Canadian Guild of Knitters

At long last, a Website Update!

2012-02-05T16:19:00.000-08:00

OK, it's not perfect, but there is finally new information on the website! I'm so excited!

Unfortunately one of the things that precipated my having to delve back into the realm of html code was a rate increase. Yes, after five long years (and they were long, now that I think about it), we've had to increase our rates. Effective March 1, 2012, a one-year Canadian Membership will be $35.00 (in CDN $). For information about other rate increases, visit the Join Today page of the website, http://www.cgknitters.ca/.

A member from Calgary Alberta had asked me to post information on the website about the tool kits. We found these nifty little items back in 2007. They have lots of pockets to hold everything from change to stitch markers. They are available exclusively to renewing members of Canadian Guild of Knitters at a cost of $11.00 plus $4.00 postage and handling (after March 1 - currently the P&H is $3.50).

The one challenge I could not overcome today was the retailer page. No matter how many times I uploaded the new file, it wouldn't show on the website... there must be two of them out there somewhere... maybe I'll go take another look.

A New Year - Let's Roll!

2012-01-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

Welcome, 2012! This year promises to be a year of calmness and productivity, and I'm looking forward to it.

So far this year, the work has begun to get the CGK books ready for the tax man. Membership renewals for the new year are nearly ready to send out. There's going to be a membership increase this year, so we want to give members as much opportunity as possible to beat the increase.

I'd hoped to get to a website update this weekend, but it won't happen today. I've had two inquiries about Level 2 this week, and that's going to be job-one tomorrow, and the next couple weekends.

My knitting mo-jo took a bit of a hike toward the end of last year. After gardening season, I worked on a series of face cloths for the Spring, 2012 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread - here's a sneak peek:

The set is a trio of a round, square, and triangular cloth. This sample was made with cotton DK weight yarn.

Five or six face cloths later, I moved on to hats. Since mid-December I've made six hats, and I think I'm about done with that, too.

Next on the needles is a top-down sweater to replace one I LOVE from a Paton's leaflet. This time, I'm making it in Briggs & Little Regal. The yoke is only about 1/2 done.

May the New Year bring you the best life has to offer!

It was a Rainy Day...

2011-08-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

...perfect for doing paperwork!

I prepared some new and renewing membership cards for mailing, and sent out another Level 1 package today, and took a look at my ad for the magazine, which is past due for an overhaul.

Speaking of overhauls, the website is also past due for one, and while I was working today I had an idea to get the gallery updated: Ask our members for photos! So, here's the request: send me low-resolution photographs of your knitting projects, especially ones you've made from patterns published in Knit Together or A Needle Pulling Thread. Send them to my website e-mail which is on my contact page at www.cgknitters.ca/contact.html with the subject "Photos for CGK".

Photos that have 'models' will need to be accompanied by permission forms -- I'll provide one. I'm very cautious about putting up photos of minor children, so permission forms are necessary.

The gardening (ahem, weeding) continues, but it's worth it! This rose is called Grenada, and it is in its second blooming. I have also photographed my peace rose, but don't have a photo on the hard drive yet. The buttercream daisies I bought at Zehrs are putting on an awesome show, too!

I'm also trying to get some knitting done. My computer is getting old and slow, so I keep a pair of socks (for Dad) on the desk to work on while I'm waiting for uploads, downloads and overloads!

This Faroese shawl is now finished -- the ends have been woven in, and it's actually already doubled as a blanket when I fall asleep in front of the TV.

The other project on the needles is a hemp top with 3/4 length sleeves designed by Lanaknits Designs in British Columbia. I'm still ensuring I support our Canadian Knitting designers.

One day in the office, though, is the tip of the iceberg! There's still much to do, including finish planning for the knitting classes I'll be leading through Parks and Recreation starting in mid-September.

I have to shut down the computer soon, though, because there's a salsa party tonight!

Where Does the Time Go?

2011-07-24T18:09:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post. The last time I posted was before a rain. We did have a fair bit of rain at the end of May and into June, but July has been drier than February in Arizona! Even the rain that has fallen in the last two days has been south west of us. But the weather channel is promising rain next week (When I'll be back at work).

The gardens have grown up, and nicely. This ground-level photo of the west "curb" bed was glorious. The galardia (centre in front of stump) is still in bloom. The geranium is very happy, and the butter-cream daisy (on right) has a new batch of blooms. I've learned that the wood "sculpture"in the centre this bed is actually a piece of a chestnut tree that was in the back yard. The delphiniums can just be seen peeking out from behind the "stump".

The entryway bed has grown up, too. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the bee balm/ monarda with the red blooms is over 4 feet high. What a show! I found the bench at a garage sale, and have enjoyed many mornings looking out toward a nearby park.

I've taken literally hundreds of photos of the gardens this year, 8 of which have made it into matching frames on the living room wall.

This summer has been all about preventative maintenance on the house: Dad came in and pressure washed the front porch, back deck and garden shed, then I watersealed the decks and stained and painted the garden shed. Yesterday we black-topped the driveway. Next summer, I'll be able to kick back and relax!

Here are before and after shots of the garden shed:

This is after the pressure washing

and this is after the staining and painting:

The only thing left is to add a finishing touch of a happy face on the left wall. :-)

All this has happened during two weeks off over the first three weeks of the month. Once the postal strike was over, the Summer issue of A Needle Pulling Thread was mailed out. Renewal notices for this issue will be following soon.

Another Canadian Guild of Knitters undertaking was to mark yet another Level 1 package. It's heading back out in tomorrow's mail.

The vacation wasn't all work: Zoey spent a couple days in day care so Mummy could shop! When you have a dog with separation anxiety, it's a real luxury to get to spend 3 hours browsing through Wal-mart! The two of us went to an arts and craft show in Bracebridge where we spent a little time in the Greenelf Wild Woolens booth. Today, the last day of vacation, I took Zoey (aka the Ming Princess) to the Barrie waterfront where she got a walk, and I got some knitting done. When we heard the skirl of the bagpipes, I moved us to a better vantage point and enjoyed some celtic music. Today was one of the most temperate days of the vacation, and it felt good to get out and enjoy some of it, now that the painting is over!

Before the Rains Came

2011-05-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

The holiday weekend enabled me to get the gardens in before the rains came. This bed, one of five in the back yard, was made more colourful by adding the mum Marie bought me when I separated last fall, a new rose bush (Grenada), and some yellow and cream marigolds. The bush in the centre was thought to be a standard lilac, but turns out it is a standard hydrangea (no wonder it isn't blooming yet)! The chrysanthemum will bloom about the same colour as the ground phlox in the background.

The front gardens were planted on Monday. This one is the west curb bed, with the entryway bed showing in the background. Already blessed with sedum, echinacea, coral bells and this very cool tree 'sculpture', I added a buttercream daisy, a red geranium (behind tree part), some orange asiatic lilies and some gold day lilies, and a pretty gold mum (on the right.) The shade on this garden is courtesy the flowering crab apple tree that belongs to the city.

Speaking of the flowering crab, a few of its branches can be seen at the top of the photo below.

This is the east curb bed which came equipped with a Lady's Mantle, Liatrus, rambling rose (all on right), some echinacea, ground phlox, a toad house, and sedum. Last weekend's additions are the hosta at the front left, flanked by two harvest moon echinaceas, a gold day lily, and a red geranium (fleck of red in top corner).

I'm learning that at this age, four hours of gardening requires a nap of some sort afterwards. That really cuts into the knitting time!

Speaking of knitting, I now have a shrug and a ruffled scarf off the needles. The former needs blocking yet, and the latter just needs two ends woven in. This week I'll be working on knitting samples for the upcoming article in the Fall 2011 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread.

And, speaking of A Needle Pulling Thread, the summer issue went to the printer's last week, and will be in the mail by the middle of June -- hopefully by then we'll be having sunnier days and be able to enjoy reading it on the back deck in a chaise longue with a cool drink on the side!

Happy Knitting

2011-05-16T18:24:00.001-07:00

May 7 was a special day here at Canadian Guild of Knitters. It was the birthday of the lady who taught me to knit (my paternal grandmother), and, since it fell on a Saturday this year, I decided to celebrate!

I invited a few knitters I know in my home town and brought in a yummy banana cake with cream cheese icing. We sat, and chatted, and knitted, and ate cake, of course.

Sunday, the 8th was Mother's Day, which I spent at my brother's farm with our mom, dad and sister, and his wife's family. Zoey got two walks in the country that day! Happy girl!

After a weekend of socializing, I got cracking here in the office again this past weekend. Saturday was a paperwork day -- filing, processing membership renewals and generally reducing the size of the paper stacks. Sunday was KAP day: I got nearly two of the three packages that have arrived in the past month marked. All three will be done and back on their way home after the long weekend.

Of course, some time will be devoted to the gardens as well. Hopefully the rain will stop long enough to get the lawn mowed!

Hello, Spring!

2011-04-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Spring is teasing us along. Yesterday I got to spend a good two hours outside in a chilly breeze, tidying up the back yard and teasing out the front flower beds. I filled 3 paper yard bags! This is going to be big, but once the initial raking and pruning are done, it will come down to evening primping on a 'yard tour' after work, if my old habits are anything to go by. Last weekend I bought some perennials to add the colour described in my last post. I've got some of them sprouting inside to give them the jump start in the garden. None of them will bloom this summer, but they'll be healthy! Friday, I received another Level 1 submission, and got a couple more hours of edits in on Level 2. Today, I've cleaned a few to-dos out of my inbox and will spend the afternoon on Level 2. My, it's good to be back! Last night, I got to go dancing again... I've taken a few salsa lessons, and am trying how to figure out how to keep doing them without the additional dog sitting costs crippling my effort! I. just. want. to. dance! So much to do, and the same time span as always! Sigh.

And we Danced

2011-03-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few weeks here at CGK. The mailing list for the Spring issue was finalized, and they are all in the mail now.

The renewal notices for the past two issues have been sent out to our members, and I'm waiting for renewals to return.

A test knitting package for Level 2 that was received just before the turmoil in the Fall was finally marked and returned. From it, I've made some edits to the introduction, before sending out more of the Level 2 test packages.

Speaking of test knitting, I learned that the potholder I had test knitted for the summer issue wa made in the theme colours for the spring issue, so I've re-knitted it in the summer colours, which, coincidentally, will work in my new kitchen, so all is not lost. Carla will get to keep the spring coloured potholders, and I'll get to keep the Coppertone Summer and brown coloured ones! Plans are in the works to make a complementary oven mitt using double (2-sided/ jacquard) knitting technique for publication.

Also for ANPT, I've finished my article for the Summer issue. This one will focus on yarn nomenclature. It's provided an opportunity for me to put together some information I've wanted to consolidate for years.

And, of course, it's time to prepare everything for the tax season, which is how the lion's share of today was spent.

Next on the to do list are website updates (long past due), writing the article for the Fall and Festive, 2011 issues of A Needle Pulling Thread, and finishing mailing list updates.

I'm trying to get as much done as possible before gardening season starts, as I've got my work cut out for me with my new yard. The photo shows one side of the back yard... there's a matching garden on the other side, and 5 more beds at the front of the house! I'm hoping to get some colour into all those greens. There may be some spring bulbs... I don't know. This summer is going to be a bit like a gardener's Christmas, so I plan to stick close to home to see what happens!

Summer vacation plans include preparing class material for the parks and rec classes I'll be starting in my home town in September, and getting a warp on the weaving loom, now that I have it in a useable position. I had hoped to go to the East Coast, and I've got a bead on Knit East, and might be able to squeak a week there the end of September. That would be GREAT. It would be better if I could stay long enough to take in Celtic Colours the week after, but I'm pretty sure the work schedule won't permit that! Someday, I'll get there.

Of course, all work and no play makes Cynthia a dull girl, so Friday night Zoey got a sleepover at the dog sitters while her mommy went dancing. It was a positive ending to yet another rollercoaster week.

Speaking of all work and no play, it's time to turn off this computer, make a cup of tea, and go do some knitting.

Spring ANPT and Level 2

2011-02-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day, knitters!

The Spring, 2010 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread is now at the printer; this weekend was spent working on updates to the membership list in preparation for the mail-out.

With all that has gone on over the past few months, I have not sent out renewals to members whose memberships lapsed between August and October, 2010. For these members, the Festive, 2010 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread was the last one of their membership. This weekend I began preparing renewal notices for this group. As the renewals come in, the Spring issue will be mailed out to those members who fall into this group.

Another sign that I'm getting caught up with my workload is that Level 2 has been placed back in its proper location -- on the front burner! It was never intended to simmer on the back burner this long. The target now is to have another batch of exercises tested this spring (guess what I'm doing on the new Ontario February holiday), and get it released this summer.

There's still much to do: I've got several pieces to write for upcoming issues of A Needle Pulling Thread, which also got deferred over the past few months, and I've got a pattern simmering in the appropriate lobe for an oven mitt in reversible knitting.

It feels unbelievably good to be getting back on track.

What? A clean Desk?

2011-01-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

It took two more weekends than planned, but I have my beautiful stack of mail all ready to go, and my desk is clean, except for the to do list. I still have to do a website update and there's always the next article!

When I went to mail three more Knitting Accreditation Programs, I found that I need to do another printing, so it will be another day or two before those packages get into the mail.

Kate, my editor at A Needle Pulling Thread has had me busy test knitting some felted potholders for an upcoming issue of ANPT. Here's a peek:

Pretty, eh?

Yes, that's Zoey, aka the Ming Princes, aka GirlyGirl, aka the light of my life in the top left corner. She's keeping an eye on things, as always.

I'm really developing a weekend routine again. Today, I even got some of my projects updated on Ravelry!

I never found the knit-along I was seeking, so I've decided to continue on with the 'finishitis' projects, although I have started a pair of socks for Dad.

Yesterday I joined my friends at the Spinner's Guild and on Wednesday I hope to return to the local knitting guild.

The re-adjustment continues...aaaah...

Happy New Year

2010-12-30T06:15:00.000-08:00

As we approach the close of 2010 (a rollercoaster if ever there was one -- for me), I want to wish all Canadian Guild of Knitters members, all my friends and my family, a happy 2011.

May peace and love reign.

Every day I am one step closer to having my new life organized. Earlier this week, I emptied some boxes in the office. I'm changing to a different filing system, and trying to piece back together the components of 2010 that got scattered hither and yon.

By January 4, I plan to have all my recent orders processed, my next article written, and my KAP marking done so I can participate in a KAL or two guilt-free.

Because I needed to carve out some knitting time over the holidays, I finished this shawl for my Mom. It is the garter stitch Gracie from Myrna Stahmann's book, made of 316 grams of 'well-aged' Kroy (my favourite yarn for shawls).

I made the shawl at the right for my sister, but no one believes she will wear it. I started out making it for myself, but the colour isn't right for me. The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss, (took @ 180 grams), and the pattern is a free Ravelry Download -- look for the Elizabeth Zimmermann 100th birthday commemorative shawls set designed by mwaa (a lady from Ontario, as it happens). I used the camping shawl for the body, but used the hearts edging from the other two shawls in the set.

Go ahead... Skype me!

2010-12-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

At the prompting of a knitter in Eastern Ontario, I have signed on to Skype. Knitters who want to contact Canadian Guild of Knitters can now Skype cynthia.cgknitters when you see I'm on-line.

It's one of the little things I've been able to do between getting Internet connectivity and the arrival of my desk!

Finally reconnected

2010-11-25T18:01:00.001-08:00

I'm finally reconnected, as of one hour ago! In another week or so I should have my office furniture, and then life at CGK can get back to normal!

The move continues....

(@#$*ing Rogers!

