wip: Fuzzy Lamb and some other stuff

Whew, it's been a while!  I've been busy teaching classes, running a busy shop, trying to catch up on paperwork (ARGH PAPERWORK), and training a new employee.  I'm definitely creating though.  My current favourite project is one I just started on Saturday, but that's been on my brain for a while now.

Fuzzy Lamb is a ridiculously adorable pattern by Fuzzy Mittens, and I've been itching to knit it ever since a customer came in looking for yarn to knit it a year ago.  When I opted to bring in Drops Alpaca Boucle, I knew I had to knit it up into this cute little lamb!

Though I have to tell you, the boucle is a nightmare to work with.  Cripes, I keep catching up those little loops, decreasing and increasing is a mess, and forget reading your fabric!  It's so ridiculously soft though, that it's worth the effort.

As you can see, I've got the body and legs done.  Two more limbs and a head, and I'll be able to start stuffing and sewing this adorable little stuffy.

Guys, I'm so stoked to have this little buddy in the shop.  I'm definitely going to have to knit a wee little sweater for it, and I can see working on a bunch of clothes and accessories for it.  EEEE so fun!

In other news, my sock class finished up this afternoon.  LOOK AT ALL THE SOCKS!  Almost everyone finished up at least one sock in the 3 week class, and a couple finished both today.  :)  I also finished up my pair, but I'll post about that another day, since I need to lengthen on and sew in about a thousand ends.

Also, Lady Aurora was stunning the other night, dancing right over-top of Whitehorse.  I should have driven up Grey Mountain for a view of the northern lights over the city, but instead I hoofed it down the path behind my house to get away from the streetlights and oogled the light through the trees.  Sorry for my crummy photo; I refused to deal with finding my good camera and just used my camera phone.

In a way, it's easy to forget how lucky we are here.  People make the trip north just to see the lights, and I often don't bother to go out to watch them.  But sometimes, you just need to go out and appreciate just how stunning our world is, and what beauty can be found, even in your backyard.

Ever seen the northern (or southern!) lights before?  I grew up watching them in Manitoba, but the displays are stunning up here.  You should definitely come up to see them (in the winter only - we don't even see the stars in the summer, with 20+ hours of daylight), and definitely pop in and say hello to me at my shop!  <3

sskal Projects

Oh jeez guys, it's been a while.  Sorry, it's been a busy summer!  As usual, I've been crafting a lot, I just haven't found time to take photos and, more importantly, write up some posts.

I've joined the Very Shannon Summer Sweater KAL again this year in an effort to finish up a few sweaters.  My buddy Margaret has outright forbidden me from starting any new sweaters until I finished up some of the...more than I'd like to count...sweaters I already have on needles.  And since I'm biting at the bit to start my Skogafjall, I'm focusing on some of my old wips.

I'll be knitting it out of some gorgeously rustic wool from Custom Woolen Mills in Alberta (Canadian raised sheep wool, Canadian milled, Canadian bought.  Oh yeah, go Canada!), in two undyed natural shades (grey and dark brown) and some naturally dyed wool from a woman in Atlin, BC (green).  SO EXCITED.

But first, I have to finish the second sleeve and then button band of my Amiga, shown at the top of the post.  It's probably going to be the most wearable sweater I'll ever make, but dear pete is it ever a boring knit.  Stockinette stockinette stockinette in solid black.  UGH just magically be done already.

I've had a couple of other successes in this KAL though.  I'd accidentally cast on a baby sweater right before the KAL started, and finished it within the first week of it.  It's a store sample in Diamond Luxury Fine Merino Superwash Aran and A Simple Baby Sweater.  Quick knit, though I found the instructions for joining in the round after the henley lacking.  I added some notes on my Rav project page to explain it if you're interested.  I love this little green sweater so much, and I'm tempted to swipe it and send it to my buddy who's about to have a baby!

I also tackled a really old wip.  I pulled out my old Reverb sweater to reassess the sweater.  It's so pretty, with this gorgeous yarn and lovely cables, and I was well past the arm divide when I put it down.  But I put it down literally years ago, back in 2013, and my tension has loosened up considerably since then.  There's no way I can finish this without it looking wonky, and the fabric was knit much tighter than I prefer now-a-days.

So I frogged it.  Sad in a way, but I didn't realize how much it was weighing on my mind until it was just a huge ball of yarn again, so I'm glad I did it.  SUCCESS!

