Hat Spam

I have been knitting a fair amount of hats recently, mostly because I am doing them as presents for the ladies in the office. So I technically only have four to do, but I might do five. And here are some of the hats. Yes I managed to crop three of them. Great times.

So, here we have the Elleby, the Gwen, and a Spiral hat that I love, all of these can be found on Ravelry, look for: aspensquiver. Also the first two are the Elleby Hat, but modified. The True Elleby is the grey one in the middle at the bottom. It is a beautiful hat, but for me I was not loving 100% the k3 p3 idea, so I changed it to a k6 p3..and am working on writing that pattern down so that more than I can knit this fabulous hat, and then I am developing a k9 p3, it will come soon.

 

 

What is your favourite hat to knit?

-A

Train Cake

So I was in Superstore the other week, and I saw this cake pan:

Yes my friends you are seeing that correctly it is in fact a train cake. I made this for my Uncle N who loves trains, and now has had the pleasure of consuming one for his birthday. 

The pan was amazing. The instructions say to fill the pan to the line....the line was more of an indent just under (upside down for filling) where the top of the wheels are. However, could have been me, could have been the cake batter I used, but the wheel wells really did not fill and were a bit under defined on some sides of the cake. Note for future, fill the cake tins almost to the top, filling the wheel wells so that the cake will over flow and really define these edges. Yes when cake over flows in a space it gets stuck to the cake beside it, buy you cut the bottom off anyway so who cares? And then you the baker gets to try said cake without having to munch away at a piece of the train, so it is a win win really.

Here is a picture of the finished product, I am told it was delicious, I love the smoke stack, I think it is my favourite part. 

Not much else going on. I will be hat spamming in a while as that is all I have been knitting. 

-A

Knitting Rutt but Organizing

Sadly I am in a knitting rutt right now. I will not allow myself to start something new until I finish something that has been on the books for a while.
However this is complete:

So pleased that it is finished, and it looks amazing. I have it on my bed right now as it is currently very chilly, not quite as big as my bed, but big enough to go over me, and keep me warm, so that is what counts. 

Must finish the circlet cardigan and the I like Lime Blanket, as well as the illuminated lines blanket. It all keeps me busy. I also appear to have A LOT of blankets on the go, I started this obsession saying I was just going to do hats, which are small and take no time at all, now I am tackling blankets that take 100 + hours of my time. So impressive, yet what else could I have used that time for?

In other news, I am trying to clear out some of my mounds of junk, it feels like mounds, and I want the majority of it gone, soon. I managed to clean out two drawers last night, one in my room and one in my bathroom, it makes me feel giddy. Organization is a tricky thing, I find when I look at pictures of other people organizing their things, they always appear to end up with about 80% less in the drawer than when they first started, no harm in this at all, but it is totally unrealistic for me, so when I go to do my own tidying, organization, I feel somewhat defeated before I start, because I know that I will be unable to get rid of that much stuff. 

This evening I need to clean out the Rabbit's habitat, and trim his nails, and then it is off to Christmas in November at Jasper Park Lodge, 3 days of eating, drinking, and sitting where I hardly have to worry about anything. I am so pleased.

-A

Mitered Corner - Not Short Rows

After hours of searching, I was unable to come up with a mitered corner knit in long rows not short ones.

The Hue Shift Afghan has you picking up 250 stitches along one side, 250 along the other, and then 270 along the remaining two, which is great and all, but, for me, that is not the look I would want to go for in a  finished edge, sorry, I am just picky.

Short rows also seems like an option, but going back and forth on 20 stitches, for 250 rows and around a corner does not appeal, and with my luck I would most certainly end up messing something up and the edges would not be the same.

Now you are asking what are you trying achieve?
An edge, knit in long rows that manages to turn a corner. Is that too much to ask?

So here goes, my theory is pick up 250 stitches, KFB on the first and the last stitch of every right side row, and hope it turns into a 45 degree angle corner. - This worked perfectly so just ignore my other theory.

My other option is pickup 250 stithces, KFB on the first and last stitch of every row, but I am thinking that this will be too much of an increase and not give me the correct angle.

So to test I plan on casting on 10 stitches, and testing out both methods before starting on the actual insanity of doing this for real.

I would have had this blanket finished if it were not for the small fact that I read three books this month, so I only have myself to blame and the books did need reading.

-A

Hue Shift Afghan Progress

My hue shift afghan is coming along nicely. I stitched it together late at night a few weeks ago. It is such a perfect easy to knit blanket, albeit one sometimes gets frustrated just knitting tiny little squares, but it does one item I like to favour, you knit the squares together as you go, not sew 100 4" x 4" squares together when you are finished. So here it stands as a half a blanket.

