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.

Thanks Linz :D We liked the pictures too! There's a really cute one of us smooching ;) that's now my background. And yes Mom, the little kids got to build the trainset too! We all had lots of fun.

I didn't do much knitting tonight, but yesterday I mostly finished sewing a skirt, and today I almost finished my Dad's quilt. It just needs to be bound, and the bias strip is done. I sew the bias strip down, fold it over, then maching stitch it down or slipstitch it. Since it'll probably get lots of use, I'll machine stitch it I think, because slipstitch isn't very strong.

Sean (DBF) and I at Cascades Conservation Area this evening. The weather was beautiful, about 20C, and we couldn't resist being outdoors. We took a few pictures, but this is one of the best of us.

Here's the building team, working on the train set we built this afternoon at my Aunt and Uncle's. We had lots of fun, building up their massive Brio set and playing play-dough.

Here we all are, building the trainset again. Anton and Olivia's set is made up largely of a massive set from a playschool Dimitri bought online.

Geek Wristers

These are the wristers I made this weekend (yeah, I was busy. I had nothing to do while recovering from croup but knit and do schoolwork). Sean's is the larger that says "geek", and mine is smaller with the star. They're made out of Red Heart cotton wool, and the pattern is from Stitch 'n Bitch.

This is the start of Clapotis in Sirdar Country DK in Bilberry. The stitch markers I made, using split rings, jewellery pins, and glass cane beads. I should have enough of the same stitch markers for the whole wrap, since I'm decreasing Section 2 increase.

This is the very start of Cape May. Recognize the wool? It's from the Sunset Mockneck. Despite all my careful calculations it ended up at a size that would have fit my friend Keith, who's a bouncer at a local bar. So I'm making the capelet instead!

Dishcloth

Not very exciting, but the dishcloth I made yesterday. Using Bernat Crafter's Cotton (I think that's what it's called) and "Grandmother's Favourite" pattern.

Pictures

Well, there should be pictures at the end of today or tomorrow. I haven't taken any because I keep leaving the camera behind when I want it, but today I'll take pictures of Sean's and my wristers, the dishcloth, the start of Clapotis (did I mention that? The Sirdar Country DK in Bilberry is not working for Rogue at all. I knit the "hem" and it won't go over my shoulders, and the fabric won't look good if I up the needle size any more), and building a massive, massive trainset with my little cousins.

I'm off to make french toast for breakfast, yum.

Picture Meme

Here's a fun meme from Mason-Dixon Knitting. You use google image search to put picture answers to the questions.

Where I grew up:


Where I live now:


My Name:


My Grandmothers Names:




My Favourite Foods:

Pizza Margherita


Spaghetti with Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese


Lemon Gelato with Strawberries

My Favourite Drink:


My Favourite Song:

Shostakovitch's Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102

My Favourite Smell:


My Favourite Sound:


My Boyfriend's Name:


Well that was fun, wasn't it! It's supposed to rain here today but so far it's gorgeous out. I'm happy about that. No big plans this weekend apart from recovering from the croup. I'm going to knit a dishcloth or two though, for sure.

Squeee!!!

Wow. I've had some seriously happy news recently that's helping to offset the fact that I've just come down with a rather severe case of asthmatic croup. Strict rest, lots of steamy baths, prednisone, and asthma meds.

1) I got 86/100 on my first psych test. That's an A.
2) Angela is coming this summer, for a nice long visit!
3) Angela has found a nice guy friend :D
4) DBF not only brought me flowers yesterday because I was sick, he bought all my favourite comfort foods and made me stew. Burgundy beef and mushroom stew.
5) Stephanie, aka Yarn Harlot is GIVING ME SOCKS! I expressed a liking for the Tiptoe Through the Tulilps socks she has, neither of which has a mate (one is solid, the other stripey), suggesting they be worn as a fraternal pair. And she's sending them to me! I feel happy (and honoured!). I'm offering to send her my two balls of Kroy sock yarn in "Stained Glass" since I'll be darned if I can turn them into socks. Ripping them back 5 times is enough for me.

I also found out my bouts of dizziness are caused by severely plugged ears. Hopefully the prednisone along with some DayQuil will remedy them.

