Hot Tub + Friends + a lot of Ciders =

a really hapy Heather!

HI GUYS.  I love you all, I have the best readers. :D  Also I love living in a place with a cold winter, especially when you get to star gaze from a hot tub, ESPECIALLY when friends come over and bring you lovely bevvies.

Haha I'm probbaly not going to be pleased about this post tomorrow but WHATEVER I don't tell you that I love you all so much enough.  :)  You guys are the bestest.

Also, this is apparently my 100th post on this blog so YAY!  I trhought about doig something special but I'm just happy to have som free time so YAY look I'm blogging!

Okay, gonna go dry off some more and work on my scarf.  I'M CATCHING UP!  it loosk asesome.  can I link to it?  MAYBE.  We'll see. 

Everyone os sit=ll in the hottub, so I'm gonnan relax a bit.  I think I spelled 'gonna' wrong.  wait, gona go fix it.

Hope you guys are doing aas awesome as I am right now. :)  <3

fo: Haines Hampton Hat

I LIIIIIIVE!  Aha it's been a crazy few weeks, but the final exams for the course I'm teaching has been submitted and I'm finally having a relaxing night off!  This post is going to be short because as soon as it's done, I'm putting on a girly movie and grabbing some knitting for a chill me-night!

So this toque has been done for a while, but I put off blocking it for ages.  Then winter arrived last Saturday and I needed a hat, so huzzah warm head!

Here's my Ravelry project page, if you want to take a peak.

Pattern: Hampton, from Granite: Four Hats for Any Adventure by Kat Riddell.  I actually won a copy of the ebook from her website.
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lana D'Ore, bought at the Dalton City Yarn Emporium in Haines, AK
Mods: NONE.  Although I did use the chart instead of the written instructions for the lace because of a mistake in the instructions.  I think they've been corrected though, so woo!

I have a habit of buying yarn and making myself a souvenir when I go places, and I had this planned out for my trip to Haines, Alaska last month...or uh actually, in September.  Oops, where did October go?!  Anyways, I love the little yarn shop in Haines, so of course I went down for a visit, and did approximately 1200 laps around the store and stared at the worsted weight yarn until I decided on this lovely grey.

Which is ridiculous because I knew going in that I wanted a light grey for this hat.  On top of the rock theme of the patterns, Haines has a bunch of pretty sculptures all over town carved out of local granite.  I knew they'd be my inspiration behind this project.  Never mind the foggy weather along the coast, which pushed me more toward a light grey over a medium or dark shade.

And then there were these beautiful old graves in a hidden little early 1900s graveyard I stumbled across on a walk along the shore.  There was less than 20 of them, but it was such a lovely, peaceful area, and I had a nice chat with them as I wandered through.  I love graveyards, especially old ones.  It was a lovely place, and I'm glad I came across it.

Anyways, the pattern was a fun knit.  The lace was enough of a challenge to keep my attention, but not too challenging that I was antisocial while hanging hanging out with friends.

I really liked how Kat designed the decreases at the top.  I wasn't sure about it at first, but the finished result looks awesome.  And I like how the top isn't smoothly rounded but a bit...gathered?  Not sure of the word, but I like it. 

Like the background here?  We stopped somewhere between Haines, Alaska and Haines Junction, Yukon, in the Haines range above the treeline.  I didn't even see the rainbow, but Darryl did and arranged me here for the photo.  There are times when I think he's completely oblivious, and then there are times like this when he proves me wrong.  :) 

It was really windy up there.  And probably a lot snowier now since Whitehorse is buried in a few inches already.


I'll definitely be knitting up more of Kat's hats (haha that rhymes!) in her ebook.  While I don't need more hats, our community knitting group is collecting hats, scarves, mitts, etc for a big donation thing next month, so it's a good opportunity.

Oh and the dreaded C word too.  ACK!

