FATC Swap

The Twisted by Choice group has decided to do a mini Fibre Artist Trading Card swap with each other.

I'm excited! This is going to be fun! We talked about the different things we could do last Wed & might plan an Embellishment night or something. I feel very lucky to have a group of friends with such similar interests. It makes one feel very normal.

First day of Autumn

How do we celebrate the first day of Autumn?

...by harvesting apples from our tiny apple tree. Last year's yield was 2 apples and this year we got a total of 11.

Not a lot to see...

It may not look like much but this is the blood, sweat, & tears of my first weaving class. Winding warp was not as easy as it looked.

I had a great time and so looking forward to the next class. We're putting the warps on real looms!

Excited...

I'm excited and can't sleep. My first weaving class tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to this. It's something that I knew I've always wanted to try.

Husband just reminded me that I'm not to buy a loom.

Rainy Sunday

It's raining today...

I really don't mind the rain. The garden could use the water. Tomatoes might not care for it...they tend to split with all the excess moisture.

I'm so tired today. I really don't like working Saturdays...especially for stuff like football. I just don't get football. What a waste of a weekend.

I was going to go to the LYS on my way to work yesterday. I wanted to pick up some hemp yarn for a vest. At the last minute I decided to go to Lougheed Mall instead. Bad idea. How can someone miss a shopping mall the size of six city blocks? Next thing I knew I was in Vancouver and I knew I've gone past the mall.

Bad idea #2. I wasn't in the mood to turn around to find the mall so I thought I would do a bit of Shoe Shopping downtown. It's been a long time since I've been Shoe Shopping. Now, I've gone shopping and bought shoes but there's a difference between Shoe Shopping, with a captial "S" and buying shoes while shopping because you need them. Three pairs of Fluvog shoes later, I felt much better. Heh! One pair was actually practical and I can wear them at work. It's all good.

I need more yarn

I have to work this Saturday. Bah! I told them that I'm not going in to work at the crack of dawn. If they need anything, it has to be done by Friday 3:30pm. I'll be there on Saturday at 4pm and that's it. No more crap like last year. That's ok...I'm planning a detour to a LYS on my way to work this Saturday. :D

The grey cable cardigan is coming along quite nicely. I'm more than halfway up the two front pieces now. The patterns are easy enough to do without carrying around the charts with me, making it a good travelling project.

These are the most amazing tomatoes! Cherry tomatoes that grows in hanging baskets and they're so good! I usually don't eat tomatoes but I love homegrown ones. Storebought tomatoes are too acidic for me. I've been popping these like candy.

A little bit of knitting...

The back of the cabled cardigan is done and I've casted on for the front pieces today. The cables are straightforward enough that I don't need to have the charts with me. It's knitting up fairly quickly once I stop procrastinating with other projects.

This is the earless monkey. The sample ear is just pinned to the head. I think the ear should be smaller and rounder. There's not enough yarn left so I have to pick apart all the sample ears to re-knit.



Ravelry

I take heart that there's 8316 people behind me on the waiting list but it's daunting to see there's another 11652 people before me. I've given up kicking myself for not taking that invite. I'm glad the person it went to, used it...no hard feelings. :)

Sock Monkey ears

I'm running out of grey for the Sock Monkey ear experiments. I've tried 3 different styles and not really liking any of them. My son thinks the problem is not with the ears but the head is too small. I think he might be right. This might mean a Sock Monkey head re-knit this weekend.

Last week was my 20 year anniversary at work. I got another clock (4th one now - wonder if they're trying to tell me something?) and a pretty good gift certificate. When asked what store would I like, I thought of several LYSs, Maiwa, Opus, even Treenway. I ended up with Sears. It was easy for my boss to get to. I was asked if I could really spend that much on yarn. Hahahaha!!!!

