Last Saturday of July Sky

Clouds.A bit cooler (or "less warm", as they are saying on the radio - it sounds very PC) today, with a bit of a breeze. The heat wave may be over. I finally finished Maryella today - I was having closure issues - the hooks and eyes that I bought were way too big. I ended up finding some clear snaps on clearance at Michael's. As you can see, I am unable to tie a decent bow to save my life. I ended up trimming the ribbon right down. I hope to get it out to Ute early next week. I am feeling a bit down, so no amusing quips today. However, a picture is worth 1,000 words... (So what exactly makes a meat department "aggressive"?)

Art Show III

Some fancy lighting, and it's no longer gratuitous - it's art. Here's my favorite - Thumb/torso. The figure is graphite on paper. This hung on the wall in a restaurant we used to go to when we lived in Ontario. From the sublime to the not so sublime - Here's the most disturbing. DH did this - it was one of his first efforts. I struggled when he asked me what I thought of it. A few more items for your amusement: We stand on guard for thee. Here's one of DH's current projects. The figures that are knocked down are not down for effect - it's because Greedo walked across the canvas before they got glued down. For Zib: Speaking of poker: DH's trademark: This is how he now signs his paintings. See this - DH picked it up when he worked at the Zellers head office. It was a present from one of the Health and Beauty reps - because this sculpture is coated with Sally Hansen nail polish. I am not kidding - Nail Prisms in Amber Ruby.

SP8 mini survey

1) What is your favorite season of the year? As mentioned in a post below; the off season, when things are cheaper. And downhill ski season (but not necessarily winter). 2) Where is your favorite vacation spot? For a "holiday" - Club Med Turks & Caicos. And I don't even eat the chocolate bread (well, I did before they started using white chocolate). If I want to "travel", New York City. 3) If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be? Each of the metropolitan centres of Europe. 4) If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be? Damn, I hate these kind of questions - it sounds like one of those internet quizzes that assigns you a label based on your responses to a short questionnaire. "What type of condiment are you? You are mustard - bright and tart, as comfortable at a ball game as you are in the back seat of a Rolls Royce. Hot and sweet, a picnic just isn't the same without you". [Sometimes I scare myself - if only I could harness this power for the forces of good] I dunno - how about Habu Textile's Copper Boo? Firm on the outside, soft on the inside. Not what you expect at first glance. One of a kind. Tricky to care for. [actually, I just like the doofy name] 5) If you won a shopping spree to your favorite yarn store, what would you get? A sore back from carrying my haul to the car, and a negative, yet predictable reaction from my hubby (Didn't you already have enough wool?)

Thursday ramblings

It's all about perspective, isn't it? Clue #548 that you do not live in a real city - lumber trucks driving down the main thoroughfare. Speaking of where I live - there's my house; it's the one on the hillside across the lake. No, not that one; that's the house down the street with the tacky statuary. To the right. In fact, I have yet to be able to identify my house from across the lake, or from the bridge. It's a minor obsession of mine - part of the problem being that the relationship to other landmarks changes depending on what angle you are looking from. One day I am going to take binoculars with me and get Kyle to stand on the balcony and wave a flag or something (anyone recall that Survivor episode?) I picked up this toiletry bag in Hull; I thought it would be good to store circs in. It turns out that it makes an attractive carrying case for a sock in progress. I'm on my own until Tuesday - hubby has gone to visit a buddy in Calgary. Tomorrow morning I am going horseback riding at a place just up the hill from us. I am quite looking forward to it. Granted, I haven't ridden a horse in about 10 years, and my muscles are a bit sore from a fairly intense workout earlier this week. This may make for an interesting gait on my part this weekend. My goal is to get a bunch of small things done this weekend: start preparing the next set of mailing for my various attempts to buy friendship Secret Pal exchanges, get around to doing the final finishing on some nearly completed projects, dye some yarn, put away clothes, complete the remaining dictations from this week's clinics, interpret a bunch of pulmonary function tests, get a Webring set up, and catch up on some of my medical journal reading. Plus, I have to get Art Show III ready for tomorrow...

