Vie Vaedri

Storytime

2011-04-08T18:35:00.001-04:00

Lately, I've had the itch to tell stories. I go over happenings and incidents in my day, thinking about the most entertaining (and maybe funny) way to tell people about it. There's really not much that happens in a typical day, so older stories have been creeping in, too.

The other day, I shared this story in a forum of friends, and thought it would be a good way to get back into using this space the way I used to. More recently, I've been all about the pictures, and wouldn't think of using this space if there wasn't a jpg involved.

So, I’ve been plagued with moths for a few months now. I see on average one a day, sometimes in the living room, sometimes in the front hall, and sometimes in the bedroom. In response, I have developed “moth vision”. This is an almost super-power that allows me to locate the tiniest spot on a bare wall and identify it as a moth. (side effect of this is my slapping at every speck on every wall)

I’ve unpacked and repacked my entire stash several times, as well as my hall closet and my clothes closet. I shake out all my knitted scarves and hats daily, before leaving the house in the morning. I’ve layered my clothes in the closet with dryer sheets. The boxes that hold my stash also hold sachets of lavender. My less-used stash is all in giant ziploc bags.

The most maddening encounters are in the evening, when I’m finally just sitting, knitting in front of my laptop, tv on in the background, and I see movement flutter in front of the tv screen. I leap up, casting my knitting aside, knocking the cat off my lap (his back claws ripping through my legs in startlement) and clap madly across the room. Only to lose sight of the bugger when it flies in front of a less contrasting surface. Light colours are my kryptonite. And the whole time, I’ve been trying to find the source of my torture. The nest. The pit of evil.

Today, I’d killed 2 or 3 of the venomous little arsebites, and when another fluttered out of sight somewhere under the end table, I trembled on the edge of an emotional breakdown. The moths were winning the war with their campaign of mindgames and deceit. I went a little mad, pulling out everything under the table, trying to find the escapee. I pulled out a basket with yarn ends that I’d only half-examined in my previous investigations. The yarn ends were all acrylics, and therefore not nearly as tasty as the other options in my house. Halfway down, I found two inches of a clapotis in tencel. I noticed a little fluff on the roll of yarn that pulled apart when I tugged at it. I put this aside and kept digging to the bottom of the basket. There, I found a horrifically demolished pile of used-to-be-baby-sock. The bottom of the basket was covered in some kind of white detritus that I didn’t want to look at too closely. When I looked at something that had stuck to my fingernail, I found that it was a tiny white larva. That was it. I wanted to be elated at finally having found the source, but was way too squicked out.

I ripped out the clapotis, cutting it off the circular needle when it wouldn’t pull off, and casting the yarn bits to the wind off the balcony. The only other ball of natural fibre and the roll of tencel went into the freezer after a quick but careful examination. The basket, four flour sack cotton bags, and about ten partial balls of acrylic all went immediately into the garbage can near the building’s rear entrance. All the furniture was pulled away from the wall, the floor and rug vacuumed and washed. The clothes I was wearing were taken out to the balcony, vigorously shaken, and then put into a grocery bag before going into the hamper. The socks I was wearing (knitted, of course) were also shaken, then put into another plastic bag and chucked into the freezer with the yarns.

I’m hoping that this was the only place they were really reproducing. I’m hoping that I got all the eggs and various other life stages sucked up or sprayed dead. I’m hoping the nightmare is over.

Lake Ice

2011-01-31T20:23:00.000-05:00

Today started with what my boss called a "Saskatoon morning". A perfect day to walk in the park and look at the ice.

If you're not all that bright.

Next time, I wear more woolies. Or wait until spring.

It's kind of mesmerizing

2010-12-17T08:06:00.002-05:00

Yes, it's been forever and a day. Here is a fun video of everything I've been up to. Ever. (Well, anything I've taken a picture of since starting my Flickr account. That's close to 'ever') Partly to make up for my blog absence, but mostly because it's a fun video.

You can make your own at Pummelvision. It takes about two minutes to set up, then you just wait for them to put it all together. Good times.

P.S. If Chuck is one of your guilty pleasures, doesn't this make you think of the intersect? No? Just me watching? K.

Summer Sprouts

2010-07-18T17:09:00.001-04:00

The cat thermometer tells me that its a bit hot here today.

On the positive side, my poor little balcony-bound tomato plants are loving the warm weather, as long as I keep remembering to water them on those days we aren't blessed with an afternoon rainstorm. I even have my first wee tomato.

There really is a tomato there! See?

So far, it's the only one, but I have hopes for those little yellow blossoms.

Other areas of my little urban garden are producing crops, too. The basil patch seems to have sprouted a giraffe.

This is the Giraffe (rav link) pattern from Itty Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson.

He is a cutie. I think my favourite part are the little horns, complete with pom-pom toppers.

The yarn is Peer Gynt, in giraffe-perfect colours. Aside from the yarn substtitution, I made no pattern modifications. This is the second creature I've made from this book. The first was this little guy.

He was also a lot of fun to knit up, and has since moved to Calgary to be best friends with a new little girl named Kathleen.

Not quite one year later

2010-07-07T22:41:00.000-04:00

[Insert standard “Sorry it’s been so long” explanation and apology here]

It’s summer again, and for the first time in about three years, we are getting a true summer, with all of the H’s well-represented. Hot, hazy, humid galore. We’re already four days into a heat alert, topped with a smog alert. Air conditioners are chugging away earnestly, exchanging hot drips of water outside for cool, dry air inside. This is one time when I truly appreciate the luxuries of artificiality.

As the anniversary of last year’s European cruise approaches, so do I approach only about the mid-point of editing all of the pictures I took on that trip. I'm hoping to maybe be able to finish the editing before I hit the day we arrived in Venice. Here are some of the pictures so far, anyway. Not quite one year later.

The Past Few Days

2009-07-12T21:57:00.000-04:00

I'm playing catch-up again, but it's not so bad this time. Only a few days have passed since the last batch upload of my 365 pictures. Which, by the way, the Flickr uploader makes a lot easier. (except when it doesn't work and won't put your pictures into their sets like it's supposed to)

Anyway.

Wednesday was another Knit Night in Burlington, where we and our matching knitting accessories gather to debate which of the cheesecakes and tarts are the best of the night's pickings.

Vivian is at the fun part of her Clapotis, and shared the dropping of several stitches with us.

Thursday was not an exciting day, but local strawberries make any day special.

Saturday the GTA was hit with a very dramatic thunderstorm. I love a good storm, and this one was a doozy.

Just when it seemed the storm had passed, I heard a 'fwump' and saw a flash outside the window. Lightning had struck a tree across the street, bringing down a smallish branch. I snapped a quick picture on my walk to the yarn store, where I was meeting up with Wendi,

And finally gave in and brought home the skein of sock yarn that's been calling to me for weeks now.

Overall, not a bad few days.

365.188

2009-07-07T21:42:00.001-04:00

365.188, originally uploaded by Vaedri1.

I picked up this gorgeous "Fall Leaves" batt at the Grimsby Fleece and Fibre festival.

New rule: no buying more spinning fibre until I use up enough that I can fit it in my fibre stash tote.

Why I Live Here

2009-07-03T21:46:00.000-04:00

It's easy to forget, sitting on my dingy little loveseat in my crumbling old building, surrounded by "colourful" neighbours.

But a quick walk, less than five minutes, straight down the street...

is an easy reminder.

I really do live in a pretty place.

365.183

2009-07-02T21:57:00.001-04:00

365.183, originally uploaded by Vaedri1.

When my grandfather passed away, following my grandmother by only a few years, we had the sad task of going through his remaining belongings and disposing of the bits and pieces that had no special attachment to anyone left behind. Throwing the bags and boxes into the donation bins was the saddest part of the whole affair.

When we were sorting everything out, I was most drawn to those items that triggered memories - the red glass candy dish that was always full of those sweet and somehow dry pastel-coated almonds, the silly tartan tam with the red pom pom. And this painting.

Visits to my grandparents' home were not particularly exciting for a child. They lived in a small apartment with scratchy white stucco-ed walls. Looking back, it was a rather charming place, with arched doorways, and cunning little glass doors for windows. There was even the little metal door outside the apartment, decorated with an engraving of a bottle, that swung open to provide a place for milk delivery way back when.

But when I was small, it was a boring place, with no backyard, no toys, and no animals. My brother and I were not actively 'entertained' and were left to find out own amusements. One of the most popular activities during our visits was to dump out a jar full of pennies, both shiny and dull, and lay them out on the intricately patterned rug, sliding them about until our fingers turned green. We'd alternately sip at frosted glasses full of off-brand ginger ale and try to convince the rabbit ears to tune in something fun on the giant console tv.

Another favourite activity was daydreaming. I remember gazing at this painting, letting the adult conversation going on over my head fade to a distant drone, and imagine sitting at one of those tables. Under a red umbrella, maybe. And after tea, I would go up to the castle, maybe clambering up the steep, green rocks, or maybe I would wander up the cobbled High Street, stopping in the tourist shops as the road climbed higher and higher.

This is a memory that has in some ways become stronger as I've grown up, given structure and reinforcement by my actual visits to the city.

But I never did find that terrace.

365.182

2009-07-01T21:10:00.001-04:00

365.182, originally uploaded by Vaedri1.

Today's pic is also an FO pic.

This year's summer "cottage" trip will actually be my very first cruise, and I'm very excited about it. I wanted to have something I could bring to throw over my shoulders, without packing a jacket. This will be perfect, I think.

It turned out quite long, at about eight feet, so it's long enough to wrap around and tie, and I can use it as a blanket if need be.

It's knitting using Diamond's Bamboo Cotton, which is just perfect for this kind of thing, with a lovely weight and drape to it.

I can wrap this around myself, and just imagine that I'm standing on the deck of a giant ship, gazing out over the Mediterranean as the moon rises over Italy.

Project notes and more pictures are over in Ravelry, if you're interested.

Out of Focus

2009-06-30T20:42:00.000-04:00

Way back in Januray, when I started Project365, I was intending to use the pictures that I take each day as a starting point to post a little ntry each day. That way, I could have a record of my year both pictorially and textually. Well, that didn't happen. Obviously.

Instead, it's been months since I posted anything at all. In part, I blame Twitter, becuase tweeting makes me feel like I still am part of the online community, without having to go through a lot of writing, editing, and posting. But I still want to be filling in the blanks that are left by the pictures I'm taking for the project. So now, at the halfway point, I'm going to try to go back to my original plan. I'm not going to do anything so foolish as to promise a post a day for the next half-year, but I am hoping that I'll be able to note some of the day-to-day happenings in my (admittedly largely uneventful) life, and also to share some of the background stories behind the objects, places, and people in the pictures.

Today's picture is kind of a two-for-one, and I know it's a little freaky.

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the optometrist for my biannual (is that the right word for every two years, or does that mean twice a year?) eye exam. I don't remember my eyes being this badly dilated after prior exams, and I still can't see straight. This post is brought to you entirely by touch typing, and some serious squinting to correct typos. I'm going to have to come back tomorrow and fix more, I'm sure.

I was informed that the health of my eyes isn't super, most likely due to my wearing my contacts too much. I had an incident last fall where the inside of my eyelids became inflamed and ever since, I am hyper vigilant about never wearing the lenses for more than 12 hours. So this news is rather disheartening. I am to not wear the contacts at all for the next two weeks, and then go back in for another exam and eye test, and where I'll also be given some super oxygen-permeable lenses that should be better for me. Ugh.

Anyway, if you're interested in my Project365 pictures so far (I haven't missed a day yet!) you can see them here, or you can use the Flickr link over on the side there.

I promise this is the only day with pictures of my eyes. It's safe.

Branches on my Living Room Wall

2009-02-25T21:02:00.000-05:00

The walls in my apartment are basically plaster over concrete. It makes it really difficult to hang anything without causing some significant, lose-the-deposit kind of damage. But this is a big wall that just can't be left bare. Vinyl decals are perfect for the job.

I used to have big, red poppies on the wall, until they started to lose their stickiness and their petals started to fall. I wasn't into that much veracity regarding their fresh cut flower realism. I'm hoping this one lasts a little longer, since the pieces are all smaller and lighter. This has been up since last July, and so far I've only lost one piece.

Both the poppies and this branch set are from Ikea. But now vinyl decals are just about everywhere. Even Home Depot carries Blik decals (love the Space Invaders). And holy crap - I see they've just added a whole line of classic Nintendo game themed decals. How fun is that?

And there are all kinds of people on Etsy doing really neat things with vinyl. Elephannie is one of my favourites, with lots of pretty and whimsical designs.

Trifecta

2009-02-11T22:08:00.007-05:00

It's cute, it's geeky, and it's knitting. It's today's 365 pic.

I stopped in at my friend Jen's house and stole her baby, and then felt guilty while she ran around and made dinner. I was assured that I was an immense help just by being a baby holder. Not much more done on the scarf in the picture, which is unfortunate, as it's 'due' for a birthday on Friday. Well, that's not gonna happen.

Cat Toes and Radios

2009-02-10T21:24:00.032-05:00

Today I got a nice big chunk of knitting done. Not that I have a picture to prove it. No, knitting pictures come few and far between when it's dark when I leave and dark when I get home.

But the reason I got lots of knitting done is related to my car stereo. I have a 2008 Ford Focus, which comes with the nifty new "Sync" system. I can plug in my iPod and use my voice to select songs, playlists, podcasts all using simple spoken commands. It really is a nice setup, and great for my frequent 3 hour road trips, preventing me from having to click around to find what I want.

(Now, this is not an exciting story. I invite you to skim. Really. I will share a picture of furry kitty toes to break up the monotony some of the way through here, too. Promise.)

Sadly, a few weeks ago, I plugged in my little iPod one morning, and ... nothing. It didn't recognize the little guy, no matter how many times I restarted and unplugged and plugged in again. I checked my cable, the pins, the iPod. Nothing seemed to be wrong. I hopped on the Sync support site and found that some people had solved the problem by downloading and installing the updates available on the site. So, I got my little geek stick (USB drive), downloaded, and plugged it into the car. Nothing. As far as the car was concerned, there was nothing plugged in.

I called the dealership, and dropped the car off one morning. Came back at the end of the day, after they'd ordered a part, replaced a cable and failed to fix the problem. They didn't know how. They said they'd call "the hotline" and get back to me. Today, a week and a half later, I go in again - I'm told it'll be half an hour, and so I run over during my lunch. Two hours later - "Um, when can I have my car back please?" Their laptop is messed up, and they have to call the hotline again to get them to fix the laptop, and then they can recalibrate and reset the system, which will take half an hour. But they don't know how long until the hotline gets back to them. So I leave. They will call me when they can fix it.

We interrupt this boring story for kitty toes:

Carry on.

As I drive to knitting group tonight, I decide to give it another shot with the geek stick. Nothing. But I spot a 'Master Reset' in the menu tree, and try that. After some grumbling and thinking, the system is reset and it now recognizes my iPod and seems to work fine. I had to redo my phone/bluetooth setup, but voice commands are working fine.

So what I really want to say here is - car companies really shouldn't introduce fancy new features in their cars without making sure their service centres know how to fix said fancy new features.

Sorry for the boring story. But if I have helped one poor Sync owner, then it's been worth it. Sniff.

I'll call the dealership tomorrow and teach them how to fix it.

365 Days In a Row

2009-02-09T21:04:00.032-05:00

So, yeah. It's been forever since I blogged. Again. But I have been busy on the net in another way. I signed up for Project365, a personal challenge on Flickr. I've committed to taking and posting a picture every day for 365 days. In a row.

So far, so good. Not every day is a great pic, but it's been keeping my eyes open, looking for new photo opportunities and new ways of looking at things every day.

This little mosaic shows my first 30 days of pictures. Yes, I foresee a lot of fibre and knitting and cat pictures this year. My life is generally just not so fascinating that it earns a picture every day. But I'm learning more about what my camera can do and how I can use Photoshop to fix and enhance. It's a fun personal challenge, and I'm hoping it's something I can stick with right up to New Year's Eve.

