Weather

This is why I decided not to do any gardening this weekend.

The sun did start to peek out late on Sunday... just in time for the weekend to be over. :P

Finished Mittens

Thoroughly awesome. :)


Okay... enough of this winter-wear nonsense, time for a tank top or two! I'm going to ignore the WIPs on my coffee table, and start something completely new! I bought the yarn and pattern for Flow a while ago, and it's time to justify that purchase. :)

(In other news, I think it was a library book that was causing a lot of my earlier misery. I picked it up again after dinner, and have been a snot-factory ever since. *sigh* Time for the neti pot again...)

*sniffle*

I have apparently angered the dust gods (yes, plural... they are numerous in my apartment) by disturbing their resting places. The antihistamine I took this morning is not sufficient to beat back their attack. I have countered with a Decongestant, Washing Hands, and Rinsing Face. Still they were victorious. Finally, I have resorted to the Ritual of the Neti Pot. I think I may be regaining ground...

Chart Magnet costs

Ah ha! I found the receipt for the ribbon. :) (The wind had blown it off my messy desk to a spot between some boxes that I really need to unpack and find permanent "away" spaces for.)

1 spool of ribbon = $3.50 + 12% tax, makes 3 chart magnets
1 strip of magnet = $1 (I think it's $1, and not something that Dollarama increased prices on) + 12% tax, makes 1.5 chart magnets

So, material cost for a single chart magnet (not counting thread, electricity, or miscellaneous) is $2.05. Now I just need to time myself so I can add minimum wage to get the wholesale cost, and then double the wholesale cost to get retail. Whee. (Assuming anyone wants to buy them, of course.)

If I do sell them on commission, I may need to increase the cost a bit to take into account the high (per item) material cost... with the stitch markers, the material cost is quite low (the time is the most significant portion of the cost), and so it doesn't take many sales to cover my initial investment (not counting time). To cover the materials cost for the chart magnets will take quite a few more sales... and I'd rather not *lose* money! ;)

Clouds

Clouds

Wowzers, has it ever been crazy-stormy all day. The storms are moving *quickly*, too... so one moment it's dry, the next moment it's RAINING... and a few moment's later the rain is gone.

I took the photo during one of the not-raining times. There have been some pretty neat clouds today. Lots of lightning, too. (It blipped my cable-box, so now the online guide doesn't know what's on. It has to re-download the schedule. My laptop is spending lots of time unplugged.)

The humidity decided the AC question for me... I was drippy when I came back from the LYS, so I turned them on. (I *hate* being drippy.)

Stitch Markers, Chart Magnet

Stitch Markers, Chart Magnet

My stitch markers are now for sale at Where The Wool Things Are on Albert Street... so go buy some, and support the new yarn store! (And me! Support me too! ;) )

PS: If you're interested in the chart magnet, be sure to let her know. Mine are sewn (not just sticky-taped like a lot of others are), and durable.

Forecast

Stormy with a chance of sniffles. Oak is back on the radar (at low), and Cladosporium is high. I'm stuffy. To AC or not to AC, that is the question.

Low Tide Invitation

Low Tide Invitation

If I were in Vancouver, I would *love* to go to this show! (To see the details about the show in text, click through to the flickr page, or go to Kirsten's blog post.) I have been admiring her art on flickr for quite a while now. (If anyone does go see it in person, let me know what you think!)

Dream

Last night I dreamed that I finished knitting a lace shawl (stole?) for myself. It was quite large, and although it was lacy, it nicely kept the office AC off my shoulders. I decided I was now a lace-shawl person, and should start knitting them more often. I should also start wearing clothes that look good with lace shawls.

The funny thing is, I've never knit a lace shawl for myself, and knitting lace drives me batty. However, the dream was so real, I still feel slightly confused that I don't have that shawl/stole. (Is it actually a stole if it's rectangular? The one in my dream was rectangular, although I thought of it as a shawl.)

I think I was also taller and thinner in my dream. Perhaps I was having someone else's dream?

In slightly related news, the AC exchange at Canadian Tire went incredibly smoothly, and I now have a working AC in my kitchen. :) (Yes, I know the temperature has dropped considerably. Sorry.)

