Ciao bellas

Well, this is it. We leave at an obscenely early hour on Saturday so tomorrow will be spent packing and getting together last minute stuff we'd almost forgot. Or, in my case, freaking out. But I think we're okay. The clothes are finished. I managed to find things to dress up the monkey. And the ipod is almost loaded. I still have to try to figure what can and cannot go in the carry-ons, but that shouldn't take long. What will take a while is me pondering how I can threaten an airplane with eyeshadow.
While I'm off touring ancient Rome and basking in the sun on exotic isles, the blog will likely not be updated. Nobody wants to come home to a three week old post that has no comments. So here's the deal: I will make sure to pick up a few extra weird and wonderful goodies on my travels and will offer them up as prizes. It'll be a random drawing from all the people that comment on this post. Make 'em interesting folks, I'm not pretty when I'm bored!
And as a final note, Sock Wars will end while I'm away. This makes me truly happy. I offed three people with Socks of Doom and will hopefully be dead with my very own pair of socks by the time I get home. I made it into the last hundred alive out of almost eight hundred and a very nice assassin in the UK said she was off to buy yarn for my impending doom today. Hooray! I can't understand why no one wanted to kill me, seems like any number of people around here would line up for that opportunity...

PS: The skeins in the pic are beast and BFL. I haven't been able to concentrate on my knitting much lately so I've been spinning up pretty coloured stuff from my stash. There's another 100g of BFL in reds, browns and purples on the wheel now and I'll ply it off before we leave. I'm really enjoying the sort of tweedy, stripey things these rovings are creating when I ply them back on themselves. It reminds me of the Trekking ombres. With 100g, I can make socks or a couple of hats or mitts, wrist warmers, the list goes on.

SP Goodies!

My SP for this round sent me this cool kitty basket for Halloween. You'll have to take my word for it that it was full of treats when it arrived. In fact, there were so many little chocolate bars in it that I didn't find the Satsuma body butter for three days! It was a pretty nice surprise when we ate down that far. So, many thanks to my SP and I love the card!


This is the pretty mystery beast fibre currently on the wheel and here is the tequila sunrise stuff plyed, but not washed:


I think I might make a couple of the hats from a previous post with it.


And this, this my friends is the motherlovin' charkha. Not only did it arrive safe and sound, but no duty! This is a very nice change after the chain of unpleasant events earlier this week. In fact, other than the yucky cold I have right now (which has turned me into a sneezy oozing mess) things are actually better.
We don't have plane tickets, but at least we have the flight info. The flights aren't great, but we get to Rome in time which was starting to look kinda doubtful. The monkey even got us seats together for all but one of the flights. And no, the travel agancy had NOT booked us seats. Thanks to the quick-thinking monkey that little disaster was averted.
My dress clothes are almost done. We had to add a fitting, but there's still lots of time and the ladies at Bernardi's (sorry, no website) doing the work have been wonderful. I can't believe anyone would ever buy a ready-made dress when you can have the dress of your dreams handmade for so little. These ladies have been simply amazing and they make you feel really good.
Some of you have expressed concern over me being gone so long and not having anything to do. Not to fear! I have wound off enough yarn for two stoles, assembled the beads for a peyote bag, bought 9 books, and I'm considering taking a cross-stitch as well. Pretty sure that'll keep me covered for three weeks. Especially since I plan to take the Italian lessons offered on the ship. The monkey also got me an 8G ipod and I've spent the last couple of weeks transferring every cd I own (around 300) onto it. Should keep me going.
And oh yeah, enough sock yarn for two pairs for knitting on the plane. I'm open to suggestions from those of you who still think I'll be bored...

Happy Halloween!

Loki has been very touched by all the concern expressed over his enlarged heart. He wanted everyone to know that he's not letting it slow him down at all and offered to model for today's blog to let you all know he's doing well.
Loki thought it would be fun to dress up like a cat for Halloween, so I made him the Kitty helmet from Stitch and Bitch. It was a very quick knit. I started it last night and finished it around lunchtime today.


