kiKNITics

Inspired

2009-03-02T22:35:00.002-07:00

I feel refreshed today, I had a good day...

Here's some photos, as I don't really have any knitting progress to show you.

First the Project Spectrum Photos:

Some Green

Some Rocks in my backyard

And now some Macro! Kitteh!

Freckles!

Poly Paws!

(Mittens is what is called 'Polydactyl' He has an extra claw between his thumb and 'pointer' spacing them out, making it look like he has mittens on!)

Annoyed! Kitteh!

Thats it! Bye!

Catching Up

2009-03-01T20:35:00.004-07:00

Hello again. I'm back. Apologies for the lack in posting but I've been without internet for almost all of February.

You see, I've moved. Out on my own. I'm living in a basement suite, and I've got my cat back. He's now living with me. I know he hates living in a basement with tiny windows that he cant reach, but I also think he's just happy to be living with someone who loves and cares about him again. I love having him here.

I've been knitting a bit, I'm almost finished that nice cowl, but I wont show you pictures, I know stockinette progress pictures are pretty boring. This may very well end up being a photoless post.

I've decided to do Project Spectrum again this year. I've 'done' it the last two years as well but didn't ever really follow it. I plan on actually participating this year, and I'm looking forward to it. The theme this year in 'Cardinal Directions.' (north, east, south, west) First two months should be easy, as the designated colour is green. Green is the predominant colour in my yarn stash and wip line up. And I know I'll enjoy taking photos of rocks and snow and dirt. Odd as it sounds...

For more information on project spectrum please visit Lolly's Project Spectrum Cardinal Directions post. It might help you readers to know where I'm getting some of my inspiration. And it might be fun to follow along. Or join yourself! You don't have to be a knitter to join. You can just take pictures that go with the theme, scrapbooking, clothing, whatever strikes your fancy.

I've been thinking about what new projects to start lately. I've got some worsted weight purple coloured wool that I'd like to start a February Lady with. This sounds like a much easier first sweater project and much more flattering than what I orginally had in mind.

I'm also trying to hash out an idea for a cat bed for Mittens. I have a specific cable pattern that I'd like to incorporate, but I need to do a small amount of figuring to make it work.

I've got some soft green GGH Kid mohairy yarn that was formerly another project that I really disliked. I'd like to turn it into a Reading-in-Bed Shrug or something. I'm not 100% sure yet.

Anyhow, I think that's all I have to say tonight. Thanks for reading.

PS Have a picture of the Cat

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T21:53:00.004-07:00

Hello, welcome to 2009.

My new years resolutions are...

Blog more often (we'll see)
Knit more often (already doing pretty good)
and
Get my diploma (goal is to do that by the time I'm twenty, not sure yet if that's realistic. I turn 19 on Jan 14 for those of you who don't know)

Guess what, I've been knitting for just over three years now. What do I have to show for it?

I've been working on this cowl for a while. I'm just over half finished I would say. Looking forward to having it completed.

I'm knitting it in Artyarns Ultramerino 6. I love this yarn, it really does knit like cotton because it's spun so differently but the feel and sproing of it is spectacular. Loving it.

I also love picot hems. Although I finished the first hem while in a moving vehicle. Not recommended, especially when you forgot to bring a needle to hold your live stitches! That was risky..

I think that's all the knitting content I'll give for today. Don't want to catch up all at once. At the slow rate I'm knitting I'll be caught up in a few posts though.

Thanks for reading, and I hope all of your new year celebrations were happy and loving ones. I know mine was.

Hello

2008-12-18T20:39:00.002-07:00

I have a camera again.

ps, the last two were actually taken with my previous camera, but I realized I hadn't shown you pictures of my Bleeding Hearts stole yet.

Alive and well.

2008-11-11T12:30:00.003-07:00

Holy, a lot has happened lately.

I have no camera, I was celebrating a friends eighteenth birthday with her at a pub and it was stolen.. That sucks. My next camera shall be a Fujifilm Z10. A green one.

I do have some knitting pictures still that I never got around to posting about. So I'll try to post those in the near future.

I got a new (read: better) job and I start on Friday. I'm nervous.

I moved. To the other side of the city. I've been living here for a week and only last night did I finally set up my bed. No more sleeping on the floor for me!

That's all I can think of for now, although there's probably a lot more than that. Isn't catching up fun in point form?

Peace!

PS I miss my kitty!

60th Post!

2008-07-21T10:56:00.004-06:00

Well I've already had a 60th post, but that was before I deleted all the stupid, irrelevant ones. So this is the real 60th post.

Here's a photo from a recent road trip of the front of my mom's car. We thought it was rain at first. The sun had just set completely so we couldn't really see what was hitting the windshield, turns out it was bugs...

That's all mosquitoes. I like to think we did the world a favour.

ps, I've been knitting, not much but I've got one hem repeat done on my bleeding hearts stole, I'll start taking photos as soon as I get to the main body of the pattern.

Meme

2008-06-25T01:27:00.002-06:00

Here, have a meme, to make up for the fact that I've done almost no knitting in the past month...

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Well I would have been eight... Would have just been getting out of third grade. Uhh, yeah can't really remember that far back. I learned my first bits of french that year.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

1. Make a snack for work
2. Drink lots of water
3. Finish this post
4. Go to work
5. Possibly get some cleaning done when I get home, but probably not because it will be late

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Dark chocolate, honey flavoured stuff, cookies involving chocolate, brownies (that can be a snack, right)

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Buy a house... in the country... with a bigass farm
2. Get a couple dogs and a few cats.
3. Start a hemp farm as well has manufacturing plant and textiles mill.
4. Go travel with some friends. Finally see outside of Canada.
5. Start shopping 100% free trade, organic, free-range and as local as possible.
6. I might quit my job but maybe not right away. I like my job.

5) Places I have lived:

Saskatoon and Calgary.

6) Jobs I have had:

Pretty much all Retail Salesperson.

I tag Dad... and anyone else who wants to do it. Leave me a comment if you do so I can check it out!

Rain...

2008-06-13T14:31:00.002-06:00

Hey, just stopping by to let you know that IT HAS BEEN RAINING FOR THREE. WEEKS.

It's a little bit of a downer... I want to get started on my summer already!!!

Hey

2008-05-31T23:13:00.002-06:00

Been kinda busy lately, I'm slowly recovering my social life again. I also just started a new job a couple weeks ago.

I have been knitting, I finished my cable twist socks and started a new stole. I'll have pictures soon hopefully.

Away From Home

2008-05-02T16:08:00.003-06:00

Hey all, I'm in Lloydminister for some family stuff. Just chillin in my motel room. So that means I don't really have any good knitting content (ie photos, I forgot my transfer cord) for you, although I have been knitting.

I brought my dad's socks and my cable twist socks with me. I've been having second thoughts on dad's socks, I'd like to start them again but have them on one long circular instead, I've been doing this with my second cable twist socks and I'm finding that it's going a lot quicker and smoother. I'd also like to start over because I casted on way too flippin tight, it's a shame though, I'm past the heel already. Not a big deal, I wasn't totally happy with them anyway.

April Flurries?

2008-04-24T13:48:00.006-06:00

I figured, since everyone else is doing it, I'd show you a ground shot of Calgary's progress on spring.

Yeah, we're not doing as good, it's been snowing every day. I found a little melted patch on my backyard lawn and the rest is all snow. (see how my Merrel treads are snowflakes?? Cute huh?)

Here's some progress/detail shots of Dad's orange socks, I'm past the heel now.

Before I go, you must see pictures of my new baby MacBook!

Click to enlarge. He's a pretty one.

ETA: Sorry about the new layout guys, the template that I had was cutting off my pictures so I've switched to a boring but wider one for now. Hopefully I'll have a nice new one up soon. I just have to figure out how the hell this whole switching templates thing works.

ETA2: PLEASE BEAR WITH ME WHILE I'M MESSING AROUND WITH MY TEMPLATE.

ETA3: I think I'm pretty much done fixing things, let me know what you think!

Meh

2008-04-17T15:18:00.001-06:00

I am pretty sick, I haven't been able to talk since yesterday morning and I'm coughing like crazy...

Somebody come make me some soup...

Keeping my word

2008-04-14T23:42:00.006-06:00

I seem to be doing okay at this blogging regularly thing.

Here's that modeled shot of the Montego Bay scarf I promised:

Yeah, I'm terrible at taking pictures of myself. Also, that mirror is filthy. Some day I'll have a better one, but for now, that'll have to do.

This is the wrap for my mother that I've been working on for I think two years. I'd have it done by now but I'm having hard time staying motivated, all I've got left is the ties. It's only 1x1 ribbing but I'm finding it excruciatingly boring.

It's nice though, I think it'll look great on my mom.

This is my version of the Anthropologie Inspired capelet. I'm really liking this project so far, it's working up lightning fast because of the bulky yarn.

The brooch is pretty, no? I found it in my room one day while I was trying to get a little organized. I'm planning to use it as a closure for the capelet instead of a button or something. It's also got a little dangly pearl drop on the bottom.

I think that's all I've got for you right now, see you later.

Spring Cleaning

2008-03-30T18:31:00.007-06:00

So I just deleted somewhere around 13 old blog posts, they were either irrelevant, or irrelevant and stupid.

I have been spring cleaning a lot lately, but it's not really in the physical sense. In other words, my living space is still a disaster. I've been doing mostly electronic organizing. I've been photo cataloguing all of my yarn and my knitting projects and posting all of these photos to flickr as well as ravelry with descriptions.

So that means theres a lot to see on my Ravelry account, but not on here... yet.

I've got my Montego Bay scarf finished, I need a modeled shot of it. Here are a couple of things I'm working on right now.

Some orange socks for dad:

My Green Shedir:

And mom's wrap:

Well, that's about all I've got for you right now, more next time.

Whew...

2008-03-29T19:26:00.003-06:00

I'm back, hopefully for good this time. I know, I say that every time don't I? I've been a little busy but things are starting to slow down a bit and I now have the technology to write proper blog posts.

I just got a new computer, it's a Macbook, it's white, I'll have pictures of it up shortly. I love it, it's my baby. I also figured my camera out, so I have pictures and everything now. Yays!

So I've started and finished my Montego Bay Scarf, it's insanely long but I love it.
I've been wearing it a lot lately with our spastic Calgary weather. I still want to give it a bath and block it out. See if the fabric changes at all. I'll also have a modeled photo up soon.

I haven't really be knitting all that much lately I guess. I'm still working on my NaKniSweMo sweater, I don't think I'll be calling it that anymore though, haha oops. I've had the urge to work on socks lately though, I think I'll try to finish up the orange Earl Grey socks for dad. Here's a photo.

They'll be nice to work on.

Okay, so this blog post sucked but they'll get better, I promise.

2008-01-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hi, still alive, had a happy Christmas and a boring new year. Working lots. Will post as soon as this new damn camera of mine stops refusing to connect with my computer...

Hahaha... oooops.

2007-10-03T14:14:00.000-06:00

Mmkay, so, you know how I promised new pictures this post? Well, that's not going to be happening for a little while now.

I kind of accidentally drowned the contents of my small purse in cranberry juice, including my most important electronics. Thankfully, the most expensive one (and only one that I actually paid for myself), my iPod, survived unscathed, just a little sticky. My cellphone and camera, however, are another story.

My cellphone survived, but the battery dies in under a day and the dial pad is kinda messed up, also I can't put my ringer on vibrate, silent or high+vibe.

My camera actually survived pretty well at first, until everything had a chance to dry, now the function wheel will barely turn and as of today, it will no longer turn on.

So, new camera, new cellphone. I wanted new of both eventually anyways, but I would rather have done it on my own terms. So it'll be a while before I have new pictures, at least a couple of months, have to save up for a new camera. I also have to save up for a new phone and figure out how to get it working on the same plan that I have now.

Anyways, in the way of knitting, I have one new project started. I'm almost done the main part of my Shedir. I'm still working on my Noro striped scarf, which I think I need more yarn for. I finished one of the Hello Yarn Twisted Cable bed socks.

Bye for now.

Still here.

2007-09-13T21:27:00.000-06:00

I'm still here.

I think it's funny how, every time I come back and say I'm back for good, I make a couple of lame posts then bugger off again.

A part of the reason is that I've started working full time a couple of weeks ago. I love my job and I'm having a lot of fun and I love the fatter pay cheque, but I don't find myself having all that much time to do stuff anymore. I guess I just have to get into the swing of things.

I have been knitting, I went to BC and brought back yarn. That was a lot of fun. That's an important story and I really need to post about that. It's very knitting related in parts.

Let's see, what have I been knitting lately. List time?

- Shedir Hat
- Noro Scarf (adapted from this which I think is adapted from something else...)
- Cable Twist Bed Socks

I have a lot of new yarn to post about, I might be able to post some of it in this post, but I still need to take pictures of some of the newer stuff.

Shoot, I don't have any pictures of any of the new stuff... I'll show you newish stuff that hasn't been talked about on the blog yet then..

Socks That Rock Lightweight in Firebird.

From the Rockin' Rock Club.

Socks That Rock Silkie in Walking on the Wild Tide.
Also from Rockin Sock Club.

This sock has since been finished, need to start the other sock. It's kinda hard to get on my foot, very snug. Maybe it'll be better with a block?

Knee high sock. Has been frogged. Made me feel chubby. Nuff said.

This is a lot bigger now, I think I have almost all of the repeats done. I need it done soon, it's getting cold out there!

I have received another Sock Club instalment since pictures have been taken. I'll try to take some pictures this weekend, hopefully the weather will be decent.

I also want to make this a lot. Is that not freakin gorgeous?

Well I have to get off to bed. Night.

2007-06-11T23:26:00.001-06:00

Oh my gosh, I saw a girl in a sweater type thing yesterday. It was a long deep v vest, with a shawl collar that turned into a hood. I want it. I might try to design it someday... I think I need to actually make a vest or a sweater first so that I can know how they work... But I'm thinking steeked with the collar/hood picked up and added after. In worsted weight yarn... Oh my gosh look at me, I'm becoming a designer!

Happy 60th Post Me!

2007-05-24T16:36:00.000-06:00

Yep, sixty... For my hundredth I'll try to have something really awesome... I can't think of anything yet. Hey, I know! Give me ideas!!! Leave me a comment!

I just got back from a trip to the new Salon One at Millrise Station. I'm very impressed. I got a haircut from a guy who I think is the manager, that makes me feel special. I love hairstylists! They're so awesome! They're all 'hey pretty girl!' and thats neat.