Weather

Hmmm... oak seems to have dropped off the pollen chart, and everything else is low. It's a nice temperature out... looks like it's safe (for now) to go back to opening up the windows. (Yay!) Of course, starting tomorrow, they're forecasting rain. (Close windows.)

Upsetting.

One of my many allergies is to perfume. I can't control that.

People wear perfumes, either due to direct application, or through use of scented products. They can control that, but aren't aware of problems that they may be causing others, and so don't. I don't blame them for that.

I take public transit, because it is cheaper (sort of) and more environmentally responsible. Plus, it allows me to spend my time on other things than focusing on driving. However, that often puts me in contact with people who are wearing scents (or are smokers, or smell of stale beer and urine, but I'll leave those for a different discussion). If I'm sitting on the window side of the seat, I can't control who sits next to me, and getting up and moving is difficult an obvious. Asking someone to move often results in their feelings being hurt. (They get offended that I'm allergic to something that they did, in their opinion, to make themselves nice.) Plus, that just results in a seat beside me being open, which might end up occupied by someone else wearing perfume. So, instead, I open the window a crack, and that usually provides enough airflow to direct the perfume elsewhere.

That's what I did today. After a while, the gentleman in front of me closed the window. He was sitting in front of the opening, and I needed it open, so I opened it back up. He said the window was rattling in his ear, and I responded that I needed it open because of my allergies, and the person sitting next to me was wearing perfume. He then jokingly asked if I had a water bottle, and said I should splash them. (I said I wouldn't do that!) The person next to me then said "I'm right here". I told her that I'm allergic to perfume, and needed the window open.

A while later, a seat across the isle became completely free, and she moved over there.

Honestly, I didn't mean to offend her! Sheesh. Now I'm upset that she got huffy.

If you had allergies, what would you do? If you don't have allergies and wear perfume, what do you think about people who are allergic? (Although, if you're one of those people who don't believe allergies exist... frankly, I'd rather not hear from you. I know I won't convince you otherwise, and the whole exchange will just get me more frustrated.)

My Caretaker *OWES* Me.

Well, today didn't go exactly as planned. (But then, when does it ever?)

I slept late, had a leisurely wake-up, started my bread baking, then washed dishes. I had left my shower until later, because I wanted to get the dishes washed before the kitchen heated up, and I tend to get sweaty washing dishes anyway... I figured it would be nice to have a shower afterwards, and possibly after doing some gardening.

After washing dishes, I cooked some soba noodles to have with the leftover dipping sauce in the fridge. While the noodles were cooling, I started prepping the kitchen drawer that needed re-lining, because the original didn't stick. I peeled off the old lining, gave it a light sanding in most places... but the grime was too thick for the sandpaper in some places. So I used my window-scraper on those places, and then sanded some more. Finally, I wiped the drawer down with a damp cloth.

While the drawer was drying (and the bread that had finished baking was cooling), I got out my soba noodles and dipping sauce. Just as I put the first bunch of noodles in the dipping sauce, but before I had a chance to eat any, my doorbell rang. It was my caretaker, and he had splashed some oven cleaner in his eye. He had already rinsed his eye, but it was still stinging, so he wanted to know what he should do.

I followed him down to his apartment to read the bottle, which said to rinse the eye for 15 minutes, and consult a physician if that didn't work. So I phoned Health Links to talk to a nurse. After giving a bunch of information about myself and my caretaker, she asked me a bunch of questions which I then asked him (he's hard of hearing). The conclusion was that I (well, someone) should take him to emergency.

I asked him if the C's could drive him, but apparently they were on one of their drinking binges. So I called my mom and asked if I could borrow the car. *sigh* I ran upstairs and put on my shorts with my wallet, etc, put the (uneaten) noodles and sauce in the fridge, and thought longingly of a shower as I put a hat on my grubby hair.

About four and a half hours later we finally got to see the doctor. (He was a rather cute doctor, but I know they can't date patients... even though *I* wasn't the patient... and I felt that my unshowered state wasn't an ideal condition for flirting.) My caretaker had indeed rinsed all the cleaner out, but was given some drops to prevent infection.

As a perfect end to a five-hour not-my-emergency ordeal, I got rained on after dropping off my parent's car at their house. (They offered to loan me an umbrella, but I declined: being rained on suited my mood, and nothing I had on me would be harmed by the amount of rain I'd receive between their place and mine.)

