Knitting guru...

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a piece
is the plan, you still love the process, and
can't imagine a day going by without giving
some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation
involves leaving ample space for the stash and
supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn
ends and you begin.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
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I will be gone this weekend in Minneapolis, but don't worry, I bought a t-shirt from Roots that says "I (Roots beaver picture) Canada". It's cute and red. It's funny, because when you look at it you read it as "I heart/love Canada" even though it's really "I beaver Canada". I'll be wearing it on Canada Day.

Here's Sean (my Grandpa in the background) out at my Grandparent's this weekend. We had a weiner roast, and a lovely time. This is right before we found out he'd been charred to a crisp in the sun, although we'd only been out for an hour or so in the sun that afternoon. He hadn't looked burned then either. It was almost 5 hours later when suddenly - bing! - he went beet red over the shoulders and chest. He's still sore right now.

Here's the front of my VK tank. It's a little fuzzy, which I hadn't noticed before. The instructions were challenging for me, because the part for the crossed top didn't make much sense. Also, I've never done short rows before.

River Rapids Socks

I've decided to make my sockapal2za's socks in Sock Bugs River Rapids, using the Regia below. I just love the colours! They're awfully bright, but hopefully my sockapal2za pal will like it. She said to surprise her, and her favourite colours are the same as mine. I guess I'll find out, huh?

Actually, now that I think about it, I might wait before casting on for a few days. I adore the colours they've used in the example, and we're going to Minneapolis for a the weekend so I'll be able to get my hands on other sock wool. Maybe I can find something more river-y. What I might do is cast on, but keep the socks in the Regia for me, and make they socks for my sock pal in another yarn.

Dryden was good, Sean and I had a lovely time enjoying the sauna and lake. We saw funnel clouds on the way home though, quite frightening! It was very close by, and we were worried we'd be caught by it, but it dissapated again right away so everything turned out fine after all.

Gone to Dryden for the weekend to escape the heat at camp...

I may knit, I may (k)not. We'll see!

Knitting

I started Sean's socks (men's sock pattern that starts with 72 stitches. Oy.) and Mom's shawl. The colour and texture of the mohair is simply divine, and has stood up to it's 6 (Ok fine, 8) froggings very well. I didn't really like the garter-stitch pattern I'd found because it didn't show the texture and colour very well. So I invented my own. (Sshh, don't tell anyone it's based on a dishcloth!) It mostly worked OK, the ripping was because I tried to get fancy with a lace pattern in the middle. I finally gave that up and it's working much better.

I have my appointment with the "bone doctor" tomorrow. I've never been so excited to have a doctor's appointment before! I'm hoping they'll figure out what's up with the knee exactly. I ended up having to go back to the ER on Monday after work when my knee started sounding like it contained rice krispies. They think there's tendon-muscle stuff going on as well, and my knee is hurting a rather astonishing amount for just one knee.

On the left, a mohair-acrylic blend to make a shawl for my Mom (provided she approves the yarn/colourway - leave me a message Mom, I'm stuck at home until Sunday!) in a blue-greyish purple-green colourway, and a metallic pink yarn for a sweater I'm planning.

Sock yarn! On the left, for socks for Sean (does the Sweater Curse count for socks and scarves too?), on the right socks for me and my sock buddy (I got two balls).

These are my thighs...oh yeah, and my VK knit tank top. I had to stop knitting right at this point because the power went out and my pattern is on my comp. It's in Patons Katrina "Lagoon".

This is the needlepoint magnet I finished. It's about 2.5" square. A loonie would fit comfortably within the frame.

English essays are done

*cries a little*

I can't sew, but I can knit, although I don't really feel like knitting at the moment. I did however finish a tiny needlepoint project that came with a stainless steel frame. It's 2 1/4" square, a bright blue daisy on a background of intense pink and green.

You'll never be bored, Sean...

*sigh*

I feel I have a kindred spirit in Lauren. She and I get ill constantly, and are notoriously klutzy.

Yesterday, we were rushing. A 70-person group needed costuming. I was coming back from a run for haversacks, and had to pass through the pallisade gate (I work at an 1815 recreation Fort). The gate is made up of two massive seige doors, set about 2 feet off the ground. When visitors are on site we keep the North Gate closed, since it leads to the administration buildings. There is a small door cut near the bottom of the left pallisade gate, but is isn't cut through to the bottom of the door. ie, across the bottom of this admittedly small gap of a door there is a large bar, a few inches above my knee height. I put my left foot through first, then gave a hop/jump to clear my right foot of the bar. I caught the foot, and came down on my bent right knee. All my weight, on nothing but my bent, arthritic, right knee. It hurt, but I limped to the Bellhouse, then back to admin and home. This morning it wasn't all that swollen, but it hurt very, very badly. So I went to the Dr.