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

One of the reasons I've been so busy this summer is that I'm spending a lot of time with both friends and myself.  I feel better every day, though I'm still struggling with some parts of our breakup last winter.  I can't even believe it's been nearly 7 months, but I'm relearning myself and I like the person I'm finding.  I feel like I'm finally lifting my head up after being weighed down for the last few years, so obviously this is a good change in my life.  It's taken a while to admit that, but admitting it sure helped.

So did buying myself a new toy.  Friends, meet the Little Guy.  We've gone on a few adventures already, and I can't wait to hitch him up to my little car and go camping again this weekend!

Take care of yourselves, folks.  Hopefully it won't take so long for another update!  <3

Mending Slippers, Mending Hearts

We're nearly a week into March and I still keep thinking it's January; I feel like I've lost February - where did you go February?  Nearly a week into March means that I've been in my new apartment for that long, and while I still feel like I'm couch surfing, it should feel more like mine soon.  I'm hoping to get the majority of my Stuffs packed up and moved to the apartment, and I'm looking forward to getting settled in here.  Some stability will help immensely.

I've been plugging away on some projects, but the best one of late was mending a pair of slippers.  Guys, my new apartment - while awesome! - has cold floors, and the slippers I have with me had a couple of holes in the left slipper.  :(  Last night, I grabbed some spare wool yarn and a needle, and fixed that sucker right up while listening to my favourite audiobook (World War Z).

I've never mended socks or slippers or anything in this way before - in a cross-hatched woven technique.  I've duplicate stitched a lot of small holes in knitting before, but these were too big to get away with that.  It's a bit rough and probably should've been woven tighter, but I'm proud of how they turned out.  I have a set of leather patches to add to the bottom of theses slippers...somewhere, so I'm not overly concerned about how these will hold up since they'll be covered.

The mended patch works for now though, and my feet are snuggly warm in my newly fixed slippers!

I don't think I've blogged about these before.  They're a cute pair of bunny slippers from this pattern here, knitted and felted a few years back (my Ravelry project page with no pictures tells me summer 2014).  I never got around to finishing them - the poor left-footed bunny never even got a nose on her.  Maybe once my Stuffs are here, I'll dig up that pink yarn and fix her right up.  Maybe give them both some eyes.

It's a little thing, but it's nice to have these in use again.  It's one of the few personal items that I have at the apartment that I haven't had to go out and purchase nor moved around with me from couch to couch these last 6 weeks or so.  A little touch of home in my new one, and it's amazing how much better that makes me feel.  :)

wip: A Lonely Shawl

I started writing this blog post a few weeks ago, but things took a sad turn in my life soon after, and now the subject of this post has come to mean something else to me.

Back in January, I hosted a pop-up shop for Megan Samms, a textile artist out of Atlin, BC who weaves fabric and dyes yarn from Custom Woolen Mills (a wee mill in Alberta, Canada) using natural dyes.  Her stuff is just lovely, and I have all the yarn I need to knit this gorgeous colourwork sweater.  (Keep an eye out for more on this project - I'm desperate to start it.)

I also bought a skein of her handdyed 1 ply yarn in this greenish-grey shade dyed from the South American Quebracho tree.  See, I've been itching to add a triangle shawl to my wardrobe, and while black would've been far more practical, I couldn't put this pretty yarn down.

I balled the yarn up (by hand because this yarn breaks like a mofo if you put too much pressure on it, hense vetoing my ball winder set up), and found the pattern I wanted.  But, I've been under a lot of stress lately, between the store, our busy schedules and no time to spend with the boyfriend, financial concerns, and some health issues that are rearing their heads of late.  A tiny spat that got blown out of proportion showed that the boyfriend and I were obviously bottling crap up and lead to a talk that evening.  I wanted us to work on drifting back together after so much time drifting apart.  He didn't want to try.

So uh, I went into the talk expecting to making plans to work on our relationship, and basically left it homeless and alone.  More alone, I guess.  I was already near the breaking point, and this ratcheted my stress levels well beyond it.

But I've learned that I have an amazingly supportive group of friends here in the Yukon, and I'm so thankful for that.  I'm not good at reaching out for help when I need it, but they've all rallied and are giving me the support I so desperately need right now.  I don't have a home, but I'm not without places to stay.  I'm overwhelmed with the store, but they're covering shifts for me so I can pack up my stuff.  I'm so hurt and lonely, but they're pulling me out of my head and giving me strength.