Karma

I stopped by a thrift shop that is run by a local "charity" (who manifest their godliness by picketing our hospital every Tuesday. Or maybe it's Thursday - it's so hard to keep track). They were having a 50% off sale, and I picked up a bunch of yarn. This is what I got: Another bag for Somerset to play with! (Sometimes I envy her for her little pea sized brain that is so easily amused. But then she'll start licking a zipper, and I decide I might be better off) Here's the yarn score: All this for $8. Now, the woman who rung up the sale was dividing the prices in half as she went through each of them, then adding them together, and stumbling along with the math. I probably should have paid $12 to $14, and if it was any other charity, I would have corrected her. But I decided that there was some beauty to the concept of me screwing a charity that I would never support out of $6. Shaker yarn. Strong as hickory, apparently. I can't say that I consider hickory as being the paragon of sturdiness, but to be honest, the first thing that usually comes to mind when I hear the word hickory is "Hickory Farms" cheese trays. Some shiny rayon/cotton yarn for when I get around to trying some type of a lace project. It's a lovely pristine white. I am toying with the idea of dyeing it, because it would become 2 tone, I imagine. "rug yarn" which is PERMANENTLY mothproof. Approved by the USDA, no less. My plan is to use the rug yarn and shaker yarn for felting (as long as the hickory-like strength and infinite moth immunity allow the felting process to proceed). If they don't felt, then I will use the yarn to make a yoga mat bag. Because tomorrow after work, I am going to go to Lululemon and buy me a yoga mat, because a) I have lived in BC for a year now, and I might get deported unless I start playing the part by owning Lululemon merchandise, and b) today was the first day I did this: 7 AM Yoga in the park, compliments of the YMCA. A few blocks down was a used bookstore. These 2 books were each marked $9.95. The woman at the counter said "Why don't we just say $18 for the 2?" Umm, OK. Now, wherin lies the karma? What cosmic force allowed me to get these bargains? Well, the other day, I stopped to pick up the mail and there were 2 packages for me from Blue Moon Fibre Arts. I opened the first one, and found my "Socks that Rock" Club yarn for July, as well as the pattern. I thought that maybe the second package contained some type of advertising material. When I opened it, there was my "Socks that Rock" Club yarn for July, as well as the pattern. They sent me an extra. I initially gloated over my good luck, but then decided that I really should notify them of the error, and sent them an email, figuring that they would want me to send it back. They thanked me for my honesty, said that they had adjusted their spreadsheet, and suggested I send the yarn to someone who needed a little treat. Soo, the way I see it, if I hadn't notified them, they might have continued to send me duplicate yarns until the end of the exchange. Because I was an idiothonest, my reward was the books and yarn for less than the cost of the STR yarn club pack. So, I am now trying to decide what to do with the extra STR package. I might look for a charity to donate it to for a raffle (I'm waiting to hear back from Blue Moon if I can include their pattern if this is the yarn's fate). Otherwise, I will send it to someone like the Yarn Harlot to use as a prize for a charitable act.

Secret Pal!

Package from my Blogger Secret Pal came earlier this week: Cookies!! Painting supplies (so I can play around with acrylic) and a postcard. Complete with a picture of a shoe/sandal store :) Some lovely lavender soap (which is currently making my thrift shop yarn smell pretty) and a cute little makeup brush kit - which is awesome, because many of the makeup utensils I am using now are very dodgy indeed. Some Jasmine potpourri and an awesome Knitting magazine! Within about 2 minutes of flippling through the pages, I found 3 things I want to knit (which is good, because I was running out of future projects - ha) And, last, but not least, a sibling for the Manos twins! The colourway coordinates nicely with the teal, as you can see, and I stumbled upon a Black Sheep Bags pattern while I was killing time doing some research online while waiting for my next patient to show up. I will have to test felt a bit of each.

