Ddone!

Djaywalker B is dfinished! Here they are being inspected by Somerset, who has all of a sudden become a sock expert. And since Somerset has all but crazy glued herself to my lap, I can't put them on blockers (or on my feet for that matter) for the time being.Greedo tolerates being used as a sock model. Just. So I have managed to keep my sock a month resolution for 3 months thus far. April's sock theme is "April Showers"... ...allowing this Cherry Tree Hill yarn to fulfill its destiny.

Socks for me!

In addition to the Secret Pal package, I had a package from Janis waiting for me when I got home yesterday. Socks! Knit for me!! After much scrutiny, Somerset gave her approval. Janis and I were partnered up in the Knittyboard Sock Exchange; these socks were mailed ages ago, but Canada Post likes to hang on to my packages until the day after I go out of town. The socks fit perfectly, and felt so good on my "ensconced in a pair of runners all day plus about 5.5 hours of flying" feet, that I wore them all evening. The pattern is from Sensational Knitted Socks, and the socks are knit out of Mountain Colours Bearfoot (Lodgegrass colourway). Big round of applause for Janis!!! By the way - I managed to lose yet another item on the plane during this last trip - there is a bit of a story behind it. During my previous week off, I went skiing (downhill and cross country) and hiking with no adverse effects. Then, on Saturday afternoon, I went to Wrap Zone to buy myself something to take on the plane with me. While walking back to my car, I slightly overstepped the curb and gave my ankle a good twist. Initially, I was fine to walk on it, but within a few hours, it was pretty sore. So I iced it all evening. On Sunday, I hobbled onto the plane, and was happy to see that nobody was sitting next to me. So I sat sideways and had my foot elevated. This meant that I had to lean my back against the armrest, so I rolled up my scarf and tucked it behind my back to use as padding. When the flight landed in Vancouver, I limped across the airport to the gate from which the Toronto flight was departing. Just as I was getting to the area, I realized that I had left my scarf on the plane. Sigh. It was one of those rayon pashmina type scarfs in a lime green colour, and a staple in my wardrobe. At least it was a very tasty wrap. So far, I haven't discovered anything left on the plane during yesterday's flight.

What do you mean you don't know where my car is???

Because moving isn't painful enough, our move is going to be a long drawn out affair. Already, I have "moved" about 4 suitcases of clothes during my last 2 trips for work - Kyle dropped them off at the rental house today. The hospital is picking up the cost of moving everything, including our 2 cars, so I had the bright idea to have the moving company pick up my car early, so I wouldn't have to rent a car the weeks I am working. It takes about 2 weeks for it to get shipped between BC and Ontario, so we thought that since they picked it up on Feb 27, I would definitely have it for March 19th. Uh, no. Apparently there was a mudslide somewhere and the train couldn't get through. So first we were told that it would arrive in Ontario March 22. Then March 26, then yesterday or today. Today, I fly back to BC, get home from the airport, walk in the door and the phone rings. It's the moving company. They ask me if my car arrived yet. I point out that they are phoning me at my BC phone number, and wouldn't that be one of those bits of information that I should be getting from them rather than vise versa??? So apparently the projected date of arrival is now "early next week". Anyways, back to less stress-inducing thoughts: Here's Djaywalker B and my new hotel pet. I haven't yet decided on a name - the 2 contenders are "BOOP" and "PEEP the Sheep" (BOOP stands for Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia, which is a relatively uncommon lung disease. I have always been very amused by the fact that I can use the term BOOP in a serious medical discussion: "Maybe we should try him on some steroids, because it sure looks like this guy has BOOP". PEEP stands for Positive End Expiratory Pressure, and it's important in managing people who are on ventilators. I love PEEP. Hi, my name is Ladylungdoc, and I am a respirology nerd). I'm leaning towards PEEP the Sheep (if only because it can be abbreviated), but the similarity to "Peeps" makes me hesitate. Speaking of Djaywalker B, it fits perfectly with the decrease in the number of stitches across the sole. I didn't have much time to knit during my ICU week, but since that finished Monday, I managed to finish it to the point where I am ready to graft the toe. I finished the short row toe at a DKC meeting this Wednesday, and was horribly confused as to why I was short a few stitches - the next morning I realized that since I knit the toe from the sole, I started out with fewer stitches than if I had knit it from the top. So I knit a few stitches together and I now have equal numbers to graft together. I gave some thought to frogging the foot of Djaywalker A and starting to re-knit it during my trip home today, but instead I worked on a gift scarf that I started back in November. When I got home, in addition to the news about my car, there were some goodies waiting for me: Mmmmmarzipan!!!!!!! And just released sock yarn!! From my knittyboard Secret Pal! (By the way - check out Greedo in the background - he's trying to decide if I'm distracted enough to not notice him jump on the kitchen counter) This was also waiting for me in the mail...a full post about it tomorrow!

