Irate Avian!!

Dear Debbie Travis,

While I was out Christmas shopping at a local "tire" themed store, my husband and I came across your artfully arranged display of Christmas decorations.  Something about the way that items were carefully aligned by colour and size spoke yelled out to me to wander through.   While we did not find the perfect tree topper that we were looking for (plaid? seriously?), I found this pint-sized darling:

This little adorable attempt at a cardinal is fuzzy and rotund and just the sweetest guy ever.  Even our cat loves him.

He in no way deserved what I then proceeded to do to him after we got him home. 

You see, I have this awesome friend.  Who does things like take me out to see the Broadway production Beauty and the Beast for an early Christmas gift, because I love Broadway and I can't even afford the back end of nose-bleed seats.  And then brings us back Hill Billy sippy cups as a thank you for baby sitting her cat while she was away for 2 weeks (yes, they are exactly what you think they are: mason jars with lids and straws - aka AMAZING).

And she loves that trade-marked iPhone game in which the players launch feathered friends at porcine invaders.

And Debbie, this precious cardinal reminded me so much of the cover bird of this game that I couldn't help but say out loud in the store how much they resembled each other.  And that it would just take a few minutes with some fabric (read yarn) and a glue gun, and they would be identical.  André thought it was hysterical genius. 

And so, I apologize.  I turned your beautiful delicate cardinal, this unique symbol of peace and love in Canadian Christmases into a creature that when catapulted at a swine will explode into a poof of feathers and take out the scenery.  He has been transformed into a non-trade-marked please-don't-sue-me

IRATE AVIAN!

Merry Christmas Christine! 

Oops, we did it again...

Just as I'm getting back in to the swing of blogging about knitting again, then we get bitten by the renovations bug!

This is a much smaller project than the bathroom a few years ago was, but it's still taking up a surprising amount of time (and space... and sanity...).

Our master bedroom has a beautiful huge closet between two windows on the outside wall.  The closet itself "bumps out" about a foot and a half, saving on its footprint in the room and providing a bit of an overhang over the front of the house.  The only down side is that the insulation, while I'm sure was state of the art 35 years ago when the house was built, is now less than stellar.  This means that the bedroom floor is freezing in the winter, and the closet trends 5-10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.

So now, dammit, we're fixing that.  Which meant that we tore out all the drywall and part of the floor in the closet and reinsulated.  While we were at it, we figured we'd build a faux wall behind the bed, allowing us to give each side of the bed its own outlet, and proper light fixtures. 

We're about half way through the job now.  Insulation is done, along with the wall build.  We're just waiting for the drywall mud to dry before applying what is hopefully the final coat. 

That means that in theory, tomorrow is sanding, priming, and first coat of paint!  Which means that I need to pick colours.  And there should probably be a dump run in the not too distant future, so that this:

Can get out of my dinning room!  Another downside of winter renovations - can't just toss the scrap out the backdoor onto the deck for disposal later... if it snows, that stuff is stuck until summer.  And there's another decent sized snowfall on the way.

So in the mean time, I'm going to finish enjoying my tasty lunch.
















Good looking eh?  Carrot, apple, sweet potato, and ginger soup and home made granola raspberry square thingies. 

Then back to the drywall...

Be Prepared

Things are starting to heat up around here.  And I don't just mean the nominations for the Oscars.  Andre's Exeter hat is finished!

Here's the handsome man himself modeling the warm and wonderful head topper.

What really got me about this pattern is the neat and orderly decreasing for the crown.  There's nothing worse that confused decreases messing with the zen of a project.  It took a wee bit of extra math to get the decreasing in the right spots, since I when down a size (by removing 16 stitches) but it was well worth it!

Yarn: Manos del Urugray Silk Blend in a beautiful almost charcoal black, approx 1.5 skeins. 
Needles: US 4, knit with magic loop method
Alterations: Pattern called for US5 and 128 stitches.  Down a needle size, and -16 stitches.

