A Very White Christmas!

Happy Holidays! We have had an awful lot of snow this year. So much that all my holiday plans have been delayed and we didn't leave our home for 4 days due to all the snow. But on the brighter side; our dog, Jack, loves this snow!

I did find the time to start a big project I had been planning. It will be an ankle length skirt; the main part will be in custom dyed black yarn that Shannon dyed for me and then I plan to do 8 large gores in 4 different skiens of Shannon's Shiraz sock yarn. You can see the project and my notes on Ravelry. I have done the gauge swatches, first section and am currently working on the first gore. I am using the Taelyn's Toybox colourway and I just love it! The colours are so bright.

I decorated a cute knitting notions tin today. I am quite happy with the way it turned out. I also put some matching stickers on my ruler to coordinate it.

I am going to get back to knitting now, eh-hem... I mean homework...

Cali

Fibre Baby Beautiful

Hello Hello!

I have finally completed my Fibre Baby accessories! Woohoo! I bought some beautful hand spun, hand dyed alpaca yarn at Gibsons Fibre Festival a few months ago, I named the yarn my Fibre Baby. Within a week of getting home I made a scarf from it. The scarf is a 2x2 rib and is about 3 inches wide by 12 feet long. It is so cute! I had a little bit of yarn laft over so I thought I would use it as trim for a pair of matching mittens and a hat. I asked Shannon to dye some BFL to match the alpaca so I could make the hat and Mitts. I finished the mitts last weekend and finished the hat yesterday. They are so cute, and very, very pink:

I found the neatest new stitch markers on Etsy. The seller is Crimson Orchid. Her prices are great and the markers are beautiful, each set comes on a coordinating wire holder to keep it all organized and tidy. The holder speaks to the OCD in me in the most fabulous way.

I am going to be helping Shannon sell her yarn at the Winter Market tomorrow. I am really looking forward to being warm and cozy indoors. It will be a nice change from the outdoor farmers market. I am hoping to maybe find some neat Christmas Gifts...

Cali

I am a Designer!

I did it! I wrote my first pattern and listed it for free on Ravelry. It is a cute and cozy pet bed. It is also a fabulous stash buster. I have made 4 beds and used up a significant 4,000 yards of the acrylic and eyelash yarn that invaded my house not too long ago.

I have had a severe case of startitis lately. I want to make my first Baby Surprise Jacket and I want to make a scarf from malabrigo eaither in a moss knit stitch or a mesh crochet stitch; I haven't decided yet. I haven't picked up my cabled sock since I got home from Gibsons or my drop stitch scarf since I got home from Port McNeill. I did finish my second ever pair of socks and a cute pair of slippers though.

Right now my main focus is to finish a pair of socks I promised my co-worker for her son. I almost have the leg done on the first pair. I am doing it in a twisted rib but I have made several mistakes. I keep telling myself that he is 10 and wont care but the urge to rip it out and start over keeps getting stronger.

Amongst all this knitting and crocheting I have even managed to get all my homework done. At the last minute of course but done with an average of 78%. So I am quite pleased. I suppose I should probably go work on it now...

Cali

Road Trip = 12 hours of guilt-free knitting

Last weekend we packed up the car and my husband, dog and I all went to visit my parents in Port McNeill. McNeill is a teeny tiny town on the north end of Vancouver Island. I graduated from the highschool there and dont get back to visit too often. Its been about 3 years since my last visit but everything was still the same.

One of the best things about a road trip is all the knitting time I get. 2 hours each way on the ferry and 4 hours each way driving. That is 12 hours! I didn't make the best use of this time as I did nap a little but I still got about a foot of my latest project knitted.

I am making a drop stitch stole, I have never done a dropped stitch before (at least not on purpose) so it took a few tries to get the hang of it. First I had to wind my yarn into a ball. I picked a pretty purple, black and green yarn that I got from my Unwind Yarns Sock Club. I love these colours. I think they will match my new jacket quite nicely. Then I started knitting. The drop stitch was pretty easy and the pattern didn't take long to memorize. I am a little unsure how it is going to turn out though. I think it will take some severe blocking before it looks good.

The visit with my parents was good. We took my dog, Jack, to the beach. He has never seen the ocean before. He was afraid of the crashing waves at first. It was so funny to see such a huge dog (120 lbs) backing away with his tail between his legs. It didn't take long before he was fetching every stick and log my dad threw into the water for him. It was so cute to watch my parents and Jack playing together.

But every holiday has to end and now we are back home...

Cali

Sigh... Yarn... Sigh... School...

Well, I have had a few wonderful, fibreful days.

My good friend Shannon is having a sale on her website, 30% off all yarn if you type in the coupon code SCHOOL (ends Sept 14). So I had to buy a bunch more yarn, 'cause, well, sale.





