Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Time off is wonderful!

A week with the parents for Christmas meant a week of evenings knitting in front of the tv. As a result, I'm almost finished the cabled vent jacket! I had the left front almost done, and now I'm finished it and about 1/2 done the back. So hopefully it will be done by the end of the holidays and I can wear it back the first day of school!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Finally!

It's finally officially finished! I found buttons I liked at FabricLand, but they didn't have enough, so they had to order them in for me and they arrived on Friday! So buttons are on (and a few snaps to avoid gaping around the girls!), the cuffs are fixed and the double breasted jacket is ready to wear! Oh, I'm so happy!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Mitten, mittens

Here are my lovely new Pagliacci mittens. Except I just noticed today that one isn't quite finished. Can you see what's missing?

Monday, November 30, 2009

How??

See these light up trees? I put them out yesterday. You know what I found in the box? 2 dpns. A 3 1/4 mm (no big deal, I have a million) and ---- wait for it! ---- my missing 5mm!! I can finally finish my Yellow Harvest Mittens! Which, of course, made my inner knitting rebel come out and had me knit them in dark red. Whaddaya gonna do? We all know that the items we're knitting speak to us and have minds of their own.
But seriously, how did 2 different needles find their way into the box? It's a conundrum.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Oooo, Romni!!!

Mecca for knitters. Romni Wools. I went for the first time today. It's overwhelming, like I was warned. Hundreds of wools - socks, worsted, sport, chunky, laceweight, hand dyed, variegated, tweed, it just went on and on and on. I did manage to stick to my budget - actually went under! First I bought some Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran - a wool/silk/cashmere blend, in a beautiful rust colour curiously named 'Casket'. I'll be using it to make the Manchester Jacket in the winter '08 issue of Interweave Knits.

And it was 20% off - happy days! On my way down that aisle I made the mistake of touching something (I should have known better!). It was a skein of unbelievable superwash wool, hand dyed, from Indigo Moon in BC, in a colourway called Milk Chocolate. The photo doesn't really do it justice. It's darker than it shows here. It's just gorgeous. It's soft and has a nice twist and the colours are gorgeous. It's a fingering weight, so will make great socks, but I don't know what I'll do with it yet. It was pricey, but worth it just to touch and smell and support a small Canadian wool company!

Monday, November 23, 2009

My new favourite shirt


It's a little bit blurry, but it says 'I knit so I don't kill people'. I think this is a very appropriate shirt for me.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Just a Rant

Has to be done. Completely unrelated to knitting.

What is up with these twihardiots??? Chicks of all ages obsessed with these stupid books and movies. The term 'twihard' is a play on 'diehard', for those of you who have been living on Mars, and I added the 'iot' part to do my own little play on IDIOT!!! Which is what they are. And here are my reasons:

1. They cannot separate reality from fiction. They believe that the characters are real. They talk about them like they are real people. They believe that the actors playing the characters are the characters, and are therefore destined to be together for eternity.

2. They believe that the books are incredible literature. Uh huh. I knew from many reputable sources that they are crap, but since I didn't want to lower myself, I never bothered reading them. We had a book fair at school this week, so I picked up one of them at lunch one day and opened to a random page. I swear I was laughing so hard it was like a combination of M*A*S*H, Monty Python and Eddie Izzard all at once. It was worse than I thought.

3. A girl at my school on Thursday had taken the hood off another girl's coat and was wearing it at recess. When I asked her why, she, in all seriousness, told me that she was going to the preview of the movie that night and her hair had to be perfect. This is an otherwise intelligent girl. After school on Friday I drove past the theatre and there were some girls from my school sitting outside the theatre - at 4pm in the cold and drizzle - so they could be first in line for the 7pm show.

I don't get it! I was never obsessed with anything like this when I was a teenager. Sure, my walls were plastered with Duran Duran posters, but I never once thought that John Taylor was my soul mate and we would somehow meet, he would fall madly in love with me and we'd live happily ever after. I never lined up to be the first to buy a new album, hell, I never even saw them in concert until a few years ago!

Then I graduated to old movie posters on my walls, mainly Gone With the Wind. But I understood that Rhett Butler was a character created by an author, and was being portrayed in the movie by an actor named Clark Gable. The lines never blurred for me.

Not to mention the fact that the main female character in these books is so unbelievably pathetic. She swoons and mopes over a guy, completely surrendering herself to him, ignoring her own welfare. Is Twilight the final nail in the coffin for feminism?

Gods, there's a doctoral thesis in there!

Okay, rant done. Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

How do women do this?

