ZaGwil's World

The latest

2005-08-29T09:33:00.000-04:00

I found out last week that I got the job I was applying for; quality assurance . I start tonight, hopefully it will be easy and I'll be good at it :)

I've started up with some knitting again, I'm currently working on the ugliest piece of clothing ever... a shrug, in purple....... There is good reason for me doing this. First its going to be for sleeping, not for public display. I need something warm for my arms that I can easily wrap around myself without turning into an eggroll. The colour choice was determined by looking through my recently culled stash and finding that purple was an abundant colour.

I've been cooking alot lately. I dont know if its due to all my new cute little appliances, the prettier ( albeit, smaller) kitchen, or the fact that lots of natural light and a good breeze comes in. I'm finding myself becoming a real fresh air person. All the window are open. I dont know how I survived for so long with only two tiny little windows that stayed closed for 80% of the year. Yesterday, I made butterscotch cookies, cheese and onion bread and a pot roast.

Going to go knit and rest now before tonight

Baking, Building, Composting; my new life.

2005-08-22T19:50:00.000-04:00

Wild blueberry season is in full swing in this part of the country and so the prices are low. James bought 5lbs of wild blueberries today for 10$; that's a whole lot of berry. Baked up 3 pies

and a blueberry crisp,

which has now become my absolute favorite blueberry dessert of all time. If anyone is interested, this is the recipe:
In a 9x13 pyrex pan put approx 5 cups washed blueberries. In separate bowl, using pastry cutter combine:
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
Cover berries with mixture, cook for 30 minutes or until top is golden and berries are bubbly at 375. Serve with fresh cream.
One of the pies we covered with fresh whipped cream and brought over to our neighbourgh. I didnt think we ought to be eating this much pie.
Yesterday, James and I set up a compost pile behind the shed.

We'll be modifying the "container" at some point when we've got more compost to put in there, but for now it's working fine.
I also built a little step to go into the shed and I'm quite proud, sturdy and rustic :)

James set up a full page with pictures and commentary about our new home for those who are curious.

Home

2005-08-16T20:19:00.000-04:00

We've finally made it! I have to say as much as I believed that things were going to fall into place, I still cant quite grasp the whole thing yet. Looking out any window now I see trees, long grass, more trees, that's about it. The dogs are slowly adjusting, Karla especially seems to feel out of place, we've moved her around so much these past few years. Tommy is loving it here, having access to most window sills. I've started a knitted washcloth this morning and I'm finally starting to relax. Gotta go help with dinner now, BBQ salmon and shrimp... :)

Almost there

2005-08-06T19:16:00.000-04:00

The past few weeks have been some of the most intense of my entire life. None stop, things to do, organize think about. Finally the end is in sight. 3 1/2 more sleeps. I say 3 1/2 because 3 of those are here in Montreal, at my parents place, since our bed and pretty well everything else in our place is packed and ready. The 1/2 is for the one night we will be sleeping in a motel in Springhill, not quite home yet, but no longer in Quebec. I'm starting to relax as well now, most of our paper work stuff is out of the way, the only major thing left is signing the purchase papers and that will be fun no doubt :)
So that's my little update for now, I have no idea how long we will be without internet at the new place. I'm really looking forward to having a few relaxing afternoons of knitting when we do get there. The nights are already down around 10 c. there, so fall knitting is just what I'll be needing.

A Turning Point

2005-07-14T09:35:00.000-04:00

Its important to recognize change and growth in ones life and embrace it rather then shy away from it. This is why I have changed not only the look of this blog, but also much of the content. Although knitting is a big part of my life emotionally, it doesnt take up much tangible time. I dont knit every day, sometimes not for weeks at a time. I love working in this art form dearly and will always knit, but it will never consume me. That being said, I think its time that I open up the boundaries of this blog to allow all aspects of my life and interests to shine through without limitations.

Our move to Nova Scotia is moving ahead as planned, and now things are finally starting to fall into place; We have a buyer for the condo, our new mortgage was approved and so we are looking at the first full weekend of August as our departure date. I am starting to relax again, and really looking forward to the challenges ahead. I think I've been wanting to prove to myself what I am capable of and this offers the perfect situation to learn and grow.

One of the aspects about this change in our life that I am most excited about if the continuation of our progression towards a simpler life. I dont use the term in the general sense, but to describe a philosophy that many people share. To sum up the basics I would describe it as a lifestyle geared towards responsible consumerism. This obviously is an oversimplistic explanation, and everyone who lives by the principles of simple living does so in their own fashion, with their own "rules". It certainly doesnt mean the same thing for everyone. In our case we are most interested in converting our energy source to wind power, eventually have vehicles that run on biodiesel, grow many of our own vegetables, make conscious choices not to purchase goods from companies or producers that are irresponsible corporate citizens. There are many other things we will slowly incorporate into our life to mold it into our vision of what simple living means to us.

One huge aspect of this lifestyle can be and is in our case, work. Neither one of us has ever been a slave to the corporate rat race, and have pretty well always tried to make up our own rules about what we were willing and unwilling to give of ourselves to an employer. Ideally we want to eventually run a self sufficient home based business, in the mean time though I'm actually looking forward to the oppertunities that await me. I've applied to work at Oxford Frozen Foods, which is about a 10 minute drive from our new home. They concentrate on fruit and vegetable products. I was extremely happy to receive a personal response from the supervisor of the departement I've applied to ( Quality Assurance) extending me an invitation to discuss the job further in person once I've moved.

Now that things have started falling into place, I've been taking a bit of time to look at wedding bands. During my search for something different, meaningfull and representative of who we are, I found this. We are so excited to have found such a wonderful alternative to the conventional metal wedding band. As well as having discovered these beautiful rings, we have quickly become acquainted with the people who make them and have discoverd that they share many of our values and ideas. This is going to be a very special process for many reason, not the least of which is that we are going to incorporate birch from our own property in making the rings.

