Monday? Seriously?

Wow, time does fly when you're spending it all on Ravelry! Love it. Sign up, wait patiently, you will be invited. I think it took about 3 or 4 weeks from when I signed up until I got my invite. I'm getting all my stuff so very much more organized. I love it.

There was another Sockimus Palimus postcard. Look how pretty!


It's all fishy and shiny. And the best part...it's from Seattle. My sockpal is all over the place! East coast, west coast, England. I'm amazed. Do you think they are a pilot? Then, 3 or 4 hours into a long overseas flight they just put that bit ol' plane into autopilot and knit some socks? That thought appeals to me on so many different levels.

Here's the back. Bit of a philosopher is my Sockimus Palimus. :)


Here is my current progress on my sockpal sock. One more pattern repeat and I'm doing the heel flap. My pal likes her socks not so long.

Sorry for the overexposure. Okay, I'm off. I have to make some bird food and bird bread and get a few things done before work. Happy Monday y'all!

Summer Knitting Goals

Ali, over at Skeins Her Way, is having a contest. You could win some yummy Blue Sky Alpaca cotton and a really cute pattern for a summer top. Go here to read all about it.

Here is my hopeful list of things to complete this summer:

Already on the needles:

Poppy Sweater
Chicknits Ribby Cardi
Sockapalooza socks (nevermind hope, this will happen!)
Noro mitred blanket

Not on the needles:

Trekking socks

I know, it isn't much, but that blanket is gonna be big and I'm trying to set reasonable goals, blah blah blah. :)

Still alive, by the skin of my teeth

Here's some advice, it's free and I'm most definitely not using it. Once you reach the age of 38 (or so) you have no business going out to a stagette and drinking with the 19 - 26 crowd. Just so you know.

Before we get to that though, 'Nessa and I went to the production centre tour of Bard on the Beach on Saturday afternoon. It was great. Got to see the teeny tiny little mockups of what the stages will look like, checked out the costuming department (beyond cool!), and then...wait for it...we got to sit in on part of the rehearsal for Taming of the Shrew. FABULOUS! My three favourite actors were all there, Haig Sutherland, Rob Frazer, and Kyle Rideout. It was wonderful. They are doing it in the concept of spaghetti western and it really worked. It's going to be hilarious.

From there, I'm afraid things went downhill. A bunch of us were going to celebrate a friends impending (hmmm, that sounds sort of ominous) marriage and away we went. To the strippers. I'm proud to say, I had never been to the strippers before. I can no longer say that. Sigh. Before we went Vanessa and I were having a few drinks at home. Which led to a few shooters. Which led to this:


This one has some Stella in it. The dogs were having a gas with us running around like idiots.

Why yes, we are cool! It's like Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings threw up. You can tell how this is going to end, can't you? Off to the bar, more drinks, falling, having to leave the bar. Yep, I am way too old for these sorts of activities. Anyway...needless to say 'Nessa and I were just a scoach hung over on Sunday. So hung over in fact that I did not make it to my mom's house and take her for dinner. I might actually be the worst daughter in the world. I'm sorry mom! I'll totally make it up to you this weekend. :)

Also, because of the production centre tour I didn't make it to the Fibre Festival. Lavender says it was lovely. Go see the linen she's spinning, very cool!

After my interview with the RCMP yesterday (which went okay I think,) I popped over to a yarn store in the area that I had never been to, Three Bags Full. Nice, lots of stuff I hadn't seen in person before, Blue Sky Alpaca, Kidsilk Haze, Louet Gems, etc. I did pick up a few things, you know to make me feel better about missing the fibre festival. Okay that's what I'm telling myself. Some Lorna's Laces shepherd sport in purple and orange, a couple skeins of Malabrigo, and I think what might be the last two skeins of Sweet Georgia sock yarn in Vancouver. Oh, and a Noro book.

On the Sockapalooza front, I've started my pal's socks. I did end up changing my mind about the pattern about 76 times. I'm just getting to the patterning so I'll take a pici tomorrow when it looks like more. Version 76.a.1 are the Tidal Wave socks. I think the greens will look nice. Okay, that's it, I'm outta here. I got a tonne o' stuff to get done before work tonight. This working afternoons is starting to grind a bit. Have a good day everyone, I'm going to go sit in my yard in the sunshine and knit a bit before I go to work. :)

Wicked, ungrateful, forgetful,

Daft, etc. I totally forgot to show you this:

When I got up yesterday there was a surprise waiting for me. Look what Vanessa got me! How sweet is that. I wore it to work last night. I felt gangsta and knitta, all at the same time! Ta da! Thank you 'Ness. I love it!

