That’s a Wrap!

Hello fellow knitters, textile artists & those who ended up on this blog post by accident. I should have posted long before now but am determined to get one more post published in 2017. 

I got some great knitting tools and resources this Christmas that I am excited to use. I got some pompom makers (very needed), a fantastic set of interchangeable double pointed needles, and three magazines. The Knit Simple Christmas edition has so many nice projects that I hope to make as gifts for next season. Thanks to my wonderful family for their constant support of my favourite hobby. 

Socks seemed to be the most popular project for me this year. I had a really enjoyable time teaching intermediate knitting at City Centre Community School. (BTW if you can spare 2 hours once a week for January & February they are looking for a knitting instructor.  You won’t regret it! ) This year, I hope to try some more adventurous sock patterns. Details to follow. (Probably not pictures though, I’m pretty terrible at that)

I’m not having much luck at my local yarn shops finding some Plymouth yarn that my mom needs to finish a project. Online shopping we go!

Some other knitting goals I would like to work on in 2018 are:

• Sewing seams
• Basic colourwork
• Two stranded knitting

Now that I’m somewhat settled in Dartmouth, I’ll be back to teaching knitting basics. I’ll be doing a session for beginners at Findlay Community Centre as well as a drop-in group at a couple of local libraries. Dates TBD but will post here and on Facebook as soon as I have them. 

Well readers, I wish you all the best in 2018. Thanks for coming along on my knitting adventures; hope you join me in the New Year. 

-Krista

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Yes, it’s been awhile

Hello all! I’m writing from my new digs in Dartmouth. This is my last week living on PEI, but don’t worry I’ll be back lots to visit.

With the big move, I’ve had to confront just how much yarn I really have accumulated. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot. In the interest of the limited space we have now and just not wanting to see so much yarn sit unused, I’m going on the hunt for a local organization that may have some individuals that could use the yarn for their own projects. If you know of any in the Dartmouth area, I would be grateful if you would let me know.

Since I’ve been so transient the last three months, I haven’t been working on any large projects. I’ve made some dishcloths for Thing 1’s new apartment, and I started a pair of socks for myself using Sock-Ease Cotton Candy yarn using the old reliable pattern from Knit Simple. I did find some nice Kroy sock yarn today, and plan to use this for a pair of spiral socks for my best guy. I’ve never made this pattern before but my mom has and she really likes it. Will follow up later on my progress!

There are some great independent knitting stores in the HRM. I’ve visited The Loop on Barrington and Dartmouth Yarns (which is in walking distance for me) and I am looking forward to becoming a frequent visitor to both as the service and yarn selections are great. There is a third store in the Hydrostone that I haven’t been to yet but a visit is high on my to-do list!

Another amazing resource here are the HRM public libraries. The amount of knitting and fibre arts books are AMAZING. I spend so much time poring over the wide variety of books.

Well readers, I hope your knitting projects are going well. Feel free to share what you’re working on.

Until next time,

Krista

 

Guess Who’s Back?

I thought this was an appropriate title since I could easily win an award for “Most Inconsistent Blogger” (in addition to “Worst Running Partner”). Things have been a bit chaotic since our little family is in the midst of slowly relocating to NS. My best guy is there now; Thing 2 and I are in PEI until the end of June so she can finish the school year. I have to knit to stay sane during this process!

Since we are selling our house, I have to pack up just about everything I have to put in storage since our place in NS is not ready until July. Yes, we did a great job planning this … if the plan was to make it as hectic as possible. In this process, I packed ALL my yarn and ALL my knitting needles except for three sets. and put it in our storage locker. The only reason these three very diverse sets made the cut is because they were in my knitting bag already. I did not realize at the time how bad of an idea this really was. Thankfully my wonderful mother saved the day by taking me to Michael’s so I could load up on cheap Handicrafter yarn and I did get a ball of sock yarn. So now I am keeping myself entertained by knitting dishcloths for the new place. Using some different patterns so that’s kinda fun.

I guess the Azul pullover will become a fall project.

I’m hoping to get to meet with the library group a few more times before I hit the road. I miss seeing them. Looking forward to meeting folks in the NS knitting community this summer though!

I hope to write again soon, but if not, at least you know why!

Happy knitting!

Krista

 

 

Sock it to me!

