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...

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.)

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.
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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...

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!!!!!!!

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.

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)

It's Snowing!!!!! :)

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... :)