My hope in taking this new direction in blogging will be hopefully to give me a sense of "documenting" our life. I dont scarpbook or keep a journal so this will be my little place. I also hope to giving others access to information which they may never have stumbled upon on their own, but which I believe is important to know about. Finally I also hope to give my parents a sense of connectedness with me, regardless of the distance between us. They might get to learn more about me and who I am through this then they would have otherwise if I had stayed in the city and lived "the usual life".

A special note to any loyal readers that I may have the priviledge of "obtaining" since I started this blog. If I had a link to your blog previously, please let me know and I will post it again. I havent "flushed" people on purpose, but I didnt take note of all my links before reformating and they all disappeared in the process.

Monday post

2005-06-27T13:46:00.000-04:00

Now that my body is starting to adjust to the heat, I dont feel quite so homicidal, but my god those first few weeks of summer are hard.
I`ve finally been able to pick up my needles again and make some progress on a few various wips. Nothing photo worthy. As most of it is just endless lace repeats, its a rather long process ( for me anyways) to get even a few inches done. Since the only wips I havent packed are lace projects and that all my worsted weight yarn is in boxes, I felt an insatiable urge this weekend to go on a cheap, ( because at the moment I am broke) chunky yarn buying spree. I felt the need to alternate with a project on bigger needles. I was really good though and didnt go. I couldnt justify the expense right now.
I found these this morning, and thought my eyes were going to burn out of my skull. The stripy ones with the pompom arent bad. But for the rest, I`ll let the picture speak for itself.
Now, back to knitting and grinding my teeth while we wait for news from our Realtor.

Note to self: in the future, only purchase property, dont engage in selling it, thats much too stressful

Why am I being punished?

2005-06-12T20:41:00.000-04:00

I know some of you enjoy summer. I do also, but in small controlled doses. What we are living through here in down town Montreal is nothing short of an attempt to eliminate the weak from the gene pool. The AC is at 70F, which normally would be very chilly, we have a fan working non stop and still I feel wilted, cranky, annoyed; a prisonner in this concrete block. I've been out for just a few minutes at a time in the past few days, mostly to walk the dog and I've run back in to the shelter of my dark cell, behind closed curtains to try and occupy my time while I sit here waiting, dreaming of what lies ahead in the next few months ( few weeks if we are lucky).

Thinking about it has become an obsession. Looking at the forecast for that ( our) area of NS on the web, closing my eyes and picturing the ( our) little house, feeling the breeze and the warm ( not hot, choking ) air on my face.

I had forgotten about the overwhelming feelings of discontentment, aggitation, and captivity that being in the city brings to the forefront of my mind in hot weather. As I fall asleep, every night, I picture in my mind the drive out there, the drive we took just over a week ago and I can smell the difference in the air, the colour of the sky. I fall asleep lulled by a fantasy that I'm already there. I try to believe it, to make it as real as possible in my mind, just to make the waiting a bit more barerable.

Knitting has been a great meditative tool to help induce these lucid dreams, with each movement I can loose myself in thought and forget where I am. Only problem is that the heat inevitably pierces through sooner or later and breaks my concentration. The only fiber I can bare to hold right now is Jaggerspun Zephyr, working on my lace shawl with it, I can manage a few rows at a time, but inevitably my focus blurrs, my eyes hurt and I am brought back to the painful reality of not being where I would like to be.

Its hard to explain, even to myself why I feel so strongly about this change in our life, why I feel so desperate about accomplishing it and why I am so filled with anxiety over the success of it, all the while feeling in my heart certain, that this will work out. I dont believe in destiny, I dont believe in things being meant to happen or not. I cant help but being overwhelmed with the notion that this is what we are "supposed" to do though. I guess if I were to take a page out of the James book of wisdom he would say that we have made the only decisions possibles for ourselves, which have led us to this point and everything that is happening and will happen are only the product of the only possible outcome. ( Sweetie, if I've misquoted you, I'm sure we'll have fun discussing it later.) There is an unsettling feeling when one realises that logic and apparent misconceptions about life dont contradict each other, but support each other. The way I look at it, what I've just said, in essence, describes destiny...

If anyone has read this far; no one is forcing you to read senseless drivel, so I hope you enjoyed it and didnt follow through to the end out of some sort of compulsive drive. Its obvious there are enough nut cases around here just as it is.

Back from NS

2005-06-06T10:20:00.000-04:00

We got home from our little house shopping trip last night. We are both really tired, but the 12 hour drive was well worth it. We were both dreading coming back to Montreal, and cant wait to actually go for good. We are anxiously awaiting news from our realtor whether or not we've had an offer on the condo. We've put in a conditional offer on one particular place we just fell in love with. It hadnt even been on our list of properties to visit because it was out of our price range, but while we were out with the realtor in NS, he showed us the place and we were able to negotiate the price down to what we are willing to pay. We were very happy when we got the news that the seller had accepted.
Here are some pictures of the place:

This is viewed from the road, the building on the left is the garage and the building in the center is the house

This is a better view of the garage and the driveway.
and HERE is the link to the actual listing with a clearer picture of all buildings, from left to right is the garage, a tiny little mini structure that looks like a dog house to cover the well, the house itself and a mini barn/shed
We really should have taken more pictures up close and inside, but we were so excited and just in love that we kind of forgot about a few details. We are especially excited about the size of the property; 27 acres, about 25 of which is hardwood forest This is going to give us an excellent source of income, through a bit of artisanal furniture making and clearing out some of the fallen over trees for firewood and things.
The place is being sold fully furnished as well, so we get an almost brand new couch and chair set, tv, bed, desk ect ect ect. The guy was using it as a summer cottage and built it only 5 years ago. I cant quite accept yet that we've been so lucky, it just doesnt seem possible.
Saturday night after visiting properties most of the day, we set out to a great little restaurant by an ocean bay for sea food, I had the most delicious fish and chip, and James had an assorted sea food platter. The place was packed ( there are very few restaurants, like maybe 2-3 in a very large area, so the service was slow, but the people are very friendly and the pace is just not the same at all. After dinner we decided to take a drive to tour around the northern part of NS, drove down to the western coast, near the Bay of Fundy. We were out about 3 hours and saw incredible landscapes and fields and fields of blueberries; just incredible.
the pitures didnt turn out so great, but this is a shot of the ocean and some little islands just off the coast.

