By Hook or By Crook

littles

2010-05-01T18:30:00.002-04:00

I'd like to start off by saying that Valerie's suggestion that I leave the tiny babies around the house for Cee to come upon unexpectedly--and thus be totally freaked out--made me about giggle my considerably-large-sized arse off! I could never be that mean, however, 'cause I do love him, after all...and because I grew up with two older brothers, who took entirely too much devious joy in doing just that type of thing to me as a child...looking back I'd say that's where half my problems stem from...yeah, yeah, that's it....couldn't be anything I ever did or said...right? Ahem......

My loving brothers took delight in doing things like blowing up black leather gloves and shoving them at me in the doorway to my bedroom as I was walking through, so I'd think someone was grabbing at me (you had to be there, it was scary!) or putting tabasco sauce on a lemon wedge and telling me it was a 'Danish Candy' and doing the literal ROFL (before there even was ROFL) while my eager chubby little hands stuffed it into my mouth...don't you laugh, it wasn't funny! Well, I guess it was--to everyone but me...and maybe I fell for that one more than once--stop giggling, you!--but hey, I was little...like 2 or 3 little...and you tell a chubby kid it's a candy and they will fall for it almost every time....my dad didn't have to practically wet his pants laughing over it though...harumph...

Speaking of little...it's the season of littles....the next little is due this very month in my hometown of Calgary. Arrival date is technically May 18th, but this little (who is a girl, the first one in a while in my world--everyone has been making boys for years!) seems to want to make an early appearance. I have previously blogged about the February baby sweater on two needles, which is destined for this wee one, but thought she should have some footwear as well, so I made some socks and some booties:

The booties are seamless, which I absolutely loved! I embroidered some little pink daisies on them because they just seemed so plain to me....and I think this little deserves some May flowers, since she shall be a May baby. The socks are a fast little knit that I've used a few times before.

I acquired one of those ridiculously cute sock blocker keychains recently, and decided I'd make it a little sock with my leftover Yarn Pirate from Ishbel (which is blocking as I type this)...it started off swimmingly, but, well, a picture is worth a thousand words...or in this case; five:

Well, technically four words and 1 slang....I used the needles the pattern suggested, honest...and I knit very loosely...so I can only guess that the yarn was too fine for the pattern specs...still...fun! I shall have to try again, and it only took mere minutes to make.

And this is what the Killer Shih-Tzu thinks of my knitting teeny socks:

Here's a link to the little bootie pattern I used: Seamless Baby Booties (Top Down)

And here's a link to the little socks pattern I used: Baby Cables Bootie Socks

file this under

2010-04-16T10:20:00.006-04:00

'You Know You Knit Too Much When'....You know you knit too much when, in the course of watching a primetime crime drama show you observe that someone on said show has been killed on an airplane with a knitting needle (through the throat, no less), necessitating the solving of that crime...and maybe they show the victim from a long angle and you say out loud, to no one in particular, "Hmmmm...that looks like about a 4 1/2 mm, maybe Susan Bates"....and then they show a close up of the wound....and you discover you are right....uh thank you verra much...and then maybe your husband looks at you and says "you really need to step away from the needles"...yeah, like that'll happen...you will be pleased to know it wasn't the knitter that committed the crime...us knitters can be so wily and crafty...I just worried that maybe they will ban knitting needles from air travel...and I wouldn't want anyone eyeballing me whilst I was getting my knit on during a flight...

Thanks for all your well wishes on my health, you guys have no idea how much that means to me! Things are coming along fine with physio, in fact I have my last in-home visit in about two weeks...after that I may need more therapy, but it's still up in the air. I have flashes of normalcy more and more often...and by that I mean I'll be going along and realize I've done something I haven't been able to do since I got ill--like stand on my right leg and lift my left foot off the ground, for instance--and then I will do the fake dance of joy and lift my left foot about a million times just because I can...and then later on in the evening I'll be in enormous amounts of pain in my right leg because--duh--I put so much weight on it...it appears I won't learn...ah well, maybe the resolution of this condition won't take much longer...she said with hope...

I've been knitting...still finding it hard to stay monogamous to one project, so I'm just rolling with it...yes I have a lot of stuff on the needles, but it's all getting finished, so no big whoop.

First up is the Ishbel shawl/scarf. I love looking at the "people" tab on Ravelry, and found that I was clicking on shawl projects more and more thinking 'wow that looks gorgeous'...after about 7 or 8 clicks, I realized it was the same pattern I was clicking on over and over...the Ishbel shawl, by Ysolda Teague, which appears to be very popular on Ravelry...I decided that since I was so drawn to it, I must have the pattern...now lace and I have a love/hate relationship...I always try lacy things and always end up screwing the pattern up and having to frog...and then hating them...but still the siren call of the pattern...so with wide-eyed optimism I cast on...and discovered that I'm really not that bad at lacy patterns after all....sure there was some tinking, and after one particular row I spread out the shawl to see how wide it was and didn't notice the 30 or so stitches falling off the one side of my circular (man was the air blue that night!) and had to rip back 2 or 3 rows because the stitches just unravelled so quickly...but still...I got it done!! And now, I need to block, but here it is, in all its naked finished pre-blocked glory...

I made the small size, so it's more of a scarf than a shawl, and I have a feeling that the yarn is a little busy for the pattern, but still....lurv...I already have the yarn picked out for another...

The above picture is a better representation of the colourway...this is Yarn Pirate in Neptune, and when I went looking through the stash to find yarn to knit Ishbel, this literally fell out and hit me on the head, so I decided I'd better use it and not tempt fate.

I also found another dishcloth pattern to love...love to knit, love to finish, just plain love;

This is the Round Lacy Cloth by Rhonda White...it's a free pattern online and it really should be illegal to love a pattern this much, but if loving it is wrong I don't want to be right....it's ingenious...knits up wickedly fast and is so pretty when it's done it's almost a shame to use it on your dishes...well, maybe I wouldn't go that far...

Again, I already have another on my needles as I type this...it looks awesome in the variegated colours.

I also have a guilty pleasure to tell you about....sigh, here goes....my name is Kiki, and I like making doll clothes...

There, it's out...don't judge me....can I hear some of you singing "Creepy Doll" by Jonathan Coulton??? I can't help it, friends...I think they are too adorable...these are little 5-inch Berengeur babies, and their little duds are made out of crochet cotton size 10 thread and my teeny steely crochet hooks....

Cee is looking decidedly worried these days...keeps saying things like; "You're not going to turn into one of THOSE women, are you??"...you know, the kind that fill their houses with weird porcelain dolls or those 'reborn' thingies? I can't say as I am...but you just never know how deep this rabbit hole will go, folks. Cee is seriously creeped out by them....he thinks they will come to life and try to steal his eyes while he sleeps....

I personally think they are far too adorable to ever be that mean, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion...

If you would like to knit Ishbel, you can find the pattern over at Ravelry here you do need to purchase it, I think it's 3 British Pounds...

The Knitted Lacy Round Cloth by Rhonda White is free, and you can find it here

If you would like to join the dark side and make the tiny baby clothes, I found them in a booklet called "Itty Bitty Babies"....

"...and there's a creepy doll....that always follows you...it has a ruined eye, that is always open..."

holy sh#t

2010-03-24T23:13:00.003-04:00

Hey...............

Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? The last time I posted we were just rid of our 'house guest' and I was having some pain in my right hip that I was assured was strained ligaments.....

Without going into a long (and probably very boring) story, the strained ligaments turned out to be acute Sciatica, which is an inflammation of the Sciatic nerve (lower back, either side of your spine, top of your butt cheeks is a nerve which feeds allllll the way down your leg) I had it on my left side in the summer, but recovered fairly quickly...the right side...well, it's taking quite a bit longer.

Basically kids, not long after I last posted I ended up taking an ambulance ride to emergency (boy was that fun--not) because I could no longer move without screaming in pain....this seemed to unnerve my husband for some reason, the me screaming in pain, and also my continued pleading of him to take his alluminum baseball bat and cave my head in was really starting to wear on his psyche....can you believe the heartless bugger refused EVERY single time?? After xrays and tons of blood tests and all that junk, I was given some very strong narcotics and sent home....home to where I couldn't get up the stairs, or move..or even get IN the house for that matter...um...yeah. It was decided that I should go and stay with my mother in law, as she has a bungalow, so everything is all on one level, plus lots of neat equipment like a lift chair, walkers, etc. etc. and after a couple of weeks I should be back to normal. That was November 1, 2009. I made a visit to my doctor about a week or so later and was told that it was Sciatica...they had to dope me up big time to get me down the few stairs and into the car, and I was still screaming most of the way...every bump in the road felt like it was 3 feet deep.

I haven't posted kids, because I don't remember the entire month of November, nor the first 3 weeks of December....and to be honest, even January is a bit hazy....I was too busy being in indescribable pain, the nerve was spasming almost constantly, sending jolts all the way down to my big toe, praying I didn't have to get up and "walk" anywhere, because not only did it take me almost 20 minutes to walk 20 feet, but the pain was....well let's just say the pain was bad....really bad....like praying for a quick death to get away from it bad. I basically lost the use of my right leg...in between crying jags, begging for the pain to go away, and making uncontrollable involuntary noises while not being able to even speak at times, I was without tv, computer, or even my beloved knitting (because believe it or not, I couldn't even hold my knitting without being in pain, much less complete the act of knitting)

Flash forward to today.....that "two weeks" I was going to stay with my mother in law? Well it turned into almost 4 months. I'll say that again....Four Months. For obvious reasons we bypassed all the holidays...in fact, to me it still feels like it should be Fall...and even though my mother in law and I get along...well....you fill in the blanks....there were tensions....and issues....and even though Cee came and visited tons, it of course wasn't the same, and I wasn't in my own home...

When I finally started moving around again, after being whacked out for a month and a half on heavy duty pain killers, then spending two weeks sick as a dog as those came out of my system, I realized that my muscles just wouldn't do what they were supposed to...mainly support the weight of my leg (did you know that your legs make up about half your body weight? You don't realize how heavy they are until you can't move them anymore)

I've been having multiple physio therapy sessions (they are fabulous, come right into our home, which is good, 'cause I'd have a heck of a time going to them), at one point she was coming twice a week....after learning to walk again, and learning in stages to do stairs again, I was able to come back home 3 weeks ago, and have slowly started getting back into a routine...the dogs were all like "Hey, I remember you....sort of....got any snacks??"

I am making slow progress, have come a very long way, and have a very long way to go, friends. I will probably have to have more tests to see just why I got it so bad (something about me being 'too young' to get 'this' 'this bad') and maybe have to see more specialists....and I may yet face more relapses and pain....still, as long as I wake up and I'm not in that awful pain it's a good day. I can do the stairs now...it's not pretty, but I get it done....and I'm able to walk (although I have to use a walker still), and am trying right now to improve my gait, but it's all good. Why, just last night I was able to sit and actually lift my right foot off the ground, and raise my leg....a huge triumph! Guess I ended up telling a long and boring story after all, huh?

Annnnnnnnyway, as soon as I felt even the teeniest bit better, I asked for my knitting, of course! And as soon as I got home I surrounded myself with all my beloved projects in progress, they had been left languishing in the exact places I'd put them down last Fall.

Life has gone on, as it tends to do, and the people around me keep having babies. I always think this is very considerate, as it give me an excuse to knit baby clothes, which I love...two are expected this year, the first is a girl due in May, the second is yet a surprise, due in the Fall....so when I got home, I got out the trusty Knitter's Almanac (Elizabeth Zimmermann) and cast on for the February Baby Sweater on Two Needles.

Just needs buttons! The simplicity of this pattern is a pure joy, it's no wonder the adult version is so popular with everyone at Ravelry!

Then I decided I needed some booties or socks (or both!) to go along with the sweater, so last night I cast on the Little 16 Newborn Socks...it's a free pattern you can find on Ravelry.

Just using some Bernat baby sport yarn for these, so far they are fun to knit.

Cee has been wearing the socks I made him almost constantly, so I figured he needed a new pair. I started the Mock Wave Cable socks from Favorite Socks last week.

This will be the fourth time I've knit this pattern....I must say I love it, and he really likes them....or at least he wears them....probably because he loves me :o) Using some manly-type coloured yarn...I think it's Kertzer with the Aloe Vera.

And last but not least, I've made progress on my 'Cowichan' style cardigan I started waaaaaaay back last September, the back is now done.

Those are meant to be beavers there, I found this hilarious, but to me they kind of look like fatty squirrels...which is even more hilarious....I have a weird sense of humour though....

Anyway kids, that's it for me now, but not forever....can't promise how often I'll post, but touch wood it will be often (hopefully that's a good thing!) Thanks for reading, TTFN.

this house is clean

2009-10-16T10:55:00.000-04:00

Well, maybe not in a strictly literal sense, but...let's just say: my friends, the occupation is over.

Things have been percolating here the last three (has it only been 3?!) weeks because of our 'house guest'. I suppose a teeny bit of back story is in order....don't worry I won't go on forever, and since I have no new knitting pictures to post--mostly because I've done no new knitting, a short story may suffice.

Our 'house guest' was actually Cee's brother's wife (notice I don't say sister-in-law)....there's been animosity there, almost completely on her side, by way of the fact that she doesn't like or want to know her husband's family, hasn't spoken to any of us in 8 years (yes, you read that right) and actually moved them two hours away from where we all live and kept her husband from communicating with any of his family for almost 6 of those 8 years. Well, the rift between Cee's brother and family recently healed, thanks in part ironically to Cee's dad's declining health and eventual passing, and things were starting to go back to normal, but there's been tension between his wife still see, because she still didn't want to know any of us or even try to mend things...all of us decided we could live with that, as long as Cee's brother was still communicating, and it seemed it would go on indefinitely until....out of the blue she took a job here (or close to here) and all of a sudden she didn't want to commute the distance and demanded they sell up down there and move back here, but in the meantime she needed a place to stay.....

Enter yours truly....now, I must preface this by saying this was against our better judgement to begin with, we weren't too keen on having her here--wait, that is a big understatement, we both knew it was a horrible idea--mostly because like I said, she didn't want to know any of us, and but for the fact that she needed a place, she STILL wouldn't want to know any of us, and I knew for a fact that once they got settled into a place here, she again wouldn't want to know any of us....still, some part of Cee and I thought that maybe by doing this, things would be resolved, fences mended, rifts overcome...so we agreed, mostly for Cee's brother, who let's face it, was in a terrible fix..also we figured if we said no, that rift just might start to open up again.....damned if you do, damned if you don't.

So we said yes....and to make a long story short, it's been a nightmare. I won't bore you with the excruciating minutia of every event, but suffice it to say we felt heartily ill-used and abused, but were accomodating and opened our home, and the first time I asked her not to do one thing (that one thing was do multiple loads of laundry every day....she's one of those people to whom one shirt and a pair of socks is a laundry load) she decided that we were mean horrible people who were making her life intolerable and she moved out without so much as a thank you for letting me stay or a kiss me arse.

Where this leaves Cee's family and Cee's brother I have no idea....I'm hoping that we (with the exception of her, because she's shown her true colours and I wasn't completely surprised by what happened) can all be adults and get this resolved before it turns into another indefinite period of animosity and no communication.

I'm hopeful, because I don't think Cee's brother wants that either, but I also know he's got a poisonous little bug in his ear....stay tuned, it could get ugly.

oops i did it again

2009-10-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

Hey all...looks like I missed posting for a while again....sorry. Our 'house guest' (Cee and I prefer to call it The Occupation--similar to Germany occupying France in WWII) has arrived and things were not as bad as I thought they would be.....they have been much worse. I'm sure eventually we will iron things out, but both Cee and I are horrible with confrontation, so it's much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth and whispering to eachother about why we agreed to this in the first place...I don't mind helping anyone one out, but I do mind being taken advantage of, and such increasingly seems to be the case...stay tuned.

On more crappy fronts, I have had some more problems with my hip, the other side from the sciatic side...seemingly because I've been favouring my leg and well, to put it delicately, I'm just too damn fat...need to get some pounds off and all will improve...or so the doctor says...I hope so, because being in pain all the time really sucks, and not being able to walk or make your leg move sucks even more...

So dear friends, since I don't want to go on ad-nauseum about all the crappy things going on here, and since I've done very little knitting or crocheting in the past couple weeks (oh yeah, they think I have the beginnings of arthritis in my shoulder, too...yay) I decided I wouldn't be posting too much.

My cardigan had made some good progress though, before all the icky started...did you know that when you knit intarsia your yarns get REALLY tangled? It's enough to make a control freak like me have a breakdown...

This picture was taken when I was on row 2 of the intarsia charts...I got fed up untangling all the mini-skein/balls and just used yarn lengths around 3 feet or so and let them hang free, a technique of which I'm told Kaffe Fassett is fond...it worked much better and made me less sweary...I am now on the upper fair isle chart, so it's going much better, as I'm used to that....I started with the back of the pattern, so this will be the biggest piece and the most complicated (I hope at least) I'm nothing if not persistent, so it will be done...just may take a while.

by the pricking of my thumb....

2009-09-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

What day is it? It's been a week around chez Kiki & Cee...let's just say the times, they are a changing...and not because of anything either Cee or I did or even wanted...ever feel like you are damned if you do and damned if you don't? Then you know exactly how we feel. Can't go into much detail, but let's just say that we shall be hosting a lodger for an undetermined amount of time and leave it at that....the things you do for family...or more accurately in-law family....that you don't even know....bleh, enough...I'm getting a headache just thinking about it...

Work has been progressing on the blanket for my niece's housewarming present. It's pretty boring to look at, but I haven't as yet gone completely crazy with all the garter stitch:

This is the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket, from Mason Dixon Knitting...perfect for sitting in front of the tv while pondering silently about how life as you know it is now over...am I being too melodramatic??

I also started a cardigan....can't call it a Cowichan, mostly because it's not...but it's that style...I wanted something thick and warm for fall days spent hiking trails and raking leaves and generally being outdoorsy...snort, like I do any of that! Seriously, it just caught my eye and I thought I'd make it...for whomever it fits, just to see if I could...yes, I'm the process-type of knitter:

It's from a Bernat pattern booklet....it may end up being cannibalized for other things...who knows.

Until next time, dearies...keep well. I'll leave you with Queen Collie, who captures my thoughts exactly, 'cause she keeps it real like that:

face lift

2009-09-11T12:49:00.001-04:00

You may (or may not) notice a bit of a change around these here parts....I decided, after three years, that we needed a bit of a different look around By Hook or By Crook, so I spent the better part of an hour ~~trying to figure out how the heck it all works~~ previewing new layouts and generally being indecisive, until I finally settled on a new template...I like it, it feels right, and it was time for a change.

I thought I would continue showing some of the projects I started during the time I was being neglectful and not posting. There's no way I could not post the Marialis End to End Scarf I started from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. I had the perfect yarn, thanks to the perfect Sharon, of the perfect Stitchjones yarns...crank it to eleven and head on over there to get your socks rocked off.

This is La Villa Strangiato Super Sock. I wanted to showcase the insanely gorgeous colours, so I decided no mere pair of socks would do, and cast on a light summer scarf.

This picture was taken when I first started. The scarf is now about two feet long. I take it with me everywhere I go and work on it often. I can't count how many comments and compliments I've had on it and it isn't even done yet. It's delicious, and a pleasure to work with.

Since I'm a total unapologetic bag ho, I have been working on several. I seem to have an unending supply of kitchen cotton. No matter how much I use, I keep finding more skeins of it hidden around the house....funny since I haven't bought any in years...why can't that happen with cashmere or alpaca, or the delicious Noro Silk Garden? I have a theory that elves break in at night and leave skeins, in between trying on our clothes and making fun of the size of my underwear...yes, I need help....In my attempt to get the kitchen cotton stash down, I cast on another market bag. This one is a free pattern called "Let's go shopping - market bag" you can find it by doing a pattern search on Ravelry.

Right about the middle of the summer, my hooks were feeling lonely....I try to give equal attention to both the pointy sticks and the hooks, so I yanked out the One Skein book and whipped up a couple of the Geometric Bags:

These are the Rectangle Bobble bag and the Circle bag (obviously)...I made the pieces for both of these in one night...ahh the speed of the lovely crochet hook! I wanted the rectangle one to go in my project bag and hold all my knitterly things like tape measure, needles, etc. But decided I liked the circle one better for that purpose. Cee's mum took a shine to the rectangular one, so she will probably end up with it. I lined and zippered both of them....

A bit of a sad story there....my trusty, faithful Singer sewing machine, that I bought with my very first paycheque from my very first job, finally gave up the ghost....that or it needs servicing, I'm not sure. In any case it doesn't owe me a single thing, it's a magnificent beast, and made many a Hallowe'en costume, Christmas dress, play outfit, etc. etc. Sigh, goodbye old friend, I will never forget you. I ended up doing all the sewing by hand....what would have taken mere minutes ended up taking hours, but it got done.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....

My niece recently got engaged....this put me in a quandry, because while I was completely overjoyed for her and her fiance, I was also horrified to realize that I am now old enough to have an engaged niece! I take comfort by telling everyone that I was but a young teenager when she was born...it's true...really it is!

I noticed that Stephanie was making the Moderne Log Cabin blanket for a wedding present, and loved the colours she was using....and since my niece is building a house (well she herself isn't building it, you know what I mean) and her colours are all in the gray/brown family, I decided right then and there to ~~steal the Yarn Harlot's idea~~ make them a blanket in similar colours! No picture as yet as it's quite boring, just a grey rectangle with a bit of cream on it....but I found her post on picking up stitches around the blocks a total Eureka moment.

And now, since I promised, here is the recipe for the Jalapeno Jelly....soooo good...with just a little kick:

Jalapeno Jelly

5 Jalapeno peppers (I use fresh, but canned will also suffice)

2 Medium-sized green peppers, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 Cup white vinegar

1 Package powdered pectin

6 Cups sugar

10 Drops green food colouring (optional)

Prepare 5 half-pint (I use 125 ml) canning jars. Rinse Jalapeno peppers, discarding stem ends, any bits of blackened skin, and about half the seeds (the seeds and the membrane bring the heat, so if you like it hot and spicy, leave them all in!) Chop peppers ****I strongly recommend using surgical gloves while doing this, as you can burn the creases between your fingers, and trust me, this is not fun!***** Place in a blender or food processor along with green peppers, and 1/2 cup of vinegar. Blend until finely chopped Pour into a large pot. Use the remaining vinegar to rinse out the blender or processor, then add to the pot.

Stir in the pectin and bring to a full, roiling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar and food colouring and continue stirring until mixture comes to a boil again. Let boil for exactly one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off foam. Pour into jars and water process for 10 minutes.

This is heavenly with pork, and I love it on melba toast, drizzled over a smackering of cream cheese...yummmmm...

i go all 'suzy homemaker'....

2009-09-03T12:03:00.006-04:00

There's something about late Summer/early Fall that puts thoughts of mason jars and snap lids into my head. I want to make jellies and jams and pickle everything....don't ask me why...it's not like my mother ever did anything like that, and she certainly didn't teach me to do any of that....and preserving things really isn't that big of a necessity for us modern gals....it's not like I'm living in some sod house in the middle of the open prairie where we won't see fresh fruit and vegetables for six months.

