Stitchin' Bitch

Keep your fingers out of your mouth

2012-01-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year readers! Today I created a "knitting 2012" folder for all my new pictures, and I didn't waste any time taking the first round of shots.

Let's begin with a catch-up on one of my last projects of 2011:

Finished, and had also been worn twice by the time this picture was taken. The socks were accidentally washed in the machine (but not through the dryer thank goodness) and got covered in little bits of kleenex. I'm the guilty party there, I regularly stash kleenex in my pants and sweater pockets for later use and then forget to check pockets before laundry day. The socks weren't harmed in any way, and I picked off the white fluffies just before taking this picture for your benefit. You're welcome.

I love the twisty design on a plain socks, it really lets the pretty yarn shine through. This yarn was purchased in September at the KW Knitters Fair from Viola Fibres. I hear that Emily, the name behind Viola, is taking a break from creating beautiful yarns, possibly forever. I can't seem to find any information to support this claim on the interweb, but I'm concerned nonetheless. Now I'm a sad panda, and I have to use and appreciate the yarns I bought from her. More on that shortly.

I've been working on yoga socks, to keep up the inventory at the studio. The two remaining pairs that I had at the studio before Christmas have been snatched up, and I'm still one pair short to fill someone's order for 3 pairs. Here are my latest happy little campers, about half-way done the first sock. The pattern is Blackrose from Knitty winter 2008. I was searching for a lacey sock pattern that wouldn't drag me down. For yoga socks, since I sell them for pretty cheap and I need to produce them quickly, I look for a single panel of pattern without many rows to the repeat. This pattern is absolutely perfect - the chart is 8 rows, only 4 of which are pattern, and it's done over 17 stitches for a nice off-centre or centred design. The rest of the sock is done in plain stockinette stitch.

The yarn here is the rest of the skein of KnitPicks Tonal Sock yarn in "Gypsy". I bought this yarn specifically for yoga socks because it puts the material cost to make a pair squarely under $5.

And I finished a pair of yoga socks to add to the pile. There ones are the same pattern as my lovely Viola socks above, but done on a simply yoga sock. I also like this pattern for yoga socks - it's simply to follow and makes for a quick knit. While I don't tend to use fancy yarns that need to be shown off with simple stitches, I think they are a handsome pair of socks in a pretty colour.

The finished pair, blocking on sock blockers and getting some air exposure on top of my swift. I'm back at the studio late next week for the first class of the season, and I would love to have two finished pairs to pin to the board.

While yoga socks are consistently in the background, I can also start thinking of all the lovely things I'll be making this year. Top of the list right now is making something with my Viola yarns. Remember this pretty young thing, also one of my finds from the Fair? She is destined to be a shawl for Tam Tam, I knew that from the time I first picked her up. This may or may not be a wedding shawl for Tam Tam (a ring is supposed to be making an appearance this year, but I'm not holding my breath), but I know she'll like it.

I decided on Brooklyn Tweed's "Rock Island" shawl for Tam Tam. It's light and airy, a classic triangle, and I'm sure she'll love it.

I have yet to purchase the pattern, but it's at the top of my queue and my next big project.

Also on the list of yarns to use is my "Bruised Plum" from Viola. I think it will be destined for a pair of fingerless mitts to wear at the office during the winter. I've had my eye on Anne Hanson's Curling Neckwarmer and Mitts set for a while, I think that might do the trick. Anne spoke at a Guild meeting a few months ago and I really enjoyed her designs.

I know Christmas was only over a week ago, but I'm already thinking of ideas for this year's extended family gifts. Fuzzyhead thinks I'm thinking too far ahead, but I know that my Christmas jams took hours and hours of time to prepare, and had to be done months before Christmas when the fruit was in season. I just spent a few minutes tooling around the internet for inspiration, and came across some potential ideas:

Homemade chai tea syrup - just add milk and heat, yum!
Baking. I've done this a bit in previous years, but usually only for a handful of people, not everyone. Based on my counts for jams this Christmas, I need something for about 24 people, and that would mean a butt-ton of baking in December when I have literally no time. The doughs can sometimes be made ahead and frozen, but our freezer capacity right now is pathetic (thanks a lot tiny Japanese robot fridge), and the actual baking still needs to be done within a day or so.
Knitted ornaments. A recent Vogue Knitting had a feature on colourwork knitted ornaments and I thought they would be a great idea, one for everyone. There are a few flaws with this plan - Fuzzyhead pointed out that many of his family members don't do Christmas trees or have taken all the fun out of Christmas by having colour-coordinated trees (totally lame, right? In a delicious Martha Stewart way, except homemade ornaments aren't acceptable), and it would mean all of the work falls on me for our joint gifts since Fuzzyhead doesn't knit. This isn't terribly different from the jams - I made all batches of jam entirely by myself and decorated the jars by my lonesome - so I guess this one is still an option.
Home-made baking mixes. I found this idea in a magazine two years ago, and I had intended to do it this year but didn't. Along with the jams, I was going to include gingerbread scone baking mix (just add liquid), but then I didn't. It's still a good idea, so I'm keeping it on the pile

In case you're wondering why everything on this list is home-made, it's because I literally have no money, and I don't know most of the people I have to produce presents for very well. Most of the list of 24 or so people includes aunts and uncles and cousins who I see once or twice a year, and it's too hard to think of things to buy them that they might actually want. Plus, it's hella expensive.

Thoughts, suggestions, comments? I really liked the jams/jellies I did this year, but I feel like people are expecting so much more from us. We included smaller extra gifts for some people, and despite my hours of work on the jams, I think the more traditional store-bought gifts were better received.

Onward,

vrock

Malkovich oreos

2011-12-26T13:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Boxing Day dear readers! On this sacred of all holidays, while I sit around the house in lounge-pants (thanks Santa!) and put away all my new toys, it's the perfect time to recap some holiday knits and gifts and how they were received.

A few weeks ago, during the over-scheduled weeks before Christmas, I made this little gal as a last minute contribution to the Knitters' Guild ornament exchange:

This is Holly, of Holly, Ivy, and Steve, a pattern I bought on Ravelry from Danger Craft. I first stumbled on the pattern when I was browsing Etsy on the train home from my forced Montreal trip with Slim Jim. I was severely strapped for cash at the time, and I couldn't even justify the $6 price tag for the pattern. When at last a pay-cheque was tossed in my direction (let this be a lesson to you kiddies, always pay your caterer promptly), it wasn't until the weekend before the Guild meeting, so I didn't start Holly until Saturday night. Sunday night had me out at a party (serving my dear readers, I never get to be the invitee at holiday events), and I had to stay up way passed my bedtime on Monday night to finish her. In total I spent about 8 hours making Holly, but it should have been more - I cut the scarf way short when I realized how long that one element was going to take me. I also didn't have white felt (or any felt at all actually) to make her teeth, no buttons for the eyes, and no stuffing to fill her, so I improvised. Her teeth are stitched on with the same white yarn I used for the scarf, her eyes are made from tiny knots of brown yarn I had around the house, and she was stuffed with old plastic shopping bags. Aside from a slight crinkle when you squeeze her, you'd never know. Holly is a wonderful little stash-busting project, I used old yoga sock yarns I still had, plus some KnitPicks yarn from the Cupcake Mittens. I still have boat-loads of this yarn left, and since Holly takes very little to make, I'm thinking I can bust out the rest of the gang and make an Ivy and a Steve. My original Holly is long gone - she was snatched up quickly at the ornament exchange, and is hopefully sitting on someone else's tree right now.

And now, my crowning achievement in knitting for this year, drum roll please!

One FINISHED, neatly folded, and ready to be gifted Man's Cabled Cardigan:

This sweater was finished in late November, with buttons sewn on shortly after. I followed the sizing for the man's small, which matched Fuzzyhead's measurements almost exactly. My gauge was bang-on for stitches per inch, but not so hot for rows. I only really had to think extra hard when the pattern told me to do something "every other row" or "for x rows" since my row gauge was not the same. This caused the biggest trouble for the tops of the sleeves, where I had to made my own adjustments and still hope it would fit in the arm-shaped hole I had already made for the sleeve in the torso piece. But as you can see here, it all came together swimmingly:

The sweater fits great, and I'm currently wearing it while I type this post. He sported it around town yesterday to two different Christmas celebrations, and he'll be wearing it again tonight at the last run-around Christmas we have to do.

Next up is another last minute project that I was thinking about and planning for months, so I guess you can't really call it last-minute.....except that I mailed it on almost the last possible day for mailing things to get it there before Christmas. For this beauty, I learned to crochet from my wise and patience crocheting friend Catherine. We stopped in at Shall We Knit? one night on the way to Thursday night knitting and I bought a skein of a heathered charcoal yarn for the hat (Cascade 220, what's up!). I had a 4.5mm crochet hook in my bag and a pattern I couldn't understand on my Playbook. Catherine and I somehow entirely missed the knit mob group that night, but we went to Coffee Culture by ourselves for some quiet crocheting. I made real progress on the hat in that first night, and I finished the rest in two nights. Fuzzyhead is modeling the finished hat here, before I wrapped it up for gifting to my friend Adam.

In the grand tradition of last year's red pepper jelly gifts for relatives, I made home-made jam for everyone on my list for Christmas. I started the project in the summer, buying up canning jars when they showed up at the grocery store, and stocking up on pectin and sugar. I chose to make strawberry jam when the Ontario strawberries were at their peak, but I didn't act fast enough to make the amount I needed before the precious two weeks of Ontario strawberry season were over. For the rest of the jams, I made peach jam, and I did a couple batches of carrot cake jam in smaller jars for everyone.

The recipes for the strawberry and peach jams were taken right from the helpful pamphlet included in each and every box of Certo liquid pectin. I dressed up the jars with a festive gold ribbon around the band, and a cutesy topper for the lid:

I found this "homemade goodies" stamp at Michaels during my crazy Halloween paper crafting obsession in November. I cut discs from card stock I already had, and stamped them with brown ink. They make the jars a millions time cuter.

The little carrot cake jams were all finished with holiday ribbon glued around the band, as well as the "homemade goodies" topper. The carrot cake jam was inspired by a trip last year to the New Dundee Emporium for afternoon tea and scones, and I found the recipe here in a random google search.

In the same day I was tying ribbon around jars, I threw together a welcome gift for our new neighbours, who moved in on December 1st. I had a Christmas cookie tin leftover from last year's gifting, so I wrapped up some red velvet whoopie pies I made that day for the Guild Christmas meeting. Welcome neighbours! Don't you wish you lived next to me?

Onward,

vrock

Circus of values

2011-11-30T21:59:00.001-05:00

It's the last day of Movember kiddies, and I say good riddance to bad facial hair. Anyone who participates in this moustache-growing month should really wear a sign. I sat through a whole meeting at work today wondering if the nice gentleman I was talking with sports a 'stache year round (and really thinks it looks good) or if it's just for charity. Moving on.

We begin, dear readers, with a recap of things that happen in my life that aren't necessarily all about knitting. Kind of a downer, I know, but they all relate to crafting, promise.

For the first time in many years, I got dressed up for Halloween this year! We were invited to a Halloween party at Fuzzyhead's friend's house, and told to dress up to keep the fun alive. I spent way too long and way too much money on a costume that I wore for a few hours, but I was proud of my creative spirit. Here we are in poor lighting in our kitchen about to leave for the night:

Do you know what I am? I'm a sexy hamburglar! I completed the outfit on the way to the party with a quick stop at McD's for a happy meal box, which I tied onto my skirt. Fuzzyhead could almost pass for his every-day-self except for the plastic hunting knife tucked into his pants. He was as Locke from Lost, the shaved head makes him a dead ringer for anyone else with a shaved head. The scar over his eye (washable marker is good for everything) brought the whole look together.

And we of course carved pumpkins, albeit a bit late this year. We bought them on the Saturday before Halloween, and carved them on Sunday night. My pumpkin saw a bit more action than Fuzzyhead's since I didn't cut all the way through the flesh and thus there was less pumpkin rot. By the following week they were both in the green bin. Sad.

Oh no! A snake-faced Voldemort!

My November was not terribly fast-paced, but I was dragged to Montreal with Slim Jim to find her a place to live. She starts school on January 3rd at Concordia and didn't think too far beyond being accepted and packing her cat and dog up to take with her away from Momma's mess-filled house. In case you're wondering, it's really hard to find a student-priced room/apartment where you can bring your barking dog without being evicted. The dog/cat thing has been pushed to the back burner, and in our whirlwind weekend (took the train in on Friday night, left on Sunday afternoon), we found her a place to live. BUT, the important part of the story is that I spent some quality time at a knitting store since I was rudely pulled away from my weekend off.

I consulted Ravelry in our hotel room to find nearby knitting shops that we accessible by metro/walking. One of the forum posts highly recommended Effiloche, just a few short metro stops and a quick walk away from our hotel. Please excuse the glare on the store window, it was an exceptionally gorgeous day outside.

They sell fabric and yarn, and even rent sewing machines by the hour. So cute! The fabric was all adorable, no old-lady patterns to be found. It's exactly the kind of fabric I would stock up on if I sewed. I wanted to snap a few pictures of the inside of the store, but I always feel weird doing that since some places are all up in your face about not taking pictures. Really, what does it matter? I don't like being yelled at so I settled for some shots from outside.

They have a cutesy little display of felted outdoorsy things that I also loved. I want a felted toadstool.

I returned from Montreal with two skeins of yarn for Momma's dog walking ear flap hat for Christmas. I've finished the basic hat shell already and crocheted a border all around the edge. I'm working on an ultra-warm inner shell to keep her head toasty during winter dog walks. Fuzzyhead has an ear flap hat and I know gusty winds whip right through the bulky knit, so two layers can't hurt.

Also, I'm a wee bit of a paper crafter, and I spent some serious time crafting up these puppies:

Fuzzyhead and I host his annual Christmas gathering for his friends, mostly for their Secret Santa exchange, but in recent years, also for me to play super hostess. We settled on a date many weeks ago to be sure everyone could make it, and I made up the invites more as a courtesy than a true invitation. We chose our theme months ago, and I patiently waited for Halloween-y themed paper and stamps to appear at Michaels. I spent 5 or 6 hours crafting the invitations, and only finished all of the wording last night. Oh, and just because I'm me, I made my own envelopes:

I bought a roll of craft paper (cheap and cheerful and sold by the roll!), and measured around each card to make a custom envelope. I love the Halloween stamps I bought so I found an excuse to use the big feature stamp image on the outside of the envelopes. I. LOVE. THEM. They're all addressed and waiting for stamps.

My yoga socks are still around in the background, I've got a pair on my needles right now, but I'm in no rush to produce them. I had a request through the yoga studio for a pair so I finished up the purple ones I was working on. The lady who requested them didn't have a colour preference, so I brought all three of the pairs I had on hand to the studio for her to choose from. I pinned them to an old bulletin board and added some core information, made myself a little display board. She chose the red pair so I'm down to two pairs in my inventory. I told the studio to keep the board there since I'm sure people are more likely to buy them if they can touch and feel the finished product.

Tres cute, non?

I'm working my way through Christmas gift knitting for 2011. I'm so glad I didn't commit to more holiday knitting, it would kill me. I finished both of the felted slippers for the sister things and made my way to Michaels again this week for some puffy paint for a non-slip grip on the bottoms.

I used Tulip brand Puffy Paint in white. The slipper on the left has been "puffed" while the one on the right is waiting its turn. The paint took more than 4 hours to dry (never blindly trust the instructions kids), but puffed up nicely with some direct heat from a hair dryer (the instructions called for holding a hot iron up close to the paint without letting it touch, but this was way easier).

Slim Jim's slippers, puffed and ready for wrapping. Note the heart for extra love.

Remember that manly cabled cardigan I was working on. Done. Here's its trip through the blocking process, and when it's properly revealed on Christmas morning, Fuzzyhead will be a fine model for the finished product.

Soaking in the tub

The finished pieces are blocked to their final measurements and set out on the futon to dry. I did this on Friday morning before leaving for my Montreal weekend and I left them to finished drying while I was away. They were very damp when I set them out since I ran out of wool/dog appropriate towels to squeeze out more water.

More pictures and updates up soon, I've got lots of knitting that needs to be shown off.

Onward,

vrock

The knitting field trip that almost wasn't

2011-10-26T23:20:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I question why I still let myself receive newsletters and email updates from things I really don't need to see all the time. I get all my personal and work emails on my phone, and 9 times out of 10 I open it, decide I really don't care enough to read it, and move on with my day. Last week on Friday, this very thing nearly happened and would have caused me to miss a spur of the moment knitting field trip. I got a Shall We Knit? email newsletter, and while I like the shop just fine, I've never taken a class there, and don't really need the regular newsletter updates. I opened the email and scrolled down a weensy bit and had a mini heart attack when I read "fleece festival". The Woodstock Fleece Festival was the very next day, and I had no idea. Thank you Shall We Knit? for keeping me in the knitting know! I will read your newsletters with gusto from now on.

