Land Unknown

Have Knit, Am Knitting, What to Knit Next

2012-01-14T13:31:00.006-08:00

Have Knit

I forgot my first finished project on my chair at school so no photos but it's a luscious baby alpaca infinity scarf that I loop into a big awesome cowl around me. Gray and orange. So yummy.

Technically I finished this in 2011 but I just sewed on the buttons (with Moms help- thanks Mom!) and sent it off to Dad. Hopefully get a photo of him in it to show you soon.

And after three evenings to complete the sewn cast-off, my New York Larch is done.

It's as yummy as it looks.

Am Knitting

Just cast on a pair of socks yesterday that are straight forward and plain. Photos when the heel is turned and it all gets exciting. Got to say I love those 9 inch hiya hiyas. Knitting in the round has never gone so fast and with no jogs!

I went to the sale at 3BF and came out relatively unscathed. I bought enough yarn to finish my bil's scarf (no photos- still boring), some lovely sweet georgia that I'm pretty sure is shawl bound, and...
Tanis Fibre Arts, Aran weight, in deep sea.

Gawd I love this yarn. This is Koolhas bound.

What to Knit Next

So if anyone still reads this since I've only blogged (haha- wrote blooged) three times in the past forever, if you could weigh in on this that'd be great. I have 5 yarn options for tops and cannot decide where to start. Maybe I'll cast on all five and lose my mind, who knows. Let me know which ones are your favorites (and any ideas about what to do with them as well would be great!) in the comments and I'll be very grateful.

1. 4 Skeins of Araucania Ruca
This would be something for spring time, light and airy, a tank of sorts or something along those lines. Very drapey. Beautiful pastel colours. 1052 yards in DK.

2. Paper Doll in Socks that Rock Bleeding Hearts
For this Paper Dolls I want to do an anatomical heart design around the yoke. Awesome right? Right.

3. Four skeins of Kauni
I want to do a cardigan with steeks ala the Ruth Sorensen pattern but with a different design. Nothing super fancy, just not... squares.

4. 1320 yards of West Coast Colour BFL DK in 'Washed Out Old Beach House on PEI with a Rose Trellis'
Beautiful. But no idea what to do with it. Possibly this. Who knows.

5. Four skeins of Merino Silk in Raspberry Truffle 1748 yards Fingering/4 ply
Besides stroking this yarn and sighing in a most content way I really don't know what to do with it either.

Thoughts? Questions? Opinions? Warnings?

I'm Spoiled

2011-12-13T13:06:00.003-08:00

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.

Yeah Yeah

2011-12-01T22:40:00.009-08:00

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

2011-12-01T22:40:00.006-08:00

Fibre

2011-11-11T00:06:00.002-08:00

#7 Not Argyle

2011-11-08T22:38:00.003-08:00

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.

#6 Grr Argh

2011-11-07T22:13:00.003-08:00

Sorry About Yesterday

2011-11-07T22:04:00.004-08:00

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.

Autumn

2011-11-05T23:46:00.003-07:00

Zen

2011-11-04T22:43:00.002-07:00

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

2011-11-04T22:31:00.002-07:00

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

Happy Diwali!

2011-11-03T22:30:00.002-07:00

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

Snuggles

2011-11-02T22:26:00.001-07:00

Baby Hazel

2011-11-02T21:25:00.005-07:00

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.

Self Portrait

2011-11-01T22:35:00.002-07:00

Oh Right! I went to NY!

2011-11-01T17:15:00.010-07:00

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!

Still need to pick out the airplane knitting....

2011-10-13T00:39:00.005-07:00

A lot of what is on my 30 by 30 list will not be finished. I love how I went and make it ridiculously bike-happy a while ago. What was with that? But still, some things, important things, will be done. One of the big ones was going on a trip. So here I go.

I'm leaving my quaint place in Vancouver for five days...
and popping on over to New York City! (first time there so no pictures yet but look! My passport!) It started out as a trip to the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck NY but with the help of my awesome friend Kat this trip has turned into so much more. We are going for pulled pork, going to stores where stuff is so expensive it doesn't have price tags, going to museum after museum after museum, West Village, free ferry rides to see the Statue of Liberty, Purl Soho, Mode, and, of course, we will find ourselves a NY pretzel to eat with mustard. I'm soooo excited.

I leave in two hours (yes, it's 1 in the morning, and no, I'm not done packing) but the essentials are finished with. I have my passport, I have loved the Hazel and read her some more stories,

I was trying to mohawk her hair and she was wondering why I was causing her such grief. Oh, and the orange guy in the back is this dude.
I've also got the most awesome roommate ever taking care of the kitties.
And I finished my Rhinebeck shawl. I thought I was doing soooo well when I just had the cast off row to do last night. Yeah, two and a half hours later... picot edging sucks.
But here I am, about to embark on my first grown-up trip, and yeah. I did ask the pharmacist if he had any ativan lying around that he could pass along (jerk said no) but it's all good. I'm so excited!

Many many many many many many many photos to come I'm sure.

Cheers all!

Hazel

2011-09-25T22:12:00.004-07:00

My perfect niece: Hazel Safiya

Born two weeks ago after my amazing sister laboured for... awhile.
Way to go Jubbers!

Grandma was here this weekend to steal Hazel away.
Hazel is always safely tucked away in handknits. I did the hat, Mom did the insanely gorgeous blanket.
We have a good time. Hazel and I are halfway through Roald Dahl's Matilda.
She's as perfect as the come. Good job Julia and Jason!

Penguin Tea

2011-09-09T20:45:00.005-07:00

Tonight is the night for my penguin tea. It's not a type of tea or anything. It's just the size of the mug I need it in. Tonight it is decaf chai because, and you'll know what I'm talking about if you've done this, having anything with caffeine in it when you're stupid tired means you just go to bed and then cry because you're so tired it hurts but you cannot sleep. So why do I need penguin tea you might be asking yourself? You probably aren't, but that was a good lead into this rant I'm about to type out.
It all started when I made a trip back home. Jenn, Jim, Malcolm, and Mom all made a trip up to Vancouver to see me. There was some fuss about this 'pregnant' 'lady' who lives upstairs but you know, whatevs. Anyhoo, I wanted to come back with Mom so I could see this guy. Dad. He's a cool cat.

Mom drove down with me packing along some great novels (Origami Yoda) and some reference books because I had been called by my HR to offer me a two week substitute position in a grade 3 class. Very nice. Income. Woo!

Well, it's Thursday, I start this job on the following Tuesday. Fine and dandy. I'm comfortable with grade 3. I make a little unit plan for the first two weeks, mostly class organization and behaviour management, and all that fun jazz.

We arrive in Vernon on Thursday and I check my phone cause that's what I do. Missed call. Mm. I check my messages despite the long distance charges. It's my HR. Offering me a classroom. Kindergarten. Four days a week. Permanent. Let me repeat that. PERMANENT. So I freak out, call back and leave a message. They call back in about fifteen minutes and bam. I'm a kindergarten teacher.

Eek! My poor principal called and was like 'wanna come in tomorrow and start setting up?' and I was like 'I'm in the Okanagan.' and then she was like 'do you have many resources?' and I was like '... no.'. She took it remarkably well. She told me to enjoy my visit with my family and she'd see me on Tuesday.

So even though I did all the things I had already planned on doing, seeing my grandparents, hanging out with my dad, seeing Jodi and her marvelous beeb, playing trains with Malcolm and shopping with Jenn, I spent a lot of time planning and reading. One of my mom's kindergarten teacher friends showed me her classroom (amazing) and gave me so many resources (generous). I planned and colour coded and planned and brainstormed. One evening, when I was going bleary eyed, Mom had a good idea.

I put this down for a while.
We got some of this stuff.
We pressed go on the microwave.

And got this.
It was pretty god damn yummy.

So now this first week has come and gone. I've gotten a complete workout since my classroom is on the other wing of the school and all my supplies (including the paper roll) is on the third floor of the main wing. No elevators. Seriously, it's like a day long step class. The staff is amazing. They've been helping me with resources, arriving every day with stuffies, puzzles, blocks, and other fun stuff. I've met all the students and they are going to be a fun class. My classroom is small for a kindergarten room but it's really coming along. I'll take photos very soon. I've always known how much work goes into a classroom but it's about double that for a kindergarten classroom. And from scratch? Oh my. But the students are excited, I'm excited, the parents are lovely, my coworkers are fun and lovely, the classroom is looking better every day...

and I'm exhausted. Exhausted. I didn't know yesterday if I'd make it through today but I did. And now, with my giant penguin tea, I'm off to spend some time with this.
Bonne nuit.

Part III: All Good Stuff

2011-08-31T00:05:00.006-07:00

I know it's not 'right' but I sure do love decaf chai tea. I just like drinking it all the time and gosh darn it- sometimes I want it right before bedtime. Better decaf chai than, you know, nutella cookies. Which, by the way, are awesome. Unless you eat four of them right out of the oven. Then you get quite a stomach ache. Anyhoo.

This is what Spike does when I sew.
I made booties for a friend's baby and I know understand the fuss about this pattern. It's great. The finishing gets a little finicky and I'm upset I didn't take a good picture of the wicked button loops I crocheted but still. Great pattern (rav link).
I'm knitting like crazy on the beeb blanket. Beeb is due in three days. Just three! We did all expect an August beeb but September is fine as well.

Kitten for size. It's entrelac knit on 5 mm needles using Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton. It's soooo soft.
And you will not believe it but I finished my socks! THE SOCKS!!! The socks I started... maybe five years ago? That I knit about ten rows a year on for the past three years? I finished them tonight. They will be part of the next knit blog entry. Cannot believe I finished these.
OMZG I got these floating shelf book thingies from Chapters today (along with The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo- it's the top book on the bottom shelf). I love them. When my bedroom is presentable I'll take a better photo. I really want to put in a fake headboard on my bed so maybe then. I love them. Just love them.
Sunday we went to Granville Island for free dancing in the park- this week put on by Centro Flamenco and it was just perfect. Perfect weather, atmosphere, music, singing, dancing. It was like being part of an awesome jam where everyone is just super talented. It was rehearsed and put together and all, but it just felt like home. Like being in someone's kitchen. It was wonderful.
My view when I looked up. Ahhhh.

This is a nice picture to end the photo rant.

Okay, so I have this crazy ass goal. Are you ready? I want to finish every single thing I am knitting to the point where I have NOTHING on the needles. Crazy right?!?!? I know! Yeah. But here's the thing. I want to get everything organized. Everything I've knit, everything I've cast on, all my yarn, all my scarves and shawls, just everything, I want to know where, what, why, and what to do with it. There will be frogging. I know it. And yarn that I may do away with. These are the times my friend, the radical radical times.

I got this idea because recently I finished three key projects. One was the socks I showed earlier, one was this awful synthetic yarn scarf a friend asked me to knit for her, and one was a pair of soul crushing slippers a friend asked me to knit for her. Noticed how two of those projects were requests? Yeah. No more requests. Anyhoo, I'm down to one cardigan that is nearly done, a hippo, secret xmas present, baby blanket, my dad's cowichan inspired cardigan, poorly neglected crochet mittens (why can't I crochet?) and a market bag. That's it! However! I have a shawl edging that I started ages ago and a mohair cardigan that I cast on and knit the back for. I also have a shawl that still needs to be blocked (I have my doubts about it's overall usefulness) and a lot of my 'finished' projects still need buttons, or lining, or ends woven in. Small things, things I need to get to you know?

So yeah, I'm hoping to photograph and organize what needs to be done and start a finishing. Now, I am allowed to start new projects, which sounds counterproductive, but frankly, I think I know me a little at this point, and if I tell myself I cannot start something, I'll start eight things just to show myself up. That's right! Can't tell me what to do! Ha hah! But as long as I keep on finishing things at a greater rate than I start them, it's all good. It may take me awhile, but this way the goal is actually attainable. My hope is that I will be only working on two or three projects by the end of September and maybe by the end of October... nothing on the needles! If that happens I'd like to create a poll for what I should cast on next. Crazy I know. But goals are fun. I'm excited.

Part II: Marking Stuff AKA Crafty McCrafterton

2011-08-07T22:52:00.010-07:00

Hi again.

My knitting hasn't been that prolific. I hurt my wrist through cross stitch so for the last part of July I took it very easy with the knitting and stopped cross-stitch altogether. Which, of course, meant more time for quilting. Ah.

Where to start... well- it's pretty late at night and I'm kinda tired (I stayed up so late playing plants vs zombies and had to get up at NINE in the morning for coffee) (sheesh) so it might be a photo heavy text-light kinda post. Or it'll be a I'm-so-tired-rambling kinda post. Let's see.

This guy here, Lochlan Nessie Scott, was knit with my class this year. We voted on the types of creatures we wanted and for his/her name, and each student got to knit on him/her about three times at least. I had some really natural knitters in the class and recommended a few to take up knitting classes over the summer (which, because of the awesome community, are readily available).
I knit a cardigan and hat for the soon-to-be Beeb. I don't have a good photo of the cardigan but I'll take one with the Beeb in it soon enough! This hat has this awesomely cute kitten ears on it.

I knit a linen-stitch scarf with scrap yarn. Takes a very long time but the result is fabulous.
I knit the Faraway So Close shawl for my Grandmother for Christmas so that was great. It was a super quick and easy knit. The edges aren't suppose to be scalloped but I couldn't find my blocking wires and after sticking about fifty pins to make the long edge line up straight I was kinda done. I think the edges are neat!