I tried my hand at making my own stitch markers. They turned out all right. Not perfect but not bad for my first attempt. I got the beads at Gibsons Fibre Festival. Aren't the little ladybugs too cute?





Then yesterday was Unwind Yarns debut selling yarn at the Coquitlam Farmer's Market. So I went to help her sell yarn. It was so much fun. The atmosphere at the market is just fabulous. There were so many dogs there. It seems to be the place to bring your dog.



Tonight I went to Monday Knit Night at Black Sheep Yarns. What fun! There was at least 16 of us there. The store is beautiful. I finally got on the Malabrigo Wagon and brought home 3 skeins of laceweight to match my new kiwi green Stormtech jacket.

But now, I really need to stop procrastinating and do some school work. I started a course this semester: Advanced Corporate Finance. It is my third-to-last CGA course towards my designation. It is an awfully scary, hard course, so I have been distracting myself with all the wonderful fibre-y-ness but I suppose I should start reading that horribly boring no-pictures-no-colour text book...

Sigh...

Cali

Back from the Sunshine Coast...

Wow! I had so much fun in Gibsons! But it is nice to be home. The Gibsons Landing Fibre Festival was amazing. It was a crazy 5 days!


We spent 4 of the days setting up and manning the Unwind Yarns booth. It was so much fun selling yarn to all the wonderful fibre-y people.

I got to spend 4 days solid fondling yarn and making friends with all our booth-neighbours.

I bought a basket from Africa first and then proceeded to fill it up with yarn, fabric and beads. I bought fabric and I don't even sew. Crazy I am. But it was SO pretty and one day I might use it.

I even did some designing while we were there. I made a pretty shawl brooch out of this funky bead I bought the first day. The lady who sold the beads was so impressed with my idea she made more of them and gave me a bag of free beads for "inventing" the brooch. So that night I designed a set of stitch markers with my free beads. I had to use a few of Shannon's beads too. Then Shannon did the wire bending part and added a jump ring and voila! stitchmarkers. They are little flowers, they even have dirt! Notice the pretty backgrounds in my pics... that is some of the fabric I bought. See, isn't it pretty?

We had such a fabulous time. I can't wait until next year!

Getting Ready for Gibsons!

Next week is Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival! 4 days of wonderful fibre-y fun!

Shannon is going to be selling her yarn at the merchant mall and is letting me tag along to help! So, I took a few days off work and we are leaving for Gibsons on Tuesday night and coming back on Sunday. I am so excited for this little holiday!

I have been helping Shannon as much as I can to get ready. I learned to reskein yarn. I love untangling the tangled hanks. I haven't quite figured out how to turn the hanks into the tidy twists like Shannon does but no biggy... This weekend we had a reskeining sleep-over. I labelled 68 skeins of yarn. It was so much fun getting to play with all that pretty fibre! Here is a sneak peek of some of the colours.

Today, Sunday, I have spent the day making book marks, we are going to attach a stitchmarker that Shannon has made and sell them at the festival. It has been a lot of cutting and gluing but I got 70 made.

Tomorrow I will do laundry and pack and the next day we will be heading out! Woo Hoo! I am so excited for Gibsons!

Hopefully I'll see you there...

Cali

Acrylic Invasion...

I finally got my last 3 garbage bags (and one little container) of yarn out of storage, and oh my I have a lot of nasty acrylic yarn. I will warn you now: this is going to be an image heavy post.

I know I should be working on my Ravelympics projects but how can I resist all the temptation of sorting through this mess and finding homes for this yarn.

I found one of my very first crochet projects, a large green granny square blanket made from red heart. I started this about 10 years ago. It looks like I got quite a few squares done. I even remember what pattern book the pattern was in so one day I may just finish this blanket. I found another patterned blanket kit I bought from Mary Maxim with cats in nice neutral shades of taupe, grey and black. I even have the matching latchook rug kit (what was I thinking). These each went into their own rubbermaid bucket and tucked into a corner out of sight.

Ever heard of Cloudspun by Mary Maxim? It is a bulky weight acrylic. I have 44 skeins of it. 25 skeins in a charcoal colour 14 skeins in varying shades of rose and almost 5 skeins in bright red. I have no recollection of buying this stuff or being given it. But its enough to make something with it, one day, maybe...

The next treasure I found was a scrapghan. I had no idea it was big enough to call complete. I have been working on it for years. I started it about 8 years ago and crocheted the last row about 4 years ago. When ever I had a little bit of yarn leftover from a project I would add it to the pile. I changed colours every other row. I thought the blanket was about 3 feet long but when I unfolded it it was actually over 5 feet. I think it must have crocheted itself all this time that it was stuck in storage. I will donate this blanket to charity.

I found this cute little doll kit. This was one of the first things I ever knitted. I was so proud of myself for making the first outfit but I never got around to making the other two... one of these days I will get it done.