I immediately sent a text message to Catherine hoping against all knitting hope that she wasn't scheduled to work on Saturday. For once in my life, I didn't have anything (urgent) to do on Saturday, and I was all for it. We scratched together a plan that didn't totally come together until 8:30 or so that night, and it meant only being at the show for not-quite 2 hours. I accepted this challenge and went to sleep ready for sweet woolly dreams.

Our plan for the festival meant working around Catherine's inconsiderate work schedule for the day, which was created weeks in advance of us even knowing the festival was happening. Considering I was on the planning committee for the KW Knitters' Fair, you'd think I would be up on the local knitting happs. Catherine had to be at work, ready to roll for a full day of helping customers, at 11am. The festival opened at 8:30am, and was only a 30 minute drive away. I love when life-math adds up in your favour.

Welcome to the Woodstock Fleece Festival! I love the friendly sign to let you know that the non-descript building next to the farmer's market was indeed full of yarn.

With such a short amount of time for shopping fun, we did a quick tour of the booths and then took a shopping breather at the barn with soft and fluffy animals. There was also spinning equipment for sale, but with less than 24 hours notice about this festival's existence, I didn't come prepared to purchase the big stuff.

Hello bunny! We couldn't stay for the angora rabbit grooming demos unfortunately, they were happening at 11, but it worked out for the best since I don't have a rabbit to groom.

It took me longer than I thought it would to find the head-end of this one for a picture.

This is the friendliest little alpaca I've ever met. This fellow had me researching my own alpaca hobby farm later that same weekend. He made adorable whining noises and wanted to be petted, a lot like my dog.

So cute! They even come with a built-in harness for adorable alpaca walks!

These four little bunnies were huddled together for warmth. They shouldn't be allowed to put so many cute things all in one place. Two of the angora rabbits were for sale. I messaged Fuzzyhead while I was at the show to ask if I could buy one. He said no.

Without having a real budget in mind, I kept to my budget and only spent about $100 at the show. I bought a bright pink Namaste bag for Tam Tam for her birthday from the Needle Emporium. The bags were on mega-sale - I paid $55 for the one I bought for Tam Tam, while I paid at least $80 for it online, plus shipping. Her bag is exactly the same as the peacock blue one I purchased a few weeks ago, but it's bright pink. She'll love it.

The only purchases for myself were two skeins of sock yarn from The Black Lamb. One in "Mochachino" and one in "Olive Drab". They were $15.99 each, and while I was looking for some deeply discounted show specials for sock yarn, that was a pretty good price. My final purchase of the day before we wrapped it up at 10:15am (I know, right?) was a set of 2.25mm square double pointed needles. I was so excited to try them out, I started my third real current WIP (Bad vrock, bad! Finish your current projects before casting on more!). This is the Viola Sock yarn I bought at the Knitters' Fair in SeaStorm, on my pretty new copper square needles:

Onward,

vrock

Having it all

2011-10-10T13:08:00.000-04:00

Today is a holiday Monday readers, when everything is closed and I don't bother putting contact lenses in since I don't have to leave the house. Glorious. I've been felting slippers today, and I thought I'd share the whole process with you, including some of the slight modifications I've made to the pattern having completed two other sets of slippers already. I'm totally old hat at this now.

Here's a quick refresher, team - I first made these a few months ago as my practice pair of French Press Slippers:

They worked out really well, I love how they look like ballet flats and not like a frumpy pair of chunky knitted slippers. These have less of that homemade slippers feel, and I like that about them. They could almost pass as real shoes if you didn't look at the bottoms. After trying out the pattern with my own pair, I determined that these would be an acceptable gift for the sisters for Christmas this year. I made a second pair, which I previously blogged about here. I made no changes to the pattern, and they turned out just fine. The only thing I noticed in my pair (not sure if this will turn up in the purple ones since I haven't been wearing them myself. Well, just once. Shhh, don't tell Slim Jim) was that the seams where I joined the top to the sole are kind of hole-y. I thought that by felting them thoroughly, the holes would all tighten up together and disappear. Most of them did, and the extra large and loose stitches had no trouble tightening up, but the seaming stitches weren't as close together as they needed to be to disappear. The pattern just calls for you to seam any old way you like, since the felting will hide any problem spots.

This is the third pair, for the older sister thing, in a delightful rosy pink. I finished all of the pieces a few weeks ago and seamed them all together this morning over coffee.

The first finished slipper is on the right, and the sole and top portion of the other slipper is waiting to be sewn up on the left. For this pair, I decided to sew up the pieces using double strands of yarn. This actually makes more sense than what I did the first time (sewing up using single strands), since all of the pieces were knit using either double or triple strands of yarn held together for extra thickness. The top pieces were knit using two strands held together, so I sewed them up using the tail ends.

The finished pair of slippers, looking huge and floppy.

For my own amusement, I held my perfectly normal-sized hand next to them for scale comparison.

All of the finished pieces. I also marked the right slipper this time before felting with a piece of kitchen twine. I forgot to do that with both of the other slippers so I had to think extra hard when they came out of the washing machine looking exactly the same.

Ready to go in the wash, I pulled together some bulky towels and few pairs of jeans for extra agitation. I use a mesh lingerie bag to keep all of the slipper pieces in one place during washing.

The washing was done in my top-loading Kenmore washer, with the hottest water possible and the "Normal" washing cycle which includes fast-fast agitation for both halves of the cycle. I added a smidge of detergent (Arm and Hammer liquid laundry detergent) and let the full washing cycle run. I checked on them about 3 times during the wash cycle, and ended up putting the slippers bases back in for another half cycle of the wash. The top piece flaps (the little pieces not attached to the slippers) were done after the initial cycle, and I pulled them out.

The slippers were nicely felted when they came out, and I rinsed them with cold water before squeezing all the water out. I rolled them up in my knitting/dog towels (towels that no one really cares about since they cost $1.49 at Ikea) and squeezed a little more water out. They went outside on the deck on the drying rack, which has adorable little shoe drying holders, which work perfectly for felted slippers.

The little flappies are currently hanging to drying on the washing line, looking like tiny pink elephant ears.

They should take at least 24 hours to fully dry since they're so dense, so I'll leave them out all day and bring them inside overnight to dry some more.

Onward,

vrock

Charging all my batteries at once

2011-10-08T15:13:00.000-04:00

Quiet weekend at home this Thanksgiving my loving readers, I will be enjoying some time to knit for sure. I've managed to bring the usual run-around of Thanksgivings down to one, by only going to one this year (clever, huh?). Fuzzyhead's family Thanksgiving is on Sunday, and true to form, my family made a last-minute decision to have our dinner on the same night. I'm eager for a home cooked Momma meal, so I chose my own family's dinner, and Fuzzyhead will go to St. Catharines with his family, a perfect compromise. No run-around, and plenty of guilt-free time to knit.

Let's start the recap:

Hello Namaste Zuma bag, I love you. Ordered with my most recent KnitPicks order, it was kind of an impulse buy. I had been looking for a cheap Namaste bag, but it doesn't even come up on a local Kijiji search, and eBay only seems to have the "buy now" option for them, which means it's just an online shop selling them at essentially retail prices. I bit the bullet and bought one through KnitPicks, it wasn't a bad price considering I didn't have to drive to my LYS to find the one I wanted. In the end, I chose the Zuma bag, because of its look. I have already taken this bag out and about as a regular purse, with a substantial haul of knitting inside. There are also no zippers on the main pocket for yarn to get snagged on - I hadn't even thought of this as a selling feature, but I love it.

The yarn for Fuzzyhead's sweater, all 22 balls of it.

So pretty! I really love the colour, I'm glad I chose something light, to show off the cables.

Speaking of cables - my gauge swatch! I did a very generous gauge swatch, I think it ended up being 6 or 7 inches square. My tension was pretty bang on, 27 stitches over 4 inches, but my row tension was wonky. I decided that was OK since all of the pieces are measured in total inches rather than in numbers of rows. This little beauty used up most of the first ball of yarn, I'm very glad I over-bought (at least at this point I think I bought too much).

The work in progress, in its pretty little Zuma bag.

The first few inches! As of today, I'm at about 10 inches. This piece is the back and the sides of the cardigan, all in one piece. At 18 inches I start to do some shaping, but I've got a ways to go before that fun. For now I'm perfectly happy to be doing some straight boring knitting. It's nice to have an easy project to fall back to, something I can bring with me anywhere without needing to look at a pattern.

Also, I've chosen a pattern for my next sock project for myself, using that tasty blue Viola Fibers sock yarn I got at the Knitters Fair. First off, a quick refresher:

Viola Sock in "Sea Storm"

And the pretty little socks that caught my attention:

Kalajoki pattern by Tiina Seppala, a free Ravelry download (score!)

And to round out this post, I couldn't overlook a glimpse at my latest Suzy Homemaker creation:

Pumpkin spice cupcakes with brown sugar cinnamon cream cheese icing. I made these on Thursday night so I could take a small batch to work on Friday before the long weekend and hand them out to my favourite co-workers (aka my family plus a few special extras). They were truly excellent, the cupcake part especially. I didn't even use a boxed cake mix for them, totally from scratch yo! The cupcake recipe is apparently by Martha Stewart, but I found the cupcake and icing recipe on a blog - check it out here.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Onward,

vrock

Sleeping by the lake

2011-09-27T18:45:00.000-04:00

I'm back from a weekend of knitting wonder dear readers! I spent two restful nights at Chantry Breezes B&B in South Hampton with my Monday night knitters. A small crew of us drove up on Friday night and did a little knitting, and some chatting, and some shopping. I hammered out the second cupcake mitten, and now those 2.25mm needles are free for a delicious pair of socks for little ol' me.

The view of my room as you come in the door. I got the suite, which is clearly intended for a family of 4. I enjoyed spreading my junk around and using this front room with twin beds as my personal dressing area.

My room, the big-girl master bedroom. So cozy, I really love the decorating style of the whole place

Margot's cottage, located behind the main house, and Margot, pictured above (the cruise director of our little weekend away). I loved it, every inch of it's tiny, cozy cuteness.

Clawfoot tub, what's up!

View of the cottage from the bedroom tucked in the back corner

The living room in the main house, I adore the purple accent furniture and the cool blue walls. Very French-French, non?

The beach was right THERE, right at the end of the road.

This is Chantry Breezes, our home away from home for the weekend. The covered porch on the second floor is where we had breakfast each morning. And by breakfast, I mean REAL breakfast - this was not just a bag of Wonderbread and a toaster set out for you. On the first day we had fresh fruit salad and white chocolate blueberry scones with lavender, and then two kinds of frittata with bacon. Day two was just as good, fruit salad and pumpkin spice muffins first, then oatmeal pancakes and peameal bacon. Yum!

The fruits of my labour, they are done! The top mitten is carefully hiding all of the ends sticking out from the mess of ends I have to weave in from all that colour work. That will be a good job for a quiet night at home when I'm feeling patient.

I'm already planning for my next few projects, I just placed an order for a massive amount of yarn from KnitPicks for a sweater for fuzzyhead. I ordered 22 50gram balls of Wool of the Andes worsted weight in "Camel Heather" for this sweater:

This is #17 Man's Cable Cardigan (link to a 360 view video) from Vogue Knitting Winter 2009/2010. I copied the pattern from Fruwho's copy of the magazine, and I'm so excited to start swatching! I was inspired last year by Sandi Wiseheart at my very first Knitters' Guild meeting about how non-threatening it can be to make a sweater that actually fits (and diligent swatching is key). Fuzzyhead will be my test subject, but I figure if I can nail down the process with him, then I can try my hand at making something for me with a nicer yarn.

Also, because I have no self control, I bought a Namaste Zuma bag at the same time from KnitPicks. I got mine in peacock blue, and it will be my winter purse and all-around awesome stylish knitting bag. Squee! I love getting things in the mail!

Onward,

vrock

Queenie wave

2011-09-13T23:54:00.001-04:00

It's essentially fall, dear readers, in case you were confused by the sharp ups and downs in temperature this week, and that means knitting is afoot. Get ready for the updates:

First of all, the KW Knitters Fair was this weekend, in all it's woolly glory. My camera was in my bag, but I was so busy being an awesome volunteer at the Fair, that I forgot to get any pictures. I was on the fair planning committee this year (my attempt to be more involved with the Knitters Guild), and my task on fair day was to quietly sit behind the administration table (knitting, obviously) and help vendors with whatever they needed. I received regular shopping and bathroom breaks, and I cataloged my purchases the next day. These are the things I loved enough this year to bring home with me:

A knitting bag from ZigZag Stitches, the boxy variety. I've had my eye on one of these every year that I've gone to the fair, and this time I ran there first, right when the fair opened to get my pick of the litter. Not super crazy about the liner fabric, but I adore the old-timey fabric on the outside. It has already been put to use holding my current pair of yoga socks on the needles.

More roving, to satisfy my insatiable spinning lust. I bought two bags of the same variety of roving last year from Gemini Fibres, and I really liked how it turned out. I spun and knitted a whole project with the roving from last year's fair, and I figured one more 100g bag would let me do a little more with the final product. I bought three bags of this in "Pomegranate".

A pretty new drop spindle, also from Gemini Fibres. My original drop spindle is clunky and makes me look like a newb - this one is pretty and delicate and worthy of my love. I've been spinning mostly on my wheel lately, but this little beauty might bring me back to portable spinning.

Allow me to introduce you to my new love, Viola Fibers. I loved this booth at the fair, it was facing me from where I spent most of the day at the admin table, and it was easily the nicest looking booth there. Her yarns are delicious. So delicious even, I bought three of them, and blew most of my budget there. Totally worth it. This yarn is a fingering weight in "bruised plum", destined to become a lovely pair of fingerless mitts/gloves.

This is sock weight yarn from Viola in "sea storm" for a lovely pair of socks for me.

My find of the day from Viola, a lace weight yarn in "wild rose". This one will be a shawl for older sister thing, because she likes pink things but needs grown-up colours to match her almost-thirty-year-old self.

I want to take some/all of these yarns with me on my upcoming knitting retreat, where I'll be in South Hampton with my Monday night knitters for a few days away to knit and do nothing. I will also be taking along my other current projects, including the cupcake mittens seen in my last post (I started the second mitten, and I weaved in the spaghetti mess inside the first mitten), and my current yoga socks project.

Speaking of yoga socks, I finished another pair:

That makes two pairs now in my inventory of yoga socks to sell at the studio. Just this week I received a message from someone on Ravelry about selling a pair of socks. I've thought about opening an Etsy shop a few times, but I'm not 100% sold on it. Etsy charges you 20 cents for every item you post, and if it doesn't sell in 4 months, you can re-post it for another 20 cents, or just let it expire. I don't know how well my socks would sell, and if by some chance everyone and their chicken wanted a pair, I could never keep up with production. It takes me about two weeks to make a pair - that's me picking up the needles 4 or 5 times a week while watching TV after work and the occasional all-day Saturday knit-a-thon. Etsy also takes a cut of your sale when you do sell something, and PayPal gets their chunk since you need them to arrange for payment from strangers. For the nice gal in Florida who contacted me through Ravelry, I'm sure we can work out some arrangement with a money order, but I'm wondering if there are other interested people out there who need a way to access my stuff. Help me readers, you're my only hope. Tell me what to do!

Onward,

vrock

You’re turning violet, Violet!

2011-08-06T14:38:00.001-04:00

It’s August. It’s hot outside. And I’ve been knitting.
First up, my adventures in stranded colourwork. I bought a whole bunch of cheapie KnitPicks Palette yarn earlier this year, in order to make my cupcake mittens. By MY cupcake mittens, I mean these adorable little things that SpillyJane designed, which I just had to make. I was originally thinking about making a go at the pattern without buying it, but it seemed messy and tricky, and I decided to support a designer while also getting myself a set of guidelines that are tested and proven. I’m a pretty good little mitten-maker, but I didn’t want to chance it.
These are the colours I bought, not exactly the ones that the pattern suggests, but pretty damn close:

I used Palette DK yarn in (from top, clockwise): cotton candy, bison, cream, custard, bark, serrano, and mist as the main colour.

Voila! One left mitten, made in just under a week. I really think my colourwork has improved since my first attempt at stranded knitting in 2008 with the Let it Snow mittens from Vogue Knitting. While I love them dearly, I didn’t have the knack of my tension yet, and there are puckered spots that just won’t quit. So far, my cupcake mittens are looking good!

But as I’m sure we all know, stranded colourwork where the colour changes every two rows will mean mountains of spaghetti to weave in later. Ugh. I haven’t even thought about tackling this yet, I’m waiting until they’re both completely done.