Are you guys all geared up and ready for winter?  Or uh, summer for those of you in the southern hemisphere?  Also, any idea where October went?  I think I misplaced it.

can't blog...exam-making omg someone bring me coffee

I promised we'd be back to our regular crafty programming today, but OMG NO TIIIIME I MISS SEWING AND KNITTING.

Same pattern as these and these. Because I'm adventurous yo.

So here's a photo of the ugliest sock in creation that I'm knitting as a Christmas gift.  Because I'm a good sister who loves her brother and likes to give him deliberately ugly versions of the things he asks for.  And it's on my textbook because NO TIME TO KNIT OR MOVE FROM MY WORK STATION.

Oh holy mother of diamonds, wish me luck because I have to finish TWO versions of my final exam, with 100 multiple questions from each, submitted by FRIDAY.  ::weeps into her coffee and notebook::

Holy Crap Canada!

We're going to take a short break from all things crafty, because something important happened in Canada yesterday!  For those not interested, click away and I promise to return to crafty endeavours tomorrow. 

Figure grabbed on 2015-10-20 at 11:05 am.

So for those who don't know, we had our Federal election here in Canada, and I think it's safe to say that most people were pretty surprised by the results!  The Liberal Party, which had almost been wiped out in the 2011 election (and kept only 34 seats), managed to not only become the ruling party but did it with a majority!  The Harper Government has been in power for the last 10 years, and you can see by the figures above how the majority of Canadians felt about that.

It was amazing to witness, no matter whether your heart was singing or crying.  I could barely knit as I watched, since I'd glance down for a second and suddenly there were 3 more Liberal-leading ridings!

The figure above may seem odd to other countries - I'm not that well-versed in politics and how it all works, but we vote in our local representative, and the party with the most MPs wins power.  There's other aspects to that, and we have a first-past-the-post election method which is not that popular (the Liberals have promised election reform - we'll see what happens), but that's the basics.

Voter turnout was up this year, at about 68.5% of Canadians voting.  Still not fantastic, but the highest since 1993, so that's something to be glad of.  The Yukon had the second highest turnout at 76%; only Prince Edward Island had a higher turnout at 77%!  I'm not exaggerating when I say that I started to cry when I found out - it's so empowering how engaged most Canadians were this year.

I'm pretty stoked to see that 10 Indigenous and 88 women MPs were elected.  The gender diversity is still low, with female representatives in the House at 26% (the UN recommend at least 30%), but we're getting there.  There's a nice range of First Nation communities represented, including 3 Metis (2 in Winnipeg!), 2 Inuit, 3 Cree, 1 Anishinaabe, 1 Kwakwaka'wakw, and 1 Dene, which is good to see.  They only make up 3% of the House, but again, representation is getting better!

I have so many emotions about this election, but I can't express them well here.  But lets just say that I'm so happy with how passionate Canadians got this year, and that we powered through Canada's longest federal election campaign (78 days! I know I know, that's nothing to you Americans, but our normal campaign is 35 days) and didn't let the length or poor behaviour of politicians lead to (too much) apathy and frustration.

Or maybe those are the reasons so many turned out this year?  Who knows - I'm just glad to see so many people get out and used their voice - no matter who they voted for.  :)


Oh, and apparently the Blue Jays are doing well?  I don't know, I don't follow baseball, but everywhere I look there's frantic Canadian baseball fans, so I guess there's a lot of really happy Canadians, and a lot of 'at least the Blue Jays are winning' Canadians. 

And then there's Canadians like me, who are going: "::shrug:: That's cool, good for you Sports Team!"  :D


ALRIGHT, BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED CRAFTINESS.  Carry on, nothing more to see (of politics, anyways).

Cascade Jacket Progress - Hampered by Responsibilities (ick)

Whew, sorry about the silence around here, folks.  I'm getting my butt handed to me with this course I'm teaching, and now that my textbook has arrived (finally), I get to power through it while I try to write two final exams...in less than a week.  AHA yeah that's going to go well, I can tell.

