knitting mangoes has....

..... moved.

http://knittingmangoes.wordpress.com/

It is September....

Nothing much new is on the needles except for a pair of socks for Sean. He requested cables but of course left the choice of pattern up to me. I liked this one (and so does he) and it is working out very well so far.
Dad's second sock has been started and I am almost finished the Alpine lace shawl, just two and half border repeats left. I have also started spinning again, trying to perfect my technique. I am turning this:
Into this:
And eventually it will be turned into a two or three ply yarn.

Yarn stores in Vancouver

On Thursday Sarah took me to two yarn stores on Main St (in Vancouver). The first store that we stopped at was very small but it you looked into the back there was tonnes of space as they card, spin and dye their own yarn.
There was a coffee shop across the street from it so we went for a latte and a cookie and to look at our purchases. Sarah bought a spindle and some fleece because she wants to learn to spin.
I bought some delicious green yarn that I am hoping is enough to make a nice warm zip-up sweater. The cookie is a giant and delicious chocolate peanut butter with oatmeal and the latte was yummy.

The second store we hit up was Three Bags Full. We spent quite a bit of time in there as it was very hard to make a decision of what to take home with us. My sister managed to keep from buying anything herself but did some serious enabling.
I bought some beautiful Rowan Felted Tweed, enough for a sweater, and some blue sock yarn that will turn into socks for the boyfriend, if all other Christmas gifts are complete.

I finished knitting Nanny's Triangular Summer Shawl on Thursday and spent yesterday sewing on the border to the main body of the shawl. All that is left to do is weave in all the loose ends and block it, but seeing as I am on vacation and don't have all my regular supplies it may not get blocked until I am home. There should be a post of the finished project in the near future.
There has also been some serious work done on Dad's socks. The heel has been turned and now I am working on the foot. My sister's boyfriend Chet was nice enough to try them on prior to the turning of the heel to make sure they would fit a man's calf. The leg portion is nice and long, just the way Dad likes it and this makes them quite a bit of work. It's a good thing I really enjoy knitting with this yarn.

I'm back baby and in more ways than one.

I will admit it has been quite some time since I have posted anything. Well nothing since the move to the new place. I'm also back in BC on vacation for two weeks (back in more ways than one; get it, I'm hilarious). It has been 8 years since I have been back "home."

Of course I brought quite a few project to keep me busy. One is my sisters scarf which will not be flying home with me. As you can see it's a pretty decent length already so any extra knitting on it is just gravy. It is my morning project while I am waiting for the coffee to kick in.

Remember Nanny's shawl? It used to be just a few inches and now the main body is done and I am just working on the edging which then has to be sewn on to the shawl before it is blocked. All the knitting should be done before I leave to get on the plane home. It is the first shawl I have made where you start at the widest end and decrease to the end. It makes the work go pretty fast.

My Alpine stole has come out of hibernation and it is at the halfway point! It should be lovely when it is finally finished.

I have restarted this shawl that made an appearance in August of 2008. I ripped it out and restarted it while on the plane. Still on the boring part but hopefully I'll plug through it and get to the interesting parts soon enough.

The one completely new thing I have to show you is Dad's Christmas socks for this year. He requested nice dress socks. For what I'm not sure. Maybe he wants to look pretty when he goes to visit his parents. The sock pattern is being improvised as I go a long and the stitch pattern is from one of Barbra Walkers Treasuries. It should turn out to be a handsome pair of socks.

I also need to post for the red cashmere sweater as it is finally done (the zipper has been sewn in) and has been worn quite a bit, however that is going to have to wait for another day as it is raining and the conditions are not ideal for a photo shoot. So I shall leave you with a picture of my booty from a trip to Granville Island and yes it does include yarn, silk yarn from a place that sold nothing but silk.

Just in case you had any doubts...

....about my ability to collect yarn. Here is a fraction of my collection (the sock weight basket spilled onto the floor) that is now sadly packed in a box to make the weight of my text books much lighter.
Just a little something to entertain you until the move has finished.

Ella Rae's Vine Flower Dress

This was made for a coworker who is expecting her first child. Her last day of work was last Thursday so we took her out for lunch so those of us who made her items could give them to her and then brought her back to the lab to enjoy some cake (pictures of the cake as well as cupcakes will follow the details of the dress).
Ella Rae's Dress
Pattern: Vine Flower Dress by Anne Hanson
Size: Middle size (20")
Needles: 4mm 16"- and 24"-circular needles & 3.5mm dpns
Yarn: Sublime Yarns Extra Fine Merino Wool DK
Yardage: 4 skeins
Modifications: Used a smaller needles size. The yarn is a superwash so it should be super easy to care for.

Game Day Socks

Thanks to the magic powers of Ravelry I found a indie dyer from Montreal called Biscotte & Cie that sells self striping sock yarn in the Canadiens colours in a colour-way called "Go Habs Go". Well I had to have a skein, so I ordered one of the said colourway. They are either going to be my game day socks or my running socks. Possibly both. The yarn is a wool, bamboo and nylon mix so they should be lovely long-wearing socks and I am really enjoying knitting with the yarn. They are fairly plain socks as I did not want to interfer with the striping too much. These are also a great shove in the bag and go project. I don't have to many of those on the needles right now. It is also the first time I am using my Knit Picks dpns.
I'm starting to think I may need a hockey sweater to match them. What do you think?

Plugging along

Someone has been asking to see the progress on Nanny's Triangular Summer Shawl. The result is some close-ups of the shawl progress so far. Not much progress will be seen as this starts at the widest point of the shawl, so progress is slow. I have finally finished the border and have started on the charts. The first row of nupps has been completed.
Lace never looks great until after the magic of blocking. See, it doesn't look like much except some bumpy knit up yarn.
The Ram's Horn sweater is moving along. I am at the armholes. The alpaca is lovely to work with. It is fairly straight-forward knitting, nothing to exciting which makes it great for TV knitting.
Also the dress for my coworkers baby is plugging along and is starting to look like an actual dress! Hopefully it will be done well before April.

Thanks to Mel and a bit of a rant

Mel came over on Family Day with her nephews to meet Piper. While they were here she was nice enough to snap a picture of me in my Tangled Yoke Cardie.

I wore it to work on Tuesday and frankly I am very disappointed with non-knitters. Very few people commented on my sweater unless they either a) knew it was almost done and were looking for it or b) was a knitter. Everyone else thought it was bought at a store (and only mentioned that when I brought up the subject). I suppose I should take that as a compliment but at the same time I hear a lot of complaints from people at work on how I never wear what I knit to work and then when I wear it I find myself having to point it out to them otherwise they don't notice. Arggggg!

Caught a small case of the startitis

Now that my sweater is done and looks great; the first big project of the year off the needles and in finished land, I now have the opportunity to start some more projects. One of the three projects was already started prior to the completion of the sweater but had to be ripped out and restarted, hence why it is included with the startitis.

The Vine Flower Dress is the one that had to be frogged. There was some weird stitch count and the needle size was a bit too big for the choice of yarn. I am making good headway but nowhere near where I was prior, sadly.
There is a bit of lace at the bottom and my only complaint with the pattern is that it only gives written instructions and no charted ones. So I fixed that myself.
I've also started on a shawl for Nanny. It is to be her Christmas present this year. Mom bought the yarn and of course I am left to do all the work. Here is evidence provided that it has been started.
I've also cast on a little something for myself out of "the pet". If you don't know what "the pet" is you need to go to the Purple Purl and ask. I'm sure they will show you. Alpaca........yum!