Life LackaDaisiCal

This morning, after our walk around the park....where Lackie and Daisy met about a dozen firemen practicing their rescue techniques on the Rattlesnake Point bluffs.......we came home and DH decided it was a lovely morning for milky coffee on the deck. I am not a fan of coffee (the drink - although I love coffee cream chocolates)....but milky coffee is quite tasty and a great change for the taste buds from my regular orange pekoe tea. Sitting on the deck it was quite chilly -- so we drew back the awning a bit and as I was drinking my coffee, I started watching the way the sun came through the pergola, the fabulous blue sky, and of course had to take a photo or two....I liked this one the best. DH likes to take photos of Lackie and Daisy -- here's a rare one - Lackie pooped out from his walk and Daisy sitting up sort of saying - what a wimp - that was a short walk LOL!!! It's very interesting how the shadow pattern of the pergola plays in this photo.......don't you think? Ha...

It's titled "Personal Stash Reduction - Books & Yarn"......it's pretty self explanatory right? So just to introduce this page, a little story....... Back in the heyday of She Ewe Knits, when my enthusiasm for selling yarn was at it's peak......nothing, I repeat NOTHING, was too much trouble for my customers. It became clear that the vast majority of fair isle knitters were still wanting to knit the designs of the famous Alice Starmore......they had her original publications (Pacific Coast Highway, Stillwater, In the Hebrides) and they wanted to knit those designs, in the original shades. Fortunately, most of the shades required were still available in the Jamieson's Spinning Shetland yarn range.....most, but not all...... One shade, Marjoram, was not available to us here in North America (retailers and therefore to the knitters) and as it is a truly unique shade of green - sort of greyish, pale, not strong, but definitely nothing came close to a match........

Rebecca has left a new comment on your post " Customizing your Hibiscus Cardigan...... ": So glad you posted this because this was the very reason I was hesitant about the pattern. The pattern is gorgeous but I just didn't think it would look right on my body type....... hmmmmm .....off to ponder this some. I REALLY love this pattern! like my new tape measure? It's a V&A tape measure purchased at Shall We Knit in New Hamburg.......love it! It's really good to use a metal tape measure because metal never stretches....... So both Ellen and Rebecca want to knit their Hibiscus cardigan longer.......with your swatch and a few calculations this should be easy..... Ellen indicated to me that she wanted to make her sweater about 3" longer......... NOTE: As I do not intend to give specifics here of the pattern instruction, you may not totally understand the following -- you might need to have the pattern in front of you to relate to. I'm not sure as I...

When Anne Hanson was here, I went to a couple of her presentations, and I started reading her Knitspot blog. While Anne was here in Southern Ontario, she met Sue Sturdy, who is working on an interested project as "Artist in Residence" at the Cambridge Centre for the Arts. Well, I'm in the middle of cleaning out my former She Ewe Knits space here ..... and what did I find but this first attempt at original design -- left sleeveless, as usual........ so I got out my trusty scissors........ and sent the bottom half to Sue - hopefully she can use it for the bridge project . This piece was inspired by Monet's Waterlilies........it was supposed to represent the waterlilies above the water, and their reflection in the water......sounded like an idea at the time LOL!!!

Ellen wrote..... Hi Anne,   Thank you for directing me to your blog! I am excited about your knit-along... I am planning to knit the beautiful Hibiscus cardigan you designed and will read all the detailed blog entries with great interest!! I am in love with the fair isle pattern and the colors, but I was hoping to knit it in a longer length as short jackets don't look good on me. I might also want to make the sleeves a little longer. Would it be possible to add one more strip of the design to the bottom after knitting the edging? Any input you can give me would be SO appreciated! Do you know how much more yarn would be required for the extra strip? Thanks so much, Ellen   Hi Ellen! Of course you can do anything you want to your Hibiscus cardigan -- make it longer, lengthen the sleeves, whatever -- but it all starts with a swatch.  Are you getting gauge both stitches and rows required?  You have to start with your gauge before you can calculate any adjustments you nee...

It's rainy and overcast today, but yesterday was glorious, and we decided to have luncheon on the deck......chicken done on the bbq, with a salad of baby greens, goats cheese, raspberries, almonds and Raspberry dressing - delicious) The warm chicken makes the goats cheese melt and it is to absolutely die for! (can you tell this is one of my favourite meals?) Did you notice the lovely orange snow fence attached to the railing of our deck. This is to stop Lackie from squeezing through the rails and escaping to the yard where he gets into all sort of mischief. (Hopefully when he is full grown and has bodied out, he won't fit through the rails - maybe by next year ????) Well, yesterday Lackie and Daisy were going crazy and we couldn't figure out why. Behind us there is the neighbour's wood lot. They have been in there with a chain saw clearing out downed trees and tidying up in general. I guess it disturbed this fellow and he was sitting in the tree, watching us eat!...