This is more personal than I ever wanted to get on this blog, but I need another outlet, a place where I can reach out without having to ask, a place where I can write down the good things, but still look at the hard bits without downplaying it to the friends who worry about me.  I'm going to be fine.  I'm a strong and independent woman and I've survived much worse.  This one just pulled the rug out from under me unexpectedly and it's going to take me more time to get my feet under me again, I think.

All of this leads back to my triangle shawl.  I started it a week and a half ago because I needed a more complicated project to keep my brain distracted and my hands busy, but nothing too complicated that I couldn't figure it out with the on-average 4 hours sleep/night I'd been getting.  And this shawl was the perfect project.

It only recently occurred to me that the pattern name, the Lonely Tree Shawl, was probably somewhat apt.  It's become my coping project - the thing I pick up when I need to not think about stuff anymore.  Sad name and what it represents aside, it also doesn't escape my notice that, once finished, I'm going to have this lovely item that will literally hug me when I wear it.

And while the shawl will probably always represent a sad point in my life, I very much appreciate the symbolism here.

fo: Northman Mittens, and Some Blathering

Ye Gods!  Has this last 6 months been a major learning curve.  Series of learning cliffs.  Whatever it was, it was certainly busy!  I forgot how hectic Christmas season + Retail can be, and I barely made it though it intact - the only thing that kept me going was my wonderful employee N and the promise of 3 full days off over Christmas.

But made it through I did, and while I know January will still be busy, I might actually be able to breath!  ...maybe.

Anywho, there has been a PLETHORA of knitting and crocheting going on, and I'm going to try to bang out a few posts about that before 2017 - need to bolster my shoddy posting numbers at least a bit!  Also, it's killing me, not being able to blog.  Or read blogs.  I miss you guys!

Okay, first (and recent favourite!) project to share is my Northman Mittens.  Guys, this project basically reinforced that colourwork is probably my most favourite knitting technique!  It's so fun, and feels quick because all you want to do is just one more round or 12 to see the pattern emerging!

Pattern: Northman Mittens, by David Schultz
Ravelry project page
Yarn: Outer mitten - Ístex Lettlopi in Fawn and White; Liner mitten - Drops Alpaca in Light Green
Needles: 3.25 mm
Mods: Raised thumb by doing 4 additional rows after gusset increases before separating out the thumb stitches; removed 4 rows from finger section.  Did same mod for the liner mitten, and added more length to the finger section from what pattern suggests (they would've been too short).

These mittens are just what I needed.  I lost my old Rasta mittens and my hands were getting cold, and guys, I swear this pattern stalked and seduced me.  Everytime I went onto Ravelry - there it was.  Three people came into the shop and pointed it out.  One person came in and showed me pictures of their pair.  It just had to happen.

They took me a little over a month and a half to knit (Rav tells me Oct 5 to Nov 28), which is pretty good considering I was pulling 10-14 hour days, 6-7 days a week, including teaching way too many classes and the knitting that goes along with that!  lol

The top of this mitten demonstrates colour dominance really well.  Colour dominance is where one colour stands out more over the other, and happens because one strand in stranded colourwork has to go a wee bit further than the other in the back of the work.  Usually the strand that travels along the bottom of the row (aka the one held in the left hand of the two-handed colourwork technique) will be more dominant.  In this mitten, I let the white be the dominant colour...except on the one row at the top of the left mitten, when I obviously swapped hands and didn't realize it until the mittens were finished.  You can see how there's one row where the fawn shade stands out more than the white.  Oh well, it was a good teaching moment for my colourwork class.  <3

I LOVED working with the Lettlopi yarn.  I've had a huge crush on it for ages, and one evening I broke and started the project.  The outer mitts just flew off the needles, and the pattern managed to seduce my entire advanced colourwork class when I was discussing colour dominance with them.  They've got me half convinced to run a class on the pattern!  Sneaky sneaky pattern.