Belated Saturday sky - July 22

Sunset from the winery balcony Now you see it, Now you don't

Swap meet

I have joined another swap - the Favorite Colour Exchange. 1. What are your top three favorite colors? Good thing the question is for top 3, because it occurs to me that I don't have a hands down favourite. Lime green, Teal, and Red (blue-toned rather than orange-toned) would be the current top 3. 2. What crafts do you really enjoy? Knitting. I am thinking of doing some knitting with beads, as well as some dyeing. I have no plans to start spinning. I fully intend to get a sewing machine one of these days and start to sew again, but I don't forsee it happening for at least the next year or so. I am making stitch markers with beads, but don't have any plans to do beading for the sake of beading. 3. What products do you really covet? Stitch markers, general knitting notions other than straights or circ needles(I have 1 CHIBI, 2 old tape measures, and a 3mm crochet hook - no partridge in a pear tree, no needle gauge, no cable needles, no row counters, etc). I am magic looping my first sock, and would like to try knitting socks on dpns next. Some basic beading supplies would be handy as well - I am using a needle nose plier from the hardware store. I would like to find a pattern for a completely beaded purse or wallet that would involve knitting with small beads rather than sewing beads on the purse. 4. What other activities do you enjoy besides your favorite crafty things? Skiing. Reading. Napping. I also enjoy travelling to large cities and checking out the cultural happenings and public art, trying new restaurants, etc(and the yarn shops, of course) 5. Is there anything you collect? Dust. (See question 9) 6. What is your zodiac sign and/or Chinese zodiac symbol? I am a Libra. I believe that I am a Sheep in the Chinese zodiac. 7.What are your favorite… …scents/smells? lavender, cloves, jasmine, chai tea blends. …types of music and/or bands? 80's music, current indie stuff (no urban or country please) …authors? Somerset Maugham. Marian Keyes is the only modern author who comes to mind in terms as someone who's books I specifically see out. …animals? My cats. …places to shop? I love shopping in consignment/clearance stores, or in the sales racks of regular shops. Love getting those bargains. And yarn shops. …season? The off season. Shoulder seasons might be the best way to put it - late enough in spring that you can break out the summer clothes, and early enough in autumn that the leaves haven't fallen off the trees yet. The time of year that children are in school, and not travelling. …yarn/fabric/paper/other craft supplies? I am crossing over to the dark side [sock knitting]. I would looove to try some bamboo or soy sock yarn (if these things exist). I tend to avoid novelty yarns. Am also trying out dye-ing yarn; any (non-Kool aid)dye things that will colour plant or animal fibres would be cool. …candies or goodies? Dark Chocolate. Almonds:plain/smoked/spiced/chocolate covered/marzipan, etc. 8. Do you have any wish lists? World peace, chocolate that burns fat and lowers cholesterol levels, for my cats to stop shedding, for DH to put the blasted toiled seat down, a cure for chronic cough, and that all the master tapes and copies of "Lady in Red" be collected, stacked in a pile, and made into a huge bonfire. Oh, you mean a shopping list type wish list? I am in the process of setting one up on Amazon.ca. 9. Are you allergic to anything? No, but one of my cats has food allergies, and I think the other one may be allergic to housedust {which would be quite ironic since a large proportion of house dust is shed human skin cells - which would imply that my cat is allergic to me} 10. Do you have any pets? What are they? 2 cats, who are my child equivalents (just waaaay easier to fit into my lifestyle than actual children. We can leave them locked in the house with food and water if we go away for the weekend and they are fine. Just try doing that with kids. All of a sudden, you are on the front page of the local newspaper.) 11. Please include anything else you would like your secret pal to know about you- anything that would be helpful in finding you little gifts that you will really enjoy. Coming soon...By the way - my SP8 questionnaire might be in my blog archives.