He's already put in his order for another one for next year.  We both know that he will loose this one, and that's fine.  As the Boy Scouts that he was such a proud member of for so long say, "Be Prepared".  So when I'm at Yarn Forward next week to pick up an order, I guess I'll have to grab another hank of the silk blend.  Hats are nice summer knitting, small and fast, and easy to carry around.  For now I've had enough of 2x2 ribbing in not-quite-black.  Time for some colour!

Proof of Life

Now this is supposed to be a knitting blog.  And yes, while real life is going to creep in here a fair bit, there hasn't been hardly any actual knitting news on this blog in years.  (ok, yes, I realize that the 3 year gap in posting also does not help, but even then the last bunch were about renovations and life... sorry...)

So I present to you: Proof of Knitted Life! Or why my hands hurt after New Years. 

As is customary for New Year's day, Andre and I spent it just kicking back with champagne/wine/martinis (thanks Louis)/beer and TV watching.  This gave me ample knitting time.  The results:

These WIP boot socks

Have now become these:

Recipient TBD.  Too big for me, but not by a lot.

For the last couple of years I've been harassing politely asking Andre if there was anything I could knit for him.  Then he lost his hat.  The request: new hat.  Simple.  Nothing fancy.  Ribbing apparently is fancy.  Black.  And must be soft.  And warm.

So, step 1 find wool.  A quick New Year's Eve yarn shopping excursion with my beloved sister-in-law found this at Yarn Forward on Bank St. 

Manos del Uraguay Silk blend.  70% merino 30% silk.  Soft? Check.  Warm?  Double check.  Black?  Well, very deep kettle dyed charcoal almost black.  But close enough to black to be Andre approved. 

And now for a pattern.  This was going to be tricky.  Poking through Ravelry I found Exeter.  It was perfect.  Ribbed to be stretchy and keep it snug.  And the decreasing at the crown was so clever.  And options for fold up brim.  But I wasn't sure it would pass Andre inspection.  There was fancy ribbing.  I wasn't sure if it was the desperate hopeful look in my eyes as I showed him the pattern, or just the fact that it's January in Ottawa and it's freezing cold and he really wants a hat now, but the pattern too became Andre approved. 

I printed the pattern, wound up the yarn, and after 2 movies I had a beautiful 6 inches or so done.  Lots to have Andre try it on. 




















And this is what it looks like now. 

It appears to be a combination of me getting something that might be considered gauge albeit not the gauge recommended for this project, with a large-ish sized pattern, and a husband with a far smaller head circumference than an average large-ish pattern, which resulted in a piece of knitting that would be better suited to keep warm the over-inflated egos of the local politicians rather than the ears of my beloved.

Switching the wine I was savoring to a stiff martini, it was off to the frog pond with the "hat".  

Once I've recovered from pulling out almost 3 hours of work it'll be down one needle size, and taking out 16 stitches, and starting over.  If that pair of mittens doesn't tempt me away first...

Ring Out the Old

Once again, it's New Years Eve!  And once again I can't believe that another year is over.  What happened to my year?  How did I manage to spend 366? 

It was a busy year.  Challenging, sometimes stressful, but also wonderful. 

In January I finished my thesis, submitted, was given the nod to graduate.  I took over the books for Andre's business.  Our mixed curling team managed to finish out the year in the B division!  Started picking up the pieces that we'll need to finally renovate our kitchen.  We spent the most beautiful week ever in Newfoundland over the summer.  Andre hired his first employee!!  And we've had the best Christmas-New Year's holiday we've had in a long time.  Restful, tasty, and full of friends and family. 

Our New Year's plans are pretty simple.  We're going to cuddle up in front of the TV at some point tonight and just relax with a bottle of wine or some beer (and knitting).  At midnight we'll watch the New York ball drop, and then probably just crawl off to bed.  I think we're getting too old for this!