This past weekend was a whirlwind of family. The monkey's brother and his family stopped by for a couple of days and we went over to Victoria to see the new niece, Aurora. Got a great pic of the monkey and the baby. She seems to find the monkey highly amusing.
We're still on plane ticket watch around here. No sign of them yet. Stress levels are reaching Big Bird alert. Funny thing though, the travel agency sent us a lovely form to fill out regarding our thoughts as to their performance. Since we will be needing this vacation more than ever after dealing with these morons, we'll be sure to fill it out and send it back promptly. Not that it will do any good. Perhaps we need to send a more convincing message. Maybe I'll send Guido around to "talk" to them. He just looooves to chat!

Warning: Rant to follow

Life lately has been a little more nausea inducing than usual.
The monkey is taking me on an amazing holiday next month. We start in Italy and then cruise to Barcelona and down through the Canaries, Dominican Republic and then end in Ft Lauderdale. Sounds great, right? Yeah, it would be except for a few small problems.
1. The travel company has yet to send out out plane tickets. We leave in two weeks and I am a little on the anal-retentive side. Give me another week and I'll be looking for someone's head on a plate. I expect the hyperventilating to start any time now.
2. The travel company sent us a notice about our trip to Northern Europe in May. Since we're not planning to go to Northern Europe in May, but rather southern Italy in November, I was a little concerned. Where it says, "a little concerned", in the previous sentence please insert the words, "ready to send hot firey death to every travel agent involved in this debacle".
3. The travel company ignored our wishes about cabin placement and put us, "where ever".
4. Our beloved doggy has severe congestive heart failure. This means he has a REALLY enlarged hert and has to be on meds for the rest of his life. We are fairly upset. He doesn't seem to care at all. We only found out yesterday.
5. Cruises are fancy. VERY FANCY. Again, this likely doesn't sound like a bad thing to most people, but the monkey and I live in jeans and tees. We've had to drop a bundle on clothes just so we'll be able to eat dinner on the ship. It's not a huge problem, but one we didn't forsee and oh, did I mention we leave in two weeks?!
6. The monkey has had to work an extra two days this month and is pretty stressed.
7. The in-laws arrive tomorrow (they didn't bother to say when, just sometime friday). to spend the night and we're supposed to leave Saturday morning to visit the new niece.
8. Mothereffing sock wars. WTF was I thinking when I joined this giant clusterf#$? Why won't it just end? If no one's killed me off by the end of next week, I am committing ritual suicide by sock. Enough already! It's been poorly executed and not even mildly moderated and I will never do this again. There's a special place in hell for people who cause things like this to happen. I think it entails knittng the same pilly ball of scritchy acrylic for all eternity.
The travel stuff wouldn't be so bad if the agency would just answer our questions (or the phone at all) and give us straight answers or at least pretend to know wtf is going on. It been pretty frustrating. I'm having some dress clothes made because it's just too bloody hard to find party dresses at this time of year. Now I just have to find some khakis and a sport jacket for the monkey.
I've had the hair cut and coloured. I've got the makeup and necessities situation in hand. Passports are up to date. Bills will be paid up. And all the usual stuff is on the lists. Yeah, I said LISTS. I'm mildly anal- retentive remember? And okay, maybe a little compulsive, but I don't like surprises. Especially surprises like, "you don't have anywhere to stay in Rome, SURPRISE!".
I can totally live without that.
And hey, I almost forgot, the charkha is actually in transit. The bloody thing finally shipped. Of course, that's all that shipped. No spare spindles, no pre-ordered drop spindles or charkha carry bag. It took two days and six emails just to sort that charming mess out. So, after all was said and done, I decided to be happy that the charkha shipped and not hold my breath on the rest of the stuff. If it comes great, if it doesn't, you'll all hear about it and the company I dealt with. Did I mention that I was a little vindictive?
And to soften the rant for all of you who stuck with it to this point, a pic of the Gem with it's new goodies:


That's Winderwood BFL on there. I'm doing a 2 ply double knit. It reminds of tequila sunrises. Maybe I'll go have one now.

