Paper or Cotton? Or a clock?

I just remembered that today is my two year blogiversary. What is a traditional 2nd blogiversary gift? Also, we've been in our house officially one year today. Well, 'in' is a fairly loose term at this point, but we're getting close! Anyhoo, some milestones.

I know it's proper to conduct a contest on one's blogiversary but, uh, no. Not gonna. Thing is, I have no idea how I'd craft one or what it would be about or have to do with (though placing bets on a move in date into the house portion of our property would be quite fitting I think), nor do I know what I would give away as prizes. I have no stash worthy of giving away, and besides, if I did, I'm keeping it for myself!

So here's a little something for everyone. Just wanted to say a very heartfelt and sincere thanks to any and everyone who stops by, be it regularly or every so often to check in on what's going on in my little life. This blog thing greatly amuses me, and I hope it does the same for you. Hope y'all stick around for as long as I decide to.

To go along with that, a little random nonsense. I've been plagued with this for the last week or so. Every once in a while, I wake up with some ridiculous and obscure song that has bubbled up from deep within my subconscious. I share it with you now, hoping that will haunt you as it has haunted me. Clearly an indication that I started watching far too much television at far too young an age. Enjoy.


I had hoped to find the video intro to the show, but this was the best I could do.

Update: FOUND IT!



Until later...

Free Platter!

My morning rule is two cups of coffee before I even think about commencing normal daily activities, whatever they might be for the day. First cup is generally reserved for my innernet (intentional misspelling...cuz really, that's how we say it, inn't it?) rounds of blog reading and a quick glance at Ravelry. Can't stay too long there or nothing will ever get done. Second cup I reserve for knitting a bit. Instead, I'm blogging as I haven't stopped by in a while.

What I find rather amusing is how all of these new fangled activities find a niche in our lives. Blog reading, blog updating...something we think about and make time for. I continually assess my life and all of it's mundane activities for blog fodder. Case in point, I was eating supper the other night, Lipton Fettucine Alfredo Sidekick. Nearing the end of the sidedish, I noticed what a appeared to be a smiley face on one of the noodles. I actually stopped what I was doing to grab the camera, with the intention of posting it on my blog. Which means that I have now gone to that very scary bloggy place that I never wanted to go.


What I am about to talk about next isn't much better. It's the minutae of my life, and I have no earthly idea why even I find it interesting enough to talk about. I can't even imagine why you're interested in reading it. But the weird thing is, if I were reading your blog, I'd be all over it. The very nature of the personal blog I find facinating. I don't know who you are and we likely have only yarn in common, but being able to look in on a small part of your daily life is more interesting to me than the evening news. So here goes.



I ended up with a free platter the other day. I went to the grocery store to stock up on supplies for a potluck supper we were going to. I was obligated for dessert. I had decided upon mini cupcakes, cuz who doesn't love mini cupcakes? And you don't need a plate to eat them. So I picked up a mini cupcake tray (which was right next to a muffin TOP tray. Did you know that you can now only make the muffin tops? Stumpless muffins? Is this really how far the Seinfeldian universe has infiltrated our daily lives? Absolutely brilliant) and as I was browsing the isles, came across the outdoor serving ware isle. The aforementioned platter was there, in a variety of colours, for $2.99, marked down to $1.99. Even at $2.99, as this sticker will clearly tell you, it is a...



So with the aquisition of my mini muffin tray and my big plastic platter (and somehow a lettuce knife and an extra serving spoon and a storage magazine all hopped in the cart as well) I made my way to the checkout. Long story short, the platter rang in wrong, it was their fault, I was right, the little yellow sign said $1.99 and apparently, if they screw up, you get a free platter. I love when that happens. I love free shit.



Home I went to bake up 62 mini cupcakes (with big hunks of strawberry on top) and two apple crumble pies, all withThe Smiths Louder Than Bombs as my soundtrack, a more incongruous match I cannot think of. Baked goods and whiny 80's Brit-Pop. A lovely way to spend a Saturday.



