christmas gifting - so hard not to share

ooooooooooooooooooh you should see what i'm knitting at the moment. my camel/silk cowl is on hold right now as well it is december - which might not be news to you but took me by suprise/shock earlier this week. this fact put into focus a few gifts that need to be finished!

but that also means i can't share in case i spoil it. but maybe a few tibits?? it is a deep beautiful teal with matching tiny seed beads ........... so lush and beautiful! ok i broke down and added a photo - isn't it pretty? i need to get moving on the knitting ... i'm almost done.....

latest project .... made with camel

yes that is right ... silk and camel yarn ..... it is positively yummy - so soft and cozy
this will be a neck warmer/cowl - so less bulky under my coat (i think this will be for me as it is so luxurious i can't resist it!!)

ps: in case you want some: Handmaiden Camelspin

happy halloween

whoo whoo

le sigh

ah well - doesn't seem it is going to be much of a dress up halloween after all. oh well
i've got plenty of other things to do anyway!

crafty-ness i'm up to:

• moccasins for patrick (above) - we are holding class at work so i'm making patrick a pair for christmas (shhhh don't tell!) beading on to elk hide is not easy - my hands are cramping up and unlike knitting i have to concentrate - watching tv + beading don't mix at least for me
  
• ski sweater for me - a traditional norwegian ski sweater - i'm v excited about this - haven't cast on yet but will this week - esp now that i'm not knitting a costume!
  

halloween costume

so that time of year do i make a halloween costume?? hmmmm
so i'm thinking either an owl or rainbow-brite .... i'd knit the costume ... mainly since i can't sew for my life.

so owl - basically a bubble knit dress in a couple shades of brown + a felt owl mask (borrowed from brownies)
rainbow brite - a bit more umm complicated. - but knit (tube?) top and skirt and puffy rainbow sleeves

any votes?

cashmere scarf

hello my dear friends .... i know i haven't written for a while..... but looked what i finished! a lacy estonian shawlettte/scarf ... it had some crazy 3 into one into 9 stitches (yes really!) but really was a pretty quick knit .. i did the majority on my holiday with mom, dad and willa so that is a couple weeks.
it is super lovely, soft and warm! perfect for the .....do you see behind my shoulder? no, not patrick's moose lamp ...... snow. yep our first day of snow here. mid-october ..... not bad i guess ... and you know it is really pretty

pattern: laminaria from knitty
wool: jade saphire cashmere in robin's egg blue
needles: size 4

white, black and red all over

look at this lovely bag! i chose the fabrics and the very talented corrie of Lilith Moon (in skagway alaska). corrie is so fantastic and i lurve this bag. inside it is lined in denim with lots of handy pockets.. ooooh and all the stitching is in red! corrie doesn't have a website but here is a nice article.
anyway can't wait to use it on my trip out east!! only three sleeps away

answers in pictures

The Questions:

1. What is your name? mary
   
2. What is your favorite food? salmon
   
3. What elementary school did you go to? wickaninnish
   
4. What is your favorite color? teal and pink
   
5. Who is your celebrity crush? fred astaire
   
6. What is your favorite drink? tea
   
7. Dream vacation? st peterburg
   
8. Favorite dessert? rhubarb pie
   
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? curator
   
10. What do you love most in life? family
    
11. One word to describe you? knitter
    
12. Your flickr name? knitnorth

... simple questions, pretty answers. Here is how you play:

• type your answer to each question above into Flickr Search
• using only the first page of results, pick an image
• copy and paste each URL into fd's mosaic maker
• blog it!

Fun. Try it!

ps. you can click to photo to see details

getting ready for opening tomorrow

my clothes are all laid out for our exhibition opening(s) tomorrow night. for the first time i'm going to wear jeans and a t-shirt .... but don't worry folks neither are ordinary - the jeans are fabulously high waisted by second and the t is made by artist ho tam who's show "confessions of a salesman" is opening in the gallery.
the whole look is rather duran duran - heehe!

sweater is done!

sweater is done
Originally uploaded by knit_north

it has been done for a while ..... but no pics until now.
alas it did not make it into the fair .... "oh honey you have won a ribbon" the lady at the fair sighed - i missed the date - oh well, i love the sweater....

ps please don't mind the messy house - we are in the midst of moving!

olympic update

well i'm about 1/4 of my way there - it is certainly a bulky funny thing. but will be thick spongy cute mat when it is all said and done (and heavy!).

totally addicted to watching the olympics - fashion wise: i love the russian team jackets - i couldn't find any decent pics but here is one to the right - the crisp red and white is fantastic with the scrolls found in traditional russian embroidery.



