Really Old Stuff

I'm currently in Bloomington, Indiana. Here's some stuff I should have blogged about *before* the Flin Flon trip.

Here's a photo of my KnitPicks order, or, at least, the stuff for me:

Thanks Sue! (About half of that is what I used my gift certificate on. I'm going to e-mail you a thank-you, but my book with your address is out in the car, and my e-mail program doesn't seem to be bringing up your e-mail address.)

Speaking of people I need to e-mail, Zoe, I'll be sending one to your mom too. (Same e-mail issue.) I'd be happy to make you a pair of socks. I'll e-mail details.

Back to more old stuff... I got some hand-me-down knitting stuff from H's mom. Lookie:

Here's what's in the needle case:

And a close-up of the neat needle gauge:

I think that needle gauge will make a neat Christmas tree ornament. (I think the sizes are British.)

Also in the old stuff category, H and I showed J the display in the Geology building at the U of M:

Aren't the trilobites cute?

Sock WIP

Sock WIP

These have been going slowly... that sock yarn blanket keeps calling me!

I got the black to match up on one side of the heel, but not the other. I'll have to fiddle with the second sock, but don't feel like ripping back this one.

These are fun!

Is it the socks, or the yarn?

Sock Yarn Blanket WIP

Sock Yarn is addicting in all forms, as it turns out. Here's the start of my miter-square blanket.

Pre-Updates

I'm no longer at the lake, and now have internet access. However, I have tons to blog about. Somehow I doubt I'll make a dent in the list tonight. So, expect dribs and drabs when I'm able to post, and hello again!

Right now I'm in a motel in Fargo, which has internet, but for some reason my gmail account doesn't like it. (I was able to convince it to let me in on a browser, but Mail can't download anything.) Tomorrow night I'll be in Indiana. The night after that I'll be in Philly. The night after that, New York. (Can you tell J is behind the wheel again? ;) )

La, la, la... okay, now to start posting the fun stuff!

In non-me news (and thus unlikely to get a separate post), a friend (and former roommate) of mine is expecting!!! Woo-hoo! Hmmm... what to knit.... I'll have some time to decide, as she isn't due until March.

PS

Mini holds everything. (I was in the shower, and so didn't get a before shot.)

On Vacation

I'm off for vacation, and will be without internet for a bit over a week. Sorry to those of you I owe e-mails... hopefully I'll get them to you late on the 30th. (When I'll be in a hotel with internet.) Have fun!!!

Project Planning

Starting this weekend I'll be travelling again. First up to the cabin near Flin Flon, then New York (via Indiana and Philadelphia), Montreal, Kingston (for CCCG), southern Ontario, Montreal, New York... then the plans get vague. (At some point I'll end up back in Winnipeg, but not for quite a while.)

Obviously I need to pack knit and crochet projects. (Think of all that car & conference time!)

We will be travelling by Mini, and I will need everything for the lake, a conference, a wedding, work, and who knows what else. J also has stuff in the Mini, and will also be moving some belongings from Montreal to New York. I'm guessing space will be at a premium.

I'm thinking I'll be limiting myself to sock yarn, and not much else: packs small, and high stitches to volume ratio.

In case I run out, what are your favourite yarn stores in Montreal and New York? (I've already been to Purl in New York, and am thinking of visiting School Products on an upcoming visit, but it's good to have a list of suggestions.)

So, socks are on the menu. But variety is also good. And what to do with those little balls of leftover sock yarn? Well, the other day I was catching up with my Yarn Harlot blog reading, and found this post. Perfect! A mitered square blanket made out of sock yarn leftovers! I left a comment at Shelly's blog, asking if she was interested in trading half of each of my balls for some of the yarn she's getting in (the Yarn Harlot put out a call to bury her house in sock yarn leftovers... you *know* she'll be getting tons!), and here's the response I got:

Hi, I'm really excited that you want to make a blanket. Why don't you just keep every single drop of yarn that you have, and I'll send you some of what I get. It's going to be a ton and a half. I'm going to wait about a month till I've received the bulk of what's coming so people can see the giant pile, then start sending it out. My other motivation here is that I've got my hands full dealing with incoming, and don't have time to deal with outgoing at the moment. I'm going to give preferential treatment to people who have already started the project and/or are willing to post pictures either on their blog or maybe in a flickr group. I want all the people who sent me yarn to really feel like their cast offs are being put to good use.

Cool! Not only will I have a way to rampage through my stash of leftover balls, but I'll get more leftovers! (I had sort of been toying with a similar idea for a while, but had been putting it off due to the fact that I had nowhere near enough.)

I'll likely break the blanket up into, say, 12" clusters, then sew those together at the end. That way I don't have to lug a whole blanket around a conference. ;)

Beginnings of Man Socks

Beginnings of Man Socks

Summer of Socks pair #4. For J.