Not to be forgotten in the update, Hank pooped in the constable's office on Friday evening. What started out as a quick pick up at the end of shift, turned into a unscheduled and surprising pit stop in the midst of a government building, much to the constable's dismay. The fact that he was leaving made it more hilarious, though those on the night shift would surely disagree. Though Hank is a big fan of stopping by the office for treats and attention, we're putting him on an undetermined hiatus for the time being. I'm sorry, but I'm still laughing about it.

On the needles, I've got my cabled cardigan with one sleeve and the button bands to finish, a Fleece Artist Somoko sock at the gusset and one very big year long WIP ALMOST FINISHED thanks to the selfless help of one of my fellow Knitterpudlians. I can scarcely believe that within days I will be nearing the finish line with this project. I can't discuss it more than in general terms...it's a super secret squirrel project that really isn't all that secret, but I am still trying to maintain an element of mystery about it for it's intended recipient. 'Nuff said.

Second cup is empty now. The day must officially begin.

Until later...

Knit Nite...

Hello, Knit Nitters! Seeing as Heddy isn't going to make it tonight, how 'bout the rest of y'all? I'm heading that way myself, so if anyone needs a ride, let me know by say, 6:30 either by phone (I believe we're in the book) or by comment. I'll be checking in throughout the day to see what's up. Do let me know either way. If I don't hear anything, I'll assume you aren't going and I'll just jet off!!

Hope to see you later!

Blind as a Turtle...

Well I didn't knit a bat, so I couldn't very well say it, could I?

Cute little turtle butt. So my Sheldon is finished, and as I shamelessly copy off of Heddy here with my Sheldon pictures, it must be noted that Sheldon as of yet does not have any eyes. Here he is aimlessly wandering around the yard.

Off he goes while I take his picture and my neighbours say to each other, 'Uh, there's that crazy knitter woman outside taking pictures of her inanimate knitted objects. Well, at least she's not yelling at her dog.'

Here's where I stepped in before he got himself into real trouble.
His shell is a little too overstuffed, but other than that, a smooth knit.

Gotta jet...eating a quick supper then off to the theatuuuhhhh.
Until later...

Back in the Saddle Again...

Well, the transformative powers of spring have given new life to this old project we call our home. It's been almost one full turn of the calendar already, and after a long looooooooong winter break, we've jumped right back in with both feet, kinda like we did one year ago.

All of the outside structural work was done by fall, which was perfect. We had a nice, sturdy, secure house that wasn't going to come crumbling down on our heads and we finished up the siding to keep the elements out. We were very pleased.

The inside needed A LOT of TLC. And still does. Perhaps a recap is in order?



Here's our living room, the way we bought it...



...and after we tore it apart. We cleaned up a bit, but for the most part, this is how it stayed for, well, what felt like a very long time.

But today....ooooh today. I scarcely want to post about it, it feels kind of like a dream. It's too exciting.



Today we have walls. Real walls. With mud on the seams. That means that they can't come down again. They are up and on their way to being finished, and you can't take that back. I don't know why I feel I need to stress that point, but I just do.

Here are two things that just delight me to no end, with no explanation as to why.

Number One:

The half wall. Separating the living room from the hallway that leads to the kitchen. The kitchen and the living room are the only two rooms on the main floor (well, there is a little half bath/laundry room), so it's fairly small, though both rooms are a fair size. I love that if you're in the kitchen, you'll be able to hear and see what's going on in the living room or that when you're in the living room, you can yell at your husband who might be going through the kitchen and ask him to bring you an iced tea. I love this little wall.



This one is even more inexplicable. This is the little corner that you see right when you come in the door. For months I've been staring at studs and some sort of pipe and exposed insulation. Over the last two days, I've been greeted by a little corner. One where I could hang some hooks for keys, perhaps a little shelf for the constable's wallet, which he's always losing. It makes me quite happy.

We're still far from done, but this seems like lightspeed progress to me. Oh, and just as a disclaimer, the hubs and I did not do this ourselves. We finally came to our senses and realized that there are just some jobs best left to people who know what the hell they are doing. Not that we didn't give hanging drywall a try. We did. The old college kind. But it really is miraculous what two people who have been hired to do a job (and, as an aside, are not married to one another) can accomplish in two days. And that's not even the whole story. Most of the main upstairs bathroom is drywalled as well! I'll save that for a later post.