Lazy Hazy Sunday

A roundup of stuff from the last week: Good weather for a nap. Spent some time in the evenings working on my sock. Here's where it was at on Friday. Was visited by a sock yarn connoisseur. I have made much more progress, and have just started the ribbing. I picked up this great skirt at a boutique across the street from my office - they had sale racks on the sidewalk and it caught my eye as I was on my way to the postal outlet. A few days later, a patient was telling me "Oh, I wanted to get that skirt, but they didn't have it in my size!" Too bad for her - I scored the only size L. You can never have too many peacock themed items of clothing. The sequins aren't completely secure - every so often I spy one on the floor - it's like a little shiny trail. This great yarn is the second skein that my one skein pal sent me. I think I am going to use to make a dreamswatch I will probably use it as a sash with this skirt. I might try to use it as a headwrap as well, but scarves, etc always seem to slide down my hair. Amusing story for the weekend: To celebrate our anniversary, we went for dinner at a winery. It was damned hot out on the patio, even though it was 7:30 at night. We got a bottle of champagne to have with our dinner, and DH wasn't that crazy about it - it had a bit of a brandy-like aftertaste. I, however, quite enjoyed it, and ended up finishing the bottle. (keep in mind that dinners at wineries are always long, leisurely affairs, which last a few hours). After we went to bed, I started to notice that the room was spinning...I then proceeded to spend the next hour and a half on the bathroom floor. Kyle was trying to help me out - giving me gravol (which didn't stick around long enough to work), and finding an elastic so I could tie back my hair. He finally decided that reinforcements were necessary, so he went downstairs and brought Greedo up to cheer me up. Greedo of course was very confused because we always yell at him if he comes into the bedroom. So that's the memory of our 6th anniversary that will always stick in my mind - Kyle bringing me a cat to make me feel better

6 years

Allow me to digress from knitting as we reminisce for a while. This was what happened under the Saturday Sky over Caledon, Ontario 6 years ago. I married Kyle, and it was one of the best things I have done in my life. He drives me crazy, and he drives me to some little town in the middle of nowhere so that I can check out some obscure point of interest. He makes me mad, and he makes me delicious salads for lunch. He puts up with my neuroses, and he puts up a ceiling fan in our bedroom unaided. He refers to me as "my beautiful wife" in public. He's my biggest supporter, and I would be lost without him. And to top it all off, he's stunningly handsome too! Happy anniversary sweetie. I love you.

Freezer Friday

How apt - I think the thermometer hit 34 C (93 F for my US audience). Browsing through the freezer was quite a pleasant experience. Here's the downstairs freezer - fairly neglected, as you may have guessed by the ski boots sitting next to it. This is where we store the Mom items - the soup she cooks when she visits and the leftover coffee for next time. Note the lack of magnets, etc on the upstairs fridge/freezer. Magnets do not stick to stainless steel.> Let's take a look inside, shall we? This is a liner for the world's best wine cooler. You keep it in the freezer, and then pop it into this shell, and your wine remains cold for hours (assuming the bottle lasts that long) Ideal for those of us who haven't gotten around to knitting a wine bottle cozy. Frozen pasta - probably heresy, but it thaws quickly in the microwave, and is great for a quick cold pasta salad or warm pasta entree. Tuna from the farmer's market. Cat treats (yeah, training - "Shed!" "Sleep!" "Run around like you are insane!" hmmm, maybe they are working...) Greedo has food allergies (the irony of a cat having food allergies is lost on many, especially when you consider that said cat belongs to a respirologist who is an allergy skeptic), so he needs to get "novel" proteins. Interesting fact - these treats contain garlic. Cats and dogs like garlic - who knew? I guess it's not like they have to worry about it making their breath smell worse. Get your mind out of the gutter. These are buffalo (actually bison) SAUSAGES, okay?

What I did this summer (so far)

In no particular order:Danced with my brand new sister-in-law Put on a doofy hard hat, and went caving at Cody Caves Wove a Lavendar wand at the Annual Lavender Harvest Festival The wand is now tucked under the passenger sun visor in my car, and helps to soothe my nerves when there is a huge lineup to cross the bridge to get home because of all of the out of town traffic (If they call it tourist season, why aren't you allowed to shoot them?) Hiked in the Gellatly Heritage Park Waited (im)patiently for my father-in-law to pick us up from the airport in Ottawa. Hey look - only one of these things involved knitting! I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

The secret to looking young

OK, I am almost 39 years old. I was a teenager during the 80's. Neon lace, Adam Ant and black rubber bracelets are a thing of the past (except for the fact the Adam Ant gets surprisingly frequent airplay on Sirius First Wave, but I suspect one of the programmers is the former president of his fan club) So why do I still get acne breakouts? In the last 2 days, I have had not one, but 2 painful spots suddenly appear. This is probably why people always think that I am in my 20's - the acne gives me that "youthful" look. Sigh. Time to go track down the tea tree gel and salicylate lotion.