Why hello pretty little slippers! These are my new wearin’-around-the-house slippers, since Fuzzyhead doesn’t think that Birks are appropriate for indoor wearing. I made them up in one evening, and felted them in the machine (top loaders are still good for something, thanks landlord Corey!). I bought a slipper bottom patch kit from KnitPicks forever ago and now the bottoms won’t wear through like my last slippers. Even with super thick felted material, you’d be amazed at the damage your feet will do to a pair of slippers – the pair I made last summer only lasted until Christmas.
Remember that adorable owl sweater for an August baby? Baby was born yesterday, but looks way too tiny for that sweater, what a disappointment. I think I’ll have to wait until winter to get a baby-in-sweater shot. But here’s a baby to tide you over:

I also whipped off another pair of slippers, these ones are for Slim Jim for Christmas, shhh! Don’t tell her I put them on my feet to model them either.

Do you remember this dear readers? My very own handspun, the most I’ve ever done? Refresh your memories, and then prepare to be amazed!

I made a whole garment! It’s a shrug, your basic rectangle turned into a circle deal, with a pretty ostrich plume lace pattern. Love it, and totally worthy of the handspun. I have yet to wear it, as you may have noticed, it’s not sweater weather yet. I’m jonesin’ for fall.

And my last knitting update, my newest on-the-go project started this morning – another pair of yoga socks. These ones come from the yarn that was generously donated by Fruwho. I hope someone will love them and want them and give me money for them. I like that part most of all.

I decided on a flower lace pattern to go with the cheery colour. My yoga sock process has been refined to keep it simple and quick, I only do the pattern on the front of the sock, and I do the back in simple stockinette. If I stick with it, I can made a pair in a about two weeks.
In my personal world, Fuzzyhead and I have put together a blog about our adventures in trying to buy a house. Shameless promotion, go check it out!
That’s all I got lovies.
Onward,
vrock

Sunday afternoon matinee

2011-07-03T12:07:00.001-04:00

Dearest blog readers, here come some updates:
Garden News:
First and foremost, I have a garden, that’s news in itself. My last post show updates from my little weensy garden space, and now I present to you the progress report:

The back of the yard garden, which has exploded with zucchini and radishes. The giant patch of overgrown green you’re looking at is the most successful batch of plants. To the left, if you squint real hard, you might be able to make out the carrots and the single green bean vine that’s clinging desperately to the fence. The lettuce was a dead end, I never saw a single plant. They have since been dug up and replaced with a more formal spot for my exploding tomato plants. I didn’t have the heart to choose which ones got to live and die, so I let them all live, and now I have 5 tomato plants. Only 4 actually fit in this teensy patch of garden…

….the other one gets to live it up bachelor style in his own plant pot on the porch, next to the saucy downtown herbs. The tomato cages are courtesy of Momma Vrock, who let a giant tree fall on them, so they are mangled and twisted and look like they belong in a Tim Burton inspired garden for twisted and mangled things. I bent them back into shape as best I could.

The shady corner garden to pretty plants that we don’t plan to eat. They’ve all grown bigger, and I really should have weeded before taking this picture. Please don’t assume I’m a horrible garden mother, I do eventually get around to pulling out the offensive plants.

Keep your pants on readers, now we’re getting to the knitting news:

Remember the humble beginnings of my Laminaria shawl?

Ummmmmmm, it’s DONE!

It was a long road to get there, as you may recall…

(imagine sappy recap music, tenderly playing as we stroll through my blog montage of how this glorious shawl came to be)

Waaaaa-bam!

I also just bought a shawl pin yesterday, a sassy little wooden number that won’t weigh down my delicate lace.

Also, I may or may not have finished a baby sweater. No big.
Ms. Bear is modeling here, showing off the finger details of the owl cables.

The completed little package, with my personal care instructions card. I had 500 of them made (vistaprint.com, love it!), and I left the spaces blank to write in the washing and drying instructions for all of my handknit things. I also included my personal “handknit with love by vrock” stamp on the back.

The finished and wrapped package, ready to ship to Virginia for Fuzzyhead’s cousin’s baby, arriving in August.

And late last night and this morning, I started and finished a pair of felted slippers. These are French Press Slippers, from Fresh Press Knits, and I love them. I’ve loved them since I first saw them on Ravelry, and I only very recently got together the gumption to actually purchase the pattern and make them myself.

Here they are drying on my porch. I used two strands of grey and one strand of black for the three-strands-held-together-extra-thick soles. This was partly because I didn’t think I had enough grey yarn, and partly because I liked the idea as a design feature. This is my tester pair of these slippers so I can mass produce them for Christmas presents this year. So far Slim Jim and Hamster are getting a pair, and considering these took me a grand total of 3 hours to make, I might just make them for everyone I know. We’ll see.

The flaps for the slippers, drying on my clothsline. I wonder what my neighbours must think of the knitting-related things I hang on the cloths line.

Also, I’m into paper crafts now. To accompany the owl baby sweater to Fuzzyhead’s cousin, I made this little card:

We just need to sign it, and then the whole kitten caboodle can be sent off. I was waiting for more than a week to zip to the fabric store to get buttons to sew on to the card.

This is my collection of card making stuff. I bought a card organizer recently, and that sparked my obsession with making my own cards instead of paying way too much for them from Chapters. My collection of embroidery floss from my childhood days of making friendship bracelets really came in handy for the stitching details on the cards. Oooooo, I’m so crafty!

And finally, I will leave you with images from my Canada Day celebration on Friday:

Actually, just cupcake pictures. The fireworks, puppydogs, and ice cream party was in full swing, and I make ice cream cone cupcakes so we could avoid the giant line-up at DQ.

Onward,

vrock

Can’t read a book without cracking the spine

2011-05-23T15:01:00.001-04:00

We begin, dear readers, with a garden update, as promised:

The patchy grass is coming in nicely, the seeds starting sprouting about a week ago, and every day it looks a little more green. One major problem still: Oscar. The large brown-only patch of dirt is courtesy of my little doggy destroyer, who took it on himself to dig a nice cool patch of dirt to lie in. Thanks Oscar.

Sad scene in the herb pots, the basil looks like he won’t make it. We’ve had buckets of rain for the last two weeks, so I think he may have drowned. The other herbs are all doing fine, but basil bit the bullet. I’ll be digging his sorry ass out of the planter this week and taking him back for an exchange. The garden centre guarantees their plants for the season.

More grass, slowly but surely filling in. I haven’t mowed any of it yet, it seems cruel to cut down the fresh young grass, they’ve never been cut before.

Tomatoes are coming in strong now. Soon I’ll have to play god and choose which ones live and die. The package told me to plant two seeds in each hole, and then weed out the weenie ones so that only the strongest plants grow. It’s too soon to tell, but enjoy this last picture of them all alive and happy.

The pretty plants have been planted in the side garden. I left them in their planter pots for another week after I planted the vegetables because I thought it was too cold for them. They seem to be doing well so far. Oscar pees in this patch of garden each morning, then traipses over my plants. They’ll be a strong and hardy stock by the end of the summer.

Veggie garden updates! These are the only two things I can tell for sure are growing. The picture on the left is my patch of radishes, in two nice neat rows. I’ll have to thin them back in the next few weeks to let the strong ones grow. The picture on the right is the beginnings of my carrots, they’re the thin wispy green shoots right in the centre.

A better close-up of the grass action. It’s still patchy, but some of the seed must have started growing ahead of the rest.

Moving on to knitting, I’ve been a busy little knitting bee working away on a baby sweater for Fuzzyhead’s cousin and his wife, who are expecting a baby girl in August. I borrowed a pattern for a cable owl vest from Catherine, and combined it with a pattern from Vintage Baby Knits, a simple garter stitch and stockinette stitch raglan sweater for a 3 to 6 month old baby. The patterns meshed well together, I used an acrylic/nylon DK weight baby yarn from Shall We Knit, and both patterns used a similar gauge. Here’s the real kicker – I’m short by about 2 inches on the second sleeve. I originally bought yarn for a vest, not a sweater with full length sleeves, and I didn’t quite have enough. Sugar. It’s on the back burner this week until I can zip to Waterloo for a third ball of the yarn.

Immediately after I completed Fuzzyhead’s teatime socks (pictures coming eventually), I raced to start that baby sweater, and to pick up a new sock project. This is from the small stash of yarn I bought form KnitPicks, the first yarn I’ve ever bought online. It looks and feels good so far, and I’m hoping it will be enough for two pairs of yoga socks. Buying yarn online for yoga socks is much more economical than buying the nice stuff at my LYS and spending just as much time knitting it up. I’ve decided to keep my yoga sock patterns down to 3 or 4, rather than scrounging for a new and exciting (and also time consuming) pattern. I’ve made this pattern before for a pair of yoga socks, it’s got some simple lacework up the front, with small cables running up either side of the foot.

Happy long weekend my readers!
Onward,
vrock

Dog pee is good for plants, right?

2011-05-07T17:15:00.006-04:00

Happy spring readers! Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, I call this tale: Adventures in Gardening...with a splash of knitting just to keep it real.

Fuzzyhead and I don't plan to stay in our current house for more than a year or so. We're saving for a home of our own, so our gardening plans this year are unfortunately not long-term or permanent. We made a short list of the things we wanted to accomplish this summer so our little backyard could look its best.

Our list:

-Move brick pathway so that is actually leads to the gate, not to a random patch of the fence
-Make a small vegetable garden
-Plant flowers along the side of the house
-Keep a selection of fresh herbs
-Fix the bare patches of grass in the backyard
-Cover the pathway in gravel to keep the weeds away

Fuzzy already took care of the first one, he moved the path all by himself when I was at work about a month ago. The bricks have settled back into place now and you'd never know it used to be different.

The others got tackled by me today while Fuzzy is out on the town with his friends. We both took a trip to Belgian Nursery earlier in the day, initially just thinking we would price things out and head home to plan some more. I love this place, it's so full of exciting ideas and things I want to buy. We're leaning toward gnomes for the garden by the way.

First up, this is what I accomplished today:

Our baby herb garden! We had dill and parsley in seed form, so I planted those in the boxes along with the more mature and ready-to-eat herbs we picked up today. I love the boxes, they were on sale and they look very rustic and natural.

Box # 1 - rosemary, oregano, parsley, and dill

Box # 2 - cilantro, thyme, and basil

We also bought some shade-loving plants for the side garden. I chose not to plant them today because I spent so much time prepping the soil for the vegetable garden and I was worn out. I'm also a little afraid that it's still too cold for them to be outside without parental supervision. Momma Vrock is very protective of her plant babies.

The beginnings of our vegetable garden. We had tomato seeds, and the packet called for starting the seeds inside before putting them out in the big wide world. I will track the progress of my wee little tomato plants for ya'll.

Have you ever seen such patchy grass? I scattered some grass seed down today, after diligently digging up the top 10cm of patchy soil so the grass will have somewhere to go. The trick now it to keep Oscar from patting it all down with his little dog feet.

The worst patch by far, this is between the porch and the fence, right next to the house. Essentially a no-sun zone, we'll see how the seed does.

My pride and joy of the day! I prepped our little garden for planting - turned over all the soil a good 10" down, pulled out the grass that was starting to grow there, and fenced it all in to keep Oscars and bunnies out. I worked up a good sweat doing this, you better appreciate it!

The little rock pathway was added after I realized that I couldn't use the whole space for a garden because I need access to the compost bin and the far side of the laundry line. Also, if I ever wanted to pick any of the veggies I grow, I would have to go traipsing through my nice neat garden. Pathway solves all of those problems! The rocks were sourced from a wicked pile of big-ass rocks that used to be stacked up against the tree in this picture. I found even more when I was turning over all the soil.

And finally, we're going to put out our bird houses this year! They're all lined up and ready for a coat of paint.

A post wouldn't be complete without a knitting recap:

Fuzzyhead's teatime socks, originally started during my business trip as something to do at the airport. I've ripped these little babies out twice, and I've decided to just go with a written and established pattern instead of being adventurous with my own design. Le sigh. Once I finish these, I'm hoping to get cracking on some yoga socks. I want to have a few pairs knitted up and ready to sell so I don't have to do custom orders for everything.

The very best knitting-related purchase I ever made! I bought a personalized rubber stamp for all of my knitted giftables. It says "Hand knitted with love by ". I got it from an etsy shop that does custom rubber stamps. I highly recommend it if you have $14 + shipping burning a hole in your pocket. I'll be putting this stamp on all of my yoga sock care instructions tags, and also any knitted gifts I feel like making this year.

I had a spinning fit a few weeks ago. I spun 100g of roving that I bought at the knitter's fair last fall, all in 2 days. And then I got really crazy and did the other 100g the next weekend. Now I have 200g (about 680 yards) of roughly DK weight yarn to play with. Any ideas?

Onward,

vrock

Not brand loyal, and proud of it!

2011-03-15T16:34:00.003-04:00

Hello loves!

I've been inspired today. I sat in on a webinar this afternoon about wedding blogs and how to make them work for you (this is for the catering side of my life where I want desperately to appeal to all brides with moderate budgets), and it got me itching to do some bloggin'. I also spent my afternoon bookmarking national wedding blogs for future creeping/research about weddings. Appalling/outrageous fact: brides do most of their online research Monday-Wednesday from 9-5. What are your employers paying you to do?!

In the spirit of bookmarks, I wanted to share a short list of the websites you'll find on my bookmark list. These are all sites that I cruise over about once a week, sometimes more.

ravelry.com - duh, come on readers, of course this is on the list
bitchmagazine.org - as a supplement to my quarterly Bitch magazine which I love
yarnharlot.ca/blog - kind of a requirement for being a knitter, it's in the handbook
sandiwiseheart.wordpress.com - I saw Sandi at my very first Knitters' Guild meeting and I loved her
feministsforchoice.com - I found this little gem through a link from Bitch's site
goaskalice.columbia.edu - updated every Friday, I've been reading this since I was 13
apartmenttherapy.com - Fuzzyhead stumbled on this one in an effort to find design ideas for smaller spaces
postsecret.blogspot.com - I read this every Sunday, no exceptions
starbucksgossip.typepad.com - now that I'm no longer with the bux, this one keeps me up to date with the latest behind the scenes happenings

Just today I added 5 or 6 wedding blogs to the list, so we'll see how they stack up next to my usual reading list. My website list + standard Facebook time takes me about 45 minutes of computer time total each day, unless it's a heavy Ravelry day. I don't understand how anyone can spend more time than this on a computer.

In knitting, this little baby is my new Everest:

I'm finally taking a crack at Laminaria, using the lace weight yarn I bought at the Knitters' Fair in the fall. The yarn I have is a merino/seacell combination, without a brand name. I'm not 100% sure who I bought it from either, and the little label tied to the skein was less than informative.

My gauge swatch (what a good knitter I am!) for the star chart. I was really curious to see how the yarn and pattern would look on the needle size I chose. Before blocking, this swatch looked like a little loopy scrumple of fabric. Blocking is magical.

Slim Jim's completed yoga socks, hot off the press! Or rather, sitting on top of a laptop

Fuzzyhead's teatime socks, shamelessly "borrowed" from a Ravelry pattern I did not purchase; I counted stitches in the most close-up picture I could find and made up the rest. They're turning out a little big, so I might be ripping these back to start again, but Everest has totally taken over my knitting time right now.

Today is Taco Tuesday dear readers and the frying pan is calling my name. Happy mid-March to you all!

Onward,

vrock

Working up a nice sweaty glow

2011-02-21T20:57:00.005-05:00

Hello lovelies! And a happy Family Day to you!

First, let's recap my recent knitting adventures:

Second knitting for hire project! These socks were requested by a woman I've never met, who attends the Thursday morning yoga class. I was subcontracted out by Sue, through email, with all of the lady's details, and I dropped these off to the studio last week. I've upped my price a wee bit, I'm now charging $30 a pair for hand knit yoga socks. I was out yarn shopping this weekend and realized that my deeply discounted yarn find at the Fair is not typical, and my pricing should reflect market value for the yarn at the very least. Also, I've realized that one 100g-ish ball of sock yarn yields two pairs of yoga socks. I just cut my costs by 50%! My original pair of yoga socks weigh in at 56.5g (thanks KnitPicks yarn scale, I love you), and the sock yarns I had were a generous 110+g each, and the numbers work out perfectly.

The pattern I used for these is from my toe-up sock book, just a simple scroll pattern. In my efforts to streamline yoga sock production, I've decided to do only a patterned front and do the back in simple stockinette.

Following in the footsteps of using half balls of yarn I already had, I've finally created a pair of socks for Slim Jim. This colour beautifully matches her yoga mat, and I chose a feminine hearts and flowers pattern for her socks. As of today, these are still a WIP, although I hope to finish them by the end of the week.