Tommy in full colour

2005-06-02T15:03:00.000-04:00

So I went a bits nuts yesterday at work and took a bunch of pictures of my newest baby. Here are a few:

To see all the pictures, click here.

We are leaving tomorrow morning, very early to drive to Nova Scotia and house shop. Very exciting, I cant wait!

Nothing in particular

2005-05-31T20:56:00.000-04:00

So it appears we will be taking in a new recruit; Tommy seems to have made the cut with all the people and pups involved. I hope he's looking forward to Nova Scotia as much as we are. At least he'll have a huge house to run around in, instead of a cage. I think I'll take a few pictures of him tomorrow, show you all what my new boy looks like.

In other news, things are progressing nicely. We have 4 property visits set up for Saturday. I'm only hoping I can survive the insanely long car ride with me being the only driver ( sweetie, you NEED to get your license as soon as we move, and fix me up a good lot of mix cd's to keep me entertained on the drive)

Work has been strangely slow this week, sometimes I hate the unpredictability of this line of work as much as other times I can enjoy the flexibility of it. It's given me time to get a few things in order though. I visited the court house ( which is just beautiful) to pick up an application form and set a date for the interview and the actual ceremony. So the official date is September 17th.

I have also gotten around to continuing the baby blanket and I realise now that I might want to do it longer then what I have left on this skein. ALL my yarn except that which is attached to my WIPs has been packed and so I am contemplaiting maybe going to buy an extra skein to finish the blanket instead of opening boxes. ( sweetie, disregard that last part, this doesnt concern you. And for that matter, skip the next paragraph entirely)

I've also grown a bit restless having all my yarn and books put away, I find myself day dreaming of new projects and for the first time ever, I'm attracted to the idea of knitting a sweater or cardigan. Maybe something traditional in an aran style forJames. He's been hinting at wanting a sweater for some time now, I've always bugged him about the sweater curse. I actually never felt any desire to knit a sweater before, and I dont knit something I'm not in love with, at least not when it comes to big projects. Hmm something to dream about and create in my mind until we're settled again.

Much too early for Saturday morning

2005-05-28T07:11:00.000-04:00

I've been up since 6:30, couldnt sleep anymore after spending a restless night coughing up a lung or two. I dont know if its stress, the weather, a bug... but I am really sick and miserable. I havent had a cold in almost 2 years, why now?

Spent a busy week working.The condo is 90% packed up. James said ( with a grin) that it looked like an IKEA show room. I dont feel so much at home in this naked, emtpy space anymore. I'm currently sitting on the couch with my back to the room so I dont have to look at the emptyness and feel even more like crap. The place has been shown twice now; the realtor even had someone interested before the add went public, we are optomistic it will sell quickly and for our asking price.

I also became desperate to find a few moments to knit this week ( hadnt touched the needles in 2 weeks) and pulled out a really mindless WIP to work on in the bus. I dont like this particular set of circulars, which is part of the reason I had put the project down a while ago, but I needed something chartless and preferably knitable from memory. I've posted this picture before, but James has packed the camera!?! and I dont feel like opening boxes to find it to take a progress picture. Besides, all the repeats are the same, and I'm just about finished the 7th row of shells.

I am excited though; in a week from today we plan to be in Nova Scotia, house shopping. Should be an amazing time.
Click here and here to see our two top favorite properties. The houses look rather crappy, but we plan on doing minor renovations and paint and stuff. What we really want it a decent lot of land.

I'm currentlly researching milking goats and chickens. For now we are certain of wanting these guys,we just need to know a bit more on barnyard husbandry. I'm thinking that a guarding llama would also be a good idea, but I've already spent 2 years looking into that, so I'm good there. And maybe as a treat for myself, I'll consider a few angora rabbits, maybe a few alpaca. I'll have to learn to spin for that though. We figure, maybe we'll open up a small petting zoo to help finance our creatures. I figure also 3 milking goats will give us enough milk to allow me to experiment with cheese making, maybe soap. Anyone have any good recipes?

I wish I could make it to the Second Cup knitting thing tomorrow afternoon with the Montreal Knits group. Unfortunatly I have prior engagements with a certain little guy named Tommy. We ( meaning James, the two dogs and I) are going to drop by my work and introduce the dogs to Tommy, see if they can all get along without killing each other. I'm trying not to be too optomistic about the whole thing so I'm not disappointed later if things dont work out ( Karla is after all a trained prey hunter, and Cody is a terrier with an attitude) Tommy on the other hand is a laid back, overweight 5 year old, neutered grey tabby in need of a home. Keeping fingers crossed. And by the way, if any of my close relatives are reading this, just relax, its just a cat, not an elephant. After the bombs we've dropped on you in the past couple of weeks, this should seriously not be an issue worth discussing. If it will make you feel better though, provided the dogs do give their seal of approval, we will be leaving Tommy at the store until we do move, we wont be bringing him in the condo.

In reponse to Mary from the comments: I do hope to make it to one more knitting thing before I go.
Jo : Dont wait to make things happen, if you really want them, trust me, you might be envious, but I'm scared shitless. We really dont have any more reason or guarantees then anyone else that our plan will work, we just trust that we are smart enough to keep ourselves out of trouble.
Anny: This sucks so bad you have no idea. We have so much in common, the bugs, the dogs, not to mention knitting. Definatly we will keep emailing and bloggering but no real live Bobby kisses is just sad. ( You can definatly peek at the dress ;) and yes we have to get together real soon
Kadi: I'm so glad to see you've joined the knitting blog experience. And yes you guys will definatly hear from me :) The internet reaches even the most remote places; my blog and I will be unstopable LOL

Now today I plan to knit, sleep, eat and maybe squeeze in some laundry.

