It’s Canada Day Eve, and all on the hill was a buzz with excitement. They’ve been setting up this stage for quite some time now, and you really just don’t get the size of it from this picture, but it’s huge. There are robotic lights, and mechanized everything. If I weren’t such a damned chicken I’d totally go up and see what they really have, but I am just that, a chicken.
-Cheers folks!
I love Ottawa, I know I’ve said it before, but it’s so true. I went down by the Ottawa Locks today, and they were moving boats in. I hadn’t realised though that the locks aren’t electrically powered, they’re manual. It takes 4 people (2 on each side) to move the gears which move the lock doors, then the water moves in to raise the boats up to get into the Canal. It’s really neat in a geeky-dorky kind of way. But that fits me.
-Cheers folks!
I bought new shoes. I love shoes. These were my first non-living quarters purchase. I love them. My old Airwalk Kicks fell apart a while ago, so I threw them out. I was sad to not have them, I really loved them in the summer, so I knew I was going to get another pair. Of course, because there was a sale, I got sucked in. It was the Payless BOGO Half Off that got me. Two pairs of shoes for under $50, I couldn’t pass that up. I was going to get a pair of plain black ones, but they were a little too big, so I went for the graffiti, which I love, and the pink which is just too much fun, especially in the summer months when it’s hot.
Next purchase: Shorts. I need more. I’ve for three pairs of shorts (one pair are my old soccer shorts), 2 pairs of yoga capris, a short skort, a short plaid skirt, and 2 dressier skirts. I’ve also got two sun dresses, but they’re a little too classy for daily wear. I think I want more knee length shorts, and maybe a short denim skirt. I’ll need to get a pair of spanks though. Looks like I’ll have fun shopping at some point in time.
-Cheers folks!
I went for a walk with a friend of mine who has been living here in Ottawa for the last 5 weeks or so. Other than it being extremely hot and humid, it was nice. I have to remember to drink more water, I do drink a fair bit already, but I need to drink more. I think I got a bit of heat exhaustion today, that is not good. This is the view of Parliament Hill from the McKenzie King Bridge. I think it was that bridge. I don’t think there is a single view in Ottawa that isn’t beautiful. I remember thinking back in Halifax that I was going to miss all the green space, but there is just as much here as there was back home. Here, everything is just on a grander scale. I’ll get a whole lot of good shots on Wednesday while the city goes insane due to Canada Day.
I don’t know how often I’m going to be able to post, the internet in this building is sketchy at best. In the last 5 hours I’ve been able to connect only a couple times, and only for a few minutes at a time. The hotel behind me (that I stayed in while on a band trip in 2006) has unsecured wireless that I have been stealing for the last little while, but it’s hard to connect during the day. Much easier in the evening/late night when less people are on it.
-Cheers folks!
That’s my room. Well, what room you can see under all my stuff. I honestly don’t know how I got all of that in the SUV… Magic. Or it’s a TARDIS. Bigger on the inside, you know? It’s hot, it’s humid, it was POURING when we got here, but it’s amazing. Absolutely amazing.
I need to clear off my (double) bed. I’m so excited. No more Single Bed sleeping for me!
-Cheers (from Ottawa) folks!
It’s done, everything is in the car. I’m all set. I just need my knitting and my laptop. I can’t believe I have so much stuff though. It was quite the puzzle to get everything to fit in just the perfect way. I had to leave my laundry basket out, but that’s okay, I can buy one up there. Considering the one I had was from the Dollar Store, it’s not a big hit.
-Cheers folks, talk to you from Ottawa on Friday!
This does not count as stash. It is project yarn. I’m using it. In fact, I’ll be casting on just as soon as I finish this post. So that doesn’t count as stash, because it’s not going in the stash. These are the last two balls for my Lizard Ridge blanket. I’m not overly crazy about the entire color scheme, but I really like that blue. Once I get this last piece done, I need to seam it to the other one, then both of those to the existing 6 block blanket, then I need to figure out some sort of edging. I’m thinking plain black, but what type of border? Garter stitch simple, something fancy… what?
I need input. Help me!
-Cheers folks!
I’m packing. And Packing. And packing some more. What you don’t see is that under the black suitcase which has my night bag on it, is a big rubbermaid tub filled with clothes. I also have that blue tub under the desk that’s filled with yarn. But don’t forget about my storage units that are in the hall next to the linen closet on top of the filing cabinet because I don’t have enough room in here for them. I’ve also got three boxes filled in hall with stuff leaving with me. I want it to be Thursday morning so that I can just PACK and not have to worry about “will I need this between now and then?” I’m not looking forward to unpacking. I don’t like unpacking. Some of my ski gear is still in it’s bag from when dad and I were going to go skiing a couple seasons ago but got rained out. Only in Nova Scotia will you get rained out of a ski trip… in February.
