Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I'm Spoiled

So Christmas is coming up. I know because I think I only have 50% of my knitting done. Hm. Anyhoo, here is my little list of things. I love making lists. Especially lists like this one.

Ceramic mugs from local potters

Pestle and Mortar for spices and salsa

Pepper Grinder

Yarn- anything jewel tones. I like silk. Cashmere. Yak. Whatever.

These glasses are super neat. I need glasses. I think I'm down to four. Oh, and wine glasses. Mine are dumb. And I only have two. I fail at being a grown up continuously.

Knitting things. I don't know if that link will work but it's a swift, interchangeable steel or wood needles, and the Yarn Harlot's new book.

Cute stitch markers. My only requirements are that they are not stupidly expensive (really? Four stitch markers for 20 dollars? What is wrong with you?) and they aren't long charms because those get stuck in my knitting.

I love this guy. All the work is neat (the unicorns are pretty awesome too) on that site.

I love fabric. The more bizarre and unique the better. Right now sticking with cotton mostly because of quilting but I wouldn't say no to silk.

Anything with a jellyfish on it.

The Office (American) on DVD.

Coffee from the Bean Scene or JJBean.

Earrings or pendants.

Cool buttons.

Ukelele Tuner.

That's all I got my friends. I hope this was helpful for the people who requested it. My roommate would like me to add that the cats would like a bag of tuna and catnip. I live in a weird house.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Yeah Yeah

So sure it's the first of December. Am I saying I'm going to blog every day of December? No. Firstly, cause you all saw how well November worked out. And secondly, December is a busy time my friends.

Moving along lots to tell you. Mostly about knitting. Sorry for the vagueness about projects and lack of photos. A lot of the gift receivers are also readers. The Christmas list thus far (I am so sorry to anyone from Ravelry that I haven't updated since October. I'm awful I know). Been doing a lot of this lately. Coffee and yarn. I lead a very nice life my friends.

Mom- done. But I want to knit her more so I've got a project ready for when I finish the other big ones.

Dad- all steeked. Just need the button bands. I was worried about the loose gauge so I sewed up the edges I wanted to cut with a piece of fabric underneath for extra reinforcement. It's working like a charm and I'm an un-necessary genius.Grandma- done! Woo!
Grandpa-getting chocolate. He's happiest with chocolate- it's true.

Julia- I weighed my yarn and I don't have enough for what I want to do so I may need to buy yarn or something. I'm actually low on yarn- it's either scraps, extreme luxury (my cobweb lace is tangled- that's another post) or designated for sweaters. Very annoying.

Jennifer- started but taking a lot longer than expected. Jenn was great and requested what she wanted knit. Now, that could backfire since I can't buy the yarn requested for the project but am using yarn I already own (I'm quite poor is the gist of this) so hopefully her expectations aren't high (hi Jenn).

Malcolm- mostly done. Just a few hours of mindless knitting to finish the last part of his project and then we have possibly the cutest nephew present ever.

Hazel- finished! Have I mentioned lately how cute that one is? Thankfully she doesn't have the most discriminating tastes yet so I'm sure she'll tolerate her present as much as she tolerates anything else (drools on it).

Jim-not started but I have the yarn picked out and it should only take me a weekend or so. Fingers crossed.

Jason- unfortunately I asked him what he wanted. He wants a scarf. Should have just knit him an oven mitt. So I had to buy some yarn because I'm not knitting a scarf one month before Christmas in sock weight scraps. I got some nice aran, got about four inches done, and then took it to a dark pub with Kat and royally messed it up. Once I get back on track it's a good one to take on the plane with me or what have you.

That's it! I'm off. Sweet dreams!

Colours of a Vancouver Fall









Friday, November 11, 2011

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

#7 Not Argyle

This blanket was knit with five skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca 100% cotton- blue, brown, pink, orange, and white. I followed a basic entrelac pattern with 3 sections of 18 stitches. I repeated every colour but blue twice, but then crocheted a blue edge. It turned out rectangle-ish and quite large. The cool thing is is that Julia picked out the yarn and the colours when I first moved to Vancouver four years ago with the idea that one day I would knit it into a baby blanket. It's pretty awesome that we get to wrap her baby in them now.

Monday, November 07, 2011

#6 Grr Argh

Sorry About Yesterday

I have no idea how I forgot to blog yesterday. Until now I thought I had blogged. That is so weird. Blogger didn't eat it or anything- I didn't blog. I just... didn't blog. Weird. Anyhoo- moving on.

