Pretty much the luckiest knitter in the world

No really, I am.  The knitting group I’m ‘involved’ with recently had a Festivus Miracle Swap o’ rama.  I’m sure I mentioned it.  Anyway, I was spoiled like mad by the incredibly talented Lauren.  She has these mad knitting skills and creates wonderful fine lace doilies, knit ones.  Now I’ve crocheted doilies, but the thought of knitting something that fine and particular sort of makes my eyes go crossed.  Lauren, she just shrugs and says, “Meh, no problem.”  Like I said, mad knitting skills.

Wanna see what she created for me?  It’s called Purple Hannah, I love that name.

Isn’t it lovely?  Wanna see a closeup?

How beautiful is that?  I’m so smitten.  Oh, and it didn’t hurt that there was luscious chocolate in the package.    Lauren also knit me a Ballband dishcloth which is wonderful because I’ve wanted one for ages.  Oh, and see the pretty blue bag with the kitties on it?  Perfect for a sock on the go project.

Hey!  You know what this means?  I have an empty project bag.  I can cast on a new sock if I have a project bag to put it in!  Score.

Thank you so much Lauren!  It was really lovely to be spoiled by someone of your knitting calibre.  I love it all and I especially love that you would take so much of your time to create something so lovely for me.  You rock!  I really hope I get to spoil you at next year’s swap.

I also go my marks back for my course, pulled a B+.  Ta da, humanities breadth requirements now successfully met.  I can now wander back to my crim/psych/soc classes where I belong.

Hey, let’s talk about Christmas presents!

I finally got to see my mom and dad (Hi mom and dad!  Love you!) this last Sunday and we had out very belated Christmas/New Years visit.  With all the snow over December and the early part of January we just could never get to there house.  It was making me sad because I had actually completed gifts for them!  They were even completed before Christmas!  Can you imagine?  No?  Me either, but it’s true.

First up was a neckwarmer for the Momma:

That’s the Garnstudio neckwarmer in Dream in Color Smooshy colourway Petal Shower #310 – scroll down a bit on that last link.  Very soft and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  I might make one for me.  The stick pin is from Designs by Romi.  Very pretty and every so girly.

Then I made the Poppa this:

Hey look!  There’s snow in the background!  Grumble grumble grumble.  Stuff is still there too!  Anyway, I used the Jesse’s Christmas Hat pattern and I knit it in Naturally Merino Fine 10 ply.  Nice yarn!  Super soft and good stitch definition.  Sadly, it seems to be discontinued.  Just so you know, dad totally didn’t get ripped off by only getting a had.  He also got smoked oysters and some little crackers to eat them on so he’s fine!

What’s that?  Did I finally finish the sock for the in-laws.  Ummm, yeah, so not yeat.  I’m getting there, I swear.  Just not at a very fast pace apparently.

Would you look at that!

I finished something.  A big something too, a whole sweater!  Mind you, this particular sweater has been pretty much done since the middle of March ’08.  It just needed to have the neck re-knit, the underarms grafted, and the ends woven in.  And yet, it languished unfinished.  Ridiculous I say!  The only problem around here is if you DO actually finish something and you try to take some pictures, the following series of events inevitably take place.  You swiffer the floor to get rid of all the dog hair and the dog footprints.  You wash and lovingly block the finished item and then proceed to try to get some nice shots of it on the pretty coloured floor.  This is where things always go wrong in our house.

Sniff, sniff, sniff.  Huh?  New bed for me?

It’s important that I put my bum on it before you’ve even gotten to wear it.

You know, I think it matches my fur.  It MUST be a new bed for me.

It’s hugging me!

That was fun.  What can I sit on/chew on/steal now?

The details – are here on Ravelry.  For those of you not on Ravelry yet, why not?  Seriously, come join, look me up.  I’m beentsy over there too!  You’ll love it. 

I’ve also been thinking about 2009 and what I should try to accomplish.  You know, aside from trying to stay gainfully employed and out of the poorhouse with my yarn spending tendencies.  I think I’m going to try taking it month by month instead of a whole chunk of year.  So, to that end.  I would like to achieve the following in January 2009:

1. Finish my February Lady sweater
2. Read ‘Discipline and Punish:  The Birth of the Prison‘ by Michel Foucault
3. Read the first Dexter novel
4. Finish the Christmas gift socks for the in laws.  Oops.  Crappy daughter in law! 