2010-11-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I learned that Rogers Communication is an oxymoron. When I processed a change order (one of several, because I have had to move twice in the last month), NO ONE, not of FIVE "customer service specialists" communicated to me that I needed a piece of equipment from my old equipment when they came to hook up my new service. The technician who came to hook my internet service on Saturday was the Rogers employee who was kind enough to deliver the message, and it was the fourth person I spoke to at customer service after HE had left who pointed out to me that as a result, my e-mail would be disabled.

As a result, you may have difficulty reaching me this week. Our phones are still working, both the 722-6495 and the toll-free number, however all my e-mail -- cgknitters.ca and (naturally) my rogers.com e-mail are out-of-commission until Friday.

On behalf of Rogers Communications, I apologize for this inconvenience.

Cynthia Update

2010-10-22T05:47:00.000-07:00

Things are changing in my world -- I am going through a period of re-settlement

I am trying to stay on top of everything I need to, however there is much going on right now. Your patience as I go through these changes is appreciated!

Rolling into Fall

2010-10-03T15:48:00.001-07:00

Well, the temperatures have necessitated an additional blanket on the bed, the stacking of fire wood, and the cleaning and putting away of some of the summer clothes.

September was a busy month with the presence of Canadian Guild of Knitters at Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair, where we met many knitters -- some who are happy to see us featured in A Needle Pulling Thread, and some who told us they miss Knit Together. It was good to be feeling well enough to be there to meet and greet so many knitters this year. This is what our booth looked like this year -- the tall sign is a new addition -- I've wanted a good sign for a couple years now, and this was the year it happened!

The week after that, Canadian Guild of Knitters joined A Needle Pulling Thread at Knit Trade, a new show for yarn shop staff to see what new products they might carry in their shops. The show was put on by Cabin Fever, and, for a first event was quite successful -- they're planning to do it again next year, hopefully with some new wholesalers, and many more yarn shop registrants!

We had a lot of new people sign on in September, so today was a "catch up" day, getting membership cards processed and magazines and Level 1 packages off to people have ordered them within the last month.

Speaking of Level 1, Janie H. Knits in Perth Ontario has started a study group of knitters in her area interested in completing the Accreditation Program. We have a retailer incentive program, and Janie has recruited a lot of interest in Canadian Guild of Knitters. For more information about our tetailer incentive program, contact Cynthia.

Next weekend is Thanksgiving. This year I'll be grateful for the recent happiness in our family, and for having my health restored. In the office, I plan to give the website another brush up and get caught up with our Random Acts of Knitting book givaways for this year... I'm a few months behind. The other thing on the agenda for next weekend is to get a serious dent in the rest of Level 2. I also have some level 2 material here to mark, and I believe there's a Level 1 coming in later this month to mark.

As the days grow shorter, the "to do" list continues to grow!

Because they bought the farm!

2010-09-06T14:48:00.001-07:00

In my post earlier today, you learned of my brother's recent nuptials. A wedding is every reason to make a family happy, but these two did something that has sparked nearly unheard of excitement in our midst... they bought the farm.

Not "a" farm, not just any old farm. They bought the farm that belonged to our great-grandfather! Really! So, they bought a very special old farm!

We're all doing the happy dance for them!

Even Mother Nature is happy... on Saturday, she showed her pleasure over the barn:

Yes, that's a rainbow!

A bit about the barn: the wing on the right is the "old barn" with a stone and concrete foundation. "New barn" on the left has a poured concrete foundation, and, speaking of concrete, our grandfather built the silo on the left of the photo.

So, the newlyweds are working. We're all pitching in. The old farm house was very overgrown. Here's a before and after shot of the front of the house:

On Day 1, my sister was cleaning kitchen cupboards while Deb washed walls that were probably wallpapered in the 1960s. Darren and Dad started tearing down lattice and vines. Creepy old carpets were ripped up and tossed.

On Day 2, Lisa tackled some of the gardens, and she and Deb washed the living room walls down to prep for paint.while Darren did two 'dump runs' and he and Dad looked after some brush removal, gutted the bathroom, and Dad spackled the living room. Lisa and Dad painted the living room ceiling, too! I felt SO helpless! I had to work these two days, and the best I could do was stop by with a journal for them to chronicle this new chapter in the family's homestead. I put a section in the back to log contacts for repair people -- they're gonna need it!

I got to pitch in on Day 3. Dad and I sanded and painted the living room. Darling cleaned and swept the upper floor of the chicken coop (I've never seen a two-storey chicken coop, but that's what Dad says it used to be...), and, when more friends showed up, Darling and Kirk headed out to clean the lower floor of the old wing of the barn. Meanwhile, Deb, and Yvonne went back over the kitchen with cleaners again. (The kitchen was scary, and it will be a couple months before the contractor can get at 'er.)

I'm writing this more for Deb's benefit than mine, but it is great to be sharing the excitement!

Yesterday, I had a day off to nurse sore muscles from painting -- I was cutting in the walls at the ceiling level, so I was up and down that ladder countless times.

Today, I'm pleased to report that I've been in the office, and got memberships caught up. While I've been doing that, I've been burning CDs of the wedding photos on the other laptop. And now, I'm going to put the membership cards in the envelopes, write a couple of notes to new members, and close the office for the day.

September is starting out to be very productive. Carla, Kate and I will be at Knitter's Fair next weekend with recent and upcoming projects from A Needle Pulling Thread. Stop by the booth and say hi!

And just WHERE did August go?

2010-09-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

August, as far as my memory goes, was pretty rainy. As I reflect back over it, I'm totally perplexed as to where it exactly went.

I've done some writing, but clearly not blog posts... I've done some knitting, but all garter stitch -- I've had no mind to do anything complex... shades of last year. I did knit Deb a shawl for her bridal shower -- I made her Idella from Myrna Stahmann's Seaman's Scarves and Faroese Shawl book, but I had that finished in July. I made a full-size faroese shawl in three weeks. That may be why I haven't been knitting a lot this month...

I have pulled out the Level 2 file and got another look at it. I also had another person step forward for testing the first portion of Level 2 exercises, and that package is going out in tomorrow's mail.

There have been no Level 1 submissions, so the office is still empty.

Two really great things happened just last week...

My brother, who we thought was a confirmed bachelor, got married last Saturday! Here are him and his bride beside our dad's 1949 Ford pickup truck.

Here is Darren and me before the service...

And lastly, here are the newlyweds standing beside a rusted old artifact of a tractor on the Museum site where the wedding was held.

It's completely appropriate that these two got married at a Museum, and that they had wedding photos taken next to a tractor. I'm not being unkind... and will explain it in my next post.

And Another Month Flew By!

2010-07-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

And, it was a busy one!

Before the Cambridge WWKIP event and the Midland Tornado (my last two posts), I learned of a shower for my brother's bride-to-be. So, I decided to knit something for her. Now, I doubt that she reads my blog (or even knows it exists), so, I can happily say that my 'power knitting' efforts were successful; I finished the project with weeks to spare! Still, I won't mention any more here for fear of giving away a surprise.

Darling has been busy with art shows -- he does bird studies in watercolours. I don't have a photo of one of his recent works, but here is an older specimen -- this painting is now in Australia. At the same time he was doing art shows, we were joined by some of his relatives from New Zealand. A good time was had by all, and both Tina (visiting) and Cynthia got some handsome new luggage!

I've been working on my article for the Spring 2011 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread. Renewals for people whose memberships expired with the Summer 2010 issue are now in the mail.

The Fall 2010 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread is currently at the printer's, and renewals for CGK members whose memberships conclude with the Fall issue will be processed soon.

The website, too, received a mini overhaul... check out the home and retailers' pages.

We've been in touch with the good folks at Kitchener-Waterloo Guild, making our plans for this fall's Knitter's Fair. If you're planning to attend this event this year, we're planning to be there to greet you!

The work at Canadian Guild of Knitters is always on-going. Apart from finishing my Spring 2011 submission to A Needle Pulling Thread, other tasks on the slate for the August long weekend are finalizing the draws for the June and July Random Acts of Knitting (see the website for details) and doing further edits and photos for Level 2 of the Knitting Accreditation Program. Cynthia has a design to prepare for the Fall, 2011 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread, too.

First, though, is a canoe-camping trip with the fella for a couple days. Wish me luck! And, yes, I'm taking some knitting...

Wasn't that a Party!

2010-06-27T10:29:00.001-07:00

This year, I celebrated World Wide Knit in Public Day (WWKIP) in Cambridge, Ontario.

The Cambridge area was once the home of several knitting yarn mills, including Monarch, Galt (Lady Galt yarns), and others, and the textile tradition of here runs deep.

The Cambridge Arts Centre has embarked on a project to recognize this history later in 2010 -- a 'yarn bombing' event they're calling "KNIT camBRIDGE."

KNIT camBRIDGE is a project to completely cover the Main Street bridge that spans the Grand River (?) with knitting. When I told Mom, she said "Oh! A covered bridge!" My Mom has a pretty good sense of humour.

To boost publicity for Knit the Bridge, Sue Sturdy, Artist-in-residence at the Cambridge Art Centre, put together a huge team of volunteers for the 2010 WWKIP, with a view to breaking the Guinness World Record for the number of knitters knitting simultaneously. Fortunately, an event in the Civic Square the night before resulted in some shelter -- enough for several hundred knitters. Dozens of the pieces for the Knit the Bridge project were displayed on a vintage fire truck.

Sue and the team put together a great program, with prizes for numerous categories -- oldest knitter present, youngest knitter present, highest number of generations of one family present (4), and many others. Several pairs of pool cues had been sharpened, and teams of three vied for prizes for who could knit three rows of 10 stitches the fastest. Volunteers were easily spotted by their neon-coloured balls of yarn threaded through lanyards.

There were several speakers present, too. Dr. Karen Dearlove gave an all-too-brief history of textiles and knitting in the Cambridge/ Hespler area (I could have talked to her for hours), and Lynn Spence, from City TV's Cityline was on hand to hand out some prizes and say a few words to the hundreds of knitters in attendance. Steve Robinson, a Federal government employee by day, did a terrific job as Master of Ceremonies for the event.

The weather didn't co-operate fully, but still, hundreds of knitters turned out. A brief shower happened just before the serious knitting began. It was just enough to encourage people to come in under the tents and fill all the chairs.

There were knitters from Newfoundland, Texas, Germany, and Australia. One lady had brought some vintage Barbie doll clothes a relative had knitted in the 1960s.

At the appointed time, with needles at the ready, everyone set to their knitting. I stopped only long enough to sneak a photo of one half of the large tent full of knitters, and discovered that there were knitters almost as far back as the Art Centre!

The Cambridge WWKIP event was superbly organized. At present, they are looking for volunteers to help stitch together the bridge blanket. Volunteers can contact KNIT camBRIDGE at http://www.knitcambridge.com.

To Sue and crew, I send a wave and a big thanks for such a terrific morning!

Everything's OK at CGK

2010-06-24T05:40:00.001-07:00

Already this morning I've had an e-mail from a member asking if we survived last night's tornado.

The tornado went through Midland, a town about 40 miles west of where I live. There were warnings for Orillia/Washago, my home area, but, apart from rain and some high winds through our tall white pines, we were safe.

Our hearts go out to the people who lost their homes last night.

My next blog post will be about the WWKIP event held in Cambridge last weekend. Stay tuned!

All the News

2010-05-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been seven weeks since my last post!

There has been much going on... e-mails and phone calls have been going back and forth with the good folks at A Needle Pulling Thread, and I've been learning more about the workings and writings for a colour publication. We came up with an idea for a complimentary accessory for the project in the Festive 2010 issue, that will be great for gift-giving.

I had my first meeting with Editor Kate and we laid out the plans for the knitting section for A Needle Pulling Thread through to the end of 2011. Now, I need to get writing again. No, still.

The first issue of A Needle Pulling Thread was mailed to Canadian Guild of Knitters last week. It was very exciting to know that a copy of it was sitting in my mailbox, but going there would have landed me in the height of May 24 weekend traffic, so MY glimpse at the new issue will have to wait until tomorrow.

Because of the new system for distribution, I will be mailing out membership renewals under separate cover, so members should look for their renewals in the mail soon. I was supposed to be doing that last weekend, but I was down with the "office cold" which knocked me right off my feet. I haven't been that sick since the last time I had bronchitis!

Retail members recently were shipped a promotional offer from A Needle Pulling Thread, and one of our retailers advised that she didn't receive the flyer in her package. If you fit into this category, please let me know, so I can pass the information along to John at ANPT.

Earlier this month, I managed to get a little update done on the website. It still needs work, but I'm not up to snuff in the html department, so I'm doing the best I can.

On the home front, a lot has been happening, too. On April 27 we welcomed our new little angel to earth. Sarah has quickly become close to our hearts, and the apple of Grandad's eye. In this picture she is two days old, and she is in the arms of her great nana, who we had visit with my mom for Mother's Day.

The day after, I drove to Toronto to Knitter's Frolic, which is hosted by the Downtown Knit Collective. I went as a 'tourist' this year (I didn't have a booth), and visited with a lot of knitters and vendors.

As mentioned above, last weekend I had planned to get a lot of things done, but didn't! Instead, I yielded to sinus pressure.

Apart from baby knitting, I have got a few bits of knitting done. The 'sleeves in your pi' sweater I've been working on for several years is nearing completion -- about 5 inches of sleeve to go. I also needed a 'lace fix' and decided to make a shawl in honour of Sarah's arrival. I chose Haruni, which means 'grandmother' in a language created by JRR Tolkein in one of his books. Since I'm a 'grandmother by proxy', I thought making a shawl that means grandmother in a fictitious language was appropriate.

This past weekend I finally delivered two cardigans for my friend Karen -- one I knitted for her first grandson, and one I made from the leftovers for her second grandson -- they can quasi-match now... This one is Colin's.

Karen and I haven't seen much of each other lately. Between her becoming a grandmother, and running her first MARATHON (!) she's kind of busy. So, it was really great to get together with her and have a two-day visit!

Here we are sittin' and knittin' on Darling's new pontoon boat. Yes, that's Zoey on the back bench!

Yesterday we had the family over. Here are three generations of 'froggers': Grandad, Dad, and Tobias (proudly holding two of the critters while Grandad fetches the third from the net).

Today, I was back in the office, getting some bits cleaned up and getting this long-overdue blog post up. Darling has just called me for dinner (he's a keeper). I hope everyone got to enjoy some lovely holiday weather, and remembered to get some time in for their knitting.

'Tis the Season (to file taxes)

2010-04-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, this weekend I'm in Drudgeryville, making sure all the receipts and entries are in order for the bookkeeper, the tax accountant, and Revenue Canada. No one ever said having a business was glamorous!

But, it's time for a break from the drudgery, and give you an update... The first two submissions for A Needle Pulling Thread are 'in the can', to use film-speak, and the third needs a few more 'details' to satisfy the editor. This one, scheduled for the Festive, 2010 issue will be done by the end of the Easter Weekend.

Back in January, I posted news of a new baby in the family. She, as yet unnamed, will be along in a few more weeks. I finished the little pink number photographed in progress in my January 2 post. Here's the result:

The yarn is Sunbeam Montego.

She will also receive Baby Surprise Jacket No. 5, a 'grown up' number in my modified version, made with navy blue and white marl yarn by Phildar, with fuzzy navy blue trim in Patons' Venus or Valencia (never could get those two straight), and little pewter buttons.

