A new spin on my 40th

Today definitely marks a new phase in my crafting history. My 40th birthday passed a couple of weeks ago, and to mark the occasion I ordered myself a new Ashford Kiwi wheel from Spun Fibre Arts in Burlington. Well, it arrived today! After picking it up (and acquiring a couple of skeins of Noro Silk Garden and Diamond Irish Worsted for some hats) I headed to Lee Valley Tools for some clear Danish oil finish.

I've given all the parts one coat of oil finish - I think that's all they will need. Now I need to let them stand until tomorrow, when I'll buff them and start attempting to put the thing together.

The drive wheel:



















Bobbins:




















Treadles and flyer:



















Footman, parts of the base:



















I have been spinning intermittently on a drop spindle since the summer, and it is great fun. This past week I finished my first handspun, from a merino sliver hand-dyed by the Fleece Artist. I do believe I'm hooked:



















I'm sure all you spinners out there will agree with me: Life definitely does begin at 40!

September back-to-blog special

Well, once again I've been sidetracked from posting here, but I haven't quit knitting altogether. Herewith, a pic-heavy summary of what I've been up to.

This is an old Interweave Knits pattern (Fall 1997) by Dale of Norway for a children's pullover. It's very 80s/90s boxy, but I wanted to try some Nordic-style colourwork for my daughter.

Closeup:

More kiddie goodness:

What will become a pair of felted Ugg-style slippers. Pre-felting, of course. The pattern is the Alpine Boots from Fiber Trends (scroll down to CH-47). There was a completed pair of adult slippers on hand at Wool Trends in St. John's (great store), and my daughter insisted on having some. So here I am knitting double stranded with Funky Fur (sniff!) on 10mm circulars.

Pomatomus socks, designed by the brilliant Cookie A. These were in Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Highway 30 colourway, which seems to be no longer available. I ran out of yarn, but fortunately Lettuce Knit had a skein left.

And my little surprise:

Why yes, it is a Cascade Little Si spindle, part of a beginners' kit from Spunky Eclectic. (The fibre is from the Fleece Artist and is really meant for thrummed mittens, but I had to try the delicious handpainted colourway.) I have been fatally bitten by the spinning bug, no thanks to Ravelry where a real spinning epidemic is raging. Like I have the spare time to take up another craft, really. What about my sewing? What indeed; the spinning bug has no mercy and I must spin more and more! It is some kind of evil magic spell, no doubt about it. Muahahahaha!

The sweater of Sisyphus

Having completed St. Brigid, I am now embarking on a couple of new projects. Or trying to, anyway. Full of enthusiasm and hubris from the completion of an involved Aran sweater, I jumped headlong into this:

This is a child's pullover designed by Dale of Norway and published in the Spring 1997 issue of Interweave Knits, which is of course sold out, so I purchased it for too much money on eBay because Claire loved it. As a sort of compensation, I decided to knit the sweater in Patons Astra rather than in a Dale yarn or a similarly expensive natural fiber. After all, Claire is going to get it absolutely filthy and I'll want to machine wash it, right??

So off I go. I made a lovely swatch in the round using all the colours Claire requested (she is into blue these days):

Well, the first three times I started it, I twisted the join. Yes, I laid it down and checked to see if it was twisted before I joined it. But, uh, not on the floor.

So I restarted a fourth time. I laid it down on the floor and joined it properly, and it was 100% untwisted. Well, I got home from adjudicating a recital on Saturday night, and opened my bag to knit, and ... it was gone. Gone, I tell you! After I bought an indestructible Tom Bihn bag in ballistic nylon with the world's biggest snap buckle so nothing would ever fall out. So yes, it's gone ... along with the 2.5mm Inox Express circular I was using for it.

GAHH!! So I gave up for a few days and started a simple self-patterning sock for B. in shades of grey:

Then today I finally managed to start again. It is joined correctly, and it is never leaving the house except if Claire is wearing it!!

After the moth-eaten saga of St. Brigid, sometimes I wonder if the universe is telling me not to knit. Well, pthhhhh Universe, I'm not listening!

Happy Easter! St Brigid is finished!!

I can hardly believe it, but it's finally done. Forthwith, the photolog:

Pieces being blocked in front of the fireplace:

My row gauge, as usual, was off, but I was planning for this in a way, and so my St B has a somewhat closer-fitting, less boxy shape than the original design. I'm happy!

The finished product:

On me (note ever-present cat at lower right):

I left off the turtleneck ribbing ... just as well, as even after ordering 8 more skeins of Hebridean 3-Ply from Virtual Yarns, I was still running a bit short. I think the wider neckline is more flattering on me anyway.