Okay, I think that’s enough for one month.  Anyone else planning any resolution type ideas for 2009?  I”m going to go work on those Christmas socks now.    Hey, if I get finished in December I”m ahead of the game, right?  I’ll have to come up with something light for February.  Short month after all.

White Christmas?

We haz it!

Even the bird house is overwhelmed in wintery goodness.

That little picket fence on the right?  Yeah, that’s the fence around our raised garden which means that there is about 60 cms/24 inches of snow over there.  Hubby and I have both started listening to make sure the roof  of the house isn’t making any creaking/groaning noises.  Our house is 60 years old after all.  She may not be up to all this.  Mind you, I’d probably be even more worried in one of the new monster houses they built down the road.  There was some sketchy building practices going on there.

Time now for some knitting and maybe a little spinning followed closely by a bit of reading.  Mmmmmmm.  I’m totally taking a snow day!

Grading on a curve?

It’s been almost two weeks since my final exam and I still had not received my results.  This worried me.  I’m the worrying kind.  I got an email back from my marker that the class average for the final had been only 59% and that they had applied to have everyone’s mark raised 5% or 1 letter grade.  Is this grading on a curve?  I’ve never had this happen so I seek your expertise in such matters.  Me?  I got more than 59%.  Okay, not a tonne more but more.    Honestly?  It was the toughest final exam I’ve ever taken.  My final mark for the course will be a B+ which makes very, very happy indeed.  You can’t see it but I did a little dance when I got the news.

Not much else going on.  I knit and knit and knit as the Christmas deadline appraoches.  The gods throw more and more snow at me in an effort to have me do some shoveling so that I will have at least a bit of physical activity.  Snort.

Took a sock off the needles today and promptly cast on its mate.  I also cast on a hat.  After work it was a bit of grocery shopping.  Just in case it does snow like the dickens I will have a turkey in the house ready to be cooked up and eaten.  This is important.  There is nothing worse than not getting turkey when one expects, nay, deserves turkey!  And gravy of course.  Mmmmmmm….gravy.

Okay, back to knitting and watching Little Britain USA.  Keep warm everyone!

Second verse, same as the first!

Which of course means more snow!  And then, some more snow.  Plus, and arctic outflow warning.  Which just sounds aggressive!

It was sunny today so I did get a couple of picis taken of some recent objects of finishism.  My malabrigo neckwarmer:

And a One Day Beret that was beyond necessary so that my ears would not actually freeze solid and fall off of my head:

The yarn is the wonderful soft single ply handspun that I bought at Birkeland Bros Wool.  One skein, 136 grams, no yardage, no maker name.  The ultimate in gen and eric.  Very pretty stuff though.  This hat used less than 1/2  skein so that’s good.  Okay, back to the Christmas knitting.  2 socks left to go and only 4.5 days to do them in.  Mind you, if it snows like they say it’s going to, those will be some pretty quiet stay at home days.  Perfect knitting weather.

Keep warm everyone!

The

Done and done

Phew!  Am I ever glad that is over.  Of course I took some picis while I was there.  I really like SFU.  It’s been called some rather nasty things over the years, (from and aesthetic standpoint) but I just kind of like it.  It’s on a mountain, it’s foggy, it’s rainy, and today it was frickin’ cold.  Here’s a couple of shots of the glass roof over the central outdoor area:

Here’s a shot of me before the exam.  Kind of that ‘dead man walking’ shot:

I looked at this image after and thought, “Wow!  I look really pinched.  And pasty.  Bad camera!”  Then I went to the washroom to wash my hands and the same face was in the mirror over the sink.  Turns out, I really was pasty and pinched.  Who knew?

The test went okay, I think.  The stuff I knew, I really knew.  But…there was some things on there that I literally looked at and thought, “Huh.  I’m sure I’ve never actually seen that before.  Were we all given the same textbook?”  Anyway, it’s over and I’m ecstatic!  No I can concentrate on Christmas knitting.  Whoo hoo!

Thanks for you well wishes about the exam too.    Totally helped!

Brrrrrrrr

Oh my!  Hubby has decided that he really doesn’t want to turn the furnace on this year.  The gas fireplace is being installed on October 18th and he wants to wait until then before we have any heat.  I’m not really sure why, some sort of Japanese game show torture perhaps?

Me?  I want one of these for my wee basement room:

Seriously, how cute it that?  It’s supposed to be like 6 degrees Celsius around here for the next few days.  I think that’s like minus 50 or something in Fahrenheit.  I’ve only got so many handknits that I can wear at one time.  Then I start looking like Randy in The Christmas Story and I can no longer knit.  Not conducive to my Christmas knitting timeline.

Screw it, I’m going to Zellers tomorrow on the way home and getting me a wee heater!  Don’t tell. 

Getting on with getting on

I’ve been knitting.  It may not even be Hallowe’en yet but I know that Christmas will sneak up and surprise me again.  Like it does every year!  Anyway, the first in law sock is complete:

What you have here is your basic Tesserae sock by Anne Hanson.  Lovely patter!  I did the Eye of the Partridge heel.  So pretty.  The yarn is my uber-favourite sock yarn – Indigo Moon.  This stuff is so swoon worthy.  The colour is called Logwood Brown.

I recently also finished this little sockie:

That’s a TIdepool sock in Shelridge Farms soft touch finger.  Very squishy and lovely.  I used the EZ afterthought heel for the first time and I really like it.  Very comfy and it feels kind of neat on your foot.  Can’t really describe it any better than that.  It is a shallow heel, but it doesn’t feel shallow in a bad way.  Did that make any sense?  Nevermind!

Both of these socks are quite a bit darker than they are appearing in these photos though.

Then, in the mailbox today was this:

I won yarn!  How cool is that?  Pesky Apostrophe who is now Orange Jumper had a little contest over on her blog and I was a lucky ducky winner.  Another reader of her blog donated her most gorgeous handspun as a prize.  I can’t find a blog for her but if she’s reading this and has a blog please send me a note and I’ll link you up!  This is Haldespun handspun Blue Faced Leicester in the colourway ginger.  It’s a bit orange and yellow and brown.  It’s autumn, all spun up.  I want to knit fingerless mitts out of this.  Immediately!

Okay, I’m going to go cook some tortellini now and later…find a yummy pattern for mitts for that gorgeous new yarn.

Today,

Looked a lot like this in our house:

The dogs were outside and the sun was in my lap which magically led to our invisible cat coming out and being in my lap too.  This is Mo Cuirdh, we call her Mo Mo.  She’s always been a little skittish, even after living with us for the last 14 or so years.  I love it when the sunshine makes her sluggish and she cuddles with me though.

Today also looked a bit like this from Nate’s couch:

There’s some Christmas knitting there.  That’s the first Father in Law sock.  Going to make me a heelflap and turn it tonight!  Boo rah!

Today also looked like this from my couch:

Everything a girl could need.  Two socks on two types of needles, various wee boxes of knitting implements, caffeinated beverages, a tiny computer with wireless internet so I can cruise Ravelry without disturbing the kitty on my lap, and if you look closely you can see that my orchid is sending out a flower stem.  Whoo hoo!  Not only did I not kill the phalaenopsis but it’s actually going to bloom for me.  So cool.

Earlier in the day after my blood donation we went to the tile store and finally found some tile for the fireplace hearth:

That decision only took forever!  The reason this decision was finally made is because last Saturday we finally made this decision, which will be installed on October 18:

With this type of fiery stuff inside it:

It’s been chilly at night lately.  I seriously cannot wait for October 18th.  The cats and I will be laying all over the place in front of that thing!  This fiery insert doodad is called ‘creekside’.  Vaguely pretentious?  You bet your bippy.  Hey, I’m almost forty, I got to start acting like an adult sometime.    Snork!

In other news there will be some other casting on for Christmas knitting tonight but I can’t show you or talk about it because SOMEONE reads the blog and will see it and know it’s for them and then the surprise is ruined and blah blah blah.  If you’re on Ravelry you could go have a peak there though.  SOMEONE doesn’t have Ravelry so they can’t peak there. I’m using Dream in Colour Classy.  So soft and lovely.

Okay, I’m going to go make some tacos for dinner then it’s back to the books & knitting for the night.