What took me so long? Part 1

I have attacked my WIPs pile with a vengeance, and am determined to finish EVERY SINGLE ITEM before I cast-on for something new. We'll see how that goes. You wouldn't believe how many UFOs I have.

Fresh off the needles:




Aran Pullover by Melanie Falick and Kristen Nicholas from one of my favourite baby books, Knitting for Baby. No mods, Mission Falls 1824 wool in Pistachio, 5mm needles.




This little ode to garter is a cashmere cowl knit with a single skein of Jade Sapphire, bought at Purl Soho last summer. It is divinely soft, as you can imagine.





Speaking of Purl and NYC, DH and I are headed there soon to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (my, how time flies when you're having fun). I'd love some suggestions of your favourite NYC haunts: good places to eat, shop, walk, etc. We've got our own faves, but it's always nice to discover new places.

Seaside knitting

Despite being on holidays for 3 weeks, I don't have much knitting to show you. I did work endlessly on the ol' bog, but holy mack it's s l o w . . .
I could post a picture, but it would just be a slightly bigger garter blob than my last photo. I'd much rather show you a finished garment. Hopefully soon!

The only other knitting I've done is this little sock. It's a bit too tight for my foot, so I'll be shipping them back to my Maman once I've finished the second one.



Pattern: my own generic sock recipe.
Yarn: Phildar Preface, 70% wool/30% polyamid, in marine and ecru. Also a little cuff edge out of leftover STR in Pondscum.



There is something so crisp and fresh about nautical stripes.

Sweet summer

As you've probably guessed, I've been away, blissfully cut off from the office and my computer for almost 3 weeks now. It's been lovely, and I wish it could go on forever...


Part of our vacation was spent camping and hiking through heavenly Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

I'm afraid that when I'm on holidays, I'd much rather be "in it" than take pictures of it, so I don't have much to show for our Nova Scotia rambles. Anyway, I could never compete with Lolly's shutterbug prowess (for an amazing sample of how beautiful Cape Breton is, I highly recommend you check out her incredible photos. And as it happens, we went to a lot of the same places.)

I did record some of the knitterly moments for you:


London-Wul is a charming fibre studio not far from my parents in Lakeburn New-Brunswick. In addition to some great commercial yarns, they had their own beautiful handmade yarns. I walked away with 3 balls of frothy plant-dyed mohair, enough for a lacy scarf.



Baadeck yarns is such a charming place, and they had some fantastic Fleece Artist yarn specifically dyed for the store in locally-inspired colourways (nope, you can't get it anywhere else). How could I resist?


In the front, Wooly Silk 2-ply, in "Baadeck Summer" colourway. In the back, Sea Wool, in "Cape-Breton Highlands" colourway.



Trina sweater kit, in "Beachsand" colourway.

Taking a long, unplugged vacation was great, but I must admit I missed you all! Now my Bloglines are groaning under the weight of all those unread posts. No doubt you've all been up to beautiful, funny, wonderful things while I was away, and I wish I had time to go through it all, but I'm afraid I'm going to hit the dreaded "mark all read" button. I know you'll understand!

Oh, and just because I was feeling breezy, I did something I've been thinking about for a long time. After about 13 years of looong hair, I went for the big chop!


I love it. The best part is that enough was cut off to donate to Locks of Love.