A quick detour back to early 2011 for the first pair of socks I've made for myself in a while. These socks feature Tanis Fibre Arts yarn, blue label, and Dead Simple Lace from Socks From the Toe Up

This little creature was finished last night for Fuzzy Head. He requested a netbook cozy for his precious little tiny laptop, and I whipped up a green orc in "kiwi" Lamb's Pride Bulky. The orc's giant underbite opens up to reveal a little netbook, safe and sound. I had a teensy bit of yarn leftover from Fuzzy's felted Christmas stocking 2 years ago, and I picked up some more at the Needle Emporium during a recent knitting field trip. I still need to add some kind of closure (Velcro, maybe snaps), and then he is complete for reals.

After I finished Slim Jim's yoga socks, I want to get back into some spinning. I picked up two 50g braids of roving from Spun Fibre Arts in Burlington, and I'm itching to get back on the wheel. Same thing with those two bags of roving from the Fair, they are destined to be something great, and I owe it to yarn to put my foot back on the treadle.

Also, I'm hoping to produce a dog coat this year for my beloved Oscar. I'm not sure if he'll wear one, but he looks like the kind of dog who can pull off big delicious cables in a natural colour.

Observe:

What a dreamboat.

And finally, I have hopes and dreams of making a sweater this year. I was truly inspired by Sanid Wiseheart in November when she spoke at my very first Knitters Guild meeting. She made knitting a sweater seem less daunting and overwhelming than I always imagined it, and above all, I want a sweater that will fit. She swears that that's a possibility too!

For now dear readers, I am off. I want to finish those yoga socks and move on to bigger and better things.

Onward,

vrock

That means he gets results you stupid chief!

2011-01-01T11:36:00.007-05:00

Happy New Year lovelies! Fuzzyhead and I celebrated our own little New Year's with a teeny bottle of sparkling wine and back to back to back episodes of Sons of Anarchy season 2. We're totally party people. No official resolutions made, I like it better that way.

Since my last post, I've moved into a new house. Landlords are truly awful people, and they'll sell your home from right under you when you're not on a lease because it means making twice as much money selling two semis separately rather than selling them as a unit to another landlord and keeping the responsible tenants. Ugh, whatever, I've moved passed this - to this! Welcome to my new house readers:

The front entrance, complete with an Oscar guarding the front door. My front door opens right into my kitchen, so we made a small welcoming coat-hanging and key-setting-down area with a mirror to check your face before you leave the house.

The kitchen! It's tiny and awkward, and it isn't a clear winner over the last house's kitchen. Cons - the fridge is teeny weeny. It's apartment-sized to the max. Our Brita filter doesn't fit in it, and a simple week's worth of groceries make it look like it's going to burst at the seams. Also, the fridge door used to open the other way, as in you grabbed hold of the handle from the window side and opened toward the room. I fixed that with a little help from YouTube, the door now swings from the other hinge. Further more, my cupboards are outrageously high. You can't really see it until you try to reach something, but I'm a solid (and most completely normal) 5'5", and I had to bring in a stool to reach the second shelf of all of my cupboards. The stove and oven are now separate, which I hate. People: stop manufacturing, installing, and asking for ovens built into the wall. They suck. On the plus side, I now have a gas range, which I love. I fire-roast a mean pepper ladies and gents. Pros - I have more cupboard space overall, even if it was designed for 9' tall blue Avatar cats instead of normal people.

My living room! The purple couch from the bux found its way into our home (with a little help from Fuzzyhead's burly man-friends). You will notice, dear readers, that our home is covered in hardwood/laminate flooring now instead of the deeply trendy shag carpet that covered the old house from top to bottom. The lack of a dog hair sponge known as a carpet has meant daily sweeping for my poor little stay-at-home Fuzzy. His whining led to me buy a Roomba for Christmas. Cornelius does the sweeping for us now.

Another view of the living room. This little room we are now in is like a mudroom, but is a little too big, and feels like lost potential. Last night Fuzzy and I moved around some furniture to have it make more sense. Our big bookcase used to be in the mudroom simply because it was too big to get up the stairs in one piece. We bit the bullet and took it apart to move it to its rightful place in the office, which means that my knitting is now where it belongs on the main level.

Back of the house shot. This was taken in September when it was nice outside and the Muskoka chairs were in full swing on the back porch. We have a modest backyard with a fence to keep the dog contained, and a shed for storing outdoor tools.

My knitting station! This was very recently relocated to the mudroom area off the living room, and I have re-oriented the cubbies to sit vertically rather than horizontally to save floor space.

In other knitting news, I will sum up my knitting adventures of the last 4 months:

The Knitters Fair in September was an absolute hit. I scored myself some sale sock yarns, and a swift. I chose the tabletop swift rather than the umbrella style that I was eyeing on KnitPicks. I feel like the tabletop takes up less space and transports better. The whole thing comes apart into 4 pieces plus some dowels. I wind yarn like a champ now.

Two stories are told here readers. The first is that the yarn for these two pairs of socks came from the Fair, and were deeply discounted (score!). The second story is that these socks are my first knitting project for hire. I made yoga socks in the summer, and after wearing them to classes, making a sample pair for my instructor, and having him actively promote how awesome they are, someone actually asked me to make them some! These two pairs were for a lady in my Friday morning level 3 class and her friend. She originally approached me in early November with a request to have them for Christmas. No problem. I was working on Fuzzy's Christmas socks at the time, so I figured I'd churn these puppies out in a month. Totally wrong. I was right down to the wire with these, I finished the last sock on Sunday December 19 and gave them to her the next day. I made a cool $50 out of it though. My Monday night knitters tell me that isn't enough for two hand-knit pairs of yoga socks. Thoughts?

Hello Kassa. Guess who has a dog sweater? This people-eyed dog model is Slim Jim's dog baby. I originally made this sweater in 2 days in the summer. It was way too hot for her to actually where it until months later, so I didn't find out until October that the neck was too short. I picked up stitches around the neck and extended the turtleneck, problem solved.

I will leave you with this happy Christmas image of my little family. Fuzzyhead has heartlessly torn down Christmas from our house now, and this is a memory of happy times.

Happy New Year to one and all!

A coat to dream about

2010-08-01T10:26:00.001-04:00

It’s picture time!
First up, pictures from my trip to 7th Heaven Alpaca Farm in June 2010. Fuzzy Head came with me to watch the annual alpaca shearing.
Holding down the first alpaca as they are finishing up and ready to flip the table back over. We missed the real action, we came in just as they were finishing.

The yarn selection available to purchase. Fuzzy Head is blocking the view of the yarn I ended up buying, pictured here:
This is a delightful alpaca blend. The tag was mega confusing on these because the two skeins were tied together with one tag that says 245 yards and 4ish oz, so I assumed that between the two skeins, that’s what I was getting. I weighed them only recently (when I got my yarn scale from Knit Picks, eeeeee!) and together they weigh just over 8 oz, so the tag was only for one of the skeins. I’m not sure exactly how many yards I have, but I’m hoping to make a pair of mittens and possibly a hat, but we’ll see.

This little baby alpaca was available for petting, but kids kept getting in the way. Kids ruin everything.

These fluffy ones were waiting in a barn for their turn, we left before we got to see them sheared.

This is the alpaca from the first picture, all naked and romping around in the field.
My newest baby:
Hello spinning wheel. I love you. You’ve easily doubled my spinning speed. I powered through the rest of the bag of my rust coloured wool, which I have been working on since I learned to spin earlier this year. I carded the last of it over a couple days when I saw how quickly I was going through it with the wheel. Also pictured above is my yarn scale, on the little table next to the wheel.

This is my Alpaca Acres roving from Vixen, spun up over a weekend with my wheel, being turned into:
My very first handspun project! I’ve got a few skeins of my other hand spun yarns, but this is the first thing I’ve made with something I made. This will be a spiral cowl – a perfect little project for the amount of yarn I have.
Thinking about Christmas presents now. Last year I was all about making gifts for everyone, and it nearly killed me. I had to plan all year to get everything made in time, and I had no time to work on my own projects. I would love to do that again, but I don’t have enough time now this year. I’ve got a few small projects picked out for gifts, but not for everyone. I’m trying to think of projects that are easy, that I could make for everyone, that they would get some use from. My first thought was felted potholders, but I’m still thinking about it and I wouldn’t be doing it for this year’s gifts. Any suggestions? Christmas presents for extended relatives this year will be home made red pepper jelly. I bought the canning jars last week and I’m just waiting for red peppers to come into season.
Happy knitting everyone!
Onward,
vrock

Keeping my cool

2010-07-21T16:50:00.001-04:00

Knitting updates!
Picked up and finished some impulse projects. I made a pair of yoga socks for myself, Tam Tam, and for Yoga Mike. I improvised my own pattern using a base pattern from my toe-up sock book, and just left out the toe and heel. The patterns I saw on Ravelry for yoga socks were kind of awful and boring – just a plain ribbed sock without toe and heel and no interest whatsoever. I think the socks I made are much more interesting.

My other impulse speedy knit is Kassa’s dog sweater. Kassa is Slim Jim’s new dog who was given to us by one of my former sbux managers who needed a good home for her. She’s a very svelte Walker Hound with big floppy ears and poor body heat production. I made the sweater in about 3 days, and it’s pretty adorable. No pictures yet because I was so excited to give it to Slim Jim and make Kassa wear it that I forgot to snap a few. Slim Jim promised she will force Kassa into it once it’s not deathly hot outside.
In person news, I am moving again. Fuzzyhead and I decided not to stick around with out inconsistent and unreliable landlord to find out what was happening with our current home. We were never on a lease (because we’re stupid), and when we asked for a lease, we were told they couldn’t because they didn’t know what was happening with the sale of the house. We live in a semi and the property was split in May so they could sell the two units separately (and get a lot more money than selling them together). Selling either home was not even mentioned when we agreed to rent starting in March, and by April, the house next door was up for sale. We asked for firm answers about whether we would have to move, or if we could have a lease guaranteeing that we would be safe where we were, and we were turned down every time. He was super surprised when we told him we were leaving to find something more stable. He was banking on us staying in the house and paying his mortgage for him until he could sell it and tell us to leave. I don’t like renting.
On the bright side, we found a great place to move into for September 1, with lots of character and a few more perks than our current home. We’ll have two bathrooms now, and a fenced yard with a deck. The rent is a little more than what we pay now, but we’re cancelling cable which will free up some cash each month. Cable is disappointingly expensive for what you get, and we’re better off with our vast collection of TV shows on DVD.
Happy knitting!
Onward,
vrock

Dennis Quaid wants a coffee!!

2010-05-08T14:41:00.001-04:00

Knitting news and updates! Get ready for the yarn:

This sweater vest was started literally a million years ago after my very first knitting field trip to the big city. I bought Sensual Knits by Yahaira Ferreira and this seemed like the quickest project to satisfy my need to create a hand knitted garment. I bought a cotton/angora blend by Debbie Bliss on clearance from Herrschners, and as it turns out, didn’t quite buy enough. I bought 5 balls, and I came so very close to the end of that last ball that I nearly cried. I had it in two pieces ready to stitch together when I realized how little was left. I put the whole project aside for a long time, and got the courage to pick it up and use the last of the yarn to try and finish it. It turns out I had just enough to sew the shoulders and sides, and pick up a few rows around the neckline to finish. I used every single scrap of yarn for that neckline, some of them were so short I only got 3 or 4 stitches out of the piece. Picking up a border around the sleeves was optional (although I wish I had enough to do it), so I left it as I had it. Voila! Stylin’ green sweater vest.

My ribbed bolero, made using the angora/wool blend yarn that Tam Tam got me for Christmas. I only had three balls of it, so I needed a project to show off how gorgeous and soft the yarn is, but also be small enough to use just 3 balls. This project was perfect. It used the exact right amount of yarn, and it was a super fast knit. I think I finished this one in a week.

Moving right along with my new love for spinning, I am finally able to take the bag of beautiful orange wool and turn it in to yarn. I got this for Christmas along with my learn to spin kit, and now I know how to use it! Yay! This is spinning up pretty thin, so I’ll get a lot of yardage for my 100 grams. I’ll see how much I get out of this bag before deciding on a project, but I’m in no rush. I like having a spinning project available on the side for when I’m in the mood.

It’s been a while since I actually finished this, but this is my very first handspun that I made in my spinning class. It’s a white corridale wool that we dyed in a crock pot. I chose oranges and yellows for this yarn, although now I don’t know what to make with it. It’s a little over 50 grams, but it’s my first handspun baby, and I need a special project to show off the wool. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

My latest and current project, this is my honeycomb blanket that is helping to use up the Bernat SuperValue I originally purchased for Fuzzyhead’s LOST scarf. The Lost scarf got frogged, so this is recycling and re-using at its best. I love the texture of this blanket, and that I don’t have to use more than one colour at a time (the gathered sections of grey are slipped when you work the white, and then knitted when you do the grey sections to hold it together and pull it into the honeycomb shape). It’s going to be a cute little lap blanket, or maybe even a baby blanket for a deserving youngster.

Another update from my finished spinning class. This is my completed colour wheel set of yarns – all carded (we only had primary colour rovings to work with), spun, and plied. It took me a while to decide on a project to display this practice work. I’ve decided on a wreath made of little rainbow coloured sheep – each colour will be knit into a small ball and stuffed, then a little sheep face and feet will be attached to each one. It’ll be cute, I promise. This one is kind of on the back burner right now while I get my groove back in to socks.

This will be delicious yoga socks – no toe and no heel for good grip on the mat. This yarns matches my green bamboo yoga mat and I’m excited to finish them and show them off at class.
Happy knitting my lovelies! Love your mothers tomorrow.
Onward,
vrock

Troll hair

2010-03-13T10:28:00.001-05:00

Knitting updates!
I have learned to spin, as mentioned in other posts, and two weeks ago we learned how to card! Tamster bought me some hand carders for my birthday (very belated by the way, my birthday was in January and I received my gift in March). Our homework from spinning class was to first of all spin the primary colours (from roving that was already dyed that we bought at Lily Lee’s). Then the next week we mixed the roving to make secondary colours (see pictures above). We spun those up, and then moved on to make tertiary colours. The assignment was to make a colour wheel. I’ve carded almost all of my tertiary colours, and I’m not sure how I want to present my final colour wheel. Our instructor made simple leaves out of each colour and sewed them to a black square. I think it would be super cute to make 12 little baby skeins to attach to some kind of background. I love spinning!

My primary colours, spun, washed, and looking cute

My original handspun, with my primary colours, and my adorable sock project bag which happens to be a perfect size for spinning in progress. My first handspun has now been dyed and I’m deciding what to make with it.

Also, I now live with Fuzzyhead, and this is my knitting corner, conveniently located in the living room for easy access to knitting while watching TV.

Thanks for checking in readers, I think I’ll be having a knitting and spinning day.

Onward,

vrock

Mr. Bear is a wonderful model

2010-02-07T15:01:00.001-05:00

Mr. Bear, modeling the newly finished bamboo baby sweater. He is not mentioned the fact that I have yet to produce clothes for HIM.

The baby sweater is complete! This was the first project completed from the Vintage Baby Knits book I got last year, and I adore it. It hangs beautifully, the shape is adorable, and I love the little hood. It’s missing buttons, but those will come soon.

Blocking really made a difference with this one, the pattern is so much nicer when it lies flat:

In other knitting news, I have finished chart A for the Bitterroot Shawl. That’s all 3 repeats of the chart, that’s 153 stitches my friends. Now it’s on to chart B!
Didn’t end up taking knitting with me on my trip to Disneyworld. The carry-on rules were getting silly, and it was only a 2 hour flight. I also didn’t have a lot of down time to sit and knit in my room. We got up early each day to get to the parks, and because all the dinners were booked for later times (after 7:30), we didn’t get home until it was time for me to fall asleep. American channels are lovely though, I watched criminal minds almost every night as I drifted off to sleep.
Moving in a few weeks, eeeeee! I start packing non-essentials tomorrow after I get some boxes from the bux. We get our key on the 27th, in time to measure and clean a bit before moving week, which starts March 1. Yay! My own little home with fuzzyhead!
Till we meet again lovelies!
Onward,
vrock

Going to Bedfordshire

2010-01-10T17:36:00.001-05:00

Working on two projects at the same time, Catherine must be rubbing off on me. I’m diligently making progress on the bamboo baby sweater, which will most likely end up on my naked teddy bears and not on a child. The progress to date:

The completed torso – front panels, back, button holes and all

The first sleeve in progress

One more sleeve and a hood and it’s all done. I think this may be the simple project I take with me on my trip to Disneyworld at the end of this month. I’m concerned about knitting needle rules for airplanes, but I might just put it in my checked luggage and work on a bit at night in my hotel room. International knitting, here I come.

