Stag; Or, How I Love the Local Video Rental Joint

Pattern: Stag (my own, improvised, and rather uncreatively named!)
Yarn: Berroco Inca Gold, 8 skeins

I've made a habit of issuing myself yarn challenges, and, as of late, it's been bouts between me and yardage. This round of playing chicken with the yarn turned out just dandy.

I wanted to see if I could make a tunic-length, cowl-necked, long-sleeved sweater - with cables, no less. And indeed, I did. Though it ended up a touch shorter than envisioned, and the sleeves were a smidge tight, they still work! And the upside? The snugness of said sleeves disguises the unsightly "ladders" left behind from my sloppy in-the-round dpn work (the trick to avoiding that is pulling tight on the stitches when switching needles, correct? I must remember to try harder next time).

Incidentally, this be the first (as well as the last) long-sleeved sweater I've ever made. The second-sleeve syndrome was avoided through a good supply of dvds (including the Indiana Jones hotness mentioned in an earlier post, as well as the first 3 seasons of How I Met Your Mother). Without those dvds, I'm afeared those sleeves would still be unfinished.

Stag Constructions, for those Interested:
In the round, bottom-up raglan. I'd never attempted a sweater in this particular manner before.
Because of my playing chicken with the yardage, I decided to do a provisional cast on when it came to the sleeves, so that I could assess the yarn situation after I had begun the cowl and see just how long I could get away with making said sleeves.
I do not suggest this construction, or at least, not on a single set of circs. It was extremely awkward and tight the first 5 or 6 rows after joining the provisional-sleeves.

Also, the sweater would have benefited from my thinking through what I would do with the cables when I got to the sleeve juncture. I could have made the transition much more smooth by altering the staghorn cable pattern slightly, and turning some knit stitches into background purl stitches (see the second photo in this post. The slightly awkward decreasing around the armpit is visible there).

For waist and bust shaping, I simply hid my increases and decreases directly beside the cable pattern.
The cowl is a progression of 3 different needles sizes, getting larger as you near the edge of the neckline. I wanted it to be a bit bigger and floppier, but with only the 8 skeins I knew I'd have to compromise.
The greatest upside to this project? Stashbusting!

At the "photoshoot", I frolicked among the gardens of a nearby historic home and civic museum. I got a few cool snaps, and wanted to share.

On the gates in the garden yard. The pineapple was a symbol of welcome that was in vogue in the 19th c., when this home was built.


Backyard water tap, with some cool weathering, hiding among what's probably close to the last bits of green green sprouts of '09.


A pear tree has been dropping its fruit, and the bees have been feasting.


Lovely beautiful snapdragons. Nature has an amazing sense of colour.

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Maggie Vremec
Rav ID: basicmag
Some Great Designs: basicmag

I'm choosing to say goodbye to summer and hello to autumn with this week's featured designer, basicmag.

First is the very pretty Burning Sand (pictured) top. Once again I'm won over by a simple shape with interest created in texture. I can totally see myself in a very comfy mood in this top.

The cable and yoke aspects of Summer Nostalgia add visual interest and continue the designer's style of wearable, knittable and fashionable knits.

Another favourite of mine is Fields of Gold. I've always felt like a fangirl of autumn, and this sweater embodies the spirit of the season quite wonderfully. The wee texture that resembles wheat, the golden hue of the yarn itself, the simplicity and layerability of the piece all come together to create a perfect season in a lovely sweater!

As many other knitwear designers, basicmag has many other beautiful garments. Check out her designer page on Rav!

My Brain, She's Finished Developing!

According to the smarties that know such things, brains develop in a particular succession which reaches completion with the prefrontal cortex.
This region is responsible for our adult responsibility!, and regulates all that un-fun grown up stuff like paying attention, predicting the consequences of our actions, planning for the future and moderating behaviour.
This bit of our noggin doesn't finish developing until the mid-twenties.

Mid-twenties! Zounds and egads. I guess that means I'm officially a grown up now.
According to my own subjective measurement of the line between mid- to late-twenties, I've now exited my brainal development era.

It was kicks while it lasted.

And so, it's my birthday! And herein I present a taste of what I've been doings on this week I've had off:

-Visited the Dead Sea Scrolls at the ROM

-indulged in one of the first, and more recently opened, Anthropologie stores in Canada

-bugged Butters with portraiture

-baked cookies of gingerbread

-enjoyed the marigolds back home at my parent's place

-Indiana Jones watched

-plant purchased, including an ornamental pepper and a wee spruce tree whom told me to call him Bob











-Felicity hat knit, this time in golden

-and generally enjoyed the last few days of being 26.

