so now what?

My baby was showing me how the multiple shots feature works on my camera one fine afternoon.  The pictures aren’t great but I’ve kept them because they make me smile when I look at them.  He makes me smile too, all the time.  Sometimes he makes me laugh so hard I can’t breathe.  He’s wicked smart and I’m really glad he’s in my life.  And, we’re inseparable.

Just resurfacing after fighting off the latest commuter/Skytrain plague.  I swear, whenever I hear someone sneeze, sniffle, cough, or just sort of clear their throat I duck my face into the collar of my coat and hold my breath until I’m almost passing out.  I have managed to catch each and every possible catchable (real word?) illness this past six months or so.  Ridunkulous!  But…I’m feeling better now and that’s the most important thing.  Right?  I also seemed to have caught startitis.  Don’t know where I got it but I got it bad!  Every little project I see makes me go “Oh!” and reach for the stash and the needles. 

I also lost the bet with Leone.  She’s pretty happy about it to, ’cause now she can satisfy her yarn buying needs.  ;)  I took her out for her victory lunch and we had a really nice meal at Locus.  Super yummy food.  What that meant to me was that I could buy this:

Two skeins of Smooshy sock yarn (Gothic Rose - darker burgundy, In Vino Veritas - lighter burgundy)and one amazingly beautiful skein of Indigo Moon called Starlight.  I had coveted the Indigo moon since last time I was at Three Bags Full back in February or March but I had no justification to buy it.  Plus, I was still in the throes of the no yarn buying bet with Leone.  Well, let me tell you, losing that bet and finding a pretty project and - boom - all the pieces of the puzzle were in place.  I was in Three Bags Full buying that pretty yarn so fast.  And then I started this;

Wool Peddler’s Shawl.  So pretty.  I’m using a 4.0 mm needle and getting a lovely sproingy and squishy fabric.  I’ve never been a great lover of garter stitch but I think I might be coming over to the dark side on that one.  I’ve got about twice that much done since I took the pici but I was too lazy (okay, I forgot) to take a new pici today.

I’m onto the body section of my handspun sweater.  It’s going pretty good and I’m still playing the fun game of “I wonder if I’ll have enough yarn?”  Good times!

I’m also way further along on this too.  About 4 or 5 inches into the body.  Again, too lazy (forgot) to take a new pici. 

Thanks for all your kind words about my Fleece Artist handspun.  Seriously, the stuff almost spins itself.  So nice.  Go get yourself some. 

Not much else has been going on around here lately.  Plague seems to take up a fair amount of time.  Oh!  Wait, there was a fabulous SQOD* the other day.  Two secretary/administrative type women.  You know, blouse/blazer/skirt/Nike runners, sitting together and chatting about their day.  I wasn’t really listening, no really, I wasn’t, then this sentence just jumped out and made me snort out loud.  I had to fake cough to cover the giggle.  Twenty-something girl in a dead serious tone, “Well, yeah, I mean she’s ESL, but you can’t really tell or anything.    (long pause)      So she’s got that going for her.”  It almost made me wish I’d been listening the entire time because I couldn’t think of a single instance where that sentence would be okay.  People are hilarious .  And odd…really really odd.

*Skytrain of the day

I really must start planning these better!  Everytime I’m skidding in just before the cutoff.  Ridiculous!  Anyway, this is 50 grams of Blue Faced Leicester from Fleece Artist.  Colourway is Mermaid.  I plied it with 50 grams of Amethyst from Fleece Artist and it came out like this:

Really pleased with it.  Shiny and soft.

It is so gorgeous outside, I can’t even tell you.  It’s Saturday, the dogs are outside doing dog things (read: digging & eating flowers), I have the worst case of startitis I’ve ever had in my life, and I lost my no buying yarn bet to Leone.  I will be buying her sushi tomorrow afternoon.  ;)  In my defence, I don’t think it’s fair that Elann had Noro Silver Thaw on for half price.  I’m only so strong and I can’t resist Noro or Debbie Bliss.  Everyone knows that!

I did get the Montreal Neckwarmer done though.  Here it is being modelled by the lovely Sarah:

How cute is she?  Now I know that at least her neck will be warm come this winter when she’s so far away from the left coast.

I also started this:

That’s Knitting Pure & Simple #201.  Yes, you’re right, that is my handspun!  How exciting is that?  After knitting up my wee scarf in the Cricket handspun I wanted to try something a little bigger and this seemed perfect.  I have two pounds of it so there should be enough.  If not, I have a really nice rustic looking oatmeal yarn in the stash that will go well with this colour.  I’m thinking I might change the bottom and do a 4 x 4 or 3×3 rib on the bottom half of the body for a bit of shaping & contract.  Plus, it’ll keep the breezes out.  If I do run a bit short of the handspun, I’ll do the ribbing in the contrast.

I also really want to make the Wool Peddler’s shawl from Cheryl Oberle’s book, especially since I saw this version.  Amazing.  How lucky that I’ll be right near Three Bags Full tomorrow AND that I’ve lost the yarn buying bet.  ;)  I swear, I didn’t plan it that way, it just happened.

At least I’m knitting most of the time when I’m killing my brain cells. 

1. Bold the shows you’ve watched every episode of
2. Italic the shows you’ve seen at least one episode of
3. Post your answers

50. Quantum Leap
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
46. Sex & The City

45. Farscape
44. Cracker
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses
41. Band of Brothers

40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python’s Flying Circus
38. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted

35. Alias
34. Frasier
33. CSI: Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood

30. Dexter
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under
26. Red Dwarf

25. Futurama
24. Twin Peaks
23. The Office UK
22. The Shield
21. Angel

20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development
17. South Park
16. Doctor Who

15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13. Battlestar Galactica
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld

10. Spaced
09. The X-Files
08. The Wire
07. Friends
06. 24

05. Lost
04. The West Wing
03. The Sopranos
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons

Shamelessly stolen from Knitche.