A top secret Christmas present that is now 30% done!
A blanket for previously mentioned Beeb. This now has an orange row and I'm about to start the blue. The entrelac blocks are huge but it's suppose to be a knockoff of argyle so I wanted them large. The yarn is blue sky alpaca 100% cotton. So soft. So very very soft.
And the quilting! I have THREE more quilts to show you. I finally finished my nephew's quilt for his second birthday (yes- he's three now, so what?) and have two more on the go (both wee) so that's another post. This is The Hungry Caterpillar quilt. The butterfly and the big caterpillar were panels, then I had a quarter of the red, green, the food fabric, and the mini caterpillar fabric. Because my panels didn't line up perfectly I didn't want to sew in the ditch to bind the finished quilt so I did a crosshatch along the edges.

I used a lot of tape.
Oh, and even though I HATE the starvation/judgement bullshit that goes on in pinterest, I did see something neat there the other day. Someone melted crayons on a canvas. It was neat, but my budget is so tight, and frankly, it was fun- but I wasn't going to go out of my way to get the materials. Anyhoo, my roommate is at superstore and she phones me and says

'Do you need any crayons? They are super cheap!'

So she brought me home three boxes of crayons for 2 dollars. I stole some watercolour paper from my bil, and set to work.

First I sorted one box of crayons into a pattern I liked and then I just added the other ones to it.

Then I glued them to the heavy paper (I know it looks like an advertisement for crayola but it's part of my childhood memories and besides, they are really good crayons yo).
And then I went outside with some newspaper, tape, and my hairdryer. Which, as I already knew, gets freaky hot.
Super fun fantastico!
And now my friends, I bid you- good night.

Why Hello There! AKA: Part I- The Move

2011-07-20T11:23:00.008-07:00

It's been over two months! Which, I think, is the longest I've ever gone without posting! Bad blogger! Bad!

Okay, a few reasons. I lost the internet for well over a month so I wasn't able to blog and it kinda moved me out of a blogging frame of mind.

As well? I've been super duper busy! Report cards, moving, fat cat, roommates, family, 52 job applications, voting, planning trips to NY- it was a crazy time!

So my return will be featured in three parts I've decided. The Move. Making Stuff. All Good Stuff. Even though now the move is old news, I'll start there.

THE MOVE

Letseehere... it's crazy but I have totally forgotten about my old place. It's so odd how quickly that happened. I think I categorized my apartment in my brain in something other than 'home'. It was like a home, but it wasn't there, you know? It wasn't until I moved into my new place and just felt this total stillness here and was like 'well holy crap- this is a home.' I didn't realized I was missing that but now, I don't know, but I don't miss my old place at all. Well, the dishwasher sometimes, but that's it. Maybe it's because this place has a yard (small, but a yard nevertheless), it has two bedrooms, it looks out into a street full of children and cyclists, not an alley, I have family really, really, really close by, or maybe that I actually have to do dishes, but regardless, it feels like home and I love my new home.

The kitties were essential in the move. Lala hid a lot.
Spike would situate himself in places he shouldn't be and would scratch me if I tried to move him. He went a little psychotic the last bit before the move. Not crazy like before when he was a kitten, but just more excited and happy. He loved the boxes. It was like he couldn't decide where to sleep next! A box currently being packed, a pile of fresh laundry, on top of the books someone is trying to sort, oh the possibilities!
Of course I'm allowed on the stove. I'm allowed anywhere.

The move was crazy in that I didn't pack until the 28th. I got Frog Boxes and they arrived on Saturday, I moved on Wednesday. I did a tonne of purging and throwing out and giving away. I donated about ten pairs of shoes, four bags of clothing, fourty or so odd books, and probably five big boxes of other items. I also gave away a big bag of acrylic or other unloved yarn. It was a good thing.
My living room all packed up.
The rest of the boxes in the kitchen. In the afternoon the sun would hit the boxes and then the kitties were like lizards on a sunny road.

The move was all good. So glad I got movers. Never ever ever will I move without movers. Ever. It was hilarious. They got there and were very happy with the organization and all that (I had a lot of help to be that organized) and the movers were all smiles until they lifted the boxes. Then they realized I'm a reader. Then they didn't like me as much. We didn't make the boxes unbearable, we delegated all the books out (yes you can delegate books-sheesh) to different boxes, but still, I have a lot of books.

Anyhoo, besides having to drive back once to get all the groceries and Spike's insulin that I left in the fridge (thanks Ju), it was a very successful move. And because of the Frog Boxes, it meant I had to be unpacked by the following Saturday. I actually emptied the boxes by Friday, and then Sunday had a housewarming that went really well. My place is still coming together slowly. I'm looking for a small table and little stools for the kitchen window, I need more things on the walls, I'm still moving things around, but it's all coming together nicely. And I'm getting use to spiders. And by getting use to spiders I mean I don't scream as loudly as I use to when I see them.

So a tour. Hm... well, these pictures are a little dated now but it's all the same idea.

Here's the front half of the living room. Imagine less chairs now.
It's funny how the loveseat and the two mini bookshelves worked perfectly in that space. Crazy!

The other half of the living room. My bedroom is on the left (no photos- it's messy) and the other door is the spare room (no pictures- it's my roommate's room now). The kitchen is further down.
Oh, I wanted to include this picture of the scratching post. It was broken during the move and my awesome BIL constructed this out of the pieces, which I think is even better than the original.
The kitchen is boring but here is a cute photo of Spike modeling it for you. He's just figuring out where his food is kept and how he can dig it out (I've had to move his food three times and last night I put it in the front hallway closet that he can't reach so he tipped over the garbage twice last night).
Still good counter space and lots of storage. Gas stove. It's cute. I have a little window that I have a herb garden outside of which just means I need to learn how to cook with fresh herbs.
The bathroom is super tiny but makes up for that fact by having a huge bathtub. Here is Spike modeling again. See how tiny he looks?!? I love that tub!

So that's the new place. It's pretty rad. Slowly making it my own still. I've had so much help moving here. My sister, BIL, and a very good friend of the family all helped me move and helped me organize where things should go. My BIL put so much together for me that I couldn't have done on my own. My Mom helped me figure out effective storage and gave me a lot of cleaning tips. And now, my kick-ass roommate is helping out a lot. She is a good friend from high school and is going to UBC for a sememster so hey, it all works out.

I love decorating. I have a lot of my Bangladeshi and Papau New Guinea art up.
An unfortunately fuzzy photo, but my local Okanagan art has also gone up.
And could these birds be any cuter?
They'll be in the front hallway when I purchase the proper screws for them.

And yes, how do the cats feel about the new place?

There are two cats in the above photo.

They're making do somehow.

Cranes and Lizards; Dishwasher vs Soil; Tuxedo Mask or Platform Shoes

2011-05-06T23:33:00.008-07:00

Cranes and Lizards
I went to Jubber's place for Easter. I made paper cranes on a whim.
I asked Malcolm to pick out his favorite flower at the craft store.
This was after he had picked out his favorite hat in the craft store.

And what a popular hat it was! I love it when Malcolm brings his parents with him over to Vancouver for a visit. We always have the best time and we always have Ethiopian food so it's just a pretty awesome event. Big props to Jubbers and Jason for hosting Easter dinner and a high five to Jenn and Jim for making it out here. I loves me family.

Dishwasher vs. Soil

This is my sister Jubbers. She's a cutie. That's her husband, Jason. He makes food so delicious you want to cry. They're a pretty neato couple. I approve.
They live in a character home which, on transit, is about fourty minutes from me. It makes for a sometimes stressful situation getting there as often as I'd like. It's worse getting home if I stay late, which I usually have to, because of our late night board game fiestas.

While there for Easter, we noticed a lot of strangers hanging out, not even just in front of Julia's place, but like, in her yard. On her staircase. It was weird. Turned out the suite below her place was showing.

I'll spare you the rather gory details, but a week later, I was giving my landlord notice. Craziness!!!! I'm moving! I had to weigh the options back and forth a couple of time. What were the pros for moving? And the cons?

Pro Con
soaker tub tiny bathroom
ability to garden no dishwasher
two bedroom (ie. craft room!) higher rent
closer to friends further away from friends
closer to Main street um... Marpole has... um.... yeah
and the Drive
easier to bike places moving is stressful
closer to work express bus... wait, they took that away
chance to purge have to purge
no mold on windows nothing matches that pro
being next to my sister again, nothing
and bro

Oh, and have I told you that other pro?

THAT'S MY NIECE!!!! And isn't it cute that they're holding hands?

Niece card trumped all.

Lala isn't sure how she feels about the move. Mostly she attacks shadows on the floor and meows at me every morning at 5:30. I think she's in denial.

Tuxedo Mask or Platform Shoes

Holy crap this is turning into a long post. Anyhoo. Recall the con item that was 'have to purge'? Yeah. I'm having a lot of angst. Now, I'm being good. I'm trying to channel my eldest sister and I got a lot done today but still. I'm just so confused! I need your help. Yes. You. Help me. Tell me what to do.

Item #1: Awesome Book Covers
I love these. Beautiful artwork, colourful, meaningful, but what am I to do with them?

Item #2: Tuxedo Mask figurine

He's fuzzy here I know, but he isn't in real life. I loves him so. But, I mean, he's really quite... useless. Sorry dude. It's true.

Item #3: Silver Platform Shoes
I should wear these on Sports day at school.

Item #4: Dragon lamp
Very cool, but not a lot of light. More my style in high school. Not sure if it fits in my current aesthetic. I cannot believe I spelled that word correctly on the first try. Get out of town!

Item #5: Cute figurine with Cat
A dear friend got this for me a long time ago. Again, not my style, but I love it. I love the cat. I love the solitude of the piece.

Item #6: Hello Kitty Pez Collection
SO! CUTE!

Yup, comments below please people. I'll keep you updated on the move. Cause goodness knows I've gotten no bloody knitting done for a month. Egawds.

How to Sandwich A Quilt

2011-04-12T20:44:00.004-07:00

First, drug cats.
Excellent. Then clear out some space and have mindless TV on in background (I do believe this was 'wipeout').

Lay out bottom fabric and tape in place. Fix and shuffle continuously till it's perfect.
Scream at cats who are now high as kites and are tearing around the apartment like mad and repeat previous steps a few times.
Lay batting on top of quilt and place finished quilt on top. Pin, shoo cat, pin some more, fix, shoo cat, fix, more pins, yell at cat, get scratched, get band-aid, pin some more, fix, take pins away from kitten, pin, and then you are done.

Now sit back and wonder how the hell you are ever going to get these layers sewn together.

Just a little size comparison of cat there for you.

Finished quilt, so far layers un-sewn, but hey, dudes, I freaking finished the front.
Next time it's nice out and I can steal a neighbour I'll get some good shots in the sun. And when I figure out how to sew this together now (it's 79 by 64 inches) I'll take a photo all snuggled up in it.

Cheers!

This Is What I Do In My Spare Time

2011-03-31T21:21:00.007-07:00

So I'm not done any of my projects. But I did complete about 80 rows on my shawl that I started on the 29th, so that in itself is an accomplishment. If you're impressed by knitting that is.

Now, I'd like to say that I didn't finish my knitting projects because I was quilting, or going for walks, or, well, anything productive, but truthfully, I was playing Sims. Now now, I should say that I set a limit. I ignore that limit mostly, but gosh darn it I set that timer. Then I turn it off when it goes and then I have no limit. See how well that works?

Anyways, I had to re-install Sims because there was something wrong with my latest disc and the game wasn't opening. I lost all my games but that's fine because it's nice to restart. I always start with my main two characters: Milla and Angel. Sometimes I start them off in the same house, but this time I started them off as strangers in different houses, and I decided that they had to have lives before hooking up and spending the rest of their lives together.

Now Sims comes with pre-made families that have their own back story and characters and dilemmas and such. I usually ignore these families except to steal a character from them or something. Not this time. This time I was a tad... bad. It's actually kind of awful. It really is. I'm going to Sims2 hell no doubt. But gosh, it's fun.

And at this point, I assume you are all interested in the game Sims2. If you are not, you really should have stopped reading at this point. If you came for quilting or knitting, I'm terribly sorry. I have a new quilt to show soon, I promise. If you aren't aware of Sims2, but reading thinking I'm going to go somewhere with this, it's a game where you make people and led their lives. They have to get jobs or make money somehow, and eat and they have to interact with other sims, they can have families and children, and you can kill them or make them miserable or help them accomplish their life goals and the such and some of the jobs have helicopters that pick them up, and they also have pets! It's so much fun. Not addicting at all.

Anyways, the family I picked was the Pleasant family
The back story is that the twin girls are awful, the wife, Mary Sue, ignores the husband, Daniel, and he's in love with the maid and wants woo-hoo. At this point Daniel is also in love with Angel, the character I created. He's very forlorn, Daniel is, and he wants a change. He knows something radical needs to happen for him to be happy again.
It turns out solving the husband/wife dilemma was easy. They ignored the twins and made out in the kitchen. However, that wasn't enough for Daniel. He totally cheated with the maid while Mary Sue was at work and when she came home he invited Angel over and they had woohoo. Because Mary Sue was in the house, she came running over right away. Awkward.
Angel left the room quickly and started making himself spaghetti in the kitchen.
Daniel begged for fogiveness but alas, it was too much.
Mary Sue divorced him and kicked him out of the house on the spot.
You can't see but Angel is sitting in the dining room in his underwear eating the spaghetti. I had to get Mary Sue to go over and ask him to leave and when she did ask him to leave they shook hands pleasantly.