Thrift shop yarn

This weekend I decided to take a look in the Nelson IODE thrift shop, and for the first time, I actually came across some yarn in a thrift shop. Granted, most of it was acrylic - there was a jumbo skein of Bernat "no dye lot" yarn on top, but there were a few skeins which looked to be at least partly natural fibres. Any skein without a label had been wound on a ball winder. This is some 4 strand yarn that feels like it contains some cotton. I have been told that you can just knit with this type of yarn as is, but I'm guessing it would be waaaaaay less of a pain in the @ss if it was spun together - any spinners reading this post feel free to comment. Some pale beige boucle; I've never used boucle yarn before. I think I will try dyeing this stuff. Some good Canadian yarn. It certainly looks like there are 2 separate strands; I have to take it apart to see for certain. A bag for Somerset to play in. The whole bunch - $9! On the sock front, starting to turn the heel at 9 inches worked better - I seem to have deleted the picture taken from the side. I also added in 3 extra sets of short rows. Now I have to figure out how tall I can make the cuff (and still have enough yarn left for a second sock of the same size).

Belated Saturday Sky

No better way to kill some time on a Saturday afternoon in Nelson BC than laying down in the grass and watching the sky. On a not so serene note, I discovered one of the benefits of using the magic loop method on socks - you can run the needle through the sock lower down when you want to frog back. Why frog it? This is the sock on my foot - I started the heel 2 inches before the intended length of the sock. Now, this is a sock knit in stockinette, not ribbing. See the strain as the sock tries to reach around the circumference of my ankle. Bah - damned size 11 feet. But by the time we got home this evening, I had almost finished the heel (again). We'll see how much further I get during my upcoming week on call.

Because all the cool kids are doing it...

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Ahhh, Friday

First off - here is a preview of this Saturday's Sky; we are heading out of town for the weekend, so no Blog updates until Sunday evening. Secondly - here's the top floor shoes: And while we are on the top floor, let's see what's under the bed: Pretty tidy, eh? Now let's see what the rest of the floor looks like: BTW - the big suitcase and the medium suitcase are from a trip we returned from June 27th. The small suitcase got home June 18th. There - don't you feel better about the state of your own house right now?

Thursday sky

Couldn't resist - this lasted for about 5 minutes. We live on the east side of a mountain, so the sunset is behind us. We don't see it directly, but we do catch it reflected in the clouds sometimes.

More knitting

Here's my completed shrug: I wore it to work on Monday, but ended up removing it midway through the morning; the airconditioning in our office was out because lightning struck the building next door and fried a bunch of electrical stuff. This is sock A (in the medical world, twin fetuses are referred to as twin A and twin B; I have adopted this usage)

A new frontier

Fuzzy Toes. Painted Toes. A Knitted Toe. Yes, I have finally crossed over to the sock side; this is the beginning of my first ever pair of socks. I am using Wendy's toe up sock pattern (adapted to the Magic Loop), and will switch over to the Mata Hari pattern for the calf. The yarn is the great teal Socks that Rock that my Knitty Secret Pal sent me. I'm doing the toe-up pattern because I am intimidated by the Kitchener Stitch - to be honest, I've not really looked into how to do a Kitchener stitch, but I have seen enough posts about how it is a hassle to have an innate fear of it.

Take that Turtlegirl!!

