Not an Artist

Egg vs. Egg

2011-02-09T23:32:00.003-05:00

Today's lunches both included eggs, but in a different way than yesterday. Mine was seriously delicious (and so filling that I actually had to take a break before "dessert" (fruit). Today my lunch was inspired by the song "Black & Yellow", which I have been hearing a lot lately. Except there aren't a lot of black foods I'm willing to eat, so I went with green & yellow instead ;).

Click either meal for a list of ingredients!

Sisley
vs
Michelle

Lunch vs. Lunch

2011-02-09T00:05:00.007-05:00

A minor injury is currently preventing me from knitting. To cope with all the extra "down" time I suddenly have, I've been focusing my creative energies on alternate outlets. One of my co-workers always has these amazing gorgeous lunches made for her by her mom and aunt; I decided that I too could have cute lunches. And so cute lunch vs lunch was born. Which one is cuter?

DAY ONE
Michelle
vs
Sisley

DAY TWO
Sisley
vs
Michelle

For My Next Trick....

2010-07-16T09:17:00.002-04:00

Would it be me if I wasn't setting myself up with another challenge? Some people make New Year's resolutions; I am constantly resolving something or other. Most recently it was to knit only from yarn I bought at the 2009 TTC Knitalong and the 2010 Knitter's Frolic. I had 2 months between the Frolic and the 2010 TTC Knitalong and I was determined to pare down the stash a bit, or at least to curb my shopping in favour of knitting. In the end I successfully knit up 13.5 balls of yarn and allowed myself to buy 7 new skins of yarn at the Knitalong.

I would like to continue to pare down the stash (ahem, ignore the free yarn I also scored that day, that clearly doesn't count). So I'm taking up a similar challenge in preparation for another big yarn shopping event.

Here is the deal: I am planning to go to Rhinebeck this year. Jacquie and I have epic plans to meet in New York City (at the top of Empire State building, natch) a few days before for some exploration and maybe even a bit of yarn tourism, and then rent a car and head for Rhinebeck. I think it is clear that 7 skeins of yarn isn't going to cut it here... there are approximately 13 weeks between now and my NYC adventures, so a new epic challenge is definitely in order.

Epic Rhinebeck Challenge Rules

Just like the previous challenge, I have to knit 2 balls of yarn for every 1 skein I want to purchase in October
I have to be satisfied with the projects I'm making -- no knitting up crap just because it is quick and consumes yarn quickly
EPIC TWIST: For every newly purchased or acquired yarn I knit with, something older from the stash has to get used up

TTC Knitalong Stashquisition

2010-07-14T07:55:00.000-04:00

I was a very good girl on this knitalong! I stuck to the rules of my challenge and knit only from last year's TTC Knitalong and this year's Frolic yarn purchases. In the end I successfully knit up 13.5 balls of yarn before the day of the TTC Knitalong. According to my 1 for 2 rule, that meant I was allowed to buy just 6.75 skeins of yarn on Saturday. I gave myself the .25 and decided I could buy 7 new skeins of yarn -- after all, during the 2 months of the challenge I also started and ripped 2 projects representing about another 3 balls of stash yarn.
Mmmm luscious luscious Madelinetosh. This colourway is called Gilded and it makes me happy just looking at it.
More gratuitous photos of Madelinetosh. This colour is called Baltic. I bought both of these at the Naked Sheep, and together, these yarns will be the most beautiful colourwork something. If only I can find a project worthy of their extreme awesomeness...These are lovely little circular needle cases from Namaste.I can't seem to stop photographing these adorable little cases!Can you blame me? Look how sweet and delightfully organized they are. I bought two, and they hold my expansive needle collection quite well. There is even a little bit of room for a few circular needles in key sizes... These lovely wooden needles and the cases all come from the Purple Purl. The cases I bought (I pretty much had to!) and the needles were free swag. I also scored a gorgeous orange Namaste DPN case as my free prize with purchase (wow) but I just can't seem to capture it...Oh sweet, Sweet Georgia yarns. This one is called Slate.
These yarns are so lovely I couldn't resist. I'm not entirely sure I understand the name of this colourway (China Doll), but together with the grey I envision a cozy stranded hat... And how cute is this little button box? I've been meaning to replace the little Altoid tin that previously held my stitchmarker collection, and when I saw these I knew I had to. The Sweet Georgia Yarns and this little box were all scored at Lettuce Knit. Thanks Megan!This lovely red Baby Alpaca was a from an illicit yarn warehouse. The price was decent and I'm happy to work with this lovely soft, drapey yarn again. This colour is just phenomenal!
Last but not least, I got these 2 skeins of glorious green Highland Simple Twist, a 100% wool yarn from Americo Original. I can always count on them to have something inspiring and they did not disappoint. I was so tired when I got here I just grabbed a seat to enjoy the A/C, and I literally spotted this gorgeous green from across the room. It was like a mushy love song, only it was with yarn...

See how that was only 7 skeins of yarn? Ok, sure, I bought a few other items but I always leave a shopping loophole, don't I? The point here is reduce my stash without going on a yarn diet or knitting from stash for a year (something I typically fail at -- loopholes are wonderful things, aren't they?).

Oh right, I almost forgot... our super generous sponsors sent us enough Bernat Satin & mixed Diamond yarns to sink a ship. As the head organizer I happened to go home with a few extra balls of these gorgeous yarns...
Some beautiful brown.Glorious pink.

And this lovely blue/green... all destined to become beautiful baby wear. Now friends, start having more babies so I can knit them things!

I also got some Galway in pretty heather.And finally this deep red ball of Superwash Merino from Diamond. Love!

For those of you keeping count, why yes the free yarn outnumbers the purchased yarn. THAT IS NOT THE POINT. Everyone knows free yarn totally doesn't count!

TTC Knitalong: East Red!!

2010-07-12T18:05:00.001-04:00

Team East Red was awesome! We had the furthest trip to the Knitalong (Danielle came all the way from Hong Kong) the best knitticism (Mary said it first... how can yarn be so HEAVY?) and Jun most definitely needed a sherpa with more than 24 balls of yarn purchased thoughout the day. Meredith and I have captained one of the East Teams twice now and we have somehow always ended up with an awesome group of knitters to hang with on our TTC adventure. This year was no exception!

We started out at the Naked Sheep, the first LYS on our route. Lisa did an amazing job, putting out loads of snacks, giving out great surprises and offering a fantastic 20% off regularly priced items to TTC Knitters. I think between Teams Red & Blue we may have bought all the Madelinetosh she had to offer!

After our first stop we experienced the worst delay of our TTC-ing that day: we had to wait 13 minutes for the next Queen Streetcar after missing 2 in a row just as we left the shop. Finally it arrived and we headed Purl-ward.

Where we found even more delicious yarns and friendly faces - my intrepid co-captain Meredith was very pleased!

Purlificent! (Does that word make sense? Who cares, I think its totally accurate...)

And then it was back to the streetcars to head for our next destination... lots of knitting happening en route.

And our next destination was lunch! Some knitters headed for the Big Fat Burrito (a classic Kensington tradition) while the rest of us settled out front of the Grilled Cheese for some fantastic sandwiches in the shade just two doors away from our next LYS.

Lettuce Knit was awesome as always, as we packed the tiny shop and bought up loads of more beautiful yarns... Spuds and Chloe & Sweet Georgia were my faves! (Can you tell by now I was more into shopping and less in shooting? I totally forgot to shoot panos of Lettuce & Americo!)

We wandered South again to hit a few bonus shops, and on the way we encountered this amazing example of practical yet unusual knitted items in the wild. I love how the thick knitted lock cozy protects this pretty vintage bike frame from unnecessary scratches.

Next stop was a quick detour to this studio-warehouse sale where we scooped some deals and enjoyed the frosty air-conditioning and lovely views ;)

And finally ended up at Americo Original, one of my favourite sources of straight-up gorgeous wools and cottons.

And finally it was off to the Rivoli to recover, count our purchases up and give out prizes -- check out the official TTC Knitalong blog for the full details of who won what, and what kind of incredible prizes our sponsors contributed this year.

Thank you Team Red for making this such a fun day for your captains, too!

TTC Knitalong Challenge Update

2010-07-10T00:22:00.002-04:00

So how did 5 weeks go by without an update? Well, add up students' year-end show, a major charrette the same weekend as the G20, numerous side projects, a multi-city trip to ~~avoid my family in person~~ see my family and a major knitalong to organize and my blogging time shrinks to nil.

All is not lost however, as I still somehow found time to create this fucking amazing updated TTC Knitalong map:

AND still fit in some actual knitting. I'm at 13 balls of Frolic and '09 TTC KAL yarn knit, which means I get to purchase 6.5 balls of yarn tomorrow. A bit short of my 16-ball goal, but still pretty decent -- and I might just give myself a break and get the full 7 balls despite it all ;) After all, we're talking about completing a cushion, a pair of colourwork mittens, a pair of colourwork socks, a kimono shrug, and a shawl in less than 8 weeks while working my usual insane hours.

TTC Knitalong Challenge Update: Week 1

2010-05-17T19:11:00.003-04:00

So, my challenge so far has been going pretty well! I knit all 4 balls of Aquarella (from last year's KAL, bottom left corner) into a super simple and ridiculously cozy cushion cover to replace a terribly pilled one for a cushion form I already had. I happened to have 6 perfect buttons in my stash to finish this off with, and I'm snuggled up to the results as I type this!

I think this yarn looks best in just plain stockinette - the thick/thin texture plus the variegated colourway make it interesting enough all on its own.
I didn't spend too long working on this (giant needles! super chunky yarn!) but I did knit about half of up into an oversized cowl before deciding it really wanted to be a cushion instead and frogged it. So that uses up 4 skeins of yarn out of the total of about 32 skeins I have to work with for this challenge.

These mittens are so cute and fun to knit, and they knit up very quickly, considering how detailed they are. Mittens are the perfect stranded colourwork project!
This mitten only weighs about 40 grams. So technically, the finished pair will only consume about 1.6 skeins of yarn. I'm a bit torn about whether to consider this the full 3 balls (since I'll have completed the project I intended to use a 3 of them for) or try to really use them all up completely and find another project to use the remaining 1.4 balls somehow. Perhaps I'll compromise and call it 2 balls used and put the rest of the leftovers on hold for a future project.

So after 1 week of this challenge, I have knit up 5 of the 32 challenge skeins. That represents 2.5 new balls of yarn at the TTC Knitalong in July, so yay!

I've also cast on for my new Tattoo Kimono, which will certainly eat up the full 2 skeins of Fleece Artist Margaree I'm using. Should be a fairly quick knit again, thanks to the bulky yarn and 6mm needles I'm working with.

Completely unrelated: this video is crazy. It just keeps doing more things!

My 2010 TTC Knitalong Challenge

2010-05-12T07:26:00.000-04:00

We're back! The TTC Knitalong will take place on Saturday, July 10th. The volunteers all met a few weeks to iron out the details and there are a few exciting new changes so stay tuned for updates. You can get those details either on the official blog or at the TTC Knitalong Ravelry group.

So in preparation for this year's KAL, I of course looked back at previous knitalongs... which also meant looking at the yarns I bought on those crawls as well! I couldn't find the details of what exactly I bought in October 2006 or June 2007, but I was able to dig up these fine yarn purchases from June 2009:

1. Americo Cotton, 2. Socks That Rock Mediumweight, 3. Romni Pure Silk, 4. Vicuna, 5. Alpaca BabyTwist, 6. Malabrigo Laceweight, 7. Malabrigo Aquarella, 8. Fleece Artist Nova Sock, 9. FibraNatura Mermaid

Which is all fine and well -- except that I've only knit with one of these yarns since then (the mediumweight Socks that Rock has become an adorable baby sweater and a pair of almost complete lace mittens). Which is just sad, and makes me think my *actual* hobby is yarn-shopping and not knitting, since I apparently do more shopping than knitting with the results!

On top of it all, I just went a little crazy at the DKC Knitter's Frolic this past weekend:

1. Shelridge Farms Fingering Weight White, 2. Shelridge Farms Fingering Lipstick, 3. Shelridge Farms Fingering Weight Black, 4. Van Der Rock Tartrazine, 5. Solid Chestnut Jumbo Ballwinder, 6. Van Der Rock Neon, 7. Winky, 8. Indigo Dragonfly MCN "Angst for the Memories", 9. Fleece Artist Margaree

So my first thought was that I should try to knit up all the yarns that I bought at the frolic before the TTC Knitalong in July, which is almost possible in the 8.5 weeks that remain between now and then. This is if I give up all other pastimes, work zero overtime and exclude the lifetime supply of carry-along sparkle from this challenge. I've already started a project using 3 of these yarns (a pair of black/white/hot pink Paradoxical Mittens!) and have plans for all but one of these yarns: the gorgeous and bright Van der Rock sock yarns will become a pair of Glenna's Neptune High socks, the Fleece Artist Margaree will be yet another Tattoo-less Kimono to replace my lost beloved original, so the only decision to make is about what to use Kim's incredible "Angst for the Memories" yarn to make.

But then I started thinking about all the unknit yarns I bought at last year's TTC Knitalong... and I'm ashamed to admit that I only have a plan for one more of those yarns (a plain stockinette wrap out of the Americo cotton that will probably be one of those projects that spans years).

So after all that rambling, here is my challenge. Between now and July 9th:

I will knit only from these two groups of yarns.
I will not buy any more yarns.
I will complete at least one entire project from each group.
And on the day of the TTC Knitalong, I will buy no more than 1 ball of yarn for every 2 balls that I knit up during this challenge!

Retro FO: Seamesh Wrap

2010-02-01T00:02:00.003-05:00

Thank goodness for photogenic friends! Nadia looks gorgeous in every photo I've ever taken of her and it finally occurred to me to take advantage of this in order to show off my knitwear. This photo was actually taken back in June 2009 in the park across from the Purple Purl on WWKIP day. Jacquie was visiting, I had taken some time off work to hang with her and we spent a glorious day basking in the sun and knitting. I pulled out this lovely wrap to keep my shoulders warm in case of spring chill, something I barely needed as it turned out. At least it did inspire me to finally to a FO photo shoot with it. Aren't these shots of Nadia wearing my Seamesh wrap glorious?

But the FO itself is actually much much older than June '09. This project is BR (Before Ravelry) and I had to dig out my old knitting notebook to find the details on this one. Some hunting through my email and flickr accounts turned up just a few WIP photos and a few email chains with people who test knit this for me in the fall of 2007 and early 2008. Turns out I actually started this in August 2006!
Pattern & Modifications
I actually made this pattern up based on a lace pattern from one of the Barbara Walker books called checkerboard mesh. I even charted it and had some friends test knit it... and then promptly did nothing else with it. Almost four years later here I am blogging about it, and it turns out someone beat me to publishing this pattern. So, if you are interested in making this (or something very much like it) check out Shelby (non-ravelry link) by Deborah B Miller.

Needles & Yarn
I knit this on 3.75mm (US 5) Lantern Mood Destiny Circulars in ebony. The yarn is Handmaiden Sea Silk, a luscious silk/sea cell blend that I bought at Gaspereau Valley Fibres in June 2006 on a visit to the in-laws.

Timeline
According to my handwritten notes, this was cast-on on August 17. I never made of note of when it was finished, but I remember wearing it that winter as a scarf (I'm crazy, I know) so it must have been completed in only a few months.

