Category — Knitting

Progres is being made on the Christmas play food project – despite leaving the majority of my food coloured yarn at work and all of my crochet hooks. Oops. Note to self – buy a second set of hooks for home.

This weekend, I switched gears and did some knitted items that weren’t in the “official plan”. I tried my hand at two cupcake patterns and I’m starting to think, I could totally write a better version since I didn’t exactly follow the instructions on either pattern. I definitely preferred the cupcake that was knitted with a removable wrapper for two reasons: first, it has a wrapper! second: the smaller size is really much cuter. So, sometime I’d like to write a seamless version because I found the seaming fiddly and had problems making the base of the wrapper and cake flat.

On Sunday night, I made up a pattern for a spring onion / baby leek and I think it really worked out well. I just need to whip up a couple more so that I can tie them together as a bunch.

Last week during my lunch hours, I finished up a carrot and a garlic bulb. The carrot was inspired by the pattern from Tasty Crochet but without all the weird decreases. I prefer the storybook style triangle carrot to her more realistic version. Seriously, this is like the cutest carrot ever. Alden’s bunny is going to be soooo happy. The garlic bulb was a modifed version of a mini pumpkin pattern that I saw on Ravelry. Again, I think if I made it again, there are a few things I’d change to make it a bit taller and tapered at the top, but overall, I think this one is passable as a garlic bulb.

Finally, a knitting hack that I am pretty proud of… the kiwi! I didn’t have the exact kiwi-brown in my stash, but I don’t think it matters. It still looks 98% like a real kiwi.

Still in progress – the pizza slice. I’ve reached the annoying toppings part and I’m not really looking forward to finishing it. Ugh.

If you’re on Ravelry, you can find all the details and links to the patterns from my project page.

And a partridge in a pear tree….  Ok, it’s just a pear.  Love it!

Another crochet pattern from Tasty Crochet

I finished a small “salad bowl” from Tasty Crochet, but I have to say, I am not wowed by it. Despite using heavier than called for Spud and Chloe sweater yarn, the bowl is a bit loppy. I think there are probaby better double stranded bowl patterns out on Ravelry. I am nixing any more bowls in favour of fruit and veg.

The pizza slice is 85% complete and just needs some toppings. However, I’ve run into a stash wall with the knitted banana. The yellow and white parts of the peel do not match up since I used different brands of yarn. Ugh. I hate feeling defeated, but I have no suitable alternatives in my stash to reknit the banana. I see an emergency yarn store errand in my future.

I just put down on paper my “stock a play kitchen for Christmas” plan and frankly, there are no words other than ‘yikes’ for what I envision. Last week I cruised around the internet checking out different play foods and wowzee, the prices are pretty steep… especially the nice wooden ones. (And frankly, momma could really use that cash for some new work clothes or you know… a new roof next year. Home ownership – yay.) I know there is a little set at Ikea, but since I can’t order it online, I have no interest in driving out to Pinecrest in my very precious free time to pick up a $10 item. In my convuluted reasoning, I have convinced myself that I should just knit and crochet a full kitchen’s worth of fruit and veg. You read that correctly. Make it all.

Yummy nummy sandwich

I have a pretty serious yarn stash, so I don’t even need to buy any yarn for this project. And I already own a book with dozens of patterns for crochet food. The only things that we need to buy are some of the pots, pans and utensils. Most of which I was able to pick up at Preston Hardware. They have the CUTEST mini colander ever and lots of tiny muffin tins, tart pans, spoons and whisks. My boy isn’t going to be fooled with the plastic toy versions… he knows what the tools in the kitchen should look like and they aren’t purple. (Total spent so far on cooking supplies/tools: $36)

Oh, and did I mention that the husband is going to make a small play stove? Yeah. He has the wood, the skills and the know how… so why bother buying one?

And I’ve “contracted” out some of the sewing tasks to my mother – oven mitts and an apron. (Hi Mom – did I mention the part about the apron to you? I don’t think so. I hope you don’t mind!) It’s really going to be a full family affair getting this kitchen off the ground.

Despite the effort involved, I am SO excited about the whole plan. Each vegetable that I finish looks cuter than the last. And wow, does it feel great to use yarn from my stash. Virtuous even. If we leave out the cost of the materials that we already own and our time, it’s actually a really thrifty project. (If you’ve seen how much those play kitchens can run, you know what I’m talking about.) And hopefully it will be a Christmas that he will remember.

We may tuck a few trucks into his stocking … we’re not totally crazy. The boy loves his wheels. They will not be knitted.