No, today it's more of a kitschy, urban thing to do. Years ago, never mind how many exactly, my friend and I decided we were going to pickle garlic....don't screw your face up, it's good! And make Jalapeno Jelly....again with the screwy face....it's so yummy, and has just the right kick. We spent many an hour joking, laughing, telling stories and secrets while peeling garlic cloves and stinking up her kitchen....good times, good memories.

This year while mulling over just what I wanted to make, I indulged in my favourite guilty pleasure; making dishcloths.

This is the Linoleum Dishcloth, from the Mason Dixon Knitting blog. Fun to knit and pretty easy to memorize the pattern...I love the designs and it produces a thicker-than-normal dishcloth, which is great for scrubbing grimy dishes.

I decided to do both. Pickled Garlic...really it's good...when we started making it eons ago, people thought we were nuts....now you have to pay big dollars for a tiny jar in the gourmet places....apparently we were far ahead of our time. And Jalapeno Jelly....it's heaven.

We found the recipes for both online....but I noticed I couldn't find them when I searched for them....so I will repost them here, for anyone brave enough to try something different. First the garlic. You can use this in your cooking like regular fresh garlic, or eat them like pickles...which is what I do, and I've never been told I reek of garlic, but if I had I wouldn't care...it's just too good!

Pickled Garlic

Place peeled garlic cloves into washed 125 ml/half pint jars. (Usually takes around 3 bulbs of garlic per jar) fill each jar with vinegar. Into each jar add:

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Teaspoon salt (pickling/coarse salt preferred)

1/4 Teaspoon each of basil and oregano

Pour contents of each jar into large saucepan. Add 1/3 Cup additional vinegar. Bring to a boil and boil 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat. Fill jars with garlic and vinegar mixture. Add a pinch of crushed red peppers to each jar before sealing for an extra-spicy touch.

Process in canner/boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

I usually leave the garlic for two weeks before opening, to give the flavours time to get to know eachother!

**It's very important to follow proper canning procedures like sterilizing your jars, lids, rings and processing your canned goods for the required amount of time to avoid spoilage and bacteria.

A word about the "blues".....garlic contains phenol, which is this fancy-schmancy chemical...love my techincal jargon? Anyway, sometimes the vinegar makes the phenol in the garlic react and turn it blue....if you peek closely you can spy a couple bluish cloves up there....it looks weird, but it is totally safe to eat and doesn't affect the taste at all. There are all kinds of remedies people have come up with to keep your garlic from getting the blues, so just do a search and you will be reading for hours.

If any of you make the garlic, please let me know how your batch turns out! I'd love to hear your input. I will post the recipe for the Jalapeno Jelly next time.

Another word of advice....to get the smell of garlic (or onions, for that matter) off your hands, there are a few tried and tested ways thought up by our "Suzy Homemaker" ancestors...you can take a stainless steel knife (a dull one) and rub it over your hands under cool running water, you can also try rubbing either mustard powder or coarse salt on your hands and then rinsing them in cool water...these do the trick every time!

If you would like to make the kitschy linoleum dishcloth, you can find it here

it takes brains....

2009-08-27T09:40:00.003-04:00

And apparently no one at the phone company has any*....Now I know I might be cursing myself by criticizing the phone company, but after the week we've been through I'm willing to take the chance.

Remember back to the day when your home and/or work phone was your primary means of communication? Back when if you were out and you needed to make a phone call, you had to find a public telephone located somewhere along your travels?? Well, Cee and I pretty much still live in those good old days. Yes we have a cellphone....A cellphone, as in one...and we only take it along as an afterthought; you know, so we don't need to find a public phone...I know, we are an anomaly these days, freaks, if you will. I keep threatening to bring us into the present and get us both iphones, or some other kind of smart phone, but for now we are just happy the way we are.

Well last week I noticed that we were getting some static on the line at home . I didn't think too much of it, but then it started getting worse, and by Saturday night when I was on the phone with my friend it was really bad. Sunday morning it was complete static and there was no dial tone. Bright and early Monday morning, I headed over to Cee's mum's house to call the phone company....and so it began.

I always cringe when I have to call any large conglomerate like the phone company, you know what I'm talking about; you get put on hold and told how important your call is, asked if you want to be spoken with in French, (or whatever other language your country supports), told your call is in sequence, press 1 for this, 2 for that, etc. I got a pleasant robotic female who told me I only had to say what I wanted and she would gladly oblige, so I did and when it came to the part where she asked me for a contact number, I simply said:

"If I had a contact number, I wouldn't need to call you."

Pleasant Female Robotic Voice: ".............I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that, can you repeat it?"

Me: "I don't have a contact number"

P.F.R.V.: "..................I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that, can you repeat it?"

Me.: "No number!" Shouting now, like it's going to make a difference.

P.F.R.V.: ".................I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that, can you repeat it?"

Me: "Expletive."

So I hung up and called back and managed to get put through to whatever country they are outsourcing their customer service, and got a very pleasant man who at first seemed to have it all together. I explained to him that I was calling from someone else's house, our line was completely dead and we needed someone to come out and take a look. He asked me if we had checked the demarcation box to see if it was working. I told him that we had gone down to the demarcation box and everything was plugged in. He asked if we had plugged a phone into the box, I told him no. He said,

"Can you go do that now?"

I said: "Well, you see, here's my problem with that: I just explained to you that I'm not in my house. Now, if you really want, I can get in the car, drive all the way back home and plug a phone in the box. Then, if it doesn't work, I guess I'll have to get back in the car and drive all the way over here again and call you back, unless you'd like to hold on while I do that?" ....I was joking, it never hurts to insert a little levity where you can....

He said: "No, no need to do that, the tech will do that for you." ....guess he didn't think I was funny.....

Things proceeded fine, and we arranged a convenient 8-hour window in which we should be home to expect the tech to be at our house, and then he said,

"Can I have a contact number?"

Me: Sigh....."Well here's my problem with that; My cellphone's battery is dead, and I'm calling from my mother-in-law's house, and she's going out this afternoon, so if the tech calls here she might not be here to answer, and even if she did answer, how is she supposed to let me know the tech has called, because our home line is dead?"

Him: "Can I have that number?"

Me: "Which one, the cellphone that's dead, or my M.I.L's number that no-one will answer?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: Sigh.

Him: "Ma'am?"

Me: "Here you go, I'll give you both, but the tech won't get through, so it's useless."

Him: "Thank you." They are nothing if not polite.

So anyway, I came back home and proceeded to wait, noticing that we'd been blissfuly free from annoying telemarketing calls the last week, and seriously considering going and calling the phone company back to cancel the tech, but he arrived and was very good at his job and fixed the line. Turned out it was just plain old wear and tear on the line that had opened it up, so he just had to do a bit of repair. Voila, we are now able to receive all the calls the telemarketers can fling at us.

Want to know the kicker? My mother-in-law called me later that evening to let me know that when she got home the tech called and said:

"I hear you're having trouble with your phone?"

M.I.L: "No."

Tech: long pause "I got a call you were having trouble....."

M.I.L: "No, that would be my son, they called from here you see, because their line is dead."

Tech: "Oh, okay....well I'm on my way if you want to let them know."

M.I.L.: "How would I do that? Their phone is dead."

Tech: "Oh...oh yeah....well, I'm on my way"

He called back a few minutes later to tell her he was having trouble finding her house....to which she replied that she could tell him how to get there, but the trouble was at ours....but if he'd like she'd make him a cup of tea and they could have a nice visit. He politely declined. Like I said, it takes brains.

I made some new hats to use up stash. I had intended only to make one. This one, in fact:

This is the Druidess Beret. It calls for dk weight, which I used. When it was all said and done it was a bit smallish for my taste, although still cute. I like them insanely slouchy. So I cast on another one in worsted and upped the needle size to 5.00 mm for the body and crown decreases.

It came out more tam-like, and so it's perfect. It will be great for holding in my brains, which apparently are in short supply these days.

If you would like to hold in your brains with this beret, you can find the pattern here: Druidess Beret

* If you work for the phone company and are reading this, I'm sure you are an exception to the rule!

in which i am sheepish....no pun intended

2009-08-23T13:06:00.010-04:00

Ok....it's been waaay too long since I've posted. I throw myself upon your mercy (if there are any of you left checking this blog) and apologize whole-heartedly....although I have a sneaking suspicion that your lives have gone on perfectly fine without my blathering entries....still-- so sorry my friends. I have been reading your blogs and posting comments when I could, just not keeping up with things around By Hook or By Crook! I vow to be better in the future, and will try to post at least once a week, pinky swear. No real excuses on my part, except to say that life has been weird....chaotic, strange...much like this picture:

All this crap was on my little table beside the couch....I snapped this picture when I was feeling fed up one day and realized I felt it was how my brain probably looked at that moment.

Of course there's yarn in it, what did you expect?

I won't go on ad-nauseum about what I've been up to since March, but here's a couple things I did.....

I got up close and personal with our resident chipmunk, whom I called Theo.....well, as close as me taking this picture through our back screen door...

Here he is telling me to put down the damn camera and bring him some peanuts already, jeez, I'm slow!

Then one day while keeping a watch out for our ducks, I spotted this little guy out front eating plants and had a little conversation with him:

A little bit hard to see on account of his natural camoflage I suppose, but it's a little bunny!! I dubbed him Buster, as in "Hey Buster!! Stop eatin' my green thingies!!" Don't you just love my technical gardening jargon? I am still flabbergasted as to why all these wild critters keep showing up around our place, it's not like we're out in the middle of nowhere...unless "nowhere" is in the middle of a busy street in a smallish city....

One thing I didn't do was sign up with Twitter....maybe I'm getting old (maybe??) but I just don't see the point....or maybe my life isn't that exciting that I need to be updating my status every 20 minutes....

I have been doing a lot of knitting and crocheting (duh!) and will post more pictures in the following entries...don't want to bore you all at once now...what fun would that be!

Cee's brother ~~practically begged me on his hands and knees~~ asked me if I could make him some socks like I had made for cee so I happily obliged him. No pictures as I used the Mock Wave Cable pattern from Favorite Socks that I've shown here previously, and aside from being a relatively fun pattern to knit, in dark grey they are hopelessly boring. I do love the pattern though, and from the last pair I'd made Cee I had almost 2/3 of a skein left, so decided to just use the same colour.....can you tell where this is going??

Cee came with me to buy the yarn, and just happened to be wearing his socks, so when I held the skein up to his socks and saw that the skein was much darker, I figured "Oh, it's faded in the wash...it should be okay"....famous last words. I bought two skeins of Patons Gentry Grey kroy socks and got to knitting. I finished the first sock and was about half way through the second when I needed the partial skein of yarn....so off I went to dig it out.....that's when I realized.....

Can you tell the BIG difference in colour? Cee's socks hadn't faded at all....same colour, same yarn, different label...WAY different shade....sigh. So back to the store I went. Then I finished the sock and realized that even though Cee's brother's feet are much smaller than his, I had way less yarn leftover.....wtf? Then I had a bit closer look at both labels....

Those sneaky Patons so-and-so's have decreased the yardage from 192 to 166! or 175 to 152 metres....man, that sucks! I notice they also haven't listed the weight on the new label.....sneaky sneaky petes!

Anyway, I got over the trauma of the kroy socks and coasted into summer feeling pretty good...and then it happened. And no, I'm not talking about the death of a certain pop king, although that was tragic and weird. I got hit with Sciatica....or at least that's what they think it is/was.

In early July I was completely minding my own business (like I always do, snort!) and getting out of the shower, dried off and hanging up the towel (oh no, did I put an image in your brain? Sorry!) and doing nothing in particularly special at all and all of a sudden I felt like someone had plunged a knife into my lower back/side (top of my rear basically--oh no, another image!) Very soon it became apparent that something was seriously wrong...mostly because every time I put my left foot down on the floor I screamed in pain.... The pain travelled down my leg and very quickly I couldn't walk or even stand up straight. This was the scene for about 4 or 5 days....couldn't stand, couldn't sit, lean, lay, get comfortable, sit, do much of anything except cry in frustration and take anti-inflamatories that never really took the pain away and depend upon my knight in shining armour Cee to take care of me, which he did, very brilliantly. Every day it seemed to get just a little bit better, and I kept trying to do a bit more and push through the pain when I could, and now six weeks later I am very much improved, although I have to take it slow at times on the stairs and not sit or lay in one spot too long....there is a little numbness around my knee region too, which is also frustrating...I am told it can take up to 3 months to completely recover....Cee's aunt has had it off and on for a year and a half...../me shudders!!

The worst part of this is I have no amusing or entertaining anecdote as to how it all happened, I mean, taking a shower? Man, I should have been base jumping or something! Like that would ever happen...but seriously, that's as bad as walking and breaking your hip....I hate getting old! This didn't just come out of the blue, I have had issues with sciatic pain going back to my mid twenties, but nothing as bad as what I went through this summer.

Let's hope the Fall season will bring a bit more normalcy for all of us.

Until next time, don't make fun of that old lady on tv that says she's fallen and can't get up, it might come back to bite you in the ass one day!

a major prize, a major prize!!

2009-03-19T14:48:00.004-04:00

The beautiful and wonderfully multi-talented Sharon, of Chickenlips Knitting, and the gorgeous Stitchjones yarns has bestowed upon yours truly a most awesome award:

How wicked is that?! Thank you so much, Sharon, and just in case no one has told you today, you are the best!

It's now up to me to pass on the love, as this award comes with responsibilities....

Here are the rules for the nominees:

1. Copy the award to your site. (Save it to your own server).

2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.

3. Nominate 8 other bloggers.

4. Link to those on your blog.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

Since anyone who reads this blog is obviously extremely intelligent and awesome, I nominate you all, with special attention to:

Lexa from Just in the Knit of Time
Cute kids, adorable dogs, and awesome knitted objects, who could ask for anything more?

Vik from Like Grandma
Vik blogs from Argentina about her beautiful crochet and knit items and her cuter-than cute Scottie dog.

Cass from Shut Up, I'm Counting
Home-schooling accident-prone pet-sitting, knit-loving vegan hilarious mom...that's Cass.

And lastly, Sharon, I'm sending this back to you, because, my dear, you are the most "Kreativ Blogger" I know! Love ya!

I have no pictures of knitterly or crochety things today, mostly because I'm in various stages on all my projects right now. I'm working on the February Lady sweater (who isn't?) and I've had to restart it a few times, because I haven't liked a few things on it (like the eyelet increase row) and I decided I should make a smaller size than the one I was making...at this point I really don't know if it will get finished...we'll see. I'm also making a pair of socks for Cee's brother, boring dark grey ribbed...those seem to take forever....I don't know why men don't seem to like wearing funky coloured socks...

In a related vein...does anyone know why all my pictures are looking so funky lately? They seem to get cut off on the right side....I'm sure it's something I'm doing, I just don't know what....I'm not that tech savvy, so you'll have to dumb it down for me.

Time for me to head off into the sunshine (it is actually sunny today) and survey the damage the winter has done to our yard.

a cowl-tionary tale...

2009-02-28T17:45:00.004-05:00

Yet again this year Winter still has us in its icy grip...and even despite a whirlwind trip to Ottawa by rock star President Obama, we are still suffering those winter blues...I myself absolutely refuse to even think about shovelling any more snow...so it better just stop.

By the way, is it just me, or is it kind of ironic/scary that people flocked to Ottawa from all over the country to catch a fleeting glimpse of Obama, most of them not even knowing if they would see even his limo, much less the man himself. They waited for hours and hours in bitterly cold weather, brought their children, and cheerfully stood and cried when his car came down the road, and every Canadian TV channel pre-empted coverage all bleeding day so that they could chatter on ad-nauseum about the lunch menu that would be presented to the president, or wondering if he would even bother to come out and wave hello. I'm glad he did, but hey, part of me is ashamed because in my whole life I've never seen anyone do that for one of our politicians...even Trudeau....not that everyone liked him, but still...what does that say about us? Or him, or the times we are living in? I think that Obama has a lot to live up to, and I hope for his sake that he can, but all this worshipping of him is kind of troublesome to me.

Since Spring won't come to me, I came to it, in a matter of speaking. I finally finished my daisy square afghan that I've been working on and off (mostly off) for the last two years or so. And here it is....you may need sunglasses...

Like wow, man...groovy...or something like that. I used up a lot (although not all, much to my chagrin) of my variegated acrylics. It's a large one, fitting the top of a queen size, so it would make a suitable double coverlet. Not sure what I will do with it...it may get donated, I haven't decided.

This daisy square is cute and really fun to make, and call me crazy (and believe me, a lot of people do!!) but I like it just as much from the back/wrong side:

Then, since I have been the recipient of a large amount of inherited yarn from different sources lately (it seems like word gets out when you knit, and all of a sudden yarn starts appearing from this aunt or someone's grandma or cousin, not that I'm complaining) I decided to try a little cowl with some yarn (no label, no idea what it is...probably acrylic, I think it wants to be mohair-like)....

It knitted up so well, and the pattern came so easily for me (since I seem to be brain-dead about knitting lacy patterns) I knew it was too good to be true...and I was right...because, dear friends, this is what happens when you knit with gifted yarn and you're not sure how much you have, and you try to be careful with your tension and not knit too loosely in case you run out, and then you make it to the very end and are casting off and feel very smug about your victory....

And then you run out of yarn with 30 stitches left to bind off....Sigh.

I will probably frog it and make it into yet another beret (another one!?) because while I was knitting it, it reminded me so much of the colour of Martha's tam in the Doctor Who episode "Human Nature"--I know, GEEK!!!!

If you wanted to get the charity daisy square (it's crochet) you can contact Krystal via her blog
Krochet Krystal The pattern is free but she does ask that you make one square and send it to her for her charity afghans.

The cowl pattern I used is called A Noble Cowl. A lovely pattern, that is a fun knit. You can find it for free as a Ravelry download.

six. more. weeks.

2009-02-02T18:28:00.004-05:00

Oh yeah, that's right...the fat rat up in Wiarton, Ontario predicted six more weeks of Winter today...I don't know why I was so upset...oh yeah, that's right, I do...'cause winter sucks!! I thought last year was bad, but we must have been extra bad again this year. Sigh, oh well, it does no good to whine about it, and it doesn't even make me feel better. I thank Heaven everyday for our neighbour who bought the snowblower and does our sidewalk and driveway for us every time we get a dump, he's an angel, to be sure.

Aside from not blogging regularly (sorry!) I've totally been in to fair-isle/stranded knitting! I am currently making the "We call them pirates" mittens--sorry, no pics yet, I'm only half-way through one of them... but took a break to make up a couple of hats for Cee's elderly second cousin in the UK...sounds like she will need them soon because they got 30 cm of snow in London today...I think that much would shut the city down for sure.

The first hat I made was Shedir, from Knitty, this was a bit of a challenge for me, all the cables and twisties...

It didn't help that it called for dk weight and I just used worsted...the tension was a bit tight on the 3.25 mm needles...but at least it will be warm! The colour choice is hers....I'm not a fan of beige yarn...for some reason it brings out the anger in me....it's not rational I know, but neither am I most of the time! She made the request by phone, and when I repeated the colour and style choices she wanted, she pronounced she couldn't understand me because 'my accent was too strong'....I guffawed laughing at that, because I've never been accused of having any kind of accent before, so I handed the phone back to Cee's mum and she 'translated'...I swear she didn't say it any different than I, but for some reason, her cousin understood....

My favourite part is the top of the hat, which reminds me of a Clematis flower or a Pointsettia. I think I did screw up a bit towards the top, as not all of the lines are meeting up as they should, and some of the twisties aren't that even, but I don't think she will care all that much.

She has a very small head (or so she says, I've never met her) so I whipped up a 3 am Cable hat for her as well. Talk about a fast knit.

You can see them side by side here...the 3 am is so much smaller than the Shedir, but it stretches like crazy, so hopefully it will be okay for her.

And lastly, my most favourite, made purely for the fun of it and not for an elderly British cousin:

If you are in to Doctor Who, you will recognize the Blue T.A.R.D.I.S. and the grey Daleks, with their metallic cries of "EXTERMINATE!!!" If you aren't into Doctor Who...my sympathies, as it's a most excellent show...you should watch it, you'll like it! Or not, no biggie.

You can find all the patterns I used by clicking:

Shedir, 3 am Cabled Hat, Exterminate

'merry christmas, movie house!!'

2008-12-24T18:17:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to drop by and wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy new year! Thanks to you all for reading and commenting, and sticking with me in the non posting times! In the spirit of the season, I've brought back one of my own personal favourite and most terrifying holiday gif files:

Don't you just want some bleach for your eyes/brain now???? I hope you all won't be up late crocheting/knitting/crafting or tearing your hair out tonight! I have only made 2 gifts this year and finished the last yesterday (n'yah n'yah phffft).

Take care and as always, eat too much, drink too much, and laugh too loud!! And don't forget to dance.

I leave you with the immortal words of Clark W. Griswold, from my Dad's favourite Christmas movie, "Christmas Vacation":

"And when Santa squeezes his fat, wide ass down the chimney tonight, he's going to find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse!!"

I can still hear him laughing.

the most wonderful time of the year?

2008-12-13T15:33:00.005-05:00

Is it really almost Christmas time? It doesn't feel like it to me...am I the only one? Every year it seems to come sooner, and every year it feels less and less like it...maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety.....maybe I'm becoming more like my mother, God Bless her, who was not fond of Christmas, and despite working in a mall, left all her shopping, be it gift or food, until the very last possible minute, and made me wrap everything (once I grew old enough), even sometimes my own presents ("don't look in this box before you wrap it!!") all the while baking and cleaning house and complaining the whole time that we had too much, didn't appreciate it, and as Christmas dinner wore on and the wine disappeared, telling us how ungrateful we all were....we in turn kept filling her wine glass, because we liked "drunk mum"--she was funny, and said weird things!--and she only drank that one day a year...what can I say, we're a bunch of strange folks in my family. Anyway as I get older I can appreciate what my mother had to go through, all the work, cooking, shopping, cleaning (not so much wrapping as I said earlier, I was the "wrapping beeyotch") and all for one day a year.

My mom was a legendary baker....she made so many good things, like peanut butter logs, and marshmallow rolls, and butter tarts (Oh! the butter tarts!!!) I don't have one favourite, they were all so good! I remember one year (I was about 7 or 8) my mother baked early (in October or November) and put everything, squares, cookies, tarts, goodies, you name it, in the freezer, all nicely packed and ready to pull out Christmas evening. She really had everything organized and all ready to go. After dinner, she went to the freezer to pull out a few tasties for a dessert tray, only to find out that my teenage brother and his teenage friends had been steadily raiding the deep freeze of all the goodies and there were none left for us to eat!....I'm sure she drained an extra bottle that year.

If you have a favourite Christmas memory, can you share it with me? Maybe that will get me into the Christmas spirit...