To unwind, I showered, ate my well-chilled soba noodles, and watched the episode of Antiques Roadshow I had happened to put on to tape.

Things I didn't do today:
• gardening
• make hummus for lunch
• finish lining the kitchen drawer
• finish lining the dresser drawer that I had started before, but ran out of liner half way through
• make something for the art club potluck that is tomorrow
• cut my hair
(I had way more planned, but the above was probably what was mostly achievable.)

It's my fault.

I finished a pair of thrummed mittens, and the temperature soared. I bought two ACs, and the temperatures dropped. I said I would garden later today, and a few minutes later, I hear the pitter-patter of raindrops on the window. Sorry. If I could control my "Murphy's Laws" effect on the weather, I would. Honest.

Green Growing Things

Wow... that little sprout on the left wasn't there yesterday:

My grandma gave me two aloe vera shoots about a month ago. At first, I thought perhaps they didn't like me, because they were a funny colour. I think perhaps they got a bit of a sunburn. (That seems to be an oxymoron, aloe with a sunburn.) However, I think they're *quite* happy now, with the way new shoots are popping up. (I've counted four new shoots, although only three are visible in the photo.)

Speaking of "not like it was yesterday"... I think I let these guys dry out a bit too much:

Whoopsie. Uh... "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger?" I've been meaning to mound up the poppies anyway, so I did that and watered them too:

I'll see what survives, and then thin the rest.

Awww, my babies are growing up! My window chard is getting adult leaves:

There's still not enough for a snack, but we're making progress.

I really should be outside, digging in the dirt, but I forgot to make my bread last night until too late, and so it's baking now. I don't really want to start gardening until it's done, because otherwise I'll forget about it. I also want to get the last of the dishes done before the kitchen heats up too much. (The kitchen AC is a dud, and the bedroom AC is a looooong way away.) Yes, it's not that hot out, but it's sneezy out. I was confused, since the elms and maples are already going to seed, but mom mentioned seeing something on the pollen forecast. I checked last night, and yep, oak is at a "moderate" pollen level. Birch and alder are low, as is grass. "Cladosporium" is moderate. Hopefully the tree (and grass and mold) sex will subside soon. Today oak has switched to "low", although it's only just under the line, so no significant change. Well, I'll see where I'm at after the bread is done, and perhaps I'll be able to get out for a bit then.

Weather

Yesterday I bought and installed two shiny, new air conditioners: a Noma 5250 BTU for the kitchen, and a Danby 8000 BTU for the bedroom. The old 8000 will go in the livingroom once I clean the gunk out of it.

The new ACs caused the heat wave to go away. However, last night there was still enough residual heat in the building that I had to run the bedroom one most of the night anyway. (Turning them off and opening the windows resulted in the temperature going *up*, even though it was cooler outside than inside. I blame the non-existent breeze, and brick-heat-reservoir.)

Today it's quite nice outside, and there's actually a breeze, so I went the open-window route. However, I've been sneezing ever since. So I closed the windows and turned on the AC. *sigh* (I took my last antihistamine this morning until I go grocery shopping again, so I don't want to aggravate my allergies *too* much.)

The Danby isn't super quiet, but it's livable, and is at least more "white noise" than traffic noise. The Noma is quieter, but was struggling last night... I'm not sure if it had iced up, didn't like the outside temperature, or if something else was the problem. We'll see. At least I was able to wash dishes last night. (The start of them, at least... I have two week's worth to work through!)

Blog Commentary

I just went through my bloglines subscriptions and cleared out a bunch of defunct blogs. I discovered a few that still existed, but whose feeds had changed. It was surprising just how many knit and crochet blogs died in 2008. (What a strange coincidence. What happened in 2008?)

On a related note, if your blogger blog comment form looks something like this:

I can't seem to comment. Sorry. I know of at least a couple that I've wanted to comment at, but it doesn't seem to work. I've tried a few things, but the comments never show. (I've even tried leaving comments like "can you let me know if this works" in the hopes that perhaps it's just a refresh/moderation thing.) So... if you use this comment form, and are wondering why you aren't hearing from me, that's why. If anyone can tell me what's going wrong, I'd appreciate that. (I assume it's me, since I've seen other comments at those blogs.)