I put on my traditional fake Halloween nails tonight and I can't do anything! They're not even super long! I can't type, I can't rub my eyes, I certainly can't knit. How do women with claws do this on a daily basis? I already want to rip them off and it's only been about 20 minutes - how am I going to survive 3 days?
It's hard to see, but the nails have skulls on them and the middle ones have a little rhinestone. They're very cool. I suppose I will get used to them.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My mind, it hath changed

I bought the best hat ever this weekend at H&M. A big fur one with earflaps, like I've wanted for ages. It will look simply smashing with my winter coat. So no need to knit a new one. And, of course, since posting that picture of the Pagliacci Mittens, that pattern has been in my head. So why not knit myself a pair in colours to match the coat, I asked myself. And the answer, of course, was, there is no why not. So the drops mittens are out and Pagliacci's are back in. This is the way my mind works. Scary, non?

Monday, October 19, 2009

Oh, How I Love Ravelry!

There are now 2 projects on Ravelry that use my photos for samples! They used my finished Pagliacci mittens that I made for my sister last Christmas, and they just contacted me to ask if they could use my photo of the cabled double breasted jacket - even without buttons! Makes me feel rather accomplished, actually!
I am having the worst time finding buttons I like for that sweater. Anyone have any suggestions?

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Knitting ADD Strikes Again!!!

One of the 'hazards' of massive weight loss is requiring new winter garb. I have this amazing 70s winter coat - wool, Inuit inspired with a faux-fur lined hood and embroidery. Value Village, $30! I haven't been able to wear it for a few years, and now it fits better than even when I bought it. But I don't have any mittens or hat to go with it. One must match, after all, especially when one is known as a knitter! It's been a very dreary, wet fall in Muskoka, and the nip in the air is unmistakable. Snow will be flying early this year. So the knitter's brain turns to cozy things. Hours of surfing and I should have hit the Drops site first. Found the perfect hat and mittens to go with the snowflake embroidery on my coat. Some brown and cream Patons Astra in my stash, with much smaller needles than required, works. Smaller needles on mittens is fine. Denser is warmer. Might be an issue for the hat, though. It might not drape properly. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Since Patons tends to have the same colours no matter what the yarn, I can always do the hat in Beehive Baby instead.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Knitting With Kittens

Sounds like a bizarre movie that someone like the Cohen Brothers would do, doesn't it?
Anyway, spent the entire weekend either in bed sleeping or on the couch knitting, struck down by the usual first-month-of-school-plague-monkey-induced-cold-from-hell. (Went out briefly to keep a hair appointment and buy life-sustaining groceries, which of course exhausted me and confined me to bed once again!) And, had a total Archimedes-inspired (my, what a lot of use of parentheses and hypens today! Not to mention exclamation points!) ! ! ! (For good measure.) eureka! moment.


How to knit with kittens:

Take the tail, and make a slip knot. Bashing the kitten on the head to induce confusion and malleability first often helps.


KIDDING!!!!!!!!


Here's the real thing: before you begin to knit, gather up all the little kitten toys you have. Put them in a nice pile beside you, then start to knit. When the kitten jumps up on you and attacks yarn and or needles, throw a toy. Said kitten will then leap after the toy. Depending on the attention span of the kitten and your knitting speed, that should let you have a few rows of knitting before the action needs to be repeated.


See? Eureka!!


Eventually, you need to gather up all the toys and start over again, but it's a small price to pay.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Eddie > Knitting, and therefore > Men

He's done now, but reading today's entry from the Yarn Harlot brought him to mind again. Eddie Izzard is one of my boyfriends, on my freebie five list. You know, the list of guys that (if you were ever crazy enough to be in a relationship) you'd get to sleep with, with no repercussions.
Eddie is better than knitting, which makes him (naturally) better than men. But since he describes himself as all boy with a little bit of girl, that goes without saying. Executive transvestism and all.
Anyway, here's lazy old me who can't even get off my butt to walk the dog, and here's Eddie, who ran a marathon a day for charity! I think I love him even more. Of course, whatever it is about me that turns men into jerks would kick in, and he'd just break my heart, too, and reality would come crashing down. So maybe I will just admire from afar, instead of stalking him some day like I'd planned.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Top 10 Ways Knitting is Better than Men

10. You can always repair knitting.
9. Unlike knitting, a man cannot be made to fit you perfectly.
8. You can’t block a man to be just right.
7. No such thing as swatching a man.
6. You can’t frog a man and start all over.
5. Men can’t hibernate.
4. You can’t have a stash of different men in Rubbermaid containers all over your house.
3. Like knitting, men have patterns. They just aren’t charted nicely for you to read easily.
2. Men do have different tensions, but changing needling technique makes no difference on fixing it.
And the number 1 reason knitting is better than men:
1. There is a sense of accomplishment with knitting.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Knitting Woes 2.0

