Knitting Entry #1

So..... here's some knitting stuff. Let's see how much will change by the 30th. Interesting, no? (well.... humour me)

I finished my toques last night. One is for my neighbour's son (the one who was scratched by Spike) and the other is for Malcolm. Cascade 220- the only non-acrylic Spider-man coloured yarn I could find; I have nothing against acrylic but since it's a winter theme figured we needed some warmness.


And here are some projects, you've probably seen them before but I want to do a recap.

The Never-Ending-Cause-I-Haven't-Worked-On-It-For-Ten-Months-John-Deere-Scarf:
I cast this one on last Xmas for my uncle. Um.... two outta thirty squares done. Xmas 2015 anyone?


Sweet-Pea-Shawl:Going to run out of yarn so I'm going to work in some more colours. I thought five skeins would be enough... no.

My Pretty Pretty Cashmere Scarf:Sooooo pretty and soft. I keep on losing the pattern and have to figure it out myself.


Oh God. We won't even talk about these socks.
Log Cabin Blanket Rainbow Edition:
The Wallis:
The back is done, one sleeve, and the left front- the right front is about two thirds done. Nearly there.

Potentials:

Socks for my Dad (for his birthday... a month ago)

A Malcolm Sweater:
Windowpane socks:
And now I am going to bed. I started this entry before I went to work but ran out of time and now that I'm back I'm really tired. But me sister (the one who had the baby- not the one in PNG) called and it was so nice to hear her voice. Mmmm... family.

Spike

....helping me wind yarn (he sat on my lap ontop of the yarn while I was winding it~ difficult shot to get).




....blocking the way.
...trying to scratch me.
... getting caught in a bag somehow.
... being very sneaky while on the top cupboards (the ones he is not suppose to be on but I have no way of getting him down).
... eating my food when I go to answer the phone (and yes- I did eventually stop him and yes- I threw it out).
... conquering the evil bag (all bags are evil by the way)~ he must sit or sleep on them all!
... helping me unpack my computer (he sat on it for quite a while).
... being a Spawnkitty.

A list while eating chocolate

Taken from Jenn- this one word thing is hard. I've made up words. And some were impossible to answer in one word. I'm a rule breaker. Argh.

1.Your house? awesomessy

2.Your significant other? lost

3. Your hair? post-snake-frizzy (is too one word!)

4. Your family? wicked

5. Favorite place to eat? kadoya

6. Your favorite thing you can see right now? yarn

7. Where is your cell phone? beside me

8. Your favorite drink? soy vanilla lattes (free)

9.Your dream/goal? to have my own classroom

10. What Room you are in? living room

11. Your hobby? knitting

12. Your fear? driving alongside cliffs

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? in my own classroom

14. Where were you last night? coffee shop

15. Something that you aren’t? asian

16. Pie? apple

17. Wish list item? maid

18. TV show? Buffy

19. Last thing you did? grind beans for coffee

20. What are you wearing? pajamas

21. Vacation spot? New Orleans

22. Your pets? Spike the Spawnkitty Andrew

23. A best friend? Hordes of them

24. Your life? Busycool

25. Your mood? a little anxious

26. Missing someone? MY FAMILY!!!!

27. Your car? Imaginary

28. Something you’re not wearing. matching socks

29. Your favorite store? the yarn variety

30.Best memory?growing up

What have I done?

Well, I've only blogged 32 times in the past ten months so let's see how I do blogging 30 days in a row o_O

At least if I fail I can get one of those 'Nablopomo FAIL' badges. Thank goodness failing is cool now.

This also resulted in me finally downloading photos onto my new computer and it works just fine. Still need to do something about how huge my photos are but I'm going to work really hard at keeping them organized and named. I don't want them to get like they were on my old computer. I'm going to try to keep this computer as cluttered free as possible. No un-neccesary downloads, no random folders with stuff I have no idea what to do with, and so on and so forth. I know eventually things will get messy, but for right now I want to at least try.

So finally... here is a photo of my dearly loved old computer

And the new one! (And a new printer too!~ it's very noisy and Spike has already tried to kill it)
There is (to be expected) a photo of Malcolm on my background now. Duh.

Well... I don't want to blog too much tonight/morning. Firstly I'm tired (subbed from Monday to Thursday this week! Go team!) and also I don't want to go too much into stuff as I need to save stuff for November in case all I do is work and have nothing interesting to say. So I'll leave you with some random pics and notes.