I hung out at home tonight hoping to get called for work tomorrow. I didn't which is super stupid. Means I'll probably get called tomorrow either at 5:30am or I'll get a call right at 9am and have to panic out the door. Or I won't get called. Which is the stupidest option of all. Don't people know I have students loans?

Right! Blog entry topic back on track. Debt angst off to the side for now. So yeah, I'm sitting watching the back to back Come Dine With Me Canada episodes and knitting. I stick a safety pin in where I start so I can better see my progress. It worked beautifully.
You know, detailing I was making poached salmon (a success! Hazah!), emailing, playing with the kitten, and cleaning, I feel I got a lot done. I also made myself a few martinis along the way. I had pomegranate juice that needed to be finished and hey- I'm not about to let the world's most expensive pomegranate juice go to waste. Oh look- vodka and limes. Mm. Anyhoo, great- look at all this knitting.Look at how much of the sweater I've gotten done! Finish this sleeve then it's the yoke, steeking, collar, and button band! Wow.
Hm. That's interesting. Did you see it? Here's a close up. (It's not the kitten)
Yeah.
No more martinis while reading charts.

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Friday, November 04, 2011

Zen


The most stressful part of my travel was my fear of flying. After the first take off from Vancouver I managed to enter a state of semi-comatose, zen-wannabe state that I kept until I landed back in Vancouver. Well, on land I was as normal as one with jet lag in a new city can be, for the flights I was zen.

The Answers

So, I posted these questions in the Baby Shower post. Here they are again if you want to do a quick scroll through...
1. Please do not go. We'll eat you up. We love you so.

2. And she loved a boy very, very much- even more than she loved herself.

3. Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere.

4. Elizabeth was a beautiful princess. She lived in a castle and had expensive princess clothes. She was going to marry a prince named Ronald.

5. 'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you.'

6. It do not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live

7. It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you can ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.

8. Things may happen and often do to people as brainsy and footsy as you

9. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.

10. But the eye is blind. One must look with the heart.

Aaaaaaaand the answers (I'm really tired so this is a lazy, lazy, lazy, blog entry)...

1. Please do not go. We'll eat you up. We love you so.
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

2. And she loved a boy very, very much- even more than she loved herself.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

3. Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere.
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

4. Elizabeth was a beautiful princess. She lived in a castle and had expensive princess clothes. She was going to marry a prince named Ronald.
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munch

5. 'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you.'
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Bianco

6. It do not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling

7. It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you can ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
Matilda by Roald Dahl

8. Things may happen and often do to people as brainsy and footsy as you.
Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

9. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

10. But the eye is blind. One must look with the heart.
The Little Prince by Antione de Saint-Exupery

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Happy Diwali!

A week or so ago yes but still, rest easy knowing good persevered over evil and I hoped you ate many gulab jamun.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Snuggles

Baby Hazel

Beeb Hazel is almost two months, she'll be two months in 11 days. CRAZINESS!!!
You may have already seen this photo but hey, she's a cute baby. We threw her baby shower last weekend. We all agree that baby showers should be when the beeb is here cause hey, BEEB!

Here are the happy parents. Jason walked the beeb over in her stroller from far away and had someone yell out 'Hello Hazel!' at them. Baby Hazel brings great notoriety in Vancouver.

The theme of the shower was Books and Bums.
Books galore! I lost my mind and if it wasn't my niece's shower I would have stolen many of them.

Mom and Dad came and family friends who have known Julia since her birth.
It was a super nice time. Lots of great people, good food, and such an awesome baby. Jess hosted the event in her lovely place and made all the food and drinks. I decorated with baby clothing.
And the last photo is of the six prizes (hazelnut chocolate bars (the good kind)) for the game. We had two activities, one was writing messages for Hazel that she gets to open on different birthdays, and the other was a book game. Basically we concluded that the elementary teacher shouldn't make book games. I managed to narrow down a selection of my favorite children/young adult books to ten and wrote down a quote from each one. I read out the quote and people had to guess the title of the book and the author. The highest score was 11/20 and the lowest was 0.

So basically I'm going to put the quotes here and you can see how many you answer without cheating! Pencil and paper and note down the author and the title. I'll put the answers tomorrow though when you are done you can google them if you can't wait. 2 points possible per questions, one for author one for title.

Cheers!

1. Please do not go. We'll eat you up. We love you so.

2. And she loved a boy very, very much- even more than she loved herself.

3. Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere.

4. Elizabeth was a beautiful princess. She lived in a castle and had expensive princess clothes. She was going to marry a prince named Ronald.