Her name is Sulis Minerva, and she makes it impossible to knit. She is very cuddly, and as soon as I sit down, she's in my lap, purring away. But she is also very playful, so she attacked my needles and my yarn, quite viciously for such a wee thing. But at least I'm watching great tv - a British comedy called Green Wing, recommended to me by a complete jerk who broke my heart. But at least he was good for something! Wow, I'm turning into an optimist - there's 2 jerks I've managed to find something good in. One technically saved my life by telling me I sounded like I was dying when I was sleeping (which led to a diagnosis of sleep apnea), and this one gave me my new favourite tv show. Too bad the rest of the both of them was useless.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Knitting Woes

Made the mistake of trying to organize my stash last night. Yikes. If you are a knitter, you understand the danger of stash organization. It doesn't really get organized; it just makes you come up with an even longer list of things to knit. Which then makes you all depressed because the things that are on the needles already seem to be taking an inordinate amount of time, and adding to the list makes it seem overwhelming.
Or is it just me?
The cabled jacket is an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy knit, and yet it seems to be taking forever!! I should be done both fronts at this point and be well on my way on the back, but I'm not. I've only done about 5 inches on the right front. Shameful.
The Bavarian Socks are completely on hold. One sock is finished, but the other is only about an inch done. I don't usually have that issue with socks. I know many knitters do; finish one and then take a year to finish the second. Not me. I'm usually so happy with the first one that I race to finish the second and it usually goes even faster than the first! Not this time.
Yellow Harvest Mittens? What are those? Granted, the excuse for that one is that Rosebud or Bronte has stolen one of the needles, and I only have 1 set of 5 1/2 mm dpns.
Jolene? I hate to admit, but it's stalled too.
I am in a knitting rut. Maybe a new project will get me out of it.
Or maybe it will just be another project to sit and collect dust and animal hair.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Woohoo!!!

Check out that count at the bottom of the page! I broke 1000 visitors!!!!!! I am so impressed. Thanks everyone!
AND..... I found my Alice Starmore book! That excites me too!!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Cancel the APB

The knitting has been found. In a bag that I never use for knitting, hanging on a kitchen chair, hidden by my bike. Go figure. The Starmore book is still missing, though. Hmm...... anybody have Hercule Poirot's number? Or that math guy on tv?

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Knitting APB

How does knitting go missing? I have lost some knitting. So bizarre. I'm so ADD, I was getting tired of the Bavarian Socks, so I decided to work a bit on the Debbie Bliss Cable Vented Jacket. I have 1 sleeve one already and 1 on the needles. I can't find it! I found the finished one, but the magazine and the sleeve-in-progress are missing! I know I took it to knit night this summer, so I didn't lend the magazine to someone at school. Then I thought I could work on the last sleeve on the Alice Starmore sweater. I can't find my Celtic Collection book anywhere! Maybe I lent it to someone at school. So odd. I know it's not in the bedroom because I ripped it apart to paint last week. The various stash places didn't reveal anything. Neither did any of the usual company's-coming-quick-hide-the-stuff places. I could work on the Yellow Harvest mittens (found them & the Vogue Knitting magazine they're from), but the puppy appears to have stolen one of the dps and they're my only 5mm set.
I'm watching a Chinese movie, so I can't work on Jolene. I need something plain to do while I read subtitles.
I am so confused. Does knitting grow wings? Legs? Does it have an Invisiblity Cloak?
This is pondersome. If you see this knitting around, send it home, please.


Sunday, August 9, 2009

Wastin' Away the Day in Margaritaville

Without margaritas. And I know where the salt is. But it was still a wasted day. Thunderstorms this morning and icky the rest of the day - perfect for knitting, and what did I do? Surfed the Internet. Granted, I was educating myself about North & South Korea, the South Sea Bubble and the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. It really is possible to spend an entire day on Wikipedia. At least I was learning stuff, so it really wasn't wasting time. But no knitting. Although I have picked out a kit that I think I will treat myself to for birthday/xmas this year. Isn't it amazing? Shetland wool, too. I drool just thinking about touching and smelling it.


Must knit tonight to redeem myself. I've put the Bavarian Socks aside; they bore me already (thanks, ADD!). Jolene is coming along well, maybe I'll do that. I have 1 sleeve done on the Debbie Bliss jacket but now I'm second guessing my size choice. I may need to go smaller. I'll have to check out the finished measurements again. I wasn't expecting to be shrinking quite so fast! And there's also the Alice Starmore sweater that has 1 sleeve left to do. It's been hibernating, but I think I will finish it after all. It may be huge, but it can be my comfy, bumming around sweater. I could give it to one of my brothers in law, but screw it. All the work I did on it, ripping it out and starting all over again then hibernating and blah blah, it's mine!!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Not related to knitting at all