The big move

2005-05-21T22:07:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here, on my couch, surrounded by boxes, dead tired wishing I was alert enough to knit. The boxes that have invaded the condo are here because we put the condo up for sale last Thursday and already someone is coming to look at it this upcoming Tuesday. We need to get 80% of our stuff packed and out of the way asap so that the places shows well and hopefully gets us our asking price. In the mean time we are looking at finding and buying our dream house in rural Nova Scotia, planning to be moved there by mid-July since this place will probably go quickly. We also dont want to be stuck living through another Just for Laughs Festival literally on our door step at the end of July. As well we are trying to orgagnize a "quicky" wedding, maybe for father's day weekend (before the move), but most likely for September 17th ( after the move and all). Why all these changes all of a sudden? Well, we need a change, a big one. James is not getting better health wise, and I cant stand sitting by watching him in this state. Living here is stressing us out in everyway possible. We picked Nova Scotia a bit arbitrarily, but mostly because the houses and properties there are very reasonably priced and this will allow us to not be so stressed financially. Although, who can resist fresh seafood and beautiful landscapes?
Now why the quicky wedding? Well that's not such a quicky anyways. Planning a large affair last fall, just about drove us both nuts, so we canned that idea and retreated from the notion for a while. While we were discussing our plan this past Wednesday( the actual first day we dreamed up this plan- yes that was only 4 days ago) James brought up the topic again and we decided to go for it and plan an ultra simple civil ceremony with just our parents and his sister and her husband there. With a bbq at his parents place afterwards. I went out shopping with my mom today and as my belated birthday gift, she bought my dress, which is a simple summer dress and a pretty knit lace cardigan that buttons up only between the bust The dress is sleeveless, mid calf length dress that has a flowy slightly ruffled edge. Both the cardigan and the dress are crisp white, but the dress also has a sparse, mediumsized red flower pattern that isn't overpowering but adds a nice break from the white. All that's left is to actually book the date for the ceremony. But thats an entirely seperate story that would deserve an entire post of its own that I am too tired to write, right now.
As excited as I am about all this, I realised yesterday that I would be leaving behind the girls from the Montreal knits group whom I've just met in the past month and who I was SO looking forward to knitting with again. Emails are all fine and dandy, but its just never the same.
I wrote this post in part to warn those of you that might stroll through here once in a while that if I'm not too present and actively posting, then I'm surely packing, panicking, or both, although I'd certainly rather be knitting.
I promise to post pictures of the wedding, and our new house at some point over the summer months. Hopefully, I'll be able to squeeze in a few hello posts in between. :)
Wish me luck!

Isn't he brilliant?

2005-05-16T12:56:00.000-04:00

Even though I love this guy, I'm not biased when I say that. I seriously think he has enormous potential to influence our world once he gets his ideas "out there" more.

Even though you may not agree with what he is saying, take the time to think over the ideas and come to your own conclusions. If you do happen to like what he has to say and think that more people ought to have the chance to read his "columns" then by all means please link his blog to yours and help spread the word.
Feedback is such an intergral part of writting and I want him to keep on writting and sharing his thoughts and ideas.

Interesting quiz

2005-05-15T22:23:00.000-04:00

You scored as Existentialism. Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life.

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”

“It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.”

--Jean-Paul Sartre

“It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.”

--Blaise Pascal

More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page...

Existentialism

90%

Hedonism

70%

Nihilism

70%

Justice (Fairness)

55%

Strong Egoism

45%

Utilitarianism

35%

Kantianism

25%

Apathy

15%

Divine Command

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)
created with QuizFarm.com

Felting and stitch markers

2005-05-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

I weaved in the ends on the cushion yesterday and threw it in the wash to felt, 3 cycles later this came out
Before felting 2'x2'

After felting 17"x17" approximatly

Its pretty crooked and warped, but I figure once it's sewed to the backing and stuffed full of batting that should sort of even out and well if not, it'll be an "artistic piece".

I also got around to making myself some stitch markers yesterday.

I started the Flirty Ruffles Shawl and needed the markers so I wouldnt loose my way through the repeats. I've made a few more this morning as I've already got all of these ones on the needles and I've got a pattern increase coming up :)

Heres a look at the first 50 rows or so of the shawl.

I should be working this on a circular, but I havent bought the right size yet, so the pointy end of the shawl is actually the straight top edge, so it looks funny.

Pictures

2005-05-09T10:34:00.000-04:00

Alpaca/wool blend cone

Little coin purse

Noro cushion, in progress,

Sunday night blogging

2005-05-08T21:02:00.000-04:00

So I've been meaning to post updates on my various project and knit related activities but I've been indulging in the actual act of knitting as opposed to the act of reporting on it these past few days.
Thursday was my birthday and although I could have taken the day off, I decided I would work. I only had 3 appointments, the first one being at 12, so I decided to do a bit of shopping at the LYS in the morning. I dropped James off at work and then heading to Mouline. I wasnt sure what time she opened but I figured if not for 9am, then probably for 10. Got there at 9:24 and saw she was closed and noticed the opening hour being 11 :( I hadnt brought any WIPs with me to work on while I waited, so I decided to drive back closer to home and try out La Tricoteuse, although I had heard negative reviews about the place. The place is packed with yarns and patterns. I walked around the store 3 times and then left; nothing inspired me. I drove back down to Mouline and waited for her to open. By this time I had an idea what it was I was after and so when I got in I went straight for the Noro Kureyon. I've never felted knitting before, nor have I worked with this yarn, but I've always loved the colours. I wasnt sure what I was going to knit but I picked up 5 different coloured skeins. Svetlana even had a few new colours in stock which she hadnt put on display yet that she took out for me. I was very happy with my purchase.
The project that developped from those skeins and which is almost finished at this point in a large cushion cover. I expect it will shrink considerably when it felts, and I cant wait to see the finished product.
The skeins dont appear to have been the same lenght, so I've used some of the left over and knitted a small change purse for my mom. I felted it and sewed in a velcro strip. Mami , si tu lis ceci ce soir, oublie ca et soit surprise demain quand je te le donnerais.
I also received my lace weight alpaca/wool blend yarn on Friday. It's incredibly soft and very pretty. I dont have the right size dnps or circulars to start on the Orchid Leaf Pi Shawl, which is just as well I guess; its giving me time to finish the cushion and I think I will be knitting the Ruffles shawl first. That pattern and yarn should be arriving this week.
On Saturday, I met up with some of the ladies from Montreal Knits and we had a great time. Lots of laughs and had a very productive knitting afternoon. Although my butt is still sore from the 4 hours spent on the Second Cup chair tee hee
I'll try to get some pictures posted soon of my latest knitted things.
The pups need to go for their evening walk now.