Hello 27 - I wonder what I'll knit next...




...incidentally, Indiana Jones is hot. Yes, I said it. Hot.

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Susan Gutperl
Blog: Sooza's Knitting Stuff
Rav ID: sooza
Some Great Designs: sooza's Rav Designer Page

With summer winding down, I'm looking forward to the warmth and beautiful comfort of a lovely lace shawl. This week's designer has a wealth of these very garments.

First is Sooza's Bottom-Up Birch (pictured). Unsurprisingly popular, this pattern is free! The name is wonderfully reminiscent of the season, too :)

And for some traditional Shetland fare, you can check out Butterflies Shetland Shawl. So lovely!

And finally, check out this splash of rainbow prettiness, Josephinentuch. I love letting the beauty of the yarn come through with a simple pattern!

Make sure you have a boo at some of her other pattern "recipes", including Lacey Cable Knee Socks - A Recipe, and Pi Socks - A Recipe.

Knot Tying 101; Or, How Wedding Planning Comes Along

...wherein I continue to chat about my wedding outfit n' stuffs...

Thanks to everyone for your comments on my last wedding post. I'm currently leaning towards hair half down with silk flower, but all remains to be seen, as I have about 10 more months to go!

When I saw these shoes, I knew I had to have them.
A friend of mine was married a couple years ago, and she had a pair of shoes dyed to a lovely blue.
Blue not being my colour, I thought red it must be.

I found these lovelies at zappos.com. Now, I need to decide if I want to wear them pre-wedding or not (I've heard a good suggestion re: breaking in the shoes, if only to scuff up the bottom and prevent embarrassing slip-sliding).













As for jewellery, I've had me a fantastic time surfing around etsy, and discovered Erica Bapst's shop. She had this pretty necklace listed, and I wanted earrings to match. No problem! she says, and in one night creates these prefect wee crystals for me.
I've tried them on with the dress and they match, though I do think I'd like the necklace to be a touch longer... I'm working on it!


And for the requisite "something blue", I've managed to obtain what I think may turn out to be the perfect hue o' polish for my toes.

No worries, my toes and shoes won't clash; the blue polish will me my wee secret.

Yarg, I have to dive into the photographer search... wish me luck - I've no idea what I want, should look for or even where to start!

Reader Appreciation Summer FunTime Giveaway!

I'm here to announce the last winner of the Reader Appreciation SummerFunTime Giveaway!

Congratulations to the winner, Susan! I hope you enjoy your KnitPicks gift certificate :)

Message me on rav (canarysanctuary) or email me at canarysanctuary at yahoo dot com and I'll get that prize emailed off to you asap!

Thanks so much to everyone for reading, participating, educating and commentating.
I appreciate your support very much.

Hope you all had a good summer!

And now, on to knit :)

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Melissa Shepard
Etsy Shop: Honeybee's Creations
Rav ID: honeybee69
Some Great Designs: honeybee69's Rav Designer Page

This morning at work I was greeted by a lovely basket of fresh MacIntosh apples. Their lovely sweet and crispy goodness happens to be very apropos for today's indie designer!

Pictured right you can see one of the many wonderful things honeybee69 can do with a hook and some yarn. Not only is this an adorable fibre-as-food, but it's peelable! Peelable! How very cool :) This Peelable Apple Amigurumi is only the beginning of the fantastic food pattern list.

On the veggie side of things, we have her Amigurumi Two Peas in a Pod. Their faces are so cute!

I have to say it was rather difficult choosing which pattern's photo to post in this profile, and the
Peelable Banana Amigurumi came in a close second. There's something about the peelability that is attractive, ingenious and fantastic. I can totally see kids loving these just as much as I do.

And the winner for most unique crocheted fruit is the Peelable Kiwi Amigurumi. They were one of the much desired rarities of my youth, and I've a soft spot for the kiwi. Mmmm, kiwi....

Reader Appreciation Summer FunTime Giveaway!

Welcome to the last installment of the Reader Appreciation SummerFunTime Giveaway!

Congratulations to last week's winner, Hilary! The package will be heading your way after the long weekend :)

And now, for the last week!

