Saturday, December 22, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Or Happy Holidays...whichever you prefer.

I'll be taking a bit of a break this week, to enjoy some chill-out time and time with family.
Hopefully you all get to do the same!
See you in the New Year!


Monday, December 17, 2007

All Done!

Just the photos for now...details will follow later.


Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Look what I'm making...!

I took a basic mitts pattern and put a celtic cable chart that I found on the internet on the back.
The celtic cable chart is the Simple Cable Chart from The Girl From Auntie (my link tool isn't working right now, but google it - it's the first result), and the mitt pattern is one that I got from a LYS in Osgoode, Ontario.

If anyone wants the pattern, leave me a comment, and I'll try and get it posted in the next few days. I'm finished the RH mitt, but am still working out the kinks for the LH mitt.



(And I'm going to try and get to some of the blogstalking posts that I've missed, but I'm making no promises!!)

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

-27 and ice crystals

It's an amazing winter day here today...-27C and "ice crystals", which only happens when it's really cold out, and really sunny out. It's like any moisture in the air freezes and shines in the sun. It's gorgeous, actually, and it made my morning walk seem like I was walking through fairy dust!
I wish that I could capture it on camera for you, but that's just not something that translates to photography well (or at all).

Knitting-wise, I've finished the Celtic Cap that I'm giving my brother for Christmas, but I don't have a photo to show for it, because I never have the time in the morning, and I never get home while there's still daylight. Cabling just doesn't show well with a flash, so I have to wait for some daylight to take a good photo of that hat.
I've started on some celtic cable mitts for a "handmade gift" exchange I'm doing with some girlfriends - I have a mitt pattern that has a simple 3x3 cable on the back and I'm adapting the pattern so that I can put a (way) more complicated celtic cable there instead - I think it's going to take up pretty much the whole backside of the mitten! It's looking really nice so far, so I'll post a photo when I get a whole cable section done.
I've also started a toque for my BIL - a simple 4x4 moss stitch (is that still called moss when it's that big?), with a 2" brim he can fold up, with the top few inches just in st.st. I'm making it with the black/grey SWS, and it's looking really nice. Plus it'll be warm for the -30 weather in which he'll be wearing it!

I haven't gotten to the last couple of blogstalking assignments - they're harder ones than the previous, so I'm going to think about them some more and hopefully get to them later this week...

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

It's Winter!

This is the same shot that I've posted here in past seasons, just to give you some perspective. (Taken this morning.)

Look what I did this weekend!

I finished one thing and started another!

Finished: the third Foliage, for a friend overseas. I hope it gets there on time, because I think I missed the official cut-off date for shipping things overseas from Canada.


Pattern: Foliage, from knitty.com (even though these photos don't really show the pattern too well...evening flash photography will do that - argh)
Size: "Worsted", even thought I used bulky yarn.
Yarn: Mystery bulky yarn from the dollar bin at Michael's in Edmonton
Needles: 4.0mm dpns and circs.
I must say, I really like this pattern. (If my knitting it 3 times in a few months didn't tell you that already!) This time, I used bulky stash yarn, but I didn't have larger needles to make the "bulky" size in the pattern. So I made the "worsted" size with 4.0mm needles, and decreased on the last knit round before doing the ribbing. I did the same decrease that the pattern calls for (Slip1, K2Tog, PSSO) without putting in the yarn over increases instead of a straight knitting round, decreasing 24 sts total. It made the ribbing band a perfect size instead of changing to smaller needles. (Frankly, since I was knitting on "too small" needles already, I didn't think that going any smaller would make a difference.)
It fits me perfectly, so I hope it fits her!

Started: my Christmas gift bags!
I've decided to make fabric gift bags to "wrap" all of my presents in this year. Why? 2 reasons. (Well, 3, really.)
1) It's more environmentally friendly - no waste paper after one use. (Yes, I know you can reuse gift wrap, but not with some people in my family. My sister especially still likes tearing into the paper like a little kid! She's not going to be happy with me this year!)
2) It gives me an excuse to use my (still relatively new) sewing machine that my mom got for me this summer!
And, well, I'm crafty. What can I say? :)
If I had started these earlier, I would have posted some up on my etsy site to sell! I'm pretty sure that it's too late now, though, to make the bags, post them to my etsy site, sell them *and* get them shipped out in time to be used for Christmas! Maybe next year...