Busy Day

2005-05-02T18:43:00.000-04:00

I finally went this morning and had my Ontario's drivers license switched the the Quebec one. I was nervous about it, thinking they were going to give me a hassle about having waited 2-3 years to do it, but the lady who treated my request was very nice. She didnt ask any questions or anything and even wished me an early happy birthday.
I also just bought a cone of alpaca/wool blend lace weight yarn for 6.60$ Canadian! It will be more then enough for the Orchid Leaf Pi Shawl for which I bought the pattern earlier this week. The yarn was a clearance item from an online store. Only colour they had left was light grey, but at that price, I'm not complaining :)
I also made ( or rather I should say 'assembled" as I did not actually bake it ) this cake and it is very yummy.

I also knit this really cute little slipper, the pattern can be found here. Slipper Pattern
Here are some pictures of the first one, the second is on the needles as I write this.

The insanity!

2005-04-30T22:01:00.000-04:00

I have spent the last week searching every possible online source for laceweight yarns and shawl patterns trying to find the absolute best deal and the perfect pattern.
I dont know if I succeeded in either case, but it doesnt matter; I've placed my order and now my fate is sealed.
The shawl is The Flirty Ruffles Shawl
And the yarn is Vanilla Zephyr

I know this is not the most original colour choice, but I just couldnt see any other more vibrant or variegated colour, no matter how pretty, do justice to this vintage style shawl.
I have to keep reminding myself that this is not the only shawl I can knit, and can order more yarn and patterns any time. But still I obsess.

What kind of English

2005-04-30T12:45:00.000-04:00

This is what the quiz gave for me, but what about Canadian English, Eh?!

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% General American English

25% Yankee

20% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Birthday prezzie for me!!

2005-04-29T23:15:00.000-04:00

Although my birthday isnt until Thursday, James decided to give me my present today. (He went shopping this afternoon and I think he was excited to see my reaction, or maybe I've rubbed off on him with my not being able to keep secrets and things)
Anyhow, when he had asked me what I wanted a few weeks ago, I couldnt really think of anything special that I either needed or really wanted, but I said I wouldnt object to an iPod shuffle or a few knitting books I've had my eye on. Well, being the amazing man that he is, he decided to go off the beaten path and actually go shopping ( something I would never do, I like knowing what I'm buying and where I'm getting it) and look in different shops around where we live until he found something that would "click".
At Valet de Coeur he found what he was looking for, this kaleidoscope.
I was ( am) absolutly thrilled with my new toy. I remember having a cardboard one as a kid and loving it but eventually it broke. I never would have thought of asking for a gift like this, but he just knew that I would love it when he saw it. Now that's the mark of a special (unusual, abnormal?) man if you ask me. Tee hee.

Whisper Scarf progress

2005-04-25T20:12:00.000-04:00

Row 86 complete.

And now for some puppy content

New Blog and noisy neighbourghood

2005-04-25T12:09:00.000-04:00

This past weekend James decided to give his blog, The Skwirl's Ramblings a major face lift and a new lease on life.
I'm quite enjoying it so far and expect that it will only get better as time goes on.

Now on another note. I'm really annoyed with my neighbourghood. There have been mass protests across the province,(and at a specific gathering ground at the local college a few blocks away) in recent months regarding education. I thought it was all over a few weeks ago but this morning I opened my windows and heard that the CEGEP a few blocks away decided to start off the week with another protest. Cars honking, people screaming, what sounds like a bunch of drums on steroids, sirens etc.
This place is driving me nuts. Maybe that explains why "the Skwirl" like its so much here.

Whisper Scarf

2005-04-20T20:45:00.000-04:00

Heres a picture of the first 45 rows of my Whisper Scarf. It doesnt look half as good in the picture as it does "live". Wish I could afford a better camera.

finished scarf

2005-04-20T17:42:00.001-04:00

I've finished my Branching Out scarf, just need to block it.

Here are a few pictures:
BTW please disrergard the tired/silly looking person in those photos, I have no idea who she is.

"Just for me KAL"

2005-04-10T11:42:00.000-04:00

On the Busy Knitting list, we've started a KAL today to knit something just for us.
My pattern is the Branching Out Scarf, from the last Knitty issue.
I choose for my yarn, Inca Gold Baby Alpaca. The colour doesnt have a name on the
label, but I can describe it as a really pretty dark slightly blueish
green.
Here's a picture of the WIP and skein.

The details of the lace arent coming out very well on that background colour, I will take a better picture once I've made some more progress.
I also bought some mohair in a lovely dark lilac/grey colour.

This yarn will be used to knit one of the Whisper Scarves

Easter dog

2005-03-27T16:37:00.000-05:00

My baby dressed up for Easter.

Lots of new stuff

2005-03-21T18:56:00.000-05:00

So I havent posted in over a month. Didnt realize time had gone by so fast. Been pretty busy with work and coming home really tired isnt too condusive to blogging.
Here are some of the things I've been working on though.

This is a shawl I'm knitting for me, probably will stay at the WIP stage forever, just not motivated to finish it.

This was an afghan square I tried out for fun, while I was looking for a pattern I liked. Didnt like the pattern enough to knit an afghan but figure I can probably use this as a cushion cover at some point.

This is also a pattern I was playing around with for my afghan, made up the cable pattern myself. Dont really like it.

This is a baby blanket I'm knitting for Project Linus.

