And She Knits Too!

Bobbing and Wii-ving

Okay, I've wanted to use that title for a while...

Not only did I become a Wii-certified pro at boxing this weekend (means I beat enough Wii dudes to be classified as a professional boxer--snork), I also started another project on the loom.

No photos of me working up a sweat after midnight boxing on the Wii.  It wasn't pretty.  My arms are still sore.

But here's some of my weaving.

The pattern is a log cabin weave (very easy, though it looks complicated).  The pattern can be found on the Schacht newsletter site.  There's some neat things there, though navigating between newletters is a tad challenging.

I'm using the leftovers from the Scarlett Carpetbag I designed for the first Big Girl Knits book, so I know the colours work together.  The contrast is very subtle and was impossible to photograph.  The loom also stretches things out a lot (need to keep things under tension) so it'll probably show more when it's done.

The weaving involves one row of colour a and then one row of colour b, and using the 24" long stick shuttles is a bit of a challenge.  Time to get some boat shuttles and try that out. 

If you peek at my flickr photos you can see how necessity is mother of invention.  Warping the loom on my own can be a challenge and I needed something heavy to hold the threads taut while I wound them onto the loom.  Turns out a wrecking bar and all the tools spread out in the living room works really well.  Though if you read this weaving thread on Ravelry, you can see there are others ways to do a direct warp on one's own.

Personally, I liked using the wrecking bar method; it's a nice contrast between two kinds of construction--cloth and buildings.

Photo Meme

This was so much fun!

1. Stephannie  i (by stephannie), 2. Sushi Hinamatsuri sushi, 3. Port Arthur Collegiate Institute Port Arthur Collegiate Tower, 4. Turquoise Tibet, 5. Colin Firth Mr. Darcy, 6. Beer After beer..., 7. Paris Montmartre, 8. Ice Cream Flickr meltdown, 9. I have to grow up? Who Says You Have To Grow Up!?, 10. My family  Family Portrait, 11. Funny Funny sign outside apartment, 12. Dr. Steph Dr. Sketchy's Philadelphia

Want to play too?
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

While I was on Stay-cation

Today was my first day back to work since June 26th.  I was in an hour earlier than usually feeling rather productive.  Holidays are good.  We didn't do much, or go far, but we were busy.

Like every July, we spent some time up at the cottage and looked at the lake and did not too much.  We celebrated my birthday on Canada Day so that we could get back to Toronto in time for me to share the rest of my ginormous cake with my peeps at Lettuce Knit.  My July 2nd birthday will only be on Wednesday knit-night every how many years (7?) so I wanted to make the most of it.  Yarn, cake, good friends, beer (and some gorgeous handspun from Molly) what more could a girl want?

Except maybe some awesome crocheted dolls--Death and Ninja!  Sorry I forgot to photograph them before they were assigned to guard my desk at work.  They're sly things and probably wouldn't take kindly to being photographed anyway!  Here are Keri's FO photos.  (As their creator, she has more control over them.)

Keri did such a super job on them with the little throwing star and the fimo scythe (which isn't in the photo, but you can imagine)!

My Father-in-law was also a total star and bought me a Wii!  I not only get to play Wii (which is super fun) but since it's mine I have the moral authority over it and can tell the kids that they need to stop playing Mommy's Wii and get outside and play.  We only have the sport game so far, and while I find it a bit disconcerting to box with little Miis of my kids, it's a hoot.

I also got in some good knitting time on Hip in Hemp.  It's at the 1960's micro-mini length, so I have a ways to go yet, but it's also knitting up faster than I expected and I love it in it's 1970's appliance colour-glory. 

It's almost enough to take me away from my loom.

But I'll save that for another post.

Strawberries

On Friday, I drove a van load of friends (my kids, Laura, Denny and her son Syrus) up to Reesor Farm to pick strawberries.  It was perfect--not too hot, lots of berries and it was just a farm (no rides, playground or anything else to distract my little pickers).

In about an hour my clan picked about 8.5kg of strawberries and added to Denny and Laura's bunch we had a good smelling car.

They are so good.  We've eaten a bunch and froze the rest for smoothies and daiquiries and other yummies.

I'll say it again.  I love summer.

Coming up Rainbows

I took this last week just after I got poured on during Emma's soccer game.  If you look closely, there are actually two rainbows--how cool is that?

Now that it has stopped raining, every, day, things are looking good for summer:

*Today is the last day of school.  My kids got their report cards yesterday and their marks were good, their teachers next year look to be fine, Emma has the same teacher and Alexander happily does not (she was good, but they didn't mesh so well). 

*Today I work.  Tonight I go to Lettuce Knit.  Tomorrow I'm on holiday until July 7th.  Woo!Hoo!

*I got my loom yesterday.  It's an Ashford Rigid Heddle, 24".  It's pretty.  I laid out all the pieces, pulled out the instructions and was dejected when reading "we recommend you oil or wax all pieces before assembly".  Shit.  I don't have anything suitable in the house, so that's my plans for tomorrow morning.  Hopefully it'll be dry by the weekend so I can play!

*I'm 5 rows away from finishing Xander's socks (I was falling asleep knitting them last night so I stopped).  They fit!  He still has trouble getting them over his giant instep, but not because of the fair isle.  I'm not sure about how to fix that since the cuff already bags on his skinny boy legs.

*I finished the knitting on Vino (as I promised) and it's in a bag awaiting a cooler day to do the seaming.  Having a 30" long sweater on one's lap in late June is ick.

*I started Hip in Hemp.  No photo since a brown waistband is nothing fancy and that sleepy thing took hold.

*Tomorrow: dentist (must be done), hardware store for loom wax, haircuts for the kids and then we're going to see Kung Fu Panda. 