I've been knitting berets a lot lately....don't know why. I'm not really a hat person, they don't look good on me, but berets, well I can handle one of them...harkens back to my old "Brownie" days I guess. Still, I only have one head, and just how many of them do I need??? One more, apparently:

This is the "Sweet Honey Beret" by Faina Goberstein, from the Winter 2008 issue of Interweave Knits. I have to say I love the honeycomb pattern, even though it took me a while to get used to it (let's face it, it doesn't take much to confuse me!)

And there's the flip side. My first attempt was in a grey(gray?gris?) yarn, which I ran out of on almost the last row, and in trying to 'stretch' said yarn to finish, dropped a stitch and completely arsed it up so bad I frogged it and tried it with this multi-coloured yarn.

Here it is perched on a bowl for an almost 'real head shot'...I made this with a larger needle (more out of necessity than anything else...the needle the pattern called for has a sweater on it currently, so I went a size up) and I made it extra slouchy (like me!) 'cause that's how I like it.

i've never liked politicians,

2008-12-06T16:14:00.003-05:00

Although I'm sure they have nothing but good things to say about me....snort, whatever...but still, the crap that's going on with our government right now is ludicrous. I won't bore anyone by going into details, just say our politicians seem to have gone insane, along with a good number of our citizens, apparently. We just had an election barely six weeks ago, and now the opposition leader, who no-one in Canada wanted to be Prime Minister, is on the verge of becoming just that, thanks to a coalition with the NDP and the Bloc Quebeqois, which is a truely frightening prospect to me, and anyone else who doesn't think that the leader of a party that wants to separate the province of Quebec from Canada should have any power over the rest of Canada. Arrrgh, I don't even want to talk about it. If it's not gloom and doom about the economy it's this new palaver about our "leaders"....no wonder I don't want to watch the news anymore....here's some fibre for your diet:

This is a relatively bad picture of a flower afghan that's been ongoing for about a year...I seem to only want to work on afghans in the winter, small wonder.

And here are some glovey-mitteys I made, from the pattern in the Creative Knitting January 2008 issue:

I also tried the Mystery Beret from Wooly Wormhead (you can find the pattern at Ravelry, they have dubbed it: "Meret"):

And here's the flip side....I did the rolled/ribbed brim, which I really like...I suppose now I should block it, so you can see the lacey pattern better:

Sorry for ranting about the govt....the only potential good thing this mess has done is galvanized the country towards their politics....it's made Canadian politics sexy again....

a moment in time

2008-11-10T18:51:00.003-05:00

At the 11th hour,

On the 11th day,

Of the 11th month,

We remember.

We remember the ones that went before. The men and women who gave their lives so that we can live and enjoy ours. We wear red poppies on our left lapels to signify that they are not, will never be, forgotten.

In Flander's Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Lt.-Col. John McCrae

We remember....that freedom is not free.

ode to my red oblique cardigan

2008-11-08T15:11:00.005-05:00

Please indulge my dorkiness.....

(To the tune of "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes", by Edison Lighthouse)....

It looks kinda dozy,

but it's so warm and cosy,

this sweater that was made by me...

Oh, and love grows where my Red Oblique goes,

and nobody knows like me.

Sure I made a few gaffes,
But it keeps out the cold drafts,
and others know it's plain to see...

Oh, that love grows where my Red Oblique goes,
and nobody knows like me.

The sleeves have stretched to just past my knees,
still it keeps out the breeze,
when I walk out the door....

It lengthens every time that it's worn,
but I scoff at the scorn,
'cause like never before.....

I can say "I did it!"
and people know I've knit it,
it's just so wonderful to me..

Oh, 'cause love grows where my Red Oblique goes,
and nobody knows like me.

Oh, yes, love grows where my Red Oblique goes,
and nobody knows like me.

Dear Red Oblique sweater:

I love you,

Love, me.

Pattern: Oblique by Veronik Avery, Knitty: Fall, 2007

what the...???

2008-11-01T15:27:00.007-04:00

Hey....where did all my blog posts for the last two months go??? Oh yeah, that's right...I didn't do any. Apologies. Life has been....weird, to say the least. I won't go into a lot of detail, I'll just say that a lot has happened....not a lot of it good, but not all of it bad. Some of it funny, some of it terrifying. Some things may or may not be resolved, so I'll leave it there for now. I may not be posting very often for the next while, so if you get tired of checking here, I understand.

I've been knitting a lot, save for about a two-week break during which I thought about knitting and crocheting, but didn't do any. I finished a sweater (which I have no picture of yet, but have worn a lot) and for a few days, became engrossed in knitting tiny little socks, hence this picture:
The pattern is mini stockings, which you can find on Ravelry, I believe it's by Little Cotton Rabbits.

I also started the domino potholder from Interweave Knits site, except I'm not using dk weight, just bernat handicrafter, which I assume is worsted weight. I'm thinking I'll have to make it less squares or my potholder would come out tea towel size. These little guys are fun to make and go fast:

And I also finished a present for one of Cee's friends who is expecting a baby with his wife in January. I'm taking a bit of a risk posting here because she is aware of my blog, but what the heck, I like to live life on the wild side:

The picture kind of sucks, but it's a little teddy bear all-in-one. Super soft and cozy, and the whole time I was knitting it I found myself singing "Teddy Bear's Picnic" which drove Cee crazy (and me, too, if I'm honest). But a very quick knit (I did it after my sweater, which took months) I completed this little guy in under a week at the 6 months size.

A little closer look. Since I have no baby to model, and the killer shih-tzu was just not cooperating, I took a picture of the pattern picture on the Mary Maxim catalogue so you can see what it looks like filled with a baby:

You get the idea. The cuteness factor is large, there was much "oohing and ahhhing" when I showed it 'round. I do hope they like it. They live in Illinois and I'm not sure, but I think they get pretty cold winters there. It will be put to good use.

I will try not to make it too long before I post again. Take care all.

"At six o'clock their mummies and daddies will take them home to bed, because they're tired little Teddy Bears...."

august rush

2008-08-31T17:21:00.005-04:00

Such a month, this August was!! First of all we had the Olympics....our Canadian athletes seemed doomed to be wallflowers until almost half the games were over...but they soon quieted the nay-sayers who called us the "Ugly Betty" of the Olympics.....what does that even mean? Leave it to Fox News...Oh and Boo to the people that felt the need to replace the little singing girl from the opening ceremonies with the other "prettier" little singing girl....talk about giving a kid a complex....Booo!!!! Hisss!!! Boo!!!

My pretty sister and her handsome fiance of--oh let's just say a few years--decided to make it legal and had a beautiful very small ceremony on the 8th in Calgary. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't currently live in Calgary even though that's my hometown, so sadly we weren't in attendance in body, only in spirit. Tee, you looked gawjus! I was probably casting on my Ravelympic projects right around the time they were saying their "I do's", but I was thinking of them the whole time.

A Major Prize, A Major Prize!!!!!

I won!! I won awesome stuff from an awesome contest given by Sharon (she of the awesome Stitch Jones yarn) I was looking forward to some of her gorgeous yarn, but the angelic Sharon also threw in some other fun goodies, including a pretty card, beautiful stitch marker (matches the yarn, so sweet!) and a chocolate bar with a pictoral scene of Portland, Oregon, which is her home base. My goodness, Portland is a breath-taking city!! Seeing Mt. Hood made me homesick for the Rockies. Sharon, I've said it before, but you really are the best!

Look at the lusciousness!!!!! From her Super Socks line.

The colour is Orchid and I am in love with it...I'm thinking of making it into the Knotty or Knice socks from Fall Interweave Knits.

I Came, I Saw, I Ravelled.....

Speaking of Ravelympics....well, I had a fair result. I finished the Leaf & Lace baby cardigan from the vintage pattern about a week into the olympics:

Extreme closeup, like anyone cares...

But fell a little bit short on the Pomotomus socks.....I finished them, but this morning....only a week late!!

I had fun, but kind of knew about a week and a half in that I really had bitten off more than I could chew, so I just tried my best. By the last few days I didn't even feel like knitting, so I didn't push it....Heaven forbid I lose the urge to knit, Mystery Stole 4 is starting soon!!! Last chance to sign up!

biting off more than i can chew

2008-08-04T16:34:00.002-04:00

As usual. I decided to take part in all the fun of the Ravelympics. I'm a sheep, and like to be in on the action, and not be left out of the fun, because that brings up all kinds of painful childhood 'issues'...not really, but sort of...whatever.

So of course I entered not one, but two events, because I really am out of my mind (on a good day, anyway). The first project I wanted to do was from this pattern booklet:

Which is really old...I'm not sure how old, but definitely old enough to be considered vintage. The price on the book is .75 cents. I got it from Cee's mum. It was in a box of other patterns/magazines, etc. When I first started knitting, I tried to cypher out the pattern (it has lots of weird abbreviations that aren't explained like Wl.fwd---wtf??---and w.r.n. and w.o.n.) I couldn't figure them out and put the pattern down.

Then recently I saw someone had made this little sweater on Ravelry. It really is gorgeous.

And I decided to try it again...but still couldn't decode those weird abbreviations, except I kind of figured that w.r.n. meant 'wind round needle' and w.o.n. meant 'wind over needle' but the Wl.fwd...no clue. From what I can figure out, I'm hoping all of them simply mean yarn over...what the heck. I just had a weird thought....the babies in those pictures are probably in their late 40's or early 50's by now.

My second project will be the Pomatomus socks from Knitty...I have wanted to do them for a while, too...I have no idea if I will be able to get even one of those project done.....let the madness begin.

P.S.--the writing you see on the second picture is not mine...I wouldn't ever write on a pattern, it goes against my Canadian upbringing...Cee's mum says it's not hers either...what a mystery. I don't suppose they had post-its back then...

told you i was no photographer

2008-07-19T17:43:00.006-04:00

Thanks so much to all of you for all of the warm wishes of sympathy over Cee's dad...in true British fashion, his family is soldiering on, trying to keep things as normal as they can, whatever that is.

As for me, well, I've been knitting (insert 'no duh!' here...like I'd be doing anything else?!?). I finished the clapotis...in like 10 days....(I'm thinking of joining the Ravelympics, I could kick some serious butt, in a not-that-it-really-matters sense).. I'm so happy with it, and I can totally see why everyone seems to be making dozens of these, what a pleasure to knit! I was so excited to take a picture of it that I didn't even weave in the ends, which is usually a big no-no for me, but oh well.

And now you will see why I'm no photographer, because here's what happens when I try to do more than one thing at a time, ie: spread out clapotis with left hand while balancing and holding camera with right:

A slanty pic of the Saturday sky and a peek at my pudgy paw. Still, check out those clouds...

And we're done:

I can safely say I'll be making more of these, since my MIL has been wearing it around, refusing to take it off and give it back...and it's like Africa hot here right now...hello central air...what would David Suzuki say? What a versatile thing this is, this little french scarf/shawl/thingie....what a genius Kate Gilbert is. And mine is visible from space, too! I exaggerate a little, but still...I thought maybe the drop stitch would make it...not so brighty...not so much...sigh, still...I thought dropping the stitches would give me the hivey hives, but it was strangely gratifying.

Completely changing the point, my Ravelry queue is becoming far too long...anyone else have that problem? I find myself spending more and more time looking at what people have done, favouriting them and then queuing them up...somebody stop me.

You can find the Clapotis here, but I can't imagine anyone who's online who hasn't heard of it yet...

turn turn turn

2008-07-13T16:42:00.008-04:00

I wanted to thank all of you for the good wishes and thoughts about Cee's dad that you've been sending...

We said goodbye to Cee's dad last Sunday, July the 6th. There won't be a funeral as per his father's and mum's wishes. Things here are a bit disjointed, understandably. Cee told me that it didn't even feel real for him until he saw the obituary in the paper.

The important thing is that he is no longer lingering in pain from an insidious, debilitating, life shattering illness, and his immediate family is no longer living in torment, watching him slip away hour by hour. He is now free.

This whole experience has of course brought back memories of both of my parents' illnesses and deaths, and has been a trying time for all concerned. The only comfort Cee and his family can have right now is knowing that he's not suffering any more. And if you keep telling yourself that, it just might make it a little bit easier to get through.

Here's some knitting content, a Clapotis I started last week as a distraction.

I'm using some baby yarn I had in my stash that is a little bright...in fact it just might be visible from space, but I'll finish it anyway. For everything, there is a season, and so it goes.

i am not a number...

2008-06-28T15:34:00.004-04:00

I am a free man!!!! Well, I'm not a man...or a number...I digress...The sci-fi/fantasy savvy of you will recognize the title and lead in of this post from the British TV series "The Prisoner", starring Patrick McGoohan...which of course everybody has watched, right? (methinks I hear the sounds of crickets chirping...) Yeah, I didn't know it either...when my husband asked me if I'd heard of it and was incredulous that I hadn't, I inquired when it was broadcast on tv....turns out it was originally aired the year before I was even born, so gee, duh, wonder why.... It's a cult favourite, apparently, with a huge following. Cee's brother has the whole series, let him borrow it and we've been watching it here and there when there's time.

The thing that caught me originally is the opening of the show, when you hear the character tell the "Bad Guys" that they won't get any information from him and said "Bad Guys" say "We will...by hook or by crook"...and this lightbulb went off in my head and I thought "Ah ha!!! That's why I keep getting all these weird search hits on my blog...another mystery solved!" (and now there will probably be even more since I've referenced dialogue, characters and the actor's name) Anyway, the premise of the show is that the lead character is a secret agent (See also "Secret Agent Man") who resigns, but apparently "They" think he knows too much, so he's gassed and wakes up in this place called "The Village", which appears to be this idyllic sort of seaside town but is actually a prison, and he is known only by a number, the number 6, which he keeps telling them he will not respond to, hence the phrase "I am not a number, I'm a free man!!!!" So far my favourite character is this giant white balloon/ball thingie called Rover that is sort of the security service...it's kind of a weird show, we'll leave it at that.

I get a lot of knitting done while we are watching it, let's put it that way....I made another pair of Fetchings. I really do love this pattern, it just goes so fast (I'm not that fast a knitter, and I can usually get them done in a full day) I think I'll keep this pair as I gave the other ones I made last year to my niece.

It's been a long, strange week at Chez Kay & Cee...without going into too much detail, Cee's dad is having continued major health issues, so we've been spending a lot of time at his parents' house. So because I don't have enough going on, and because it's so practical to knit a big, bulky sweater when it's a zillion humid degrees outside, I cast on the Oblique sweater from the Fall 2007 Knitty.

Apologies for the poor quality photo...I don't know what it is with my camera and the colour red. I had to edit this majorly to keep it from looking radioactive. I absolutely love this pattern (even if the lacy lacyness is a bit confounding to me...I keep thinking I've screwed up and should frog, then realize I'm okay) and I've knit about 10 inches of the back so far...I'm using the yarn that was originally for my woman in red sweater, which has gone to the lily pond after almost a year and a half of neglect.

Oh, I also adopted a new motto this week, thanks in part to my sister's last birthday card to me, and also to lack of sleep, time to do my housework, yard work, work work, regular life-type stuff and all that kind of thing:

Appropriate for all situations, don't you think? Now if only I could put a little bubble text that says "let's knit!" under the 'screw everything' I'd be set....or possibly "Let's get pissed! or "Let's trash the place!" or whatever suits your fancy...here's hoping the next week will be blissfully uneventful, take care everyone, and Happy Canada Day to all my fellow countrymen/women on July 1!!! Happy July 4th to all our neighbours to the south!!!...happy happy for all.

did you know

2008-06-14T15:20:00.003-04:00

that I used to smoke? Well I did. A lot. I was one of those people that actually enjoyed smoking, yes..one of those. I wasn't an inconsiderate smoker by any means...if people didn't want me to smoke in their cars or homes or near them, I wouldn't, I'd just go outside and freeze or get rained on with the rest of the social lepers, but baby, I loved me my smokes! I used to wake up in the middle of the night and have to have a smoke before I could go back to sleep, that's how much I loved them, and my smokes, they loved me in return....I never even gave one thought about trying to quit. Ever.

But then I met Cee. Cee doesn't smoke...never has...in fact he gets quite ill around cigarette smoke.....awkward!! When we first met, I still stayed a smoker for a little while (of course, never around him), but when it became increasingly more apparent that our lives were going to be intertwined, I decided I'd better bite the bullet and at least try to quit....notice I'm not mentioning anything about quitting for my health. Well I did quit....over nine years ago...it wasn't pretty. Have you seen the commercial with the flight attendant screaming at the passengers on the plane and breaking into crushing sobs as she picks up the phone to page? Well that was me.

I tried cold turkey (anyone remember that movie? It's pretty accurate and funny) at first...I went to my mother, gave her my cigarettes, and said "I'm a non smoker now, you can put these away for me."...and she looked at me with that look that only mothers have, and said "Mmm hmm...ok." I made it almost 6 hours before I (quite logically, to me at the time) thought I should probably kill someone for their smokes. The addiction had me...hard. Luckily for my mum, she'd put my cigarettes where they could be easily reached in the case of my spectacular cold turkey failure, which of course, inevitably happened.

Two months later I tried the gum. I told Cee over the phone that I was quitting, and he said "Uh huh" in sort of an unbelieving tone, which to be honest, kind of pissed me off (it could have been the beginnings of nicotine withdrawal) and I thought, "Do I really want to quit for this guy?!" (still notice I'm not quitting because smoking is so horribly bad for me, but because Cee doesn't smoke) Anyway, I managed to make it through the first 24 unbelievably horrible hours and I knew...I just knew I was going to be successful. And every time I started to think about having a cigarette, I just tried to remember how horrible quitting felt, the shakes, the irritability, the wanting to kill people for their cigarettes, the uncontrollable heaving sobs...and I stayed not smoking. Now the gum (Nicorette Gum, to be specific) can be a double-edged sword....some people cannot stand the taste--I didn't mind it. Some people actually get addicted to the gum--I didn't like it that much. About a month or so after I quit, I stopped chewing the gum. Fast forward to 9 years and some months later and I am still smoke free. I don't miss it really, although I can smell it from about 50 feet away and sniff wistfully at times, and my eyes get all glassy with the fond, fond memories.... I do, however, dream about smoking. All the time...almost every night in fact. It's always the same...whatever dream I'm having, all of a sudden I stop and light up a smoke, and get about half-way through it, feeling absolutely wonderful. Then I panic, thinking "Oh no...I quit smoking...I can't have this!!" Then I look around sneakily and think, "Oh well, it's only one, it doesn't make me a smoker again." and then whatever other dreams I'm having continue. I think I have this dream for at least two reasons; 1. Because I know in my heart if I had even one cigarette, I'd be up to a pack a day in about a week. and 2. at least in my dreams I can still enjoy me my smokes...It truly is a hard addiction to break.

Sometimes I like to think that someone up there sent me my beloved Cee just to get me to stop smoking...and I got a pretty good deal in the trade.

Now on to things knitting and crocheting and fibre related, since it is World Wide Knit In Public Day...or something like that. For me, that's pretty much every day, since I drag my stuff everywhere, but I suppose not everyone is as wrapped up in this addiction as I am. (gee, do you think I've got an addictive personality or what?)

Cee's mum brought me an Avon catalogue a few days ago, pointed to a picture of socks with no toes (Spa Socks, they called them) and said "Do you think you could make me these?" and I of course said "Absolutely!!" and so I found the Pedicure socks pattern on Knitty.

I took some liberties here...she wanted them to wear in bed to keep her heels warm, so I used some baby wool I'd been gifted instead of the recommended Patons Merino, and I went down a needle size. I also ribbed all the way down the leg and the instep, because my MIL has very dainty ankles and narrow feet (lucky wench). She likes them, and they went fast because of the thicker yarn.

Then because I don't have enough projects going, I decided to start a new knitting bag. I'm using the "Mrs. Weasley's Bag of Stitch Witchery" pattern from Charmed Knits. I played around with colours and came up with a combination I thought was utterly brilliant, and I revelled in my cleverness, my ability to create something unique...then I went on Ravelry and found at least two other people had come up with the exact combination...great minds...

This is the centre front panel of the bag, which seems to be going quickly. Something tells me though that the rest of the bag will take me a while, since my right thumb has been giving me some weird pains, so I'm going to try to stay away from the needles and hooks for a while and give the paws a rest...don't know if I'll suffer withdrawals or not.

If you want to take a look at the Pedicure Socks pattern, you can find it a Knitty here.

If you want more info on the book, "Charmed Knits" (projects inspired by Harry Potter), click here.

a head's up...

2008-06-09T13:15:00.004-04:00

(Subtitled: "Who the Eff does she think she is, anyway??")

Just a little bitty note to say that I've changed my author name on this blog to Kiki instead of Kay...to cut down the confusion....if that makes any sense....When I started the blog I didn't want to use my real name so I used the first initial of my name, which is K...phonetically spelled; "Kay"...but then I started leaving comments on people's blogs and such and used my name; "Kiki" (still not my official "real" name) which is what most of my friends and family call me, but it would come up "Kay" as well...so sometimes people weren't sure who I was, and perhaps thought that I was at the least Bipolar, and at the most suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder...which if you ask the people closest to me, they might say the jury could probably still out on that one....

Aaaanyway....I answer to most anything (with a few naughty exceptions), so you can still call me Kay if you want, or Kiki, or Weirdo...whatever gets you through the night...it's allright, it's allright.

hawt

2008-06-07T16:12:00.003-04:00

Here I go again....it's H-O-T hot outside! Wasn't I just complaining about all the snow we had? Wasn't I also just complaining that I whine about the weather too much? With the Humidex (that is a fancy way of saying "it's effing muggy!" or "close" as my mum used to say), the temperature today is 42 degrees (somewhere in the neighbourhood of 106 for all the Fahrenheiters)...which is waaay too hot for my aging circus-fat arse. I think I got about twenty minutes of sleep last night, which is more than the dogs had. You'd think, being a relatively smart person (shut up, I am so!) that perhaps I (or 'we', Cee makes decisions sometimes, too) would have turned on that most-appreciated invention called "Central Air" (Did you hear the Halleluiah chorus ring out when you read 'central air'? I did...) but no, our cheap, stubborn old hides refuse to accept the need for air conditioning this soon, after all it's only the beginning of June, for heck's sake....and if I'm honest, I'm not even used to having Central Air ("Ahhh-Ahh" Angels singing) in my house, since where I grew up, nobody has a/c in their house, because when you live close to mountains, you just don't need it, and there's no humidity (it really isn't the heat, it is the humidity that kills you--the cliche is right).

I appreciate all the kind words about the purely evil beehive tea cozy...it's still working well, so the practical side of me can't bring myself to do away with it...and it's starting to grow on me...like mould.

On a happier front, I completed a crocheted Care Bear, see if you can guess which one. This is for a very special, but usually grumpy boy, who shall remain nameless, although one of his nicknames is Misery Guts:

A fun and relatively easy pattern. Again, the devil is always in the details. In this case, they are done in size 10 thread, with the exception of the eyes & eyelashes, which are felt, so if you aren't comfortable working with the tiny steel crochet hooks, I suppose you could try doing them in felt as well, you'd just have to take an educated guess at the sizes of the nose/foot pads and the tummy symbols. They also have a little red heart on their backsides, which I'm told mimics the actual Care Bears (I was a little bit old for that craze way back when).

