Despite the bit of rain we've been having, the weather has been gorgeous for the most part. My favourite fall days are the cold, crisp sunny days. Just bundle up in your cozy handknitted woollies and it's all good.

Yesterday we got a really nice treat at work - a tour up on the catwalk. I've been up on the ring beam of the old roof and been up on the old roof before but this was much scarier. Not a place you want to be if you don't like heights.



The stairs and the catwalk are the grated metal kind...the kind where you can see ALL the way down. Ick! I'm usually okay when it comes to heights but this was making me go weak in the knees by the time we got up to the actual catwalk.



Things that makes me happy:
1. I have the next ten days off!
2. My fibre friends welcoming me back into the fold after my long absence.
3. It's December and Christmas shows are back on TV!

It's a perfect day!!

To make up for working last Sunday, I took a couple of hours off today to get my haircut. It's one of those haircut where you trust the stylist and tell her to surprise you...which she did, in a good way. Really happy with the cut. On the way back to work, I stopped off at Sweet Georgia Yarns to pick up my fibre club stuff for October & November. October's fibre is a blend of superwash Merino, bamboo, and nylon. November's fibre is Polworth and silk.

A great hair cut and fibre. You would think that all this would be enough for a perfect day but no, it got better. Got back to the office and there was a message from home that my Hansen minispinner had arrived.




Perfect day!!!!

King of Coffeemakers

My Hansen mini spinner is not here yet but the new coffee maker arrived on Friday. It's a very unusual looking machine this Technivorn Mochamaster. It's handmade...yes, handmade coffee maker. While not quite as awwsome as a mini spinner, it's a pretty amazing coffee maker. What makes it so special is that it actually brews coffee at the right temperature!


On the knitting front, I finished the Stockholm shawl in record time. My motivation was the very cold mornings waiting for the train. Long enough to wrap around twice and wide enough to pull over my head as a hood.


Pithy details: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in dark brown, roughly 3-ish skeins (yarn reclaimed from a project that was destined to be unfinished). 7 mm needles, cast on 252 sts and knitted in the round. Knitted to 16" wide and blocked to 13". Silly me washed it in warm water.

Made it through the dark tunnel...

...and there was light at the other end. I promised myself that I was going to meet up with the Twisted last Wednesday. It was time to get my life back in order, get back the stuff that's important to me.

Sometimes plans change. When I got home from work that Wednesday, fate decided I was going to stay home...and ordered this.

Very much a SQUEEE worthy moment.

Roof from the inside

Nervousness and sleepless nights are all part of the package now. It's about a month to re-opening day and things are really jumping at work. Everyone is walking around with a glazed look.

Our department is slated to move back in two weeks. I'm going to really miss it here at the Waterfront. Miss all the yummy food carts at walking distance...back to the dust, noise, steel toe shoes, and hard hats everyday.

Hot! Hot! HOTHOTHOT!!

It's hot today. It wasn't that hot when I left the house this morning. Cool-ish enough to grab a sweater. By mid-day, it was HOT! Extra hot if you're walking on concrete. And no one felt like cooking today so a decision was made to go out for sushi. The perfect meal for a hot day. Cold raw fish in an air conditioned restaurant. Followed by black sesame ice cream.

Which led me to google black sesame ice cream recipes. Now I have to go find the ice cream maker. :)


No explanation for this picture except that everyone needs a random shadow picture once in a while.

Didn't mean to leave it so long...

I had forgotten my password to log in...it's one of those things when you try too hard to remember something and it just doesn't happen. And then if you leave it for a while, your fingers automatically remembers the right sequence to type and you're in!

Old age will do that to you.

So far, I have no new finished projects. Stuff are on the needle but knitting half-heartedly. Summer has been nice but super busy. Work is getting stressful again. I haven't decided if it's good stress or bad stress. Just a different kind of stress than before. There's so much to do getting a world-class stadium ready & re-open in less than 50 days. It's really REALLY scary!