Thrumming Along...

Turns out that pretty much any knitting project, if you work on it, you make respectable progress:

(Hee! Do you like what I did on the palm?) I really like how this pair is turning out. :)

How does my garden grow?

Splendidly. :)

It's cute how the "little blue" peppers have purple stems:

My Swiss chard is getting bigger, but is nowhere near snacking size yet:

(Not a good sign: I mistyped "Swiss" as "swill".)

FO and a new WIP

Observation: birthday presents get knit faster if you actually knit on them:

Pattern printed and yarn purchased: Late December or early January.
Birthday in question: Early April.
Started knitting: Last week.
Finished knitting: Last night.
Location of the recipient: Elsewhere for the summer.

Oh well... he won't need it until next fall/winter anyway. It fits me fine, so I suspect it will fit him.

I seem to be back to thrummed mittens again:

They're a bit of a nuisance to knit, but oh-so-nice to wear. Plus, the materials and pattern were on my coffee table, and I'm trying to clear up my coffee table. (There are a lot of projects on my coffee table, but these were in the highest strata.)

If anyone is wondering why we're having a heat wave, it's my fault... nothing like finishing thrummed mittens and toques to raise the temperature! ;)

I've been holding out on you

I went to post some knitting photos, and noticed I had some more seedling photos from last week that I hadn't posted yet!

Instead of a fan, I opened the window the other day to help strengthen the seedlings:

No, I don't have these in the sunniest window... but they're on the same side of the building that they'll mostly end up on. Plus, being in the kitchen, they get watered more regularly. ;) (Speaking of which, I think I need to water them again when I get home tonight.)

Problem: The window the seedlings are in front of is the one I put my AC in, and so there's no screen. The day this photo was taken, I ended up with a *big* wasp in my kitchen. Luckily I got it outside without being stung!

Observation:

Calendula roots have no trouble growing through egg cartons. :)

I don't think I mentioned my window-chard either:

Goal: eat healthier.
Hypothesis: Vegetables don't go nasty as fast if they're alive.
Observation: Swiss chard has funny shaped seeds, and multiple seedlings grow from each seed.

I noticed this morning that my peppers are popping up, but didn't take a new photo. Sorry! I'll try to rectify that tonight or tomorrow. (Since I know you're all dying to know how my seedlings are doing! ;) )

Sleep

Finished marking at 7, was in bed at 7:30, and got to sleep until 11... when it was time to get up for my afternoon job. I've decided not to go to the art club tonight. Not sure if I'll veg when I get home, or attempt to wash some of the dishes that piled up during the final marking scramble. About the only thing I can have for dinner that doesn't require dishes to be washed is frozen pizza... but the weather (and thus apartment) is hot enough that I'm not sure I want to turn the oven on. I'll see what I feel like tonight.

Well, time to sign up for paper reviewing... one job done, the next just begun. *sigh*

Ow.

My neck is killing me. I want sleep too. *whine*

Dawn

Observation: The birds start singing, and the sky starts getting lighter at 5 am. Note: it is in no way light yet, but there's a different quality to the darkness... it's more blue.

Yeah... still marking. :P

Dear Old Dad

Phone rings.
Dad: Is the memory card empty?
Me: No idea. Turn it on and check.
Dad: Okay.

Phone rings.
Dad: The icon says recording time XXX, battery life YYY.
Me: I *think* the camera can record for ZZZ, but I'm not sure. The manual should be in the case.
Dad: I'll try putting the card in the computer and see what it says.
Me: Sounds good.

Theoretical computer scientist == tech support???

At least he doesn't ask me to google for him any more.

Update: The camera is now over at my place to have any movies taken off. How to your parents (mis)interpret your education?

*wah*

*whimper*... my body is complaining about not getting enough sleep. :( It's got that wired-overtired feel. Blargh.

Sunrise

Wow, night really changes to day quickly in the morning. (Good night, I'm going to bed now, to punctuate yesterday from today.)

I made good progress with the marking. Not enough, but I'm picking up speed. (This assignment is also easier to mark than the last one.)

Coping

To combat my rough day, I prescribed chocolate, mind-numbing TV, and knitting.


Two rows of the Divine orange milk chocolate, two thirds (so far) of the Cocoa Camino caramel crunch, and one square of the Denman Island holy mole (fiery!).

