Not so good, Al...

So today was exam day, and well... I choked. Not from lack of study as I'd feared but more from overstudying... everything ran together in my head and I couldn't make any sense of it. Damn. Not how I wanted to end the semester but I'm not going to beat myself up over it - it's only school after all, which is supposed to be for my own edification and enjoyment. C'est la vie. And now I can give Yumi back her books. *grin*

The day wasn't a total loss however - I finished mom's second sock and dug my Tequila Sunrise socks out of the WIP bin - first TS sock now past the heel:

I also made two chocolate cakes and a batch of black-forest-style cupcakes (I took a picture of one cake, but it came out blurry, so no cake pictures). Tonight we had Dad's birthday party - he's 60, I still can't wrap my head around that one! Food and fun and I bring the dessert. I'm sensing a pattern to our social life, lately... ah well. The girls (cats) were not at all impressed that we were going out AGAIN for the evening. Squeeky was most annoyed at having to interrupt her nap so I could sit on the bed to get dressed:

And poor old Moosh was just confused because her dinner schedule was screwed up:
You'll notice the girls are messy eaters. Keeping up with cat-food crumbs is a daily chore, I'm afraid. Ah well, they give back in love. Have I mentioned that I never liked cats much before we inherited these two? It's true. But - when someone needs you, you gain an inexplicable affection for them. Or at least the urge to keep them quiet. ;p

Tomorrow is Sunday - JOY!. We have a few minor house-chores planned and then I need to do some knitting for work (how cool is that? I'm loving that concept!) and general get-ready-for-the-week-ahead stuff. It's going to be a busy one in the evenings so I need to get the house / food in order tomorrow so we can keep things running smoothly. Plus, there's a rumour of THREE back-to-back playoff hockey games tomorrow. I don't even care who's playing, that's a helluvalot of knitting time!

Procrastiknitting

Or, how I nearly completed a sock today when I should have been studying (*cringe*). I slept late, made a mountain of pancakes (Peter was home today, too), and dove into the rest of the Roman satires I had to read for my class. You know, I always thought satire was - funny. These, not so much. In fact I fell asleep several times reading Juvenal. But I did finish them all... although in honesty I doubt I will retain a word of it. Fortunately that's only a small part of the exam.

Then, after a deep-fried lunch (Peter really REALLY loves the deep fryer I got him for his birthday), we watched "Patton" on tv. That's a 3.5 hour movie on the AMC channel. That's a LOT of knitting time. Got to within half an inch of the toe decrease on mom's second sock, and put another foot or so on the Wedding Afghan. Also noodling around with my next design (!) for class, because I talked to the coordinator last night and I need to provide samples within the next week. I know what I want it to look like, I just have to figure out how to do it. That will be Sunday, probably most of the day between laundry loads.

And now it's nearly 8 and to be honest, I'm tired. Sit-on-butt days which should be restorative somehow leave me more drained than active days. The upside is, I'm still in my pyjamas from this morning so I can just fall back into bed. And the exam isn't until 2 tomorrow afternoon so I can sleep in again. :) Because really, if I don't know it by now, cramming in the morning isn't going to help. I just have to rely on my combined powers of recall and bulls*** to get me through.

Even the internet gives me an A-

Just found this on someone's blog, so tried it out. A-minus. Crap. Got an A-minus on my first semester paper too. Dunno about 2nd semester. A-minus on exam would be good, all things considered. Ok, stop blogging and go to bed.

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Better late than never...

Ok, so I didn't get to this on Monday. I was studying! I've been studying all week to prepare for my Greek/Roman lit. exam on Saturday, but tonight I'm taking a sanity break and catching up on knitblogging.

Remember I told you Peter found a llama farm/wool shop? He took me there on Saturday. This is what I got:It's called "Mainly Mohair", and is a 70% Mohair/30% Merino wool blend in a luscious pale green that does not show up well in this picture at all. (I really REALLY need a better camera). 380 yards, comes with a pattern for a rib scarf on 6mm needles, the weight is about a worsted. Slick and soft. I'm thinking something lacy... dunno. Maybe one of Alison's patterns, once I get her book this summer.

The farm/shop is called Hidden Touch Natural Yarns. They have gorgeous natural alpaca yarn in a variety of weights, mohair, blends, kits, hand-dyed, and also sell hand-knit socks and mitts and things. I met the handknitter, absolutely charming lady who was making thrummed mitts. I will have to get a thrummed mit kit in the future. I will also have to get some of the alpaca sock yarn in the yummy natural dark brown appropriately called "truffle." We did not visit with the fuzzies (they have llamas, goats and alpacas on the farm) because we were heading to my parents' place but I was absolutely stunned at the selection of goodies. And considering the size of the operation and quality of product, the prices are reasonable - that ball of "Mainly Mohair" was $34 (CDN). Not at all out of line, to my way of thinking.

Anyway, that was our little adventure. I am planning to go back soon to get a small something to send to my Secret Pal - I'm making up a package for her of all-Canadian goodies, since she's in another country. Have to make a good impression, right?

Ok, now I need to go have a bath and then to bed. Much MUCH reading to do tomorrow and I need to bake a cake for Dad's birthday party on Saturday. Goodnight, good people!

Monday midday mini-post: movie review

Happy Easter Monday!

I'm back in the office today and needed a little brain break, so here's a quick review of The Pursuit of Happyness, which we watched last night. In short: didn't like it. Depressing, sad, morose movie. And though you know that things will get better (you saw the commercial, right?), they don't until about the last three minutes of the movie. And then, it feels so artificial and predictable. Bleah.

Now, normally I like Will Smith as an actor, but here he is playing essentially himself - a man who works hard to provide for his son, whom he loves. The love for the son is the core of the movie - and sorry, it ain't acting! It's just him and his son. Meh. Not impressive, really. And the whole thing just sucks you lower and lower into despair along with him... it's emotionally manipulative, and I don't care for that in movies. Sandy cried through half of it. I just felt angry.

One bright point though - the real Chris Gardner makes a cameo and I spotted him correctly. Yay me. But overall, unless you feel the need to feel either (A) better about yourself, or (B) guilty as hell for the joy in your life by witnessing someone else's misery, I'd pass on this movie.

Review of the llama-farm-store tonight. Have a good rest of the day!

Easter Sunday WIPs

No knitting today - no time! This weekend has been crazy-busy but very pleasant too. Here's a recap:

Friday - up early and tore into the walk-in closet. Everything out, about 1/2 of it (and some other things) back in. Closet is actually walk-in-able now - heck, we could comfortably seat four around a small table in there. Nice! And, contents are 90% clothing or clothing-related items. This is Good. Of course, that means that the Other Stuff that came out is strewn around the living room, dining room, etc. but we're working away on that. Oh, and baked a batch of Amish bread rolls, a carrot cake, and gingersnaps. Closet took most of the day, quick shower and then over to Bundy & Kid's for...

Friday night - dinner (BundyBundles, aka chicken cordon bleu) with Yumi's Sunshine Carrots and rice and my homemade bread rolls and carrot cake, with gingersnaps for snacking. Watched Trailer Park Boys: the Movie - freaking hilarious but, well, full of profanity and sex and drugs and drinking... well, we loved it, it was entertaining. "Bacon, bacon, bacon!" Knit on mom's sock and the wedding afghan.

Saturday - up early again, finished off (most) of the closet stuff and some other tidying, then over to Mom & Dad's for tv-golf, Eragon movie, and the Habs vs. Leafs game. Eragon was a fun little fantasy-type movie, dragons and heroes and bad guys, etc. A pretty blatant Star Wars rip-off in terms of plotline, actually, but the reliable evilness of John Malkovich as the king and Robert Carlyle as his wizard-henchman made it fun. And, of course, Jeremy Irons in the Obi-Wan Kenobi/mentor role. Jeremy Irons, wow I love him.

