Vintage Socks

One of my very favourite knitting pattern designers is Susan B. Anderson. She can do no wrong. I was an off-again, on-again knitter until I discovered her book Itty Bitty Hats. Now, as my husband likes to call it, I 'knitblog', which I think really says something about how she is so inspirational. Susan has a great series of Itty Bitty books as well as a very cute book called Spud and Chloe at the Farm. I don't have the last book yet but it's only a matter of time. Susan also has published many free patterns - not only is she a brilliant designer, she's very generous too.

Susan recently shared some of her latest knit socks on her blog. She had such a big response to the posting that she wrote down her personal pattern for making socks - found here (and here is the ravelry page). Although I've got a few other projects on the go or waiting in the wings, I had to cast on for this pattern right away. I dug out a skein of my precious yarntini Self Striping Sock yarn in Vintage.

Susan's sock pattern is a quick and easy knit. She has mastered the art of pattern writing. Her instructions are always crystal clear. This pattern would be perfect if you wanted to try casting on for your first pair of hand-knit socks.

The best part for me...Susan and I have the exact same size feet, so I followed the pattern exactly. Not a single change. They fit perfectly. I had planned on doing my weekly update today, but I decided instead that I had to write about my lovely new socks. Did I mention that I love them?

Weekly Update

This has been a busy, stressful week this week - hence, my Monday post is being written on Friday. Next week is another week, right? Trying to sort out lots of job stuff for next year, which will hopefully be resolved very soon. Also...we're going to be moving (very close by) in July. Big changes brewing in our household.

Some things I'm knitting this week:
Lovely socks. A great pattern (as always) by Susan B. Anderson, called How I Make My Socks. I especially love that I can follow her exact pattern because we have exactly the same size feet. I finally broke out this yarn, which I had been hoarding for a long time. It's Yarntini's Self Striping sock in the Vintage colour way.

Some things I'm loving this week:
Watching my kids play together. Having 'help' in the kitchen from my daughter. Learning to cook around M's food allergies (no dairy, no soy, no gluten, no peanuts).

Some things I'm working on this week: 
Keeping my sanity? Actually, working hard on keeping my personal integrity during a stressful time. Also, figuring out what I want and how to ask for it.

Happy (Late) Valentines Day!

While my husband and I don't really do a lot to celebrate Valentines Day (for example, I wrote down on the grocery list that I wanted a few bunches of red tulips - romantic, isn't it?), I had a lot of fun this year with Valentines crafts with my daughter. She made some Valentines cards to hand out to her friends.

We put up some Valentines stickers, but the windows still looked a little bare. Inspired by this post, we made our own hearts with crayon shavings. I didn't have a crayon or pencil sharpener, so I used a knife to create shavings. M helped choose the colours and unwrapped the crayons. Have you ever seen a two year old concentrate like that? T was a good sport and hung out with us while we worked.

M and her wild, wavy hair. T wanted to grab hold of the crayon shavings to stick them in his mouth.

Crayon shavings, before melting...

...and after.

I used a cookie cutter to trace heart shapes. We decided that we liked the pieces of waxed paper that had only a little bit of crayon shavings too.

Hope you had a great Valentines Day!

Weekly Update

I had a great birthday on Saturday. I treated myself to some new tea from Silk Road Tea. I got their Summer Shangri-La tea, which I absolutely love (you have to scroll down to the near the bottom of the page). I also grabbed two new tea cups that match my favourite tea pot. 

I was also spoiled by a good friend who got me a pack of three tins of Silk Road teas, as well as other very lovely presents from friends. Apparently when I ask for no presents, it means that everyone brings me presents. 

Some knitting this week:

-I picked up my First Snow Mittens again and cast on for the second mitten. The thing about mittens is that it's best when you have two that you can wear! I finished the first, which was all that was needed for the test knit. I put the project down so that I could do some Christmas knitting and haven't picked it up since then. It's knit from the bottom up, and so far I've finished the first two rows of snowflakes.

-I have a bunch of projects that I want to finish up, but when I saw that Susan B. Anderson posted a pattern for a pair of socks, I decided that I had to cast on for it. I have a skein of Yarntini Vintage that I've been hoarding, so I pulled it out and it's on it's way to becoming a very cute pair of socks.