Have a picture! (added bonus of getting to see my pretty booboos, story on that later)Yays! Okay, story on booboos now. My boyfriend and I were riding our bikes home from his house and I went off the sidewalk and it's kind of a ledge and I ran into that ledge and wiped out. I somehow twisted 90 degrees and landed on my face, I cut up my chin, my lip and had two smaller scrapes above and below my right eye. BF was freaking out and I was laughing, because I'm weird like that, I think he thought I was nuts. :) This happened on Saturday, I was mostly pissed because I'm going to a prom tomorrow and it's definitely not going to be healed by then. (This picture is from today)

But look at my hair! Isn't it awesome! For $55 I think I got my moneys worth. I think this is the most I've ever spent on a haircut, but it's also the best haircut I've ever had. Yay! Celebration!

So after I got my haircut, I went to Starbucks and got an Orange Mocha, very good, very rich. I also got an Orange Creme Coffee Cake, I haven't finished yet but it's also very tasty. I like oranges. I'm still hoping that they bring back the Lemon Raspberry Loaf. That was my all time favourite, My two favourite flavours together. Bliss!

I then went to Shoppers and got some deodorant (woo) and I decided I wanted to get a Shoppers Optimum card... It makes me feel grown up.

Tomorrow I'm going back to Salon One and getting a set of gel nails for $75. (ugh) I know this is alot, but I just need to get it done and I don't plan on spending this recent paycheck on anything but prom stuff and maybe paying some people back money that I owe them. After all this prom stuff is paid for, I'm getting me an Ipod. (80 gig all the way!)

What? What's that you say? You thought this was a knitting blog? Oh yeah... Well I have some knitting content for you too, don't worry!

I started some knee high socks last night. I know, the last thing I need to do is start a new project but I want to knit socks and would rather be making my dad's socks but I need to buy some metal circular needles so I can do two socks on two circs (I might try doing them on just one circ) and I won't be able to afford that for a while. That and I'm still not sure what pattern I want to use, I would like to use a pattern that I can use with a figure eight cast on. I'm sure I could use any pattern, but I don't know how many stitches I would need to start with, I'm thinking it's a quarter of the amount of stitches I want to end up with for a good-looking toe. Make sense? For those knitters who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a good figure eight cast on tutorial.

Anyways, here's a picture of that sock. Oh, that's a little blurry, sorry. Oh well, it's just 2x2 ribbing so far anyways.
This sock is being made using a custom pattern generated by this calculator. It's really handy and it works quite well. I'm using Austermann Step in color 03 and I'll probably have to buy another ball for the other sock. I hope I can find another ball in that color. I don't think I've seen it around. I've had this yarn since my mom and I went to Kelowna in August of last year for her High-School Reunion. Here's the post.

Well I'm gonna go for now, I'll definately have prom pictures next post!

2007-05-21T20:48:00.001-06:00

There!

I did it! It's done! I finally put the bloody pictures up!!!! Go look at my Ravelry page!

PS I LOVE RAVELRY! I could stay up all night cataloging allll my stuff. This will definitely keep me organized.

Time for a Change

2007-05-20T22:59:00.000-06:00

I've decided to change the title of my blog, along with my blog url. I'm now kiKNITics... it was either that or String Theory. I like science... :)

I've finished my Shetland Shawl and blocked it, I'll have pictures next post.

I've also signed up for an account on Ravelry which is what initially sparked this whole name-change thing, I needed a witty username, I started to think about how Kate Knits is a sucky blog name... Here we are.

I haven't gotten into the Ravelry thing too much yet, I'll let you know how I like it. (I think I'll like it alot)

2007-05-13T02:11:00.000-06:00

Where the H-E-Double Hockeysticks are all my crochet hooks?!?!

I need to 'bind off very loosely'!!!

PS: If you haven't figured it out, this means I'm almost done my Shetland Triangle. I hope it doesn't turn out too small...

Proud to be Norwegian

2007-05-04T01:21:00.000-06:00

Is that not a freaking brilliant piece of non-technology?

Just a check-in because I'm really trying to blog regularly. Next post I'll hopefully have a finished and blocked Shetland Triangle. It's coming along nicely, but it's too big now to stretch out and dry-block on the needles. So if I tried to take a picture of it, it'd be a big rumply mess... Meh.

I'm back for real now.

2007-04-22T02:56:00.000-06:00

I'm here and I'm posting a somewhat picture heavy catch up post. These are all the things that I'm actively/currently knitting.

This is half of an Eunny Jang Endpaper Mitt. This is my first try at fair-isle, I like it! I'm using the two handed method with one color in each hand, which is also kind of teaching how to knit English style (which I think is the one where you hold the yarn in your right hand) I normally hold the yarn in my left hand. Much more efficient. The yarn is Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, colors 1020 Nighthawk and 1160 Scotch Broom. I think they might be a little small, so I might end up starting over with bigger needles... Do a gauge swatch next time Katie... Jeeze. I really love this yarn and this pattern. The yarn is just so earthy and sticky and wonderful. The pattern is so classic and beautiful, it's simply complex and complexly simple.

This is Elann.com's Luna Moth Shawl. I'm using Crystal Palace Kid Merino in color 9798 Red Cinnamon.
I haven't done enough to start to see the pattern yet, so it's boring so far. I need to find a better needle for this one, the cable is misbehaving.

This is the Shetland Triangle from Interweave Press' Wrap Style. This shawl is the main reason that I bought the book, I saw it everywhere and it was beautiful.
The yarn is Elann.com's Baby Silk in Aubergine. Remember the Razor Cami I was making? This is that yarn, I got tired of the cami. I originally wanted to frog the cami and make Thermal, but maybe my first sweater should be made of something a little thicker than fingering weight yarn, no? Anyways, this is far along enough to see the pattern and I think it's going to be really beautiful.

News break. I'm going to a friend of mine's prom on May 25. I'm his date! I have a pretty dress and everything! I'll try to get a picture of it for my next post. I'm so pumped for this. I get to see some old friends and dress up and I just, you know... I get to go to prom! I didn't think I would get to. I'm not graduating for another couple of years and I don't really go to a school. I hope to be able to get three proms worth of wear out of this dress, my friend's, my old school (being a date for a girlfriend), and I plan to have my own prom this summer for anyone who didn't get to graduate or just wants to have another chance to wear their dress.

This is yarn that I made with the Ashford Kiwi I got for Christmas. And it's pretty damn good if I do say so myself.
I plan to re-dye it, the color's pretty icky and blah right now. Like a gray sort of lavendery-pink. I was going for lavender, but I think I ran out of blue. I'm not sure yet what I want to make with it. I might just put it on permanent hank-display.

I've been using the leftover hemp from these hats for a scarf/belt/hairband thingy. It's almost done.

I learned Brioche stitch. It's kinda cool. Took me a while to figure out that it can only be done in the round. Well it probably could be done flat, but the directions I was going by were in the round. This is the yarn that was formerly skully mitten.

This is a Clapotis. In Artyarns Ultramerino 6 in color 127 (my dream color and thats a freaking beautiful picture in that link) I think this is kind of a person's rite of passage into the knit-blogging world, if your a knit-blogger, you've probably made a Clapotis.
I've made two drop rows so far. It's a lot of fun.

That must be it for pictures, so I'll give you some more news. I quit my job at the Zoo, because I'm going back to school in may and I would like to be able to have more hours and the Zoo closes at five. I got a new job (within a week, can you believe that?) at The Body Shop in Chinook Mall, I start Tuesday.

Oh and my dad got an awesome new car, I really love it. It's red.

Oh! I've gone vegetarian! It's really great actually. Aside from the health benefits, I'm no longer participating in the cruelty to animals raised for slaughter and I'm no longer risking the effects of poorly regulated meat products. I've taken the PETA 30 day pledge for Vegetarianism, I started on the 28th of March, so I'm officially done on the 27th of this month. I'd like to keep myself vegetarian permanently though. I'm very proud of myself for taking this kind of initiative in something like this, I'm not very good at keeping promises or anything like that so this is a big deal for me. I'm actually starting to miss meat a lot less now, sometimes it even grosses me out. The other day my mother had a steak out on the counter that she made herself for dinner and I just had no desire for it. I've found many really delicious vegetarian recipes with meat substitutes. Like a really wonderful chili that my mom made and she just threw in TVP (textured vegetable protein) instead of the chicken that the recipe called for. For dinner tonight I had this 'Just Add Veggies' kit, it had rice, soy protein nuggets and teriyaki sauce, I added green pepper, broccoli, snap peas and onion to it and it was wonderful!

One thing I could never do is go Vegan, there's just too many things I love about that kind of stuff. I love to bake, and I refuse to use margarine or any kind of milk substitute, it's wrong. Butter is better for you anyways, I don't really drink milk, of any kind, I use soy milk on my cereal because dairy milk makes me feel yucky. I do use dairy milk for hot chocolate and baking like I said. Also, I love wool... All kinds, Alpaca, Merino, Cashmere (I mean it's just basically a haircut, whats the big deal) and I love silk too. I don't really wear leather, except for shoes. Yeah...

I have dreams of owning a Happy Vegetarian farm where animals that would normally be raised for slaughter or labour can be raised as happy companion animals. Cows, horses, pigs (pigs!), chickens, goats, sheep (of course I will shear the sheep), etc. It'll be pretty awesome and I'll probably give tours or something and maybe someday be associated with PETA... Maybe.

Sometimes I don't like the way that PETA talks. They kind of force veganism on you and make you feel guilty for eating meat. They don't really cite their resources either for a lot of the things that they say. They seem to be very preachy at times, they treat you like a bad person if your a meat-eater and even sometimes just a vegetarian, but they treat you like a saint if your a vegan. Those of you who know me know that I am the farthest thing from preachy and I'm very open-mined and I really dislike preachy people.

Veggie rant over I think... :) I like to talk about myself. I guess that's why I have a blog, right?

PS When I have companion animals of my own, They'll be vegan. Just because cats and dogs can't really be just vegetarian, because they don't eat or drink any dairy (cat's shouldn't drink milk, it makes them sick) or, you know, wear leather and knit with wool and stuff.

It is actually more of a challenge to have vegan cats than it is to have vegan dogs.

See dogs are natural Omnivores, so they're okay not eating meat. Cats, on the other hand, are natural raw carnivores. They need the taurine (an amino acid) that is in raw animal flesh. (read that wiki page, the link) They also need more acid than dogs, for urinary health. Urinary problems seem to present more in male cats on vegan diets than females, PHified vegan cat foods are available which give the animal more acid. Vegan cat foods also contain synthetic taurine. Synthetic taurine is often added to animal foods containing meat too, I think the taurine kind of goes away when the meat is cooked. Please go here for more info on cat and dog food.

The reason I would have my companions be vegan is not entirely because of the same reasons I am a vegetarian. It would be because whatever meat the FDA or whomever deems unfit for human consumption, often gets thrown into companion animal food. I would be choosing a vegan diet for my friends for their own safety, I would not want them to eat diseased meat, I would not want them to eat anything that was unsafe for humans. I believe we should treat animals as friends, not things to give your leftovers or scraps to.

This is mostly unrelated, but please visit this site to learn about the cruel acts performed against circus elephants and visit this one to see how they can be living in peace instead of fear.

Also unrelated, check out this cool music video, it's a pretty good song too, and it's knitting related!

2007-03-28T17:15:00.000-06:00

Book Meme

"In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, ~~cross out~~ the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of."

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. +The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. +The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. *Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. *A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. *The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. *Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. *The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. +Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. *Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. *East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. +Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. *Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. *Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. *1984 (Orwell)
35. *The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay) (I've seen the movie, good one)
38. *I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. *The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. *The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. *The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. +Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. *The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible
46. *Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. *Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. *The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. *She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. *The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. *A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. *Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. *Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. *The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. *The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. *The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. *The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. *Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. *One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. *Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. *The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. *Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. *Shogun (James Clavell)
74. *The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. +The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. *The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. *Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen) (again, seen the movie)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. *Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. +Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. *The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. *The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. +The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. *The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
101. *My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult)

I just bought The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and The Chrysalids. I'm in the middle of many books right now. Wicked, Life of Pi, The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats, Possessing Genius, to name a few, I'm sure there's more. I seem to get distracted by new books a lot, or I lose the ones I'm reading, or something happens to make me forget about reading for a while and I forget that I'm already reading something the next time I want to read and I pick up something new.

I bought the latest Interweave, and Wrap Style, which I have been wanting for ages. I finally got a look a scarf style, it's just not all that impressive really, maybe one day when I have more money to throw around I'll get it, I think I need to look through it again. I looked through the new Lace Style, it's quite impressive, there's some really beautiful stuff in that one, I think I'll wait till I can get it cheaper though.

I made yarn, from scratch. It's pretty damn good if I do say so myself. I also made a Kate the Cat for the Loganator. As well as a Le'Slouch in teal/turquoise Cascade 220 that was originally meant for a One Skein Wonder, which reminds me, I also made a One Skein Wonder in purple Cascade 220. No pictures today, maybe another day.

I was given a swift as a birthday present from my mother. I just put my name on a waiting list and my mom offered to pay for it as a birthday present. By the way, I turned seventeen on January 14th. Woo.

Holy crap, was that a blog post? I think it was. Don't know where the hell that came from. Bye.

PS Have a kitty!

2007-03-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive!I'm just busy... kinda sorta. Have a meme!

It’s been said that allegedly if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, change the header adding your number, and post it.

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
( ) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
(X) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
(X) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(X) 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total so far: 10 out of 22.

( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(X) Scary Movie
(X) Scary Movie 2
(X) Scary Movie 3
(X) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
(X) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(X) Lilo & Stitch

Total so far: 24 out of 43.

(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
( ) Signs
(X) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong

Total so far: 27 out of 66.

(X) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
(X) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
(X) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(X) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(X) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
(X) Secret Window
(X) I Am Sam
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards

Total so far: 37 out of 90.

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
(X) Just Married
(X) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(X) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George

Total so far: 46 out of 121.

(X) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) E.T.
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
( ) The Terminator
( ) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 57 out of 147.

(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X3
(X) Spider-Man
( ) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2

Total so far: 67 out of 165.

(X) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street
(X) Old School
(X) The Notebook
(X) K-Pax
(X) Krippendorf’s Tribe
(X) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
( ) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
( ) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
( ) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Total so far: 77 out of 181.

