Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?

Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

There are a lot of different aspects to look at when looking back at a knitting project and it can make for interesting blogging, as much of the time we blog about items recently completed, new and freshly completed. It is not so often that we look back at what has happened to these items after they have been around for a while.

How has one of your past knits lived up to wear. Maybe an item has become lost. Maybe you spent weeks knitting your giant-footed dad a pair of socks in bright pink and green stripes which the then ‘lost’. If you have knit items to donate to a good cause, you could reflect on the was in which you hope that item is still doing good for it’s owner or the cause it was made to support.

Tips: This topic is similar to one we used for the first Knitting and Crochet blog week. This is purposeful and is intended to help the blogger to reflect on past items and refer back to previous posts and projects once in a while.

I used to be a 'monogamous' knitter ... as in, I only ever had one project on the needles at a time. But that changed a few years ago when I caught the 'startitus' bug from someone -- as in, itching to start new projects before the old ones are finished. There are only two victims of this switch in my psyche (I say 'only' because I know for sure that lots of knitters have *many* old WIPs stashed who-knows-where)! One is a side-to-side striped vest that I started -- and almost finished -- a few years ago, in some lovely tweedy wools, and the other is a single blanket for River's bed in the form of red, white, gray and black 'diamonds' that will be sewn together eventually.

Both of these projects are waiting patiently on a shelf in my storage room - the blanket will eventually get finished as is, but I'm not so sure about the vest -- I've thought about that vest many times. I'm thinking I might frog it and use the wool to do a 'scrummed' version, instead. We'll see!

I didn't get the pics done today that I hoped for.... tomorrow, I promise!

CRAZY DAY!

KNIT AND CROCHET BLOG WEEK - DAY THREE

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Tips: Many people use their blogs partly as an organisational tool – logging and cataloguing projects and newly attained skills, projects and modifications. Did you bare this in mind when you began blogging?

Organized? I'm supposed to be organized?? :)

Okay, well, this basket is about a metre high and has a 10" diameter, and it holds about a third of my sock yarn:
And see that black case beside it? That's my 'tool kit'.

There. Organized. See?

Oh, yes, I also have a lot of other yarn. A lot. Did I mention I live on a boat? Good thing I have a whole 10' x 10' store-room to put it in -- and it takes up two walls of that room. But I don't have any pictures of that.

Whew, done with that topic! Moving on....

I finished a pair of socks today -- pics tomorrow! I also launched a website, which I'll also tell you more about tomorrow. *Tonight* our favorite almost-five-year-old is here for a sleepover, so that's the end of today's accomplishments. :)

NEW SKILLS

It's Day Two of Knit and Crochet Blog Week :-)

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Tips: Don’t be abashed at admitting your own skill and progress. If possible, include pictures of projects that you gained new skills from.

Hmm... well, I don't think I have learned any *specific* new skills since this time last year, but I've become much more proficient and confident in a few things: as a lace knitter, in general, and in incorporating beads into my knitting. I've also dabbled more in designing this year than ever before, including having my first-ever pattern for sale!

Oh, and I've improved my photography skills, too, not that that has anything to do with fibre, but it's fun!
(Remember that you can click on any of my images to see them bigger)!

Apparently Stephen Harper was in town yesterday, but he didn't come anywhere near my world. Today I have to stay glued to my computer for a few more hours, and then I might be able to get down to Clover Point to finish the pair of socks I've had on the needles for far too long!

IT'S KNIT AND CROCHET BLOG WEEK :)

... and I am committed to participating! If you want to know more about that, click the banner in the sidebar. There is a topic for each day of the week, so I'll attempt to stick pretty close to that ... in addition to my usual ramblings about life on a boat, in Victoria, with the grandkids, etc!

First of all, I want to show you what the Inner Harbour looked like night before last, under the setting sun ...
There was a horror story in our newspaper yesterday ... I sure hope she's wrapped up in one of our shawls and knows she's not alone. In contrast, not all young men behave that way .... here's some I chatted with at Clover Point the other day... playing cards and drinking 'Red Bull' on a Friday night!
I got to visit my farmer friend on Saturday, and came home with the fleeces of about 30 of these dudes...
They are Corriedale-Suffolk crosses, and the fibre is lovely. If you're local, one of these fleeces can be yours for a $5 donation. Contact me!

I finished shawl #8 in the Ravelry '11 Shawls in 2011' Challenge. It's called 'The Age of Brass and Steam' ...
I'm taking a break from shawls for a few weeks now -- I have a pair of socks to test knit for a designer who also lives on a boat (she's in the Caribbean, though!) and I need to knit an 8" x 48" strip to contribute to a charity blanket that the Thursday Fibre Friends are creating.

Now to the topic of todays 'Knit and Crochet Blog Week' post:

Day One: 28th March. A Tale of Two Yarns.
Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Tips: It is a good idea, if possible, to choose a yarn that you adore and a yarn that just didn’t work for you. You do not need to be critical of any yarn if you do not feel comfortable in doing so, but perhaps you came to realise that one yarn wasn’t suitable for a particular project, if possible you could blog about what you have come to learn about choosing the right yarn, or your love of experimenting with fibres.

Well, yes, thankyou, I *could* blog all day about my love of experimenting with fibres! Instead, I'll just say that a yarn I cannot work with is any of the 'suede' or chenille yarns -- I find that they inevitably 'worm' and just don't hold their shape at all. I've given away most of what I've ever had in my stash, and I'll never buy it again.