A really good weekend. First, today is my mom’s birthday. How cool is that? Exactly, very cool. Happy Birthday mom! I love you!

I finished my in class driving classes today, 90%, thank you very much. Then after class…wait for it…hubby and I took Hi Ho Silver (that’s our super huges 1980 F250 pickup) out to the industrial area and I went driving. Didn’t hit anything, only made one small ‘eep’ noise, didn’t panic, obeyed all traffic laws, and generally had a grand old time. Nice!

Saturday was Jean Wong’s knitting class, Fine Finishing. Highly recommend this class. I learned so much my brain almost blew up. It was excellent. I’ll never be afraid of a short row or seaming again. I now have the power to make my knitware look like I want it to! Okay, maybe not all the power, but I sure am further along the journey. There is a second class being held in May at Place des Arts but I’m not sure if there are any seats left.

As a quicky finale, from my camera phone on the way to work last week, can someone tell me when MC Hammer pants came back in style? This fashion is so not going to be happening at my house.

For the love of all that’s holy why would I need the crotch of my pants down there? Add to that the mannequin’s hand gestures/posture seem to be saying “Oh! I made a poopie in my pants!” This is not good people.

Have a great week.

I finally plied this:

This is fibre that I got with the gift certificate that came with my wheel, back in November.  It’s Merino/silk 80/20.  Nice and soft.  I dyed it in my last set of spinning classes and I was all about tropical drinks apparently ’cause it looks like a tequila sunrise to me.  :)  I also plied up all my class samples from the last sessions and wound them into one continuous ball.  I’m going to knit a sampler strip.  Should be kind of funky.  I’ll leave it on the needles and then add the samples from this set of classes and by the end, I should have a very interesting scarf.  It will even have Golden Retriever in it. 

You’ll also notice my Houndesign drop spindle.  What once was lost is found again!  It had gone missing t during the packing/unpacking/renovation phase of the living room and hubby found it for me today.  He’s so great.  All in all, a VERY good Monday.

Gift

A friend of mine is moving to Montreal and I’m worried about her being cold next winter.  Neck warmer in Fleece Artist Ottawa.  Love this yarn.  The little flecks look like stars on the blue/purple bacground.

Wanaa make one too?  Do this:

Fleece Artist Ottawa

5mm circular needle, 16 or 24 inch

Cast on 104 stitches, join being careful not to twist.  K4, P4 around until desired length or you run out of yarn.  Cast off in pattern and wear in good warmth.  :)  I’m going to do the second half in Fleece Artist Kid Silk Mohair so it can be folded in half and can be reversible.  Ta da!

Off to dinner.  It’s baby’s & my 12th wedding anniversary tomorrow.  And they said it would never last!  Wait, no one said that.  Everyone said we deserved each other.  Hmmmm, that’s very different.

I finally knit something with my handspun:

5 ounces of ‘Cricket’, the May 2007 entry in the Hello Yarn Fibre Club. Very nice little scarf and I love the colours. Best part? It only took me two days to knit up.

Now I’m going to go and lay on the couch. I had the second part of my root canal today and I think my entire head may be frozen. Bye bye.

It’s that whole life is busy thing again so let’s just do this in point form, shall we?

1. I turned 39, like a week and a half ago
2. I signed up for driving lessons.  For those of you who don’t know me personally, I have a huge fear of driving, have to get over it, need my license for work.  Sigh.
3. First in class lesson today.  Ummm, yeah, I was older than most of the parents dropping off their kids for their lesson.  Super!
4. I spun this 50/50 Merino/Tencel yarn:





5. It’s shiny!
6. I’ve almost finished my first sleeve on the Round Trip cardigan.  Thankfully this seems to have made it look much less like a thong:



7. I finished spinning Cricket from the Hello Yarn fibre club and apparently I forgot to take a photograph before I actually knitted it up into a wee scarf.  Doh!  Said scarf is blocking, you’ll have to wait to see it.
8. Tanya (love what she does with hiding her stash tastefully in baskets around the house!), asked where we got our lifty uppy coffee table, we got it at The Brick, but we’re in Canada so I don’t know if you have one of those.  I also saw them online at Sears so I’m pretty sure they are getting more and more available.
9. Our fun with water continues, last night it was a broken cold water pipe to the bathroom that sprang a leak so our basement looked like it had a fountain in it.  I’m not sure what the gods are trying to tell us about our basement and water but if they could be just a little bit clearer I promise I will do what they want.  Sacrifice a chicken, dance naked under the light of the full moon, whatever it takes to NOT have anymore water in our basement!  Seriously.
10. One of our lovebirds passed away while we were at work on Thursday.  He hadn’t been sick or anything so I’m going with he had a little birdy heart attack and didn’t suffer.
11. My mother in law is doing much better.  She had a mastectomy a week ago this past Wednesday and then on the Sunday was having some complications and ended up back in the emergency room.  All is well now, thankfully.
12. I’ve finally started my swatches for my finishing class.  Which is good because the class is in less than two weeks and I need 11 of them.
13. I broke a tooth and then had problems and needed a root canal.

You know, to be perfectly honest, I can’t say I’m loving how March went down.  Let’s see if we can make April a bit better, shall we?