Sunday, October 26, 2008

Turtle!


Look! It's a turtle type thing! I crocheted this little guy last night as I was getting ready to go a haunted house with some friends. The whole thing took about two hours. Man, crochet is fast! To give the crocheters some credit though I am sure there is a big difference between an amigurumi animal and a lace doily...


I ordered some plastic safety eyes from 6060 on etsy. I was very happy with her service, they arrived a week later and were exactly what I ordered. Now that I have these little eyes I have urges to make a little army of mini toys. Not sure what I would actually do with them, but I sure would have fun making them. My only problem is that my stash is not very accessible (ie it's stacked in tupperware buried in a closet... ok two closets... and it's hard to dig out all my little balls of worsted weight. Mike suggested I get some kind of cubby storage unit which I am definitly going to look into.

I bought a new desk! It's fantastic and holds all my stuff. Only one drawback, it's way too high for me. You would think that as an occupational therapist who does ergonomic assessments I would be smart enough to measure the height of the desk and realize that maybe 30.5 inches in a little high for me (average is about 27.5-29.5, and I am only 5 feet tall). It does have a keyboard tray though so I may just have to pick up an external keyboard for my laptop and plop it on there.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

E-Day, again!

Voters in Halifax get to vote twice this week in a 7 day period. That's not too shabby. I trekked out again to my local polling station and cast my ballot of municipal councilor and mayor of Halifax. I decided to vote for people who did not support the embarrassment that is the widening of Chebucto road, if you're local you will know what I mean.

I have been shockingly slow at knitting lately. I don't know what has gotten into me, or if I am just really bored by my current projects, but I have been getting almost no knitting done. I am meeting with Ilga tomorrow to do some test knitting though, so I am sure that will get me back in the groove. I think the pattern she is getting me to do is not yet published, so the project will have to be unbloggable for a while.

As I have posted, I bought a large amount of fiber at Pacafiesta. I plan to do sweaters with this fiber and I am trying to pick a good pattern. I really like some of the Chic Knit patterns. especially the Ribby Cardi (although I would do it in one color, I have never liked the baseball shirt look) and Cassidy. I am going to wait until my WPI gauge arrives before I start the spinning though, because I really want to get the right weight if I am spinning for a particular project.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

E-Day

Are you Canadian? Are you eligible to vote? Have you voted yet?

If you have not voted and you are eligible to do so, you need to go do that. Now. You don't have time to read knitting blogs on the internet, you need to go do your civic duty. As soon as possible.

I love voting. I don't see it as a chore at all. Today when I went to vote, I savored my voting experience. Although I already knew who I was voting for, I look a minute to read all the names on the ballot, and carefully made my "X". It was fantastic. I wish I could do it again.

Whoever you vote for, although I do hope its not Harper, please make sure you vote today.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone is having a great thanksgiving day. I already had my big meal yesterday, but I am still happy to have an extra day off to relax.

I am still plugging away at the butterfly blanket. It's turning out to be a nice size. I think by the time I finish the skein I am on now it will be a nice lap blanket. If it's too small though I can always use it as a baby blanket or shawl or something. I am not too fussed about it. Here is a lovely picture of a blog of lace so y'all can see what it looks like (sort of).

I have two other projects on the go right now, a pair of 9-5 socks and my central park hoodie that I started last May. The socks are looking good, but I think the hoodie is going to be too small :(

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Knitting for Thomas

On Friday afternoon I cast on for The Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap, and I finished it around 8pm that night. I washed it Saturday morning and delivered it to Thomas in the hospital at 10am. I think I was inspired to knit quicker by his sweetness and adorableness and perfectness. I used knitpicks Felici in Coastal that I had in my stash. This cap barely uses any yarn, it could be a great stash buster for all those bits of sock yarn I have lying around.

I also brought him this bunny that I knit a while ago. I can't remember if I posted pictures when I first finished him or not. Anyway, I always intended him to be for him once he was born. I made up the sweater pattern myself, it was really fun. I think if I do another it would be fun to make a little cable or pattern in the sweater. I can't remember the name of the yarn that the bunny is made of, but it is a super wash merino that I bought a cone of from Sunrise Mercantile. This is the third bunny I have made from that cone. The pattern is "Small Rabbit" from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss.




In other news, Chase wishes to express that just because their are highly adorable human babies around, she is still capable of being extremely cute.

Friday, October 10, 2008

A brand new person

I have much knitting news to update on, however, there is someone very special who deserves their own post. This isn't a very good picture, but there was a lot of commotion going on. I am going back to the hospital today, and hope to get a better picture.



This is the newest member of my family! I am really happy about this, because until he was born I was the newest member of my family, and at 23 that was getting a little old. He is the son of my Step brother, Matthew, and his wife, Dui. I couldn't be happier for them. He is the most perfectest baby that I have ever seen. His name hasn't been settled on yet, but we know that his middle name will be Michael and his last name will be Edgar.

He is perfect.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Spinnin'

I finished plying, washing, and measuring the pink Bamboo/Merino. The big skein has 456 yards with 3.38 ounces, the little skein has 152 yards and 1.23 ounces. Not sure what I am going to do with it yet. I am thinking something drapy, since bamboo lacks elasticity. Maybe I will design a cowl or scarf using one of my Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries.


I have also started spinning up some alpaca, merino, bombyx and soy silk. The little knolls (sp?) is the silk. Isn't it pretty? I got it from Belfast Mini Mills.


I am trying to spin this to be in the range of worsted weight because I think that it would make a nice hat and mitten set. This probably sounds blatantly obvious, but I am amazed at how much quicker it spins up when you spin thicker. Goodness, I am just flying through this roving.