AT THE SAME TIME (and this is big for me):

My first shawl attempt. Catherine and I were supposed to start at Monday night knitting, but that has been delayed for a whole, so I started very carefully on my own, and I think I’m doing just fine. It’s not really one of this mindless projects I can do in front of the TV, so it might be slow going.
Trying to find a nice place to live. That’s right team, this soon-to-be 23 year old is moving out of the house, in to her very own space with her dear and darling fuzzyhead. We’ve seen one townhouse so far, and right now we’re looking at other options, even though we liked that first house. We’re very high maintenance renters from what I can see – we need two bedrooms, laundry hook-up available, and oh yes, pets allowed. And not just ‘pets’ as in a cat, I’m talking about a medium to large sized dog. This severely limits most searching, as any place we choose must be pet friendly, AND have suitable space for dog (like a patch of grass for pooping on). We’ve got lots of time still, we’re looking for something that will be available on April 1. There are a few more potential places on my list, I’m waiting to hear back about the pets allowed part.
That’s all I got for now lovies,
Onward,
vrock

Sizing up the competition

2010-01-03T16:21:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year my dear readers! The holidays are over, and I’ve changed my desktop pictures from festive holiday reminders to sweet sweet Avatar backgrounds. I loved that movie. It was a great combination of two movies I already loved – Pocahontas and FernGully.

I want to own this movie, and so I wanted to be reminded of its awesome every time I opened my laptop.
In knitting news, Catherine, Anonymous and I are joining forces in a knit along! We are going to start work on a triangular shawl called Bitterroot, which can be knitted as a great big giant shawl, or a smaller shawlette. I am opting for the smaller one, as this is my first shawl experience. I bought yarn yesterday from Yarn Indulgences at the Kitchener Market:

This is the same variety of yarn that Catherine chose. I was aiming for an orange/rust colour, but given my choices, I decided on this lovely red. I think it will be quite fetching with red beads along the edge. I think I’ll fiddle around with the gauge later tonight, so I can start with Catherine tomorrow at Knit and Chat.
At the same time, I am working away on a baby sweater for Tam Tam’s future kids. I bought the yarn in the summer from Shall We Knit, and it’s been sitting in my yarn basket for too long. I love making little things, and a whole sweater for a mini person is such a satisfying project, even if (hopefully) Tam Tam having kids is a far off thing.
My progress so far:

The back and sides are knitted together at the same time for a cute cardigan-style hoodie. Sleeves and hood to be knitted separately and sewn on later.
I also made and finished a pair of thrummed mittens without much fuss or showing off…until now!

Bam! Look at those fluffy things. They keep my hands nice and warm, although driving with them on is a little tricky. The outside of them gets nice and fluffy too, and the thrums catch on things sometimes and a little tuft gets pulled out. I think it’s still in the settling down stage, where the innards are matting themselves together and the outters are doing the same.
Starting back to work tomorrow after a nice long weekend. We’ve got mega planning and organizing to do this month before we move the business to a building. Our move-in date is February 1, and we plan to open the doors at the new store on February 8. We’ll still do all our regular stuff (corporate breakfast and lunch drop-off, weddings, private parties, etc) but we’re also adding a daily breakfast and lunch to-go only business in the lovely storefront. My next few weeks will be spent costing, writing standard production sheets, and planning everything to do with the storefront. I leave for Disneyworld on January 22, so I need to put in my share of work before then.
Happy knitting readers, see ya next time
Onward
vrock

The cast from Glee sings it all!

2009-12-27T12:13:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas readers! A few knitting related pictures to post following my merriest Christmas to date.

My latest interest – spinning my own yarn! This is the learn to spin kit from Lily Lee’s Wool and Tea on King Street in Preston

The raw wool, in a beautiful orange, still with bits of sheep attached

A close-up of my new learning spinner thinger

My guide to learning the fine art of spinning

I’m trying out the blog feature included with Windows 7 on my new laptop. I bought myself a Dell in early December, and I’m still getting used to its many weird and different features from Windows XP. I don’t even have to log into Blogger to update my blog, so perhaps that means I’ll update a little more frequently.

I spent my precious Christmas baking hours making handcrafted gingerbread baristas for my two favourite starbucks stores. They are surrounded by a ring of brown sugar buttons, which are my favourite cookie of all time. I delivered them on Christmas day, and both stores were lined up to the door. Terrible. I chose to not buy anything at Starbucks on Christmas – I don’t want to encourage them to be open next year.
My newest post-Christmas knitting project is a little baby sweater from vintage baby knits. It is the only knitting pattern I’ve ever used where I have the same yarn the pattern recommends. I didn’t even mean to do it, I just picked something up at Shall We Knit because it was on sale in the summer, and it turned out to be the same stuff in the book. Neato. I worked on it at Fuzzyhead’s extended family Christmas last night, and had to fight off allegations of baby-having. Terrible. No babies please. They can start hassling the 30-something cousin and leave me alone.
I leave you with this dear readers: A little bit of Christmas dog, featuring Sassy and Oscar.

Onward,
vrock

Trampoline is a not a substitute for parent supervision

2009-11-12T14:06:00.003-05:00

I am trying to be a better dog person. I have taken Oscar and Sassy out for a walk every day since Oscar arrived. I'm trying really hard to keep this up, I know it is best for their dog brains if I establish my pack leader abilities every day to keep them in line. I'm also trying to smoosh their faces together to make them lifelong friends. Right now they don't really enjoy each others' company, but Sassy likes Oscar more than she ever liked Tammy's puppy. I have them both on the spare bed in my office/crap storage room. They have a solid 2 feet of space between them, and it's all Sassy's doing. Oscar would love to cuddle and be friends with everyone; Sassy just needs a push in the right direction.

Made pink lady squares with Purple this morning. Wish we had done them last night, they really didn't get quite enough time to set. The coconut layer has to bake, then cool completely to stick all the layers together, then you ice with pink icing, and cut into squares. The graham crumbs kind fell off some, but I think Purple was very pleased. She was taking her squares to share with the teachers at her school for a pot luck lunch.

Two more Starbucks days to go readers. My last day will be filled with small children and parade things. I think I am sampling all day to the crowds, and I plan on wearing reindeer antlers and or a Santa hat, just because I can. The drive-thru will be completely closed during parade time since no cars can get in or out of the parking lot. I'm glad. I won't miss drive-thru.

Sourcing out a new laptop for work and general use. I am not a Toshiba fan, it has let me down too many times. I will keep the clunker I have for a bit longer, as I don't have any money set aside for a new laptop right now. I'm leaning towards a Dell. Diaper Dan says good things about them, and I can customize it with all the things I need. I'll be carting my laptop back and forth to work, using it to store pictures and type proposals for customers. Eeeee, big girl job!

How soon is too soon to send out Christmas cards? I found a good deal on some really cute ones and I am psyched to send them to everyone I know. I think I need to wait until December to send them, yes? Feedback please.

Onward,

vrock

Snoozy puppies

2009-11-09T13:48:00.006-05:00

Hello lovies!

It's been a while, I know, but I have a few major updates:

My big brown dog passed away on September 19, 2009. We had her put down after months of just really not being her old self, and suffering from a long list of problems. I miss Kishka.

I am a pro-star dog walker. Sassy and I are a force to be reckoned with on dog walks. Although, I recently discovered that she doesn't walk nearly as nicely with other people as she does with me. Slim Jim and Diaper Dan joined us for a walk this week and she was squirrely and stupid and barked at people - all are things she never does with me.

Proof that Sassy does anything I tell her to

Using my pro-star abilities, I joined another dog to our team and he is learning the ways of the dog walk. Welcome Oscar, Sassy will learn to love you in time. Oscar came to us from a friend of my mom's, whose neighbour passed away leaving a dog with no home. He has a loving home at my house now.

Oscar with a completed Sackboy for James

Christmas knitting is 98% complete - I am just finishing the last sock for Fuzzyhead. I have a long list of things to knit for myself as soon as I finish all my Christmas knitting. I don't think I'll be doing this again any time soon. My plan for next year is to make simple knitted ornaments for everyone, which will take a lot less time, I'm assuming.

French press cozy for Oni

Momma's self-striping socks

Grandpa's man socks

Poppa's boring brown socks, with interesting cabled ribbing

Wisp shawl - I made two of these for two relatives, the other one is in a very nice royal blue

I have given my notice at the bux, and my last day will be this Saturday, Santa Claus parade day. I have kept my decision to myself, but I know word gets around fast, and I anticipate having to explain my choice all week until I am gone. This has been coming on for a while now, I just finally had all my ducks in line to do it. I will be going to work with my mom full time. I hope that by working with her, I can free her up to do a lot more, and maybe we can build our sales back to what they could be. We had a bad year, but having only two people on staff full time makes it tricky to get the food out, and respond to people who are hoping to get food in a timely manner. My primary job will be responding to inquiries and meeting with people, which frees up momma to do the cooking again. I'm excited for my big-girl job, with a big-girl title, and big-girl business cards with my name on them. I can get my nails done again, and wear pretty things to work. Goodbye Starbucks, I will miss you.

Halloween is done and gone, but I didn't get to truly share this year's pumpkin masterpiece with my public yet:

Harry Potter and friends

Next up, Christmas season! Fuzzyhead and I have plans for a fun-filled December, including:

Visit to a heritage village for Christmas fun, old-timey style
Building a snowman
Decorating Fuzzyhead's tree and apartment
Christmas baking
Christmas Ikea shopping - not really different from regular Ikea shopping

And now I must get myself ready for my last Monday at work. Have a lovely week dear readers.

Onward,

vrock

It all started with a big BANG

2009-08-26T12:29:00.004-04:00

Welcome readers! I have been a busy bee organizing all my yarn and trying to make my space a little less cluttered. I recently went on another knitting field trip adventure, and bought more yarn I probably don't NEED, but most certainly WANTED. When I got everything home, I realized that every ball of yarn I own was scattered around my house, usually in the bag I originally bought it in. I was disappointed with myself for not getting on this sooner, so I went back out shopping, and purchased 4 baskets with fabric liners (so I don't snag all my pretty new yarn) and I got to organizing. I went all out. It took me a solid day of winding, cataloging, and sneezing to get to this stage:

The sneezing was mostly just from my room being dusty, and from any yarny fibers floating around in the air. I now store all my yarn upstairs in my room, away from dogs and sister and parents with no appreciation for yarn indulgences. The fourth basket on the end is filled with finished projects and my newly acquired knitting tools. This basket is currently home to my pile of finished Christmas gifts. These include:

A rosie posy tea cozy for Oni

A french press cozy for Oni

A pair of delicious self striping socks for Momma

Two pairs of flippy mitts (only one pictured here) for my uncles

Tam Tam's pretty lacey lady socks

Grandpa's manly man socks

I've also been organizing on Ravelry, trying to make use of some of the cataloging tools. I organized my stash with index cards, each one featuring the original ball band, and a sample of the yarn to which it belongs. I like my system, it's very hands-on, and very accessible to me. I tried to set up the Ravelry one, but it looked like it would take more effort than I wanted to put in right now. I did update my projects though, everything has a picture except for the two things I am currently working on, and I hope to fix that later today.

My current projects now include the boring brown socks for dad (almost done the first sock) and the lacey shawl/scarfs for the relatives I don't care for. I have piles of other yarn for projects I'm dreaming up. These projects aren't really for anyone, but here's what I would like to make soon:

Clothes for my naked teddy bears. Any clothes really, they just need something and I've had my bear book for months now
Baby hooded sweater, for no baby in particular, just to have around to give to someone
Baby booties, again for no baby in particular, but I have a cute idea to make bootie set out of a lovely bunch of cotton yarns that I picked up on sale
Christening gown for Tammy's one-day babies. We all know she'll have them eventually, and she's the type to get them baptized

I think I need some lunch now readers, then it's back to stash organizing, project planning, and maybe a little actual knitting.

Onward,

vrock

Headphones to match

2009-07-29T17:26:00.006-04:00

Hello lovies! I have news! Wonderful KnitPicks news! Yesterday, my long-awaited package of goodies I ordered from KnitPicks arrived! Watch as I unpack each delicious item:

All pictures were taken in Slim Jim's room, spare arms seen in the background belong to Diaper Dan, Slim Jim's beau.

Immediately after opening all my new toys, I got right to work, winding balls of sock yarn for easy pull-from-the-centre convenience, blocking socks, gearing up for chart-reading fun, storing notions, etc

Slim Jim's birthday also fell on July 28 and I suppose my gifts arriving in the mail was not the real highlight of the day - I also made her a bitchin' "coffee" cake! Observe!

The handle is made of cardboard and covered in icing. The cake is rainbow chip box cake (Slim Jim's favourite), lemon curd filling, and purple supersweet icing.

New green headphones to match my green ipod. I am the most pathetic ipod owner ever. I really only bought it for dog-jogs and walks with Sassy, I occasionally pop it on when washing dishes or doing housework/writing blogs (like now). My music selection barely takes up 3 GB of its 8GB memory. I think one day I would like one of those ipod docks that plays your music, so I don't have to get caught up in the strings while I'm working around the house.

Fuzzyhead bought a fish tank today - 10 whole gallons of fish fun will be had on Friday when he can finally put fish in it. I helped add the water. I would also like to help name his new little school of fishies - my vote is for Star Wars names.

Three pairs of socks done. Just finished the lacey lady socks for Tam Tam (finished these while babysitting. If you know me at all, that's just funny). The lacey lady socks are waiting their turn with my new sock blockers. In the meantime, last night I start Dad's manly man socks - plain beige, but with a tasteful and manly cable pattern from my toe-up sock book.

Saw Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2 last night - not impressed. I really didn't enjoy it, and I'm glad I didn't get sucked into the Kill Bill frenzy in high school. Fight scenes and car chases are boring, and the second movie was slower than slow. If you enjoy this movie, keep it to yourself, because I will make fun of you.

Must prepare for knitting tonight - Purple is joining us again, and so is B.wyn's sister and maybe even B.wyn herself. Of all nights, Catherine may not be coming today, or might only be stopping by for a little while (she's entertaining a non-knitting friend tonight). Come on team, we're so close to having a real weekly group!

Onward,

vrock

My dog is trapped on the lower level of my house

2009-07-15T11:35:00.004-04:00

Greetings my lovelies! I have been busy knitting again with Christmas gifts galore, and I will now share my accomplishments from the last two weeks. I present my story, told in pictures:

I love this book, toe-up socks have changed my life

Me, being extra clever and weighing out the yarn to split it in two balls for two perfectly similar socks. I actually weighed the yarn on a less interesting looking kitchen scale, but I threw it on this old-timey one just for the effect

My bare leg and the very beginnings of Tam Tam's lacey girly sock. It was a not getting dressed kind of day and I am sporting my Homer Simpson men's boxer short pj bottoms. I used Judy's Magic Cast-on for my toe, but I did it with my double-pointed needles rather than going out and buying a small enough circular needle. It was a tad awkward, but very doable.

The beginnings of a real toe!

Don't tell Tam Tam I put her sock on my foot, but it was too tempting not to try it on and relish in the awesome that is toe-up sock creation

The heel is turned! It really helped to have an understanding of sock construction before trying to turn the heel in a different style. If this was the first sock I ever made, I think I would have had difficulties.

The first sock is now complete and I am working on sock #2. The first one goes up to about mid-calve, which I think is very lady-like and elegant. I hope Tam Tam wears these when she re-enacts old-timey things at the heritage village.

Still waiting for my sweet sweet promotion, but I've started looking at what else is out there and what they might consider paying me to do it. I sent a quick email to one job posting, and the woman just wanted to see my resume. I was really only interested in finding out more about the job before I considered it seriously, but I sent off my resume and asked if I could meet with her to learn more about the job. She in turn must think I am retarded, and made a point of telling me she is only collecting resumes now and will be scheduling interviews later. Now she thinks I am an impatient and pushy boob who had the nerve to demand an interview. Way to go Tor Tor.

Ordered another year subscription to Bitch magazine. I missed it, and I can't always find it at Chapters on my breaks, so I'm buying my own for much less than the cover price. I also ordered a very nice Bitch magazine tote to carry around all my knitting. I'm excited to receive gifts I bought for myself in the mail. Just like Christmas!

Busy night at work last night, the tween-agers were in full force for the midnight release of Harry Potter. The Tuesday night schedule did not account for all the extra activity when it was written three weeks ago, but I had a good crew. If it was a sub-par crew I think I would have sat in a corner and cried. I am eager to see Harry Potter, but I would never go to the midnight show - I get sleepy after 11pm (10pm if I'm being honest with myself) and I don't like crowds. There's always some dink in the theatre who doesn't believe in inside voices during a movie, and these people are especially attracted to popular movies in their first few weeks after release. I'll wait a while, thanks.

Shout outs to Anonymous, we miss you at knitting, but we carry on your spirit. Gail is learning how to knit tonight, so maybe we can rope in another one.