I am attempting crochet again! I met a lovely crocheter at a knitting get together a few weeks ago and was inspired~ this is the sweet pea shawl from Happy Hooker by Stroller. It's chunkier yarn than recommended so I chained less (but I lost count so I don't know how much less). It's not without its flaws on the first row but ah well (I had seven remaining chains when I needed ten, so I just skipped three instead of four than four instead of five~ you see I don't think that even made sense to me). It'll be fine. And the colour is lilac- not the camel shade that it's showing up on my monitor.

Oh yes, and here's a photo of Spike with the new computer. If he wants attention he just sits or lays in front of the keyboard and stares.

Well, goodnight. I have a busy weekend planned and need to do something about my hair before I go to bed. I went as Medusa (as usual) and now have very frizzy hair after bobby pinning 14 snakes into my hair (spiders too!). Kinda a lame halloween though~ and I now officially hate fireworks. In a good side I've over 130 dollars in tips to spend on yarn! Woo!

Tea helps

I now have three jobs. I teach, I knit, and I serve coffee. The coffee thing happened not even a week ago (and I've already worked a night shift alone) so that hasn't totally sunk in yet. It's a very, very sweet side job: a nice, relaxed atmosphere, nice coworkers, good tips, and um... FREE SOY LATTES! Sorry I yelled but I get excited sometimes. I seriously think the money I'm going to save in not having to buy soy lattes is going to be worth the job alone- tips and being paid are just gravy.

And knitting is still good- it has seriously put a crimp into *my* knitting and last night I had to bribe myself with ice cream (soy) to knit but it is alllllll good. I've knit over 30 scarves in just over two weeks.

And teaching is fine. I'm pretty sick so I couldn't work today or Monday- which is hard. It is so hard to turn down work. I wig out. I cry. I get irrational and start to think about how many scarves I would have to knit in order to make up the day. I start to think about picking up more shifts at the coffee shop (I'm working 20 hours there a week). I start thinking about the tutoring job someone emailed me about. I start thinking about my student debt. I think about how I ate out last week instead of saving money to pay off my debt. I start to lose my mind.

I realized what my problem is. I'm not use to making money. At all. Not even remotely. And the responsibility is causing me to become obsessed with it. Thankfully due to some self talks and a very tearful phone call to my Mom I've come to some enlightenments. Wanna hear them? Sure you do.

1. I'm going to be okay.

2. I'm freaking sick. And even if I do take a sick day it's okay because I have TWO other jobs. I'm sick. I was exposed to 120 kids last week- it was bound to happen.

3. I love all my jobs. How fortunate am I that I can say that?

4. I'm going to be okay.

So I'm okay now. I was uber-productive due to guilt today which was good thing because this apartment is stellar clean. Oh... I just realized I did laundry and should go get it. Whatever. But I did realize that money is stressful and I have to make sure it doesn't get the upper hand. Evil money. But nice money. Evilly nice money.

This blog post was brought to you by Buckleys, Extra Strength Tylenol, and Stash Premium Tea. Any incoherence on the bloggers part is most likely due to one or all of them.

Just dip me in chocolate

cause really? Unless you do that life ain't going to get any sweeter. Why am I pimp talking? Well, it's because I'm finally in my career, a career I love and am deeply committed to and believe in fiercely, and yeah- also got a gig on the side you know. Knitting. For money. That's right bitches! I'm getting PAID to KNIT! (Mom- when I said bitches I wasn't referring to you, just need to clarify) I'm working for a lovely young lady who has created a business out of handknitting which makes me so happy! She pays totally fair and charges fair too which makes me happy as well. None of this undercutting crap when it comes to handmade things.

And you know on the same rant; I'm enjoying TOCing (teacher on call). Today was my first 'rough' day where there was no lesson plans or structure but I survived and all is well. The rest of the time I'm really enjoying getting to go in and see how teachers set up their classroom and their different methods of teaching and I am really enjoying getting to meet all these delightful children with just awesome personalities. I am getting to rock the transit and getting to see parts of Vancouver previously unknown to me. It's also getting me really excited about teaching on one hand; where I see all this potential and get really excited about what my classroom will be like and all, but on the other hand it's also really nice to be a TOC. I come home and I'm just, you know- home. I'm getting to see people, go out, it's all good.