In the latest issue of Parade Magazine, Brad Pitt refers to Angelina Jolie as his 'soul mate'. I threw up just a wee bit and he lost a lot of drool factor. Soul mate! I ask you! I so thought the two of them were more intelligent than that.
Of course, if any two people in the world were destined to be together, it's those two smokin' hot ones. Wouldn't you just love to be a fly on their bedroom wall?
But then, in the same interview, he talks about gay rights and how he'd react if one of his kids were gay, and he redeems himself. I do believe Brad Pitt could make me change my views on marriage. He's a forever guy for me. Lainey says that Johnny Depp is her forever guy. I think Brad is mine. He could bring Angie.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Yarn Harlot is in Trouble

Sometimes I wish that more people other than just my friends and family read my blog. Then I read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest entry and I realize that it may not be worth the trouble. She's got an unbelievable troll right now - saying horrible things and even threatening her, because she thinks that because Steph is a patriotic Canadian that she's making anti-american statements. This chick is obviously unbalanced, but it's a pretty damn scary situation, the things she's saying. So if you're a knitter, head to the Yarn Harlot's site, read up on the insanity, then add some encouragement to the 1500+ posts that are there. I'm in there somewhere. I've never posted on her site, all the years I've read it, but man oh man, after reading what she's been going through for the past month, I just had to.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Die Socken von Bayern!

Bavarian socks to those of you who sprecht nicht Deutsch! The pattern calls for 5 chart repeats, which I have done, but I think I may do one more. It's only 11 rows and I like my socken just a wee bit mehr hoch. I made sure to cast on fairly loosely in case I wanted them higher without shaping. I hate it when I cast on socks too tightly. Did that for my Dad's Christmas socks once. Bad. Very bad.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

My new favourite socks

1 chart complete for the Bavarian socks and I love, love, love them. The pattern seemed a bit difficult at first, but once you get going it's no problem at all. I'm hoping they'll keep my awake today - I didn't sleep well last night (surprise, surprise) but I really don't want to take a nap today - too much to do!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Another project!!

Went to my first Knit Night at the new yarn shop, Knitting Three Together. Lovely ladies, great conversation. I picked up a Zauberball! Just gorgeous German sock wool, slightly variegated. Because I have that new book and all. So when I got home I flipped through the patterns in the book for one that would suit. I couldn't make up my mind between the ZigZag cabled socks, the Bavarian cabled socks or the Estonian cabled socks. (Catching the pattern? I had already decided on cables, I think the yarn will be amazing in cables.) I thought I'd have to put the names in a hat and pick one, when a flash of brilliance struck, as it does so often. German sock wool needs German sock pattern! So Bavarian it is. Starting as soon as I'm done here. I love new knitting patterns. It's just like new school supplies in September.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Oops! I did it again!

Why do we knitters do this to ourselves? Six million projects on the go, another billion or so in the queue, and we go and buy another knitting book. But not just any book. The Ultimate Sock Book. The history section alone in this book is worth the price, never mind the patterns and the stitch library!! Can't wait to start something.

Monday, July 6, 2009

And this would be why no knitting was done tonight

I gave Rosebud her first bath. It was not appreciated. She kept trying to escape the tub, then she went nuts afterwards and attacked everything not nailed down. And she kept wiping out on the floor because her paws were wet and so were her ears, which she slides on all the time anyway! Then she was all cranky and depressed at the affront to her person (?) so she insisted on attention all night. And she weighs a ton, so when Rosebud wants attention, Rosebud gets attention!
Plus side, Monday night is my tv night - tvo on all night long, and now it's my geeky historian boyfriend Simon Schama on pbs. So she can put her 200lb head in my lap while I watch tv.
I went to the new yarn shop in town yesterday, Knitting Three Together, and picked up some new 2 1/4mm needles (kertzer, bamboo, lovely!) except the lady gave me 2 1/2, so I had to exchange them today. They seem ever so fragile! I'll have to make sure, like glasses, ipods and cell phones, that they are never put anywhere near to where a Basset hound who has discovered counter cruising can get! Unfamiliar with counter cruising? Click here for a pro captured on camera!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

1 down, 1 started!

Finished the cabled double-buttoned jacket! Well, it still needs buttons, but I haven't been able to find any that I like. I'll hunt again this weekend. It's quite small on me, but at the rate I'm dropping the pounds, it will fit this winter!


And I've started my new project - a Cabled Vent Jacket from Debbie Bliss' winter 2008 magazine. I'm doing it in dark purple Ultra Alpaca Light, which is an absolute dream to work with. I started on a sleeve so I'll have a feeling of accomplishment - sleeves are easy peasy.

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

Isn't it great to live in the most awesome country in the world? I thought I'd pass on a few things for you to watch, read and enjoy, about just that. The fact that we are awesome!




A selection of the Yarn Harlot's traditional Canada Day posts: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.


Enjoy!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

What to do, what to do...