Warm Monkey

I finally finished the Monkey's Kureyon sweater and he was even willing to model it! I've knit him quite a few sweaters over the years, most of them don't get worn. Not only did he put this one on, he wore it for the rest of the evening. I think he likes it.
In other knitting news, I'm knitting another Sock Wars weapon. I've waited for two weeks for an incomplete weapon to arrive from my last victim, but it hasn't arrived yet. So I got permission from my next victim to make her SOD from scratch. I chose some Fleece Artist BFL in muddy purples and pinks and it looks great. I have enough for at least two pairs of socks, so I may commit sock suicide.
I've got the back of the Wanderlust Hoodie done and the front is on the needles.

My package from Penny, my Tea Swap Pal arrived this week. She sent me some green tea with jasmine (one's from Israel and it's really good), a ball of Trekking in colors I love, a little graph paper notebook, some raspberry filled chocolates and a pretty little bag she made for me. It's been fun emailling with Penny as she wants to learn to spindle and is going to Rhinebeck. One of these years I wanna go to Rhinebeck.
On the spinning front, Lynne ordered some stuff to help me get the Gem working more to my liking and I can't believe the HUGE difference it made. I switched the regular whorl for the fast one, the regular flyer for the lace one and the bobbins for baby bobbins. Thing spins like a dream now. I no longer feel like I'm on a hamster wheel when Im treadling. It's awesome. Totally smooth, fast and just damn nice. I used to tolerate this wheel because it was the best of the portable wheels I'd tried, but now, I actually like it. It's going to make classes much more enjoyable.

the horror, the horror...

So, I order this yarn off ebay from Uruguay. On my monitor, it looks pretty good. Burgundy, deep green and gold. It's cheap and I can certainly live with the colors. When it arrives, I am faced with this:


A fair bit of swearing ensued.
I tucked it away and pulled it out every so often to try to convince myself it wasn't that bad. It's been a year now and I remain unconvinced. It still makes my butt clench so hard that it moves three inches up my back. Not a happy reaction. A couple of days ago I decided, "screw it, I'll just sell it off cheap". Today I decided, "hell, may as well try dyeing it". Figured it couldn't hurt. If I still didn't like it, I could sell it, if I liked it, well, yay.


I like it.
This I also like:

I can't stop listening to it. I've made the monkey listen to it more than once. I don't think he's quite as enamoured as I am. He's more classic rock or contemporary (insert small involuntary shudder here) rock. But it reminds me of 70's Alice Cooper. I now have a warm squishy spot in my heart for Rob Zombie.
Perhaps he'd like to be my new monkey. Hey, a girl can dream.
Anthea, this is for you:


A few handspun, handknit hats for your sale. More to come. Hope you like 'em.

Rogue is done

I finsihed all the seaming on Rogue yesterday. All it needs now is a good steam. It's a great sweater that I think I'll get a lot of wear out of once the weather gets a little cooler. It's nice and long and the wool/alpaca blend is pretty toasty. I've already started work on the Wanderlust Hoodie.


I'd forgotten how fast chunky knits up. I've already knit five balls and I just pulled another bag of ten out of the stash closet. I should probably knit up all the chunky out there first. Just think of the gratification! Big holes in the stash cupboards, projects done in record time. Ooooooh, big holes in the stash cupboards, I'm all tingly just thinking about it.


And hey, I haven't forgotten about the monkey's anniversary pressie. I've got the back and about a third of the front done. Now that he's seen it, I don't have to work on it covertly. So I work on it at night when the light is crappy, 'cause it's a boring pattern that I don't really have to pay attention to. It takes 15 balls of Kureyon, so it's making room too!
Sock Wars is slowly moving forward. I've finally heard from my assassin, but now she's dead, and I've killed two warm-footed victims. I'm now waiting for news of my next victim.
As for the Dr enforced weight-loss, I'm down four pounds and have a week and a half before I have to see him again.

OMG!!!!!

With the sad demise of You Knit What, I have been relegated to finding knitting monstrosities all on my lonesome. I do come across some pretty scary/hilarious stuff, but this one wins and I had to share it:


I found it here and believe or not, she has more. I just thought I'd post the blue one for well, let's face it, obvious reasons.
Hmmm, think she's aiming for the fetish market?