I've had to switch from two-handed stranded, to both strands in the right hand knitting.......my shoulder was acting up......but we're moving along..... Which reminds me of a comment by Carrie K ........ As for swatches, not only do you have to knit the original one, but one should check one's gauge periodically as one knits on.......as it's entirely possible that mood swings show up in your project.....don't ask me how I know....grr. So because I've changed my knitting technique, I'm checking my gauge.......and you should always check your gauge periodically during your projects. Sometimes as we get comfortable with a pattern (be it lace, aran, or stranded) we relax and our gauge changes - beware LOL!!! On another note, I picked this up a couple of weeks ago while in Indigo's......I love Celine Dion.....you have to admire someone who handles it all with style and grace.....and I wish I'd seen her on this tour. I give her a........ STANDING OVATION...

Nancy......... Fibernating ..... and she wins a "Keychain Sock Blocker" Nancy - please send me your snail mail address to a.featonby at gmail dot com - thanks for reading Shades of Shetland!

Wow, this week has flown by. A week ago today, I was heading off to Shall We Knit in New Hamburg for a Trunk Show with Anne Hanson. Although lace isn't my thing particularly, I felt I couldn't miss a visit by Anne to our area......and I'm glad I went. The Trunk Show was amazing -- as with most knits, nothing beats seeing the real thing......and Anne's lace creations are wonderful. Great blogger that I am, I TOOK NO PICTURES LOL !!! I did run into Lor raine and Pat there.....and Lorraine has blogged about it on her blog Sheriff of Knittingham . On Sunday, it was back to New Hamburg for a full day workshop with Anne -- we were going to be starting her Irtfa shawl........it has Faroese shoulder shaping, and a nifty little edging......I'd brought along some Jamieson's Spindrift in Woodgreen to play around with.......it was nice, but I fell for the lure of true lace knitting yarn and came home with some Misty Alpaca to do justice to this lovely design. On Mon...

Ah Lorraine , how could you call me a "weener".......

My neighbour told me about "Raven Black" a mystery set in Shetland by Ann Cleeves a few months before we (her and I) made our trip to Shetland in 2006. I scoured the shops in Lerwick (not hard as there aren't that many LOL!) and found, I believe, the last copy of "Raven Black" for sale in Shetland. It seemed appropriate to start the journey with Jimmy Perez while in Shetland. This series of books is being called "The Shetland Quartet" as Ms. Cleeves always felt that 4 books would tell the story of Jimmy, and I've followed "Raven Black" with "White Nights" and "Red Bones".......now comes "Blue Lightning". It looks like these books are going to be made into a television series for UK television....and hopefully it will be available internationally eventually..........fingers crossed. Here's an interview with Ann Cleeves that appears April 2009 in The Scotsman. I do hope they film it in Shetland - how exc...

Here is my garter stitch edging -- thanks to Lorraine for posting photos of her peonies.....it inspired me to take this photo....after all, it's a much more interesting photo than the knitting lying on the table cloth or whatever right? Lorraine's peonies are that beautiful soft pink.....I've got the darker pink. Thanks Lorraine. The garter stitch edging, when done in two colours per row, 2 stitches of each colour, makes a very effective checkerboard border for this sweater. I love this border, but it does have it's technical issues. It does not stretch at all -- so it's best as an ornamental border - don't use it if you want your sweater to gather in at all at the bottom. I've seen a few comments on Ravelry lately about this kind of border flaring out....yes it can.....but if you knit it on a smaller needle than what is used for the body, and you take care to keep the floats between each 2 stitch area just right (not too loose and not too tight)....it ...

It's a rainy afternoon here......catching up on their beauty sleep!

Please note the change from "knit along" to "tutorial". I think what I'm writing here is a Tutorial and I'm putting it down here for myself. Obviously, anyone knitting or contemplating knitting the Hibiscus Cardigan design might find it of interest. GAUGE The gauge specified is 32 sts and 32 rows per 10cm/4in.... Here's my gauge swatch. OK, ok, so I didn't do the 48 st gauge swatch -- so I don't have enough sts to count a full 4 inches.......but as 32 sts/4 inches works out to 8 sts/inch, 2 inches is what I'm going to measure on my swatch for gauge. So, 8 sts/inch, 2 inches = 16 stitches. I like to use my long pins to mark off 16 sts first, then measure. This makes it really easy to see if you are getting gauge (or not) without having to do the tedious counting of stitches while holding your measuring instrument. I love these small needle gauge things from Addi. They show on one edge a great 2" measurer. So looking at my swatch, I...

It's June 1 - and as promised (or threatened), let the knitting commence! Well, not the actual knitting, but the preparation we need to do prior to the official cast on..... Do you have your project "kit" together? Your pattern - it should be the Rev. 2/10 version (check on the bottom left hand corner of the back page). Double check your yarn requirements - got everything? I like to put it all together in one of the cubby shelves in my knitting space......like this..... Needles recommended are 3.25 and 3 mm circular needles for the body and bottom band respectively, and 2.5mm for the neckline and front garter stitch bands. These are recomm ended needle sizes only -- because you need to use the size of needle that gives you the correct gauge. If you are a loose knitter, you will probably have to go down a size or two - if you are a tight knitter, you might have to go up a size or two -- you have to determine this somehow -- so....... YOU NEED TO KNIT A GAUGE SWATCH! O...