reruns

I'm cheating a bit today, folks, as I am lazy and it is driech outside.

Driech = Scottish for "cold, rainy, damp, dreary and generally crappy". I'm advised by my resident Scotsman that the Scottish have about fifty words for "rainy weather". Note, however, that this is unconfirmed and he has been known in past to tell some pretty wild stuff about Scotland to see if people believe it. Then if they do buy whatever preposterous stuff he's come up with, he usually says "Tek your heid oot your arse, sonny jim/hen, and see the world".

Such a gentleman, eh?

In celebration of the fact that a couple of my designs have been published on Knitting Patterns Central - a great free resource - check it out and submit your own patterns! - I thought I'd re-photographs some of my blasts from the past...

(besides, with all that new TV stuff on ... finally... I must confess I'm kinda missing the reruns! Strange, eh?)

1. Crazed Harlequin Dress

Aphrodite looks stunning in this dress, if I do say so myself, even in the winter!

It is actually a tank sleeve dress as you will see from the link, but I've taken to wearing it with a black silk blouse underneath for winter.

Multicoloured goodness!


2. Rainbow Tunic Dress

This dress actually shows off Aphrodite's waist quite well. It doesn't fall in quite such a flattering manner on my Greek peasant bod. Oh well.

The dress was a great way to try samples of yarns and use up single skeins from swaps and such.
Va-va-voom!

(My breasts are bigger than hers, though. Heh heh.)


3. Montego Bay Tunic

which was originally my first lace project ever... ! I realise now that my lace career started on 27 August 2007... wow, just seven months ago!


I had fun with this one, and the coworkers all got a kick out of it too. I got called "Barbarella" for the next week...

I wish!



Well, I feel less "driech" now - how about you?

Anyway, that's it for me for now (told you I was lazy!). Oh, in knitting news, I'm working on a vegan Tuscany shawl commissioned by co-worker H. Hope to provide some pics of that in progress plus another rant or three tomorrow when I am back to my regularly scheduled programming!

Happy Tuesday!

evil spirits in Angus, Ontario?!

Are you wondering if this is the shameless daily fearmongering component I'm reporting on from yesterday's TV news?

No. More about that later, fear not....

I've decided that Wannietta, as charming and benign as she comes across in person, is Knitting Evil Incarnate. Seriously.

I mean, I've met the woman once... I had a coffee with her and I now believe she must have slipped something into it intended to make me hemmorhage money at the yarn store.

First of all, that very day she induced me to buy some Handmaiden Silken. She literally twisted my arm. Really. I have witnesses ... although I imagine she's gotten to them already and they will never tell you the truth about the situation now.

And since then, I've now been twice to the LYS. I don't know if I can blame her for the trip to Knitomatic the other day, to be fair... but she is directly responsible for my buying all of this stuff at Romni yesterday:

Yet another skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk:

(A lovely spooky grey colour with hints of blue!)
Some Fleece Artist Suri Blue in what I am calling the "Easter colourway".

(Hey! I don't even like pastels! More proof of Wannietta's "intervention"?!?....)

and some Kidsilk Night:

Now, this speaks to a yarn mania bordering on the ridiculous. Not only did I pick up Kidsilk Haze last week on sale... three balls!... but I hate working with mohair. Really. Here's the proof:

Brouhaha on 6 January 2007: To be honest, this is slowgoing work for me - the first time I have worked using mohair only, and probably the last.

Brouhaha on 7 January 2007:

I managed to sketch out a pattern for the Tilting at Windmills blanket which I will start whenever I have finished wrestling with the mohair (I have promised myself this much although am sorely tempted to abandon it)... and here is the cursed mohair. Might as well be trying to knit with cotton candy! [emphasis added]

Um... well... this wouldn't be the first time I was guilty of Short Memory Syndrome when it comes to knitting, I suppose. Or, to be honest, in general...

And, besides, it looks like a cloud. And, it's sparkly.



But I still blame Wannietta. She mentioned mohair during our conversation when we met. I'm sure this was intended to create a subliminal message in my brain.

And... the only reason I was in Romni yesterday afternoon was because Wannietta had urged me to buy blocking wires for my lace work. Really. But once there, I went into a trance so deep that I looked at mohair which wasn't on sale!!!

Oh, speaking of trances, while I'm at it I think that I'll shift some of the blame for the latest expenditures to Holly. She wrote about a yarn-store induced trance in her blog yesterday. I read this post just before going to Romni. Coincidence? I think not.

And, while we're on the topic of abdicating responsibility for one's actions, here is last night's instalment on How to Dupe The Canadian Public Dumb and Dumber the evening news.

