Feeling festive yet? A holiday Meme

Got this from my poor snowed-upon pal on the Sunshine Coast (HA!), Teresa:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Can't have dairy, so Soy Nog. With Kahlua. :)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them. But I think Santa is going to be good and practise some restraint this year!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Coloured on house, white on tree. Easier to hang ornaments that way. If you have coloured lights on the tree you have to hang complementary-coloured ornaments next to them, and it takes away the spontaneity.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yeah, but it's plastic. Still gets me kisses though.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Whenever we can. This year's all messed up because we're moving right before Christmas. I have been known to do a real tree on Christmas Eve.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Our traditional turkey dinner with my non-traditional spiked homemade cranberry sauce. HINT: Grand Marnier. Makes Sauce Good.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: This is lame LAME, but it would be my two older sisters and I dancing around my grandparents' living room on Christmas eve wearing matching mint-green feetie pajamas (the feet and trim were white). We were yelling "FEETSIE PAJAMAS! FEETSIE PAJAMAS!" I probably would have been around 4 or 5, because I can't imagine my eldest sister wearing Feetsie Pajamas past the age of 9. Although I bet she'd dig them now, she's always cold. :)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Probably when we were real small, and my folks had a pack of rowdy teenagers over from the YMCA on Christmas Eve to assemble/wrap presents and set up the tree after we went to bed. They were LOUD.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Usually just one - usually PJs or slippers or something like that.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? When done correctly, it's: a) lights. b) ornaments. c) garland. d) tinsel. But I am soon to be in a 2-cat household, so we may have to omit the tinsel.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it. Even when I have to clean it off my car. What I dread are stupid people who forget how to drive in it from one winter to the next!

12. Can you ice skate? Yes, badly. Don't like it. Cold, hard, hurts feet. See you at the hot chocolate shack.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yikes - so many to choose from! Football (who is not a football, he is a bear *shaped* like a football), is probably the one I've had longest that I still remember. The Christmas tree ornaments Peter spent weeks and weeks turning for me on the lathe. Yes, definitely those.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Traditions - remembering old ones, making new ones. Being a kid again for a day, or at least part of one.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream. Seconded by my grandmother's suet pudding, which she doesn't make anymore and I really should get the recipe for so I could surprise my mom with it some year.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Well, we don't do it anymore, but it was always gathering around to listen to Dad read "the night before Christmas". We have a Hallmark Pop-Up Book edition of it, and being the youngest, I got to do all the pop-up stuff. Of course, when we got to be teenagers, we heard the Charlie Farquharson version and started ad-libbing it into Dad's reading - merriment ensued. As adults it's kind of gone away, although one year we were all imbibing festive beverages on Christmas Eve and it got REALLY rowdy. I think that was when Dad stopped - you shouldn't mix booze and pop-up books, even in fun. :)

17. What tops your tree? Our family tree has a light-up plastic angel that Mom & Dad bought their first married Christmas together. Her base is broken so she's always "drunk", leaning to one side. The tree isn't right if the angel isn't drunk! I have a pretty gold/gauze dress porcelain angel that I bought for my own tree about 10 years ago, but she usually sits on the mantlepiece or a shelf. She's waiting for her own tree again.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving. I love presents, yes, but if I had my way everyone would open their presents from me, first. Then I can relax. :)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? "Snoopy's Christmas", by the Royal Guardsmen. Actually, the whole Snoopy's Christmas album.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or yum? Yum, in moderation. Usually two will do me for the season.

In other news, tomorrow is my sister Beth's birthday. She's 29. Again. And, honestly, still the pretty one. :)

Weird stuff on email

No knitting content today - well, ok, I finished a LB Homespun shawl for my neighbour, but that's not exciting. It's a really yuck (to me) shade of green. Now it's done, but I have two balls left over (no jokes, please!). They may go along to my secret-giftee along with the kool-aid scarf.

