10.11.2009

Happy Thanksgiving Socks!

Last night, I took a break from working on Troll Forest to finish up a pair of socks I'd been working on sporatically for the last month. Meet Eunice (rav link).

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They're really sweet little socks, certainly not difficult, but just intruiging enough to keep you interested. They knit up fairly quickly, and I loved the colours of Koigu that I knit them out of. The sock yarn was gifted to me by Jocelyn after I spun her some yarn a while back.

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It's hard to see, but the purple actually pools. It swirled down the leg and then went half-and-half with the other colours on the heels, and then spiraled around again on the foot. It's uber pretty. There is a bit more green in one skein than the other, but it's all good. I'm not one of those crazy perfectionist knitters. ;)

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Cookie is a genius. Love her. The way the pattern all came together makes me realize that designing is not just about tossing some stitch patterns together and voila like I see time and time again. It's really about flow, balance and, well, designing. It was the perfect reminder for me, just as I'm struggling to transition into the second element of the shawl. Thanks, Cookie!

10.08.2009

Design for a Cause

I'm too lazy to ride bikes. WAY too lazy, and too fluffy. I'm working on it. I've never been one to be active, per se, but luckily for all of us, there are people out there who are. Annie is going to be partaking in the 2010 Ride to Conquer Cancer. Don't ask me how many kilometres she's going to be biking. I know it's a lot. It's more than I care to think. It makes my bones ache just thinking about it.

But she does have to raise $2,500 in order to partake, and I wanted to help. Especially wanted to help since I can't exactly bike along with her. Enter a new shawl design.

Troll Forest (Trolleskov) First pattern

This is the first shawl I've ever designed. EVER. It's not done, obviously. This is only stage one, and there's still two more pattern elements to come up with before I cast it off, but I LOVE it. It's knit out of my own handspun, four ounces of corriedale that I dyed with Wilton's food colouring.

The colour is most accurate in the next picture.

Troll Forest (Trolleskov) First pattern

I've already named it Troll Forest (or Trolleskov in Danish) because it reminds me of walking through my favourite forest in Denmark. Once it's completely written, which should be around the end of this month, you will be able to purchase the pattern from Annie for a nominal fee to support her in her ride. I'm realy excited about it!

After that, I'll keep the pattern up for sale, but if you are interested in knitting this, please purchase from Annie before June so that you can support her in her cause!

9.02.2009

Hrmf.

I don't like drama. I've never liked drama. Why is drama attracted to me? SRSLY. I'm not going to post too much about this because I think it's rather juvenile, to be honest, like some people can't get out of high school mode. Suffice it to say there is drama in my life right now, and I don't like it. Get out, drama.

I've been doing a lot of knitting in the face of said drama, and I have one-and-a-half pairs of socks to show you! WOW! Drama sure sucks, but it does wonders for my FOs. Also debating a work thing. Do I want to work full time outside the house, or continue on my road of self-employment? I make decent money being self-employed, and I love working in my jammies, but a reliable paycheck would be lovely, and interaction with other people keeps me sane. On the down side, I don't like getting up before 8:00, and working outside the home would surely require that.

Debates, debates. Speaking of work, I have a bunch of it to do now. Tune in again soon. I should have taken some pictures of my socks by then. They're comfy and warm and delicious.

Boo drama.

8.28.2009

Super Busy Me.

Okay. Okay, I know. I haven't posted in over a month. *Sorry*

Just a quick sum up, and then I have to get back to work:

1. Robbie and Elodie got home absolutely fine.

2. On the same day they got home, my cousin, his wife and two children flew in from Denmark for a visit.

3. Two days later, I was working in Calgary for two weeks, which was really hard (because I normally work from home, and I've been totally pampered of my own accord with naps and mid-day baths and food whenever I want).

4. My band rehearsed two nights a week leading up to a quick gig we had out at Sylvan Lake at a private party. Mucho fun.

5. After that, Elodie and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for four days (it was lovely and warm).

6. We're gearing up for Airdrie's Centennial Celebration, which will happen in Nose Creek Park on September 12. There will be live music (including our band from 4:00 to 5:00), lots of booths, and guess who is going to be doing spinning demonstrations all day! The 13th is a sort of showcase with plenty of places to shop. In fact, I think there may even be a yarn booth (but don't quote me on that one).

7. Overall, super busy, but good. Unfortunately, busy me means neglected house.

7.22.2009

Still Here...

Geez, what exactly did I do before I had a husband and a child? Apparently nothing. So far, I've managed to eat rather healthier than usual, sleep in every day and knit. And read. I've finished off Shogun (ugh, didn't like the ending AT ALL) and Atherton (turned out be the first in a series, so I guess I'll have to buy the others), and now I'm going to actually work tonight.

Yesterday was pretty much the crappiest day so far. I had been unable to find Robbie's cell phone for the life of me. I'd looked all through the house, all the places I'd been in the house, but no luck. So I figured, whatever, I'm just going to get back to work on the deck (oh, I'm refinishing the deck. Did I mention that?). I step outside, and ... well, I found the cell phone. It must've fallen out of my pocket the day before when I'd been outside, working on the deck.

Ah, yes, the day before, when I'd scraped and scraped and scraped that damned deck. That was just before the rainstorm hit. The huge rainstorm with the thunder that sounded like my windows were going to shatter. The terrible, horrid rainstorm that left half an inch of water on the ground. Oh, that rainstorm.

Well, at least the phone is clean.

Actually, I very nearly freaked out. See, I haven't owned a cell phone for, oh, four-odd years. This is Robbie's phone. I have, however, kept rather current with the fact that water plus cell phone equals bad. Very, very bad.

The phone was still on from the day before. There was a great deal of what we shall loosely call "humidity" under the screen, but otherwise it seemed okay. I flipped open the keyboard (it's one of those fancy new cell phones with a built-in QWERTY keyboard) and started to check out how bad the damage was.

The shortcut key didn't do much of a shortcut. It actually took me on a roundabout tour through the phone. Not good. Once I did get it to the screen where I could send a text message, I started pressing the buttons. C didn't work. At all. So I sent a text to Robbie.

"Will you please ring me as soon as possible? It's important."

Notice that there are no Cs in that message.

Anyway, long story kind of shorter, I frantically checked out the intertubes for ways to save a cell phone that had gotten wet. Most of them said that if you don't get to it within the first 20 minutes, tops, you may as well forget it. I would not forget it!!

One site suggested removing the battery and sim card (sin card? Shin card? The thing with all your contact information) and sticking the phone in a bag of rice overnight to absorb any and all excess moisture. I did just that and went to bed.

This morning, I tottered out of bed at 10:00, and I slowly wandered downstairs with the heavy pit of dread in my stomach. This was a $300 phone, and I was positive I'd totally fracked it up. Completely screwed. Afterall, the screen had started going all wonky the previous night as I tried to see how the drying process was...it had inverted the colours (like, the purples turned yellow, reds turned green, that kind of thing), and then it went black and white, and then it finally just looked damn near illegible without color or real tone.

I held my breath...and I switched on the phone. Well, whaddya know. The damn thing works. Completely. C works, shortcut button works, screen looks normal, everything. I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic until I see how well the thing charges. Provided it charges okay, I think I can do a little dance in my livingroom nekkid with the animals jumping with fits of joy beside me.

Speaking of animals, I think the little one is doing a pee dance. Time to brave the giant cat spider that's made his/her home directly above the back door and let them out. This adult thing is HARD.