How's that for some macro flowery goodness? OK - that isn't a flower from my garden. It's the enclosure from YET ANOTHER secret pal package - I think this is from my Summer Fling Secret Pal. In addition to the original work of art, there's a great pattern book and 2 chocolate bars - including the supremely yummy Burnt Almond. As luck would have it, the remaining skeins of Kureyon to complete the Accursed Husband Sweater arrived, and... Mystery Yarn! Not a mystery as to what type of yarn it is - labels are there (Salsa DK), but it came from Herschnerr's, and I haven't placed any orders from Herschnerrs (at least I don't remember having done so...maybe I'm starting to order yarn online in my sleep; will have to keep that one in reserve for future use}. I'm guesing that one of my secret pals ordered it and had it delivered to me. If so, please identify yourself (well, not yourself per se until after the reveal, but at least let me know which exchange you belong to!} It's luverly yarn - "Cappucino" in colour; very subtly 2 toned.

Meme time!

From Gamecockdoc Life's to do list - I've bolded those I've gotten around to: 01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink 02. Swam with wild dolphins 03. Climbed a mountain 04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive 05. Been inside the Great Pyramid 06. Held a tarantula 07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone 08. Said 'I love you' and meant it 09. Hugged a tree 10. Bungee jumped 11. Visited Paris 12. Watched a lightning storm at sea 13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise 14. Seen the Northern Lights 15. Gone to a huge sports game 16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa 17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables 18. Touched an iceberg 19. Slept under the stars 20. Changed a baby's diaper 21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon 22. Watched a meteor shower 23. Gotten drunk on champagne 24. Given more than you can afford to charity 25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope 26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment 27. Had a food fight 28. Bet on a winning horse 29. Asked out a stranger 30. Had a snowball fight 31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can 32. Held a lamb 33. Seen a total eclipse 34. Ridden a roller coaster 35. Hit a home run 36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking 37. Adopted an accent for an entire day 38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment 39. Had two hard drives for your computer 40. Visited all 10 provinces 41. Taken care of someone who was drunk 42. Had amazing friends 43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country 44. Watched wild whales 45. Stolen a sign 46. Backpacked in Europe 47. Taken a road-trip 48. Gone rock climbing 49. Midnight walk on the beach 50. Gone sky diving 51. Visited Ireland 52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love 53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them 54. Visited Japan 55. Milked a cow 56. Alphabetized your cds 57. Pretended to be a superhero 58. Sung karaoke 59. Lounged around in bed all day 60. Posed nude in front of strangers 61. Gone scuba diving 62. Kissed in the rain 63. Played in the mud 64. Played in the rain 65. Gone to a drive-in theater 66. Visited the Great Wall of China 67. Started a business 68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken 69. Toured ancient sites 70. Taken a martial arts class 71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight 72. Gotten married 73. Been in a movie 74. Crashed a party 75. Gotten divorced 76. Gone without food for 5 days 77. Made cookies from scratch 78. Won first prize in a costume contest 79. Ridden a gondola in Venice 80. Gotten a tattoo 81. Rafted the Snake River 82. Been on television news programs as an "expert" 83. Got flowers for no reason 84. Performed on stage 85. Been to Las Vegas 86. Recorded music 87. Eaten shark 88. Had a one-night stand 89. Gone to Thailand 90. Bought a house 91. Been in a combat zone 92. Buried one of your parents 93. Been on a cruise ship 94. Spoken more than one language fluently 95. Performed in Rocky Horror. 96. Raised children. 97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour 98. Created and named your own constellation of stars 99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country 100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over 101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge 102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking 103. Had plastic surgery 104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived 105. Wrote articles for a large publication 106. Lost over 100 pounds 107. Held someone while they were having a flashback 108. Piloted an airplane 109. Petted a stingray 110. Broken someone's heart 111. Helped an animal give birth 112. Won money on a T.V. game show 113. Broken a bone 114. Gone on an African photo safari 115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced 116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol 117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild 118. Ridden a horse 119. Had major surgery 120. Had a snake as a pet 121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours 123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states 124. Visited all 7 continents 125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days 126. Eaten kangaroo meat 127. Eaten sushi 128. Had your picture in the newspaper 129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about 130. Gone back to school 131. Parasailed 132. Petted a cockroach 133. Eaten fried green tomatoes 134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey 135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read 136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 137. Skipped all your school reunions 138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language 139. Been elected to public office 140. Written your own computer language 141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream 142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care 143. Built your own PC from parts 144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you 145. Had a booth at a street fair 146: Dyed your hair 147: Been a DJ 148: Shaved your head 149: Caused a car accident 150: Saved someone's life Enjoy!

