What I did on my vacation…

I knitted. Quite a lot. I got two more hats done for Dulaan. Both are from some handspun I had in the stash that I had done up in Koolaid dyes. It’s a bit rough so I did the one hat as a double thick with a nice soft inner hat made of some other stash yarn. 80% lambswool and 20% angora. Sooooo soft. I’m going to line the bonnet in polar fleece or flannel. The minute I find my sewing machine under the yarn. Yeah, like that’s going to happen!

I also got some more done on the Noro blanket. This stuff is like crack. Just one more square, I wanna see how the colours play out. No no, my shoulder if fine. What’s that? I wince and make a little animal noise each time I throw the yarn over the needle? Nah, that’s just silly. I’m fine.

Nate, mom and I did some day tripping too. We went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and then up to Grouse Mountain. Gorgeous! Here is my knitting in the wild.

Poor mom thinks I’m off my nut. She isn’t fully understanding how many of us are off our nuts. Besides, the colours look pretty in a nice natural setting.

Here is the suspension bridge in a shot taken from the Canyon Lookout. It was spectacular and scary and amazing. I’ll post some more picis over the weekend.

Oh, and here is my hunny bunny and mom. This is a nice little quiet place near the Three Sisters Ponds. This is Nate doing is best to follow the directions on the sign. Pretty eh? Note how mom just looks like she is trying to look polite and not stare. I’m so lucky!

Dulaan 2007

It’s time to start planning my Dulaan knitting in earnest. The button is over there on the right if you’d like more details or would like to help. I knitted up the extra cute baby hat over at Hello Yarn today.

Super fast knit, really cute hat. I’ve already cast on another one in some koolaid dyed loose handspun. Full o’ lanolin this stuff is too. Wow!

Also got a few more squares done on the Noro blankie. The colours are almost violent and I’m liking them that way. They make me smile and feel like I’m knitting sunshine.

That’s about it. I’m on holidays for a week for which I am truly thankful. I’m also going to try and get to the motor vehicle branch and get my learners license. I know, a 37 year old woman who doesn’t drive. Tres weird, no? Whatever. I just never really got around to it.

Also, every time I would get up the gumption to go get it I would be in a car accident. This happened 3 times. Once, I was sitting in the car (it was not even turned on), behind the wheel, pretending to drive (you know, making vroom noises and all that, btw, I was 20 at the time), and a drunk man got into the jeep in front of me and backed it uphill and into the car I was in. Caved in the whole front end of a really nice VW Type III fastback. I took this as a pretty strong sign that I maybe shouldn’t drive. Apparently I had offended the gods in some way and I would be dealt with strongly if I insisted on driving.

But…having said all that, I’m going to give it a try, one more time. It’s kind of like when you’ve drank too much and you’re puking your lungs out, you promise to NEVER do it again. But, after a time, you forget how awful it was and you drink again. I’ve forgotten how afraid I am to drive, therefore; I will try again.

Cabley goodness

Well I’m past my first set of cables on my Coral Crossing sleeves. Loving the Zara. I can see myself beginning to “collect” this yarn. Just to have it. You know, in case. Of what I’m not really sure. But I’d be ready.

Oh, and why yes, that is my awful nasty skanky hopefully to be replaced soon livingroom floor. All those nails make me shudder!

Anyway. Not much going on around here. I’ve knit 5 of my little mitred squares. Two a day man, just two a day. It’s all I can ask of myself. They are kind of like potato chips though. On and off the needles relatively quickly. So I got that going for me, which is nice. Sorry. Carl Spackler just took over my mind.

Hubby and I are on holidays next week so I’m absolutely dragging my tuckus this week. I’m just taking up space until Friday!

Oh yeah, and I just have to mention this. I started watching Deadwood a couple of weeks ago. The History Channel is running the series from the beginning, two episodes every Monday night. I LOVE THIS SHOW! My father is a truck driver and I have four much older brothers and still, there is a level of foul language on this show that gives me a little tingle all down my back. Is that normal? I absolutely love these characters. It must be an actor’s wetdream to get a role like Al Swearengen (that’s him in the middle). Love it.