Monday, November 26, 2007

On Parking Lots and Idiots

Why is it that as soon as people drive into a parking lot, they forget all about the rules of the road????

I almost got into an accident this weekend because some fracking idiot decided that he was going to play chicken with me in the grocery store parking lot.
Let me just say this: whether or not you have an actual, physical stop sign, you're supposed to stop when you reach the end of an aisle before crossing the "road" (or designated thoroughfare, or whatever you want to call the "main drags" in parking lots). Now, if someone is coming at you down that "main drag", you don't GO!
This is what happened.
Imagine a "T" shape. The left part of the T is the access to the parking lot from the main street. No stop sign. The top and bottom of the T are the "main drags" of the parking lot. Both have stop signs. The right of the T is the actual parking lot, the aisle where cars drive between rows of parking.
So I'm stopped at the bottom of the T. Fine. No cars coming from any direction. Fine. I go to turn into the left part of the T to get out of the parking lot. All of a sudden this idiot comes screaming up the aisle (the right part of the T), doesn't stop at the end of the aisle and tries to cut in front of me, honking all the time.
Now, I don't know what the rules are in the rest of the world, but up here, that counts as an intersection. And at the end of an aisle in a parking lot, there's an "unspoken" stop sign. Plus, I was already established in the intersection, so whether or not there was an actual stop sign, he was supposed to stop!!!
Grrrrrrrrr.

That's why I don't, as a rule, go grocery shopping on the weekends, let alone on Saturdays.

(Thanks for letting me rant.)

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Super-awesome cabling-without-a-cable-needle tutorial

Check it out!

I think I may even try it myself!

*Sigh* So not satisfied with this result, but I got it twice, so I guess it's right.







What kind of yarn are you?





You are Dishcloth Cotton.You are a very hard worker, most at home when you're at home. You are thrifty and seemingly born to clean. You are considered to be a Plain Jane, but you are too practical to notice.
Take this quiz!








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Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Progress on the Tree Jacket

I can't believe it, but I'm finally finished the body of my Tree Jacket!!!
I haven't updated it yet, but project details can be found on Ravelry...
I'm really liking the pattern (good thing, since it's almost done!), even how the yarn overs are going in a spiral pattern instead of straight down (some of the other KAL-ers have modified the yarn overs to make them go straight down). It makes the sweater unique!
I would have a photo, but I didn't finish until late last night, which meant that the lighting in my apartment was crap, and which also meant that I slept in this morning, thus not leaving me enough time to take a photo before having to leave for work. Photo tomorrow - promise!

I've also finished one more Christmas present!!
Behold Fetching 2:

(On Ravelry here)

One last thing to leave you with...

Monday, November 19, 2007

Getting a little behind...

Yes, I know that I was to have the contents of my junk drawer posted last week...I'll get on that soon, I promise! (Although it's not nearly as interesting as some of yours - even my "junk" drawer is pretty neat...)

It snowed here yesterday - the first "real" snow of the season, even if it wasn't really all that much, and most of it's gone now. It was a wet snow, just enough to coat everything and turn to ice when compressed my feet or tires, which is lots of fun to drive/walk on, let me tell you! Anything that's gotten sun is all melted, but places that are in shade are ICE!

I can't wait until we get 3 feet of snow! "Real" snow!!!

Only 35 more days to Christmas!!!!!!!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Yes, I'm late. (for blogstalker, that is)

It's because I don't usually eat breakfast.
As it happens, I made muffins this weekend, so I brought them to work to eat for "breakfast". I'm one of those people who can't eat first thing in the morning, so if I do eat anything before lunch, it's at work, at my desk.
This breakfast is banana-raisin muffins and black, jasmine-scented tea (with milk and sugar). Mmmmm mmmmmmm.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Another Foliage Finished, and Tree Jacket Progress

So I've finished another Foliage hat, this time in blue, for my Christmas gift exchange with my girlfriends!