I have no real idea what that phrase means or where it’s appropriate to use it but socks have been a prominent theme for my last few posts. Despite saying that I was taking a break from making socks, I’ve been working on the yoga socks. This pattern might make it onto my “more trouble than it’s worth” list. I hope to have the second one done this weekend. Unfortunately, I have not had a lot of time this week to knit, and that is such a drag.

Next week is the closing ceremony for City Centre Community School since the weather prevented us from having it on the originally scheduled date. I usually knit something to donate as a door prize, I’m not sure how this happened, but I completely forgot to make something (insert facepalm here). How fast can I whip up a snazzy headband? Or even better … convince my mom to donate something that she made! Regardless, it’s going to be a fantastic evening celebrating with our learner community. I’ll try to get a photo of the table proudly displaying our creations from the winter semester (and put in in a post).

Despite really really wanting to get started on the Azul pullover for myself (still have not bought that yarn), I also would like to do some major stashbusting. I seem to have rather a lot of odds and ends so it’s time to put that One Skein Wonder book to good use.

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

But my goodness, I am terrible at adding photos to my blog. Despite the witty repartee and helpful knitting tips, I’m certain some of you would like to see some pictures of what I work on. Spoiler alert – it isn’t going to be in this post though 😦

This Tuesday is the last night for the City Centre Community School Winter 2017 Semester. I had a fantastic time teaching these learners, and hope they got as much out of the experience as I did! I’ve encouraged them to display their projects that evening, and I hope some of them choose to because they have all done an amazing job. I finally finished the second sock to the pair I was working on for these 10 weeks and will display them along with some that my mom made. The weather might not cooperate with us though; fingers crossed that the winter storm passes us by so we can party with our fellow learners, instructors, and volunteers.

I needed a quick project to work on so I am making the Paton’s yoga socks for my mom. I’m using the Deborah Norville Serenity sock yarn, and lovely birch needles made in a Nova Scotia farm. I just started these today but expect them to knit up pretty quickly.

Well knitters, I hope you have a fantastic week and find lots of time for knitting. Let’s talk again soon!

kristaknits

 

 

 

 

Success!

This is one of the rare times that I am having trouble coming up with a fun title. Thankfully though no problems coming up with good stuff for this post though!

Chris’s beanie hat is done! And I did not have to unravel the other hat previously made from the lovely Plymouth Yarns Coffee Beenz (phew). I would have liked to make the hat a teensy bit larger but it does still work for him. I have learned some valuable lessons from this exercise.

I have the cuff and part of the heel flap done for the second sock of the pair I created during the Community School semester so I’m feeling pretty darn good about that as well. This Tuesday is the last full teaching night of the semester, and I still cannot believe how quickly the last nine weeks have gone by. It’s been a great experience, and one I hope to get to repeat in Fall 2017 or Winter 2018. Some students are even on their second pair of socks!

I’ve decided to take a break from making socks for a bit and work on a project I have been wanting to work on for awhile – the Azul pullover (for me). I didn’t see the yarn at Michael’s the last time I was in (FYI that’s the Bernat Softee Chunky), but my awesome mom found it at two locations in Montague with a wide selection of colours to boot and very good prices since I need 6 balls! She is strongly hinting that I should make it in burgundy, but I’m not 100% sure yet. Possibly a brown or natural colour is what I’ll go with. Stay tuned for updates on this project. I’m so excited to make this.

Thing 2 was snowboarding in Nova Scotia this weekend, and we stayed in Halifax. I took this time to go to a great knitting store in the city – The Loop. Despite taking a break from knitting socks, something about that self-striping, oh-so-colourful sock yarn just reels me right in. There was so much selection and it was also 20% off. And yes, I walked out of there with a ball of Opal sock yarn and some new slightly curved darning needles in a nifty hard plastic case that can withstand me lugging my knitting everywhere (hey, I might get a few minutes to squeeze in some knitting in between things!). The sales clerk insists that these curved needles will make the Kitchener graft that much more bearable. And I will have a sock ready soon enough to test this theory out.

While in the city and since it was just around the corner, I stopped at Deserres since they have a small but pretty decent yarn section. Nothing really caught my attention there this time around, but I did pick up a free pattern for a scarf from Bergere de France that I plan to make for Thing 1. Thing 1 is not quite as into winter as the rest of us, and would probably appreciate a cozy scarf while navigating the streets of Montreal.

