Sunday, now with added monsoon like rains!

It is pouring here!  Dogs won’t go outside, water running down the driveway, lashes of water against the windows kind of rain.  A good day for knitting and reading I do believe.

Not much activity around here lately.  Mostly I’ve been knitting chemo caps for some folks who are about to start treatment for cancer.  Not a very nice way for them to start 2011.  Fingers are duly crossed that all will be well, when I’m not knitting that is.  I’ve been using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran that’s been marinating in the stash for at least 3 years.  Very soft and machine washable, gotta love it.

I’m calling them the F@ck You Cancer hats.  Sorry for the potty mouth mom.    I think the stronger language is necessary.  While I’m knitting them I mutter curses to kill the cancer cells alternating with healthful thoughts to make the wearer feel better.  Kind of good and bad Juju all in one little garment.  I hope it works.

 

In real life it's a dark plum colour, not brown.

 

Race for Life 2009 – Easy Cap, almost like a little Juliet cap.

Jared Flood’s Turn a Square hat.  Love the flat top of this one.  Will definitely make one for me for cold morning commutes.

A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend.   Really like the ribbing decreases on this one.  Nice look.

Sorry, all Ravelry links.  You must be a member by now, right?

 

I’m almost ready!

For winter that is.    I cast on a hat yesterday from some fun Hello Yarn hand spun that I’ve had marinating in the stash for the last 2 years.  Chunky yarn, 6 mm needles, boom – a hat in a night.  How cool is that?

Next up?  A scarf using some other hand spun that I spun and dyed with kool aid.  Hmmm, it’s also about 2 years old.

I really have to start knitting more with my hand spun and not keeping it ‘for good’.

Not a vegetarian friendly day

Mr. B is really getting into this whole smoking meat thing.  Today’s project was something called ‘smoking a fattie.”  Smoking a fattie means something very different from smoked meat in our neighbourhood, but I was willing to follow along.  What you do is take some sausage meat, flatten it out into a square about 1/2 inch thick.

Cover it in whatever sorts of yummies you like.  This is two kinds of cheese, red & green pepper sticks, and finely chopped jalapeño peppers.  You then take a pound of bacon and create a bacon weave.  Yes really, a bacon weave.

Now, roll up your sausage meat into a tube and place on the bacon weave.  Roll the sausage tube up in the bacon and you’ll have something that looks like this:

Coke can for scale.  So, you have a pound of bacon, a pound of sausage, close to a pound of cheese & such for filling.  Burp.

Now, into the smoker.  1.5 hours with hickory smoke, .75 hours with apple smoke.  Then you get this:

Then this:

Pretty darn tasty, I tell you what.  In addition to crazy experiments in meat, I also finished a nice new scarf.

Winter is coming and it’s supposed to be a beast.  I shall be prepared!  Next, a new pair of mitts.  Perhaps a new hat.  I’m going to be the ant and not the grasshopper this winter.

A heck of a week, eh?

I’ve been sick as a pike all week.  Coughing and such.  Nastiness.  I did manage to get some knitting done.  It was about all I could manage, really.  Finally off the wee circular needle are the brightest socks in the house.

Socks that Rock in the Spawn of Braun (on a break, unfortunately), colourway.  Very bright and cheery, dontcha know.

They are so comfy.  I used the Crusoe pattern but mixed it up a little.  Cast on 64 stitches, 2.25 mm needle, k2p2 ribbing for 1 inch, Eye of Partridge heel flap.  So in love.

I also finally finished and blocked my Multnomah shawl.

I used Yarnbearer sock yarn and I’m really impressed with it.  Unfortunately, she’s on a yarn dyeing break. 

And now, I’m going to bed.  Still trying to break this cold/cough thingy.   Happy Wednesday everyone.

Monday, or as I like to call it, Second Sunday

Seriously, the best part of my job?  Today.  We get Good Friday and Easter Monday as stats.  Swoon!  A four-day weekend.  Got a few things done, such as a pair of socks:

These are really comfortable.  The pattern is called Harris Tweed and the yarn is Socks That Rock lightweight in a colour called Oregon Red Clover Honey.  I liked them so well that I knit each sock almost twice.  I tried, for the first time ever, to just blindly follow a pattern and not ask any questions.  Bad idea and so very much not the pattern’s fault.  It called for 32 rows for the heel flap.  I did that, finished the first sock, cast on the next, did 32 rows again and almost finished second sock.  Then I thought, hey, maybe I should try these babies on.  It would appear that I have the longest heel in the history of the world and 32 rows of heel flap was not even close.  Ripped ‘em both back, decided I might like the leg a little longer anyway, added an inch or so, and added almost an extra inch on that heel flap.  Ahhhhh, perfect fit.  Might explain why store-bought socks never sit right on my feet. 

This was also the first time that I just flat our remembered how to Kitchener stitch.  Just cut the end and wove those toes.  Today, I am officially a sock knitter.  Know how I know this?  These socks had been in the tub soaking  for maybe 5 minutes and I had already cast on another pair.  Then last night, I cast on another pair.  I’m out of control I tell you!