SP9 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I like natural fibres. Wool for winter and soft stuff if it's going to be next to my skin. Acrylic and I are not friends.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have numerous folders and bags and a drawers that they mostly live in.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting since I was 5. That was a while ago. I guess I'm fairly advanced.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yup, Amazon.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Citrus! I like jasmine too.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I love chocolate. Chocolate covered apricots are my fave, but they're hard to find.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I spin, do needlework, beadwork and woodworking.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I have fairly odd taste in music. Best to steer clear of me and music.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I like blue, purple, burgundy, black and charcoal.
I stay clear of yellow, orange and most greens.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Two cats, one dog and one large domesticated house monkey (aka my guy).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes to the first three and an "omg aren't we done with those things yet?" to the last.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Sweaters and I use socks as a sort of palette cleanser between big projects.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Three adult sweaters, a baby sweater, a hat, three or four pairs of socks (I lost track), two shawls and a stuffed fish.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Very much.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I usually use addi circs.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yes to both.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
I am sooo not telling you that. People in the swap may be younger than it.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Drop spindles, nosties, comics and of course, yarn and fibre.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I'd like to try Lisa Souza's stuff, the new Neil Gaiman book, I subscribe to SpinOff.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Two socks at the same time on two circs.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes. US7.5.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd) Dec. 20.

Rogue almost done!

The body of Rogue is done! I started the sleeves last night and I think I'll have the sweater in one piece in a few days. This thing is knitting up so fast, and the alpaca/wool blend yarn is really soft and warm. The cables are showing up nicely even though I chose a dark color and the yarn does have a bit of a halo. And remember how I said that it was a perfect project 'cause the weather was all drizzley and grey and cold? The day after I started this, we were back to 25-28C days. Like I said before, I have sucky timing. Oh well, soon I will be on to my next project, which I think is going to be this:


I've got a bunch of black Bliss chunky merino that's just screaming to be this sweater. Not to mention how much stash room it would free up. 25 50g balls!! That's a good chunk of space. I get giddy just thinking about it.


I hadn't had any new spindles for weeks and then I suddenly have six new ones in less than a week. It's a conspiracy I tell ya! The spindles are homing in on me and sending themselves here. Now I have to find a storage solution for these things. Anyway, here's another etched Larson and a purpleheart Spindlewood. And no, I still haven't had a chance to test drive any of these spindles.
Where the hell is my charkha!?

Back to regular programming

Well, I'm a sitting duck in Sock Wars right now. No one's come forward to kill me and I can't get the dossier for my next target. I have my second weapon at the ready, but I may use it to commit Sock Wars suicide. So I'm just going to leave the war on the back burner and go back to my semi-normal life.
I'm halfway up the hood on Rogue and the back is almost finished on the monkey's anniversary gift. Our anniversary was Tuesday, but he understands. We went out for possibly the worst meal we've ever had. I admit, there were warning signs which we chose to ignore and in my defense, I did suggest that we leave only minutes after we sat down, but we stayed.
Here's how it went down:
We arrived at the restaurant which is a little place on the beach, very lovely view of the sunset and moonrise. We had reservations, but there wasn't anyone at the maitre d' stand when we arrived. Hmmm. We waited there for a while and then the monkey thought we'd better just go in. We had to walk past the kitchen pass thru and I noticed that the only person working in the kitchen looked about twelveteen. Hmmm, that's not good. The guy behind the bar (who looked shockingly like a male prostitute) said, "Reservations? Aw just sit anywhere." Hmmm, that's not good either. We sat down and discovered that the table we'd chosen switched time zones everytime something was removed or placed on it. Hmmm.... After 5 minutes or so, the bartender(?) brought us menus. Another 5 or so minutes later he brought us water. After another 5 minutes he asked if we wanted anything to drink. Oh yeah, I forgot the giant kareoke screen behind the bar and the fact that the music from Flashdance was playing very loudly through the restaurant. At this point I leaned over the table (making it go thumpity thump) and gently suggested to the monkey that we could probably get a table at our favorite restaurant which wasn't far away. He wanted to, "give the place a chance". I wanted to avoid food poisoning.
We were entertained while waiting by one of the servers making out, with the guy who'd been walking up and down the restaurant with a beer bottle, outside for about 10 minutes. Hmmm, I didn't know there was a floor show.
We ordered and the appys were okay, but our main courses left a bit to be desired. For me, I guess they'd run out of artichokes or possibly Opie in the kitchen didn't know the difference between an artichoke and an avocado. Hey, they both start with the letter "A", he was close. I strongly dislike avocado, so that kinda sucked. The monkey's looked okay, but they had managed to make the asparagus chewy. I'm not sure how you do that, but I could barely cut through the stuff.
We were out of there in less an hour and we're the types that like to linger. We have drinks, we talk, we have desert and tea. We couldn't get out of that place fast enough. The coup de grace was the "We're hiring!" on the bottom of the bill. Charming.
As you may have guessed, not a place we'll be frequenting. Next week we're going to pretend it didn't happen and celebrate our anniversary properly at our favorite restaurant, Giraffe. Those of you who live in White Rock will want to avoid Sideshows.


