Jananas

I found out that a friend recently had a child (more specifically, their partner did). I spun up 12oz of Juliespins’ superwash merino in the Circus colourway. I divided one braid into sixths and spun each. I spun the other braid in one fell swoop. Then I plied the two together. The result was that one skein was predominately blue/green and the other is red/orange.

This weekend I cast on for an easy baby cardigan. Little Raglan cardigans are starting to become second nature. I don’t necessarily know sizing off hand, but as long as I know how many stitches to cast on and how many I need for the sleeves, the in between bits are pretty brainless. I cast on Friday and this is where I am this morning.

I’m using the more green skein for edging, which I quite like. I’m also splitting up the use of skeins on the arms so that the two are better matched (well, hopefully they will be!). Its funny, the last baby cardigan I knit was longer and narrower compared to this one. I need a toddler on hand to write down my own kids clothing size/measurements database to help me with stuff like this.

I really like this sweater and am debating switching it up and gifting it to someone else because I feel like this sweater needs to be appreciated/loved hard. Ah well, baby things knit up so fast that it’ll be easy to get away with this.

How Erudite of Mitzy…

I spun up 4oz of Hello Yarn’s Askew colourway. This was my first attempt at doing a colour gradient. I separated the colours as best I could and then spun, roughly, from light to dark. I believe that this was Romney, a long wool. Have to say that I’m not 100% sold on long wools (I feel similarly about short/fine stuff). I guess I’m a middle of the (wool) road kinda gal.

I think that this might be destined for a weaving project!

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last two weeks spinning. I’ve been doing a pretty major spring cleaning/overhaul of the house and had started to get a little overwhelmed by my fiber cupboard. The best solution? Spin like a mad woman! I think any point in time when you spin pounds of yarn in a one to two week period qualifies as crazy.

One of the difficulties with indie dyers is that you often end up with 4oz of a beautiful colourway. Because I don’t have fantastic yardage I end up with little skeins. Partly because I wanted more yarn and partly because I’ve been inspired by all the lovely yarns I see spun up on Ravelry I decided to play around with some combos. Excuse the photo heavy post – imagine how much work it would be if I included all the yarn I spun. Below (at 12oz of fiber, or one pound) is about half of what I spun up – eek!

First up is Hello Yarn in Minerals (shetland) and Juliespins in Amish Rainbow (targhee). I think that this is just lovely and it makes for a springy, dense yarn. Lovely, lovely, lovely! I also ended up with two giant skeins of yarn!

Next up is Spunky Eclectic’s Storms of Jupiter (organic merino) and Hello Yarn’s Icing (superwash merino). I’d originally hoped to ply Storms of Jupiter with Minerals (both are red/blue/white), but the colours weren’t complimentary. I think that this mix worked wonderfully!

A friend of mine is working for the Map & Data Library at U of T. They are doing some crazy work, funding the digitization of old fire insurance plans (which become public domain after 60 years). She’s come across a couple of my neighbourhood (Dundas & Dovercourt in Toronto) that she’s sent my way. In fact, she’s been given permission to start blogging about some of the maps she finds, so check out the Map & Data Library’s blog to see all the awesome things she’s uncovered.

1884

I love that Dufferin is the western city limit on this map. And that what used to be the old elementary school on Dovercourt north of Dundas (torn down now to make room for a new police station), used to be an orphanage! Also, our house didn’t exist. In fact, our road didn’t even exist. Crazy.

1890

My road exists now, although its spelt a little differently (there’s an extra ‘A’ in there now). In fact, my house exists now – and we’re one of the first ones on the block, which is pretty cool. Its funny to see churches where the Remax building is now. Oh, how times have changed. The current Roman Catholic church at Dovercourt and Argyle apparently started life as a Baptist church. And that Garrison Creek is still visible (there are even bridges!). And just how empty it all still is.

1910

This map is less detailed, but all the houses are here. Apparently the Baptist church also had a Memorial Hall and Sunday School attached. And for some reason Lisgar was referred to as North Lisgar.

Looking at these maps makes me wonder what the deal was with the architecture of the time. The houses are all designed to look very similar, with the narrowing at the back. Was there a functional reason?