To Angela re: resin - I don't have a lot of resources for resin but you can buy liquid resin at Michael's and Opus. I got the idea from Crafty Chica. Opus has the set with the resin and catalyst all together as one package. With Michael's you have to buy each separately. I worked out the prices and it works out more or less equal. I think buttons would be a cool project to try. I've been thinking of what moulds would be good. Or, if you just pour the resin on a smooth surface, it would be too runny...unless you let it sit a few minutes first and let it thicken. It's a thought. If you make buttons, I'd love to hear how that worked out.

Lists

I've always made lists...lists of things to do, lists of things to pack for holidays, lists for gift giving, etc. It wasn't until Amber brought up the subject one night at our Twisted group, that I gave it more thought. It was just something I do. It was one way of keeping myself organized so I wouldn't forget things. I'm a very forgetful person. If I don't write it down, I will forget it.

I came across this site today...Listography where you can create lists for just about anything. Shopping lists, list of favourite music, list of songs you love, list of songs you hate - you get the picture.

For me, it's not practical using an online list. I barely remember to update my electronic daytimer for work. I still prefer the old fashioned way of writing things down.

Post-Vacation blahs

The three weeks was wonderful! I think that even if it was three months it would still be not enough.

Whistler was fun. The weather was nice for the most part but it doesn't matter. Rain never bothered me. Kinda felt bad for the hubby who had to run in it, though. He was up at the peak running and I was snug in the hotel room, watching the rain make its way down the mountain. :)

The List:

1. Still spinning the silk for the MS3. I think I'm just going to spin up the silk and save it for something else. I have some nice laceweight merino that I could use if I still want to knit the stole.

2. Silk noil plyed and waiting for a project.

3. Decided to card the Corriedale into batts instead of the indigo merino. I have 12 batts completed. The weather was too nice to be indoors carding.

4. Started the cardigan with the Kauni yarn. I decided against the Kauni Cardigan. As much as I like the pattern, let's face it...I'll never finish it. I like my sweaters plain and fuss-free. It is now going to be simple top-down cardigan.

5. Almost finish the miniature rug. I still have to decide on the fringe.

6. Made the ice cube ornaments. I also found a couple of plastic trays at the dollar store that will make interesting molds. Maybe this weekend?

7. Didn't make more soap.

8. No brownies still but made ice cream and banana bread. Three loaves of banana bread barely lasted a day and half here.

9. Still working on the grey cable cardigan. I'm really liking this merino/alpaca yarn.

10. Changed my mind on the Orenburg-ish shawl swatch. I think I will have to rework the pattern. It's too fussy.

11. Annual Trek was fun!

12. Made an appointment to get my eyes checked.

13. The Modern Masters exhibition was really enjoyable but crowded.

14. I still love the Museum of Anthropology! When I was in high school, I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who was a good friend of Bill Reid. He took the class to visit Bill Reid a few times and watched him work on the Raven and the First Men sculpture. It was amazing to listen to him talk about Haida art.

15. Signed up for weaving. I'm really exited about this!

Other things not on the list:

Sock monkey is almost finished - just trying to figure out the ears. I've made 2 sets but they don't look right. The consensus is that the head is too small. It will have to be picked open and reknit.

That's about it. I think I relaxed too much on vacation. My brain still feels like mush. People come up and talk at me and I have no idea what they're blabbering about. I'm sure my work-brain will come back soon.

Vacation update

So far, I'm at the 2/3 mark of my vacation. It's been really nice and relaxing. Spent a lot of time perfecting the perfect iced coffee. The secret is use coffee ice cubes. Reading my favourite books over and over again. Watching my favourite movies over and over again. When I say "over and over again" I meant it. I think I've watched Howl's Moving Castle at least 5 times in the last two weeks. Still love that movie. Yeah, I get a little obsessive sometimes. The book is much better than the movie. Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favourite authors.

It was nice to visit with the Twisted By Choice ladies on Wednesday night. It was one of those rare occasions that we were all together, with the exception of Rose. No one had to work late, no one had to teach that night, no one was away. It was just a nice night spent with friends, talking fibre.