I love summer.

A Reason To Crochet

The Shoe Box

 

 

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

 

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.

In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.

When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000.He asked her about the contents. 'When we were to be married,' she said, 'my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.'

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. He thought she had only been angry with him twice in all those years o f living and loving. He almost burst with happiness. 'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?'

'Oh,' she said, 'that's what I made from selling the dolls.'

~

Not that I need to (snork!)... But...If I were to crochet dolls they would have to be from Creepy Cute Crochet.  They're deliciously cute (ravelry link--I'm assuming everyone is on Ravelry now, if not, go and sign up already!) and could suit every little angry mood.  And some amigurumi too. 

I love living in Toronto

Jacqui and I are soooo excited, originally uploaded by Dr. Steph.

About half way through Saturday I came to a realization: Toronto is the place to be if you're a knitter. I don't think I could ever leave.  I forget that not everyone has such a great community of knitters and knitterly things going on (all the time).  I am very thankful.  So much so that I couldn't take anything but a silly picture of Jacquie and myself.

So what brought this on?  Well...

Friday night I went to a Knitty Yarn Tasting at the Purple Purl (my neighbourhood LYS) which was fun.  You get to knit with 4 yarns and rate them.  See what others have done here.  

New yarn, lots of knitters, rocky road bars and coffee--what's not to like?
 
Saturday morning I was at Lettuce Knit by 10am to be a helper for the 1000 Knitters shoot. 

I got my photo done, and then served as "Prize Mistress" for most of the day which involved giving away fabulous prizes from Yarn Harlot and Franklin all day.  Here's co-Prize Mistress Kim getting her photo done with Franklin (who is delightfully charming).

It was a very fun day and I met a whole bunch of new to me knitters and ate a lot of baked goods brought over to celebrate Stephanie's 40th birthday.  I also got to spend a whole lot of fun time with Juno, which I only do a few times a year.  I was super silly and didn't get a photo of her though.  I'll try to remember at Rhinebeck.

That evening I spent more quality time super-fantastic knitters on a perfect summer night, on a patio with yummy beer. 

Franklin was there and many other knitters/friends (that's Denny and Ken--go see what Ken is doing, it's good and important and he's awesome) and it was totally fun.  We didn't get home until 2am.

I spent lots of time talking with Rams (professional commentor and sock yarn spinner extraordinaire) about yarn and politics, lauded Rachel H. for her absolutely fantastic event organizer skills (she and Steph ensured the 1000 Knitters shoot went perfectly; they were awesome!), watched Denny spindle (is that a verb?), was Malabrigo lace buddies with Molly and worked hard to placate a not-so-happy Fenner while Mamma was detained (see how happy she is back with Mom?). 

Craig got nicely lubricated and we (thanks Denny!) broke the news that I ordered a loom and all was good (he wasn't so enthusiastic about my new fibre obsession; but all the knitters who found him "fun" greased the wheels a bit-- I think!)   He may even started to understand the world of knitters a bit more (okay, that might be too optimistic).

Weirdly, I was in two yarn shops and didn't buy any yarn.  I need to get that looked at.

Toronto.  Knitters.  It's all good.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Problem: I want to ride my bike to work but must transport my huge poster home from the printers (poster is 90" by 46").

Consensus of everyone I ask: You're taking the subway today honey.

Lightbulb moment: Last  night on the subway on the way home from great night of knitting at Lettuce Knit (got to meet That Laurie who is a knitter/dyer/spinner extraordinare and all round nice woman)...I need some sort of carrying device for the tube.  Aha!  My yoga mat bag.

Aren't I clever?

And it actually worked!  Poster is at work.  I haven't looked at it yet, mostly because I'm afraid I won't be able to get it back in the tube when I'm done.  I'm going to borrow a snazzy telescopic poster case to get it to Banff.  Not as nifty as a knitted thing, but probably safer. 

My research partner offered to take it home in her car tonight so I won't have to worry about getting it home.  Too bad, I felt like an Academic Ninja with it on (I know, dorky, but I'm a geek, what can I say!)

Sticky Situation

We're in the stickiest situation since Sticky the Stick Insect got stuck on a sticky bun.
                                                                                                                        ~Blackadder IV, Major Star

Saturday was Fun Fair day at the kids' school.  It's the BIG fundraiser for the year; basically a carnival with those giant inflatable jumping things, food, a silent auction (we scored $50 a month for Magic Oven pizza for a year), temporary tatoos and all kinds of fun.

Craig and I volunteered to do an hour at the Cotton Candy booth. 

Sticky.

Yes, it's all ove r me and in my hair.  It was windy and I swear the wind was bouncing off Craig's machine and into mine.

We treated ourselves after our shift was over.  Don't worry about Xander's long face, he ate plenty.

More meme.

I'm starving for content this week. I have a post planned, but have been sidelined by a cold that has knocked me on my ass. I realized I was sick when I started falling asleep over my work, at work. I'm home today and a nap is high on my To-Do list.

From Rosemary

"The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer."

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Barfing. I just found out I was pregnant with Emma and it was all barfing all the time. Morning sickness sucks.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
Sleep. Laundry. Pick up drycleaning (it's been ready for a week and it's two houses away, no more forgetting). Hair cut and colour. Work on poster for Banff.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Tortilla chips and cheese (yep that gross stuff in the jar), popcorn, coke, goldfish crackers, flax lavash and hummus.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel. Have someone in to fix everything around the house (before I sell it and move to something bigger). Set up some charitable foundation that would be my next job.

5) Places I have lived:
Thunder Bay, Toronto.

7) 6 peeps I wanna know more about: (I'm tired, I'm stopping at 4 and going back to bed). If you want to play, please do!

Jacquie
Knittrips
Teyani
Michelle