The guy we hired is awesome. He returned our call, which in an of itself blew our freakin' minds. He knows what he's doing, does a great job in really good time, and is also going to fix up the walls that still have plaster. I think I might just love him.

Anyhow, I know some people find this stuff really quite boring, but, ya know, it's what we're doing. We're going to be able to move in before too long. For real. It's actually going to happen. I'm still holding off on doing the happy dance though. I'll save that for move in day. This move is probably coming at just the right time too, cuz...



this doesn't look too comfy.

Until later...

PS: If I can see the dust in that last picture, I know that you can too. The mess from next door seems to be seeping into the apartment faster than I can keep up with it. I've decided to ignore it until the worst of the worst is done.

Hank, a day or two later...

So Friday I didn't post about the Hankster mainly because I didn't have any new photos of him and couldn't think of anything terribly new to talk about either. Puppy school is over and we've pretty much stopped doing any sort of practice of his commands altogether. Though he does still know what we want him to do when given the chance.

I did buy him a new head halter, since he bit through the last one, and the one time I took him for a brief walk without it, just using his regular neck collar, I was afraid that every house we passed would call the SPCA on me for animal abuse. But I'm sorry, it takes a bit of heft to heave a nearly seventy pound dog back into submission. I figure if he can drag me around, I'm entitled to the same.

So Friday afternoon I decided that we would get some nice outside shots of Hank, which we did. It was a lovely spring day and both the constable and I were outside doing a little yard work. And of course we wanted Hank to join us. Recently, we've been trying to get him acclimatised to the tie out lead, so that we don't have to escort him out into the yard to do his business every time he requires it. We were doing this all winter since he was little wee, needed to be trained and the weather was crap. Now that it's nice and he's a big boy, I figure I shouldn't have to get fully dressed in the mornings anymore to watch my beloved biped poop in the grass. Really not my idea of a great way to start a morning.

This tie out thing...it's not going well. The first couple of days I thought he might get the hang of it. I'd let him out the door and wish him luck. I'd peer through the kitchen window to see how he was doing. Then I'd make my coffee, check my mail, go back and check the window again to find my Hank standing peering at the door. Awesome, I thought! He's got this down no problem. Wasn't until later that day when I go to walk out the front door that I find that Hank has left me two rather large calling cards right near the front step, meaning the damn dog is too afraid to leave the vicinity of the house. Back to the drawing board on this one.

So guess what we're doing now? Getting fully dressed, taking Hank out on his tie out and trying to train him the importance of location, location, location.

We thought he might feel more comfortable with noodling around in the yard on his lead if we were out there too. No dice. He seems to think the lead is some sort of magical paralysing device. If you're not pulling him along, he has no idea what to do. He just stands there, and quivers. And, as I've recently noticed, drools. Which he does when he's very upset. Things weren't going too too badly on Friday afternoon, but once the hubs or myself were out of sight, like, you know, in that scary place all the way around the corner, my scary looking seventy pound German Freakin' Shepherd lost his mind. You would've thought we were torturing him with the way he carried on. And on. And on. After that, he wanted inside and was seemingly more content to watch us out in the yard from the comfort and safety of the window.

But we did get some fun playing pictures, which were really cute, cuz this whole spring thing is entirely new to my beautiful boy and has him both excited and puzzled. The first couple of days that I had some windows open, he didn't know what to do with himself. Too much sensory input.

I was going to post those playing pics today, as well as the little video I took. But then I decided to go away for the whole day yesterday, and when I came home, I found this...



...a ruined coffee table. Those aren't just surface scratches, those are deep teeth gouges.

When I first walked in the door, I was all excited to see my dog. I miss him after a while. I was all ready to make a big fuss, then I turned around to put down my things and I saw what I saw. All I said, in a raised voice was 'What did you do??!' and I turned back around to see a dog who was all hunched over, with his ears straight back and really sad puppy dog eyes. I silently took him out to relieve himself and when we came back in, he did this...



