Spring Cleaning

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.

Happy 60th Post Me!

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!

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

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)

I'm back for real now.

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!

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!

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.

Squee!

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

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

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!

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...

...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

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?

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 olive 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.