(X) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
(X) House of 1000 Corpses
(X) Devils Rejects
(X) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
(X) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard

Total so far: 85 out of 200.

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
( ) Hook
(X) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 1
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
(X) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness

Total so far: 89 out of 220.

( ) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
( ) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
( ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
( ) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(X) Red Dragon
( ) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

Total: 94 of 239

And I'm only seventeen... I've seen way more than 94 movies in my life, they're just not on the list. I love Tarantino and Hannibal movies, so my list will grow exponentially as soon as I can find them at the damn rental place. I watch movies a lot. Especially since I started knitting. Movies are good for knitting because you don't have to touch the remote for a long time. I watch movies when there's nothing else on TV.

Next post will feature something I made, something I bought and something that I was given. All knitting related too!

2006-12-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I just wanted to pop in and say that, yes, I am still alive. And also to say:

LOOK WHAT I FREAKING GOT!!!!!Bahahahaha... So awesome.... It's and Ashford Kiwi. I even started spinning some wool last night! This was a present (!) from my Grandmother, Grandfather, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Shane and Aunt Kim. BTW: Wendy, that part that Gracie (dog) so lovingly chewed on is the part that keeps the bobbin stationary while the rest of the wheel is spinning. It is important but it still pretty much does it's job anyways, I'll still have to check if i can get a replacement for it. This wheel needs to be finished. (stained/varnished) But I don't know if I need to take the whole thing apart to do that or what. Any ideas?

I'm finding spinning really fun so far, I just need to remember to draft first and Jesus Murphy, don't stop pedalling. It also doesn't work too well on hardwood, it kept sliding away from me last night. I kept having to grab it and pull it back just as I got into a rhythm.

So it's almost Christmas and I only have three presents done... Um. I'll get there I guess.

Anyways, I've been doing some yarn shopping lately. (Gotta love that paycheck... oh yeah, I got a job, that hasn't been mentioned on here yet, has it?) Lets start with the beautiful Artyarns Ultramerino 4:The top is color 141 and the bottom is 114. (weird?) I am absolutely in love with this stuff.... It's so soft and I just love the colors. So autumny... I shall make beautiful socks with this here yarn...

NEXT!
This is Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift. Two balls each of 1020 Nighthawk and 1160 Scotch Broom. These will be used to make Eunny's Endpaper Mitts.

Um kaybyenow.

2006-11-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ho hum... I just got back from a trip to the mailbox to check for my copy of Interweave knits. Subscribers in the United States seem to have received their's already, last week on thursday or friday. I've decided to make a trip to the mailbox every day until I get it. If it comes really late like last time, I will be reporting it. On further review, it wasn't all that heinously late. It still should have come before the tenth though, it was on newsstands one the eighth. I mean, you ship out on the first, it takes a day or two for it to get to the Americans, then it should only take another day or two to get to Canada!

I also wore my single skully mitten to the mailbox... I don't think I'm going to make the other one. It's not very warm. I got a total sinking feeling when I felt the cold wafting through the apparently lacy little mitt. Bummer...

I gone now.

Two in one day? What the hell.

2006-11-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

This is really a pretty pointless post, but I just remembered something.

Last night I had a dream about fondant... Or maybe it was icing. Actually, it might have been kind of a mix of the two....

PS I'm really into this song right now. It's Falling Away From Me by koRn. Actually, it's mostly twenty specific seconds of the song, about two minutes and thirty seconds in, there's a really great harmonic thing they do. I like koRn. The whole song is good, but I like those twenty seconds best. Some other good koRn songs are 'Twisted Transistor', 'Thoughtless', and they do a really awesome (pretty!) cover of 'Another Brick in the Wall'. prettyprettypretty...

Bye!

I got bored...

2006-11-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

MyHeritage - share your family tree and family pictures" target="_blank">
Anna Paquin looks anemic... and Fiona Apple and Christina Applegate look like crackwhores... Great, I look like an anemic crackwhore! Yay...

ETA oops, it doesn't really fit, does it?... oh well, you get the point

I did it again with another photo... NOw it tells me I look like Charlize Theron (yay!) and nine other men! (whaaa??)

Squee!

2006-11-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

CUTEST THING EVAR!!!

I miss the Logan-ator...

I've watched that movie at least four times today. It just makes me so giddy.

So I kinda forgot just a little about blogger... I've been busy. Lots of baking... Other stuff too.

First up; the Lemon and Almond Damp Cake
It turned out really great. If your still having trouble figuring out what a 'damp' cake is, think of it as the kind that's moist enough that you can smush the leftover crumbs together. In this picture you see it with some pink lemonade (I think I was on a dangerous lemon kick that day.)

Next up; Lemon curd.This was good too. Unlike the cake, I still have most of this left. (the cake is all gone now) I ended up using the measurements form this recipe and the instructions from this one. The reason being, not only would the second one give me waaay too much curd, but how the hell am I supposed to know how many lemons I need to make 12 tbsp of juice and 12 tsp of zest?! This also took forever to cook because you have to wait for it to thicken on the lowest heat setting (because was using a regular saucepan, not a double one) and, as we all know, Katie is not a patient girl.

I have been working on things, more Christmas stuff. I've started the red alpaca project. Taken the proejct taking up my size 3 DPNs of them and now that yarn is lying in wait too. I've got three projects going that are for me, the orange socks, a garter-stitch scarf out of the hemp leftover from the maze hat and a garter-stitch scarf on the second-biggest needles I own out of two strands of thrifted blue mohair.

This picture was supposed to be of my cats, but the garter-stitch scarf is in there so I figured I'd post it.

I've also been shopping all day. Online. It started with looking for Green & Blacks chocolate, then looking at a Fair Trade site I came across, then feverishly looking for some bloody store that ships the damn stuff to friggin Canada!!!! My god... I finally found one... it's a messy and disorganized site, but it ships to Canada.

Badum, I'm done.

Bzzz

2006-10-25T16:15:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow, I'd like to be busy busy busy. I've finished my schoolweek so I'd like to take tomorrow to bake all day. Mom and I are going grocery shopping when she gets home tonight. I'm getting ingredients for lemon curd (so excited), Lemon and Almond cake (if I can't find something just lemons) and I'm going to try to find some frosting for some cake mixes that I plan to use up, they've been sitting in the pantry for years. I think I'll make the butter pecan mix, do the Betty Crocker officials make butter pecan icing? I imagine I'll find something that will work. Boy, I'm excited.

I've been doing a lot of recipe hunting lately, everything good I find seems to be English (as in British-English). It's all grams and ounces and odd ingredients that I've never heard of. Although, part of the reason I've never heard of these things is because I'm not very experienced in the kitchen. I do love to bake though. My dad and I just had a conversation on how much 350g of butter was in any Canadian form of measuring. I know were supposed to be metric, but I use cups and such. I used google calculator (just type the conversion you want into the regular google field, eg: 3 inches in cm) and it tells me that 350g is about 0.77 lbs, so my dad says 2/3 of a lbs might be right. My math is just atrocious. And whats golden syrup? What's it made of? I discovered the other day, what caster/castor sugar is, it's called superfine here (much less elegant, if you ask me) and my mom tells me it can be a trial to find. I think maybe almond essence and extract are the same thing, but who knows, maybe essence is different? It sounds a little bit more magical. I don't think this is an English-specific thing but I thought raisins and sultana's were the same thing, like sultana raisins (I think it's just my food ignorance, when I first read sultanas, I thought of saltines). And I still always smile when I see 'bicarbonate of soda,' I'm just so Canadian, you know?

In knitting news, I've finished the project of the DB Cashmerino yarn, it made me nervous too, I really thought I was going to run out of yarn. I've also casted on for a pair of orange socks, just for me. More yarn that was originally bought for a Christmas present, this time for some socks for dad, but I decided that was too ambitious and now I'm making them for myself! I need to do more things for myself every once in a while. I'll try to have a picture of them next post.

I've been having trouble with my left eye since yesterday. My vision through it has been tunnel-like in that I can only clearly see a spot and everything else is blurry. Maybe my vision is going in that eye (boo!) but I just happened to see this episode of House on TV the other day with this Autistic kid who ended up having a parasite and his vision was all screwy and he was choking and throwing up (only my vision has been screwy) but this is just me being silly. It's probably just a sty. I'm fairly sure it isn't just something in my eye because I've been trying to get it out for two days with no success. But a sty sounds right because my eye has actually developed a puffy red spot now... yay, I need to find my eye stuff... Now I'm just talking to myself.

I'm done for today, I need to go make myself dinner, mom won't be home to eat with me tonight, she's busy doing all kinds of stuff, none of which I can remember...

Brr

2006-10-16T16:26:00.000-06:00

Calgary has had it's first official snow today... or last night maybe.I'm not ready! I need to finish the project on my size three needles so I can make my other skully mitten! That and I need to find some winter boots, I have a pair, but I'm starting to really not like them so I think I'll return them. Boo.

Christmas Yarn! Christmas Yarn! C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S Yarn Yarn Yarn!

Black and orange Debbie Bliss Cashmerino (I figure it's okay to tell you the brand as long as I keep the weight a secret)

Does it look too Halloweeny? Snark, I hope it doesn't. Maybe it's just because it's that time of the year. Maybe it won't look so Halloweeny at Christmas. This yarn is really nice to work with, and it's so velvety soft knitted up!

Acrylic/Wool/Alpaca/Viscose blend. Grey-blue color with little flecks throughout.

This stuff is soooo coooool...
It's 50/50 Wool/Acrylic. There's a special technique to knitting with it, you stick your needle right into the tape! The technique is actually a little tedious, but I hope it will be easier.

That's it for today, just a wee one. Ba-Bye!

I'm alive! Come back!

2006-10-13T23:02:00.000-06:00

Okay, I may have been gone a while but I'm back, armed with a turkey sandwich (with lotsa Frank's Red Hot sauce) and I'm ready to talk.

A lot of crap has happened lately, I switched schools for starters. I've just finished my first week of Discovering Choices, an alternative high school program. It's going pretty good, it's hard to judge it yet, only being a week in, but I have a good feeling about it.

I've also been doing a tonne of knitting, but I can't blog about most of it because it's Christmas knitting.

(damn that sandwich was good)

Here's the stuff I can tell you about.

Remember this stuff?
Well it's not Christmas Yarn anymore, I originally wanted to use it to make a felted bag for my sister, but I'm not up to designing anything this year, too much work. I've already got a replacement in mind. This yarn is now becoming and Aran Pillow. It's going quite well so far.
This picture shows the actual color oo the yarn much better. This one is with the variegated stuff, I'll be making one in the plain green too. You can't really see the cables in this picture, maybe I'll get one in natural light another day. You see the chevrons on the side? I never even noticed that until I took the picture, neat huh?

I finally found a use for one of the first yarns I ever bought, Madge! This pattern is written specifically for handspun yarn, so I figured thick and thin yarn would be perfect. Here's version 1.
I lost the ball band for this stuff eons ago. I think I saw it at Gina Brown's though so I'll check it out and let you know. I really love the color, limey-green with brown spots. It's soft too, unfortunately, the hat it a tad short... It still looks okay though.

Then I figured, well this pattern is made for handspun, why don't I use handspun? So I did, I used the biggest skein of handspun that I got from my aunt Wendy. (remember this post? it's number one in the picture)Pretty! Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn three tiny friggin rows from being done. I swtiched to another handspun yarn in the same-ish color family that Wendy gave me (number 10) and finished it off.It looks.... nipple-like.... I'm hoping that, if I dye the 'nipple' with some ice blue kool-aid, it'll blend in better. Weird...

Now for some Christmas Yarn!

Some dark-bright blue 100% Superwash Wool (superwash means it's machine-washable) Already half-way through a ball (I got three) on it's project.

Some abso-friggin-lutely gorgeous hand-dyed, pink, 100% Alpaca... soooo soft. The project for this yarn is completely finsihed, except for maybe a little steam-blocking. This stuff is like butta!

Last, as I promised, a picture of my baby blanket scarf and the brooch I gave my granny together. They just seem to go...

Tomorrow I should be getting the last three sets of yarn from Gina Brown's for presents.

Oh yeah, Gina Brown's isn't hiring right now either...

Bye

You know your a knitting nerd when...

2006-09-19T15:56:00.000-06:00

...the first thing you do after you get home from school is open up blogger to post about what? Well, knitting, of course.

On Sunday, I phoned Make One just to make sure that they got my email and resume, the woman I spoke to (I'm so sorry, I'm absolutely horrible with names) said that she didn't really take care of the email stuff so she'd ask Amy and get back to me. I got a call as soon as I got home today from them, they can't really hire anyone right now (which I pretty much already knew, Amy said they'd just hired three new people) but they'll keep my resume handy in case they get really busy in the fall and need more people. The woman I talked to today (I'm pretty sure it was the same girl, again, horrible with names) said that they were always looking for new teachers though. Wow, it's a great idea, but... I'm such a novice, what would I teach that anyone wouldn't already know? That and, would anyone want to be taught something by a teenager? Pondering commences.

Look what I did yesterday after school! My mom bought me a poster from IKEA a while back. But, like any good child, I'm more interested in the box the toy came in! Or rather, the big sheet of cardboard that the poster came wrapped with. Look what I did with it:

It's far from done, when it is done (that wont be for a long while) it'll have a border of bottle caps (they're like fortune cookies) with the inside all being the labels. Jones Soda=Yum Forever.

This used to be an ugly pink sweater, now it's a pile of nice pink yarn, fingering or lace weight I think. I have no idea what the fiber content is, there was no tag on the sweater. It's got a halo like wool does, I'm pretty sure it's got some acrylic content, but it's got this really nice shine to it too, to much shine for acrylic, so I'm thinking maybe some silk in there as well?

I want to wait until I get a niddy-noddy to skein and wash this stuff. I might have to make one, I have a very small budget right now, I need to save up for my Halloween costume. but yeah, I want to try and fit that all into one skein, does that seem viable?

What else... knitting knitting... Oh, dad I took your sock off the needles because I need them for a Christmas present, don't worry, as soon as I'm done, they'll go back on. They have to because I just joined Socktoberfest 2006!

Yay! This is a great KAL for me, I have a lot of unfinished socks on hold at the moment, as well as half pairs.

I've been working on the razor cami a lot, it doesn't seem to be growing... I made a boo boo a couple rows back that I didn't have the energy to go back a whole row and fix, I might drop the stitch and fiddle with it later, but I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about doing that with a yarn over column. What I did was accidentally make an extra yarn over, so to fit it, I just knit two together, but now it looks funny. I'm worried about dropping it and just making a weird, big yarn over there... It's difficult to explain, and the more I try, the less it makes sense so never mind.

