3287 days and counting...

There was a special delivery for me at work today: Today is our 9th wedding anniversary. Sadly, I won't see the Gambler until Monday because I am staying at the condo near the hospital during my 7 day on call stint. In past years we have managed to celebrate the day properly, but I don't have to see him to know that this was the start of something awesome. I love you sweetie. You're the best.

These are the cat days of summer...

I have always associated the phrase "the dog days of summer" with long hot days where the air is thick, and all you want to do is find a cool place in the shade to stretch out for a nap. So far, we haven't had any of those type of days (or if we did, I was stuck in a windowless overly airconditioned building for more hours than is healthy). If anything, the weather is generally pretty conducive to napping with mini heat sources cats. Actually, I have been quite happy with the summer weather we are having this year: warm enough in the daytime so that you can wear summer clothes, but not so hot and sticky that you could stand to take several showers per day; cool at night so you can sleep, with enough rain that our outdoor plants will survive without frequent watering. As has been the case so often of late, work is stealing much time from the rest of my life. Not enough time for sleeping, let alone all of the fun stuff, like knitting. This was what I accomplished this weekend: Magic slippers to match the BSC. Knit out of leftover Kureyon sock because I couldn't find the rest of the Regia yarn that was leftover. It's a nice little pattern which is easily memorized: I will probably knit another pair that is a bit larger, since I still have more leftover Kureyon sock. They will be packed up soon and delivered to the intended recipient some time in the next few weeks. Hopefully. By the way, as I entered this project into Ravelry, I discovered that there is now the option to enter data to allow one to calculate the actual product cost!!! Quelle horreur! Interestingly, the default currency looks to be Icelandic krona - maybe the total won't seem so bad in a currency one is totally unfamiliar with.

Seven Score

You know how you sometimes get very caught up in weird conversations? As we were driving home from the cottage, the subject of birthdays came up. The Gambler said that maybe he would turn 40 this year (rather than 2 years from now) to get it over with. I made the comment that the only reason why the ages of 20, 30, 40, 50 etc caused so much angst was that they ended in zeros. I pointed out that if our numbering system was base 7 rather than base 10, that we would have totally different milestone years to dread. (I have no idea why I picked base 7 *- maybe it was fate) We then got in an argument heated debate over what base 10 number was the equivalent of 100 in base 7. The Gambler said it was 70, I said it was 49. To try to prove my point, I counted out loud in base 7 as I kept track of the (base 10) number of digits I had spoken with my fingers. Which is harder to do than you would think it might be. We were still doing the "70" "No, 49" "No, it's 70" thing when I started to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Anyways. Pictures. Knitting. How about some pictures of knitting? Not my knitting - here are 2 knit garments on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum. They were from an exhibition of the collections of the 2008 Royal Collage of Art Fashion graduates. This dress was knit out of triple stranded Rowan Polar; the designer used the custom made needles shown behind the garment to knit it. I wonder how large her tension swatch was. This dress is machine knit. The neat thing about it is that the trompe l'oeil zipper is not printed onto the fabric, but it was programmed into the actual design using 4 different shades of yarn (apparently the maximum number of separate yarns that can be used with this particular knitting machine). So theoretically, it could be reproduced in handknitting using either stranded or intarsia techniques. Which is cool. To me at least. But then again, I get all worked up about wacky things like numbers. *I never did watch more than a single episode of Dr Who in my formative years - I was more into Monty Python. Which is a good thing, since I don't know how long it would take me to knit the requisite scarf.

More England

Sadly, my attempts to post every day in July has been foiled by dodgy wireless coverage at the cottage we are staying at this week. These shots are from our last night in England - we ate at a seaside restaurant near Dover. This gull was on the beachside pathway. The fellow who created this beach pebble art told us that one of his previous creations was a life-sized caravan. Apparently finding pebbles of the appropriate colour can be a challenge at times. Afterwards I regretted not having asked him if the red stone had inspired him to do the gull, or if that was his plan from the start.

BSC

I added several rows to the bottom of the Baby Surprise Jacket, making it more like a Baby Surprise Coat. For the last few rows, I added the green Regia yarn back in. Instead of buttons, I am going to make some I-cord ties out of the Regia. Now I have to decide what to do with the remaining 1/2 skein of Kureyon sock.

Where to 'go' in London

The tower of London.

BSJ take 2

Last week I frogged my first BSJ attempt and cast on for the second version. This time I am using 4mm needles. Progress up until yesterday was pretty minimal because of being on call - on a good day I would get 4 rows knit. But now I am speeding right along. The first few rows are knit out of some leftover Regia sock yarn; it works well with the colour of the Kureyon Sock, and will be much more suitable for sewing up. I intend to finish the jacket this week. I might also knit up some booties or legwarmers, depending on how much yarn is left. The recipient (our third niece) was born on July 1, and is a girl. Sadly, her parents (The Gambler's brother and his wife) have decided to go with "theme" names - so both she and her older sister are named after semiprecious stones. I also brought the Knoroyven along to finish off; hopefully they will both be done by Friday so that I can get on with knitting for me!

High tech containment device

My new internet stick works like a charm; I can connect from almost anywhere. However, there is no way to keep the cap with the rest of the stick when I am using it. Luckily the mini rubber bands are 50 for a dollar. The come in handy as stitch markers too!

New Arrival

My sucky 6 day call stint is over, and my new laptop is here! Finally, I can download my England photos!

Canada Day* DIY blog post

In May, I pledged to post at least one photo every day in July. Sadly, I have been stuck in the hospital for all but about 2 days of the last 2 weeks. I have been relying on cat photos emailed to me by The Gambler to maintain my sanity. They were taken with his Blackberry and uploaded from my Blackberry, so the resolution is not the best. I loaded the photos into a draft post last week during my very brief break. My intention had been to complete the post at work. Sadly, blogger is now considered a "social network" by the hospital, so it is blocked. This post is being written from my condo on my old laptop - we picked up an Internet Stick so that after a long day on call I can see what Knitpicks has on sale check patient Xrays and test results that were processed after I left the hospital. Sadly, I don't have the time/creative energy to come up with witty captions for the photos. Feel free to post your captions in the comments. A B C D *I realize that the post and the photos have nothing to do with Canada Day. So here is a link to a recycled photo - fireworks seen from our house in Kelowna on Canada Day 2006. We love Canada - socialised health care system and all!