So Daniel moved into a little house that only has a microwave and a cheap shower. He has a good job and did get a lot of money out of the move but he spent it all on this.
A drum set.
And a gnome. The two things he felt he couldn't have before.
To prove he's okay Daniel quickly rebounded with the maid and asked her to marry him. She accepted, and I'm so sad I didn't get a photo but after she accepted and left, he thinks of the engagement and starts to cry. Turns out he really didn't want to get engaged. It's all a rouse.
After moving into the loser pad, and getting a regretful engagement to the maid, he heads over to Angel's place to tell him the good news that he is no longer married (just engaged).
He claims he only married Mary Sue for the money....
but Angel is upset about that and also upset about the engagement to the maid. No matter how good of a cook she is. They argue a lot. They argue into the night...
here is Angel saying he won't go to a beach party with him...
and they argue until, for some reason, they end up in the bathroom (the toilet is broken, that's why there's a puddle on the floor, okay?), where Angel breaks it off. Mostly cause he's about to propose to Milla, the other character I created. Oh, and also because Daniel doesn't like Angel's cat.

So, Daniel got what he wanted. No kids to worry about, a drum set, he's engaged to the french maid, and he's got a gnome. No doubt he's happy now.
Except for the fact that he keeps on balling up his fists and stomping his feet and having tantrums. Besides that yeah.

In other news, the twin girls grades have improved and Mary Sue is 'seeing' the mailman. And this guy she brought home from work. And the female gardener. See! It all works out in the end.

Chilling Out

2011-03-29T22:14:00.004-07:00

Today I played Sims2 till 3pm. It was interrupted briefly to eat my lunch which was the fresh pasta I picked up from Granville Island yesterday and once to have a bubble bath because I got jealous of my sim. Then I went out for to a fancy Chinese restaurant with my UBC friends where they serve a bean tapioca pudding for dessert with every meal. It's pretty hard being me sometimes. Pretty hard indeed.

Anyhoo, I am on a quest to finish a knit object in March. I have so many on the go and cast on a new one today but I am determined! I know March is only two more days but here goes.

Warning: bad photos ahead. I'm tired and it's nighttime and my apartment has the worst lighting ever. Ever. And I'm tired.

I am swatched and ready for my sister's arrrrgyle baby blanket. It's soooo soft. Blue Sky Alpaca cotton. This was knit stranded but the blanket will be intarsia so the other colours won't peek through, and I won't decrease on the purl side rows like I did on the swatch here.
Oh, my spring break scarf that I am not loving. Should I frog it? Yes or no? I'm not into it, I get so bored knitting it, and I know it needs a proper blocking and all to appreciate it but meh.
My dad's sweater is nearly at the sleeves. I'm not repeating the same pattern for the yoke as the bottom of the sweater. Don't know why I didn't. I just didn't. And I think I'm going to run out of the brown soon.
And the new project I started today. Ishbel in my favorite yarn ever, Vintage. I love it. I hate doing yarn overs between knit and purl stitches so I'm pfb on the wrong side rows instead of yos. It'll be fine.
And the most likely candidate for finishing in March. The last of my Mom's ankle socks in the colinette colour left over from the fingerless mitts.
I'd also like to note that I hit a very hard spot in my yarn diet. I've been so good on my yarn diet because I haven't been tempted. I'd seen all the yarn before, I didn't know what to knit out of the yarn I hadn't seen, there was no issue. Until I went to Three Bags Full with my Mom and Jubbers. There was a yarn, not even unpacked, and my oh my, how I wanted it. The temptation was awful. I made plans. I looked up sweaters and figured out how many skeins I would need. I found the perfect cardigan and doodled it on my notebook in the colourway of the yarn. I daydreamt about it.

But I did not buy it. Nosireebob. I made it. Now all I have to do is never go into a yarn store ever again. My 'get out of jail free' card is being reserved for Rhinebeck. I am a good girl. I will not falter.

Now excuse me while I go pout about the yarn by casting on two new sweaters. Who cares about the March deadline Stupid beautiful yarn. pout

Since I Can't Buy Yarn...

2011-03-21T20:39:00.006-07:00

I've told you all about the yarn diet (rav link)right? I haven't bought yarn since January 1st, 2011. Even before that I was being ultra-good. Usually I only bought yarn while under the influence of this one here.

Now I was worried that I would just start buying up fabric like stinky cheese but thankfully this hasn't been the case. I'm actually very good at maintaining a two project workload with my quilting. A big project and a quick project. And while I do have some fabric without a home, my fabric stash isn't even close to being an issue. I'm glad for that, since quilting makes knitting look like something you could do with nary a dime to your name. Frak it's expensive.

I haven't been to Fabricana since my Aunt came to see me in... November? October maybe. Anyhoo, me bestest drove all the way from Vernon to come see me, six and a half months pregnant at that, so another visit was in order.

The first set of fabric I bought was in response to me nearly finishing my nephews 2nd birthday quilt (he turns 3 in May). This quilt has been put away for a long time because I formally messed up the border. I didn't have enough fabric to tuck into the edging and my hidden stitches were not hidden. It was awful.
oh, and I had to rip out a lot of sandwich stitching because the machine went berserk.
But after a month of glaring I finally took it out of the closet and reassessed it. I was ruthless and took my rotary cutter to the edging to achieve two things: Get rid of it and even out the edge. Afterwards I took some beautiful orange fabric (a gift from Mal's Mom at that!) and realized how perfect it was.
I totally cheated and zigzagged the edging on but I don't care. I was about reading to lose my mind and it looks great.
I have a few finishing touches but it's about 98% done. So I bought fabric for another lovely flannel quilt.
I really liked the pale yellow fabric and basically pulled the other colours from the selvedge dots. It's a pretty safe quilt but I think the recipient is going to love it. The colours are not showing up well in the photo but it's a green, blue, purple, and red to go with the yellow.
Now, I'm still working away on the shark quilt. The kitties approve thankfully.
And while a lot of the edges are not lining up, I have my moments.
I was really excited to get to the point where I finished off the sunlight fabric. I don't know now if the fabric was the best choice but it's kinda too late now. I feel it is too white and the blue that is on it is too dark. Blarg. Will I paint it? I don't know. I would have to do some research and it would be a lot of work on top of a project that is already taking me a freakish amount of time but we'll see. I'm not ruling it out.

Anyhoo, today I did some more work on it and finished row 29. When I put it together I finally felt like I could see the sharks emerging. I know it's very abstract and, well, weird, but I was pretty thrilled when I laid it out and saw the individual sharks. It's also cool that I only have SEVEN more rows to do.
Well, seven more rows, than the rest of the front, the back, and then sandwiching it, and somehow sewing that up, and then the border. Yeah. Looking forward to that a lot.

However, I'm doubly excited to finish because of my next big quilt that I bought fabric for with Jodi. It's the Moda line of fabric called Central Park(pdf). I loved it the moment I saw it.

The dark gray is going to be the whole quilt, no border, gray back, nothing on it, but the front is going have circles cut out, using Ric Rac's tutorial, in three sizes. The largest circle will have the animal print, the medium ones will have the three prints on the right, and the small circles will have the brick patterns. SO EXCITING!!! I have already washed, ironed, and folded the fabric, and started planning the project on paint. I love it already. I could puke a little from happiness when I think about having this quilt on my bed. LOOK AT THAT ELEPHANT!!!
And I made skull sugar cookies for my fellow teachers on parent-teacher interview day. They were eaten in record time.
(I made more than six, this was just a good picture)

There has been knitting

2011-02-27T20:15:00.004-08:00

Report cards are not fun. And having to do them for two classes? Even more so. Boourns I say. Boourns.

In other news, I love my slow cooker. I just made the healthiest yummiest dinner ever. I put in some chicken, some chicken broth, tomatoes, lentils, potatoes, and yams and cooked it for four hours. Crickey.

Lala and Spike. It's been a year since I brought Lala home and Spike stopped addressing my presence. Turned out he wasn't lonely, he just had diabetes, and getting a kitten was the last thing on his list of fun things to do.
This is progress for them. Not cuddling, but at least on the same couch.

And I bought a ukulele.

In knitting news, I finished a pair of fingerless mitts.

I finally finished my Nina shawl.

I'm halfway done a scarf for my friend which I call the Lettuce scarf.
And it's slow going but I'm moving along on my dad's cardigan. It's knit in the round but then I'll steek it for button band.
Well, it's almost nine. So I'm going to bed.

It's Ten O'Clock on Friday Night and I'm Going to Bed

2011-01-28T21:52:00.004-08:00

but to be fair, I've had two martinis (chocolate espresso) so the night isn't a total write off.*

Today was a good day all in all. It was the last day in my class. We had a good day, very busy, with gym and library and lots of projects to finish. My amazing aide helped them create a very nice card with they wrote messages to me on cut-out balls of yarn and then they decorated the card with yarn. One student drew a picture of my desk with all my shoes lined up underneath it. The staff was so generous and very thoughtful and went out a picked out a beautiful file folder container printed with William Morris. I received hugs from kids I never thought would hug me and very nice cards, along with two pounds of dark whole coffee beans and a whole flock of miniature paper cranes.

The flowers were gorgeous too.
So today at lunch I found out where I'm going on Monday. I'm headed to an Annex where I'll be teaching Grade 2/3 till the end of the school year. It's pretty freaky in that those are the two grades I've never taught but I'm really excited. It's made last week's purchases rather great in hindsight.
That is, starting from top left and going clockwise, City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Williams and Jon J Muth, The Magic Paintbrush by Joel Stewart, The Little Hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, and Silent Music; A Story of Bahdad by James Rumford.

All four books are just skookum. My favorite bookstore was having a big sale and I had at least twenty books with me with no place to sit since all the benches had been removed for sale bins. The staff was awesome and simply moved a few things out of the way so I could sit down and go through all my books in one of the window display sections.
City dog, country frog is a very lovely story and the illustrations are very powerful. They made me laugh and, though I should state this isn't hard to do, made me cry.

Yup, just got choked up again. Moving along.

Silent Music is an important and unique story and the artwork in this book is breathtaking! The layers of prints and mediums is musical in itself.

I've read it about five times and each time I find something new to marvel at.

The Magic Paintbrush is a great story and the illustrations are wonderful, but I couldn't seem to get a good photo of any of them. They are full of motion and life.
I read The Little Hummingbird to my students today. It's a powerful short story and is so well suited to the illustrations. It's one of those stories that I can't see told without these accompanying drawings.

Very striking and moving.

Now, I go to bed. Here's to good reads and to me not getting taken over and run out of town by 7 and 8 year olds.

*just so you don't worry, some friends took me out for dinner, I'm not having those martinis here at home by myself. Though I wish I was cause those were good.

Newly Addicted to Earl Grey Tea

2011-01-23T12:54:00.005-08:00

I finished the Golden Goblin. I think it's safe to say it's one of the most beautiful things I've knit. Thanks to Katy for the yarn.
I knit on slightly larger needles and didn't add any tiers to Citron. It ended up being 40 inches long and 18 deep which is perfect. Citron is the perfect pattern. It is very mindless but requires enough concentration to make you feel engaged. I'll probably knit this again.

My latest cast on (since the disaster of the yoga socks) is for a scrappy lengthwise scarf. For a 340 stitch row it's coming along very quickly. Here's a photo of the swatch to show the design.
I've already finished four rows so it's coming along nicely. Despite my swatch it seems a little short so I may knit it very wide and turn it into a runner for my coffee table.

Here's my new and improved living room layout. I really like it and it feels much more 'home' than it ever did before. I love curling up in the corner next to all my books and just read or knit. It's very relaxing.

Rainbow Farts fingerless mitts for a co-worker who plays soccer in this cold.
I got the yarn I ordered on December 31st in a blind panic. I needed the yarn for a cowichan sweater and 3bf wasn't open so I logged onto an online yarn company and quickly picked out my colours and pressed 'submit'. I thought I was ordering two creams and one brown.

Nope. Guess I should pay a little bit more attention next time. Oh well, we'll make this work.
And lastly, I knit a mini santa hat.
Lala doesn't want to wear it.
She wants to destroy it.

I'm buying my coffee tomorrow.

2011-01-12T20:36:00.004-08:00

I'm feeling pretty lazy but I still need to shower and prep for tomorrow before bed. It's got me pretty grumpy, well, as grumpy as someone with not a lot of responsibility can get. I can pretty much guarantee I'll have a nervous breakdown every week for the first five years with children.

I downloaded photos for this post randomly, just photos I thought were interesting or told a story, and were in the two most recent folders. There's no plot here. No premise. Just photos. Tra la la.

Firstly, WTF?
I don't know if it was me or what but when I went to wind my black sock yarn for mittens this is what happened. All the breaks were at the same point which made me think I somehow accidentally cut it with scissors, but the cut was a little into the yarn itself, and also, I think I would have noticed if I cute into a skein of yarn and cut SEVEN strands. Sigh. Maybe I'll do some intarsia with it.

It snowed. I still had to go to work.
but walking ten blocks in ankle deep snow/slush is a great workout.

I'm working on a beautiful shawl. It's coming along. A little slowly right now since I'm at 444 stitches per round, but I'm on the last tier with the ruffle left to do so over 50% finished.

It's silk so amazingly scrumptions.

Lala likes me to stop knitting and to pet her right now.
Right now.

I got a couch to go with the bookshelf so whee! The only problem being that I now have no idea how to arrange my living room and I have company coming Friday night. I have way too many end tables. Like, six of them. Six end tables. Plus an oak chest. I don't know where to put anything anymore.

Poor quality photo but you get the gist. The couch is more of a mini loveseat. Keep in mind Spike is a rather large cat.
Lala was pretty scared of the couch for the first few days but now she's okay with it. It is definitely Spike's couch however. He gets so mad when I'm on it.
That being said Spike will sleep anywhere. He's sleeping in this photo. Fast asleep. Weirdo.
Oh! Look at the fibre goodness Knitting Goddess got me for my birthday! Isn't it amazing? Cannot wait to spin it up but I'm so scared of ruining it!
You want to squeeze it right now don't you? You do. You totally do.