Haven't Died

Sorry, I've had a really horrendous cold, along with the long weekend. I just finished a geek wrister from Stitch n' Bitch for the DBF which he really likes. I'm glad too, since I ripped it out 5 times before finishing it! Pictures soon.

Life

Well, my life has been busy over the past few days.

Monday
I had orientation from 9 - 5, and in the afternoon we had a scavenger hunt, which involved participating in certain activities and finding out certain information, all designed for us to familiarize ourselves with the fort. Unfortunately, one of the activites was to find a seed bead in a year-old haystack, which was mostly hay dust with some grass. Couple that with running, lots, in the cold, and we had a very asthmatic Karlie. Actually, it wasn't too bad Monday. Things got more interesting on...

Tuesday
When I woke up Tuesday, I realised that my asthma was bad. Like, cough cough wheeze cough cough wheeze cough. I went to work in the morning because I had to participate in the fashion show, where I wore my full Habitante costume to show what made up the proper costume. Amanda sent me home at noon, because the afternoon session was song and dance, which I definitely couldn't have done in that state. Besides, it was DBF birthday, so when I got back I rested and took all my meds (yes Mom, I'm fine now, although a little twitchy) then made Sean supper - through a migraine. When it rains, it pours.

Wednesday
STAR WARS DAY! I didn't work until 4PM, so when Sean went to work I went to Fanny's Fabrics for their closing out sale. I got lots of fabric and patterns, for a sundress, skirt, party dress, lounge beanbag, pyjamas, and queen-sized quilt. This is several years worth of sewing, I assure you. I also have some other projects to finish before I start these, but that's OK. The fabric is 50% off or more, and going down every day. I'm going back Saturday...
After work finished after 9PM, Sean and I grabbed our lightsabers and headed to the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith.

IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME

*Caution* minor spoilers, but they involve storyline you probably already know:

Things I liked:
The script was really good, with the exception of a few cheesy romance scenes.
Hayden is seriously hot in long hair, until he turns to the dark side.
Wonderful costumes.
Darth Sidious's shriek as he attacks the Jedi.

Things I didn't like:
The above-mentioned romance scenes.
A SERIOUSLY disturbing scene involving Anaking mowing down Younglings.
Just watching all those Jedi eliminated, one by one.

All in all very well done. DBF and I got TONS of compliments on our homemade lightsabers (pictures soon), since they were made of chrome and brass sink pipe, among other things. Someone even asked if they were official replicas!

Today I worked by running up and down stairs all day fetching costume pieces. Over 100 trips. No kidding. Then I did all the dishes - and we had a lot. I also got ahold of Jernej (woohoo!) who PROMISED me a Hawai'i video in the mail soon. End of July Jernej, don't forget! That's your deadline!

Stash Enhancement

I got some new yarn today, more Sirdar Magic Stripe in green and pink, as well as four balls of bright turqoise Patons Katrina. I'm going to make more socks and a tank top.

:D

New job

Well, so far in my new job I've done orientation, and picked out my costumes. It was AMAZING. I got to wander through the thousands of costume pieces, and pick whatever I wanted. I've got a beautiful red capote (canoe style), except mine has a long pointy hood with a wool tassle on the end. I love it so much, I'm going to make my own for winter. I've also got a regency/early Victorian style dress, forest green wool cape, and mocassins. I just love them! I'll try them on and put up pictures if I can get around to it.

This weekend I'll likely be going back to Dryden to see camp, and take a break from TBay before I go nuts!

Purple and Blue Striped Socks

Look, it's socks! They didn't take long (in knitting terms, and for me), only about 4 hours a sock. I'm definitely getting faster at this. They're fraternal, but that's OK. I like it!

Here you can see a single sock. They're short ankle length because I like short socks, although I may make my next pair of ankle socks longer.

This is fabric I bought to make a summer dress. All the little dots are metallic gold, and it's soft, silky polyester (or is it rayon?) fabric. Very pretty though.

Stomach Flu

Ick. I have stomach flu. And a LOT of homework for my online classes. However, I'm desperately resting (oxymoron, perhaps??) in the hopes of being well enough for work on Monday, my first day.

