Life LackaDaisiCal

Thought I'd run out of Cinnamon there for a while -- me...run out of yarn ???? Serious exercise required new snazzy runners - DH got a pair too -- his aren't this beautiful watermelon shade though LOL!  You should see the inside sole liners - very groovy!

I find that when I'm in a real knitting groove - exercise drops off entirely -- and since I'm not a big exercise fan anyway - that means NO exercise LOL - well, the 3 x a week half hour trail walk with the dogs I always do, but as a serious knitter, I need SERIOUS exercise. That's why we bought bikes -- and I've been getting my wheels back under me so to speak -- it's been a long time since I've ridden a bike -- with a few trips to the neighbours and some round the driveway between the cars, turns etc......we decided that this morning we were ready to go for our first round the block bike ride. I live on a rural street -- with rural blocks -- I can't rightly recall how long it is to go round, but when we used to walk it - at a good clip it took an hour. So off we went......up the first hill and I was thinking maybe go to the corner and back....but hubby pushed me on....he was a big fixed wheel bike rider in his youth - you should see his legs even now - so h...

This Day Lily put on a spectacular show this year!

Click for More Info I love Herdy, and I love Rowan, and I love Wool.......what a great day these guys have planned.  Wish I was there!

Really intriguing film! Directed by Roman Polanski Starring:  Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams with some great supporting actors.... DO NOT WATCH THE SPECIAL FEATURES BEFORE YOU WATCH THE FILM!

Sleeve Charting (playing with colour saturation on this photo) So I've cut my sleeve steeks and tried my sweater on.....looking at it with a fresh eye as now it is actually on my person. I did make it a little longer...and I'm looking at where the sleeve will hit my arm because to correspond with where the pattern falls on the body, where it meets under the armhole, and having to make the sleeve end with the main pattern and the garter stitch band, well, it's just a little longer than it should be or a little shorter than it should be........it's just not right. A decision must be made! I've decided to go for full length sleeves.....so I copied the chart, stuck it together, counted the stitches that I've picked up around the armhole opening for the sleeve, figured out how many rows it takes, decreasing every 4 rows.....a few decreases right away at the underarm......and marked up the chart with each decrease.....and we're ready to go. Lorraine calls this sl...

They are getting so tame this year - they just hang out with us!

When knitting your bands - yes it's a bit tedious moving the working yarn from one side to the other -- it's important here to keep the yarn floating behind the stitches firm - again, moderation is the key - not too tight, nor too loose.....it's worth taking your time to get nice front cardigan bands that don't pull or sag.  I started each row with an Olive stitch -- so that at the top and bottom of the band, to give that finished look where the bands meet. The finished band should lie flat - no flaring or pulling..... I started each row with an Olive stitch -- so that at the top and bottom of the band, to give that finished look where the bands meet. At this point I like to tidy up any ends hanging - all of those ends on the bands, and tidy up the steek edges - the neckline steeks and the front band steeks.  Once this is done, you're ready for the sleeves. I like to finish off the steek edges at this point. Happy Knitting

When putting a cardigan front band on your sweater, the most important thing is to pick up a stitch for each and every row.....it makes for a lovely pickup edge... Stitches - knit up in the "ditch" between the edge steek stitch and the body.... BUT, you must use a needle size small enough that the finished band is neither too tight, or too loose -- it's sort of a Goldilocks thing...it has to be JUST RIGHT! I find that if I use a needle 2 or maybe 3 sizes smaller than what I used on the body, I'm right on target -- this is a personal thing and you'll have to play with this until you get it just right. Pick up the stitches on both front edges... When you pick up the stitches on both edges - count them - double check how many you have on each side.  I made my sweater longer - so I had 156 stitches on one side and 157 on the other -- easy to 2tog to get rid of that extra stitch on the second Olive row that makes the Olive garter row......what you want is an even numbe...

and Daisy doesn't like it!

Thank you for your comments -- both on this blog and privately -- it's nice to know that someone out there is listening LOL!!! Hi Robyn -- it was actually you moving to Stratford that inspired us to go to Stratford.  Hubby retired earlier this year, and we are looking around to see if we should move, or stay where we are.  It's lovely here in the Outlier of Milton (that's a fancy word for being on the escarpment) - a short 5 minute drive and you're into Milton now where you can get everything you could possibly want...do we want to go back to a smaller community, like Milton was 25 years ago, only 20,000 people?  Maybe.....we're going to be investigating different areas...if nothing else it will be fun! OK, a couple of questions....... Elizabeth commented on me being left-handed....and asked about knitting left-handed as her grand-daughter looks like a potential promising knitter. Yes, I am left handed.  But like most left-handed people, I have adapted to a right-...

