Relations

This is the only picture in my album of my cousins, the tall one is Sean-Patrick, and Chris has the curly hair (I'm the little blonde). Aaron wasn't born yet, since this picture is from about 1984-85

*Edit* We do have more pictures of me and my sister with our cousins, this is just the only one I have in MY album.

Life is weird sometimes. I hadn't once run into my cousins since I moved to Thunder Bay, and today I ran into Chris in the hall, and Aaron on the bus! Aaron and I had a nice conversation, although it was hard to hear each other over the road noise.

I know this picture is excessively blurry (I don't think the flash went off) but that's my sister in the lift, they're practicing. This is much less scary than the heel stretch she does (she's only one one leg, with it directly beneath her, and the other leg is extended up to the side, being grasped by one hand, with the other arm directly out to the side). Her stunt group is fantastic though, and they're always perfectly in line and on time to catch her - although I never saw her unbalance.

Here is the team, rehearsing their stunt routine (without the lifts and throws). My sister is almost dead centre, the shortest with blonde hair. She's a flyer.

Snow

Holy Schmokes. They weren't kidding when they said we were going to get snow today. There's a LOT of snow, ice, drifts, wind, and slush out there. They've closed some of the highways, although they are not all closed yet. It's bad enough out there I could feasibly see them closing the University, or at least stopping bus traffic. In fact, I haven't seen a bus go by in two hours and I live on the main street for three routes, both directions. If there's no bus there's no school for me, 'cause I ain't walkin' up the very large hill when there's that much snow on it. I did get to see some of my sister's cheerleading competition (NWOSSA) today, and I was so unbelievable impressed by how well her team did, considering they haven't had a proper coach for two months, and the squad is comprised almost entirely of Grade 9's. I used my digital camera to make a movie of their stunt routine (with my sister being chucked unbelieveably high in the hair, and doing wonderfully), and I have a few stills as well I'm going to post. I wish I could put up the movie, but I haven't figured out how to use my Shaw webspace for stuff like that. If anyone knows how to do that, please drop me a line so I can put it up! I wouldn't even have to worry about privacy legislation because it's fuzzy enough that the faces are only recognizable if you know the people.

What is this delightful confection? It's called a Peach, and I got it at the Italian pastry shop near my house called "La Dolce Vita". The sides are a sort of cake flavoured with strawberry, and it's filled with vanilla pastry cream (the sides are partially hollow). Boy, I tell you, it was tasty.

Ooooh it's my roving. And it's SPUN! On my spindle! It's about as thick as a pencil....I'm having trouble drafting the fibre. I think I need to find someone who can show me in person.

Presents from Angela

Ooooh Angela you can't imagine how happy it made me to find that lovely package in my mailbox.

She sent me a get well card with a nice loooong letter (yay!), two Purdy's chocolate bars (double yay!), and the cutest slipper notepad and butterfly rings (triple yay!) Wow, I love those rings so much! Wherever did you get them Ang?

I have pictures, but my internet here is s-o s-l-o-w that my photo loading program hasn't been working. I have pictures of the Angela presents, along with the yarn I've spun. I've gotten quite good at it, it's much finer (like sport weight, even fingering weight) so I might have to learn how to ply.

Ang, a package may be making its way toward you soon ;)

I also got a wedding invitation to my friend Jen's wedding, so Laura and I will be heading out to Calgary at the end of April. We booked our flights today. And last, but not least, I discovered that the Harri Bakery by my house is the most wonderful Scanda-Finn place ever with an absolutely delightful owner, a young Finn man.

Hey thanks Norma! I'm glad you like my purse, I like it too! I'm having trouble deciding how I want to do the handles though. (I do a lot of beading, so I'm comfortable making my own beaded handles). Should they be white? Coloured? Many colours? One colour? Metallic? I'm at a complete loss! I also don't know if I should line it with fabric and a zipper closure or not. I don't think I'd use it a lot if it didn't close well.

Oh I want to make this soooooooooo much. I just need a baby to knit it for. Any readers out there got a new baby? Or a lead on a new baby? ;)

Hi! First some answers to comments, then the meme from Norma.

Amelia, I just finished felting my monster slippers, and I will include a picture soon :) I left them at my parents house so I'll have to get them to take a pic and send it to me. They didn't turn out like I thought they would, they felted a little weird. I'll elaborate more once I have the picture up!

