Sunday, August 31, 2008

House Cleaning

I needed a break yesterday afternoon after spending too long sitting in front of my computer. So I decided to take a crack at cleaning up my "office". The things I found!!

Mostly, its old paper work that permeates everything. Yes, apparently there is a desk holding it all up, contrary to the popular belief that the desk was eaten years ago by said papers, allowing them to produce more papers.

There were also a few knitting related finds. An unfinished hat, more squares for that afgan that I'm still working on, Katie's socks (still need those leg measurements... have to remember to do that), and assorted balls and skeens that haven't found their way into my stash just yet.

But most importantly I found a sweater that's mostly finished! I started it just after the wedding back in June, when I was still coming down from not needing to be running around anymore. A while ago, Andre's mom was cleaning up her closet, and found some yarn left over from both her mother and Andre's Dad's mother. In that was a pile of balls of an acrylic/mohair/wool blend, in blues and greys. Yes, I know what you're thinking, rather 70's no? That's what I thought too. But it was so soft!! I eventually got said wool, since Andre's mom's arthritis is so bad that she has a really hard time knitting. I knew that I had to do something special with it.

Turns out, Knitty has this fabulous 70's inspired sweater called Starsky (no, there is no matching Hutch). This was perfect!! Now, Knitty claims that this is one of their more difficult patters (they rank them by spiciness), but the hardest part was getting used to reading the chart at the same time as sizing and shaping. No problem at all for the experienced knitter!! It hit this stage about 2 weeks after getting started. All that's missing are the belt loops, that would be best added, once I know who this is going to fit (not me... not enough wool to make it large enough!!) So, here it is, Jen's Starsky.

Yarn: Towers Mingca (I think, the labels are so old I don't recognize the names!)
Needles: 5.5mm and 6.0mm
Pattern: Starsky
Same as pattern: Made a small size
Different from pattern: The wool I was using was a little bit thicker than called for, so I made the small pattern, but got a medium size.




The back has a beautiful banana leaf pattern. It was loads of fun to work. I can't figure out why the picture of the front is sideways, but whatever. You get the point.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Welcome to the world!

Just a quick note, both of the beautiful babies that I was knitting for in July are now born!!!

The green blanket will soon be wrapped around a little baby girl. She was born monday (I think). The information is coming to me third hand from Andre from the store were we work... Somewhere in the excitement, baby girl's name got lost, but regardless, welcome to the world!! Now to get Andre to call the happy mom so we can go drop off the blanket...

And baby Taden (of the blue jacket set and blanket) made his debute on Thursday afternoon!! Mom and baby are doing great, and I can't wait to meet him!!

So many of my friends are having babies or getting married or making other big changes/decisions in life. It kinda makes me feel old. I sometimes miss the carefree days of highschool (but definately not the school itself). Other times the happiness of the friends can be kinda infectious. Makes me want my own family. Andre and Katie are the best ever, but sometimes I wonder just how long I want to put off having a baby of my own. Eventually. Just not yet.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wicked!

My wonderful mother gave me Wicked! tickets for my birthday back in July. Last night was finally the big night! Having not (yet) read the book, or even seen the original Wizard of Oz movie, I had no idea what to expect going in. What I got is definately not what I might have thought it was going to be, it was SO much better!! Prequils are usually bad news, but this one was perfect!

I won't ramble on and on about the show itself, just some amazing highlights!!! The singers were all fantastic. Especially the witches. Elpheba was unbelieveable. Such a beautiful clear voice (no squeeky warbily irritating diva here). And she was green!!!! Like seriously lime green. All over. And it didn't rub off. I have no idea how they did it, but wow!! And Glinda was also fantastic. The character, for those that haven't seen/read it, is a crazy blonde (think Reese Whiterspoon ala Legally Blonde). They must have been feeding her espressos between scenes, cause I have no idea how that woman had the energy to put on a show like that!

In all, a really fantastic show. Shame it closes this weekend, otherwise I might have tried to get tickets for Andre and I to go again. I think that he might have liked it! In November Spamalot is coming!! We're all going to that one too!!

So it was a fun evening, but the work is still waiting. I don't think that I'm going to get much of anything knittingy done for the next little while, but that's the price I pay for being a student during back to school/grant writing season. Horray. Being a flying monkey in a Broadway show seems like a good career alternative right about now. I wonder how hard it could be...

Monday, August 25, 2008

My Muse is a Siren

Why is it that as life get busier, there are always other things that you'd rather be doing? My life is complicated enough right now, and there seems to be a crack adicted muse that has taken up residence in my brain. Seriously, nothing is sacred or safe from being the trigger for yet another inspiration.

Work is getting busy. It's the end of the summer crunch where we're trying to get the ends of things tied up in time for the coming semester. This tends to mean long hours in the lab focused on research. Not hour long euchre games at lunch. Really. And definately not stained glass ideas. Seriously. But, in truth, at least one of these glass bunnies will probably come to life in the next week or so, as one of our Master's students graduates and heads away to do his PhD. In the mean time, does anyone else want a stained glass amino acid? Cofactor? Other small molecule? I've been thinking, and they shouldn't be too hard to put together. I wonder if there is a standard colour code for amino acids like there is for the elements... Wonder how that would look on and NSERC application...