When I first learned to knit those hideous eyelash scarves were the trendy thing. In fact my first knitting project ever was scarf with a 5-stitch garter stitch border around stockinette. I knitted it in dark blue Bernat boa on dark blue needles. That project was doomed from the very beginning. I couldn't see the stitches; all the dark colours blended together. But when I finally finished it I was so proud I thought I would make boa scarves for everyone so I bought enough yarn to make 8 scarves and I finished 3. I still have yarn for 5 more scarves and now eyelash is not so trendy anymore. Sigh...

I finished sorting all the yarn into acrylic and cotton that I may use one day and acrylic that I will never ever use. The never-ever-yarn is in a take-to-goodwill pile with the scrapghan. The might-use-one-day-yarn is now occupying two cubes of my Expedit shelf. And I am still left with a whole bunch of acrylic that will make about fifty wonderful Mother Bear Project bears. I sent two bears off to Africa last year and would love to find the time to make several more.

I learned today that there is a big difference in 20 year old acrylic and present day acrylic. The old stuff is nasty itchy and yucky. The new stuff can be soft and very pretty. If someone offers you some of their old acrylic stash say "No thank you, I really haven't got anywhere to put it." Trust me, you don't want it. Same goes for novelty yarns, if its got tinsel, plastic or eyelashes in it just say no. These yarns are like spandex, they are trendy for a brief moment in time and then the memories haunt you for the rest of your life.

I should really get back to my Ravelympic Projects...

Cali

Going Cruising!

OMG OMG OMG! I am going on a cruise! This cruise to be exact.

I clicked on a Ravelry Ad one day and it took me to Craft Cruises. So I looked through all the cruising options; there was one up the Canadian East Coast, one to Hawaii, and many more. Some have a knitting focus or a crocheting focus. I picked the 1 week Alaska cruise because it departs from Seattle which is the easiest for me to get to, living on the west coast and all.

There will be knitting and beading classes on this cruise so I am looking forward to learning a bit of both. I have been emailing back and forth with Melissa at Craft Cruises and she has said this cruise is great because there are 3 days at sea so lots of time for crafty classes.

I have never been on a holiday like this before, Hubby doesn't think he will like cruises so he has no desire to go on one. But he said I can go!!! Its too bad its over a year away. This is really going to teach me some patience...

Cali

Ravelympics

Have you heard of the Ravelympics? Well it was a wonderful little idea that someone had that exploded into a massive group of knitters and crocheters around the world all planning to cast on a new project (or pick up a long-ignored one) when the olympic torch is lit in Beijing on August 8, 2008.

At the time of typing there was 4,773 people in the goup, 2,725 people committed to finish 6,339 projects! That is amazing. The programmers at Ravelry have even been designing special features just to make tracking our group easier.

The idea is that you are competing against yourself. You pick a project that would be a challenge to complete by the end of the olympics. That's only 17 days. Then you can enter your project in the various events it qualifies for. You can also join a team.

Some of the teams are geographical, others are based on TV shows, and others are specific to the type of project you have chosen. Some have rules others dont. I have joined Team Canada. Last I checked we were the second biggest group. Go Team Canada!!!

I have chosen to make the Flutter Scarf in Sea Cloud. This is a challenge for me because I have never knit lace before or knit in yarn as small as laceweight. And I only have 17 days. Yikes! This project qualifies me for 3 events, the Scarf Stroke, the Laceweight Long Jump and the Handdyed Hurdles. I have set up my project and done some test swatches. I even got khetala to make me some custom needles and stitch markers, special just for this project.

In case that's not enough I entered two of my ignored projects into the WIPs Wrestling event. I have two little teddy bears with only heads that would really like some bodies and limbs. My Alpaca Bear was started April 2007 and my Panda Bear was started January 2008. This should be some good motivation to get them finished.

I will keep you updated on my progress...

Cali

Opera Gloves ~ Pattern Modification

Last weekend I had the urge to put down all my current projects and start something new. So I started browsing through the pattern pages on Ravelry. And I came across this: Opera Gloves. Wow!!!

My arms are pretty chubby so it was obvious I was going to need to do some modifications to the pattern. After much ripping back, consultations to my stitch libraries and searching Ravelry for tips on this pattern I finally came up with my own. I also carefully documented all my changes so that all you others with chubby arms can make these gloves without all the frogging. You can see my project here.

Lace Up Opera Gloves for Chubby Arms
~ a modified pattern by Caliope

Materials & Tools
Bulky Weight Yarn (100 grams/137 yards) I used the bulky weight wool from Unwind the Yarns
Ribbon (I am not sure yet how much, I will update when I know but I am guessing 4m per arm)
6.00mm Straight Needles
6.00mm DPNs
Stitch Holder or Scrap Yarn
2 Stitch Markers

Gauge
16 stitches and 20 rows = 4" stockinette (at least that's what mine is before blocking).