Dirty.

And lastly, my one in a million good photo of Lala. Spike I can take good photos of but Lala, with all her fuzziness and attacking of camera cords and having to know exactly what I'm doing at all time can-I-shove-my-head-in-your-nostril, is very hard to get a good photo of.
Ohhhh.

Oh, and I just realized the topic of this post was crazy cat lady. I'm cool with that.

Giant Bookshelf

2011-01-03T22:22:00.003-08:00

For Xmas I received a lot of gift certificates to Ikea. These are good times people. I went there with a vague idea (haha, I wrote 'ikea') of what I wanted but was pretty open to inspiration. While, inspiration hit and woah, dudes, I got an incredibly huge bookshelf for 100$ off the original price. Little did I know this bookshelf was going to TAKE OVER THE APARTMENT!!!

This is the 'good' picture. What you're not seeing is the hallway blocked by cardboard boxes and paper, the bedroom overflowing with end tables and whatever else doesn't 'work' with the new living room, the sad bare shelves sitting in the kitchen, the daybed piled high with goodness knows what.
All that being said, this bookshelf is pretty gosh darn awesome.
I've got nearly everything on it and I still have tonnes of room left. I have space for two rows in these cubes so I am putting the not so exciting books on the other side. Obviously, I need to buy more books now.

I've used it as a room divider and put my table where my desk use to be....
and made myself a little study! It's so cozy in here.
These photos aren't really doing justice to how huge this bookshelf is but yeah, it's pretty big. I'd talk more about my plans and ask for opinions on different possible layouts but dudes, it's 10:32 and I have to be a grown up tomorrow. A grown-up. Like, you know, someone who accepts responsibility and gets stuff done. Yeah. Me. Anyhoo.

Good night!

After all that...

2011-01-01T22:07:00.002-08:00

I went through my queue and added hoardes of patterns to my '2011' folder and went through my entire stash and made a '2011' bag. After all that, what did I cast on at 12:25am on January 1st?
Crosswalkers (not in my queue) in my MSF colourway STR lightweight, which was in my 'unassigned but good' yarn bag. Already a good way done on the leg~ about just another two inches till I start the heel. I already know I'm going to have second sock syndrome on this particular pairing so I want to rush through them and get them on the done pile!

That being said I also cast on for my Laminaria in the Sweet Georgia Orchid (the hot pink seen in the post below) and am considering casting on a blanket before bed. This whole competition has given me the worst case of startitis! Which is okay because I finished a project tonight as well. Photos when I have natural light in this apartment again.

All in all, a lovely start to the new year. Cast on some fun projects, had tea with Hilary with my new beautiful hand crafted tea set from Mom, and went for a walk in this cold crisp goodness that is Vancouver right now.

Hope you also had a pleasant start to the new year. Cheers.

This Should Be Fun

2010-12-31T22:15:00.007-08:00

I have my camera back! All rejoice! I have lots to catch up on but first is the big New Years Resolution. I read a good article about keeping resolutions and the part I really liked is having friends doing the same thing. Hence, the great yarn diet and stash busting of 2011! Yarnpiggy started up a great group on Ravelry and thankfully I caught the end of the registration for this competition. You could enter one group or the other (the yarn diet and the knitting only from your pre-existing stash) but entering both seemed like a good idea.

I spent my time between Ikea (biggest bookshelf thingie ever) and New Years dinner (yummy dairy-free mac n' cheese (with bacon!) and a lemon buttercup martini!) going through my yarn. I went through and for the most part, designed a design or at least an idea for all the yarn for 2011. I know I already showed it in this video so if you want to skip this post, no hard feelings.

So first I have some pretty random stuff that will go to baby things. Lots of baby things this year.

Some rainbow acrylic....
my fantastic novelty yarn (I think more hedgehogs are in order)...
my bamboo tape that I have no idea what to do with but gosh darnit I have a lot of it!
my assorted neutral colour collection of odds and ends...
and my massive collection of odds and ends. I have some mohair in here, some cashmere, some sparkly, some malabrigo, some linen (knitting with that is less fun than stabbing a fork in your eye), some sari yarn, lots of sock yarns and cascade, and goodness know what else.
Either baby toys or baby knits or a reallllllly ugly blanket. We'll have to wait and see what the year brings I guess.

On to the good stuff!

First, my two blankets of the year. I have here the makings of a beautiful arrrgyle baby blanket out of some extravagent blue sky alpaca.
Second is my yarn from my Mom for my UNBC grad. Fleece artist goodness and lots of it. This will make an amazing blanket and it will be an easy knit so I'm excited to start.
Next are the scarves!

A striped scarf out of my brushed suri (it's red and white since Lala was obscuring the light in this photo)
and a Noro striped scarf out of my two silky malabrigo skeins that are similar, but really not quite the same.
Shawls are big this year.

This is hopefully going to be citron, but frankly, no promises. That stitch count gets pretty ridiculous pretty quickly. This yarn was a present from Katy for kittysitting and is Hand Maiden Silk. Mmmmmm......
Here's a trio of shawls to be. The blue shibui should hopefully become Holden, no idea for the blue sweet georgia, but the pink will be cast on for the Laminaria tonight.
I have no idea what to do with my laceweight but I want to dye it afterwards so we'll see. We'll see. I might just be crazy enough to try Sound of Waves again. Maybe.
These skeins are going to be a very warm and loving Gaenor I think.
On to the sweaters! Oh so exciting! Aren't you excited?!?!?

Another Paper Dolls out of STR (Bleeding Hearts Colourway)...
a steeked colourwork cardigan out of Kauni....
no idea but something warm and toasty out of my BFL from Gibsons...
and a Lace Hug Me Tight out of my birthday yarn (Sugar cane yarn! For reals!).
Those are all the project assigned yarns. I hope you all know that I can change my mind at any given second for any yarn or project, and then go back to the original plan if so desired, at any passing whim. I'm loyal to yarn, not so much projects, but the yarn, yeah.

I found some yarn while cleaning too. Which is good because that yarn in the left upper hand corner is my beloved vintage yarn. The middle yellow is going to become a shawl for sure.
This is unassigned good yarn that is being left until the mood strikes.

And here it is! My 2011 Project Bag! 2 Blankets, 4 sweaters, 2 scarves, and 7 shawls! Whooo!
Know if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go curl up with a hot chocolate, a couple of kitties, my 2010 shawl to finish and my 2011 shawl to start.

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for reading, cause, you know, that's pretty cool of you. Hugs!

Xmas List

2010-12-04T20:52:00.004-08:00

It's hard to blog without my camera. I think I left it in Vernon. I'm so absent-minded and dyslexicesque these days it's a gong-show. I've said such classics as 'let's brain our pools' and 'the streets on the light went out'.

I'm pretty stressed but thankfully I have a tonne of awesome things in my life (family, friends, kitties, knitting, living in beautiful cities). The best thing about Christmas is I get to have all these things around me. And I get to show the people how much I care with presents! And I have already started to think about what I'm going to get them! Honest thoughts about what people might like! I think shopping with start sometime around the 18th. Should be fun.

Another fun part of Christmas is getting to do xmas lists. I don't necessarily expect I will get the things on the list and frankly, every Christmas presents that rock my world are ones I may not have even thought of so the list is more decorative than anything else, if you will. Holy long sentence, Christmas Batman. I just enjoy making these lists. It's fun to think about things and to look around and poke around and idly imagine. You should make one too.

So here is my xmas list for 2010.

Loose Tea I am nearly all out of tea. It's a pathetic way to live life let me tell you (I still have a lot of green tea, it's the herbal and specialty black I'm low on).
Kitty Scratching Post Poor kitties. I daydream of one that is pretty high and has some hidey holes and dangling toys. They've pretty much destroyed their current one and Spike puked on it yesterday.
Ceramic sugar bowl or coffee mug These are my favorite. I like any hand-made mug. They make me happy.
Yarn Gift Certificates (link) I'm thinking 2011 will be a time for sweater knitting. I love getting skeins of yarn and my family is great at picking them out, but for people who aren't sure, gift certificates are a great way for me to get enough of the same yarn for a big project.
Fabric Quilting is awesome. And yes, the hammer head shark is going to take me longer than expected but that's no reason to collect more fabric in the meantime. I like Moda, Amy Butler, anything that is fun and quirky. Basics are great too.
Acrylic paint/paintbrushes That one's pretty self-explanatory.
Graphic Novels Bone(never mind, bought them), The Sandman, any well done, interesting, and beautiful books.
Interesting and/or Multi Picture frames I want to do some more decorating around here.
2011 calendar book, softcover and pretty, that will fit in my purse.
Cardigans I like cardigans.
ETA: Crockpot!

Now I'm all cheery. AND I just took a quilt out of the dryer. I'll take some photos with my cellphone and show you the blurry goodness soon. Promises.

Food is Awesome

2010-11-13T22:15:00.002-08:00

You know the quiche is good when you cut yourself a slice to hold you over as the first slice is in the microwave.

And now, as I chew the last bite of the warm one (mmmm... gooey swiss cheese), I go for thirds.

It's going to be some boring posts for a few days

2010-11-12T22:10:00.001-08:00

What's awesome is that it's ten and I'm going to bed and tomorrow I get to sleep in! Woo!

In other news is anyone else unhealthily obsessed with this song? I don't like it until the chorus where it has this super interesting pull. It's the strength of her voice~ it's crazy.

Kisses

2010-11-11T19:04:00.003-08:00

It use to be a wrangle to get kisses from my nephew. He'd squirm. You'd just end up kissing his eye. He'd knee you in the liver trying to get away. Good times.

Today I was lying on the couch about to have a nap when they were leaving. I said goodbye to Malcolm but didn't think I'd get a kiss. I made a kissy face at him and closed my eyes. Then it was unusually silent. Then, I opened my eyes just to see what was going on and all I got was a very close up of Mal's face before he gave me a kiss!

Kisses from nephews are awesome.

What was also awesome was chasing him endlessly on a trail in Kal park. Non-stop. Running, hiding, chasing, being chased, throwing mittens around, and alllllllll that.

Overall, nephews are awesome.

Okay in the end

2010-11-09T21:31:00.002-08:00

So at first there was going to be nothing good about today. At all. I could think of nothing good about today, let alone anything awesome. I was thinking this whole blogging for November awesome things was a pretty dumb idea.

Even though today was spent with no lunch hour, no recess, getting to school two hours early and leaving five hours late, endless meetings, and all these other things that I won't get into, and even though the custodian was mean to me, and one of my friends was rude to me, and I locked my purse in the filing cabinet, and my shoes pinched my toes, there was still one thing awesome about my day.

My mom.
How she deciphers my sobs into the phone, let alone respond to them, is beyond me.

Thanks for calling to check in on me Mom. You're pretty awesome.

Dudes...

2010-11-08T23:07:00.003-08:00

just saw Stephen Hough at the VSO tonight and woah. His hands were moving around on the keys like they were a) separate entities and b) on fire or something. It was pretty awe inspiring. There was also an interview with him beforehand and he seems like a really interesting guy. I'm going to start following his articles and see how he writes as well!

Another awesome thing? Catching a taxi home instead of waiting for the bus. I was home probably at the same time I would have been getting on the bus downtown. And now I'm going to bed at the time I'd just be getting home. Excellent.

Sweet dreams!

Two For One

2010-11-07T21:36:00.004-08:00

Tomorrow I'm pretty busy so just in case, I'm going to do two awesome things today.

Awesome thing #1: The lovely of lovely weather today. Got out in it for a bit which was really nice. It was even warm enough to open the window which always engages the kitties.
Awesome thing #2: Four more rows and an i-cord cast off is how close I am to wearing this thing non-stop. It fits perfectly! Weird photo because a) my bedroom and mirror are not photo happy and b)I have to hold the mirror with my foot so it stops tilting and reflecting the ceiling light.

More detail of the jellyfish.
Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome Thing #6: Time at Home

2010-11-06T21:26:00.004-07:00

I feel like I don't get any nice time at home anymore. I'm either home too sick to do anything but drink tea and sleep or I'm out~ whether it be errands or coffee dates. This week was especially hectic. Very late hours at work and doctors visits, volleyball games, and errands, meant that even though I was excited to see my friends this morning I really didn't want to leave home.

I made sure to spend some time cleaning when I did get home so I could enjoy this evening and then I took some time and found my poor neglected quilt. I took most of these photos ages ago and having been meaning to post them for a long time. So here is the latest part of the Hammerhead Quilt Project.

First I get everything ready. Tea, sharp scissors, rotary cutter and mat, pins, and my time-sucking chart.
Thread the machine...
get the iron ready...
get the envelope with all the pieces...
and start assembling the strip. I first lay it all out and make sure all the pieces are there. So far so good~ all the work from before is paying off thankfully.
After making sure the strip is all there I fold all the half-square triangles and sew them together.
Next I press them open. On the first row I just sewed them to the squares. Big mistake. These are not square. Some of them end up pretty square but some of them are freakishly wrong. Either crooked or way too large.
So each newly formed square gets measured and chopped accordingly so they are all 2.5 by 2.5. Takes a while.
THEN I get to sew. This way is faster than having to rip up strips after measuring them and realizing that in no way is a 50 inch strip is going to pass for a 48.5 strip. Only have to learn that lesson once thankfully.
I use the chart again to make sure the strip is correct as I sew and then I iron the strip flat, making sure I alternate which way the hems are laying.
Then I pin the label to the top of the strip and do row after row till I'm 'done' then I sew them all together.
This was the first marathon which was 6 strips.
Today I did another three (the first time I've quilted since Sept 20th!) and added them to the mix. This takes me to 9/36 which is 25%!!! I know it's only one half of the quilt and I still have the border and the back and I'm going to do some more to the front but still. 25%!!!
It's so neato. I have some plans for it yet. I may look into a very light bleaching of the centre blue which is a darker value than I planned for (it was a switch at the last second) but I'll wait till it's all done. That part is the sun which is a bright part of the photo but I feel like it's a little jutting currently. I love the fabric for the sharks themselves.
One way or another, even if it doesn't look like sharks, I am in love with this quilt. It's so much fun to look at! Not all of my corners are awesome but they really aren't bad.
Check those edges out! Booyah! So that is my sixth awesome thing, time at home, and thankfully it isn't as depressing as the last two posts.