The spindle fetish continues! This time with the help of Angela and all those who met up with her at OFFF. From left to right: tulipwood by Spindlewood; Mongold; a spindle I got off ebay that is of unknown origin; a Dave Larsen plexi. I plan to give them all a good workout tomorrow.


This a crossbreed lamb fleece I got from an Alberta breeder. It is so pretty. I plan on actually processing this sucker myself. Should be interesting. Might comb it. Stay tuned for the inevitable bitching and swearing this will cause! Non-PG fun I'm sure.


This fleece is part of the reason I'm going to start doing more of my own processing. Don't get me wrong, it was done beautifully and for a good price, but I sent it to the processor in March. I got it back yesterday. They never called or emailed me. I had no idea what was going on. I'm very happy to have it back. It's a New Zealand Polwarth and I can't believe how soft it is. I just want to sink into it. I have almost three pounds so I should be able to make a couple of sweaters. Or maybe a big soft shawl. Mmmm, so soft! I wish the blog had touch-o-vision.

How many people does it take to have a war

The remaining assassins from Sock Wars are now discovering some interesting things:
1. People have decided not to play and not told anyone. So there are folks out there receiving socks with absolutely no intention of making any for anyone else.
2. Due to forces of nature beyond anyone's control, not everyone got the mailing info for their victim and some of those victims refused to give it up. A lot of warriors wound up dead too soon 'cause their victims were asshats.
3. An online swap of this scale needs more than one person to run it. Poor Yarnmonkey must be cursing herself for starting this by now. There were upwards of 780 people signed up and with the dropouts and flakes, it's becoming a it of a cluster-you-know-what.
I don't know what will happen with my role in this right now. I've killed my initial target and am in the process of trying to get the dossier for my next victim (this actualy made me want to bang my head against the keyboard last night as the person I was dealing with (see 1) couldn't seem to pull her head out of her butt). I haven't heard a peep from my assassin and I suspect she's also a see 1.
It's been mostly fun. My victim's very nice and is taking her socks of doom to guild tonight.
That Motorhead song "Killed by Death" keeps going 'round in my head, only it's "Killed by Socks"...

Say hallo to my leetle friend

Here is the completed assassination weapon. It leaves tomorrow for it's intended victim. I keep gettting this mental image of sock knitters all over the world not wanting to get their mail. Telling their posties that they won't sign for that package. Game on beetches! Viva la sock wars!

Such a fine line between clever and stupid

And sometimes that line is an eight lane freeway. I love my new niece, but I just had to her get her this:


I know it's awful, but it's awful in that, "OMG what the hell is wrong with that child", funny sort of way. I think my brother and his girlfriend will get a big kick out out it. Not to mention the great pics they'll have to show prospective boyfriends in about 15 years.
"Oh yes, the overbite was quite extreme, but she's managed to grow into it."
Bwahahaha
Yeah, I know I'm evil. It's the mild snicker-behind-your-hand evil though, so that's okay, right?