Self-Striping Sock by Yarntini, in Vintage colorway.

-I still haven't sorted out the Square Upon Square pattern. I know that I wanted to change the pattern a bit but haven't had time to sit and work on it.

I finished my Forest Baby Pullover this past week and posted pictures here.  I so excited because I was able to finish off my Winterfresh Cardigan too. I LOVE it. I haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet, but it's one of my favourite projects that I've finished. I'm actually going to wear it today. Stay tuned for pictures.

Some things I'm loving this week:

-Valentine's Day! My husband and I don't typically celebrate the day, although sometimes we'll get each other a little gift, like some tulips. I'm really enjoying doing some Valentine's Day projects with my daughter, which I'll show tomorrow.

-T is getting more mobile by the minute. He's figured out how to roll, so when he's hanging out in our living room, he's all over the place. Today he also figured out how to make a clicking noise with his tongue. It's pretty cute to look over at him and for him to respond with a loud click and a big grin.

-My husband and I started dating 17 years ago, on February 16th. I just turned 34 years old. So, doing the math, I've now officially been with my husband for half my life. Wow!

Some things I'm working on this week:

-More cringe-worthy errands! I was easily able to do three last week, but want to do another three this week.

-I wasn't able to get together some boxes of donations last week, so I'd love to do it this week.

-Although I didn't make it to 8 glasses of water every day last week, I definitely drank more water. I'm going to keep going with this goal this week.

-Yoga. Hmm. I wasn't able to do this goal last week, so I'm putting it back on the list for this week. I did have two times in the last week when I had time to do some yoga, but went for a massage and out for a drink with friends (not at the same time!) instead.

That's all from me. How did you do with your goals last week? What does the week ahead look like?

Forest Baby Sweater

Although I have a  long list of things that I want to knit (my current ravelry queue is almost 400 items long), every once in a while I get sucked into a test knit. There's a forum on ravelry for people who design their own patterns to request help from other knitters to knit their design, to check if the pattern is accurate (fit, stitch count, do the directions make sense?, etc.).

I recently saw a test knit for the Forest Baby and Child Pullover by Helen from NEEDdesigns (I'll add a link to the pattern page when it's posted). Helen has a whole bunch of really cute patterns that you can find on her ravelry page here. I especially love the Array pattern - I might need to make one for M. You can find Helen's blog here for more info. (An aside - Helen is also a paediatrician who also has four kids. I'm assuming that she never sleeps!)

I was sucked right in. It's a cute little sweater that comes in many different sizes. I haven't knit much for T, and he's now 8 months old. I think the reason is a combination of not having as many cute little boy patterns to draw from plus now having two kids, multiplied by a series of many half-finished projects around my house.

Anyway, I saw this little pullover and had to test knit it. The clincher was that it's knit with two strands of worsted weight yarn (for any non-knitters out there, the bulkier the yarn + the bigger the needles = the faster the project knits up).

I dug through my stash and pulled out some Berroco Vintage yarn, leftover from my July Heat Wave Ruffle Wrap. The colour is called Gingham and is a nice, soft blue. I had some other Vintage that I could use for the accents (the colours were Mochi and Chambray). Overall, I knit the 12 month size sweater in three days, although I could have done it in two if I hadn't run out of yarn (that's how the stash keeps growing - knit a project using yarn from your stash, go buy more to finish a project, end up with more yarn in your stash than when you started!).

T was nice and cozy in his new sweater. Pretty cute, isn't it?

I love being able to test someone's designs. It also really inspires me to get my act together and publish my own...goals for next week, perhaps?

Weekly Update

For the longest time, I've been a list maker. This drives my husband nuts but helps me out, especially in my sleep-deprived state. I'm a night owl, which means that I usually make lists at night and then have no memory of what went on that list early in the morning (you know, when shops are open...). In the spirit of making lists, I've decided to do a weekly update about things that I enjoy and appreciate, things that I'm hoping to accomplish during the week and, of course, my lovely knitting projects. So, without further ado, my first weekly update...