Andrea, I have thought about it and I don't think I'll switch. I've been knitting (sporadically up until this summer) for almost 4 years, so I don't think I'll switch. And I did decide to use the DK for Rogue! Hopefully it works well :D

Violet, oh boy yes it is a lot of snow! But this is our normal amount, the kind I remember getting as a kid. And to speak of the devil, we just got more here. MORE!

Da Meme
Do you knit using the English or Continental Method?
English. I've debated switching but so far, decided against it.

How long ago did you learn to knit?
My Grandmothers both tried to teach me a few times, but I was really bad for adding stitches everywhere. My "scarf" was shaped like a bowl. Then in my first year of University my boyfriend and I had just broken up and I went to visit my Aunt Jean for Easter. She taught me, and this time it caught! I've been knitting since then, but only "seriously" since this summer - I've had lots of time because I've been ill a lot in the past year.

Who taught you how?
Um, see above. A combination of my Grandmothers and Aunt Jean.

What was your first FO?
Slippers - they're laced, and come up to my mid-calf.

Favorite yarn?
I really like the Sirdar I've worked with, but I like anything in bright colours, even some of the TLC acrylics!

Favorite pattern you’ve knit so far?
Thrummed mittens were fun, but I really like the fuzzy feet from knitty.com

Favorite pattern source?
The internet! And the library :)

Favorite needles?
I really like working with aluminum ones....but no favourite brand.

Nicest thing you’ve ever knit
The fuzzy feet and Gryffindor scarf turned out wonderfully, so did my sockapalooza socks:)

Most hated project
I don't really hate any of my projects, but the Hatmione and Monster Slippers didn't turn out well.

This is my front yard right now. That little black spot in the foreground is a ball of Sirdar Country Style DK (see below). In other words, that's a lot of snow. That's like almost 3 feet of snow. I'm 153 cm (about 5'3") and the snow comes up to my hips. According to The Weather Network there's about 50cm of snow on the ground, but that's at the airport where things blow around and compact more. I'm pretty sure there's more than that in my front yard. The snow pile in the background is what my parents have taken off the driveway this year. Instead of making banks you have to lift the snow on, they use snow scoops and drag it over to the edge of the yard and dump it. Those snow piles are about as tall as I am.

These are some drop spindles my Dad and I made today. He brought me some new roving from Egli's and I went and got some paste food colouring in red, yellow, and blue, so tonight I'm going to dye it all up and tomorrow I'm going to make my first attempt at spinning! *Gasp*

Oooh look! Stash enhancement! This is 10 balls of Sirdar Country Style DK in 506 - Bilberry to make "Rogue". I think this wool might be a little fine, so I might have to work my needle sizes around a bit. But the picture (nor the link) does not do this colour justice. It's actually a million shades of plum-grape-blueberry-sapphire. I love it, love it, love it. And since it was 50% off, this sweater will have cost me $26.00 CDN (not including the pattern and possibly needles). Very nice indeed!

LOTS of pictures and a few questions.

Look, it's sock wool! That's been tinted blue by the twilight coming through the front windows! Oh well. It was on sale, 50% off, so these two together cost me $6.28 CDN. I may be going back to get yarn for my Rogue sweater, they have a lovely purple yarn. It's acrylic, but I think I'd like that because I have no way to really hand-wash a sweater. Some questions, if anyone can please answer them in comments.

1) Will these wools stripe? Or are they not meant to?
2) Will DK weight wool work for Rogue? It seemed to be about the same weight as the aran-weight wool sample in the store, but being the half-experienced part-beginner that I am I have no idea.
3) At the moment I knit normally. Would it be worth my while to attempt to switch to Continental? Is the speed increase worth the blood, sweat, and tears it would take?

Sophie Purse

Here's the felted Norma-Sophie purse, which has now been christened "Sherbet" by my sister, because it looks like sherbet, sort of. I kind of liked "Sweet Tart" but she disagreed. We shall see. At any rate it still needs grommets, handles, lining, and a zipper. So it's not really DONE.

Here's my Norma-Sophie purse, unfelted, on my bed. This is the hand-painted wool, just one skein with a fair amount left. I ripped my mittens back out (I may post a picture of the ill-fated mittens later. They were not only too small, but the yarn was flashing. Of course this one is pooling a little, but what can you do. I prefer pooling to flashing.)