I find a certain wonderful symmetry in the fact that on the day I finally reached this goal, another person I admire reached a long-awaited goal as well. Kudos and congratulations to our finest figure-skating artist, Jeff Buttle, on winning his first world championship!

Another goal I reached this month: I premiered a piano concerto. I'm not sure why I haven't been writing about it here, but I guess I've just been spending all my time practising it. I'm wondering if I should start a separate blog for music stuff ... any thoughts?

Anyway, next on the agenda: a Nordic sweater for the lovely young lady in the top picture, from the spring 1997 issue of Interweave Knits. Here's hoping it doesn't take me 3 years to finish this time!!

Low-rank nerd

That seems about right. I'm about as nerdy as ACB apparently, but not nearly so much as sogalitno. No doubt if there were a classical music nerd quiz I'd be off the charts ...

St Brigid: I ordered some more Hebridean 3-ply to make it full-length, especially since my row gauge is always off. No doubt there will be a visible dye lot mismatch after all this time ... but I'll try to use the new stuff mostly on the back at this point. Hope it comes soon (and then I can test out my swift and ball winder, increasing my knitting geek score!)

Meanwhile Johanne is doing fantastically well with hers. Way to go!

Happy new year. Oh wait ...

Good grief, is this my first post of 2008? Gah. I really need to get better about this.

In any event, the Monkey socks are done!! They feel great on the feet too.



Next sock priority: to darn the Eleanor socks, which already have a hole in them (Darn!)

Also I am 3/4 (at least) of the way to completing the back of St Brigid. It's getting kind of routine now but the yarn and cables are so lovely that it's still a pleasure to knit.

And, in sewing news, I completed a Dora-themed nightgown for Claire (Kwik Sew 3105). My gathering and ruffling skills are improving a bit. It's still not perfect, but I'm OK with it. She's been wearing it to bed, so at least the major goal is accomplished.



Next sewing project: a T-shirt from Wazoodle's Grab Bag for girls, using the ever popular Jalie 2005 t-shirt pattern.

In other news, I am fiercely attempting to memorize the concerto I'm premiering next month. Fun times.

All right, here's hoping I don't skip another month!!

Random photo goodness #1: A platypus on my cat (sorry, stuffonmycat.com):



Random photo goodness #2: Matching father-daughter chinrests:

If you want to get more knitting done ...

get Santa to bring your 4-year-old a Leapster!

5 pattern repeats now done on the Monkey sock:






















Actually, I think my concentration is improving a bit. I will take any improvements in brain function I can get at this point!! Practising is going pretty well too. Did I mention I am premiering a concerto in March? Eek! I am trying to memorize bits of it. Thank goodness it's very much in a tonal idiom ... I memorized some Takemitsu last year and it took me forever. (Great stuff, though ...)

Merry Christmas - Rugby is done!

I was very happy with the size and fit of the finished sweater. I was a bit short of yarn so the collar is not as long as the pattern directed, but I think it looks OK. Buttons are still needed but I'll let DH pick them out. He seems happy with it and has been wearing it around the house. Yay ... 6 months of brown stockinette was worth it!!

Now back to the Monkey socks:













Also I'm quite looking forward to using my Chapters and Amazon gift cards! Claire is the proud owner of a Leapster L-Max, an art set, some puzzles, and lots of other goodies. I hope Christmas was good to all of you who celebrate.

The struggle continues

Blocking rugby sweater
Originally uploaded by eusebius24

Having finally made it out of three months of being fairly constantly sick, I am now, at last, making some knitting progress. The Rugby sweater is blocked and drying - next is the polo collar and button bands (I hope I have enough yarn left!!)

Sewing has been at a standstill since I finished the Madison Avenue dress in October. I hope to resume over the holidays, with a Dora nightgown for my daughter and maybe a T-shirt pack from Wazoodle.

On the performing front, I played a good recital with a flutist last weekend, attended by exactly 10 people. Blah ... I have to get my publicity skills working. Being depressed and sick didn't help, but I think I should be able to manage the next one. The choral concert I'm playing on Sunday is far better advertised, and should attract a good crowd. I had to practically rewrite a couple of brutal organ parts for piano. We'll see how they come off.

My little pumpkin

morningpumpkin.JPG
Originally uploaded by eusebius24

Sorry I haven't been around - the start of term completely engulfed me. Anyway, to get things rolling again, here is Claire in her pumpkin costume yesterday (Simplicity 3593). More pics are over at Flickr. Here she is getting ready to go off to school (She wore the thing all day!!)