I finished one stripey sock, started the other. Will post pictures soon. After that, Dublin Bay socks (from a pattern at Mossy Cottage Knits) in Kroy "Stained Glass". They should be very, very bright.

Knitting

I've just realised that I can knit while I'm reading my Psych text and English text. Yay for socks! I'm planning on making a fair few this summer, I'm yearning to learn picot edging.

My text on Psych is really interesting. The author is obviously American, and just as obviously frustrated with the way America is moving. He has some sections about how difficult it is to make politicians realise their mistakes ("Overconfidence phenomenon" - no really! It's a real thing!), and how the death penalty is not psychologically any stronger a deterrant against homicide than life imprisonment.

Rated PG for slight "adult" references

There's an "adult" store on the main street in Thunder Bay, and they have a billboard outside the store.

A few days ago, it was advertising something called a "Rabbit" (if you'd like to know what it is, I suggest googleing it at home, not at work!) by saying:
"The Rabbit:
Every girl should have one!"

Someone brave, and with a sense of humour, made the following correction:
"The Rabbi:
Every girl should have one!"

I thought it was highly amusing!

DBF is all moved in, with just a few boxes left hanging around. We bought a TON of groceries (a lot!) and filled the kitchen, now we're just waiting for the internet to transfer over so we can split it. We also got another GameCube controller so we can play Mario Party 6, my new favourite game. It's very addictive!

No knitting right now, I'm too busy doing my reading for Women's Poetry and Drama, and Psychology for Spring/Summer.

All moved

Well, DBF is finally all moved in, SO glad that's done! It gave me a chance to get to know some of his friends (very funny, all of them. I'm looking forward to doing more things with them, bowling and mini-golf and such) as well as his Dad and brother, who are also very funny. His brother is really good at video games, in particular Mario Sunshine, a game I suck at royally.

Next week we'll probably go back to Dryden, Tuesday to Friday. Friday night we're babysitting my cousins, but they'll already be in bed so we'll just be sitting there watching a movie. Aunty Iris wants someone there that they know, in case they wake up.

In knitting news we went to Value Village on Friday and I picked up three more wool sweaters. I love how I pay 3 or 4 dollars for at least 50 dollars, if not more, worth of wool. I have plans to buy some colour-your-own sock wool from knitpicks, that I'm going to dye self-striping in pink, green, and white with black dots in the pink stripes. Watermelon socks! Yay!

Thanks and Fixes

Hey, thanks Rebecca (that's my sister's name!) and Linz for the excitement about the job ;D I'm excited too! Hopefully it should be fun.

Also, those eyeglasses links don't work for Linz for some reason :( Which probably means they're not working for other people too. I can see them though, I wonder if it's because I use FireFox? At any rate, they're these eyeglasses:

Buying: www.eye-glasses-now.com, Union Bay UB 320 frames but in Mint Blue

Have now: (same site) Jill Stuart JS 116 but in Mauve

DBF's Dad and Brother are coming up today from Winnipeg to help us move him into his new apartment, so that should be fun. Tomorrow we'll get a U-Haul to move it all, and my parents will also be up for an MS conference so they'll be able to meet them too.

Another little note, I'm getting these eyeglasses, but in a dark blue colour, not the red shown. They'll probably look a lot more professional then my plastic lavendar ones ;)

Package of Yarny Goodness

Yay! Angela got this package today, so I can post a picture of it! I sent it to her for her birthday, she's a best friend from when I lived in Edmonton, and she's a great knitter. There's hand-dyed roving from Egli's Sheep Farm in there, as well as some handspun wrapped around the TP roll to embellish the cuff with (did I mention that Ang? That's what it's for, unless you have another idea :) The yarn is very soft black acrylic. I also included a CD with instructions for the mittens, pictures, and MP3's of the Harry Potter audio books to knit to. It's ironic because Angela never wears pink, so I knew this was the perfect way to ease her into it ;)

Oh btw, there's also homemade stitch markers in it, made from beautiful blue glass beads.

JOB

I got a job! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even better, it's at Fort William Historical Park. I'm going to be a costumer, hopefully my sewing experience is good enough :P I have been doing some reading up though in hopes of making sure it is.