I've finally started Rogue. I tried to sign up for the Fall Cables KAL, but I guess they don't like me. Lavender is doing hers so I thought I'd join her. I love knitting this thing. I want to work on it all the time. I wake up in the night and want to go knit on it. I've only been working on it for a couple of days and now I just want finish it and wear it. The weather is back to it's normal blecky self around here. Grey, drizzley, cold and damp. So it's perfect for Rogue. I want to wear this puppy now!


Calliope is almost done. Needs a good blocking, but came out fairly well. Should be a good tank for when the sun comes back around this way in another eight months or so. Timing is everything. I, apparently, have sucky timing.

Diary of a Fat Loser

My doctor's a sneaky bastard.
I went for my regular physical last week. Oh joy. At least he moves through it at warp speed, so the embarrassment is kept short. All was within acceptable parameters...or so I thought. He came back in after I was clothed and feeling human again.
This is the gist of the conversation:
Dr: "Your weight is down since your last visit. Are you working on it?"
me: " Off and on."
Dr: "What are you doing?"
me: "Oh you know, trying to eat better, walking the dog. Nothing drastic."
Dr: "Hmmm. I think people are more motivated by goals and deadlines. Don't you?"
me: (ohcrapohcrapohcrap) "uh yeah, sure."
Dr: "So how 'bout you come back in 6 weeks and we'll see if you can lose 5 lbs by then."
me: (you sneaky bastard!) "Uh, okay, I can do that."
Don't get me wrong, I know how lucky I am to have a doctor that takes an active interest in my well-being. I know it's rare these days. But he just slid that right in there. Damn. So I've been working out and eating less and I've taken about 2.5lbs off since last Wednesday. I'm aiming to get 10lbs off by my next appointment, a bit of the, "I'll show you" in me I'm afraid. Yeah, I know, I working on it.
On to knitting stuff. The Mystery Stole is done:


I lost a lot of the color as I don't think the Zephyr had been set properly. It's still a nice color, but it's a lot grayer than it started out.
I also finished the Lavold tank. It fits great and I love the color.


And for those of you who wanted to know what I found in my friend's quilting stash, you can find a version of it here. Tam's was rather impressive and I still think we should have left it in there for her mother to find. Tam would have liked that.

My pals were...

I got my last package with the reveal in it from my SP8 pal today. Her name's Sarah, go check out her blog. Here's what she sent:


-some great Burt's Bees stuff that will help me get my hands back in shape for all the silk I have to spin this fall
-some tea
-a braid of Felicia's BFL (love this color)
-Inspired Cable Knits which has a couple of patterns in it that will go on the todo list
-a cute tape measure 'cause you can never have too many
-and a vintage pattern book with an interesting way of showcasing hats:


Reminds me of the Farside cartoon about the "floating head of death".
But the best thing of all is the lap quilt she made for me! I don't quilt. I had a friend who quilted and when she died, I had to sort through her fabric stash. Scared the bejesus out of me. You guys think the walk-in stash closet is scary, that's nothin'! Of course it also gave me the most amusing way to remember my friend. You would not believe what she had stored in with all that fabric. It ain't PG kids. It's a late night story over a couple of drinks. That way, I get to see the booze shoot out yer nose when I tell ya.
Anyhow, I'm still attracted to fabric (like a crow to shiny things), but I con, er, sweet talk my quilterly friends into making the quilts I want. So this is very, very cool. Thanks so much Sarah! I had a great time, hope you did too.
The pal I was sending to was Kadi. Go say, "hi". She just got back from a couple of weeks in Europe and is starting to post the pics.

How come he gets to go fishing?

