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Someone has had a severe cast of startitis lately. It seems to have been brought on by an acute case of FINISHING!

Wild Wood
Pattern: Beech Wood by Ilga Leja
Yarn: Handmaiden 4-ply cashmere
Rest of Info: here on Ravelry

It's kind of a wild colourway, that's why I chose to call it Wild Wood. It does, however, look quite nice on, particularly with a jean jacket or a dark coat or...

Huhn.

Moving on, apparently the yarn smells nice too:

I had started this wee sweater when Mrs. Yes was pregnant with Gabriel. I do believe he is 17 months old now. It seemed like I had a mental block when it came to sewing on the buttons and seaming the pocket:

Pattern: Baseball T from Knit 2 Together
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton
Needles: I haven't the foggiest. Check Ravelry.

I appear to have gotten over the block. Isn't it cute? Into the gift stash it goes.

Aside: I think it's safe to say that I am going to attempt to take all of my knitting photos in the early morning when the light looks so nice on Mrs. Adjustoform.

As these two items were finished, I promptly pulled out the needles and cast on for the following:

1. A baby sweater from a vintage pattern(as previously discussed):

2. A pair of baby socks with leftover STR:

I cast on for these b/c I wanted to try out my new needles as well as knit up some of my leftover sock yarn.

3. I did cast on for socks for my niece with the new Lana Grossa. (no photo yet)

4. And I am about 2/3 done with a super-secret project. This top secret project can be found on Ravelry. If your name is Becca, and you are pregnant with a child due in December, tough luck, chickie, b/c you don't have a Ravelry password, so you can't peek at this project. (Um, that being said, you should probably avoid cruising Flickr, unless you want to spoil the surprise.)

Let's not talk about the projects gathering dust in my knitting basket, ok? Ok, it will be our little secret.

Running Away From Home

Last Thursday Mr. Happy announced that he was taking Friday night and Saturday off (nothing revolutionary for those with 9-5 jobs, but quite out of the ordinary for him). As soon as he said it, an alarm went off in my head:

Me: Let's run away.

Mr. Happy: Ok, where to?

Me: We have a gift certificate to Oak Island! [1] Ohhhhhh... we can watch cable TV!

Mr. Happy: Ohhhhhh, that's right! Let's go!

So we set out for Oak Island. After checking in, we decided to drive back to Chester for supper. We ate in the F'ocsle Tavern (delicious pan fried haddock) and then, as it was a relatively rain-free evening[2], decided to walk around the town.

Just as we were about to enter a corner store, Mr. Happy noticed a Chester Playhouse sign stating that Old Man Luedecke would be playing there, that night! We turned around and saw that there were people standing outside the Playhouse - it was our lucky day - intermission!

We ran over and talked to the lady in charge. She let us in for 1/2 price and we got to see the rest of the show! While we waited for intermission to end, Chris (aka the Old Man) came into the lobby. He was surprised to see Andrew there and came over to talk. It was the first time I had had a chance to meet and talk to him. What a great guy; he's just as genuine as his music. With intermission ending, we went in and found a seat in the playhouse.

If you haven't heard him before, please check out his music. It's not every day that I fall in love with the music of a banjo player.

Here's his web page and here's his myspace page

Mahone Bay in the fog

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Mahone Bay where, of course, I went to Have A Yarn. I've been meaning to pick up yarn to try out a particular baby sweater pattern[3]. If you are pregnant and a friend of mine, this may or may not be for your baby. It may just be going into my gift stash. Yes, I have a stash of gifts for young and old alike. No, I don't think it's weird.

Here's a picture of the cuff:

I also picked up some Lana Grossa sock yarn to make socks for my niece. They're quite splashy. Despite having already cast on for this project, I have no photo of it. The yarn is from their "Sunset" collection - It's the sock in the middle of the picture Girls just wanna have fun, if you know what I'm sayin'.

We left Mahone Bay and headed back "up the coast" to Chester where we wandered in and out of a few artists' shops. Then we had lunch at the Kiwi Cafe.

I fell in love with the colours in the cafe. It was so cheery on that overcast afternoon. Mr. Happy ordered the Adult Grilled Cheese (so delicious - on homemade bread) and I ordered the Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup. We did a little sharing:

It was a short trip, but it was really nice to get out of the city and slow down for a while. I'm headed into a very busy time at work, and I know that I'll be thinking of the music in the Chester Playhouse and the visit to Mahone Bay when I'm standing at a booth at some conference this fall.



[1] Thanks again to the very, very kind friends who gave this to us for our anniversary.

[2] There's been so much rain here lately that we no longer classify things as sunny, we classify things in terms of dampness.

[3] I fell off the "Knit the Stash" wagon quite a while ago, but must note that I have definitely curbed my insane yarn-buying habits. I've decided that this "knit the stash" plan is more of a lifestyle change than a cold-turkey diet. Whereas before I treated the LYS as a all-you-can-knit buffet, I’m trying to make better, healthier choices. It’s much easier to do now that I don’t visit my LYS every single weekend. I've got my eye on some of the new Trekking tweed, but I'm going to wait until I get a couple more projects finished before buying it. See? Old Stephanie would have bought it the first day she saw it.

