Useless Observation...

This may seem redundant, but the whole 'two sleeves at a time' thing is BRILLIANT! This is only the second time I've done it, and on baby sweaters, they're done in no time.

Here's the useless observation of the day; In the new issue of Interweave Knits, page 53, the Rowan Classic ad? The model in the short shorts has unshaven legs.

I'm not judging. I'm just saying that if it's acceptable enough for a (presumably) European model in a reputable magazine, then I shouldn't get hassled about it. That's all I'm sayin'.

That is all.

Until later...

NEW SOCKS!

Fleece Artist Somoko mill ends, plain vanilla sock and you should see how much of this stuff I have left over. I toyed with the idea of doing a pattern, as I haven't done one yet with socks, but I am a blue fanatic and just wanted to see how the colour would play out by itself without being interrupted with a pattern. Sure enough, much love for these socks. And they are really really warm!

That's all!

One Night in Hillyfax...

So this past Wednesday the constable and I jetted off to Halifax for a mini-vacay of sorts. As a gift, my big bro had given us some tickets to go see Bob Dylan in concert. The nice thing about having a husband who works weird shifts is that every so often, it actually works out in our favour. He had the time off and my job is pretty flexible so we booked a hotel room and off we went.

Our hotel was in Bayer Lake, as we had some shopping we wanted to do on the way home, but after checking in and dumping our stuff, we headed downtown for a little sightseeing/shopping. First up of course was The Loop, which had this adorable sea creature display in the window! I was charmed by it. A felted jelly fish will get me every time apparently. If you check out the website, you can read about the little project that's going on.



After cradling some Tanis hand dyed skeins, one in bright yellow and one in bright orange, very uncharacteristic colour choices for me (there is a certain someone who I feel might be influencing my attraction to bright colours of late) I opted for the more moody and squishy Arequipa (how does one pronounce that anyway?). 65% Superwash, 20% Alpaca and the rest Nylon, is delightfully soft and bound to get lots of wear. Now, it wasn't you guys I was telling that I wouldn't buy any more yarn this summer, was it? No? Good. Must've been someone else. And I picked up the new YH book. More of a booklet, but very cute nonetheless.

After The Loop we hit Mountain Equipment Co-Op for the hubs and then traipsed around until we stumbled upon the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, as we had really wanted to check out the Art of Hockey exhibit. But it was 4:30 and they were closing in half an hour. Boo. Turns out the very next day they had their later hours AND it was national museum day or something and they were offering free admission after five pm. Boo hiss. Two minutes in the box for the AGNS. So we went looking for dinner instead.



Along the way I saw the Wired Monk, the little coffee bistro where I've heard some knitters are known to gather (waves) and a Mexican tall ship. We ended up at the Lower Deck (pub) for a yummy smoked meat sandwich and some soccer playoff action. Cool place...long tables...good beer.

Then of course it was time for the really big shooo. But might I just interject here for a minute about the hilliness of that fair city? Okay, I knew it was hilly but as I'd only strolled it very briefly once before and this trip was more of a power-shopping/hurry up and find these places C'MON! I didn't quite appreciate just how up hill everything really is. *pant* It was a harsh reminder that I am woefully out of shape which really, is a bit of a misnomer. For one to be out of shape, one has to have been 'in' shape at one point. I don't think I necessarily qualify. Anyhow, it wasn't as though I was laid out on the pavement, but I lumbered a little more than I think I really should be lumbering at this age. Sheesh.

So anyway, Bobbo. I was quite the fan back in my teens as I considered myself a bit of folksie/hippy crossed with some sort of alternaweird artsy wallflower. Really, I was just confused with bad fashion sense. So I find it somewhat ironic that I ended up sitting next to the very epitome of my former self. Young, sweet and bubbling over with enthusiasm dressed in a very paisley vintagey dress, slouch socks and ballet slippers. She was clearly there to see vintage Dylan with his acoustic guitar and harmonica singing Blowin' in the Wind. As were 99.9% of the rest of the crowd I suspect. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I mean, after 5 decades, I'd say the standards get a little tired.