Some knitting this week:

- working on my Winterfresh Kina cardigan. I've made good progress on it but have been a little bored with the rows and rows of stockinette lately. I'm this close to finishing, so I'm trying to keep it up.

-testing a pattern for someone to check for accuracy. The pattern is called Forest Baby and Child Pullover by NEEDdesigns (on ravelry here). This is almost instant gratification! A baby sweater knit with two strands of worsted weight yarn held together. So fast.

-starting a Redheart pattern called Square Upon Square, which is a crocheted blanket. I love the colour and design of the blanket. I've finally wised up about bigger projects like this and started off with only one ball of yarn, rather than buying all ten up front. This is sometimes how I'm left with a million skeins of yarn. I was thinking about doing a square or so a day, which means it should be finished in about three months or so. I'm not in love with how the squares are joined so I'm trying to change the pattern to my liking. The first set of squares that I'm doing are a similar colour to the picture above.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to show off the finished cardigan and baby sweater in less than a week. By the way, can you guess what my favourite colour is?

Some things I'm loving this week:
-my 34th birthday. I don't typically like to do anything big for it. I'm not sure what we'll do this year. Maybe dinner at a restaurant?

-going to the White Heather Tea Room with a very good friend. We order the Big Muckle Giant Tea for Two every time we go and this visit I brought home a package of Mad Hatter tea. If you're ever in Victoria, it's worth a visit - just make sure you book ahead.

-M and T sharing a bedroom! So far this has been a love/hate relationship. We finally bit the bullet and stuck T in his crib in the bedroom. The first night there was a bit of crying but it was pretty smooth. The last two nights they've been taking turns getting up every 30 minutes or so, with last night being particularly bad - M was up for about three hours in the middle of the night. Ugh. But, I do really love having the rest of the house to ourselves again.

-M finally using the potty! In the midst of the Nights With No Sleep, she decided that she's going to do everything on her own, including using the potty. We were all very excited about this milestone (for evidence, see here and here) and made a very big deal out of it. M has been announcing details of the experience to anyone who will listen.

Some things I'm working on this week:
-getting together one or two boxes of items to donate

-doing at least three cringe-worthy errands. These are chores that I've been putting off for any number of reasons but I cringe about every time I think about them. I want to get some of these done instead of letting them take up real estate in my thoughts everyday (like they are right now).

-going to do yoga four times this week

-drinking eight glasses of water a day. I (like most people) don't drink enough water, so I'm going to consciously do this for the next week.

That's all from me. What does your week look like?

You Know You Drink Too Many London Fogs When You Need To Start Making Your Own Syrup...

As I've already written about, I have a serious love affair going on with London Fogs. In an effort to try to be somewhat economical, I started making my own at home, rather than buying them from a coffee shop all the time - you can see my recipe here. Vanilla syrup is a crucial part of the London Fog. I figured that out after a few experiments trying to make my own London Fogs at home, then started buying my syrup from a local coffee shop. I didn't like that I had all the other ingredients on hand, so I decided to try my hand at making vanilla syrup. The only problem? Vanilla beans are super expensive.

So, I did some research and I discovered that a cheap place to buy vanilla beans is on ebay. I know, who would have guessed? The once precious beans (that were in the cupboard only to be looked at, never to be used) are now ingredients that I use all the time. The package that I last ordered was 30 beans for $10 Canadian, and they were perfect. I was worried that they were going to be terrible and shrivelled, but they were great. The beans that I ordered weren't as long as the ones that you can buy in the grocery store, but the last ones that I bought in the grocery store came in a glass vial and were 2 beans for $8 Canadian. I think I'll stick with ebay.

So, my recipe:

Homemade Vanilla Syrup

2 (to 2 1/2) cups sugar

1 cup water

3 vanilla beans

Mix sugar and water together, bring to a gentle simmer. In the meantime, cut the beans lengthwise, scrape out the vanilla seeds and add it to the mixture. I also throw in the whole beans after they've been scraped out. And that's it. I let it simmer for a little while (maybe 10 minutes?), being sure to stir it often so that it doesn't burn. It turns a lovely golden colour and makes the house smell delicious. Using a small funnel, I then pour it into a bottle with a stopper. The bottle that I used had about a cup of Pippins cider from Sea Cider Farm and Ciderhouse at the time, so I took one for the team and finished it. I know, that was big of me.