I have orientation on May 11, so that gives me a few days off yet. Good thing, since I'm sick right now, but my lovely DBF is helping by making me sleep and drink and cooking me lovely things.

Knitting Needles

I was browsing on ebay awhile back and ran into an auction for 25 knitting needles, so for $5 (with shipping) I got 25 needles, meaning that all but three made a set. Most are sizes I didn't have, although a few are doubles (no problems there, since they're 7's and 8's, which are common sizes anyway).

They're also mostly in really pretty colours in aluminum. Fun!

I also had fun painting some of DBF's WarHammer 40K models last night. Although I'm not interested in the game, I may start painting models as well - especially since they now have a Lord of the Rings model game, so I can paint the Fellowship, Arwen...oh it's gonna be fun. Of course, this is once I find a job somewhere, since I have no money. None.

Yeah, I lied.

OK, I am knitting again. But crankily. I'm knitting DBF a geek wrister from Stitch n' Bitch, in Red Heart Cotton Twist (I loathe the fact that my only decent yarn store is WalMart. C'mon people, really! Does anyone have any good online Canadian stores, that won't charge me an arm and a leg for shipping?) in Navy for the background and Red for the lettering. Should be interesting since I don't know how to Intarsia yet.

I also found a really great jacket for my Mara costume, now all I need are pants. DBF super dislikes the yoga pants I'd intended on using (although I don't like them either), and doesn't think that my other black khakis (style, not colour) are quite "right". So we're still on the hunt for those.

I have a Master Class in voice today, just to see what the vocal coach is like. I'm not actually participating, instead I have a private one hour lesson with her on Tuesday. I'm in trouble, because it's $85 and I can hardly afford groceries right now. HOWEVER, I was at my Aunt and Uncle's yesterday, and she has a friend who works at Fort William Historical Park (where I want to work, and had a great interview). She said even though I hadn't heard from them for 2.5 weeks, there's still a good chance I have the job there, the company is just "like that". So I'm a little less disheartened.

These are the boots I found today to go with my Mara costume for the opening of Ep III. They're from Value Village. I'd normally never buy boots with that high of a heel - or really, boots at all for that matter. But I think they'll do OK for a dark Jedi!

Sunset disaster

It's the well known rule. If you blog about how well something is going, it turns out like crap. Well, the sunset top is a fine example of this principle. I checked the measurements and mathematics. 3 times. I measured as I knit.

I mattress stitched one side and...it's at least 3 sizes too big. WTF? Makes me SO ANGRY! See if I knit anything again.

Humph.

Here's all the 100% wool I skeined from from the other Sally Ann sweater. I have no idea what to do with it! I'm going to make SOMETHING feltable, mostly because this wool is extremely scratchy and would make an uncomfortable garment.

Almost done the Sunset top

It's almost done, I'm about 70% finished. I've gotten to the armhole shaping on the back, so just that to knit, and then I have to learn mattress stitch to put it all together. I can't wait until it's done!

In other not quite so nice news, I have restless leg syndrome, and it's been bothering me badly. I've had some trouble sleeping, but according to this website I've been doing everything backwards. So from now on:

1) I'm taking multi-vitamins with iron
2) I'm taking Vitamin B12
3) I'm going to bed at 11PM instead of...well...significantly after that.

Video Games

I'm not really what you'd call a video gamer. I've never had any gaming system, and we didn't get a computer until I was at least 10 (I think. Do you remember Mom?). However, we had computers at school, and we did in fact have an old BETA video of me and my French Immersion Kindergateren class with a Commodore 64 and a game that involved a ladybug which played the song "La Cucaracha". At any rate, as I sit here late at night (score for no school OR work for 2 weeks!) here's my favourite video games.

Outnumbered!
This was a great educational game where you zapped walking evil computers and defeated them by answering math questions. Part of the Super Solvers series.

Operation Neptune
Another math game by the same company who created the Super Solvers series (and Reader Rabbit). This was more advanced math, and you used a submarine and navigated underwater mazes.

Cross-Country Canada
A really simple game, one of the ones where you had a "video" on top, and you didn't use controllers, instead you typed your commands in. You played a truck driver picking up and dropping off Canadian items all over the country.

