Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Coffee interruptus

I am at a point where the whole moving thing gets annoying. I don't want any interruption of my routine anymore. I want the sweetener to be where it is supposed to be when I open the cupboard to prepare my morning coffee for consumption. I don't want to have to open several doors before I find it because yesterday we packed dishes and Rolf moved the stuff we still need around. I took out a dinner plate before I realized I can't use the dinner plate in my hand to sweeten my coffee. I put the sweetener back in its place - a place where it belongs for three more mornings.

'Nuf said.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Poetry in motion

Or so.


That was supposed to be a picture of Anny, whom we got to meet for the first time yesterday. I have more. All of them are flurry. (As if I haven't told you before that the camera is not my friend, being in front or behind the lense doesn't really matter.)

If you want to see some more pictures, go to Montreal Knits and check them out!


Thanks to Nikon coolpix swivel action: Lee Ann and I (yes, she's cute and petite, I am not - petite, that is).

If you have the impression that we enjoyed the meeting you could be right, at least that's what I've read on our group talk afterwards.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

A week from today

I'll be rambling about in our new apartment and trying to find everything to put it away or think about where to put everything. Makes sense?

A WEEK! from today. EEEEEEEK. All I want to do is sit down and start a knit marathon, all I should do is packing more boxes. (I promised myself I'd stop with the "should" thing, it doesn't work on me anyhow, and here I go again.)

Anyhoo, all this won't keep me from going to meet other knitters tomorrow. Maybe I'll be complaining a bit about the inconsistency between the "that's what I planned to do" and the "that's what I actually did" - but I can do that in the knowledge that I have secured the most necessary things in life: a new phone number, the cable tv and the internet connection. Everything else is secondary and just lots of work that can be done at 3 a.m. in the morning, if I have to.

I think I made my point.

Friday, April 22, 2005

"And what am I supposed to do? Knit?"*

*Quote from yesterday's new CSI - and the lady wasn't overwhelmed by the prospect. She don't know what she's missing!

I spend my birthday money at amazon.ca last Friday and the order arrived Tuesday, including two knit-related books:


I had wanted the Scarf Style book since it came out - now I am thinking that my timing is a bit off since summer is around the corner... The other bookbookbook is mandatory when you are living in Canada, don't you think?

Wednesday night Véronik and I "crashed" the knit meeting from meetup.com. We figured it would be alright since meetup starts charging (19.95$ US/month for being able to arrange a meeting and have a member list? What are they thinking?) and we can offer the new yahoo group as a good substitute to arrange further meetings. It was very entertaining and we met interesting new people, some of them have already joined "Montreal Knits". Can't wait to see how many will turn up at our next knit-out, the more the merrier!

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Help and win - please!

HELP: Julie Demole, a member of our "Montreal knits" group is going to take part in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, a 60 km walk through the neighbourhoods of Montreal. It looks like we have to jump in and pump up the volume a bit, so she reaches the goal of 2000 CAD needed to participate.

Click here to donate your bit and you might WIN something Véronik Avery has knit! To enter the draw just send an e-mail to the address mentioned on on the Montreal Knits blog after donating.

Everyone everywhere who is willing to make a contribution to Julie's effort is welcome to participate and get a chance to win the "Perfect Pie Shawl" from Melanie Falick's "Weekend Knitting".


The shawl is handknit by Vèronik with the original materials as seen in the book.

So, please, if you're as attached to your breasts as I am - literally and figuratively speaking - go, donate what you can to the good cause and enter the contest. I've seen and touched the shawl and say it is well worth whatever you are able to give.

Monday, April 18, 2005

For the cheap knitter-wannabe

The magazine rack at the check-out in the grocery store: You never know what you'll find in between the Britney pregnancy scare and the actresses or whatever who have gained weight, drank too much or did drugs and hence grace the title.

HUH?

Right, a learn to knit magazine, sized 3.25" by 5.3" for 99 cents American. You get everything you need to know including a history of knitting. FYI the list of contents:



The print and paper quality is crappy, part of the content information is cut off on several pages, but really, what can you expect for 1.29 CAD? The illustrations are surprisingly clear and I figure everyone who badly wants to learn to knit and spend as little money as possible could do it with this little helper.



There are no instructions for projects whatsoever, but you get the info about finishing. If you ask me, this could turn out a bit frustrating. All of this didn't keep me from buying, of course, because I don't need it.

Once again, the logic in my behaviour is sorely lacking, don't expect explanations, just let it go.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Putting good use to Fleece Artist yarn

39 gr did it. Look:



And before I am off to cast on for the second:


I said they were for me, didn't I?

Friday, April 15, 2005

Montreal Knits - do you too?

New group for knitters ahead!

As some of you might have seen I added some links on my sidebar. They are for the "Montreal Knits" group on yahoo and for the group's hompepage set up by the ever so busy, talented and lovely Véronik. (I can tell right now that she is going to blush when she reads this. Can't help myself, it's true!) Check it out, y'all!

Any knitter residing in Montreal is welcome to join, actually we encourage you to join because we just can't get enough of meeting, talking and knitting with people who are as single minded as we are...in a good way, of course!

Looking forward to seeing many new faces at our first venue - so don't forget to visit the yahoo groups and sign up!