...put himself in time out. Which is where he stayed for the better part of an hour, until my husband came home. He wouldn't come near me. I didn't hit him or scream at him, just admonished him for his behaviour, and he so knew that what he did was wrong, he punished himself.

He heard my husband pull into the driveway and went to the door to greet him, where there was much merriment until I showed him what Hank had done. Then he got another tongue lashing, and again with the ears and the sad eyes and back in the crate he went. We don't send him to his crate as a matter of punishment by the way, so it's not as though he knows that's what he's supposed to do.

Hank was very mellow and kept his distance from us the whole evening, and wouldn't go near my husband at all, even when he was ready to make up. I had to be the one to tell my Hankster that it was okay, we'd forgiven him. Cuz it's really hard to stay mad at a dog who's harder on himself that you are.

And it was right after that that we found the tick. Near his ear. Quite engorged. And really freakin' gross.

Do I Have to Garden?

I love the internet. You just never know what you're going to find, what you might learn, or who you're going to meet. Or, in the case of blogs, who might stop by. Remember the sleep study guy who found my sleep knitting interesting enough to note? That was pretty cool. Well, it's happened again. I'm always amazed at how people find this blog, or for what reasons. I have a SiteMeter thing that tracks my blog traffic, and I get reports once a week or so telling me how many visits I've had. I never believe it though. I can't fathom that 200 'people' have viewed my site when only three or four people ever comment on a regular basis.

Anyhow, my point. Lurinda, a commentor, gave me this link in response to my story about my grandmothers mysterious black salve. Whether this was the stuff or not I don't really know or remember, but it doesn't really matter. I just think it's incredibly cool that a) she happened by my blog purely by chance and b) was thoughtful enough to leave me a link. These little unexpected things have a way of making my day.

So spring seems to have finally sprung here on the South Shore and I feel, despite the lingering effects of the head cold, utterly reborn. Everyone I've talked to this past winter felt that it was a cold, long and dark one to be sure, and the return of the sunlight and the warmth has remarkably improved my outlook on life, though it has proved a little damaging to my credit card, but that's a story for another time (re: spring wardrobe).

I've never had a yard to care for before, and the prospect of spending afternoons and evenings dawdling around doing this or that is a pleasent one. I can pick up branches and rake up old leaves, clear out planting beds and pull some weeds. Seems like a lovely excuse to be outside.

I'll admit that I am a whole hearted domestic type of woman. I love being in and taking care of my home. I like doing laundry and even relish a good, fierce cleaning session, especially when I've neglected it for months in favour of marathon knitting sessions. I love to cook (when I feel like it) and bake (again, when the mood strikes) and I find a strangely thrilling satisfaction in keeping things orderly (in my own disheveled way). I love the idea of decorating and entertaining (though the budget rarely allows for the lavish dreams that I have), and am quite content in immersing myself in all the womanly hobbies of sewing, quilting, knitting etc.

All of this being said, do I have to be a gardener too? I've never had much luck with keeping plants alive the few times I've had them, indoors or out. I don't know the difference between annuals or perennials. I don't think I could keep straight what grows best in what kind of sunlight or how much water and when to plant. I get really bummed out when things only bloom for a little while. My mother once put fake flowers in a window box on our front step and left them all year round. She was a pretty good gardener too, but I guess she just got tired of it after a while. Seems like a good idea to me.

I'd love to have a vegetable garden, since I'd be able to harvest everything at the end of or during the season rather than just constantly tending to things that will eventually die. I like the idea of the colour and vibrancy plants and flowers would bring to the homestead, but I just don't know if I've got the dedication it requires. But I still feel as though this is one torch of womanhood that I am obligated to take up. I am as yet undecided.

Just don't be surprised if you drive by the house and see a garden in full bloom in the middle of November. I might just have raided the fake flower department at WalMart.

Monkey See, Monkey Knit...

BAD DOG! BAD, BAD, DOG!

