Quicksand

The other big Christmas present I've got on my list is the Sandpoint Pullover. 
Unfortunately, I didn't have any suitable yarn in my stash. Mom had something that would work, but it wasn't superwash, and knowing the recipient, it really needs to be washable.

So, I hopped on Loveknitting.com to see what they had. I found some Regia 6 Ply Tweed at a reasonable price. I did the math with the yardage, and ordered enough yarn (plus one) and sat back to wait.

It arrived Friday. And as soon as I opened the package, I knew there was something wrong. The colour was lovely, the number of balls was right.... but I could tell just by looking at it that there wasn't enough yarn for an adult man's sweater.

I pulled a ball out of the bag, and immediately knew why.

You see, the website...

Lists the yardage at 200m... but in reality....

It's 125m a ball. And had I known that, I wouldn't have bought it, as the extra 5 balls needed put the project outside my budget.

I've always had a good experience with Loveknitting.com, so I contacted them to see what they would do.  They asked me to return it for refund, and offered 15% off my next order, though I'm not sure there will be one.... and the site (as of the writing of this) was still showing the wrong yardage, despite being several days after our correspondence.  Hopefully they correct it soon.

And I'm back to hunting for a reasonably priced, washable yarn that will arrive in enough time for me to knit it!

Eager Beaver

Labour day weekend is unofficial end of summer here in the great white north. And Mother Nature seems to be making sure this one ends with a bang!

It is stinking hot out there (It's 104 F for my friends south of the border... a very humid, sticky 104). I had all kinds of plans for this weekend (gardens, photo shoots...) but instead, I'm hanging out in the house, thinking cool thoughts.

And nothing is cooler than Christmas! (yes... I said the C-word. We're knitters... it happens.)

With my sweaters off the needles, I've turned my attention back to my biggest Christmas project.... Dad's blanket.

I've started square #2.

As you can see, I'm about 1/3 of the way through. But progress is slow. I have a feeling this is going to end up as a lap-ghan.... I doubt I'll have enough time (or patience) to make a full-sized one.

Some friends are dangerous...

You remember those awesome Old Navy sundresses I told you about? Well they were first discovered on a dinner/shopping date with my friend Aneesha*, so I've been blaming her for my obsession with them.

Thursday night, we got together for another semi-annual dinner/shopping date, and of course, ended up at Old Navy again. And don't they have the dress in three new fabrics???

Thankfully for my budget, I only liked two of them (one was solid teal... I'm not a big fan of teal) and they only had my size in one...

Naturally, it came home with me (the other will be hunted down on payday). As did these...

... a perfect match, and who's going to pass them up at prices like this?

 Certainly not me. Now the only thing I need to complete this outfit is a cardigan.... and don't I just have the perfect shade of Slinky Cat?

Yes I do. Now if only I had more time... the cardigan will have to wait... I've got to get into full on Christmas mode over here.

*Yes, it's the same Aneesha I lured down the dark rabbit hole of knitting.... so maybe it's just payback...

Enjoying every last bit of the gardens

No words... just beauty

 

 

 

 

Surge

So a funny thing happened on Tuesday.

The fabulous Dee posted pics of her finished Undines (yes - she finished them already - what a show off!) and suddenly, I saw a whole lot of activity on Ravelry. You may not know, but Ravelry designers get a lot of insight through Ravelry - everytime you link to, favourite, queue, or post a picture of one of our designs, we see it.

And suddenly there was a whole lot of favourite and queuing of Undine... and downloading....

Well, it went through the roof! (Even Wednesday was much busier than normal). I can only hope that this means we will have a whole lot of people joining the KAL!

If you haven't already, don't forget to tag your project in Ravelry with UndineKAL (Rav will turn it all lower case - don't worry, it still works)

 This lets me see at a glance, all the Undine projects going on. I'm using this to keep track of entrants (so I know how many prizes to award) and this will also help me know who's entered when it comes to draw time!

The KAL is on until October 31, so there's lots of time to play along! If you haven't seen them already - full details are here.

Gar-little

It's harvest time! Okay, really, I've been harvesting since July... tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. But it was finally time to check out the one thing I was really excited about...

Garlic!

I don't claim to be a fantastic cook (my brother got that gift). What I cook isn't fancy, but it is edible and generally tasty. And one of my favourite ingredients is garlic. Not only do I like the taste, but I love the smell of it when I'm cooking.

I have never, ever, ever, used dried garlic, garlic salt, garlic flakes, or even that weird looking garlic in the jar that my mother-in-law likes.... it's fresh or bust! (And no Chinese garlic please...)

So I was thrilled at the idea of having garlic from my very own garden to cook with. 

As you may recall, I planted my garlic a little late, but I got sprouts very quickly. I started to get a little worried when I didn't get scapes (flowers) but otherwise, the plants seemed healthy. And this week, they were showing all the signs that the internet said meant it was time to harvest. So I got out my shovel and...

I have officially grown the world's smallest heads of garlic. Seriously.. as a child, I would have referred to this as Barbie garlic. And lest you be decieved by the picture - they are actual heads of garlic with several individual cloves in each one... they are just really, really.... REALLY small.

I'm guessing it's because I planted them so late. But, I cleaned them up, let them dry, and a few nights later, chopped one of them up for my famous herbed chicken and potato dinner. And it tasted just perfect!

I still have some planting cloves set aside, so this fall I'll get some in the ground. Next year... next year I'll have some mammoth garlic! I just know it!

Siren Song

How are your Undine socks coming along?

I really should be further along, but I'll admit it, I've been slacking. Since casting off for Sherlock, I haven't really knit much. I managed to get the second Undine cast on, and I'm a few rows in...

But that's it.

Part of the problem is my new phone. I finally sucked it up, gave up my pay-as-you go flip phone and got a smart phone... which means Candy Crush.... ALL THE TIME! ANY TIME! EVERY WHERE!

I took Dave to the dentist for a tooth extraction yesterday... and I managed to get three rows done on the Man Sock before I remembered my phone in purse... and the siren song of crushable candies....