I Got the Blues

We had our girls' trip to Jasper last week, with lots of food and relaxation and swimming to be had.  We saw some wildlife and gazed at the mountains and generally recharged our batteries.  I took the remainder of my Hue Shift Afghan with me, intending to finish the final quadrant of it, the blues and greens and yellow - very tranquil.  Alas, on the drive home, with only a few squares to go, I ran out of the dark blue yarn and ended up setting the rest aside until I got home.  I dug out the violet which I'm using for the border and did the last few stripes of that square with it, since it's a fairly close match to the blue.  If I hadn't told you, you might not have even noticed.

So, having finished the four quadrants, I'm sitting down now to seam them together, and then I can pick up the border for some easy garter stitch finishing.  Of course I've also started a new project (and soon enough I'll make that two) with deadlines, so I'm feeling no rush on finishing this one.  I'll just keep plugging away at it when I need something mindless, and eventually it'll be done.

Springtime IPA

As part of my birthday gift this year, my HLM gave me some really cute pint glasses to enjoy my homebrew.  The lighting might make it hard to see that they say "Special Brew" on them and have some hops and barley in the image.

Today I decided to try my latest brew in them, a seasonal IPA that the fine people at Mr Beer put out for the spring.  It's pretty hoppy (as one would expect from an IPA) and pretty heady and about a 6.5% abv, which is making me pretty happy on my day off work.  And it tastes even better in my birthday glass, while sitting out on the balcony with my feet up.

The New Weaving Project

I finally got my loom Miss Bennet warped for my new weaving project, and did some sampling yesterday to make sure it was going to work out all right.  All was well, so I did the hem (the blue stripe at the bottom) and then started the weaving proper today.

It's a set of dishtowels, three in total.  A nice deep royal blue for the warp, and the weft will be a different colour for each of the three.  This one might look fairly white in the photo, but it's actually a baby blue.

So far it's going pretty well - I have the beat figured out so it's turning out nice and square, and the pattern is showing up just as I'd hoped.  One repeat done, with six repeats per towel.  A good beginning, with a long and enjoyable weaving road ahead.

Lil' Punkin

When I recently saw a friend of mine, who is about to have a baby, my mind went where a knitter's mind invariably would: wee little baby knits!

Since she is due in a week or two, I didn't have time for something big like a blanket, so I settled for something adorable.  EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket is one of my standards, because it is so quick and simple to knit and ends up so darn cute.

I chose a semisolid black (technically Victorian Gothic) for this one because of the mom's style, and also her colouring (which one can assume will have an effect on the baby's colouring.)  I went with Madelinetosh Sport, rather than a fingering weight, because I wanted the jacket to be a bit bigger - unlikely a sweater will get a ton of wear over Edmonton's hot summers, so hopefully it will still fit the baby in the fall.  Unfortunately I ran out of the yarn with only two rows and the bindoff row left to go.  Sigh.  Thank goodness I had some Sweet Georgia DK in Charcoal left over, which was a very close match.  Finished and seamed it and topped it off with five very cute pumpkin buttons, to commemorate the parent's wedding, which took place in a pumpkin patch.

Maybe it looks a bit Hallowe'eney, but that's ok, too.