Specifically, it was reported that the Canadian Forces are recruiting 450 mental health personnel to help soldiers returning from Afghanistan deal with post traumatic stress disorder. Now, I'm certainly not suggesting that the soldier don't need the help. I'm sure they do. But... again I ask, to what end is this all happening?

On the CTV web entry on this item today, it says:

Psychological problems have become an increasingly important issue for the military in recent years as it has expanded its traditional peacekeeping status into a greater combat role [emphasis added].

Wow. I think this might be the first time I have seen "combat" and "Afghanistan" in the same sentence written by any major news outlet as it relates to what is usually (cynically?) called "the Canadian role".

But that's not what was actually spoken on the news item last night. Instead, our soldiers' work in Afghanistan was referred to as ... wait for it...

"defacto wartime activity".

Hello?!?? "Defacto wartime activity?!?" This is probably the truest example of political (as in politician) correctness that I've ever seen. How about... war. Why use three meaningless words when you can use one stark one?

Oh, I forgot:
(I saw this T-shirt on line yesterday. I'm trying to decide between the colour above and this colour:

Sheesh. It makes me want to catch the next train to Ottawa and start crushing some heads.



I crush your head!! Crush crush crush...

(Please don't sue me, Mr. Harper. I'm a decent lawyer, but no match for the great wits of your vaunted legal team, Bonhomme and Partners LLP... oh, and nice scarf!!!)

Man, I miss Kids in the Hall!!

I crush your head. All your heads, in fact, o mighty Parliament of Canada and pandering media outlets...!

Phew. I feel better now. You should try some head crushing sometime. Really.

Happy Friday! Off to work now, and then to crush some heads sink a few pints at the pub with the Tenant Advocates. It's been a very, very long week.

mad for lace... or driven mad?!

Very recently, one piece of lace I was working on almost drove me around the bend: the Storm Water scarf. This is the second time I have endeavoured this pattern, and must have ripped it back in its entirety at least 50 times by this point. I managed to get this far the other day:


...and then everything went to hell.

So, just call me:



(yes, yes, I know - I'm dating myself. This was the first video game I ever played. Coincidence? I think not!)

It's now frogged and GONE (at least it wasn't tossed over the balcony!

I don't understand why I can manage to do this type of lacework (after, mind you, lots of frogging!):

...but just can't seem to get my head around a relatively simple pattern.

So, I decided to throw over the (lovely) Pewter Sea Silk for a while. In its place, I've found a new favourite - Handmaiden Mini-Maiden! (sorry for cheating, sea silk. And with your sister to boot! I have no morals, obviously.

Half silk, half wool, all luxury. If you've ever used Belle Berger du Nord, it's like a laceweight version of that. Swoon.

This is my start on the Swallowtail Shawl

Check out the fancy beads! The colour reminds me of a sunset (or at least my very dim recollection of a sunset...it being February and all).

Mind you, the sun is shining today for once. I think it was also shining yesterday for a while but it was hard to tell as there was a huge fire downtown yesterday, which rendered the sky black and caused fumes in our office building several blocks away. We all went home early as a result and by the time I got home it was overcast again. SIGH.

But today is a new day. This morning before leaving for work, I read a post on frogging by Nautical Knitter on the Secret of the Stole II website. How timely!

She calls it "knitting backwards", which makes it sound far less tedious! I love the following quote in particular:

I am not sure that being proficient at working backwards is something to actually aspire to, but it is a necessary part of knitting and if you do not ever do it, then you are either perfect or not really knitting. Have confidence in the knitting skills you have already mastered, attempt those you feel comfortable with, and every once in a while try something you think might be beyond your skill level with the attitude that working backwards will be part of the whole experience.

This post was inspirational enough that I decided to get out my Pewter Sea Silk this morning and start the Storm Water Scarf as a transit project. By the time I got to work, I had finished 20 rows without incident! Please wish me luck.

(And so, the person who said a year ago "never, ever will I knit lace" is working on three consecutive lace projects. Hmm.)

Happy Thursday...

PayDay adventures

Well, yesterday being the Ides of February, a.k.a. PayDay, I hit the yarn shop. Quelle surprise!

This time I went to Lettuce Knit in the Kensington Market. I had nothing particular in mind - aside from looking for the new Interweave 49 Sensational Skirts book. I wasn't intending to actually buy yarn, of course!

Then I saw this beauty hanging up in the shop:

This is the Serrano from one of the past Knitty online mags. Laura who works at Lettuce Knit designed it. She is my new hero. I had seen it back in the summertime and fully intended to knit it, but then somehow I got distracted.