I was very interested to see some of your favourite movies.  Some I’d not seen too but now want to.  Hubby pointed out that I forgot some of my most favourites.  Isn’t that always the way.  He remembered Trainspotting, Henry V (with Kenneth Branagh), Wit, and Dumb and Dumber.  I’m very highbrow don’t you know.  Now I’m sort of thinking of my go to books.  Ones I’ve read more than once and will probably read again.  So, here we go again, in no particular order:

1. The Fionavar Tapaestry – Guy Gavriel Kay- yes, all three of them.  I think of it as one big book.
2. Tigana – Guy Gavriel Kay
3. Things as They Are? – Guy Vanderhaeghe
4. Good to a Fault – Marina Endicott
5. Lamb:  The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – Christopher Moore – Funny!
6. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
7. Doomsday Book – Connie Willis – actually you could sub in just about any Connie Willis book here, she’s great!
8. Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman – a caveat here, this is the audio book read by Lenny Henry.  This is honestly one of the funniest books ever and a great deal of that is down to Henry’s talent in the reading.
9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – A Trilogy in Five Parts – Douglas Adams – yes, all five.  Again, I think of it as one big luscious book.

That’s all I’ve got for now.  I KNOW I’m forgetting a tonne of amazing books, but that’s just the way my brain works I’m afraid.  Okay, now go, tell me your faves!

Well, hello there Sunday. How have you been?

Having a sort of productive day at home today.  Laundry, cleaning bird cages, vacuuming, updating Team Canada stuff.  Only 19 more days until the mass cast on begins.  Very exciting stuff.  I also realized today that I have no idea where the two circular needles I need for my project are.  I sense some searching in my near future.

In other news, we got a shiny new (to us) little pickup to replace our 1980 Ford F250, aka Biggest Gas Guzzler ever.  We bought it from my parents, (thanks mom & dad!  We’ll take good care of her!), and changed the title and  got insurance yesterday.

Isn’t she cute?  What to name her, what to namer her.  At first I felt it was a male truck, but now, looking at the picture, I think she’s a girl.  Don’t ask.  I always anthropomorphize every vehicle we have.

Now we’ll have a white cargo van for hubby’s work, and the wee white pickup for weekends.  All that white.  Maybe I’ll knit up some seat covers in something a little more lively.  Just to give her some zip!  LOL.

I also actually finished some stuff recently.  Needed something mindless for Christmas visiting knitting.  Came up with this:

Cast on the morning December 25th, cast off afternoon December 28th.

Handmaiden Silk/Cashmere and a foolproof easily speasily cowl recipe.  You can even do this one when you’re drinking wine. Trust me! Wanna make one? Sure you do!

You’ll need a 5 mm 16 or 24 inch circular needle and about 300 metres of something sinfully soft and drapey.  This is Handmaiden 2 ply silk cashmere.

Cast on 130 stitches, in the round
Knit all rows for about 1 inch
Next round – knit 8, k2tog
knit 2 inches even
Next round – knit 7, k2tog
knit 2 inches even
Next round – knit 6, k 2tog

Knit until you are almost out of yarn. Bind off super duper loosey goosey! You do not want this tight. You will have a long tube with one end slightly wider than the other. The wider end goes over your head first. Ta and da! Soft, drapey, silky, gorgeous! Thanks for coming out.

I also finished my Blue Moon Cast On socks.  I did Charlene Schurch’s garter rib socks in Blue Brick Wall in Socks that Rock lightweight.

After two years of collecting, these were my first actual socks knit in Socks that Rock.  Nice stuff, very nice stuff.   I did the afterthought heel, just for something a little different.

Then I immediately cast on another sock.  Also in STR, but in the Oregon Red Clover Honey colourway.  It’s a little quite a bit darker and more gold in real life.  The day is so grey here it’s just sucking the colour/life out of everything.

That’s about it really.  Oh, gotta go.  The dryer just ding-donged its little song to tell me it’s finished.  Happy Sunday.

It feels like Monday…but it’s Tuesday…but in actuality it’s really like Wednesday/Thursday. Sweet

Longest blog title of my life, oh yeah!  Anyway, it was my first day back to work after a four-day weekend, so it was like a Monday…but on a Tuesday.  Plus, I get 1/2 day off on Thursday and all day off on Friday…so it’s kind of really like a Wednesday/Thursday. I could absolutely get used to a 2.5 day work week.

Okay, I’m assuming we all came out of the holidays mostly intact.  Personally, I’m a LOT more of me than when I went into the holidays.  Oy.  The food, it just doesn’t stop.  Butter tarts are the devil’s candy temptress.

I have been knitting and actually getting some things completed.  Hey look, a pretty cowl:

Super fantastic, smooshy, and easy.  Two balls of Noro Vintage (which is really quite heavenly, especially after an Euculan soak) and this lovely little pattern.  Brilliant I tell you.  You could easily create one of these in a day, or two evenings of mindless Christmas tv watching.  Granted, Christmas tv is no officially over, but you could slip Elf or Scrooged into the DVD player and knit one now for a gift for next year.    Go on, you CAN be ahead of your Christmas knitting, just this once.