-Cheers folks!
Okay, so I finished the garter band for the bottom, I did that flat because I didn’t want to have to steek garter stitch, plus I didn’t know how else to do it. I’ve got the body joined in the round now, those stitches there in the middle, THAT is where I will cut my knitting. I’m scared. I really, really am. It’ll be quite a while before I get around to the actual steeking bit, but it’s looming. Right now I’ve got about 14 inches of plain stockinette, knit in the round, over and over again. But that is better than knitting one row and purling the next. After the body are the sleeves, then the shoulders and the wonderful saddle shoulders. As a side note, because all my socks are toe up, I love saddle seaming. The yarn feels wonderful knit up on the 5mm needles, but after using the Addi Lace needles, and moving to the standard Addi’s I find them brutally blunt. Even my sock circs are super pointy. I love my Knit Picks.
I’m trying to think of the last time I used straights for a big project… I can’t think of one that’s been recent. I’ve moved on to Circs and I can do anything! Big tubes, little tubes, flat, ANYTHING! I rock.
I am SuperGwen. :D
For those who don’t know what steeking is, Michael did a good post on his blog when he made the tube with cables into a vest. He is much braver than I am, so I’m going to need a fair bit of encouragement when it comes time to steek. I promise pictures during and booze after. Deal?
-Cheers folks!
My cousin is 14 months old. I can’t believe it. He’s walking, and laughing and adorable. He also liked my socks. I think he might be a knitter if me and my aunt have anything to say about it. My uncle would probably cry though. Tough bananas for him.
-Cheers folks, and Happy Father’s Day as well as Solstice.
Drinking, dancing, laughing, chatting, and more drinking. Gotta love good friends, eh?
-Cheers folks!
I know I’m late getting these posts up. Sorry folks, but I was drinking Friday night and last night my router decided to crap out on me so I couldn’t post at all. But here it is.
I’m really going to miss Halifax when I move. This is the view from the Halifax Citadel Hill. It’s one of (if not THE) oldest forts in Canada. It’s got the best view of Halifax, and it’s right downtown. I haven’t been inside the fort in ages, but I always loved it. At noon each and every day except for Christmas Day, they fire a canon to signify the time. It scares the crap out of tourists, but I’ve lived with it all my life, and I can even hear it on clear days from my house which is over 20km away.
%5B4%5D.jpg "Public Gardens (2)")
I’ve always been a sucker for curls. Little girls with blonde curls, or guys with dark curls, it doesn’t matter, they all make me melt. Anyone notice the model of the Smokin’ sweater from Son of Stitch ‘n Bitch. Then there’s Lidsville, the Uncle Argyle scarves (I started one of those, but it got frogged), the Ski Beanie (it helps that the designer is from HALIFAX!), the Swelligant Scarf, Anchors Aweigh, Mixology, the Hacky Sack Hoodie, the DJ Bag (I tried to make it into a pillow, long story short, I don’t do well with long floats), Tubey socks (a man in boxers and a button down always looks good, and Tie me up, Tie me down (sports jacket, un-tucked button down and any pants especially jeans once again ALWAYS looks good).
For those of you that have the book or can look it up online, can you tell how much I like curls?
The sweater is coming along great, I’ve got about two and a half inches of the garter stitch border done already, plus I went to one my my LYS’s (the one five seconds from where I work) and picked up another skein of Eco+. I wanted to do black, but they didn’t have any, so I picked up another green. I doubt the dye lots match, I’m just hoping for very little difference, or maybe somehow I’ll use the new skein for parts that could look different and not look weird. Here’s hoping eh?
-Cheers folks!
Something the Yarn Harlot sad stuck with me today, I’ll paraphrase: No matter how warm it gets, winter is inevitable, and if we don’t knit now, we’ll be cold later. She was talking about mittens, but I’ve been thinking sweaters. I’m on a Jared Flood kick right now, so what did I turn to, Smokin’. That’s what I turned to. It’s a very simple cardigan with a hybrid saddle seam/raglan shoulders, deep garter cuffs, a nice cozy collar, and chunky yarns. I’ve had to do a fair bit of math to get the numbers I needed, I’m also doing it on size 5 needles with the Eco+ yarn I have. I know I said I’d use that as the border to my Lizard Ridge blanket, but truth be told, that wont work. It’ll have to be black. Black is classic. I like black. I’m also going to use black as the main color of this cardigan, the green is going to be the cuffs, button band, and the collar.
Now is the time to gasp for air folks. I was going…to… *breath*… steak this. But I’m not. I need something mindless and I really don’t need something right now hanging over my head like an impending steak. I’m not there yet. Michael, you’ll have to help me get there someday.