Friday Is Over

2010-11-06T01:04:00.002-07:00

Lame post I know but the awesome thing about this post is that it is now Saturday and the weekend has officially begun. Wheeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That Kind of Day

2010-11-04T22:41:00.002-07:00

Today was a hard day. It's one of those days were I considered saying that the awesome part was that it was nearly over; however, I forgot something that is awesome. I took my girls to their first volleyball game today, and after two short practices, and me somehow being the only coach (found that out the first practice), we still did really well! They rallied really nicely and after I figured out the politics of volleyball meets it went a lot more smoothly. We even won four of the six games! The girls were happy and worked really well together. So that was my awesome thing of the day.

And goodness, I am so glad this day is over.

Spike and Lala

2010-11-03T22:10:00.002-07:00

you knew the kitties couldn't be that far behind right?

I'm super tired, had a pretty long stressful day at school but then got to go fabric shopping with my wonderful Aunt and then had some great greek food because coming home. So mostly this is all photos (again) but here a few shots of the kitties.

In this photo Lala is for sure plotting an attack on Spike. Probably the moment he closes his eyes to sleep. This photo is hilarious. You never see Spike in the cubby hole but when I moved the scratching post into the kitchen to catch the sunlight he settled in there for hours.
They're pretty cute those two.

Jellyfish... jellllllyfish

2010-11-02T20:29:00.002-07:00

Paper Dolls by Kate Davis.

2nd awesome thing of November.

November of Awesomeness

2010-11-01T22:24:00.005-07:00

That's right. Awesomeness.

I'm coming off a hard month (who didn't get a chance to see/hear me tear up or completely lose it?) and a pretty lame weekend. Due to a bad cold I had to turn down THREE awesome Halloween parties, two coffees, and a dinner at my sisters. So. Freaking. Lame.

So I've decided for that thing that happens in November when you blog, I'll keep it simple and awesome. Each day I will at least blog about something awesome. I can blog about other things too, but the awesome in mandatory.

Today the key most important thing is my friend Kat's first pattern release! Woooo! Kat and I grew up together but lost touch after high school (she moved to Vancouver, I moved to Prince George) but then holy smokes in the Education program at UBC I saw her in the scarfe library! UBC is pretty huge but there she was. Due to the magic of facebook I sent her message and it was like old times again, only better. It was like we got to skip all that awkward early 20s relationship drama and got to redefine our friendship in the most fun way.

Kat runs Junior Deluxe which is a good read for everyone. She runs an actual informational blog, not a rambling diary blog, AND it's funny and very nice to look it. On top of that, she just released her first crochet pattern, Inuvik Mittens.

Picture stolen recklessly but it's SOOO pretty!

I've already hooked up and have nearly a mitten done after only an evening and it actually resembles a mitten. My crochet usually looks like... deformed. But this looks like a mitten! I can't wait till I get another evening to sit down and finish them up! Congrats Kip! You are the first awesome thing of November.

Preoccupied

2010-09-30T22:15:00.004-07:00

Teaching for three weeks in a pretty hectic classroom right now so sorry for the radio silence. If I haven't answered your texts or emails, please take comfort in the fact that you are not alone, and I will emerge from this a little more weary of the world, but at least I'll be able to afford to go out for coffee (unlike September).

No quilting, barely any knitting, no reading, no cleaning whatsoever, and no new tattoos. Sigh.

Here is something I started right before I was called for the job. I worked on it non stop for three days which was a little fortuitous of me since I've hardly touched it since. It's the Paper Dolls Sweater by the wonderful Kate Davies. I think my next projec will be the Cloud hoodie. The yarn is socks that rock lightweight.

Sweet dreams! More interesting blogs to come, less whining, I promise!

Good Ol' Days of Knitting Magazines

2010-09-14T14:31:00.013-07:00

I was doing laundry today and rescuing socks from behind my dresser when I realized at one point I had knocked over some magazine behind my coffee table without realizing. That was an unnecessarily detailed sentence to introduce today's post: Vintage Knitting Pictures! Woo!

I have a lot of vogue magazines and booklets and the such from the 80s and 90s but I don't want to get into those too much. Not only are they not really 'vintage' but they are not nearly as interesting as the 60s. I mean, sure they have some good patterns....
and wonderfully hilarious photos of men.... (does anyone else think this photo is, um, you know, or is it just me?)
and I love finding layouts that could have been shot today...
and I mean, they are worth it just for the cigarette ads sure but... (I know! If smoking isn't pleasurable just quit! Surely there is nothing else keeping you smoking)
I just can't be okay with the 80s. AUGH!
The blue eyeshadow!
The feathered hair!
The creepsters!
The child abuse!
Yes, those are knit cabled pants. You can deny it all you want. There they are.

Other parts of my collection include a lot of authentic images put onto the most unflattering generic sweater patterns ever.
I've got a lot of Christmas knitting planned and I'm thinking this would be appropriate. Along with the scrunchie.
The disney stuff is the best by far. They have some lovely little sweaters...

but then they go so wrong. And so far into the wrong. They just can't come back from these things.

See this is what started the sweater curse! It's not 'when you knit your boyfriend a sweater he'll leave you' it's 'when you knit your partner a mickey mouse sweater that you expect her to wear with you at the same time they will leave you'.
And I love the edge-y 'I'm wearing Baloo' look. Nothing quite says bad ass like oversized disney sweaters.
And see! More child abuse!
Um, all that being said I do want this Cruella De'Ville sweater.
Regardless of the good though, and regardless of all the great badness, it's the 60s that I love. Sure, sure, yes of course, they had their bad.

The kicker with their bad is that these are all knit at 8 or 9 stitches per inch on tiny needles.

Nothing like an all knit outfit for that awkward first day of high school!

Or, you know, for the first day at work. In a knit chanel suit. Cause, you know, yeah.

The 60s had better men. They weren't creepsters. They did things like hang out with pipes.

These two were just a drop in the hat.

They were real men, or boys, and you could tell by the guns...
the awesome vest with threatening rolled up newspaper...
the corset...?
And unlike the 80s, these men had good hair. I mean, look at this 80s man!

It's all over the place!
Show some respect man!

I also wanted to put these patterns up because I know my friend Rachel is looking for a knit dress pattern. Look no further! The 60s were full of excellent dresses.
And you can knit the belt to match! Also, no bad hair! These hair styles DEMAND respect!
They also knew how to accessorize back then.
Lots of people say stockinette stitch helps them relax. This is the dress for all of you then.
High fashion indeed. Good job ladies.

As well, the patterns from the 60s seemed more diverse. Tonnes of great sock patterns, though yeah, could have gone without the dismembered feet, but hey.
Threw this one in to disprove that whole 'chunky knitting is new'. This 1961 number is three stitches an inch! Quite a few of these gauges throughout the magazines.
Again with the ability of people back then to accessorize! Interweave should take some pointers. The hats! The gloves! The brooch! The belt! The obviously very interesting thing just off of the set!

'Is that man wearing a corset?'

Some of the patterns were tricky with very unique construction.
And some I want to knit just because I want to enter the names into Ravelry. This one is called Gay and Charming. You'll queue it. Oh yes you will.
It's funny how these patterns are coming back in style. There are a lot of raglans, capped sleeves, and deep ribbing. I've earmarked (not literally, I hate that) quite a few that I want to knit. This one was a great neckline...
the boat neck seed stitch in this one is lovely...
capped sleeves and stripes! Why if she's that happy I know I will be too!
Classic!
Lovely!
Structured and detailed.
It's actually between two that I want to cast on. The first one is called 'Rhumba' and was published in the 196os by Patons & Baldwin in Toronto.
I would knit it with a longer rib but otherwise not change much!

My other pattern is the one that started my vintage buying frenzy. It's called 'With Sea Horses and Peacocks' (awesome) and was published by Patons & Baldwin around the same time as 'Rhumba'.
See? The 60s, while completely comical and fun, didn't have the cringe worthy painfulness of the 70s and 80s (and 90s). We can laugh at them and come away not feeling like never talking to our parents again. And they have trends that either never left or that are coming back! And unlike leggings, I welcome these trends.

And after this long post I think I need a glass of wine. Cheers!

Oh my

2010-09-13T12:42:00.003-07:00

Apparently I'm quite a bit older. At least it got my gender right. And at least the whole happy and personal is my objective.

My Urlai.

'Landunknown.blogspot.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 36-50 years old. The writing style is personal and happy most of the time.'

In other news, I have done yoga, finished a cardi, nearly finished the braided strap to my sari bag, wound the other skein of sari (45 minutes later stupid yarn), drank green tea, done dishes, and eaten a bowl of potato chips. I need balance I guess.

My friend Kat posted this video on FB and I had to share. It's totally rocking my world.

Hello, I'm your substitute teacher for the day.

2010-09-06T22:03:00.004-07:00

The likelihood that I'll get called for tomorrow is pretty nil, but regardless, I've prepped. Like I told my subbing buddy Ryan (one of many subbing buddies), if I don't prep than I will get called for a school and I'll show up starving, stressed, in my pjs, and will just start to cry. So I prep.

I have my two awesome books to read, good for any grade, which I just realized have a lot to say about my personality.
I honestly didn't realize those were both cat books until now. Too funny. For Wednesday I'm bringing my two bear books! Oh....

moving on, in my sub bag I also have my two emergency sub books in case I arrive to an empty desk.
and my new knitting for the bus. Better photos of this soon but it was cast on at 1am last night after I gave in and realized that having an espresso with dinner was a really dumb idea but I should try to make the best of the situation.

I've picked out what to wear (not as radioactive as shown)....
packed a lunch...
prepped the coffee...
prepped breakfast (not pictured is the bread since Spike has decided all bread must die and will rip open the bag and not eat the bread, just shred it)....
prepped the kitties most-expensive-cat-food-ever breakfast...

and now I retire with some warm almond milk, a little help since I know despite my I'm-so-tired-I-can't-find-shift feelings I will stay up all night and analyze my professional decisions, my cell phone is fully charged and set to go off at six, and finally, my latest reading, Real Boys by Pollack.

Come morning, I will have breakfast and coffee, get dressed all fancy, get my stuff ready to run out the door, and then plays Sims2.

Bonne nuit, mes amis, bonne nuit.

Oh August, how you rocked

2010-08-31T23:00:00.008-07:00

It is with a sad heart (and a very empty wallet) (oh, and a liver crying for respite) that we bid adieu to lovely August. I don't have much to say as I'm trying to go to bed early and get up early in order to function come September but I thought I'd leave you with a few photos and some commentary on just a few of the things that went down in August.

These are in no order since apparently I am not smarter than the uploader here on blogger and I hate moving the pictures around.

I worked on some fears, even though that isn't a goal of mine, it's just a fact of life that it's something you have to do in order to see things like the Cheese Rolling Festival. Here's a photo from the gondola at Whistler.
I watched my brother in law delight in train tracks.
Our nephew was there too but I'm pretty sure it was all part of Jason's guise.
At Deep Cove, I faced up to an irrational fear of water as I swam in the ocean to a very deep part where I couldn't see the bottom of the water (don't worry Mom (and Erica) there were lifeguards on duty and we didn't go past the safety lines).
It was really freaking cold.

I also hiked to the that rock quarry you see out to the top left of this photo.
And ate lunch at the top. Here is a view from that rock, which was crowed with silly people and dogs...
so we hiked to an even higher rock and finished our lunch there, enjoying the stillness.
I spent a whole spool of good thread and quite a bit of a day and finished 16.6% of the quilt (6 strips, all sewn, all sewn together~ it's another blog post).
I already love it. Even if it turns out to be an indistinguishable blue blob, I love it.

I spun on my wheel for the first time successfully. I first made some spiffy artsy yarn.
And then knit it into the funkiest cowl ever (cannot wait for snow now!).
I also spun up my Sweet Georgia and couldn't be happier with it. I didn't spin this one artsy but I'm happy with the weight. I won't be spinning lace on my wheel any time soon (or ever, it's kinda a clunker) but I love the yarn even more.
It's all imperfect but awesome.

I also finished part one in the Sari-Sisters-Bag project (still need to line this one but have cast on for the second one).
I went to a pretty skookum wedding (well it was a whole weekend thingie) which will get it's own post but here are some photos.

Jim and Jenn (take three, either Jim looked possessed or Jenn was blinking).
Julia gave a wonderful speech.
My only shot of the bride and groom! But I love how demure Jess is looking here.
Mom stayed all night! She danced till the wee hours and then let me led her astray in my drunkedness at 1am. I apparently insisted upon driving past my old schools. I'm sure it was a very good time.
I got snuggles from Mr. Malcolm pants.
We golfed and ate wondeful food (at the pre-wedding party fun-ness).
I wore my handknitted by Erica skirt for the first time! It's a gorgeous skirt!
No pictures from Gibsons because I forgot my camera but here is the only yarn I returned with. Rachel and I deemed it 'old sun bleached out cabin on the beach with a trellis of dried roses in PEI'.
I painted a friend's table and then tried to sneak it home with me. More photos of this process (cause wowza, was it a process) when my monitor doesn't register this whole thing as yellow. (oh yeah, did I tell you my monitor fried up the red chip so now everything is blue or yellow? Makes my brain hurt. I hate samsung.)