Anyway, he started off with Rainy Day Woman #12 and 35, followed by It Ain't Me Babe, both of which were heavily rearranged to suit the rest of the show, which was all rockabilly/blues. It Ain't Me Babe was so different from the original, and Dylan's voice was soooo gravelly and harsh that not only did I say to myself, 'Whoo boy, we're in for a rough night', but in going over the set list later on with the hubs he was utterly shocked that Dylan actually played some songs that he might've recognized.


(yeah, we had crazy good seats. I managed to smuggle my camera in, and even though they were checking bags at the door, just about everyone around me had one. This was the still I got right before filming about 30 seconds before I got scolded by a security guard. Filming with a camera...not acceptable. Filming the entire concert with your Blackberry {dude in front of me}...totally acceptable. Anyhow, I'm going to be a good girl (re: cops wife) and not post the vid online. I'm the kind of person with the kind of luck that would get lambasted with some sort of copyright infringement hassle.)

I don't have the full breadth of the Dylan discography, only the hippie highlights, so even though I knew he ventured into this rockabilly territory, I'd never heard any of it before. I was quite pleasantly surprised. Bobbo, even at the ripe old age of a billion, still rocks the house. The show was about two hours dead on, without any interaction or kibitzing from Dylan, just two solid hours of music, including one encore. He did do All Along the Watchtower for the encore. But he never did play guitar. Just the keyboard. Poor Bob did have a bit of a senior moment though when he misplaced his harmonica and one of the roadies had to hand it to him.

I've always thought of Bob Dylan as this really ethereal, other worldly character, and he did not disappoint. The whole not talking to the crowd thing helped this. And it cemented in me a strong desire to only see geriatric rock stars from now on. The show started at 8 pm, was over by 10 and we were both back in our cozy hotel beds by around 10:30-ish. Man, am I ever getting old!

The next morning, we hit LaZBoy and pretty much picked out a whole new living room for the big move into the house, hopefully sometime this summer. We haven't ordered it yet, just spent a couple of hours picking out fabric and wood finish, which was way too much fun.

As for my baby boy Hank, he spent his first night away from home with friends of ours while we were gone.



I was really quite apprehensive about how he would handle it, but after an initial bout of homesickness as he watched my husband pull away in the Jeep (I couldn't go...I've seen how Hank reacts when I hand him off on his leash to someone else) I guess he settled right in and was a perfect little house guest. He got more walks in one and a half days than I get him out for in a week, which made me feel quite inadequate as a puppy mom. Oh well. I feel much better about leaving him with people now, knowing that he'll be a good listener and follow their rules.

And that's the week in review. Very refreshing to get away, if even just for overnight. There's so much to see and do in the city, I'd really like to go back for a two day excursion sometime. As for knitting, I'm just about finished some socks out of Fleece Artist Somoko mill ends (yummy) and am really itching to start another big project. I feel the tides turning towards me becoming a sweater knitter.

Have a nice weekend y'all. Until later...

Fin...

Carmela...she is done. I didn't block it. Besides, I had already bought the zipper. Anyhow, I sewed the zipper in yesterday, and other than being sorta blurpy and bulgy, it worked out rather well. I think what I might do is throw this in the wash and the dryer and see what happens.



Overall the fit isn't as bad as I thought it would be, now that it has a closure. The neck/yoke thing is definitely weird, but I'm willing to live with it. The rest of the sweater is exactly what I wanted...a sorta cardi/jackety thing. The sleeves are dead on in length and the whole thing is rather cozy and warm.