I also started a baby blanket, but since 'Great Nana' made her a beautiful mauve blanket, and Mom has other blankets from child # 1, this effort will probably be put aside for future consideration - perhaps for an expectant niece (in a few years... The one of child-bearing years is going to be like her dear old aunt, I think, and opt out of motherhood.) This project is being crafted from Phentex Merit, in a variation of Grantmother's Checkerboard, a pattern in Knitters' Best of Shawls and Scarves. I adapted the pattern for knit and purl design, and dubbed it "Nanu's Checkerboard", as Darling's grandson calls me "Nanu". I bought the yarn for 99 cents a ball at a department store that is probably now out of business -- perhaps K-mart? (For our American readers, there are no K-marts in Canada anymore.)

All three of these projects are part of a 'stash busting campaign' started late last Fall. The three project so far have used up 12 balls of stash yarn, and so far this year I have purchased only one ball of yarn. I bought it to finish yet another baby jacket (a Carnival Coat by Cabin Fever in their Top Down for Toddlers book) that I made from leftovers of this project, the Basic Cardigan from the same book. Thus, the ratio is 12 balls used to one ball purchased -- a complete first in my world.

Now, I need to clarify, that I *have* purchased more yarn, but it was yarn for yarn reviews and projects for Canadian Guild of Knitters. Business purchases are exempt from the process.

I started the Basic Cardigan in 2006 for a friend's grandson. The good news is that Owen now has a little brother, and if this doesn't fit him (it's a size 4, so the timing appears good...) it will fit his little brother.

Anyway, in addition to being a stash reduction kick, I've been on a project finishing kick. Over the Christmas Holidays, I found about 6 knitting bags with UFOs (UnFinished Objects) in them.

First, I finished the blue and red cardigan, then I picked up the Shetland cobweb project I started for the yarn review in the August, 2009 issue of Knit Together. It's had only a little progress, because it was relegated to the bedside table, and I find it is a bit fine for working in the dim light of early morning with hands that haven't been 'warmed up' for the day. Still, it made a little progress before morning coffee moved to the love seat in the bedroom to watch the bird action on the bay. For that, I have pulled out my Sleeves in your Pi coat in Briggs & Little Anniversary Twist, and am about 1/2 way down one sleeve (with just the sleeves to go).

I also finished off a pair of socks from last summer, and I've been working yet another pair of socks, the Celtic Cable socks by Cabin Fever in Shelridge Ultra. I think I started them in about 2006.

The next UFO to be tackled is the Fair Isle sweater for Darling... but in the meantime, some of the Florida knitting included a scarf and matching hat for him, to ensure he feels he is getting some attention.

Then there's the Celtic Shawl I'm designing that has had SO much attention on my Ravelry Project page. For that, I'm going back to the drawing board and creating a whole new design from scratch.

There are two other UFOs -- a baby sweater from a Sirdar Pattern that I started for Grandbaby No. 1, and a sweater in Patons' Brilliante for moi, but they're a little way down the list, currently, as is the Faroese Shetland Garden Shawl, which met with an unfortunate mishap when I forgot to purl a row, and did about 10 rows in reverse stocking stitch. AARRGH!! It is in its second lengthy time-out.

That's the plan for the remainder of 2010, and still write pieces for A Needle Pulling Thread, spend time with a new "granddaughter" and keep a full-time job. Stay tuned!

Now, I have to get back to the tax man's goodies... yummy.

The Official Announcement

2010-03-13T15:04:00.000-08:00

The November issue of Knit Together announced that Canadian Guild of Knitters has made a change with regard to its publication.
Henceforth, CGK members will receive A Needle Pulling Thread with their membership instead of Knit Together.
A Needle Pulling Thread, a multi-craft Canadian publication based in Newmarket, Ontario, recently expanded its knitting section by hiring editor Kate Atherley. Cynthia is pleased to announce that she will continue to communicate with Canadian Guild of Knitters' members in the way of technical articles, designs, and other writing for A Needle Pulling Thread.
This is a value-added matter for members, as they will now receive a 100+ full-colour publication with their membership.

The Knitting Accreditation Program, Random Acts of Knitting, and our branded products continue to be offered exclusively to CGK members; the only change members will see is in the publication.

To register with Canadian Guild of Knitters, visit our website, www.cgknitters.ca
The website is next on our list of things to take care of, so please bear with us if it hasn't been updated before you visit!

Knitting on Location

2010-02-21T16:42:00.000-08:00

Usually I try to get some 'on location' photos of me knitting on vacation. Darling usually accommodates, but he's been a bit busy on this vacation because this one has been about BIRDS. Birds, birds, and more birds. And he loves birds more than I love knitting (yup, I know, it can't be done, but he's done it.)

Herons, anyone? More than I have ever seen in my LIFE, and I've seen more herons than a lot of people. First, because I really like herons, and second, because I live on a river where we get two types - the Great Blue and the Green.

Herons are like a lot of birds; simultaneously pretty and ugly. It's kind of amazing how they do that. Herons and woodpeckers have been defined as my 'totem birds' by a First Nation's fellow from the West Coast of Canada. Woodpeckers to represent my strength, and herons because of my love to be near water. He was one smart Salish man!

I do like birds, just not quite as much as Darling. Even for an amateur birder like myself this has been a dream birding vacation... I have seen more green herons in the last four days than I hafe seen in my entire life, let alone as many types of heron. And they're all beautiful! (and ugly)... here's an example: Check out those wing feathers... amazing!

Then there's the little blue heron - one I didn't see before this vacation. There's a photo of him at left, but my program crashed before I could add a photo of my new favourite: the tri-coloured heron... whose neck is the colour of pale amethyst and whose back is just about the colour of rose gold. That and a white tuft of feathers behind the head. Such beautiful creatures!

Then there are the yellow-, and black-crowned night herons... perhaps the more logical for me, because they are hard to find during the day. But, we found 'em!

On the right is a black crowned night heron... This one doesn't have the long, streaming breeding feather that some of the ones we saw did. I've only ever seen these guys in pictures.

At the risk of acting as a tour guide for the United States National Parks system, I have to say, the two I've been to so far are definintely worth the visit... Everglades National Park is a birder's mecca. The Everglades are as much a natural wonder as Niagara Falls. Rocky Mountain National Park is just plain pretty scenery.

True, I'm a flag wavin' Canadian, but it's good to see some of the rest of the world! Besides, a lot of the birds we've seen on this jaunt will be back in Canada within a couple months... Darling just couldn't wait for them to come back, and I'm quite happy to have come along for the ride!

If you DO want to stay in Canada and see a beautiful national park, my favourits so far are Algonquin ( which is about 20% larger than Everglades National Park -- I looked it up) and Cape Breton National Park in Nova Scotia. I'm an equal opportunity national park visitor!!

Absence Alert!

2010-02-12T05:33:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick notice to advise that Canadian Guild of Knitters' office will be closed from February 13 through February 28, 2010.

Our phone and e-mail services will be on, and we will respond to your inquiries upon our return.

The latest issue of Knit Together is in the mail now, with stories about a yarn shop in British Columbia, a knitter from Quebec, and a knitting designer from Toronto, plus all the usual features -- yarn and book reviews, etc.

There is a big CGK knitting bag sitting by the door, stuffed with items to knit while we're away!

At the printer's

2010-01-31T17:00:00.000-08:00

Knit Together is at the printer's -- I just uploaded the file to their ftp site. It's always a good feeling. I'll have proofs by Tuesday, do a final run-through to catch those nasty apostrophes, and we'll be good to go. Here's a sneak peek at one of the yarns I reviewed last weekend:

It's Cabin Fever's Silk and Silver, a kettle-dyed yarn with merino, silk, nylon and actual flecks of silver in it. Yum!

Other items coming out in this issue include part 2 of the twisted stitch series, the second segment of Getting Gauge, our final nod to the International Year of Natural Fibres, and a over a dozen Random Acts of Knitting.

As Knit Together winds down, I look forward to the new assignments Canadian Guild of Knitters will be doing for A Needle Pulling Thread. The knitting adventure continues, with articles about steeking, ribbing, and vintage knitting.

Writing Along

2010-01-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

Another full day in the office. I discovered last night there were two yarn reviews needed for this issue! YIKES! So, last night I chose two yarns and worked frantically this morning to get them sampled. The research is done and there's just the text to finish drafting.

Finding a designer has been another particular challenge, and I've been lucky enough to find one who has a blog. I did half the research before ever getting to the interview!

There is other, sad news: in my last post, I mentioned 'planned illnesses', which is to say illnesses of which we, as a family, were aware. One was a terminal diagnosis my sister's fiance received this past October. The disease took him quickly -- on January 12. Having passed his age just a year ago, I can say with conviction that 49 is too young to die.

There is some good news: the other 'planned illness' another family member endured in the past two months ended with the best possible scenario.

The 'unplanned illness' of our cat had a happy ending, too; he's eating well, and purring once more.

Life sure has its ups and downs.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

I knew December would be hairy, but I never expected it to be blogless! There were a few illnesses during the month, some expected and one (the cat's) really unexpected. I figured something was up the night Wolfie (the cat) snuggled up to Zoey (the dog). By the end of the next day we knew something was wrong, and on the Tuesday before Christmas we ran the old boy (Wolfie is 14) to the vet. He "enjoyed" an overnight stay. Before it was over he was a VERY sick cat. He appears to be on the mend, but I never knew I would be so attentive to the intake and output of the cat.

2009 was a really tough year for me on several levels, and I'm happy to see the back of it, even though it's an adjustment to type 201 instead of 200... this happens at the end of every decade!

The next issue of Knit Together made some good progress today. I wrapped up a couple regular articles and got a half page feature ready, save for two photographs. I found just the chart for my twisted stitch piece. The mini project in this issue is JUST PLAIN FUN! I test knitted it during the past weeks, and I hope you'll like it as much as I did!

As far as knitting goes, I continue to work on yarn reviews, and a few baby projects. Since the last post, I've learned there's a 90% chance that the new "grandbaby" will be a girl, so I set out to knit the Harvey Kimono from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms [Ktog, Feb/07] I'm using yarn from my stash (believe it!)by Sunbeam called Montego. I can't remember where I got it, but it's from the days before they put yardage on the label!

Lunch hours and evening meetings have helped me get more Baby Surprise Jackets done for the same wee one: the one above is King Cole Splash with blue Astra chosen to match the blue fleck. I had the trim yarn for the pink-trimmed one in my stash and varied the pattern to offset the front closure. Eventually both will have the happyface buttons shown on the pink one.

I love knitting for babies!

Some of the knit lists have been rambling about new years' resolutions for knitting. I have decided just to go back to my "in and out" system of trying to reduce stash. I can only buy yarn to replace yarn that I knit up. The goal for 2010 is "net zero stash growth". There, I said it. It must be do-able!

I wish you all a knitterly knew year!

More news about Ktog

2009-11-29T16:43:00.001-08:00

This weekend I got one yarn review knitted and typeset, and typeset the review of the sock yarn I've been working with. I also got Web Browsing dine and finished off our Enduring Classic Book Review. Waiting in the wings is a local yarn shop feature by a guest author, and some pieces for Gizmos and Gottahaves -- Cabin Fever has a new pattern!

The photos of mohair don't turn out well at the best of time, but here is the yarn in question, with a stripe of sock yarn that was used as a pattern in another project.

Last weekend, Mom and I went to Karen Lawrence's Purls of Wisdom retreat. Karen closed her shop, SheepStrings, earlier this year, but she continues to make hand-painted yarn which she will be selling at shows. I bought this yummy yarn which, in real life, looks like a field of sunflowers! The photo at right isn't doing it justice at all!

Having spent the day in the office, I'm off to do a bit of knitting!

Another Two Weeks...

2009-11-15T16:21:00.001-08:00

and another productive weekend in the office! Yesterday I prepared notices for our advertisers and retailers about the changes coming to Canadian Guild of Knitters. Since the retailers will be made aware of them before the next issue of Knit Together comes out, I may make an announcement in the blog here within the next couple weeks. Keep your eye on this space!

Today, I got another page laid out for the November issue and marked one of the test packages for Level 2. Last weekend I marked another Level 1 package, which should be safe at its maker's home by now.

This past summer hasn't afforded me the focus I need to work on complex projects, so I've been working on self-striping socks, a plain mohair shawl, baby surprise jackets, and a yarn sample or two just to keep the fingers nimble. As that much-missed characteristic finds its way back into my days, I've found a project just right for my still-hurting attention span: a clock. A Fair Isle clock. I saw the "Clock Tam Kit" in the Knit Picks catalogue, and thought, "Cool," and moved on. That would have been it, if Darling hadn't seen it and said "Wouldn't it be neat for you to knit a clock?" One gauntlet, thrown down. I ordered the kit, and, after perusing the directions and modifying some of the numbers, I dug in. Apart from the 5 (which I didn't change quite enough), I'm pleased with the result. I'm especially happy that the colours that came with the kit matched the wood of the kitchen cupboards so well! This was a good project to try and 'get back in the swing again.'

The other two Fair Isle projects I started this year are in a holding pattern and will remain there until the focus is truly back on track.

I want to leave this post with a warm fuzzy: Zoey, the CGK mascot, has separation anxiety, so she's usually not far from wherever I am. That usually includes the shower. One recent morning, I stepped out of the shower and found her curled up on my bath robe, which had slipiped off the side of the bath tub. She is a pretty princess, and to be truthful, I think she looks good on coral.

Next weekend, Bonnie and I are going to a retreat in Muskoka with workshops by Sally Melville. Again, watch this space for information of our escapades.

Back in the Office again.

2009-10-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

There's still much to do for the November issue, so I'm spending this rainy day (another one in a cast of thousands, it seems, this year) in the office. It's good to feel up to the task.

I have been alerted to an errata from the August, 2009 issue of Knit Together, on page 17, under Knitting Getaways: Julia Bryant's telephone number is 485-1751, not 61 as stated. My apologies to Julia. I hope that anyone interested in her inspiring tour of Morocco is able to reach her by e-mail, or through another avenue or her blog, www.fibrefantastics.com .

Change is in the wind at Canadian Guild of Knitters, and we will be making some announcements in our November issue. All things evolve, and so must I.

Now, it's off to write (or do paperwork... it's a toss up!)

Trying to get back on track

2009-10-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a long summer and early fall. Too much bad weather has helped to make for a long, uphill climb that some days just didn't seem worth the effort. The tide is turning a bit, and I'm trying to get myself back on track.

The November issue got started soon after the August issue went into the mail. It still needs more work than I would like at this stage, and I've still got membership renewals that have come in during the last month to process. Today, however, I finally got to mark the Level 1 materials that have been in the office for far too long. Just two test packages of Level 2 materials to mark, now.

Time and health haven't been my friends of late, but I am gradually getting reacquainted with both. I thank you for your patience as I work through it.

Knitting wise, I have been able to get some simple projects done. A knit-along (KAL) on the EZasPi yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/) has got me doing a few Baby Surprise Jackets (BSJs). I have a good reason, as Darling's son and daughter-in-law are expecting. Here's the one I have done in DK yarn. From the leftovers, I've made a pair of socks from Cabin Fever's Tiny Speckled Toes pattern and a bonned adapted from an old Paton's book.

A second one was done in white Cotton Club (discontinued yarn) with black-and-red and black-and-white stripes, and one from a new, printed yarn called Splash by King Cole. I found it on an expedition to a new yarn shop in Scarborough called Creative Yarns, located in a plaza on a corner of Warden Avenue just south of the 401. They had some other yummy stuff there, too.

I've started a couple of complex projects, but have abandoned them for now. Soon, I'll get back to them.

The 13th again??

2009-09-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

OK, this whole time thing is just getting stupid!

Last week I got the printer's copy uploaded for the next issue of Knit Together, and I haven't had a chance to proofread a damned thing!

