Sunday, February 24, 2008

Heel turned! Boo-ya!

Well, today was a momentous day in the knitting of the first sock! I turned the heel! It wasn't even too hard, but it made me feel disproportionally clever. If you've been afraid of knitting socks, give it a try - I can see how people love it. I've just finished the gusset shaping, and tried it on. It fits my foot, which means it'll probably fit Sweetie's narrow foot. Unfortunately for me, his foot is longer than mine, which means I've got about 5 inches to knit before I get to shape the toes.

I'll try and post a pic soon. I'm too bleary eyed to attempt it now. I'm going to admire them again, then hit the sack.

Sock knitting rules!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Spring and Socks (er, sock)

I don't know about you, but I'm unfortunately prone to the Feblaharies. This time of the year, I have a hard time believing that spring will ever come. One of the first things I look for are the earliest cherry blossoms. Not the ones that will burst out all over the city in a few weeks, but the rare few early ones that appear just after the snowdrops. The other night I was driving home from class in the dark and rain, when I spotted dapples of ghostly white in the trees along the road. I went back a few days later and confirmed, to my delight, that the first blossoms had arrived.



My spring feeling has been nurtured by the beautiful sun we experienced today. I went for a walk, bought some art supplies, and went ice skating. Sweetie and I have been skating the past few weekends, and it's a lot of fun. When you try something new like skating, it's always a delight at how fast you seem to progress. I felt a lot less wobbly today than the past times we went.

I've been working a bit on the sock at night these days. I'm finding the ribbing a bit dull, but the self striping yarn provides the modicum of amusement I need to keep knitting away on my tiny needles. This is my first time using 2 mm needles and the going is a teensy bit slow! However, the thought of learning how to turn a heel is also keeping me going. Here's a shot of my progress so far:



In other knitting news, I've started listening to a few knitting podcasts this week. I've tried Lime and Violet, and Stash and Burn. If you have any favorites to suggest to me, please let me know! This may be a slippery slope...

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Foliage Finished, and First Socks Started

Well, this post has been a long time coming. This semester is kicking my butt a bit more than I expected it to, and sadly there's no end in sight. Nonetheless, I've found some time to finish Foliage, the red-orange version, which has been keeping my head cosy for the past week or so.



I've also just begun my first pair of socks! I'm very excited about this. I'm using Silver's Sock Class top down sock tutorial to attempt them. The socks are going to be for my Sweetie, and as such I've chosen some superwash wool in a manly colourway: DG Confetti 100, colour 19.05, which is a self striping yarn in various greys. I hope I can make a successful pair of socks and then try some fancier socks. There's a beautiful skein of Cherry Hill sock yarn in my stash. I'd love to give a sock like Monkey a try, or the Jaywalkers, but decided to try a simple pair first. I don't even know how to turn a heel yet!

Change of subject: the other day I was out for a walk in my neighbourhood and I spotted some graffiti I'd never noticed before. It may be new, or it may be that I've just not noticed it before. Here's a shot for you to enjoy:



The caption painted on the wall says "a end in sight".

Coming next post: sock in progress shots!

Friday, February 1, 2008

Foliage. Part Deux and Diving Ducks

I've been battling the beast that is grad school this week- reading, writing, and reading some more, which makes for very dull knitblogging. Last night, I finally got my head above water and cast on!

The hat jag continues, and seeing how much Sweetie loves his Koolhaas made me want to knit another hat for myself. And there was that skein of Malabrigo in the stash...



I'm taking another crack at Foliage. I knit one for my SIL for Christmas using 3.75 mm needles. It turned out nearly too big for her, and certainly too big for my tiny, tiny head, so for this go-round I'm knitting with 3.25 mms. Hmm, I notice the yarn looks kind of orange in the picture; in real life it's more of a red orange. I'll make sure and take my next pictures in natural light.

Today I went for a lovely walk by the water with a friend of mine, and was quite excited to see some ducks I'd never seen before. I haven't identified the first ones I saw, and they were too reticent for me to get a good picture of, but I did get some pics of these guys:



They're Goldeneye ducks, a diving duck that winters on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and, according to this site, eats molluscs, crustaceans, small fish and aquatic plants. We watched them dive down to the rocky sea bottom and nibble at the seaweed.

I love unexpected urban naturalism! My poor friend had to put up with my nature geekfest, but I can't help myself! I must have watched too many episodes of Wild Kingdom as a child.

I'll leave you with a shot of a cheeky pair of Mallards, who were not at all shy about having their picture taken, and who I strongly suspect were looking for a snack.