The only mod. I made was to do a zipper rather than buttons, and other than that, I followed the pattern as written, a first for me. Length is good, I enjoyed knitting this and my only complaint was that the yarn amounts in the pattern are incorrect. I ended up needing 9 balls of the Patons Chunky Tweeds rather than the 7 the pattern called for. If you end up knitting this, be mindful that the amount needed for the Shetland Chunky and the Chunky Tweeds are mixed up. If you look at the yardage for each, you'll see that they've made a mistake.

Anyhow, I'm eyeing up the other sweaters in this booklet. I'm thinking Nicole's Cardigan might be next. I love this yarn for its versatility, affordability and for how quickly it knits up. We shall see. I might see if I can get my LYS to put the chunky on sale again sometime soon!!! Hehehehehe...

That's all for now. Until later...

"Is that your boulder? That's a nice boulder!"

*1000 points to the person who can name the movie where the post title came from.

Before I get started, there are a couple of items that I would like to address and insist that they both cease and desist immediately.

#1: News stories that seem to be on a weekly, if not nightly, basis about the rising price of gas. "Is there anything to be done to ease the pain at the pumps?" No, no there isn't. Unless we all stop driving cars.

#2: Burying lucky charms/tokens/coins at centre ice in hockey arenas during international hockey competitions. It was cool during the 2002 Salt Lake City games when Canada won both gold in men's and women's hockey. Now it's just tres fromage.

That will be all. Thank you for indulging me in my snarky moment.

So thank you to those who commented on the boulder in my yard. I have quite an affinity for it myself. And it gave me a little idea. I thought that since you liked this boulder...



You might like all the other boulders in my yard. Follow me on a little boulder tour, won't you?



You may need to click to embiggen, but here are some in the side yard...



...and some more in the side yard (the side yard is quite expansive). I should've gotten a close up of the big pile of mini-boulders that the constable made last year during his epic battle with the rocks in the ground. He went around excavating them, only to find out later from the locals that the rocks actually breed underground and once you remove one, another will appear to take it's place. After making his little rock pile out in the middle of the yard, he gave up and our lawn mower has paid the price. It no longer cuts grass...it just sort of vacuums it. I personally think we should build an Inukshuk with the rocks (I couldn't find a definition with a photo). Here is a photo.



Here's some boulders I'm hoping to have a deck built onto sometime in the future, though I'm not sure how that will transpire.



Here's 'The Three Boulders' that I quite like and think of as purely decorative. And yes, the grass is quite long. Remember, the mower no longer cuts, and I guess we're okay with that (the yard is not my jurisdiction...I do enough inside the house...that's the deal. Kinda backfires on me when a certain someone has 'landscaping' ideas).

So there you have it! If any of you would like a boulder and are willing to come and dig it up and transport it away, I'm sure we might be able to accommodate you!



On the knitting front, I have pretty much completed the Carmela's Cardigan. It's a cabled sweater with an odd yoke thingy on it and I must admit, I really don't get. This is the best I could do for a photo as the constable has been a bit of a phantom around here lately. He's helping out with the International Theatre Festival going on in Liverpool at the moment. Anyway, I was willing to give the cabled yoke the benefit of the doubt until I had completed the ribbing around the neckband to see if that helped at all with the oddness, but it hasn't. Also, and this is hard for me to admit, really just doesn't fit me very well. It has all the shaping in all the right places, but I apparently am delusional about my body image and opted for a medium when I should've knit a large. I knit a plain shapeless cardigan last year out of the Shetland Chunky Tweeds and it was, and still is, a big shapeless box. This time I thought I'd go with a medium as I wanted the cardi to be more figure hugging, but didn't take into account how much would be taken in with the cables. Thus, the figure hugging is a little on the obscene side. I did wear it around the house after I can finished it (I still need to knit the zipper bands, which I am doing instead of button bands) and it is super warm and cozy. Just extremely ill fitting and weird up around the neck area. You'll see more of what I am talking about when I get a better photo. I really should learn to use the timer on my camera. Anyhow, the pattern says to block before I pick up and knit the bands...but the yarn is largely acrylic. So to block or to hell with it? Your opinions?