Lebanon

J's student has safely made it out of Lebanon. She was able to fix her plane tickets so that she'll be safely back in Canada before her paperwork expires. She caught a cab (or something) to Syria... and the road was bombed five minutes *after* she was on it. We're both glad and relieved that she'll be home soon.

(In other news, blogger's being a poopy-head this morning... but that's so minor compared to what J's student has been dealing with!)

Sunshine Socks

Crochet Socks

These remind me of sunshine, blue skies, and, as Heather pointed out, bachelor buttons (the flower). :) This pair doesn't qualify for Summer of Socks, because I started them before the official start of the knit-along.

I did some unpacking last night, and so managed to have both these and the yarn needed to finish them accessible.

My next pair of socks will be for J, using the leftovers and the extra ball of blue variegated yarn I bought. :)

I'm wearing the Regia Surf socks I finished last night. Mmmmmm.

In other news, I saw a burning warehouse on the way to school. Flames were shooting out of the upper windows, firemen were spraying water, and black smoke drifted up to the sky. I only rubbernecked briefly from the bridge, well away from the blaze, while J was driving.

Lunch Bag

Lunch Bag

I still haven't started the lining, but here's the bag with the lining I intend to use. I happened to have them both out last night, so decided to take a photo.

Crochet Socks

Crochet Socks

Summer of socks pair #3, for me. Same pattern as always... there's a link to a somewhat outdated version in my sidebar. (I need to add the additional changes I made... basically some increases and decreases to make them fit better.)

You Should Be Jealous

I'm sorry to brag, but I've got the best boyfriend. He is kind and gorgeous and wonderful, and tonight he cooked yet another fabulous meal, this time with appetizers too. We started off with some fresh mozzarella wrapped with prosciutto, then some fresh mozza with roasted red peppers (yes he roasted the red peppers himself). Dinner was pasta with more roasted red peppers, roasted garlic (again roasted by J), artichoke hearts, fresh mozza, anchovies, capers... mmmm.

Mmmmmmm!!!!

Sorry... I'll stop bragging now... at least for this post. ;)

Agony of Defeat

There seems to be a foot curse going around here. I was the first to succumb.

I'm not sure what happened, but the's a spot on the bottom of my foot that feels bruised. I first noticed it yesterday in the change room after our run. By the end of the day I was limping like a major gimp. I'm guessing I must have pulled something when I slipped and nearly fell in the changeroom after my shower.

J was second. He managed to get a small gash on the bottom of his foot while walking around the house barefoot.

Mom was third. She got a sliver from the deck last night, but I couldn't find it because her feet were a bit dirty from walking around barefoot. She thought maybe it wasn't there. This morning, after her shower but before mine, I got to dig out two slivers. Whee.

I hope no one else catches this curse!

Silly Loophole

J and I are heading to the lake this weekend. I don't have my boating licence yet. (They brought in this regulation while I was down in the US, and I haven't gotten around to getting one yet.) My family's cabin can only be reached by boat. We're heading up two days before my mom and B. It turns out there's a loophole:

Q. What if I don’t live in Canada, but boat there?
A. Non-residents only need to obtain a Pleasure Craft Operator Card to operate a powered watercraft if any of the following conditions apply to them:

• They are in Canada for more than 45 consecutive days
• They own property in Canada
• They have a watercraft that is registered in Canada
• They have a foreign registered watercraft that is left in Canada for more than 45 consecutive days

However, if a non-resident has a safe boating certificate or equivalent from their country of residence, then this certificate will act as proof of competency, and may be used instead of the PCOC card.

Thus, J can drive the boat without a licence. :P

H's socks as inspected by her cats

Zoe admires the socks.

Lady is amazed by the socks.

Vale approves the socks.

A Penguin For J

A Penguin For J

Made from leftover Weasley yarn.

Fulled Bag

Fulled Bag

Here's the bag post-fulling. Now I need to add a lining and some closures. Buttons, or magnetic snaps? I'm thinking magnetic snaps. I'll decide after I have the lining sewn in.

This bag is nice and roomy for using tupperware containers. :)

Tired.

I cooked my pizza for dinner for everyone tonight. It turned out good, and everyone liked it. (Except mom wasn't happy with the rice bread she had to use, but that was out of my control.) I'm happy.

Making dinner really wears me out for some reason. I'm taking the rest of the night off. Except for laundry... it turns out all the loads I did earlier were with a low water setting. I noticed when I went to fold stuff, and there was a large amount of soap on my orange shorts. :P Everything is getting an additional rinse and dry.

I'm knitting penguin again tonight.

The lunch bag is done and blocking... I'll post a photo when I have more energy.