Onward,

vrock

Kate + 8?

2009-06-22T20:39:00.002-04:00

It is 8:37, and Jon and Kate plus 8 starts in 20 minutes. I am eagerly awaiting the big announcement they've been pushing all week on TLC. I've narrowed it down to the following options:

They're getting separated/divorced

They are graciously backing out of the show to save their marriage

As far as I can tell, it can only go one of those two ways. I really can't belive it's a good announcement because the previews have been so cryptic. Gawd, I just need answers, and I'm not happy about staying up until the end of the hour long show just to see what at the hub-bub is about. If I was more responsible, I would just go to sleep at 9 like I planned and check the gossip sites tomorrow for full updates.

If they just get separated/divorced, will the show go on? Will it be called Kate + 8? What will I watch on Monday nights (now that I never seem to close, ever)? I need answers!

I need a speedy shower and pj's now. I think a little knitting will soothe my nerves as I watch their future unravel (ha! knitting!)

Onward,

vrock

Thinking cozy in June

2009-06-19T16:37:00.004-04:00

Helloooooo blog readers! Are there any of you out there? Get ready to be updated on my life:

Knitting:

My most current project, a Christmas present for my mom. This self-striping yarn came from Romni Wools about a month ago. I'm on a serious sock-kick (HA! funny, sock and kick). Before these socks, I finished a pair for my grandpa from yarn I bought at Shall We Knit's booth at the St. Jacob's farmer's market. I knew I could find yarn from a farmer's market. Fuzzy-head just wanted produce, but I'm always on the look-out for yarn. The following pictures were taken during Fuzzy-head's graduation ceremony from college. As a good girlfriend, I was there to watch supportive-ly from the balcony and take pictures, but as a good knitter, I took the opportunity to knit in public. Spread the good word people!

In other knitting news, I love my mother for belonging to a craft book club where they harass her monthly to purchase books, because then I get great finds like these:

I have only briefly flipped through these two - I only just tore open the box when I came home 20 minutes ago. I am VERY excited to find the perfect next sock pattern for the yarn I already bought for socks. I am also excited for whoever is fortunate enough to have a baby next - you're getting hand-knitted baby things from me. On that note, the updated Christmas knitting list is as follows:

Grandpa - very manly traditional man socks - DONE
Grandma - Over-the-top tea cozy and french press cozy
Uncles - Flippy-top mittens in manly tweed - DONE
Aunt - undecided still, maybe socks?
Great aunt - something lady-like and pretty for an old British lady (and light, for cheap shipping)
Momma - self-striping socks as pictured above - 3/4 DONE
Daddy - Manly man socks in a colour that perfectly matches his pants (boring beige)
Tam Tam - pinky-purple girlie socks
Fuzzy-head - green/blue/brown socks in a manly pattern as selected by himself

I have also graduated from college, I have a big girl job in the sense that I work 40 hours a week, but I am still paid hourly. My promotion is in the works, I have heard promising rumours about incompetent managers. Soon my pretties, soon. BUT, as a way to keep me quiet while I wait, I start coffee master training on Monday. I'm gunna look so hot in that black apron.

It's 5:00 lovies, I have laundry, knitting, and dinner to accomplish.

Onward,

vrock

Just coffee

2009-05-10T09:36:00.002-04:00

Good morning team!

It is Sunday morning again, and again I am working up to the right mindset to go for my dog jog. It's a little chilly out today, but I'll go in the next hour, once breakfast is digested. The big dog is having hip problems again, but I haven't seen her limping along on our walks yet. I try not to go too fast for her, and we balance out all the jogging with walking. Other dog is fine with everything, except she poops on every walk, usually more than once.

Saw Star trek last night. As someone who has never really seen the original series (or cared much about it for that matter) I enjoyed the movie as a movie. I understood the references to the quirky character things they all did, and it's always nice to see a movie that explains how things happened and where they came from. I did not like the Elvis look-a-like sitting behind us who talked through the entire movie. His comments were mega lame too, I think I could have been a little more understanding if he was at least making intelligent observations. A sampling of his chatter:

(reading the titles on screen) "Iowa!"
"Oh! That's gunna leave a mark! But he's got so many other scars on his face, he won't notice!"

Fuzzy-head even turned around at one point and asked them to stop talking. One of his friends stopped (or at least switched to whispering), but Elvis was quiet for a moment then continued chatting away. I don't understand how you can be as old as he was and not know that you don't talk during a movie.

Slim Jim saw the same movie, but instead of obnoxious people, her theatre smelled like unwashed nerd. I think the true die-hards come out to star trek movies. The much more awesome Star Wars adventures at least had normal-ish people in the theatre.

Before the star trek adventure of the day, Fuzzy-head and I went to the farmer's market. I found a lovely sock yarn for grandpa's Christmas socks at the Shall We Knit? stand. It's blue-grey-brown coloured (very manly) and I found a neutral looking sock, worked from the toe down. I am eager to start work on them. I didn't have needles with me at Fuzzy-head's house so I had to settle for rolling the yarn into balls. Fuzzy-head had to hold his arms out and keep my yarn from getting tangled. That ridiculous and expensive contraption that rolls yarns into balls for you seems like a worthwhile investment.

Going for a dog jog now,

Onward,

vrock

Get up and Go-Go

2009-05-03T08:02:00.002-04:00

Good morning my lovelies!

It is Sunday morning, I am awake before everyone else. I am thinking about a dog jog before the day has the potential to get warm. I am also thinking about knitting projects and the things I should be accomplishing. I am on to the second pair of mittens for the year of knitting Christmas presents, two uncles down. I will likely finish them this week. My next project will be something I have thrown into the Christmas knitting mix that is not at all related to Christmas (just like the LOST scarf...we won't talk about that one). Dwight is have a baby! He might not be the one pushing and birthing, but he's going to be dressing the little person and I think a hat and booties is in order. I think I can knit them up in a weekend if I'm really committed, and I should have enough yarn kickin' around that I don't need to buy any more. The perfect gift.

Pictures of various projects in their respective completed stages will be posted soon. I have nothing else to do now except work, since I FINISHED SCHOOL FOREVER. Just let that one sink in. I don't go to school anymore. I have finished. I am a big girl now. I work 5 days a week, I have two days off every week, and I don't always have to fit something else into my working day after work. I like it so far. I made sure to push for my 40 hours a week since they won't be promoting me any time soon. It wasn't so much of a push as a reason for bossman to have me working as much as I've always wanted to. Hurrah! I like being in my store more, I feel more involved in happenings.

Anonymous and Catherine are headed out to a Ravelry event in T.O. today. Little jealous, I couldn't go because someone needs to work on Sunday night because we don't have enough supervisors for more than one of us to have a day off at a time. They're going rock climbing with other knitters, and most likely shopping for yarn, and knitting. Balls. I will be enjoying the company of the Sundayers (almost as bad a holidayers), who don't know any of our drinks, and join the line when they know the wait will be 10+ minutes. They have nothing else to do on Sunday except come into the bookstore to browse and get a coffee, and at 5:00 they all go home at the same time to make dinner and do laundry. My day will be filled with "Can I just get a REGULAR coffee? Do you even have that?" and "What's the difference between regular hot chocolate and signature hot chocolate?" Enjoy your trip ladies, think of me.

Sunday morning pancakes, dog jog, here I come.

Onward,

vrock

Rocket phlegm

2009-04-14T09:25:00.004-04:00

My dog got adopted. I don't think anyone I know went ahead and took him home, although I urged everyone I knew to go and get him. Now I am sad.

In other news, because of my intense illness last week, I missed a piddley 5% quiz in accounting. Without waddling off to the doctor for a doctor's note, I was unable to write this quiz. I don't know about you, dear reader, but I don't run off to the doctor every time I'm sick, unless I am sick with a sickness I can't identify, and I certainly don't pay $15 for someone else to confirm that I am sick. In conclusion, because I was not the only one who missed the quiz, and because Diane is clearly proving a point, the best I can hope for without a note is to answer a few bonus questions on the final exam. Diane was also quick to point out that answering all the questions correctly will only potentially earn you 55% on that quiz worth 5%. As her best student, I am taking a stand and NOT getting a doctor's note. I will easily finish that course with a fine mark, and the quiz she decided to play teacher's politics with won't matter. In your face Diane, no one likes you.

Earth day is next week. Bring your personal mug to Starbucks on April 22 and get a "free" tall pike place roast. Nothing is really free, you'll pay for it later I'm sure.

Have a happy Tuesday my loves. Today is the last time I have to serve or cook in that awful dining room. And if Jean Paul thinks we will sit through another one of his 20 minute rehash-the-night "meetings" he is mistaken.

Onward,

vrock

Bob Barker clearly hates puppies

2009-04-08T15:24:00.005-04:00

I love puppies. I want a house full of puppies. And as Jen so perfectly put it today, I want enough puppies that I can scoop them up, cuddle them, then roll around in them. I love puppies, but I don't actually want a puppy. All the things I don't like about babies also apply to puppies, except they aren't entirely useless and they can move around on their own. I think puppies are a little bit more like irritating toddlers and/or 5 year old children, which are my least favourite ages of children. Ugh, awful. In my dog seeking, I came across this lovely specimen at the Cambridge Humane Society:
He is beautiful, and I want him. They have called him Chupa, which is a name that makes me think of those awful lollipops you used to find in your halloween haul - I never ate them. I would name this dog Greedo (Star Wars reference, hardcore). He is still at the humane society after at least 3 weeks. For a while he was the only one there, but now he has been joined by a funny looking basset hound. I almost think there must be something wrong with him, but I went to see him in person and he looked alright. The lady I talked to about him said he has some dog dominance issues, and since I have two other dogs, all my animals would have to come to the shelter for a "meet and greet" to make sure they don't hate each other. I love him. I think he is exactly the kind of dog I want to sit in the front seat of my smart car. I give you the following mathematical support, crudely drawn in Paint:
But since I cannot have him (already have 2 dogs in my house, father would literally kill me, etc), I urge someone else who loves a good dog to go and get him.

No knitting party tonight at the bux, we're taking a week off. I need to finish my first set of uncle Christmas mittens by sewing in all the ends, then its on to another set of the exact same mittens.

Onward,

vrock

The good ol' days

2009-03-18T08:57:00.003-04:00

Drinking coffee, should be heading upstairs to get dressed shortly, I have to be at school in an hour. During my lazy morning routine, I was reading through facebook and two things caught my attention:

1. I miss reading. I would like very much to strike up my old relationship with books and the public library, and the delicious smell of library books. I want to get back to reading.

2. I miss Barbara Walters on 20/20. It was her show, it was her baby, and it hasn't been the same since Hughe Downs left. John Stossel has butchered whatever good was left in that show. I think Barbara bailed out when she still had her integrity before Stossel could drag her down to his sex scandal level. I miss you Barbara. I'm just glad you still do The View so I can watch you on a somewhat daily basis.

Getting dressed now, I will be the only one in class I'm sure, but I've worked too hard building my reputation, I can't slip now. A pleasant day to you all,

Onward,

vrock

I am the pack leader

2009-02-19T09:46:00.005-05:00

First, we will begin with the pictures from my evening at school. My theme was "comfort food upgraded". All things considered, I think the day went off well. There were some hiccups, and I'm pretty sure my teacher had me pegged for failure as soon as I said 'communal seating', but things turned out fine for me. I was pleased with all my little decor touches, although I never heard any positive feedback about that from my teacher. This just proves once again that he is a horrible teacher, and he is not capable of saying anything to encourage my learning.

The display table set up in the hallway for our guests to stare at until I let them into the dining room. My table featured the cocktails and mocktails of the day, and a little kitschy decor I brought from home.

A close up of the drinks of the day (from left to right): Shirley temple, cherry cola float, bee's knees, and lemon drop.

The communal table. In your face Jean-Paul.

And in knitting, your hero had a disappointing setback with her doubleknitted scarf for fuzzy head. It was so freaking huge by the time I finished the first logo, I could not continue working on it happily. The following are the proud in-progress pictures, followed by the frogging pictures that made me sad.

Now I have restarted the scarf, but this time I'm just knitting in a round, to make a double-thick scarf. I'm still following the idea of having a reversible scarf - one set of colours on one side, and the reverse of those colours on the other side.

And finally, on a more personal note, I am completely in love with Dexter. I watched the first two seasons in a week, and I will soon catch up on season 3. I must thank the fuzzy headed boy for introducing me to such a fantastic show, although anything on HBO is going to be good because they don't try to hide the boobs and swears.

Until we meet again my lovelies,

Onward,

vrock

A wonderful, magical animal

2009-01-30T14:30:00.002-05:00

Waiting on hold to confirm a rental order - there we go, my fears have been confirmed. Linen companies in the area only carry plain-Jane boring solid linen colours, and the red and white checkered gingham could be difficult to find. Whatever, I will work with what I am given and it won't make much of a difference. I plan to take pictures of my event and post a little blog about it. I'm not terribly nervous right now because it doesn't seem like I can do much else. I bought or rented all the decor and plates I needed, I gave my recipes to someone else to take care of, and all that's left is showing up and doing it. Most of the work has been done, and I have people to do the dirty jobs for me. I'm very glad I'm not cooking, cooking is my least favourite school activity. I was sous chef last week and I was happy over all. We were organized, and I told everyone what to do and had things done on time, and Chef said I came across as very organized, etc. I wasn't happy with the plate presentation, but everyone had clearly left it to me to create something wonderful, and that's just not my bag. Fingers crossed until after Tuesday, then it's smooth sailing til the end of the semester.

In knitting news, I am furiously working away on the Orientation scarf. It's a monster; the picture did not show scale very well, and I have myself a giant scarf that's a bit more than a foot wide. Worsted weight was not the best choice, but I'm sticking with it. I'm almost done one logo, only 7 more to go if I do the whole thing. I might stop at 6 logos, just because I don't want the scarf to end up being a giant novelty scarf that no normal person would wear. Pictures soon, I'm really trying to be a better blogger, and I feel like pictures make a blog better.

It's time to knit and ignore my responsibilities. Mmmm, weekend.

Onward,

vrock

I'm missing the chili cook-off!

2009-01-26T11:02:00.003-05:00

Construction has begun on the LOST orientation scarf for Fuzzy-head. This one will take me a while I predict. I have 8 logos to complete, each row is 47 stitches wide, BUT, you really have to double that because it's double knitting and twice as much yarn is being used for everything. Once my ridiculous school troubles are behind me, I will have all the time in the world to knit (I assume).

School done in April, but my biggest concerns for the year have come up in these first 4 weeks. My restaurant/dining room class this semester requires me to take charge of the dining room and be my own boss. I have to plan all the details, including ordering special food and decor for my day. Ugh. In addition to this, I have to be the sous chef for someone else's day. With my good luck, I happened to get them both within the first 3 weeks of class. I am sous chef tomorrow (and I'm terrified), and I am bossman next week. I almost think that being in charge of the whole day will be easier than being in charge of the kitchen. I feel good about my day, I've got all my ducks lined up, but I'm worried about being such a big part of someone else's day when she's counting on me to create the food that defines the evening.

In other news, I will be monumentally old soon. In two days. T-minus two days until mega old.

Until we meet again,

Onward,

vrock

Many a Christmas knit

2009-01-19T10:30:00.002-05:00

I feel guilty for my lack of love to my blog. But I also hope that this year I will find more time for knitting, and thus find more time for blogging. My fall semester was brutal because they crammed 4 months of learnin' into two months. This semester, I only have class 4 days a week, and on many days, only one class with lots of free time around it. Things are coming up Milhouse!

And now I present holiday knitting in all its glory:

Felted stocking for Fuzzy-head, as this was his first Christmas on his own in his own little house with his own little Christmas tree, and he needed a big bad stocking. I made this in less than 24 hours after I finished all my other Christmas knitting but still thought I could fit in one more thing. Pattern from AlterKnits Felted book. I hastily jotted down the bare-bones of the pattern when I was on my last knitting field trip with Anonymous. I wasn't about to buy a whole book for one pattern, that's silly.

I did not knit this one, or the next one. Slimmers created this purple hat to match the purple mitts and other purple accessories she got for Christmas. She made this hat in two days, most impressive for her, she usually takes a million years to finish anything.

The first hat Slimmers created hastily, this one was a last-minute Christmas gift for her friend. I was most impressed that she chose a Star Wars pattern. Love love love it.

My pride and joy, these are my Brooklyn Tweed mittens from the cover of Vogue Knitting. Made them in a lovely sock yarn, and told Tam Tam she can't wear them until the spring because they aren't very hearty mittens.

Slimmers purple mittens, also from Vogue Knitting, I was a bit disappointed that one turned out a lot tighter than the other, but overall, I like them a lot. I ended up following the structural pattern for my let it snow mittens and just using the pattern for the purple and white because the mitten itself was turning out oddly. I really hated the thumb they wanted me to use because it had no thumb gusset. In the end, a most enjoyable knit.