Two different shots of a panel I designed myself, to be eventually part of a empire waist style top I'm knitting for myself. I havent worked on this in a while, but I really like the way its coming out and will no doubt be motivated to work on it again at some point.

Another baby blanket, similar to one I knit last year, but I've played around with the pattern a bit to fit my needs this time around. Planning on giving it to a friend who had a baby a few weeks ago.

This is a bra/halter/bikini top I designed and knit today. This is my first completed project that I have designed myself. I'm pretty proud of it, although it doesnt fit quite the way I want it to; its a good starts to rework it again and improve. I wrote the pattern as I was knitting, so it'll be easy to knit again. I also worked in some short row shaping to give it some structure. That came out rather well :) I can easily envision this be decorated a bit with some embroidery....

Afghan saga, cont.

2005-02-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

So I posted a while back about being on the a quest to find the perfect afghan pattern.
I tried the celtic afghan, then found a bunch of square patterns to be assembled. I tried a simple pattern from the skein label. I found a nice but boring pattern on that particular yarns website. Anyways, so here I am, still stuck at the start and frog stage. Yesterday I found a really neat 19th century pattern. It was "translated" into more modern abbreviations, I started it out, and either way the pattern doesnt make sense, the # of stitches doesnt add up. Here it is, can anyone figure it out?
http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/counterpanes/shell.htm

Then I found a really simple cable pattern, although maybe too simple, there were hardly any instruction except " every 12 rows, cross the 8 stitches cables" Yeah that's clear as mud.
I started with the basic set up and made up my own cables as I went. I'm not happy with this either.
I think today though I have found a solution to calm my seemingly insane need to knit an afghan.
http://www.projectlinus.org/
This way, since I'm not knitting for me, I'm much more likely to not be quite so neurotic about finding THE pattern. Wish me luck.

First Sock, ever!!

2005-02-14T09:53:00.000-05:00

I finally finished my first sock ever yesterday. It sucks... but hey, I knew it would, I knit it too big and didnt follow a pattern, I made a tub sock... When I started this about 6 months ago, I had the intention of getting comfertable with double point needles before actually attempting to tackle anything more daunting, like an actual sock pattern with heel turning and stuff. I have a whole skein plus extra left over from the skein I used. Its a cool colour though, like kids crayons or circus tent colour so I'd like to find something to knit to use it up, wrist warmers?. Yeah, maybe I'll just be sticking to tubular things...
Picture will follow sometime later today hopefully.

Slow winter

2005-02-03T08:40:00.000-05:00

I'm off work today, again. Dont get me wrong, I love time off, I live for it, which is one of the reasons I chose this type of work; Independant contractor. It means I get to choose my own hours, where I want to work and how much. But winter in Quebec means people arent thinking about getting their pets washed and clipped. So when no one schedules, I get the day off, and a dwindling income.... Ah oh well. I figure as long as the bills are paid and I can afford decent groceries I shouldnt complain, so many people have it of worse then me. But it would be so nice to be able to make enough to save a bit, buy some new yarns, get that new tattoo I want, but James a really nice birthday gift, be able to afford that new computer he says he cant live without, renew my drivers licence, buy clothes!!! (Last time I bought myself any new clothes was probably over a year ago)... So yeah, I dont want to complain but then again, I'd like to not have to calculate my budget so tightly and have to plan months in advance for certain basic needs ( clothes!!)
In the mean time, this funk has translated into other aspects of daily living. I havent been motivated to take down the recycling to the bins in the building's basement. We have a pile about 3 feet high by 4 feet wide of recyclables, waiting in the hallway. I should be doing that today, along with folding 4-5 cleans loads of laundry, starting a new load, doing the dishes, but I cant seem to get my butt off this couch and get it done.
I've also started to knit a sweater from my very own original pattern, I'd like to also feel motivated to work on it, but somehow I seem to be more inclinded to think about knitting and enjoying the fantasy then actually doing it. When I pick up the needles, I knit maybe 10 minutes and then get bored and I end up just sitting there trying to get myself started on something else.
So that's my exciting life at the moment, I hope reading this hasnt depressed you all too much. I actually kind of feel better...Hmm maybe I will muster up the courage to face the recycling task today after all :)

Hat for my sweetie

2005-01-23T18:33:00.000-05:00

I decided to knit James a hat so that he could have a few different ones to choose from depending on his mood and how cold it is. His regular hat is very thick, so this one I knit a bit more lightweight.
I think I might have to knit myself one as well :)
This is also my first designing project, I took inspiration from an already existing pattern for the directions to knit it flat and then shape it to be round, but I changed a few things to customize it. I'm not quite brave enough yet to just knit something out of thin air. I like things to fit on the first try.

Wash cloth #2

2005-01-23T18:30:00.000-05:00

Here's another wash cloth I knit recently.

wash cloth

2005-01-03T21:57:00.000-05:00

I've finished my second 2005 knitting project this afternoon. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to knit small simple projects that dont take weeks to complete.

I think I will now go enjoy a shower, try out my new little wash cloth with some apple blossom body wash my mom gave me :)

Lace bookmark

2005-01-02T14:05:00.000-05:00

My first knitted project of the year is completed! The pattern called for crochet cotton, which I have somewhere but when I started yesterday I wasnt in the mood to go searching for it, so I grabbed the closest thing at the top of one of my stash bags that I could find; laceweight fuschia mohair....

It didnt turn out quite like I would have wanted, too big and it has no body, but it is soft. And well, that colour is a bit bright. It' a pine tree with snow flakes falling, although the picture isnt too clear.
I think I will be digging out that crochet cotton after all.

Afghan frustrations!