Apparently the little help session the other day went straight to his head. I drove the constable to work last night and had the gaul to leave Hank at home for all of five minutes and this is what I was greated with when I came home, albeit all over the floor. He's never done this before, and I doubt that he'll ever do it again. He looked mighty sorry after I was done admonishing him for what he'd done. Ears back, sad eyes...and he was pretty mellow for the rest of the evening.

Thankfully, none of the actually knitting was unravelled. Just the ball. Took me over an hour to untangle it all and get back to the knitting. What was I knitting you ask? Why a Sheldon of course. Once I had seen Heddy's, I knew I had to cast on. The only two colours left in the baby cotton at the LYS were yellow and this peachy colour, so that's what my Sheldon will be. I finished his body last night before bed, and got him stuffed. Today I'll hopefully get his limbs done and perhaps his shell. I love knitting toys but do not love knitting with cotton, no matter what kind. It's stiff and unforgiving and any mistakes just jump right out at you. I won't knit him in cotton again. I have some stash yarns in mind for other Sheldon's, all acrylics. Some wool/cotton blends. But anyway...



Something odd has happened to me. I have been recently re-evaluating my prior hand knits to see if they might be improved upon. Way back when I first started taking this whole knitting thing rather seriously, I knit myself a hat and scarf out of some Lion Brand Super Chunky Wool Ease-y kind of stuff. Loved it, was so very very proud. I still love the scarf, although I suspect that if I screwed up the purl stitches like I had on this hat, then it may get frogged as well. That's right, I knit for YEARS and years doing my purl sts wrong. As is my nature, I just forged ahead thinking to myself, 'meh...maybe that's just my style'. Then I'd knit in the round and it would look totally awesome and just like everyone else's knitting.

I remember knitting my mother a HIDEOUS pink cardigan out of this really awful rosey-pink acrylic. The body was knit back and forth and the sleeves were knit in the round and when I was done, I was shocked at the difference. I could not for the life of me figure out what I had done wrong. But still, I thought 'meh, it's just my knitting.' Then one day it really started to bug me. I totally thought I was doing it right. So I knit up a swatch and went to my computer and brought up KnittingHelp.com and was determined to figure out my error. Sure enough, I was going under the needle instead of over the top on the purl stitches and was twisting every single stitch. I felt soooooo dumb. Since then, I can barely look at anything I made prior to that. I know that the regular non-knitting Joe on the street wouldn't know the difference when I wore this hat out in public, but it really bugged me, so last night I pulled it all out. Besides, this was knit flat for crying out loud, and then seamed up the back. AMATEUR! So I plan to knit myself a new one for next winter. But I see a disturbing trend starting to emerge. Anything delicate or intricately knit is probably safe, but other than that, everything else had better watch out.



Then I saw this as I was untangling and rewinding last night. Season 3 of Handyman Superstar Challenge just started (which I didn't know but was very excited to have happened upon...shut up, I like home reno shows and have an odd crush on Mike Holmes, alright?) and Karen Bertelsen was wearing THE SWEATER. (To my Ontario brethern...remember Karen Bertelsen on CFMT, all the way back in the '90's? I was a fan). I'm so glad I have an obscenely large tv, as I was able to get a fairly decent photo of the sweater. I love this sweater and I must have one. Ideally, I'd like to figure it out and knit it too. I didn't get a photo of the back, but there was a little detailing at the center back as well. Wasn't as intricate as the front, more of just some ribbing or something. Anyhow, someday, this sweater shall be mine. (As an aside, the lone woman handyman is totally kicking ass...go girl power[tools])

So that's enough babbling for today. Until later...

Tastes Awful, but I hear it works...

I am at the Buckley's stage of a head cold. Do you know of what I speak? A cold that has gotten so entrenched in your body that it's now more like a demon and the only way to exorcise it is to bring in the Father Karras of all cold remedies. If you've never tried it, I dunno what to tell you. It's like pure liquid eucalyptus. It's harsh, but it works like a charm. I avoid taking it until I just can't stand the effects of the cold any longer. To be frank, I don't mind the taste so much anymore. I've taken it since childhood, and I guess I've just built up a bit of an immunity to it.