Commander Keen 4: Keen Dreams
I loved this game. I loved it even more when I found out the cheat code for all the crystals and infinite lives (BAT I think? Maybe BAT4?) I still have it on my computer.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Original (at least, I think) version. This was one of the first games I ever played on our home computer. I kept each city's 3 hints, along with the new city they revealed, in a notebook. I also used a 1979 Almanac for hints. I got so good at it it wasn't fun anymore, because there's only so many locations she can go - this means that since I knew every hint for every city there was no chase anymore.

Myst
All the Myst games are awesome, with my favourite being Exile. This is because this was the first which allowed a basically 360 degree view from wherever you stood, and the worlds were beautiful. One hint is to make sure you actually change your monitor brightness/contrast the way they tell you too - otherwise you might miss pathways and have to look up a walkthrough on the internet.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron
I loved this game too. The only thing I hate are those stupid Speeders. Slow as molasses and with the most ridiculous turning radius I've ever seen on something that can FLY for God's sake. I love how the least manoeverable (sp?) vehicle is the one you have to use to take down those gosh darned AT-AT walkers. Yes, I used a cheat guide so I didn't have to play the whole level to get to the darned walkers every time, but once I finally got good at it I took it back off to complete the level properly.

Sim Tower
The problem with this game is the bug, where after a certain number of days or stores/offices built all of a sudden conditions plummet and everyone moves out. There is a cheat code you can use which instantly lowers all the rents to the lowest amount, so people will move back in but I never got it. I did it all by hand. Actually, I've never finished this game. I got to the second-highest tower level, but never got to build the cathedral.

I also loved SimCity, and for some reason I can't get SimCity 2000 to work on my computer.

Quilt Picture

Here's a picture of me with the quilt I made the summer before last. I call it my Monet quilt, because the colours are pulled from Monet's Nympheas paintings. It was fairly quick, for a quilt, because it was strip-pieced, as well as machine-quilted (because I don't have a frame for hand quilting). I'm in the middle of quilting a lap quilt for my Dad made of cotton plaids, and next I want to make an Amish-style quilt using batiks. I also have a bunch of jeans to make a denim picnic quilt, with brightly coloured flannel in pink, green, blue, and yellow with bugs on them for the top of the picnic quilt.

Ooooh it's the front to the sleeveless roll-neck sweater I'm making from the Sally Ann sweater wool. I hope it'll fit, the back should be done sometime tonight or tomorow. Then I just need to seam it, and I'm done!

First Pattern

Yay! I put up my first pattern ever! It's a simple keyhole-type scarf with seed-stitch hearts on each end. It's simple to make, and very quick. I'd really recommend it! Feel free to make it, even to sell or anything you like. My only request is that you don't say that you created the pattern :D

DONE

I am done exams! Woohoo! Let the celebrations begin! I think I even did well on my Igneous Petrology exam. I went through it, before I handed it in, and I (frugally) gave myself marks and I'm pretty much guaranteed at least a 70%. Normally that is the kind of mark I don't like, I like higher marks, but this is a very difficult class with an even more difficult professor, and the class average right now is like a 50-something. Plus, I may get BETTER than 70%.

In other news, I'm trying to make a sleeveless turtleneck out of the beautiful soft Sally Ann yarn, although I'm not sure if it'll work or not:

A) I might end up short of wool, although I think it'll be OK. It may be mockneck though.

B) The pattern that I'm using is for a ribbon wool. I can knit to the proper gauge using size 7 needles, but that makes a really tight fabric, and I don't think that I'll have enough to do it that way, so I went up to size 13 needles. Now the fabric has beautiful drape, but my gauge is off by 1 stitch and 1.5 rows. This means I now have no idea what to do for the armhole shaping, and I'm just about there. Any suggestions?

I'm also going to the Dr. today to get my sore throat checked out. I've had a sore throat for almost 3 weeks now, and it's not getting better. I also have a package to mail, and a cheque to drop off. Busy busy busy!

This is what my DBF did to his chocolate bunny. Sigh. Guys, huh? It struck me as funny though, albeit disturbing!

My TV ad!

Yes, you read that right. I was in a TV ad. For a grand total of 4 seconds. But two of those seconds were a close-up...man. I didn't even get 15 minutes! I guess it's still coming then.