The weathers been getting chillier around here lately, I smell my first sweater coming around the corner. I must finish all of my Christmas projects first though, gah! So hard to resist.

I forgot to mention, on Sunday, I visited Gina Brown's near Chinook Mall. It's a wonderful place, I wish I had had more time to look around, but we had to get going to my hair appointment. They have a ton of yarn there, really nice stuff, not bad prices either. I think I'll send Diana my resume today and apply there as well, they look like they could use some help. The only complaint about this place was from my dad, 'they need couches,' he says. Ha! How great is that? He usually gets a nap a Make One on the big, white, leather couch. (that is a nice couch!) Oh well, at least this time he was involved in the process, he really loved all the bright colors that they had, he loves bright colors.

By the way dad, I figured out your Christmas present, no I'm not telling, but I think you'll like it... You'd better. :)

I never know how to conclude these things so... conclusion!

Here We Go

2006-09-17T15:10:00.001-06:00

I just found the best new way to post pictures... it's so bloody simple. Thanks Flickr! Just copy and paste! Yes.... So happy now.

This is my giant chocolate bar. Seriously, it's 4" x 9", I measured it. It's so delicious. Its orange flavoured milk chocolate, with nougat crisps in it. I wish I could share it with you all, I probably could too, with some to spare. Swedish people are brilliant, I got this from IKEA.

I like orange chocolate a lot, my first orange chocolate experience was a very good one, making everything after it also good, it was a dark chocolate covered orange peel, so very good, Bernard Callebaut.

These are some very skinny, bright pink taper candles. I think they're absolutely adorable. I really love candles, I have a tonne of them too. At IKEA they sell refills in packs just like they sell their regular tapers. Here you can see them still attached by the umbilical cord.

Another Before and After picture. On the left are my three little plants, an avocado pit (it hasn't sprouted yet), a begonia (I think that's what it is, I always forget), and my ornamental pepper plant (the coolest plant ever, its got purple, red, yellow and orange baby peppers. You don't eat them though). Before they only had their plastic pots and some drain plates that I stole from our actual dishes.

On the left, you see them after, they are now in brightly colored pots/drain plates. The pots act as drain plates because they just suspend the existing pots and hide them at the same time, the plastic pots fit in perfectly. There's one in pink, blue, green and orange. And no your not crazy, there is one more plant there, it a baby tree with a braided trunk. At IKEA they sell them about teenager sized too, but this is much more reasonable for my space. I think the new pots compliment the plants well, pink for the yellow begonia, blue for the avocado (which will just be green when it sprouts), green for the peppers (they have so much color themselves, green works well) and orange for the plain green braided tree. I really need to stake that tree though, it got a little pushed over on the way home from IKEA.

Now for a new, extra big, issue of Christmas Yarn!

Above, you can see some 100% wool yarn, one is an earthy green (much warmer than in the picture), the other is the same kind of yarn, but variegated. It's got the same green with brown and taupe.

This is a beautiful 100% alpaca yarn, the color is pretty dead on, maybe a little darker, I had to use the flash.

Same yarn, but in a very rich red, it's not blindingly bright, which is good, but it is still very striking. It's quite lovely.

This Christmas Yarn series has had me pining for a camera with macro mode... For the relatives out there reading this, this camera is on my wish list. Of course, I don't really expect to get it, let's be realistic, is anyone going to spend 300 bucks on one gift? Yeah I don't think so.

Yesterday I made my own google map! Go see! I've mapped out all of the yarn stores that I've been to in Calgary. At first, I had all the yarn stores I had heard about too, but in the posts, I put reviews and I didn't like not being able to review those places that I hadn't been. I might put them back later if I can find a way to make them a different color or something.

And, is it just me? Or does anyone else think that an all-American 49 year old should know the difference between 'through' and 'threw?' It's unfortunate people with good, wealthy lives should be so uneducated. (no, I'm not talking about all people with good, wealthy lives, just one in particular whom I will not disclose)

I have recently found this blog called 'Abusing of God's patience and the King's English.' I don't quite understand the title, but I find her absolutely hilarious. I found her through an article in the new Knitty and she made me laugh endlessly there as well. (that article is very good but the technique she teaches just makes my eyes glaze over, it's so very complicated, I must learn it) And she can spell! Well, Jesus, she better be able to, she does write for Merriam-Webster after all. (how cool is that?) I'd love to play Scrabble with her, what a fun challenge that would be! (although I would insist on myself having a dictionary and not her)

I believe I'm finally done, learned some great stuff today.

Umm, I lied?

2006-09-16T18:27:00.000-06:00

Okay, so this isn't 'tomorrow' per say. But at least it's happening, right?

I'll start at the beginning.

In a minute. First, I must tell you about the dinner that mom and I had tonight. Made entirely from my recipes.Alright, so the pictures don't really make it look too appetizing, bad lighting... mediocre camera. (sorry dad, I definitely couldn't live without it but it is from air miles after all)

It's my two signature dishes. Well, my only dishes really. My avocado burgers and my 'magic mushrooms.' Let's start with the burgers (picture on the lower-left, sorry about the mayo in the way.), These are just regular ground beef with diced onions and avocados mixed in. The greener the avocado, the better, as it softens up quite a bit when grilled. This is a good thing for me because, as of late, we have had a crappy (and expensive) avocado selection, they are all very under-ripe and hard. Today, there were either hard, bright green ones, or nearly purple, deflated basketball-like ones. FYI: when choosing an avocado for anything else (ie. guacamole) you should look for a dark green color and a very slightly soft feel when you squeeze it. If you have never tried an avocado, I encourage you to do so, they are wonderful. I also encourage you to try my recipe.

Next, the mushrooms. They're really nothing special at all, only three ingredients and a frying pan or skillet. You have your mushrooms, sliced. I usually buy them whole and then slice them because there aren't as much that way, you can pack a lot of sliced mushrooms into those little blue boxes, too much. Turn the heat on to just over medium, olive oil your pan or skillet, (I usually use my electric grill which is pretty much just a skillet, but mom was using it to cook the burgers tonight) throw your mushrooms in, drown them in olive oil, (and I do mean this literally, I love my olive oil. If you find a dry spot, soak it.) and just shake some celery salt over the whole shebang. If your using a frying pan, toss them around a bit, keep them moving, they should only take about five or less minutes. They'll be a little brown and they'll have reduced quite a bit. (I know 'reduce' isn't the right word, that's for liquids, what the bloody word?) If you don't have celery salt, (I didn't tonight, it mysteriously disappeared on me, I searched hi and lo.) you can just use that 'seasoning salt' that you see all the time, or you can just use salt and pepper, I imagine that would work as well. Oh yes, did I mention I love olive oil? I really do mean it, drown your mushrooms in the stuff, it makes the meal, and oliv e oil's good for you, don't you know?

I plan to write these up on Ysolda recipe cards as soon as I get new ink cartridges, aren't they just darling?

Also, later this week, I plan to make salmon steaks with avocado puree. That was inspired by the smoked salmon and avocado sorbet that Anna spoke about. I shall have pictures, and they will still be mediocre but I plan to get a new camera soon...ish. It will be wonderful, the meal and the camera.

So, knitting! Lots of it! Two finished scarves... uhhh, well that's a lot to me. I could have sworn I'd done more than that. Maybe I've just forgotten it. Here goes.

The striped blanket that you see on the right is a baby blanket that I've had all my life. I don't remember who it was from, I think it was my aunt Wendy. (drop me a line, Wendy, if you recognise it.) I deciphered the stitch pattern (which I am so very proud of myself for doing) and I made it into a scarf one repeat wide. I stash-busted the yarn, it's really a beautiful color, grey-blue-green. This is a really meaningful scarf for me, with the stitch pattern being from the blanket that I still sleep with sometimes and the fact that the scarf goes perfectly with a brooch that I gave my recently passed granny when I was a child, my mother brought it back from the funeral for me. I'll have a picture of it with the scarf at a later date.

The stitch pattern is as follows:
Over a multiple of 29 stitches
*k2, yo, k4, k2tog, ssk, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, k2tog, ssk, k4, yo, k2 repeat from * to end of row

Next up is my Yorick scarf. Remember that Highland Wool from Elann? The stuff destined to be the NIN bag? Yeah, that project has been turfed for now. If I decide to try it again it'll be just a felted bag with the design needle felted on. The purple has been turned into a Yorick. I'm quite taken with it, I've already worn it a few times. Yeah, we've have some crappy weather lately. Cold and rainy, but no snow yet.
I'm going to use the charcoal Highland Wool to make another one, to match my skull and cross bone mittens.

I've got to show you the stencil graffiti that I found on the bike path that I take home. I like it, it's George Bush with a gun target sprayed around him. Now keep in mind, I don't hate all Americans, just George Bush and his groupies.I love graffiti, stencils are my favourite. There's a great one that I need to get a picture of on a pedestrian overpass on the way to the movie theatre from my dad's house.

Speaking of which, I went to stay at my dads on friday night, we met at Eau Claire mall for a movie. We were early, so we went to Good Earth and got some dinner, he got a beef panini and coffee, I got a grilled cheese with Canadian cheddar (tasty) and some organic lemonade (also tasty), I love me some grilled cheese and lemonade.

The theatre didn't open for another 45 minutes so I stopped at Amos & Andes, beautiful handmade clothes, jewelery and other cool stuff, while dad went to look for a birthday card at Card Shark.
And I spent ten bucks on funny gum:

Gay GumOn the front it says 'Gay Gum, straight from the USA.' On the back, it says 'If It's Gay Gum, Its Got Great Taste." The sides say 'Easy to Handle, Compact Package' and 'Perfect After a Hard Day.' It's even fruit flavoured! I got cus it's just hilarious.

Emo Kid GumI got this mostly to show my friends at school, I think they'd find it hilarious. On the sides it says 'For Those About to Hug, We Salute You' and 'Specially Formulated for Those With Sensitive Souls.' It's mint. Yeah, if you don't get the Emo thing, I don't blame you, only people from the age of 13 to maybe 24 get it. Emo is short for emotional. Here, check it out on Urban Dictionary. (great site, very helpful too, especially if you have a teenager)

Clinton GumI like Clinton, I don't like Bush, I want Clinton back, I don't care who he sleeps with, he wasn't an idiot politically. It's mint

Dum GumThis is, by far, my favourite. On Bush's hands, 'dam good' is written. The ends say, 'As Seen In The White House,' and 'The Corporate Sponsored Brain-Child.' The sides say, '8 Idiot-Proof Pieces,' and 'Minty Madness.' The back is my favourite, 'Endorsed By God *****' 'Don't Debate, Manipulate!' 'Just Chew, Smile, Nod & Profit!' and 'Warning: May Be Harmful To Future Generations' that one is my favourite.

We saw The Illusionist, while we were in line for the tickets, we were talking about it, trying to remember what it was called because all of the movies began with 'the.' This woman in front of us say 'Oh don't see that, my mom and I could hardly stay awake, it's so boring.' I kinda wanted to smack her... I really hate it when people do that, that's why I don't read movie reviews, they ruin the movie for me, and I really think she kind of did too. I loved it, but don't take my word for it, go see it and form your own damn opinions, kay?

I love gouda... and coffee...
I got a haircut today, I love it. Heres a Before and After shot, I'll have another one later with curly hair after. Hopefully it'll look just as good.
Theres more, but blogger wont let me upload any more pictures, since last night actually... so yeah, I'll save it for another post. Buh-bye.

What??

2006-09-08T14:41:00.000-06:00

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

Ummm, I don't think that's right... I would say maybe they're talking about all of blogger but I think it'd be worth more than that.

How come I'm worth so much and yet I still don't have any readers?!

And, hey... Where's my share? Hmm?

Oh, by the way, I figured out that it wasn't Grumperina's blog that I originally found the info about Synthrapol on, it was Purly Whites. In this post, she reviews Elann.com Baby Cashmere and tells us how she washes it and what she washes it with, Synthrapol. It was, however, a very freaky coincidence that Grumperina has used synthrapol as well.

Holy Progress!

2006-09-04T17:29:00.000-06:00

On saturday, my dad and I were off to The Hat for a surprise bash for my g-parents 50th anniversary. What a ball, there was Chinese food for supper and DQ ice cream cake (the fudge is the best part, I eat it last) for dessert. I got a lot of knitting done and again had a chance to talk to my aunts and grandma about knitting. It's refreshing to talk to people who actually understand what I'm saying. My uncle and his wife, dad and me and my aunt Wendy were all there.
On the way there, we drove behind this for about twenty minutes. Sloooow.Then we passed another one on the highway.

Wendy's dog Gracie was there, we gave her a yellow party hat too, she promptly shook it off and chewed it to peices.

The g-parent's cat, Mo/Maurice, got a hat too, he wasn't exactly thrilled...

The ice cream cake was great... but very, very frozen. The knife got stuck in the cake as you can see. (hey, you can see my reflection in the china cabinet!) My uncle was working hard, chiselling away at his peice, using his hand as a hammer.

Knitting news:
In the course of about a day, I managed to start-over and finish one pirate mitten. I'm proud of it. More details when the second one is done.Snazzy, no? It still needs to be washed and maybe blocked, or at least fiddled with a little bit.

Now, for the second edition of Christmas Yarn. It's bright pink, it yarn... that's it.

The other day, I moved my [huge] printer off of my desk and on top of my bookshelf (which, incidentally, has no books on it, just yarn) and put, in it's place, the kitty pi that I made eons ago. Both of the kitties love it and now they can hang out with me without shedding all over my knitting!

Stay tuned to the blog to hear about more Christmas Yarn and whatnot.

Brain-Cramp

2006-08-31T15:37:00.000-06:00

I've been working on my plans for the NIN bag since I've now got the swatch shaved and I can figure out my gauge. I did a ton of math last night. I was tired but it still worked. Now, my head is filled with a million equations and some of them don't quite match up. Part of the issue is that my computer refuses to print off a picture in the correct size. I'm not yet sure what I'll do. I'll figure it out eventually, right now I've got other projects to concentrate on.

I'm really trying to finish some stuff up, I really need to narrow down the amout of WIPs I've got going. Especially as I need to get started on christmas projects soon.