It took about a week to make the pumpkin, which has a broadcloth outer layer and a fleece lining. The stem is stuffed with fiberfill. Claire noticed that the girls on the pattern envelope all had black shirts, pants, and gloves, so of course she had to have them too!! To fluff her up, I used bath towels, which got a bit bottom-heavy... next time I think I'll buy some tissue paper.

Oh, and there I am in the background with my new haircut. Yay for bobs!

First dress ever!

dress11.jpg
Originally uploaded by eusebius24

I sewed this dress on Friday. The pattern is Simplicity 3749 and I used a cotton seersucker from Fabricland. It's a simple pattern, but it's the first dress I've ever done and the first facings I've done since junior high (much more successful, I might add). I have a Flickr set documenting the construction of the dress ... maybe it will be of some use to beginner sewers.

You know you have a blog called PianoKnits when ...

... you're playing the piano part of Schubert's "Gretchen am Spinnrade" and you start wondering how the heck anyone could knit with any fibre spun like that!! And I'm not even a spinner. Yet. (Feel free to convert me.)

Thanks to Non Sequiturville for putting me on to this great image.

Anyone for tennis?

I was very fortunate to be able to attend the Rogers Cup singles and doubles finals yesterday in Toronto. Even though I was in the Fan Zone (read: nosebleed seats) I had a very good view of the action.



I was working on Jaywalker #2 the whole time:



Congrats to Justine Henin, one of my favourite players; Jelena Jankovic, who showed real fight; Ai Sugiyama and Katerina Srebotnik for their first Tour doubles title together; and Cara Black and Liezel Huber, a finely-honed doubles machine!

Claire came home with a cold on Friday and now I'm down with it, but it isn't too bad thanks to Dayquil. I did skip my run ... the first one I've missed in seven weeks, alas. I hope this hiatus won't be nearly as long as the last one.

I did manage to complete a throw pillow, my first ever sewing project to include buttonholes. Again the directions were from the ever-useful Sew Simple magazine. My machine has a super-cool automatic one-step buttonhole feature. Fun times! Zorra graciously agreed to appear in this shot.

Slow and steady

Since we got back from Newfoundland on August 7, things have been pretty crazy. I didn't expect to be playing or coaching nearly as much as I have. So things have progressed slowly on the crafty front. On the Rock I finished the back of DH's pullover:



Rows and rows of stockinette, but the Naturally Tussock DK from New Zealand is lovely, flecked with all kinds of tweedy bits. I also finished my first ever Jaywalker, in Socks that Rock Lightweight. The colourway is Fairgrounds, which is nice and summery:



My first completed sewing project in August is the bag from KwikSew 2320. It was fun, but I probably should have bought some heavier machine needles for sewing through four or more layers of fairly sturdy cotton. My thread kept breaking, which usually doesn't happen with Gütermann thread. Anyway, I learned to install grommets and reviewed a bunch of other construction things, which was nice.



Now on with the second sock, and the front of the pullover. I'll get back to St Brigid when that's done. Sewing projects in the queue: a buttoned pillow cover for our new chair in the living room; matching aprons for me and DD; some pajama pants with contrasting cuffs (this and the pillow are from Sew Simple 1) and a tunic from some African printed cotton I bought from Wazoodle a while back.

Very sad news this week of Richard Bradshaw's passing. The Collaborative Piano Blog has a collection of links to obituaries and memoirs. I still have not visited the new Four Seasons house in Toronto... early childhood and opera houses don't mix too well ... but I do appreciate all Maestro Bradshaw did for our Canadian opera scene. He will be missed.

Losing my Socks that Rock virginity

Whoops, so much for my G-rating. Well, the Opal Kid's Socks are on hiatus ... I realized too late that I would not have enough Fleece Artist left for 2 socks, so now I will finally cast on my Socks That Rock in Fairgrounds:



I was loving the colour changes and the smoothness of the hand while winding the skein, so I think knitting this up will be sweet. These will be Jaywalkers for me, and then when they are done I can stripe them with the leftover Fleece Artist for some pretty crazy colour action in Claire's socks. Also I have cast on in some lovely tweedy Naturally Tussock DK for DH's polo-collar pullover. It will be reams of stockinette, but that's about what my addled brain can handle right now.

Off to Newfoundland for two weeks of visiting the in-laws. I hope this year Claire will be old enough to start to appreciate what a beautiful place it is. It ain't Disney World, but there are some pretty neat things happening. I'm hoping to take her to places like the Salmonier Nature Park and maybe on a whale watching boat tour. Meanwhile, challenges for me include 2 weeks with the in-laws ... perfectly lovely people of course, but living in anyone else's house has never been my forte; 2 weeks without a piano; and staying OP with Weight Watchers. I have now had nearly 3 fantastic weeks on this plan and I am loving it, and I've lost 6 pounds already, so let's see if I can keep things going. The good news is that my in-laws, besides being lovely people, are very health-conscious and always have good choices in the house.