New Year's day used to be one of the only days that Andre and I could guarantee having off together.  The result is a carefully crafted tradition of us kicking back and just being together.  In the morning we're going to get up whenever we feel like it.  We're going to have Irish cream in our coffees.  We'll break from our tradition briefly to leave the house to feed a friends cat, we normally don't go out at all.  Then it will be home and back into the pjs.  We'll light a fire in the fire place, cuddle up again, and try and put a dent in the Big Bang Theory marathon from Boxing Day that has consumed our PVR.  At some point there will be pizza for lunch.  And that will be the only time we answer the door.  It's going to be amazing. 

I'm setting up my nest for tomorrow.  My big comfy chair has a carefully positioned table carrying a selection of key knitting paraphernalia - like a tape measure and darning needles.  At some point today I'm going to round up some of the UFOs lurking around the house (so far a pair of socks and another pair of mitts) and try and get them wrapped up.  Once they're done, I'm going to work up the nerve to start the body of my Viticetum coat from Knit Picks. 

In short, it's going to be epic. 

So I bid you a safe and happy New Year!  And we'll see you on the other side.

Holiday Love

The holidays for us are, like for so many people, a crazy time of family friends and food.  And this year was no different.  With our immediate family in town, Christmas day is a meticulously juggled time of family hopping. Breakfast with the inlaws, brunch with my mom, lunch with my dad, dinner with an extended variant of the inlaws, and drinks with the siblings-in-law. 

You'd think that it would end there.  That after the year end binge of cream and sugar topped baking and mountains of wrapping paper, that 24 hours of awesome would leave us a pair of giggling maniacs.  But no.  Along with a hopscotch work schedule for me, there is also my father's extended family dinner a few days ago - with special attention to my grandfather, who was considerate enough to be born at such a time to as not complicate his mother's Christmas dinner, nor interfere with the ever anticipated New Years Eve party.  And always the extended family passing through town.

Now we are coasting through the brief few days of recovery time between one set of over-indulgence, and the next. 

Tis also the season for travel, and while we have remained (mostly) rooted at home, the last 36 hours have been a blessing for spending time with out-of-town friends.  My dearest grade school companion in crime Jenny and her husband David, up visiting their parents from the far off land of Toronto.  And beautiful amazing Melody, a friend from grad school now in Calgary, in to spend the holidays with her mom.  And crazy Kyle from Owen Sound who taught us to curl - traveling up to discover that he is to be a best man for a friends wedding this summer.  We talked, we caught up, we laughed.  We promised that this year we'd find the time and wherewithal to get out to their neck of the woods. 

And I had to resist the urge this morning to go tearing through the stash to show my love in wooliness.  Even miles apart, there is something nice about being hugged at a distance through knit love.  Although... there is some suspiciously John Deere green sock yarn that arrived in the mail a few days ago.  And a curling bonspeil in March...

Hugs and holiday love to all!  I'm going to go and work off this food baby I've been carrying around for a few days.  And find some double points. 

Merry Christmas dear blog

Dear blog,

I know it's been a while since I really paid any attention to you past the fleeting thought of "I should do that".  I'd say that life got in the way, I needed to focus to wrap up my degree, and I've been working too hard trying to make ends meet that I just haven't been able to find the time to look you up and drop in a few lines.  But that wouldn't be entirely true...

I've still had time to knit, and where there is knitting time, I should be able to steal a few minutes of that time to tell you about it.  Although that would leave less time for knitting... I do miss writing.  And I do think more frequently than I might like to admit, "I should blog that". 

So, in the spirit of the holidays, Merry Christmas dear blog.  My gift is to try and remember to take a few minutes to do something here way more often then every few years.  More actual writing, less just thinking about it. 

Just not this exact minute... the in-laws are on their way, and this will kick off another Christmas scramble around the collection of families.  14 hours of Christmas visits, presents, food, family, and love.  And in the next few days, I'll even tell you about it.  Here we go!

Love,
Jen