Andre, bless him, is an woodworker, and has more woodworking magazine subscriptions that I can keep straight. And there always seems to be another one in the mail box. My favourite part of these (appart from the hilarious titles - "Trick Out Your Bandsaw" or "Mission Style Outside of the Bedroom") are the reader's galleries, where subscribers send in pictures of their own work. They are always unbelievably excellent pieces, even if I would never want to own most of them. But every so often there is that one piece that is just wow. For my muse this week, wow isn't good enough. Oh no. Can't admire the Craftsman wash stand with tiled top and stained glass back splash, and let it be, she has to stop and think for a moment before spitting out an idea for a drop leaf dinning room table set, 6-8 chairs, mahogany, oil type finish... with the details arranged just so. I spent a good half hour trying to get Andre to understand what I was seeing behind my eyelids, but I think he got it. Anyone want to donate many many board feet of at least 6/4 rough cut lumber? No?

The knitting is the worst. A local craft store had a sale on baby yarn last weekend. Now, I'm trying to be good, and not buying anything that is not going to be immediately earmarked for a specific project. But yarn sale!!! So, the muse delivered again. Baby jacket, purple (running out of gender safe stuff!), a copy of one that Andre's grandmother made over 20 years ago. I'm going to try to figure out the pattern. Once I do, it should be my first original pattern (with credits to Nanny Skanes of course). Wish me luck, I might need it. Oh, and I must confess, the other baby yarn doesn't actually have a project yet. But it was on sale!

I have a stitch pattern idea too... not sure where it's going to work best yet (maybe sweater panels, maybe a scarf). I'm not certain that it's going to work out at all, but I'll let you know. If I ever get around to it. Oh, and an idea for a cabled sweater too...

I also have to confess, I picked up another long forgotten hobby last week. Andre's grandfather was visiting from Sudbury (love you Poppy!!) and he and Andre's parents went out to the old airforce base that he was stationed at, way back in the day. Many many many years ago, Poppy lost most of his belonings (but thankfully no family) in a house fire. The losses included his military mementos, like the crest pin for his maroon beret (the beret too). Unfortunately, the base didn't have another one, since he served when the King's Crown was still in use, rather than the current Queen's Crown. But there was a cross-stitch pattern of the crest. Guess who's working on that now!! It's looking really good actually. I'm kinda proud!

In other news, a big hug to Colleen for her birthday!!!!! It's a big one, but I won't say how few candles this year. Oh, and she is responsible for introducing us to this crazy insane online show things. Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. If you've never heard of it, check it out! If you have, then you know what I'm talking about. The world needs more super-villan musicals. Enjoy.

BTW, for all you handycrafty people who are reading (yes you) check out Etsy. It's like Ebay, only specifically for hand crafted stuff!! Uber cool. Especially the knitting stuff. Rovings, hand spun and dyed yarns, patterns, finished things. It's all there! And the Geekery part is the best!! I think I need to have a baby so that I can dress them in cool geeky baby clothes. How about it Andre?

So, if anybody would like an over-active muse with siren like tendancies, let me know. I'm looking to evict this one. I'll take her back in November (maybe) in time for Christmas shopping, but right this minute I need to be thinking about grant applications and lab work, not knitting. Back to work then.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Oh for the love of god!

Ah, so last weekend the lab took its annual camping trip. Oh the fun that was had by all. We all gang together and drive out to Murphy's Point Provincial Park, about an hour and a half from Ottawa. The route out happens to run through Smith's Falls, where there happens to be the Hershey's Chocolate Factory... that's trouble in the making. We stop every year to get chocolate for smores (and for face stuffing too). This year we were late heading out, so the chocolate factory had to wait till the return trip, but stop we did!! The phrase "kid in a candy store" comes to mind...

Camping itself was the usual mix of lab antics and tricks. There was hiking (by some), swimming (by others), and lots of fun and food and drinking (also only for some). What was really cool is that we caught the beginnings of the Perseid meteor shower! On the first night some of us went stargazing (horray for a big truck bed to relax in!!) but the lights from the camp fire and flashlights kept blinding us. So we wandered away from the site a bit, to an access road. The shooting stars were amazing!! I think I held the record for the least that night at 7. Falling stars aside, the stars that stayed up in the sky were also just beautiful. I often forget, sitting on my back step in the city, just how many stars are out there. But lying out under a clear sky away from the city and its lights, you can see everything. The trick becomes finding those familar constelations from the city, where out in the country they are buried behind hundreds of others.

So, there were 4 of us, lying in the middle of an access road, technically off our camp site with beer and other assorted drinks, and guess who breaks up the party? A ranger. He was so young!! Couldn't have been more than a year out of college (or maybe even highschool!). We got busted for having open alcohol off site (we honestly hadn't even thought of that). But the Fireball and sangria had lids and they were closed when he got there, so we only really lost about a third of a beer. His favourite expression during our... chat... was "oh for the love of god". He said it like 10 times in the 2 minutes that we were talking. That and he didn't think we were being terribly classy (his words!!). Apparently, when drinking at provincial parks, its more civilized to drink your cheap cinnamon whisky out of a glass than straight from the bottle. What we were all thinking is that, no, that would not be a good idea, since then it would be open and we'd have had to pour it out!!!