Now, weirdness. I've recently set up a new email account on a web-based service that I shall not name here (spam-suckers, die!). And so far, spam-free. But the site has advertising. And today, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an ad for "Breastfeeding Bands" - some kind of bracelet thingy that you can wear to help remember which side you nursed on last, for how long, etc. Which is scary, because I right now know at least five VERY pregnant ladies. But I am SO not one of them! And really, of all the weird stuff on the internet, that's gotta be top 10 for me. So, had to share with y'all.

And while I'm ranting, (ok, I'm going to start ranting...) why the holy Hades is it that one CANNOT buy a copy of ANY Erma Bombeck book in ANY of the Chapters or affiliated stores in the Ottawa area? Ok, granted, the lady (god rest her) has been dead for some time. Yeah, so's Shakespeare, and you've got his friggin' books. And granted, most of her books were written in the glorious gawdawful 70s when the phrase "stay at home mom" was a redundancy. But godDAMNit! They're timeless, funny, wonderful books and I REALLY wanted to get a copy of "Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession" for one of my very pregnant co-worker ladies. Not happening. Pissed me off.

And there I will stop, because frankly kiddies, it's been a pretty rough month and December's not looking much better. There will be upheaval and annoyance and more stress and less sleep than November had (which was too damn much and not near enough, respectively). All I can say is thank heavens for my knitting, otherwise I'd be smoking and drinking again - which would probably kill me inside a month. Now, the fact that I'll be knitting from stash for the foreseeable future is a consolation (actually, a challenge! There, how's that for positive spin?), because to be honest, my stash is LOVELY. Every time I open a bin, I get happy surprises because I've forgotten what treasures I have in there. It's like unpacking Christmas ornaments... no, wait, let's not get into that. Christmas is, to be blunt, F'd up this year. (ok, not so blunt, but I try to stay PG on here!). Yeah, my dream Christmas is right out the plasti-filmed window. Screw it. I've got my knitting.

And now, a sigh of relief...

Just got an email from the gift swap organizer. I've been reassigned to a swap-ee who is somewhat north-er than the nice Texas lady, so the original Kool-Aid-One-Row-Harlot Scarf will work. YAY! Now I have to finish it. Fortunately it is portable and I even have three "at home" evenings this week, so I could quite possibly have it in the mail within the week. And I get to keep the Great Big Sea Silk. Double Yay!

Oh crap, time to go to work. Again. But you know what? A month from now is Boxing Day.

scary, non?

Who said I wasn't knitting for Christmas? - EDIT, scroll to end

Somehow I completely spaced on having signed up for the KnitTalk gift exchange. Until I got the email from Margo-Lynn today. Oh. Crap. Now, I love the gift exchange, last year went exceedingly well. This year, I've got a lady from Texas. Which means that the Kool-Aid home-dyed pink One-Row Harlot Scarf is way too hot. Not to mention, half-finished. Hrm. That would be the upper scarf in the pictures. The lower scarf is actually a skein waiting to become a scarf, in Handmaiden Great Big Sea Silk. Which, honestly, is far more appropriate for Texan temperatures. And the colours are gorgeous. And it's likely to knit up quickly (heavy-worsted-ish weight), but I need a quick easy pattern. Dare I go for another One-Row Harlot Scarf in the yummy yarn? I've got the pattern down, I could probably whip it up in a week or two (assuming no new crises arise). Or, do I just send the lovely lady the yarn and let her make something fabulous herself? I'm torn.

Opinions please? I'll take "votes" until Sunday night, then I have to make a decision. For right now, I have to go move my laundry around and check on the nice chicken I'm making for dinner. How do I know it's a nice chicken? I don't. But I have a bottle of wine handy just in case it's not.

EDIT - Hubby says I'm not to give away the Handmaiden yarn. *sigh* He's a good hubby. So now I'm stash-diving. I do have some lovely variegated alpaca - at a loose gauge it would make a nice drapey scarf, not too warm. Stay tuned!

The Energizer bunny comes through - pictures!