I’m keeping track of all the crafting over in my Ta-da list for this project. As of today there are 46 days until Christmas. That means that I need to complete a veg or fruit every three days to deliver the goods on time. YIKES. I always seem to set myself up for these superhuman feats of craftiness.

This year marked our second Halloween in the new neighbourhood, but first attempt at trick or treating. Now, our allergy situation makes the “treating” part tricky – there really aren’t any egg/milk/nut-free treats being sold at the grocery store.  So,  I went ahead and made some allergy friendly treats – packaged them up in individual baggies and dropped them off in advance to our neighbours.  The baggies contained things like raisins, stickers, apples, Mum mums and play dough.

My neighbours were happy to play along and we stopped at about 10 houses.  The perfect amount for a fledgeling trick-or-treater.  Although we had practiced saying “Trick or Treat” and “thank you” at home, he clammed up when it came to speaking. Rather, he stuck his little bag out and waited for the treats to fall.  He caught onto that pretty quickly.  No, make that very quickly.

I was pretty proud that we wore his sheep costume that I knit. He pouted and scowled for weeks at the thought of wearing the hat… let alone the matching vesty/sweater. I was determined that he would wear the costume… determined. In the end, the weather was so cold that he didn’t complain at all – not one peep! – about wearing a hat. The vesty part fit right over his winter coat, so he didn’t feel like an itchy sheep. Win! No – super win!

If you’re interested in knitting up a sheep costume yourself, there is a great free pattern up on Ravelry from a fellow Ontarian knitter. It was a super quick knit on 15mm needles! using double stranded super bulky yarn. It was pretty much the craziest knitting I’ve ever done. I had it knitted up in less than a week, so it wasn’t too time consuming. (yay!) It was the perfect costume for a cold Canadian Halloween. And it got lots of compliments from the neighbours which made me pretty happy.

Mostly, I’m pretty proud of my little sheep for being such a good sport. Baaa!

Despite the craziness that came with September – finding a new job, getting a fence installed, the boy’s second birthday and general toddlerness – there was still some time to get a bit of knitting done and even finished!

1. Granny Square Blanket (Ravelry link.)

I gifted the crochet baby blanket that I made over the summer.

2.  Sheep costume (Ravelry link)

I knit a Halloween sheep costume for the boy, which despite his love for all things Shaun the Sheep and bleaty, he seems to despise this fleecey contraption. I have a month to convince him that he is the cutest darn sheep in the flock.

Then, I developed a bit of startitis and cast on a crochet ripple blanket, a scarf for myself, a scarf for the husband, toddler mittens and oh yeah, boy socks. UGH. Don’t tell the husband, but I think I am secretly removing socks from his Christmas gift list because I just am so bored knitting them.

3. Big thumb toddler mittens (Ravelry link)

I loved knitting these and I think the pattern is just super.  At least I DID until *someone* lost one of the mittens and now I am knitting a THIRD mitten.  ARGH.

4. Ripple blanket (Ravelry link.)
I always wanted to do a ripple blanket, so I started one. I hope to have it done for when Alden moves into a big boy bed… or possibly, university. We’ll see. It’s a fun project.

While pottering about the Ravelry forums last night, I came across a thread of users discussing their favourite knitting needles.  The familiar brands popped up: Hiya Hiya, Addi etc.  And then one user posted about handmade knitting needles made in Nova Scotia out of birch from their farm.  Ooooh.  My spending fingers started to itch immediately.

The River John Needle Company is run by John Crawford since 2003 and he makes a range of double pointed, straight needles and even crochet hooks.  I love the short 7″ and 9″ commuter needles.

River John double pointed needles. Photo from River John Needle Company.

They also carry a selection of wooly products in their shop including yarn, socks, mittens, sheepskins, blankets, and even sheep pot holders.

I think these needles would make a super gift for any knitter or heck, just buy some for yourself.  : )  Note: husband.

Even though this is mostly a food blog, I’m taking the liberty to put a quick pause on my cooking posts to do a knitting round-up for the month.  Even though most of my “crafty time” is now “cooking time”, I still manage to squeeze in some quality time with my ‘knitting sticks’ (as the Savvy Girls would say). Yes, I listen to a lot of knitting podcasts. I am a woolaholic.

If you don’t like Type A people, you’re really going to roll my eyes if you read the following.  So, that being said, you’ve been warned.