Up for grabs this week...
-a $10 KnitPicks e-gift card (that's USD)

Good Luck to everyone!

We are Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

...and the blog won't look normal til the 14th.
Or so photobucket tells me.
I'm being slapped on the wrist for exceeding bandwith.

So I bring you a photo of flowers as apology and photobucket subversion (it's not that subversive, it's just from another photobucket account :P)

Though the ugliness makes me very sad, I'll still be blogging.

Come back tomorrow for your regularly scheduled SummerFuntimes Giveaway!

ps: If you click on where a photo should be, you'll get sent to a link so you can see it.

Indie Designer Day

Designer: soobeeoz
Rav ID: soobeeoz
Some Great Designs: soobeeoz's Rav Designer Page

I love me my September.
Hints of the wondrous chill to come while the sun still shines on merrily.

A cool September breeze is stylishly kept off by sporting one of soobeeoz's lovely lacey creations.
(Her projects page is full of beautiful lace tops!)

Take for example her Leafy Lace Cardi (pictured right). The diamond panels even remind me of falling leaves! See the pretty
Red Leaf Top for an even more apropos example!

I really admire her design-tendency to create a cinched waist. Two great knits in this fashion are Pink Lace Trimmed Sweater and Serenity Lace Tank. The sweater is perfect for this time o' year; a relaxing, easy-going project with enough detail to make it unique and interesting to knit. The tank is another seasonal piece - wear it with a tee or light sweater beneath! (of course, all this seasonal talk is quite relative. Soobeeoz lives in Australia. If anyone reading is from that neck of the woods, you can just reverse my suggestions, and save these cool-weather knits for cool weather!!)

Campaniform; Or, How I Challenge the Stash

Moons ago in April, I began hatching a plan for stash usage.
I decided I wanted to play with a particular garment shape idea, and Campaniform was born.

Pattern: Campaniform
Yarn: 2 hanks of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, in "Lava"

I had so very much fun knitting this mini cardi. Very mini cardi.
Playing chicken with the yardage turned out alright in some respects, and not so great in others.

Alright: The knit was finished with only about 3 metres of the yarn left
(I'm astonished by my estimation powers)

Not so Great: In a stroke of goofy luck, I miscalculated the number of stitches for the front - subsequently I have a gap that is much larger than originally intended.
This error has been "surmounted" by the wee tags n' buttons, but not entirely satisfactorily.

Incidentally, the vote I put out there for button choice ended up being tied between leopard and clocks. It was a really tough decision! But with the clocks I went.

Alright: I really really like the shape, and think I have some useful data that can be applied to a new pattern idea.
It was a simple top down raglan, but as you can see, the sleeves ate up most of the yarn with their fun puffiness. I also short-rowed across the back, to give it a bit of a cute wee curve, as well as save some of the yarn. You can sort of see it in this back photo.

Not so Great: I held out hope til the last that there would be enough to pick up and knit along the front panels, and bring them closer together.
Sadly, I had not the required yardage.
le sigh.

It is comfort, though, that this knit has grown on me significantly after having worn it to work on yesterday (when I conducted this photoshoot).

The inspiration for this knit was partly the yarn, which is lovely and knits up wonderfully. I also looked to the beautiful gowns and fashions of the mid-late 18th century. While certainly not an attempt at exact replication, it's more of an homage to the off-the-shoulder neckline and belled sleeves of pre-revolutionary France. Hence the appropriateness of the clock buttons :)

Reader Appreciation Summer FunTime Giveaway!

Welcome to the ninth installment of the Reader Appreciation SummerFunTime Giveaway!

Congratulations to last week's winner, Julie of Team Knit! You can message me on Rav or email me at canarysanctuary at yahoo dot com with your mailing address and the package will be heading your way!

Here we go with week nine.

This week we have:

-one small purple purse
-one page of accessories to knit and crochet, from the 1970s
-one McCall's Needlecraft magazine, October 1984
-one Woman's Day magazine from 1985, including 101 needlework and sweater ideas
-a selection of various purple and black cotton fabric squares and scraps

Good Luck!
There's only one week left for the giveaway - stay tuned :)

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Elisha Laubacher
Blog: Seasha's Knitting Stuff
Rav ID: seasha
Some Great Designs: seasha's Rav Designer Page

This week is a profile of the youngest designer I've ever discussed on Indie Designer Day!

