Food is Awesome

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paper Dolls by Kate Davis.

2nd awesome thing of November.

November of Awesomeness

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

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

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!