Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday

This week's questions brought to you by Deb, reader extraordinaire. Thank you, Deb.

1. Do you lend your books to other people? Not really. I have two kinds of books. Books I keep and books I read and get rid of.


2. If so, do you get them back? Most paperbacks and novels I read and then give away for keeps.


3. What do you do if they're not returned? Send the police? Stop speaking to the borrower? Storm the house and take them back? The books I keep are special to me. ie. a gorgeous colour illustrated hardback edition of the Lord of the Rings and I would not give this to anyone. I don't care who they are! LOL

Recipe for a Mitred Blanket

On the knitting front I have one December Rose sock (December sotmc) done and am working on the second. I also started my new sock design and am showing a sneak peak. I can't be bothered to mess around with the camera today so I'm showing scans. The December Rose sock is actually a royal purple.




Here is one of my recent collages.

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Mitred Blanket Recipe

Aimee asked in the comments below how I make the mitred blankets. I do not use a pattern, it is just something I put together and I'll share what I do.

If you know how to knit mitred squares read on. If not I highly recommend "Domino Knitting" Vivian Høxbro. This is the best info I have read on mitred squares, it not only tells how to knit the squares but details the techniques for joining and weaving. Even if you know how to knit mitres I'd recommend this as a library read for sure.

{recipe removed, I may be having this published and must remove this for now}

Stranded Knitting 101

I bought 1 ball of black yarn yesterday to continue working on the mitre squares blanket. According to rule #2 of the stash-along this is a legal yarn buy.

(2) If you have to get a ball of yarn to finish a project already on the needles because you ran out of said yarn and you intend to finish said project by the end of Stashalong, that's okay.

I don't know if I will finish the blanket in time but it won't be from lack of trying, I'm working on it pretty much every day.

I also just joined the Unloved Sock Yarn Swap. Deadline for signing up is this evening.

Rebecca asked me about stranded knitting in the previous comments. So I'll give you my take on colour-work.

My mother taught me to knit fairisle when I was about 14, so this is the only way I know. First, I am a thrower and carry the yarn in my right hand, when working with two colours I carry both strands in my right hand weaved through my fingers and palm in a certain way that they don't get tangled. This varies with the type of item and type of yarn I'm using but my general rule of thumb is to carry floats for 5 stitches, after 5 stitches I weave in the float.

Whenever possible I weave in the float yarn over a stitch from the previous row that is the same colour as the yarn I'm weaving, of course this is not always possible. The 5 stitch rule works well for me as I find that if you weave in at shorter increments the woven in threads have a tendency to show through.

When working in the round on dpns I always use 5 needles since knitting the Gotland Island Mittens. It was a little bit fiddly at first but now I find using 4 needles awkward. Go figure! When you use 5 dpns (using 4 as working needles) you are able to lay your needles horizontal when switching needles and carrying floats over the join which avoids your work pulling in.

Oh, also when carrying a float longer than 5 stitches over a join between two dpns I always weave in the yarn at the last stitch on the needle, again making a nicer transition over the needles.

And basically, that's how I knit stranded work.

Socks Once More

Stranded socks are finished. My camera is on the blink again, so ignore the date stamp on the image.


Click here to enlarge.

Pattern: my own (based on Traveling Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks)
Yarn: turquoise (unknown), rust vintage 100% wool, Multi (Bernat Sox Hot Tamale)
Notes: I used the original chart for colour distribution. I replaced all the motifs with my own and used seed stitch instead of garter stitch (in the original). I also did the whole thing on 2mm needles and the fit is wonderful (not boxy like the original). I used a star toe. Absolutely love knitting this type of sock and will be starting another one entirely from scratch (my own design).

WIPS

Currently working on the December Rose (sotmc) socks and a mitre blanket using alternating stripes of black and anything & everything from my scrap basket.


Click here to enlarge.

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I've got a puzzle together and am hosting an altered puzzle with the theme of the "Wizard of OZ" for my altered puzzle group. Can't wait to get this going.

I also ventured out into the world of GTCs and made my first cards. GTCs are basically the same as ATCs only they are entirely glued/collaged. My latest gluepage and a GTC for you. Visit my flickr galleries linked in the sidebar to see more.

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday

I'm thinking here of any story that is split into more than one volume, stories such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Rowling's Harry Potter volumes, Eddings' Belgariad, to name just a few. Christie's Hercule Perot stories do not count, nor do Gardner's Sherlock Holmes stories, as the reader can consume them in any order. Savvy?

1. Do you enjoy reading multi-volume stories? Yes, yes, yes!


2. Do you prefer the shorter stories that are done in two or three volumes, or do you willingly go for longer tales? Both


3. What do you like/dislike about these long tales? The worst part of reading a great book is to have it end. Sometimes you feel let down when the book is over, you have nowhere to go to find out more about these people. Trilogies and epic multi-volume sets keep on giving, you become familiar with the characters and they become friends. I love reading fantasies and very rarely read a stand-alone anymore.

First Altered Puzzle Piece

No knitting pictures to show today. I'm almost at the toe of the stranded socks I'm working on so should have a picture in the next couple of days. I'm also working on a mitre square blanket, alternating stripes of black and anything & everything from my scrap basket. Will show a picture when the socks are ready.

I've been glueing almost every day, it's a great way to get the creative juices flowing every morning. Here's my latest:



The daily prompt for this was "round" things.

I also did my very first ever altered puzzle piece which was so fun to do I think I might just get hooked.



The theme for this one was "think pink".

A Great Day for Canada!

Finally!!! We can only hope now that change will finally come. It is going to take a while for the jubilation in Alberta to die down.