Life LackaDaisiCal

Stepanie Pearl-McPhee, The Yarn Harlot refers to SSS in her book "At Knit's End - Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much" SSS: an abbreviation referring to the crippling and common knitter's affliction known as Second Sock Syndrome. I'd like to ad "Second Sleeve Syndrome" to that......... I'm working on the second sleeve of Gerda -- and I'm trying to do it right this time. I'm almost there........watch for my update on how a little effort while knitting saves you a lot of time and aggravation later! Anne

I'm doing the sleeves on my Gerda pullover -- I hate sleeves! (Have I mentioned that before?!?) I have this problem -- I love getting started on a sweater, I love doing the body -- those long beautiful rounds of repeats.......It's magical. I don't even mind the armhole steeks and neckline shaping. Then come the sleeves. I have a few sweaters around that aren't finished because of my dislike of sleeves. Here's why...... on this sleeve, I couldn't be bothered with weaving in the new yarns and weaving out the old yarns....so I'm left with this very unappetizing underarm seam. You can see the designated underarm stitch -- the stitch that designates the "seam" and the stitch that I decrease either side of....... even worse, this is what it looks like on the inside! What a tangle of yarn ends -- what a mess! With a bit of sorting out though, you can make sense of your ends. Sort them out, matching them up -- you will be able to tell where they belong, w...

This Wednesday, April 19, is Downtown Knit Collective meeting night. This month, Lily Chin is the guest speaker and Lorraine ( The Knitting Hammy ) and I are going. We're hoping to see Brigitte there! If you're out there Brigitte, let us know if you're going to the meeting! We'd love to see what you're knitting! I'll be reporting on the meeting of course, and I'm working on the second sleeve of Gerda -- and will have some update photos too! Anne

I'm a member of two knitting guilds -- the monthly meeting of the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters' Guild was last night. This is a big guild - it reached 195 members last month. They are a very active group and bring in a guest speaker every month. Fiona Ellis was the guest speaker last night -- she gave a talk on the inspiration for the designs in new book (her first book) "Inspired Cable Knits". Fiona graciously signed our books for us, and had all of the sample sweaters from the book on hand to ooh and ahh over. (I'd heard this talk before, last month at the Downtown Knit Collective meeting in Toronto. Can you tell that I get a lot out of Guilds? that I'll drive 45 minutes to get to a Guild meeting? ) Guild business -- after Fiona's presentation and the break, the business part of the meeting started. It's the end of the year, the Executive are tired, they want volunteers to take over the running of the Guild. You'd think out of 195 members, there ...

Even though I'm totally hooked on Shetland yarns, fair isle knitting, and the like......I still like to visit interesting fibre related events if the opportunity arises. Today was one of those days -- the DH was busy, it was a beautiful (cool) Spring like day, and Wellington Fibres was having an open house! So off we went (my neighbour Theresa and I, and Daisy of course!). This weekend was the official opening of their own spinning mill on their farm just outside of Elora. The Angora goats have been busy producing kids. Everywhere you looked where these little white goats -- on top of the hay, squeezed between boards, on over and under just about everything! The photo to the right is a mother goat (just what is the proper name for a female goat anyway?) with her two kids -- I'm assuming they are kept separate until they are a little older? Here's a photo of some kids which are a little older -- you can see how mannerly they are -- basically standing in their dinner! Ther...

Since this blog is going to focus on my interests....and I have mentioned knitting haven't I???? Well, here's my first post on my knitting -- this is the Gerda design from the Simply Shetland 2 book You'll see that I'm in the critical stage -- for me, it's easy to get the tubular body done -- cast on, knit in the round, dropping off and joining shades as needed - right up to the neckline where you do some shaping and after tidying up the ends in the body, you're done right? WRONG! But here's where I always get hung up -- I hate doing sleeves -- I think it's because I love the rhythm of fair isle knitting -- and when you're doing the body, you get a real rhythm going on the round -- but a sleeve is too small a circumference -- you are just getting into the rhythm, and it's over! And remembering which rounds to decrease on -- what a nightmare! Anyway, I'm determined to finish Gerda quickly -- it's amazing just how fast you can knit a sleeve...

Well, needless to say, other members of the family are miffed that the "white tornado" hit the blog before them. So...... here's Caelee, the real boss of the household. Others might think they are the boss.....she KNOWS she's the boss ! And last, but not least, here's my DH......and this photo introduces my passion - fair isle knitting. The sweater he's wearing is a sweater we purchased in Shetland, at a little shop called " Shetland Collection " which is the first sweater shop you pass when driving out of Sumburgh airport. This sweater is knit in the round, in yarn that was hand spun from local Shetland sheep - all natural shades - it's gorgeous isn't it? DH thought he had enough sweaters, but he had to have this one -- you should feel it, it is sooooo soft!

Here's my first love......are you surprised? With a face like this, who could resist!

Just testing the "Shades of Shetland" blog. Didn't know what to call it, don't know what I'll say.....it's all new to me!