Chicken wraps and salad for dinner, along with more of my gingersnaps and carrot cake (hint: if you're spending the weekend visiting people, make stuff in big batches that divide easily!) The hockey game was a nailbiter from start to finish - sadly, our Habs couldn't pull out the win and are now out of the playoffs. Boo. Knit on the wedding afghan and the Wednesday's Cardigan. Got home VERY late and fell into bed with excruciating backache - combination of all that cleaning/lugging of stuff and a less-than-optimal tv-watching couch at the folks' place.

Sunday - slept in to (woohoo!) 8:30 and then over to Sandy & Dan's for Easter Dim Sum breakfast. Everyone's feeding us this weekend! Back still aching so home for a chair-nap after breakfast; caught Amadeus on the History channel and dozed off and on through that whilst Peter went back to B&K's to pick up the futon and install the taps we didn't get to on Friday. Then more baking, which lead to:
On the left: raspberry-ginger chocolate tarts. On the right: from-scratch lemon meringue pie. Both favourites of Sandy & Dan, who are feeding us dinner in about an hour. Turkey with all the fixin's. Mmm. Then after an early dinner we're coming back home to watch The Pursuit of Happyness and fall into bed, because I have to work tomorrow, unfortunately. But it's been a really great weekend!

EDIT: Forgot to tell you about the side-trip to the llama farm and wool shop on Saturday. But, it deserves its own post and I left my goodies in the car so - tomorrow, ok?

Easter Weekend WIPs

Why on earth, you may well wonder, am I up and blogging at 7:43 a.m. on Good Friday morning? Well, I had planned to get up eight-ish and do some spring cleaning and baking but Squeeky decided I needed to wake up earlier. She decided this by using my face as a launching pad to jump up on the headboard - ever been woken by a cat's back nails dragging across your (closed) eyes? Not fun. Fortunately no damage other than a first-skin-layer scratch (yes, I cleaned it and put Polysporin on it right away). But since I was up anyway... here's what I'm working on (other than housecleaning and visits) this weekend:

You could call this the small, medium, large, extra large approach to knitting! First up, Mom's mother's day socks (#2 woohoo!), in Fleece Artist Nova Sock, on 2.25 mm needles. Cast this one on Wednesday night and got nearly to end of the ribbing, then got a couple inches of leg done whilst at the Yarn Forward sit'n'knit yesterday afternoon/evening. Hi Yvonne! Yvonne was there, also making Fleece Artist socks, using Magic Loop - it looks neat, I may have to learn that eventually.
Then we have Crunchy Granola Hat - child size prototype - in Bernat Handicrafter Cotton on 6mm needles. The pattern does seem to work as well in cotton as it does in acrylic and wool and hemp - of course, I don't like knitting cotton as much but because this is a loose gauge it's not too hard on the hands. To make it kid-size I've cut the cast-on stitches by half and am reducing the pattern repeats by half before starting the decreases. I think that should work. Cute in pink, no?
Third, I finally - finally! - got the ribbing/increase figured out for the Wednesday's Cardigan. Here's about 1/3 of a sleeve (which, incidentally, is most of a ball of yarn). Patons Rumor on 7mm needles. This is going to be SO warm and soft to wear in the office over t-shirts and golf shirts this summer. And not just on Wednesday, either!


And last but most huge, the Wedding Afghan. (N8an if you're reading this, try to act surprised when I give it to you guys!). This is one strand Patons Shetland Chunky and two strands Patons Divine held together, knit on 15mm needles. One. Stitch. To. The. Inch. It takes four balls of each for the pattern and I'm now into the 2nd ball of each. I can say one thing, a person would never be cold with this thrown over them! Which of course makes me want to get'er done while we're still having our cold-ish spell. I don't want to be knitting this when it's more than 10 degrees (celsius) above zero!


So my plan for the weekend is to rotate among these projects and maybe get a couple of things finished. We've got double-feature movie night tonight at B&K's, then Masters golf on TV, another movie, and a hockey game at mom & dad's tomorrow afternoon/evening. Lots and lots of knitting time. Which leaves today and Sunday for chores - ample time for an attack on the walk-in closet/clothing storage area of our bedroom and a seasonal changeover on the front porch. And then next week, I have to be good and study for my Greek/Roman lit. exam in the evenings, which means limited knitting time (an hour a night, max). So I'd better get off my tuckus and get rolling here!

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Hats galore!

Wow, what a great response I've had from people who want to try knitting my silly little hippie hat. :) I've been trying to keep up with emails but so busy at work this week I'm just dead when I get home.

Tonight we watched "The Good Shepherd" - great flick, a little confusing in spots but really solid acting and good writing. I'm starting to like Matt Damon now that he does movies without that retard Ben Affleck! LONG movie though. LONG.

Sorry, hat stuff. Right! Here's the pattern in full, it seems to be bug-free enough for general consumption. Share and enjoy! If you do make it please drop me a comment so I can come see how yours looks!

"Crunchy Granola-Eating Hippie Hat"

© 2006 by Kathy Thurber

Materials:

Approx. 120m worsted weight yarn

6mm straight knitting needles

Darning needle (yarn needle)

Size/gauge:

To fit average adult head – gauge is not essential to this project.

Instructions:

Cast on 84 stitches.

Row 1: *K2, P2 (repeat from * to end of row).

Repeat Row 1 five more times (total six rows of K2P2 ribbing).

Begin Pattern Stitch:

1. Knit 4 rows garter stitch (knit every stitch).
2. Knit 1 row double-wrap garter stitch (wrap yarn twice on every stitch).
3. On following row, knit only one loop of each stitch, dropping the extra wrap.
4. Knit 3 rows garter stitch (knit every stitch).
5. Repeat steps 2-4.

Repeat Pattern Stitch 4 times (20 rows Pattern Stitch).

Knit 3 rows garter stitch.

Decrease Row #1: K4, *K2Tog, K4. (repeat from * to end of row) – 70 stitches remaining.

Repeat Pattern Stitch steps 2-4 once.

Decrease Row #2: K3, *K2Tog, K3. (repeat from * to end of row) – 56 stitches remaining.

Repeat Pattern Stitch steps 2-4 once.

Decrease Row #3: *K2, K2Tog. (repeat from * to end of row) – 42 stitches remaining.

Repeat Pattern Stitch steps 2-4 once.

Decrease Row #4: *K1, K2Tog. (repeat from * to end of row) – 28 stitches remaining.

Decrease Row #5: K2Tog across the row – 14 stitches remaining.

Break yarn, leaving long tail. Draw through remaining stitches and pull tight to close crown, then sew seam.

Note: Revised 04/01/07 to correct errors in pattern.

Crunchy Granola-Eating Hippie Hat

What do you do on a Saturday night when the hockey game is on intermission and your honey's glued to his computer game? Why, you go in the bathroom and take pictures of yourself in your new hat!
(Double points if you stop to actually put on makeup before taking pictures of yourself in your new hat, in your bathroom, on a Saturday night).














This is the fourth knit-carnation of the Crunchy Granola-Eating Hippie Hat. The first was "invented" whilst playing around with dropped-stitches for a scarf - Peter said "hey, that would make a cute hat." He was right - the first one was done in a camel/wool blend, in natural (ivory? beige? offwhite). Then I made a black one in wool/hemp blend for Yumi, and a sage green one for Sis Karen which I foolishly blocked - the hemp "bloomed" and it's giant-ly too big for her. (Note to self: you still owe Karen a new hat).

Well, I've been asked to teach some knitting classes at the store (put simply, they really REALLY don't want me to leave, so this is their way of keeping me around. Works for me!), and I need some reasonably fast, reasonably simple projects to share. Immediately I thought of the CGH (Crunchy Granola Hat). So I dug up my "pattern notes", typed them up, sent out an invitation for test-knitters (thank you everyone who responded) on the KnitTalk list, and cast on for a new prototype.














