money and where it gets you

Last evening, while sitting on the patio (!!!!!) at the pub, JJ had occasion to ask me "What the hell are ye doin' lassie?"

Nothing all that interesting, I suspect... I had three loonies in my hand and was just fascinated at how they represented the various ages of the Queen:

From left to right: 1987, 1994, 2007.

My, but hasn't she aged a lot in 20 years! Either that, or she looked extraordinarily young at 60...

So, because this wasn't quite obsessive enough, I had to haul out the UK change collection from our holidays in December (JJ casting his eyes heavenward and tsk-ing severely at this point).

Here are the UK equivalent portraits from the same year (top).

Very curious. She aged faster in the UK then here. Then again, she lives there and I guess we don't see her all that often in comparison.... Also, I noted that Canada and the UK coinage had identical portraits of her until...

I think she looks friendlier in our loonie, no?

But before you say "Speaking of loonies...", there is a method to my madness. If I weren't obsessing about the Queen's image on our coinage and comparative studies with the "mother country", I would be scheming about how to get my hands on this:

"This" being a kit for a pattern by Miriam Felton called "Mountain something or other" (that's my name for it... too lazy (or scared) to look it up again. It's available through Renaissance Dyeing. Just look at the colourways when you click on that past link and see why I'm frightened to go there!!!!

Not that I'm short of laceweight yarn, by any means. Au contraire. This is what Mr. Postman brought today to the office...

Whisper Merino lace yarn, in the Tupelo Honey colourway (1900 yards!!!)....

... and in Moroccan Nights (1000 yards). This colour in particular is very hard to photograph: think "Deep dark shades of inky blue with rich shades of raspberry swirled here and there."

The description comes from Kim at the Woollen Rabbit in New Hampshire, US, who created the yarns as part of a kit with these lovely patterns by Susan Pandorf: Magic Carpet...

(magic indeed!) and Arabian Days Moroccan Nights:


One is essentially a smaller version of the other, with some modifications. I couldn't decide so of course went for both of them. The larger one calls for 5,000 (!!!) beads as well....And so this is how approximately 100 loonies got spent.

I'm so tapped out now that I have to raid the UK collection to buy my coffee this morning:


(The coin on the right is my favourite ever coin - a commemorative coin for the 350th anniversary of the Johnson's dictionary. I know. I'm a nerd.)

But all is not in vain. One day, I will become a world famous knitter and start a political knitting party... I will then become World Prime Minister and have my face on the coins like so:

(and I would venture to say that my elegant Greek profile on the coins will not be interfered with by the head you see beneath my chin... the talking head who was muttering "what in the hell is that lassie up tae now?" as this photo was taken...)

But until that point we are stuck with:

Liz.

Happy Wednesday!