FO Ta Da

Here they are and I’m ever so taken with them. The lovely Tricia was my hand model for this. The sad thing is, I had the gloves on was picking up my camera when I realized that I couldn’t really take a pici of my own hands. At least not both of them at once. Tricia to the rescue!

As you can see, they are fraternal, not identical. I’m loving the wooly goodness. And, I knit them both up in about 3 hours. Sweet, right? You can get the pattern here. I don’t think I changed a thing about it, just happily and blindly knit along and boom. I had fingerless mittens.

Yarn was spun by the fabulous Mac. Nice job eh? I’ve got a bunch more. I’m thinking I might just cast on for a lacy scarf tonight. There is a really nice mustard and a muted variegated greens/pinks/reds that would be nice together. Maybe a little of the ol’ feather and fan done lengthwise.

Anywho. I’m off. I’ve decided I want to complete at least 2 squares per day for the afghan. That should let me finish it…in time for the 2010 Olympics. At least I’ll have a nice blanket to take to the hockey games.

Sunday already?

Wow. How can a weekend go so quickly? At least I finished something this weekend. I finally got around to making myself some fingerless mitts. I used handspun that I got from Mac. Gorgeous stuff. So soft and the colours are fun. I’d love to show them to you but the batteries in the camera are dead.

I also joined the Fall Cable KAL. Perfect timing what with me having started the Coral Crossing. I’ve finished about 1/3 of the sleeves. Knitting two together is a brilliant idea.

Okay, gotta go. Slings & Arrows is on in a bit and I’ve got more I want to get knitted before this weekend is all gone.

Finding Inner Calm

So, I went to hear the Dalai Lama speak yesterday. He was here for the Vancouver Dialogues series. Three of us went to hear him speak about cultivating authentic happiness. Turns out my mother was right all along. Being nice to each other and calming down is the best thing. By being conscious of how you feel and what your body is like when you are calm, you make it easier to come back to that state. Therefore you make it less likely to act out innapropriately when a bad situation does arise. Even when difficult things do occur in your life, try to rmemeber what that inner calm felt like and work back to that feeling. It was very interesting and I’m really glad I went. I’ve been knowing for awhile that I need to calm the hell down. This business of walking around just waiting for the other shoe to drop is unacceptable and needs to end.

I’ve signed up for a yoga/meditation class this fall that starts on October 3. Looking forward to that, I really like how my physical body feels after yoga so it will be interesting to see how my nonphysical self feels after meditation.

My sleeves are coming along slowly on my Coral Crossing. Love the Zara! Love it! Spent most of the weekend working on a hat for hubby in the Elann Esprit. He saw some three pointed baby hats I was making and requested one for himself. Who am I to say no?
And, drumroll please:

That’s our new fridge! Isn’t she beautiful? Ice and water on the door, side by side fride & freezer. Wonderful. I love that hubby is an appliance repair man. We got such a good deal too! Sweet! We also got a nice wall oven but it’s in the garage waiting for the renovations that will make a wall oven possible! Could be a bit of a wait!

I’ve also been listening to Annie Potts reading Larry McMurtry’s Telegraph Days. I love a smooth slow Southern accent. And when it’s reading a Larry Mcmurtry book, it just doesn’t get any better. I’m going to go knit and listen to my book some more. Have a good week everyone.

Hear that?

That’s the sound of me doing my happy dance. My 16 balls of Zara arrived today! Whoot whoot! 16 balls of springy, sproingy, woolly goodness. I’ve already cast on for the sleeves of the Coral Crossing. I’m going to do two sleeves at once. First time I’ve used that particular technique.

Also, poor little Abbie got spayed yesterday and is sooooooo feeling sorry for herself. I spent the day at home with her. We also bought her the Elizabethan collar in case she turns out to be a chewer. So far so good, she hasn’t bothered her incision to much at all.