Here's what I have to finish:

Plum Razor Cami
Neon Pom-Squad
Pirate Mittens
Dad's Blue Socks
VooDoo ArmWarmers
Knucks (these might get frogged)
Branching Out Scarf
Green Angora Spiral Scarf

I'm pretty sure thats it... God, I hope it is. Does that seem like a lot?

Carmen is trying very hard to get on my lap at the moment, but I don't feel like being a lap right now.

Hey! What's that? Yarn?Why yes, it is yarn! Orange yarn!

Yes indeedy, folks. This is the first in a series of Christmas Yarns. No, I can't tell you what it's for, what weight it is or what brand it is. Not until christmas is over at least. All I can tell you for now is that it's yarn and it's orange. Oooo, Ahhh. Pretty.

I somehow managed to do absolutely no knitting yesterday, this is not an easy feat for me. I guess I just didn't feel very motivated. I was also busy yesterday, writing yesterdays post and bike-riding to an appointment and back from it in the rain. Gosh that was fun, I love going through puddles, I noticed that I talked to myself alot.

Some day I want to make this:

I think it would be wonderful in SouthWest Trading Company's Oasis.

Being 100% Soysilk (sooo cooool) I've been wanting to try it for a while. I've seen how it drapes and I think it would work beautifully with this pattern. Click the pattern link please, then you can see all the ways it can be worn. The trouble is, there are no interesting variegated colorways in Oasis. The only remotely colorful one is Purplexed but I still think it's too monotone. I'd like to get as close to the color that they use in the pattern as possible. I like that one a lot.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit back and enjoy my orange juice... Or not, I'm kind of in yarn mode right now. Maybe I'll try working on something.

C is for Cookie

2006-08-29T18:38:00.000-06:00

Well I'm dissapointed, I had a really good post done yesterday and I was really happy with it but, apparently, Picasa or Blogger was hungry... I don't know what the heck happened but the post just never showed up. Damn, I'm just not digging Picasa at the moment. So here we go again. I switched over to Blogger Beta yesterday, and I have to say that, so far, it's pretty cool. I like that it's easier to edit the layout now. (Which is why I switched in the first place) I've been looking for ways to make blogging easier lately. If anyone else has any ideas, drop me a line after the beep. (That's what I've named my comments now. Neat, huh?)

I'll start with what I did on Sunday, I was staying at my dad's and I decided that we should go to Make One Yarn Studio to see if they needed any part-time help this year, even though I'd been there just the day before with my mom, I just had the idea on sunday morning. I spoke with Amy, she said that I could email her my resume and a little about my life as a knitter. I don't think I've ever wanted a job so much, this would be my dream. To work in a yarn store, gosh, it wouldn't even be work! If your reading this, Amy, I'd love to work with you ladies! (I gave her a link to my blog) Now I just have to get the mean little voice in my head to shut-up and I'm good to go.

How does one tame the wiry, stiff-as-a-board mess that is hemp yarn? Well, you wind your yarn on your ball winder as usual but you stop every once in a while to spritz it with water. When your done, position your fan (or aim a hair dryer) at the yarn whilst it is still on the winder. When it's half-way dry, take it off and leave it to dry overnight and whatnot. Works for me!

I've made some decent progress on my neon pom-squad, I have a little less than one stripe to go until I can turn the heel. Wee... I want these socks to be done... they're boring. Thank god they're ankle socks. I don't think I'll ever be able to live through a pair of knee-highs, at least not plain ones.

This is branching out in pink crochet cotton. I've got two pattern repeats done so far. Is anyone else out there having trouble reading the chart? I understand it and all, it's just so teeny!
I'm trying really hard to stashbust my yarns because I'm starting to get overwhelmed. I think that, from time to time, I'll be posting pictures and stats about some yarns in my stash and asking for ideas on projects for them. But seriously, does anyone other than my family read this thing?!

Look! It's the Leaning Tower of Yarnza! Hahaha, I crack me up.Bottom's up: White Buffalo Lama rusty dark orange 100% Wool 2 x 50g/yardage not given. Pingouin Spring 100% Egyptian Mercerized Cotton in seafoam 2 x 50g/134m-146yds. Sunbeam Shantung 65% Natural Silk 35% Pure Wool natural color 4 x 25g/yardage not given but they do tell me that it was spun by Richard Ingham... Uh, thanks for the yarn, Richard? Any suggestions for these yarns are more than welcome, I'm thinking something socks for the cotton, but thats just because I don't know what else to use it for.

I'm starting to make some Christmas presents. Or at least I'm buying yarn for them, I'm not doing anything big this year (ie: no sweaters or blankets) after all, I am a beginner... technically. I wouldn't want to subject my relatives to the ever-so-crappy 'first-time sweater.' I do have some great ideas though. I'm looking forward to making this stuff.

Here's my dad's blue sock. I've finally gotten to a point where.... Well where it actually counts as a point. I've never made this much progress before and I'm really proud.He doesn't seem to believe that I will finish this sock and I will make a second. Come on, obviously me making this much progress means something, does it not? Jeeze...

I decided to knit up a swatch (my first swatch ever) with the Peruvian Highland Wool, I've decided that I want to do the NIN bag in fair isle. I just didn't have the patience to try and figure out my backwards double knitting. This way, I can line it with some nice fabric. I want to get something really nice to line it, like some exspensive silk or something. It's only half a yard. It would have to be a jewel tone purple though, I love jewel tones.
I don't know what the heck happened. It's so bloody furry! I desperately need a lint-shaver. I can't check my gauge until I can see the damn stitches!

This is razor cami, she's past four inches now and I've finished the first ball of yarn. I'm not sure I've got enough for the whole thing, hopefully I have.
Here's hoping my post doesn't get eaten again! So long!

Note to Self

2006-08-22T17:22:00.000-06:00

Just a few notes to leave myself before I forget. These are dad's socks in Skacel Kokon, turquoise. This yarn is 35% Silk/35% Cotton/30% Acrylic, 50g/175m. I cast on 26 stitches provisionally and made a short-row toe, then I started 2x2 ribbing on the top half of the foot. I'm using the magic loop method on 3.25 mm circulars.

Lets get organized?

2006-08-21T22:22:00.000-06:00

Currently Listening To: Everything I've Got, Tool especially.
Currently Knitting: Ruffle Scarf, Razor Cami, Neon Socks, Pirate Mittens

I need your help readers. That is, if any knitters reads this blog yet. I read something (I don't know when) on some blog about not using Eucalan to wash wool. This person uses a commercial (I think) product that is usually used to wash fleece before processing. I think the name started with an 'S'. I thought I read it on Grumperina's blog, but I couldn't find it again, so it may have been Whispering Pines, Craftoholic or Knitting Escapism. (these are all blogs I have been reading in the past couple of days) Keep in mind, when I discover a new blog, I often read as many entries as possible, usually until I hit the very first entry. Yeah I get bored sometimes and I like to read. I still have a big hunch that the info is from Grumperina but I've searched for 'Eucalan' in her search bar (she mentions not liking to use Eucalan) and I've come up blank. I've also been going backwards through her entries and trying to find it again, I'm not quite finished doing that yet so I may have some luck yet. Thanks for your help if your able to give it.

Edited to add: (before I've even finished the entry) IT'S SYNTHRAPOL!!! And it was on Grumperina's blog. But I still can't find the exact entry...

This will probably be another photo-intensive entry. Does anyone out there know if entry-cuts are possible on Blogger? Like they have on LiveJournal? I think that people might appreciate it a lot if I could do that.

I got a surge of organizational energy today, I decided to photo-document all of my WIPs (works in progress for the family) and all of my projects that I will be doing in the future and already have yarn for. Look!

These are my neon socks, modelled below. They're a real challenge to get on at the moment, I think my feet are extra bony or something. These are knit in Regia 4 Ply Neon following the Pom-Squad Pattern.

This is a Spiral Scarf in the angora that I hand-dyed a long time ago, I plan to knit until I run out of yarn and I'm thinknig of trying to felt it a bit, maybe it'll shed less that way?

This is one VooDoo armwarmer, I have yet to make the second one. It's made of some hand-dyed worsted weight wool that I found at Goodwill.

There's alot more but I'm using these new photo uploading programs called Hello and Picasa, (google it) the programs work with each other but I haven't figured out how to add more pictures to an entry, I might have to try again later. I got these programs because I was having alot of trouble with the Blogger uploader, it kept stalling out and taking way forever. I find that this works better but I still haven't fully figured it out.

All done for now.

I am the master untangler!!!

2006-08-16T13:32:00.000-06:00

Currently Listening To: Imogen Heap
Currently Knitting: Neon Socks

Look! From this: (fyi, it was way way way more of a tangled mess before this picture was taken)
I surprised my cat with an exclamation of 'HA!'And look at the magic I worked!
Stuff On My Cat!!!And I'll leave you with a picture of Mittens shortly after he buried his head in that bright pink bag you see there. He likes to chew on plastic, see.

Bye

Warning, picture heavy really lots-like

2006-08-15T12:36:00.000-06:00

Currently Listening To: Dixie Chicks songs
Currently Knitting: Neon Rainbow Socks! ... and pirate mittens and razor cami and a bazillion other things...

So mom and I just got back from Kelowna yesterday. It was really fun and I got alot of yarn. She spent alot of money on me but I think I deserved it... For certain reasons...

This would be Carmen, wearing the, finsihed, second Maze. It looks like a rasta hat on her, Rasta Kitty!

This is the yarn that I thrifted and am making VooDoo wristwarmers out of. Click on the pic to see the super-huge version of it and you can see the ever-so-subtle variegation of the yarn. I actually have one wristwarmer finished now... the thumb-hole is a little tight but i think I'm going to block it to death to fix that. The white and black yarn you see there is for my Pirate Mittens, which now have about an inch of cuff.On the trip to Kelowna, it rained most of the way, we drove through alot of clouds, it was kinda neat.

We stop in Golden (?) for lunch at a palce that puts brown paper on their tables and gives you crayons to draw with, I drew this. Yeah, I ripped it off from someone else, but whatever...This is me at D Dutchman's Dairy, with my chocolate peanut butter moose ice cream (in a waffle cone, of course) and saying hi to the cows. This one licked me, cows tongues are twice as rough as cat tongues! It felt funny.
These are birds that I can only describe as over-fed pigeons, they look like pigeons, but they're huge!

This is a horse that my family has visited all the time, we named him Patch. This is where he bit me... I guess he was hungry, I have a ping-pong ball sized bruise to prove it!
This is Patch getting it right the next time, grass, not Katie's arm, kay?
This is a tunnel we went through, you can see the reflection of our starbucks coffees in the windshield.The day of my mom's reunion, I sat in the hotel room, watching a Jerry Springer musical (it was weird...) and knitting a sunglasses case (below) that is now finished.
This is the bag in which my new bathing-suit came in. It's cute.

See?
This is the art of yarn, in Pandosy... It's an awesome shop, they have NORO!!!!
This is the stuff I bought from The Art Of Yarn. I have a ball of regia self-striping sock yarn that is already being turned into socks, I'm doing pom-squad. I also got three balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino, I plan to make this into something lacey... I don't know what yet though... The ball band just says 'verious gauges'... great, real helpful guys. So I don't know what the hell weight it is, so I can't look for patterns that I can sub it for.
We also stopped in Vernon to go to The Never Ending Yarn. I got this sock yarn that come in really pretty, muted, heathery colors, I got green/brown. This is the coolest sock yarn ever folks! It has aloe vera and jojoba oil right in the yarn! You make moisurizing socks with this stuff!!! It felt so nice on my fingers, which are still suffering from that reaction to the Phentex.Thats it for now, just pictures... anyways, bye

Like the flash...

2006-08-10T14:56:00.000-06:00

Currently Listening To: Deeper Underground - Jamiroquai
Currently Knitting: Hemp hat (almost done!) and I'm going to start the pirate mittens soon

I just got my Elann.com order today! Squee! It was totally speedy, kudos for elann.com and Canada Post! The Brittany Birch DPNs are soooo beautiful. I can't wait to get started with them. They have the size stamped right on them, which I think should be required by law or something... Just my opinion, haha. I just hate it when I have know clue what size my needles are. The only thing I don't like about these needles is that, once you open the package that they come in, you can't really re-use it, it's big and bulky... I like to keep my dpns together because I tend to lose things... Oh well I guess, I could always make something.

I also got my Devon wool for the mittens, very excited about that. Highland Wool too, for my felted NIN bag. I'm excited about that but I still have a lot of planning to do. I have worked out a (highly disproportionate) schematic for it but I still need to work out a few things, like needles size, how big it needs to be before felting, and I need to see if I have to make a whole new Reznor face chart because I don't think it's going to be big enough.

I also got a back-issue of the Holiday 2005 Vogue Knitting, I rather like it. I want to make my first sweater some time soon. I'm going to be sporting knit-wear like whoa in the winter. Interweave Knits Summer issue also came today, a little late, but I subscribed pretty late too. I like it, though I'm more excited for the winter issue to see what Eunny made! It just looks so pretty! The weird thing is, the label on the envelope said Winter 06 so I thought that was what I was getting, and now I'm thinking maybe I'll be getting all the issues late? Like that TV show about the guy who got the next day's newspaper and saved the people's lives and stuff, except my situation is backwards. What was that show called.... Was that guy who plays Ecklund on Mysterious Ways in it? Or am I thinking of someone else, did he have red hair? Hmmm...

My massage therapist told me today that I sit too much (too much knitting and computer!) and that I need to do some exercises to stretch my hip flexors... I also think she hit something funny in my middle/lower back, because it really hurts now. I didn't feel it until a little while ago... Owie. Next time I'm gonna have to get her to do middle back instead of shoulders and lower back. Blah.

Am I done? I'm done... yep. Bye.
Kate

I'm impressed.

2006-08-08T15:20:00.000-06:00

Currently Listening To: Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap (This song gives me a headache for some reason, but I really like it so I grin and bear it. Masochist music?)
Currently Knitting: Everything... sigh

I placed another Elann.com order yesterday, and it was shipped today! I must say, I am thoroughly impressed. I believe I already mentioned what I ordered in a previous post.

I just returned from a trip to Saskatoon with the dad-guy to visit sister and kiddo. (my nephew) It was fun... But I've lost the urge to blog about it so maybe I will later...

