This n that. (Plus knitted stuff and lots of links to old blog posts)

First off, I want to thank everybody for the well wishes. I was having a lousy day and needed to vent. It's not all bad around here. We have good times as well. Besides, I broke down and asked the local relatives, and Ian is going away over night a week from Thursday. And I heard rumours of a Knit Night in Dartmouth....

I know my posting has been a bit scarce as of late, but honestly, I have been really busy. Here are some highlights:

1. We went for a walk. Here is a picture of Ian and our cat. She is not allowed out, so we were a bit surprised to see her:

Want a previous picture of Phoebe? See here, and here.

 

But then she turned around and I was all like "wait a minute..."

OMG! That's SO not my cat! It is just an eerily similar lookalike!  Here it is standing on its little hind feet because it WANTED to be petted. (clearly not my cat at all)

2. We drove out to the valley. We stopped at Hennigar's, of course. Ian was a little short for Corn:

But just right for Pepper!

You can see previous pics from Hennigar's here. (It's the one with the tractor)

Eventually we reached our destination:

 

Some of Ian's even made it into the bucket!

Successful Picture Of Nature! (It was bound to happen sooner or later... previous attempts here)

We picked about 13 pints of blueberries, which cost me $11.75 (plus about $985,678,987.87 for gas to drive to the valley, but still) They are running about $3/pt in the city, more or less, depending where you go. I worked my tail off and made jam, syrup, and pies. I also baked bread. My busyness has probably contributed to Ian's misbehaviour, as he has not been the centre of attention.

It may have been worth it. Pancakes with my own syrup! This plate is in my own kitchen!

 

3. I have been knitting. Fantastic, wonderful things!

I finished these a few weeks ago. They have been gifted already:

I threw out the ball bands already, but they were knit with DGB Confetti and a plain sock pattern.

The following projects are gifts for people. If it is for you, you will know it when you see it, please forget you ever saw it and/or act surprised.

I finished this scarf:

 

When I got this yarn, I started a spiralling rib pattern but the scarf was curling badly, and I was really unhappy with it. So I ripped it back and did this instead. It was knit using James C. Brett Marble, shade MT6. I used one ball, 100 grams, but the scarf could have stood to be a little longer. The pattern is based on the Swelligant Scarf from this book, which I have made before here and here. I modified it a bit, I took out the middle cable, and I made the second cable twist in front so it would be symmetrical.

Then I did this:

which was supposed to be done about a month ago, but isn't. And yes, just the one. It shouldn't take long to do the second one, because it is little, but I a) don't really like socks. I feel like a bad knitter, but it's true. And b) it is knit using the remnants from this, and I am terrified of running out of yarn. The pattern is the same as above, just a basic sock, only littler. Maybe I should try another pattern, and I would enjoy socks more. But I had a lot more fun knitting the scarf, let me tell you.

I also noticed while looking for the post about the original socks, that I never blogged about them. I guess it just goes to show I knit more than I let on. A lot of the time stuff I knit is meant for gifts, and I don't like posting it until they get it. But then I forget to post at all. So that being said, from now on I will post when I finish stuff, and if you like being surprised, you just need to get over it. This goes hand in hand with my other vow for Low Stress Knitting. What I was doing was to have a birthday or whatever coming up, and I would work my tail off to get a project done, and I wouldn't, and it would be late. Sometimes, so late, they wouldn't go out at all and I would end up buying something. So instead, I am going to knit whatever I feel like, and if it is for someone, it will go in a gift box. Then if it is their birthday, I will just look in the box, and if there is nothing for them in there I will go buy something. Before the birthday.

And so, since I don't feel like knitting a second sock right now I am going to work on these:

 

Which are going to be fingerless mittens or wristwarmers from the uber yummy yarn I mentioned here and here. I couldn't find a pattern I liked so I am just kinda winging it. I love how the yarn is striping in the opposite direction of the ribs. I am doing a spiralling rib, and I am currently stuck because I need to increase for the hand, but I can't quite figure out how to do that without disturbing the pattern. As I said, I have never made this before, so it is taking some thinking. But I know when they are done they will be awesome. And they will be MINE ALL MINE!!! Mwahahahahaha!