by the pricking of my thumb....

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:

a cowl-tionary tale...

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.

i've never liked politicians,

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....

epic

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.

april (snow) showers

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.

blog blanket blatherings

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)