My great Secret Pals

What have we here? Another Package! This one is from my Knitty Secret Pal. And she sent it Expresspost, because there's a HUUUGE bar of dark chocolate inside! She's even wrapped it in chocolate brown paper. There are also pearls of wisdom from the Yarn Harlot, a Troll do it yourself curse magnet kit, and (insert drumroll here ) Manos!! I just have pause now to rave about how great my Secret Pals are. My Knitty SP gave me the tools (and the inspiration) to get started on my first pair of socks. My One Skein Secret Pal sent me my first alpacaaaaahhhhhhh, and my Blogger SP emailed me a totally great song that she recorded. (I'm trying to figure out if there is a way that I can post the mp3 on my blog). And since great minds think alike, both my Knitty and my Blogger SP sent me the same yarn - teal Manos!! [BTW Pals - the yarn colours look exactly the same to me] The colour is deeper than it looks in the photo - I took it out into the bright sunlight to verify that they are as close to being the exact same colour as I can tell. I have fab downstream SPs as well; they've really liked the stuff I sent them, and we have some great conversations. I really enjoy the fact that my pals have talents, jobs, and interests that are different from mine; it's giving me some insight into worlds that wouldn't otherwise intersect with mine. I'm hoping that I can meet up with them some time in the future. Three of my Pals are in the Toronto area, so I will definitely try to catch up with them when I am there in September.

Saturday Sky - July 8

6:30 AM. Sunny. This was taken from our balcony, but it also happens to be the view from the picture windows in our bedroom, which is one of the reasons why I wake up so damn early on a weekend. Despite the "light blocking" curtains, it's bright enough to do needlepoint in there right now.

Shoe Friday - main floor

Zib wanted shoes. Now, she specifically requested a mountain of shoes, but I decided that I would instead show shoes that live in a house on a mountain. I donned my camoflage so that I could shoot the shoes in situ; floor by floor. Today, let's see what is on the main level. Oh look - shoes stacked neatly on a rack by the front door. How tidy. You may, however, note that they are closed toe, cool weather type shoes. What's in the closet by the front door? Some hiking boots, and more cool weather shoes. .Oh, and 2 pairs of boots - Docs, and pointy toed Eccos How about by the garage door? More Docs - ankle boots and clogs. The back closet? - boots, boots, more boots, and another pair of cool weather shoes. Purgatory (aka the room by the front door that was supposed to become my sewing room, but now stores my stash and other stuff that the cats shouldn't have 24/7 access to: Touring style cycling shoes, and some pumps. Long story as to why they are in that specific room right now. And lastly - here are the shoes that actually got worn in the last 7 days. The red and black runners are for when I do weights at the gym(T/Th), the dusty runners in the middle went on 2 mountain hikes, and the white runners at the end went to the spinning classes(M/W/F). The Birks were for going out on the balcony to hang with the cats. So yes, I wore a grand total of 3 pairs of all the shoes I own this week - in a way, it's like having a shoe stash. I kind of haven't gotten around to unpacking all (i.e. most) of my summer shoes {and packing away the fall/winter ones} - come back next Friday when we look at the lower level shoes.

Watermelon Pants!

What to wear on a hot and humid July day? Watermelon Pants!! [For some reason, it's a phrase I just love to say.] I am naming my shrug Goldilocks, because I am in the process of casting off for the 3rd time. The first time, I did a whole bunch of k2tog in the second last row, because I was afraid it would be too loose. It was too tight to get over my shoulders. The second time, I did a straight cast off - too loose. This time, I am doing a few k2tog as I cast off. Hopefully it will be juuuust right.

Rain, rain, don't go away.

It's funny how you regard weather differently depending on where you live. When I lived on the prairies, a thunderstorm was "good for the farmers". When I lived in Southern Ontario, a thunderstorm meant some of the smog got washed away. Now, I live in BC's Interior, where a thunderstorm means lightning. And lightning starts forest fires. This was almost a year ago. See the little points of light on the side of the hill? Our house is one of those points. This fire was on the other side of the hill, but we were only 2 blocks away from being temporarily evacuated. This is our second evening of thunder and lightning. Happily, today's light show was accompanied by a downpour of rain.