I'm enjoying having a little reminder of every day, even if it wasn't a special one.

Today's picture:

I stopped in at Chapters on the way home and bought my first ever self-help book, "What Should I Do With My Life?" by Po Bronson, which comes recommended by a friend. We'll see if I come out knowing what I should be when I grow up. If I grow up. It doesn't seem all that appealing, really.

I may also have picked up Interweave Knits. Maybe. But I resisted the sugar and caffeine trap at the entrance, so I did pretty well.

My First Sweater. Yikes.

2009-01-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

This Christmas was my knitting-est Christmas yet. I knitted up no less than nine gifts, which for me is definitely a record.

I'll start with the biggest, though not the best. Back in the summer, I asked my mum if she'd like something knitted for Christmas, or if she was getting tired of socks and scarves and hats. (Particularly hats - when she was going through chemo, I probably made her about 20 or so hats.) She hummed and hawed for a bit, and finally asked, "Like what kind of knitted things?"

I started to list my typical projects: socks, hats, scarves, dishcloths, blankets... Nothing seemed to appeal. I kept going, now moving on to theoretical knits: sweaters, cardigans - "Oooh! Cardigan? I'd like a cardigan!"

Shoot. I'd never done a sweater. I've had one started and sitting on a precious Denise needle for over a year now. I know I've messed up some of the "at the same time" instructions, so it's been hidden in a little basket until I can get up the gumption to rip it all out and start over. Again. I'd hoped that my first sweater would be inflicted only on myself. But now I'd opened my mouth and committed to punishing my poor mother with what would no doubt be a comically oversized and misproportioned garment.

I at least had the sense to include her in the choosing of the pattern and the yarn. I sat down and showed her the wonders of Ravelry's projects pages. We agreed on the basic cardigan pattern from Stitch and Bitch, without the fuzzy mohair edging. I happened to have with me some Knitpicks Comfy yarn from another project, which Mum liked the feel of. She picked the colour "Crème Brulée" and I ordered it right then and there.

Several months passed, and we ended up with this. Which isn't too bad, after all.

Mum insisted on a 'neck down' shot. (Which reminds me of a funny story I need to share another time about prom pictures and my mother's photography skills.)

As mentioned, I passed on the crocheted mohair border, instead picking up stitches around the neck and adding a few rows of garter stitch.

Also, because I wasn't adding the edging, I thought the plain stockinette would curl way too much on the fronts and sleeves, so I added ten rows of seed stitch to each.

You need to ignore the strange, radioactive purple of my mum's hand there - not sure what happened. She is not an alien.

Good:

The yarn is lovely and soft, and warmer than I would have thought a cotton blend would be, which my mum loves.
It fits better than I thought it would. For now. More on that below.
My mum likes it and wears it.

Not so good:

I should have added the seed stitch border to the bottom of the back, too, but didn't think of it until it was too late to reknit.
I have a feeling that the yarn will be pill-y. Don't know why, but I suspect.
Mum says that the sweater is growing already, and is looking baggy. Damn you, cotton and your heavy dragginess!
The sleeves are too long. For which I don't have an excuse, because I know my mum has short arms, and I even measured. But once I finished the increases as instructed, I was already too long and wasn't sure how to fix, and time was short.
My seaming is awful in the neck/shoulder/sleeve area. I didn't know exactly how they fit together, and tried a few different ways before figuring it out. Which just made everything messy and loose or messy and tight.

So overall, not a disaster. And next time, there will be more on the 'Good' list, I think.

First Christmas FO 2008

2008-11-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

Christmas knitting has well and truly begun. I can even claim one completed finished project.

This is the Inner Truth (cashmere) Scarf, an old pattern from the now-defunct MagKnits. I say (cashmere) because I used plain old Knitpicks Gloss, in cranberry.

It’s lovely and soft and squishy, and will feel lovely and warm against my father’s neck while he wanders the frozen Little River Wetlands with his dog this winter.

I knit up the Reversible Cable Scarf for my dad last year. It was in a nice, neutral beige, and, as requested, was short enough so that it didn’t ‘get in the way’ all the time.

As my dad gets a wee bit older, it seems he’s valuing warmth and comfort over convenience, so this scarf is almost Doctor Who-like in its proportions, probably over seven feet long. It should wrap snugly around the neck at least a couple of times, and, in a pinch, can be used as an emergency dog leash.

More details on Ravelry, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

Life Happens

2008-11-06T20:57:00.000-05:00

Once again, I find that I've not updated in far longer than I like. But it's boring and annoying to hear the apologies over and over, so I'm moving on.

I often jokingly complain that I have no life. But the past few months have been unusually busy for me, starting just about before the annual cottage vacation, and they seem to be starting to wind down now. And, aside from a few exceptions, all of the things that have kept me busy have been very good things: travelling and friends and family. I'm just not really used to being so short on 'me' time, and when I don't have it, I find that things start to break down. Important things like my patience, my temper, and my living room.

But, like I said, things are starting to wind down, and it feels like the perfect timing, really. The days are getting shorter and the leaves on the trees are fewer and fewer. The nights are cold and the air is definitely crispy. It's getting close to hibernation time, and I have to admit that I love the chance to curl up under blankets with steaming mugs of tea and hot chocolate, watching weather lashing against my window. I'm sure I'll feel very, very differently in a few months, when I'm longing to open a window and go outside without layering, but right now, the beginning of winter feels like a comfort.

Keeping up so poorly with things lately does mean plenty of fodder going forward, and so here's a taste for now of the lovely things I've been up to.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-10-12T20:04:00.000-04:00

I love Thanksgiving. It falls in my favourite season (pun not intended, but I'll let it stand.)

The drive down to Windsor to spend the day with my family is always the best one of the year, with the glory of the changing leaves and the crisp evening air.

I love the sentiment, the whole idea of Thanksgiving. Taking a moment in a day to think about all the ways that you're blessed, and be thankful for them. To keep in your mind your family, your health, your friends. To be mindful and appreciative.

And the best part of Thanksgiving - all the pumpkins! Being in an apartment, I don't really have a place to display a Jack o'Lantern, but I always make a trip out into the county to pick up a little collection of gourds, in all their funny shapes and sizes.

This year, my brother and I stopped in at a place I've been driving past for years. I never think to stop in, and that's been a big mistake. These people probably love pumpkins as much as I do, and they're definitely huge fans of Hallowe'en. They have a maze/haunted house, a graveyard, and a barn rigged up with "interactive zombies" that, when tugged, open up different coffins and crypts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rainy Saturday - In Detail

2008-09-22T17:40:00.000-04:00

The other day, some friends and I decided to share our day in pictures. This is something we’ve done a couple of times now, and always with interesting results. This time around, our “day” fell on the same day as the Kitchener-Waterloo knitter’s fair. I wasn’t sure I would go, but felt like I had to do something picture-worthy. And if I’m going to take all kinds of pictures and tell stories, then I might as well blog it. Here is my apology in advance for a VERY long post. Feel free to skim.

After lounging about all that morning, I decided to get in the car and drive to Kitchener-Waterloo for the fair. It was a chilly, rainy day, but the roads weren’t bad.

I started to take the most direct route to the fair, but saw signs that directed me differently, and I ended up taking the route I knew best, past my old stomping grounds in Guelph. I loved being back on roads I knew and have driven dozens of times.

I arrived at Bingeman’s without incident, and my first thought as I drove into the parking lot was, “I’ve been here before”. I can’t remember why – I think maybe there must have been an Engineering career fair or something way back when.

As I’d had such a long, lazy morning, I didn’t arrive at the fair until almost three. So I didn’t get to check out any of the workshops the website had mentioned, but there was still plenty to see.

I guess in previous years, the vendors had all been in one big room, and the place was jam-packed. This was the first year they expanded to two rooms, and everything was well-spaced, with wide aisles. There were lots of deals to be had, but I was fairly restrained. But not saintly.

I wandered both rooms, visiting every stall with varying degrees of interest. I had just wandered into my last stall, and was thinking it was weird that I hadn’t found the Linda’s Craftique booth, when I heard Linda call out my name. I turned around to find that I was, in fact, in her booth. It was nice to see a few familiar faces (and familiar F.O.s).

It continued to pour all day, which didn’t really bother the knitters, as they scurried from hall to car laden with fibre and tools.

I stayed right up to the end, at 4:30 (partly in hopes that some vendors might suddenly decide to lighten their loads home and offer ridiculous deals) then headed back to my car in the suddenly empty parking lot.

I was a bit confuddled to find a satellite dish in the middle of some bushes by my car. Next to… nothing at all. Okay.

Then it was back on the road for me. Despite the rain, it was a lovely drive along familiar roads.

I love driving back roads at this time of year. Even better is a couple of weeks from now, when the leaves have started to change, and the world is awash with sunset colours.

But this time of year is lovely, too, with the rich browns and yellows of the fields, all on a backdrop of lush greenness.

And every now and then, in the distance, or – more startlingly – suddenly in a field flashing by, you can see bright sheets of brilliant yellow canola.

Yes, I know I probably took too many pictures, but I don’t get out this way nearly often enough these days.

I didn’t even notice the big windmill behind this house until I was going through the photo files later at home.

I took the long, slow way back to Guelph, and then through the city, driving along roads that took me back in time about nine years.

It’s been bothering me that I couldn’t remember the name of the street I lived on in second year, so I swung by that way to remind myself that it was “Keats Crescent”.

I drove south on highway 6, past the lawn furniture/camping equipment place that has life size dinosaur statues. (no idea)

And when I got home, I drooled over my purchases. I got some lovely green roving, a spool, and this beautiful niddy noddy.

I think I became interested in spinning mainly for the beautiful tools and their fun names.

After playing with my new toys, I got dinner together. The last of my homemade tomato sauce over shell pasta with plenty of parmesan.

Then I flaked out on the couch. I was not alone.

Harrow Fair

2008-09-17T20:38:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends ago - Labour Day weekend, in fact - I paid my second annual visit to the Harrow Fair.

I wasn't terribly surprised to find that not a whole lot has changed in the past year. There were the same giant sunflowers.

The same very, very tall sunflowers.

I did notice the Lego category, which was new to me.

And last year, I don't remember seeing quite so many categories for flower arrangements. They included 'Best single red rose in a white vase - 10" division', and the one below, 'People put flowers in the darnedest things'.

Those 'darned' things included a soup can, an old banjo or guitar, and a bedpan.

The critters were pretty much the same. Though I'd imagine they were the next generation, as they were advertised for sale by the pound in many cases.

I didn't see one of these last year - a display on knitting and crocheting.

I guess I was still developing my 'fibre art radar' last Labour Day.

Unfortunately, the turkey was not one of little Kiona's highlights. While she found it hilarious when I or her mum would 'gobble' at her, it was not at all funny when a giant, ugly bird did it face-to-face.

This was just before things got a little teary.

Which leads me to the biggest difference between last year and this year.

Last year (please note bulge):

And this year (please note bulge is now walking and has developed high levels of cuteness):

Who knows what next year will bring.

Surprise

2008-09-09T21:12:00.000-04:00

The second project that I finished up this weekend was this little bluey greeny item.

If it looks vaguely familiar, that's because yes, I did just make another one of these. But it also means that you saw it on Ravelry, because I have been a bad, bad blogger.

Okay, here's my first:

These are both Baby Surprise Jackets, knit from Knitpicks Felici sock yarn. It's wonderfully soft and perfect for baby projects. The socks are cable rib socks, from the "Better than Booties" collection from Interweave knits.

The pink/blue/green (Coney Island colourway) jacket and bootees went to my cousin's new little one, Tristan, out in Edmonton. The blue/green/brown (Schooner colourway) is destined for an as-yet unknown baby, due in about three weeks.

These are really cute, fast projects, and I can see myself doing plenty more in the future. I do have to say that I did not have much luck following Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern. The style of writing there just didn't click for me. It was the Baby Surprise Notes by Dawn Adcock that made it possible for me to knit - and enjoy knitting - these jackets. The notes don't give you the pattern - that, you still need to buy or borrow. But they give you the pattern instructions line by line, more like a modern pattern.

Which, yes, may be a bit of spoon feeding, but apparently, that's what I need, so I'm glad it's available.

I know! Two posts in two days! Crazy!

Wee Things

2008-09-08T19:51:00.001-04:00

There's really only one thing a picture like this can mean to a knitter. Things have been finished!

I spent most of the weekend seaming, weaving in ends, sewing on buttons, and blocking. I rarely left the couch, which was pretty much the plan going into the weekend, after a somewhat hellacious Friday spent hopping from one waiting room to the next, as I tried to deal with a messed up cornea. Which, by the way, was made much worse by doctor number two (of three) scraping at it because he thought there was something on my eye. Turns out, he was seeing a scratch and misinterpreting it as some kind of foreign material. Thanks, doc! Oh, well. He did send me off to an ophthamologist, who gave me very good eyedrops.

Anyway - knitting! The first project I finished up was my pair of Embossed Leaves socks.

These were knit out of some lovely hand dyed yarn from Sunnyside Ellen's etsy shop. The yarn was dyed to give a gradual descent into darker shades. I started with the lighter end, as the socks were knit top-down. I was a bit disappointed that I never made it to the darkest green shades.

If I did this again, I'd likely choose a toe-up and go the other way, since I'd rather see more of the darker green. But that's really the only disappointment, and it's a minor one.

The pattern was easy to memorize, and gives really lovely results. It also gave me the chance to try a star toe for the first time, as shown in the awkward photograph above.

The only really unusual thing about these socks was the way I finished them up. I used a nine inch circular needle.

Apparently, this is a new offering from Hiya Hiya, and Linda my LYSO of Linda's Craftique was kind enough to let me try this out. I admit that it's a bit awkward at first, as the needles themselves (as opposed to the cable) are very short. I think that a lot of people just wouldn't enjoy using these, but it works for me just because I happen to hold my needles just right for them.

They're ideal for a purse knitting project, and I like them well enough that I've used them to cast on for my next sock project. Which are the Uptown Boot Socks from Favorite Socks (that's really hard to type without the "u", by the way), in safety orange.

Up next - more finished stuff!

For me!

2008-08-19T20:48:00.000-04:00

I won a contest!

A couple of weeks ago, I added a comment to 1600 others to congratulate Sheri at The Loopy Ewe on her second anniversary. And I was chosen as one of sixteen winners, much to my shock and amazement.

The package arrived today, and was just a fabulous way to celebrate a beautiful, cool summer day.

I knew the yarn would be yummy, so I left it as the last thing to be unwrapped. What a fun little package. There's a Loopy Ewe mini tote bag with a little tag that reads "Sock yarns don't count as stash!" and a cute little pin. The pattern is for Making Tracks socks, by Wendy. This is one I'll definitely be trying out. Sorry it's not really in the picture, but here's the Ravelry link.

And then there was the yarn. Oh, the yarn.

There is a skein of Wollmeise in a vibrant, yummy fall colourway called Campari Orange.

It feels lovely and soft, and seems to be a thinner yarn than most of the sock yarns I've used. I may actually need to swatch to make sure I use this to the best of its abilities. And since this is "the" yarn right now, I want to make sure I get the most out of it.

But as lovely as the Wollmeise is, I have to admit that I've fallen for the Yarn Love Juliet.

I doubt I would ever have picked out this colourway on my own. But as soon as I held it in my hands, I knew it was the colourway I never knew I always wanted.

It's all my favourite colours and combinations rolled into one. It has the warm, toasty fall colours, the rich brown, and the bright, sunny-skies-blue.

And if you happen to know what I do for a living, you'll know why the name of the colourway is particularly appropriate and cracks me up.

Thanks to Sheri and the Loopy Ewe!

In a Spin

2008-08-15T17:42:00.000-04:00

I'm still not entirely sure how it happened. I was in Romni Wools, picking up some yarn for a very special project (not sure if I can blog about it yet) and I wandered down to the basement. This is where the sales rooms are, full of bins and boxes that you can dig and dive through in hopes of finding treasure. On the way to the sales rooms, you pass by the spinning supplies: wheels, roving, spindles, and miscellaneous mysterious gadgets. I rarely give these a second glance, beyond making sure my sleeve doesn't catch on anything as I move along.

