Testing...testing...part 2

After a long lull in my knitting, I did a few test knits this summer and fall that have inspired me to knit as much as humanly possible again.

The first test knit, which I blogged about here was the Barley Hat by tincanknits. Following that, I was able to test knit the Flax Sweater, also by tincanknits. Both patterns are from the Simple Collection by the knitting duo that was created for people who are new(ish) to knitting. Check out the patterns here. They are fun, relatively easy, and in a variety of patterns that stretch far beyond the beginning knitters scarf.

I will definitely be knitting up more of the patterns, especially since my last knit was the Flax Sweater, which I made for T, who refuses to wear it. The joke is on him - he's 2 years old and I chose the 2 to 4 year old size, so there is plenty of time for me to convince him to wear it. He usually is overheating due to his inability to sit still for more than 10 seconds, so hopefully he might be more amenable to wearing the sweater when it's a little colder.

After trying to figure out which yarn to use for the sweater, and even buying 2 skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Azul Profundo, I fell in love with Dream in Color Classy's Happy Forest and had to hunt down enough for T's sweater. Here is where ravelry.com is a double-edged sword: I would never have seen the yarn and then become obsessed with finding it if not for ravelry, but then would also not have been able to buy it off a fellow raveler. Happily, I did find it and am happy with the results. Even if the sweater is lying on the floor of T's room, unworn. I can bide my time.

I've also had a chance to test knit two patterns for Jane Richmond this fall. One has not been released yet, so I won't mention any more about it, beyond that the pattern will appear in the book that Jane Richmond and Shannon Cook are releasing shortly. And that I totally loved the pattern. I've knit the pattern once but will be knitting it again in the near future.

The other pattern has now been released. I knit a shawl that Jane designed for Knit City 2013. The shawl is named McMilne, after the two producers of Knit City. You can click here to see the pattern page on ravelry and check out Jane's beautiful version. I'm not much of a shawl person, partly because I never know how to wear them. However, this shawl is not only beautiful, but very wearable. I actually had a chance to wear it to Knit City on the Saturday that we attended. It is gorgeous! I was able to poach the two skeins of Malabrigo Rios that I had originally purchased to knit a sweater for T, so I was able to cast on right away once I received the pattern. It was easy to memorize and knit up very fast. I absolutely love the pattern and highly recommend it! Plus, it was really cool to bump into other test knitters and Knit City and see all the different versions of the shawl. Again, highly recommended!

Barley Hat Test Knit

After a long knitting hiatus, this summer I've been knitting like a madwoman. I know it's only a matter of time before I have to go back to work and my knitting time will drastically decrease. I'm trying to finish off a few projects, but decided about a week ago that I wanted to do a test knit.

I was lucky to be able to sign up to test one of the upcoming patterns from tincanknits (see their great website here). I love their patterns. As part of their new series The Simple Collection, they are currently releasing a new pattern each month right now. All of the patterns are free, are projects that a beginning could tackle and are sized come in a range of sizes. I signed up to test the Barley Hat. It's a very cute hat, it's relatively simple to knit, but the pattern also has enough detail to keep it interesting. I spent about two and a half hours knitting it, and here is the final result:

The pattern is written for all sizes, from baby to a large adult size. It's a great pattern and will be my new go-to pattern.

By the way, can you figure out who has learned to dress herself? I love it, because she's going to be starting preschool soon and it will be incredibly helpful that she can get ready on her own. It also makes for some pretty colourful outfits!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Many members of my family are sharing lists of goals for this year with each other. So, in no particular order, here goes:

Yoga x 20 days per month, for the whole year
Practice French more often
Write two blog posts a month
Pay down credit cards
Pay off two student loans
Pay off piano loan
Increase our contributions to our kids' RESP fund
Lose weight
Save money in a TFSA
Clear out my office
Use a cash envelope system, like Gail Vaz-Oxlade recommends
Follow at least two 'bites' per month from One Bite at a Time
Learn to play the violin
Knit one lovely thing each month
And finally, my sister and sister-in-law both set seasonal goals, so I'd like to come up with some fun things to do with my family each season


Not a bad list, if I do say so myself. Everything feels either manageable, like something that I wish I had more of or less of in my life, and/or will stretch me a bit. I really like making lists, especially because I am the kind of person who needs to refer back to them when my energy is running low and all I want to do is have a nap.

Some of these things are lifestyle changes that I want to make. So far, I've done yoga six out of eleven days this month, taking a break for a couple of travel days. Very manageable. I've been tackling the 'Eating Your Frog' and making a list suggestions from One Bite. Again, a bit of structure for things that I already do.

Some of them are pushing me to do things that I've wanted to do for a long time. I have a chance to learn to play the violin right now but I haven't taken it up yet. Even if all I do is learn how to crank out a scratchy version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", I'll be happy. I've also been losing the rest of my baby weight steadily over the last few months, so I'm excited to push myself to do that. You'll notice I didn't put up any specifics about my weight loss. I believe that it's important to know specifics of your goal and how you'll get there. Trust me when I say that I have specific weight loss plans, I just haven't posted them. Likewise, the details of my loans.

And, they also give me permission to do things that I really want to do, with the key word being 'permission'. I love using beautiful yarn to make beautiful things. However, I often don't get exactly what I want. So, this year I'm going to choose one project a month that has been in my knitting queue forever and make it the way that I want to. This month I've chosen to make the Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I splurged and bought two skeins of madelinetosh tosh merino light in antler (the cream colour in my picture). I bought two other skeins to make a dress for my daughter, but then poached the skein of tern for my cardigan (the gray stripe from my picture). I'm going to do stripes of antler, tern and cousteau, which is a rich green. I love how it's turning out so far.

Finally, you might have noticed that none of my goals are work-related. I decided that, following last year's workaholic tendencies, that I wouldn't make any personal goals that were work-related. I work more than I should already. Instead of making goals about limiting how often I work, I decided to add things into my life instead, like more yoga and more knitting, which will help keep my sane and hopefully interfere with some workaholism.

And, on an unrelated topic, in the picture, my cardigan is on top of another skein of yarn that I just opened up. I was approached by a student and asked to make something for a charity auction. I tried not to be, but have to admit that I was flattered that they thought I would make something that people would bid on. The problem is that I don't have a ton of time to spend on it since the event is coming up in a week and a half. I landed on making the Marian Cowl by Jane Richmond. I decided to make it with Rasta yarn by Malabrigo. I went to my LYS to buy a skein, and when they heard what I was doing they donated the yarn, along with about 20 scarf-making kits. I was so impressed, especially since I was about to spend $30 on the yarn, and left the store with several hundred dollars worth of merchandise. I so excited to tell the student who originally asked me about the donation from the yarn store. Good karma!