Because I took an oath to not cause suffering:

Post flight (plus about 6 rows of knitting done while waiting for dinner a restaurant)Djaywalker sock B. The Semi Identical Twin Djaywalkers. (Is my knitting timely or what?) Friday, Saturday and Sunday were amazingly insane - I'm surprised I'm not felted from the pounding I took. And to add injury to injury, I had to go in to the hospital at 5 AM Monday morning (the week on call ends at 7 AM Monday)! As a reward for having survived, I managed to adopt some orphan yarns and a hotel pet, and will post photos within the next few days. Right now it's sleepy time.

Why are there no 24 hour yarn shops?

Oh my - is it only Wednesday? Crazy work at week. And apparently someone sent out a memo that at least once a day someone should bitch at me because I am asking them to do something that is PART OF THEIR JOB too late in the day (Dear ENT Doctor. I know it sucks that you have to come back to the hospital after you went home already, but it's 9 PM and I haven't left the hospital yet. Plus you have a way nicer car than me to make the trip in, and I am hazarding a guess that nobody phoned YOU at 3 AM last night because a patient was having chest pain, because being on call for ENT means that it's pretty rare for you to even get paged. And dear overnight hospitalist - do you think that I specifically request that patients don't get assigned medical beds until after 4 PM even though I ordered the transfer before 11 AM? Sadly, my psychic skills aren't finely honed enough to be able to accurately predict which ward is going to get the patient. Let's see how good your psychic powers are - how many fingers do you think I am holding up right now?) Anyways - above is the photo of Djaywalker B before I got on the plane. I have a shot demonstrating how much progress if you knit during a 1 hour flight, then spend the 1 hour layover ripping back because you screwed up the heel, and then knit for most of the 4 hour flight afterwards. I also have a shot of Socks A and B back to back so you can see where the matching of stripes is at. For some reason, Blogger does not want to upload them(or maybe it's just the dodgy WiFi hotel connection). I know that the suspense is killing you...

I climbed a mountain!

Yesterday I decided to go for a hike; the cross country skiing season is almost over, and the snow at the downhill ski hill wasn't great on Wednesday (actually the snow was fine, it was the ice underneath that sucked). So I went to check out the woods that are uphill from our house; I've driven past the small parking lot hundreds of times, but never stopped before. Nothing like the prospect of coming across a bear to keep you on your toes. There were a few paths from the parking area. They are pretty rudimentary, and the one I chose was quite steep. Within a few minutes I was huffing and puffing. I initially planned to turn around once I had walked about 20 minutes or so, but by that time, I got into the "I'll just walk to the top of that rise" groove, and kept on walking until I reached the top. It took me about 40 minutes to get there (including about 5 minutes spent taking pictures).When I got to the top, I realized that I was high enough up that there was still some patches of snow around.The view up there was great. See that snow topped moutain in the distance? Here's a closeup: It's the west ridge of our local ski hill - is that cool or what? A view of the neighboring mountain.The tree is obscuring Mt. Boucherie. Mission Hill winery sits on top, complete with a huge belltower. Word on the street is that the guy who owns it made his money on "Mike's Hard Lemonade". He then got all hoity toity, added a "de" to his surname and spent big bucks on the winery - there are a bunch of huge antique tapestries hanging in "The Great Hall". I've always wanted to go take a tour there, and ask which vat holds the "Mike's". In knitting news, I did complete sock A of the Djungle Djaywalkers. You know how you are always supposed to read a pattern all the way through before you start knitting? Well, I didn't quite do that, and didn't realize that I needed to decrease the number of stitches in the foot in order to compensate for the fact that the sole is knitted in stockinette. Sigh. To add insult to injury, I realized my error AFTER I had kitchenered 38 stitches. But I decided that I might as well start on sock B, and then frog the foot of sock A once I had established that it's adequate to decrease by 6 stitches. Greedo's kind of tired because he and Somerset went to get their vaccinations today. It turns out that Somerset was busy puking on the basement carpet when I shot this.Check out that matching!! I actually adjusted my cast on by 4 stitches so that I'd be starting at the exact same spot. Mental note - if I ever decide that I want to match socks in the future, I won't just start knitting at the beginning of a skein - I will find an easily identifiable colour change, and start casting on at that point.