Ok, so I’ve started my Christmas present knitting projects.  Actually, I started Christmas knitting um…  in May.  Yeah. (Like I said up top, most of my free time is spent cooking, so knitting projects require significant advanced planning.)  I made a list, bought the yarn, cast on and it’s been full on knitting in every spare moment ever since.  Knitting on the bus, waiting for the bus, and mostly in my cubicle at lunch.  I have no fear of knitting in public or KIPing as Jackie from the KIPing it Real podcast would say. (Another knitting podcast! Love her!)

My one disappointment so far is that when I put my knitting projects away for the night, they just aren’t knitting themselves while I sleep.  And hooby dooby, remind me again why I chose to knit socks?  Or mittens?  I am horrible at completing pairs of things.  And with small needle and small yarn?  How do sock knitters stand the boredom row after row?  I will admit, knitting socks makes for a convenient bus crafting project, but spending weeks on one sock is pushing my patience to the limit. Especially socks for man feet. (Do you think he’d be happy with one sock?)

To combat the boredom, I indulged and knit myself up a quickie cowl in some uber soft Malabrigo ‘Rasta’ yarn.

The cowl is knit up on ridonculously large needles (10mm!!) and satisfied my need to “complete something”. I still have a bit of yarn remaining which I am curious to see if I can use instead of roving in some thrummed mittens. (AACK the “knitting a pair” curse!!)

And this weekend, I crossed another item off my “must try” list: dyeing yarn. I ordered a couple of books from Amazon (Natural Dyeing and Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece) and raided the husband’s stash of natural dyes and mordants. How handy. (Thanks, husband!) Throwing caution to the wind, I used a skein of local yarn from Windblest farms that I picked up at the Main Street Farmers Market. I really should have used a cheapo skein for the first attempt, but I was feeling brazen.

Initially, I tried dyeing the yarn in a rhubarb bath, but it didn’t turn a lovely shade of pink.. instead it turned a light shade of beige. That wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. The husband was dyeing purfling for his violins at the time so he shared some of his logwood bath for my yarn. Immediately it turned a lovely shade of pinky/purple. Love! Amazing!

It sat in the dye bath for about five minutes and then I rinsed it and hung it out to dry. By the morning, it had turned a muted shade of lavender. It was perfect. I immediately started scouring Ravelry for just the right ‘one skein’ project and cast-on a secret project. It’s actually a not-so-secret slipper pattern, but I am having major knitting malaise figuring out how to knit in the round with two circular needles. And short rows. I am in over my head. Somehow I am going to cobble these together, but I may need to pitch the pattern and wing it.

I can’t wait for another rainy day to try dyeing another batch. Yarn party at my place!

For my birthday present this year, I asked the husband to take over toddler wrangling for a couple of days so that I could have a weekend away in la belle ville – Montreal – to visit Mintyfresh.  On the agenda: fooding around and a mini yarn crawl.

First stop: Coffee and a choclatine from Cafe de la Maison des Cyclistes

Honestly, this was the best choclatine I’ve had… ever? Yes, ever. This is not your pokey “eco bikers who munch granola and wear spandex for fun” cafe. Remember, we’re in Montreal. Cyclists are cool and biking with your pug? Totally appropriate.

Second stop: Yarn at Espace Tricot

When I was living in Montreal, I didn’t go out to NDG very often.  Maybe it’s changed since I was going to McGill, but now it is a very hip little area – with cool shops like Emmeline and Annabelle and the pinkest! yarn shop in the city, Espace Tricot.

Espace Tricot is lovely and they are the only Canadian retailers of the Millamia yarn. I picked up a toddler sweater’s worth of this yarn as well as their Bright Young Things book.

Their patterns are hip and cool EVEN FOR BOYS. It’s so hard to find cool boy patterns that don’t make your kid look like Paddington Bear (I’m looking at you Debbie Bliss). Oooh, I was in yarntopia.

Stop three: More yarn! at Ariadne in St. Henri

I also did some serious yarn shopping here finding the uber squishy Minnow Merino and some Projekt B hand dyed yarn. I also recall there being a lot of sock yarn, but I’m not really a socky person yet so I skipped over that wall.

Stop four: Dinner at Zero8 on St. Denis

We Bixi biked from the Plateau down to St. Denis for dinner – I can’t say enough good things about the Bixi bike system. For a fairly heavy bike, they were super easy to ride and featured the essential purse bungee cord system on the handlebars. No paniers. Non non.

I was really curious to eat at Zero8 – a restaurant that serves food free of the top 8 allergenic foods. It’s located right in the heart of rue St. Denis so I’m sure they get a lot of foot traffic from tourists who may not realize its specialized menu. Inside is very cool – you don’t feel like you’re eating somewhere “special” off a “special menu” for “special people” who have “special needs”.. sigh. You get the drift.