Of course, these mitts are also lined, which both adds SO MUCH to the warmth factor, and also adds a soft layer between the itchy Icelandic yarn and my skin.  I used Drops Alpaca, and I'm blown away by the results.  They kept my hands nice and toasty warm when Whitehorse weather dipped into the -35C range! Plus when I brush the snow off my car and scrape the windshields, these mitts wind up COVERED in snow, but despite my steering wheel getting soaked as the car warms up, my hands stay dry and warm.  THIS is why we wear wool, guys.  :)


Good night folks!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, or whatever you celebrate this holiday season!  If you don't celebrate anything, well, sorry that you have to deal with us crazies.  :D  <3

An Update on Yarn Shop Ownership

Holy Hannah guys, apparently running a yarn shop is a life-consuming business!  I now mentally roll my eyes a tiny bit when I hear people talk about me "living the dream" and how "it must be so amazing to be able to knit at work if you want to".

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Apparently 12 hour work days AT LEAST 6 days a week (and I try to enforce one day off a week because I've been through Grad School, I know how easy it is to burn out) and the only knitting time you take is in sacrifice of things like "laundry" and "making a real meal".  And when you find time to knit?  It'll probably be consumed by sample/commission/repair work - forget about your own projects.

Short Notice baby sweater by Taiga Hillard Designs, knit using Diamond Luxury Simpatico yarn.  LOVE how this turned out - the yarn was pretty and the sweater knits up in no-time flat.  Seriously, if you need a baby gift on short notice, this is a good choice in pattern! 

This probably sounds like complaining.  It's really not.  I knew exactly what I was getting into when I jumped into this new career because I'm a scientist and I totally did my research.  But I do have to laugh at those comments above because it's obvious that they hadn't.  That's okay though - it is a dream to many people and I certainly don't want to burst it.  (Except...I sort of did to you folks...erm...)

Aspyn Hat by Melissa Schaschwary, knit out of ...well you can see.  Fun knit, though those massive cables looked like garbage for the first few repeats.  The yarn is SO SOFT AND SO TWEEDY, I'm in love.  Honkin' big pompom (the photo doesn't do it justice) was added to help pull down the hat so it's more slouch and less cone-head.  Those big cables be stiff!  Also, make sure you use MUCH smaller needles for the brim, because I made a mistake and used 4.5 mm instead of 4.0 mm, and it wasn't enough - WASN'T ENOUGH.

But anyways, I will say that I was a little unprepared about how consuming this would be.  I've been wanting to write blog posts for a while now, but I have no energy to do anything at the end of the day.  The only reason I'm writing this one is because I'm forcing myself to, because dammit I wanna blog!

I also wanna go for a run, but between a few ginormous orders at the shop and evening events every day this week, that's totally not happening.

Entrelac Cowl from a not so great pattern (I had to rewrite it and I've never knit entrelac before).  This deserves a post all on it's own because I'm THAT DAMN PROUD OF IT, but alas that probably won't happen. Knit using Noro Kureyon yarn (2 balls of it) and in the round, I learned how to knit backwards (i.e. knitting stockinette without turning to do purl rows) to speed up the process.  I'm plotting to do an entrelac class because there's just so much to learn from this technique!  :D 

But don't you worry about me (as uh, all my friends seem to be doing if the amount of assistance they're offering is any clue). Part of the reason I'm working so hard is that I'm trying to get everything in place to make my life much easier.  It's been a learning curve (HA - more like a series of vertical learning cliffs!), but it's getting better all of the time.  The store is nearly where I'd hoped to have it months ago, and I'll be giving you a little tour soon.  And I'm getting some creative outlet in the samples I'm making up - many of them shown here in this post.

Fell in LOVE with kureyon while knitting this.  Lovely and soft with beautiful colour ranges, and the finished project has such heft that it stands up nicely on it's own.  What a great cowl for keeping your neck and face warm for the winter!  May need to steal this for the really cold winter days that are coming way too soon (seriously, I'm scraping the windshield almost daily now).

The very best part though?  I love what I do, every single day.  Oh sure, there's some trying bits - but there's nothing like seeing a person's face when the light-bulb moment happens when they figure out a new stitch, or assisting a new knitter find their first project, or fixing a problem that's stumped someone (and bonus if they learn how to fix it themselves!).

Alpaca mittens I knit on commission for a customer who needed some help.  Well, I say commission, but these took so long to get done that I did the work for free.  They turned out so lovely though, and beyond soft! that it was a joy to knit.  <3  No pattern - I just made it up as I went.  The yarn was a challenge since it was hand-spun locally raised alpaca, and the yarn went from fingering to bulky and back to fingering through the entire ball of yarn.  Progressively.  ANNOYING.  But they turned out so cute, despite being reknit ...more times than I want to count, and the fingertips reknit 4 times (no exaggeration!) the last night alone.  ARGH next time I follow a pattern!  I couldn't stop putting them on though, so I'd call that a winner!

