Scotia, but how am I supposed to start working and earning a decent salary if I can’t afford to move to where the jobs are? I have $5.75 in my wallet and zero in the bank. The idealist in me wishes that things would fall into place like they seemed to when I started college. The realist knows that this is, most often, not the case.

You know… anxiety disorders are odd things. I’ve had cause to wonder, over the past few weeks, whether I’ve really learned to cope so much better than before, or whether all I’d really done is remove myself from the situations that exacerbated the problems.

I guess I still can’t deal with some kinds of conflict. I also still can’t stand to try to reason with people who are 100% unresponsive to it. We all know people like this: they’ve essentially already made up their minds, often irrationally, about… well, nearly everything. If you offer a different viewpoint or disagree, you can all but see the doors slamming shut in their minds; from that point on they’re neither speaking nor listening and you might as well talk to a wall. I need to learn that some people will not change, and will continue to both make excuses and perpetuate the situations they claim to hate. I need to learn some level of detachment so it doesn’t affect me so much.

It’s a difficult thing to do. I thought I’d managed to rid myself of panic attacks, but I haven’t; they’re not as frequent, severe, or debilitating as before, but they exist, and I don’t like it. Still… 10 months ago, I’d been on meds for more than three years and was still not functioning like an average human being. Now, acquaintances (and the general public) don’t realise that I have these issues until I tell them, and I’ve been medication-free for six months. I’ll claim that as a victory, I think.

The Random:

I flipped through a bunch of old archive folders on this laptop last night, to see if I still needed the files, and in the process came across some XML LiveJournal backups. I’ve had that LJ since 2001, and some of the silliness still amuses me. Like this, from 2004:

Somehow, while talking to my mother about movies-from-books last night, I accidentally said “squid” instead of “peach”. The movie is called James and the Giant PEACH, brain. PEACH.

Ha.

Pattern: Design 8 from Noro’s Designer Mini Knits
Yarn: Less than one ball of Noro Silk Garden in #211
Needles: 3.75 mm and 4.5 mm bamboo

I needed something to get the mojo going again, so a small (but not dishcloth-shaped) project was in order. I knit the pair in a few hours this afternoon, and other than shortening them to better fit my shrimp hands, I followed the pattern as written.

The skein of Silk Garden that I used was softer than usual. Also, it looked so delightfully rustic that I didn’t block the pair. I might, at some point, or I might leave them as-is. I might also take a photo of both of them, but I left my tripod in Moncton and wasn’t feeling creative. =D

Before I go, thanks for the comments on my beach photo. <3 I’ve not replied to them individually because I’ve had the ‘net connected to the laptop instead of the desktop for more than a week, and therefore haven’t have access to the original notifications.

Much more to talk about, but tomorrow. Yes.

Not hard to tell what I think of the shore.

I’ve submitted an application, and there’s a position opening up. Interviews should be sometime in the next couple of weeks. Getting hired right where I am now would be the best for me personally, financially, and career-wise. I know there are other applicants, and I can only hope that I’ve made myself stand out somehow, despite being the quiet one in a group of chatterboxes.

Moving on to something far less life-altering, let’s revel for a moment in the geekiness of my Hello Kitty scrubs. I love them.

The weather’s been beautiful for the past couple of days. Pi’s enjoyed it in his own lazy way:

Since the windowsill was taken, Stevie chose the sofa and his favourite blankie:

I, on the other hand, put the dog in the car and went to a favourite place:

The wind was strong, but not cold. I tied a twenty-foot leash around my waist and let Samson wander along with me at more or less his own pace. I collected a few shells, including one with a perfect little hole right where a necklace string could go.

Stevie modelled another dishcloth for me:

I have no real knitting progress to show for the past three weeks, although I’ve been working on the Cot Blanket from Natural Knits for Babies & Moms in these six colours of Baby Cashmerino:

It’s knit in squares, so it’s portable if I choose to take it to work. I’ve been reading on my lunch breaks for a couple of weeks, but I’ll be back to the obsessive knitting soon enough.

Oh. I have to show off the cute sundress I got yesterday. I wore it today with ballet flats, pearl earrings, and a pearl bracelet, and for the first time ever a total stranger complimented me on my outfit.

Before I forget, I’ve been tagged for a meme. Here goes!

1) What was I doing ten years ago?
I was recovering from a bad bout of mono, and filling out the paperwork to transfer to a new university. I was also at the beginning of a relationship that would last for several years.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:
It’s bedtime, so I’ll put things I plan to do tomorrow.
– Finish knitting another dishcloth, and work on something that’s not a dishcloth as well.
– Do said knitting while watching Enterprise.
– Laundry, laundry, laundry.
– Take some photos around town.
– Clip the cats’ claws. I save this one for last, because it’s a… complicated procedure. Brats.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Brownies, bittersweet chocolate, popsicles.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel. Donate to my favourite charities. Find a house in England and another in British Columbia. Hire a gardener, because although I love trees, flowers, and garden-grown vegetables, I can’t keep them alive to save my life. Buy a car powered by something other than gas. Knit in exotic locales. Take dance lessons with a private instructor so the self-consciousness that keeps me from classes wouldn’t be an issue.

5) Places I have lived:
New Brunswick (Fredericton, St. Stephen, Bathurst, Sackville, Moncton) and Nova Scotia (Wolfville). In houses, apartments, and/or university dorms.

6) Jobs I have had:
In chronological order (including a couple of long-term volunteer spots) I’ve worked for: a tourist information centre, an art gallery, a figure skating club (as a coach), a vet/shelter, Tim Hortons, a LYS, and currently a hospital pharmacy.

7) Peeps I want to know more about:
All of you. Fill it out if you’d like to and ignore it if you don’t. <3

And now it's bed-and-book time. I'm about half through Forged in Fire, one of the Star Trek: Excelsior books. Despite being an Excelsior book, it’s based on things that happened on ST: Enterprise; it fills in gaps in canon, it has Sulu backstory, and it has Curzon Dax. All these things in the same book make me one happy nerd.