This is the first time in ages that there hasn't been a new Harry Potter book at the end of the school year. My family knew not to call the first day of summer, because I'd be glued to the couch, reading HP.
But now? No HP. I just realized that this morning. So, oh darn, I guess I'll be knitting. The Hound from Hell pulled my Jolene scarf out of my backpack and ripped it off the needles trying to chew them. It's pretty darn impossible to pick lace back up! Too many yarn overs and knit togethers. So I'll have to start all over again. Fortunately I only had a couple of inches done!
Working hard to organize the end of the year. I'm not in a classroom next year; I have a wee little office. So I'm cramming 10 years of accumulated teaching crapola in boxes and finding storage places all over the school, which I will undoubtedly forget about by the time I'm back into a classroom. Plus trying to inventory and organize the teacher book room, which is my new full time job next year. It ain't easy! I'll be in school all next week, I think. But I can bring Rosebud with me and let her run around in the courtyard all day. She'll love that.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Knitting? What's that?

Not much got done this week, I must confess. I was soooo tired when I got home I was just flopping on the couch and veging. Or even going to bed at 8pm.
But I did start the Jolene tribute scarf. I ripped it out and started again on smaller needles and it looks much better. But I can't post pics of it because I want to submit it to Knitty and they won't accept things that anyone has seen before. So you'll have to wait!
Scroll down to see my shrinking graph!
Oh, dear. The hound just ate the rest of my leftover jerk chicken wrap. She'll be feeling that later! And I'll be dealing with the farts. Bassets are bad farters to begin with, but after jerk chicken, oy freakin' vey!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

summer Knitty

Is it just me or is Knitty getting supremely boring? I haven't liked anything in the last 2 or 3 issues. Are funky people no longer submitting or something?

Thursday, June 4, 2009

It's a black day for Muskoka knitters

My Yarn Goddess, Karen, is closing shop. I'm so upset!! Who will hold my hand and order insanely expensive yarns for me now???

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

As usual...


...it took much longer than anticipated to finish off the cabley bits for the cabled jacket. But here are the pieces, all blocked and ready to go.
Not looking forward to picking up all around the panels and neckline for the band though!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Oh, Jeffrey!

Here is part of the cuff for the cabled jacket. After the complicated cables of Cromarty, this is, to quote the insane Jeff whom I adore from the brilliant British show Coupling, a piece of piss! I've attached 2 photos because the one with the flash shows the wool colour and tweeding (is that a word?) better, but the one sans flash shows the cable better.





I am just zooooooming along on that cuff! Fingers crossed to finish the cabley bits this weekend!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

I know, it's about time

As promised, here is a pic of the Debbie Bliss wrapover in lovely alpaca silk in sexy red. Not that the knitter is sexy, but the colour damn well is. I hate pictures of myself. Is that what I really look like? ICK!!!
Knitting hasn't happened much since I got home. I'm so tired that I'm going to bed absurdly early. It's September all over again, trying to get used to the early mornings and long days. Plus I'm still rather wimpily (new word, feel free to use it!) recovering from the surgery. I overdid it on the weekend (not a lot, just cleaning & a dump run) and I was sore for days! So I'm not nearly as far on the cabled jacked as I had hoped. I'm halfway done the second sleeve, then I have the cabled cuffs and centre panel left.
And, like any true knitter, I have my next project already in my head. I want to design a lace scarf for Jolene's memory project, but I think I need to knit someone else's lace pattern first, to get some practice. So I have some beautiful Dawn silk in a lovely green that I'm going to use for the Queen Silvia Shawl from the Knitted Lace of Estonia book by the marvelous Nancy Bush (click on the book link, then do the 'look inside' thing. That's the pattern!). I'm dying to start, but I think I'll need to get some lovely new 2.25 mm needles to go with the lovely new yarn.
This is the way knitters' brains work. You understand.
Or maybe not.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Knitting Races

My mother and I are having knitting races right now. I'm kicking her butt. This picture doesn't really show her knitting style. I just thought it was cute.
My mother is the one who taught me to knit. When we were kids, almost all our clothes were hand knit or sewn, and store bought cookies were a treat. She was the original Martha Stewart, except not obnoxious or belittling or greedy to the point of going to jail over it. She knit me a fuzzy mint green sweater with 1 giant needle and 1 regular one so that the stitches were huge. Hey, it was the early 80s, I think it was cool at the time. She knit me a bright yellow cardigan that I had to take to the movie theatre when a neighbour took my older sister & I along with her daughters to see The Cat From Outer Space. Air conditioning in the theatre gets cold, you know. I remember waiting in line outside the theater and swatting at a bee with it and getting stung on the neck. She knit us blankets for our doll cradles. She knit impossibly tiny bikinis for our Barbie dolls.
I always thought she was the fastest knitter in the world. She doesn't knit much anymore, and she's always talking about how fast I knit. I didn't really see it until tonight.
Yesterday, I started the back of the cabled double-buttoned jacket. By the time I went to bed, I was at the armhole shaping. Tonight, I finished the back, and I'm halfway done the left front panel.
On April 17, the day of my surgery, my mum cast on the right front of a cardigan she's making for one of my uncles for Christmas. She's finished the ribbing.
Now, I know that I've had a lot more time for knitting in the past 2 weeks than my mum has. She's got all the running around and stuff to do. She's retired and busier now than ever before.
But what really hit me tonight is how fast I do appear to knit. I think I did 3 stitches for every 1 of hers.
So now, when she says I knit fast, I'm going to believe her.
I found the usb cable for my camera! I knew I had brought it with me. So here are some pics of Cromarty (not pieced, don't forget, because I want to block the front & back) and the back of the cabled jacket.