Package!!

This was waiting for me in the Superbox today when I stopped to pick up the mail: Check out the cute Cat Themed wrapping paper: Somerset was quite interested to see what was in the box. Greedo less so. Of course, Somerset loves any box. Let's take a look at the inside - some beautiful Manos in teal, some yummy dark chocolate, a photo album, a shower gel and a wee little crystal squirrel. My SP is actually from Uruguay, so the yarn is not just pretty, it's meaningful. I am soo lucky to be matched with such great SPs!! My Shrug is coming along nicely - I spent last evening picking up stitches. Now I just have to count them, because I am going to do "open chain ribbing" along the border, and I need a multiple of 6 + 2 stitches for it to work out. I've got at least 1.5 skeins left, so I shouldn't risk running out.

Ways to freak out your owners

Not freak out as in "Gaaaaah, don't sit on my black pants when I have to leave in 2 minutes to give a big presentation!!!" More confused freak out. As in "Why the heck are you doing that" Like when they stare intently at a blank spot on the ceiling. About a year before we sold our old house, Greedo all of a sudden started to jump up on top of the "over the toilet" storage unit and sit and stare at the vent. Granted, it later turned out that birds were getting in through broken slots in the exhaust vent, but for a while, it led to much head shaking. This morning, for instance, they were both snoozing in the exact same position, Weird. The shrug is progressing nicely. I realize now that it has a remarkable resemblance to the One Skein Wonder. I probably could have just used the Glampyre pattern, but I was too lazy to want to figure out stitch counts. By the way - if you look closely, you will see not one, not two, but 3 sets of needles in use at the same time.

Butterfly stitch?

I picked up this shrug in Montreal last month - it was damned cold weather, and I had packed under the impression it would be warmer. It's got a really neat stitch pattern that gives a "butterfly effect". Here's a (blurry) photo up close of the right side, and one of the wrong side. Anyone know how to reproduce it?

Last minute substitution

Since the World Cup Sweater has been sent to purgatory (the spare room in which my stash and other stuff is stored), I decided to come up with a replacement project. I bought this dress at a consignment store by my office last week, and decided to make a shrug so that I could wear the dress to work without feeling too bare. I'm starting with this Fibertrends pattern, but am making several modifications: lightweight yarn that's smaller gaugue than the pattern calls for, short sleeves, and no collar - I think I will try to do a Picot type edge instead. This is partly to make it more lacy, and partly because the pattern calls for 600 yards for my size, and I have 400 yards, and I don't think that shortening the arms will cut 200 yards off the requirements. I am also using an m1 stitch which is untwisted, so it makes for a more hole-y effect; because it's easier to do, and also to add to the loose knit effect. This is being designed for coverage rather than for warmth. I guess I could have done the project in a lace or eyelet pattern, but I didn't want to make it even more complex. This plied yarn (Silk/linen/cotton - Cottage by Berger du Nord - ebay purchase) splits like there is no tomorrow, which is quite the change from the kureyon. My original intention was to make the shrug out of this lovely 100% alpaca yarn. This is my first skein that was sent to my by my OneSkein upstream Secret Pal. It's wonderfully soft, and has a nice mixture of greens in it; I'm curious how they will blend together once it's knitted. I found some of the same colour theme at my LYS, and bought a few more with the intention of using it for the shrug, but I then came to my senses and realized that an alpaca shrug would not get much use in 34 Celcius weather. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to make with this yarn. It's so soft that I want to make something that I will wear directly on my skin, rather than just a hat or scarf. I need to look up the qualities of alpaca - other than knowing that it gets very fuzzy if you felt it, I don't know much else about how fragile/stretchy/etc it is. Sandy has a good thing going with her Saturday Skies blog ring. This was the sky above town this evening. Canada Day Fireworks, seen from our balcony. We love you, Canada!