You can see it here. Click on "Version 1". I'm at 2:42 until 2:46 - the blonde in the yellow t-shirt looking at a rock. Although it looks all smart, what we're actually saying to each other is "Hmm, any idea what this rock is? Is it an olivine? Or maybe it's peridotite"

I am slowly going crazy 1-2-3-4-5-6-switch...

Crazy going slowly am I 6-5-4-3-2-1-switch.

Guess what, it's finals time! I have Geophysics on Monday, and Igneous on Wednesday. I'm prepared for Geophysics. I'm not prepared for Igneous. However, I will NEVER be prepared for Igneous, unless I somehow come across the answers on the bowels of the internet, or lightning strikes down Dr. Gilles as she attempts to administer the final to us.

In good (better, POSSIBLY even best) news, I managed to register in classes now. Here's what I'm taking next year.

Contemporary Canadian Literature:
A study of selected contemporary (1980s to the present) Canadian literature

Classic Mythology:
Pretty much explains itself :)

Children's Literature:
A historical and critical study of children's literature

Canadian Literature:
The rise and development of poetry and prose literature in English-speaking Canada.

Speculative Fiction:
An in-depth study of selected texts from the Science fiction and/or the Fantasy genres.

I'm still trying to get into either Contemporary Children's Literature or Versions of Classic Fairy Tales. I'll also have to overload (take 6 courses both semesters, instead of 5) to take Literature Before/Literature After 1750 because they gave me credit in the wrong English classes when I transferred from U of A :P

I'm still skeining wool from the Sally Ann sweater. I'm gonna have enough to make about 4 pairs of felted mittens, or at least one felted bag. I'm also thinking about making a capelet with the soft lilac wool.

Any ideas?

Sping, spring, spring

Guess what temperature it was today here. Guess! C'mon guess!

16 Degrees Celsius

I also saw a robin on Tuesday, and today I had a job interview at Fort William Historical Park! I hope it went well :) I might either be a costumer (lots of sewing), a historical re-enactor, or an interpreter.

I can't wait to find out!

Goodbye, my first sweater. I'm sorry I haven't knit on you in awhile. Although I loved your cables, they were very time consuming. I would start watching CSI and forget to count your stitches. Do you see your left cable? Yes. I made the same mistake twice. Also, you can see where I had put lifelines in you. I didn't measure properly either, and now you're going to be too long for me. Much, much too long. I shall give you a send-off party tonight, and I will remake you (Gentlemen, we have the technology) as a simple raglan. Goodbye.

Man, I want this bed set. Isn't it cute? I love the colour of blue and the stark tree - I have no idea why but I'm very drawn to it.

Spring has sprung...

Yay for spring weather! It's absolutely beautiful here, the temp was 12C today! I also had my singing final and I think it went OK (although I did screw up my first song. I was trying to calm down because I was so nervous, went on autopilot, and got lost). So stressful! Essentially, it was my final exam in the class, singing four songs in a concert with four other vocalists (also doing their finals) in front of a jury. You don't get to complain about finals unless you've done that my friend! (Unless, of course, you're like Allan and you end up with 5 exams in 3 consecutive days, with two of them conflicting. Then you really earn B*@#&ing rights)

Hi Brenda! Yeah, I've heard of Hearst, I believe I've driven through there before! I live a ways West of there, almost 7 hours away. I was about 18 when I actually learned to knit properly, and continued on my own. My Grandmas tried to teach me every so often starting when I was about 7 or so, but it didn't really "stick", because my one Grandma knits left-handed continental, so I got confused (since the other Grandma knits right-handed English).

And hey E :D I promise a long letter forthcoming, once tomorrow is over (last day of classes). I may still make it out to Edmonton this summer, although chances are starting to look really slim. Maybe you could come and stay at my camp... ;)

Linz, I promise. We used to make the simple eggs too (I'll post a picture in a day or two of me as a 4 year old dumping eggs in a single colour). This year my Aunty Brenda brought her Ukrainian Egg stuff with her (you just need the wax tool, beeswax, dye, and a candle) so we got to do those. I'd done them once before, when I went up to Yellowknife to visis on Spring Break as a kid (visiting Brenda, Heather, and Donna). These were so much fun though! If you'd like to try, you can get the tools at Michaels stores.