TV: CSI NY, Criminal Minds, and Bones (taped, I didn't get home until after 8:30). I also caught the first half of The Daily Show before I turned the TV off.

Knitting: I finished the tip of the thumb on the thrummed mittens I'm making for a neighbour-friend... she saw mine just before Christmas.

Awesome timing, I know. She's old, but in good health. Hopefully she'll get several seasons of wearing out of these.

After weaving in the last two ends on the mittens, I started the toque I'm making for my brother as a birthday present:

It's Trilobite, from Knitty. I bought the yarn in December or January. His birthday was in early April. Awesome timing with this too, huh? At least I'll be able to slip the ribbing onto a circular needle cable, so he can test the size before he heads off to California for the summer.

Oh... and while waiting for the bus on my way home, I wove in the last end of the sweater I've been working on for ages. I present two bad timer photos, without and with flash:

Perhaps I'll find someone to point my camera at me tomorrow in better light.

Now the question is, do I go for eight hours of sleep, or an all-night marking session? (If someone has a spare time-turner they can loan me, I'd love to do both.) Late night marking doesn't produce good progress (ask me how I know), but it's half the problem that's making me feel like crap. (The other half is the reviews that just came back from the fall course.)

On the up-side for today: I helped two students with their problems, and they were both appreciative, and think I'm awesome. (Too bad that's a half-time, temporary, dead-end job.)

I'm Having A Rough Day...

Rough Day

...so I picked up a pick-me-up along with the organic garlic I was out of.

Miscellany

The calendula had me rather worried when several days had passed and only one of the five had sprouted, but a second sprouted yesterday, and another this morning. *phew*

The dianthus started popping up yesterday or the day before too. :)

I just discovered something really cool... McNally Robinson books are much cheaper online (I suspect to compete with Amazon), and if you choose to pick up the book in-store, there's no shipping! Woo-hoo! I looked there for Ann Feitelson's "The Art of Fair Isle Knitting", because KnitPicks didn't have it (a friend is doing a KnitPicks order, and KnitPicks has their 40% off book sale until the end of the week), and so it occurred to me to check McNally. McNally is Canadian, and lets us knit there once a month (even moving things and putting out chairs), so I like to support them. I can't afford to do so very often, but I did order this book. :) (They didn't have it in stock, and so said it will be a week or I could cancel my order... however, since knitting is there next week, if I'm lucky, I can pick it up when I'm there anyway!)

Yesterday I listened to an interesting podcast episode of CBC's Ideas, Aboriginals and New Canadians: The Missing Conversation. It talked about the effect that aboriginal culture had in shaping Canadian culture (among other things). It made a lot of sense, and explained a bunch about why Canadians are different than Americans.

Peek-A-Boo!

I see sprout type #2!

Hurray for calendula!

Note to self: When planting tiny seeds, *resist* the urge to put more in the hole to compensate for them being so tiny! I'm going to have to thin those poppies. :P

Out and About

One of the local antique shops was supposed to be having a garage sale today, so I decided to let myself out for a bit this morning. Turns out their blog post was wrong... but it was nice to get out.

I walked from the antique store to Dollarama to pick up more magnet sheets, but either they were out, or I just couldn't find them (as is usually the case). There was quite a long line at the till, so I didn't bother asking someone to help me find them.

Then I walked from Dollarama to the new LYS, "Where The Wool Things Are". They don't have much stock yet, but the stock they do have is *lovely* stuff. I like encouraging LYSs, and so bought some yummy (but pricey) yarn, Terra:

I plan to make this yarn into mittens.

Since I was on Albert Street anyway, I decided to see if this branch of Artists' Emporium had what my mom wanted for mother's day. (I was at their main branch on Thursday, but they didn't have it.) Turns out the downtown branch doesn't exist any more. Whoops. There's another art supply store downtown, but by then my feet were *quite* sore, so I decided it was time to go home. (I'm beginning to think my feet may not like my new sandals, even though they feel nice. I wish I knew what was up with my feet! I hate sore feet!)

Oh... while I was looking for the art store, I saw these really cool carved steps:

Overcompensating?

