Quilt Help

These are all the colour variations of the queen-size quilt I'm making. Please help me decide which you like best! My favourite is "C" or the third one, which has a chromatic outwards spiral. However, if you feel another is nicer let me know!

Posting will be slowing

Posting is going to slow down a bit, because I have a lot of hard physical work at the Fort, and that doesn't fit well with the stomach-problem-no-one-has-solved. I need to rest lots after work so that I don't get sick, and so I can stop losing weight (7 lbs in 2 weeks!!!). Because I've been resting, there's been very little knitting and sewing. My only news is that I went to my hot and stuffy graduation, but had a lovely lunch and dinner with my family, and suffered a wicked migraine yesterday.

It's very hot here, with a humidex of 29C (for anyone who doesn't know, the humidex is the actual outside temperature that your body feels, which is higher than the air temperature). People sometimes think of the humidex as the summer equivalent of wind chill, which it isn't. Wind chill is an indication of how much faster heat and water will dissapate from human skin - only exposed skin will feel colder, and it can freeze faster. However, the temperature outside is still the listed temperature and not the windchill. If the temperature is -30C, exposed skin will freeze in less than 5 minutes, but if it's windy, you may see a "-40C Windchill" on top of the -30C. This means that exposed skin FACING THE WIND will freeze in less than one minute, the time in which it would freeze if the day was -40C with no wind. The temperature is still -30C, but your exposed skin facing the wind will behave as if it is -40. This is why some provinces use a windchill factor number (a sever windchill is 2800) to better explain the phenomenon, instead of giving a temperature.

Humidity in the air actually raises the air temperature, but thermometers only measure the dry air temperature (don't take my word for this, this is based on my memory of a book by David Phillips) - therefore the weather service takes into account the amount of humidity in the air, refers to a table, and finds out what temperature it actually is. Dry heat feels less "suffocating" than humid heat, which often irritates asthma and allergies like it is today.

Quick Update...

Just a quick update before work. I'm making a One-Skein Wonder out of Noro Silk Garden to (hopefully) wear with my dress for grad, right now I'm frantically trying to book a portrait appointment so that I can get my photos done with the regalia (since it goes back on Saturday after the grad).

I also still have to hem my dress and add the buttons and button holes. Eeek!

I'm a finalist!

In the ABC-along "I" contest, I've become a finalist! The other entries are also fantastic and touching. I'm absolutely thrilled, of course. My entry is here. I really love the picture. I took it when I worked at Blue Lake Provincial Park. We needed some nice close-up pictures of different plants we could turn into slides, so I took our new digital camera (which had a close-up setting - I'm eventually going to upgrade mine when I'm working full time) and took pictures of all the wonderful things I found. This Indian Pipe picture was one of them.

Feel free to vote for me of course ;), but the other finalists are wonderful too. Check them all out!

Oh and Linz, yes I did beat you to Norweigeian Purl....but I give all credit to you! You were completely my inspiration to break through and try true continental. When looking at videos of both regular continental purl and Norweigeian purl, I actually thought that Norweigeian (man, that word is hard to spell and I'm fairly certain that I've done it wrong) looked more like something that would suit me. It was a little complicated to learn at first, but then it seemed to become much better and I think I really have the hang of it. The biggest complication was actually finding a new way to hold DPN's! I don't reccomend learning Continental on DPN's, use straights instead, because you can grip the needles in almost the same way as you do in English. Overall though, the socks are going fairly well.

J is for...

Jenny! My wonderful friend Jenny. We met at SJR (my high school for Grade 11 and 12) in the infirmary, where we bonded over our mutual health-misfortunes. In Grade 12 we had lots of fun by meeting on Saturdays and window-shopping at St. Vital, then going back to her place and making fun meals (mmmmmm....asparagus cream soup and indian potato-cheese omlettes) and watching TV until her parents came home and gave me a ride back to the school. We still get together at least once a year, doing fun things like sliding and shopping and swimming. She's one of my trifecta of best friends (hee hee, trifecta) and I miss her since she's moved to Toronto for university.

New things

1. I sunburned my nose and cheekbones at work the last few days while hiking at Kakabeka Falls and working on-site.

2. I am knitting socks continental...using Norweigian Purl

3. I will be getting my BA English, as well as my BSc General

4. The BSc General is in First-Class Standing

5. I get to miss the last day of orientation (that's good) to work an OVP that will be in the rain (that's bad).

Back from the 'peg

Well, the interview went well I think, I hope I have a good shot at getting in. However, 300 people interviewed for 150 positions, so I no guarantees yet! Sean and I are looking at apartments in South and Southeast Winnipeg, all of which are pretty nice and MANY have really great features like pools and saunas for less than $750/month for a two bedroom. Most of them are even under $700! Even though vacancy is really low in Winnipeg, it's still a very competitive renter's market. Very glad I'm not buying though!