In knitting knews (ha ha) I finished the first repeat of the alien illusion scarf. You can see that below, along with all my very nice plants and decorated plant pots (yay!).

All my pretty pots in a row. They're Shire pots, with green bases and rims and yellow sides. The writing is in Kelt font, which is a font created to look like the writing on the "No admittance except on party business" sign in Fellowship of the Ring. I then added the proper vowel tehtar above. (Note that if you used Tengwar instead of "Common Tongue" or "English" letters the tehtar would go above the letter they appear BEFORE. This is because there are no vowel Tengwar letters, they use the tehtar instead.)

See! Green things! You can see my fledgling basil (yes, it's basil. And that's BAH-zil, not BAY-zil).

Here's the Alien Illusion scarf from the top. Looks really stripey (Both yarns are Red Heart acrylic, one is Kids yarn and the other Super Saver. Sean and I are cheap).

Alien Illusion scarf from the side. SO COOL HUH? I can't wait to make myself one with a star pattern (white background, pastel stripes/stars).

Here's Becky and Donna melting was off their pysanky. My sister is a cheerleader, as some of you may already know. Note the biceps on that chick. Sheesh. She can lift me almost easier than I can lift her! She's also a good 5 inches shorter than me (4' 11", maybe), but only weighs 10 lbs less because she is just solid muscle. She's a flyer so she needs all those mus-kles to stay rigid in her lifts (yes Becky, I know that's not the right term. I don't know what the real name is!).

Here's Donna and I this weekend, melting the wax off our Ukranian Easter Eggs. Of course, ours don't look ANYTHING like the eggs in that link. We're also wearing really old clothes because the dye stains very quickly (my fingers looked like I smoked 2 packs a day for a few days, which I don't of course)

I have made it in the blogging world!

*Gasp* I got a message from Stephanie! (Yarn Harlot) Squee! OK, deep breaths :D

No, I haven't yet figure out what to do with that recycled yarn. Thick-thin lilac-y goodness is sitting there tempting me like clouds at sunset, although I just cast on for an Alien Illusion scarf for sean. I'm still welcoming ideas!

And now for something completely different! (tee hee) Pictures from this weekend.

Here's the first picture from our party this weekend, it's Olivia in her "party dress" sitting on mine and Becky's old bouncy horse. Great toy that! You can also juuuust see my sister trying to shove herself down the slide ;)

Here's Sean, playing with blocks and Brio :) We were entertaining my cousins downstairs. Anton loves Brio! I was also right down there building too, I just stood up to take a picture. Can you see our little stonehenge?

Here's my Mom cutting the cake, and my Aunty Brenda with the plates (can you tell they're sisters?). My cousin Donna is in behind my Mom, with my sister and Sean leaning on the island. That cake was seriously good. Three chocolate layers with a khalua-cream and raspberry jam in between.

Here's my Grandpa after dinner opening up his first gift - a card made by my cousin Olivia.

Here's the first batch of Ukranian Eggs we made, aren't they pretty? Starting in the top left corner clockwise: Sean's Egyptian, Becky's stained glass, Becky's music, My striped, Becky's amorphous, Sean's Harlequin, Donna's Nautical, My 70's.

Quick Post

Here's a quick post so that my readers don't think I've died :)

This weekend I had fun with my family, we celebrated my Grandpa's 80th birthday (Happy Birthday Grandpa!) and we made Ukranian Easter Eggs (pictures forthcoming). It's been pretty warm here, about 5C and we actually had rain today instead of snow. Woohoo!

Here is all the yarn I salvaged from the first Sally Ann sweater. It's such beautiful soft yarn. Any ideas as to what I should do with it? Remember it's a thick-thin yarn, so it's not plied or anything, and I don't think there's enough for another sweater.

This is a picture of the cloak fabric I talked about before (since Hello! posts pictures in a strange order sometimes) and you can see the texture of the fabric here, it's "zig-zag" instead of "spiraled", but nonetheless, it's still pretty cool, and the perfect shade of grey-green. It's soft and fuzzy on the right side two (since it's synthetic it's icky slippery on the wrong side).