your sea-bound coast, let your mountains dark and dreary be

IMG_8052ps, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

I’m back! My trip to Nova Scotia was, quite possibly, the best vacation I’ve ever had, but it’s still nice to be back home. (With my kitten, who is extraordinarily needy after my absence. It’s getting a little over the top.)

As I mentioned before, I finished my first Ishbel fairly early on in the trip, but now that I’m back here where my SLR lives, I can show you good-quality photos of it. This is before blocking, but you can sort of see the lace pattern detail here, and the photos are remarkably colour-true: the yarn really is that purple.

I worked this up in the small size on 8mm needles instead of the suggested 4mm, which got me to the correct stitch gauge, and the yarn is SRK On Your Toes Bamboo, a 75/25 bamboo/nylon blend. I’ve never blocked bamboo before, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to grow a lot.

The skein claims to have 328 yards in it, and I’d seen some Ravelry entries claiming to have knit the small-stockinette/large-lace variation of this shawl, with close to that amount of yarn, but about halfway through I realized I wouldn’t have enough for that and stuck to the small size, which I’m glad for – I have maybe 10m of yarn left over.

I’ve also started a second Ishbel, this one for myself. I’m working it in delicious, dyed-in-Canada wool from Tanis Fiber Arts, and it’s going just as quickly as the first one did. It looks like garbage, as all lace still on the needles does, but I swear it’s going to be cute.

Song of the Entry: Farewell to Nova Scotia (Listen)

you're the only one that keeps me singing – la la la

IMG_8038, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

First things first: I am knitting my Garter Yoke Cardi like it’s my job and oh man it’s going so well. I am trying really really hard to get through this while it’s still hovering below 20 degrees outside and I can stand to have a giant sweater sitting in my lap, so we’ll see how I do. (I’m also sort of rushing because I hate purling, and once I finish the body I don’t have to purl again for the rest of the sweater, can’t wait.)

This is going way better than my original attempt with this yarn. I’ve tried it on a few times, and it looks like it’ll fit once I block it a little, and the waist shaping works for someone with my short torso, and like. I’m just very pleased with myself, basically. (Even if this is a pretty awful picture of the sweater-in-progress. Apologies.)

Next on the agenda: I did the TTC Knitalong this weekend. There are much better pictures at Glenna’s blog, here, but basically we took the TTC to a bunch of yarn shops and knit on the streetcar and it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I met amazing people, saw some stores I wouldn’t normally have made the trek to visit, and I also bought some yarn! (Not a lot, just a little bit.) Most importantly, I bought this yarn:

Three skeins of Cascade Eco Wool, plus a copy of The Opinionated Knitter, because garter stitch is calming and mindless and I want nothing more than to spend September to December of this year knitting myself a grown-up sized Tomten sweater coat.

Song of the Entry: Ashley Tisdale – Hair (shh – don’t tell)

. . .but it's going to be my year.

IMG_8022, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

Now that I’m on summer vacation (!!!), and have a bit more free time on my hands, I’ve been able to start coming out to knit night at Lettuce Knit again. Which is awesome, because I totally needed it this week – it gave me a chance to sit down for a solid few hours and focus on making a little bit more progress on my Garter Yoke Cardi, rising from the ashes of the total disaster that was my stab at Owls. It definitely fits a lot better so far.

Because I couldn’t resist, I did modify it a bit based on what I’d read on Ravelry – I added an extra short row repeat to the back neck to raise it a little bit more, and I knit the first half of the raglan increases in garter stitch because I wanted to make sure I didn’t run out of my grey yarn.

I’m also excited about taking this sweater out on the TTC Knitalong this weekend. I think now that I’m on the endless stockinette of the body, I might be able to pull it off.

Song of the Entry: All Time Low – Weightless (Listen)