Local crafters, save the date, reschedule your brunches, go for that run later in the day because the annual G’Ma Group Fabric and Yarn Sale is happening on March 11th at Park Royal United Church at 9 am. Many, many good deals to be had. I’ve gone the past few years and have always found some gems. Get there early; there is usually a line that goes outside of the building.

Well folks, time to wrap this up for now. Back soon with more tales of my knitting adventures.

Happy knitting!

KGM

 

 

 

 

 

Decisions, decisions

Hello readers! I just got back from a walk around the boardwalk with my best guy to shake off some of the stress from the day. Looking forward to working on Chris’s hat, but I am perilously close to running out of the yarn I am using. And guess what? I can’t buy it locally! So, do I take a chance and hope that I have enough yarn to make this super cute beanie or do I unravel the smaller hat I previously made with this yarn? Ugh, I just can’t decide. Tune in for future updates.

Last week’s knitting class gave me a great topic to research. None of my students were really excited about doing the Kitchener stitch for the toes – despite me telling them that it really isn’t that bad. One student was curious about using the three needle bind off to do the toes instead. Knowing that this technique is usually used for doing shoulder seams for a sweater, I wasn’t entirely sold … but I was curious too. The three needle bind off usually requires the “wrong side” of the pieces of work to be facing outwards – that could be tricky with a sock. As well, this technique creates a visible seam whereas the Kitchener stitch does not. Despite its knacky nature, I’m probably going to stick with the Kitchener stitch for my socks.

Well, it looks like more episodes of Seinfeld, sitting on the couch with a sleepy cat, and working on the beanie for the rest of the evening.

Happy Monday Knitters!

K.

 

Oh, bother!

So last week, I was making a lovely beanie hat for my best guy with Plymouth Yarns Coffee Beanz. And as you likely guessed from the title of this post, the finished hat is too small every which way for his noggin. Now I’m starting over, increasing the pattern both in stitches and in length (puh-leeze let this math work out!) and hoping that I have enough yarn in that ball to pull it off. This small but supercute hat will be donated to a charity that my mom knits for.

At Community School tonight,  I saw the first pair of socks from one of my learners. And they are great!  Much better than my first pair!  We also did a demo of the Kitchener graft (or stitch). This leads me to my goals for the next couple of weeks. 

1. Learning to do the Kitchener graft without an “ear”
2. Learning the three needle bind off

Stay tuned for updates on the beanie. Wish me luck.

Happy knitting! 

Krista

So many projects, so little time

Like most knitters, I have yarn stashed all over my house. And no shortage of knitting patterns either. Now just to find more time in a week to get all these projects made. I am very grateful to be able to schedule knitting on Tuesday nights with City Centre Community School. I have a sock almost finished, ready to show the learners how to do the Kitchener graft on the toe.

I’m going to try a new hat pattern for Chris. I’m using the Plymouth Yarn in Coffee Beenz and a pattern from 101 One Skein Wonders. Will keep you all posted on how it goes! I’ve made the last two slightly too big for him so fingers crossed this one fits nice and snug.

What are you knitting?

 

Welcome to 2017

Hello readers!

This is my first post of 2017, and I am looking forward to sharing another year of knitting adventures – albeit on a more frequent basis 🙂

I’ve started off the year visiting some new knitting stores – Nancy’s in North Conway NH and Trailside Yarn Shoppe in Kensington PE. Both were excellent establishments with great variety. Especially sock yarns!

I’m back teaching at City Centre School this winter, and I am proud to say that I have met a personal goal of mine by doing so. I’m teaching my students how to make a basic cuff down sock with a heel. I decided at the very last minute to offer this class, and I am so glad that I did. My students are progressing so well with their projects. I look forward to seeing them every week. I’m also very excited because my mom, who is an AMAZING knitter, is helping Fme out with the class. I’m knitting along with the group using Lane Cervinia ‘Forever’ sock yarn from Italy that I bought from Nancy’s.

I just finished making the Briggs and Little Heavy Socks pattern for my husband using beautiful wool from MacAusland’s Woolen Mill (right here on PEI). I went with a 9 inch cuff instead of the 11 inch, and the socks took 3 skeins. Great for our many winter adventures.

I’m planning on taking a break from socks once I have finished the ones I am working on with my class. I think I’m going to treat myself and make the Azul pullover for me!

Well friends, I’m going to try my best for 2017 to post more often and include pictures of my projects. Let’s keep the adventures going – share with me what you’re working on!