Done in checkerboard garter stitch -- that's two colours per row - one row of k2 A, K2 B and repeat and a second row, knitting back, using the same shades, to make little garter stitch blocks.  You change up shades as necessary and it makes for quite an effective border. I did on this sweater a garter stitch row in Olive before starting the checkerboard. The pattern is written for this -- but  I obviously got something wrong.....but what I was trying to do was start and end each row of this checkerboard garter stitch edging with a stitch in Olive.....so when you pick up for the neckline band, do your garter stitch checkerboard starting off and finishing with one stitch in Olive. That way you have a one stitch garter row of Olive on the front edges of the neck band. This Olive row, acts as an extension of the steek edge row from the body of the sweater.....so that when you are picking up stitches for the front cardigan bands, you can carry right on up through the garter stitch ...

Knows that I love the Harry Potter books and movies..... so when I heard that there was a Harry Potter exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre - well, I had to go!   The exhibition covered all of the main characters - their costumes and props.  From a knitting point of view - I loved Ron Weasley's sweater (the one knit in marl yarn with the sewn on R, and his knit patchwork blanket -- how adorable.  The most surprising knit aspect was Hagrid's sweater -- it is covered in applied + 's all over it -- and an area that looks like it has been darned with the same yarn -- this kind of detail you don't see in the movies....or do we just not notice these details? When you first walked in, after a video montage, a few of the group were lucky enough to get sorted into their houses.  They asked for volunteers -- I was totally surprised when after a few seconds, DH walked right on up -- of course he is a Griffindor! The doorway to the Griffindor tower was there - complete with ...

It's a magical place, and I loved both of my visits there.......... Some bloggers who have been to Shetland lately..... Jared Flood, Brooklyn Tweed and Mary Jane Mucklestone here and here Liz Lovak, My Life in Orkney and Gudrun Johnston, The Shetland Trader - for a very personal view of Shetland

As soon as the halters come out we know that it's time for a walk on the trail! We love to do everything together.......it's really good when we find a great sniff........... Sometimes we get all tangled up - that's why we have different coloured leads and halters. Honestly, it's hard to tell them apart with a glance -- you have to really look now that they have been trimmed.  DH in particular finds it difficult -- it's a man thing LOL -- so Lackie is in Blue and Daisy is in Red.......Daisy needs to lose a couple of pounds (as do we) so we're hitting the trail almost every day.

I forgot to show you what the steek looks like on the inside - before cutting.  Yes you could trim these off first, but I like to give the ends a little tug, snugging up the stitches - on the right side where the yarns start/stop on each round - snugging them makes a little break "line" on the steek -- makes it really easy to cut.

DH & I had great fun pretending to be film makers..........I was doing the directing, with him behind the camera....... I used to have tips and techniques on my web page (sequential photos) and I'm going to rework this information into videos - stay tuned.....if you need me, I'll be in the editing room! Happy Knitting,

Introducing...... ShadesofShetland.net Yes, a personal domain name for Shades of Shetland. It's still hosted by Blogger....so it will still work from the blogspot.com address...... You can never have too many lamb photos - I've probably already shown you this before - an Ewe with her two lambs - Shetland of course, photo taken in Shetland - is there any other place? but you can just go straight to www.shadesofshetland.net if you'd prefer!

Although I'd heard a lot of comments about the subject of this book being distasteful, and that it wasn't the kind of book they'd like to read.......when my friend mentioned that she'd read it and found it, while hard to describe as enjoyable, a good read. Yes, the fact that the main character of the book is a young girl, murdered while on her way home from school is something that we don't want to hear happening - yet it does happen all the time - but the point of view in the book is this young woman looking down from heaven, at her family and friends, how things have changed because she is gone....it was an amazing book and I'm glad I didn't let the opinion of others deflect me from reading this book. From the back fly leaf of The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold "The Lovely Bones is luminous and astonishing, a novel that builds out of grief the most hopeful of stories. In the hands of a brilliant new writer, this story of the worst thing a family can fa...

One of the most fabulous things about retirement.......now that DH has retired also.......is that you are able to pick up and go whenever you want, wherever you want.....and you can go places on work days while everyone else is well, at work! Last Friday we decided to go to Stratford Ontario - home of the Stratford Festival. Of course I had to check out the local yarn shop - a tiny little store, two small rooms, with a lovely selection of yarn. The store is called " Close Knit Quality Yarn s". While I was there I picked up a copy of the Surprise Jacket pattern from Schoolhouse Press -- the one with Adult, Baby and Children's sizing included. We walked down by the river and saw the Stratford Swans. (You can buy special Swan food at the Tourist Info Centre for $1 - they are well fed!)

Here's my shoulder seam -- I cut open the front and back neckline steeks to turn the sweater inside out, and join the shoulder stitches using the three-needle cast off method.