BOOO!

Two years ago I was a misguided knitter. I knit the following because I could:

Yes, there are two of them.

Scared enough yet??

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Am I? Do I? Really?

Your Personality Profile

You are nurturing, kind, and lucky. Like mother nature, you want to help everyone. You are good at keeping secrets and tend to be secretive. A seeker of harmony, you are a natural peacemaker. You are good natured and people enjoy your company. You put people at ease and make them feel at home with you.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Nadine had it first, got it from there. Can we believe it? I don't know.

Sock dee Sock as in La dee Da

The Socktoberfest socks are done.


Off to other knitting now.

Oh, one more thing:


For socks to boot. (Get it?)

I am Canadian

No, I am not (yet), but my Regia sock yarn edition is.


From left to right they are called "montreal" (but of course I had to have it!), "quebec", "edmonton", "columbia" and "toronto" (I have no preferences regarding these places except the first two - I just liked the colours! Let's be generous and forgive the Regia people that they spelled "color" not "colour" - which would have been truly Canadian!). The box had been on my wishlist for a while, so here it is.


Opal "Regenwald Flamingo" (I did not expect it to be that pink), Opal handpainted colour No 17 and Trekking XXL No 100. All of these I got at Martina's Bastel- und Hobbykiste. I must say she has a great selection - and the prices and the service are great, too!

When Rolf asked me if there was anything elso he could bring me from Germany I asked - very cautiously - for knitting magazines. I told him to get "Sabrina" and "Verena" but didn't have big hopes of really receiving any. What can I say, he came through and bought me these:


The November edition of "Sabrina" and two "Verenas" - one of them with lots and lots of men's patterns.

I would say that even though I didn't get to go this Germany trip was very successful, eh? I also got my elann package yesterday, compared with this colourful loot its contents look a bit bland, but I will give you a picture tomorrow nonetheless.

Baby, how you doin'?

Last night Karine got the attention of another patron at the Second Cup...unwanted attention, I might add, but with a knit related pick up line: "Hey Baby, how you doin'? You didn't drop any stitches, did you, 'cause I can't see any on the floor."

D'oh.

I am a dork

Then again, I ask you: Wouldn't the knitter in you not be dork enough to take the chance of touching the original Clapotis? I wonder how often Kate gets the request whenever she wears it and meets new people - who knit, I should add. I took the opportunity one Sunday when she joined our Knit Thing downtown.


She was sitting two seats over, so I really didn't get to talk to her much, I hope that will be remedied sometime soon in the future. Thanks to Caroline who took the picture (and let me steal it of her blog - at least by now she'll know I did).

I am also a dork because I ordered sock yarn like a maniac. It only dawned on me today (do you really believe that?) that I better knit socks for every single person I know in Montreal to reduce my stash or else I won't be able to convince my husband that I absolutely have to buy more. The goodies from Germany arrive on Friday with Rolf in tow - I hope he manages to squeeze them in his suitcase, he has threatened to leave the yarn behind if...ah, let's not think about this possibility any further. The package from elann should be at my doorstep any day now...they had plain colours in abundance but I ordered only five pairs worth. (Have to work towards the next rebate, it's not far off!)

Furthermore, I am a dork because I forgot to bring my camera tonight, and so I couldn't take a picture of the evil fibre temptress lovely Audrey who once again stunned us with her goodies. Thankfully Deawn had her camera with her and captured the happy moment. She calls it: "Mona sniffs fibre", while I have to insist that I only demonstrate the softness of, well, of the thing I bought! Picture follows as soon as Miss D gives me access on her online foto album. Then I shall reveal the identity of the "thing". Maybe someone else will do that first though, because: Nadine couldn't resist either - she'll probably post about it, too.

I'd say enough dorked for one day, let's see how I will fare tomorrow...

The first Socktober Sock is done

...on to the second.

It fits perfectly, and, Nadine, no worries, they are mine!

My Socktober Sock is growing

And I had forgotten how tiring a 9-5 job can be!

Officially settled in our new office, V. and I started working. Not. All we did so far is getting the office ready (which is actually lots of work) and getting new computers. Macs. I have a mini Mac. It's sooo cute. I am not used to working with a Mac, but the set-up is a piece of cake. Plug it in, turn it on, there you go. The "real" work starts tomorrow. It's gonna be great!

Socktoberfest at Lolly's

Let's start with this:


Wow! You would have been a pair of socks as long
as it's possible for socks to be before they're
tights - and all multi-coloured with pretty
patterns and detail all over the place - then
you could stand and admire your sock-self all
day!


What type of sock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

That left me no other choice!

I joined the Socktoberfest because socks I love and knit all the time. I started a new pair (please disregard the fact that I have at least four single socks lying around somewhere, waiting for their partner) made from the beautiful yarn I got in Vermont.