When the heat comes, I usually take out the thread and my steelies, and after taking a bit of time to get used to the thin-ness of the thread and the insanely small hooks, I am addicted to thread crochet again, it doesn't take long.

This is by far my favourite bookmark pattern, by the talented Cupcake, and is a free pattern on her blog, Crochetroo. Stop by and see her other creations, she is really gifted.

just a flyby

2008-05-31T15:59:00.003-04:00

A quick post, with no pictures today. I will share that the hideous thing I was making in the previous post is now complete, and not really any the less hideous for being completed. Some day I may be brave enough to post a picture, when it stops making me retch...I really don't want to subject you good people to it....if it weren't for the fact that Cee keeps telling me "it's really not that bad, you know...." and it's practical I would probably not only throw it away, but cut it to shreds first...I've got you scratching your heads now, don't I? Oh, okay, just don't say I didn't warn you....hope you don't have an easy gag reflex....

Did I make you cry? I'm really sorry.....Yes, okay, it's supposed to be a beehive tea cozy...In my defence, (and I suppose I need one) the picture in the magazine (Creative Knitting May '08) looked so cute and kitschy and fun and even practical (Cee, being English, will drink a minimum of two pots of tea a day) that how could I go wrong? Well it went....wrong.....I suppose maybe the thing that bothers me (other than everything) are the colours don't really gel, the pink daisies remind me of weird-looking spiders, the leaves don't really look like leaves, the bee buttons are cute but I think they look stupid....and that 'beehive'...with its hateful loose purl stitches....arrrrgh!!!!

There is no denying the practicality of it...it keeps the teapot scorching hot, the secret is this kicky quilted lining:

And I only broke two sewing machine needles making it, too....cursed. from. the. start.

I also wanted to put up the link for the Ballband Discloth pattern, since I received some inquiries. That pattern is in the Mason Dixon Knitting book along with a few other nice ones, but the Canadian Living Site has it excepted on their page, and you can get it by clicking right here.

That's it for now, told you it would be short. I just hope none of you have nightmares now....

fear and loathing

2008-05-25T16:49:00.006-04:00

Something happened to me the other day that I never in a million years ever expected would happen; I actually experienced total hatred of something I was knitting....it came on gradually as I was making it, but with each row it grew and grew until by the end it was all that I could do to keep from taking the scissors to it:

After it was all cast off and finished, I just tossed it into my basket, I couldn't stand to look at it anymore. I won't tell you what it is supposed to be, just in case I hurl it into a flaming fire pit to become a ball of melted acrylic. Barring that, there's a few more things that need to be done to it before it's technically finished, if it ever makes it that far. The day after the tossing, I looked at it and still thought it was pure evil. I'm not sure why I hated it so much, sure it's acrylic, and some people would argue that's basis enough, but I think it had a little to do with the fact that I knit it on double pointed needles, and got horrible ladders going up the whole way.

Can you see them? They are right in the middle of the picture...I was frustrated because I seem to have been able to correct the ladder problem on knit stitches, but no matter what I tried (and I tried a lot of things, including cursing violently) I couldn't get rid of those hateful loose stitches on the purling rows. In the end I tried to 'borrow' a little from each side of the offending stitches to make it less noticable, but trust me, this picture is kind, you can see the ladders all the way up and down in the 3 places where the needles met. If any of you smarter more experienced knitters have any helpful advice for me I would greatly appreciate it. At one point during the madness I said to Cee that I think I may have reached the pinacle of my knitting abilities and I may not be able to get any better, and he helpfully suggested I should take a break from knitting...oh, he's a funny one, allright. Does it make me crazy that I finished it even though I was hating it so much? Memo to self: Remember, it's supposed to be fun and relaxing....I know, try not to laugh to hard at that one...

Yesterday I busied myself making a few of these little guys

Which, if I don't decide to hurl out the offending thing, are actually part of it...it's a little leaf, or it wants to be anyway.

I've been doing a little Spring cleaning knitting, getting rid of a lot of my kitchen cotton yarn in the most fun way I know how:

No matter how many of these I make I never seem to have any for myself....but it doesn't bother me, I just like making them.

I've been looking out at the garden lately, at all the weeds...weeds seem to be the only things we can grow with any consistency (aside from my tomato plants last year). Our area has prohibited spraying herbicides and pesticides here, so we have copious amounts of dandelions, which I actually think are quite pretty, especially when you whizz by them on the side of the roads, but they do play havoc with my allergies.

Our local news station published a 'natural weed killer' recipe that is eco-friendly and I of course was immediately skeptical and thought cynical thoughts about how all this 'earth friendly' 'green' and 'organic' stuff is just getting too trendy for words, and no-one really cares about the planet but they are all just slapping 'green' on stuff to sell it and all that...and then I thought that I'd just mix up half a batch of that weed killer stuff just to try and guess what....it worked! It worked like a charm. Within about 6 hours of applying it, most of the weeds were dried up and some had actually disappeared altogether, colour me happily surprised and a little less cynical.

I'm going to pass it on to all the other wanna-be gardeners out there, give it a try and let me know if it works for you. I will preface this by saying I only tried it on the weeds that were growing in between my patio stones and near the driveway...I have a feeling if you sprayed or poured it near your precious flowers and plants, it would kill them along with the weeds, so be forewarned.

Natural Weed Killer

4 Cups White Vinegar

1/4 Cup table salt

2 Tsp Liquid Dish Soap

Mix together (it will look a little weird). You can either put into a spray bottle and spray the weeds or pour directly on them. Big weeds may need a second dose.

spring...meh...

2008-05-17T15:08:00.004-04:00

First of all, I wanted to say thanks to all the great (and obviously very smart) people who read this weird blog and gave me all the wonderful comments about my pattern for the iPod pendant, you guys rock!!

Usually this time of year is my most favourite, I love to see all the buds on the trees and all the bulbs coming up, new flowers, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm no gardener, the fact that I've managed to keep my hibiscus plant alive for 6 years now is a complete miracle to me, but man, I do love me some Spring! This year...well I suppose it's because of our extended winter, but it seems like it's not even happening this year. We went right from three feet of snow on the ground to +30 temperatures within a week...me no like. I just realized I whine about the weather a lot...feh.

Speaking of whining...wait, no don't go!...are you still with me? Well I'm about to whine a bit, not a lot, just a bit, about one of my favourite blogger/writer/knitters, the yarn harlot herself...now, I've got nothing but love for her, being a fellow Canadian and basically living in the same area of the country and being a knitter and all...but I do have a wee bone to pick....I was given a copy of "At Knit's End"...and whilst reading it I came upon a page that said something about how knitter's should stop debating eachother's knitting, there was no wrong way to knit, and that they should all stop correcting eachother and and deal with the more important issue; how wrong crochet is.

Whoa...wait...what? I'm hurt...~~not~~ really hurt by that. Unless she's kidding, in which case I'll just shut up..it's possible that was just sarcasm and I'm getting my pants in a bunch for nothing. But honestly, why's she hatin' on all the hookers anyways? When I was a kid and my grandmother was knitting slippers (with that plastic phentex yarn yet) she never looked up from her knitting and said things like "knitting is cool and cache, crochet is crap and wrong" the lady down the street who crocheted ponchos for all the little girls (it was the '70's) never said "people who knit are stupid, only smart people crochet" People either knitted, crocheted, or did both....and no one ever dissed the other. When did all the animosity start? Normally I don't really give a toss about it, I'm glad I do both, I love to do both (there's a dirty joke in there somewhere I think) although lately I have been knitting more, but I was reading a little bit of the threads on Ravelry about the debates between the two, how the knitters seemed to think the crocheters were pouting (and indeed whining) because most of the groups seemed to be catering to only knitters, when the crocheters said really there are more people who crochet (I didn't know that) and all this palaver and drama, and I was thinking it was all so very silly, and then I happened to read a book by one of my favourite bloggers and right there in black and white she says that "crochet is wrong"...I'd like to know why she thinks it's so wrong. I take umbrage, harlot...but I still love you, and in case you were kidding, I'll shut up now.

On to more pleasant things, like finished stuff....here is a knitted Humbug Bag from 101 Designer one-skein wonders I made to hold my sock projects:

I used a carabiner clip instead of the recommended ribbon as a 'handle' so that I could clip it to my purse strap to take along with me. If you think the outside is wacky with the stripy stripy patterns, check out the material I lined it with:

Does it make you say "wow"? I'm not sure what I was after (or maybe high on? j/k) when I bought the material, but it actually matches some of the colours in the bag, so I'm claiming PMS as an excuse...that and the fact that it was in the quilt remnants bin and cost practically nothing....what's that, they should have paid me to take it out of their store? well humph!! Seriously I like the bag a lot, it's perfect for holding my dpns, tape measure, yarn, whatever little things I need, plus I left a little hole at the top for the yarn to feed though.

Speaking of socks, I finished another pair, this is another pattern from "Favorite Socks" (Cable Rib) and I modified it a wee bit for my own benefit:

Next I'll search for the perfect pattern to give my gorgeous Stitch Jones yarn the justice it so richly deserves.

look, a pattern!

2008-04-26T14:53:00.009-04:00

I thought I would post my pattern for my iPod cozy/thingie, since I received a few requests for it (shut up, I did so!!) So anyway, if your mp3 player is cold or dusty, and/or you'd like to know where it is and keep it out of the way while you knit or crochet (you know, if you have a dog/cat/spouse/child/?? who sits directly beside you while you knit/crochet and you don't want to put said mp3 player in a place where it may or may not get sat upon by a curious but possibly well-meaning family member or anyone else) then read on, for I have your solution, hang it beautifully from your neck!

How to take your iPod nano (or any other mp3 player-type device, let's face it, this is highly and easily customizable) from this:

To something that may or may not look like this:

Pod Pendant (or Nano Necklace if you prefer)

Dimensions:
3 1/4" H x 2 1/2" W (again, this can be easily customized by doing a little measuring and a teensy bit of math with your tension)

Materials:

Yarn used is Bernat Handicrafter (cotton) Stripes

needles: 4.5 mm/size 7 US straights

Gauge/tension: 10 sts & 12 rows= 2 inches

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin;

Cast on 25 sts.

Work in stockinette stitch until piece measures 2 3/4". Next work 5 rows of garter stitch. Now cast off. Make sure you leave a long tail for sewing (say 12" or so) Pretty painless, right?

Now take your lovely piece of fabric and fold it in half width wise with right sides together. Sew the side seam (I like whipstitch the best, because of the name!). When you finish sewing the side seam and get to the bottom, keep going and sew up the bottom seam, leaving approximately the last 1/2" open to allow for the ear phone cord (it goes without saying (or does it?) that if your ear phones plug into the top of your player, you can just sew up the whole bottom seam, but I didn't have to tell you that, did I? 'Cause you're so smart!)

Now you have a choice to make. For the 'necklace' part, you can choose your poison and either make a 2 or 3 stitch i-cord (tutorial available at Knitting Help, link at the right, go ahead and look, I'll wait) or, in my case, use a crochet hook, attach to the right side with a sl st and chain the appropriate length (approximately 28-29"), then attach to the other side and fasten off. Now you are done, shout it from the rooftops, and enjoy your new pendant/necklace! (but don't forget to weave in the ends!)

hot fuzz

2008-04-24T18:38:00.006-04:00

Okay, just a flyby post, despite the provocative title, it's nothing risque...really I'm just excited that I finally finished the knitted Bobby (British policeman) doll for Cee. I'm happy with the way it came out, and he's pretty tickled with it, too, being that he, as a little lad in England, used to have a policeman's outfit to play in....let's face it, we're both just a couple of ~~giant~~ big kids:

In a word, to sum up the pattern, I'd say fiddly...lots of little details, but ultimately a fun knit, and it only took me almost a year to make!! (mostly because I put it down to hibernate more often than I picked it up to work on it.) For anyone interested in the details, the pattern came from Jean Greenhowe's Mascot Dolls, which has some other really cute patterns in it.

"Eere..wot's all this, then?! Nothing to see here...move along, move along..."

overwhelmed

2008-04-12T16:16:00.006-04:00

How awesome is this??!

The very awesome and talented Sharon of Chickenlips Knitting and Stitchjones fame sent me some glorious, beautiful, wonderful yarn!! Check out that gorgeous colourway, "La Villa Strangiato"--could you die? Don't you just want to reach out and touch it? Don't worry, I'll do it for you...it's so soft and yummy (I promise I didn't try to eat it, but it IS yummy!) This will be turned into a beautiful pair of socks, once I find a pattern worthy of it's awesomeness.

And look what else she sent, a pretty little hand-made stitch marker!

This little beauty is already being put to use! Thank you Sharon, you are such a sweetie, I am truly overwhelmed!!

lions, lambs, and cats

2008-03-22T15:14:00.006-04:00

How great are all you people!! You showed such concern for me, buried as we are under giant piles of snow...I kid, really....sort of. The snow has melted a little, thank goodness. We can actually almost see over the piles to safely back out of our driveway now, which is always a plus. We passed the first official day of Spring with more snow in the air, but at this point I think everyone around here is on shovel strike, so unless a foot of it is landing, we shant be worrying about clearing the sidewalks any more this season. Really though, thanks to all of you for being so concerned, I was quite touched.

I have nothing on the F.O. front this week. I haven't worked on anything for almost a week, being so pouty about the snow and all, and it has ~~a lot~~ nothing at all to do with my spending more and more time on Ravelry, or anything to do with the fact that I have fallen in love with another man....It's shameful, self-destructive, and forbidden, but I just can't help myself, I'm a sucker for a cool loner, a rebellious type of guy:

Meet Jack, my MIL's cat...and my forbidden boyfriend. I've never been the type of gal who was a 'cat person', in fact I quite hated cats at one point in my life. When I was 14 years old, I was babysitting down the road and they had this evil ginger tom that used to jump up in my lap out of nowhere and take a swipe at my face at least twice a night. One night I was leaning over to pick up the baby to change her and the malevolent thing actually jumped me from behind and dug it's claws into my back, causing me to straighten up and scream (silently--it was like 1 am) and walk/run down the hall, ping-ponging off the walls with the thing still attached to my back, trying to bite either side of my neck. I managed to get the loathesome thing off me (got a lot more scratches and bites, too) and shoo it down into the basement and shut it in, then I called my mom and cried and told her she had to come rescue me....I still have nightmares about that one...plus I'm really quite allergic to cats...lucky for me, those people didn't go out much, and once I told them I was allergic, they made sure "Satan the-orange-haired-hell cat" was confined to the basement whenever I came over. Now I have known some really nice cats too, my best friend's cat Chevy was the nicest, most gentle cat ever--he snored louder than my dad!--and he would always lay down beside me and look up at me and put his paw on my leg as if to say "you can pet me now, so why aren't you, aren't I irresistably cute?? wouldn't you love to pet me, huh, huh???" And because of him I stopped hating all cats, but still remained, you know, cautious...even though I was grown up I was still ~~scared witless~~ allergic. You might think being allergic was an arguement, but I'm also quite allergic to dogs, and we have two of those....I digress...

Jack came to Cee's mum in an unusual way...which is to say about two years ago in the springtime, his mother decided to give birth to him and his other 2 siblings under Cee's mum's back deck, which is covered and a nice little shelter from rain (and snow!) Imagine MIL's chagrin when she realized she had a bunch of cats living under her deck! She is not particularly a cat person either, but is an animal lover and decided that she must feed and water these new "family" members....things went on, as things tend to do, and pretty soon all of the cats were gone on to greener pastures...except for one lonely kitten, who must have really enjoyed the Friskies, or whatever it was she was leaving out for him/her. But by then you see it was starting to get colder outside, and MIL decided if Kitten (he wasn't called Jack yet back then) was going to be her cat, he/she must be an indoor cat, so she patiently took her time and got close to him, he let her pet him, and would come when she called, but he would never let her pick him up (you can't be too careful, you know).

Anyway, in good time she finally got him inside, and took him to the vets, where it was determined that he was, in fact, a he, and he was given the name of Jack. Jack was very skittish at first, and he was quite unhappy about not being allowed outside, because you know, that was all he knew. Finally, Cee's mum and Jack made a bargain; she told him he could go outside as long as he came in every night, and he agreed. And even though some people (okay, me) don't think it's a good idea for him to go out---what if he doesn't come back one day? you'll be sorry then, won't you?---Jack is much happier being let out, and he always comes back in at night.

In good time and after many visits, Jack let Cee touch him and pet him, and in many more visits and even more time, I got up enough nerve and pet Jack myself, and he let me!! He even rubbed up against me and purred! And this really weird thing happened...I fell in love...with a cat!...a cat that wasn't evil and didn't spring up out of nowhere trying to scratch at my face and eyes...a cat that didn't jump on my back and try to use my skin to sharpen it's satanic claws.....well, you get the picture. Even Cee loves the cat, and he's not a 'cat person' either....and now every time I come over I threathen to put Jack in my purse and take him home...but of course I never could, the killer shih-tzu and queen collie would be most put out, I just have to settle for the odd head scratch or tummy rub. I think Jack and I are kindred spirits, because he's still pretty skittish about people, and I will always be skittish about cats. He did, however, let me pick him up the other day, much to both our amazement...

"Uh...I don't recall giving you permission to post any pictures of me...."

make. it. stop.

2008-03-15T12:52:00.003-04:00

Have you got any cheese? Because I'm going to whine about the weather--again....last time, promise...at least I hope!

It's been a winter of records, record snowfalls (we beat the one set sometime in the 1920's, you know, back in the days when they expected to be snowed in every year?) Record number days of snow (2 out of every 3 days there's been snow in the air....um great) And lastly record accumulation from a single storm...that storm being last Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday, when it did not stop snowing for about 46 hours straight...total accumulation was somewhere between 40 and 45 cm (15-17 inches), to go with the 28 cm (11'') we got the past Tuesday.

We knew it was going to be a bad one, when I opened up the door Saturday night and saw this:

I went "Hmmm...", because this is our back door/stoop, which is two steps up from the back patio, so about 2 1/2 feet up from the patio. Notice that when I opened the door I actually had to push snow back away from the door...also notice that you cannot see either steps or patio...notice also that the dog is wisely refusing to go out....later on Cee decided even though there was tons of snow still falling he should clear a bit of a path for the dogs to go out and, you know, do their thing, and when he opened the door the killer shih tzu took a run for the outside and jumped, and promptly got stuck, in the ever-growing pile of snow. Said killer mutt then started to panic a bit, because not only was the snow he was stuck in up to his ears, but his feet were not touching the ground, so all he could do was sort of hang there suspended in the snow until his fearless daddy Cee tromped out to rescue him.

On Sunday we, along with probably everybody else in the city and surrounding areas, bravely went out to dig our way through.

Here is my car, cleverly disguised as a huge pile of snow.

Here's a bit of what we faced...picture me (I know it's hard cause there's no pictures of me) up to my thighs in snow (I'm 5'2") trying to shovel down the front path so we can get our bills delivered (wait...maybe I shouldn't have done that? Crap!) We were out all day shovelling. The wonderful neighbour (bless his heart!) next door came and blew out the bottom of our driveway with his snowblower, cause the pile was up to my shoulders and would have taken us hours.

Friends, the weather men actually had the nerve to tell us all that it wasn't over either! We are getting more snow yet this winter (Spring starts next week officially)...we actually got another 3" this past Tuesday...we didn't even bother trying to shovel it, because there's no where to put it.

All of this snow has made alot of people crazy here...they are calling it "snow rage"...there was a story of a man in Quebec that saw the snow plow coming down his street, so he went and got his shotgun and when the guy came close to his driveway he actually pointed it at the guy and told him if he plowed any more snow into the bottom of his driveway he was going to kill him....while I'm sure we've all secretly thought about doing this (especially when they do it more than once in a week!), I can't imagine someone actually doing it...they are blaming the weather, but I think it's just people behaving badly...maybe it's the preservatives...or the reality tv...I'm up for suggestions.

Meantime you'd think I'd be finishing a ton of knitting or crocheting projects, since we were snowed in and all, but really all I wanted to do was lay in the fetal position in bed and drink hot chocolate in between whining and sucking my thumb.

all things ootsy

2008-02-24T17:45:00.004-05:00

Two posts in two days...am I sick or something? Yes! I've got Oscar Fever!!! NOT. Since when did it become a 12-hour ~~ordeal~~ event anyway?

Feh, who cares anymore, all anyone wants to see is who's wearing the worst dress, or who's looking anorexic or pregnant. Bah, I say.

Bootie Call....

Now there's a movie that never won an Oscar, but in my case it refers to my further experimentations with the allegorical baby bootie booklet. Alliteration aside, here's the pics I promised yesterday.

There's no place like home:

These were fun, called Little Red Sandals, this test is the small, the sole measures around 3 1/2 inches, which would probably be the famous 0-3 months size.

Shoot the duck:

Honestly I question the practicality of these, but couldn't you DIE from the cuteness? Can't you just hear "Funkytown" or "Dancing Queen" playing in the background while all the other cool teens & tweens skate circles around you in your satin jacket and your jeans rolled up so everyone can see your long rainbow socks with the individual toes?? Yes, I was a child of the '70's, but unfortunately I never owned either a satin jacket (much to my chagrin) or knee-high rainbow socks with the individual toes....hey man, I wasn't even teen aged until the '80s...

Seriously though, a word of advice to anyone planning to make these far-out and funky skates: make the wheels first and sew them on when you're on round 2 or 3 of the boot...trust me, you will save yourself one heck of a lot of frustration.

all things cutesy

2008-02-23T13:20:00.003-05:00

When is Spring going to get here already? I'm not one to complain, (insert snort of disbelief here) and I know being Canadian I'm supposedly expected to be used to mountains of snow and freezing cold temperatures, but come on already! My aging brain cannot recall such a snowy year in all my days. Not that I don't adore shovelling snow mind you, and I wouldn't dream of letting Cee do it all himself, we're neither of us spring chickens anymore. I mean who doesn't love huffing and puffing away in the freezing cold, trying to lift huge shovel-fuls of snow (and then finding places to put said snow--I'm not kidding, the piles along our driveway were topping out at 8 feet!) hoping you don't have a massive heart attack and drop dead on the sidewalk, only to be found--and ultimately ignored--by your passing neighbours, cursing the ~~pricks~~ smart people on your block who had the foresight to buy a kickass snowblower last Spring or Summer and are out there practically gloating over their superior intelligence, even lowering themselves to doing their adjoining neighbour's sidewalks, before jauntily waving at you from across the street and flouncing back inside where it's warm, while you continue struggling to lift the damn shovel and wait for the snow plow to come down the street--again!!--and kick up all the ice into the bottom of your driveway....now come on, doesn't that sound like just too much fun?