I stayed home from K-W to get that done, but instead wound up helping Darling stain the shed he built for my CGK booth materials and other things. For those of you who missed us at K-W this year, we're sorry, but we were short-staffed for the booth this year, and I had another commitment. See you in 2010!

We've packed a lot of living into the last month, and it's kind of important that we do so right now.

One thing we did do a couple weeks ago is another batch of Hot Rod Relish, the first since 2007. It's a family recipe made with tomatoes, sweet green and red and hot red peppers. It's like salsa, but with 5 cups of sugar in a batch. Trivia: there are 25 cups of sugar in the jars on the right! You make 5 batches every couple of years, and it keeps the whole family happy!

This morning we went for a long paddle, one of the first of the season, and the longest one since I moved here last year. Darling snapped this photo of me and Zoey, our CGK mascot:

It was nice to have a summer day to enjoy at least a piece of!

We're getting closer!

2009-08-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. I shouldn't be surprised, really, for it's been a month of steady working at Knit Together, and it's nearly ready to go to print. That's why you haven't heard from me.

Knitting is a requirement of getting Knit Together out the door, and there's been a lot of knitting going on. First, I finished the main project. It's a summer top called Flowers for Mary. I don't want to give this one away, so here's a peek at the 'flowers...'

Then, I got too wrapped up in another yarn review. One of the yarns in this issue is a self-striping sock yarn. I've never professed to be a sock knitter... I can count the pair of adult and baby socks I've ever made on one hand. But, I got new sandals to wear indoors (one of the pleasures of aging, I'm sure) and I'm going to want some funky socks for the winter... so without further adieu here are my 'fraternal' socks. They look quite similar without shoes, and very different in the sandals. Note that the stripes reverse from one sock to the other... this is because I made them both at the same time from the inside and outside ends of a 100 gram ball. Neat trick, eh! I all these my 'port and starboard socks, because the colours just happened to come out red on one toe and green on the other! They were such fun to do, I'm doing another pair in the 'primarily yellow' colourway.

Finally, I re-knit the mini project for this issue... it's a dress scarf made from Australian merino laceweight wool and the Habu Silk Stainless I reviewed in a previous issue. I'll release a picture of this closer to press time, which will be soon, now, as the last of the pages are headed for the proofreader tomorrow. Just page 2 to layout, and we're ready to ftp the file!

I have to go and put these on ravelry now!!

Now, THAT's a lap cat!

2009-07-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Leah, apparently, has no idea about a workspace. Seems she thinks it's a playspace. The other morning, just after I sat down at the computer, she decided to do her usual peek out the office window. After she finished that, she poked her way across my keyboard, to a sparkly elastic that had caught her eye.

Meanwhile, my spread sheet was going 6777777777;km.nn.

Progress continues on Knit Together. A batch of proofreading was delivered earlier in the week, and another piece was completed on this beautiful, sunny Saturday morning.

Next week, Darling and I are going to take a couple of days off. I'm hopeful there will be a yarn shop visit involved. We'll see.

1000 and Counting!

2009-07-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

Today was a milestone day at Canadian Guild of Knitters! We welcomed our 1000th member to the Guild since we began in October, 2002.

The nicest part of it was that this membership was a gift from a Mom to her daughter! It reminded me of the kind things that Joan Kidd used to do for her family. I miss her still.

So, our congratulations go to Carolyn Nelson (nee Ellis), whose Mom, Alice, wanted her to be part of Canadian Guild of Knitters.

Carolyn is receiving a prize pack consisting of several knitting books, a new Canadian Guild of Knitters tool clutch, and an extended membership. We're happy to have Carolyn on board, as we are all CGK members!

This morning I also finished a book review for Enduring Classics for the next issue. Stay tuned, Canada: Canadian Guild of Knitters continues to make our circle of knitters grow.

Back in the Saddle Again

2009-07-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

As the sneak peek events in Calgary got to rocking, I boarded a plane on Friday morning and came back to Ontario. It felt good to be headed home, even though Fibre Week was every bit the fun it was last year!

Most of the Fibre Week classes are held in the Life Science building at Olds College. Olds is an agricultural college, and the grounds are evidence of this! The flowers in south-central Alberta are two to three weeks behind Ontario, so I was treated to a double batch of lilacs, peonies and iris again this year.

My workshops, although slimly attended, were a lot of fun. It was great to have participants tell me that this was 'just the information' they needed. The project board class does better with larger groups, but still, the results were fantastic, as can be seen in the photo on the left.

To complete the slides for the three shawl workshops, I had Darling take some photos of some of the pieces that were to be included. The Orkney Pi, finished about a month ago, played into the wind to get this shot that shows Liz Lovick's design to near-perfection. I showed it in the fashion show on Tuesday night at Olds. I wore it folded in half, and part way down the runway I paused and lifted the top layer to a chorus of 'Oooohs' that sounded very much like the little scrubbing bubbles on the TV commercial. This pattern is available from http://www.northernlace.co.uk/ . I made some slight modifications to the original design -- the motifs between the trees, the increases for the diamond section, and the edging. I also had to take 9 rounds out of the large trees section. As it was, it is about 78 inches in diameter.

As far as stash acquisition goes, I tried to behave... I did purchase a couple of lace bobbins, which I've been collecting for years now... another retirement project, you understand. I also bought this yummy, popsicle coloured tencel with a spring/summer shawl in mind...I also hauled home two skeins of ragg yarn from Twisted Sisters in Alberta, and a skein of very fine 60/2 silk.

There's a rumour that there could be a new spinning wheel in my future... we'll see.

Now, I'm back home, and looking at the realities of Canadian Guild of Knitters. I came to a tough decision before I left for Alberta, and I'm still thinking that it is the right thing for me. The stress of being behind with Knit Together is weighing heavily on me and I've put off going 'drastic' as long as I can. As is my way, what I have to achieve to get 'caught up' will be done in a manner that is fair to every member of Canadian Guild of Knitters. Canadian knitters have been very supportive, and I will honour that with the utmost respect.

Alberta Bound

2009-06-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

It is good to be Alberta Bound. I'm looking forward to meeting all the fun people I met for the first time last year -- Michelle, Barb (Crazy Lady Barb to some of you on knit lists), Peg from the Yukon...

There is still room in my workshops, so if anyone is near Calgary and wants to pick up a class, I'm sure Olds College can register you for a day session. Monday is triangle shawls, Tuesday is circular shawls and the wrap up on Wednesday is square shawls. Come on over to the college's website and check it out: www.oldscollege.ca .

I was up with the birds this morning -- 3:30 a.m. Alberta time, 5:30 home time... I'm going to be very tired by the time the plane lands at 8:00 p.m. Calgary time. But, you see, we have this Jenny Wren about 50 feet away from the bedroom window, and when she starts singin', yer up!

Other news since the last post: Darling was accepted into the juried art show coming up in July (11, 12, are the dates). Here is one of his "bird studies in watercolour:" It's a bit unseasonal, but it's still a pretty bird!

The loons are back on the river this year with another clutch of two. The little guy on (what I presume is) mama's back looks completely relaxed. I'm sure this photo-by-Darling will also become a painting some day.

Now, I must go and finish packing. I've had the usual 'dog pile' building in the bedroom all week. This trip I don't have to worry about shutting down hot water tanks, setting security systems, arranging dog sitting, watering plants, or locking back gates and basement windows...there is someone here to keep the home fires burning. And Zoey thinks that's great, too!

When I get home Knit Together is going to get some badly-needed attention. This month has been busy putting finishing touches on handouts, notes, and slide shows. However, I have been able to draft a few more exercises on Level 2, and I'm taking my working notes with me, just in case...

Still here!

2009-06-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a most interesting and exciting couple of weeks.

Last weekend (May 30/31) I joined Darling at Wings Over Muskoka, a conference about birds, dragonflies and butterflies. It was an incredible part of my journey - we stayed at the new Red Leaves Resort overlooking (almost looming over) Lake Rosseau -- this was the view from our room:

We met some wonderful people, who are passionate about what they do -- artists and naturalists -- and were treated to the best possible service by the staff at this Mariott-operated resort.

Just before we left for the conference, I received an e-mail from Olds College: My shawl workshops are a GO! So, this weekend has been spent blocking the second last sample and putting the finishing touches on handouts and teaching notes. Fibre Week at Olds runs from June 29 to July 1. Here is another photo of one of the sample shawls we do in the workshop:

There are still spaces in some of the classes, so if you are interested and can get to Olds Alberta at the end of this month, go for it! Their website is www.oldscollege.ca .

I'm bleary eyed from staring at this screen all day... I'm going to go and knit now...

Yesterday, in Photos

2009-05-24T14:09:00.001-07:00

Yesterday started with blocking this black mini shawl. It's one of the shawls for my square shawl workshop. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the yarn is my secret weapon for shawls -- sock yarn -- with a silver fleck in it. You've got to love blocking wires for a project like this. Because.....

In order to block my Orkney Pi (It's Finished, TA DA!), I had to draw more circles on my blocking sheet. My pattern drafting course materials came to my rescue: that one metre, bilingual straight edge and a green sharpie created six new circles on my chequered sheet.

I needed every last line, too: the faggotting on the edging went to the 36 inch circle (and that's the radius measurement. Point-to-point, the Orkney Pi measures 76 inches (and it has over 225,000 stitches in it.)

And here it is, after two hours to draw lines and pin it out. Oh, I tried the new Knit Picks blocking pins, and I have to say they are fine wire, easy on the hands, very sharp and they work well. I needed two more packages to do this job right. If anyone learns of a source for the rustproof pins in the yellow container, let me know. I need more of those, too.

Since the weather was fine, I headed out to the garden and popped impatiens in the shady areas of the yard such as the 'kitchen' bed, front door beds and shady containers and petunias and pansies into the containers that actually get some sun (on the dock and the steps of the cabin).

This is the Kitchen bed... it's had a lot of attention this year. Prior to blackfly season, I added the blue corydalis, foam flower, Solomon's Seal, Acanthus and astilbe visible in the photo. (The croci, trillium, sedum and coral bells were already there).

After that, I could hardly move and I was hungry (I'd stopped to grab some toaster waffles before heading outside), so I made one of my favourite meals: KDPV - Kraft Dinner Prima Vera. You take your average box of KD, boil the water, add the macaroni and the vegetables of your choice (I used cauli, carrots, broccoli and celery in this batch) and cook 'em right in with the pasta. While that's brewing, you grate a cup of chedder cheese. When you're doing your sauce mix, toss in the cheese and stir it all together. Tip for Moms: this is a great way to 'hide' veggies in plain view.

Then I sat on the front deck and tried to puzzle out a knitting design until the cold and the mosquitoes got to me.

We're SOOoooo close!

2009-05-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy holiday weekend: Social events two out of the three nights, test knitting on Flowers for Mary, the main project in the next issue of Knit Together, another few points done on the Orkney Pi, some bits 'plugged in' to the next issue, and today -- paperwork, which brings me to the subject of this post.

The last new number on the membership list I recorded today was number 999! That's right: we're one membership away from member number 1000! Who will it be?

Member number 999 is The Knit Cafe, in Toronto, our newest Retail Member. www.torontoknitcafe.com . Drop on over to their website for a visit!

It was a rainy day.

2009-05-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Last night's workout left me stiff and sore, so I thought that this rainy morning would be a good time to crawl around on the floor pinning out a three-foot doily. A couple months ago I 'borrowed back' the Kinzel Sun Ray I had made for my sister, to add to my shawl workshop examples. It came complete with a huge mustard stain (I think it was mustard) which I was able to remove. Here is a picture of it starched, stretched and drying:

While and all it makes a beautiful table centrepiece, it would also make a nice shawl.

This piece was made of the left-overs from a cone of 5/2 cotton I used to make the four-foot Rose of England table centrepiece for my ex's mother (who I still fondly refer to as my MIL, even though I now have a new MIL-to-be).

Speaking of shawls, last weekend saw me cross the half-way point for the points around the outside edge of the Orkney Pi. Another month, by my estimate, and the Orkney Pi will be laid out on the sheet in the photo above.

Here is a picture of the Orkney Pi with some of the edging in natural form:

Before I show the other pieces I starched today, here is a sneek peak at the project for the February issue of Knit Together. The test knitting is most enjoyable because of the yarn I'm using. If you can get near any Sirdar Baby Bamboo, go for it!

And now, the other two pieces. If you're going to work up a batch of starch, you may as well make the most of it!

On the left is a doily I knitted years ago from a McCall's special. The pattern was funky, because you knit the centre, then the openwork ends, then pick up stitches all around and work the outer border. It's a pill to stretch accurately, and it uses up every pin in the house. The square one is from the Anna/Burda special that is still the buzz on lace knit lists. The pattern is a bit boring, however, it, too could be expanded to make a beautiful shawl, in either a square or triangle format.

Now I'm going to get some lunch, then clear off this tremendously messy desk, and do some paperwork!

In other productivity news...

2009-04-26T16:37:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I took advantage of a warm day to paint some plant pots and pop some perennials in the ground.

The Orkney Pi continues to grow an edging: There are now 24 points (of 80), 9 of which were completed this weekend. That's about all the knitting news, except for the work on the samples for the next issue.

The 'settling in' continues: Thursday night I set up my desk in the bedroom closet (it's a BIG closet), and got my rubbermaid bins arranged around it. The area doesn't look a whole lot better, but at least I can find my yarn remnant bins, my thread rack is no longer lying on its back, and I can identify bins of clothes from bins of yarn.

All this organizing sure feels good!

A productive weekend - in more ways than one!

2009-04-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

Today was a busy day in the office -- the weather made for an incentive to stay inside and compute!

The frustrations with the November issue live on -- it's in the hands of the printers now, but they only run the colour press on certain days of the week, and my run doesn't get on until tomorrow, so it will be Wednesday before I can get this issue into the envelopes.

So, since I could do no more with the old issue, I spent the day doing a little organizing here in the office (I found a banker's box of stuff from the move, and had to dig out my material for my creativity workshop), then settled down to input two yarn reviews and one of the projects for the next issue.

In my digging about I also found some old photographs to add to the CGK scrapbook. I began it when I started CGK, and, thanks to my new beau's daughter-in-law, we're getting together one night a month to try and get it caught up -- there've been other things ahead of it on the priority list for the past few years.

Now, I'm off to have a quick video game, then join Darling on the sofa with -- what else? -- some knitting.

A productive Sunday

2009-04-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent another extended, quality day in the home office.

I started the morning by working on an archive project for Knit Together. I've been taking 2 or 3 copies of each issue for the past six years and sorting them by page/subject. For example, I have all the covers in one section, all the editorials in another, all the Canadian Knitter and Canadian Designer and LYS features in three other sections and so on. I have a section for interest pieces, one for anything that mentions the Knitting Accreditation Program, and a section for any knitting technique pieces. Before today, I had only got as far as August, 2005. Today I got most of 'the majors' right up to date. I still have to file a few technical pieces and general interest bits. This project came about from a fear of running the same editorial twice.

What set me off on this little segue was an effort to find the last listing of successful Level 1 Knitting Accreditation participants. What I found shocked me, so now, I've started a new document to track the history of the Knitting Accreditation Program. I'm telling you, there's a lot to this guild thing! You have to have systems in place to make sure you catch everything, and at the same time, you have to have systems in place to make sure you don't repeat anything!

After lunch I began marking three of the four KAP packages I have in-house. As it happened, the fourth package is actually a Level 2 test knitting package back in already! Man, you guys are keen! But, I digress.

Since the last batch of KAP announcements were made in Knit Together in May, 200seven, ten more packages have been evaluated. Eight of these participants were successful; only two had to re-examine a few of the exercises. Trivia answer: it takes just over 2 hours, on average, to mark one level package.