Abbreviations
m1 = make 1, I used a raised increase (knit into the bar across the back of the next stitch)
pm = place marker (yes, I actually had to look this one up)
ssk = slip next stitch knitwise, then next stitch purlwise then knit them together thru back loops

Pattern
co 25 stitches
Row 1: knit
Row 2: purl
Row 3: *yo, k2tog* repeat ** to last 2 sts, k2
Row 4: sl1, purl to end
Row 5: knit picot hem (fold cast on row behind needle, knit into each stitch on needle together )with cast on stitches
Row 6: sl1, purl to end

Eyelet Repeat
Note: all even numbered rows: sl1, purl to end, except last row!
Row 7: sl1, k1, yo, k2tog, k to last 4 sts, ssk, yo, k2
Row 9: sl1, knit to end

Row 11 - 54: Repeat rows 7 - 10, 11 more times
Row 55 - 56: Repeat row 7 & 8 only

Hand
Row 57: sl1, k2, ssk, k to last 5 sts, k2tog, k3
Row 59: sl1, k1, yo, k2tog, ssk, k to last 6 sts, k2tog, ssk, yo, k2
RIGHT HAND ONLY Row 61: sl1, k3, m1, k to last 5 sts, m1, k2tog, k3
LEFT HAND ONLY Row 61: sl1, k2, ssk, m1, k to last 4 sts, m1, k4
RIGHT HAND ONLY Row 63: sl1, k1, yo, k2tog, k3, pm, m1, k2, m1, pm, k9, ssk, yo, k2
LEFT HAND ONLY Row 63: sl1, k1, yo, k2tog, k9, pm, m1, k2, m1, pm, k3, ssk, yo, k2
Row 65: sl1, k to marker, pm, m1, k to marker, m1, pm, k to end
Row 67: sl1, k1, yo, k2tog, k to marker, pm, m1, k to marker, m1, pm, k to last 4 sts, ssl, yo, k2
Row 69: Repeat row 65
Row 71: Repeat row 67
Row 73: Repeat row 65 (you should have 34 sts with 14 between the markers)
Row 75: sl1, k1, yo, k2tog, k to marker, place 14 sts on stitch holder and remove markers, co2 stitches (backloop method), k to last 4 sts, ssk, yo, k2
Row 77: sl1, knit to end
Row 79: sl1, k1, yo, k2tog, k to last 4 sts, ssk, yo, k2
Row 81: sl 1, knit to end
Row 82: Bind off knitwise from wrong side

Thumb
Put 14 sts from stitch marker onto DPNs, pick up 2 co stitches and 1 stitch on either side of the co stitches to close up the gap, 18 stitches, put 6 stitches on each needle.
Knit 2 rounds
Do 1 round of *k1, k2tog* (12 sts)
Knit 2 rounds
Bind off purlwise

Assembly
Sew in all the ends.
Weave the ribbon into the eyelet holes, always insert the ribbon into each eyelet from the underside for consistency. You can start at either the wrist or elbow depending on where you want the bow and tails. I started at the wrist so the bows were at my elbow.

And that's it! If you find any errors please let me know so I can fix them. This is my first time typing a pattern.

This is not my original design. All credit goes to Ysolda Teague. I just resized it to fit me.

Have fun with the pattern mods,

Cali

The First Post

I have toyed with the idea of starting a blog of my very own for awhile now. I have finally given in, because, you know, I need another place to suck up my dwindling free time like I need a hole in the head.

So if you are interested in what's going on in the life of Caliope, this is the place to look. You will find musings, rantings, pictures and maybe a few pattern mods, probably no original patterns, I am not so skilled yet.

To start things off I have figured out how to make a little slideshow of my flickr album at the bottom of this page. These pictures are all craft related; some of my stash, some of projects I am working on or have finished and some of fibre-related events I have attended.

I have also included some links on the left of the screen:

• The first one is Ravelry, if you knit or crochet and you haven't heard of Ravelry go quick and click that link. Trust me, your life will never be the same again.
• The second link is for my etsy store, which I admit I really dont pay much attention to, but if I ever have an Unclaimed Finished Object (UFO = something I made and dont want for myself and can't find anyone else to give it to) I will attempt to sell it in the store.
• The third link is my yarn pusher's (khetala's) Etsy store. She has beautiful yarn, my pile of sock yarn has very quickly grown to a ridiculous size in the few short months since we met and I am still only working on my second ever pair of socks.
• The fourth link is for knit picks. If I have any money left over from my allowance after I have given most of it to khetala, I usually give the rest to them. This is THE place to buy pattern books, they have such reasonable prices. I am also in love with their harmony wood knitting needles.

Well, I should probably get back to work...

Cali