Oh, and dear neighbour across the street: if you hire the kid down the block to use his 4-wheeler with the shovel on the front to plow all the snow out of your driveway across the road and into the bottom of my driveway one more stinkin' time, I'll have to come over there and get medieval on your old crazy ass!

Anyway, enough of that, did I lose you with my whining? If not, here's some of the things I've been doing lately....

I have another friend who is due this April, so I thought I'd get the needles out and make a little something or two, or more, you know what it's like. She's having a boy, so I went traditional.

Above is a raglan cardigan made from a pattern in a vintage book Cee's mum gave me from the UK. Nothing too challenging about this one, the interesting thing about it was you make the button and buttonhole bands seperately and sew them on--pain in the ass, but I think it's cute.

Then I wanted to make a hat, so I searched high and low and finally settled on a little cabled one, which I found in the Knitting Pattern-a-day Calendar:

This made up in only a couple hours, so what's not to love about that? Wanna know something really freaky? These two patterns were made with the exact same yarn, yet see how different they look in the pictures....does that seem right to you?

Then for giggles I made up another pair of the ubiquitous sneaker booties:

Everybody seems to like those.

Then I took the pattern book (which is appropriately called, Baby Bootie Boutique) and was bored, so I tried out another pattern--that's what I do sometimes when I've got a spare minute (read: not very often)...I sit there and think "Hey, I wonder if I could make this pattern?" and then I try it, just because. So I did this:

Cue Rick James singing "....do you love me, Maryjane?"...I really liked this little one, but only made one just to see how it would come out....and as soon as Cee's mum saw it, she snagged it for her miniature shoe collection--what can I say, the woman loves shoes.

I tried a couple more, so I shall post the pictures next time (read: I forgot my camera). Mean time I shall be looking skyward for any signs of the big melt, and out my window in case I've got to go across the street and have a "friendly chat" with Old Crazy.

yikes

2008-02-09T14:05:00.001-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged...well I sort of can. Not to worry though, nothing major going on, except huge snow storms (like 3 in the last week alone) and Winter blahs, plus a milestone birthday...I won't say how old I am, but let's just say there may or may have not been a 4 and an 0 in the number...you figure it out.

Been knitting socks like a fiend for some reason...can't figure out why since I can't wear them (except for the ankle ones I make, those are okay) I just keep finding these gorgeous patterns and want to make them...luckily my niece is a sock lover and doesn't mind getting new pairs.

This represents my first finished fair isle project...I did start a Christmas stocking first, but that is still on the needle...This pattern is from the Fall issue of Interweave Knits, and the pattern is by Chrissy Gardiner. I really loved this pattern!! I can't believe how fast it worked up and it was so gratifying to finish!

I know, I can't get anything past you guys...you are correct, there is only one there. Well, there's a story to that, but suffice it to say I didn't use the recommended yarn, and when this one was finished it was plain that no regular person would be able to get their leg into it....did you know that fair isle knitting doesn't have a lot of give to it? Live and learn. I will have to procure some of the proper stuff and try again. LOVE this pattern though!!

MILESTONE

Yes, I ~~was horrified to turn~~ celebrated a large milestone birthday in January. Cee told me to write out a list of things I might like for my birthday (I wrote things like "to be 20 again" even though I don't mean it, but still...) and some other things, but settled on this:

Yup, we lept into the new century and Cee got me an ipod...me likey. My ~~condenscending~~ helpful nephew offered to set it up for me, but this old boot figured it out for herself. And then the intrepid fibre artist in me just had to make a case for it...I wanted something that would keep it safe from the dogs and out of the way while I knit, so I decided to make a Pod Pendant, or Nano Necklace if you prefer.

Now I can crochet or knit and listen to all my faves.

I did write this pattern down as I was making it, so if anyone's interested I can post it. Just let me know.

mockery

2008-01-12T14:58:00.000-05:00

So believe it or not, all the snow that was in the last photos has melted, in like a day and a half...almost two feet of snow was on the ground, and in less than two days it was gone...very strange weather we are having indeed. Last week, there was a tornado up north...in January? and we've had rain off and on with thunderstorms, and of course flooding because of the massively quick melt. As I sit, there is not a trace of any snow or ice anywhere in site, and the temperatures have been in the teens (that's celcius...think about 50-60 degrees F.) for the last week and a half. Dead of winter? or Death of Winter? I don't mind telling you friends, I am finding this all a little frightening.

I finally finished Cee's Christmas socks (yeah, I know but better late than never). He likes them, at least he said he does, and even modelled them for me and for your viewing pleasure:

Check out them sexy pins.

This pattern is from Favorite Socks by Interweave Press, and it's the Mock Wave Cable pattern, which should have been a dawdle, but turned into a great learning experience for me, because in my haste to complete them for Christmas, I not only knit the foot too short and finished the toe and grafting before I realized it, I started the second sock with the wrong size needles and knit 4 inches of the leg before I wised up. So I had to pull out the second sock and restart it, but decided to let Cee try on the 'finished' one so he could see, and then I saw that it was too short...and then I said a few swear words, one of them being bugger, and another being bollocks, and a phrase that may or may not have rhymed with 'clucking bell'. and I put that sock aside to be pulled apart.

I really thought I'd just end up yanking the whole thing out if I could even manage unpick the grafting stitches, because I didn't think I'd be able to rip it back to the end of the foot and get it back on the needles without yanking out all my hair and running out into the street screaming, but low and behold I did it! And with very little cursing or wringing of hands or hair pulling.

They fit now and that's all that matters, and now Cee has his Christmas socks, just like Mr. Bean.

clean slate

2008-01-04T12:20:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and happy new year celebrations? Honestly for me, it seems like it all happened so fast it never happened at all. Why is it when you are a kid it takes forever for Christmas to get here already and when you grow up it seems like it happens every two months, or is it just me? My head is spinning.

Our new year's eve was a quiet affair, which is just the way we like it. We thankfully said goodbye to 2007, which in all honesty was a really horrible year for Cee's family in particular, and so for us as well, so many odd and horrid things happened, we were just happy to see the back of it, frankly. I feel hopeful for 2008, which typically is not in my character. Cee is remaining cynical as usual. I couldn't help but feel my incongruous light-hearted outlook was warranted when the very first thing I saw on January first was this view from our upstairs window:

The picture does not do it justice, literally everything was covered in white. A beautiful clean slate to start the new year. Not a car or person in site, just snow blanketing everything I could see. I was awestruck and felt a real sense of peace and calm...for like two minutes...until I remembered that someone would have to shovel all that....stuff....and then I remembered that Cee was sick and that 'someone' would, in fact, be me, and then I felt like doing what the killer shih-tzu did when he got his first peek at the snow:

If you can't make it out, he's cocking his leg, not even a foot away from the back step, which was good, because if he'd ventured out much further he'd have been stuck or perhaps have disappeared. Happy New Year.

P.S.--I don't normally make a habit of photographing the dog peeing, really I don't.

the most wonderful time of the year?

2007-12-22T15:24:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and yes I will say Merry Christmas(although the P.C. police will probably pull me over for that, but what the heck) to all you faithful readers, and everyone else who stumbles upon my weird corner of the universe. I probably won't have the chance or much time to post again this year, but you never do know.

I decided to showcase some flakes on the tree this year, and then realized that I gave away most of the ones I made, so it's a bit of a "Minimalist" theme. Oh well, it's less to take off I suppose.

I'll probably be working on the endless list of WiPs that I have during the festivities, when I'm not baking or cooking or doing any of the other millions things you have to do around this time of the year, two of my current projects are pictured below:

This is a cable & bobble scarf, that when complete is supposed to be for me, but there have already been mentions of it being stolen, so who knows.

And just in time to not be completed for Christmas:

The inevitable nordic Christmas stocking, which is my first official Fair Isle project--fun but time consuming, and of course I find myself overly critical about the stitches and keep unravelling...oh well, perhaps Cee will be able to hang it up next Christmas?

So have a wonderful time with your family and friends, make sure you eat and drink too much, laugh too loud and dance really goofy, but if you see one of these little guys cavorting your way during your merry making,

Perhaps it's time to call a cab.

Ho Ho Ho and all that stuff. See you all next year!

fair and foul

2007-12-01T15:13:00.001-05:00

Okay, so don't laugh...or do laugh, it's completely up to you...I decided the other day to try something I'd been scared to do...don't ask me why, I just figured it was going to be beyond my capabilities as a somewhat new knitter. Anywho, as I was saying, the other day I got it in my head to try something scary, and that something scary-ish was fair isle knitting. Now, I'm not that seasoned a knitter, and from what I can tell, and what I've read and been told, knitting fair isle is usually done in the round, so I took my little chart, (of which I'm also not that experienced in using in either crochet or knit) some yarn and I sat down and here's what came out:

I actually had to look up how to carry yarn across in knitting, because I just had no idea (I can hear those snickers and snorts you know!) I know how to in crochet of course, but...well anyway, I was excited that it turned out--sort of--but wondered if the back side was really supposed to look like this:

And then I said out loud (to myself, 'cause that's what I do) "Oh, I guess that's why fair isle is usually done in the round"...??)

I decided like this fair isle stuff, I just may try it again.

Since our foul weather seems to be sticking around, and because I thought they were just too cute, I knitted myself a pair of the 'Subway Mittens' featured in the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits.

Because you just can never have enough mitts...

snow squalls

2007-11-24T15:06:00.000-05:00

Alas, the inevitable has happened...we have our first snow of the year...well the first "permanent" snow anyway. It's quite cold out too, which, I suppose, goes along with the whole snow thing, but it's still a bit of a shock, seeing as how we've had an insanely warm, even hot Fall this year. With the snow comes the annual parade of "people who forget how to drive on snow" accidents--you would think most people who have lived in a northerly clime most or all of their lives would remember that ice is slippery--and news of people keeling over whilst shovelling snow...fun stuff.

Anywho, I have been churning out thread flakes like there's no tomorrow, mostly for giving purposes, here's a look at a few:

In case you are wondering, yes, they are all the same...an impossibility in Nature as it were, so let's just call it a craft anomaly, which is merely me using the same pattern because it was easier than switching between four or five different ones, especially when you have a bunch to make.

In between crafting the snow storm in my living room, and dealing with everything else that life can throw at a person, I managed to procure Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts magazine, and even though the practicality of this is a leetle bit dubious in my mind, couldn't resist making one of the garter mug cosies:

The reason I questioned the practicality is because I figured this would have to be thrown in the wash all the time (especially if the person who is using the mug/cosy is me) and I think the pattern actually called for 100% wool...which went completely against my better judgment, so I just used some of 'me old suckrylic' I had hanging around, and I think it looks purty good if I do say so myself...I won't say what Cee thought of it...only that he asked me to please not make a 'diaper' for his cup, too. That is Tigger (Tee Eye Double Guh Err) on the cup, by the way, I'm not exactly sure how he feels about it, he's not talking.

meme-ories

2007-11-14T16:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I got tagged by Sharon for a new meme, thank you Sharon! I know I'm definitely not that interesting, but here goes:

38 things about me that you may or may not want to know: (38, really?)

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night? Cee, definitely, he makes me laugh all the time, it's one of the things I love about him most.

2. What were you doing at 0800? Today? Most everyday I'm drinking a coffee and debating whether to eat breakfast...thrilling, I know.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Chatting with my mother-in-law and her sister about 'Dancing with the Stars'--one of their fave programs...I can take it or leave it....mostly leave it.

4. What happened to you in 2006? Nothing horrific, thank God.

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? "I think I'll make myself a coffee"...to no-one in particular.

6. How many beverages did you have today? 2 coffees, 1 glass water so far.

7. What color is your hairbrush? Silver with black bristles.

8. What was the last thing you paid for? Umm...groceries last night...again with the thrilling...

9. Where were you last night? At home, where I should be....where were you?

10. What color is your front door? Light brown (think coffee with lots of cream).

11. Where do you keep your change? In a change purse, and an old tin from Harrod's dept. store (no, not the one in London, the one in the Toronto International Airport)

12. What’s the weather like today? Overcast, windy but warm, especially warm for the middle of November.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? Heavenly Hash.

14. What excites you? I'm such a geek, I get excited when I figure out a knitting pattern that was giving me trouble--really it doesn't take much.

15. Do you want to cut your hair? Define cut...if you mean 'off' as in all of it, no...well periodically I do, but other than that I settle for the odd trim.

16. Are you over the age of 25? Let's go with yes...I'll even admit to being 29...for the umpteenth year in a row.

17. Do you talk a lot? Yes, especially to myself.

18. Do you watch the O.C.? Do I watch the O.C. do what? Let's go with no...didn't they take that off the air anyway?

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? Yes, several anyones in fact.

20. Do you make up your own words? All the time, especially when I'm talking to myself.

21. Are you a jealous person? Yes, unfortunately.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’. Anne (with an E).

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’. Kari

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? Cee, always.

25. What does the last text message you received say? Something from the cel provider about minutes or some crap like that.

26. Do you chew on your straw? Eww...no...when I was 5 years old I cut the roof of my mouth really badly with a straw whilst drinking a Dairy Queen chocolate shake (don't ask how...suffice it to say I was clumsy then and I'm clumsy now) and so from then on I've had a strained relationship with straws...

27. Do you have curly hair? Most definitely, it keeps getting curlier as I get older too, no matter what I do.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to? Well, other than the fact that my inner grammar teacher is going to automatically correct that sentence for ending with a preposition, I suppose the next place I'm going to will be home.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? Other than my inner grammar teacher? My brother, he is the biggest, rudest snob I know.

30. What was the last thing you ate? A turkey-bacon & tomato sannywich for lunch.

31. Will you get married in the future? Already there.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? The Monster Squad (how's that for a blast from the past??!) on DVD.

33. Is there anyone you like right now? I like lots of people and animals, too.

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? This morning...oh. so. thrilling.

35. Are you currently depressed? Does it get dark at night? Seriously, something I've had to fight all my life...you know what they say about the tears of a clown...

36. Did you cry today? No...but the day's not over yet.

37. Why did you answer and post this? I had a discussion with myself and we I decided 'what the heck'

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey. Arrgh, here I must protest...I say if you are reading it and you feel like doing it, go for it.

i said i'd do it

2007-11-10T15:36:00.001-05:00

And so I have...although now some could argue that this post is 'image heavy'...sigh, you can't please all the people all the time I guess.

Here's some of the things I've been making lately, starting with the weirdest (in my opinion, anyway) This is a little mini sweater I made (pattern taken from the Charmed Knits Harry Potter book, I can't recall the real title at this particular moment in time--I blame my ever aging and decreasing brain cells--but the author of it is Alison Hansel):

The tape measure is there for perspective, but then you knew that, didn't you? These little sweaters are meant to be Christmas ornies...I made it cause I was bored watching tv one night and wanted to see if I could do it...which is basically the reason why I choose to knit most everything I make, not 'cause I'm bored, but to see if I can...I also wanted to try some duplicate stitch fair isle....you can see by the lack of said duplicate stitch that I suck at it...one of these days I shall perfect it.

Next is a pair of knucks which I finally got around to embroidering:

I just used some contrast yarn with back stitch, since the embroidery floss I tried didn't seem to work, and I suck worse at embroidery than I do at duplicate stitch. Still, I think I did okay, seeing how it was freehand. For the non-knitters out there, these seemingly meaningless letters and numbers are actually knitterspeak for a decreasing term; Slip 1, Knit 1, Pass Slipped Stitch Over. I was debating on doing "knit hook" to also show my crochet pride, or some other oddity, but in the end went with this, and I must say, they have garnered me some strange looks from the 'straights' in the real world, which I secretly love...what can I say, I'm a weirdo in real life, too.

The month of October truly was Socktober for me this year, as I found myself knitting a sack full of socks:

Here is pictured one partially (now fully completed) pair, I have at least 4 others completed last month, all for me to wear in the house this Winter--where else could I wear a pair of socks like this?!

Lastly (and some could really argue the weird factor here) I have pictured a sweater, hat and booties which I made for a little doll. Now, I've seen some people use dolls to model their baby outfits, and I know the general consensus is that it can be a little creepy, but since I made this specifically for the doll, I think they'd give me a break:

I tried my hand at designing here...I took patterns for actual babies and 'smalled' them down...adapted here and redesigned there. All in all I think it turned out pretty cute.

And so there are a few of the things I've been doing lately. I actually have many more pictures, and hopefully can keep posting them here and there.

P.S.--check out Sharon's blog for some really cute knitty Christmas ornies! They are too cute for words!!

bear with me

2007-11-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

Talk about procrastination, we are still without computer, and like my old favourite literary character Blanche DuBois, we seem to be relying on the kindness of strangers...well...not strangers, but Cee's mum, by which I mean we stop by her place to visit and check email once in a while, but tis a little difficult to compose the usual witty (yeah, right, dream on) and insightful blog posts when you are on the clock and being watched (however innocently), much less upload the infinitely crappy pictures of all my obsessively knit or crocheted projects...don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful she lets us make use of her computer, it must be hard to share.

One of these days we shall make up our collective minds and make a decision on some kind of computer-type device...until then, bear with me.

I promise next time to post pics of some really neato things...well hopefully!

after much anticipation,

2007-10-27T18:03:00.000-04:00

and a large amount of requests, I am overjoyed to present an image of the recipient of the epic ghan of graph. Dearest blog readers, I give you Gavin Joseph:

Born October 10, 2007 at a very healthy 9 lbs, 1 oz, but I told you that before. If I'm not mistaken, this picture was taken the day he came home from hospital, so he is two days old here, but already he appears to have very good taste in hats...GO FLAMES GO!!! What can I say, it's our game. He is wrapped up in a blanket not made by yours truly, so hence it is not also a picture of the ghan of graph, but it's nice all the same.

spooky

2007-10-12T17:23:00.000-04:00

Okay, so remember how in my last post I said that the great expectation was imminent, possibly happening as I was typing....well I must be psychic, cause little mommy had her baby at 1:05 p.m. on Wednesday, October 10...virtually as I was typing that very blog entry!.....shiver me timbers...how spooky is that?? I think I should start an exciting new career as a knitting medium...I'll have it knitted before you even realize you wanted it....

In any case, mucho congrats to Grammy Pammy on her first grandson, Gavin Joseph, who tipped the scales at 9 lbs 1 oz....and much love and empathy to his mommy, who should be congratulated not only for her new son, but for being one hell of a trouper for pushing out that giant baby!

epic

2007-10-10T10:51:00.000-04:00

Well, now that the great expectation out west is imminent, possibly happening as I type, and now that the epic 'ghan of graph' has been sent and is quite possibly being received today by the infamous post system, I suppose I can finally post the crappy pictures I took of my first charted picture afghan. Adapted from a vintage filet thread crochet pattern for a carriage cover (although the practical side of me wonders why anyone would want a carriage cover made out of thread, but maybe I'm thinking carriage cover in some other permutation than it was originally intended back in the day of vintage thread filet patterns), anyway, I digress:

Here's the full frontal view:

And here's the close up views of the panels, such as they are:

The back is, mercifully, exactly the same as the front, except, you know, mirrored. There was much swearing and cramping of hands involved in this, but happily it is done and sent, and hopefully will be well received. Can you guess the sex of the baby??

Perhaps when Grammy Pammy receives this and baby is finally born (we are now 10 days over due and new little mommy is getting understandably cranky) and home, she might take mercy on me and post some decent pictures of Epic on her website...but no pressure...hint hint.

don't faint, i've got pictures!

2007-09-22T19:06:00.000-04:00

Well hello there, it's me, Kiki's digital camera...I've been lonely for a long time because the computer that once so willingly accepted my images has gone to wherever over-priced computers go when they crap out. In any case, she finally got her stuff together and took me in to a place that could get my images off and put them on a cd....never mind the fact that the tech at the store said my memory card was 'so old she'd never seen one like it'--sheesh!--here's some pictures that Kiki took over the last few weeks...maybe I'll be getting replaced soon along with the computer, who knows...

Okay, enough of my camera's musings, here's a couple of pictures of my Mr. Bean-inspired bear I made a while back, here he is, lovingly named Legume:

As you can see by the DVDs, which we own, we are not fans of the show at all. Here's a bit of a close-up on his face and features:

I know what you're saying...Mr's Bean's bear had dark eyes, or sometimes no eyes at all depending on which show you were watching, but this was my preference, so I claim artistic license. He was shamefully easy to make, being that he is almost all garter stitch, and I found the pattern over at Knitting Pattern Central for anyone else who must now have teddy. A word on yarn choice, the pattern is written for dk weight and I used worsted, so my resulting bear is a little larger than the original, but it's just more of him to love.

And now some of my experimental tomatoes, of which the count is over 200, and a few more to come, so yes, 'The Great 'Mater Experiment' of 2007 has been successful, even resulting in a few conjoined tomatoes:

And here's a picture of the first 3 tomatoes that were harvested this year.

And I do have more pictures, but I'll just save them for another time. It's good to be posting images again.

just checking in...

2007-08-31T19:58:00.000-04:00

That is all, thanks, bye. Or maybe not all, since everyone who knows me knows I tend to talk or write people's ears off...of course that's only if I know them...but I suppose the innernets is just like having 20 million bestest friends anyway, right? Yeah, I know, like that many people would ever read this blog....

One of these days ~~when we finally get another computer~~ when l figure out how to get the pictures off my digital camera without the software (maybe take it to a store or something? DUH!) and then I can post all of pictures of the the inanely trivial things I tend to photograph. I know you are just dying to see them, aren't you?

The epic "ghan of graph" is--dare I say it?--almost complete. No really, despite the self-destructive perfectionist urge I have to make it just a little bit larger--can you believe it, the single crochet stitches made it just a skosh smaller than I thought?! I can't win with this, can I?--I shall not rip it a second time...that is what borders are for, to make the blanket just that little bit bigger. Despite the love/hate relationship I have developed with this thing, I must say some little part of me does think it's quite cute. I'll still be happy to have it done and out of the house, I'm just sayin'.

a great big pain in the...hand

2007-08-15T19:05:00.000-04:00

Have you ever worked on something for what seems like ages, and then all of a sudden you come to an awful realization, say like you made a mistake near the beginning of a loong scarf or something and didn't notice until you were almost finished? In my case, I worked over a third of a graph afghan and realized that it was going to be waaaay too big....