FO: Falltime Bandit

2010-01-28T00:01:00.001-05:00

I cast this beauty on in San Francisco after our day trip to Art Fibers in Pinole, California. I blame Jacquie, who first enticed me into buying a ridiculous amount of yarn at Art Fibers (bulk discounts, I love it!) and then showed me her lovely version of this shawl. It was pretty much decided at that point, and I love the results!

Patterns & Modifications
Springtime Bandit (ravelry link) by Kate Gagnon Osborn. I knit it using somewhat heavier yarn and larger needles than called for. I knit it a bit bigger than the pattern called for, since I was planning to use it as a cozy fall/winter scarf to wrap around my neck. I also opted not to block the points, leaving a smooth edge instead.

Needles & Yarn
Artfibers Kyoto, a shiny/soft Wool/Mohair/Silk blend in a luscious orange colourway. I used 3.75mm needles and got this perfect, drapey fabric.

Timeline
November 14-28, 2009 -- 2 weeks from start to finish!

Happy 1st Birthday FO: Huggable!

2010-01-26T00:05:00.001-05:00

Ok, not the greatest photo of the shrug. This is a hard FO to photograph! I do like this pic of it though.
Pattern & Modifications
Hug by Jennifer Thurston. This pattern was originally published in the free online knit 'zine, Magknits, but it closed and disappeared from the entire internet somewhat dramatically a while back. I miss it, but luckily every pattern I've wanted to knit from it has become available for free via Ravelry. I heavily modded this little shrug based on these instructions on craftster, and added a few extra changes to make it my own: I knit extra deep ribbed cuffs that fold up to 3/4 length (my favourite sleeve length) or flip down to cover my wrists when I'm chilly, and picked up and knit a very deep collar that folds nicely behind my neck while covering a little extra on my back.

Needles & Yarn

The yarn is Gaspereau Valley Fibres Semi-worsted Spun Singles, a lusciously soft and yet nicely woolly yarn I bought in Nova Scotia several vacations ago. Its from Cotswold sheep in a nice natural grey/brown colour. I used 5.5mm (US 9) needles and got a nicely dense but still soft fabric.

Timeline
Begun January 11, 2009 and completed January 26 -- the afternoon of last year's Christmas 2. I can't believe I let this go unblogged for an entire year, but I have to admit it is partly because I wear it so much! This is one of my favourite little shrugs and I almost always reach for it to go with a t-shirt and jeans on those days when you just want a little extra warmth.

Finished Object: Sunny Sunday Mittens

2010-01-19T09:11:00.001-05:00

I love these mittens! Jacquie knit a pair of these first, and as soon as I saw them I knew I had to make myself a pair first (copycatting is fun!).

Pattern & Modifications
The pattern is Sundagsvotter, a free pattern by Strikkepanja (download the english version here). The only minor modification I made was to knit them extra long--I love long cuffs on my mittens, so I can tuck them well up into my sleeves. There is nothing I hate more than that draft at the top of your mittens when they don't tuck far enough into your sleeves!
Needles & Yarn
The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug in Vincent's Apron. I am not normally a yellow person but this colour was just too gorgeous -- its almost a deep gold in places. I used 2.25mm (US 1) needles to knit these mittens, and the result is pretty much the perfect weight fabric for this pattern and yarn. This is the colour yellow from the sock-yarn rainbow project... the one I began in early 2008. I sure have been slow to work my way through this one! My original plan was to knit only socks and follow the order of the spectrum, but I completely stalled on the colour orange for so long that the nicely balled up other colours actually started to get dusty in the pretty red bowl I was displaying them in. So I hid the unfinished orange project deep in my basket of UFO's and put this lovely golden yarn to use.Timeline
August 3-14, a very satisfying quick project. I was pretty monogamous to this project while I was working on it, otherwise I never would have completed it so quickly!

Mindless vs. Mindful Knitting

2010-01-18T06:59:00.001-05:00

Introducing my End of December Cushion Cover -- this WIP began life as a hat (the End of May Hat)
I have always struggled between different types of knitting projects. On the one hand, I love challenging, unusual and complicated designs that require careful execution: think twisted-stitch cables, complicated lace patterns, unusual garment construction and beaded knits. These projects are mindful knitting for me, since I need to pay better attention when I'm working on this sort of thing.

Mindless knitting, on the other hand, is a kind of surrogate for smoking* for me - something I can do with my hands while I'm reading, watching television or zoning out on the streetcar. This means mindless stockinette, repetitive textures, basic cables or simple lace patterns: stuff I can do without looking!

The Argyle Cowl, knit over the christmas vacation in Nova Scotia.
Stranded colourwork usually falls more into the mindful knitting category, with the exception being simple repeating geometric patterns that have consistent stitch counts. The argyle cowl, for example, was pretty easy to execute while reading. The End of December project is more of a challenge: those charted images aren't as easy to memorize, although there are repeating geometric shapes. This means that I'm constantly checking the chart to make sure the stitches are aligning properly.

Usually my projects fall firmly into one category. I like having projects I know I can stuff in my purse to go out for a night of pub knitting, and sometimes I want a project I can really sink my teeth into. Usually I don't pick projects where I may be faced with long boring stretches of stockinette when I really want to be engaged or the prospect of charted knitting on the streetcar (it can be done, but its a bit fiddly).

Drops number 116-1

So why have I suddenly decided I absolutely must start something like this Drops Sweater, which seems to be both mindful and mindless? To the point where I've already broken my "no buying yarn in 2010" rule and ordered $73US worth of alpaca and glitter yarns? Because there is an additional factor: sometimes I just really, really want to have the item in question! This sweater is just gorgeous and I can't wait to wear it. Hopefully I can translate this desire into some serious project monogamy, and complete this project (to be knit on 3mm needles, by the way) before it ends up being too warm to wear it.

That, or I just hope for an unaturally cool spring like last year.

*I smoked for about 15 years and credit knitting with kicking the habit. I just need to be doing something with my hands, otherwise I fidget uncontrollably. Knitting actually helps me focus, and its a lot less smelly and inconvenient than smoking. I'm fairly sure its not cheaper though.

What the Eff? Oh.

2010-01-16T09:26:00.000-05:00

Yes that is right... an actual real-live FO! I've barely blogged these the past year, and now it is time to share. I've finally gotten myself organized to photograph and edit a whack of projects I've completed in the last while, and I'll be sharing those details with my adoring public (all 7 of you). Without further ado, here is a recently completed cowl I knit over the holidays at my in-laws' house in middle-of-nowhere, Nova Scotia.

Pattern & Modifications
No pattern. I based the stranded argyle pattern on ...well actually I can't remember. I know I found a chart somewhere for a much smaller-scale argyle, and I adapted it to create a larger diamond. I originally started with a corrugated rib, but about 1.5 pattern repeats in I realized the two patterns didn't work together. So I cut the ribbed part off, picked up the exposed loops with a spare needle and eventually used that to add applied i-cord to each edge.

But the i-cord edge didn't stop the rolling.

Rather than go back to ribbing or ripping entirely in frustration, I dug deep and picked up all around the inside of the i-cord stitches and knit short facings on the inside edges. You can see this detail below: its just whip-stitched into place, and it does a fantastic job of keeping that edge from rolling. Its also a really unique and amazingly finished looking edge, although frankly it was a lot of work!

Needles & Yarn
The black yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Coal. This is a solid wool yarn that comes in great colours, and I have never regretted having a good stock of this in my stash in a variety of colours. Its become my colourwork standard!

The beautiful purple yarn is Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran Weight in Jewel. This lovely handpainted Merino was a birthday gift almost a year ago from Sophie, and I'm excited to have finally found a project to do it justice.

I used 4mm (US 6) needles to knit this, as anything bigger created a gappy, loose fabric, especially where the longer floats were.

Timeline
I began these on the 21st of December, just before we left for Nova Scotia and completed them a few days after Christmas 1 on December 29. This project got some plane knitting, some couch knitting, and even some audience at the lobsterspiel (curling!) knitting.

2009: The Year of the Burnout

2010-01-03T01:29:00.006-05:00

Happy New Year faithful readers! I know I hardly ever blog but I am really trying to get my motivation going -- knitting-wise, work-wise and life-wise.

2009 was a great year for me in many ways, but was also a very difficult and challenging year as well. I've been really throwing myself into my job and despite treating myself to a couple of decent-length vacations, I continue to feel burnt out and desperately short on motivation in all aspects of my life. The past few weeks have been a fog of laziness and lack of emotion on my part, and I am facing an epic amount of work upon my return on Monday after my lazy break.

So naturally I'm avoiding facing the work situation by focusing on cleaning my home. At least I may get a somewhat tidier and less cluttered condo out of all this! Part of this decluttering has included digging through baskets of UFO's and FO's that just needed frogging. Since I've decided that 2010 will be a "no yarn-buying year*" I'm trying to make the most of the fibre I already have in my house, so if a FO isn't something I like enough to use or that would make a good gift for someone, it is frog city baby.

No resolutions, other than my usual desire to work out more, eat better, spend more time with friends, be better at my job, waste less free time on my computer, spend less money, keep my house cleaner, start fewer projects and finish more projects, and oh yeah -- blog more. But, I pretty much aspire to all these things all the time so they're hardly resolutions. So I guess I'm going into 2010 just aspiring to have more of the good (there was lots of good in 2009) and less of the bad, which is too much work and not enough time to do it ;)

*With one exception: if Jacquie and I succeed in our plan to meet for a visit to Rhinebeck / NY City next October all bets are off!

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

2009-12-05T09:26:00.000-05:00

Well, not literally. It is a pretty fabulous city to be in though, and my visit was incredible. Jacquie planned an adventure-filled week of activities for us (there was a powerpoint itinerary). We took probably 5000 photos between the two of us, and our days were as busy as we could manage. I'm not going to go into detail, just the dime recap of each day. If you want to see the whole set, click here for the full experience!

DAY ONE
I arrived tired and dying for a drink and some non-airport food. So first of all, Jacquie took me to her local café where I got a beer, Jacquie got a latte and we got a number 17 for our lunch. That evening we headed out to book launch for the Not for Tourists guide to San Francisco, followed by even more beer and eventually dinner at an incredible restaurant, Bar Tartine. See how happy I am?

DAY TWO
We spent our second day at the awesome California Academy of Sciences. We did it all -- the planetarium show (narrated by Whoopi Goldberg!), the aquarium, the mini Amazon rainforest, the hall of African dioramas. And of course, the café. Afterwards we headed to an amazing brewpub, Magnolia on Lower Haight, where I finally got to try crackling (yummy but a bit too crispy for my taste) and we had even more delicious beers and tasty charcuterie.

DAY THREE
On the third day we went to Chinatown for a walking tour, where we saw many incredible sites and learned a lot about the history of the place. Highlights included a tour of a real Daoist Temple, a traditional Chinese herbalist shop and steamed pork buns (yum). We wrapped up the day with a stop at City Lights Bookstore followed by a stop at Vesuvios for some touristy beers and photos of the bright lights in the neighbourhood.

DAY FOUR
A trip across the Bay Bridge and a tour-de-yarn took us to ArtFibers, A Verb for Keeping Warm and Article Pract where we scored many tasty new yarns. There was also a stop at In-N-Out Burger for my first ever burger from there. This was also very tasty!

DAY FIVE
This was the day I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time ever. It was an incredible day, sunny and warm and apparently very unusual for the coast at this time of year, and I enjoyed every sunny warm minute of it! We walked all along the beach, stopped for a few beer samplers at the Beach Chalet and then climbed the hill for a gorgeous view of the spirals on the beach and a closer view of the Cliff House.

DAY SIX
This was our super-touristy day: we started with Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista, followed by a shared sundae at Ghirardelli Square. We stopped at the Maritime Museum to shoot the gorgeous Depression-era murals, and then traipsed through Fisherman's Wharf to eat steamed crab from the street vendors. After a somewhat messy lunch we rushed to get on the boat to Alcatraz, which was completely amazing. If you are able to, you should do this tour!

DAY SEVEN
On the seventh day we rested -- blowing off our plans and just wandering from café to teahouse to bar. Along the way we met a man with a motorcyle and a tiny dog named Deuce strapped to his back, saw some beautiful and quintessential San Francisco architecture. Somehow we ended up closing with some drunken knitting, Jacquie Blackman style.

DAY EIGHT

Work, Beer & San Francisco

2009-11-10T10:19:00.006-05:00

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

2009-09-28T09:28:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-08-25T09:01:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-20T00:12:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-30T22:36:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-11T23:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-05T12:22:00.005-04:00

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!

MP3 Shuffle

2009-07-03T17:59:00.005-04:00

Tagged by Yvette, who has a mostly female lineup of oldies and goodies :) Since I just recently replaced my lost 1GB iRiver with a shiny new 8GB iRiver, I have a whole bunch of new stuff on my player, so it was fun to just sit here and shuffle through 'em. Here are the rules:

Turn on your MP3 player.
Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.
Choose some people to be tagged. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about your musical tastes, or at least a random sampling thereof.

And my songs were:

Death Cab for Cutie - New Candles
Corey Hart - Boy in the Box
The White Stripes - We're Going to be Friends
X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage, Up Yours!
KMFDM - Brute
Black-eyed Peas - Anxiety
Ash - Burn Baby Burn
The Killers - All the Pretty Faces
Kimya Dawson - So Nice So Smart
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Not Forgotten
Rancid - Not to Regret
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - The International Sin Set
Dayglo Abortions - Wake up America
Furnaceface - Just Buy It
Goldfinger - 99 Red Balloons (cover)

What is in your random 15? I tag Jacquie, Dr Steph, Joyce and Glenna. Now I get to see if any of them even read my sad neglected blog anymore, too!

(This post also contains a random photo day photo! These are details from some photos I took at Casa Loma a few weeks ago.)

All That Sparkles

2009-07-02T19:32:00.001-04:00

Must be beaded.

I don't know why but lately I have been seized by the urge to knit with beads. Little sparkly accents just seem right, and so I have been seeking out projects with a generous amount of bling. Combined with my recent startititis, and I find myself with teensy crochet hooks and bead-filled tupperware everywhere.
First there was Fabergé (Rav link), a pattern I came across the last time I went on a major cowl spree (sometimes I become obsessed with knitting one specific type of item and then spend hours lurking on ravelry and adding tons of them to my faves/queue). Some sexy Handmaiden Samira, some random sparkly beads I had in my craft stash, a teensy crochet hook and I was good to go.

Then that familiar feeling hit... I needed to start something else, something new. And while I was at it, I could use another cute shrug. I like to wear tank tops to ride my bike to work, but I'm not comfortable showing my shoulders (especially with my big black tat on one shoulder). So, a little lightweight shrug is perfect to throw in the milkcrate on my bike and slip into before I hit the office.
Oh and, did I mention the beads? Cobweb (Rav link) is just pretty and perfect. Lace and beads. I'm using some laceweight Zephyr silk from my stash, held double and combined with lots of shiny blue and purple beads for this one. Now that I've started knitting it I kind of never want to stop, even though I am starting to think I may run out of beads before I finish the second sleeve. I'm also thinking vaguely of adding a tie and extending the body length to have more of a wrap/cardigan feel to it -- it is so light and airy I think that would be super cute.

Oh and for my next trick... I'm kind of in love with Morning Glory... at this point it is more a question of whether I have enough beads for it and where to find an appropriately sized purse frame.

TTC Knitalong = Awesome

2009-06-10T00:15:00.002-04:00

So the TTC Knitalong was this past saturday and it was awesome!! And I'm not just saying that because I was one of the organizers. It was a seriously great time and it wouldn't have happened without a lot of hard work and creative input from so many people. Thank you everyone who helped out and thank you everyone who came out!

I started my day heading for the subway and eastward from my central-west 'hood. I love taking these moving subway photos, they will never get old for me ;) Ironically it was the only subway ride I got that day, since my team's entire route was on streetcars, and mostly the Queen 501 car.

I was team captain along with Meredith (we're the ones in the awesome red t-shirts) for "Team East B" the coolest team of all (not that I'm biased). We got started at the Naked Sheep, where owner Lisa went all out and put on a spread that included a whole variety of tasty breakfast snacks, a piping hot carafe of coffee and baileys and amarretto to put in it. Yum! She also gave door prizes to absolutely everyone, ranging from cute prize packs of tape measure + soak, to store gift cards and travel mugs. All this on top of a generous discount and being super friendly to everyone. It was a great start to the day!

Next up we hit the Purple Purl, where even more delicious treats awaited along with Jen's special punch, grab bags for everyone that included a cute Purl tote, hot yarn calendars and some gorgous alpaca! And they raffled off a really amazing prize for each team -- think Vicuna laceweight, omg!

They also provided some suberb comic relief in the form of a new European yarn... what does that look like to you?

Between the amazing yarns at these two first stores there were already some bulging tote bags by the time we headed for our next stop in Kensington market!

It was then that we encountered TEAM A. It was like something out of West Side Story as we crossed paths on the way to Lettuce Knit.

Where we got some much needed relaxation time sitting on the porch and front patio, after enjoying some of the awesome new product and great discounts.

Next stop was Americo Original, a really one-of-a-kind yarn shop that stocks only beautiful, high-quality yarns imported from South America. We spent some more money and ooohed and aaahed over the luscious samples. Emily and Clara both enjoyed the visit :)

Our final stop was Romni, the queen of all Toronto yarn stores, where despite feeling like I shouldn't keep spending money I think we all just went a little crazy. It was the perfect place to end up and certainly the only yarn shop that could handle more than one team at a time (we ended up with about 60 participants spread over 4 teams, so even though we were pretty spaced out by the end it was still pretty busy!)

We ended at the Rivoli, where we filled the upstairs front with knitters (and got some distinctly odd looks from the bartenders and handful of other customers). Is that not a great crowd? It was a great spot to wrap up as everyone had a chance to grab some food and beverages while all the teams straggled in and the captains all met to confer.

We ended up with 15 prizes to give out, here you see the 4 winners of the Fierce! Knitwear prize for each team -- aren't they wearing some beautiful handknits? Some of the other prizes included Knitting WIN, Knitovation, Needs a Sherpa (a classic), Best Knitticism and more. The prizes included some great donations from all the LYSs that participated, including Village Yarns, Knitomatic, The Knit Cafe, Mary Maxim, The Yarn Boutique, Passionknit and all the stores listed already.

And it never would have happened without this amazing team. Than you so much Glenna, Lisa, Meredith, Sandi, Joyce, Yvette, Nadia & Sophie! We rock! Oh and super special thanks to my cousin Jay (Sandi's hubby), who rocked not just the logo design but hooked us up with a sweet deal on the shirts and tote bags too. All of which meant we got to enjoy cool swag and still donate a hefty portion of the proceeds to our chosen charity, Sistering.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I bought a lot of yarn? YUM!

(The full photo set is here and it was HARD to choose the best ones to share here. Definitely check them out, especially if you're looking for more soft-focus yarn porn)

Its TTC Knitalong Time!!

2009-05-16T10:59:00.004-04:00

New & Improved: Its the TTC KNITALONG.
Join us on June 6, 2009.

In my time as a knitter there have been some events that really stood out, and the TTC Knitalongs were one of them. The last one was in June 2007, which is when these photos were taken (see the full details if you like: Part I | Part II | Part III). The previous organizers have had some busy/crazy years in between and so a few months ago Joyce and I decided it was time to pick up the torch. We emailed the old guard and started gathering volunteers and in just a few short weeks we'll be TTC-ing all around the city, yarn in hand! The big day is June 6, and practically every yarn store in the region has signed up to participate. There will be some phenomenal discounts, special treats and super prizes so go to the official blog for all the details and sign up if you haven't already!

Finished Object: Topographic Cowl

2009-03-27T00:05:00.001-04:00

This knit started out as an emergency knitting project a few weeks ago when I realized I'd forgotten my knitting at home and wouldn't have time to go back before drunken knitting. Naturally, I did have time to hit the Purple Purl to buy some new Malabrigo and Addi Turbo Lace needles in a 5mm and cast on a completely new project!

Pattern & Modifications
The pattern is Topographie from knitty, only I pretty much ignored everything but the instructions on when to purl and made a big tube-style cowl/neckwarmer. I replaced the ribbing with a few rounds of garter stitch, knit and purled as the yarn told me to until I was starting to run low on yarn, and then did another few rounds of garter stitch. The results are stunning -- this was super easy and its easily one my favourite recent FO's. Not that there are that many of those these days, silly job taking away all my knitting time ;)

Needles & Yarn
The yarn is the always delicious Malabrigo Worsted in colourway Loro Barranquero. Knit on 5mm needles this yielded a perfectly balanced fabric that is cozy and yet drapey and soft.

Timeline
I cast on March 13 (drunken knitters!) and finished this up on March 21st, so just over a week. Not bad considering how little time I actually spend knitting lately.

Genius

2009-03-20T06:50:00.002-04:00

This is one of the funniest and most beautiful thing I've seen in a while. I can only imagine how hilarious this would have been to actually DO.

Happy St Paddy's Day!

2009-03-17T23:36:00.000-04:00

Look! A Puppy!

2009-03-16T08:39:00.003-04:00

Meet Sandy, my Dad's new puppy. This is her meeting my new Keens, in July. (Deep breath, Steph & Jacquie & Amy, I rescued them right after taking this picture and they are completely undamaged)

I am waaaay behind on processing photos at the moment. I'm still plugging away at our honeymoon stuff as well -- I have about a billion awesome photos of iguanas running around the resort that I need to finish sorting through as well.

I've realized something fundamental about why it takes me so long to get photos up after I shoot them: I need some time/distance in order to edit effectively; and by edit I mean cutting down the 100+ photos I may have taken in any one day down to maybe 20 good ones. Otherwise I fall in love with capturing every detail instead of focusing on just the great photos, and I end up with 60-photo sets.

At heart I think I'm a storyteller though, so its tough to decide. Sometimes even a crap photograph captures a part of the event that I want to remember/document. I don't think I'll ever be a true photo artist... but I can live with that. My user name is what it is, after all.

I'm a Weaver

2009-03-06T09:29:00.003-05:00

Finally the big reveal... I've now had my loom for well over 2 weeks but only just got around to moving it into my "craft room" where it now basically uses all the available floor space. After a certain amount of research and guess-work, I have come to the conclusion that this is an Artisat loom. It folds front and back (although when warped this releases the tension so I don't know that I'll be doing it that often).

I've already warped it and woven a bit, using some coned yarn I picked up in the Romni basement a few months ago for another project, and I've been weaving using sock-yarn scraps I have a big bag of so there are some wacky colours happening and my selvedges are terrible. I really need to find some time to take a class or coerce some of my experienced weaver friends to come to my house and give me some pointers. At this point I'm totally winging it based on the little information I was able to find on the internet and my own innate sense of mechanics.

It seems to be in very good shape and was obviously well cared for by the previous owner. All the parts move easily, there is no visible rust on the reed or heddles, and it actually still smells like wood (I LOVE the way my loom smells, when I walk in my craft room now I take a big deep breath of the delicious smell of maple).

It came with a 12-dent reed (that is 12 slots per inch) which works for some of the super fine yarn I'm using to warp it right now but probably won't work for heavier weight yarns. So I guess I'm going to have to spend a little more money on a reed with fewer dents -- I'm thinking an 8-dent for sock-weight and either a 6- or 4-dent to accommodate up to worsted weight. If anyone with some weaving experience can suggest a more appropriate reed size for sock weight and worsted yarns that would be awesome :) I want to be able to make big cushy woven blankets and I have visions of cozy plaid baby blankets for all of my friends' babies.

33 Things About Me

2009-03-03T08:17:00.000-05:00

I originally began this post in 2006. It was supposed to be 100 things about me, but for some reason I kept getting stuck around 20-something and giving up. I have now accepted that I will never be able to say 100 things about myself that will be true for more than 5 minutes, so now it is 33 things and a picture:

I am Canadian and proud of it
I was born in the 70's
I love my job, it is as close to my dream job as I can imagine
And yet it still drives me utterly insane sometimes
I love knitting
I love taking photos
I hate shaving my legs
Thank god for wax ;)
I am weirdly in love with my natural hair colour now, after over 15 years of dying it various colours
Because I'm Canadian and somewhat compulsive, I insist on spelling colour, behaviour & neighbour with a 'u' and it drives me crazy when other Canadians don't. I blame MS Word's auto-spellchecker for ruining the spelling habits of many of my less compulsive fellow Canadians
Of course I am prone to accidentally ending words in -ien instead of -ian (Canadien, Italien) but I blame my Québecoise heritage for that
My favourite colours swing back and forth between red & orange
I have 3 tattoos, the youngest of which is still more than 10 years old
I've been meaning to get a new tattoo for a while now
In my life I've had approximately 20+ body piercings
Currently I only have a few, and mostly in my ears
My husband and I have been together for over 10 years now
But we only just got married 5 months ago!
We have 2 cats and no plans to have babies
I go to the gym 3-5 times a week, and I started a weight-lifting program 6 weeks ago
I've dropped 3 pants sizes since starting
I'm back down to where I was about 5 years ago, before I decided to quit smoking and after many years of practically zero physical activity
I have become good friends with a neighbour (also a knitter!) from going to the gym
Its kind of cool to have someone to borrow a cup of sugar from if I need it!
I never would have thought I'd become a gym person but I've kind of grown to love going, especially now that I'm lifting weights
I'm not quite back into the kind of shape I was in at age 20
But I don't really have the motivation to start cycling 20-30km every day like I did back then
Lately I have been missing my youth a tiny bit though
Which is why I've been listening to a lot of old punk and industrial music on my mp3-player
Sometimes I feel like I'm in disguise
I couldn't possibly be that woman wearing the conservative wool coat, heels and giant sunglasses
Listening to the Forgotten Rebels or KMFDM at 8:30 in the morning on my commute through the financial district helps a little
I certainly don't feel like someone who just bought a used floor-loom so I could start weaving my own cloth!

Curl Curl Revolution

2009-02-27T08:51:00.003-05:00

I like to think that Adam and I throw a pretty good party, but our friends Kim & Sinclair are the real masters when it comes to having awesome parties. They both have birthdays in February and this year they decided that the best way to celebrate was a bonspiel! So it was off to London last saturday, and boy was I ever excited. I'm not from a small town and I've never learned to curl, but I've always been fascinated by the game. I finally got my chance to play and you know what? It was not a disappointment. I loved it!

I tried to blend in by wearing my grandfather's 1950's plaid lumberjacket. I didn't exactly fit in but it is one of my favourite mementos of his so I didn't care.

It looked much more appropriate on our friend Mike, who is clearly pulling together a real trailer-park boys theme right now. Dig that facial hair! And that is a rum-and-coke he's drinking, too.

Adam was naturally better at curling than me, but I blame the fact that I was on a team of totally newbies whereas his team had some slightly experienced players and an actual skip.

The winning team even got a trophy! There were six teams of 4 people and Sinclair lead team 5 to the WIN.

Mission Accomplished

2009-02-26T08:57:00.003-05:00

My husband did the groceries so now we are fully stocked up with Dry Vermouth and cocktail onions (and a few other food-type items of course). I am vaguely considering throwing a martini-themed house party in the spring, although this time I think I'll wait until they turn the A/C on in our building. And hope for fewer fires than the last time...

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, a mild sore throat combined with more than a little paranoia about my job situation. I'm kind of in love with my new job and I really, really want it to work out. So now I'm afraid of doing something to mess it up, because that's how I roll sometimes: self-sabotage is my not-so-super power.

My Grocery Issues

2009-02-24T23:31:00.003-05:00

I keep a pad of paper on the side of my fridge to jot down groceries on as the week progresses. This is what it currently contains:

Bacon
Eggs
Vermouth
Cocktail Onions
Raspberry jam (Smuckers)
Shampoo
Vanilla

That sure says something about our daily habits, doesn't it? Clearly we ran out of breakfast foods immediately followed by Gibsons (that is a gin martini with a pearl onion instead of an olive for you non-drinkers). Jam, shampoo and vanilla just seem tame in comparison, don't they?

I feel like you can tell a lot about a person by their ongoing grocery list. Do you have one? Share it, and link to it in the comments. I'm starting my very own lame grocery meme.

Gone Curling

2009-02-21T07:16:00.002-05:00

I popped over to Flickr to see if I could find an appropriate, creative commons photo of a curling rock to share because I am SO EXCITED to be going curling today. I didn't find any photos that I loved but I have to say that the search results for "curling" are quite lovely.

I also re-discovered this fantastic sweater, owned by Jodi Green who I've been reading for years after I knit one of her sweater patterns as one of my first ever sweaters (Mariah). Apparently someone thought they were tanks.

OH YEAH!!

2009-02-20T00:11:00.002-05:00

This is the best thing I've ever seen on FailBlog.

At least I think it is. Its possible the 30 hours of work I've done in the last 36 hours is clouding my judgement. The worst part? I left the office at 11:15pm today saying "I didn't get as much done today as I'd hoped I would".

In other news -- I have a loom!! It is sitting in my foyer being absolutely freaking gorgeous and I can't wait to have some breathing time to play with it. Soon.

Damn Spammers

2009-02-17T22:36:00.004-05:00

I've been getting absolutely swamped with comment spam lately, so I've been forced to switch to moderated comments :( This is no fun -- I prefer instant feedback when I comment on a blog, and I assume others want the same! This is just pushing me to finally get on switching over to a fuller-featured Wordpress blog, like I've been meaning to for a few months now.

Anyways, I have no real new knitting content to share but I did want to let everyone (all 6 of my regular readers) know that the Fluevog saga is finally at an end. After 4.5 weeks they finally called me to come and get my boots. When I got there, they had stretched the foot of the boot instead of the calf and they were completely unwearable. I thought I was going to cry, right there in the store full of touristy Sunday shoppers. The nice knitting salesguy came to my rescue when the person I was dealing with actually had the balls to suggest that I wait until the manager came back from his TWO WEEK vacation. I got a full refund on the spot.

Which I went straight out and spent -- for the same money I got a gorgeous messenger bag from Rudsak (40% off!) and an adorable pair of Campers (20% off!). I am wearing the bag and the boots in this photo but it is a bit hard to see the boots. This is what they look like. Its more of a heel than I was planning to get but I love wearing them, and they are Campers so they're actually quite comfortable. It is going to take a little practice to learn to walk fast in heels again but it is fun to wear them so I'll manage.