So I still don't really know how I came to be standing at the checkout, paying for this:

And this:

I haven't been really all that interested in spinning. It just seemed the slow way to get yarn. But I'm finding that I'm enjoying the movement and the feel of the fibre in my hands. And it's rewarding to start with a bag of fuzzy blue intestines, and end up with a cute little skein like this.

Clover

2008-08-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

As usual in my world ‘tomorrow’ is a flexible term.

So, the most lasting memory of the cottage? Was one I brought back with me in a very real, very physical form.

This is Clover.

When we arrived at the cottage, there was a box of cat food and a note left on the kitchen island. “Please feed the stray cat and call the Humane Society”. Various clues led us to believe that the cottage owners probably don’t visit the place between renters, and so the note was most likely from the group who had rented the cottage the week previous.

The stray cat in question showed up that day, and he was a very friendly, warm kitty. The next day he brought his girl. And the day after that, we’d apparently cleared the security check, and they brought the kids.

We were in the back of beyond, not close to any municipality that had a humane society, and we know that they don’t come to pick up strays anymore in any case. So we just continued to feed them and let them hang out on the deck with us.

A few days into the week, the grey kitten wasn’t around anymore. There was no one in any of the nearby cottages, so we were left to conclude that something had happened to her.

At the end of the week, I couldn’t stand to leave the second kitten to a similar fate. So Clover came home with me.

But Sebastian is a one-cat cat. And he’s that cat. A new home was found for Clover after only a week. It was hard to see her go, but I’m confident that the person who came to pick her up will give her a wonderful, loving home.

So all’s well that ends well. I just hope our next cottage doesn’t come with similar residents. It’s too hard on my heart.

Home Again, Home Again

2008-08-04T21:44:00.004-04:00

I'm back from the cottage now, and working on getting used to things as they are. No lake view, no whispering pines, no friends waiting in the living room.

Sigh. Back to the noise and limited views of my little neighbourhood.
But it's still nice to get home.

It was a great time away. We all spent a lot of time reading, and Charlotte and I played with our sticks and string. I finished my one project, and started three more. Apparently, the limited attention span that develops while on vacation can prompt a wicked case of startitis.

Charlotte may also have done a little recruiting.

We had one evening enlivened by a visit from this little guy.

We were very brave for city folk, and did manage to drive him back out the patio door. Unfortunately, we also succeeded in inviting in several hundred mosquitoes during the fracas. I was tempted to invite the bat back in to deal with it.

Charlotte and I also spent lots of time playing with our cameras.

There was plenty to snap.

But the most tangible memory of the weekend is one I'll share tomorrow. All that relaxing has worn me out and it's time for me to get to bed. My own lovely, soft bed.

Sunset Number One

2008-07-27T16:24:00.004-04:00

We're surreptitiously using wifi from an unknown source, so I won't upload all the pictures I'm taking until I get home, but here's a taste of our first evening here.

We're in the Kawarthas this year, and it's lovely so far. We drove in through the rain, but it cleared up a bit later. Today's been a bit overcast, and we're waiting out a thunderstorm right now, but before then, it was nice enough for a quick dip in the lake.

Happy Sunday!

Noro in Zigzag

2008-07-26T09:34:00.004-04:00

I am heading off today to our second annual week at the cottage! I am excited to bits, and just hoping we get at least some decent weather. But am packing lots of decks of cards, books, board games, dvds, and - of course - knitting projects just in case we are housebound. I don't think we'll be all that heartbroken to have to sit inside to do nothing some of the time.

Just in time to get it posted before leaving, I finished my first pair for the Summer of Socks.

These are destined to be a birthday gift for a friend. She already knows about them, so no stealth required.

As a matter of fact, she's even tried one on. This lead to the discovery that I was knitting them too short in the foot. So I added an extra pattern repeat to the second sock, by then in progress, and finally ripped out and reknit the first sock's toe. Hence the different toe colours. Up to that point, I was so matchy-matchy it made me giddy.

I love all the colours, but it's the little punch of copper at the heel that really pleases me the most.

Pattern: Zigzag Socks, by Christine Walter, from the Vogue Ultimate Sock Book.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock, colourway S40
Mods: None.

I like this pattern. I also like this yarn. It's a bit rough while knitting up, but I didn't have too much vegetable matter - maybe four little bits in total, and nothing that jabbed me. It is a bit thick/thin in places, which took some getting used to. But none of that is noticeable in the finished socks, so it's all good.

It's also quite a generous skein. after completing the two socks, I still have just about another full colour repeat, meaning I could (should I choose to) get a third sock out of this skein. I'm thinking baby bootees, maybe.

Have a fabulous week! I'll be hitting the road soon, and if all goes well, might be back once or twice to tease with some fabulous pictures.

Go. Now.

2008-07-19T10:43:00.003-04:00

Just in case you've somehow managed to be on the internet and not have heard about it, I must direct you to Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog. There are not words for how awesome and amazing and funny it is, and you only have until tomorrow to see it free online. You can also buy all three episodes from iTunes, and the DVD will be available later, with all kinds of ooey gooey good extras.

Know that it's Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Filion and singing and supervillians.

Aw - my first commercial blog entry. Sniff. It's a very geeky moment for me.

Dabbling and Dangling in Randomnicityness

2008-07-15T22:12:00.000-04:00

I'm doing it again. I get a gap in the blogging thing, and then I feel like I have to do something special and interesting to get back into it, but I don't have time for that (I have much to play with the internet and yarn and such) and so I don't post at all.

So here's some randomness.

A few weeks ago, I went to the Dundas Busker's Festival with some friends. It was one of the first truly summer-type days.

I celebrated with my very first case of heatstroke. (Sunstroke? Are they the same?) I don't recommend it, in any case. Ugh.

But there were people doing interesting and dangerous-seeming things, and here are some pictures.

Dundas is a pretty little town, and still has some nice architecture. I got to look at this building for quite a while, since it was across from my 'recovery bench' in the shade.

I like getting out to little celebrations and seeing different communities put on a show. There are so many places that host events in the summer, it's hard not to stumble on a few. Looking back over the years, I've been to the CornFest, Freedom Festival, Strawberry Festival, Art in the Park, Art by the Marina, the Mudcat Festival, Taste of Windsor, Carousel of Nations, and the Harrow Fair.

The best, though, in terms of food at least, is the Tecumseh corn fest. Or, not even so much the corn festival itself, but the corn. The corn from Essex county is the best corn there is. You may think you have had great corn, but if you haven't had it from Essex county, you haven't had the best. I'm wrong about many, many things, but I have yet to be proven wrong about this.

In the summer, it was always a wonderful treat to go out 'into the county' to one of the fields hosting a corn stand. You'd stand in line and wait, first of all, because there was always a line. And that was okay. Because you were waiting for more corn to be brought directly from the field to the little shack. People in back would shuck, and hand off to people inside, who would dump the cobs into giant, bubbling cauldrons. A couple of minutes later, the cobs were fished out and dipped into big pots of melted butter, before being handed over to you on rapidly disintegrating paper plate along with a salt shaker. Heaven.

I think I need to plan a visit home soon. I think it's corn season.

Thrills! Chills! Secrets and Cables!

2008-06-24T21:50:00.000-04:00

I am not a perfectionist. "Good enough", or "that'll do" are things I often say. This extends to my knitting, too, in most cases. Have an extra stitch at the end of a row? Well, looky here - if I knit this one and this other one together, problem solved! Good enough! No one will ever know. And I'll stop looking at that spot eventually, I'm sure.

But sometimes, "good enough" just doesn't work out. Sometimes it's an unforgivable, unmistakable, uh - mistake. For me, that usually means ripping out the entire thing and starting from scratch. I do that a lot. It tends to make any knitters nearby blanch and clutch their chests, but I've got enough "Process Knitter" in me that I don't mind it much. (Mind you, one time someone actually grabbed the project away from me before I could completely frog it and picked up all my stitches. It was interesting. And great.)

But sometimes the project has just gone too far for that. And then things like this happen:

That's six dpns and my Denise circular tenuously holding together a secret project. Kind of makes you hold your breath just looking at it, doesn't it? Like the climax of a scary book or movie, where you're pretty sure everyone will come out alive, but you don't know absolutely for sure.

This story does have a happy ending, though. Behold.

All better!

Back to "good enough" for me.

Up, Up and Away

2008-06-16T19:58:00.003-04:00

I celebrated WWKIP day by completely forgetting about it, due to other things going on. Like getting my father in a helicopter for the first time in his life.

It was my mum's idea initially, and I totally and shamelessly took it over. I researched it, booked it, and even ended up driving us all to the - what - heliport? That sounds like a real word, right? And things turned out in such a way that the whole thing ended up a complete surprise revealed only at the moment we pulled into the parking lot in Niagara Falls.

When we got there, we were informed that the weather was a bit cloudy, so we'd be delayed. It was barely enough time for a quick ice cream break, then my dad was getting in the helicopter.

Then he was in the air, looking down on the falls and the whirlpool and the river.

The flight was only nine minutes, but my father loved it and can't wait to go again. During those nine minutes, I KIP'd, unwittingly keeping the spirit of the day. Then the helicopter was back, and my dad couldn't stop smiling.

This was followed by some time in Niagara on the Lake, where I knit in a pub, then on a bench. Then a visit to Fort George, where I knit on a picnic table. And then, because no family visit is complete without some sort of medical emergency, a visit to the urgent care centre, where I knit in an examination area, and then the imaging waiting room. We discovered that my father had cracked a bone in his toe when he bumped it on my air conditioner the previous evening. (He's doing okay - there's nothing to be done but wait for healing.)

Happy belated WWKIP and Father's days!

The Start of Summer Knitting

2008-06-11T22:48:00.000-04:00

Summer has descended on Toronto suddenly. We had a long, cool spring after a longer, soul-crushing winter. Then, suddenly, last Friday, we were plunged into the 3 H's. Hot, hazy, humid. We even had a humidex warning to celebrate our first summery day.

Sticky, hot weather means small, no-lap-contact projects. Luckily, there are lots and lots of babies in my life and periphery. Some have already arrived, and some are still baking. Either way, it means I get to make cute little things like this.

I love the Saartje bootees. This is the second pair I've knit, and they're ridiculously fast, and so, so adorable. And to go with them, I thought a little hat would be perfect.

This is the Vine Lace baby hat, by Sandi Wiseheart. (Ravelry links there) Another cute, fast knit.

This was all made from the leftover yarn from my Coupling socks. It's from Sunnyside Ellen's Etsy shop, and it's really lovely stuff. And obviously a generous skein! This little set was a gift for baby Emma, the new addition to the family of a friend-of-a-friend. Any excuse to knit baby things is a good excuse.

I already have a little sweater on the needles that will be a Christmas present, and a couple of other little sweaters set to go when those needles are free. I'm trying to finish up the current sweater first, mainly because I'm really enjoying the project and don't want to put it down now that I'm nearing the end. Despite a little snag. Details soon. It's not pretty.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

2008-05-27T20:58:00.004-04:00

Right?

How about a really pretty FO to make up for the time away? Something... lacy? Soft? Maybe a little... seasilk?

Okay then - I present the Shetland Triangle, from Wrap Style, pattern by Evelyn Clark.

This was a surprisingly quick and easy knit, and the perfect use for the single skein of seasilk that I won from a contest on Kirsty's blog last year.

Thanks to great notes on purlparable's Shetland Triangle project in Ravelry, I knew I'd likely get 11 pattern repeats out of the skein. And I was left with only a few metres of yarn at the end, so it worked out just perfectly. Not to the point where I was panicking that I'd run out before finishing the edging, but not with so much left over that I felt like I'd wasted any of the precious, precious seasilk.
The lace pattern was easy to internalize, and turned out very, very pretty.

The yarn has a lovely sheen to it, and it was just so wonderful to knit with.

This started out as a project for me, but when I saw how beautifully it turned out, I thought it should be a gift. This declaration was met with such severe scolding from my knitting group that I "reluctantly" acquiesced, and I've been enjoying wearing this on these many cool spring days.

It was fun to wear to the Knitter's Frolic. It seemed everyone jumped on the opportunity to show off their beautiful work to people who would appreciate it, and I almost wished for a 'show and tell' session, where I could see everything more closely, and it all could be probably admired.

My First Knitter's Frolic

2008-04-30T14:36:00.002-04:00

Overall, the damage wasn't too bad. Especially considering the total sensory overload I experienced when I walked into the building and saw more yarn, and more knitters in one place than I'd ever seen in real life.

I went in with cash, weakly resolving not to pull out any kind of plastic. That did last until the very end, when people were starting to pack things up, and a fellow customer convinced me to take both of the colours I was waffling between. The wonderful and evil woman didn't even try. She's good.

I was hoping to pick up a nice bag - ideally one of those fancy pants bags that works as a purse and a knitting bag. And there were some of those in evidence, but none that I fell in love with, so that's been left as a "someday" shopping goal. Which is probably good, considering my credit cards at the moment. I'm also lucky in that I am currently waiting for a Knitpicks order, that will fulfill many of my current project needs.

I do have moments when I regret not grabbing some of that fabulous colourway of Socks that Rock from Lettuce Knit, or picking up one of those amazing skeins of laceweight silk that was such an unbelievable deal.

But I got lots of fun new things to play with, and even a belated birthday present in the latest Yarn Harlot book. (Thanks, Jen!)

This will definitely be a must-see next year.

The Short Life of a Cute Cookie

2008-04-28T16:05:00.002-04:00

My coworker is pregnant.

I found a ridiculously cute pregnant-lady cookie when visiting the Queen of Tarts a couple of weeks ago. I presented the cookie the next day.

Now, this is a friend who absolutely hates to use the dishcloths I knit for her, because she doesn't want them to get dirty. I figured the cookie would never get to achieve its cookie destiny, and would instead be kept on a shelf and admired as a cute memento.

I did not account for pregnancy hunger. Twenty minutes after gifting the cookie, I was informed that it was not long for this world, and if I wanted pictures, I'd better come running with my camera.

The carnage was somewhat disturbing. I think I got an arm.

Next up will be pics of my (relatively minor, I must admit) Knitter's Frolic haul.

Knitting by Candlelight

2008-03-31T20:04:00.003-04:00

Thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes. One fun advantage to being on Facebook, in Ravelry, and part of the blogosphere is all the extra people sending happy birthdays.

On Saturday, I joined in with all the other people around the world who turned off the lights for Earth Hour. Before eight o'clock, I had been sitting in the twilight, knitting and goofing around on the laptop. At five to, (ironically) I had to turn on the lights to run around and find candles and matches.

At first, I sat in the candlelight and kept goofing around on the laptop - running on the battery. But that didn't really feel like I was getting into the spirit of the thing, and so after a few minutes, I shut down and picked up my knitting.

I had plenty of candles and lanterns, but it was still kind of dark for knitting. Luckily, these are the Pomatomus socks being reknit, so I don't need to see what I'm doing very closely, or check the chart very often.

It was very peaceful, sitting in the quiet, dim light. I ended the evening without turning on any lights, reading by candlelight before falling asleep early. I may have to unplug more often. If nothing else, just to use my candles and lanterns more often.

The Socks that Ravelry Saved

2008-03-28T08:32:00.002-04:00

I started these socks a while back. I was heading to Minneapolis for a work meeting, and I knew I'd have lots of plane and airport time. I liked the pattern, and I liked the yarn, but I didn't feel like they were playing well together.

I set the sock's status to 'hibernating' in my Ravelry projects, stuck the sock itself in an easily-forgotten corner of my stash shelves, and moved on. But a funny thing happened on the way to the frog pond. Somebody 'favourited' the sock. The sight of that little heart in the corner gave me pause, but didn't really change my mind. I still wasn't entirely happy with the yarn/pattern combo, and didn't want to let one random person's click change my decision.

