Lucky girl

Look what the Button Fairy brought me:



In a brown paper package tied up with string hid...


the prettiest treasure. All the way from Australia!

Thanks Nora! I hope to knit something worthy of such a beautiful button.

3 FO's and a half

A parade of simple socks, most of which have been patiently sitting in my basket, awaiting their mates:


Austerman Step in "Schlamm"
For DH. I'm a bit "meh" about this yarn. I think I've been spoiled, and it's hard for me to get excited by commercial sock yarn. But the ol' man likes them.


From a few posts back, Phildar Preface in marine and ecru, and a touch of STR in Pondscum. I'm popping these in the mail for my maman.


Compare and contrast the gargantuan black hole sock (Regia 6-ply) with the pale blue one (Regia 3-ply). Bear in mind that the blue one is a women's size 9 1/2. So basically, the black one is Hagrid-sized. Actually it's for my dad. This is my second attempt at knitting him socks. The first pair didn't exactly fit. I'm sending him this single sock, hoping that like Cinderella, it will slip effortlessly on his honking hoof. I'm not knitting the second one till I get confirmation that this one fits. That's a lot of sock, people! The blue one does have a mate, and this pair is mine.

Have a great weekend. I'll be busy slaying more wips. I've got a major incentive to get them done, as I won't allow myself to start this till everything else is done. A fantastic motivator!

IIIIII love New Yoooooork...

Gird your loins chickadees, this is going to be a long one.

NYC was super fantastic, as always. Thank you SO much for your great suggestions. We ended up rambling around, doing our little thing, not taking ANY photos (I know, bad blogger!), but just soaking it all in. Unfortunately, I can't show you the Viewmaster in my mind. But I'd have to say this was one of our best trips ever. This girl couldn't ask for a better traveling partner. Not just on our trips, but everyday life. I am incredibly blessed. I love you chou. Happy anniversary!

Some of the highlights, in case you'll be in NYC soon:

- Louise Bourgeois at the Guggenheim
- Henry Darger at the Folk Art Museum. Along with Darger's amazing and unsettling work, the show featured other artists that were inspired by him, and I was particularly taken with the work of these two women:
Robyn O'Neil and Amy Cutler
- Mark Rothko and Joseph Beuys at MoMA
- Turner at the Met

If you're hungry:
- Order the incredible grilled corn at Café Habana
- Go to carb heaven at Po. Delicious, romantic, not too spendy.
- Best. Pizza. Ever. at Una Pizza Napoletana. A bit pricy for 'za, but TOTALLY worth it.
- Yummy comfort food can be found at Bubby's. Harvey Keitel can also be found there (we ran in to him right outside. He looks a LOT better in person than you would imagine).

If you have a little fun money in your pocket, go to:
- Downtown Yarns (thanks Mary Jane), a totally delightful, friendly and beautifully stocked yarn store. I bought many lovelies there, but sadly, I suffered a tragic loss. I left my shopping bag somewhere, and lost some REALLY nice yarn. We're talking Malabrigo laceweight nice. Blue Skies Chunky Alpaca nice. KOIGU nice!!! Frankly, it's too soon to talk about it. So let's move on.
- Don't like to put petroleum crap on your face? Korres on Wooster in Soho has yummy, natural face products.
- If you'd like to go back in time, visit Tender Buttons, a teeny store packed with the most beautiful buttons ever. I brought back some lovelies:


Mother of Pearl and horn buttons



Huge ebony button



I also bought some gorgeous Nani Iro fabric at Purl Patchwork.


I think I might make a kimono-style bathrobe with it.



And finally, you probably would like to see some knitting, wouldn't you?
Alrighty then, introducing:

What took me so long? Part 2


"Holy-crap-it's-freezing-in-the-office" Lap Blanket

Pattern: Felted Saddle Blanket from Greetings from Knit Café.
When I first bought this book, I thought, who the hell has a horse to knit this for? But then I stopped to look at the darn thing, and thought lap blanket! It's perfect.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon # 150, 14 skeins, bought on SUPER sale.
Mods: I didn't felt mine. It's warm enough as it is.


So cozy!


This mo has been in my wips basket for ever! The 18 hours of driving to-and-fro NYC helped me polish this baby off.


Hope you all have a lovely weekend! I'm off to see Sarah Harmer at the Ottawa Folk Festival. Of course, I'll be bringing my knitting...

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.

Gifts in kind

Well hello there! This post is long overdue, and I'm not sure why, other than heat-induced laziness. First of all, let me say thank you for all your kind comments on my Inside-Out cowl. You guys know how to make a girl blush!

I've been dying to show you this amazing yarn I received in the mail a few weeks ago. But first, the back story. The delightful Kim had commented about the gorgeousness of the Casbah I used for my cowl, lamenting that she couldn't find it anywhere. I offered to do a swap with her: I'd send her a skein from my LYS, and she could send me a surprise from her LYS.

Well people, I totally hit the jackpot with this brilliant idea because I received 2 different yarns (hurray for indecision), and they're both beeeyouuutifull.



The ever-coveted Koigu, in a colourway I'd never seen before (P323L-165). It's like mood yarn, one minute it's a play on delicate greys with flashes of blue, other times it's most definitely blue with peeks of grey. So pretty.




And for those of you who are tired of the neutral parade here chez coco (Judith, I'm looking at you!) I give you Madeleine Tosh's Vermillion. Hard to capture the colour. Think of the beautiful variations of red and pink you see inside of a ripe strawberry. Delicious!


So what have I been working on you may ask? Well I've got a mammoth project on the needles, which I started ages ago, but really only got going on it recently.



It's EZ's brilliant Bog Jacket. Never ending garter stitch, how I LOVE you!!!

And you, what are you loving right now?