I should preface this by saying that my wonderful friend Pammy asked me a couple of months ago to make a graph pattern for her first grandbaby due in the Fall, to which I of course agreed. I started it and then promptly left it for a ~~month or so~~ few weeks to finish a few other things and such, thinking, as all procrastinators do: "Well I have until October, LOTS of time!!!" Then a couple weeks ago I realized my lots of time had ticked away, as time will do, and decided to hunker down and start seriously working on this thing....and so I did...and I worked very hard, trying to bang away 10-15 rows a night...and so my hand began to hurt--a lot--and this weekend I decided to take a day or two off from the marathon of evening crochet...and it was at this point that Cee made this innocent comment: "Gee, that's turning out to be a really big blanket...." To which I replied, "Oh.. no...wait, do you think so??" Heartsick, I tried to float down the river of denial for as long as I could, but once the idea was in my head it wouldn't get out, don't you just hate that? And after I measured and did some arithmetic (never my strong point) I figured that by the time this baby blanket was finished it was going to be over 5 feet in length without the border...I just knew I'd have to frog all 23 inches of my graph ghan in progress. Honestly it's not my fault....the pattern I have was meant for filet thread crochet, so I was kind of winging it for baby yarn, having to guess hook size and which stitch to use....Sure, I could have left it, and then maybe when it was complete, they could have used it for a hallway runner...nothing would appease me, not even Cee saying "Well, just keep this one and start them another one", to which I replied, "But then I'd have to buy more yarn..." At this point he made a noise sounding suspiciously like a scoff and said "You'd do that anyway..." Humph! No, I made the decision, took a deep breath, and started ripping. It took me most of Sunday afternoon and evening just to rip the dang thing out. I was actually nauseous, thinking about all that hard work, all those yarn strands I had to keep untwisting while I worked, and then had to do the same thing when I ripped it back out....live and learn, what can you do? And so now, a few days later, the ghan has been restarted with a smaller hook and in single crochet.....and when it is done I will be very glad to see the back of it....my hand still hurts, and time, she is not on my side...but it WILL get finished!

I harvested the first 3 tomatoes yesterday and took a picture, here it isn't:

Two of my maters were only the size of raspberries, but one was your typical cherry tomato size....they tasted pretty good, and I felt very fulfilled, maybe the way a farmer would when he had sown his seeds and tended and then harvested his crop, well okay maybe not, but you get the idea, I started singing "The Circle of Life" and danced around my kitchen, eating my cherry tomatoes....not really, but I guess this sort of proves that my thumb is a little bit green after all.

still living in the dark ages

2007-08-03T14:03:00.001-04:00

Still here. Still breathing. Still without computer. You don't realize how much you have come to rely on 'things' until you don't have them anymore, do you? I mean, if this were 15 years ago, I wouldn't be going through internet withdrawal, would I? I wouldn't be jonesing for a blog fix, or a Youtube chuckle or just thinking up some idiotic thing to type in a search box, just to see if there were sites dedicated to it, now would I? I wouldn't be checking IMdb for an actor I saw in a show and wanted to know what else he'd been in...and I certainly wouldn't be cursing the fact that I couldn't search for knitting or crochet patterns, or looking up how to do a certain stitch or technique either. Ah, c'est la vie as the French saying goes.

We are still 'shopping' computers...which is to say, neither one of us knows a tinker's damn about what goes into a computer and what gigahoosie whatsit we need to run our big, metal picture-box thing. Well, maybe we aren't that bad, but it's a lot closer than I'd like to admit...hopefully soon we will have something.

On the home front, this is where I'd place some pictures of my tomato plants, which are growing nicely and rapidly producing many tomatoes...none of which are ripening that I can see as yet, but who cares, The Great 'Mater Experiment has seemingly succeeded, which surprised no one more than I, you can be sure of that! Only one of the plants seems a little bit sickly, but it is still holding it's own and producing tomatoes, even if they are a little bit smaller than the other three plants.

I've been knitting more dishcloths, and working on what will hopefully be a graph 'ghan, nothing too interesting, but I would still show some pictures if I could. I also just finished a knitted Mr. Bean teddy bear I have affectionately named "Legume"....again, a picture would normally be right in this space:

Sigh.

can't talk....reading...

2007-07-21T18:39:00.000-04:00

Yes I am (almost!) 40 years old....Yes, I'm a Harry Potter fan(atic)....yes, I have in my possession the very last book. Yes, I plan on reading it tonight and probably finishing it tomorrow or Monday. Yes, I have no life, just ask Cee and he will tell you so.

If you need me between now and Monday, don't bother, I'm off to be with Harry, Ron & Hermoine....and I still am holding out hope for Snape, because I secretly love that old greasy-haired miserable git of a Potions teacher.

Love, me.

h is for hooped

2007-07-15T15:02:00.001-04:00

And that's what our computer is: Hooped.... It seems that what with all the power spikes we've been having lately, due to the drain on our hopelessly inept power grid out here, our surge protector couldn't handle the load, and basically a surge went through our entire system....or so says the all-knowing, smiling computer tech-god. Oh yes, it can be fixed, but given the ancient age of our computer (nearly 5 years old!! How ever did we manage to have it that long?!) it would be more advisable to invest in a new system, and perhaps they could manage to transfer over some of the data we wanted to keep on our old system, if we are very lucky, which as most people who know Cee and I know, we probably won't be, as if it wasn't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all...

So that's it...and since the computer fairy hasn't left us a new system as yet under our pillows, I suppose it may be a while until we can manage a new one, since we hadn't even been thinking of replacing ours for a while...ah well, c'est la vie as they say. There was a lot of 'stuff' on the old one that will be lost, but I suppose it could be worse..although at the moment I'm not sure how...

And for anyone who didn't know, you should replace your surge protector 'often', according to the all-knowing tech-god, as when he asked me how old ours was and I told him "about 2 years" he basically choked on his tongue and again muttered something about it being 'ancient'.

At least I've been getting a lot of crocheting and knitting done, not that I can show you or anything, since I can't upload any pictures, but just imagine lots of cool finished stuff...like thread bookmarks and doilies (table hats) and things like that...

snafu

2007-07-09T13:04:00.000-04:00

Or possibly fubar...whichever military acronym you use, they all mean the same thing: our computer has crapped out....my friends, it's so effed up it won't even turn on or off, so you just know that can't be good. There was much gnashing of teeth and screaming of profanities last night, I can tell you.

Luckily, Cee's mum lives close, so she has kindly let me use her computer today. So...until we get ours fixed, (if indeed it can be fixed) my blog posts shall most likely be very scarce.

Pray for us....it could get ugly.

it's a beauty way to go

2007-07-01T15:24:00.000-04:00

Ah yes, the immortal words of Geddy Lee as he sang the song "Take off! (to the Great White North)", it is a beauty way to go. Happy 140th Birthday Canada! Ye don't look a year over 100...

cuff 'n stuff

2007-06-30T10:51:00.000-04:00

I have begun knitting a pair of socks from the Favorite Socks book. I do really like this book (even though they have flagrantly misspelled the word 'favourite'...for most of us who live in the Commonweath countries, anyway)

The biggest reason I like this book is that it appears to be a challenge for me. I have started no less than three patterns (the above being said 3rd) and have run into...em...shall I say...difficulties...with each one (except this one....so far...) and although it is a little frustrating, I also find it fun searching for answers to my 'howdeedoodat' questions, and rewarding to learn new techniques...for example, I learned how to do a double long-tail cast on thanks to Knitting Help, and then I figured out how to make that cast on in rib, thanks to the back of this very book, and then I gave up knitting that pattern (for the time being) because I kept screwing up the chart, which I have also never used before...ahhh, so much to learn, so many puzzling looks from Cee as he watches me start multiple patterns and frog them over and over.

Here's a closer look at the cuff, just because I know you want to see....or not...anyway here it is:

The biggest reason I like this pattern so far (aside from the fact that I can actually follow it) is that it only uses 4 dpns....most of them call for 5, and well, anyone who has read my blog (hey, it could happen!) knows that I have this 'thing' about sets of 4 and 5 dpns, and how I can only ever find 4's when I need 5's...

Wiki Wiki Fun

So I was surfing aroung the blogisphere the other day, and I came upon a meme that I thought was pretty fun and interesting, and so I swiped it without being tagged, just 'cause I felt like it.

It's the Wikimeme, and basically what you do is head on over to Wikipedia and type in your birthday, month and day only and then you list 3 events, 2 births, and 1 holiday for that day.

Here is what I came up with, for January 14th:

Events:

1. 1690 -- The Clarinet is invented in Nuremburg, Germany.

2. 1954 -- Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.

3. 1978 -- Johnny Rotten quits the Sex Pistols after the final show on their American tour at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

Births:

1. 1741 -- Benedict Arnold, General notorious for treason

2. 1968 -- LL Cool J, Rapper & Actor (same day and year as yours truly!)

3. 1969 -- Jason Bateman, Actor (star of one of my fave shows, Arrested Development--I still curse Fox for taking it off the air)

Holiday:

New Year's Day in Eastern Orthodoxy--makes sense, since the 7th is Christmas

I won't tag anyone, but feel free to head on over to Wikipedia and glean some superfluous knowledge about the day you were born.

"it's a major award!"

2007-06-28T08:22:00.000-04:00

One of my favourite lines from "A Christmas Story"...wait...have I suddenly got Christmas on the brain because I've been making snowflakes? Nope, I'm just excited, happy, and am blushing a little bit, frankly, because the completly sublime Sharon over at Chickenlips Knitting has bestowed upon me my first award:

How totally marvellous is that?! Aside from being one of my favourite colours, the best part of it was the wonderfully kind words she said about me on her blog, which is one I especially look forward to reading. She always has lots of witty and funny posts and pictures of her ongoing and finished works of fibre art. Thank you Sharon, you are the best!

And now my assignment is to pass this hot pink button of praise on to five other ladies who most assuredly deserve it, and here they are:

1. Vik at Like Grandma. This effervescent lady is so divinely kind and welcoming. She always posts such wonderful pictures and stories, and is the driving force behind Knitting for Homeless, a small spark of an idea that is growing into a world-wide movement.

2. Lady Linoleum at Monster Crochet. The title grabbed me and drew me in! This is one creatively prolific lady! She never ceases to amaze me with her new designs. Whether it's crocheted meat, monster eyeballs, or skull in cross bones sweaters, she is a true artist in every sense of the word.

3. Cupcake at Crochetroo. Aussie Aussie Aussie, oy oy oy!! This extraordinary lady is not only diversely talented when it comes to pattern designing, but she also tries to raise awareness to Australian wildlife through the medium of crochet, which is no small feat.

4. Cass at Shut Up, I'm Counting. I recently found her blog through a comment she made on mine, and I'm so glad I did! Her irreverent humour keeps me in stitches, and her multiple pictures of her many diverse pets and projects are always a pleasure to see.

5. Hel at Truth Cycles. She takes some of the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen! I love visiting her blog to see what her many animals have been up to and to read her outlook on life.

And now wonderful ladies, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pass on this honour to five other deserving blogger chicks. So go ahead, swipe the button, spread the love, share the joy.

summer snow

2007-06-26T09:44:00.001-04:00

Because it's been so hot lately, and because the Harbingers of Doom (read: Weathermen, oh sorry, Meterologists) have been telling us that this Summer will be a 'scorching hot sizzler', and well, just because, I took out the thread and my trusty size 7 steely and crocheted me some snow:

These patterns all came from a book called "White Christmas in Thread Crochet"--it feels weird even typing that word in June....no, not the 'Crochet' word, 'Christmas' of course. I don't even like thinking past next week, much less six months from now....Did crocheting fibre snow work to cool me down on a blistering day in June? ehh....not so much, but it still looks pretty.

One thing that doesn't look pretty (to me, anyway) is the blocking process. Have you ever wondered what a thread snowflake looks like while it is blocking and stiffening? No? Well, I'll show you anyway....you might want to cover your eyes and peek through your fingers for this:

Shocking, isn't it? And maybe just a little bit creepy. Every time I block a snowflake (or any other thing that needs blocking) I am always taken back to high school Biology, and dissection, more specifically the earth worm we studied in grade 10. Remember pinning things down so you could 'examine' the parts? I was usually pretty good at finagling my way out of having to touch the icky things we had to dissect--and there were loads of them--but I had to handle the earth worm, and let me tell you my friends, it haunts my dreams to this day...well, maybe not, but it was still gross. It all seems so barbaric to me now...do they still make kids do that anymore? Anyway, all the pinning reminds me of the earth worm...except no creatures great or small had to die so I could make my snowflakes.

Lookie what I found:

Besides being full of totally wicked and wonderful sock patterns, this book has a hidden spiral binding, which I think is pretty much the cat's pyjamas. I shall be attempting one of the least-intimidating-looking patterns forthwith...as soon as I figure out how to do a long-tail double 1x1 rib cast on, whatever that is....

not even close

2007-06-17T17:50:00.000-04:00

I know I know, you are just waiting with baited breath to find out if I was able to finish that little sweater with the yarn I had left, right? What do you mean "No actually, I couldn't care less?!" Humph! Well, humour me at least while I expound to you the harrowing tale of "The Cable Sweater That Almost Wasn't"...

Once upon a knitty time....nahh, really I finished with more than enough to spare...here's the proof:

And here's the pudding:

I had quite a bit of yarn left over, more than I thought I'd have. Not enough to make a hat, but perhaps enough to start one. This is fast becoming one of my favourite little baby sweaters to make. I found the pattern in a book by Coats & Clark, and it was actually the first pattern other than dishcloth or hat that I attempted when I started knitting about a year and a half ago, so this is my second time around. The sweater is about a 6-month size.

I seem to be knitting socks more and more, although they are usually for other people as I don't normally wear socks anymore. Give me my fuzzy slippers in the winter and bare feet in the summer. Socks are always too long for me, since I have freakishly small feet....small yet wide...not a good combination. I always used to end up having excess sock sliding back and forth on my foot. But then I found a great tutorial on how to customize a sock pattern in the amazing book "Big Girl Knits" I must say I love love love this book! Aside from said awesome sock tutorial, they have some really great patterns, and it's a pretty good read, too.

Anyway, armed with my new sock-customization knowledge, I took a basic sock pattern and changed it for my measurements:

I made a couple pairs of what I like to call 'slipper socks'. The multicoloured pair are a leetle bit on the loosey-goosey side--I forgot to take into account the fact that I knit loosely--I corrected for the blue--but I don't care, I like the fact that I feel like I'm not wearing anything on my feet when I have them on, and now I have a choice between barefoot and slippies.

bits and pieces

2007-06-13T14:58:00.000-04:00

June is turning out to be a bit of a strange month. We seem to have lept from Winter straight into Summer, except for a day last week, when it almost went below freezing overnight--picture Cee and I rushing out with blankets, trying to cover up the four newly-planted tomatoes at 10 o'clock in the evening...I think they did okay, but a couple of them do look a bit frost-bitten. I will be sure to get back out there and get a picture to update the 'mater experiment. It's been a wild ride so far as weather is concerned, we have had some fierce thunderstorms and even a tornado touch down only about 10 minutes from us last Friday.

I finished my sister's sweater, only to come to the sad conclusion that it just may be too short for her...I had my suspicions, but when I held it up to myself for Cee to look at, even he mentioned it, and he never notices things like that, so I had to finally admit it to myself. I guess my only option is to send it to her, have her try it, and if it is too short, send it back to me so that I can--gulp--try to take it apart and frog it back to a point where I can add length....this is not something I want to do, but a secret part of me is up for the challenge....my inferiority complex is kicking in though and that hateful self-doubting part of me keeps telling me it could all be a moot point anyway, because she may just take one look at it and decide she doesn't like it at all.

Progress continues on what is turning out to be a sizable trousseau for the great expectation out West. Below are pieces of a cable sweater, size 6 months....all I have left on it is the sleeves, the start of one is pictured at the top, plus the neck band and button bands....

This just may be a nail biter, as I have no more of this particular yarn--I plundered the stash for this one, and couldn't seem to find any more in that colour when we were out the other day....I do like to live dangerously when it comes to knitting though, and seem to get some sort of thrill out of just finishing projects with only a few yards of yarn to spare..don't ask me why, but I almost feel like I'm getting one over on the yarn--take that, you skein! I beat you!--worst comes to worst I can always use a different colour for the sleeves or the bands....

When I saw that Sharon had made a lovely pair of Fetching hand warmers, I thought my niece (she of the Monkey Bismol socks) might just like a pair of her own too, so another stashed skein became these:

I don't mean to keep complaining about the stinkin' camera (a poor worker blame's their tools) but the colour is just not showing up as the gorgeous fushcia that it is. A fun pattern, although if I'm honest, I'm not sure I quite like the picot bind off, but they completed really quickly and I found the pattern quite easy to follow. I would have tried them on for the picture, but I didn't want to stretch them out with my pudgy little hands.

All of this has been made in between taking pit stops in an ongoing project for Pammy, which when (if!!) finished, will become my first ever graph ghan....don't worry I will post progress shots when there's some progress to post. Progress seems to be slow as there are multiple colours (okay, only 2!) but they keep twisting, so I have to keep stopping and unwinding, and I find that frustrating, so sometimes I just say 'okay I'll put it down for a minute' and then the next thing I know I'm starting a pair of Fetching handwarmers, or another sweater...and I'm quite sure I will be trying the Coupling socks in the new Knitty...another project to add to the ever-growing list.

If you like the handwarmers, and can't go another day without making a pair, you can find the pattern here. If you're wondering just what the heck a Coupling sock is, you can check them out here.

get yer sneak on

2007-06-03T12:17:00.001-04:00

I just finished some sneaker booties--they might be for someone still 'baking' out West, perhaps?--or as I like to call them, 'shoe-booties' (for anyone that cares, that is an obscure "All in the Family" reference to the episode where Archie and Mike get locked in a back room or cellar (I can't remember which) and end up telling drunken stories, one of which was that Archie as a child was so poor that he had to go around wearing one boot and one shoe, so all the kids called him "Shoe-booty"--my brother and I got a kick out of that one and would say that all the time...I know, whatever...I was a child of the '70's, what can I say)

I modified the pattern a little bit to make them wee, they are from a book of family slippers--Cee actually has the adult version, made as a gag for him (you can see his in action here) the joke was on me though, cause he actually wore them until they wore out, and he is patiently waiting for me to mend them...one of these days, dear, I promise.

Anyway, without further digression, here are the shoe-booties, presented for your consideration both with and without flash, just for kicks:

Without flash:

With flash:

They were a giggle to make and took almost no time at all. They make me smile.

all things considered, i prefer animals

2007-06-01T12:05:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that as recently as the other day I was still having the pleasure of viewing the 'pet' ducks waddling around our yard. Drake was spotted standing right in the middle of the street at the side of our house, practically daring the cars to hit him (thankfully every car saw him well ahead and went around, imagine a little duck having that much traffic control power!) I went outside with some bread and bribed him back onto our lawn, where Jemima (being a female, I can only assume she was too smart to sit in the middle of a through street) was waiting for him. I spent a very nice half hour with both of them, feeding them bread crumbs and having a conversation about how they probably shouldn't think of nesting in our yard because there are two cats that love to stalk bird-type creatures and they frequent our front and back lawns as well. Not to mention some local young kids who think they are pretty tough and get a kick out of bullying eachother, so I'd hate to think what they would do to two pretty tame ducks. As if to illustrate my point, a group of 5 'tough punks in training' rode by on their bikes, arguing among themselves and, thankfully, so self-absorbed they didn't see the beautiful water fowl sitting not 3 feet away from them as they passed. In the end I went inside and left them still there, sitting largely unseen under our pine tree, it was a nice way to end the day.

Top Secret: Sneak Peek

This may or may not be a partial view of a layette completed just very recently for a great expectation out West....I don't want to spoil the surprise, so it's just a teaser.

My sister's sweater is a near fait a complit, all that remains are the weaving in of the ends, which is my most favourite part (drip sarcasm drip) and finding some appropriate buttons.

It turned out well. Made with a very soft cotton yarn. It needs a bit of blocking, but other than that, a success for my first adult wearable. I hope she likes it. The pattern was actually a lot of fun to knit, I found it here.

good deeds and seeds

2007-05-16T08:26:00.000-04:00

So spring is progressing...we have already had two days here where the temperature has reached over 30 degrees celcius (that's around 86 for you fahrenheiters). All of our lilac trees (I think we have 3, I know for sure there's one....see what a gardener I am?) are blooming, and we are cultivating a fine crop of dandelions out front and back....hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I always say...and secretly I think dandelions are quite pretty, especially when you drive past big sections of them along the roads. I know there are lots of moms, including my own, who may have received a bouquet or two of these prolific little weeds for Mother's Day at least once in their lives, picked by eager chubby little fingers and given with love.

Crocheting and knitting wise I have progressed on a few things. The monkey bismol socks are now complete (I'd have posted a picture, but the second one looks (thank goodness) just like the first, so I didn't bother, you can use your imagination--it seems to be a lost art these days. I have a few baby things on the go for the expectant new arrival out west, and I am also half finished a sweater for my sister Tee, who just had a milestone birthday (I won't say what milestone, but let's just say that when my dad and mom reached this milestone, she stuck signs up all over the boulevard and plastered huge banners across the garage broadcasting just how old they were....lucky for her no-one returned the favour). My own woman in red sweater has been put on the back burner while I work on these other things, including some things for a new project idea created by dear Vik.

Vik wrote on her blog, Like Grandma, about knitting scarves for homeless people. She made five scarves and went out and very quietly and anonymously left them by people while they were still asleep. Then she left, not waiting for or wanting a thank you or any kind of recognition, but hoping that in some small way she may have brightened these people's lives. Vik got quite a lot of response on her blog about this selfless and generous act, and this prompted her to start a blog called Knitting For Homeless. The idea is that each person knit or crochet 5 scarves and give them to the homeless. Every little bit helps, and you will be amazed at how good it makes you feel. You can read more about it on either of her blogs.

The Great 'Mater Experiment:

Week 6

As you can see, the seeds are growing fast. They really do look smashing in their 'high-tech aluminum growing tray'--which may or may not have contained chicken chow mein at one time, I'm just sayin'--and probably in a couple weeks, I will attempt to make the transfer from their little pots to the great big scary pots outside...sniff sniff, they grow up so fast, don't they?

love my monkey

2007-04-30T09:59:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a project go amazingly well, and then reached the very last step and completely screwed it up? I have. Last night, I was nearing the end of the first Monkey sock and doing the Kitchener stitch--which I have done before--successfully--the finish line was in sight, I was sailing along, and for some reason, I just completely arsed it up. So there I sat, silently panicking, The Amazing Race was on the TV, and Cee was saying something to me, but all I could do was sit there ignoring everything, and look down at this ugly, mangled toe of a once pretty sock, and think "What the heck am I going to do now?!" For one insane moment I considered ripping the whole thing out and starting all over and then I thought "What, are you NUTS?! That's crazy talk!!" I decided to try just picking out the grafting stitches and carefully put the live stitches back onto the needles....have you ever done this? It was painful, extremely tedious, and totally nerve wracking, I felt like I was doing surgery--maybe that's a little bit much, I do have a flair for drama--but still...I think it took me about half an hour to get those 28 stitches back onto their needles. By the end I didn't even care, the air was blue around me from all the cursing, and I'm pretty sure Cee thought I'd gone completely around the bend (yet again), but thanks to some persistence and my size 7 steel crochet hook, I was able to save the patient:

And then I needed the Tylenol...All being said and done, I think the Monkey Bismol sock looks fab. The second time I did the grafting, I did it very slowly and tightened after each stitch, and it worked much better. Crisis (and panic attack) averted, I was even calm enough to cast on the stitches for the second sock.