Thursday, right?

I'm having some difficulties keeping track of time now that I'm on nights. So far the job is great. Last night we got far enough in our training to actually be doing the work. That's when I thought I might be severely learning disabled. I simply could not wrap my brain around all the different bits of information. So, I sucked it up, took a chance and just did what I thought was right. Got back my first 40 bits o' work and no errors! Can I get an amen? Phew, right?

It's really strange to be learning something so very new and different from what I've done for so long. So far though, the place is great and the people are really nice too. I'm very pleased with my situation right now. On Friday we move out of our training room and up to our actual desks and then it go girl go.

One really nice thing, before I go to work I have all this quiet time that I can knit or read or just about anything I want. I get some laundry done, maybe a bit of vacuuming, clean the birds, you know, detail work right? By the time Friday comes all the chores should be done and I can just hang out with my baby and Nessa. All good I tell you.

The downside though, I really miss the amount of time I had with my baby, and everyone else! Hubby has to go to bed pretty much right after he picks me up from work. Saturday and Sunday will become whirlwinds of activity I'm sure. He did the grocery shopping yesterday though so that's one time wasting task out of the way. I guess if we both do all our chores throughout the week we can just relax on the weekends.

I've been playing with the spindolyn and with a drop spindle that hubby had made me years ago. I think I'm sort of getting the hang of it. I hope so, cause I joined the Hello Yarn fiber club! Bahahahaha

Okay, I need to have some lunch and get some knitting done before work. See y'all soon. :)

Oh, one last plus to working nights, I didn't have to watch my Canucks get beaten like an old rug last night! Yikes.

Look! Look! Look!

I got my Spindolyn! I'm so excited. I also got an extra top bit?!?!?!?! for plying. Very excited. It's resting on my Poppy body. The colours aren't quite true there though, it's richer in person, more greeny/brown. I'm quite liking it. Patons SWS for the stripey bits and some Adriafil Valentino for the main body. I think that's what the Adriafil is called, Valentino, I'm afraid I don't have the ball band close at hand.

And now, some Sun Run pictures:

Masses of people

The obligatory pici of the drift of cups at a watering station

One of the bands along the route. Love men in kilts!

It's so cool to see these places that are normally full of traffic with only people. Most excellent!

Keep in mind, I did not get the best picture of the day. Picture it if you will, Sunday morning, about 9:20 am. 54,000 people along Georgia Street. My particular group of purple runners (not quite the slowest but pretty frickin' close) are all bunched up under the Four Seasons Hotel. A nice elderly couple on the 17 or 18th floor are waving at us, we're all waving back. THOUSANDS OF US, that part is important. Then, two floors up, chubby naked man throws open his curtains notices the THOUSANDS of people looking up at the building and almost frantically tries to throw himself back into his room. The whole purple section, all at once "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

It was brilliant. Of course, I didn't have my camera at the ready. Never fails, you always miss those perfect blogging opportunities.

More entries, and a linkfest

The Dulaan contest is getting exciting! Just look at this! Lucy over at Workbasket submitted 16 items. Whoot whoot! I am blown away.

Now go on over there and wish her a happy birthday. :)

And Beth, (who I believe is blogless, but if not, please speak up and let us come to your place!) made this gorgeous steppe sweater for Dulaan. I love the colours and it looks amazingly warm and comfy. I love it. Note to self, must make one of these sweaters.


It's always so exciting to see what other people are creating, especially for something as wonderful as Dulaan. Thanks guys, you rock!

Now, how many of you signed up for Sockapalooza 4 today? I can't wait to get my partner. I want to cast on right now. Sing out in comments if you're in on this. I would love to follow along with all of you on what socks you're making.

Okay, first game of the NHL playoffs tonight. My Canucks are playing the Stars, at home. And...it's Trevor Linden's birthday. Swoon. Everything send some good hockey juju for my boys. They so deserve a Stanley Cup.