In other, more wonderful news, I’ve been gifted a Noro Silk Garden chunky scarf from the lovely and inimitable Yarnpiggy.  She was such a good sport that she agreed to try the Noro and make sure she wasn’t missing out on something amazing.  She created a gorgeous scarf, but alas, she was not bitten by the Noro bug.  She did, however, almost need a tetanus shot when encountering a Noro thorn.

You’re so sweet girl, I’m just so honoured that you gifted me with this beautiful thing.  Especially after I pretty much browbeat you into knitting it.    It’s beautiful and I’m going to treasure it.  After all, it is a truly rare thing in this world, a Noro scarf knit by a yarnpiggy.  That’s not going to happen again soon.  When I actually arrive home before dark, hopefully later this week,  I shall take some ‘in action’ (as opposed to inaction) shots with said scarf in the yard.

Final note, I’m almost finished book two of the Canada Reads books, The Jade Peony.  I’m not quite sure how I’m feeling about it yet.  I’m still being all swooning and in love with the first book, Good to a Fault.  I’ve spent the last 20+ years thinking I had read the perfect Canadian book after reading Guy Vanderhaegue’s, Man Descending, in particular, The Painted Door.  Gorgeous story.  Time to re-read Man Descending and see if it still stands up.

Brrrrr baby!

The rain has stopped, (after falling just about every day in November), and the mercury is plunging.  Okay, plunging may be a bit strong.  For us sensitive west coasters it’s feeling pretty darn cold and the weather service says next week is going to be even colder.  Good thing I finished this:

Nothing like a little Silk Garden to keep one’s neck toasty warm.  Two skeins of colour 245 and one each of 208 and 244.  I used the ever popular Jared Flood k1p1 scarf pattern, or as yarnpiggy calls it ‘the k1p1 virus’.  It was a bit tedious, but I tell you what, it’s kind of soothing to have knitting this simple minded once in awhile.

Here it is cozying up to the fireplace.

Note I had to chase off the dogs to get close to said fireplace.  As I mentioned, it’s chilly and those beasties are strictly out for their own comfort at this point.

Last call for entries into the Canadian knitting designer contest is almost here.  You must have your comment posted up before midnight (pacific time), tomorrow, December 5, 2009.  I’ll do the drawing on Sunday.  Who’s feeling lucky?  Here’s a reminder of the prizes:

So, my mom called…

and asked if I’d moved the blog somewhere else and was chatting over there.  No, I promise, I’ve just been beyond lazy about updating lately.  I”m not avoiding you mom.    You’re so funny!

I had a poopy head cold this weekend and I’ve got class in downtown Vancouver tomorrow and Tuesday so this will be short.  I did finish something though.  Look how cute this is:

It’s for a friend’s mom.  She’s always wanted a knitted nativity so a bunch of us each took one thing and are giving her one.  I got Joseph.  I was really hoping to draw a sheep or a donkey, but Joseph is pretty cool too, I guess.

Here he is getting all packaged up to head off to Australia:

Super cute but in a word, fiddly.  I will never be creating a set of these for me, that’s for sure.  Although, maybe a donkey or two for my desk.

Okay, that’s it.  I’m going back to lozenges, knitting, and watching hubby play Paper Mario.  Happy Sunday all.

Love me some lazy Saturday on the couch

**note**this was supposed to be posted yesterday but Flickr and I are having issues.  Actually, based on the forum posts, a lot of people are having some problems with Flickr.  Grrrrr

Heya!  How’s it going?  It’s so nice to be on a computer for purely non school or work related activities!  Wanna see some stuff?  Excellent.

First up, Nate got a new game for the Wii.  He spent pretty much the entire Thanksgiving day weekend killing zombies, in a mall.  Sort of odd considering how much he hates shopping.  Anyway, Dead Rising:  Chop ’til you Drop, kind of gross in a humorous sort of way.  Hubby had a good time, finished the game in about 2.5 days.  Here are some zombie killing action shots:

Handgun

Some form of automatic weapon.

Jane ensuring that hubby’s technique is good.

Then last weekend I took a couple hours off from midterm studying and headed out with the Terminal City Yarn Wranglers for a finished object fashion show.  I only had one finished object but I’m pretty proud of her.  I got the lovely Nellum to model for me.

Then, suddenly there was a problem, and her face went all funny!

I hope it doesn’t get stuck like that!  Poor thing.

Here are some closeups:

I’m really happy with it.  Wanna make one for yourself?  You can find the designer here on Ravelry or over here for non-Ravelry users.  She’s an amazing designer and this pattern was so well written that I managed it for my first ever lace and beading project.

Thanks to Monnibo and Yarnpiggy for taking such fantastic photos!  Want to see everyone’s photos?  They are pretty great and some are really funny.

Okay, it’s now Sunday morning and I need some coffee, breakfast, and a shower.  Off to knit with the Wranglers.  Happy Sunday everyone.