I am honoured to see the calibre of work coming back in through the program, and wish everyone could be in my shoes when I crack open those boxes and packages. The boxes I marked today will be mailed out with Knit Together, hopefully later in the week. I have the final draft in my hands... we're down to the odd hyphen and apostrophe fix now, but the real holdup has been the new batch of covers... they take time to dry, and the artwork needs a final OK, too.

In the front 'yard' the mergansers have been all over the nesting box. 'Tis the season! We have one hooded who has been hanging out with a female merganser. There are buffleheads, too. The photo at the right is a couple male buffies. Darling has taken over 500 photos of ducks this year, but this pic is from last year.

Darling has taken to doing water colour paintings of his beloved birds. It gives him something to do while I'm writing and marking. Yesterday morning we did get some yard work done. Right now we have the teensy 'snow flies' as Darling calls them. They're not bad to deal with, but we've got a two week window to get as much done as we can before the blackflies come out. THEY're a problem.

My new Title

2009-04-11T09:38:00.001-07:00

I have been proclaimed the Demi-goddess of Knitterly Organization! Me! Me, who, on any given day, has a desk that looks like a bomb hit it! Me, who still has 99% of her stash in storage after a house move last year.

Yes, this is humbling news, indeed, given my own world.

How do you suppose I might have been sainted with such a title? Well, you see, I have a knack for spreadsheets. Give me a spreadsheet and I will organize data. And that, it seems is where the organizing story ends. However, I managed to create a database for one of the knit lists I belong to on yahoo groups (MMario), and MMario himself granted me this illustrious title. I've asked if this title comes with a tiara, but I haven't heard back yet... but I'm hopeful!

This weekend the proofreading continues for the next issue of Knit Together. Today I have a family gathering later on, so I posted photos of the projects in this issue on my Ravelry page (where I am "theloveofknit", for those of you who Ravel, too).

Exciting news: A fellow I met at Mile High Conference in 2007 is now working part-time at Lacis. They have a new book coming out, and I'm in line to get a review copy of it. Look for more information about it in a future issue of Knit Together!

In personal knitting, work continues on the Orkney Pi. There was some debate whether to end it with horseshoes or do a sideways-knitted edging. So I cast on 80 sts, and 'faked up' an outside edge (shown at left in photo) then tried several incarnations of a zig-zig border. The garter stitch won out, because, as could be expected, the stocking stitch (second point from bottom) curled dreadfully. I tried to orientate the rosebuds the same way as they appear in the body in the centre point, but didn't like the effect. It doesn't look bad in the photo, but it doesn't work well close-up. I wound up going with the original design from the bottom point, but I moved the rosebud one stitch to the left. Keep in mind that this sample hasn't been blocked.

The full shawl, unblocked, to the outside edge, is now 62" in diameter, roughly as wide as I am tall. The Horseshoes would have added 7 inches to that, but the edging only adds 5 inches, when measured out to the points. Heaven only knows what'll happen in the blocking. It will be very *lightly* blocked, I'm sure of that.

This morning, over my coffee, I finished the last two rounds of the body of the shawl, and got the first three repeats of the edging done. Only 77 repeats to go! How many rows in a repeat? 32! But, we're on the home stretch.

Eleven weeks!

2009-04-05T14:33:00.001-07:00

I'm all in a flap, just like this guy! As I promised, I got the layout for the next issue of Knit Together uploaded to the printer's!

When I looked back I find that the last one was uploaded just under eleven weeks ago! I'm so excited, I had to share.

The plan this weekend was also to get all the recently-received renewals and memberships caught up and mailed as necessary, and unfortunately that hasn't happened. I promise to get to that either this week or over the Easter Weekend, when we will be preparing the mailing material and doing final proof reads for the magazine.

To those of you who are waiting, thanks for your patience and for giving me a few more days.

Just one more day

2009-04-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

We're in the home stretch for the next issue of Knit Together. The last page of article was finished today. Tomorrow I'll layout the contents page and tidy up page 2, the upload the ftp to the printer!

This issue had the annual-ish challenge of renewing advertising for the back cover. I'm still waiting to hear from one advertiser, but I have two bookings as it stands. This *could* delay the release of this issue by an additional week, but other than that, I'm pleased that this issue will go to the printers *within* the three months it's supposed to!

Looking further ahead, the projects for February and May issues are mapped out, as are several of the features for the February issue. The goal is to have February mailed before I go to Olds. If I can achieve that, I'll be on my way to a full production schedule recovery.

The photo at the right is a glimpse of one of the techniques used in the mini project going to press tomorrow: i-cord cast on. For a written refresher, look at the May, 2008 issue of Knit Together.

I-cord cast on makes a fabulous edge for scarves, and all kinds of projects. Cast on 3 stitches and try it!

Muddlin' on

2009-03-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

It has been an interesting few days. Work continues on sample shawls for workshops, and I marked a Knitting Accreditation level on Friday afternoon. Friday morning I spent looking for year-end stuff the bookkeeper has requested, and trying to clear off this desk!

Yesterday I went to the spinning guild and gave the reader's digest version of the Triangle Shawl Workshop. It appeared to go quite well... in all about half of the spinners in attendance participated, and, since many of us want to actually spin when we're at a meeting because of the rarity of uninterrupted spinning time, I thought this was a good turnout. The focus of yesterday's workshop was on the design study and I was very pleased to have people telling me that they liked the way I described decreases, and how they would be trying some of this stuff out on other projects.

Today I fixed the two typos on the participant's handouts and re-worked my teaching notes. The word on the top: Breathe! I get so excited about this stuff I gather momentum, so I need to realize that other people need me to breathe so they can hear the information in real time!

Hopefully some of these people will test knit two of the three patterns that were in their handouts! Tonight we have friends coming for dinner.

Tomorrow is another Knit Together day. This issue is getting closer, but I need to contact some retailers, so I took a couple of days to get that done.

Morning knitting these past few weekends has been spent on the Orkney Pi, which I started when we were in Great Britain last fall. I'm about 84% complete now, and I have to make a decision about the next stage. It's 60" in diameter, and it hasn't been blocked yet. If I do the next set out rounds, it will be 67" in diameter when the knitting is over. That's not a shawl, that's a blanket! But it's beautiful, this design by Liz Lovick. I'm almost finished the outer ring of trees.

Now, I'm off to update the Ravelry project for this one, and go visit our 'peeps.'

I was having SUCH a good day...

2009-03-21T15:24:00.001-07:00

The latest issue was clicking together, I got a close up of the flowers for the project on the cover of the next issue, and tidied up a few edits to the knitter feature. I had also drafted out the yarn shop text.

I thought "I should call it a day," at that point but nooo, I had to keep going.

I decided to lay out the mini project, a scarf with two pages of text that I need to get onto one half page. Naturally, it didn't *quite* fit, so I figured I would copy the layout into a WordPerfect document and print it for my working copy to test my edits. About five minutes before Darling called, "Dinner's ready!" I got the dialogue box telling me the memory was full. Curses!

Sometimes, when that happens, I can copy the text and paste it over, but not today. I lost everything I did for the previous two hours, including my lovely, creative, abbreviations.

So, I'm off to cry in my rum and coke. This day is officially over.

Two, Two, Two knitters in one...

2009-03-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

Day, that is.

After another long day in the office, I've completed yet another book review, and the Canadian Knitter feature for the next two issues.

There's always something to do here at Canadian Guild of Knitters.

Yesterday it took over an hour to take all the spam out of our three e-mail accounts on the cgknitters.ca domain. If anyone knows of a really effective spam-jamming software, let me know!

Currently I'm testing the knitting for upcoming projects, and making more sample shawls for upcoming workshops.

Now that my eyes are squared off, it's time to go and knit!

Wind beneath my wings

2009-03-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

Like any enterprise, Canadian Guild of Knitters offers up joyous days, downer days, and all-mixed-up days. Today was the latter, but I'm choosing to focus on the joyous events within it.

It began with a nasty headache. At 6:30 a.m. Not fair! Several Advil (R) and breakfast later, the edge was off of the beast within.

Today was mail day. Mail days can go either way. Usually they're positive, and today's was elating! To those of you who take the time to write comments on your renewal cards: thank you! You place a gust of wind beneath my wings, and I can plod on through the day, even when I am in Advil-ville!

At least four more copies of the Knitting Accreditation Program and a record six knitting bags were processed by our shipping (ahem) department today!

At 4:00, Darling coaxed me out into the beautiful sunny day that I suspect was the reason for my trip to Advil-ville.

People sometimes ask me what Darling does while I'm writing and shipping and databasing. This winter he has taken up watercolour painting - birds, of course. Just after Christmas I set up a blog for his bird photos: it's www.bhp.peyton.ca. Darling has studied the nesting habits of birds since he was a young lad growing up in England. My passion for knitting is very much equal to his passion for bird studies. If you like birds, stop by his blog.

So now it's after dinner, and I *should* be processing more paperwork and survey responses. But I've enjoyed a delicious barbecue burger and a 'big girl' pop, so I'm going to go and knit a few rounds on one of the sample shawls for my upcoming workshops.

To those of you who appreciate the effort that goes into Canadian Guild of Knitters, from writing a half-page article, to processing memberships, to shipping orders -- thanks. It means a lot!

Won't ANYbody play ball?

2009-02-08T09:13:00.001-08:00

Is that one dejected looking puppy, or what?

Monday night while Darling and I were inserting magazines into the envelopes prepared last weekend, Zoey (Canadian Guild of Knitters' mascot since 2004) asked to get in on the fun. The problem is, her idea of fun is chasing the ball that she dropped into the box top in the background.

She looked so sad, I grabbed the camera and took this shot. Really, she *could* have licked a few of those envelopes while she was there! (not really... we use an envelope sealer for that -- don't be alarmed!)

Yesterday morning I got a chance to block the scarf made from the Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn. It gained 2 1/4 inches in width and almost 14 inches in length! I'm very pleased with the way it opened up the double eyelets.

The knitters at guild the other night tried to convince me about the yarn, but still, I'm looking for substitutes to produce the final draft of this pattern.

This morning the Canadian Guild of Knitters' website (www.cgknitters.ca) got an update. Do stop by and visit the sites of our retailers. I enjoy doing this periodically myself!

So, now that the website and blog are updated, it's off to work on the next issue of Knit Together!

Envelopes done and a wee look back

2009-01-31T14:08:00.000-08:00

After a couple days' 'down time' -- I must say, even the sinus infection last October didn't take me to the mat like this week's cough and cold did -- I'm (sing it now) Back in the office again.

Knit Together was delayed due to a scheduling issue at the printer's, which meant that I got the weekend to work on the prep work for the mailing.

As always, Darling helped put on the postage, while I put on labels and attached membership cards to the appropriately-labelled envelopes, ready to pop the magazines into when they come in on Monday. Something to do while watching American Idol! The magazines will be in the mail on Tuesday.

Years ago, but not at the very beginning of my knitting life, I started to photograph my knitting. You see, I used to knit for yarn shops, and one year I kept a list of the 80-some articles I made. I came across it a couple years later, and realized I couldn't visualize even half of the items on the list. So, I began taking photos of my knitting. After my day in the office, I decided to scan my photos so all my craft life photos can be put into one directory on the computer.

The dress in this photo is one of the earliest photos I have of my knitting. I have no idea what I used as a backdrop, or who I made the dress for, but apart from the focus, I'm really pleased with the picture, and remember being very pleased with the dress itself.

Back in 1991, I made my first visit to Colorado. Six months later I learned to spin and learned that six months earlier I had been in the -- well -- wool mecca of the western United States. Sigh.

Anyway, I learned to spin to learn more about the way yarn was made. Like most endeavours, I jumped right in, and, next thing I knew, I was doing demonstrations for the spinner's guild. The side benefit of this was teaching a new generation about the wonders of fibres. The photo at the right was taken in 1993. The wheel in the photo was my first spinning wheel -- an Ashford Traveller. Not period, but it got the point across. The dress I am wearing was the one my mother wore for the 1967 Centennial celebrations, and the apron actually is a family artifact: it belonged to my great-great Aunt Christie.

Next on the agenda: a book review for the November issue -- a brand new book about colour -- just for knitters! I can't wait!

Another day of editing

2009-01-25T13:46:00.000-08:00

Today the next-to-last edits were e-mailed to the printer, and our 'sneak peek' for the November issue was readied.

Yesterday, the label information was prepared, to be ready when the magazines come back from the printer.

As another print cycle winds down, I'm doing anything but. A new winter's cold that set in this morning, may have something to say about that...

File Successfully Uploaded

2009-01-21T17:02:00.001-08:00

YAYY! That always feels good. This title means that the Knit Together layout file has been successfully loaded to the printer's website. It means our 'first last draft' will be ready by week end, and that we will be on the presses once more by mid next week. You may not know that I do the layouts for every page of Knit Together, and that by the time each issue gets to the printer's it has been proofread a minimum of four times by three individuals. In the world of commas and apostrophes, though, it usually gets proofread three more times before the presses roll.

This weekend, we'll be polishing off one last page for this issue, and one for a ' sneak peek' insert of the November issue.

I'll also be working on details for the shawl workshops I'm giving in Alberta in June.

Sunday night Darling said "You've just finished writing for the day, and here you are with a notepad and pen and knitting needles. Don't you ever quit?"

The short answer is: "Nope."

The long answer is: "No, Sweetie: there is much to do." And I will get it done.

It's soooo close!

2009-01-18T16:20:00.000-08:00

Two more quality days in the office mean that another issue of Knit Together is " " this close to going to press.

Today I polished off a few articles and created another. Once again there is too much written content to include all the advertisements.

This weekend's pages will go to the proofreaders tomorrow, then, after edits on Wednesday night, the .ftp file will be uploaded to the printer. This *always* feels good.

Now, I'm going to reward myself with more work on a yarn sample for the November issue. Here's a sneak peek of our Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn review: This sample has three raisons d'etre: yarn review sample, future Knit Together project, and shawl workshop sample. Win, win, win!

If anyone wants to visit their local yarn shop and do a review.... we pay for submissions!

Knit Together lives!

2009-01-11T17:45:00.001-08:00

Today was a quality day in the office. Two more pages are headed to the proofreader for the issue-after-May.

I just went to post a couple photos put into the layouts today, but apparently something has slowed my machine to the speed Molasses is running in Manitoba this month -- has it been cold out there or what??

It has been cold here in Ontario, too. Other than going to work Mon-Fri, I've avoided going outside. Yesterday, though we had a buffet lunch to celebrate Darling's mother's eighty-ninth birthday. Everybody ate a lot of Chinese food!

Happy New Year, Knitters!

2009-01-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

Santa may have brought me everything I wanted for Christmas including uber-warm slippers and an i-pod, and the season certainly brought more socializing with friends and family than ever before, but I have not been a sleepy little elf!

With apologies to the August issue, I have spent most of this Christmas break working on Level 2 of the Knitting Accreditation Program. Anthea (aka Feet to the Fire) has spurred me on to do great things for this long-awaited level. One more proof read in the morning, and she will get her Christmas wish of a vacation knitting assignment. I have two Level 1 submissions here to mark as well, and these, too, shall be done over this break.

Work is also on-going for three workshops I have been developing... need... more... time... It's amazing of all the things you think of when you are developing workshops and program levels!

Attached is but one of over 100 photos I took yesterday to illustrate provisional cast on. I only used a handful of these, however there is much trial and error photographing instructional techniques, to ensure they are clearly depicted.

Merry Christmas, knitters!