All done

The self-validation was indeed unneeded

2006-08-03T11:22:00.000-06:00

Mmkay, so I've started the second hemp hat and I got impatient and had to start the razor cami last night. Ohmigosh, this yarn is soooo crazy soft. I want to make an alpaca blanket for winter, cus I live in my basement and it gets super-freezing down here. I want to spin alpaca.. I want a pet alpaca.... Maybe that'll be the first animal I get on my dream-farm... an alpaca. Don't worry Aunty Wendy, I'll get the fainting goat too. Alpacas first though! Sooo soft and pretty....

By the way, I figured out that I'm not that much bigger than Katie, I just cast on waaaaay too tight. So I used a stretchier cast on (cable) this time and were all good! I did cast on an extra twelve stitches so that they could fit all the way around the circular needle, I need a shorter one, methinks.

So I found these LiveJournal communities. (For the fam-damily: LJ Communities are like big group 'blogs' [thats what this is] where a bunch of people can join the community and
post all their stuff to each other) Clothes Surgery and T-shirt Surgery. Now, I'm going totally nutters without my sewing machine because I have soo much flippin inspiration from these places now. Grarr! I managed to convince my mother to keep the old old sewing machine. The only thing I've ever encouraged her to keep. (ha!) It will be my sewing machine when I get my own place, because I can't live without one. It weighs an absolute tonne and I was exausted just carrying it down the stairs to my room... I accidentally made a huge gauge in my coffee table from sliding it instead of lifting the damn thing... I'll have to see what I can do to fix that. It was from a peice of the case that was sticking out of the bottom. I also need an extension cord for it because the cord is mucho-short and the machine has to be in the middle of the room and, you know, there's no plug-ins in the middle of the room. (durr...)

I can't find any of my concert tees... Grarr, there's three baskets of laundry on my couchy-thing that I need to go through... They're probably in there. That and some other stuff I can destroy/rebuild. I have a Taste of Chaos and Nine Inch Nails tee to re-size. I also want to make some stencils and... well, do some stencilling. (no really?) I would like to make a t-shirt with all my favourite bands all over it and stuff.

By the way, I don't think I mentioned this in my last post, but in was soooo nice to be able to talk to people last weekend about knitting who actually understood what the heck I was saying! Thanks Grandma and Wendy!

What else, what else... Um, I'll be at my sister's place in Saskatoon this weekend, dad and I leave tomorrow. I'm excited to see everyone! Especially the Loganator! Beck (my sister) is coming out later in the month and I keep forgetting to ask her if she's bringing the cats... Yeh, that's totally relevant to this blog... Ha! I like to go off-topic, don't I?

I already have another elann.com order all lined up and ready to go. I just need some money first. That's kinda important for the whole thing to work out ain't it? I've got stuff lined up to make these awesome mittens (and maybe this hat) , and stuff for my NIN bag. That bag is finally going to happen. After, what, half a year of planning? Sheesh, I'm super-excited. What else do I have lined up... Um birch DPNS for those mittens and a back issue of Vogue Knitting.

So I'm done? I guess... I thought I had one more thing... Oh well.
Love Kate

2006-07-30T17:27:00.001-06:00

This is maze, all finished, Done in roughly two days and in the pre-blocking stage on my dad, it looked very much like a skull cap or an over-sized yarmulka (yes that's spelt correctly, I checked)

This is it blocking on my cos mannequin. She's rather useful, I think, for hats at least. I need to name her. I stretched the hat out so that it would cover more of my head and actually touch my forehead. I have a rather large head, plus alot of very big hair, so not many hats fit me very well, hopefully this one will. I think the color patterning is much more visible now.

I'm very happy with this hat and with the yarn, it's like knitting with very soft package string! It's very lovely to knit with. I'm going to make the reverse version as the longer version though. Without the extra pattern repeat but just plain more background color. I can't wait to wear it, she's drying in front of the fan right now.

YAY!

2006-07-28T11:28:00.000-06:00

Look! Look what I got!
(I put up the flash pics because they really represent the colors better)
Oh my gosh, better than christmas people!!! Sooo excited! First of all, I have to say, bravo elann.com! Everything was packaged absolutely perfect and lovely. Everything got a seperate bag and was clean and beautiful! You guys make an excellent first impression. And your Canadian, that makes me love you even more! Thank you!

I'm going to do Maze first, to get it done and free up the needles. The hemp feels so cool! It's really interesting in texture and quite stiff right now. It was all coming unwound because of the stiffness, but thats okay, I'm going to use it right away anyways. The Bryspun needles, for being so nice and cheap, are packaged very nicely. For some reason, the cheap needles are only ever packaged in fours, if you want five you have to buy two sets or buy the more exspensive ones. Not these though, they come in fives, very good. I can't wait to get working with them.

The Baby Silk is so amazingly soft! Oh my gosh! It's like petting whipped cream! (thats a new one, eh? Whipped cream...) They are much smaller than I expected but that doesn't matter really. I'm going to enjoy working with this stuff.

Look what else I did. I dyed the wool that my aunt gave me with kool-aid! I'm really happy with the blue color, not so much with the purpley one, I was going for lavender but I didn't have any blue left to cool the color down. I used it all for the blue.
But I am really really happy with that blue, it's gorgeous. I think it's a little lighter than in the picture though.

Look at her, ain't she cute? She stretched out just as I grabbed the camera. Thats Carmen everyone.

See? Kitties love almost everything about knitting, the needles feel nice on the teeth and at petting tools, they make good toys too. The yarn is the best though, just look at him, flossing his little kitty teeth.

The other night, the water softener/heater was on again and Mitts heard it and it freaked him out a little, he jumped off my bed to goo sit in front of the closet doors and he acted like he was protecting me from the water monster. I think he spooked himself though because every once in a while he'd go hide underneath the book case.To get that picture I put the camera on sepia and covered the flash, it makes it so the kitty is still visible (barely) but doesn't blind the poor guy. I wanted to show how round his eyes were, he was a scared kitty.

Look what happens on regular color mode when I cover the flash!

One more picture, the cats were the closest I've ever seen them last night without Carmen trying to bite Mitts. She did at first, but I held her down to calm her and so she wouldn't run away, they did pretty well, I had to keep petting Carmen to keep her calm. Maybe one day they can be friends? I think part of the reason that she bit him was because he also kind of accidentally rolled on to her when he layed down. The poor guy, you should have heard his squawk when she bit him!
Lastly, I'd like to give a big shout-out to my first (known) outside reader! Yay! Bradyphrenia left me a comment the other day. Thanks for the comment! I'm glad I have a reader. Regular or not, it's nice to know that people other than family read this thing. (not that I'm not glad my family reads it! Hi dad!) If any one else reads this thing, leave me a comment, kay?

Thats all for today guys, buh-bye, gotta go knit!

Kate

A sort-of productive day

2006-07-26T18:57:00.000-06:00

Well, I did it, I finally went out and handed out some resumes and filled out an application. I ended up only giving out two resumes, one at the Shoppers Drug Mart (along with my application) and one at the new 24hr Vet Clinic, the lady at the clinic said she wasn't sure if they needed anyone but she'd take my resume just in case.

So my elann.com order should be here this week and I've been shopping for future projects that I want to do, planning a lot. I have five projects from Interweave Knits Spring 06 that I have found yarn subs for on elann.com. I've also been planning at least three felted bags almost since I first started knitting. Two are charts from Dominknitrix, Rosie the Riveter and Bruce Lee, although Bruce Lee might just end up being a rather large, non-felted patch for a friend or a wall hanging or something. I'm also planning a Nine Inch Nails felted bag, double-knit to be reversible and it will have the NIN logo with a facial silhouette of Trent Reznor that I am very proud of, I made the chart for it myself.

One thing that I am really craving right now is bright and beautiful self-striping sock yarn. I shall have to try that dyeing method soon. The Regia, etc. ones are nice, but they tend to be very boring colors. I would really like to get some vesper sock yarn, from kpixie.com, but they seem to sell out of it in a snap. They even have a special mailing list to join so they notify you as soon as they get the new vesper up.

Yesterday, I got a little bored and I had just finished cleaning my room like a mad woman (which never, I mean never, happens) and I was very sweaty and bored. So I pointed the fan to the middle of the room, cranked up my music and did this:
Remember that Chinook knitting wool that I got from my aunt? Well, it closely resembled pencil roving and i wanted to spin something simple. Sooo, I spun it and washed it and dryed it that night and it's rather nice. This is about three-quarters of a wool-bail. The funny thing is, I have another two whole bails of this stuff! I intend to spin it all. I thing that getting spun has improved this yarn because it strengthened it. Before, it broke very easily and there were too many un-spun plies. I'm very pround of it, not sure why, it just looks really nice. I'm not sure what to make out of it either, I think it's too scratchy for clothing, maybe a pillow? Or a rug? Blah, I've got plenty on spinning time to mull that over.

Another thing I did last night:
This is me carrying the Phentex upstairs with a knitting needle to be bagged and value villaged. I didn't want to touch it any more that I had to.

I'm done, off to go fantasize about roller-skating to Jamiroquai and eat my salad.

One, two, buckle my shoe

2006-07-25T18:28:00.000-06:00

So I seem to be a little blog obsessed lately? Well, at least this post isn't coming from the middle of the night, it is at (a much more respectable) 6:30 PM.

Yesterday I found this, (seventh comment down by Erin) and promptly laughed till I hurt. The statement wasn't all that outrageously funny either, but I just found it hilarious for some reason. Indeed, "How does one put out a fire on a spinning turntable inside a closed box?" Hmm?

The blog on which I discovered this statement was none other than See Eunny Knit, which I have found to be very enjoyable and extremely informative. Although, what a steek is/does still eludes me. Eunny is a young woman who is seemingly old-fashioned but I find her designs very refreshing and startlingly beautiful. They are simple in shape, but often including some intricate lacework or brocade/damask-like colorwork. Said colorwork is mostly fair-isle which I haven't had the opportunity to try yet, but something tells me it would be a trifle more fun than intarsia. (which I also have never tried) Another suprising little tidbit of info on Eunny is that she allegedly has no yarn stash to speak of! I didn't think it was possible! Kudos for Eunny on having good self-control. So, go check out her blog, she's a fabulous writer, I love to read her entries, they're an art in themselves. She also has a wonderful tutorial on how to dye your very own self-striping sock yarn with kool-aid! Being the only dye I ever use, I intend to try this as soon as I can find some reasonably priced plain sock yarn.

My elann.com order has now officially been shipped and is on it's merry way! I am absolutely quivering with anticipation. I've never ordered yarn before. It's not only yarn, it's nice yarn, really nice yarn. I have never bought yarn from anywhere other than Micheal's, Wal-Mart, and Value Village. The only actual yarn stores I've bought from are Pudding Yarn, Make One and Knit One, Chat Too. Even then, I had hardly any money to spend and I didn't really have any plans for the yarn I bought. These yarns, purchased from elann.com, have a specific, intended project and, for some reason, that makes me even more giddy.

I've got some pictures of even more things that I'm currently knitting. The thing is, I keep finding things that I am still working on, just not steadily. I have countless amounts of projects constantly on the run.

So, number one:
Dad's blue sock, (yes, very singular) is a little slow going, it was my computer sock until my computer stopped working for a bit, I would sit at the loading screens for The Sims and work on it. But The Sims no longer works and I have high-speed internet, so there's not much time to work on it, I guess. I would do it while watching television, not only is nothing good on, but I cannot stand to stay on my main level for more than a few minutes in this weather, it's just too hot. I'd say I've done maybe one round or less on this in the last little while.

Knucks:From the summer issue of Knitty. I would have to agree with GrrLeigh and say, "What the hell? It's summer!!! What are you guys smoking over there?!?!" I, myself am Canadian and this issue of Knitty severely lends itself to the ridiculous notion that everything above the US/Canada border is permafrost. Just slightly infuriating. It's a shame they couldn't decide to bring this stuff out for say, a fall issue? That would seem to be much more reasonable. Most of the things in this issue are quite nice, but completely out of season. I don't care how far north you live, you don't give patterns for toques and gloves in the middle of summer! It's depressing!

I shant proceed to give a Knitty review, it's much too late. But expect to see one for each future issue (if I can manage it), and maybe reviews of future issues Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting.

Razor Cami:
Shown here with two and a half rounds completed, not much yet. Also shown is my new favourite household appliance, my beloved fan! Stationed right beside my computer and it can be angled to hit me while I'm in bed. Perfect.
I have decided to be insanely impatient and start on this before my yarn arrives with some stash busted yarn of that same weight. It is of mohair and it is a faily bright blue, almost guaranteed to be ugly, but I see it as a bit of a practice run, so see how many stitches I need to cast on and how I like the pattern and so forth. By the way, in regards to casting on stitches, I had to cast on 36 more stitches (six inches) for it to fit me! I thought Katie and I were relatively the same size but apparantly she's much tinier than I thought. And no dear, I'm not saying I thought you were "fat" because then, I would have to be calling myslef fat, wouldn't I? I know I'm not fat so there... Just having a little moment of self-validation, I'm fine now, carry-on everybody.

I believe I'm done. Thanks for the ears and eyes.

Kate

2006-07-24T23:54:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I realize that this makes almost two posts in a day but it was late for the last one and also for this one so it doesn't count!

So, last week, while waiting for the Devil Wears Prada, my mom bought me this:Woot! I have Stitch 'N Bitch Nation already and I've been wanting this for a long time, I'm already looking for elann.com substitutions for some Brown Sheep sweaters, why? There is only one known Brown Sheep retailer in Alberta and he's nice and all, but he's out in DeWinton. Also, not very far away, but for less money and a little more time, I can have pretty much the same thing or better from my lovely elann.com! You know, there are no yarn stores in the south end of the city! Unless you count Micheals, but I wouldn't. They are all in Bridgeland or on 17th or way the hell out on Sarcee... Exactly on the opposite side of the city from me... boo. And they're outrageously priced too! So the exspensive yarn and the gas money added up together makes it not worth it! Well, unless I really really need to. Piffle.

Anyways, so I have been knitting! Look!Kay, so this isn't technically knitting but I did some fringe removal on a blanket that my auntie gave me a long time ago for christmas because I have a really obsessive right-side-up thing, the fringe had to always be at the bottom, and it was driving me nuts. Also because I'm too tall for the blanket and I need to lay on my stomach and stretch out sometimes to sleep and my feet always got tangled up in them! hahaha.

Now for some actual knitting.