So, many bug bites, but thankfully no sunburn later, we head home. We got really lucky with the weather... it rained on our way out, but cleared up once we got there! Then saturday was mostly clear. Sunday morning had more rain, but it cleared up by the time we got packing the truck. The only thing that would have made this trip any better would have been the company of my hubby, who was stuck at work.

Not much to update in the knitting news... I have so many things started, and so little finished! Socks (for me, others for Katie), a sweater, hat, baby stuff... a giant stash that requires taming. So much to do, so little time. And the new semester looms. Best get back at it.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Random Weekend

Wow, what a mixed up week. Holidays are SO confusing, especially when you don't really get a holiday. I was doing a little bit of everything this weekend, and now I'm all worn out!

Work. Yes, I worked the holiday weekend, but molecular biology waits for no man, woman, child, knitting, meal, holiday, or bladder. I tried to keep it short each day, but I was in sat/sun/mon for a few hours each. But on the bright side, the research is progressing, so life is good. Soon, so very soon, the fruits of my labours will be ready to harvest... hopefully. Here's to getting that paper written and published, and NSERC finally not seeing that one bad class I had (stupid organic chemistry!!!). PhD funding applications, here I come!!

Friends. Well, sort of. Most of my friends were out having fun this weekend. So instead I stayed home(/work) and spent time with friends pets. Specifically Colleen's menagerie. Seriously, 7 snakes (plus wee little babies that are SOOO cute!), multiples of geckos (6??), a chameleon (yay Elwood!), a fish (yes, just one), and two of the craziest cats ever (Tigger and Rosco)! Fortunately I didn't have to feed the snakes (awww, poor frozen mice), but Elwood wanted his daily silkworms (not really a problem, they're not nearly as cute as he is), and the cats were demanding as ever. It was fun, and Colleen has a yarn stash bigger than mine!! But I restrained myself, I have so much yarn already.

Tigger and Rosco are just so danmed adorable they needed to make an appearance on this blog. But don't tell Coal, he'll be jelous and want more pictures of him!!

The oh-so-sink-your-hands-into-soft Tigger



The silky-smooth-yes-I'm-that-cute Rosco


Knitting. Yes, I even got some knitting done too. Along with finishing the baby blanket (see last post), I went on a premie baby hat binge with the left over white from the blanket and some matching blue from my stash (picked up as part of a garage sale box of yarn I believe). I made a set of three before getting bored of them, but now I'm not sure what to do with them. I suspect that they'll find their way into my baby box of stuff to get dropped off to a hospital/charity when I think I have enough stuff to make it worth while (I feel bad just dropping off one to two small things, I'd rather save them up and give a bunch of stuff to mix and match if needed).

So, pattern details:
Yarn: Patons Beehive Baby - blue and white, leftovers (really doesn't take much, excellent for stash busting, especially in stripes!)
Needles: 2.5mm double points (5)
Pattern: Cabled Baby Hats
Same as pattern: All the stitch counts and everything are the same
Different from pattern: The stripes in the 5-cable hats are done in multiples of 6 rows (patter is 36 rows, I love easy math!)

Pictures!!




I also started those pink/purple/white socks for Katie! I've been trying to find patterns that I like, that would also work for these, but it's been harder than I thought. So I'm using a woman's sized pattern with much much smaller yarn and needles. In fact, that's what's made this the hardest, is the fact that I can't find patterns in the right guage. Oh well. As soon as I get leg measurements from her mom, I'll measure what I've got. If it doesn't work, then I pull it out and try something else (omg, I might have I design my own... eeeeep).

So here's what I've got so far:
Yarn: Leithen Ombrero (3x 50g)
Needles: 2.5 mm double points (4)
Pattern: Socks in Three Sizes
Size: Woman

I'm about 7.5" down the leg... I'll wait for measurements before continuting.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Oh Baby!

Alright, I finished that really awesome baby blanket on Friday morning (16 hours late!!!). But it's done now. It turned out so nicely! Its one of my new favourite projects!! The pattern is deceptively easy, and it makes for such a nice piece once done, I suspect that I'll be knitting these for years to come.

Incidently, another knitting friend of mine has just started the same blanket in different wool, on larger needles. Hers is turning out a little softer than mine did, both because she's using softer wool (cotton baby blend!!) and is knitting on larger needles. I made mine a little tighter since I know fall and winter are coming and I want to make sure that the chilly winds stay away from baby.

First pattern details, then pictures!!

Yarn: Patons Beehive Baby 3 balls each Sprite Green and White
Needles: Bamboo (first time!!) 4mm
Size: approx 32"x24"
Same as pattern: knit with one green and one white held together
Different from pattern: CO140, 20 rows for first/last stst block, 30 rows for middle blocks (4).


Pictures!!
Folded in half (it was too big to get a whole shot with my not so great camera)
Up close, somewhere in the middle. The seed stitch border really helps keep it flat, and the garterstitch/eyelets are just so pretty!!