Here's my unfelted Monster Slippers from Stitch n' Bitch Nation. Once they're felted - and I can find the ball wraps - I'll let you know what kind of wool it is. As you can see, they are huge. Huger than huge. That's my little foot -size 6- (wearing Grandma's hand-knit socks) in the middle for comparison. Incidentally, that's my parent's coffee table, it's teak and slate, very lovely. Also I'd like to say that these jeans are NOT tapered, they are bootcut, but the slight flare has fallen to the back because my foot is up on the coffee table. I'm not a fashionista by any means but I also to not wear tapered jeans. Just sayin'.

Sockapalooza Again

I just got a comment from Alison on my sockapalooza socks, so here's my reply:

Thanks! I did enjoy making these! I ripped the second sock back a few times before completing it because I tried adding first a cable, then some heart lace down the instep, but this wool didn't lend itself well to that so I ripped it back. I also ended up picking out the ribbing on BOTH sock because it was too loose, then I re-knit it on US 2's (the socks were done on 3's). I had to fix my BO edge THREE TIMES on the first sock because I kept doing it so tight that I couldn't get the socks on my feet! Ah well, practice.

In other news my Norma-Sophie bag is going well, I'm at row 30 and I'll be doing a total of 42 or 49 (depending on where my hand-painted runs out). I'm not sure what to call it, because it's so varigated. I'll put up a picture pre- and post-felting soon.

The pneumonia still has its heels dug in, I feel like I've just run a marathon every day. Hopefully it will be gone soon!

Sorry about the lack of posts, they may be missing for awhile. I managed to get myself pneumonia, again, so I've been sick and my wonderful Mummy has been here doing my dishes and fetching me hot water.

Aussi, j'ai découvert que mon Français est très mauvaise, mais j'ai aussi découvert un petit blog qui s'appelle Pure Laine, et je vais le lire dans un effort pour améliorez mon Français. J'aime sa projets aussi!

This is kind of a knitting post, you can see the little purple sweater off to the left of the picture. I knit that sweater to go with the doll she's playing with (which I also made). And as for the post below, unless you're from HOL Creature Feature ignore it, because it's for our Task 1 logic problem.

Here's the grid I used, you can see what I've done so far :)

The long-awaited hand-painted...

An experiment in hand-painting! Here are some instructions:

1) Wind the yarn into hanks, if it isn't already. Then loosely tie them at the top and bottom (helps stop everything from tangling).

2) Soak the yarn (like the above picture) in lukewarm water at least 10 minutes, to help the dye take.

3) Mix up your kool-aid. Use 1 cup of water per packet of unsweetened kool-aid. I used grape, blue moon berry, lemon-lime, and solar strawberry starfruit.

4) Use the turkey baster to put colours wherever you like (with the yarn laying flat and spread out on plastic bags or saran wrap). As a note, don't put too much on at first! After every spray of colour, take a plastic bag (or wear gloves) and press down on top of the stripe to disperse the colour all the way through the yarn, and to prevent bleeding and mixing from hank to hank or stripe to stripe.

5) After letting the hanks sit for a few minutes, place them in a microwaveable dish, cover with pierced saran wrap. Nuke for anywhere from 2 to 8 minutes on high, until water in dish is clear.

6) Let hank cool in bathtub completely. Once cool, rinse gently in lukewarm water, and hang to dry.

Ta da!

I'm using a turkey baster to paint the yarn with the kool-aid. After a few slops, I learned to tilt the baster upside down as I took it out of the bowl, and to tilt it back slowly as put the kool-aid on. Otherwise you end up with splashes and dots, like the purple ones on the lower green stripe.

Here's two hanks, dyed up. This is harder to do than it looks!

The yarn drying in my shower (yes, it's clean, but it's old and stained because the building was built in 1910, and the last time they updated the bathroom was no more recently than 1970). The hank in front is being suspended over the tub by a string, which is why it looks funny.

Mmmm cotton candy. It'd be hairy though, you wouldn't want to be eating that stuff.

The finished product! Ooooh so pretty looking. Those rovings look like cotton candy, don't they?

FTP Servers

Man, no matter what I did I couldn't make my blog publish to my ftp server. But I DID change the template, I really like this one. It looks so nice and clean! Pictures of hand-painted yarn are forthcoming I swear.

Hand-painted

So this will be a very short post, but tomorrow there will be a long picture-filled one to make up. I am in the midst of finishing up the hand-painteds I did this evening, with kool-aid. I'm not sure how they'll knit up yet, because I'm not the world's best. But it was fun! I dyed my roving from Egli's Sheep Farm which is a great place right near my house. 120 grams of roving for 3 bucks! Pretty good, since I don't spin (yet) I just like to make thrummed mittens :