2004-12-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

Since before Christmas I've been trying to start work on the Celtic Knot Afghan. I got caught up in Christmas knitting and finally returned to it yesterday.
I had bought a circular needle because I wanted to knit it in one piece as opposed to 3 panels like the pattern says and I'd been rewritting the pattern to be simpler to follow.
Well after4 hours I gave up for various reasons.
First I hate circular needles, the size difference between the needle and cable part just dont make for smooth fast knitting when you constantly have to inch the stitches back on the needle, and even though I knit relatively loosely,the stitches would seem to shrink and be almost impossible to get back on the needle.
Second, the pattern is a nightmare, my rewrite had a few mistakes in it and I had to frog it 3 times. I am not a happy frogger, and will usually do anything to avoid it.
Third, I realised that I much preffer working with smaller needles 5.5mm being the largest I like. This pattern called for 6.5mm and I just didnt like the feel of them. My favorite size is usually 4mm.
So yeah I'm picky and a whiner.
I really love that pattern though, so I think I will put it aside for a while, give myself time to recover from this "ordeal" and come back to it later.
In the mean time I do want to knit an afghan so I spent most of the afternoon yesterday finding a pattern that I liked and that would fit the quantity and type of yarn I have and use a needle size I like. Well I think I found it :)
On the Crafttown web site there are 6 square patterns under the knit afghan section; Rosebuds, Lace, Hearts, Lattice, Grapevine and Bows. I dont know if the squares are meant to be used together in the same afghan. Although all six patterns give the same requirements, gauge and final size, the number of cast on stitches varies for each square. The pattern does call for a crochet border and says to eye ball 48sc per side so maybe that evens them out to be workable together. I guess I'll see as I work on it. I was thinking also of alternating between green and purple for the crochet border of each square to help break up the beige. I'll post pictures as it comes along.

Cody's fan page

2004-12-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

DBF is on his Christmas holidays right now and trying to occupy his time with fun little projects. I thought I'd share with you all his latest completed work; Cody's fan page.
Take a look, it's pretty cute and I've been told by my secret informants that sometime in the future Karla ( our greyhound) might also be lucky enough to get her own fan page as well, so keep an eye out for that. :)

KnitPicker

2004-12-28T09:57:00.000-05:00

My dbf has written a neat little program to calculate stitches per row when given the intructions for that row.
It only works with MacOS 10.3 or greater, so if you have the requierements and want to try it out, you can find it at:
skwirl.com: KnitPicker

Finished the gift on time

2004-12-25T21:50:00.000-05:00

Since I wont be seeing my mom until tomorrow, boxing day, I was happy to be able to work on her Moebius scarf today and finally finished it, so it will be ready in time for our little late family Christmas.

I've never worked the kitchener stitch before and realised half way through the seam that there must be a different order to it depending if it's for a garter stitch of stockinette stitch fabric. I was working the kitchener as if it were for stockinette and so although the seam is flat, it does not blend in the fabric. I was rather annoyed and tired by this point and was too confused to back track and start over. So to solve this little boo boo, I stitched in place the twist of the moebius and by doing so hid the seam, but I would have prefered the scarf to be free flowing and the twist to move along the fabric. (Does that make sense?) Anyways at this point, I'm just happy it finished.

Christmas dinner

2004-12-25T21:44:00.000-05:00

James and I spent Christmas day just the two of us, we are going to my parents place tomorrow.
I made a rather untraditional meal, but my mom will make up for it tomorrow, so I'm not worried.
Here's a picture of our table.

I made cheddar and apple cider fondue ( which I really liked, first time making it too), with pumpernickle cubes, apple slices, bread sticks and summer sausage for dipping. As well as potato skins, and veggie dip. Needless to say that we didnt eat half of what I had made. Lots of left overs!! yummy.

Moebius scarf

2004-12-10T19:14:00.000-05:00

Here is the progress on my mom's Christmas present. We went to the LYS today to pick out a yarn to use for the crochet border, I dont think I have enough of the base yarn to do it with.
She picked the colors and I think it will be funky if nothing else, not a combination I would wear but she's not a shy lady :)

Close up of the lace edge

This is the link to the pattern

Karla's new coat

2004-12-10T19:08:00.000-05:00

I lost Karla's old winter coat so I had to sew her up a new one. Here are a few pictures of her modeling her new one, along with pictures of her and Cody wearing their booties for the first time this season. Tee hee my sweet little monsters...

Licking her nose

Cody looking at his "sister" sleeping

Full body shot

Bootie shot

baby blanket squares

2004-12-10T19:03:00.000-05:00

With the Busy Knitting group, we are doing a baby blanket square project for a few of the expectant mothers in the group, here are mine. I finally mailed them off today.

This week

2004-12-07T17:02:00.000-05:00

I've put aside the celtic afghan for the moment to concentrate on other things. Life has been a bit hectic lately, the weather sucks and I'm really not in the Christmas mood this year. I hope it kicks in soon.

Piston's sweater

2004-11-27T21:50:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of my mom's dog, Piston in the little sweater I knit for him.

New project

2004-11-22T17:52:00.000-05:00

I've started knitting up this piece with the yarn James' mother gave me.

Weekend

2004-11-22T13:42:00.000-05:00

Just got back from our weekend at James' parents' place. We celebrated Christmas with them; there was no other weekend between now and Christmas were everybody could get together. We had lots of fun, great food and I got a whole bunch more yarn! Enough to make two small afghans I think , So I'm certainly going to be busy for a while :) I also finished the dog sweater for my parents' dog and it fits him really well, but I forgot to take a picture of him, so hopefully I'll remember when I see them next, and post that soon.

Yarn!

2004-11-16T19:14:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of the yarn I received yesterday from my ebay purchase. :D

Puppy sweater

2004-11-16T19:12:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of the sweater I am currently knitting for Piston, my mom's Italian Greyhound. Should keep the little bugger warm. :)

Busy weekend

2004-11-16T08:47:00.000-05:00

I'm getting back to work this morning after a long weekend, being pretty busy.
Friday I cleaned the house and knitted. Saturday we went Christmas shopping the whole day, had dinner at my parents house. Sunday I relaxed a bit, worked on my mom's dog knitted sweater, watched a couple of movies. Yesterday I was really busy, running around to different stores, came home and somehow the work I had put in on Friday cleaning up the place seemed lost. I did the dishes, the laundry, and I made the dogs some raincoats. I still have to sew my greyhound a new winter coat, seems we lost her other one. It's a good thing we've had a mild fall so far. Now this morning I had trouble getting out of bed and am feeling way too tired. I thought weekends were for resting?
I got my shipment of yarn also yesterday, the auction I won on ebay. I love the colours even more in person then on the pictures. I've started planning in my head all the projects I will knit up with it.
I should get ready for work now I guess. I'll post some pictures tonight of the stash :)

One more project completed

2004-11-12T19:55:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of the pneumonia prevention vest I finished today.