If you know the Cromarty pattern at all, you can see that I left off the cabling around the neck. I think it looks better on me having a bit of a more open neck. I'll see how it looks after the blocking - it may stretch out the neck and I'll want to add it on.


Here is where the shoulder saddle is sewn into the front to make the square neckline. I've never done shoulder saddles before. I love the way the cabling goes up over the shoulder.


What am I loving the most about that cabled jacket? Using my new addi turbos! Awesome needles. Oh - and I'm knitting a size small because that's what I guestimate I'll fit into come fall!!!!!


And - more good news - I had real food for dinner tonight! Yay! I had 1/2 a cabbage roll, all chopped up in the blender, and a tiny spoonful of mashed potatoes. And I was ridiculously stuffed. I felt like I'd just finished eating the lunch buffet at The Mandarin. But boy, did it feel good to be eating real food again! The last week has been reasonably real, but one can only take so much soup & yogurt before feeling the need to kill someone. Let's be honest.
I'm already planning tomorrow's meals! It's so exciting!!

Monday, April 27, 2009

No, really, it's true


I just have no pictures to prove it. I was sure I brought my usb cable for the camera down to my parents' with me, but I can't find it.
Anyhoo, Cromarty is DONE!! Well, the knit bit is, anyway. It doesn't call for blocking, but I will, because the body needs to be lengthened. I don't suit the crop look.
And I started the back of the cabled double-buttoned jacket this afternoon and I'm all the way up to the armhole shaping.
Seriously. It's all true. Stop calling me a liar.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Baby steps but not baby knitting

Feeling much better today - even went out to the grocery store with my mum to get some slightly more real food (real soup & pudding for dinner!). And got a lot of knitting done this evening. I may finish Cromarty and cast on the next before I'm home, after all! And 2 pieces of good news today - the weight has already started to come off (13lb in 1 week!!) and I won a massive salon hair care pack from my gossip bitch, Lainey! Cross your fingers for me to win the grand prize - a weekend spa/shopping spree getaway in TO with Lainey herself!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

hospitals are bad for knitting

I brought my knitting to the hospital where I was for a few days. I think I managed to knit a dozen stitches. Between the drugs, the IV and the oxygen thingie on my finger, it just didn't happen. Poo.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Finished!

The wrapover is finished! I just need to buy some more ribbon for it. And, of course, it's a bit small because I am on the large size, but I will be rapidly decreasing soon, so as soon as it fits properly, I will model it for pictures.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Oh, Lady Mohair, you are the stuff of nightmares

So being on dialup at home means that not all of the amazingly fantastical hysterical pics on Lady Mohair's site didn't load. Now I'm at my mum & dad's - with high speed. And here is what is going to be in my nightmares tonight. On the plus side, that means no more nightmares about that huge pile of neverending dishes that Mr. Burns is making me do while Homer Simpson keeps eating from the Sea Captain's all you can eat seafood bar and adding to the pile. Just don't ask. Or analyse.
Just enjoy the mohair.












Sunday, April 5, 2009

What the FUG????

While knitting after six million dishes were washed I was surfing my favourite blogs (remember, I'm on dialup, so I can knit while pages load!). I like to check out what blogs my favourite bloggers are reading. I was on The Panopticon (the brilliant Franklin, creator of Delores, the knitting sheep in his cartoons) and off him I linked to QueerJoe. From QueerJoe I got to this hideous creation:


How did the knitting gods allow this to happen??? I can't decide what was funnier on that site: the post-op tranny model who shouldn't have stopped taking her hormones, or the designs themselves. I especially love the fact that both the horror above and the hot pink sweater dress are proudly labelled 'unisex'. And the balaklavas with no opening. For sex games, one would assume. But can you imagine trying to breathe through doubled mohair when things are getting hot & heavy? This is why leather or latex are much better choices. Or so I hear.
Need a good laugh? Check out 'Lady Mohair'.
Oh - did I mention that this stuff is for sale??? What exactly do you suppose would have to be the mental state of someone who would buy it?