I have a big head, and hate tight toques (which all store-bought toques are). I have friends with big heads. (Because we're all incredibly brilliant, of course... as I need spell-check to highlight my initially incorrect spelling of "incredibly".)

Anyway, remember how I said much of this "falling down and accidentally swiping the credit card" didn't count?:

That's because I made the blue and brown roving into a hat. (Two hats actually, but only one will survive.) Knitting the pencil roving, unspun, was inspired by another knitter who bought some to make a Cowichan-inspired sweater. (Speaking of spell-check, how can a spell-check dictionary call itself "Canadian" and not know "Cowichan"? I think I specified the Canadian dictionary... anyway, back to the post, so I can get back to marking.)

As I was knitting the first hat (from the top down), I had to decide when to stop increasing. After it was looking close, I took a gauge measurement, then decided I should continue increasing until I had 72 stitches, since 64 stitches was going to be a bit small. Turns out I should have stopped at 64. The first hat:

The second hat, at 64 stitches, turned out much better:

(To be on the safe side, though, I had my friend try them both on. So much for surprises.)

Both hats have ribbing behind the brim, but on the second hat, I didn't have quite enough blue left to cover the ribbing. (I think it looks okay with the ribbing showing, though. Plus the second hat had more rows of ribbing, since the increasing section stopped earlier.)

The little acorn-nub on top is a two-row icord beginning to the hat.

I'm hoping that a steam-blocking will stop the brim from curling.

I'm also hoping that this hat will be *warm*, and won't let the wind whistle through (like the last one I made for my friend). (My friend walks in to work, and it gets *cold* around here in winter!)

Did I mention? The brown roving is *dreamy* soft! (The blue is reasonably soft too, but the brown is absolutely *dreamy*.) Sheeples grows lovely roving. :)

Impatient

I'm impatient. Remember my May Day seed starting? Even though I *know* there's no chance that anything has sprouted yet, I keep peeking. Unbelievably, today there was something:

Thank you, poppies! (Isn't it amazing how you can get a plant from a seed so small?!?)

PS: If you still can't see them, even though I've posted the "medium" rather than "small" size, you can click through to "all sizes" to see the largest size. The seedlings are rather puny, on this, their first day.

Sunday

This post is nagging at me, so I'm going to toss it out quickly...

I love this box:


Show and tell was supposed to be Saturday night, but we had had too much sitting by the time the gift exchange was done, so we had it Sunday morning. Here's a few photos from the show and tell:


The group photo was the expected zoo, with a million cameras and no official photographer. Most of the group:

The silliness on the other side:

Group photos are entertaining. ;)

Here's where we ate meals, and where the group of girls from dance camp entertained us at Sunday lunch:


Yep, there was spending of money.

Much of that "doesn't count" because I've already started using it... the blue and brown roving has been knit into two toques (one too big that will be frogged, and one just right), and the fibre enthusiast's equivalent of a "dime bag" has already participated in thrums for the mitten I'm working on. (I got more of the colour I ran out of, plus a few other fun colours.) We got to stuff our own baggies for $5. I asked if it mattered if we were good stuffers, and was told that as long as the zipper closed, I was fine. I'm a *very* good stuffer. The bag showed strain, but the zipper stayed shut. ;)

Remember this gift from my aunt?

I got it figured out! It's a Salish loom (I knew there was at least one there before, but now I know how to use it), a tapestry loom, and an embroidery stand. Cool!!! I can't wait to try some Salish weaving. I also want to finish the tapestry on the tapestry loom, once I find some coordinating yarns. (What's started is pretty!) Having an embroidery stand is cool... I've always sort of yearned after them in the craft stores. ;)

On the way home, my ride wanted to stop in at Winnipeg Beach to visit the art gallery there. (I had *no* objections to that!) Between where we parked the car and the gallery, there was a "garage sale" (that looks to be semi-permanent and specializing in vintage stuff) with some really cool vintage Christmas ornaments. I couldn't resist, and so spent the last of my cash:

Look, the trees are even made in the USA! You don't see that much these days. ;)

I was sad that I didn't have more cash on me, as I would have bought the whole set of pine cones, plus a few other neat ornaments. (And then later, I was annoyed with myself that I forgot about the emergency $20 in my notebook!) Oh well.

Fortunately the gallery took credit:


All in all, a *lovely* weekend. :)