And so forth... anyway, you get the point.

I then tripped across the following sock yarn, of all things:

Colinette Jitterbug! Look at the colour! I've never seen such an interesting red - and you all know how I love red!

Now, I didn't even know what kind of yarn the pattern called for at the time. I just looked now and this should work... but I'm not sure that I have quite enough of it. I have about 870 m and the small size calls for just over 1000 m. So, it may well be an assymmetrically sleeved garment. Oh well.

Of course, I also had to pick up some Handmaiden Sea Silk.

So, the yarn jones satisfied, I trotted off to the Landlord and Tenant Board to observe a hearing on a file I've been working on. It ended up settling. And I'd even brought popcorn!

Then I headed on over to Greektown to meet JJ and some friends. We went to a fantastic Greek restaurant called Astoria and pigged out. One downside: no beer on tap! But I did manage to find the first Greek beer I've ever liked...

We then headed off to a small neighbourhood pub further east of Greektown. They had my favourite on tap...

I think I must have overindulged as I ended up singing karaoke by myself. A first! No one threw anything at me so I guess I must have done OK.

And at least no articles of clothing got removed...



This is my all-time favourite comic strip, Life In Hell. That particular comic has hung on my fridge for three years. JJ thinks it's weird... but when he starts cooking he can decide what goes on the fridge, I figure.

Speaking of JJ, I'd better sign off now and go get him up. He's been telling me all week that he's going to take me shopping for a "big surprise" today for Valentine's Day. I wonder what it is? He won't give me any hints. The last big Valentine's surprise, if I remember correctly, was a vacuum cleaner. (He was shocked that I didn't have one when we moved in together. This was only because every time I had to vacuum, I simply moved instead. But JJ has a bit less of the gypsy impulse than I...).

Anyway, to any Ontarians reading this, happy Family (Values) long weekend!

(They said on the news the other day that our Premier, the Honourable Mr. McGuinty, comes from a family of 14. No wonder he named this new holiday "Family Day". He'd probably piss off half the province if he didn't!)

And everyone else enjoy their long weekend too, whatever you might call it...

absolutely final yarn purchase of 2007

Anyone remember what I had to say on 1 December?

But of course, this is now it for the yarn spending for the calendar year 2007. I won't be buying any more yarn until 2008.

Weeeeellllll...that was almost true.

You see, when I set off for Lettuce Knit after work the other day, I was really only going there to get this book, which I had seen there some time back:

She is the designer of this fabulous Moebius capelet, and I thought it would be nice to have a pattern book of hers.

But, strangely enough, the minute I walked into the store, this leapt into my hot little hands:

Some Handmaiden Flaxen...in periwinkle!!!

I really should blame Amanda for this. She is the one who originally put Lettuce Knit into my head vis a vis possible Flaxen acquisitions. Maybe she should be reimbursing me for the cost of the yarn?

But I can't blame Amanda for this:



I actually managed to drop the Flaxen onto the floor when I saw this lovely stuff winking at me from the Sea Silk basket (conveniently located right next to the front entrance of the store. These people are wicked!!). It is in the Popsicle colourway, which I had never seen. So, of course, a must-have...

And here's another one:

I think this is Popsicle as well, minus the blue.

So - five more skeins of Handmaiden. Evil Kristina made a great score, that's for sure (Where was Good Kristina? Doubtless still at the office, trying to finish everything on the to-do list before leaving for vacation.)

However, all is not lost, and it was fated that I buy all of this yarn, really, as the following day Jenny sent me a link to some free vintage yarn patterns. Obviously I knew that I would need yarn to try out some of them.

(Oh, really? So, how about all of this in the stash?


Ah, I see that Good Kristina has finally looked up from the books - more than a day late and a couple of hundred dollars too short, as usual!)

Oh - I nearly managed to leave the store without looking for the above book. But luckily I did remember why I had actually gone to the store after all. And I also found this:

Shortly after I got home, I realised that I am not quite as subtle as I had believed with the stashing of new acquisitions. My usual cover is to grab the stuff out of my handbag and spirit it off to the spare room, then rustle around in there for a while pretending that I am cleaning.

J. "Eagle Eye" J., however, shouted from the living room approximately three minutes after I headed in there, "When yer finished takin' photos of all that new yarn you got today and squirreling it awa', could ye gi'us a drink, hen?"