So. The monkey's off having (I'm guessing here, 'cause he hasn't called) a great time fishing and I'm having a great relaxing time at home right?
Um, no.
Yesterday was spent doing laundry and errands. I did spend a few hours with a friend which was so nice, but after that, back to work. Today wasn't much different. But today I had help! Yay!
Lynne came over and spent a big part of her day helping me turn these:


Into these:


As Holly says, the pear tree decided it needed to feed the world this year. We made four batches of jam and barely dented the crop.
Lynne decided I shouldn't loll about and brought me these from the farmer's market:


She is evil!
Tomorrow will be spent making grape jelly from those gorgeous wild grapes she brought me.
Now, I was going to leave you with a wonderful pic of the Mystery Stole blocking in the evening sun, but sadly, the zephyr is leeching dye like a sumbitch.


I am sooo not impressed. This is the third rinse and it's just as colorful as the last ones. It will spend tonight having it's dye set once and for all. Good thing I didn't just press it and throw it on. I'd look like a smurf!
PS: big sale at Knitopia starting Wed. Go help Lynne part with some of that yarn. You know you wanna!

Are we there yet?

Now I know how long it takes me to knit a pair of basic socks. Nine hours.
I don't usually do anything in the car on road trips as I can get motion-sick by trying to read a map in a moving vehicle. I thought I'd give it a go, figuring that just plain knit was something I didn't really have to look at as I worked. I made sure that I had the cuffs done before I got in the car and I finished off the toes on arrival, but still, not bad for time I normally just sit staring out of the window and changing cds.
I'll think of it as a warm-up for this:


Check it out if you're a little crazy, competitive and willing to knit socks like your life depends on it. In this case it kinda does.
Anyhow, our trip to Salmon Arm went well and we got see some of the monkey's family. We had a very nice visit albeit quite short. Lots of food, lots of drink and a fair bit of knitting for me. I got halfway up the back of a Lavold tank. The trekalong sock never made it out of the bag. And I didn't buy any wool. The monkey was shocked and a little pleased.
On our drive home we saw a moose! It was wading in one of the small lakes between Kamloops and Merritt. Very cool! Wish I'd been able to get a pic.
Friday the monkey's off to the island for some fishing. The standard household rule will be in effect: no fish, no come home. I know it sounds cruel given that I'm sending a guy from northern Sask. salmon fishing, but hey, he gets to go fishing and I get to look after the dog. I'll be soaking the cedar plank, there'd better be fish!

Last Trek in Gibsons

Angela and I went up to Gibsons last week for the annual Fibre Festival. We were taking one of the Olds College spinning classes. We did manage to walk around in lower Gibsons (the Landing) a few times and I took this pic of the trekalong sock with the marina and Molly's Reach (of Beachcomber's fame) in the background.


Here's the first sock done. It's in XXL #108 and I've used Sockbug's Not Cables pattern. I didn't like the pattern at first, but pressed on and it looks kinda nice when it's on a foot. Some patterns just look better stretched I guess.


Trekalong encouraged me to increase my stash with lots of the XXL ombres. I have a serious weakness for them now that I've gotten past the unmatched socks issue. I don't think I'll get that last sock done before the end of trekalong, but I got three and a half pairs done, so I'm happy. We won't talk about the stash increase caused by my ombre infatuation. Be distracted by all the pretty yarn. Yeah, that's it, pretty isn't it?


The place we stayed had a nice private nook with a picnic table which we used almost every night after class to dry fleece and skein samples for the next day's class. If you look closely, you'll see that Angela's working on a trekalong sock. I think Jane's just waiting for wool to dry. We did a fair bit of that.


I have to admit that I got most of the above sock done during slow moments in the spinning class. There were only a few, but I took advantage of them.
Now I have to go do spinning homework. Feh

My KSKS pal kicks ass

Check this out!
This has to be the best kit ever. My pal Lisa, put a ton of thought into everything she sent. I love it all.
There are two skeins of handpainted sock yarn and it's so soft, a pair of patterns that I can't wait to knit, fibre to spin some sock yarn ( that is just too cool, can't believe she though of it), some very yummy chocolate that didn't melt even though it had to go coast to coast in the August heat, grapefruit hand lotion and.... really beautiful sewn cases, one for accessories (it came with needles, crochet hook, emery board, needle holders, and darners!) and the other for the socks in progress.
Thanks for everything Lisa! The rest of you can go be jealous now.


I think I should get a prize for worst run-on sentence ever.