the other team that looks fabulous - in the opening ceremonies in particular are the french. check out the dove gray jackets on the men and the belts! looooove the red belts!!! really all their accessories are perfect and so french.


i wish i could say the same for canada - HBC blah! have you seen the the ugly fully patterned track pants?! they better put out the classic Bay jackets in Vancouver - keep it simple - the whole 'four elements' theme is overly complicated and ends up looking like pajamas - lame.

just lame

our lady of sitka

as promised let me chat about highlights from our south east alaska trip. so the big landmark in Sitka is the Cathedral of St Micheal. The Russian Orthodox church is right in the centre of town. Sitka was once the captial of Russian America (until 1867 when Alaska was sold to the States) and has a few buildings from that era. The original church burnt to the ground in 1966 during a fire downtown, but has been completely restored. all the art was saved as was the chandelier which was hauled out by two guys while the church was on fire. the next day they went to move it and it took 6 men to move it as the chandelier weighs over 300 pounds - amazing what people can do in emergencies.

the madonna above is of the older russian icons. she is susposed to heal eye problems

up the hill

213 steps 6088.1
Originally uploaded by Yukon White Light

just home from a walk up the cliff - where i live right now is in the older residential part of whitehorse right along the bottom of the clay cliffs. on the top of black street is a huge set of steps (200+ stairs) which i climb a few times a week, well at least at this time of year. it is so pretty up at the top you can see right across the city down to the river

this afternoon i took my knitting with me - i realized yesterday that i definitely do not have enough loops for the bathmat (like 150% more!) so loopy cotton loops .... solution? socks - yep i cut socks into loops. about 30 socks - i found a package of 20 youth sport socks for $5! plus a 10 pack that had white, pink, blue and purple socks. I spent last night cutting socks up as i watched the olympics. normally when patrick is away i rent girlie flicks (costume dramas and bollywood is my weakness) but the olympics are fantastic. not sure what is, i'd never watch bike road races, beach volleyball etc normally but during the olympics? count me in.

yesterday was pretty busy. i moved everything from christine + my house up the hill to the new place in porter creek. i spent friday night packing up and then on sat afternoon, four of my friends helped pack the boxes in the van and then into the apartment. took less than 2 hours! so i treated everyone to coffee and a treat ... ahhh.

still have to move patrick's place ..... that is the big stuff like couches etc but almost there.

olympic knitting challenge

after failing last Olympics with a rather ambitious (cough.. crazy) sweater challenge i set myself - this time round: it is a bathmat. yes not nearly as sexy... or wearable (well maybe as a heavy-ass cape but yeah no.)

so how does one knit a bathmat? with potholder loops.... ummm potholder loops??? these cotton jersey (t-shirt material) loops - I found two bags in this funny little 'everything' store in Sitka. so yeah i need to loop them together to make my yarn then knit away with some big knitting needles! i'm already starting to worry i don't have enough .... so if any of you see these in weird little craft shops let me know!

new blanket for new home

this was my big splurge on the alaska trip. a Pendleton "Beaded Woodland" blanket ...... pure wool and so pretty i couldn't resist it when i saw/found it in Juneau yesterday. well i was good .... saw in the morning and by dinner time knew it had to be for our new apartment. nice thing is was a good deal too (yay! as it is an expensive month).

i'm really looking forward to moving in. we hopefully get the keys tomorrow and i'll likely camp out there for a few days while patrick's son visits (this cabin is sooooo teeny!). then this weekend i hope to move as much as i can on my own over. happy to be back in whitehorse - great fantastic trip but lovely to be home.

ps i promise to post more about the alaska trip - just need to organize photos etc

mmmm salmonberries

i think that was my favourite thing about Sitka - the salmonberries - so many ripe salmonberries! what a beautiful town - it used to be the capital of Russian America and still has buildings from that era along with amazing totem poles, a full harbour of fishing boats and just a quaint lovely feeling about it all. sooooo great! i have to jump off the computer now (in a bar in juneau) more soon i promise!

i am a knitting machine

with less than a week to the Alaska State Fair, all i'm doing is knitting..... must finish sweater ... must block sweater .... must finish ... must knit .. stop typing back to knitting

ps check out dr horrible's sing-along blog (tho sure you already have!) "Look at my wrist! Time to go!"

summer sun

found this great little animation that shows our summer light
our days are getting shorter now but as much as might lament up here we still have lots of light at 11 pm and frankly it is just dusky at midnight. then around 2-3am it is getting light again.
it is funny how you never really know what time it by just looking outside ...