Amber brought her natural dye project to show us. I'm really impressed with the depth of colours you can get with natural dyes. I wish I had my camera with me that night. Maybe next Wednesday, Amber?

So, it's a done deal...I signed up for Weaving classes at Place des Arts. I'm looking forward to this. Weaving was always something I knew I wanted to try.

My new needles should arrive any day now. Can't wait to see them. :D

I still have to decide on how I want to do the Kauni cardigan. As much as I love how everyone else's sweater looks, I'm not a big fan of knitting with two yarns...and steeks. I think that's what stopping me from jumping in. Just the thought of all that steeking is making me stick with the cable cardigan.

Next week is the trip to the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Museum of Anthropology. Followed by Whistler and then back to work. ugh.

I think, by most people's definition of vacation, mine is pretty boring but it suits me fine.

Resin Cubes

The resin ice cube experiment is sort of going well.

Things to remember:

1. Food colouring is an inexpensive alternative to the very expensive resin dyes. The little green cube in the photo was tinted with a drop of green food colouring. You need to really make sure the colouring is well mixed unless you want tiny blobs of dye imbedded in the cube.

2. When you pour the first layer of resin, the mixture is still quite runny. All the embellishments sank to the bottom (which will be the top of the cube once inverted). You have to let it sit for 5 minutes. Any longer will result in a too thick gelatenous goop. You can push your embellishment through the goop but it may cause ripples in your final product.

3. The little paper stars kept floating because of the air inside. Make sure all the air is taken out or use solid embellishment. Another thing is to coat the item first before laying it in the goop. Tiny air bubbles can be trapped on the object.

4. The tall narrow ice cube tray was not so great for resin cubes. The narrowness of the cube made it hard to add embellishments properly. I need to find a tray with flat wide cubes.

If you click on the picture, you can see all my mistakes. The cube in front had all the stars floated up and almost out of the cube.

*giggle* Skinny monkey butt

I'm juvenille enough to laugh at skinny monkey butts. At the start of my vacation, I made up a list of things to do...none of which was to make a sock monkey. It's one of those things that if you don't do it, horrible things will happen. The world will come to an end if I don't make this sock monkey.

This is actually the monkey's second butt. The first one was red and pointy. *snort*
This butt is a bit more refined, I think.

And since I'm deviating from my list, it's banana bread instead of brownies. Does it count if I put chocolate in there?

Thai food

I love Thai food and my husband doesn't care for it at all. That's because he's never had REAL good Thai food. There's a new Thai restraunt in Coquitlam that's been getting a lot of buzz lately - Chada Thai. Well worth a visit to this restraunt. A tiny little place (used to be a vitamin store) across from Taco Bell, next to a fish & chip shop. If you blink, you'll walk right past it. The food was amazing! At the end of the meal, I asked hubby what he thought and he said he really enjoyed the food and wouldn't mind coming back! Yah! Finally a Thai restraunt that serves good Thai food and it's close to home!

Annual Trek

It was absolutely exhausting but fun! Every year, my sister and I grab our kids and head out for the day. Part of the fun is that we just never know where we'll end up at any point.

It was a trip to Vancouver on the Westcoast Express, Aquarium, lunch, more Aquarium, shopping on Robson, Chapters, Granville Island - Opus, Maiwa, etc...the full deal, Hon's for dinner, and finishing up with a trip to Michaels. Keep in mind that we either walked or took the bus. Yeah, it was exhausting! My feet are still hurting right now.

What amazed me was after all that, I came home with only 1 little wooden stamp from Maiwa and a little tube of glitter from Michaels. Oh, there were brownies and banana breads and other goodies consumed along the way but stuff-wise? This is it.

Kauni Goodness!

I met up with Shelly from Fun Knits Yarn Shop today and picked up the wool for the Kauni cardigan. We had a nice visit and she showed me her Kauni cardigan in its final stages...casting off the body and just about to steek. Yikes!