(notice the chunk of Mittens tail in the bottom-left corner?) So this picture pretty much sums this almost-project up. It's a big tangled mess of slighty-gettingonmynerves yarn. I decided it wants to be a blanket, assembled in strips... Going to be a boring stockinette project, but oh well. I plan to re-use the knitting one strip at a time to eventually have a whole blanket idea to later make a nice, NON-NOVELTY, smooth, bulky yarn. In turquoise and brown strips... hmm? Sound good?

So I'm having a major case of ADD-related impatience for my elann.com order, it hasn't been shipped yet and I got an email today saying that the circulars I ordered are out of stock and whether I want them to ship the rest of my order and I can re-order the circs later or if i want to wait until they're available. I had a very lucky moment with this, I checked my circ inventory and it just so happens that I already have a circular in the size I was going to order. Convenient!

By the way, I have rediscovered Jamiroquai! You should too! Look it up. Now!

Anyways, I think I'm actually tired tonight, so i might have a chance of sleeping, yaaay...
Goodnight
Kate

Picturemathingy

2006-07-24T00:12:00.000-06:00

I'm bored so I'm posting some pictures and stuff...Awwww, lookit us, ain't we cuuute? That's me and mitsy.
Aaaand, thats Carmen and VuDu and my Phantom program... she was in a weird position....

So anyways... I'm going to try and go look for a job tomorrow... If I can get to sleep sometime in the next century and figure out how the hell to make my hair do something more or less conservative, not sure if it's possible. Anyone got any ideas on how to tame this mane?
I hate having short hair!!!! Really lots! I need it to grow out long enough so that I can put ALL of it up in a ponytail, cus right now I got all these dumb little wispy things and I hate 'em! That and, once it's long enough, I need to get it cut because it's soooo uneven. By the way, isn't that a sexy picture face? Hmm? Hmm?

Gawd, I have nothing else to say! grrrr... Well goodnight then.
Kate

Knitting! Yes Knitting! I Still Knit!

2006-07-20T14:42:00.000-06:00

But first! Last night, I was sitting, minding my own business, playing solitaire and a big-ass crawly bug falls from the ceiling onto my keyboard!!!! I think it got out and went somewhere else but I can't help but feel like it's gonna crawl out any minute and eat me! So I'm typing a little harder today, just in case it's still in there. But I freaked out and ran up stairs to drag my mother out of bed to come help me find it and kill it. I know I'm a wimp. My poor kitty is all scared because, of course, I jumped up and started saying "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" and he's all wide-eyed and freaked out too because he doesn't know whats going on. I ended up not being too freaked out to stay in my room last night but it took me a while to fall asleep. And I'm hoping my kitty got a nice juicy bug-snack in the middle of the night. I have the vacuum down here just incase I find the bugger. When I first turned the computer on today I stabbed every button on the keyboard with a fat knitting needle (handy!) and for the first few minutes I was typing with a needle, then it got a little tedious soooo, I'm back to regular finger typing. But, ewwwww, it was really big and it had wayyyy too many legs!!! Mom said it might have been a moth that fell, which is considerably less gross, as long as it doesn't touch my stinkin' yarn. But I don't think moths are shiny and brown and wingless!!!

Anyways, I'm making my skin crawl and I'm sweating while I'm typing cus I'm a little freaked out still (can you tell?) You know, I have no problem with bugs outside, that's their territory. But as soon I find them in my house, they are dead. Except beetles, they're dead no matter what... (they're just creepy, kinda mean, eh?)

Sooo, I'm posting an order on Elann.com today for some elann.com collection Canapone in Café au Lait and Burnt Olive for Maze. It's a much cheaper alternative to allhemp6 but it's still hemp which I've been wanting to try for a very long time. And you get even more for even less!!! I love that. I'm also getting three balls of Peruvian Collection Baby Silk in Aubergine, it's the best color I could find that might look good on me, they don't have a great selection for my skin tone on this one, oh well. That yarn is for the razor cami which I have also been wanting to make for quite some time. This is also a much cheaper alternative to Alpaca & Silk by Blue Sky Alpacas. It might not be as wonderful as I'm sure Alpaca & Silk is but, let's remember people, I'm a poor, jobless (for now) high-school student. I've been saving up allowance (old school) for quite a while for a big order on kpixie (which I love to death) but elann.com is just sooo much more in my price range at the moment. I also ordered some Bryspun needles for these project that are probably pieces of crap but they're the cheapest on the site.

Did I tell you all about how I got bored and I this giant ball of black Phentex sitting on my yarn shelf that needed a project. Thus, VuDu was born! His pattern can be found here. Here he is!
Isn't he cute! (p.s. I went to The Phantom of the Opera, see my program?) He's a little voodoo dolly! I don't intend to use him for voodoo, he's just a cute decoration. Unfortunately, I have a moderate contact allergy to Phentex and other acrylic yarns that I forgot about. The palm of my left hand was all bumpy and the fingerpads are still all peely. Yummy, eh? I have these really itchy bumps on my fingertips so I have to chew on my fingers to scratch the itchies. Heres a little visual helper!
Lovely!

Another thing, not knitting related. Has anyone heard of The Waking Eyes? Go look them up, they're Canadian! Some of their popular songs are On a Train and But I Already Have It. The second one has a video on youtube.com Also, look up Mellisa Auf Der Maur or just Auf Der Maur, she's the former bassist for Courtney Love's band, Hole. I like her. Some of her songs are Real a Lie and Taste You. One more band! Sam Roberts! My favourite of all! Canadian too! His songs are Bridge to Nowhere, Where Have All the Good People Gone, The Gate, Don't Walk Away Eileen, Hard Road and Brother Down. (the ones with no links have no youtube videos)

Baaah like a sheep.

Have I ever mentioned that I play the drums and guitar? Well I do... I've had a drum kit for almost a year that I bought off of a friend who bought it off of someone else who bought it off another someone. So I got it for twenty bucks! Good deal! The only problem, I didn't have a bass pedal, until now! I just bought one a couple of weeks ago off of the same friend who sold me the drums, fifteen bucks! Almost as much as the whole kit, haha! Now I just have to get my mom to clear her crap out of the laundry room so I can unbury the drums from my old-old bedroom turned storage room for more of my moms crap and set it up so I can play!!! YAY! I've even been practicing, just not with actual drums, you know. I even have a hi-hat mascot! His name is jingle-bells, he's a marshmallow that I shoved onto the hi-hat post thingy and he dances when I use the hi-hat! I drew him an evil face with a purple pen, he's pretty rad.

Anyways, I think I'm about done here... I think I'm cured of my keyboard fear. Can't wait to order my elann.com stuff! Yay, so excited... So yeah, I done

Love from Kate

I FORGOT!!!! The reason I wanted to post today! HA! Smart me.

I found my new favourite LiveJournal Community! t shirt surgery is a group blog all about deconstructing and reconstructing t-shirts! I especially love this because yesterday, while my mom and I were hanging out in Chapters while waiting for 7:20 when The Devil Wears Prada started, I found this book called Tease!!! It's all about remodelling t-shirts! Something I really love to do, I've done it alot and I have many XL concert tees to redo. I also discovered OhMyStars.net the rest of Katie from katieknits site. She has some really excellent tutorials on remaking t-shirts into awesome things and on just sewing relly fresh things too! And some very innovative craft ideas that I will be sure to steal as soon as I get the chance! This Katie is not to be confused with me though, she's a tad more talented in the craftal area! Although our blog urls are different by only a letter. Hey, maybe I'll get some accidental blog hits on account of katieknits typos! I swear I didn't even know there was a katieknits when I signed up for kateknits! I thought of putting katieknits but I decided I liked kateknits better, I didn't even see that it was taken. Haha. Funny stuff. Anyways, she's awesome, if you haven't already, go see her. BTW, I love that cloud color chart and I printed it off, sorry, I might just have to steal it for something bag-like! It's adorable.

Anyways, I think I'm definately done now. Kachow. If I remember something else, I'll be back.

2006-05-08T16:45:00.000-06:00

Congrats to my daddy for getting 4:24 in his Vancouver marathon!!!! Yay! You did great dad, very proud!

The most recent picture of dad and me that I have on the computer. Stolen from one of his three blogs. Go visit, kay? He's an excellent writer.

I need some more pictures of us dad!

2006-05-08T02:23:00.000-06:00

I know I have alot to post about knitting-wise right now, but I don't feel like it.

I just wanted to say that my nephew is my hero and he rocks, even if he is only two years old.

Oh, I guess I do have some knitting news. I got a bazillion knitting books from the library, I finally got my interweave knits trial mag, and I got an elann newsletter with the really nice synthetic samples in it, I especially like the micro-cable. Oh, and also, I started my dads blue socks again, I've got about four/five rows of the ribbed cuff done... I'm writing everything down so that I can do the second the exact same. I've got to learn the two socks on two circs thing, but first I have to find two circs that are small enough.

I've also been looking, when I get the chance, for really short circs for socks, that would be so cool. I think I found some too, at Make One, I think they were twelve inches. Longer than I thought they would need to be but I think now, they'd be ok. I just have to go back with money and buy them...

By the way, I went to Make One yarn studio with my dad, it was awesome! Alot of Lorna's Laces and even sari silk! I haven't seen sari silk anywhere else yet. It's a very nice store, dad fell asleep on their white leather couch in front of the coffee table buffet of yarn, bowls of brightly colored mohair and sock yarn I think. I definately have to go back and get those circs and some nice sock yarn to make my self a pair of socks.

Guess what! I moved into my basement! I just moved my computer down a couple hours ago and I love it down here. It gets a little chilly down here at night but it's perfect in the middle of the day, I also got a bigger (double) bed so now both my cats (and me!) can fit on it, cool huh? I so love having my own space, room for my yarn (a whole bookcase actually) and even space for friends. I have a couch thing and two rocker chairs and the boxes that come out from under my coffee table will have cushions on them for more seats. The only downfalls are the temperature at times and the fact that there's no bathroom down here so, to take a shower, I have to go up two flights. Not so bad if I take my showers at night. (I'll post some pics of the place another time)

So I guess I did feel like typing some stuff... Anyways, I'm uber-tired and I'm zoning out really lots. So good-night/morning...

Sick day = homework and knitting

2006-04-19T10:42:00.000-06:00

I'm home sick again today... I just know the parents are rolling their eyes at this but whatever.

So basically, what I do when I'm home sick is knit and catch up on miles overdue homework crap. So I figured I'd make a quick but long post on my blog, seeing and it kind of falls under both categories.

Oh my goodness! I'm so excited! The spring issue of Knitty is out!!! YAYs!!!! Go look!

So I've gotten up to the heel on this sock
I'm making it with this worsted salmony colored yarn that is leftover from a sweater my mom made when she was still knitting. I can't remember my mother ever knitting anything so it must be pretty old. I think its some crummy phentex type stuff, probably won't be very nice feeling on the feet. Oh well, it's going to be my first pair of socks so I guess it doesn't really matter. If your wondering about the bluey tinge, it's my monitor being reflected in the yarn.

Oh, by the by dad, I had to unravel your sock, I realized when I was almost done the leg that I had been doing the whole pattern wrong!!! I was supposed to just knit every other row but I kept doing the pattern, that's probably why the sock was ending up all funny and wonky at the cuff.

I was in Saskatoon for the Easter weekend, visiting my baby nephew. I got his measurments for a sweater that I have now decided not to make. The yarn I had is too expensive so I decided I'm going to make this instead. But instead of it being bright orange, pink and red. It'll be very light pastel yellow and green.

While I was in sask, I was at a Wal-Mart, in the yarn section, and I found this really neat looking discount yarn, factory mill ends. There were six balls per bag. So what did I do? Bought three bags of course... I'm not quite sure what it wants to be yet though... Maybe a pillow? or three...

I also got a big ball of Bernat, something-or-other cotton. I absolutely love the colorway of this yarn!!! It's bright green and yellow and turquoise! I made my aunt a really neat washcloth and I have yet to make my sister two washcloths. If I have enough when I'm done, I'm going to make myself some jaywalkers! Bernat makes another really awesome colorway in this yarn too, it's pink, orange and yellow! Pretty. I'm going to buy a ball of that for socks too.

Speaking of my wonderful aunt... Mom and I stopped at her place on our way back home and she gave me all this really awesome stuff!!!! LOOK!
Hopefully you can see the numbers ok:
1. Bright purple handspun, hand-dyed yarn that she made me a pair of mittens out of when I was a kid.
2. Bright yellow handspun, hand-dyed yarn
3. Very pretty heathery-purple handspun, hand-dyed yarn.
4. Dark heathery-blue handspun, hand-dyed yarn
5. Dark red handspun, hand-dyed wool
6. Dark blue/purple handspun, hand-dyed wool
7. Just old Red Heart acrylic
8. Medium brown handspun, hand-dyed wool
9. Light beige handspun, hand-dyed wool
10. Heathery-magenta handspun, hand-dyed yarn
11. Dark brown handspun, hand-dyed wool
12. Bright purple acrylic
13. Huge flippin' thing of raw wool badly needing to be carded
14. Light grey-blue Chinook carded pure virgin Australian hand knitting wool
15. Black Chinook
16. Same as 14 but in original packaging
17. same as 16
18. White Chinook
19. Same as 15 but in original packaging
20. Really soft grey wool, I think it's been carded... I don't know how to tell...

THANK YOU AUNTIE WENDY!!! And gracie too! (thats her dog, she left little black hairs everywhere!)

Now I really need to get a carder... So that raw wool won't be used for quite some time.

Now, this may seem like a stupid question... but can you re-card wool thats already been spun? Like really really recylcing it?

Another link for today. A new favourite blog of mine, shes very sassy and cool and our kitties are both polydactyls!
GrrLeigh Knits

Anyways, I'm out.

Master of Procrastination and Time Wasting

2006-04-12T14:12:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm at school again so still no pictures on anything.

I am working on a post of a whole bunch of links and comments about websites/blogs I found. That's going to take a while, I have a lot and hopefully I'll be able to finish before my computer totally and completely crashes. I don't have space on my computer to bookmark all that crap.

I've been busy and tired lately, I'm moving myself into another area of the house and my mom and I are buying a whole bunch of new furniture... Heavy furniture. I now have a double mattress, it'll be SO nice to sleep on it. (hopefully my bed will be set up by tonight)

I'm leaving for Saskatoon tomorrow at noon and my sister doesn't have the internet so I'll see if I can finish a couple posts tonight at home, I definitely have to finish the link-full one.

In other news, my mom helped me rip up a big ol' piece of bright green fabric into strips and tie it into knots and wrap it into a ball. I'm knitting it into a make-up bag at the moment, but it has a few design flaws so I think maybe I'll frog it and make something new. Probably another makeup bag.