More Vintage Patterns

On the day of our party, Becca and Troy did not arrive empty handed. Troy's mom has been cleaning out their basement and had found some pattern books and craft things that she wasn't sure what to do with. I told her that I would be more than happy to take them off her hands.

Troy carried in a big bag of fabric, sewing patterns, and knitting books. I think I'm going to have to knit something for their BABY out of these books. Here are my favourites:

Beehive for Bairns and Lady Galt:

Beehive for Bairn's was printed during World War II:

If you look at the paragraph on the bottom of the page, you'll see that they are apologizing for their paper quality and promise to return to their "prewar standards" as soon as possible.

Beautiful blankets:

I didn't know that patonized wool became available in the mid-1900s, did you? Look how happy the clothes are with their patonization:

This is from the Lady Galt book:

Does this sweater remind anyone else of the February sweater?

Oh, and I'm incredibly excited about the possibilities presented by these vintage Patons books:

I'm really looking forward to my career in knitting...

...and BANK ROBBING.

yeesh.

See more vintage patterns here.

Wet Week and Sunny Sunday

(I'm having trouble sleeping, so I'm going to take a few minutes to blog. I hope this doesn't mean I won't be able to crawl out of bed in the morning.)

This weekend was the first one for which I had no plans since early July. I have to tell you, it was a huge relief. Although I love seeing family and friends, I really don't mind "alone time". In fact, sometimes I crave it.

Friday night Mr. Happy and I took advantage of the break in the unrelenting rain that has been falling here for what now, two weeks? We hopped on our bikes, backpacks on, and headed to the grocery store. Ah, yes, the glamourous life we lead. On the way back home, packs full, I looked around and realized that it was probably the nicest ride we'd had all summer. The sun was at that perfect hour, making everything golden. As we biked past Lake Banook, there were people paddling on the water, people walking on the trail, dogs sniffing trees; it was such a pleasant evening. Probably made more precious by the fact that we hadn't seen blue sky in ages. I really wish I had taken my camera along...

Yesterday the torrential rain kept me at home. I called Electron-Knits and invited her to drop by if she was in the 'hood. Ms. Electronknits just got back from a month at sea, and we're all really glad to have her home. Mr. Happy was home[1] so he entertained us with his silliness and cooked corn on the cob for us. The afternoon passed quickly and the next thing I knew it was 7pm and Ms. Electronknits was heading home.

Today I woke to the sound of my neighbour hanging out laundry[2]. I ran downstairs to peek out the door to see if she had lost her mind and was hanging clothes out in the rain. I was astonished to see the SUN! I welcomed my neighbour home from vacation as if she had brought the sun back with her. I raced through some chores and headed out for a walk. I ended up at Value Village where I scored some goodies that I wanted to share with you:

First, this pretty plate. It's about 14" long. I don't have a lot of serving platters and I really liked the idea of piling this with cupcakes or sliced cake:

Next, two vintage pattern books:

The Styles By Beehive book has some beautiful patterns in it that I can't imagine knitting, namely, dresses knit with fingering weigh yarn:

...for teen-agers!

There are some patterns that are very cute, a fair-isle sweater and these fair-isle gloves:

These sweaters:

...reminded me of patterns I've been seeing in Vogue and Rowan lately.

Perhaps my favourite find today was something that I had seen at VV a few weeks ago. I don't get down to VV very often, but the first time I saw this, I thought to myself, "Ok, if it's here when I come back, then I'll get it." It was there when I went today so I had to bring it home:

It's a little compact that contains two mirrors. I'm not entirely sure what the case is made of - some sort of plastic, Bakelite (I wish), Mother of Pearl (doubtful) - regardless, I love it. When I opened it up and saw the Made in Western Germany sticker inside I knew I had to buy it.

I know it's probably not worth much, but I have visions of going on the Canadian Antiques Road Show and saying, "yeah, so I paid $9.99 for it at VV..." and watching Valerie Pringle pass out when it's assessed at $1000. Hee hee. But I'll keep it, of course, because it's just so pretty.

It seems like everyone had the same idea for today: Arriving at VV, I ran into an old friend of Mr. Happy's and his wife, who are expecting a baby in October. Inside Alison and her boy. They were having a grand time in the toy aisle. And, on the way out the door, one of my neighbours was heading in with her kids. I hope everyone found stuff they're as happy with as I am.


[1] While it may not be abnormal for your partner to be home on a Saturday, Mr. Happy often has to record on Saturdays. It SUUUUUUCKS and I would like to issue a plea to local musicians: Please eff off and let me enjoy my Saturdays with my husband!

[2] Reminder to self: Neighbour has asked for help to oil the squeaky clothesline wheels.