And She Knits Too!

More than meets the eye

Stephannie Roy -- [noun]: A human transformer (Robot in disguise) 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Cool!  Thanks for the silly link Anmyriam!

Last night I got to put fingers on needles and knit a whopping 3 rows on my everlasting bagstopper.  I was at Lettuce Knit gooing and gahing over the beautiful handknits for Joyce, Mel and Jenn having a nice time and sweating my ass off.  It was too tropical to knit.  I was too engaged to take out my camera phone and take photos and I had a wonderful time.  Laura should have lots of nice pictures.

I also had a nice moment of bicycle zen.  I was riding home at about 11:15pm and as I crossed the Bloor Viaduct (which is a six lane bridge with bike lanes) I was all alone on the road.  No cars at all for about 3 minutes.  I cruised through the city darkness, looked out at the cityscape all the way to Lake Ontario and enjoyed the silence.  It was a divine-I-love-this-city-life-is-good kinda moment.

And no, I didn't think to take a photo of that either (but I found some gorgeous photos of Toronto here, including the bridge).  You'd think I would have a camera somewhere on this robot thing.

Instead

Not much And she knits tooing around here.  Instead I've been:

*Gearing up for back to school.  Which mostly means reminding kids that school is coming, buying them shoes and thinking ahead about lunches and schedules.  Nothing too onerous. This is the first year in a LONG time that I'm not part of the back to school rush for myself either as a student or instructor.  There was the year I was on maternity leave, but even then I still felt like a student.  This year I'm just the mother of two who are going back to school.  It's weird not to be on an academic calendar.  But also great since I'm not teaching!

*Picking film festival movies.  Due to new day job I won't be seeing my usual dozen or so films but I have a line up of 7ish movies picked and while I'll be a bit sleep deprived, I get to see movies.  I love movies and don't get to go as much as I like to.  TIFF is a good excuse to just do it and go.  I'm seeing more Hollywood ones that normal, but they fit the schedule better.  Can't wait to see the new Cronenberg and new Coen Bros. films.

*Working.  It's all good, but sometimes a bit too much.

*House.  We're in the "thinking about hiring a contractor" stage for the garage since it's a bigger job than we can handle.  Not the actual construction but the permits and drawings and building codes.  I know these rules are around to make sure things are safe and so people don't build wherever they hell they want, but they do keep handy people like ourselves from actually being able to just build a damn garage in the same spot as the old one that's already there (which was the plan when we bought this place).  I want Claudia to be in a safe dry home and to avoid scraping the car in the winter.   And I still need to finish painting all the work we've just done inside so I can put away the damn tools already.  At least there aren't 5 saws in the living room anymore.

So am I going to get much else done this week?  Nope.  Just work, Lettuce Knit Night and then off to the cottage for the long weekend--sun, sand, trees, lake, beer and yarn. 

Sherbie Weather

I was hunting around in my knitting ottoman and realized that I had almost all of Sherbie done before I abandoned the sweater in the Spring for lighter weight knitting.  So I spent Friday night finishing the first sleeve, blocking the body and starting the second sleeve. 

This will be my first Fall FO.  I like the idea of having something ready for when the weather turns (today was a preview--brr), but never seem to get organized to do this.  I'm usually starting more summery projects like Maris (which I have in my Ravelry queue).

Good thing it's knit at 3 sts to the inch. 

Since the yarn is full of Noro-goodness (I heart Iro) it's not like it's hard to go back to this project.  And it's good ole' mindless knitting.

Looking good eh?

Knitter's Who Lunch

My job is very solitary.  Some of it is the nature of the work (social research and analysis is not really a team sport) and some it is my doing.  I don't tend to take a lunch break, because I would rather eat at my desk and leave early to be with the kids.