Hank is now seven months, as of the 12th. Here he is at Christmas with his best buddy Max from up the road. I was going through my Hank Pics. folder looking for something to post and even though we were just hanging out with Max and his fam. yesterday, I came across this photo and just marvel at how much Hank has grown! Max is full grown, topping out at just under 60 lbs. As of today, Hank outweighs him by probably 20 lbs. And is probably taller at the shoulders by a couple of inches. Yipes! This also reminds me that I really should get a similar shot of them together now. Holy smokes. Anyhow, they totally dig each other, which is awesome. Even dogs should have best doggie friends!

I guess that's the week in review here. I'm currently working on a pinwheel baby blanket and a baby sweater. And a perpetual sock. Today's dilemma is to work in the house or call it a rain day and park my behind and knit. Hmmm...who knows what I will decide.

Until later...

I'm It...

Chicken Betty has tagged me for a meme. Here's the deets...

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 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?

You seriously expect me to remember a decade ago? Hmmm...let's see...I was 20, it's spring...I was likely finishing up exams in my first year of university (we started later way back then, because of OAC in Ontario...or grade 13 or whatever people liked to call it back in the old days) and was packing up to head home for the summer. Yeah, that seems about right...I started Sept. of '97 so May of '98 I would've finished my first year. Man I hated university. It sucked. The first go around anyway. I did only two years at U of Toronto before I threw in the towel. I still, even as I type about it, have a visceral reaction to those memories. My own fault really...I was excrutiatingly shy at the time and didn't really want to make any friends. And I was on an all girl floor in dorm and most of my friends in highschool were guys, so you do the math. PLUS, I was an arts student and I was on a floor with all engineering students. Sheesh. My roommate and I (along with one other girl) were the only two arts students (as in liberal, not fine) on the floor. Co-incidentally, we were the only three smokers. We stuck pretty close to each other. Anyhow, that whole university thing is kind of why I hate Toronto so much now...but I suppose I should just get over it and give Toronto a fair shake... ... nah.


2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Go to work...ummm...that's really about it! I suppose I had considered doing some cleaning when I got home (and as you can tell, I am on the computer instead), like the bathroom and a little vacuuming...maybe return the tile samples I borrowed from the paint store yesterday...hit the grocery store and figure out what's going to be for dinner and then take the dog for a walk/run. Of all of those things, the cleaning will definitely not get done. And seeing as Hank is quite happily napping beside me, we'll see how far we get with that as well. But it is a lovely day...he really should get some exercise.

3) Snacks I enjoy;

I think my favourite snack is green olives (the Colossal ones from Presidents Choice are AWESOME) with cheese and crackers and a big glass of V8. Pretty much any type of cheese and any type of cracker although my current faves are the flavoured Tricuts; Rosemary and Olive Oil, Cracked Black Pepper and the new Deli Rye ones....mmmmm. Although, Chicken Betty's snack foods sound pretty damn good right about now, even though I just had lunch...nothing beats freshly baked bread and I too could eat avacado in anything.


4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire;

I would buy an exotic pet, like a llama or an emu...no wait, that's if I Had a $1 000 000

Other than the usual (homes/cars for peeps; get everyone out of debt etc.) I honestly don't know...that's a lot of money to try and comprehend. I think I'd travel some, with friends, and just generally have a very very good time. I'd likely give quite a bit away, or do a Big Give-ish kind of thing and try and get the money to make more money to help as many people as I could in different capacites. I'd really like to get a sail boat too. I think I could swing that. I would spend my time learning all the stuff that I've always wanted to learn and go and talk to people I've always wanted to talk to or learn from. I'd have a really kick ass house, not ostentatious by any means, but just a really homey place, one that could accomodate a lot of people at once so that I could entertain a lot. I like being at home and having people around...so I'd probably concentrate a lot on that.