In my mind, it's in the same category as all other kinds of secret home brew remedies, the kind that families pass down from one generation to the next, as the end all and be all cure all tonic. When someone mentions Buckley's, my mind immediately makes a connection to my grandmothers 'black salve'. I don't know if it had a brand name, but it was this mysterious concoction in a beat up old tin that look like it came from the 1930's (which it in all likelihood did...my grandmother being born in 1910 and all). It resided in the dark recesses of her linen/medicine closet (which, OMG, I just realized that my mother now has the EXACT same set up in her apartment) and any time one of us had an injury, it was black salve to the rescue. I had a bee sting once as a youngster and nothing since has cured something like that so quickly. Freaky. Anyway...

I was so under the weather yesterday that, shamefully, Hank and I missed his graduation from puppy school. I was pretty bummed out, I don't know about Hank. I haven't mentioned it to him yet. Lexa, my partner in puppy crime, told me all about it and it sounded like it was pretty fun. Lots of games and play time, which I'm sure Hank will miss. That and the overload of hot dogs once a week. I just couldn't peel myself off the couch though. This morning has seen me dragging my proverbial behind around the apartment in fine pathetic form. This is the third time I've been sick since Christmas. My fellow Knitterpudlians are crying sick apartment syndrome, and if that means that I am sick of this apartment, then that's what I've got in spades. But there may be something to it. We'll have to see about getting a really thorough spring cleaning done in the next little while.

To make up for missing puppy grad. I let Hank help me out with some frogging. He really does love the hand knits. I was going to pick just one of these photos, but they're all kind of cute.



I started this cardigan about a week or so ago...

(Carmella's Cardigan, Patons Classic Top Down Knits...or something like that)
...when really all I went into the shop for was to check out the new Noro sock yarn. But I had spied this on Ravelry and had been wanting to knit it, although at the time, it said that the pattern book wasn't out yet. Just so happened that the Patons Shetland Chunky Tweeds that was called for in the pattern (and that I wanted to knit it in) was on sale FOR ONLY ANOTHER TWO DAY!!! so I bought seven balls and the pattern and off I went.

When you go on a marathon knitting/cabling binge, you're bound to make a mistake at some point, but how this sweater got so far off the rails, really still mystifies me. I had mentioned it at Knit Nite and figured that I could bring it in for a group salvation session, but when I pulled it out to re-evaluate where I had gone wrong, I could see that only total annihilation (and eventual rebirth) was the only way to go. The top of the yoke of the sweater is knit over 22 sts for 35 inches, which I had no problem with. Then you pick up X number of sts and knit top down, increasing for the sleeves as you go along. Eventually you divide everything up nice and neat for the fronts and the sleeves and the back, come back to the sleeves and knit them later. While I was increasing, things just didn't look right. And when I compared the picture of what the sweater was supposed to look like to the blob of yarn that I had in my hand, I knew I had had some sort of knitting seizure and had no recall of what I had done. I had no cables where there should have been cables. I had increases where there shouldn't have been increases, and vice versa. It was a monstrosity.



So under the watchful (and still goopey, somewhat infected) eye of my esteemed colleague, thus was the sweater frogged and yarn rewound. I reknit everything yesterday/last night and am back to where I was, which was at the dividing round for the sleeves, and a little beyond even. But then I think I messed up the cabling round during CSI, so I have to tink back at some point today.



That's about it on the knitting front. Working with chunky yarn is mucho satisfying at the moment, as it goes so quickly. And I've decided I want a spinning wheel. A new one. Not right away, but I'm ready to check some out, get a feel, start saving up. I like the drop spindle, but it takes a really long time and I find that when I sit and spin with one for a while, my shoulders just scream for days afterwards. I've got some yummy fibres here that I would really like to be yarn in the near future. And trying to ply with little bundles of singles off the drop spindle is, at least in my limited experience, a bit of a nightmare.

Anyhow, I actually have to do real work today, which I've been putting off all morning. Until later...