2008-12-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, I enjoy getting into a kitchen. Today was such a day. There's so much left to do to make Christmas happen (there isn't one decoration up around here yet), and we've got dinners and neighbourhood get-togethers planned from here 'til New Year's Eve, but, today was Kitchen day!

Darling made an apple pie for dessert tonight, and I made a pumpkin coffee cake. I do believe I've messed up the baking terribly, and in fact, have made a pumpkin frisbee, but time will tell. I'm sure with the butter rum sauce over it no one will ever know! The recipe made up like a cookie recipe, so maybe it's supposed to be a little flat and crunchy... Regardless, Darling's pie will be a success.

Then there were the pumpkin muffins... once you've opened a can of pumpkin, you might as well make the most of it, eh? I made two dozen, one with raisins and one with craisins. A sample of them indicated success, despite the fact that the batch with the raisins didn't get its 1/2 cup of buttermilk (don't like the stuff, anyway!)

In order to accomplish these feats, no decorating got done, and no writing got done either. Sigh. Tomorrow, though. I also missed the Christmas pot luck luncheon with the spinners' guild, so if any of the guilders are checking in, this is me, giving a wave and wishing you a Merry/Happy!

Progress on the shawl workshops continue, and if I hurry, I'll have enough daylight for a yarn review photo for the magazine that I can plug in while I'm here in this chair tomorrow. There are a few photos waiting my attention, now that I think of it....

Why I do Knit Together

2008-11-30T08:41:00.001-08:00

I'm having a 'love my weekend job' day. I keep saying it: One of the best parts of doing Knit Together is preparing the people stories. Oh, sure, getting to do book reviews and yarn reviews are fun in their own rights and ways, but being able to tell the 'back stories' of knitters is an honour and a blessing.

Yesterday I worked on the designer feature for the next issue, and this morning, I received an e-mail back from this issue's Canadian Knitter with incredible information about herself. I've wanted to get together with this person for years -- I've had an inkling that she's an interesting knitter and what she has told me is gobsmack-ingly cool. I hope I do the piece the justice it deserves!

So, while technology upset my day last weekend, this weekend I'm blessed with wonderful information about two more interesting knitters in this great land.

In the rush of day-to-day doings, we don't often pause to take stock of all that we are. But, if we take some time and just think about all the different things we've done in our lives, we get an opportunity to feel good about who we have become. It's also an opportunity to be grateful for the things, good and bad, that have molded us into who we are today.

Every one of us has done something interesting in his or her life. Every one of us has a story in us. For too long, these stories have gone untold.

In this post I urge every reader to sit down, look back, write it down, and feel good about yourself. Then send it to Canadian Guild of Knitters so we can tell your story. Oh, and while you're at it, send a photo!

Still working

2008-11-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

Another happy weekend in the office. Knitting contacts weren't as accessible as desired, but I did get some work on web browsing, the projects, and I got all the book reviews done for this issue! Yayy! This happened between phone calls about my sister's psych homework and dinner with the 'kids' -- Barry's son, DIL and grandson.

Julie already has some pieces to proof, and I've still got to write about my Shetland adventure. Where on earth are those words, and why aren't they spilling out of my head?

Here's a photo tease of the Shetlands. It was SO beautiful! What? You were expecting a landscape? Oh, sorry, next time... wait... this IS a landscape... look at those shades of green!

While I was seeking out knitting journals for Web Browsing today I found a Christmas gift for my nephew... it's a book about how things work, and if genetics are anything, he's going to love it! If you have a curious kid on your list, look for The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay. Hmmm... that could be tipping my hand, but I doubt my 10 year old nephew is reading my blog!

Mac conversion anyone?

2008-11-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was at Lucy Neatby's Double Knitting Workshop and Lucy advised she is a "Mac Convert." I just about became one today.

There I was, working away on a piece for the November issue (yes, I'm jumping ahead) when a little 'dialogue' box came up to say an error had occurred. Oh, it gave me the option of saving my file, then told me the memory reference or some such thing was 'full'. Bear in mind I had only worked on this piece. One little one page article, no graphics, no cool stuff. And my memory is full. Yeah, right.

I saved the column of material I could and exited the program. Upon re-entry I see this little memory problem was more wide-spread -- the software hadn't been saving the automatic backups as it is prescribed to do. Grrr...

Fortunately I was able to salvage the second half of the article. UNfortuately, I had to reconstruct the first half from the scratch that is my shorterhand. Grrr...

There will be no Vista for me... I'm having enough trouble with Corel applications in a Windows XP environment.

One of these days I might take my "Mac-ness" to the computer level! I am, afterall, a MacDougall!

An Almost Perfect Life

2008-10-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

While Looking at Mommabear Knits' Thanksgiving photographs on her blog today (http://mommabearknits2.blogspot.com/) I was reminded of the thoughts I had earlier today that I voiced to Darling.

"You know, Sweetheart," I said. "If I could get caught up with the production of Knit Together my life would be just about perfect." And, it's true!

Oh, sure, there are the everyday hassles, many of which belong to my 9-5 world, but when I roll in this driveway, and see the beautiful things -- and I'm talking about the trees and river and wildlife, here, not the yarn stash and the furniture -- around me, I feel very, very fortunate indeed. (The yarn stash gives me a sense of fortunate, too, you understand, but I'm holding out on the furniture...)

As a result of a long morning's chat over two cups of coffee, today got off to a bit of a late start, but more things have been accomplished: I've input a couple more bits into the August issue, plus the editorial and a news story for the November issue. I've got a couple of greeting cards ready to post, and finally taken steps to get my 'charity hats' off to the Warm Hands Network. Puttering. It's a good thing.

Three of the hats on the right were made from the pattern on the Warm Hands Network website. The light green one has a hemmed up brim. The dark green ones would look great on twins -- the one on the left has a moss stitch brim, and the one on the right a seed stitch brim. The other hat? It's just a plain-old stocking stitch hat made from Lion Brand wool yarn.

After dinner tonight we're going to Newton Robinson to celebrate the birthday of a friend. Zoey's going to the 'sitter's' so we can admire Patti and Peter's newest brood of yellow lab puppies, the issue of their yellow lab Ninka, who is the issue of their yellow lab Gala.

Something else I got done today was some photography... over 60 pictures' worth, mostly of a technique for the Knitting Accreditation Program. I was hoping to get the accompanying write-up done with that, but it's getting late...

It's been nice weather, but still, it's not nice to be under it!

2008-10-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

One of the problems with air travel is the closed air systems on aircraft. Sure, airport security is a pain, too, but it doesn't usually make you physically ill. I managed to stave off illness while I was in the UK (Darling didn't -- he got a head cold soon after we arrived in Cornwall), but it seems as soon as I got through customs, I began to feel worse and worse.

At first I thought it was just the same minor head cold that Darling had, but I haven't heard him barking, hacking and sniffling like this. Apparently something similar was flying through the office while I was away, but I must have picked it up from somewhere else. Ten days later, I'm breathing like Darth Vader and the voice someone described as a 'sexy radio voice' on Tuesday has gone to a deep-throated chicken squawk, with a cough that barks worse than the average German Shepherd in attack mode.

Still, a cold is temporary (unless it becomes a sinus infection, then some intervention is needed), and I will be right as rain in a few more days, I'm sure.

As a result, I haven't got my 'head' around a few things I had planned to in the past week. However, I did get some memberships processed, and -- and this is the big news -- I got two more Level 1 submissions evaluated and put into the return post.

Additionally, I received samples of the new yarn by Briggs and Little, (haven't had a chance or the inclination to play with it yet), and I've got some more testing done on the mini project for the August issue. Without going into detail, it's one that's got me 'on a roll.'

Once I'm feeling better and have a chance to go through some photos, I'll get some vacation pics loaded up here on the blog. The scenery was too beautiful to keep to myself!

Some raid!!

2008-09-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Penzance is now a distant memory and a fleeting one... The town was 'too busy' for Darling, so we just drove right on through. So, good people at Iriss, I'm sorry, but I won't be stopping by. Sigh. I tried!

I did get to Artycrafts today. It is a small all-around craft shop that had a knitting corner. So, I'm holding out hope for Truro.

In the meantime, I finally started the Orkney Pi, so I'm going to head on over to Ravelry to post a couple of early pics. On Ravelry I'm theloveofknit -- see you there!

We are the Pirates

2008-09-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

The famous Pirates of Penzance! I have no idea why that obscure line from the Gilbert and Sullivan musical has stayed with me the past week, other than there is a local yarn shop in Penzance, and perchance, I feel a raid coming on. Not that I have a lot of luggage room left for yarn: I pretty well maxed out on the first four days of the journey.

Perhaps I'll get a chance to tease with a few pictures on my next post!

The 'Fab Four' Days

2008-09-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Well. I always said I wanted to go to a place with more sheep than people. Whenever I said that I was referencing New Zealand. I never thought it would happen here. But, here I am. There is still a week and a half to go of vacation, and we must travel on, but I'm so glad to have had the last four days. I've enough information for Knit Together for three issues!

I must sign off as internet here is 'by-the-minute' but when I can get to a full computer, I'll offer a more complete report. Stay tuned to Knit Together for further information of my Fab Four Days.

Cynthia

Knit Together update

2008-09-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

We're on the presses! The next issue of Knit Together will be in the mail before I go on vacation. Before I go on vacation, Bonnie, Karen and I will make our sixth annual journey to Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter's Fair this coming weekend. This is always a fun event that we simply didn't want to miss. In fact, originally Darling and I had planned a late-Friday departure, but had to re-think it when we discovered it was KW fair weekend. Here's a photo of Karen at our booth in 2006. Projects from that year included the Chapeau Moncton, (the blue hat) and Hey Blondie! (the yellow cardigan). I still get compliments when I wear that sweater!

If you live in Southern Ontario and plan to be at KW, stop by the booth. We're planning to have Knit Together available for members to pick up!

And now, to bed! Darling is advocating that, since we'll have to travel across a few time zones, we adjust our bedtime by 1/2 hour per night... Well, it's working for him, he's been gone nigh on an hour now. Me? Well, I'm going to be hammered next Tuesday. Our destination is a surprise...but I've already arranged a visit to a LYS that will be written up in a future issue.

A Sneak Peek at the latest issue

2008-09-01T11:22:00.001-07:00

The next issue of Knit Together is going to the printer's today. Hudson here is giving a preview of two of the features in this issue. The mini project will be Izzy Comfort Dolls, the four little fellows smiling with Hudson. We will also tell the story of how the Izzy Doll Program got started.

The designer in this issue is Lori Law, a musical knitter who created Oceanwind Knits. Our knitter is Katherine Tamminen, a university student in Alberta.

Cynthia's Fibre Week adventure is also relayed in this issue, and our Local Yarn Shop visit is to Gaspereau Valley Fibres in Nova Scotia.

To subscribe to Knit Together, visit our website, www.cgknitters.ca . We now have Pay Pal available.

Leaps and Bounds and Baby Steps

2008-08-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

There is so much going on right now, but despite it all, pages for the next issue of Knit Together are clicking together nicely. We hope to have it to the printers by the end of the Labour Day weekend, and be on the presses by September 5. It should be in mailboxes sooner than the February issue was, which is a hopeful sign in our 'catching up' goal.

We're also gearing up for the Village of the Arts Display by the Severn-Muskoka Knitting Guild on September 5, a 50th anniversary open house for my parents on September 6, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Fair on September 13.

Following that, Cynthia will be taking a fall vacation (her summer vacation was Fibre Week in Alberta in June, so she's ready) before getting the August issue to click together, hopefully as nicely as May's did. The good news is there are already several pieces of the August issue 'in the can' and ready for typesetting, thanks, in part, to her trip to Calgary.

On the home front, Darling has raised the logs for the carport, and is waiting for a larger machine to raise the roof supports and beams. He continues with the work on the storage shed to house the much-neglected weaving loom.

Knitting wise, I've recently completed a quartet of Izzy Comfort Dolls (part of the May issue), the Hummingbird Garden Vest (the project in the May issue), four yarn samples (for the May issue), and I bought the buttons for the Oz Vest from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. There hasn't been a lot of personal knitting done, but I have achieved a few rounds on the Queen Anne's Lace shawl.

On the Road to getting Caught Up

2008-08-09T14:57:00.001-07:00

This can only feel good. I'm moved in, the office is organized, and I'm finally getting things accomplished!

Today I spent the entire day catching up on paperwork and preparing this lovely stack of mail. So, if you've been waiting to hear from me for the past few weeks, stay tuned... your membership card/knitting bag/Level 1 should be on its way to you soon. I feel like my receipts are in the right place, and I'm ready to spend the next rainy day (which will be tomorrow) writing on Knit Together.

There's a certain amount of guilt that goes along with unfinished paperwork. I suppose that comes from being a secretary for over 30 years. Doing the paperwork before sitting down to write is kind of the grown up equivalent to eating your veggies first.

Oh, We're off to see the Wizard

2008-08-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Not really. The only reason that phrase comes to mind is because this little vest is the Oz Vest from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. The photo isn't the best. I converted this pic from 300 dpi to 200 dpi. I'm still trying to figure out resolution. I know I don't need even 200 dpi for a website, but whenever I convert a photo, I loose clarity.

I made the vest from Cabin Fever Aran Tweed yarn, 50/50 cotton/acrylic (the leftovers from Darling's Daylight in Hofsos sweater in the Knit Together November, 2007 issue) with a few bits of brilliant orange and neon green Patons Canadiana. It's all done but for sewing in a few ends and locating two green and one orange button for the top right shoulder (as you're viewing it)

This is the first project I have ever knitted entirely in bed. No, I haven't been ill, it's just that my new night table affords me a drawer in which to hide a little project, and the bedroom affords me a nice view, so, while I'm sipping on my morning coffee on weekends, I am also puttering away on this little project.

Darling is getting used to me knitting at all hours of the day, and apart from the finials on my walnut Brittany needles, he doesn't mind a bit.

Once I've cleaned out that drawer, I might just put a UFO in there to putter away at.

Oh, that feels better!

2008-07-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well I just got to spend a couple hours in my newly organized office digging through some of that mail I mentioned last night. It felt really good to get some memberships processed, some bills paid and some rudimentary paperwork done. I even got to return a call or two.

I used to have a photo of two cute little bichon-frises puppies dressed in little matinee coats. The caption under them said "Now that we're organized, what do we do?" Tonight I got to answer that question and it felt goooooood.

One Work Weekend, As Promised!

2008-07-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

As promised in my last post, the CGK office got two full days of attention this weekend. Truthfully, as this photo will attest, I was a candidate for Clean Sweep, or Neat, or pick another clutter-bunny-with-attitude show. Even Zoey looks disgusted!

With much help from Darling yesterday, shifting filing cabinets and storage units, and getting advice on where to arrange things (this was once HIS office afterall, and it's good of him to share!) we had the 'bones' set out and I was even able to unpack a few boxes.

Today, I tackled the desktop and the filing, and I filled out some paperwork for Olds College for next year. So, after two days, the office now looks like this:

Oh, there's still a stack of mail to go through, and I really just stashed the rolley-cart away, but I got a few things done, and a lot of filing put away. Next weekend is a long weekend, and I'm looking forward to spending it in my new organized space!

"But what's happening with Knit Together?" you ask. Well, there's actually been a lot of knitting going on. Leanne Dyck of Olavia's has another design for us, a vest, this time. Leanne did her piece in a hand-painted yarn by Hummingbird Fibre.