On that note, I've spent a LOT of money this month. Um... there was that new computer I bought (ooohhhh.... so pretty!), and of course the accompanying Sims2 games to go with it (why else would you ever buy a new computer if not to play Sims on it?), some really really really fancy undergarments because I deserve it (and I've got these massive bewbs), some work appropriate clothing and preeeeetty jackets (oh so pretty), and some shoes to work in that are nice but not heels. I became a little concerned last week that I was going to turn into a materialistic obsessive shopper. I think it was just the high that came from, well, actually shopping for once. It's funny because I've spent money on these big ticket items but I've been so good on my ususal suspects, like yarn, books, and sushi. I've gotten none yet this month! Crazy I know. But yeah, I think it's just something that I am freaking out about because I've never had an income before, but it's also something that is good to be aware of. Rant over.

I haven't downloaded photos on my new computer yet. I'm scared. I want to keep it pristine and wuvly. My photos were a MESS on my old computer and I don't want to do that again. I'm already very careful about having the right folders and labeling stuff. Anyhoo- basically telling you that to say there are no new photos on this post, but there is a photo of the most precious ever...

Goodnight Malcolm, I love you.

Stolen from Annika...

cause it's sooooooo bloody cool! I just did this on the plane with my cousin last month (until she started chanting 'oh god we're all going to die). Oh yes, and I need to tell you about my new computer. But first, my totally rad future: (oh and I don't know about your screen but on mine you have to scroll down to see it)

		I will marry Legolas.
		After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in Aruba in our fabulous House.
		We will have 3 kid(s) together.
		Our family will zoom around in a Pink BMW.
		I will spend my days as a Poet, and live happily ever after.

Mark this day!

Today... I did nothing!

Cause you know, I'm a professional now and have a tonne of things on my to-do list. But today? I knit. I ate. I watched the first four discs of Heros. Sweeeeet (please say that in an Eric Cartman voice). I didn't mean to have a do-nothing day. It just happened. It was partly having to take care of Spike because the roofers came back today and I had to drug (totally homeopathic airy-fairy stuff, no need to call PETA) him so he would even consider coming out of the hole in the wall (literally- there is a hole in the wall of my front closet) to do anything.

Anyhoo, the whole point of this post is not to necessarily glorify my amazing laziness, but it's because I did it without guilt. No papers to write, no articles to read, no lesson plans to prepare~ sure I have stuff to do but it's not the same as university where there is the consistent nag and dread. I mean, I still did some stuff. I unloaded the dishwasher. And then I rewarded myself with icing! But overall, this day needs to be marked because it was a guilt-free-do-nothing day. Ahhhhhhhhh.

Though tomorrow will be back to reality. I may work, may not. So far out of a six (five?) possible working days I've worked 1.5 which is pretty okay for the first weeks of school. The two schools I've subbed at have been awesome~ one school I want to put my kids one day. And I have been very productive without school too (if I ever talk about school in a negative sense~ it's university; in a positive sense~ teaching). I've been reading, going out, doing a lot of organizing around the house, paperwork (whee), and so one and so forth.

Man, doing nothing is tiring! I want to talk about the schools but I'm all gapey and 'huh'. Okay, some quick photos then I'm off to make popcorn and hot chocolate!

And sorry for the furry photos. I dunno.

The yarn stash/living room horror before:
And after...

Grrrr.

Knitting again.... ahhhhhhh

FYI for those not interested in knitting and yarn (who are you and what are you doing here?): knit heavy post but there's a non-knitting craft at the bottom if you just wanna scroll down

So knitting really suffered during my practicum. I think I went for an entire week without knitting at one point. It's so nice to be in a space where I can just come home and knit (if I choose to ignore housework- which I am very talented at). I've been craving getting some sweaters done- I do have skully but that sweater is *so* warm and I need to do something about the cast on edge as it rolls too much. My shawls are great but they are pretty fancy for everyday wear. All my other sweaters have been gifts so I've decided to be selfish and knit some for me, but I will be starting one for Julia soon, once I get the yarn from her :) (she's got the yarn and the pattern, it's just packed right now). So on Thursday I cast on for the Wallis Cardigan with some wonderful Silky Tweed. It's a good thing it's so beautiful because double knitting? Ugh. The thing about double knitting is it doesn't look like much but believe me, this is so much knitting here! It's just all hidden. Sigh. (and yes- those are star war sheets, thanks for asking)
I've got two bags I need to finish though. And weirdly enough it's the i-cord for each that needs completing. This will eventually be the Elisa Nest Tote knit out of Euroflax which I don't know if I'll knit with again cause it's like knitting with straw. We'll see. The bag looks alarmingly small but stretches out like crazy. This would have been finished a month ago but the i-cord you pick up along the edges of the bag and I wasn't paying attention and starting picking up the i-cord on the edge... but then stopped paying attention and continued the i-cord onto the body of the bag. Fail. Anyhoo, just need to cast on again for the i-cord and will probably finish it in an evening or so.
This bag is nearly already done (did I already show a picture of it?) but I didn't make the i-cord long enough so I have to knit another strap and felt it. Sigh. This bag shrunk like MAD. It's Soy Wool Stripes by.... patons? Bernat? Some big yarn company and yeah. Wow. This thing could hold water if it wanted to. I worked on the i-cord for a bit while waiting for the photos to download so it's a big longer now. Basically the conclusion is that I'm not a fan of i-cord. Boooooring!
This project had a lot of i-cord in it but it was worth it to see it on this gremlin! God, I love my nephew so much. And just last weekend I introduced him to Mariocart. He's going to be a pro!


