It's been a while

Distractions have been keeping me from blogging lately. Obsessive knitting and a trip out of town have been filling my time.

Last weekend Tiny, Mackenzie and I took a trip down to the coast. This was Mackenzie's Christmas present: a trip to Saltspring, a day in Vancouver and a Canucks game. Kenzie is an avid hockey fan, loves visiting her Froggy, Grandpa Abraham and Uncle Tim, and had never been to Vancouver before. We had a blast. The original plan was to go to Science World, but when we arrived there was a paper sign stating that it was closed for a private event. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium instead.

The Vancouver Aquarium is hugely changed from the last time I was there (probably about 15 years ago). The change is for the better. The animal habitats are much larger and more natural looking than they were before. It is greatly expanded. The BC Coast section is incredible, it makes the undersea world of our province look incredibly mysterious and exotic.

My favourite section was the jellyfish!

I was pleasantly surprised at how good a photo my crappy little camera took!

Kenzie found some kindred spirits at the aquarium...

We got put on the giant TV at GM Place which was pretty exciting (click to embiggen)

I am now knitting the ultimate project...the Luminen Jacket is one I have been thinking about knitting for a few months now. A month ago I bought the yarn neccessary for the project. Some incredibly soft Malabrigo Merino Worsted in a fabulous colourway called Red Mahogany. The yarn is actually a little bit of a heavy weight for this project (despite "Worsted" being in the actual name for the yarn it is an Aran weight yarn). So I dropped a size and am using a larger needle (4.5mm instead of 4mm) mathematically the gauge worked out that it should be the right size a month or 2 post baby (a good goal for after the baby is born! I have to fit that sweater!!). I have already modified it a bit, I really did not like the sleeves so I knit a cabled cuff and picked up the stitches ont he edge and started the sleeve from there. I think it will fit wiht the overall design of the sweater better (hehe sweater better). I also plan on NOT doing all those snowflakes. Mairi Muinonen is one of my favourite designers EVER but she often has at least one design element in a project that really doesn't appeal to me. I could have lived with the sleeves...but definitely not the snowflakes...so I won't be doing them-this means using less yarn (and my yarn overage is a little tight) and I won't have to sew them on (I HATE SEWING).

I love this sweater so far. I love how it looks. I especially love the construction of it. The cabling above the pocket is GENIUS!! I find the whole construction of it intriguing and interesting. Mairi Muinonen is brilliant! (Hopefully I will continue to enjoy this sweater towards the ends as much as I do now!)

Photoless

So my husband pointed out to me that I had not done a post in a while. This happens every time I kill the batteries on my camera. The camera shuts off automatically except when it is plugged in to the USB port. So about 50% of the time when I am uploading my pics, I kill the battery.
I resist posting when I have no photos, but this time I am going to break tradition because I don't foresee myself getting around to getting batteries anytime soon.
So...did I start knitting Tiny's Sweater? No. The whole plan is for it to be designed in time for our trip across Canada. I plan on taking about 3ish projects with me on the trip. The Tiny Sweater, something else (perhaps a horribly complicated lace shawl?) and socks/mitts which only count as one project even though I will probably do more than one pair. Our trip is going to take up most of August so that's a lot of knitting time!
My current projects are the Lady of the Lake Sweater in "Ruby" I special ordered it in that colourway. It's the most amazing shades of red.
I am also knitting the Triinu scarf (rav link) from Knitted Lace of Estonia. I am usually a hater of charted lace, but Estonian Lace makes sense. The charts are easy to follow and pattern in such a way that eventually you don't really need to chart because you know what happens next from looking at what you have already knit! It's very intuitive and I love it. I think it works this way because up until this century most Estonian Lace patterns were not written down and families had samplers of stitch patterns to use as guides. I am developing a somewhat unhealthy obsession with nupps (apparently prounounced to rhyme with soup, but I can't quite bring myself to say "noup"). A nupp is where you knit and yarn over several times into one stitch increasing it by 5-9 stitches. The next row you purl all those stitches into one so it doesn't really increase. It makes a lovely little blob and everytime I make one I feel like a freaking knitting genius!
So that's whats been going on in my knitting life...for all you people that missed me oh so much.

reCHARGE!

There is something about knitting, when I get it right, that makes me feel like a freakin' genius!
Seriously...it's the greatest feeling. Conversely getting it wrong makes me feel like a dumbass...but I digress.
I have been in a constant state of working/volunteering for several days now. Lack of sleep is making me stupid and tired. I am too tired to cast on anything and I am between projects.
I should have gone to bed but instead I did this:


Apparently I am absolutely insane despite the fact that I failed math three times in highschool I decided doing the maths for Tiny's sweater would be relaxing.

A little background on the Tiny Sweater. My husband decided that if I knit him a really complicated time-consuming black-hole-of-knitting sweater he would wear it. Basically he wants a sweater with cables. Not that cables are difficult, but they certainly aren't as fast as stocking stitch when you are doing mixed cables. I received 20 balls of beautiful icelandic wool as a gift. Which was fantastic because my husband is by no means a small man (we measured his chest to day, it's 53") and the idea of purchasing enough yarn to cover him made me feel faint. I started seriously looking at the "you are guaranteed for a loan" admail...I figured if I got decent yarn at a decent price the sweater would cost at least $150. So this gift of yarn was heaven sent.

I then could not find a single sweater that I could imagine him wearing. I surfed and surfed. I showed him a couple patterns with no interest on his part. I then decided (on the advice of the lovely Barb Brown) to do a "vanilla sweater" and add cables. So it took me a surprisingly long time to find a plain sweater for a man that was the right dimensions. I decided if I was going to the trouble of knitting this sweater I would do it in a style I like which means raglan seamless construction.

After much searching I found the perfect vanilla sweater, I then sat down with Tiny and perused a cable book with him. He was very obliging despite his lack of interest in looking at knitting books (after all the sweater is for him). He picked several, I actually made him pick more than I needed so I could have some design leeway.

Today I was too tired to knit so I sat down with some books and started to math things out. The yarn I am using is far heavier than what is called for in the pattern, so I started with that. I also want the ribbing to match the cable, this was the hard part...I also am doing way more cable on the front so the back actually has less stitches than the front to compensate (damn I hope that works...) It took me over an hour to figure out the math and the ribbing and I am proud to say I have written the first row to the first pattern I have ever written!

Here it is!
Cast on 108 stitches and join for knitting in round, pm at beginning of round.
Row1" *k2, p2* 4 times, pm, p1, k4, p8, k4, p1, pm, p2, k2, p2, k1, pm, p3, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p3, pm, k2, p2, k2, p1, pm, p1, k4, p8, k4, p1, pm, *p2, k2* 4 times, pm, *p2, k2* 8 times, p2, pm, p1, k9, p12, k9, p1, pm, *p2, k2* 8 times, p2.

Dudes, I lined up the ribbing on the first try.
Yeah...I'm awesome...You know...aside from the part where I have been working on this sweater for months and haven't cast on yet...

Oh by the way, I am going to knit this sweater with these...
Jealous?