I will admit I was a little intimidated by this pattern, anything with a lacy look tends to give me hives just thinking about knitting it, but I thoroughly enjoyed making it, and it really did go amazingly well until I screwed up the Kitchener stitch. Also, the four versus five DPN debacle was actually not as bad as I thought it would be. I was able to figure it out quite quickly, and with no brain hurt, which is always a plus.

Nigel the infamously famous sock monkey thinks it's smashing! (And I only had to pay him two bananas to say so!)

I know I said a few posts back that I'd be blogging less, and then I went and blogged a whole bunch, but this time I really mean it. I will be blogging less for the next little while. I will try to get back as often as I can to post, and will hopefully have pictures of countless finished whatnots and thingamajiggies, so be patient with me. Ta ta for now.

the power of flowers

2007-04-26T15:38:00.000-04:00

I love it when people help people, and I love it even more when those people get other people to help even more people...that probably makes no sense, but it is very likely the most times you will see the word 'people' in one sentence. What I'm eventually getting around to saying is that there is this lady on the Crochetville forum named Krystal, and some time back, she was looking for a daisy square for afghans and other projects for the various charities she was involved in, but she couldn't seem to find one, so she cleverly made up her own. Then she went one better and decided to offer the pattern to anyone who emailed her for it, and all that she asked was that each one who gets the pattern make and send her a square for her charity blankets. Here is my contribution:

This square is 8", and as you can imagine, the possibilities for colour combinations and project ideas for it are endless. Plus I think it's pretty groovy. Krystal has already made one charity afghan with squares donated and is now working on her second. If you would like to read more about her efforts or get this pattern for your very own self, you can check out her blog: Krochet Krystal , and you can also email her directly at krochetkrystal (at) yahoo (dot) com for the pattern.

Last night I dragged out the DPNs of death and cast on to knit some Monkey socks for my niece.

Pink is her favourite colour, and I think it will showcase the lacy pattern pretty well, at least that's the story I'm telling myself, since this yarn colour faintly reminds me of Pepto Bismol.

I have a pet peeve about double pointed needles; if lots of people design patterns that use 5 DPNs, why can I never find sets of 5?! Why do I always find sets of 4 but never 5?? Am I looking in the wrong place? In all the sets I have, I have only one set of 5 double points, and the pattern I needed them for at the time only called for 4, which is pretty much par for the course in my life. Is it me?! Is there some conspiracy at the yarn stores that when they see me coming in to buy DPNs, they rush to take the sets of five off the shelves and replace them with the fours? Why can't the needle makers and the pattern makers get their stuff together? This is truly a crocheter's lament on knitting, because when you crochet, you buy A hook, and with this one hook, you can make anything, work in any direction, and at any length. Sure, hooks come in different (mm) sizes just like knitting needles, but they are all basically the same size in length and can all do a multitude of things. Not so with knitting needles...12" straights, 14" straights, circulars with at least 3 different cable lengths, double pointed (in sets of 4 and the ever-elusive 5!), interchangeable...so very many needles to buy and use...why why why? Did I lose you?

Anyway, what bugs me about this 4 or 5 needle thing is now I have to work out how to fit the stitches on the needles, and now this may effect how I knit the pattern of the Monkey Bismol socks, and thinking like that makes my brain hurt, and I try to avoid the brain hurt whenever I can...unless I use one of my other DPNs of a different size, but that will surely make a difference...right? I suppose I could just shut my yap and buy two sets of DPNs, but then they would win, don't you see?! I know I know, shut up & knit.

P.S.--If you were wondering just what Monkey socks were, you can find the pattern here at Knitty.

signs of life

2007-04-25T12:17:00.000-04:00

It's been two weeks since I planted them, and already things are a poppin' in the seed department:

The Great 'Mater Experiment:

Week 3

I first noticed the sproutlets in the pot on the bottom right yesterday and by this morning there was activity in all four pots. Not all the seeds appear to have taken, but you can't win them all, and I'm holding out hope for all my little tomatoes to spring into life.

you know it's spring when

2007-04-22T06:17:00.000-04:00

Your "pet" ducks return for their annual visit. That's right, I think we can safely say this is no longer a coincidence. Jemima and Drake have come back for the fifth year in a row.

This picture was taken last April 18th, about two feet away from our front door. Who knows why they like our yard or street so much, (could it be our delicious bread crumbs?) but right around this time of year we see them, sometimes every day for weeks. Yesterday Cee remarked that the drake duck, whom I called "Drake" (I know, how original) was back, so I knew our Jemima was close by. I named her Jemima after Beatrix Potter's "Jemima Puddle Duck".

As nice as it is to see them, we always feel concern about the sometimes over-zealous kids around here, who have no compunction about approaching them--or respecting our lawn or gardens or other items, for that matter. Our next door neighbour told me the other night that we should have a "keep off the grass" sign...I kind of snorted and said that probably the only beings that would read it and heed it are our ducks.

on a thread

2007-04-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

I was recently lucky enough to test a new doily (table hat!) pattern for a seriously gifted designer over at the Crochetville forum. Kathy or "KatchKan", as she is known on the 'ville, has got some awe-inspiring talent. This is my humble attempt at her latest, called the Willow-wisp Doily:

I think it turned out well, and I really enjoyed making it. The size is approximately 15 inches in diameter. If you would like to see more of Kathy's amazing designs, and see some of her brilliant beaded purses, check out her site: Crochet N Beads

wayback

2007-04-17T14:17:00.000-04:00

Progress...at least a little. A crappy picture, to be sure, but here it is nonetheless:

The woman in red sweater is progressing, this is a partial view of the back...how far it will get remains yet to be seen...this pattern, while pleasing to knit, is causing me all kinds of practical concerns, such as the chance that all the little twisted cable stitches may get pulled out very easily, and the bottom chevron points--which are inconveniently mostly not shown in this picture--are having a very annoying tendency to curl up...I'm hoping this is because it's all crowded on the circular needle, but some nagging feeling is telling me that just isn't so...I just wish the camera would pick up the delicious cherry red of this yarn.

Whoa....

That was all I could think of to say when, while flipping through an old photo album--you remember those, don't you? The ones with the sticky pages that you put your polaroids in... long before the days of these new-fangled contraptions called the digital camera and web album?--anyway I was looking through one of those and came upon this photograph and all of a sudden, was transported back to a much simpler time, when my biggest problem was worrying whether or not to smile for this picture, because I had just days earlier lost my two front teeth, thanks to my best friend who gave me the elbow and knocked me down, not on purpose, but still...man did I clean up with the toothfairy!! I giggled and couldn't help but wonder just what possessed my mother to dress me like this:

Little K, circa 1974

Calm your worries, dear readers, the flood I was evidently so well-prepared for never came...what's better than orange bell-bottomed pants that are just a skosh too short, I ask you? How about a homemade tunic shirt made Von Trapp-style out of my aunt's kitchen curtains? (I'm not kidding, by the way)....I love my blue fake keds--that's right, they weren't even the real thing--they just completed the heck out of that ensemble.

Oh, little 6-year old K....there's just so much I need to warn you about, and sadly, I cannot...

sowing the seeds

2007-04-10T12:15:00.000-04:00

It may still be cold outside, but my thoughts are turning to warmer Spring climes and hopeful new beginnings. So with that in mind, I am starting a little project I like to call "The Great 'Mater Experiment"....experiment you see, because I don't have the first clue about gardening...oh sure, I like planting things ("things" being flowers you buy in the store, already grown and in their neat little individual cell packs)...and I love watering and fertilizing things...I'm just not so much in love with weeding things (I like to think of myself as more of an equal opportunity gardener...because most of the time I can't tell the difference between a weed and a plant). I've had reasonable success the past few years, and my ever-present need to nurture always pushes me forward to keep trying...

I missed having the cherry tomatoes last year, so this year Cee got me some seeds and starter pots, and so the experiment has begun. I tried this a few years ago, but started the seeds a little too late and the plants never got outside because it was too cold by the time they were big enough to re-pot....hopefully this year I timed it right.

The Great 'Mater Experiment:

Week 1

grow little 'maters, grow.

Like any good mom, I have given the little seeds a nice warm and cozy place to live, lots of fertilizer to grow big and tall, and all the sunshine they could ever want, both in the literal and the figurative--in the form of my effervescent self....did I just hear someone snort?

I started a new "woman in red" sweater--this time for me--yesterday, (if) when I finish it, it will be the first adult sweater I have knitted...let's just see if my fibercraft ADD will allow me to see it through to the end before the lapse of this decade...

april (snow) showers

2007-04-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

So yeah. we've got snow on the ground...boy, we sure could have used that white stuff right around, oh, I don't know...Christmas time!! Wacky doesn't come close to describing the climate we've been having lately. When the wind chill is a factor at Easter, you know the summer is just going to be spectacular. Don't you just love this global warming thing?!

say hey...

So I may be blogging very intermittently for the next little while, due to a bunch of stuff we have going on here, so if you come visiting and there's nothing new don't be alarmed, I will try to pop in and update when I can.

wait..is that some crochet and/or knit content?!

It most certainly is...this is a baby afghan I just finished, crocheted from one of my favourite patterns...this is the fourth time I've made this pattern. I had extra yarn left so I knitted a little hat and booties to match. I can't share the pattern for the afghan, because it's from a booklet I have, but I found the pattern for the booties here and the hat pattern here, just in case you feel the need to search out new patterns.

tagged

2007-03-23T14:22:00.000-04:00

i got tagged. with my very first meme.

my admirable fellow knitter and internet buddy sharon tagged me yesterday with it, and here it is:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what they are. They must be songs you are presently enjoying. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

okay. here goes...you know, for someone who's life has basically revolved around music, i found this difficult, but without further ado and in no particular order of importance:

1. "Nowhere With You"-- The Joel Plaskett Emergency
this is probably the most dubious entry...i first heard this song on a tv commercial for, of all things, Zeller's department store last spring...aaack!!...i know, your first instinct is to laugh, but this tactic actually garnered a whole lot of fame and publicity for a group called The Bedouin Sound Clash the year before. Dunno about these guys as far as the fame and fortune thing, but this song is really catchy and infectious, how wrong can you go with lyrics like these:

Hey goodlookin! Why the frown?
You always look better when it's upside down
You say you've got nowhere that you're going to...can I go nowhere with you?

they are a group from Halifax, and they have that East Coast feel to them.

2. "Home"--Michael Buble
his voice is like velvet, the first time i heard this song i was in tears before the end of it because it was so beautiful. in this world of talentless composite 'singers' that have to have their voices run through filters and machines just to make them sound half decent, this guy stands so far out it's not even funny.

3. "Death on Two Legs"--Queen
it's Queen...nuff said. i love to listen to 'a night at the opera' while i'm doing dishes or cleaning the kitchen...in my opinion it's one of the best albums ever, right now i most love to belt out 'death' while i'm scrubbin the pots.

4. "Bad Timing"--Blue Rodeo
i love this song, so poignant, so personal, and it reminds me of things in my past and how they are better left there.

5. "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"--Death Cab For Cutie
the power of the internet is fierce. i wouldn't have even known about this song unless i had seen the link for the video on flutter's blog. they mention my hometown in their song, who wouldn't love them?

6. "Fall At Your Feet"--Crowded House
i was a massive fan of both C.H. and Split Enz in my angst-filled adolescence, what can i say, i still am.

7. "Somedays"--Jacksoul
another song i love to belt out in the kitchen, this guy's got some pipes.

and now for the tagging....i guess anyone that wants to be tagged can consider themselves tagged, and most specifically, Pammy, if you are reading this, you've been tagged. Luv, me :o)

habitat?!

2007-03-17T10:27:00.000-04:00

yet another first for chez kay & cee, but i'll start with a little background for those who are unaware of the magical animal drawing powers our little property has...

when we moved here, we were just settling in and starting to do yard work and all that, and were very surprised to see little rabbits hopping on our side lawn. We were both amazed that here, in the middle of this street, smack dab in the middle of this (albiet small) city, not even close to any woods or conservation area, we would see a bunch of rabbits! time went on, as it tends to do, and we continued to see animals of all different sorts, like raccoons (not that unusual as they do love their garbage and recycle pickings) there was a bear loose one summer but thankfully it didn't come to our yard, and then one fine spring day 3 years ago cee was again out in the yard raking up winter kill when he looked to his side and saw a duck sitting right next to him like it was the most normal thing in the world! now as some of you know, this duck came every day to sit in our yard and visit. i became very attached to this duck and named her jemima (after beatrix potter's story) and fed her bread crumbs. she came every day for 3 weeks that spring, and even brought her drake and a few others to visit. keep in mind that we live in the middle of a long through street, in a city, nowhere near wetlands or countryside. imagine how amazed i was last spring when jemima returned! as before, she came to visit almost every day for about three weeks right around easter. i can only half expect to see her again this year.

i'm digressing...anyway, with the 'good' also comes the 'bad'...we have lost track of how many times cee has had to take his car in to have mice removed from the air filter or heater vents...he is known to the repair shop as only 'The Mouse Guy'...they cannot believe that we don't live on a farm or in the country, becaused this 'only' happens to people that live out in the country or on a farm....tell that to cee's car...

i can only guess that is why, when i drew up my kitchen window blinds a couple days ago, i saw, not less that 3 feet away mind you, one of these sitting on our brick barbecue. it wasn't that particular one, i have linked to a picture of a peregrine falcon, as the event went a little something like this;

me: (roll up blind, see ginormous bird of prey 3 feet away) "Oh!! Holy S**t!!"

ginormous bird of prey: (turns and looks right at me in the window, DOES NOT fly away scared)

me: (almost wetting pants) 'man i should go grab my camera!' (still stand there looking at big, scary bird)

g.b.p.:

me: (thinking) 'i probably won't have time to get the camera and get back before it--hey, what the heck is it doing here--aww crap, does this mean the mice are back?!'

g.b.p.: (turns and looks at me again) i swear it winked!

noisy people across street: (making various getting-in-car noises in between talking loudly in a foreign tongue)

g.b.p.: (looks across the street, looks down at the patio, flies away across next door neighbour's yard)

me: silently curse noisy people, spend a good portion of time looking up what kind of scary bird was sitting in our yard.

i'm no bird expert, but the peregrine falcon looks most like what i saw, and from what i read, is the most likely suspect. i was again amazed that such a thing would appear in our little yard, but i was also a little bit freaked out because i thought 'what if i had let the dogs--most particularly the killer shih tzu-- out' and that thing was there, but then realized that there's probably no way it could cart off an admittedly overweight shih-tzu, or a 70 pound collie....still, visions of hitchcock go through my head...

calorie counting

2007-03-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

i finished my calorimetry head band and had enough yarn leftover to make myself a pair of super warm mittens:

i must say, the calorie was completed in very short order, ie: it doesn't take very long to make at all, which is nice, if, like me, you have A.D.D. when it comes to knitting and crocheting projects. the headband and mittens are ridiculously warm, which came in handy, since march has most definitely come in like a lion around these parts, with average temps this past week hanging around MINUS 35 with the windchill (that's around -31 to your fahrenheiters)

so much for our mild winter.

here she is all 'did' up with a fancy shmancy button i found in my sewing box...i think it was a leftover from a jumper i made eons ago for my neice, who now probably wouldn't be caught dead in her aunty's homemade clothes, but hey, they were great when she was a little gaffer.

i had yet still more leftover yarn, so i've started a hat using the magic loop method, however this will be a scrappy type hat as i don't have enough yarn to finish, and my remnants in that yarn weight are a little scarce, so it will probably look most fugly when it's completed, but who cares, for me it's the process that's important, and i'll wear it with pride (while they drag me away to the nuthouse) and say in a loud singsong voice, "i knit this using the magic loop method!" and everyone will applaud...or laugh, either way...

time flies when you are having fun...or something like that...

it was exactly one year ago today that i started this blog! i thought i missed it by a day, but nope, it was this very day last year that i first said 'everybody's gotta start somewhere'...and so i did, and so it was. happy blogiversary to 'By Hook or By Crook'! thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read and comment, it means a lot!

yeah, yeah, whoopee ding dong, where are the snacks?!

too bad i can't crochet or knit

2007-02-28T09:41:00.000-05:00

gasoline, because all of a sudden it seems to be in alarmingly short supply around here...due to a single refinery fire in sarnia, and a so-called cn rail strike, gas stations all around are (gouging) hiking up their prices and either running out of gas altogether or raising the prices even higher and still running out of gas. a "politician" called our situation 'very dire', and said that alarm bells should be going off around this province to wake up everyone to the crisis...what do the politicians care though, they get chauffeured wherever they want to go at the tax payer's expense, so do they really give a rat's behind if normal, every day people are getting into fist fights while waiting hours in lines for gas that they will be paying 40 percent more for this week than they were two weeks ago? who would have ever thought a single, solitary oil refinery fire would bring this leviathan province to its wobbly knees and threaten to cripple its very every-day existence? or is it more likely that the oil companies will use even the smallest excuse to jack up the prices on gas, leave them that way and then slowly--ever so slowly--lower them just a tidge over an extended period of time only to find yet another excuse, like someone farted on an oil rig in the north atlantic and because of that the supply of gas will be limited, to raise them even higher? you be the judge.

when all else fails i make dishcloths

nothing else i make seems to give me the satisfaction, 'warm fuzzy' or instant gratification of making a simple dishcloth.

my current favourite pattern is the ball band pattern from the mason dixon knitting book. if you don't have the book, you are in luck though, because you can get the pattern for absolute free, thanks to your bestest buddy, 'the internets', check the bottom of my post for the link to the most amazing warshrag pattern you will ever make. really it's lots of fun and very easy to memorize.

for the sake of (sanity) decluttering, my 'living room stash'--or 'mt. kiki' as cee refers to it--has all been put away and i've kept only a 'couple' projects out handy to work on, anything i could stuff & cram into my knitting bag, plus an enigmatic blanket for some yet un-named someone. i have found i can stuff a lot into my knitting bag...insert your filthy jokes here...and this way my stash will get used up more....yeah, that's what i keep telling myself...like this morning, i decided that

this little ball of softy deminy goodness

may yet soon be turned into calorimetry from knitty winter '06, it was just calling out to be made into something.

if you like the simple things like me and can't live without making the ball band dishcloth, you can find the link to the pattern right here.

if you are curious as to what in the heck calorimetry is--other than the scientific term, that is-- you can find the pattern at knitty.

there's a reason

2007-02-19T13:49:00.000-05:00

why they call it 'dead of winter'....

and no, i'm not talking about that spooky flick with mary steenburgen, jan rubes, and roddy mcdowall at his all-time creepiest--but i must say i did enjoy that movie!--the days are getting longer, but not any warmer...everyone i know is basically hibernating, except if they have to dig themselves out of yet another snowfall. even the dogs don't stay out for long, and who can blame them?

now i know that our winter out here started alarmingly late, but it has made up for it's tardy entrance with a vengeance, in both accumulation and temperature. all the more reason to stay inside and make thread snowflakes, or drink hot apple cider sitting by the fireplace (not that we have one, but doesn't that sound nice?), or read a good book, or watch a movie, or whatever blows your skirt up.

five

2007-02-11T10:28:00.000-05:00

i came to a realization the other day. for the past few years i remember feeling really sad at the beginning of the year, that the year wasn't starting off well, and thought it was just my being all miserable about my birthday and getting older, and then the other day it just hit me like a ton of bricks...some really horrible, traumatic things have happened in my life over the past 10 years right around christmas and the new year. my dad was diagnosed with cancer in the beginning of december in 1997, he died a little over three years later, just 5 days after my birthday in january...he made it to the new millenium.

just when you think things are getting back to some semblance of normal, life comes along and boots you in the teeth again. not quite two years later, i got a call from my mom. it was a week before christmas. we had a conversation that contained the words 'ultrasound', 'chest xray', 'malignant' and 'inoperable', to name a few. she was such a brave and strong woman. she just said 'it's no use crying over it, it won't do any good, it's done now.' i came home for a visit a couple of weeks later because i knew there wouldn't be much time. there wasn't. we lost mom not even a month later, on february 11th, two years and almost one month after dad passed. it was a monday morning, and i got a call at work from my sister, and i remember stupidly saying 'but i just talked to her yesterday...', as if that would make what she had just told me untrue. i held it together long enough with my coworker to get out of the office, thinking i could get in the elevator, and start crying, but when the doors opened there was a man standing in the elevator...i remember trying so hard not to burst into hysterical sobs, so as not to scare the living crap out of this poor man, who had no idea why i would be so upset on a monday morning, and even found myself making absurdly polite small talk with him about the weather, all the while thinking to myself, 'this is what it feels like to really go insane.' and praying for the elevator to get to the parking garage so i could just get into my car and fall apart.

it's silly because i'm a grown woman, but i said to my sister at her house after the funeral that we were orphans now. not like some dickensian version of orphans, no, but i still felt like a small child that was all alone in the world. of course i wasn't, i had cee and his family, my brothers and sister, and all our family, and some really wonderful friends to support me and share in my grief. but at that bleak moment i couldn't see any of that and i felt so hopelessly all alone.

i dream about my parents all the time. at first everything is great and we are all happy, and then all of a sudden i will realize, in the dream, that something just isn't quite right...most times i will figure it out in the dream, but sometimes i just travel through the dream with a vague feeling that i'm missing something. i have a theory that it's part of the grieving process. last night i dreamed that mom and dad were going out for a walk with chopin. when i woke up i smiled.

my mom always was proud of what i made, even when all i could make was an uneven granny square. she was so impressed when i finally learned how to follow a pattern to make a baby afghan for a friend. i've progressed far beyond that now, and even learned to knit since mom passed. i like to think of her smiling down every time i finish something new, and even sending me some inspiration when i really need it.

this is my latest finished project. a knitted jacket and hat, made with gifted yarn (thanks pammy!) the pattern was a freebie project sheet from coats & clark. i loved the look of it, but the sizing made me laugh, size 6-12 months...that's quite a large variation, no? it's been a while since i've been around a baby, but i do remember them changing a whole lot in size between 6 & 12 months. cee's one comment about it was to ask if i ran out of buttons...i think it's supposed to be like a matinee jacket or a sacque...really i followed the pattern, it only buttons up at the top.

there are many cables and a 'plume' (looks like a feather and fan to me) pattern, so this kept my interest while i was making it. i like patterns with different stitches because i get so bored knitting stockinette row after row.

you can see the yarn a little better in this picture, as well as the pattern.

i think mom would like this set.

what a good boy

2007-02-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

goodbye my sweet, wonderful Chopin, i'm so sorry i couldn't be there with you in the end. you were such a good boy. i will always remember the day i brought you home as one of the happiest days of my life.

you brought joy and laughter to all our lives. you lived well and were well loved. you ruled the house and everyone in it. you fought hard to live and went through more surgeries and procedures than anyone should have to live through, but in the end it was all just too much for your poor little body to bear and you could fight no more.

i know now that you are in a wonderful place where there is no pain, no ache, no sickness, no endless rounds of medication or i.v.s or feeding tubes. a place where your liver won't fail and the vet won't cry because there's nothing else she can do for you...you are in a place now where you can run and play like we did when you were a puppy and go for endless walks with dad and mom and Rumpy and you can bark all day long at whoever you want and no one will ever tell you to be quiet.

i know for you there is no more suffering, for us though, the heartache is just beginning. we will miss hearing your barks, getting your kisses and giving you tummy rubs, and just having you there like the faithful companion you were.

goodbye, beloved puppy.