Ok, I finally bought batteries for the camera - in fact, a 24-pack, so I should be good for the next year. :)

And look - it's a sweater! Well, it's most of the front of a sweater; I still need to do the left-front bit for the zipper area. The pattern is from Patons "Weekend Retreat" book, the sweater called (oh-so-imaginatively) "Zip-neck Pullover". Here's their picture of what it should look like:











I think I'm doing pretty well, don't you? The pattern calls for Patons Rustic Wool (which I'm pretty sure no longer exists), but I swapped it out for Patons Decor, and I'm really liking how it's working up. But you know what the really cool bit is? It has cables! A whole band of cables, all across his big manly chest (and around the back too). NOTE: Peter's chest is WAY more manly than the model's. He's going to look GORGEOUS in this sweater! But yes, zoom in my friends, here are my first-ever cables!













Now, the really REALLY cool bit - I did the entire band of cabling whilst sitting in the walk-in clinic, waiting to be seen by a doctor. THREE HOURS waiting to be seen by a doctor. Thank heavens I brought my knitting! And you know, people don't even sit close to you when you're whipping a fishhook-shaped cable needle in and out of your mouth every couple of stitches, muttering and counting. :) Cables in public are FUN. You know, I just noticed that the blue looks very royal in this picture - it's actually navy. And the stripe is burgundy, not that weird fuschia-red that it looks like. The first picture has truer colours.

Let's see, what else? Oh, I finished Alison's Moda Dea Aerie scarf, the ginormous pink and orange fuzzy thing. I'll try to snap a picture of her in it next time we work together. She loved it - happy day! And I have a plan for a pair of slippers for Mary, but other than that, no gift-knitting this year. Instead I'm going to try and finish up all the WIPs lying around. I've got the Harlot One-Row scarf in Kool-Aid pink hand-dyed almost half done, my striped scarf almost half done, and various other bits and pieces (ok, they're socks, I admit it) that need reviving. With all that's been going on lately, I need to get things finished, know what I mean?

test of new "beta" Blogger

Hrm, sounds like beta-blocker. Isn't that some kind of medication? Whatever. I've switched, I don't quite know what difference it's going to make, but I did change the "comments" feature so that non-Blogger people (HI KID!) can comment.

Content (and photos, dammit!) on Sunday, I swear. Right now it's beddy-bye time.

The Harlot cometh... (or, why it's cool to be a knitter)

So Thursday last, the Ottawa / Kanata area (well, the two Yarn Forward stores area) was visited by her Royal Knittiness, the incomparable Stephanie Pearl-MacPhee. I was totally prepared to skip work to attend, but didn't need to, as the Kanata event was in the evening. Stupid me, left the house without my camera, so these pictures are courtesy of Tara (thanks again!)

Stephanie arrived to a throng of knitters, packed into chairs and on the floor and pretty much everywhere. The "opening act", Louise (manageress of YF), tempted us with yummy new yarns to admire and fondle before the main performance. When I first saw Stephanie, I had two thoughts:

1) This woman looks tired. Bless her for being here.
2) My GOD, that's the WEDDING SHAWL! And with a t-shirt, how totally cool that is!

Stephanie's "talk" was all about how knitters are not cool, and how that is patently BULLSHIT! I love the idea of being a jock, not a "crafter." Woohoo!

So, the photos: First up is Her Harlottyness fondling my Knitting Olympics Shawl (which was, incidentally, admired by many there, so I had a fat head for that. Other people's stuff was gorgeous, I took the compliments gracefully for once). Notice I hold her book atop mine, as is right - she's thrice-published, I'm a novice. :)







Next, is La Harlot taking a picture of my book, which I signed to her since she was gracious enough to sign mine. Hers to me: "Obsession is normal." Mine to her: "Obsession leads to publication." I felt so legitimate as a writer! Oh, and thank GOD I was holding her sock needle-end-up. How humiliating would it be to drop the Harlot's stitches? Yikes!






Third and final is Me and Steph - two writers, two knitters, two crazy ladies with shawls that we agonized over and probably wear far too little. I'm bending my knees a bit because she was feeling short - least I could do! What a sweet person. Oh, and weird thing - for a little wee person, Stephanie has the most amazing DEEP voice! Of course, that could have been the tiredness. Get some rest, Harlot. We love you for making the trip.