I did managed to take a few days off and we went on our Annual Trek. The Annaul Trek was a tradition my sister and I started when the kids were teeny. Our usual trek was to ride the Westcoast Express downtown, have breakfast, wander through Science World, BC Mining Museum, etc. It was something we loved doing. Over the years, BC Mining Museum went away and Science World got old. It was hard to come up with something different. This year's trip was to Britannia Mines. I haven't been there since the renovations and it was really a lot of fun.


All the old core samples were kept in trays here. There must be millions and millions of them. The guide was telling us how valuable and extensive this collection was, etc and not to touch. At that point, I looked at the group and most of us had a core sample in our hands and guilty looks on our faces. She might have mentioned that first.


It was a fun day. We wandered around the mine, panned for gold (got some interesting shiny rocks), then drove to Squamish for a tasty lunch. The weather was great and a good time was had by all. Our kids are older now and I'm not sure how many more Annual Treks they'll put up with but I'm hoping there's at least one more.

I got a call Saturday morning from Helen at Black Sheep Yarns. She said that those bags we were drooling over the other day are in...do I still want one? HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!

Within 15 mins I was at the store.


The pockets are really nice and deep so you don't have to worry about things falling out. The inside is HUGE!

And it's reversible too! It will hold a knitting project or more PLUS whatever else you'll need. A beautifully made bag.

Of course, if you have a new knitting bag, you must have new yarn to go with it, right?

Madeline Tosh Light.

I was thinking of a light shawl for that yarn. I even started one today, right after I finsihed Amiga Three. Did about 3 inches and changed my mind.


It's amazing what a difference a sunny day makes. When I took the pictures for My Amiga, it was a very dreary cloudy day. The colour kept looking more green than yellow.



Pithy details on Amiga Three - Louet's Euroflax 100% wet spun linen, knitted on 5.5 mm needles. No real modifications to the pattern except on the front band. I did a simple yarn over eyelet. No buttons. If I decide to add buttons later, I can use the eyelets as buttonholes. No blocking but threw it in the washing machine on a gentle wash, followed by 15 mins in the dryer.

Interesting the lint that came off this yarn...it's like paper.

Gingerbread Cake

Gingerbread Cake...my new favourite. So good with coffee. I need to make a variation of this with chocolate. Gingerbread Brownie Cake has a nice ring to it.

Amiga Too

This is the Amiga Too from the Amiga pattern from Knitty. And I've started a third one. I really don't think I've ever knitted the same sweater pattern three times in a row. Love this pattern. It's a quick simple pattern that is easily adapted to pretty much any type of yarn. This version is more snug fitting than the first version. I added the feather & fan inserts on the bottom and sleeves. The sleeves are tapered to the elbows then flared slightly by the lace. No buttons on this one.

I started Amiga Three in linen. Loving this one so far and can't wait to see it finished.

And just to show that everything is not always about knitting...



Things that makes me happy:
1. It was sunny today. Time to plan more picnic lunches at work!
2. Long weekend coming up and the weather is supposed to be nice.
3. My cellphone. With this phone, I always have a camera with me.

Knitting in April 2011

April turned out to be a bit of a stash busting month. It wasn't really intentional...just so happened that the projects finished this month were knitted from the stash.

Ribwarmer is one of my favourite designs by one of my favourite designers - Elizabeth Zimmerman. This ribwarmer vest is a modification of her design from the Fall 1997 Knitter's magazine. It's done in one piece with no seams if you graft the shoulders together. It's a great pattern for odds & ends of leftover yarn and it really knits up fast.


Well, that's interesting. Blogger is being weird and I'm not able to post another picture.

That's ok. The other sweater was just a plain simple shell knitted from Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. I love this yarn but it pills if you look at it sideways. I'm sure it's one of the reasons this yarn was discontinued. The pattern is Amiga from Knitty. A great versitile pattern that's good with all different yarns. Just started the second one in a grey wool.