I got my graduation present at Ram Wools, which is the coolest yarn store ever. It's very big (at least to me, who's used to rather closet sized/shaped LYS's) and has a great selection. I spent at least an hour in there with my Mom, picking up and putting back meticulously to fit into the budget she'd given me. They had KPPPM which I wanted REALLY REALLY badly, but ended up putting down in favour of 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden in three coordinating colour palettes. I'm planning on making a little lace wrap, although I might have to work a few more skeins into next month's budget to do that! I also got some Classic Merino in Peacock for another Rogue, some grey sock wool for socks for Sean, and some Purple faux-fair-isle Regia for socks for me. Pictures as soon as I get the energy to get my butt off the couch.

I also went and spent this month's allowance at LUSH, buying a Happy Pill, Waving not Drowning, Avobath, Think Pink (all bath bombs), Sweetie Pie Shower Jelly, Creamy Candy Bubble Bar, Melting Marshmallow Moments, Party On Temple Balm, and Red Rooster Soap - which has no link because it's discontinued, but it's a combination of citrus and spice. Very nice!

Lastly, I had my appointment with my old allergist, and she thinks all the illnesses and stomach problems I've had for the last few years are a little worrying, so she did some blood tests (they took 12 vials! I'm not kidding! 12 vials all at once!) and I'll be going back in 2 1/2 weeks for the results. She also thinks she can get me in to the gastroenterologist before August 16th, which is when my appointment was for here.

And totally check out all those LUSH links, because their stuff is delish, made in Canada, mostly organic, mostly vegan (they specify what products are vegan with a "v" symbol), and all fair trade with no animal testing.

A sad post

A little girl I love was just recently diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. I'd really like to do something for her, and I can't decide whether to knit an afghan or sew a quilt. I want to do something for her older brother as well, since his life is also going to change. Since CF treatments mean a lot of one-on-one time, he's going to be learning to play alone a little bit more (since he doesn't always do that much of that right now).

I'm thinking a quilt would be really fun, especially since I can personalize it with fabrics that she'll like, plus it'll come together a LOT faster than an afghan!

I'm leaving in the morning for Winnipeg for my interview, so hopefully it'll go well. I should probably go back now...I'm staying up until 12:30 so that I can do the WestJet online check-in.

Knitting Roulette...

So I was feeling uninspired by my current WIP's - I'd like to point out the facts:

a)I was totally honest, listing every single project that is on the needles
b)one (VK tank) is in stretchy yarn I don't feel like dealing with
c)5 are winter projects

I needed something to knit until I get to go to Winnipeg next week and spend my graduation present money on yarn for something :D I also had nice sock yarn from Value Village to use. So I decided to play Knitting Roulette - would anyone else like to join me?

I went to Knitting Pattern Central so I could have a huge listing of free sock patterns, then I closed my eyes and scrolled up and down and back and forth until I randomly clicked. I would now be knitting these socks except for the problem that they're for worsted weight yarn. So I spun again...

And got these. Generic sock pattern is not what I was looking for, particularly since I have two wonderful colours.

Try 3: OK about now I'm ready to give up. I come up with a website that has moved and sends me to the new homepage, thereby eliminating the random aspect of the roulette and driving me to distraction.

Send chocolate, and ideas.

Hello everyone, sorry, work is busy so there's no real news to report. I haven't knit anything new, or even worked on it. I had Susan pin the straps on my dress up so that I can stitch everything in place - then it's just hemming it and finishing the seams. I can't finish the seams until I find my woodburning tool, because since it's 100% polyester I can heat-finish the edges with no extra sewing, and more importantly no fraying. Although both fabrics are fraying badly, the inside is REALLY bad and will have to be heat finished, no question.

That wood burner has to be somewhere...

And thanks everyone for the wonderful comments on the socks! I adore them as well, and I'm think I might post the duplicate stitch charts on the blog for free. I'm also planning on developing more complicated Alice In Wonderland socks, and trying to send the pattern to Knitty. What do you think, would that go over well?

Sockapaloooza!

Yay for the socks! They're all clean and blocked, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. I hope my sockpal likes them! I hope they fit too...I'm a little worried they might be a mite too long for her, since they fit me almost perfectly and her feet are shorter than mine. However, they are slightly short for me so maybe they'll be OK. I can't wait to make a sock band for them and send them off.

I also finished the Fort hat (for some reason it said Fort Scarf in the side bar, I don't know why), but I have no pictures since Sean's not home. There likely won't be pictures for awhile because right now our schedules couldn't be different - I work 9-5, he works 3-12. The only time we get to have a conversation is when he drives me to work in the morning. However, I solved the getting home from work problem, since the lovely Crystal (I'm not sure if I spelled that right...) is giving me a ride home every day.