Before dinner we went out to buy a new printer ink cartridge. On the way back we stopped back at the 7-11 that I remembered as having the best selection. It turns out it only had *8* flavours. I guess I remembered wrong, or things have changed. I had an orange and banana slurpee. (Orange on the bottom with a bit of banana on top... I hadn't ever tried the banana ones before, so I was curious.)

Miscellany

Hmmm... where was I? I last blogged on Thursday, I think.

Update on J's student: her, her mom, and two other people J know have made it safely out of Beirut. They're still in Lebanon, but in a safer location.

Friday J and I stayed home to work, since H's kid wasn't feeling well. (Hmmm... I have signs of an impending cold too... I evicted a few green nose goblins this morning.) I did get some work done, but not a lot. I had some *niiiiiiice* naps. ;) After lunch J and I walked over to the post office to pick up my KnitPicks package. (I forgot to photograph that and the sock yarn that arrived Thursday... and now I'm too lazy to unpack them to show you. Sorry.) On the way over we stopped in to look at the fish and coral at The Saltwater Connection. Clownfish are *so* fun!

I couldn't get a very good shot, because I didn't want to startle them with a flash.

We also got slurpees while we were out. My orange slurpee with a yellow straw happened to match what I was wearing:

This 7-11 has a medium selection... not huge, but better than some places. (J counted 10 flavours.) J was amazed that they had changed some of the flavours since the last time we were in.

I finished up a bag last night so that I could full it with the laundry today:

It's going to be an insulated lunch bag (yay felted wool!), and is based on the Sophie Bag pattern.

Here's where I am with my current socks in progress:

These are for myself. :) They're cotton Regia Surf, and will be pair #3 for Summer of Socks.

In other mail, I got a little package with a note and postcard for participating in a naming contest:

The leaf is one I made out of the leftovers from the lunch bag. I was going to use it to decorate the lunch bag, but it's pretty small. I'll find something to do with it, though. (I couldn't be bothered to take a separate photo of it.)

Today we're doing laundry. We had a nice lazy morning... we slept late, had breakfast, read some news, then had a nap. ;) Last night I got a bit of unpacking done, and I hope to get more done today. Beyond that, we don't really have plans. ...Oh... but I think I'll go visit my dad's raspberry bushes... they're overloaded right now! Yum!!!

Lebanon

We heard from J's student around an hour ago. They're bombing the neighbourhood that she lives in. Her family has an offer to go stay with someone else, but right now it's not safe to travel.

Found on Flickr

the completed case

Ooooo.... neat!

Catching Up

Yup, I'm still being a bad blogger. Life is too much fun lately, and I've been getting work done too. (Both are good things for me, but bad for the blog!)

Okie doke... here's what's been happening lately.

Sunday mom, B, J, and I biked over to BDI (the Bridge Drive-In, a local landmark-type place) for some ice cream. It took us almost an hour to bike there, but we weren't riding terribly hard. I had a hot fudge sundae... mmmmm....

On the way back we stopped in at the Forks, a local-touristy style place where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet. We wandered around the shops, then continued home. While at the Forks we also saw a bunch of old cars, including some original minis:


Monday after work we spent a bunch of time searching for reasonably priced basil for pesto for dinner... everywhere we tried was either out, closed, or expensive. I ended up cooking for J instead of him cooking for me. I used a stir-fry recipe a friend from Taiwan taught me several years ago. I find her write-up of the recipe amusing:

Luckily I remembered well enough that what resulted was quite tasty. ;) (I should probably write a better description of the whole process down at some point.)

Tuesday mom found decently-priced basil, so we had pasta with pesto sauce that night.

Wednesday J and I stayed home from university, since I had a doctor appointment in the middle of the day in the opposite end of the city. I just needed to get a bunch of prescriptions refilled.

In the evening we went to McNally Robinson, and J bought a really amazing Italian cookbook, The Silver Spoon. It's apparently been a bestseller in Italy for over 50 years, and was only translated into English recently. It looks *really* good. (We'll be cooking a recipe from it tonight. Well, J will... I'll be sous-chef again, if anything.)

After McNally Robinson, J and I went to J's friend's house for dinner. Dinner was *great*. Mmmmm! J had even told them about my allergy webpage, so I could even eat everything. ;) We also got to swim in their pool. I discovered two things last night:
1. fresh, ripe pinapple is *delicious*!
2. I'm allergic to fresh, ripe pinapple.
(However my allergy only manifested in a burning tongue, so I ate lots anyway.)

This morning we're finally getting some rain. It's been so hot and dry, we really need it. However, it's a fairly light rain, so it probably won't help out the farmers and forest fires all that much. But then, there's also no lightning to start new fires, and it looks to be hanging around for a while... so maybe it'll be good enough.

One of J's students went home for a visit recently after being away for a long time. She's from Lebanon. Lebanon and Israel just started fighting again. We hope she'll be okay, and will be able to get back. (They've bombed the airport runways, and she needs new paperwork... if the embassies close, she'll have more trouble.)