sweater in the sun

westcoast rose progress
Originally uploaded by knit_north

as you can see i'm working on the second sleeve ... um clearly missed the unrealistic stanely cup goal ..... but gotta get moving as i want to enter it in the s.e. alaska state fair - yes for real! i really really want to win a ribbon ... or even a sticker or something - also tempted to make some rhubarb jam or something. if i hadn't lost my oh so lovely tam would have entered that but ah well .... it is almost yoke time for this sweater so i'm on my way (by the way here is a photo of the pattern - i've changed up the colour and added an extra repeat to the torso as i'm so long-waisted)

so despite needing to finish this sweater - i'm planning out my next knit Gigi from knitty - it is a cute cropped kimono sleeved cardie and rather mindless knitting - i even already have the wool for it an alpaca/merino sock yarn in navy/purple . it is so soft and lush. and after that???? well i think i need a cashmere scarf (yes need. i mean it's cold up here)... a big lacey one .... maybe in a robin egg blue? thoughts?

World Wide Knit in Public Day

WWKiP day was fantastic - we had 25+ people show up all different ages and sooo chatty! loved it! spoke for quite a while with this lady (she’d be in her 80s) about knitting and her 10 kids! She grew up in the Yukon - her best friend’s mother taught her knit as her mom didn’t knit - so at nine years old she began knitting her dad sweaters for work - her dad did the mail run between Whitehorse and Dawson City (this was before there was a road! about 500-600 km) - so cool and great

knitting on the train

knitting on the train
Originally uploaded by knit_north

ummmm yes it has been a while since i've posted ....... this pic is from may long weekend on the train. patrick an i went to skagway - the first day was sooo cold! so had had to buy a toque (the one i'm wearing here) and totally bundle up. but the monday oh my so lovely and warm! it was so hard to leave. the flowers were all out and there was that lovely ocean breeze

the next weekend in whitehorse was amazing - so crazy hot ... i got so burned! oh my - really bad - i burnt my knees so badly i had a v hard time walking for 3 days - i was only in direct sun for about 1/2 hour. yes i'm that white - tho i also blame the sun here - i swear it is stronger up here

then this sunday .... we had SNOW - June 8th a couple inches of snow - granted it was wet snow .... but snow in june? gah!

oh and good news! i'm still employed! i'm the 'new' Gallery Director of the Arts Centre Gallery .. hoorah

my playoffs goal

rose_progress1
Originally uploaded by knit_north

Ok - i hardly want to stay this out loud because i'm not sure if i'll make it.... but I want to have this sweater done by the time the Stanley Cup is handed over to the winning team!
the picture shows a little more than a week's progress - so yeah i better hurry

i was cursing the purple earlier but it is growing on my now ...
the other thing is: why is the ribbing curling?? hopefully that will sort itself out with blocking

new sweater swatch w notes

rose_swatch w notes
Originally uploaded by knit_north

i'm about to start a fair isle sweater (Autumn Rose by Eunny Jang) - totally excited -
but still need a few colours - i'm in victoria next week so i'll actually be able to pick out colours in front of me instead of guessing over the web.


here is my swatch - i think i need a deeper gray and a brighter turquoise (instead of the moorgrass)
i think i’ll also swap out the shetland black with a deep purple
i tried out spruce and tartan - i like the darker green -tartan- better

happy easter

easter egg
Originally uploaded by knit_north

a bit of eye candy for you
beautiful chocolate eggs my mom sent me!

it is huge

tam_starmore4
Originally uploaded by knit_north

oooooooooooooooh traditional tammy you have forsaken me - you are sooo big! massive in fact (yes roll out the big scottish head jokes by mike myers and yeah i have a big head!) oh woe such beautiful wool, perfect gauge, lovely motifs but alas not for me - i may try felting it down ... but not sure how much that will help

oh well have started a new one - smaller and more me .. i have chosen the patterns (and dramatically altered the length) rather than religiously following the pattern

my traditional tam

starmore_tam
Originally uploaded by knit_north

so at the moment I'm obsessively knitting a traditional tam for me - using mom's book Alice Starmore Fair Isle Knitting and wool right from Scotland (see below)

starmore yummy wool

starmore3
Originally uploaded by knit_north

i have just received wool right from the Scottish Hebridies (yes Fair Isle 2 ply wool!) it is so lush - the colours are really rich and heathered - i'm knitting myself a tam. yes, i know ..... i've been knitting tams non-stop but this is the real deal

lets knit series [2007]

look what Andrea got me for christmas! it just arrived yesterday - it is a fantastic knitting book from Japan - the instructions are all in Japanese - but i'm up for the challenge! really it is not as daunting as one would guess as the instructions are charted so v visual.