The Day of the Cardigan

It all started back in September. I decided I was going to knit a cardigan. My Very First Knitted Sweater. You may recall this cardigan, and my crazy decision to knit it in lace weight yarn. Well, it sat in pieces in my yarn nook for months and months, however this week there was a new and exciting development for this little UFO.

You see, my sister-in-law is in the theatre department, and happened to be in a play. Not only that, but my brother is the musical director of that same play, and they had managed to get me a complementary ticket to opening night! Now, the tradition at my school is that opening night of a performance is a Fancy Thing. People come looking all Lovely and Sophisticated in their most elegant clothes. I had decided that I would wear this cardigan to opening night, so the day before I brought it back from exile and dumped all the pieces on the floor.

Luckily for me, I had learned mattress stitch and good seaming practices not long before, so I felt confident enough to tackle this project, with the hope that I wouldn't inadvertantly ruin all the hours of work I'd already put into it. What I didn't count on was how horrifically long seaming takes, and how much of it I had ahead of me.

If there is a place of divine punishment for knitters, I am certain that it is full of endless amounts of mattress stitch. I tell you, I did nothing but work on the finishing of this cardigan all day long today. I had my DDR out so that I could play a song or two between seams to shake out my hands and get the crick out of my neck from staring so intently at the rows of tiny lace-weight v's. I almost gave up. There was just too much to do, and not enough time. I was on the point of choosing something else to wear, but decided to try on the half-finished cardigan, just to see what it would look like. This was my undoing, because it looked too cute, and I knew I HAD to wear it that evening. My roommate arrived home and made me delicious dinner, which I hurriedly ate between weaving in ends. The angel that she is, she ironed my skirt for me, while I set about making myself presentable. Time was tight. I went from the shower to the bus stop in 5 minutes. I'm still not sure how I managed that, but I did! I also wore my recently completed Blackrose Socks, since they matched my cardigan, and what knitter can pass up the chance to wear two coordinating FO's simultaneously!

The play was lovely, however I only knew two other people in the whole building, and since one was in the cast, I didn't even get a chance to talk to her after the play before having to rush off to catch the bus home. It was actually a rather anti-climactic end to my day of furiously knitting and seaming like a madwoman. Wearing your new knitwear isn't half as fun when there isn't anyone else there to share it with. So, dear blog readers, I shall just imagine that you were all at the play as well. "Oh this? Yes, I did knit it myself! Let me tell you, the first seam was the neatest, and they got progressively messier as the day went on."

Have a lovely night all! Catch you next time :)

Party time!

Yes, my blogging friends, I have been neglecting you because of excessive partying. I have good excuse though! You see, my sister who has been living here since Christmas leaves tomorrow to go back to her job in Ontario, and my roommate had a birthday. Both very worthy causes, and we ended up taking a road trip to Seattle, as well as ditching class to visit Science World in Vancouver, and generally trying to pack as much fun as possible into the past two weeks.

However, in the midst of this, I have pictures of knitting for you, as I've been dragging some simple projects around with me to work on when I have a moment's time. So, check out my Dragonscale Armwarmers! They really rock. I love them.


I had a bit of yarn leftover after I finished knitting them, so I made a headband. I won't go to the trouble of linking the pattern, but it's super easy and fast to make, and you can check out the relevant details on my ravelry page.


Here are a couple shots of the combo in action today at Science World! Yes, I enjoy setting up silly pictures.
Also, I'm happy to report that Rena's dress arrived in Singapore safe and sound. Huzzah! Here's a couple pics of that one, showing you my 'l33t' embroidery that I busted out after not having embroidered anything in years. I only hope that it proves durable enough to survive baby wear. This was a pretty great pattern, and I think I'd definitely make it again (i.e. I'll probably be making it for Jenn's new baby girl in the near future).


Also, while we're talking about past projects, I remembered that I hadn't yet shown you the Christmas Shrug (take #3) which I made for Shay. So, here is a picture of that one.
For those of you still waiting on knitting requests, I have not forgotten you! Take heart and be encouraged, for knitting never ceases around here. I sometimes just put off finalizing details of patterns, is all. Once I have a pattern and a yarn decided, the needles will start flying.

Ups and downs

Well, it's been a bit of a crazy week, weather included. We went from springtime to snowstorm to back to springtime, with a bizarre hailstorm that wasn't really hail, but more like mini-snowballs falling from the sky. Exams went pretty well, I think. At least well enough that I should pass. Celebrations afterward included a spontaneous trek to Stanley Park. My DnD character almost died with a single hit of a huge-sized electrified greatsword (thank goodness for being able to use an action point to stabilize). One of my best friends gave birth to two beautiful twins. Another of my best friends had her father pass away. Her family is my home-away-from-home so that was hard to hear. Very mixed feelings about this week.

On the knitting front, I finished (mostly) the dragonscale gauntlets. Pictures to come soon. They were pretty nice mindless knitting for while I was studying. Plans are in the works to do some baby knitting for the newly arrived twins, as well as a pair of Blackrose Socks. I've also been obsessing about cables. I went to Chapters to sneak a look at the book Continuous Cables, because I have plans in the works for designing my own unique cable pattern. I didn't want to pay for the book so I sat down with it for a good hour and absorbed as much information as my brain could hold about the construction of circular cables, then knitted a test swatch at knit night. Slowly, my plan is coming together!

You know you're hardcore when...

... you get up at 5am just to stand in line outside a yarn store in hopes of getting a door prize on their big sale day. I won't tell you the whole story because I have comprehensive exams tomorrow which I technically should be studying for, but my awesome friend IfIhadaboat wrote down the whole story so please do hop on over to her blog to read about the adventure. I do have corresponding pictures though, which I will post here for your enjoyment. Oh, and I completely forgot to get a picture of it, but we'd brought a tarp to sit on and blankets to huddle under at our campout.

Above is our cheery group, looking remarkably chipper considering that it's 6am and we've been standing out in the cold for half an hour.

And here is the view from the steps of the yarn store. The sun is just starting to rise, and you can see the silhouettes of the mountains on the horizon. By this time, the line had grown to around 20 people.

Here is the jam-packed inside of the store. The first rush to select yarn was over, and everyone had formed one giant line to the checkout that snaked through the whole store (took me about half an hour to get through, but gave me lots of time to think about my yarn choices).


Here is my doorprize! Superwash wool, yum! Totally worth the 5am wakeup.


I had been waiting for ages for an opportunity to buy yarn to make the Rogue cardigan to knitalong with the Langley knitting girls. A 40% off sale was just what I needed! I picked up this Cascade Pastanza to try out, and I've already knitted my guage swatch. I've never knit with wool-llama yarn before, but I think this will be a fun experiment. I love how this yarn looks.


Oh Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Suri Silk.....I could not resist buying it. So expensive, but so lovely.


Sock yarn! After only having variegated sock yarn, I wanted something to show off fancy cables or lacy stitch patterns.

And now, I am poor, but very happy with my purchases. If I can't afford groceries next month, now you know why.

Meanwhile, I've been slowly frogging the ill-fated shrug and transforming it into some Dragonscale Gauntlets for myself! Behold the transformation process!
I also got around to felting a little purse I made more than a year ago. I might run it through the washing machine one more time to felt it a little more.

That's all for me for tonight! Wish me luck on my exams tomorrow and Friday ^_^