This one is in Patons Classic Wool, "leaf green", which is charmed wool because it's the free ball that Stephanie gave to Bundy when he picked up my signed copy of her last book for me in Toronto last year. I had been saving it in stash but it decided this afternoon to become my new spring hat. I like it. :)

Here's a (somewhat fuzzy) close-up of the dropped-stitch pattern (And because my camera hates me, it took all the green out of the yarn in this shot - weird!):















And finally, a weird arty-type self-portrait of me trying to take my own picture. I am pleased to note that in both the pictures of the front of my head I no longer have three chins. Yay weight loss! (Also I deliberately lifted my chin).














And in case you're wondering, that thing on the wall behind me is my shower curtain. It's got a collage of old movie stills and glamour shots of vintage movie stars on it and I love it. However, our shower has a perfectly good curtain on it already and I've not got up the energy yet to swap it out. Hey, we've only lived here - four? Four months. You get a year to completely unpack, that's my rule. Hell, at one time I moved so often I wouldn't even hang pictures until I'd been in a place at least six months.

I'm going to try knitting this hat up in two different acrylic yarns (Phentex Pounder and Red Heart Supersaver), and, time permitting, try a kid-size version in cotton (I have some extra Bernat Handicrafter in stash and I don't think I need two dozen pink&white dishcloths!). I think it might look cool in the Patons SWS... hm, might have to grab a couple balls of that tomorrow to try out. Tomorrow evening is my last shift (well, it's supposed to be - we shall see!) so I gotta make good use of my discount!

Anyway, if you're test-knitting the hat for me, I hope the pictures help you see what it should look like all done. And I'd love to see pictures of yours! Comments please and I'll come visit your blogs to see, or email pictures if you want to. If you're not yet test-knitting the hat but would like to, email me at KitDOTDeepskyATgmailDOTcom and I'll send you the pattern.

Thanks again, and goodnight everybody!

Review of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off

Ok, I admit it. I sat down and read the book cover to cover in one go, about two hours. I did stop midway for a dinner break and had to put the book down so as not to get Kraft Dinner on it!

Not quite as LOL funny as the first two, not quite as "useful" as the third, but this fourth book, in my opinion, gets us (the reader/knitter) more into the head of our beloved Yarn Harlot. Casts Off is - contemplative? Reflective? In some places it's a manifesto - "mess not with knitters, for we are many and carry pointy sticks." In some places it's a paean to the knitting goddesses (and we, their humble servants). And, in some places, it is downright ROTFLMAO funny, as one would expect from Steph. Well worth the little happy dance I did at the mailbox yesterday when it arrived. :)

Overall, enjoyable reading. Although I do have one minor quibble: there is an ongoing epistolatory 'story' of how one knitter came to be a knitter, and her thoughts on this, and so on. And the text of it is quite good. However, the fonts and backgrounds on some of the 'letters' made for very difficult reading - the image of a slightly crumpled-up or folded piece of paper with shadows, etc. I found detracted from the actual story. Actually, come to think of it the whole book is kind of "busy" with different fonts, artwork, etc. and a lot more whitespace than I would have liked, perhaps. I guess it's meant to be picked up and put down, not read straight through. Just an opinion, mind you - I'm not a graphic arts person or a book editor! Please don't flame me, JUST AN OPINION!!!

Like I said, on the whole, I liked the book a lot. I do think in general that I prefer Knitting Rules, but that's because it's got so much reference material in it, and I'm lazy when it comes to looking things up. :) Kudos to Madame Harlot for another successful tome!

PS - I sewed the second sleeve on Peter's sweater last night, and "dry-fit" it to him before sewing up the sides. It's going to be snug but I think it'll work. He has, however, decided he doesn't want the zipper in the collar after all, so I don't have to figure out zipper-sewing-in. woohoo! I should have finished pictures by Sunday night.

It's early!

Not Spring, that's taking it's sweet time about getting here - one day warm, one day cold. No, what's early is this:

According to Chapters website, it's not released until tomorrow, but it arrived in my mailbox today! Woohoo! So I know what I'm doing this evening - not knitting.

However, last evening (and the one prior) I was knitting, and last night I finished this shawl (artfully displayed with the Book, a lamp, and a pile of clean ashtrays on the dining room table):















It's the standard triangle recipe, in Fleece Artist "Dreadlocks", 78% Kid Mohair, 13% Wood, 9% Nylon. 180m of really BIG boucle, knit on a 15mm Addi circ. The yarn calls for a 12mm but I don't have a 12mm circ, so nyah. There it is. The colours look close to right in these pictures - reddish brown and green and brown. Kind of muddy spring earth colours, forest-y like. Fun to knit although I did on a few occasions mistake a loop of boucle for a stitch! Still, fast knitting - I think the whole thing took about 5 hours max. And now I'm out of Fleece Artist, except for the socks-in-progress for Mom and the Sea Silk that's waiting for me to learn to read lace charts so it can become a big beautiful lace shawl.

So now I can go read the new Book. Bye!

Dear Sir Bob: You were right

I don't like Mondays either. Which is odd because I had a reasonably productive, reasonably good day. But midafternoon I got whacked upside the head with a case of the blahs and I've been wallowing in it for about three hours now. Very very odd indeed. Meh.

It was a good weekend - Sunday we had Sandy & Dan come over for dinner and cards and it was a nice quiet evening after a fairly lazy day (more TV and knitting, minimal housework to be presentable for company). I finished the first of Mom's Green Socks (the colours show better in this picture than the previous one):

I've decided that I don't like the standard toe decrease of decrease one round, knit one round. It makes for funny angled toes and I don't like it. Of course I'll have to do it again for the mate of this sock but for future socks I will knit straight for an extra inch and then do all the decreases for a more rounded toe. Or maybe I should learn to do toe-up socks - do they come out less pointy?

In other news, we ran some hard budget numbers based on our last three months' living expenses (which were, to be honest, higher than "normal" should be - the last three months were pretty messed up and expensive). And with my recent raise and Peter's (he's giving himself a raise - woohoo!), I can stop working at Michael's.

Now, this should be a "woohoo" but I'm feeling kind of mixed about it. The pros are obvious - more time at home to be with my hubby, cats, knitting, social times with friends, golf once the weather is decent, proper sleep on the weekends, etc. The cons are that I like most of the folks I work with at the store, there's a nice staff discount, and yes, the extra money has been a blessing. Mostly I hate to think of going in and saying, "Hey, you know what? I don't need you anymore." Which basically, is what resigning from a job is, especially a part-time job. But lately, well... if you read this blog you know I've been waffling about the store over the past weeks.

The thing that's really tipped it for me lately is this new policy (or procedure, really I guess) wherein the day staff downstocks (gets stuff out on the shelves) and then the closing shift (guess who?) has to VERIFY each and every single item that the day staff put out is in its proper home. Generally this covers 2-3 aisles, sometimes as many as 4-5. This is THOUSANDS of items of inventory. Now yes, I totally understand that the closing staff should leave the store in as near-perfect state as we can manage. BUT this system means that the day staff can pretty much just shove stuff onto shelves, pegs, displays and walk away saying "I did my job" without making sure they've done it properly. In fairness, most of the day people won't do this. But there are some who seem to be taking advantage of this, and I don't think that's right, because the closing staff totally get crapped on if things are out of order. And that little imbalance in accountability is just enough for me to say, "ah, heck with it." Especially since my department head is in agreement with me (she's awesome) and is on the verge of walking, too, over the issue. Unfortunately the manager (who is a good and decent person, really) has tied hands by head office so - there it is. Now the only question is how long do I wait before putting in notice? I will give two weeks even though we only schedule a week ahead, and I guess sooner is better than later. Tomorrow after work will do.