According to the pattern, I should be good with 3 balls but I got 5 just in case. Nothing worse than running out of wool. If I have leftovers, I can make a hat or scarf or mitts. The great thing about this wool is that it doesn't matter what the colours are. All the colours repeat themselves. As long as you start one ball on a different colour repeat from the other ball, you're ok. Fair Isle effect without the zillions of ends to darn in at the end.

I am not going to start this until I've done at least 10" of the cardigan. And I'm waiting for my new needles to arrive.

Yup.

Edited to add:

The silk noil nicely plyed...

I could just kick myself!

A while ago, I got an invite to join Ravelry. I didn't know what Ravelry was and never got around to checking it out. I've heard of people talking about it but thought I really didn't have time to join another on-line community. The knitting buddy who sent me the invite finally convinced me to go check it out. Now I'm on the waiting list with 15126 people ahead of me.

Poo!

Computer is fixed!

This is why it's good to have a teenage kid! Tell him that it may take weeks before you'll have time to look into the computer problem and he will fix it out of desperation. Heh!

This is the silk I'm hoping to spin up for the Mystery Stole but I'm not sure if I want something varigated for the stole. I have some plain white laceweight merino that I was thinking of using instead.


I've knitted another 10 rows since this picture was taken. I'm not sure why I'm not all that interested in this sweater right now. Usually I'm all over cables. This is the Merino/Alpaca from Sweaterkit.com

Something is missing...

...from my computer. Some kind of drive is missing from our computer and it's not working again. Weird because it was working fine and suddenly, it's not working. Somehow, a drive has up and ran off. yeah.

So that means it's back to the laptop. I've been busy taking pictures of stuff to post but can't now. I guess I'll have to break down and load the photo program on the laptop now.

Anyhoo...I'm on vacation for 3 weeks. Any day I'm not at work is a good day. Small talk at the office always have people asking each other what are they doing on their vacations. It's hard to explain to people my plans for the 3 weeks.

1. Finish spinning the yarn for the Mystery stole so I can start knitting before the end of the summer.

2. Ply the 2 bobbins of silk noil that took forever to spin.

3. Finish carding the indigo dyed wool into batts. I'm not optimistic enough to add spinning this as well.

4. Pick up the Kauni yarn for my Kauni cardigan. I couldn't help myself.

5. A miniature rug to finish.

6. Make the ice cube ornaments.

7. Make more soap.

8. Make brownies.

9. Force myself to knit the cable cardigan some more - hopefully finish the back and start the front. Considering that I'm only knitting 1 or 2 rows every couple of days, this could really take years!

10. Finish at least one pattern repeat on the Orenburg shawl so I can see if I like it enough to continue.

11. Annual Trek - not sure where we're going this year. The kids are getting tired of Science World. This is our 8th Annual Trek.

12. Make an appointment to get my eyes checked.

13. Go see the Modern Masters exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

14. Spend a day at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. I love that place!

15. Sign up for a weaving class at Place des Art. Yes, that's right. I've gone over to the dark side. Considering the gals I've been hanging out with, it was just a matter of time.

Computers are evil...

...but necessary.

*sigh*

We got a new motherboard. It's much faster and the graphics are much clearer and cooler, according to my son. But we (I) have to reconfigure all our email accounts again. I voted to not bother and just read our emails from the host website. It wasn't a big hit with the rest of the family. So we (I) have to find time to call up the provider and get all the necessary gobblygook from them. I also have to re-load the program for my camera so I can upload pictures. I have to find the disk first.

I've been spinning some tussah that I dyed a few weeks ago for the Mystery Stole #3. At the rate I'm going, it will be winter before I get to the knitting part. I think we're at clue #5 or something and I haven't even started.

Michael's is having a sale on Paton's Classic Merino this week! The down side is that the wool is shipped in 4 balls dye lots. Instead of worrying about matching dye lots, I just bought a whole bunch of different colours. I could either knit a colourful sweater or a bunch of different coloured hats. It's all good.