This is a hard career I've taken on - but it's one that I'm loving, despite all of the challenges (or likely because of them).  And while I'd caution anyone else looking to do it to put their research in and understand what they're getting in for (seriously guys - this job is all about customer service!), I'd sing the praises of this career to anyone wanting to tackle this challenge.

Just please don't open another one in Whitehorse - I think we have all the yarn shops we can handle with the two of us.  :)

Exciting New: Now Live!

Guys, I just bought a lot of yarn.  Like...a lot.  As in, an entire store's worth of yarn.

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS!  I'm now the proud owner of the Itsy-Bitsy Yarn Store in Whitehorse, Yukon!

That is totally the face of a serious and experienced shop owner, right there.  

I officially took over the business this morning, and opened the doors to chaos and confusion as the former owner ran out the door to catch her flight about 3 seconds after we signed all the final documents, and I was left with a float all over the coffee table, paperwork all over the couch, yarn strewn everywhere, a crowd of tourists pushing to get in, and no debit/credit machine to be found.  It was a glorious!

Luckily I've been actually working in the store all week so I wasn't completely in the dark, and everyone were so patient and understanding.  I even charmed a slightly grumpy lady from Chicago, who left the shop smiling despite the hassle of not being able to accept credit cards.  GO ME!

How did this happen, you ask?  Well, back in February, I was facing my government job running out in June and trying to decide if I should apply for more jobs I'm capable and very competent for but not necessarily qualified for or retraining.  (As it turns out, there's just not a demand for less-experienced geos who aren't willing to relocate.)  Then an email from the LYS owners landed in my email.  And there might've been some hyperventilating after reading that they were looking for a buyer, because YES OMG YES.  A VERY immediate response, a whole whack of meetings, and months and months of business plan writing and some last minute panicking yielded this!

Guys, it's been SO HARD to keep this under wraps, and it's entirely the reason behind all of the 'ZOMG SO BUSY' comments here and there.  Holding down a full-time and very mentally exhausting job while also trying to plan for purchasing a business is HARD holy cow.  I've nearly spilled the beans so many times, but it's been a bit tenuous and uncertain and I didn't want to jinx it!

Don't worry, this won't become a store blog.  I'll be posting just as irregularly as usual about all the stuff I make (and I've really got to get some rock posts up here - the title is starting to become false-advertising), they just might host better lit pictures within the shop, and possibly some comments about being a store owner.  

I will be starting up a separate store blog though (still hammering out what I want it to be), but I'll let you know when that goes live in case you want to follow along. 

'

I'm so excited about this adventure.  I've wanted something like this since I was a kid, but never thought it could become a reality! It's only starting to sink in that it's real, and while the panic I sort of expected is present, I feel so much at home at the store and like it's exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Granted, that doesn't mean I'm not feeling a little crazy right now!

Look what Sophie, the former owner left me!  (She's the one for whom I made the little going-away gift.) She said she got it when they first opened up in their original 138 sq foot location (can't really get more itsy-bitsy than that) as a blessing for the shop, and she decided to pass it on to me to keep up the blessing. That little banner is hanging up on the tiny storage closet behind a screen, and it's going to stay there for as long as I'm in that space! Isn't it lovely?

Anyways, I'm not sure how to end this. My heart is so full right now, and I feel so thankful to have this opportunity. I'm looking forward to the hard work it's going to take to keep this adorable little shop going, and I can't wait to give back to the community like Sophie and her husband did before me.

Wish me luck, folks! I'm going to need it.

Pending: Exciting News...

I haven't been around here much lately - either blogging nor commenting, but there's a pretty exciting reason for that.  Which I'm not going to tell you yet because I'm a cruel woman, and also not a little bit afraid of jinxing myself.

It's a big change in my life though, and I'm equal parts excited and terrified.  Some of you may know (and if you do, please ssshhh!  :D), but I promise to tell you about it on Monday when it's official!

Oh man, this is a cruel post.  I probably shouldn't post it, but it's my blog and I can tease if I want to!

In other news, I'm really looking forward to having some time to focus on projects again (both knitting and sewing - especially in my newly reorganized sewing room!).  Things can't calm down soon enough.  <3

I hope the rest of your week is calmer than mine!

Knitting and Audiobooks

I've having a lovely evening in, knitting away and listening to Persuasion audiobook.  I really like this version, and want to find more from this same reader!

I have so many projects on the needles it's getting ridiculous, and with Christmas in April with my family coming up next month, I'm going to have more on soon.  But I started a two-at-a-time toe-up sock knitting class last Sunday, and my homework was to get to the heel so we can go through the heel turn together so I'm very monogamously knitting these right now.  Granted, they're going to be a gift for my brother, so it's just as well.  The yarn is pretty scratchy though and I'm knitting these tight, so my poor fingers are taking a beating.

Ah the things we do for those we love.  The brat better appreciate these (and not felt them in the wash like he did the hat I made him a few years ago).

Do you like to listen to audiobooks when you're crafting?  If so, any recommendations?  My other favourite right now is World War Z (the book, NOT the movie), which is a fantastic book for a full cast audioplay!

Me-Made Garments in Everyday Life

Okay so I promised you pictures of how I typically wear some of my made garments when I was in Vancouver (for those who missed it - I realized while unpacking that I'd included two me-made garments without really thinking of them as me-mades - just normal clothing).  I took some shoddy mirror pictures of the outfits I'd put together for the last two days of meetings, as I normally wear them.  Both involve the same boring grey leggings and my black cowboy boots, but they're difficult to see in these pictures.

Here's how I normally wear my Cardboard Cafe cardigan.  I'll sometimes pair them with a black or grey t-shirt and jeans, but this is my favourite.  In fact, it's my favourite outfit period, and I'm considering replicating this tank dress in black (and other colours?) if I can.  It's probably the most wearable garment I own, and I feel awesome in it (especially with this cardigan.

It's uh, grown even more since I finished it last summer.  A lesson well learned about just how well alpaca grows!

Here's that unblogged tunic I mentioned before.  I was dicking around in my sewing room one day, wanting to make a woven tunic but not having any patterns I really wanted to sew.  So I pulled out my Linden pattern, did a few mods (lengthen the bodice, add some width to the hips and a bit in the bust, cut a larger sized sleeve, and did a split "waistband") and threw this together.

I ADORE the top, but there's a few issues.  I could use a bit more room at the hips, mostly for the ease of sitting, and the sleeves are still a bit tight at the bicep.  I also think I need to add a gusset to the armpit - I can get into the top just fine and there's a good range of motion while wearing it, but I have to do some serious wiggling to get out of the damn thing let me tell you!

And just for fun, here's me wearing my Amethyst Henri at Rendezvous (our winter festival) the last weekend of February, nomming on a bannock doughnut.  It was an incredibly mild day, so I rocked the sweater with a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath and my trusty Hampton toque.  I wear this sweater probably more often than I should, usually just with jeans and a necklace or black scarf.

Do you have any you-made garments that you don't really think of as anything but normal parts of your wardrobe?  I remember when I'd deliberately wearing garments I'd made because I'd made them (no matter how poorly they fit or the suited my tastes.  I guess this means that the New Years goal I set last year about only making things I'd love and wear has really paid off!

Project Changes and Everyday Me-Made Garments

I've abandoned all of my knitting projects to work on a complex cabled hat pattern.  I love me some complex cables!  Father Cables is a fun knit and will be destined for our LYS as a store sample (with a fur pompom, of course!).  I was actually supposed to knit another pattern entirely, but it's been restarted - no word of a lie - 4 times and despite my pride getting involved, I finally screamed and threw it into the corner of my sewing room.

A few months breather and a Ravelry pattern search, and I've restarted with this pattern.  Sometimes you just have to walk away.

I've gotten some good progress on it today - about 4 inches of it, actually!  Mostly because I love knitting on planes.  :)  I'm down in Vancouver BC for a work thing this week, and it's been great travel knitting (although it won't be conference knitting - too much attention required in all of those meandering cables).

Speaking of this trip, I just unpacked my clothes for the next couple of days and realized that I'd packed two me-made garments!  You know you have some successful makes when you don't even think about them as being anything but regular wardrobe staples.  The photo above shows my Cardboard Cafe cardigan in the background (to go with a cute little dress - one of my favourite outfits, actually), and an as-yet unblogged tunic.  I'll see if I can get photos of the outfits in the next few days, since it's kind of cool to see how garments get worn outside of 'finished outfit' posts!