But then someone else favourited it. And then so did another person. (And then someone 'un-favourited', but by then the damage was done.)

So here are the finished Little Pumpkins socks.

I think I was too hard on them. They've turned out quite nice. And a rarity for my socks that I knit for myself - they fit perfectly!

I screwed up the toes when I forgot what I'd done exactly to finish the first off and made a (bad) guess at how to finish the second. But that's one of those things that will only ever be noticed by me. And only then when I have my shoes off. I can live with it.

Pattern: Little Pumpkins Socks (that's a pdf link) by Sabine Ruppert (Sabi on Ravelry).
Yarn: Austermann Step in colourway 12
Mods: Just the toe, which I finished with a bit of Kitchenering, rather than pulling the last stitches together and tying off. (I... I like Kitchener stitch. There! I admitted it!)

Gifts from Me

2008-03-26T20:26:00.003-04:00

Like most of my birthdays, today has been largely uneventful. But full of little pleasures.

I got my new phone in the mail yesterday, and played with it in the car, syncing it up with the voice commands.

I got myself a cute little pair of shoes on sale.

I had a reeeallly good shrimp burrito for dinner.

The 5 inch bamboo needles I bought on eBay finally arrived.

And, thanks in large part to Facebook, I'm sure, (because that's helped me a lot recently!) I had many, many birthday wishes.

The day will round out with a little knitting and a little leftover cheesecake. Not a bad day at all.

Orange Sunday

2008-03-02T21:29:00.005-05:00

Today was a good Sunday.

I got up when I woke up sometime before 8 o'clock. I puttered about. (Isn't puttering a lovely, Sunday-ish thing to do? And it's a wonderful, charming word that could have only the meaning that it does.)

I had a Sunday breakfast of eggs and toast. I treated myself to new, yummy shower stuff.

I threw on my favourite, orange hoody and then puttered some more. This time, the puttering included a new project. It's not orange.

This will hopefully be my first sweater.

It's the Natalie coat from Big Girl Knits. Of course, it was only after I started it that I bothered to check the difficulty level - the highest in the book. I'm trying not to be intimidated by the numbers and the different things that all have to happen at the same time. I've done the waist shaping, which was very straightforward - follow these directions - and am now preparing for the short row shaping for the bust, which is not quite so straightforward.

When I couldn't handle being stuck on my couch for another moment, I headed out the door and to the coffee shop on the corner. Walking in, I was instantly seduced by the chocolate orange latte on the poster and soon had one of my own to take to the good, cushy armchair by the fireplace. I settled in with my Little Pumpkins sock and the latest Cast On and was soon joined by an older gentleman and his Macbook and own set of earbuds. (A better blogger would have a picture here.)

As I packed up to leave, the gentleman in the other chair shared with me his sweet knitting memory, that he told me I'd invoked. When he was little, he had the mumps, and so was stuck in bed for quite a long time. His mother taught him to knit to pass the time, and he cast on 16 stitches and just knit and knit and knit. By the time he was well, he had a long, rambling, uneven piece. He said it was a good memory.

I walked home, stopping to pick up some bell peppers and nectarines. It made me smile to see the summer colours in my net bag as I walked past snow drifts and through icy puddles of melt. I came home to my couch and my knitting, and settled in with my latest movie from Zip.ca.

And now I'm here, finishing off the evening with a recap, sitting in my pyjamas and warm socks, listening to the distant hum of traffic, and the occasional rumble of a train.

Some days it's easy to be happy.

Pomatomus Socks. But....

2008-02-29T14:06:00.006-05:00

They are finally finished.

I love the colour. I love the texture of the 'scales'. I love the overall look. I even love the name.

I hate the fit. They are too big. They are far too big. In a general kind of way, too. Not too long, not too wide, just too big. The heel, in particular, seems enormous.

This makes me sad. And also brings me to a sad realization. All my socks have been too big. I use the needle called for in the pattern, and it doesn't matter how many books, blogs, and Ravelry posts I've read - I still think I can defy gauge. Or, it's more like my brain is thinking, "Well, sure - of course gauge is important for things like sweaters and even hats. But socks? No way! Gauge doesn't count for socks!"

My brain is wrong. It counts. And it counted after the first sock was done and I tried it on and it was too big. It especially counted after I was done just the leg of the first sock and I tried it on and it was too big. So now my decision is whether to just pretend that they do fit and go on with my life and a new pair of socks, or to rip these out and reknit them.

(Can you spot the difference between this picture and the first? I love my little helper.)

The only pair of socks that I've knit that turned out to be just the right size was a pair that I knit for someone else.

No. I know the right answer here. Sigh.

I like to knit. I like to knit.

Koigu Kismet

2008-02-26T11:15:00.004-05:00

I think I shouldn't watch two episodes of Dexter right before bed. I woke up all night from nightmares full of violence. Anyway. On to sunnier things.

The last time I went to the Knit Cafe, I came across a yarn that I absolutely had to have. No choice. In fact, I've needed to buy this yarn ever since I heard that it existed, but hadn't yet come face to face with a skein.

This is the yarn.

The reason I had to have it? It has my name. Basically. This is Koigu Kersti (Ravelry link). (I am Kirstie.)

Then, of course, once I had my little paws on it, I had to figure out what to do with it. My first thought was socks, but the weight is maybe a little too heavy - for me, at least. I knew it had to be something for me, and a small project, since I only had two skeins.

The perfect solution - fingerless gloves. I had knitted myself a pair out of a bulky alpaca blend a while back, but I found them to be a bit too bulky for working with a keyboard and mouse. And they itched.

I clicked around on Ravelry and found that the fingerless mitts pattern by Joelle Hoverson (Ravelry again) from Last Minute Knitted Gifts was available free online, and everything fell into place.

The finished product:

I find these a lot easier to work in, and the colours are lovely. If I were to do them again (and I might), I might make a bit of a thumb gusset, rather than having just the slit. And I'd probably make them a little longer, so that they cover more of the fingers. As it is, they come up to just above the knuckles.

I have a few more projects to share - one bonus of falling behind in blogging for several months is that you have plenty to talk about when you get back.

Let's Learn Our "One New Thing" for Today

2008-02-25T09:54:00.004-05:00

I'm reading a series of books right now that has presented to me something I haven't seen in a long time - words I don't know. Now, I thought that I had a decent vocabulary. I am even known for being a bit wordy in some circles. These books have smacked me down.

The books are The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Steven R. Donaldson. I found the first trilogy a bit of a drag in that by the end, I could think of only two or three 'good' things that had happened. The rest of the books were nothing but anguish and pain and heartache. I just finished the first book of the second trilogy, and I'm finding these a bit easier to take. Not that they're all sunshine and light, either, mind. Maybe I'm just innured to the grief at this point.

But these are new words to me, and I like words. I don't really read any non-fiction (if you don't count blogs), so I love it when my novels give me something new to learn. In most cases, when I'm reading along, and come across a word for which I don't know the meaning, I'm most likely to get some idea of definition just through the context, the sentence, the story. But when I kept coming across more and more words that were new, I decided I couldn't just skim along the surface, assuming meanings. So I started to use my bookmark (one of my business cards - I don't meet so many people that I need them all) to jot down each new word and the page on which it's found. I need a bigger bookmark. I ran out of space after just over a hundred pages.

I know that I'm not the only one who likes stuff like this, so I thought I'd share this little list of mine.

For many of these words, I could have guessed at the meaning, but for the purposes of my list, I included each word that I couldn't say for certain that I knew the definition. Here we go:

knaggy - notty; rough; figuratively, rough in temper

incondign - (especially of punishment) inappropriate or disproportionate; be it excessively harsh or lenient.

auto-da-fé - Public announcement of the sentences imposed by the Inquisition.

geas - a solemn injunction, prohibition, or taboo; a moral obligation

gelid - Very cold; icy

coquelicot - the color of the wild poppy; a color nearly red, like orange mixed with scarlet

etiolated -To make weak by stunting the growth or development of

inchoate - In an initial or early stage; incipient. Imperfectly formed or developed

barranca - dry ravine or a steep depression between hills.

analystic - I couldn't find a definition online, but luckily, I wasn't the only one looking. Captain Maybe has delved deep enough to find a rather hilarious quote from the author himself.

It’s an obscure word that literally means, “pertaining to analysis; determining
the basic components”. But to make matters worse, I’ve used the word in an
obscure sense, as a reference to things to heal (by restoring the integrity of
basic components).
In retrospect, that may be a little too much obscurity,
even for me.

Source: Stephen R. Donaldson Official Website

chancrous - of the nature of chancre (gee, thanks).
chancre - classic painless ulcer of syphilis. The chancre forms in the first (primary) stage of syphilis.

sempiternal - having no known beginning and presumably no end (ooh, I like this one)

chryosprastic - An apple-green chalcedony used as a gemstone

roborant - Restoring vigor or strength

catafalque - a decorated platform or framework on which a coffin rests in state during a funeral

Okay, in starting to look up these definitions, I find that I am not alone with these books. As a matter of fact, most of my list already exists - and more, right here. And? When I look up many of these words, the search results bring me to passages from these books.

And just in case you are not fascinated by words and found this extremely boring, I include a sock WIP picture, to prove that I am, in fact, still knitting.

ETA - Strange things were happening with the template today, and I was already kind of unhappy with the way the header invaded the text area. So I've switched to something a bit less interesting, but more functional - for now.

Not Dead Yet!

2008-01-14T20:54:00.001-05:00

But I have been not in a blogging kind of mood for a while. And I'd rather not try to fill space just for the sake of an update, so I've just kind of let the blog rest for a while. Simmer, if you will. (I may have the crockpot in mind.)

I do have all kinds of FOs to share, and a few stories. I've been out of touch in a lot of ways for the past while, and I'm hoping to hoist myself out of the doldrums shortly.

In the meantime, how could I let pass by National Dress Up Your Pet Day?

Not when I have an excellent little photo shoot all prepared.

This first one displays Sebastian's excellent catalog posture. I see two guys in slacks, smiling with their white, white teeth as they point to something off in the distance, while one leans on a the shiny hood of a car.

This is a little sweater made, not for Sebastian, but for another little cutie. I will post details once the sweater passes by in the FO parade.

And one more for good measure. This one I call, "I Shall Keel You". Subtitled, "Slowly".

Happy NDUYP Day!

Fluffy Fodder

2007-11-21T13:18:00.000-05:00

It's reassuring to know that when I have nothing to talk about, I can always fall back on my kitty.

Behold - the Fluffy Bear Trap:

It didn't take me long to learn the hazards associated with this cat. That fluffy belly looks terribly tempting, doesn't it? But know that if you were to succumb to that temptation and sink your hand deep into that fluff, you would come away with a bloody stump, after the teeth and hind claws snap together on your wrist.

He looks so sweet when he's sleeping, though.

The photography is tolerated only so long.

"Piss-off, lady."

Everlasting Procrastination

2007-11-19T14:14:00.000-05:00

Like many people, I work well under pressure. If I have a looming deadline, my decisions become faster and more decisive; my fingers fly across the keyboard; my yarn across, under, around my needles is a blur.

But I need to be right up against that deadline for that incentive-fueled speed and agility to set in. So now, when I have Christmas projects planned, and the yarn is sitting hopefully on my shelves, it becomes vital for me to knit myself a market bag.

So I cast on the Everlasting Bagstopper, from Knitty.

To be fair, it is a very quick knit, and I was done in just about two days. At first, I thought it would be a serviceable little bag - handy, but not big enough to be used for a real grocery shopping trip. Until I was actually filling it. I kept adding more and more and more, and the bag just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I had three boxes of cereal, bread, bagels, salad, cans of soup, a pork loin roast, a brick of cheese, toothpaste...

The bag said, "Bring it on."

So shown here is the amazing, magic stretchy bag, full of pretty much a couple of weeks' worth of groceries.

(Large) cat shown for scale.

Overall, a very satisfying project. The only change I really made was to knit the handles. I did this because I didn't have any non-Christmassy ribbon on hand, and didn't want the bag to sit around forever, waiting for me to remember to buy it a handle. As a result, the handles really stretched out, but they're still not so long as to make the bag unwieldy.

I would definitely make this again. With shorter handles, maybe.

Hatty Goodness

2007-11-14T10:40:00.000-05:00

So, apparently, when I decided not to do NaBloPoMo this year, the blogging mechanism in my head took that as instruction to shut down entirely.

Like a lot of people, I suspect, I've been kind of in the doldrums lately. Not only about blogging, but just about life in general. It might be the shorter days, but the majority of my time has been spent slumped on my little loveseat, eyes on the tv and/or the laptop. Of course, this means lots of knitting time.

But the doldrums mean that I haven't been interested in anything fancy or complex. I've been in the mood for meaty, mindless knitting that doesn't require me to think, do math, or pay any particular attention to what I'm doing. For me, that means hats.

I grabbed some random, bulky blue acrylic/wool yarn that someone gave me a while back, and cast on. By the end of the week, I had three serviceable, warm hats.

These were super fast and easy. I got a lot done during tv shows, and a lot more done during some particularly boring conference calls. Er, boring personal conference calls. Yes.

The last one was the most fun - I just kind of randomly stuck in a crossover whenever the mood happened to strike. I have a fourth hat on the needles now, and that one will be cable-licious, as well. In a more ordered kind of way.

All these hats will be donated to the StreetKnit project, which collects donations for people in need of warm knitted goodness . They have several drop off points in Toronto, conveniently located in lovely yarny places, including Knitomatic, and the Knit Cafe. Which I will be visiting next week when my enabler - er, I mean friend Charlotte will be visiting for another little yarn crawl.

Pumpkins!

2007-10-31T22:02:00.000-04:00

At the last minute, a friend invited me to help give out candy at her house. So we carved a couple of pumpkins this afternoon at work, then ran to her place to roast the seeds (mmm... salty) and start dishing out candy.

I think they both turned out great. I haven't carved a pumpkin in years. It was a lot of fun, even if it did take some intense scrubbing to get all the guts off my arms.
Mine was the first - the one that (hopefully) looks like Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Most of my Hallowe'ens since I've been on my own haven't involved much festivity at all, so this was a fun break from lack-of-tradition.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Novacaine is Our Friend

2007-10-30T17:59:00.000-04:00

I have lousy teeth.

This is something with which I have somewhat come to terms. Growing up, I cursed my brother for his whole and hardy teeth. It was (and continues to be) completely unfair that he rarely brushed, never flossed, and often indulged in sweets and yet never had a cavity. I, on the other hand, brushed frequently, often used fluoride rinses, and continuously looked for better and more effective brushes, in vain hopes of finding that the angled bristles, or the harder bristles, or the softer bristles, or the angled handle would be the magic that would make me cavity-free. All this resulted in one or more cavities found just about every year.

This has continued into my adulthood, much to my sorrow.

To add to the situation, I have somehow developed a horror of needles in my mouth. I am not bothered by needles elsewhere - even those big stinkin' horse needles they use for blood donation don't bug. But in my mouth... *shudder*.

I've had some dentists who become impatient and condescending when I ask for a moment to prepare myself - one even patted me on the forehead between drill attacks. If I hadn't been lying at an awkward angle and had several sharp implements balanced amongst my teeth, I might have brained him with an instrument tray.

I've also had dentists who are patient and understanding. Fortunately, my current dentist is one of these.

This is doubly fortunate, because in the brief time since I became her patient early this year, she's replaced two cracked fillings, filled one new cavity, and is scheduled to fill one more next week. My assessment told me that I have at least one filling in every molar. My teeth are probably close to 60% filling material.

My last visit before today was to replace a cracked filling. While she was drilling deeply into a tooth near my canine, I felt the feeling start to creep back into the tooth. She noticed my subtle lurch in the chair, and stopped immediately to give me another shot. Shortly after we began again, I started feeling again. I refused another shot, and just hoped she'd be quick. She was.

The time before that, the dentist had to give me three shots, and warned me to take some Advil well before the freezing wore off, because "there was a lot of bleeding in there", and she thought I'd likely experience some pain later that night. I took two Advil while I was still in the parking lot. I take no chances.

