Work, Beer & San Francisco

Work lately has been astonishingly busy. We did 4 major charrettes* in the past 5 weeks, 2 of which were run by me in addition to my regular workload. Weekends become meaningless at that point, unless you count the fact that the security guards kick you out earlier on sundays than on other days of the week.

Photo from one of the charrette sites: another fun perk to my job is being the project photographer for a lot of very interesting sites that I normally would never get to shoot.

That said, both of my charrettes were tremendous successes. There is nothing like the high you feel when a huge group of people ends the project happy and going out for an afterparty! Which brings me to beer -- this is just the cutest thing I've heard in a while:

Beer Bottle 911 Call sound bite 911 Calls sound bites

So after all the working, the long hours and the subsequent celebrating with beer, I am off to San Francisco tomorrow! I'm going for an entire week to visit Jacquie Blackman in her new home, crash on her couch and roam the city with our cameras and our knitting. I'm debating if I'll start a sock just to do my own sock tour of San Fran touristy shiz, not to mention that I would then have a super portable little project to tuck in my purse while running around the city. I haven't knit a sock in a while, maybe now is the time to start some christmas sock knitting...

*A charrette is a design process we use at our office to deliver major projects. They are complicated events to run and execute, and they are one of the best parts of my job.

MUST KNIT

This sweater is the best thing I have seen in a long time. I must make one, intarsia or no.

Good thing I have so much free time for this project... sigh. I never meant to be a workaholic. I don't really think I'm cut out for it either. Lately even when I have the time for a full night's sleep I spend half the night trying to stop stressing about work stuff and the other half waking up every 2 hours. It gets to you after a while.

I have been knitting a bit but I never seem to have the energy to photograph and document my new knits; there are several new pairs of mittens, a scarf and a few other odds and ends lying around my knit basket waiting for their completion story to be told. My love for obsessively documenting FO's has been eclipsed by a desire to mindlessly knit on to the next project. My free time is little and precious, and between working frequently evenings and weekends, trying to fit in some visits with friends here and there and accomplishing basic tasks like laundry on a semi-regular basis.

I also haven't been to the gym in over a month and I can really feel it. The 7km round-trip bike commute every day at least keeps me moving, but is not nearly enough to keep me fit and healthy And besides, I can smell the end of cycling season as rainy cold fall days arrive.

From "Stow" to "Go"

Its cheesy but anyone who's ever transported a case of beer in the milkcrate on the back of their bike knows that this is a FANTASTIC idea.

Now, if only riding your bike didn't also involve random strangers screaming at you or my favourite (from yesterday morning) having a cup of coffee thrown at you off a balcony. People SUCK.

Maritime Adventures

Adam and I have been back from Nova Scotia for a few weeks now but I wish we were still there. It was gorgeous, relaxing and fun in just the right amounts. Here are the highlights in a nutshell:

There was a friendly greeting from an old canine pal.

There were yarn shops in adorable little towns.

There were sunsets and relaxing evenings in the country.

There was lobster!

There were stunningly colourful houses and shops.

There were sailing ships and bay-bound cruises.

There were more beautiful sunsets.

And more amazing yarn stores!

There were more friendly faces.

There was cold refreshing wine, accompanied by a delicious meal.

There was wonderfully moody weather in Halifax.

Which was just fine with us, because there were tasty locally-brewed beers to taste!

The Whole Show (these are just the highlights!)

I Was Thinking About Batman

This comic strip pretty much sums up my attitude towards everything. I feel this way ALL THE TIME... signing mortgage papers, buying a fridge, everytime I rent a car I am shocked that anyone is letting me do these things..


I <3 xkcd

Faking It

I've been reading and watching a lot of photoshop tips and tutorials lately. Mostly I'm trying to be better at "fixing" all those little mistakes I make in-camera, and trying to improve my photoshopping skills in general. But sometimes I just find something FUN. This photo was taken on our last trip out East in June 2006. It was a brief glimpse of blue sky from a Lunenburg street and the original was pretty uninspired (see below). Based on this tutorial I created a photoshop action to "fake" the HDR (High Dynamic Range) look of photos in an instant, and after playing around for a lot of time applying it to bunches of my old photos, this was my favourite one. I love how that siding pops in this new and improved version. The clouds are a bit pinkish but the siding just looks gloriously detailed to me, which I love.

ZOMG, a Finished Object: Tattoo-less Kimono Shrug

Have you ever experienced love at first sight?

I first saw this sweater on the marketplace floor at the DKC Knitter's Frolic this past April. I was shopping with my best friend Meredith and we were both determined to buy only things that we loved. Usually this means just a few skeins of expensive luxury yarns for me and a selection of beautiful but practical yarns and projects for her. But when we both saw this sweater I'm pretty sure we both fell madly in love with it at the same time. Luckily for us, the wearer of the sweater not only shared the name and origin of the pattern but let us know that it was for sale in the very next room. We both bought the pattern, and after rejecting the idea of buying 10 skeins of Malabrigo (it would have been lovely but $170+tax for a shrug seemed a bit insane, even to me) I settled on two fat skeins of a silvery-grey wool-silk blend. I wound it up and started knitting that very night; masses of garter stitch were the perfect antidote to a completely crazy period at work around the same time.

I think I may be the only person grateful for the crapppy summer weather we've been having so far, since it allowed me to wear this cozy shrug a lot more than I thought I would be able to in June. Which worked out perfectly because it meant that I could convince the talented photographer Jacquie to do these shots for me on her recent Toronto visit. Also, if you like the jewellery I'm wearing, it is by Sprout Jewelry (etsy). I adore these diamond earrings, and they were ridiculously affordable.


Pattern & Modifications
Tattoo Kimono Shrug by Danielle Wilson from Spun Fibre Arts in Burlington, Ontario. As it turns out, you can buy it directly via Ravelry as a downloadable PDF, something I wish I had taken advantage of since I have a terrible time keeping track of paper patterns and I fully plan to make another of these in the future. The only modifications I made were to eliminate the "tattoo" part and just knit a solid garter-stitch back instead, and to completely knit my own size since the pattern as written was turning out giant for me. Probably a gauge issue but I didn't bother checking, I just ripped and re-knit to what you see here. I wish I'd taken better notes about that, actually. (see this project on ravelry)


Needles & Yarn
I knit this on hefty 6mm (US10) Addi Turbo needles. The yarn is Fleece Artist Margaree in a lovely silvery grey colour called Salt Spray: it is 45% Mohair, 45% Wool, 10% Silk and in each giant hank of 250g you get 375m, pretty great yardage for a heavy worsted. The wool/silk mix make it cozy, drapey and gorgeous; I've been wearing it a lot and see no sign of any pilling so far, something I often have a problem with in yarns soft and drapey enough to wear right next to the skin.


Timeline
Cast on April 25 and completed on May 28, 2009. The only reason it took so long to knit was a lack of knitting time (due to work) and the fact that I had to knit the entire body twice due to a major sizing issue. As it turns out, it was cold enough in June to wear it anyways!