Chopin

March 29, 1993 -- February 2, 2007

see you at the rainbow bridge...

chaussettes

2007-02-03T16:48:00.000-05:00

really i'm not trying to be pretentious and be all like 'i know how to speak french' and all that, because i can't...well, at least not beyond the canadian public school system's teachings, and that was waaay too long ago to mention, in fact too long ago to remember much, i was a little stuck for a post title and didn't feel like just calling it 'socks', so i used the french word.....for socks.

i learned how to cable without a cable needle for these little socks--which cee helpfully pointed out to me don't match--so that was my exciting learn for the week. i did have to get a little assistance from the helpful folks over at knitter's review forums because i just couldn't visualize how it would work, i was all 'howdeedodat', but then after a night's sleep i finally figured it out, yay me.

em...you do know they don't match, right?

why yes, yes i do...i made the pink one first and if you are eagle eyed you will notice that the foot is longer...too many rows...misread pattern, not enough caffeine, my mistake. too lazy to rip it back and fix...made the blue one just because and this time got it right. i didn't have anyone in mind, was just trying out a new pattern....but i suppose if someone needed a pair or two for say, a new baby that might be on its way, i could be persuaded to make some more..i promise to make two the same colour...maybe....

love handles

2007-01-28T13:37:00.000-05:00

so i made my first pair of grown-up gloves..with actual whole fingers and thumbs and everything! i never realized how very hard it is to photograph the colour red:

these gloves are made on two needles. before christmas i searched and searched for a glove pattern that i could understand, be it on two needles, circulars, dpns, whatever, and i really couldn't find anything that worked...i tried and frogged quite a few different versions until i happened upon a book called 'knitted accessories' from the knitter's bible, which has some really cute projects in it, including this one, which is called 'love heart gloves'...i know, the picture leaves a lot to be desired but they have a little heart pattern on the back of the hand, you can sort of make it out here:

i rather liked making these gloves, they make up fairly quickly but they are a bit fiddly i have to say, and i made the mistake of not measuring the fingers the first time around so it was a lot of trying on and mucking around on both gloves to get the fingers just right...as it is the thumbs are still a little big, but you can't have everything i guess. i may also try my hand at making some convertible mittens as well.

oh, and in case you were waiting with baited breath (yeah, right), here's this week's snowfall contribution:

blizzard

2007-01-19T11:43:00.000-05:00

the forecast calls for........SNOW.......i suppose i might as well type it now, since we have a crap load of it....well at least two inches on the ground anyway, with an official 'snow day' called on monday, i think we can safely say that winter has arrived in this neck of the woods, not a bad run for the mild weather though, i'm not complaining.

ground hog day is only a couple weeks away, and can glorious spring be too far behind it?

these are my latest flakes, the patterns for all but two can be found in the book '99 snowflakes'.

seven years

2007-01-19T11:05:00.000-05:00

i like to keep things light around here so i won't get too maudlin, at least i'll try. it was seven years ago today that we lost my dad. it seems like yesterday to me, especially on this day, or other days--special occasions like his birthday, father's day, christmas...the list goes on. my life changed forever that day. in the blink of an eye your entire world can turn completely upside down, while everyone and everything around you just keeps on as normal...i will never forget that sick, freaky, almost nightmarish feeling i had driving home from the hospital--watching people go about their normal daily routines, traffic on the road, people rushing into grocery stores, hurrying on their commute home from work, busy doing nothing and everything, normal wednesday afternoon activities, all the while my family's lives were coming apart at the seams and we struggled to come to the realization that dad was gone, we would never see him again, never hear his voice, never hear his laugh, never. it broke my heart to see the dog sit by the door day in and day out for weeks waiting for dad to walk through it and come home, not understanding where he was. grief is such a personal thing. you hear things like 'it will get better with time'...i don't know about better, but for me it's become less...painful i guess is the only word that fits...for me it's a wound that won't ever quite heal. i was wrong about not seeing him again, i see him all the time in my dreams. it's not the same though, i miss my dad.

flakey friday

2007-01-12T10:21:00.000-05:00

well this week we finally got some of that white stuff...sn*w...happily though it's already melted. and you know, for the whole 48 or so hours it was on the ground, people around here were actually complaining about it, too! the nerve. all gone now, but there are promises of more to come this weekend, just in time for someone's (who shall not be named) birth anniversary...of course, the weather always turns crappy on that day, probably to go with the mood of the person who's turning a year older, although this person--let's just call her 'k' for want of a better name--refuses to acknowledge said day and will definitely not acknowledge getting older, in fact will only admit to turning 29 for the umpteenth time.

in any case, i digress...here are some more of my woman-made sn*wflakes, which i have decided i will showcase on fridays...at least for this week:

i got the patterns for these in multiple places, a lot are free online at the cpc site, and a few were from books that i had, one in particular called '99 sn*wflakes' and the other was the 'tis the season for crochet' book that had the cute penguins in it.

if you were wondering (you probably weren't but i'll tell you anyway) the 'background' is a hand towel i had in close proximity and thought it would bring out the detailing of the flakes a bit...i know, i'm no annie leibovitz.

some of these are pretty small, so i put a loonie ($1 coin) up for comparison...they are a little bigger than a quarter i guess and can get lost easily...this happened with the one on the left...after i stiffened & blocked it and the others i was taking the pins out and somehow it just went missing...which made me think i was driving myself bonkers (it's a short enough trip), because it pretty much disappeared right before my eyes...cee was my hero as usual though and he found the pesky little thing hiding under a table hat (it's the curse of the table hat!), so i quickly put in the box with the others.

clusterrific

2007-01-08T13:40:00.000-05:00

i finished another doily....wait.....did i say doily? because i meant to say table hat...cee said i shouldn't make any more doilies, because we have no where to put them, so it wasn't logical...and when he saw me working on this he said "what is that?" so i said, "it's a hat"--because i'm so quick thinking and witty...and he said, "i better see you wearing it"--because he knows b.s. when he hears it-- so then i said "it's a table hat"--again with the quick thinking...so that's what it is...a table hat....that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

this is called the 'cluster stitch' doi--em..table hat--and it took me an insanely long time to make and an excrutiatingly long time to block...and was very very involved, i actually put off blocking it for about a week just because i knew what a pain in the rump it would be. i think it should be called the "cluster (insert f-word expletive here) doil--table hat" there are a bajillion cluster stitches, both double and treble, and a gazillion picots, but i was happy with the end result. i would have taken a few close ups but the camera (a poor worker blames their tools) just is not up to snuff...i couldn't get a decent shot of it.

if you would like to make this table hat, you can find the pattern for it here

no visible flakes

2007-01-03T08:34:00.000-05:00

funny i should name my first post of the year after a line i heard in a dandruff commercial, but in this case it really suits. i joined a thread sn*wflake crochet along on the 'ville and here are my first efforts:

these really are the only sn*wflakes you will see around here--right now, anyway--i admit i would much rather see these flakes than the real variety. i think shovelling a pile of these would be a snap.

i say the title fits, because for the first year in all of my 30..er..something...years there is absolutely no sn*w outside...oh we had years when it would melt early (chinooks are quite common and very welcome from where i originally hail) and then fall again, but this is different....this is...scary...creepy even. here it is january 3 and we have had not even one day of sn*w yet this winter...oh sure we had that half-hearted flurry in the beginning of october, but since then...nothing...around here we are all waiting for the other shoe to drop...people aren't really even saying the word "sn*w"--see, i'm even afraid to type it--lest a gigantic pile of it fall from the sky onto their heads. now, of course, one person's delight is often someone else's dread, or however the saying goes...this does put a hurt onto some of the businesses around here...you know, wintery-type activities like ice fishing, sn*wboarding, skiing--although what they call 'ski hills' out here leaves much to the imagination--could be i'm biased though, growing up with a view of the rockies out our kitchen window...but here in canada we are nothing if not creative, and for the times when mother nature doesn't cooperate, as long as it's cold enough, we have a little thing we like to call a sn*wmaking machine...which i suppose i have become for myself. if these are the only flakes we see this winter i don't guess it would be too horrible...just a little spooky.

merry ho ho

2006-12-24T18:03:00.000-05:00

as 2006 rolls to an end, i would like to take this time to wish everyone a safe, happy and wonderful christmas and a great crafty new year! thanks so much for stopping by to read my blog and especially those who leave comments to let me know you were here! enjoy the holidays everybody!

the house that hooks built

2006-12-19T14:04:00.000-05:00

and yarn. and tissues. because the tissue box was just so hideously ugly and/or cold, i made a cosy for it to cover up its grotesque...tissueness....either that or i saw the pattern and thought it was pretty cute and a little kitsch, and so it began. the construction of the house itself was pretty easy, but as is always the case, the devil is in the details...not hard to do, just...fiddly. and lots of scraps needed for all the little fibre gum drops, etc.....but since i have about sixty bajillion billion balls of yarn it was pretty much cake. it's quite festive and i think the tissue 'smoke' coming out of the chimney somehow completed the whole quirky masterpiece.

did you drop a trail of breadcrumbs to get to my blog? because the twisted part of me can picture a teeny witch crouching just behind the door waiting for you to get closer so she can grab you and stick you in her cooking pot...it's funny but now that i'm older i can see the witch's side... if some snot-nosed little ankle biters were eating pieces off of my house i'd be pretty ticked off, too...probably--probably?--not enough to go the extreme of cooking them for dinner, but still...

that looks dangerous

yes...the double points again. cee's camo (tea cosy) hat needed partners in crime, so this poor, punctured ball of camouflage yarn became these:

notice the interesting colour pooling in the mid section on each glove...i have no explanation, but cee thinks it's neat and they look pretty spiffy on him. now he can drive in warmth and still look dapper, oh yeah, i said dapper.... yes, you've seen this pattern before...it's the knucks pattern....i'm growing to love it more and more each time i make them.

if your poor tissue box is as homely as mine or you just think the pattern is cool, you can find the gingerbread house cover pattern here

if you can't stand it anymore and simply have to make the knucks, you can find the pattern at knitty here

festivus

2006-12-13T08:47:00.000-05:00

it's beginning to look a lot like...well, no, it isn't actually. we don't have any of that white stuff on the ground...you know, that four-letter word that most canadians hate to say in the time of winter? well, we did have some here, but it all melted....not that i'm complaining, mind you. no, no, i think i speak for all of us when i say that s**w is only really welcome on Christmas eve and Christmas day and then it's welcome to go away...well okay i'm not that militant about it. but i don't know anyone that likes driving in it, in fact a lot of people seem to forget how to drive on it and end up in accidents on the first winter storm day or any day that it's s**wing while they are driving...you'd think they would remember, because after all, it happens every year, just like tax time.

the neighbourhood looks a lot like Christmas...everyone seems to have gone all out this year. lights and inflatables everywhere you look. even our next door neighbours, the "loud talkers" have gone whole hog and lit up their house and yard...of course all of their unsightly cords have been slung over the fence to our side so that they don't have to look at them, but we get the pleasure of it, which i thought was so nice and particularly neighbourly at this time of year...what's that you say? maybe our garbage should be strewn about their yard in friendly reciprocal fashion?...nah, we're not that kind of people.

uh...is this your idea of decorating for Christmas?

no, but don't these two look happy as pigs in you-know-what? pleased as punch with their scrap yarn haul. i had a bunch of yarn piled on the table (big surprise) and happened to look and see this and thought it was kind of (absurd) funny so i grabbed the camera. i think this is actually meant to hold candies, which are infinitely nicer to eat than balls of scrap yarn, but can you knit a sweater out of candy? oooooh...a candy sweater....

writer's blocks

2006-11-28T11:39:00.000-05:00

i made some more progress on the 200 blocks afghan, this picture is of the squares that will be the centre of the blanket, at least that's what i've decided so far:

another random square, loved the pattern, not sure about the colour placement, but that's something i can decide as i go along.

the pictures are not that great, i'm having a harder and harder time trying to get decent shots out of this camera, and end up having to do a lot of editing, but you get the general idea.

the last one i've done is called 'old vienna', not really sure why, unless the little filigree designs are suppose to emulate some sort of bavarian decoration.

i quite like this pattern, again the picture is just not doing it justice. somehow the colours seem to look different in every picture, but they are all the same, trust me.

incognito...

this camouflage item may be a hat for cee, or it may be a tea cosy, he hasn't decided yet.

i also have a similar ball of yarn that may or may not be masquerading as a pair of matching gloves...it hasn't decided yet.

"pengooins is practically chickens..."

2006-11-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

yes, it's true, nothing says merriment more than a crocheted penguin with a red vest and ear muffs:

die-hard looney tunes fans will recognize the post title as a quote from one of my all-time favorite cartoons with bugs bunny, playboy penguin, and some poor, starved tramp on a box-car train who uttered the line whilst looking hungrily at the penguin....no worries, the cute penguin never got masticated, and neither will this little guy...that is unless the killer shih-tzu gets hold of him...

i do loves me some penguins, and i found this pattern in a super book called 'tis the season to crochet' by bobbie matela...aside from having the afore-mentioned and pictured penguin, along with a myriad of charming accessories patterns to go along with it, like scarves, wreaths, candy canes, christmas lights, etc., there are some really cute decorations in this book that practically scream out "crochet me!" plus there are even some festive clothing patterns in there like hats, mittens, snazzy evening wraps and jackets and a purse. in my opinion, this book is really worth a look see, it may even rate a hug or two.

and this just in...the 'scarf that never ends'......

still hasn't.

but you can see that i've definitely been working on it, because here's what it looked like when i blogged about it last:

yeah, sure, it was last MARCH, but that's just semantics, so stop being so picky...i told cee he will be able to (not) wear it this winter...and i'm sure he won't...not wear it, that is...

lest we forget

2006-11-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

today is the day we honour the men and women who served or still are serving in the armed forces to protect our country. at the 11th hour of 11th day in the 11th month, we pause for a moment of silence to remember the thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom during war or peace keeping missions.

we wear poppies on our coat lapels because a canadian soldier and physician, lt.-col john mcrae, saw poppies growing next to the grave of a friend who had died in battle and was inspired to write the poem 'in flanders fields', which is recited in some form at every remembrance day ceremony. i made this poppy, but i've also bought several--they are famous for 'jumping' off your coat--because the proceeds go to the royal canadian legion, helping ex-servicemen and women.

don't forget to remember

blog blanket blatherings

2006-11-05T11:33:00.000-05:00

so yeah...i think winter is officially on its way...we've already had the ceremonial 'turning on of the furnace' and the rest, well it's all inevitable...like making afghans...for me a 'winter' thing to do.

this square (and the next) is from the "200 crochet blocks" book--which i love, just ask cee, and he will regale you with stories about me hugging this book--was that so wrong?!--the colours look much better in the real, but don't most things? Plus our camera isn't exactly the newest anymore...it serves its purpose, i suppose. the dark square is a plum/purple, then sage green, what i would call a delft blue, and then gray.

i have been having the hardest time picking just a few squares out of this book...there are just so many that look good to me...incidentally if you are thinking of picking up this book, do so!! i really couldn't recommend it any higher--come on, if a grown woman hugging it isn't a good enough review of it i don't know what is!

i will probably only go with about 4 or 5 different squares for my first afghan, all with these four colours.

hopefully by the end of this winter i will have decided on which square patterns to use, but i wouldn't bank on it....it's a bit strange, really, i'm not usually this indecisive. no wonder though, because the possibilities are endless...in case you were wondering, i really do love this book!

i joined the crochet along over at the 'ville so hopefully seeing everyone else's projects coming together will inspire me to stick with it.

hey, that looks oddly familiar...

well it should...that is, if you are a faithful reader of my blog...okay, stop laughing, it could happen...but for those who don't frequent this corner of my fuzzy brain, this is my yo-yo scrap afghan that i started...oh...last may and i abandoned it when the humidex made our temperatures go over 47 celcius last summer (that's 117 F for all you fahrenheiters) plus when i realized all the little ends that have to be woven in with the joining of each little yo-yo, i kind of stuffed it away in favour of less tedious projects.

but with the falling of the leaves and the lowering of temperatures comes the instinctive need to crochet blankets, afghans, throws, rugs, anything with which you can cover up. I dragged out ole 'scrappy' and started working again. i have disciplined myself to try to join at least five yo-yo's a day...this way it will get done, albeit eventually. i think in spite of all the tedium it will look nice and 'homey' once it is done.

there is another ghan started...it's a bit of an experiment though so no pictures...i don't know how far i'll get with it but we'll see...it all sounds so mysterious, doesn't it? like some freaky weird science project or something. really it's not that bad....or is it? (cue spooky music...fade out)

baa ram ewe

2006-10-28T09:31:00.000-04:00

well, 'socktober' is almost over, and i am almost done my second pair of knitted socks (blue ones for cee this time) i've been scanning the sock patterns ever since i picked up the double-pointed needles. it truly is addicting. my kitchener stitch is getting better with every sock, too, which is somehow very gratifying. yes, it really does take so little to make me happy.

i did a pattern test for one of the clever ladies at the forum:

this sweet little stuffed sheep doubles as a change purse, very cute and not hard at all to make.

who you gonna call?!

the 'mystery cal' on the 'ville concluded last week, and here's the result. this ghost with the most will most likely end up as a tote bag (with a similar, suitable spooktactular picture on the other side of course) or a basket/box lined to put treats in.

now that i've done a graph and changed colours (even though it was only 2) i am feeling a bit more brave and may tackle something a little harder...we'll see.

and, as promised, here's the 'scary backside' of the graph--no, i won't show you my scary backside, so stop asking, or relax, in case you were quaking with fear--it wasn't as scary as i thought it would be (flashback to youthful embroidery days, when mom always said 'the back of your piece should look as pretty as the front!'--this is why you don't see any embroidery work done by yours truly!)

this was a really fun way to introduce myself to this technique.

one sock, two sock

2006-10-20T07:39:00.000-04:00

and just like that, i'm a sock knitter:

socktoberfest rolls along...these things may be just as addicting for me as dishcloths...there's already a pair for cee on the needles right now. i must say, the tamale socks are very cozy to wear, and fit my feet exactly...in the past the foot part would be too long in regular socks for me, because, you know, i have ridiculously small feet--although with age they seem to be growing...or is that just spreading--all i know is my shoe size is bigger than it used to be.

uh...what is that?!

this time i honestly don't know...but i have a sneaky idea what it might be. i'm doing this as part of a 'mystery crochet along' with a suitable 'hallowe'en-type' theme on the 'ville, hosted by one of the clever ladies there. We get 8 rows posted every day (you are looking at 16 rows there, hence two day's worth) i have been wanting to try a graph or intarsia project for a while, but could never summon the nerve--now it looks like i've begun one without realizing it. when it's done i will be sure to post the final result--including what the 'scary' back side looks like--no, not mine, the project's.

thanks, that was fun

2006-10-13T12:30:00.000-04:00

well, not really, but what can you say when you look out the window on october 12th and see this:
i can think of a few things, most of them not fit for print, and let's just say they got said, by both of us, when we saw 'it' coming down...'it....that four-letter word...snow...at first i convinced myself it was just tiny hail...but alas, i was bobbing like so much flotsam and jetsam in the river of denial...and yes, those are my flowers getting dumped on...poor things, they are looking most sickly today i'm afraid. the sad part is that they were still doing relatively well, but now...not so much. the snow is gone, but the chill remains. snow in october is nothing new for me...when you grow up living fairly close to mountains, you can see snow in every month of the year...if it's spring or summer, it just doesn't last...more like thick rain...but here...they don't usually see snow here until late november or december.

we didn't even get it as bad as our u.s. neighbours to the south...apparently they got 60 cm in buffalo alone...many power outtages and such..and a few of our tv channels that come from that area are out as well so they must be having problems. not sure how far the storm travelled, but it was a strange one, to be sure.

i finished the tamale sock and am almost done it's fraternal twin...i am liking knitting socks more and more, so there will most probably be a large pile of homemade socks soon, to add to the ever-growing stash pile in the corner our the living room, which cee has taken to calling 'mt. kiki'--his subtle way of saying 'clean up yer crap'.

old dogs and new tricks

2006-10-08T11:03:00.000-04:00

do you notice anything different about this knit stockinette swatch?

how about now?

something a little different about the needle, right? like the fact that there's a hook on either end?...well, that's because this 'knit' stockinette swatch is actually tunisian crochet! ooooh, ahhh...astounding, right? yeah, yeah, i know, whoopee ding dong...but hey, it excited me...i learned how to do three different tunisian stitches, thanks to kim over at crochetville, who offered a free online tunisian class....which i actually missed (because the older i get, the more i forget) but the text is on her blog and i learned just by reading it! this stitch pictured is called 'tunisian knit' stitch, which was the one that blew my mind because it looks so much like knitting...she also taught the 'reverse afghan' and 'afghan' stitch....it's a little funny, because while knit stockinette tends to curl in from the sides, this tunisian knit curls horizontally from the top and bottom...but that could be because i'm just learning, and i'm told that tunisian tends to be tighter than regular crochet, so it could just be my beginner attempts...the back of it is also a lot more bumpy than knit...the reverse afghan stitch resembles garter knit. i love to learn new things, so i was really psyched...and i just learned that the majority of times i type the word 'stitch' i actually type it 'stich' and have to go back and correct it....i should point out that the hook in the picture is not a 'tunisian' hook, but something called a 'cro-hook' or 'double-ended hook', but it worked all the same...a tunisian crochet hook has one hook at one end and a stopper or knob at the other, but is longer than a regular hook...of course i think one or both of the hooks is also called an 'afghan hook', just to make things more confusing...

at least someone was excited for me:

um...

yeah....

that's..

um...

really...

great...

got any snacks?

some progress on the tamale sock....it would seem to me that i'm over the 'hard' part, or more like the most confusing part, which for me was the heel...so far i am really enjoying knitting socks, and have been eyeing other patterns to try....cee thinks that's pretty weird, since i don't normally wear socks, but you never know, this red beauty could adorn my pudgy little foot someday, and he might--probably--just end up with a pair or two... gee, those double pointed needles look quite intimidating, don't they? rather like they belong with the accoutrements of a torture chamber...'fetch the dpns, boris...i'll make him tell me where the microfilm is!!'

kicking my heels up

2006-10-05T15:10:00.000-04:00

is this a sock i see before me?

well...not yet...but it very well could be...someday. maybe. thanks to some inspiration i decided to take the plunge into 'socktober' well, more like i decided to learn how to knit socks...i have crocheted them before, but never knit, always secretly coveting other people's talent for knitting socks.

you can see by the picture i have only just started, but so far so good...let's see how long it takes me to get stuck...i keep calling it the 'hot tamale' sock...no, you don't have to tell me that it's not necessarily 'normal' to give inanimate objects names...but when i look at it i think 'hot tamale! i'm knittin' a sock!'