For tonight, I need a mood-lifter. Something silly on TV/movie and some comfort knitting (not the sock, because I have a slight headache and don't want to mess up the beginning of the sock). Maybe it's time to start a new shawl. Cast on 3, knit across, turn, K1, YO, knit across, turn, repeat. Yep, that'll work.

Honey, pass me my Fleece Artist.

SA-TUR-DAY-NIGHT!

Yes, it's Saturday night and I'm not working! Woohoo! In fact, I do not work at all this weekend (imagine, from 4 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday with no commitments. Wow.) AND I am not working next Friday night either, just a short shift Saturday morning (which could be cancelled, sales are down which means hours get cut). I should be worried for the store, I should be concerned with my income. However - I did get a raise at my Main Job, Peter is working steady (and long) hours and I'm just really enjoying having time off at home. We're going to see about making this a permanent state of affairs very soon.

So last night, and today, I sat on my rear in my recliner and knit knit knit, watching Bollywood movies and then a mini-marathon of Northern Exposure: Season 2. I did some assembly on Peter's sweater - it now has one sleeve attached. The other one tried to get sewn on inside out so it's sitting in the basket until tomorrow. I also worked on Mom's sock - an inch to go and then toe decreases start - amazing, I've knit nearly a whole sock in less than a week, that's a record for me in standard sockweight yarn (chunky socks tend to go faster, of course!) Here's the sock, badly overexposed - my camera hates me for some reason:

It looks a pretty violent teal here but is actually deep foresty greens. The yarn is Fleece Artist Nova Sock (superwash merino). 2.5mm needles in the pattern that came with the yarn. You'll notice next to it is a purple ball - that's my Patons Rumor still waiting to become Wednesday's Cardigan. I really want to get these socks finished first!

Speaking of finished socks, here's the Mega-MegaBoot sock I made for Peter - mate to follow by next year, maybe? Notice it does fit rather well, except that slight bagging at the ankle, but if the ankle were any tighter it probably wouldn't go over his foot.

Sitting adoringly next to Peter's chair is our senior cat, Moosh. For the first two months after Peter's mom died Moosh basically lived in the vanity cupboard in mom's bathroom. Peter gave the bathroom a good scrubbing-down a few weeks back, got all the "mom scent" out, and now Moosh is out and around all over the house, mrawring for scritches and food and attention. So I guess she's recovering from the shock (aren't we all?), slow but steady.

Tomorrow evening we're having some folks over for slow-cooker chicken stew and I think I may try my hand at a lemon meringue pie, just for fun. A little light housecleaning and finish up that first sock, cast on the second, get ready for next week of work. Things are going to be completely insane at the office this week so I'm trying to minimize other stresses - might do some more batch cooking tomorrow so lunches are covered for the week. I know for the evenings next week I'm going to try to keep it easy and get some extra sleep. When March 31st Madness (it's a thing with my job) hit last year, I almost ended up in hospital - started my day out with intestinal distress AND a migraine, then worked a 10-hour day on no food and a lot of medication. Trying VERY hard not to do that this year!

Thinking of extra sleep, we had the oddest thing happen Thursday evening - the power went out for about three hours or so. I had picked up Payday Pizza on the way home so dinner was covered, and we just sat in the quiet together, me knitting and Peter reading, by oil lamp light, until about 8:30, when the power came back on. We reset the clocks and said, "well, I'm tired, let's go to bed." 8:30! I slept like a rock and woke up Friday morning with no pain in my back for the first time in about 2 weeks. JOY! The whole evening makes me think that maybe I/we spend way too much time with electronic keep-awake devices in the evenings. With no "background" it's much easier to listen to your body.

That reminds me - I need to get in touch with the folks at Gordon's Park and see about booking the cabin for the August long weekend this year. It'll be a late and short honeymoon but one that we both will really enjoy. No electricity. :)

It's spring right?

Well, officially yes. But someone forgot to tell Mother Nature, because she's planning Freezing Rain for this evening. That forecast combined with my sore back (overdid it at the gym yesterday) means no SnB for me tonight - going to stay home, have a hot bath and knit a bit more on Mom's sock before an early bedtime. There's about 3 1/2 inches of sock so far - I had lots of waiting around time at the City today. :) If I work on it a couple hours tonight I might get to the heel flap. If I can stay awake that long - so tired, so tired!

Other than that, well, it's Wednesday and I'm pretty brain-dead from a long day of work. So much so that my knit-tv may have to be CSI instead of the Bollywood movies I rented on the weekend. Not enough brainpower for knitting and subtitles tonight.

Update: I got my SP10 matches today - woohoo! A short note from my spoiler, and I sent a quick email to my spoilee. This is going to be fun. And, as a treat to myself (for no reason at all other than there was room on the VISA card), I've pre-ordered both the new Yarn Harlot book and Alison Hyde's book. So I will at some point have even more fun surprises by mail!

Speaking of which, tomorrow we should receive the invitation tickets for the wedding, they were couriered from Vancouver yesterday. SO excited! And, Peter bought batteries for my camera - so of course now I can't find his sock. Grr. Pictures on the weekend, promise!

A battery, a battery - my stash for a battery!

Ok, well not quite. :) But I did finish the Enormous Sock for Peter and had him all posed up in it, and the batteries crapped out on my camera. Boo! So no picture for tonight. But it does fit beautifully.

I'm also thisclose to finished on Peter's sweater - need to pick up 50 stitches (eek, I don't like picking up stitches) and do something around the zip-neck, then sew up all the seams and find a zipper to fit it. All the actual knitting is done except that bit at the neck. It does look GORGEOUS, I must say! Again, no picture - yet. There will be a triumphant portrait of my honey in his sweater as soon as possible, I promise!

With the leftover from the Enormous Sock, I started an iPod sock for Peter - he got a new Nano and doesn't want to scratch it up. :)

Slow progress on Mom's first sock but with the sweater done it'll move along faster. I've rented a trilogy of Bollywood films for evening viewing this week, that should make some inches happen.

In other news (wedding news!) we have:

1. A venue
2. Food selected
3. An officiant (who is totally into the hockey theme)
4. Invitations (they will be shipping tomorrow - woohoo!)
5. The band. Have I mentioned how much I love our band? For interest, it's The Crowd. They are amazing, wonderful, funky and truly awesome people. And talented! Holy crap, there's been more talent in this band (past lineups and present) than in every "Idol" winner ALL PUT TOGETHER - and then some! The Crowd rules. If you ever get a chance to see them, do so.
6. Little favour boxes - translucent blue plastic mini-takeout boxes which we will fill with Hershey Kisses. Mmm. Kisses.
7. Less than 2 months to go. Yikes.
   

Where did the weekend go?

It's Sunday night again, and this weekend really went by in a blur. Friday night I worked at the store til late (I think we got out about 5 minutes to 10, yech!). Saturday morning woke up early with great plans for the day, and - fell asleep again. Woke up again about 11:30 and was ill, rather strongly ill. Called the store - no work for me tonight, sorry folks. Curled up in the recliner with a heat pack and my knitting for awhile. Peter's sleeve has a few more inches. Felt better, went for a grocery run (ouch, but man we needed food!), including stocking up goodies for Peter's birthday present - a deep fryer. :) The boy is HAPPY! I think we're having deep-fried pepperoni for dinner tomorrow.

So Saturday night was veg with a movie and go to bed early - I was SO exhausted. Woke up this morning to the time changed-time of ... 10? I think 10. Did chores. Made food. Visited with Sandy & Dan, went to work. Worked long and late again. Came home, visited with Sandy & Dan (Sandy cooked Peter a birthday dinner, she's such a sweetie!), came home, now having tea and cupcakes while I wait for the painkillers to kick in so I can go to bed. That bad back from Wednesday still hasn't got 100% better and it's really bad tonight. Owie owie ow.