Lala and Spike bonded!
I drew a jellyfish on my arm with the waiter's pen at Whistler. What round were we on when I did this Sheena? And the next morning I dyed the bathtub blue getting it off but oh well.
I went insane with sorting.

And colouring.
And Lala stayed the same size but got cuter every day.
I also knit a hat. Cause, between that and the cowl, I may have been wishing for cooler days.
Spike's health has improved dramatically~ most of this change being visible through the change in his behaviour. He's back to his usual ways of shoving himself into small spaces and scratching me. Woooo Spike!
And now, it is ten minutes to twelve, and I am headed to bed. Sweet dreams, and see you in September. Which I think will be equally awesome, but not so.... tipsy. Tata!

Whistler

2010-08-29T21:53:00.005-07:00

I need to get up earlier tomorrow than I have all month but do I go to sleep at a decent hour? No. I decide to blog. Hiya! If the whether is nice than I'm going to Deep Cove for a hike and a swim but if it's crummy than I'm knitting at a friend's house while drinking green tea. Win/win.

So Whistler. It was pretty awesome. It's a real collision of worlds up there. The people who actually do athletic stuff, and those who don't. I didn't really go up with any money but another day I would love to hike up around there.

We went up during Crankworks which was interesting. A very diverse crowd of people who ride hardcore, people associated with those people, and people who go up to be complete posers, and people associated with those posers. I know I'm sounding judgmental but you would not believe some of the people up there.

Anyhoo, Sheena and I had a blast. We both were broke so no 85$ manicure or 40$ for the big gondola (you had to pay for the peak to peak gondola even if you weren't going on it and we all know I would actually start screaming hysterically before I even set foot on it). We got in the line up for the free gondola which was okay. I'm usually better going up than down on gondolas.

On the way down I had to not look or talk to anyone.
Anyhoo, we got to the cheese rolling festival. It's when you throw an 11 pound wheel of cheese down a very steep hill and 20 people go tearing after it and after a few races the winner gets a pass to Whistler. It's amazing what people will do for a pass to Whistler. You don't actually try to catch the cheese and it goes 65mph but you have to try to be one of the first to cross the finish line. And it doesn't matter how you cross it either. Apparently this started in England 200 years ago. Sheena and I got a great place to sit about halfway up the hill and had a gorgeous view.
It's a very steep hill.

Eek. Contestants had to wear helmets, but the body armor that was provided was optional. You kinda wish more people choose body armor.
It's really hard to describe the speed at which participants flew down the hill, or the violence in which they fell. It was rather brutal and really took me by surprise. Still enjoyed it though, but yeah, you have to be pretty insane to compete in this. I have no good pictures of the spills but here's a few with some action.

Afterwards we went all around the shops and bought rather spiffy hats. Mine was slightly impractical (a fedora isn't well known for keeping the sun out but my did I look spiffy).

After that we tried to ignore the gorgeous outdoors but Sheena's boyfriend dragged us to slopestyle. I was very skeptical because it was sooooo crowded and I though we wouldn't be able to see anything but once again we managed to get great seats to view things.

Here's one insane dude coming off the ramp.
And another insane dude doing the 25 foot high 20 foot wide jump of doom. It was kinda bonkers. We were also right by the giant screen so the big jump at the bottom that we couldn't see we could still watch. We stayed for the first round of bikers but the dust and the heat really grates on you.
Very much worth it though~ experiences a lot of things that weekend are very memorable. Drew a jellyfish aaaaalllllll over my arm at one point. That was cool.

Okay, I'm so tired I cannot write anymore. Whistler was awesome and I couldn't have gone up with a better couple to have that weekend with. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of deep cove for you tomorrow!

Still in pieces

2010-08-24T11:34:00.008-07:00

Well, I don't know about all of you but woah. August is pretty awesome. I'd be okay with it not ending but my whole, you know, no income thing is starting to put a cramp in things. I have been super busy and running around like mad. I never know what day it is I just know where I am suppose to be in relation to what I am currently doing. It's like 'today I'm going to walk to Tisol and then go have dinner with Ju and tomorrow Mom gets here and one day after Mom gets here I go to Gibsons and after Gibsons Jen and Jim get here and then after Jim and Jen get here I am going to Pitch and Putt and the BBQ for Jess and Jay and after that Jess and Jay are getting married and....' and occasionally I nap.

I have lots to blog about so I just decided to see which photos were first in my queue because normally it would be all 'WEDDING' but my battery is dead and it needs to charge before I can upload so don't worry, soon there will be pictures of the JJ wedding.Anyhoo, last you heard about the quilt was this post where I amazed you all with my mad colouring skillz. We've gone a bit from there though it may not look like it. I love how long this quilt took even before I got it to a sewing machine.

Anyhoo, I finally gathered my courage and started cutting the fabric. Most likely against/with the wrong grain but is anyone really expecting this quilt to be even remotely correct? I digress, so I started cutting, which I really thought was going to be the hard hard time consuming portion but once I got started it went really quickly.
I made little piles of each and put their letter on them.
Now, I can't remember if I told you but I did lose my binder with all my notes so I kinda had to fudge some of the fabrics and where they went. What was interesting was as I was cutting I found out, in time, about two choices I had made that were wrong. Because I just had the fabric cut according to how much I would need when I would pull a fabric and look at the numbers I was able to tell if the fabric was too small or too large and then look at the order of the letters and figure out which one it needed to be switched with. As well, if fabrics were very similar and the letters were similar in value than I would look at which fabric got more 'showtime' and choose the fabric I liked best. For instance, I have one fabric with mushrooms and one with herons, and when I couldn't figure out which was was which letter because their values were so similar I just figured out which one had the longest segments and made it the heron because I liked it better.

Did that make any sense?
I kept on cutting and ironing...
when Spike was kind enough to let me iron the fabrics.

I was very enamored with this fabric because the 3" cut was also the motif repeat so all the cuts were at the same point. I totally love this fabric. until it ran out. Yup. Ran out. Needed something lame like four more big squares. Nothing I could do. Cried a little. Considered finding the personal home phone number of the owner of Fabricana so he could check to see if they still carried the fabric (it was probably around 2am at this point) but I didn't. So the next morning I frantically bused over to Richmond and the insanely helpful people there found my fabric right away and cut me a quarter (I was tempted to ask for a four inch strip) and I finished the cuts. Here they are.
It's not really my favorite fabric anymore. So I finished. Some had a few pieces, like up above, or some, like L, had a lot of pieces.
Now, the funny part, is I was so proud of myself. Did that all in an evening. I was going to finish this quilt in NO TIME. Booyah. Because, I mean really, all I had to do after this was sort the pieces. Say it with me this time- booyah!
So I got the rows numbered and sorted on the table.
All spiffy like. And started sorting. And sorting. And sorting.... and sorting............. and sorting....
OH GOD WILL IT EVER END?!?!?!?About four or so hours later it did.
But during the sorting I realized that the notes I had made about which pieces went in which rows didn't always meet up with the coloured chart I had made. Keep in mind the program I used just gives you the chart, it doesn't break it down any further for you so you have to figure out each row. And the two ways I did that, through the colouring and the notes, didn't match. Fun.

So then I went through each row and made sure it matched the coloured chart I had made. I set up my table as a big stations and put each row in an envelope and put them in order.
Spike thinks order is for wussies. He prefers them on the floor and under his belly.
He's been such a help. And then I set up my ironing board to line up the pieces according to the coloured chart. It was a good thing I did because there was some discrepancies. It was really slow, but by far the most fun up until this point. It was neat seeing how the fabrics related to each other.
Until Spike figured he would see how the fabrics related to him. And also, if you ever see this look on Spike, which is very similar to his usual look for sure, but still, see that slightly crazier than usual glint? Do not try to pet him or get your fabric out from under him. It will require the use of spiderman band-aids if you do.
So, maybe five or so hours later or something else gawd awful, I finished the sorting.
They sat like this for a bit during all the family and wedding fun, but yesterday I sewed the first strip! 35 left to go!

And since this has been a Spike show (you can tell he's feeling better eh?) I though to throw in a picture of Lala.

This is me at my computer. It's hard to take a photo from this angle so sorry for the fuzziness but could she be any cuter?

Oh that Quilt

2010-08-05T22:27:00.004-07:00

Firstly, thanks for all the really nice things people said online or in real life about the videos. I'm really glad you liked them. They were something I didn't think I'd ever do but it turned out to be lots of fun. I'll do more in the future but they are a little labour intensive. I make them on my little nikon coolpix S200 camera. But yeah, seriously, thank you!

I spent Tuesday working on the prep for the quilt. I still haven't cut any material which is fine because I'm paralyzed with fear about it. And there was a lot of prep. I went through each row (alllllllll 36 of them) and figured out what I needed for each row and also figured out which colours had long sections that didn't need to be cut into 2.5" squares. For instance, there is one section where there are 12 B blocks all in a line, so instead of cutting 12 blocks I just cut one very long strip that is 2.5" by 24.5". For some of them there are a lot of these blocks, which will help save on yardage. After that, I decided the chart that was made for me was a) too small and b) too blue. So I decided to make my own. Yeah. Four bloody hours later...

All 864 squares were coloured in! Next time I have a bright idea like that will someone please just take a crowbar to my shins? Thanks.
Now I'm making labels for each row (so far the easiest part of this whole process) so that when I start cutting I can start putting them into the rows for easier organization. That will also let me know if there's a disconnect between the graph and the recommended pieces. Some of the letters on the graph were really hard to read so they could be a few odd ones, but I'm not over concerned unless it looks really wrong.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will cut some fabric. I will. Eeeeeek!

So This is the End

2010-08-03T00:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday's Goal

2010-08-01T23:47:00.001-07:00

Don't worry Jubbers, the batteries are going to be recycled very soon and they are in a bag that is in a bag so I don't have to touch them anymore.

I really didn't do much today. I slept in the living room last night because my bed was covered in paper and my living room is much much darker than my bedroom. Because of that I woke up thinking it was around 8 but it was actually 11:30. INSANE. I slept straight through till 11:30. Least to say the day went by quickly. And I was pretty lazy. I played sims for a bit. And went on a date. We ate sushi and walked the seawall. That is all I say to you.

My yarn is done and I also managed to sort through all the washroom things and move around some end tables (cause I have 6 for some reason). Quasi-successful day.

Tomorrow's goal is lame. I made a video for it but I'm really tired so I was mumbling. Tomorrow is the unfun day. I have to do laundry and vacuum and mop and go through the last of the papers. Sigh. I don't think it should take all day but I'm worried it's going to take longer than I want. Then it's just general tidy. My hope is that Tuesday I wake up to the cleanest apartment I'm going to get. If only until I start making breakfast and blow blueberry-mango smoothie all over the kitchen like I did this morning. Well, closer to the afternoon actually.

The Light in the Closet is Not My Friend

2010-08-01T01:14:00.002-07:00

This is only a link because I 'hid' the video on youtube. I'm depending on all of you to tell me if the video is good enough to open up to the public. I feel it's a little long but it's 1:15 and I'm going to bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr4tWq3fMzY

I am amazing myself with my progress. Last night I stayed up till 3 cleaning all my bookshelves and the closet of doom. Today I painfully got through the walk in closet which was just horrid. I found things I've been looking for for Months! and some things I totally forgot about. So much paper. In the middle of my living room I have two huge boxes of recycling and a lot to give away.

I also decorated a side table with stickers.

So This Is My Video

2010-07-31T00:17:00.000-07:00

Some Things You Should Know About the Video

2010-07-31T00:03:00.005-07:00

I did some prep beforehand, like

finding the best distance away (my first test was basically my eyeball)

checking how I looked (not too worried, but I did blot because holy shiny forehead batman)
trying to convey the mess of my apartment without really showing it (love the kitty carrier in the middle of the living room)
pushing away the kitten till she became distracted by the window
and checking the volume of the background music (calming)

it was the second take only because the first one wasn't recorded. And it was totally different. I think I ranted about the cats more and tried to guilt others into helping me.

And seriously, why does a video take 45 minutes to load and still be this poor of quality? Sheesh.

Please notice

Beethoven wrote moonlight sonata. Not Mozart. I get it confused with the Magic Flute. God knows why.
my flailing hand. I talk a lot with my hands. I tried not to to no avail.
when I mentioned kicking stuff in my bedroom I really did kick my foot which shook the camera
I got really nervous at the end for some reason. Had no idea how to end. Apparently decided to end by making a classical music fail but regardless, nervous
I have the cutest teeth~ they are so cute!
my messy living room
my ability to rant while talking just like I rant on the blog while writing

You Give Me Fever.... Bastard

2010-07-30T10:58:00.004-07:00

Nothing like a sinus infection to bring about a fever in this heat. THANKS BODY! It means not only am I sick but I also am sweaty and have that glazed drunkard look about me. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Sexy. I know.

Done teaching so the creative side is taking over. I have the buttons on my cardigan (thanks to the wise council of Ms. Welford Purls) and I'll take a photo when I'm not, you know, the sexbomb as mentioned above. I also made an awesome pie the other night (I do all my baking around midnight to avoid the heat) and last night I made dumplings! They were so good. I made around 20 and realized I bought enough wrapped for around 100 so um, we should have a dumpling party soon. Oh, and back to the pie. I tossed the sliced apples with honey, cinnamon, vanilla, brown sugar, and a bit of lemon juice and zest, and let them sit for an hour before putting them in the pie. Next pie though I'm making my own dough.