Finished Object: My Heart (for my Husband)

2009-02-16T10:13:00.003-05:00

I simply haven't had as much knitting time lately, and this was extra true of the heart that I decided to knit for my husband for Valentine's day! When the Knitty surprises were released on January 28, I knew I had to make one and I figured I had plenty of time -- more than 2 weeks! The only catch was, I wanted it to be a surprise, so I was only able to knit it while he wasn't around. My commute provided some of the knitting time, but I often don't get a seat as the King streetcar is usually packed full by the time I get on it in the mornings. It isn't that long a ride, either.

So despite working on it daily and putting in a long stint at Drunken Knitting on Friday the 13th, my progress was slow, and I ended up finishing it on Valentine's day out of sight while Adam made our delicious meal.

Pattern & Modifications
Heart by Kristin Ledgett for Knitty.com.

A lovely pattern that I more or less followed. I was on the streetcar when it came time to split for the valves however, and so I kind of just figured out my own way without consulting the pattern. Which is why my second colour valve is the opposite of the original pattern's. I also left out the red stuffing for the exposed ventricles, because I think they look more realistic that way. I did sew in the ends through the bases to keep the regular stuffing from leaking out or showing. I'm very pleased with my results!

Yarn & Needles
I used a few leftover wedding rose yarns to make this -- some tencel threads, a mohair in a deep red, and a mysterious red fingering-weight yarn that someone contributed at the rose-knitting-shower. Held triple-stranded and knit on 2.75mm (US2) needles made for a glossy fabric that I stuffed loosely for maximum squishability.

Timeline
February 1st - 14th, two weeks of extremely intermittent knitting! Followed by 20 minutes of extremely goofy project photography time:

Happy Valentine's Day, Just Barely

2009-02-14T22:44:00.002-05:00

I'm completely full of delicious food* that my husband cooked for me. There were stuffed mushroom caps, filet mignon and homemade whipped cream with berries for dessert. I am seriously the luckiest wife ever :)

*None of which contained heart. My heart is what I gave him (say it with me now... awwww)

Finished Object: Rainbow Red Snickets

2009-02-12T07:16:00.001-05:00

These socks took a while to knit, but now that they are done they are pretty gorgeous. The yarn is simply beautiful, with deep undertones that make the finished socks seem to almost glow from within. The twisted detail was a bit of a slow knit, but the results are worth it. I'd say my first completed pair of Project Sock Rainbow is a smashing success!

They fit a tiny bit loosely on me after some sizing issues when I first started knitting them, but I don't care. They are cozy to pad around the house in and the bright red colour still makes me smile every time I see them.
Pattern & Modifications
The pattern is Snicket Socks by Sabine Riefler. I tagged this pattern as a "must knit" back when Magknits was still around, so I was thrilled when Sabine shared the pattern as a free Ravelry download following the shut down of Magknits (sad). The only modification I made was subbing a standard slipped-stitch heel-flap construction. I suck at short-row heels and I don't find they fit my feet very well, so I went with the tried and true! Other than that it was a wonderful pattern.

Yarn & Needles
I am completely ashamed to admit that I don't remember what kind of yarn this is. Jeff bought it for me as a super generous gift last summer at the Purl, after Lady Lung Doc pointed it out to me as a great red for my sock rainbow (the original red I chose turned out to be too dark and have too much orange in it to really work). I proceeded to loose the label immediately and all I remember about it is that the label was turquoise and white, and I think it was a Diamond yarn. Anyone know what I'm talking about? It knit up really nicely on 2.75mm (US 3?) needles, so it is a bit of a heavier sock yarn.

Timeline
I cast these on in early September '08, and after a few false starts on smaller needles that made it a very unpleasant knit, I switched up to the 2.75s and knit right along on them. It still took me most of 3 months to finish them because I mostly worked on these for half-hour intervals while riding the recumbent bike at the gym.

Whew!

2009-02-03T07:48:00.004-05:00

Boy, I sure do like to follow up 31 straight days of daily blogging with resounding silence, don't I? I've been super busy the past few days with work and so I have to admit I let the blogging slide as soon as I could. I did blog every single day in January, just like the list says!

Anyways, all that work doesn't mean I haven't done anything else... I've made some progress on my vine-lace vest; it is a great simple lace knit that I'm really enjoying, especially since it progresses so quickly! Its funny how lately I'm all about larger yarns and visible progress. I used to think nothing of knitting one pair of socks on 2mm needles (US0) for a month if that was how long it took. So, while I do have a pair of socks on the needles (2.25mm needles to be precise) lately I find myself setting them aside for more gratifying, bulkier-weight projects.

Oh and how could I forget: we're bringing back the TTC Knit-along!! Go join the Ravelry group, and mark your calendars for Saturday, June 6. Joyce and I are spearheading this mission but we've got an awesome group of volunteer team captains, organizational help and a little bit of design help too... no changes have been made to the original blog yet but as soon as we sort out the new logo and registration is ready for action (probably in about a week) I will let you all know!

Fame & Fortune

2009-01-31T00:11:00.003-05:00

It figures that the day I take a time out and leave you with nothing but a wacky filler youtube link is the day that Craftzine will blog about my free knitty pattern, miittens. Woot! I am famous! And also tired... I worked about 16 hours yesterday on only 3 hours of sleep and I'm feeling more than a little bit frazzled. So um yeah, welcome craftzine readers! Scroll down to check out some of my more impressive content, like this free pattern for two-needle slipper socks.

Oh and guess what today is? The LAST DAY OF JANUARY. Which means operation blog every single day in January is a win, and now I can stop posting filler just to keep up appearances. I do plan to keep blogging regularly though, its just too much fun not to.

After These Messages

2009-01-30T02:21:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, work eats my life. I refuse to fail at posting every day on DAY 30 of 31 though, so you get this rather appropriate nostalgia trip instead. Proper knit content will return soon!

Free Pattern: Simple 2-Needle Slipper Socks

2009-01-29T08:20:00.001-05:00

I first made a pair of these slipper socks in early 2005 when my husband (then my boyfriend) asked for a pair. After a bit of experimentation I came up with this really simple pattern that is knit flat and then cleverly folded and seamed to make the slipper/sock shape!

This is the original pair of slipper socks I made for my boy. Its a terrible photo though, so I'm mostly using the more recent shots of my pretty green socks!
Because they don't require a lot of yarn, they make an awesome stash-buster project. You will need approximately 100g of worsted-weight yarn to get the results pictured here! They can be made very special by using a really luxurious yarn or embroidered embellishments and make a great, quick-to-knit gift as well.

These intructions make about a size 7 - 10 (women's) slipper. If you are interested in test-knitting a larger or smaller size for me, please email me to let me know so I can add more sizes to the instructions! Eventually I plan to create a PDF of this pattern for download on Ravelry and it would be nice to offer more than just the one size.

Yarn
For the pair of green slippers I paired a lighter worsted-weight yarn with a strand of kid mohair for a little extra fuzz and depth of colour. Using two strands of similar coloured yarns held together have a beautiful effect, as you can see in the photos.

Green version:
2 balls Knit picks Wool-of-the-Andes, 100% Wool, 110yds/50g. Colourway: Grass.
Approx 25g of Fleece Artist Baby Kid (discontinued, but any baby kid yarn will do) Nylon/Baby Kid Mohair, 1093yds/250g

Grey version:
Approx 100g of Red Heart Worsted. 100% acrylic, 835yds/454g.
Scraps of random green acrylic for edge detail

Tools
Size 7 (4.5mm) needles (or size needed to obtain gauge)
Tapestry needle

Gauge
23 ST and 24 Rows = 4" (in pattern - K1 P1 rib)

Directions
CO 21 ST
Row 1 (ws): *K1 P1* Repeat to end of row
Row 2 (rs): *P1 K1* Repeat to end of row

Repeat these two rows until you have a 21" length.

Fold and pin the strip as in the diagram below, with the right side facing out. Seam along both sides (purl stitches) and the seam should practically disappear.

You will end up with a folded shape like this:
After seaming, squish and shape the slipper sock until you have this sort of shape:
A sock-blocker helps to shape these, but isn't absolutely necessary -- just putting them on your feet will do.

And, you're done! The ribbing makes these flexible, stretchy slipper socks, but keeps them snugly in place when they're on.

When You're a Jet You're a Jet

2009-01-28T00:46:00.005-05:00

One of these days I'll be "rounding up" my 2008 FO's. Just as soon as I track them all down, photograph and detail them that is! I've started and completed only one item in 2009 so far, my huggable shrug (details to come soon, I swear). So I was pretty happy to get started on another project, the Vine Lace Vest that both Jacquie & Lisa have knit with lovely results (Lisa doesn't seem too impressed with hers but I thought it was pretty nice!).

So far I've completed a couple inches of 4x4 ribbing on the back and I'm really digging the results.The yarn is the same one that Jacquie used for hers, FibraNatura Mermaid, although hers was Turkish Tile and mine is Jet Black. It has a great depth of colour colour and a slightly unusual mixture of fibres: 42% Cotton / 35% Superwash Merino / 12% Silk / 11 Seacell. I'm really hoping that this will be a great wearable item for me when it is done, since I often have trouble with full-on woolly sweaters being too warm. I'm counting on the Cotton & Seacell content of this fibre to keep me snug but not overheat me!

Finished Object: Onerva

2009-01-27T00:48:00.004-05:00

You know, when I asked for all your advice on which of these 10 great, free lace shawl patterns I should knit, I didn't expect that the result would end up being one of my favourite finished objects, ever. The main reason it took so long for me to blog about it is that it went straight into rotation as my "cold day" winter scarf and there have been a lot of cold days here this winter! I usually wear it like you see below, wrapped around my neck with the ends tucked in the front of my coat, and the triangle hanging down the front over my coat zipper. I've been told it looks a little bit western (like a cowboy, not a european... although that is inevitable since I'm whiter than white) when worn this way, probably because the geometric lines are similar to a bandana. A giant, cozy wool bandana.

Pattern & Modifications
Onerva by Särmä

The first thing everyone says to me when they see the pattern is "oh my god, you translated it from Finnish!" But the thing is, the pattern itself is a straightforward, charted lace, and it uses typical symbols for yarn-overs, k2togs etc. A little bit of google translate to clarify the chart details and with a little help from some other knitters' ravelry notes it was actually very easy to figure out, and once I got into the second repeat it was easily memorized. The whole thing is made up of only 3 successive stitch patterns, stacked, they form this beautiful sequential lace.

Yarn & Needles
Mmmm, Malabrigo Laceweight, 100% soft, brushed merino in sapphire green. To get the heavier weight fabric, this yarn is knit doubled on 3.25mm (US 3) needles. The results are lusciously soft and drapey but substantial enough to keep you warm even when the temperature heads deep into the minus territories. I used 4 skeins for this shawl, and I basically knit until I ran out of yarn, which was conveniently enough a rather nice size.

Timeline
Begun in September and completed some time in October, this project got a lot of wedding-jitters knitting from me and then was promptly put aside for the actual wedding preparations in late October! Since I've been back from the honeymoon it has been getting almost daily wear though, which is part of why it took so long to photograph.

Twenty-Six Days!

2009-01-26T00:10:00.004-05:00

I can't believe I have posted every day in January so far. It has gotten a bit more difficult lately with my new job which has really cut into my knitting time, and I struggle sometimes with completely non-knitting posts. But, at the end of the day I'm not just a knitter and this is increasingly not just a knitblog.

Now that I've blathered on about lack of knitting content, here is some knitting content! My latest FO -- a cozy wool shrug I just finished up. It is actually blocking right now and I'll shoot some official modelled shots and share the full details once it has dried and hopefully stretched just a tiny bit in the shoulders. I'm expecting a real halo from this great, woolly soft cotswold yarn and I can't wait for it to finish drying so I can wear it!

Presents. Turkey. Drama.

2009-01-25T14:06:00.006-05:00

Just look at all that food! Our table was full to capacity; I think 9 adults is about as many as we can fit. The kids had to eat at the coffee table!
It was just like real xmas! Our "Xmas II" had everything regular xmas does, and more: after our morning of gift-opening, we got ready to host the big holiday meal. It seemed so real that when Adam saw someone in the hallway with grocery bags he thought "how did he get groceries? Isn't everything closed today?". The turkey was deliciously moist and the litre of gravy we made wasn't even needed (although it was delicious). Everyone brought something and there was so much food the table was completely covered. We had scalloped potatoes with toasted gruyere on top, mashed sweet pototoes with cream & butter, steamed broccoli, two kinds of salad, stuffing, homemade rosemary bread and more... never mind we'd been munching on appetizers all afternoon that included Adam's incredible homemade shortbread cookies and a pile of yummy cheeses, crackers and patés.

The only gift items that were a bit of a splurge were these wii games for Tasha & Jamie: Cooking Mama International and Lego Batman.
We bought little inexpensive gifts for everyone, and thanks to the post-holiday sales managed to get some really great things for under $10 for all the adults; we splurged on a bit more expensive gifts for the kids because that is one of the best things about the holidays. Its all about spoiling the kids!

Debris from Jo's Subaru
The drama came in the form of a little um, fender-bender. Sorry about the pun Jo! In the bitterly cold temperatures plastic bumpers are much more brittle that usual, and a little ice disguised as as snowbank can really do some damage.

An awesome xmas II gift! Adam got me My NHL Monopoloy, which lets you choose where to place the teams in the NHL on whatever property you want. It was a lot of fun to play and for some reason its way easier to remember that you own hockey teams than properties!
After dinner we broke out my brand new My NHL Monopoloy game, which I proceeded to lose miserably at. For the longest time the only team I owned were the Avs, and no one ever seemed to land on it. I was the first one out after some not-so-great trades and ended up as a spectator for the rest of the game. Oh well, I got to have the first slice of this delicious cake!

Laura didn't disappoint with this delicious, moist and rich Guinness chocolate cake with crème fraiche icing. Mmmmmm.

Merry Xmas Two!

2009-01-24T13:00:00.004-05:00

Xmas '08 wasn't great for us: I was sick with the death flu, our trip to Nova Scotia was cancelled, and we had no presents or holiday treats at all. But I love xmas too much to just let it pass... so thats why we're having xmas in January this year! We bought each other a few gifts, left the fake tree up an extra month, and even special-ordered an 18lb turkey to share with some of our friends for xmas dinner two tonight. We took turns wrapping gifts out of sight for each other last night, and this morning we got to have our very own special xmas morning, opening gifts while we sipped our coffee. We both got some great, very thoughtful gifts (but nothing too expensive, that is not the point of the holiday for us). My favourite is this clock that I got for Adam -- it is made from Nixie tubes, and looks awesome. It is very steam-punk, a style that he loves, but which is hard to find affordably since they are usually bespoke, high quality products. The maker of these clocks must love doing it, because he sells them very reasonably and they are very nicely made. Adam loves his new clock and so do I, to be honest; it makes a very nice addition to our living room!

Its Getting Better, Every Day

2009-01-23T07:32:00.003-05:00

I promise someday I'll blog about knitting again. For now you'll have to be satisfied with even more photos of me... I'm starting to feel a little self-conscious about the number of photos I have of myself, and how many have appeared here in the past 3 weeks. I can't believe I am 23 days into blogging every single day! Anyways, I just had to post and share the happy ending to my horrible haircut saga; I went to my appointment at Civello last night and saw Trinh and she worked an even better than usual miracle on my hair. Not only does it look great, but it also seems to be the exact same length as it was before she cut it. I don't know how its possible, I was expecting to have to go quite a bit shorter to disguise all those wacky layers!