Slicing up the vanilla beans and scraping out the seeds. I actually scrape the seeds out with the back of the knife, then wipe the knife back on to the bean and toss the whole this into the pot. 

Simmering away. Notice the burn mark on the spoon - this is not an uncommon occurrence in my house. You can see the clusters of vanilla seeds that were scraped out of the beans, as well as the whole vanilla beans floating in the syrup mixture.

Incidentally, I made my second to last batch of syrup about a week before we left for Christmas vacation. When we came back about two weeks later, the bottle looked like this:

The sugar had crystallized and was covering the sides of the bottle and the vanilla beans that I had stuck in the bottle. There wasn't much left, which is why I had to make a new batch not long after the last one. I think that sticking the vanilla beans directly in the bottle just gave the sugar more surface area to crystallize, so it went a little faster. However, it had a lovely vanilla taste and the crystals were beautiful.

It' so satisfying to make my own drinks every morning, knowing that the cost of making my own at home is a fraction of the cost of buying one in a coffee shop (My estimate per cup - about 30 cents, using premium earl grey tea). I also love that I now have delicious vanilla syrup at home that I can use in other ways - I'm sure it would be delicious poured over ice cream or in a mixed drink. 

February Goals Update

So, it's February. How did this happen already? January went by in a flash. I can't think of what's been keeping me so busy.

Wait, now I have it.

Exhibits A and B:

M is growing by leaps and bounds. We have full conversations and her memory is incredible. I told her about a surprise yesterday, assuming she wouldn't remember. When my husband got her up after her long nap, it was the first thing she told him about. She's a very happy, friendly little girl now that we've figured out her allergies and have changed her diet.

T has stretched out over the last few weeks, getting even taller. He loves solid food (which is actually an understatement; the kid hasn't met a food that he doesn't like). He sits up easily on his own and is this close to crawling. I have mixed feelings about that one, since I currently enjoy that I can put him down and come back a minute later to find him close to where I put him.

My goal of knitting and having a cup of tea everyday has been really successful so far. I've been able to knit every day. I sometimes do it at midnight, but I make sure I take some time. I've also been able to sit with a cup of tea (usually while knitting) every day as well (except the day I had hot chocolate instead - I'm still counting it!). It seems like such a small thing, but because it's my goal to knit and drink tea every day, I'm getting into the routine of finding a little bit of quiet time for myself. The act of taking this time has been great for me. In my work as a counsellor (when I'm not on maternity leave) I talk to people all the time about finding some down time. I love that I've found a great way to put it into action for myself. It's also great that I've been vocal about it, because my husband has been supportive of me doing it and often volunteers to take the kids out to play to give me a bit of time to myself.

I've been doing yoga on and off for the past few weeks as well and have really enjoyed it. I tried to do it for a week straight, but ended up doing four days in a row. The fifth day, my option was to do yoga at midnight or go to bed, and I chose to go to bed.

I try to practice a philosophy that a good friend shared with me. Years ago, I was talking about something that I had eaten that was bad for me and how I felt guilty. She talked about not beating myself up or restricting myself - rather, she suggested that I add something positive instead. So, have a chocolate bar, but also have a spinach salad with your dinner. I love that philosophy because it takes all the guilt and shame out of decisions and focuses on the positive. It definitely fits with my glass half full kind of thinking.

So, on my end note. I've mentioned before that I want to create and post 12 knitting patterns this year. I was thinking that I would do one a month. I've actually completed one project but need to still write up the pattern, and I'm half finished another project. I have ideas for another five or six. So, while I didn't meet my goal of posting the first pattern in January, the bigger goal of 12 patterns is very doable. I think part of it is just be brave (there's something a little vulnerable about putting your work out into the cosmos). For me, a big part of accomplishing a goal like this is to talk to people and share your goals with them. So, now I've done it. Stay tuned...my first pattern will be out shortly.

What's your goal?