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Ask and you shall receive - answers, that is

Right. The socks I am knitting are for me. It would break my selfish heart to knit socks for anyone else with that beautiful yarn.

To get to the question if these are "mere" socks: my dear Sultry in my dreams, of course no pair of hand knitted socks deserves to be called "mere" but I don't know about the "major" either. With these I am merely continuing two of the mini cables of the rib along the side of the leg. I like the effect and am happy to blame the nice outcome on the yarn. It has some more body than normal sock yarn and hence the cables are more plastic.

I cannot wear knitted socks in shoes - I have, uhm, hot feet (not to mention the sweatiness that comes with that). These will be socks to be worn at home when I need comfort and warm feet, probably sometime next winter.

For the alpaca/silk/cashmere yarn I put some numbers in my Knitware after I knitted a swatch and voilà, what you can see are the first centimeters of the back of my fabulous sweater to be. Not to be for a long time though because I have to knit it on 2.75mm (No 2) needles.

At this point I want to mention that I love the Knitware software. I have read some negative statements about it on KR (like, one has to pay for the update, come on, it's only 60 bucks to begin with and updates don't come along every couple of months) which I cannot agree with. Especially since it's not about what the software is capable of doing but about how the sales are handled. This: "I can't call (them) as I don't live in Canada." says it all in my opinion. Hello!

Monday, April 11, 2005

Monday I got Friday on my mind...

First: thanks for all your birthday wishes - they made my day (without the gun and sadly without Clint, but nonetheless).

Then: Having gotten all this yarn you cannot expect me not to start new projects, that's why I have currently seven or eight knits on the go and get to finish none of them because I dabble here and there and - believe it or not - have "work" to do. Which doesn't get done either. Apart from the laundry and dishes there are boxes to be packed, things to be organized for the move and I am behaving like the queen of Procrastiland. Cheers to that - with coffee, to make sure that something will be gotten done today.



Friday, April 08, 2005

Emm Oh Tee Tee Ess

Well now, that went by quite unspectacularly. Katherine from WabiSabi rose to the occasion, delurked and better give me her address should she want that "something" I was talking about.

Darn, next time I have to make it more difficult or all my whoring for comments is no use at all as someone told me - she was expressing it in a more family friendly way though.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

When

was the last time you dragged your other half to a yarn store and made him/her watch while you were browsing? I took the liberty to do that on my birthday - forget the fact that I knew what I wanted. I made him pick up yarn and fondle it, turns out he has a taste for the good (expensive) stuff. "Zara" was high on his list (in an aubergine colour, who'd have thought), followed by some baby alpaca. When we left he was still far from understanding how I can spend hours in a yarn store but at least he didn't complain. Big step forward. Me happy.

Me more happy - lets say: ecstatic - about this:


70% Baby Alpaca, 20% Silk, 10% Cashmere - need I say more? (click on it and you'll get the BIG picture!)

All thanks to Susan and her impeccable taste in yarn and colours. Her yarns are beautiful, with lots of alpaca. I am not embarrassed to admit that I have become an alpaca whore. "I just love it. They make different kinds because they know I like different kinds." - Sheesh, I watch way too many commercials. The first to guess from which ad it is will get something. Since I got such nice things for my birthday I am in a giving mood. Leave a comment with your answer. No deadline, starting now.

Just because it looks as beautiful wound up in a ball:


No, that's not the prize, that's just me gushing over merino sock yarn and letting you partake.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Birthdaygirl got gifts

'cause today is my special day!

Véronik gave me this:


Fleece Artist Merino for a pair of socks. Yummy. The colours are off on this picture, I don't really know why.

This is more like it:


She really knows what colours I like, there are all shades of oranges and blue, turquoise and teal. Some purple, too. It is so pretty and I am going to knit a pair of socks for me, me, me! Thanks again, I love it!!

My friend Nicole in Germany thought of my birthday, too. There's going to be some spending at this place, I just haven't decided what to get yet.

My husband gave me a CD because giving CDs on our special days is becoming a tradition in this marriage. I love it because I am too cheap to buy them myself - which is too funny since spending (much more) money for yarn is done within the blink of an eye. I also was given the opportunity (in form of a "I wanted to make you a gift certificate but you asked me to iron your blouse this morning instead" - I did, so no complaining from my side, I just wonder why he didn't make it yesterday?) to get my hands on the cherished Baby Alpaca/Silk/Cashmere mixture found at Svetlana's. Am I not a lucky girl, uh, woman?

I know my Mom sent a package. What I don't know is why it hasn't arrived yet. She never tells me what she sends so I can't wait to get it.

You can bet that in lieu of knitting progress I will keep you posted about what I got - with pictures.

Monday, April 04, 2005

S.E.X.

Stash Enhancement Expedition

Well, it wasn't actually an expedition - it was more an orgie of ordering at elann.


What you can see is enough sock yarn for six pairs of socks. My first Kroy. Randomly picked colours - even two balls of pink. For girlie girl socks. Just in case should I be able to think of someone who wants girlie girl hot pink socks.

Blogger wasn't cooperating all day - after I posted the picture of my new yarn it wouldn't let me write anything. I got a comment nonetheless, which on the one hand pleases me and on the other hand shows how much I overestimate my writing.