So as you can imagine, I was quite pleased already when I arrived at the Purl for the January Roundtable, which of course turned out to be a very fun night involving much fondling of much excellent yarns. I was even more stoked when I got up to the prize table and won this great knitting necklace! It matches my shirt :) I took tons of photos and as soon as Spring Knitty goes up I'll be sharing them all.

Oh and, I might have bought just a teeeensy bit of yarn... I cannot resist the sparkle...

And We Didn't Even Plan This

2009-01-22T00:33:00.003-05:00

I met my friend Sar after work last night to visit a gallery show followed by dinner and a quick stop in at Lettuce Knit.

We did not call each other to arrange to wear matching hats, I swear. It just worked out that way! Sar knit hers using the same sparkly Artfibers Beaded Silk that I did, which she also got as leftovers from the original Knitty Roundtable* back in July 2007. She got a little bit more of her yarn than I did so she was able to do the entire crown in the stripe, and the unusual colourway is paired with a strong brown. She's got some gorgeous photos and details on her blog. Looking at this photo I understand why people have asked us if we are sisters, we really do look quite a bit alike.

It was good to get out for a little socializing last night, and we had dinner at a delicious taqueria called El Trompo in Kensington that I will definitely be going back to. And then we headed to Lettuce Knit, where I got to hang out with my knittas, get in a little quality yarn-fondling time and finally get to meet Elwood, Megan's (the owner) six-month-old son. Yes, I have somehow missed seeing him for half a year, but in my defense during that time I made my own wedding dress, got married, spent two weeks in mexico and survived the xmas death-flu. Anyways, he is completely adorable as are all Megan's children (this photo of her daughter with Laura is one of my all-time favourites), and I can't wait until I have the chance to photograph his cuteness!

*Speaking of which, January's Roundtable is tonight! Mmmm, yarn & prizes!

CLATTERS for 81 Points

2009-01-21T07:26:00.003-05:00

Its another bullet point update!
On friday night some of my girlfriends came over and we played scrabble. It sounds boring but when you add the drinking it can actually get quite rowdy. Adam made us homemade leek & potato soup for dinner which we followed with cheeses, crackers, flatbread and even more homemade goodness in the form of chocolate-chip cookies.
I'm grinning like that because my first tray of tiles included the blank (its got a little diamond printed on it in this version) and allowed me to not only use all my letters for a bingo but to hit the triple-word score as well. Woot!

Other than scrabble nights I have been working like a fiend. I am working on a lot of new and different projects at the new job* and it always takes longer to get the work done when you're trying to learn it at the same time. I think I am going to need to ratchet up my already pretty good time management skills if I'm going to keep on top of all the different tasks I need to get done and not end up working 12-hour days** anytime soon.

It is my Nephew Colin's birthday in a few days and he will be two. I feel badly that I don't see him or my niece more often, and as part of Operation Remember People's Birthdays '09 I have already packed up an mailed him a gift. Its really just an excuse to give gifts to people, which is something that I love doing. Colin is getting a little souvenir from Mexico and the Cashmere Robot has gone to live with him.
I'm now trying to come up with a great project to make for his sister, who will be 5 soon and is apparently into unicorns and dolls... a tiny part of me wants to make her a doll with a horn, but I think that would actually be disturbing instead of cute.
This bullet point update is brought to you by the letter 'Q'.

*Hee, I still love saying that. Hooray for employment!
**Don't worry, it hasn't happened yet and hopefully won't happen much, but in the field I'm working in some long days are par for the course. I don't mind when its not every week because at the end of the day, what I do is really cool :)

Finished Object: Mrs Danvers' Mrs Beetons

2009-01-20T00:20:00.003-05:00

This photo is from before the wedding, and my hand already looks
strange to me with only my engagement ring on!
I knit these back in September as a part of a Ravelry group: Knitting 20th Century Novels. We read Rebecca in August/September and I wanted to honour the most interesting character in the book with a little something appropriate, and these little ruffled cuffs were just the thing. Even the name of the pattern seemed like it was meant to be. I really loved this book! I've kind of fallen off the reading schedule since then, although I did read a few more after Rebecca.

Pattern & Modifications
Mrs Beeton (rav link) by Brenda Dayne for Knitty. I modified it by leaving off the beads and working with a heavier and slinkier yarn than the originals. Since I wanted a sort of old-fashioned look, I also made both ruffles the same depth so they would flare out a bit more.

Yarn & Needles
Berocco Bonsai, a worsted-weight bamboo/nylon blend. Its got a lovely shiny finish and when knit with 5mm (US 8) resulted in a nice drapey fabric, and the creamy white yarn is a perfect match with the pattern and look.

Timeline
A very quick knit! I started these on September 5th and finished it on September 7th. Basically each cuff took about a day of knitting and finishing.

Focus on the Love

2009-01-19T07:42:00.003-05:00

Click the photo if you want to see who knit what, or to tag your square.
Ok so I've bitched enough in the past few days about the tiny annoying things that happen to us all sometimes. Now its time to focus on the love! As I'm sure you all know, Adam and I got married in November. Now I sort of knew the knitter's were up to something other than just helping me knit a gazillion wedding roses, but I didn't expect anything as huge and lovely as this blanket. It is absolutely perfect for us, not that Adam gets to use it much; it is wrapped around my lap as I type this!

The colour is gorgeous In Vino Veritas (remember the socks that I knit for Laura? Same colourway) and the yarn is superwash Dream in Colour Classy, a wonderfully squooshy and cozy yarn. It looks lovely draped across our couch and it has been getting lots of snuggle time lately as its been a little chilly here in Toronto.

Thank you so much knitters! I still don't know who knit all of the squares, so please go click on the top photo and add your info so I can give you a big hug in person next time I see you. And thank you especially Elizabeth for coordinating and assembling and knitting that loooong border on it, to Lettuce Knit for the great deal on the yarn, and to Kelly, Jacquie, Emily, Sandi, Aleta, Sarah and everyone else who knit these beautiful squares!

Even. More. Bitching.

2009-01-18T00:30:00.004-05:00

I'm having one of those weeks... all the minor things that are going wrong are really making me appreciate the things that are going well in a big way though! Today's whining is brought to you by the Aveda School, where I went to try to get a simple, straightforward trim to my angled bob today because I had very bad split ends after growing my hair out for the wedding.

Two hours and my literally begging them to just cut my fucking split ends off, this is what they did to me. I thought my last disastrous haircut was shitty. I even paid for the "Academy" level students, who are supposedly fully trained as hairstylists and are just working on learning the aveda special stuff like head massages etc. This cut is the worst one I have ever had in my entire life, and this is coming from someone who has cut and dyed their own hair and occasionally shaved her head. Did I mention that this is after the instructor "fixed" what the first guy did?

I have booked an appointment with my Civello hairstylist, who I love, to have this repaired on Thursday evening. I wish I had gone to her in the first place, but she is rather expensive (but worth it) and I am trying to be responsible about where I spend extra money right now. This is why I was trying the Aveda School!

Never go there. Ever.

Amazing incredible knitting content coming soon, I promise!

Support Our Skaters!

2009-01-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

The Smoke City Betties are having a fundraiser (no facebook? weird! but you can still email for info at info@smokecitybetties.com) at the Amsterdam Brewery on January 24th. We had a blast at the last roller derby we went to back in August and it is really something I think everyone in Toronto should take the time to do! I love the punk-rawk styling, I LOVE the incredible art that accompanies it all, and it is an all-around inexpensive, fun, and wholesome* form of entertainment.

This is one of my favourite shots of a Smoke City Betty from the last derby we attended:

*Not everyone may agree with my definition of "wholesome", but I feel that watching a bunch of women be active, engage in healthy and friendly competition and have a lot of fun doing it sounds pretty wholesome. I would take my kids to see it without batting an eyelash. If I had kids, anyways ;)

Grumpified

2009-01-16T00:01:00.003-05:00

I am in a grumpy mood. We all know I love my Fluevogs; they are cute, stylish yet timeless, and most of all comfortable and durable. Recognize my wedding shoes above? They were perfect and every time I look at them the still make me happy.

So I have to say that when I dropped a small fortune (for me) on a new pair of winter boots last saturday, I felt pretty confident that I was getting one more pair of gorgeous, comfortable and long-lasting footwear to wear for years to come. Instead, I'm back to wearing loafers in winter after the failure of my backup boots because after only 3 days of wear, the heelcap came off. Now this wouldn't be irritating me quite so much, except that when I stopped by the store after work today to get them repaired they told me it would probably take a week-and-a-half and they'll call me. Now to be fair, I am also having the calves stretched to fit my hefty calf muscles. But when I bought the boots they said that would take 2-3 days, so I have to assume the heel repair is what is adding 8 or 9 days.

Why on earth, when I brought in a defective product after only 5 days of ownership and 3 days of wear, did the salesperson not say "....um, let me get you a NEW PAIR". I don't know why it didn't occur to me to ask at the time; maybe I was just so shocked at how long it was going to take that I was rendered speechless. Suffice it to say, I am not happy.

The fact that we're in the middle of deep freeze and I'm now bootless again with consistently -30° temperatures is just the icing on the cake of this bad experience.

Number 36!

2009-01-15T07:11:00.000-05:00

Thats right folks, we are only two weeks into 2009 and I have already crossed ten of the items off my list of 52 things; with a goal of 1 item per week, I can pretty much relax until mid-March at this rate!

Check it out:

1. Recover from this wretched flu bug
DONE! My throat still gets a tiny bit scratchy at the end of the day if I've been talking a lot (anyone who has ever met me knows that this is most days).

2. Get back to going to the gym regularly
It may seem a bit precipitous to call this one already, but I've been to the gym twice in the last 3 days. I'd say that is pretty regularly.

4. Get back to more healthy meals cooked at home
Not only have we gotten back to cooking healthy dinners, but I've been bringing healthy foods for lunch at work. And tuesday are SALAD DAYS at the office: everyone brings a salad ingredient and we all get to share. This week the salad theme was mexican, and it was delicious and totally healthy, hooray!

5. Bake more bread at home
I made yummy flaxbread on Monday and it has been delicious ever since! My new breadmaker (thanks little sis) makes a much bigger loaf so it lasts a few days even with my eating fat warm slabs of bread the minute it comes out of the oven. Mmmmmm. Warm bread.

8. Continue taking vitamins daily
So far so good...

11. Figure out where to get a turkey in January
Turkey source found and ordered! Wittehaven meats at the St. Lawrence market special orders turkeys for a very reasonable $3/lb.

14. Stick with the blogging daily for the month of January
16. Stick with Project 365: Self Portrait
So far I'm winning at both of these. Fingers crossed I can make it another 2 weeks.

36. Buy a new mop
DONE! We bought this lovely specimen at Loblaws today. Goodbye nasty old sponge mop, hello new rag-moppy goodness!

52. Get a job...
This is probably my best one. Yays!

Wish You Were Here

2009-01-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Wait, I mean I wish I was there... this first few days back in the world of "having a job" have been both awesome and exhausting. The positive, I really like the work, so far everyone I've met has been really, really nice, creative, intelligent and diligent. The negative is that it is seriously cutting into my knitting / crafting time, and I am anticipating even longer hours in my future. I think I am going to have to make a real point of making some "me" time, let alone some time to see my friends and socialize at all!

This is a short and rambly post but I'm feeling a bit brain-frazzled today. After a full day of working I took in a really cool lecture put on at OCAD: Innovation in the Obama Campaign. I didn't really have the spare time to go and I was positively starving by the end of it, but it was worth it. Scott Thomas, the Director of Design on the Obama campaign, gave a great overview of the use of graphic design to support and enhance the Obama brand and shared some materials that didn't see a lot of exposure (at least up here... perhaps more of it was seen on the actual ground at campaign stops). The other speaker was Rahaf Harfoush who is actually Canadian who worked on the New Media Strategy for the campaign, which was what I was REALLY interested in and she didn't disappoint. With the current inaugural flurry of excitement on the news (especially my main source of news... the Daily Show & the Colbert Report) it was kind of exciting to actually see people who were a part of the machine.

Sorry for the relative lack of knitting or photography content today. Its all a part of completing number 14! Oh and today's self-portrait is brought to you by my red-nosed face after walking home in -22° today. I am also dorkily impressed that this is the same temperature in both fahrenheit AND celsius. It doesn't take much to impress me sometimes.

Finished Object: Another Green Hat

2009-01-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

It is another green hat! I do love green hats this year, for some reason. This was actually quite a stellar stashbuster project; I've had this little bit of lovely Artyarns Beaded Silk since the very first ever Knitty Roundtable™, and its been languishing in my stash ever since. The 35-odd grams I had were not really enough for anything too large, but a detail spiral stripe on this simple, turned brim hat was just perfect. I used Grumperina's spiral stripe technique to stack single rounds of sparkly green with single rounds of olive green wool. The result is great; nice and cozy and large enough to fit over a ponytail and a scarf when its really cold out there.
Pattern & Modifications
No pattern, I guessed at the cast-on number based on the last two green hats I've knit recently, knit for about 1.5", purled a turning round, and then knit just over 1.5" more. I added the spiral stripe using the spiral technique (see link above) and knit until the sparkly ran out, then added evenly spaced decreases every second round for 6 rounds then every round until I was done.

Needles & Yarn
I used a 4mm (US6) needle to knit more Mister Joe Blanket, a wool/acrylic blend and also for the Artyarns Beaded Silk, a 100% silk with glass beads yarn with lots of sparkle.

Timeline
This was a pretty quick knit, another of my sick days knitting projects when I just wanted comfort knitting and lots of it. Begun on December 28 and completed on December 30, but it would have been quicker if I hadn't re-knit the stripe entirely once (the first draft was a solid band of sparkly yarn, but it didn't look that great).

Blog Profile: Diggin' the Dirt

2009-01-12T00:01:00.002-05:00

I read a lot of great blogs, but I've put in a lot of time seeking out quality content. Now it is time to share some of my favourites with my readers, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Picture from recent post on pinwheel refrigerator cookies she made for the holidays. Aren't they lovely to look at?
Sar of Diggin' the Dirt is a kind of a renaissanace woman when it comes to modern hand-work. She grows her own heirloom fruits and vegetables, cans and preserves them herself, and cooks and bakes amazingly beautiful foods from a huge range of ethnic backgrounds. She once made lederhosen for her St. Bernard, Zeus. She's also a talented photographer, knitter and all-around fibre crafter, and she shares all of these things with us on her lushly photographed, well-written blog. The best thing about it is, she shares detailed and accessible instructions so that you too can try your hand at everything she does.

Full disclosure, we've been friends since before she even started her blog -- we met through a knitting group when we used to work together. But in the few months since she's started it I've been consistently amazed and impressed at the variety and quality of content she's published and grown to look more and more forward to her posts. The world needs more quality blogging like hers!

The Love

2009-01-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

We got a lot of really thoughtful, beautiful gifts for our wedding. But I think this one is pretty special!

Saturday Meme Time

2009-01-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

via Dr Lisa, from waaaay back. I'm having a lot of fun digging up old stuff I flagged but never got around to doing, and a lazy Saturday afternoon seems like a perfect time for a meme. I'm fairly sure I've never done this one before, and it is making me feel very accomplished to go through it!

Bold for stuff you’ve done/are doing, Italics for stuff you intend to do one day, ~~Strikeout for stuff you’re not planning on doing~~. I've taken it a step further and made separate lists...