I've started the second sock of the pair I'm currently working on. They're fun looking! (No time to take and post a photo now... I'm off to lift weights again.)

This morning I noticed my pajamas weren't as snug, and the scale said I weighed a pound less. Since Aunt Flo is also visiting right now, I'm thinking that must be some real weight lost. :) (I'm probably holding some water.) Yay! I'll weigh myself again later this week, to see if the scale still says the same thing.

Well, I'm off to lift weights.

Crochet Socks

Crochet Socks

Another pair done. I finished these a few days ago, and am now halfway through my next sock.

I have some photos from Sunday that I'll blog about soon...

Today

This morning J got settled in. I even gave him his own flat surface. (Okay, the picture and chocolates are mine, but I've offered to move them if he wants.)

Then we washed Mini:

J said, "isn't this where you lie across the hood?"

To be fair, I got one of him too:


I like this photo of J:

(He's *mine*, ladies!)

After a nice nap and some lunch, we went out for a romantic stroll through the cemetary:

(J's caption: We contemplated our future together.)

Since Winnipeg is the Slurpee capitol of the world, and it was hot...

Aren't his eyes gorgeous? Here's a close-up:

(Again, I've called "dibs".)

Tonight we watched "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" that H loaned me. Great movie! (May contain nuts.)

Wishing you had a happy day too!

Sock Update

M's socks are nearly done. I'd post a photo, but since they're so close, I'll wait until they're done.

Recent Excitement

I've been a bad blogger lately, not posting about all the fun stuff going on.

First up, happy feet are here to visit:


Someone in the next neighbourhood over appears to have a bit of a directional problem:

(Embiggen to see missing chunk of house, and tire tracks leading to the flattened shrubbery.)

I've got mail! From Straying Power I got an awesome needle roll with some fun pins:


(This is in return for the stitch marker thingies I sent her.)

And from Big Girl Feet I got this awesome card and goodies:


Lucky me!

On the downer side, it cost me $10 to send "Microwave Magic Poultry" to Regina. :P (That was one nice thing about the US... really cheap postage.)

Also, I'm facing up to the fact that I need to cut back on my bloglines subscriptions again. :( (My apologies to those I cut.)

Temari Balls

Temari Balls

These are temari balls. I learned how to make them when I was out at UBC, because a friend there wanted to learn, and was having trouble learning from a book.

I had previously finished the one on the upper left, but the rest were in intermediate stages, sitting in a plastic bag on my bookshelf. Since I'm dealing with stuff on my bookshelf, I decided to finish them off so I could put them "away away", rather than "ufo away." Last night I finished up the two on the right (the top right only needed a few more rounds, and the bottom right was about halfway done). The bottom left one needs a few more leaves.

I have two more, one that is still in "sock" stage, and one that is in "yarn wrapped sock" stage. I might take the "yarn wrapped sock" one to completion, but the one that's simply a rolled sock I'll probably toss.

When these are finished, I'll be adding them to my Christmas ornament collection. They're meant to be children's balls, but I don't want to see them get ratty. I don't need more "everyday decorations" collecting dust, and I think they'll be pretty on a tree.

Miscellany

Ow... I have bicycle butt. :P

I had a *very* strange dream last night. Science fiction strange. I can't remember enough details to explain it in a way that makes sense, but it definitely had a plot.

Happy Fourth

Happy 4th of July to all y'all folks south of the border. ;)

Riding Down Memory Lane

"Turn off your TV. Think for yourself."

Today mom, Bob and I rode our bikes down to the Forks and the Manitoba Legislature and back.

(Mom and Bob had helmet too, but had taken them off for our rest stop.)

At the Leg (pronounced "ledge"), there was an art show featuring northern and rural Manitoba artists, so we went in and browsed. Here's some of my favourites:





After looking at all the art, we noticed that a free tour of the Leg was about to start, so we joined. Here's a photo of the room where stuff happens:

I found it interesting that among the other art, there was a sculpture of Moses with the Ten Commandments. That would be a big no-no in the USA... although the Christians would love it.


On our way back along the riverwalk, I got a real blast from the past... Justin, who I went to grade school with. He recognized me right away, but I didn't recognize him until he took off his sunglasses. (Even then it took me a second... I'm slow, I guess, and he's changed some.) It's strange seeing people from grade school, now that they're no longer in grade school, and have families and real jobs and stuff like that. (Well, the others do... still working at getting out of school...) Somehow I remember them how they were, and forget just how many years have passed.

After lunch I had a nap... biking in the morning really wore me out!

(aside: it's really getting late, so here's the rest of this post in short form.)

After nap, did some gardening, including the remaining planting:

and massacring pruning a shrub:


More on these tomorrow: