Combat Baby

I'm watching the next door cat Chippie play with yet another dead mouse. There was one in our back yard that Pickles found* and one in front of the neighbours back door** the other day. I mean I guess its better a dead mouse outside than a live one inside but euw. Where are these mice coming from? The shed we can't open? The neighbours basement? OUR BASEMENT? I am hoping it is the school field and Chippie is an extraordinary mouser but.. euw.

*And he chewed on it. I had to pry his jaws open and shake it out of his mouth. Then I had a right girly freak out and made Chris clean it up as I shrieked "THIS IS TOTALLY A BLUE JOB!" He is such a ninny though it would have been faster if I had done it.

**We live in a duplex, I am not a nosy Parker.

Fish Country

Last night Chris and I went to see "No Country For Old Men" by the Coen Bros. WOW! They tell a story like none other and what a story! If you aren't put off by a little shotgun action and some grue, GO SEE THIS NOW. I do think they could have trimmed 20 minutes off it, but I get what they were going for (and completely succeeded) but a wee trimming and it would have been sublime A+. As it is it was sublime A-. I am such a snob.

After this we (I) needed food badly* and since we aren't allowed to ever go back to Red Lobster** (our choice thankfully) and I wanted fish of some kind, we went to Big Fish. We had always meant to go there so now seemed a good time. What a cute place! We got a seat immediately and perused the menu. Now Chris and I share a dislike for certain things (Dijon mustard=tastes like sick, and tarragon to start) and I swear this menu knew what these things were and spontaneously generated items with all those ingredients. No no, we did find stuff we liked (I had the smoked salmon salad and Chris had the surf n turf with jumbo shrimp*** and steak) and had a nice cosy dinner. Very lovely atmosphere with lots of candles and yummy smelling cooking. Very cute.

Tonight UFC. Le sigh. Things are just coming up Karen.

Just waiting for that other shoe to drop right?






*Like the elf in gauntlet. ELF NEEDS FOOD BADLY
** The last time we went there it was ALL YOU CAN EAT SHRIMP DAYS. I mean, who doesn't like that? All you can eat? BRING IT ON. Well at the end of our meal the waitress came to give us our bill and remarked casually that we didn't eat nearly enough and they ALL YOU CAN EAT was in fact way more expensive than if we ordered just a regular shrimp meal and we were in fact getting ripped off. Then slams down our bill and walked off. HOLY SHIT I thought Chris' head would come clean off his shoulders, he was so steamed. Never been back. Never will go again. On principle even. Even if their commercials drive me MAD.
***Jumbo Shrimp really should be more than 2 though for 13 dollars. I know we are in a landlocked province but really.. 2? And I ate one.

Weak

Like I needed one more thing. You know, I don't have enough things I want to do right? I am having the worlds hardest time* finishing this sweater. Me the chronic finisher, the one project at a time girl? I am totally cheating on my knitting. Like a shameless hussy** flinging my morals to the wind. I have succumbed to the pressure (cause everyone else is doing it right?) and put the needles down.


I am spinning like a fool. That is not that well, but joyfully. In fact I got another package from Legacy Studios in Cochrane (it was cheaper to pay for them to ship it to me than drive out and get it) of silk hankies. I even spun some of the most gorgeous roving from the lovely Morgan. I am hooked. I blame Dana*** and Morgan. Yup, they not only enabled this bad behaviour they encouraged it. Bitches.


I need to go spin.


*Like not survive Hurricane Katrina hard, more like, what shoes should I wear hard, for context ok?
**Shameless flaunting with no regrets
***Dana who told me she had to write something "interesting" about herself. I told her she should write : Anything fibre related you do, Dana can do better. BEST FIBRE WOMAN EVER.

Small

Taking pleasure in small things is very much on my mind lately. Sometimes it seems like I overlook them but lately I have been all about the little moments, the asides and well of course some big ones too.

When I catch the dogs sleeping in a terrier pile. Both with small smiles on their faces (yes my dogs smile) and little grunts of happiness.

A perfect Dairy Queen small sundae with half hot fudge, half strawberry. OMG PERFECTION.

When a good friend stops over to offer some comfort and make sure a small wiggins* gets no bigger.

A perfect back rub that lulls one to sleep by a hot guy**.

Perfect foam from a panarello frother.

Knowing Bath & Body Works stuff are on its way to me.

Yarn. Oh yes, always yarn. And now the wheel of Joy.


Focus on the small things, and hopefully the big ones will sort themselves out. And if they don't there is always coffee.






*as compared to huge out of control, batten down the hatches, holy shit wiggins. Small wiggins are much easier to manage. Mostly.

** My husband dirty minds.

Sweet!

You know what is awesome? Yarn in the mail. That is AWESOME. I can't believe how fast the The Sweet Sheep got my most fabulous Cherry Tree Hill yarn here. Wow! And um, YUM.

I have a question for all you dog owners, what toys do you have that keeps them busy? Pickles rips through a frozen stuffed kong in record time. Of course Max couldn't care less except for the slowest chase ever* game. But the puppy needs more engaging toys.


The sweater is coming along slowly as well.. I mean I don't know why its taking me so freaking long to do a sleeve. I think I have been distracted by books. Not really a bad thing, but I do have a penchant for really crappy horror novels so its not like I am improving my mind. Heh. I did read Clive Barkers newest one, Mr B Gone. It was only ok, nothing like his early works, and short. Too short. Ah well..

This is a disjointed entry, but I am feeling slightly disjointed lately. Art imitates life yes? Not that this is art by any stretch of the imagination.



*slowest chase ever= when max has the chew bone Pickles wants and walks in a small circle around the ottoman with Pickles following slowly behind. It is hilarious if not a little silly.

Everything should taste like bacon

So says Bacon Salt. Who am I to argue? I've got mine, have you got yours?

Its spinnin' ITS SPINNIN'!

Yes a wheel ya'll .. whatta you think I mean some rims or something? OMG. I suppose I should rephrase, I'M SPINNING! Like yarn! Well sort of yarn like. In fact I was more than slightly disheartened when I started. Watching Dana and Morgan, it looks so effortless, so fluid. It made my stop start herky-jerky nonsense feel terrible. So I had put it away for a rest. On Saturday when Dana came over avec dogs I took the opportunity to get some more help. First she helped me tune up Victoria a bit. We sanded and waxed the bobbins for more slip, then she told me the secret. Yes there is a super huge well hidden secret. It made my out put go from this:

To this:

Now I'm sure to the uninitiated you think, huh? BUT OMG THE DIFFERENCE. The evenness, the more control, the whole fluid thing. Now I shall impart this small pearl of wisdom to the universe. Are you ready? Really? Do you want a coffee? I can wait...

Ok here it is. SLOW DOWN. I know those two words don't seem like much, but to a new spinner it was like the light bulb went on. Oh, I don't have to treadle as fast as I can and get all freaked out? You mean slow and steady actually does win the race? WHO KNEW. Not me apparently. What an incredible difference it made.

Then I remembered some silk hankies I had from a failed drop spindle effort (side note: hating the drop spindle does not automatically mean you will hate spinning. Trust me on this) and got them out. Well Holy Shit! Hot diggity damn.

Luckily I had bought some undyed hankies too.. these are FUN! I know they are minimal effort besides prep, but the wow is too wow for me not too.

I have to thank Cameron, Morgan's wee one for dyeing a funny colourway for me to learn on. It was cool to see the funky, slightly chunky colours blend the way they did.

The sweater body is done, sleeve one on needles. Oh yeah!

Hope everyone had a lights on weekend too..

Pals

Pickles is a suck and he sure knows who to play to doesn't he?

Who me? I'm not doing anything. Nope not me.

Chris doesn't look like he believes him yet... but then,

Puppies get so tired so quickly. Thanks to Dana, Tavis, Rowdy Buckets and Lola for that. Come on over anytime guys :)

Couples therapy

Massage therapy that is. Today we went to a local spa for a couples massage. Heavenly. Mmm.. I see a night of TV, knitting and snuggling (dogs and other) in my future.

Making fibre your friend

Like Bill Shatner! I had been whining lamenting the fact that my Blue Sky Worsted sweater (skul) was like 6 inches plus too big for quite some time now. So I did what all good thrifty knitters would do, I FROGGED IT. So many hours to knit, 3 to rip out. Thanks be to ball winder!

Its like getting a whole new yarn stash! Recycling at its best I reckon. Now I get to decide what it wants to be again. I'm thinking pullover this time:)

Yesterday was a most productive one, even with the frogging time. I rearranged the furniture, got all the laundry done and took the dogs for an extra long walk. Max was very excited to see ducks down in Confederation Park, Pickles was excited to see everything. We need to find a toy or something that will keep Mr Pickles Chewbacca busy in the evening, the Kong full of frozen peanut butter doesn't last long enough, and when both dogs get chew bones Pickles spends all his time wanting Max's and whining. Silly monsters. Like siblings but fuzzier.

When the going gets tough..

The tough go shopping. Right? I went to the The Sweet Sheep the other day and found some super nice Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn ON SALE! So I ordered.. and it processed the same damn day! Like wow! Wipeout! I know its goofy but I so like having something coming in the mail besides bills. I also have a Ravelry Beta T-shirt coming. Sometimes it is the small things that get you through right?

The sweater is coming along quite spiffily (is that a word?) and I am pleased with it so far. No pics as my cam needs a charge, sorry.

That's all for now possums.. see this blog everyday thing can be a real crap shoot huh?

Define normal

Definitions of normal on the Web:
-conforming with or constituting a norm or standard or level or type or social norm; not abnormal; "serve wine at normal room temperature";

-being approximately average or within certain limits in e.g. intelligence and development; "a perfectly normal child"; "of normal intelligence"; "the most normal person I've ever met"

-convention: something regarded as a normative example; "the convention of not naming the main character"; "violence is the rule not the exception"; "his formula for impressing visitors"

The reason I have been thinking about normal this morning:

There is a UFC on on the 17th and I am unreasonably excited about it. Call it a lack of social life but this *is* what I look forward to. My husband remarks all the time how lucky he is to have found me as I am not *normal* for most women. And taking an informal poll of friends I have to agree. I'm not saying I'm ABNORMAL, maybe just um.. different?

A Pop Culture aberration maybe? I enjoy a lot of things most women (not all right Heather?) don't. In fact I surpass Chris on being able to watch some movies (a strange point of pride with me) and for the most part don't enjoy traditional "chick flick" films which Chris loves with all his romantic little heart. I am a cynic by nature and rear my head when I feel I am being manipulated by the mainstream studio (BIG HOLLYWOOD) machine. Or I just channel my inner 14 year old boy really well. Either way I have certain criteria a movie must meet before I plunk down any money to see it a theatre.

Good:
-Zombies, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, undead things, haunted stuff, Eastern bloc torture chambers, monsters, parasites, aliens/predators, reanimated killing machines, dream stalking knife handed serial killers, evil killing robots, SATAN, Satan's babies, evil clowns, giant spiders/bugs, regular mutants, inbred mutants, evil families, chainsaw wielding maniacs
-Exploding: heads, helicopters, gas stations, ferries, anything with jet fuel, buildings, people,
-Car chases, helicopter chases, crane chases, highway stunts that involve smashing many many cars/trucks/people/buildings
-Revenge motivated killings
-Kung fu, wire work, ninjas, samurai, mystical swords that fly around themselves
-Time travel
-Seth Green
-Semi bleak coming of age stories
-Humour in death
-Parkour

Bad:
-Animal cruelty
-Threes company situations
-Any movie where one of the lead characters dies and we all learn a valuable lesson (unless its OMG DON'T GO IN THE BASEMENT YOU IDIOT!) about love.
-Meg Ryan
-Poignant humour
-Starchy art films
-Pretension

Wow, you know I could go on and on. But instead I leave you all with this:

Ben Stiller in Dodgeball/Starsky & Hutch= HILARIOUS.
Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents/Fockers= UNWATCHABLE.

AND GO KARO PARISYAN!

Taking a stab at it...

I am not really a joiner, but I have been known to buckle to peer pressure, so why not now? I haven't posted a things that make me happy list in a while and I am feeling a little blue so this is a good kicker to make me smarten up yes?

Things that make me happy (in no real order)

1. Watching my dogs play everyday. Pickles has finally taught Max to behave like a real dog and it is quite adorable to see them lovin' each other. Oh my dogs!


2. Coffee. In all shapes and forms. Mmm.. Juan Valdez I love YOU!


3. Oh the yarn. Yes the yarn. ALL THE YARN.


4. 42 inches of plasma screen.


5. The smell of freshly baked cobbler.


6. My super snuggly bed with my leopard flannel sheets.


7. VEGAS.


8. Cuteoverload and Cupcakes.


9. zip.ca


10. My super husband for his awesome neck rubs.

I also love it when I put the sleeve stitches on a holder. It means I am that much closer to finishing!!

Stay tuned for another installment of watch me cave!

Slacker, knitter..

When asked to describe myself these are the two words I usually use. I find them to be pretty accurate. Case in point: the other two Dana and Morgan have been all "Ooh lets blog everyday". Hi this is where the slacker part comes in. I had just as much fun as everyone else, in fact maybe more because I was suffering greatly* and got spoiled a wee bit. Ate a whole bunch of the WORLDS BEST PIZZA (with extra cheese!) and didn't even have to exercise my dogs for two days! But did I do the right thing and blog? Nah! I whined some more and went shopping .

Someone had to buy more HACHO (rhymes with NACHO!) yarn you see. This is the most awesome sock yarn.Mmm.. mmm!

I have yes, started another sweater. This is inspired by the Cobblestone Pullover in the Fall Interweave. I love the garter yoke, but being the ornery cuss that I am I wanted to do it my way and make it a cardigan. So we'll see. We have had two rippings out so far, but I seem to have fixed what mistakes I was making. It is going to be out this:

Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran. I am getting a true aran gauge with it too. And can I just say knitting on 4.5 mm needles after doing so many socks feels like knitting with broomsticks.

*Suffering Greatly. When one overindulges in too many glasses of many different red wines during the course of an evening. Especially when its your husbands boss doing the pouring and is a total booze pusher. AND it was a competition of sorts on you know nothing about wine except that one had notes of pure gasoline and monkeys ass. Gross. I took one for the team I did. And felt like crap for 2 days. Note to self: YOU ARE NOT YOUNG. CUT THIS CRAP OUT.

Running towards the finish line

This has been a productive sock month yes? The fabulous garter toe socks.. inspired by Morgan and Lucy Neatby I reckon. I cannot believe how fast these knit up. Really it was quite astonishing. Hacho by Mirasol knit on um.. 2.25 mm needles. Super comfy with the garter heels! In fact Chris has requested the exact same pattern for his next socks (which I am almost done the first one of! GO ME!) and may become a standard for me.

Speaking of the next sock, I was pretty excited to start them for Chris, see they are truly a collaborative effort. Dana dyed the yarn, Morgan spun it and I am knitting it! They are payment of a sort. For refining and making out logo better. A fair trade I would say :)

I told you I was being pushed toward the spinning yes? Well.. maybe it might take. Just a little bit. I have a Louet Victoria in my possession right now and wow! She is a joy to work on. Even if my feeble attempts look like they came out of a monkeys butt. haha.

breathe.

The dogs were napping this morning and I just had to snap them in repose. Pickles hides in his Pickles only clubhouse and Max wedges himself in the sofa corner so deep you can barely see him. Oh my dogs!!

Socks are my crack. No really. These are just plain ol' toe ups done out of some really nifty yarn. STRIPEY GOODNESS!! I mean who doesn't need more stripey socks? Not Quite Knee Highs because I got tired of knitting ribbing. :)

The colour is called Near Dark. Cute innit? NICE! Now I am the lucky recipient of yet more yarn/fibre this week. This travelled all the way from Salt Spring Island for me.. oh and BY THE WAY.. NEW FREE PATTERN from kfb. Salt Spring Waves. Wow!! Look at us go :) Anyways, this is the bootay!

Mmm pink. I think REAL knee highs might be needed..

And some really nice close up of the pretty fibre. I think there are a couple of people really pushing the spinning eh? ;)









Wow huh? This whets my wet felting appetite something terrible. Need some silk... Now for what I've been working on:








Like WHOA! I went to Gina Browns this weekend and found this new beautiful stuff. Hacho by Mirasol. The price point is not to be believed (7.99 a skein!! OMG!) and it is truly scrumptious. Like STR nice. She had more by Mirasol including gorgeous sweater weights and they were silly good priced as well. I maybe see another trip soon.




I'm doing a garter stitch toe and heel pattern. So cushy, so sqooshy. I am in heaven. Mmm..

I usually try to keep things very light and breezy on here, in fact as I have explained before, I try to only blog happiness. But some significant changes have happened to our little house and I have to acknowledge them. Jake has moved up to Edmonton to live with his Dad. Not his idea, but we have all had a really rough time of it for the last 9 months + and it was with a heavy heart the decision was made for him. I'm hoping this will help him on his journey and give him some very desperately needed distance to figure stuff out. As it stands, we will all be able to take a breath now.

Knock wood for all of us ok?

Betty Cable!

Here they are!! Cabled and oh so yummy. I have to say that alpaca socks are not the worlds most practical socks, no superwash here, but soft? Oh the soft!

Done out of 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca sport weight, on 2.5 mm needles. These worked up really quickly. I would have had them done sooner but as I was making the pattern as I was going along I learned this cable wouldn't work up the back as it made the sock too rigid to get on. It may have been the yarn, but I just did a rib up the back instead. It worked just fine!

Socktacular aren't they?

