Accomplishments of the week - Oct 15, 2018
Accomplishment #1
I've spent the past week sketching and swatching many, many cable patterns for a new design I'm working on. I love this part of the design process and usually have way more ideas than I can fit in one project, so I often end up with tons of swatches. Sometimes I like certain aspects of the swatch I'm working on, but want to try it with a different needle size, a different yarn, or I have an idea to tweak it a bit to make it even better.
At some point it's time to stop swatching and start editing down the ideas into a cohesive design, which is where I'm at now. Once I have a good idea of what I'm planning to do, I like to write up the pattern as much as possible before I start knitting the sample. This way I'm working more or less from the finished pattern and as I'm knitting I can catch places that might need additional information or that could be better worded. I'm looking forward to showing you the finished design soon!
Accomplishment #2
I really wanted to go apple picking with my kids this year so Debbie and I took a Thursday afternoon off and went to the organic orchard at Ile St-Bernard. Neither of us had been to this orchard before, but when we found out it was only $7 for a big 20lb bag of apples we picked as much as we could. We ended up with 6 bags, 2 for each of us plus 2 to bring to our parents' place to make Thanksgiving pies. They're not the greatest eating apples, but perfect for cooking. So far I've made a couple of batches of apple butter and still have some waiting to be made into apple sauce and apple juice. Yum!
Accomplishment #3
Sundays are supposed to be family days in my house, days where I don't work and we spend time as a family going out together or doing things together around the house. In reality this has not happened as much as I would like lately. There always seem to be other obligations that mean I end up working on Sunday, or so much housework piled up that all we do are dishes and laundry. So this week it felt like a real accomplishment that we were able to make Sunday an actual family day. We went to Parc Jean Drapeau so that we could climb to the top of the Tour de Lévis - something my son really wanted to do before it's closed for the winter. After taking in the views at the top, we had a picnic lunch and walked around the park for a while. And when we got home we made homemade pierogis from scratch! It was not a quick meal, but it was so much fun to cook something new together and they were delicious!
View of Montreal from top of Tour de Lévis
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading Saltwater Mittens when we started carrying it last spring, and was delighted to find out earlier this year that there was a sequel in the works. Saltwater Classics is now here!
Saltwater Classics continues in the style of Saltwater Mittens, and includes several more mitten patterns, but it also includes many patterns for hats, caps and vamps. What are vamps? From what I can gather after reading The Great Vamp Debate, vamps are usually thick short socks that are worn as an extra layer inside boots or as a slipper indoors – with many regional variations of course. All I know for sure is that I definitely need a pair or two!
Elizabeth Sullivan
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