Now it’s me time. No podcast (I’m working on episode 90), no packing (I have barely started), no Brownie stuff. Just me, my boyfriend (George from The Hour, he tells me he’s mine every single night), and some knitting. I’m looking forward to it.
-Cheers folks!
I made these ages ago, but I just recently put just my house key on the mini sock blocker. I got a new pair of sweat pant capris that actually have pockets and a drawstring. It’s amazing because I find that pants fall down while I’m running, especially since they’re not helped by the addition of my ipod to my waistband. Now I can take my ipod out of it’s case, toss it in one pocket, and instead of taking my house key off of the key ring, I can just take the sock off of my carabineer and throw that in the other pocket. My pants don’t fall down. I don’t worry about loosing my key, and changing tunes to something more tuned into my mood at that particular point in time is much, much easier.
-Cheers folks!
I have 6 block sewn together of my Lizard Ridge, I’ve also got one more done. I’m thinking that I’ll go buy two more balls of Noro Kureyon so that I can add a little bit to the width. Once that is done I’ll sew the last two blocks on and use my Eco+ to do a band around the edge.
I had to shoo a few cats off of the blanket today while it was outside on my deck drying in the beautiful weather. One was a gorgeous fluffy white cat that was sprawled out on it’s back purring away. I tried to get it to leave but it just looked up at me with those “pet me” eyes. I have a soft spot for cats. Especially long haired cats.
Happy Blogiversary to me! I spaced and never even bothered to check, but when I looked back today, I realized that me first blog post on this blog was June 5, 2007. It’s been 2 years and I’ve done more blogging in one month in 2009 than I did in half a year way back when.
-Cheers folks!
I have frogged, ripped, tinked, given away, finished, started, and brought out of hibernation. Kids, I’m doing good. I started a pair of socks in February that have 1.5 socks done, I’m working on that .5 right now. I re-wound the ball, and now I’m off and running. Well, I would be if I weren’t so damned tired from the camp on the weekend. Ugh. I’ll miss those kids, but not the lack of sleep. Though I must admit, my girls were amazing. They always are.
-Cheers folks!
PS. I forgot to mention that yesterday was Michael of This Boy Knits’ Blogiversary! Three years and still going strong. Congrats Michael!
We got juice boxes to take on our hike, there were a few extras, so Jess and I took them and saved them for later. We cut the tops off of the 125ml juice boxes, then proceeded to do a shot. That’s right, one shot. A juice box. One gulp. No chugging, just gulping. It was sad. And yet it was awesome.
-Cheers folks!
First day at camp, it poured. My rain boots got put to good use by probably about 4 people over the weekend. Jackets were shared, whichever one was driest got worn by whoever was going out. I’m not really complaining about the rain, but some of the girls didn’t have decent boots, or boots at all, or anything other than crocs. I was not happy. The Girl Guide in me stood up and went “What the Frig?!” Parents can astound me sometimes.
-Cheers folks!
In the past week I have Frogged:
That’s more than I have frogged in the past year I think. I have also finished a pair of socks, which felt so damn good. I finished the last block and I’ve got two other blocks for my Noro blanket blocking on the top of the washing machine. (I can’t wait till I get to Ottawa and I can block things wherever I want.) I need to sew in the ends of three items for the super secret project, then get them ready. One is still left to be done, but that’s okay. To celebrate the lightening of my load and to cast on something that is of any interest, I started the Whisper Cardigan from the Spring 09 Interweave Knits. It’s laceweight, light, airy, and purple. I only have one skein of the Malabrigo Lace, so I’ll have to buy another, but it’s not of too huge importance to get the exact dye lot because I can just use it for the body. The seam will add that transition needed to protect against the ugly that can be dye lot differences.
What do you have on the needles?
-Cheers folks!
I gave my bigger bin of yarn to my Nanny today. She knits for charity, so I know it’ll get put to good use. It was mainly a big bin of acrylics that I would only use if I was knitting for someone I didn’t know too well. I’ve still got my other bin full of wools and natural fibres, so I’m good. Plus I’ve got my drawers of un-spun fibre that’s just waiting to become yarn. I’m also either frogging or finishing projects. I picked up my Lizard Ridge blanket again tonight. I think I’ll sew together the blocks I have now, and instead of buying more Noro Kureyon, I’ll just use the Eco+ that I have and do a band around the outer edge. The Double breasted shrug is going nowhere. It’s getting frogged. Tonight.
I’m getting rid of crap. Two weeks till I leave. Back to the basics eh?
-Cheers folks!
I filled out a form online a few weeks back to get a free carrying case and a sample of o.b. tampons. I got them in the mail today. Neat package, very tiny. But what surprised me is the teeny tiny size of the tampons themselves. Ridiculous. Probably could be used by Barbie dolls. Oh well. It was free.