Hmm. Foiled again. Then again, this might have been his first clue that I really don't do a hell of a lot of cleaning in the spare room:
Well, TGIF to all - today is my official final day at work for 2007 (although, having spent too much time surfing the net...um, helping other people at work this week, I will be bringing one last project to finish up at home on Saturday.) We're off on our Big Trip on Monday 17 December. And, of course, I won't be buying any yarn in London. See?:

(1 December 2007) I am most certainly not going near any yarn store in London while I'm there... I don't need any more Rowan products either!

Well, that might not strictly be true. After all, my Rowan stash will be severely depleted after finishing off the Tilted Duster with ASC:

I love this little detail on the sides of the fronts:


So, a happy Friday to all: and JJ will no doubt be thrilled when I tell him this evening that today marks the anniversary of the Glasgow underground railway in 1896. I shall have to raise a glass or three this evening at the holiday rendezvous of The Tenant Advocates!

Knitextravaganza: intentional Moebius and Montego Bay tunic!

I guess one could say it's official: Brouhaha is back off the knitting wagon!

Here are some concoctions over the past two days:

1. Moebius Capelet


I bought the yarn for this while on an unsuccessful quest for Handmaiden Flaxen at the LYS - but this project seemed fated in light of a dramatic error I made in sewing together my last knitting project, the Brioche Man's Vest...
And here is the back of the Moebius:

As usual it looks far better on Aphrodite than me. This is likely because Aphrodite, although Greek like me, does not talk with her hands. After the first fifteen minutes it was on, here is how it looked:

Finally, halfway through the day I gave up on it and started wearing it like this:

Good perhaps for bad hair days - but as you can see it doesn't necessarily work to hide anything. All I wanted to become was a classy capelet-wearing doyenne (is that too much to ask?!?), but I guess it wasn't to be! So, it will be going to a better home very shortly.

Specs:

Yarn: Fleece Artist Grande Godiva, two 100g skeins (174 metres) - 50% silk, 50% wool
Pattern by: Cat Bordhi (sold with the yarn)
Needle Size: 9.0 mm with 47" cord
Time spent: 3 hours approx.

Notes: This was rather fun to knit - that is, after I got over the initial hurdle of casting on for the thing. This involved casting on 75 or so stitches over the coiled cable attaching the needles, then stretching them around enough to knit the first round. This took me about an hour to figure out and by the end of it I was just about ready either to wrap the addis around my neck or fling the whole thing over the balcony.

Patience won out though... and the rest of the knitting was surprisingly easy. It didn't hurt that the yarn. And I think I have finally exorcised my little "stupid, stupid knitter" voice by making an "on-purpose" moebius. Goddess knows I've made enough of them inadvertently when trying to knit in the round!

Highly recommended - and I will be picking up one of Cat Bordhi's books. I'd like to make a hat with a Moebius brim and hope she has a pattern!

2. Montego Bay Tunic

This is a reconfiguration of my first lace project, the Montego Bay Scarf by Amy Singer.

The scarf was beautiful - but I just have to face facts. I am scarf challenged and could not manage to wear this long slim scarf without it getting all tangled around my neck (I detest those who can carry it off - but they could make some money giving people like me a seminar).

This is how it used to look (damn and blast Aphrodite!):

...and this is what it morphed into.



From this:

...to this:
The original scarf was made out of Handmaiden Sea Silk (swoon...) on 4mm needles. To put it together, I measured it around and marked off 16 inch increments. I then crocheted two thirds of it together in a tube at the edges, then brought the end edge over the right shoulder and crocheted it into place with some raspberry sea silk I had lying around. The right shoulder strap was crocheted with some old Fleece Artist stuff I had hanging around.

I'm thinking of doing a trim all around - but got lazy last night and want to wear it today. (It looked fine last evening on me - even better than on Aphrodite for once, I would say! But I suspect it will stretch badly. Having said that, I like it.)

I should note that JJ is concerned that I am going to wear this to work (or, for that matter, the staff holiday party) without any undercovering. This, I intuit from him calling me Barbarella last night when I pranced around with it on. I reminded him that the average temperature is -4 C these days, but he didnae seem convinced. Oh well.

And, finally: here is my progress on the Tilted Duster - I managed to complete this much of one sleeve during my commute!

I will never dread sleeves again. I would never have thought I'd find anything that would make me stop abhorring slowdowns during rush hour on the TTC....

Happy Tuesday! And, any proud Canadians visiting should be happy to know that today marks the 76th anniversary of legislative freedom from (and equality with) the United Kingdom. Why anyone thinks it's a good idea to make laws from thousands of kilometres away, I have no idea (but then I guess half of Canada can say that about Ottawa...SIGH).

Cheers,

Kristina