The only problem I foresee, my gauge is completely screwy when I'm watching hockey, especially playoffs. Should make for an interesting Poppy.

Oh, before I forget, I also joined Hello Yarn's fibre club. 'Cause I ordered that Spindolyn. Oh crap, another obsessive hobby. Sigh.

How you doin'?

Happy Sunday all. It is raining here like maybe I should be building an ark. So wet, and all you can smell in the house is wet dog. Yummy. Here's a pici of the Glampyre sweater I told you about. A very quick knit. I'm going to do a picot turning round at the bottom of the body in the blue and the a turned hem on smaller needles. Should be good. I think the cuffs will be the same. This unspun Peruvian is so soft I just love knitting on this. I have two more bags in black so maybe a wee cardigan or something. I'm getting a lot of roll around the neckline so I think a round of single or reverse single crochet might be in order there.

On the Dulaan contest front, look at these adorable, (and perfectly matched) mitts that Pat made! I love them, and they look so warm. Her Swallowtail shawl is gorgeous too.

Don't forget, every item you make and send me a pici of or a link to a pici of, you get entered to win some yummy knitting swag! You have until the middle of April so there is plenty of time, but don't wait until the end to share your creations! We all want to see them! :) My email link is over there on the right.

That's about all I've got for now. The day will be spent knitting, doing laundry, and making some lentil soup to keep the cold and wet at bay! Keep dry and warm everyone.

Wow, is there a class for this?

Man, I have got to get better at taking picis of myself and others. Pictures of yarn and nonmoving objects, not so bad. Anything with a pulse, forget it.

There is the giggle and jiggle

The flashbulb in the mirror.

Tottally off centre

The one where I look like I have a stick up my butt.

The one where I have 7 chins and a weird facial expression.

'Nessa looks good though, such a pretty smile! Needless to say, these are my fruitless attempts so show you my new cardigan. It needs some form of closure in the V-neck area, I'm thinking a length of thin leather to tie if I want it to stay closed.

I really like the sweater, very comfy and the yarn is great after being machine washed and dried flat. Not sure I if I would use the dryer, maybe one day when I'm feeling brave.

In other much more productive notes, Ann is knitting like a mad woman. I think it is the new swift and the ballwinder driving her on. Take a look at this little sweater she made last week. So cute! I've made this pattern for a friend at work and it is a winner. Actually, the cardi above in the incredibly sad photos is from the same designer. I love her patterns. I'm lazy, I don't sew, what can I tell you.

I found a new home for the Denise needles set. Hi Darlene! They are heading east as we speak and I hope she will be very happy with them. I'm going to order my Knitpicks set this weekend and then stalk the mailman for a week or so. He likes that. I still have not found the box with the book prize, but I will, I promise. Some time this week.

I also finished a couple of Flap Caps this week during my odd moments of free time between work and home. One two strand model of sock yarn and DK weight wool like Pat did and one in Patons SWS.

I'm off to do some more work on my long in the works crocheted afghan. I think I should be able to finish it this weekend. Finally. It's only been ongoing for about two years. Sheesh!

OMG!

Holy crap! I'm spent. I just wrote up a pattern, got some webspace, uploaded the file, and now I'm here sharing it with you! Sweet right? I love technology when it works.

Okay, keep in mind, this is the first time I've ever written up a pattern so be kind but please let me know about any errors/omissions/glaring mistakes so that I can fix them.

Oh, and it's a .doc file. I don't have adobe, sorry!

In a Flap cap pattern.doc

In a Flap cap Pattern.pdf

ETA: Ginger wins as the smartest gal of the day! She totally hooked me up with a converter to flip from word to .pdf. Sweet! Huge kudos to Ginger! Oh, and go see what she bought at Madrona. Swoon.

What a week

Whew, am I ever glad it's Sunday. I'm hitting the couch with the knitting so hard today you may be able to see the rising dust cloud from where ever you happen to be!

Had the sedond interview on Friday and met the big mucky muck of the operation. It went well. I should hear about that early next week. There are some tremendously big rumblings at work though so we will have to see how all this shakes out over the next week. I need to make some lists and have some meetings. What is expected of me? What is my role? What can I expect from others? Blah blah blah. I'm too old for work drama. I think I might have like it when I was younger but not now. Home & family provide enough drama, work should not be competing for an Oscar on the drama front.