 One of the most fascinating outcomes of this has been an impromptu study of how great two colours can look next to each other, or with each other, and how bad others can look.

I have started on the 3rd set of 25 squares and I am 8 squares in. It does take about 2 hours per square, give or take, especially depending on what I am doing, and how focused I am. I managed to get 4 squares done in one day this past weekend, and I was doing other things that day.

My next debate is what colour do I make the boarder? Black seems to harsh, and yet a perfectly sound colour choice. I was thinking maybe do 2 rows black, 2 rows colour, but that would end up being a 44 row boarder which I feel would be far too large.

I did also show this to my art teacher, who has painted versions of this all around the studio and as much as I would like to make her one, she can knit so giving her the pattern in order to make her own is a logical outcome.

-A

Reading - Gail Carriger

It has been a long time since I have read much, but anything can happen. I just started the 3rd book in a series and oh my it is great. The author of this genius is one Gail Carriger, the books are The Parasol Protectorate and The Finishing School series. I looked at this over a year ago, picked them up put them down, and so forth deciding instead that I should read some of the books I have had lying around much longer. But I am so pleased I finally broke down and read them. So worth it!

If you enjoy a Victorian setting with all the typical corsetry, bustles, and parasols, with the added bonus of some vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and steam powered contraptions, go read them. The characters dialogue is humourous, witty, and well thought out.

You can follow her blog here: http://gailcarriger.blogspot.ca/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50


Go read and enjoy!

Goals

Some minor goals I have for September are"
1) take 8000 + steps every day
2) bike or run for at least 20 min - I got started, but was not triumphant
3) read 20 pages a day
4) leave any space you encounter tidier than you arrived

I am hoping for a streak of 30 days, the issue now is what to do for myself as a reward? Who knows, but I will work it out. I managed 3 out of 4 yahoo!

For October I am going to add:
1) drink at least 2 litres of water a day


My other hopes are that in the Months of September and October I need to finish at least 3 knitting/crochet projects they are:
1) hue shift afghan - so close I can almost taste it!
2) blanket for Kate
3) random blanket for anyone


What else should I add to my streak list for October?

-A

Current Knits

I have been so busy trying to get some projects done that I have not had any time to talk about them. This is a good reason right??? I am also volunteering out at Spruce Meadows and having a blast.

My garlic nail-polish is going extremely well, so pleased with how my nails look. I am also desperate to get my hands on Dance Legend's Termo Trio, if you have not seen these you must Google them now.

Currently I am most focused on the Hue Shift Afgahan by Kerin from Knit Picks, love this. I am using Loops and Threads soft and shiny, which I believe has been discontinued, and that hurts just a smidge.

                  

My first sweater is coming along nicely, would also like to get that done.

I am also working on a selection of other blankets which are beautiful, just stock piling them at this point for future dates when people may or may not be having children.
They are:

1. I Like Lime
2. Illuminated Lines Blanket
3. Opp Art Blanket
4. Tardis Afghan (really want to re-start this with some alterations)
5. Feather and Fan

On my to do list, is a hat called the Ashley Berret, really excited about this one.

-A

Crab Apple Jelly

If you have a crab apple tree in your yard, you will start to notice that they are turning that deep luscious beautiful red that indicates it is time for harvesting.
So, this year I harvested my tree, that makes about 8 jars of jelly, and I harvested a tree down the street, which has more apples on then I could possible pick and turn into jelly.
Saturday came around and a friend and I spent ten hours, yes 10 hours, making jelly and apple sauce. Granted we did end up with around 80 x 250 ml jars of jelly and 24 x 1 lt jars of apple sauce as well as half a dozen 250 ml jars.

Cutting all the tails off was the big job, the rest was fairly easy, and I must say that the grinder and fruit preserve processor attachment for the kitchen aid was a life saver, if you do any form of minor mass (I know I just contradicted myself) production go and spend the money and get one, especially if you already have the kitchen aid, it was a life saver and a god send.

I have one more batch to make, thankfully the juice is ready to go I just need to boil with sugar and pectin and put into the jars that I have sitting around.
   

That is a lot of amazing jelly, can't wait to start enjoying.

-A

Cupcake Time

I would not say I am the queen of cupcakes, but I do go a little overboard when it comes to decorating them. Although, if I do remember correctly these had a cheese cake filling that I put in before they were baked, giving the centre a super moist sweet surprise when they were bitten into.

I think these look far superior to a cupcake that just has a dollop of icing circled onto the top, and with the shimmer they just have an extra touch of elegance.