This week is going to be a busy one for work but I am going to promise myself a half-hour of knitting before bed each night. I need that "Island of Stillness" right now, and before bed is good because it lets me turn my brain to happy things (no, I'm not doing the cardigan). I should finish Peter's sleeve this week and hopefully get started on a pair of socks for Mom. She was ogling some Fleece Artist sock yarn at Yarn Forward last week when I took her there and I went back on Friday and bought it for her[1]. See, she was doing the, "Oh, you're so busy, you don't have time to knit socks for ME" thing. And I agreed with her at the time, but it bothered me. Because, frankly, I have time (make time) for whatever I deem is important to have time for. And I've decided my mom shall have Fleece Artist socks for Mother's Day. So there. And if I knit on nothing else there's no reason I can't get them done in time. After I finish this sleeve of course. THEN I'll start the cardigan.

[1] Remember, yarn bought to knit as a gift does not count!

Ok, painkillers are starting to work. Time for bed.

Feeling the love

Maybe my switch of blog-template earlier this week was a premonition - all that green! My boss called me in for a little sit-down today to tell me in tangible terms how much I am valued by my company. Woohoo! Raise for Kathy!

Now, this isn't "buy a new car" raise. But it is "have pizza and rent movies more often," or even "buy yarn" (no, wait, I'm Knitting From Stash!). It's a bit more in my bank each week than it was before. But for me, while the extra $$ are nice, it's the really (REALLY) sincere appreciation I get from my bosses that makes the difference. And since things have been mega-stressful of late, it really helped today. It's funny in a way, because the increase is meant to reward last year's work, but I find it motivates me to work harder in the here and now. Because really, I want the same (or better?) next year. I want my value to the company to increase every year, otherwise why would I still be there?

So yeah, I'm feeling the corporate love today. Which is good, because well - yesterday I woke up to a total muscle spasm in my back and couldn't even get out of bed to go to work (owie owie ow!), and I was feeling guilty about that (not my fault, but guilt is part of my being, whatcha gonna do?). So before the $$ happy, my boss asked if I was feeling better today. And that was nice too.

Oh, and wedding update: Yumi may have a lead for me on a Stanley-cup-shaped wedding cake-making place. SCORE!! Yumi so ROCKS! Maybe if I ask her really nicely she'll take one of her lovely self-portraits wearing her new Fire Shawl, so I can post it here. Pretty please Yumi?

Tuesday night purples

I'd have the blues but this project is purple, so - !

Finished my term paper last night so as a RE-ward[tm Simpsons "Diabetty"], I cast on for my Wednesday's Cardigan. Got the cuff done, nice loose kind of offset rib. Started up the sleeve this evening, but the increases are misbehaving and I had to frog back to zero twice. *sigh* I've put out a call for help on KnitTalk, hoping someone can figure out why I can't seem to increase 'in pattern.'

Meanwhile, today was a "come out even" day at work. Morning was absolute idiocy and crap, afternoon was sunshine and driving and a really cool corporate event. Put me in a better frame of mind for dealing with all the stuff I need to for the rest of this week.

And, for just a touch of weirdness in the day, I stopped to get myself a nice hot drink (did I mention it was -42 celsius windchill today? brr!) this afternoon whilst out and about. The coffeeshop cashier guy was the spitting image of Dugmor. Which I told him. He had no idea who that was. So I explained. He had the good grace to blush at the same time ruminating on the possibilities that this resemblance might have. I found it entertaining.

A bit more progress on Peter's second sleeve as well tonight, that's coming along. AND, in wedding news, we've booked our officiant. Well, we booked our officiant service, who will in turn set us up with our actual officiant. Kind of a blind date thing but I'm optimistic - we do get to meet the person before the actual event, anyway! Oh, and our photographer (working for food only - whee!) is also a lock. Who says this wedding planning stuff is hard, eh?

Wedding plans!

Ok, no knitting content here for this one, you've been warned. :)

Today we met with Murray of The Crowd to discuss music for the wedding. He's an old friend of ours and I always said I wanted The Crowd to play my wedding, even before I met Peter! So we talked set lists and price (very reasonable, because we're going to feed them we're getting a discount), and a special surprise for our guests that will make the event SO memorable! Oh, I can't wait... [evil laughter here].

We decided to forego the traditional native ceremony we'd been hoping to do for a couple of reasons: (1) Peter wasn't really raised in that tradition, so it felt a little false, and (2) we seem to be having trouble connecting with our resource person. So we've switched gears entirely (nothing new for us!) and are having a (shh, this is a secret!) Hockey Wedding.

We're wearing jerseys. The invitations are going to be "game tickets" (did you know that you can get custom tickets printed by Ticketmaster for $50? cheaper than do-it-yourself invitation kits, when you factor in the ink and time to do it). Our "favours" (take-homes, whatever you call it) will have a hockey theme. We may try to get a replica Stanley Cup for some of the food (hm, Stanley Cup wedding cake? Ooh, that would be fun!)

And - I had a (what I think is) really clever idea re: gifts. We don't want any. Really, we have most of the stuff we need and want (other than, you know, a big-screen plasma TV, but let's be realistic here). In lieu of gifts, we will have a 50/50 draw! That way no one feels pressured to spend more than they can afford, we end the evening with a little extra cash in our pockets, and everyone has some extra fun. I may try to figure out some door prizes so that more than one person can win (hey, we're only having 40 people, we can spread the love around!) Of course, this may be an incredibly tacky idea but I don't think it's any worse than the "wishing well" you often see at big weddings that gets stuffed full of cash. At least this way people get a chance to take home more than they spent. :) Or possibly, 50% could go to a charity, but that throws in a guilt factor that I don't really want to associate with our day. Anyone have opinions on this? Comments please would be helpful. I mean, I know we live in a trailer park, but we don't want to be totally gauche, right?

Oh, and the food is going to be BBQ. Mmm, barbeque. So dress will be casual for guests as well (hey, part of it's outdoors, it's spring, it could be muddy or wet or cold). Frankly, I'd be tickled pink if EVERYONE wore hockey gear - it's the middle of the playoffs, let's have some fun, folks!

Hm. Just had a knit/wedding idea: miniature hockey socks. Like a Christmas-tree ornament, but as a wedding favour. I'd only have to knit 15 pair. Hm... anyone got a pattern? No, forget it. That's deadline knitting and I don't do that anymore.

So that's some thoughts. Yumi, if you're reading this, I need to get together with you for the invitation design (what the tickets are going in) - papercrafting time! And now, food and bed. Tomorrow's (another) working day.

Oh yeah. Paper's not done yet. Phooey. I'll skip class tomorrow night, finish it and hand it in Tuesday morning on my way to work. I got no brain left today.

Christmas present!

Yes, I know it's the 3rd of March. But - schedules being what they are, my dear friends N8an&Dan and Peter and I did not manage to connect over the "holiday season." So, Yumi got to be the gift-intermediary and delivered our festive gifts from the boys a couple weeks ago. Today I got to spend mine - gift cards to Chapters. (woohoo!) So of course I head right to the knitting books, and after much deliberation (I really really thought hard about Domiknitrix), I grabbed their last copy of this:

Yes, I now own "A Gathering of Lace." It somehow makes me feel like a grown-up in the knitterly sense. I can imagine myself making at least three or four of the shawls in this book (once I figure out the charts, of course) - patiently and lovingly and then (maybe?) giving them to loved ones. Except one, which is totally reserved for me and I think might work up nicely in my Sea Silk. But that will be summer knitting I think.