-Cheers folks!
1. Get up in the morning without hurting myself:
CHECK!
2. Go to work, and work without hurting myself or someone else:
CHECK!
3. Don’t spend too much money at lunch (under $5):
CHECK!
4. Go for some cardio:
CHECK!
5. Send one last question to person I’m looking to sublet from:
CHECK!
6. Do laundry:
CHECK!
7. Figure out how to do the rope braiding thingy for camp:
8. Get an apartment to stay in in Ottawa:
CHECK!!!!!!!!
Today was a good day. Tomorrow better be just as good. Or else.
-Cheers folks!
I finished my Kiila socks today on the way home from the Tract of Land. This meant that they needed to be washed and blocked. So I filled up the bathroom sink (as usual) and soaked them. I put them on the blockers and hung them up on the shower curtain rod. My dad went to use the bathroom and they scared him. My response to his “Why are there socks on plastic thingys in the bathroom?” questions was “Well, where else do you hang socks?”. He laughed, shook his head, and said “When do you leave?”
-Cheers folks!
We were away all weekend. It was nice. I got reception at the Tract of Land, but my phone died after about three hours of being there, so I had absolutely no contact to the outside world. And by outside world I mean Brownie Parents, Apartment hunts, Work, Knitting Worlds, etc. It was nice. Very nice. Because the weather was crappy on Saturday morning, we drove to Lunenburg. Dad needed to find the right plug for the generator because Home Depot had mislabeled the one he got, so it was the wrong one. After wandering around the South Shore for a while, we went back to the Tract of Land to have supper.
I showed my fire prowess by using the Burn Bucket to burn all of our burnables. I like fire. It’s really bad how much I like fire, but I find it calms me. I love nothing more than to sit beside a roaring fire, or smouldering coals and just stare into the depths of the red glow.
We had supper, and then I actually said something that I wanted to do. Normally I’m the “along for the ride” girl, I’ll go wherever the car takes me, but this time, seeing as it was my last weekend in the South Shore, I said that I wanted to go to Kejimkujik. I spent a fair bit of my childhood in those woods. Dad pushed me into the lake when I was barely 3, and he also made me bail out the canoe while we paddled in a freak rain storm that was putting water into the canoe faster that I could get it out. Good memories. I’ve come away with cuts and scrapes from falls on my bike, crafts made at the kids programs, stories from the programs at the amphitheatre, and more bug bites than you could shake a stick at. We drove around the camp ground, and I did some wandering while my folks cheated at the camping game by showering. We drove to the boat launch area (where dad had pushed me in almost 17 years ago), and then we went to the main beach at the big lake.
There’s a playground near there that beach had a digger. Of course dad and I had to go play. Hilarity ensued, and then we walked down to the water’s edge where I nearly cried for the beauty.
I love Nova Scotia. All it’s wonders, all it’s sights, and all it’s history. I’m going to miss it, that’s for damned sure.
-Cheers folks!
PS. I’ll do a photo post when I don’t have to get up in 6 hours to go to work.
We had our closing party with the Brownies tonight. Bowling. I didn’t actually bowl, but I did keep score for the girls. Afterwards we had pizza, and cupcakes. One of the leader’s mothers made the cupcakes. She owns a wedding cake business. Those flowers on top are handmade from fondant (I think it’s fondant). They were so tasty.
I will not be posting Friday or Saturday. My folks and I are going to our “property in the wilderness”. It’ll be good to get away from it all and just relax.
-Cheers folks!
These are the remnants of the secret project that I’m working on. Not enough to do more from each ball, but enough that if I added them together I could do something. I think I might use these leftovers for the Brownies at our camp next weekend. Wow that’s getting close. Damn.
-Cheers folks!
In the Summertime, when the weather is fine… I get burnt. I burn easily, and although I don’t peel too bad, it’s because I keep moisturized. Well, I do when I get burnt, other times, not so much. But when I get a really bad burn there is nothing better than slathering on the old standby. Aloe Vera Gel. Memories of fun days in the sun come flooding back with the smell.
I love how quickly smells can bring back memories. Don’t you?
-Cheers folks!
Remember how I said that I wasn’t only a knitter but a sewer as well. Well I finished my latest sewing project. My camera case is done. I hand sewed all the brown edging on because I didn’t trust my machine skills with what I wanted to do. I really like it with the exception of the velcro holding the side flaps down. It’s not really what I wanted, but I had it on hand. I might go to the fabric store to get some little snaps that I can put on instead. But for now, it’s perfect.
When I was taking today’s picture, I looked to my right, and saw this guy. He freaked me out a little. Just in case you were wondering, that quarter-round is 1 inch. So that spider is a big guy. I didn’t touch him. Just got up and left. I don’t do spiders. I really don’t. Not the big ones at least.