5) Places I have lived:

Hawkestone, Ontario; Holy snappin' c*ap Lou, it has a Wikipedia entry! That is sooo unbelievably cool! If you read this little article, I was born in Orillia and lived on the property right next to the Girl Guide camp, which was right on the lake and also a small 'yacht' club. I use the word yacht very loosely as there were no yachts per sey...although the members who came from Toronto certainly believed that that's what they owned (strike two TO). As a kid, I would hop the rocks up stream to the remains of the old mill, where we used to hang out. This was a very magical place to me, and since we left it when I was eight, it still holds a very idealized and nostalgic place in my heart. I spent as much time as humanly possible out doors. Oh, and the Ukranian camp? They threw WILD parties. We could hear them across the lake once a summer when they held their big bash. Great music...and you could hear as people got more inebriated as the night went on. Good times...

Wallaceburg, Ontario Looks as though they might all have a Wikipedia entry. I consider W'Burg, 'The Burg', Burgertown a.k.a. The Biggest Hole Above Ground (my teenage opinion of the place at the time) to be my hometown. This is where I grew up. Not much to add if you go and read the article, which I of course recommend that you do, cuz it is kinda cool. This is the town where both of my parents grew up and where both my husband and I are from. Well, he's technically from an even smaller town some ten minutes away, and if you ask him, it might as well be a world away. Small town wars, ya know? He thinks his town is better and vice versa. Anyway...we went to the same highschool...and we both agree that it was...an interesting place. Anyhow, the Baldoon Mystery is indeed local legend, the town is named after William Wallace aka Braveheart (yeah, the Mel Gibson guy) and it was once quite the bustling hub of industry. Unfortunately, like so many other little towns that are suffering nowadays, that is no longer the case. WAMBO is a hoot and they forgot to mention that the museum also has the largest faucet in North America. So there.

Toronto, Ontario; meh. Lots of cool stuff to do there, but when I lived there, I didn't have a dime to my name, so ya know, that has kind of stuck with me too. I've been back to visit and have quite enjoyed being a tourist. I'm just not the big city girl that I thought I was or wanted to be when I was there.

Windsor, Ontario; Things Windsor is known for: auto industry, high humidity, high pollution, being further south than Detroit, MI and druken American teenagers (re: legal drinking age in Ontario is 19). One thing I didn't see in skimming the article is rum running. This to me was one the Windsor's most intersting factoids. During prohibition, Windsor was quite the hotbed of mob and other illegal activity. In any event, it was here that I finished up my university degree (much more pleasent experience) and started my life with the constable. We were both students for a little while, then he went and joined the RCMP and before you know it, we're in...

Liverpool, Nova Scotia; Hmmmm...also known for rum running...very eeeenteresting. We've only been here a year but I love it and am quite happy to stay for a while. History is alive and well in the town, as the names in the article are plastered all over everywhere! Currently hosting an international theatre festival, this wee little place has got a lot going for it, not the least of which is the scenery! It's beautiful here, and if you're into full circle moments, it reminds me an awful awful lot of Hawkestone.

7) 6 peeps I wanna know more about:

I really don't wanna rope people into it if they're not up for it. But, if you do want to play along, consider yourselves tagged if you're reading this! Just leave me a comment or whatever if you decide to do the meme on your own.

Guess that's it! And I didn't think I'd have that much to say!

Until later...

About Knit Nite...

Hey Knit Niters! You may be seeing something interesting in your email inboxes this morning. If you're curious as to what it's all about, check this out...

Bye for now...

Behind the Wheel...

Hello Knit Niters! It's that time again, though I seem to have been caught in some sort of temporal void and find myself socked to see that it's Wednesday already! Anyhoo...I'm offering my chaffeuring services this evening, so drop me a comment if you'd like a pick-up. You know the drill...no comment, no ride. Hope to see y'all later...I'm in desperate need of some serious knitting time as I haven't picked up the needles at all this week. BTW, new sock yarn is at the store...anyone want to place bets on if I'll be able to resist or not??