I cracked my knee. Actually, I have a microfracture of the dextral medial knee joint. A hairline fracture on the inside-side of my right knee joint. They're not casting it, because it's hairline, but I have crutches and can't weight bear for 10 days. I am also in a lot of pain because of the fact that it isn't casted. At least I can go swimming still, as long as I'm careful.

Now, to answer questions. Thanks, Ang! I'm glad you think the ring (and me!) are gorgeous. And Linz, it's a sort-of-kind-of thing. We're waiting to be official until Christmas. I suppose you could call it a "Promise Ring", although that sounds rather juvenile and tacky. But it still makes me very, very happy :D

Now back to my (last!!!!!!!!! for this class at any rate) English essay.

What's this, you ask? This is the beautiful ring given to me by Sean. It's white gold, with sapphires and tiny diamonds. I absolutely love it, it's so delicate and elegant! However, I am less fond of my hands in the picture. I love my hands, I usually find them long and elegant (if I do say so myself!). However, for some reason in this picture they look rather stubby. Oh well!

Whoops, sorry Linz! I fixed the link. I had forgotten to complete the html tag so the link was mixed up. I got my sockapal2za pal today, they're going to be purple, in a ribbed sock pattern. Although I may get excited and change that, I'd love to try a self-patterning yarn!

Today was exhausting at work, I put together over 70 Overnight Voyageur Program packages, each consisting of fitted pants (we have to look through LOTS of pairs for the right size), shirt, kerchief, voyageur sash, and capote. It bites, to be honest! We're all sick and tired of putting these together! On Friday we're having a board-game get together to celebrate the end of this hectic week. HOWEVER, we still have one more week of programs that promises to be just as icky.

I'm trying to look forward to working on site in July and August. Singing, dancing, and sewing will be lots more fun!

Sockapal2za

I am SO excited for sockapal2za. I am itching to get my new pal and start knitting! I would start now (I have a few patterns picked out) but I don't know what kind of yarn my pal has/needs.

Amanda and Kristy (my co-workers) knit too, and when they found out I got a book on how to make your own space dyed wool (Yarns to Dye For). We may do so this weekend. It should be fun! I'm going to dye some watermelon yarn for socks or fuzzy feet.

I got to tour the Fort today, which was fun. They've had some problems with visitors confused over the format of the new "non-tour", so we had to act as tourists and take it. It was really neat, hearing everything from a visitor perspective. Plus, I hadn't been to the Fort since I was a fairly young child, so I got to relearn the history and layout.

Not much knitting

Like I said in the last post, unfortunately knitting is a little at the wayside at the moment, with school and work. However, today I got PVC piping to make a niddy-noddy, and I have been getting spare moments to work on my Vogue Knitting X-top with Katrina Yarn in Lagoon.

I'm thinking of holding a sort of Clapotis-along. I've noticed that lots of people are currently knitting, have knit, or plan to knit Clapotis. If you want me to post a link to yours, I'd be more than happy! Just leave a comment about it.

We're also starting up the food dryer this weekend, we just got the electrical wire to hook it up. Now we need cheesecloth to cover the racks, and we're ready to go!

Thanks for the quilt comments :) I'm glad everybody likes them!

No posts from the weekend since Sean and I were in Dryden visiting the family. It poured rain and was somewhat chilly, so we spent our time building a food dryer from Hungry Hiker's Guide to Good Cooking. This summer we're planning on doing backpacking weekend trips, so we'll be drying our own ingredients to make dehydrated meals to take along. Much cheaper this way!

We also got my sister addicted to "Animal Crossing", hee hee. This is a VERY addictive video game, often described as the Nintendo equivalent of crack.

Not much knitting will be happening for a bit, since I have 3 English assignments to do before the 17th. One of them is on Sylvia Plath, whose poetry I have a distinct dislike for. It's very VERY dark and depressing. However another assignment is to climb Mt McKay or Sleeping Giant (to the best of our ability), comment on what the ascension, summit, and descent felt like to us, and compare it to Wordsworth's impressions from his "Prelude". That one should be more fun!

Look!!!! It's a finished quilt!!!! I'm so excited this is done! You can clearly see the diamond pattern in this picture, although it's not as apparent in person because of the checks and stripes in the material. I'm glad this is done because it's anothe project finished, so I don't feel guilty about sewing for myself OR starting another quilt. However, before I can start my queen-sized Batik quilt I need to buy a proper quilting ruler since this will have triangles in it, not rectangles.