But - the really cool bit? No, the REALLY cool bit! With the gift cards and my iRewards discount card, the book cost me... wait for it... two cents. Two shiny little pennies for one of the best-loved knitting resource books around. That completely made my day, even more than if it had been totally free (to me). I don't know why, but it was just really really cool. The cashier thought it was cool too but had no idea about knitting, poor girl. Just kidding, not everyone's a knitter and that doesn't make them any less good of a person.

Oh, and two more of the gals at the store want me to knit mittens for them, after seeing Alison's. Since these are students, I'm not charging them for knitting, they just have to buy the yarn. I'm interested to see what their choices are!

Saturday sunshine

Well, the snow and ice and crud is (mostly) done falling, we're still getting intermittent snow showers but the sun is shining and it's not too cold out. Huzzah!

My paper is now at 831 of 2,000 words. I remembered this morning that the big pile of books on my desk with post-it flags sticking out was, in fact, reference material I intended to use in the paper. How I forgot that yesterday when I was bleeding out of my forehead (metaphorically), I don't know. But I'm making progress. Even so much that I decided to take the evening off and watch some TV with Peter and swatch for my new cardigan. Yes, his sleeve is underway but the dampness yesterday made small-needle knitting hurt my hands. 6.5mm is much easier on the sore joints than 4mm.

The cardi will be done in Patons Rumor, so I had initially selected the "Wednesday's Cardigan" from the "Wardrobe Essentials" book specifically for this yarn. Here's a picture from the book, done up in the Halycon Heather colourway (I'm using the Hibiscus Heather, which is a purply-maroon).











However, I then saw this Shawl Collar Cardigan over at KnitNet and thought it was a little more my style:

















But when I swatched for it, the Rumour just won't work up to the same gauge as the LB chunky it calls for. So, I'm back to the original pattern, which I do like, but it's a little different than my ususal style. Peter likes the look of it, and it does look perfect for throwing over a t-shirt/golf shirt at the office. I am thinking about leaving off the collar though, and just having a round neck so my golf shirts can peek through. The sweater is knit in one piece and the collar picked up at the end so I think it would be "safe" to leave it off. Hard to say until I get rolling though.

But for the rest of today, it's time to change hats from student to work. Back to Michaels again, a long closing shift tonight. First I need to stop and visit Yumi and bring her the Fire Shawl, which will be a pleasant break in the day. Yumi time is good time. :)

And tomorrow, we meet with the bandleader about the wedding/reception music. Wow, that's coming up fast... less than three months, I'll be a married person. Wow.

Procrastination Meme and progress update

It's snowing/freezingrain/icepellets/blowing60kph outside. I am inside, in my penguin pajamas, with three paragraphs of a 2000-word essay complete. The essay is due Monday evening and I'm working this weekend. So. Time for a pointless meme, right? Right!

This one came from a new to me blog, Lick My Sticks (gotta love that name!) Here we go...

Soundtrack of my Life

Directions: If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your mp3 library
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press Play.
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool.
7. Don’t skip songs.

My Movie:

1. Opening credits: Cheaper to Keep Her (Blues Brothers 2000 Soundtrack)
2. Waking up: Irish Folk Song (Denis Leary)
3. First day of school: Born to Love That Boy (For Real)
4. Fight song: Here You Come Again (Dolly Parton)
5. Breaking up: Pump Up the Jam (Technotronic)
6. Happiness: When a Man Loves a Woman (Percy Sledge) [1]
7. Life’s okay: Rollin' (Big and Rich featuring Cowboy Troy)
8. Mental breakdown: We Used to Ride 'Em (Corb Lund)
9. Driving: As Good as I Once Was (Toby Keith)
10. Flashback: Good Ole Boys Like Me (Don Williams) [2]
11. Getting back together: Better Life (Keith Urban)
12. Wedding song: The Rose (Bette Midler) [3]
13. Birth of first child: Woody Woodpecker Song (Danny Kaye w/Andrews Sisters)
14. Final battle scene: Water of Love (Dire Straits)
15. Death scene: Copacabana (Barry Manilow) [4]
16. Funeral song: Louis Louis (The Kingsmen)
17. End credits: Suzie Q (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

[1] How cute is that? Really. :)
[2] Interesting, because that song reminds me of my Dad. He's a big Don Williams fan - road trip music.
[3] Oh. My. God. When I was in high school I said I wanted that for my wedding song. Weird. (Incidentally, I don't anymore. Peter hates that song and I'm over it.)
[4] Ok, picture a heroic death scene with THAT in the background!

If you’re reading this, I’m tagging you! Let’s see it!

In other news, I finished the first sleeve of Peter's sweater last night. Which means (in theory) that I could do the second sleeve and assemble the sweater before his birthday (nine days hence). But probably won't. Still, it's progress. And now, nearly two hours into procrastination mode, I'm going to be good and get back to my paper. Wish me luck.

Update: it's now 2:00 p.m. and I have tripled my output. Which means I'm (about) 30% done. Not enough, dammit. But I have a blistering headache which is NOT helped by the snowmobilers using our driveway as an access route to the trails in the back. Time for my knitting break. I'm starting that sleeve. Now.

SP10 - The Questionnaire

So, having heard lovely things from many local and net-friends about the joy of the Secret Pal exchange, I've signed up for Secret Pal 10. I don't know if I'm in or not for sure, but will do The Questionnaire anyway - here goes:

The Questionnaire

Here are is the questionnaire for SP10. Please be sure to post it in a spot on your blog where your pal can easily find it. Since your pal will use this to help create your packages you'll want to have it posted to your blog no later than the last day of February.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I'm a total sucker for alpaca - it's my absolute favourite. Anything hand-dyed makes me go all wobbly, but I like a lot of "regular" yarn too (Patons Classic Wool and Shetland Chunky for instance). As for *not* like - well, I did have a brief fling with Fun Fur and Vespa, but really I'm not keen on novelty yarns, especially anything disco-shiny.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
A toolbox. Straights in the bottom, DPNs and circs in their pouches (or a ziploc bag) in the divided top tray.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
Self-taught from the Lion Brand/Boye "teach yourself to knit" kit, on the August long weekend 2005. Wow, a year and a half already! I think I'd say intermediate - I've done two whole sweaters (1 pullover, 1 cardigan) and have another in the works, socks in various gauges, cables... haven't tried lace yet but have a few patterns and yarn waiting in the stash for that.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I have an Amazon one for my upcoming wedding, but it's all CSI dvds - no fiber content!

5. What's your favorite scent?
Cookies. Or really, anything homemade cooking. As far as scents that can be sent (ha ha), I think probably vanilla is a safe bet - I also adore sandalwood but hubby's not keen on it. And chocolate always smells good!

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I am a walking sweet tooth! Favourite candies would be ju jubes (I keep a HUGE jar in my living room), anything chocolate (especially with nuts!). So the dream combination would be chocolate-covered ju jubes, but I've never seen them.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I am resisting spinning - if I spun I'd have even less time to knit. :) I read a lot and write (two novels in the works), and love to cook and bake. I'd call baking my main non-knitting "craft."

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Anything but rap and opera. Really, when it comes to music there is no such thing as TOO diverse for my taste. MP3s are awesome, I love my iPod!

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Hm. I am usually drawn to earth tones or "neutrals" (black, blue, brown). I love red but it's not one of my best colours. Not a fan of orange or pastels.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live with one adult male human and two formerly female cats (one elderly, one young). None of them get into my yarn. :) The human and I are getting married in a little under three months' time.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes to all but ponchos, although I am going to attempt the Very Harlot Poncho as Peter thinks it will look good on me.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Judging by what I've made the most of, I'd say probably hats. And shawls are my default "comfort knitting". I like socks but am bad about finishing a pair. Lately I'm in love with cables. Oh heck, anything but baby/kid clothing.