Announcement! Happy News!

Ok, forget all that whiny crap from yesterday. The paper is done (and, it turns out, I was right on the mark with my approach to the topic). The work-crap that's been piling up has been whittled down to manageable and is mostly off my desk. We're having an unseasonably warm spell so the furnace is not (as much) an issue (though still not working, grumble). But none of that matters because...

MY BOOK IS PUBLISHED!!

Ok, it's not my book, it's the compilation of fifteen very talented authors in the Kanata Writers' Group, of whom I am one. (bad sentence structure for a published author, hey?) I am fourth from the bottom on the list of authors here... holy crap, I'm in print!

Now, I've been published before, in a newspaper essay contest when I was a kid, and in a few school / literary society chapbook thingies. But never in a real honest-to-dog book before. So allow me a quick WHOOPEEE! here. :)

If you're local to me, and would like to see the book (and some of its authors) in person, we are having a launch on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 7-9 P.M. at the Hazeldean Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. We'd all love to have you come. If you're not local to me, but want to read my stories (and, incidentally, support local literacy programs), you can order the book here also, and it will be sent directly to your home to share and enjoy. I recommend keeping it in the bathroom, as it's short stories and poems, good tub/throne reading.

So that's my happy news for today. Feel the love. Buy the book.

Very little knitting content - just a 'woe is me' post

Ok, this will be self-indulgent and whiny, I tell you now. If you love me and care about this stuff, read on (or if you want a dose of schadenfreude, whatever...). If you visit me strictly for the knitting, you might want to go away for now.

We have (again) no working furnace in our house. We had no furnace up until about a week and a half ago, then we had a not-quite-working-properly furnace, then we had an inspection by the gas man, who said, "THIS IS ALL WRONG", and now we have no furnace again. It's snowing outside. We have space heaters, so we're not freezing (and hell, I've got knit socks, and knit slippers, and knit sweaters and shawls abound), but it's bloody inconvenient. I'm just this minute hacking up phlegm like a fountain. I like to be warm without this futzing about. I missed work, Peter missed work, and things are still messed up. Argh. The furnace guy assures us that this will be fixed tomorrow (that would be Monday), and thank heavens our sweet neighbours across the street are going to babysit the furnace guys so we can both go to work. It had really better be warm when I get home tomorrow night. I'm tired.

Part of this tiredness stems from the fact that yes, I am working two jobs, totalling about 55 hours per week. Which really is not that much, and I'm having my sundays free. Good thing, because the term paper which is due tomorrow (Monday again), and which I took off work on Friday to do, is not done - because of the idiot furnace guys being here Friday and totally shattering my concentration. The paper will be finished today because it has to be; in order to get my concentration back, Peter is going to run away for a few hours and pick up our freezer (yay!) and a storage unit for the porch (also yay!), which is undergoing a transformation from crowded, drafty dumping ground of stuff to well-organized, insulated and weather-tight 10x12 laundry/mudroom. Have I mentioned that my fiance is the most wonderful man alive? He is, and I'm grateful for him every day. He does the dishes. :)

So, knitting. Little bits here and there. On Friday, when the paper was just not happening, I started a pair of slippers in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick. TOTALLY lives up to its name. Finished one slipper Friday, started/finished the next one Saturday morning (about 3 hours each in total, maybe less). Very warm and cozy (ahem- good thing, we've NO FREAKING FURNACE!!!). Working away on Alison's scarf also - she loves it so far and there is way more yarn than needed for one scarf, so there will in fact be two scarves - one has four blocks of colour (pink/orange/pink/orange, one ball per block), and the other I think I'm going to try alternating the colours every row. It may be too busy, I don't know yet. But that will be after Christmas. The rest of the current WIPs are piled in a Rubbermaid tote to keep them safely out of the way of the furnace guys (dirty/smelly), and from taking over the living room. *sigh* I need more time to knit - thank heavens it's only five weeks until my two-week vacation. Which is not a full vacation, but at least I'll only be working the one job, and no school, which means - JOY! - time to knit.

Now I have to write that paper. Wish me luck.