Anywho, I'm plugging away at my jacket.  I finally found the brown leather and wood toggles I wanted, only to realize that brown leather was going to look awful next to the trim I'm using.  I cut up some of my leftover leather from my hitchhikker's jacket, and I like the look.  Even if I did cut the leather loops a little bit too long.  Oops.  I'm attaching the sleeves now, but the sleeves are a little tight across the upper arm, so I have to let them out a bit. 

Using McCall's 6286 as a guide, although I shortened and narrowed them up.

I've also added a bit of shaping to the back through a couple of darts.  I won't do this in the winter coat version though.

Speaking of the winter coat, my fabric arrived!!  I like it, despite how plain and boring it is.  I wanted an easy-to-wear background piece that I could add lots of fun accessories to, like bright knitted hats and cowls and mitts.

The pants material looks pretty much how it showed online.  I'm pretty excited to try sewing these up, but I need to finish this jacket first.  I'm enjoying the slow sewing, which is good because the toggles definitely demanded that!

Ooo question!  I'm trying to find a source for thinsulate interlining material that won't include ordering it from the States of a cost of $25 for the fabric, $35 for shipping, and an additional $20 when you convert that to Canadian.  I suspect I can do better than $80 for 3 m of interlining fabric if I source it in Canada.  Does anyone know if anywhere down south carries thinsulate?

Anywho, I'd better get back to it.  No, not the jacket - I need to come up with 10 exam questions tonight.  :P  Although those sleeves are calling my name...NO HEATHER, BAD.  Back to work, missy!

Not..Quite There Yet

Okay, so I didn't get the jacket finished today.  I didn't even get it half way, but I'm okay with that.  Would've been nice to have my jacket for the trip to Haines this weekend, but I hear the ocean's going to be dumping down on us anyways, and it's probably better to bring my rain jacket instead.

In case you missed it, I thought I'd try to finish this jacket in 2 days.  I might've been able to do it if I'd been able to spend any time on it yesterday, but there was no way I was missing Knit Night!


As you can see, I got the main body put together.  The only changes I did was take in the side seams below the waist, since it was very loose there.

I changed the pocket openings to the side instead of the top because I basically live with my hands in my pockets, and the original pocket wouldn't work.  It's pretty comfortable this way. 

 

 

I might add a couple of darts up the back of this version to take in some of that bulk.  But overall, I'm pretty pleased with the fit so far.  A bit of shaping around the bust probably would've been a good thing, but it's not something I'll be doing for the winter version of this coat.

This is going to be a warm jacket.  It's cozy even without sleeves and the flannel lining!  I'm pretty excited about having this jacket, and definitely for the final winter version.  I can't wait to get back to this project, because I really want the finished jacket.  Heck, I need this jacket, my current fall jacket doesn't compare at all!

Okay, gotta go pack for our trip.  Happy Thanksgiving, Canadians!  Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to everyone else, too, for that matter.  :)

Ow my hands...

This took FOREVER, but my Cascade Duffle jacket pattern is prepped and cut out!  And my fingers are raw from doing it.  :(  I know I mentioned that I was making a winter coat in my last post, but I wanted to test out the pattern first and I've been needing a spring/fall jacket for longer than I've needed a winter coat.

Sorry for the crummy photo, but the khaki colour is the outer fabric, and the plaid flannel is the lining.  I've only done some minor modifications, including narrowing the shoulders by 1/2 inch and cutting one size for the shoulders and another at and below the bust.  Oh, plus adding some waist shaping and shortened the arms by 2 inches.  I'll probably detail this out more later, but I needed to write this down somewhere so I don't forget.

I'll be using this reclaimed zipper I stole got from my Grandma, and possibly this trim material.  I'm not sure how yet, maybe around the hem and across the yoke seam?  Not sure yet.  I'll also be trying to track down some leather the same shade as the zipper for the toggles.  I'm also going to see if I can find some caribou antler for the toggles, but we'll see how successful I am at that.

Oh, and I'm putting a ridiculous deadline of Friday on myself, because we're going to Haines this weekend and I'd love to have a new jacket for it!

Okay, bedtime.  Wish me luck!