And poor hubby had a tooth extracted on Friday so he is just miserable and swollen and unhappy. I think he might be sick of Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli too! Bahahaha.

Cats were taken to vets for blood tests and urine tests. They too were very unhappy and very vocal about it.

Tammys were also taken to human vets for yearly checkups and medications fart arounds. I was equally unhappy but much less vocal.

I'm telling you, it's going to be a pretty quiet day at the old homestead. A little rest and recharge before we charge back into the fray tomorrow.

On the knitting front, I'm working on one of my big UFO's. A top down sweater from Knitting Pure and Simple. #241 to be exact. Love their designs. The first sweater I ever knit was from Knitting Pure & Simple. I ran into a little problem though. I was almost finished the first sleeve and tried it on to check the length. Ummm, yeah, the sleeve top was built for Popeye and the forearm was more for Kate Moss. Strangely, I'm somewhere in the middle on that one. So a ripping I did go. Had to frog the whole forearm and go up above the elbow and remove 3 sets of the decreases. Now I'm just going to knit it straight, more like a kimono sleeve.

Then the problem occurs. I don't have enough of this yarn to complete the project because of the wider sleeves. It was a "Oh I have just enough of this yarn in the stash that I bought at Elann 3 years ago!" moment. You know the ones, you've all had them too.

So, stuck between the rock that is the stash diet and the hard place that is the need to get more yarn to finish a year old UFO I hit ebay. Thankfully someone had 3 balls of the exact same dyelot. It was meant to be and I'm not counting it as a slip.

I'm still working on writing up the wee hat pattern. Man, that's work. It is so hard to try to make sure you cover all the questions/issues people will have.

The sock toes have been put on hold. I was really unhappy with the joins on the needles I was using and decided to bite the bullet and order some of the classic circulars from Knitpicks. I'm told the joins are smooth as silk. The website tells me they have been shipped so I should have them next week.

I think that's about all there is to tell from here at Chez Yarn & Dustbunny. Man, I hope that's all I've got. I'm a simple woman and this much stuff in a week is wearing me down. :) Y'all have a good Sunday. If I get the hat pattern done I'll post it up later today.

Oh, and just because it's more fun to have a post with a pici, here's a shot from a couple of summers ago. Stella used to be quite the yarn thief. If the basement door was open she was in there and stealing anything not in a rubbermaid tote. This is me trying to salvage a skeif of sock yarn from Lotusblossom. I eventually just gave up and replaced it, (thankfully she had dyed another lot in the same colour!) there were way too many breaks once Stell was done with it. Up to the left on the fence you can see another skein she got the same day. It too was a writeoff. Aren't dogs great?

The Rundown

Okay, we're gonna be brief because I still feel like a large bag o' poo. These are the beginnings of the first ever toe up socks I've ever made. You MUST go here and check out this technique! This is one of the smartest thing I've ever learned as a knitter. Wicked smart! If you scroll down there is a printer friendly version too. So now I have sock toes and I will make some feet, then I will search for the perfect heel technique.


No-Blog-Rachel is participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. This is a truly huge endeavor so please go over and see her page and help her on her journey if you can. She is going to walk 39 miles over two days. Amazing!

I've also been making these hats for Dulaan. Super easy, I've got half of the pattern written out so I will hopefully share that with y'all this week sometime.


The other big news is that on Friday when I was festering away on the couch the City called about a job. I showered and drugged myself up appropriately and headed out for an interview that afternoon. It went really well, at least it seemed to from my Dayquil addled state. They are calling people back for second interviews and will make their decision early next week. Please cross some fingers. The job sounds really interesting and actually somewhat fulfilling as I would be doing something that actually makes my community a better place.

In knitting news, I actually knit a fair bit this week. I'm almost finished the body of my Knitting Pure & Simple cardi. I'm going to work on the sleeves today to make sure they are done before I finish out the rest of the body. I always worry about coming up short in the yarn department. And, better yet, this has been on the needles for almost a year and the yarn was in the stash for more than a year before that. Sweetness in the stashbusting department.

Okay, I need to get back to depleting the worlds supply of tissues and lozenges. Have a lovely Sunday everyone.