Front.

Back.

Now on to other projects :)

Smelly dog

2004-11-11T20:56:00.000-05:00

Well here I am, having survived yesterday, the day I didnt want to participate in.
After taking the cold long walk up the hill to catch the bus yesterday morning, I came into work to face my first client of the day; a 100lbs Samoyed named Frago that had decided to make friends with Mr. Skunk. So yeah, that was fun. The day was stressful for various reasons and to top it all off, I waited an hour for my last client to show up and she never did, didnt call either. I hate it when people do that. Had dinner with a friend which made things all better again and made me ready to face today, which I have also survived and so here I am at home resting and planning all sorts of restfull knitting for the weekend.
I'm almost done knitting my first pneumonia prevention vest. I definatly have to finish my scarf this weekend. My mother has asked me to knit her little dog a coat and this lady I know through work has placed an order for a hat. So I will be busy, but happily so. Just me and my yarn and no skunky dogs.

I want to stay home today

2004-11-10T08:36:00.000-05:00

Woke up feeling a bit crappy, it's starting to get really cold out, I dont want to go and walk to the bus and freeze and I dont want to work today. I just want to stay at home and knit. Is that too much to ask for?

It's finished!

2004-11-07T19:36:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of the baby blanket that I finally finished this morning after working on it intermittently for 6 months!.

Full blanket

Border close up

Bad embroidery closeup

And one of my very sweet puppy sleeping for good mesure ;)

More yarn!

2004-11-07T08:41:00.000-05:00

I just won an amazing auction on ebay this morning for 57 skeins of brand new yarn! Cant wait to receive it. I'll post pics when it comes :)

Nearing the end.

2004-11-06T22:16:00.000-05:00

Back in April of this year I found out one of my very close friends was expecting her first child. Obviously excited at the the news, I threw myself into a knit baby blanket and worked furiously for a few days and got about half way done, then life got in the way and the blanket was put aside to be finished at a later date. The months wore on, progress was slow.
She had her baby last week, and just this morning I finished assembling the last piece and will be finishing the border tomorrow, and posting a picture!
The original border in the pattern was a very lacy knit, I was about 1/3 way through when I decided it was too much of a pain to finish. The blanket itself is very lacy, so I will finish it with a simple garter border and that will be just fine I think :)

Getting organized

2004-11-05T19:00:00.000-05:00

I dont think I'm the only one with this problem but I find it incredibly annoying; all my knitting stuff is a mess! I have needles everywhere, skeins in bags under the bed, skeins in bags in dark corners of the condo. I have a book case (that I had emptied when I was planning on adopting a pair of rats and making a cage out of it for them) that is now full of all sorts of crafting things... and I'm not even taking into consideration the zillions of free patterns I've printed with the hopes of one day getting around to knitting them up that are scattered everywhere. The sad part is that I would have time to get my stash organized, but the task seems entierly insurmountable, I dont even start, I wouldnt know where to.
I wish I could say that I'm done complaining, but I'm in one of those really bad moods today where I havent accomplished half of what I had set out to do, and this issue keeps coming out in the back of my mind... Ugh.
On a happier note I'm more then half way through knitting my scarf. This is a very good thing since it's supposed to snow here over night and I really want to start wearing it soon.
I think I'll go knit a bit now, that should put me in a better mood.

ATLANTIC MISSION SOCIETY

2004-11-04T08:33:00.000-05:00

I found this site through a knitting group I belong to. If there are any knitters (other then the ladies from Busy Knitting that are reading this, it's a great project to consider knitting for.

Fun stuff

2004-11-02T17:02:00.000-05:00

This is a site that I found one long boring day about a year ago when I was at my old job (obviously very busy doing my work, wink wink). And I thought it would be a good idea to link it here. It's very rainy out today where I am, a good day to bum around and play games.

GangstaKnitter

2004-11-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

I dont know whether this is funny or incredibly disturbing... Either way, I had to play my part in helping it make it's way through the web.

First day is over

2004-11-01T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well I made it through my first day as a blogger with remarkable success. I set up a bunch of neat features, figured out how to posts my picture and even improvised a bit of html that I remembered from high school computer class. Wow never thought I would actually use that stuff, next thing I'll be doing algebra in the real world...
Dinner came out rather well also. I spent something like 2 1/2 hours cooking all of it. I made the shami kebabs, not as good at the ones I've had in restaurants but pretty decent. They actually look more like chocolate cookies with chunks of macadamia nuts and now I've been craving cookies all evening. I also made masoor dahl soup. James added way too much salt so I had to fix it but it came out well considering the mishap. I also made naan bread but I used whole wheat flour this time and it came out better then usual. Along with some basmati rice the whole meal was great. I was planning on making a veggie curry also, but I got tired...
Now I go to to bed all rosie cheeked and proud of all I've accomplished today. :)

Shami Kebab - YumYum.Com

2004-11-01T17:49:00.000-05:00

I love indian food. I think I'm going to try making shami kebab for dinner tonight.

First blog post ever!

2004-11-01T14:28:00.000-05:00

Wow, here I am. Never thought I would ever end up with a blog, but the allure of writting endlessly about anything I want to talk about was more then I could handle. Tee hee. So far it all seems pretty easy to figure out.

I started knitting another scarf yesterday. I say "another" because I cant ever seem to start a project and stick to it but this one seems to be keeping my attention so far. I like simple projects but that have a variety of easy steps. Keeps me on my toes.