So last week's influx of out-of-town knitbloggers was really fun.  I had lunch with Allison twice while she was examining newspaper reporting of Toronto's lurid history ;).  She even suggested lunch at a spot where I had never dared try in the 10 years I've been on campus--the Chinese food truck on St. George.  It was not-too-bad and a whole lot of food.  It was fun to chat with a knitter in a similar academic field.

I also met up with Michelle on Friday for some good knitting chat and lunch.  I got a peak at a few colours of her latest Fair Isle project, saw her lastest,  gorgeous FO and we plotted how much yarn we could buy before it's "too much". 

And on Saturday I had brunch with Steph and Juno.  We drank lots of coffee, introduced Juno to the wonderful Bloody Caesar and fondled each other's yarns (yes, it is as lurid as you think).  Juno is a smart woman who I love to spend time with and I'm pleased Steph was willing to share Juno on their last day together (see their whirlwind week over here--Juno has seen stuff in Toronto I'm still getting to).

Interstingly, Michelle, Steph, Juno and I are all bohussies too.  My Wild Apple is in the mail.  Swoon.

It was kinda dull eating my pork chop at my desk today; even if it was yummy.

Ack!

I totally forgot to give a nod to Claudia's namesake in my last post.  I don't tend to name my possessions, but this time I was inspired by a fab bike loving, orange loving knitter.

Claudia, The Tangerine Machine

I've had a month of riding to work and I have to say, I *heart* my bike.

I've also been customizing her a bit:

They are parts from the Daisy Cruiser that I love but which isn't the bike for me.  Due to a little accident by the shop, I have a Daisy seat coming too (my white seat is ripped a bit and they're replacing it.  And, I still think she needs fenders.  I would love daisy ones but apparently Electra doesn't sell them (though I'm asking), so white will d0.

It's silly, but also fun and a great ride.  Townie: Built for comfort and speed!

Honey Hooray!

I'm not sure what it is about the word Honey that make me want to use alliteration.  Probably the fact that I am happy this sweater is finished and that it looks nice on me.

The new hem is really nice and it's a good wear to work sweater.  Here's a close-up:

And here's the finished product:

Hooray!

Stitch'n'Pitch

"I had no idea this game was so boring"

                                -Homer Simpson, on the wagon

That's pretty much how I feel about baseball--it's only interesting with beer.  Or, as I found out last night, knitting (and beer).

Me, Mom and the kids took in the Blue Jays' game last night and had a great time.  Mom got the experience of the Skydome (I know, Roger's Centre, whatever):

The kids ate and cheered:

And I got to knit (and drink beer):

Oh, and the Jay's won.

Doing my part

I'm trying to add sustainable practices to my everyday life.  I ride my bike to work, I live in place where I can walk to buy most of my things and therefore rely on my car less.  We're listening to David Suzuki and are using compact fluorescents where we can (does anyone know if there is a good alternative to gu10 halogen bulbs?  That's the main light source in our house).  I also try to use reusable containers for my lunch and avoid plastic bags.  I have a stash of unbleached cotton tote bags and they're very handy, but knitting something is more fun.

Bring on Amy's Everlasting bagstopper:

I'm using the called-for Lana Knits Allhemp 6 (from Red Bird Knits) and I'm really liking it.  The bag is easy and the hemp is just fine to work with.  I'm awaiting the much touted "it gets softer with use" part, but I'm also planning ahead to some hemp garments later. 

And the orange matches my bike.

Remember This?

Before:

After:

Well, Craig and his Dad have been busy bees:

Just another coat or two of drywall compound and then some paint (that's my job).

The two sides were actually not the same size and by removing the cabinet we gained a lot of room and can play with the asymmetry.  The other cabinet it going too.  The *plan* is the buy a 37" LCD tv and put that in the open space to the right of the "L"  and build shelves for all our components and dvds etc.  The other side will be more shelves for books and stuff.  We're giving it time to see how we like the idea of the tv there (we'll drag our tv stand to that corner once we paint). 

I'm just happy to have those curves and ugly insulation gone.