Can't quilt because I can't iron in this heat but am knitting. I had to knit the button band to my cardigan twice (sigh) but...

finished my sock! That is the SECOND sock. In less than a week! (sure my needles are a whopping 3mm but I grabbed them running out the door to the airport so :P it's still an accomplishment) I'm so proud.

Now you might be thinking... isn't the other sock radically different?
Well yes. Same skein of Noro though! The white is higgens-clark or whatever that company is. But you can see the teal on the toe of the first sock that starts on the second one. I love these socks. I don't mind the yarn, a lot of people commented that they are itchy but I don't notice. I may wash them in conditioner but frankly, it's all good. I love the hearty wool socks.

And they love each other. As Meg noted, they don't match, but they 'go'.

My next project is a hat I'm knitting out of some yummy yarn Ms. Beentsy got me awhile back. It's to go with these buttons I picked up with Rachel that I had to buy. Rachel suggested a hat to go with them.

How could I not buy them?

So um.... other random things I found when I downloaded my photos this morning. Much like bags at an airport~ why you should never leave your camera unattended.

Back in Van

2010-07-25T23:29:00.004-07:00

I left Friday night for home for a very day and then Julia drove me home today. I got to see tonnes of family and eat lots of great food. I have photos but that's a whole other blog post. I didn't get as much Jenn time because I became rather sick on Saturday. I blame it on my random thought last Thursday which was 'gee, I haven't been sick once for this whole contract!' and then my immune system was like 'just wait'.

Stupid immune system.

And in other news, as of today, I'm still unemployed until September so I should be blogging more. And knitting more! Check out what I did in just two days!I finished the first one in the car today and kept on going. I'm loving the stripes of the yarn (noro) but I did rip out a giant chunk of green in the second sock so that the whole thing wouldn't be green. They are very happy socks. If all things go well I'll finish the second one by Thursday to show the group!

Now I'm off to drink more tea and bundle up with the kitties. They are very happy to see me. Thankfully the only thing they decided to kill this time was a bag of flour that survived. Only the first layer of paper was ripped and it didn't open when they knocked if off the counter. Good flour. Oh, and they knocked over and broke a computer speaker but I put the screen back on and it seems to be fine. Otherwise, no pieces of bread scattered throughout the apartment, Spike didn't eat something and puke it up everywhere, no broken dishes, no ripped open bags of oats... a pretty successful trip away!

I Wish I Was Surfing Right Now

2010-07-23T16:19:00.006-07:00

Hi! Still here. Been very busy. I took a three week contract teaching summer school in Burnaby. And half days at that, so from 9 to 12. You'd think that'd mean I'd have time (holy 'd much?) but I think it really backfired because when I work full days I make sure to take the time off but because I was all like 'I'm only working part time' I was making all these plans. But frankly, I left for work at 7 to be there by 8 and wouldn't get home till 2 usually and then I was out the door and up late. I had a lot of impromptu naps on my living room floor or in front of the computer.
I didn't have any time for knitting so I made sure to have a transit project. I don't have any photos but I have a lovely pair of mismatched pink socks to call my own. I'll get some photos soon.

The fun fun news is I bought the fabric for my hammerhead shark quilt. Have I talked about that yet? I used this photo by Eric Cheng (we've emailed. He's super cool.) and entered it into this program (having trouble with the link~ brb). The results are a little abstract, but pretty awesome.
From there I printed the colours out greyscale so I could see their value. Then I figured out how much yardage I needed for each colour and how much yardage was in the cuts of fabric. That a good math time.

Then, the really interesting part, I went to Fabricana. I was there for quite a bit. I pulled about, mmm, maybe 30 bolts of blue fabric and they let me use their teaching corner and use about five tables to lay them all out. From there I pulled the ones I liked and then sorted them by using photos of the blues I needed. Once I had the colours pared down to around 20 (I needed 15) I used my spiffy ruby beholder and made sure the values were right as well. There was a lot of sorting and painful decisions and people coming over and wondering why I had all the blue quilting cotton. Once finished I then took pictures to preserve the order and then sorted them by how much I needed of each. Booyah.

I have no idea how it's going to turn out but here we go.

I can't start this quilt until I finish all my other ones. Least to say all I have to do now is a border and I am done all my quilts. Pics to follow of those too~ they are too cute!

Thanks!

2010-06-14T06:47:00.004-07:00

Yarnpiggy nominated me for a Beautiful Blogger Award. I don't really know what that is or what it means in the larger picture but that was really really nice of her to nominate me! I mean, regardless of what it does outside of this, it does mean I get to nominate others and write a list so whee!
I would pass this onto...

my kick-ass friends who have great technical knitting/art blogs (some who are also coming into their own as designers) and who write some awesomely I spend way too much time in archives....

and now ten things about me.... mmm....

1. I prefer the cold to the hot because you can always add more layers but you have to stop at your skin when removing them.

2. My cat, Spike, is 6 years old and was just diagnosed with diabetes.

3. I am going to have children because watching children grow up looks to be pretty awesome. And it's a great excuse to have craft day be EVERY day.

4. Despite my fears, teaching kindergarten isn't half bad.

5. I have never taught a straight grade. I think they're a myth.

6. I'm disappointed I've only been a bridesmaid once. It was so much fun!

7. I want to finish all my knitting projects so I can learn how to knit continental.

8. I don't really have that much of a desire to travel. I want to go across Canada mostly to see people I know, and I want to go to Vietnam with my sister because of the jade beaches. Otherwise, traveling doesn't hold that much of a pull on me. Looks fun but I'm not going to go out of my way.

9. I love Vancouver. If I can find an apartment with a nice balcony that I can hang plants on and insuite laundry, I will live here forever.

10. Yoga makes me a happier person.

Jennifer's Post

2010-06-12T20:12:00.002-07:00

Progress

2010-06-12T09:38:00.006-07:00

P'Cess commented the other day that I needed to update my 30 by 30 and I'm very glad she did because I had, I just hadn't linked the new one! Sheesh. I needed to update it again so it was doublely helpful . All the reds are dones. You may see some changes. On this post I noted the new mods. New ones are number 2, 5, 19, and 25.

Design and knit my perfect cardigan out of hand-spun hand-dyed yarn
Get a spinning wheel~ Done! June 5th 2010, my friend told me I could have her wheel (traditional Ashford) until I needed it. I'll need it until I buy one so there we go! (Pics to come no worries.)
Make a really awesome bookshelf (like these or something)
Crochet a bedspread with one of my Grandmother Hazel's crochet hooks and laceweight
Go on a real vacation ~ Done! May Long Weekend 2010, Tofino BC.
Bike around one of the islands
Get another tattoo~ oops, this one had been done for awhile now, just forgot I got this one, it's so small and cute!
Pay off bank student loan
Bike a century (160km) in two days
Get really good at the violin- like stellar
Publish one of my poems (and not self-published)
Become an Aunt again (see 1.b)
Keep my blog
Pick up some kind of activity or sport thingie DONE! Yoga has been maintained for over six months and now I'm biking so check check and check.
Learn how to be awesome at chess and play a game with those really serious russians downtown
Be a bridesmaid again cause it is fun (again- 1.b)
Use my 5' by 7' canvas for a painting
Get another family portrait with all the new people in our family (Dad will finally not be the only male in the picture)
Organize a serious charity knitting project~ Done! Vancouver Fibre Leauge First Charity Run of knitting blankets and toys to the SPCA was donated on June 16, 2010! Couldn't have done it without the knitters!
Get involved with a Feminist organization
Go across Canada
Participate in a charity marathon even if I just briskly stroll the whole thing DONE!!!! June 7th, 2009- Childrun for BC Childrens' Hospital fight against cancer. 205 dollars raised.
Go to Vietnam with Julia
Do a whole day hike/Hike the West Coast Trail
Scuba or snorkel~ DONE! Surfing was way cooler than either of these things.
Garden- no matter how small
Write and illustrate a picture book
Adopt another kitten DONE! February 17th, 2010.
Make a 100 book reading list
Design and sew a dress that is spectacular

Now all that being said, I need YOUR help for the 100 book reading list. If everyone notes 5 books they think I should read, it should be a breeze and I'd really appreciate the input! So if you could leave a comment below, and I'd love for the lurkers to leave one too! The more the merrier and I'll be sure to come over and thank you for your comment!

Little things that are Fun

2010-06-07T22:15:00.003-07:00

There are lots of things that I no longer get as part of my 'make-next-month's-rent' strategy. Since September I have bought four skeins of yarn (technically three because I haven't paid Julia back yet for one of them) so I'm pretty proud of myself for that. In fact, twice now I've gone to TBF for non-yarn items and returned with non-yarn items. Insane! It's hard sometimes though, to figure out how to have fun without spending money.

I had a little party on Saturday which was lovely. I'll post more pictures but it did it on a budget and had enough food left over I may not have to buy groceries for the week (as long as I don't mind carrots and dips for the entire week). Spike had a good time while my friends were here. He got some pets than perched on the windowsill before retreating to the top of the cupboards in order to scare people.

I'm still quilting like a mad woman. I'm making a quilt for my nephew for when he gets a big bed. I really enjoyed making it, and detailing how drunk I was when I did it, it turned out pretty well.

I couldn't actually get a photo without Lala.
For quilts are evil evil things.
Speaking of Lala, she's doing really well. She's gotten a lot braver and likes to tear around crazy like. Spike tolerates her.

Anyhoo, the whole thing that prompted this post was I was just getting ready for bed when I pulled out two new knitting books I just bought. I haven't bought any books or magazines for so long, soooooo long that I had forgotten how much fun it is to sit down with new knitting books and going through the patterns.
And yes, they are from Dressew. I am not made of stone. I regret nothing. I went there for buttons.

Now, I am going to go read these while drinking tea. Sweet dreams!

Tofino

2010-06-06T07:01:00.006-07:00

The cats woke up me five hours after I went to bed so I decided to be productive but now that all the pictures are loaded I'm going to try to go back to bed. Enjoy.

I want to go back.

Ze Shawl!

2010-05-05T20:22:00.008-07:00

So.... remember waaaaay back. Waaaaaay back at the beginning of the Olympics? I was doing something called the 'Ravlympics' and I cast on for Meg's bridesmaid shawl?
How I was suppose to finish before the end of the Olympics?
How I was going to faithfully knit every day for hours in order to finish?

I finished it yesterday!!!

A couple of lessons learned:

1. Lace thread and a large needle do not a happy union make. I had to grip the needles not overly hard, but harder than usual, because of the slippery factor. It only takes the needle shooting off of the stitches once to learn that lesson. This became a major issue when I was sick and couldn't depend on my grip enough to actually knit on this. Once I was healthy it wasn't that big of a deal, just made my knitting slower.

2. Stitch markers, while necessary, are not our friends. I misplaced enough of my cute little rubber ring stitch markers that I had to use the metal hoop ones, sans the beads. I found out I had to take off the beads when this happened.

It's hard to tell but the stitch marker has somehow snagged a lower loop of yarn. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how the get the yarn back out so I pulled out my pliers and very nervously cut the stitch marker loop.

3. Silk thread will snag on anything. Air even. I swear to Sweet Baby Jebus. I one time picked it up from a smooth table surface and walked to the couch and there was a HUGE loop pulled. It took me about half an hour to set the stitches right. I'm careful when I walk with it even so it didn't snag on me. DAMN AIR!!!

4. Silk is just the smooshiest bestest thing ever. I will knit with it again and again and again. And it took the block beautifully (see below).

5. Knitting with a kitten is very very challenging. When I first got Lala it was actually impossible. She would throw herself at me and mine with a fierce kitten vengeance. But in April, when I started knitting on this shawl Seriously again, she was more tame, and more use to knitting. Didn't stop her from calculating schemes however.

Here I documented her process.

Start out with a fixated stare. The yarn needs to know your presence. Occasionally reach out a paw but retract when your Mom smacks it. Maintain eye contact with the yarn. Settle in. Create a false sense of security. Even nap for a bit. But never lose sight of the goal.
Snuggle down a little closer. It's natural. It's all right. Just be affectionate. Ooze yourself towards the yummy yummy yarn.
Snuggle out a little closer. Reach out a paw and when it's about to be smacked act all normal, like you are just stretching. Make the yarn believe you don't care about it anymore. You're just trying to have a kitten nap.
Smoosh yourself further between the pillow and the leg in order to get closer to the yarn without drawing attention. Smooooosh.
Having thoroughly lodged yourself between leg and pillow, ponder next move while dozing. Keep one paw out to let the yarn know you are still on top of things. Nap for an hour or so there.
Be incredibly incredibly cute.

She did that all herself. I didn't move that entire time.

6. Unblocked lace is pretty non-pretty. Now would not be a good time to panic, but if you are anything like me. PANIC. Break out into a sweat. Freak out. You just spend a whole lotta time on something that looks like seaweed that's gone through a rinse cycle.
Really, really panic.
7. Lala really likes this yarn. No matter how it looks. One paw always extended. Always.

Oh ze yarn.

Side note: my oddball collection of stitches really slants. Don't know why. But it really does.
8. Knitting isn't the hard part. Finishing is. Not only did removing the lifelines suck (don't even get me started on lifelines~ wait, this should be a thing I learned...) Okay, number eight is actually to warn about the hazards of lifelines. Don't use regular floss, use a satin floss. Make sure the smooth satin floss doesn't somehow snag, oh, four stitches and pull them under and through the next four stitches. You'll spend a stupid amount of time fixing that. And also, remember when adding lifelines to not put them through the stitch markers. Seems like common sense, but I did it twice!