I'm noticing some trends in my knitting lately.... Green yarn, blue needles... hmm, coincidence?

I got this sample Creative Knitting magazine and I want to make a boucle tunic out of this dark purple boucle stuff I have that I decided not to use for a certain project, I just need to find some fine-weight dark purple cotton for the other parts... I also want to make a kids hoodie that looks really easy and quick. (for my nephew) It made of this bernat baby boucle stuff in a main color (they used lemon) and a trim. (they used white) It's got a pointed hood which I think looks really cute on kids. I just have to buy the yarn, make sure I have the right needles and get his chest measurements when I get out there so I make the right size... He's a big baby... He's not fat but he's really tall... He's growing really fast...

Also, I really need to find my camera... My moms moving shit around so I don't know if I put it somewhere or if it's buried in one of the many boxes in my living room.

Anyways, I'll try my best to get some real posts up when I get home tonight. I was supposed to stay after school for science help but my science teacher went home sick today.

Easter Egged gangsta..

2006-04-07T12:09:00.000-06:00

I'm at school right now, so i still have no pictures for the blog, but I'll see if I can't get something on here tonight. I'm on a laptop right now... I really want a laptop...

At my house, right now, there are people putting linoleum down in my laundry room. They're also putting underlay underneath the carpet in the main basement room. I hope soon I can move down there.

Anyways, I should probably start doing some working, we actually have a interesting assignment today.

Bye

Short one (for once)

2006-03-31T15:32:00.000-07:00

I'm at my dad's house right now and all of the pictures and projects I want to post are at my mom's so right now it'll just be short and sweet.

So in the past couple days I started a mock-cable scarf from SnBN with my green angora. I also started a shawl/capelet thing from a knitting magazine whose name I can't recall. I forgot the capelet pattern at my mom's so I ended up frogging it because it was knitting up smaller than it was supposed to anyways and it was boring stockingette. With the scarf I ended up getting bored of the stitch pattern so I just turned it into a "therapy scarf" for knitting therapy. I even made the word "therapy" and a knit/purl pattern. I'm pretty proud of it. I'm pretty much just going nuts with easy, relaxing stitch patterns that look really nice and eccentric but don't piss me off too much. So far I have simple garter stich as separators between different blocks of stich patterns, yo/k2tog, seed stich and the mock-cables.

Oh! I also finished spinning up my red/orange/pink silk.. I have never been so proud of anything I've done in my life. I've decided I love spinning and will now officially start yearning for a really nice spinning wheel that I won't be able to afford until I retire.... Depressing, ain't it?

And now I would like to show whoever the hell even reads this thing my two new favourite yarn shop websites.

Jenny Neutron Star
This place has Jenny Neutron Star and Drucilla and they are both awesome! Lots of superchunky yarns with insano-slubs and these really neat beehive thingys. I's really like to try the beehive thingys. And they also have another thing I've never seen before, some of the yarns have little stuffed animals spun right into them! Don't ask me how...

Pluckyfluff
This one is so cooool! She (i'm assuming it's a she... or shes) spins the craziest fibers! Aluminum... Aluminum! And she have yarns with whole silkworm cocoons spun in!

Oh my gosh! These two sites are so inspiring! So awesome! I finally have a rad use for those ass-nasty christmas tinsel garlands! I'm going to go buy some rexlace too... knit that up, saweeet.

KATIE MAD!!!!!!!!

2006-03-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

I HATE CIRCULAR NEEDLES! I HATE THE MAGIC LOOP! I HATE ANGORA FINGERING!!!!!!!!!

It BROKE?!?!?! BROKE?!?!! IT BROKE!!!!!!! IT FREAKIN' BROKE!

I quit!

I have started and restarted this project about 20 times! (literally!) I've tried it on corculars with the magic loop, dpns and two circulars! I finally made some really great progress and the flipping yarn broke from a row I had just worked and I couldn't fix it before the whole thing fell apart! grrrrrrrrrrr...

Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone even read this thing? I would hold the yarn doubled but I'm not sure I have enough of it... I think I'll try it anyways. Nothing else is working...

... Ok it's working way better now, yay!
No more freaking out for a while!

Ok holy crap, nevermind... my flat screen monitor all of a sudden fell down! I caught it before it really touched anything though. It's the stupid base, the monitor just clips into it and you can't really tell if it's secure or not.

So I started to dye stuff this weekend, it was really fun! All Kool-Aid goodness. FYI, I'm smart! I am! Really! I made the prettiest olivey-brown color with lemon-lime and cherry! See? Yes, I'm smart! Look!

I couldn't really get a very good picture of the color but it doesn't look anything like the dye did. It's much darker and more brown. I think the third picture gives you a pretty good idea.

That was my tester batch. so i mixed up another batch and put in two big hanks of the yarn.
Just then, I happened to be having a moment of utter blondeness. I seemed to have forgotten that, even though I mixed the dye the same way as I had for the test batch, it would not nessicarily turn out the same. DUH! Same amount of dye + way more wool = lighter yarn and stupid katie. But I don't mind, the color that came out was actually closer to the color I had originally intended to acheive. Much more springy.

I have also discovered a way to dye my silk hankies. Just like the regular wool, of course. I just mixed up the dye and put in a corner of the hankie(s). But you've gotta make sure that the hankies don't touch the burner and burst into flames. So far, on this batch of hankies, I have one corner of strawberry and another of orange. I also intend to dye another corner with cherry and the last corner and the center of the hankies with strawberry-kiwi.

The first picture is when the hankie becomes fully saturated wich only really starts to happen when the dye gets hot. The second picture is the hankies before they're saturated, the color doesn't sink in and it just beads off or pools on top, when the hankies begin to saturate in spots, it will look like holes are forming at first, it will make the hankies very transperent but that means it's working and it will dry back to normal. (3rd picture) I thought that I had melted holes through mine! Scared the crap out of me.

With the left-over orange dye, I over-dyed a skein of my White Buffalo LAMA. I really like the result, it didn't really color the wool so much as it brightened and intensitfied the pre-existing color. Before, the yarn was also very ratty and I think it needed to be washed. Boiling it seemed to bring it back to life and puff it up a bit more, it's alot softer now.

Sooo, I think I'm done here. I love Kool-Aid, blah blah blah...

Love KT

It's wet outside

2006-03-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hey, remember the angora yarn I was talking about yesterday? Well, I had this idea on the way home today that I could dye it! Duh... I wish I had thought of that before. Pink really isn't my color. So I was thinking I could do a kind of green-like color, (use up my kool-aid) although it might turn out funny because of the light pink being there. I dunno, but I plan on doing this today.

After dyeing it I think I'll make this. It looks relatively easy and it would actually be my first sweater-like object, probably the biggest something I've ever made. I want to dye the yarn to either a dark/olive green or brown, if I can figure out how to mix that, I'll probably have to use food coloring. I will dye a small sample first. (I'm not crazy)

The fuzzy pink yarn has a purpose! Let's get koolin' aid!

Knitting Overload Much?

2006-03-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I created this blog a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't actually gotten around to doing a first post until today... lame, I know. That's me, the wondrous Procrastinator! So I'm afraid this entry is going to be quite um... huge. (very photo intensive...) Can I do entry cuts on blogger? You know, like the ones on LJ?

Any ways, I've started and finished many many projects over the past little while.

That was from... oooh, two/three weeks ago? Yeah, first thing you all need to know about me is that I am probably the biggest procrastinator you'll ever hear of.

This first entry is still going to be huge, even more than intended, and very photo intensive, but I will finish it.

Finished Objects

Project ID: Loopless Muff?
Ok, my first knitting project ever was a muff, you know, one of those hand-tubes from the Jackie O era? Yeah, superfun. Kind of boring and I modified it a bit because I couldn't figure out what the hell they were talking about when they said "embroidery loop stitch," I searched it and everything, about a million times over. So I just crocheted some flowers and stuff instead because I wanted to get the damn thing over with. I was very sloppy with this pattern but hey, at least I finished it eh?

Pattern: Spun Magazine: Loopy Muff
Materials; Lion Brand: Jiffy Thick N' Quick Adirondacks
Red Heart; Super Saver in some dark red color
US 7 and US 15 Needles
Time: A week?

Project ID: One-Hour Hat
This was a superfun project! I managed to knit it up in an hour or less!

I really loved the fun yo, k2tog pattern, it makes a really cool design. I saw someone else use it on a scarf with a regular garter stitch border and I think I might use up some of my stash for it too.

I cast-on with some of my leftover Jiffy Thick N' Quick for a cool lookin' brim and, instead of using the crochet flower patterns that the hat pattern suggested, I used the knit flower from the Head Huggers Patterns in Stitch N' Bitch Nation. I think it looks better knit, and I hate crochet.

Pattern: Flower Cap (scroll down to find knit pattern)
Materials: Dark teal chenille yarn (very thin and fragile) held doubled, from unraveled sweater
Lion Brand; Jiffy Thick N' Quick Adirondacks
Red Heart; Super Saver in some dark red color
US 11 needles
Time: About an hour

Project ID: Mmmm Riblets...
The name of the project is because I suddenly crave BBQ sauce smothered ribs... But, instead, I munch on overly salted sesame sticks.

Onwards, Just a simple, knit/purl rib scarf. It's kind of short, and a little stiff, but very warm. I think this scarf used up exactly one skein of Thick N' Quick

Pattern: k2, p2 repeat...
Materials: Lion Brand; Jiffy Thick N' Quick Adirondacks (yeah, I have a lot of this stuff, the muff pattern called for 3 skeins before I chose to nix the loop stitch and I still have one whole skein left)
US 15 needles

Project ID: Pink Flashy
I just could not get a good picture of this thing, it's a camera case, complete with wrist loop and strap closure. I don't know if I'm happy with this, I might have to make another one. I think the strap is too fat looking, I need to invent a different closure method, like a button or something. I used DPNS and this kinda cool boucle type yarn, patons I think.

Materials: Patons Melody Magenta
Fat DPNS

Project ID: Little Pink Bowl
This was my third-ever felted project. A crocheted pink bowl, made of this really lovely, fat wool I got from Knit One, Chat Too.

The only reason that this one is crocheted is because I couldn't figure out how to knit a bowl-shaped something.

Materials: pink, purple and orange 100% wool fat yarn.. zombie find label later.
Time: 15 min

Project ID: NO KITTY! YOUR PI!
This is the ever-popular kitty pi. I experienced a weird sense of project monogamy with this one, so it ended up going quite quickly, which was good. This was my second ever felting project and, so far, neither of my cats really uses it with out me going all pageant mom and coaching them to do so, and this bed was really meant for Mittens (cat in picture) anyway.

Hey, he just jumped into it all by himself! YAY! Good kitty...
Note: The two yarns I used for this project have been long discontinued, I got them from a thrift store (very cheap!)

Pattern: Kitty Pi
Materials: White Buffalo LAMA rusty red [100% Pure New Wool]
Papillon intense blue with orange and green slubs [55% Acrylic, 25% Wool, 10% Mohair, 5% Nylon, 5% Viscose] apparently you can make a whole sweater with just one bag of this (not suprising for 250g of the stuff)
Random fat DPNS and fat circulars
Time: Weekend plus a day or two

In Progress

Project ID: Little Blue Socks
Ok, this is pretty much my first pair of socks ever. I mean, I started another practice pair but they were boring and I wanted to get the real pair out of the way.

The first picture is of my first attempt which I had to frog because I had somehow managed to twist it somewhere, the right hand picture is of my current attempt, obviously foing well.

These are a pair of socks for my dad, he picked out the yarn (he loves bright colors) and I'm doing the knitting. This yarn was pricey for me, but , then again, I'm a high school student with no job, (get a job Katie!) so I guess it wouldn't really be that bad to anyone else. This yarn was also the first that I bought outside of Michaels or Wal-Mart, so it makes sense. I got this stuff from Pudding Yarn and it's really nice and soft and it doesn't split easily, which is a good thing because I tend to split plied yarn and then go nuts. It's very nice to work with and I can't wait to finish them. When I'm done, I plan on going back and getting more of the same yarn in orange and pink and making my self a couple of pairs.

I like the zig-zaggy pattern I'm using for these socks, it's really fun to do and sooo not boring, which is good for me with my super knitting ADD.

Pattern: MagKnits Jaywalker Socks
Materials: Skacel Kokon Bright Turquoise [35%Silk, 35%Cotton, 30%Acrylic]
5 US4 DPNS

Project ID: Freakin Fuzz...
This, my friends, is a great big (HUGE) ball of very light pink angora fingering thant I unwound from a sweater/tee that looked crappy on me. (it accentuated my wide shoulders, something normal t-shirts shouldn't do) I absolutely hated unraveling this thing because it is two ply and soooo thin it broke about a million times.

The reason this is a WIP is because I'm going to make something out of it, I just have no idea what yet... I tried to do this, but I kept screwing up after a few rows and I couldn't fix it without frogging it and starting over. So the idea is that I want to do something lacey and I have alot of this so I think maybe I'll do a shrug or something... We'll see I guess.

BTW my camera takes kick-ass pictures, it just has to have kick-ass lighting.

Other News:

I am now the proud owner of a ball-winder! YAY! My mom took me out to DeWinton (just outside of Calgary) on the weekend, when I was really sick. We went to this place called Shuttleworks Ltd. owned by a really nice man whose name I've forgotten. (sorry!) They have tonnes and tonnes of Brown Sheep stuff which is what I originally intended to buy there. I ended up buy absolutely no wool (I'll be back though) but I got two drop spindles, big and small, a ball winder, and 100 g of natural white cultivated silk hankies. I'm so excited!!!

We also went to Safeway to get some Kool-Aid to dye the silk, but now I'm hearing people say Kool-Aid isn't strong enough for silks. Is this true? Will it work at all or will I just get pastels or stripes? Can I handpaint with Kool-Aid? How?

If anyone actually reads this yet, please help! Leave a comment.

The yarn on the smaller spindle is some cotton wadding from the inside of a new Cold-FX pill bottle. It spun up quite nice. I want more now. (the cotton, not the pills)

I wound all of this yarn the night I bought this winder, and it was fun! This is almost all of my stash except for a few skeins that are in use at the moment.Try and count 'em! It's like the game where you guess the jellybeans in the jar!

Ok! I think I'm finally done! Yay for me!

See ya later,
Katie