Pattern: Foliage, from knitty.com, by Emilee
Yarn: Ram Wools Inca Silk, 80% alpaca, 20% silk
Needles: 4.0mm (The pattern calls for 4.5, but I didn't have any, so I tried my luck with 4.0 - they worked, and it turned out great!)
Time to knit: 2 evening and a wait at the doctor's office
Details on Ravelry here

I've also made some progress on my Very First Sweater, the Tree Jacket, by Zephyr Girls. I'm knitting this in the SKC KAL, which has been very cool - I love seeing how other people are knitting this, and what modifications they're doing to make it better fit their bodies. I'm going to be switching from 5.0mm circ to a 4.5mm circ at the point in the photo. I'm pretty chesty, and have been following the directions for the Large, but I'm thinking that it's going to hang too loose at the bottom, so rather than try and figure out some way of decreasing without messing up the pattern, I'm just switching to slightly smaller needles. I've put in a life line (thanks SnB girls!), so if it does end up fitting too tightly, I can easily frog it back and leave it on the larger needles. (Tree Jacket on Ravelry)

Monday, November 05, 2007

Sunday, November 04, 2007

One more down...

I'm done!



Pattern: Foliage, from knitty.com (by Emilee)
Yarn: Briggs & Little Sport, maybe 1/3 of a skein?
Needles: 4.0mm (dpns to start, 16" circulars for main body of hat), and 3.75mm 16" circ for ribbing
Modifications: The pattern called for worsted weight yarn and 4.5mm needles, but my yarn came first, so I used smaller needles to make the pattern work. I added another leaf motif to the crown area (as per Emilee's instructions here) and another 1/2 motif on the bottom before doing the ribbing.
I LOVE the way it turned out. It's soaking just before blocking as we speak!
I sure hope my mom doesn't find this blog... :)

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!!



We did get our requisite "Halloween snow" this year, although it was in the wee hours of the morning, and it was more of a slush. And it's not sticking - it's still +5C today, so it'll be a while before the snow stays.

Happy trick-or-treating, everyone!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Blogstalking...again

Today's apparently going to be a productive blog day!
Here is the oldest photo of me that I can find. It's rather convenient that I still have my baby photo album at my place, and that I haven't given it back to my mom yet!!
Here is me, at 2 hours old:



Do I win?? Whose photo is the "oldest"??? :)

Ravelry!

I'm on Ravelry!!! I finally got my invite Sunday night at about 10:30. What timing.
It's going to take me a while to get organized on there, but I'm really excited about the site!! It's awesome!!!!!!!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Blogstalking - week 6...

It's not as exciting as I'd wish it to be, but it is long!

I decided to wait until Tuesday to take the photos for this blogstalking post, because that was the night of my SnB gathering (“meeting” sounds too formal) at a local pub, but wouldn’t you know that I got stuck at work late on Tuesday and wasn’t able to go to the SnB after all.

A typical day for me involves struggling out of bed at around 8:00am

(much as I’d like to be up and at work earlier, it never seems to happen; I’m NOT a morning person), getting dressed and ready to go, grab a glass of juice and heading out the door.
This is my apartment:

And this is the elementary school across from my apartment:

If I’m not running late, I walk to work, which takes me about 20 mins.
This is what I pass on my walk to work:



If I’m running late, or if it’s miserable outside (meaning pissing rain), I’ll drive, although I’m so close to work that if I get red lights all the way, it literally doubles the time it takes for me to get there! The only other time I’ll drive is if I have to go to a client site, like today. There are 2 reasons for this: a) they’re usually too far for me to walk to, as they’re mostly in the industrial parks of our city and I live pretty much downtown and b) I usually have to take my laptop and a bunch of reference material with me, and I’m not trekking that on my back.
This is the street my office is on:


This is my office:

Once I’m at work, I sit on my butt all day, working on the computer.
This is my desk:

That’s one of the things that I’m really starting to dislike about my job. Although I didn’t like the repetitiveness of what I was doing in my previous job, this monotony is worse.
If I happen to be at a client site, I’m usually sitting on my butt there, too, working at my computer or auditing them (their quality system, SOPs, other documents). There’s a very slim chance that I could be doing a walk-around audit, or executing a protocol, but that’s rare.

I’ve started bringing my knitting with me to work so that I can have a real break from what I’ve been working on at lunchtime.