Today was an uber fun day (and it's only 2:30!). I met my friends Tammy, Erin, and Hilary (so sorry Hilary! I have no idea who Heather is!) at Three Bags Full one hour before opening so we could be first into the store for the big sale. I knew what I needed so I kinda just went straight to the areas and looked nowhere else. I knew I was going to be spending money and I knew I couldn't spend any more than what I had alloted. I felt bad leaving so quickly but there were so many people in the store you couldn't move and I started to freak a little. I said bye but I don't think they heard me. I felt bad leaving them but I have confidence that they were able to carry on without me and buy yarn. I can't wait till they post on their blogs what they got! I also ran into my friend Katherine (Kipper) who was my childhood best friend (and very happily we are becoming awesome friends again) so we grabbed a coffee afterwards. Altogether I bought eight skeins of cascade in an off white in order to start my Wisteria and four skeins of Dream in Colour Classy (never thought I've ever be able to say that... FOUR skeins!) for Hey Teach. Want to see a close up you say? Why of course! (Soon I will get a more accurate photo of the dream in colour, it's more purpley.)

And because I was so 'don't look at the other yarn, don't look at the other yarn' I was the first one to buy yarn which meant I got a gift! Holy smokes! It's a Denise knitting organizer and is spectacular! (and um... it's 55$ retail so totally insanely spoiled!) I actually want to clean now so I can find all my knitting knickknacks and put them in there. Woo! And as we speak Spike is sleeping on it. Everything is a cat bed in this place. While my dear cousin Lisa was here we went to a painting ceramics place and had a great time. This bowl was inspired by my tattoos, mostly cause my tattoos are things I like to draw so it made sense to draw them on the bowl as well. I have no idea what to put in it but for now it's safely in the kitchen. Okay, I'm off to return the bad soy milk (ruined my chai latte!) and then wind up my yarn. I don't know if I'll cast on for the new sweaters just yet but I'll keep you updated!

Ravelympic Gold!

(this post was started ages ago but blogger wasn't letting me upload the photos- fourth time is a charm apparently!)

Notice my new badge? I finished my ravelympic shawl! Here is the ramblings I had on my raverly project page... (note- usually ramblings on projects pages are much much shorter than this- one liners or nothing at all at times... this was special)

from Ravelry

Started: August 7th, 7am
Finished: August 16th, 4pm

Pre-Ravelympics: Holy Crap this snuck up fast! I need to start training now!!!

My goal is to use up nearly the entire skein of seasilk- however much that is. If it isn’t enough and the shawl is too small I will do the edging in Koigu probably but I don’t think that will happen. I will leave myself some room for leftover yarn since I don’t know how much to leave for the edging. My ravelympic dream will be realized if I can wear this shawl to my Grandma’s birthday party on the 23rd.

Day 1: One center repeat
Having difficulty with the pattern and spent a lot of time tinking. Finished the neck chart and one and a half of the middle chart.

Day 2: Three center repeats;147 stitches
Woke up feeling daunted by the scope of my project today. Nina (Nanaboo) is helping calm me down. Was able to finish another one and half center charts taking me to three center repeats. Am at 147 stitches. I’m worried I may run out of yarn too quickly so I’m thinking of going on a search for more seasilk but we’ll wait and see I guess.
Day 3: Four center repeats: 193 stitches
Finished the fourth center repeat and a few rows today (also did report cards so all in all a busy day). I grew so concerned I was going to run out of yarn I ran over to Birkeland after stitch n bitch and bought a skein of seasilk that is more solid coloured but is based on the same colour palette as mine, just no purple. Then I got this skein home and was reading the pattern that came with it and it said that the yarn will grow 15 to 20% after blocking so now I’m so confused. I’ll just keep knitting. And also, I have no idea where I am at with this. Am I close? Am I far? Ugh. I’m going to bed.
Day 4: Only finished 9 rows today as it was a very productive day non-knitting wise. The rows are getting longer but now that I ‘know’ the pattern it’s become easier to work on it while doing other things, which is good because the only time I did get to work on this was during coffee with a friend. Pictures tomorrow!