 Now, don't get me wrong a dollop of icing works if you need to decorate hundreds upon hundreds of cupcakes in a day, but really once you get the hang of a rose they really do not take that much longer....

Recreating this rose look isn't as hard as you would suspect, grab a piping bag and a tear drop tip that is curved. The curve faces inwards, and the largest part of the drop faces down. Then make a pyramid in the middle of the cake and work out from there creating each individual petal.

 The cupcake below, is one of the first I ever decorated as a flower, and it is more of a daisy, carnation-esque type flower and you can probably tell from the plate it was on that it was Christmas time.

GIANT CUPCAKE TIN!
Note to self, always make enough icing the first time so that you can decorate the whole cake.

Now go and decorate a cupcake :)

Caviar Nails

Yes, that is right. So I tried these when they first came out, and never really thought about them that much until now. So, they are a good idea in theory. In practice not so much. I had little tiny beads rolling around my desk for the next 24 hours, stuck in the key board, and although not a nail bitter occasionally when I am nervous or need something to do with my hands I will have a bit of a gnaw, if you will excuse the expression, this leads to then wondering why in the world you have some crunchy in your mouth.

Don't get me wrong, really cool as an optional idea, or a night out at the Eddies or something fantastic, red carpet perhaps.

But if you do sensible things with your hands for a living, AKA lifting boxes, typing on your computer, shuffling paper etc, just back away slowly and get some sand polish instead. Fairly similar effect, but not quite so raised off the nail so you get a longer lasting result.

Peace Kids.

AJ

Begonia Swirl

On March 28 of 2014 I started the Beognia Swirl (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/begonia-swirl) this lovely shawl was started for a friend of mine to be used as a nursing shawl, is she actually using it or is it just to pretty to use, I am not sure but it turned out beautifully.
I finished, after a few bad words and a few adjustments to have an amazing shawl that I think anyone would be proud to own. The yarn that I used was Bernat Boutique Unforgettable, in Dragonfly, about 6 skeins was needed by the time I cast off.
Now by adjustments I do not mean anything about the actual pattern itself, I just mean about the length. The repeat itself was 40 by the time you got to the last stages of the pattern and are working on the beautiful edging. But since mine needed to cover up a mother and child I went from 40 to 60, and this increase did greatly increase the knitting time. Was it worth it in hindsight? Yes, yes it was.

 

Finished! June 11 2014

Enjoy, and keep knitting.

Facelift

Not my own face you understand, my Blog's face. Just changing it up.

I have a few posts written nothing riveting, but as soon as I get some pictures going in you will know about it.

AJ

Oi vhey

I have been gone for ages, but have been busy doing all sorts. Anyone in the Calgary area? Head to heritage park for dinner and a movie, you will enjoy the experience.

Onto the projects. I think 100% of my projects that I am working on right now are either getting harder or I am getting slower. Possibly a bit of both. But what I have finished is 2 blankets and a baby sweater. I also finished one of my art pieces.  And I am working on three blankets, a hat, two shawls, and a sweater. Stupid busy but that is how I like to live. And it keeps me young, very convincing would you not agree?

I did manage to get some cake baking in as well. All pictures will appear below.
Other than that nothing exciting and nothing all that insane going on, but all worth it.

Alright all grab your needles and get going on something fabulous.

What is going on?

Well, for starters I bought a knitting machine, but I need very specific wools to use with it, so it does not come out of the box as often as it should.
I also managed to finish all of my Christmas knitting with about 5 hours to spare. 
This was a blanket for Dylan Mae, whose bedroom is supposedly very aquatic themed, so I am thrilled with how this turned out. It was a modified pattern that I found of  YO K1 YO K2 YO PSSO I think. I started with 6 stitches, increased to 12 stitches and then began the repeat on every row, and it naturally moved itself over. So brilliant, possibly should have written it down in more detail, but I will be able to figure it out again I am sure. Then I completed a ruffle on it, which could have done with some severe blocking...but then again it works and looks more organic.

Then I finished these:

All based on the Reverie Pattern from Ravelry, but modified slightly in the the brim and the closure. If you want an easy approximately 5 hour long project with fantastic results, knit this hat, you will be pleased you did.

I also completed:
These two snazzy hats, which if I do say so myself, look awesome! I still need to tweek this pattern slightly, but I won't be making another one for a while, so I should either do it sooner rather than later, or just wait until I get a request for another one.

Not much else is going on, the nails are growing, albeit slowly, but I am pleased with them in their current state. And the rest of the world continues to turn which is a bonus.

Happy New Year Everyone.
And don't make resolutions, just be fantastic every day.