Echos in Alpaca

I saw a really fascinating scarf/shawl, whatever in the Spring issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern was for a reversible cable scarf that can be used as a shawl. Reversible cable...the same on both sides. Great concept!

Got it! Made it! And here are pictures to prove it!



The yarn is the Baby Alpaca from Diamond Yarns. So very soft!

Exactly two skiens used to knit it to pattern measurements.

If I were to do this again, I would do the 1-stitch buttonhole instead of two as the pattern suggested. I found the button holes a bit big once you dropped the stitches. I ended up closing up the buttonholes with a bit of sewing thread.



I didn't like the loose loop of yarn after you dropped the stithces. Next time, I would knit to the second to last row before binding off, knit to the stitch you will need to drop, drop the stitch and knit through, drop next stitche, knit to the end. Then cast off on the following row. I thought about going back & redo the last two rows but didn't feel like it.

According to the pattern, it should be wide enough to be draped over your shoulders like a shawl but I found it a bit too narrow for me. Worked great as a cowl, though. If I were to use it as a shawl, I would double the stitches.

Things that makes me happy:
1. Spring is here...first tulips are up and blooming. Same with daffidils.
2. Wandering around the seawall at lunch.
3. Weather is still cool enough to wear knit stuff.

Someone had a bad day...

Overheard on the train today...

Two construction he-man types were sitting together, taking up a total of four seats. They had their bags and dirty gear thrown over the extra two seats. One guy deliberately put his dirty work boots up on the seat across from him and pretended to adjust his laces everytime the train stopped at a station...just so people would be so grossed out that they wouldn't want to sit there. I could hear them talking about that. Couldn't miss their conversation - they were quite loud and obnoxious in their opinion of us dainty office worker types. When the train pulled into the final station, the two men gathered up their belongs and disembarked from the train. The man with the shoe lace trick left a bag under his seat. No one said anything.

That's justice.

Only crazy people take pictures of their yarn...

I will admit to being a little bit crazy...


...but this is Madeline Tosh pure silk lace, 100% Tussah silk, hand-dyed. What you can't see in the picture is the green tones in there. Silk is so hard to photograph. I could probably be able to capture the colours with the big camera but I really wanted to see what this little cellphone camera could do. The picture doesn't tell you how scrumptiously soft this stuff is. A total of 2000 yards. I have a couple of ideas for this yarn but nothing definitely yet.

Love it when the weather forecast is wrong!

Last Friday, the forecast was for rain and snow. I think they were off by just a bit.


It's late...

Another Lazy Sunday

Today's Sunday activity was spinning. And making cheese muffins. Cheese muffins are like scones but takes a lot less work.


Fibre is from Sweet Georgia's fibre club from September 2009. I'm that far behind on my spinning. The colourway is "Enchanted Forest". As I'm spinning it I can picture Robin Hood wearing a cloak made of this fibre, hiding amongst the trees in Sherwood Forest.

In between spinning and cheese muffins, time was spent playing with my new cell phone. As much as I'm going to miss my old phone, I'm loving this new one. It's basically a camera with a cell phone attached. :)


The first crocuses and snowdrops are coming up. Spring is not far behind.

Thankful for:
1. ...the lull between the storms that are the Olympics and the re-opening of the stadium.
2. ...my spinning wheel - spinning is so calming and peaceful.
3. ...our Canadian health care system.

Winter Cowl KAL

This isn't a cowl but a shawlette (mini shawl). Started Jan 1/11, finished Jan 6/11. The fibre is from Sweet Georgia's fibre club but I can't find the tag with the description. All I know is that there's bamboo in there. Yarn is handspun by me.

Pattern is 198 yds of Heaven. I added an extra repeat to make it bigger (it's still a very samll shawl...more like a scarf, really). Great pattern - fast & easy to knit up.