13. What are you knitting right now?
A zip-neck pullover for my honey, a pair of socks for my honey, and I have about 20 UFOs in the bin. Socks, shawls, scarves. Soon I need to start a new cardigan for me, because Spring is coming and that means they'll crank the air-conditioning in my office.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes. Even more so now that I really understand all the hours of work and love that go into them. I treasure them very much, but if they're wearable, they get worn, not tucked away in a drawer!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
All-time faves are Addi Turbo circulars, which I use probably 60% of the time. I have started using bamboo circs and DPNs for hats and mitts and I like them also. I use metal DPNs for most of my sock knitting. Hardly ever use plastic - only a couple of large-gauge circs. Aluminum straights if I don't have an Addi of the right size available.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Winder yes, swift no.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
About a year. I started a pair of socks for myself last year, knit one, started the other and got all the way through the heel before I found some major errors in it. Frogged the second sock and the pair (one knit, one un-knit) are marinating in the UFO bin as punishment.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I'd usually answer "Christmas" and probably still it is, but I'm starting to enjoy the August long weekend more - there's usually more relaxation and less stress. Plus, that's when I learned to knit!

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Yarn. :) Books - we have a complete wall of bookcases, stuffed to the brim. Cookbooks I like and don't have as many as I'd like - I especially like the "community" kind with favourite recipes from all over.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I could really use a good stitch dictionary - I don't have one at all. For yarn - well, I would love to see what the fuss is about for Socks that Rock, and I *adore* any and all Fleece Artist or Handmaiden yarns. And any alpaca (see #1!) I don't subscribe to any knitmags because I can buy them at a discount at work.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Reading lace charts. They boggle me.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I am, but a slow one! My foot - hang on, I need my sheep... ok, heel to toe 10", ankle bone 10", calf muscle 14.5", floor to widest part of calf 12". Those look REALLY big - I wear a ladies' shoe size 8.5 or 9 (North American). If someone knit socks for me I would love them forever - really, you'd be in my will. Really. I mean it!

23. When is your birthday?
August 19. I'm a Leo!

Ok, so the idea behind this is that some incredibly kind and generous person will read the above, and send me surprise package(s) in the mail and I will do the Dance of Joy at the mailbox. In return, I do not send this lovely person package(s). I send a totally different but equally lovely person package(s), and they send package(s) to yet another lovely person, and so forth. It's an exceptionally cool idea, and I salute the lovely people at Secret Pal who must put in a whackofalot of work to make it all - work. I really hope I get in. Happiness by mail is among the best kinds of happiness.

Oh yeah, I'm totally over the crankies from yesterday. Can you tell? :) Today was lovely and sunny and +2 degrees (celsius), which is "I don't need to zip up my winter coat" weather. JOY! Spring is coming, oh yeah. Even the fact that I need to do a pile of laundry AND a pile of dishes this evening does not diminish the happiness of Spring coming. Plus I've got nearly half the foot of Peter's sock done - there might be a finished sock by the weekend, all going well. Good times.

Marvin Monday

Life. Don't talk to me about life.

I have so many pains in the butt right now, I'm surprised I can sit down. Peter too. How many days left in this cursed month?

That's it, I'm too cranky to post right now. I'll come back when I'm cheerier.

A really LONG sock

I don't remember when I started this sock - last spring, I think - but it just reappeared in the UFO/WIP bin and now it's back IP. Yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch, in a nameless colourway that, surprisingly, came out pretty true-to-life in this photo - denimy-blue and dark blue and light and dark grey in soft stripes with a light grey marl running through.

The pattern is from a sock calculator I found at http://www.panix.com

So far it's working out pretty well although it does bag a bit at the ankle - looking at the pattern notes I see I had a circumference of 11" at the ankle and that does seem a bit big - I must have measured at the bone, not the skinny part. Oh, did I mention this is a sock for Peter? Yeah, let me give you the specs:
Height (Length) from floor to just below knee: 16"
Height from floor to widest part of calf muscle: 12"
Height from floor to ankle bone: 2.5"
Circumference just below knee: 12.5"
Circumference at widest part of calf: 13.5"
Circumference at ankle: 11" (yeah, too big, too bad, I'm not ripping back!)
Foot length from heel to toe: 9"

My honey has BIG FEET and LONG LEGS and MUSCLES. Fortunately, the calf shaping worked beautifully, and fits perfect. And he doesn't mind the little bagginess at the ankle, the heel depth is perfect. Now just to see how well the foot instructions work out... I'm past the decreases (which somehow came up weird, I had 44 across top of foot and only 19 each instead of 22 on the two bottom needles, so I fudged a three-stitch increase on each needle after I finished the gussets). I have to now knit 7" even and then do toe decreases. And then - I get to do it all over again. Mega Boots Stretch is intended to make 2 socks of one ball. Not. Happening. I got an extra before I turned the heel - these puppies are LONG!

And now, goodnight. Tomorrow's a working day, plus I'm cooking a turkey for dinner. Mm. stuffing.

TGIF, everyone's ok.

So, it's Friday - huzzah! We have survived another week. My mom and sister and mom's dog NEARLY did not. Some moron in a cube van ran and intersection and hit two other vehicles before smacking into my Mom's car. Is it selfish of me to be glad that those other two cars got in the way? The lady in the first car had to go to hospital - I pray she's all right. The guy in the second car was okay. Mom and Karen and Tian (the dog) are ok, although since Karen has previous vehicle-incident injuries (bad back and neck) and Mom's prone to back pain also, I have told them both to be vigilant about any stiffness or soreness in the next little while. Mom's car is - broken.

Luckily the nice insurance people got them a rental car right away, and there was a Good Samaritan lady in the van behind Mom's car who kept the dog contained (and reasonably calm) and then hung around and drove Mom and Karen home. And Dad came home from work early, and everyone is ok. Which is good, because when the phone rings and someone says there's been a car accident, it's scary.

Me, I've got through about 70% of the paperwork hell at my day job this week. I will be going into the office tomorrow (yes, I know it's Saturday) to try and do about 20% more of it. That leaves the rest of March to finish the last 10% and deal with the "normal" workload. I also have a term paper due a week from Monday, so I've taken off NEXT Friday to do that. And Sunday I start back to the store, because as much as I like having weekends of leisure, I much prefer having bills paid and a little bit left over for a Starbucks (or, *sigh*, some yarn) now and then.

I have some friends (good friends, caring friends) who say I work too much. And, they might be right, but I was thinking - it's only from about the mid-20th century onward that there has been this culture of entitlement to leisure. And then, only in certain parts of our culture. Really - think about it. If I were a farmer and had livestock, would people say "Hey, you're working too hard, stop feeding those animals two days a week!" ? Farmers work seven days a week, 365 days a year. So do most restaurant people. So do many others. So what's wrong if I do it? Don't get me wrong, I love to sit on my arse and goof off, watch TV, knit, read, play golf, go to movies, hang out with people. BUT - I'm starting to see that time as a reward for my work, not work as an interruption of my leisure. Maybe it's that responsibility gene kicking in, maybe it's adulthood finally hitting me. Maybe it's just that I don't feel I need to apologize for how I live my life.

I *like* to work. I *like* to study and learn new things. I *like* to have my bills paid, my laundry clean, my house reasonably tidy and my fridge and freezer full of food, preferably that I've cooked. There's still time for relaxation. Someone said to me, shortly after Peter's mom died, "No one ever said on their deathbed, 'I wish I spent more time at work.' " That's probably true. But when I'm on mine, I'd like to be able to say "I worked hard for what I had. I earned my happiness."

Ok, so that was long and self-indulgent and maybe a little self-righteous. (Ok, maybe a LOT). But that's just how I'm feeling about things lately.

The first sleeve of Peter's sweater is half done. There, knitting content. Now I'm going to enjoy my Friday night of leisure, which I've earned.

What's that noise?