On the other hand, gimme a laceweight wool/alpaca or wool/silk blend, and I'm in love! I've discovered that I really don't like to knit with worsted weight yarns that much ... I prefer to knit with sport or fingering weight, and I especially love laceweights, of course. (Can you tell that what I mostly knit is socks and shawls??) :)

Happy Monday!

PARKSVILLE TRIP

We got home night before last, and I haven't had a minute to upload these pictures until now!


The Brant Festival is on right now, celebrating these birds, who stop in Parksville for a month-long rest en route from Mexico to the Arctic Circle...

A great blue heron fishing on the rocks...
Spring!
Oh, and there were some humans that interested me, too.... :-) Mischa and Joe....
'Papa' Michael and Gibson...
River and his friend, Sam, who came along...

And a good time was had by all!

Yesterday I went to my Thursday Fibre Friends spinning group, and one of them mentioned seeing this 'yarn bombing' so I followed their directions, and found it on the way home...
(Those would be large rocks covered with knitted -- or crocheted, not sure -- 'blankets.'

Knit'n'Cafe today -- knitting pics tomorrow!

PARKSVILLE

So we drove my sister up to Parksville on Sunday when she came back from Texas, and spent the night (it's a two-hour drive each way, and we like Parksville a lot)! Then on Monday morning after we said goodbye to Julie, we decided we still didn't want to leave, so we checked in to our favorite motel right on the beach. That picture (from their website) is the view out our window about 100' away.

Then yesterday Mischa called to say that she and Joe and the boys were coming up here for the last few days of spring break -- and that we should stay an extra night to hang out with them!

So here we are, Wednesday morning, about to check out and head back to Victoria. And of course, I didn't bring my camera cable so I can't upload photos until tonight. It's been wonderful, though!

SEVENTEEN!

Seventeen years ago day before yesterday our first grandson came into the world, and changed our world forever! Jason's son Joshua lives with his Mom (and little sister) up-Island, so we don't get to see him as often as we'd like to, but he's here for his spring break right now.

We all went out for dinner on the night of his birthday, and then everyone but us went off to a hockey game ... so last night we got together at Mischa's for birthday cake. (That's River in the background, sick with a flu bug, poor guy).

Joshua has become an amazing young man -- smart, musically talented (check out this YouTube video for one example!), funny, and really, genuinely NICE. (How many 17-year-olds can we say *that* about?)

Earlier in the day I got started on a project I've wanted to get started on for several weeks ... making stitch markers to sell at the FibreFest this year. I've never done anything like this before, so the first set took me over an hour ... then the next two took less than half an hour total.
Notice this? By the time I got to the third set, I was even adding an additional bead!
I don't think I'll make a living making stitch markers anytime soon, but it's fun -- and I'll probably never be able to justify *buying* any from now on (sorry, all you Etsy merchants I've been supporting since I started making shawls...)

And speaking of shawls, #7 for 2011 -- the Peacock shawl -- came off the needles yesterday, and is blocking as we speak. It's 100% merino, and I added beads to the lace edging.
Off to Knit'n'Cafe shortly!

ROAD TRIP

Yesterday Michael and I went on a little road trip .... out to the wilds of Metchosin to pick up some donated yarn for charity knitting. (Yes, Wendy, we thought about stopping in, but by that time we'd already seen and talked to two other humans, and that was our quota for the day). :-)

The farm next door to where I collected the yarn was a pretty fun stop .. first we saw the sheep:
Then we saw the goat:
Then we saw the miniature horses:

Then we saw more miniature horses ...
Does it GET any more adorable than this? It was hard to tear ourselves away! But we carried on, on our little scenic tour, and ended up in the parking lot of William Head prison ...
...where we could get a decent view of Race Rocks lightstation...
We got out of there before they could chase us away, and ended up taking another road out to Peddar Bay...
... where there is Spanish moss growing all over the trees...
And ivy, too...
We ended going for a walk on the grounds of Pearson College, where we saw this old racing hull getting some work done:
We found this path...
(The sign says, "Metchosin Heritage Site: The Barde-Knockie Trail."

"This is part of the original footpath that was cut through the forest by the original settlers in the early 1850s. At that time it was their only overland route between Sooke and Victoria. This is one of the oldest colonial trails still in use in the province today."

Then we drove back along Metchosin Road and ended up at the Esquimalt Lagoon, which is always lovely ... even when it starts to rain and gets all misty. We saw a naval exercise going on over toward Albert Head...
And then the Quadra Island ferry, which just completed a huge refit at Point Hope Shipyard and has been undergoing sea trials before they go back into service, came out of the mist:
Michael went for a little walk along the beach (while I stayed in the van and knitted)
... and came back with this find, just as the sun came out...
It's a piggie bank (with the cover missing) and we think we've seen these carved-coconut creatures commercially available, but there it was, on the beach!

When the rain stopped, I took the current on-the-needles shawl out to play...
All in all, it was a completely delightful 'wasted' day. HA!

MONDAY MORNING

It must be Monday, because I am on a deadline after playing all weekend! Lots of knitting and storm-watching at Clover Point, since it was quite windy all weekend ... I've started shawl #7 for this year, the 'Peacock Shawlette':
It calmed down a bit on Saturday long enough for these guys to brave the open Juan de Fuca:
They were heading for this rainbow over Trial Island(can you see it?):
Yesterday we had breakfast with Mischa and Joe and the boys - between River being 12 and crazy independent, Gibson being in full time daycare now, and Mischa having her own wheels, we don't get to see them as much as we're used to, so that was nice. Joshua is also here for spring break and it's his birthday day after tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have another get-together!

Well, like I said .... deadline. Have a great day!