There is another free pattern up at kfb! Its the felted slipper pattern! Its not PDF-ed quite yet, but keep your eyes peeled. A new logo is on its way too.. cool huh??

We had a fun weekend with the seeeeeester Angie and her SO (stinky odour? NO! heh hehe Ang!) Jeff. Had some Wii time, some beers, some laughs, what else is there?

Pickles is SMRT! He has learned sit, down, sit up, and shake a paw! Now if only it was that easy to train a teenager..

Lap dog

Pickles likes nothing more than to sit on my lap as I peck away on the laptop in the kitchen. Max was never a lapdog like this! In fact he is sitting here right now making all sorts of grunty puppy noises. Resting his head on my arm as I type. Silly beasty.

It was turkey day this weekend and we three (5 if you count the dogs who got turkey gravy on their kibble!) had a nice little dinner. Thank you Butterball for the prefrozen stuffed turkey breast that you can just pop in the oven! Mmm.. mashed sweet potatoes and veg, pumpkin pie! Nice and not really much in the way of leftovers. Jake took some to one of his pals who wasn't having a turkey day so that resolved nicely. :)

In knitting news... almost done a pair of cabled socks out of Blue Sky Alapaca sport weight. I don't think they will be the most practical socks, but they certainly are YUMMEH!

We have guests coming this weekend!! Chris' sister (my seeeeeester!~) Angie and her SO Jeff. It will be awesome to see them and I so hope Ang has planned for at least a teeny bit of shopping. I so need to show her Sephora!!

Stay tuned for another free pattern.. it is SOCKTOBER right?

Free at last!!

Ok I really should get my head together a little better no? Announcing the first FREE PATTERN from me and knitfrontandback.

Uzumaki socks!!!

We are hoping to have a pattern up once a week during Socktoberfest. Stay tuned for more free goodness (the best kind of all dontcha think?) soon.

I think I made the best soup ever last night from leftover pot roast and veg. I cubed my leftover roast, and left the potatoes and carrots whole, they were both just babies see? Added the leftover gravy (which was not thick like gravy, just what was in the slow cooker apres cooking) and a litre of beef stock to a soup pot, tossed in a handful of pearl barley with everything, generously peppered and salted it, pitched in a few tbsp of freeze dried mixed herbs and OMG. It was heavenly. Served it with slightly stale pita bread (work with whatcha got) that was great for dipping and YUM!

It went really well with my favorite cobbler that I have been making quite often too. My preference is strawberry rhubarb, but have done it with blackberry pear apple, and would like to try some peach something one day. I take all this luscious fruit (usually frozen cause who has all this fruit in the house at once fresh? Not me! And I usually try have have organic frozen fruit on hand)I bag of each say strawberries and rhubarb, toss it in a big bowl and add a tbsp or 2 of cornstarch, a whack ( a couple of tbsp) of cinnamon and splenda (see I am still trying to maintain a modicum of healthy, no way do I wanna gain any weight back thanks.) but you could use sugar for sure, I don't measure so much as see what looks right. Toss all together. pour into a 9 x 13 backing dish. Add say a cup of rolled oats (steel cut would be nice) a few big spoons of organic brown flour, more cinnamon and splenda to a bowl. Cut in about a 1/3 cup Omega 3 margarine or (YUM!) butter until its really dispersed through the mixture. I use a fork and just mash it all up. :) Sprinkle topping over the fruit evenly and back in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour 20 min or until fruit is all bubbly and topping is brown.

I forgot to add splenda to the topping the last time I made this, and when I realised it, I tossed splenda brown sugar blend all over the top with some maple sugar flakes and popped it under the broiler for a few minutes until the sugar began to melt. OMG IT WAS AWESOME. Little crunchy bits of brown sugar goodness.

I usually serve this with a dixie cup of ice cream (serving size ya'll!) and everyone LOVES IT. mmm...

Rock it, Sock it.

Well well well.. its up and its going. Look here:

knitfrontandback!.

This has been in the works for a looong time now and with the down time I have made for myself its time to spring it on the rest of the world.

We hope to have more free patterns and other goodies up very soon. Why hide our collective lights under a bushel? Welcome to the world of knitfrontandback.

Now for happy sock yes?

Please understand I was screaming at Chris.."Take the picture! How long do you think I can hold my legs up like this?!?" He took his sweet time he did. Mystery sock yarn from Morgan that I have no idea what it is, if its superwash, or anything. But I likey the stripes and I really like the mismatched-ness. Haha.

Please note cam ho Pickles. I swear he sees the camera is and all HAY GUISE!! Sheesh.