how to put your rent money to better use

DISCLAIMER: Despite the rather irresponsible title, this post is not intended as legal advice. Nor is it intended to downplay the obligation under the law to pay rent - tenants, fail to do so at your own peril - the peril being an application to terminate your tenancy for non-payment of rent pursuant to s.59(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, CHAPTER 17 (hereinafter "RTA") or an application to terminate your tenancy for persistent late payment of the rent pursuant to RTA s.58(1)1. And yes, you can get evicted in winter. Really. Yawn... where was I? Oh, yes...

First up: the requisite ego shot of rather beautiful lacework (if I do say so myself) - my latest progress on the Secret of the Stole II KAL!

And now back to our regular programming. After my disheartening experience on Monday at the Landlord and Tenant Board as chronicled in yesterday's rant, I was so incensed by landLORDdom and my corresponding serfdom that I spent the portion of the February rent that JJ had given me at Knitomatic.

Well, not quite. But I did score some goodies, and even some bargains!

First up - some Misti Alpaca laceweight, which I just had to have after seeing Katty's beautiful version of the Muir Shawl on Ravelry.

Beige?!?!? you ask. What is rotten in the state of Brouhaha? I know... but it's not really beige. See...

It's got little orangey and yellowy bits in it. There was a real tossup, I may say, between this colour and a lovely bright purple. But I had to restrain myself from buying both when I saw this...

Allhemp3 fingering weight hemp - on sale! This is perfect for a little project I've been scheming about - maybe. It's a shame I can't draw or graph - this tends to impede the design planning somewhat. Oh well. Minor barriers, surely, and not insuperable... are they?

Oh - and don't you think these beads that I picked up last week go well with the Misti?

And check out the vintage buttons - $1.00 a pack! Now, this is my kind of dollar store...

Beige again? Is this a trend? ACK!!!

Oh - they also had some new (to me) and rather interesting sock yarn from SWTC called
TOFUtsies. What was interesting about it? Here were the contents:

50% Superwash Wool
25% SOYSILK brand fiber
22.5% Cotton
2.5% Chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells!)

Shrimp and crab shells?!? Should I take up spinning and tell JJ to stop throwing all of the leftover food over the balcony? (but then, the entire raccoon population of West Toronto would die of starvation. Bad karma. Forget it.) Anyway, good thing I don't knit socks and was not huge on the colourways, otherwise I suspect all of JJs rent money would have been spent!

And then I went home and did some work on this:

This is through Row 112 - only eight more to go to finish Clue 2! I had hoped to finish the rest this morning, but decided it is not a good idea to work on lace at 5:00 a.m. when I'm still half asleep - why do that when I can blat away on the blog and share all my half-baked wisdoms instead??

And now it's 7ish: here's what it looks like outside (minus the -15C wind which is making the trees sway wildly...)


AGH. Better head out to work. Sigh. And only yesterday it was above zero and I was out without a hat. Wah.

And on that note, I leave you on this Wednesday (Hump Day) with an unknown work by Dr. Seuss:

PayDay - The Sequel

(or, how Kristina spent the rent money at the LYS - yet again).

I think I've broken my own past record for lack of willpower vis-a-vis PayDay spending. Remember what I said only yesterday?:

...This typically means, if you have followed this blog for any length of time, that tomorrow you will be expecting a big post with about 50 photos of the yarn I am about to acquire today. Well, I have news for you. There will be no yarn purchases today...

That was posted to my blog at 9:10 a.m. yesterday. At 11 or so I went out on an errand to the bank - to cash JJs pensioner cheque and get his half of the rent to deposit into my bank account. I blame the line up at his bank, really - which is up on Queen Street West, also home of Romni. While (im)patiently waiting my turn, the dulcet tones of Deam Martin emanating from my iPod inexplicably faded, replaced by a little voice:

Evil Kristina: Why not just take a little run to Romni - it's just down the street - and see if they still have any of that Handmaiden Camelspun left?

Good Kristina: We didn't buy any the last time - because we don't need it!! And it is not "just down the street" - we're at Spadina and Romni is west of Bathurst, for goddess' sake!
Evil Kristina: Ah, come on - it's not likely that they've got any left, anyway - you know how the Handmaiden flies out of that store...

Good Kristina: Usually in your hands!

Evil Kristina: Besides, you need buttons for the Tilted Duster.

Good Kristina: I haven't even started knitting that yet!!!

Evil Kristina: Look, here comes a streetcar now - let's just hop in it. It won't take any time at all...

Good Kristina: I have to get back to the office!!!


Evil Kristina: What is 10 minutes here or there going to hurt? It's not like you're punching a timeclock or anything...

Well, I think you can guess the outcome of that little spat. It would also seem as though Evil Kristina slipped Good Kristina some knock-out drops in transit...

As soon as I walked into the store this jumped out at me:

(ahem... having rooted through the Handmaiden bin, anyway). The espresso coloured Camelspun I had seen when they had first got it in - but refrained from buying. How virtuous of me...

But - sigh - there were all sorts of other great colourways of the Camelspun as well. This was another favourite:
I couldn't decide, so had to take both.

I then wrenched myself away from the Handmaiden area (which, by the way, is extremely close to the cash register. They are evil in there, really!) to look for buttons, and found these:
However, I just couldn't leave well enough alone. I went back to the Handmaiden section and pulled out a skein of Sea Silk which I had studiously ignored before:


It had a pattern on it!!!


This is the point at which Good Kristina awoke briefly from her deep slumber to protest:

Good Kristina: Have you forgotten about all this then, back at the house?...

...including Sea Silk, by the way, which you just had to have back in the summer, and which still sits there?!?

Evil Kristina: Yeah, yeah, yeah - but those ones didn't come with a pattern!

Good Kristina: You don't need another pattern! You went and got that whole Victorian lace book, and then another lace book!!!

Evil Kristina: But this pattern looks easy. We could take it on the trip with us...

Good Kristina: We're supposed to be trying to design patterns now!!! Why buy another scarf pattern?!?

Evil Kristina: It's only $2.00.

Good Kristina: What?!? It's $39.50. Can't you read?

Evil Kristina: Yeah - $37.50 for the yarn, $2.00 for the pattern = $39.50. Can't you add or subtract?

Good Kristina, perhaps wisely, gave up at this point.

So, this is how Wonder Woman here, who was going to spend no money on yarn on 30 November, ended up shelling out... um... well, let's just say it was less than $170.00.

The kind woman at the cash actually asked me if I run a knitting business, seeing as I apparently buy so much yarn there. When I said no, she suggested I join a knitting guild so as to get a 10 per cent discount in future. This might be a good idea...

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. 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!

(And, if you believe that, I've got some really good bargains on never-used Fleece Artist and Handmaiden to show you...)

Happy Saturday! Please note that on this date in 1835, Hans Christen Andersen published his first book of fairy tales. The Emperor's New Clothes is sounding pretty familiar right now...

Well, I'm off to make some breakfast (my weekend standard - jumbo twister Montreal-style bagel with peanut butter and bacon. I used to make this at work during the week but got tired of everyone asking me if I was pregnant!), then deliver the rent cheque... sigh.