Until later...

Peer Pressue...

Other knitters I tell ya...they're a persuasive bunch. I've been happily knitting my plain old, cuff down, square heel socks for some time now. I felt no need to do patterned socks. I find sock knitting kind of like cleansing the knitting palette. I'd knit a bigger project and then at the end, be a little brain dead but my hands had extra knitterly energy, so I'd cast on for a sock and just go around and around for a while until a sock emerged.

I still had/have a sock yarn addiction, which I think just comes with the knitting territory. But ever since I became a Knitterpudlian, I've been slowly and subtly indoctrinated into their patterned sock cult, and now find myself cruising Ravelry and queueing (sp??) and favouriting free sock patterns.

Then, before I knew it, I joined the Summer of Socks 2008 sock knit-along. I don't do knit a-longs. I joined the Knitted Babe KAL, which wasn't really an organized KAL, just a place to throw up pictures of my weird knitted dolls. I find knit-alongs too...I don't know what the word for it is...organized maybe. Too many rules most of the time. Who needs that? But the Summer of Socks is perfect for me in that there are absolutely no expectations. The only rules or challenge is to see how many pairs of adult socks you can knit between June 21/08 and Sept. 1/08 I think. So even if I get only one pair done, I'm still participating. But in my somewhat contrary fashion, I will likely opt to only knit kids socks or not even knit socks at all. I thought this was a good motivator to knit up the ridiculous amount of sock yarn that I have acquired over the last couple of weeks.

Oh, and by the way, this is a random, picture less post. I do have a FO that I'd really like to talk about, but alas, I cannot. I finished it Friday at 11:30 pm and I was so stunned that I had finally cast off this behemoth that has been barnacled to me for the last year that all I could do was sit and look at it for a really long while. So I guess I did kind of talk about it there, didn't I? Anyhow, more on that in the future.



Okay fine, a picture. Me and my shadow. One of the few (only?) pictures of us together, as I am usually the photographer. I have to say that not only did the constable do a remarkable job of actually centering us in the frame (not something he's known for) but this is probably one of my favourite pictures. Isn't he fluffy??! And I am so thrilled to have wild daffodils in my yard! They're my faves.

So here's why knitting and more specifically, Ravelry are on my short list for the best things that have ever happened to me.Nova Knitter and I had coffee this morning with Calins, a lovely knitter from Halifax here in Liverpool visiting with family. Ravelry, for those who stop by sans fibre obsession and wonder what the heck it is and why I keep mentioning it, is, to put it quite simply, the absolute best thing in the whole wide world. To elaborate just a smidge, it's an online knitting and crochet community, sort of like the Facebook of the knitting world, only cooler because it's about knitting and not about stalking people you knew in highschool.

At first glance, Ravelry is an endless resource for knitters. Which it is. An unbelievable bottomless pit of helpful and interesting information. The added bonus, so I am quite happy to discover, is that it's a great way to meet new people! This morning's coffee talk revolved around knitting, yarn, dogs, more knitting, knitting techniques and uh...well, knitting. All with someone who I would likely have never met otherwise, all thanks to the wonder that is Ravelry. How cool is that? I've also come in contact with two other knitting RCMP spouses because of this site, which just kinda blows my mind. Who knew? Anyhow, I find it all rather exciting.

Seeing as it's Sunday and I am full sloth mode, I'm gonna call it a post. I have my cabled cardi that I think I can finish today with the help of a movie (of which I bought a boat load at the liquidation sale of our one and only movie shop in town...but really, Legend two disc special addition and almost the entire Kevin Smith library, as well as a whole handfull of others, all for $8.00 a piece...could turn it down) as well as a baby sweater that I am working on.

Happiest of Mothers Day to all moms out there.

Until later...

While the Roast is in the Oven...

Sheldon has eyes.



Hank has Roscoe.



I have a lot of sock yarn...



...and not enough to finish this sweater.

That will be all.