The Skies of March

I haven't been faithfully posting Saturday Skies, but I have been taking sky photos: Changing Sky Bridge and Sky Some Clouds have Pink Linings Sky over Vancouver (you know you've been flying alot when you look out the window and think "I guess we are taking a southern route today" because of what landscape you see below) Sky after the Snow Leaving the Sunset Behind

Happy Pi Day

It's 3.14 (at least in the US - I personally prefer day/month/year) I'd bake a pie in honor of the day, but I don't bake. I'm not even sure if I have a pie plate. I do have a rolling pin, because one year my parents visited over Thanksgiving and my Mom was searching through the kitchen for a rolling pin. We ended up having to go buy one, and I am pretty sure I haven't used it since. So instead, I offer up cutie pies: It's the pink toes that get me... Hey, does this count as part of the pet intelligence test? She found the vent without seeing it... Why bother buying them kitty condos, if all they need is a bubble pack mailer? The body of my Poppy is blocking. I am picking this project back up because I received not one, not two, but three skeins of Black Purl in the mail from the fabulous Gretchen via a knittyboard swap. I'm thinking of adding a bit of length to the top portion, so that the bottom panel is completely below the bustline. I have a 36A bust; it doesn't need to be minimized by dark colours...actually, the main reason is that I am concerned that it won't be wide enough despite my blocking efforts. This will make for a truncated sweater.

How to make iced tea

1) Fill insulated travel mug with hot water, add tea bag and sweetener 2) Take travel mug into the car 3) Get to work, start seeing patients 4) Realize that you left the travel mug in the car 5) Realize that it is -15C outside, and your coat and boots are in your office 6) Leave the hospital 9 hours later 7) Remove travel mug from car. 8) Remove lid from travel mug 9) Remove ice and tea bag from travel mug 10) Taste the iced tea, then pour it down the sink 11) Admire pretty patterns formed on the bottom of the travel mug. ***************************************** I had even more airplane knitting time yesterday, because I had to fly home via Vancouver. Sadly, I lost my sock knitting bag, which contained a tape measure, CHIBI, and crochet hook. I'm hoping that the groomers turned it in to lost and found, but thus far I haven't heard back from Air Canada. For some reason, I decided that 9.5 + 1.5 = 10. 25; I know that the short row toe is about 1.5 inches long, so I proceeded to knit until the sole was 9.5 inches long. Since I wasn't about to try the sock on in the airport, I didn't catch my error until I got home. I frogged back, and knit the short row toe today, but haven't grafted it shut yet. That's tonight's excitement. By the way - the socks now have a Capitalized Name - the Jungle Jaywalkers. This colourway is Dschungel (german for jungle). On second thought, maybe I'll call these the Djungle Jaywalkers. Or even the Djungle Djaywalkers. I love German - any language which creates new words just by putting the corresponding smaller words (Einbahnstrasse) together gets a vote from me. Plus, it gave us the word 'shaudenfraude', and my favourite 'spinbarkeit'. I wonder if german contains a word for "not funny ha-ha, but funny in an ironic way that doesn't completely fulfill the criteria for irony. Like rain on your wedding day."

Limbo has a mailing address

I'm 12 hours from the end of my first week (12 hours on call, that is, not stuck in the hospital, knock on wood). The good news is that I have a temporary place to live!! We came across a furnished house for rent that is about 15 minutes from the hospital. Ironically, the woman who owns it has been transferred to Vancouver, but doesn't want to sell her place until she knows that it's going to work out. Her indecision is our gain!! It's your typical subdivision house, in a typical bedroom community. Not my cup of tea for the long term, but better than going stir crazy in a 300 sq foot hotel suite! And it's just a few minutes away from the LYS (which was closed yesterday for Spring Break. As a childless person, it alway amazes me that so many things are affected by Spring Break: when had a University position, I was amazed that Grand Rounds were cancelled over Spring Break). I probably won't spend much time there during my weeks off; until we sell our house, I'll fly back to BC those times. I'm not sure how much time Kyle will spend there, or whether we will move the cats there or not. But at least I know where I will be!

Destroying to create...

This post has been sitting in draft form for a few weeks...I was describing the photos to someone at a SnB tonight, and thought that I might as well finish it for your viewing pleasure. This is a polar fleece cape that was embellished with pieces of a damaged lace shawl and some (alpaca?) roving. It was created by a fibre artist in Summerland, British Columbia. The lace and roving were needlefelted onto the collar using a needle felting machine I love the way it resembles spiderwebs and cobwebs. I was so enamoured of it that I considered buying it (even though I am not a cape person), but the woman who did the embellishing had needlefelted hearts and words on the main part of the cape, and IMHO, it really detracted from the collar. I imagine that one can get quite giddy and go overboard with the technique. Kind of like what you get when Bedazzlers happen to innocent people.