I tried three of the samples in the photo below: First I tried the Malabrigo, pictured top right, then I tried the Sirdar Silky Look (top left) - great for summer! Then I tried the Paton's Astra (bottom left), a considered failure which I attribute to the long spans of colour (the other two yarns have really short spans of colour). But, nothing would have it, I had to try the original yarn. The folks at Spinning Wheel Pro came through with a one-pound skein of Falklands Merino dk: you can see the result in the bottom right of the photo and I'm most happy with it. This flash photo doesn't do it justice: it looks spectacular live.

Sometimes you simply must use the yarn the pattern calls for, although, I think the Sirdar Silky Look was a really close second, and -- if I didn't know any better -- I would have been really tempted to buy the $96.00 worth of Malabrigo, too.

Thanks to all those who bore with me through the move. I'm happy with the new office, and look forward to answering your queries over the coming days.

Getting Ready for the Big Move

2008-07-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

Well, my memories of Calgary are already distant, for reality smacked me upside the head as soon as I got home. Sigh.

Since the day after the family 'do' (which was the day after I got home), it's been back-to-back moving stuff. Last Friday Dad and Darling and I tore apart (literally, at times) the garage, and did the "three pile" thing -- keep, sell, and give away/toss. I have to admit this purging thing is getting a little easier as time goes by. I guess it's like knitting, or playing the piano: practice does make perfect.

The garage sale is a bust; I could have better spent that time packing! However, a few customers went away happy, and I sold a bed.

Next step is prepping the appliances for the movers, and we're working on it.

So, if you haven't heard from me as promptly as you would like, this is why. I promise, as soon as this is over, I'm going to have a work weekend in the CGK office!

Wasn't That a Party!

2008-07-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

From the time I stepped off the plane, I learned one thing: Alberta knows how to party. This entire week has been nothing but a great big party. Between Fibre Week and Stampede week, well, all I can say is WHOO HOO!

From the time I met Lisa and Rosemary and we went to our first dinner, we partied -- in a fibrely way, you understand. They enjoyed having a 'newbie' at the merchant's hall, and I enjoyed having somebody showing me the 'ropes' at Fibre Week.

Another, more subtle party was found in the grounds at Olds College. My townhouse-shared-with-three was fully across campus from the buildings our workshops were held in, and my lack of transportation gave me leave to stop and smell the roses (which I did, along with the peonies and lilies, too). Blogger isn't letting me upload pictures right now or I'd show you some of the scenery.

The party continued with the supported spindle workshop and the goodies that resulted from payment of our class supplies fees. Do they not know some of us have to fly this stuff home?

The keynote speaker was Nova Scotia's own Lucy Neatby, and next day I was in her various variegations class. My choice of colours for the one swatch qualified me for teacher's pet, and if you know Lucy, that is to say it was colourful with a capital C.

Once Olds was over, and my hands were aching from the diligence put into our double knitting class, I discovered the joys of Stampede Week in Calgary -- with yarn shops. WHOO HOO!

As I am wont to do when on 'vacation', I got lost. Several times. Now, I knew I was in the general vicinity, I just didn't have detailed enough maps. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

But, as always, serendipity rocks, and first thing I knew I found myself in the parking lot next the the Calgary CBC centre, listening to a country band, being dished up FREE pancakes and sausage by a dog, and Miss Alberta, (!) watching a group of line dancers. Really. LMAO, still, and it's the God's honest truth! I even got a CBC Kids hat for the grandson-by-proxy.

After that, I visited no less than SIX yarn shops in ONE day, a new personal best. I'm not tellin'what I spent, but Beehive was the winner, closely followed by Knit One Crochet, Too. Now, when you visit six yarn shops in one day, you quickly learn that yarn shops have as much variety of style and content as knitting guilds do. It was a pleasure and honour to get to see them all, and if I missed one, write and tell me and I'll fix that for the next trip. WHOO HOO!

Now, I stayed at the Radisson, which is my hotel of choice for as long as I have a full-time job and can afford such a thing, and wouldn'tcha know there was a free rib buffet complete with yet another country-and-western band. Two, actually. What a good time! I joined four ladies, one of whom was about the same age as me and could relate to such songs as Lady and You May be Right. Ah, the songs of our youth, and music so loud you can sing along and nobody knows but for your lips moving. Eventually I needed something to do, so I drew out my knitting, and again, if Blogger would let me post a picture, you would see me, knitting at a Calgary Stampede Sneak Peek event. WHOO HOO! The only problem was I didn't get a chance to clog a step. (Little known fact: Cynthia knows a few clogging steps.)

So, I tip my girlie cowgirl hat to the hospitality of Albertans. I've had a great week, and while it will be good to get home, there's the reality of moving and the day job ahead. Sigh.

I thought Easterners knew how to party, but it seems this hosptality thing is country-wide. And I love it! Go, Canadians!

A quick look back

2008-06-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

When your last issue was already too far behind schedule, you don't want to take a lot of time for reflection, however, I hope you'll indulge me this one look back at the February issue...

We knitted the pattern for this issue twice. Once in Select10n acrylic and mohair blend, and again in crochet cotton, about size 10. Here is a comparison of how the two looked on the blocking board...

Exact same pattern, just done with different yarn on different needles.

This weekend has been spent preparing the house for a 'family do' a couple weeks from now. I love it when the hardwood shines! I, however, am not beaming, but aching.

The yarns have already been selected to feature in Knit Together's next issue, as have a couple of the books. Now that the website updates have been done, it's time to go and write a couple of notes to include with those long-distance magazines, and make up a yarn swatch and, perhaps, dinner.

It's in the Mail!

2008-06-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

With very few exceptions, the February issue of Knit Together is now in the hands of Canada Post, and not a minute too soon!

In addition to my thanks to Ilga Leja of Halifax, I also want to give a shout-out to Eleanor Anderson, who designed or main project in this issue, and Anthea Benson of BC for her wonder piece about the Fibre Chicks. Also thanks to my work-out buddy and scrapbooking consultant Cheryl for putting magazines into envelopes after an hour's workout, and to Darling, who helped with labelling and postage this issue. I am grateful, indeed!

Serendipity has entered my life again, with some bins to house swatches, books and other items to feature in upcoming issues of Knit Together.

The move continues... some framed pieces, half of my cookbooks (the half I'm keeping), a lamp and yet another box of kitchen bits filled another carload to the new place. It has been a long time since I've moved, and I'm not sure which is worse: doing it all in the span of six weeks, or having the luxury of six months to agonize over what to keep and what to move along.

In the knitting department, I needed a 'quick start' project for the car one day, so I started the Queen Anne's Lace shawl in some light grey alpaca I purchased in Nederland Colorado in April '07. I think the pattern is free on-line from MMario's blog, http://www.menwhoknit.com/community/?q=node/2772

I also bought some Malabrigo yarn I bought from a LYS. It's a handpainted 51% silk and 49% wool I'm hoping to use for a project in the next issue of Knit Together. The beat goes on...

February's almost out there!

2008-06-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

I've worked hard all weekend to get the finishing touches on Knit Together, and I'm happy to report that the printer now has all the pieces she needs to get me some proofs!

Retailers have been contacted for Shopping Opportunities, a members' list has been updated so I can set up the labels while the printer does her magic, and we're comin' into the home stretch!

I want to thank Ilga Leja of Halifax NS www.ilgaleja.com for coming to my rescue as the designer for this issue. Ilga's a great lady and an amazing designer. You'll be hearing more from her in the coming issues.

Work is also on-going for the May, 2008 issue too (yes, I KNOW what month this is). I cast on a yarn to review this morning on my 'coffee break' (yes, I'm structuring my weekends this way, despite living on a beautiful passage of river). Our knitter feature for that issue is already done, our books are at least lined up for review, Knitting Out Loud has sent us another book to listen to on the morning and afternoon commutes, and life is looking pretty rosy here at Canadian Guild of Knitters!

Thank you everyone for your patience with Knit Together while I sorted out this whole house sale thing, and thanks for your understanding as I complete the move. I'm keeping my feet to the fire, and don't mind your help to that end along the way.

If you know of a great knitter or knitting designer or want to write about your very own favourite Local Yarn Shop, do so, and submit it. We pay for published submissions!

Darling has dinner on the barbecue, so, after leaving him alone all day, I'm off to enjoy a lovely Sunday dinner with him.

'Nother Hat

2008-05-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

Time is absolutely flying these days. I'm trying desperately to get Knit Together to bed, and get the May issue rocking, but the fates aren't with me on this one. Currently, I am in need of two designers to interview, so, dear designers out in cyberworld who want to get their work promoted across Canada and into the states, now would be a good time to contact me!

Most of my knitting is currently being done at the 9-5 job on coffee breaks and lunch hours. I finished this variegated hat of Lion Brand Pure Wool this past month. Since then, I've started a Tea Cozy hat, about my sixth, designed by Peggy Holton of Ottawa and featured in Annabelle's Caps, a book of hats that was written to honour the life of Annabelle Dawson, who was a tremendous knitting force and member of the Downtown Knit Collective in Toronto.

At Knitting Guild on Wednesday last, we did tubular cast on. The morning after the meeting, I began a tubular cast on for a circular hat. I did this by working the 'tube' rows back and forth, and just joining after I'd done the row where you pick up the sts from the provisional cast on.

Sleeves in Your Pi is now crawling along. The body is done, and I've got about four repeats of the 16 row edging done. There's much to do at the house-that-soon-won't-be-mine.

To that end, I've got the freezer emptied of its stash: five skeins of B&L Regal, three skeins of aran yarn, and two paper boxes full of spinning fibre. It's defrosting this weekend while I'm up here. My bedroom is now fully empty save for a few bits in the closet -- even the curtains have been stripped in the room. The rec room is almost as barren, with just the computer desk, TV stand, coffee table, credenza and a chair in it. The booth material for CGKnitters got moved this weekend. Bit by bit, it all gets done.

Now. Off to write another piece for Knit Together. Right after I update the website...

SOLD! ow. and a Sleevs in Your Pi Update

2008-05-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

SOLD! Already! The listing for my 'Miss Lillian' went live on MLS on May 1 at 4:00 p.m. On the 7th day I had an offer to purchase from the second couple who saw it the previous day! (I knew she was a gem.)

The offer was pretty firm: there was a bit of back-and-forth after the home inspection, but I can say I'm very proud to know that I loved my house so well that an inspector found so little wrong with it. The offer was finalized before the long weekend.

Saturday we had a 'little work day'. Now that the house is sold, the moving can begin in earnest. And it has. The family room and master bedroom furniture were already spoken for, so we drained the waterbed and called the family who wanted the sofa and loveseat. Darling changed the dining room light fixture (for a very pretty, very inexpensive one I bought at Home Hardware) and I began emptying cupboards of all but the barest essentials. Then I scrubbed out four cupboards in the kitchen -- top ones, requiring lots of up-and-down off a chair. ow.

Add to that, numerous trips up and down stairs to set up the drain kit for the waterbed. ow. Then add some rudimentary gardening to tame down one of the perennial gardens. ow. ow.

Yesterday I was too sore to move, so I didn't.

But, there's more 'ow.' Darling and I took a look around the yard today. It all started innocently enough, just popping those leftovers from my old garden into the ground, eh? No biggie. The fresh air got the better of me, however, and, once the pansies and sweet woodruff were in place I decided to move some rocks (rocks!) to border the unsightly bricks that my predecessor 'planted' around the border of a high-profile garden.

Segue: if you ever need a plant for a shady area, sweet woodruff is THE one! It makes a great ground cover, and spreads well once established. The little white flowers are great, and once it matures in the summer time, you can bring cuttings into the house to dry. As the cuttings dry, they smell like freshly mown hay.

Before I moved the rocks, however, I decided that the rock garden outside the office and front door needed a good shake-up. Next thing I knew, the 'mad yard man' that I apparently inherited from my father came out in me: I grabbed the leaf rake and spent a good hour on that bed and the approach to the front door. I filled the wheelbarrow at least seven times with what I raked up and filled the area between the front and back steps 18 inches deep with pine needles and oak leaves. Then I moved the rocks and dug up the bricks. So, now I can't move again. ow. again.

All weekend I've been saying there's a jacuzzi in my future, and tonight had better be the night.

Right now, I want to publicly thank the ancient soul who invented the wheelbarrow! There could have been a lot more 'ow' in this story if that thing hadn't been invented!

Lastly, the Sleeves in your Pi update: I'm rocking along now! By my calculations last night, I shouldn't need the six optional rounds before the edging, which means I've about seven rounds to go before beginning the edging. And I'm still on my second skein of Heritage! Either those sleeves are going to use a lot of yardage, or I've got WAY too much yarn. Cool!

So, now that I can't move (again), I'm going to go give Darling a hand with dinner. For those of you checking in about Knit Together, bear with me. I'm as anxious for it to be in your hands as you are, and it will be along.

Did I mention he can cook, too?

2008-05-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

Before I address the titleof this post, I have to mention that I got two more pieces finished for Knit Together today! Goodie! I still have two to do for the February issue, but I got one more done for it, and I got one done for the soon-to-follow (I hope and pray) May issue!

Now, about dinner. Darling is not only quite the naturalist, studying birds and ducks and all, but he's also quite a handyman... he's been working on a carport for his car and my Miss Mac'Ntyre from white pine logs he harvested off a lot he used to own. And he can cook. I must be the luckiest woman on the planet!

On days when I'm glued to the computer trying to make up for lost time due to real estate agents and commuting, he usually makes a nice dinner, and often lunch, too, not to mention those Saturday morning breakfasts. Well, he excelled tonight! He took his mother's recipe for sweet-and-sour spare ribs (which as it happens is the same as my mother's recipe for them) and he tweaked it with some smoky barbecue sauce, a little worcestershire sauce and tabasco. OMG, what a meal! I hope he wrote down what he did so he can do it again!

Back at the carport, he was telling my dad yesterday about squaring off the logs with a chainsaw, and buying a hand adze to smooth them down. Dad says, "I've got an adze up in the garage," and within minutes he pulled down a bona-fide family heirloom adze, sans handle. While Darling and I were out, Dad cleaned and sharpened the old artifact, and we brought it home. By noon today, Darling had carved a handle for it and was practicing.

"pung, pung, pung" I heard from the back stoop. Instantly I recognized this as an ancient noise. I have a theory about ancient noises and modern noises. Our ears can tolerate ancient noises far more easily than modern ones. The low moos of cows, the soft pung, pung, of an adze striking wood and the 'ffp' of the ensuing chips hitting dry leaves, or the quiet squeak of a spinning wheel are each more tolerable, and for longer lengths of time, than the sound of a neighbour's stereo, a far-off chainsaw, or sea-doos out on the bay. Anyway, that's the theory that I have.

At 'coffee break' this morning we sat out in the back yard. It was too cool to sit out front by the water, so we parked a pair of lawn chairs out back in the shelter of the house. I've concluded that there is no bad view around here...currently the trilliums are in full bloom, and even when you're sitting just west of the septic field, you've still got a view.

That wasn't so bad, was it?

2008-05-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

In the last post I advised I was a little beyond the armholes of my Sleeves in your Pi sweater...well, after I wrote that, I discovered I had two extra stitches in one of the repeats. Being an experienced knitter, I thought, "No problem, I'll just pull back the section." Well, kids, that doesn't always work.

After two nights and much muttering under my breath, and after several posts on the related knitting lists doing the equivalent of crying in my beer, I decided to resign myself to the 'frog pond.' So, one night after work, when the light was still bright in the living room, I sat down on the floor and started pulling.

It turned out extremely well. I only had to tear back to the waste yarn for the sleeves. There was still a problem before that, but it was just a couple of rounds down, so the experience kicked in and I was able to fix it. The problem was less 'fixable' because of the slanting arrowhead design of that point of the piece.