STUFF I'VE DONE:
Afghan/Blanket (baby)
I-cord/I-cord edging
Garter stitch
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with yarn made of camel, alpaca, synthetic, sheep's wool, recycled, vintage, silk, soy, bamboo, cashmere, hemp, linen, cotton
Mittens cuff up
Hat
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Slip stitch patterns
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Charity knitting
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Slippers
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Scarf
American/English knitting (vs. continental)
Button holes
Knitting items for a wedding -- I'd like to think the dozens of roses I knit count for this!
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 -- I taught one of my sister's boyfriends to knit one christmas. I don't think he was that into it, but he was actually better at it than the sister. Sorry Katie!
Bobbles
Dying yarn -- Koolaid & food-colouring only. I have dyed clothing with proper dyes but I would someday love to use proper acid-based dyes and try handpainting yarn.
Knitting art -- I consider most knitting to be art, so I'm going to count that!
Fulling/felting
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Darning
Writing a pattern
Intarsia
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rugs
Knitting a gift
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting in public
Crochet
Cross stitch/Embroidery/Needlepoint -- I haven't done it in decades though. My grandmother used to buy me embroidery kits that I would work on but never finish. My best friend Meredith does beautiful cross-stitch though, which makes me want to try that someday.
Sew (like on a machine)

STUFF I'D LIKE TO DO:
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with yarn made of wire, yak, banana, plastic bags, cut up fabric
Two end knitting -- I wasn't sure what this was so I looked it up, turns out its twined knitting.
Mittens fingers down
Moebius band knitting
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Publishing a knitting book -- sounds ambitious, but how cool would that be?
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting -- I've put these both here despite the fact that I've done stranded knitting. My understanding is that the terms "fair isle" and "norwegian knitting" refer to specific traditional patterns (wikipedia).
Dying with plant colors
Knitting smocking
Steeks
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Gloves
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Pillows
Thrummed knitting
Knitting for pets
Hair accessories
Knit a vintage pattern (over 40 yrs old)

STUFF I DON'T INTEND TO DO:
~~Knitting with your own handspun yarn~~ -- while I love knitting with others' handspun, I have no interest in spinning my own
Knitting to make money
Knitting for a living -- I've crossed these last two out because frankly the idea of just handknitting for a living doesn't seem feasible or fun; however, it would be awesome to earn a living doing something knitting-related, like designing knitwear, working for a knitting publication doing writing, photography etc, or selling knitting-related products.
~~Knitting on a loom~~ -- I'd like to weave on a loom, but knitter's looms don't appeal
~~Knitting with dog/cat hair~~

Finished Object: Rainbow Gym Socks

2009-01-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Whew! I am totally beat after my first day back in the land of employment. Thank you everyone who commented with congrats, I really could not be happier right now and it means so much that you are all happy for me too!
My exhausted state isn't going to stop me from sticking to my daily blogging though, so you get another FO from the past post for now. I think I actually blogged just the photo of these socks before we left for Mexico, but I never shared all the gory details. This is about all I have the brainpower for today.

Pattern & Modifications
No pattern, just a plain stockinette sock. With some yarns it really seems like a waste to try to force them to work with a detailed pattern and a plain vanilla sock makes good mindless knitting, which is why these became my "gym socks". I like to ride the recumbent bike because I can knit at the same time, but anything too complicated doesn't work. So I worked on these!
Yarn & Needles
Noro Sock yarn, which was not a pleasant experience to work with I'm sorry to say. Gorgeous colours, really beautiful, but scratchy like you wouldn't believe. Noro never lets you down when it comes to colours though, and these are no exception. I've always had a weakness for rainbow spectrum yarns so as soon as I saw this I knew I had to knit with it. I knit them on 2mm (US0) needles and even at that it was a pretty drapey fabric, if not the softest. I think it could be knit on even smaller needles for a denser fabric.

Timeline
These socks were over 3 months in the making, mostly because I didn't really like working on them very much. The finished product is pretty lovely though! I started these on June 1st 2008 and finished them mid-November.

No Frogging News Today

2009-01-08T00:12:00.001-05:00

I was going to share the details about this picture today; I frogged a certain sweater with plans to make another project that I thought I might have gotten started yesterday.

But instead of starting that project, I crossed number 52 off my list. So, instead of a lovely long knitting post about a fun new project, you get this tiny brief update with too many pictures of my grinning face.

Ribbit Ribbit

2009-01-07T01:33:00.002-05:00

I've been on a bit of a frogging kick lately! This here is my orange knee sock, a pattern I'm designing myself and lets just say that between just general brain fuzziness and a little bit of bad math means that I have already frogged and reknit these three times. And guess what? I just realized that I am going to have to frog again, and all because I had to get clever. See that cabled braid below? That is a faux seam detail that I just love--it was inspired by Cookie A's Rhiannon socks and I'm especially looking forward to adding the calf-decreases to either side of the braid's ditch. There is just one problem...
When I place the cable panel on the front of the leg, I miscounted the number of stitches and put it 3 stiches to the left of where it needs to be. At least this time I won't have to frog the entire thing. The cuff is fine, so I can rip back just to the end of that and place the cable panel in the correct spot. Yesterday when I realized this, I tried to tell myself that I could live with it, that 3 stitch offset between front & back cables--less than a 1/4 of an inch--was something I would just call a "design feature".

But I just can't do it. There's been other frogging too but I'm not going into it today. Maybe tomorrow!

Blah Blah Blah

2009-01-06T00:15:00.001-05:00

Bullet point update:

Project 365: Self Portraits is going well. I'd hardly call my photos great works of art, but I think some of them are really cute. Possibly because I'm posing with adorable animals in several of them!
I just realized after ripping and re-knitting 6 inches of knee sock twice already that I messed up the back cable placement by 3 stitches. Somehow I suspect this is destined to become a "design feature".
Glenna is knitting these amazing gloves. I love that they are a traditional Scottish motif presented on a Japanese pattern site. I also love the diagrammed presentation of the instruction; it is very inspiring, and makes me desperately want to get my hands on some Japanese pattern books.
Scout's January desktop calendars are up, and they are gorgeous as usual. I download and use one of these as my background every month -- see, here is December's on my laptop while we were in Mexico! I picked this one for January because I just love the yarn.
Marirob is back to blogging again (at a new location, so don't forget to update your RSS feed) and she's got a great new loom that I am deadly jealous of. Her first few pieces look gorgeous and I look forward to seeing more woven stuff from her.

Finished Object: Silver Shimmer

2009-01-05T00:15:00.003-05:00

I realized a few months ago that when I get cold, the best way to warm myself up is to wrap up my arms and shoulders. A whole sweater isn't necessary most of the time, and in fact often led to overheating. Which meant I would always be putting on and taking off a sweater! So I set out to choose a nice simple shrug pattern to test this theory, and this is the result. I finished it while I was still in the grip of the death flu, which worked out because it is the perfect garment to wear while vegging on the couch or huddled in bed with a cup of Neo-citran. It turned out a tiny bit wide in the shoulders, something I may try to fix with a crochet chain across the inside of the collar later.

Pattern & Modifications
Shimmer by Rebecca Hatcher for Knitty.

It seemed like the ribbing down the front came to a rather abrupt and square end at the bottom, and I wanted a rounder appearance. So I skipped the ribbed beginning of the back and started with the lozenge pattern right away, with the plan of picking up stitches all the way around (including the bottom) once it was all together. I also cast on fewer stitches at the front to keep it slim. For the sleeves I skipped the ruffle and knit a 6" deep simple 2x2 ribbed cuff. I also kept the sleeves to a 3/4 length because that is my favourite sleeve length!

Yarn & Needles
Rowan Kidsilk Night, a sparkly kid mohair blend in a soft grey colour. I used 2.25 balls, held together with a mysterious wool coned yarn I picked up in the basement at Romni. Knit on 3.75mm (US5) it made a nice drapey, sparkly fabric that wasn't too see-through.

Timeline
I cast on this project on November 22, but then I left it at home while we were in Mexico (I only brought small projects on our honeymoon). I picked it up again over the holidays when I finally recovered enough to knit, and finished it up on December 27. So it was actually a pretty quick knit, considering it really only got about 2 weeks of my knit time and as always, I was working on other projects as well.

52 Things

2009-01-04T00:15:00.002-05:00

I do love a list. This year I have broken it right down to 52 items, which means one a week on average. I hope I can manage that! I think I did alright on last years goals: I published a knitting pattern and knit these awesome stranded-colourwork mittens (I'm not sure I'd say I've "mastered" it but I certainly got the hang of that two-handed knitting technique). I do think I blogged a bit more in 2008, although I hope to improve on that in 2009.

2008 was a bit of a rollercoaster year for me, with incredible highs (sewed my own wedding dress, got married, honeymoon in Mexico, incredible generosity from friends and family) and some pretty bad lows (got laid off, unemployed for many months, struggled with my weight). I also worked very hard to develop healthier living habits in 2008, and so some of the items on my list are purely a matter of not letting those habits go. Between travel and illness, I let a lot of my good habits slide in December, so my first goal is to get better and get back on that horse!

Recover from this wretched flu bug
Get back to going to the gym regularly
Start a serious weight-lifting program
Get back to more healthy meals cooked at home
Bake more bread at home
Continue shopping for food seasonally, locally & organically as much as possible
Get back into a "normal" sleep cycle
Continue taking vitamins daily
Continue to buy less stuff
Have xmas do-over in January
Figure out where to get a turkey in mid-january!
Invite a few friends to join us for do-over
Wrap up and send out gifts and cards for people who don't live locally
Stick with the blogging daily for the month of January
Blog more regularly for the entire year, too
Stick with Project 365: Self Portrait
Update the blog to a wordpress or movable type template
Finish details on Seamesh pattern & self-publish for sale via Ravelry
Revise Athena for self-publication & self-publish for sale via Ravelry
Develop at least 4 new knitting patterns for publication & self-publication
Get back into sock-knitting
Tidy up craft room and get rid of stashed craft supplies that I probably won't ever use
Knit down my stash, especially my sock yarns
Sew at least one item per month
Learn to weave
Finish sorting, editing and uploading Mexico photos
Finish sorting, editing and uploading scanned family photos
Send out remaining family photos for scanning
Create a photobook to be printed of family photos
Catch up on backlog of old photos from 2008 and beyond
Improve my photography by taking a course
Follow through on setting up stores to sell photo cards, prints etc
Continue to declutter
Find a good deal on a bare-bones media storage machine
Complete transition of DVDs to digital media storage
Buy a new mop
Fix the floor dividers in the kitchen
Put up picture rails in craft room, bedroom & foyer
Put up shelves in my bathroom
Sew shower curtain for my bathroom
Replace awful horrible no-good blinds on windows
Clear out and organize the front closet
Clear out and organize storage locker
Sell off some of the items we just don't use any more
Paint
Send out thank you cards to everyone who came to the wedding
Figure out who gave us the awesome Mukka Stovetop Cappucino/Latte Maker (we use it all the time, but it had gotten separated from its card! )
Go through all the amazing photos everyone took at our wedding and collect a best of for a photobook and gallery
Choose & print wedding photo for signed wedding mat, get it framed and hung on the wall
Take a trip to Niagara to buy wines again (we loved doing this, and we love having "stash" wines to draw from year-round!)
Travel to Nova Scotia to visit family
Get a job...

Finished Object: Decadent Silk Headscarf

2009-01-03T00:26:00.001-05:00

Did you ever find a great deal (40% off!) on a totally gorgeous luxury yarn that you just loved and had to have and couldn't wait to knit with... and then 2 years and 3.5 project attempts with it later, realized that it just wasn't working out? That you and the yarn and your knitting just weren't a match, and there really wasn't anything you could do about it?

First of all, it really is a luscious yarn. 100% silk, in a lustrous light green that almost seems to glow from within, and soft to the touch in a way that makes you just want to keep it as a pet. Which is exactly what I did, for a long time. And then one day I was in a project-starting kind of mood and so I wound it up and started something with it. I don't really remember what the first project I tried to knit from this yarn was, but it was a bad match and it was inevitably frogged. A few months later, same story. And again. At one point I had it paired with a printed pattern and needles and all collected together in a project bag ready to go... and there it stayed, until I eventually rescued the needles, tossed the pattern and returned the yarn to my stash.

I was starting to think the yarn was actually cursed, so when I started this project I decided that regardless of the finished product I was going to complete it. To be honest, this was a really fun pattern to knit and the yarn, while a bit slippery, was buttery soft and a pleasure to work with. The texture created was pretty neat, too, and it was great for knitting on the streetcar, even on short trips.

The finished product though, well, is not perfect. It looks neat styled here in my lightbox, but the fabric rolls up tightly into a skinny tube when you try to wear it as a scarf and while I did try wearing it as a headscarf the bulk of the knot sitting at the base of my skull actually became a bit painful after a while and the skinny tubes hanging down my back just looked kind of sad. If I wasn't just so tired of trying to match up projects with this yarn I'd probably frog it and tuck it back into the stash. But I don't know if I have the heart to do that, I really don't. The worst part though? This scarf only ate up one of the skeins. I still have another ball, waiting patiently to be knit into something.

Pattern & Modifications
Dream Swatch Head Wrap by Wendy Bernard of Knit & Tonic. I made no modifications, just knit as specified. It really is a fun item to knit, and I'm sure with the right yarn would be a lovely item to own. Just not with this yarn!

Yarn & Needles
Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, a really soft and gorgeous 100% silk yarn. I knit it using 3.75mm (US5) needles, which resulted in a nice relaxed fabric (except for the whole rolling like a bastard thing, of course).

Timeline
Begun in April and picked up here and there until I finally completed it in July 2008.

New Year, New Project

2009-01-02T01:30:00.005-05:00

I haven't really sat down and considered my "goals" for 2009 yet. I'm actually not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions, and yet every year I make and break them. This year will be no different I'm sure, and I'll be sure to let you all know as soon as I have the brainpower to come up with a few more meaningful goals.

For now, I'm finally starting to feel better and I didn't want to let the beginning of the year slip away watching Life on Mars while sitting on the couch. I'm still not quite well enough to head back to the gym (I have weirdly missed going to the gym... I can't wait to get back and get back on track with my workouts!) but I wanted to start a few of the blogging-related goals on time. They are pretty simple:

Blog every day for the month of January, even if its nothing but an old photo, a link or a single line about what I'm up to. I'm hoping that a month of this will get me back into the habit of daily posts and I'll keep up a regular posting schedule once February arrives!
Project 365 - take a self-portrait every day. The photo on this post is actually yesterday's -- since I'm preparing this post the day before ;)

Oh and details about the hat coming soon, of course!

Finished Object: Sick Day Cowl

2009-01-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all the New Year's best wishes folks!

When I get sick, I tend to be down for a long time. I'm just susceptible to any kind of respiratory bug, I guess. So after the first few days when I was too sick to knit (it was terrible) I began to recover enough to actually start some knitting again. After a few false starts I settled on a strategy of going through my stash, picking a luscious yarn that I wanted to spend time touching, and then find a project to fit it. This is the result, and I love it!

Pattern & Modifications
Sherbrooke by Lollyknits. There is a fairly major error in this pattern that I didn't catch until I had knit about an inch, and I rather liked the look of the "mistake" so that is what you see here. If you want to match the original ribbing, the second row should read *K1, P1* instead of *K2, P2*. I cast on the larger, looser size at 70 stitches and still find it quite snugly fitting so I think my gauge was a bit tighter than called for. I also knit mine a bit shorter than specified, only about 14" long instead of 18". But I love the finished product and I can't wait until I'm well enough to actually go outside and need to wear it!