But wait, there's more

Think back five days, it's Sunday morning around 9.30 a.m. and we decide to go for breakfast. There's a perfectly respectable continental breakfast to be had at the motel, but no, we want "Denny's"!! Grease, carbs - the whole package you can find in a "Grand Slam". The restaurant was stuffed with New England families and so we had to wait for like 20 minutes before getting seated. Seating seven people isn't easy when the business is brimming, eh. The more attentive reader will ask now: seven? I thought there were eight of them? There were, but one little knitter decided to skip the grease and sleep a bit longer...I guess it was a good decision, at least Miss D. was awake and in a good mood when we came back. I don't have a picture of breakfast either, we were all way to busy eating.

Then we went shopping. I did a lot of clothes shopping - and Véronik helped out finding the right stuff. Let's just say it was a blast and I have a whole new wardrobe...(not really, but almost...) I also understand now why the shopping with Stacy and Clinton of WNTW is so exhausting - I totally felt like one of the candidates when I was done. But I didn't have to make a tape of it and that's just fine with me.

We then went to get coffee and vegetarian chili with homemade bread at "Muddy Waters". The coffee was good and the chili apparently, too. I didn't eat any, but that's what the others who had some said.




Being goofy on the premises - well, we didn't get thrown out!



See, I was there, I also did some eye-rolling as requested by Miss D. - not yet time to call the knitting exorcist though.


Now, that's how you recognize the cool people, they know how to do the signs. I don't. I don't even know what sign it is supposed to be, so you might want to concentrate on the fact that Melanie and I look happy instead.


Now to my other purchases:


I scored four of my favourite INOX circulars, wchich, sadly, have been discontinued. Nine back issues of "Piecework" - my, this magazine never seizes to amaze me, and they were 1 buck a copy. Five vintage mother of pearl buttons, found at "Elizabeth Vernon Antiques". Now, I am a sucker for antiques, and at her place you can find fibre related antiques! Hundreds of buttons (bakelite, too!), an antique umbrella swift, old knitting needles...just lovely. See:










I am pretty sure that you don't want to hear about the scary incident at the border with customs, so that's the roundup for Vermont, but, as mentioned, there's more!

Meet Lara: (Rolf picked the name, I don't know why and how, I just felt the need to include him in such an important event, i.e. welcoming the new member of our family.)

She's the perfect size - for designing, not mine! She wears that shiny tight catsuit for a reason - it keeps the pads in that make her bigger.

I am looking forward to working with her, she is very complying, does everything I want and she doesn't even mind when I stick needles into her. The perfect dress form, don't you think? I got her at fabulousfit.com.

There's a lot to tell

About Vermont, the weekend, what I bought and what got delivered two days ago. I was about to do that - and then got distracted.

The Sheep and Wool Festival in Vermont was a big hoot - mostly because there were eight of us, and each one very interested in anything to do with fibre! (My favourite alpaca vendor wasn't there, so I had a moment of disappointment, but, hey, you can't have everything, eh?)

Once again I find myself with random pictures that don't cover the most important events but the moments where I actually felt like taking them.


Say hello to our friend baby alpaca - soft, cute and very nice to knit with. Not that he knows of it - yet...

I thought I didn't buy that much, but then quickly discovered that it is quite a lot. I would have coveted one of these:


It's 62$US, and for someone who has never tried spinning with a spindle before it just doesn't make sense to shell out that amount of money only to maybe find out that spining isn't the perfect occupation after all (right after knitting, of course). So I got this instead:


A very simple louet drop spindle to try it out and - being a penny pincher, but aware that I had to buy some since I wanted to try spinning right away - "colorful bits of fiber" for 1,50US. An ounce of merino/silk roving (yes, I am adventurous, I'm sure I need some experience before trying to spin this), a skein of sock yarn from Ellen Halfpint's Farm (such lovely, lovely things she sells...) and a copy of the much sought after IK Winter 2003 issue, the one that was missing in my collection, for 1$US. (Can you believe it sold on Ebay for about 18 bucks plus shipping?)

Fast forward to our hotel room where I whipped out the spindle and the fibre and tried to get started without any instructions or anyone around who'd already tried it. Look, I made this!


It's crappy, slubby yarn that would be way to thick to be plied, but in my opinion it is a lovely single ply - and no way on earth I am going to have enough yarn to make ANYTHING with it. I just love it. Not so sure about the whole spinning thing, I think I need more exercise.



Jennifer, Molly Ann and Mary admiring yarn. Mary actually bought some - I need to take a picture because it's really pretty.

Here's Véronik, Melanie and Kadi - I don't know where Deawn's hiding, I guess she was hanging out with Molly Ann the sheep!


After the Festival we went to have coffee at a Starbucks in Burlington - we will be remembered as the crowd who rearranged every single table and chair and continued to work with crazy gadgets all over the place. I am talking about Jennifer having to try out her new yarn winder, while we others sat and knitted and spun!

We went for Dinner to the "Five Spice Café" in Burlington, if you ever get the chance, go there! The food is delicious and I am still sad that I was so full after the entrée that I couldn't go for the Lemon Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate cake as dessert.

That's part one of our trip - tomorrow the rest will follow, with actual proof that I was there, too, that I bought more stuff and then I am going to introduce you to the newest member of my family...

There were some questions about my new job, people asked for details. Please understand that I cannot and will not put details here, it is just not up to me to make it public.