This time, though, was a one-shot deal. I had that shot over four hours ago. Right now, the feeling is ever-so-slowly returning to my lower right lip in little, popping bubbles of sensation.

I am comforting myself with the appropriate soft foods (macaroni with cut up hotdogs) and mindless knitting (hat in chunky yarn). Next week should be my last visit for the next several months. I may crack a wine bottle.

Coupling Accompli!

2007-10-21T18:53:00.000-04:00

That's... kind of dirty-sounding. Anyway.

One Christmas present down, many to go. But now is the time to revel in an FO!

Here are the Coupling socks, knit for my friend Jen.

I'm really pleased with these. As usual, they had a few false starts. I initially was going to make a pair of Widdershins, but I thought they were turning out with a boxy shape that I didn't care for. However, I did love the look of the toe.

So when I chose to cast on Coupling, I used that same toe, which uses Judy's Magic Cast On. This gives a really neat, clean, well-shaped toe.

The other change I made was to knit these on dpns - the pattern gives instructions for knitting on two circulars. I do not have two circulars in the necessary size, and so it was basically laziness that caused me to go with my trusty dpns. I used a suspended bind-off on the first sock, to try something new. I wasn't happy with it; it was pretty tight, and if they were my socks, they'd be uncomfortable. Jen has a slimmer calf, so they should be just fine on her. But for the second sock, I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn cast-off. I've used it in the past, and it really does give a nice, stretchy finish.

Yarn: This is superwash merino from SunnysideEllen on Etsy, colour cranberry. It's lovely, smooshy yarn, and the socks should be comfy to wear.

These socks also helped me during my last work trip. I sat in a window seat, with a rather corpulent seat mate. My own somewhat generous proportions contributed to almost uncomfortably tight quarters. I pulled out my sock, on its many needles, and got to it. The seatmate suddenly decided he'd really rather have a window seat of his own and left me plenty of elbow space.

I love knitting.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-10-08T17:25:00.001-04:00

Thanksgiving is:

A long drive home, past fields and forests in warm and blazing colours.

Too much food and gourds that seem to exist just to be interesting.
Turkey. Sorry, guys.

Happy Thanksgiving!

WIP It

2007-10-02T09:33:00.000-04:00

It's about time for a goofy, half-done sock picture, I think.

This is my second Christmas knitting project. This is the first sock of Coupling, from Knitty. Sorry for the horrid flash-shot, but it was night time and I was lazy.

I'm knitting this in Cranberry sock yarn from Sunnyside Ellen's Etsy shop. I like the feel of this yarn - nice and soft and kind of smooshy. It's a semi-solid, and I'm not quite sure yet how I feel about the bits and wisps of white that come through here and there. I'm reserving judgement until I see the whole sock, and whether the white bits disrupt the look.

This is a toe-up pattern, written to be knitted on two circulars. I don't have the right size circs, and am too frightened of another minor spending spree to go shopping for them. So I am adapting the pattern to knit it on my trusty dpns. I've never done this kind of thing before, but all seems to be going well so far. I started out making Widdershins at first, but didn't like the chunky look of it, and so ripped back. But I did really like the toe of the Widdershins pattern, so I stuck to that when I restarted using the Coupling pattern. For me, this is wild and uncharted territory. Using different pattern pieces here and there, all willy nilly - bedlam!

My first Christmas project is one for my brother - I'm making the Dark Mark Scarf, from Storm Moon Knits. This is my first illusion knitting project. It's rather addictive - I just want to keep knitting so that I can see the Dark Mark emerge. I was a little concerned that I hadn't used a bright enough green colour, but I asked my brother what he thought (yeah, I suck at keeping some things a secret) and he liked the stealth of it.

The knitting has stalled a bit now that I'm on the middle stretch, which involves no stealth, mystery, or illusion whatsoever. Thank goodness for socks.

Sorry.

2007-09-27T09:31:00.000-04:00

I find it both alarming and comforting that the time has come to begin Christmas knitting. Sorry. But, yes, Christmas is in 88 days. Sorry. Yes, I hate me, too, right now.

I have started some Christmas knitting, in the form of a pair of socks and a scarf. Neither of those recipients bother with this blog, so they don't need to be stealth-knit. But first, I've been doing some knitting for me.

For a while, I've been wanting a sleeve that I can slip my laptop into, to protect it from bumps and scratches. So I flipped through the first Barbara Walker Treasury book and looked for something that would be nice and cushy. I decided on the double basketweave, and chose a yarn that was kind of the starting seed of my stash. I fell in love with the colours at the time, but didn't have enough for a big project, and too much for a single small one. It's JJ's wools, bought at Romni Wools, on Queen West.

I did three repeats of the pattern across, some ribbing at the ends, and just knit until it was deep enough when folded in half. While I was knitting, I wasn't too crazy about the stitch pattern, and was always on the verge of ripping it all out. But once it was all finished and seamed and wrapped snugly around the laptop, it turned out to be pretty cute after all. I'm happy with it, at least.

The other ME project is something I've had on my mind since last winter. Once the weather turns cold, I find that every afternoon around three o'clock, my hands start to freeze. The rest of me is fine, and everyone else in the office is fine, too. I don't know if the buliding really does drop a few degrees, or if my blood sugar is taking the mid-afternoon plummet. Either way, cranking my heater seems like overkill. So I made myself these.

These are knit in Bernat Natural Blends Alpaca, using a free downloadable pattern from Tangle.com. They took me just a couple of days - a very satisfying little project. I almost look forward to chilly afternoons now. Almost.

Tonight it's back to the Christmas knitting. It's good to have another pair of socks going.

New Things and New Socks

2007-09-25T15:09:00.000-04:00

First off, I just wanted to point out a couple of nifty new-ish things here on the old blog. The top thing there in the sidebar on the right is my 'shared items' from Google Reader. I read quite a few blogs, including some 'making your life easier through geekery'-type things, and I mark a lot of them, meaning to go back and look at them again, and maybe put some things in place. Google Reader does something kind of fun, in that it lets you make this little gadget here, with items you've chosen to share. So these are links to tips and articles that I thought more people might like to know about. People who are unwilling to devote scads of time reading these sorts of things. This makes me feel a little more productive, anyway.

The much more exciting addition is a little farther down there. It's a gadget from Ravelry, showing the progress bars for all my WIPs. (note: if you are blocked from accessing Ravelry because of a firewall or filter, you won't be able to see anything other than the title. I did start a little bit of a ranting little entry on the injustice and lack of trust inherent in such filters, but then came to realise that that's just not such a good idea. Ahem. )

Anyway - I was lucky enough to get one of these when Casey (Ravelry's superhero code monkey) was testing them out and asked for some guinea pigs. It was a very limited offer, so you can't get them now, but I'm sure it will be an option for everyone once Ravelry's all up and running out of beta. Things are growing by leaps and bounds over there, and the little errors and inconsistencies are being thoroughly weeded out. It's great to see the community growing so quickly, and so well. I do worry about how the whole place might change when there are a few thousand more folks, but I hope that things will only get better. They are knitters (and crocheters) after all.

In non-virtual knitting news, I did indeed finish up my stripey, plain 'ol socks and sent them off to a good home. I wasn't entirely happy with them - I always get a bit frustrated when I do not master a new skill straight off. But they are foot-shaped and stripey and cheerful, so I will not worry about slightly off-kilter heels and a too-long foot. Much.

More fun with pictures

2007-09-16T17:55:00.001-04:00

Just playing around with a little video site. Enjoy!

Edit: D'oh. Meant to tell you how this came about. This is from Animoto, a site that takes your pictures and music (or music they provide) and puts together a music video-ish movie. A 30 second video is free, and a full-length one costs $3. I learned about this through Photojojo's weekly newsletter, which also told me about a promotion. If you sign up by today, you get credit for a free full length video. You have to sign up through Photojojo's site for the free video, though, so click on through if you're interested.

The Joys (and sorrows) of Giving

2007-09-14T08:36:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow, I'm headed down to Niagara Falls, to attend the wedding of a friend. The wedding is being held in Eastdell Estates winery, in, of course, "the heart of wine country". I love any opportunity to get back to the Niagara region, and I hope to have lots of wonderful pictures to share. And wine. Which may or may not be shared.

The couple getting married are one of those hard-to-buy for couples, as they've already got an established house. So I wanted to get them something useful, but a bit different. Something unique and beautiful. I clicked my way over to Etsy, and found the perfect thing.

This is from oladesign, on Etsy. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it. I almost ordered two of them.

I think maybe I should have. Because it's just as beautiful in person as it was on the website.

The set was a little bit smaller than I thought it would be, but that was more my mistaken assumptions than anything. The colours are just as vivid, and the scale makes it almost cute, but definitely not 'cutesy'.

The box isn't wrapped yet. Just sayin'.

In yarny news, I've still dealing with this new sock addiction. I can't seem to function if I don't have one on the needles. I've done three pairs so far - the first was toe-up feather and fan, the second was a pair of Jaywalkers, and the third was the lace-ish monkey pattern. I decided it was about time for me to do a plain-Jane, normal sock, with no frippery. Perfect for a self-striping yarn.

I'm really enjoying knitting this. Not worrying about following a stitch pattern is giving me the opportunity to really pay attention to the architecture of the sock (sockitecture?) and understand better how all these instructions work together to make a three dimensional sock, complete with heel flap and gusset and whatnot.

And! These will be my first socks that will not be all for me. When I started them, they were going to be mine, but I've come to understand that there is someone who needs them more than me. And so I am happy to know now that these will be handed over to someone who really, really needs handknit comfort right now. You may know who you are.

Having a recipient in mind makes the knitting more joyful for me. Of course, it also makes me more critical of my small errors, but I'm hoping that blocking will help with that. (I've never blocked a sock before, though, so who knows?) The cheerful stripes are multiplying quickly, and I hope to have the first sock done, and the second well started by the end of this weekend.

Great Time on a Great Lake

2007-09-12T20:09:00.000-04:00

It's probably about time I finished up with my Labour Day tales.

On Sunday, aside from giving long-hidden gifts to (late!) babies, I also got the chance to go to a country fair and to go sailing for (I think) the first time in my life.

The fair was the Harrow Fair, one of the biggest agricultural fairs in the area. We got there late in the last day of the fair, so we missed out on some of the displays and exhibits, but we still got to see some interesting critters.

I had no idea feathers could be curly.

Pheasants are pretty! (and shy)

The gaze of a chicken can be intimidating.

If there was any yarn about, we missed it, sadly. We did see some sheep, but they weren't saying anything useful.

After wandering for a bit, and having the requisite grease and sugar in the forms of fresh fries with malt vinegar and fresh squeezed lemonade topped with chunks of strawberry, we headed to nearby Colchester harbour, and waited for Jodi's parents to sail in from the lake on the Dolphin.

We clambered aboard, both Jodi's mum and I casting nervous glances at Jodi's midriff. Jodi's mum declared that we were not going far from shore, in case of the sudden development of anything like labour pains.

It turned out that there really wasn't enough wind to do any decent sailing. But we had a very nice time just kind of tooling around near the shore of Lake Erie.

This was a great way to end the summer. And in a lame effort to tie in some kind of fibre content, I learned that the sails have little pieces of yarn tied all over, to give you an idea of how the air is moving.

Everyone loves yarn.

Less Stuff is Good

2007-09-08T17:03:00.000-04:00

My decluttering has taken an important step - a lot of stuff has actually left the house. Three big, blue Ikea bags full of stuff were dragged out to a friend's parents' minivan. Of course, when the stuff doesn't leave immediately, there is inevitably some culling, and a few books and knickknacks escaped the slaughter. But the far greater portion were sacrificed for the greater good of space and order.

I got rid of many things that tied me to paths untaken. Textbooks from the education preparing me for the career I'm no longer interested in. And tools and supplies from the many, many craft projects that fell by the wayside. I threw away drawing charcoals, fabric pieces, paper ribbon, pottery tools and clay, cross stitch kits, and a soap making kit. In the bags were also failed decor projects, like Ikea mirrors, cd racks, ceiling fan chain charms , paper lamp shades, Christmas novelty plates and candle holders.

I thought about taking some pictures, but that would have meant spreading out the debris and looking at it again, which, I am sure, would have meant my finding reasons to keep a few more things.

So, instead, here's a picture of my little fur monster.

He approves of the decluttering, too. More room for yarn, says we.

Labour Day Hijinks Continued

2007-09-05T19:33:00.000-04:00

Sunday was another great day. It started with my finally getting to give this.

When Jodi told me she was expecting, I started to look for the perfect blanket pattern for her baby. Jodi likes strong, bold colours, and tends toward the non-traditional. So I didn't want to make anything in pastels or neutrals.

Boy, howdy did I find an alternative.

Pattern: Wild Stripes Blanket from Knitty's summer 2005 issue.

Changes: None, really. The yarn was Knit Picks merino style, as called for in the pattern. I love these colours, and the yarn is lovely to work with. The knitting, which I though was taking forever somewhere around the middle, was really straightforward. Maybe even a little coma-inducing, if it weren't for the frequent changes in colour. My size turned out to be a bit bigger than the pattern said it should be, but still a very good size. The backing is a slightly heavy cotton, from Fabricland. I chose to use the green piping to match.

The sewing of the knitted portion to the fabric backing and through the piping was rather brutal. But I knew if I put it down, I'd never pick it up again, so I began one Saturday morning, and finished late that night. The embroidery, which I thought would take only a couple of hours (I'm kind of dumb that way) took another few days.

But I do love the way it turned out in the end. Totally worth the time and boredom and pain.

Speaking of pain, I am suffering an aggravating end-of-summer cold, and I am a wimp about being sick. So I'm going to bed - further Labour Day adventures to come!

Party with the Babies

2007-09-04T20:02:00.000-04:00

This was a good way to finish off the summer. I spent this weekend down in Windsor and environs, spending lots of time with friends, and a bit of time with family.

On Saturday, my high school gang of friends met up for a wee shindig at Carly's house, where we got to pass around the babies and the cookies. Sometimes both at the same time.

The bigger kids were eager to help with the more difficult tasks, like eating.

And boy, the twins are getting big so fast!

Their dad's pretty much the same size as before.

Tomorrow, my day in southern Essex county!

Gifts

2007-08-28T21:05:00.000-04:00

When I think of good gifts, I often think of the story of Trudy's best gift.

Part of the reason the story of Trudy's gift has stayed with me for so long, and why it's always waiting in the front of my memory, is the pure loveliness, and thoughtfulness of the gift. And part of the reason is, as so often happens, due to the circumstances of my hearing the story.

It was the summer I spent in Scotland. In many ways, and for many reasons, that was not a good summer. It was the summer when I learned the hard lesson that family may be obligated to love you, but that doesn't mean that they will like you. Or you, them. It was a very lonely, isolating summer, and so very far from home. I don't regret that summer - life lessons, part of me and all that - but it was hard. Even the weather was the worst anyone could remember (yes, even for Scotland). It was dreich and dreary, and wet and cold and miserable, and the gloom took the place of the sunshine deep inside, making the white nights longer, and the lonely evenings that much more grim.

There were some exceptions - wonderful exceptions - to the gloom. And I came away with stories to laugh about, and to remember some sunshine. One of the brightest spots of that summer was the week I spent on a Haggis Backpackers tour. It was only a few days - the five day tour, I think it was, and many of the places we went, I'd been before. But never like that - with a driver and guide who was so full of enthusiasm and humour, and a group of people who were genuinely there only to have a good time. It was a diverse group.

It's funny the things you remember. We were in a little yellow bus whose name was Daphne. There were 23 people in my group. I was the only Canadian. There were 4 or 5 Kiwis, a few English people, 5 or 6 people from Singapore, one American (Tristan, from Hawaii) and Trudy, who was from Zimbabwe. We became friends on the trip, sitting together on the bus most days, and sharing toothpaste and teaspoons. We had a similar sense of humour, and she helped me to be more open and willing to be silly in the name of fun.

It was alongside Trudy and Tristan that I held my head in the Sligachen River for ten seconds in hopes of gaining the prolonged youth and beauty promised in a fairy tale of long ago. And it was with them that I wandered among the bleak hillocks and markers of Culloden. Trudy told stories of her manservant and her glass collection, and I shared the wonder that is Home for a Rest by Spirit of the West. I educated Trudy in Canadian beverages, too, when she argued that Canada Dry wasn't a ginger ale (it's the champagne of ginger ales!). She scoffed when we saw "Victoria Falls" and we all laughed together when one of the Kiwis was scolded by his girlfriend for 'staying up late with the sheilas' one night in a hostel in Drumnadrochit. We all climbed over the barrier into the grounds of Urquhart castle late one night, and wandered the eerily lit ruins on the shore of Loch Ness, serenaded by a mysterious, disappearing stranger playing a flute in the shadows.

And all twenty three of us crowded down into one tiny, dark stone dungeon that was quite literally no more than a hole in the stony ground of the Isle of Skye, and heard the story of Hugh the pirate, who was locked in that small space and left to die, with a plate of salted beef and an empty water pitcher.

It was just the kind of friendship and camaraderie that develops only on a five day backpacking trip through Scotland. No one stayed in touch, but I know that we all remember.

And one day we were talking about gifts. And Trudy told her story about her best gift. She had a copy of Jane Eyre that she had treasured for as long as she could remember. It was a well-loved book, with tattered pages covered with small notes and thoughts, and was very dear to her. And one day, her friend (a boy-friend, and I often wonder whether that hyphen disappeared later) snuck the book out of her room.

She didn't notice, and knew nothing of the pilfering, until her birthday some days or weeks later, when she was presented with a copy of Jane Eyre. It was in a lovely binding, and her name was embossed in gold in the corner of the leather cover. She was pleased to get the book, but it would never replace her beloved old friend. And then she opened it, and saw the same old, tattered and worn pages, and her little notes and dreams.

What a wonderful gift - for someone to know your heart well enough to take your thoughts and dreams and hopes and have them carefully bound and restored, so that you can continue to carry them through life without fear of losing a single page.

Jitterbug Monkeys

2007-08-27T11:37:00.001-04:00

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Finished Monkeys, originally uploaded by Vaedri1.

My latest socks are done!

These were a lot of fun to knit up. Monkeys have been one of the most popular patterns on Ravelry for a while now, and I've been itching to jump on this particular bandwagon. Once I started, I found it hard to put these down. I finished them in about a week and a half, which, for me, is pretty darn quick.

The yarn was an impulsive guilt-purchase. I have trouble leaving a yarn store without buying something. (Of course, now that I've become completely enamored of sock knitting, this won't be such a problem.) It's Colinette Jitterbug in the Velvet Plum colourway. It was just a joy to knit with - not a completely solid colour, but with very little variation, which I thought suited the chevron pattern well, and allowed it to be seen clearly.

I've heard several times about the tendency of Jitterbug to be a bit short on the yardage, so these were done using Cara's modifications to make them into mini-Monkeys.

I have to say that one of my favourite things about knitting is just getting to learn something new on almost every project. This time around, it was the picot edging, which was a lot of fun, and gives these such a cute finish.

I'm coming to understand the common love of sock knitting. For one thing, they're a small project, meaning no great delay in gratification; and they're super easy to toss in a bag and come along for the ride wherever you're going. They are objects that you can never have too many of. I mean, there are really only so many hats and scarves that I'll use over a winter. There are so, so many fun, funky, wacky and beautiful patterns available out there for socks that you will always be able to find something new to try. The same thing goes for the yarns.

My only challenge now is keeping these from my friend at work, who not-so-casually mentioned that she really likes this colour. Of course, this means Christmas knitting will be pretty darn easy.

Fall Cleanout

2007-08-22T20:11:00.000-04:00

The past couple of days have been unseasonably cool round these parts. Mid-August should not require a coat, or warm socks of an evening. But I have to admit that I’m kind of happy to see the seasons change. And then I feel guilty for feeling that way, because summer in this city is so fleeting, and I should be grateful for every hot, sunny day. I’m so conflicted!

But I can’t help but feel a little thrill when I catch the scent of autumn in the air – that earthy, almost smoky tang of leaf litter and cool air.

It might be partly due to the changing of the seasons, and it’s definitely partly due to the purging happening at Erika’s place (“up” at Erika’s? let me check the map – yes, I believe “up” is probably correct) but I've been inspired to do a bit of stuff-purging.

First on the list was my pile of textbooks. When I graduated from Biological Engineering seven years ago, I didn't even entertain the notion of selling my texts. I might NEED them! You never know when someone might ask me to calculate the unit operations required to prepare a dried potato product, or to determine the type of pump best suited to pump a slurry of biomass across a production plant at a 15 degree incline while maintaining a steady laminar flow to feed a continuous bioreactor.

It never came up after all.

So the time has come to say goodbye to this little group of steadfast friends.

Some are easier to trash than others - I shall shed no tears to see the Diff-E-Qs text hit the book sale table at the Scouts fundraiser, and circuit analysis only narrowly avoided ritual sacrifice. But I can't bring myself to get rid of my Microbiology text quite yet (loved that course), and the Food Science text might somehow find its way off that pile before the whole shebang is hauled off.

Next up is the 'stuff'. And knitting content!

Knitting at the Dome

2007-08-16T19:04:00.000-04:00

Last night, my friend Jen and I ventured down to join in with a few hundred knitters in watching a Jays game.

It was what I think was Toronto's first Stitch and Pitch, and it was a great turnout.

We bought our tickets at the last minute, so we missed out on the tote bags, because they ran out. I hear they weren't all that impressive, so I'm not heartbroken.

Like any event full of needles and yarn and the people who use them, it was a lot of fun. I think our section was just about the most tightly packed area in the Skydome (I know that's not the 'real' name anymore, but it's the better name). It was a lovely evening, and the dome was open, letting us occasionally get a breath of the night breeze. We chatted with the people around us, and spent most of the game untangling an unfortunate jumble of TLC cotton plus.

We even had a celebrity sighting. We were sitting beside Stephanie's family, though I was too chicken to say 'hi' to her or Juno. I also thought it might seem a bit stalkerish.

(Oh, the Jays won - I asked.)

Mystery and Socks

2007-08-14T09:12:00.001-04:00

This past weekend was a strange combination of almost complete laziness and astounding progress. The laziness is captured by the fact that I rarely left the couch, and somehow got through a complete rewatch of the first season of Doctor Who (Sigh. As much as I love David Tennant, I still miss Nine.)

But the couch sitting and the tv watching (well, laptop-watching, to be more accurate) on Saturday did enable me to make a great deal of progress on... something I can't tell you about. Sorry. Stealth knitting is just so, so bad for blogging. But if you're on Ravelry, you can look me up and see it in my WIPs, if you're dying of curiosity. Sunday's couch-sitting was due to a serious inability to estimate the time required to finish that same project. But the end is in sight, if I can just stick to it a little longer. This is what I get for venturing outside the realms of knitting.

For a break from the massive project that doesn't seem to have an end, I worked on and finished my first pair of Jaywalkers.

The fit's not perfect, and I didn't get the pattern repeat in the yarn quite right. But I still like them.

I vacillated throughout the entire process of knitting these up between the opinion that the yarn is fun and funky, and the other opinion that it's just gawdawful. Now that they're done, I'm going with funky. It was fun to knit with, with the frequent changes in colour and pattern.

Overall, not bad for a second pair of socks. I can't wait to cast on the third. Sock yarn is so fun!

Update: The Neverending Project is ended! Pictures will be on Ravelry as soon as I can get some decent light, and here in the blog as soon as it's gifted.

The Cottage

2007-08-07T21:56:00.000-04:00

I am back. Back at work, back in my own bed, on my own couch. And, as promised, (and to prevent further 'boo'-ing - geez, you'd think I had some kind of history of blogging reliability or something. heh.) ready to present a few pictures so that we can all make believe that we are all there, lounging on the Muskoka chairs.

John and I drove up from Toronto, and Charlotte drove down from North Bay, and we somehow managed to meet up at the McDonalds in Gravenhurst at just about the same time, through some miracle. We continued to drive, Char following, through Gravenhurst, noting the locations of grocery store, beer store, and fruit stand as we passed.

We arrived at the cottage, and got the lay of the land from the owners as they downed their wine and ran out the door. (Our kind of people)
(This is Charlotte's picture - I somehow managed to take no shots from the non-lake side of the cottage. )

After choosing our rooms and doing a quick tour of the cottage, we changed into bathing suits and headed down to the dock. Now, I am very physically uncoordinated, and so it should come as no surprise to learn that I am not a swimmer. So it seemed just serendipitous when we were told that the bay - our bay for the next week - was shallow. Shallow enough to walk all the way across. The chances of me dying on this vacation dropped greatly.

The week unfolded without fanfare, and with much nerdiness.

We had no schedule, no tasks. We woke up when we were rested, read so many books we could have stocked a small library. We ate when we were hungry, jumped into the shallow bay when we were too warm.

We spent copious amounts of time reading, moving, sloth-like, from deck chair to couch to muskoka chair. In the early afternoon, when the sun was high in the sky, we'd jump into the bay to cool off, then lay in the sun to dry, then move to lounge in the shade. Meals were prepared by whoever was feeling energetic, and we ate well. Our week started with healthy snacks like veggies and fruit, but had degenerated to chips and dip by the end.

There may have also been some drinking.

Maybe.

Thursday, we designated as 'Town Day', and we ventured into Gravenhurst and Bracebridge, somehow stumbling into used book stores in both towns.

There was some knitting, but no finishing. I have joined in on the Mystery Stole project, but it hasn't really taken off for me, as I'm more used to knitting that I can do while watching tv or talking. The laceweight wool and teeny little beads were particularly poorly suited to knitting by the bay in the Muskoka chairs, so I am still on Chart A. (Fifth time's the charm, right? Cause that's how many times I've restarted. So far.) There was Trivial Pursuit, and some cribbage, and some watching of Torchwood on a laptop. (Stick to Doctor Who. Really.)

The cottage was wonderful, amazing, peaceful, calming, fulfilling, enlightening, rejuvenating, invigorating. I didn't know how much I needed this time to refocus and recharge.

Now I have to go to bed. I didn't have my midafternoon nap on the dock today, and I'm beat. More pics soon - I have to stretch every bit of blog fodder I've got!

The Blogs... They are too much!

2007-08-05T21:25:00.000-04:00

I had an initial goal of getting my unread items in Google Reader down to below "100+", so that an actual number would show up there, making me feel like I am making progress, rather than participating in a ridiculous, trivial, Sisyphean task. But it has now been literally hours, both yesterday and today, and I have yet to reach that magical point that will make me feel less like some kind of laptop barnacle.

This has made me realise that I really need to prune back my feeds. What was supposed to be only an amusing and occasional diversion has now become a time-sucking chore in many ways, and that's just not fun. Nor is it fair to not only myself, but also to the people whose blogs I read. I hate the feeling that results from skimming past stories of people's lives, full of triumphs and tragedies, and pictures of their worlds because I just want to get through it.

Cottage update and pictures tomorrow, when the lassitude brought on by warm air and late mornings has started to dissipate. And when I get that number down a bit.

Vacation

2007-07-30T11:45:00.000-04:00

For the first time in my life, I am on a do-nothing, lounge-by-the-water vacation.

Here are just a couple of pics so you can share in the loveliness that is a week at the cottage. More when I've charged my laptop battery better, and get back into town for the wifi.

Imprisoned by Canada Post

2007-07-21T17:00:00.001-04:00

I feel as though I am trapped. It is now 5 pm, and the new Harry Potter book has yet to arrive. I've been up since 7 this morning, just because I was so excited to know it was the big day. And, I wanted to be all presentable and ready to answer the door at any moment.

That was a long time ago, now.

I can't leave the house. I worry when I go out on the balcony that I won't hear the door. I'm too scared of spoilers to turn on the television. This also limits use of the internet to some degree. I don't want to watch a movie, because I want to start reading the moment I have the book, and I wouldn't want to have to stop mid-movie for something I haven't seen before. So I've been watching some Firefly and sticking to catching up on old blogs. My friend Charlotte got the book at midnight and was finished by 7 am. It is killing her not having anyone with whom she can talk about the book. But she is also a very good friend, and would never spoil.

Thinking of other things...

I visited Windsor last weekend, and stumbled upon a nice (and dangerous) surprise, in the form of a store clearing out all its yarn. 40% off all yarn. I may have gone back a couple of times. I may be thinking of sending my mother back there to take a few more skeins off their hands. Maybe.

I didn't go completely nuts, but I did get some goodies - I'm especially happy about the lovely, tweedy alpacas. I'm thinking hats and mittens.

Not thinking about the book at all.

ETA: The book arrived at 6:50 pm. I now love Canada Post. I almost hugged the poor carrier in relief. I am now 59 pages in. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

The Elephant in the Room

2007-07-16T21:15:00.000-04:00

I finished a little project a couple of weeks ago, and am glad that I can finally share it now that it's been gifted.

This is Eloise.

This is the first toy I've knitted, and I really enjoyed it. I liked the feeling of bringing a little creature into being. When I stitched the second eye into place, I felt like I was meeting a new little person. And her name was Eloise, for some reason. (Have I mentioned that I live above the garage? It may be I am affected by fumes.)

Eloise is knit in Knitpicks Shine Sport, in Cloud colour, and following the Lovable Toys pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Aside from errors, I didn't deviate from the pattern except in yarn substitution. I wanted something that would be a little more forgiving of baby substances than the alpaca that the pattern called for. The ears turned out much floppier than expected, but I love them. They're soft, and I'm sure will be good to chew on, when the time comes.

This is Chelsea.

I hadn't had a chance to meet Chelsea yet, to ask what kind of animal she'd like. So I went with the elephant, because I know Chelsea's mum, Chrystal, is a big fan. Chelsea seems okay with this.

They're pretty well-matched in size, so far.

Eloise is far from perfect, but I like to think that Chelsea likes her anyway.

Mission Accomplished

2007-07-08T08:28:00.000-04:00

It's done! I was surprised at how quickly this went at the end. Which is kind of dumb, because I've done this three times before.

Here's what I've ended up with.

While knitting it, I was worried that it was turning out a lot narrower than the ones I've done before, and I would end up with a scarf, rather than a wrap. Which, again - duh. If you use laceweight yarn and lace-sized needles to knit something that's normally done in worsted, it's generally going to turn out smaller.

I didn't think that blocking would do much for this, since it is cotton, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. It's so light that it dried in only a couple of hours, and it turned out just about perfect.

So, because I forgot to say what yarn this is last time (thanks, kmkat!) here's another recap:

Clapotis, knit using Blue Heron Yarns Egyptian Mercerized Cotton in the Marshgrass colourway. And for anyone local who's interested, I picked this up at Village Yarns, on Dundas near Islington. Their website's been down all weekend, but hopefully they'll have things sorted soon. I also got my fancy new needles there - 3.75 mm Addi Lace Turbo circulars.

I've been thinking about why I've done this four times, now. Because, while I like the end product, it isn't so wildly fun that I just can't stop myself from casting on another and another. As a matter of fact, the middle section can get pretty tedious. It is good as a portable project, aside from juggling stitch markers. The pattern is very easy to memorize, but not completely boring, because you're breaking it up with knit-through-back-loops, and the dropping of the stitches can be pretty fun. And I have to admit, that done in a good yarn, you end up with a very good gift. It's like a scarf, but just that bit fancier. The last one I did was for my mum, and she wears it as a shawl on cool days, and a scarf on cold days. And she always get compliments, so that makes me happy.

Now I'm itching to get something new on the needles. I was so focused on getting this done on time that it was my only WIP. I was shocked when I realised that I had nothing else to knit yesterday afternoon. I've cast on for a little camera cozy to tide me over until I can get something more substantial ready to go.

It's Happening Again

2007-07-04T19:01:00.001-04:00

I somehow find myself with Clapotis #4 on the needles. And this time with a deadline.

My aunt and uncle will be making the long, long trek from New Zealand to visit with us here in sunny (?) Ontario. I've known about this visit for a while now. Months, in fact. Of course, it was only two weeks ago that I decided I should knit a gift for my aunt. This is like all my school assignments, ever.

I decided to knit another clapotis. For some reason. Well, one reason is that I've been hankering to do up one of these in a variegated yarn. My biggest problem, though, was my colour choices. I haven't seen this particular aunt in many, many years, and so have no idea of her colour preferences. So I wanted to do something in an inoffensive, bordering-on-neutral colourway.

I tend to pick... unconventional colours and combinations. This I've been informed, both subtly and blatantly, though usually with love. So I dragged my friend Jen to the LYS with me after work one day so that she could veto as appropriate. I picked up many skeins, showing them hopefully to Jen, asking, "Is this normal?", and being told, "Nope. Not so much."

We finally agreed on a colourway called Marshgrass, full of tawny greens and highlighted with pinks and purples. It's a mercerized cotton, and I'm really enjoying it.

It's going pretty well, overall, after a couple of false starts. I had completed the increase section and was well into the straight rows, when I noticed I'd missed some repeats, and frogged the whole thing to start over.

Because I was using such a lightweight yarn, I had decided to use the smallest of the Denise set, which is a 3.75 mm. But I found that the yarn kept snagging on the join, so I decided that it was time for an upgrade. Maybe I was just looking for an excuse - I got my very first Addi Turbos. Lace, even. They're working great, but I think I have poor knitting technique, because the pointy ends are just tearing my fingertips to bits. I've finally developed enough of a callous that I stop breaking the skin, at least.

And now, I'm finally at a point where I think I can finish on time. A couple of day-long meetings and lots of tv and movie time have really helped.

My poor fingers needed a break from the torture of the lace needles, and so I finished off another little project over the weekend. And it was a lot of fun. But that's some stealth knitting, that will have to wait a bit to be shared. But you can see it on Ravelry, if you're around.

Nooks

2007-07-01T17:19:00.000-04:00

How I wish I could share with you my perfect Sunday afternoon.

When I was younger, I used to dream of a secret spot. In the woods near my home, I imagined a little "me-shaped" nook at the base of a tall tree, sheltered and shady, by the side of a cool, shining stream. A place where I would go to be on my own, by myself, with myself. I would have hiding places for favourite books and chipped teacups and old, worn cushions.

And then one time I went home to visit, and walked past the place where my secret spot would have been, waiting for me. And the mighty forest, with its tall, mysterious tree giants and hidden paths... was gone.

It had only ever been a small grove of trees - richer and deeper in imagination and daydreams.

Today I am thinking of that wonderful nook that existed only in my mind and heart.

Today I found a little, perfect space at the base of a shading willow, beside the river, surrounded by flowers and tall grasses.

There are swans and geese paddling by, looking hopefully at me and my bag and gliding by resignedly and quietly. The sunlight is filtering through the delicate leaves, patterning me with amorphous, restless lace, full of movement. There is a gentle breeze touching my skin and carrying the scents of water and flowers and green, growing things.

Right now, I can't imagine a more perfect Sunday afternoon.

Happy Canada Day. I wish you your own "you-shaped" nook - be it in your dreams or in your backyard.

Yarn!

2007-06-26T07:01:00.000-04:00

Usually, when I get packages at work, they are not exciting. They are software updates, manuals, or regulation packages. Friday was a wonderful, super, awesome exception.

I got Sea Silk!

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about Kirsty of So Many Yarns and her fundraising efforts for Leukemia and Lymphoma. As part of these efforts, Kirsty was giving away yummy, yummy yarn. I won the Sea Silk in a melon colourway, as well this wonderful stuff.

This is Artyarns Silk Rhapsody - a blend of silk and mohair in lovely, perfect sherbet colours.

And finally, three skeins of Kaliedoscope cotton and wool blend in Belize colourway.

I squealed like a little girl when I ripped open the colourful package, and then proceeded to thoroughly freak out my coworkers when I insisted they feel the yarn. And that may have gotten worse when I chose to drape the skeins within arms' reach on my desk so that I could admire them and pet them occasionally during the afternoon.

Thanks so much to Kirsty - this is a great treat, and I will spend many lovely days thinking of how to make this yarn into beautiful things.

And now for some more pictures, just because.

Emergency Knitting Measures

2007-06-22T15:39:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, I was invited to a baby shower. Apparently, my e-vite didn’t come through when it should have. The shower is tomorrow. Can’t attend a baby shower with no handknits! Luckily, I have a baby kimono all ready. It was originally intended for another baby, but s/he won’t be making an appearance until September, and I was planning on making a couple more of these, so this one will be gifted tomorrow. I like how it turned out – very cute, cuddly, and easy to knit up. I just need to do a bit of finishing and it’s ready to wear.

Knit up in TLC Cotton Plus, pattern is the Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting.

I decided to make some booties to go with the kimono to round out the gift. First I tried this pattern on the right.

I do not like this bootie. It’s enormous, and square. It looks like it’s for a baby robot. Or Frankenstein’s monster’s baby. So then I tried one of the free Interweave ‘Better Than Booties’ baby socks.

Got this one done, liked it, and then I realized I didn’t have nearly enough yarn for the second. Okay. Screw the booties.

Finally, I made up the Umbilical Cord hat from Stitch ‘N Bitch.

Perfect. And quick. Which is especially important since I have two other projects with looming deadlines. And they are just not cooperating with me properly.

Quite impudent, they are.

First Socks

2007-06-19T08:28:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, I finally did it. I finished my first pair of socks. And they match, and they fit my feet, and they're lovely colours.

I can't claim that they're perfect, but that would be no fun, anyway.

I had a lot of fun making these. They were relatively quick, I got to learn new things, and I finally feel that I'm fairly competant knitting in the round on dpns. They've also opened up a whole new section of the LYS to me - the sock yarn. I may have wandered down to Linda's Craftique on Saturday and make a couple of aquisitions.

Of course, by then I was already carrying around my next sock.

Yes. The new obsession is developing nicely.

Timber!

2007-06-16T14:14:00.000-04:00

Last Friday, a short but violent storm swept through Toronto. Lots of branches were left littering the streets, and, sadly, there was an arboreal casualty.

My boss and I were standing in my office, and saw the wind throwing about leaves, bits of paper and dust. Then a large, heavy-bottomed garbage can skidded past the window. A moment later, a coworker rushed in and asked, "Did you see that?"

"Yeah, the big garbage can? That was crazy!"

"No. Not the garbage can - the tree!"

That's the bus shelter on the right, there - just to give you an idea of scale.

From another window, coworkers saw a bunch of people waiting at the bus stop suddenly gasp with surprise and run away. The large, lovely maple tree that for so long had sheltered the public transit riders suddenly turned on them and tried to squash them.

We were surprised to see just how shallow the roots had been.

This week, a cleanup crew came and chopped up and hauled away all the dead, dry branches. Then they tipped the tree back over into its hole.

Interesting fix.

Another Reveller for Ravelry

2007-06-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

I was thoroughly geeked-out and very fan-girl when I got home and opened my email on Monday. I got my Ravelry invite! This thing is as fun and interesting as promised, and my addiction is developing nicely.

I'm loving that this is the organisational tool I never knew I wished I had. I'm having fun going back through old blog entries and picture files. I've done a lot more knitting than I thought I had. And now I get to have all the pictures and pattern and yarn details in one place. And I can see everyone else who knitted that same thing, and how they chose to change it and make it their own. Another favourite feature is the needle inventory. I keep buying the same sizes because - I don't know - I like the number 4.5?

Excuse me while I go add a few more pictures. I highly recommend Ravelry, if you don't mind a waiting list. Look me up. I'll be there a lot.

Overdue Mum Update and Some Boring Knitting

2007-06-04T10:39:00.000-04:00

First up, a mum update.

She's doing really well. My mum's last chemo treatment was the Wednesday after Mother's Day, a few days before her birthday. We had a little party that weekend to celebrate the end of chemo, and the passing of another birthday - this one that we weren't sure would come at all.

Mum had another CT scan last week, and, in this case, no news is good news. They will only call if they find any problems. No call means that we can assume that all is well. Personally, I don't like this system at all. How long until you can know that you won't get a call? But that's me - Mum is okay with it. And the last CT scan, a couple of months ago, showed that the cancer was almost gone.

Mum's a little disappointed that she's not bouncing back as quickly as she'd hoped. She's still feeling tired and sore, and her fingers are still very sore and swollen, keeping her from doing many things. It seems that I spend most of my time on the phone with her scolding her for doing too much, too soon. Really, is now the only time to clean out the basement and paint the spare bedroom? Really? But overall, she's just happy that the meds are over with for now and she can look forward to putting her rings back on and growing some hair.

And now some knitting content.

There are times when my knitting projects are too boring even for this blog. Such is the case with recent projects.

The most interesting thing on my needles has become a slog. I'm working on a semi-secret blanket project. And, like all blanket projects, as it nears the end, it has evolved from something interesting and different and cute into something large and unwieldy and please-just-let-me-be-finished-already. I will share real photos once it's been gifted, but there's a lot to do before then. I'm going to try very hard to get the knitting part of the gift done over the next couple of days, since we're expecting a couple of rainy, cool days before another wave of hot and sticky weather. A lap full of wool is no fun in such weather.

Another set of needles is carrying a much smaller (and therefore less suffocating) project. I'm working to finish off the second feather and fan sock. I have no pics, but, really - it's the second in a pair, so just look back a couple of posts, and, since all is going fairly well, that's what this one looks like. This one I'm determined to finish off quickly, because there is a ball of a more fun sock yarn sitting on my shelf, calling my name and making fun of the darker, more sombre colours trailing from my dpns.

I've hit a problem that I've never heard anyone else talk about. This makes me worry that I'm doing this 'knitting' thing all wrong. When I use teensy needles, like the 2.5 mm ones I'm using for my socks, I always poke my left index finger over and over, until I get a crack in the skin, and it really, really hurts to continue knitting. It's then that I have to switch over to something on big, chunky needles for day or two. I keep hoping that I'll develop a callous, and stop being such a wuss, but in the meantime, I just pout about it and go back to my blanket.

But the most boring of my projects has been the one with a deadline. My friend Jen is the maid of honour for her friend Nicole. On Saturday, Jen hosted Nicole's bridal shower. A few weeks ago, Jen happened to mention (not so casually at all) that she thought it would be sooo nice if she could give all the guests hand-knitted dishcloths as gifts to take away after the shower. Now, Jen is a good friend, and she is also my cat sitter, which means she dares to go where many, many fear to tread. So I offered to start knitting. Knitting for 21 people. I agreed to give it a shot, with the condition that Jen learn to knit, so that she could help out with a few cloths.

Here are just a few of the dishcloths all done. I did a big chunk of them, but we were worried about not having enough at the last minute, so a few were knit up by Jen's mum and aunt.

We threaded them with ribbon and made them into little bags full of scented soap. I hear they were a big hit.

Jen may now have a mild addiction. I have encouraged this with Yarn Harlot books and intend to follow up with some cute baby patterns and fun yarns.

Knitters Doing Good. Again. Some More.

2007-06-03T10:42:00.000-04:00

Kirsty of So Many Yarns is running a half-marathon to raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She's looking to reach a goal of $4200, and has already got up to $2500. I had no idea there was such a thing as the leukemia and lymphoma society.

I will definitely be helping to reach that goal. I can't afford much, but, as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee points out, there's nothing like knitters to understand that one small action repeated many times gives big results.

As you probably know, my mum is currently battling lymphoma. You probably don't know that I've lost one dear friend to lymphoma in the past, and my cousin lost her husband to a terribly fast and brutally timed bout of leukemia that left her with a baby only two weeks old. I'm going to continue supporting the Canadian Cancer Society as much as I can, but any chance to encourage more people to get behind the fight, and to spread the word when people are taking big steps in that direction is a good opportunity.

Plus, there's yarn afoot. A chance to be rewarded for just being a good person is rare. Jump on it.

The Harlotty Hometown Event

2007-05-28T19:13:00.000-04:00

Friday night, I joined more than 300 knitters for the Canadian, Toronto launch of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's fourth book, Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting.

It was a hoot. Stephanie was a witty, insightful speaker, and the book looks to be the same. But the real story of the evening was the herd of knitters. I have never seen - and I doubt I will ever see again - the sheer number of knitters crammed into one not-so-small area of a bookstore. I dragged my friend Jen from work, and she joined in with the bookstore staff in goggling at all the excited people gesturing dangerously with their sharp needles.

We arrived about 40 minutes early, which was not nearly early enough to get a chair. But we had a decent view, and got the added bonus of also being near the outside of the group, meaning that we could see the occasional non-knitter wander past with a very confused look on his or her face.

After Stephanie spoke at length about the culture of knitting, and the ways of knitters, we all lined up to meet the Yarn Harlot. I wasn't too far back in line, but was there for at least an hour, I think. But it wasn't a hardship at all - I got the chance to meet some other knitters, feel some great yarns and talk about sock addiction, which I've been assured will soon take hold, as I am currently on my second sock.

I got my book signed, handed over a few hats, and even got a chance to hold the famous sock. We couldn't migrate with the herd over to the Spotted Dick for the after-party, partly because I didn't want Jen to feel she'd been made to be part of some strange, yarn-based cult, and partly because we hadn't had a chance to eat before all the standing about, and were feeling kind of rickety by this point.

But it was a great night, and it was exciting to feel like a part of the vibrant, active community that is Toronto knitters.

There are lots of great posts about the event, with much better stories and pictures. Including Stephanie's own blog. I can't really pick myself out in the group picture (I know I'm in the second group picture, just to the right of the first pillar, but there are far too many people - in a good way) but I can spot my hats in the big pile that was donated.

Yarn Map

2007-05-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

I put together a Google 'My Map' of knitting stores in the GTA.

I'm liking the 'My Maps'. It's especially nice when you're bored at work. Not that that's when I did this.

Enjoy the map! I'll probably keep playing with this, and add more shops as I find out about them, if I've missed any.

Skills Inventory

2007-05-15T19:13:00.000-04:00

Chelle posted this list the other day.

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan/Blanket (baby)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
American/English Knitting (versus Continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic Knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair (unintentionally only)
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

I liked taking the time to inventory my knitting experience. I've still got a lot to learn. That's very good - I don't have much of an attention span.

Music and Yarn

2007-05-07T21:06:00.000-04:00

Saturday was May 5th, the day over 23,000 Flickr members chronicled their day and shared it with the world.

My day was a pretty typical Saturday for me. I got up, read in bed for a while, then got up and dyed my hair. Well, that's not usual.

Most of the day was spent with knitting and playing with the laptop. I finished my sock, finally. Thanks in large part to how easily persuaded I was by a comment to take the more direct route. Thanks, experienced sock knitter, kmkat!

I found that I had a hole at the ankle where I joined the heel back in with the front of the sock (I do not know technical terms) and by happy accident, that very day, Erika posted about the same problem. I commented that I had hit the same problem, and that I was thinking I should rip back and fix it.

Meanwhile, back on Saturday... after I finished sock #1, I got sock #2 started, and headed outside. I figured I needed to make my life at least a little more photogenic for this day. Plus, it was a beautiful day out. I headed first to Second Cup for caffeinated sustenance, and then down to the park, to what I am starting to think of as 'my' bench. While I was there, a little chihuahua came and hung out with me for a bit, sitting at my feet and keeping me company through my short-row toe.

It was an interesting way to spend the day, constantly looking for different ways to look at where I was and what I was doing. My favourite pictures from the day are the ones linked above, and the one I chose as the best, and submitted to the Flickr group was this one, which pretty much sums up most of my weekends.

Life in Pictures

2007-05-04T10:53:00.000-04:00

I like taking pictures. I try to take lots of pictures, so that I have lots to play with. I don't do much with them once I have them, though, these days.

I dabbled in scrapbooking (paper and glue and scissors scrapbooking) for about a year, but found that I really was no good at getting things done on my own. If I was with a group of people, I could do lovely things, and get pages done - well, if not 'lickety-split', then at least at a respectable pace. But, left to my lonesome, the scrapbook pages and books and ribbons and stamps and scissors and paper and glue and corners and pictures gathered dust in the spare room. Once I'd done all the shopping, the bloom was off the scrapbooking rose, as it were.

Then I started to get into digital scrapbooking. This was much better suited to the geek side (approx 85%) of my personality. All the baubles and patterns I could desire, and all at the click of a button. And, best of all? Almost all free to be shared, if you know where to look. And fonts are very fun.

The digital scrapping gave me the opportunity to learn more about photo editing and techniques, which lead to a brief affair with Worth1000.

Nowadays, my pictures all hang out on Flickr, or, if they're very lucky, make it over here to the blog. I have a very fancy, bells-and-whistles printer that my brother got for me for Christmas, and the poor thing is yet to print anything other than a knitting pattern.

I joined the Flickr group 24 Hours of Flickr. This is a project for people around the world to document their day in pictures, all on this Saturday, May 5. I'm looking forward to it, but kind of feel pressured to make my life more interesting than usual. I've been reading the comments of other people who've signed up, and they've just all made me feel very boring and inadequate. People are going to the Taj Mahal, participating in sidewalk chalk art demonstrations, travelling to Nepal. Most Saturdays, I'm doing well if I'm dressed before 2 pm.

I could find exciting and interesting things to do - go on a solitary road trip, visit galleries, wander strange streets and have adventures. But I think that what I'd rather do is to find ways to make my own, usual, good Saturday interesting to look back on. I'm not labouring under any kind of delusion that anyone is going to pore fascinatedly through my pictures at the end of the day, but I do want to be able to go back and look at them myself, and know that this was a good day for me.

So my challenge for tomorrow is to keep my camera in hand, and find the beauty in my normal weekend - find beauty in my home, in my chores and duties, and in my neighbourhood. That last one will be the easiest - I do live in Port Credit, after all, and this is the springtime.

I recommend checking out the group after tomorrow night. The pictures from the guy at the Taj Mahal should be great.

Blue Skies Here to Stay

2007-05-03T08:51:00.001-04:00

Jen and Winston and the sky, originally uploaded by Vaedri1.

The warm weather finally seems like it's here to stay. We've had a few false starts, but now it looks like we have successfully achieved Spring.

We're in the midst of those perfect, sunny-blue days that make you giddy with the warmth and the sunshine. The days that make you do silly things like lie on your back in the work parking lot to take goofy pictures.

Last night was also a knitting group night. Shaun tagged along, to show off his own sweater.

Another Weekend

2007-04-29T21:29:00.000-04:00

On Friday, I came home to a great surprise.

This wonderful little zipper pouch made by Jennifer at JC Handmade.

A little while ago, I won a contest and I got this in the mail much quicker than I expected. Thanks so much, Jennifer! It's the perfect size for all the little loose stitch holders and crochet hooks that swim around in the knitting gadget bag. And the colours, inside and out, make it so cute.

The rest of the weekend was pretty good, too.

Another Jen (this one from work) and I tried a new place for haircuts Saturday morning. I like how my hair ended up, but I don't think I'll be going back to that particular hairdresser. There were several indications that things weren't going swimmingly:

1. The cut took an hour.

2. Blow drying took another half an hour.

3. I had to point out twice that my hair was (much) longer on the left than on the right.

4. She couldn't figure out how to fix the uneven problem, and had to ask another hairdresser to come over and show her how to fix it.

But all is well, and I'm happy with the end results, thanks mainly to Emergency Backup Hairdresser.

The rest of the day was spent knitting, teaching knitting, watching movies, and playing with a cute kitty.

Good weekend.

Home. Not mine.

2007-04-25T18:36:00.000-04:00

There's something about this apartment that I just love.

This was posted in an entry on Apartment Therapy NYC the other day. This is a blog I subscribe to in Bloglines solely for the pictures. There are so many really neat things that people are doing with very small spaces.

I don't know why, but this apartment really looks like a home to me. More than any of the apartments I've lived in myself.

Maybe I should read some of the words in the blog and find a way to make my little space feel more homey.

Meanwhile

2007-04-23T21:35:00.001-04:00

Meanwhile, originally uploaded by Vaedri1.

Lots has been happening. I have not been writing about it. Part of the reason for my absence is due to my working through an addiction to the old Nintendo games like Boulder Dash and Super Mario Bros., which have been rediscovered on nintendo8.com.

And another part of the reason has been a general lack of inspiration. Maybe the long, cold, dull, boring, bleak winter finally sucked all of the creativity and words out of me.

As you can see, there has been lots going on. I've met some brand new people in Cody and Emily. I've been to the dog park and frolicked with the beagles and collies and Jindos (oh, my). I've been down to Windsor more than once and celebrated the nearing of the end of chemo for my mum, while trying to help her get through the worst of the neupogen, and laughing with her at her wigs and challenges. I've taught someone to knit (mwa ha ha indeed) and had lots of opptunities to be silly and lazy and taken advantage of all of them.

This past weekend was abso-friggin-lutely amazingly wonderful. It was sunny and warm, and breezy and forced me out the door. I wandered Port Credit, and sat by the river and listened to Cast-On and worked on my real sock attempt, in yarn I like.

This yarn I got from Juno a while back. I'm knitting this using Wendy's toe-up sock pattern. The idea of a knitting a sock from the toe up just seems so logical and orderly that it appeals to the Scottish (cheap) engineer (methodical) in me. I can make the socks as tall as possible, without running out of yarn, and using every last inch.

I came out of the park with the toe of the sock completed, caught up on my podcasts, and the first sunburn of the season.

Winter is dead. Long live spring!

Escape from the Couch

2007-03-28T22:52:00.000-04:00

I did it! I actually got off the couch and went to see people and knit with them - and on a school night, no less!

I made contact with someone in a Mississauga knitting group a couple of weeks ago, and found that the group meets pretty close to where I live. I planned to go that first week, and then the second week, but odd things happened in the way that they tend to do - I had to work late, and then Jodi was here visiting. For years, nothing happens on Wednesdays. Go figure.

But I finally made it out tonight, and met some very nice people, and got some knitting done, and even learned how to rip back and pick up better (and by 'better', I mean 'without losing track of all the stitches and having to restart entirely, which is my usual way'). I have to say that I'm kind of proud of myself for going and hanging out with strangers. This is not my way. But it's a good change. I hope to go back again - probably with a simpler project, so that I don't spend half the time ripping.

I have a couple of projects on the go right now - I will share one of them once I have all the elements right - light, a camera, the inclination to use both, and the second will have to be only hinted at, as the recipient occasionally (not often) visits here, and this is one I want to be a surprise. But I'm loving it, and so must find a way to share the joy.

For now, though, it's sleepy time. My one little Strongbow and the late (for me) night out have combined to cause me to drift off with my fingers on the keys.

Hello, Spring!

2007-03-22T08:56:00.001-04:00

Keira, originally uploaded by Vaedri1.

Trombones are So Passe

2007-03-20T19:25:00.000-04:00

Every time I use it, I have the same thoughts.

Is the paperclip dispenser not the cleverest little invention ever? You know the one I mean - little rectangular box with a circular, magnet-lined hole in the top. And you pick up the box and shake it and the paperclips, rather than flying or sliding out of that little hole, all pop helpfully around the rim, eager to be plucked and put to use.

I'm pretty easy to please some days.

And for the days when it's more of a challenge, I turn to my more interesting paperclips.

Saturday From the Couch

2007-03-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

I've indulged in yet another lazy Saturday. I sat curled up on my little loveseat, cat rolled into a furry, snoring ball next to me, with my laptop and knitting in turn taking up the space on my lap.

I've finished all but the seaming and fastenings on a baby kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting. I have a lot of baby knitting to do this year, and it's about time to get started. Jodi is due in early September (she likes to say she will be in labour on Labour Day), Chrystal is due in June, and Cathy was supposed to be due in April.

Apparently, however, conditions were a bit cramped and the little ones decided to make a break for it before things got any tighter. Cody and Emily arrived on March 9th. The proud grandma has set up a blog to keep everyone updated on the early arrivals, and you should definitely go and check it out if you like pictures of very cute babies. Here's a taste.

The evening has been spent half-watching Titanic on TBS while I back up my cd collection. It's a trip back to the nineties for me, with cds by The B-52s, Frente, Blind Melon, and Great Big Sea. I realised the other day that it has been maybe years since I listened to any of my cds, and that's a shame. So into mp3s they all go. Then I can put away the cds, probably for good.

And yes, I'm counting this as part of spring cleaning.

Good News and Critters

2007-03-11T20:02:00.000-04:00

This was a glorious weekend, in a way that only the first sunny, warm days of the year can be.

The weekend started out with a quick drive down to Windsor with Jen. I make the three and a half hour drive down the flat, uninteresting stretch of 400-series highways often, and it was nice to have someone in the car with me for a change.

This was our goal:

Jen came to adopt Tulsa and take her home to become part of her family.

We also took advantage of the wonderful, warm Saturday to go out and play with the critters in the barn.

While we were visiting Ken and Jodi, I got some more very good news. Jodi handed me a bag full of baby yarn. She's expecting in September. And expecting a blanket some time before that.

I like weeks this full of good news.

Breathe.

2007-03-06T18:34:00.000-05:00

Today we got some super, terrific, fantastic, wonderful news.

Last week, Mum went for a CT scan, to check on the progress of the cancer/chemo battle. Today, she got the results.

The cancer is almost gone.

Mum will need to continue this round of chemo and stay on the neupogen shots until May or so, but things are definitely looking positive.

When my mum told me, I felt like I'd been holding my breath without knowing it since November, and was finally able to exhale and draw in fresh air again. I've been determinedly, stubbornly, maniacally positive; forcing a strength and an optimism that doesn't come naturally to me. The only time I broke down a little was the day I heard the actual numbers - the stats concerning her 'chances'. And it wasn't that the numbers were so horrific, or so discouraging. No, it's just that, even a number as hopeful as "70%" leaves an enormous, frightening hole of 30% - a 30% chance of the unthinkable. And so, after that night, it was relegated to that hole - the realm of the unthinkable, and therefore a Thing I Do Not Think About.

The "George's Father" storyline on Grey's Anatomy was a little hard to take, I must admit (darn my love for that show!). During the seemingly hours that it took me to fall asleep last night, knowing that the news would come today, I kept hearing George saying, "I don't know how to live in a world where my dad doesn't." What a horrific thought.

But all is good, and I had a day of floating on air, and dancing down the hall at work - and yes, I was caught at it and I didn't care.

My mum kicks cancer's ass. I'm taking all the happiness and bravado I can get today and holding onto it with both hands.

Preparing to Pop the Bubble

2007-03-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

It’s easy to think that you’re the only person in the whole, wide world who feels the way you do. The only person who is often worried, often scared, often lonely. Especially when it comes to things related to socializing. No one else seems to have this fear of other people – they all just move around in the world, interacting with people and chatting and being themselves with no trouble whatsoever. They don’t struggle to know what to say when they meet new people, or stumble when they find ways to end a conversation gracefully. They can go to new places and meet strangers without a sick feeling in their insides.

But every now and then you’re reminded that you’re not the only person living in their own little, solitary bubble of comfort. Laurie's excellent entry reminded me today that it’s good - and it’s important – to venture outside the bubble occasionally. And to keep in mind that even if the worst possible thing happens, it’s still not going to be something that will crush me.

So, yeah, I’m thinking about looking for a knitting group nearby to join, and break up my solitary evenings of just me and my needles. It would also serve to help my co-workers, in that I would have someone else to talk to about knitting, and they can stop putting so much effort into the smile-and-nod response as their eyes glaze over whenever they ask me what I did last night, and the answer involves cabling, or possibly gauge.

But for tonight, I’m stepping outside my comfort zone in an entirely different way. I’m swatching for a (gulp) sweater. I know that a sweater isn’t the big, scary thing I’m making it out to be in my head, but that doesn’t stop me from putting it off and anticipating horrible disaster.

But, again – what’s the worst that could happen? (Unjinx! Unjinx!)

Yarn Garden

2007-02-27T19:28:00.000-05:00

I knit another hat - in a beige/white cotton twist yarn. It is a plain, rolled brim hat. I tried to put in a couple of cables to give it some texture, but they just didn't take. The yarn is kind of splitty, and it kind of acts like it doesn't like itself, in that it pulls and gaps at the K2togs at the brim. I would show you the hat, but it exceeds the boredom limits of even this blog. I hate this hat. But it's one that mum requested. So I decided to try to make some hat accessories.

These little flowers are addictive. And cute.

They're also a great way to use up little leftover bits of yarn.

I started with the patterns on the Head Huggers page, but changed them up a bit, in that they suggested cutting the yarn after each petal. Instead, I just cast on using the same strand, eliminating the need to weave in about 12 ends. This also means I can start and finish a flower in about 10 minutes. So fun. And gratifying to see my little knitted garden grow so quickly.

And now, I have to get back to my dinner. I somehow managed to choose the most complicated recipe on Allrecipes.com in my quest to find an 'easy, lots of leftovers' casserole.

Inspiration

2007-02-26T20:52:00.000-05:00

It's funny how you come across a new knitting project.

I was taking a look at my stats, and taking particular interest in the key words that have lead people to this little blog. I found one very interesting search (and I mean "interesting" in a way different than the really wacky search terms are "interesting").

Someone got here by searching for "knitting a picc line cover".

What?

I did the search myself, and found this free pattern at KnitPicks.

When my mum was in the hospital, just before her diagnosis, she had a PICC line put into her arm. It'll stay there until she's finished with chemo, and it's kind of a pain in the ass. It's in her upper arm, and can't get wet, meaning no showers for eight months. And it's ugly. The nurses wrap it well every week after the ports are cleaned, and then cover it with a little mesh tube, kind of like the ones they use for wine bottles at the liquor store - and also ugly. A knitted cover is therefore a great idea. I cast on, and after some trial and error with different yarns - this one's too stretchy, this one's too scratchy, this one's juuust right - I finally got a nice fit, in a lovely, soft merino.

And it was fast. So I cast on a few more, and threw in some cables. I love cables, now that I don't have to fiddle with the teeny, little cable needle. So, so many thanks to Wendy and her tutorial on cabling without a cable needle.

I got three covers out of one ball of Zara fine merino. I'm planning to do up a bunch more and send them with mum to the cancer centre, since a lot of people were asking her about it during her last visit.

Learning About Beauty

2007-02-22T21:10:00.000-05:00

On Monday, I went with my mother to a Look Good, Feel Better session at the Windsor Cancer Centre. This is a program sponsored by mainly cosmetic companies. They host sessions for cancer patients to learn about make-up and how to care for their skin. They also talk about wigs and other head coverings, like scarves, hats, and turbans.

It was an interesting afternoon. I sat behind my mum while she played with a box full of goodies from MAC, Estee Lauder, Clinque, and ... Bonnie Bell.

I got a few tips on make up application, and a chance to see, once again, how strong my mother is. My mother had her head shaved two weeks ago. I don't think I've ever been so proud of anyone as I was of my mum when she walked into the room, sat down, and took off her hat. She said her head was hot. She said that she got the courage to do it because a 'young girl' had already taken off her scarf. (The 'young girl' turned out to be just about exactly my age, as she and her sister had gone to high school with me.)

They were the only two comfortable enough (or brave enough) to go bareheaded.

My mum was glad to get some yummy new make-up, and some better ways to use scarves and hats. I was glad to get all the stuff my mum didn't want. And everyone liked my mum's hat and asked where she got it. She proudly told everyone, "My daughter knits my hats for me".

Visiting also gave me the chance to deliver a few more hats. I've been busy with the circulars.

I like this one best, I think.

This blue and black one was started (and about a quarter of it done) while I sat at the side of the 401, waiting to report as a witness of a three car accident near Woodstock.

That's my mum. :)