Day 5: 5 center pattern repeats, 235 stitches (approx-all these stitch counts are approximate cause they are quick and only done once), 104 rows

What’s interesting is that now that I can actually just knit this without concern the rows are so long. My first day I spent most of it tinking rows back and they were so short back then! :) Anyhoo, still unsure about the yarn and unsure about my progress. However I am sure I am going to kill the neighbours across the alley if they don’t shut up soon. Back to knitting, okay yeah- did a lot today and kinda decided that a) it doesn’t matter how much other people are knitting, this is about me and b) even if I don’t finish in time I’m amazed at how much I have knit on this and how I have stuck to it! I have never been so loyal and steadfast to anything in my life! Hoping to finish the sixth repeat tomorrow. Tata!

Day 6: One purl row short of completing the sixth center repeat but am so tired I am making mistakes. The picture is off the disappearing seasilk (where is it going?) since the shawl is getting so large it’s hard to take a picture of it without risking it falling off the needles.

Day 7: Six center repeats. More stitches than I’d like to count.
Finished the sixth center repeat and halfway through the seventh. No day seven picture. Was too tired to turn on camera and click.

Day 8: Seven center repeats. 295 stitches.
Finished the seventh center repeat while at coffee with friends. A small amount of the first skein remains but it is so not enough for another repeat nor the edging so I’m adding the second skein for the edging. Lots of details tomorrow as the past three days have been busy and I am tired. The end is in sight! The day eight photo is the one underneath the day seven. I wasn’t too tired to click but I was too tired to find paper and write on it.

Day 9: Finished! Seven center repeats; 325 stitches 156 rows

I wanted to start the edging last night but I was so tired I didn’t want to risk making a mistake. I woke up early for some reason this morning and started knitting and could not be stopped. I had to stop for laundry, coffee, and more laundry but I finished the edging and cast off at 4pm! The shawl has been blocked to an inch of its life and will hopefully be dry tomorrow for a photo op. I love the edging contrast colour. It’s a little small (hence the aggressive blocking) but it will be okay. Next time I will use larger needles.

So I have a confession. I’m a moron. I was so stressed out about this shawl because I thought you needed 29 repeats of the center pattern. After last weekend only getting 3 done I was freaking out because I didn’t know how I would ever get 29 done! But I kept on knitting and around Wednesday started to think… my goodness that shawl the designer made must have been huge- maybe I’ll only make mine 20 pattern repeats. And on Thursday I decided I simply had to go back to the pattern and look at the instructions again because I realized that a shawl with that many repeats would double as a queen sized bed spread. Yeah, most of you have probably already guessed… the instructions said to repeat chart 2 9 times. I am a moron. I am happy with my seven since my original goal was to use up all my seasilk and I used up even more than that!

And this last picture was taken August 23rd at my Grandma's 75th birthday party with my dear little nephew Anthony (my cousin's baby but same diff).

My Angst is your Angst

I'm so emotional when I'm premenstral. I cried last night worried that my friend who likes to mountain bike and cross raging rivers will hurt herself even though she's safely trapped in the city teaching right now; I became insanely emotional when I heard about the aid workers in Afghanistan (which is a very valid reason to be upset) and could not stop sobbing in front of my computer; I got rather upset with my messy kitchen and crashed pots into my sink like a spoiled child(possibly scaring my neighbour in the apartment next to me (our kitchen windows face each other)) and then kicked some cupboards and hurt my foot; and I keep on getting worked up over my knitting because I am paralyzed in wretched selfish doubt that I won't finish my shawl in time before the end of the olympics.

So I decided to start reading Angela's Ashes.

Yeah, so if my neighbours weren't worried about me before the heaving sobs coming from my apartment would make them so. I honestly don't know how people survive such grief. Once I got over that I went into the bathroom to wash my face and cried some more. So I decided to eat a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Despite the sadness, I am very engrossed in the book and will continue to read it only tonight I need to go work on my knitting some more if I am to finish before the end of the Olympics. It's not like anything I've read before.

And in a happy note? Drunken Monkey is putting out a clothing line! Woooo!