Why no knitting got done today

I've been cooking quite a bit lately. Healthier, cheaper, yada yada. The real reason is that it's rather embarrassing to walk into a fast food restaurant, get greeted by name and have the staff start preparing your usual order without asking.
I love to cook; I really do. And I'm not a bad cook, either. My problem? Dishes. I would rather be in charge of preparing chum on a fishing boat than do dishes. Be the only person in charge of changing diapers in that psycho octomom's house. Muck out the stall of a horse with 2 asses and they both have diarrhea. Be Paris Hilton's personal bikini waxer. Get the picture? So, basically, what I do is wait until I have absolutely no dishes left to eat off of or use to cook. Then I break down and do them. Of course, in the summer, it has to happen a lot faster because of the smell. So here is what the counter looked like while I was washing up. This isn't the worst part. The worst part? I had already done one load of plates, bowls and cutlery, and there is more on the stove that you can't see!!


Not only do I wait far too long to do the dishes, I'm also an extremely messy cook. So cleaning up is not only doing 4 loads of dishes, but it consists of scrubbing the stove, oven, counters, cupboard doors, ceiling, you name it. This is not an exaggeration. Here is some small proof in the form of the stovetop, although it's hard to see the spaghetti sauce cooked on the elements, the burnt crumbs under the elements, the grease, the pancake batter, etc., etc.:


So I cleaned and scrubbed and now the kitchen is all sparkly. Except for the floors. I just don't look at them. It's better that way. So here is how the kitchen is supposed to look, but, quite honestly, rarely does:


And shiny stovetop - even with new tin foil in the element pans. And the crud cleaned out from underneath them.


Then, I spent half an hour on the phone with my vet because the Hound from Hell ate one of my crazy pills. He looks through all his books, we figure out what to do, I find the sedatives leftover from when she got her ovaried yanked (in case she starts getting hyper and all agitated) and then, after I give her extra food like he said to, I go into the living room, thinking I might be able to knit a bit, I shake out the cozy knit wrap on the couch and what do I find? A wrinkled little crazy pill. She didn't eat it after all. She sucked on it, but she didn't actually ingest it. Little bugger.
Oh well. I can knit now.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Death and Taxes

Well, the plant might not have actually died today, but I did notice it today. That's one of those tree-falling-in-the-forest conundrums. That's the death.
And the taxes did get done today. As usual, I had to do them 3 times. The first time, I owed $10,000.00. Something told me I made a big mistake. So I did them again, and this time I was getting a refund of a whole $12.83. So I thought I'd check one more time - three's the charm. Now I owe again - but only $34.18. I can deal with that.
And for some reason, the final sleeve for the wrapover sweater that I've been working on doesn't seem to be getting any longer. How exactly does that work? I knit and knit and knit, and the damn thing stays the same length.
That must defy the laws of physics somehow. Knitting physics - there's a PhD in there somewhere.
And just for fun - Rosebud posing like they say that Bassets do naturally.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Happiness is a warm puppy

I was never really a Peanuts fan, but I think Schultz was on to something.
Rosebud has been driving me nuts all day. She chewed another pair of glasses, got a hold of some very expensive wool, ate a piece of garlic bread that I accidentally dropped, got loose twice (once by slipping out of her collar, once in the dark!!) and was just generally a pain in the ass all day.
But right now she's cuddled up against me on the couch, snoring away and all is forgiven. I am what is known in grifting circles as a good mark.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

A Tribute & a Blocking Dilemma

It's been one rough week. My all-time favourite student was killed, along with her amazing mother, in an accident on Lake Rosseau. Their ATV went through the ice when they hit a pressure crack. (And before you start going on about thin ice, the ice was still nearly a metre thick. It was a freak accident.) Jolene was an absolutely incredible kid, and her mother was a powerhouse. Carolyn was a local advocate for women's rights and a poverty activist. Jo was following in her footsteps - a natural born leader at school and had so much potential. There's a big gaping hole in my heart right now. Jo was a knitter, too. She did hats and scarves. I think I need to design a scarf for her and call it Jolene. It will have to be beautiful, like her. And funky and creative. It's not going to be easy, but I think that it's fitting.

The blocking dilemma is for the Debbie Bliss wrapover. I have one more sleeve to do. I had hoped to finish it this week, but stuff happens. Anyway, I used to block by pinning the item to the living room carpet. Then the carpet got replaced with hardwood. Beautiful, but impossible to pin to. There's still carpet in the bedroom. But the problem is an insane puppy who cannot be trusted. So I'm thinking the spare bed. Cleaning all the crap off it will be a huge job (it's the dumping ground for everything!), but I could pin the pieces to the mattress. Maybe I'll put a towel down first. Yeah, I'll try that. I really need to make myself a blocking board.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Missing Puppy = Peaceful Knitting