I was sitting at the computer reading blogs, and Miss Squeeky was meowing her head off at me - about what, I didn't know, so I turned my head around and saw - EIGHT cardinals on the clothesline out back! Six females and two males - I swear there's some kind of cardinal-harem in our backyard trees.

Sadly, they would not cooperate in having their collective picture taken, but I did get a snap of one of the males - that's him on the top rail of the clothesline, framed by the break in the fence (guess what needs fixing in the spring?) See that feeder? Peter filled it yesterday. These cardinals, and the bluejays, and the chickadees, and the other ones I haven't identified yet, are little piggy-birds! One of the lovely things about living in the country is the wildlife, and I do love "our" birds, especially in this cold weather. I figure if they can make it, so can I!

Hee hee. Peter just got home and is wearing his new toque, so I asked him to fill the bird feeder again. Here he is, very intent on his task:

What a sweet hubby I have. :)

In other news, here's a cautionary tale on the perils of doing laundry on one's birthday. Don't Do It.

Tonight we're having chicken & rice and then I think I'll try to get some more done on Peter's sweater - I started the first sleeve last night and it's got 200 rows of increases (every fifth row). This could take a while.

FO Sunday

Wow, what a terrific feeling it is to be having a normal (non-working) weekend. Friday night was total relax-time; in fact Peter and I both fell asleep watching "Gorky Park". Saturday we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more, in anticipation of my family coming out for Mom's birthday dinner. Roast beef and veggies in the slow cooker, homemade garlic bread, and fresh (frozen from last year's pickings) strawberries and blueberries on pastry with loads of whipped cream and/or ice cream, as people preferred. Very tasty.

Then we all sat and watched the hockey game, and I wish I had thought to have Peter take a picture - sis Karen was crocheting, Mom was knitting, I was knitting! Our own familial SnB. :) Karen's recently got back into crocheting and Mom has rediscovered knitting, so I let them go through my big bag of "to donate" yarn and have at it. Yarn all over the living room floor, thank heavens the cats were hiding out. Karen picked a few balls of Phentex Merit acrylic worsted to make a chevron-style shawl, and Mom grabbed a ball of blue Divine and two balls of LB Homespun, for a couple of triangle shawls. They cast on right after dinner. Nice!

Meanwhile, I was working steady on Mom's birthday present, a silk scarf which (dammit) I forgot to take a picture of. It's a kind of lizard-y iridescent green, chunky weight, which I knit in a double moss stitch. Looks like green chain mail - she loved it. Ran the ends in and handed it over, then got back to Peter's toque, which is now DONE!

Here it is - the pattern is "Basic Cable" from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation, but I added several pattern repeats for length because he wanted it long enough to fold over his ears. This picture is odd - the stripes are actually black and dark green, not dark and light green! Sunday morning light I guess. Anyway, I had to break stash diet for this one and buy the yarn to match his coat - Patons Classic Wool in black and bottle green. Funny thing about this - Peter requested the hat because he lost the one I made him last year (same colours, different pattern). Guess what we found yesterday while cleaning? Yup. Last year's hat. Ah well, you can never have too many toques. I may make myself a "Basic Cable" for next winter - it's a fun pattern and the cables and ribs make it extra warm - "insulated cable", as I said last night, to no amusement of my family. They got no sense of ha-ha. :)

Then I pulled out Yumi's Fire Shawl, which got LOTS of work done on it while I was on course Friday. There's only a wee little ball of yarn left, so I'm going to finish it up today on breaks between researching my term paper. Here's the shawl at "almost-done" stage:

Again, the camera is not seeing what I see - the colours are deep burgundy and gold and hot red and smoky purple. This is Fleece Artist "Kiss Curls".

I stuffed the baby blanket in progress into the WIP/UFO bin and stuffed the bin in the closet before the family came over, so no pics of that right now. Next week!

And now, since (almost) all the house is clean and (almost) all the laundry and dishes done, I'm going to make a big batch of blueberry pancakes and bacon, and dive into my research. And NOT have to stop what I'm doing at 1 or 2 o'clock to get ready to go to work - ah, luxury! I just hope the budget will hold up to me not working the second job for a couple weeks; if it does, I may become a lady of leisure on weekends again. We shall see.

You don't know what you don't know

So I'm on a training course today, "Excel Level 1". This is the basic-basic introductory level. We've been in training for a little over three hours and already I've had four moments of "oh my god, how did I not know that?" Simple. I didn't know that I didn't know. And now I know. And it will make my life (work and home, because I use Excel for home stuff too) just that little bit easier.

Same with knitting. Sometimes the most obvious things, the most simple things, you just don't know. And then someone shows you, or you read about it, and - AHA! Look what I can do now! I love that.

Today, I'm knitting as I learn (woohoo, twice in two weeks!), working on Yumi's Fleece Artist Fire Shawl. Knit a bit, learn a bit, knit a bit, learn a bit. It's a good rythym to the day. And, it's Friday and the sun is shining and I'm not working at Michaels ALL WEEKEND! But tomorrow I have to clean and cook for Mom's birthday party. Pictures of shawl, Peter's sweater and hat to be posted on the weekend.

Productive knitting week

So, two nights' hard work produced a 2x2 ribbed, striped toque which was very well received by Peter's friend Terry (he has a rather large bald spot and it's pretty cold lately!). Next up was the back of Peter's sweater, which I finished off yesterday - just the sleeves to go but I can't find my 4mm Addi, so I may have to start those on the straights instead.

When Peter saw the toque for Terry, he wanted one "just like it - but in black and green, in wool, with cables..." so, not at all like it other than it being a striped toque. Fortunately I found a fairly easy pattern - Basic Cable, in "Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation". It's working up nicely but looks a little small - although the ribs and cables should make it stretchy. It's about 1/2 done, started today.

Unfortunately, productive knitting week has meant a very unproductive housework week - I've got a mountain of (clean) laundry to put away and muffins to make for lunches this week. Which will be happening later this evening, because we've got a dinner invite in - oh gods, an hour. Time to boogie!

Febrrrrary!

Groundhog says "early spring" and immediately winter settles in... ah life in Canada! It's been very VERY cold of late, which makes me cranky and antisocial. I want to stay home in the warm and bake and knit and be under blankets as much as possible. But work must be done, so out I must go.

Haven't blogged for a bit so here's a quick (no pics) project update:
1) Peter's sweater - back is past the cable stripe, on the homestretch of navy. About 6" more and I can bind it off and start sleeves. He may actually get this for his birthday!

2) Baby blanket - yes, another one. See, I ran into this old friend on the weekend, and we got talking, and his ladylove is about to have his baby. Sweet. So stupid me, says, "I'll have to knit you a blanket!". Yeah... she's due in two weeks. DOH! And it has to be wool because she's a freak about natural fibres only, yadda ya. Fine. I had a pile of bright blue and red KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in stash anyway. It won't take long, babies are small. :)

3) New thing - toque! Peter emailed me at work today and asked if I could knit a toque for his friend/co-worker. This gentleman recently lost his wife to cancer and Peter just decided that a toque would be a Good Thing. I concur. I'm going to make it out of the same yarn (Patons Decor) as Peter's sweater, in black 2x2 rib with a wide burgundy stripe or maybe a wide one near the bottom and a narrow one near the crown. Casting on as soon as I finish here.

Still working away on Yumi's fire shawl (hi Yumi! it's coming!) and damned if I can't find my sock-in-progress! It's hiding on me as punishment, I know it. Ah well. It will turn up again when I need it, I'm sure.

Off to toque-land. Hockey tonight (mechant Mardi!) and maybe "House" later too, if I can stay awake that long. Our next door neighbour got a skidoo recently and has decided that between 8:30 and 10 pm is the ideal time to run up and down the street in front of our house with it. Did I mention that the street is right outside our bedroom window? Argh.