Seasha is a "... soon-to-be-eleventh-grader who loves to knit and design. I try to create designs that flatter the wearer and aren’t outdated or “old-ladyish”."

And her knits are definitely cute and wearable!

Take her recently published Mayapple (pictured right). While simple in shape, texture and an adorable wee tie front add interest and character to this highly usable garment.

Seasha's Autumn Shrug is another great functional pattern, this time with subtle cables and two different coloured yarns creating a unique flair in the top. I always appreciate a simple, well constructed and wearable design - this is certainly it! I'm particularly fond of the "no buttonholes needed" tidbit. They're always tricky to make!

There are many other designs on her Rav designer page linked above, but I'll point you in the direction of one more, Short-Sleeved Sweater. The sweater has great waist detailing, and is highly adjustable for the infinite possibilities that are human shapes. It's wonderful to see designers aware of this fact!

Looking forward to seeing some new designs :)

This for Twins; Or, How I Come Perilously Close to Scrapbooking*

So, this is how I outfit behbehs:

I hear someone's preggers. It's twin girls. I diligently scoot off to find suitable (read: totally cute) baby patterns. I obviously choose too many. Obviously.

While I tried to avoid pink, it was actually a bit of a challenge to find baby-friendly yarn in my stash that was not this stereotypical colour.

So, while this photo looks like a baby-mess-riot explosion on the floor, it is actually comprised of:
-two wee elfin-esque pointy hats, bottom left
-an eyemask, for a tired out mama (above elfin hats)
-two little lace sweaters, (sitting on the left side of the grouping), both cotton and both yellow with sunflower button
-two sewn felt owls (right along the top there)
-melt-n'-pour soaps with lavender, and some homemade bath fizzes with the same scent for aforementioned tired out mama (along top beside owls)
-two hoodies, courtesy this pattern from Knitty; one is pink and one yellow (see pic below for yellow hoodie close-up)
-bottom of the circle is a set of pumpkin hats and booties (since the wee filles are having their birthday in October)
-just to the left of the hats n' booties are some baby legwarmers
-and sitting beneath it all is a cotton gift bag/purse I sewed up the night before I gifted the package

As you may be able to tell, I had me some bigtime fun searching out and knitting up baby stuffs. These are the first infants I've gotten to knit for!

Here's to hoping I get some modelled shots forwarded my way :)

*There's nothing wrong with scrapbooking - in fact, there's far too much that's right about it. I had a grand ol' time making up the labels for the gifts.
At issue is my tendency to be attracted to knit-picky (heh), tedious tasks/crafts, and one has only so many hours in the day and days in the life to craft!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Kelly McClure
Blog: bohoknits Patterns
Etsy Shop: Bohoknits
Rav ID: bohoknits
Some Great Designs: bohoknits Rav Designer Page

Being just a little too anxious for autumn to arrive, I thought this week would be an appropriate time to present a designer with a great collection of chilly time designs.

Bohoknits has many lovely cool-weather pieces. First we have the very pretty Hemp Whirlpool Mittens (pictured). With a very pretty swirl motif, these mitts have the perfect amount of colourwork for the beginner colourworker :) And will give you an attractive and functional FO!

The temptingly textured and beribboned Mediterranean Tulle Wrap is another relaxing knit, and is generously offered for gratis!

She has numerous designs, and I can only mention a few here, but I'll direct you to two cool hats, Oceana Toque (crochet) and Sockhead Hat. Keeping with the practical and fashionable spirit of her designs, Bohoknits has written the Oceana Toque so that you can use any yarn from a sport to bulky weight, and to fit any head size. I particularly appreciate the nod (heh) to head-size variety. Sockhead Hat is yet another practical, functional, simply constructed and wonderfully cute design, with leagues of stockinette, perfect for tv watching/knitting!

Make sure to check out her etsy shop. It's chock full of patterns as well as finished knits for all ages.

And here's a great bit of insight into her design process:

"I believe my personality, being a strange mix of perfectionism and uninhibited creativity, is perfectly suited to the craft of knitting. Although my pieces are very precise and accurate, my process is often organic and scattered. I tend to start many designs and pieces at once and it isn’t unusual to find me surrounded by many partial projects, and even more books, magazines, and notebooks."

And how, fellow knitter!
Fingers crossed for the coolness, so that we can all start to sport lovely fall/winter knits like Bohoknits' :)