9. Knitting isn't the hard part. Finishing is. Dropping the stitches was freaky scary.
Eek! And then it took an entire Buffy episode to painstakingly make the ladders. The silk thread loved to snag onto itself and keep stitches. I finished the first row and realized I had only been dropping four stitches instead of the six and found them waaaaay at the top.

And that whole thing about unblocked lace being less than pretty? The full on OMG-I-Made-The-Ugliest-Shawl-Ever set in complete here.

10. Blocking, if you can finish it before taking your own life, will cure what ails you. Ah... blocking. How I love you. Sure, you took up more than an episode of Buffy, but hey, you can do no wrong in my eyes now.
But still, I wanted to know... how would this look?

Lesson 11: The most important lesson of all....

Silk Thread + Time = Awesomeness. Thank you Meg for giving me this opportunity! I could have never done it without your forthcoming nuptials!
Thanks model!!! I ordered her around for some poses so I let her decide on a few of them. That one there is of her own making.
It's airy and light, like cotton candy, and oh so delicate.

The twisted stitches are keeping the ladders in line.
And the lace inserts worked out great. Ahhh...... I'm so happy with it. I think after the stress and the full on panic when I got it off the needles made it all the more sweet. It's a beautiful shawl. I wish it was mine; however, the fact that it is going towards a very happy wedding makes me even happier.

A couple of people have asked about the pattern, so I wrote it down, though I should stress that it isn't my pattern, it's just an assortment of stitch patterns thrown together. I am planning on using it again though, in a thicker yarn, so hopefully you'll see another one soon!

Thanks for reading if you got this far, a little ranty but this post is *long* overdue. Congrats Meg!!!

The "Pattern"

I generously use stitch markers but it's up to you.

Cast on 77 stitches using double loop method.

Row 1: K7, kbl1, k6, kbl1, k8, (yo k2tog) 6 times, k7, (yo k2tog) 6 times, k8, kbl1, k6, kbl1, k7

Row 2: K7, purl to last seven, k7

Repeat till you want to cry, end on wrong side row

RS: BO 8, cut yarn, drop 6, reattach yarn BO 49, cut yarn, drop 6, attach yarn again, BO 8

You are dropping the 6 stitches between the twisted stitches, just let them fall and when you re done, you can go through with a crochet hook or your fingers to form the ladders.

Unexpected Awesomeness

2010-05-03T13:46:00.002-07:00

Sunday Morning, May 2nd, 2010. I wake up at 6:30. I had kinda convinced myself the night before that I wasn't going to get up, I would roll over, text my dear friend, and go back to bed. But I did get up. It was fine.

I was headed to a craft fair with P'cess. There were swag bags for the first 30 people and the doors opened at 10am. I remembered when I first read this thinking I would head over at 9:30. I was back and forth about going because I'm pretty broke right now, so I knew I couldn't buy anything, but I figured if I got a swag bag, it would even out the not buying anything.

Saturday morning however, as I was spending a lovely morning with P'cess, she mentioned wanting to go early for the swag bags as well. Though, she mentioned being there a tad bit earlier than I had planned. A whole two hours earlier. 7:30am. Two and a half hours before the doors opened. Crrrrrraaaazy. I think I told her that. Several times. That being said, despite my misgivings, she convinced me. It would be fun, she said, hanging out and knitting, and the swag bag would be neat.

Saturday night I really started to doubt going though. I couldn't, in my own mind, justify getting up and going that early. And let's be clear, I'm not judging those who did, I'm saying for me. I love P'cess and lots of other knitters who were there just as early, it's just not my priority per say. I think the deciding factor was that I do love all these other knitters and hey, hanging out and knitting is always fun. So after some last second texts, P'cess talked me back into it.

Anyhoo, got up, was a little hyper because I didn't sleep so I did that thing were instead of being tired you are just kinda insane and bused over to P'cess' place, then we drove down to the craft fair. We arrived at 7:45.

We were too late.

Yup, people started getting there around 6am. My friends who got there just after seven were 25th and 26th.

Now, not saying I wouldn't have enjoyed myself if I had stayed, or dissing those that did, or trying to justify my morning because I didn't get a swag bag, but it turned out to be really okay. Both P'cess and I were disappointed sure, but it was still fine. We hung out for about fifteen minutes chatting to some lovelies, got us the best coffee in Vancouver (or the world), and then went out for an awesome breakfast where we got a lot of knitting done and I got to make lots of faces at a very cute beeb sitting behind us.

I didn't go to the craft fair and P'cess drove me home. It meant that I was home around 10am, having hung out with friends, gone to a new place for breakfast, and had great coffee. It was a really nice way to start the day. It energized me for the day and I was super productive. I can't show you what I'm working on because they are all gifts but I can show you some awesome fabric I bought before I realized how broke I was.

Freaky Tired in that Good Way

2010-04-29T20:56:00.006-07:00

My good friend Jodi got into town on Monday. We've done so much it feels like she's been here for weeks. Let me show in an excessive amount of photos just how much we did in the first 26 hours.
We are cute.

So Jodi got here at 2:00pm on Monday. Around 3 we left for Fabricana where we spent a few hours or so...
Jodi got some pretty awesome fabric to make a mini quilt. Afterwards we went to a very big mall, got some bellinis, and then went to IHOP for dinner (chocolate chip pancakes).

The next morning we left a little later than expected because of bad kitties waking us up at 4am; however, we found ourselves waiting for a bus at a good hour.
A little bit later we found ourselves in Stanley Park, surrounded by green green and green.
Jodi is very happy.
Pretty soon we were at the aquarium. Worth every single penny. I'll let the photos talk for themselves.
(This guy reminded me of Spike~ it's the Fangs)
One of the famous sea otters. You don't want to know how many photos I took of the Jellyfish.

After that it was time for Japadog. It's always time for Japadog.
Jodi got this bag at Aquarium and after Japadog she was able to put a book in it.
From the Vancouver Art Gallery amazing Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. I'm so glad Jodi liked it, the exhibit wasn't for everyone but Jodi and I loved it!
Then we went to Granville Island to get some super yummy fresh pasta and four cheese sauce and....
CHEESECAKE!!!!
So at 4pm on Tuesday as we laid exhausted in the middle of a coffee shop I looked at Jodi and commented that we do too much.

Since then we have walked up and down Main street, visited UBC, went to Julia's for dinner and boardgames, and all the while I was still working halfdays on Monday and Wednesday, worked all day today as well. Pretty tired, but it's just been the best week ever.

Spike and Lala are planning their 3:30am debacle.

Still here!

2010-04-15T21:49:00.002-07:00

Yup, still here. Still a little bit sick. *coughcough*

Currently, I'm listening to Rufus Wainwright's new album 'All Days are Nights' which is the first CD I've bought for at least a year. I think the last one I bought was Martha Wainwright.

Lala is running all crazy through the house because that's what she does. Spike is running crazy too because even though he still has food in his dish he wants to eat Lala's food and I won't let him. Lala eats duck while Spike is on a reduced calorie diet. Can't say I blame him for trying. It's pretty funny~ he'll take flying leaps at her dish and gobble a bite before running away as I yell at him.

I had a daydream that I got my heart tattoo done and now cannot stop thinking about it.

I found my camera charger! Stupidly I left it in Vernon but thankfully found it on our surprise trip home. I'll have a photo happy blog soon. I just wanted to post this way to say hi.

Lost my knitting mojo though. And it's not cause I'm quilting like a mad woman. I'm just not knitting. I'm currently making a miniquilt for my grandparents. Just wait till you see the fabric.

While sick I got obsessed with a facebook game. People may need to stage an intervention. I'm hoping once I get my second unicorn I'll be able to get rid of the game. It's bad. And you know what gets me mad? I'm totally willing to pay 20$ for fun PC games you know? Like Plants vs. Zombies and the like. Fun games that I enjoy. So I was thinking that I would look into maybe putting 20$ into the game to 'take it to the next level' right? Wrong. These games are HORRIBLE! 20$ is nothing in these games, it's like gambling! You have to put in more and more and more and it is just so wrong. I thought 20$ would 'unlock' the full game but no~ 20$ gets you like... one animal in a zoo of hundreds. It's quite immoral if you ask me. They recommend the 100$ 'best deal' option. ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A FACEBOOK GAME?!?!?!??!?!?! The Civilization pack I'm looking into which has all four civs is 50$ and is infinitely better on all levels.

Woah, the air is thin on that soapbox. Let me step down. Ahhhh...

I bought sheep's milk gouda and made the best freaking mac and cheese on the face of the earth tonight. Then I had a strawberry lime spinach salad. Mmmmmm.....

Currently, I'm going to bed. Sweet dreams!

10 Things I Hate About Antibiotics (ie. being sick)

2010-04-02T20:02:00.004-07:00

1. If I'm on antibiotics it probably means I have another sinus infection. The second one this year. Booooo!!!! This list is about both of them. They are the same. They are one.

2. I forget how to use to the microwave. I put Lala's food in there to just heat it up a little~ I thought it was 11 seconds but goodness knows how much later it was when I realized the microwave was still on and Lala's food was boiling. (I opened a new can)

3. Pushing the vacuum around exhausts me. Like... half the living room is vacuumed and now the vacuum is in my living room, waiting for me to finish the job. It's been there for a day or so.

4. I can't follow a train of thought. My poor friends. They're talking about school and I start talking about my socks. And then I ask them what they think about my hair. Then I get distracted by shiny things.

5. I was home for four days straight. BOOOOOOOOOOREDOM!!! I made an imaginary world. Couldn't find my camera battery charger, but made an imaginary world.

6. I'm super emotional. More than usual. So I'm not watching or reading anything remotely sad. I think I'm going to watch New Moon tonight. Shut up. If I watch anything sad and start to tear up (stupid commercials are already setting me off) and get even more snotty than I already am? My snot to blood ratio would tip dangerously.

7. I can't tell people apart. Apparently blondness is enough for me to think somebody is someone else entirely. To be fair to the meds, I do this anyways. One time I had a friend in English and we would hang and chat, and then we'd go to psych, and I actually didn't recognize her outside of English class and would ignore her. Yeah. But still, sitting down and telling someone else that my friend Monica has a young son when actually my friend Carly has a young son. Monica has a wonderful cat, no son. Poor Monica.

8. My sister asked me when I started smoking a pack a day. My friend in medical school heard me cough and made a very bad face.

9. I can't text. I hit all the buttons twice. It takes me about three times as long as usual. And then I'm tired. And have to nap.

10. And not to toot my own horn too much, but apparently quilting is in my genes and those genes are awesome. Not even antibiotics can stop me! (unless of course it's all the antibiotics) My dearest friend Rachel lent me her rotary board, cutter, and ruler, and she showed me how to cut squares and we planned a really nice little block quilt. She gave me a goal to get to and when we get together next week we're going to finish it. Of course at about midnight that night I was done what Rachel had told me to do.

So I decided to do my own quilt. And with no instructions, no help I made this.
Lots of mistakes yeah, and probably wrong, and messed up,but still... I made this! As I was doing it I kept on prepping myself for suckiness but it never came! I'm really freaking proud of myself. Can't wait till I actually learn how to quilt!
Antiobiotics make me have mad quilting skillz. That's right. Skill with a ZED!!!!!
Thanks so much Rachel!

ps. this fabric was bought last Friday in old Abbotsford when we went to the Fibre Fair. Fun times!

Balance and Appreciation

2010-03-25T22:52:00.002-07:00

So like...... life is weird. Thought you'd like to know.

Here's my dilemma. And what a dilemma. Wow, when you hear about my dilemma, you are going to realize I lead a really really hard life. Anyhoo, work has been a little slow and we are just coming off of Spring Break so you know, March is kinda blah. I'm down to one contract so just one day a week guaranteed. I mean, it's still the same or more than I'd make working any other job with about a third of the time but still, I'd like to be working more. Blarg. And on top of that, it's hard to make plans because I never know when I'll get called in, and I can't do yoga in the evening because I have to be able to answer my cellphone. Blarg. And also, subbing has been great lately and all, but I don't love it. It's so hard. I just want my own classroom so badly. Sometimes having to go from other people's classrooms to other people's classrooms is just depressing. Double blarg.

The appreciation part comes in with realizing that I shouldn't complain. The only one I take care of is myself and I'm doing fine. I have no children, no dependents, really, not much responsibility at all. If I don't get called in I can spend that day playing computer games. It's scary a little. I try to make sure that I recognize that this won't always be the situation, and when I get my own classroom, this really won't be the same situation. So trying to appreciate my lifestyle right now.

The balance comes in with this 'dilemma'. A friend has offered to pick me up on her way to a two day annual fibre fair out of town tomorrow if I don't get called into work. Do you know how awesome that would be? And it's a good friend who I don't get to see that often, sometimes only once a month, and on top of that, it's a friend I rarely get to spend non-group time with. We're also planning a road trip to Oregon Coast soon so it would be a good trial. Regardless, it would be an awesome freaking day, and not one easily ever replicated. How do I balance work and awesomeness? How?!??!

So, after all that, what do I do if I'm called in? Of course I would accept the job but at the same time all my nerves scream NO because of that whole appreciating my current situation and getting the most out of it. When you step back, it's so easy (and true) to say that spending a day with a good friend is way more important than work. Another part of me also notes that taking off on a Friday would not be possible with an actual classroom or with kids! Do this now when you still can! So many factors say reject the call, and have a great day with your friend, one you will remember.

Blarg.

Life is just weird. Spike agrees.