And while I'm here, I'll be hitting up some fabric shops - particularly Dressew (Tasia of Sewaholic blogged about it here)!  Anyone in Vancouver want to go shopping with me on Thursday?!

2015 Blogging Goals: How'd I do?

I'm not good at these end-of-year posts.  I usually get bored half way though writing them.  ETA: and I totally did with this one.  It was supposed to be posted on the 31st, but I got bored and wandered off despite almost being done.  You're only getting this because I just needed a bit more to finish it.  It's not very polished, but oh well.  So lets review my 2015 Goals and see if I managed to follow any of them!

1. Sew More!

Uh...not so much.  I tried joining Make a Garment a Month, but I was more of a facebook liker than a contributor. I did manage to sew a couple of garments, including my purple Linden (which I've almost worn out by now and is actually a bit small because of my love of pie and lack of exercise...oops), a bikini top (and an attempted at a bottom from a crappy pattern), and a foxy beach bag.

There is my spring/fall jacket and a mostly finished quilt, but they've both stalled out for now.  :(

I have a ton of plans, and hopefully I can get to them.  Ooo and I have a final garment for 2015, but I'm hand sewing the seam finishing.  I'll show it to you guys in a few days. 

I may have to revisit this goal for 2016.  More on that next year!

2. Make Garments I'll Actually Wear

YES!  This year has been great for this.  I wore the heck out of that bathingsuit, and we've already talked about me destroying that purple Linden.  For sweaters, I've knit and worn the heck out of my Cardboard Cafe and Henri!  In fact, I'm actually wearing Henri right now.  :)

 

 

I did knit a tank top, but it's hideous on me.  I knew it would be, but I wanted to try it out.  I don't have any regrets.  I do...need to photograph that and show you just how horrible it is...on me - it's actually quite cute laid out on the floor! 

(There's...a lot of purple and beige/light brown in the photos above.  Hmmm.)

I'm working on another very practical sweater right now, something I chose to do because there was a huge gap in my wardrobe.  Again, more on that in the new year!  I have a lot of posts to write up, holy cow.

3. Blog More

Despite recent months, I blogged a lot more this year!  Including this post, I wrote up 77 posts this year!  ETA: Whoops, this didn't get posted on Dec 31 as planned.  Guess that means 76 posts in 2015.

I should be blogging more going forward.  The course I'm teaching is done (mostly - still waiting to receive final exams from off-campus folks) and daylight hours are slowly increasing again.  I'm also making some changes in my life to give myself more me-time.  I love volunteering myself for things, but I WAY over did it this fall - gotta make time for me again.


4. Play Time With Rocks

I think I did fairly well with this goal.  I only wrote a handful of rock-related posts, but they were generally well liked.  Hands down, one of my most popular blog posts was when I talked about my job at the mine.

I also talked about slicks along faults, the rocks in the Sea-to-Sky wall at the Vancouver airport, and a fun post about the rose quartz I gave away in my 1st blogiversary giveaway (I really liked that post).

I could improve on this though.  Teaching my environmental geology course this fall has brought up a ton of post ideas - I just didn't have the time to write them up.  Watch for those in the coming year, as I want to dig into the material more, and what better way to prepare but to teach some of the content to you folks!

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Overall, I think I did fairly well with these goals.  I'm glad I made goals, since I think they're less set-in-stone than my impression of resolutions.  It was easy to keep in mind. 

In fact, I liked these goals so much, I'm going to carry them forward into 2016.  I can definitely improve on all of them (SEW MORE, HEATHER, GEEZ)!  I am going to add one more goal though:

5. Do More Community Knitting

I've mentioned it before, but I'm part of a knitting group that does projects for the community.  We've raised money for a woman who had to make multiple trips down south for her young daughter's medical treatment.  We knit for the homeless shelter and the women's shelter.  We've knit hearts for the hospice to give away to family members to carry with them when they've lost someone they love.  We're knitting warm woolies for the two Syrian families that will be settling in our community.  And we have a thing coming up this January or February (whenever there's a bad cold snap) where we'll hang up all sorts of warm accessories downtown and in other central hubs, so that anyone who needs a hat/scarf/mitts/etc can take one to keep warm.  I love being a part of this group - it's nice to think that we're sending out something made with love to people who made need it, whether they understand the love that comes with it or not, and I want to keep it up.


Happy New Year, folks!  I hope that 2015 was good to you, and I hope that 2016 is even better!  Here's to another fun and productive year!