Holy Crap!

I finished these socks in record time & thank God I'm keeping them for me because these.are.awesome!


Pattern: Brenda's Socks
I made no alterations to the pattern, although I was tempted to change the toe around, but I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did.
Yarn: Colinette 'Jitterbug' in the 'fire' colourway
this yarn is smushy, soft, vibrant & warm! My feet were happy all day long, even during the wicked cold walk home.


I guess these went so fast (I cast on late Wednesday night & was finished both of them by Sunday night - and also during this span, I managed to finish 3/4 of a sweater, but that's another post...) because there was enough to keep me interested. Also, I used size 2 needles & the Jitterbug is a bit heavier than the Regia I've been using.

I wish my camera could get right in there & show you the detail. Luckily my Ott Lite shows the colour pretty much exactly.

Now it's time to focus on whittling down my stash - getting rid of the thorns in my side & making room for only more yummy yarn like this stuff here.

Now that's what I call serendipity!

Remeber the Jitterbug sock yarn I bought just 5 days ago? Well, it had been sitting on my bedside table Totally innocent. Minding its manners, waiting patiently for me to make it into something..."nonono" it said, "I'll be here when you finish knitting Donald's socks....don't mind me....lum de de dum..." Well, like Garfield with Lasagne, I couldn't resist. I cast on at about 10:30pm Wednesday night for Brenda's Socks. By Thursday night I was turning the heel!


Today I came in from a cold, cold walk home (a walk where I helped an old lady cross the road & ran after a girl who had dropped her TTC pass - too bad the little halo above my head didn't keep me warm) I sat down with my sticks & settled in to listen to the latest Cast On. Which is when I suddenly stopped what I was doing so that I could fully realize what I was doing.

I was knitting a sock pattern Brenda Dayne had written
I was listening to Brenda Dayne's podcast
The yarn I was using is from Wales - where Brenda Dayne lives.

So these socks are meant to be. I'm sure of it! Lets just hope I have enough yarn to finish sock #2, since my little yarn cake is starting to look a little small.


This sock is lovely - the yarn is squishy, the cable & eyelet pattern is incredibly addictive & I'm pretty sure that by next week I'll have a complete pair. If you decide to knit this up, keep in mind that when it comes to the heel flap, the instructions tell you to K2tog, K1, Sl1 - I'm pretty sure this k2tog is supposed to be a Sl1.

6 Witamin!

think the hardest part of blogging for me is figuring out how to get 5 different topics into one entry.

For instance, on Saturday Gord & I went to Roncesvalles to do a little food shopping. Upon walking into a Polish food shop, I declared "I'm going to buy something from here I've never bought before!" "What will you buy?" asked Gord. I told him I'd know it when I saw it.

And then I saw it. And *IT* was almost my dinner tonight, but when I sat it on my counter....


(beside my Hello Kitty toaster?? yeah, guess who turns 31 this year??), I was overcome with a nagging voice in my head that said "Save that for a pasta salad....or a potluck dish....eating Elmer Fudd shaped pasta by yourself is sort of like getting plastered all alone."


Yes, better to make something a crowd can enjoy. Do you seem him? Elmer Fudd shaped pasta? Also included, Wile E. Coyote, Roadrunner & Buggs Bunny. With 6 Witamin!

So then I decided to have a healthier, more mature dinner of wild rice with tofu & miso patties.

My point is, I should have blogged about the Looney Tunes pasta on Saturday - when my enthusiasm was at it's peak. I should have rushed home & written a dynamite entry about this stuff....but I had a keg party to go to, and then the next day I had a brunch to go to, and then I bought sock yarn...see how things snowball?

And yesterday I had a doctor's appointment because 2 months ago my eye doctor thought I should go get my retina checked out. He thought there may be a problem with some dark spots inside there - so I left work early to be at my appointment for 3:00. *2 HOURS later* I sped home with one fucked up eye (drops were only put into the eye with the retinal "problem") and a clean bill of eye health.

So I took a couple of freaky pictures of my eyes because I felt like Marilyn Manson.....

Here is one where I look like a total skeeze:

And here is one which shows my crazyeyes:


But I couldn't be all photo shooty for long! My man was coming over! It was his birthday! I was going to treat him right!
I presented him with the birthday card I had made during my 2 hour wait in the doctor's office with the crayons & paper they had to keep kids occupied. I gave him the Twitch City DVD. I gave him a book he's already read. I gave him my most socially aware purchase of 2007:

No Sweat sneakers - 100% union made!

We had a freaking delicious dinner & then headed to his house for a Twitch City marathon.

So today is Tuesday & I had a couple of things to tell people about. My awesome pasta, my crazy eyes & my little pony's birthday... and no segue in sight.

I will be your hero baby....

Hey doodes! Check out my first finished knit of the year!


Months & months ago the fantabulous Amber sent me some sock yarn & the Apartment Therapy book in exchange for some Eames stamps I had. In an effort to get my stash into check, I reached for this stuff to make socks....for *me*,


It's Sockatta! A really great feeling cotton/wool yarn. Amber had already used some of it to make a pair of socks, so I did them two at a time toe-up since I wasn't too sure of how long I could get away with making them. I still have lots of it left over though, so I'm a little tempted to go back & make them longer.

But not before I fix this!


My very tall & slender friend Donald was the unfortunate recipient of this sock for Christmas. Donald is allergic to wool so I knit these using cotton stuff. I never stopped to think that I'd need to adjust the pattern - I just cast on & set off. It was after I had turned the heel that I realised this sock was crazybig.


Upon seeing this sock, a co-worker said "That's a whale of a sock you got there!" yeah, a regular Shamu. So I've started to make them again. This time I'm knitting them two at a time, toe-up so that I could just increase until it looked right. (I guess I'm slowly learning the merits of the toe-up sock, but I wouldn't call myself a convert just yet.)


Ah! Much better! (when I unravelled the jabba-the-sock at the toe, I was able to fit the thing on my arm..my *matronly upper arms* This sock was heeee-oooooge!)

Last night was my pal Colleen's birthday keg'r. Of course I should have taken photos, but since the beer was going to be flowing freely, I left home with the key to my front door, $10 to put towards Keg Fees & that was it. So I don't have any pictures of the fun fun times but I do have a picture of the super cute earrings I made for Colleen:


These were super quick & fun to make -- for sure there will be more of these in my craft future.

And because I am lucky enough to have friends who enjoy getting together often to eat in each other's company, this morning we pushed through our hangovers to go to Jeff & Shelley's for a deeeeeeeeelicious breakfast!

Dave showed up in a hockey helmet!

Shelley making a delicious fruit salad!


Jeff brought home the bacon!

There was a frigg-load of food (baked beans, french toast, scrambled eggs, toast, fried potatoes, fruit salad! aie aie aie!) & soon I was on the road to recovery.



There may have been a teensy tiny little bit of karaoke.
I wanted to stay in their house for a whole week, but I had errands to do & I was probably smart to walk around a little after so much booze & food)

And then by accident this followed me home:

I had to go to Kensington Market to get a couple of things. None of the things on my list was sock yarn, but I mean, I was walking right past lettuce Knit anyway...why not stop in? And then I saw the colours of this Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn in the 'fire' colourway. This stuff is so yummy, I can't wait to see how it knits up! I just have to find a good pattern for it - something cabley, I think.

New year, new blog.

I've quit smoking, I'm trying to move myself off of the couch more often, I'm putting less refined & processed foods into my body and I'm chaging the template on my blog to refelct a purer & less complicated me. Can you handle it?

2006 was a good one for me, lots of good new changes & discoveries about myself but this year I plan on taking the things I learnt last year & putting them to actual use.

Now that I have a job that actually allows me to save money & I've eliminated the main money soaker-upper from my life (smoking) I'm going to try my best to pay more than just the interest on my credit card each month & for *real* this is the year that I start investing in what I want to do. Make clothes & sell them.

This dream has been in the little cloud above my head for a long time now -- ever since I left school, but several things kept me from doing anything about it. My old job had me living pay to pay & snatched up a good portion of my self confidence. Now I have a job that pays me more for working less hours & at the end of the day I still have my dignity. Sure, I'm not fully appreciated for all the mad book skills I have but who really cares? I love books, and I miss actually working in a bookstore & talking to people about what they're reading but I didn't love doing my job well & still being constantly bullied for things like apparently not adhering to the dress code. (It's alright, I am a very big believer in a little something called *karma*)

The main problem with fulfilling this dream of mine boils down to honest to goodness fear. What if people don't want what I have? What if what I have isn't as good as it should be? What if I sew a seam crooked & someone notices? What if after 10 years of wearing & washing something I've made a button falls off???



Well, no more! Maybe I'm just stating this publicly so that I feel accountable to it. But in any case, I have a rough plan written on paper, I have rough sketches doodled everywhere, I have my library of books about how to do what I want to do on the floor beside my bed, I have nothing to lose except time and lots of money. Heck, Susannah believes in me!





"If it ain't fix, don't broke it"

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Oh! oh Bloggy....

I got stressed because I thought about how in my last post I told you that the next post was going to be all about what I got for christmas. Honestly, Christmas feels like a million years ago now, and I will just summarize by saying I got a Yarn Swift (YAY!), The Facts of Life on DVD, some pyjamas, some new Rudolph figurines (figures? figurines? I never know the difference between these two things & only know there's a difference when comic nerd friends jeer at me for misusing the terms......) and a bunch of stuff from the best boyfriend EVER....

like this amazing wallet that I lovesomuchithurtsme!

**swooon!* a boy who shops from Etsy.com!

So now it's 2007 & I've decided to fuckin' take the reigns on this horse I call My Life. Every year I make the same New Year's Resolution & this year will be no different. I resolve to
"Be More Awesome."

Lots of people seem to be going through similar things; taking stock of what's not quite right in their lives & doing something to change it (it's just that some people do it way funnier & smarter than others....not that this is a race or a challenge to be the funniest...)

Anyway,
Meet my new friend:

These little guys have been helping me for the past week & a half to *finally* get rid of my nasty dirty 9+ year habit. So far, so good. I've been having the most amazing Nicodreams ever!

I've also been walking to & from work everyday. A total of 6km & $5.50 in my brand new wallet!

Comined, these two changes to my lifestyle will result in approximately $62.50 saved *per week* Who knew having lazy, unhealthy habits cost so much? And then in a little while I can get THIS!:

Pink Please!