Oh, and Marlena asked how many stitches to cast on for the Noro scarf, 42 on a size 5 mm needles done in 2×2 ribbing gave me a scarf about 6 inches wide and 69 inches long. It’s exactly as long as I am tall. It’s fate I tell you. I was meant to knit this scarf!

That’s about it. I’m going to go knit some more on my sleevies! Loving the Zara!

Sensory Overload

Truly, I am the luckiest woman on the face of the earth. My friend Lisa went to California and while there she stopped off and picked up an order from Artfibers for me. I’d never actually had any of their yarn, just lusted for it. I got the yarn today. It is magnificent. The texture, the colour, just everything about it. I’ve taken some picis but they cannot hope to capture this stuff. It is from the Gods. I’m going to make another One Skein Wonder out of the Ming on the left. The rest of it, I’ve no idea. I’m speechless and stopped in my tracks everytime I look at it.

I also finished my Noro Kureyon scarf. I went with four different colours for my scarf. I used colours 40 and 128 (left side) on one end and 90 and 154 (right side) on the other. Don’t the orange sections just scream. I love it. This is the fastest project I’ve done in years. I started it on Saturday afternoon before going out to see Great Big Sea, (fun concert, see them if you get a chance!) and I cast it off Monday night about 8:30. Not bad eh? I’m wicked impressed with myself. However, this does point out an obvious flaw in my knitting. Apparently there is no excuse for my stack of unfinished items. I’m simply lazy and unmotivated!Do you think professional photographers have to put up with this sort of thing????? LOL. Abby has to be in everything, all the time.

I also found a Vancouver knitting meetup group so I think I’m gonna go and try and make me some fiber friends. I feel the need to know there are other people as deeply needing of yarn and wool and patterns and and and…. Know what I mean? Of course you do!

Okay, dinner time. The dogs are looking at me with food lust in their eyes.

Oh, but wait, before I go here is a shot of Mo Cuirdh. She’s our “invisible” cat. That’s what all my friends call her because they’ve never seen her. She disappears whenever people come over. Shy!

Picis, gross stuff, a rant, decisions, and finally, something pretty!

Right, picture intensive blog entry to follow. Not a lot of time to spare from knitting so let’s do this in point form:

1. Close up of the hornet’s nest. There is something so organic and creepy about this that it makes me puke in my mouth just a little bit. Don’t know what it is, but that’s how it makes me feel. I think it might be the way it seems to be consuming the Rhododendron tree that it was residing in. Feels like waspy urban sprawl or something.

2. What the f*ck was the former owner of our house thinking? We finally decided what we wanted to start on with the renovations. We knew we had some form of wood floors under the carpet in the livingroom but we weren’t sure how good/bad/nasty/indifferent it was. So we ripped up a small section by the front door. Why yes, that does appear to be a huge pee stain from some sort of animal. Oh, and did I mention that he nailed down EVERY SINGLE BOARD at EVERY SINGLE JOIN with TWO INCH LONG CRAPPY NAILS! Okay, okay, rant over. But the floor is shot and crappy so it would appear that some form of laminate is going to happen. Right, off to Ikea to have a look see.

3. We both liked the Kvist. What are the odds that we would like the same thing? Unfortunately, we did like different colours. I like the darker, baby likes the lighter. Here they are, side by side. We bought one box of each and brought them home to lay out and make an informed decision, for once. I’ve almost got him talked into the one I prefer, on the left.

4. Look at the pretty scarf lounging on the pretty floor! Come on, say it with me. Oooooooooooo!!!!!!! Yep, I’m in love. Idea shamelessly stolen from Hello Yarn. I love this look and I finally get to use up some of the Kureyon single skeins I bought just because they were pretty and I “needed” them. I’m not making a stash, I’m working on a yarn collection.

5. Oh, and as a bonus, I also bought 16 skeins of Zara on Ebay to make the Coral Crossing sweater. Hear that? That’s the sound of a Visa screaming. I have an absolute crush on this sweater. I think I’m going to leave out the front pockets though.

Okay, that’s it from me. I’m going to go make a cup of tea and knit on my scarf and pray for fall to arrive and give me some rain. This whole summer thing is killing me!