The recent blocking helped the stitches to keep their shape well: I was able to get all of the stitches picked up before dinner was ready. (at 48 sts per repeat, that's just under 300 sts).

So, now I'm only one row beyond the armholes again, but I still have hair left in my head.

The moral of the story is sometimes ripping back can be more efficient than a 'sectional fix.'

In other news: I've been e-mailing back and forth with our featured designer for the next issue of Knit Together, and after two showings, I got an offer on my house!

In the beginning...

2008-05-02T05:37:00.001-07:00

This is it. This is the sweater that started it all. It is my first serious contribution to the knitting world. In one way it is the first sweater I ever completed, and in another way, it is a 30 year old UFO. Allow me to digress...

In 1978 I was a freshly-engaged young woman who was staring down a ten-day stay in hospital. "I'm going to need something to do," I thought. So I decided to take up knitting again. I went to the LYS and bought a nice red case containing every size of Aero needles and enough yarn to make matching sweaters for me and the man I was engaged to. As you can see, I chose a rather complex Norwegian pattern from a current Paton's leaflet of the day.

Seven years and several other projects later I finished his sweater, which he wore on occasion, even though the sleeves were a little short. Then I began the sweater for myself, and that's when this became a UFO...so, technically this is part of the second sweater I ever attempted, but it is an exact replica of the first one. Oh, and the yarn? It was Paton's, too. Astra, of all things! The yarn for the other pieces of this sweater eventually became a Christmas tree sweater and matching leggings for a baby. It has worked out well for all of us, I think. That colour of red looks awful on me, anyway!

Last post I promised to include a shot of the Sleeves in your Pi sweater I'm working on. Here's how it looked when I blocked the back to measure for the sleeve placement. I'm about 4 cm beyond that point now. Isn't it pretty?

Yesterday was another big day on the old home front. The listing was finalized, and the sign will be up by the time I post this. The end of a 22.5 year era!

Another Week, A Little Closer to Moving

2008-04-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

So much has happened this week! So much happened today!

On the home front, my sister came over on Thursday night and helped me sort through more STUFF in preparation for listing. I'm hoping to have the house on the market by this time next week. Every day I get a bit closer with help from sis, Darling, and my friend, Julie, who has been doing a bit of yard work and working some magic indoors, too.

One of the clutter-busting techniques I learned recently is to take photographs of those things that clutter your home (you know, like the 150 sheep that have found their way to your home as if your name is Mary!). Then you can still enjoy the memory of the things, without having them take up cubic feet in your house (or your new house, as is the case for me.) Here are a few special friends I'm prepared to part with. Can you tell I'm a child of the 70s? Extra points if you can name all five!

It was a busy week at work by and large, and there's a meeting on Monday and three agendas to do Monday and Tuesday, so it will be busy there, too.

Today I took Mom and Darling's DIL to the Knitter's Frolic at the Japanese Cultural Centre in Toronto. The members of the Downtown Knit Collective put this show on annually, and at this point I want to give a big WAVE to all the people I saw walking around with Volunteer tags on. It's really a nice day for me: I get to talk to a lot of vendors and knitters, and I get to expose some of my family and friends to some of the great new things on the market for knitters.

I only got to take two pictures at the Frolic, and the one I wanted to post here didn't turn out they way I wanted. I only made one note, but I collected a lot of information on brochures and business cards, and, as always, I met a lot of great new knitting vendors including two from the United States! Oh, and the shopping?

Hmmmm... well, I recently saw the Orkney Pi shawl on the EZ as Pi yahoo group, and I've decided it's a MUST DO, so I bought some deep green laceweight for that. Then there was this young vendor from Keswick just starting out, so I bought a skein of blue laceweight (but could just have easily bought the yellow or the turquoise -- pretty stuff!) from her. In upcoming issues of Gizmos, look for beaded shawl pins, wool wash, knitting bags and a couple other goodies!
While uploading the photos of the Frolic, I came across another 'stash' photo: This one is the ocean-coloured yarn I bought at Wool Trends in St. John's NL the summer before last. It's Briggs & Little Heritage, which I'd never worked with before (unlike their Regal, which I've worked with a LOT). I was going to make Elann.com's pinwheel sweater in the adult size for me because I took the baby version of that pattern to make up on that trip!

Instead, I bought some Heritage in Briggs & Little's Anniversary Twist last November at Mabel Corlett's event in Gananoque. Currently I'm using it to make the "Sleeves in your Pi" shawl/ sweater/ cardigan from the XRX Ponchos book. Hopefully I can get an in-progress shot of this in the coming days. Part of the beauty of blogging is being able to track the progress of your work. Work. That's on tomorrow's agenda, but it's all Guild work, so it will be a lot of fun.

Yes, I know, I wrote this as if it was Saturday, but the post is dated Sunday. Just remember Bell is a four letter word. Our modem is dying and they refuse to acknowledge the fact.

So, stay tuned for today's post. It was going to be much more upbeat until I spent a half hour crawling around under a desk trying to get an internet connection earlier today!

Calling Lace Knitters!

2008-04-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I mentioned some yarn samples I've been doing. One of those samples was Misti Alpaca. It's a laceweight, so check this out:

The pattern is from page 150 of Victorian Lace Today. I mis-read the pattern in two places. One of them is the dark ridge across the middle... it's supposed to be lacy fagotting. The other mistake is one of those classic lace ones... You'll have to find it, 'cause I'm not tellin'.

Close up pics of this lace will appear in the February 2008 issue of Knit Together, along with a black-and-white version of this funky yarn sample. It's San Jose by Needful yarn. Our sample came in the Stitch 'n Pitch bags last summer. It's a cool yarn, and I'm hoping to get a child's hat knitted for the cover of the February issue.

In other news, the swans have flown off to nesting sites, the common mergansers are fighting over the nest box, the bufflehead ducks are all paired up. I've taken a vacation day to get some writing done, so I'd better go!

Strong Women Dance

2008-04-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

It seems hats are about all I'm getting accomplished these days. This one is destined for my good friend Julie, who is having a 'bout' of ovarian cancer. She's the second woman I know who has been afflicted with this disease in the last six months.

Strong Women Dance is the name of this hat. I got the pattern from the Knitting Pattern A Day calendar. It is also posted on the Charitable Crafters blog, http://charitablecrafters.blogspot.com/2008/02/strong-women-dance.html .

Julie has a great sense of humour and she'll love this hat and what it stands for. This isn't a chemo cap, as Julie has 'only' required two round of radiation therapy so far (as if that's not enough). It will be a winter hat which will look great with her red hair! I hope by then she can wear it in good health!

No, really, I'm trying to get some work done!

2008-04-06T17:14:00.001-07:00

It is Sunday. This week my sister's assignments are done. There are no dinners to cook for 8, and Cheryl couldn't make my mercy run to Aurora for drawer handles. So why is Wolfie in this chair, and not me?

Because the phone rang. Twice. So, when Wolfie curled up on my chair during call #2, I snapped this pick of him keeping my seat warm.

Saturday I was too ill to even knit, so today was my window. After taking care of a letter writing issue I had to wrap up, I did get to spend some quality time in that chair on the right. It felt good, even if I was a little jealous that Darling was playing Starries in the next chair.

At 6:30 this morning, I was up feeding this fine fellow and his mate. I'm still trying to get used to the thought that the largest bird in North America is hanging out in my front yard!

So, after a long day, I'm about to sign off for the night... after a quick game of Starries!

For the Love of Knit!

Cynthia

A week? Already?

2008-03-31T17:03:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. It's been a flurry of real estate agents (I'm moving house), my sister's homework (she's in university, or rather WE are), trying to get tax information ready for the accounting 'guy', workouts (where is that T4?), and I even squeezed in a spinning meeting/pot luck on Saturday (mmmmm..... pot luck!). It was good to see the girls again. Apparently, and I say apparently because it doesn't seem as if I've been away for so long, I've been away for a few months.

I'm knitting too. At knitting guild last Wednesday (Severn-Muskoka) we did short-row heels, but of course I wasn't doing short-row heels, I was doing short row knees. Last fall I hurt a knee playing tennis, and it's been a bother ever since. Turns out it's 'mild' osteo-arthritis.

On the Knit Together front, apart from getting the books ready for the revenue guys, I'm knitting up a beautiful pale pink sample of Misti Alpaca.

More Project Information

2008-03-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

A year or so ago, I took to doing some pretty involved yarn samples for Knit Together. I'm sure they helped contribute to my lateness! For example, this piece, was made out of Lace, by Shelridge Farm. The pattern is the Frances Scarf from Stahman's Shawls and Scarves. The neck ribbing (which is barely visible at the top of the photo) was made with 2mm needles. Never thought I'd see the day, but there it is, and I enjoyed doing it!

The tabs of the scarf look different, but it's because I intentionally left the one on the left unblocked, to show at workshops how blocking can truly enhance a piece of lace.

The scarf at the right was the featured project in our May, 2006 issue. It was designed by Johanna Bischopping, a talented lace designer who passed away before I had the opportunity to meet and interview her. Her family kindly gave us permission to print this pattern they found in her collection. It was the first charted design to be featured in Knit Together. The yarn used to make the sample was Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester. The slight variegation didn't take away from the lace too much at all.

Easter was lovely: I got some yarn reviews "plugged in" for the next issue, and we had my Mom and Dad, Darling's son, DIL, and GS, and my sister and her boyfriend for dinner.

We enjoyed turkey with all the trimmings, except for the relish and cranberry sauce, which we forgot to set out. GS enjoyed an egg hunt, which his mom videoed. The trumpeter swans, Canada geese and beaver all gave us a swim-past. The pileated woodpecker flew in for a nibble on his white pine tree stump, and a mink toodled across the shoreline.

Now, it's Monday afternoon, and I want to get a book review or two done.

Easter Ramblings

2008-03-21T14:07:00.001-07:00

In my last post I mentioned the Warm Hands Network. The mittens on the right have been sent off to them. These were made from Briggs & Little Regal. There were a few other things that went in that shipment... this cheery jacket and hat went their way, too but *not* the cute face that joined the 'photo op'! That's Zoey, my 'shih-tzu on stilts'. Well, officially, she's mine... unofficially, she adopted Darling a couple years ago!

In looking up this photo from the external hard drive, I came across another one that's been getting a lot of attention on Ravelry... not my version, but the pattern in general. It's the Pinwheel Sweater from Elann.com. It's a free pattern, designed by Shelley Mackie. Elann.com is one of Canadian Guild of Knitters' Retail Members. I made this pattern in sayelle from my grandmother's stash. (You know you don't knit enough when....) Gram's been gone for 21 years now. It's nice to finally get some of these things done for her...

The sleeves look 'wrong' because they're done in a 2 x 2 ribbing, which draws them in to a rediculously skinny width. I picked it, though, because I figured they would keep little arms warm, grow with the baby, and fit more comfortably under a coat. (We are, after all, living in Canada.) This sweater was a gift to Darling's grand-niece, and it got a lot of 'chatter' at the shower. If I ever figure out how to get pictures loaded on to Flickr again, this shot might get uploaded on my Ravelry page.

I've spent Friday working on the next issue of Knit Together, and I'll likely do that on Monday as well. Sunday, we're having family over for turkey. We've got an Easter egg hunt planned for Darling's grandson, who is 2 1/2. Should be fun.

Hugs and Kisses Hats

2008-03-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I've taken to knitting on coffee breaks and lunch hours again. For short spans of knitting such as these, I like to make little projects -- it makes me feel like I'm getting something accomplished. These hats have gotten a lot of attention around the lunch table. The pattern is one I obtained from the Warm Hands Network's site.

The first hat I knitted (left) I forgot to switch to p1 k1 on the second row, so I carried on, and made the brim in moss stitch, instead of the called-for seed stitch. Because the moss stitch worked up longer than expected, I left out the 'checkerboard' that should have been below the bottom stripe. The top of the hat has a flat shaping, or so I assume, but the way the pattern is written, it pulled into gathers. For the second hat (right) I started the shaping with k5, k2tog around. This gave a little better effect, but it still puckered some. Worked in worsted weight on 4.5mm needles, these hats fit a 2 1/2 year old very well.

Next, I made an adult version out of Shetland Style Chunky. This hat has a 1 1/4 inch 1 x 1 ribbed band, but it made it so tall, the laughter over the resulting stovepipe caused me to turn it to the inside and hem it down. Bonus: it made a super warm hat!

For the top of this one, I put two rounds of plain knitting between the decrease rounds for the first 4 decreases. It made a near-perfectly flat top.

The next 'at work' project will be some yarn swatches for the next issue of Knit Together. I love my part-time job!

Hey, everybody, meet Darling!

2008-03-12T18:48:00.001-07:00

There's a story behind that title, and the sweater he's wearing, too!

First the sweater. Darling is wearing my test-knit of the Byron's Daylight in Hofsos sweater designed by Leanne Dyck of Olavia's (www.oknitting.com). The pattern appears in the November, 2007 issue of Knit Together. The walnut coloured yarn doesn't show the pattern up well, so I'll describe it a bit: it's a stocking stitch design with a very cool rib on the cuffs, a seed stitch panel up the left side of the front, and a seed stitch yoke and collar.

As for the title, it's kind of a cute story: When we first met, Darling had just become a grandfather for the first time. I wrote (we were e-mailing at the time): "What do you want to be called? (meaning Granddad, poppa, you know.) He wrote back, "You can call me Darling!" And I've been doing it ever since!

More bits!

2008-03-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

No knitting got done last night. My sister dropped by for some help with her social sciences homework which includes information about natural dyes. Between that and a fitness commitment, I only had time left to toss a few things into boxes.

For anyone new to Canadian Guild of Knitters, we've been publishing Knit Together since 2002. Last year we celebrated our fifth anniversary with a new logo and a new website. If I ever get truly skilled at this HTML thing, I might even get my blog to look more like the website.

Oh yes, the webstite... it's www.CGKnitters.ca.

The reason I'm tossing things into boxes is because I'm in the process (long, drawn out process, I might add) of moving out of a home I've lived in for 22 years. So, if I'm a day or so getting back to you, please understand!

A quick look back

2008-03-10T17:31:00.001-07:00

The problem with wanting to start a blog for some time means that there are things you have wanted on a blog for some time. Being in 'real time' blogging doesn't lend itself to playing catch up. Nonetheless, I'm going to try.

Here are a couple of photos I've wanted 'out there' of projects from recent issues of Knit Together...

This is the gold version, medium width, of the beaded bracelets in the August 2007 issue. Some projects are just plain fun, and this was one of them. The beads in this case, came from a big box store that sells everything from soup to nuts, and the gold rayon cord was left over from a beaded scarf project.

The red and black cowl is the mini project from the November, 2007 issue of Knit Together. This is the Coziest thing! I have worn it all winter, and when I had to replace my coat I opted for one without a hood. It's made from Patons Divine and Bernat Boa. I also knitted the full-size man's sweater, Byron's Daylight in Hofsos, but haven't got any photos of it quite yet.

A Long Time Coming!

2008-03-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

For a long time I have wanted to create a blog for Canadian Guild of Knitters. Today was the day! Look for updates over the coming days.

There were several reasons for wanting a blog: 1. I publish in black and white and have these lovely colour photos of the projects we put in the magazine. I really want to share! 2. I wanted a bit of a chronicle of the day-to-day events with Canadian Guild of Knitters. 3. I wanted a chronicle of my personal knitting adventures! Knit Together consumes a lot of knitting time, and a lot of writing time, but I do get to do an odd project for personal satisfaction, and want to share them, too. 4. You know, I figured it couldn't hurt to have another hobby (just kidding).

Enjoy!

Yours in knitting,

Cynthia