Next projects: A full year of knitting in preparation for next Christmas! I never give gifts to my extended family, but I figure everyone could use a little hand-made something now and then. The gift list is as follows:

Grandmother - tea cozy and french press cozy
Grandpa - manly socks
Uncles - flip-top mittens in a manly tweed
Aunts - functional scarf with hood attached
Other grandmother - pretty and not very practical scarf/shoulderette
Great Aunt - tea cozy

**Note: both other grandmother and great aunt live overseas and will require light weight gifts to save on shipping. Also, they are old British women who are very traditional and need traditional gifts.

I have found patterns galore on Ravelry and now I need to get shopping.

I love knitting, and I missed my blog. A merry new year to all, expect to see projects galore from me soon.

Onward,

vrock

Let it snow

2008-11-10T13:55:00.004-05:00

Awful awful news dear readers! I have been unable to attend knitting for the last two weeks due to my terrible school/life issues. I had a major school crisis earlier this week, which had me ranting to my mom on the phone for more than an hour. I almost wanted to quit school with only one semester left ahead of me. I am only sticking with it because it would be foolish of me to quit with only a semester left. This does not mean that I agree with everything my program is doing. It's too bad that I can't make a radical stand and just quit to prove a point. My solution to make me feel better about selling my soul to post-secondary school was to meet with Gary, my program guy. He was very reassuring, and he made us feel better about next semester. I'm still annoyed with having to be in school for something that really and truly doesn't need a real education. I best be getting a sweet salary when I get into the real world.

In other terrible news, I have just learned that Michael Crichton died of cancer on November 4, 2008. This makes me unbelievably sad. Say what you will about his skewed views of global warming (Dan), but I loved that man. He is my favourite author of all time, and his non-fiction book Travels is the only book I've ever read more than once. Now I am sad.

Holiday meeting last night. I'm excited to be involved with all the changes at the bux. In the next few years, there are some big things shaking down in the company. I'm also excited that I will be more involved with management decisions when all of this happens. Also, holiday makes me excited. Are you ready for red?

Onward,

vrock

Scientific literature doesn't make for a real page-turner

2008-11-01T21:12:00.004-04:00

Behold! Halloween awesome adventures with me and Fuzzy-head! The pumpkin carving adventures took place on October 30, as I had to work on Halloween night. We watched Sweeny Todd and Hocus Pocus. I tried real hard to rent Hocus Pocus, but my local Blockbuster thinks they are too good to carry the best Halloween movie ever. I also hate Blockbuster because they literally carry a wall full of every HORRIBLE new release, but one copy of each of the classic, awesome movies I actually wanted to watch. AND, the girl at the counter didn't even know what Hocus Pocus was when I asked if they had it. ???! I bet she wasn't even alive in 1993 when that gem of a movie was made.

My delicious Yoda pumpkin. Please don't give me all the credit, I used a pattern I found on the interweb.

Orc and Yoda! Together at last!

Onward,

vrock

Contents may be shocking for those living under rocks

2008-10-30T15:23:00.003-04:00

Gak, no post since I started back to school, I am so sorry dear readers. I meant to post things a few weeks ago, I had pictures and junk from a wedding we did, but Blogger AND Facebook were being lame and I got so annoyed that I just couldn't keep trying to upload.

To make it up to you, I present a fabulous postcard that I received in the mail today from my nerd camp friend Aja who is far off in Ottawa being a great big awesome person. I absolutely LOVE this postcard, it says:

"I masterbate. And I enjoy it. A lot. It took me years to discover it. Thankfully, I finally got over my hang-ups. I realized that a sex drive is as natural as the urge to eat, sleep, or drink. I wouldn't deny myself a fabulous meal, so why would I deny myself the experience of sexual desire. Sure it took me awhile to come around to the idea, but I've become more comfortable with my own body. And in doing so, I've discovered the wonderful gift of my innate sexual energy."

Aja immediately thought of me when she saw it at Venus Envy, what I gather to be a women-friendly sex shop: www.venusenvy.ca

So I thank Aja for sharing this with me and for thinking of me, and I hope my readers can appreciate it too.

Catherine Ford forever,

vrock

Donut crumbs from the biggest baddest most icing-covered masterpiece

2008-10-12T16:36:00.004-04:00

Rawr. Listening to fuzzy-head's podcast after about a week of delay (technical issues, beyond his control he says). Unfortunately, I did all my mindless internet checking stuff before I remembered I wanted to listen to it, so now I have to find things to do on the interweb while I listen.

Only 5 minutes into the podcast and already there is a shout-out to my humble little stitch n' bitch posse! Hi-five!

J'adore Starbucks Gossip. This is how I find out about all the upcoming things at sbux. Items I have learned about today:
-rumors that we're going to back pouring shots directly into the cups. Espresso excellence was clearly a PR sham
-poor Vivanno sales = discontinued product?? I hope so. Bananas are BALLS.
-there is a small group of die-hard Starbucks Gossip-ers who pretty much run that discussion board. I feel like a little fish in a big sea, and I rarely add my comment. I'm more of a message board lurker. A creeper if you will.

Fuzzy-head told me that my blog about the Beck concert was too negative. It's true, I was being unfair. The concert was just fine, I got to see Beck real close up, and if I cared even a little bit about MGMT I would brag about seeing that mullet-headed weirdo up close, but I don't. There were plenty of good things about the concert, but I just had to focus on the bad and tell my readers why I can never see a concert again. Beck's guitar-playing girl was gorgeous. I love her, I want to be her. More than anything, I think I just liked her hair. It was wavy and texture-y, pulled back into a loose bun thing. If I could stand having long hair, and if it would behave like that, I would do that to my hair. Also thinking about going a bit darker with my hair. Thoughts?

I am going to knit tonight to protest the family Thanksgiving I was not invited to. Here's the background: We never plan Thanksgiving in a timely fashion. We get told where we have to go, usually a few days before. Either my uncle or my grandparents host my beloved holiday celebration strictly because they have enough room to fit the 15 or so people in my family. My mom inquired about where we were going this year, and she got told my uncle (really and truly my aunt's decision) was having a small family thing at their house, with just their family. That's all fine and dandy, except they also invited my grandparents, and one of my other uncles (not the other one because he can't play nice with the first uncle). If we play a little game of family math, we will see that my family was the only group left out. THEN, my grandma found out we were mega-pissed about it, and she bitched at my uncle. We then received a pity invite. No thank you. I will wait for my own family Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Working tomorrow 8-4:30. Please please please holiday Monday, be nice to me!

Onward,

vrock

Sarah Silverman, keep your bra on

2008-10-06T09:49:00.004-04:00

I don't like concerts. Now, hold back your shock and criticism for a moment, and I will explain why I don't like them at all. I went to see Beck last night with Dan, he had been looking forward to it for at least a month, this is his all time favourite artist after all. We were pumped, we made a day of it, drove to T.O. and had some dinner and went inside. We learned from our earlier experience last summer at a Muse concert that rushing to the stage is not all it's cracked up to be. We got over heated, and people were jerks, and other people smell funny, and we eventually moved to the side (where we still had an awesome view of the stage because Arrow Hall is an airplane hanger and there was tons of extra space). Not so much last night. We were at the Sound Academy which is considerably smaller than an airplane hanger.

We originally found a sweet spot in front of a pillar, where we could lean and not block any one's view. It was similar to the super sweet parade watching spot Slim Jim and I had at Disney World:

But as more people came inside and moved to the stage area, the gap between us and the stage mob got smaller. There was a nice aisle right in front of us where people were walking to get to the bathrooms, but more than one person would come and stand in that space thinking they found a sweet spot, and then get shoved around by the bathroom-goers, most getting pushed into us.

So we moved. We decided on the side area with a bitchin' view of the stage. It was fine during the opening band (ps. MGMT had some really intense mullets. Just because it's stylized and/or you're famous, doesn't make it cool), we had lots of room and all the other concert goers were smooshed in the stage mob. Then there was intermission while they set up the stage for Beck, and then the fun began.

I have personal space issues. I don't like other people touching me when I can't control it. A crowded concert setting makes me uncomfortable. At first it was fine, we stayed in our sweet spot, but then other people realized they didn't have to be mega-smooshed if they just moved to the side of the mob, where we were. We eventually got completely surrounded, but that wasn't the worst of it. Alcohol should not be allowed at concerts. I don't drink, therefore I can willy-nilly take away their precious booze without feeling bad. I know this is the money maker at concerts, and that hurts my soul. Concert drinkers should have their own section where they can spill drinks on each other and sway to the music away from me.

And then there were the security freaks. They went postal on anyone who tried to take a picture. They rushed into the crowd after a girl standing near us tried to take a picture, and I'm pretty sure the guy made her delete the pic. Then there was some obnoxious girl who pushed her way in front of us to record sound on her camera. They hauled her away, ha. Towards the end of the concert, more people thought it was OK to shove in front of us, where we had been standing for hours with a decent view of the stage. Ick. No more concerts.

Also, the parking lot after was awful. Pedestrians should not be allowed to go anywhere near cars or parking lots if they want to stand around and block cars.

I think I've got all the rants out of my pants now. No more concerts again unless there are seats. I'm just fine buying the CD.

Onward,

vrock

Surgery chairs

2008-10-03T16:04:00.005-04:00

My glorious mitties! I've been wearing them for the last two days, even though it's only barely cold enough for mittens. My business banking lady Karen even commented on my winter-y attire when I came into the bank. She said she was dreading snow. I'm glad I didn't share the carefully stitched message of the mittens with her.

In other news, check out my newest project:

Tammy doesn't know how to read my blog so she'll never read this and know this is her Christmas present. AND, there's even a chance I'll finish them in time for Christmas. Hot damn! These are the mittens from the cover of the Fall Vogue Knitting that my let it snow mittens came from. Look at the cables! And the bobbles! And the glorious sock yarn! I'm really diggin' my sock yarn and double pointed needles. It's the only way to fly.

And still more pictures! A few choice pics from Tuesday knitting where two separate sets of old people complained about us sitting in the comfy chairs. The first lady was rather large and had recently had surgery. Our coworker told us she said we should be knitting at home and letting recently surgery-ed ladies such as herself sit in the chairs. The other complainer was a couple that recognized us as employees and said we shouldn't be sitting in the chairs. Hmm. I paid for my drink just like any other customers, and I am entitled to sit in that chair just like any other customer.

Anyway, Catherine and Anonymous were present, and we had a short visit from Bates (who did homework instead of knitting), as well as Valantina (she's the one doing homework). She joined us after her workout, and also didn't knit. School-aged kids are big into homework I guess. WHERE ARE MY FELLOW KNITTERS?

Anonymous looking sad because she dropped a stitch. This is face we watched for a good 20 minutes as she tried to put things right again.

That's all I got for now.

Onward,

vrock

Duggers: please stop multiplying

2008-09-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

Last day of September. Hello Fall. I am excited about the chilly weather you will provide me with for romping in corn fields, choosing pumpkins, and wearing knitted wears. Yesterday I wore a scarf and mittens to work, but no jacket, just a light sweater. It's really not jacket season, just accessory season. I will be working on the new pink mittens tonight at knitting party. I've also been talking up our weekly knitting fun to some new co-workers, and I've got a few takers. I think they might show up tonight, but showing up again might not happen. Where are all the passionate knitters and crocheters who want to craft in public?!

Coffee seminar was wonderful, we had a nice turnout. I was worried that since it was on a Sunday, we would get nothing but people stopping by for 5 minutes and then leaving, but that wasn't the case at all. Catherine did a marvelous job of promoting the event and a lot of our attendees were there because of her. We talked about growing coffee, and processing, and then we tasted coffee and food, and sent everyone on their merry way with some at-home brewing tips.

Erg. It's 9am and I need to get dressed and do something with my day. I don't know where my family is, as far as I knew, they didn't have anywhere to be first thing in the morning. I will get dressed and ready for the day and hunt them down.

Onward,

vrock

ps. Fall Phase II launches today!

Our good pals the wookies

2008-09-28T10:22:00.000-04:00

Hello my loving readers!

Large news in the knitting world! Two things actually. One: the let it snow mittens are complete! And I mean completely complete. As in I sewed in the tassely ends and fixed up the massive holes between mitten body and thumb. Awesome! Two: I hosted a Star Wars knitting party. Imagine those two things separately, and now imagine them together, and yes, it was that awesome. Catherine and Anonymous found my house in the back woods and we enjoyed 4 of 6 episodes of Star Wars. We perhaps could have watched more, but that was a long time to sit and my hands were firmly in the double-pointed needle claw formation after 8-9 hours of knitting mittens.

Other wonderful news: coffee seminar today! Catherine and I will be entertaining and educating customers for one glorious hour. We'll be treating it a lot like an intro to coffee tasting, to hopefully get a core understanding down before we launch more intense coffee seminars. We were thinking a later seminar could be called "chocolate - the around the world coffee tasting bringer-together-er of the coffee world" That's a working title.

I now have to go and plan a bit of an outline for the seminar so I can not look stupid in front of strangers.

Onward,

vrock

You are Lisa Simpson

2008-09-17T08:32:00.000-04:00

I am ridiculously attached to the gas stations I use. Since switching in my ol' gas guzzler for my sweet new ride, the smart car, I am suddenly very aware of my gas station anxiety. My sweet little smart runs on diesel, so already, I am limited in which stations I can visit. Every time I'm driving through an area with gas stations, even one I know very well and have driven by a million times, I crane my neck as I go by to see if they have diesel. Then I make a mental note, leading to a mental map of all the places I can't go use to get diesel.

Once that stage is complete, I have a list of a few places with diesel, usually larger chains like petro-canada. However, I have major difficulty going to a new station. I regularly use the two closest to my work, and I plan my refueling to happen when I'm already going that way. What is wrong with my brain? I went to the movies this week in a different part of town where I know there is a diesel station, but I couldn't use it; I drove a bit out of my way to my old favourite stations instead. I've never liked gas stations, especially when it's super busy and I have to negotiate for a pump. It's worse with diesel when there's someone else using the pump because there is only one. I hate being the jerk who sits by idling and waiting impatiently for my turn. So, instead of possibly looking foolish trying to navigate my way around an unfamiliar station where I don't even know where the diesel pump is, I stick with what I know.

Knitting night went on a mini vacation to Stacy's house yesterday. We hung out in her pool house and listened to Hawaiian music and talked about weddings. And then a giant spider tried to eat me and I left shortly after. All in all, a good time. Star wars knitting coming soon!

Plan your escape route now

2008-09-13T21:28:00.000-04:00

Stopped by the ol' workplace on my way to a job today (more on that later), and I saw Catherine. She was most upset about missing the knitting adventures going on today. Anonymous went though, she will have to tell us about it in vivid detail so we can imagine we were there. Kinda wish I could have gone, but I chose to work instead (in my defence, I was told about this knitting fair after I agreed to work). I usually choose work over life, I hate me. The worst part is I know I will forever be a little workaholic. I will not change, this is one of the fundamental things about me. Hear that universe? You can't make me change, and even if you tried, you can't break my lifelong habits. My co-op is almost finished, which will free up a lot of my time. One more month, one more month....

And now, the job today. I was pimped out by my mom to work as a server for one of our regular server's family event. No details given, no instructions, just directions to the event with a vague timeline, noon to midnight. That's a long time for even a large event. I was really not interested in working 12 hours at any kind of job, but I was trying to optimistic about it.

My little crew of 3 showed up to a farm house around noon, and there were already people setting up the tables and table settings. That's one of the only jobs you really can do when you show up that early for a dinner event. It turns out the event was for a wedding anniversary/birthday, and all day long the jobs we could have been doing as the hired help were done by friends and relatives. It was like being hired to work at your grandmother's Thanksgiving family dinner, but then getting shooed out of the kitchen by all of the catty aunts. The food was all prepared beforehand, we really just had to slice a few things and set them on platters. The dinner food was cooked by a friend of the family, so there goes another job we were qualified to do. The rental items for dinner needed to be washed, so I was a glorified dishwasher for a while. Not even plates though, just cutlery, all the plates were disposables.

So in conclusion, we were not there until midnight, we looked bored and helpless around 8 and asked if there was anything else to do, and there wasn't. Happy to work, all experience is good experience, but knitting would have been kick-ass too.

Baking tomorrow for a coffee tasting for work. I want to wow everyone with an exceptional pairing, and I'll try to work in some of the stuff from my upcoming coffee seminar. Catherine and I will be teaching some Sunday customers about the wonderful world of coffee. More details to come,

Onward,

vrock

We had a deal Sunday!

2008-09-07T20:18:00.001-04:00

Finished a brutal Sunday shift from 10:30-7. The worst shift of all, mid-day, on a Sunday. I think today had a lot to do with it being the first weekend after kids went back to school, and every idiot who didn't get their back to school stuff in August did it today. It was awful, and the line just kept coming. I was getting really frustrated and angry, and I needed to take a few minutes off the floor, but I just couldn't. We were missing that crucial 4th person to make it bearable, and everyone could feel the strain. But then this comes right back to the customers; why would you join such a long line in the first place? I would wander around elsewhere for a while and come back when the line died down. I just don't get it. But these people were weekenders after all, I shouldn't be expecting so much from them.

You may have noticed that I returned from the cottage in one piece. Yes, it's true, all the vital parts of vrock came back from Sauble (which is where I found out we were going once we got there). Unfortunately, knitting in the car on the way there was out of the question, I started getting queasy a few rows in. I think reading the pattern was what did me in. Stupid mittens and their beautiful but pattern-required excellence. I present the following updates on the COMPLETED left mitten, "let it":

Some ends to weave in, and a gaping hole between the thumb and the rest of the mitten to sew, but otherwise, I LOVE THEM. I managed to get the thumb finished at the cottage, and I started on the cuff of the right mitten. The cottage wasn't terrible, I enjoyed sleeping in for 3 days and not working even a little bit. Although on Saturday night I realized I never called in the order before I left, and thus our paper products would not be arriving on Tuesday. Oops. I sent an emergency facebook message to bossman confessing my blunder, and it wasn't nearly as huge a deal as I made it out to be. We got by just fine, and when I came in next it made no difference. Would I visit the cottage again you ask? Perhaps when there are real doors on the bathrooms instead of giant sheets of styrofoam you have to prop against the frame.

Also, as you can see, we are totally gang-sta:

I worked as a ridiculous wedding on Friday night. I set up the tables in the afternoon according to the bride's seating plan. Oh wait, she didn't leave me one. All she gave me were the name tags for each table, not where she wanted everyone sitting. I totally made it up. Unless you were married and took your spouse's last name, I didn't know I should seat you together. Once guests arrived, I saw a lot of people switch name tags around to sit with the person they came with. I did the best I could with what I had. They were a drunk ol' bunch, they were living for that open bar. Thank goodness we were at a city-owned venue where they strictly enforce the 1am bar closing time. No last call either suckers. You'll never know when to grab that last armful of beers until it's too late. I unfortunately didn't get to stay until the bitter end, I had to open and I left at about 10, but I'm sure there will be many more drunken weddings to come.

Fuzzy-head's birthday! Yesterday the fuzzy-headed boy turned 23. He received an ipod nano from his loving lady, and last time I talked to him, he was creating playlists for all occasions.

I'm off to update facebook with a couple albums, some wedding pictures from Friday, some cottage fun. Until we meet again my loving readers,

Onward,

vrock

Can you handle me the way I are?

2008-08-28T20:48:00.001-04:00

Timbaland, Weezer was right, you know the way to reach the top of the charts. I bow down to you sir, you have re-ignited my need to get my jog on. Unfortunately, it's a bit to late for that tonight. I need to get myself into bed soon. Ugh. Effing opens. Oh man, I want to sleep in so bad. I can't wait for the upcoming sleep-filled days. Jogging will come back in full force in September I suppose.

Drinking some green ginger and poppin' marshmallows. I swear to you, this is the best just before bed snack. On a related note, I found vegetarian marshmallows. It looks like you can order them online. I'm just happy with my gelatin based squishy treats, but others may wish to check it out:

http://www.veganessentials.com

This is just one of perhaps many sites catering to you folks. Apparently the need for gelatin-free marshmallows is greater than I first thought.

I was trying to find a book at the library to entertain me at the cottage. I searched on their site, I narrowed down my choices, then I went to hold the title and a pleasant red message in capital letters told me "THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR ACCOUNT. PLEASE SEE A LIBRARIAN". It was pushy, and in my opinion, a little over the top. Simmer down library. I bet it's just something stupid like I need to update my information. This happens to me every time I use their website. I should just give up and waddle my way down the street and see the books in person.

Finished the first mitten, except for the thumb. I figure that will be a nice way to start my car ride.

Until we meet again,

Onward,

vrock

Fat bottom girls you make the rockin' world go 'round

2008-08-27T21:15:00.001-04:00

Dear readers,

I will be out of town for a few days, I'm leaving for the cottage on Friday evening. I will be back on Monday. Please don't rob me while I'm gone. My very large dog might just take a chunk out of you, she's staying home to entertain my mom, and neither of them like visitors.

I will be knitting in the car on the way there, at least 2 glorious hours of uninterrupted knitting time. Not sure if I get car sick from knitting/reading a pattern, I will report back. Pictures to follow. I will be sleeping in and not working for 3 whole days. This hasn't happened to me all summer readers. The fuzzy-headed boy thinks I've lost my marbles for doing this to myself, but he also thinks I shouldn't knit in a movie theatre. Knitting forever, hollah! I think he might be right though, only a month and a half left of this super-working. With months of it behind me, I don't even have a solid gold house or a rocket car to show for it. The fuzzy-headed boy was right, but he will enjoy living off my riches when it's birthday season.

Almost done the first let it snow mitten, the "let it" one. I will probably finish it before I leave and start the second one for the journey. I'm thinking I could whip up a pair of these for a sister or two, maybe not the exact same ones, but something similarly cutesy.

And that is all. I have to go to bed. It's only 9:24pm. Please don't laugh, or I'll call you at home at 4am and you can get up with me. We'll take our first break together at about 7am, after we've already worked for more than 2 hours, and watch the sun come up. Mmmm.

Fire-toasted marshmallows for all (except fuzzy-head and Anonymous, sorry)!

Onward,

vrock

I want it, I want it, I want it, me, me, ME!

2008-08-26T19:28:00.000-04:00

The humble beginnings of my "let it snow" mittens. I started with checking my gauge, the most tedious and time-wasting of activities

Renate as she first arrived, putting on her knitting face.

Catherine, after I let her pose so there would be no "in the middle of knitting and looking down" double chin

Renate, on the comfy chairs. We made a speedy move towards them after initially sitting on rigid and UNcomfy wooden chairs.

The fuzzy-headed boy made a guest appearance at knitting to remind me of our movie date following my knitting party. ps. the clone wars movie was disappointing.

It looks like you, my faithful readers, will only get to see the pictures above. Blogger isn't agreeing with me right now, so the other half of my pictures will have to come another time. Le sigh <- french sigh.

It appears that I'm a big dirty liar! Victory is mine! The picture to your left is of the food Peter thought we would like to eat. He was the bringer of tasty treats all night. However, after our snacks of delicious Asian things that Catherine brought, we were unable to finish the warmed chocolate chip cookies with whipped cream and caramel drizzle. Shame.

And now, my pride and joy, my new and exciting two-colour project! Look at the fine craftsmanship, the delicate work, the attention to detail. Fabulous.

Ooooo. Ahhhhh. It's so wintery!

That's about all I can stand of blogger tonight, loading pictures really takes it out of me. I hope you enjoyed this visual sneak peak into the world of vrock. Oh heck, one more:

It's Sassy!

Knitting party + star wars at some point. When are you free my lovelies? Catherine, Anonymous, I'm talking to you.

Onward,

vrock

Revamping my love affair...

2008-08-22T08:23:00.001-04:00

With double pointed needles! A set of 5! I feel so European. And they're bamboo, which only adds to the wonder. Started work on my let it snow mittens (in the fall edition of Vogue Knitting now!). I have learned how to knit with two colours, one in each hand. I am very proud of myself. As Catherine will happily point out to anyone, I'm a thrower and this doesn't translate well to stepping outside of my knitting comfort zone and all-of-a-sudden NOT throwing my yarn. Pictures to follow from this week's knitting meeting and a little knit session of my own with my old friend Olympic coverage.

Sneezing like the dickens lately, I have yet to conclude what late summer pollen-maker keeps me so miserable, but I can't wait for the first frost to kill all the little beasties. I thought the sneezing was from my cotton-angora blend sweater vest (and it may still have something to do with it), but I think it's more likely that I'm just allergic to life.

Working at two backyard parties tomorrow. The one I'm going to is the first party where I have been the main contact person for the client, and I am the one she addresses all her whining emails to. Tracy worries a little bit too much about things, she hired us for a reason, if she wanted to freak out about her party she should have enlisted a friend who cooks to feed her 30 closest friends (they are my favourite alternative to hiring catering professionals).

The Slim Jim left yesterday, and from what I gather, she won't be home anytime soon. I think her plans are to only come home on major holidays, or when she runs out of food. Have a good schooling Slimmers, we'll see you at Christmas.

Onward,

vrock

I am smitten with mittens

2008-08-12T17:11:00.000-04:00

Picked up your Fall issue of Vogue Knitting yet? Oh, when you do, turn to page 30 and skim down to the second paragraph. The article doesn't do me nearly enough justice, but this little blurb about Romni Wools includes a shout-out to vrock! Kind of. During our trip to T.O., we spent the most time at Romni, and we spoke with the fantastic knitting shop keep (who I can only assume now is the owner), and I mentioned that when I die, I want my ashes scattered at Romni Wools. The sentence from Vogue Knitting, as told by the owner, says "One woman told me that when she dies, her only request is that we sprinkle her ashes in the store." THAT WAS ME!! I am in Vogue Knitting! Line up now, I will happily sign your copies of the magazine, Catherine got the first official autograph but you can be the second!

In other non-celebrity news, I am tackling my knitting projects slowly by surely. I don't think I could ever be a professional knitter, my little fingies just can't handle the pressure. Plus, I'm very sure that the angora/cotton blend I'm using for my sweater vest makes me sneeze. Don't be alarmed, a lot of things make me sneeze, and it might just be from the little fibre fluffies that are coming off as I knit. I'm hoping it will stop once I've washed it. I will totally wear it with pride either way.

House flies are very dim. I just found out that vibrating/buzzing sound they occasionally make happens when they flip onto their backs and can't get up. I would feel sorry for them if they weren't so stupid.

Knitting and hanging out with the Slim Jim now. Olympics!!!

Onward,

vrock

I've got soul baby

2008-08-10T23:06:00.000-04:00

This is why I live for the olympics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd5VEHEaVWs&feature=related

Thank you nike for combining a song that gives me chills with everything I love about that magical time that only comes around every other year.

onward,

vrock

Pull up your big girl panties and get back in the game

2008-08-05T14:58:00.000-04:00

Baby shower for ex-manager tomorrow. I skimmed $10 off everyone's tips today to fund the communal gift from her former employees. We've scraped together enough for a reasonable gift, although it was like pulling teeth to get money from everyone. It's like this with every group thing we've ever tried to do. Since everyone works at different times and on different days, there is no best way to get a message to everyone. I at least hope we have a good turnout tomorrow. I will feel awkward and embarrassed if it's only me and bossman and the two former employers I know are coming. Everyone else has given me non-committal responses. These classic lines include:
"I'll see if I can make it...*shifty eyes*"
"I'd love to STOP BY ...*which quite literally means stopping in, saying hi and leaving*"
"Oh, THIS Wednesday? I'll get back to you...."
and so on and so forth.

Come on co-workers! She's having a freakin' baby! And while I whole-heartedly disagree with reproducing, some people are into that, and we should celebrate our differences. Babies are gross, but there won't be any babies at this baby shower, this is the only reason I even agreed to attend. And also, because I am making a cake, and only those who show up may have any. HA.

For more valuable information on why babies are gross, please visit this site:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16508_6-terrifying-things-they-dont-tell-you-about-childbirth.html

And thank you goes out to the fuzzy-headed boy for sharing this with the world.

Knitting tonight with my afternoon off. I will be changing back into PJs shortly for a nap, followed by knitting and maybe some Slim Jim hangouts before she goes to yoga.

In knitting project news, I "blocked" my first blanket square (and by blocked, I mean what I believe to be blocking as I've never done it before. I managed not to screw it up; nothing caught on fire, so I give blocking a thumbs up). I pinned it to my futon in the spare room and let it dry in a square shape. One down, eleven more to go!

Eat now or starve

2008-08-03T08:44:00.001-04:00

Sunday morning. Not even 9am yet. Working today at 3 until close, followed by a mid shift on holiday Monday. I know holiday weekends, I have previously written about the kind of customer you can expect on a holiday weekend. The Saturday and Sunday are a little different. Most normal weekends bring out the morons. My store is unfortunately next to shopping areas and a movie theatre, and everyday wal-mart quality people make a say trip to the home depot with their son Cody and their little princess Jessica and they stare at the menu board, and pick the drink with a picture (aka the promo drink I outwardly support but think was a terrible drink that just takes us one more step away from real coffee). Then they have to be told to waddle their front-butts down to the other end of the counter to pick up their drinks, since they only come here once in a blue moon and are oblivious to the other customers NOT hovering around the till for drinks. They then push their way to the front of the drink line and ask if every drink I'm putting up belongs to them:
"Is this mine?"
"I'm not sure, what did you order?"
"Oh I don't remember, something with coffee"
"That could be a lot of things, THIS drink is a latte"
"Oh. Well I that's not what I ordered"
"Then this drink is not yours"

And so on and so forth. My other favourite scenario that pops up only on weekends: customer takes the first drink I put up, which is CLEARLY not what they ordered. They waddle away, and the poor customer who actually ordered that drink stands there for a few extra minutes waiting for a drink that will never show up. Sometimes the original moron will return with the drink they grabbed and accuse me of goofing their order. I smile sweetly, ask what they ordered, and tell then they took someone else's drink. "Oh goodness! I feel so foolish! * looks around frantically for the poor soul who is without a drink because of them * Look! I didn't even drink out of it! I just put a whole bunch of extra sweeteners in it, it's still fine."

And so on and so forth.

Planning to book off the next holiday weekend and join the fuzzy-headed boy and his entourage at the cottage. It will be the first holiday weekend I've had off in the last year. I wonder what they will do without me. Perhaps bossman will have to work in my place. Or maybe by then they will find a new minion to do all of their bidding. I cannot be everything for everyone.

Onward,

vrock

I made a funny

2008-08-01T20:47:00.000-04:00

Here we go again. My blog, I am a little bit in love with you, I've proudly shown you off to friends and family alike, and maybe that loyal fan-base will keep the blog fires burning.

Just got back home from a jog, stopped off at Len's to visit the sister thing. I have possibly recruited another member to my S&B, but we'll see if she shows up on Tuesday. So many people hear about my group and say "that's so awesome, I would love to learn how to knit", but unfortunately, they either never show up, or come once, learn to knit, and give up. I think my group needs so more solid knitters/crocheters who are eager to knit in public with others and share their knowledge. That is exactly what my group has become: a small loyal group of awesome people (shout-outs to Renate and Catherine) who meet up to share knitting insider info. I couldn't have completed/started some of my more recent projects without their help. If there are knitters out there who are stuck in a non-knitting rut, join us!

Listening to the fuzzy-headed boy's podcast as I type this. It's almost frustrating because I want to join in his conversation with Tyler, but I clearly can't because they recorded this yesterday. It's just weird because I know both of them. I should be a guest podcaster. See that boys? Invite me to guest podcast.

In working news, one of my underlings complained about me to the bossman, saying I spend too much time in the back room/office. The depth of my frustration cannot be understood by anyone, I am so mad about this. My job as a worker bee keeper involves me running around like a moron to solve all their problems. Some of their problems can be solved from the back room, example: the phone rings and the workers out front won't put two and two together to answer it (or they answer it and immediately pawn off all responsibility on to me), I take over the phone, which leads me to the back for some quiet to listen to the customer on the phone. Another one of my favourite situations is keeping myself informed about the goings on at the bux. I'm one of a small group at my store who actually read the press releases and action items to know what's going with the company/at the store. This is why I can answer all of your questions, because it is my job to be informed and to be a step ahead of you. I get paid a measly $2 more an hour than the lowest new hire, and I am regularly doing 3 times the work. More than anything, I'm irritated that someone thinks I'm not doing my job. I do a better job than so many of my co-workers, and I can almost guarantee the person who thinks I'm not doing my job is someone who doesn't work very hard at all. Frustration. Bossman's improve-on-this-to-be-a-better-leader" solution is to communicate my actions to the team before I go in the back. Example: "Hey team, I'm going to the back for approximately 3 minutes to call around to other stores to get supplies for us to make it through the weekend. Is everyone OK with that?" I like the idea of improving myself through this, but I do not agree with the initial complaint. The worker bees need to understand my position before griping about why I'm not on the floor.

On the plus side, in 2 weeks I will be attending a focus-group-style meeting about my work position with the company, what we think about how the job description measures up to the reality of my work. I love giving feedback. I firmly believe in the comment card and all it stands for. Prepare for some honest feedback Big A.

Onward,

vrock