Random cuteness for your enjoyment, dear reader.

Who is that masked monkey?

















Here we see the Arctic fox in repose.

FINALLY an FO...

The Fleece Artist socks are DONE!
Pattern: Eleanor from Socktopia
Yarn: Fleece Artist Nova SocksNeedles: 2 2.75mm circs
Completion date: July 8, 2007

With the leftover yarn, I've started a pair of Opal Kid's Socks for Claire. This will be my first official Summer of Socks 2007 project. I realize I'll never keep up with the likes of Wendy, but I'm involved with a couple of other projects now (non-knitting ... details to come) so I'm happy just to be able to participate.

Another little project

It only took about 3 hours today to construct this very simple purse, again from KwikSew 2320. It has a zipper opening and a simple cord as a strap. Fun times!

I'm baaaack!

I actually can hardly believe it. After nearly three months of fighting the evil sinus infection, I am back on track again, eating healthy, running, working, and crafting. Grateful doesn't begin to describe it! I only hope that I can keep things moving, and not overdo it as I'm so tempted to do. I did restart the C25K running plan yesterday and it felt good. Also I have joined Weight Watchers online ... I learned so much from Sonoma but I think I need to incorporate that into a slightly more flexible plan.

Knitting is progressing glacially, but sewing seems to be going a bit faster. Some recent little projects:






Placemats ... very fast except for handsewing on the 24 little buttons. I considered getting a button foot for this, but the effort involved just to obtain it was just about equal to sewing on the buttons by hand ... maybe next time.














Some tarted-up tea towels. This is my first attempt at hand embroidery, ever. Good thing it was intentionally simplistic!! "Clixby" is a nickname for our daughter, and "Pekka" for our cat. Yes, our cat has a nickname. Don't ask. Both this project and the previous one were from Sew Simple magazine volume 1.












A small change pouch for my husband. The pattern was KwikSew 2320, a learn-to-sew pattern with fantastic instructions. My first ever zipper! My next two projects will be the purse and drawstring bag from this pattern set.

This weekend we had a visit from my brother and SIL ... just lovely. Then yesterday we made a trek out to a local festival that was going on over the long weekend. Claire got to ride a couple of midway attractions and had her face painted:















ROWRR!!!

Sick again

Hi folks - remember the nasty sinus infection I had a while back? well, it's back ... explaining why I haven't had much to blog about lately. I am still working on detangling the washed, unraveled St Brigid yarn, and the Eleanor socks should be done soon. I've been sewing a bit too, making placemats, pillowcases, and other simple things. (Even a zippered case!)

Anyway, I'm waiting to find out whether I need more antibiotics, and hope to be on the mend soon so I can share more pics and progress with you!

Meme time!

Thanks to Chelsey for the tag:

4 jobs I have had in my life:

1. Shelving books at the library in high school ... and getting caught reading the books.

2. Teaching German lab in university ... and totally forgetting about my first day at work.

3. Typing car serial numbers onto carbon duplicate forms.

4. Sam the Record Man! Best ... discount ... ever.

4 films I can watch again and again:
1. The Big Lebowski As a friend of mine says: "Pee-your-pants funny."
2. Hannah and Her Sisters
3. The Lord of the Rings (all 3 movies)
4. The Remains of the Day

4 places I have lived:

1. Toronto
2. Saint John, NB
3. Montreal
4. Hamilton


4 TV series I watch:

1. Hi-5
2. Dora the Explorer
3. Go Diego Go
4. Zobomafoo
Do we sense a pattern here?

4 places I have been on holiday:

1. New England
2. Dominican Republic
3. Newfoundland
4. Banff, AB

4 things I do every time I am on the Net:

1. Check email
2. Read bloglines and news feeds
3. Check Figure Skating Universe
4. Check Google Calendar

4 things I would NOT eat for anything in the world:

1. Cilantro. UGH
2. Anything with visible eyeballs
3. Anything with tentacles
4. Hardboiled eggs. Gag!

4 places I would love to be right now:

1. Tuscany
2. Japan
3. On the beach in PEI (Prince Edward Island for you non-Canadians)
4. At Deborah Voigt's recital in Toronto this evening!

4 people I tag, if they have not been tagged already:

Natalie
Heather
Wendy
Shannon