5. 'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you.'

6. It do not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live

7. It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you can ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.

8. Things may happen and often do to people as brainsy and footsy as you

9. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.

10. But the eye is blind. One must look with the heart.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Self Portrait

Oh Right! I went to NY!

Let's start November blogging off with a bang shall we? Well, when I say that, I realize it's kinda a stupid saying and also, it's a lie. It's quarter past ten. I'm going to bed very soon. Mostly pictures. No bang at all.

So yeah, I'll be blogging every day in November. I like saying that like it's really going to happen. Twice even. One will be a single picture post, one will be a regular post. But let's start off with New York. I'd just like to say that I went to NY for five days for 740 dollars. Canadian. Including airfare. That all said and boasting aside, next time I go, I'd like to spend a lot more.

Anyhoo, on to the pictures!

Firstly, Ozzie: the star of Brooklyn. I love this cat.
And my first real day in NYC we went to the fashion district (kinda dirty really) but got to meet Swatch! Who is kind of a bad dog at times. But still! Swatch!
While at Mood I bought some beautiful silk charmeuse for Hazel. It's stupidly soft.
We also went to the Daphne Guiness exhibition at FIT. I'd link but I'm really tired. It's completely worth googling. This woman basically wears insanity on a daily basis. Some of her outfits are beautiful and inspiring, some are scary, some are stupid, but they are all very entertaining.
On the last day we walked around Chelsea and Soho and Madison and Fifth and Central Park. Lots of fun. In no particular order we saw dinosaur bones...
giant crucifix (this was actually on my last day there right in a cemetery right by the wall street occupation but it's such a hassle to move photos)
we went to the folk museum and saw awesome quilts. This one was my favorite.
look at this! INSANE!
Purl soho where I bought the most scrumptious madeline tosh light and managed not to buy liberty fabric for 36$ a metre.
Oh, and one morning we all just got dressed up in coloured tights. That's Dory on the left, she is who Kat and I stayed with in NY. Lovely lady. Great hair.
Here are my tights while I was walking through a little water fountain on the highline.
These sculptures are all around NY subways and are too awesome.
Here is the highline. It's an old railroad about two stories up that has been converted into a green space. It's nice. At first I didn't get what all the fuss was about but after walking around NYC for a bit I understood the need for more green space. It had some really nice spots to sit and watch the water or the traffic below.
Rhinebeck! Woo! It was fun and frankly, those apple cider doughnuts made the whole trip for me foodwise. There was a lot to look at and we didn't even get through all the tents. Lots of fleece but I haven't spun for ages and still have my sweet georgia panda to get through.
Lara! We got to spend time fondling yarn and talking all things fibre just like old times. I sure miss her! It was great getting to see her. I mauled her in the middle of the food lines I was so happy.
Okay, upstate NY is so ridiculously different from NYC it's, yeah, ridiculous.
The first place we went to had this amazing silk/merino yarn that I desired so bad. It's called Raspberry Souffle by Periwinkle Sheep. She's so nice I had to link to her. I didn't want to blow my Rhinebeck budget on the first place we went to so I left the four skeins lovingly behind. I almost think this was the wrong place to start with because it set our expectations so high for everything else. There were a lot of great vendors there but I was just comparing everything to Periwinkle Sheep. We went to two nice, but somewhat underwhelming tents and I freaked out and was like... we have to go back for the Raspberry Souffle! (haha- I typed souggle!) Thankfully on our way back we passed some amazing stalls that made me gasp and fondle yarn so that was good. Regardless, we went back and I could only find two skeins of the yarn. I wanted enough to make a sweater. I asked the owner if she had any more and she said she didn't but then, I spotted in a tub that wasn't suppose to be holding the silk yarn two more skeins of the Raspberry Souffle! I was so happy that I made lots of stupid high pitched noises and did a little dance. Due to the embarrassing display of fibre love the owner gave me a discount on all four! So nice. The yarn is so lovely it sits on top of the TV in honor.

The other yarns I got from Rhinebeck were from Dirty Water and are a gorgeous orange and dark blue/purple. The brilliant purple there is my tosh light which is halfway knit into a shawl right now. It's like butter.

Well, that was New York. There was amazing pulled pork, guys singing on the subway, people discretely asking us if we wanted to follow them to buy designer purses (we didn't), dressed up dogs, and a whole lot of culture, noise, and good times. It rocked. I want to go back. Rhinebeck 2013 folks! Yeah!