So far, So good

Can I just pause to mention that I love Crazy Aunt Purl? Well, my first day at work went well (technically it wasn't my first day, because I've worked here a total of 3 or 4 weeks since June of last year, but it was my first day of being a non-temporary member of the hospital staff). Big sigh of relief. Thanks for the comments about the jaywalkers - no photo to post (I'm sitting in my new office right now, eating lunch - so you just get text today), but I finished the heel last night. I really really love the way that the Regia has pseudo random stripes. I keep looking at the sock and having little conversations with myself: Id: "hmmmm...that would make an awesome sleeve" Superego: "you aren't supposed to be buying any yarn until October" Ego:"Well, it is sock yarn, and it's not supposed to count. Let's google Regia 6 ply and see if it's sold online" Id: "Hey, there it is, I could place an order right now" Superego: "Um, hello? Do the words 'Knit from my stash' ring any bells?" Ego:"At that price, it would be a pretty expensive sweater if we had to buy 11 more skeins" Id:"Well there's this other colourway that is on sale for 2$/skein!! It says I need 13 for a sweater, but because I am tall, I should get 15. Or maybe an even 20" Superego: "Am I speaking in tongues again? No buying yarn!!!" Ego:"The striping looks great on the sock, but we wouldn't get the same effect on the body of the sweater" Id:"Maybe I could just use the striped yarn for the sleeves, and use a coordinating colour for the body of the sweater...let's start shopping for yarns that might match it" Superego:"Hey, it's past bedtime. You have to get up early tomorrow" Ego: "If we buy the yarn online from this US site, we'll have to pay duty on it. Not to mention the fact that Kyle will probably be the one who will be home for the delivery, and we'll get an earfull about it" Id: "Bah! Fine. Where's that chocolate milk that I picked up at the store on Sunday? I can't believe that I didn't get any ice cream while I was there..." So I decided that I MIGHT buy a few skeins of the sale yarn (enough for sleeves), but I wouldn't do so until after I finish knitting my Poppy sweater. And my EBTKS. (Well, maybe once I cast on for my EBTKS...) So if {insert diety of choice} wants me to have that yarn, it won't be completely sold out by then. Oh - Batty - thanks for the compliment about my photography skills. The beauty of digital photography is that I can take 25 crap pictures for every one good shot, and just delete the crap.

Help!!

I know squat about html If you do, please help! How can I fix my template so that the main body margin allows for the right sidebar? So apparently Blogger doesn't do a wraparound if you do a row of asterisks. Who knew? Belated Saturday skies : Ominous pre-departure sky flying east at night sky (Since flying east means arriving late at night, I didn't get around to downloading the photos until today. Love that 3 hour time change.) After trudging through houses with the realtor this morning, I headed over to The Knit Cafe for High Tea. Forgot to take pictures - you'd think that I'm somewhat distracted by mild "starting a new job" anxiety. On the way there, I stopped at Romni Wools, and picked up some yarn. One skein is a Secret Pal gift, and I didn't think of that when I took the photo. Pardon the low tech cropping job. The Karaoke is to add to the EBTKS bin; it was 25% off. The label-less multicolour sock yarn is Regia Silk, the solid is some wool/wool blend. Since both skeins were orphans, my plan is to use the solid colour yarn for the cuffs/heels/soles/toes of what I have christened "The Blended Family Socks" (There I go with the naming again. If only I could use that power for the forces of good.) The Regia stretch yarn was pretty. No rationalization there. Have I mentioned anything about new job jitters? Liz (aka blu roux on Knittyboard) brought me a present: Jitterbug yarn! In the "Jay" colourway. (Now I have the jingle "OK.. Blue Jays" stuck in my head) . It's so beautiful, that if I had brought the appropriate sized needles, I would cast on for another pair of socks tonight, but in an unusual show of self restraint, I didn't bring spare needles. In fact, it turns out that I only brought 4 out of the 5 dpns for the Jaywalkers - hence the safety pin being used as a stitch marker . DPN #5 was sitting under my laptop stand. I'm doing a short row heel instead of as written in the pattern. This yarn has a very long pattern repeat; it's close to 6 inches. It would make an awesome sweater (luckily Romni didn't have any of this yarn in stock...)