I had a smoked duck breast with balsmic reduction which I loved. My duck was a little on the chewy side, the the balsamic reduction totally made up for it. Amazing. I’m going to try and make it at home. I also had the mushroom and artichoke casserole which was very nice and light.. though, in my mind, casserole has bread crumbs and cheese. They even had a poutine on the menu which I was tempted to try.. just for fun, but I’m not really a poutine person so I passed on that option.

The crowd was an interesting mix of mostly adults out for a night on the town and a few parents with their small people. The menu is a little mature for my toddler’s tastes, but I think it will be a great option for us in a few years. I’m so happy that this restaurant exists. To be able to eat out and order off a menu without needing to call ahead for a special dish… what a treat.


Stop five: Dessert at Dr. Frost

When Robyn mentioned an ice cream shop selling ice cream sandwiches made on macarons, it didn’t take much prodding to convince me to stop. And it was conviently located across the street from Zero8. While they are pretty heavy on the food colouring, they were sweet and light and a great treat. Tip: wrap the macaron in a napkin when handling, otherwise your fingers will be stained green and pink. Like REALLY stained. Not attractive.

Stop six: Bagels! at St. Viateur Cafe

No trip to Montreal is complete without bagels. And St. Viateur remains my bagel shop of choice. I ordered the BLT bagel and immediately regretted not ordering two after hoovering it down in bacon bliss.

It was a great weekend away with a good friend, cheese!, wine, pastries and yarn. Really, what more does a girl need? The boys survived and mom had a well deserved momcation. Win win!

This weekend I crossed off one item from my non-food-child-garden related to-do list: taking photographs of my yarn stash and getting them up into Ravelry.  This is a sure way to induce extreme yarn guilt and put the kybosh on any future fibre purchases.  If only the collection of unphotographed yarns could fit into the little suitcase seen above.  Ah.  No.  The stash had grown into not one, but two Lululemon bags and the better part of a small drawer under my bookcase in addition to the “display worthy yarns” on the bookcase.  How did I let this happen?

And not only did I feel totally ashamed of how big my collection of yarn had become but then I was hit with the stress of HOW AM I GOING TO POSSIBLY KNIT ALL OF THIS YARN?  It has taken me a good two weeks to finish one sock, one ball of wool.  ONE.  And according to my Ravelry stash page, I have 184 balls in my stash.  That’s at least 7 years worth of knitting at the one ball/fortnight rate.  Crap.

I’m going to have to flip into crochet mode to eat up more yarn and pick up the pace.  Or knit everything doublestranded.  I’m thinking there’s going to be a lot of doublestranded felted bowls in my future knitting queue.

And the husband is a complete yarn enabler.  “Don’t feel bad, the yarn doesn’t go bad,” he says.  Oh husband.  That kind of talk sends me straigt to the yarn shop.

One of my New Year resolutions was to make/knit more wearables. I found this very cool looking skirt pattern in a Lopi book and knew it would be a great first attempt at a garment. Heck, it’s knit all in the round – how hard is that? Answer:  not so hard.

While Lett Lopi may not be the softest yarn ever, it is very cheap. And warm. (I hear that it softens up with a wash.) And the Lopi pattern books are cheeeeeeeeep. Cheap yarn + cheap patterns + knitting in the round = yay!

Being prudent, I only bought two balls of the yarn required for the skirt (instead of 10!). I thought that I would cast on, see how I liked the pattern and then decide if I wanted to continue making the skirt or rip it out. Well, I am loving it. I’m a little nervous about the sizing – I even did a gauge swatch! (Ok, part of a gauge swatch… ok… it was a couple of rows.)

From the Lopi No. 25 book, I also bookmarked a couple of other projects that I can’t wait to cast on. The Lappi kid’s sweater (knit in the round with a steek!) and the Nu bulky sweater for me. I am very smitten with the Lopi sweater construction: knit the body in the round, knit sleeves in the round, knit the pieces together and knit the yoke in the round. End sweater. NO SEAMS!

I think once I get these techniques mastered with the Lopi, I’d consider moving up to soft softer yarns, but for now cheap is good. And heck, the Lopi comes in such lovely colours.  I read online that you can soften up scratchy wool by using some hair conditioner or even vinegar dissolved in warm water.  I will definitely give that a try before giving up on the Lopi.

Of course, these projects mean that I have already broken my “knit from the stash” mini-resolution.  Whatever.  Rules were meant to be broken.