Yarn & Needles
Fyberspates Chunky Scrumptious Solid, a delicious bulky-weight wool/silk blend that I bought to knit wedding roses with and ended up with about 55 grams left over. It went quite a bit further than I thought it would on 5mm (US 8) needles and I ended up not needing to use any other yarns to finish the cowl off (my original plan was to use the silk until it ran out, then switch to another of the leftover red yarns from the wedding rose project and have a two-tone red cowl).

Timeline
December 28-29, 2008. I was doing not much other than knitting those days so it went very fast, despite being all ribbing.

I know I look kind of angry in this photo... its really just tiredness and the flu. I really do love my new red silk cowl!

Finished Objects 2009

2009-01-01T00:01:00.008-05:00

December

November

August

May

March

February

January

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T23:39:00.003-05:00

I'm still sick, but at least I'm no longer too sick to knit. FO details to follow, along with the traditional "year in review" and "goals for 2009". All things considered, this is hardly my worst ever New Years' celebration. Now its time to open the bubbly and watch the ball drop in New York :)

Happy Holidays

2008-12-27T01:03:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had/is having a lovely holiday. I was too busy with travelling in early December and then being miserably ill for the past few days to get my christmas cards out this year, so I am opting for the lazy, digital option. We're on the top of a Mayan pyramid we climbed on our honeymoon in this picture. Don't we look nice and healthy here? Too bad I don't feel that healthy anymore... I have never been this sick for christmas before. We even ended up cancelling our plans to travel to Nova Scotia at the very last minute on Christmas Eve, so my "christmas dinner" here at home was grilled chicken breast cut into very tiny pieces and doused in gravy. It was nawesome.

To make myself feel better, I have started seriously looking at branching out my fibre hobbies. If anyone has weaving experience and some advice for good beginner looms / books on weaving, I'd love to hear from you. Yvette and I spent an afternoon at the Textile Museum of Canada a few weeks ago and got a chance to play with the looms in the kids' section. I was smitten with the 4-harness Leclerc floor loom but I'm not sure its the most practical place to start for me -- we don't have a lot of spare room in our condo for a large floor loom, nor can I justify spending a huge amount of money on a hobby I don't even have yet.

I'm Back!

2008-12-19T11:54:00.003-05:00

And while I was gone, winter started. There is a mighty blizzard happening out there right now, which is quite a shock after warm sunny days on the beach for the past few weeks.

I've got a million things to do now that we're back, but something really exciting happened while I was away that I feel like I have to share a quicky update before I get totally wrapped up in housecleaning, grocery shopping and party planning:

Winter Knitty is up, and I have a pattern in it: Miittens. I also shot the photos for the Tushy Cushy, and I think they are damn near as adorable :) I also had a look at the Ravelry page for the Miittens and OMG people have already knit them. And 182 people have them in their queues!! Squeee!

Oh yes, and I finally caved and signed up for Twitter. Check out my feed in the sidebar and join the notanartist tweet army if you dare.

Dr Steph Meme

2008-12-08T00:43:00.001-05:00

You know, I have fallen quite a bit behind on this whole blogging game. I can't believe I have ignored this simple meme from Dr. Steph for more than 6 months now...

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
I would have been finishing up the first semester of my first year in Industrial Design. There probably would have been all-nighters and heavy drinking!

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Lay on the beach
Knit
Take photos
Drink Margaritas
Think about how lucky I am

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Anything salty! I love plain potato chips, french fries & pretzels. All things I try not to eat on a regular basis now that I don't have the metabolism of a 20-year-old cyclist :(

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Buy a house with a yard so I could plant flowers and vegetables. Indulge in some designer furniture pieces to put in it, and hire someone to dust it all ;)

5) Places I have lived:

Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto

7) 6 peeps I wanna know more about:

Live from Mexico!

2008-12-06T11:51:00.003-05:00

Wow. The pictures really say it all, don't they! Everything here is just beautiful beyond words. The sun, the sand, the jungle, the animals, even the people are extra beautiful here. The temperature so far has been completely perfect – just like the best part of late summer at home, when it is toasty warm all day and then you need a light sweater in the evenings. The sky is enormous and at night you can see all kinds of stars... stars I had kind of forgotten existed, living in Toronto for 10 years.

We spent an amazing first day here at the resort just chilling at the beach with some beverages, books & beach bingo. We are also slightly less pasty now, although we've been going heavy on the sunscreen and hanging in the shade as much as possible.

Today's plans involve more beach, more sun, and more relaxing with a tasty beverage, and tomorrow or monday we'll be headed for some Mayan ruins.

Full photoset lives here: Mexican Honeymoon, Day One

Finished Object: Birthday Bee!

2008-12-05T00:38:00.002-05:00

I finished this cute little guy in a matter of hours after getting a last minute invite to a birthday dinner. My friend Pris is really into all things cute and is adorable herself, so nothing would do but an adorable, cute little bee for her.

Pattern & Modifications
Bumble the Bee by Emi Carmichael. I followed the directions for the body although I subbed a “magic ring” start and added some little brown safety eyes instead of embroidered eyes before I finished and stuffed it. I found the wing instructions a bit confusing so I just crocheted little flaps out of some fluffy silver yarn I had leftover from the Gir project and sewed them on. I also added a loop so he could be dangled from a handy flower!

Yarn & Hook
I used a 3.5mm (E) hook for all the parts of this little bee, and the yarns were all leftovers from various past projects. I hardly made a dent in my leftovers stash to make him, he was so tiny! The black yarn is a yummy soft Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, the yellow is leftover mystery yarn I got to knit a blanket square from In The Loop before they went under. The silver is Berroco Quest leftover from Robot Gir.

Timeline
About 2 hours all told, on October 6th.

Tropical Dreamin'

2008-12-03T01:42:00.004-05:00

My husband and I (I'm still not tired of saying that!) are taking a last-minute honeymoon to MEXICO!! We found an incredible deal on last minute airfare and an all-inclusive resort in the Yucatan Peninsula region and I am beyond excited about getting to see this and this and this, not to mention getting in some quality beach time, sailing, snorkeling and horseback riding. There might even be drinks with tiny umbrellas in them, to be consumed on the beach whilst knitting and trying not to get too sunburned.

(These socks have nothing to do with our trip, but the colours just seem so nice and tropical I had to include them in this post)
So naturally, I have been running around trying to get all our ducks in a row, trying to buy bathing suits, shorts and tee-shirts in December and making sure we have house-sitting, bill-paying and all the million of other little life details taken care of before we fly the coop.

Today I took care of an extremely important detail. I selected and prepared my vacation knitting! I'll be taking along my WIP Clapotis, and starting several new projects specially for the trip.

Orange Sea Knee Socks
I've finished my Red Snickets (sorry, details will have to wait until I get back) from Project Sock Rainbow, and so I'll be working on the next colour in the rainbow. I've got two skeins of lovely orange Sea Sock, so I'm planning knee-high cabled socks of my own design. If they work out, I may even think about sharing the pattern somehow.
Father-in-Law Hat
We're heading to the in-laws house for xmas this year, and that means knitted gifts! I'm planning to knit this great cabled hat pattern (non ravelry link here) in the same tweedy, military green I knit my own cute little cabled hat in. I think it will be perfect for Adam's Dad, and a fun and gratifying item to knit on the beach, if I can get past the idea that I am knitting a WOOLY HAT in a tropical climate.
Husband Socks
Eventually there will be a Husband Sweater, the latest in a series that include The Boyfriend Sweater and The Fiancé Sweater. Since a sweater in my lap is the last thing I'll want on this trip, I'm starting with this pair of socks (non ravelry link here) in the most gorgeous blue-green Malabrigo sock yarn that we recieved as a wedding gift. It seems only right that I use it knit something for Adam with it.

I feel pretty confident that I have planned enough knitting for our little trip with these 3 (4 if you count the clap) projects. If I haven't, there might just have to be some kind of Mexican LYS expedition... I probably won't be blogging much for the next while (for a change, I know), so have a great December!

Finished Object: Green Cables

2008-11-26T02:35:00.004-05:00

Tuesday went much better than Monday, which is always the way I guess. In the afternoon I puttered around, did a bit of blog-reading and knitting, and cooked some tasty garlic/ginger/black bean salmon for dinner. Then I hung out with Anna (how cool is it that I now have a neighbour who is a knitter? Anna is a kick-ass lace knitter who lives only one floor away) and we knit and discussed the shortcomings of short-row toes and heels. Then we went to the gym where we watched Jeopardy and the only other people there were a couple of young somewhat nerdy types. We all yelled out the answers, and it was much better than light jazz to workout to... and I was super happy to fit in a full 90 minutes of exercise today!

I am also happy to bring to you a recent successful knit! I love this little hat, it was fun to knit and I think its totally cute on me.

Pattern & Modifications
Cabled (non-ravelry link here) by Thea Colman of babycocktails. I used lighter weight yarn and smaller needles than the pattern called for, so I upped the stitches and added 2 extra cable repeats. I also opted to stagger the twists, although it is a little difficult to see. I think it turned out a little smaller and snugger than the original pattern intended, but as a cute tight-fitting beanie it looks great. I love that the olive drab colour combined with the little vintage brass buttons give it a slight military feel, and my husband tells me I look totally punk rawk wearing it. Yays!

Yarn & Needles
Mister Joe Blanket, a nice wooly DK weight yarn I bought from Elann in early 2007. Actually, this is leftover yarn from the Fiancé Sweater... I guess now its time to start working on a husband sweater, huh? I used a 4mm needle and adjusted the pattern accordingly to work with the thinner yarn.

Timeline
This hat was started in mid-October as a break project from a certain giant lace shawl I've been working on, so it actually didn't see that much knit-time until recently. I finally knit the i-cord, attached the buttons and sewed the hem up earlier this week. Just in time for some seriously winter weather here in Toronto. Brrr!

Grump

2008-11-24T18:52:00.003-05:00

I am in a grump today. This is partly because of a last minute schedule change that resulted in my going to the gym at "rush hour" today (5:30-6:30pm) which meant all the machines were in use and people were blatantly ignoring the 30-minute rule so I ended up only getting half the workout I had planned. Plus someone had put light genera-jazz on as background music and frankly that is exactly the opposite of good workout music. Low tempo mellow music is for relaxing after dinner, not for high energy aerobic workouts!

So yeah. On to of that, I feel like lately I have nothing to blog about, other than the wedding, which is now over and which I'm still not ready to revisit in excruciating detail (I'm sure you all appreciate this). Its not that I haven't been knitting, because I have been. I've even bought yarn lately. But lately it feels like my projects just turn out a little wrong, like the malabrigo cowl I knit that blocked out huge and floppy and well, not cowl-like at all. Or the silk headscarf that I knit that turned out a little too long and a little too bulky to work well as a headscarf, but is too short and skinny to make a good scarf, either. Don't even get me started on the last sweater I attempted!

Maybe its just that it is fall and it should be prime inspiration time for me, but instead I feel creatively drained. I see all sorts of things I'd like to knit or photograph or bake or build but I can't seem to muster the motivation to do anything about any of it.

Somebody call me a wahhmbulance!

Not Really a Wedding Update

2008-11-18T13:22:00.004-05:00

That was a bit of a longer break than I planned to take, but after the wedding (which was completely awesome) my husband (squee!) and I just felt like hiding from the world for a while. Total social and organizational burnout!

I haven't really dealt with the something like 600+ photos that our amazing friends and family have shared with us, but as soon as I have a chance to look through them all I promise to post some of the highlights.

For now we get a knitting and SEX (Stash Enhancement eXpedition) update!
Last week I decided that it was time to buy some new yarn for winter. I've been very very good for the past few years, really not buying much yarn at all unless it was for a specific project or for a spectacularly good price like at the going out of business sale In the Loop held this summer. So with a gift certificate for Romni (thanks Sandi!) burning a hole in my pocket I knew exactly where to start. Elizabeth came down and we spent some time digging through basement bargains and wandering the aisles of yarny goodness. What I ended up with was 4 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Night in a soft and sparkly grey. I found a cone of mystery wool in just the right shade, too, and held together it is going to make me a lovely cozy winter shrug. Right now I'm leaning towards Shimmer for this, although I'll probably shorten the sleeves quite a bit. I am decidedly a 3/4 length sleeve person.

After Romni failed to have the Holiday Interweave that I also planned to pick up, it was pretty much inevitable that we would head straight for Lettuce Knit in search of this and other yarny things. I got my magazine, and also scored a bag of lovely sale Blue Sky Cotton Silk (not pictured yet) in a variety of colours that I know will make beautiful and soft, machine-washable baby blankets in the future. For my own personal knitting enjoyment I also picked up 2 skeins of Malabrigo in a hot hot hot red-pink colourway called, appropriately enough, Amoroso. It is soft and wonderful and I've already knit some of it up into a beautiful cowl that some lucky person might just be getting for xmas this year.

Oh yes, how could I forget? We got some truly wonderful wedding gifts from our generous and thoughtful friends and family. As a result we have a couple of surplus appliances right now! If you are interested in a free Breadmaker or Rice Cooker, let me know. The breadmaker is a Black & Decker from the mid-nineties that still works just fine, although the paddle doesn't come out anymore so it can be a bit of a pain to wash and it only makes up to a 2 lb loaf of bread. The ricemaker is a 5-cup Westinghouse model that works fine although it tends to splatter a bit if you make a full pot of rice.

Happy Hallowe'en!

2008-10-31T09:34:00.002-04:00

Have an awesome hallowe'en everybody, and think of us as we tear around the city getting last minute errands taken care of before the big day tomorrow. Only 1 day left!

The Reason

2008-10-24T11:58:00.003-04:00

I never blog anymore...

See that skirt? It is an ankle-length full circle skirt with two full layers, the outer of which I am hemming by hand (this photo is pre-hemming). The wedding is now in exactly 8 days and let me tell you, there are a lot of little things left to do! DIYing everything is fun and cheaper and I'm getting exactly what I want but there sure are a lot of little details to handle.

I've had so many generous offers of help too, because I have wonderful friends, and yet 90% of the things left to do can't really be delegated... and on top of it all, I am sick. Sore throat, runny nose, all the things you don't want the week before you are about to get married. Fingers crossed this stops lingering and I healthfully rebound with increased energy in a few days.

Oh and lest you think this post is nothing but the whining:

I'm in the Knitty Calendar! Well actually, Zoë is in the calendar. Thank you Knitty, and thanks Joyce & Joe for letting me take advantage of your daughter's incredible adorableness.

Birthday Bees & Bets

2008-10-10T01:04:00.000-04:00

This last week was a week of birthdays and birthday celebrations! On Monday afternoon, my dear friend Priscilla emailed to mention that it was her birthday and she would be celebrating with dinner that evening. On such short notice I knew I had to do something wee and adorable, which was perfect for her anyways. And so, buzz the bee was born!

Buzz was crocheted from random scraps of yarn I had around the house in about 1.5 hours, which makes him the perfect last minute gift project.

I used a free pattern (Rav Link here) by Emi Carmichael. I followed the directions for the body although I subbed a “magic ring” start and added some cute brown safety eyes before I finished and stuffed it. I found the wing instructions pretty confusing so I really just crocheted little flaps and sewed them on. I also added a loop so he could be dangled from a handy flower!