Rosebud the Basselope is at the vet's overnight. She's getting her ovaries yanked in the morning. As much as I love the rapidly growing critter, I'm enjoying a peaceful night without her. Lots of knitting being done, Bronte the Idiot Cat not getting picked on, and, best of all, a complete night's sleep without being interrupted by a puppy who needs to pee!
I am jealous of her, though. Canines can get their ovaries yanked and presto! No more puppy periods! Why can't they do that for humans? I'd be first in line. Or can they and nobody's told me about it?
Bonus: spot the Idiot Cat in the picture!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Knitting & the Oscars

This is going to be a long one, until I get bored with the Oscars and turn them off.
Not nearly enough knitwear on the red carpet. Seriously. Not even a lovely faroese shawl. That must be fixed. The red carpet isn't quite so boring this year. So many people have stylists, they don't generally make disastrous fashion decisions, but there are a few this year. Jessica Biel has something odd happening at the front of her dress, and Beyonce looks like crap. Hideous gold lame foilage on black with a mermaid bottom. Ick. Even her curves can't carry it off. And I can't look too long at Mickey Rourke. I'll have nightmares. Why is Phillip Seymour Hoffman wearing a watch cap? Is he planning on knocking over a liquor store after the ceremony?
Ugh, Penelope Cruz won supporting actress. Can't stand her. And her dress is hideous. Should have been Viola Davis or Traji P. Henderson. Ew, WTF is Sophia Loren wearing?? I suppose when you're a timeless sex symbol (which I have never understood, despite my father trying over and over again to explain) you can wear whatever you want, even if it does appear to have peach kleenex hanging off it everywhere.
Steve Martin and Tina Fey just made a great poke at scienfreakytology. Ha ha ha. Now he just told her not to fall in love with him. But who could blame her? I love intelligent men. The guy who wrote Slumdog Millionare won for adapted screenplay. He reminds me of Simon Schama, another geeky smart guy I love.
Oh boy, Jennifer Aniston! Mini van majority everywhere swoon over her boring hair and dress. But damn, Jack Black makes me laugh. Oy, her French is terrible. How hard is it to pronounce 'La maison en petits cubes?' Oops, spoke too soon. Jack's is worse.
Sarah Jessica Parker's hair is good. Brunette instead of blonde with dark Madonna roots. Daniel Craig. 'Nuf said.
I hate it when 2 people win and the 1st person takes up all the speech time. Selfish bastards.
They went on and on about how these are the new & improved Oscars. So far, except for the 5 previous nominees presenting supporting actress, it's the same old boring crap.
My puppy is trying to chew the pompoms off my socks. How bad is it that I'm more entertained by that than by the Oscars?
I don't get the fuss over Robert Pattinson. He's got really bad hair & eyebrows. And his nose is almost as squishy as Miley Cyrus. Of course, I'm not exactly his target audience, being over 16 and all.
Missed a whole section while making muffins for breakfast for this week. Oh darn.
Damn, no lemons. Can't make a lemon drop martini without lemons.
Seriously, what's happening with Jessica Biel's dress? Did the designer have a couple of metres of fabric left and think, let's just make a waterfall over her boobs?
Seth Rogen & James Franco. I actually loved Pineapple Express. Love those 2. Franco couldn't pronounce 'Spielzeugland' and Rogen laughed at him. Tee hee. Rogen pronounced it pretty well, actually.
Oh no. Please don't be an Abba thing. Nope. But Hugh, gorgeous though he is, has nothing on Fred Astaire. And Beyonce is beyond tedious. Can she not do something different once in a while? Oh boy now she's murdering Etta James again. ICK ABBA!!! Ah, yes, the gratiutous musical number. Boring, boring, boring. They have exactly 3 minutes and I'm turning off. It's 9:57. I don't even know who those people singing with them were. Oh, high school musical and mamma mia children. That would explain it.
Sad again - best part of the broadcast so far? Commercial for a new Clive Owen movie. Yep. You read that right.
Three minutes are up. I'm done. I'll read the highlights tomorrow.

WOW.

Man, I love simple, brainless knitting! Catching up on season 6 of Spooks before I can watch my boyfriend Richard Armitage in season 7 (the poor man has no idea of the torch I bear for him - of course, that may be a good thing!) and knitting and - lookie here - left front of the wrapover is already done! Started when? When, I hear you ask? Friday, the answer would be. And I got 1/4 of the way done and had to rip it out because I forgot to change needles. I hate it when I do that.
My mum always tells me I knit fast, and I never believe her, but this could be a wee bit of proof.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Hmmm....

I realized something rather sad tonight. Cromarty is becoming a chore. It has lost its joy.
Therefore, I must begin something new to bring back the magic. So I've begun the Simple Wrapover from Debbie Bliss in amazing alpaca silk that I've had stashed for a year. Sumptuous is the only word for this yarn. And in red, no less. Va va va voom!