After work, I head back home. Now, at least, the temperature on the way home is usually about the same as it was on the way to work, so I don’t have to carry a bunch of layers back home. The roof of the church next to my apartment building is frosting over every morning now, which means that the temp is going below zero (°C) overnights, so we’ll have snow soon. We usually have snow fall before Halloween, and it usually starts sticking around sometime in mid- November, although this year it might hold off until after Halloween!!
This is what I see on my walk home from work:




Evenings mean one of several things: going to class (I’m usually taking something if travel for work isn’t imminent – it was knitting up until a few weeks ago, photography last year; not sure what it’s going to be next), going to a SnB gathering, going to my parents’ place for dinner (and/or laundry), doing errands – laundry, groceries, etc. – or just hanging out at home, watching any one of a ton of TV shows that I seem to be addicted to while doing any number of crafty or cleaning-type things. The TV is usually on pretty much all the time when I’m at home – there’s either something I want to watch, or it’s on as background noise (when there isn’t even anything I want to have on in the background, I’ll turn it off and listen to music).

That’s it! That’s a typical day in my life. Booooring. :)
Weekends usually mean meeting friends at some point, maybe heading over to my parents’ place. I always seem to be busy, but when I go to tell someone just what I’ve been up to, it never seems like much!

My So-Called Scarf

This is the front and back of my "My So-Called Scarf"...
(for the benefit of a fellow knitty)

Friday, October 26, 2007

There is a real post coming soon, I promise!

I've just been so busy with work, and I've been out of the office on site a lot, and since I do most of my posting from work (naughty girl - the internet's faster there, that's why), I haven't done any posting lately.
I'll post one big long catch-up this weekend, I promise!!!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

What a productive week!

I have 2 (yep, 2!) FOs to show off this week! (And I promise to get blogstalking week 5 and 6 up soon...)

First up, the Neverending Baby Afghan!!!! Wooohoooooo!!



Pattern: Waffle Stripes, (from Leisure Arts book "Make One for Baby")
Yarn: Bernat Baby Coordinates, about 2 balls each of white and yellow
Time it took: Well, that's hard to say. I started it sometime in the spring (April?) but didn't work on it constantly. Crocheting an afghan in one piece, baby-sized or not, is a little discouraging.

And next up are the Hacho gloves I started at a workshop led by the pattern designer herself, Jane Ellison!

Love these - can't wait to wear them to work tomorrow!
Pattern: from Jane's book - I borrowed it, and forgot to make note of the pattern details before I gave it back!
Yarn: Marasol Hacho, Shade 301, 1 1/2 skeins (what am I going to make with 1/2 a skein of Hacho??)
Needles: 3.75mm (I didn't make a swatch, but they turned out great, sized a little smaller than the pattern. We had Jane's sample gloves to try on before starting ours.)
I started these Oct 8th, but again, worked on them sporadically. Finally resorted to taking them to work to get more done on them!

Friday, October 19, 2007

I love this series, and had to take the Quiz







Which woman from the Outlander series are you?





You are Jenny Fraser Murray. You are a strong, motherly figure; loving and practical. You are good at being in charge of large groups of people of all ages. Your home is your castle and your family is the most important thing to you. You are also a good friend.
Take this quiz!








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Fetching - Done!

I'm done!
Pattern and yarn info as below.
Modifications: added an extra cable to the top of the fingerless mitten, as it didn't come far enough up my hand. I just thought I had an abnormally long thumb-crotch to finger-knuckle distance, but my friends in the KAL all thought the same thing, so it seems to be a pattern thing. I also increased the number of rows on the thumb from 4 to 10.
Now they fit perfectly, and are going to be awesome for the fall walk to work!!





Sunday, October 14, 2007

Look what I did this weekend...!

It's only the first of the 2 I need to knit, but I'm sure the other one will knit up really quickly!





Pattern: Fetching, from Knitty.com
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a dusty eggplant colour
Knitting time: Not long. 2 hours at the Stitch 'n Bitch meeting, plus maybe an hour at home this morning.

Can't wait to get the other one finished!!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

bandwagon...


You are The Wheel of Fortune


Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success


The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.


What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Ha!


NerdTests.com says I'm a Cool Non-Nerd.  What are you?  Click here!

Love/Hate

Well, this week's assignment is a little more challenging than the last couple.
It was really hard to narrow it down to 3 things I love, so I didn't!



Top of the list of "Things I Love" is my family. I come from a very close family, and even though we're spread over the continent now (sister at school in PA, brother in the west of Canada (AB), me in the middle with my parents (in MB), we remain close. I talk to my sister for hours at a time, every few weeks (when she needs a time out from school), and I see my parents at least bi-weekly, if not every week.
A close second to family are my friends. I have a great group of friends, and I really enjoy spending time with them.

Then, in no particular order, comes Photography, Crafting (knitting, crocheting, sewing, card-making and scrapbooking), books, cooking and baking, and Tea!! (That photo in the middle of the collage is my tea shelf in my cupboard. I have at least 15 different kinds, all of which are drunk on a regular basis, although my favourite is a jasmine-scented black tea, with jasmine flowers. Mmmmmmmm.)

Although I've done both knitting and crochet for equally as long, I used to lean towards crochet. Lately I've swung towards knitting - not sure why, although the "baby sweater that did not want to be completed" and the "never-ending baby afghan" may be souring me on crochet. Most (actually all) of my Christmas projects are knit this year, so I see that pendulum swinging back to crochet in the New Year...!

Photography is a more recent hobby of mine. My family has "milestone" birthdays. Grade 9 was a ring (mine was an amethyst with 2 tiny diamonds on either side, although the amethyst is now missing, and has been for quite a few years), 15 y.o. was a suitcase, and 12 y.o (if I remember correctly) was a camera, so I've been taking photos since I was 12. The actual "photography" aspect started a few years ago, and last year I actually took a few classes to refine my (apparent) "natural eye" for photography, and bought a better, more manual camera. I didn't quite get a DSLR, though, because I didn't want to be bothered with the lens-changing thing, plus I couldn't afford what a DSLR camera body and all the lenses would cost me. I've become the unofficial photographer in my family, and for a few friends, too. Landscapes will always be my favourite, but I also like the challenge of capturing a candid moment that truly reflects who someone is. I HATE being posed for photos, myself, so I don't pose people. I have been known to refuse to take a photo if the subject realizes what I'm doing and looks at the camera. Something about people's posture and mannerism totally changes when they realize someone's taking a photo of them. It becomes artificial, whether in a good "pose" way, or in a bad "awkward" way.

A friend got me into scrapbooking a couple of years ago, and although knitting has taken over recently, I still love paper crafts! I've made wedding invitations for a few friends, and that's something I want to explore the business possibilities of. I also got a box of my grandparents' old photos that I'm going to scrapbook - things like that need to be preserved for future generations.

Baking has always been something I've loved and something I've done well. I credit that to the fact that I'm a science geek, and a really analytical person. Baking, after all, is just chemistry, right? I teased my friends at my old job that they'd miss my baking more than they'd miss me! (Living on my own, if I ate everything that I baked, I'd be 400 lbs, so I share a lot. Tomorrow morning I'm bringing fresh banana-raisin muffins in for breakfast!)

And on that note, we turn to the "things I hate".
A big pet peeve of mine is people who spit - as in "hock a loogie" type spitting - on public sidewalks. Well, anywhere, really, but especially right in front of me as I'm walking on the sidewalk. That's just not needed and really disgusting.
What else do I hate...?

People who are nervous drivers - they're dangerous. I'd much rather be on the road with (or in the car with) a confident, slightly cocky driver than one that doesn't feel comfortable on the road. Especially in the winter here. Roads with ice and snow aren't a place for someone who isn't confident in their driving abilities, or who isn't comfortable with adverse driving conditions.

And smokers. Well, not "smokers" as much as "smoke" (cigarette/cigar/pipe/etc. smoke). It stinks, it's unhealthy, and when you are not given the choice as to whether or not you want to inhale that stuff, it's wrong. Go ahead and smoke if you want to - just do it away from my restaurant table, or the entrance to any building I need to enter, or to my seat at the stadium. You may be ok with having that crap in your lungs, but I really am NOT.

Oooh - and I hate brussel sprouts - the only vegetable I refuse to eat. :)