And last friday was my friend Jo's birthday and she thought a trip to the racetrack would be a great way to celebrate! So, we booked an Autoshare car and left the city to bet on the ponies at Mohawk Racetrack.

We had a great time. I used to go to the track with my family when I was a kid and I loved it then; it is even more fun when you can place your own bets! I also brought the camera and practiced "panning" to capture the motion of the horses. I took loads of duds but a few were exactly what I was going for.

It was a chilly evening out in the country so the track wasn't very busy at all; so we had lots of freedom to wander around, let everyone's kids run a little wild without driving anyone nuts, and to go from warm seats inside between the races to awesome trackside spots just in time to watch the races! We only lost about $20-30 between us, which is pretty great considering we bet every race. It helped that Adam won like 3 times and I won once or twice too. His system of choosing horses based on how similar their names were to cars or porn stars worked pretty well, while my random decisions based on how shiny the horses were and which ones the girl-children liked was less sucessful. But we sure had fun doing it :)

Boom De Yada

2008-10-07T03:38:00.000-04:00

I try not to do these "hey check out this video" posts too often, but I really like this one.

Roses, Roses and more Roses

2008-10-03T16:30:00.001-04:00

I have been going a bit crazy with the length of my wedding to-do list lately. Not that its really all that bad, its just that some of the stuff on it is either tedious or requires me to make decisions in a timely manner. Something I'm not always so good at.
So, to distract myself I have been knitting roses. Lots and lots of roses! The plan is have lots for bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages for the family members and wedding attendants (only 1 attendant each but I have a BIG family!) plus I really want to have some to include in the decor. I also scored an awesome deal on wholesale long-stem red roses from a flower shop in my old 'hood so we will be using those to decorate as well.

I assembled this sample pot of mixed fresh and knitted roses and I love it! Less than $10 worth of materials in each one, too, which makes it a great inexpensive way to decorate for our reception and ceremony. Fresh flowers are always gorgeous and it was really important to me to include them in the decor somehow. These flower pots were less than $3 each from Ikea, and I got an amazing deal from a flower shop in our old neighbourhood near Broadview & Danforth, so if you are ever looking for great value flowers you should definitely check them out. Thanks Miko, for reminding me about this wonderful little shop.

So I have put my collection of adhesives to work and attached black ribbons around a whole bunch of these white flower pots in preparation for the big day. I'm still debating whether it will be easier to make these arrangements with some floral foam in each pot and since I don't want them to take forever to make since I'll probably be pretty busy that day!

Pixels at Last

2008-09-29T14:11:00.000-04:00

I have stacks and STACKS of old family photos in my storage locker. Every few years I sit down and make an attempt to go through and sort and scan them (they have mostly come to me loosely tossed in boxes) but it is hard, especially since many of the photos are from when I was very young or even from before I was born, and the people who could identify the subjects have been gone for many years now.

One of my faves! This is shot from my Grandparent's driveway, but I'm not actually sure who is playing Santa.

So a few weeks ago when I caught this article on Unclutterer about paying a service to digitize your old photos for you, I was inspired to get out my old boxes of family memories and make another attempt at sorting through them all. The only catch was, none of the services listed at Unclutterer were Canadian, and adding international shipping made it prohibitively expensive for a service that lets face it, I could do myself here at home with the flatbed scanner we own.

1978 means that Darth Vader celebrated Christmas with Santa! I have no idea who is wearing these costumes though.

But I wasn't giving up, and the search was on for a local and affordable solution. Adam was the one who finally found it -- Photoscanning.ca is Toronto & Orillia-based, and was having a huge August promotion during which they would scan prints for only 5¢ each (normal price still a very reasonable 10¢ each), plus they picked up and dropped off my photos for free. More importantly, they showed up to do this exactly when they said they would!

This pic is no mystery -- me and my Dad at Canada's Wonderland in 1983. Aren't my shorts AWESOME?
They were also fantastic to work with, and they are a new and local business so I'm happy to support them*. They gave me a discount code to share, so if you decide to use their services before October 15th of this year, quote the code "FALLSAVINGS" when you contact them.

*Full disclosure: I got an additional 10% discount off my photo order for blogging about the experience afterward; so mention that you blog if you contact them!

I'm in Love

2008-09-17T03:42:00.002-04:00

This really is the perfect lace shawl for me. The colour, the texture, the perfectly balanced lace repeats that were easily memorized but not so repetitive as to be boring. Lately, my knitting projects have been either product (ie, I want to have this sweater) or meditative (ie, I need some basic repetitive knitting to keep my fingers busy). So a lace shawl seemed like exactly the thing to break myself out of these habits and take on a new challenge and work with a luscious new yarn. I didn't quite realize how much it would renew my love for knitting... I am really enjoying the development of the lace pattern and the more I handle this yarn the more I love the buttery soft texture of it.

I had a false start knitting it single stranded but it was obvious that the pattern wanted to be a more substantial yarn. Doubling the Malabrigo Lace gave it the perfect weight and I looooove the results. Now lets just hope I can sustain the love as the repeats get longer and longer and longer... I can't wait to wrap this gorgeous soft shawl around my neck.

A New Shawl Begins

2008-09-15T01:54:00.004-04:00

So I have counted the votes and Onerva is the clear favourite! It looks like I'll be starting a beautiful green malabrigo version just as soon as I finish winding it into balls. I think in the future whenever I have a difficult decision to make I will ask the internet to help me out again :) Thank you so much everyone who commented and helped me choose!

I will post pictures as soon as I have a chance to get a real start on this project, and I'm really excited to be beginning something a bit more complicated than the many mindless projects I've been working on lately. Not that I haven't been busy with other creative projects!

Wedding plans are moving right along. We've got the license, and I've done this draft version of the final dress based on bodice and skirt pieces from two other dresses, plus a simple gathered sash pattern that is all in my head. The real dress will be ivory coloured bamboo rayon, and the sash will be a lovely red dupioni silk I picked up at Fabricland on friday. There are still a lot of things left to get done though, and the big day is approaching faster and faster now.

I'm pretty excited about everything coming together, but you know how they say that stuff will just go wrong when you are planning a wedding? I really thought I was prepared for that, but now it seems the best man has decided he doesn't want the job after all. He chose to spring this news on us late Saturday night while we were all out celebrating another friends' birthday where we couldn't really say anything about it. A is pretty upset, and while I'm hardly surprised I'm pretty angry that he left this until six weeks before the wedding to tell us. Its not exactly the first time he's let A down, either.

I just hate people sometimes.

Decisions Decisions

2008-09-12T13:28:00.004-04:00

I am usually very good at making decisions, but there are some times when I am just overwhelmed with attractive options. This is where I find myself today, and I call on you, all 19 of my regular blog readers, to help me make this very important decision.

Which shawl should I knit out of this lovely Malabrigo Laceweight?

I have 4 skeins so I can afford to make a generously sized triangular shawl, which I will probably use as a cozy and beautiful winter scarf more than anything. Please let me know in the comments which one you love the most! The contenders, in no particular order:

Lumiruusu (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
I really like this one, it has got a progression of simple geometric patterns that I suspect would keep my interest better than some of the all-one-pattern ones.
Aquila (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
Again, this is just a lovely shawl. Nice geometric shapes without being too boxy or boring.
Go Fly A Kite (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
Pretty and geometric. I suspect I would change the border if I did this one though.
Arrowhead Lace (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
I just love the lines the lace pattern on this one makes, and I think they would shine through no matter how I wear it.
North Roë (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
A great combination of simple geometric lace with a progression element that I love.
Onerva (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
This is more solid than most of the others, which could definitely work for a winter scarf. Its also a little unusual looking, which I love.
Kiri (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
A classic favourite, and for good reason. Kiri has the organic flavour of the leaf lace, simple geometric lines, and I think would make a lovely winter scarf.
Luna Moth (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
This is getting a little curvier in pattern, but still sticking to my love for geometric simple forms.
Adamas (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
Another elegant classic, geometric without being boring and with a great balance of openwork and heavier sections.
Gold Nugget (Ravelry Link) (Flickr Link)
More open than most of the others I've considered, I just love the look though. I'd probably work it on slightly tighter needles to keep it a bit on the warmer side.

Presley wears the Baby Surprise Jacket

2008-09-08T02:17:00.000-04:00

Remember the Baby Surprise Jacket?

It didn't seem possible, but it actually does look even cuter on baby Presley than it did on Guinness.
She was also a way more cooperative model, although she only seemed interested in smiling while we were "primping" her and fixing the sweater etc. Like in this pic I think either Sandi or Jay is tugging her pants into place.

She certainly looks happier about the whole thing than Guinness did.
In general though Presley is just a super cute baby and it was tough to decide which of the adorableness to share. If you want to see the rest check out the set, too!

In The Loop: Final Sale

2008-09-05T01:42:00.004-04:00

This past weekend was the final sale of stock from In The Loop, and they certainly went out in style and with a lot of really great deals. I bought way more than I planned but spent less than I thought I would. It was also really really nice to see everyone again!
I scored enough sparkly Louisa Harding Jasmine in a sweet pink and a single ball of purple for details and I think it will be an adorable little baby sweater at some point.

Four balls of the most deliciously yummy yarn will eventually become a gorgeous dressy wrap (I'm totally stealing Kelly's gorgeous idea. I may even look for some beads for the edging.)
This beautiful, earthy Jitterbug will someday be a Clapotis, something I've been wanting to knit again since I made one back in the days of pre-blog.

Did I mention.... the Malabrigo? Three skeins of Silky in a buttery new-jeans blue colour, just because I wanted it. I have no idea what it will eventually be, but who cares! I do think it will match nicely with any leftovers from the brown Silky B-side I'm almost finished knitting, so maybe there will be a stripey scarf or something.
I have been wanting to knit a Lady Eleanor in Noro ever since Laura knit hers last year. But I never seem to find just the right colourway of it. Until now! I bought A LOT. It is going to be amazing. Now all I need to do is master entrelac!

Oh and anyone who has ever spent time in a yarn store with me knows I've been lusting after the laceweight for a while but it took a mega sale for me to finally take the plunge. This stuff is just so yummy.

Finished Object: Cabled Knee Socks

2008-09-03T12:26:00.004-04:00

I loved the sheepfold cable down the front, and it has a really neat construction
My spring knitting was all about deadlines and socks this year, and for the most part I couldn't blog about the results right away. I've already shared Athena, which I designed for Robyn's April Sock Club using Roxane's delicious yarns. I will be offering this pattern for sale in the next few weeks if people are interested. But in addition to Athena, I was also knitting another very tall sock this spring: an actual knee sock (my first ever!) to be included in Laura's latest book, Teach Yourself Visually Sock Knitting.

Check out that gorgeous calf shaping
Pattern & Modifications
I followed the pattern that Laura sent me very closely, since this was a sample for the book. Other than catching a few minor errors in the charts I made absolutely no modifications, and of course the published charts have been checked and corrected. One of the things I liked about the sock is how easily it could be sized up by inserting a few extra purl stitches between cables for my curvier legs.

Yarn & Needles
Dream in Color 'Smooshy', a lovely 100% merino sock yarn with killer yardage -- I used less than 1.5 skeins to knit knee socks. The colourway is In Vino Veritas (very appropriate!)

Timeline
I started these in mid-february and finished them up mid-march.

Even though the cables look complicated, they were easy to memorize once I had done a few repeats

Craft Room Extraordinaire

2008-09-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

Our craft room / library / guest room has been quite the disaster area since we moved into our home 18 months ago, and it became that room where stuff just landed and never left, to the point where the idea of asking a guest to sleep in there was totally out of the question.

A few weeks ago, we finally decided to do something about it, and so we went off to shelf-mecca (Ikea of course) to buy a more unified storage solution. Ivar was the logical choice since we already owned some of the bits from previous single-shelf incarnations, and this is what we ended up with. The base cabinets hide some of the untidy bits and the extra-tall shelves hold loads of books and even leave some space for rubbermaid tubs of yarns and other crafty materials.

I love how tidy and together even a fairly cheap shelving unit can make a room! Eventually we'd like to paint it all out a single colour (you can see that some of the shelves are all different colours from previous staining) but we're waiting to choose a colour scheme for our living room area before we go ahead and commit to a colour for this room, too, since they're very open to each other.

I also got a new sewing table, courtesy of the "as-is" section of Ikea. A $10 slab of fibreboard + 4 $5 legs (vika) = a $30 table that fits perfectly into the space I wanted it for. My previous sewing table was actually a 5' x 3' sheet of glass balanced on 2 sawhorses and it took up way more space in the room than it needed to, plus all that table space always filled up with piles of unfinished projects, newly acquired stash and assorted other stuff that had no other home. This new table is slightly over 2' deep and not quite 5' wide, and it fits perfectly into the space at the edge of the Ivar shelving unit we have constructed.

Farewell, In the Loop

2008-08-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

This photo is actually from the prior incarnation, Alterknit, but I just love the monkeys

One of my most beloved LYS's has closed it doors for good. In the Loop Café has had more than a bit of bad luck lately and I really wish it had gone differently for them. I will keep plenty of happy memories from the times I spent there and keep my fingers crossed that maybe in the future circumstances will conspire in their favour and somehow we'll have another incarnation to enjoy.

View Larger Map
They will be having a final sale of their remaining merchandise at close-out prices in a "lawn sale" this weekend, so I hope every Toronto knitter who will be in town this weekend will come out and support them and get some great deals in the bargain. For me I will just be happy to have a chance to go and give Teri and everyone a big hug goodbye.

Finished Object: Womb

2008-08-26T03:24:00.004-04:00

So August 14th was the deadline to submit entries for the 2009 knitty calendar contest. Which I had every intention of entering (at one point I was looking for 7 knitty sock patterns to use for the sock rainbow) but in the whirlwind of summer projects, Jacquie's final few weeks in Toronto before her return to San Francisco and of course wedding madness and ...I just kind of forgot. Until the day before the contest when I ran into Amy at the Purple Purl and she asked if I was going to enter this year.

Well, lets just say this year's entry was a bit of a rush job! I ran home and realized that I only had ONE knitty project in the house; I tend to give my completed objects away once they're off my hot little needles, and for whatever reason I've knit a lot of other-than-knitty patterns in the past little while. Luckily there was one really quick and notable little knitty project I've always meant to make, and it was one that I knew I could put together some fun photos for.

This is my favourite favourite picture of Zoë, although its not the best picture of either Joyce or the Womb. The expression is just too precious!

One copy of Gray's Anatomy and one adorable baby (almost toddler now - gulp!) and at this point I am just so amused and happy with these adorable photos of baby Zoë that I'm calling this a win regardless. Joyce and I were already planning to meet for coffee that day so we just turned our coffee date into a baby-photoshoot date instead and had both fun and ended up with great photos.

Pattern & Modifications
The pattern is womb from knitty.com, and I don't think I did modify it at all. In fact, I even knit it in the colour shown in the original pattern, a rarity for me!

Yarn & Needles
The yarn was a mystery pink heavy-worsted yarn from my stash and I used my old standby needle-size, 3.75mm DPNs, for a nice tight knit that the stuffing and pipe-cleaners wouldn't show through.

Timeline
Started this project the evening of August 13th, and finished it the morning of August 14th, just in time for some intensive photo sessions and editing.

See the whole Zoë & the Womb set on flickr.

Edited to add, whenever I hear "Zoe and the Womb" it is set to this tune: